A little thought on Tunnel Vision.

It's Christmas time, and that should mean joy and peace but it really means that I am freaking out. Jed is out of town, I have a party every day this weekend and one next weekend, the kids are still in school and have extra curricular activities, the car needs to be taken in for routine maintenance and the house needs to be clean before we leave. Which is soon, so I have to pack. And it is cold. SO COLD.

In the midst of all this, my baby Sam. Who is more toddler than baby and is scary smart and very active. (Translate, gets into everything). Sam is a sphere-loving fellow. Any sphere, anywhere, is a ball. Namely, a basketball. This is fine when most of the balls you see daily are actually sports balls, but enter the Christmas tree and the "basketballs" you hang on that, and well...trouble. Ours are all plastic, but other people have glass ones. He's broken two so far, so watch out if he's at your house. I'm not talking about accidentally dropping them with his clumsy baby hands. I'm talking about THROWING them with his Nolan Ryan pitching arm. I'm lining up college sports recruiters early next year.

So in an effort to get Sam to stop removing ornaments from our tree, we've done a couple things. Lamely saying "No!" and "Oh Sam, don't." Ignoring it. Gently showing him the whole ornament and how it's not really a ball, and making him put them back on the tree himself. Picking up baby and tree after the latter had fallen on the former and caused everyone to scream bloody murder. But today, today I had some inspiration. (I thought.) I would string the ornaments on a thread, and hang them garland style from the tree. That would be useful, right? If he pulled on one, he would find it attached to its mates and the tree and be foiled. My wicked little Darth Mommy brain didn't see this as "oh, it's like beading and I like to bead" or "oh, this will keep my precious little one safe from falling Christmas trees". No. I was viewing it as "HA! I WIN! I foiled you! I'm bigger and smarter! HA!". Because I'm like that.

And so I commenced my project with smugness. Sam was asleep, the boys were doing their homework, Abby was away at MADI. And I strung my ornaments on a thread. Green thread, so as to camouflage. But it was tedious work, and frustrating. It somehow became SO important that I get it done before Sam's nap was over. It somehow became so important that they be evenly spaced and perfectly alternating in color. And it was HARD! The balls were big and awkward. The thread is tiny and snappy and tangly and GAH! My hands were cold and clumsy. If I sat down on the floor, I cramped up. If I stood, I dropped everything repeatedly. I cowboy cursed because my kids were in the next room and I don't want to break my streak of not really cursing (going on 6 years now, if you only count out loud curses). "Fer cryin' out loud!" and "FREAK!" and I'm sure I was scaring my boys. I had to redo and redo the garlands because they kept sliding together or tangling up and being too short. I actually got to the point where I was having a weird kind of tunnel vision. All I could see was the ornaments and thread and the tree and I was getting dizzy.

Mike came in to do his piano practice and his pretty sounds jolted me out of my weird frenzy. I realized that I had made something small and unimportant, something that wasn't even tangential to the things I needed to do today, into the most important thing in my life and it was stupid.

I think it was an important lesson for me. Like people who get hung up on outside points of the gospel instead of clinging to the core doctrines of the Atonement, I tend to get caught up in things that aren't important and that I don't have the answers for. I need to stick with, spiritually and temporally, the things that really matter. My family, keeping order in my house, getting my kids where they need to go and what they need to know, and loving them. Being there for my friends. And not worrying about whether people like my artwork, or if I got an email, or if anyone ever reads my blog. Not getting caught up in whether I got people the best Christmas presents or if I was going to get anything, but instead working on giving the best of myself to those who need me.

Yes, things are busy and there are non-essential things, especially at this time of year, that are still important. But worrying about whether Sam is throwing plastic Christmas balls is not one of them.

Kid photos!

September and October

First Day of School!!

 

Yankee Doodle Homecoming

 

Sam's new pajamas, made by  Laurie Matthews.

Sam loves his bath!

Sam's first mural. He wasn't pleased to be caught.

Sam likes the new Ikea cabinets.

 

Sam loves his gymnastics class! He says "hop hop!" 

 

Aidan is our real gymnast! Check out these moves! 

Abigail enjoys getting dressed up for the Stake Daddy/Daughter dance! She's getting very grown up and lovely.

Funny Sam!

Sam loves to entertain us and make us laugh. This was his own invention, not something he copied from others! He is not only funny, but smart.

Sam Sings!

After dinner tonight, we sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to Sam while he did the hand motions. When we asked him to sing, he did his own version of the song! What a riot! We love that smart little man.

The deed is done.

I finally cut Sam's hair. It went from being adorable Who-hair to being unruly and floppy...and when a lady in the doctor's office pointed to Sam and asked how old my little girl was, I knew it was time. He's still as darling as ever, but now he looks much more toddler than baby. Made me kinda sad.

Mommy's Little Sidekick

All the Whos down in Whoville, no matter how small, thought Sam Hyrum Who had the best hair of all.

Abby's Concert!

We had a pleasant surprise this week from Abigail. Her end-of-the-year concert was on Wednesday, in which she was to play her recorder with the other third graders. However, because she had been doing so well in her violin practices, her teacher, Julia Harmon, let her play with the 4th grade string group as well! Abigail did fantastically, she really sounded wonderful. The concert was lots of fun. Best of all, since it was this week just before Michael's baptism, my parents were here to hear Abby play! It was a great day.
Here's a video of her playing: Abigail's Concert.

Featured! :D

You may have noticed the new Etsy installment on the left side of this blog, or you may have been spammed by me about my Etsy shop on Facebook. If you haven't been bombarded with ads for my new Etsy shop yet, well....consider it done!! I have begun to put my handmade artwork up on Etsy. I'm sure lots of you have gotten my jewelry or notecards for Christmas or birthdays, but after all that practice, my work has improved and I'm ready to sell!

Most awesome of all, a very kind lady contacted me about featuring one of my product lines on her blog. Erin Schuler of  The Schuler Family Blog did a photoshoot of my jeweled bookmarks and posted the feature here: 

http://www.theschulerfamily.net/2010/05/whats-in-your-hands.html

So awesome! Her blog is beautiful too, she's got lots of lovely photos and past posts about other terrific artists.  Best of all, she's giving one of my bookmarks away, so head over and follow her instructions, comment on her blog so you can get your entry in to win this:

Sam!

Sam doesn't like pants.

Sam does like baths.

Sam does like Cheerios.

Sam doesn't like people photographing him while eating.

Sam loves to swing.

Sam hates being left out at gymnastics class.

(That's Aidan on the high bar! :D)

Most of all, Sam loves computer mice!!!

Sam has quite a large vocabulary for a 10-month-old. Every day he surprises us. He can say:

Mama, Daddy, yeah, wow, book, Booth (yes, he watches Bones with me), uh-oh, okay, hi, buh-bye, cheese, sheep, baa-baa (what a sheep says), ball, more, yum, yuck, and when he pulls your hair, he says OW!

Sam signs too. He tells us with his hands when he wants to eat, have milk, get more, and my personal favorite, "change". I love having the guesswork taken out of diapering. 

Sam isn't walking alone yet, but he's getting very brave. He lets go and stands on his own a lot now, and cruises everything. He climbs up stairs (and falls down them, all the way down), climbs onto the couch using diaper bags for steps, and tries to climb out of his walker. His favorite games are chasing Abby, Mike and Aidan and pulling their hair; getting the computer mouse away from the current user, and let's pull all the clean socks out of the sock basket. Needless to say, we're constantly on our toes around here!