Self Worth

Jason and I were fortunate enough to speak in church today, so we needed to farm out the kids and cross our fingers that they would act better for others than they do for us. To motivate them, I annied up my special stash of Dove milk chocolate squares. I told them they could earn up to 3 squares depending on how good they were. So after church they asked how many chocolates they earned to which I reflected the question back to them: How many do they think they deserve? This is where nature vs. nurture comes into play. It turns out Elli and Addie are not one and the same. Addie immediately responded with "3". I asked what she did during sacrament and she said she colored the whole time. I kept the conversation going by asking if coloring the whole time warrants 3 chocolates. An affirmative "Yes" ended our conversation. During my conversation with Addie, Elli is replaying her behavior during the meeting in her head and calculating her chocolates, but to no avail, she can't make the call. She asks me to decide for her. I asked what she did during sacrament and she tells me she played quiet hand games and tic tac toe, but that she was very quiet. Okay, so you know what we expect from you, again how many do you think you deserve? She was stumped, she couldn't tell me how many she was worth. I gave her three also, mainly because she at least has a conscience and took more than a mini-second coming up with her answer.

And yes, our talks went well... enough; thanks for asking.

The Worst/Best Parent Ever??

So here's my side of the story. We decided to go up to Big Bear on Saturday to ride the Alpine Slide. Looking online we remembered they had a waterslide and we told the girls they could ride. Amelia took this plan that wasn't really meant for her and went laser focused with it. She couldn't talk about anything else, she stripped down to her "skin sweater" (thanks Hannah Montana for that one) to put her suit on immediately even though the instructions were to pack a suit, and she wanted to skip lunch so she could get on the waterslide quicker. So we get up there and upon a bit of research find out a) only single riders, no matter age & b) Jason couldn't go down first and wait at the bottom to catch her. But the lifeguard did offer a solution. 1) She could wear a life vest and 2) he (the lifeguard) would wait at the bottom and catch her.

So what would you do?

I explained all this to Millie and also told her how fast and scary it was, but she was not deterred. So I figure it comes down to one simple word:

TRAUMA

Either way, it's coming. Trauma from the waterslide that she is begging to go on but is clearly above her pay grade; or trauma from not being allowed to go down the slide that she has been talking about all day and will continue to talk about all day.

There Will Be Tears!

So even though Jason stated for the record that he did not agree with my decision (& I bet Andra wouldn't either), I let Amelia go down the slide. She did hesitate a few moments at the top but when she saw a boy her age go down she went for it. I was waiting at the bottom and, to be completely honest, she came down screaming. She came out of the water crying. People were watching. People were judging. But she calmed down quickly and complained only about the water getting in her eyes. So we made a plan, when she is 3 she will go down again with goggles. No nightmares, no trauma-induced bed wetting, and no plans to never go down a waterslide again, although only time will tell if this is indeed true.

It doesn't look that bad. right? (Shout out to 4 year Hailey who was so brave, she went on it over and over!)

Elli had to ride the lift by herself, my big girl!

At least we weren't the parents (dad) that went too fast and went over the side of the alpine slide and ended up with a face full of road rash on his little boy.

Our speed racers (& cute Cara in the back)

I like that Boom Boom Pow

Here is my official blog tribute to Elli & Addie's Dance Recital. They did great and it was TOTALLY worth the 6 plus hours of watching hundreds of nameless girls and token boys dance to see them on stage for 3 minutes each. Elli took lyrical jazz this year and her dance was not at all "cute-sie" but way grown up. We had to work on her "small smile" since her "toothy smile" contradicts the lyrics: (read breathy & slow with lots of dramatic pause)

"This is what it is to be loved and to know That the promise was when everything fell We'd be held."

She did fabulous, of course.

Addie took jazz and performed her dance to "Knock on Wood" with her cute friend Rachel. She chose not to wear her glasses on stage, so we were so relieved she didn't fall off! AND now we have a perfect Halloween Flinstones costume - any takers?