I got it from my mamma

I told you she had long legs.

Girl

This is blurry but I love it!
I love how pretty she looks.

Pity

My daughter is long and lanky; I wonder where she got that from? She is already out growing clothes in length. Her long sleeve shirts don't reach her wrists. And all in one foot outfits are starting to get stretched in the neck, from her long legs. (This photo was taken weeks ago, before she was too long.) She has long feet too, so in the all in ones that are long enough for her, are too wide, which means she pulls her legs up than gets her long feet stuck in the knee area. So I mostly dress her in onesies, with long sleeve shirts and pants. I think her torso is normal, its just her legs are long. My son was in footed outfits forever, but they just don't work too well on my daughter. She gets angry when her toes get caught where her knee should be. I feel for her, I know how it is to have clothes too short and too wide.
By the way, yes, baby socks are stupid, but yet I love them, because they are so dang small!
By the way, yes, baby collars are stupid and are always in the poor kid's face.

Busy

I feel like I haven't blogged much, yesterdays post was an old post I forgot to post. I haven't had time, my children are being demanding, I'm tired, and my son keeps wanting to watch Kim Possible. Who am I to say no? I watched it when it first came out on the Disney Channel with my brother while we were in High School.
In an effort to not wear me out, husband has told me don't be concerned with the amount of TV you and the boy watch for the next few months. Once you adjust to two or so months, you can scale back. Its a relief to know I'm not poisoning his mind. Although, two days ago instead of watching KP we read books for about two hours instead. That's got to nullify some of the tv viewing right? I have lots of great posts planned in my head. But its just too difficult to type one handed while I feed the baby.
One entitled, my dream
I was going to write an ode to my husband because I'm feeling very grateful for him lately, but when I started to write it sounded cheesy, so I stopped knowing words of affirmation is not really his love language. But he is great with our kids, and is very nice to me, so incidentally I'm very much in love with him. Which is good, because he is my husband. I love how when my husband and I are hugging, I hear my son start to laugh, and run up to us, and hug our legs. He gets one of my legs in one arm and one of Brent's legs in the other arm, and hugs tight, as he continues to laugh watching us. Then Brent takes it as a challenge to get me to ignore our cute son. Not to mention, I also am very grateful he takes pride in his ability to provide for his wife and kids. He is not open with his pride, you would never hear him tell anyone this, but yet, I know its very important to him. So I'm glad, he has taught me how great it is to get to stay at home with our kids.
I have pictures to upload, that I don't feel like, so...
You have to use your imagination.... ahh until later....

Chores start early

If I've told you once, I've told you twice, chores start early in our house.

The other day, I yelled (I didn't know where he was playing) to my son naptime soon. I hear a "yate" I found him in the bathroom, cleaning the tub.

Chores only start early when my son initates them himself. He has his own cleaning supplies, in a hall drawer. A spray bottle of water, a few pairs of rubber gloves, some rags and a sponge. I got sick of him wasting my disposible rubber gloves, plus we obviously didn't want him getting into the real cleaners, so we gave him his own drawer.

Am I the only one?

Am I the only mom that finds herself hiding in her own house? After my son pooped in his naptime diaper, but didn't take a nap. I found myself in my cellar pantry, hiding, eating green apple licorice hoping my daughter was not crying. Since I can't hear anything downstairs I stayed for an extra two pieces, just to avoid the probable crying, and anything the almost three year old would be doing.
Luckily she wasn't, and I was able to mop half of the kitchen before she started, and finish the other half while she cried in her crib. Today was successful, I also cleaned the bathroom sink and the toilet. Amazing I know!

Fire on Friday

On Friday afternoon (four days ago) I sat on the couch lamenting about how my daughter would not take a nap for longer than 20 minutes. Dang spit up. There was a lot of racket outside and it keep sounding like my cell phone was going off faintly in the distance. I ignored the noise because there is always a lot of noise outside, and the cell noise, because it was way too quiet to be real. Once I got my uncomfortable baby alseep for the umpteenth time on Friday, I got up and peeked out the windows on my front door. I saw this:

Yes a fire!

A fire in the street and large trucks, what they were doing I don't know.

That would be my neighbor with them. Whoever them maybe. He often makes me nervous, he is always wearing athletic clothes, and is a name-sayer. Everytime he see us, he makes sure he says our names. Plus I surely hope he does not work out as often as his outfits suggest, because that is too much. (Actually he is very nice, and friendly, but I never quite know how to act around very friendly outgoing people.)
Since I was up, I went to check to make sure my phone really had not rung. Yup I was right, no one had call. But the question came to mind, why did my mind keep playing my ringtones in my head?
Was I subcounciously wishing someone would call me at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon?

• Would tell me they are coming over to watch the kids while I go shopping, we need food. And you know Kid 2 Kid is so close, I wish I went more often, but I hate taking my boy in there, its too hard to get him out.
• Would they tell me they want to give me $300 for new carseats for my children? I dream about new carseats. My poor first borns won't be as safe as my later children. I won't find the money in the budgets until my carseats expire. My poor son in his cheap brand carseat.
• Would they tell me they want to take me to Old Navy for some new clothes their treat? Since they knew how much I would like some new tees, especially a purple one, since purple is not aways in style but it is now. (Apparently the color to be people deciders usually make purple fashionable during economic downturns. It sells better and makes us feel better since its the color of royality, when we aren't feeling so rich. Boosts our mood.)
• Or would it just be an old friend I haven't seen in ages, calling to tell me they were in the area, and would love to stop by for the afternoon? Hmm, who could it be, I have so many I've told to stop by if they are ever in the area.

Oh, but sadly it was none of the above, my baby did not stay asleep for more than 20 minutes, and my son woke up early from his nap. Sad times! No one called my phone.
Since the boy got up early, I decided to go to Kid to Kid anyway. I definitely needed out of the house, as my imaginary conversations would suggest. We shouldn't have bought anything. But we did, we had fun, and spent over an hour there.. way too long, my son didn't want to leave. After months of searching we finally found my son a plastic piggy bank. He LOVES it, carries it with him where ever he goes. Also an infant bouncer/toddler rocker, both can use it, it takes about 5 seconds to change it. I decided I need somewhere for my daughter to sit downstairs so I can sew without fear of her being jumped on by her brother. And lots of ideas for headbands for the girl. Life was much better upon return.
But it begs the question, why was there a fire in the street?

