January 2009 5 years old
“Mom, I still love you even though I’m mad at you.”
“Dad do you have time to play?” you say while holding two swords.
“I’m in love with Caroline but I’m not going to marry her because she doesn’t go to our church. I’ll have to marry Rachel Franklin instead.”
As you point to a picture on a cereal box, “Mom, I like her because she has big breasts.”
We went to the indoor pool for Liza’s bday tradition as a family then to the mall to get her ears pierced, Left with a box of cinnabons, drove for Nana’s house to sleep there so me and the girls could leave for NYC in the morning. You shouted out in the car on the way to Nana’s house: “This day wins!”
What you wanted for Christmas: “a cool coat, a robot, a new sword, boots, a belt, bow and arrow, power ranger suit.”
You got all those plus: gloves, church clothes, pirate ship, sling shot, handcuffs, rubberband gun, 2 transformers, and of course the traditional set of books and activity books.
January 9, ‘09
You spiked up your hair, then said, “no one can defeat my Mohawk!”
I served flan for FHE treat (it was my turn to choose) no one liked it and you said, “mom I can’t eat this or else my heart will turn green!”
“If you want to get married, go to college. There’s LOTS of girls there.”
“When I’m a missionary, I’m going to teach early in the morning and not late at night. Do you think they will throw rocks at me?”
“Isaac, what’s your favorite temple?”
“The one you get married in.”
“Dad, I like living here on this earth, don’t you?”
“Yes Isaac, I do” I respond.
“No mom, I was talking to dad.”
You knocked down my picture frame . . .the 2nd one you broke in the last few months. “Don’t worry mom, I can fix it with my duck tape.”
I was sitting on the couch with one nostril plugged and making weird noises. Silently you got off the couch and got me a tissue.
Said to your friend Ethan, “Best friends are friends forever. Except for when they get married because they need to pick their wife. But sometimes they work together.”
“Mom! When you dip a ritz cracker into hot cocoa . . . IT . . .LOOKS . . .LIKE . . .BEEF!! Really! It does!!”
May ‘09
You really wanted something badly so you kept saying, “Please mom please! Mom please!” Then you stopped and asked, “Mom, what’s more polite than please?”
June 2009
“Mom, guess what! We went out in the middle of the road and we didn’t even get hit by a car!”
“I’m as hungry as cookie with no food!” (cookie is our bunny)
I was doing our morning reading with you. (I read a scripture story to you and you read a small book to me) and we say on one page for about 5 minutes with you just looking at the picture and not reading it yet. I tried my best to be patient waiting for you to read. Finally I said, “Isaac we’ve been on this page forever!” You replied solemley, “mom, forever is a long time.”
“My eyes goes crazy when I hear music I like, but my eyes try not to dance when I hear songs I don’t like.”
We were in the cafeteria at the girls school waiting for the school play to begin. A teacher with big glasses came in with a class following in a line behind him. You yelled loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear, “Hi, Mr. EYES! Hello Mr. Eyes! You-Hoo Mr. Eyes!” His whole class covered their mouths trying to suppress giggles. He looked right at you but you just continued waving and rocking in your chair. He came up and talked with you a few minutes later about keeping your toy sword in it’s sheath (which it was anyway). So I just think he had to come up with a reason to tell you something that would make him the authority. I thought it was funny anyway even if he didn’t.
July 1, 2009 5 yrs. old
“Mom, I’m just glad you’re not stoned.” (you say)
I’m not stoned . . .what do you mean? (Says mom)
“You know in the movie I watched”
What movie?
“You know with Wenlock”
Oh! You mean you’re glad I’m not turned to stone by Wenlock?
“Yeah. . .I’m glad you’re not stoned.”
(I Laugh) Isaac you make me laugh . . you bring happiness into my life.
“I know . . .that’s why you named me Isaac. That’s what my name just means.”
