Um, I'm still blogging?

I don't know where my camera is. So I'll share this picture, taken last night, and emailed to me by my brother's fancy phone. What a good grandpa. These three will be good friends, I hope.

And that one in the middle? She's adorable. I was listening to a Sinatra song this morning in the van. It was a slow song, with pauses between each line. And so as Sinatra paused and the music played, I heard a little echo of each line as she sang along. Yesterday she went around saying "glad as I can be" until I picked up what she meant and sang "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." She giggled with delight and did all the actions. Being almost two is pretty fun.

Methodical, periodical, torture

 Early on we achieved a Zen-like calm with a sheet around the neck and white blankey carefully snuggled underneath. It didn't last, though. Time to invest in some new clippers that don't pull. These are getting a little aged.

And bangs! A little too short, and a little too crooked. Somebody wouldn't hold still...

What did you do for Veteran's Day?

Friday, Veteran's Day, was lovely. I wish we could say we did something patriotic, but we looked at birds. Free weekday admission to Tracy Aviary cannot be squandered. I had good intentions concerning the parade in Ogden on Saturday, but it was snowing. Also I have a laundry room I'd like to be able to use again before this baby comes.

We got to be there at feeding time for the ducks. We had just finished doling out the paltry handful a quarter will buy, when an aviary employee came up with a bucket of feed and hurled the bounty into the water.

The ducks swam away as they were pelted with food, then quickly turned around and started devouring.

Our own two little birds came along, one happily gliding her wings, the other energetically flapping his.

 As usual the peacocks were roosting around and on top of the building with the restrooms, where Nathan remembered there had been a nest with baby birds in a nest made of mud when we came on my birthday.

It was sunny, and for November 11, warm. One of the last good days to get out and do something.

Like get eaten by a pelican.

Our growing girl

A couple weeks ago Clara finally graduated. No more infant seat for her. Can you tell she's a little glad? The last month or so she frequently has complained at being strapped in her car seat. But no more. Now she's glad to go in the car. At 22 months, she's finally able to see what everyone else sees in the car.

[side note: My family has big babies. So I thought I would have big babies and I bought the infant seat that's good to 30 lbs. Clara finally grew out of it, not because she's 30 lbs. (she'd be doing good to clear 22 after a big meal) but because she's hit the height limit. And she always seemed to teeny to be forward facing.]

She knows the color brown and I think the color pink. The other day she told me I was wearing a brown shirt (I was) and this morning as I pulled two cups out of the cupboard (pink and green) she declared she wanted the pink one (does pink really have to be her favorite color? It's so...predictable). Also, how does she know colors already? It seems a little early. I'm not trying to make her into a baby genius, I promise.

So she's growing up. And is throwing the tantrums to prove it. The terrible twos have begun and she says no to everything. But she also says the most hilarious things to make us like her still.

*  We've been painting the laundry room pursuant to actually being able to use it again, and I had kicked her out so the paint could dry without her making a mess. I put the collapsible step ladder across the doorway to keep her out, so she stood at the doorway looking in. She saw her doll on the floor in there, and said, "Go to jail, baby!" We have been playing jail a lot lately, thanks to brother.

*  Sometimes she will squint up her eyes and say, "Where's my glasses?", making Levi realize how much he squints when he's not wearing his glasses. He feels like she's making fun of him, while I think it's pretty perceptive of her: if you don't have your glasses on, you have to squint.

*  Last night at dinner she looked at dad, pointed at his chest, and said, "Move, sister!" Which, if not effective, certainly got his attention.

Hope you're not too bored with the stories, but I have to write them down or I'll forget them all. Pregnant brain does that.

Assorted Halloween pictures

One quarter of our household absolutely loves Halloween. The rest of us are pretty lukewarm about it. Can you guess who it is? Nathan just yesterday designated all of us permanent Halloween identities: Nathan dragon, Clara witch, mom mummy and dad vampire. I'm trying to get him psyched up for Thanksgiving so we can leave Halloween behind, but Thanksgiving isn't spooky. And for a boy who's been sleeping with a spooky pillowcase for the last three months, turkeys and cornucopias just can't compete. He hasn't yet learned the allure of all that pie.

All told in the month of October, we went to two Halloween parties, had one pizza and pumpkin night, and oh, what else? Oh, yes. We tore apart our basement. It's making nice progress, but until then, here's some Halloween pictures.

