Up, Down, Up, Down.....

James has figured out how to climb onto the couch and, more importantly, how to get down from the couch. He's developed his own routine around this new talent. He climbs on the couch, crawls really fast back and forth on it, climbs off, spins in circles in the middle of the room (until he falls down), and repeats the sequence.

James did take a few breaks from his exercise. Daniel was watching the presidential address and James would stop to clap with the the congressmen during the pauses.


He is growing up so fast!

The Week Before Valentine's

Daniel really treated me well the week before Valentine's Day. He had dinner ready every night by the time I got home. I was treated to delicious pizza, stewed vegetables, curried chicken, white chicken chili, and pasta primavera. Yummm.....

I took a picture of the pizza it looked so good. The other days I was too hungry to remember the camera but they looked equally good.

Considering all that he had done for me I did not expect anything more for Valentine's Day itself. To tell the truth, I forgot that it was Valentine's Day when it finally came around. Around midday I took a much needed nap and I awoke certain that Valentine's had been the day before. Happily, I fixed a nice dinner (grilled chicken wraps with rice) for Daniel that night, so when he came home from the temple bearing gifts, I wasn't caught totally unprepared.

He had gotten roses and some delicious chocolate mousse from a cafe near the Manhattan Temple. Although one of them jumped from his hand when he came into the living room, its taste wasn't in the least affected. (You can see it hiding under the corner of the couch still in it's cup.)

In other news, that was also the week Daniel figured out how to hang our TV on the wall of the living room... by himself. Another tribute to his manliness.

This is a lot more convenient for keeping James penned in when we want to watch something and better for entertaining guests, although I think it looks sort of funny right above the piano.

Soon after moving the TV, Daniel hooked up the Wii and we played some MarioKart, which was fun for everyone. James spent his time trying to get the remotes from us and we spent the time trying to avoid his atttempts and still win.

Piano

Last year Daniel and his parents got me a piano. It has been a wonderful gift. I play it almost every day and realized recently that I am better than I was a year ago. I can now play most of the hymns and songs from the Children's Songbook. In addition to this, I have been learning the first five classical pieces from the book that came with the piano. The piano has these pieces in its memory so I can listen as I play and see where I need work. I listen, learn, and slowly it all comes together. (This has been invaluable to me because I never learned how to count and am not sure what all the different note squiqqlies mean.)

My piano practice is also one of the few things that James doesn't mind me doing without him. He usually plays a few notes with me and then toddles around the room crooning with the music and exploring under the couch. He feels I'm making music to accompany his play and I get to do something I enjoy. It's a win-win situation. I hope he is subconsiously learning the way notes go together and that it will help him when I try to teach him piano later on.

I wanted to share my musical happiness, so I thought I would put it on the blog and dedicate it to Daniel, and Mom & Dad Howell. Thank you for the piano!

P.S. This is the shortened version of the song since I didn't want to put a really long video on here. I hope no one minds.:)

Winter Emergency Survival

Last weekend, the scouts and I went on a winter camp out. We were originally scheduled to go to the Klondike Dirby, but since they wanted only ex-marines to attend in terms of skills, we didn't qualify. So we decided to make our boys men in our own way.


We got a cabin up at camp No Be Bo Sco to serve as our base camp. But since the purpose of this trip was to survive, we had the scouts immediately start building emergency snow shelters when we arrived that night.


This scout is piling snow onto his shelter because it is an excellent insulator. The outdoor temperature got down to about 10 degrees overnight. But under several inches of snow, the temperature didn't drop much below 30 degrees. That is a big difference that your body can appreciate. One scout was so comfortable, he overslept.


In the morning we had breakfast and then started on our orienteering hike. We went straight up a 400 foot slope to intersect the Appalachian trail up in the Delaware Water Gap. The climb was tiring. The scouts dragged their feet almost the entire 2.5 miles back to the cabin. Every time we stopped to look at our maps, they would all flop in the snow and lazily lob snowballs at each other and hoped they wouldn't have to move to avoid being hit by them.


This was the view from the trail. At the base of this slope was our cabin. When we got back we had a leaders versus scouts snow ball fight. The spent a while building a rather impressive fortress from which to launch their barrage of snowballs. But when we arrived, the other leaders and I split up, out-flanked them, and stormed their fortress from higher ground in a matter of minutes. It was a lot of fun.

This was the general condition of the scouts on the drive back. Mission accomplished. We now have some real men in the troop.

Back to Normal

James is back to his normal happy self. We are extremely happy to have him restored to health.

He had roseola, a virus which leads to a rosy rash all over the neck and trunk once the fever has broken. I'm glad it was that, as to begin with we thought he'd developed an allergy to something he'd eaten.

Hooray for health!

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Sick

On Sunday James exploded out his diaper on Dan. (Ewwwww! Dan gets extra manliness points for bearing up well under the onslaught, getting home quickly, getting his clothes soaking, and starting dinner before I got home. Wow!)

Since his Sunday episode, James has been having tummy troubles. He has had a fever and is not his usual happy self. He prefers to spend most of his day in a lap. He's been lethargic and it is just pitiful.

We are praying our little man will get back to normal soon. He does seem a little better today but we are sure he could use your prayers too. Thanks.

Holy Guacamole

Before I left to run some errands, my wife said that she wasn't going to eat the last two avocados. Later, when I got home, I noticed that Charity had made me some guacamole and put it in the fridge. In my bliss, I tore open a bag of tortilla chips and took a nice heaping dollop of green goodness. I thought it tasted rather sweet and assumed that she forgot to add the seasonings. As I reached for a salt shaker I realized what had just happened. I should have been clued in by the confused look James was giving me, as I was actually eating his puréed peas. The lesson I learned: Puréed peas and guacamole actually look and taste nothing like each other upon close examination.

So, now I had an open bag of chips to go along with a hungry son who felt betrayed. The solution: I just have to make my favorite guacamole recipe and share it with James.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, salt, onion, and garlic. Serve immediately. That's it. Nada mas. The taste will surpass anything in a jar. At least, it's guaranteed to be better than peas. And James likes it too.