Today was my brother’s birthday! Happy birthday, Clark! We’re so excited to celebrate the last year of your twenties with you in New York!
It was also a very busy day here at the Darais household. This morning I took the girls on a walk/run to the park.
The view as I ran. (There was a lot of uphill going on, and I was more than happy to stop and take a picture.)Lydia picked a flower.Mary cooked me food.
After that, I took the girls home for lunch and naps.
Lydia said, “Mommy, take a picture of my tortilla!” …So I did. I think she’s used to me whipping out my camera for any little thing, and in this instance she simply beat me to it. Of course I wanted a picture of her microwaved tortilla–my culinary school skills at work!
Then we went to a fun pool in Bountiful with our friends Rose, Taina and Sev.
I locked my phone in the locker room so it wouldn’t get stolen, but I took one picture before I did that. There was a giant pirate ship in the pool, and here are the girls gearing up to be pirates.
We didn’t even have time to eat dinner by the time we got home. Abe and I simply packed the girls in the jogger, attached it to a bike and took off for the canyon. We got in five miles before the light gave out.
Their “dinner.” I am hoping Lydia doesn’t wake in the middle of the night begging for food because she’s hungry…
We love three day weekends. I am so happy to have Abe around, although you wouldn’t know it because I sneaked off for a three hour break to use a Groupon I got–myself–for my birthday. It was for a an hour massage, an hour facial, and a twenty-five minute back scrub. They cut the facial short and the back scrub lasted maybe seven minutes, but the massage was an hour and a half, and it was the best massage I have ever gotten in my life. After all the yoga this week, it felt amazing.
While I was at the massage, Abe and the girls were home eating, building forts, and putting flowers in Mary’s hair:
Then I came home and ate with the kids before we went swimming. After swimming we did some errands. During the course of our errands, Mary dumped two full cups of ice water on herself and Lydia dumped an entire water bottle on herself–all accidents. Lydia was trying to drown a fly that was pestering her, and Mary was just trying to drink water. When we got home, Mary made a beeline for some water on Lydia’s table and dumped that on herself too.
We had changed the girls into their pj’s after swimming so that we wouldn’t have to change them again before bedtime, but guess what? With all the water dumping, the girls got fresh pj’s once again when we got back.
This morning was my first Sunday in my new calling. I enjoyed the Primary, although I am a little overwhelmed at the prospect of learning everyone’s names. I also am not quite sure how to make myself most useful, but I’m sure that that will become clear in time.
We left church soon after Sacrament meeting (our last meeting) because Mary was inconsolable. We came home, ate, took naps, and then had a family council. Abe loves to plan for the week, and he really wanted to plan as a family. This is what it looked like:
A little hectic.
We Skyped right afterward with Clark and Swathi. The sound on my iPad broke last week, so Skyping is a lot more complicated now. Nevertheless, it was great to chat with Clark and Swathi. We love them so much.
Then we headed to the Miners’ for birthday celebrations.
Playing badminton outside.
Katie played while holding Mary. Impressive.Abe discussing how much he loves his job and why.
Frankie.Waiting for the birthday festivities to begin.We moved Lydia under the counter so she could see the action.We celebrated Clint’s birthday. He and Heather live in Phoenix but were in town. It was great getting to know them better!Charlie and Henry trying to blow out the trick candles once and for all.It was Steve’s birthday, too. Henry helped blow out the candles.Mary clapped.Steve with nieces and nephews.Siblings.Steve with his parents. The cutest picture of the day, I think.Examining seed pods afterward.And throwing them.This is a picture Abe took yesterday after the market (that I forgot to post).
This morning, after I visit taught Marilyn, we went to play group at Red Butte Gardens.
racing to the three bears’ houseLydia and Brooke pushed their sisters, Mary and Annie, all around on their strollers. Annie and Mary are just weeks apart. It was pretty cute.
feeding the ducksTinah posing. Doesn’t she look like Fancy Nancy?
After naps, we spent the afternoon doing errands. I promised my friend, Rose, I would find her a sushi mat–but they were nowhere to be found! I ended up being late to my Primary meeting (I just got called Sunday as first counselor in the Primary) with no sushi mat for Rose. (There was a sushi class in the gym at the same time as my meeting.) It all worked out, though, because the teachers brought sushi mats for everyone. Where they got them, I have no idea. Maybe the bought out all the Salt Lake stores and that’s why I couldn’t find any mats. At any rate, I ended up with a free sushi mat, and the Primary presidency is very laid back. No one cared that I was late–phew!
