Cute Story

A few weeks ago I didn't sleep well, imagine that being pregnant not sleeping well.  When my daughter woke up she said she had a bad night, I said me too.  She said she didn't like her sleep.  I said oh no.  She said bad guys chased me all night.  I felt so bad, but thought it was cute she could tell me her dreams.

Well today on the way to dropping off the kindergarten, she said, I had a dream with Daddy and J.  Oh really? Yes, it was fun, daddy came and got us.  Oh really.  Yes, and then he chased us it was fun.  The whole time she was smiling so big thinking about all the fun she had with her daddy in her dream.  (Obviously she was talking about chasing as in playing, not bad guys this time.) I just thought it was so sweet she had a dream about having fun with her daddy while he was out of town.

Cold or Flu

I got sick this week, it was an awesome week to get sick because my husband was out of town for five days.  I caught it from my son so I knew exactly what to expect and how long it would last. Four days total, sore throat, and very tired and lethargic. When I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, I knew exactly what as happening, I wasn't too thrilled. But then by Monday night, I felt so tired and achy. I had been feeling achy for over a day, but didn't realize it was from the virus, I thought it was because I was pregnant. I struggled sleeping my body was so achy.  Looking back I'm pretty sure we got a flu, but not a stomach flu.  I did have a runny nose, but I wasn't congested at all, or stuffed up.  Just a sore throat, headache, achy body, and extremely lethargic.  Sounds like the flu to me, but that is just because I don't get achy when I have a cold.
But a temperatures necessary for the flu?
But then after the flu past, I got a head cold, minus the cough.  All normal with whatever is going around.  But seriously not a fair illness both symptoms.
Who cares the point is, I was sick while my husband was out of town, it sucked!
But I'm a rock star, because I cooked my children dinner every night. Plus in case you forgot, I'm pregnant, so I'm a double rock star.
It actually wasn't a bad deal though, I didn't have time to miss my husband as a friend, I only had time to miss him as a caretaker.  I just wanted some to take care of my kids, not spend time to me.  So the week actually passed quickly since I didn't feel good enough to miss my husband's company.  (Except for the last two days.)  Plus hopefully now he won't catch.  The other positive is when I don't feel good and I'm sleeping poorly, I'm always worried to bother his sleep while sharing a bed with him, but I didn't have to worry about that this time.  The funny thing is I'm only worried about his sleep when I'm not sleeping well, when they kids aren't sleeping well, I have no problem with them bothering his sleep.

Vacation #2

I should be cleaning my bathroom, but bathrooms will always get dirty again, no time like the present to blog about a vacation that happened a month ago.  Apparently the volcano was not enough fun, so we went on another vacation five days after the last.  This time we went to Kansas City to meet my brother's family.  It was you know eight hours out of the way, but Alisa no longer spends her summers in Park City, and I no longer live in Salt Lake, so I was willing to go the eight hours.  Plus my husband was game!

 We saw all the LDS Church History Sites in Western Missouri but a few guys graves.  I don't know if that is true, but all of them on the map but the graves.  Oddly enough Haun's Mill spoke to me, even though there is absolutely nothing there, except for a little sign.  Really NOTHING, not even a paved road, or a latrine. But David learned an important lesson, one that Jackson learned years ago, just because Uncle Brent is crazy enough to do something, does not mean you should or get to follow. Well I guess the lesson is slightly different, Jackson knows Uncle Brent is crazy, while David was confused on why he wasn't allowed to follow crazy Uncle Brent down into the muddy riverbank. And here is why, Uncle Brent owns his car, if he fell in, life would go on and he wouldn't cry or stress out his mother with his wet clothes.

 Then we drove to a town who had moved a stone from Haun's Mill and built a memorial in their city park.  Turns out I didn't rotate the picture so good luck reading it.  But maybe this is the reason I liked Haun's Mill, I appreciate this memorial a lot.  You can tell it was written by someone who doesn't attend the same church as me, but it was so respectful.

 We were gone for Easter weekend, and so before we left we had had a months worth of Family Home Evenings, trying to teach my three year old about the real meaning of Easter.  Each one turned J in a master scholar, but I still wasn't getting basic enough for my three year.  The Monday before I finally got it, and it totally clicked with her.  So then we when we said we were going to see Mary, she said and Jesus!  I tried to explain that Jesus would not be there, because we were seeing Mary our cousin, not Mary in the picture with Jesus, but she was confused, and convinced Jesus would be there.
But then guess what we found, Jesus! sort of, this is as close as we got to seeing him.

