I took a million pictures today because it felt like we did a million things. The girls took a bubble bath first thing because I knew Lydia was going to ballet today, and I wanted her hair tight and out of her face. Also, the girls smelled. I didn’t get pictures of the bath because I didn’t want them to drown while I ran for my camera.
Instead, I took pictures of them on our way to the gym:
Before we left the house, we said a prayer and then practiced our prayer poses. The girls have been completely irreverent lately and just run around playing during prayers, so I decided we needed practice. Posing for the camera always incentivizes them.I spent almost two hours at the gym today, and the girls were great! They made these hats in the child care with Bailey. She’s so sweet–she bought them snacks with her own money today. I didn’t realize we could bring snacks (what about the other kids??), so I tried to feed them before dropping them off. Unfortunately, my kids eat frequently, so that wasn’t enough.Lydia was shy and only wanted to go in if she could hold Ada’s hand. She spent most of the class following Ada around. The rest of the time she was sitting on the floor in her own little world while everyone else danced.Lydia in ballet with AdaOn our way to the library, the girls found some great seed pods on the ground.
Mary wanted to be part of Abe’s puppet show for FHE. We did a lesson on how God’s house is a house of order, had a puppet show wherein the puppets learned to clean up, and then we spent the rest of the evening cleaning.She really, really wanted to be in the puppet show.Lydia was content to watch.This is a motion shot. I thought Abe had brushed it out when I saw the picture, but he said this happened naturally when she was coming down the stairs.
But it’s dramatic without Abe’s help.
This morning I resolved to photograph every activity of the day, but alas, I failed in my resolve. Lydia and I baked banana bread before ballet, and it was so messy there was no way a camera could have gotten safely involved.
Also, Abe is in the shower enthusiastically singing “Accidents happen” from Elmo’s World. Parenting does things to you.
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:
I got up at 5:10 so I could pick up the babysitter and get to yoga in time. After that, I got the kids ready and took them to the Aviary to meet up with Jen, El, Spencer, Laddie, and Natalie. The children were so cute and excited to see the birds–and more ducks, of course!
I came home exhausted and lay in bed for a while surfing the internet. One of the blogs I read annoyed me, and I made a rather nasty comment to the author (who I do not know). After I did that, I felt so terrible, and actually I’ve felt bad all day. I did send the author a heartfelt apology, and she was very nice about it. I felt grateful for human forgiveness today, although I’ve also felt terrible all day long that I did something that hurtful to such a nice person.
On the bright side, Abe and I are in love with our Hyde Park tenants. They are the nicest people, and Abe has been raving all day about his conversation with them. They are an older couple who are living there for the summer to be close to a new grandchild, and they are so sweet. They actually thanked us for the opportunity to fix up our condo. Abe couldn’t believe his ears. In fact, he’s talking about how much he loves them as I type.
After I had somewhat recovered from my bad behavior and its aftermath, I loaded the kids up and headed to Provo. Abe’s work team had a dinner at his boss’s house, and I really enjoyed meeting his coworkers.
I practically fell asleep driving home, and I cancelled the babysitter for tomorrow morning. I think I might sleep in…
Sorry to have been out of commission for so long! Friday was my birthday, and it was so fun-packed that I didn’t have any energy to blog by the end. The girls were so sweet to me all day. Lydia kept wishing me happy birthday and let me sleep in as a birthday present. I asked her if she could entertain herself so I could sleep longer on my birthday–selfish, I know, but she was so sweet! She went potty, brushed her teeth, and played quietly while I slept an extra hour. Mary also kept saying, “Happy! Happy!” to me all day long. That’s how she says “happy birthday.”
Lydia wanted to help Mary get dressed in the morning. Mary appreciated the help.Lydia and I baked this on my birthday.Mary spotted the cake upon awaking from her nap, and she refused to eat anything else.
Abe and I used a groupon to go to Cucina Toscana for dinner, and it was wonderful. Suzanne was an angel and baby-sat for us all evening. We were so grateful!
beef carpaccio.house made gnocchi in a stupendous tomato sauce, and a mind-blowing spinach lemon ravioli and a mornay sauce.a truly terrific Cesear.Sea bass with calms and shrimp.duck with macerated figs and spinach
On Saturday, I got up at 5:30 so I could go to yoga. Then I came home and we all went to the pool for a swim.
We got to the pool and realized it wasn’t free swim time. The lifeguard was so kind and let us put the kids in a swim lesson that was going on –for free! Mary and Lydia both learned to float, jump in, and kick!
Then we met up with Karin and Jay for lunch at Gourmandise. I have been dreaming about their creme brulee oatmeal ever since I got it when I went to breakfast with Aria a while back. Daydreams were fulfilled.
