They are all unique

Yes, it is true. They are all unique... kids that is. Our children are similar in many way, but we find ourselves looking at each other and saying "Lydia wasn't like this". For example, Lydia was so excited to try her first food that she laughed when we finally gave it to her. It took Tyler a week or so to get interested in eating, though he would dive for the food we were eating. He also does not like everything. That first became apparent when he would refuse to open his mouth when I would offer him apple sauce. Now he does this funny maneuver. He does not open his mouth for the first spoonful of offered food. Tyler sort of licks it first, which helps him decide whether he will open up for the second and consequent bites. And he opens wide if the food is to his liking. However, if he does not like it he will keep dodging it. When we are being too persistent he will gather his fingers in fists as he squeals and shakes from frustration. By that point, you'd better offer him something different or else....

Tyler gets so excited when he is being tickled. He giggles so hard. At times he opens his mouth so wide to laugh we call it a hippo mouth. He is also more interested in books, stories and songs then Lydia ever was. He loves turning the pages with me.

Lydia never cared for crawling, so she walked early. Though Tyler really likes to walk with our hands and has been doing that for almost 2 months, he is very good at crawling. He is getting soooo fast. It's fun to hear him crawl. Sometimes before we see him in a doorway, we hear a very fast sequence of little stomps.

Just as much as he likes crawling, he likes eating every small crumb or rock in site. Those two things kind of go together for Tyler. He will be holding onto our hands, walking, when he will see something that interests him. That's when he will let go, sit down, crawl and put that something in his mouth. It has gotten to a point where I can not turn away from him for a second when he is crawling around at the playground outside. If I do, looking back at him I usually see him chewing. It usually turns out to be sand, twigs, leaves, rocks or an array of other things we commonly call garbage. At home, our carpet shows every grain of sand and crumb that has been dropped. Tyler gets on his fours and starts what I call "vacuuming". What a kid! That's when Paul and I look at each other and say "Lydia never did that".

riding a bicycle

Our neighbors from our old apartment lent us a bike for as long as they where not using it. It has been gathering dust in our backyard for months until a few weeks ago when Lydia decided to try riding it. She would get excited about it and ask us for help. We would try to explain to her how to pedal. The task seemed too daunting and she would lose interest quickly. But when Lydia saw someone else ride a bicycle she would proudly announce that she too had a bike.

Well, a couple of weeks ago our neighbors finally requested their bike back. So we returned it one evening and wondered how Lydia would react when she found it was missing. She asked about it, but did not seem to be too upset. Since then she has taken a liking to bikes. Outside, she would find anything resembling a bike and try to ride it, often just sitting on it and moving her feet. But yesterday, at her little preschool group, she was not playing with her friends much. Once again Lydia found a bike and was diligently trying to perfect her riding skills. The reason I say perfect is because she just sat down and started pedaling. She covered quite a bit of distance during the hour we were outside.

Today Lydia was at it again. She sat and pedaled any bike that appeared remotely usable. Our sidewalks are so rough that she would get stuck a lot. To resolve that Lydia would either ask for help or use her legs to move herself forward. Watching her struggle, I decided to borrow a better bike from our other neighbors. Lydia loved riding it on a path surrounding our playground and she did it for quite a while. It was so fun to watch her. She is growing up so quickly and it is such a joy to have her in our family.

night out on the town

Yesterday was a great day! In the morning we put a blanket on our living room floor, brought out some cinnamon rolls and juice and ate it picnic-style as we listened to conference. In between cessions, Paul helped a family in the ward move while kids and I played outside for a while. When we all got back and fixed lunch it was time for Conference again. So the kids went to sleep as Paul and I got some more spiritual feeding.
A while after, Paul had to leave for his football game that was held in Oakley, CA which is about 1.5 hours away. The kids slept as I took a shower and started getting ready for the fun event that evening. My visiting teacher Danielle agreed to watch the kids while Sharman and I went to a gallery auction. At first we thought it was on Stanford campus, so were quite surprised when we tried to type the address into the navigation system. The location turned out to be the Stanford Hotel which is located downtown in San Francisco. So here we were, heading for the night out on the town.

When got to the designated location, the auction was about 3o minutes away which was just enough time for us to grab some au dourves and check out the artwork to be sold that evening. Few great paintings were surrounded by a barrage of modern art prints that would be sold for no less than 800 dollars. I never loved modern art in the first place, so watching it go for that much money is a total shock to me. There must be something I completely don't get about modern art! As for us bidding on pieces we liked, we knew better. It never was my intent, while Sharman had to sit on her hands a couple of times. I have to admit that there were a few pieces worth buying, but that would happened only when we are rich and famous.

After coming to the consensus that we've had enough of this auction, we decided to go find a place to eat. We walked passed the famous Catholic cathedral and on to find a cute little Italian cafe where we spend the rest of our evening. We just sat and chatted all night about our lives, hopes and dreams. It was so fun. Our plates where empty and the place almost deserted before we made our exit. Sharman and I agreed that we should do this more often, especially when galleries are involved. Darryl and Paul are not huge gallery goers while Sharman and I absolutely love art.

That same evening Paul played in a football game that they won. Paul got to play a little bit and caught a nice pass. But I will let Paul write the details about that.