 We also went to the National World War I Museum.  This was my favorite picture, just imagine there are four cute faces looking at us.  The museum was of course haunting, World War I was scary stuff, its just the american education system seems to be so obsessed with Rwanda and World War II we never make it back to the Great War.

 The last but not least we saw the Kansas City Temple Open House.  It was lovely, and so different then the HUGE open houses we went to in Utah.  I makes me excited for Fort Collins Temple Open House, who is meeting us there!?!?!?

 Ahh, goofy fashion and pregnancy.  I swear half sweaters are fashionable, despite what my husband says. This sweater is practically new from Anthropologie.

Alisa's blog has a lot more pictures and info about the vacation if you are intrested.
Here
here
and here

I'm just proud I mentioned it on my blog, too many pictures and uploading on my blog overwhelms me.  I never really been able to handle more than five.

Vacation #1

Back in March we had spring break, we had all sorts of plans, but they were all fizzling to nothing.  But I married a good man, so on Monday night my husband said why don't we just drive to Texas.  So we did!

Saturday morning we left bright and early.  The trip went very slow in the beginning, our GPS, was two hours off, and we couldn't see the car clock, because of drinks (thank you Subaru), but the end was super fast, all of sudden it wasn't 4:30 it was 6:30! The other benefit is we only ate two fast food meals, instead of three since our clock was off.  One of the reasons we moved was so we could drive to both grandma's houses.  If I was a good mommy blogger I would have posted all sorts of fun pictures of everything Grammy did with the kids so they could have a super awesome spring break.  Instead, I won't, remember we talked about this in January I don't want to be a super awesome mommy blogger.  But I will tell you what we did, my husband took the kids kayaked in pool,

My daughter sneaked out to the pool and almost gave her daddy a heart attack, my husband telecommuted from Texas, grandpa made smores with the kids (like the blurriness, the menfolk thought me taking my children away from the fire was more important the pictures for posterity),

 j and grandpa walked to get donuts, grammy drove us to get donuts, grammy took us to the zoo (for me),

 and to the aquarium (for J) and to the butterfly museum.

  I saw the chiropractor (what you don't visit the chiropractor on vacation?!), Brent and I went to the temple, my mom and I sewed, I took naps, we saw big metal cows (ok that is a horse and COWboy),

grammy made cookies with the kids, grandpa frosted the cookies with the kids.  Yes, a good time was had by all, and encase it wasn't we stopped by a volcano in the middle of no where on the way home that hasn't been active in about 6 million years (yes, I made those numbers up, but it sounds about like it.)

It is Capulin Volcano National Monument. My children usually participate in the Junior Ranger program, and get a nice gold plastic badge.  Well I just happened to ask the 6 year old if he liked hiking to the top, and because of that they got an extra patch!  Who would have thought, an mile and half walk constituted an extra patch!  Pretty lame if you ask me.  Americans you are lazy!  I don't get driving 6 hours out of the way from anywhere, to drive up look out on a scenic view then getting back in your car.  What?  Oh well, it means the trails are less busy for people like me. I guess all you who only drive in National Parks do pay your fees, and so it provides money to keep the parts I walk through kept up, so keep on driving and stopped, and turning back around.

Number 3

I'm pretty sure my children are super adorable, and I can't figure out why they don't want to spend more of their day hugging me.  But I keep wondering what will number 3 look like?
Like #1?
Like #2?
Or like some other strange hybrid of my husband and my's genetic code.
I know my son is secretly wishing his baby brother looks like him.
My son has a lot of both of his parents, while my daughter seems to look a lot like my side, but I've found plenty of physical traits from her father.  Its anyone guess how the dna forms.
My only clue is the ultrasound technician told me the baby has a big brain.  (Not in a birth defect, too large way.)  So I assume that means he'll have a nice perfectly round head like his brother and father, none of this teeny narrow head like us girls.
Ahh, waiting...

