The bright side

There were some pretty awesome things that happened today.

Brady and i slept in til 8:30. Late enough that I wasn't tired, early enough that I didn't feel like a bum. 

Abigail slept til after 10 and then happily played in her crib forever until I finally got her out at 11. For the last week, she's been waking up around 7:30. Can you tell yesterday wiped her out?!

I conquered a whole ton of laundry. 

Abigail didn't whine about breakfast and later I found that she'd gone potty by herself. She's in a stage right now where she fights me on eating, sleeping, and going potty... So this made for a great morning in and of itself. 

Brady was a pretty happy kid this morning while I was productive and then he took a good nap. 

I gave both kids a bath and neither of them cried. Abigail typically freaks out when it's time to wash/rinse her hair and this morning she was as great as I could have hoped for. It was monumental. The afternoon was filled with happiness and smiles and good listening ears. Honey came home at 2 something and brought me a some leftover panera bacon avocado tomato shaved turkey on sourdough sandwich from his lunch meeting. And then he worked from home for a while. Even if he's not available, it's fun to have him home. 

We went to my in laws to hang out and Abigail and Brady played with two of their favorite uncles. 

And we had delicious chick fil a for dinner and an amazing fhe lesson. 

We played the "I love you because" game and my mil said she feels like I'm just one of her kids. 

But the real highlight was that my father in law told me I had the qualities of his mother. Grandma Virginia is one of my favorite people and perhaps the most perfect and saintly person I've ever met. So although I told Brent he was sorely mistaken, I wrote about it in my journal tonight because that was one of the highest compliments I have ever received. 

My honey told me I was a great mother and supportive wife. Honey's brothers told me they love my kids, and something about my laugh being like sunshine. Nate is a funny kid. I'm pretty sure my love language is words of affirmation...

My honey is great. And on the way home he filled up my car with gas. Don't worry mom, it was with the discover. 

Does anyone else do this?  Fall asleep at night replaying the day and listing all of the blessings?  I even distinctly remember doing this all throughout high school. Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Ha, I've got a lot of quirks. And a lot of blessings. 

today made me giddy

today was a simple day... but i got to the end of it and felt butterflies in my stomach and just excited about life.  why?  i couldn't figure it out for a while but then realized it was because my day was just great.

here are a few wonderful things about my day:
both kids, and myself, not waking up until 10am.  brady isn't feeling well and had a rough night.
abigail ate all of her breakfast.  and we all ate together.  like the dollhouse family.
we got out of the house by noon... with no yelling.
brady and abigail were so well behaved at walmart and brady slept for the majority of the trip.
abigail didn't whine about lunch... and ate a TON.  plus some.  and then finished off our entire tupperware of cantaloupe.
both kids went down for nap easily and their nap time overlapped for over two hours.
i was able to make dinner in peace... delicious toasted almond chicken.  and even eat dinner with honey in peace.
because honey got home before 5:30!!!
abigail took her three year old stubbornness down a few notches.  no fights today about going potty!
that girl says the darnedest things.  and loves to pray alllll by herself.
my christopher did four days of dishes and occupied the kids and fed abigail (a whooooole ton of food) in the kitchen while i took a long phone call for my calling and prepared a family home evening lesson on faith and prayer (passed off a personal progress goal with that one!)
we had so much fun as family... just talking and hanging out.  in the kitchen, in brady's room, just totally hit the spot.
both kids went to bed at the same time... again, without a problem.
i actually got to hang out in bed with my honey for a while before he fell asleep!  that neverrrr happens.
i worked on personal progress (i'm kind of obsessed right now) and read scriptures and journaled for a long time after we turned out the lights.
i'm blogging!  the day of!  this is why i blog.  to preserve these moments.  i love my life.

entertaining kids

that title is meant to be an adjective and a noun.  not a verb and a noun.  it's not an activity, it's how i view my children.

anyways...

hallelujah my honey is home!  spiders, if you must make an appearance in the next few days, make it between 7pm and 7am and i will have someone close by to quickly escort you out of our home.  mi casa no es su casa.  (that's what two years of high school spanish got me.)

highlights from tonight were...
a few especially funny stories from my honey.
seeing him come home completely exhausted but still in a good mood.
my honey planting himself down by abigail's new dollhouse so she can show him everything about it.l
not being terrified of seeing spiders, knowing i don't have to call a neighbor or friend about it.

