Girly

When Rosebud was a teeny baby, I used to always (okay, frequently) put a headband with a bow on her.

Exhibit A:

There came a time, though, when she hit about eight or nine months old, that she always removed the headband, so I gradually stopped using them as much.

Exhibit B:

This morning, she saw the headbands and started reaching for them, so I got one and put it on her. I said, "Soooo pretty! You are such a pretty girl!"

She left it on her head for a few minutes, then started tugging at it. When she succeeded at pulling it off, she brought it to me and started gesturing like crazy and making urgent little baby sounds, like fix-it-fix-it-fix-it!!

So I put it back on her. Her face broke out in this huge smile and she bounced up and down excitedly. I said, "Soooo pretty!" again and she just lapped it up.

A few minutes later we repeated the whole process again.

And then again a few minutes after that.

So I had to take a picture.

Exhibit C:

(And of course Brother had to join in, too. :) I'm pretty thrilled that I got an actual picture of him smiling instead of grimacing!)



*Yes, my daughter is indeed wearing the same footy pajamas she was wearing last night. Sometimes I just let her keep wearing the same thing for a day or two longer...if it's still clean and we aren't going anywhere. Go ahead and judge me. :)

Helper

My boy is such a good helper. Tonight after dinner I needed to work on some YW stuff, so I strapped Rosebud into the high chair and gave her some Rice Krispies to snack on. I went back to my room to use the computer. A few minutes later, Jeric came in and said, "Mommy, I gave Rosebud too much Rice Krispies." This is what I found:

Just a few too many, really. She'll probably eat them all. At least the ones that she doesn't drop on the floor. Which she will then eat if I don't manage to vacuum them up before I get her down.

Also, he just asked me this question: "Mommy, why do people have bums?" Umm.... Not quite sure how to answer that one!

Come, Follow Me: Learning Outline "Poll"

**Edited to add documents for Aaronic Priesthood and Sunday School programs, in addition to Young Women. There are three links to the three documents at the bottom of this page.

Recently, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints updated the learning curriculum for the Sunday School, Young Men, and Young Women programs. Instead of having a prepared manual with step-by-step lessons that are taught in order, each month of the year has a specific topic, and "learning outlines" are provided on that topic. There are more learning outlines than there are weeks in a month, so it is up to the leaders and the youth in each unit to decide which outlines will be most beneficial and instructive for them, individually. The learning outlines are much more flexible and discussion-driven than the old manual lessons.

I am one of the Young Women leaders in my ward (congregation, for any non-Mormons who are still reading this post :)). I decided it would be helpful to create a document to facilitate the discussion between youth and adult leaders about which learning outlines should be used for each week's lesson. I wanted to share it for any other YW leaders who are interested in using it.

The document I have embedded in this post has one page for each month, with each page having two copies of the "poll" I created for that month's lessons, and I'll just make enough copies for all my YW. In the middle, I have listed the titles (I love that they are all questions!) of the learning outlines for the month. On the left, I ask that the YW rank to outlines in order of how interested they are in learning about the answer to that specific question. On the right, I have asked that they indicated if they would be willing to help teach all or part of each lesson. Obviously, if they don't feel comfortable at all, they can just leave that space blank. :)

(I doubt that most of them will be comfortable teaching at all in the beginning, but I hope that as the year progresses and they become more comfortable with how the program works, they will be more willing to step out of their comfort zones and teach. I know that I will never forget when Sister Z, my Beehive Advisor, let me teach the lesson one week! It was quite the learning experience for me and has informed my approach to teaching ever since. I'm sure I was a horrible teacher at age 12, but I am so appreciative of her willingness to let me try. Now, until the young women are ready to teach, whenever I teach the lesson, I give each YW an assignment of something to think about and share in class. I might share a scripture or quotation and ask her to take a few minutes to answer a question I ask about it, or I might ask her to share a personal experience she has had with one of the principles we are discussing. As the YW adjust to the new system and are willing to teach, we as leaders will be able to mentor them in their preparations. The possibilities and opportunities for the girls make me very excited!)

Finally, at the bottom, I ask if the YW have any of their own questions about the topic for the month, or about anything Gospel- or Church-related. They are invited to list those questions on the back of the page. 

Toward the end of each month, I will print off copies of the next month's topics and take them to class and activities for the YW to fill out. I will be taking the poll for February to church tomorrow (the last week of January) and to our activity on Wednesday night. Once the YW have all filled it out, we will have a better idea of where to focus our teaching for the month of February.

Feel free to share this document with anyone you think might be able to use it!


Below are three links, one each for the YW, AP, and SS programs. Each document contains the correct learning outline options for each of the different programs.


Young Women

Aaronic Priesthood

Youth Sunday School

Funnies

One of these days I'll get around to telling you about October, November, December, and now January (the month of never-ending sickness), but for tonight I have a few funny stories to share about my kiddos.


