Category Archives: Jennika

Summer 2011: A Summary, Part 2

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Here’s more:

We went camping in Wyoming and my sister took us on a trail ride. Jennika got to ride her very own horse!

Korban and Mama's big horse.

Camping

Me and my beautiful sis...in her territory.

While I was in Belize the kids stayed and my parent’s house and had a wonderful time!

Wrestling with Uncle Modi

 

Reading with Aunt Jilly

And even Uncle Stephen...he's not so scary, once you get past all the hair!

While I was in Belize, Kris went rock climbing in Wyoming.

Amazing!

 

We came home just long enough to do some laundry, check our email and catch  up on some reading and then were off on our next adventure…..

 

Until Christmas

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Jennika’s concept of time is growing and developing. She will often ask me what time it is and what day it is. Currently her form of measurement for anything that is or will be a long way off it “until Christmas”. This also applies to anything big–she hasn’t quite distinguished between length of time and amounts. This simple understanding will lead to statements like the follow:

“I’m not going to talk until Christmas!” This is a popular saying in our house. There are times I want to respond with, “Yeah, I wish!”

“You can play with my doll until Christmas.”

When asked to wait for something, “It’s taking a long time. It’s taking until Christmas!”

And my personal favorite:
“Mommy I love you so much…until Christmas!” Which does not mean she will love me a lot until Christmas and then stop or just love me a little less, but that she loves me a whole, whole bunch…or in other preschool terms “a super-duper-duper lot” :-)

Thank You For….

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I am prone to turn on the radio or a kids’ CD as soon as we get in the car to go anywhere. However I’ve been challenged recently to spend that time in the car talking with my kids (and husband when he’s with us). From our talks together we have developed one of the sweetest activities I’ve experienced with my kids. It started with suggesting that we pray together in the car. To my daughter prayer always starts with “Thank you for….” So we started doing this, saying “Thank you for __________.”  We alternate and say as many things as we can think of. It looks something like this:

Jennika: Thank you for flowers.
Me: Thank you for sunshine.
Jennika: Thank you for mountains.
Me: Thank you for Daddy.
Jennika: Thank you for Korban.
Korban: Tank uh tractor.
Me: Thank you for grocery stores.
Jennika: Thank you for food.
Korban: Tank uh dump trucks.
Me: Thank you for Jennika
Jennika: Thank you for Halle.
Me: Thank you for red lights.
Jennika: Thank you for policemen.
Korban: Tank uh tractors. :-)

It’s quite simple and so often we are reminded of something we see while driving that we are thankful for. But for all its simplicity few things in my day bring me more joy than this simple exercise in prayer and thankfulness.  My daughter thinks it is lots of fun so she usually asks to pray as soon as we get in the car. Many times we’re still going when we reach our destination. I am often brought to tears by Jennika’s insightful comments and am saddened when I can’t immediately think of something to be thankful for. Jennika never has that problem. In her eyes the world is full of things to be thankful for, even owies.  Whenever I have to pause and think I hear a little voice from the back seat, “it’s your turn Mommy.”

What a good reminder for my life.

Why My Kids Make Me Cry

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Jennika has a list of responsibilities for every day. They are little things like: get dressed, set the table, make bed. If she does them she gets a star on her chart next to each responsibility. At the end of the week we count up her stars and she gets a dime for each star. She is earning on average about $1.60 a week.  She and Korban both have little banks and Jennika also has a wallet. After we have set aside money for giving to God she has decided that all paper money (dollars) will go in her wallet to spend and all coins will go into the bank. I feel like this is a good saving plan for a three year old. :-) She has also decided that she will also put some of her coins into Korban’s bank each time she puts some in her bank. Kris and I have told her that she does not have to share her money with Korban since this is money she is earning but she always happily replies, “That’s okay. I want to share my money with Korban.” And she cheerfully plunks half of her coins into his bank, every week.

Korban likes to hold hands with me. He will hold out his hand to me and look at me with his beautiful green eyes and say, “And peeese!” Of course whenever it is physically possible I agree to this. However he does not like to hold hands the “normal” way. He likes to ball his hand up into a fat little fist and then have my hand completely engulfing his. If I try to change this he will correct my hand so that it is all the way around his again. I love the picture of security and rest in this simple action. Often times in the car at night, when it is dark and quiet he will ask for my hand. Then once we’re arranged he leans his head back in his seat and just rests.  I love these sweet times but my heart is already dreading the day that his tiny little fist won’t fit completely inside my hand.