 Rules for donuts on a string really don't apply to dragons. They just breathe some fire and donuts fall into their hands.

 We bought a pumpkin carving kit this year so we could do some different things with our pumpkins. After asking for weeks to carve our pumpkins (which we got to pick from a farmer's field a few weeks ago), we finally let him. Nathan was very involved in designing the scary face for his pumpkin. It had to have two teeth in its scary mouth, and he didn't like dad's idea of a jack-o-lantern nose. He even tried to help with the execution of his design, but. Give a three year old a knife? That's scary.

 Clara chose to have a kitty on her pumpkin. That's really all the help she was, apart from needing multiple diaper changes and having a really bad diaper rash, and at one point actually pooping on the floor. She was a little scared of the completed pumpkins, especially when we lit them in the dark.

 Clara really did enjoy her costume. She loved her hat and her stripey leggings. She just didn't want pictures.

Nathan never wavered from wanting to be a dragon for Halloween this year. He begged me for weeks to make it, while I purposely didn't finish it until the last minute so it wouldn't get destroyed before any of the parties. It looks simple (and it should have been) but I spent so much time on this blasted thing, since I made it up as I went along. I think it turned out pretty well, thanks to a prodigious amount of hot glue. Definitely better than last year's costume.

These men like to knock holes in things.

 In the process of making our life easier, we temporarily made our house a little chaotic. We're putting a half bath in our laundry room, and my builder-extraordinaire father decided that the existing plumbing was entirely in the wrong spot. So what simpler than pounding two holes in the floor, moving pipes around, and then filling them back in?

I opted to leave rather than get a headache.

But that part is done. Now just a little framing, sheetrock, plumbing, etc. and we'll have ourselves a brand new laundry room. And two toilets in our house. It's going to be awesome.

That's what I tell myself as I wipe up the fine white grit that has settled on every surface in my home. Breaking up cement is messy work.

This girl likes to dress up.

I started getting out warm clothes last week and packing away summer clothes. Nathan took the opportunity of this clothes orgy to empty the dresser of all clothes. So, warm clothes, summer clothes, too big and too small, all on the floor.

Enter Clara. I had dressed her in a shirt and tried on some new pants, which turned out to be too big and fell off (she has this problem with all pants--does anyone know of a brand of girl jeans with adjustable waist bands? I haven't been able to find them). Then she decided she wanted the butterfly onesie on, so I changed her shirt.

But that was not enough.

She kept bringing new articles of clothing to dad, who obligingly helped her put them on. So, by the time I found the camera, she had the butterfly onesie, the floral tank top, and a striped swimming suit. I'd have liked to see what else she put on, but we had to get dressed to go play with cousin Sofia.

And when I figure out how to get pictures off my phone, I'll post pictures of that fun outing to Jump Around Utah. Also of our trip to Kennecott in July.

This boy loves Halloween.

He loves it so much that he quickly commandeered the Halloween socks I brought home from the witches' party. (I'll have to get some pictures from my sister so I can tell you all about that.) They're knee socks for adults, and so he had to take his pants off the fully experience the Halloweenity of the socks. His father was none too thrilled.

As I recall, I once had some adult-size soccer socks (I was six, the one and only year I ever played any organized sport.) We folded them down respectably over my shin guards. But if it ever got cold, I could pull them all the way up and there would be a smurf-legged blond girl running around the field. I guess some habits are making the generational leap.

Conference Weekend

If only it could all have been this peaceful. I'm waiting for the November Ensign to come out to really experience conference.

Goodbye, September

 Yeah, it's three weeks into October. So what? Here's the last of my September pictures. And hopefully I'll get Halloween up before Thanksgiving.

 On the last day of September we had no work and no school. So what's a family to do except Red Butte Gardens? We also had a Groupon that happened to expire on the last day of September. Happy coincidence.

 I'd never been before, so it was fun to check out a new place all together. Both the kids didn't want to ride in the stroller because it was so fun to run around and explore. Which was fine until Nathan got lost. Like, lost lost. After an employee helped him find us he spent the rest of the outing in the stroller. He's been doing so much better about not running away, and I don't think he meant to this time, but this one was a doozy.  Hopefully it will be a lesson.

 All the gardens were beautiful, but of course we spent the most time in the children's garden. You can see in the background the vine-covered tunnels that Nathan was over the moon about.

