lareita – Page 5 – David & LaReita Berky

Alexander’s UVU Orchestra concert

Tonight we went to see one of Alex’s performances at UVU. His Grandma (my Aunt Elaine) was also there visiting because of other various grandchildren activities, and made it part of her trip.

He is in the chamber orchestra and has been enjoying it. (Although he was getting annoyed with people dropping the class mid-way through the semester.) We arrived in time for his portion of the concert. However, we had to wait in the hall because we had to go in between sets, so as not to disrupt the performers and audience members. During the applause, we and 20 other people started to filter into the medium-sized auditorium. As we sat down to listen, I looked around and mouthed to Dave, “Where’s Samuel?” In the shuffle, we lost him. Dave went out to look for him. He stayed out for the rest of the concert (which was only 20 minutes). When we met back up with Dave and Samuel, he said that a crying Sam was holding the hand of a kind young father at the door. Samuel was pretty upset (understandably), so Dave just stayed out in the foyer with him.

It reminds me of the time that everyone in my family tells me about being left in the store. When my family arrived back home, everybody had assumed that I was being watched by someone else. As a result, I was left back at the store. I don’t remember a thing, but I certainly remember my dad telling me about how guilty he felt when he came back to gather me up, and that the policeman holding my hand gave him a disapproving look.

History aside, Alex’s concert went well, we were able to visit with Aunt Elaine at the intermission, and we all arrived at home. Everyone. 🙂

Bookie Brothers

In the infinite wisdom of the PTA, they hold a fundraiser book sale at the same time as Parent/Teacher conferences. Great for fundraising, but also a hard time for parents as they have to tell their children “No, we cannot get everything that you see.”

Fortunately, the elementary library was clearing out old books that they didn’t want on their shelves. So the boys picked up nearly all the Bernstain Bears books that we didn’t already have. (They were very excited about this.)

Here you see them devouring books while waiting for me and Dave to finish talking to some neighbors.

boys – they are so fun(ny)!

Hope this brings a smile to your face today!

Everyday Samuel is becoming more and more like a little boy. In one week he will be 2 years old. Wow.

Yesterday, like a true man, he decided he was hungry and began to fix himself something. He pushed a chair over to the stove, pulled over the frying pan, got a butter knife, scooped out some butter, plopped it in the pan and began talking to Dave. Dave asked, “are you hungry Samuel?” Some jibberish then a “Yes!”

Today as we were reading “The Little Engine That Could” he turned back to another page and he was pointing and talking about something then said, “Ho Cow!” (Holy Cow) Anthony has been saying that a lot lately, so naturally Samuel picked up on it. Samuel also picked up on “Gosh” tonight (fortunately not the other) as we were watching “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. Children are so easily impressionable!

And the funniest thing of all happened tonight as I was getting him ready for bed. We were reading and he began picking at his nose. I pulled his hand away, “don’t pick your nose”. He smiled and then shoved his finger up his nose. I took it away again. Giggling, he put his other finger up his other nostril. I couldn’t help but giggle too. I pulled it out. He put his other finger up his nose. I pulled it out. Over and over. We were laughing so much we couldn’t even finish the story!

These boys are so fun!

Last week James’ primary teacher told him to get a chair for the only girl in his class. He asked “why?”
“So you can practice for when you have a sister someday.”
James instantly said, “Nope, we’re going to be a family of all boys!”

That’s true! (Aside from me), we are going to be a family of all boys! (That’s another story for another time.)
But even so, we are working on respect and courtesy.

uh oh…Samuel can open doors now

A mom usually has two places in the house that she can have time to herself; the shower and the toilet. That is if she locks the door. Samuel loves to follow me around. Whenever I go into the bathroom he just cries and cries, reaches for the knob, bangs on the door and cries some more.

Yesterday I went into the bathroom and Samuel cried, reached for the door knob and he turned the handle and opened the door! I smiled big and said excitedly, “Samuel! You opened the door!” He smiled big too, and shut it, then opened it about 5 times, giggling every time. He was so pleased with himself!

This was a lot better of a 1st time opening a door than Anthony’s experience. The 1st time Anthony had learned how to open a door was when I lay down to take a quick cat nap (think I was pregnant with Benjamin). Anthony had been playing in his room so I figured he would be fine for 1/2 hour. Not too much later after closing my eyes (it seemed) I heard my doorbell ring. A neighbor that lives next to our church (just a block away) had heard him in her front yard looking and talking at her flowers. It was fortunate his guardian angel(s) didn’t let him get too far! To this day my neighbor (who is now my Visiting Teacher) said, “He just seemed so happy to be outside enjoying life!”

That’s my Anthony and Samuel – they LOVE to be outside.
Time to get those child-proof door knob locks back on.

