Friday, December 18, 2009

Devin's Reading

It's really amazing to me because he went from not recognizing letters at all to asking for reading lessons at school.

He reads "Dot" as DUH-AW-TUH. Then he says it more quickly. The he says DOT!

The words are small, mostly three letters. He was pronouncing HAS as HOZ, but I think that's because the letter "a" looked like the letter "o" to him. It really did, too.

I know it's mundane because it happens everyday. But, it's amazing because it's happening now!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Devin read a book last night to us!

For real! He's really reading and sounding out letters and doing great!

Monday, December 14, 2009

@

Trevor has been waking up earlier and earlier. And, when he gets up early, he does entertain himself. He watches TV or plays video games on the Wii or on the computer. Reading Little House on the Prairie would probably be a bit too much to ask anyway.

But, this morning, he woke up at 3:30. And, he wanted to entertain himself, but he needed to sign into a new game we got him with my email address. And, he didn't know how to make the @ sign. So, he came into my room and asked me how to make the "a" with the circle around it.

I had no idea because it was 3:30 in the morning and had just woken up from a sound sleep to which I would not return. I didn't even know what he was talking about. Did it come in a box and was part of this complete breakfast? I just didn't know.

I tried to think, but it did no good. And, then I realized it was 3:30 in the morning. My brain started working for just a minute. I very politely told him go back to bed and stay in bed for at least another hour. He did. He stayed in bed all the way until 6:00.

And, then, I remembered! Shift-2, shift-2! That's how you make an "a" with a circle around it!!

New (and by new I mean old) pictures

I uploaded some more pictures over the weekend:

Spring 2009
This says Fall 2009, but I just get my seasons confused, and I can't figure out how to fix the album name.

Brigantine NJ 2009

All of my uploaded pictures

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Cat Scan

John is feeling a lot better. He got a cat scan yesterday, and they will review the results on Friday. He'll find out then if he needs pins or not.

On a different note, my favorite thing said at Thanksgiving:

Vikki to Amey: You've lost weight!

Amey to Vikki: No, uh, I just got tighter jeans!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Monday, December 07, 2009

It is broken!

John broke his wrist when he fell! GANG-IT! (that's what Jena would say and I'm channeling Jena right now.)

He gets a CT scan tomorrow to see if they need to put in some pins, and he will go from there...

Sunday, December 06, 2009

I curse you, sky!!! (Fist-Shake, Fist-Shake!)

We got our second snow of the season yesterday. It's quite lovely. Powdery and light. In the middle of it, though, I was outside with the boys and the dog. The dog had snow balls attached to his paws and fur, so I tried to convince him to stay in the garage until the until it melted. He was patient, and I was bored, so I shoveled snow.

And, it kept snowing, and eventually I had removed enough snow so that I could see the driveway. Then, the snow kept falling, but it didn't stick. But, it did leave a thin layer of water. Which turned to ice over night.

(Also, the big balls of snow wouldn't melt on their own. I had to dunk his paws and chest into warm running water).

John was outside this morning on our driveway. The one with no snow, but a nice thin layer of ice. He fell, and he sprained (or maybe fractured?) his wrist. He'll try to see the doctor tomorrow. According to Utah Mountain Biking.com, wrist sprains can take a long time to heal.

Well, there has been talk of casts around the house. And, Trevor is very sorry that Dad has hurt himself. And, Devin did indeed curse the sky for allowing the snow to fall. I didn't tell him the part that I played with my ill advised snow removal and have thus far avoided any cursing directed towards me...

Friday, December 04, 2009

sticks and knives

"Mom, my school has really interesting sticks. Some look like pistols and some look like rifles," Trevor just told me.

Then, we had a quick discussion on the convenience of bayonets in wartime.

And, I shuddered a little, then told him to just never go to war.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Vaccinations

Just took Devin to the doctor. And, I love Devin's doctor. I don't want to marry him, but he's got a really great bedside manner, and a nice smile. I trust him.

