"high needs" in vs out

tonight, i was talking to a friend about how brady is about 8.5 months old and he's at the point where he's been out about as long as he was in.  i said something like "the strange thing though is that pregnancy was such a breeze and it just flew by and these last eight and a half months have felt like ffffffffoooorrrreeeevvvvvveeeeeerrrrrr."  don't get me wrong, i love my kid, but holy cow, it's been a really, really long 8.5 months."  my friend has a difficult baby like brady so we can relate.  but tonight i just keep thinking about that.  so i finally did the math.  turns out, today exactly, brady is as old as the number of days i was pregnant (well, kinda... the first two weeks of pregnancy are a freebie because the moment you conceive, you're already considered two weeks along... but whatever).  let's be honest here that being pregnant was way easier than actually taking care of a baby.  and i really loved being pregnant so we can also be honest that being pregnant was also frequently more enjoyable than taking care of a baby.  but, still in complete honesty, i anticipate the next 8.5 months to be way more awesome than the previous 17 months... so there.

brady has not been an easy baby at all.  in fact, according to this article about the 12 features of a high needs baby*, brady is as "high needs" as they come.  apparently "high needs" is the politically correct term for that kind of baby.  i read this article and it was as if someone wrote that article specifically about brady.

like this...

Along with their unpredictability, these children show extremes of mood swings. When happy, they are a joy to be around; they are master charmers and people pleasers. When angry, they let everyone around them feel the heat.  

"When he is happy, he is the happiest baby around, but when he is angry he is the worst baby around. He is still that way, sunshine and smiles, anger and daggers. He has no middle emotion." 

The child's unpredictability makes your day unpredictable. Do you take him shopping and risk a mega tantrum when his first grocery grabs are thwarted, or will this be a day when he is the model shopping cart baby, charming everyone at the checkout counter?

i mean seriously!  how many times have i called him bipolar?!  that's why!  he only knows the two extremes of emotion.  i've always said "he's never just quiet, he's only laughing or crying.  thankfully, this is not the case anymore.  well... not as much.  he's still very much bipolar (although thankfully the percentages have shifted and he's now happy and laughing far more than he's fussy and crying) but he's really evened out into a pretty well adjusted kid!

