Like Mother, Like Daughter

Cindi's blessing day

May's blessing day

Sepia-toned May for comparison purposes

My brother, Todd, has put together a website where he has loaded all the family pictures that he scanned in one-by-one over countless hours (Thanks, Todd!). I haven't been over there for maybe two years, but I've been wanting to since we're going to be reading family history stories this year. Today, I finally remembered to ask him where the site was and spent some time going through the pictures there. I found a picture of my blessing day. Coincidentally, I scanned a few of my own non-digital pictures this past week, including the one above of May's blessing day.

The pink blanket is really special to me. My Grandma, Jennie May Nielsen Burris, made that blanket. She had a store of afghans that she made for all her grandkids as they graduated high school (I have one of these on my bed), a store of queen-sized quilts that were given out for weddings (I have one of these stored away), and a store of these baby blankets. I think this blanket was the last blanket in her closet available for a great-grand-baby. My grandma had died two years before and I'm so happy that May (Grandma's namesake) was able to have one of Grandma Jennie's quilted blankets.

I used to go spend a week at Grandma's house every summer. I remember that she almost always had a quilt set up on quilting frames in her living room while I was there. I remember the needles and thread, the thimbles, the silky satin fabric and Grandma's nimble fingers. I'll write more about her later. I plan on writing quite a few posts directed at family history for my kids this year.

Grandma Jennie (as she called herself) standing next to one of her works of art!

Brothers

Lately, when Brigham is sad, Nathan takes him and lays him on his chest and sings "I Am a Child of God." Am I a lucky mom or what?

Little Feet

Lately, I've seen a lot of pictures of cute little baby feet and hands. It makes me kind-of sad because I just didn't think of taking those pictures of my babies. I think it's also because we didn't have a way of taking nice close-ups at the time.

Anyway, I love babies' feet and hands. I love to rub them and feel their velvety softness. I love to remember the miracle of seeing them the first time on ultrasound and after birth. There's just something about the wonder of tiny fingers and toes. Even now, as Brigham has lost a lot of his chubbiness and dimples, I love to hold his little hand and feel the smallness of it. I love when he wraps his fingers around one of mine and we walk together.

Childhood Slipping Away...

My heart sighs.

As I was digging through my files, I came across a picture taken on the day of Jodi's wedding, almost ten years ago. There's little Nathan sitting on Joseph's lap (looks a lot like Brigham right now). Today he's eleven years old. He's in the stretch of life where he begins to leave the little boy behind. It makes me want to grab onto the little boy part of him and make it stay. It makes me want to do better.

I love you, Nathan!

Sentimental

Right before Christmas this year, we decided it was time for our family to move to a larger house. The time line on that move has extended recently, so rather than getting the house ready to sell right now, I'm just trying to organize to give us more space.

It has had me thinking though, about the things I will miss. Mostly in my yard. It's funny, because a couple of years ago, I was questioning if I really did like to garden. I'm guessing by my response to leaving this yard, that I do.

I love it that my yard is fenced, but that behind that fence is forest. I love it that we are on a corner lot which provides us with a big backyard. I love it that I have spent years working on my flower beds. There are perennials that come up each year, but still lots of space to plant my annual seeds. I love it that Joseph built me a structure in the back yard for viney plants. One of my goals for this coming summer is to nurture that area so it is full of lush growth. I can see it from my kitchen window. I imagine it could bring me a lot of joy each day! I love it that our neighborhood is established with large trees and that they haven't replaced the vintage looking street lights. I love it that Sariah and Elijah planted their very own pine trees in the back yard and can't wait until summer to water them. I love it that even though our success has been limited, we planted our own fruit trees. I love it that Nathan is old enough to play behind the fence and that he runs to tell me that I have to come back there because it's so beautiful. I love it that my kids speed up and down the sidewalk on their bikes and scooters (I gotta make a goal to get them wearing helmets this year). I'm glad I have one more summer in this house. I will make the most of it!