Clicked

I was talking with a friend today, and I said something about or something to the effect, about when my daughter hit two feeling like my biological clock was ticking, but every time I prayed about it getting the answer no.  Actually it actually start when she was like less than a year old and my husband told me I was crazy and I still prayed about it anyway, and luckily the Lord told me no, because I then ended up with health problems for a few months, and a crazy unexpected bout of depression neither I or my husband saw until way late in the game.  Yes, I was grateful for those nos, but what about the nos when she was two and my health was in order, or the nos after she was three, or the nos after we bought our house.  I didn't feel lucky for most of them, I often wonder what was wrong with me, that the Lord would tell me not to have another baby.  All those years, I would ask should I have another baby, because EVERYONE was having another baby, I thought its because I was doing something wrong, or He didn't trust me.  But at the park today, all of sudden my mouth said, I now realized it wasn't that the Lord didn't trust me, it was that He loved me.
I had never thought that before, but when I said it, I knew it was a 100% true.

P.S. By the way I do realized three years of asking for a baby isn't actually a long time for some.

FHE this week

Out on the web, there is website after blog about all these family home evening ideas. They give you lessons, diagrams, handouts, coloring pages, and even desserts that fit the theme of the lesson.  Yeah those don't work so well for us.  But last week I got this ingenious plan, at least for my family.  I was finishing up last October's conference edition, yes I'm behind. I got to President Monson's closing remarks.  The last column of it had all these great things that President Monson hopes for us, our families and homes.  I wanted to share it with my kids, but I also wanted them to understand it.  This is the part I focused on:

May we show increased kindness one toward another. May we ever be found doing the work of the Lord.
May heaven’s blessings be with you. May your homes be filled with harmony and love. May you constantly nourish your testimonies, that they might be a protection for you against the adversary.
As your humble servant, I desire with all my heart to do God’s will and to serve Him and to serve you.
I love you; I pray for you. I would ask once again that you would remember me and all the General Authorities in your prayers. We are one with you in moving forward this marvelous work. ... May God give us the strength and the ability and the determination to play our part well.

Then we drew pictures for each of the blessings.  We used scratch paper, and markers, the kids totally got into the pictures, and stayed focus for at least twice as long as normal.  We all had fun, it was so easy, and they were able to internalize what the Prophet said.

For dessert, it didn't tie in with the theme at all.  They asked for cool whip and ice cream cones, I have no idea, I didn't eat it, but they are 6 and 3.

For my dream boy

Just thought maybe my husband wanted some pictures of our kids on my blog.  Sure these pictures would have been better if I remembered to press save after cropping them.

 I seriously love these kids.
By the way they are in front of the Kansas City Temple.

