The kids and I at "Trompo Magico", the children's museum. They have this cool fountain coming out of the ground. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to play in it - :(

Sullivan posing with his little friend. She's 6 weeks younger than him - and oh-so-cute!

Día de los Niños!

Monday April 30th is a Mexican Holiday known as Día de los Niños.

"Since 1925, Día del niño, or the Day of the Child, has grown as an annual celebration throughout Mexico. This day recognizes children, pays homage to their importance in society, and endorses their well being."

What a cool holiday, eh?

So, take Monday and kiss, hug, play with, and otherwise shower the children in your life with affection. I know your kids, grandkids, neices, nephews, or random acquaintances will appreciate your efforts!

a great thunk thought!

"The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the wall of our own homes." - Harold B. Lee



I love this quote that I borrowed from Serin (who originally borrowed it from Harold ;) ) This thought came to her as she ponders her future (future-future as she's not pregnant) homebirth, but I thought it was so fitting for my current focus on my family, house, and home.



I know I promised myself I would only read the 2 books - but a third jumped into my rotation and now I'm finding myself unable to put it down. (Why do I feel guilty about this? Do you think the other books really know that they were displaced??)





All I can say is - "WOW!" I mean, who knew??


The basic premise of this book is that the traditional Beahaviorism Theory-based parenting is not only ineffectual, but possibly harmful to our chilren's sense of self (and therefore their behavior.)


So - his idea is to show our children that we love them unconditionally by using reason, respect, and logic to teach them vs. punishment, rewards, and manipulation. I know it sounds pretty "hippy", hoo-haw, dancing in the fields of wildflowers waving my peace-sign - but he provides some pretty convincing evidence and sites psychological study after study - showing you how he came to these conclusions.


So, this is another book I *highly* reccomend, but only if you're completely secure in your parenting style and just get a kick out of ridiculing the out-of-the-box thinkers - OR if you truly wonder if there's a more joyful, respectful way to raise your family. I won't think less of you either way, cross my heart.


I've been putting his ideas to the test in my house. I was telling my friend earlier that I have always had this view of my kids' behavior as being on the brink of total chaos - with my (behavioristic approach) parenting being the only think keeping them on our side of "The Lord of the Flies". Boy, was I wrong. It turns out that my kids *are* good kids, who *do* want to behave (for the most part.) Not only that, but with a complete cessation of yelling, time-outs, and bribes - I haven't noticed a change for the worse in their behavior. Contrarily, we all seem to be getting along better.


The very best reminder I got out of this book is that kids are inherently good, and they are the happiest when they're doing "good" things. AND - they're pretty fun to shower with love.

So there - I put it out there for the world to see. And if you make fun of me, I'll send you to time-out. ;)

Thank You, Edwin Binney!

In the year 1903:

Noticing a need for safe, quality, affordable wax crayons, the company produces the first box of eight Crayola(r) crayons, selling for a nickel. The Crayola name, coined by Edwin Binney's wife Alice, comes from "craie," the French word for chalk, and "ola," from "oleaginous."

Crayons, or as we like to call them 'insta-happies', are a necessity in this house. They seem to have magical powers, and for that reason I never begrudge the $1.25 I pay for a fresh box of these 24-assorted-color wonders.

I've watched with pride as my 3 and (almost) 5-year old learn their alphabet and practice diligently to perfect their skills. Scraps of paper, slabs of cement, and a few freshly painted walls have all received their share of attention. No reasonably flat, solid-colored surface is immune to Adeline's well-formed "H" or Guthrie's endearing family portraits.

Today in church I found a new reason to love Crayons (or crayolitas as they're affectionately called in spanish). I have 1 and a half words for you : Non-toxic! The most recently discovered use for the waxy wonders is evident by Sullivan's many-colored smile. They magically (and instantly) transform my tired, clingy bub into a smiley, bundle of rainbow fun! I'm quite certain that he ingested 2 or 3 during his hour-long stay in our makeshift nursery. I watched in amusement as our bishop's wife panicked each time he bit off a savory morsel. (Don't judge her, she's a new mom.)

