Helpful Sister

So, Moses is plenty old enough that he can get dressed himself. He prefers it, though, if I pick out his clothes and help him get dressed. I can't always do that though, especially if I'm in a rush to get out the door somewhere. In those instances, I ask Akiko to help me out getting Moses ready, which she is always happy to oblige.

Akiko has been dressing herself since she was teeny and a couple years ago, started insisting on picking out her own outfits, which can lead to some really great getups and some really wacky ones (biggest reason I love the uniform policy at her school). To each her own, right?

Well, last night, we were getting ready to head out the door. Moses had taken his clothes off because he'd gotten them dirty form playing outside. He's really good at taking his clothes off these days, but it's nothing like Akiko's non-clothing phase when she was his age.

Anyway, I asked Akiko to find some clothes for him while I got Asher ready. Oh, I forgot to mention, Moses managed to lose one of each of his pairs of shoes yesterday. Frustrating. I told Akiko to find him some shoes from our extra shoe box, you know, the shoes you keep because you know you'll need them someday, but not right now. Anyway, Akiko found Moses a pair that used to belong to her, but were masculine enough that it he could still pull it off.

Well, I didn't see how she dressed Moses until we were getting in the car.

A long sleeve shirt, pajama shorts and rain boots. Akiko and Moses were so proud.

I love these silly kids!

First Grade!

Akiko started 1st grade this morning!

She was excited and nervous at the same time. It's good to be back in some kind of routine, but since our family is not a group of morning people, it will be hard to get out of bed early again so we can get her to school on time.

I am so utterly blown away at how big she is now. She seemed so little last year when she was starting kindergarten.

She's excited to use her backpack finally this year.

So, I was really bummed to find out that none of Akiko's friends were in the same class with her this year. Her BFF, all her church friends and all her girlfriends from kindergarten are in different classes. Most of them ended up in the same class. Akiko only knows three kids from her class last year that are in her class this year. Fortunately, one of the boys is one that I know she gets along with well. At least she thinks he's funny and they played at recess a lot last year. So I suppose she counts him as a friend.

I guess this just means it's an opportunity for her to make new friends this year, which is something she is really good at. And her teacher is super cute, just like last year's. I think Akiko will really like her.

My first grade teacher was scary. Really. Scary. We got yelled at a lot. I got to escape for about an hour every day to go to a second grade reading class where Ms. Hansen was so nice and so pretty. Last I heard, Miss O'Toole still works there. She's got to be close to retirement by now. She seemed so old when I was her student. Retrospectively, though, she's probably a few years younger than my parents.

Anyway, I'm really excited for Akiko this year. I think she'll have a lot of fun.

Toothleth, or The Lithp

I promise I'm not going to blog about each and every tooth that Akiko looses, but I am going to blog about this one.

See that giant gap in the front there? Akiko lost her first front tooth and the other one is a few weeks behind.

I'm really only blogging about this one because I think the two front teeth, when they go missing, is just the cutest thing about this age group.

We were eating pizza for dinner last night and Akiko was having a tough time of it trying to take her bites with the side of her mouth. Suddenly, Akiko sprang out of her chair and ran to the bathroom, or so I thought. Then I heard her scream. Thinking it was a spider or something, I ran to her to help her out. I found her in front of the mirror gaping at her mouth.

Her tooth had rotated 180°, so the back was facing front, and then twisted 90° on its side. It looked really weird. It was also kind of jammed in there. There was no way she could finish dinner. I made Joseph yank it out.

I'm super excited about this because she is going to have THE cutest first grade picture, especially if her other tooth falls out in the next couple weeks. She is also now talking with a lisp, which is darling, and, thank heavens, temporary. She thinks she sounds weird. I think it's just cute. You should hear her try to say "Moses" now.

Speaking of school, the summer is almost over. She goes back in two weeks! Whaaat?

I've meant to blog about all our individual adventures over the summer, but that takes a lot of time, so I think it'll just end up being a recap post after Akiko goes back to school. We have had a lot of fun though.

Habits and Games

Funny commentary between you and your children needs to be written down every once in a while so that you don't forget the story. Same goes for funny stories/things that happen.

