Idaho

This past weekend our little family took a little trip up to Idaho to visit my husband's parents. The kids were surprisingly awesome on the drive there and not too horrid while visiting. There are always things that I'm worried my kids will break or destroy, but that's to be expected anywhere we go when we leave the apartment that my kids make messes in and we call home.

Little Red loves her grandparents, all of them, but I think she's especially keen on her paternal grandmother, whom she calls "Grandma(Insert First Name Here)" We'll just say it's Grandma B for the sake of some regard for anonymity on the interwebs : ) Grandma B took Little Red on walks, to the playground at the Elementary School where my hubby attended in years gone by, and to a totally cool little Petting Zoo at a Pet Store/Garden Shop.

Red loved feeding the goats, and I was totally freaked out by their odd pupils - did you know that goats have squarish looking pupils? We also saw pigs, lambs, llamas, donkeys, an emu and a yak.

Baby J also had a fun time with animals, though his interactions mostly involved Grandma and Grandpa's pet cats and dog. He loved chasing Daisy the Dog all around the house and even pet her a few times, though he was a bit rough with her (we're still working on teaching him to be soft). He would chase her around and around and her tail brushed against his nose a few times which resulted in the cutest little faces - he looked surprised, itchy and slightly tickled but all delighted at the same time. He also had a fun time with the stairs - surprisingly enough he was a pretty good climber on them!

He especially loved looking between the banister slats on the top stair landing area, I think he felt especially powerful as he roared his baby roar whilst overlooking his Kingdom - The Living Room!

J is going through a bit of stranger anxiety and didn't want to be held much by anyone but mom, but he'll grow out of his mommy-only phase all too quickly (I just love his cuddle-some self)! His stranger anxiety phase has paled in comparison so far to that of Little Red, she was and is a high-needs baby. Whether she came to our family because she needed us or we needed her will ever be a mystery to me, but I'm glad she's mine all the same.

Red impressed the in-laws with her prolific vocabulary (or at least, it seemed to me that she did... it could very well be that I am that mother that thinks their child is impressive but to everyone else she's ordinary... nah)! She took a tube and put it to her eye and said, "Look, it's my telescope!" And it seems like lately everything we tell her is, "Oh, I knew that." I don't know where she comes up with some of these things, but she's pretty much awesome!

So Idaho was crazy, but good, and as always I was nervous over nothing - no broken decorations, no accidents on the carpet that will be memorialized in stain, and no tantrum so horrendous that we had to follow through on our threats to, "turn this car around and go right back home!" It was good to see family, and it was good to have a nice little vacation for us all. And it was totally worth a trip to get these cute pictures of the kids being happy in their carseats!

The highlight of the weekend though was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's hard to listen to/watch General Conference with small children around. There are always interruptions, but between diaper changes, fighting over colored pencils, temper tantrums and spilled snacks, I really was lifted up by The Spirit. A few things really touched my heart and spoke to my situation in particular. Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reminded me to focus on accepting and seeking correction. I'm a bit horrible about this - but don't everyone leave a comment at once about what I ought to change... I'm not ready for that kind of rebuke just yet, haha. And I just loved the talk that Elder Lynn G. Robbins delivered about how to teach my children Christ-like attributes through disciplining with "patience and teaching." Too often I let my frustrations with my children turn into anger and a feeling of futility. I have to learn to be more gentle with them, more kind and more patient. But before I get all down on myself, I really ought to pat myself on the back for the things I'm doing pretty okay in right now (I wouldn't say I'm doing "great" in a lot of things, but I do pretty okay...). Everyone is at a different stage in their own personal progression and that's just fine. I oughtn't worry if I'm not as "perfect" about cleaning my house as Sister So And So is; or if my children aren't as musically inclined as Mrs. What's Her Name's kids; I just have to worry about what kind of a person I am and how that compares with the person I want to be.

The person I am today is lazy - I'm taking an unofficial 'day off' from everything (as much as a mom really ever can while still being at home with the kids). My hubby is being super awesome and watching the wonder nuts as they terrorize their toys today (bless him, he's such a dear to me), and I'm merrily blogging amongst the craziness. The laundry is clean but unfolded, the dishes are rinsed but not clean, the toys are strewn about the house and today that's okay with me. I'm sure tomorrow or perhaps the day after I'll throw myself into a cleaning frenzy, but today I'd rather be just mom than a maid.

Totally Cool Kid

Yesterday my buddy Alex and I braved the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with two toddlers and two crawlers; we had a blast! In the elevator my little redhead said, "This is amazing!" And you know what? It totally is! Elevators are amazing things, especially with strollers and toddlers and a serious dislike of stairs. My baby boy, J, had fun crawling all over their area for kids three and under, and I had a hard time keeping the toys out of his mouth. J gave sweet little baby kisses to his little counterpart, Alex's baby boy. It got even cuter when the other baby gave J baby kisses in return on his nose - adorable little slobber kisses! I snapped a pic of my cuties riding a life-sized plastic horse (the picture is not the best quality, it was taken with my phone... I hardly ever remember to bring my camera).

