Triathletes

Saturday was the South Summit Triathlon. This year, Dan (for the sake of his knees and the general morale of all the other participants) didn't participate, but Jonathan and Nolan took part. Jonathan had a new experience this year... he had to move up to the adult division. He ran 1.5 miles, biked 6, and swam 200 yards. He did great! He finished in 44:33, took 6th in his age division (14-18 years old), and came in 42nd (out of 123) overall- not bad at all for the youngest "adult" in the race! Nolan competed in the youth division and took second in his age division (and 7th out of 41 overall). He ran .75 miles, biked 3 miles, and swam 75 yards. He finished in 22:09. He wished the swimming leg was longer!Miles was thinking "Someday..."

A "Manly" Walker

Last night Miles found a "manly" walker. He took 9 steps on his own last night, but then he fell and had to crawl to his destination. To solve that problem, Miles found that he can use his RV as a walker and can now cross the family room with ease.

Hot Day Treat

When it's only 11 a.m. and it's over 90 degrees, how do you keep cool? Well, Miles eats popsicles! Popsicle (the brand) makes mini-Miles-sized popsicles that they add a little gelatin to the mix and that makes the popsicles melt considerably slower. Popsicles are one of Miles'favorite treats. They are always followed by a bath!

Back to School

The boys have gone back to school... well, last week they went back to school, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.

Jonathan is a FRESHMAN at Oak Canyon JUNIOR High. Our school district still has elementary school as grades K-6; junior high is grades 7-9, and high school is grades 10-12. He is taking a beast load this year... Honors Biology, Honors English, Honors World Civilization, AP Human Geography, Geometry, Spanish 3, Symphonic Band (clarinet; chair auditions are today!), Jazz band (alto sax), Kozan (percussion ensemble), P.E., Woods 2, and release time Seminary. He starts school at 6:30 a.m. every day as his Jazz band and Kozan group meet before school starts. Yuck! That means he gets up at 6 a.m. and I get to be up at 5:45 a.m. I asked him on Thursday how his first "A" day went (they are on the A/B day schedule) and he said "Interesting". I asked him on Friday how his first "B" day went. Again, the answer was "Interesting". So far, for homework, he's had a geometry assignment, an English essay to write, and a bug collection to begin. In addition to his regular classes, Jonathan is on the Science Demo team this year. They travel all over the area and do assemblies for schools to teach younger kids that science is "cool".
Nolan started Fifth Grade at a "new" school this year. He goes to Rocky Mountain Elementary and is in Mrs. Parker's "late start class". Half of the class begins the day at 8 a.m. whiles the other half starts at 9:15 a.m. So far he's having a great time. He likes a kid named Taten. He's playing kickball at lunch and kicked a homerun last Friday. He is bused to school this year so that's a new adventure for him. He's looking forward to doing "theater" in 5th grade and being in the school orchestra.

Yogurt!

Dan and Miles share a yogurt almost every night. The rules are as follows: Dan chooses the flavor, Dan controls the spoon, Dan holds the cup, and Dan spoons yogurt into Miles' mouth. Tonight Miles didn't like the rules. He wanted control of the spoon and the yogurt cup. When the yogurt was gone, he got the spoon and cup and tried to feed himself. We were curious to see how he would do so we got him stripped down to the diaper, put him in his chair and got him his own spoon and yogurt. He had a blast and found a more efficient way than using a spoon to eat yogurt.

He Won't Sleep

Miles started out as our best baby sleeper. He started sleeping through the night at 2 weeks old. Nolan didn't do that until he was nearly a year old and Jonathan was 2 before he decided that nights were for sleeping. Well, it seems that Miles has decided that his brothers' night time antics are preferable to sleeping. Ugh!

Miles slept well until about 4 months ago and since then things have gotten progressively worse (notice, I am blogging and it is 3:45 a.m.). He started waking up three and four times a night. He wanted to eat, and because I value my sleep, I'd let him, just so I could get back to sleep sooner. That was only making things worse though... I was becoming not only a food source, but a pacifier. However magically, a few weeks ago, Miles seemed to be back on the "I can sleep at night" schedule. He was doing great, but now, Miles won't sleep at all, and I don't mean only at night.

Yesterday, Miles napped for a total of 45 minutes. He slept for 15 minutes in his car seat. When I put him down for his nap; he cried for about 10 minutes, then slept for a whopping 30 minutes. That was it for napping. That's been his schedule lately. Maybe an hour of total sleep during the day, combined with a lousy night's sleep. Then after 2-3 days of this insanity, he will take a 3 hour nap, and then then resume his horrid schedule. I've had it! He won't go to bed earlier either. If he does, it's just another 30 minute nap, then up for a few more hours before his restless night. Well, tonight he went to bed at 9 p.m. He slept until 11 p.m. He woke up again at 12:30 a.m., and again at 2:15 a.m. It's now a few minutes before 4 a.m. and he just now (about 2 minutes ago) seems to be settling down and going back to sleep.

