So I read Crystal's blog about fairy tales and I made this comment :
"Fairy tales rock! I've read them since forever. I love to read different nation's versions of the same stories, there's lots of versions of Cinderella for example. My favorite is a beautifully illistrated version of the egyptian cinderella."
And it got me thinking about how much I enjoy them and how I like to tell them to Little John. I started telling them to him when he was just a few weeks old to soothe him and keep myself awake during 2 am feedings. I still tell him them in the car and sometimes on those sleepless nights when he's awake for an hour or 2 in the middle of the night. (I can't just let him sit in the crib and scream, but if I let him get up and play he might make a habit of it :()
I tell him classic Grimms' tales and shortened Disney movies (like my favorite, Mulan) and Hans Christian Anderson and sometimes I just make stuff up. I read an article about how story telling encourages kids' imaginations and builds language skills and stuff, but mostly I just enjoy doing it.
I enjoy reading aloud, but there's something about story telling that really appeals to the preformer in me. If I'm not driving or trying to get Little John to sleep, I love to decribe things with my hands and sometimes I get up and act out the monsters and battles. Little kids love that! I started doing it when I'd babysit, as bedtime stories. And the best thing is little kids are such non-judgemental audiences. They don't care if you forget the details or tell it different than last time, so long as you're into it and animated.
I don't tell the tales quite the way you'd find them in print. As hard as it is to belive, I can't remember all the details at 2 am. Sometimes I make up the details and sometimes I just skip bits I can't remember very well. And I've added my own personal twist to any tale I tell. As I tell the story I always specify that the kings daughter is old enough to date and that's why her hand in marriage is the prize for whatever nasty task needs doing. And also of course the hero is old enough to date too. And I tend to elaborate on things like clothes and the country side (when I'm fully awake that is) and I love to do different voices for different characters. (I do that when I read aloud too) I also love to add sound effects and cheesy melodrama things like "da-da-daaa!".
When I make up stories sometimes I barrow details from other stories I've read. Sometimes my stories follow a regular pattern (begining, middle, end), but a lot of them are silly nonsense that either end very quickly or ramble on and on. The good news is Little John doesn't seem to mind if the stories are real or not or make sense or not. He especially loves when I tell stories about him and Daddy doing things together, even when its nonsense stuff.
As he starts to talk more and more clearly I plan on having him help with the made up stories. Things like what color things are, what weapon the hero uses, what kind of car the bad guy drives. All the little details. I'm really excited to see what neat things he comes up with. I already know he has a good imagination because he holds his cars up to his head and babbles at them like they're telephones.
I still read fairy tales myself and will totally read them to my kids. If they grow up and would rather read text books, that's cool, its their choice, but at least they had the choice. It bugs the heck out of me when people are like "I don't let my kids read that magic stuff because they need to understand reality" (and yet most of these same people let their kids watch cartoons, go figure). It reminds me of that poor little girl in Miracle on 34th Street, no hopes or dreams, no fantasies.
Sorry, my soap box ran away with me there. What I meant to say is: I've read lots of fairy tale collections (among other fantstical stories like the tales of Sinbad the Sailor and Arabian Nights), but there is this collection I've heard such great things about but have never been able to find them so I can read them. They're a series of collections (I think) called the Blue Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book, the Lilac Fairy Book, and so on. I think there are 7 or 8 all together. Maybe I can find them on Ebay or Amazon. Oh, well, my next story post should be about my other love, scifi. Anyway I should go. Go share a story with a kid. Later.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The silver lining
So now that I've depressed everyone with our sickness (and possibly shared the germs), here's the silver lining. While being cooped up, those who were feeling up to it have done a lot of good work.
We put together, anchored to the wall, sanded, painted, and painted again the shelves for John's man cave. I made and hung a curtain to hide stuff stored at the back in the space to small to use as part of the man cave.
We dug, moved, and fertilized the garden boxes (the dirt here is such junk we use the square foot gardening method (mostly)). We planted peas, lettuce, and blueberries (although the weather may have killed one of the blueberries). We transplanted the raspberries. We seeded the bare spots in the lawn and spread peat moss to keep it moist. And even though the one blueberry may be toast all the wet/snowy weather means I haven't had to water the grass seed.