my day was pretty slow.  normally when my christopher is out of town, i'm super productive with organizing projects and cleaning and stuff.  today was the complete opposite because i was still spooked about spiders.  so i would just plant myself somewhere to play or read books with abigail and not move for an hour.  at 1:30 i was still in my pajamas and had heard "let's go downstairs and get you dressed" at least 30 times.  literally at least 30.  granted, there were some variations like "i will get you dressed and then  we can go outside, okay?  that's how it works.  i will get you dressed and we can go outside."  i just kept wanting to say "just let me be a bum!  i want to stay in my pj's all day!  i don't want to get dressed yet!"  but how do you tell that to the kid when at least five days of the week you play that exact situation in reverse order.  my bribe is always that eventually it will be time to sleep again and the butterfly pjs will still be there!  anyways, i eventually took a shower and put on real clothes (i did that just for honey.  so he wouldn't come home to a bum.  and because after waking up at 5am and having a million meetings and almost missing his flight, the least i can do is look like i was a good mom and try to make a hot meal, right?!) and blow dried my hair.  no makeup because honestly, he can't tell if i'm not wearing makeup and therefore doesn't appreciate when i do.  but even without makeup... i was looking like a wife that had her life together.  and baby girl didn't even spill the beans that she spent 4 hours of her childhood this morning trying to get her mom to get dressed.  she really is wise beyond her years.

also, when we were at the beach, we found a horseshoe crab.  don't know what that is?  i didn't either.  but i would have if i had paid attention to A Beach Tail a little better.  before we went to the beach, we checked out some beach related books so i could prep baby girl and get her pumped.  and we still have those books and she loves them because now she's extra familiar with the beach because it's so fresh in her mind.  well we were reading this afternoon and i heard myself say "horseshoe crab" and i looked down and sure enough!  there it was!  exactly what we saw at the beach!  so i showed baby girl a picture of the real thing and she was all excited "it matches!  it matches!"  i'm a nerd but i thought it was the coolest thing.  books are just so educational like that.

and baby girl thought this was so cool that they were at the monster show like she went to a monster show with daddy.

also, when we were reading, we were cuddled up on the little loveseat in her bedroom and we read a book that was dedicated to "all the parents curled up reading with their kids" or something like that.  it almost made me tear up because i was so grateful to be in that moment.  and if i had seen that when i had been working in the daycare it probably would have made me tear up but more in a suicidal sort of fashion.  so if i ever author a children's book, that probably won't be who i dedicate it to.  but i probably won't author a kids book because i too frequently end my sentences with prepositions even when i know it is incorrect grammar.

brady has been crazy sleepy lately.  he used to have a happy wake time of 2 hours but lately he just seems soooooo exhausted after an hour.  in the mornings he more often than not has NO waketime (just nurses and goes back to sleep as if it was the middle of the night) at all.  it's a pretty extreme regression (i know that's not the right word right there) and i'm curious as to the cause of it.  would a growth spurt cause that?  or hitting a developmental milestone?  it's happened since we've gotten back from the beach which is when he's started sitting up.  that's the only major milestone i've been noticing as of late.  if we're out, i can keep him up longer... maybe just because there are interesting things going on... but if we're at home, he's just rubbing his eyes so violently like he might die if i don't put him down for a nap asap.  kids.  always a mystery.