Which reminds me. . .You’ve been addicted to movies recently. You’re up before anyone else is even when you go to bed as late as me. There’s no way I need more sleep than you. You’ll be in the basement watching a movie before sunrise. As soon as you get home from Bar-T (for 2 weeks) you’re straight down into the basement movie watching until dinner. Immediately after dinner while the whole family is talking and playing, you’re right back down again. I don’t understand how you can be down there by yourself while the rest of the family is up here communicating and playing. Aren’t you lonely?. . .no one else does it. I had to take extreme measures since you’ve showed me you are having difficulties using moderation, and took away every movie. It’s a trial run and we’ll see what becomes of it after your withdraws. TV is not hooked up so without the movies it’s a blank screen. My goal is for you to get a full night’s sleep and to wire your brain to other things to think about. I’m noticing a difference with just you when I’m reading or teaching and you cannot focus. We’ll just do our 1x/week kids’ netflix movie as it comes in the mail instead of every second from the time you wake up. You’re random comments to me are always about movies. “Mom, He-man is really strong” “Mom, the giant said, what’s scrawny mean?” You told me these in the last hour which is proving to me your brain is thinking and interpreting through the movies. We’ll see.
This last school year was great with you. I taught you how to read. You know all your phonics sounds, 3 letter words as well as sight words. You’ll really be ahead starting Kindergarten. I’m so proud of you. We also read the scripture readers everyday. What a wonderful boy you’ve been for me to enjoy all to myself while the girls were in school all day. I’ll never get that year back so I’m glad I fully took advantage of it with you and made sure we did your “pegs” before anything else. (Pegs: one on one time with you- I read you scripture reader, you practice your reading, our prayer, I read you a fun book.) This came before my morning workout or talking on the phone. I’m so grateful Heavenly Father blessed me by telling me to do this with you this year. I wonder what he’ll want me to do with you next year. As for the summer my answer regarding you was “hide the movies”. Lol. P.S. they are called “pegs” because we used to have a peg board on the wall one peg for each assignment. You’d put in the peg as you completed each one.
We were dropping off the girls to gymnastics when you saw a no parking sign. “Mom, that sign says, Don’t Pee here. I laughed and laughed. Then you said that sign that has 2 p’s says Don’t pee pee here. (There were 2 no parking signs side by side).
You’re very much into clothing. You wear a tee shirt tucked into your pants everyday with a belt like daddy does. I found some under shirts in the underwear section that were super hero’s. I bought a package of 3 including batman, spiderman and superman and you rotate them everyday as day wear tee shirts. No one knows they’re underwear though because I got them in a size 8 as 100% cotton tee shirts to fit nice a loose instead of tight like underwear would be. Don’t forget the winter boots which I continually hide and somehow you end up finding them.
You got into a fight at bar-T yesterday. All the boys in your group were attacking the counselor and you didn’t like it. . .or you thought the counselor didn’t like it so you attacked the other boys. One boy retaliated on you and you bit him on the arm. You and that boy got sent to the office. Before you told me you said, “you promise not to get mad at me?”
July 15, 2009
(‘Wolverine’ action hero) has knives sticking out of his wrists and ankles so he can climb walls.)
You had a big toe nail hanging off about to come off and you told me “Look I’m Wolverine, isn’t that cool?”
August 9, 2009
I took you to the doctor’s today. . .you had a high fever and sore throat come suddenly at church. You wore your winter boots with boxer shorts and an undershirt to the doctor and when he asked you what was wrong you said with a very serious expression, “I have tonsils.” Then you told him the story all dramatically how, “I was in church in class and was sobbing! It felt like a knife was jabbing right here through my throat! My head hurt especially when I jumped up and down. I am the one here with the appointment and all I need is the pink medicine.” The doctor laughed and replied, “you are a character. Then lifted you up on the table saying. . you are too much.” All the nurses and doctors there complimented you on your boots.
Kindergarten Father’s blessing:
“You’re going to do well in your academics, you’ll find joy and have fond memories, you’ll be a leader, be a good example for learning and obeying. Be kind and Heavenly Father will be very pleased. You’ll be safe and protected. Always know you are loved. You’ll learn lots this year.”
September 2009
You’re ready and anxious for school. All seems well except you’re telling me things you are aghast at. Someone “punched” your superman symbol on your shirt. You couldn’t believe they would do that. On the first day of school you wouldn’t let me walk you to your class as I was obligated to. You told me no because I never did with the girls. I dropped you off at the circle then raced around back to see if you had gotten lost. I pinned your name and teacher to your bookbag just in case. Sure enough, I couldn’t find you so I looked in your classroom and there you were sitting at a desk hard at work. You later told me when I asked how you got there, that YOU showed the lady that found you where your class was.
