Ty Turns One!

Wow--it's official: my baby is one! Where has the time gone? Ty is such a bundle of joy that it has gone entirely too quickly! He is my fearless, adventurous, outdoorsy, fun-loving baby...er, toddler.

We just had a little family party for him after church today. He didn't get the joy of opening presents, but that is just as well, because I doubt that we could have contained Jacob anyway. So Jacob opened the gifts, and Ty loved and enjoyed all of them-- even the box of Life (Ty's favorite cereal) that Benjamin gave to him. He carried that box around for a long time, shaking it and bringing it to me to get some. We couldn't get him to be interested in anything else for a long time! One year olds are just great! I took a lot of video and some pictures with Brigham's iPhone, but since he isn't here right now, I'll just post what I took with our camera and add some more later.

Happy birthday, Ty! We love you!

Fun at the Zoo

The boys only have a half day of school on Wednesdays, and since Brigham had the day off, we decided to make the most of it and go to the zoo! It was a little chilly, but we had the place all to ourselves, which was a ton of fun. The play structure there is usually crawling with children, making it hard for Jacob and Ty to be able to play, but today we had a blast doing whatever we wanted. Ty, our crazy little nut-job who knows no fear, LOVED going down the slides head-first. Thanks to Brigham's iPhone (which I have become converted to, by the way), you can experience the wonder of the zoo with us!

Big Day

Today was a big day for the Dastrups at church. The biggest news is that after 3 years of nursery, Jacob finally became a Sunbeam and went to primary like a big boy! He was a little disoriented and concerned when I dropped him off with his new teachers and class, but his teachers are really sweet and wonderful, and they said that he did really well! They told me that his laugh is infectious and that he had the whole class laughing with him. We're so happy to feel like he is in a good situation.

Benjamin's big change today is that he moved from Junior Primary to Senior Primary. The presidency felt like Benjamin and his classmates were so smart that they should be in sr. primary even though they are only six. Just kidding. Actually, the truth is that our ward has too many jr. primary kids to fit in one room, so they had to advance a few classes to sr. primary early to make room for the younger ones. Benjamin said that he likes his new class and the change.

The other big news of the day is that Benjamin is going to be doing a piano solo in sharing time sometime soon. Yes, that's right-- a piano solo. He informed us on the way home from church that he signed up to do one in primary. We were a little concerned since he doesn't know how to play the piano, but he just informed us that he wasn't worried-- he just planned to get up there and play something. We tried to explain that you can't just sit down and play a song on an instrument that you've never learned to play, but he's pretty convinced that we are wrong-- how hard can it be?? I think I'd better make some phone calls...

Cuddles

The other day I was shocked and delighted to see Ty cuddling into Jacob while they watched Baby Bumblebee together (Yes, I DO let my children watch TV sometimes. Call me a bad parent if you want to, but all I can say is come walk a mile in my shoes.). I was shocked because Jacob usually pulls Ty's hair if he's close enough to touch, and Ty rarely holds still long enough for anyone to hug him. But there they were-- cuddled together with Jacob occasionally stroking Ty's hair. It was a precious moment that warmed my heart clear through! Of course, once I pulled out the camera, Benjamin wanted to be part of the action, too.

Speaking of Benjamin, why is it that when he has a whole closet full of cute clothing, he always wears the two ugly shirts that I keep around for messy activities?

Great Guide for Resolutions!

I'm sure that most of you already have your New Year's resolutions made, but I came across this talk a few days ago that I thought was great. We all want to be better people, and this talk outlines some areas we should set some goals in. It's definitely worth your time to read. Click here to read it!

A Glimpse

Yesterday I took the two little boys with me to the grocery store. Benjamin was playing at a friend's house, so I mercifully only had to take the little two. About a half mile down the road, I realized that I'd forgotten Jacob's shoes. You may wonder why he didn't have them on before getting in the car, and the answer is that he just takes them off once in the car and chews on his socks. I thought about going back for them, but I decided against it since last week at the store he just took both them and his socks off and threw them out of the cart (I probably wouldn't have even noticed if the wheel hadn't gotten stuck on one of the shoes. Luckily, both shoes were recovered, but the socks were a loss). Anyway, the rest of the way to the store I pondered how I was going to get my shoeless Jacob and Ty both into the store. I realized that I had two options. #1-- Find a car cart (you know, the big ones with a little car on the front for kids to "drive"-- it's my only option when I have both Jacob and Ty with me) in the parking lot and park close to it so I could put Jacob right in. #2-- Carry my 40 lb. Jacob and 20 lb. Ty both into the store at the same time. I'm not extactly Hercules, so let's just say that all the way to the store I was praying that we'd find a car cart in the parking lot. The last cart corral I checked in the parking lot had a car cart in it, so I sent a quick "thank you" heaven-ward and triumphantly loaded Jacob into it. My triumph didn't last long, though, because soon I saw that all the infant seat belts had been cut out. I looked around for another car cart, but there were none to be found, so I girded up my loins and set out to get the groceries.

Ty only made it to the second isle before he decided that sitting tamely is for wimps and that he prefers going surfer-style. I stopped to try to reason with him, but neither snacks nor toys could persuade him to stay sitting down. Jacob started to get mad because his car wasn't going, so I handed him a book, put Ty on my hip, and tried to navigate our bus of a cart with only one hand. Then Jacob decided he was tired of his book, so he threw it out.

What seemed like ages later, we finally had all necessary groceries in the cart, and I pulled into the line for the cashier. Jacob was within arm's reach of all the candy (why do they have to put it there anyway???), so I was nervous, but fortunately the plastic coily thing that they use to rope off isles was also hanging there at his eye-level, and he attacked it instead. With Jacob chewing happily on the store's plastic coil, I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to put Ty back into the cart. No go-- surfer boy was still firmly entrenched in his desires. I put him in the back of the cart with the groceries which he promptly started climbing to try to get out. It was a race between us to see if I could get all of the groceries out of the cart before he used them as steps to get out. The lady in line in front of us was staring, but I deliberately avoided eye contact.

Finally the circus came to an end, and when the bagger asked if I wanted some help getting out, for a half of a second I thought about saying yes and handing Ty to him, but I took a deep breath and said, "No thanks. I can manage." For I am Supermom!