i am absolutely loving both of my kids these days.  and my husband (but i try to limit that sort of talk on the blog because he's less of an oversharer than i am ... who isn't?! and who really wants to hear about that sort of stuff?!).  but seriously, brady is so smiley and laughs more easily than any baby i've ever met.  and abigail is all sorts of sweet and hilarious and helpful.  she's not just helpful when i have my hands full and i need another person, she's helpful when i'm too lazy or selfish to do something and i know she'll just do it for me.
right now my favorite things that she does are
1. throw away all diapers without asking and either saying "thank you" because i allowed her that privilege or giving me the most welcome "you're welcome!" of her life.
2. hanging out with brady when he wakes up but before i go up to get him.  sometimes i'm just really enjoying my lunch or my shower or my words with friends RIGHT WHEN BRADY CRIES for me to come get him out of his crib.  this is horribly inconvient for me because i am both lazy and selfish in my parenting.  when i ask abigail to go help him, she drops what she's doing and runs up the stairs as fast as she can saying "BRADY!  I"M COMING!" and then she turns on his light and hangs out and entertains him until i come to take over.  this is going to be amazing for future children when she will actually be big enough to physically to do more.
3. being completely self sufficient.  for a while she was in that somewhat annoying "i want to do it all by myself!" phase.  right now she's in the awesome just-goes-ahead-and-does-it phase.  i went to get her up the other morning and i was holding brady so i just one armed, lifted her out of her crib.  i could smell that she had pooped in her diaper so i told her to just wait for me while i turned on the bath water.  well, when i came back, she was completely naked.  she had taken off her shirt and pj pants and managed to carefully remove her diaper, get a wipe and wiped herself, and when i walked in, she was rolling up the diaper with the wipe neatly inside.  that's pretty impressive if you ask me.  so then ten minutes later i took brady out of the bath to get him dressed and told abigail i would be right back to help her out of the bath.  but then i saw her with her towel wrapped around her as she tip toed into brady's room to tell me she was actually all done already.  and then, she went to her room and got herself completely dressed.  underwear, shirt, capris.  they were the clothes she had worn the day before (and obviously not cleaned up) but i didn't have the heart to make her change.  i was just so dang proud of her independence!  parenting is so rewarding.

getting home and putting away her shoes without being asked.

also, somewhat difficult at times, i actually love when she tells me "it's okay."  she said something about "our bed"  and i asked her "your bed or my bed?" and her response was "but it's okay i can share with you."  or "it's okay we can go outside" or "it's okay we can share a treat right now."  she's big into sharing.  also, she likes to start sentences with "but" and often combines that with contradicting herself and/or not making sense  "but i want the pink binky but it's purple but it's not purple but i can."  she combines a million thoughts or just says the same thought in five different ways that she can easily string together 20-30 words (probably more but i always lose count) in a single breath without coming up for air.  or so it seems to me.  but really (maybe that's where she gets it from?), hearing thirty something words in a row from a kid that barely turned 3?  i'm wondering when i won't think it's so awesome and cool.  because, once again, i find this kid insanely impressive.

and now it's time to go to sleep.  why do i have to be such a night owl?!

out with a bang

my whole weekend has been kinda magical.

obviously, friday night was awesome.

saturday was really great too though.  we all slept in and then hurried out the door to run errands together.  hit up vitamin cottage for some tahini (so we can make hummus now!) and then to costco where we filled up on a ton of amazing samples (greek yogurt cheeescake, delicious cheeses, chicken sandwiches... some old favorites and some new stuff i hadn't ever tried before) and got groceries and these cubbie things i've wanted forever, and then i ran in walmart for a they're-never-ever-quick return.  it was a luxury to be able to run in vitamin cottage and walmart by myself without having to drag two kids along.  even if i did always have to hear from honey about how long that took.  yes, but it would have taken me even longer if i'd taken two kids... and would have been infinitely more painful for us all.

after lunch, i put brady down for a nap and honey took baby girl to see monsters university.  we're not big movie theater people and honestly, the only reason he even took her was because we got four free movie passes when we recently bought new tires for my car, but baby girl had never seen a movie at a movie theater before and honey really wanted to take her.  he wanted to use the other two passes to take me on a date night but long story short, i'm actually going to use the other two to take baby girl to see turbo (that snail movie) later this week.  i'm excited for our girls night.  while honey and baby girl were gone, i put together all those cube organizer things.  the first one took almost an hour but the other two were quick.  like 20 minutes.  steep learning curve.  i really like putting things like that together.

we went on another walk/bike ride to the playground and it was great.  perfect weather and baby girl is so adorable.  she's so quick to make friends.  or at least try to make friends.  a little boy at the playground looked to be her same age and was wearing a thomas t-shirt so baby girl  kept following him around and talking to him like they were bff.  he ignored her much of the time but there did seem to be some moments that they were actually communicating and playing together.  i think one or both of his parents speak german... so maybe he just doesn't understand english that well.  either way, it's always a whole bundle of emotions watching baby girl make new friends.  it fills me with pride that she is so sweet and innocent and friendly and it wracks me with fear that she'll get her feelings hurt or learn how to be mean.

