Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Time: Flying By

Wow. I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in a while. I guess I keep doing all my blogging mentally. It happens after a while, once you get going on your blog, everywhere you go you start speaking to yourself in "blogesse." I walk around, thinking of titles, witty remarks and the like, and suddenly I realize I haven't actually made it to the computer in a while. My mental blog has lots of entries but I guess I'd better get a few of them down on the actual blog.

Hmmm. Where to begin? These days have sort of been the best of times, the worst of times. Not the very worst, of course, but Bitty sure is giving us a run for our money. I have to remind myself that she was pretty ill for almost three weeks and she's just coming out of it. Part of it is also the fact that Troy and I decided that we had had enough of the binkis. We didn't take them away while she was sick, but we have been wanting to pitch them for a while. With Stomper it was so easy. "Here, kid. I'll give you this dinosaur if you give me those binkis." Done deal, no sweat. But Bitty doesn't have one single passion like the Stomper/Dinosaur love affair. I thought long and hard about it, and realized that Bitty likes to get her hands on things. Dress ups. Musical instruments. Stuff like that. So I bought this really cool doctor kit. I tried to approach the subject with her over the past couple of weeks, like telling her the story of how Stomper got his dinosaur. "Hey, do you see that cool brachiosaurus? Wanna know how your brother got that?" It didn't take her long to guess where we were headed so whenever I brought up the subject she'd say, quickly and firmly, "PweeDon't!"

"PweeDon't" is her version of "Please Don't." I, silly mother that I am, continue to insist that my children at least make an attempt at having manners. Bitty does a good job. So does Stomper, of course, but Bitty has really picked up on the please thing. If she wants you to stop something, such as me singing (don't know why she hates that so much...) she'll let fly with a very quick, "PweeDon't!" She's very firm about it because I've finally taught her to say that instead of instantly screaming when she doesn't like something. Of course now Troy and I do rapid-fire "pweedon't"s at each other all the time. It's a favorite.

ANYWAY, the binkis. I didn't think the trade was going to take, but lo and behold, it did. Sunday after church I made the proposal and she very happily chucked all her binks into the garbage can outside. We bid goodbye, and I spent the rest of my Sunday getting checked by my new and very young physician. Predictably, she asked for them many times, but all you have to do is ask her where the binkis are, and she grin and shout, "In the GARBAGE CAN!" She's very proud of herself, and is even sleeping pretty well. Now all we have to do is get her potty trained....(groan!)



Bye Bye, Binkis, Hello, Dr. Bitty!




















My favorite Stomper blog-worthy event this month was receiving a letter from him. He sent it from school. It made me happy because he was practicing his writing, which he doesn't show much interest in. It's the cutest thing:








In other news, we've had many opportunities this month to spend time with dear friends. We've had more than one family we know chose to come to town in February as opposed to Christmas time. I've enjoyed some girls' nights and we've gotten together with the Durhams and Gardners and all the wonderful people that are a part of that awesome group of friends. As we've gotten together I keep thinking about my greatest prayer and wish for my own children: that they'll make and keep the valuable kind of friends that I have. I think the quality of people in my life are perhaps one of my greatest blessings outside of my husband and children.

I guess this entry is getting obnoxiously lengthy, so I must end. However, I cannot do so without relating to you the miracle of the telephone. I have this cell phone that I love. It's purple, it's a motorola flip phone...what's not to love? Well, I took Bitty with me on a series of errands, including a trip to Costco. After a successful trip (meaning I got away without spending our entire life savings) I was driving along 300 West and saw a car wash. Believe me, we needed to stop there. I thought I'd grab the phone and call Troy to see if the Jeep's rack can go through a car wash. (It can't, by the way, though luckily I did not find that out through experience.) Anyway, I could not find the phone anywhere. After a couple minutes of the very safe steering/searching driving combo, I finally thought I'd better pull over to search in earnest. When I got out of the car to walk around to the other side and look under the seats and stuff I finally found the phone. On the hood of the car. My heart stopped. It was not just out on the open hood, it was kind of tucked in the crevice between the edge of the hood and the windshield wipers. I think what must have happened was that it fell out of my purse or something right by the car in the Costco parking lot and someone found it and placed it on my hood, thinking that the driver of the car(me)might actually see it. Well, thankfully my phone survived the trip down the road on the exterior of my car. Perhaps it even enjoyed the ride. But I felt sort of freaked out for the rest of the day. This is not a phone I could afford to replace. I only got it because I had earned a discount with my provider. I don't think they let you do that twice. Anyway, yay, my phone was miraculously saved. Of course I misplaced it again later in the evening whereupon I had to confess that I have a serious phone problem. Luckily it was just left at home while I went out instead of being lost again - I don't think I deserve more than one phone miracle a day.

