A Great Post

Because I have nothing really great to say and also because I think she said it so well I thought I'd direct all of you to a post written by Rebecca Woolf at Girl's Gone Child. It mirrors so many of my own thoughts about raising girls. I hope you enjoy.

Because Who Doesn't Love Photos

I thought its been a while since I shared any photos with anyone. Truth be told its been a while since I thought to take any photos.

This is Greg while playing with some building toy that he obviously thought were binoculars.
This is a horrible photo of me, but my sister asked me yesterday if I was starting to show or not. Here's the evidence, you be the judge. (I wore this shirt especially for you mom!)

The following photos were three of about 75 that I found on my camera. She must have found it on a car trip because the other 72 were of the view out the window or her feet. I just love the self portraits.


And finally, I know that the kids have a little friend in SLC who loves to watch videos so I thought I'd share this one. It's nothing too exciting, but hopefully he'll like it.

What Keeps You Up?

Everyone has things that they think about from time to time that keep them up at night. Usually, for me, it's lists of things that need to be done. That is unless I'm pregnant, then the things that I think about keeping me up at night morph into the strange and unusual. They also come with greater consistency while pregnant. (Probably because I'm up a lot more frequently anyway.) Here are a few things that kept me up last night.

First I was thinking about what I would do if the house caught on fire. Dan is working night shifts so I figured first I would open the bathroom door to let Percie out. Then I would go to Greg's room and the two of us would get out his window onto the deck. Then we would go downstairs and get a big rock and break open Charlotte's window, which is at ground level, and get her out. Of course if the fire were such that I couldn't get to Greg's room by the hall I would have to hang out my window and drop to the ground. I bet I could do that if I hung by my arms and it wouldn't hurt too bad. The problem would then be how to get into Greg's room to get him out. A big rock could open his window, but how to get up and in past the broken glass.

Then after that I planned if an intruder came into our home while Dan was away. What would I do? That one is much trickier. And there were about a million different scenarios I went through. Percie, though big and white, is pretty much dead to the world late at night. I know this because she sleeps in the bathroom and every night now I have to pee sometime in the middle of the night. I have stepped right on her before without so much as a movement from that dog. So it would have to be up to me, and my cell phone which is right next to the bed and hopefully some obedient children.

After thinking about all the various life threatening situations our family could go through in the night and how I may or may not handle them I moved on to thinking about all the things I've lost lately. First it was some very special things that my mom and mother-in-law hand made for me right before I got married. They were lost about a year ago and I've been searching ever since and called everyone and everyplace I thought they could be, but no luck. We even packed up our entire house and moved and they didn't show up. I'm heartsick over the loss and still try thinking of something I may have missed that would clue me into where they might be.

Then, more recently, I lost my set of the keys to the minivan that had the house key and the check-in card for Charlotte's preschool. All of which is annoying to have lost. Now we're down to one set of house keys and one set of minivan keys. I can't possibly figure out where they might have gotten to and I have searched the entire house.

Then, most recently, I lost a ziploc bag that contained soiled undies from an accident that Greg had while out of the house a few days ago. I'm not really missing the undies, but I know it's going to show up soon and yuck!

Mostly I just find it annoying that I can't seem to keep track of things lately and for the life of me cannot remember when the last time I saw them was. This so very rarely happens to me. In our house I'm the finder of lost items, and the rememberer of where things have been placed. If I can't find it then usually nobody will.

So that's what's been keeping me up at night. Things I've lost, and strange scenarios about how my family could die horrible painful deaths and what to do to avoid them. Anyone else have this sort of strangeness happen?

Something that Hasn't Changed

Today I put on my Billie Holiday Pandora radio station to clean the house.

Every time it's on I calm down, relax and enjoy whatever it is that I'm doing.

I have always loved Billie Holiday and her genre of music (Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Count Basie).

That's what I told my teacher in 5th grade.

And it's still the same today.

We Need Darker Carpet

Yesterday I decided to start potty training Greg. There have certainly been ups and downs in the last 48 hours. Day one was a huge success, day two.....not so much.

He peed while sitting on a towel on the sofa. It soaked through so I took the covers off the seat cushions to wash them. I ran downstairs and threw them in the washing machine. When I came back I saw dark arches across the back of the sofa. He had taken off his wet undies and then started jumping on the cushion-less sofa. And then he peed again.

