The Schaellings

Of Her Very Own

2012-02-01T13:24:00.002-07:00

Lily has a favorite show called Calliou. He's a 4-year-old boy with a little sister doing a lot of the same things Lily does. Playschool, helping with Rosie, trying new things. On one episode, he went to the library. Since then, Lily has asked when we can go. Completely intending to go, I told her we'd find a day. Several times, I planned when we would go. Luckily, I never actually mentioned it to her since every time, something else came up and the library trip got pushed aside.

Last week, I decided we were going no matter what. So on Friday, we headed to McDonald's for lunch and some time in the play place as soon as Timothy woke up from his nap, and then we headed to the library. Just so you know, this was very purposely planned. Lily's not always great about leaving the play place, so I hoped the lure of the library would help. And it did. She left without complaint, and it only took one request for her to put on her shoes so we could go. I suppose I could have skipped McDonald's altogether, but I was feeling generous (and brave) that day, so I risked two outings that could end in kicking, screaming, tears, and yelling. Plus, my memories of the library include a treat, too, and I guess I wanted to pass that on.

When we arrived at the library, Lily looked at all the books. We picked out a few to take home and then read a few while we were there...mostly books she thought Timothy would enjoy. Then we got Lily a library card of her very own and checked out her books. She was so excited to take them home, and the promise that we would be back to get more was almost more than she could stand.

I can remember getting my own library card when I was about 5. (Or maybe 6? Who can remember that far back, really. But I do remember I wrote my name on it with my beginner's scrawly handwriting so I couldn't have been too old.) At some point, it became a tradition that every week, we headed to the library. Afterwards, we stopped at Baskin Robins for some ice cream. (My brother always got Daiquiri Ice. I usually tried something different each time.) It's one of my favorite memories, and I'd like to give my kids something similar. Although, their favorite memories will probably be something completely different.

So we now have a Friday tradition. We probably won't hit up McDonald's every time, but a stop at Charlie's may be in order. If anyone wants to join us, feel free.

5 Years Old

2012-01-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last week was Lily's 5th birthday (5? I know...) Since she's been loving gymnastics so much, we decided to rent the gym where she has her class. (Especially after receiving a birthday card from them with a discount...how could we resist?) They have a tumbling floor and pads and rings and trampolines and Lily's favorite, the foam pit. And that was definitely the hit of the party. In fact, the kids were having so much fun that we only took a quick break for cake before heading back in. Meaning we completely forgot about presents until everyone was leaving. Personally, I think it's a sign of a good party if the presents are completely forgotten...especially by the birthday girl.

All the kids seem to have a great time, including the smaller ones. Even Timothy thought the pit was amazing. If we took him out even for a second, he immediately started backing back in.

Some weren't so sure, though. Although I think Tyler warmed up to it about the time we wrapped up.

The dads got in, too, and honestly, I think they may have had more fun than the kids.

Happy Birthday to our big girl!

Instagram Thursday (on Friday)

2012-01-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

His precious (just call him Linus)

Instagram Thursday

2012-01-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have a 5 year old. Wow. That's just about all I can say is Wow.

Instagram Thursday

2012-01-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

New Bike

2012-01-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

The problem with getting a new bike for Christmas is the kid wants to ride the thing right away. The other problem is it's usually freezing or snowing or both. Lily was no exception to this problem. We managed to hold her off on Christmas day itself, but with the sunny weather the day after, there was no way we were going to get away with a second day of no bike riding.

Even though it was still pretty cold, we agreed. There was a little tweaking needed on the training wheels, but pretty soon she was off. The bike's still a little too big for her, but we opted for a little bigger one rather than having to buy a new one again in a year. She does pretty well, though. I think she'll do a little better when there aren't ice patches to negotiate on our sidewalks, but most days since that first ride, she heads our for at least one go-round of the park. I think she's hooked.

Our Christmas

2012-01-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Christmas was two weeks ago, so it seems almost silly to bring it up now. But I thought I should post about our holiday. Last year, we split the day between our two families - Springville in the morning and Roy in the evening. And it made for a lot of driving and it felt like we were in the car for a good chunk of the day. So this year, we tried a different tactic. We went to Erik's parents' house on Christmas Eve for their annual bash and then headed home to get everyone tucked into bed for Santa. Since the kids fell asleep on the way home, it was a good thing we put the cookies out before we left.

Although, I wonder how Santa felt about milk that had been sitting out for 12 hours. Yummm!!

Christmas day was nice and relaxed. Lily actually managed to stay in bed after 7:30, so we got to sleep in just a little. The anticipated bike was there and made her day. Timothy is teething and continued his cranky mood, but we did manage to make him happy with some candy, and he finally consented to open one present. The rest of the day was spent lounging with absolutely no where to go. It was fabulous. This kids stayed occupied playing with their new toys and each other. (Actually, Lily was more interested in Timothy's toys than hers. Next year, I'm just going to decide what I'm getting Timothy and then get two.)

We headed to Springville the week after Christmas. We had a nice lunch with Nana and Grandpa Len and Uncle Garrik and Sariah. More presents of course and just hanging out without worrying about having to be somewhere else. I think we've figured out how to do the whole holiday thing....finally.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and started out the New Year doing something fun!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wishing you a joyous Christmas and a wonderful new year from the Schaellings.

Christmas Lights

2011-12-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we made our annual trek to Salt Lake to see the lights. (And can I just say again how much I love Frontrunner. Taking the train downtown is so much easier than dealing with traffic and parking.) It was my mom's birthday, so we met up Nana and Grandpa Len for the adventure.

It actually wasn't too crowded, so I wasn't overly concerned about Lily getting lost. Last year, she refused to hold a hand and was constantly running away. Luckily, she adores Grandpa Len, so she stuck pretty close to his side all night. Timothy was pretty content in the backpack, even with all the bundling. I was so afraid he would freeze (and it was super cold), so he was dressed to the nines. When we piled everything on just before getting off the train, he wasn't too thrilled. He didn't fuss about all the layers, though. It was more of a silent protest with frequent escapes to his happy place. (That's what we call it when he closes his eyes to avoid us.)

But once we got going, he had a pretty good time and probably had a pretty good view of it all.After seeing all there was to see, we stopped for some (very) hot chocolate and headed home. Since Erik misread his watch, we actually left about an hour later than we planned. It made for a late night, but it was worth it. Lily had a great time, and since she's really starting to remember what we do for the holidays, I wouldn't miss this tradition for the world.

Cookie Time

2011-12-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

While I was making what seemed like a million cookies to give to coworkers and friends, Lily did some baking of her own. I gave her some dough and she went to town rolling, flouring, cutting, scraping, rerolling, flouring again, and finally putting them on the pan for baking. You've never seen a kid have so much fun. A couple days later, she frosted them in total Lily fashion. And now they're just waiting for their official moment in the spot light when Santa arrives.

Gingerbread

2011-12-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's become a tradition in our house to build a Christmas gingerbread house. This year, I went for a whole miniature village. And it really was miniature. Don't ask me what I thought was in the box that cost the same a one normal-sized gingerbread kit. But for some reason, it wasn't the tiny houses I ended up putting together. But they served their purpose, and Lily had a great time. This year, she realized the frosting was pretty tasty, so the whole project pretty much went like this: Some frosting on the house. Some frosting in my mouth. Some frosting on the house. More frosting in my mouth. (Not that I blame her. It was a Wilton kit, and their premade frosting is pretty tasty.) The candy itself was pretty terrible, so most of it actually ended up on the houses. Last year, my job was to put the frosting where Lily pointed, and then she would add the candy. This year, she did the whole process on her own and even helped with some of my houses.

This has become something I look forward to every year, and I hope she does, too. Next year, though, she can make a house. I'm making this:

(Instructions/template here.)

And I'm hoping that next year, Timothy can help. Instead of just eating gumdrops off rooftops like he did this year. (Sorry...it's kind of dark at the start. I guess I could have turned on a light. :-D)

Nudist Baby

2011-12-22T14:55:00.001-07:00

I was thinking the other day how boring our December must have been since I've only blogged twice this month. Then I sat down today to download pictures and remembered some of the fun stuff we've actually done. It's a good thing I have a camera, or apparently, I'd forget most of my life. At any rate, I'm going to post a couple things over the next few days in an effort to document some of this month...

This first one has nothing to do with Christmas or holidays of festivities of any kind. But it will give you some insight into what happens around our house. Timothy has decided that clothes aren't really his thing, and he will jump at any chance to take them off. He spends quite a bit of his time walking around the house Al Bundy style, hand in his pants trying to get the dang things off. One day, he actually managed to get a pair of sweats off. And he brought them to me. Like a present I was supposed to be so grateful to receive. Then he started tugging on his shirt. So I figured, what the heck...and I took that off for him too. So he wandered around the house - in the middle of winter - in nothing but a diaper, free as a bird and happy as could be.

Then he disappeared. And he got quiet. Which is never a good sign. So I went investigating. This is what I found:

Our budding nudist. Erik found the same thing a few days later when he got him out of bed. We've chucked the two-piece jammies...footies all the way. And onsies are once again our best friend.

SANTA! I know him!

2011-12-06T13:58:00.001-07:00

Last year, Lily finally got the whole Santa thing about the end of the season. I think it really clicked when she woke up Christmas morning and her mermaid had arrived, along with several other fun things. This year, she needed no reminding, and when Old St. Nick made his stop at Wal-Mart this weekend, I took the chance to take the kids to tell Santa all their hopes for Christmas.(Plus, having some connections, I wouldn't have to deal with ridiculous mall picture prices and less-than-ideal scanned pictures. YAY!!!)

As soon as Lily saw him, she ran right up to him, jumped in his lap, and gave this complete stranger the biggest hug EVER! (Stranger danger? What's that?) Luckily there wasn't a line because I can almost guarantee that would have happened even if there had been 10 kids in front of her. Ok...maybe not. But the girl was thrilled to be there.They chatted for a few minutes and I heard "bike" in there somewhere. So I think we're still ok on that front. Unlike last year when we had no idea she wanted a mermaid until we hit up Santa closer to Christmas. After all our shopping was done, of course. And with few mermaids to be found. But Santa managed to pull that out of his bag of tricks some how.

Once she was done, I went to hand Timothy to Santa. And I hadn't even held him out yet. For all he knew, I was changing hips. But he did know and started crying and promptly hid his head in my shoulder. A little disappointed, I figured we'd forgo his Santa picture this year rather than torture the poor kid. If anything, we would have a story about why there's no picture of Timothy with Santa in 2011. But when Erik could break away from actual work, he decided every kid should have at least one sad Santa picture and this was Timothy's year.

So here they are...both ends of the Santa-loving spectrum...

And yes...even with the sad face, I love this picture. It will be a good reminder of the year Lily really latched onto the magic of Santa. It will also be a reminder of the evil eye Timothy gave Erik when he got back safely to me... :-P

Changes

2011-12-03T10:37:00.001-07:00

Lily has had a couple changes in the last few weeks. The first one was fairly major. After months and months of asking her to not stand on the couch while watching TV and standing super close to TVs other than ours, I decided to take her to the eye doctor. Turns out the kid needs glasses. In fact, she's more nearsighted than I am - which compared to Erik's prescription, isn't hard. But still...the girl's only 4. So I'm sure we'll be getting thicker and thicker lenses for the poor thing until she's old enough to handle contacts.

So after two trips to the eye doctor (once for the exam and once more for dilation), it was official. We looked at a couple pairs of cute frames at in their office, but good heavens! They were so expensive for something that she's probably going to break...even with the warranty, I found it hard to justify spending that much. So we checked out our trusty Wal-mart...much more reasonable. And considering that when we told her to pick one from a few choices and she told us, "But I don't want to wear the same glasses every day," I'm really thinking cheaper is the way to go. We'll probably end up buying at least one more pair so she can change it up when she wants to.

I really do think it's made a difference for her. Of course, she didn't know she couldn't see. But now she can, and I think she's much happier. The first couple hours were a little odd, I think, since she almost tripped several times and she was very fascinated with the floor while she was walking. And apparently, "Everything is so shiny!" But she will now sit on the couch to watch TV (it probably doesn't hurt that we rearranged the living room so standing on the couch wouldn't help anyway) and I know she's seeing (see what I did there???) an improvement because after her gymnastics warm up the other day, she changed her mind and decided she wanted to wear them. She's been really good about remembering to put them on, and other than the small mishap of leaving them on the floor to get stepped on, she's been pretty careful with them. A little tweaking, and they looked good as new. And she looks so darn cute!

The second change, you can see in that picture, too. Lily now rocks bangs. Yesterday, she was walking around with her hair completely in her face. And this isn't an unusual occurrence. Gone are the days that she will sit and let me do something completely cute with her hair. We've reached the point that we're lucky if she lets us brush it every day. Although since we bought a hair bean (highly recommended for anyone with a daughter), we can usually manage a brush-through with little resistance. But since rubberbands is now a bad word, the sides and front just fall in front of her eyes. It would drive me crazy, but she doesn't seem to mind. Which does drive me crazy. So I opted to make the most of the situation. The hair that normally falls in her face is now short enough that she can still see. Problem solved.

With a new hair cut and new glasses, she's adorable, as always. But she also seems so grown up. She turns 5 in January, and I can't wrap my poor head around that. She's sure fun and is just growing so fast. She's suddenly discovered descriptive words, so everything is beautiful or cool or fantastic. She told me the other day that she wants to be a parent when she grows up...instead of a mail carrier. When I told her she could be both, she was so excited! And when she gives me a hug, she tells me she can hear my heart beeping. I hope I'll always remember this stage when she tries to show all she knows and is so eager to learn more. There's rarely a day when she doesn't make me proud of her in some way. She's definitely my special girl.

I'm a Mom

2011-11-10T10:03:00.001-07:00

I'm not going to lie...having two (or more) kids isn't always easy. There are some women who make it look so easy. Their kids are always well behaved. They are cool, calm, and collected. Their hair is perfect, their makeup's done, and there's not a wrinkle in their clothes.

I am not that woman. I'm not saying having one kid was a complete walk in the park. But for some reason, doubling the number of munchkins in the house tripled the stress. Of course, it might just be the 4-year-old. We've hit a phase where every time we get in the car, we're bombarded with "How much longer?" and "Are we there yet?" This is before we've even pulled out of our neighborhood. And heaven forbid Timothy even look in her general direction (Stop looking at me!!!!) or babble something cute (Don't talk to me!!!!). We're working constantly on sharing since she doesn't seem to grasp the concept that if she wants to play with all Timothy's fun toys, she needs to share with him occasionally, too.

Don't get me wrong. Timothy is not a complete angel in all these situations. He's figured out how to push her buttons for sure. Stop looking at you? Well I'm going to stare you down and maybe even come sit right next to you to bug you even more. Don't talk to you? I'll make even more noise! He's also a greedy little bugger. You can give him something to eat and then get your own. And it's the EXACT. SAME. THING. But yours is much more appetizing. And if you give in and let him have some of yours even though he still has the same thing on his plate, he won't touch it. He'll eat what you gave him in the first place. It's just some twisted test.

