Lingering humourously over some of the contents...

"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage through their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humourously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake up in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on."

--J.M. Barrie, from Peter Pan

I ran across this quote as I read the book (SO worth reading, by the way. Absolutely Wonderful)

Last night Rylan made me laugh as I was tidying his drawers.


Mom:Did you have a good day today Rylan?

Rylan: Yeah. I went to nursery.

Mom: What did you learn about in nursery?

Rylan: Jesus and toys. But I wasn't reverent. I was mean.

Mom: Were you mean in nursery or just in Sacrament meeting when I took you out?

Rylan: We went in that room and you held me and we sat on the ground*

Mom: Yeah, we did. But then you decided you wanted to be nice, remember?

Rylan: But I was mean.

Mom: Well, for a while you were being mean, but you're such a nice boy, you decided to be nice and we went back in. We got to sit next to Dad and Evie, and eat pretzels, and read that book. Wasn't that fun?

Rylan: I held your hand and we went back in. **

*When he started acting up in Sacrament Meeting (saying, "I don't want to be nice, I want to be mean" and then hitting Evie) I took him out. In order to make it an appropriate consequence and not a reward, we went into an empty room and he sat on the ground in my lap. I was trying to make it as boring as possible. It was memorably boring, apparently.

**This was a huge deal. He had to hold my hand by himself and choose to go back in, being nice the whole time. I wasn't going to carry him in so he could throw a fit as soon as I sat down. We had to try three times before he could walk all the way in by himself, holding my hand.

I tried to leave the pretty thoughts on top, "beautifully aired,...ready for [him] to put on."

He's such a good kid, and remembers and digests SO MUCH. Those wheels are always turning. I love that boy.

P.S. Yesterday whenever Evie started fussing, all we had to do was turn her around and let her flirt with the girls behind us and she was just fine. Such a social butterfly, that one. Sweet and gorgeous to boot.

Why Evelyn Loves May Day

Looking beautiful next to the flowers...

Playing with the flowers...

Delighting in the flowers...

Becoming One with the flowers.

Why Rylan loves May Day

Playing with his Chickies
(Gia Gia, John Galt, Cleo, Pip, Mary Kate and Ashley, Liz, Chantilly, Amelia Bedelia)





Eating carrot thinnings

His Favorite Yellow Pear tomato plants

Eating whatever is looking good that day in the garden

No folks, not a wig.

I looked at comments from previous posts today (finally!) and felt called to repentance. I have been negligent to future generations and family far away for not properly documenting my children's adorableness, and particularly the phenomenon known as "Rylan's hair".

I call it a phenomenon because it cannot be defined, predicted, or controlled. In fact, I just looked up the exact definition of phenomenon to be sure I was using it correctly. Indeed, Rylan's hair "must be understood through the senses, rather than by intuition or reasoning" so it may appropriately be called a phenomenon.

For the record, these aren't the best pictures of his hair, but they are the best I have, so they will have to do.


I promise I comb it, guys.

Where do you think Rylan gets his hair from? And yes, Patience, you can see our chickies in the background :) Not the yellow marshmallow kind.

Some of his eggs were filled with jelly beans (some being one) and the rest were filled with almonds. He thought the almonds were treats for the chickies and tried to dump them into the basket, saying, "Here Chickies!" So much for health food...I thought we'd taught him better than that, but alas....