Words, Words, Words

You'd think that with my 5th child I wouldn't be amazed at how well and how many words he says. Especially when all of my children have been good talkers. Sure, I've had more than one amaze people in nursery when we've gone to pick them up and they start chatting because they don't say a single word while we're gone, but they really have all been good talkers. Back in November when Dylan had his last echo, his cardiologist asked how many words he says. We made a quick guess because we hadn't counted at that point. Russ guessed between 20 and 30 words. I thought it was closer to about 15. And you know what? I still couldn't tell you exactly how many words he says. He does sometimes say a complete sentence though. Lately he likes to say, "I wanna go!" No, he doesn't care where, he just wants to go for a ride or go outside and play.

I couldn't help yesterday but smile when we were at our special Stake Conference with Elder Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Russ had given Dylan a piece of paper and a couple of crayons and he happily sang (for a good part of the meeting, I might add), "Color, color, color!" Yes, I know that we have said we are keeping Dylan home from church and things during the winter to try to keep him from getting sick. Besides the fact that he still catches everything, neither of us wanted to miss this meeting so we decided to take him yesterday. A bit selfish of us, I know.

In fact, Dylan is getting to be a toad when it comes to coloring. He will find a crayon and color on whatever surface is nearby. Including the tablecloth, the dishwasher, the fridge and the cabinets. One time I found him crouched under the bench for our organ coloring the underside. He got mad when I didn't let him color on the computer screen. But he's the happiest toad as he's doing it. And happily singing like he did yesterday. He makes me laugh though. If he gets a piece of paper, he will take it and lay down on the floor to color on it. Here's a picture of him doing it. No, I still haven't found my camera so this was taken with my cell phone, hence the poor quality.

Jimmy's Science Fair Project

I realize that I haven't posted in a while. Just really haven't had anything to post about. Unless I wanted to complain about realizing I'm not as young and in shape as I used to be each time I get on the treadmill.

Today is the school's Science Fair. Most of the month of December Jimmy would tell us that he needed the plants for his project since the science fair was toward the end of January. Silly thinking on my part, but I assumed he was wrong and the science fair was toward the end of February. Luckily we finally took him and got the plants he wanted. He decided to get three plants and use one for a control and the other two he would talk to and measure their growth to see if the talking actually had any effect on them. One of the two he would say only positive things and the other he would say only negative. He also made sure that when they needed watering, he always watered the same amount to each plant and watered them at the same time. Knowing that even indoor plants tend to go dormant during the winter months, I worried that he wouldn't see any results.

Being a family of procrastinators (for the most part), we waited until last night after dinner to even go buy Jimmy the display board for his project and get putting it together. Which meant we were up a bit past bedtime getting it done. Surprisingly, the girls actually fell asleep earlier last night than they usually do so it made it a little easier.

Russ helped Jimmy measure the plants when he first got them and again last night to show the final results. After measuring them, Jimmy came up to me convinced the project had failed. I asked him if there were any changes in height this time. He said that yes, the one he talked negatively to had gotten shorter, so surely it had failed. Asked him about the other two. He told me that the control stayed the same and the one he talked positively to had grown a little. I told him that those all showed results. I think he got more excited about that project than he had at any other point as he worked on it.

Jimmy then typed up all of the information for each plant and his hypothesis and conclusion and printed them up along with photos of each plant. Apparently they didn't want them to bring anything other than the display boards, so he did need the pictures of the plants. Still not having found my camera, we took pictures with Russ' cellphone and sent them to the computer so he could print them up.

I thought his board turned out well. Especially considering the late start we got working on it last night. I did help him a little with it, but my help mostly consisted of reminding him which information he needed to show and cutting out the pictures and things and helping him glue them on the board. He really did the work for it.

The open house for the Science Fair is tonight. They will give awards there. I won't be sad if Jimmy doesn't get an award for his project. I just hope that he gets a decent grade on it.

I find it interesting to think of the results he found even in a shorter time than he would have liked to work on it. These are plants. They aren't self-aware like we are. Yet the one he said negative things to actually got smaller. Makes me think of the effects negative and positive words have on each of us.

Along the same lines of Jimmy stuff, Jimmy told me yesterday that he moved up to a higher math class yesterday and they took a spelling test in his class and he was the only one who would have gotten a 3 on it (3 basically being an "A"). He said everyone else would have gotten 1's, so his teacher didn't record the scores and they will do it again. He also was one of the two fastest typists in computers.

Belated Christmas Post

About a week before Christmas I told Jimmy how I remember Christmas morning as a child. We would line up in the hall at a bright and early hour and wait for the okay to all rush into the living room where Santa always had lots of presents for us. The order of the line changed every year to try to keep it fair. Of course, the one who was sick that year was the one who got to go first. Jimmy asked me what happened if more than one person happened to be sick that year. I gave him the only answer I knew: I don't know. I should have known that I had just cursed my family.

A few days before Christmas, I noticed that Lyssa looked a bit flushed and her eyes looked bright red. Soon thereafter Molly and Emma also had the bright red eyes. All three had what I fondly term "eye boogers" and I knew conjunctivitis had invaded. And so the day before Christmas Eve I ended up at the doctor's office with the three girls to get the needed eye drops. I asked how long I should consider them being contagious. The nurse told me that as long as their eyes looked goopy.

Every year on Christmas Eve we get together with Russ' family for food, presents, and a program. That morning Russ was in a bit of a bad mood. Not only did the girls still have eye boogers, but Dylan now had some. Plus Russ said his eyes felt itchy and he was a bit coldy. So it ended up that Jimmy and I were the only ones who were able to make it to the party. Which really made it easy for me, but I would have preferred it if everyone had been able to go. The girl's eyes really did look much better by the time I got home from the party. So there was hope for Christmas day. Especially the way Jimmy was constantly washing his hands to try to avoid getting it.

Christmas morning arrived and the kids were happy to see the stash from Santa and seemed to like all of their gifts. The only remaining gifts were to my parents, whom we planned to visit that afternoon. Russ and I worked on putting together the treadmill he got me for Christmas when Jimmy came out of his room with a grunt and his shirt pulled up over his face. Yes, despite all of his hand washing (and sanitizing everything with Lysol), he got it. So again I was the one to go while Russ stayed home with Jimmy. Only this time the girls and Dylan were able to go with me.

We didn't stay all that long because Dylan didn't get a nap and was cranky. At one point he tried to get me to stand up and kept saying, "Go!"

At least we were generally well for New Year's.

Yes, I know I have no pictures with this post. I did take a few. And then couldn't remember where I put the camera. Then I found it and set it somewhere so I would remember where it was. Yeah, I shouldn't do that. Once again, I can't remember where I moved it to.