Interesting Week

It's official. This has been a very complex week:

• We filed our taxes, and are pleased with the outcome (yeah for child tax credits and economic stimulus!).
• So Bryan "invested" in a laptop computer.
• So he could work on his capstone project (which he defends in 3 weeks).
• While he flew to an interview.
• Where he got a job offer.
• Which he accepted.
• Meanwhile, Savanna had a cold, which resulted in a double ear infection and a ruptured ear drum.
• So she took antibiotics and constant painkillers for 2 days.

The results are:

• Savanna is back to normal and feeling much better.
• We still don't know where we will go for Bryan's first year (or after that, for that matter). It could be Utah, Arizona, Washington, California, or Hawaii. But we are so excited for our first job!
  
• I am so grateful I can be a stay-at-home mom. 1) Because my kids need me. After I received some medical advice to treat Savanna symptomatically, I still didn't feel right. Something more was wrong with my daughter. I wondered if I was being overly-cautious taking her to the doctor, but I'm glad I did. And 2) my husband has made it possible for me to focus my attention on my kids while he earns money; and he is frugal enough that it will work.
  

One of those days...

Have you ever had breakfast an hour and a half after you wake up because:

One kid needs cereal. Another kid needs eggs and toast. Then the first kid needs juice. Then the next kid needs milk. Then the first needs to print something. The ink runs out. He throws a tantrum because he can't understand why the ink ran out. While the second child is finishing her eggs and toast and milk, you are trying to get all the dishes unloaded and loaded so that you can have space to clean the counters and tabletops so that maybe when you get around to eating, there will be space to do it. Then the second child finishes breakfast, and you have to clean her off. Then you need to change her diaper. Then you start working on some calling stuff, trying to arrange the Sunday program, and send the info onto the bulletin specialist. Then you realize you have to go to the bathroom and have been holding it for an hour. Then you have to go break up a fight between the kids, because the older always takes toys from the younger, even though she had them first. Finally, you remember you are hungry, and finally get around to pouring yourself a bowl of cereal. But the younger one crawls around following you because, how dare you eat without sharing with her??? So as she clings to your legs, you get a bite in here and there, intermittent with giving her bites. Then you realize that all the whining from the younger is probably due to needing a nap. You think to yourself, yeah, a break! So you put the younger down, go to read a book, and the older needs you to get some markers. You go back to reading, and the older comes back every 3 minutes (because 3 is his favorite number), needing paper, scissors, a snack, a drink, etc. Finally, after reading only a couple pages, the fatigue (from staying up too late the night before, hanging out with your husband, eating ice cream, and doing laundry) catches up with you. You lie down because there is no other course of action that can be taken. You start to fall asleep. The older child, comes and sits on you. You tell him you need to rest. So he tries to play quietly, but you are still awakened approximately every 10 minutes. After a while, he decides that it is time for you to wake up, and voices his opinion. Then you hear the younger one waking up in her room. So when you can finally shrug off the sleep, the older one needs you to make reindeer antlers. Then you make sandwiches. You go get the younger one up, and realize that she needs a diaper change. So you stop to change her, but you have to open a new package of diapers, and a new package of wipes. She's crying, so you hand her something to play with (because you know that lately she likes to scratch the itch in her diaper during the change). The older kid walks in with scissors, so you have to instruct him how to hold the scissors correctly when walking. You send him back into the kitchen. All the while, the older kid needs a Rudolph nose, and won't stop asking. Finally, you finish the change, take the diaper out to the garbage, wash your hands. Pick up the younger kid, put her in her highchair, give her her half of the sandwich. As you are getting her some milk, the older child asks for the fifth time for help with the nose. So you set his half of the sandwich and milk in front of him. Then you proceed to make the nose. After you make the nose, you sit down to write this blog while the younger one finishes her lunch. The older one won't stop chatting and saying things like, "I need," and "I want." Then, a great-grandparent calls, wanting to talk to the older child. So you have to stop, yet again, with a little pleasure, to help him talk to the grandparent. You come back, again, to the blog. And the older one comes to argue with you about whether it is sunny or rainy (it's rainy). He runs into the other room, while you try to remember even some of the details, and then you hear a scream. You run into the next room, the older has hit his own foot with a plastic baseball bat. You roll your eyes, walk back to the blog. You continue. Then you hear, "Mommy, there's a spider on the floor!" So you stop to go take care of it, but it's only a fuzzy. You put it in the garbage, arguing with the older, again, about whether or not it is a spider. Then you get the younger a graham cracker to keep her busy for the last few minutes you intend to be on the computer. All the while, the older is chatting and singing, and telling you play by play of what he is doing or thinking. And it's not even noon yet. And you can probably guess, I haven't even started thinking about my lunch yet...

