Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween, during the school hours, we had Dilbert, and a native American. When evening came around, Dilbert and the native American disappeared and were replaced by a Marching T-Wolf and Jack Sparrow who were joined by a member of the Claus family and a howler monkey. Jack Sparrow escaped before I could get his picture, but I caught him with his trick-or-treating accomplices when they stopped by for some play-doh!

Awesome Pre-School Project

Miles brought home the awesome-est project from school today. Evidently they've been singing "Eensy Weensy Spider" in school and today he brought home a visual aid for the song. Isn't it cool! They taped a bendy straw to the house for the waterspout and threaded a spider ring around the straw which keeps the spider attached, yet mobile. So simple, but so cool!

St. George Escape

This weekend we made a pilgrimage to St. George. The marching band season culminated in a pair of competitions at Dixie State and we went down to support Jonathan (even though we didn't really get to see him since he was busy with his band friends). We left at 5 a.m. Friday to get to St. George in time for my band duties- hydration! We "watered" the band then watched them perform at the Red Rocks Competition where they took second place and the best visuals caption award! Look who I saw in St. George! After the competition, I walked over to the bus to deliver the band their lunches (which I was up late Thursday night preparing) and the band serenaded me with a lovey and loud rendition of "Happy Birthday". Yes, Friday was my birthday and I am 40. I'm okay with that. After all, did you know that 40 isn't old.. for a tree! After the band was taken care of, Dan, Nolan, Miles, and I went to Snow Canyon State Park. It was beautiful. We had so much fun. First we had a picnic where Miles preferred climbing a fence over eating. Then we went to the Sand Dunes. So much fun! The sand was so soft. We played in the sand, wrote in the sand, slept in the sand, dumped sand on Nolan's hair (and that's when we discovered that the magical, soft sand doesn't brush off and we were covered in sand!). After the dunes, we went over to Jenny's canyon- a small slot canyon that was fun to play in. Then it was time to check in to the condo and clean up! We grabbed a quick dinner then went back to Dixie State so Nolan could see a few of the "big bands" compete. We spent Friday night putting together Saturday's lunch for the band.

Saturday started off early because the THS marching drew an ugly performance time for the BOA competition- 9 a.m. We had to be at Dixie State by 8 a.m. to hydrate the band. We watched their performance, delivered their lunches, then went back to the condo to get breakfast! After breakfast some of us dozed off (that's what happens when you are officially OLD!). We spent the afternoon at Zion National Park. We planned to walk the riverwalk which ends up at the end/beginning of the Narrows. Miles wasn't the most cooperative. He just wanted to throw rocks in the river. Dan abandoned the plan and took Miles to the river while I finished the walk with Nolan. I showed Nolan where he will finish his backpacking trip of the Narrows next summer, then we walked back to find Dan and Miles. Miles had thrown 118 rocks into the river before we found them (and threw at least 150 total rocks before we could get him to leave). Miles wasn't the only one throwing rocks... After Zion's, we stopped at Durango grill for dinner. Dan and I used to crave Durango burritos. We ate there regularly, until they went out of business in Orem (then we settled for Cafe Rio). We were so excited to eat at Durango! Well, I guess I'm truly a Cafe Rio convert as I wasn't impressed with my burrito. Bummer! After dinner, we went back to Dixie State to watch some of the BOA finalists perform (Nolan is a major marching band enthusiast). Jonathan was awesome and saved us seats in the band section. We saw several bands perform before Miles had a melt down and we needed to leave to get him to bed.

Sunday we leisurely got up, ate, packed up, and left. We stopped at Kolob Canyon, which is part of Zion's, on the way home. We got back mid-afternoon and I was greeted with a decorated house- not Halloween decorated, but birthday decorated. The fact that I am 40 has been announced to my neighborhood. I immediately blamed McKenzie for the decorations, I left a message on her phone that said she deserved to die and that, at the very least, I should never speak to her again, but I could be a big girl and forgive, and besides, her 40th birthday is still coming. McKenzie called me back a few hours later. She had nothing to do with the decorations, but she knew who did it! My lovely little sister Aly and her family drove up and made sure as many people as possible in the free world knew that I am 40. Good thing I'm comfortable with being 40, or else, or else, I don't know... she should just be glad I'm okay with it! So I called Aly (who I'd already talked to about the decorations and told her that I blamed McKenzie) and we laughed and laughed. She got me good! And the "40 isn't old... for a tree" poster that was on my front window was priceless.

