Jacob Makes Memes; Gideon speaks; We visit parents - April & May 2020

This blog posts covers 5 weeks and is packed with fun memes (courtesy of my brother Jacob), fun quotes (courtesy of having a toddler, mostly), and great pictures to help you have fun "virtually" - haha.

G: is Dad going to work today?
B: no, dad doesn't have to work on Saturday.
G: can I poop on Saturday?
{B: I must not have heard that right}
B: can you what?
G: can I poop on Saturday?
B: yes, you can poop on Saturday.
What a strange little guy!

During dinner weeks ago he said, "I'm going to have an accident" and then he stood awkwardly in the den (I assume peeing in his pull-up) and then said he wanted me to change him. What on earth?! He's a mess!
He does usually go to the bathroom to poop, and he takes this stance. I taught him to go to the bathroom (since I used to find him like this in random places throughout the house). Today he went into the bathroom like this, and then peed on the floor. sigh. At least he was in the right room. That was my first goal.
Next goal: remove the bottoms and climb on the potty!

Gideon (in high pitched voice while holding half a Dino nugget): give my family back!
Gideon (normal voice): they're gone! [Then he ate the rest of the nugget.]
Should I be concerned?

He always asks, "Is this the head or the tail?"

I can't remember which he prefers to eat first, but if he can't tell which end is which, we have to answer before he eats.

 

(My brother refers to Seth as The Mayor. It looks like DeeDee is part of Seth's staff?)

 No, he hasn't found the cure for COVID. Seth is much admired by the family and gets honors beyond what he's earned sometimes. :)

Chicken Nuggets are limited to 1 round/day. Gideon doesn't always agree with this rule. However, we do not run out. :)

(Gideon needed to come into the den for church)

B: Can you come in here nicely?

G: I'm going to come in bad!

(Gideon is not a fan of church as it requires order and reverence and is on Sunday when we limit screens.)

Gideon does prefer few clothes.

I'm so proud of the good young man Seth is. Sometimes I forget that thought when he's aggravating his sisters momentarily, but overall he is "Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, ..." 

 Church at home is the new normal. Alee is in charge of primary at home.

She gave a talk at Memere & Grandpa's on mother's day.

The three youngest girls did a beautiful musical number today during our sacrament meeting. I'm planning to have them do it again so that I can record it later.

Alee lost a tooth while we were doing school.

A: I'm glad I don't have to go to the school nurse.

(My kids are mostly afraid of school nurses. I don't know why?)

Morning walks

After noting a car go around us during our walk one day, Gideon said, "The car doesn't want to run over us. We would cry. And we would be really sad."

I'm not sure what he was saying here. Probably "pew pew" like he's shooting a laser gun or something.

"Earth Friendly" Side walk paint for Earth Day

(It's just cornstarch, food coloring, and water, and it dried like chalk.)

Gideon was singing words into his kazoo one night. Natalie wanted to teach him to hum into it.
Natalie: say doo doo
Gideon: (in a kazoo) doo doo
Gideon (talking): what does doo doo mean?
Natalie: well it means poop but you say it to make your sound better on the kazoo
Alee: it means poo poo
Gideon: no it means pee pee
And then he proceeded to mess with everything on Natalie's end table.

Many conversations seem to end up in the bathroom category. Can we finish potty training this summer?

Set up for our Family orchestra concert

We still haven't had a band concert (only Kaitlyn plays a band instrument), but maybe before the school year is officially over!

If you missed this "concert" and would like to see it, here's it is:

G: excuse me!
N: you're excused!
G: no, I'm not excused! I'm Gideon!

 Virtual Roller Coaster ride - spring break was a little low key, so the kids did some then, and some more the week later.

G: "my siblings are being too much louder."
(They were making a lot of noise upstairs.)
"My siblings are making noise again."
(Noise continues)
"Can I ask them to shut up?"
(oops...the words he's learned. No; mom tells them to stop)
"What's wrong wiff the grils?" (Spelled like he pronounces it)

Twins made Gideon come inside with them because he couldn't be left outside alone. He didn't want to come inside.
He "tattled" falsely: they left me alone and I miss my friend Natalie.


