The Cranney Clan EST 2008

Oct 24th, 2008

Oct 24th, 2009

October 2010

October 2011

October 24th, 2012

October 24th, 2013

It's been five sweet years (and two days) since Stephen and I began this new branch on the family tree.  The other day I joked with Stephen that I've probably thought more about moving than I deliberated over marrying him---and it's true.  For all my indecision, Stephen was a keeper and that has only become more obvious with time.  I'm so glad he choose me and that we choose to have these three. 

Stephen does stuff . . . that makes news

Stephen frequently sends me links or articles that he thinks I might find interesting.  Lately I've found these a few of these articles have a familiar name. I thought I'd pass them on:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/16/study-religious-people-more-likely-to-reject-the-idea-that-life-has-no-purpose/

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588795/Higher-purpose-Study-finds-belief-in-God-linked-to-having-sense-of-purpose-in-life.html

Christian:

Whenever I go to the park, I frequently find Christian off in his own world running around with a stick in whatever nature area he can find.   Even in the "Sansom park" which only has a strip of nature 3 feet wide and 50 ft long of only weeds and broken wood scraps, Christian will migrate there to become whatever make believe he has become for the day.  

                                         

Not to ruin it for you, but Christian's going to be a ghost for halloween.  He is so dang excited, I woke up yesterday to pitter-pattering of feet and a "ooooooo" sound as he ran all around the house after having rediscovered his costume.  He was horribly disappointed that Stephen and I couldn't rig up a costume for a small party last night, nor did we go trick or treating.  I explained to him that like Peter and Susan in Narnia, people can get too old for trick or treating.  He took it quite soberly. 

While he often does the traditional cowboy, pirate, or king--when he suggests being a scientist or professor, I know he's been playing too much with his dad.  A little overly eager to introduce him to Narnia, we made the mistake of letting Christian watch the film.  He LOVED it, and has me tell him the story over and over again.  I finally got sick of telling him the story and got the book from the library  He got it and the same day sat perfectly still as I read him 90 pages of it straight (literally half the book).  Stephen is intent on not learning the story so that he doesn't have to take his turn on recounting every detail.   A tad violent though it was, it's fun to see him make believe about it.

For a while Stephen and I were starting to worry about his social development.  While we live around a decently large population of families, most three year olds are in a full-time preschool.  When we tried introducing him new places he would often be grouchy and unfriendly.  Worried, we tried to find more people for him to be friends with, but it seemed to backfire.  Recently, however, we have backed off and have seen him seek out his own friends.  I was surprised to see him seek out older kids for friends.  He can actually pick up friends with quite ease when he's not pushed to and given the alone time to make believe that he needs too.  He keeps asking me how old he has to be to do certain things like use a real hammer or walk by himself to church.

An old picture I found of us.  This is me implementing tickle torture:

Simeon:

Simeon is developing into his own.  He really starting to love books and it's fun to see his face light up when he spots one of his favorite objects (train, bus, or baby).   You know you've been hanging around your two year old too much when he's not even with you, but when hear the familiar *beep beep* of a lowering bus and you coming you want to point and shout "BUS!!!" then smile to whomever is near.  I love this kid.

(Please ignore my male patterned baldness . . .)

Joshua:

Apparently Joshua doesn't want to be the youngest, so he refuses to be the fat chunker and/or red head I've been longing for in a child of mine. That said, his cheerful disposition (despite having me for a mother) might just make up for his lack of fat rolls and ginger locks.  Christian loves to sing him the lullaby song and if I leave him on the ground doing tummy time I can almost count on Christian being right there in his face singing away or Simeon will be giving him a friendly poke.  Joshua is sweetheart, but honestly on a Sunday like today, I'm simply delighted to have at least one kid that can't run away from me yet at church.

 
                                 

Our Charmer and follow-up

So I feel my last post needs a follow-up.  I am turning 29 not 28.  That was not a sly attempt to pretend to be younger than I really am.  (If anything, I'd rather pretend to be older and have people think I look young for my age than to look old for my age.)  Rather it's an indication that I have joined that adult world--that as a child simply disgusted me--where one's age meshes together.

And, as promised, an updated picture

There he's

the little sister

I may be 6'2 and almost 28, but I will always be the little sister at my house.  Ruth still freaks out if she gets into a car with me because I'm "just too young to be driving."   Well little sister that I am, there's nothing I enjoy more than copying my older siblings and thus I'm going to start blogging an update of the family at least once a month just like faithful Mary.   While I usually make my children out to look like crazy wild children because I like making parents feel better about their own parenting techniques, I will attempt to make a more neutral observation about them since these blog posts are the closest consistent journal I've been keeping for them this far.

Let the stories begin:

 

We moved . . . finally!