I'm #2

Every night as Miles is getting ready for bed, I tell him what's happening the next day. Last night I told Miles that today was "play" and that he would get to "play with Mommy". Miles went ballistic and started in on a tantrum and yelled "No! School Bus! School Bus! School Bus!" I know where I stand.

Miles' School Record

The other day I logged into Skyward, the school district's grade/attendance/schedule/information center for students and parents. I was surprised to see Miles listed there next to his brothers. I started clicking on the links that corresponded with Miles to see what they said. My favorite is below. It's hard to read, but imagine it in table form. I love his "grade level". Miles is in -3 grade!

• Academic History

Entity	School Year	Grade Level	Class	Description	Department	Subject	Terms	Grade One	Grade Two	Grade Three
191	2012	-3	ZCPKA / PNa	SP ED Pre AM	SE		1 - 3

UEA 2011

The boys' fall break was last weekend. We had a busy and eventful, but pretty lame break.

Thursday, Nolan and I spent over 2 hours at the optometrist office. Nolan is getting contacts! My contacts haven't been feeling "good" in my eyes for a while so I went to have them checked. My eyes looked healthy. My ancient lenses looked good- just a little warped from cleaning them for years between my finger and thumb instead of in the palm of my hand. The eye doctor gave my lenses to a technician and told him to polish and reshape my lenses. Meanwhile, Nolan and I had an eye dilation party. The technician brought my lenses back in and the doctor asked me to put them in. I did. I couldn't see through my lenses though. It seemed like there was too much wetting solution between my eye and the contact. I blinked and blinked, but still couldn't see though my lenses. The doctor took a look and informed me that the prescription was wrong for my eyes. I don't get how, but somehow, the prescription was no longer correct (I think Mr. Technician messed things up royally). The contact lens prescription for my right eye was 5 corrections too strong, and the left lens was 10 corrections too strong. No wonder I couldn't see. I couldn't focus on anything printed on this card he handed me. He asked me if I had a headache, I said "no". He was surprised. Anyway, the bottom line was that I had to order new lenses. I took the old lenses out immediately, but my eyes were so "doinked" from the wrong prescription that I could not see clearly. We finished up the appointment and were waiting to pay our bill when a monster headache hit accompanied by intense nausea. I was dizzy and needed to sit down. I managed to pay our bill and walk outside the office. I realized I could not drive. Luckily, the optometrist office is next door to MegaDiamond, so I called Dan and explained what was happening and asked him to drive us home. He did. I felt awful. My eyes still could not focus correctly. That was adventure #1!

Adventure #2 started with Jonathan driving Dan back to work. Jonathan still had his permit so I had to go along for the ride so he could legally get back home. My eyes were starting to feel better and Jonathan asked if he could drive to Heber City. I agreed. We got to Heber and he wanted to continue on up to Park City. I agreed. then he wanted to drive down Parley's Canyon and on to Salt Lake. Fine. He navigated everything well. He handled the I-215 to I-15 exchange perfectly (which I think is the worst interchange in the state). Then he wanted to go over Suncrest to which I said "no". I'd had enough and wanted to go home. Besides, we needed to be sure that were back in time for Jonathan's 3:30 appointment at the DMV to get his DRIVER'S LICENSE! Jonathan is now a licensed driver. On the way back from the DMV, he dropped me off about 2 blocks from home so he could drive solo while I walked. Today he's supposed to be getting a parking permit from THS so he can start getting himself to and from school.

Adventure #3- On Friday, Jonathan got his wisdom teeth out. The lucky punk only had 2 wisdom teeth. They were on the top and coming in straight. Simple surgery compared to my 4 wisdom teethectomy that left me with swollen chipmunk cheeks. I watched Jonathan "go under" then waited for him in the waiting room. After the surgery was finished, Jonathan was wheeled out to the car. I helped him get in the car, buckled his seat belt, then told him, "Don't touch anything". We headed for home. As we were waiting to turn left at a light, Jonathan said, "Wow! Look at that yellow truck. Oh wait, it's not even there." Nice hallucination. The rest of the way home, Jonathan repeated over and over again "I am so loopy. I must be totally drunk." We got home, I assisted Jonathan to his bed. About an hour and a half later, I went to check on Jonathan. He was lying there groggily and asked how he got there. He had no recollection of anything that happened between the sedation and waking up in his bed. Jonathan has healed rapidly- no swelling, no stitches, no "real" pain pills, no need for antibiotics, no dietary restrictions. What a different experience compared to what I went through.