I love church

Bizarre I know. Most people get up and go to church because they know its the right thing to do when they believe in their religion. But I really do love church.
My initiation of a mother of two children continued yesterday. My husband helped passed the sacrament, so he wasn't sitting with us in the beginning. I was holding the babe, and noticed the boy dancing. I said do you need to go potty? (We have stopped pull ups at church. He has been able to use the potty for 7 months now, why not at church too?) He answered yes. So I quickly grabbed his hand and left the bench. As I'm standing up I think, who can I pass my baby off to, before he has an accident? I'm sure we made quite the scene,a 6ft tall woman (I had on my tall boots) holding an infant and toddler running so he doesn't have accident, 5 minutes after the meeting started. We came back in much more relaxed, but probably just as noticeable. I've decided my initiation of motherhood will probably never end. Luckily I know people in my ward to pass my baby too, the bathroom would have been much more challenging with only one hand.
But life got still more exciting, during the first talk, my son decided to sit on the row in front of us. We were on the third row back on the side, and no one was in front of us. Since my son was not crying a popular past time during sacrament I let him sit alone. After a while he decided to get a little adventurous since his parents were not next to him. He ventured to the middle row and when he realized nothing was stopping him, he booked it, started running as fast as he could, with a huge smile, I think probably everyone noticed. Brent turned to me and asked where is he going? I said I don't know, I figured might as well wait and see. He just lapped the chapel. He came back to us, happy as could be, and proud. Sadly we had had to squash that. Even though it was extremely funny, we did not let our son know that. My husband started telling him that was very bad, in a very quiet but stern whisper, my son looked at me, and whined, mom. I followed the same tone as my husband, and said, no that is not ok to do. I don't know if I believe the age old wisdom of if your children are misbehaving sit in the front. Normally we sit in the middle, and he is fine, but yesterday it was a parade of lets show the ward how wiggly I can be.
The best part was in Relief Society, (which is the first meeting) our lesson was on Elder Oaks talk, about Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament. I had made a few comments, so all I could do during sacrament was just laugh at myself for my son's behavior. Hey we are all born with agency, and try as I might my son was determine to exercise his. Here are some of my favorite points of the talk.

This is a commandment with a promise. By participating weekly and appropriately in the ordinance of the sacrament we qualify for the promise that we will “always have his Spirit to be with [us]” (D&C 20:77). That Spirit is the foundation of our testimony. It testifies of the Father and the Son, brings all things to our remembrance, and leads us into truth. It is the compass to guide us on our path. This gift of the Holy Ghost, President Wilford Woodruff taught, “is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man” (Deseret Weekly, Apr. 6, 1889, 451).

The ordinance of the sacrament makes the sacrament meeting the most sacred and important meeting in the Church. It is the only Sabbath meeting the entire family can attend together. Its content in addition to the sacrament should always be planned and presented to focus our attention on the Atonement and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I begin with how members of the Church should prepare themselves to participate in the ordinance of the sacrament. In a worldwide leadership training meeting five years ago, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught the priesthood leaders of the Church how to plan and conduct sacrament meetings. “We commemorate His Atonement in a very personal way,” Elder Nelson said. “We bring a broken heart and a contrite spirit to our sacrament meeting. It is the highlight of our Sabbath-day observance” (“Worshiping at Sacrament Meeting,” Liahona, Aug. 2004, 12; Ensign, Aug. 2004, 26).

We are seated well before the meeting begins. “During that quiet interval, prelude music is subdued. This is not a time for conversation or transmission of messages but a period of prayerful meditation as leaders and members prepare spiritually for the sacrament” (Liahona, Aug. 2004, 13; Ensign, Aug. 2004, 27).

When the Savior appeared to the Nephites following His Resurrection, He taught them that they should stop the practice of sacrifice by the shedding of blood. Instead, “ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:20). That commandment, repeated in the modern revelation directing us to partake of the sacrament each week, tells us how we should prepare. As Elder Nelson taught, “Each member of the Church bears responsibility for the spiritual enrichment that can come from a sacrament meeting” (Liahona, Aug. 2004, 14; Ensign, Aug. 2004, 28).

In his writings on the doctrines of salvation, President Joseph Fielding Smith teaches that we partake of the sacrament as our part of commemorating the Savior’s death and sufferings for the redemption of the world. This ordinance was introduced so that we can renew our covenants to serve Him, to obey Him, and to always remember Him. President Smith adds: “We cannot retain the Spirit of the Lord if we do not consistently comply with this commandment” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:341).

Yes its one thing I can say, life is never dull with small children.
Speaking of which did I ever mention my favorite point during the primary program last fall?
This adult asked a small child for the small child's talking point, what can we do to get ready to go to the temple? The question was obviously talking about children preparing for when they are adults. The child took it a little more literal. And said we can put on our shoes and pants. I thought I was going to die laughing. There was another pregnant woman in front of me, and apparently it was hysterical to pregnant women, both of us laughed silently for over 5 minutes. I thought that was perfect advice for anything, we should always remember to put on our pants.

So Glad

I am so glad my daughter does not have colic. She cries way more than her brother ever did, and she hardly makes it to more than two hours a day. But nonetheless it drives me crazy! There is no way I could handle 5 hours or more, or whatever the classification for colic is. She cries when her tummy hurts, which can sometimes be a lengthy process. And she cries when she is overly tired, until we can convince her to sleep. I mean it, we wrap her up tightly, shhh in her ear, and rocker her, until she finally falls a sleep. But woah! Is it a lot of crying for my husband and I. I really don't think we could handle a colic child.

Girl in Pants

This blog is in some dire need of some pictures.