While I do have concerns about funding and managing my own study regarding the consequences of longterm, internal exposure to wax and whatever substance they use to tint it with - ultimately my concern fades to a fatalistic shrug when faced with the alternative (scream or tantrum.) You may call it permissive, you may call it dangerous, or maybe you'll just call CPS. Just remember : They're non-toxic ;)

I'm also starting a chain-e-mail campaign to encourage Crayola to add assorted vitamins (maybe even some calcium) to their products.

That's all for my ode to Crayons. Next week we'll be high-lighting my love-affair with Mr. Clean Magic Erasers!

Clicky Linky for Autism Awareness

http://whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/240139


This is a video made by a friend. When we used to live in the states, we had a few playdates for our kids. He's such a beautiful little guy, and he has a great mommy too!

Single White Female

I just realized I'm a template-copy-cat! I think I subconsciously loved Melanie's blog so much that I had to have it for my own. But honestly, when I went to change mine, I had no recollection of ever seeing it before.

*singing* I wanna be like Melanie!

Food for thought.

One of the biggest holes in our Mexican life is the complete lack of libraries. Everytime we visit the U.S. I have a stack of books from Amazon.com waiting for me. It feels like Christmas and I can never decide which book to read first.


This time I tried to narrow it down to 1, but absolutely couldn't make a decision - so I'm reading these 2 simultaneously.

I have lightbulbs going off in my brain at the turn of every page from both of these.

My 'so far' review on SIA :
I have had the hardest time with Sullivan's sleep. He went through a brief period from 2-4 months where he would basically sleep through the night in his crib (I had the crib "side-car" to my bed which basically means I left the front rail off and pushed the crib even with my bed.) At 4 months, he came down with his first cold and that interrupted his sleep. From that point on, we have had "good" and "bad" nights. A *good* night involves him waking anywhere from 4-8 times and going back to sleep quickly. A *bad* night is. . .well, BAD! Once a week or so, he'll have a night where he wakes up every 45 minutes to an hour from the time he goes to bed until the sun rises.

He's always seemed like such a sensitive baby, so the thought of following the traditional (yuck!) advice of laying him down and letting him scream was *so* not appealing to me. Hence, the book choice.

Seriously, this is such an amazing book! Even if you don't have kids - read it! It goes into such detail about our need for sleep and the way our body-function declines when we neglect it.

I'm only a few chapters in (although I did skip ahead and get some tips for helping your infant to sleep. . .is he still an infant??) and already I'm finding little ideas to help me with my older kids. A) Adeline needs a nap everyday. The more she acts like she doesn't want to, the more I need to enforce it. She's too young, and leads too active a life (preschool, parks, rambunctious play) to not get her afternoon rest. B) Lack of sleep = "I can't do it" attitudes, afternoon meltdowns (duh), aggresive "play", and a whole host of other misbehaviors. C) When I find my temper is short and my sense of humor is lacking. . .*I* am probably missing out on sleep.

I was having the hardest time getting Guthrie to fall asleep tonight. He laid in his bed, but just talks to himself and talks to me (and tries his hardest to keep Addie awake in her bed next to his.) I was so exasperated that I finally lost my cool. I completely yelled at him that it was bedtime and now he was up so late that I wasn't going to let him go to school tomorrow and blah blah blah (more mean stuff.) I came out to sit on the couch and almost immediately read a little paragraph about kids' need to feel safe and nurtured even at night.

It was almost like Guthrie was giving me one more chance to be nice, because a few minutes later he called out, "Mommy, will you come check on me in a minute?" I went in right away and he was laying there pretending to be asleep. I leaned down to give him a kiss and he threw his arms around my neck and hugged me. Now, just a few minutes later, he's already asleep.

Its so nice to have a fresh perspective on sleep, and a reminder that I'm not the only one.

I also read a statistic in there stating that only 16% of 1-year olds sleep from the time they're put in their bed until the morning. 16%!!! I am obviously not alone in my sleep woes! For every mother that proudly brags about her 3-month old super-sleeper, there are 5 more of us sitting quietly in the back of the room thinking we must be terrible mothers. While I find comfort in numbers, they certainly don't bring more ZZZ's - so here's praying that the next few weeks bring happy nights - and in turn happier days!

