Off to a Good Start

Here we are, looking down the barrel of another summer. Those endless summer days are stretching ahead of us in a mirage of high heat, kids fighting, and too much t.v. Well, so far, we're off to a good start, partly because our temps are still in the 70's with cloud cover and rain showers. Last summer I felt like I did a good job embracing the season and planning many fun things to do, so that's what I'm going for this summer as well. We've already signed up for swim lessons (although they start next week and I think it's going to be seriously chilly at 9:35 in the morning) and some fun summer school stuff for Stomper. And this week I got the whole family out the door and on a bike ride to the new Luna's Italian Ice Cafe on 9th and 9th. It was actually really fun to have a little family date that included semi-decent exercise and a sweet treat (mango with soft-serve vanilla ice cream is really unbeatable, by the way.) We bought that bike trailer at a garage sale several years ago, before Bitty was even born, and we've never put it to much use. I'm glad to say that this year it's already been out four or five times and I don't totally hate it. Of course, I avoid major hills because I can't get up them, but a nice outing along 9th East is really quite fun. Now wish us luck on the kids fighting part, because I don't know how to fix that. I've tried clonking their heads together, but to no avail. Ha Ha.

Note to Self:

Do not leave your two year old unattended on the potty. This action may result in consequences such as an entire roll of toilet paper being deposited in the potty, creating a mountain of paper extending up between your toddler's knees.

Noted.

Those Crazy Summer Nights

Let me paint a picture for you of a moment I enjoyed earlier this evening. I am sitting in a very comfortable deck chair on a lovely June evening in my neighbors' back yard. Their yard is much preferable to ours in every way, especially for our children, because our neighbors have recently acquired a small flock of chickens. It is these chickens I am watching, as I sit comfortably in the chair. They seem to be running for their lives because my children are ecstatically chasing them all over the yard, and rushing to me in delight every time they pet one. "Mom!!! I petted Henny Penny!" Both of my children are filthy. Chocolately chins, scraped knees, muddy hands, crusty hair, and sparkling eyes. Bitty has gone so far in the day as to be dressed in nothing but a diaper, which, by the way, is not empty, if you know what I mean. But neither was it especially...uh...full, and she was having so much fun, it was hard to stop her from romping around. The air was warm and gentle, the neighbors have a beautiful garden, dripping in enough floral scent to mask even the scent of my daughter. A great summery moment, which of course ended in major tears due to an over exhausted Bitty. Man, she knows how to throw a tantrum. I'll have to leave the details of it to my husband, who accompanied her to sleep away from the rest of the family.

Well, I feel like I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while, mostly due to lack of sleep, though I must confess that I am sitting here typing at near midnight. I just have a few events and moments that I have to record. First, the other night (it may have been more than a week ago, who knows) I had just gotten Bitty to fall asleep. I went in my room to peek at her and snap off the light. This of course woke her. Her eyes popped open and she smiled, threw back the covers and said, "I had a good night's sleep!" Nooooooooo! Luckily I did convince her that the night wasn't quite over yet and to close her eyes again.

We also got to attend the Butler Elementary School Spring Carnival with The Becky and her family. Stomper is getting big enough to kind of run around on his own at those things, as long as he is with Becky's kids. At first Bitty wouldn't go on any of the...what do you call those big blow up things? Not rides, really, I don't know. The big bouncy things you climb on and slide down. She wouldn't go near them. So I initially thought we had payed 10 bucks for her to play on the playground, but by the end she caught on to them and three days later was still begging, tearfully, to slide down the shark again. My favorite was an American Gladiators type deal where two kids at a time climbed up on a big mat with two pedestal things on top. The kids get on the pedestals and try to beat each other off with giant q-tips. Stomper took on Becky's oldest child, and it was nothing short of hilarious. He had a hard time wielding his q-tip.



Another big event for Stomper this week was 'graduating' from preschool. When we went to pick him up from school today we went a little early. All the kids were sitting, lined up, and wearing these great graduation caps the teacher made. Fabulous, except that I couldn't get Stomper to keep a straight face for a picture. They sang a couple of songs for us and got a packet of their work for the year. It was fun. I'll be very sorry to leave Bennion Elementary - we've had a good experience there. Miss Trista and Miss Valle were awesome!

A Tale of Two Mouths

I have mentioned that Stomper seems to be exceeding expectations in the loose teeth department - four at once! Well, yesterday when I went to pick him up from school he was flushed with excitement to show me the itty bitty tooth he had in a plastic baggie. I guess (like his mom) he just can't leave well enough alone and wiggled that tooth incessantly until it was dangling by just a thread, so Miss Trista encouraged him to just yank it. He's braver than I thought, because he did it. He was so excited for the tooth fairy last night that he started asking to get in his jammies by 5:00, and begged for no stories before bed. He also triumphantly showed me his prized coin at 5:00 this morning. It was pretty cute, though viewed through very blury eyes. We gave him one silver dollar. Is that too much? I don't know. All he wanted was "a coin." So, he got one. Little does he know that it's the best one!

Anyway, later that day in a friend's back yard, Bitty decided it would be a good idea to put a towel around her head and start running around. Just for the record, that's actually a bad idea. She tripped and of course did the land-with-your-teeth-on-your-lip thing. Not so nice. Luckily the otter pops were near by. Witness the day's somewhat gory results:





I guess yesterday's events inspired Stomper, because he started wiggling that next wiggly tooth with much fervor. He came to me, not long after waking up, somewhat alarmed, as he had wiggled it so hard that he kind of...(yuck) broke the tooth away from the skin a little. Come on, I know you're all cringing with the memories of the sound of your own baby teeth start to come out. I'm getting the heebie jeebies myself. Well, not one hour later, Stomper just yanked that one out as well. That one was a little more gross, as you see. He and I made jokes all day about the tooth fairy having to come over two nights in a row. I told him not to be surprised if he heard someone in the middle of the night say, "Oh MAN! Not another one!" He thought that was hilarious and giggled profusely, thus showing off his now formidable gap, which he insisted on drinking through all day. Good thing I had a few straws on hand.

Farm Field Trip

I had the pleasure on Monday of being a parent helper on Stomper's field trip. My friend April took Bitty for the morning so I could go join in. It's always such a treat to see your child in action, if you know what I mean, to see him in his own element, the circle you are not generally a part of. We went to Wheeler Farm, on a real school bus. The kids may have been more excited about the bus ride than the farm itself. But there were plenty of attractions to keep them busy. I must say, there is nothing like visiting a farm or zoo for bringing out the, uh,...'bodily functions' comments from kids!

