religious instruction from Porter and Dallin

The following statements/discussions have occurred in our home:

(1) Porter to Dallin after Dallin's blew away, "Dallin, don't worry about your balloon, just worry about yourself. Jesus will catch your balloon and give it you when you die."

(2) Porter: "Mom, what would Heavenly Father do to me if I cut Dallin in half and he died."
Mom: Heavenly Father would probably make you go live with Satan if you killed your brother."
Porter: "No, Heavenly Father loves me so much he wouldn't make me stay with Satan."

(3) Porter was behaving badly at a restaurant the other day. He told me that he was choosing Satan.

(4) Dallin and Porter were asking me about my dad. Dallin asked if I was sad that my dad was dead (yes) and Porter said that it is weird that my dad doesn't know that I am grown up because he can't see me. I told them that my dad probably knows that I am grownup, that he still watches me from Heaven. Dallin now thinks he can see my dad's eyeballs in the sky, watching us.

(5) Porter learned about baptism on Sunday. We asked him how old you have to be to be baptized. He said 8. We asked him who can baptize you. He said your dad. I asked who else. Dallin said, your mom and Porter agreed. I explained that moms can't because they don't have the priesthood. Joe asked who could baptize you if your dad wasn't around. Porter said you would have to wait for him to come home. Joe said, what if your dad was dead? Porter said you would have to wait for for a very long time. Dallin then said that your mom could do it.

(6) Dallin has really been enjoying his sunbeam class. He has such good teachers and every week he can give us a pretty good approximation of what he learned. This week he learned about the "animals" and "the boat" (Porter then reminded him that it was the ark). He learned about plants a couple of weeks ago and planted a pea plant. He sets it outside for 5 minutes at a time to make sure it gets enough sun. He also learned about water one week. He carried around a water bottle of water his teacher gave him for two weeks, and showed it off to everyone.

(7) Dallin thinks that he should yell his prayers as quickly as he can.

steps

This has been a good week for Porter and Dallin. On Tuesday they had gymnastics. Dallin went all by himself. For the past couple of weeks, he has refused to go unless Porter comes to help him. This week, he happily went and did everything. Porter too had a good week in gymnastics. He hasn't liked his new class. It is much harder than the old one and most of the kids seem better then him (they have been in this class longer). This week though, Porter did most of the skills pretty well. I almost cried I was so happy to see him do a good back bend. Here is a picture of him showing one off at home. Dallin also used the potty multiple times today without wetting his diaper in between. After the third time in the bathroom, he turned to me and said, "are you so proud of me?" Yes I am. Keep it up Dallin.

This is a picture of Porter and Dallin hanging around the living room. They decided to take off their shirts for some reason and sit around like this.

dinosaur park

we went to the dinosaur park in Ogden on Thursday with Grandma, Aunt Megan, and cousins Jack and Afton. Porter and Dallin still love dinosaurs

new talent

Porter is learning to blow bubbles with his gum

Here is Dallin wearing a helmet (I think it is a paintball helmet)

love bug

yesterday, I called Porter, "Honey" while we were in the car. Porter asked me why I always call him, "honey." I said it was because he was sweet and loved him. We call people things like "honey" and "sweetheart" when we love them. He reminded me that I don't usually call him "sweetheart." That is what I call Dallin. I asked him if he doesn't like being called "honey" and what he would like me to call him. He said I can call him whatever I want but that he really likes "love bug." He has never really seemed to care about such things before and I never would have guessed that he liked to be called "love bug." It particularly annoys Joe when I call the boys names with "bug" in them so I try not to use those nicknames. I will have to try to remember to call Porter "love bug." I wonder what Dallin likes to be called.