After the museum I grabbed some things from my favorite spot for groceries: Harmon's. They have awesome customer service and their produce is superior to what I can find at other stores nearby. I love their "Drive and Load" service; it's just what it sounds like, you drive your car up and they load in the groceries you just bought, which is just so great when I have a usually struggling toddler and a squirmy nine month old baby.

After the grocery store I just didn't want to go home (probably because my house has been neglected this past week while my wisdom tooth removal was healing over). So I took the kids to a clothing store to try and find a skirt for myself. Little Red was awesome, she was hiding under the clothing racks, but was great about not pulling clothes down and coming along with me when I went to another rack. In the dressing room she wanted to wear the skirts I had tried on after I wore them so that she could, "be a princess like mommy." She's so darling, she thinks that all dresses and skirts make girls look like princesses. When I told her it was time to leave the store she had her moment of defiance and was refusing to come along. A store salesperson said, "You wanna stay here and work with me?" And much to the lady's surprise, Red said, "Yes, I do." The salesperson gave her a little scrap of trash and had her throw it away in the trashcan behind the counter. After disposing of the scrap, Red put her hands on her hips and gave a satisfied grin as she surveyed the floor for more scraps of trash. What a great work ethic! She was convinced that Mommy should leave her at the store to work, so the kind salesperson said they needed to walk toward the front of the store to make sure no clothes were on the floor. When we got to the front of the store, Red told her, "Thanks for working with me." What a doll, right?!

Since she was being so awesome I decided to hit up the dollar store too. Red picked out a net and I got some good grossgrain ribbon for making hair clippies for my Etsy store (there's nothing much posted in my store right now, but I'm working on several things to increase my inventory).

And while it took me an hour and fifteen minutes to write this meager little post I feel good about it because I also did fed my kids breakfast, did laundry, worked on potty training with Red (I'm all about the bribery in potty training), nursed J, changed three diapers (stinky lil boy today) and ended up with J on my shoulder fast asleep. Sometimes I forget to take a moment to appreciate just how much I do get done; usually I'm focused on the things that aren't done yet and piling slowly in the corners. Well, let those things pile for now because Ruth Hulburt Hamilton had it right when she wrote this poem that first appeared in an October 1958 Ladies Home Journal magazine

Song for a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Sweet and Spicy Little Girl

My husband and I decided that we should write a book called "I Never Knew How Sad My Life Was Until My Toddler Told Me" and in it we'll note the little things about our sad lives that she points out to us. For example, at the age of one she could easily identify food by the plastic/paper bags that we brought take out home in; she could say "pizza" when she heard the doorbell; when we said, "It's time for dinner," she would go find her shoes... yeah, we didn't cook very much. Now that she's two the hints are just slightly more subtle, she put on a cape the other day and said, "I'm a man like Daddy, a BIG MAN." I don't know where the cape idea came from, but my husband was sad that she called him "big" because of his weight, though I honestly think she wasn't pointing out his weight so much as his general size compared to her short self. At two years old, she notes that all the pop belongs to Mommy (yeah... got a problem there) and that she needs cookies to help her feel better (she got that one from me too).

As a companion book we thought we'd also write a book called "I Never Knew What a Nice Person I Was..." that'll show the little things that she's learned from us that are rather endearing. At one she would gives hugs and gentle pats on the back to her friends/family that she saw crying; her first words were "tickle tickle tickle" and no, I'm not kidding about that one, and she gave kisses to her little friends when it was time for them to go. Now at two she loves to help take care of her baby brother; she cuddles her baby dolls by wrapping them up in a blanket and singing to them the same songs we sing to her (mostly Lullaby Brahms and A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief). She reads books to her stuffed animals and to her baby brother. She asks, "Mommy, are you sad," when I'm down and gives me a hug. When I smile she says, "I made you so happy!" And she's right, she did, her hugs always do make me happy. She talks to the picture of Jesus Christ in our living room, "Hi Jesus, I love your picture!" Just the other day she found a pamphlet about the Savior and said, "IT'S JESUS!" I said, "yeah, that's a little book about what he taught people about how to be good," and she said, "oh... I should give it to Him," then she placed it on the shelf below His picture.

I love my daughter. She's a fiery little red-head that is also sweeter than my favorite cookies. She can scream with the best of 'em, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She wakes us up at three in the morning to cuddle because she had a bad dream; she steals my kitchen utensils and my cellphone and hides them around the house; she loves to color and paint and sing. She's a darling and a challenge, and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father everyday that I get to be her mother.