Oh Blessed Doorknob

We have lived in our house almost 10 years. A fact that hardly seems possible, but it's true. Another difficult to imagine fact is that in all our years here, our bedroom closet has never had a doorknob. It's a cool old door, possibly not originally assigned to a closet, but there it is. Lacking a knob, we never could keep it shut. It's always open at least a little, and the door had a couple of holes where a doorknob should have been. Stomper, as a wee lad, used to love to stuff things like wads of kleenex down the doorknob holes. Well, as Troy was finishing the closet, he mentioned the door to his coworker, the honorable Mr. Steve Burnett, who just happens to live in a very old farmhouse in Layton, and who just happens to have a box of antique doorknobs in his attic. Due to his and his wife's generosity that box now contains one less doorknob. And due to Troy's hard work, the doorknob is now stripped of paint and has working parts. And now our closet door finally shuts. You can't perhaps understand the pleasure I feel while cleaning up my room, to open the closet door, place my shoes neatly on a cedar shelf, and then shut the door. I am a very happy lady.

At Least I'm Not THAT Crazy

Well, I have to admit it. My friend Misty and I went to Stephenie Meyer's book signing yesterday. We bought tickets a few weeks ago, which included a copy of her new book, The Host. Quite a good book, I thought! I always love spending time with Misty - we picked up lunch from Paradise Bakery and headed over to Highland High School to eat as we watched hundreds of girls and women (many many more women than girls, by the way) streaming into the auditorium. I have to say I thought that Stephenie was very funny and engaging, and I was impressed at how quickly over 1,000 people got their books (as many copies of The Host as you wanted plus 2 others) signed. Well organized. Good job, King's English! A very entertaining part of the day was reading all the t-shirts the super fans were wearing. (I can not consider myself a super fan because I don't think I could bring myself to wear a t-shirt.) There were plenty of "Twilight Mom's Club...Bite Me" and "I'm rooting for Jacob" kind of stuff, but the good ones we saw were a guy wearing a shirt that said, "I'm Her Edward." (That guy must be very secure.) I also enjoyed the one that said in small writing on the back something along the lines of, "It's because of Stephenie Meyer that I have an unrealistic expectation of men." That was funny. I can't recall the others - oh yeah, "I'm going Native" or something. Misty and I had to raise our eyebrows a little bit as the gang o' gals next to us had a spirited and rather sqeally discussion of Twilight. But hey, I can't be too critical, seeing as how I was there too...I wonder why I'm such a sheepish fan. I was sitting there thinking, wow, look at all these crazies with their really obnoxious t-shirts...but uh, who bought the ticket? Me! I have to own it. I'm a fan.

I couldn't think of anything brilliant to say to Stephenie as I finally got my turn to get my books signed. The best I could come up with was, "I'll certainly be looking forward to whatever you come up with next." She stopped and said, "Really? Most people just tell me exactly what they want me to do next." So, I guess I did okay. It was a fun day. And you know what, despite the 1000 screaming women, they did not top the screaming at the Mandy Patinkin concert.

Dog Hair is Not All Bad

Alex is beginning his annual blow out of all his extra hairs. The number of hairs he no longer needs is truly staggering. I gave him a good brushing the other day, just to get him serious about shedding. I cleaned up the piles of fluff as much as I could, but there's always some remaining clouds in the grass. I have to say that it warms my heart every spring, after a brushing, to see all the little birdies in the area land in our yard, pick up a beak full of fluff, and fly away to their nests, looking like they have these fabulous little Einstein mustaches.

I think I found Cloud Nine

Two Words. Mandy. Patinkin. Three more words. Oh. My. Gosh.

A couple of months ago I was at my parent's home while mom was doing her usual reading through the arts section of the newspaper. I've got to remember to do this - this is how she finds amazing stuff! Like the fact that Mandy Patinkin (you may remember him as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride like 20 years ago) (but he's actually a super-star show-tunes singer) was coming in concert. Mom said, "Oh Leonard, let's go to this!" and I, third-wheeling, mouthy daughter that I am, said, "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take me too."

So last night I crashed my parent's date. It was so much fun. We went to a lovely theater up at Weber State University, and it was packed with maybe two or three thousand people. I'll tell you, those people screamed like little girls when Mandy walked on stage. Okay, I was there, I was screaming too. Like it was the Beatles or something! What was really fun was that he didn't have a set or a big production - the stage was sort of scattered with racks of chairs and a ladder and boxes and stuff like that. He and his pianist Paul Ford, who is pretty much Stephen Sondheim's right hand, sort of chose what to play as they went along. Wonderful. He didn't really dance a whole lot, but he definitely got into character wholeheartedly for each number. Lots of Stephen Sondheim, especially from my favorite of his musicals, seconded only by Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George. (Misty, go rent these movies. I would love to watch them with you.) I have loved the music from Sunday in the Park since high school. I am profoundly attached to it. He also sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Oklahoma, "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, lots more Sondheim, and some funny stuff like White Christmas, Maria (from West Side Story) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game in Yiddish. Funny. He was funny. And wonderful. My parents and I just sat there grinning at each other, clutching our hearts, crying, etc. Perhaps the best moment of the show (besides all the singing, of course) was as it came to a close and Mandy said, "I never end my shows without this." He took a sword fighting stance and said, "Hello. My Name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." You should have heard the crowd go nuts. I haven't heard screaming like that...maybe ever.

I'm so grateful to my parents who have brought so much art, culture and beauty into my life. They have done this for as long as I can remember, and I feel enormously enriched by it. Shakespeare, musicals, old movies, symphonies, theater, museums, and on and on. My whole life. I can't say that as a child I loved every moment of being enriched, but I certainly caught their infectious enthusiasm for these things. I really hope I can send a little of that the direction of my own children. Seriously, the effort mom put into it makes me overwhelmed, and yet treasure so much what I love that I hope I pass a little along. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Dental Triumph

Perhaps not every parent would consider getting a cavity filled a triumph, but today, I do. Stomper had a cavity. I'm sorry to say that this whole 'going to the dentist' thing has added a whole new level of maternal guilt to my life - how much plaque does he have? How many cavities? What about his gums? Is it all my fault? Yes! Just kidding, but you know how it goes. Every mother (by that I mean me,) seems to feel incomplete without a nice dollop of guilt to be carried (at least in my case) right in my shoulder muscles. Not to mention the fact that I am extremely tense about my own dental proceedings. I'm afraid I have projected some of that anxiety on my poor son. I didn't take him to the dentist for quite some time because I thought he'd wig out. He didn't. He did fine. Then at his last visit we found he had one tiny cavity. I did not want to be the one taking him in to get it fixed because I was afraid he'd wig out. He didn't. He did fine. I have to say that our dentist, a Dr. J. Connolly, is awesome with kids, as is his hygienist. Stomper had no idea what was going on, he just hung out happily watching the DVD player in the ceiling, and he was fixed up in no time. No resisting, no squirming, no tension. Except from me. I should have been very proud of my son, and of course I was. But I reserve my real praise for who else, ME!. Way to go not freaking out, Mom!