Pet Peeve

My biggest pet peeve is when people think they are exempt from traffic laws. My opinions on the matter follow:

• Stop signs (and stop lights) mean STOP, not "roll through" because a) no one is watching, b) you are in a hurry, or c) it doesn't apply to you.

• Speed limit. Need I say more?

• Turn into the closest lane, unless otherwise indicated by dots on the pavement. If there are two lanes, people turning left can turn at the same time cars across the street can turn right. If you turn into a lane further away, you could very easily cause an accident. Or just annoy the person who is trying to turn into their own lane.

• Don't tailgate. Maybe the person in front of you is just trying to go the speed limit. Or they have kids in the back seat. Don't blame them for driving safely.

• Don't change lanes in an intersection.

• Keep your focus on the road. Your eyes should be scanning constantly to see what others are doing. If you go from point A to point B and don't remember the drive between, then you were not paying enough attention.

• This goes without saying, but don't drink (smoke, do drugs, text, talk on cell, yell at kids, etc.) and drive.

• Wear a seatbelt.

• It's not a race. It's transportation. No road rage, please.

I believe that if people were to keep the traffic laws perfectly, there may still be accidents. But not nearly as many.

Please help my family be safe, and I will do the same for you.

And feel free to add your opinions to my list.

Nana and the Spoon

We are so excited to announce...Savanna can now say her own name! She calls herself "Nana." So cute!

And this morning, she had to feed herself (this is not abnormal). Every time I tried to feed her the oatmeal (now you know why I wanted to feed her), she would protest. So finally, I gave her the spoon so she could attempt to get the food in her mouth. Luckily, it was oatmeal, and it would stick to the spoon just long enough to be turned upside-down into her mouth, well, at least most of it, or some of it... Then I would try to take the spoon away to get some more oatmeal, and she would grip it with all her might. After a few tries, she got the idea. She would feed herself a bite, hand me the spoon, yell at me because I wasn't going fast enough, I would hand her the spoon, then she'd start all over again.

Needless to say, she had a bath.

And last, but NOT least...

I love Bryan because...

1. He never gets enough sleep, and he never gets as much as I do. But he never gets mad at me when I complain about being tired. In fact, this morning he got up with Savanna at 6AM, let me sleep in, and didn't even complain!
   
2. He has a very easy-going temperament. We never fight, and I'm not even exaggerating. And it's not because of me, because believe me, I try. But when he doesn't argue back, it deflates my temper real quick.
3. He puts up with my illogical, emotional side. He doesn't even try to make me see that I'm being irrational. He just knows that eventually, I will get past it, and he patiently waits for me to figure it out.
4. He lets me drive the nicer car, and never complains.
5. When we hug, we fit like puzzle pieces.
6. He listens to my choir CDs and my solo CDs to get pumped up when he runs.
7. He listens to me talk for an hour every night before bed. And he says he loves to listen to me. And he never complains that he's tired, or that he'll be getting up super early to get some work done (or play with Savanna...).
8. He is so good.
9. He is so humble that he never thinks he's good enough.
10. He is very aware of others and their needs, especially mine.
11. He is so nice to everyone. Everyone loves Bryan, everyone wants to be his friend. Lucky for me, an introvert, he has made some friends for me too.
12. He is fun to be with.
13. He is funny. He laughs at his own jokes. He has a great laugh.
14. He's not afraid to be silly with his kids in public. He doesn't care what other people think, but I bet they think he's a great dad.
15. He is smart, ambitious, outgoing, and courageous.
16. He thinks ahead, and sometimes he reads my mind. Like this morning, he was going to the library. And I asked him to pick up some books on hold. And he was already planning to do it, without me asking.
    

It has been the most amazing 5 years 1 month 3 weeks and 5 days. Happy 5.1.3.5th Anniversary, Bry! I adore you.

I love...

I love Caleb because...

