Valentine's and Babies

The beginning of January I signed the girls up to go to a "Daddy-Daughter Dance" for Valentine's Day. Of course I was so excited to for Maryn and Adyson to have this special evening with their dad, dancing and all dressed up. Immediately Maryn started complaining, "I am not going! Only little girls are going to be there with their dads! No one in my class is going to be there! I will feel so stupid dancing with my dad!" First of all I was so surprised because Maryn is our dancer and loves to go anywhere where there is music and dancing. I thought for sure she would love a "date" out and to go out to dinner somewhere special. I couldn't believe it! We tried saying all the things a parent would say like, "you will have so much fun. There will be so many girls there with their dads. Think how special Daddy will feel being on a date with his girls...go for him. Go for Ady and help her have a great time." Nothing worked because she was determined she was going to feel stupid. What an aching feeling it is for a parent to know their children are starting to get embarrassed by them...that they're getting old enough to think a daddy/daughter date is not cool anymore. We talked about it for a month as if she were going only to get the same argument. The day before the date we finally got down to the nitty-gritty of the situation. I asked Maryn to tell me how she knew that the kids in her class would make fun of her if she went. I asked her to tell me how she knew that no one else was going. Well, she couldn't answer either question and Saturday night, out the door they all went. THEY HAD A BLAST! and do you know what? There were tons of girls there that Maryn knew...lots of girls from church and lots from school. I told Maryn that she was a ninny! They ate, danced, got their pictures taken and had lots of fun!

Jeff even got the girls roses for the occasion. So great! While at the dance they got their picture taken too.
In February the schools have a "Mid-Winter Break" I guess to help break up the long, dreary, wet Washington winters. Everyone goes to Hawaii, Mexico, Bahama Cruises, California...you know, real warm, sunny places to get some healthy Vitamin D back into their systems. Well, I put on my Super Mom cape and flew with the 4 children by myself to Utah. Since I hate to fly anyway it was extra stressful but I was grateful it was less than a 90 minute flight. I won't go into all the huge details of Kaden saying good-bye to Jeff at the airport...huge echoing screams down the terminal, "Daaaaaaddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" Or the fact that all 5 of us were assigned seats with no 2 seats together and I got a bit teary when the gate agent and 1 flight attendant would not be helpful to me in arranging to move things around a bit so at least I could sit with my 2 year old. Like what was I going to do, sit him next to a stranger and say, "would you please open his peanuts for him and read him these books? And if he needs me I'll be in the way back." Holy Cow that was all too stressful. The story ends good that the University of Utah gymnastics team was sitting in the back of the plane and 3 moved places so I could sit with Emmy and Kaden. Maryn and Ady were on their own somewhere.

Anyway, this was a special and important visit because we had to meet our very first Matheson cousin!!!! Spencer James Shuman, Marianne's 3 week old baby. We were so excited to hug and kiss him and for a whole week that's all we did. Oh, it was so fun. We loved helping Marianne and loved that she slept over at Mom and Dad's house for the whole week while James worked his graveyard shift.

Kaden was even so gentle with Spencer. Being around Spencer made our 2 year old Kado seem so big.

We introduced Spencer to the Slichta's favorite "bassinet"...a laundry basket. It seriously is the best place for a new baby to sleep because it's snugly and tight and you can carry him around wherever you are in the house.
Everyone took their turn in loving Spencer and thinking that they knew just exactly what Spencer needed at the moment. He was so patient and hardly ever cried.The kids love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house because there are "kids" there...Marc and Merrill. It has been said that "they're silly and weird,"
Kaden especially loves Marc...they played soccer together and bonded with other"boy" things. Grandpa and some of the Uncles took the kids out for a night to a fun jumping place. They had a great time. Jeff also came for the weekend and took the kids roller skating. It was one fun thing after another.

It's not a real trip to Utah unless we go bowling. The best part was watching Emmy push her ball down the lane going so slow...real s-l-o-w- m-o-t-i-o-n, she would get bored watching the ball and lay on the floor. The pins would fall over 1 by 1 in slow motion and she even got few strikes.

I must say that this was the first trip that we made to Utah while living in Seattle and it was really hard to leave. It was hard to leave family and friends and fun and sunshine to return to a place of strangers and new places and clouds. Seattle still didn't seem like home to us. The other reason why it was hard was because Jeff went on to Washington DC while I had to fly alone with the kids. Except for a bumpy flight everything went OK. It was a great trip and we sure do love Spencer!