Learning to be a Person

Anna keeps doing things that make me chuckle and wonder where she got that from. Then I think about it and realize I do the exact same thing. Two examples have hit me lately. Anna loves to dance. I don't remember if I ever talked about this or not but once we were in Philadelphia on a busy pedestrian area and there were some people dancing on roller skates on the sidewalk. Anna walking right into the middle of them and started dancing herself. It was so cute. The roller skate people stopped and watched, joggers going by stopped and watched and she was oblivious to it, just enjoyed the music. Rather than lessening as she got older, she has simply mixed up her style.

I thought it was really funny that she was so into dancing until I realized that I dance with her all the time. When we would be out and about with her in the Moby wrap, I would dance with her feet if we had to stand still. Before making dinner, I would often dance with her in the living room (she would laugh and laugh). When she was sitting in her high chair eating, I would dance in front of her or we would watch Dancing with the Stars together. So really, no surprise that she is into dancing.

The next thing is singing. Anna has gotten into singing. She doesn't really sing actual words but she totally has pitch and tone. She will do hand motions while singing so she obviously is thinking of actual songs and often dances at the same time. Yesterday in church, we told her it was time to sing and she started right up even before the organ did. It was pretty funny.

Here is a little video of her showcasing her talents. As you can tell, she has no reservations in singing.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize it but today it occurred to me that I sing all the time too. I pretty much always have a song in my head even if I don't sing it out loud (Jason has been known to hum part of a song just to get it in my head). Even so, I often sing out loud. In the car I especially like to sing along with the music turned up quite loud (so I can't hear myself).

Kristen pointed out that she is learning from me (and probably Jason too) what it means to be a person. Apparently it means a lot of music, at least in our family.

Tact

Recently I have been thinking and observing long-term interpersonal relationships (like with siblings, good friends or ward members) and have realized the importance of tact. While I was never brave enough to do it, I used to think that you should just say what you think and if the hearer has a hard time with it, that is their fault. I would often quote the scripture "the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center" 1 Ne 16:2. Basically, I didn't care about feelings and even sometimes though I was helping them by not beating around the bush or sugar coating hard things.

Then I noticed I would get kind of offended and defensive if someone would talk to me that way. I would have to remind myself that they were right and work hard to be able to take it as constructive criticism and try to learn and improve rather than just bristle. That combined with talking to others and sharing experiences helped me to see how important it is to more carefully choose my words or even just keep my mouth shut. I find with myself that I usually know that what I am doing is wrong or at least not what I want to be doing and am working on it. Having it pointed out to me doesn't help and just makes me feel frustrated that I am still working on it.

A little while ago, I was watching a movie, Evening, with Kristen. There was a point in the movie where these two sisters are talking about the direction that one's life is going and the other one expressed a concern that if she keeps going the way she is that she will end up completely alone when she is old. Naturally, she starts to cry. Kristen commented that while that may be true, and she must worry about that a lot, what is gained by saying it out loud? That really hit me. What is the point of hurting someone's feelings just for the sake of saying something that may be true but not helpful, just hurtful? More often than not, it is better to either not say anything at all, or say something but with kindness, love and a real desire to assist. Hopefully now I can incorporate that lesson into my own life.

Elfin Forrest

Not far from here there is a little forest of miniature oak trees. When Jason was younger, he would go there with his family and they would climb all over the trees. They are especially fun because the branches go really low to the ground and make it like a fort.

So we took Kristen's family to go play on them. The place has changed a bit in that they put in a boardwalk type thing to walk out to and around the trees. They had also put up some fences to block off certain areas for rehabilitation. Unfortunately, that meant that Jason's favorite trees were fenced off so we couldn't go in them but we found some more that were also good.


Once we got under the canopy, the trees were great for climbing on. The branches seem to grow sideways instead of up and there are branches close to the ground for even the youngest kids.


We even got to crawl under this branch to get in (there was also an over or around option but under was more fun). Who could ask for anything more?

Ocean Caves

A little while ago with went with Kristen, Hilary and their families to some caves carved out by the ocean. They are way down at the end of the beach and it was a bit tough walking everyone down the whole beach to get to them. Even so, I think we decided it was worth it.