All the answers

I wish I had all the answers, or a parenting manual for my daughter.  I've always wished for a parenting manual for my daughter, after three and half years all I have learned is I know nothing, have no control, and how to have greater humility. I wish I could say I learned great patience but who knows.   So if you can make it to the end of this post, feel free to post advice/opinions.
Here is my latest quandary. This past winter has been an increasing struggle with her, the longer the winter went on, I wondered how much more I could handle.  I wonder what was going on, I felt like we had made such progress over the summer/fall, and that was even with a move and my husband being gone for 7 weeks.  I was positive it had nothing to do with the seasons, it just coincided.  I was at the end of my rope. I couldn't handle her constant tantrums, as I think I've mention by March we were up to at least three a day, that lasted at least 15 minutes, up to an hour, during which she was completely inconsolable.  (Although an hour long tantrum was fairly rare.)  Since my daughter also has a speech problem, I figured I need to exhaust my options, we are currently going through early intervention testing.
But lately I've been wondering.
Back in December my daughter saw the dentist, the dentist scared both of my children out of sucking their thumbs.  My son stopped almost instantly cold turkey with the help of socks on his hands.  I realized it is true what EVERYONE says, don't even try until they are 6, they don't get it.  My son was two months shy of 6 and totally got, that he had to stop.  He has never gone back.  My daughter who at the time was about one week shy of her third birthday taught her self how to stop sucking her thumb during the day, but refused at night.  The dentist and hygienist told her she wouldn't be pretty if she sucked her thumb because it would put holes in her mouth.  Which in retrospect I'm not sure I agree with their tactics, on a very sensitive female three year old. My daughter lives and breaths to be told she is beautiful. She stopped during the day and only sucked her thumb at night, or naps, which I thought was very convenient, since I taught my son to do that at about a year old, and had not had any success with my daughter. Well back at the end of March my daughter started to suck her thumb during the day again. I can tell you the specific date if you want, because I thought it was a miracle we didn't have as many tantrums, and I kept wondering what happen to the tantrums, but was relieved they were lessening. Not to mention she has started to nap again during the day since she picked up daytime thumb sucking.  My husband and I have been trying to talk her out of sucking, but she doesn't care what we said, and I'm wondering if I care. She does at least turn around so we can't see her, or cover her fist with her other hand.  She has doubled at least the amount of time she sucks her thumb in the last 6 weeks.  But let me tell you, she is so much more mellow now, she has maybe one inconsolable tantrum a day now, probably less. She is happier, she is sweeter. Am I imagining it?  Or is there a strong correlation between the challenging winter and the lack of self soothing thumb sucking?
What would you do?
Try to stop her relapsed thumb sucking? Or revel in the new found household peace?
This dentist I saw is the only person I've met who has told me a three year old should stop sucking their thumb. Sure it would be ideal, but three year olds don't get, and thumbs are attached to our bodies, and sort of needed for the rest of our lives.  Our SLC pediatric dentists told us not to worry until they are 5 or 6, because it is hopeless before that.  My many pediatricians have seen over the years, told me don't even worry until 5.  My mother, and many sister in law's who have had thumb suckers said its hopeless to try before 6. Which is the same opinion of the countless parenting websites and books. Why is this dentist so concerned?  He says her jaw is narrow and not growing at all.  Although I'm sure it is giving her dental problems, really not growing at all, how does he know, he only saw her once?  As far as I can tell, she has the exact same teeth I did before orthodontic work. I'm seriously considering what my stance is before June.  This is where I wish for the parenting manual to tell me all the answers.  I know what the dentist thinks, he told me, I could tell you what my pediatrician in Holladay would have told me, if stops her tantrums who cares what the dentist says, I loved that doctor, he was so realistic. I can tell you what the pediatric dentist in SLC told me about my son's mouth. He couldn't seen any problems from the thumb sucking, he needs an expander in a few years but that isn't necessarily from the thumb sucking. Now my son and daughter do have different jaws, and my daughter does suck her thumb more than my sond.  But like I said, my daughter has my jaw. How did one dentist who saw my son for years say he had no problems from thumb sucking, and the other dentist who saw him once, say he had a whole mouth of problems from it?  Let me tell you which one I trust more.
A friend of mine told me I have to see the other dentist at the pediatric practice, because the one I saw is overly concerned. I'm starting to believe her.
I have one problem, my husband is totally on board with my daughter going cold turkey with her thumb.  But the stay at home mom in the relationship can't imagine my daughter's behavior before the end of March with  a new baby.  Oh my goodness the fear of it makes me want to break out in hives.
What would you do?
Am I being selfish to allow her to suck her thumb to give me peace?  Or am I allowing my daughter to act age?  Here is what I know, I cannot handle hour long tantrums at bedtime if we did some sort of corrective action to get her to go cold turkey.  Nor do I think in my infinite experience of seven years of motherhood that a three year old should have corrective action to get them to stop sucking their thumb.
Let me assure you, no one tried harder than me to try and convince a baby to like a pacifier.  I tried so hard for both of my children.  They were born thumb suckers, and my daughter was born high strung.

Basement

A few weeks ago, while I was posting pictures of the recently updated rooms in my house, ie recently painted.  I came across a picture of my basement, and realized it looks very different now.  It is more full with furniture in a good way, minus that old box monitor in the right corner. Thought maybe you would like to see it.  

• The framed picture that did not turn out in the photo is, this printable. "In the Leafy Treetops" in green, I sing that song to my kids all the time, and they always want something different, but my husband seems to enjoy it.
• My parents brought out the bookcases at thanksgiving time, my parents apparently made them from a prefab kit when they were young married couple.  I grew up with them in my house, and never knew that.  
• I always surprised at how often my daughter plays in the refrigerator playhouse.
• While that kid's table my children always have adventures there.
• Our forty dollar couch, we bought before my daughter was born, one of the best investments.  Its a great TV couch, and it is great shape.  I want to find another great deal like that for my upstairs living room. 
• Our ottomans, $20 each, terrible investments.  The seams are already ripping.  I need some dark brown duct tape, I know it will be lovely!  But all they sell these days is hot pink and leopard print.
• Overall I love my house, and my basement. I'll be spending a lot of time in the basement this summer while I'm pregnant with no a/c, luckily our basement stays nice and cool.  