so then we all walked home and got our kids in bed early (brady has been crazy tired lately... probably from a growth spurt or something) and baby girl didn't nap (we put her down for a really early nap in case she wanted to sleep a bit before the movie but she just played in her crib the whole time) and finished our movie from the night before.  i actually really enjoyed the movie (the big year) which probably means that most people wouldn't enjoy it.  i don't like movies that are too emotionally charged and this one was perfectly middle of the line without being too boring.  it's a given that i don't like movies that are too sad or scary but i also don't like movies that are too happy or uplifting.  romance movies portray an ideal that can make it hard to be satisfied with the day in, day out of your wonderful but simple marriage.  and movies like ruby or the blind side make me feel like i'm not doing enough with my life.  i do really love super funny movies though... but then you get in to the question of if it's risque or inappropriate.  so here's my plug for a funny enough to make you smile but not too emotionally charged in any way sort of movie.  also, i like the bbc pride and prejudice.  but i bet you already knew that.  (even though it portrays a romantic ideal, my honey is actually a lot like mr. darcy and it only portrays the courtship, and it takes place in a time with completely different social norms).  it's a perfect movie... i can find no fault.

and then today.  i wasn't really looking forward to today (maybe i'll look forward to sundays again eventually but not quite yet... too busy and hectic) but, as usual, i was pleasantly surprised.  byc was good.  sacrament meeting was awesome.  i got to go to some of sunday school (like maybe ten minutes) which was really good.  and yw third hour was good.  it was a bit hectic because i was on my own since honey was tied up with a church auditing meeting and i took baby girl to the bathroom twice (she never ended up going til we got home) and brady needed two diaper changes (neither of which coincided with the time i took him to the mother's lounge to feed him).  so it was like most other sundays where i'm making my way back and forth across the church building in heels with my church bags and a baby carseat and a three year old that only knows two speeds, one of which is running and the other which resembles a drunken kitten.

but it was okay because we all left happy and honey's auditing meeting actually got out on time so he got home right after we did.  and after a quick lunch, all four of us took spectacular naps.  we went on another walk/bike ride tonight around the neighborhood a little bit and just sort of hung out as a family.  those walks are amazing though.  abigail is so cute on her bike and so obedient stopping and looking for cars at each intersection.  brady is so happy and content in his stroller.  honey is removed from technological distractions and just puts his arm around my waist while we walk and talk about life.  is there anything more to want?  i think not.

so that was my weekend.  start to finish, just wonderful.  sometimes it's rough to have a stellar weekend when it starts out so great because it's hard to keep up the greatness.  but this time, it was great the whole time and we went out with a bang.

three years ago

three years ago this moment, i was in labor and about to celebrate the birth of my sweet baby girl.  it was one of the best nights of my life, and these three years have been, hands down, the best three years of my life.  there is something so special about this little soul and i am so blessed to be her mother.

 

here's to infinitely more years with this little one!  happy birthday baby girl!

my kids were a dream

my kids were a dream today.  we all slept in til after nine and honestly, the whole day just went so smoothly. we didn't go anywhere but i was super productive around the house.  i got in two loads of laundry, some random picking up around the house, and a few hours of yard work... i filled our entire huge rolling trash bin!  brady was happy (i got a full 20 minute shower while he just hung out on the bathroom floor (without a binky even!) when he was awake and went down easily for naps.  AND his first two naps were full length (2.5 hours long) and he didn't even wake up at the 45 minute mark!  and baby girl didn't get out of bed til closer to 10, went right to sleep for her nap, and played happily for an hour after she woke up.  and while she was awake she was so sweet and fun to hang out with.  all today she did this "okay" thing.  where in response to anything i'd say, she'd immediately respond with an "okay!" and i wish i could record the intonation in her voice because it's hilarious.  it actually makes me think of my lil friend lynell.  i really can't describe it any other way.  ha.  anyways, i absolutely loved it.  she's got to be the most agreeable two year old ever.  she played in the backyard while i made breakfast, we did yard work together, she watched thomas while she ate lunch so i could get brady down for nap and a load of laundry folded, and the whole time was just so much fun to be with.

i walked in her room to get her this morning and found this in her crib.  she doesn't do it all the time, but it's a pretty regular thing for her to take off her diaper when she's done sleeping.  

