Spiders and Dancing

We have so much fun with Calder.

I was singing "the itsy bitsy spider" to Calder the other day. It had been a while since we had sung that particular song, and he LOVED it!  Every time I finished, he kept asking for it again.  and again.  and again.  We probably sang it at least 10 times in a row.  But then all the sudden, Calder hopped up (he was sitting on the floor), grabbed Craig's flip flop that was on the floor, ran to the kitchen, and smacked the shoe against one of the cupboards.  I guess he made the connection what the song was really about- spiders.  Apparently he has adopted a similar attitude towards them that I have, too. (even though there wasn't really a spider on the cupboard, he would know what to do if there was one!)

Every so often, Craig will turn on some music, and we will both dance in the living room. You know, crazy dancing, with the music turned up.  Sometimes we would hold Calder while we danced, and sometimes Calder would just sit on the couch, watch, and laugh. Until last night. The music turned on, and Calder started dancing just like we were (at least trying really hard to).  I have never seen him dance with so much enthusiasm before!  It was incredible. :) My little guy is growing up.

Chartered Financial Analyst

We found out a little while ago that Craig passed his Level II CFA Test!!  I am so proud of him!  And we are so grateful - what a blessing!! According to Wikipedia...
"The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program is a professional credential offered by the CFA Institute (formerly AIMR) to investment and financial professionals."  

There are three levels of the test, and they are offered only once a year.  Each level is a six hour test.  It is pass/fail, with not too much information given back as far as which questions you got correct, or even the percentage answered correct.  Only 42% of those who took the Level II test passed this year.

So now he only has the Level III exam left to take next June, and then he will have completed the CFA Program!  Yay Craig!!

Grandma Slagowski

My Sweet Grandma passed away this past Monday.   She hadn't been doing very well for quite a while, and she was very ready and excited to be reunited with my Grandpa.   Even though we were all anticipating it, it is amazing how much it hurts to see her go.

The last year, I have been reading through some of her poems that she has put together.  I have loved reading her deepest, most sincere feelings about a myriad of things - but mostly about being a mother, wife, and about her gratitude for the Savior.  She has such a close relationship with our Savior, and has so much faith, she has been such a good example to me. 

MY KING

Had I been standing there

and heard them shout,

"Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

We have no King but Ceasar,"

I'm sure I would have stepped forth

and said, "He is MY King!"

Even had it meant my life 

I could,

for He's my Everything.

But I may never have 

that one grand moment

to stand alone

and claim Him as my King - 

no chance,

in one great act of love,

however sweet,

to lay my life

on the alter at His feet.

Rather, in little ways,

day in, day out,

my love is shown.

In everything I do or say, 

I either claim him as my King

or stand there with the crowd 

and shout

"I have no King but Caesar!"

 - Leotha Slagowski

These poems probably don't mean too much to anyone else reading, but I am writing them down to help me remember her pure heart.

HERE AM I

Jesus, our Redeemer

in the mansions 

of our Father,

long before

this earth was framed,

we dwelt with Thee.

And when our Father

taught us of His plan

and told us one must die,

a sinless sacrifice for sin,

to bring us home again,

Lord God of all,

we saw Thee stand

and heard Thee say,

"Here am I; send me."

Never, ever

throughout eternity

can I repay the debt

I owe, dear Lord,

to Thee.

But down here 

in mortality,

where men thirst 

to hear thy word

and there is so much 

want and need, 

surely I can stand and say,

"Here am I; send me."

- Leotha Slagowski

My grandma served as a missionary six times.  Her first was as a stake missionary in Arizona, then as a full time missionary in the Mexican Mission.  After raising her family, she served a Family History Mission, then served alongside my Grandpa in the Austria Vienna Mission.  Their particular assignment was to reopen the work in Poland while it was still behind the Iron Curtain.  My grandparents served an inner-city mission in Salt Lake City and then served in the Texas Houston East Mission in Jennings, Louisiana.  She also served in the Bountiful Temple for three years.

She lived about 4 miles from our house here in Bountiful, so the last year and a half, I was able to visit her fairly regularly.  She would always just love to watch Calder play, and would just tell me how beautiful Calder is.  She LOVED him!  The last time we saw her in the hospital, they told us that she could hear what we were saying, but she couldn't respond.  Her eyes would stay closed.  But when we were telling her goodbye, Calder started to wave to her.  I told her what he was doing, and she opened her eyes to see him.  A precious moment- I am glad she got to see her little Calder one more time.  

