Last night was Daniel’s sixth time in the ER (not fifth as I had stated earlier). I had forgotten one incident. Let’s see how good my memory is here:

Visit one: Only a few months old. Rapid heart beat and bad cold. Turned out to be bronchiolitus.

Visit two: Bad flu or something equally dreadful. Don’t know what it was, but he wouldn’t hold anything down.

Visit three: Fell into the corner of a wall. Stitches on the forehead.

Visit four: One day, Daniel decided he couldn’t stand on one foot anymore. Biggest mystery of all. After a very long day and evening at the ER, the doctors couldn’t come up with an answer. The next day, however, he put on a pair of my high heels, began walking, and was cured!

Visit five: Ran into the side of a door. Staples in the head.

Visit six: Last night - jumped off the stairs and broke two bones in his foot.

Here’s my little Daniel (and Lizzie) on his first full day with crutches.

Tonight was Daniel’s fifth time in the Emergency Room in his whole four-and-half years of life! Here are two pictures of Daniel with his broken foot.

I’m surprised Daniel was even capable of breaking any bones with all the milk he drinks!!!

I think I can pretty much gather what everyone’s top favorite things were from this year’s Hilton Head trip (besides the obvious things like eating to our hearts content and gossiping poolside, etc)

Lizzie:

1.  The “Hershey Hotel” (every hotel to her is the Hershey Hotel and for some reason she really likes hotels)

2.  Going underwater…definitely a favorite

3.  Playing Pokemon with her boy cousins

Daniel:

1.  The Pool - Learning to do flips and other such things

2.  Biking riding all the way to Harbor Town - One tough kid, I must say.

3.   Being Ball boy for the Tennis Tournament

Eppie:

1.  Playing Tennis

2.  Jammin’ to the new New Kids on the Block song Summertime practically for the first two hours of our trip down.  Oh so cool.

3.  Watching Elizabeth scream “Underwater” every time she went to jump in the pool.  It was truly hilarious, I must say.

Holly:

1.  Bike riding all over the island - Always the favorite, so I guess it shouldn’t count

2.  Ladies Day Brunch

3.  Watching Eppie pretending to do stuff on his laptop, but secretly watching The Disney Channel with Addison (which was always on in our room).  But I must say, those teeny-bopper shows aren’t that bad.

Here are some of my favorite Daniel quotes from the last two weeks or so:

-Because I had been spending so much time doing stage rehearsals and shows last week, Daniel told my sister Katie, “I just want Uncle Dan to fire my mom!!!”

-Daniel’s prayers often turn into church sermons. Last week as Daniel was closing his prayer, he said, “In the name of Jesus Christ…who loves our environment because heaven is a lot like earth, except they don’t have bodies there. Amen.”

-Driving home from church last week, we asked Daniel what his primary lesson was about. He told us this story: “Once there was a little boy who’s daddy died, so the mom had to get a job. The little boy decided to help his mom, so he got a job too. Now, Sister Hansen didn’t tell us if the boy had to have a job interview or not, but I’m guessing he did…

-”Mom, is Lizzie asleep yet?”

“I don’t know. I can’t see her.”

“Is she camouflaging herself again?”

-Daniel made a rocket out of Legos that he called “spacey.” He loved spacey dearly for about three days, until he broke. After he broke, Daniel sang made-up songs to spacey. I really got a kick out of the some of the lyrics, and Daniel’s acting was worthy of an Oscar. But what really got me going was when Daniel broke out into a Britney Spears song:

“Oh Spacey, Spacey,
How was I supposed to know
That something wasn’t right?”

- Today, we were planning on splitting up the kids and doing a “boys date” and “girls date,” where ep and Daniel would go to the movies while Holly and Lizzie played together.  The discussion surrounding the subject led to these 2 gems from Daniel:

Dad: Daniel, do you want to go see Kung Fu Panda with me?
Daniel:  Well, is it level 1 Kung Fu Panda or level 2 Kung Fu Panda?
Dad: Daniel, there are no levels, it’s just a movie.
Daniel: No Dad.  There are levels.  Is it level 1 or level 2?
Dad: Ummm… I think it’s level 2…
Daniel: Ok, then let’s go… I think there’s a level 3…

Later, Daniel recanted on his desire to go see the movie.  The conversation with Holly was as follows:

Daniel: I don’t want to go the movie with Dad.  I want you to come.
Mom: But Daniel, you and Dad are going to have a boy date, and Mom and Lizzie are going to have a girl date.
Daniel: Boy dates aren’t any fun when there are no girls.

Uncle Dan was over two days ago, and joking around with Daniel said, “Are you going to be on stage crew for the dance show this year, Daniel?”

Well, to Daniel, that was no joke.  Stage Crew?  Hello!?  What more could Daniel ask for?