Husband

Can I just say I adore my husband.  Who knows what his expression means in this picture, but I know he adores me too.

He use to tease me my love language was quantity time not quality, well it turns out he likes quantity time almost as much as me. It was just he was the only with a life for so many years of our marriage, now that I have a life too, he wants to spend just as much time with me, as I do with him. I always knew he loved spending time we me, but now I just laugh. When I come home after being out with friends, he can't wait for me to be back. Mind you its hardly like I'm leaving him all the time, maybe three times a month.  Which is less than he is gone, with his various interests.
P.S. I think he has really dreamy black hair. I tell him that all the time.

Boys Room

I have a great desire to redecorate "my boys" room now, instead of 3 months from now.  Sure why would I put a crib up now, but come on! I have lots of ideas, to keep the current style, keep the price almost non-existent, and make it good for a 6 year old and a baby, so I guess I should get to work on my DIY projects so I'll be ready in three months. By the way I have four months left.  I'm wondering what happened to the last 22 weeks.

Remembering N

An antidote first:
  A few weeks ago my son was pouting about something unchangeable.  I said remember you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.  That phrase became magical after Miss K the Kindie teacher said it.  A few moments later I realized my three year had not repeated me, what she said did not rhyme.  I then realized she said, "You get what you want, or you throw a fit."
There has been plenty of times over the last month or so I'm amazed at my daughter's subtle ability to change words around and switch up the logic.  Apparently its my husband's family's past-time is not just learned but also genetic.
Anyway:
I'm not sure if its being pregnant, or what but my daughter has pushed me to the limit with her constant needs.  I felt like the average three major tantrums a day, often lasting over 20 minutes is excessive.  Her speech is not improving, and I'm sure it exasperates the tantrums.  We are now actively working at find some resources for her, because I don't think I can survive this and a new baby.  But as I say this, I feel ungrateful, her needs are so minimal compared to some many families/kids. She is a bright intelligent girl, who has no problem keeping up with children older than her.  Her teachers have complemented me on her being so good. Which sometimes makes me wonder if that is what makes her speech problems so challenging, seeing them hold her back.  Anyway, so the more I focused on her tantrums the less I saw the Miracle of Nan.
That has been my phrase for her for years.  Originally it was in reference to my ability to care for her during her colic, and her colic that wasn't actually colic because colic goes away, and hers continued through at least her second birthday.  A few times people who had witnessed her toddler colic asked me is she likes this all the time?  Yes.  How do you deal with it?  I would responded, I don't know its the Miracle of Nan, she drives me crazy, but the minute I pick her up I'm madly in love with my beautiful child. My Miracle of Nan has increased to many things but I realized I forgot to notice the miracle she is in my life.
And when I forgot to see her for who she truly is, I couldn't handle her constant cries/screams.  Often asking myself why me? But that isn't the purpose of life is it?  Asking why me?  Instead rising above and seeing the miracles in the ashes.  I guess the real frustrating thing is she is three, and I often have no idea what the cause the screaming is, how do I change what I don't know.  Often without anything J or I or her father can notice she starts crying uncontrollably, so upset about something, but who knows what.  Then she will cry for 10-20 minutes about who knows what, then for no apparent reason we seem to solve some mysterious problem.  Often though we wished she was only crying for 20 minutes, the other week she cried for over an hour because a band-aid had fallen off.  Yes, we replaced it, but she kept crying.
She is definitely a challenging child. Thankfully she spends at least 10% of her day being very sweet and loving.

Perfect Baby Outfit

This blog post is brought you by my 6 year old when he was a newborn, in his cute chicken suit that we bought in Argentina. 

He was not so trilled to be dressed. It was a perfect come home from the hospital outfit, you think I'll be able to find such a perfect outfit this time around?  I need a nice mostly white, casual, boy outfit.  Did you know I'm having a boy. Everyone is very excited for baby brother, just ask the three year old.  In case you don't know what her perfect come home from the hospital outfit looked like, here is

But seriously I'm so confused what you do with a summer baby.  I've had two winter babies, you put a onesies on and socks, a long sleeve sleeper with feet built in and wrap them in a blanket.  What do you do with a baby born in August? I don't think he needs long sleeves and pants to come home from the hospital.