she needed gloves to help me with yard work.  and a shovel.  and for the record, i cleared out all the dead leaves from those irises you see.  they look much better now.  and how cute was abigail when she kept asking me about flowers and i got to explain to her how they grow and all that good stuff.  her questions are so fun.

today we broke out the sunscreen... and we were definitely sweating while we were working in the yard.  it is so crazy that exactly a week ago, it was snowing and parker was covered in a fresh blanket of white.  and apparently wednesday will be snow too.  most bipolar weather ever.

brady decided he doesn't hate tummy time anymore.  he still only likes it on a boppy and only for 5 or so minutes before he decides he's done, but, man, does that kid look so cute when he's hanging out all propped up on his elbows.  seriously adorable.

baby girl climbed on top of him.

you know your two year old is a lightweight when she can climb on your baby and it doesn't even phase him.

abigail was all about the pictures tonight, wanting to take pictures of brady and me.  she's actually getting really good.  this picture below hasn't been cropped or edited at all!

abigail wanted me to take a picture of her doing "belly time" and insisted that the burp cloth was exactly as it appears.  i told her she didn't need it because she doesn't drool like brady but she was having none of that.  

this girl loves pictures.

my honey had a rough day at work and actually passed out on our bed tonight while i was nursing brady and reading abigail a story.  so i put both kids to bed myself.  while i did this, brady got super fussy and i didn't know why and then he projectile vomited all over the place and continued to be fussy because then he was soaking wet and i was ignoring him to get wipes to clean our carpet.  and then he got mad because i had to change his clothes and swaddle him so that all sent him into a screaming fit.  this was right when i was supposed to be reading abigail her bedtime story and i ended up just getting up from her sofa to put brady in his crib but he was getting sooooo worked up that i had to just hold him and rock him.  during this time, i heard abigail go downstairs and when she didn't come up for a little while, i figured she was trying to wake chris up and had maybe succeeded.  when i finally got brady calmed down again, baby girl appeared... like this.

eating a whole fistful of pringles (actually they're the lay's stax version).  i laughed out loud and asked her who gave her those (i thought maybe christopher in his sleepy state of mind or just trying to get her to leave him alone) and she responded with a sheepish "i did" while backing away from me.  i told her it was okay and then she shared with me every time i asked for one (or two!).  she is insanely good at sharing.  i came downstairs to check out the situation and found this on my honey's nightstand.  i'm not sure how many were in the container when she found them but it is safe to say that there was no chip left behind.

and then on my side of the bed, the floor looks like this.  so let's add vacuuming to tomorrow's agenda.

 

so grateful for this day today.  it was amazing.  and really, i have the best kids ever.

ps- i'll have to tell the story later but i finally called joanne to thank her for getting me a spot in the hospital tour even though they were booked out for weeks.  i told her about how i went into labor the falling morning and probably would have had brady in the parking lot if it weren't for that hospital tour.  i'm ashamed that it took me 4.5 months to call her.  it was crazy though when i talked to her on the phone and she said "i actually saw you yesterday and almost introduced myself and said hi."  i forgot she's in the same ward as my inlaws.  anyways, i think i'm in love with that woman.

pps- if i don't get my watch battery fixed soon, i might die.  i am someone that neeeeeds a watch.  

ppps- yesterday was john's farewell talk at church... i can't believe he leaves on his mission next week.  this is emotionally way harder for me than i was anticipating... but on a lighter note, abigail's prayer today included "thank you for our church.  and for john's church and for nate's church."  i guess she had fun at their ward yesterday.  and she also thankful for "ducklings" just in case you were wondering.

a morning too good to be true

i woke up this morning at 8 15 to the sound of my stirring newborn.  i popped a binky in his mouth and he drifted off again.  and then i turned on baby girl's video monitor.  already awake a playing loudly in her crib.  who even knows when she woke up.  i texted my honey a bit and then told him i was going to hurry and jump in the shower and hope i didn't have two screaming kids by the time i got out.  brady started crying part way through but i put that binky back in his mouth and brought his carseat next to the shower so if it happened again i wouldn't have to get water all over the floor again.  and i had baby's monitor set up so i could see it through the glass.  basically i felt like i was showering with the company of a crowd of people.  and by the end, brady was awake (but content!) and baby girl was crying in her crib.  i shouted up to her that i'd get her in a minute and then hurried and got semi dressed and took brady up with me.  i gave both of them a bath and got them dressed (check it out... i'm super mom!) and came downstairs.  got brady his medicine and swaddled and brought him (buckled in his carseat) to the kitchen.  i literally had my arm extended to give him a binky when his eyelids closed and he fell asleep before my very eyes!