(1) The other night I caught Rosebud in the process of "helping" put the trash in the trashcan, except the "trash" she was throwing away consisted of her shoes and a couple of toys. Hope she hasn't thrown away something without me noticing...

(2) I couldn't find my phone tonight. After a facebook SOS ("call me, please!"), I heard my phone ringing and was finally able to find my phone under a pile of towels that Rosebud generously unfolded for me while I was working on dinner. So helpful, that girl. Not only did she "help" with laundry, she hid  my phone!

(3) I read two stories to Jeric each night just before I tuck him into bed. Call me a bad mom, but if he is being especially difficult about bedtime preparations, I tell him he will lose a story. That gets him motivated! Well, he's outsmarted me, because tonight it was his turn to say family prayer and he specifically prayed that he would get two stories. (We read scriptures and say prayer before getting ready for bed.) Darn. Now I don't have any ammo.

(4) Jeric woke up from his nap today (I GOT HIM TO START TAKING NAPS AGAIN AFTER A YEAR OF ALMOST NO NAPS!!!!) requesting to make chocolate chips cookies. I was only too happy to oblige him. And  while they baked, we played an alphabet game that involved lots of running around. Not really a funny story, but a good afternoon.

(5) Yesterday Jeric said to me, "Moving your body is so good for you." Well, yes, but I have no idea where he learned that actual phrase. But we made a list of ways we can move our body and made a goal to do them every day. (Not that we don't already, but he was so excited about it...)

September 2012

Sunday, September 2 was Jeric's third birthday. My parents and sister came down on the 1st and we celebrated that night (they stayed overnight and went to the first hour of church with us the next morning, but had to be home by 4pm so didn't get to celebrate on his actual birthday). Jeric made the following demands for his birthday:

-A blue chocolate cake.
-Blue ice cream.
-Balloons.
-A robot.

I am pleased to announce that all of these expectations were met! A resounding success, I would say.

Of course, though, I only took video...I think my dad and sister might have some photos on their phones, which I will try to get from them soon. [Incidentally, I also just found a hidden folder on my computer that contains more than a few pictures that I nearly forgot about, and which belong with months that I've already posted about. So you might be getting some pictures-only posts in the next month or so.]

We took the easy route on the cake and got a small round cake (chocolate cake with blue frosting, per list of demands) from Wal-Mart. Jeric LOVED being sung to and blowing out candles. We ended up doing it four days in a row, until the cake was gone. That was a lot of fun.

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Wednesday, September 5 was Husband's birthday (27) (and also my brother Daniel's -- 23). Poor guy was at school or work all day. I really wanted to surprise him with a cake, but OF COURSE I couldn't find a recipe that included only items I already had at the house (I had no car all that week). Wife fail. I felt awful.
He actually didn't really care; he's not big on sweets and had said I didn't need to worry about baking him a cake.

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Rosebud learned to climb on things (I'm sure she'd have been climbing stairs at this point if we had any stairs):

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Some other cute pictures of the girl:

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My mom, dad, and sister came down to visit us on the 29th of September. (Mostly because my mom couldn't stand the thought of not seeing her only grandbabies until Thanksgiving...) They happened to come on the day of a local heritage festival held in a field at Husband's university, so we headed over to check it out. After we ate fried food and enjoyed some gospel bluegrass (it was awesome, truly), Jeric got to eat his very own BLUE snow cone. Behold:

Other pictures from that outing:

And finally, a funny story.

As we were headed out to the car, we passed a row of brightly-colored port-a-potties. Jeric was riding on my dad's shoulders, I was wearing Rosebud in the Ergo, Anna and my mom had stopped to look at some cute little piglets, and Husband wasn't with us because he was working at the Chemistry Club drink booth. Jeric saw the port-a-potties, and you can imagine that they were a curious sight for a three-year-old.

Jeric: Grandpa. What are those?
Grandpa: Those are potties.
Jeric: I need to go potty.
[Insert maniacal laughter here.]
Grandpa: ...Are you sure?
Jeric: Yep.

So off to the port-a-potty they went. My dad intentionally chose one of the handicap-sized ones (more room to move; besides, it also happened to be blue). A moment later, they came back out and went in a different one. Again, they exited too quickly for any business to have been completed. Jeric had this look of consternation on his little face, and my dad's expression was of mingled horror and amusement.

Apparently, when they went into the first port-a-potty, my dad told Jeric not to touch anything ("Why?") before they approached the seat. He said Jeric kind of looked in (I called my dad to refresh my memory of this story, and he couldn't stop laughing when he thought of the expression on Jeric's face at this point) and then decided it was too dirty and he wanted to try a different potty. So they did, but Jeric decided he really didn't need to go potty, after all!