Easter

I spent 7 years living in Utah.  Every year but one, I spent at least part of Easter at my grandma's and grandpa's.  I debated asking my husband to take us to Utah for the Easter holiday.  I have not spent 6 out of 7 holidays with anyone other than my husband, since I graduated from high school other than Easter with my grandparents.  I like traditions, I like to know exactly what to expect.  I can't wait to celebrate Christmas in my house, but why would I ever want to spend Easter anywhere but in PG.  Its sad this tradition is over, part of it doesn't even seem like Easter without them.  Then of course my aunt would bring the bunny cake, in honor of Cyndie.  A delicacy I never partake of, since I can't stand coconut.  But seriously its not the same.  I'm a little sad.

Master Bed

We repainted our room for MLK day, its a beautiful shade of gray.  I love gray.  Now I'm ready for something about our bed.  We do not have a headboard, and I'm totally ok with that, we have sturdy dressers and I don't want to spend money on not sturdy dressers, and sturdy new dressers with a matching headboard is not in the budget.  At first I thought about making a headboard, I had high dreams of making an upholstered headboard, but that still is $100 in supplies, and work that my husband and I are probably not up too.  Then I thought about a wooden one, but I decided it would be too much unmatched wood in the room.  I was really thinking about getting just a large piece of plywood sanding it down, painting it a darker gray then our room, and just sliding it behind the bed.  Then I thought of all types of art we could hang about it.  Sometimes I had dreams of spending $100+ on reproduced art work at Kohls, they have pictures that match our bedspread, but how long would I really keep my bedspread, it was only $25. Instead of spending that money I thought about framing pictures.  Then I thought about making some art. I also thought about covering canvas, or Styrofoam, I have lots of ideas pinned. Its easy to do canvas or Styrofoam, I've done it in my kitchen, but I didn't want too many busy textiles, our bed is busy. I also realized I didn't really want it looking too clutterly, our dressers tops house a lot of reading material, and we have a collage wall on the other side.  I wanted something nice and simple but I also wanted to have something, to fill the space, then last night I found this in my house inspiration folder on my desktop. I love it.

And, then I thought of this DIY, to make monogram letters. Although not in gold.
Perfect, to use the paper mache letters because I also don't like the thought of anything heavy hanging over our heads while we sleep. Didn't I pick a love shade of gray?! I realize I need a dust ruffle, but guess what I bought maternity white tees instead.

 I'm not actually done with my collage yet, I have a few tweaks.  Also don't mind my craft/sewing desk in its true form.  It totally was not worth cleaning.  I love having a beautiful clean house, but I don't love cleaning, and I would much rather craft even if no what give a flaoo about what I made. Those are all current crafts I'm working on.  Yes, I know I can't sew like that, but I expand all over to my size of the room when crafting, then throw it all back on the desk at the end of the day.

As you can see this room is the master bedroom and office, or maybe bedroom/ hobby room.  I won't ask you to try to count the computers in this room.  I think its a tie with the basement.  Thankfully they invented laptops and flat screens.
What can I say, Brent and I like our hobbies which include reading, which I'm sure was noticeable by the amount of full bookcases that appear in the pictures of our house.  Well I guess the question is do we like reading or are books the one item sanctioned for hording.
One last thing, my friend made this beautiful huge desk, and I wonder would she care if I copied her, but how can I do without spending money.

Pink Pink and new Pink

We repainted our daughter's room.  I'm so happy, that hot pink was so gruesome.

Want some more befores, here is one and two.

  Not only that it was gruesome to paint over.  All the paint and primer in one, claim they cover anything, problem is, they have too many VOCs and I'm allergic to them. (PS always wondered what was wrong with me, why I was the one girl who didn't like scented candles, or perfumes turns out most have VOCs in them, no wonder I'm allergic.)  We had to prime the walls, the hot pink gloss it was hard to cover, and when you tried to paint over, the primer would peel up.  Blah.  Finally it was cover.  After spending months trying to convince my daughter she wanted a pale blue room, I gave up. She loves pink pink pink.  Right before we pulled out the pink that we had already bought, I said the room would be so lovely if it was blue.  She then walked around talking about her blue room.  I was tempted to go down and buy light blue paint, but I didn't think she would actually like it, and I really didn't want to spend $20 extra dollars.  I could see her in a month asking why her walls weren't pink.  A month ago when we painted our room, I bought her pink. Turns out I did amazing job of picking the color, it is a pale pink, a ballet slipper pink, the room feels so clean, open, fresh and light.  Her room always felt like the dark dirty hot pink cave in the back of the house.  It has a smaller window then the other rooms, but now it is so peaceful and light.  I love it, even if it is pink, it will be perfect for her.  Especially because she has a blue rocking chair, and blue bedspread. Technically I probably would have been happier with even a lighter shade of pink, but this is plenty light.  It is quite pale pink. In fact my husband's friend asked if it was painted pink, or painted white with pink bleeding underneath.  I took this as a complement that I picked such a light pink.

