This picture makes me laugh
I came into the living room to find this scene, luckily I always have a camera close by. Editor’s note: Nicole is trying to sit in a tiny doll-size high chair. 
Category Archives: Kids
Another Road Trip: Pensacola, Florida
So my best friend David has been down at NAS Pensacola for some training, and I thought this was the best time to go see the National Museum of Naval Aviation with him. I’ve always wanted to visit; they have a great selection of aircraft. Naturally, a road trip these days means bringing Isaac with me; bringing Isaac usually means bringing Charlotte too. Hit the jump for a boatload of pictures and a quick summary.
Quality Time with Nicole
I find myself with very little time during the day to spend one on one with my children, so I do my best to take advantage of any extra moments throughout the day. I do things like play games with them while we wait in the grocery store line or at the doctor’s office and singing songs or talking with them in the car.
Lately, Nicole has developed her own little way to have some time with her mom. 
It started off with Nicole trying to put my shoes on my feet once when I sat down to feed Ila. Soon she was trying to put my shoes on me each time I fed Ila. I recognized a new opportunity to play with her and I started trying to tickle her with my feet, or give her feet hugs. Sometimes my feet try to dance with her or startle her by jumping when she least expects it. I know this sounds strange, but we both started to really enjoy this time together. Now whenever Nicole sees me sit down to feed Ila she gets a big grin on her face and runs over to my feet and she gets very frustrated if they’re not on the ottoman where she likes to play with them.
What Creative ways have you found to spend quality time with your kids (or others) when you find you lack quantity of time?
Nicole’s New Bed
I have been wanting to see how Nicole would do in a regular bed for a little while now. Everyday she runs into Isaac and Charlotte’s room 
and climbs into their beds, pulls the covers over herself, and pretends to sleep. In addition to her enthusiasm for beds is that fact that Ila is sleeping in the living room in a Pack ‘N Play and I’d like to transition her into the crib in a few months.
The main thing that has been holding me back from letting Nicole try a bed is that I wanted to find a nice bedspread for her. I don’t like big cartoon characters or Disney princesses, but still wanted something feminine and girly without looking really cheap. Unfortunately, the only ones I could find that I liked were online and started at $80 (granted my local store search only included Wal-Mart and Target).
On a Typical Night. .
you might see a scene like this if you checked on the children after bedtime:
Isaac will likely be found surrounded by non-fiction books. He often has one propped up or will fall asleep with his finger in one. The globe is not atypical. He loves to study maps and other such things as he lays in bed (or when he’s on a road trip). He’s also a little heater so he’s often sweaty.
Charlotte typically sleeps with a doll or water bottle and sometimes both. I have to admit that the light saber is not typical, but I took this picture on the same night as the other.
Nicole will likely be fully away sitting up in her bed singing or talking for hours after you put her to bed. She generally doesn’t cry much if at all when she is put to bed, but it’s not uncommon to still hear her awake as much as two hours after putting her to bed.
Ila is still establishing her sleeping pattern. At two months old, she doesn’t usually settle down until about 11:00 (which is much better than last week when she didn’t settle down till 1 or 2 each night). She can be a little fussy in the evening which is fairly typical for her age, but once she settles down she usually only wakes once to eat before my alarm goes off at 6:30AM.
Nature vs Nurture. . . .really?!
I don’t think anyone who has had a little boy could make the argument that masculinity 
is something that we train in our kids. When Isaac was 17 months old, someone handed me a book full of trucks to show him. I assumed the book would not hold his attention for long, after all it was a book with nothing but construction trucks in it—I thought it seemed rather dull. Imagine my surprise when his face lit up as he pointed to each vehicle. From there he became captivated with anything that had an engine. Since that experience, I’ve noticed that every little boy I’ve known has gone through a stage where he is obsessed with trucks, trains, and planes.
My girls on the other hand, like girly things. Sure they’ll play with a truck or drive a car around the room, but they show their gender identity in different ways.
The tradition continues
This is old news now, but I thought I ought to update my blog and decided to scroll 
through recent pictures for inspiration and all of Charlotte’s recent pictures make me think of this event/story.
Charlotte gave herself a haircut. I was lucky—it wasn’t too bad and it was on the verge of being much worse when I interceded. She made her cuts right in the front forming a very choppy upside-down V and forcing me to cut some shorter-than-I-ever-would-have-chosen bangs. I was mostly sad because we’ve been trying to grow out her bangs since birth and now we have a new set of bangs to grow out.