But then there are days they are so fun to watch. They play together and love each other and make you so happy that they have each other. They have the best time playing with Lily's kitchen. Occasionally Timothy ends up with the chef's hat, which is the most adorable thing you've ever seen. He pretends to eat the plastic food she assigns him (with appropriate "smack-smack" and "yum") and will even pass her the food she's assigned herself. Timothy will throw balls down the stairs and Lily will bring them back up for another round. Lily will make a fort in her room so they can jump into the pillows and blankets together. Lily will chase Laddie around just to make Timothy laugh because he thinks it's HILARIOUS to see Laddie bolting around, sliding on the wood floors.

Last night, we'd just finished bath time and I was putting on Timothy's jammies while Lily was putting on hers. Timothy and I finished first, so he toddled into her room. And I guess sat in one of the bins from her toy box. It's not very deep...just a couple inches. Just the right size for him to step in with his blanket and have a seat. So Lily gave him a ride back to his room, which he thought was about the best thing ever. They ended up doing this for about 45 minutes. Back and forth between their rooms. Timothy would hop out for a second at the end of each ride and then get back in to go again. Since I was in his room, he would wave until he couldn't see me anymore as they headed to her room.

I so desperately wanted to go grab the camera, but from past experience I knew that once Lily saw the camera, the fun would be over. So instead, I let them have this fun time together...a little sad that we wouldn't have pictures to remember this cute game. But hopefully in between all the "He's touching me!" and "She won't stop looking at me!" moments, we'll have enough of the ride-in-the-toy-bin moments and the play-with-the-dog moments that eventually, the fun times will be the foundation for a close relationship.

I know that for me, it makes it ok that my hair isn't always perfect, there are some days I don't even touch my make up, and yes...I probably have something from a grubby hand on my clothes. It means I'm a mom to two beautiful, loving, amazing kids.

Halloween

2011-11-06T15:44:00.001-07:00

Halloween was pretty fun this year...as always, really. Since last Halloween, Lily has wanted to be a mermaid, so that's what she was. While crawling the web for the perfect mermaid costume, I also came across an adorable golfer costume for Timothy. I decided on a flapper. And Erik...well...Erik was a pink unicorn. Which I didn't actually get any good pictures of, but there's one later in this post that will at least give the general idea.

As soon as the pumpkins hit the stores, Lily was begging to paint one, which is what we did last year. No knives to worry about. Minimal mess. She loves to paint. It's win-win. But this year, she wanted to carve her pumpkin, too. I think it was mainly to take out the seeds. I actually ended up carving it. With very specific direction, mind you.

Our church had a trunk or treat the Friday before the big day, so we got to make Halloween stretch out a few days. It also meant the kids got to wear their costumes more than once. I'm pretty sure Timothy didn't care a snit about putting on those golfer tights again, but Lily was thrilled to don the tail a few times.

On Halloween proper, Erik brought the kids into my office for some yummy treats and then took them into Walmart. It helps to be a kid of the boss since all the associates handing out candy were sure to load a couple handfuls into Lily's bucket. That night, we headed over to the annual Mullahkhel party where Lily got to do some honest-to-goodness real trick-or-treating. Until now, we've let Walmart suffice. There will be no going back I'm sure.

Between all the candy-begging events, Lily ended up with a huge bowl full of candy. 24 cups worth to be exact. And we've barely made a dent in it. I'm thinking it will slowing start heading into the trash, soon. Unless anyone's interested. You know where you can reach me...

Lily and Santa

2011-11-03T12:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, after Timothy was in bed, Lily and I sat at the kitchen table to do some coloring before it was her turn to get tucked in. Since it's November, Christmas is on the brain, and while I'm done shopping for Timothy other than his yearly ornament and some stocking stuffers, I'm having a harder time with ideas for Lily. So I posed the question: What do you want for Christmas?

She answered me in the most adult-sounding, I'm-so-superior-why-don't-you-already-know voice with, "A bike." Only it sounded more like,"A biiiiiike!!!" I reminded her that this was what she was going to ask Santa for, but wasn't there anything else she wanted? "From you guys, you mean?" Yes, I explained. From us. A puzzle was her answer. Which I already knew and have already purchased. But I needed another idea. She decided the only other thing her little heart could desire was a hurricane vase. Like the one I have on our table with miniature citrus in it. For her Tinkerbell table. Which lives in the closet under the stairs when not in use.

I decided I'll figure out something else on my own. But being the pot stirrer that I am, I decided to play a little devil's advocate.

Me: So you're going to ask Santa for a bike?
Lily: Yeeees.
Me: But what if he doesn't bring you a bike? (Even though I know he is since I happen to have an in with the man.)
Lily: If that's what I ask for, that's what he'll bring.
Me: So he has to bring you whatever you ask for?
Lily: Yes.
Me: But what if he decides he wants to bring you something different?
Lily: Well, we'll have to see about that. I'll have to talk to him.

If I were Santa, I'd just do what the girl says so no one gets hurt.

Fall at the Farm

2011-10-30T11:22:00.000-06:00

It seems like fall is flying by. And it seems like we've actually had one this year. It seems like last year, fall came and went way too quickly. There wasn't a long leaf display. There were no piles to be raked and jumped in. The weather went from sweltering to freezing. But this year, I feel like the leaves seemed to be prettier. They seemed to stick around longer. And we actually had some nice fall weather. And another fall means another trip to the American West Heritage Center. Lily loves going to the farm. How could she not with train and pony rides? In the fall, they also have a hay fort, a huge slide, and a corn maze. We opted out of the corn maze this year, but Lily enjoyed every last bit out of the rest of the activities.

Our first stop was the train.

Lily is in LOVE with this little train. It doesn't go very fast, and its route is just a loop around a sorry little pond. But this train is better than any other ride out there. Just ask her. Timothy got to chill in the back pack on the train since Erik decided it was too much of a pain to take off.

As a side note, we've hit a phase where any picture taking opportunity elicits the cheesiest, most fake smile you've ever seen from Lily. Most of our pictures now look like this:

Fantastic, right? Hopefully it won't last long.

Our next stop was the big slide. Two years ago when we Erik took Lily down it, her response was, "That was fun, Daddy. Let's not do it again." This year, it was all we could do to get her to move on to the hay fort. Although brave as she is for most things, she was not about to go down by herself. But I think Erik was having just as much fun as she was, so it was ok.

When we were finally able to convince her to move on, we headed to the hay fort. There was jumping and hopping and throwing of hay. Oh, and Lily had fun, too.

We went to the farm with a few friends who have kids both Lily's and Timothy's ages. Lily honestly wasn't too interested in playing with boys closer to her age. But she latched on to one of the little boys who's about 4 months older than Timothy (and much more mobile). Sully didn't really seem to mind...

She led him around and he showed her the planes flying overhead. It was pretty adorable, really.

Before two more rides on the train before heading home, we stopped at the pony rides...another favorite must do.

Going to the farm each year just confirms to me how much and how fast Lily is growing. The first time we did the pony rides, the helmet was way too big. Now she rides without any help and takes the helmet off on her own. Doesn't she look so big in this picture? It blows my mind...

And Timothy continued to chill in the back pack.

Next year, he'll be running around with Lily having a great time. (He's walking a little and could all the time if he wasn't such a fast crawler. Why stumble around when he can get anywhere he wants in .02 seconds?) I'm sure we'll have another train and pony lover in our midst. And I'm looking forward to it...

Hope everyone's fall has been as fun as ours!

Chicago

2011-10-20T13:51:00.001-06:00

I don't travel much for work...maybe once a year. And it's usually some place not too exciting like Phoenix or Salt Lake (which I wouldn't really consider traveling). But this year, I had the opportunity to go to Chicago for 5 days. When I first heard I would be expected to be there, I was excited. Then I was less excited when I realized we'd probably be at some airport hotel and I wouldn't have much time to actually see anything. But then I found out we would be right down town...in walking distance of so much great stuff. And I started planning.

When we got in on Tuesday afternoon, I made a quick appearance and the "networking reception" and then headed out to see the city. There was a great river walk and all the buildings were lit up. It was amazing. And I only had one guy call me "baby" and ask for a buck.

Wednesday evening, I headed out the the University of Chicago with a couple colleagues to check out the Oriental Institute and their Egyptian collection. Pretty cool...especially the 16 foot tall King Tut statue. Since the person I went with knows a lot about Egypt already, I didn't really have to read the cards...it was a personal tour.

Luckily, the meetings scheduled for Thursday afternoon didn't really pertain to me, so I was able to take the afternoon off. Of coarse, this was the ONLY day it rained the entire 5 days we were there. When I started out, it was just a little drizzle and nothing my hoodie couldn't handle. Let's just say, it got worse. There was a chocolate exhibit at the Field Museum (natural history museum), so I headed out after lunch. By the time I arrived, I was pretty wet. My jeans were wet half way up my calf and my hoodie was soaked. But I was actually pretty dry and figured a couple hours in the museum would dry out my clothes. The chocolate exhibit was pretty fun, and I picked up some chocolate that was actually too dark for even Erik to enjoy. (By the way, if anyone's interested in trying it, let me know. We have almost the whole bar sitting here, and neither of us will eat it.) I also spent a huge amount of time in the hall of mammals. It was like Cabella's...only WAY BETTER! I didn't grab any photos, though, since everything was behind glass and nothing turned out without a flash. I checked out a few other exhibits and then head back into the rain.

My next stop was the Sears Tower, which is now Willis Tower. Who knew? Expecting a line, I walked right up to the elevator where I was told visibility at the top was ZERO. Hence...no line. But I headed up anyway, hoping it might clear up while I was up there. There was one person in the elevator with me, and we were the only ones up there for quite a while. At least the rain meant no waiting in line. After the 60-second ride in the second elevator (ear popping and all), this was the view I had:

AMAZING, right? But it DID clear up enough that I was able to walk out on the ledges and get a decent view. When I got back to the street, it was pouring. And I mean POURING. So rather than try anything else, I headed back to the hotel.

The next night, our entire staff headed out for some Chicago deep dish and a good time. The morning we left, I decided to do one more quick venture to see the Millenium Park Bean (which I had decided would be lame in the rain) and Buckingham Fountain. I headed out pretty early, so the sun was still rising and it was so pretty. Unfortunately, the fountain was dry...although I'm told it was running the day before. What timing, right? But it still made for a good picture.

Work trips can be pretty boring for the most part, let's be honest. But I have to say, this one was actually pretty fun. I got in some good sight seeing and the meetings weren't too terribly boring. So Win-Win, right? Rumor is next year is Boston...I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

September Review

2011-10-20T13:05:00.000-06:00

So I'm a horrible blogger, but that's not something we didn't already know, really. Let's just be glad I don't make a living as a full-time blogger.

It's been quite a while since my last post, and I'd love to say it's because we've been super busy and I just haven't had the time. Nope. I'm just lazy. I'd think about blogging some fun activity and then remember that if I did that, I would need to catch up on all the other activities, too. And I didn't want or have the time for all that. I figured I'd wait until I was willing to do it all. And then the next activity would happen...and that whole conversation with myself would start over. And this is why there has been no blog activity since August. And yes...I realize we're now over halfway through October.

So my solution is this: I'm not going to try to recap the entire month of September. Let's just say, September was great. We had fun. The end.

OK...I'll give you a picture collage of highlights.

Wherein you meet Fluffy and Mittens

2011-08-23T21:02:00.008-06:00

First, let me be perfectly clear. I am not a creepy, crawly kind of girl. When I was little, I didn't mind bugs. I can remember gathering potato bugs at my grandma's in a plastic sandwich bag so I could take them home. (For some reason, I never caught on to why they didn't make it too long.) Lady bugs were always fascinating. And I'd even pick up a Daddy Long Legs on occasion. Since then, I've come to the realization that I don't like bugs. As a general rule, I just leave them alone and go on my way. Except for spiders, which I detest. With a passion. I will go out of my way to squish one. (Or have Erik do it depending on the size. It just creeps me out the way their legs shrivel up when they get stomped. *shiver*) With that preface...

About a week ago, I came home from work one day and noticed a HUGE spider web in our patio. It was the epitome of a spider web. I honestly expected it to say Some Pig... I took a look around, trying to find the huge spider that must go with it, but I couldn't see anything. Against my usual instinct, I left it alone so I could show Lily, who thought it was amazing. Then I forgot all about it until I headed out for my nightly stroll with the dog. A car was parked across the park, and its headlights hit the web just right, and I saw the spider that made it. And I was right...it was big! Meet Fluffy:

I showed Erik, who was altogether unimpressed although he did admit it was pretty big. I'd never seen a spider like this, and he wasn't in my house, so I left him alone - totally against my character - and took Laddie on his walk. When I got home, I decided I needed to know what kid of spider it was. After looking at pictures of a dozen or so spiders native to Utah, we decided our eight-legged friend is a Cat-faced Spider (hence the name Fluffy :-D). Completely harmless, so I decided he could stay.

I wanted to show Lily, but he kept disappearing during the day, and I was determined to find his hiding spot. Finally, I saw a leg poking out one day. So we got a good daytime view and Lily was sufficiently impressed.

A couple days later, I noticed the web was torn up and I figured he must have moved on. After a quick glance around the yard, I saw a web on the other side and figured he'd just changed location. That was until Laddie and I headed for our walk that night and there was Fluffy on his usual side of the fence. Apparently, our yard is very hospitable, because Mittens had also moved in:

So there you have my new pet spiders. Erik thinks I'm a loon. And I probably am. I even chased some kids with a jar out of my yard a few days ago. They can find their own spiders, dang it!! Well...I didn't really chase them. I just opened the door and asked what they were doing in my yard with a jar. They said "nothing" and skedaddled. What I'm really hoping to see is something land in their webs. I might need Lily to catch me a grasshopper (which she does on a regular basis).

For now, they're safe. But hopefully they realize as soon as one hairy foot steps in my house, they're goners...like their cousin here. He ceased to be soon after this picture was taken...

New Trick

2011-08-08T10:05:00.002-06:00

Timothy's been pulling himself up on stuff for a while now...the couch, chairs, the baby gate, my hair. You know...the normal things. But about a week ago, he decided to try standing without any help. This was his attempt:

I'm sure he'll be walking any day now...which blows my mind! Didn't we bring him home yesterday?

Busy July, part 3 (the end)

2011-08-07T09:58:00.001-06:00

And now...for the conclusion of our July festivities. I know what you're thinking: Finally!!! Can we move on already? Almost...this won't be long. :)

This year, Walmart made the mistake of putting Erik in charge of the associate summer party. He decided they needed a bounce house. He ordered the bounce castle for the kids and then went ahead and ordered two more. The blow-up jousting/boxing ring and the huge slide. Because the adults would want to participate in the fun, too. Lily thought the castle was great and spent a little time there. And then she spent most of the night at the playground on the swings and monkey bars. Go figure. She did give the slide a try, and looked terrified on the way down the first time. I could just see her little mind thinking, Was that fun? Or just crazy? She must have thought it was ok because she spent probably the last hour of the night going up and down. Erik took a few runs, too, including this one, which resulted in a nice vinyl burn on his elbow.