but that article describes his newborn days so perfectly.
1. "intense" - like how he screamed for the first three hours after he was born and every nurse that came in commented on how loud and angry he was.  and they sent us home with five or six of those green pacifiers.  with abigail, we were sent home with zero pacifiers.  brady, they just kept throwing those our way.
2. "hyperactive" - basically, his body didn't have the ability to relax.  his whole body was always flexed and tense, back arched, squirming and wiggling.  i know now that it was from the pain of reflux but holy cow was it exhausting to try to hold him.  and my whole body would ache after trying to feed him because i was trying to contort myself to keep him latched.  i remember sprawling out after nursing him, my whole body completely spent.
3. "draining" - i think of this more like everyday he would completely suck the life out of me.  he took everything i had to offer, and still wanted more.  sucked me dry until i literally had nothing left to give.
4. "feeds frequently" - with abigail, she refused to nurse more frequently than every four hours and it was hard for me to imagine when other people told me their newborn liked to eat every two hours.  with brady, it was like he hated nursing but wanted to do it all the time.  at the height of his difficulty (thankfully for me, while my mom was in town) brady was two weeks old and would nurse so frequently than in a single hour, i couldn't tell you how many times he'd eaten.  even now, i nurse him about every 2.5 hours (when he wakes and before he goes to sleep), plus give him solids.  and he puts down a TON of food.  lunch today was almost an entire avocado, almost an entire pear (abigail got a few bites of each), and oatmeal cereal with a hard boiled egg yolk mixed in.  for a kid barely on the charts.  i'm realizing now that he just requires more food, and more frequently.  thankfully, feeding him tons during the day has directly correlated to longer stretches of sleep at night.  i think the kid was just hungry.  really really hungry.
5. "demanding" - like the article says, it was never a request to be held or be fed, it was positively demanded.  if i had a dollar for every time i said "i feel like a slave to my child."  he was truly a slave driver.  constantly cracking a bull whip.  and he sometimes (wait for the "unpredictable" bullet point) still is.  when he wakes during the night with a dirty diaper and i try to change his diaper before i nurse him, you better believe he is going to scream bloody murder during that entire diaper change... right into that baby monitor.... which i'm sure christopher appreciates.  so now i nurse him on one side, change his diaper, and then nurse on the other side before putting him back in his crib.
6. "awakens frequently" - i actually don't have that many memories of this because i could never get him to sleep in the first place.  but i do know that even the very slightest thing would wake him up and that he wouldn't transfer from my arms to a crib or anywhere else and that his naps were super short and his night time sleep stretches were frequently only an hour.  so umm, i guess i do remember this part after all.  but really, before i started him on zantac... he never slept.  awake for hours and hours and hours on end during the day.  and i remember so many sleep deprived nights where brady "slept" in the moses basket next to our bed and i could go three hours straight just putting a binky back in his mouth after he'd spit it out and cry.  i was doing that about every 15-30 seconds... FOR HOURS.  all. night. long.  then maybe we would sleep for 30 minutes.  but then it was the binky game for a few more hours.  and then back to day time when i was just up and bouncing his crying self all day.  i remember finally looking at the clock one afternoon and thinking, "how could it be?!  it can't be this late in the day!  he most recently woke up before noon!  that was four or five hours ago!"  if he does poorly in school, i am going to attribute it to his severe lack of sleep during those formative newborn days.  i couldn't figure out how to follow an eat play sleep routine when he would constantly eat, never play, and absolutely downright refuse to sleep.
7. "unsatisfied" - how many times did i cry (with brady) in frustration that nothing i did was working?!  i could try every trick in the book and it was just not enough.  no matter how swaddled, bounced, binkied, nursed, etc. that baby was... it just wasn't enough.
8. "unpredictable" - go back and read blog posts from the early days if you want examples but basically, the only thing constant... was change.  the same thing never worked twice and my mom frequently referred to this challenge as brady's "secret combinations."  trying to figure out which combination of things and in which order... next to impossible.  next to "bipolar," "unpredictable" is actually the word i used most to describe him.  brady's like a box of chocolates; you just never know what you're gonna get.
9. "super sensitive" - brady always noticed even the slightest change in lighting or temperature or sound or the way i was holding him.  he was definitely easily bothered and being around him was like walking on eggshells.  i remember my mother in law coming over and, seeing me holding him, saying "well, he doesn't look too fussy right now!" as she smiled at him.  just that she made eye contact with him and smiled at him sent him in full hysterics.  unpredictable and very sensitive.  the times that i took brady to therapy for his arm, the therapist always noticed how perceptive he was to sounds.  she would comment on it that he obviously noticed a sound from the hallway... normally something i didn't ever hear or notice but the therapist caught a ton of those at every appointment.  also, if i was holding him, i couldn't speak in anything above a whisper or he would start screaming.  you wouldn't really think so, but this was hiiiiiiiighly inconvenient.
10. "can't put baby down" - it wasn't just that he needed to be held.  but he needed to be held by a human, that was standing up, and in motion, that would offer a variety of bouncing, rocking, etc changing on a dime, depending on what brady was in the mood for.  a swing wasn't enough, and neither was a bouncer.  and a sling wasn't either.  none of those things can change every ten seconds.  so even though i had one of the most gorgeous newborns to ever grace this planet, i have so few pictures of it because i could never put the kid down.  although the few times it happened, i took a million pictures.  my mom really got in on it too.  "quick!  he's not crying!  take a picture!"  if he could be put down for 15 to 30 SECONDS without crying, my mom and i celebrated.  that meant that he wasn't crying in my arms, and that the crying didn't start even when he was out of my arms.  though neither of those things really happened more than three times a week.  but ohhh, he was so gorgeous.  he still is, but it's pretty rare for a new baby to be as beautiful as he was.
11. "not a self-soother" - i remember the doctor asking me how brady was sleeping and i said something like "i can sometimes get him to sleep if i double swaddle him (in this very particular way with certain blankets and certain pj's) and have it be really dark and hold a binky in his mouth while cradling him in my arms and bouncing in this very particular way while it's absolutely silent except for me making really loud shhhh-ing noises but then i can't put him down or stop doing any of those things or he'll instantly be awake and screaming again.  and i remember being so proud of that until my doctor made a comment about him being picky about his sleep environment.  ha.  this goes back to him not wanting a swing or a bouncer or anything else (although he did do very well with a carseat when it was in motion)... he needed a human... and about fifty other things, all part of the secret combination, to be happy not miserable.
12. "separation sensitive" - if by some miracle, i could get brady to be content in my arms, he would immediately go into full blown panic mode with even the slightest change (walking on eggshells much?) occurring that might indicate that i was about to leave him in any way.  if my body tensed in a different way, he would sense that i was about to place him in his crib/carseat/swing/bouncer/someone else's arms and he also learned to recognize his bedroom and dark rooms in general to the point that if i had him quiet and content in my arms and i walked upstairs, he would start crying as i stepped over the threshold into his dark bedroom because he sensed that i was about to place him in his crib.  even now, he's really great playing independently, but does best when i'm either always in sight or never in sight.  if i have him playing in the great room and i'm putting laundry away or cleaning around the house or doing anything that requires me to go from room to room, frequently coming and going from his sight, he's going to freak out and fuss the whole time.  it's like every time i leave he thinks i'm never coming back.  DUDE!  I ALWAYS COME BACK!