Also, mom, aren’t you the first counselor in your Primary? I can’t believe I haven’t talked to you since Sunday. We’ll have to chat tomorrow.
Another also: Mary learned how to climb out of her crib today. It’s actually kind of nice, because instead of crying until I come get her, she just climbs out and entertains herself. On the other hand, trying to get her to bed was a nightmare…Lydia came out at one point crying, “Mom, I have an idea! I have an idea! Let’s put a door on top of Mary’s crib! And if she still climbs out, we can put lots of doors!!”
A third “also”: I have pictures from the weekend that I am just posting now:
Cadence and Lydia going to church together.I am holding the door (and holding Mary like a sack of potatoes).
Here are the pictures Abe took while I was in my meeting:
Pretty much a typical Saturday here. I went to cooking school in the morning and made up one of the classes I missed. I’m failing my Latin class because I’ve missed so many classes, so I think after today at least I will pass.
Then Abe and I recovered from the week while both girls took marathon naps. When everyone woke up, we headed to the pool.
After we came home, we ate dinner and then I did some errands while Abe put the girls to bed. I think we’re going to try to watch The Book Thief right now, so I’ll post the only two pictures we took today. Mom, remember how Lydia has always hated the sun in her eyes? I think one of her first sentences involved communicating to us that the sun was in her eyes while we were all on a walk on 12th avenue together. Anyway, she is very attached to her sunglasses because they solve this problem for her. This is before and after our swim:
Oh, and I forgot to mention to Grandma how the girls love their pillows and blankets she made for them. Lydia loves her pillow and blankets so much that she won’t even allow us to put any other blanket or comforter on her bed. She has also dismissed her former pillow. Mary loves her blanket and pillow just as much. She moves around in her sleep, but she always seems to bring her pillow with her–her head is usually on it when she wakes up. They also play with the pillows and blankets during the day. Usually the pillows and blankets make it all around the house before ending up back upstairs on their beds. Thank-you, Grandma, for those gifts! They are very loved–just like you!!
Lydia begged me to have a play date with Sophia today, and since Misty’s play group was having a picnic at noon, it worked out. Mary loves Sophia too, and after the play date on the way to the library she kept saying, “Mama, Fia!!” (“Mama, I saw Sophia today!”) They had fun.
Then I had my final for Garde Manger tonight. It was stressful because I was running late, but I managed to turn everything out, and the chef really liked it!
I made the tuna tartare canapes on the silver tray in front.One of my beet salads.This was my sample plate for the chef. It looks sloppy, but I was running late because I was the only person who had to make forcemeat yesterday (I was gone when everyone else did that), so I got behind in my prep work. That’s what my final chicken galantine looked like when sliced. There are also the two tuna tatare toasts, and some breakfast sausage. The sauce is a balsamic vinaigrette that I dipped my beets in.Six of us made this food in an hour and a half. Well, we prepped yesterday, but still–it felt like a ton of work!
Finally, I thought I would include pictures I forgot to post Saturday. While I made my practice galantine Saturday, I thought I’d take pictures to show how gross the process is:
This is what sausage looks like before it’s cooked. Feel free to swear it off forever. We spread this nastiness on a chicken skin, throw internal garnishes in, roll it up, poach it, and then try to fry the sliminess away.Chicken Galantine–who knew disgusting could reach such heights?
Abe blogging here trying to make things a little easier on Lily since she is still very sick. She is so sick that she drove to school tonight before her class to take care of a financial aid appointment and tell her teacher she would have to miss due to illness. Apparently her teacher was not so forgiving during their conversation because she ended up staying for all of class. She definitely has less flexibility because of all the class she missed due to our trip. But, she just got home and I’m happy to report she made it through!
During the day, Lily read book 3 of Fablehaven, ate cupcakes with the girls outside for breakfast (reminding her of a Bill Cosby skit about chocolate cake) and babysat for Sarah (who has the most well-behaved kids in the world). During class she had her knife skills test and she passed!
As far as my day, work is going very well, but the pace is very dizzying. It’s not just my pace, it’s the company’s pace. We are trying to double revenue and staff every year. I started 5 months ago when the company had 400 people and now they have about 500 people. Everyone everywhere is running around working as fast as possible to try to make history at building an extremely successful tech company. Our quotas are aggressive and there is literally no time to come up for air. I absolutely love it, but today I felt the strain of the pace a little more than usual, I think possibly because my allergies were kicking in.