Lily must have enjoyed the bouncing in general because she was very dramatic when they started deflating. I wish I would have filmed that. The castle was last, and the moan when the turrets fell was fantastic.

A few days later, we hit the Mendon Pioneer Day fireworks and then did some driveway fireworks with the Mullahkhels and their cul-de-sac. Timothy, I think, is rather indifferent to fireworks of any sort. Even in Mendon when you're close enough for fall out, he just sort of glanced to see where the noise came from and then went on with his business. Lily thought the sparklers were pretty fantastic, but her favorite thing of the day was probably the pop-its. She would have been happy as a clam if we'd just given her an entire case of those and let her go to town.

So that wraps up our July. It was super fun, but I'm sort of relieved we're heading into a more low-key August. This summer has definitely flown by, but I think I'm ready for fall...

Busy July, part 2

2011-07-31T20:08:00.018-06:00

We weekend after our 4th of July activities, we headed up to La Platta to do a little camping with Erik's family. Lily had a absolutely awesome time hanging out with Addison. Timothy did a lot better than I expected, honestly, considering he had to be held a good chunk of the time. He got to crawl around a bit in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer and on Patt's porch, but that was about it. There's just not many places for a baby to crawl in the wild. ;)

Laddie had a great time, too. We tied him to a tote bag filled with rocks so he could move around if he had the gumption, but if he got too excited and took off, he'd get tangled fairly quickly and we'd be able to find him. But you should have seen his pathetic little face when he decided he was too exhausted to move that rock. He'd lie down and whine his little heart out until someone had pity on him and picked up the bag so he could find a suitable lap. If a squirrel wandered by, though, you'd think that bag was empty. He also found a certain log to be very interesting.

It wasn't long before we couldn't see him at all.

We did all the things you should do when camping, including smores with HUGE marshmallows, some dutch oven potatoes (that the guys cooked in the down pour that started just as they got them on the coals), some off-roading (in 2-wheel drive...oops!), and getting completely filthy.

That next week was our anniversary, but we didn't actually celebrate until the weekend. We dropped the kids with Nana and Grandpa Len and we headed to Salt Lake for some dinner at the Garden Restaurant. After dinner, Erik was nice enough to indulge my Harry Potter weakness, and we headed to the movie at the IMAX in 3D. It. Was. A. Mazing. Plus, to top it all off, I sat next to Professor Snape of all people. Harry Potter has been a 10-year obsession (although not as much since the final book came out), so it was kind of weird to finally have an end to it. And it was great to have a husband willing to go with me since he's not really into it.

You might have noticed the ankle brace Erik's wearing in that picture. One day that week, he hopped in the bed of his truck to do...something...I don't remember what. But when he hopped out, he twisted his ankle. This is how it looked when he got home that night...

It actually hurt bad enough he went to have it looked at. Not broken, but a nasty sprain. 12 weeks in a brace. Anyway...since we hit the late showing of HP, we stayed the night in Salt Lake before heading to grab the kids (making a pit stop at IKEA, of course) and worked on the 4th (or 5th?) installment of Mission: Fix Allen Sprinklers.

And that wraps up part 2. I think I can close out the rest of the month with one more post that will include a video of Erik tumbling down a big blow up slide. How's that for a teaser?

Busy July, part 1

2011-07-24T14:05:00.002-06:00

The problem with working retail is you usually end up working on holidays and weekends. With Erik's schedule, we end up with three weekends free and then three weekends when he's working. We lucked out that July happened to be a (mostly) weekend-free month. This means we've packed a ton of activities into those weekends. That also means my blogging of those activities has been very sub-par since activities I usually save for the weekend have been smooshed into the rest of the week and blogging is low on the list. In an effort to document our summer fun, I'm finally starting the blogging...

Our 4th of July weekend was jammed packed and super fun. On the 1st, we hit up the Cache Valley Cruise In. I'll be honest: it's gotten to the point we're reluctant to take Lily anywhere in public, especially where there will be lots of people and lots of new things to see. She gets distracted easily and won't listen to us, and it's almost always a fight to get her out of there. But she was soooooo amazingly good that I'm almost starting to believe she might turn out a productive member of society after all. Before we left the house, we told Lily she couldn't touch any of the cars at the car show because they were very expensive. When we met up with Derek and Daxton, she was sure to remind them, too. Several times. But it worked. She was very good about not touching the cars, which was a good thing since several of them had very threatening signs about fingerprints. They had an area with kid games, and she patiently waited her turn (mostly) and left when we said it was time. I almost didn't know how to leave an activity without carrying a flailing toddler. It was very nice!

That night, we grabbed some KFC and headed to our reserved spot for the Cruise In parade. Erik had worked until midnight the night before, so he dropped a blanket off in front of the tabernacle on his way home. He snagged a spot in front of a tall building thinking we would be the first to get shade. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the angle of the shade...and as the sun was setting, we sadly watched our shade cover the people to the left of us, leaving us squinting and sweltering. He'll know better next year. :) It was still fun and continued our tradition...so that's what matters.

On the 4th, we woke up to ominous rain clouds, and since our plans included a trip to the aquatic center, we were a little bummed. Lily especially since we'd already told her our plans. But we did a little errand running to keep her distracted and grabbed some do-it-yourself fireworks. We finally decided a few gray clouds weren't going to keep us from going swimming, so we decided to risk it. Good thing we did because apparently everyone else was just as leery of potential rain. The pool wasn't nearly as crowded as we expected and the clouds made it a little cooler. Timothy enjoyed just sitting in the water but held on for dear life most of the time. He decided he'd had enough after one too many splashes. But Lily's our little fish and had a great time showing off the skills she learned from her swimming lessons this year and even went down the slide a couple times. We wrapped up swimming with some ice cream and went home to get ready for fireworks.

We usually head to the Hyrum soccer field for the festivities, but the traffic afterwards is always so bad that we decided to try a different approach this year. Instead, we parked at the high school and just hung out in the bed of the truck with our pizza. We ended up with a great view, and the truck bed kept the kids contained. And we were on the road in no time. It may become our new viewing spot.

Definitely a busy weekend, but so much fun.

To Erik

2011-07-13T11:47:00.003-06:00

You are the cheese to my macaroni. You are the horizon to my sky.You are the bacon to my eggs. You are the laces to my sneakers. You are the jelly to my peanut butter. You are the smile to my face. You are the gravy to my mashed potatoes. You are the bubbles to my bath. You are the milk to my cookie. You are the ink to my pen. You are the ketchup to my fries. You are the water to my ocean. You are the icing on my cupcake. You are the Ron to my Hermione.

Nine years already. Happy Anniversary to my best friend.

With extra butter

2011-06-26T17:30:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago, Timothy had his one-year check up. Turns out he's on the small side. Never would have guessed that one. Oh wait...we already knew that. At his 9-month appointment, he didn't make as much progress as he had at his 6-month check-up and had even fallen off the curve completely. At the time, the doctor wasn't worried; he just said that this was about the time genetics kicked in, and looking at Lily, he wasn't too concerned. But at the12-month weigh-in, he'd fallen even further off the curve and was actually starting to flat line. Now he felt we had reason to worry a little since it was starting to affect his length, too. So he recommended we see a dietitian to get her insight.

The next week, we headed to the dietitian's office where we got to tell her what Timothy eats and how much. I know she was there to help, but as we tried to capture a typical day for Mr. Bubs, I've never felt so judged! Such a silly thing to worry about, I guess, but I was so sure her response was going to be, "You're terrible parents. No wonder he's not growing!" despite the fact that I try to give him a fairly balanced, healthy diet...with the occasional french fry or popsicle. Of course that's not what she said; she actually said we were doing pretty well, except for his bottle usage (will NOT take a sippy to save his life!). So her solution was to "power pack" what we are giving him. Basically, we have to increase his fat and calories without adding much to the actual volume of what he's eating. This means adding butter or cream to just about everything and being given free reign to make him a milkshake (with the tip to look for the ice cream with the highest calorie count) for a snack.

Oh...and make sure he drinks at least 24 oz of formula a day and try to get him off a bottle within 2 months. The thing about that is, I'm not sure he was drinking 24 oz a day when he was on a straight liquid diet. That's probably not entirely true, but for the last few months, we've been lucky to get him to drink maybe 10 or 12 oz of formula a day. And as soon as we started the whole power packing thing, he hasn't even wanted that. He's now refusing a bottle in addition to the sippy cup.

When she was explaining what she wanted us to do, I mentioned that I didn't want to bulk him up just for the sake of bulking him up. But from the information she gave us, it says adding extra fat at this point shouldn't have any last effects as he gets older. But I have to admit, every time I add extra butter to his mac and cheese or cream to his apple sauce, I hope it will bulk him up enough that the concern will go away and we can go back to normal meals. Obviously I want him to grow and be healthy, but the kid never stops moving. I don't think I ever chased Lily around this much. He makes a beeline for the dog's water dish so I move him and he beelines for whatever Lily doesn't want him playing with. From there, it's straight to the fridge to laugh at his reflection and then to the other side of the house to cuddle his blanket for .2 seconds before he's off again to find a bead Lily forgot to pick up or a penny I missed with the broom. I think he just has the metabolism of a hummingbird.

So we'll keep up the extra butter at least until mid-July when we have to get a weight check and see if it's helping. In the mean time, we'll just enjoy his energy and his cute ways. Like this video. Whenever I put something on his head, he'll try to put it back after it falls off. Never fails. He's about as adorable as possible!

Lily's View on Bugs

2011-06-16T07:19:00.000-06:00

While heading over to our garden the other day, Lily noticed a bug crawling on the sidewalk. It wasn't a big bug...actually, it was pretty small and I'm amazed she saw it at all. But as soon as she noticed it, she went back to step on it. Now, I don't like bugs all that much either, but unless there is an eminent threat of it crawling on me or biting me or continuing to buzz in my ear, I leave them alone. It's a karma thing. (Ok...not really, but that sounded good, right?) So when she squished the bug, I told her that she doesn't have to step on every bug she sees. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Lily, you don't need to step on every bug. It they aren't bothering you, just leave them alone.
Lily: But I don't like bugs.
Me: I know, but some bugs are nice.
Lily: Was that bug nice?
Me: Probably. Now we'll never know because you squished him.
Lily: He was a mean bug, Mama. Just trust me, ok?

And that was the final word, apparently; how could I argue with that? So we continued our walk to our garden to see if Lily's carrot and radish seeds had sprouted yet. When we got there, I pulled a weed, and just as I pulled it out of the ground, a worm poked what I assume was its head out of the hole and wiggled on out. I pointed it out to Lily, and she asked if we could take it home. Uh....no. I explained that worms help our plants grow so he needed to stay in the garden. Then she poked him a few times, which she thought was fantastic, and we finished looking at our plants. Just as we were getting ready to leave, she asked one more time if we could take the worm home. After I told her no, she said:

I'm going to miss that little worm...

Moral of the story: Bugs bad. Worms cute and pet-worthy.

One Year Old

2011-06-15T18:52:00.001-06:00

On Sunday, Timothy turned one. Can you believe it? One already. We had a little party for him on Friday, and I attempted to make the cake myself. It was first time working with fondant, but it turned out pretty cute...although fondant is definitely not for eating. It looks fantastic, but I'd much rather eat good old fashioned buttercream.

He's cutting his top two teeth, so he's been a bit grumpy lately. This means that he wouldn't let anyone else hold him. He's such a mama's boy. I have to admit, though, it's kind of nice. Lily was never clingy; she's never had a problem settling in with someone other than us. And I think that's great, especially now that she's starting to be a little shy around people she's not familiar with. (Crossing our fingers that this means we can stop worrying that if a stranger offers her some candy out of his van, she won't say, "Cool!!!" and hop in.) Hopefully this means she'll avoid my extreme shyness but not be quite so shameless as Erik. (:-P) At any rate, I kind of enjoy when Timothy snuggles in when he sees someone reaching for him. (It's nice to be wanted, after all.) But the other side of that, of course, is that it's hard to pass him on to someone else when I have other things to do. But I still enjoy it just a little because I know the day will come (sooner than I'd like, I'm sure) when he won't want to be held by mommy at all.

But I think he still had a fun time, even if he didn't want me to let him go. We got him his own little cake with traditional icing and let him go to town. It did take a finger-full of frosting from Grandma Nancy, though, to convince him it was delicious and that he really was going to enjoy being put in the booster to have his way with it.

It's been a pretty good year. Lily loves her Timothy even if he does mess with her stuff when she doesn't want him to. (Just wait, right?) It's amazing how his little personality is already coming out. Sometimes, when she tells him to leave her stuff alone, he takes a deep breath and lets her know how he feels about it. He always giggles when he sees his blanket, and then he crawls as fast as he can to get to it so he can dive head first into it. He knows when he has something he shouldn't and will hand it to us without our even asking. Usually after taking a lick first to make sure it's not something tasty. He loves feeding himself, but if I'm feeding him, he's usually placated by holding a spoon of his own, even if he's not using it for anything. We're working on moving to a sippy cup, but he's been very vocal about that change and will throw the cup to make sure we really get his point. One of his favorite pastimes is splashing in Laddie's water bowl and then turning to make sure we see him doing it. He likes to bear crawl and crawls normally as fast as he can but shows no in interest in pulling himself up to standing or walking. And that's fine by me. I remember how excited we were for Lily to start walking and then when it happened, it just doubled the chasing we had to do.

It's been a year with some adjustments, of course. I wouldn't say having two kids is harder than having one, but it definitely presents its own set of challenges. Especially on nights when Erik is working, I think Lily feels a little neglected on nights when Timothy seems to need a little more attention. I'll admit, I'm not great and giving them both the attention they need at the same time. I can multi-task lots of things, but apparently, that isn't one of them. So I have to make sure once he's in bed, Lily and I can sit just one on one and read some stories or color some pictures. Or even play her version of house, for which my attention span is extremely short. Now that Timothy is more willing to just cruise around and check things out, this is getting easier, and I hope it will keep going that direction.

Even with the adjustments, the lack of sleep, the frustrations, and all that other stuff, this has been a great year with some great memories. In just one year, I find it hard to remember what it was like before Timothy...it just feels like he's always been here somehow. And I love the addition he's been to our family.

It's hard being 4...

2011-06-09T08:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday in the car on the way home from dinner, Lily was telling us all about her internship with the mail lady (she helped her put all the mail in the boxes and then brought our mail in for us), and she declared she wants to be a mail carrier when she grows up. (Where she got the term "mail carrier," I don't know since I don't think I've ever said that in my life. How un-PC of me, I know, but knowing we have a female postal person, I've always just called her the Mail Lady. Anyway...) After she finished her story, she got quiet for a minute and then said this:

"When I grow up, everything will be so much easier."

Erik and I just looked at each other for a second, trying not to laugh - of course - since we know how un-easier life really is when you get older, and then Erik mentioned to Lily that, actually, she has it pretty easy now. "No I don't!" she protested. So I asked what's hard now.

The monkey bars! The pole! Lots of stuff!

So there you have it. Be thankful you're older. It's so much easier than being four.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-03T14:05:00.003-06:00

Every once in a great while, the planets align just right and Erik ends up with an honest to goodness long weekend like a normal person. It just so happens the planets were kind to us for Memorial Day this year. So we packed up the kids and headed down to St. George with some friends.