This has become wildly apparent lately when Akiko asks me about all the cute and funny things she did when she was younger and I swore I'd never forget. I don't want to forget and that's part of the drive behind my blogging, besides the fact that I just want to show off how darling my children are.

Anyway, I've got a couple things that I want to share.

First, is a dialogue that happened between Akiko and me earlier this evening:

Akiko: Mommy, what's a habit?

Me: It's something that you do impulsively.

A: What does that mean?

M: Um, it's just something that you do all the time without thinking about it much.

A: Like what?

M: Well, there are bad habits, like picking your nose or biting your fingernails.

A: Or smoking?

M: Right. But there are also good habits.

A: Like what?

M: Like reading your scriptures every day and praying and going to church.

A: Oh!

I see the light come on in her eyes as she understands this concept.

A: But sometimes our good habit can bonk into our bad habit, right?

M: Like what do you mean?

A: Like when you're reading your scriptures while you're picking your nose.

All I could do was just laugh at that because she totally got me. Akiko's so good at thinking about things that aren't obvious to me.

The second story I have involves Moses.

Now, Moses is at the age where he's starting to find interest in video games. Joseph, Akiko and I like playing them. Moses wants to play them, but doesn't have the coordination to play them very well, and this frustrates him. That doesn't stop him from really enjoying them anyway. In fact, his life has become somewhat of a video game in itself.

We'll often be doing whatever and Moses, if he wants our attention, will say, "Pause the game. I need to tell you something."

If he encounters something difficult, like, once he got stuck, he'll say, "This is a hard level."

Once, Joseph was stirring something thick, probably biscuit dough or something similar, and Moses, watching him, said, "Wow Dad! That's level 2 stirring!"

The other day, I was out playing basketball with Asher. Asher would retrieve the ball, pass it to me and I would take the shot, and often miss, and the routine would start over. Moses came out and saw my bad basketball skills and said, "Mom, you need to press A to shoot the ball into the basket."

The latest version of Mario Kart we have is Double Dash for the GameCube. On our way to pick Akiko up from school, Moses will ride on the back of our Sit'n'Stand stroller, with Asher "driving" in the front, and throw banana peels and turtle shells at all our "opponents," you know, the other parents. When we'd get to the school, he would proclaim us the winner of the race.

Costco apparently reminds Moses of the Bowser's castle race, because often when we go there, he'll sit in the front of the cart and hurl peels and shells at the other "racers" and continuously hum the theme song for the race. It's also a pleasure to hear him include any sound effects as we turn, get a mushroom boost, or manage to hit one of our opponents with our ammo.

Now, I don't really play along when Moses is doing this, but I'm not going to stop it. It is so cute and funny. I can only try to imagine what he sees when he is in his video game world.

I mean, I remember doing the same things when I was younger. Only the setting was different.

Not to exclude Asher in any of this; there should be an update on what he can do now.

He's starting to talk and calls both Joseph and me "Daaaah!" There are a few other words that he says consistently when he sees diapers, stars, birds, babies, and belly buttons. They are still evolving and hard to transcribe.

His personality is very different from Moses. Asher is louder and goofier and gets into more trouble likes to explore. He's extremely clingy to Joseph and me, but prefers Joseph over me. He's a daddy's boy through and through.

During the day, when he's tired and needs a nap, he's very irritable. At night, when he's tired and needs to go to bed, he's slap happy.

To quote Akiko, "I just love that little guy."

A Nutty Update

And I don't mean "nutty" as in "cockamamie" or "kooky."

Asher's blood was drawn at the allergist last week so they could test it against certain proteins, namely peanuts and tree nuts. We got the test results back:

He's allergic to tree nuts, too.

It's not that big a deal in our house, since I'm not a big nut person, but I do like to bake occasionally with walnuts, or have a bag of roasted almonds. However, it means he'll never get to have Nutella or try pecan pie. It also means we have to be extra careful when we eat out or have someone watch him.

To look on the bright side of things, at least it's nuts we're dealing with and not milk, gluten, wheat, soy, egg, or any other number of allergies that he could have that would drastically change the way we eat. Eliminating nuts I can handle.