THE SUPERHEROES' MOTHER

It's no secret that Superman and Batman are my sons. A lesser known fact is that they get their superpowers from me. For example:

Today all the kids took their sandwiches and carrots outside for a picnic. When Marcos came back in, I hugged him and he somehow transferred a wasp onto my shirt. I was collected, and told my little superhero to go get me some toilet paper. I learned from my mom how to squish a wasp in a little napkin or paper towel or what have you. It took Marcos forever to return with the remnants of the end of a roll of toilet paper. Lili took over as my toilet paper fetcher and returned quickly with an appropriate amount of toilet paper. By then, the wasp had walked across my ample belly, across my maternity shirt and on to my back. I couldn't see it and couldn't very well kill it with it crawling on my back. Lili and Ruben were rather concerned that I would get stung. I calmly brought my arms inside my shirt and turned the shirt around. Luckily, the wasp was lethargic and lazy and still creeping along as it turned up on my belly again. In a flash, and as my children watched in admiration, I killed the little pest and quickly disposed of its corpse, toilet paper and all.

Where do you think Superman and Batman get their superpowers and bravery? Let's just say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Ka-pow!

St. Patrick's Performance, Vacuuming, & Dress-up

For St. Patrick's Day, our talented music teacher for our homeschool co-op (non other than my dear sister, Marianne) arranged for us to go and sing at the senior citizens' center. We needed to get our van worked on, so Edgar dropped the kids and me off at the post office and then he took the van. We walked from the post office to the senior citizens' center in about two minutes. We were early and none of the other performers had arrived yet. I decided to keep my energetic children outside until show time--a wise choice. Marcos was holding a wooden hatchet to be used as a prop in one of the songs and was hitting the trunk of a mature and sturdy tree. I didn't think anything of it, but a gal eating inside was not pleased. She came outside and yelled at Marcos:

"Stop beatin' on that tree! It's a livin' thang!" (I didn't spell thing wrong--she really said it with an "a".) I naturally felt like the horrible, negligent mother I am. I apologized and took the hatchet away from Marcos. Later, after we'd performed, the same lady made sure Marcos got a snack--even though he was too young to be one of the performers. So maybe she forgave us. Above, the kids were singing "Big Moon."
Here Ruben got to be the executioner and Lili was Anne Boleyn. The ax is a bigger version of what Marcos was using to abuse the livin' thang.

Ammon adores his dad and likes to do whatever Edgar does. Fortunately, that includes vacuuming.

Marcos took to calling himself Mary the other day. He wore one of Lili's dresses and her hair flower. Ammon was happy to join in. It's almost like having sisters. Ruben adamantly abstained from anything girly, but he was Buzz Lightyear--in his John Deere sweatshirt. Oh, didn't you know Buzz Lightyear is the space ranger that drives a tractor? One look at Lili's hair, and you can see why the good Lord is sending us another boy. I am very bad at hair.

My parents now have a blog, so if any in my vast readership are interested in the life of a missionary in Nauvoo, this is their address: markandcoralee.blogspot.com

Marcos's Tonsils are Still With Him!

Marcos

This week things did not go as expected. We had been dreading the Ides of March (March 15) for weeks. That was to be the day of Marcos's tonsillectomy. We were as ready as could be--Edgar was going to be off work for five days, he and our kind bishop had administered to Marcos for his operation, and my mom had put Marcos's name on the prayer roll of the temple. I had done my part by buying all kinds of juice, ice cream, popsicles, fancy straws and a special cup, pudding, and yogurt. I also bought three new movies and rented two more.

The night before his surgery, I had a hard time falling asleep. I was worried about my little guy. At midnight, he started making a lot of noise. He sleeps through the night every night, and I thought it unfortunate that he was awake on a night when he couldn't even have a drink of water. I decided to let him go back to sleep, but he kept talking.

Marcos kept saying, "Rashi (his name for Ruben), wake up!" I finally went in to find that my poor little pre-surgery patient had thrown up. He said, "I threw up, Mom. See?" I did see and I gave him a bath, changed his sheets (we've always kept all the twin-size sheets in Lili's room since she has two closets--that night as I fumbled in the dark for clean sheets, I realized how inconvenient that can be), and got him back to bed.

I called the hospital--they had said Marcos had to be healthy for two weeks before his surgery. The nurse I talked to said they would probably still do the surgery since Marcos didn't have a fever and since he wouldn't have anything in his stomach. I couldn't sleep and an hour later, Marcos called for me. Throughout he was very upbeat and seemed to feel fine. I'd told him to call me and not Ruben. As our deepest sleeper, Ruben wasn't Marcos's best option in the night. Marcos had thrown up again. New pajamas. New sheets. No bath this time. A half hour later, another cheerful "Mom, I need you," brought me to Marcos. New pajamas. New sheets. Again, no bath. This time, a brilliant idea--a little bowl to throw up in for Marcos to sleep with. He used the bowl for his last little episode at 2:00 am. I hadn't slept and why hadn't I thought of the bowl in the first place?

