Planning spring break

While googling things to do in Torrey with kids, I found a website with glowing things to say:

There are a great number of things to do in Torrey UT. The things to do in Torrey Utah are immense and diverse. There are always many movies to see at the many theaters. Things to do in Torrey UT are never dull and boring; one can always go see movies, plays, theater, music at the many venues, drinks are the many bars, see the normal tourist sites, go to the many clubs, or view the arts and sciences at the many museums.

Wow, this must be a different Torrey than the one I've visited. Gave us a good laugh, though.

Middling March

Well, here it is, the middle of March already. What have we been up to?..... Sometimes it's hard to remember.

While my sister's been in London (yeah, I'm pretty jealous) I've been watching her two youngest on Thursdays so my mom can go to work. Last Thursday I also watched my friend's kids for a couple of hours so she could work on an organizing project. So, two extra kids for a couple hours, a half an hour or so with seven kids under five, then the rest of the day with just five. We played outside for hours. Lunch, dishes, etc. I did five loads of laundry. I made a pie (it was pi day, and I never pass up a reason for pie). I spray painted some baskets for Easter. I made dinner. I went to a training at the employment resource center, where I saw my cousin--fun little surprise. Then, finally, book club. I was pretty glad to make it to book club after such a busy day.

And, March, spring, spring cleaning. I've so been wanting to do spring cleaning, and organize, declutter, et cetera, et cetera. I found an organizing blog, which is lovely. I spend so much time reading organizing blogs and planning home improvement projects that I of course will not get to this year that it's been hard to get just my regular cleaning done. This is getting ridiculous. There needs to be an Internet moratorium around here.

Last week Nathan was looking at the comics, as is his wont every morning while I read the paper. One of the comics had a dog ripping the pants of somebody. He looked at it and said, "rip!" I asked him how he knew that's what it was and he said, "There's a P, and an I, and an R." Well, backwards, but yes. That is what it says. He's been learning all the letters and their sounds at preschool, and it's exciting to see it all coming together. This next year he's really going to start reading and I'm super excited about it. He's also learning to write, and when he's in the mood, we'll sit down to write messages. He'll tell me what he wants to say and I'll help him figure out the letters he needs. One day he had just gotten a Star Wars coloring book with a light saber pen, so he wrote a message to dad (Luke) that said, "Luke, be careful. Don't go to the Dark Side." Last week in sacrament he was figuring out a coded message in his spiderman coloring book and it had a place to write a story. That was the best he has behaved in sacrament for quite a while. I, on the other hand, was a little noisier than usual, telling him all the letters he needed to use.

Clara is still going strong with staying dry. She hasn't had any backsliding and is starting to stay dry on some nights. Woot! She's getting quite an imagination. One day as I was helping her go potty she said, "Don't flush the toilet, I will get flushed away. And then you won't have a Clara and you'll be so sad. And then Nathan will swim down in the toilet and get me. And it will be so happy." Today she decided to sing a song that went something like this: "I love princesses/ Princesses live in castles/ Castles are so great / And all princesses live in castles.
So she's still really liking princesses, in case you were wondering.

And, Alice is walking! Not everywhere, and she falls down a lot. But she's definitely coming along. And she's experimenting with sounds. One day it sounded like she said "hi." And the other day, playing with a little toy skunk we have, she pointed at its eyes and said "eyes." Levi and I both heard it so we knew we weren't imagining it. But of course it hasn't happened again. She's also learning to nod yes and does it at random times. It's been fun to have all these fun things to offset the major temper she's getting. She's so frustrated to have all these opinions and no way to communicate them, not to mention those older siblings who maul her and parents who thwart her at every turn. And she's developed quite a liking for jelly beans, thanks to careless older siblings who leave them on the floor.

And that's March, at least until we have a birthday next week. Next week! Where has the time gone?

At long last...

 Another post about Alice. She's been doing so much growing up in the last couple of months. The picture above is when mom gets diagnosed with thrush, and so the baby gets a preventative treatment. The pediatrician's office recommended gentian violet, which, it turns out, is violently purple and stains everything horribly. Also, it tastes awful. So, which is worse? Awful purpleness or thrush? You decide.

 Luckily the purple faded after a day or two.

 I'm not sure how these pictures got separated. More purple mouth, and try not to notice the dirty jammies. I was sick; laundry got relegated.

And...technology! Alice has followed suit and fallen in love with the new phone. We have an app that makes animal sounds and she loves it. This was one night after the older kids were in bed. So she got undivided time to play. Which is good, because she's getting quite a temper. She can throw a fit with the best of them when something gets taken away. She'll yell and throw her head back, her arms outstretched. Sometimes she'll fall over in a fit of drama. Tonight we were all sitting on the couch, with Alice on my lap and Clara next to us. Alice didn't like something Clara said, and turned toward her swinging her arm, really truly on purpose. Hitting's beginning early, I guess. hm...where could she have gotten this from? Certainly not the boy who got sent to bed with no bedtime story today as punishment.

And, standing. Standing has actually been happening since I think January. One day she just stood up in the middle of the room. And if she's holding on to something she'll stand for quite a while. We've noticed her the last couple of days trying to take steps, and she's gotten one or two tiny ones in before falling.

She is also enjoying babies right now. Real babies and fake dolls (that's what Clara calls her dolls). Specifically, Clara's favorite doll has become Alice's favorite doll. We might have to fix this in a few weeks when somebody has a birthday. She's very good at waving, I think this has been going on for a while too. Two, three months? It's hard to remember. Today at the store the checkout lady (after saying Alice could be a Gerber baby and should be in commercials) told us goodbye. And Alice waved. Yesterday in the van Clara started singing and Alice joined in with some nonsense babbling. It really sounded like she was trying to sing.