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.

Brigham in August

On our way home from Bear Lake this summer (was that June or July? Who can remember?) we had to stop in Brigham to feed Alice. So we drove past the temple. And Clara said, "Can we go inside?"

 Well, funny you should ask. So August 29, 2012, we headed to the open house. You just can't disappoint that little girl (actually, I do it all the time, and it's not fun). I'd wanted to do a family home evening about the temple that week to get the kids ready. But, I forgot. So, Wednesday morning, as we were getting ready, Levi and I tried to explain the importance of the temple. Get ready guys, this is something special.

 They were over the moon when we got on the bus. Their very first bus ride! It kind of ruined the reverent sort of behavior we were trying to encourage. No seatbelts in the bus! Can you believe it? I can stand up while we're driving! There's a TV and a bathroom in here! The excitement was palpable.

And then we had to sit. The movie was cool for about five minutes. I hoped the sister missionaries didn't mind we had to break out the animal crackers we found in the diaper bag. By the time the movie was over the kids were ready to move.

I'd tried to prepare them: people will put some funny white things on your feet, and it will be okay. But Nathan nearly threw a fit when I made him put them on. Clara followed suit. Levi passed the baby off to grandma because our kids then refused to walk or speak in a civil voice. If we hadn't been hemmed in by people already, I might have bailed. How about another bus ride, kids? They would have been happy again.

 As we went through the temple they got over it, luckily. Nathan really liked the baptistry. Clara liked the "sparkly lights" and asked me, "Is that a trampoline?" while pointing at the altar. So what could have been a disaster, or a really special experience, turned out moderately successful. That's all we could ask for.

 They perked up again when rewarded with cookies and water, and, of course, a stop at Maddox drive in on the way home.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa for coming with us, and for stepping in as photographers when I left our camera in the van...

Temporary (?) insomnia

Monday morning I was up at 4 am. That's pretty early, I tell you. Alice woke up to eat (she goes through phases of sleeping/not sleeping through the night) and after she easily went back to bed, I didn't. I tried. I even tried on the couch in the living room (sometimes this works). At five, when Levi got up to get ready for work, I gave up. I got up and started cleaning.

Because, as you know, Relief Society presidents must keep their houses perfectly clean. It's a requirement.

Not because I had anything else on my mind, of course. I just needed to get my house clean.

It's still not clean (Thursday evening). This morning I was up at five, but I decided to read the Ensign instead.

I'm actually feeling a lot better about everything since I got set apart on Sunday. And I'm sure I'll start sleeping better again soon. There's just so much to think about. But it's amazing in the month since I've been called the outpouring of the Spirit I've received. It's a real thing, guys.

So that's why blogging hasn't been happening. But I promise I have Labor Day and Brigham City open house pictures. I'll get to them soon.