Where You Want Me To Go

When I started playing the flute 2 years ago, I came across a choir arrangement of the hymn I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go that had a flute obbligato that played throughout the whole song. I knew it was way above my skill level at the time, but I printed it out and began practicing it now and then. What I love about playing the flute is that each song is a challenge to conquer. I know I will never play "perfectly" without the formal training most flutists receive, but I am happy if I can get to the point where I can play a song without any fingering mistakes, obvious pitch problems, or squeaks. I challenged myself to learn this flute part well enough to play it for the ward choir at church, so I buckled down over the last 6 months or so and gradually mastered the sections of sheet music that I couldn't previously play.

Being the ward music chairman, I suggested the song to our ward choir director and scheduled to have them perform on May 26th. In the weeks leading up to that date, I practiced the dickens out of that song. I probably practiced an hour a day almost every day. I was determined to get it right. I even practiced with the pianist twice. By the time performance day came, I probably could have played the whole song without even glancing at my sheet music. I may have gotten a little obsessed. :)

Sunday morning, the choir gathered in the chapel before sacrament meeting to practice and warm up and I joined them to warm up on my flute part. Keira sat on the step between me and the piano throughout most of the practice so when she asked me if she could go back up there when we perform, I agreed based on the fact that she was well-behaved during our warm up. Boy, was that a big mistake... The moment I started playing (which is immediately when the song begins) she got up and started meandering around the stage knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Stay focused. I did my best to ignore her and just keep playing.

I came to a couple measure rest, lowered my flute, and commanded her through angrily clenched teeth to sit her butt down and don't move. Her buns hit the floor with amazing speed and a look of fear came over her face so I was pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem from that point forward. Wrong again. The moment I resumed playing, up she popped and the meandering intensified. She was walking through the choir members, she was creeping behind the piano, she was grabbing my music stand. Please don't knock it over! I silently pleaded as I continued to play. The song ended and, all considered, I did quite well.

As it turns out, Keira will NOT "go where you want her to go." She knows exactly where you want her to go and behaves in a contrary manner. Perhaps some day, she will take this song to heart and learn to be a little more submissive and heed directions. Until then, I reckon she will continue to provide me with humorous stories like these.

Camping Capers

A few years ago, I began a tradition of getting my family together to go camping annually. My mom, Uncle Mark, and my brothers and sister all get together, pitch a village of tents and have a good time. Last year we didn't get to go since Vivian and I both had newborn babies, so we were excited to take our little ones camping for the first time this year. We usually camp at the beach, the past two times being at a campground in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park near Santa Cruz. This year I really wanted to go back to one of our favorite spots, Montana de Oro State Park (where I have camped all my life) but unfortunately I waited too long to make our reservation and the campground was full. After desperately searching for a seaside campground to no avail, Brent suggested camping at the Wishon Point campground at Bass Lake in the Sierra Nevada Forest. I figured if I already didn't get to go to my campground of choice, I might as well go with what someone else wanted to do. I'm glad we agreed to go to Bass Lake. It was our first time camping there and we had a great time. The weather was perfect in the mid 80s, it only takes just over an hour to get there, the campground was quiet, our double campsite was large enough to accommodate our group of 10 adults and 4 cars and was fairly secluded. It was also just a short walk to the lake and you could even see a sliver of the lake through the dense trees and brush.

As I mentioned previously, Liana doesn't like to nap anywhere besides her crib and she will reluctantly nap in the car seat. I was hoping that she would take a good nap in the car on the drive there, but after she had only been asleep about 30 minutes, I had to put on the brakes pretty hard for a light that turned red on the highway and it woke her up. She spent the rest of the day pretty grumpy and tired. My mom finally got her to fall asleep at about 9:30 by walking her in the pitch dark. She said any light she saw would keep her awake so she even had to stay out of the moonlight. Then she slept solid as a rock all night in her crib in the tent. Keira is a seasoned camper and had a great time hiking around, putting sticks in the fire, tossing the Frisbee with Grandma, and swimming in the lake with Daddy.