The school year starts again in just a few hours for the boys. Hopefully, with a stabilized routine, Miles' sleeping schedule with become more compatible with what I need it to be... a daily 2 hour nap and a good night's sleep.

Ball! Ball? Ball!

Here's Miles saying and signing "ball"! The ASL sign for "ball" is patting your fingers together. Sometimes he gets a little vigorous with his sign and claps, but then he corrects it and "softens" his patting!

The "To Do" List Revisited

How am I doing so far?
Grocery Store- DONE
Walmart- DONE
Boy Scout Store- DONE
Sew on Numbers- DONE
Charge camera Batteries- DONE
Take Nolan to Rocky Mountain to find outside back entrance- Scheduled for 7 p.m.
Take Nolan to find Bus Stop- DONE
Finish Unpacking- Whatever
Laundry- IN PROGRESS
Court of Honor- Scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Check Backpacks- Are being out together right now
Set Alarm Clocks- Waiting until bedtime (ugh, I have to set mine too!)
Wells Fargo to see if Rent Check will Clear (yet...)- DONE (and it won't)
Contemplate "Bonding Session" with Deadbeats- In Progress

Not on the list, but did it anyway... cut out BoxTops for Education & put away food storage!

Today's "To Do" List

I've got to write it down somewhere, so why not here...

Grocery Store- Cereal, Fruit Snacks, Granola Bars (great sale, obviously)
Walmart- Jonathan's school lists, Milk
Boy Scout Store- uniform numbers (red:1 & 7, green:3-1's, 1-7, shoulder loops for J)
Sew on Numbers
Charge camera Batteries
Take Nolan to Rocky Mountain to find outside back entrance
Take Nolan to find Bus Stop
Finish Unpacking
Laundry
Court of Honor
Check Backpacks
Set Alarm Clocks
Wells Fargo to see if Rent Check will Clear (yet...)
Contemplate "Bonding Session" with Deadbeats

An Abbott & Costello Moment

Yesterday I had a surreal experience that I am still shaking my head over. I was in Walmart buying yogurt. I had with me 2 coupons that said ".75 off ANY brand of yogurt." It was good on a 32 oz container or on 4 individual units. I've used this coupon in Walmart several times without and issue, but not yesterday. So I was back in the dairy department and picked up 8 Yoplait cups (because I wanted to use both coupons). Here's where I made my mistake. I went to the self-checkout. Coupons are accepted there and I've used them there before without a problem. I scanned all my stuff. I hit "coupons". I scanned the coupons and got an error message that told me to set the coupons aside and an employee would be over to help me. This nice little lady came over, looked at the coupons, and said she needed to get her supervisor to look at them. The supervisor (who was over the automotive department) came over and looked at the ".75 off ANY brand of yogurt." coupons and told me that they weren't valid on Yoplait yogurt; they had to be used on "ANY" brand of yogurt. I told him, exactly, the coupon said "ANY brand" so I was using it on Yoplait. He said "No, it doesn't say 'Yoplait', it says "ANY" brand and it was only good on "ANY" brand. Again, I told him I understood and that "ANY brand" included Yoplait. He continued to insist that the coupon was only valid for "ANY" brand and that did not include Yoplait, and therefore could not be used on Yoplait. I could see that this moron wasn't getting it and that this was a pointless argument, so I told him, "fine, give me back my coupons, remove the Yoplait from my bill, and I'd go somewhere else. And I did.

So You Think You Can Dance?

Miles is a dancer. He keeps the beat pretty well too!

Miles Says "Flag"

One of Miles' words is "flag". He has is own special way of saying "flag", but he always says "flag" this way (I told you his vocabulary is only comprehensible by his parents!). We love the "ch" at the end!

Baking Adventure

Today's high was only in the 70's and I decided it was a baking day! I needed to use up some zucchini that Bona gave us and I had about a dozen bananas waiting in the freezer to be made into banana bread. I figured that I'd use up all the produce and freeze the end results for treats for when it's too hot to bake. I made 3.5 chocolate zucchini cakes (yummy!), then I started on the banana bread. I have a love/hate relationship with bananas. I love bananas before they are completely ripe... yellow-y with no brown spots and green still on the ends, and a firm texture. I hate the smell of a ripe banana and won't eat one that smells banana-y. I also will only eat bananas as plain bananas... I don't like anything with banana in it. That being said, I don't like banana bread, but Nolan and Dan do (and that's why I was making it)! I also hate anything squishy (it's a texture thing... I don't like to eat or touch "squishy"). Back to the banana bread... I took the bananas out of the freezer and set them on the counter to defrost. It didn't take long before I was grossed out at how squishy defrosted bananas are, but I was a big girl and continued with the banana bread project. I cut off the top of a banana, and to my horror, when held upside down and gentle squeezed, the banana oozed out of the peel and into the bowl I had sitting out. I was not expecting this and it completely caught me off guard. I know it sounds dramatic, but the smell of ripe banana assalted my nose. The squishy banana overwhelmed my senses. The next thing I knew, I was dry-heaving over my sink. I was not expecting defrosted over-ripe bananas to be this way. "Mind over matter" I told myself and pressed on. Eight loaves of banana bread later, my project was done!

