January + some 2021

February 7, 2021

Greyson has been extra clingy lately, wanting to be held almost all the time and throwing some spectacular fits. We aren’t sure what it all means. It may be related to his taking a few backsteps related to potty training this week. That said he also continues to do extremely cute things. The other evening he was showing us his “famous face” which was this sort of pathetically dejected look. He also ripped off all of his clothes and was running back and forth playing some kind of game. He ran so much his cheeks turned red! He has made a new habit of building “Mount Krumpet” out of laundry whenever Kassie is pulling a new clean batch out for folding. This week he has been coming into the office much more regularly to ask to sit on my lap, which can be both cute and frustrating.

Eating around block towers

Addie had her parent-teacher conference this week and she seems to be doing well in school, having progressed a lot in her writing and math which is great. She struggles with another girl in the class who is very loud and physically close whereas Addie is quiet and prefers space and stillness. But they get along lots of the time too. She is really getting into the Junie B. Jones series and often wants to imagine together that she is Junie B Jones. She is growing out of many of her clothes and Kassie finished making her a new nightgown which she absolutely adores ("No scratchy tags!"). She and I went on a date to the Butterfly Biosphere on Saturday. She was gleeful and excited, jumping around with delight at the butterflies and eager to see the next great thing. We had some ice cream together and she ended up liking my cheap “twist” soft serve more than her fancy Candy Sundae. Funny how that works sometimes!

 

Butterfly Biosphere with Addie

Hinckley got a big batch of books from the library this week and read 4 of them in one day. It is hard to know how well he is comprehending them...but he claims to "understand" and clearly enjoys reading them. We are considering hiding library books and revealing a new one each day so they can last a little longer before the dreaded "what can I do?!" pining begins. To my delight during one of those moments of his begging for ideas, he actually took up my suggestion to write a version of The Christmas Carol, with his Blobby (the left one) as Scrooge and his various stuffed animals taking on roles of the rest of Dickens classic. I think he is about halfway through with that.


At work, things have really picked up and I've got a lot on my plate which is good though it limits my ability to do other things like visits with all of you throughout the week and host podcasting conversations. I've got to get my stuff scheduled really tightly in order to keep up some degree of these things! I'm learning how to be a manager and a contributor to the work as I now manage two very talented and driven individuals and have also been asked to create a roadmap for what our team will accomplish in 2021. This week my podcast got two "Patrons", essentially people who have subscribed to my podcast for a $3 monthly fee as a token of support and encouragement. That was really exciting for me! I had a wonderful Birthday outing on Saturday getting a haircut and having some alone time at the BYU Museum of Art. Next to going up into the mountains, I feel like that is the best alternative to the temple and I had a very transcending experience there.

January 31, 2021

Greyson is in full-blown pearler bead obsession mode right now, often sitting for one or more hours to put the little beads on the small pattern plates. He is also loving his bowling set he got for his birthday and is constantly asking, “Want to bowl with me? Ok?” He had a fun birthday complete with a Thomas the Train cake Kassie made and lots of excitement and presents. He is pretty well potty trained and filled up his sticker chart which earned him a special forklift truck he has been fawning over these past few days. He and I had a fun date at the Curiosity Museum along with a T-Rex Sundae afterward.

T-Rex Sundae

The "digger"

Hinckley used his own money to buy a new Perplexus which provided a few hours of engagement for him this week - so nice! He is getting a big kick out of that. The dirt thawed enough for him to do some digging out in our no-man's land portion of the yard. He just LOVES that. And Addie loves drawing various forms of Elsa and Anna, usually following along with a YouTube video. Her room walls are covered in her artwork and it is quite cute. 

Art time

Pearler bead obsession

Birthday boy

Birthday cake for the 3 year old!

Two missing teeth! 

Reading on the top bunk

Honeybee has been gone officially for one week and the kids have dealt with it quite well. All in all a good learning experience despite the difficulty. It was a tough decision but after she had begun to be more aggressive with the kids (especially Addie) we decided to give her back to the breeder. 

I had some fulfilling podcast conversations this week and am eager to get those published in February. Also, I spent a lot of time preparing for the 5th Sunday lesson which I gave today. Feels good to have that over with! 

