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1. Carl has been emotionally volatile this week.  He has been throwing very angry tantrums and taking a lot of breaks with me.  Now that doesn't sound much like a favorite but hold on a minute, hear me out.  I have been thinking a lot this week about when Soren was 2-1/2 and remembering how stressed I was about his frequent and powerful rages.  And it passed, in part because of our constant effort to teach him emotional control but mostly because of the natural passage of time.  Remembering that has, in some weird way, made Carl's tantrums not only more bearable but also a little sweet to me.  I know that this is a part of him growing up and I am excited about helping him through it.  He is becoming a little person and just realizing that, while he can do many things and make many choices for himself, he can't control everything.  That is a huge thing to learn and I am glad to be his mom and to be there for him.

2. Scott ran Hollow Earth on Tuesday night and it was AWESOME.  It was the most philosophical gaming session I've ever been a part of and I've been thinking about the ideas all week.  The villain in our campaign has some ideas that really appeal to me and that's got me thinking about the validity of my own paradigms ...  My husband is a master storyteller.

3. Wednesday night (date night) was awesome.  Scott and I went to the temple.  Then, after we picked up the kids from the Wileys', we stayed up really late watching "The Two Towers".  Gandalf is awesome.  The next day, I was so tired.

4. Soren has really been enjoying Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It's fun to see how it has infiltrated his play.  He often makes a chocolate factory with his legos and he pretends sometimes to be Willy Wonka.  In the bathtub this morning, Soren and Carl were pretending to wizz down a chocolate river, through a pipe.  He was explaining to Carl how the pipe would take them to the sewer, which is certainly not where the chocolate river goes in the book but makes sense anyways.

5. Sally read The Way of Kings last week!  If you haven't read it, you won't understand but if you have ... you'll know what I mean when I say this.  It's like she's finally seen the light!  It makes me so happy to think of her reading that book and feeling the power of that story and having her life changed for the better.  It's my favorite book

6. Carl is singing a primary song right now.  He has been singing a lot of Fraggle Rock songs this week.  I love to hear him sing.

7. I am doing something different with Owen when he comes to my house and it has been working out really well this past week.  He doesn't play with the boys during their Brother Playtime anymore and so the fighting has evaporated.  I've just realized that Soren and Owen don't play well unsupervised and so I am limiting their interaction to the times I can supervise them: namely, on our walk, at the park, during Circle Time, and during lunch.  My house has been a lot more peaceful and I have been a lot more productive because of this change.

8. I had a great conversation with my friends during exercise today.  I don't think I would work-out if not for the social aspect of it.  But that social aspect is AWESOME!

9. Carl has been drawing a lot this week.  He has taken to it all of a sudden and I love it!  He focuses for extended periods of time and he seems very pleased with the results.  He says that he is drawing cars most of the time but they don't look much like cars to me.

10.  SAGA tonight!

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