This and that...

Abe is at such a fabulously fun age, and at the same time an excruciatingly difficult age, and I just wanted to record some of the events/thoughts/sayings of these times. You can read if you want, but it's more for my sake, as this seems to be the extent of my journal writing.
Abe has been going through this incredibly angry time. To the point where I've thought about taking him to see a therapist or something. He has not gotten as angry as others, but for me and my realm of experience, it's been pretty angry. I was at my wits end trying to figure him out. I thought that it must be my parenting style that was just frustrating the heck out of him. Or, my lack of parenting skills to know how to help him. Anyway, he had been watching a movie, "The Little Engine That Could" every day, both a short version and a long version. Pretty harmless movie, right? There is "nightmare" train in the movie who is mean and wants to give kids bad, horrifying dreams. Abe wouldn't watch that part for the longest time, but then he started and couldn't get enough of it. We didn't connect the two, but one day, David just wanted him to stop watching that movie. Abe hasn't watched it for about 3 weeks, and he has had SUCH a change in his behavior. Of course, he still gets as mad as any other four year old, but from what it was before, it's been a night and day change. He asks to watch the movie on occasion, but accepts "no" as the answer.
David and I just returned from a brief trip to Torrey with some wonderful friends who have a cabin there, and in the car, David was telling me about something Abe had said while they were fishing. David said that Abe had said that he knew more than anyone. He knew more than mom and dad, more than anyone on the planet. Abe piped in at this point and reiterated how much he knew. That he knew more than everybody. I told him that he could think that if he wanted to, but that only God knows more than anyone. God created the earth, so he would have to know everything there is to know about the earth. God created me, dad and you, so He would have to know everything there is to know about us. Only God knows everything. Then he insisted that he knew more than God and more than Jesus. I'm worried about our future with this boy!! AHHHH!
This morning, I was in bed, and David was making Abe some cinnamon toast. Abe likes his bread cut into pieces, so David asked him how many pieces he wanted. Abe said 12. David said that was too many, he couldn't cut the bread into that many pieces. Abe said, it's easy, dad, just count to 10, then you're right there.
The other day I was driving to my nephews home. Abe asked me how long it would take to get there. I told him 20 minutes. Because he and a friend take turns on the iPad at 10 minute intervals, he has a concept of how long 10 minutes is. I told him it was two 10-minutes. He asked me if that was 10+2. I told him it was 10 + 10, or 10 X 2. He then said, so is that 5 + 5 + 5 + 5? Hmmm. As a matter of fact, yes. What a smart boy.
OK. Enough about Abe.
I was watching one of those BYU roundtable discussions about the Book of Mormon, and this one was discussing the title page of the Book of Mormon. This is the part that I found enlightening: "..Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever." The discussion was basically about how God blessed peoples that obeyed his commandments, and that he will bless us, as well, if we keep his commandments. It brought me to my own thoughts about people from the scriptures. These patterns of how people are blessed can be applied to my own life if I obey the commandments, just as people anciently were blessed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE!!

Okay, so it's not exactly his birthday, but it's been w/in the month, so I think I'm still okay to share the celebration. David had Parent-Teacher Conferences that day, so we had to slip a party in during a one-hour window in the afternoon. I had trouble finding a birthday cake due to the predominant holiday at the time, so at the last minute decided to just make one. It turned out pretty cute, and Abe loved it, which is all that really mattered. One of the favorite things about his birthday is that he finally got to have an entire vitamin (we usually cut it in half). He was so happy!! We sure do love this little guy and are so thankful that God has seen fit to bless us with him.

Dishwasher obsession

I have to preface this by saying that I adore my husband. I’m completely smitten. He surprises me on occasion, however, with glimpses into his compulsions/obsessions. This past week was one of those occasions. Several years ago, we purchased a new dishwasher. The reason we needed a new dishwasher was because the hard water deposits that had developed prevented water from spraying out like it should, and it wasn’t really getting the dishes clean. So we’ve had this dishwasher for several years, and it’s developing hard water deposits. At this point in the story, though, it’s not occurring to me that there could be a problem. So David comes home one day with a gallon of vinegar and a container of powdered TANG. When I ask him about it, he says he read online that TANG gets rid of hard water deposits in the dishwasher. So does vinegar. I think, great! David is going to clean the dishwasher! One less thing for me to worry about. Not that I was really worried in the first place, but great anyway. So that night David tries his first vinegar treatment. Since it’s supposed to sit for a few hours, the smell is really getting to me, but I go along. The treatment didn’t do much. The next day, David and I get home from shopping, and I notice an almost $10 charge on our receipt that I don’t recognize.  David says it’s something to use to clean the dishwasher. Great! But I’m also thinking…how much cleaning does the dishwasher need? So this concoction says to use it in conjunction with regular dish detergent. David tries it. It gets it a little cleaner. I think…super! Good enough! Wrong. That night, David proceeds to boil a gallon of vinegar on the stove, pours it into the dishwasher and lets it sit overnight. Fortunately, although vinegar has a pungent odor, it doesn’t permeate! But this isn’t enough! He went to buy more vinegar, and he used a different treatment along with the vinegar. He’s been pouring vinegar into the detergent cups in the dishwasher and letting it sit for hours. Do I sometimes go, “Hmmmm?” Yes, but things like this make me love him even more.

At this rate...

Okay, so the next time you hear from me, Abe might just be 36. If you've been a regular visitor to our blog, you will see that I've been doing a little updating. I've really felt like posting more about our lives and what is going on...not that our lives are really exciting, but it's nice to have at least a minimal history for my family's sake. I will post more again very soon.