You are Definitely Two!

Good Morning!

Good Night!

You like to help set the table, but haven't grown out of throwing food on the floor.

You are the boss of what you wear.  You love to dress up.  And you also like to be naked.

You do not like baths, but you like to have your hair curled and nails painted with "sparkles."

You're not quite ready to use the toilet, but you don't like a mess in your pants, either.  When you've got the urge to go, you prefer to remove your diaper and drop your package on the floor.  (This is not cute!)

You've graduated from a crib to a toddler bed, and now I have to (get to) spend a long time laying by your bed, making sure you go to sleep and don't come creeping out of your room to check out the "night life" around here.

Almost every morning, I wake up to find you have made yourself a little nest on the floor beside my bed.  But I love our morning snuggles!
 
You fight against naps, but you wear your mommy out!

Being Last Can Be Lonely

Olivia and I are adjusting to Hannah's half days of school.  Two days out of the three so far, Olivia has fallen asleep while Hannah is at morning kindergarten!  Life has suddenly become that boring!

This was the scene today:

I was running around the house trying to clean, and Olivia got comfy on this chair with a stack of books.  Every time I passed by, Olivia would ask me to read her a story, and two or three times I put her off.  "Okay, just a minute and then I'll read to you..." and then I'd clean a window or make a bed or start a load of laundry.

And then, I passed by and noticed that Olivia was passed out.  Asleep with her books.  Wearing her bumble bee costume.  (We found it at the store yesterday and I bought it for Halloween, hung it in her closet.  This morning when it was time to get dressed, she refused to wear anything else, and I gave in.  She has worn it all day--taking it off to eat each meal.  As she was eating lunch, I tried to sneak it back into her closet while she was distracted. But as soon as she finished her lunch, she was climbing up drawers to get it back down.  Just watch--by the time Halloween arrives, she'll probably refuse to wear it!)

Anyway, to me, this picture is both very cute and a little bit sad.  I wish I could sit and read to her all day.  I do try to spend a good amount of time doing just that, and other playful/stimulating/bonding/nurturing things.  But I learned this principle as a college student, before it even applied to my own situation in life: Mothering and Housekeeping are mutually exclusive tasks.  When you're doing well at one, you're probably neglecting the other.  The trick is to find a decent balance.  You'll find plenty of pictures and videos I've taken where my kids are adorable and, in the background, my house is a disaster.  That's embarassing. And then you'll find plenty of pictures like this, where I have to check my balance the other way. A good reminder.  A little bit embarassing, but a whole lot cute!

One Two

One day, I ate breakfast at home, then went to the hospital where labor was induced, and I delivered a super cute, chubby-cheeked baby girl before lunch time.

That was a good day.  It was twelve years ago.

It's only fitting that I should remember not skipping any meals that day, because Emily loves food just like I do.  From the time she could talk, she has wanted to grow up and be a cook.  Today's birthday meals included a cheesy ham and egg breakfast casserole, with danish pastries on the side; school lunch (not really her request, but I kind of ran out of time to pack a brown bag.  What can I say, I'm not that super!); and her request of stuffed peppers and buttered asparagus for dinner.  Chocolate cake, of course.

She's waited until this age to pierce her ears, but she'll have to wait a bit longer, until she has a break between soccer seasons.  {That game!  It's so demanding!  She's at a 1.5 hour practice on the evening of her birthday.  So far, she still loves it.}

Happy Birthday, Dear Emmy!

If you're the type who counts candles, don't worry: We made her light them and blow them out exactly twice!

The Cutest Kindergartener I Know

Months ago, when Hannah had her pre-K check-up with our pediatrician, he told her that she was good to go to school--in only about 150 days.  At the time, that was a conservative estimate.  But Hannah has been counting down to kindergarten for at least that long.  She has been very, very excited!

Until yesterday.

For Hannah's last day before school, I took her and Olivia to a nearby "farm" to see the animals.  During our tractor ride, she and I both got quiet.  We both were thinking about Hannah starting school.  I was feeling nostalgic, but Hannah was starting to feel nervous.  She had to fight back tears a few times that day.  She had a hard time going to sleep last night.  She told me she was just going to miss me.

This morning, Hannah woke up and stretched, and announced, "First day of kindergarten," followed by, "Hey, guess what: Last night I was nervous, but now I'm just excited again."

She got ready for school.  We curled her hair. 

I pulled Olivia and Hannah to the school in the bike trailer. 

When Hannah found her classroom door and lined up, so did Liv.

Then the bell rang and it was time for the kindergarteners to head into the school.  And Hannah got quiet and thoughtful again.

I saw her bite her bottom lip.  I wanted to cry for her!  I tried to be brave.  I gave her a big smile and a little kiss.

And then she was off.

When kindergarten ended for the day, I picked up a smiling girl.  The first thing she told me was, "Guess what, Mom.  I made a friend."

I know how good it feels to have a buddy.  And I'm so glad she still gets to be mine, for at least half the day.


Day 2 of Kindergarten: Hannah wakes up and says, "I can't wait for first grade!  It's going to be awesome!"

Day 1

Last year, I had four girls in four different schools, on four different daily schedules.

This year will be much simpler.  Still three different start and end times, but only two different schools.  I consider this a huge improvement.

These three head out the door at the same time in the morning.

The first day of school is not bad.  I was ready, and so were the girls.  It's the second day that I'm already starting to dread.  Even worse, the second month of school.  Once the newness wears off, and the mornings are frosty, and the sun barely rises before the girls have to be out the door...that's when this back to school stuff gets hard.