We went to the mall yesterday to see the Easter Bunny. At first, Dallin went up to Easter Bunny and gave his little shy smile. He didn't want to sit on Easter Bunny's lap, but he did talk to him and hold his hand. He also hugged Easter Bunny and gave him a high five. Porter would not even get close to Easter Bunny. Later, he regretted it because he wanted to tell Easter Bunny what he wanted for Easter. We went back after we ate lunch (there was no one else in line so it wasn't too much of a hassle to go back). I was not allowed to listen. I had to stand back where I couldn't hear. Then Porter went and sat on Easter Bunny's lap and told him that he wanted the Transformers toys and Star Wars legos. Dallin just waved to Easter Bunny this second time.

go between

Porter has gotten himself a spokesman. It is Dallin. It started a couple of days ago. Porter has been obsessing about getting a pack of toys he saw at Sears while we were shopping for a fridge. Multiple times a day, Porter will ask me to go get the transformers pack of toys for him. He talks about it constantly. He has not been successful in persuading us to get him the toy so he turned to Dallin. On Monday, I heard Porter tell Dallin that he had a secret for him. A few minutes later, Dallin came into my room and told me that I needed to buy Porter the new toy. Since then, in addition to constantly bothering me about the toy, Porter has sent Dallin to speak for him. Dallin tells us that Porter has to go to the bathroom, that Porter wants me to come into his room, that Porter can't find his nerf sword, etc. Dallin does all of this at the direction of Porter. Dallin spends a lot time running between Porter's room and the other rooms in the house, delivering Porter's missives. Dallin seems happy with his position as Porter's page.

can't sleep

Joe decided to work on making the boys go to sleep on their own and stay in their bed all night. He bought them each a toy and told them that he would take it away from them for one day if they came to get me at all at night. The first night, I tucked them in and they were very worried about being left in their bed alone. I told them to just try for two songs (they listen to a Primary CD to go to sleep). After a few minutes, both boys came out with tears in their eyes. They both had their new toys with them. Dallin handed his toy to Joe and said, "Mom, you come with us." Joe tried to talk Porter out of it. He reminded Porter that he would have to give up his toy. Porter thought about it for a minute, handed the toy to Joe, took my hand, and we headed off his room. Porter and Dallin have not had their toys back since.

Dallin saw me writing. He wants to write his own name. dallin montague (I helped him spell Montague, but he knows how to type Dallin, all on his own) Now Dallin wants to type some more words: dad mom unclejacob holly juice cup superman

