Pirates
The boys dressed up as pirates after church today. The nice thing there is we can pass off their violence and agression as ‘playing the part.’
One of the big Christiansen twins (who were practically conjoined they were so close to each other) once told me that they had a fist fight with each other every day of their life until they turned 16.
It’s hard to watch Miles and Owen being mean to each other so often, but those big Christiansens give me hope that they’ll figure out eventually how lucky they are to have each other.
Owen’s Christmas prayer
For months, Owen has been praying for “an electric guitar that’s white and red with gold stars on it.” He will forget to bless the food in a prayer, but he never forgets to pray for the electric guitar.
We do not intend to manipulate the boy’s faith with this, but we went ahead and got him a guitar (it’s white…we told him we’d get stickers to make it look just right) for his big present for Christmas. Before he opened it we asked him what he thought was inside this big box.
He said, “I think it’s a Hot Wheels race track with a Pteradactyl inside.” Then he started unwrapping. When he saw that it was a guitar, he started beaming and shouting and jumping. He was ecstatic. It was a lot of fun to watch. We should put the recording up once I figure out how to do that.
Many hours later at dinner, we asked Owen to say the prayer. Matt reminded him to be sure to bless the food and to thank Heavenly Father for the wonderful day we’d had. Here’s his prayer:
“Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day. And thank you for this food. And thank you for the wonderful day we had. And please bless me that I will get a hot wheels race track with a pteradactyl for Christmas next year. Amen.”
Tattling
Miles runs upstairs yelling, “Mom! Owen is hitting me!”
Owen runs upstairs yelling, “Mom! Miles is telling on me!”
China and India
So, the boys were fighting one day and Sara said, “That’s it. All you ever do is fight with each other and I’m sick of it. Fight fight fight. No more! Both of you pick a country. I’m sending you to a different country so that you never have to see each other ever again and so you won’t fight anymore.”
(We’ve been reading a lot of child rearing books and none of them talk about deportation as a means to behavior modification, so we thought we’d give it a shot.)
Owen said, “China! I get China!”
Miles said, “I get Oakley.”
Sara said, “That’s not far enough. I might see you at the grocery store.”
Miles said, “Fine. I will go to India.”
Sara said, “Great. You go to China, you go to India.” Then she turned down the hallway to her room. As soon as she turned, she heard Miles whisper at Owen,
“India is better than China.”
Penny pitching
Brad Penny is having a Cy Young kind of year. He will be pitching against Bonds tomorrow night. It’s a record-breaking situation for Bonds, and it’s a must-win for LA with Padres and D-Backs breathing down their necks. SJZ picked the perfect game for us to attend. I hope Penny is perfect too.
We have arrived at cousin/mission house-mate Josh Zollinger’s house. He has a phenomenal home with a phenomenal little family. We’ll say more when they actually get home!
Bonds
So Barry Bonds is also headed for Dodger Stadium Tuesday night. If he hits one more home-run, he will tie Hank Aaron. If he hits two, he will break the record. We will be there. I hope they skunk him. I’d rather have him get the record in San Diego later in the week since Padres fans REALLY hate him. They will give the moment all the drama it deserves - booing probably. Actually, I imagine they would soak up the historical aspect of it and give it a standing O. Anyhoo, it will make Tuesday night a bit more tense. With a couple of losses to Colorado this week, the Dodgers need wins to stay in front in NL West. So we should be seeing some good baseball. Last I read, the Dodgers’ best pitchers had minor injuries, so I don’t know who we’ll see on the mound. But it should be good baseball no matter.
(SJZ’s Grandpa Morales was a Dodgers fan, and he took SJZ to her first games way back in the day. This will be our fourth year in a row, and third time for the MTN2 and OMN. It will be HEN’s first, unless he can’t break the fever. Yvonne offered to watch him and maybe that’s the best idea. We’ll post pics of the boys with the field in the background.)
coda
Last minute, we decided we want to see the Pacific Ocean too. We try and see one Dodgers game per year, and we thought we missed our chance when we didn’t make it up to Toronto earlier in Road Trip 2007. But we have a few days of no schedule, so off to CA to see the Dodgers and the ocean.
First stop is in Las Vegas at the Henriod’s house. We just barely missed the girls, but Joel is an excellent host. They have a new home and it’s awesome. The boys played on a jungle gym in the back yard. We watched HD tv. And HEN developed a fever. It dropped a bit in the night, but not because he slept it off. SJZ is a bit tired and back in bed. But we will leave shortly for the coast. Death Valley in July-August is not my favorite task, but our car has been a champ all summer. We should be fine.
HEN Walkin’
Vicki claims that the boy walked last week, but I just saw the first true amble (not just a step step crash). The baby is no longer a baby. Now if we can just get him to strap himself into his own car seat….
You know, car seats are the reason people have smaller families than they did in the 70s. In 1979, if you needed milk from the store (because the milk man could only fit four jugs in the box on your porch and your seven children consumed all of it too soon), you could say, “Everybody in,” and all seven kids would pile themselves into the station wagon. Then you’d leave them in the car to fight over the window seats and wheel wells while you ran inside to get the leche. Nowadays, it takes 30 minutes to get two or three kids strapped into the car (after the 30 to get them dressed and clean). The kids are more unruly (albeit safer) because they are strapped down for the ride. Then when you get there, it’s 90 degrees outside, so you can’t just leave them in the car while you run inside…. Add Global Warming to the list of reasons people are having smaller families. If any of you are anthropologists, a formal study of changes in milk-buying procedures throughout generations would reveal all of these societal shifts and probably many more. For example, handwriting excelled more in agrarian cultures where the kids’ hands were stronger from milking goats and cows. The reason middle schools have such high teacher attrition is due largely to their inability to read student work. All because of car seats. And urban sprawl. I predict that the advent of in-car DVD players will lead to larger families within only a few years. Kids love those things. If Toyota made a ten passenger Sienna with individual DVD players per passenger, prophylactic sales would plunge, and fuel consumption would skyrocket even by today’s standards. Now, if the Sienna were a hybrid…
HEN is walking.
happy 33rd SJZ
There’s always a parade on your birthday. Today we went to the Kamas 24th of July parade. MTN2 rode his bike (with help getting started each time he had to stop), and Owen pedaled furiously on his big wheel. They both kept up to the float in front of them pretty well and I only feared for their lives (falling under a float or truck) three times. Tonight we’ll have a small barbecue with my parents and sisters. And tomorrow its back to our lazy summer. Happy Birthday.
MTN