My mom and I prepared our foil pack or "hobo" dinners for the first night. We used her yummy chicken, broccoli, carrot, cheesy casserole recipe of deliciousness, wrapped in foil and cooked on briquettes in the fire ring for about 20 minutes on each side. It came out very good, except for the couple of foil packs that didn't get sprayed with nonstick cooking spray before we put the food in. For breakfast, we just warmed up some Costco muffins and pastries on the fire. At lunch time, Brent and Vivian rented us a patio boat on the lake and we barbecued hamburgers on the gas grill. It was a fun experience trying to cook on a moving boat. Every time a ski boat went by, moments later the waves would hit our boat and rock it back and forth. Everyone had a good time on the boat, snacking, eating burgers, and riding around the lake. Once again, Liana, who only likes to nap in her crib, was pretty grumpy on the boat because she was so tired and toward the end, we laid her on the seat in the boat and she finally fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes. Crazy girl. I guess I can't blame her though. I'm not the type to fall asleep anywhere besides my bed either.

At the very end of our boat ride, we saw an eagle fly across the sky and land in the very top of a tall pine tree. We could see it's nest and at least one more eagle in the nest. I don't think any of us had seen an eagle in the wild before. That was a very cool ending to a very fun trip. We may be adding Bass Lake to our list of regular camping spots.

Vivian, Braden, and Brent

Arthur setting up the tent.

Me and my sleepy Liana.

Grandma and Sister

Playing card games.

Our foil dinner.

Grandma and Sister eating dinner.

Breakfast by the fire.

Me and my perpetually sleepy girl on the boat.

Uncle Mark and his dog Neesaa on the boat.

Arthur burning the corn on the cob.

Daddy and Keira taking a very brief swim in the cold lake.

We never did get a picture with all four of us.

 Patrick and Lauren

Captain Brenty

The Eagle

Baby Goodness

Liana just turned one year old! As exciting as it is to watch a baby grow and learn at this age, I am SO sad that she won't be a baby anymore before I know it. I love Liana so much exactly how she is now and I try to bask in her baby glory every day. I cherish her sticky baby fingers and toes, her sweet chubby cheeks, her baby cuddles, fuzzy head, baby smell, every dimple on her chubby little body- knowing she won't be a baby much longer. It is so amazing how much a baby grows and changes in their first year. Even more amazing is how at first, they are this new little stranger in your arms and by the end of one year, you know them SO well. Liana is full of baby goodness from her toes to her nose and has filled our home with joy and love from the moment she was born. She has grown right before our eyes... and deep in our hearts.

Liana's First Year

Liana has 7 teeth now. She got her teeth in such a random order and looks rather snaggle toothy, but she finally got one of her front teeth and the other one will probably poke through tomorrow. She has three visible teeth on bottom and the fourth just came through a few days ago.

Random Teeth :)

She loves to chase the vacuum around, just like Keira did at her age. When I vacuum I have to stick her in her jumperoo or else I am forced to vacuum in an erratic pattern to evade her.

Car Wash Cuties

She has always been ok with bath time, but she is all business. Wash and get out. So she really surprised me one day at my mom's house we decided to put our feet in the pool and she was kicking and splashing and laughing trying with all her baby might to jump right in. I thought maybe after having so much fun in the pool, she would decide to have more fun in the bath, but she was right back to business as usual the next day.

At the movies watching Croods - the girls were SO good!

Liana has always been very mellow and fairly straight faced. She has a very particular and random sense of humor. One day, she held her bottle up to her ear like a phone and giggled to herself, because she knew she was being particularly silly.

She dances every time she hears a song play on tv. She doesn't do wild dance moves like Keira used to, just two basic moves. With her feet completely planted, she sways her buns back and forth and sometimes she bends her knees to bounce up and down a little but she never moves her feet or arms. She also hums- trying to sing songs.

Liana, just like Keira, won't sleep anywhere but her crib or the car seat. If she falls asleep in the car, she will not stay asleep during the transition to the stroller or to her crib. She and Keira are exactly alike in that regard. Neither one would fall asleep in our arms either.

She has added thank you, duck, cat, hello, and bye to her vocabulary.

Going to Dr. Jones' Office

At her one year checkup she weighed 22 lb 8 oz (50th percentile) and is 29 1/4 inches tall (50th percentile). She's my little teapot- short and stout. :) He also said she has the biggest head around... Yeah, runs in the family. Good thing it's a cute big head.

