Whatever

I can't come up with a good title today because this is a random collection of stuff.

The first picture here is titled:  "When Babies Attack"  This is exactly what William does to my shoulder ALL the time.  I've stopped wearing anything nice because I just get smeared in spit and snot all day.  He likes to gnaw on fabric.  Kind've wish he would gnaw on other things too . . .

For some inexplicable reason, I felt compelled to make a quilt for Megan's preschool.  They do a fundraiser in the spring and even though we pay them good money (really good money), I decided to donate.  Problem was that I didn't have a quilt to donate.  But I did have some cute pink and white star blocks and a pattern for these awesome dragonfly blocks.

I really really like this quilt but let me tell you it was frustrating to figure out on a deadline.  And I've been very single-minded in getting it done in time.  AND I have dragonfly blocks left over which is ironic given that one of the reasons I made it was to use up blocks left over from other projects . . . I hope it makes a lot of money!!!

Ok I'm going to try a video straight from my computer instead of uploading to YouTube first.  You have to watch carefully in the beginning -- William is "feeding" himself an apple -- licking it really.  The funny thing is that every time he gets a taste he does the turn away and grimace that he does when we feed him.  Except he's feeding himself . . . our appointment with the feeding therapist is on the 10th.  Maybe they have answers!!  Oh and you get to hear my parenting in action apparently.

Life is Full of Almosts

The girls wanted to go on the fitness trail yesterday and we found a small cluster of wildflowers in the drainage ditch.  It would make for some cute pictures if there weren't drainage "stuff" in the background.

Abby has been developing rashes on her feet and legs when she goes outside to play without socks or shoes.  And I'm notorious for letting them out that way because they run in and out of the house so much right now.  We know it's not poison oak or ivy and it's not the grass . . . we must have some kind of noxious weed in our yard.

After "exercising" we went to the park to play and I got some good pictures of William's "almost" crawling.  Very almost.

Hands and knees -- but with one foot still in front.

Sitting up on his knees.

 He can now get into a sitting position from his stomach.  Takes him a while but he can do it.  And he's doing more rocking on his hands and knees.  And he's cranky.  So it should be soon!

I finally got a picture of those top teeth.  There's one on the bottom as well but these are more visible and very cute.  So far, he has not been a biter (thank goodness!).

And the proof!!!  Yesterday at the park I gave him a graham cracker to play with and HE PUT IT IN HIS MOUTH!!!!  He would put the end in and lick it and then make a face, try it again, etc. and then when it got smooshy enough to break off in small chunks he started gagging and threw up.  He wasn't actually choking -- it was just sitting on his tongue.  But I'm happy because this is a small miracle!  We have an appointment to see a feeding therapist on the 10th of May and I'm really really hoping that he'll just decide he's interested in food before then and go for it!

Just Ridiculous

Anyone who knows me knows that I can cry at the drop of a hat.  Not on purpose necessarily, but my tear ducts are very easily affected.  Romantic movies with wonderful endings -- I cry.  Teaching a lesson, giving a talk, or bearing my testimony -- I cry.  Frustration with my children -- I cry.  Laughing really hard -- I cry.  So it may not be a surprise that I broke down (a little bit, I kept it sort've contained) in Mooyah while we were eating dinner on Saturday.  Why????  Because we went to the Arboretum and there were weddings galore.  I LOVE weddings and dresses and all of that.  I would do it again in a heartbeat for the romance and beauty of it all.  And I'm sitting in Mooyah looking at my girls and just realized that it wouldn't be too long before I was arranging the train of their dress for pictures and watching them dance with their husbands. And I kind've lost it.  It's ridiculous I know.

So this is a foxglove!! 

 

Rolling down the hill -- I love that they can play in the grass and not get eaten by ants.  And it's SOFT grass.

After we got home, my dad called.  It was his birthday last week and I sent him a very special present:  a quilted bike seat cover for his road bike.  I know it will never, NEVER actually be used but it's the thought that counts right?   And I don't have a picture of it because a quilted bike seat cover not actually on a bike just looks bad.  I'm sorry, but it does.  So we laughed quite a bit over the phone.  And then I cried -- although I don't know if that REALLY counts.  After all, laughing so hard you cry isn't quite the same thing as "getting emotional".  I'm glad that we have a fun time with gag gifts in my family.  I'm already looking forward to Christmas -- I've got some fantastic, horrific ideas to put into place!!!