After being cooped up the old furniture arrangement was definitely old so we changed it up and it's much more cozy and conducive to conversation (but everyone can still see the TV, so we're all happy).
And John's had the chance to give lots of blessings. I love that we have such convenient access to the priesthood. And I always feel so comforted, even just listening to someone else's blessing. John says he makes better decisions than he might otherwise, because he knows I'll ask for a blessing and he wants to be worthy to give them. I think that is so awesome.
We put together, anchored to the wall, sanded, painted, and painted again the shelves for John's man cave. I made and hung a curtain to hide stuff stored at the back in the space to small to use as part of the man cave.
We dug, moved, and fertilized the garden boxes (the dirt here is such junk we use the square foot gardening method (mostly)). We planted peas, lettuce, and blueberries (although the weather may have killed one of the blueberries). We transplanted the raspberries. We seeded the bare spots in the lawn and spread peat moss to keep it moist. And even though the one blueberry may be toast all the wet/snowy weather means I haven't had to water the grass seed.
After being cooped up the old furniture arrangement was definitely old so we changed it up and it's much more cozy and conducive to conversation (but everyone can still see the TV, so we're all happy).
And John's had the chance to give lots of blessings. I love that we have such convenient access to the priesthood. And I always feel so comforted, even just listening to someone else's blessing. John says he makes better decisions than he might otherwise, because he knows I'll ask for a blessing and he wants to be worthy to give them. I think that is so awesome.
Self impossed quarentine
So since I blogged last we've all been sick. The whole time, since then, we've had at least one person nasty miserable sick. Feel free to stop reading now since the rest of this post will detail who had what and how many times we've been to the doctor about it.
Little John: small cold, immunizations which gave him a fever and crankiness for a few days, a nasty cold which lead to an ear infection, sore throat and long high fever, which later turned out to be the first signs of roseola, roseola rash, and now he seems to be much better. Counting the doctor visit for immunizations we have been to the doctor 4 times in 2 1/2 weeks for Little John!
Me: Little John drinks out of all my glasses so I caught his nasty cold, I was feeling better and then I got a light case of the flu which I'm getting over now, but I'm going to get an appointment to see the doctor 'cuz my sinuses have never really cleared since my cold and now it looks like my nose is on the tail end of a period, and of course the ear on that side is bothering me too. So if we don't count 2 visits to the chiropractor that I would have made weather I was sick or not, I'll have only been once for myself, but 7 times total because I'm the responsible party for Little John and my sister (2 wisdom teeth visits).
Ben: amazingly has not been sick, but he was pretty wasted after his army weekend and hasn't been getting a lot of sleep because Little John's room is under his and he cries a lot when he's sick.
John: held up pretty well but was down and out this weekend with the flu, he's doing great now though.
Mom: had a cold then was fine and now she's got the flu way worse than anyone else and can't take off work 'cuz it's parent-teacher confrences.
So other than work and school we've pretty much quarentined ourselves, well that and trips to the doctor. It's feels like it's been so long since I've been to church that they'll be calling a replacement for my calling soon.
Little John: small cold, immunizations which gave him a fever and crankiness for a few days, a nasty cold which lead to an ear infection, sore throat and long high fever, which later turned out to be the first signs of roseola, roseola rash, and now he seems to be much better. Counting the doctor visit for immunizations we have been to the doctor 4 times in 2 1/2 weeks for Little John!
Me: Little John drinks out of all my glasses so I caught his nasty cold, I was feeling better and then I got a light case of the flu which I'm getting over now, but I'm going to get an appointment to see the doctor 'cuz my sinuses have never really cleared since my cold and now it looks like my nose is on the tail end of a period, and of course the ear on that side is bothering me too. So if we don't count 2 visits to the chiropractor that I would have made weather I was sick or not, I'll have only been once for myself, but 7 times total because I'm the responsible party for Little John and my sister (2 wisdom teeth visits).
