One Boy Crazy 7-Year-Old

Today I took Allie to the eye doctor. It was an interesting experience. It was loooong but I guess that's okay because they were very thorough. I intentionally set all of my doctor appointments as early as I can in order avoid having to sit and wait for a ridiculous amount of time in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs. Even with an 8 am appointment, we were still there until after 10! The highlight of the day was a conversation that the doctor had with Allie. Here's a recap:

Dr: "So, Allie, have you noticed that when you stare at your boyfriend at school you can't see him as well as you used to be able to?"
Allie: "Oh, yes!"
Dr: "Really. Well, then I think you're going to really enjoy wearing glasses. You know, if you thought he was cute before, just wait until you can actually see him."
Allie: "Wow. That will be really great."

As we were driving home Allie was musing about all of the changes that will come with wearing glasses and she said: "Mom, I just can't believe that Ethan (her boyfriend of choice today) could possibly be any cuter. He is so cute and that doctor said he is going to look even cuter to me when I am wearing my glasses. That is just so.....awesome!"

Meet George

Recently Allie has begun a campaign to change Landon's name. She would like to call him George. Why, you ask? It's very simple.

This little guy...



...reminds Allie of this little guy.

Our little Landon sure does manage to find many ways to get into great big trouble. He can't help it. All that curiosity built up in one little body is bound to cause trouble. Oh, and he likes bananas (and banana peels) an awful lot too.

Grandma Swain better hope that Allie is not as psychic as she thinks she is!

Allie recently had a dream that her Grandma Swain had six more babies. Allie called them "sixlets". One of them was a girl and five were boys. She was not pleased when I told her that I really didn't think this was going to happen. I was told "You don't know that. And besides, you should hope it happens because Grandma would be so happy. She likes children." I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy...and especially not on my 68 year old mother-in-law! Babies are great, but 6 at once? That sounds like a lot of work.

Just when I thought that I might run out of things to blog about...

I find this little gem.

Dear Dad,
I'm sorry
that we logged
on. I love
you! Please
forgive me. Lots of
love, Allison Swain :)

Here's the story: We have had to get serious about monitoring computer time at our house. Allie has become quite adept at finding fun websites to spend hours and hours on. We put passwords on the computer so that she couldn't just log on herself. For the longest time it was just her name. Then we got tired of always having to stop what we were doing to log her in so we told her the password. When we finally came to our senses and realized that we had a password for a reason, we decided to change it. We were very clever. Allie's password was "Landon". What I didn't know was that Eric had typed "nodnal" in the password hint. Fast forward to today and with the help of her older, more sophisticated cousin it took Allie about 30 seconds to crack the code. Once again the password has been changed and the hint is something that she will never figure out (as long as we don't get lazy and just tell it to her again).

Apparently, Allie was feeling some remorse for figuring out the password--I'm not totally sure why. If she's smart enough to figure it out then I think she's earned the right to sneak a little time on the computer. She left this cute note along with 2 pieces of candy for Eric. I love that she always signs the cards and letters she writes us with "Allison Swain". You know, just in case we were wondering which Allison it came from.

Short & Sassy

Allie has a new hair do thanks to a trip to the salon with Aunt Angie. As I mentioned previously, Allie has a serious aversion to hairdryers and round brushes making the getting ready for the day portion of our morning a little bit challenging. I am hopeful that in time she will come to realize that spending 15 minutes on her hair is not such a big deal after all. The great news is that she sure looks cute! Thanks, Ang!!!

Allie Still Believes in Santa Claus

Because (and this is a direct quote): "The only other person it could be is you and Dad. And you're just not that generous and giving."

I think I am beginning to see just how low her opinion of me is. Bah humbug!

"Nobody's Perfect"

I do a lot of blogging about how often Allie insults my intelligence, unintentionally or otherwise. Today I am posting to thank her for her well-timed "That's okay, nobody's perfect". Did you know that you are not supposed to grind flaxseed in a wheat grinder? I didn't. Now I do. Thankfully it appears that my expensive wheat grinder will live to grind another day.

Here's the Answer

I don't think anyone even got close to guessing this! Thanks for playing along!
AND...
Watching this clip gave me an idea. Maybe our next guessing game should be to determine how much our orthodontic bill is going to be. I can't wait to get those teeth straightened out!

