We Don't Suck Anymore

For a long time we have sucked-thumbs, nigh-nights, you know the drill. Nathan sucked his thumb on the ultrasound at 12 weeks. Jack started sucking his thumb right after he was born and never looked back. (That thumb was in there all day most days-while watching tv, driving in the car, snuggling with his beloved pillow, getting his back scratched by mom, etc.) And Dal, he was never a thumb guy. Instead he liked his nigh-nights (pacifiers).

A few months ago we couldn't find a pacifier when we put Dal to bed. And eventually he fell asleep. When we still couldn't find it a day or two later, we decided to just be done giving him his nigh-nights should we ever find it again. When he did find it, he popped it in and I popped it right back out and said "we are done with those. You don't need that." That was easy.

But Jack and Nathan. At 6 Nathan was still sucking his thumb to put himself to sleep at night. And Jack was sucking so much that his teeth are badly out of line. He once told me he didn't want to stop sucking and it was ok, he liked looking like a walrus.

Last week, after a trip to the dentist and some good advice, I decided it was officially time to be done with this thumb sucking business. I told the boys if I caught them sucking their thumbs they would lose whatever they were doing at the time. (Watching a movie? Movie goes off. Snuggling pillow? Pillow in time out.)

I also promised a candy bar of the their choice to anyone who went 24 hours without sucking. And a trip to the Corvette Diner when they are both completely done.

Josh and I braced ourselves. Jack has been known to be a tad bit opinionated. If he doesn't want to do something and you try to make him, expect a fight. And maybe some mean words. ("You're a jerk!" Nice.) We thought we were going to be in for it for several weeks of fighting.

Imagine our surprise when about 4 days into this Jack had stopped sucking about 80% of the time. In the car when I glance in the mirror-no thumb. Pushing him in the stroller at the zoo? No thumb! Watching a movie or reading a story-no thumb! Holy cow. I didn't expect that. I guess the thing about Jack is that if he sets his mind to something, he is stubborn enough to do it. I caught him once or twice huddled in a corner sucking and at night we find him asleep with his thumb in his mouth, so we have a little ways to go, but wow.

And Nathan, as far as I can tell is totally done. We took trips to the stores for candy bars and the Corvette Diner is in our near future.

That was easy. Way too easy. And Gramps-this post is for you. :) (Gramps is a dentist.)

Random Happiness

Here are just a few pictures of sweet moments in our life recently:

Dal insisted on me doing this to his shirt. And then he walked around like this for at least 20 minutes.

Two little astronauts playing together:

I love this. Found them laying on the floor reading a book with each other:

With me it's all or nuthin'

I have gone for 16 days now without that blessed taste of chocolate, the sweet taste of warm cookies or a nice bowl of ice cream after the boys are in bed. Josh too-we're in this together.

We decided to swear off treats for the entire month of April. And I think for some reason that has ticked off at least 3 people-not sure why. They ask "why? Why are you doing this?"

I don't know. It just seemed like the thing to do. I can't seem to eat treats in moderation. So in order to cut back, I felt like I had to go cold turkey. I felt like I needed to prove to myself that I am in control, that I can stop this addiction if I want to.

I admit, for the first few days it was hard. I had headaches and cravings. But after about 3 days, the cravings went away and I don't think about it all the time. And I feel healthy and good.

But, boy oh boy-I can't wait for May 1st! :)

Hate Speech

Words recently heard from the mouth of Dallen:

"I hate dat cup."
"No, I hate dat Mac and Cheese."
"I hate naps."
"I hate dat song."
"I hate does jammies."
"I hate dat book."
"I hate Jingle Bells."
and I might have even heard him say once "I hate dat Grandma."
Sorry, he didn't really mean it. Seems we are in a phase. :)

Mural

One week in the past month all 5 of us had either pink eye and/or strep throat, so we had many days at home together. The strep wasn't fun, but pink eye is my favorite sort of sickness because no one really feels sick, they just can't go to school, so we get to play!

One of those days while we were all at home and getting a little restless, I broke out the newsprint paper and we created a mural. The deal was that everyone got to draw whatever they wanted and we would all work together to create this masterpiece. Nathan was so excited by this and literally spent hours working. Here is some of his/our work:

Some of you were even featured in Nathan's artwork:
Grandma P.

Granny:

Grandma A (you are standing on the sun-hence the red face and "ouch")

Cousin in Law Sam with the Carebears (they were drawn by me. Did I mention I have mad skills at drawing! :)

Forgive me

Yes, my loyal blog reader, I realize it has been nearly a month since I blogged. And I apologize. I don't know why I haven't written. Perhaps it is the huge pile of books that I had requested from the library that all became available at the same time. And two of them were over 400 pages and REALLY good, so I have been reading... a lot. (At least a lot for a mom.)

Or perhaps it is that I was called to be YW President which as my mom said "is a doozie" and already takes up quite a bit of my time. But forgive me and I promise a string of posts, one each day for several days. And lots of pictures. The first of these promised posts below.

Which holiday?

Some fun holiday pictures for your looking enjoyment. But which holiday is this?

Costume, pumpkin, but why is Amber posting pictures of Halloween in April?
Why is Jack's pumpkin filled with eggs? (By the way, he is not in fact grouchy or sad in this picture, this is his version of a posed smile.)

I promise you, we do not have our holidays mixed up. Well, Josh and I don't anyway, the boys might. We took them to the ward Christmas party in their Halloween costumes (because they are red and green-we have to be festive don't we?), we took them Easter egg hunting with their pumpkin buckets, hey, at least our kids can never complain that we squelched their sense of individuality and creativity. We just go with the flow.

Anyway, a family in our ward invited us over for an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday afternoon and the boys loved it. This was Dal's first experience finding eggs and he was a pro!

And he liked the chocolate: