Author: lilydarais

On Tuesday Lydia got her retainer put in. She already sees a speech pathologist, but with that retainer, the poor girl is really struggling to speak. But she was very good and diligent about brushing her teeth and retainer so carefully, and I think she feels proud to have one in.

Abe came home late at night while I was binge watching Victoria. We sat on the couch and he told me all about the sales kickoff. It has been a really hard year for Abe, and Tuesday night was the awards ceremony. It was humbling and difficult for him, but when he tells me about his feelings, I am always so amazed at what a magnificent soul he has. He recognizes his own weaknesses so clearly, and he has such a gracious, intelligent, spiritually sensitive approach to the challenges work is presenting to him.

After watching Victoria, I am a little terrified Abe going to die of something like Albert did. I guess we’ll probably steer clear of typhoid, but with all the stress Abe is under, I am concerned he going to have a heart attack or get cancer or something. When I see love like mine depicted in books, television, or any kind of media, it always seems like it ends in someone dying. Even in Up, after the couple has lived a full and happy life together, Ellie’s death feels like a tragedy. It makes me cry, every time!

I know it’s so morbid and stupid to anticipate that tragedy, but honestly, the happiness I feel in my marriage feels unbelievable. When I think about it, I can’t help but feel like it’s not fair I get to experience it, and I have this dark suspicion that life will balance the scales by killing Abe off.

What a way to end the post. An aboutface: I guess the point is, I got lucky in love!

On Monday Abe left for sales kickoff in Salt Lake. Since the meetings start early and end late, he spent the night at his parents’ house and the kids won’t see him again until Thursday. So to make the absence a little easier, Abe stayed home until 8:15 in the morning so I could go do a full yoga session.

The roads were so slick and crazy! I spent forty five minutes driving to yoga, and then it took me the same amount of time to get back. By 8:10 I had already been on the road for an hour and a half. But I was grateful to have the chance to do yoga. With our treadmill out of commission and our local rec center under construction, and with the slippery roads and sidewalks, yoga is really the only exercise I can do. To make up for the days of exercise I missed this past week,  I did hot pilates before my regular bikram yoga and almost had a heart attack afterward, but once I recovered I resolved to try to do that combo every week. It felt very effective (as long as I don’t accidentally kill myself. As I lay on the floor pouring buckets of sweat for a full five minutes after it was over, it did occur to me that this exercise combo might actually do me in).

When I got home I was so hungry, but I promised Ammon if he peed in the potty we would go play outside in the snow. He immediately peed, so I delayed breakfast and went outside to play with Clarissa and him. Clarissa was so funny! I kept thinking she had fallen down and couldn’t get up because of all of her snow gear, but instead she was just lying on the snow licking it up. That happened a lot. And Ammon was so happy making angels, playing with snow toys, and running around. Our yard is now the only one in the cul de sac that doesn’t look pretty with unbroken snow…but we did have a great time.

Doesn’t Clarissa look like she’s stuck in the picture below?

But she’s not! She’s just licking the snow. Look at her happy smile:

During Clarissa’s nap, Ammon and I did a beautiful insect puzzle together and I folded a million loads of laundry. Then Clarissa woke up and we all went to pick up the girls from school.

I don’t know what it is, but when we pick up the girls and I have four kids instead of two, I morph from being a fairly patient, kind parent into this horrible monster who’s so deep in fight or flight mode that I literally can’t think of simple vocabulary words like “plate,” “shelf” or “socks.” I start talking/screaming and then I can’t finish a sentence because my brain can’t think of words like those. And wow, the girls’ practices are just insane. I feel highly stressed and irresponsible because I can’t see Clarissa, who has now learned how to climb on tables and is always attempting to scale the stove. Since our TV is no longer in our basement, I can’t sedate Ammon during the girls’ practice anymore, so he is a chaotic, free-roaming agent who might, at any minute, pee or poop on something. And if those two things aren’t stressing me to the point where I’m a yelling, crazy mess, then trying to get Mary to focus or Lydia to learn something new makes me INSANE.