I love babies in little shirts and pants, forget the rompers and sleepers. How adorable is this?!
I call these her skinny baby clothes, because they are the only things not too wide for her.
She is long and skinny I can't figure out where she got that from.

These clothes are too wide, but still so cute. And so girly!
You might not be able to tell, but her sleeves are puffy, her collar is ruffled, as is the cuff of the pants.
I love it! I love the frills of little girl casual.

I completely suggest clicking on the picture for a full size one so you can see the girly embelleshings.

Names

You may remember my deal with my husband with the blog is to keep our anonymity. Which is actually rather ironic since he now is apart of the facebook community, which would also be the reason my little brother did not believe it when he got the invite to be my husband's friend on facebook. He figured it must be another one, which is unlikely, since our last name is not that common. But we have found through a google search that my husband shares a name with a 2nd grader. Who apparently has a very similar personality, feel free to google my husband's name in quotation markers to find the second grader.
Anyway, enough digression, back to the deal, our anonymity. I do put my husband's first name because he puts it out there. But I don't put our children's partly because shouldn't it be their decision if they want their name out there on the internet? Who knows I hate for a future job employer to read about my son's potty training adventures (no doubt this blog will be out there this long.)
So my children's names are not here, I often wonder what to call them. For awhile my son was exclusively Jobo, but he seems to have out grown that, maybe its as his cheeks and belly get skinner, Jobo is too fat of a name for him. So he is now either, the boy, my son, or J. I don't really like just the first initials it gets confusing I think. Maybe not. And my daughter, is the girl, or the baby. But you know that leaves something to be desired.
In a recent post I put N-babe. I kind of like that for now, although my husband said N-girl is probably not a very good choice, but see I'm a naive white mormon girl, so I just don't think that way. And the longer its been since I've been in high school, the more naive I get.
For my daughter I could just shorten her first and middle names together, and have Nan, but I still feel like I'm missing something for my son. Jo is his first and middle initial together, Le is for me. But Jo like that reminds me of Little women, so that is bad. Jol is like Nan but Jol also kind of looks girly. So for the purpose of having cute little graphics to tell me exactly how long it has been, I picked Joh, his initals. Will I ever call them Joh, and Nan for posts? Who knows. So far I seem to be sticking with the boy, my son, and the baby.
Some might be wondering why I don't go with a private blog. Because I'm conceited and think someone might google a craft and find my blog. Hey its happened before.
I apparently have been in the mood for long nothingness posts!
By the way, I don't care when people but my first name out there, even though I don't do it myself.

Values Meme

Shannon tagged me, which I find slightly ironic. Anyway, 6 things that are important to me, 6 things I do not support and 6 bloggers to share it with. First of all I'm not quite sure if its 6 things that are important to me, or 6 values I support. Some would say that is the same thing, but I have heard a girl when she was talking about things that are important to her, say "I like stars". Stars are not values. Normally I don't pass on tags but since someone like Shannon who shares a similar dislike for some of the same blogging trend tagged me, maybe I can share in the tagging. (Tagging people is not something I dislike. My disliked blog trends will stay a secret. In case I offend someone.) With those prefaces, lets start...

Six Important Values

1. Liberty - Is that actually a value? I don't think I make that into a verb, it seems like a value should have some active actions.
   
2. Love - I love to kiss my kids. At least for me life would be pointless without our loving relationships. Specifically a desire to take care of the people I love, helps me get out of bed in the morning.
   
3. Respect - I was probably extremely disrespectful as a child, but my parents did try to instill this value, so incidentally I can not stand disrespectful children. Not to mention I have absolutely no problem with someone calling me Sister Huntz--- at church, yes my mother in law is also called that, but I could think of far worse things then sharing the same name as my mother in law, and sister in laws. Not to mention everyone I meet that goes to church with my mother in law tells me how fantastic she is and how lucky am to be her daughter in law, so why would it be a bad thing to share the same title. I like children to call me sister last name at church, its the way I was raised. Blame it on my dad, it was unacceptable not to, and he allowed it to happen if the adult complained about sounding old with such a title. I prefer to call most people I meet at church by Brother or Sister, unless we are friends beyond the three hours on sunday. Calling the former President, President Bush while he was in office was not about him doing a good job (which I don't think he did) but respect for an office and a title. I also dislike telemarketers or other people I don't know calling me by my first name, Mrs. sounds strange and old, much older than Sister, but still if I don't know you, use it.
   
4. Self Reliance - is that a value? I could have put Independence maybe? I'm all about people learning how to take care of themselves, which includes the boy scout value of thrift. Hopefully it also includes protecting yourself and family.
   
5. Giving - I am terrible at doing service, but I love to give presents and cards and stuff like that. Not to mention I love people giving me things too, it is one of my dominate love languages.
   
6. Learning - Whether that means reading fun fiction or watching documentaries on cable channels, learning should never stop. Even if you are bad at something its never too late to learn how to better.
   

Six I don't support

1. Offensive Wars
   
2. Bad legislation - Specifically a federal legislation that undermines state rights. Legislation written by the courts. Legislation drafted by pharmaceutical companies and other interest groups, but I hate pharamaceutical companies power. Cuts to public schools. My state is one of the lowest spenders in public education, and I personally think it has some crappy schools, but yet the state is planning to cut more money from it. That is a bad idea in my opinion, sure throwing money at the system does not always solve problems but cutting money doesn't either.
   
3. Ugly things, that is terrible I know, but I like things to look pretty.
4. Potty trained boys, pooping in their underwear (I might not support the action, but I still love the boy.)
   
5. People who don't plan on paying off their consumer debt. Its one thing to accidentally get in over your head, its another to plan on it.
6. Boring books. I know a lot of learning can take place through boring books, but I can not bring myself to finish or even start some boring books. I read non fiction, I'm not targeting a genre, I'm not targeting a writing style. There is plenty of boring fiction.
   

