"Nuh" For Nursery

Happy Sunday!  We got a blessing in disguise today, in that we were asked last night to substitute for Hunter's primary class at church.  So we weren't able to hang around the nursery and coddle Cambria, who has been going for a month but cries her wee eyes out if we try to leave her there.  We hoped that today she would stay without us, and that we wouldn't be chased down because of her tears.  She spent time with one of the nursery ladies on Friday night, so that likely helped her, as she cried when I left her there, but later on between classes when I peeked in the window, she was A-OK!  Hooray for small victories!

We are deliriously excited that Dean's mom and stepfather have moved up here close to us - twenty miles away is a whole lot better than 1500.  They have majorly downsized in order to live the retiree lifestyle, as David retired in December, and they can be free as birds now.  Dean took Monday off to help them move in to their new digs, and since Hunter and Kyler were off for MLK day, they got to help as well, and apparently were great workers!  Grandma D took them after school on Friday and kept them until Saturday evening, touring the retired naval destroyer in Bremerton (U.S.S. Turner Joy), eating some of their favorite foods (namely biscuits and gravy) and having all kinds of fun.  She even brought them down here on Saturday morning to attend their swim classes at the YMCA.  They are also enrolled in T/Th sports skills classes at the moment.  So today we had them over for Sunday dinner after church.  It works out nicely that they and we both attend at 9am.  My cousin who lives about midway between them and us was planning to come as well, but fell ill and had to cancel.  Dean managed to sucker his mom into playing Settlers of Catan with us.  She wasn't so sure about it, but did great and even came close to winning - she was ruthless, even against her hubby!  We are thrilled to have them up here.

Dean and I finally saw the Hobbit on Friday, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It doesn't seem quite as epic as the LOTR trilogy, but it's not far behind, either.  I could have done without the motion-sickness-inducing filming, but survived.  It's been one of my favorite stories for my whole life, and I never even read the books - just loved the cartoon movies. The books are on my "to read" list for sure.

I am three weeks into the HCG diet now, and am getting weary of it.  Mostly because I haven't been losing much weight.  Ten pounds fairly quickly, and almost nothing since.  It would be much more motivating if I could really see results every day like you're supposed to when you are meticulously following it, which most days I do.  It appeared to be stalling for several days around when I would have been ovulating, which is normal, but still just as frustrating!  So, today I lost control and decided to go ahead and eat the real lunch I had prepared for everyone.  And I enjoyed it.  I had ice cream for dessert, too, and dinner.  And more ice cream, and then my crutch of a snack - cold cereal.  If I'm going to blow it, I might as well make it good, right?  I'll probably have gained a few pounds by morning.  We shall see.  It's also frustrating that I've still been quite hungry, and fairly weak.  The ND said to up the dose if that was the case, which was helping with the hunger, but not the fatigue.

And in other news, Dean was recently released from being a cubscout den leader, which he didn't necessarily love doing, and couldn't ever get away from work early enough to get to on time...  I was released as cubscout committee chair then called as a wolf den leader.  I guess I should embrace it, as we'll have cubscouts for years to come.  We had a successful first den meeting, then pack meeting last week.

The missionaries called this evening at about 6 and wondered if they could stop by for a visit, then were over in a couple of minutes.  I asked right away if they had had dinner, and they hadn't.  So I was relieved to have some fresh and hot minestrone (with rice instead of pasta) to serve them.  We have sure enjoyed the missionaries here, and I think it's really good for the boys to see what they do and are all about.  Kyler is so peculiar in that he doesn't seem to have any self confidence - thinks he can't do anything before he even gives it a thought.  He's been saying for a while that he won't be serving a mission, and I finally pinned down that he thinks he can't because he's not yet a prolific reader (in the first grade), so since the missionaries have read things to us (that must sound hard to him) he thinks he can't do it.

It's odd because he is such a clever, intuitive child.  He is street smart, and knows how to do things.  Not to mention how charismatic, social and charming he is.  He is proficient using simple tools such as screwdrivers.  Hunter forever has his nose in a book and doesn't know much what is going on around him, and has no interest in figuring things out, but isn't afraid to try things either.  They are so different.  Grandma D says Hunter is just like Dean was as a child - always reading and quiet otherwise, except when fighting with his brother.  Dean read the dictionary and encyclopedia and books about things, rather than straight fantasy like Hunter.  It's no wonder then that Dean is a walking encyclopedia.  The man seriously knows at least something about virtually everything, and I love him for it! 

Right now Tristan is a roaring surge of testosterone.  He and Cambria play a lot together, even making up games - so cute!  But he also gets frustrated with her when she fells his block creations or whatever.  At the babysitter's the other night, she said he would grab Cambria's cheeks and squeeze and shake them out of anger.  He can also be a sweetie pie.  Cambria is awfully frisky and spends the day dismantling the house.  I can never seem to keep up with her.  She says several words now, including "nuh" for no, as in "do you want to go to bed/nursery?"  "Nuh."  She says "baaaa" for bottle, and "shoes", "sot" for socks, "no" for nose, "eye", "mou" for mouth.  She is pretty good about communicating her desires.  She even came to me first thing in the morning and said "tink" and waved at her backside.  Indeed she did stink, and needed a diaper change.  It will soon be time to teach her the way of the potty.  She is a bit interested at the moment (19 months).  She has said "Mommy" and "Daddy" for some time.  Hands down, though, she most talks about babies.  She watches for them every where and points them out, saying "bebe bebe bebe".  She loves dolls that resemble babies and cute stuffed bears.  She has no interest in dolls that resemble older girls.  She carries around her dolls and babies, and disrobes them, and even wipes their bottoms occasionally.  I love it!