Friday, February 15, 2008

1000 Words


Bitty has been sick all week, and I think this picture, forwarded to me from my sister, about says it all. My Sicky Bitty Kitty! Bitty keeps acting like she's about to get better and then the next day will blossom into new heights of feverish glory. Fever, ear aches, coughing, boogers, sneezing....we have it all going on. Even a barf or two. All week I've had tons of plans and I kept lying awake in bed at night trying to figure out how I was going to make it all work, and then I'd have to just let it all go. It has been sick week. Now that Dr. George has given us a little amoxicillin for the ears, I'm hoping we're on the road to recovery. Not only will it be nice to have a cheerful toddler back in the house, but I could use a night of sleep. Last night Bitty woke up and got really restless just as I was going to bed, and finally at 3:30 or something I got up with her. We fell asleep together on the couch around 5:00, and then Stomper got up before 7:00. Yeah, not quite enough snoozes for the parents this week. And on that note, I'm off to bed.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Tea Party


Despite our happy afternoon at the zoo yesterday, both Stomper and Bitty have been feeling a bit under the weather lately. The zoo really helped, I think, but everyone was pretty cranky today. Cranky and touchy. I know that something that really helps the kids is when they get some special attention from me. No *&!@, Sherlock, I know. I just forget sometimes when I'm getting through a day with my little to do list and I'm racing around accomplishing things. Really important things like making additional lists (and dividing them into sub-categories) (I'm mostly kidding) and cleaning the kitchen for the 11th time that day. Then suddenly both kids are weeping at the slightest provocation, and provoking each other, thus continuing the weeping/provoking cycle. They both have colds, they both seem to delight in vexing one another, and Stomper had a rare bout of anxiety as I tried to drop him off at school today. I decided we needed a little something special this afternoon. I know, the zoo was special yesterday, but something a little quieter and personal. So, we went out to tea! I had been thinking of having a tea party at home, but I also thought about the toys already evenly sprinkled across the living room floor and the dishes already piled up in the sink, and I knew that it would be challenging for me to focus on the kids and the kids alone instead of how messy the house was. Then I remembered this charming little tea house down town called the Beehive Tea Room - they have, for like $2.50 or something, a "child's tea party." The child gets a silver tray, all to themselves, with a silver urn full of hot chocolate simply heaped with whipped cream, a little creamer with milk and three wafer cookies. Plus a small (and sturdy!) tea cup and saucer. Talk about heaven for little kids. I enjoyed a delicious cup of tangerine ginger herbal tea - man, that was yum. So yum that both the kids liked my tea better than their hot chocolate. It was really fun. Of course, the kids did insist on fiddling with everything in sight, from the beaded lampshade to the decorative books on the shelf behind our heads, and they did decide to play a game of pretend in which their hot chocolate urns played the main characters, using their lids for mouths. It made me a little tense - a spill was inevitable of course - but really, doesn't that just add to the charm?


Sunshine!