We weren't sure how the kids would do on a six-hour drive, but they were both actually really good. Lily only asked, "Are we there yet?" about 5 times, and it could have been sooooo many more. I think by the end, they were both ready to get out, and so were we, but they were definitely troopers.

Once we'd made the official arrangements to go, we told Lily we would be taking a vacation, which would mean staying in a hotel - where you can jump on the beds! Apparently, this is what Erik remembers most about vacations. So the first thing Lily had to do when we arrived was...

That night, we took a dip in the pool. Timothy had never been swimming before, but he seemed to enjoy it...without a single tear being shed until we pulled him out and he was cold.

Getting everyone to bed that night was a little rougher than usual since Timothy could still hear us milling around while he was in the travel crib. But it wasn't too long before he dozed off. Even though we played up the advantage of having a great big bed all to herself, Lily decided she wanted someone to sleep with her, so for the first two nights, Erik had the privilege. I was nice and took the last night.

On Saturday, we headed into Vegas. The last couple times we've been down there, we've talked about going to the shark reef at Mandalay Bay. We decided it was time we finally did it...plus, Lily would LOVE it. And she totally did. They had some huge, beautiful fish and two tunnel aquariums you could walk through. She was severely tempted to touch the stingrays, but she couldn't quite reach and I don't think she really wanted to anyway.

After the aquarium, we headed to the M&Ms store...our must see in Vegas. Lily was grabbing things left and right, and although we planned on buying her something, we were sure we would have a major melt down when we made her narrow it down to one. As we were getting ready to go, we helped her pick out a star-shaped box of M&Ms. Then she remembered the wall of candy dispensers. She wanted some in a bag, too. We helped her get them, and then said we'd get a smaller box instead of the star one. Then she surprised us completely and said she just wanted the bag. Since they're sold by the pound, we managed to get out of there for about 2 bucks. Sometimes, she amazes me. (I just wish I could predict when she's going to be easy going and when I should brace myself for a fight. I never seem to get it right.)

We rounded out the evening with some shopping in St. George and some pizza for dinner. A great day, really.

On Sunday, we drove the little ways out to Snow Canyon. We stopped at the dunes for a bit, but it was pretty windy, and sand and wind are not a great combination. So we headed to a trail a little further in to climb on some of the great red rocks. So gorgeous!

For our first real family vacation, I think we can call it success. The kids behaved themselves for the most part. We had some fun. We got some great pictures. There wasn't any fighting. No one got hurt, at least not majorly. (Timothy did fall off the bed and get a rug burn on his nose, but that's a completely different story.) And Lily got to jump on some beds.

New Lily-ism

2011-05-06T09:40:00.000-06:00

This morning, Lily wanted to go play at the park. This, of course, requiring getting dressed for the day. So we headed into her room to pick some clothes. I pulled her shirt out of her closet, but when I turned around, she was still most definitely in her night gown. So I asked her to get undressed. And she said to me....

Are you ready?

"It's not undressed, Mommy. It's UN-JAMMIED!"

The mind of a baby

2011-04-27T19:52:00.001-06:00

To Do Update

2011-04-27T19:23:00.001-06:00

Blog more than twice this month? Check.

Finish the book I've been reading for over a month? Check.

Add pictures to Lily's wall? Sort of check. The frames have been painted and hung, and there is a picture in one of them. Baby steps, baby steps...

Finish organizing downstairs closets? Check.

Make door mat? Check.

Make a new headboard? Another half check. The frame is assembled. Now on to sanding, priming, painting (which would involve actually choosing a color), and making and attaching upholstered panels. But hey...the frame is assembled! And Lily was very helpful at cleaning up the sawdust:

A pretty productive month, I think.

Let Me Count the Ways

2011-04-10T09:40:00.002-06:00

This morning, we have a very grumpy Lily...for reasons we're not yet sure of. And when Lily's grumpy, any little thing will set her off into a stream of tears, whining, and writhing on the floor. From that point on, EVERYTHING, any perceived slight, will start the tears again.

This morning, the catalyst was when her two shows for the morning were over and it was time to turn off the tv. The next injustice was being told no when she asked to play games on the iPod (she's not very good about stopping when we say it's time or accepting that she doesn't need to play it all day, so we've severely limited the game time). The final straw, apparently, was that Erik was sitting on the ottoman in Timothy's room while I fed him a bottle and there wasn't any room for Lily to sit.

"You're MEAN!!!" It's the new phrase du jour, and we hear it at least once a day. How? we asked. She proceeded to tick off the ways on her fingers.

"You won't let me watch a show. You won't let me play games on your phone. You won't let me sit where I want. That's FOUR MEANS!" Like mean is now a noun and you can add up the number means in a day.

Wait a minute...wasn't that only three? So she ticked them off again.

"No, it's FOUR! You won't let me watch a show. You won't let me play games on your phone. Or the iPod..."

Oh....so the phone and the iPod were two separate transgressions.

So we're slowly working through the injustices of the world and trying to teach her that, no, sometimes she doesn't get to do everything she wants. What confuses me is that we've never let her just do everything she wanted whenever she wanted it. So where did this sense of entitlement come from? Where did the impatience and not wanting to wait her turn come from? Is it just her age, or did we wreck her somehow? I guess all we can do it be consistent (that's always the key, isn't it: be consistent) and hope that she's just testing the boundaries. And that usually works. I mean, right now, she's playing just as happy as can be with non-electronic toys. Remember those??? It's just the journey of getting her calmed down enough to remember there are other things to do. Man, it's exhausting.

Sleepover

2011-04-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

As I write this, Erik is sleeping (well, maybe not yet...but he's trying) on Lily's floor under a tent constructed from a comforter and a sheet. It's main supports are a dresser and an easel leaning precariously against the wall. Lily has been asking for weeks to have a sleepover with one of us, but it's always on a night when we have to work the next morning, so the creaky joints and stiff back that would result weren't too appealing. (Man we're getting old.) There was also the prospect that I'd be wiggling my way out of a tent half awake because that would be the night Timothy would decide to go back to not sleeping. (We've had a blissful sleep week as far as he's concerned, by the way. Blissful!)

But tonight was the magical night, and Erik figured that since he was already sore from crawling around on the floor at work for inventory, he might as well make a night of it and sleep on the floor, too, since he'll have the next week of vacation to recover. Way to take one for the team, I know.

So I just wanted to let the entire internet know how much I love my husband and how willing he is to indulge our daughter in something so simple but that will make her so happy and create such a great memory. And she'll remember it...you can count on that. It will be weeks, maybe even months from now, and she'll say, "Hey guys! Remember yesterday when Daddy had a sleepover with me in my room and we built a tent and used the flashlight to read Hop on Pop? Remember that? That was so fun!"

And at least I know that if she's on the floor, there's no risk of hurting herself. Unlike the other night when I peeked in to check on her before I went to bed.

Yes...she's sleeping standing up. Don't ask me how she got into this predicament or how long it would have been before we heard the thud of her falling over. The "Thanks, Daddy" when Erik lifted her a back into bed was the sweetest thing. There are days she makes me want to pull my hair out, for sure. If she's this emotional at 4, what are we in for at 13? But I definitely wouldn't trade her in for anything. I don't think. No...Yeah, I wouldn't. She one adorable little girl and I love her.

To do...

2011-04-06T11:00:00.001-06:00

1. Blog more than twice this month. (1/2 way there!!! Yeah!!!)

2. Finish the book I've been reading for over a month.

3. Print and hang new family picture that was taken in...November. (Um...yeah...I'm that behind.) Also, possibly completely redo wall arrangement with the family picture. I think I need a trip to Tai Pan for inspiration. Anyone want to join me?

4. Repaint living room so walls stop clashing with new couches.

5. Rearrange Lily's room and finally hang some art on the wall. (Actually, I already did the rearranging, so just the artwork part...oh...and buy a new bookcase.)

6. Finish organizing downstairs closets.

7. Make this door mat:

Via

8. Work onTimothy's scrapbook so I'm caught up by his first birthday...maybe it won't get printed three months after the fact. :)

9. Go through the mountain of toys at our house and decide what can go.

10. Make a new headboard similar to this and repaint the rest of the bedroom furniture:

Via

9 months

2011-03-13T20:58:00.000-06:00

Timothy is now 9 months old. We kind of like him, so we've decided the trial period is over and we'll keep him. Especially now that he's back to sleeping through the night...most of the time.

This whole parent thing definitely doesn't come easily to me, but I'm still trying and I hope I'm doing an ok job. All I know is that when I'm the most frustrated, that's when he seems to give me this look that melts my heart and helps me remember I'll get through it...eventually. Plus he's so darn cute. Here's a look at how he's grown:

And I think Lily likes him, too. Of course, the sharing is very one way. What's Timothy's is hers and what's hers is hers. But for the most part she's a good helper and I think there's already a pretty strong bond...which I think is fantastic.

Wherein Timothy makes things interesting

2011-03-06T16:34:00.003-07:00

I've heard the stories. From so many people. Some I've known and some I only know through hearsay. Mommy puts her adorable baby down for a nap. A couple hours later, that adorable baby lets Mommy know they're awake and ready to party. Mommy walks into the room to find her so-called adorable baby has removed their diaper and created a masterpiece on the wall, on the crib, on their clothes, and (gasp!) maybe even all over their face. Lily, fortunately, never did that. The worst thing I found when I went into get her after a nap was a mess of diaper liners that I had left too close to the crib.

I definitely counted myself lucky. (Side note...ohmigosh, doesn't she look just like Timothy in that picture?!?!?)

This morning, however, I learned I may not get off so easy with Timothy. When I was getting him ready for bed last night, I grabbed a pair of pajamas he hadn't worn in a while. Usually, he rocks comfy fleece footie jammies and I had totally planned on doing our usual, but then I saw the cute pair I bought him for Christmas. They were a little on the big side at the time and since it was a shirt and pants instead of one piece, the pants kept falling down. So he only wore them a couple times before I decided we needed to wait just a bit. Last night, I decided it was time to give them another go.

After feeding him this morning at 6:30, I laid him back down and hoped he'd be content enough to give me at least a half hour more sleep...maybe even 45 minutes. That would be divine. I crawled back into bed and was surprised to wake up 2 hours later! I haven't been able to sleep in like that for a while and it was great. Erik had set Lily up with Bambi before he left for work so she'd been completely entertained and Timothy had finally slept in like a normal person. Timothy was still sound asleep, or so I thought since no sounds were coming from his room. But it wasn't long before I heard him rustling. I finished my breakfast and checked my email before I went in to get him.

He may have been quiet, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't asleep, because there he was with no pants on. And his diaper unfastened. And you totally thought I was going to say that he'd smeared poop everywhere. Luckily he hadn't...yet. But yes, the diaper was poopy, so I'm sure that if I'd had one or two more emails, I would have had a very different morning.

There's no picture...sorry. I didn't want to risk what would happen while I went to grab the camera. But I'm pretty sure this is one kid we will need to watch like a hawk. He wants to have everything he knows we don't want him to. You can pile a million toys up in front of him, and he'll zoom in on the remote or itsy, bitsy, tiny piece of paper you never noticed. And if you take it away? What were you thinking, woman?!?!? Let me tell you how I feel about that! This could get very interesting...

Ugly Babies and Old Maids

2011-02-28T10:11:00.003-07:00

The thought process of a 4-year-old can be....interesting. Here are two examples from just the last week. For her birthday, Lily was given the card game, Old Maid. Most games we'd played up to this point had a single winner (Memory, Candy Land, etc.). Old Maid, on the other hand, is really more about not being the loser. So the other day, she and I sat down for a game of Old Maid. I dealt out the cards and we started. As we had fewer and fewer cards in our hands, I realized there was still an even number of cards in play. Now think about this for a second: Old Maid is all about making matches and the one with the Old Maid loses. An even number of cards means they should all match up. I knew I didn't have the Old Maid, so I cheated a little and asked Lily to see her cards.

Me: Lily, where's the Old Maid?

Lily: I took her out.

Me: Why?

Lily: If you have that one, you lose, so I took her out before we started.

So no loser means everyone wins, right? She's so diplomatic.

The second venture into Lily's mind is a little less diplomatic, and I hope I don't have to explain to some poor mother why my kid just said that. When we first brought Timothy home, we said something along the lines of "He's pretty cute. Do you think we should keep him?" The answer was always yes, of course, and now she says a variation of it at least once a day. "Should we keep him?" "Are we going to keep Timothy? He sure is cute." But out of the blue on Saturday, Lily confronted me with this question:

What do people do with the babies that aren't so cute?

Trying my hardest not to laugh, I asked what she thought people did with them. Apparently, they get rid of them. See where I could have problems if we run into someone with a not-so-cute baby? Luckily, there's no such thing as an ugly baby, right? Then again, maybe it's time to introduce her to the word, breathtaking.

Plain White T's

2011-02-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Looks like February is our month for concerts. Last year, we headed to Vegas for Jack's Mannequin. This year, we stayed close to home for Plain White T's. I LOVE Plain White T's, so when I found out they were coming, it was a no-brainer. And I'm so glad we went. They put on a great show, and we had a blast. And during a surprise change up in where they were singing, we ended up being super close for the all-famous Hey There, Delilah.

Once there was a snowman

2011-02-17T20:53:00.001-07:00

After a couple blissful days of Mother Nature's toying with my emotions by giving us some semi-springlike weather, she went and dumped an obscene amount of snow on us. I wasn't too thrilled. Lily, on the other hand, thought it was fantastic. In fact, this morning, she got herself all dressed, including her non-snow boots and informed Erik that she was going out to shovel. This turned out to be not quite the whole truth and was really just a ploy to get to the park. After tromping through the snow and getting completely soaked, she came back in only with the promise that they would go out and build a snowman once I came home and could wrangle Timothy.

At our office Christmas party, we had a white elephant exchange. We managed to snag a snowman kit. I know...how hard is it to build a snowman and what would be in a kit since the majority of a snowman can't survive in a kit? But it was awesome. It came complete with hat, matching scarf, eyes, mouth, carrot, and pipe. Somehow, though, in the two months since Christmas, we had yet to use it. It seemed like whenever it snowed, we didn't get to the project before the snow had lost it's optimum snowman consistency. So as much as I hate snow, this most recent storm was actually good because we finally managed to use this dang kit.

Even though the forecast said it was supposed to snow today, too, it was blue skies and sunny while we were out, so I carted Timothy along and even Laddie took a few romps around the park...I like to call it frolicking, really, since the snow reached his belly and he had to leap everywhere he went.

In the end, Lily and Erik managed a fairly decent snowman - although the eyes and mouth have already been brought inside because they fell off. I'm hoping we don't lose the rest of the kit before we can snag it all and put it back in the container. You'll also notice the hat and scarf don't match. Lily decided she'd rather use the lid to the container than the actual hat, but it still worked. Plus, she's pretty convinced it's magical. She keeps trying to check on "Frosty" with her flashlight from inside the house. I'm pretty sure she thinks he'll get up and walk away...

Lily turns 4!

2011-02-02T15:32:00.001-07:00

So I'm totally late posting this...like two weeks late. But I guess it's better late than never, right?

On January 19th, Lily turned 4. I know, right? Can you believe she's 4 already? I know I can't. Since she's older and the kids who would be coming to her party are now older, too, we decided not to have the party at our house. There's really just not enough space for everyone who would be coming and the kids wouldn't really have anywhere to run around since we live in the arctic and have to stay inside. So Erik suggested we have the party at the Cache Valley Fun Park and let the kids do the soft play (a HUGE McDonald's-like playground).

Lily and all the kids had a great time, and the Fun Park provided the food and cake. Oh yeah...and the clean up. That was worth the cost right there! :) There was one minor break down for the birthday girl when she wanted the cake and not the pizza while we were eating dinner. But it didn't last long and we moved right along to cake and presents as soon as the pizza dwindled.

We may have made a bit of a mistake, though. She's already talking about wanting to have her birthday there next year. We have set the precedent, I suppose, so we'll see what happens.

So yeah...the fact that I have a 4 year old just blows my mind. I was watching her do something the other day and I realized she's not a little girl any more - and she's sure to tell you so because she's a big girl. And she really is. It always amazes me how much she develops each year. I always think that nothing will compare to the changes we saw that year and then the next year always makes me take it back. You'd think I'd learn, but apparently not because I'm going to say the same thing this year: There's no way she'll change next year as much as she did this year.

She's so articulate and methodical. Even her pediatrician commented on it at her check up. I mean, you always like to think your kid is ahead of the rest, but then don't all parents think that? It was kind of nice to receive some validation there. She's obviously very interested in reading and writing. She can write her own name by herself and can write the rest of the family's if we tell her the letters. She memorizes entire books and then reads them back to us or her babies. Word. For. Word. She sings all the time, which makes our life very much like an opera since she just sings about what we're doing at the time. Her imagination is great and so detailed. I love it!!

We still have the normal toddler mis-behaviors, of course. And honestly, they should call it the Terrible Threes because this last year was a million times worse than those so-called Terrible Twos. It seems like the breakdowns were less frequent, but their intensity was much worse. That seems to be subsiding now (thank goodness), and we almost don't dread going out in public any more. But we still have our days... I'm actually reading a book right now that would label Lily as "spirited," and in just reading the first 3 or so pages, it described Lily and our life perfectly. Apparently, there is hope that she'll end up a normal, functioning adult, so I feel better now. :) And the big thing: her spirited-ness wasn't our fault! Seeing other kids who just comply with their parents and don't go from elated to devastated 10 times a day made me wonder what we'd done wrong. But it turns out she just came that way. The trick is to learn to deal with it and help her do the same. Wish us luck!

So even though I can't believe the changes and growth we've seen this year, I do know that we'll see even more in the next year. And while I'm excited to see who she'll become, I do admit it's a little bittersweet. She'll always be my little girl, but I'm a little sad that it's going so fast.

MINI Chart

2011-02-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that I would love to get a Mini Cooper. Even if they weren't the cutest cars ever, this chart would have solidified the deal:

My favorite question? "Do you have a nose?"

Three random things

2011-01-23T17:50:00.002-07:00

Number 1: In a random fit of feeling crafty, I made a yarn wreath last week.

Number 2: Next week we'll be attending this concert. I'm beyond excited!

Number 3: Timothy went to church today dressed as the King of New York and ready to Seize the Day.

Is this normal?

2011-01-17T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today I attended a tea party prepared by Miss Lily herself. Here is what we had to eat:

I just know the lack of blue food annoyed her...

My Nerdiness

2011-01-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Those who don't do the whole Harry Potter thing probably won't care, but I thought this was funny...

Six months in

2011-01-01T10:17:00.001-07:00

If you can believe it, our little guy is now 6 (6.5, really) months old. And here's what we know so far...

Stats

Weight: 14.5 lbs
Length: 26.25 inches

Likes

Lillian and Laddie (We get the biggest smiles when either one comes in the room, and nursing quickly comes to an end; whatever they are doing is infinitely more interesting than eating.)
Anything colorful
Anything that makes noise
Tags
Grabbing anything within arm's reach
Practicing yoga moves that any yogi would be totally jealous of (usually during a diaper change, making my job nearly impossible)
Gnawing on his hands
Gnawing on my hands
Gnawing on anything that fits in his mouth, really

Dislikes

Getting his face wiped off
Sleeping
Being alone (for even two seconds)
Having what he's gnawing on taken away
Sleeping (Wait; did I say that already?)
Being put in his car seat

So yeah...the sleeping isn't so great. Remember a couple months ago when I bragged about his great sleeping? When we could put him down around 8, he'd wake up once to eat, and then he'd sleep until 7 or 8 the next morning? That's completely gone out the window. Oh, he still goes down around 8 without fail. If you try to keep him up (which I have in hopes that a later bed time and more exhausted baby would mean sleeping through the night), he falls asleep in your lap at 8 any way. Now we're lucky if he sleeps 3 hours for the first stretch. Then after that, I'm up probably every hour and a half...two if I'm extremely lucky and he feels like being generous. Then there's usually at least one stretch during the night, usually around 3 or 4, when he wakes up as soon as I put my head back on my own pillow and we play that game for about an hour.

Our pediatrician was really less than helpful at Timothy's six-month check-up. After hearing how we approach bed time and what we've been doing, his response was, "Sounds like you know all the guidelines. The only thing I can say is that eventually he'll sleep." I guess I wasn't really expecting any earth-shattering advice. I mean, I do quite a bit of my own research online and had read what I could find about "establishing good sleep habits." But I was still hoping he'd have some gem of a revelation I haven't heard about.

I've tried so many different tactics. Formula before bed (maybe it will take longer to digest and he'll sleep better), more blankets (maybe he's cold), fewer blankets (maybe he's hot), a constant stream of lullabies (and not crappy ones...these are lullaby renditions of Journey and Queen), a mobile, teething tablets, a stuffed animal (maybe he gets lonely), the Sleep Sheep he got for Christmas (award winning can't be wrong, right?). Nothing seems to help. Some helped for a day or two, so I'm assuming that was actually just coincidence. The real problem, however, isn't getting him to sleep in the first place. It's getting him back to sleep once he wakes up - and while these solutions seemed to help in the initial falling asleep, they suddenly become ineffective at 3 in the morning.

One good thing about his sleeping, though, is that his 45-minute cat naps seem to be stretching out a little. Some days, we even get a 2-hour nap out of him. I guess I have to look at the bright side. Plus, during the day, he's so dang cute when he's awake (he can be cute in the middle of the night, too, but it's not much appreciated). I mean, how can you stay mad at a face like this?

So we're plugging away, and I just keep hoping that tonight will be the night. It's got to happen sometime, right? Right??

December Fun

2010-12-26T17:37:00.001-07:00

Gingerbread House Kit: $9.00

Making snowflakes: A million sheets of paper and a bit of a mess

Popping bubble wrap from out-of-town presents: Free

Spending Christmas with my family: Priceless

From us to you...

2010-12-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

To see our annual Elfing, click here.

Miss Lily Tells It Like It Is

2010-12-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

At just shy of 4 years old, Lily is pretty confident in her understanding of the world and is amazingly smart (at least I think so). As you have probably gathered, Dora is one of her favorite shows. But I'm beginning to think she might need to move on to more sophisticated programming. The other night while she watching it, this is what I heard:

Dora: We have to find the bridge. Can you help us find the bridge?

Lily: It's right there, dumbo.

Dora: Where's the bridge?

Lily: I said, it's right there, dumbo!

After I pulled myself together in the kitchen, I went in the other room and explained why we don't call people "dumbo," but I have to say I was a little proud of her for finally wondering why Dora has such a hard time finding things that are right in front of her... :-)

Then, this morning before leaving for daycare, she provided some insight into spiders:

Lily: Last time I went to Angie's, Zayners (Angie's son, Zayne, who is the same age) found a spider.

Erik: A spider? Oh no.

Lily: Yeah. And you know what spiders do? They will crawl up you and bite you and then KILL YOU. (Think Achmed, the dead terrorist when she says KILL YOU, because that's exactly what it sounded like.)

Erik: Well, spiders do bite sometimes, but they don't usually kill you.

Lily: No. It was a boy spider, and the boy spiders will kill you!!! (Who knew??!!??)

Erik: Oh, ok. You know what you should do when you see a spider? (He showed her how to squish a spider.)

Lily: I'll have to show Zayners that!!!!

It's so fun listening to her explain what's going on around her. She gets very serious and explains exactly what we should or should not be doing or how something works. It's often accompanied by a pointed finger for emphasis, making it hard to take her very seriously. How can you not laugh? But she's big enough now that if you do laugh, she is not amused. So you just have to nod in agreement and hope she doesn't notice the smirk you're trying to hold in.

I absolutely love her to pieces.

Temple Square

2010-12-19T14:38:00.001-07:00

In true Christmas tradition, we headed down to Salt Lake on Tuesday to see the lights at Temple Square. And this year, we picked a day other than the annual MoTab Christmas concert. Although there were still a ton of people, of course.

Despite the huge storm we had a couple weeks ago, most of it was gone. Normally, I would say that's a good thing, but when it comes to Temple Square, I actually prefer it with snow. It makes the lights that much more...magical, I guess. But it was still gorgeous as always. Like anything she does, Lily had a ton of fun running around and causing us much anxiety because she refused to walk close by, but for the most part, she was good and enjoyed seeing the lights and nativity scenes. Hopefully next year, Timothy will actually see some of the lights. I was so worried that he'd get cold, so we bundled him up so well that he thought a nap was more important this year.

The Gutter

2010-12-18T21:33:00.003-07:00

The other night, Derek asked if Lily wanted to join Daxton for some sledding. Since she was still getting over a nasty cough, we decided it was probably better for her to stay inside. So we opted for some bowling instead. It'd been a while since our balls had seen the light of day (or a bowling alley), so we were both a little rusty. In fact, Lily's score almost matched ours. There were a few tiffs over whose turn it was since Lily and Daxton had a hard time understanding that they got to go twice before the other person did, and I spent a good portion of the night reminding Lily that her hand needed to stay as far away from the ball return as possible (visions of King Pin were flashing through my head). But based on the fact that we had a MAJOR melt down at the prospect of returning her awesome bowling shoes, I would say she had a good time.

There are a few things I want to point out in this picture. One is my awesome bowling ball. There's nothing better than having your ball smile at you as it rolls down the gutter not hitting a single pin...which it did a couple times that night. Remember, I said I was rusty. The second is the lovely form Erik has. I like to call it The Fountain.

Our Little Olympian

2010-12-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

I don't ski. I went once. If you could call it that. About 10 years ago. I spent most of the time on my rear end cursing Erik for letting him talk me into trying it. And the next day? I could barely move. I refuse to go again.

But Erik convinced Lily that skiing is the best thing ever and had her so completely excited about its prospects by the time they headed up to Beaver Mountain this week that I was sure someone's high hopes were about to be crushed, especially since she wouldn't even let them buckle the boots when Erik took her to get fitted for them.

Luckily...I was wrong. She LOVED it. Before they went, Erik worked with her on what to do if she fell down. "I jump up and try again!" And it must have worked, because she had a great time. They went with Buzzy and Carson (who is about a year older than Lily). The guys did some skiing on their own while the kids had a lesson and then they did a couple runs with them. She's super excited about going again, and was sure to tell everyone we saw that she went skiing. I see a gold medal in our future... :-)

Now if only Erik could convince her to get on her little snowmobile...

All I want for Christmas...

2010-12-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we took this kids to sit on Santa's lap. Which means I now feel like a good parent again since we completely forgot to take Lily last year. I think it was a combination of being busy coupled with the fact that I was about two and half months pregnant and sick as a dog most of the time.

When I first mentioned going to see Santa, Lily wasn't so sure about sitting on his lap. "I'll just stand next to him and tell him what I want." But by the time we got there, she was ready to do about anything the complete stranger in the red suit told her to do.

And what does she want Santa to bring her? A mermaid. Which is total news to us. A few months ago when I asked what she wanted from Santa, all I got was an, "I don't know." So I went with what I wanted Santa to bring her. But in the last month, anytime someone asks what Santa is bringing her, she says a mermaid. If she'd come up with the answer just once, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But she says it EVERY TIME. Which means Santa now has to do some more shopping because there is no way I'm destroying the illusion of Santa the first year she's actually interested in it. And she knows Santa won't let her down. If we ask what Santa is bringing her now, we get the answer in a very exasperated tone, because come on...she's already told us...it's a mermaid already. Can't you remember? Jeese!

Family Pictures 2010

2010-12-10T15:41:00.001-07:00

This year, we had Erik's cousin, Dani, take our family pictures. Usually, this isn't a very eventful activity. We arrive at the location, we smile a lot, we try to get Laddie to look at the camera at the same time as everyone else, we go home. It's a good day.

But this year was a completely different story. About half way to Ogden's Union Station to meet Dani, Laddie decided to puke on me. Well, not on me so much as in my general direction. Most of it landed on the seat. It wasn't a lot, so I didn't worry about it much.

A little while later, we arrived at Union Station. As we were getting ready to get out of the car, Lily decided she didn't feel great either, so she puked on me, too. Unfortunately, it was significantly more than what Laddie managed. I had it all down my arm and side. And on the seat. Luckily, none of it ended up on her. I managed to wipe it all off, so at least I was presentable for our pictures, even if I did stick a little...

Dani arrived and we started our shoot. But it was so windy and cold, and we could hardly get pictures with our coats on. I mean, I'd agonized for months over what we would be wearing. I was not covering anything up with a coat. So we toughed it out long enough to get some shots in a couple locations. And now that we have the finished product, you'd never know we were freezing. But I think next year, we'll do pictures on a warmer day.

Thanks, Dani!

Wherein I send you to another blog...

2010-12-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

Because we don't really have anything too exciting happening in our own lives, I thought I'd pass along a link to a blog that (thanks to Meg) I recently re-discovered. This post made my day! It's probably best appreciated by people with dogs, but I laughed so hard, which actually hurt because I did an ab workout a couple days ago that apparently made more of an impression than I originally thought.

I should have some blogging fodder of my own as we get further into the season...at least I hope. I managed to forget my camera over Thanksgiving so that was a bust. But we did just get our family pictures back, and we'll be doing the SLC light scene. And Christmas itself should produce something of substance. In the meantime, I hope everyone's holiday activities are going well.

Sky View Cheer Clinic

2010-11-21T21:34:00.003-07:00

The lady who watches Lillian has a daughter who's a Sky View cheerleader, and the cheerleaders were putting on a clinic for girls between 3 and 14. She was in charge of the three year olds and wanted Lily to come be in her group. We figured 15 bucks that paid for lunch and a shirt and left us a few hours to get some of Lily's Christmas shopping done was 15 bucks well spent and left her in the cheerleaders' capable hands for almost 4 hours last Saturday.

After the clinic, we got to see a performance of all the groups and then they got to perform between the girls' and boys' scrimmage games this last Friday. Lily had a great time dancing with Tiffany, up until she got poked in the eye during the performance following the clinic. It took some convincing to get her back out on the floor to do the cheers for us, but she was a trooper and did. But isn't this the saddest face you've ever seen?

