Seriously, So Cute

I find myself saying these words to my baby ALL DAY LONG. My baby is seriously SO CUTE! In a life of major chaos (aka five kids), Eli is my anchor through the day. He helps me remember to just be happy. He helps me remember how much I love all of my children. (It helps that he can't talk back yet, and that he never has to reminded to get working on his homework!)



I pick him up, or just get close enough for him to see me, and his face lights up and the whole room lights up with happiness. His smile is so contageous.

When he smiles, everything around me seems to slow down. The business of everyday life changes to a moment worth savoring, and the stress of the previous moments just slips away. I realize that my children are the most important task at hand, and that there really isn't anything else I want to be spending my time on. I understand the innocence of my children and want to help fix the little mistakes that happen intead of being upset with them or wanting to hand out punnishments. Eli, you have saved your siblings from the wrath of Mom more than once!

I have delayed putting pictures of him on my blog because my humble photography skills just can't do his cuteness justice! Here he is, three months old. My darling little boy.

A New President

Well, kids are smarter these days. And informed. We don't talk much about politics at our house (it makes me break out into a rash), so our kids haven't been exposed to much of it. Or so I thought. I went to vote early last week, and proudly wore my "I VOTED" sticker home. The kids don't miss a thing. Here's how one conversation went.

Jackson: Mom, why are you wearing that sticker?
Me: I voted today.
Jackson: Why?
Me: It's time to elect a new president. Of the United States. (I felt I needed to add this b/c in our house, a reference to "president" could be the president of the Church - the prophet.)
Jackson: (with a worried look) Why?? Did President Bushman die?!

On Election day, the questions and comments continued. I'm sad that I didn't write them all down cuz they were hilarious. Jordan was pretty excited about the whole thing.

Jordan: I'll be 11 next time we vote for a president.

The morning after elections, Jordan practically pops out of bed with his question:

Jordan: Who won???
Me: Obama.
Jordan: How do you know?
Me: (I show him the newspaper.)
Jordan: Oh, man! I wanted the OTHER guy!
Jackson: Me too! I wanted John McCain.
Me: You guys know who they are?
Jordan: Yeah. Most of the class wanted the other guy.

Then at dinner:

Jackson: Dad, Matthew said Obama wants EVERY day to be a school day except Sunday. Is that true?
Cannon: No. (It takes a minute to convince all the kids that they will NOT be going to school on Saturdays any time soon. Apparently, they had been pretty worried about this.)
Jackson: Tatum said Obama doesn't care if you kill babies. Is that true?
Cannon: (His eyes are popping out of head, and he sputters as he tries to come up with an answer! He never really came up with one. I filled in.)

Hmm. I think the boys are growing up fast. I'm going to have to start answering the hard questions!

Still Two

Don't you love two-year-olds? That is, when they're not driving you CRAZY! Of course, I'm always patient with Tanner. Oh, I do try, anyway!

I love his talking now. He is a little chatterbox and is so good at communicating with us. He has so much to say, but it is very difficult to understand most of it. I've got a pretty good handle on Tanner-ese, but I usually have to do the translating for other people. It's so cute when we can't understand what he's saying; he is confident that he knows what he's talking about and patiently repeats himself (over and over) until we understand him. We will guess what he's saying and he responds with a clipped, "no" or, "yeah" or,"YES!"

Last week, it took me three days to figure out that he had a new phrase for "lunch time." It didn't sound ANYTHING like "lunch time!" So I worked with him to make at least one or two of the right sounds so that we can tell what it is he's trying to say. He's adamant, though - he won't change his dubious pronunciation. I took a video: