how I started 2015

It's past my bedtime, on the first day of the year. I am frustrated that I was trying to cut or undo something and the whole draft I'd written a few hours ago disappeared! Well, I'll start over. :0)

My friend Shelly, whose kids I babysit twice a week, had a fun New Year's Eve party with healthy food. The five of us went, so my husband was able to meet the others that I had met at a potluck back in August (he worked that Saturday). I didn't already know Amy and Nate, though. All five families including us brought our kids, who played on scooters and decorated hats while most of the adults played Five Crowns.

What I really want to write about was the great things about this January 1st. Right at midnight we were home in bed and had a quick kiss, then for fifteen minutes we continued what we were each doing. He watched videos on the iPad, and I finished reading my book: Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright.

Soon after I woke up I was kind of depressed for a minute about the way I feel in the morning and all the time. Chronic pain. I didn't cry and snowball it like I did yesterday, though. It's so good that D and I have each other. We've talked about what we want to do this year and it will be good. For example, we are determined to pay off our debt. Anyway, knowing it's now 2015, I remembered that I had thought that in 2014 I would get rid of my constant headache. I did try more than a few different tests and treatments and stuff throughout the year but I need to be patient with what I'm currently doing (my doctor prescribed myofasical release, the medication gabapentin, and flonase (I don't think the last two are doing anything for me, at least not yet)). And I am going to keep searching, too. Neil Nathan, M.D.'s book Healing Is Possible: New Hope for Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Persistent Pain, and Other Chronic Illnesses is giving me some things to think about.

A little bit after that, I played my piano for the first time this year. I chose Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain / Amen from Handel's Messiah. I bought my copy of the book while in college, for a performance with hundreds of other people; I will never forget that experience!

A few days ago was also really nice, when I played the piano to wake up our kids. That day it was the suite from Forrest Gump. Many years ago I had to tape the spine of this sheet music to hold it together. I played it in a talent show when I was in junior high.

Let's see . . . also, I let the girls watch Netflix a lot today while D was working. I watched some of my own as I cleaned the kitchen and stuff (using the iPad while they had the TV on). The show I'm binge watching is Gilmore Girls. I never saw any of it until the middle of December. 

In the morning I pondered and wrote down some things I need to do (some of them are resolutions) and had some good gospel study time. I worked out, took a long shower, and eventually we accomplished our chore checklist.

Oh! Third Girl made me laugh harder than I had in a long time. She can be pretty funny, but doesn't do this kind of thing as much when she's away from home. You won't fully appreciate it because you can't hear her tone, and I don't remember it all, but that's okay. I was with her as she sat on the potty. It was bedtime, when we always make her go, and I said that I wanted to hear her pee. Then we talked about something else, or I kissed her knees. Then suddenly she said in her voice that's higher than her normal voice, "You hear someping?" And I thought she meant her peeing, but she quickly says, "Butterflies?" As if they even make a sound! Oh, man, it was hilarious.

L at four years old

Here's another update (finally). This time it's about Second Girl.

I think she's even cuter in this July 4th photo than in the June photos.

This gorgeous girl turned four back in June, so she's four years and five months old now. Daddy was at AT as usual during more than half of that month, so we had her party in July. The party was a success, but I don't feel like uploading those photos. We had it in the church's Primary room with a few of her friends and some extended family. The kids enjoyed playing musical chairs.

Her actual birthday was fun and simple. The first fun thing was our healthy breakfast banana-oat cookies that each had four dark chocolate chunks on top. I make the cookies often (based on this recipe and I replace the oats part with oats / cooked beans / unsweetened shredded coconut) but had not put those chunks on them before. L's cookie was the biggest and we put her "numbah foh" candle in it. I think we just relaxed and did what we needed to at home. Then we went to a park we hadn't been to before and played there for a long time. She and First Girl are such good friends. It seems like we went to my mom's house, maybe for dinner. The day ended with homemade frozen fruit bars and her for some reason falling asleep on the living room floor.

She makes me so happy. She's almost always the first kid up in the morning, and she comes to find me and give me a hug. From age three to age four she became good at drawing people and other things, and she learned how to write her nickname. She doesn't need help with anything when she uses the bathroom anymore, unless it's #2.

She has learned to love preschool, which she started on October 1st. We had to wait for an opening in the free one at the elementary school -- the school First Girl attended last year. I think the preschool friend L has mentioned the most is David B. (who also has a sibling attending the other school for dual immersion, so his mom picks up First Girl for me on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I pick up her daughter on Fridays). There are also three other kids from our ward in the afternoon preschool class with her. L loves the art projects, and telling me about the stations in the classroom and the snacks. The teachers said she is quiet and behaves well. She did very well on almost everything they tested her on a few weeks ago, like knowing letter sounds and which words rhyme.