Learning that I am the mom of more than just Gideon is hard to understand sometimes. After a "heated discussion" one morning with Alee and me, Gideon kept saying "hey, my mom" instead of just "hey, Mom" for the day. :)
He also kept asking, "where is the other mom?" (I guess meaning the mom of the other children in this house?)...And at other times, "are you _______'s mom?" (Possibly accepting that he must share me?)

He's learning to identify letters. His best are the letters of our initials and favorite letters (like X or Q). He thinks an individual letter represents an entire word/name though, will "sound out" Gi-te-on! while pointing to a lone G.

Alee got a snack for herself and Gideon. When she realized she gave him too many goldfish crackers, she decided they would share and snagged one from his bowl instead, popping it into her mouth. He yelled suddenly, "give it back!" with his hand outstretched.

 Gideon wants to be like Seth.

Beth explained that we would leave the den perfectly clean at the end of the day Saturday so our little "chapel" would be ready for Sunday.

"Oh yeah," says one of the girls, "We do clean the church on Saturdays."

(Usually the 3 wards sharing the building rotate by month, and when it's our ward's turn we get 1 week out of that month.)

Seth reasons, "Can another ward clean the building?"

(Rob: I would be concerned if we were sharing the house with another ward.)

Gideon: I don't want to eat with Alee (who was in the kitchen). I want a couch picnic.

(And when I said no to that...)

Gideon: I want one wood floor picnic.

The girls learned a dance "along with" the dance studio owner and teacher in April. It was really fun. I joined in with them.

 We decided to do a simple timeline for social studies for our last 8 weeks of school. So, Alee puts up a few events and calls Memere every week to talk about them. (We're taking it easy so that her school does not take longer than the older kids' school assignments.) Public school is keeping it really easy.

One of Gideon's first drawings (that is not just random scribbles and that he identified what it was). It's a rat snake.

More skills: Gideon learned to cast his movie (or the scripture app reading out loud) to the TV. So randomly during scriptures, he casts the audio version up to the screen, interrupting what we are reading.

School and snacks. (Carolyn was studying for her Algebra 2 final here.)

Gideon went out on the back porch while I was making supper, and I looked out and he's got the skates on (somehow??) and is holding on to the porch frame and moving slowly! I thought for sure he would fall, so Natalie went out there with him to help.

We love our "new" sandbox; I had been sand-shopping and some of our best friends just stopped by one night and started unloading and enormous bag of sand into our empty box under the playset. Gideon (and all of them, but especially Gideon) LOVES it! He was in underwear (post a messy afternoon & supper) and was so excited, he ran out in underwear only and played until I insisted he come in and get clean and clothed.

We have to stop at this little stream in our neighborhood on every walk. To convince Gideon it's time to move on, we say, "Say 'Bye, little stream.' " And he does.

Seth fussed at Kaitlyn for laughing at Gideon's mischief, and explained that she could control it by using a bored voice. "But I'm never bored," she says. She can always find something to do.

 We "attended" a baptism - the first through Zoom.

Alee tried to pick up one of Gideon's cars (about 40 in the floor), and he said, "no!" Then sang, "before you take something away, stop and ask if it's ok." (Daniel tiger song.) He still told her no when she asked, but he let her pick up another.


"Very Hungry Hippos" as he calls it (instead of Hungry Hungry Hippos)

My family has had a fun family chat going on since all this coronavirus mess started, but we have missed being together, so for mother's day, my brothers and I (with some of our spouses) put together some mother's day videos. It was really fun. (This is just a picture, but if you're ever interested in seeing them, let me know and I'll show some to you when we're together!)

Trying to keep the sanity - Spirit week: Star Wars Day (May the 4th)
The walk was our spirit week moment each day. After that, we often changed if it was too hot or too much.