Six Bloggers-- Feel free not to participate, its this is sort of a challenging tag

1. Bug girl, since she often gets bloggers blocks and blogs about personality quiz results, this is almost like quizzes, without the mental void
   
2. Ashley and Justin, since Justin is the only person I'm in contact with that would understand the I like star reference, other than my husband
   
3. Lauren-- Politicians (or interns) should consider their values (he he he)
4. Man its hard to come up with people to tag, I've never tagged anyone before...
5. Carolyn Shillig blogs a lot I'll tag her
6. Only one more... if I type enough words maybe you won't notice I didn't list someone, like in #4, anyone who wants to tag themselves, I'll add your name, so you won't feel silly. I'm too lazy to link the blogs, I tagged.
   

Three too much

My children and I have been in desperate need of daddy time. My husband getting MLK day off was a dream come true. We were busy busy all weekend long, in fact too busy for a 5 week old, and for a woman who just had a 5 week old.
Friday started with making cupcakes for activity days. Which no one showed up for, apparently that is normal since we only have 3 girls. Baking can be a little tricky with two kids. After a hour of talking with my partner and my kid setting up chairs, we parted ways. I then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get my son in the car while carrying an infant carseat. The boy loves to play in the church yard.
We then stopped by the library to get Yoga Mom Buddha Baby. I feel great and want to keep my energy level up after feeling sick for 9 months, but at the same time don't want to injure my traumatized body. I still have an abdominal gap, so I can't do too much, athletic wise. Its pretty gross feeling in my opinion, to feel an open cavity in my stomach. I often have to remind myself take it easy, I just had a baby. This baby is the exact opposite as last time, last time I thought I would never recover. I had been very nervous about taking two kids to the library but it went great! So that fear/hurdle is over.
After so much action, I was exhausted, so luckily my husband made dinner, and puts the boy to sleep. Then we watched the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. I thought all that talk about Heath Ledger doing such a great job in the movie was just because he killed himself afterward. But I have to say, I was very impressed with how well he acted, apparently it wasn't just hoopla. My husband and I very much enjoyed it because it wasn't predictable, although some of the batman fight scenes were a little much, his reflexes were a little too good for a normal millionaire. It was probably the best comic book movie we have seen, my husband is a tough critic that genre. I never realized how many Batman cartoons I had watched as I child, until I watched this movie. I knew all types of weird personality quirks from the cartoons, that my husband had never heard of, I kept saying oh yeah blah blah.
Saturday morning, once we were all up and ready to go, at 11, we went to the big library on 4th. (By the way we were up by 8:30, but it takes a long time to get 4 people ready and fed, when only 2 are capable of taking care of themselves.) Which of course is always fun but always an adventure. My child is scared to death of the glass elevator but the building is 6 stories, so I face him toward the floors instead of facing the open space, and hold his hand while tell him everything is ok. We picked up books for our brother in law, then I picked out some books for me, and for my son. Although I'm totally incapable of taking my children to that library by myself, not to mention since its cold outside, and we live in a big city there were a lot of homeless people enjoying central heat, its a little nerve wracking with kid that likes to run away.
After we got home we took naps, we needed them, it was only Saturday afternoon and we were exhausted. We had a late dinner, than I had to get two kids ready for sunday, (click on that link, you know you want to, it will be a great surprise) while my husband prepared his priesthood lesson, since we forgot to have him do it sooner. It was my first time trying to get two ready for sunday, it was a lot of work! and I did it all by myself. The baby is obviously too small to bathe with her brother so it involved two baths.
As already mentioned, we did the three hour church. Then we checking out another hour plus. That was embarrassing. We tried to get there as quick as possible, but we had to get home and eat lunch, before we got out there. So we were a little late, and the whole room was FULL, so we had to walk over people to get to a tight corner. Then after the sacrament I had to leave to feed the baby. I didn't know any better so I let the big kid come with, and that was a nightmare. He kept running in and out of the nursing lounge, then once we were done he wanted to run around in the hallway instead of going in, I finally forced him back into the chapel. Only to have him have a melt down in the aisle, because he wanted to lay down in the aisle instead of sitting on the bench. There were people we didn't know in the aisle seat, so staying in the aisle wasn't really an option. I was holding an infant, squatting on the ground, trying to convince a crying three year old to stand up, in a ward where we were guests. I thought I would die of humiliation. Finally Brent asked the girl on the aisle to grab J for us and pull him in the row until Brent could grab him. Did I mention the couple on the aisle never seem too fond of the idea of us sharing a row with them? Luckily everyone we met afterward really like the idea of us moving into the ward and house we are hoping to get. Everyone said, "oh that's a good house". Every single person said that exact phrase, we don't quite know what that means, but we figure its a good sign.
Monday we woke up ran to a furniture store to get a personal DVD player on sale for $20. Then went to Sams, so we actually had food in the house. After that we met one of my husband's mission companions and family for a day of fun. First they took us out to lunch so that was super nice. Our kid eat a ton of food for him, so that was fantastic, plus the food was really good anyway. I kept getting the turkey bacon wrapped things. I love any meat wrapped in bacon. Then we went to a kids museum, so J had a blast as did their two daughters. The best part was when I forgot to pull down my second shirt after feeding my child. I was covered up, but I looked like a moron. It was hysterical, I was laughing at myself for being a idiot. Plus they got us ice cream afterward. It was much more than we expect, hopefully we showed our gratitude. It was a super fun day, boy we were tired afterward. The baby has shown her dislike for leaving the house, she has been spitting none stop since monday night. Luckily she has started to take a pacifier so we have had some relief. Whoa, I'm just tired thinking about it.
Why is boredom so slow, and fun is so exhausting?

Follow up to single motherhood

This is the picture follow up to my adventures in single motherhood.
The drum we made out the cashew box. I've had some problem with the straps, they no longer look this. Hopefully I've solved it. We need drum sticks now, any suggestions.

And the wall-e sweatershirt. By far J's favorite article of clothing right now. Wall-E lights up when he moves. I can't figure out why he is so obsessed with wall-e.