Fortunately we got there at low tide so we could get to them. There is a point that you have to go around and when the tide comes it, the water goes past that. We were there once when it was tough getting out because the tide was coming in and we had to wade through the water. Not this time; although we did end up wet by the time we left.

That is one sandy bum.

There were several caves and fun rocks to climb around. The caves were narrow and deep and most of them smelled really bad. At least one had a dead seagull in the back and the ones that didn't were really musty. Needless to say, I didn't go too far into any of them.


Jason went ahead with the older boys (pretty much everyone down to Eric) and explored fast. The womenfolk and younger kids moved more slowly enjoying the rocks on the way. We had a number of guys coming back to us telling us about cool things that we just had to see.


While the older boys kept going, the younger kids played on the beach. I think this was one of the first times Anna played in the water itself. I was impressed with how little she minded getting wet. The water here is cold and kids aren't usually interested (heck, I'm not usually interested) but she had a lot of fun running out when the wave went out then back when it came in.

Zoo

Note: We finally got a bunch of pictures off of our camera and Jason edited them for me so that I can just type and add. So for the next bit I will be talking about things we have been doing this summer. Hopefully this will help me blog more often too.

A little ways from here is a little zoo. Sadly, Anna hadn't been to a zoo before. There is a big, nice (I think) one in Philadelphia (the nation's first zoo) but somehow we never managed to get to it. I was frusterated too because I figured that Anna would love the zoo. Now that we are here, we figured a small one would be a good start so she wouldn't get all overtired and stuff.

Sadly, just before we went, their tiger had died (they have replaced it since then but we haven't had a chance to go back and see it). So we kept it pretty simple with the smaller animals.

I think her favorite were the flamingos. Here is her pointing to them and making sure Jason sees them. You can almost hear her say something like "Look Daddy, pretty birds!"

Along the pretty bird line, were the tropical birds. Also good.

There was also this way active monkey (it was kind of hot, not many of the animals were active) that would climb around in front of us. I never know if she remembers the monkeys in India but I like to think she does.

It was a fun little trip to the zoo. Now that she has been to one her size, maybe a bigger one won't be too overwhelming.

Walking in Heels

Note: I have now fixed the video so you can all watch it. Sorry I made it private, I got kind of caught up in Jason's internet privacy but didn't realize it would inhibit viewing.

I have been trying to get this stupid video onto this blog for weeks and it hasn't worked. Basically, I was too impatient to wait for it to upload (but they never let me know how much had been done and how much needed to be done so really, can you blame me?). I had all but given up until we created a youtube account and can now upload videos to youtube. Now, I can upload to there (which does give a status bar) and just embed the videos here. (And there was much rejoicing. Yeah.)

So this video that so needs to be here is Anna being dang cute. I've noticed that so much of what makes us laugh about her now is her personality and that really comes out better in a video (and she has this habit of avoiding the camera, it better just be a phase). So here she is with a skill set beyond her years. It goes sideways partway through, sorry about that, we don't have video editing software so I can't fix it.

Little Tikes

One great thing about being at Kristen's is that they have a bunch of great toys that I would not have thought to get. They even have toys in every age range so there are fun things for Anna. Lately she has been quite fond of these two Little Tikes things, a car and a slide.


Since coming here, she has gotten to the point where she can go up the stairs and down the slide all by herself. She can even land on her feet rather than just slide off onto her bum. Not surprisingly, she is really into big slides at parks too.


The car is another big hit. She likes to ride around in it on their sidewalk which conveniently goes in a big loop around the grassy area of the yard. Or get pushed if anyone is offering. I've noticed that she doesn't really steer very well but still has fun.

Amazingly, Kristen has had these two toys for years. Apparently, when Christopher (who is 15) was a baby, they saw them either for sale or on the side of the road (I don't remember which) so they got them and they have lasted through all (except for Luke who is really too young yet) of their boys ever since. So if you are ever thinking of getting something like that but think it's kind of pricey, they are built to last.