Jonathan was kind enough to video the "extraction of the frozen banana into the bowl" for everyone. Yuck!

My Helper

Miles loves it when I empty the dishwasher. He wants to be in on the action. Sometime he even "helps".

Aunt Amy Loves Miles

She brought Miles home a present from her work. I had to take them away from him at bedtime tonight!

Happy Birthday Nolan!

Yes, Nolan's birthday was in April, but we finally got around to celebrating it this week (he can be very patient with us). No really, we did celebrate it in April with presents, songs, signs, food, etc., but, due to our move this summer and the major amount of preparations that went in to the move, we didn't get to his choice of a family activity until Monday night. Nolan wanted to go to Liberty Land for his birthday. I went online and bought $50 worth of gift certificates for Liberty Land for $30 (cashed in on a great promotion). We got to Liberty Land and found that there was a 50% off promotion that night. Instead of paying $16.50 a piece for Dan and the boys to play, it was only $8.25 each! Our total was around $26. I handed the cashier the $50 gift certificates and she handed me back $23.xx in CASH! The big boys had unlimited access to all the activity (except laser tag) for about $7 out of pocket! Off they went to have fun. They rode the little roller coaster, drove go-carts, cruised around and squirted each other in the bumper boats (side note... the bumper boats could squirt bystanders as well. I was watching and holding Miles. Jonathan was nearby and I wasn't paying too much attention to him. I felt water running down my legs and thought "gross, Miles' diaper is leaking and he's peeing on me... but no, it didn't take me long to realize that the fluid was cold and that, thankfully, it was Jonathan squirting us!), did the climbing wall, and played miniature golf. We played a "Belnap" version of mini golf which we named "Miles golf". We'd put Miles down on the green and the object was to get your ball into the hole before Miles could chase it down and grab it. I thought it made the game much more interesting. It was free for Miles to play and he got to ride the train. So, Happy Birthday Nolan, and next year, I promise we'll celebrate your big day closer to your actual birthday.

Out of Touch?

Maybe it's just me, but I was really floored by this ad that came in today's paper. It was a really glossy 12"x12" add that folded out and was advertising a new housing development in Heber City. This development, Red Ledges, is located on the new Jack Nicklaus golf course. "Homesites start in the mid-$200s and Cottages from the low $900s." The "Cottages" (love that word... cottages!) feature native stone, hand-hewn timber, copper gutters (don't want to polish those!), and expansive decks. The interiors "welcome" with hardwood and natural stone floors, granite countertops, fireplaces, and "of course, dramatically large energy efficient windows". I love the description. But what really gets me is that if you buy one of these "Cottages", "every home comes with a NEW Mercedes-Benz"! Hahahaha! That is so funny! Seriously, the ad states "Purchase a homesite or Cottage at Red Ledges and we'll thrown in a Mercedes-Benz for your driveway". That is insane! Evidently, with our 1993 Toyota Pick-up and 2002 Chevy Prizm, we would not be welcome in this new neighborhood. Oh, and if the Mercedes is not your taste, you could choose $95,000 in furnishings instead. Interested? Well, check out www.RedLedges.com for more details. See you there... not!

A Big First

First, not such a big deal, but I wanted to record it anyway, Miles knows his second sign... ball! Today I was at a meeting at Oak Canyon with Jonathan's principle and he has an 18 month old who signs too! Mr. Sumners even knew what Miles was saying just by watching him.

Okay, the big first... Yesterday, at 9.75 months old, Miles took his first step! We were in the computer room and Miles wanted to go from where I was sitting in the "big chair" to the "little chair". He was holding my hand and took 2 steps towards the little chair, then let go, stood there, then took a step on his own, wimped out, sat down and crawled the rest of the way. Way to go!