so as difficult as a brady was as a baby, i am grateful it has made me so appreciative for the kid he is today.  he's got his fair share of fussiness but he smiles so so much and it is so easy to get tons of those real deep belly laughs out of him.  people always comment on what a happy baby he is and i typically just smile and say "he's come a long way."  i know people don't think twice about it when i say that, but for me, it's special.  he really has come such a long way.  as a mother of just abigail, i would have looked at my current self with pity like "your child nurses how often?!  and still doesn't sleep 12 hours at night?!  and needs a binky 24/7?!"  but my experience with brady makes me grateful that even though he still nurses frequently, it is enjoyable for both of us.  and even though he doesn't sleep 12 hours straight at night, he's only waking up once and often has an 8 or 9 hour stretch in there... getting over 12 hours total.  and even though he has a binky in his mouth more often than not... he is happy!  forget the secret combinations... binky = independent, happy baby.  it's straight forward and we love it.

i really love this kid.  he has taught me so much and really, he is the most gorgeous, laughy kid everrrrrr.  raising him is like continually unwrapping a present and he's only getting better with age.  i'm so excited for all the days we have ahead of us.

*i found this article through this blog post... which really could have been written by me, it soooo perfectly described my own experience.  like word for word. almost... there are some minor exceptions.

the terrible horrible no good very bad day

*i'm not quite sure why anyone actually enjoys reading my blog posts - unless they enjoy major overshare - but this is one of those posts that is unhappy and really not worth your time*

my story starts last night when my husband fell asleep on the great room floor sometime between 8 and 8:30.  this really isn't that uncommon for him to fall asleep that early or for him to fall asleep somewhere other than our bed, but this time it made me mad mad mad mad.  he was semi-awoken sometime after 11 to the sound of me yelling at our two kids who where each crying in their respective cribs.  i really love my life but it is not always rainbows and butterflies over here in the hillier home.  anyways, we all eventually went to sleep and we all slept until morning.

this morning i woke up sometime around 8:30 to the sound of abigail crying in her crib.  crying because she "spit up."  aka, her pj's and her crib and all her stuffed animals and blanket and crib bumper and everything else... soaked with some sort of mysterious clear vomit.  while i was getting her changed, she kept gag/burp/vomiting and no matter how many times i said "spit up on the blanket!" she would try to catch it in her hands, panic, and then use my hands instead.