For Sister's birthday, I decided to have a Wizard of Oz theme. That was the first movie that I noticed her paying significant attention to. It seemed to amuse her. So I found this adorable Wizard of Oz digital scrapbook kit that made the theme very age appropriate for a one year old and I designed some super cute invitations and decorated our house in cornflower blue gingham, red satin bows, cute quotes from the movie, and changed the characters on my My Little Pony birthday banner to Dorothy, the wicked witch, and Toto. I even had a "Bell Out of Order Please Knock" sign on the front door. Everything was very cute and festive, complete with rainbow streamers and a rainbow cake.

She had a tooth come in the day before her party and the day after, so she had been very grumpy and tired in the evenings and had required an evening nap for several days leading up to her birthday. As I feared, she also became very tired and grumpy about an hour into her party. She looked SO TIRED and it was pretty hard to keep her focused on opening her presents, but she made it through the party and had a good time. Keira did an awesome job keeping up with big sister responsibilities like helping her open presents and blowing out her candle. :)

Liana and Grandma

Keira with Uncle Caed

Aunty Vivian, Uncle Brenty, and Cousin Braden

The Cake Table

Keira insisted upon a rainbow cake.

Me and my Sweet Birthday Girl

Keira in a Photogenic Mood

Great Grandpa Don and Great Grandma Marietta

Grandma Suzy and Cousins Elena and Nick

Liana with Daddy and Grandpa Art

My Good Friend, Jazmina Peterson

Eating Cake with Daddy

I'll love you forever,

I'll love you for always,

As long as I'm living,

my baby you'll be.

You are My Sunshine

My Little Liana is 11 months old! She is so beautiful, bright, sweet, and perfect in every way. She is our little ray of sunshine, who can brighten our most dreary days. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She has been walking since 9 months, so now she is practically running which has made playing with Keira even more fun. They chase each other around the living room and tackle each other, giggling and squealing the whole time. They are still absolute best friends, and I know they will always be. Sometimes they don't even have to be playing to have a good time. One day, Liana came up to Keira who was sitting on the couch and they just started laughing at each other back and forth. Like their own language of laughter.

Liana hasn't added much to her vocabulary over the past month, but she has developed a beneficial use of the word "non." We call her baby food "yum yums" and now when she's hungry she says "non non non" which I figure is the best she can pronounce yum yum. She has even taken it a step further and when she is tired she says more of a "nigh nigh nigh" which is probably the best she can pronounce nigh-night (what we say to her when we lay her down in her crib). So, around our house she is famous for her non-nonning all day long. The other new word we've heard a few times is Hi.

So many people say that they think Liana looks just like Keira did as a baby, I usually just agree, but I have noticed striking differences from the moment she was born. They are the exact same coloring, and they both have the trademark big head that runs in my family, but besides that they are pretty unique. Keira- straight eyebrows Liana- very arched Keira- almond eyes Liana- round Keira- round nostrils Liana- pointed nostrils. They have different mouths and ears as well, and Keira has always been tall and skinny where Liana is shorter and more curvy. At this age Keira was wearing 9-12 month clothes. Liana wears mostly 24 month now, some 18 months still. By this age, Keira had 8 teeth and right now Liana only has 4. Instead of getting the middle two, she got the lateral incisors. My kids get their teeth in such random order. Despite their physical differences, I don't think either of them could possibly be any more beautiful than they are. I think Art and I were very lucky to have kids more beautiful than both of us combined.

Smart, Beautiful, Crazy Keira

Every day with Keira is an adventure, a laugh, a challenge, and a joy. Here are some of the things I have written down about her in the past couple months...

February 27- I colored my hair, and Keira used the unsupervised time to build a massive couch fort and decorate it with Costco muffins.

February 28- Took Keira to the park today to wear her out... 10:30 pm I am falling asleep on the living room floor and she still won't settle down and go to sleep. Keira 1 Park 0.

March 5- Keira spent the night at Grandma's house and when I went to pick her up today, she had completely disowned me. She said she wants to stay there forever. She wanted nothing to do with me! We decided her next sleepover should involve spankings and no chocolate milk so that she will want to come home in the morning. :)

March 7- I must have watched too much Psych in Keira's early years, because she refers to black people as Guss-es.

March 23- Keira just asked me for a ring because she and sister are married forever and ever. lol These girls are best friends. :)

March 29- I was doing my 20 min exercise video and Keira insists I hold a dvd in each hand in lieu of optional weights that I don't have. Then she tells me to flap them like a bird which I did to humor her to which she responded, "That's the spirit!" What would I do without Coach Keira?