Learning

I take no credit for my son intelligence or politeness. With that disclaimer I can share this. (Honestly I don't)
Yesterday I ran to the store with no kids in tow. (Any mother's dream.) I came home with an alphabet border (remember elementary school) for my son, he asked what I got when I got home. I said this for you, and tossed it at him, then walked in the kitchen to put my frozen orange juice away. He came in and said, "Tank you mom, for buying this, at da store, for me."
I was very impressed, that is quite the sentence for a three year old boy in my opinion.
I bought the border because he is showing a great interest in the alphabet, he has gotten all his uppercase down, but is working on the lower case. l t i all look surprisingly alike, as does o and a, if the a is handwritten. not to mention h and n Which is why I bought the alphabet border it has the lower case next to the upper.
I have done nothing to teach my child the alphabet other than read to him A LOT, and let him watch me read A LOT. We have quite a few alphabet books, all of which focus on uppercase, except maybe Dr. Suess ABC, which include lowercase. I read a year ago teach children lowercase first, but I didn't teach him anything so I couldn't stop from learning uppercase first. He has recently starting to want to trace letters, and starting to try to write his name. Oh I take it back I taught him four letters, how to spell his name. I taught him how to read, the letters about a year ago, he is just barely getting to the stage where he can recall how to spell his name without looking at it written. I thought about buying him a tracing letter book, but decided we should start with tracing with our fingers before pencils, since using a writing utensil is two pieces of coordination. He also is "reading" the letters of almost anything he can get his hands on. This terrible intimidates me, I was never much of a reader until high school. I could barely read until middle school. So how am I suppose to teach my child to read? Which is why I didn't teach him letters, I wasn't going to push him, I would have taught him when he was 4, but at 2? I'm not over demanding. I had to go to a tutor in 5th grade to teach me phonics, I still barely can spell phonically, I can do it well enough for spell checker to fix it at least. Anyway, how am I suppose to teach my child phonetics?!! Seriously, having a kid that teaches himself, is terribly intimidating. I think it is smarter than me!
Also I did not teach politeness, he picked him up himself. I would say thank you to him for good behavior, not to mention my husband and I try to be very gracious to each other when we help each other, or others help us, but I have never told my son to say thank you to me. He just picked it up, I do tell him to say thank you to his nursery teachers, and other people who help him.

matching

My son does not allow me to pick out his clothes. Which means he does not match 99% of the time. I figure we will work on matching at another age. The other day he was actually matching!!!

He is really into yellow. A few weeks ago he needed new shoes, normally it quite the process. I quickly said, want yellow ones? And so the whole inch of yellow sold him quickly, it was a miracle!

He loves his new yellow shoes, and his yellow pants.

Ironically enough, even though he begged for a yellow shirt, he usually refuses to wear it.

We had quite the time one morning while the babe was sleeping.

Reading time

I'm pretty much under the opinion that I have the cutest most sweetest kids in the whole wide world. Even with that opinion, I'm pretty much always suprised when people complement my kids to me. Is it really possible that people think BOTH of my children are beautiful, sweet and smart?

My son loves reading to his baby sister, and my daughter pretty much loves anything her big brother does that she can watch.

Church

In my opinion the worst part of a December baby, is you miss all the weeks of singing Christmas hymns in church. Last week I wanted to go to church, but I did not want my first week with two kids to be an adventure in single parenting. As bizarre as this may sound I looked forward to Sunday all last week, I couldn't wait to go to church again, I missed 5 weeks. Last night the babe screamed for a really long time, and would not calm down to go to bed. I got annoyed at her, why she would make us overly tired our first week of church, the same thing happened two weeks which is why we didn't go then. This week I was not going to let her keep me away, I'm so sick of being stuck in my house during the cold winter. I would leave and do stuff with my son, but since she is so little I'm trying not to leave... too much.
In other church news, we decided to go for 4 hours. We are looking at buying a house by the far away mountains. We checked out the new ward if the house works out. My son was so excited to go to church there, he hasn't been excited for church since we moved here in August. Should I take this for a good sign... in reference to the house? (Good news it has a primary and a youth program.)
After church we drove by the house so our son could see it. After we started driving home my son started crying, "Ma ma..." "What" "I need house" My husband responded, "I know we all need the house" I explained that it takes a while to buy a house. Then my husband followed up with, Plus we need to move our stuff there before we move in.
So that's the phrase for the day, "I need house"

Short changed

I'm pretty sure if my son could read he would think I'm currently short changing him on this blog. So this one is for him. Except for his emotional outburst, he has been very sweet lately. Yesterday he was walking around me, I asked if he needed a kiss? Normally he says no, yesterday he looked up and said um...yes. It was fantastical. Today I asked him if I could have a kiss he said, yeah, and came over and gave me one.

So Sad

I often feel bad for the wee little one. Like last night I put her in the swing while I was getting ready for bed. I heard a noise and wondered what it was so finished what I was doing to go check on her. When I saw her she had spit up all over her, coming her mouth and nose, all down the front of her and her swaddling. It was so sad looking, she looked shelled shocked. As I was cleaning her up she had this look on her face like mommy, what happened to me, save me, with a tear falling down her check. It was very very sad. Really no joke, she had a tear, it was terribly sad, and tragic looking. (She also cries with tears when I am playing with her brother and we can't hear that she woke up, I'm sure she never cries for 5 minutes, but she knows there is fun going out without her.)
I was talking one of her aunts about her spitting, and she use the term reflex. Yesterday I decided to look it up to see if my baby really had reflex problems. After a little bit of research a lot of the peculiar things she does now make sense. Like when she throws her head back and arches her back after feeding. And now I know why she has bad breath a lot of the time, really she can get some rank breath for being so little. It also now makes that she will start to scream during her naps. Luckily her aunt told me to elevate one side of her crib. We thought she had princess and the pea syndrome, something my husband kindly told me she inherited from me. She hated her crib, turns out she just had laying flat. With the crib elevated she is perfectly fine in her crib, other than her bouts of screams from her tummy aches. I find it so sad when I hear it's violent gurgles. At least she rarely projectiles it out, not to mention she is extremely pleasant baby for having reflex, she doesn't act colicky.
Which is why I don't get angry when she only lets me nap for twenty minutes, she can't help that she wakes up screaming from a tummy ache. She really never cries, she just screams out in pain.

