Alice the Rascal

Last night, sitting in her bed at bedtime, holding a pencil and paper.

I'm doing my potty homework.

Oh? How is it going?

I have to do the numbers again. They got messed up.


***

Sitting in her carseat, recently.

Once Nathan sat there (gesturing to Peter's carseat), and it was awkward.


***

Tonight at bedtime, freshly bathed and with pajamas on. She (unless it was Peter?) dumped the bottle of hand soap all over the bathroom floor, and they both crawled in it. Alice kept trying and trying to stand up but couldn't. Just slipping all over the bathroom floor and eventually crying. After being cleaned up, we had this conversation.

Did you or Peter do it?

I did it.

Why?

Because it was slippery.

Do you do it on purpose or on accident?

I did it on purpose. Because it was slippery.


Tonight was a moment I chose to laugh. And video my child's distress.

It's not even April Fool's Day

On April Fool's Day our realtor called to assure us, "This isn't an April Fool's Prank, but someone wants to see your house in 45 minutes." We pushed it back another half hour, and I got to work, cleaning, loading kids in the car, and then final cleaning. I had it down to an art. Also, speed vacuuming is good exercise. We ended up having three showings that day.

Lots and lots of showings, but no offers. Until.

Peter got the best birthday present. He didn't really care about it, but Levi and I were happy.

It's been one month since we put our house up. We've had 29 showings, three birthdays, general conference weekend, and now...

One signed contract. Wahoo!

And none too soon. We were keeping the house pretty clean, ready to ship out at short notice. The kids were great. For a brief period they were picking up toys, putting dirty clothes in the hamper, all sorts of cleanliness. I loved it. But it also felt like we couldn't relax and just live in our house. Our house was on the market for exactly one month, and we had showings nearly every day. Sometimes as many as three in a day. It's a seller's market. And we are sellers. We spent lots of time at grandparents' houses, and then started a tour of Weber county playgrounds. Turns out most playground bathrooms are locked mid-March, so we also made a couple unscheduled visits to family members who happened to live near those parks. They were very gracious.

On Peter's birthday, we got two offers on our house. The first was all right, and we were planning our counteroffer, when we got another. Full asking price, and we pay closing costs. Done and done. More savvy negotiators might have tried to play them against each other to knock out the closing costs, but that's not us. I was just happy to sell it for more than we paid, since I've spent much of the last seven years sure that we would lose money on this house.

Closing isn't for six more weeks, which is perfect, since now the real work begins. Finding a new home.

March is marching on

In the last 14 days we have had 14 showings.

Two of those we heard didn't actually happen, one due to a missing key snafu (what kind of realtor doesn't put the key back in the lock box?), but still. Almost an average of one person a day looking at our house. It's getting a little exhausting, being this clean. I love it, though. Every room in our house is clean. Every day. Levi and the kids are being wonderful. Especially (not really especially, maybe surprisingly?) Nathan, who doesn't even want to move. He never neglects to take his dirty clothes upstairs to Alice's laundry hamper since we're no longer keeping a laundry basket out downstairs. Yesterday morning we were running a little late to school but he remembered to make his bed. I was so pleased I didn't even yell he was making himself late to school (he wasn't). We had a showing on Sunday and so he made my bed for me as I was running around getting everyone ready. Sometimes that boy can be so sweet. Alice has been putting her shoes and toys away in her closet as she gets ready for bed. I've been really enjoying all this putting-awayness. I hope our house sells before the inevitable backslide into clutter begins. I'm hoping this will start new habits for everyone, including me. I've never been a bed-maker, but now I am. And it makes such a difference.

A few things about our family as of now:

Peter has three favorite playthings: electrical cords, bookshelves, and the contents of any cabinet he can open. He is the direct enemy of all the cleaning we've been trying to enforce lately. This morning I had the upstairs clean so I closed all the doors. When he crawled upstairs and couldn't get to any of his favorite play spaces (the bathroom cabinet and the bookshelf in his bedroom) he cried and cried. He's had a cold for quite a while and was getting grumpier and grumpier until I finally took him to the doctor. Probably shouldn't have waited so long, as Peter became the first of my kids to be prescribed oral antibiotics. Poor little guy with hurty ears. He's much better now.

Alice has recently made a large leap in dialectic capacity, both in vocabulary and sentence complexity. Today she said, "I don't like bugs because they creep me out!" The other day my mom laughed when she said, "What the heck?!" and so she kept saying it, getting louder and with more pronounced facial expressions and head movements. We're taking a break from potty training since she was getting more and more resistant. I think we're making progress towards starting up again since she's no longer insisting she's a baby, and has even gone so far as to admit she'll go potty when she's big, and that turning three will make her big. She's also said she'll be big AND go potty when she's five, though, so there's that deadline to look forward to. She has a "robot" she made with Nathan's help (an empty yogurt container with freezer tape wrapped around it) that we have tried and failed to get rid of. She fills it with little princess figurines and totes it around. It comes to preschool with her. And heaven forbid one of the toys be missing--she will notice. I'm looking at you, Prince Eric--what were you thinking, being in the van all by yourself?