then brady woke up.  i told abigail to lay her head on a blanket and to use that if she needed to spit up.  so i go in to get brady and he has the fullest diaper ever and is soaked head to toe.  so i get him changed and sit down to nurse him.  he'd only been nursing for a minute when abigail came in.  and then the whining started again... which meant one thing.  she came over and started spitting up.  in. my. hand.  and while my cup runneth over, so did my hand.  onto the glider.  while i was nursing brady.  so one hand is holding brady and another hand is trying to catch abigail's vomit.  i wipe it on the blanket hanging on the glider and tell her to use that to spit up.  and then brady decides actually watching this fun is way better than nursing so i put him on the floor and try to help abigail.  the next thirty minutes was abigail "spitting up" everywhere but on the millions of blankets i gave her as options and at one point, i literally tossed brady on the floor to come to her aid.  luckily he didn't cry and actually he rolled himself over to abigail and placed a comforting hand on her back while she was finally leaning over a blanket.  one plus of not having much hair is that i didn't need to hold it out of her face.  do i get optimistic points for that?

so then i stripped brady's bed, abigail's bed, and gathered up all the blankets, and stuffed animals, and that crib bumper and carried everything downstairs to the washer.  it didn't all fit but i started a load.  brady was needy, abigail was sensitive and throwing fits.  eventually i put her in front of the tv and put brady down for a nap.  i attempted to get in the shower but that didn't happen because abigail said she wanted to shower too.  but she needed to eat first so she could have a bite of cookie she saw me eating.  and during this time i stepped in a whole lot of wet carpet which was disgusting.  the clear vomit strikes again and ABIGAIL FOR THE LOVE JUST PUKE ON THE BLANKET AND NOT FOUR INCHES TO THE LEFT OF THE BLANKET ON THE CARPET!!!  so i got her watermelon  and she ate it and i gave her some cookie but she threw a massive tantrum because she wanted an entire cookie.  ummm no.  that tantrum lasted for at twenty minutes and then started up again when we got out of the shower.  now it's sometime between noon and 1 and i'm pretty sure abigail's stomach is feeling better.

the day kept going down down downhill and three loads of laundry later (and there's actually more dirty clothes in the washer just waiting for me to add more to make a full load) and scrubbing vomit and pee out of the carpet (i get that she's not feeling well but does that make you turn into a puppy and forget to go potty?!  i mean, two times in one day?!  she's only done this like three times EVER), i'm just a little bit done with today.  when my christopher texted me that he was on his way home at 5:30, i told him the plan was that i was going to bed and i would see him and abigail and brady in the morning.  and he was a-okay with that.  he knows he's in the doghouse.  he also knows i'm publicly shaming him right now.  accountability, right?!

the only bright side to my day (okay, that's a bit dramatic... there were some sweet moments mixed in my day) was taking dinner to this family in the ward that i've never met before and to one of my friends in yw.  i didn't even get to meet that one family but talked to the husband on the phone twice and he texted me again later to say thanks and the wife was texted too.  and my friend that i talked to and hung out with when i dropped the meal by... i love her to death and it made my day to spend that time with her.  i haaaaaate taking meals to people.  i'm so insecure about my cooking and what if someone doesn't like what i made and if it's too healthy or too unhealthy or not filling enough or blah blah blah and i just get so stressed about it.  but tonight?  it's superficial but it helped improve my night with the gracious thanks i received for these simple meals i made.  i most certainly was not getting the "thanks for keeping us alive another day" gratitude from my bodily-fluids-from-every-orifice children.  today was a bad bad bad day (i mean, i yelled and THREW abigail's hair bow across the kitchen because it wouldn't stay in her hair) but was saved by small and special tender mercies.

here's to tomorrow being a better day.  it'll be better, right?  it has to be...