Just a typical school day at home....
Kaitlyn in "Dad's Highchair"

Seth in his favorite couch corner. Natalie in any free spot.

Carolyn in her favorite couch corner, and Alee next to me.

Spirit week: USC / Gamecock Day

Spirit week: I think this was Disney Day (although we had a bit of a disagreement and the day had 2 similar split themes).

I don't remember how the week ended...a hat day? And something else??

Seth's art teacher has done some creative assignments since they can't require painting, having all the materials at the school and not at home. This was a fun one. I'm glad that he got cut short on painting and not drawing (last semester) since drawing is his favorite art style.

In this assignment, they had to "recreate" a work of art and photograph it.

 Rob's mom has been sending frequent treats to us since she misses seeing the kids in person. The week donuts came was probably the most exciting one yet for Gideon. Note his prayer while watching the donut closely.

Gideon likes a BIG stick!

Gideon smacking during breakfast.
K: "so gross"
G: makes gagging sound, like he's going to throw up, towards Kaitlyn
(B&C hide laughter)
B: "that's bad manners Gideon don't do that"
G: repeats
(We try not to laugh at his "bad" moments, but sometimes it's just too much. More hidden laughter watching him torture someone 10-11 years older than him)
K: runs to dining room thoroughly disgusted, unable to finish her breakfast in kitchen

Now that Gideon knows how much Kaitlyn can't stand that gagging sound (which started involuntarily because he takes enormous bites and tries to cram it all in), Gideon makes the sound all the time on purpose just to aggravate her.

More Jacob memes. (Kaitlyn was sad that he only made memes about Gideon and Seth, so today he started making more for the girls.

Alee tried to get the crusted playdough out of Gideon's hair, and he resisted (probably because it hurt).
A: let me get the yucky out of your hair!
G: I want to keep the yucky in my hair!

 Gideon can't just sit with me; he must block my view.

We have been talking about investing in a keyboard for a while, and we finally invested in one.
The kids love it. Kaitlyn and Alee love to try out the different instrument sounds to match what sounds best with their songs. Carolyn and Seth love that they can plug in headphones and no one can hear them practice. Natalie likes it for a little of both. Everyone loves that there are 2 options for piano practice time (and I love that I can send 2 at once to practice).

Gideon just copies what everyone else does.
I do plan to start doing "preschool piano" with him in the fall (maybe). I have a preschool piano book in mind that I'm thinking of trying with him; I might buy it this fall or next spring.

We went to visit Rob's mom for mother's day. It was our first visit in over a month with family because of the social distancing guidelines. My inside pictures weren't so cute, but I loved this one of my kids writing a mother's day message for Memere beside her car. (Because it was Sunday, we took church-at-home with us!)

Happy Mother's day; I love my ducklings - from the tallest (taller than me) to the shortest (who can't be without me).

We thought her "smurf" peak was funny. The jacket has been on the hook so long that it maintained its shape!

S: That's a bad idea.

(I can't remember what we were talking about)

N: You're a bad idea.
(She likes to take every statement and repeat it back with "you're" at the beginning. Knowing she's joking, it's often funny, but I reprimanded her, making sure she knew Seth was not a bad idea; I told her that we had prayed about him.)
N: I don't want to hear about that.
(I was wrong to think this had ended her dinner clown behavior...Sigh. She is our comic relief.)


On nice days, school goes outside to the back porch.

After school, leisure time also happened on the porch. It's getting hotter, so I bet relaxing on the back porch will happen less often.

 Carolyn had to finish a few things after her 180th day; she's presenting her current event project for social studies. It was very interesting, including some history of pandemics.

One day after our walk, the kids all started playing outside - fun, happy together, and outside by choice! School can wait!!
I watched with gratitude for a few minutes, then donned a mask and took care of some errands out.

Now to some beach sand...We made a visit to my parents next. (We haven't started visiting with siblings much yet, but we plan to do that in June.) 

Of course, we went to the beach as much as the kids could squeeze in!