We all love the songs she makes up. She has an imaginary song folder for her songs -- I'm not sure if this was her idea or her sister's. She'll say "this is a song that I have in my song folder." There was one about colors and there's one called "There's so many of me." Last December she said, "I like to say 'hey!' at the end of songs. But always they don't say 'hey.' But in my ones they say 'hey.'" A weird song she sang just last month included "It is the best thing you could never see: curly hair."

Her speaking voice is so cute, too, with kind of lisp. I wrote down (then typed up -- I guess you can say "wrote up" but you can't say "typed down," can you?) some of the funny, imaginative, and smart things she has said since the last time. This is only a few of many L sayings I've recorded. My sentences have curly brackets around them:

{There's our car.}
This is ours van.
{Yeah.}
Yeah, tug ['cause] it's white.

(After I sang part of a song from a kids' show I had removed from our Netflix queue, so it had come off our our TV.) We yoost have it on our tee-dee, but then it cummed off.

My food just fell on the floor and I picked it up.
{Your banana?}
Yeah, and my Craisins. It’s not really good to tell your parents that.

(As we walked home from the van after taking S to school, I saw our animal on top of the bush by our patio. She said something about giving the animal to S when she gets back.)
{Because it’s S’s?}
Yeah.
{You love her, don’t you.}
Yeah! I didn’t want to look when the doctor gave her the shot. I was gonna cry.
{Aww, that’s so sweet. You’re being like Jesus. You care about people’s feelings.}
Jesus knows everything. I don’t know everything.

A dog wouldn't want to eat that [gunk I cleaned off the stove].

{But sometimes dogs eat things that people think are yucky.}

Like Bwussel pouts like I don't like?

{I don't know, but some people like me like them.}

I think a dog would like pizza.

(After talking with her and S I figured out that she was thinking of the dog in the Stephen Cartwright 1-2-3 book.)

{Are you good at coloring?}

Yeah, because I’m cute.

{Does being cute make you good at coloring?}

Yeah.

When I said I needed to go poo, it was a joke.

{You're a joke.}

Oh, I know why i'm a joke. Because I love to eat artijokes!

You’re just a servant, not a pwincess. . . . [We wouldn’t break the bed] but if you jump on the bed you will, but for weal. . . . I’m pretending that I’m talluh. . . . they won’t bweak the bed, ‘cause they’re more magical -- the people that are fancy. And I have a fancy cat. . .. I have so many stuff. And my cat can talk. . . . Servant? May you please make muffins. 

{You mean waffles.}

Yeah. I forgot. I have a very silly queen. I am very silly. I get all mixed up.

Mommy, have you ever seen a baby butterfly?

{I don’t know if I have.}

I think I know why you haven’t seen one. They might not be on this earth.

{Butterflies are on Earth. You’ve seen them before.}

I know a other ansuh [answer] why you might not have seen ‘em. They might be kinda shy.

(While coloring the Daniel page and paper food from Primary.) So his mom said, ‘be very careful when you carry the food who are in dishes, because they're bweakable.’ . . . So that's what he was doing when he was cahweeing [carrying] some. But on the way he accidentally bwoke one teeny piece of the bowl. . . . If the whole dish bwakes, I'm gonna be weally mad. That's what the queen said. The queen is his mom. And he was wehwing [wearing] vewy pretty clothes. . . . If there's a problem that happened, he should tell his mom wight away.

{If something happened?}

Yeah, to the dishes, and the dwink. . . . If he dwopped the corn then his mom wouldn’t be weally mad, ‘cause it’s not in a dish, and it’s not a drink. It was only on the gwass. And he was gonna bwing his pet named Octo to the picnic.

The other pwincesses, they have black lipstick on . . . Someone fired their lipstick, so now it’s burned. . . Yeah, so that why it’s black. . . . I was so so pwitty that they didn’t wanna fire mine.

{You mean burn?}

Yes.

I don’t like the way you are talking [in a British accent].

{Why not?}

It’s funny and I don’t like funny.

{But you’re doing it, too.}

No I am not.

Another day during AT -- we sent this to Daddy in a text message. These girls both love to stand on any big rock, and they usually do a little song and dance performance on the rock, too.

three years old

In June this girl turned three. (I blog slowly nowadays.) After her baby sister's photo shoot that week, L was too tired to cooperate. We ended up doing L's ten days later -- same park, and same photographer friend who did {these}. I am so glad that Anne and the camera captured some of L's beauty. 

