Reinventing Date Night

I liked this article I linked to from my first-cousin-once-removed's sister-in-law's blog.

Preparing for Easters

We dyed eggs at the 'rents place. I think Mavis and Annie (not even pictured here) dyed the most eggs — close to 2 dozen each. Izak is on his mission, and his friend, Jana, who is a girl (not officially the girlfriend, although they do write to each other every single week!) comes over every now and then to hang out. Jana and her sister Kate showed up when we were dyeing eggs. That was fun for us. It was also especially nice that Jana and Lexy watched the kids for us afterward so we (me and the sibs and spouses and 'rents) could all go to Shoga for dinner. I've only been once, but I was pretty impressed with Shoga, the new Japanese restaurant next door to Outback in Orem (kitty corner from the University Mall ... just South and West of it). Real Fresh! And flavorful. I'm excited to go back. Also, I finally made it to red mango and it was real fresh too. Great flavor! I had the regular flavor yogurt with strawberries and mango. It was exceptional!

Lastly, and more importantly, in the week leading up to Easter I ended up talking with Mavis about the meaning of Easter. We talked about Jesus' death (we didn't go into much detail yet) and His resurrection. Also, several weeks ago we visited Grandma Irons again, Janet's mom, who is quite old now, and close to death. She has soft, bony hands; thin, matted, grey hair; hunched over body; can't hear much, etc. It scared Mavis a bit, although she was a good sport and gave out hugs, danced for Grandma, and let Great-grandma hold her hand. So out of the blue, on multiple occasions, Mavis angrily told me, "I don't want to die!!" "I'm not going to get old!" "I don't like Heavenly Father's plan!" And then, when she was in trouble the other day she yelled at me "You just want me to die!" It seems that my attempts to teach her about Easter and resurrection, and our visits to Grandma have combined to cause her quite a bit of inner turmoil. She was so sad that it made me feel sad too, although I have to admit that deep down I also wanted to chuckle a bit at how sensitive and thoughtful she is. I was thinking about this in church the other day and realizing that the reason I don't suffer from the same fear is because I have felt the comforting spirit of the Holy Ghost confirming to me that there is life after death, and that there is a Savior, which is Jesus. I hope to be able to help Mavis find her answers and feel the same peace in her heart.

Milestones

Well, Jack is officially weaned. That doesn't mean he doesn't still want to nurse (he tries to get in there and smacks me where it counts when he's thirsty/hungry), but this week was the end of it. It's been more than a day now and we're not going back. I have to admit a little bit of sadness. I enjoy nursing. It's nice to have to slow down, sit down, hold baby and snuggle. I will miss that. But it's time.

He also learned to tell me he wants his diaper off by grabbing at it. Not that anyone wants to know about that, but I love to see him learning to communicate more clearly. He doesn't just cry at everything, but is really making efforts at more efficient communication. It's so cute. He also has a few new words. His first word was "nuh, nuh" which means "no". His next word was "uh-uh" which he's refined to "uh-oh" now. Today he added another one, "bah" for ball & balloon. He says "ma, ma, ma, ma" and "da, da, da" but I don't think he uses them as words yet, just fun sounds to say.