 At the beach wandering around with Granddaddy, Gideon says, "I'm going some places with Granddaddy."

My budding photographer, Kaitlyn, has always loved photography (and Alee is beginning to love it too). I want to do some more with her this summer to teach her what I know (as an amateur).

 I am so glad that I have my grandma around to love my children and to tell us wonderful stories!

Unlike a typical visit to Mom and Dad's house, we didn't beach and shop and swim. We did visit the beach, but we also did some exercise and school work. No shopping or swimming this time. (In fact, my kids haven't been to a store since February at least.)

School grades: they are combining 3rd and 4th quarter grades into just a semester grade, and that grade cannot be any lower than whatever they had at the time that school moved to be at home.

Kaitlyn had high A's in everything. Her grade has since gone up in most classes; her lowest grade is a 98.

So she's sitting on the couch with her computer working on math (which she does for over an hour every day), and she's taking a quiz.
Natalie, not understanding why Kaitlyn is retaking the math quiz online until she gets 100, says...
N: You have 100 in math; your grade cannot go down!
(Kaitlyn continues to work until she gets 100 on the quiz anyways.)
N: Overachiever...🙄

We couldn't go swimming in the pool at my mom's neighborhood or at my grandma's condo because they were closed by order of the governor. The ducks do not answer to the governor though!

Gideon did not understand why we couldn't get in these pools that looked completely open and ready!?

Rob told Gideon the reason we can't go jump in Grandma's pool is because the governor says 'no,' so go yell at him. He, of course, literally yells out of the area where we're watching boats go down the water way, "governor! Open the pool!...pwease"

 On the return trip to the beach, the kids brought the yard shovel so that they  might dig even bigger holes!

I've found my sport! But I can't remember the name of it?

Granddaddy loves Gideon.

This is the first stroller I owned when Seth was a baby. When I upgraded to a double when Carolyn was born, I left it at Mom's house so that I would have a stroller there too for my kids. Many grandchildren have used it over the years, and now Gideon is using it for a walk.

Alee and Grandma bird watching and enjoying nature on Mom's back porch.

I know - more beach pictures! The beach is just so pretty, and everyone loves it! I always take a bunch and then can't narrow them down enough.

Seth with a dead jellyfish.

Alee does best with math being hands on and first thing in the morning!

 This art and the chain of tags (awards for 1st and 2nd quarter; they may have added more for end of the year?) are both things that Alee got in her brown bag at the drive through end-of-year school pick up.

I love the idea of "tag awards" instead of the usual handful of certificates every quarter.

I want to do something periodically throughout the year next year to congratulate her on accomplishments for her last year of elementary school (and first full year homeschooling).

Natalie has been named as the vocabulary teacher. She has tried to teach Gideon "unnecessary", "inconsiderate", and others.
Seth has taught him to say, "Execute order 66."

 Gideon is learning to prepare his own chicken nuggets.

Gideon is upset that his Lightning McQueen sheets are in the laundry and he has to sleep on these ABC sheets. We got over it by finding his letter. He will get some more sheets for his birthday.

Seth touches my new painting. I tell him not to touch paintings. He licks his finger then looks at me as if he is going to touch it with his wet finger. I give him the mom-eye. He walks out of the room cackling.
N: Can we put up a sign: "Do not touch or lick"?

I wanted a math shirt for mother's day, so Rob got me this one. ("A day without math is like just kidding I have no idea")

Watching my nephew's baptism over zoom:

After watching his cousin get into his Bishop's pool to get baptized, Gideon says, "I want to go to that pool because that pool is open!" [I think Carolyn pointed out they were only in the pool to get baptized.] As his cousin is baptized, Gideon says, "I want to get baptized."

Jacob made this meme today too:

I'm glad the school year is winding down. I'm ready for the break, to let the kids just wake up and play, and maybe to venture out to see cousins soon...or maybe even friends later in the summer. I did tell Carolyn's friend she could come over and they could visit socially distanced in the driveway this week. (such a weird time this is)