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. 

lemon bars and trains in the dollhouse

abigail's favorite strawberry shortcake book is the one where lemon meringue makes lemon bars that are salty instead of sweet and then she apologizes to plum and makes her lemon bars again and they turn out great.  so abigail and i made lemon bars and she thought that was the coolest thing ever because it was just like the ones in the book! 

abigail kept talking about the "snowmaster."  i couldn't figure out why on earth she was calling this the snow master until she corrected me for the millionth time.  "nooo, the snowman stirrer!"  laughed out loud at that one.

we were having such a good time baking together but abigail got noticably anxious when i told her we needed this loud mixer.  so i broke out the noise reduction headphones we used when we took her to sporting events as a baby.  worked like a charm.

what's not to love?  she kept her book open the whole time so she could look at lemon meringue's lemon bars while we made our own.

there i was, nursing brady on the floor (i'd just changed his diaper and was too lazy to get up) when somehow, abigail tipped over the glider.  flashback to when brady was a week old and i was nursing him and abigail tipped the christmas tree over.  and also when i was nursing brady at a week old and she tipped over a lamp and the lightbulb crashed shards of broken glass all over my bedroom floor and brady's freshly folded clothes and blankets.  ahh, the good old [nightmareish] days.

he can't crawl yet but he can sure roll and scoot.  he gives me frequent scares when i put him on the floor and then he disappears.  i layed him on the carpet and freaked out a few minutes later when he wasn't there.  brady?!  and then he peeked his smiley face out from behind the corner.  that kid is a playful one.

abigail never stops talking.  ever.  it kind of drives me crazy sometimes when it's all directed at me.  but when i'm just listening to her constant chatter narrating her toys?  it is to die for!  her train, gordon, had a conversation with the dollhouse postal lady.  "hi, i'm blue."  "i'm blue too!"  and the time that every single member of the dollhouse, along with trains gordon and henry all rushed upstairs exclaiming "ohhh!  a bathroom!  yes!  it's a bathroom!  see the bathroom!  yes!  we're all in the bathroom!"  and on and on and on and on.  so much bathroom talk.  i have some videos.  we'll see if i ever get them uploaded.  they are pure gold.

love is in the air

 

 

Saying goodbye

Abigail cried when we left mom and dad at the airport this afternoon. I kind of wanted to too. Just because this weekend was so insanely fun and I can't get enough of my parents. But attempting to look on the bright side, we went non stop for 72 hours and I am beyond exhausted. And all that eating out probably didn't help. My body is spent. Now it's time to get back to real life and responsibilities and um... actually making my own food. 

I love Sundays!

Two months ago I would have shamefully told you about Sundays being my least favorite day of the week. But they're back on top now. And today was as good as the last. Church was excellent. Great testimonies, great Sunday school lesson, and excellent Yw lesson. And it was all the more fun because my parents are in town visiting for the weekend. Although turns out, they are tech junkies. Mom always on her iPad and taking phone calls in the hallway and dad not so discretely taking pictures of Brady during Sunday school. They're pretty lax now in their old age. I love it. After church I had a special spiritual experience and I have to say how much I love the lds hymns station on pandora. I was hit so hard by a beautiful arrangement of "because I have been given much."  For the rest of the day, I focused on spending time with my family. Our yw lesson was about how our cell phones get in the way of what is most important. I put mine away and just enjoyed the time with my parents and my wonderful husband and kids. It was glorious. Surrounded by my favorite people. As young women leaders, we are e courses to work on personal progress just like the girls work on personal progress. I've been really throwing myself into it lately and it has been night and day for me. I am getting more out of church and everyday experiences and thinking more and more of the phrase "all things are spiritual."  If you're looking for a fun and easy way to get more out of your scripture time, start soon personal progress like you did when you were a teenager. I promise it will change your life. For the million times better. 

Also, just in case anyone was wondering, as far as my kids' sleep goes... Today was still a crapshoot just like the rest if them. Its totally worth it though. 

recaps

i am so blessed.

wednesday was a fun day.  i wish i had written about it when i actually remembered it because at the end, i was all "this has been such an amazing day!" but now i can barely remember what even happened to make it good.  we were out of the house by 9:30 for visiting teaching at a playground and then more visiting teaching at another friend's house.  we got home at 12:30 and chris (still not sure why, didn't even ask) had stopped by home for a bit for lunch.  he took off just a few minutes after we got home but it was fun seeing him.