Clara is pining for kindergarten. She comes up with elaborate plans every day: parties, mostly. Every day is a letdown. Where are we going today? What are we doing? Who's coming over? Why isn't mom planning elaborate celebrations all the time? Clara I think wishes she could live in a Fancy Nancy book. Every day life is just too humdrum. She's been riding her scooter a lot lately and is getting pretty fast on it, as opposed to Nathan, who can't be bothered to practice. She's back to happily doing online preschool every day, and is making a lot of progress. One day Levi found a list of the names of our family and commented on why Nathan didn't know how to spell Peter. It was spelled something like "Pedr." When I told him Clara had done it on her own, he was much more impressed.

Nathan has recently made a big jump in schoolwork. Every day he brings home a book from his classroom for reading, and he'd been working on level E or F. One day he was so excited. "Look at my bag, mom." He'd jumped from level E to level K. That burst of confidence also got him over the hump on a math test level he'd been stuck on. It's so nice to see the daily frustrating math and reading practice translate into progress, and to see the satisfaction for him. He's also become best friends with a little boy who it turns out lives just in the cul-de-sac across the street. So at every available opportunity, he's wanting to be over there. Or up the street to play with some other boys who are always outside. This is why he doesn't want to move.

Zombies! Also, Elsa does go potty

 I need to remember to put my makeup out of reach. Twice last week Alice made herself up. The first time was brown eyeshadow red lipstick. Alice said she looked "bootiful" but when Nathan saw it he wanted to be a zombie too. So he did. I'm still kicking myself for not getting a picture. He was a little chagrined when he realized how hard it is to wash lipstick off.

 Random Petey pic! I forgot to add it to the last post. He fell asleep on my bedroom floor, snuggling my scarf and assorted laundry.

 Then the second round a few days later. Since the red lipstick was put away, they found some fuschia. Fuschia zombies on the loose! An increasingly rare moment of sisterly accord.

Sometimes, if the cupboard is open, she'll spot a small bottle on the shelf and say, "There's the special drink that makes me go potty!"

In early January Alice started being really uncomfortable with diapers. She'd lay on the floor, unable to walk, because "I'm too poopy!" Every time she had a wet diaper. So, we figured, let's start with potty training before she gets used to it again. You'd think I wouldn't make the rookie mistake of starting potty training at the same time I'm trying to do other large and sundry projects. I've been to this rodeo before, but apparently I never learn. And here is where I owe a huge shoutout of thanks to Levi and his immense patience. My attention has been so fractured lately with trying to get things fixed, decluttered, organized, and what have you, that I was not having a lot of success with remembering to get Alice to the bathroom. So he took a weekend and set the timer, sat with Alice in the bathroom reading stories and letting her play on his phone, and plying her with a water bottle of flavored water (hence the special drink from the cupboard, a bottle of sugar-free flavoring). And by the end of that weekend she had figured out how to pee on the toilet without spending a lot of wasted time in the bathroom first. 

I bought some training pants made by Gerber, so they have the picture of the Gerber baby on the tag. At first she didn't want to wear them: "These are Petey's." But we told her the tag was a picture of her when she was a baby, so now she gets excited whenever she puts them on. We also bought a toilet seat that has a smaller training seat that folds down, but is held to the lid with a magnet when it's not being used. It's awesome, and it makes it her toilet. She thinks the brand name on the seat is her name, thus making the entire toilet hers. 

As long as we remember to take her regularly, she's pretty good at staying dry. But, she will not tell us before she needs to go, so if we forget, it's accident city. And she doesn't like taking a shower to clean up, so she won't tell us. She'll just take off her wet underwear off and leave it for me to find. It's not a fun surprise. We're taking a break to save my sanity and lessen the battle of wills. She knows once she finishes filling up her sticker chart she'll earn her Alice book, a photo book of pictures of her. She's really excited about it. I'm hoping it will click soon for her.

And yes, we have had more than one conversation about Elsa and the toilet. Even though you never see a bathroom in Elsa's ice castle, princesses do use the potty. Alice was not the only kid who had this misconception.

Peter at nine months

 One morning Peter awoke feeling like a merman. These distinctions are pretty important around here, so let me tell you that mermaids are girls and mermans are boys. We're pretty big into mermaids lately. Alice got some Little Mermaid toys for her birthday last year and is looking forward to her "mermaid birthday" this year. And, also, check out that hair. It was driving me crazy.