1. He says things like, "We borrowed this from the store!" I'm not sure he understands the meaning of borrow vs. buy because then he'll ask his friends if he can "borrow" their toys.
2. His motto is "I can do it myself!"
3. When I'm talking on the phone, he'll ask, "Can I say hi?" When I hand him the phone, he'll say, "What is your name?" It cracks me up because he doesn't even know who he wants to say hi to, and a lot of the time it is Daddy on the other end.
4. He'll go up to perfect strangers and tell them his whole life story. A couple weeks ago, he walked up to the Stake President (a good sport), and said, "Hi! I'm Caleb! I drew this picture! And this is my sucker!"
5. He loves to help with dinner.
6. He says things like, "I have a great idea!" And then proceed to tell me that we should go to the park, or we should make a craft, or we should make cookies, or we should get out the Fun Book.
7. He is a morning person. He'll run into our room and say, "It's morning! It's light outside!" I wish I had half his zest for life!
8. He'll ask me, "Do you want to play with me?"
9. He says things like, "Mom, I just love you," and "Mom, you're beautiful!"
10. He sings all the time. He knows about a million songs. And it cracks me up when he sings vocalises he has heard me sing weeks ago.
11. He can recite the first three Articles of Faith.
12. He can write, and spells things like "I LUV U" and "EB MOIN" (on a Valentine).
13. He says, "I'm exhausted! What does exhausted mean?"
    

I love Savanna because...

1. She works really hard. When she gets her hands on the wipes box, she'll work really hard to get the lid off, and she concentrates really hard... When she finally gets the lid off, she will proceed to take all the wipes out. But she's not finished. After the wipes are out, she'll put them back in, and try with very little coordination to put the lid back on. Rinse and repeat...she'll start all over again.
2. She likes to pull toys out of the toy box, and throw them on the ground, one by one...
3. She likes to push the buttons on the TV. It is particularly funny to me when it bothers Caleb.
4. When she sees that Daddy is getting ready to leave, she speed crawls over to the trombone case next to the window, crawls up, and gets ready to wave bye-bye.
5. When it's time for a nap and we start walking up the stairs, she's already sucking on her two middle fingers. Then when I lay her down, she will help pull up the covers. But if the covers come up too far, she has to push them back down away from her face. And when I'm stroking her hair and face and saying, "Night, night!" she will relinquish her fingers for half a second to swat my hand away. Then she's ready for a nap.
6. Then when it's time to get up from nap, she'll smile at me and reach out for me to pick her up. Then she gives me good hugs, and sometimes kisses.
7. She doesn't complain, much. When she is sick, she looks sick, but never cries.
8. She loves to sit. In, on, around. But it makes me feel so good when she likes to sit on my lap. Usually, she'll sit there for a minute, get down and play, and come back and sit with me, over and over. She just has to check in with home base and make sure everything is A-OK.
   

I love these kids!

Red-Handed

After dinner, I promised Caleb we could make "Kool-aid." But since his motto is "I can do it all myself," and since it is really the sugar-free, extremely stain-prone kind, this is what happened. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will also see all the blood-stains on his face where he drank from the cup. (Any suggestions on getting the stains out of the laundry and off the child?)

It's Nothin' to Blog About

All bundled up!

Child Prodigy

Since I have been "simplifying," I have been "dejunking;" which creates all new fun and exciting places to hide. (I definitely lost 200 Lbs. last weekend.)

Such as the cupboards...

And the dishwasher...
(Dallon, do you think General Electric would hire her?)

And two Caleb quotes:
1. In his prayer over dinner: "Thank you that we can get the best pizza in the whole wide world." (yeah for Papa Johns!)
2. Me: "Caleb, I need this light on, and I need you to get in bed." Caleb: "YOU need to go to bed, just like I do!"

NEVER Underestimate the Power of Toy Story

Little Kids Doing Big Kid Things

Why do kids like to sit in little chairs? Why is that so cool?

This past weekend, our neighbors moved. Caleb helped.

More Caleb sayings:

• "Mom, you're tupposed ta have blue eyes!"
• "Wet's go to the store!"
• "Mommy, I'm hungry and drinky!"
  

New Year's Resolutions

I know I'm a little late, but I finally have come up with some resolutions that I am serious about and determined to keep.

1. Simplify. I have been reading books on household organization and simplification. I'll give you recommendations or reviews of the books if you are interested. Very helpful.

2. Calm down. My goal is to be much more objective about everything. About my 3-year-old's behavior, my 1-year-old's behavior, sleep, offenses, annoyances, worries, etc.