Grandma was happiest when she was surrounded by her family - even as chaotic as all of us are.  She raised 7 kids.  6 boys, and 1 girl. I think she really savored every moment with her kids.  

THE ROSEBUD

Anxious mom,

don't push the petals 

of the rose apart

before it's time!

A bud is such a precious,

lovely thing - 

and yours to treasure

such a little while.

Hold it tenderly.

Let it unfold 

to it's full glory

naturally,

according to God's plan.

Can't you see

it will wither

in your hand

if forced to bloom

too soon?

- Leotha Slagowski

A LIFTER

Oh, let me be a lifter.

May those who cross my path

go on their way

built up in self-esteem,

renewed in self-respect.

Teach me to understand 

that each person

is a child of God

with inherent potential,

beloved of Him

as much as I.

Help me to accept people

where they are

and how they are,

to always be aware

that tender feelings

need tender care.

Let me be generous

in praise

and quick to recognize

the smallest effort.

May I be the first to say, 

"I am so proud of you!"

Oh, let me be a lifter.

- Leotha Slagowski

Grandma, you were definitely a lifter.  I am sure it was a glorious reunion when you went home.  Thank you for the wonderful legacy you have left.

Some of Summer

Wow, it has been awhile!  Our air conditioner isn't working right now, and hasn't for a couple of days.  So while we wait for our landlord to get it fixed, Calder and I are hanging out at my parent's house during the day. So since I can't do any house work of my own during his nap, I figured I would get to work on this blog.   Prepare yourself for a long post that is mostly about Calder (surprise, surprise) and a little bit of what we've been up to.

Calder is 16 months old!  I can't believe he is getting old enough for me to soon start saying his age as "one and a half" or "two" instead of how many months he is.  He is learning so much every day, and is becoming so independent!

He can point to his head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, arms, legs, belly, feet, hands, toes, shirt, hat, shoes, socks, and pants.  (There are probably others that I am forgetting about, too.)

He doesn't say a whole lot of words, but he chatters all day long, and fully expects me (or anyone else around) to listen attentively and understand what he is saying.  And although he only says a few words (mommy, daddy, this, ball, waffle, maybe one or two others...) he is VERY good about nodding his head yes, or shaking his head no, and is really good about communicating what he wants, or if he likes something or not. 

Calder is still a little book worm.  Reading is one of his favorite things to do!  He will grab a book and then come weasel his way onto my lap so I can read it with him.  But he also loves to sit on the rocking chair in his room, lean over and pick a book, sit down and read it, then pick another one.  

 Calder would be outside all day if I let him!  Luckily, the yard area right outside our apartment is fairly shaded and there is quite a bit of space between all the buildings. So when it is too hot to go to the park (which it has been a lot lately) we just spend time outside at our apartment running around the grass areas, or we go to the pool (which we do a lot, too.)  

 Every time we go outside, he has to check our flowers that he helped to plant, and helps water every day. (I am sorry to say they definitely don't look this good anymore.  I think I have one plant living still, and it's on it's way out. Bummer)

 Some of Calder's favorite things to do is to play with bubbles (like the ones from dish soap) or just play in a sink full of water.  I have wised up since the picture below, and now just strip him down to his diaper so that his clothes don't get soaked.  (The bib was my first meager attempt at keeping him semi-dry.  It wasn't successful.)

 We went camping recently, and Calder was in heaven!  He loved running around with the other little girl that was there, playing in the dirt, and watching the campfire.  (Yes, it was awhile ago, before all the fires that are going on now.)

 We had a lot of fun and look forward to plenty of other camping trips this summer.

 We even were able to squeeze in a little hike.  It was gorgeous!

We even let Calder get down and hike a little.  He's a natural!  

I can't believe how big he is getting.  The other day, he made it very clear that he was done drinking from cups with lids.  And now he drinks from normal cups!  I still make sure he is sitting down, to make it a little easier for him, but he does such a good job!  He is so proud of himself!!

He has also started doing somersaults by himself, too!  And he not only walks, but practically runs everywhere, and turns in circles (to play ring around the roses by himself), and can walk backwards (which is probably my favorite to watch).

He surprises me with something else he's learned all the time.   The other day, he went to play in the kitchen, while I was in the living room.  He came running back to me and pointed to the kitchen.  So I followed him, and he pointed out a spider!  So I was able to kill and get rid of it. He is so observant and notices anything that is out of the ordinary.

I feel like he is teething all the time.  Poor kid.  He still only has 5 teeth, and at least 3 on the way.  They just have been on their way for a REALLY long time.  But he does really well eating pretty much everything we do.