Sad Day

I can't let this day go by without saying how sad I am that President Gordon B. Hinckley has passed away yesterday evening (for those who are not members of my church, this is akin to the Pope passing away).

This is what he said at the end of the last General Conference, "Now this conference is adjourned for six months. We look forward to seeing you again next April. I'm 97, but I hope I'm going to be there."

Amazing. 97 years old. What a contribution he has made in my life and in the church! I will really miss him. How sweet and sad it has been in some of our previous Conferences where President Hinckley has spoken of his wife, Marjorie, who passed away a few years ago, and how he missed her. What a reunion they will have had!

Naptime Routine and Surprise! Kisses

Brigham loves my blog. He ate his lunch and then I brought him out here to see the pictures of his buffalo on the blog before naptime. What do you know? When he saw the first picture, he said "Diddy!"

His naptime routine goes something like this. We round up Diddy and head into his room (shared with May). If we can't find Diddy, the tradition is that I leave him in his room and go find the buffalo myself. Then he gives me the "more" sign which means more songs. Today I held him and he put his head on my shoulder. How many more naptimes will I get with such treatment? I refuse to count down!

I sang "I am a Child of God." He lifted his head and adjusted Diddy to give me the more sign. I began singing "A Child's Prayer."

Heavenly Father (suddenly his head goes up and Kiss! head goes back down)
Are you really there (head up, kiss, kiss, kiss! head down)
And do you (kiss) hear and (kiss, kiss) answer every (kiss) child's prayer (kiss, kiss)

It went on like this.

I sang our rainbow song, full of kisses as well. I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." He was then ready for me to lay him down. I put his blankets on, he adjusted his Diddy. I did "I" "love" "you" in sign language. He joined in for the "love" and "you." I made the "I love you" sign with my right hand. He held his hand up for me to manipulate his fingers into the "I love you" sign. Then we clapped together because he did it! Finally, I tell him "Bye!" Sometimes he says bye back and other times he doesn't.

Sweet times!

Oh Bear!

My sister, Bobbie, sent me a CD called "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" by Nicolette Larson. She knows just how much I love babies and listening to this CD has been very nostalgic of all my babies. Mostly, though, we all listen and think of Brigham, our last baby.

There's one song in particular that everyone requests. It's called, "Oh Bear." You can go to Amazon by clicking here. Scroll down and you can listen to a snippet of this adorable song.

Every parent can probably relate to a baby or small child having a blanket or stuffed animal that they simply have to have before they toddle off to bed. Brigham has his buffalo that we got him in Yellowstone this summer. He called it "Diddy" at the start which is a name that has stuck with the rest of us. Then he got confused and started calling his buffalo "Rar rar," his name for doggies. Now he calls him "Ruff," which I think is a cross between a dog and BUFF-alo. At any rate, he scraggly, sometimes stinks, and is frequently lost. I adore this little creature simply because his owner adores him so.

I typed in the words to the song and have taken pictures to go with them. Just a fun little something to do while I'm working through my fear of working over my files!

Oh Bear

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

Oh where can you be?

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

Oh where are you hiding?

It’s time to go to bed until morning,

You’re gone without warning

And I cannot sleep without Bear.

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

I need you beside me

Bear, Oh Bear

We’re two of a kind

I’m thinking about you

I can’t sleep without you

My arms have to hold you

Where can you be, Oh Bear?

Mommy takes care of me all through the day

Daddy comes home and then we get to play

But, you are the one with me all through the night.

And if you’re not here, well it just isn’t right.

Oh Bear, oh Bear

I know I will find you

Here or there

Or under a chair

Then I will hold you

And keep you right here

Everything’s better when

I am with my bear.