The performance during the basketball games went much better and she was so excited to get to give it another go. I don't know if she really has the dedication to be a cheerleader (she was really more interested in the letters on the gym floor), but she was sure cute. And she's three...so she could outgrow the whole ADD thing. But she does have Erik as a father, so probably not. :)

Anyway...here's some pictures of her performance and a video Erik put together. You can see the eye-poking incident at about 20 seconds on the right.

Comparison

2010-11-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Last night, I picked up a photo album from Lillian's first year and came across a picture of her at about 3months. And I thought, That's Timothy! I've looked at pictures of her we have hanging around the house, and while I could see some resemblance, I didn't think it was that close.

But what do you think? They're both about 3 months in these pictures. I guess there's no doubting they're related...

Halloween

2010-11-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ok...so Halloween was over two weeks ago. But I wanted to get at least a couple pictures up of our costumes this year for those who didn't get to see them. Once again, we attended the Mullahkhel Halloween festivities. This year, Erik was actually able to go, so for once I got to be the second half of a couple's costume. Unfortunately, I didn't have much say in it if I wanted to follow through on the whole "couple" idea since Erik was pretty set on his costume once I made the mistake of mentioning it. As a result, Erik and I were Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone of Anchorman fame. After several final decisions, Lillian settled on a Lady Bug. And Timothy, not having much choice in the matter, was a Harley Baby.

Lily had a great time trick-or-treating around Wal-mart again this year, and while I'm sure her stash won't satisfy her in the next few years, it was enough to make the kid as happy as anything. Now that she's actually remembering holidays from year to year, it's so fun to see her excitement and anticipation. And to be honest, I'm looking forward for next Halloween because I have an awesome costume in mind that includes Timothy. I have to use him to my advantage while I can. Pretty soon he'll have a mind of his own, too.

And then I'm doomed... :)

And remember, stay classy, San Diego.

Peas, please

2010-11-05T18:45:00.000-06:00

Lily was never much of a spitter when it came to eating baby food. But this kid? Let's just say the bib would have been more useful on me...

Ready to Roll

2010-10-26T21:12:00.001-06:00

Since Timothy is really more of a passive participant in our outings, I thought I should mention some of the things he is doing, as mundane as they may seem. At his last doctor's appointment (which was called his four-month check-up even though he was only three months), he weighed 12 lbs. Considering it look Lily almost a year to hit that size, he seems like a chunk to us, and it's fantastic. He recently started cereal, and even though he doesn't seem too impressed by the whole thing, he doesn't really seem to mind either. We'll probably start some more tasty foods in the next few weeks.

He's still very intent on checking everything out and will stare at something for the longest time trying to make sense of it all. As a result, I think he's afraid he'll miss something if he goes to sleep. It's the only reason I can come up with for his 45-minute naps throughout the day. And I'm not kidding. When I say 45 minutes, I mean it. It's gotten to the point that once he finally falls asleep, we rush to figure out what we can accomplish in 45 minutes because you could set a clock by his accuracy.

But he's still so much fun and is getting so big so fast. He's definitely a full-blown baby now, not a newborn. And occasionally, he'll even humor me and roll over.

But only if he's in the mood and no one else is around. Sneaky little guy...

Fast Fall

2010-10-26T20:55:00.002-06:00

It's hard to believe that October is on its way out the door. We've been on the move quite a bit this month, especially in the last couple weeks, and sitting down to blog about it all just never happened. But we've done some fun activities, so here's the update.

We've managed two trips to the zoo, both the Logan and Hogle Zoos. The Logan Zoo had their annual Boo at the Zoo, so we hooked up with Derek and Daxton for this year's visit. Lily had a lot of fun running around with Daxton, as always, and managed to slow down just long enough to briefly hit some of the activities, including getting her fortune told. We weren't privy to the result, but she got to try on a GORGEOUS ring from the fortune teller, so she left the tent perfectly happy.

We decided to make one last run down to Hogle Zoo before the the weather turned. And we lucked out. I think we managed to go on the last nice weekend. Somehow I didn't manage to snag many pictures, but here's one of Timothy when we arrived. Isn't that outfit adorable????

We met up with Derek and Daxton again as we let Lily and Daxton lead the way through the American West Heritage Center's Corn Maze. Even with the map, we managed to get hopelessly lost (what good is map that doesn't tell you where you entered or which way is north???). While I admit that's usually the goal with a corn maze, walking around in circles forever with a tired three-year-old isn't always that much fun. In the end, we may have found a tiny shortcut. But Lily had a great time, and Timothy slept through the entire thing in the stroller (bumps and all) so everything worked out.

And of course, what October isn't complete without some sort of pumpkin activity? Since Lillian's first Halloween, I've planned on taking her to the Pumpkin Walk. For whatever reason, it's never happened. But this year, we finally made it - although I think the highlight of the adventure for Lily was the bus ride from the car to the park. But I'm creating memories, dang it, whether she likes it or not! :) Erik and I, at least, enjoyed looking at the pumpkins. I'm always amazed at the talent some people have. The Polar Express display was amazing!! Timothy seemed to enjoy it too, even if the only thing he really noticed was the lights.

Going to the Pumpkin Walk reminded me that we still hadn't purchased pumpkins. In addition to my Pumpkin Walk dreams, I've always had this vision of getting Lily's picture in a HUGE pumpkin patch with great big orange pumpkins all around. So picturesque, right? This dream, unlike the Pumpkin Walk, will have to be postponed yet again. Last year we did manage to make it to an honest to goodness pumpkin patch, but most of the pumpkins had already been harvested and piled at the front for purchase (seriously...why would you do that?). On Saturday, I realized that we had a week until Halloween, so we settled for the good ol' pumpkin pallet at Wal*Mart. Lily fell in love with the pie pumpkins because they were just her size (a very desired quality in everything from cups to toilets to pumpkins apparently), but I knew carving it would be a joke. So at the same time, I picked up some poster paint and let the girl go to town.

I attempted a little more traditional display.

Outerwear

2010-10-21T12:40:00.000-06:00

Is it really possible to have too much outerwear? Some people (cough*Erik*cough) seem to think I have a perfectly adequate supply. I, on the other hand, feel that cute coats and sweaters are what make winter bearable for those of us not quite so enamored with the snow. I was able to restrain myself from buying this, however.

Yellow Coat

But I'll be completely honest. It was mainly because they didn't have my size in this GORGEOUS shade of yellow. And the fact that, no...I guess I don't need to spend $70 on a coat I don't actually need. But a girl can dream...

Word of the Day

2010-10-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

Our word of the day is brought to you by Lily, our resident lexicographer.

grawp*pi*ly adj
dirty, gross

My hands are all grawppily.

Expand your vocabulary and use it in a sentence today.

Daily Tim

2010-10-16T11:21:00.000-06:00

He's no Chuck, but he'll have to do...

No Filter

2010-10-07T18:28:00.000-06:00

What kinds of conversations happen when you have a three-year-old with absolutely no inner filter and an active imagination? This one. As background - and warning - she'd just finished going to the bathroom. This is my life.

Lily: Everybody poops.

Me: That's right.

Lily: We poop because we have butts. But princesses don't poop.

Me: They don't? How come?

Lily: Because princesses don't have butts. Sometimes I pretend I'm a princess.

Me: But you have a butt.

Princess Lily: I know. That's why I poop.

Up the Walls

2010-10-05T12:16:00.000-06:00

Me: Were you a good girl today?

Lily: Yep. But Timothy was SOOOOOO sad.

Me: Oh was he?

Lily: Yeah. And he was driving Daddy up ALL the walls.

Wherein Lily Completely Embarrasses Erik

2010-09-28T09:31:00.001-06:00

Erik isn't easily embarrassed. He says pretty much anything that pops into his head, and he can put his foot in his mouth without being too disturbed by it. But apparently, Lily has the ability to completely embarrass him.

This is Dora:

Lily and Erik were shopping yesterday when a Hispanic family, including a little girl about Lily's age, approached the check stand. Lily paid for her books (she's very independent these days!) and when she turned around, she said, in a less than indoor voice, "Look, Daddy! It's Dora!!!"

From what I gather, they made a fairly speedy exit.

And the Deception Begins

2010-09-22T15:10:00.000-06:00

Because Lily doesn't fully understand the concept of time, she will unintentionally lie to us occasionally. Usually when it involves treats. When one of us comes home and she asks for fruit snacks or a yogurt or chips, we ask if she's already had some today because we don't know what the other one has given her already. Usually she says no. I don't think she says no in the hopes of scoring another round of whatever it is; she just doesn't fully understand the concept of TODAY. And sometimes she tells us yes when she hasn't actually had any.

But today, she showed me that she's starting to understand that the the full truth may not always work in her favor. While eating lunch, she asked for a glass of milk. No problem. One glass of milk complete with pink straw coming up. Then I pulled a slice of cheese out for my sandwich. "I want a slice of cheese." Because her milk hadn't been touched and I'm tired of throwing out untouched food after she asks for it, I told her to finish her milk first. She agreed and went back to the table to finish her lunch, including her milk. I headed upstairs for a few minutes.

Before I returned downstairs, I could hear the unwrapping of a cheese single.

"Did you finish your milk?"

A very timid "Yes" floated up the stairs.

"All of it???"

A pause, followed by another timid "Yes."

"If I come down and check, will your milk be gone?"

No response. I started down the stairs. I soon heard the pattering of Lily feet as she hurried toward the kitchen while quietly saying, "Don't let her see the milk. Don't let her see the milk."

When I got to the kitchen, I looked around. No milk. But no glass either. And there she was: standing in front of the fridge like a guard.

"Where's your milk?"

"It's gone."

"Open the fridge, please."

"I put it in there to save for later."

Ahhhh....the truth comes out.

She finally agreed to let me see how much milk was left. We settled on a compromise of two more big swallows and then she could eat her cheese. But I guarantee I'll still throw the rest of that glass away. But the best part really was, "Don't let her see the milk. Don't let her see the milk."

Go Aggies!

2010-09-14T21:32:00.001-06:00

This last Saturday, we went to our first paid Aggie game. Ever. Voluntarily. I only attended a handful of football games while I was in college (two maybe). Isn't that terrible? My basketball attendance was much better. Erik, of course, attended every home game for 6 years. Every. Single. One. The joys of being in the band.

Lily seemed to have fun although I think she was rather disappointed to learn we'd be watching a football game rather than playing ourselves. But she was perfectly content to munch on Jared's popcorn and help feed baby Ayden, so I think it worked out. And since USU actually won (even though they didn't cover the spread...), it was a pretty fun time.

Blessing and Month Three

2010-09-14T21:20:00.002-06:00

Over Labor Day weekend, we stuck around home and blessed Timothy on Sunday. We knew picking a holiday would mean some people wouldn't be able to make it (and we totally missed those who couldn't come), but it's a good thing we didn't wait any longer. Timothy barely fit into his blessing outfit! After the blessing, we had lunch and a great visit with everyone who could come.

He's growing so fast, and I swear there are some days I get him out of his bed and he's definitely bigger than when I put him in it the night before.

He's a pretty good baby, really. Unless you ask Erik, who says he fusses and cries then entire time I'm at work. But we've got night time down to a science: one last snack around 8 p.m. A quick top off around 2 a.m. And then up for the day around 7 a.m. Some nights have a few more interruptions, but for the most part it's been fabulous. He smiles a lot now and will even laugh during a rousing rendition of Patty Cake. I feel bad saying this, but I think I'm liking this whole baby thing more the second time around. (Does that make me a terrible mother the first time around?) Don't get me wrong...there have been some days I've been ready to pull my hair out and wondered what I was thinking. But I seem to be having an easier time with the whole thing.

But at the same time, there are some things I just don't have the time or desire to do that I did for Lily. For example, except when he's eating, Timothy rarely has one-on-one time and Lily certainly had plenty of that as a baby. But an extra face during play time never hurt anybody, I suppose. I think Lily does feel a little left out sometimes, so when it's just the three of us, she tends to hang out by the glider while Timothy nurses. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I've been trying to be better about giving her some one-on-one time when I can so she doesn't think Timothy gets all the attention.

I've also been debating on whether or not I want to deal with the whole cloth diaper thing. Lily wore cloth diapers around the house until we started potty training and I didn't think anything about it. Now I barely get my own laundry done, so it's hard to think about adding another load in. I still haven't completely given up yet, though. One selling factor on the cloth diapers was that it was a one-time expense and we could use them for the next kid, too, so I'm finding it hard to fully let go. We'll see how it goes.

Lily still wants to help every chance she gets and loves to hold Timothy. Until he gets too heavy, that is. But she's such a great big sister. I don't know why I was ever worried about how she would adjust. On the days she goes to daycare, she's always sure to ask if Timothy will be coming, too. A couple times, I've left her in charge while I ran to the mail box, and she takes her job VERY seriously. This could be interesting when Timothy is a little more opinionated and independent. :)

I'll be honest: I was so nervous about adding another kid to our family, but I'm enjoying it more than I ever thought I could. Sappy, yes. But it's the truth.

Summer Highlights

2010-09-02T20:28:00.005-06:00

So where has the summer gone? It's already September, and I haven't blogged about half the stuff I planned on. I have all these posts semi-started (meaning, I put in titles to remind me to write the posts), but I just haven't had a chance to actually sit down and do the full posts. So here are picture highlights. Kind of like a clip show on a blog... :)

Riverdale Splash Park

My First 29th Birthday

Lily Feeds the Ducks...

...and Laddie is Attacked by a Goose

Camping...

...and Lily Falls in the Creek

Lily Tries Her First Fair Rides...

...and Decides to Hit Lagoon the Next Weekend

That about sums up our summer. I think we did a good job wearing everybody out...

In Memoriam

2010-08-25T09:36:00.001-06:00

Bree, you will be missed.

Month Two: Check

2010-08-19T21:00:00.001-06:00

I don't plan on doing a post for each month of Timothy's life, but it's going to work out that way for at least the first two. I guess when you start thinking of your life in months instead of years, that's what happens. And if I thought the first month went fast, it was nothing compared to the month we just completed.

So I'm back to work as of Monday. I enjoyed my 9 weeks off, but I'll be honest: in some ways, it was the hardest two months of my life. Although we love Timothy to pieces, he was a little colic-y, and it got worse before it got better (but thankfully it did get better). For a while, it seemed like he was either eating or crying. There wasn't really a lot of sleeping involved. And definitely no just sitting contentedly. Unless he was being held. He had to be held constantly and was sure to let you know when he wasn't in someone's arms. This was whether he was awake or sleeping. And as soon as he got put down, he was very vocal about his opinion on the matter.