She smiles / has fun / loves life, but would not smile even once during the 60+ minutes that Anne took pictures of her, even though she does know her. Afterward when I told L that I was sad she hadn't smiled, she said, "I will smile for you, Mommy" -- meaning when I'm behind the camera. Maybe she hadn't had enough sleep the night before and was feeling tired, but she also refuses to "perform" in front of other people when I or anyone else (i.e. the pediatrician) asks her to. 

At this age she usually cries or makes a frustrated "uhh uhh" whine when something is wrong, and won't say any words about what the problem is. She hates getting her hair wet in the bath no matter how we do it, and her crying about that always hurts my ears. She may talk less when she's not at home, but trust me, she's very talkative. She often deserves the nickname "Freakout." It's kind of interesting that some children scream for fun. She really is a good and polite kid, though; her nursery leaders and babysitters tell us she is. She always remembers to say thank you.

Anyway . . . she has changed so much -- from a toddler to a kid -- in the 14 months that we have lived in our current home. She seems a lot older than she was when I wrote {this}. The gap between her age and Shboogoo's seems smaller. She loves being a big kid, able to do things without help. But I love that she still comes to me for cuddles and wants to hold my hand in the parking lot.

L passed her three-year well check with flying colors. She was 8th percentile for weight (she has been 1st percentile, so that's gone up a little) and 9th percentile for height. C's six-month appointment was the same day, and it was sweet that after L's shots she started to cry again just because C cried out during hers. She is a good big sister. Just now, as I was typing with C  on my lap, L came and gently touched C's cheek and looked into her eyes as she quietly sang "wa-ah-ah."

Some L Sayings (you could call some of them Funnies), in order starting with mid-November 2011, show how she's speaking more like a grownup.


One day she gave me a cup and wanted juice in it. She told me, "In there, in the fridge. Have niny fridge, too. Daddy bought." She wanted me to know where the juice was and that we had a tiny fridge also. (However, Daddy didn't buy it, it had been my grandma's.)

She had Daddy's older iPhone in the new iPhone box, and said something like this: "Bad guys. not. get. phone keep fafe [safe] . . . Bad guys. not. get daddy’s phone. out this box. It my box for my phone.. . . It Daddy’s phone."

Did someone have a tiny hole in their shorts? "Niny hole in yois hoits [your shorts]?"

At bedtime she asked, "I dress up little minute? I put on priiiiiidy dress, be princess!"

L: I have more soy milk? 

Mommy: Have another bite of your peanut butter bread. 

L: Soy milk not candy.

(Meaning, "it’s not bad for me like candy is, so I can have more." Smart thinking!)

 

About The Emperor’s New Groove: [When] we watchin’ this funny show, him say “no touchy. No touchy.”

L: I brush my hair with this baby brush? 

Mommy: Yeah. 

L: Otay. Waint you [thank you].

Can you believe she scowled like that?

Mommy, at 8 a.m.: Do you want some oatmeal?

Yeah. Let I see if it’s morning time. [Runs to the patio door.] It is!

Layin' on Mommy.

Singing about getting something in the right order: I dog it in right oh-duh! I dog it in right oh-duh! 

After I drank almond milk from her cereal bowl: I didn’t know you can drink milk even a spoon is in.

Forcing the smile didn't work. Neither did getting out fruit snacks and showing her that whenever another kid smiled, he/she got a fruit snack.

Mommy: We need to get a little stool so you can get on and off the potty. And learn to wipe yourself. 

L: You can teach me to do anything. 

Mommy: I can? 

L: Yeah. And Daddy can.

Look at me. I can do amazing things. (She was holding her praying bear upside down with just her thumb through the loop of the tag.)  

I a good -- big girl, S! Do you know that?

On her birthday, she slept in. When she came in my room around 8:45 a.m. I said, "Happy Birthday, L!" She said so adorably, "But I still two and a half." I asked her, "Do you want me to tell you when it's the time that you were born?" She answered, "Yeah." Love her!

Edited to add: 

During her third year:

• She started to like drawing scribbles ("fribbles') on paper. 
• She potty trained (started just before age two and was good at it, with an adult's help, by two years and four months, then had more accidents for a little bit after baby sister was born). She is always dry in the morning, but we have some Pull-ups just for her to wear when she sleeps at one of the grandparents' houses, just in case. She has peed in her undies, maybe once a month?, if she is busy playing and doesn't tell anyone soon enough that she needs to go. She just starts to cry as she wets herself. Poor girl. Enough about that, though.
• She learned how to count to 10; sometimes to 18 or so, but she usually leaves out at least one of the numbers. 
• She can identify colors, shapes, and letters.
• She sings the whole alphabet song with other people. When she sings it by herself she starts with the middle of the tune and says "abcdefg" over and over again.
• She learned how to give a real kiss (at 24 months she couldn't do the smack).

