Exploring new interests

 I've given myself until the dryer buzzes for computer, so I'd better hurry. Those clothes are drying fast. Here's what we've been up to. Cleaning out the dead flowers from last year. You know, just in time for it to snow the next two mornings. My daffodils are about the bloom and the tulips are coming up. I thought snapdragons were annuals, but it seems like they have lived through the winter. I'm going to try growing columbines this year.

 Clara does this every Sunday. We read the paper, leaving it in a nice pile for the next person. If she is the next person, though, the paper is scattered all over the living room. She seriously peruses each paper, some more than once. Here she is solemnly contemplating an ad for Steven's Henager College. It's never to early to plan for your education. She spent over half an hour doing this yesterday.

And a little setup for the next picture: Last week I was laying on my bed when Nathan climbed up and said, "Want to look great, mom?" He then tried to apply the still screwed down lipstick he had onto my face. So I put some on, and then he wanted some. I regret to say I let him put some on, not because of the inherent wrongness of a boy wearing makeup, but because of this:

Today when I got home I didn't hang my purse on its hook. If I hang it up, it's safe. If it's anywhere else, its contents are scattered. Nathan likes to play that all the cards in my wallet are train tickets. And he had a lovely time with my lip gloss. He tried to shove it back down with his hand when he was done. Luckily though, the damage was minimal. I took him up and cleaned lip gloss off his teeth and lower lip. He had a great time, though, admiring his "mustache" in the mirror. Mustaches are manly, even if they're made by lip gloss. Right?

After a week's hiatus, mostly for self defense, we're back in underwear today. Not me, I always wear underwear. Self defense, for whom? Mostly my couch.

So, barring diapers for sleeping time, we've gone accident-free all day.

After the frustration of last week, though, I took  my revenge. I put the green potty away.

Today he asked where it was, and I told him the green potty was on vacation.
I really hated cleaning that thing.

As for Clara, she says "hi" sometimes. It's really cute. Right now she's being cute, hoping I'll let her type. It will soon devolve into screaming, though, so I better keep it short. This kid can scream.

Sorry, lappy don't got no pictures. It's not like we're withholding pictures to cover up any major injuries or anything.

No, really, the kids are fine. No bruises or anything. Just one snotty nose.

Learning new skills.

Knock on wood, but potty training is going spectacularly. Yes, the potty did stay in the kitchen for a couple of days. But, the green potty is now in the top of the closet (I got tired of cleaning it). And we've progressed to wearing underwear, and, AND, Nathan woke me up last night to go potty. I was so happy I had a really hard time going back to sleep. His diaper was still dry when he got up this morning. I'll remember that he did pee on the kitchen floor yesterday, though, to keep me grounded...And now we're on to the second pair of the day. Ah, reality.

Also this weekend, Clara learned to go down stairs. I'm really happy about this one as well. As she is. My kids are getting all sorts of independent. I'm loving it.

Haircuts

Yes, haircuts in the plural. This picture sums it up pretty nicely, doesn't it? Clara oblivious and Nathan traumatized. He hates haircuts. And Clara didn't even notice she got one.

I gave her bangs and cut off her little Jewish-boy side curls, so now all her hair is one length. My sister cried a little when she saw it.

Yesterday we got home from running errands and I went upstairs to put the sleeping girl to bed. I came downstairs to find an angry boy trying to open the door and my husband, shaking with half-suppressed laughter, taking pictures. In his anger, nathan had put his coat back on, upside down. He was going back outside, no matter what.

Sundries

Well, no pictures this time. Turns out I haven't taken any pictures since January. So, a little about what we've been doing.

Clara has decided that unless I'm holding her, she's been neglected. Maybe she keeps playing with the phone because she's trying to call DCFS on me.

She was fussy on during sacrament meeting, and was starting off Sunday school in the same vein. A friendly, sweet older man walked in and good-naturedly growled back at her. She started shrieking. I went in the hallway for a few minutes, came back, and sat down. The man had sat down in the row ahead of us, and once she saw him, the shrieking recommenced. I spent the rest of Sunday school hanging out with my friends in the primary presidency, and in the nursery. She caught sight of him in the hall later and started whimpering. He felt really bad. Poor brother Parker. He's such a nice man.

As for Nathan, it's begun. The potty. We started I think last Friday, just sitting on the potty for a few minutes all weekend. By Monday, I had a goal to just get him to pee on the potty once, so he could get an idea of what it was all about. So, once we got home from exercising, I started giving him drinks. Then we sat on the potty, read books. After every book, and after a while after every page (Richard Scarry books can really take a long time), I gave him a drink of water. Every now and then I would hopefully check the potty. Nothing. After an hour and a half, I was done. "Are you ready to get off the potty?" Nope. He wanted another story. His enjoyment of reading really is helping us out with this whole potty thing. And I really couldn't let all this time I'd invested go to waste. Another thirty minutes and one more story did the trick. Two hours. It was excruciating. Can you imagine how excited I was? I'm pretty sure Nathan got the gist of how happy Momma was with him. Today, the second time he's peed in the potty, he only had to sit for 30 minutes. Which is good, because I don't have the kind of mental energy it takes to sit in the bathroom all day, every day. I'm getting some books from the library because I really don't know what I'm doing.

And what's Clara doing during all this? Sometimes she's napping, sometimes she comes and peeks at the book we're reading, sometimes she whines for me to hold her, and the rest of the time she's emptying the drawers and cabinets of toiletries.

Nathan also really enjoyed getting to see pictures of Ethan on the computer. It made him want to go to Ethan's house. Which I guess, since we have passports, we will do sometime. After it warms up, of course. Thanks for updating us on all your Canadian adventures. We miss you guys.

And, not to brag or anything, but it's been freakishly warm here. Yesterday we went outside to play. Clara was napping, Nathan played in the sandbox, Danny (we were babysitting) played baseball, and I raked leaves. It snowed before all the leaves had fallen last November, so I'm just getting around to it. I tried to not let myself get seduced by the feel of spring, but I was. Which makes it all the more awful that I know it will get cold and snowy again. Curse you, fickle Utah weather.

We got our groupon.

 Groupon is in Ogden, and we are excited. We scored a membership to the Eccles Dinosaur Park for super cheap. So, on a boring Friday, we didn't feel at all bad about heading there for only an hour. We would have stayed longer, but it was super cold, getting to be lunchtime, and Nathan was ornery because he fell face first onto the parking lot while getting out of the car. I have a feeling this may become our summer hangout.

Finally the 31st!

 How's life here? I think this picture sums up January pretty well: just snuggle in and wait for it to end. Have I mentioned I don't like January? I keep thinking it's over, just to be reminded that no, January will last forever. Or till tomorrow, at least.

This is actually our little baby being surprisingly chill at bedtime. She does not like bedtime. But this night I don't even think she cried when we put her in bed. The last couple of months it seems like she's been sick, or teething, or both, all the time. But the last couple of weeks have been a little better. We're even making progress on weaning, which I didn't think we'd ever accomplish. We're down to just one before bed. And this weekend she learned to crawl up the stairs. So no more wailing at the bottom of the stairs when mom leaves her down there. Now it will just be wailing at the top of the stairs because she can't get down.

And this is the state of Nathan's blanket when I finally threw it away. My grandma knitted this for him, and it was his favorite (can you tell?). He loved all the holes and strings; it made it easier to carry around. Just poke your head through a hole and it's a hands-free blankie. It also figured in many games. A couple of times I tried to tie off all the strings and trim it up to make it last a little longer, but it was a lost cause. I threw it away once while he was sleeping. He saw this picture though, and asked where it was.