Appearances

If you follow me on Facebook you know that I've been a little down in the appearance department lately.  I don't know why -- chalk it up to post baby issues, lack of decent clothes, no desire to pull myself together for a day of spit up, snot, and food disasters.  You know, normal stuff.

Then a friend posted a video on Facebook made by Dove that's amazing and really changed my outlook.

So I decided that's totally me -- looking down on myself at things that I shouldn't be.  And another thought occurred to me -- if I constantly am negative about my appearance, what are my girls learning?  I think both my girls are beautiful and I don't want to add to the pressure that they will already get from society and media about their appearances.  So my goal is to be more positive about myself and my appearance.

But I have made more of an effort to spruce myself up a little bit and not wear big t-shirts and yoga pants ALL the time.  A little makeup, some earrings (although not dangly ones since William's started pulling), and a decent shirt go a long way to feeling like you look nice.

And then we've all had a little change this week too!

Chopper got glasses!

We've always had hope that his perfect eyesight would be the one the kids inherit (and not my blind as a bat stuff) but he's had some trouble lately so he was checked out and has slightly decreased eyesight and astigmatism.  The day he came home with his glasses he was so funny about it though -- "I can see little details!  Do you know how fluffy our carpet is???"  I'm not kidding -- apparently it was worse than we thought.  So he's wearing them quite a bit, not just for reading and driving.  He has no interest in contacts at this point which is fine -- I think they're quite handsome and distinguished looking!

More shots of William courtesy of Megan the photographer. 

Yesterday I decided I had had enough of Abby's fuzzy head.  Her hair is such a mix of curl and straight that it easily gets out of control and collects food, snot, spit . . . it's gross.  And she won't let me pull it back.  I probably need to insist more.  But I decided to cut it instead.  And I hate paying $20 to cut their hair so I did it myself.  The wind is blowing so you can't tell but it's not bad.  Decent enough to get by I think and I may try some online tutorials for better results.  It's just cheaper and they don't care and if it's too awful I can pay to have it fixed and say they did it!!

Then Megan wanted hers cut too.  Her's was less forgiving because it's all straight and it's a little longer in the back than the front sides but I think (I think) it looks fine.  I have to admit though that when her teacher brought her out after preschool today and said she liked her hair part of me wondered if she was serious or not.  Maybe because I'm paranoid. 

And finally, in an effort to be in the picture more, I got out the tripod and we took some pictures with the timer yesterday in the sun.

 This is before haircuts obviously and it was really bright but the girls loved racing the camera and seeing how the picture looked.

Interesting . . .

I have extreme children.  I think there's just no way around it.  I love them, they are wonderful, but they have their quirks!!

Last Thursday, Abby had her 3 year well child check and today William had his 9 month.  I waited to post these statistics because I wanted to compare the two of them but left William's stats at the doctor!  I can get close though.

Abby at 3 years old weighs 26.2 pounds and is 35 inches tall.  That puts her in the 7% and 8% respectively.  

William weighs 19 lbs. 14 oz. and I can't remember his height but he did grow an inch and a half.

What's most interesting about William is that his percentiles were about 25-ish for both height and weight.  He's grown, but not as much as he probably should.  Our doctor says is may partially be genetic (are we going to have small children?) but it also may be partially due to the fact that he DOES NOT EAT!!  She is going to refer me to a feeding therapist.  Yep.  They have a therapist for that.  She's concerned that there's something going on physically since it doesn't seem to be a pickiness issue and also concerns non food items as well including sippy cups (haven't tried him on a bottle).

I would just really like to start weaning him!

Abby went to a superhero birthday party on Saturday -- it was the cutest thing ever!!!  So I'm going to post details so that I remember them for the future.  The kids had to run an obstacle course and save a baby (doll) to earn their capes.  Then they practiced flying (courtesy of the dad), hitting bad guys (with balls) and then the villain (also the dad) came and stole a present and they had to put on their masks and get it back, shooting him with silly string.