“Mom, I’m not strong like dad. He can lift up a house with one hand but I can’t.”
“Really, I’ve never seen him do that.” I say.
“Neither have I but that’s just because he doesn’t want to frighten all the children in the house.”
September 11, 2009 6 yrs old!
We had your friend birthday party on your actually bday Friday after school. It was a costume party, you dressed up as spider man and got a web shooter for a present. Spiderman cake and a treasure hunt. It was a hunt of the super friends looking for Joker who hid the treasure and you had to solve his riddles to find it. The riddles were nursery rhymes that you filled in the blank. Rub a dub dub three men in a . . .. Then you ran to the tub to find the next clue. The candy was in a big pile in the basement. We also played pin the tale on the donkey. Otherwise you were all just a bunch of dressed up superheros running around the house acting tough and didn’t need any organized games.
November 6, 2009
You are very proud of the fact that dad calls you to read during scripture study. You are the first one with your scriptures out and want to know where we are. You also anticipate me reading to you everyday from the book Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. You think of yourself as Peter. I’m quite impressed you follow the story line and can predict what’s going to happen next. You were Robin for Halloween and were so funny in line at the school parade because you were making fighting moves the whole time.
You have been very involved in drawing and art. That’s what you do all day after school for several days now. You have drawn spiderman, superman and batman all framed and hung on the wall. You say you want to be an artist when you grow up and sell your paintings. Today you made a “ctr ring” out of paper. We put our finger through it with the art work sticking up. Daddy tried it on and you told him, “Dad wear it tomorrow at work all day and don’t get any blood on it, okay?”
December 4, 2009
Instead of saving your papers that have one sentence on it, I thought it would be more space efficient to just write the sentences down. It shows your thought process and your confidence in yourself. The underlined word is the word you had to use in a sentence:
“I thenk that your mi fred.” “I think that you are my friend.”
“I like my food.”
“I like me bekuss I lluff mi fress.” “I like me because I love my friends.”
“I like to see the pond.”
“I see mui dads res.” “I see my dads rings.” (gymnastics rings)
“I am 6. I see a frog. I like Ben.”
“Hevenle Fothr mad me.” “Heavenly Father made me.”
“I lik me bekuss I haf a loos tooth. “I like me because I have a loose tooth.”
“I am gut at macen pesu.” “I am good at making pizza.”
“I wet to my gramas hws.” “I went to my grandma’s house.”
“I like to pla with Justin and we pla at the park.”
December 7, ‘09
Ben had eaten 3 of Emma’s nativity calendar chocolates. She was crying and sad. You grabbed your calendar and told her, “here take as many as you need”. She did so gladly. It really made her day and you were so mature about it. You weren’t boasting about it at all or even repeating it for praise. You just did it and I happened to overhear you. Emma came and told me about it even though I knew too. She admired you for doing so. She got something she owned that she knew you wanted and wrapped it up and put it under the tree. Probably because she was feeling warm and grateful towards you. When Santa asked if you were a good boy you hesitated and he told you to do and try better. I wanted to scream. . .Santa you don’t know what you’re talking about. . . He’s a VERY good boy! (TOO good)
Dec 14th, ‘09
Tonight at dinner time, you mentioned your friend Daniel was sad because his mom was due with his baby sister on Christmas and would be in the hospital during that time instead of with him. You told us you reassured him that it was actually good because his mom was like Mary and that his new sister was like Jesus and that he was very lucky. You told us that’s when your teacher told you that “we don’t talk about that stuff in school.” It mad you feel bad and we told you we were proud of you. If fact, we were all going
to let our light shine by going to the store that FHE night and buying a T-shirt that shows who we are. So all the kids got one that said, Joy to the World the Lord is come. Dad got one with the lyrics of a song and mine said put the Christ in Christmas. You were a good example to the whole family living Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed in the gospel of Christ, for it is that power of God unto salvation, for everyone that believeth. . .”