thursday we went to a splash pad in castle pines.  it's awesome because it was really nice (isn't everything in castle pines?!) but much smaller than the splash pad in centennial.  and way way way less crowded.  sooo i had zero anxiety trying to keep an eye on abigail while keeping brady out of the sun and not running around the whole time.  my friend and i just parked ourselves at a little table in the shade and hung out and snacked while we watched the girls run around in the fountains and in the playground area.  i so wish i'd known about this a few months ago but i'm already excited to take the kids back next summer when brady is old enough to run in the fountains too!  brady fell asleep in the car so when we got home, i had some great one on one time with abigail.  we made oatmeal banana cookies* (cookies is a generous term for these things since every ingredient is healthy and they have no added sugar but abigail loves them just the same) together and really, it was just great girl time.  kind of a blast from the past of before i had brady and we did that sort of stuff all the time.

friday we returned a whole ton of books to the library and picked up a hefty stack of strawberry shortcake books i put on hold online.  then we swung by kohls because i had one of those $10 off any purchase cards that i needed to use before tomorrow.  i normally shop their kids clearance but the last few times i've been severely disappointed.  needing a new swimsuit, i shopped that section instead.  i found ONE that i liked alright that was modest and in my size.  70% off and using a $10 off coupon means i just got myself a new $40 swimsuit (welll, the top half) for $1.50 and it didn't even take all day and driving around to tons of stores.  which is the best part because swimsuit shopping is the worst.  well, maybe not the absolute worst but it's pretty bad.  on my way home, i dropped abigail off at her friend's house (okay, maybe they spend more days together than not but it does warm my heart when she randomly starts talking about how much she loves elle) while i headed home to get brady down for a nap and get stuff done.  later, my honey got home by 5:00!  who even knew that was possible?!?!  and we all hung out as a family for a loooong time and enjoyed feeding brady his weight in food.  to say he is obsessed with real food would be a major understatement.  for dinner tonight he got probably a half cup of mashed up sweet potato, a third of a banana cut in chunks, and an egg yolk mashed up in some jarred food.  and i would have kept feeding him except that christopher told me he was worried brady would get a stomach ache.  ha.  maybe his full belly will mean he'll be an awesome sleeper tonight.  his sleep has been uncharacteristically good lately and it's pretty exciting stuff!  and he's pretty much weaned from his reflux medicine which is also pretty exciting.

saturday- my parents come in town for the long weekend!  so ridiculously excited!  let the games begin!

*the blog i got this recipe from adapted it from 3 tablespoons of oil to just 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp applesauce.  i am apparently fresh out of applesauce but i had a ripe pear.  so i peeled it and mashed it up to an applesauce consistency and it worked just great.  and brady enjoyed the leftover "pearsauce."

* maybe if i get my act together i'll post pictures from these days.  just maybe.

BFF siblings

abigail always slept with her head jammed into the crib bumper... most often curled up with her little bum in the air.  brady sleeps like a guy... always sprawled out.  

she's kind of obsessed with hiding.  and this is what hiding looks like.

photography by abigail

my job manning two kids at the playground... just got easier.  not that it was terribly demanding to begin with... but still.

they have so much fun riding together.  hopefully that continues... forever.

gorgeous

sorry brady... not the most flattering angle.  but we know it's just a diaper.

hanging out, quick trip to the playground, lots of overlapping nap time. we'll call it a success.

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.

out all day

saturday morning was pretty funny because all i could think about was getting out of the house to run all the errands i had on my mind.  and after a crazy rough week at work, all honey could think of was a lazy day relaxing at home.  we compromised and hung out together in the morning (although i was still running around the house getting things done) and in the afternoon, i took brady to run errands, while abigail and christopher stayed home to play and have nap time.  and then we all went out for a family date.  a perfect compromise.

honey made us french toast for breakfast.  i think he was going to bring it to me in bed but brady woke up so my honey delivered breakfast in brady's room while i got him up for the day.  french toast is super sweet but not filling so i made myself oatmeal.  as i was eating it, i got a text from my friend sawah asking me about oatmeal!  beat you to it sawah!

check it out!  another train!

