Easter 2011

I was bummed about Easter this year, but I'm over it. We stayed up WAY too late the night before (4 a.m. - Ray was making me watch The Ten Commandments because I slept through all 4 hours of it in film history class). So, come Easter morning, we slept in too late and woke up with only 15 minutes to look at what the Easter bunny brought and find all the eggs he hid. So I didn't get pictures of any of that. I was too dead set on getting to church, as it would certainly be an amazing service - it being Easter and all. No breakfast or lunch and a lot of hurrying, we got to our 1:00 church.
It was one of the most boring services that I can remember in a long time. The guy behind us was snoring so loud the whole time, that I usually couldn't even hear what was being said. Don't know where his wife was or why his kids didn't think to wake him up. The guy in front of me was also sleeping, and he kept falling lower and lower in his chair. So all I could think of all during Sacrament, besides how angry I was at the snoring guy behind me, was whether I should try to catch the sleeping guy in front of me before he falls on the floor or if I should wait until after and do first aid. It was awful. Sunday School wasn't any better - I actually fell asleep myself. Hopefully I wasn't snoring. Relief Society was equally dull. No Easter lessons or anything. I should have stayed home and finished watching The Ten Commandments, would have been more enlightening. We got home and Ray was asleep and I couldn't wake him up. Why bother with a nice Easter meal for me and the kids? So we ate hot dogs. At 9:00 at night, we finally got around to coloring eggs. The kids enjoyed it. It was just a total bummer of a day.

Cayden

We took Cayden to a social worker that specializes in children (Elaine).  I didn’t want to make her bias in any way, so I didn’t tell her my internet diagnosis of selective mutism.  At the end of his first appointment she did say that he’s got an anxiety disorder (which selective mutism is).  After she said that, I told her about what I’d been reading and she agreed with me. 

His second session went very well (at least from what I hear).  Elaine wanted to have the session alone with him, but Ray’s not comfortable with that.  Apparently someone he knew in Alabama had their kid taken away because of a therapist.  Ray told Elaine that “you guys know how to manipulate questions”.  (No, I wasn’t shocked at this – he already told her in the first session that he didn’t like therapists and didn’t trust her.  She took it well and is just working to gain that trust.)  Whatever. So Elaine agreed that we could just sit in the room and she’d tell Cayden to pretend we were flies on the wall.  You can’t talk to flies, and most the time you don’t even notice they’re around.

I’m starting to think therapists put peppery spray in their office or something to make my eyes water.  J  I don’t know what it is about sitting there in that stupid chair, but I can’t handle it.  Not 2 minutes in to Elaine asking Cayden questions about how he felt and I couldn’t keep it together.  So I quietly excused myself and sat in the waiting room.  Turns out he opened up to her a lot and didn’t stop talking the whole 45 minutes.  We learned he’s afraid of his teacher because she yells at the class (although he says she has never yelled at him).  More disturbing, we learned that at the beginning of the year, he accidently spilled his milk at lunch and it got on a kid in his class.  During recess, that kid pushed him down to the ground, was kneeling over him and about to punch him in the face.  Luckily the monitor came over and stopped it before he was hurt.  But why didn’t I ever hear about this?  I’m guessing his teacher doesn’t know about it either. 

Our homework is to meet with Cayden’s teacher and Cayden is going to tell her about the boy that was going to beat him up.  And he’s going to tell her what would make him feel safer in class.  Elaine told him to just remember how he felt talking with her (not a big deal) and that he can talk to his teacher the same way.  We’ll see.

Zoo with Oscar

We have learned that the absolute best time to go to the zoo is right when they open at 9:00 in the morning. We wondered if the last time might have just been a fluke, but it wasn't. All of the animals are either eating their breakfast or just finished eating. They're all out and playing. And the zoo is basically emty of humans so you never have to fight to see the animals or worry about your kids getting lost if they wander more than a foot away from you. We love it! Cayden made a friend at school that he just can't get enough of. He is always either playing with Oscar or talking about Oscar. So we brought Oscar to the zoo with us. Cayden loves the fact that they moved here from Mexico. He kept making Oscar say things in Spanish and then he'd try to say it and Oscar would tell him he wasn't even close. It was pretty funny. Oh, and Oscar told Cayden that chihuahuas are Mexican and they understand Spanish. So now Cayden makes Oscar talk to Coby and Chica in Spanish when he comes over.