But, he's a booger on the vaccinations. He looks at their vaccinations and starts out saying they don't need any. Oh, they need one. Oh, it looks like they need one more. Oh, just one more. Poor old Devin got THREE shots today.

And, it wouldn't have been so bad, but he had the knowledge about the three shots for about 20 minutes, and my powers to distract failed about 15 minutes into the wait. (OK, the truth is I got distracted myself and stopped trying.)

So, he yowled and he howled and also, the nurse was slow. I saw a nurse give 4 shots to baby Trevor in about 2 seconds. I take that back. I didn't see it. She was too quick for me. She had real, live superpowers. But, our nurse today, also a wonderful nurse with a comforting demeanor, was really slow. So, Devin yowled and howled for about a WHOLE MINUTE! And, I couldn't decide if I should laugh or cry. He usually winces and says ow! at shots.

But, he's back at school now. The bag of chips at the end made it all better.

He read his first book today. MAT. I'm hoping he brings it home tonight so he can read it to me.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Fortune Cookie

There are many ways to be hurtful, but only one way to heal. And that is through love.

After hearing his fortune, Devin told Trevor, "Trevor, if you have a really bad cut, you need love to heal."

Just happened 30 seconds ago.

Live from my house, this is Tricia reporting the daily cuteness.

DON'T TOUCH IT!

On Thanksgiving Day, we went to Grandma's house. John and William took the kids for a walk in the woods/junkyard. Always an awesome time. At one point, Logan fell and scraped her knee, and it bled a lot.

Devin was energized by this. He started marching towards Grandma's house as quickly as he could and began yelling at everyone to hurry up. They had to get back!

Once back to the house, Devin went inside and got a tissue and began asking everyone for a band-aid. When I went outside, he asked me if I had found a band-aid. I didn't because I didn't realize that was a task he had assigned to me.

I went back in for a wet paper towel so Logan could wash off the dried blood and Devin went back to staring intently at Logan. When I came back out with the wet paper towel, Devin kept up the intense vigil every now and then yelling out, DON'T TOUCH IT!

We think that with his mobilization and medical instincts, paramedic may be a good career choice for him.

I wish...


that the camera had been pointed directly at him for this picture.


This state of of lying quietly with eyes closed for 90 minutes is not a nap.


His face was positively filthy. All of them had filthy faces, in fact!


She's cute, but she thought she would be cuter with make-up. I think she's cute just like she is.


Contrary to the look on his face, he wasn't about to pop me in the mouth.


They played so well together. Logan is an awesome playdate. She plays by Trevor's rules and doesn't make up her own. She certainly could make up her own, but she seems to know that Trevor wouldn't have fun if she did. She seems to sense the needs of others. She's awesome that way.


Isn't my dog cute???


We have 100 pictures of Socks looking like this. This is the most recent.

I hate the house across the street

I just hate it.

It's too high up and it needs steps put in.

The landscaping is crap and needs serious attention. They have more weeds than grass in the side and back yard.

Those electrical box things are all cattywhumpus and dumb. There's an electrical cord running from one of the boxes to the house. How do you mow around that?

There's tape residue on the lamp post from the month long garage sale the last residents had. I'm going to clean that off one of these days.

The sticker that came with the windows when they built the house? They still have one attached to one of the garage windows. Why won't they just take it down?

It's empty. Of course it is. See above. In addition to all of that, it's overpriced.

The deck on the back, while I'm glad it has a deck since it's not finished in so many other way, is a strange and awkward design.

The wrought iron fence required by the neighborhood bylaws? There's no fence.

It's nice inside if you could figure out how to get inside without walking up a steep hill or even steeper driveway.

I just hate that house. I want the builders to fix it and then sell it, not RENT it, to someone who will keep it fixed. They should take a loss to get out from under it. It would better for everyone. Especially me. Really, especially them. Especially the whole neighborhood really.

There. I feel better now.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Boots is like Murray

Not that he's old with long toenails and can't look at people. But, he likes to take his food far away from his bowl to eat it, too. Just like Murray. Also, his food isn't cut up weenies.

Murray is a good old weird dog.