January 17, 2021

This week Greyson started potty training (Saturday). Kassie hosted a big family "potty party" with lots of orange juice, hot chocolate, water, treats, movies from the library, and more. The older kids were especially excited for the event given they had minimal contribution with maximum reward. So far it has been two steps forward and two steps back, with Day 1 going relatively well and Day 2 a full "blown" bust (3 solid accidents in the pants). Kassie is reviewing the battle plans and alternating tactics going into Day 3, and the rest of the family is recommitting ourselves to doing our part to help as well. Greyson is developing new expressions. This week it was "tell me about it". He continues to freak out when he is emotional and begs us to "wipe my tears!" and "give me a kiss!" It is very cute. He also has become quite chatty when he is excited about a thing, holding his hand to his hips or tightening up his shoulders. He, Hinckley, and I went to play some basketball during Addie's music lesson this week and he had a blast running around hooping the hoop. Hinck had a good time too and was excited to get it in the 10ft net a few times. 

Hinckley in the "snow cave" near Aspen Grove

Entertaining grandparents

Discovery Park tire swing

Addie's depiction of "Martin" (MLK Jr). 
"I learned about Martin" is what she wrote

Hinckley and I went up past Aspen Grove to play in the snow for our January date. I'm evaluating whether we will invest in teaching our kids to ski or save for retirement...ski ticket prices aren't getting any less. We had so much fun though just romping around in the snow and exploring the woods. We got donuts on our way back and had some good conversations. He's grown thoughtful about things like the 2nd coming and the celestial kingdom and gets especially tender right near bedtime.


Addie lost one of her large front teeth this week which coincided with the worst of her ear "confection" agony. She was quite the sight as she suffered from a mild fever and ear pain as she tugged on the tooth gently. Luckily it came out in the night and she didn't choke on it as she feared, and after the "yummy candy medicine" did the job she was back to her relatively cheery self for the bulk of this week. She had a dramatic and contentious playdate that ended with mutual positive feelings for all parties involved, including a tag-team Elsa Ninja attack on me during one of my work meetings haha. We enjoyed having Nana and Grandpa along with Grandpa H here this evening and Addie did some dances for them. She was sort of overwhelmed with happiness by the barrage of compliments Grandpa H showered on her :) She whispered to me, "I love all of Grandpa Halvorsen's compliments" after he kept asking her over and over again where she learned to dance like that. He sure has a way of brightening the world, even as he loses his memory he had us all smiling. It is also inspiring to see the loving care Mom and Dad provide him.

January 10, 2021
Other than a brief skirmish about masks the kids returned to the school routine without too much difficulty. I enjoyed going to music class this week with Hinckley in the late afternoon, especially the conversation in the car. I’ve noticed that he is usually silent and thinking when we drive together, but sometimes he is full of questions and things he wants to talk about. He wanted to tell me that he reserved a book about Christopher Columbus and that led to conversations about the world being flat and eventually to “where does God come from” and having our minds broken by thinking of the vastness of the universe and how little we actually know. I love those kinds of conversations. He went with me on a couple of walks with Honeybee this week so we could "talk about Minecraft" and he chatted away with great enthusiasm. We found a dead snake that had been there for a long time and he picked it up with a stick to take home to put in a jar. Yuck!

Hinckley gives his "Minecraft Smile"

Pushing the limits of the marble track

Butterfly Atrium at T-Point

Addie came down with an ear infection this week and missed some school and had a couple of hard nights. She was both sad and happy to miss school, depends on her mood when you ask her about how she feels on the subject. After her first day back at school she ran up to my office to give me a hug, "I missed you Daddy!" We watched Megamind for the monthly "Movies with Dad" with all the kids which she kept saying how much she loved. She continues to get into her teasing moods during the witching hour (4-5) and it drives me and Hinckley bonkers. I'm continuing to prototype solutions with her and found recently that wrapping her up in a blanket like a burrito helps on occasion. She is also enjoying Junie B Jones books and frequently wants us to read those to her so that is good. Despite her sickness she and Kassie were able to participate virtually for her music class this week which she always really enjoys.

Greyson has been enjoying his trucks and getting reactions from everyone whenever he can elicit them. He's started a new routine at night where he'll sneak out of bed and go dim the digits on Hinckley's alarm clock, and then run back to his bed giggling to himself. He also likes throwing punches at Honeybee or screaming his head off when she comes within 6 feet of him. He enjoyed some alone time with Mom thanks to his older siblings being gone as school and frequently asks in a whispered eager voice, "We going to Target to get candy?"