And good thing it still felt like summer, because we couldn't keep this little miss out of the water. It's fun to see her branch out and try things on her own.

So, Red Butte Gardens = thumbs up. Especially when you get an ice cream cone with your lunch afterward.

A Sunday at Bisweywand

Sunday evening after dinner Nathan discovered the empty pear box. I canned pears on Friday, and tidy people would have removed the box from their house before Sunday. But tidy people would have missed this enjoyment:

He decided the box was a boat, and that the boat would go over the waterfall (the stairs). He spent some time trying to find a parent to push his boat, then spent some time trying to navigate his boat down the stairs himself. I was a little mystified at where this idea had sprung from, fully formed and so ready for execution. Then he started talking about Bisweywand (Disneyland). Ah.

Recently, a classmate at preschool had gone to Disneyland. Nathan's told me about it a few times. So, preschool + Bisweywand = my son knows about Splash Mountain. And he knows it's scary.

He doesn't know what Disneyland is exactly, but he knows he wants to go to there.

Clara, for her part, claimed the other half of the box for her boat. But she didn't try to convince anyone to push her down the stairs in it.

Labor Day

 This Labor Day, as with every Labor Day, was spent at the Holliday family reunion. And if it's a Holliday reunion, then what better theme than to celebrate all holidays in one weekend? Friday evening was Halloween, also known as the best idea ever. Craft supplies, paper bags, and cardboard were supplied, and the kids spent hours preparing their costumes. It was a big hit. My attempt at a dragon was less impressive, but still Nathan wore it all weekend. The hat was his idea, though. He insisted he needed a hat. I'm not responsible for how horribly it turned out.

 Settling down for bed, reading Curious George by lantern light.

 What's more fun than a woodpile?

We even survived the weekend with only a handful of bee stings. Hornets had taken over the tree that shaded our campsite. Clara was the first casualty--she tried to pick one up. Luckily my wonderful sister-in-law had brought some lavender oil which quickly ended the whimpering.

Adventures in vocabulary

I really ought to have a picture for this post, since it's all about how my little girl is growing up. But no picture. Use your imagination.

She is using sentences. It still takes me by surprise when I hear something like "I see you, mom" and "it's my turn!" She's always learning new words. She's also an expert mimic and so can say more words than she strictly knows. The other day, following Nathan's lead, she said "dangerous."

She loves to follow her brother around and copy him. They are playing so well together lately, however with frequent outbursts of screaming. But she thinks everything he does is funny, and having such an appreciative audience is always welcome for a three year old.

She loves shoes. She'll put on any that she can find. Nathan's are the best because she can get them on and they'll stay on. But occasionally she'll get her own sandals on, usually only one and usually on the wrong foot, and then she'll walk around enormously pleased with herself.

She also loves to clean up, usually when it's not sanctioned. On Saturday at a baby shower she had a great time picking up some clothespins that had fallen on the floor. When she was done, she knocked them all back on the floor, said "clean up, clean up" and proceeded to pick them all up. She did this several times. It was a grand game. Today I broke a casserole dish and despite my repeated efforts to get her out of the kitchen, she managed to pick up some of the pieces of glass and put them in the garbage while I was trying to sweep up and keep her out of it. Not that I didn't appreciate the help, but I'm sure nobody loved the bandaging trip to the bathroom we had to take next. She wouldn't use the hand with the bandaid for several hours.

She's also picked up Nathan's old habit; when she's sad or angry or just doesn't like what she's hearing, she shakes her head and say "nuffing nuffing nuffing!" Levi finds it funny while I am annoyed. I think if he had to hear it as often as I do the cuteness would wear off.

Last year...

Everything happened last year. Did you know? Nathan picked up this phrase somewhere and now any period of time in the past was last year. He likes to talk about "last year we went to Yellowstone" (last month) or "last year I threw up on the carpet" (last week) or "last year I stood on this stool and brushed my teeth (that morning).

I forgot to take a picture of Nathan's first day of preschool. I'm such a bad mom, I know. But he loves preschool. The first day I picked him up and asked if he had fun. Yes, he had fun. What did he do? Nothing. Did he play toys? Yes. Which ones? Preschool toys. I also was asked by his teacher if he didn't like to run around and play outside. What? Are you kidding me? So he's having a little adjustment period and I think he'll settle in. He's starting to learn the kids' names and today volunteered that he got to paint and color. Every day he asks if it's a preschool day and was very excited this morning that it was.