The gorillas always make me smile. How is it comfortable to lay like this? And the camel? It was just staying like that. How could kneeling on one hoof for a long time be comfortable?

This tiger is convinced he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. As he sat here and then as he got out of the water, you could tell he is a cocky little monster. There were 5 tigers out and about playing right were we could see them. Such amazing animals!


The kids absolutely love the train!

And the carousel!

I love Zuri the baby elephant. I want one.

This is the first time I've seen the wolves this close. Usually you see them deep in their pen laying around.

Linx on the left. Leapard on the right.

I LOVE ANIMALS!!!

Growing Kitty

Kitty turned 16 weeks old yesterday. She cracks me up every single day. Even when she's being a pest it makes me laugh. I'm happy to have her around. She weighs in at 47 pounds (which is smaller than her brothers and sisters who are all over 60 pounds).

When we got her 8 weeks ago, I bought a used kennel for house training and also keeping her safe when we couldn't or didn't want to be with her. I didn't want to buy a huge one that she would just use half for the bathroom and the other half for sleeping. So I bought the used one knowing in a few weeks I'd be upgrading. Worked like a charm because I ended up selling the smaller one for more than I paid for it (have I mentioned how much I love KSL classifieds?). I decided she is house trained enough and big enough that we'll go ahead and get the big doozy kennel. I watched KSL several times a day and got one at an amazing price. I saw the dimensions before I bought it. I even used a ruler to make a kennel out of air to see how big it would be (wanting to make sure it was big enough!). Nothing could have prepared me for the size of this thing!!!

I think this qualifies as an extra bedroom in our house. Kid picture is to give you an idea of the size. Notice the nice soft bed we bought for her. Memory foam on top and sides, and an extra egg shell cusion on the bottom. Bed for a princess. For the night it lasted. While I was at work the next day she ripped the zipper and flung memory foam chucks all through the kitchen. I was content to let her sleep without a bed. Ray wasn't, so he bought her a cheaper (and more sturdy) one at Walmart. A few nights ago, I was in the living room watching tv and I hear all kinds of rucous. I hear Kitty banging into the wire kennel and her bed fabric making a bunch of noise. I figured she was chewing up her bed but the noise stopped before I mustered the motivation to go see what she was doing. So I didn't worry about it. When it was time for bed, I went in the kitchen to turn off the lights and this is what I found. The noise was her moving her bed into a more comfortable position. Apparently she likes the pillow effect for her head. I wonder if that's why she chewed up her other bed - it didn't bed cause it was so big and fluffy and firm with the memory foam. Dumby. But isn't she a doll!?!?!

She is a sweet "little" thing and doesn't mind being outside at all. She'll stand at the door for a while but if I don't let her in, she finds herself a nice spot on the grass and makes herself comfy.

Only problem is that she's been left out in the cold (literally) because of her lack of whining and barking. I fell asleep on the couch last night (while she was chilling - literally - outside. For those in Utah, you know it was a pretty cold night. I woke up at 3:00 this morning and realized her kennel was empty. I opened the door to the back yard and she had found a corner spot to block the wind and was curled up in a little tiny ball with her head tucked in. I felt awful as I noticed her water bowl was frozen and she had ice crystals on her back. Had she whined or barked or scratched at the door I would have woken up and let her in. Put I'm glad she's so sweet.

She doesn't appreciate being woken up. This is what she does every single stinkin' time I open her kennel. No matter what. We try coaxing her with food, toys, playing, and nothing. She lays there for several minutes just staring at us. Then she scoots her front paws out just enough to be saying, "Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming" but still continues to give us this look. And then, EVENTUALLY, she'll stand up casually, stretch like there's no tomorrow and wander out just as slow as humanly (or caninely) possible. It cracks me up and makes me want to just crawl in there with her and lay down.

