Wyatt Dean is Three!

Here are some facts about 3-year-old Wyatt:

-He's the biggest Bubba I've ever birthed.  At his 3 year checkup, he was in the 97% for height and the 75% for weight.  The doctor assured me, however, that his BMI was "just fine."  Whew!  I'd been worried about that!

-He's a fan of firearms.  He got these new Trio blocks for Christmas and has had a blast (no pun intended) fashioning multiple styles of weaponry then running around the house shooting various family members.

-He's not all Bubba and gunplay, though.  He has his sensitive side.  He loves to sing and dance (he did a hilarious little jig during the Happy Birthday song at our family party on Sunday--you can see how he was pumping his arms in the picture above).  He's also a big fan of hugs and snuggles and says "I love you Mom" a couple of times a day . . . and when Dad's in town?  He says "I love you Dad" about a dozen times a day.

-And, yes, his Dad is still his favorite person.

-He's discovered a love of board games: Hi  Ho Cherrio is a favorite (although he's not interested in playing by the rules and likes to put 4 cherries in the bucket no matter what the spinner says).  He also likes puzzles and legos and robots and dinosaurs.  And dragons.  And snakes.  And did I mention he likes guns?  He's also pretty dang good at playing catch, in my humble motherly opinion.  He's always happy to sit in my lap and listen while I read him a book, too.  (As long as it's about dinosaurs.  Or snakes.  So far, I've drawn the line at gun books.)

-At nursery and at the childcare at the gym, the workers always mention what a nice boy he is.  And he is a nice boy.  He's cares about people when they're sad--just the other day he went up to his sister's room and patted her on the back and told her "it's okay" when she was upset and frustrated with her math homework.  He always notices when babies are crying in the grocery store and wants me to do something about it.  "Mom!  That baby is sad!  That baby is so sad!"  Although he likes to push his brother Jonas's buttons and has a sense of entitlement that only a 3-year-old caboose-baby can enjoy, he's really a funny, happy, kind, caring kid who likes to jump right into the middle of the party.

(Wyatt and his cousins Eli and Ayva getting ready for some pinata action.  And as evidence for the biggest Bubba thing: both cousins are almost five and he's just about the same height as each of them.)

-He is addicted to chocolate milk.  Other favorite foods include chips and salsa, peanut butter sandwiches, Zupa's chicken enchilada chili, goldfish crackers, Dad's fancy yogurt, and McD's chicken nuggets and fries (MUST have ketchup and is very disturbed if Mom tries to feed him lunch in his car seat because then he CAN'T have ketchup . . . not that I ever give him drive-thru fast food for lunch, of course).

-He's a sleeping rock star.  In fact, he still takes a nice long nap at least three or four times a week, and if he falls asleep in the car and wakes up while I'm transferring him to his bed, he'll usually just mumble "bebe" (that's his indispensable blue blanket)  then roll over and go back to sleep.  He goes to bed every night around 8:30 or 9:00, and although he occasionally complains, he's never ONCE gotten out of bed after we've put him in it.  Keeping my fingers crossed that he won't figure out that he's physically capable of getting out of his own bed and roaming around the house of his own free will anytime soon . . .

 

-He's a joy and a light and a blessing to all of us, and our family wasn't complete until he joined it.  We love you Wyatt!!

Dispensation!

So Dispensation: Latter-Day Fiction is now available.  I spent the better part of 2009 editing this anthology of short stories by Mormon authors, and in many ways I'm prouder of this book than anything I've ever done professionally, perhaps because it's an opportunity to give a longer life to so many excellent short stories that might have otherwise been overlooked or forgotten.  The work in it is so good, and it's my hope that Dispensation will have a lasting impact in the (admittedly small) world of Mormon letters.  Fans of literary fiction and/or short stories will probably like this book best, and I realize that out in the wide world of commercial publishing this book will make barely a ripple.  But it's done, it's good, it's published, and it will exist in the real world on somebody's bookshelf for a long long time.  That makes me very happy.  It's available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble (the best deal right now), and on Zarahemla Books' website, and should be in some bricks-and-mortar bookstores like Barnes & Noble and the BYU Bookstore sometime soon.  Hooray!

I also started my new semester at the BYUSL Center, and I'm happy to report that my class has eight students (perfect!) and a great mix of personalities and abilities.  It looks so far to be a fun semester.  I'm glad.

Now if we could just get this inversion to blow on out of the valley!

2010, how to pronounce thee?

Is the consensus "twenty-ten"?  "Two-thousand and ten"?  Or is it like "soda" and "pop"--open to regional and cultural preference?  Sidenote:  my kids call pop "soda."  Who raised them?  Some mid-westerner???  They also pronounce syrup "seer-up," which they got from their father, one of the only native Utahns I know who pronounces it that way.  I admit that I take it a little personally that I'm the only one in the house who uses the solid, sturdy, non-pretentious pronunciation.  Surrup.  The next thing you know we'll be having Auuhnt Amy over.  For soda.  In twenty-ten.  And we'll reminisce about the aughts.  (You know.  The last decade?  We can also reminisce about the oughts, but that's mainly all the stuff we failed to accomplish over the last ten years, which is just depressing.)

But we rang out the aughts with our traditional New Year's Eve bash. Food was eaten.  (And Mindy, those mushroom philo thingies!  Mmmmm):

Games were played:

Cousins engaging in a friendly match of "Guess Who?"

And, of course, the traditional SingStar battle. Although it really wasn't the same without Amy and Dave and Andrew and Andi.  Those guys are COMMITTED to SingStar.  And we got some really cool new songs for the PS3, guys!  Next time you're out here?  Singstar battle deluxe?  Okay then.

And almost all the kids (except for Wyatt and Eli and Vivi--but little Lilly stayed up) managed to keep their eyes open until midnight for the pot banging.  Hooray!

In other big news, Elise Julia has crossed the threshold into young womanhood and now has a full set of braces.  Plus elastics.  Poor thing has some soreness going on right now, but she's soldiering on.  And she looks cute.  (Sorry the pic is kinda blurry, but you get the idea):

Way to be brave and look old, Leese!  Love ya.  And those curtains you see behind her?  Christmas gift from Grandma Sweat.  (And Grandpa, although it was Grandma and I who went shopping right after Christmas because Grandpa's not so much into the curtain shopping.  Which is completely understandable.)  Anyway, they look GREAT.  I'll have to take a better picture here soon so you can get the whole effect.  Forrest went from, "Why do we need decorative curtains again?" to "Why didn't we put these up three years ago?"  They're purdy.

Anyway, Happy 2010 everybody!  Here's to a great year full of good stuff.  Health.  Satisfaction.  Fun.  Love.  Goodness.  Straight teeth and pretty family rooms.  All that.


p.s. Blogger asked me if I wanted the "new improved" blogger thingamabob, and now my line spacing is weird and squishy and I can't figure out how to fix it.  Sigh.  Here's to one step backward in 2010!