Quirky Kids

I have always said how “quirky” Cara is, but I have come to the realization that all three of my kids have some really quirky habits.

Up until the past few weeks I thought Andy may have escaped from being too quirky, but he recently had an unusual habit emerge. He only giggles when he is really tired. You may expect this from a teenage girl, but babies usually cry when they are tired. Not Andy, which makes it difficult to lay him down for a nap or bed. Hard as I try, and I do try, I can only really get him to laugh right before he is lied down.

Cara has always been a gal of peculiar habits. For example, when she was a baby she hated being bundled, but would only sleep if a blanket was thrown over her head. She is the dare devil of the family, and the climber. The other day I walked into her room and she had emptied out the second to top drawer of her dresser and was laying in it. (I know this is extremely dangerous. We had a good talk about it.) This is just and example of the unusual things she does. Some parents may have a problem getting their children to change their underwear often enough. Not me. Cara changes her underwear every time she goes to the bathroom.

Caleb loves a good party, the family ski party being no exception. The problem is that he is afraid of skiing. He did three runs last Friday night. He threw a full-on tantrum at the lift all three times. I am sure that I looked like a raving lunatic trying to get this screaming, crying little boy onto the lift. The moment we got onto the lift it was as there had never even been a problem. He was happy is a jaybird in the morning. He chatted and pointed out the beautiful moon and starts. He even said, “isn’t this a great ski party mom.” I guess he know that once he was on the lift he was defeated. I am grateful his tantrums go as quickly as they come although I really wish they wouldn’t come at all. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of Caleb skiing this year, but I did take Cara on three runs as well. I carried her in the backpack and she was so happy to be on the slop. She cheered “wee” in my ear the entire time.



Josh has been out of commission for a few weeks and wasn’t able to ski this year because of a possible herniated disk in his back. He has been really trying to take it easy and let it recover. Unfortunately, the morning that it happened was the day that we had tickets to the Draper Temple open house. We still went to the open house, but poor Josh was in so much pain he couldn’t help being grumpy. The kids had a fantastic time though. Caleb and Cara held hands through much of the tour. When we asked Caleb his favorite part he said it was the cookies at the end. We asked his next favorite part and it was the “tent tunnels”. (The tents you walk through in the parking lot to get to the temple.) At least his next favorite thing was the baptismal font.

A few days after going to the temple Caleb said, “I can’t wait to get baptized” out of the blue. Of course we were beaming parents and agreed with him. The funny thing is that he finished the sentence after a long pause with, “because then I can get married!” We told him that after he is baptized then the next thing is to get the priesthood when he is 12. He replied, “then I can get married!” We hated to discourage him, but we reminded him that when he is 19 he will go on a mission. He replied, “then I can get married?!” I don’t know if this is quirky or normal for a four-year-old boy, but I have my suspicions that it may be out of the ordinary. I had no idea he was so sensitive about it. He has had a terrible ear infection that drained for almost two weeks. When I was trying to coax him into putting antibiotic drops in it I casually said, “no one will want to marry you if you have goop running out of your ears.” He burst into tears, and ran to me with a big hug. He clung to me while he cried and cried and said, “no one wants to marry me anyway.” My sister Connie was here and it seriously almost broke her heart. I guess I had better be more careful what I say. I know that sarcasm isn’t appropriate with children, but every once in a while I forget.

This picture really doesn't have anything to do with the post, but I wanted to put it up somewhere. I think Cara and her friend should plan on working for Disney when they grow up. They can be Cinderella and Snow White.



One final Cara story. I keep Caleb's pull-ups for night on the top shelf of the closet. I only bring a handful down at a time. Last week Caleb was whining that he couldn't get ready for bed because he couldn't get his pull-ups. Cara rolled her eyes at me, and then rolled her eyes at Caleb and said in her funny English, "I'll get 'em." She very loudly marched back to Caleb's room, climbed to the top of the closet, and threw down a single pull-up will all of the sass that a two-year-old girl can muster. She didn't say a word she just marched out of the room. I hope that Caleb and Cara will continue to take care of each other.