They LOVED IT!  Every child took home their cape and mask (which was very nice and now I need to make one for Megan) and Abby has loved playing in it.  She even came up with a superhero name which is surprising because she's only ever Abby or a puppy.  But it didn't last long and now I can't remember what the name was!  Shoot!

 I made her let me braid her hair for the party.  There was pizza and cake and icecream and I knew it would be in her hair if I didn't.  Abby is still quite the disaster and her hair just is crazy.  She never lets me put it up and then wipes her face or puts her hands in her hair and gets it tangled with food.  I think it needs to be cut again.  If she had a superhero power it would be the ability to destroy with a mess.  I was looking at past pictures and realized the best length for her (to keep it fairly clean) seems to be about chin length.  Maybe we'll go together -- I need a cut too.

I should've taken a better picture of William today.  He was wearing his "Daddy's co-pilot" shirt and camo pants and there's a picture of a chopper on the shirt.  It's my current favorite outfit but his body instinctively knows he's wearing white and he destroys it by diaper every time he wears it.  That would be his superhero power.  The power of poo.  Especially since the power of spit up has seemed to resolve itself.

These are just cute videos but nothing exciting.  William loves to have sheets and blankets pulled over his head.  He also LOVES Chopper's head and hair.  He plays in it and gets really excited.  He also loves to "drum".  He plays a musical drum we have, gets really excited about smacking my legs and loves to smack his hands and splash in the water.  He's not crawling yet but is SOOOOOO close.  And I am not kidding when I say that in the middle of the video where he's in the exersaucer he says "mama".  NOT KIDDING!  Of course, I'll be an honest mom and say that he doesn't really know he's calling my name but whenever he's cranky, whining, or wants something, he says mamamama.  The girls did not.  

He's my parasite.

Budding Photographer

Megan asked me how to take pictures on the camera and I showed her.  When I downloaded the pictures off the camera today there were 315!!!!  What I should do is put them all in a montage with 1 second shots and you can get an idea of a few things: her favorite subjects (me, William, the floor, her knees, my cookbooks), the state of my house (never clean), and the effects of freedom on an untrained mind (i.e. 315 pictures, she must not have anything else to do around here!).

But instead, these are my favorites:

Abby is "holding" William.  Aw, how sweet.

So tired of pictures.  Mommy and now Megan!

This is a really good shot actually of William reaching.  He gets all the way up on his knees and then goes back to sitting.  Sometimes he goes onto his stomach but not always.  Still waiting for him to figure out crawling though.

If I'm supervising bath time, yes, I'm reading.  I had to ban Megan from taking other bathroom pictures though.  We had several in the bathtub and on the toilet.

Abby was being a good little model.

At Odds

What a weird day.

Last night I finished reading the last talk from October's General Conference.  There were so many that I enjoyed and highlighted and that I want to write down.  The conference bags were finished and stacked on the shelf.  I had a girls' night out (more on that later).  I was ready to be spiritually fed!

And then the girls woke me up this morning and I was NOT ready.  And they're not the most gentle of darlings in the morning.  Cries of "the sun is up mommy" are following by elbows and knees all over as they climb into my bed, take over my pillow, and then proceed to fight with each other.

And that's just the beginning.

By the time conference rolled around at 11 a.m. I was a crabby, angry, mommy mess.

Did you hear the first 2 talks?  Ok, specifically, did you hear Elaine S. Dalton's talk?  I did (somewhat miraculously I might add).  It was humbling and chastening but also inspirational.  As in, I need to be a better mom and wife but she's not making me feel like dirt so I think I can do it.  I wrote down a few key points but I am eagerly looking forward to the transcript being on the web because I need to read it and soak it in.

So the day got a little better . . . and then Chopper went to Priesthood session.  And the girls were WILD.  And William was SCREAMING.  And I was a crabby, angry, mommy mess all over again.

So I yelled at the girls.  I spanked the girls.  And I shut them in their room with threats if they came out.  Then I rocked William to sleep.  Then I let the girls out one at a time to brush their teeth.  After that I was going to turn out their light and let them cry or yell or be crazy or whatever.  I was done!