It’s the principle

I had an interesting Sunday today. Had a member of the Primary General Board come to our Primary for our Ward Conference. Fortunately everything went well.

We also actually arrived before the sacrament hymn. We did good today!

It sure is hard getting 4 boys (well I guess 6 boys) up, dressed, fed and out the door by 8:50 am). Though Alex is pretty self sufficient, I have to poke Dave out of bed, prod James into getting dressed, and coax Anthony into considering going to church and all that’s associated with that stressful topic for him. As for Samuel, I really should put him in a diaper only until we are actually heading out the door so he doesn’t make a mess of his clothes. And sometimes we have to do a quick diaper change as we are heading out. And for Benjamin I have to chase him around the house and wrestle his clothes on, and search for his shoes (even though he has about 5 pairs). Actually the shoe hunt and subsequent shoe struggle are a regular occurance on Sundays for us. (I bet that makes mom smile. I was always losing my shoes as a kid.) Then once we actually get to church I hear, “Mooommmm, I’m staaarrrving.” What happened to your breakfast? “I wasn’t hungry then.”

Sigh. Sundays feel like marathons. I have to remind myself, “Remember, we are teaching a principle to our children.”

Also this evening Lynette and LaMont and their families came to surprise me with a belated birthday celebration. (Since on my real birthday we were finishing our reunion and heading out of St. George. Which I thought the reunion with all my siblings and Aunt Elaine was celebration enough!) Dave helped arrange that – he’s so wonderfully sweet. It was a great time talking and laughing together (in between me helping Samuel after his 2 falls and goosebumps to his head). Kris and Aubrey filled Alex in on all the details of how to properly ask a girl out for Homecoming on Friday. Spanish Fork HS has 9 dances in a school year! Every month! Crazy expensive! I think Alex was getting a bit of information overload.

Perceptions

It is interesting what kids perceive. Tonight James was reading about the Blackbird SR71 (an army plane). He asked how it was that the metal can expand and get harder with each flight. I said I didn’t know – but dad might know how that works.

“Why don’t you know, mom?”
“Because I’m not a scientist.”
“But you know how to be on the computer.”

I smiled and answered, “Just because I know how to use a computer doesn’t mean that I’m a scientist.”
“Really? But don’t you want to find out?”
“Not really, not right now. I’m putting clothes away.”

Perhaps another day I can google why it is that the metal expands and strengthens on the Blackbird SR71.

Anyone else know why?

But it was interesting that James thought I was a scientist because I knew how to do some computer stuff!

Restaurant adventures

We haven’t been out to eat as a family in a long time. I have forgotten how messy things can get. Dave says that we don’t just leave a tip, we leave a cleaning deposit.

And I need to remember to bring not only a change of clothes for Samuel, but for me as well! Tonight he dumped water all over my pants, so it looked like I didn’t make it to the bathroom in time!

But other than the huge mess of spilled food and water, scribbled on menus, scattered and chewed-on crayons, the meal time went relatively well! (When considering it was with 4 boys under the age of 8.)

Although this a fun age now, I do look forward to the day that they can sit down and eat at least one full plate of food without wandering around, whining, or crying that the food looks like puke.

(I remember once when Anthony was 3 we couldn’t get him to sit down and eat at the dinner table. So we brought his car seat in and strapped him in so he would sit at the table. Yeah, that didn’t go over so well. I have the pictures of that – he was not happy about being constricted. Although we did get a bungee cord for James when he was 3 and after a couple times he understood that meal time was sitting down and eating time.)

Oh the wonders of parenthood! It has its days of frustration, but it also certainly has days that are humbling and rewarding.

Music and Arts

Well, James is much more excited about the Theater class. He got a speaking part – he gets to be a policeman. I went to the Fiddling class with him today. 1 hour is pretty long for a beginner. He was getting so tired. As the guitar teacher was working with the guitars/banjos, and the violin teachers was working with the fiddles, I worked with James. I took my cello too. A 1 hour lesson with mom 5 days a week. Sheesh. He’s really going to know if he wants to do cello or not! At one point the violin teacher stepped out for about 15 minutes. I continued to work with James to learn his (simplified) part. As I was helping James with a bow hold I started to banter with him because I was losing his concentration.

“What’s that death grip you got going over there on that right hand of yours?”
“Straight thumb? Can you run with straight legs? You certainly can’t run with the bow with a straight thumb!” (etc…) And James was of course making his silly comments back and I would counter with something else silly. The violin (fiddle) students that were next to us kept looking over at us.

When he got tired of playing with the group I let him rest. So when he dropped out I didn’t play the open strings. When I came in playing something more complicated than open strings, the class took notice. James said to me embarrassed, “Mom, they’re all looking at you.” It’s not like I was showing off. I was just playing the harmony part given to me. I guess my cello projected nicely. (As it always does.)