 So, this happened. I tried scissors but he was so wiggly and I didn't want to cut his hear off. He was pretty calm for most of it and he called Nathan up to shame him. "Look how calm Peter is! You could be this calm too!" Nathan hates haircuts. The mere mention will bring him to tears. If it hadn't been so close to bedtime, he would have gotten one too. Lucky him.

 Once it was over, though, sadness set in. He looks so big! My sister shed a few tears when she saw him. He'll be ten months old this week. He really needs to stop this growing up thing.

A few more things about Peter:

He loves electrical cords. He's knocked over a couple floor lamps by pulling on the cords.

He loves to put anything and everything in his mouth. One day we were at my mom's eating lunch and Clara asked what was in Peter's mouth. I told her it was bread or applesauce or whatever I was feeding him, and she said, "No, it's blue." I fished it out: a wire nut he'd found on the floor. It's a miracle he didn't swallow it while he was eating. Another day we found a fingernail sticker that Clara had gotten for her birthday, in Peter's diaper. And tell me again why I got the three other kids Legos for Christmas? It will be a miracle if Peter survives babyhood.

He started crawling on Clara's birthday. He's since progressed to pulling himself up, which he does at every opportunity. Sometimes he'll stand up, flop himself down, and do it all over again. It's a party.

When he's really happy, he'll grin and shake his head no.

He's working on growing his top two teeth. They're so close and then I think we'll get back to better sleeping again.

He's also fascinated by stairs. He's fallen down them a few times, but still heads back to them whenever he can. I'm getting better at remembering to put him downstairs to play, because it's harder to fall up stairs. If I put a baby gate up, I'll be spending all day lifting kids over it as they go about playing, and not to mention it will ding up the walls I've been so laboriously touching up. Every time I think I've got all the dings fixed, I find more.

He has said NO MORE, WOMAN! when it comes to baby food. If he can't feed himself, he wants no part of it. Except for yogurt and green smoothies. Those I can feed him. We gave him a little bit of hot chocolate on Saturday. His first drink he pulled back pretty quickly. Then he kept going back for a series of quick drinks as he adjusted to the taste and temperature. Then he got a little manic as he grunted and reached for more as he realized how awesome hot chocolate is.

Christmas 2014

 Christmas Eve was a very exciting, very long, day. The kids knew they'd be getting to open one present at bedtime and the wait was agonizing. Levi was feeling pretty sick the week of Christmas so we kept things really low key.

 Finally, presents! I don't usually do Christmas jammies because they never need new pajamas at Christmas, and I don't want to buy something themed that will drive me crazy the rest of the year. But, I got four pairs of matching pajamas, for $6 each. This will be the only year that will be possible, since Nathan wears the biggest size that was available. But, they'll still fit next year. At least, the pants will. Why is it that every pair of pajamas ever has such small shirts and such big pants? On each kid, the shirt barely fits while the pants were about six inches too long. The pants are fleece and super warm and cozy. (Side note: Alice saying she's getting cozy in her bed is the most adorable thing ever.)

I don't know why this picture is so blurry. Let's pretend it was on purpose? I'm not loving the way my camera takes indoor pictures.

 I never got around to making Peter's stocking. Nathan was a little worried about it; he didn't want Peter to be left out when Santa came. So he took a paper stocking he'd gotten at school, turned it over, and decorated and hung it for his brother.

A view of the carnage: This year was the year of the Lego. Just in time for Peter to start crawling two weeks later. We're learning to be more responsible with Lego play so maybe, just maybe, Peter will make it through babyhood alive.

Other Christmas highlights:
Michael and Erin and Ethan came for Christmas! We had a lot of fun spending time with them. We went together to Christmas Village after Christmas. We didn't make it before Christmas when the weather was really mild, and the night we went was frigid and windy. Alice cried almost the whole time. Another night all the brothers went to a Jazz game, and the rest of us gathered for a pizza and game night. And we all spent New Year's Eve together. It was a fun couple of weeks.

Last year photo dump

 Remember that one time it snowed? Maybe in November? The kids couldn't let the chance pass to play in it. Turns out they were wise, considering how paltry this winter has been.

 Even poor sick Clara couldn't miss out. It took longer to suit her up than she spent outside.

 Peter's peas, splattered on the wall. I'm pretty sure he had help. Clara had to help with the cleanup.

Clara's been quite the little mom. One day she put him in Nathan's shirt bin so he wouldn't get any small toys in his mouth while she played. He did not love it.

 Clara's dance recital, mere seconds before she bailed off the stage. This is her Olaf costume.

Lucky boys, taking a nap.