 

 I've been grappling for months about if/where to move, but after one day of finding myself raising my voice again at my boys for being boys I realized that while I can do a one bedroom apartment with three kids, I don't want to. We were thinking of heading to the suburbs, but after checking out a place that I adored we felt we should stay in the city where we are.  So . . . we're here, but in a two bedroom apartment and a chance of being the kind of parents we want to be.   We couldn't be happier with the added space, but when Christian still looks lost as he does a potty dance and ask where the bathroom is---I wonder if we didn't over do it on getting a bigger place.

Christian is disappointed that we didn't move to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but proceeded to  inform us today that when he is a man he will move to their house and get married, have children and live next door to us and come visit everyday--I'm holding him to it.

Christian has insisted for sometime that he doesn't want to be a missionary.  We certainly aren't the pushy type and have always assured him that's fine and let it go, but have wondered what his qualm with it has been.  Yet somehow between running with sticks around the house with his brother and then more running around with sticks with his brother during General Conference, he picked up something exciting about being a missionary that made him want to be one despite his fears.  (I think he was afraid that he would have to put his head under the water when he baptized people as a missionary.  That is also why he doesn't want to get baptized.  I suppose I'll have to break it to him eventually that to be a missionary he'll have to be baptized, but I think I'll wait as long as I can.)   Can't you just imagine that little boy below with a black little name tag all grown up still telling anyone that will listen about Joseph Smith?

 

Simeon turned two last week.  Unfortunately we were in the middle of the move.

 I found the candles--but no matches.  By the time we cooked a frozen pizza to put the candles on it, we were starving and forgot all about the candles.   Hopefully he'll still have all his wishes come true, right?  Well he did get a toy bus that lights up from Oma and Opa which he couldn't put down, a charming cowboy outfit from Grandma and Grandpa and we decided to try being decent parents and buying our own kid a present for a change and bought him a trike---so I think he'll survive till next year.

Simeon has exploded in his vocabulary now that he's a big ole two year old and is so proud of his new words.  I'm sure my favorite look that Simeon gives his I'm-so-dang-awesome look he gets when he says a new word or gets out of him room by himself even when we locked it.   He is an interesting boy and in many ways I feel I'm still getting to know him and what makes him tick.  While he and Christian share so many similarities, they are each their own and it's fun to be surprised by his differences from Christian both in personality and tastes.  What isn't hard to know about him is that he loves a shoes, babies, and anything with wheels.  He's a pretty rough kid, including his hugs and kisses, but a delight.  I can't imagine life being as bright without him.

Joshua is our sweetheart.  I feel sorry that I don't get as much alone time with him, but he makes up for it by insisting to nurse all the time (part of the reason I don't have more pictures of him).  He dropped from the 15th percentile in birthweight to the 3rd for weight at his month visit, so we have done some supplementing with formula while I've worked on increasing my milk supply by pumping and eating lactogenic foods (okay let's just say eating in general to the point that I might have to pull those maternity clothes back out again).  It's frustrating that we've been living at such high speeds since he's been born that I haven't been able to build up a milk supply before he eats it and I eventually give him formula (traveling to Utah and back and then moving is perhaps not exactly the easiest time to work on increasing one's milk supply).  

 

He was rising in his weight gain only to then get thrush which makes eating uncomfortable.  Anyway he has been a trooper and hopefully we get get this thrush to disappear shortly and get back to those fat rolls.  He's a water loving baby and never cries in the shower or bathtub which has been a pleasant surprise. From the growth charts it looks like he's going to be a tall one like his brothers.  (Yes, three years later Christian has finally decided to grow and is in the 90 percentile for height and weight,  Simeon is 90th as well and Joshua is in the 70th--but that's longer than either or the two other boys at his age).  I'm not necessarily keen on my boys being super tall as handsome as it may be.  I'm tall and despite what most people see when they see me slouching, I really do enjoy being tall.  But a tall girl still fits okay into cars and airplanes.  The world just isn't as accommodating for tall men--so I'm okay if their just tallish (or not tall at all for that matter--they're plenty good looking and will fare just fine in the world). 

Stephen has passed his comprehensives and defended his dissertation proposal!  Lest you think Stephen would take his accomplishments to be an indicator that he can now relax, he proceeds to be a workaholic.  But he still manages to leave campus early so that he can come back and spend one on one time with Christian teaching him how to read and that our ancestors were monkeys as they climb the trees in the backyard.

Life has just seemed to swirl by since I gave birth to Joshua.  I loved going back to Utah for a quick visit and letting my children bask in the constant love and attention from their grandparents and seeing my boys develop relationships with their cousins. 

I was dreading coming back to Philadelphia as life just isn't quite as cushy as it is back in Utah.   That said, once we gave ourselves the permission to get a car and leave to the suburbs, I realized I've grown attached to this place and the people here.  All of a sudden I no longer felt stuck and life is just lovelier when you feel you have choices.