After many attempted solutions, I discovered that the only way he would sleep for any length of time was in the Boppy (a nursing pillow for those not in the know). I was guilt-ridden about this because this pillow comes with a huge tag with great big, red letters that say WARNING!!!!!!! (Ok...so the exclamation points are my own emphasis, but they might as well be there.) This is to get your attention so you read the stern lecture about never, ever letting your baby fall asleep in the Boppy. And I can see their concern when he managed to get himself into this position one afternoon:

Now let me be very clear: I was watching him the entire time while he was folded up like that. But he slept in the Boppy at night, too. I was always super careful to position him so he didn't end up like that and I never walked into his room with reason to worry. Until a couple nights ago when he wiggled off enough to head plant into the crib bumper (another big no-no, really...how do kids survive at all?) He wasn't close enough to the bumper to be in any real danger of injury, but I decided we'd no longer be using the Boppy for sleeping.

After a few more attempts at sleeping in his crib, I finally settled on putting him to sleep in his bouncy chair. He rocked that for a few nights, but last night, I was actually able to put him in his crib, on his back, without the Boppy and he SLEPT. For several HOURS. I was amazed. Of course, now that I've broadcast this to the world, it will never happen again. Ever.

Nighttime issues aside, when he's awake and has a full belly, he's pretty darn cute. He seems to concentrate extremely hard on taking in everything. He has this stare that makes you wonder just what he's making of the world around him. And of course we now get this periodically:

That right there makes those sleepless nights fade from my memory. Well, at the very least, it makes me willing to keep dealing with them.

With my return to work, Lily got to go back to daycare. She missed her friends and the lady who watches them, so she was happy to go. I think she's adjusted well to the new addition. She's still very helpful, but she's getting better and backing off when we ask her to. Sometimes it can be a little too much help. She still loves to hold Timothy and gives him lots of kisses and hugs. I do think, though, that there is still some lingering disappointment that Timothy wasn't a girl. Last week she told me that her sister isn't here yet. We would need to take Timothy back to the doctor where we got him and then her sister could come out of her belly. (While I was pregnant, I had a boy in my belly and she had a girl.). Hopefully she won't be too upset when Timothy never goes back and the sister never materializes. :)

Here's a few more pictures from the month.

In Love Already

2010-08-13T16:10:00.000-06:00

I've wanted a Mini Cooper for...well...forever. But slightly impractical at this point in life. Today I just found out this will be released next year:

It's so wrong to feel this way about a car...

Life with Laddie

2010-08-10T14:21:00.000-06:00

I recently decided to become one of those people who make their bed every day. (Hey...I'm willing to admit the few areas where I'm not perfect.) With Erik now back on days, I figured it should be super easy. We'd be getting up around the same time, so I could just do it before we all left the house. Of course, Erik's been on this schedule for several months now, and I never really followed through. But I've renewed my goal and I've reached it all week (yes...all three days of it.)

Since this post has Laddie in the title, I guess I better get to the point. So here it is. Anyone who's met my dog probably thinks he runs around like a complete maniac all the time. And most of the time, that's true. Definitely. But once he calms down, he is the biggest lump of a dog you've ever met. Especially at night. Just try to move him in the middle of the night because he's now taking up more bed space than you and it's 20 pounds of dead weight complete with an annoyed sigh.

So this morning, I started making the bed. Laddie happened to be curled up in the comforter, snoring away. Rather than disturb him like I usually do (that's the kind of person I am...friend to the animals), I left him where he was and worked around him. Because I had to pull some of the comforter out from under him, he woke up enough to watch me as I did my thing. He didn't move of course. Just opened his eyes and watched.

I had just placed the last pillow and was moving on to my next project when he stood up. And where did he go?

Right on top of the pillows. It's like he knew what I was doing and was waiting until his throne was complete. Sometimes I think he does stuff like that just to bug me...

3 Going on 16

2010-08-08T15:56:00.021-06:00

Lately, Lillian has been obsessed about driving on her own. Now, when we get in the car, she reminds us that when she's 16, she will get to drive. I didn't think we would have to worry about this for at least a couple more years, but little miss independent is already counting down the days until she can drive away without us.

On a recent trip down to see Erik's parents, we had the driving conversation once again. But for whatever reason this time around, she wasn't content knowing that she will be able to drive when she's 16. She wanted to drive right then and there. So Erik asked if she'd like a Lily-sized car to drive right now. She thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that, yes, that would be an acceptable alternative.

And it just so happened that Erik's parents has his niece's pink Princess VW Bug powerwheel hanging out in their shed:

The kid took to it like she'd been born to drive, even with the one minor accident. Luckily the battery wasn't fully charged or we'd have been there all night trying to pry her away from it to head home. I'm not sure I'm ready for this...

The Green Ones

2010-08-05T21:30:00.000-06:00

For Mother's Day, I got a patio garden. The top was for growing...stuff. And you put tomato plants in upside down out of the bottom. I was so happy the day I found a little green tomato had appeared on my plant. (We won't discuss what happened to the other stuff that was planted on the top. You forget to water for a measly week 'cause you're caught up in having a new kid and what happens????) Then, a couple more popped up. I was going to successfully grow tomatoes!! I was thrilled. That first little green one turned red, even if it was a little small. But then I noticed that about half of it was missing. It didn't really look like it have been eaten. More like it had never fully formed. I was totally bummed. But I still had three other green tomatoes in the running.

I watered faithfully so I wouldn't lose my last hope of proving I could garden in some capacity. Then one day, during my usual inspection, I couldn't find any tomatoes. Had someone taken them? Could the wind and rain the night before been enough to knock them off? I was completely flummoxed. Until Lily joined me on the patio and shared this bit of information:

"I took the green ones off for you, Mommy."

Said like this was perfectly normal and the best idea she could have ever had. Bitterly disappointed that my hope of fresh tomatoes was now laying in the grass, I explained that we usually wait until tomatoes are red before picking. Filing that bit of information away in her "good to know" section, she went on with her day.

And I picked up my prematurely picked tomatoes and sadly went back inside hoping that the few flowers still on the plant might be promising. Nothing yet...

Pickin' Peas

2010-07-20T21:32:00.010-06:00

One reason I've decided Erik is worth keeping around is his desire to get us out and about (because let's be honest: most of the time, I'm perfectly content to sit at home with a good book). Today's adventure involved heading up to Cove and picking some peas.

Seriously. This is what we did this afternoon. Erik found about about a farm in Cove that lets you pick your own peas and then pay what they're worth to you. For some reason, this mention of peas made him suddenly think about the creamed new potatoes and peas dish his grandma used to make (which has never been brought up in our 8 years of marriage). Being the impulsive guy he is, he decided we would be making this dish tonight and we needed fresh peas.

Admittedly, the pea patch (or whatever you would call it) was fairly picked over and trampled. We weren't the only ones who had heard the news about the peas, obviously. But Lily had a great time looking for pea pods and putting them in our bucket. After harvesting a few, it turned more into Lily holding the bucket while Erik and I searched for the peas, and she was always very polite as we dropped them in, saying Thank You every time a new pod was added.

On the way home, she asked if she could open one. Figuring we'd be vacuuming up peas once we got home, I gave it to her. She opened the pod like Erik had shown her, and to my surprise, she stuffed them in her mouth. Not one at a time of course. No. She shoved the entire pod's worth of peas in and started chewing. Since she's recently developed a reluctance to eating vegetables with dinner, I was amazed at her eagerness. Once she realized she had a quite full mouth full of peas, however, it was a different story, and she wanted to spit them out. I didn't have anywhere for her to spit them, though, so I told her she'd have to chew them up and swallow. Which she did. But she didn't want to eat any more once we got home. I figure at least she got vegetables in her today so I win.

So for our dinner tonight, we were able to enjoy creamed new potatoes and peas made with peas that less than an hour before had still been attached to the ground. Pretty fun, really. And I promise you, we'll be heading back up to Cove before the summer is over...

Mission Complete: One Month

2010-07-14T12:02:00.001-06:00

Where has the time gone? Timothy is officially one month old and I'm having a hard time comprehending that. I feel like we've been super busy but super lazy at the same time. How is that possible?

We haven't done anything of much excitement in the last month - I will admit that. Lily and I try to take a walk most mornings. (Timothy tags along in the stroller, and sometimes I'm game to dealing with Laddie, too.) I think it's something she's started to look forward to because as soon as we're done with breakfast, she asks if we can go on our walk. During these walks, Lily has taken on the task of single-handedly ridding the neighborhood of dandelions. Having semi-planned activity every morning has been good for me since it encourages me to get ready for the day.

And some mornings, that's harder than others since Timothy isn't much of a night sleeper. The first couple weeks weren't bad since that's about all he did around the clock. But over the last week or so, he's decided he wants to be held all the time and will wake up as soon as he's put down. I guess he takes after Lily that way. I can't remember how we dealt with it for Lily other than I think I spent a couple nights sleeping in the glider. Trying to avoid that fate this time, we're plugging away, but it makes for some groggy mornings when I've had maybe an hour of uninterrupted sleep. Erik, of course, is oblivious since he has no problem sleeping through the whole thing (even though Timothy ~~is still sleeping~~ has his bed in our room at the moment).

Our days are about the same, really, so I feel like I don't get much accomplished. I'm either feeding Timothy or trying to get him to sleep and/or stop fussing. And during the times he's actually asleep or sitting contentedly, I try to spend some time with Lily doing something she wants to do. I feel like I'm having to tell her "in just a minute" way more often than I'd like. I don't know if she's noticed or if she even cares, but I still feel bad. Needless to say, my day is completely full but my house is still a disaster (it's probably not as bad as I think it is, but in my sleep-deprived state, the clutter just mocks me) and before I know it, the day is over and I'm back to trying to catch a few minutes of sleep before Timothy realizes I've put him down and begins to let me know his displeasure.

Sleep issues aside, we're enjoying our new addition. Lily is a very big helper and wants to be right in the middle of all the action. She makes sure I remember to change his diaper and helps him find his pacifier when it falls out of his mouth. If she's busy with other things when that happens, she's quick to remind me I need to do it. A couple weeks ago, she asked if we could keep him, so I'm assuming that's a good sign. Much better than asking if we HAVE to keep him, right? When he starts to cry, she sings him Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which will amazingly make him stop most of the time.

We haven't just hung out at home, though. We've gone on a couple adventures, too. We hit the Summerfest twice, once just for the food and once to check out the wares. For the Fourth, we met up with the gang and watched fireworks. Lily is almost done with her second session of swimming lessons for the summer, which she is really enjoying. Especially now that she's ok once again with putting her head under the water. And we've had some nice visits with family. We'll also be going camping in August just before I head back to work (it's coming too soon!!!). It's been so nice to have my maternity leave during the summer. Even if we aren't participating in a lot of uber-interesting activities, I feel more free to go out and about since we don't have to worry about bundling a baby up like we did with Lily.

Life has changed completely but stayed the same all at the same time. It's been an exhausting month...I won't deny it. But it's all been worth it.

Great White Hunter

2010-06-25T13:14:00.006-06:00

For about two weeks now, Laddie has been obsessed with our air conditioner. Every time he went outside, this is where he headed:

Pretty soon, he had a big enough hole that he could get under most of the way:

And yesterday, the target was apprehended:

That mouse was pretty soggy and gross. And we were sure Erik was going to lose a hand in the process of getting him out of Laddie's mouth (hence the milk bone that held no appeal whatsoever).

The Whole Story

2010-06-15T15:00:00.007-06:00

Both kids are currently asleep, so I decided to use some of the welcome quiet time to provide the whole story of little Timothy's arrival and what we've been up to over the last couple days. (Although I could really use a nap, but sleep is for the weak, right?)

So...I suppose I should start at the beginning. At my regular appointment last Thursday, the doctor let us know that he didn't think I would make it to my already-scheduled induction date of June 28. Everything was already moving towards labor preparations, and I was further along than they usually see at 37 weeks. So he told us not to make any big plans, and he'd see us next week for another appointment if I made it that long.

Here I was, thinking I was so in control. My induction was scheduled. My mom had made arrangements to come stay with Lillian. I was wrapping up things at work so I didn't leave everyone with a huge jumble of half-completed projects. I had a couple weeks to do the few more things around the house that I wanted to. I was ORGANIZED, dang it. And honestly, completely scared of going into labor naturally. Yes...I know. I'd already done the whole labor and delivery thing with Lily, but since I was induced with her, I had no real idea what I should be watching for. Everything says, "You'll just know when it's time," yadda, yadda, yadda. But what if I didn't????

But apparently Timothy didn't care for my plans. Instead, I woke up Saturday morning about 2:30a to use the bathroom. I'd been back in bed for maybe 20 minutes when my water broke! At least if my original plan wasn't going to work out, I was able to substitute it with the middle-of-the-night dash to the hospital. But I'll tell you, if my water hadn't broken, I don't know that I would have known "it was time." Luckily, I had decided I better pack a bag after the doctor's appointment. (Which Erik thought was overkill. Humph...shows what he knows.)

Erik was filling in on overnights for another manager (who happened to be out for paternity leave...), so I called him and we were at the hospital by 3:30a, Lily in tow and hoping one or both of our moms made it in time to watch her during the crucial moments. On Thursday, I was at 3cm. When they checked me at the hospital, I was a 6+. An hour later, I was at a 7. With Lily, I went from a 7 to a 10 to holding a baby in just half an hour. This time was no different. No need to waste time going from a 7 to a 10 for me. Just skip those extra steps and move it right a long, thank you very much.

When we called the nurse back in right after she walked out the door, I think her exact words were, "I just checked her." After waiting for what seemed like FOREVER for the doctor to arrive so I could actually start pushing, Timothy arrived a little over 2 hours after labor started. (Completely drug-free, I might add. What's the point of doing a completely natural childbirth if you can't brag about it afterward, right?!?!?)

Since then, things have been pretty good. Lily is definitely seeing that there will be some adjustments now that baby brother has come home. But I think she's handling it well so far. She is very interested in helping (and I mean VERY INTERESTED), so we're working on helping her learn when she can help and when she needs to let Mommy or Daddy handle it. She's always very concerned if he's crying and tries her hardest to comfort him. The other night during dinner, we could hear him fussing on the baby monitor, so she ran up stairs and we heard her sing Rock-a-bye Baby to him. It was the sweetest thing I think I've ever heard. I know she's going to be a great big sister.

So far, Timothy has been a pretty good baby. We're having a few feeding issues...mostly that he doesn't want to stay awake while he does it. Our first night home was the worst since he never would eat enough to be happy and sleep, and I ended up only getting about 2 hours of sleep. But last night was loads better, and he seems to be getting better about finishing a meal before falling back asleep. And he's definitely very cute. He makes the cutest faces when he's hungry. And it's probably not very nice of me, especially as his mother, to make this comparison, but these faces remind me of the alien at the end of Men in Black:

Lily has decided we should keep him, even though she really, really wanted a sister. So I think he's here to stay. I know he's going to grow super fast, and I think I'm ready for the ride...

He's Here!!!

2010-06-13T19:05:00.003-06:00

Baby Timothy has arrived!

June 12, 2010
5:12 a.m.
6lbs 8oz
19 inches

Limber

2010-06-06T21:27:00.003-06:00

"Mommy! Look!!! I can touch my nose with my toe!!!"

"Now you try, Mommy!"

Ummmmm......yeah. Let's just say my toe didn't quite reach my nose...

The Zoo

2010-06-04T14:22:00.007-06:00

On Wednesday, I had to go to Salt Lake to help with a meeting for work. Since we'd been talking about taking Lily to the zoo for a couple weeks, we decided this would be a good time to do it, so Erik and Lily met me in Salt Lake once I was done and we headed up the hill.