Angry Eyebrows

Guess what I found, a picasa upload that I forgot to post!

My daughter has angry eyebrows. Which always reminds me of the point in Toy Story 2, when Mrs. Potato Head says to Mr. I'm packing your angry eyes just in case. I love this picture this is how she so often looks.

Its not her fault she has angry eyebrows. She gets them from her mama, who got them from her dad. My mom is more polite and says, unfrow your brow. It made my daughter even angrier when her grammy said that. I told my baby, don't worry, grampy doesn't like to hear that from grammy either.

Even though this picture is blurry it does a better job of showing off the angry eyebrows. She probably has them all the time, because her tummy probably always hurts, since she is extremely spitty and could probably classified as having reflux problems. I'm hoping it that and not that she will be an angry looking person. I hoping it means she will be full of emotion, and the only expression she has the muscles for currently is angry eyebrows.

P.S. My son takes great care to pick out toys for his baby sister to play with, hence the duck on the swing.

so close but yet so far away

Life can sometimes be sad. I mention in passing going to the store. My son thought that meant today we were going to the store, he got on his jacket, and said lets go. He said you and dee go to store. I said we can't go to the store today, he said no today. I said we can't go, he said no today. I said we don't have money to go today (we spent it all on Monday), he said yes. I have money. I said you have money?! disbelieving him. He said yeah, and ran to his room, to get about 16 cents in change, and a cardboard tag from his new sweatshirt the size of a credit card. He gave me the change, and said he would use is credit card. He actually has probably a good $10 in his room, but he stores it in various places so its not all together. Needless to say I think he is very sweet.

This time with two

My husband was gone for 5 days this weekend. It was quite the.... something for us, since my mom hadn't even been gone a week when he left, it was sink or swim with me for with two kids. And sinking was not an option. By the end it took all our energy just to keep our mouths above the water, but thats what happens with utter exhaustion. Unfortunately we got off to a rocky start, I still have plenty of postpartum hormones in me, or lack there of, I guess its the lack of hormones that create the postpartum problems, so I cried with my husband left, which I'm sure it made it hard for my boy. Plus my husband left a little later than planned, which means my son took a really late nap, he didn't even want a nap, but I did, and he said he would rather nap than play while I napped. My girl only ever lets me nap for 20 minutes before she decides she needs more food but whatever. The late nap created a late bedtime, which set a bad habit. You may recall Thursday night already.
My little brother came to help us, Friday night, through Sunday morning, so it was nice to have someone else put the boy to bed for night and naps. Plus I got a short break to run to a few stores without children on Saturday, I'm sure it made it possible for the rest of Sunday through Tuesday afternoon.
Saturday night my son decided he had about enough of daddy being gone, and kept me up until midnight. I tried everything, we even made a daddy collage of pictures on the wall by his bed. Which insistently did seem to work because the rest of the nights he spent sometime looking and talking to the pictures about daddy. This is the first time his dad has been gone that I didn't let him sleep in my bed, I was afraid to have two children up at 2:30 am instead of one. Finally after midnight, I couldn't take it any longer. I was so exhausted and I was holding the baby while I laid in the boy's bed. Finally I left telling him I would leave both of our doors open so it would be like our beds were in the same room (our doors are a whole foot and half apart). Which meant I was still very worried the infant was going to wake up the toddler, which meant I fed the infant every time she made noise, at least twice as much. So not only was I tired from waking up more often I was more physically spent by feeding my child more often.
Sunday wasn't too bad, except for my son's lack of nap, and his apparent regression from change causing a lack bowel movements in the toilet. (I consider him potty trained but at the same time, I won't be surprised if he still has accidents at least until he is five.) Some might have thought this would have happened a month ago when his sister showed up on the scene not when she nearly a month old. Whatever my son likes to be himself. Life goes on, I'm already doing a ton of laundry whats a few extra loads of dirty pants. He is the one that has to live with the guilt trips from his parents. I hated guilt trips when I was growing up, I thought they were a terrible parenting technique. Then I became a parent and realized short of corporal punishment sometimes guilt trips are the only disciplinary measure out there. From what I read potty training is even less effect with spanking.
Sunday night without naps life started to get real tiring. I think I personally could have last more days than my husband was gone, but my kid was having such a hard time, and his sleep boycott really made it challenging for me, since I had a newborn to care for. Luckily I distracted us by making a drum out of the old cashew container. We had jamming good time. My son told me to sing songs, while he either, banged on the drum, played his harmonica or played his new years eve horn (the great thing about the horn was he can't get it to make noise, so he just makes a noise he thinks horns make). He keeps pretty good beat. When I told my husband about our music fest he ask, if I told him to "drop a beat." I sadly I said no, but I do think on a occasion. When I said no, he said well thats ok he didn't need to drop a beat, because he is good at keeping time. I got the kid to bed, about about two hours later than he should of, unfortunately his wake up time was unchanging, but at least it was two hours before midnight.
Monday I needed out of the house, and N-babe needed diapers so we packed up. Making our first adventure to the store with just me and two kids. I wasn't really sure what was the best method of getting the kids out of the car, the infant and the carseat first, or the toddler first. I picked the young one first, because she can't run in front of cars. The shopping trip only took two hours (sarcasm, I couldn't believe how long it took). Not to mention we ended up with way too much stuff! Like a wall-e sweatshirt for my son. Why my son is so obsessed with a movie he doesn't even sit through is beyond me. He wanted the Lighting McQueen shirt but it wasn't it in size. He now has a wall-e toy, the movie, and a sweatshirt that lights up.
Once again I could not convince him to take a nap, but he did play in his room while I took a nap. And once again the baby did not let me sleep more than 20 minutes, but my son stayed in room longer because I faked like I was a sleep after the baby woke me up. The boy stared at me for about two minutes while I kept my eyes closed, during which time my nose became itchy, until he went back in his room and shut the door. By the time he left I had forgotten about my nose.
Life got real challenging because I was getting more worn out as my kid wore himself out. My son became more and more whinny has the hours went on, which meant if he started crying, inevitably so did the baby. And if the baby was crying and I was trying to take her, inevitably so did the toddler, because he wasn't getting attention. Not to mention I didn't get any me time, because my son wasn't taking naps and he was going to bed about 5 minutes before me. And the little bit of time he did spend it his room, I was either sleeping for caring for the wee one. I am a mother who needs her own time, so I don't yell at my kids. It became more and more challenging not to yell at a kid that was crying because of stupid things like no yellow spoon. I think I only yelled once and I quickly repented then repented that night too. I'm really trying to follow Elder Bednar's advice

