4 Days Before 17 Months

Figured 4 days before Mya turns 17 months is as good as any for an update for those that aren't close by to follow this little girlie more closely.

- Big gray eyes, deep dimple on the right cheek, hair starting to curl in the back, a deep, back of the throat gargle when she's laughing hard, and still no desire to talk. Mya greets us every morning and after every nap with a lion's roar or gorilla noises. She's quite content communicating in animal noises but shows no interest in mimicking our human words. She has started to ramble on in cute sounds when pretending to read a book. It seems like the talking horizon is getting ever closer, but as with most other things it will most certainly arrive on Mya's terms.

- Mya loves to be outside. She will just roam and roam, find someone to get her a drink, and then get right back at roaming around some more. She loves to putter around the garage when we're out doing yard work, especially if she can find who-knows-how-old fruit snacks on the ground somewhere...yum...complete opposite from Afton, Mya still puts everything she finds in her mouth for a quick taste.

- This picture represents a very rare and valuable moment. Stefanie was in heaven when her little girl actually fell asleep on her shoulder. For a while now Mya has been a great sleeper with very consistent sleep patterns. Great in some ways, but it certainly limits the cuddly moments. When Mya is ready for bed, we will ask her if it is "night-night time". She finds her blanket, picks it up and rubs it against her face for a bit, and starts walking right back to her bedroom.

- That thermometer was Mya's prized possession for several days. She literally never let go of it. She loved to chew on it, put it in and pull it out of its case, and to just hold it while doing anything else. It was certainly another one of those, "Why don't we just give them the box instead of the toy?" moments.

- One day we noticed one of Mya's hands was about twice the size of the other. The back of her hand was very swollen, and the fingers just beyond the knuckles were starting to swell too. Poor little girl walked around with a club hand for a few days until the antibiotics took care of it. I'm assuming she tried to snag an old fruit snack away from a territorial spider in the garage one day.

- Mya's newest game: pointing out everyone's belly button. It started with her recognizing her own, pointing, and then giggling like crazy when we'd say, "Belly button!" But now she always wants to see and poke Afton's. I dread our first trip to the swimming pool this year...I fear she's going to be walking up to complete strangers and doing the same.

"Butterflies, Ants, and Flies"

Just when you thought you were headed to a meltdown of epic proportions, disaster is averted...only to present a new type of pending disaster.

Afton has certainly had her share of emotional quirks in her early years. I guess we could say she is very in tune with her feelings. I've joked about the emotional roller coaster that awaits us in her teenage years. But it is time to put all those jokes aside, because apparently it is time to keep our hands and feet (and laughter and frustrations) inside the ride at all times already.

Afton has always loved animals. She loves to watch shows about them, loves to see them in person, and if the stars align just right and she gets to actually interact and touch them she is in heaven. Those times are few and far between given her dad's undying distaste for all things animal kingdom. But luckily Afton doesn't scare easily around animals. At least she didn't used to get scared easily around them. Until one day she decided that she was supposed to be terrified of flies. She has been mortified whenever a fly is around recently. The world has to stop turning until the fly is ushered away or disposed of.

This morning she was in hysterics because a single, solitary fly was flying around her. She would cry, moan, complain, yell, scream, and then cry some more until one of us would swat at the fly and get it out of her personal space. And then came the scream of sheer terror: "I JUST HEARD THE FLY FLAPPING IT'S WINGS!!!" She had told us earlier that it was a bee flying around because she heard it buzz; Stefanie said that it wasn't a bee, but flies can make noise too when they flap their wings. So next time it got close to Aftie and she heard it, she went into Mt. St. Helen's eruption mode. My thought was, "Oh my, this isn't going to ever go away and our daughter is going to be terrified of flies the rest of her life...and we live in Grantsville, ground zero for fly production for the rest of the world."

But using some genius mothering technique, Stefanie sat down with Afton and helped her realize that flies aren't going to hurt us, that we don't have to like them and it's okay to want them to go away, but we don't have to be scared of them. I'm pretty sure we had both tried to get the same result many times in the past week, but this time it worked. Stefanie sat on the couch and let the fly land on her and fly around her. Afton was torn between crying and bursting out in laughter. But it worked. Afton came running in to see me and said, "Daddy, I like THREE things now: butterflies, ants, and flies!!" She used to cite butterflies and ants as the two "bugs" she liked, but now, miracle of all miracles, flies had been added to the list. All praise be to the impressionable minds of young children, our daughter is cured and order is restored to our world...

Temporarily. Until Afton is then found walking around the house following the fly, whispering in her high-pitched, nurturing 3-year old voice she uses when approving one of Mya's new discoveries, "It's okay fly. You don't have to be scared." Stefanie got out the fly swatter and Afton immediately stopped her, "No! The fly is scared if we get so close." So Afton, in a matter seconds, went from pathological fear to supreme caretaker of the flies. And now we're headed for a summer of flies in Grantsville with a 3-year old daughter who isn't going to want to swat any of them.

The New Articles of Faith

I know many of you have likely already had this hit your inbox, but for that haven't...

1. We believe in SUVs and minivans, as the form of transportation, and in knee length shorts, which are always nice and in multilevel marking.

2. We believe that church ball players should be punished for their own fouls and not for unsportsmanlike aggression.

3. We believe that through bread crumbs, cheese, creamy soups and rice all casseroles can be saved through obedience to ward cookbooks and creativity in the mixing bowl.

4. We believe that the first layers and ingredients of the Dip are: first, beans; second, cheese; third, chopped tomatoes; fourth, the gift of sour cream; fifth, olives; sixth, salsa; seventh, guacamole, that is, if you have it.

5. We believe that a Mormon should have a distinguished or a cute name, that it is appropriate to name a child after a church leader or a historical figure including an ancestor, that alternative spellings and French prefixes only add to a name, and that when referring to the names of General Authorities, middle initials should be a part thereof.

6. We believe in the same wall decor that exists in many Mormon homes, namely, framed family proclamations, vinyl lettering, inspirational word signs, familyphotos, pictures of temples and Jesus, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of the re-gift, church books, crafts, family photos, baked goods, emergency supply kits, and so forth.

8. We believe in sparkling grape juice so long as it is nonalcoholic; we also believe in bringing root beer and sprite to ward parties.

9. We believe in all that we have scrap booked, all that we will now scrapbook and we believe that we will yet scrapbook many great and important things pertaining to our family, friends, pets, and vacations.

10. We believe in the literal mixing of ketchup and mayo and in the generous application of ranch dressing; that CBAs (church-based acronyms) will be used to describe YM/YW, PEC, the Y, NCMO, and CTR; that Mitt Romney will get Mormons to vote for him any time he runs; and, that the Mormons will enjoy reading Twilight and The Work and the Glory.

11. We claim the privilege of trying to identify common acquaintances with any visitor at church, and allow all other people at church the same privilege, and let them name drop the names of famous and general authorities how, where, or what they may.

12. We believe in being subject to scoutmasters, pampered chef hostesses, and the writers of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for professional schools, and in obeying, honoring, and sustaining Glenn Beck.

13. We believe in being above average, good at crafts, optimistic, and being fifteen minutes late everywhere we go. Indeed, we may say that we follow BYU football. We believe rumors about famous people joining the church, we hope to meet the three Nephites, we have endured many pyramid schemes, and hope to be able to endure all pyramid schemes. If there is anything cheap, free, sold in bulk, or given away when somebody is moving, we seek after these things.