This is a continuing tradition because many (all?) of my siblings and I cut our hair at some point during our childhood.
Excerpt from when Isaac was 3 and Charlotte was 1 1/2:
6.20.07 Today Isaac brought his toy jeep over to me and said “mom, want some noise†then he turned it on.
6.21.07 Today I took Isaac to the post office with me to buy stamps. 
I let him put the money in, make the selection and then collect the change at the end. As we drove away he told me “mommy buy money at the Post Office.†I guess he thought that when the change came out it was what I had purchased.
I brought a chair into the bathroom for our nightly teeth brushing ritual. Isaac and Charlotte each climbed up and as Isaac looked in the mirror he excitedly proclaimed “big and little†in reference to the height difference between him and Charlotte.
Isaac got a birthday card from Great-Grandma Cochran a few days ago. After he opened it we read it and he looked at it. Then he opened some junk mail and said “yay, another birthday card from Isaac.†For the rest of the day any piece of mail or paper was another birthday card for Isaac!
Excerpt From the Log:
I scrolled through my log and choose a date at random—here’s what I wrote on February 6th of last year:
2.6.09 Here are some recent things the kids said: "I would sleep so hard that I couldn’t wake up. I’d be stuck asleep and you’d have to kiss me to wake me up. Would you kiss me?"
"And after her birthday I would be stuck sleeping if you don’t kiss me." Isaac (possibly before Charlotte’s 3rd birthday)
After biting his finger accidentally, Isaac said "My mouth thought my finger was food. My mouth thought it was salad"
"Mom, what time will Tigers eat us?"
"Mom, don’t let tigers eat us until we’re ready to die." <<so, when we’re ready to die we should let Tigers eat us?>> "yeah" Isaac
“that’s the Tiger’s pretzels? Because of the white spots?" Isaac upon seeing footage of a Tiger eating a deer that had white spots on it’s back
In answer to the question "What are kids made of?" Isaac replied: "They’re made of everything that skin covers."
“What happens if a Lion goes into a machine that turns him into food for people, that would be chicken?†Isaac
After getting a light spank for getting out of bed at bedtime, Charlotte said "I need pajamas that doesn’t have a spank on themâ€
<<The picture was taken February 1, 2009>>
Charlotte’s Magic Car
Here’s a little video of Charlotte and Isaac playing with her birthday present:
She wanted “a magic car that goes by itself”. I think this works.
I also think Nicole is destroying a book in the background.
Ila
I know you didn’t love your name, but that’s because to you it was just a name. To me it is the feeling of love that I felt when I was with you.
It’s a reminder of a great woman who I loved and admired. Who showed strength in motherhood through sorrows and joys.
A woman who, like me, thrills to be a mom and recognized her role as the most noble and worthwhile thing she could do.
It’s the thrill in my heart as we got closer to your house each time we drove to Knoxville to visit you. It’s the love that flowed from you to everyone you knew.
There is so much about you that I admire, but when I try to put into words what you meant to me, I can’t find the right words and the letters on the page fall short of the emotion I feel when I remember you.
So, here I sit with my precious, perfect little girl. In a place that I always wanted to be, but now find myself here without you and it seems so appropriate and perfect to be able to give this little angel your name. I miss you and I love you.
Your granddaughter,
Kathleen
New Baby Coming
Kathleen went into labor early this morning, so we’re at the hospital waiting on a new baby. Updates to follow.
Moving: Day 9 the drive to Knoxville
DAY 9: On Wednesday we set off for Knoxville. 
It was a long crowded ride in my mother’s Tribeca, but the kids behaved well and the trip was uneventful. We stopped for lunch at Wendy’s and Nicole enjoyed dancing to the music and making faces with my mother. She was in such a funny happy mood that I was glad I had my camera handy to capture a few moments.
The only other noteworthy thing was the few times that Isaac announced that he needed to use the bathroom right away and we frantically exited as soon as we could only to find out that his need was not nearly as urgent as he had claimed.
When we arrived at our new place, the movers were still unloading the truck and a neighbor from the ward had provided a hot meal for the family.
The rest of our moving experience is not blogworthy as it consists of me unpacking and organizing our things into our new house, but I think 9 days of moving details really should be enough detail for the few readers we get to our humble little blog.