The rest of the UEA break was basically uneventful. Nolan did a Spanish project with a couple of guys; he spread mulch around the yard; he finished another merit badge. I did some pruning and made chili. Miles and Dan went for a bike ride in Provo Canyon. Jonathan took it easy until he could put off his homework no longer. Like I said, a busy, but lame UEA break.

What Comes Around, Goes Around

Years and years ago, I thought it was charming to teach Amy and Leslie little obnoxious things (because it was cute when they did/repeated them). I taught them things like "Where's your crack?" and "Where did you come from?" with the correct answer being "From under a rock!". My dad took me aside and basically said that while he appreciated me showing interest in my youngest sisters, I needed to refrain from teaching them "crap". Yes, I distinctly remember my dad using the word "crap." Yesterday, the teaching "crap" came full circle.

Miles has turned into a myna bird and attempts to repeat whatever he's asked to say. I tried out my favorite stand-by of "Can you say farfenugen (from the old VW commercials)?" Miles made an attempt to say that awesome word. Then Nolan took over... "Miles, can you say shut up?" To which Miles replied "shut up." Lovely. I repeated my dad's adage to Nolan. The subject was dropped. Last night Nolan came in to visit Miles as Miles was headed to bed. Nolan asked Miles, "Can you say I love you?" Miles replied with "Shut up, Nolan." Nolan tried again, "Miles, can you say I love you?" Miles again replied, "Shut up, Nolan". It was hard not to laugh too hard! I think Nolan has learned the power of teaching Miles new words!

The Bus Adventure Begins

Look what came down our street today and stopped right in front of our walk! It's Miles' short bus! We've been talking about the bus for a week, but today was Miles' first time riding the bus to school. The doors opened and Miles walked right on, looked around, and got right off! I helped him back onto the bus, buckled him into his seat, gave him a kiss, and left. The doors shut, and as the bus drove off I saw Miles looking out the window with a very concerned look on his face. A little more than 3 hours later, the bus came back and look who got off...I wonder if he liked it. The bus driver said everything went fine. I'll have to take her word for it as Miles won't tell me about riding the bus. My little boy makes the short bus look big!

Toilet Talk

Miles has been spending a lot of time here lately.
He's finally decided that pooping in the toilet is cool. I do not know why it's cool now and not a month ago, but who cares, I'll take it. So the other day, I guess Miles decided that he liked the "pooping prizes" enough to "get down to business" and he's been nearly perfect ever since. However, because he is Miles, everything, including pooping, must be done on his terms. Miles poops one nugget at a time. He "goes" at least a half dozen times a day. Is it because he's not into efficiency or is it that he figured out that since he gets a prize every time he's productive, he may as well go a little at a time so he goes more often and therefore gets prizes faster? What ever his motivation is, I don't care because I declare him OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED!!!

Funny poop-related story... back to the prizes... Miles get a roll of Smarties AND a Squinky every time he poops (yes, big prizes for a high stakes event). What's a Squinky? It's a tiny/small rubbery "thing"- Miles' Squinkies are in the shape of cars... After every "event" Miles got to choose which Squinky he wanted. Yesterday he earned the last Squinky. I showed him that they were all gone. He took the container I'd been keeping them in, collected all of his Squinkies, put them back in the container, and gave it back to me. He wants to keep earning his prizes.

Cousins are Fun!

Miles and I went to go visit his cousins "Tate". Miles calls all of Aly's boys "Tate". Pumpkin and Superman and I took the 4 boys to the park. They had a blast!

Dan the "Advisor"

Schlumberger has a few ways for recognizing employees that determine their "valuable-ness" to the company. The first is by job title... engineer, senior engineer, manager 1, manager 2, director, vice-president, etc. They other method is by recognizing an employee's technical contribution to the company based on technical papers published, patents issued, etc. Those ranks go "senior", "principal", "advisor", and "fellow". Dan was recently made an "advisor". I can't remember how many papers they say he's had published, but they said he's had 21 patents issued and 24 patents filed and are waiting to be issued. Schlumberger has 120,000 employees worldwide. Dan is one of 255 advisors within the company and the only one at MegaDiamond. To honor this achievement, MegaDiamond held a dinner in Dan's honor last Thursday and presented him with his award. Christy, the VP over MegaDiamond came in from Houston to present the award.

Counting

So cute! Miles has become a master of counting. Last night counted all the way up to 67. Why he stopped at 67, I don't know, but since he'd only counted to 20 previuosly, 67 was a really big number! We had to help him with "thirty", "forty", "fifty", and "sixty". He also got a bit messed up while in the 30's... "thirty-seven", "thirty-eight", "thirty-nine", "thirty-ten"!

Pre-School, Day 2

Today I took Miles into school. He wanted to use the bathroom, so I took him. The we went into the classroom. "Mommy bye-bye?", Miles asked. I said "Yes, and you are going to have a fun day." We went back and forth with the questioning "bye-bye" and my reassurance several times. Then Miles said, not asked, "Mommy, bye-bye." Then he walked away from me, sat in a chair, and got busy. When I came to pick him up, he wasn't phased at all. He saw me, then continued eating his snack. When he was finished, he came over, we got his coat and backpack, then headed out with the kids in his class who are bused. We watched the kids get on the bus and Miles wanted to get on too. He threw an awesome tantrum when he didn't get to climb onto the bus. Maybe next week.

First Day of Pre-School

Miles went to pre-school yesterday. His first day! We'd been preparing for it for a week... classroom visit, multiple drive-bys, lots of positive talk, showing him his backpack, etc., but I don't think Miles was really getting it. He willingly walked into the classroom, but then started to wail when he figured out what was going to happen. He tried to escape. He decided to hit me. He banged his head on the door. I gave him a love and told him that he was going to have a great time, then passed him off to one of his teachers and left. THREE HOURS later I came back. Miles was standing by his teacher waiting for me. He wasn't overly excited to see me. He calmly greeted me then got his coat and backpack and we left. His teacher said he had a "very good" first day. When we got home, Miles unleashed the devil inside and threw one of his most impressive tantrums to date. I think he was releasing the stress he'd felt from the "unknown factor" he'd been holding in during pre-school. After a nap, he was back to normal.

Pre-School... while Miles didn't share with me what went on, based on the "daily sheet" filled out by his teacher, the letter of the week is "J" and they are learning about transportation. Miles colored a picture of a car and attempted to use scissors to cut some dotted lines. He participated in table time, circle time, centers, snack, indoor play, outdoor play, art, music, games, and cleaning up. Sounds like a typical pre-school to me. He was very interested in the bus that arrived to pick up his classmates. I think we'll try the bus in a few weeks.

So what did I do with 3 hours to myself? I went to my favorite store... DI... and updated my fall wardrobe- 2 shirts, 1 turtleneck, 2 sweaters, 2 blouses, 1 cardigan, and a pair of dress slacks.

Timpanogos High School Marching Band 2011 Field Show

Here it is... "OperaTooney"

Look Who Had a Birthday!

Guess who turned 3 yesterday? Yep- it's Miles! We had a fun day celebrating with him. His day started with a fun time in nursery. He brought mini cupcakes to share. After nursery he took a nap then went for a backpack ride with Dan. Then it was party time! We had a big crowd for dinner- us, Parley and Bona, Amy and Sean, my parents and Aly's kids. We had rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, green salad, and some type of fish... most adults had salmon while the kids had fish sticks (most of the kids had cooked fish sticks, but the birthday boy had his straight from the freezer). For dessert we had "bee bug" cupcakes. Miles currently adores bees (and most other insects and creepy crawlies) so I made him bee cupcakes. He thought the lit candles were pretty cool. He still hasn't learned to "blow" so his daddy helped him out! He loved the sugar bees, but that was about it.He got a fireman hat from my parents for his birthday and we had to sing the "hat song" from KOTM playgroups about 97 times before he was ready to move on. He also got a Mickey Mouse towel, a Thomas the Tank Engine Duplo set, and "Mack" from Cars. He was so excited about Mack that he put the truck in the bath with him. At bedtime he had to gather up all his new treasures and all the balloons and sleep with them. He was worn out and slept soundly last night and I had to wake him up to go to his 3 year old check-up.