At home I played with the girls. Lily and I have put a lot of thought and prayer into Lydia because she has been such an emotional and behavioral mess lately. She cries all the time and refuses to do anything we ask. The challenge for Lily and I is to know how to respond (and to have the strength to respond the ways we think we should). Well, tonight I didn’t get any major epiphanies about how to help Lydia, but I think I learned what all of her distress centers around. Do you remember a few blog entries ago when Lily mentioned how with Mary’s new rule that she only gets binkies in her crib, she climbs in there multiple times a day sometimes for hours? Well she did that tonight. She climbed in and proceeded to read a book for twently minutes while she joyfully sucked her binky. At that point (with Mary effectively removed from existence, trapped in her crib), Lydia became the most angelic well behaved girl. She’d say please and thank you and oblige any time I told her we had to do something else or that play time was over. I couldn’t believe it! As soon as I retrieved Mary from her crib (she can climb in, but not out) Lydia resumed her screaming, crying and throwing toys.
I think I’m going to try to give Lydia a little Mary-free time each day. I think she needs a little space!
Pictures!!!
Lydia told me that she had a play date with Nathan and he was very nice and she (Lydia) was super sweetHannah talks really well just like Lydia and she’s not even 2 yet!
Lily made the salad towards the front and spent the rest of the time on her knife cuts mid-term
If I have to be sick, I want every day to be like this. It was sunny and glorious, and even though I spent most of church feeling miserable and so sorry for myself, the rest of the day was terrific. Thanks to Abe’s efforts and the kids’ long naps, there was lots of down-time. I even started reading the next Fablehaven book, and it’s proving to be much better than the first one.
Here are today’s pictures:
We ate dinner outside again. It was so nice I forgot I was sick for a little bit.
I was sitting at the table eating and marveling at how green everything is. I just love, love, love verdant scenes.Lydia still has not figured out how to glide on her balance bike, but that doesn’t stop her from walking around on it.Abe was dying to trace the girls’ outlines and color them in, but the girls were scared. So he finally begged us to trace him. Here’s Lydia coloring Abe’s outline.And then she danced on it.Abe felt proud.Whenever Mary wants praise, she just folds her arms like she’s going to pray. We all go nuts.After all the fun with Daddy’s outline, Mary wanted in.And, of course, so did Lydia.Then it was chase outside.
Then we returned inside and wondered how to spend the rest of the evening. At that very moment, who should call but Clark and Swathi! We Skyped with them for an hour. That’s always a highlight of my week. As soon as we said good-bye to them, the doorbell rang. It was Suzanne!
Suzanne came over for a visit.The girls both wanted turns on her lap.Mary spent approximately an hour picking out cards from our various piles, sorting them, and handing them to all of us.Handing Suzanne a card.Returning from card distribution duty with a sense of satisfaction.
And I have Suzanne to thank for the decongestants I am about to take. Here’s hoping for a great night’s sleep!
I am getting lazy! Just posting pictures due to the fact that I am sick and it is past midnight.
It’s our anniversary today! Bob, the Anniversary Elf, always leaves us flowers and a letter. He chose my favorite flowers this time–peonies!!Lydia had a really weepy day today. At one point, she refused to stand up. Mary went over and kneeled by her. She peered at Lydia’s face really closely and then reached for Lydia’s hand. She then stood up and tried to pull Lydia up! Lydia was immediately cheered and got up using Mary’s help. I couldn’t get that on camera, but I took this right afterward.I took Lydia outside to ride her bike while Mary napped.
Everything is lush now! Summer feels like it has arrived.Ron, our land lord, gave me these roses from the garden yesterday. He is such a sweetie.Coconut sherry slush. (I had cooking school tonight–tonight was Jamaican themed).Rice and beans with three really complicated recipes. They were the best rice and beans I’ve ever had, but still-rice and beans! Waaaay too much work for just that.I made these! They are fish fritters made with salt cod.I also made that nasty polenta/okra cake. Yuck! But I didn’t know a creative way around a recipe that called for you to mix okra into polenta. At least they didn’t make us try to incorporate okra into a cupcake!Abe took this while I was at school. We have a new rule now that we are home: Mary can have her binkies whenever she’s in her pack ‘n play, but no other time. Today she crawled into her pack ‘n play at 11am and had zero desire to leave until well past 3 pm. She gets 2 binkies in her pack ‘n play, and she seems to enjoy them both.
After that, I took the girls home for lunch and naps.