my mother in law gave me a cricut for christmas... like four years ago.  this was the first time i've used it.  i had to get myself acquainted with it a bit... just trying things out to prep for our yw activity tuesday.

leaving to run errands.  i had to drop off a baby gift, drop off something to my RS pres, and make returns to target, costco, and ross.  so cleansing getting all of this out of my house!

we were gone for a million hours.  he slept for about 30 seconds in the costco parking lot (while i was finding a spot... and then woke up when i got him out of the car) and 20 minutes at ross.  that's a whole lot of awake with a cranky baby.  but he's still just so sweet when he's asleep.

family date.  we go here often because we have discounts... and every time we go, we joke about being on a documentary about fat americans that overeat unhealthy food.  because what else should you talk about while you stuff your face with tons of rolls with honey butter, fried cactus blossom, steaks, fries, and a sweet potato covered in butter, sugar, and marshmallows?!  i stuff myself til i literally feel sick to my stomach and then walk out of there with terrible feelings of gluttony and self disdain.  yet, what i would give for a roll and honey butter right now...

and then we rounded out the night with a trip to petsmart.  our favorite was the tank of spastic fish that scatter when you hold your hand up to the glass.  abigail thought it was so cool she could control them (although she was confused why it didn't work when she tried it with a different tank of fish) and my honey kept making jokes about being harry potter and having a fish act on america's got talent.

fake food and diy potpourri

thursday night i left my honey at home with the kids so i could go to a presidency meeting at my secretary's house.  my christopher is always so willing to watch our kids when i have things going on.  thursday night he was just slightly less than happy about it though because he'd woken up at 5am (as usual but it's still exhausting) and had had a super extremely rough day at work.  my meeting was at 8 and brady woke up at 8:30 (timing with his naps has been tricky with dropping the swaddle... i swear we'll eventually get back on schedule) and was wide awake.  all of this is really not relevant... why do i always share so many details?  anyways, towards the end of the meeting, he was texting me and anxious for me to get home so he could go to sleep.  i told him we were allllmost done.  then i told him i was just leaving.  but i stayed a little longer talking with my friend.  so then, as i was walking to the car, i told him i was just leaving again.  

i clicked to unlock the car, climbed in, grabbed the keys from my lap, and... couldn't find the car key to start the car!  i had driven my christopher's car and he had recently taken his key off my keychain and put it on again.  sooo he must have put it on a loose link because it came off.  well, it was pitch black and i spent a good while using my cell phone light to try to find this key.  i knew christopher was getting impatient for me to be home and that brady needed to eat and was probably getting fussy and tired.  but ohmygoodnesswherewasthatkey?!  then i got an obviously annoyed text from my honey "let me guess... you're just leaving again?"  ha.  i guess i'd cried wolf too many times.  so i told him i was looking for the key and would be back asap.  eventually i got desperate enough to call kylee and tell her i was still parked in front of her house and i needed a flashlight.  she brought out a huge flashlight and we laughed as we searched every inch of my purse and the car.  one of her first comments was "wow!  your car is so clean!"  so i had to tell her, actually, it's because it's not my car and our kids never ride in it.  three minutes later, kylee pulls a dried orange out from under the passenger's seat.  so much for that "clean car."

she put the orange in the cup holder (i think?) and we laughed some more trying to guess how old it was.  eventually i found the key (lodged down between the driver's seat and the console) and texted chris that i was on my way home.  he responded and told me that his mood had deteriorated fast in the last hour and that when i got home, i should probably just let him be.  i really love those warning texts because it completely avoids so many situations where i would get offended about something that didn't concern me, just because christopher was having a bad day.  so when i got home, he handed me brady and went to bed.  

today he had another crazy horrible day at work but sucked it up and put on a good face when he got home.  he wasn't home more than two minutes before he said "you put fake food in my car?!" and handed me the petrified orange.  

i laughed out loud telling him the story from the night before.  it literally looks exactly like the potpourri my mom has in a basket in her kitchen.  this naval orange has shriveled down to the size of a clementine and is as light as air.  