By the way, my smallest baby is now my biggest! Miles weighs more than his brothers did at 3 years old- with jeans and a shirt on, he weighed 30.4 pounds (J was 30# even and Nols was 29# 14 oz). He and Jonathan were the same height- 37.25" while Nolan was the peanut at 36.5". The pediatrician wasn't overly concerned about Miles' delays and actually seemed surprised that I had him involved with KOTM. He's supportive of our early intervention plan. Actually, he was most concerned about Miles vision- he noticed that Miles likes to get really close-up to the book he is reading and has suggested that we take Miles to get his vision checked.

Also, check out my spud, Nolan!

A Week of Goodbyes

Last week Miles and I said good-bye to Kids on the Move. It seriously took all week long! On Tuesday we said goodbye to his Transition Playgroup teachers Lauri and Belem. On Wednesday we said goodbye to Charmaine the speech therapist. On Thursday we said goodbye to the Structure Playgroup teachers Linda and Angie. Finally on Friday we said good bye to Chris the occupational therapist and to Kimber the development specialist. It's amazing the impact that these ladies had on Miles. He made significant progress in his speech and self-regulation while under the care of the ladies from KOTM. Most of the partings were easy for me because I was ready to move on, but the Thursday goodbyes were really hard and emotional. His Structure playgroup teachers were so amazing... so positive, so loving, and beyond patient. Miles is really going to miss that class. Well, it's on to a new adventure... starting Wednesday, it's Pre-school at Lindon Elementary for 3 days a week. I wonder who it will be harder on- me or Miles.

Slept in Heavenly Peace

...or something like that. I typically do not sleep well anymore. I wake multiple times a night uncomfortable. I rarely feel rested in the morning. I'm sure a new mattress would do wonders- especially that one that doesn't transmit movement across the bed, but for now I make do with what we have. Last night started out lousy... Miles has decided that he can't go to sleep unless he is watching March of the Penguins (or Baby Birds, as he calls it). Some nights it acts as a tranquillizer and puts him to sleep; other nights, like last night, it is a stimulant. I hit the "I've had it point" and shut the movie off. Miles decided to wail about it. Before he could get the tantrum in full swing, Dan called and that distracted Miles. He wanted to hold the phone so I put it on speaker and gave Miles possession of the phone. Within a few minutes, Miles was lulled to sleep by the sound of his Daddy's voice! After the phone call, I watched the news, read a book, then went to sleep. Did I mention that I put brand new sheets on the bed? These sheets are amazing... 1,500 thread count Egyptian cotton. They feel heavenly. They stay "straight" on the bed and I hate wrinkled/creased sheets (which is one cause of my lousy sleeping). They have more weight to them instead of cheap-o flimsy so they feel good on my skin. I slept amazing under and on my new sheets. I'm looking forward to a repeat of last night's sleep!

By the way, Miles' new favorite words to say are "sun", "sky", and "rainbow".

A Role Model Coach

Yesterday Nolan's lacrosse team played a team from Sandy... the Alta High development team. It was a good game. In the past seasons, Alta has annihilated the PG teams. This season, Nolan's team is finally putting it all together and working as a team and they have drastically improved (they are 5-1!) Yesterday's game was intense and very physical (mostly due to the way Alta played). The referees had their hands full calling fouls and dealing with obnoxious parents on the sidelines. Eventually the refs gave the teams a warning that if their parents couldn't behave, then the team would be penalized (the PG parents weren't the problem). Well, Alta's coach wouldn't let the refs call the game either and was yelling at the refs for every call that went against Alta. Then he started in on his players... it was awful listening to him screaming at these 12 and 13 year old boys. The game ended. Nolan's team held on and won. The players headed to the sideline and their coaches. The Alta coach was threatening his team with running laps if they didn't get over to him faster. Each team does a "cheer" for the other team then the players slap the other teams' hands. Alta's coach refused to participate or acknowledge the PG team or coach. Throughout it all, our coach (who has been known to be vocal and emotional with his older teams) stayed calm, professional, and positive. He was a great example to the boys. I think his composure spoke volumes and taught our boys a great lesson. After the game I told Troy how much I appreciated his behavior during and after the game. He thanked me for my comments then sought out his players individually and had something positive to say to each boy. What a contrast in coaches! Thanks Troy!

Smarty Pants

Thanks to an iPod app, Miles can count to 19!