The other book, "Remembering Wholeness" was a raving recommendation from my friend, Serin. I read the first 10-chapters online (you can too - she offers the introduction for free.) and am happy to find that the rest of the book is just as great. (For those of you familiar with "The Secret". . .think along those lines, only with an LDS twist.) I just love this woman's outlook on life and the way each chapter makes me feel like life is this wonderful adventure and I'm *so* lucky to be along for the ride.

Although the book isn't specifically targeted to parents, I'm finding it a PERFECT guide to the obstacle course known as parenting. The best thing has been getting Kyle to read (or at least listen to me paraphrase) along with me. When I have a *downer* moment, he almost immediately says something to get me back on track. We've both noticed a huge change in our house over the last several weeks - almost like this huge cloud has been removed. . .only we never knew the cloud was there in the first place, if that makes any sense.

Well, now that I've turned my blog into an infomercial, I'll go back to "Operation Clear Vacation Dust". Its usually a week-long task when we get back from a trip, but my new outlook tells me I can do it in 6 days. MWAHAHAHA!

6 weeks 'til birthday!

I was trying to find an old picture of Sullivan so I could marvel at how he's changed - and couldn't help but post this picture. Addie and Guff make me want to melt and that chubby, little baby gave me a jolt! I don't think Sullivan has grown at all since then! (Well, maybe a little longer) If anything, he has shrunk!

I want to take a comparison picture, so everyone can tell me I'm crazy, but my camera card is MIA. Hopefully Kyle knows where it is. *fingers crossed*

While he doesn't seem to be progressing size-wise, he's definitely learning new baby tricks everyday. He has recently mastered the art of clapping on demand. We just have to show some excitement and say "YAY!" and he'll mimic our "yay" and clap his hands. I can tell he wonders how he'll ever get his clap to be as loud as ours. Just keeping working on it, little guy!

I've been trying to show him little signs too. I sign "nurse" (which is just milk signed up by your mouth.), "want", "up", and a few others. So far, he uses only "want." He seems to "want" everything. I take this as a sign of his superior intelligence. He doesn't see the point in wasting energy on any other signs when basically they all indicate "wants" anyway, right?

He has also been able to stand for longer than half a second. By "longer" I mean closer to 1.5 seconds. We play this little game where I stand him up on his feet while I'm sitting on the ground in front of him. I let go and give him a surprised "AHH!" and then he falls into me and giggles the best baby giggle in the world. Every so often I'll let go and instead of leanign into me right away he will stand there and leave me in suspense just a second longer. *sigh* LOVE him!

Only 6 weeks until his 1st birthday. How on earth did it go so fast. I feel like he was just born - and like I just got over the trauma of being seperated from Kyle for 4 months. Its hard to look at this little person over here and realize he's the same baby that came into our lives back then. At the time I thought I'd never master the art of 3 kids - never be able to accomplish anything again, never feel like the same person! Little did I know. . .I was RIGHT! LOL! But seriously, he's been so much fun to have around. He's a great reminder that the dishes will still be there in the morning, but this day in his life will never come back around again.

One of the best parts of having him here has been his effect on Guthrie. G just DOTES on him. He loves being the one to entertain him when we're in the car. Some of Sullivan's best laughs have come floating up to Kyle and I in the front of the car thanks to Guthrie's talents. We couldn't have asked for a better big brother.

Adeline is wonderful too, although I'm not entirely convinced she wouldn't vote him off the island if we gave her the option. That's what makes her sweetness even more meaningful. She's nice to him in spite of her obvious disapproval of his arrival. The longer he's around, the more she grows to like him and I know the day will come when she'll appreciate the chance she has to be a big sister.

All in all things are good. There are times when I'll have Sullivan in the baby carrier on my back, Guthrie walking next to me, and Adeline in the stroller. . .suddenly I'll get hit with this panick like I'm missing one of them. Then I realize they're all here, safe, and happy and the feeling of contentment in those moments is priceless!

Okay, gush fest has to end so I can go break up the WWF-match that has erupted in the living room. Babies growing up makes me so sappy!

Meet the Robinsons!