Do you think like Allie?

Hi everyone. I thought we'd play a little game. Here's how it works: I'm going to post pictures of what Allie has requested for her birthday gift this year. If you can figure out why she wants these 3 items you're the winner! If you figure it out, you can claim the title of "someone who thinks like Allie", an honor not bestowed on many. Good luck!

FHE...Allie Style

Our family was treated to an interesting Family Home Evening lesson and activity tonight courtesy of our sweet little Allie.

We had a schizophrenic lesson given in true 7 year old style. Allie began her lesson with a couple of easy questions followed by one that stumped both Eric and I: "How is our family like a hotel?". Do you think you know? The correct answer, according to Allie of course, is:

• Eric is like the hotel manager. The boss. The one who tells the rest of us what to do.
  
• Yours truly is the maid/room service. Duh. That's what Mom's do...that's why.
• Allie is the one who gives the wake-up calls. (This one really makes no sense as we typically have to work very hard to get her out of bed every single morning. I guess she does get creativity points for this one. Maybe she was trying to do a little reverse psychology on us?)
  
• Landon is the entertainment. The one who makes the rest of us happy. (The only job description that I don't take issue with.)
  

We worked really hard at keeping a straight face while she explained this to us. Following this portion of the lesson Eric and I got to search the house for clues Allie had hidden in her own version of geocaching. It's going to be a while before she gets assigned to give the lesson again.

Soooo Nice!

After my last post, I decided that I better post about how lovely the weather was yesterday. Yay! We went to the park last night for FHE and had a picnic, played on the playground, and flew a kite. Well, at least we did until it broke. Dang kite. The funny thing is that we were at the Hillcrest Elementary park and the kite was flying really high when it broke and the wood part came crashing to the ground on University Parkway. We saw it come crashing down and heard it hit the road. Thankfully Eric was able to pull the kite in quickly and land it on the South side of the fence so that we didn't cause an accident on that busy road. That would have ruined all our fun.








Landon learned how to slide down the slide all by himself. What a big boy!

SOOOO cold!

Tonight I took Allie to Thanksgiving Point Gardens because her choir group was performing there for the Tulip Festival (ironic because there were no tulips to be seen yet thanks to the extra cold temperatures!). Lucky little Landon got to stay at Poppy and Grandma's in their warm house and play with toys and eat food, his two favorite things.

I think it is safe to say that the children in the choir and their parents who had to bring them there were the only ones crazy enough to brave the cold. The worst part is that the sound system hadn't been set up so we had to wait around for that to be put up before we could even begin. The children in the choir cheered the loudest when the concert was over because they were so happy to be done and able to return to their warm cars. Is anyone else finding it hard to believe it is supposed to be beautiful weather in just a couple of days?

Allie was so excited to be there...for the first 5 minutes.


Thankfully our little buddy Jasper was there to keep us laughing. He is one FUNNY kid! When I took a picture of Allie he asked me to take one of him too. Allie told him that I would post it on our blog. He was excited (although I'm pretty sure he had no idea what that meant).


It could be worse. I could be on the Scout camp out with Eric tonight! I hope he's staying warm.

Another Edition of Allie (Unintentionally) Insulting Her Parents Intelligence

So tonight Allie was asking me questions about when Landon was a newborn baby. Here's a little portion of the conversation:
Me: "Landon used to sleep a lot during the day and then he would be awake all night long".
Allie: "Mom, are you trying to tell me he was nocturnal? If you are, you can just say it. I'm very smart. I know what the word nocturnal means!"
Me: "Ummmm, okay. I guess he was nocturnal."
Allie (sympathetically): "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I should have known that you might not know what that word means. When something is nocturnal it stays up all night."
Me: "I know what the word means."
Allie: "Of course you do now that I've told you. You're welcome."

Lucky for me, Eric was her next target. She told me that in just a few years she would be caught up to Eric in school and that she would be more than happy to tutor him. She was even thinking that maybe they could graduate from college together. How's that for motivation Eric?

Should I Be Offended?

