Month: September 2015

This morning I felt like a flood of inspiration hit. I realized some things I could do with the kids on a daily basis that would be fun and educational, and I was so excited that I planned out the next couple days hour by hour. Today everything went according to plan…except that right now instead of blogging, according to my plan I should be five minutes away from serving dinner. Oh well. We all ate a big snack an hour ago and this is my first moment of down time all day.

Everything else stayed on track, though! We went to story time at the library and then stopped off at Barnes and Noble so I could buy some workbooks for the girls. I also bought a dinosaur book and a book on anatomy since Lydia is very interested in those subjects right now.

Mary had a massive melt-down in Barnes and Noble. After she pooped, I told her we had to go home to change her diaper. She followed me screaming and crying. I felt very blessed because I didn’t feel at all annoyed or embarrassed, but instead we eventually worked it out. I told Mary if she learns to poop in the potty then we won’t have to leave places to go home and change her diaper (especially since I always forget to bring diapers with me). Clearly, I am ambivalent on the potty training front. One day I hate the thought, and the next it doesn’t sound all that bad.

At any rate, Mary cheered right up, and as soon as I cleaned her up at home, she ran straight to the potty and tried to teach herself to poop on the potty. At lunch time I announced we were going to start home schooling. I should have said “together time,” but home schooling best term I could think of (at the time) for the couple of work sheets and music lessons I plan on starting as part of our daily routines. Lydia slumped in her chair and said, “I don’t want to learn what “home schooling” means.” I thought that was a hilarious and apt reflection on my past attempts to educate Lydia at home. I always fail because I end up sucking all the joy out of learning and push her too hard.

This time, though, I’m excited because I have no goal in mind other than to provide us ALL with happy together time that also happens to be slightly educational. Today it worked, too! We all had a good time, and the girls even asked for more when I announced it was time to get ready for ballet.

Abe showed up at ballet and surprised the girls. Afterward they ran to him crying, “Daddy” or, in Mary’s case, “My bud! My bud! My bud is here!” Here are two vidoes of ballet.

After ballet, the girls jumped in puddles. They love their puddle jumper rain boots.

We are now debating whether we should head out to buy me some jeans. The weather has changed and I have only the three outfits I’ve worn all summer long. I hate to buy pregnancy jeans so late in the game, but let’s be honest. At 211 pounds, I can probably get a lot of use out of these jeans long after Ammon arrives. So, if I have the energy to make it to the mall, that’s how we’ll end this lovely day.

Last night Mary woke up crying and puking. Abe and I both missed the fact that she had puked. Parent fail.

But at least I noticed this morning! Poor Mary was a mess. I wanted to give her a stay-at-home-all-day-and-do-nothing day, but Lydia had to go to music and preschool, so I toted Mary around to those activities. Today was one of those days where I bless my good fortune to live in the age of Amazon Prime TV. In between outings, I snuggled Mary into our fuzzy beanbag, covered her with blankets, handed her a puke bowl and let her forget her misery while she watched Dinosaur Train and Daniel Tiger.

Lydia was a total doll all day and earned another nice sticker. I had a crazy mom moment when I went to pick her up from preschool. This morning I had to wash Mary’s vomit out of my hair, but I had zero energy to style it. There was a lot of rain and humidity today, and my hair went crazy. After noticing that I was getting weird looks at Lydia’s preschool, I took a look in the mirror. This is what I saw:

This evening after dinner we all played puzzles and the new Uno game you gave us, Mom!

I had an uncomfortable doctor’s visit today. I found out that I am 1% dilated and 70% effaced, though. Even though I have two kids, I still don’t totally know what that means, but I think it means Ammon is going to be here slightly before his due date.

After the visit, I hobbled to the car. I probably should have just rested for the remainder of the day, but the house was driving me crazy, so I spent the next seven hours cleaning. I can barely move now. That’s unfortunate, especially since I spent an hour looking at dessert blogs and want nothing more than to make myself some hot cocoa. I just know it would be pure pain getting down the stairs, but the prospect of hot cocoa makes it seem worth it. We’ll see.

We had stake conference today. Abe and I felt so grateful to be addressed by Elder Ballard, whose talk was broadcast to a lot of Utah Valley. Abe pointed out that it was like General Conference, only Elder Ballard tailored his talk specifically to us. Elder Ballard cited statistics about how Utah is the most religious state in the U.S., and how Utah Valley is the most religiously active part of Utah. He talked about how this is the heart of the Church, and then he gave warnings and counsel to the members here.

Specifically, he told us to not get caught up in pride about education. He said that there are lots of opportunities for education here, and we should be careful not to look down on others who have not had opportunities for education and yet still contribute to the Church. He said that their contribution is like the widow’s mite, and that we should respect and honor that.

He also warned us to live within our means and not try to outcompete our neighbors in material things. He said that we should not over-schedule our children or text while driving. (Abe and I thought that was great practical counsel.) He also told us not to text during family time. Then he counseled us on the subject of questions about faith. He said that questioning is not wrong and that we should never dismiss another person who approaches us with doubts and questions. At the same time, he said that we should search the scriptures and listen to apostles and prophets instead of just searching the blogosphere for answers.