she picked out her entire outfit.  head to toe.

i made breakfast while baby girl 100% on her own, got out her new thomas puzzle and put it together completely on her own.  like i didn't even know she was working on it til she was most of the way through and since i had eggs cooking, i didn't get to go over and look at it until she proudly exclaimed that she was done.  how cute is that "i did it!" you get from a toddler?!  i love it.  so i texted her picture and the story to my christopher.  even more than doing the puzzle, i'm impressed that she got the box from under the sofa and started putting it together on her own.  i think it's adorable when she plays independently like that.

when i first saw she was doing the puzzle

i told her "look at the phone and say DADDY!!!"  that always gets a good picture.

since she was still playing puzzles (sesame street now), i went ahead to eat my breakfast and it only took a minute before baby girl climbed in her highchair to join me.  and then she ate her whole breakfast without stalling or making a mess or really doing anything that i wouldn't do while eating breakfast.  she was so perfectly behaved.  and my favorite part was that she kept saying stuff about how excited she was to go to story time at the library.  maybe it really clicked this time when i told her the list of things we needed to do before we could go to the library and she was intent on getting them done!  she finished eating while i got dressed and did hair and makeup.  then she got out and went potty while i got her two sets of clothes (one to wear since she'd picked out her initial outfit, and one as backup since she was going out in underwear for the first time) and then i threw on my boots, took my bag of dvds and books to return and my purse to the car, got baby girl dressed and buckled in her seat, and then just carried brady's carseat to the car.  it's incredible the amount of work that goes into just getting out the door.  and then we got a great parking spot and only got to story time five minutes late!  it was fabulous.

watching baby girl listen to stories and do the songs/dances is one of my very very favorite activities right now.  i melts my heart.  times a million.  story time today was about transportation and she got train stamps on her hands.  to match her thomas shirt and undies... how perfect!  we played puzzles (and i got to be the proud parent when a mom asked the little girl sitting next to abigail about a puzzle piece and after a minute of the girl not responding, abigail points to it and says "it's red!  it goes right there!" and then showed the girl where it went.  i'm sure that's obnoxious when you're trying to question/teach/test your child but she doesn't know social norms and she was helping to answer the question.  we went to pick up a bunch of thomas stuff i put on hold online and baby girl was sooo excited.  i love being able to do stuff like that for her.  we played a magnet game (they have them set up in the window seats) and baby girl impressed me yet again by knowing all of her shapes.  i won't lie, i was shocked.  especially when she picked one up and said "this is a diamond!  this is a diamond too!  they're the same!"  ummm who taught you to be able to identify a diamond?!  because i know i didn't.

shapes matching game with dinosaurs

twice while we were at the library, i took her to the bathroom.  not because i thought she needed to go (she went right before we left and she's fine to hold it for two hours so i knew we would be back home in time), but because i wanted to give her exposure to public restrooms.  so i took her to the bathroom and let her sit on the potty while i read her one of her new books.  and then i gave her part of a kitkat for trying.  and then we did the same thing again before we left.  i totally thought she would be scared and try to fight me on it but she was awesome.

so then i called bed bath and beyond and talked to someone and then headed into the store.  i found  a little thomas potty seat online but apparently it's not sold in stores and luckily (because it's not at walmart or target) they said i could come in and order it at the store using a coupon and they would waive the shipping fee and mail it directly to my home.  sweet!  so we did that and once again, baby girl was great.  who's kid is this?!  where did you come from?!

i used to not care about this stuff until i had kids that needed to get in and out of the car. brady rides on the this side . i decided ahead of time that i wouldn't even feel guilty if i nicked their car with my door while trying to fit his carseat in.  which barely cleared.  not sure what i would have done if it didn't fit.  maybe try the door on the other side?!  quickly becoming a pet peeve.

so then we were home by 1:05 and baby girl was still dry!  two hours and twenty minutes!  woohoo!  she went potty while i got brady from the car and i thought to myself, "this may be our best day yet!  i can totally do this two kid thing!  and yeay for brady not stirring or fussing that entire nap in the carseat!  life is perfect!"