And in other dental news, Stomper has, count 'em, FOUR loose teeth! He's only 5 1/2, and both his top front and his bottom front teeth are very wiggly. I have to say I think he's lucky. I felt like it took forever to get a loose tooth, and I don't recall having more than one loose at a time. He's going to look a little silly with all four missing at once.

And now in other unrelated news, I have to say that we have developed a strange little ritual that I have come to totally enjoy. On Monday nights we've been making a concerted effort to have a very low-key Family Home Evening. We do like to begin with singing a little primary song before a prayer and a story, but the kids really like to each choose a silly song to sing before the more serious "opening" song. Well, it's fallen into a pattern. Bitty really likes to sing "Princesses." Have you heard of this song? Neither had we, but that didn't mean we didn't have to sing it for her. So we made it up. To the tune of Jingle Bells you sing, "Princesses, Princesses, Princesses we love, Oh what fun it is to ride with a Princess by your side, hey!" Forgive the lyrics, I was making them up as I went along, and they stuck. Now every Monday night we find ourselves singing it together as a family, to be followed by Stomper's usual choice, "Dinosaurs Popping on the Apricot Tree." I think you can figure that one out. Anyway, it's very silly, but it always gets the evening started off right.

And finally, I must post a picture of Bitty, who went on a ton of errands with me last week to get ready for that party on Friday night. One of our stops was at a party store, and she had been such a trooper that I let her choose a party hat (she loves those things) as well as a giant twisty sucker. As we were driving along to the next stop she zonked out. This is not a great picture, being from my cell phone, but it was worth it:



Yes, folks, she's asleep with the sucker (look Ma, no hands!) lodged between her teeth. I guess I'd better not procrastinate her first dentist appointment as long as I did Stompers....even though I'm sure she'll totally wig out, right?

Happy Freaking Mother's Day

We had quite the weekend. Let's begin.

Friday. My dear friend's husband graduated from law school, and so I helped her put on what turned out to be a huge party for him. We had started to plan it at my house, but thank the weather gods, it looked cool and rainy so we moved it to our church. This was a very good thing because there were at least 50 people there. We threw a fiesta with major decorations, great fajitas with all the fixin's and we basically worked our butts off. I was so exhausted Friday night that I was surprised that Saturday went the way it did.

Saturday. I have these fond memories of doing a big job with my family on a Saturday and at the end of the day feeling so tired and happy about the hard work we did, enjoying the evening in a really clean space. We had a Saturday like that. Troy and I both worked so hard all day. The whole house was a total mess from the party prep the night before, so that got all cleaned, but I also washed all the windows (ahhhhh!), did all the laundry, and the real kicker was that Troy finished our bedroom closet, which got ripped out a couple of years ago to make way for the staircase to our attic. We've gotten pretty used to having the only closet in the house be the tiny one in Stomper's room, and having a big old set of shelves in our room to hold more stuff. That felt normal. So when Troy effectively quadrupled our closet space it made quite a difference. Getting the extra shelves out of our room, unclogging Stomper's closet, and having a lovely space to store our clothes just felt like a miracle. It took Troy so much work and time that we named it my official Mother's Day Gift and I still feel a thrill every time I open the door. This picture doesn't do much justice because I couldn't back up enough to capture the entire closet on film, but here are some of the cedar shelves Troy made.



I couldn't be happier. Then came Sunday. Wow.

Sunday. We invited my in-laws over for dinner, so late Saturday night I went to the store to get the groceries for the meal, including a couple of cuts of beef to oven-roast the next morning. Well, Sunday mornings being Sunday mornings, getting to church was a party. I was a little extra tense because I was trying to put together a little craft for the nursery kids to give to their moms. I got that done, and then before the last hour of church slipped home to pop the roast in the oven. One problem. There appeared to be no meat in my house. Somehow the meat did not make it home from the grocery store. Yay! That was a fun surprise. So I headed back to church because I didn't want to miss Stomper singing with with primary kids. Of course, 5 minutes before he was supposed to go up and sing he grabbed one of his squishy dinosaurs a little too hard and the thing exploded in a burst of tiny plastic beads...yeah, kind of a mess. He was very sad. We went out in the hall to tearfully dispose of it, and he of course wouldn't have anything to do with the singing primary kids. He and I sat in the hall the whole time. By the time church had ended Stomper had cheered up. We went on the front lawn, me feeling slightly panicked due to my lack of beef, whereupon Stomper, now playing with another beloved squishy toy, launched it onto the roof of the church. More hysterics. So I dropped my stuff, grabbed his hand and hauled him to the 2nd floor bathroom, and lowered him out the window so he could cross the roof and collect his toy. Okay. NOW can we go home so I can figure out what to feed everyone? Not yet. We got to the parking lot to find that a friend of mine had not been paying attention as she backed out of her spot and ran into our car. The poor girl felt so bad, plus she had bashed out her rear window but luckily we sustained only a minor dent.

Then I had several friends come to my rescue, donating more than an entire meal to us, including chicken breasts and pork tenderloin, plus a bunch of other stuff. Luckily Morris and Carol were late so almost everything was done by the time they got here and we ended up enjoying a lovely afternoon. After lunch we ate dessert (these fantastic little mini-lemon cakes drenched in glaze and drowning in strawberries....yum...) on the back lawn while both kids stripped and played like little wild piggies in the mud. Bitty was especially nutty, but managed to stay pretty cheerful until she fell over, sound asleep before her head hit the pillow, at exactly 7:15, and slept until 7:15 this morning. What a day, indeed.

One Year Later, and a Birthday Happy

Today is the one year anniversary of the birth and passing of our baby Matthew. As I type this I am sitting by the back windows of our home watching my son and daughter wander around in our leafy back yard, and I am filled with wonder at life. Time is a very strange and fluid thing, I think, and something that our eternal souls don't settle with very comfortably. As I have been reflecting much these few days I am unbalanced between feelings of ages having passed since that chilly rainy day one year ago, and feelings of having said goodbye to Matthew only just now. My emotions today are similarly uneven; tottering between comfortable peace, a sense of deepening loss, and yet still joy in gratitude for all that Troy and I have, including this.