I just went to see this movie and absolutely loved it. I was seriously crying in the end when he was adopted by his new mom and dad. I mean CRYING! SOOO cute!

It also occurred to me that the title choice for the movie in Spanish is kind of a give-away for the show.

"Familia del futuro" (Family of the Future). . .ummmm, if you went into it w/ that title, you would already know what the ending was. (Not that we didn't all figure it out early on anyway, right?)

If you haven't seen it - *do*. If you have - were you bopping in your seat to that great soundtrack, or was it just me?? Adeline sat through the entire thing w/ very little distraction . . . other than a few jaunts back and forth from my lap to her seat. (The theatre was cold - and I'm a warm body ;) )

We're getting ready for our "last supper" here on our Arizona vacation. By tomorrow evening we'll be home and cozy - diving back into our lives. I feel pretty motivated to go have a GREAT end-of-the-semester!

Adult Acne?

I'm a zitty mess! :( I've been so diligent about keeping my face clean and using all my skincare, but I think I've figured out that it MUST be one of my products causing the mayhem.

Kiss my new tinted moisturizer buh-bye! That is the latest product I've introduced and prior to that my face was looking pretty good. Sad for me as I really like skipping the extra step in my morning routine - but definitely not worth the pie-face I've turned into.

We took the kids to the zoo today. It was a pretty good day until little Guthrie realized I was serious about not letting him ride the "roller coaster" (its actually a ski-lift-type contraption that lazes you along up above the animals.) Seriously, tantrum-ville. Luckily that was toward the end of the zoo excursion and it was anything that couldn't be cured by a visit to Peter Piper Pizza. These little munchkins get WAY too spoiled when we're in Arizona. They LOVE it - but I could do without the whining when they don't get what they want.

We spent the afternoon and evening in the backyard on the putting green. The kids kept dipping their feet and hands into the fountain. Pretty soon they were wet up to their knees. When I looked again, Guthrie was wet up to his neck. Of course, Adeline was close to follow and they spent a good 20 minutes splashing and playing in this 5 ft diameter pond. The wind was blowing quite a bit, and despite being in the middle of the Arizona desert, they ended up chilled.

We made an early bedtime of it all - and I hopped online to pay bills and blog. Oh how I love the internet. Seriously - LOVE the internet. Does anyone really write checks and buy stamps anymore? Its a far cry from Mexico, where not only can I NOT mail my bills, but I actually have to WALK them into each individual company and pay them with CASH! Say it with me now - DARK AGES! In some ways it IS simpler though - I never have to wonder if they're going to arrive on time, or if some computer error will cause me to be late.

Tomorrow I am making a quick trip back across town to meet my mom, aunt, and cousin for lunch. I left a few things at her house, and love a good excuse to say goodbye one more time. This little vacation flew by quickly, and I know it will be the blink of an eye before we're back at the airport flying home.

I'm already thinking of my positive affirmations to make the trip a smooth one.

*Our luggage will arrive in Mexico when we do
*Our children love flying and will be SO happy
*We will remember to pack everything we need
*Our layover will be smooth and uneventful

Did I mention that our flight leaves at 5:45 a.m.?? So - 2 hours early means we'll have to be at the airport w/ our 3 kids before 4 a.m. They are going to *love* that! ;)

The good news is that NOTHING can top the madness of our flight here.

We left Mexico just fine, if you can ignore the hour-delay in our flight. We arrived in L.A. late, of course, which meant that we nearly missed our layover. (Picture us running from terminal 3 to Terminal 1 with the baby in a backpack on my back, Adeline in the stroller, a carseat flipped upside down on top of the handle bars of said stroller, Guthrie sitting on top of 4 suitcases that are all piled with ANOTHER carseat on top of the luggage rack being wheeled by Kyle!) We gauged that it was about a mile that we ran like that.

We waited in the eternal line to get our boarding passes and check our luggage. When we were finally cleared to go to the terminal, we ended up being the lucky winners to be selected for a thorough search at security. Hallelujah for the sweet people who helped us. They knew we were in a crazy hurry and they made the whole experience as painless as possible despite several exasperated sighs on my part.

