Let Me Tell You a Story

It all started two nights ago.  Troy took the big kids to go see the UofU women's gymnastics team.  (I've been meaning to blog about taking Bitty two weeks ago, but it's been so long now that I'm just going to have to forget it.)  I was home with little Bundle, who is pursuing a professional career in  ear aches.  (This girl hasn't been healthy for longer than a week since last summer.) Troy and the big kids walked in late, Bitty holding onto a giant bag of pink and blue cotton candy.  We hurriedly got the kids ready for bed, when Bitty started mentioning that her stomach didn't feel very good.  We, being the good parents that we are, used it as a teaching moment about the evils of eating too much candy, despite the fact that we're the ones who bought it for her.  We got the kids settled and went to bed ourselves around 11:15.  It was a lovely 1/2 hour of sleep.  And then the wild rumpus started.  Bitty began the great evacuation of the cotton candy all over herself and her bed.  This in turn woke up Bundle, who was fevery and crying and clinging to me for dear life while I swabbed up her big sister.  It took both parents to get the girls cleaned up and put back to bed.  Bundle wasn't able to get to sleep for another 1 1/2 hours, at which time Bitty woke back up and began the cycle of puke again.  Which woke up Bundle.  Again. This went on until about 5:00 in the morning, when we finally all fell into a sound sleep. Until about 7:15.  Yes, the girls still woke up at their regular time.  I'll summarize the rest: Saturday was awful.  This was made especially true by the fact that as I was madly doing dishes and laundry between caring for two sick girls we realized that we had no hot water. Troy made a trek to the basement to confirm the fact that yes, the water heater had died.  Not a great day for that to happen, by the way.  I am happy that it lived long enough to get us through the previous night, but seriously.  We're now in the market for a tankless water heater, which will be great....when we get it installed...in two days....Bitty is still puking....

So yeah, not the best weekend ever.  And yet, I do have to say that there are good things about it.  Like the fact that the kids haven't fought at all in three days!  (Bitty's been unconscious for most of it, that's why.)  Also, she's doing that darling thing where she's so sick that she's crossed from being really whiny to being utterly and completely sweet and lethargic.  I hate to see them sick, but it brings out their good manners.

There have been many many things queuing up on my to-blog list in the mean time...I'll just mention them briefly and call it good so I can go to bed.

Thing 1:
The Pinewood Derby

Ever since I found out I was pregnant with a boy, Troy has been looking forward to his son's first pinewood derby.  Now, he's definitely not one of those dads who goes nuts and insults other people and only cares about winning.  He's excited because he loves to make things well.  And he and Stomper made a really cool derby car.  So cool, in fact, that Stomper won the most votes for "Our Pick to Win It" prize.  He was thrilled to get a ribbon.  And how did the actual race go?  Well, our Scout Master did his best to help all the boys feel good about taking part in the race, so he really downplayed the results.  But I do wish he had announced the top three because...Stomper took second!  It was awesome!

Thing 2:
Another Year Older, Wiser and Better

We celebrated Troy's 41st this week.  It was a somewhat quieter affair than last year's bash.  Just his folks came over for chicken pot pie and a super fabulous chocolate cake.  A night high in calories and high in spirits.  We decided not to risk burning the cake into a crisp by putting 41 candles on it - so we did four candles, then one candle.  Bitty (look at her all healthy and happy in that picture - I remember her!) did the honors of placing the candles, the sweet thing.  The house was a mess, we were all tired, but Troy got a new buck knife and a new hand plane is on its way.  Happy Birthday, my wonderful husband.


Thing 3:
The Skating Queen

This is another thing I've been meaning to blog forever - Bitty got skates for Christmas and though they occasionally go unused for weeks at a time, she absolutely adores them and is the cutest skater ever.  Sometimes she'll put them on and skate back and forth on the back porch for literally two whole hours.  It's crazy!

Okay, time for some sleep for me.  That's all the updating I can handle.  And frankly, after this past weekend, I hope there isn't much to report for a few days!