Now Porter wants to write: porter batman gorilla grodd 1234567890

all the news

It has been a little while since I last blogged. It has been a busy time around here the last couple of weeks. Work has been particularly bad lately and I have been going 4 days a week the last three weeks (which may not sound like a lot, but I am frequently working 10 to 12 hour days and I still bring work home). The boys aren't happy about this, but hopefully, it will ease up a bit soon. Also, our fridge broke and we have been dealing with that. A repairman came this morning to look at it and it is not worth fixing. I think it broke on Tuesday. By Wednesday night, it was clear that it was no good anymore and we had throw out everything in it. Ugh. We are all getting tired of eating cereal without milk and soup. I hate picking out new things like this but it must be done. Tomorrow, we will buy a new one for sure. Then we can buy groceries again. Hooray.
Also this week, we switched our gymnastics schedule. Porter has moved up to a new class, which makes him very nervous (the kids in his new class are very good, but he will come around). Now we go on Tuesday nights. Joe started playing indoor soccer and his games are right after gymnastics. We went to watch the first one on Tuesday. Porter and Dallin kept up constant noise while we watched. Sometimes they were jumping and yelling. Mostly they were commenting on the game. I know everyone around us was pretty amused to hear, "Dad isn't doing very good. He hasn't gotten any goals." and "Dad is wearing a red shirt and blue shorts." Dallin then announced really loudly that he had pooped in his diaper (if only I could get that child to use the potty). I took him to change his diaper and Porter came in every 30 seconds to give us an update, "Dad got kicked out of the game" . . . "Dad is just resting" . . . "someone else is resting now." Porter wants to play soccer now.
Porter had a field trip to the Museum of Natural History at the U on Monday. He has been there once before and so he considers himself something of an expert (the other kids had never been there before). Aside from his natural shyness, he said that he couldn't show the other kids around because they had to follow the teacher. He said that they drove by the courthouse on the way there and he told the kids sitting around him that it was my work. Unfortunately, someone else's mom works at Chuck-e-cheese and another one has a mom who purportly works at LegoLand (either there is a miscommunication or this mom doesn't live with her kids) and so Porter wins no coolness points with my lame job. I hadn't signed him up for the field trip (because I didn't know about it) so there was some concern that Porter wouldn't be able to go. Luckily, they called Joe and he gave permission (which was no small feat because the daycare people are afraid of Joe for some reason). After that near-miss, Porter makes me check at the front desk every morning when I drop them off to make sure that there aren't any field trips planned for that day.
Lately at daycare (and probably with kids everywhere), the mean thing to do is to tell someone that you are not their friend (it also happens at our house all the time. You know that someone is really upset with you when they are not your friend anymore). Porter's favorite little friend at daycare tells him this at least once a week. It kind of breaks my heart to think of someone hurting his feelings, especially when Porter tells me about these things and truly doesn't understand why his friend would say that to him.
Porter has been lucky in friendship thus far. When we first moved here, Vanessa lived across the street from us and she and Porter were the best of friends for about two years, until she moved away. Even though she sometimes bossed him around, etc. It was generally a good relationship for both of them. They consistently loved each other and wanted to play together. Meanwhile, at daycare, Porter started a friendship with one little girl named Marissa. At daycare, they were always together. Porter still remembers dancing around the classroom with her. As he got older, he got another friend named Gabriel. Again, it was a mutually beneficial relationship. When we would get to daycare in the morning, if Porter's class was outside, Gabriel would run to the fence and he and Porter would start whispering to each other and giggling. When Gabriel moved up to the four year old class before Porter, it broke Porter's heart. It apparently had the same affect on Gabriel. The staff had to bring them to play together for a little while everyday so that they would be okay. When Gabriel stopped coming to daycare (I don't know why), Porter was devastated. Even though it was more than a year ago, Porter still wishes that Gabriel would come back. He did find a new friend though, named Sage. Sage was also a sweet little boy, who was always excited to see Porter. If Porter was upset about coming to daycare, Sage would come up to him and try to hug him and see if he could make Porter feel better, he yelled at the other kids for laughing at Porter once when he fell out of his chair, etc.
But now, it seems that Porter has outgrown Sage and has moved to this new friend. I know the new friend is just a little boy and I shouldn't be upset. I also know that I am only hearing Porter's point of view and I know that he is pretty sensitive and can blow things out of proportion but I hate that he hurts Porter's feelings so often. I wish that Porter was the kind of kid who can handle more than one or two friends at a time so that he wouldn't take it so hard when this one little boy is tired of him or just doesn't want to play. This is part of the reason that I decided that Porter should go to school in our neighborhood and not at the daycare's kindergarten or at a charter school. There are a couple of kids that Porter plays with a bit in the neighborhood and I think they will be better friends for Porter than what he has right now at daycare. Plus, this will give him a chance to meet more kids who live nearby.
Dallin's age group is also not immune to this defriending business. I know that the kids all spend so much time together that they are often more like siblings than friends and so I understand that even the best of friends can have fights. Dallin has finally found a best friend all his own. Until recently, Porter was his best friend and Dallin considered Porter's friends his friends. Now Dallin has Koen. Dallin talks of nothing but Koen at home. About the things Koen wears, what Koen ate for lunch, Koen and Dallin's efforts to avoid someone at daycare who is mean to them, etc. Dallin has other friends too and he seems to like them and play with them but Koen is his favorite. Again, it is clearly mutual. Once, when I dropped Dallin off, several of the kids came over to talk to him and, like a little bodyguard, Koen shooed them all away, saying that Dallin was his friend. Anyway, the other day, Koen must have gotten mad at Dallin for something because he told Dallin that he was not his friend anymore. It hurt Dallin's feelings so much that he told Koen that he would have to have soap in his mouth for saying naughty things to him. Luckily, Dallin and Koen were reconciled by the next morning.