The whole family (Autumn, Ben, Emily and Prairie) in their Argentina jerseysOn Monday night the Provo city Library had their annual Fiesta Navidad, where they showcase how Latins celebrate Christmas, with dancing, food, displays, etc. Ben was really excited about this, you had to tickets in advance, and he insisted that we all dress alike. We had a good time watching some dancing, doing kids crafts, seeing Santa, going to Spanish story time, etc.
Ben and Prairie in their jerseys
Prairie as Santa Clause, Ben as the polar bear, and Autumn as Mrs. Clause
Autumn and Prairie with Santa Clause, Prairie smiling of course
loca Autumn in her poncho from her Brown Grandma-greatAutumn seems to get funnier and funnier each day. I really like the communication abilities of a three year old, I am not as crazy about their sense of independence. I sometimes feel like I already have a 14 year old. When I tell her something she doesn't like, she sighs really loudly and then runs to her bedroom and slams the door, and she will pout. She is an all star pouter. She is really upset when she thinks someone told her that she can't do something, when she feels that she should be able.
She is starting to get the idea of secrets ... kind of. She has already outed me on both of the gifts I had planned for Ben for Christmas, and now I don't know what to do. I will tell her it is a secret and that we don't tell Daddy, and she says okay. She has watched a Calliou where they get a special present for their mom, and they don't tell her about it, but she hasn't mastered that part of not telling the parent. So we have come home from the store and she immediately says Daddy we got this for you today. So I guess Ben is getting no surprises this year for Christmas.
She has also developed this other ability of being sneaky. That is one of her new frequent statements, "I have a sneaky plan". And of course she has one of her trademark facial expressions to go along with it. For example whenever Ben leaves the house now, she says "I have a sneaky plan, let's lock the door!". She will lock the door and thinks it is so funny when he comes home again and the door is locked. Oour door has a window in it, so she will pull back the blinds and be laughing as he unlocks the door.
Autumn has learned an important distinction between mommy and daddy. Daddy lets her watch lots of movies, and mommy doesn't. Whenever I tell her that I am going to go to the temple or something else without the kids, she almost immediately says, "Daddy lets me watch LOTS of movies!" and she is very excited. Last sunday I had to go to another ward at 9am, so Ben had to get up and get the girls already for church all by himself, which is quite an undertaking since he doesn't usually get up until 10am, and the girls are usually almost ready, and we are usually late because Ben isn't ready for church on time. Anyway so he told Autumn she could watch a movie while he got Prairie ready. I usually only let her watch scripture based movies on sundays, but Ben doesn't really care, so he put a Dora movie in for her because that is what she wanted to watch. Well she didn't get to watch all of it, so later Ben was trying to bribe her to do something and told her that she could watch the rest of her movie, but then realized that I was home then and I would know that he let her watch a non-scripture based movie on sunday. So he fessed up to me, then Autumn comes out and wants to watch her movie, and Ben tells her that mommy doesn't like her to watch Dora movies on Sundays and then Autumns goes, "I have a sneaky plan, take the TV [our tv cart is on wheels and travels throughout the house] to mommy and daddy's room, shut the door and I will watch my movie, it's a secret". She says this all in a whispered voice, while I am standing right there. Then Ben tells her that I was standing right there and heard the whole thing, then very seriously she shakes her head, and whispers again that it is a secret. Somehow she missed out on the idea that if the person hears you saying it, it isn't a secret anymore. But she is getting a lot more creative of how to get what she wants, and it totally amuses me and Ben so she is pretty effective.
She is starting to get the idea of secrets ... kind of. She has already outed me on both of the gifts I had planned for Ben for Christmas, and now I don't know what to do. I will tell her it is a secret and that we don't tell Daddy, and she says okay. She has watched a Calliou where they get a special present for their mom, and they don't tell her about it, but she hasn't mastered that part of not telling the parent. So we have come home from the store and she immediately says Daddy we got this for you today. So I guess Ben is getting no surprises this year for Christmas.
She has also developed this other ability of being sneaky. That is one of her new frequent statements, "I have a sneaky plan". And of course she has one of her trademark facial expressions to go along with it. For example whenever Ben leaves the house now, she says "I have a sneaky plan, let's lock the door!". She will lock the door and thinks it is so funny when he comes home again and the door is locked. Oour door has a window in it, so she will pull back the blinds and be laughing as he unlocks the door.
Autumn has learned an important distinction between mommy and daddy. Daddy lets her watch lots of movies, and mommy doesn't. Whenever I tell her that I am going to go to the temple or something else without the kids, she almost immediately says, "Daddy lets me watch LOTS of movies!" and she is very excited. Last sunday I had to go to another ward at 9am, so Ben had to get up and get the girls already for church all by himself, which is quite an undertaking since he doesn't usually get up until 10am, and the girls are usually almost ready, and we are usually late because Ben isn't ready for church on time. Anyway so he told Autumn she could watch a movie while he got Prairie ready. I usually only let her watch scripture based movies on sundays, but Ben doesn't really care, so he put a Dora movie in for her because that is what she wanted to watch. Well she didn't get to watch all of it, so later Ben was trying to bribe her to do something and told her that she could watch the rest of her movie, but then realized that I was home then and I would know that he let her watch a non-scripture based movie on sunday. So he fessed up to me, then Autumn comes out and wants to watch her movie, and Ben tells her that mommy doesn't like her to watch Dora movies on Sundays and then Autumns goes, "I have a sneaky plan, take the TV [our tv cart is on wheels and travels throughout the house] to mommy and daddy's room, shut the door and I will watch my movie, it's a secret". She says this all in a whispered voice, while I am standing right there. Then Ben tells her that I was standing right there and heard the whole thing, then very seriously she shakes her head, and whispers again that it is a secret. Somehow she missed out on the idea that if the person hears you saying it, it isn't a secret anymore. But she is getting a lot more creative of how to get what she wants, and it totally amuses me and Ben so she is pretty effective.
Autumn playing some imaginative game in the exer-saucerAutumn is such a great big sister to Prairie. She seems to know how to get Prairie to smile and laugh better than anyone. She is really good about playing with Prairie too. When Prairie is in her exer-saucer, or in her jumper, or just on the floor, lots of time Autumn will get down next to her and play with toys with her, talk to her and just really keep her enertained. Autumn is also so helpful at getting stuff when I need her too. She also lets me know whenever Prairie has woken up from her naps. It is so much fun for me to watch them interact.
Autumn crawled into Prairie's bed when she discovered that Prairie was awake
Autumn playing with Prairie and probably Prairie's favorite toy, that green car
