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?