Mary cuddled with Karin for such a long time. We finally had to take her and try to make her eat something, but she looked pretty content here.Jay relaxing at Gourmandise.Lydia picked out this cookie after lunch. That’s a mouse cookie. It’s a chocolate truffle coated with ganache on a lemony cookie base with a bit of raspberry flling.Mary eating her half of the mouse cookie.
Then we went grocery shopping, took a nap, and got ready for our dinner.
Mary “drove the car” with Abe while I grocery shopped.
I made a ton of food, but whenever we have guests I always think we’re going to run out of food. Whenever my parents threw parties growing up, we would eat leftovers for weeks; my dad never wanted to run out of food at a party. I think I inherited my fear of running out of food from him. Anyway, I made Jamaican jerk steak, kasha (threw it out because I did it wrong and replaced it with cous cous), carrot salad, roasted veggies, balsamic blackberry gingered strawberries, corn on the cob, and chimichurri sauce. Candace brought Harmon’s bread and Emily brought a marvelous fruit salad. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun with everyone that I forgot to take pictures. Abe did manage to take a picture of the cake with his phone (Gourmandise had a Groupon for cake!):
Gourmandise had a Groupon for a birthday cake. This was a chocolate truffle raspberry cake. It was to die for.The girls played outside before our party.
We had to set up an extra table for the party since we had seven grown-ups and five kids. While Abe was taking down the table, he sliced off a good portion of the padding on his finger. He cut off the flap with a scissors, and it’s still bleeding (a full twenty-four hours later). He spent most of last night in excruciating pain. I was up until midnight talking with Candace, and I didn’t realize how much pain Abe was in until he called me up because he was struggling so much. I felt so sorry for him! Today it’s not as painful, although we’re going to douse it in hydrogen peroxide soon, and I’m sure that will be torture for him. Say a prayer for Abe.
We got to church half an hour late today because I was prepping for our post-church picnic.
After church we had a picnic today with Ben, Candace, Cadence, Bentley, Aria, Stephen, and Balu.The girls loved playing while we ate.
After our picnic, Candace and Ben drove back to Idaha. I hated to see them go and felt really lonely and sad with the house empty. I wish Candace lived closer.
I treated my sorrow with a nap, and when we woke up, the house still felt empty. We called Mike and Paige at that point and asked if they could come over to help us finish off the million pounds of leftover food in our fridge. They were wonderful and came. We spent hours discussing the disciplinary council of Kate Kelly and John Dehlin. It was really cathartic, and I felt like I learned a lot from the discussion.
Liv ate some pink paint today.Mary somehow got covered in marker while we were getting food out for dinner with the Andersons. Her face matched her dress.
Mike pointed out that Utah twilight lasts hours, and we enjoyed it all evening. It was a perfect night. This June has been so glorious.
Aside from taking my girls to story time at the library and then going to the gym for a swim, I literally cleaned all day long. Well, I took a forty-five minute break to play the piano, and I fed the kids a couple times, but other than that, all I did today was clean (and bake cookies). I don’t think the house has ever been this clean, and I feel so happy! The only thing I wish I’d done is mop all the floors, but at least they’re all swept or vacuumed.
I have another final project to do tomorrow, and there’s nothing I hate more than doing school work in the middle of a mess. I anticipate highly enjoying my project tomorrow thanks to today’s efforts.
And, best of all, my friend Candace is coming in tonight and will stay the weekend with us! She got a mini-pass to the Alt Summit to hear Martha Stewart present. I was supposed to buy a pass and go too, but I never had my wallet with me when I was at the computer, and by the time I finally got around to it, the event was sold out. I was bummed. But at least the good news is that, as I mentioned before, I have a final project (and a final exam) tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I would fail both if I were going to see Martha too.
Here are today’s pictures:
The girls woke up and wanted to build a nest for themselves in their princess tent. They had a blast.I told Mary to say “Hi Mommy!” She opens her mouth pretty wide when she says “hi”.The girls were really affectionate with each other this morning.
Oops! (A tumble.)We have gotten our money’s worth out of this dress. Lydia wears it at every opportunity.
Mary makes life pretty easy for everyone by putting herself in voluntary time-outs so she can have her binkies. She’s only allowed to have them in her pack-n-play, so she spends a lot of time like this.
Also, I’m linking to my favorite Christian song of late. It’s called “Build Your Kingdom Here,” and this is what got me on the Christian rock kick.
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
Another sick day for me. I decided to skip school tonight in the hopes that by tomorrow, I’ll be a little better. I was better today than yesterday, so at least we’re headed in the right direction!
