Weight

This weekend we visited our friends in Sheboygan. I enjoyed every moment of being with them. Friday night, after the kids were in bed, I went grocery shopping with Ben, and on a whim we watched a really funny movie (Knight and Day). Perfect.

Saturday, I traveled to the Chicago temple with Ben, the ward's seminary students, and some other ward leaders. I spent two quiet hours alone in the waiting room while they did baptisms, and I read a book (the latest Joseph Smith biography) studying each page. It was a peaceful day. That night Ben, Suzanne, Mirjam, and I went out for dinner together at a small Mexican place as thick fog rolled in from Lake Michigan.

The next morning we went to church together, and Ben delivered a wonderful, calm, thoughtful sermon on the atonement. "In the temple rests the power and the means to achieve the consummate purpose of the atonement": to just get back home to God and Jesus Christ. They just want us to be with them. He ended by noting that as each of us becomes one with Jesus Christ, we also grow closer to each other, becoming unified among ourselves. We all have our weaknesses, we all have our faults and our problems, he said, and we need to help each other and support each other, not criticize each other, and become unified and one with each other (specifically referring to his ward family). It was very well put, and a great little twist on the end of the sermon.

Ben was recently called to be bishop of his ward (he's only my age, with four small kids). I noticed he was generally calmer and full of thought. I noticed how other people automatically (subconsciously) looked to him for direction and decisions. (And he also mentioned the burden of criticism if someone didn't agree with something.) At least once during the weekend I heard him say, "This calling is really hard," exhaling as he did it, almost in exasperation.

When Ben came home after church on Sunday, after interviewing some people in the ward, I noticed his head hanging low from the weight of his calling. It reminded my of the mental image I had from a Truman Madsen talk, about the fullest, heaviest heads of wheat hanging the lowest. I mentioned to Ben about how someone once chided the prophet Joseph Smith for looking down and that he should cheer up. Joseph's reply was that if he had as much weighing on his mind as the prophet did (the weight of the entire church), is head would hang low, too. Ben mentioned the hardest part is not being able to talk to his wife about some of the more difficult parts of the job (when people confess things to him).

I tried to lift his spirits, talking to him, as much as I could, while not getting in the way. I felt like they sincerely enjoyed our company, and we certainly enjoyed being there with them. Mirjam and our kids didn't want to leave. Their kids asked when they could come visit us. It was a good weekend with our friends. We just hung out, let the kids play together (they all had a lot of fun together, and not a single fight), spent time talking and catching up, went out to dinner, played guitar together, watched Lost and a movie together, and just generally enjoyed each others' company.

No (and pop-ups)

One of Johanna's favorite words is "no." And it's pretty cute. Sometimes she draws it out in a long, playful "niaaooooo." Sometimes it's upset (when she's tired). Sometimes its in response to a question she doesn't understand.

For example, driving back in the car from Wisconsin this weekend, Evie started asking Johanna (while her car seat was still facing backward so she could see the kids), "Do you want to ride on a horse?" And Johanna answered with a simple "no." It went on and on:

"Do you want to ride on a house?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a book?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a pony?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a car?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a pillow?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a puppy?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a blanket?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a cracker?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a sandwich?" "No."
"Do you want to ride on a cheek?" "No."

Evie was cracking up, and Johanna enjoyed the attention.

Meanwhile, William created his own pop-up book of "the four heads, the ones in the rock" (Mount Rushmore). I helped him spell each president's name, and he did the rest, carefully cutting little tabs out of the paper and bending them back the opposite way, and drawing in pen four heads, with arrows point to each of them, next to the words "This is" and the explanation at the bottom "These are the presidents."

It was a good road trip.

Sheboygan! (Road trip)

We spent the long Memorial Day weekend in Sheboygan, WI, visiting our friends the Holmeses. At the end of the car trip back, William and Evie said it was just a short car ride. (We've taken much longer trips to Utah and Texas.)

Right before we entered Minnesota, we stopped and turned Johanna's car seat around to face forward. She could now see Mama much better. (She had been freeing both arms from the straps and grabbing the side of the car seat with her two hands and wrenching her neck around to look forward before we turned it around.)

She was very excited about this new development. She stopped whining and crying (she was tired, it was late), and instead she happily waved her legs and feet now that they were free. She kept asking for books (saying "buu, buu" while clapping her hands together to make the book sign). She also held her feet in her hands and slapped them together while saying "sh, sh" the sign and sound for shoes. (Before, her feet didn't have nearly the same freedom, as they were up against the seat-back that her previously backwards-facing car seat was facing.)

In the Subway at the gas station, she saw a rack full of stuffed bears and puppies. While we were eating at the table, she made the sign for bear (fingers scratching at your chest) while making the uuuh-uuuh "I want" whine. She can communicate so well now, with her signs. She can also make the sign (and panting noise) for puppy. Any time she sees or hears a dog (stuffed or real), she pats her leg and starts panting. It's adorable. She also looked out the window and saw flags and banners for a fireworks store across the street, and she kept saying "woooow!"

When we got home, William and Evie helped clean up everything out of the minivan. They were great travelers, fun play-friends for the other kids, and good helpers. It was a good road trip.

Honey crab

Johanna took a while to start walking on her feet. She's still not quite confident with her balance all the time, but she's learning well. Up until now she's been "walking" on her knees. It's adorable to watch, and she can really move on those little legs!

She seemed to not crawl very much, instead opting for the knees as a sort of halfway point between crawling and walking. I'd try to show her how to crawl by modeling it for her myself, and occasionally she would crawl with me (and she still does crawl sometimes) but mostly it was knees, even though it wasn't quite as fast.

Last week she did something different though. She was up on her feet, then bended over at the waist and touched her hands and head to the ground without bending her knees. I can't remember why she did it that way, but she thought it was funny, so I joined her. Then we started "walking" around like that on our hands and feet, and she thought it was so fun she started laughing. Every time she collapsed to her knees, she got back up again. And so I chased her around on the carpet on hands and feet.