(Principle #1. Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all our doings ... After expressing appropriate thanks for blessings received, we plead for understanding, direction, and help to do the things we cannot do in our own strength alone. For example, as we pray, we might:

• Reflect on those occasions when we have spoken harshly or inappropriately to those we love the most.
• Recognize that we know better than this, but we do not always act in accordance with what we know.
• Express remorse for our weaknesses and for not putting off the natural man more earnestly.)
  

Monday night I decided we should have family home evening even without a dad, even though I had no desire too. We sang some songs, I mean I sang some songs to my children. Which incidently the baby seemed to really enjoy. Luckily she smiled at me on Monday for the first time, so that made it a little easier to get through the day. After which I bathed my kid, because he was obviously getting a little fragrant with his current regression.
Tuesday morning was getting REALLY challenging. I don't know if its because I finally got so tired I hit the wall or if my son got so tired he was incapable of not whining, or if its because we knew there was an end in sight. My plan was to bath the baby, clean the house (put away the toys scattered everywhere), and then watch a movie before naps. We got the baby bathed, but decided it was in everyone's best interest if we ignored the mess, and watched a movie. I like to have the house clean for my husband, but it wasn't happening. I at least got all the toys out of my room, which made me happy. Luckily my husband surprised us and came home a few hours early, which meant the boy got a nap, and I didn't have to put him down while trying to keep the baby happy. Normally she is ok for about a half an hour, but with bedtimes taking an hour or more, there is only so much time she wanted to spend in her brother's bed.
You would think after 5 years of my husband suprising me by coming home early, I would start to expect it. I never do though, I don't know if is because I expected it and it didn't happened I might not be able to handle it or, if its because all those scout trips where he definitely never came home early, or if its because when my husband says, we just past such and such, I really believe him. Who knows, the surprises are good.
Last night was fantastic, it was so nice to shower without worrying about the children. The boy was in bed by nine, and I was in bed by ten, baby already fed, and she only woke up twice from 10 pm to 7:30 am. My husband was in bed by about 30 seconds after the boy.
Today I restricted my son's blanket time, he misused it while he dad was gone, by not taking naps. I know some kids out grow naps by this age, but considering my child can go a week without crying if he is well rested, I always know if there is too much whining there is not enough sleep. It now disappears in the morning until nap time, and disappears after naps until bed. So far so good. We woke up at 7:30, which is quite a bit earlier than lately, but it was nice to see the Dad before he left for work. My son got tired around noon, and he was in his bed before 1. I didn't hear any books being dropped (a sign he is reading) after I left, nor did I hear toys. Hopefully I can keep this up, up by 7:30, naps at mid day, bed before 9, me asleep before 10:30. If life could be so perfect. (Naps around 3 or 4 are TOO late.)
Unfortunately just because my husband is home, life didn't stop. I took the yesterday afternoon off. After dinner I was about to watch some TV with the kid, when I realized the dishes needed to be done, the laundry was piled up, and I still haven't cleaned the downstairs. Luckily my husband went to work today, instead of working at home, so I don't have to feel bad that his work at home workspace is covered in toys.
When's my vacation?
I need a free vacation... see goal #7, I'm trying to save our money. I'm so committed I'm going to stop buying Challenge butter and go back to Smith's brand. Ahh, challenge oh how I love that moose (I don't know I doubt its a moose, maybe a stag).

Girl clothes

I'm in that mother of newborn obsessive state where I want to play dress up, but my newborn doesn't like to get her clothes change, so instead I take daily pictures. Expect more. I went through this with my son too.

My christmas baby girl in her christmas dress.

She still doesn't fit into her coming home for the hospital clothes, and they are made for newborns, up to 10 lbs.

After her first bath in her pink baby towel.

Having a girl is so much fun.

i love this shirt

My buddy

Remember those my buddy and kid sister commercials from the late 80s? When ever I think the phrase my buddy, I always think of those lyrics my buddy my buddy, my buddy and me, which memory is also linked to my cousins' house in Nashua. Don't ask me. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this post. My little brother is my son's best bud.

He loves when his "Uncle Danel" comes to play with him for the weekend. My brother often goes back home on sundays while we are at church, my son won't notice until after nap time, usually during dinner, in which case we hear, "where Danel go"?

Without a doubt for whatever reason he will go potty, if his uncle asks him too. Not only that he often choses Danel to read him books before bed. One day I asked my son is this what daddy does? He said "no, Danel does".

They both share a fansination with science and antamony. For Christmas my son got an Antamony coloring book from my brother. They have read it together, so now my son opens it up and tells me about the parts of the body inside.

My son also likes my brother to point out all the random latin names of different muscles and such on him. J will stand or sit perfectly still as my brother points to them and lists them all off. Luckily J knows someone who likes science, but neither of his parents do. (Well actually he knows lots of people who like science, he just doesn't see them as often as my brother.)
YEA! for Uncle Danel weekends. They can prove to be very helpful for me.

baby crafts

Before my baby was born I made a nursing cover up for myself. The positive thing about this past year is after at least six aprons, and six nursing cover ups, and probably ten or more baby blankets, I vastly improved the straightness of my sewing. I'm down right impressed with this. (Things made in the first 3/4 of the year left no such impression on myself.) I have yet to use this cover up, and probably never will but I loved this material and wanted to use it, and had the exact amount for a cover up. I could have made a purse with it, that was my original intention, but a cover up is so much easier than a bag.