On the bright side: I cleaned up my kitchen after breakfast this morning, and it actually stayed that way for most of the day! 

And then I was happy to spend time in there making our traditional First Day After-School Snack: chocolate chip cookies.

Must See

If you are in the Salt Lake area in mid-August, you must visit the Albion Basin.  The wildflowers will take your breath away. 

Even the weeds are beautiful here.

Bring a picnic.  Take a hike.  And smile when your teenage daughter says, "Men can build tall buildings and fancy things, but it's nothing compared to what grows naturally."

Fifteen

Fifteen years of marriage has been better than fifteen minutes of fame, I'm sure.  I never dreamed of being a One Hit Wonder, but I always dreamed of growing up and having One True Love.  Doug is definitely my biggest fan, and he treats me like gold.

He took me to a really nice, quiet, romantic dinner, and gave me long-stemmed red roses.  We talked about all the things we love about each other.  Fifteen years ago, I had a few good reasons that I knew Doug was a good man, plus lots of hopes, dreams and expectations.  Now we know each other so much more intimately, and even though that means our flaws are more obvious to each other, it also means that so many of my hopes and expectations about him have been confirmed.  He is as good as he seemed to be then, in my innocent, rose-colored, nineeen-year-old appraisal.  

Marriage may be harder than I wish it to be - so is life in general, married or not! - but Doug is an easy companion.

My dress still fits...barely! (I could zip it up, but then I could hardly breathe!) When I tried it on, I was swarmed by little girls wanting to touch me, and calling me a "princess."  I faced the flash of the camera and tried to smile.

If that was my fifteen minutes of fame, I'll take it.  And I'll also take another fifteen years of this marriage...and fifteen more...and fifteen more...

Sunday Evenings

We've been hooking up the video cameras and watching old family footage.  It has been a good way to spend some quiet time to end a Sunday.  All the girls love to see themselves "when they were little", and it makes us all feel a little bit more loving towards each other when we remember the good times. 

I love re-living the cute little dancing and laughing and little bitty girl voices.  Even messes are sort of cute, on video.

Last night I watched Olivia's birth day.  One thing about a planned c-section is that it's much better for video.  Doug had nothing else to do, and there's not so much concern about recording things you don't really want to be viewed by other people.  I could watch that video over and over and never get tired of it. 

But no, I couldn't do that over and over again.  ;)

Perspective

I've noticed lately that Doug grimaces when he sees pictures of himself like this one:

He doesn't like to see his changing hairline.

However, as I was straightening the shelves today, I stopped to look through an old photo album, and I think I've found a way to convince him that losing his hair is not such a disgrace.

I can see how a boy who is born with hair like this could take pride in it.

But this is not the first time Doug has cringed at his hairstyle.  He recalls his dad's favorite method as the bowl cut. 

In his memory, those cuts were embarassing.  So as soon as Doug was capable of taking care of his own hairstyling, he took the task very seriously.

Not even a body cast could stop him from taming his locks.

Take a look at some of these pictures, where I suppose Doug thought his hair was looking good!

"The Butt Part"

"No, there's nothing in your teeth.  But what's that in your hair?"

"Is that a mullet???"

So anyway, Doug, I'm thinking it could be worse.  Maybe bald[ing] ain't so bad!

To be fair...I've had some bad hair myself.

And even with my own history of bad bangs,

I guess I'd be pretty upset if mine started to fall out.

But on Doug, I don't really mind.

 Love you, honey!

Sleeping and Waking

A couple of big changes to our sleep/wake routine have occurred in the past week.

1. Binky Bit the Dust.
I had talked to Olivia's pediatrician about this tricky subject.  Four of my five girls have been binky lovers.  With the older ones, as soon as I took away the pacifier (when they were two years old, like Olivia is now), they started sucking their thumb!  Believe me, the binky is much preferable!  So when it came to Hannah, my third binky girl, we talked to her pediatrician, and took his advice.  We let her keep her binky at bedtime until she turned three years old, and was pretty easy to communicate with.  We prepped her for a month, and told her that she would be giving up her binky-bunny (the two comfort items were inseparable) on Christmas Eve, in exchange for something exciting on Christmas morning.  It worked like a charm!  No big deal for HannahRoo, and no taking to her thumb. 

So, when Olivia turned two and I talked to her pediatrician, we agreed that this separation would be much easier when she was a bit older and we could reason with her.  But between Olivia sneaking it out of her crib and asking for it way too often, and then the resulting loss of the binky, and bedtime Binky Search & Rescue Missions, I was really anxious for the day when we could get rid of the thing.

Olivia took care of that.

She started chewing, rather than sucking, on her binkies.  In the last two weeks, she has effectively broken all of her binkies that way.  I decided not to buy any more.  And although there is a little sadness and crying, and bedtime/naptime is a bit more difficult, the binky is gone for good, and I'm glad.

2. Time to wake up!
School will start up again this month, and it's time to get ourselves going!  No more sleeping in until 8:00 or 9:00.  No more lax late nights. (Well, ok, maybe just a few.)  We're re-training ourselves to go to sleep at a decent hour, and wake up before half the morning is spent.  And this also feels (surprisingly) good.  The sad truth is, it's just as hard for me to wake up at 8:30 as it is to wake up at 6:30.  At least, it's an equally slow process.  So I may as well get going, right?

Besides, it gives us more time in the day for Back to School Shopping!