Coby and Chica don't like Kitty. They are still terrified of her. Not sure how we're going to solve the problem yet. Chica is very vocal (even when you just pick her up she howls like you hurt her). Coby isn't vocal and just freezes. So, whenever Kitty goes near Chica she starts crying like Kitty bit her leg off. Whenever Kitty goes near Coby he just freezes and hopes if he doesn't move she'll go away (fat chance).

Kitty was off playing the other day when Coby thought it would be fun to go sniffing around inside her kennel. It didn't take her long to come back and find him there. She didn't do anything to hurt him, just went inside and layed down, looking at him. I'm surprised Coby didn't have a full on heart attack at 5 years old. Kitty, of course, didn't understand why he was just standing there. She reached her paw out and set it on his back. Don't ask me why, I don't speak to dogs. And she just kept it there. Long enough for me to get in my purse, get my camera, take a few pictures, and then some. The picture on the right is when I called her name, trying to get her to come out so Coby could escape. Yeah right. As I've mentioned, she doesn't come out when a weird little rat dog ISN'T in her kennel. What made me think she'd come out when he WAS? I love her look, like, "What mom?" I put the camera back in its case, back in my purse, and then went in and rescued Coby from the mean ol' monster Kitty.

Huckleberry Finn

Can you guess who this puppet is? Oh wait, I told you in the title.

For Cayden's February book report he had to read a folklore or classic book. Since I don't know how to search for folklore at the library and since Ray already bought him Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer about a year ago, he decided on Huck Finn. After reading the book, students had to make a puppet and then give a 5 minute presentation about the character in first person (using the puppet).

It would have been a good idea for me to read the book too, but I didn't. Why did I never read this classic growing up? So I turned to the all-amazing-and-life-saving Google to help Cayden with his book report. I left out details about how Huck Finn is a metaphor for this and that, blah, blah, blah.

I guess he did well on his presentation because he got full credit. I hate book reports!!! In fact, I'm counting down the months of school so we don't have to do any more!!! But I won't ever tell the kids that.

Happy Birthday Cayden

I can't believe my litter Cayderbug is 10 years old! It's cliche, but they really do grow up so fast! I don't know where all the time went!

Thankfully, Cayden's taste in cake is $20 cheaper than Chris's. He wanted the tank cake (the tank is a transformer toy). But he also saw things in the baking aisle a couple months ago and reminds me every time we're at Walmart that he wants it on his birthday cake. Hence the Happy Birthday balloon candles and the number 10. He also wanted those hard icing decoration thingies, but there just wasn't room for them on the cake, so Ray bought them for the kids to just eat.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ray's been working at a different Wal-Mart (Cedar Hills) for the last couple weeks, filling in for a manager there that had to be out. He was supposed to be there for 3 weeks. Last night, the boys and I waited for Ray to go to work then we went to his regular Wal-Mart (American Fork) to buy supplies and then we were going to head up to Cedar Hills and decorate his car. We made a stop in the snack aisle to get Cayden treats to take to his class today for his birthday. All of a sudden, Ray comes walking by! What the!?!?!? Turns out the manager in Cedar Hills came back to work early, so he came back to work in is store. I threw the supplies on the nearest shelf behind the mayonnaise and Ray was none the wiser. After Ray left us at the register to buy Cayden's treats, I had Cayden run back and get our supplies. It worked out well because then we didn't have to drive all the way to Cedar Hills.

You can't see the conversation hearts, but there are 35 and it was hard thinking of that many clever things to write. My personal favorite was Southern Stallion. Cayden asked, "What's a stallion?" I told him it was a horse "because dad is big like a horse". Close enough.

Ray called me about it around midnight. Apparently all of his workers saw it and asked who did that to his car. They know he is very particular about his car (he parks it under the camera in the parking lot every night). He kept asking what was wrong with his car and they just kept telling him he had to go see. I was nice enough to not touch the painted part of his car (I value my life). It was cute and Ray enjoyed it. :)

Ouchie!!!

