Ah, Easter. The picture says it all. What you are looking at there is a shot of the sidewalk outside of my parent's front door, the starting place for our candy hunt on Sunday afternoon. Those little dark spots are where Bitty's tears were landing, in two perfect little puddles, as she was liberally shedding them, overcome as she was by....I don't even remember what. It was one of those days where by about 10 a.m. she was bursting into tears about every 15 minutes. I think I'm doing holidays incorrectly. They just seem to make my kids cry.
I did actually bring our nice camera to our family Easter dinner, but didn't end up even taking it out of the bag. I was too busy juggling Bundle, chatting with both Troy's and my parents, getting food ready, keeping the other kids happy, etc. Luckily Troy had his iphone on hand when Bitty started fountaining tears, a sure sign that Easter was wrapping up. Too much sugar, too much excitement, too many people... too much! I can't believe our treat basket on top of the fridge. It easily has as much candy in it as it does after Halloween. Ah yes, another super spiritual Easter Sunday for the Preslar family. Good thing we've got next year to try again.
And now, Spring break is in full force. So far, so good, despite the snowstorm we got last night. I'll let you know how it ends up.
I have a vision of myself as being a really fun, hip and on-the-ball mom. We all know the truth, though don't we. Sigh. I can barely keep my family fed and dressed! And let's just leave the house cleaning out of this. Well, on Wednesday I was taking a moment to catch of glimpse of "Good Things Utah," a local television program geared basically for the stay home mom. They had a segment on April Fools jokes to play on your kids at meal times and I was totally entranced. Making dessert look like the main course (fish sticks made of cookies/peanut butter/cracker crumbs) and the other way around (ice cream sundaes made of mashed potatoes), making mini desserts (frost cheerios like donuts), fake-out cakes (frost a roll of toilet paper), and the list went on. I figured that I could muster enough energy to pull together a couple of April Fools jokes for the kids.
For Stomper I packed his real lunch in a paper bag at the bottom of his lunch box and placed on top of it baggies of plastic food. I left him a note assuring him that actual food could be found below. Of course, the joke ended up being on me when his water bottle malfunctioned and he ended up with a dripping lunch bag instead, but he assured me that he and his classmates were rather tickled by the joke. For dinner Bitty and I joined forces to create dessert for dinner - we concocted cupcakes out of their favorite meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes. Bitty was especially thrilled that we even topped them with real sprinkles. She couldn't wait to invite Stomper in to dinner, though he was doubtful that his mean-ole-mom actually made a dessert for supper. They did get a kick out it, though. More importantly they ate it. Worth the effort!
She's not officially 10 months old for 2 more days, but since I happen to be sitting at the computer with no one bugging me at this very moment, I'm going to go ahead and post Bundle's official "she's 10-months old!" blog entry. If you have ever had a child, you know what stage she's in. She in the dumping stage. You know the one. She's on the move at every moment. The only time she's still is when she's stationed at a drawer or shelf or something containing anything that isn't bolted down and she's systematically pulling those things off/out and scattering them evenly across the floor. She's pretty good at it and is developing a decent arm in the meantime. And I let her do it because it's easier to get something done then clean up her mess instead of just spending the entire day trying to stop her from making messes in the first place. The trick is to just make sure that she makes smaller and smaller messes all day so by bedtime I'm not totally up to my ears in the contents of every drawer in my house. Some days work out, others, not so much.
You know, Bundle is amazing me lately. I don't think I've ever had a baby who is quite so attached to people before. I mean, I think all of my kids, the girls especially, have been pretty social, but Bundle is so glued to people it's just amazing. She watches our family during prayers and she folds her arms too. She tries to copy my hand gestures. She tries to mimic words. I don't think she's really had a first word yet but if I say "cracker" she says, "gock." If I say, "chase," she says, "tayse." Really. She does. But I don't think she knows what she's saying, she's just copying me. It's really fun, though.
And here she is, modeling a sweater I just finished for her. It was probably kind of dumb for me to make her a sweater in March, with Spring (hopefully) not far off, but seeing as how we're having blustery weather around here, I'm glad she has it!