Instead, I felt a little bit like maybe we should read scriptures.  So I made them stay in bed and LISTEN while I read scriptures from the Book of Mormon stories (and answered questions about destruction and visions and wickedness) then I said prayers with each girl and read a few other stories because they were good and listened.

And then they went to bed.  They didn't go to sleep right away of course but it wasn't crazy, it wasn't loud, and when they came out to use the bathroom or get medicine on itchy feet they went right back in (well, after feeding me a candy cane from the candy cane socks).  But they were totally sweet and compliant.

It was a weird day -- mainly because I was all over the map.  But it also was a little miraculous reminder of the power of the scriptures and prayer to soften hearts and instill peace.  Both for me and the girls.  

So I'm going to bed to end on a good note and hopefully start tomorrow off right.  And finish it right.

There's a Tooth!!

William popped his first tooth today!  Bottom, left-hand side.  No pictures because it's not far enough along but you can feel it.

I'm a little nervous about teeth though.  Abby was such a muncher that I weaned her early.  There's no opportunity for early weaning with William because he doesn't eat -- hopefully he won't be a muncher and make me suffer the next few months!

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes

I didn't realize quite how much we've done while my mom has been here but I haven't posted the details!!  So I guess it will be a long post full of the wonderfulness (???) of having Grandma with us!!

I always feel so blessed that my parents are able to come so frequently to see us.  The girls just love Grandma and William is getting there too (because he's in mommy only phase right now of course).  I thought this time we got some great pictures of Grandma with each of the kids -- I particularly LOVE this one:

We actually did some different things than what we normally do when my mom comes -- well, they're similar to the same old but in different locations . . . 

Fort Worth has a Botanical Gardens that is FREE!!!  Part of it is a beautiful Japanese garden (you pay for that part) but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We just love being outside so much in beautiful areas -- we'll be headed back here for sure! 

Jumping on the paving stones. 

The wisteria was out and there were a number of artists set up along this walk with their easels out painting.  Megan has decided she wants to be an artist when she grows up and I honestly can see her doing it.  She is focused and precise and loves all things artistic.  One of the painters offered to let Megan try her oils, but Megan's shyness for strangers prevented her from taking up the offer.

Where most of the botanical gardens are somewhat wild, the Japanese garden was very ordered and precise but no less beautiful.  Maybe more -- it was so lush and green!  I don't remember what these sand gardens are called where you rake the designs -- it was no hands on though so the girls were disappointed.  They love to play in sand and rocks!

That was Friday.  Saturday the girls woke up to Easter baskets and we dyed our eggs in the morning.  Then in the afternoon we did an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  Soapbox -- there were several egg hunts in the area but all they do is drop the eggs on a field and the kids pick them up.  It's over in 30 seconds flat!!  No fun.  So we did our backyard.  Next year we're going to one with friends at the park where we can hide them in the trees and stuff.  That will be a lot of fun!  

I forgot that Abby got Hungry Hungry Hippos for her birthday.  Everyone LOVE it!  We play a lot and William tries to grab the game and screams a lot when we do.  

 Egg hunt -- and enjoying the results.  Next year I'm also going to do more fun things like small jewelry  nail polish, etc. and not just candy.

Easter Sunday -- all dressed up and happy for church!

This is totally random -- we have a book that the girls love where the author (photographer?) has made faces out of fruits and vegetables.  Megan yesterday found a strawberry with a nose so we put the googly eyes on it to complete the look. 

Today we went to the new Perot Museum in Dallas -- it's a combination science / natural history / and children's museum.  Not my favorite and it was NOT enhanced by the 5,000 school children on field trips milling around but we saw some neat things and I think that the girls had an ok time. 

Biggest geode that I've ever seen -- bigger than Megan!  It was secured into a device with a wheel and the girls could turn the wheel and open the geode.  Very cool.

Downtown Dallas from the 3rd floor of the museum.

Those motion screen things . . .

The outside of the museum from fairly close up

 And far away -- it's cool looking.

 And tomorrow Grandma goes home.  So that's back to our normal routine I guess -- although it's already April and I can't believe how fast this year is flying.  This month we have several things scheduled already including kindergarten registration!!!!!  Things are happening fast!