Chris and I were playing this morning. He was sitting on the bed and I was leaning over the bed. I was swinging my wet hair back and forth over my head as he tried to grab it. Recipe for disaster I realize (hindsight is 20/20). He decided to bend over and put his head next to mine just as I was swinging my head up again. We both got really nice goose eggs on our foreheads. He immediately started crying. I wanted to, but instead sat there holding my head yelling "Ow!" over and over. I wanted to come to Chris' aid, but I was in too much pain myself. Cayden came running in asking what happened. It was pathetic. It's been nearly 4 hours and I still have the worst headache ever.

Scones aka Sopapillas

For some reason I got scones in my head several weeks ago. I looked up a recipe and realized scones are actually British bisquit things. Not what I had in mind. Apparently what I have been calling "scones" all my life are actually sopapillas. The kids and I made some a couple weeks ago. They were just as good as I remember (it's been well over 10 years since I've had them). We made plain ones and put honey in them and we made sugar coated ones. So healthy! Chris decided that putting honey on the sugar coated ones were his favorite!

The cute thing was while we were making them, Cayden asked, "Did your mom teach you how to make these?" I told him that she did. Chris said, "Nanny is so nice!" And I agree.

Selective Mutism

For the last few years, I've known Cayden was a little off. It has frustrated me to no end that he doesn't talk to people. I don't expect him to have an outgoing personality or go up and make friends with strangers. All I've been asking is that he respond when someone says "hi" to him, or talk to his teachers when he needs help. I'm sure all of you that know him have noticed that he never talks to you. Very few people can get anything more than a head nod from him (and most are lucky to even get that). I've assumed that he is shy (gee, where would he get that from?). Keep in mind that this behavior is NOT what he's like at home. At home he's a rambling man that we can't keep quiet. He loves to talk! Just not to anyone besides me, Ray, and Chris. But the last year or two I've known this isn't just shy. I've considered autism and done some research on that. It just didn't seem right to me and he didn't fit the mold. We've been telling him over and over and over to talk to people. He says he will, but when the time comes, he doesn't. When someone says "hi" to him and he doesn't answer, I push him to say "hi" back. If it's a friend from church or school he does, but not an adult (even those he knows). I've avoided taking him to the doctor because whatever the problem, it's emotional, not physical. Doctors are for physical problems, right? And I assumed if we pushed him enough, he'd grow out of his shyness. Wrong move.
Things really came to a head last night when I was at parent/teacher conference. He's doing poorly in school. The teacher has been trying her darndest to help him, but she can't get him to say a single word to her. She tried working one-on-one with him, but she has no idea what he gets and doesn't because he just sits there and won't talk to her. We were both so frustrated. So I did some searching online today (actually, a quick Google of "My son won't talk in school") and found Selective Mutism. Halleluja!!! After reading many websites about it (if you're interested, this is a good one: http://www.selectivemutismcenter.org/cms/what_is_selective_mutism.aspx). I am 100% certain this is what he's suffering from. Now, I'm not thrilled he has this problem, but I am SO HAPPY to finally know what it is we're dealing with. And it's nice to finally read that what we've been doing (trying to force him to talk) is the complete opposite of what we should be doing.
So I'm working now to find the resources and people that can help and hopefully we'll get this taken care of. But, just so you all know, it isn't because Cayden hates you that he doesn't talk or that he's rude. He's simply got an anxiety disorder that makes it nearly impossible for him to open his mouth.
Thinking back, I wonder if I had this (granted, it wasn't "created" until 1994). I don't remember if I talked to my teachers or not. The difference is that Cayden NEEDS his teacher's help. I didn't. On second thought, I guess I didn't talk to my teachers - that's exactly why I peed my pants in 2nd grade, because I was afraid to ask her if I could go to the bathroom. Hm. I guess I'm just lucky I was smart enough to get through school without talking (if that, in fact, was the case).

I Didn't See That!!!