Now it is later, and we have had a somber and tender day, yet still filled with the regular busyness that life with children, employment and a home holds. I really wanted to do something special to celebrate and remember Matthew, but it felt a little forced. I do appreciate so much the smattering of phone calls, visits, gifts and even a surprise anonymous package we received. I wish I knew who our beautiful "sun jar" is from, but I don't, so I'll send out a general thank you to the thoughtfulness and sweet message of the sender, and to each touch we felt today. Anyway, though we wanted to do something special nothing felt like it was enough, and you know, nothing could be enough. Once I was able to recognize that feeling within myself, that it was okay for this just to be a hard day, I felt better. I wrote our baby a note to tell him this, that I couldn't do anything on this day but express that I remember him literally every hour of the day, and that I wish that I knew his face. Troy and Stomper also composed a note, and Stomper chose a tiny toy he really wanted to send. We tied our offerings to balloons and had a really lovely family time (even Bitty seemed to be slightly aware of what we were doing) on the back lawn, cuddled on our Matthew Blanket (thank you still and again, dear Mayfields) and let the balloons go.

So, on this day of what feels like emotional time travel, we are returning to a place in ourselves that holds this experience frozen, each raw emotion of anger, loss, tenderness, faith, surety, and sorrow still fully fresh when we choose to look there. We feel again our gratitude for the family we have, the closeness we have gained, and again the longing to get back what we never can.

I don't know what else to say. I think I'm exhausted, actually, and need to snuggle with my husband and go to bed. I would like to end by posting a poem I wrote a couple of months ago, when I felt like I was finally able to write. I love my friends and family dearly, and again express my faith in our journey home.

To Matthew,

To Asher.

To Kathryn and Emily Jean,

To Danielle, Winnie, Margaret and Sarah

To you silent and still ones

Whom we long to know and a little bit we do

Whom we yearn to cradle, touch, smell

Whom we ache to rest our hungry gaze upon

To breathe in the fuzzy warmth of your skin

I say to you that you are known,

That your names are spoken, whispered, remembered

Upon our lips, upon our skin, in our bones and on our walls

Whatever part of you we knew, we know by heart even still

And think of it, be it the kicking in our bellies or the mournful bundle in our arms,

We think of it with beauty and darkness together.

Babes, you are quiet as secrets, which we tell ourselves daily.

Do you hear us shout with joy and longing to think you belong to us?

Do you feel in our words and songs and breaths

The echoes of your presence?

Can you know that with each touch we give

Some of it goes to you?

Certainly you know, you feel, you wait

Patiently

And listen to the chimes and ringing bells that are our hopes

Sounding forward to you in glory

Glorious Day

Today ended up being such a wonderful day. The weather has finally decided to be totally perfect for at least two days. A miracle. Of course, it is May now, so maybe it's reasonable to start expecting a little springtime. After church, Troy and I just spread a blanket on the back lawn, stretched out and enjoyed the sunshine. Stomper was out with us for a while, and he looked so cute in his new buzz cut and sparkly blue eyes that I had to take a picture of him, and it turned into a very silly photo shoot for both of us. Troy has told me that he doesn't really love the slide-show thing on the blog, but I can't help but put together a few of the best. That silly photo session inspired Troy to pull out his real camera and take some pictures of me and the kids. I am really excited to see the results - it's amazing that in the world we live in, there's very little we have to wait for. With my little digital camera I can tell right away if a picture is good or not. I'm kind of enjoying the anticipation of waiting for these photos. As the afternoon turning towards evening, we also went for an awesome walk with the family, made Indian food for dinner, and enjoyed the company of two neighbors stopping by. Like I said, it was a glorious day, and I am grateful for it.

Forbidden Fruit

On the way home from his spin class this morning, Troy purchased an apple for himself. It looked just like this. Big, red, juicy, beautiful. Call me Eve. I had a friend over for lunch, along with her children. Of course I invited this friend over but did not prepare well because I tried to feed them lunch from a very empty fridge. I, like any good friend, wanted to provide balanced nutrition for the children. I saw the apple sitting on the counter, and I made a decision. I fed the apple to my friend, my friend's children, and to myself. I did leave a quarter of the apple for Troy....

Later in the day in my inbox I found this message from my husband:

This is Just to Say

You have eaten

the apple

which I purchased this morning

and I was saving for lunch

we'll see about forgiving you

I hope it was delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Spring in Utah

Any of you out-of-state friends missing Utah? Here's a little reminder of what it's like to try to get a little spring around here. Okay, okay, it's perfect....no wait, it's really a little too hot...no wait we're going to have a storm (we had snow four days ago)....okay, it's almost perfect...no wait......

When the Cat's Away....

....the mice are at play. At our house that translates to "When Daddy's away, the family eats like crap! And it's fun!" Troy has been in Portland for most of this week, and since Stomper and I were recovering from our...issues...we didn't put much energy into eating well rounded meals. On Wednesday Stomper was having a kind of rough day, not playing well with his friend in the morning, not wanting to go to school, stuff like that. So as I was driving him to school I was trying to have some close time with him, talking about how he was doing, how he wanted to spend the afternoon, etc. I asked him if there was something special he wanted for dinner. He said, "I just want some fried bread." Mmmmm. Fried Bread. So after school we whipped up a batch of pizza dough then headed to the playground with friends. When we returned, the dough was soft and billowy and ready for frying. Now, in Utah, you people call this little golden pillows of fried dough "scones." My husband and I can't seem to get past our disagreement - I grew up in Colorado where we called them by their correct name, sopapillas. Scones are baked, not fried, and they're crumbly and delicious and to be eaten with a cup of tea. He won't let go of this. And neither will I. Anyway. We fried up the dough and that's what we had for dinner.

Then yesterday. Do you ever have a sort of Three-Stooges day with your kids? One kid whacks the other, you holler, the other kid grabs the first one, you clonk their heads together, everyone shouts...you know what I'm talking about? Our whole afternoon was like that. All three of us were DONE with each other. We're ready for daddy to come home. We did have plans to get out of the house, but due to various fits of temper, sobbing and violence, all plans got canceled. Finally I realized that my children might be in need of nutrition, and the thought of making food, well, I just didn't want to do it. Nor did I want to drive anywhere. Chinese it is! For the record, Sampan makes some pretty good Chinese food. And it ended up being a fun meal. I rigged up some chopsticks for the kids - you put a spacer (like a wad of plastic wrap) between the two sticks at one end, and wrap it up with a rubber band so it's like a spring. The kids actually managed pretty well. Most importantly it took a really long time for them to eat their dinner. By the time that was over it was practically bedtime!