THEN. . .while we were at the Christian book store purchasing these (which were on a serious sale BTW because it’s so close to Christmas $3.50/shirt) you bought a snow globe with your own money (all the money you had $2) and then went over to Iris’ house and gave it to her because it was her birthday yesterday and you wanted to give her a present. Everyone kept insisting you keep it for yourself and the parents gave it back and when you saw we had it you grabbed it and ran back to her house and gave it to her again. What an example you were to their family (who just had a missionary discussion the night before with us )
Dec. 19, ‘09
“Dad, how do you spell TV?”
Dec 21, ‘09
You were tackling Ben with your mouth right on his. . .kissing him. I took you off and said, “stop, that’s nasty.” You replied with all seriousness, “Yeah, well you are nasty to dad.” After laughing (for a long time)
I said, “no it’s special when your married, but to your brother, it’s nasty.”
December 25, ‘09
What you wanted was a spiderman, batman and superman costume.
What you got was: you traditional books, batmobile, spiderman mobile, sword and sheath, new arrows to your boss bow, belt, hot wheel track, sleeping bag, grandma Harris made an apron with your name on it. Your spiderman costume is on it’s way on backorder so you didn’t get it on Christmas morning. Oh well.
Nana gave you a remote control car.
Jan ‘10
The UPS guy dropped a package off to our neighbors and you opened up the door and yelled, “wait! Is that my spiderman and batman suit?” (you thought he was giving it to the wrong house.) The poor guy did not understand, and came closer for you to ask again and you replied, “It’s from the north pole.” He replied, well then it should have gotten to you on Christmas.” You said, I know but he must be late because I asked Santa for all three suits and I only got a superman one. I’m waiting for the others to come.” The UPS man was laughing and assured you he’ll bring it to you and that the neighbors had nothing good.” I guess I’m going to have to order you a couple suits from ebay from Santa.
Feb ’10 6yrs old
We told you we are moving to Hawaii and after showing you where it is on the map and pictures online you said to me when I was putting you to bed that night, “mom, I’m afraid we can’t live in Hawaii.” Why not?” I ask. “Because, when I was in church they told me not to build your house on the sand.”
March 2010
“Mom, I’m not going where you think I’m going this morning.” (school) “They always say something! Like Mrs. Leher says, ‘You don’t always get what your way’, and then she goes and just always gets her way!”
Nana and Papa gave you a piece of gum. You took it and before you popped it into your mouth you asked, “If I eat this will I turn into a grandma or a grandpa?”
March 2010
“Mom, is there such thing as Leprecon?”
“No.”
“Then how does the milk turn green?”
“A Leprecon touches it”
“huh?”
“Now do you get it?”
“I think I do. . . .”
(Ah ha I thought, progress”
“The girl I saw handing out leprecon coins is the leprecon.”
“Mom, I’m glad I’m a boy.”
You’ve been scared at night since your nightmare about wasps. Dad had to give you a blessing and then the next night you still said you didn’t feel safe in your room. Dad blessed your room and you’ve been feeling better ever since.
April ‘10
Mom, since my name means laughter, I told Heavenly Father to tell me whenever he wants to laugh then I will make him laugh.
We went into the post office and I set down a box and the whole thing opened up and crashed onto the floor. Everyone turned their heads and the worker post woman said, “Was that you making all that noise? Wow I’m awake now!” Everyone laughed at her comment. You responded with yelling out, “hey! what are you an Issac girl?” It was silent. You turned to me and asked, “mom, why didn’t anyone laugh when I said that?” I responded with “because not everyone remembers that Isaac means laughter.” You turned back around and yelled out, “Isaac means laughter!” Then you got your laugh.
You remind me so much of dad. When we were getting our house ready to sell, dad was going through his tool shelf and took out cans of spray paint from the garbage and said, “no, I think the people moving in will want my spray paint, I’ll leave it right here on the shelf.”
“Mom, my teacher told me that it was impossible, but I told her, ‘with God nothing is impossible.’
April ‘10
I looked at your classwork where you had to write a sentence using the word ‘why’ and you had written down, “Why is my mom pregat?” (pregnant) You said your teacher asked if I was pregnant and you told her no.
“Mom, remember when I took a quarter to peel off my wart and then I used that quarter to go and buy a popsicle?”
While we were at a pond feeding geese: “Mom, I feel a speck of happiness in my heart. It makes me smile. Like this. (You smiled half way on one side of your face with your mouth closed) I told you that’s how the holy ghost feels.
