Cousin week

First off, I wanted to share a couple stories about bouncy houses. Apologies to those who already heard me tell these at Labor Day, when I was laughing so hard I cried. I have to share again.

Once upon a time when I was super sick and pregnant, I watched a lot of America's Funniest Home Videos. It's good mindless entertainment when you feel like puking all the time. And one of my favorite videos (one of the only ones I remember) is of a kids' party. Lots of kids everywhere, but most especially in the bouncy house. And then we see a clown come. This clown looks semi-professional, and very enthusiastic. And the clown decides to go where all the children are, the bouncy house. The clown goes in and starts jumping around--because clowns make everything more fun, right? The clown's arrival causes a panic. The kids come piling out. The ones who can't get out are clinging to the sides, crying in terror. Even now, I am nearly crying with laughter just as I type this. I don't know why it's so funny.

The second story: Two years ago at our Labor Day reunion, there was a bouncy house. This was a new thing, and it was very exciting. The kids were all occupied with other activities, bingo, swinging, what have you. And then somebody notices: There's a bouncy house! And all the kids (big kids, little kids--maybe twenty? Twenty-five? a lot) start running en masse to the bouncy house. Kids keep piling in. So many kids keep piling in that the pump can't keep up, and the bouncy house collapses. The kids who had just been having so much fun are now crying as they try to extricate themselves from the wreckage.

So, these stories have something in common: bouncy houses, and kids' glee turning into utter sadness, instantly.

I'm glad to say our trip to Kangaroo Zoo did not go like that. Clara did cry when she got bumped (I wasn't very sympathetic until I realized that her lip was bleeding a little), but that only lasted a few minutes. And when you consider that we had nine kids in our group, that's a pretty good record.

My brother-in-law had some leave before he deployed, so he moved his wife and daughter back to Utah and had a couple weeks to spend time with family.

Serendipitously, my sister-in-law and nephew who live in Canada decided to come for a visit while he had some time off school. And these two visits just happened to be at the same time.

So we had a busy togetherness week that included: a birthday party, trip to the library, lunch at grandma's house, feeding the ducks and playing at the playground, the Burger King Play Place (guess who got to go  up and help the kids climb?) and K'nex. Oh how the kids love K'nex.Turns out kids from 2 on up to 11 enjoy them, and I'm sure the six-month-old wouldn't have minded getting hold of a few. And did I mention our week included very few naps? But the behavior was pretty surprisingly good--for the most part, they were too busy having fun to be cranky.

And then the grand finale, Kangaroo Zoo.

The highlight of the afternoon was how Clara "needed help" to play, and so I got to jump and slide with the kids. Also, Jessica, who hasn't had much use for me before, let me hold her and even smiled when we played "ring around the rosies." What can I say? bouncy toys bring people together.

 And we even managed to corral them all for a minute to get all 11 grandkids together in one picture. (If you're counting, two of them happen to be in that very cute pregnant belly. Seriously, I wish my pregnant belly were that cute. Also and by the way, don't interpret that to mean I'm currently pregnant.)

It was so fun to spend time with our cousins that we don't get to see very often. Thanks everybody.

Seven months

 Because I haven't posed any pictures of Alice in too long: enjoy. Does she look very ballerina-y? Because that's what she and Clara are going to be for Halloween. I was glad she was more interested in playing with the tutu than with protesting that it's kind of scratchy.

 Unless she decides to go for a different look for Halloween. Less feminine, but it has its charms.

All in all, she's a very nice baby.

She's still not sleeping through the night (since Labor Day!) but I still like her. She's not crawling yet but is awfully close. She launched herself forward a few inches yesterday. And we're trying to teach her eating is faster and less messy if she doesn't stick her fingers in her mouth in between every bite for a quick suck. Those fingers are her very near and dear to her heart.

First snow

 This morning Clara woke up grumpy. So I dragged myself out of bed (usually I just wait for them to come to my room, and hope that takes a while) and headed downstairs. And, by the time I got down  there, I had the perfect end to the grumps.

"Clara, I have a surprise for you."

Surprises are irresistible. And happy.

So both kids followed me upstairs, and wazam, I pulled up the blinds.

