Milestones and quick hands

I wanted to mention a couple of things kids did during this Thanksgiving vacation.

One day, while Matthew and Summer were visiting for the holidays, we put Tyler to sleep in Lydia's crib. He rolled over for the first time and got his feet stuck in between the crib slats. So we had to go and save the poor baby. Now, he rolls over quite a bit and I find him sleeping on his side a lot.

Another incident happened one night during that same time frame. Tyler ended up sleeping downstairs in his car seat. Good thing he was sleeping next to us, because in the middle of the night I happened to look over and see him laying half-way on the ground. He scooted down in his seat until only his head remained resting on it. And the surprising thing was, he was not making much sound, just grunting a little bit. Needless to say, we keep a closer eye on him these days.

Lydia's big achievement this week is sleeping in her "big girl bed" consistently. Pretty much every night (for a whole week) she has gone down without much of a fuss. We are so proud of our little girl. Another of her recent achievements (less comforting to us than the one we just mentioned) is her perfection to get to the forbidden stuff. First, it should be noted that as most children her age she has been ransacking our drawers and cabinets since she started walking. So, we started hiding things on higher shelves. That's when the moving of the chairs and stepping stool gave her new freedom to discover. Now she has grown tall and nothing is safe on a highest chest of drawers, top shelf of the computer desk or cabinets above the toilet. As for examples, there are plenty. To name only a few is doing injustice to her creativity, but for the lack of time, it will have to do.

One day, we were so excited that Lydia went upstairs to play. We thought she finally is learning to play on her own. It was too quiet for too long and it made us nervous. Naturally we decided to take a look. That's when we found her in the bathroom with an opened nail polish bottle, trying to paint her nails. In the process she painted her belly, arms and legs. So the nail polish remover was put to use and Lydia was clean again. We put away some things on higher shelves in hopes that it would be out of reach. Obviously, we did not think of everything. Next time we found her with mommy's facial base skilfully rubbed in her hair.

A week ago, Lydia got into our downstairs closet, to the very back of it, to be precise. She pulled out Daddy's old football helmet, some Christmas wrapping paper and few other random things. That day was not a complete disaster because things she pulled out where not harmful. Now, yesterday, Lydia found and tested some Robitussin before spilling it on a few things in our room. Actually, it was not evident which came first, tasting or the spilling, but that really has no baring on things. The matter of fact is that we can not leave anything out for even short periods of time, before it is thoroughly researched and tested by Lydia. There are not enough high cupboards and shelves to keep it out of this little girl's reach, so we spend our days watching her like hawks, trying to prevent the next disaster and cut down on clean up time. Notwithstanding, she seems to keep on perfecting her reach and grab skills. Pretty amazing. When do toddlers grow out of this stage? I hope soon.

Mitt Romney

In response to a question from my friend Darin about what I like about Mitt Romney, this is what I wrote:


Well, the fact that he's LDS means that I trust him to some degree (and I like the publicity for the church); and the fact that he's a politician means that I don't trust him to some degree. :)

Mitt Romney has a track record of business success. Extraordinary success. And then again with the Olympics. I think that shows that he can manage and organization and get jobs done right. He also is good with money, which is great.

His business career sets him apart from people who have spent their lives in politics, which to a large extent is all talk. Rudy and Fred have backgrounds related to law, which is interesting. That would come in handy. But I view the successful business background as a more important credential. Also, Mitt has shown that he can do politics very well too, successfully getting work done in a democratic state.

Aside from his particular religion, the amount of service that he's given in the church is quite respectable. I think he's served as Bishop and Stake President for 12 years or so. That is such a large time commitment (~20 hours per week) for absolutely no monetary compensation. During that time he's worked closely with individuals and families, counseling and praying for/with them, so he should have a better understanding of the daily struggles of life (Wasn't Huckabee a pastor? If so that's also great). This isn't mentioned much because it brings to everyone's attention that he's LDS. What a shame. If nothing else this should at least be viewed as 12 years of volunteering countless hours as a social worker.

Mitt Romney has a better marriage and family record in his personal life than the other top candidates. Unfortunately I don't know Huckabee very well, so I won't include him in this generalization. I think I might like Huckabee, but I haven't paid enough attention to him because he's generally viewed as having a low chance of winning. Rudy and John McCain are not respectable in this regard in my opinion. Fred is okay as far as I know: Divorce but no affair.