  If you clicked on one and scrolled down, you could see what my style inspirations where for her room a year ago.  Well now that its repainted, I think I actually stayed fairly close to my inspirations, just inverted.

 At first I loved the void of this big empty wall, but now it feels empty, I think I need to hang her alphabet baby quilt back up.

 I do like this empty wall.  I'm trying to debate what to do with the butterflies that use to be on the wall. Part of me loves them, but the other part does not want to mess up the wall, with gluing butterflies on.  I pretty much glued them on the hot pink, I couldn't get them to stay any other way.  With the removal no butterflies were damage, so they are still good, I'm thinking about hanging them from the ceiling with fishing line, I don't know.... I actually don't know if I love the butterflies anymore.

 I especially love it because the room is so clean and uncluttered, unfortunately something must be done, the closet has been in agony since we started painting. Someone please help me come throw away dolls.

I'm so trilled though.  We moved in last year in the beginning/mid- April, and now I just have the basement bathroom to paint!  Hoo-Raw! Now if I only had spending cash for a new car and exterior painting of my house.

Plunge

We took the plunge, I bought my daughter a barbie.  All her friends have them and she dearly loves her friend's snow white barbie.  So I bought her one, except the ballerina snow white.  So it doesn't exactly look like snow white but she knew exactly who it was suppose to be.  I like the ballerina barbies, because their leotards are painted on their bodies.  Sure they are hardly modest, but at least I won't have naked barbies in our toy chest.  Then a few days later, we were at a consignment store, and found three more barbie ballerinas for sale, their hair was still normal looking, and they only cost $4.50 for all three.  I thought it was a steal so I bought them.  We now have Ariel Ballerina (she also love little mermaid, even if she doesn't care for the movie), a butterfly Ballerina missing her tutu, and a generic pink Ballerina barbie. My daughter is only three and has four barbies, she is already surpassed the entire amount of barbies I ever owned.  I don't know, I don't particularly love barbies, but I also see no need to ban them and turn them into the forbidden fruit, so now we have them.  She love, love, loves to play with them, and they are never naked!