A Kindred Spirit

My friend Bryan sent me this link:



I think he's mocking me slightly because I (oh here goes, another uncomfortable confession...) like to keep my DVDs in order by color. Not many people noticed it, but from time to time someone would walk in the front door, see our bookshelf in the hallway there and start laughing at my little rainbow of movies. My younger brother Peter, as a very wise Kindergartner, dubbed that system as 'rainbowtical order.' And mock me if you must, but that's just the way I like it. At the moment our DVDs have been shoved out of the way (and out of order! Ack!) into a drawer under the television, and it's driving me crazy. Oh only, if only, I could order all the bookshelves in the house by color too I'd be a happy lady. Compulsive, yes. Obsessive, yes. And happy. In the meantime I'm just going to keep watching this video.

Talking Tom Strikes Back

Those of you out there with smart phones may be familiar with a silly little application by the name of Talking Tom.  It's this little game where you get to play with a kitty on your screen.  You can stroke it and make it purr.  You can poke it in the eye, foot or tummy to make it produce comical groaning sounds.  You can pour it a glass of milk. But best of all, you can talk to it.  Tom will listen to you and then repeat whatever you said back to you in a high squeaky voice.  It's pretty hilarious.  And my daughter Bundle is totally mesmerized by old Tom.  If she sees anyone she knows has the application on their phone she gravitates to them immediately and demands "My Cat."  She then proceeds to beat the crap out of Tom, giggling hysterically as she does so.  That is, until Tom struck back.

On Friday night I was lucky enough to take Bitty to a UofU Women's Gymnastics meet (completely fun - will blog later). Troy had met up with a friend to help him out and Stomper was at a birthday party.  Bundle was left at my house with her Uncle Peter and did very well all night long, until about the last 5 minutes when she got very sad.  I returned home, Peter put my crying child into my arms and he and his family left.  (His wife and daughter were at the meet with me.)  With Bundle still feeling very sad, I had to find something to occupy her while I had a quick bathroom break.  As I was rushing through the kitchen I grabbed Troy's iphone and set her up at the table with Talking Tom and scurried off to the bathroom.  I mention the bathroom at all simply so you'll know why I did not run to my daughter's assistance immediately over the next few minutes - for once, the sight of her beloved kitty did not interest or distract her at all.  She started crying again.  Loudly.  Talking Tom heard her, and in a high squeaky voice, repeated her cries back to her.  This terrified Bundle, who started crying louder and harder.  So did Tom.  Emma started wailing.  So did Tom.  Emma curled into a ball and screamed and Tom screamed right back at her.  Is it wrong that as I was conducting my brief business in the bathroom that I was laughing really really hard?  I mean, as soon as I possibly could, I ran to my poor traumatized daughter and rescued her from the Cat gone Crazy, but I was laughing.  Tom really got his revenge.

As a side note, Tom has taken his toll on our other daughter as well - Bitty's hair is getting quite long and she really loves having long hair.  That is, until it comes time to brush it.  Then she does her best to hold still while she lets loose with many cries and moans. She sounds just like Talking Tom when you poke him on his foot.  So when Bitty's moaning, we all (including Bundle) moan back at her in Tom's voice.  Luckily this makes her laugh and eases the brushing nightmare.

An Unfortunate Talent

All my life I’ve had this funny inability to recall information correctly.  I hear something and my brain does its best to remember it, but somehow files the information under a similar but completely wrong name.  Example.  When I was a little kid, I met someone by the name of Chase.  My brain knew his name started with a “C” and that it was a verb.  So I called him “Catch.”  “Hey mom, when are we going to Catch’s house again?”  Another example.  My husband gets a new mountain bike with some really cool shifters on it which are called Rapid Fire.  I get a new bike and ask if my bike will also have sharp shooters.  Ha.  That made my husband laugh at me really hard.  He still teases me.Well this week my unintentional word association struck again.  Bitty has a student teacher in her class by the name off Miss Brisk.  I had to send out a letter to the parents about our Teacher Appreciation Week and I asked everyone to help us support “Miss Swift.”  Doi.  I guess as long as they’re both fast, who cares what her name is?  Hi, other parents, I’m an idiot.