So basically I was a total disaster for several hours and spent the rest of the evening after the kids went down feeling sad and guilty, binge watching Victoria, and buying Lydia her wishlist of Scholastic books because I felt so bad about her harp practice.

On Wednesday Ammon had a poop accident and a ton of pee accidents. He is really scared to poop in the potty. After all of the laundry I did, I wasn’t in the mood to cook dinner so the kids and I ran through In-N-Out. Sigh.

But after that we went to Costco and joined Abe to “help” him pick out new glasses. The girls were so enthusiastic about this that they were picking every pair off the shelves and demanding Abe try them ALL on. So I ended up taking the kids around Costco and ate samples.

Then we came home, ate dinner, took baths, and got ready for the temple. Eliza Freestone came to babysit so Abe and I could go experience the new feminist changes that have been made to the temple ceremony. I felt so grateful these occurred in my lifetime! I thought changes like these would probably take decades, at least.

We bumped into the Blosils while we were there and ended up chatting with them in the Celestial room. It was fun to hear their insights into the ceremony. We got to drive home all together, so the fun continued.

Then Abe and I collapsed in bed, only to be woken up all. night. long. by every child except, ironically, Clarissa. First Mary came at 2am and told us she had peed everywhere (we are trying to put her in undies at night again). Then after we cleaned her and the bed all up and had barely fallen asleep again, Ammon woke up screaming from a nightmare. It was probably about potty training. Then after I went into him and tried to go back to bed, Lydia came in hysterical because she had just had a giant nose bleed and there was blood everywhere. And by that point it was almost time to get up for Mary’s 6:30am piano lesson. What a night!

On Wednesday, for the first time perhaps in a year (or maybe ever?), ALL FOUR KIDS slept in. As in, it was 7:30 and Abe and I just happened to wake up peacefully. Well, not that peacefully since Abe is supposed to be at work by 7:30, but still. It was better than usual.

Who knows how long they all might have slept if I hadn’t idiotically made the exact same mistake I made last year and assumed that school started again today. I did the exact same thing last January 2nd! I was so mad at myself. I woke up the girls and Abe drove them to school, only to discover it was closed and now he was more than half an hour late to work. He was so sweet about this, but I felt stupid.

It was really nice to have the girls home, though. They have been enormous helps in potty training Ammon. Honestly, they have done a lot of the hard work. On her own initiative, Lydia runs him to the potty, makes sure he wipes, flushes and washes his hands, and she cheers enthusiastically for every bit of progress he makes. Mary is the self designated sticker dispenser, and Ammon runs to her for stickers each time he goes. She loves giving them out. They have been amazing.

I also cooked dinner for the first time in forever. I made a curried lentil soup, heated up some Finnish pastries, and roasted some curried carrots, onions, cauliflower, and currants. Then I cut some grapefruit for dessert since this is supposed to be our year of health.

After dinner we all went to Ammon’s room for scripture, and then Abe and the older girls and I all watched the 4th Harry Potter movie together. Lydia is very conscientious and was very concerned at its PG13 rating. Abe and I explained that we were providing the parental guidance, but in retrospect maybe it was a little too scary? The girls seemed fine, though. Hopefully we didn’t make an irresponsible choice.

After that I gave the girls their nightly massages that I started giving them about a month ago. And then Abe and I studied scriptures together. It was a great day, and I just wish I had a picture to go with it!

On Tuesday I went to yoga and Abe went on a run. After that I caught up on blogging for hours while the kids watched TV for hours. Ammon was still potty training and regressed to being very sad about it, so the tv was a good distraction.

Abe shot this photo while I blogged and everyone vegetated on the couch:

When Abe and I woke up on New Year’s Eve, we decided to potty train Ammon. We have been talking about potty training for a year, but since Abe had two days left at home before having to go back to work, we decided to just go for it and train him. Ammon HATED this idea and cried and screamed a lot. At first Abe offered him a way of saying “no” but tried to bribe him into the idea, but as soon as Ammon heard that there was an opt out, he started screaming, “I SAY NO!!! I SAY NO!!! MAMA, I SAY NO!!!”