L loves:

• the colors red, pink, and green
• running around, with or without her sister
• our little board book Maisy's Favorite Clothes, and other books
• her Mickey (my Steamboat Willie stuffed animal her daddy gave me when I was 17)
• jumping onto the couch from the coffee table
• watching a kid show on Netflix when she first wakes up; she is almost always the first child awake
• choosing what clothes she will wear
• "tacking" (snacking) on anything
• "helping" mom or dad cook or -- if we make it seem fun -- do chores, and "helping" dad play video games

"day wime!"

This girl amuses me. I love the things she has said in the last few months as she has been trying to figure out how the English language works.

do they?
She likes words that rhyme. She thought she was so smart as she said things like this:

Beans, peas! Day wime!
Swimming suit, swimming pool! Day wime!
Peanuts, peanut butter! Day wime!

One time she said her three names with pauses in between, and then said "day wime." Yep, not even close. But adorable. 


On leap day I wrote this down because she did get it right: "Funny, bunny! Day wime. . . . My bunny's name is Funny." (Actually, it was a Pikachu figurine.)


backwords 
puck = cup 
dig = get 
tug = cut 
MANgur = grandma
doog = good  
lape = plate 
dang = game

possessives 
L says hims when she should say his, and adds an s to your. It was so awesome when she asked her dad if they could play more Mario (a.k.a. No-no):

We play last one shine sprite on yours No-no dang?

copycat 
First Girl, seeing that Third Girl was about to cry, said "Here comes the cryin'." So Second Girl immediately said it, too, with her own interesting pronunciation: "Here pung the fwyin." We laughed out loud every time she said that sentence. Also, when she wants me to come with her she says, "Mommy, pung on! pung on!"

"Silly me." Apparently I say that a lot, so both of our older girls have made it part of their vocabulary.

Sometimes she complains, "Aaa-aww," when we tell her it's time to do something that she doesn't want to do. She learned that from First Girl. 


wrong words (these are pretty typical for young children, I think)
She confuses is and are: 

You is safe, baby.
What are this?

She uses I instead of me, us instead of we and vice versa, and not instead of don't or won't: 

Let I see!
Us not draw on puhtah [computer].
Nana gave we these.

missing words

I dress up little minute?
That tiny pen size of me.
I not how [I don't know how].
I need get weddy church.

SUCH a fun age! :o)

2011 Christmas season, part 1

My family didn't do a whole lot of Christmas activities this year (because of preparing for baby #3, I suppose). For example, we never went downtown to see the lights, we didn't watch some of our favorite Christmas movies, and we didn't go to any concerts. We didn't do much to serve others besides giving a few non-perishables to the food bank. It's been a while since I participated in a Messiah sing-in, which I would love to do again. However, I want to document the things that we did do.


(I was finally able to get this photo off of my phone a few weeks after originally publishing this blog post.) On November 29th the girls and I went to daddy's institute building for lunch after one of my midwife appointments, as we had enjoyed doing a couple of times already. They loved all of the Christmas trees throughout the building; this was the best, with the nativity statue and the "snow."

The girls and I went to with my mom to her ward Christmas party. It was a dinner, the high school Madrigals sang, and in another room children could do a couple of different crafts. I must not have brought a camera with me, but later I got a picture of the Christmas tree (sugar cone covered with cake frosting and candy) that one of our girls made.

 

On December 3rd my husband was at drill, but the kids and I went to my father-in-law's family party. I enjoyed the drive and talking with my husband's aunt and uncle. The kids were way excited that there was a piñata.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 6th was my ward Relief Society dinner. I met some sisters that I didn't know before, and I was touched by the program and music about the Savior.

 

 

After being frustrated with our pre-lit artificial Christmas tree which we set up soon after Thanksgiving, we got rid of it. On December 8th we finally went out and bought a real tree, using our military discount at Lowe's. We tried and failed at making strings of popcorn and cranberries, but then I made some gingerbread ornaments from an image I found online.

The morning of December 10th was our ward Christmas party. They provided breakfast, entertainment from a funny magician, and sugar cookies.

Sunday, December 11th my husband and I both spoke in sacrament meeting. It's not exactly related to Jesus' birth -- the bishopric asked us to speak about the Sabbath day -- but we like having this opportunity.