Tooting our Horn

I'm going to take a second, or more and tell you how awesome my six year old is.  I try to keep my bragging to a minimum, for many reasons, but then I realized was sort of neglecting him.  In hopes I didn't make him conceded I wasn't praising him, and then I realized that is what he really wants.  He isn't that touchy, he doesn't want that much quality time, but he really loves for people to tell him how awesome he is.
He is awesome, he taught himself how to read a little over a year ago, when he was barely 5.  Sure we have always read to him, sure we have more books than most people, sure we sort of, occasionally did phonetics, sure he went to preschool for most of a school year, and sure he spent a lot of time on StarFall.com.  But I didn't teach him, nor did my husband.  It took him a few months to believe us that he knew how to read.  Then he figured it out, and enjoyed short books, then by early fall he exploded, he read all the time, books, much too hard for kindergarten in the beginning of the year.  He would read to his sister, it was awesome.  Until he started reading facebook, we put an end to that.  Reading pinterest even worse!
I waited in anticipation for reading groups to start in Kindergarten, it was going to be so fun.  The first day was great, he got this super long  book, with a sentence one page, a paragraph on the next, he read the whole thing to me.  I thought hooray his teacher understands his level.  Turns out he was suppose to read the sentence I was suppose to read the paragraph.  Every book after that for until after Christmas, was a short 6 page book, that said "A bird flies", "A cat walks" (he favors non-fiction).  I didn't know what to do, I was so annoyed, but I didn't want to be that annoying mom who says, my child is smarter than you think.  I talked all the time to Brent about it, I called my mom, I called my sister.  Then I started drowning in sunbeams, I couldn't really fight any other battles, going to church on Sunday was enough battles for one life.  It was giving me headaches that would last through Tuesday, I really didn't care about book groups.
In December I started talking to my friend who's son is in the same class, I told her my annoyance she said just email the teacher, you don't need a conference I email her all the time.  So was going to in the new year, like I said I was drowning in Sunbeams.  Oh I will also say, at first I was really annoyed with the teacher, then I started helping out in the class, I cut her some slack, a lot of slack, she has 25 kindergartens in the morning for three hours, some of which are still working on letters, and then 17 more in the afternoon for another three hours. It is her first year teaching kindergarten, she spent a previous 4 years in First grade.  After thinking about teaching that many children five days a week, I cut her a lot of slack.
Well January came and my friend asked for her son to be moved up reading levels, she was sick of reading the same books, J moved up too, without me asking. I did start emailing the teacher, we talked about his strengthens and weaknesses, she said don't push him to read books too big.  I realized that a week before she said that, I tried to get him to read to me a beginner fiction chapter book, I thought we were both about to die we were so miserable.  He could read it, he just didn't care about it. But then I started noticing he was reading non-fiction twice the size.  He recently told me he loves wierd non-fiction.  I said, I can tell, Ripley's Believe it or Not books, Creatures of the Deep Sea.  The wierder the better for him. There are two reason for his non-fiction love, one he just doesn't care much about much fiction stories, second he doesn't like reading a book start to finish.  He likes to jump around, but he will eventually read it all.  J has since moved up reading levels three times.  He is now in chapter books from the teacher.  Recently when I was helping I noticed he read an extra book with the teacher after his book group was over, it was a longer book, with chapters.  She looked like she was genuinely enjoying the time with him.  I was relieved, not because I want everyone to know how smart my kid is, I take no credit, its just who he is, but because he is a fun kid and its fun to read chapter books with such a young kid.  He loves learning, and reading, so its fun.
Yesterday we had some friends over, J was reading A.A. Milne's Poetry, I'm not sure if he was reading Now We Are Six, or When We Were Very Young, but the none the less he was reading it to himself.
He is a fun smart kid, but he can also be pretty stubborn. The child is amazing at writing and penmanship, but we literally had to force him to write his last name on homework.  He and his dad love to do math together, sometimes they do simple addition, but they also get into prime numbers and division, but when he asks to play the computer and I ask him to read a face clock and tell me if it is after two, you would think I was trying to pull his fingernails out.  He knows how to tell time, they just haven't covered it in kindergarten yet, so he doesn't want to do it.  If Miss K hasn't told him to do it, he sees no reason to do it unless he wants to.  He wants to add, he wants to manipulate mini marshmallows into groups (division) but read the clock, you would think he was being torturer.  Although he is a fabulous kid and super fun, he doesn't like doing anything that is not easy for him, which is why he told me and his preschool teacher for months he couldn't read, when we would watch him read. It is also why he doesn't like telling time, he doesn't like to count out the minutes, he wants to just look and know.  Which is also why the child was writing completely sentences before he could write his last name. Sure he was capable enough to write it he just refused.  Eventually with his last name his dad said enough is enough, and fed his sister marshmallows until J spent the 20 minutes to learned.  Then J got the rest of the bag.
He is super fun, he has elected the last two nights to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid to himself instead of having us read to him.  We just got him three more books for his series.  He also likes Knights of the Lunch Table.
And like I said, anything weird, creepy, and about the deep dark sea.  He loves biology non-fiction, as long it is involves no big mammals, except for humans. He loves, plants, bugs, protozoas, fungi, human anatomy, reptiles, fish, birds but anything I would find exciting at the zoo he has no interest.  Elephants, apes, etc  Surprisingly he did find the giraffe interesting, but not like the flamingos, or penguins, and definitely not like the aquarium.
Here is an interesting antidote to finish of this long post.  Supposedly girls are better in school.  J's reading group which is the top in the class has five boys, and no girls. Not a single girl in his 25 student class, has made it to the highest reading group.  I don't know how these demographics will change as he ages, but for one I will say, his school does an excellent job of providing non-fiction.  He has only ever gotten 2 fiction books from the school library, and there is enough non-fiction in the class room library that he can bring home a different non-fiction book for months without repeating if he so chooses. About once every few weeks he does bring home a fiction, and he does repeat his non-fiction but he tells me its because he wants too.
Can I just say, I love his school librarians.