"Snow!"

They wanted to go right out, but the mean and grumpy (read: still tired) mom said we had to eat breakfast and get dressed first. And I added teeth brushed and hair combed for good measure--if they don't get done first off they don't get done at all.

It took longer to hunt up and put on all the snow clothes than they actually spent playing in the snow. Alice enjoyed curiously touching a handful of snow for a minute but then, it was time to eat, and she was swaddled in a ridiculously large snow suit, and she was beyond done. I spent my time wrangling a wiggly baby and putting on mittens on--again, and again. Why don't mittens stay on? Nathan had a great time chucking our pumpkins into the snow. Clara was frustrated it wasn't working out to shovel the snow off the grass. And we did have some cousins come to have a snowball fight, share some pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and feed slushy snow to the neighbor's dog. And, the dog was actually eating it. That dog must have been crazy bored.

And now the snow has melted. Clara saw it was gone and said, "Oh, no. The snow got broken!" And put on her sad, give-me-sympathy face.

Now, back to fall. Come on, weather. I had to turn on my furnace and everything. And, since I am my father's daughter, that's not something I like to do before November. What can I say? I'm a little stubborn, especially about things that don't really matter.

The last month or so in pictures.

 I bragged to my cousin that Clara had never gotten into my makeup..just a single mishap with a chapstick. And Nathan only got into a colored lip gloss once.) And then, a few days later...she was so proud of herself. Not sure why she thinks mascara goes on your eyebrows.

 A trip to Union Station to see a working steam engine and the Harvest Festival...

 The first twenty minutes of our outing were the best. We should have stopped there. The longer it went the worse they got.

 And our Columbus Day outing. After preschool we drove up the canyon to see the leaves.

 Nathan said the leaves were beautiful.

 Clara fell asleep and didn't say much of anything.

 And I decided that we should live in Huntsville. Because that was a pretty awesome park. And, Huntsville is pretty.

Also,

(just so you know that I know I have three kids, and I write about all of them),

Nathan has art supplies littered around the kitchen. You'd think they'd be on the table, but they're half on the floor, some on the counter, and some on the table where he's painting. He's mixing the mediums of acrylic paint, markers, finger paints, and now water colors.

Yesterday he made construction paper wings for the half-deflated balloon left from last week's Roy Emergency preparedness fair, at which he spent a lot of time on the inflatable slide and point-blank refused to ride the fire truck, until it was time to go. And then he wailed that he had to ride the fire truck, and then I said no, because I knew after we waited in the line for 30 minutes he would still refuse to get on the truck with strange men. I know my child, and he's uncooperative when he is tired.

But the wings on the balloon were pretty cool. He did it all by himself: paper, scissors, scotch tape, and imagination.

Clara, sleeping now, after lunch told me quite firmly she did not need to go potty, and then five minutes later peed all over her underwear, pants, socks, and shoes (too-big vintage leather saddle shoes, which I let her wear today against my better judgment). Luckily all of those soaked accoutrements meant I did not have to clean the carpet. Potty training is going approximately nowhere, after initially looking promising. We've made a princess castle sticker chart and are hoping for the best. She has learned all the names of the Disney princesses, and I'm not too happy about it. But I guess I'm gonna have to let her be girly sometime. But last night (and this made me really happy) she said, "run for your lives! Zombies are after us!"

Although, it sounded more like "wun for your wives!" She hasn't quite mastered the art of pronouncing R's.

And, as far as zombies go, I'm pretty glad I had a boy first to teach my girls about non-girly things.

Nathan just measured me with a 12-inch ruler and told me I'm "sixty tall feet." Yesterday he told me I knew everything. A couple weeks ago he told me I'm a pretty good scientist. That boy knows how to make a mom feel good.

Baby food and sundries

In choosing between not blogging because of no pictures, or blogging with no pictures, I choose the latter. Not that I don't have pictures, it's just too much work. I've been wanting to blog more. My friend who was RS president when her kids were small says that she doesn't remember a lot of when her youngest was a baby, because she was so busy paying attention to other things. So, I need to blog more so that I can remember things.