Okay, just one more picture. We ate spinach last night and she loved it. A lot. Glad to finally get some roughage in this gal! She insists on feeding herself, but before she'll put anything in her mouth she has to give it the 'texture test' first. She grabs the food and palpitates it to determine its firmness. Too mushy or squishy? She chucks it on the floor. Acceptable? She makes an attempt to get it in her mouth, sometimes making it, sometimes not. Every evening, bathtime follows dinner almost immediately.
Troy had two business trips in one this past week. He left on Monday for Scottsdale, Arizona and came home yesterday via St. George. We missed him. A lot. Stomper missed his daddy so much that I was forbidden to mention him because it would make Stomper cry. Awww! I usually do fine without Troy for a night or two but by about night three I'm starting to crack a little. (Speaking of cracking, a cute little boy I know saw me yesterday and recognized me as 'The Lady Who Lives in the Crack House,' because of the cracks in our wood floors! Ha!) Anyway, by yesterday, day 5, I was really starting to lose it. I almost posted a quick entry that would have gone like this:
"Bundle is teething and won't let me put her down and Bitty won't stop playing the same game of pretend with me and Stomper is treating his friends like a jerk right in front of their parents and Bitty was awful in front of that same parent and I can't manage to cross a single item off my to-do list and it's my friend's birthday and I can't get her present to her and we've eating nothing but crap for four days and I just spilled gasoline all over myself and it's been a terrible horrible no-good very-bad day! Waaaaahhhhh!"
That's what I would have posted except that I had to quickly shower while Bundle was sleeping to get the gasoline off of me. Duh. I was at the gas station pumping gas. I heard the little handle click like it does when your tank is full so I pulled the nozzle out. Guess what. It was the car next to me that had finished filling, not mine, so I created a spewing fountain of fuel that soaked me from shoulder to socks. Our house still reeks, though my skin isn't burning any more. My clothing is soaking outside, but I don't think it's going to make it. Poor Troy walked in the door and said, "Why do I still smell the airport?" Sorry honey. Doofy wife here.
Now Troy's at a movie with the big kids. The poor man is enduring Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakual. Good daddy.
Here's another reason Troy is a good daddy. Stomper gave him a little science kit for his birthday. They were working on a project together and found it coming up short of Stomper's expectations so Troy totally rigged the thing to work.
He's awesome. Here's a picture of Troy with some of his friends who came to his 40th birthday party.
This was a while ago but I just wanted to see Troy among this great group of fellows. He's always had such wonderful friends and I think it's a reflection of what a wonderful person he is. Sigh. He's going to start leaving me more often so I'll gush more often.
Ah sweet March. You're such a tease. I love you for it, though. For giving us just a taste, just a nibble of spring right when we're ready to give up all hope. The past few days have been more like spoonfuls than nibbles of spring. It's been great. One afternoon as the kids had friends over I popped a bowl of popcorn and spread a blanket outside and we all just basked. Well, I basked. Bitty and Stomper did what they always do - they went straight for the dirt. And Bundle experimented the new variety of flavors and textures to be enjoyed (put in her mouth) in the great outdoors. She tells me that grass is okay but dirt is a little gritty. And don't even try keeping that girl away from popcorn. She adores the stuff and will climb any obstacle in her way to get to it. By the way, why do I forget every year that kids burn in the sun? The air is so cool and refreshing, the sun so warm and inviting that I completely forget to sunscreen and I toasted poor Bundle's neck. Sorry honey. I'm now equipped with the sun block and sunhats now. It only takes one sacrificial pale little neck each year to get me back on the ball.
My kids. Don't get them. The whole 'eat your vegetables' thing is kinda rough at our house. Okay, Bitty's pretty good, but Stomper? The person who can get his daily quota of veggies in that boy is a better parent than I. I can barely get the kid to choke down a smoothie. But you know what my kids are crazy about? Just absolutely wild for? Seaweed. Yes, seaweed. Roasted and salted sheets of seaweed. When my parents came to pick me up from my mission in Korea we had seaweed several times. My dad said, "Mmmmmm. It's like eating ...crunchy, ...salty paper." My mom said, "Ewwww. It's like eating ...crunchy, ...salty paper." Funny. I guess my kids are more on the "crunchy, salty paper is yummy" side of things. Even Bundle's in on it. I'm sure it's not the best way to fill a kid with dark green vegetables, but it's better than a McNugget, right?
