Recent Kid Details

On Halloween, as we rushed around to get out the door to trick-or-treat, I came back into the house to grab something and Ollie was right behind the door and I whacked the door handle right into him. I said "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry - are you OK?" Ollie was silent a second and then stoically said, "I'm OK. Spidermans don't get hurt!" Then later when we were running from house to house, Silas tripped and spilled his pumpkin bucket of candy all over the place. Oliver ran up to him and said, "Oh, Silas, this is terrible!" and helped him pick it all up.

After months of worrying endlessly about whether or not she wanted to have her training wheels taken off her bike, Eliza announced on Saturday that it was time. She's had them off before and learned to ride, but then fell and freaked out about it so she has really worried about trying again and we just let it lie for a long time. On Saturday, as soon as Jared helped her get going one time, she had it and was so delighted to ride all over the place with her little friend Olivia (who's been doing the two-wheeler thing for months). She still looks a bit wobbly - but she's really excited about it and pretty darn good at it. She rushed right in after school today and asked to go out and practice some more on her bike. As she headed out the door, she stopped to explain "Now that I can ride my bike like a big kid there's just two more things I need to do so I can totally be a big kid - read really good and stop being shy." Oh, I love this little girl of mine!

On the way to school a while back, I was telling Ashton he'd need to ask Daddy about something technical that he'd just asked me since I didn't know the answer. Isaac pipes up from the back of the van with "Mommy, you know, you're like the medium sharpest knife in the drawer in our family, huh? Daddy's like the sharpest knife and you'd be the medium one - like that kind you use you spread the butter." What in the heck! A butter knife! I've got to hand it to Isaac for noticing how very smart his daddy is - and remembering a phrase we learned when we read "The Tale of Despereaux" quite a while ago. But I had to point out that there might be a few areas where I could be the sharpest knife in the drawer - and the kids were kind enough to throw out a few things - "you're the best at making dinner" "you're the sharpest at reading us stories"...OK, I guess I've got some smartness in their eyes!

Ashton has a girlfriend. Her name is Keisha and she emails him about 10 times a day and calls him pretty often. I heard from Katie (who drives the carpool home) that Ashton's always off talking to some girl when she does the pick up and asked Ashton about it. He tried to act all nonchalant about it, but couldn't help smiling when I asked if he was hanging out quite a bit with a certain girl. He said he just likes talking to Keisha and that she's really nice to him but that you can't really have a girlfriend when you're eight - "like what would you do? It's not like you can drive anywhere together or anything?" But they do eat lunch together daily and Keisha asked him to try to wear something that would coordinate with the dress she was planning to wear to the symphony field trip last Thursday since she'd signed them up to be "bus buddies" (he didn't think this was such a cool idea so he ignored it). I went along on the field trip to help the teacher and it was pretty interesting to see Ashton and Keisha interacting. Glimpse into the future?

As I was getting ready for the ward Halloween party, wearing all black so I could be a witch along with all the Mia Maids (we were in charge of a booth for all the kids), Silas walked into the bathroom, looked up at me and said, "Wow, Mommy, you look budiful!" Maybe I should dress as a witch more often! Then yesterday, Si came up to me and said "Mommy, I weawy wike your ball hair" (I had my hair in a bun - like almost every day - but I guess it somehow looked extra good or interesting to him at the time). I like this trend of compliments from my little Si!

Oh, I love these kids of mine! They say and do so many interesting and cute (and challenging) things every day. I wish I could capture it all. I know the day will come when this will all feel like a dream.