So here goes. I know I have a picture, which I'll post later, of Alice's first taste of baby food a couple weeks ago. I'm lazy and I don't start my kids on food till they are six months. And boy, was she ready. She slurped that oatmeal/formula mix up like it was gourmet. None of my kids have ever taken that well to food... She has her moments, and is definitely messy, but she loves the food. We've now started her on squash and she thinks it's great.

Which is good, because I'm gone more now, and she will not take a bottle. We kept hoping she'd get more used to it, or would just get hungry enough to take a bottle, but no. No formula, no breastmilk, nothing from a bottle. Although she will drink water from a bottle after eating baby food. Funny girl. I went down to the RS broadcast in Salt Lake, so we were hoping she'd eat from a bottle, but no. I fed her just before I left at three, she ate baby food for dinner, and was starting to get a little sad by the time I got home at 9:30. I walked into the room and said hi to her, then went back outside to give something to my aunt. And she gave up and wailed in despair. "Come back, mom! I've been waiting for you!"

{The broadcast was great, by the way. My sister got tickets from her ward, and invited my mom and aunt to go. My ward had tickets, and I tried to organize a carpool, and ended up with two people from my ward. So we combined groups and all headed down to Salt Lake in my van, which could have been weird, since it was two discrete groups that only had me in common, but it was really fun. And many thanks to Levi for tending the kids, especially a hungry Alice, so that I could go.}

She's still not sleeping through the night since we went camping over Labor Day. Labor Day. more than a month ago...that is not a short amount of time. It's time for this to stop.

Yesterday we had a grand Columbus day. In the morning, we had haircuts. That part was not grand. After preschool we went for a drive through the canyon to see the leaves. Nathan said they were beautiful. Then we had a picnic in Huntsville park, which made me want to live in Huntsville. It was a great park, and a beautiful town. Now if only we were wealthy, so we could afford to live in Huntsville; but I digress. In the evening we went apple picking at my brother-in-law's parents' house. Since they're on a mission in London we all got to lay claim to their apples, which will be tomorrow's project: applesauce!

And a phone call I was really dreading ended up going really well. So, victory! And prayer. That probably had something to do with it too.

And so ends a long and rambling post, with no pictures even to break up the nonsense. Sorry.

I am quiet; hear me roar?

I just read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. And it sounds hoky, but I'm feeling, in a word, empowered.

I'm an introvert in a culture that values extroverts; what of it? It was a really great book and I read it at a really great time. I"m feeling like I can do what I need to do even if it's not the most comfortable thing.

Introverts can: make good leaders, pay attention to detail, be very conscientious, et cetera, et cetera. 

I'm too tired to go into more detail right now, but I'm writing it down so once upon a time when I'm feeling the need to be more outgoing than I actually am, I can remember this book.

5, 25, 75

Last week we took Alice to the doctor for her six month visit. She's growing, albeit at her own pace. Here's the breakdown.

13 lbs 9 oz: about a pound and a little bit since three months, fifth (!) percentile.

I forget how tall she is.....25th percentile.

And....her head circumference puts her squarely in the 75th percentile. But don't tell Alice, she might get a big head about it.

Instead of growing in girth or hair length, she's been working on moving. Rolling, squirming, even a little scooting, mostly backwards. I put her in on the floor one day in the living room with some toys and went to do the dishes. Later, I thought, "hmm... Alice sounds really close." And she was--on the tile floor at the bottom of the stairs. She'd traveled about ten feet. I'm not sure how she did it; she prefers to do most of her moving unobserved. She's also starting getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.

And I say, hurry up and start crawling already. Maybe then you'll start sleeping all night again.

Nathan the nutritionist

Nathan: I want a drink of milk.

me: How about water?

Nathan: No, milk is more healthier than water. Milk has protein.

Me: How do you know about protein?

Nathan: Danny.

me: Did Danny teach you about protein?

Nathan: No, I taught it to myself.

me: What is protein?

Nathan: um, it's some kind of fruit.


He got a drink of milk. It's hard to argue with that kind of logic.

But he still throws a fit every day when I don't take him out to eat when I pick him up from preschool. Without fail. Being healthy only goes so far against his love for fast food.