Recent Conversations

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Recently on our way to church I said Korban looked so sharp with his dress shirt and tie. Jennika asked what I meant and I tried to explain that people don’t typically say that boys look beautiful like we say for girls. I explained that we usually say that they look handsome or sharp.
So yesterday we were listening to music in the car and I said, “This lady has a beautiful voice doesn’t she?” Jennika agreed. The next song was sung by a man. She asked if his voice was beautiful too and I said that yes it was, just in a different way. She then told me, “Girls are beautiful and boys are poky.”
It took me a while to make the connection between poky and sharp. :-)
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Korban’s LIFE right now is tractors and dump trucks. So most conversations with him go something like this:

Me: Korban do you want to play with your toys?

Korban: No. I want tractors!

Me: What are you doing?

Korban: Tractor! Tractor!

Me: What do you see outside?

Korban: Tractors! (Singing) Tractor, tractor, harvesting the wheat.
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Super-dooper is a new word that the kids have recently adopted in our house. The usually use it to say they are super-dooper hungry or tired.

Jennika: Mommy, I super-dooper-dooper love you.

Me: (Heart melting) Thank you Jennika! I love you too!

Long pause

Jennika: Mommy do you super-dooper-dooper love me too?  :-)

Words I Would Like to Send on Vacation

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I have a two year old. That’s probably all the explanation I need to give. :-)

Here’s my list:

Whhhyyy?

I do it all-felf (translation: all by myself)

I don’t wannntt tooo!

I’m all done crying! (When told to go to her room…as she is crying)

Whhhyyyy?

I can’t!
(and his brother)It’s too hard

What words would you like to send on vacation?

Cute

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The other night we had an adult dinner party at our house. Rather than getting a babysitter we just scheduled the party to start a little later and planned to put our kids to bed early.  They skipped naps that afternoon and then were taken to the park to exhaust themselves on the playground.

Everything was running so smoothly. Korban was sound asleep and Jennika was in bed, though not yet asleep. In the middle of our meal I heard her yelling, LOUDLY and repeatedly. I rushed upstairs, angry at her for being so loud and possibly waking up Korban. Thankfully when I reached their shared bedroom I found him still asleep. Still, I was ready to scold Jennika and rushed to her bedside.

“Jennika! You can’t yell like that. You have to be quiet! Why were you yelling?”

“Cuz” (really that’s how she says it) Just before I laid into her with scolding curiosity got the best of me. So I asked, “What were you yelling?”

“Ummm, halleluiah.”

I kissed her sweet face. Told her not to yell it, just say it quietly and went back downstairs. :-)

Why Did I Even Get Dressed Today

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Have you ever had this thought? If you’re a mom, I’m sure you have. Today was my day to ponder this. Actually, I was more wondering why I even bothered getting my kids dressed today. Here’s the story….

My two year old daughter is a little bit shy and withdrawn in larger social settings. On her own or in small familiar groups she does great but whenever I take her to a public place, with lots of kids (playground, zoo, library, etc.) she pulls into a shell. She stares at the other kids like they are freaky aliens and refuses to leave my side/lap/arms. In an effort to help her break out of this shell I’ve been trying to expose her to more activities. Last week we went to the library’s story time. I loved it, I loved the books, the silly songs, and watching the other kids–she didn’t. Oh no, I will not sit on the rug with the other kids! Oh no, I will not do the hand motions to the songs. Oh no, I will not take a shaker and shake it with the song…okay I will take a shaker but I will NOT put it back when the song is over. I’m sure you can picture how our story time went. All the while my adorable, laid back four month old sat sweetly in the stroller, never making a peep.

I was not deterred, however by last week’s theatrics. And so this morning I got us up and dressed and with books in bag we returned to the library. I had studied my enemy (newness) and prepared a strategy this time. We arrived early, perused the books and got comfortable with the surroundings and the other kids. Jennika was doing great! I was so excited as story time approached.

Then, it happened.

Not two minutes before story time started, my little man filled his pants…man style. I didn’t have time to check out our books, run out to the car with both kids in tow,  and change him. So I made the fatal error of hoping his diaper would hold until story time was over. Thirty minutes, just thirty minutes, please God!?! In we strolled to story time, Jennika still smiling, though a little uncertainly. She didn’t sit on the rug and didn’t do most of the hand motions, but she did listen to the stories and was having fun. Somewhere into the second story Korban started fussing. I tried distractions and movement but he wanted out of that stroller (who wouldn’t when they are sitting in their own poop?). I undid the buckles and scooped him up…then I almost dropped him as my hands felt icky, sticky poop all over his pants.