It turned out to be the perfect day. It rained the day before and the day after, but we had nice weather and it wasn't too hot. There was so much to keep Lily's attention that it didn't take much convincing to move her along to the next animal. The biggest problem we had was when she wanted to drink from the lion-head water fountain for 20 minutes straight and kept asking to go back to it. But we could usually interest her in something else and she'd forget for about 10 minutes or so.

We got to see the cute new baby elephant, Zuri, and Lily made sure to say goodbye to all the animals as we moved on to the next. She even offered the crocodile a lick of her sucker. We also got a very close look at an orangutan when it sat down right in front of the window and started pulling faces for everyone.

She's developed some weird phobia about bugs, though. She asked to take the Siberian Lynx home with us, but there was a bug on the glass of one of the tiger habitats and she had a melt down. And it was on the other side! Wild cats with big sharp teeth? No problem. A box elder bug? Mortal enemy.

The last thing we did was stop at Discovery Land, complete with playground. The girl loves a good playground; what can I say? Unfortunately, our day ended when she shot off the end of a slide like a bullet and landed square on her butt pretty hard. But always the friendliest girl in the room, she was sure to say, "Bye everyone" through the tears as we wheeled her away in the wagon to go home.

New Tag

2010-06-04T14:16:00.003-06:00

Since we brought Laddie home almost 4 years ago, I've been keeping my eye out for a cute dog tag. We've had a couple, but none I've been in love with and his last one was screen printed, so the information was starting to come off. But then I came across this one and knew I'd found the one.
It's probably silly to get so excited over something so mundane, but I have to say that I love it!

Theme Song

2010-05-22T14:16:00.004-06:00

Last night while driving home from dinner, Lily started singing. We soon realized she was singing her own theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Lily!!

Then, she gave Erik a theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Daddy!!

Finally, she did my theme song, only it was quite a bit longer than the others:

Do, do, do, do, do, Mommy!! And Laddie poops...and she gets a little baggie!!!!

Apparently our walk with Laddie earlier in the day made quite the impression. I'll bet you can guess what happened while we were out...

On the way home...

2010-05-11T17:09:00.003-06:00

On the way home from picking up Lily, this was part of our conversation:

Lily: Guess what, Mommy! We had toast for a snack today!

Me: Toast?!?!? How yummy! Did you put anything on your toast?

Lily: Yeah! Butter! And brown stuff!!!!

Me: Was it cinnamon?

Lily: Yeah!!! I LOVE SIMANIN!!!!

Odd dreams

2010-05-11T12:43:00.004-06:00

For whatever reason, pregnancy causes my subconscious to go off the deep end and have amazingly weird dreams. Each of the about six times I got up last night to use the bathroom (ok...maybe not really six, but it had to have been close), I would think, "what a weird dream..." Of course, now that I've piqued your curiously, I can't remember a single one to illustrate my point.

However, I do have a little insight into what Lily may be dreaming about, which I'm guessing is just about as strange. This morning, I went in to wake her up. Strangely enough, she's stopped getting up and the crack of dawn and has actually been completely and totally sound asleep when I've gone in the last couple mornings. Too bad I can't sleep in to take advantage of this change, and you know that on Saturday, that day that I could sleep in if I felt like it, she'll be out of bed as soon as the sun starts peeking in through her blinds.

Anyway, this morning I sat on her bed and scratched her back for a few seconds trying to gently wake her. After a little while, she finally mumbles something completely incoherent. It took three tries before I could figure out what she was trying to tell me, which was:

I don't like bugs.

I repeated that back to her, just to make sure I heard it right, and she said:

Yeah. I don't like bugs. Or spiders. They will sting us.

So now, not only am I left with the little snippets of fragments of what I was dreaming about (and wondering what I ate last night that would cause such odd visualizations), I'm also left wondering why Lily is spending her nights dreaming about bugs and spiders rather than the nice things all little girls should dream about, like dolls and princesses and ponies. Or at least the very least, things not bug related.

A request

2010-05-06T13:20:00.001-06:00

Dear May,

I'm not sure what I did to offend you, but I am truly sorry. Can you please let the sun come out and take the snow away now?

Thank you.

The End.

In the Home Stretch

2010-04-22T20:52:00.009-06:00

So here I am...a few days shy of 30 weeks pregnant and with a little over two months to go before we add another little person to the house. It's hard to believe we're approaching the end already. At the beginning, nine months seems like such a long time, but it passes so quickly.

I'm feeling great right now. The second trimester was a breeze compared to the constant icky stomach and fatigue of the first. In the last few weeks, I feel like I really popped, and I'm definitely feeling pregnant. I get tired a lot faster (especially at the end of the day), and I've had to slow down at the gym a bit, but nothing too bad. Really, the worst thing right now is heartburn. I'm lucky that I never experienced heartburn until I was pregnant with Lily. And once she was born, it thankfully went away. But in the last week or so, it's come back. But I guess if that's my biggest complaint, I'm doing pretty well.

As we come closer and closer to the 35-week mark when pre-eclampsia presented last time, I find myself constantly looking for little indicators and trying to remember when things started last time. My blood pressure seems to be ok if a little odd (133/60 at my last appointment, which seems like the oddest number in the history of blood pressure), but that was really the last indicator last time anyway. I am optimistic, however, that I'm still currently wearing my wedding ring and I haven't had to buy new shoes. I don't remember exactly when I needed to buy a temporary ring or the shoes that I can no longer wear because they fall off my feet (an extra size and width were needed), but I don't have any swelling yet. I'm sure as the days warm up, particularly near the end, this might change, but for me, no swelling is a great sign. At my last appointment, the exact words from my doctor were "ridiculously normal." Even though my last pregnancy was the same until that fateful 35-week appointment, I'm taking that as a good sign and trying not to think about possible problems.

Since we moved Lily into her new room, I've been working on sorting her old clothes for any gender neutral items that could be reused and getting the nursery redone. I also finally did some baby shopping for a few more outfits, and of course, I made kimonos.

The second attempt was actually a disaster. Don't ask me how the second time doing something can have a result worse than the first try, but I managed it. But the third and fourth attempts turned out great. (I actually have enough of each fabric to make one more of each if anyone is interested.)

The nursery is all but finished. The main wall is painted and so are the drawers and knobs for the dressers. When I painted for Lily, I did stripes in three colors. Since we used the good paint that covers awesomely, I decided we didn't need a primer. I almost second-guessed myself after I did the first coat since it was definitely still striped. You couldn't see the colors underneath, but it looked like sateen bedding. As it dried completely, the stripes went away, so I think it was just how it was drying on the different types of paint. If the sateen stripes had stayed, it would have been a semi-cool effect, but I was glad they disappeared in the end. I still have a couple crafty things to do for the other walls, but final decisions haven't been made yet, so they'll have to wait a little while. But I wanted to let ya'll see how the painting turned out now or McBean may be 6 months old before I get around to posting it. (Hey, I can admit my shortcomings...) I'm super happy with how it turned out, despite the little trauma we had cutting the board in the middle to the right lengths. Let's just say we had to buy a second board and leave it at that.

Safety Advice

2010-04-21T08:05:00.004-06:00

With the sun coming up earlier and earlier, Lily has also taken to waking up earlier and earlier. On days she goes to daycare, this isn't such a big deal. However, Erik hasn't been too trilled with the development on the days he's home to watch her. Usually, she runs into our room just as I pull out of the garage, but today was a little different.

This morning, I was fixing my breakfast and getting ready to leave about 6:45 when both Lily and Erik wandered down the stairs. Lily informed us she was very ready to be up and wanted her breakfast. Erik looked less than enthused.

As I was getting ready to walk out the door, Lily was prompted to give me the following advice:

Lily: Are you going to take the truck or the car?

Me: I'll be taking my car today.

Lily: But it's really mine.

Me: Oh it is, is it?

Lily: Yeah. So be really careful!

Me: Oh, I will.

Lily: Don't bump into any other cars, ok?

I'm still not sure if she was concerned about my welfare or her car's, but either way, I guess it was good advice.

Oh. My. Gosh.

2010-04-14T17:00:00.000-06:00

I think I just fell in love...

Your Daily Suess

2010-04-12T07:55:00.004-06:00

Another awesome Pearls Before Swine...

Continuing the Tradition

2010-04-03T08:16:00.005-06:00

With a mom who liked to bake, I was usually involved in the process when I was little. And being the curious little person I was, I wanted to try everything. This included butter, pickle juice, vanilla, and on and on. Apparently, vanilla elicited quite the amusing face, and I don't think I ever wanted to try it again. Butter, on the other hand, was good enough that for years after, I would sneak a finger full when I could. Disgusting, I know.

Now, years later, I love to bake myself, and for some reason, I've been doing it even more than usual with the pregnancy. With Lillian, I craved spicy foods. This time around, it seems to be sweets. I've tried to keep my sweet intake in check since those pounds won't come off by themselves once the baby's born. But rather than deprive myself completely, I've allowed myself to bake something yummy once a week. This week's concoction was Banana-Chocolate Chip bars because I had an entire bunch of bananas that was quickly turning brown and squishy and I had just made banana bread last month. (Maybe we should stop buying bananas?!?)

Lily has figured out that once the mixer comes out, I'm doing something fun, so it's not long before she's pulled a chair over to the counter to help. She likes to help pour everything in and stir when she can. Yesterday, she also helped mash the bananas, which seemed to be a lot of fun. I've been waiting for the day that she asks to try the vanilla, just so I could keep the tradition alive, but I haven't had the chance. Until yesterday. Suddenly, she was very interested in what I was actually putting in the bowl. First, she asked what the brown sugar was. When I told her, she informed me, "I don't think I like brown sugar." I asked if she wanted to try it since I was pretty sure she'd find it pretty tasty given the chance, but that was a no go. She was SURE she didn't like brown sugar. Then came the vanilla:

Lily: What's that?
Me: Vanilla.
Lily: I think I like vanilla.
Me: You do? Do you want to try it?
Lily: Yeah!

After she licked the measuring spoon, I watched her face. No real reaction, so...

Me: What do you think?
Lily: I think I like vanilla. (very hesitantly)
Me: Really?
Lily: No. I think I need a drink.

So no funny face, but I think she said it all. Definitely a great addition to the family legacy of moms allowing their daughters to get the full experience of baking.

So Not Funny

2010-04-01T06:13:00.004-06:00

If this is Mother Nature's idea of an April Fool's joke, I don't appreciate her sense of humor...

Sewing Adventure

2010-03-28T12:42:00.007-06:00

This weekend, while Erik was enjoying some guy time in Jackson Hole at the Snowmobile Hill Climbs, Lily and I headed down to Springville to spend some time with Nana and Grandpa Len and sew some baby kimonos. Lily spent most of the day with Grandpa watching Dora. I think he realized his mistake in introducing the Dora videos around the second hour, but he'll know better next time. But it must have worn her out. She fell asleep on the way home and was pretty groggy when I put her in her bed. This was the conversation we had as I tucked her in:

Lily: I want to read two stories.

Me: I'll go get your blankie and I'll be right back to read them.

Lily: Ok. But I'll fall asleep any minute, Mommy. So you better hurry.

She was asleep before I came back with the blanket. But don't think I got out of reading that story. I was woken up at 4 a.m. to read a story, put her jammies on, and get her two drinks of water.

While Lily was home with Grandpa, my mom and I headed to Joann's to pick out fabric and made a stop at Babies R Us to see about some monkey accessories for the nursery. Then it was back home to start the sewing. The pattern was from the Martha Stewart website, and looking at the picture, it couldn't be too difficult, right?

Oh, boy...was I wrong. The directions were pretty confusing and the visuals weren't much help. We had trouble with the very first step while trying to get our loop turner to turn the bias tape ties right side out. Then there were references to dots on the pattern that were nonexistent and some measurements were wrong. But about 8 hours after we arrived, I finally left with ONE completed kimono. I'd bought enough supplies for four. And of course, like most do-it-yourself projects, the cost of supplies for the project was probably far greater than if I had just bought four kimonos while we were at Babies R Us.

But looking at my cute little baby kimono shirt, there's a definite sense of accomplishment. It will probably be a little while before I decide to tackle the other three, but now that I know what I'm doing, it shouldn't be too bad. I hope.

Snippets

2010-03-25T16:03:00.004-06:00

Just a few snippets of conversations I've had with Lily in the last few days.

"We lost a boy. His name is Daddy."

"Daddy went to work. I will be so lonely."

"That's how it works, Mommy."

"I will be a good girl this time. Or I don't get my Dora flip-flops." (We're not above bribery. :-D)

"You have a brother in your tummy. I have a sister in mine."

My Life is a Dora Episode

2010-03-19T14:20:00.002-06:00

Taking full advantage of some downtime at work Wednesday, I took the day off and Erik and I took Lillian to the Discovery Gateway children's museum in Salt Lake. Apart from at least four separate freak-outs (which admittedly were partly our fault since she was running on no nap and ice cream), we had a nice day. Lily was completely enthralled with all aspects of the museum and jumped head first into the activities. Her OCD proved very helpful while playing in the grocery store, where she showed her aptitude for restocking shelves. And the girl LOVES puzzles. I may have to go buy some more because we sat and did the same puzzle for at least half an hour. Much better use of time than the tv.

Which brings me to the next segment of our story.

About five minutes after the train pulled out of Salt Lake, Lily was zonked on Erik's lap and slept the entire 45 minutes to Roy. Since it was only about 6:00, we didn't want to transfer her to the car sleeping and just head home because we knew she'd just stay asleep and we'd be awakened around 2 in the morning by a playful toddler. Not fun. Instead, we decided to stop at Erik's parents and spend a little time so that when she fell asleep on the way home, we'd be in for a normal night's sleep.

The problem was, she NEVER FELL ASLEEP!! It's rare for Lily to stay awake for the entire hour it takes to drive from Roy to Logan, especially in the late evening. (She takes after me that way. ;-)) But she gabbed the entire way home about paths and spiders and mountains and polar bears and Swiper that Sneaky Fox and "I need your help guys..." Basically, she took us through an entire Dora the Explorer episode. And this wasn't the first time. She's always asking me which path we need to take or telling us to scare the spiders/snakes/etc. away. And believe me: we had some stubborn snakes that night. Not to mention that Swiper makes at least one appearance per car ride trying to steal treats or purses or babies or even the car.

Listening to this, you would think the kid does nothing but watch tv. But trust me: We're not the completely awful parents you think we are. The kid can watch an episode once and recite almost every line. It doesn't hurt that they're all pretty much the same story with just a few names changed, I'm sure. But I'm absolutely amazed at what she picks up and remembers.

Near the end of the ride, she was getting pretty loopy from sleep deprivation and was absolutely cracking herself up by singing the wrong words to Row, Row, Row Your Boat. The giggles resounding from the backseat we just hilarious and definitely contagious. Each time she'd start singing, she'd start laughing sooner. Pretty soon, all she could get out was the first line before the laughter started. It was the funnest thing to listen to! No one can deny the kid's got a personality all her own.