April 1- I was getting juice for sister and Keira wanted some too and I said who do you think you are? And she said "Keira! K-E-I-R-A!"

April 3- I've been spraying this big black bee through the screen with poison and he keeps coming back. I was like how the heck is he still alive? And Keira said, "I'm telling ya! He has three hearts!" (like in video games)

When I went to register Keira for kindergarten, I learned that she has to go to TRANSITIONAL kindergarten for a year first because her 5th birthday falls between October 2 and December 2. I have mixed feelings about this, but hopefully it will be a blessing in disguise especially since it should be a much smaller class size. Transitional kindergarten is the same curriculum as regular kindergarten and if she does well, next year she can try to test out of kindergarten and skip to first grade.

They said that kindergarten has gotten much more challenging since I was a kid and gave me a paper listing some things she should start working on. I made her a numbers book to help her learn to count to 100, a 3D shapes book, and a random order alphabet book with upper and lower case to work on recognition and letter sounds. I let her choose a Disney Princess for the cover of each book and she loved them. I am shocked at how quickly she is learning. She can recognize almost all of her lower case letters, when I have never purposefully tried to teach them to her. Best I can figure is she picked them up reading the Dr. Seuss ABC book. She is also remembering the names to the 3D shapes faster than I expected. And when I went over the numbers book with her, I could see she was actually reading the numbers on the page instead of reciting from memory.

I had been really worried about Keira going to school because of her disinterest in writing, coloring, and learning on command. I mean really worried. Then, all of the sudden, she has started demonstrating more interest and intelligence than I thought she possessed. For example, one day after church I was examining a doodle she made in class and realized that in the very center of her drawing she wrote almost her whole name on her own. She had NEVER attempted such a thing before, I didn't even know she knew how to SPELL her name, but on that paper she wrote K-E-I then the beginning of a backward R which I think confused her then on the back of the paper was her letter A. That's why on April 1st when she spelled her name out loud I was shocked. I'm starting to realize that the knowledge is all in there, but for some reason she doesn't want me to know just how smart she is.

She has also just become interested in doodling and writing. In the past, I could never get her to sit down and draw or write letters. If you ask her to do something, chances are she's not going to do it, but of her own accord she has drawn a snowman, dogs, ladders, faces, and will write several random letters on paper having received no instruction from me. The only letter writing she has done previously was a tracing application on my phone that she does with her finger. It just amazes me that she won't sit down and trace letters with me on paper and let me teach her, but she randomly manifests amazing intelligence and ability. She sat down on the kitchen floor and made this robot "with wings" all by herself in a matter of minutes. She cut the shapes, glued them all together, and drew a face on it before I even realized what she was up to. I'm so glad she has taken a sudden interest in learning and hopefully she will thrive in transitional kindergarten this fall.

Love of Legos

Keira has been playing video games on Art's PlayStation 3 since she was about 3 years old. After Art downloaded her a free demo of the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game, she was hooked on it so we bought her the full game and she loved it. Not only did she love it, but I realized I loved it. There are LOTS of reasons why I love the Lego themed games and here is why:

1.   Problem Solving- Lego games are all about figuring out what goes where, breaking and building objects, figuring out what to do next to fulfill the objective, figuring out which character you need to use to do different things. It definitely involves some thought. The problems you solve follow the theme of the movie which makes it fun.

2.   Infinite Chances to Succeed- This is probably my absolute favorite feature of the Lego games... they have done away with the traditional Mario lifespan where you have a certain number of hearts and when those hearts are gone (or you fall in the water or in a hole) you die and you are sent back to the beginning of the level. That is SO frustrating!!! Never more, though... Lego games do have hearts, but when those hearts are gone, you break into little Lego pieces then POOF they put you right back where you were. Fall into a hole? POOF, they put you right back up. Swim out to far in the water and a shark will eat you, but then POOF you're right back where you were. All you lose is a few coins every time your character breaks, but there are coins everywhere so it doesn't upset your kid when they die. It gives you infinite chances to succeed, and I think that's great- especially for young kids.

3.   Lego Humor- The Lego games follow the storyline of the movie they portray, but the characters act everything out without saying words and they include some humorous spins on events.