A Solitary Observation

When I was in high school I heard a poem that I instantly loved and memorized and have remembered ever since. It goes like this:

Solitary Observation Brought Back from a Sojourn in Hell

At midnight tears
Run in your ears

by Louise Bogan (that part I didn't memorize, I just googled the title - I love technology)

So this week, slightly from hell itself, Stomper made a solitary observation of his own:

Barf is yellow.
Throw-up is brown.

I guess he needed to make a distinction. Helpful, though gross, and now all you need to know is that we're all recovering. Only Stomper and I were really afflicted, but when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy, right?

I'll try to not let my next post be about any type of bodily function.

Jeopardy, Preslar Style

Answer:
"I want to go poo in the big orange box!"

Question:
What is "The most embarrassing thing you can think of for your child to be screaming at the top of her lungs as you drag her away from the park and its big orange port-a-potty on a crowded spring afternoon?"

Lesson Learned

I'm so sad. I thought I understood how to take pictures with my phone. I realize that this is not the ideal format for creating great pictures, but in a pinch I have been snapping a few shots with the phone. On a couple different occasions I thought I had been taking a series of pictures, when in reality I had been taking a picture, deleting it, and then taking another. Once last week, while Troy was out of town, I took the kids on a little date to an ice cream parlor. I had it in my head that we'd all share a great big banana split or something like that. However, when the kids saw the double cones, they had their hearts set on them. I took, or I thought I took, a bunch of pictures, but the only one I ended up with was this one:


Definitely not a bad one to end up with, certainly, but I'm missing the one great Stomper shot.

And then this week the whole neighborhood had no school on Monday. Some of us headed up to a park in the avenues to play, and though we all got there at different times, eventually there was a pretty good group there. I think this park is one of the only places left in the valley that has a real old-fashioned metal merry-go-round. The kids just loved it, but I did see a few good tuck-n-rolls as kids tried to get off while it was still in motion. It was pretty funny, only because no one really got hurt. I can see why those things are a dying breed. It reminded me of trying to jump off a moving train. Anyway, Bitty and her little friend J. spent the whole time on it, and when they were joined by about six boys, they made a pretty picture because every kid was wearing a different colored t-shirt. They looked so great, all the colors and smiling faces spinning in the sun, so again I snapped a bunch of pictures, erasing each one in turn. Here's the one I ended up with:


I'm glad I have the one, because it was a fun afternoon, but I'm so sad the green shirt is missing! Oh well, another lesson learned!

Eyeball Wishes

As we were preparing for the daily mud bath I was slathering Bitty with sunscreen, and I got a little sad because I suddenly remembered that the last time I was doing this she was requesting "scumskeen" and now she wants just regular old sun screen. This does not mean, however, that she has abandoned all cute baby talk and funny ideas, because also today she hopped out from behind something and shouted "yoda lady whoooo!" I thought that was rather endearing. Also, we had Troy's parents over for dinner. As Bitty she sat on her grandmother's knee and looked into her eyes she said, "Hey, you've got wishes in your eyes!" I was able to explain, first of all that she didn't think Grandma had a witch in her eye, just a wish. The last time she said this it took some figuring out, but it turns out that when she sees the little spark of reflected light in someone's eye, she thinks it looks like the flame on the top of a birthday candle, thus making it a "wish." I'll tell you, the first time she said that a few weeks ago it took some serious figuring to understand what she meant. I just love that - we all have twinkling wishes in our eyes.

Spring has Sprung

I loved today. Loved it. I don't think the weather could have been any better. Plus, it was Sunday, yet Troy didn't have any meetings after church, so we just had a nice afternoon together. Of course church did involve a three-stooges-esque wrestling match for pretty much the duration of sacrament meeting, but we all survived. The weather has blossomed into loveliness, just warm enough to hang out outside in shorts, go for a walk with El Poocho, and most importantly, get a good head start on our annual mud bog in the backyard. I was so happy to enjoy a day like this after yesterday.

Yesterday was not a bad day by any means, it was just one of those crazy busy days. It started with a double (two family) play date in the morning, and moved on through dropping kids off at my sister's, shopping for a shower gift, going to a wedding shower, finding out that I was in charge of refreshments for a baptism 1 1/2 hours before it began, picking kids up, getting ready for the baptism, getting to the baptism to find that there were about three times as many people as we were expecting and so shopping during the baptism, frantically preparing the food during the end of the service (thank you helper friends!) and then having friends over for an impromptu dinner after that. Yeah, I'm tired just reading over that. Although I suppose I could be tired because of this really fun game our family played last night called musical beds. I'm sure you parents out there are familiar with it and I won't bore you with the details.

By the way, though I missed the actual baptism, the guy who got baptized is really cool and I'm happy for him. And the food I made was really great.

I must mention one of the many reasons I love my husband. It's so fun to watch him adore his children. He dug a pretty big pit in our dirt patch for Stomper to play in, and filled it up with water. As Troy watched his son have an absolute ball splashing and jumping and digging in there, he mentioned to me how much he wants to make, out of plaster or wood or something, some big dinosaur-ish bones to hide in there. Can you imagine my little dinosaur boy digging in there, pretending as usual to be a paleontologist, and actually finding bones? I think he would have a heart attack of joy. I just love that Troy thinks about what would make his kids ecstatically happy and finds joy in their joy. That's a good daddy for you.

Observations

Random observation #1:
In my gmail account I have a special place where all the spam lands. It tells me that the spam folder will empty itself after 30 days, and normally I can't stand to wait this long before I empty it myself. I am now conducting an experiment to find out how much spam will accumulate before it finally does empty itself. So far we're up to 3070. Thank heavens it's in a separate folder, and I'm wondering what I did to get on The List.

Random observation #2:
When my daughter cries, she can actually produce tears with enough velocity that they launch themselves from her face. She looks like a cartoon of a kid crying, water flying everywhere. It's pretty amazing to see these little droplets actually springing off her cheeks. She's a very talented young lady.

The Weekly Update

I must begin by thanking my many supporters for all the comments from my "feeling like an idiot" post. I don't think I've ever gotten so many comments from a post before. Just so you know, I did respond to the author's comment by saying that I certainly hoped that her book sales were helping her pay off her whopping debt. Unfortunately, I got my copy from the library, so I wasn't very helpful in that regard. I have no idea if she read my reply or not. Anyway, you all made me feel much better!