During the closing hymn, Praise to the Man, Mary started dancing all around the foyer. I whipped out the phone during the last couple of lines and took some photos. I don’t know if that was appropriate, but since these were my only pictures of the day, I’m glad I did! I also got the very last line on video here. (Her dancing was a lot more vigorous during the earlier, more fast-paced parts of the hymn.)

For the rest of the day we just napped and spent time together as a family. It felt like a great Sunday.

We started off the day with the ward breakfast, and we enjoyed visiting with people there. I was dreading it a little and almost didn’t go because I dislike big groups, but it was actually manageable because we just talked to a few people in a small group.

Then we headed to Salt Lake for haircuts. Karin got us free haircuts from lovely Gina on trade, and they are the best haircuts we have all had in a while!

Then we went to O’Falafel for lunch. We love that place. After that we headed over to Nordstrom Rack to get Lydia some Fall clothes.

After that we got frozen yogurt. Abe and I realized we have so many pictures of our kids eating ice cream this summer that it’s embarrassing. But in the spirit of authenticity…:

After that we headed to Old Navy for more clothes for the girls. Then we came home and Lydia gave me a delightful hour-long fashion show of all the new clothes she has. We then played pretend for the next four hours. During pretend, Lydia actually tugged on my heart with an elaborate narration about how she was an orphan and how our home was her new hotel. I should have taken videos or pictures. She and Mary were just delightful.

Mary is now on the potty claiming she going to poop. Her interest in the potty is exciting long-dead hope in me. We failed at potty training her during Abe’s work break in January, and she has exhibited no interest at all in the potty ever since. I keep saying I will train her when she turns four because I’ve heard some good success stories from people who have waited. But if she continues to beg to go potty, maybe we’ll see some potty training success a little sooner around here!

Mom, I forgot again to take a picture of your new bed! I was in bed myself almost the whole day, so I guess that explains it. Hopefully I remember tomorrow.

The good news is I feel 99% better after my second massive sick day. The bad news is I can hear Abe sniffling. Poor man. He has been working so hard all week and hasn’t had a chance to get better yet. He’s barely even slept at all! I feel so bad for him. Currently he’s working hard to get everything done so he can at least have a weekend. I hope he gets it done, and I hope he gets to finally rest tomorrow.

We did eat dinner outside tonight. It was such a low-key day that eating outside was THE event of the day–for the girls and me, at least.

This morning we went to gymnastics:

Then it was lunch, preschool, some reading, cooking, cleaning and–blogging and bed!

I got a picture of the girls waiting for their ballet lesson today:

I also called Jessi today because I have been thinking a lot about music teachers for Lydia, and I wanted to get Jessi’s thoughts and music philosophy. It was so helpful to hear her articulate her beliefs and plans for her children. I felt blessed to have such a resource in a friend. She, Henry and Morgan stayed for dinner. We ate outside and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Afterward, Abe, the girls and I all visited Nick, our friend who just moved here from Chicago. That was a fun visit. Then we did one other errand before heading home. Mom, you’ll be happy to know Lydia was so polite and so good today that she earned one of her good stickers! She didn’t even need to redeem herself at any point today. She was good the whole day through. I am so proud of her.

This morning while I took Lydia to her music class, Mary stayed home with Nana. Nana took this cute picture of Mary working on her puzzles:

Then we had to drop Nana off at the airport. That was sad.

But as I was driving home, I saw a billboard advertising Zoorassic Park at the Hogle Zoo. Since Lydia is on a huge dinosaur kick, I exited right off of the freeway, drove the girls to lunch, and then went straight to the zoo.

When Abe got home, he let the girls play outside with the neighbors while I lay in bed and researched Suzuki teachers for Lydia. I emailed a bunch asking to observe lessons and recitals, and so far I have had one response. This teacher says she doesn’t allow lesson observation by parents or anyone else, and I thought that goes against the very heart of Suzuki philosophy. Oh well. It makes it easier to narrow down the list if other teachers come back with similar responses.

After I emailed the teachers, we all piled in the car and donated loads upon loads of stuff to DI. Our van was packed floor to ceiling with garbage bags. We feel terrific to have that stuff gone.

This morning the girls played sweetly near Nana all morning. She took lots of cute pictures and a video.

We went to Abe’s favorite lunch spot, Macaroni Grill, for lunch today. He loves this chain because they are very close to Qualtrics and have $7 lunches in 7 minutes or less.

We then tried to stroll along Bridal Veil Falls, but it was packed. Thinking we would outsmart the crowds, we drove up past Sundance to the Timpanogas trail head. Again–packed! The drive was beautiful though. We drove back down the canyon and decided to give Mom a tour of Qualtrics and then walk Abe’s bike path. We had that peaceful walk all to ourselves, and we enjoyed every moment outside on this glorious day.

After our walk, we came home and rested until dinner. My mom had never tried In-N-Out before, so we took her there and ate outside while the sun set. Then we came home for FHE, during which Abe taught a lesson on the Proclamation to the World on the Family. Then we all helped Lydia learn her solfege hand signs for music class tomorrow.

It was such a sweet day, and I am sad to see it end. I am so sad to know it was our last full day with my mom, but Grandma, I know how delightful it is to have her around, and I am happy for you that you get to see her again soon! We love you!