I really can't complain about the weather this winter. It's been great. We've had storm after storm after storm, which gives us the water we need, plus it keeps the valley free from the nasty depressing stinky inversion. So I'm grateful. But I won't say I wasn't thrilled to have two days of sunshine this week. Warm - up towards the fifty degree mark, and wonderfully sunny. Yesterday as soon as I picked up Stomper from school we headed up to the zoo. It's been quite a while since our last visit and it seemed like the perfect time. Boy did the kids love and need it. Upon arriving at the zoo they both took off at a full sprint. Of course, they both fell on their faces within the first few yards and within seconds of each other, so I guess their little limbs were a bit rusty on the running around thing. After a brief recovery, we set forth once more. It was such a great day - there were animals out and about and really active. We especially enjoyed the gorillas and orangutans, who were frolicking. The bears, red panda and cougars were all up and about as well. My favorite may have been the leopard, who's enclosure borders the wolfs. That leopard is constantly being tortured - you can tell he can see and smell the wolves, and that he wants very much to eat them. He's always pacing the fence along that side and yesterday he was actually perched up in a tree in a rather menacing manner. The wolves haven't seemed to notice that they've attracted the attention of a fierce carnivore.




I couldn't help but post a pix of Stomper's favorite: the reticulated python. He loves the thing, and makes mention of it often. He's also under the impression that Bindy Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, is the owner of a reticulated python, and is anxious to make her aquaintence. He has even written her a letter (rather, he dictated it to me) and I am in search of a fan mail address to which I can send the letter. Anyway, I think he's got a thing for both Bindy and the snake.



All in all it was a really refreshing afternoon out in the cool air and sunshine. My children even commented about how hot it was outside. The day continued in a happy vein as we returned home and I made dinner and they actually ate it. Miracles do happen.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Funny Kids

Oh, these kids of mine. Does any body here know how to be a parent? I'm pretty sure I don't. I'm working on it, believe me, but there have been some days this week when I was out of ideas. My two darlings appear to hate each others' guts. I'm not kidding. About three days this week they have been like a terrier and a weasel every second they've been together. Even with one of them away at school or at play dates - no amount of time apart seems to be enough of a break. And then suddenly they'll just be sweet and play together. Of course, in this picture, they had to be asleep to be nice to each other:



This morning Stomper decided that he needed a bath. The rest of us were sitting at the table eating breakfast together and we heard him singing in the tub. I guess he liked the way his voice sounded with his ears under the water. I need you to know that I am swallowing some pride here in revealing the disgusting-ness of our bathroom...we're going to get to it, okay? Anyway, Stomper was hilarious. He went on and on and on - I just caught a little clip of him; I didn't want him to catch me filming him. Troy and I just sat at the table and laughed into our hands.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Doh! A Deer!


We had a visitor yesterday. We've had so much snow lately, the local wildlife doesn't quite know what do. As the snow started falling once again yesterday morning (as it is starting to do at this very moment) Troy looked up from the computer out the back window and spotted a deer in the back yard! We thought it was kind of cool and had a good time watching him/her walk around. It looked like a yearling or maybe a doe. Well, it was cool for a while, but as the day wore on and the deer did not go away, it got to be a bit of a pain. Dear Alex the puppy was not allowed to go outside, due to his carnivorous nature, and the longer we wouldn't let him out the more he wanted to go out. Troy did take him for a couple of potty breaks in the front yard on a leash, with which Alex was non-plussed. What's the fun of being put on a leash if you're not going to leave the front yard? I don't think Alex ever figured out what was back there because if he had , I can only assume he would have screamed like a wookie until he was hoarse. Yes, he really can scream like a wookie. He's not a barker, but he can make quite a ruckus when needed. The trouble with deer is that if they get freaked out they lose all ability to think clearly and start bashing their heads into fences trying to get away. So we couldn't do much but wait.

Even better was the fact that last night we held an enrichment meeting at my house, so our house was packed with 8 extra adults and a few extra children as well, and I couldn't just put the nosey nervous doggie outside. He hung out under everyones' legs, which is his refuge in times of anxiety. That was fun. Finally in the late late evening Troy put on his gaters and stealthily snuck into our neighbor's yard and approached the deer to shoo it away. It took a couple of tries, but he finally got it frantically dashing in the right direction and it headed out, along our street and up south temple. Where it headed after that, who knows. Maybe it will visit the governor.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Better!

Before:



After:



A major problem in our house is meeting the standard of "A place for everything and everything in its place." Here's my take-half-the-day, ignore-the-kids, gets-way-messier-before-it-gets-cleaner project for today. And I feel happy. Now, as soon as the kids go to bed I can pull out my scrapbooking stuff and make it a huge big mess all over again!