What to do? I glanced at the clock on the wall, still a good 15 minutes before story time was over. I glanced at the exit door and all the children and moms I’d have to weave through to get out. What to do, what to do. Well, some of you may frown and shake your head and I know I’m not going to get nominated for any Mother of the Year awards after this admission; I put him back in his stroller. For the next several minutes I distracted him any way I could, short of holding him. Korban handled his poopy pants like a champ…for about five minutes and then he was done. There was nothing I could do in that little library room to make him happy. So I apologetically pushed my stroller with screaming, offensive-odor-emitting child and carried my disappointed daughter through the sea of little hands, feet, and big mormon mama purses.

In the car, as I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned all that was poop-covered I wondered, why do I even bother? Why does it have to be so hard? Why can’t we go to the library for an easy relaxing story hour? Had any experienced mother sat me down before kids and told me just how hard, exasperating, and humiliating being a mother would be, if she had really and truly told me all, not sparing any of the gory details, I think I would have signed up sterilization that day. But no wise mother did, because she knew that the joys and the love wash over those moments when we want to pull out all our hair and scream. That those moments when we think we would willingly sign up for chinese water torture in exchange for just a few minutes of a normal life without food on our clothes and sleep-deprived circles under our eyes are really just one bitter drop in the bucket of all the sweet experiences we have with our children.

So though I am frustrated and discouraged, I will not give up. Next week we will go back to the library. And next week I’ll have better studied my new enemy (poop) and will have a strategy for victory (pants fashioned from plastic bags:-) ).

I have to go now…Jennika is standing on Korban’s tummy. :-)

Zyp Christmas Newsletter

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Merry Christmas! It’s amazing that it’s already time for sending out cards and newsletters. This last year has sped by and I can hardly believe that a year ago this month we were taking the big leap of moving from Oregon to Utah! Wow, a lot’s happened in a year. Here are the highlights:
January: Kris started his new and wonderful job with SitePen. He gets to do work he loves and can work from home or anywhere with internet access. We bought a house in Sandy, Utah. Two weeks later we experienced a huge snowstorm (or a couple), the biggest the valley had seen in at least 10 years. As a new resident I remember wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into!
February-May: Mostly involved getting settled in to our new house, finding a home church, a doctor for Jennika, making friends and starting to feel at home.
June-July: We made a quick trip up to Casper, WY to visit Nikki’s family and then a three week long trip to Oregon to visit friends and family. We also got to join our church in an outreach, organized by Kris, to the homeless community in downtown Salt Lake. We provided meals, conversation, love, and prayer to everybody who came by.
August: We road tripped down to Lake Powell, Durango, Denver, and then back up to Casper where we celebrated Jennika’s first birthday! Then we traveled with Nikki’s family to the Unita Mountains and spent four days backpacking in the beautiful wilderness.
September: Nikki started teaching conversational English to international students from the university. We were back out in Oregon for a friend’s wedding and to celebrate Jennika’s birthday with the Zyp family. Then we joined Kris’s parents up at Snowbird, Utah for a week of luxurious vacationing in the mountains. We also found out that the next little Zyp will be arriving sometime around the end of May 2009! What a memorable month!
October-November: We spent, for the most part, at home. Kris had several speaking engagements which required he travel. Jennika kept us entertained with her growing vocabulary, both verbally and in sign language. She loves being outside in her playhouse and going on hikes. In October we were also delighted to welcome our old roommates and dear friends, Rebecca and Michael. They moved from Oregon to live with us and we are so happy to have them. Michael (2) and Jennika are good playmates and fight just like siblings!
December: Another month of busy traveling; Kris flew out to Florida to speak at a conference (yes, he’s becoming quite the lecturer) and then directly to Chicago for another engagement. Nikki and Jennika made one last trip up to Casper to squeeze in a holiday visit with her family. For Christmas we’ll be flying out to Oregon to be with Kris’s family and our friends.

Whew, what a year! We’ve seen the incredible abundance of God’s blessings in so many ways this year, especially through family, friends, and Kris’s very flexible job. We are so thankful to call you our friends and family and pray that you are also able to revel in God’s goodness.
May you holiday be filled with peace that passes understanding, love that knows no bounds, and joy in the One who deserves our praise.

Merry Christmas,
Kris, Nikki, & Jennika