We are living with Nana while we sell our house. Every time the cucu clock goes off you go running to it because you want to see the bird. You’re never home (or in bed) during the long hours so you always miss it.
After listening to the story in the car about Jesus walking on water I hear you in the back whisper to yourself, “Jesus is amazing.” Then later that day you tell me Uncle Brian is amazing because he can free R2D2 from the wii.
After talking about the analogy in the car for a very long time about how Jesus said, “drink my living water and you will never thirst again” you interrupt my long monologue with, “mom your emptying my cup. Can you just turn on the tape now?”
We were just getting back from the dr.’s office and pulled up to the school. School was just getting out and both the girls ran in just to grab their homework. As kids started filing out to be picked up from their parents they saw you and all said enthusiastically, “hi, Isaac!” I pointed it out to you with a question since you didn’t seem to be responding to them as you were playing a game on my blackberry. “Why is everyone saying hi to you?” You responded not even looking up from the phone with the typical, “Because they miss me.” And then added on, “and because I’m the best.”
July 12, 2010 (We just moved to Hawaii)
“Mom, may I wear my Ting-Tong outside?” (tank-top)
You may a new friend named Mathias here and calling out to him you yelled, “Hey, Hibiscus!”
July 26th 2010
Dad has been into the movie, “Avitar the last airbender.” He’s been turning it on via internet with 20 minute animation at a time. The last episode had ‘canyon crawlers’ in it which were spiders that attacked the good guys. (of course they were as big as a house and totally fake looking cartoon). But. . .you came to my room at midnight scared of spiders crawling on you. You hopped into bed with me. So there I was stuck in between my 2 boys half awake. About 3am I feel something crawling on my neck. I swat at it and jumped right out of bed and flip on the light hoping to see it. I don’t. So I urgently say, “come on Isaac time to go to your own bed,” You reply, “Is it morning or something?” Dad whines, “turn off the light!!” I tell you I just turned on the light so you could see your way upstairs. As you were on your way up the stairs I tell dad something was crawling on my neck. He responded, “You’re just like Isaac, turn off the light!” So I turn off the light and tuck you back into bed. I come back downstairs to my room and stand at the foot of the bed not sure what happened. Suddenly, Dad bolts straight up out of bed screaming, “there it is, there it is!!!” He grabbed a medical text book and wacked it a couple times. I flushed it and asked Ja, so what did you learn from all this (expecting him to say he’s not going to let you watch airbender anymore. But instead he said, “to always believe you” I’m NOT going to tell you this story until you’re older but I wanted you to know I saved your life!!
Aug 14, ‘10
Ben walked by and stated, “I’m the Avitar!” You took your green snake and bit him with it. “There,” you said, “I killed you while you were in your avatar state. Serves you right, Aang.”
You kept coming downstairs long after we put you to bed telling us you couldn’t sleep. At first it was just an annoyance and also figured getting to sleep in a new place is difficult at first, but then after the 4th week I began to wonder. I was thoughtful about it and figured since it was hot here w/no AC on (in HI ) on the top bunk, I asked dad to separated the bunks that night. You were a happy camper and went right to sleep.
I was sure proud of you. You wanted an Aang airbending stick at walmart and I refused to buy this overpriced item for just a stick. You decided to earn some by cooking up a bake sale. You made rice krispie treats and brownies. You made $10. You gave one to tithing and then to me to pay me for the ingredients. The next day you broke a few packages of crayons. I asked whoever did this needs to pay me for it. You spoke up and confidently gave me a dollar for it. I was proud of you and feeling bad but knew you learned good life lessons from it too.
Who do you want to invite to your birthday party? (We just moved here and really don’t know many people yet) “I want to invite Nana.” “Awww. . .She’s coming for Christmas but she can’t come anymore being too far away” “Okay then, just Holly.”
“I can invite Ashley even though she’s a girl because she looks nice and pretty” (I told Nana and she mailed you a stuffed animal Holly. You and Ben cherish that thing more than I thought! You refer it it as real. You and Ben play as if you are both taking care of her. You are dressing her up for Halloween and take her in the car everywhere.)