After that I rolled up the rug and told him he had to stay on the hard floor. He did that all day and managed to do very well. So I gave the kids a bath before bed. As Greg got out of the bath he told me that his tummy hurt. I didn't think much of it until he bent over to pick something up off the carpet and a plug of poo shot out of his butt followed by Hershey's syrup.

Dan and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. We got 99% of the stain up, but there is just a stubborn dark spot that wont go away. Perfect spot to put the new sofa.

Spree

Remember when I told you all about the buying spree we went on when we moved here. Well, apparently it wasn't over. Since then we have purchased one Honda Odyssey which is the same color as our Matrix, which we will be selling just as soon as possible.

Then yesterday we bought a sofa and love seat set. They are beautiful and we managed to get an incredible deal because they are a discontinued style and were a floor model.

Also we went to Cabela's and found a new coat for Charlotte (It's a purple Columbia coat, not camo or real tree) and new mittens for both kids for this winter.

Also we went to Target and got Thomas and Mater undies for Greg along with all the other potty training supplies we'll be needing. Maybe next week. I want the anticipation to grow for him just a little bit. But he is super excited about his new undies.

All of that spending in one day was way too much for Dan. He couldn't manage to buy any other groceries while we were at Super Target because we'd already bought a sofa. Never mind that we actually needed some of the groceries.

I didn't care though because we got to spend the day with Daddy yesterday and it was awesome. He is super funny and we all had a great time together.

Quick story: We were driving down the road the hour to get to Cabela's and out of nowhere Dan looks down at his pants and says, "Hmm, these should have gone into the laundry." I laughed so hard. "Isn't that something you should screen before you put the pants on?" I asked. Then Charlotte pipes up from the backseat, "I scream for mice."

New Challenges

Two is such an interesting and intense age. Every feeling that my little guy has is felt entirely through his body, even if it only flashes for two seconds those are an intense two seconds. It is also such an age of contradictions. Although he clearly adores his sister, his favorite thing to do all morning this morning was run up to her and take something of hers away or push her or knock over what she's working on and then run away laughing as she screams in frustration. Clearly he wants to play with her, but his efforts were not meeting with success.

Also, my emotions in dealing with my two year old are very intense and swing wildly. One minute I will quietly watch him working with his cars and his newly rediscovered favorite dump truck and be totally amazed by him. I love him so much. He has become such a talker and I am amazed by what he tells me (mostly).

What I simply do not love is his insistence on destroying things. He is currently grounded from markers and also any book of any kind. When markers come into that child's hands they go anywhere. Today I found huge splotches on my sofa cushions that had been turned over. Part of me knew that his sister was trying to cover for him and I thought that was nice of her. Part of me wanted to scream because this is not even close to the first time he has colored on that sofa. As I was taking of the fabric that could be removed to be washed I turned around to a tearing sound. Greg had taken a really nice hard back library book and was slowly running his little finger up one page so as to tear it out. This is also not the first book he has done this to. What I wanted to do was grab the book and smack him with it. What I did do was send him to time out. He has no idea what a bullet he dodged today.

Note to self: When he turns 15 you should try letting him have markers and books again.

Suburbs

Did you know what the best thing about living in a neighborhood like this is?

Right now my daughter is happily playing downstairs with the little girl across the street. This little girl is very polite and amazing and their playing together without so much as a word from me is perhaps the best miracle ever.

I love four!

Now let's just hope I can get Greg to that phase. Boy is that kid 2!

Just What Grandma Wants to See

Thanks Aunt Katie for teaching Charlotte to pose like a model for photos. Here are the best shots I could get of Charlotte's first day of school.

Greg had to wear his Sheriff's hat because he desperately wanted to go to preschool and you have to wear special clothing to preschool. He was terribly broken hearted when he found out that he was not going to preschool. All the way home he kept saying, "My turn preschool!"

We of course need the crazy sibling photo from the front porch.

Charlotte was dressed and ready a half hour before we had to leave. Then she informed me that her tummy hurt. That's what happens when you're that excited.

Her teachers told me that she was excellent in class and really smart. So that was gratifying to hear. Charlotte told me that she played with Paige and sat with the girls at the girl table. So I take it from these pieces of news that the day was a success.

OK Never Mind

When they said side effects could include dizziness what they really meant was that you will need to lay down to keep from feeling like the house is falling.

Also? Constipation worse than I have ever had....ever.

Plus, I've still thrown up the last two days.

Medical Miracle

Guess what is a medical miracle.

Zofran.

I was able to wake up this morning actually feeling rested.

It is amazing.