An Actual Outing

Poor poor Bundle. She’s so neglected.  When Stomper was her age I didn’t have quite the task list I have these days and we did a little more going out than I do now.  In fact, I was the master of my city; I took that kid everywhere.  We had outings almost every single day.  We hit the zoo, the children’s museum, parks and libraries, story times and puppet shows; we did it all.  And now my poor little baby Bundle hangs out with me all day long while I try to keep up with everything else.  Lucky for her, my friend Krista decided to get us out.  She called me up and we headed down to Thanksgiving Point Farm for some fresh (albeit kinda stinky) air and animal watching.  We’re having some lovely lovely warm weather (thank you, dear February, for that – you’re bringing me out of the January Blues!) and we thought we’d enjoy it out in the open. Of course, we ended up being so cold we could barely stand it, but oh well – at least we were out.  And Bundle just ate it up.  Turns out she likes going out and doing fun stuff!  Who knew!   Even the farm sign, which had a picture of a rooster on it, captured her heart.  Bundle wouldn’t leave the sign to go inside.  Then she really went nuts. Okay, the pony ride took a little warming up to, but after a round or two she got very into it and spent the rest of the day saying, “Neigh neigh! Roun’ and roun’!”  Sadly, our trip was cut short (Krista was going to take me for my first ever trip to Chick-Fil-A for lunch) by a phone call from Stomper’s teacher who declared him to be “absolutely green.”  But despite that, I was so glad to get Bundle out and about.  I’ll have to do it more often – my task list will get neglected and probably even lengthen in the meantime, but who cares.  (Okay, me.  But still.) Somehow I imagine that more outings will do us nothing but good.

 After a few tears she was really very excited to ride...

This Alpaca seriously cracked me up - it really needed a barrette or something - it even kept flipping its hair out of its eyes to see us!

Fry Run

 I took my girls out for a little treat the other day.  We were running errands, and I of course didn’t realize how long those errands were going to take me.  The gals were getting hungry so we hit the Wendy’s drive through and grabbed some food for them. (Please don't judge me today.) Pretty soon we were home and I set the girls up at the table to finish it off.  I walked out of the room and when I came back I found that both girls had made a delighted discovery.  Bitty was so thrilled to tell me. “Look at this, Mom!  I’m dipping my fries in my frosty and it’s so delicious!”   Oh honey, if you only knew.  How many times, all those years ago, did my sister and I suddenly glance at each other with a sparkle in our eye and then sing out together, “Fry Run!”  We’d do a frantic search for a few quarters, hop into Margaret’s little yellow bug (which I’d often have to push while she’d compression start it – try doing that uphill when you’re 16 years old) and we’d zoom off to Wendy’s for a few fries and a frosty.  Yes, Bitty dear, I know exactly how delicious frosty-coated fries can be.

Star of the Week

Bitty has been waiting and waiting for her turn to be the "Star of the Week" in her Kindergarten class.  She’s been watching as almost each kid in her class has been the super star, and when I told her on Sunday night that it was finally her turn she just about flipped out.  Of course, I told her this information on Sunday night because that was also when I remembered that her special week was nearly upon us.  I was panicking a little due to the fact that I was supposed to have a photo-filled poster ready for her in the morning.  Uh, I don’t think I’ve printed up a picture of Bitty for years.  (Not doing a ton of scrapbooking these days….) So yes, our star of the week preparations included a run to Walgreens at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night and an up-until-midnight poster making session, but it was all worth it. Oh yeah, and from midnight until 1:00 I was finishing her leg warmers.  You heard me, people.  Leg warmers.  Somehow Bitty heard about leg warmers and decided she really wanted a pair.  Luckily I had a pattern for them in a magazine and had been knitting them up for a week or so.  Monday being Valentine’s Day plus the start of her star week, I knew that the chance to wear her leg warmers would be the cherry on top of the cake.  So knit them I did.  She was already almost incoherent with joy at the very thought of being the star, and when she got up in the morning and saw her electric pink poster (Walgreens didn’t have a huge selection of poster board) AND her new legwarmers I thought she was going to go into orbit.  It makes a late night and a very bleary next day all worth the effort.

Time ALONE Together?