I am so grateful that Calder is part of our family! We have so much fun with him, and he brings so much joy to our home!!

Chalk Art Festival

Last weekend was the Chalk Art Festival.  It is probably one of my favorite Bountiful City traditions.  I learned this year that it is something they use to showcase young artists in the area.  I love walking down main street and looking at all of the AMAZING  art, all on the sidewalk!

Here are just a few of them:

I think this one is funny.

Very clever...

There were quite a few with the "imagine/book" theme.

This one was drawn by the featured artist.  I think he was a teacher who passed away recently.

I like this idea.

This one was a first place winner in the adult age group.

Several "Avengers" themed ones...

Lots of movie themes...

I am always so impressed.

Bryce Canyon

One of Craig's friends that he worked with down in Brazil had been dreaming about a motorcycle road trip in the southwestern part of the United States.  This year, he let us know that he and his wife were going to do it!  The farthest north they were going to be stopping was in Bryce Canyon. We decided that 4 hours away wasn't too bad, so we made an overnight trip out of it to go down and meet up with Fernando and his wife while they were in Utah for a day.

We went down Thursday night, and left a little before 8 (Calder's bedtime) thinking that he would just sleep the whole way down.  Well, we were very wrong in our assumption.  He only slept 1 hour (maybe?) the whole way down.  Sorry little guy!

We stayed in a little motel that night, and left the next morning to go hike in Bryce Canyon.

 I had never been there before. It was stunning!

 Calder got the easy ride.

He even got a little nap in, which was fabulous.  (probably because of his lack of sleep the night before. He was exhausted!)

 Family picture!  (Calder is in awe at the cliffs maybe?)

 We let him get out to climb some stairs - one of his favorite things to do.

 We stopped by the museum after we were done hiking, and had changed out of our dirty clothes.  That was probably the longest we have ever spent in a museum, just because Calder LOVED walking back and forth between all the little animals that were on display.  (He is walking like crazy now!  Sooo fun!!)

We found out Fernando and his wife would actually be coming into Cedar City that evening, so we headed over there to meet up with them.

While we waited for them to arrive, we found a fun park to play at, walked around a few stores, waited to hear from Fernando, walked around the SUU campus, sat in the grass and had a snack, waited some more to hear from Fernando, and then drove around - which is when the next monumental event happened: 100,000 miles on our car.

So, it turns out that Fernando and his wife got a little lost on their way, so they turned around to backtrack and find the right road.  They didn't get into Cedar City until pretty late.  We ended up (finally) eating dinner without them at 8:30 pm, and drove by their hotel once more to see if they had made it.  And they had!  So we spent a little time chatting with them. It was fun to meet them (for me) and fun for Craig to see Fernando again and catch up.  They were loving their trip, and had taken almost 500 pictures every day! 

We headed back home between 10:00 and 10:30 pm.  We had to make it home that night because Craig had a commitment the next morning. We had to pull off a couple of times to get a quick 10 minute nap in to re-energize.  Thankfully, Calder slept the whole way this time and we made it home safely.  

We decided a couple of things:

1. We are going to plan more day/overnight trips because they are super fun, pretty inexpensive, and planning isn't too hard.  

2. We probably won't start to drive home that late.  We are just grateful we made it home.  I guess we are just used to going to bed pretty early these days!  

We've been busy

We've been busy around here lately.

Craig's second CFA test is a little over a month away, so he has hit the books hard studying like crazy (most days :)) He also had a birthday (Happy Birthday, Craig!  26 years old!).

Calder has been busy practicing walking! (again, most days. Some days, he hasn't wanted to walk at all.) We are proud of him!  (sorry for the flipped video, I don't know how to fix it...)

And while Craig has been studying, I have been working on a quiet book for Calder, and I finally finished it!  It took longer than I anticipated, but it gave me something to do, and was worth the effort. (I got ideas for the pages from a pattern my mom had, from quiet books my cousins recently made, and pinterest.)

Front Cover

First page.  The fish are stuck on with velcro, so they can be moved to different "bubbles" in the bowl.

Dog and frog pages.  The dog can be pulled out of his house, and the frog's tongue can snap onto the flies.

Corn and Barn page.  The corn husk unzips, and the barn doors open up to show finger puppets!

Shoe and Overalls pages.  Practice tying a shoe and buttoning buttons.

(Not sure why it is flipped...but I don't want to spend time to figure it out!)  Gumball Machine page - practice matching colors, and the number page.

Match the shapes to their outline.