I have entered the baby phase with Bundle in which we are in a Herculean wrestling match at all times. She wants to get down and walk, but she doesn't know she can't walk yet. She wants to grab everything within her visual range, but she doesn't know that there are things that will cut her or burn her. She wants to put everything she touches into her mouth, but she doesn't know that dog hair picked off the carpet is not actually a delicious thing. I guess I'm not sure on that one, having never really tried it, but I'm going with the popular opinion on this one. She also has a knack for locating any chokeable item instantly, zeroing in on it and then lunging for it with all her tiny might. Yeah, I'm not getting a ton done around here.
I would just like to say one thing. Normally, there is no one to blame but myself for the spills and stains you can see dotting my clothing on any given day. In a heroic effort to show his love for me, Troy calls my super-splashy food habits "endearing," but we know the truth. However, yesterday, as I sat at a lovely Thai lunch with my sister, I was engaged in a non-stop battle over noodles, lettuce, chopsticks, beverages, ice, napkins, baby toys, and more with Bundle that did not let up for the entire hour. The food on my clothing? NOT my fault. Yet, still kind of endearing. She'll only be 9 months for about 2 1/2 more weeks, right?
I've had a month of messes. Serious messes. I have baked cakes for parties. I have made chili for cook-offs (okay, just one of those). I have thrown a party for my husband, I have helped make breakfast for 75 people. It has been a busy month! Then Tuesday night was the culminating feast - our church dinner for the ladies, which I made. It was a lovely evening, and I had great help from many people. Want to see what I came home to that night?
A big ole' mess, that's what. Which is what I seem to be best at making. Luckily it wasn't actually that tough to clean up. And I am officially calling my busy month of cooking done! Done! Wait. I just signed up to cook soup for the teachers next week for parent teacher conferences. Great.
You know, I'm reading this silly little book called "Being the Mom." Nothing deep, just some funny stories and good reminders. I am not sorry I'm making soup next week - I'm remembering to be grateful for my 'have to's.' Making soup for teachers means that there are good teachers out there. I am grateful for a good school for my kids, and I'm grateful to have kids at all. Might as well make soup for what I'm grateful for!
I am certain I can manage soup without creating THIS kind of mess, though, don't you think?
Do you ever have one of those moments when you look at your child and they seem to have suddenly grown up by a great leap just overnight? You'd think all the growing and developing would happen so gradually but I tell you, it doesn't always go that way! Yesterday I found myself watching Bundle in amazement all day long. She just seemed so much bigger than the day before. I'm sure it had to do with the fact that she was wearing this cute little pair of big-girl jeans instead of a soft baby romper. Also, she figured out how to pull herself to standing yesterday. Her hair just seemed a little longer, her face a little more grown up. She had a light in her eye that seemed new. A light of discovery, it must have been. "Hey! I am going to figure out how to get around by myself!" It's so endearing, so exciting, and awe-inspiring too. And sad. So I'm going to post a picture of her from what doesn't seem that long ago, just to remind me of my soft new little Bundle.
Stomper received a book as a gift a couple of days ago. He was so excited, and even read it to me, which is really saying something. (The reading thing has been somewhat of a challenge, to say the least.) Of course when I saw what the book was I just about jumped out of my skin. The single most frightening book of my entire childhood! Can you guess what it was? Does the phrase, "pale green pants with nobody inside them" ring a bell? Oh Dr. Suess! I know you thought it was a good idea to write about overcoming your fears but seriously, that book, with it's dark night-time pages and creepy empty pants running around following the little guy - that was just scary! Stomper seemed to think it was hilarious and read with great theatrical gusto, but even now I get the willies just looking at those pale green pants! With nobody inside them!