Because I was sick, we did not leave the house today. Thank goodness Mary took two naps! When she was awake, I spent a lot of time doing the usual: feeding the girls, reading to the girls, cooking with Lydia, baking with Lydia, and letting them play outside.
Well, Lydia didn’t play outside. She stayed in the front hall and screamed while Mary and I sat on the front stoop and examined ants and flower petals. I told Lydia she had to go potty before going outside, and she just didn’t want to. I probably should have relented, but I was not in the mood to clean up accidents, and she had gone so long without taking a trip to the bathroom that I felt sure she would have an accident if she didn’t go soon. Sometimes, I just don’t know how to handle Lydia–or I do know, but I don’t always make the most patient choice. It’s something I’m constantly praying on.
After Abe came home, we ate dinner outside, and then I retreated back to bed. The best thing about being sick is that I have recently become addicted to the Fablehaven series, and even though I’m having trouble breathing and feel feverish, I forget all that while reading. The first book wasn’t great, but each book seems vastly better than the last.
I only took one picture today:
The girls spent quite a bit of time watching the garbage trucks this morning. There was also construction on the street, so that occupied them while I devoured Fablehaven (and took a picture). When I was little, we lived in Rome, and my dad made a big deal about the garbage trucks. We used to gather on the porch and cheer “refuti!” at the trucks whenever they came by. This felt kind of full circle–the girls thought the garbage trucks were some kind of parade.
Also: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!!! My dearest, sweetest grandmother turned 96 today. We love you so much, Grandma! Sloppies!!!! (That’s an inside joke…)
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!
Today I dragged myself to cooking school, only to discover I was the only one there (at first). That meant I got to choose what I wanted to do, so I opted to make tofu nuggets. I love the kind that Trader Joe’s makes, but I’ve always assumed they were so synthetically crafted that they’d be impossible to reproduce. After today, I’m encouraged! My nuggets weren’t at all what you get at Trader Joe’s, but I think if I add some things (quinoa flakes? different kind of miso? Extra firm tofu?) they might taste a bit closer.
Here are mine:
When I got home, the girls ran to meet me. It was so sweet! I just loved coming home to these people/this picture.I think I startled them by whipping out my ready camera. Next time I think I’ll just run to them and give them hugs instead.Eating the garbanzo beans I brought home from school.Again, Mary ran to me to give me a hug, and I pulled out the camera on the poor thing. I need to stop doing that, but she’s just so cute!We had an Amazon Local deal to The Blue Nile, an Ethiopian restaurant. Since we were out and about, we ate there for dinner.Mary was so hungry she started eating the menu.Um, YUM.Beets are a Darais family favorite. We had to order the kids extra. (Good thing they happened to be wearing pink!)More beets!We are going through a Christian rock phase. Abe came home a couple months ago and wanted me to listen to “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus. I pulled up the YouTube video and was so appalled that we let that kind of garbage into our house (we have young girls in our home!!!) that Abe swore off pop music completely. In its wake, he has listened to nothing but Christian rock. It has been the greatest thing ever for all of us! I feel the same kind of evangelical enthusiasm I felt when I was a teenager–a kind of high on God that is, at times, hard to recapture.
Also, a HUGE shout-out to Abe for organizing the whole house today, top to bottom. We’ve been team-tagging this project ever since we got back from our trip, but yesterday and today I’ve been out of commission. Abe did an amazing job organizing everything, and the house looks absolutely incredible. Thanks, Honey! You are the bestest best best!!
Today was a good day for everyone at the Darais house. We haven’t been sleeping much, but in spite of that, God has given us strength to not only manage, but find great joy.
Lily got a TON of house work done, including accomplishing hours worth of laundrey washing, drying, folding, sorting and putting-away. For a brief moment in the Darais home there was literally NOTHING that needed to be washed…….I know I wont sleep in the socks I’m currently wearing, so unfortunately the pile starts again tonight……
Lily read to the girls separately, read in her book about the Monart method of teaching your children to draw and she read in a book about how to teach your children to read. She said she felt very happy and close to God today. What a wonderful and productive day!
I had a good day at work. I was a little tired, but I kept my nose to the grind-stone. Days usually come for two packages for me, successful days and learning days. Today was more of a learning day, but I did learn and I believe success will come. At home I had the most wonderful time with the girls. They were both in super good moods and we all danced to K-Love together. We went totally wild when our favorite song “Every Act of Love” by Jason Grey came on. I was dancing while holding Mary and she screamed to indicate that she wanted to be set down…..when I set her down she proceeded to get her groove on and I thought it was hilarious! Days like this I am reminded why I’m so grateful to not have a job that takes my attention at home as well as at work. I was completely engaged with the children and drinking from the cup of pure joy.