Anthony and Benjamin got to do painting with smelly paints today. Grape, watermelon, strawberry smelling pictures came home today. Benjamin’s was mostly orange. YUMMY FUN! Anthony drew a good self portrait and did one of Benjamin too. I asked Benjamin if he tried to do one himself. He said, “No, it got all crazy. Anthony did it for me.” The picture Anthony did of Ben was quite good. The circle for the head was nearly a perfect circle. Impressive! (Especially if you see what his drawings were like at the beginning of his preschool year. Yea Anthony!)

Speaking of Anthony…tonight we were reading “I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello”. After the shy fellow eats all the instruments, he burped them back out. When each instrument comes out on the page some notes follow behind it. For a few of the instruments I sang a 2 bar phrase how they might sound. When we got to the last page, “And out cha cha-ed the cello” I didn’t sing anything.

Anthony said, “mom! why didn’t you sing anything for the cello?”
“Oh, I just didn’t.”
“Well sing something.”
So I did 2 bars of Bach’s 1st Suite, Prelude.

Anthony then said, “No it should be this…” and he proceeded to sing his own 2 bar melody in a 5/8 time as if it were the most natural thing in the world! I told him that he was right. I liked that one much better.

It amazed me because for a classically trained musician (or at least for me when I was trying to learn it in High School) 5/8 time doesn’t come naturally. But to Anthony, who has been listening to all the various folk songs that I’ve been exposing him to through Music Together, it just naturally flowed out of him! Kids are just amazing to me!

Arts kids

For these next 2 weeks the boys are doing the Youth Arts Festival. Anthony and Benjamin are doing KinderArts M-F. Benjamin is so excited about it and asks in the morning, “Mom, when can I go to my class?!?” Anthony likes it too. He’s really getting good with the art stuff. Their art teacher is one of the Kindergarten teachers at Larsen that I’m hoping Anthony will get next year. So hopefully she’ll see what a smart and creative kid he is and want to have him in her class!

I wanted to get James signed up for an art class too, since that is his favorite subject in school (next to recess of course). But the class I wanted him in filled up within 1 hour! So in place of that he is doing a Fiddling Class (on cello). It wasn’t very organized on Monday. We didn’t go to it today because Samuel was taking a nap after a nasty fall. Tomorrow I’m going to stay with him to hopefully make it more fun for him.

Then after the Fiddling Class is over he does the “Youth Theater” for 2 hours. The director put him on a part with a few other kids that their lines are singing parts. He was disappointed that he didn’t get a bigger part – Like the main character. I smiled and told him that when you first start acting, everyone starts small. He was also a bit disappointed that his lines were singing lines, and not spoken lines. He was trying to show me how long the song was they have to learn. It’s only the 2nd day and he was complaining that the other kids aren’t learning the song fast enough. 🙂

Jennie, you’ll have to talk to James about acting and theater stuff when you come and do his cello lessons. I keep asking, and he still says he wants to do cello. I’m not pushing, just checking if that’s what he really wants to do. I keep telling him he doesn’t have to do it – but he says he want to. So I guess we’ll have him do it. But I’m not going to be his teacher. It just doesn’t work!

I just love the summer time with all the fun different activities there are for the kids to do! The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the water and mud. I changed Ben’s and Aysha’s outfits 4 times (seriously). Samuel’s 3 times. Anthony twice. James kept himself dry thankfully.

Oh, and Samuel has learned how to crawl up the slide. He just can’t figure out how to get back down. Smart kid. He is saying “mom” sometimes now. “Da” he has mastered along with the sign for it. He sometimes does the “milk” sign. He knows what they all are. He just doesn’t do them…a little obstinate like Anthony was at that age. (Though not as bad.)

Ramblings at 12:57 am (time to go to bed now!)

I was finishing emails, doing a bit of research, and doing data entry with our finances and started thinking…

You know what I would really like? When using some websites to not see random ads of

– people showing off their tattooed bodies (men and women)
– women barely wearing a bikini
– floozy women peering into the screen with puckered lips and boobs hanging out
– cellulite ads showing off a woman’s butt
– ringtone ads of couples dirty dancing
– plastic surgery ads

Interesting how they nearly all revolve around the slow destruction of not only the body, but ultimately the spirit. And these ads are nearly all women’s bodies. Satan’s workings are so subtle and yet so very blatantly attack that which is deemed to be “precious above all things”. (Moroni 9:9, 1 Cor. 6:6)

Jealously. That’s what it is. He’s jealous he can’t have a body, so he’s trying his best to ruin our mortal existence.

He really knows that if he can weaken and eventually destroy the woman (a daughter of God) he can destroy families, society and our world.

Sorry, Satan. You aren’t going to fool me! And BTW, you do know that you aren’t going to win in the end, so why even try? Just give up now.