We Love DI

Yesterday, Amy, Miles, Nolan, and I went to DI. Amy was jeans shopping (no luck, but found some groovy red work shorts!), Nolan wanted books (he found 4; 3 Goosebumps which I will only buy at DI, and one Pokemon book; another "only at DI" purchase). I went with no plans or expectations, and Miles came along for the ride. I ended up finding treasures though! I bought Dan a pair of long snowshoes for his birthday (he better not read my blog until after next Thursday), a "new and in the box" Santa from Costco that I already had a twin of (so now I have two identical ones), a puzzle, and thought about a cheese dome (which I thought about buying only because it was the lamest wedding gift we received and I was tempted to share it with Leslie, but I put it back). Someone (or somebodies) cleaned out their board books and Miles got 6 good, classic board books (like Hungry Caterpillar, Napping House, Wheels on the Bus, Goodnight Gorilla, etc). Jonathan wasn't with us, but I even found a clarinet book for him. So everyone got something. But, Miles was the most excited. While I was wandering DI, I saw a US flag. Miles is flag obsessed. He climbs/crawls over our neighbors rock wall to see their flag. I picked the flag up and Miles took it away from me. I carried Miles and he carried the flag (it's a big flag too... 3' by 5'). There was no way he was leaving DI without his treasure. Lucky for me, it only cost $2!

By the way, I did another Albertson's run this morning... 2 boxes of Kix, 2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, 2 pkgs. Betty Crocker Mini Warm Delights, 1 bottle of Wishbone Salad Dressing, 2 boxes of 24 count Popsicles, and 5 packages of Klondike bars. Pre-tax total... $58.70. My pre-tax total... $4.41 with another $4/5 Bryers/Popsicle coupon, and $15 in "like cash" coupons!

Utah County Swim Meet

Swim team season ended last Saturday with the the Utah County Gold Swim Meet (there are 3 meets... Bronze, Sliver, and Gold, with the gold meet being for those with the fastest times). It was an interesting meet for Nolan. First, it was in Spanish Fork and those wicked canyon winds were blowing. It was FREEZING cold and we were not prepared! Nolan swam the fly in the medley relay, individual free, fly, and back, and was the anchor leg in the free relay. Something was up with his fly though... he's had fabulous times this season... sub-20 seconds was his standard. On Friday he came home from swim practice and said he just knew he was flutter kicking. I told him "no way" and to forget about it and swim fly like he had been all season. Well, he psyched himself out and his fly times were WAY off (by 5+ seconds). He ended up 14th in the county in fly. His medley relay team had a rough go as well. They had been undefeated all season, but the backstroker hit the lane line, the breaststroker had something weird going on with his stroke, and then there was Nolan with his butterfly issues... they ended up 3rd. Not bad. Nolan placed fifth in the backstroke. He was cruising until he got crooked and hit the lane line, but still had a strong finish. He finished second in the 50 free with his second best time of the season. Finally it was free relay time and his team was looking for some redemption from the medley relay disappointment. There was a false-start and their lead off leg didn't hear the callback and swam his leg... ugh! No worries though! He walked back to the block and swam another great leg. The next two legs were strong as well. Nolan's relay was ahead by about a body length when it was his turn. He swam a beautiful anchor leg, went sub-14 seconds and his team won by over 1/3 pool length. After getting over his disappointment with the fly, Nolan felt good about his other swims! Great season, Nolan!

Communications 101

It's so fun watching/listening to Miles learn to communicate. He's got an impressive vocabulary for an almost 10 month old, granted most of his words are "words" that only Dan and I can understand. He can say mama, dada, tree, fish, flag, eat, drink, up, backpack, light, and bye. But what's been really cool is watching him sign. Yes, he still only uses one sign... want, but on Sunday he used it very clearly in combination with other body signals. We were at Parley and Bona's for dinner. The "big kids" were done eating and were headed outside to accomplish whatever mischief they had planned. Miles loves being outside and wanted to go too. To communicate this, he did the following. First, I was holding Miles and he knew he had a better chance of getting what he wanted if he was with Dan; so he lunged from me to Dan. Then he looked at the door, verbally indicated what he wanted while stretching his arm towards the door and signing "want", meaning "want outside". He got what he wanted and the look on his face indicated triumphant communication!

A Picture is Worth...

... at least $50! Another successful shopping adventure completed, this time, to help the visual learners, I included a picture of my score! 4 packs of 10 count Bic pens, 3 bottles of All laundry detergent (now I have no excuses to not do laundry), 2 bags Nature Valley Nut Cluster things, 2 packages of Knorr Rice & Pasta side dishes, and 5 packages of Klondike Bars. Pre-tax, non-sale, pre-coupon total... $65.24. My total... $17.25... but wait, it's better... printed out at the register was a coupon for $4 off 5 more Klondikes and $15 in "like cash" coupons! So when I go back tomorrow, I'll buy a bunch more stuff, use the $15 "like cash coupons" and the Klondike coupon, and pay about $4 out of pocket and get another Klondike coupon and another $15 "like cash coupons". Do you see a pattern starting?