Weirdest thing ever.  Troy and I had a date.  I know, I know!  Hard to believe.  We actually had some time alone together.  I am lucky enough to have a kid-free morning every Thursday as my friend Krista and I do a weekly trade.  This week I had made a plan to drive down into enemy territory (you know,....PROVO....) to the art museum to see the traveling art show of the paintings of Carl Bloch, famous painter from Denmark.  He has done many many works of art that our church has either purchased or uses regularly.  I didn't know that so many of his works were ones I have been so familiar with.  Anyway, Troy decided to take the morning off and join me.  We had such a good time driving down, talking, finding our way around, making fun of coeds....

The exhibit was not especially huge but was quite stunning in its impact.  There were several large altar pieces that had traveled here from churches across norther Europe.  This one below was my favorite.  We also enjoyed renting ipads that were stocked with lots of information, interviews and panoramic views of the paintings' original locations.  It was a real treat.

We really had a nice morning together.  And, the fact that we stopped in for a quick bite and In-n-Out Burger on the way home didn't hurt much either. 

Happiness.

Some very happy things. 

First, bowls from Anthropologie.  I'm sorry, Whitley, I'm sorry!  Whitley is my wonderful and much loved and extremely stylish sis-in-law, and once, long ago, as a very generous thank you gift, she gave me the cutest little bowl all filled with candy.  I loved the bowl, and used it as my own personal mommy-bowl (like unto Mamma Bear of Goldilocks fame) whenever I could.  Then I went to Whit's house and saw that she had a huge stack of them, all in different colors.  I instantly began to covet them.  I hate to be a copy cat, and I think Whitley hates it too....but too bad.  I asked for a few bowls for my birthday, and have been enjoying those.  But when the daughter of a friend (I won't tell who...) was at our house, took a look at my beautiful green bowl, picked it up, looked at me with a little smile on her face, then dropped it on the floor (smash!) I thought it was a good opportunity to not only replace the grass green one but add a few more colors as well.  And looking at my morning grapefruit in my lovely minty green bowl just made me happy.

Another very happy thing is that it appears that Bundle is starting to like her father.  I mean, she's always enjoyed playing with him from time to time and she'll usually let him hold her, but lately, she's really been seeking him out.  She's been thrilling him with happy shouts of "Daddy!" everytime she sees him.  And best of all, the other night when she woke up and got out of bed she came running into the living room and ran straight into her daddy's arms.  Did you hear me?  Do you know what this means for me?  I can smell the merest wisp of freedom in the air.  Bundle started out as my best sleeper ever and then one day suddenly became the very worst.  That girl.  Oh well, I don't care if she wakes up if she'll let daddy take care of her.  That means that I can leave every once in a while.  Yippeeeee! I shouldn't sound so excited, but I'm not going to lie.  I am.

Partaking

On Saturday night I did this crazy thing and got out of the house.  After finding a sitter and making a few arrangements, I found myself sitting in a church with the lights dimmed and listening to some seriously awesome bluegrass music.  The Matt Flinner Trio is a new discovery for me - Matt was a friend of my friend Heather's many years ago, and she encouraged me to come join her at his show.  He won the national banjo competition at a very young age and is now playing the mandolin (and a very rockin' one at that) with his Trio and touring the country. 

http://www.myspace.com/mattflinner




So I have to say that I probably would not have sought out a bluegrass band, no matter how talented, on my own.  I usually have enough trouble just keeping the kids fed and not strangling each other from day to day. But as I sat there, tapping my feet to the music and occasionally laughing out loud in amazement, I was struck by how worth it it is to make an effort in life to get out and partake of what is out there, of the talents that people share with the world.  I loved sitting in the dark lisenting to the funny stories the players shared and the tunes they were picking.  Get out there and partake.

Anyone Home?

Hello?  Am I here?  I think I remember that I used to really enjoy blogging and now I'm noticing that I seem to have fallen off of the blogosphere.  I wish I could say that it's because I've been so fabulously busy doing exciting things, but really, I think I've been moping. How is it possible that the months of October, November and December flew by at lightening speed cruised by at breakneck speed, and this one darn month is lasting FOR. EV. ER.

Is this ranting how I have begun the last four blog posts?  I think so.  I'll shut up now.