Two friends

One fond memory from our vacation was watching May and her friend Hannah Miller. We met the Millers on temple square the day of May's baptism to look around there and then go out for lunch. The picture above sort-of captures the emotions, even though I didn't actually have my camera out when they saw each other. They ran towards each other and greeted each other with happy voices and hugged. It was so sweet. I love it because I've always been sort-of challenged about showing affection. I'm happy to see my daughter be sort-of normal!! And I just love it that she has had that kind of friendship so early in life! Thanks Hannah for being such a good friend!

I Had Already Forgotten

Elijah was in preschool during the school year of 2005-06. He was so cute. That was in infamous time of the "Huh, Mom?" I LOVED his preschool "Lad and Lassie Preschool." I also loved his teachers Mrs. Cousino and Mrs. Johnston. They welcomed each individual child lovingly and cheerfully, each and every day of preschool. Sadly, I can't send Sariah there because due to low enrollment, they had to close. They did some amazing art projects; the teachers took a lot of time with each individual child. They had a lovely Christmas program where the children served punch and cookies that they had helped prepare and also sang songs (it was nice that it was affiliated with a church because I so enjoyed standing in a circle holding hands with teachers, parents and children singing all three verses of Silent Night).


Here he is doing the Christmas program. The little girl next to him is Kira, his best preschool friend. There was a cute photo in the newspaper of the two of them hugging.

But the thing that I really got on here to write about was this. Last night I was sorting through old school work. This is something that gives me great anxiety because I have not done a good job of saving important papers and keeping track of them for my kids. We have lost a lot of things in that way. But it was so fun to see the things the kids have done over the years. The thing I had forgotten was that Elijah used to bring me an envelope with the word "MOM" on the front. It was the first word he learned to spell. He would cut snowflakes or draw me pictures. Almost every day after preschool he had one of these envelopes for me. So sweet! Sweet memories!

Intersection

I've been thinking a lot this morning about how people's lives intertwine. We meet friends, get to know them, love them, then they move away. Recently our friends, the Millers, moved away. At a good-bye dinner, Joseph mentioned wanting to sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." At least this time, it will only be a short while before we meet with the Millers again as they have decided to make the trip up to Northern Utah for May's baptism! YEAH!!! I have fond memories of singing that hymn at the end of General Conference when our beloved prophet has just finished speaking. It is such a uniting and strengthening song, but also pulls at my emotions and longings for the day when we will all truly be together, without the partings.

Yesterday I had a short meeting with somebody I didn't necessarily think I would see again. Steph Gibson was my visiting teacher for part of the time that she lived near me. (As a side note, she was the first one to recognize that I might have post-partum depression and was actually brave enough to loan me her book about it. I was pretty defensive about that at the time, but I did indeed suffer from that illness. She opened up the door to my actually looking at a solution. She doesn't know this, but I will always be grateful for it.) We took a lovely drive to Hastings, Michigan to see her daughter, Aspen, be baptized. We were only there for a brief time, enough to exchange hugs and say our hellos, but it was well worth it. I'm so happy to have actually SEEN her again. She has a beautiful family and the love in the room was very strong. Thanks for letting us be there, Steph!

The envelope

This summer I bought "Lady Bug Land" from Meijer. Inside there is a small landscaped plastic "land" and also a coupon to mail in for the lady bugs. We've done butterflies and ants previous years and I wanted to do something new. We don 't have any of the pretty red lady bugs around here, just an ugly smelly oriental version (an invading species, I believe).

Anyway, today I opened it up so I could send the coupon in and start the process. As I was putting the check and coupon into the envelope, I looked at the check list on the back which asked the usual questions: Did you remember your payment? Did you put proper postage on the envelope? and the last question really stung me. An unusual one. Have you told someone close to you that you love them? I had just gotten after Sariah for something she was doing at the lunch table. I was going to ignore the question when it just popped out, "Love ya, Sis!" (We call Sariah, Sis, Sissy, Sissy Ru etc.) EVERYONE at the table stopped and went completely silent. Now I always tell the kids "Love ya" at night before bed and when dropping them off for school, but hardly ever just in the moment. A real eye-opener!

Makes me want to see that envelope again.