The only other Nathan news I can think of is last week he kept his pull-up dry at night for four days in a row. Since then it's been a pretty even split. It was very exciting. So we're making progress, and I think before he goes to kindergarten he'll actually consent to going to the bathroom by himself.

Ho! for Wonderland

 That's the title of the book I picked out as my Yellowstone souvenir. It's a collection of accounts from visitors during the first decades of Yellowstone's existence as a national park. A wonderland it is, and not just for adults. I was surprised how much my kids enjoyed the scenery. This first picture is my kids and my friend's daughter in Star Valley. We left after church and drove up to visit them. We had yummy dinner and they were kind enough to let us camp at the family picnic shelter. It was really fun to catch up with Shelly and be jealous of their beautiful valley. Monday morning we packed up early and drove past the Tetons on our way to vacation. "Are we at vacation yet, mom?" was a question we heard many times. We heard from many people that thought we were crazy to take two young kids camping for a week. I thought it myself. But we survived, and we even managed to have a good bit of fun. Here is a small selection of our photos from the week.

 Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

 a rainbow created by the Upper Falls

 Our kids wanted to go swimming every time we walked down to Lewis Lake from our campsite. They didn't care the water was frigid. They also didn't care too much about the mosquitoes, who in turn didn't care that we assiduously put on mosquito repellent. They were voracious, for Clara's skin especially.

 Camping = dirt and rocks. Fantastic. Luckily Clara decided to not be so fastidious about dirt this week.

 Clara gives new meaning to the term "stow and go." Stow and go was one of the reasons we bought the Town & Country, but we had no idea how versatile it would be.

 Nathan was fascinated by this sign, which was posted prominently at every geyser basin. (If you can't tell, it's a picture of a boy falling into a geyser and getting horribly burned).

 The shore of Yellowstone Lake. This was possibly the best hour of the entire week. Rocks to throw,

 warm sand to stretch out on,

 and volcanoes to build with sand that once spewed out of a volcano.

 And what's Yellowstone without wildlife traffic jams? Luckily at the worst spots there were rangers telling people to keep driving, and to not park directly in the road to gawk at animals eating and sitting.

 Nathan packed a bag of toys to bring on the trip. Luckily this included a few cars so hanging out at the campsite was still pretty fun. The kids also liked playing in the van.

It was such a beautiful week. It had its share of tantrums, but that would have happened at home anyway. We let Clara sleep between us on the air mattress, and then we didn't have to let her scream herself to sleep. And I discovered ear plugs are a very wonderful thing, although they caused me to miss out on the most exciting thing:

In the middle of our last night, Levi was awakened by some rangers waking up the man in the tent next to ours. They had seen some rocks in his car, and wanted to know where they were from, and could they search his vehicle? First of all, 1 a.m. is a very weird time for this to happen, and second, are they driving around looking in everybody's windows in the middle of the night? Eventually he let them search his car, and said he'd picked up the rocks outside the park, and that was that. So I guess the moral is: hide your rocks better.

While packing I got fed up with the sheer number of things we HAD to have and decided that not one unnecessary thing was making the cut. Among the rejects: our DVD player. I don't know why I considered this unnecessary. But I had checked out several children's books on CD and that seemed to do just fine. Unfortunately, Nathan's favorite ("I want to listen to the same same same bears!"--also known as the Berenstain Bears) was also the single most annoying thing I experienced that entire week. And it was the only thing he wanted to listen to. It was the authors reading a collection of their stories, accompanied by corny synthesizer music. It pains me to remember. But, we had relatively few car tantrums, even though a great deal of each day was spent in the car.

Another title I considered for this post was "Oh! The Places You'll Pee." When you travel with a three year old, now means now. Levi joked once that we should take pictures of all the weird places Nathan had peed during the week and make a book of it, Dr. Seuss style. But we figured we shouldn't document all the times we had to violate the "do not leave the walkway" signs--those rangers are always watching. But we only had a couple of accidents all week.

So, good times. But by Friday I was ready for home. We packed up and headed, and made fair time until we hit this little beauty. Luckily we were only stuck for an hour before we got to a place we could turn around. Eventually we got home and I spent the next week trying to recover and clean up. I need a vacation from my vacation.