Yesterday morning Allie put on a pair of shoes that I have been trying to get rid of for some time now. She came and found me and said that they were too small and that I should pass them on to her cousin Camille. I told her to put them in the kitchen and that I would take care of it. We continued with our morning routine and as I met Allie at the back door to send her off to school I saw this:

I asked Allie why she left me a note and she said: "Well, Mom, I've heard that old people have a hard time remembering things". I told her that I am NOT old. To which she replied: "Well, you will be. You are turning 30 on your next birthday".

Allie Loves to Help with Landon

Especially when I give him a bath. Of course, Landon likes to splash a lot so Allie wears a raincoat now.

Will We EVER Sleep Through the Night Again?

Why do both of my children refuse to sleep through the night? I know that Landon is not going to waste away if he doesn't get fed once during the night. What I don't know is how to convince him of that. In the middle of the night he goes from 0 (peacefully sleeping)-60 (screaming at the top of his lungs) in a fraction of a second and he does not let up until a bottle is popped in his mouth. Then occasionally he will also wake up and cry until we help him find his binky (which has usually been tossed across the room). Thankfully this doesn't happen every night. On some nights he goes crazy tossing his binky and the floor is littered with them by the morning. See Exhibit "A".

EXHIBIT "A"

And then there is Allie. I don't know what has gotten into her lately but it is making Eric and I crazy. She has become a sleepwalker and it happens every single night. Of course it usually happens just as I am dozing off from being up and feeding Landon. She drifts into our room, usually crying, and begs us repeatedly "help me Mom" or "help me Dad". Initially it had me really concerned because I would wake up with her standing over me crying and pleading for help. I don't think she has ever been "awake" during one of these episodes, so technically I guess I can't claim that she isn't sleeping through the night. She does a lot of mumbling, walking, stumbling around, and crying but none of it makes any sense. The light is on but no one is home, so to speak. These episodes last anywhere from 10 minutes to about half an hour. And eventually we talk her into climbing back into bed and then we retreat to our bed where we lie wide awake and talk about how freaky it is. I have an Exhibit "B", Allie's blank stare conversation, but to tell you the truth it is just too scary to post :). You're just going to have to take my word for it. When I ask her about it the next day she has no recollection of anything but finds her antics extremely entertaining. I'm glad someone is getting some enjoyment out of this (not!). The other night she was slightly more coherent and she kept saying "I have to go" I finally asked her "Where?". Her reply? "Mass". That's right. Apparently in her sleep she has converted to Catholicism. Last night I had had enough. So after I finally got her settled back to sleep I spent the next hour on the internet researching sleepwalking. Fortunately I found some helpful information and I have an arsenal of things to try to alleviate this problem. Wish us luck! As for right now, I am off to take a nap while Landon takes his so that I can be ready for tonight's adventures.

Okay, I Admit It...

I am a little bit on the obsessive compulsive side. It's how I maintain order in my busy, fun-filled, mommy life. I am still serving as the Primary President in my ward, a calling which I absolutely love most of the time. Anyways, true to my OCD nature I have begun typing up lists of major Primary events that will happen in 2008. What I can't believe is that my daughter's name appears on one very important list..."Baptisms 2008". Even though I am not in complete denial about the fact that she is growing up, there are times when I am absolutely stunned by how quickly it is happening. Then there are moments like one that happened just the other day. Allie had some friends over to play and while they were searching for a movie she quietly came to me and begged me not to reveal the awful fact that she still enjoys watching My Little Pony movies. I was totally confused and asked why. Her reply was "It's embarrassing. Only little girls watch those movies." I was completely shocked and just replied "okay....". I for one am not ready for her to be done watching little girl movies. I am not ready to bid goodbye to the innocence of youth or to embrace the tumultuous time of pre-adolescence. I know that it's not all bad, I'm just not ready. I'm not sure I ever will be.

What happens when I leave Allie in charge while I take a shower?

Landon gets a custom designed fort. In the pictures he might even look happy about it...but don't be deceived. He was hollering up a storm until he saw me. He knew he was about to be rescued.

Cornbelly's

Earlier today Allie and her choir performed at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was a beautiful day and both of the kids loved being outside in the nice autumn weather. After the concert, Eric took the kids and spent some time having fun.

Adventurous Allison

I was finally able to load the video of Allie on the zip line at the Heber Valley Camp. She is so brave!