OCEAN

In psychology, I find one of the most interesting theories from a parent's point of view to be the Five Factor Model (FFM). Basically, it states that children are born with some quantity of five personality traits. They are: Openness (to new experiences), Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. A parent with good "goodness of fit" will alleviate any negative characteristics. For example, a very disagreeable child will be taught, by good parents, to be more agreeable. A poor goodness of fit will have a neurotic child with an emotionally unstable parent, thus aggravating the neuroticism of the child.

I have never been really open to new experiences. Instead of going to college and playing soccer in Texas, I went to the U, for example. I often choose a safer -- or lazier -- route. At least, this is my perception of me. Therefore, when my kids want to sleep outside at 3 and 5, I want to say no, sleep in your own beds. It will be scary, you will want to come inside, you won't go to sleep.

For the record, I WAS RIGHT.

Not that Zane's openness to new experiences that encourages him to say "yes, get a sleeping bag" is bad. In fact, I think it's really good. It pushes both me and the kids to open ourselves up to things we might not otherwise do. But last night, Mama was right. Boo ya.

Happy Birthday Baby

Two years ago today my baby was born. Little Raiden. Today, he's not so little. He can talk -- hearing him say "awesome sauce" is as precious as it comes -- and walk and loves books and to tickle his mommy. Today we went to a birthday party for Sabrina's friend at Clearfield Aquatic Center. Raiden was tired and not really excited about the water, so he snuggled with me for, oh, about 90 minutes. So sweet. Then he got into it, walking around and splashing and basically continuing to be precious.

It makes me a little sad to have my last child getting so big (although I can't wait until he is potty trained!) because babies are so sweet and snuggly. I will definitely miss having babies around. But when they are bigger and more capable, they are their own type of amazing, not the more generic amazing of new babies. I'm falling more in love with my baby every day.

Oy with the Poodles!

On this anniversary (tomorrow!) of my first day of chemo, I'd like to formally announce that I love my hair. On my head. This dark (mostly) curly stuff that makes me look like a poodle? Yup, delighted to have it. When my LCD projector is on and I'm standing in front of my SmartBoard and I can see the unruly locks? Love it. The poofs over my ears? The unpleasant bed head after I take a nap (you don't have this problem with long hair)? The slightly flat spot over my cowlick in back? The strange wave over my cowlick in front that NO ONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT? All a very small price to pay for having it in existance!

Also, can't wait for haircut #2 since chemo on Tuesday. Just sayin'.

C'mon Summer!

I am SO READY for the end of the school year. So of course these last weeks are proceeding at glacial speed. Where's global warming when you need it? We've been doing individual and group projects at school, so at least I don't have to actually teach. /shudder One of my mantras that I've used for years is "there will come the time." There will come the time when school is over, or chemo is done, or the baby is born. There will come the time. And you know what? It's true.

Sabrina has started her martial arts classes. She's taking something called Merpati (mp, pronounced em-pay), which is from Indonesia. She is so cute in her little black pajamas with a white belt knotted around her tiny waist. The best part of this class is that they give them awards for doing a checklist, which includes stuff like making your bed, putting away your dirty clothes, taking a bath, doing your homework, and cooperating with your siblings. Sabrina has never been so eager to put her bowl up after breakfast! We'll do this for six months, then see where we are. We do want her to take gymnastics, horse riding lessons, piano, ice skating, soccer, basketball, art classes, reading classes, etc., as well as learn to ride a bike, get As in school, have fun with friends, get her Personal Progress at 13, and so on. No, we don't expect her to sleep. Overrated.

Poor Baby

On Wednesday, I took Sasha and Sabrina to Sabrina's martial art class. Zane came later, with Raiden. I kept thinking something was different about Raiden, but it took me a new perspective to see it. When I was holding him, he arched backward and I could see...nothing. Where there should be...a tooth. Well, half a tooth. The bottom half of his front right tooth, to be precise.

I took Raiden back to his daycare to see what the heck the deal was. After some investigation, they told me Raiden was walking around with his arms inside his overalls (cute!) when he tripped and fell on his face (bad). They said he cried but stopped when they picked him up. There was no blood. The workers said he was rolling around on the floor whining more than usual, but rolling around on the floor whining is what he does when he's tired, hungry, or mad. I know.

On Thursday, Zane took Raiden to the dentist, who was impressed with how he managed to crack the tooth in three places. To fix it, he first gave Raiden some sort of drug via nasal spray. Within seconds, Raiden was laughing and roaring (roooaaaarr! rooooaaarr!). At least he's a happy drunk. He was less happy when they strapped him into a papoose board and drilled away at his tooth and put the crown on. While Zane was telling me this story I was sorry I wasn't there during the roooaaaarrr part of the story, but the blood everywhere/screaming baby part? Yeah, I'm happy not to have been at that part.

Raiden seems to be fine now. He happily continues to ruin his bite by sucking on his fingers and has been eating just fine. Still, this is the first dental emergency of my motherhood. Problem passed!

Happy birthday Spencer!

Okay, I know I'm...two-ish weeks late, but Spencer is now officially a teenager! I had a birthday present plan for months, but in typical fashion (I have CANCER, okay?) I didn't put the present plan into effect until it was too late.

The most popular toy among the junior high set right now is the kendama. It's a little wooden toy that looks like a hammer with a wooden ball attached with a string.

The point is to toss the ball up and catch it on one of the two ends of the hammer, the handle, or "spike" the ball on the top of the hammer. This is tough, because obviously you have to get the ball positioned just perfectly.

A few weeks before Spencer's birthday, I asked him if he knew what kendamas were. Yes, he said scornfully. They're dumb. I asked him if he'd ever tried one. No. Well.

Spencer doesn't like to try new things much, and even less if he thinks he might look stupid. And I'll tell you, the first time you try a kendama you look stupid! So of course he hadn't tried one. I decided to get him one anyway. 16,000 students at Snowcrest can't all be wrong!

Two students from the aforementioned Snowcrest were selling kendamas at Valley Market the day before Easter (when it was already past Spencer's birthday. Bad me). Sasha chose the color: orange. I think this must be his favorite color; he picked orange fingernail polish for me for Christmas. We gave it to Spencer the next weekend. The weekend in which it barely left his side. The weekend after which it left our house, since Spencer took it back to his mom's house with him.

I only have one word for this gift: score.

Kindergarten Program

Sabrina's kindergarten program was today, held at the extremely convenient time of 10:00. I mean, everyone is a stay-at-home mom, right? Fortunately, the program was a) during my prep and b) very short, so I could go without too much pain. Hooray!

Basically, the program went like this. Sing a song about September. Sing a song about October, then a couple of Halloween songs. Then a song about November (Sabrina held the sign that said -- you guessed it -- November). Etc. It was adorable and fantastic and sweet, assuming (I'm sure) you had a precious child on the stage. As I did, it was SO DANG CUTE!

Sabrina's rather difficult hair combined with my impatience with doing stuff like hair meant she had a very cute hairdo as long as she did not move, touch her hair, or do any other kindergartener-type stuff. So her side ponytail with another elastic holding the far side in became very uneven pigtails. Oh well. She knew the words to all the songs except the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner, and let's be honest: no one knows any verse other than the first. In fact, if you want to find a spy, you ask them to sing the second and third verses of the national anthem. If they know it, they're a spy.

In other news, I've lost my voice again. Not a great situation for a teacher. I hope it reappears tonight, or I'll be in trouble tomorrow. I'd rather be recovering from surgery!