4.   Adding and Dropping Characters- The Lego games are 1-2 player games and they designed it to allow the second player to add in and drop out AT ANY POINT in the game. This is so nice because if I want to play with her for a minute, I can grab a controller, hit start, and I'm in. Baby needs me- hit start and drop out. You can also save and quit the game at any point which is awesome too.

5.   Free Play- When you play the levels for the first time, you play in what is called Story Mode where you play as the characters specific to that scene. When you go back to play the level a second time, you can play Free Play which means you have the ability to change your character. Different characters have different abilities. Each level has hidden objects to collect- 10 pieces of a ship, 8 items to locate with Jack's compass, and collecting a certain number of coins to achieve "True Pirate." These are all optional but fun things to do and when done earn you a "gold brick" to be used toward more things in the game. The Pirates of the Caribbean game plays through all 4 movies, so there is a lot to see and do.

6.   Family Fun- Not only does Keira love Lego games, but our whole family loves them. They are easy enough to be done by Keira alone, yet involved enough to be interesting for an adult.

7.   Soundtrack- Lego games utilize the soundtrack from the movie they portray. So, goodbye repetitive video game music, and hello amazing movie music.

Keira loved the Pirates version so much, we branched out to the Harry Potter games and she loved those just as much. I definitely recommend Lego games to anyone. I think they are very clever, very cute, entertaining, and thought provoking. Lego games are available for several different game systems and can be bought used for 10-15 dollars a piece. Can't get any better than that.

What Family's For

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love spending time with my family and reflecting on the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I loved finding the girls matching Easter dresses and my sister helped me take their picture in the Japanese Gardens in Woodward Park. Keira was quite photogenic, but both of them have been sick for the past 2 weeks, and Liana (who was getting a tooth on top of being sick) was unhappy every time I set her down to take a picture. Family pictures are always so much trouble, but I keep telling myself it's worth it.

This year I planned to sing a solo in sacrament meeting- a song I sang 2 years ago called "The Shepherd of My Soul." I had practiced regularly and was perfectly prepared and looking forward to performing, until Saturday morning I woke up with a terrible sore throat, swollen glands, and headache. My voice was unaltered at that point, but I was worried because I was in so much pain and there was no telling if I would wake up with no voice at all Sunday morning. I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull it off or if I should call it off instead.

I said and prayer and went to bed, then got up at 4 am Sunday morning and took some tylenol, then took some ibuprofen at 6, got a serious pep talk from my cough drops from 7-8 then sang my little heart out at 9:30. It was an Easter miracle for sure. Now my sore throat has retaliated against me for singing despite its efforts to thwart me and has turned into laryngitis. Now I won't be singing anything but the blues... in my head... but I know my prayers were answered Sunday and I am grateful for that.

The cough drop wrappers have encouraging statements on them. I found them incredibly motivating. :)

Our Easter festivities included a barbecue at my Grandpa Don Eslick's house on Saturday afternoon. It was a toasty warm spring day and we enjoyed some time outside visiting and I played several hymns on my flute for my grandpa who hadn't heard me play yet. He commented that he really liked the songs I played, but that his very favorite song is "Because I Have Been Given Much." I happened to have that in my music binder, so I played it for him. I could tell that made him quite happy. That evening, the weather cooled down significantly as a thunder storm moved in. It was a crazy stormy night Saturday night, then Sunday was beautiful, sunny, and crisp again.

My Grandpa Donal Eslick in his natural habitat (in front of his work truck and shop).

We had our Easter celebration at my house and did the Easter egg hunt indoors since it was a bit cold and muddy from the storm. After I sang in our sacrament meeting, Keira went with my mom to Kyle's sacrament meeting to hear him sing. While she was gone, I cleaned up the living room and hid her eggs around the room and hung her basket on the front door with a Happy Easter sign for her to see when she got back.

This was the first time we had an Easter egg hunt for her and she was sorely disappointed to find two $1 bills in a couple eggs instead of candy. I thought that was funny, because I thought kids always get excited about the eggs with money in them. Guess I was wrong. Oh well, ultimately she was happy and ate her weight in peanut M&Ms (which she insists are called jelly beans) and Reese's peanut butter cups (which she calls Daddy candy because they are Art's favorite). We had a tasty tri-tip dinner and enjoyed the day together with my brother Kyle, step-brother Caed, my sister Lauren, and my mom. Unfortunately, Brent and Vivian couldn't make it down to join us, so we ate some tri-tip for them. That is, of course, what family's for.