After 20 years of wishing I'd get something funny on video tape, it finally happened! Ever since the first episode of America's Funniest Home Videos, I've dreamt of submitting a video and becoming rich. Granted, $10,000 seems like a lot less money now that I'm older. But, hey, I chould hope for the $100,000 championship prize, right? Okay, so I'm not expecting a big payout from this. But at least I have a shot. After all, I have more of a chance now that I've actually submitted something, right? And, at the very least, Chris gets to be on tv (assuming they use it - I can't imagine they won't).
I'm not posting the video here because I don't want any excuse for ABC to say it doesn't qualify (like, it's been passed around the web, etc.). Their website says that they contact you before it airs, to get release forms and to let you know when it'll be showing. I'll let ya'll know!

Ker Plop

I took a little spill yesterday. This is the only bruise in an area appropriate to post a picture of.

As most of you know, to get to my backyard you go out a sliding glass door, a step down onto a little wood platform and step off the platform into the grass. I was all ready for work, dress shoes on. Decided to take Kitty out for one last hoorah before putting her in the kennel. I had 20 pound puppy in my right arm, opened the sliding door as I stepped my left foot down onto the wooden platform. Immediately I feel the ice and my foot going out from under me. My life passed before my eyes but it was too late to do anything.

Long story short, I ended up on the floor, stradling the sliding door track, left leg stretched outside, right leg bent underneath in the kitchen, and a bunch of things that had hit on the way down. But, somehow I managed to not drop Kitty. :) Ouchie! Note to self, no dress shoes when taking Kitty out and get some ice melt on the back platform!

The New Trend

The great thing about having the boys growing up is that they can do most everything on their own. They help around the house, they can get their own drinks, and the greatest thing is that they can get dressed on their own. No more waking up an hour early. I just wake them up, tell them to get ready, and it magically happens. So nice!

Well, we were sitting in church on Sunday and I notice Chris's pants look a little strange. Oops. I guess I'll start doing a once-over before we leave from now on.

Presenting Miss Katara

Ray's friend (an old co-worker from Home Depot) breeds Mastiffs. Ray told him years ago that he will never pay for a dog, but if he ever can't sell the puppies and needs to find a home, we'd be more than happy to take one in. I didn't know this until a couple weeks ago when Ray told me that we may be getting a Mastiff puppy. Indy had a litter of 10 puppies and they were having a hard time finding homes for them all (understandable at $1000 each - even though, apparently, that's a good price for a Mastiff).

Of course I had a whole lot of reservations about it. They're way too big, will eat too much, will hurt the kids and others, will bark too much, etc, etc, etc. But, I started reading everything I could find on the breed and have absolutely fallen in love with Mastiffs. Turns out they are giant love bugs that don't bark, love kids, are lazy so no jumping up on people or running around the house, and they have a slow metabolism so they don't even eat a lot (except when they're puppies), in fact, it said they eat about the same amount as a "german shepard or smaller dog".

We got our little puppy last night. I am totally smitten! Yes, she's going to be gigantic. Her dad is 280 lbs and her mom is 150. But I can't wait!

She's doing totally awesome at house training - no accidents yet. Although, the first time I took her out, she pooped and then immediately sat in it. Thanks breeder for giving her a bath before sending her home - lol - she got 2 yesterday. We're crate training her because I think it's the easiest way. I woke up at 2:30 this morning, got her out of her crate and took her outside. I was in my robe and untied boots. She just wanted to run around playing with my robe and shoelaces. It was way too cute because she wasn't playful last night. I couldn't help but play back with her. So we were outside for nearly 30 minutes in the middle of the night. Eventually, she did go pee and I put her back to bed.

As for a name, I wanted Sadie. Ray wanted a cartoon or movie character. He decided on Katara from Avatar - The Last Airbender. Of course, the boys love the idea of having a dog named after their favorite cartoon. I think Katara is too many syllables (for some reason I remember them telling us in a dog training course it's better to have 1 or 2 syllable names for them), so the breeder recommended the nickname of Kitty. We're all for weird things, so it just may work. I'm trying it out.

Here's Kong, the dad (several years and pounds ago), and Indy, the mom.