Ben: amazingly has not been sick, but he was pretty wasted after his army weekend and hasn't been getting a lot of sleep because Little John's room is under his and he cries a lot when he's sick.
John: held up pretty well but was down and out this weekend with the flu, he's doing great now though.
Mom: had a cold then was fine and now she's got the flu way worse than anyone else and can't take off work 'cuz it's parent-teacher confrences.
So other than work and school we've pretty much quarentined ourselves, well that and trips to the doctor. It's feels like it's been so long since I've been to church that they'll be calling a replacement for my calling soon.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Hobos and doctors and laughs oh my!
So I'm going to smash a lot of stuff in this blog, since my sister was home from collage last week for spring break.
I almost had a shower with a hobo! I was running the water to get warm and this giant hairball gets floated up to the other end of the tub AND THEN IT UNCURLED A BUNCH OF LEGS! And it was a hobo and it was big and John wasn't home so I had to smash it myself. It still freaks me out to think I could have gotten in and been bit 'cuz I never would have even seen it 'cuz I don't wear my glasses in the shower.
So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "man cave" so I'll explain it a bit. It's a guy's personal space for working or playing and stashing or displaying things like comic book collections or high school ball trophies. They tend to be smaller than bigger unless most of the kids are grown and gone. Well for John's birthday he is redoing the closet under the stairs for his man cave. Before you freak out, he picked the space and is very happy with it, even though it makes me think of Harry Potter. He painted it silver and I did the floor a marblized blue and green finish and we're going to give it several clear coats to protect it. I designed and built him a set of shelves (with lots of building help from everyone) as a suprise and after we get it all finished I'll post pics.
Sarah had her wisdom teeth out. It went well, very little swelling, and no need for the heavy pain pills.
All the stores are having seasonal clearance to make way for the spring clothes, so Sarah and I did lots of shopping. I did really well with my budget though and didn't go overboard. I got some way cute stuff but only if it was cheap.
Now that our insurace has kicked in I found a new pediatrician for Little John. He's great, he used to be head of peds at a big hospitals but went back to private practice because he likes it better. So poor Little John got all caught up on his shots and he's been under the weather since and pretty cranky.
5 out of 6 Hizers are born in March so we had the everybody birthday party this last weekend. It was lots of fun. We took advantage of the nice weather and BBQed until the wind drove us inside.
Sarah's ride back to college was in Salt Lake so Ben and I drove her down there for the rondevouz. We had to hang out there for a bit so I helped Sarah reveiw her anatomy flash cards. She's working on muscles right now. I was asking a lot of "identify the muscle that originates at... and inserts at... and does such and such" questions and while she'd think about it Ben would make random guesses. So Ben's last five guesses had been "your rump?" when the question "what is the insertion of the gluteous maximus" came up and I was waiting to tell him he'd guessed right when he said it again. But instead he says, with this funny look on his face, "Its called sex, and you should never, ever do it!" And his face goes all red. Sarah and I luaghed ourselves silly! And when we finally stop laughing he says "So what's a gluteus maximus anyway?" He had no idea it was a butt and we started laughing all over again.
I went to the chiropracter today (my first appointment was last week) and he worked out the whatever I did to my shoulder over the weekend. My mom talked me into going after my shoulder had been bothering me for a few weeks. I was kinda resistant to the idea, because some of those guys are quacks. But I googled the one my insurance said it covered in our area and picked the guy who did mostly sports injury stuff because he seemed very unquacky (so does his office partner). And he was very professional and none of this "I'll need to see you 3 times a week for 6 months ot fix it" stuff and no wonky promises like "I'll cure your athletes foot by feeling you skull". The day after I was pretty sore but overall much better. He also worked on my neck and lower back. He says I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders and I didn't realize it until I felt so much better afterwards. My back hasn't felt right since I was pregnant (which he says is really common) and it feels tons better now. So now I'm sold on chiropracters. I know a bunch of you have raved over how much good your's has done you but I had to try it to belive it.
So that catches us up to right this very second, so now I need to go do stuff to blog about.