So I took him to Target and we did something less intimidating than jumping straight in. We picked out potty treats, potty juice, and a potty seat. This somewhat placated Ammon, but as soon as we got home, he started crying again. However, once he got on the potty and we all cheered for him, gave him stickers, and showered him with praise, treats, and juice, he started to get excited.

He spent the rest of the day doing a GREAT job. I think being over three is a great advantage, because he only had two or three accidents and went to the potty successfully ten times. We were so proud.

Pictures:

After the babies were in bed, Abe and I watched Loving Vincent, which blew us away. The girls stayed up playing and watching Harry Potter. I went to bed after that, but Abe stayed up and took the girls outside at midnight to bang pans and shout “Happy New Year!”

On Sunday Abe and I got the kids ready for church, and we got there in time for the sacrament and one outstanding talk about the meaning of worship. Then we went home, packed, and got ready for our trip home.

On our way to the airport we stopped by Saltwater State Park and let the kids play on the beach before our plane trip.

On Saturday my mom and I went to Hand and Stone for massages. The massages were awesome, but I had an unpleasant exchange with my masseuse that, to be honest, upset me for the rest of the day. I was upset at her and at myself for being upset. But my body felt awesome! The hot stones were incredible.

Uncle Steve and Aunt Pam came to visit, so most of our day was spent visiting with them. After the kids went to bed we stayed up really late talking and laughing. We laughed so much I woke up laughing on Sunday morning!

On Friday Abe and I spent a long time trying to find a trail along Wayerhouser Way. We finally found a good one. It was raining, and poor Clarissa was soaked in her stroller. But she slept through a lot of the run, though. When she was awake, she got to see gorgeous Pacific northwest scenery, so maybe that was some small comfort?

After we got all cleaned up, Soren, Mary, Lydia and I took the bus to Seattle while Clark drove everyone else down in the car. We beat everyone by half an hour, so the kids rode the carousel before we went to the Sheraton to get in line for the gingerbread houses.

Everyone else joined us while we were in line. We waited an hour to see the Whoville themed gingerbread houses on display:

After the gingerbread houses, we were all tired and hungry, so we headed to the nearby mall and ate at Pike Place Chowder. The food was AMAZING.

After that I took the older girls and Soren on the bus back to Federal Way. We beat everyone back, so we took another bus to the nearby Target for cocoa and cookies while we waited to be picked up.

And then we came home, ate dinner, put the kids down, and did puzzles until past 1am in the morning. They were so addictive!

Aside from Christmas day and Sunday morning, Abe and I ran together almost every morning of our Seattle trip. On Thursday we did repeats on the hill next to Clark and Swathi’s house. The road was right out of a picture book with its greenery, and Clarissa was so good and slept in her stroller for most of the time.

After that, we hung around the house until the afternoon when we took a trip to the nearby Seattle Bonsai Garden. It was a perfect outing. Everything was so green and peaceful, and we loved looking at each bonsai. The kids got out their energy chasing each other around, but the girls were actually also really interested in the stories behind the various trees. At one point, a curator came and asked us to stop the kids from dragging their feet in the gravel. Then he, Clark, Abe, and my mom started discussing bonsais. Abe and Clark decided that they want to make bonsais their new hobby. He must have been very persuasive about the benefits of growing bonsai, especially considering Abe and I can’t even keep succulents alive.

In the evening after the kids were in bed, Abe and I left to go on a date to the Seattle Art Museum. We had a wonderful conversation there with one of the guards who had lots of thoughts to share on Jackson Pollack.

These are some of our favorite pieces:

After that we drove to Capitol Hill and had dessert at Hot Cakes. I got the most amazing butterbeer probably on the planet, and we both were utterly defeated by our teensy lava cakes. Neither of us could finish them because they were so rich. So we took them and a bunch of other treats home. It was a wonderful evening.