So, we actually did something last week.  Bundle has finally begun her ascent out of illness, thank heavens.  (I'm sure she'll be sick again by next week but let's not think about that right now...)  Stomper got invited to a birthday party at Fairmont Pool and I just couldn't resist bringing the girls along and jumping in too.  Last summer we had a pool pass and it didn't work out super well because the big kids would want to swim for hours but Bundle could only take it for 20 or 30 minutes.  I think those days are over - I had to drag her out of the pool after two hours.  Her lips were blue, she was clinging to me for warmth, and yet she was just furious when we got out.  She had a ball.  Stomper and Bitty have been water babies forever now, but this is a new discovery for Miss Bundle.  Good fun - I'm looking forward to many more swimming outings in the near future.

Speaking of Bundle, I do have to say that she is winning hearts right and left these days. She has decided to start talking all of a sudden.  She'll give most people's names a good try.  She's very devoted to several of my friends.  And she's starting to put words together into little sentences.  Today's sentence was "Emma's Poo," which was a little less charming than usual.  My favorite so far has been, "More Pink!"  I held up a shirt with some pink on it and she just went nuts.  "More pink, more pink!"  Oh boy. My other favorites of her words are "buttie" for belly button, "puck" for cup, and "ahh-nut" for all done.  Oh, and "ah-gooo" for hold you.

Okay, new goal.  Return to the land of the happy blogger.  Will do.

PHOOEY

OR:

"Why January in the State of Utah, When Occuring in Combination With Being the Parent of a Very Sick Toddler,

Sucks My Will to Live, Not to Mention Any Desire to Blog Ever Again."



After that title, I don't think there's really much else to say, right?  It has been a very long couple of weeks, and it has been a rare occurance for dinner to be made or the dishes to be done, much less any creative journaling going on.  Poor Bundle has been a mess (the booger post from a couple of weeks ago was just the beggining,) and has slept well only when cradled in my arms.  I tried not to get tense about that, because she's quickly heading out of the baby phase, but it was a little hard when I could barely get dressed or shower without her having a complete meltdown. 

Yesterday and today have provided me with hope and a lightness of heart that I haven't had in quite some time.  First of all, last night the kids and I joined some friends for a night time walk through the rain up to the UofU campus.  Cold, yes.  Rainy, yes.  Wonderful to be out in clean air?  I can't even tell you how wonderful it was.  And then today the kids don't have shcool so we took advantage of the above-freezing temps (first time in more than two weeks!) and went to the zoo.  Oh happiness.  Air.  Sun.  Beautiful clouds.  Walking hard.  Playing with the kids.  I think I'm going to make it through January.  But just barely.

Well, I tried to post some pictures I took at the zoo, but my phone is refusing to cooperate.  Oh well.  And just so you know, January gets a lot better when your neighbor shows up on your doorstep carrying a lovely little square box labeled "Paradise Bakery" and the smell of chocolate and cinnamon comes wafting your way.  Thanks, Blair.

Oh MAN.

I know, I know, my last post was about Bundle and it was gross too, but I can't help myself. I guess I'm just working hard to collect plenty of dirt with which to blackmail her at a later date.

So, I hated potty training Bitty.  It's kind of still going on and I really don't want to talk about it.  I'll just say that I have been completely determined to not even mention the potty to Bundle until she's about 5.  I have actually said out loud that Bundle is going to have to be begging me to use the toilet before we start this whole thing.  Well, guess what.  She's begging.  She signs 'potty.'  She says the word 'potty.'  She knows where a potty seat is and drags it out once a day and begs....no, demands to sit on it without her diaper at least once a day.  I do not want to be doing this!  Oh well.  I just put her on it (cowboy boots and all....) and say good job when she gets bored and gets off.  And that's IT. 

The Exodus

The Becky is making me do this.  I claim no responsibility for this next post.

So poor little Bundle has had an awful cold - it's pretty much gone now but you know how it goes with these little kids - you always have one lingering element that just hangs on forever.  And for Bundle, it's the nasal issue.  Every morning she wakes up very stuffy and crusty...but around 10 a.m. there is a great exodus of bodily fluid.  It's really quite impressive, which is why I took the picture.  And now I'm posting the picture.  Forgive me.

Off to a Good Start?