I almost had a shower with a hobo! I was running the water to get warm and this giant hairball gets floated up to the other end of the tub AND THEN IT UNCURLED A BUNCH OF LEGS! And it was a hobo and it was big and John wasn't home so I had to smash it myself. It still freaks me out to think I could have gotten in and been bit 'cuz I never would have even seen it 'cuz I don't wear my glasses in the shower.
So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "man cave" so I'll explain it a bit. It's a guy's personal space for working or playing and stashing or displaying things like comic book collections or high school ball trophies. They tend to be smaller than bigger unless most of the kids are grown and gone. Well for John's birthday he is redoing the closet under the stairs for his man cave. Before you freak out, he picked the space and is very happy with it, even though it makes me think of Harry Potter. He painted it silver and I did the floor a marblized blue and green finish and we're going to give it several clear coats to protect it. I designed and built him a set of shelves (with lots of building help from everyone) as a suprise and after we get it all finished I'll post pics.
Sarah had her wisdom teeth out. It went well, very little swelling, and no need for the heavy pain pills.
All the stores are having seasonal clearance to make way for the spring clothes, so Sarah and I did lots of shopping. I did really well with my budget though and didn't go overboard. I got some way cute stuff but only if it was cheap.
Now that our insurace has kicked in I found a new pediatrician for Little John. He's great, he used to be head of peds at a big hospitals but went back to private practice because he likes it better. So poor Little John got all caught up on his shots and he's been under the weather since and pretty cranky.
5 out of 6 Hizers are born in March so we had the everybody birthday party this last weekend. It was lots of fun. We took advantage of the nice weather and BBQed until the wind drove us inside.
Sarah's ride back to college was in Salt Lake so Ben and I drove her down there for the rondevouz. We had to hang out there for a bit so I helped Sarah reveiw her anatomy flash cards. She's working on muscles right now. I was asking a lot of "identify the muscle that originates at... and inserts at... and does such and such" questions and while she'd think about it Ben would make random guesses. So Ben's last five guesses had been "your rump?" when the question "what is the insertion of the gluteous maximus" came up and I was waiting to tell him he'd guessed right when he said it again. But instead he says, with this funny look on his face, "Its called sex, and you should never, ever do it!" And his face goes all red. Sarah and I luaghed ourselves silly! And when we finally stop laughing he says "So what's a gluteus maximus anyway?" He had no idea it was a butt and we started laughing all over again.
I went to the chiropracter today (my first appointment was last week) and he worked out the whatever I did to my shoulder over the weekend. My mom talked me into going after my shoulder had been bothering me for a few weeks. I was kinda resistant to the idea, because some of those guys are quacks. But I googled the one my insurance said it covered in our area and picked the guy who did mostly sports injury stuff because he seemed very unquacky (so does his office partner). And he was very professional and none of this "I'll need to see you 3 times a week for 6 months ot fix it" stuff and no wonky promises like "I'll cure your athletes foot by feeling you skull". The day after I was pretty sore but overall much better. He also worked on my neck and lower back. He says I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders and I didn't realize it until I felt so much better afterwards. My back hasn't felt right since I was pregnant (which he says is really common) and it feels tons better now. So now I'm sold on chiropracters. I know a bunch of you have raved over how much good your's has done you but I had to try it to belive it.
So that catches us up to right this very second, so now I need to go do stuff to blog about.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Happy Belated birthday Rick
So we haven't been up to much lately, just normal everyday stuff. Diapers, groceries, bath time, ect. That's why I haven't blogged, nothing to blog. But we did something interesting this weekend so I thought I'd share. We went to Salt Lake to hang out with Rick for his birthday. His birthday was weeks ago but bad weather has kept us from getting together. So we checked out his new apartment and took him out to lunch at Famous Daves. We got a garbage can lid full of food and shared it all around and there was still enough for Rick to have some leftovers for lunch today. Then we went to a couple stores and walked off lunch. It was a good time. And the other interesting thing was that we talked in church last Sunday. We both spoke on the atonement and it went really well.
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