The Nitty Gritty

A month ago Will was obsessed with me, his mom. Everything was "Mom. Mom. Mom." He even called Isaac "Mom" for a while there (then Iyak, then Da da). Now he has a new obsession. Can you guess what it is? Surprise! This is the song la la la la Elmo's song! We went to Roy on MLK day to visit Grandma and Grandpa Garrett. Grandma Garrett has an Elmo doll that Will fell in love with. When we came back he kept pointing to a book with Sesame Street muppets saying "Mo." When I went visiting teaching Elmo's world was playing on the big screen and Will stood one inch from it saying "Mo mo." Yesterday he finally said "El-mo." Will has these Sesame street snacks so I cut out the Elmo on the front and gave it to him. He was in heaven as you can see from the pics above. He held it all day. Then tonight I went on sesamestreet.org and we spent a half hour watching some Elmo clips. I gotta admit that Elmo song is completely bearable when your ba...

It is so refreshing to begin a new week in the new year with nothing special to do. We had absolute fun staying home and reading books, riding the Mickey truck, playing with Garrett, hiding in the teepee, making music, eating oreo cookies, "> being cute, wrestling with Dad, and growing a Mozart-looking ponytail .

Christmas this year was...crazy! We had all kinds of family to see, parties to attend, games to play, and food to gobble up, then barf up later. Actually only Will and Isaac got the stomach flu. It was awful. We did manage a road trip to St. George, only to be surrounded by family that also came down with the stomach flu. It was really awful. Overall, it was great to be with loved ones again. I just wish I could relive the holidays without any sickness. A couple weeks before Christmas Will made a button tree with Grandma and watched the train set from Grandpa. The Garrett Family party was held at the care center where my dad is temporarily staying for rehab. The party hall was decorated to resemble a small town square. Very cute. There was a stage, big screen TV and microphone. The grandkids and a few adults did a talent show. My favorite talent was the dirty joke told by my niece and nephew. Of course they had no idea it was a dirty joke which made it all the funnier. My incredibly ta...

Hallelujah! Isaac finished his thesis! He's been slaving away this past fall gathering his research and writing oodles about it. The title is "The Functions of Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents". I got to hear him defend his thesis to his advisors and boy was I happy I didn't have to do that. Isaac did amazing answering the posed questions on the spot and it was evident he thought a lot about his thesis. The day before his thesis defense I attended his school's "Winter Extravaganza". His Rock N' Roll History choir sang "Fix You" by Coldplay, Langston Hughes "The Homesick Blues" and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." It was very entertaining to hear popular songs and not typical boring choral music. Don't get me wrong, I love choral music, but not when middle schoolers attempt it. I think this progressive idea of Isaac's to teach popular music to his 7th and 8th graders is genius. After attending the conc...