Where to begin? So many great moments this week. Bitty has been informing me that she is now too big for diapers. This is a devastating comment to hear, I being one who despises potty training. The thing is, she hates diapers, she loves panties, she hates sitting on the potty, and she is heartbroken when her undies get wet. I find this to be quite the combination. On Thursday we tried using a timer, set for every 20 minutes or so. That worked really well. She would happily go sit on the potty every time it went off. However, she never actually went potty while sitting on the potty. (I assume you know that by "go potty" I mean "urinate" - I'm not quite a grown-up yet, GHD3!) She must have sat on that thing at least 15 times. Not once did anything happen. She did, however, manage to wet her pants twice. She also pooped, but had the grace to remove her beloved Dora panties before doing so. Behind the couch. Serenity Now!!! She just has no concept of recognizing the need to go potty. Oh well, we'll get there.

Troy made me a very happy lady this week. He built a beautiful coat rack to hang by our front door. I've been wanting one for a long time, and looked and looked and never found anything that I really liked. I hated to put another job on Troy's to-do list, but he reminded me that there is a reason that we paid for all the tools he owns, and he did a great job. I love it. I love it so much I kind of hate to hang anything on it because it covers it up. Troy told me that he enjoys telling people how easy it is to make me happy. All he has to do is deny me some basic thing for a really really long time and then when he suddenly presents it to me I'm the happiest person on the planet. I just love that he has the talent to make beautiful things like that.

I also had to record our funny dog moments this week. Alex just gets nervous sometimes when kids are running around. I would even say he gets a little clingy. Here are pictures of him insisting on close physical contact with his favorite person on the planet:




He's such a psycho puppy, but I love him anyway.






I will end with a story about a trip to the park. First of all, hooray that we finally made it to the park! It was a bit chilly, but nice to soak in a little vitamin D. I was watching my kids and how opposite they are from each other, as demonstrated by their swing usage. Stomper, 5 1/2 year old boy, still insists on swinging in the little baby swings with a back and a chain sort of buckling him in. He loves for me to do all the pushing and pretty much blocks out all instruction on how to pump himself. Then there's Bitty, half her brother's age, who refused to sit in the little swings and refused to let me touch her at all. She just sat there on the big swing, hanging on for dear life and wiggling her bum as hard as she could trying to move. I'm laughing to myself just thinking about it. I want to solve her frustration so bad, but she just has to do it herself, which is great. Great, that is, until she's absolutely screaming in fury yet still won't let me help. She's a tough cookie, I tell you!

Very last of all, a great picture of her during a recent playdate:

Tags

Okay, I'm actually kind of getting into these tags - they're a kind of fun way to find things out about friends. If you don't find them fun or interesting, then please, stop reading. I got an ABC tag from my friend Gina. Here goes.

A-Attached or Single:
I'm singularly attached. I love my Troy.
B-Best Friend:
See above answer. I'm also endlessly grateful for my piles and piles of friends.
C-Cake or Pie:
How am I supposed to answer that one? I'd eat both with a fork in each hand if I could. And I love making both, though I've had more success in the cake department.
D-Day of Choice:
Don't really have a favorite. I love Tuesday and Wednesday because that's when my favorite step class is, I love Saturdays because "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is on NPR...
E-Essential Items:
Hand lotion, chap stick, a scrunchie. I also greatly appreciate having baby wipes on hand, though I try to not go through them wastefully.
F-Favorite Color:
So many good ones! Apple green, lately.
G-Gummy Bears or Worms:
Bears, I guess, but I'd prefer the little cola bottles.
H-Hometown:
Born in Boulder Colorado, but at this point SLC is really home.
I-Indulgences:
Good food, I love a nice pedicure but don't do it much.
J-January or July:
Gosh. I'd rather have the two inbetweens of April and October.
K- Kids:
Three babes, one of whom is waiting for us to catch up to him.
L- Life would be incomplete without:
My family and friends
M- Marriage Date:
December 30, 1997 (yup, that makes us working on year #11!)
N-Number of Siblings:
1 big sis and 2 little bros.
O-Oranges or Apples:
Apples I guess. I love oranges but I'm so picky - they have to be just right or I can't eat them.
P-Phobia or Fears:
Hmmm. I guess really deep water kind of freaks me out. Heights, although I'm thrilled by them too. I don't like forgetting things, isn't that weird? Alzheimer's totally freaks me out.
Q-Quotes:
You must sacrifice perfection in order to teach responsibility
R-Reason to smile:
Life in general, I think. The coming of Spring. Watching my kids playing nicely. Hearing a song I really love. Shall I go on?
S-Season:
When spring finally gets here I'm just filled with happiness. I love watching my plants come up, I love going outside and breathing in all the smells, going for walks. Mmmm. Love it.
T-Tag Six:
How about Michelle, Melissa, Monica, Carrie, Kathleen P. and Adair. No pressure, of course.
U-Unknown Fact About Me:
I have hair on my big toes.
V-Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal:
Isn't there a separate category? Like "Less Meat Eating?" Because that's where I am.
Y- Your Favorite Food:
I'd have to say that Indian food is pretty much manna from heaven for me, though I love most Asian like Korean, Thai, stuff like that.
Z-Zodiac Sign:
Gemini. Apparently this means that I'm a back-stabbing two-timer.

Feeling Like an Idiot

I just read this book. It's called "Someday My Prince Will Come," by Jerramy Fine. It was kinda fun, I have to admit that it kept me reading. However, it also kinda drove me crazy. This is not a novel, it's the memoir of a woman just a few years younger than myself who was raised by a set of very bohemian parents in Colorado, but she was totally obsessed with England, royalty, and marrying a prince. It definitely had its charming moments, ...well, here's the review I wrote about it on my goodreads page:

It's hard to know what to say about this book. The author definitely has a fun writing style that keeps you turning pages, and in some ways I sympathized with her plight because it was so real to her. And in other ways I wanted to slap her silly and ask her what her problem was. She came off as being pretty obsessive, slutty, alcoholic, psycho and a credit card maniac. Two hundred thousand dollars in debt? Get a hold of yourself! Also, her parents were the target of much sarcastic humor tha...more "It's hard to know what to say about this book. The author definitely has a fun writing style that keeps you turning pages, and in some ways I sympathized with her plight because it was so real to her. And in other ways I wanted to slap her silly and ask her what her problem was. She came off as being pretty obsessive, slutty, alcoholic, psycho and a credit card maniac. Two hundred thousand dollars in debt? Get a hold of yourself! Also, her parents were the target of much sarcastic humor that began to feel cruel to me. She gave them a little credit in the end, thankfully. Her big statement at the conclusion of the book about everything she had learned was full of things that I felt were obvious from the beginning, that any rational creature might already have been aware of and that I was internally screaming at her throughout the book. Now that I've trashed the book I must say that I did get caught up in her story and that I have some interest England myself, so it had its good points. I loved her footnotes."