Monday morning came!  It actually came!  The kids were totally stoked to be going back to school.  (What does that say about how things went at our house over the holidays?  Please mom, please!  Let us go back to school!)  As we were enjoying our morning pancakes we thought we'd celebrate proper:

We had a little left-over bottle o' bubbly (sparkling cider, people) and decided that there'd be no better time than the present to bust it out, along with the only two "fancy glasses" that we own.  It was a great morning.  And...it was a terrible afternoon.  I think the kids were a little more worn out than I had anticipated and we had many tears and raised voices and a very early bedtime.  Today was better. 

...And To All, a Good Night

It is with some bitter-sweet relief that we come to the end of this memorable holiday season.  I can say that I have successfully survived two full weeks of hooplah, and  now I'm completely wiped out.  We have had so much to celebrate, so many people to gather with and parties to attend that we've been running like crazy.  The result is that my kitchen hasn't been totally clean for the entire duration of the holiday.  Finally today we had our last fling: our annual Saturday-after-Christmas Preslar Family Party.  (You can see the girls above sporting the jammies they received from wonderful Uncle Rick and Aunt Tonja.  Okay, they were offically from a couple of their cousins, but let's face it, we all know Tonja did the shopping! ) When we returned home around 2 pm I started cleaning the kitchen and didn't get all the way done until 9 pm this evening.  Of course there were many disturbances during that seven hour stretch: a brief sleddding trip in the back yard plus another meal to prepare set me back, but fianlly, finally, I have a clean kitchen.  Okay, it still needs a good mopping and scrub down.  But the dishes are all put away, which is more than I have been able to say for a fortnight.

Much has been going on - I'm going to attempt a holiday round up in a hopefully not momentously long post.

I don't think I even blogged about Christmas Morning.  Shame on me.  We had a lovely morning.  It started nice and early - the kids were up around 6:30, and it was so fun to bring them into the living room in the traditional way of the Romneys - lined up youngest to oldest, eyes closed, hands on the sibling in front of you, and marched in by your father.  Both of the big kids had something big to see when they opened their eyes.  Stomper got an easle to encourage his artistic efforts, and Bitty got a vanity table.  Now, Bitty has been mentioning a vanity for quite some time, and I've had my eye out for one.  Well, I'm sure I could have found one for $250 at Pottery Barn Kids or something, but I didn't even look.  And Toys R Us has a crappy plastic one with a Disney gal on it; no thanks.  So I asked Troy if it would be hard to throw together a table out of 2x4s and some plywood - he said it would be fine and probably not a big deal at all.  Uh, duh, I forgot that Troy doesn't ever go half way.  He built Bitty a really beautiful table, even if it is pine and plywood. It is awesome.  Poor Troy missed out on several festive outings because he was slaving away in the garage.  Good man.

Roller skates for Bitty, an Elmo for Bundle, and a variety of dragons for Stomper were also big hits:

Chirstmas day was wrapped up with a nice simple dinner with all the co-laws (that's how I refer to both sets of grandparents at the same time) over at our house, and after they left our little family hunkered down and watched Toy Story 3.  Bundle was kind enough to let me watch the whole thing, and of course I loved it.  Yes, I cried.

Let's get back to the subject of My Good Man. The other big event this week was that Troy and I celebrated our (get ready...) THIRTEENTH anniversary.   Of course, we share our anniversary with The Becky and her husband, and they got married a full five years before we did, so whever I start to feel a little weird about how time is careening along at breakneck speed, I can just remind myself that The Becky has been married for 18 years.  This makes 13 seem like not such a big deal.  Troy and I were lucky enough to have Bundle's favorite person on the planet vollunteer to babysit.  That would be my friend Adam Grundvig.  He brought along a friend and they kept my kids laughing and totally content for almost three hours while Troy and I visited a friend in from out of town and then waited a very long time for some very good food at The Bombay House. Usually we get in, get our food and get out all in about 20 mintues and then realize that we were so fixated on the deliciousness placed before us that we forgot to have a conversation.  Luckily the restaurant was totally packed and we had to wait for a table, wait for our waiter, and wait for our food.  Lots of waiting.  By the time the food came we had actually had a lot of very nice conversation.  I love my man, yes I do. 

Okay, enough.  I think the rest of the updates can wait another day!