but then things slowly unraveled and by 2:30, i was just grateful i hadn't given abigail away to goodwill.  so the purpose of this post is to preserve my morning forever and hopefully forget whatever happened between 1:30 and 2:30!  hopefully our night is filled with dance parties and playing trains and maybe making rice krispie treats together!  it's hard to stay upset for long when she's just so dang cute and lovable.  thank goodness for that.

go ahead and ask her why she's sad.  she'll tell you it's because "abigail's not listening." now if only that had clicked to her while it was happening...

two points for the ipad.  thank you for teaching baby girl her shapes.

i also wrote "it's hard not to get frustrated when she makes bad choices and chooses not to listen.  i bet that's what heavenly father feels like 24/7."  that's been my goal since my bad parenting morning last tuesday... to try to parent more like heavenly father.  and my new mantra is "if it takes yelling at my child to get us ______ (out of the house, to this playdate on time, etc.) then it's not worth it.  so my challenge for the past week and a half has been to not lose my temper or at least not let it affect my actions towards baby girl.  i've got a long way to go but i'm doing much better than i have been.

so that's been the day so far.  brady has been awesome and the fussing has been minimal... although i can't blame him for the crying that happened when i was neglecting him to deal with baby girl.  and nap time has been healing for the soul... as usual.  so now i'm just back to loving my life with two kids.

and on a mostly unrelated note, would someone please please please help me figure out the easiest way to get my iphone videos compatible with picasa?!  after way too much time and effort, i finally got them onto my computer but now i can't edit them... so they're all flipped to the side and i can't edit the length.  and my extensive google search hasn't helped yet. 

"a perfect day"

that's the phrase that keeps coming to mind.  have you ever read that book?  we just returned it to the library the other day.

last night i put brady to bed at 10.  he didn't wake up til 5:05.  seven hours!  that's his longest stretch yet, knocking his previous four and a half hour PR out of the park.  after eating a few minutes he went right back to sleep without a peep and didn't wake up til 4 hours later around 9:15 or something.  maybe there is hope for him and his sleeping habits!

around 9, i finally decided to pump because i knew i had way more milk than what he was going to eat for breakfast (ended up being 10 ounces so good call on that) and bottle fed him (he only ate his usual 3.5 ounces) when he woke up a few minutes later.  i got him bathed and dressed and got abigail out of her crib (every day i am so grateful that she really loves hanging out in there so much.  it's a lifesaver that i can just get her out whenever i feel like it) and bathed and then we were all headed downstairs.

we've gone a complete 180 with baby girl and diapers because on our way downstairs (to use the potty and get our thomas underwear!) i grabbed a few diapers for brady from his room.  well, they look just like some of baby girl's because they're luvs and she FREAKED OUT.  remember how i mentioned how it's been the norm for her to throw a tantrum wanting a diaper so i would carry her diaper downstairs for her and then hide it in that drawer?  well, i guess she thought i was doing the same thing this morning because cue the meltdown: "i don't want a diaper!  i want my thomas undies!!!"  ha.  that's one tantrum i really didn't mind witnessing and she calmed down once she got the message that those were brady's diapers and were being carried down to my bedroom.

so then baby girl went potty while i gave brady his zantac and eye drops and she came running in two minutes later exclaiming "i want my marshmallows!!!" which always makes me smile.  so much joy from getting the opportunity to hand my precious girl two well earned mini marshmallows.  then brady went down for nap without a peep and i put in a load of laundry and baby girl and i made eggs for breakfast and she ate everything and had good manners and asked for extra toast (and how cute was it when i looked over later - i was doing dishes by that point - and saw her breaking off little pieces of her bread, which she calls toast, and dipping it in her milk before gobbling it up?!) and since then i've just been doing laundry and getting stuff done while she enjoys some thomas and i'm just soaking up the good life.

what a wonderfully perfect morning.