Speaking of great theatrical gusto, Stomper's little first grade class just put on a rousing production of The Owl and the Woodpecker. (Heard of it? Me neither.) Stomper, who played both a pirate and a crocodile, was so cute - he belted out his lines most heartily. It made me come to a decision. Next time he has a speaking part in the annual church primary program and he tells me he's just too shy I'm going to tell him bull-oney. A definite shout-out goes to the drama, music and dance teachers at Wasatch who put a LOT of work into these productions. I enjoyed watching their directions from the floor as much as I enjoyed the kids.
And Bitty. Oh Bitty. We go through great times and then suddenly she's all off kilter or something. Seriously. Two weeks of cheerful happy loving little daughter and then overnight she turns a corner. "Mom, I WISH I were you." "Why, honey?" "Because then I wouldn't have to LISTEN to you."
Also, how do I respond to this one? "Mom I did something gross at school today. Okay, it was kind of sweet." Uh oh. "What did you do, Bitty?" "Brennon and I were pretending to get married so I kissed him. On the lips." We proceeded to have a conversation about keeping kisses special just for our family, but she seemed to have an answer for everything. Also this week she let me know that I was not to 'boss her.' I responded that oh yes I was supposed to boss her because I AM THE BOSS! She politely informed me that actually I'm not the boss all by myself, but that daddy is also a boss. Well guess what, darlin', he's on MY side! Now shut it! Of course I didn't actually say that, but I have wanted to several times the past few days. Sheish! What happened?
Wow. I look really tired in that picture. Maybe because I am.... should go to bed..... Bitty's still talking to me from her bed behind a closed door. I wish I were her! Because then I wouldn't have to LISTEN to her. Just kidding. She's charming and hopefully she'll like me again in the next few days.
There you go, folks. THAT's what 40 candles look like. Thanks to Troy's parents Morris & Carol for spending the time planting those candles in the little cake garden there - I guess it must have helped them pass the time with all three of our kids (did you hear that! All three!) while Troy and I went out for dinner at our favorite; Bombay House. Happy Birthday, Troy.
Also celebrating a milestone yesterday was little Bundle, who hit her 9 month mark. Shock. Awe. How does this happen? Time marches on unrelentingly, bringing with it new joys to savor every day and sadness of letting go too.
Bundle is a delight. She's happy, hilarious, and prefers to sleep within a 10 foot radius of her mother. She loves growling, chattering away with new sounds every day, flapping her arms, and seems to favor frustrating herself by flopping onto her tummy and not crawling. We're a pretty happy bunch around here.
I think it must have been shortly after Bundle's birth that I instigated our official movie night. Troy goes to church meetings every Tuesday night and sometimes he's there pretty late. I was needing a distraction for my big kids especially in those first few months when new babies are especially fussy in the evenings - something for the kids to look forward to, to motivate them to get along and finish up homework quickly and most importantly keep them busy while I put the baby to bed and cleaned up the house. They're very cute about it - we take turns choosing the movie and the kids always know just whose turn it is. Though during the day they'll bicker about the television, on movie night they try to choose movies that the other child will enjoy. We push our big green oversized arm chair and ottoman up to the t.v. and turn out the lights. Of course there is popcorn. I am sorry to say, dear husband, that although we miss you on those long Tuesday nights, movie night is a really fun tradition.
And now, Bundle wants in on it. We were late getting started on movie night this evening so I was still getting things situated when I started the movie. (Tonight's selection was "Sword in the Stone," a Disney classic in my book; I just love that squirrel scene, don't you?) I needed to stick Bundle someplace while I popped the corn, mixed up the chocolate milk and snuck some apples in there in hopes of any nutrition making its way into my children whatsoever. So I plopped her on the chair between the big kids. I've put her there before and she got really irritated but tonight she took right to it. (I'm trying to train my children early to enjoy the t.v.) She sucked on an apple slice and watched about 15 minutes of the show - it was really sweet to see my little trio enjoying our movie night. I guess it won't be long until she cuddles up there with them every time.