I called the hospital again. The nurse still thought they'd probably do the surgery, but wanted me to call back at 6:00 when the surgery nurse would be there. I didn't sleep too well until 6:00 when I got to talk to Twila (gotta love her name), the surgery nurse. She said they would not do the surgery. "But we're all ready...the other nurse said we could...my husband's off work...we're having a baby soon." Twila was unmoved. "If he vomited during surgery, it could be fatal." Oh. Never mind, Twila. We'll reschedule. Our new date to dread is April 12. Edgar will have to take the day off work, but we'll still have the new movies, the straws, and the fancy cup (I cleverly put them away) and the ice cream and juice will make it until then if I keep them hidden.

The day after his surgery was supposed to be, Marcos got up and said, "Mom, did I get my tonsils out?" Not yet, sweetie. When you get them out, you'll know it.

For my parents: here's a picture of the St. Patrick's Day snowstorm you missed yesterday. I think we got 8 inches of nice, wet, mud-inviting snow!

A New Goal

My new goal is to blog weekly while my parents are on their 18-month mission to Nauvoo, Illinois. That's a lofty goal for one as inconsistent and bad at blogging as I. We'll see how it goes...

Farewell to my sweet parents! I took this picture of them right before they went to the MTC, or Empty Sea, as my children are sure it is called. I have had the hardest time explaining about acronyms. They are sure Grandma and Grandpa are in the Empty Sea. "Why is the sea empty, Mom? Aren't there any fish in it?" Ruben prays that they can do a good job and the day after we said good-bye to them, Marcos wondered if Grandma and Grandpa were still on a mission. Yes, after all this time, they still are.

CELEBRATION WITH THE COBIANS: Things are not in very good order here. Blogger and I do not get along. I have a terrible combination I'm dealing with--my great ignorance of technology, my picture files that are as big as Russia (and I have no idea how to make them smaller), and a very slow internet connection. These pictures are not in chronological order, but all of them happened within the last week or so. Above are Josefina (Edgar's mom) and all her grandchildren (and Edgar). You may notice that we are a little heavy on boys on this side of the family (and Edgar and I are only contributing to the problem by expecting our fourth boy). There are 13 grandchildren and 9 of them are boys. Below is Abuelita with her four granddaughters. We celebrated Abuelita's birthday and Liliana's together. None of these sweet girls has a sister, but they all have at least one brother.

Tia Olivia (pictured) and Tio Sergio gave Lili a new bike for her birthday. Liliana was thrilled and our weather has been gorgeous--allowing for some lovely riding time.CELEBRATION WITH THE DAHLS: Our kids are so lucky (and so are their parents) to have a lot of members of our large families nearby. We always have two birthday parties: a Cobian one and a Dahl one. Two days before Lili's big day, we had the Dahl party. Isaiah drew these great pictures for Lili. We also had an extra Dahl celebration. Almost all of us were in Utah for the weekend (to celebrate our new niece's blessing in church) and we got together for dinner at Sizzler (Lili's choice) for a birthday dinner. I wanted to post more pictures here, but it takes far too long. Among others, Tabor, Katie, and sweet girls were there:

This table was a little rowdy as you can see. Lili had shyly told me she wanted me to tell the waitress it was her birthday. When I told the waitress, she said, "That's great," but there was no special ritual with clapping and singing. Marianne got us all singing happy birthday, though, and there were 24 of us present--we made quite a spectacle for Liliana's big day.

Edgar carved Liliana a lovely wooden box for her birthday. His woodworking hobby is my favorite so far. He made me a similar box for Christmas. Edgar is constantly surprising me with his many talents and with his desire to try anything he thinks might be interesting. If he looks a little tired in this picture, it's because he is. The poor man's been working a lot and he had just gotten home from his 16-hour day when I took this picture.

The day after Lili's birthday, we celebrated another great occasion--the blessing and arrival of our newest niece, Azure.

She's so delicate and lovely. It makes me so excited to have a newborn again. If I look like I've gained 60 pounds in this pregnancy, well, that's because I have.

The day of Azure's blessing was gorgeous and sunny. The kids mostly played outside and got very muddy. Marcos and his cousin Savannah are very good playmates. As always, Marcos insisted on being the mom and Savannah had to be the dad. I like to think he wants to be the mom because of the great role model he has. I make motherhood look like a blast!

My parents gave Ammon this adorable sweater and hat. This picture was taken just moments before Ammon dove face-first into the mud. Luckily, the mud washed out of his new duds. Speaking of Ammon, all he wants to do lately is go, go, go! He insists on wearing his coat and often his shoes in order to be able to go at any moment. He and Marcos have been trying to be the Lone Ranger (we've been watching Lone Ranger movies that my parents lent us). Here both boys are wearing hats they inherited from their Uncle Tabor.

Finally, here's a picture for my parents of one of the gorgeous moonrises they missed this week. I love a full moon, and it looks so pretty coming up over the snow-peaked mountain. Most of my posts will not be so lengthy--we've just had a lot to celebrate lately.