A thing I hate and a thing I love

Clara ruining my favorite chapstick. She was pretty sure this made her look really nice. Makeup is starting to be a fascinating thing. Whenever I do her hair she rummages through my makeup bag and asks what each thing is.

And Nathan losing the battle with crankiness on a Sunday afternoon. He had that green stick in his mouth as he fell asleep. I guess he still has some vestiges of his former binky love.

Can you tell which thing I love and which thing I hate?

And now I'm all caught up for August. Whew. Preschool starts Monday. It's going to be awesome.

Are you going to just sit there and take it?

 Why, yes she is. She is just going to sit there. I was surprised how well she sat.

 Although it wasn't so much sitting as folding in half and managing to stay upright, more or less.

And Alice, who will be five months tomorrow, is learning lots of things. She loves to get a nice handful of sister's hair. Or those green pants in the picture were pretty fascinating. Also, toys. She's getting pretty good at reaching out and holding on to toys. She tried it with dad's dinner once but didn't get too far.

Oh, and her thumb. She's discovered that thumb is really comforting. I'm hoping she doesn't always fall asleep like this, but I'm afraid thumb-sucking will be our future for some time. I was getting ready to go out to lunch, and kind of forgot I had a baby who was downstairs playing with some toys. But no problem, mom. I'll just go to sleep when I get tired. I've got this thumb.

And her final favorite thing is...her tongue. She loves to show it to everybody. It's very impudent. But what are you going to do? She's a baby.

The things we do for vanity

 I wanted to see how long Clara's hair would be straightened. Turns out, pretty long. And her hair is pretty determinedly curly. After naptime the sides and bottom were starting to spring back into little wispy ringlets.

Why am I teaching her this young about the crazy things we do to look nice?

All's fair in love and war...

...especially if your weapons are made from balloons.

We didn't get any pictures of the Weber County fair, since it was super hot and I was cranky and we were on our way to a water party and only stopped by since we had free tickets.

But the Davis County fair, we remembered the camera. We love the Davis County fair. The kids weren't too jazzed about going to another fair, until they found out they could touch a ray. Then Nathan got on board real quick.

The kids didn't want to wait in the line for the pony rides, and in the petting zoo they only would touch the tortoise (although they did enjoy watching the baby kangaroo). Nathan wouldn't go in the hen house because it smelled funny (it really really did). But we enjoyed kettle corn and watching the sub zero booth make our ice cream. And we stopped off for the clown to make us some swords. Altogether, a good fair. So nice of Davis County to let us stop by.

Summer fun with cheap crap from China

I had a realization: August is almost over. Summer is waning.

 So I hooked the hose up to this water snake. The kids had a great time with it, for about a half an hour. Then a seam split, the water streams collapsed, and the kids mourned the demise of the snake. An angry email to customer service went unanswered, because if you're selling cheap junk from China, you don't really care about a quality product. Or happy customers.

 "Look, mom, it's squirting my belly!"

 Alice didn't care for it much.

 After it broke, we still managed to have a good time. We need to get out more and enjoy these last days of summer.

No other summer will be the same as this one.

Sisyphus' revenge

My kids have really great imaginations. They can play for hours, imaginary games using few if any actual toys.

The problem is, anything and everything in our house is a toy. And you know where toys belong? Everywhere.

I have (had) a green body pillow that theoretically I was going to love. I love to cuddle up with pillows, especially when I'm pregnant. But I've hardly used it because it's too big and cumbersome for sleeping. But Nathan sure loves it.

It can be anything--a road, a boat, a swimming pool, a car... et cetera, et cetera. And so it's constantly lying in the middle of the floor. It drives me crazy. I'll put it away, and minutes later he'll pull it back out.

So yesterday, while trying to get the kids to help me pick up the house, I lost it. All the frustration concentrated into that one pillow, and I rolled it up and quietly left the house. Nathan didn't say anything, so I was hoping he didn't notice. I stuffed it in the garbage can and felt immensely better. But when I got back in the house, he said, "Mom, don't throw my green pillow away. You should not have thrown that in the garbage." And not in a mad way, but in a sorrowful, wise little voice.

And I felt guilty. So guilty. He's had so many hours of fun with that thing. But not guilty enough to fish it out of the garbage.

But they did cooperate in cleaning up a lot better after that.

And this was Alice's revenge. I'm not sure what she's so aggrieved about, but she managed to get two kinds of overflow on me all at once. I hope she was satisfied.

A tale of two reunions

Just checking in to let you know, as of today, I'm still alive. Further than that, I can't make any promises.

No pictures, because I always forget the camera. A couple of weeks ago I gathered up all my bravery and went to my high school reunion. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Seeing old friends and such. I'm not quite the same person I was in high school (right?) but it was nice to see people who knew me back when, when I didn't think matching clothes were important (if you think me fashion-backward now, you should have seen me then). And they liked me anyway. My friend and I also agreed that a girl we used to sing in choir with totally had a nose job. So, good times.

Last week we went to Clara's NICU reunion, where I had the privilege of being remembered by a nurse that I had no recollection of. Pretty exciting, because it's usually the other way around. It was at the North Ogden aquatic center, so the older kids had a good time trying to drown themselves, and Alice fell asleep in Levi's arms while he tried to keep the older kids from drowning themselves. Both the kids even loved the water slide. And who doesn't love free dinner and creamies? Oh, and it was also nice to see some nurses who ushered us through some of the most stressful and longest weeks of our lives. So, thanks for being a preemie, Clara! We had a great time.

Beauty and the Beast, overheard

Clara (with a a rag on her head [it's laundry day]): I a princess! I not a beast.
Nathan: I'm the beast.
Clara: Okay.
[Nathan roaring]
Clara: Now you turn out to be nice.
[Nathan roaring and growling]
Clara: No! You turn out to be nice!

Beauty and the Beast has something for everybody to love.

Olympics, baby style

 A while ago, we gave Alice this book.

If things are close enough to her hands, she grabs on to them.

And then they go right into her mouth. She's quite a chewer. And so this begins her career playing with toys, not just looking at them. It's pretty exciting for all of us. She also thinks her adorable owl is delicious, by the way.

In honor of the Olympics, Alice has been playing her own version. It's called wiggle gymnastics, or "what weird position can I get into in my own bed?" Yesterday morning, I found her opposite of how I'd laid her down, with her feet where her head should be. After afternoon naps, I found her on her stomach, sideways, with her legs sticking out the side of her crib. In the middle of the night, she was laying on her side with both legs and one hand stuck in the bars. This morning, the same; I rolled her onto her back to pick her up, but she rolled right back over and got stuck again. This afternoon she'd scooted herself up till her head was pressing against the headboard.

All this mobility is exciting, and it's really cutting into the quality of her sleep. She gets a little screamy when she's tired, which is kind of new. But I always enjoy wondering what crazy position I'm going to find her in next.

Oh, and we just had her four-month visit: 12 lbs 3 oz, 24 inches long. That's about the 35th and 15th percentiles, respectively. The doctor called her petite. But she's sure a champion wiggler. My other kids have never been so energetic in their bedtime contortions.