 

i think the last time i bought these oranges was the beginning of june.  so here's my three step do it yourself recipe for homemade potpourri:

1. send your husband to work with an orange for a quick and healthy snack

2. have him forget it under the seat of his car

3. retrieve it three-ish months later and put it in a decorative basket

made my day.

day three at home

friday:  weather didn't cooperate for the splash pad so we stayed home instead.  i'm really loving these stay at home days.  i don't know why i feel so much pressure to get out and do stuff.

check it out.  the happiest kid around.

you know you're doing something right when your three year old says "look at this mommy!"  it warmed my heart.

the only thing better was that she asked me to help her find the high chair and added brady to the senario.  she did this 100% on her own, with absolutely zero guidance from me.  as i said, it helped me feel like i'm not a disaster of a mom.  and i like that feeling.

someday i'll stop sneaking in to his room to take pictures of him while he sleeps.  not today though.

they can't make eye contact without laughing and smiling.

she took apart her bead bracelet from the golf tournament.  then she sat her pantsless self (they got dirty during lunch) on the fireplace and strung them all back on.  she makes me proud.

 

 

 

abigail asked if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean or dirty.  when i told her they were clean she asked if she could put them away.  not exactly how i would have arranged them but they're all in the correct place and it saved me some time.  she genuinely enjoys being helpful and i appreciate it so much.

this giant green bush?  we've tried to kill it multiple times but it keeps coming back.  at the beginning of july, honey cut it all the way to the ground.  literally cut it even with the dirt.  six weeks later and it's as tall as he is.  so he cut it down to the ground again.  grows like a weed.

 

it's a train!

i didn't ask for an explanation...

a productive thursday

pictures

i was awake for over 2.5 hours.  woke up before three, heard christopher wake up at 5:11 (his body refuses to sleep any later than that) fell asleep sometime around 5:30 i think, heard christopher's alarm, heard him shower and get ready, woke up with brady at 6:30, and woke up for the day with abigail at 9:15.

i have a 16 gig memory card in my big camera.  i never delete pictures off of it and we've had it since abigail was a month old.  i took this picture and saw what i'd never seen before "card is full."  i'll admit... i wondered if this day would ever come.  almost 14 thousand pictures is a lot for one card.

this was the previous picture.

brady is afraid of the ball pit.

went ballistic (no pun... is that a pun? what is that?  intended) and wouldn't put his arms down.  meanwhile abigail is saying "cheeeeeese."  

 

 

i love putting him down, leaving to do something for a few minutes, and then coming back to the surprise of "where is brady now?!"  seriously, not sure why i find this so entertaining but i totally do.

 today was day two in a row of not leaving my house (with my kids) and it was great.  they do really well when we're out but it always means that the rest of our day is going to be rough.  abigail acts out like crazy after we get home from a morning out and brady's naps are off.  and somehow it makes our kitchen messy.  like random objects from my purse all over the island?  no clue what that's about.  anyways today and yesterday were great.  we played in the playroom and doll house, abigail and i have logged hours of reading her stacks of library books, brady has been so happy, i haven't worn makeup in three days, and we've all been a little less stressed and rushed about life.  

tonight we had an amazingly productive presidency meeting tonight and, as always, i had a generous to do list for myself by the time i went home.  i'm in such a productive mood tonight (i deep cleaned my kitchen and even mopped my entry way and bathroom!  and the best part was that abigail was my perfect hanging out buddy just sitting on the kitchen chair to stay out of the way while she chattered and told me stories) that when i got home, i put brady to bed and tackled every action item on that list (except for the two that require a phone call that will need to be during daylight hours) and so tomorrow i can just worry about following up with people on all of the emails i sent out.  great news since we're hopefully going to the splash pad tomorrow.  crossing my fingers our outing out is as enjoyable as our days in.  i tell myself that abigail will appreciate these things.  today, she randomly told me sorry for something she had done thirty minutes earlier.  tonight while i was mopping, she was eating her [nasty, plain] greek yogurt while i was mopping and she said "thank you for painting my fingernails and my toes."  she has a good heart.  it made my day.