boy undies

i can't believe it's been an entire week since i randomly decided "hey!  let's go downstairs and potty train you, baby girl!"  it's been going really well.  i ended up not going as hardcore as what i'd planned to back in the day.  because i knew i wanted to do the three day method (ever since i'd researched things 6 or 8 months ago), but i knew baby girl would still spend a lot of time in diapers since she's probably going to stay in a crib for a good while longer.  that's 12-13 hours at night and 3-4 for nap.  so doing the "oh no!  you outgrew your diapers!" thing wasn't going to work for us.  but i didn't want to wait any longer to potty train because so many people say it only gets harder the longer you wait (after a certain age) because kids get more opinionated and it can become a power struggle.  

well it started out great but then baby girl turned into a bipolar potty trainer.  sometimes it was like she loved going potty and she'd sit on there and say "i wanna keep trying" when it would take a while to come.  but then other times (like whenever she woke up in the morning or from a nap), it was like she'd forgotten that she likes to go potty and she would throw a tantrum because she didn't want undies and she wanted to wear a bear diaper.  so i'd take off her dirty diaper and tell her we'd put on her new diaper downstairs (meanwhile she was just commando under her pj's) and when i got downstairs, i'd stick the diaper in a drawer and when she got down there would be no mention of it.  she'd completely forget and then she'd sit on the potty like i asked her to.  

this morning i braced myself for the diaper/undies struggle and y'know what?  i walked into the room and the first thing she said was "i wanna go potty!"  ha.  way to keep me on my toes baby girl!  and in case you were wondering about all of those previous diaper tantrums... here's proof... in a drawer.

that's a lot of tantrums

so today after the park we went to target.  i'd gotten a sweater on clearance last week and got it home only to realize that even though it was really cheap, i really didn't love it and probably wouldn't ever really wear it.  so, inspired by my lawyer friend sarah's closet cleanse, i returned it.  my closet is already cluttered with too much stuff i don't wear.

but since we were already there and had time to kill and baby girl was doing great and brady was asleep... we decided to take a stroll around.  i was looking at baby onesies when baby girl pointed in the distance and said "i wanna see thomas!"  knowing there was no way she knew where the toy section of target was, i was curious what she was pointing at so i asked her to show me where.  umm she wanted this thomas swim shirt.

but tell me how on earth she saw it because we were standing by this white wall when she initially saw it.  like i seriously didn't even know it was possible to see a three inch thomas from that far away.  amazing.

earlier in the day i'd gotten a text from honey saying he'd be getting home from work early and that we should do something fun.  when he said "early" i was thinking 4:30 or 5.  but here we were at 12:37 getting a text from honey saying he'd be home in 15 minutes!  man!  so we headed to the toddler underwear section and i let baby girl pick out some underwear (i'd already gotten her some but obviously it was less cool than her bear diapers and i needed to spark more enthusiasm in this girl!).  can you guess which underwear she picked?  thomas!  i pulled them out of the package so she could see the designs to make sure that's really what she wanted.  and she was so excited she had to hold the pair with harvey and luke... all the way until we got home!

colorado is the sunniest place ever.  being a mile high helps too i think.

ha, she'd been trying to put on her underwear the whole way home.  

like took off her shoes and was trying to put on her undies over her leggings/skirt while still buckled in her carseat.

and when we got home she was so excited to take off her diaper, go potty, and pick some new undies to try on. 

i think she tried on three pairs before she finally settled on...

these!

and she was sooo excited that christopher was home early.

we played hockey on the driveway

and baby girl took more pictures of herself.

i love going back in my camera roll and seeing 30+ new pictures of my lovely little girl.

and check it out!  brady is awake!  and not being held!  and happy!  yeay!

and then honey put baby girl down for nap while i fed brady.  and we watched duck dynasty (have you watched this yet?  i'm loving it.  and i have my awesome friend chelsey to thank for getting me hooked) and then i kept honey company while he washed my car.  it had about twelve layers of filth on it and i suggested "we should wash our cars!" but honey's car was pretty clean so i said "well, we should at least wash my car!" and we both know what that means.  "we" = "you" so i filled up a bucket with sudsy water and was in charge of rinsing the car with water.  and then honey put a freezer meal in the oven and we watched more duck dynasty and it turns out that i had pretty low expectations for today (mondays can be like that) and mlk just totally knocked it out of the park.

and baby girl woke up from her nap so excited to wear her thomas undies again.  and now keeps saying "thomas don't like to get wet."  (should a 2.5 year old be better with tenses and conjugations by now?  when does that verbal milestone happen?)

life is good.