Baby Nightgown

Remember how I said I love baby nightgowns? Apparently Alisa remembered. I love this baby nightgown. My girl gets to be a cowgirl in this, perfect for a mother who spent the majority of her formative years in Texas.

Lessons Learned on a lonely Thursday night

1. Put N on J's level sometimes, so they can interact with each other.
2. No matter how much J wants the sprinkles where he can reach do not allow it, because they might just end up all over his room and being poured straight down his mouth.

plus remind myself, to take back the $10 in quarters that J found, and put in his room.

Blogging Peer Pressure

I decided to follow the norm of blogging in January and put goals for the new year. Last year was exhausting, so I won't set my sights too high.

1. Not yell at my family
2. Follow Elder Bednar's advise for prayer, its the only way I can accomplish the previous one
3. Get baby girl sleeping through the night, the second way I can accomplish the first
4. Get the boy to be potty trained at church, ha ha, I could careless pull ups are our friends, although I would like him to wear underwear next year by the time he becomes a Sunbeam
   
5. Keep my journal, and one for my son and my daughter (I failed miserably last year, thank goodness for the blog, its easier to type than write.)
   
6. Read the Doctrine and Covenants (I struggle with this one, I'm wicked and find it boring)
7. Buy a house
8. Be social, my son's sake once I buy a house, so he has friends too
9. Hold a current temple recommend, ha ha, that's a joke, we were a little busy with being nine months pregnant and didn't notice our recommends lapsed in November
10. Set the table, and cook dinner a few nights a week
11. Exercise, yoga or walks with my kids, eat more vegetables
    
12. Start cleaning my floors regularly by the time my daughter starts scooting
13. Don't get pregnant
14. Go out with my husband without my children at least once a month (we ignored this since we started potty training, then we went out for anniversary, I forgot how nice it was to go out to dinner without worrying about my son licking the salt and pepper shakers at restaurants)
    

Yup, sometimes I write a lot more goals, but I'm too tired to improve every aspect of life. I've started to realize who cares, about the nitty gritty. As long as my family has quality time together, and quantity time when we can manage, it doesn't matter. If I'm praying the best I can, reading my scriptures, and trying not to yell as a mother that I feel success at the end of the day. I read as much as I can find the time, so why make a goal about that. Who cares if they aren't classics or textbooks, ever time.

Girl Cousins

I have 5 brothers, and 1 sister.

I have 11 sister in laws, but only one sister who shares genetic code.
We are the only girls in our generation that were born of a daughter from my maternal grandmother.
So I find our two daughters exciting-- that there are more girls, that share our genetic code.
Here they are a year apart, almost exactly in age.

Mean nights

Yesterday while my sister was visiting...

...she mention a friend of hers who said my babies sleep through the night from six months on because they know I'm not a nice mom in the middle of the night. I've been thinking about that since then. I think that girl has a point, I think my children realize that too. My son started sleeping through the night at about 3 or 4 months, sort of. He would go to bed at 7 pm, wake up around 2ish, absolutely ravenous, eat and then sleep until 7 or 8 am. Not to mention I'm rather sterile to my children for night feeds, I pick them up, sit up, and only feed them. If they slow down they get their cheek rubbed, the bum patted to wake them up to feed. If they don't start feeding they get set back down in her crib, whether they are a sleep or awake. Unfortunately these lessons have just started with my daughter, we were smiling at her, talking and kissing her, during night time wakings for diaper changes and things. My son never got that luxury, I was always too tired, from the get go of his life. My daughter's lessons is starting. My husband and I have gotten too tired to change her unless she stinks, we are too tired to smile, and are starting to be too tired to care if she is crying. Last night she ate from about 8-10:30ish. At that point my arms got to tired to hold her, so I put her in her crib. She started to cry, even though her crib is less than an inch from my bed, I didn't care. She cried for probably a half an hour or so before she fell asleep. Part of the reason she got to cry in her crib is she wasn't tired and didn't want to go to bed, she wanted to play. I don't play at 11 pm, I want to go to bed. She finally went to sleep, then woke up a half an hour later to eat, I fed her quickly, and my husband laid her next to him, she started to fuss. He said if you cry you are going in your bed, I don't know how a 3 week old understood english, but she stopped, and went to sleep immediately. She only woke up once more for the rest of the night. Hooray for sterile parenting at night. Today she woke up, ate, played, fussed for 5 minutes and fell asleep on her own, for a nap.
One word... SUCCESS!
I fully expect my daughter to be sleeping as well as my son at the same age.
Although it might take longer, she hates her porta crib, and a full size crib doesn't fit in our room. (My son went into his own room at 3 months.) So many nights she is in our bed, I hate babies in my bed, but at least I get sleep. Plus we don't cuddle her, so hopefully it won't have too many negitive effects on her sleeping through the night. I'm a big believer on crying it out, I need sleep, and sleep does not come if I'm holding a baby. Thank you authors of Babywise.
My husband and my son seem to think I'm a push over, I fold easily, but only in the day. It is all about displine at night. I get to tired to not have displine at night, ironically enough, because that is why I'm a push over during the day, I'm too tired to fight.

Christmas

Since this post is late, I'm sparing too many pictures.

Christmas eve with maternal cousins.

More christmas eve

Christmas morning, J was so excited when he saw the choo-choo Santa brought.

And never wanted to wait his turn to open presents.

Gingerbread House

yes this post is a little late, but I had a baby. My son and I decorated a gingerbread house, before Christmas.

Like all fun things, it needed to end in tears.

My son lost interest near the end, and I did wood panneling on the back, it was my favorite part.

Blessing

Since I posted all those pictures of my daughter's blessing, thought you might want to see what my son looked like for his. He was only two days old, this was the only thing that fit him. They took off the hat and mittens for the actual blessing. I loved this outfit, it was so soft, so I have no complaints.