“Mom, can I please be on stage crew?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well, (quick, come up with a good reason, holly!) you have to be able to read when you’re on stage crew because you have to know what song is coming up next.”

“Well, mom!!!! When are you going to teach me to read?”

Thanks Dan.

Two hours past his bedtime - coming downstairs, “I just can’t sleep.  You have to teach my how to read!!!”

So yesterday we started our reading lessons.  And….I’m getting a little nervous.  At this rate, I will have to figure out a way to let Daniel do some sort of stage crewing. 

“Today, we’re going to work on these 15 words.”

“15!  That’s it!  Mom, we have to work on at least a hundred and one words today.”

Much to Daniel’s disappointment, we’ve only worked on about 30 words these past two days and he knows almost all of them . 

It will be fun when he’s able to read.  I’m very excited for that time. 

Then I won’t have to deal with conversations with him like the one coming home from blockbuster last Friday:

“What movie did you get, mom?”

“Juno.”

“Why’s it called Juno?”

“I don’t know.  Juno? (doyouknow?)”

“Huh?”

“Juno why it’s called Juno?”

“what?”

“Do you get what I’m doing?”

“No.”

“Nevermind.”

“Mom, when we get home, can we go on a W-O-K?”

“Daniel, that was so close.  You almost spelled ‘walk.’  Instead, you spelled…wok.”

“I know mom.  I spelled ‘walk.’

“No, you spelled ‘wok.’  Hear the difference.  Walk.  Wok.”

Snobby glare from the back seat

“You almost got it, Daniel.  Don’t be upset.”

“Mom!  I spelled ‘walk!’

“It’s confusing…but someday you’ll get it.”

“Mom, this is annoying me.

“Hey, that’s rude.  I’m trying to teach you.”

“No, you’re trying to annoy me.”

When did he turn into a teenager? 

Daniel never ceases to surprise me with the things that come out of his mouth. 

Daniel was just explaining to me how goofy stands in this one cartoon video he likes to watch.

Daniel:  It’s like this mom (he proceeds to put one leg out from behind him)

Holly:  Oh, that’s lovely.

Daniel:  Yeah, it’s really funny.  It’s like he’s doing an arebesque.

Holly:  An arebesque!?

Daniel:  Yeah.

Holly:  How in the world do you know that word?

Daniel:  I don’t know.  I just know it.

Several years ago I read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families” by Stephen R. Covey and in it he suggested that every family have a mission statement.  I thought that was pretty cheesy and unneccessary and never considered doing one. 

But today in church I was reminded of something little that happened back in December:

It was the week of my birthday and Daniel was SO excited for the primary kids to sing “Happy Birthday” to me during primary.

Well, it didn’t happen - I guess the primary presidency overlooked my name on the list of birthdays.

Daniel was so disappointed, so I just said, “Maybe they don’t sing to the teachers anymore.  Maybe they just sing to the kids.”

The following week in primary, Daniel unexpectedly walks up to the podium while the primary president is giving the announcents.  He asks, “Um, do you guys still sing ‘Happy birthday’ to the teachers, because you guys didn’t sing to my mom last week.”

They laughed and of course I got my chance to be sung to. 

On the way home from church, Ep said to Daniel, “I’m proud of you son.  That’s what Vojt’s do.  We have each other’s back!”

I smiled at that and thought, “Boy, I should cross-stitch that and put it up somewhere in my house” (I did think that, but as a joke). 

I really do like that motto though: 

Vojt’s - We have each other’s back. 

My conversation while tucking Daniel in last night:

Daniel: Mom, how many more days until the Easter Bunny comes?

Holly: Three days. You have tomorrow, Friday and then Saturday.

(Pause)

Daniel: I’m going to go up to the sky with 17 flashlights. I’m going to turn them all on for a few seconds and then I’ll turn them off. That will be one day. Then I’ll do that two more times. Then it can be Easter in a few seconds!!!

Holly: (laugh) It doesn’t really work that way.

Daniel: I know.

(pause)

Daniel: Mom, can’t God make the earth rotate faster?

Holly: I’m sure if God really wanted to, he could make the earth rotate faster.

Daniel: I wonder how he would do that.

Holly: Don’t know

Daniel: I bet he would blow on it.

Holly: Probably. That’s a good guess.

Daniel: Mom, how did they get the Leaning Tower of Pisa to lean?

Mom: Well, it wasn’t supposed to lean.

Daniel:  Oh.  So it was supposed to be the Straight Tower of Pisa!?

Holly:  Hey Daniel!  How was the birthday party?

Daniel:  It was fun.

Holly: Oh yeah?

Daniel:  Yup.  I was the life of the party.

Holly: Why do you say that?

Daniel:  Because everyone was laughing at me.