September 11, 2010
You turned 7 and only had a few weeks to get to know 4 friends before inviting them. We made avatar invitations by cutting out a big construction paper arrow with the information on it. Your cupcakes all had 4 candies on it representing the 4 elements. Marshmallow was air, hot tamale for fire, sweedish fish for water and gummy worm for earth. You picked a lemon cake box mix. First we water bended with a slip ‘n slide and water balloons. Then we earth bended with a relay race using rocks. Then we fire bended using the grill. I pushed ignite at the same time you motioned your hands to make it look like fire. Then we cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on it. Then we air bended with the piñata stick. The candy and toys in the piñata were the goody bags and we were good to go.
“When I grow up I’m going to have a food store, live in a normal house, make giant jelly beans and sell them at 5 for 5 cents. That would be a good idea because that would not be a rip off. Then you my friend, mommy could come and buy as much as you want.” This was after we had come home from Walmart and you had looked at the candy machines at 25 cents each.
There’s a teenage kid on our street who is in our ward. He has a skin disease that makes him appear blotchy. You called him Dalmation tonight and it didn’t even register in my brain that it was name calling about his skin. I just thought you to had some inside joke with him about an incident that I didn’t know about. Then it clicked tonight and I talked to you about it and going over to apologize. You told me God told you to say it. Hmmmm. You’re still going over there and asking him his
November 27, 2010
I just got the news about daddy leaving for Afghanistan. He had told me over the phone and hadn’t gotten home yet. I was pretty solemn at dinner time. While the girls were bickering you looked over at me looking dazed and said, “Mom, you look like you need some love.” You got down off the bench, walked around the table and straddled me on my lap. Everyone became silent as they watched you sit there hugging me with a few kisses on my cheek for several minutes straight. It was all I could do to not break into tears. I had to be strong for you and you were being strong for me. I was very very touched and I know I’ll remember that the rest of my life. Thank you for being so perceptive towards others.
“Mom did the girls make you laugh before I was born?” Sure they made me laugh. “But not as much as me huh? You had me because you decided you needed to get some laughter in your life.”
“Mom, you are the best mom in the world. Do you think there is a mom in the world better than you? I like making you laugh.”
December 2010 I had a piece of paper in the car with writings of your quotes complied of the month:
“I wonder why I hate the highway. Maybe because it clogs up my ears.”
“Sometimes I like to say, ‘This is the life’ but then I get embarrassed.”
“I wonder why when your mad and someone tries to make you smile, then you hide your smile.”
“I’m glad you’re my mom. Mom, would any other mom be as good as you? Mom, I like to make you laugh.”
“Mom do boys like showing off to the girl they want to marry? Sometimes I feel that way.”
“Now I LIKE being called cute!”
“Sometimes boys have to act like girls, even though we get embarrassed, but we do it anyway.”
Christmas 2010
You got a remote control helicopter, 5 books, nerf gun, spiderman costume, iron man costume, light saber and action figure, iron man car and figure.
3-21-11 7yrs.
We were on the bus in CA going to the Jelly bean Factory when you were looking out the window and commented, "mom, why when you look at new things, you don't get bored?"
When we got off the bus you headed toward the hotel saying, "I have jedi senses" as you ran into a car's rearview mirror.
As we visited with Daddy's family, you wouldn't even go near a couple of his sisters. Valerie and Brittney you stayed away from and wouldn't give them a hug or even sit next to them. You told me it was because you were embarraseed to be around them and I asked you if you had butterflies in your tummy. You answered, "no I just feel floppy around them." Later you asked Liza if she gets butterflies in her tummy around boys. (She answered no.)
Your prayer was cute tonight:
Please help mom not to give death by kisses anymore because it's getting annoying but she can still do a kissing tower. And I hope that your son, Jesus, is doing good. And please help Eliza to close her eyes during the prayer. . .
4-16-11
I just got back from running errands and asked dad if he needed lunch. He replied, "No, I'm good." I answered to come over and eat some anyways. He came over and I told him to sit down and eat his tofu soup even though he hates tofu. He sat right down and started eating. You stopped what you were doing and slammed down your hands on the stools in between us and said in a loud, high-pitched voice, "Who's in charge of this house here? You or mommy? I thought you were the boss dad." We laughed and I said, "someone has to take care of dad the way he takes care of us."
