2021 :: week 8

 

February 14

Church was cancelled, but thanks to the zoom system our ward already has in place we were still able to "meet" together for church. Anthony hosted the meeting from our front room and Will and Lauren gave the opening and closing prayers. In honor of the passing of Christopher Plummer we watched "The Sound of Music" in the afternoon. Due to an act of parental neglect our kids had never seen the movie before. Elliott's vivid imaginations led to bad dreams about the Nazzies coming to get our family and him defeating them with his Darth Maul lightsaber. There was a lot of Elliott and Dad cuddling during the second half of the movie.

February 15

This week was the coldest week we have experienced since we moved to Kansas eleven years ago. Anthony was sent home from work early on Monday because Evergy (power company) was performing "temporary controlled power outages." We planned on using the sauna, but decided to wait as the sauna requires a lot of electricity. We didn't lose power on Monday, but were part of the rolling blackouts on Tuesday morning. Our power was out for just shy of three hours from 8-10:45am. The kids were already off from school Monday and Tuesday, but had Wednesday as a remote day due to the cold and power issues. Anthony's work was closed on Tuesday as well.

February 16

Tuesday night while we ate leftover French Dip sandwiches our kids discussed and ranked their favorite meals. I made a note in my phone because I find the rankings and how they described them useful and amusing. Will's "favorite foods" are: smashburgers, steak, tikka masala, zupa toscana, salmon soup, homemade pizza and stroganoff. Lauren's "top foods" are: creamy chicken and rice, tikka masala, smashburgers, pulled pork, homemade pizza, steak and sweet willy chili. Elliott's "top ten" are as follows: (1) French toast and bacon, (2) holiday ham, (3) homemade pizza, (4) beef and barley stew, (5) salmon soup, (6) smashburgers, (7) steak, (8) tikka masala, (9) friend chicken, and (10) mashed potatoes. He gave an honorable mention to zupa toscana, his "third favorite soup." 

February 17

We have started working with Infant & Toddler Services to help Miles talk. One of the things I have started doing is narrate every single thing we do. For example, if we are going to go outside I will say to Miles, "Let's get ready to go outside. Let's get our shoes. Where are Miles' shoes? Where are Mommy's shoes?" I pick up his shoes. "Is this Miles' shoe?" I put on his shoes. "Miles has his shoes on." I do the same things while I put on my shoes. Then I'll walk over to the hat bin and say, "Let's put on our hats. Where is Miles' hat? Where is Mommy's hat? Is this Mommy's hat? Mommy has a hat on her head." It is simple, but also a little tedious. Since I started doing that Miles has said both shoe and hat, words he was not saying before. I thought he looked cute when he put on the football helmet, and was especially pleased when he said "hat" while he was wearing it.

February 18

Jolie texted me after school and said she was taking her kids sledding and wondered if we wanted to join them. It was almost thirty degrees warmer than it had been earlier in the week, but it was still very cold. It was fun, but both Jolie and I agreed we would be okay if we didn't go sledding again until next Winter.

February 19

Miles did not take very good naps this week. I am very worried about this development. I refer to him as "Thumper" because he will often lay in bed and kick the wall when he is tired of being in his crib. He had been kicking the wall while I was doing dishes so I decided to make him wait until I finished. When I went upstairs to get him up he had fallen asleep and looked so peaceful. It must be hard to be a toddler, full of feelings, but few words to express them.

 

February 20

Will has been asking to go to Freddy's for weeks. On Saturday afternoon we made his dreams come true. It was the first time our family had eaten inside a restaurant since...last spring? We have had plenty of take out. We went just after 4:30pm and had the place virtually to ourselves. Miles has a ways to go on his eating out etiquette, so we didn't stay long. The food was tasty, but we all agreed that Tony's burgers are better.