I reread my comments several times before I posted them to make sure they were really how I felt, and they really are how I feel. However, this morning I received an email letting me know that I had a message from Jerramy Fine waiting for me in my goodreads account. Gulp. I guess when I so flippantly shredded her I wasn't expecting her to read my comments and then write back. Here's what she had to say:

Hi Rachel,
Just letting you know that my debt was 95% higher-education-related! Overseas masters degrees cost a lot - especially when combined with four years of a private US university that my parents couldn't afford to fund on my behalf. Luckily, the American government gave me loans for the full amount of both schools - but sadly 200K is how much debt I racked up for the sake of a good education. I have many friends with MBA and law degrees that are in similar (or worse) financial positions.
Royally yours,
Jerramy

Yeah, I'm feeling like a jerk. I have to admit that I known the actual author would be reading I probably would have used words like "boy crazy" instead of "slutty," "sure drinks a lot" rather than "alcoholic"....and would have left out the "psycho" all together. I get a little passionate with my opinions sometimes and throw words out that are probably stronger than I mean them to be,. Sometimes I think I'm being funny. I'm sure it's kind of hard to have your very first book be a memoir of yourself and just lay yourself out there like that, and then get trashed. At the same time, I still stand by my feelings. She did choose a very expensive graduate school in London just because it was in London. I am certainly a little star struck. Why am I suddenly wanting to make a good impression on her? So I need a verdict - do I write a note back to her saying sorry I'm a jerk? Am I a jerk? Do I really want you to answer that?


Other random notes from the week:

Bitty has returned! Yesterday was the first day in over a week that Bitty was more herself. It was a wonderful day. She was happy, playful, silly and chatty. What a relief. She had been so miserable for so many days that we were all a little miserable. Of course, I think she's still got an ear infection, but if you think I'm going back for more antibiotics, well, I'm not. She said something kind of cute yesterday - she saw a square of light on the floor of the otherwise dim kitchen and said, "Look, a good-morning shadow!" She calls all things light "good morning" and all things dark "good night." When she wants the lights on she asks for good morning time. If she wants to get out of bed she insists that it is good morning time. Kinda cute, I think.

Stomper has been a real trooper this week as I've been so preoccupied with his sister. My favorites of his activities of the week have been him hiding all his remaining Easter candy behind the closet door in his bedroom, "to store it for the winter," as he told me. Of course, every time he came out of his room he seemed to be chewing and drooling strands of brown, so I don't think it will make it all the way to next winter. Luckily there wasn't much back there or I might have had to do something alarming like set limits or use parenting skills. I think three mini snickers won't do much harm. Also, he's been so sweet at bedtime. When I worked up at Brighton LDS Girl's Camp there was (and certainly still is) a song that the staff sings together every night to say goodnight. It's called Shadows Creep - when you're ready to sing it you say, "Let's creep!" Well, Stomper loves that song and this whole week has asked me to sing it. He says that he can't go to sleep unless I sing it, and has even said, "Mom, if you're ready for me to go to sleep then you should sing Shadows Creep." When I start singing it he instantly shuts his eyes and composes his face into the most peaceful state he can. It warms my heart. I'm a little tempted to start singing it at 7:15 tonight.

And one final note: any of you ever buy your kids Polly Pockets? Who...WHO decided that those little tiny dollies needed their own shoes? Shoes that are less than a centimeter in length? And what possessed me to be one of those purchasers? I had to ask this question as I found myself on my hands and needs, my cheek pressed to my living room floor frantically searching for the minuscule object as my daughter trailed behind me, weeping. Could the shoe in question at least been one of the pink ones? No, it was, of course, Cinderella's glass slipper, so it was a clear object less than one centimeter long and only a couple of millimeters wide I was searching for. Just so you know, I did find it, and now all the polly pockets are locked safely in their little box and are on the top shelf. Now that's logic for you.

Viewer Discretion Advised

You know you've got something good going on when your Pediatrician walks into your exam room, stops, stares at your child and says, "Oh. My. Gosh." But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Easter weekend! Yippeeee, right? Well, some of the time yes and some of the time, not so much. Let's go with the good parts first.

Dying eggs on Saturday afternoon was fun. And of course quite messy. Bitty found that she loves the taste of vinegar and spent most of the egg-dying frenzy dunking her fingers into the various dyes and then sucking on them. She eventually moved on to sucking the eggs themselves. I did try to stop her, seeing as who KNOWS what is in those little pellets of color, but I was kind of laughing too hard. I always picture a project like this and imagine it being a really terrific activity, taking a nice long time, bringing out the creativity in my children, making close family memories... What really happens is the kids are so anxious to dye the eggs they're practically throwing them into the cups of dye with such force that the eggs are cracking (eggs that I forgot about while boiling, and thus cooked them for over half an hour...yum!) and then yanking them out so fast that they're barely pastel. At least that way they can re-dye them five minutes later when they're all done and want more eggs.

Another super enjoyable Saturday afternoon activity for us was doing a little bike riding at the playground around the corner from our house. I have such great memories as a kid of my parents teaching me how to ride my little yellow bike, and later taking off with my siblings through the country roads of our little neighborhood. Our house is on a pretty busy street surrounded by two other busy streets, so I don't see myself ever letting the kids just take off on their bikes. I don't know, maybe when they're older. Anyway, we've never put a lot of emphasis on bike riding, we've never gotten the kids tricycles, and suddenly Stomper is getting big! We've obtained two nice little bikes from friendly neighbors and Troy got them all cleaned up and fitted with training wheels and sized just right for the kids. I have to say, my heart filled with joy watching the two of them pedal around. I'm looking forward to many biking outings this spring and summer. Oh yeah, and we need to get some helmets, I know.





It was after that the fun really began. Bitty has been struggling with ear infections. Last month we tried the regular old pink amoxicillan. The infection was back after a couple of weeks. So last week we started on the next step up, Augmentin. Let it be known, my child is not compatible with this drug. Saturday afternoon I noticed a couple of red spots on her legs and thought, hmmmmm. I called my trusty advisor in all things, Becky, and we decided that it would be fine to wait until the morning to see what was up. What was up was a major reaction to the medication. I noticed spots all over her neck when she woke up, called the doc, who of course recommended that we stop the antibiotic. Sure, no big deal, here's some benadryl. Well, then I went to change her out of her jammies, took one look at her spotted, inflamed little body and just about fainted. Luckily her breathing was fine, but yikes. That was scary. So, we continued on with the benadryl. Well, Sunday night the itchies started. Wow. No sleep for Bitty or Bitty's mommy. I felt so bad for her. (And for me.) Of course she was crying about her ears again, she totally had a blazing fever, and she was just miserable.

