Hide and Go Seek and Umbilical Cords

Piper just came up to me and said, "Mom, can I tell you something funny that just happened upstairs?"
Always up for some fun, of course I answered, "Yah!"
"I was just upstairs and Maia, Xai and Eli were sitting down talking about umbilical cords."
"Wait," I interjected. "What were they talking about?"

"Umbilical cords."
(Apparently we weren't even to the funny part yet.)

Me: "So the three kids were just sitting there talking about umbilical cords."
Piper: "Yah."
Me: "Okay."

Story continued: Piper is responsible in the morning for getting Eli ready for the day and so she said, "Hey, Wee-wi, want to come do the stuff now?"

Eli said, "No!  Please go out of the room."
Piper stood in the doorway, waiting for them to finish.  Eli, seeing that she was still there, closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them. Piper was still standing there.

"I don't want to see you!" he exclaimed.  Piper just stood there.  He opened and closed his eyes several times and finally asked, "Do you want to play hide-and-go-seek?"

Piper said, "Uh-huh," and then Eli started counting.
Piper went to hide and when Eli finished counting, he continued his conversation with the other kids about umbilical cords and belly buttons.  Genius kid at 4 years old.

Moments that could last forever

Oh how I wish I could capture a moment...

The way that Eli feels snuggled against my back as he sleeps.
The way that Liesl's little arm feels as she gives me one of her one armed hugs.

The way that Hyrum looks as he signs the song, "Polaroid" by Imagine Dragons.  Still not sure what the song "officially" means, but my meaning of it comes as a combination of watching Hyrum sign it in his chill way and the line, "all my life I've been living in the fast line, can't slow down I'm a rollin' freight train..."  I like that idea.  Slowing down and not living like a freight train through my life. I think I am doing much better but I still don't quite really get it. 

That message particularly struck me tonight on my way home from dropping Drew and Hyrum off at the Zyborg's house, where Drew stays now.  Hyrum is sleeping over and I just had a delightful time with the two of them wandering the store aisles of our small town supermarket that was closing soon. I got to watch them laugh, stroll safe and relaxed down the aisle, slowly "zoom" the motorized shopping cart back to the inside after someone left it out in the parking lot. (Their boyish enthusiasm for driving the slow-paced machine was delightful.)

I love that my kids can laugh and delight in simple things.

Like the way Drew was happy with the OJ, shrimp and Dr. Tops compensation I gave him to make up for being home an hour and a half late from the temple.  He was babysitting the littles since it was Hava's first time doing baptisms for the dead and the rest of us wanted to be there.  Which leads me to two more priceless moments of the day: Hava's face as she was baptized for the first time by her father; Drew's glow of happiness as he described how Liesl snuggled into him as he fell asleep.  If that doesn't help me get grandbabies from that cute boy, I don't know what else will!  I hope he does decide to pass along those genes...almost seems selfish not to, right?

Don't you wish sometimes that your family would just freeze as they are and you could stay in that moment forever?

Although I would want to rewind a couple days to the moment before I dropped Tova off at the airport for her flight back to Rexburg, Idaho.  I don't know. It is all so sweet.

Even the wrangling between the little ones can be sweet because it doesn't really mean anything. I punish them by keeping them apart and it is normally the victim that comes pleading to let the perpetrator out of "time out" so they can play with them again!

I love the way that Liesl calls Eli and Xai "the boys."  So cute, right?

I love watching Lily when she gets that look on her face and asks me if she can go outside, "just for a little while."  I loved Quinn's look of humor as he saw her out our window today, climbing the tree before we went to the temple...in a skirt, no less.

"It's okay, Dad," she calmly replied. "No one was under me."  What other almost 17 year old would do that?  Definitely my daughter. :D

Piper's smile--with that cute childlike glimmer of twinkling mischief and sheer joy of being alive.  Maia's enthusiastic hugs that always last longer than I expect them too, as she clings to me as if it were our last hug. I guess you never know.  I love listening to her prayers as she prays for her older siblings and their relationships.

So much beauty in this moment.

Alright, I am allowing myself a little bit of comic concern over the fact that Drew and Hyrum excitedly purchased hand warmers as the store, especially when Drew's face took on an exceptionally excited grin when he told me about how damaging the packets can be when applied directly to their skin. 

"Your body is a temple!" I called out the them as I drove away, mischievous grins plastered all over their mugs. Yah.  Boys. I am sure that what happens tonight between the two of them should stay with them until I am much older and further removed from the time in question.  Hopefully mismanaging hand warmers is the worst of their escapades tonight. You never know with those two.

Time to go up to where my husband is sharing our bed with the little bed warmer, Eli. Eli told me today that he can't wait until he is a dad and then he can sleep with me all the time. Our bed is not really big enough for three so I will let him snuggle for a while, sometimes an hour or two, before placing him gently on a bed on the floor so I can sleep.  Eli wants to always sleep in bed with us, apparently. He has been that way since he was a baby...never could handle separation.

That's okay.  The separation will come all too soon.