We left security and ran to our gate only to find that they were getting ready to close the boarding door. I almost started crying and practically begged them to let us on. Again - THANK Heavenly Father for the super sweet, understanding employees. This angel of a man ran to the plane to find us seats. He came back out and said that he found 3 available seats and Kyle could come on the plane and help us get settled while he re-arranged some things to find 1 more seat for us. Thanks to the amazingly kind passengers who were willing to move and swap seats, Kyle was able to sit by Adeline, and I had a seat next to Guthrie with baby Sullivan in my lap. Right then a man approached and told me I was in his seat. I told him we would need to talk to the airline attendant as I was only sitting where they directed. Turns out that they actually had to RE-position the ramp and re-open the plane doors to kick this man OFF the flight! There literally was no more room.

Of course my blood pressure lowered as soon as we were in the air and we made it to Phoenix. Little did I know that I had lost luggage to deal with next. We arrived in Phoenix around 9 p.m.. My mom and dad met us and took the 2 older kids home with them while Kyle and I stood in the lost-luggage line until almost midnight. In the end we just had to leave without the rest of our bags. The airline delivered them to us the next day.

So you see - no where to go but UP! :p

Costco (for Jenn)

They *do* have the berry sundaes and Pina Colada smoothies. and you are SO right - they are delicious!

Do you see why I can't stay away?

Hometown fun!

Ahhh, it feels so good to be "home" again. But, it will still feel good to get home, too. (follow that? ;) )

We've lounged a lot, and traveled a little.

I have loved being in my mom's new house. There is so much room for us to spread out and relax and she's always got it decorated and feeling wonderful. Gavin was nice enough to kick himself out of his room for us, so we were able to set up the portacrib and have our little makeshift bedroom upstairs. It was WAY too cold to swim, but Guthrie talked Kyle into it anyway. I know Guthrie wouldn't have let us leave without his dip in the new pool. Between that and the field of grass they've laid in their backyard, the kids were in heaven. Its such a far cry from our little strip of weeds that we try to pass off for a backyard in Mexico. *sigh* someday, right?

We drove down to Tombstone, Arizona last weekend. It was a pretty cool adventure. I never really connected with the story of Wyatt Earp until we were standing on the streets that he stood on and looking at the buildings that he frequented. We watched the movie later to give ourselves a (hollywood) refresher course on the history of it all.

Then on Saturday morning we took the kids in to Karchner Caverns. That was WAY cool and eerie at the same time. They're trying to preserve the caverns, so they take you through a series of containment chambers on your way down the tunnel to see the caves. Its kind of scary to be locked in these small rooms w/ thick, metal doors on either end - but the kids loved it. I brought my new Beco baby carrier and Sullivan fell asleep about 2/3 of the way through it. LOVE him - and LOVE that carrier!

Saturday afternoon we said goodbye to my family and trekked out West to spend our week with Kyle's family. We started off with a rip-roaring Easter party with his whole family! 24 grandkids, 12 children and spouses, and Grandma and Grandpa Hunter! Our family parties sure have grown a lot in the last 6 years. We had to hold it at a park just to make room for everyone.

The kids had plenty of fun finding Easter eggs and drinking WAY too much soda. Sullivan did pretty well, although I did end up having to nurse him 3/4 of the way through the party. I've been dreading that as I know that its pretty oddball in Kyle's family to be nursing a 10-month old. (Well, its oddball in my family too, but at least with them I can speak freely about it.) Just a few minutes nursing was all he needed for his second wind. I left him with Kyle that night while my Sister-in-laws and I went to Target for some last minute Easter supplies. Kyle played with him and even laid him down for bed without a fuss. That's a pretty rare ocurrence, so I considered it my gift from the Easter bunny.

Other than that, we've just relaxed. Kyle's been sneaking in some study time whenever he can - and sneaking in naps whenever he has time to study and just doesn't want to. I know he's not going to be getting much sleep as soon as we get home. He'll only have a week to prepare for his mock-board exam.

Arizona feels so good. But- we must have finally passed the hump because going back to Mexico doesn't sound terrible either. I love our house, our friends, and our life. I could do without the medical school part, but since that's not an option I guess I'll love that too. :p

Back to vacationing for now!