Our little pediatric clinic opens at 8:00 and I was on the phone at 8:01. Yes, hello, I need an appointment RIGHT NOW. Dr. George was the one who walked in and stopped in his tracks when he saw her. Here's where your viewer discretion is advised. I had to take a couple of pictures to always remember poor Bitty and her journey into the realm of the truly miserable. Just so you know, she was fine - I was a little afraid that we had a trip to Primary Children's in our future, but alarmist that I am, of course I thought that. She's fine, and is, right now, sleeping soundly and has much less of a resemblance to a leopard.

Here she is in the car as we were picking up the new medication from the local pharmacy.


Here we are after the apointment getting in a dry diaper. Poor baby!

It has taken the past two days for her to really start feeling better, but thankfully she slept last night, and is sleeping now, so hopefully we're recovering. Oh yeah, I forgot about Easter. It kind of got overshadowed by the whole "I think my kid is gonna die!!!!" thing but it was nice. The kids each got a nice little gift, plus we had dinner with both sets of grandparents and a little egg hunt. Nice, yeah, but I'm kind of glad that weekend is slipping into the past.

Snowmen at Night

Are you familiar with this fantastic children's book? It's a favorite at our house. And it sort of came to life for us. Here's the snowman Troy and the kids put together on our snowy Saturday night:



And here it is the next afternoon:



What did that snowman do at night? It must have been doing the limbo. It certainly looks a little worse for the wear, anyway. We put green water in the spray bottle so Stomper could color the snowman green (and work on his fine-motor skills at the same time, unbeknownst to him...) but I'm not sure what he was up to by impaling the snowman on a watering can. I'm so glad the kids are starting to play more outside, despite the chilly temperatures. This household is in need of some fresh air!

Things I Want to Remember

I'm sitting here, this Saturday evening, watching my family have a snowball fight on the back porch. In the usual style of SLC, we've had a taste of spring, some warmth in the air to make us hungry for outings to the park and flopping on the grass, and now it's snowing. Pretty hard, actually, and my kids are loving it. Once again I've gotten behind in all the things I've wanted to post, and as I watched the kids and Troy spontaneously start a snowball fight with gleeful shouts I saw that one of those magical moments happening right before my eyes. It made me think that I could just sum up this week in a list of everything I wanted to remember.

Thing One: Week of Cakes.

I really love making cakes. Big tall beautiful towers covered in luscious frosting. Of course, my towers never fail to lean to one side. I'm still working towards perfection. And I had many chances to practice this week. On Monday we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday with a massive yellow cake with traditional chocolate frosting. It was the most crooked of the whole week, I think, but it sure was tasty. (A quick note: Troy and the kids have now rolled together a snowball that is taller than Bitty. Bitty is wearing slippers. I'm expecting tears at any moment due to cold feet, but so far she's just screaming with delight.) Then on Tuesday was our big Relief Society Birthday Party - and of course I'm on the food committee. It was actually my idea to have a beautiful table just filled with cakes and thus it became my job to make the cakes. I only made three of the five, and they all turned out nicely. A three-tiered lemon just dripping with creamy glaze, a gooey coconut that soaked up the sour cream frosting for three days before being served, and a dark chocolate with a fluffy whipped cream layer in the middle, ganache on top, and capped with a heap of strawberries. That one went first. I was so happy with how they turned out, and I won't tell which two came very near to being total disasters that were saved at the last minute due to some serendipitous ingredients in my fridge. THEN on Wednesday Troy's coworker Steve had a birthday. We were invited to a surprise dinner for him and as I was talking to his wife on the phone I heard these words come out of my mouth: "Can I bring a cake?" Huh. Well, luckily I still had everything I needed for one more cake, and I must say it was also a tasty treat. And now I don't need to eat cake again for a year. Except I did one more time on Friday night, but that's another story. At least I didn't make that one.

Thing Two: I made a great hat for Stomper.

Of course, I couldn't get a very good picture of it because he was being so silly, but I was very happy with the hat. (Another quick note: the giant snowball is now a full three-ball-high snowman, taller than Troy, and has a carrot nose and craisin eyes and mouth. I'm very impressed and enjoying my family's spontaneity, not that I'm taking part in it.) Anyway, here's the hat:



Knitting is becoming my happy place. That is, it's my happy place when it's not my frustrated, throw a huge tantrum, fling myself on the floor and cry place.

Thing Three: Bitty loves Shoes

Bitty got a box of dress-ups for Christmas that contains one pair of shoes. Big pink plastic shoes with a hideous flower on them, and she loves them. Well, now that she's starting to have play dates it's become abundantly clear that we need more than one pair. My sweet friend Elaine had an extra dollar-store pair at home and brought them over. They're almost worse than the first ones - pink fake snake skin. Gorgeous. Bitty was so thrilled that of course she wore them for the rest of the day, and even fell asleep with one cradled in her arms. I myself have never found hard plastic objects to be especially cuddly, but hey, who am I to deny a two year old of anything that will help her go to sleep happily?


Well, we now have a huge snowman in the back yard, which I will take a picture of later. The snow adventure did indeed end in tears for Bitty who's feet finally got cold through her slip-on-slippers, but other than that I think the evening was a pleasant one.

Help Me Out Here

Okay people. Help me out. Help me understand my child. Bitty is killing me. Yesterday, she had a nap on the way home from a long drive, which we know is the equivalent of having a completely nocturnal child. She went to bed after 11:00, which is better than it has been in the past. Does she sleep in this morning? Of course not, she's awake before 7:00, maybe even 6:30. So, I keep her up all day. She does snooze for literally 10 minutes on the way to a friend's house, but I quickly wake her up. 10 minutes, people. Does this count as a nap? To her, apparently it does, because tonight, at 10:00 when she had expressed her 1,845,973rd desire for me to do something for her, she was still in a perfectly energetic and chipper mood. You know, I adore my daughter, but 15 hours of her undivided company got to be a little much. Aren't kids supposed to need a lot of sleep? And now, I'm sitting here exhausted, basically typing with my eyes closed because I just need a few more moments of time without anyone asking me for anything.

Ah, motherhood. Goodnight.