So that's about it. I haven't even mentioned anything about policy. They all sound pretty convincing really, and I think that's mostly meaningless talk at this point unless I strongly disagree with them on an issue. I can accept most of what Mitt says, including his approach for strengthening the US through families, economy, and military. Lately he's expanded on the family strengthening part to specify removing the flaws in the welfare system that disincentivize marriage, making father's more responsible for their children even if they are unmarried, and making adoption information more widely available. He also is in favor of allowing the law to continue to give families special treatment, and so am I (that's what I think is really at stake with this whole definition of marriage controversy).

There are also plenty of things that I don't like about Mitt Romney. They pretty much all can be summed up like this: He's a slick politician. In other words, he plays the game that he has to play to win. He says what he thinks he needs to say, and sometimes I don't think it's genuine. But I still trust his motives and respect him. He'll make a fine leader of this country and might be just what it needs.

Discipline

We're trying to figure out how to discipline Lydia. Tyler, you're next, so watch out. Raising kids is one of those things where you only get a few tries, so it's hard to say whether their behavior is caused by your parenting or their personality. Lydia is very disobedient and stubborn. Even when we scold her she ignores what we tell her to do. Sleeping is just one example.

Recently I've been taking her pacifier as a punishment when she doesn't stay in bed. She really loves her pacifier. And after getting out of bed several times, even after I took it (possibly because of me taking it), it was so hard to finally put her down in her crib and ignore her teary face and pleases as she looked me straight in the eyes and begged "purple tarfar... blue tarfar."

Halloween and More

As you can see, we all dressed up for Halloween, and Lydia kept sneaking more candy. After trick-or-treating here in EV (Escondido Village), we stopped by Steve Young's neighborhood (although I didn't see him and wasn't sure which house was his, but I did put my 49ers helmet over the chicken costume), and then went to Tom Cover's house (my advisor). This picture was at the Blakemore's annual party. The chicken costume is my brother Michael's, and it was a hit.

Keeping up with Lydia's vocabulary is difficult, so I'll have to give up soon. She can say pretty much anything now. It's funniest when she says stuff that sort of should be correct but isn't, like when she asks "are you sleep good?" And similarly, when she wakes up she always tells us "I sleep good." For a long time she's been expressing her preferences with the phrases "I-o wannit" (meaning "I don't want it") or "I want this/that/chicken/pizza/etc". She really picks up things fast, and she's always enunciated her words well. And lately she's also learned to be insolent, telling Mom "Stop!" and "Get out."

Lydia's been singing several songs loud and clear for a while, even some that we didn't know she knew. Her rendition of twinkle-twinkle is our favorite:

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up a whoodee whoodee high
Like a diamond in the sky.

Her bedtime routine isn't really improving. She hasn't managed to sleep in her bed very often. We threaten her with the crib if she keeps getting out of bed when we put her down. So after three tries we put her back in the crib. It happens most nights. Her longest successful run was about four days in a row during the first week that we tried.

Oh. Lydia used the toilet for pretty much the first time today. She frequently wants to sit on the toilet, especially to stall going to bed, but never really does anything. One time I found a little mess after her, so I know she's used it once before without us realizing it, and she's used her pottie-trainer one time. But tonight she actually went peepee in the toilet.

Tyler is a joy to everyone. It's so easy to get him to smile. All I have to do is hold him up over my head. He also full out laughs sometimes, and he's very ticklish.

We just took a trip last weekend to San Diego. Laura had her baby Zack, so we got together for some baby blessings, including Tyler's. A lot of people ended up being there. Grandma Olga and my Oregon parents were there, so Uncle Ron and Uncle Bill (with his family) ended up coming too. And of course Uncle Eric and Aunt Sheri live there, so we spent a lot of time at their house with them. It was a great trip. We also got to see the little shack that Laura and Spencer are living in on his uncle's property; however, they've spent the summer building onto it and they've done a great job. It pretty nice and looks like a fun project.

There were some serious fires in San Diego, right near Laura's house, starting on Laura's due date (she ended up delivering Zack a week late). In fact, bushes right next to their house burned, and they were pretty sure their house burnt down. They had to evacuate for three days. By a miracle, their house is fine, and so is their uncle's, even though several neighbors' houses burned down. We were all praying for them, although I have to admit I didn't have much faith that their property would survive.