I have no idea where my Christmas piano books went! I think I own at least four, and I hope they will show up somewhere. But throughout the season I mostly played/sang the Christmas songs that are in the LDS Children's Songbook. I think the Christmas music the radio stations play is annoying, with the exception of the classical music station. My husband had the great idea to play Christmas songs using the Pandora app on our TV. The girls and I also enjoyed reading the Christmas children's books that we own, plus a few that their daddy checked out at the library.

2 years and 4 months

I have not written about only L since she turned two, so here is an update. A lot of the pictures in this post show her at 27 months old, during our September 22nd professional family photo shoot. In the others (not taken at the park) she was closer to 28 months old.

The biggest accomplishment is that she is potty trained! I decided that starting June 6th she would not wear any diapers (and no Pull-ups, but we do have her sleep in cloth training pants that I made, just in case). It was a don't-do-anything-but-focus-on-your-child program for three days. She was still having accidents after the three days. It took probably two months for the idea to fully sink in so that she tells me every time she needs to go potty, but it's been a very long time since she had a #2 accident. She stays dry during naps and is dry in the morning about 95% of the time.

Her speech has really improved in the last four months.

• When she wants to get on my lap she says "On lap. On lap."
• Whenever I do something that her dad has done with her, she says "Daddy does that."
• She asks me to "Ope dat, Mommy," or if it's a door she says, "Ope doy."
• When she is done eating she says, "Bib off me."
• She had her Ken doll on my leg, then made him fall off and said, "Help my Bawbie, mommy!"
• When she wants a light on but can't reach it she says, "On light. Too high." 
• When she wants to go in our room she says, "In Daddy Mommy's room." 
• When someone is asleep, she whispers, "Not too loud."
• She can pray at bedtime, with her dad helping her one word at a time.

One day we were looking at some pictures and I told her that I had been pregnant with her then. She pointed to a picture and asked, "Me in the belly?" She's good at giving her baby sister a kiss by touching her lips to my belly (without the kiss sound). In a higher-than-normal tone she says, "nine-y nine-y toes," meaning that the baby will have tiny toes. It's pretty funny when she touches my belly and says "lellow baby" or "blue baby" -- whatever color of shirt I am wearing. This was very sweet yesterday: "Me love baby. Meet meet meet her. Me meet her."

She does that a lot: repeats the first word in a sentence. This week she was holding a soft toy chipmunk and said, "Love love my pet" and "pet pet him." She also said, "Wah-duh wah-duh [water] in."

L opens my small wallet and pretends it is her laptop computer. The side that has clear plastic to let the driver license show is the monitor. "My pudduh [computer]! Nine-y pudduh . . . Wall ut [wallet]."
    

She still sucks her left thumb, often accompanied by her right hand stroking her hair. It's not just when she is about to go to sleep. About half the time when I pull her thumb out of her mouth she leaves it out. She has also started to put several fingers in her mouth at a time. I will be happy when she breaks these habits.
 

She loves it when we read books to her, and sometimes she comes to me with a book and demands that I read it. One time she said, "Read that monkey book!" She's great at paying attention during story and craft time at the library.

She likes to say, "Your bed up dere, [her sister's name]." She follows her sister's lead when they pretend together. Usually they take care of "pets" or "babies" or pretend that they themselves are puppies or that Shboogoo is L's mom. They have their house be one of our walk-in-closets or just the space underneath our desk or coffee table. Maybe I've mentioned this before, but I love that L recognizes many of the letters of the alphabet, and it's probably due to her big sister teaching her.

She has started being picky with her clothes. These pink Airwalk shoes are definitely her favorite pair of shoes. "Want pink woos." If I mention socks, she almost always doesn't want them: "Out yocks [without socks]!"

Some days I get her ready for a nap, put her in bed and then she tells me, "No leep." Most days she does nap -- if it's not in bed, she falls asleep on the couch or we go for a drive. One day she was in my room with me and actually grabbed my robe from my bed, laid down on the floor and went to sleep (that's the second photo above).

She has said that she loves both red and pink, but apparently purple is still her favorite color. She frequently says "Me love purple. You love blue" (I'm not sure why she thinks I love blue). She randomly talks about purple. For example: L, do you want that kind of cereal? "Me purple Grape Nuts." Somebody mentions an animal, let's say a giraffe, and she says, "Me purple toy raffe." I asked her if I should put the purple sheet on her bed and she got excited: "Yeah, match my purple nightgown!"

She likes to build towers. It was cute seeing her arrange the cans I had just bought.

Why not end with a silly smile. Her molars came in, so she has all 20 baby teeth now.