Settling into a New School
Isaac seems to be doing well in his new school. His school day is much longer than it was in Utah. He went from 2hrs and 45 min of school to 5 hrs and 15 min. It means he gets to eat lunch at school which he thinks is great. On Fridays they wear Orange to support the local football team (Tennessee Volunteers) and Isaac loves his new orange shirt so much that he often tries to wear it all weekend as well.
After his first day of school, I asked him if he had made any friends and he said “no, but lots of kids made friends with me.†He now tells me that a boy named Storm is his friend because in his words “Storm always gives smiles when he sees me and he always wants me to sit next to him at lunch and when I sit next to him he gives smiles.†He also informed me that a girl named Faith doesn’t like him because “she gives frowns†when she sees him.
Moving Days 7-8: Ohio (part 2 of 2)
DAY 7: We spent much of day 7 exploring my parent’s property. We kicked off our adventures with the traditional forklift rides. Isaac and Charlotte took turns riding the forklift with their grandfather. He showed them how to lift a pallet up and down and even gave them a ride on the pallet and loaded them onto a truck.
Next they had a tour of his warehouse which included showing the children the kiddie rides that grandpa Bird has been storing for a company.
Moving Days 5-6: Ohio (part 1 of 2)
DAY 5: Our first day in Ohio was mostly spent relaxing at my parents’ house.
Lee stopped over as we were having some lunch and introduced us to his girlfriend, Jen. We had a nice visit with Lee and Jen as we munched on french fries and BBQ chicken. Nicole took to Lee right away. She snuggled up to him as soon as he picked her up and enjoyed smiling at him and making faces.
Moving, Day 4: The airplane ride
DAY 4 CONTINUED: The airport experience with three little kids is a little crazy. The kids were actually quite good, but just the management of them all would have been 
impossible on my own. Once we made it through security, we stopped at a little play area before going to our gate. This provided a perfect opportunity for a potty break. Unfortunately, Charlotte managed to get her underwear wet while sitting on the potty so I had to make the trek back and forth to the bathroom with a fresh pair of “airplane underwear.†By the time I was finished (the play area was not close to the bathroom), I could only allow Charlotte 10 minutes to play before we scuttled them all off towards the gate.
Moving: Our last days in Utah
DAY ONE: We were lucky enough to have Zach’s new job pay for a moving company to 
pack and move our belongings. I think if not for that I really would have lost my sanity. They came at 8:00 AM and worked until 7:00 PM packing and loading our things onto a gigantic semi-truck. The beginning of the day went well, Grandma Cochran took Nicole and Isaac went to school so I just had Charlotte with me and Zach’s Aunt Neta who had come down to help. We sat on the couch and talked as they worked through the morning.
Half-Mast
On the way to the store 
last night, Isaac noticed a flag at half-mast and asked why the flag was hanging down. I explained to him that people fly the flag that way when someone dies, but that I didn’t know who they were honoring. He thought for a few moments and then announced that if we didn’t have any food, he would fly the flag at half-mast to tell everyone we were out of food. I told him that people don’t fly flags low to say they need more food. His next idea is that we could make a special flag to fly low when trains are on fire.
Snowbird with Heidi and Grandpa Bird
We’ve had Grandpa Bird in town, and so we thought it would be fun to have an adventure together. The last few times Grandpa Bird has visited, I’ve dragged him through Utah’s exotic deserts. I thought it would be a nice change to go to the mountains this time.
Normally I like to avoid crowds, so I stay away from the mountains and national parks when it’s a holiday. This was really our only chance to go, though, so off we went. It was Oktoberfest at Snowbird as well, so there were longer lines and some crowds, but nothing too bad.
Isaac noticed the alpine slide right away, so I went ahead and got a ticket since we were having a day out. He enjoyed riding the chairlift to the top, and after a bit of a wait in line, we raced on down.
After this we were ready for some lunch. Grandpa Bird treated us to some sausages and sauerkraut, along with German potato salad and potato pancakes. We listened to a silly little Bavarian band while we ate.
We’d planned to go to Snowbird for the tram ride to the top of Hidden Peak. It’s the easiest way to get to 11,000 feet in Utah, and is certainly the easiest peak I’ve done this year.
At the top, Isaac was full of excited questions about the tram:
After a few minutes walking around the peak and taking pictures, Isaac declared he missed his sister. “Which one?†I asked. “Both of them!†he replied. So we went back down and headed home.
It was a fun excursion, and great to have Grandpa Bird and Heidi along. More pictures below.