I know you’re all shocked that there is actually a new post from me, but here’s to surprises, huh? It’s been over a month, and a lot has happened, but I’ll try to just pick out a few interesting tidbits.
Big Event Number One was when my parents came to visit the week after Conference. Grandma always comes bearing gifts, and my girls loved their new Spring dresses.
It was a wonderful week for my parents because they got to play with my girls, it was a wonderful week for my girls because they got to play with their grandparents, and it was a wonderful week for Adam and I because the girls and grandparents pretty much took care of themselves and left us to do whatever the heck we wanted. I suppose that’s not entirely true—Mariah is still a little attached to “ma-MA”—but I did find myself with a lot of very welcome free time. We did some fun things like go to the zoo on the first warm and sunny day of the year (which meant that all of Seattle was also at the zoo), go to Jump Planet…
and make our annual visit to the Company Store. It was a quiet week, but that worked out pretty well, and it took me days to readjust to spending most of each day caring for the girls by myself. *sigh*
Big Event Number Two, which happened on the last day of my parents’ trip, was Easter. We actually received our Easter Bunny visit on Saturday morning, and on Sunday we had a special dinner and talked a lot about Jesus and the Resurrection. The favorite Bunny surprises this year were Mariah’s Fritos…
and Anna’s tutu.
Otherwise, things have been pretty normal. We’ve had fun playing with friends. We attended our first House Party, coming away full of Juicy Juice and stocked with a supply of other free Juicy Juice brand stuff. We’ve been to several parks since the sun has popped out a few times in the last couple of weeks. The girls have especially loved the sun since the Easter Bunny brought some sidewalk chalk, and they’ve discovered that the cement bench in our front yard is a perfect chalk-art location.
Since it’s getting warmer, we’ve started moving some of our seedlings and plants in containers outside. One of Adam’s special projects last weekend was a homemade greenhouse, which we’re all very proud of. We’re not sure it’ll be enough to get our tomatoes to survive the exceptionally mild Northwest summer, but we’re sure gonna try.
Anna’s quote of the month is actually from this morning because I thought it embodies a lot of how the last few weeks have gone. During Sacrament Meeting today, Mariah was as wild as March Hare, and she took some of her containment frustrations out on Anna by stealing her stuff. At one point, Anna whispered to me, with a very serious look on her face, “I can’t wait until Mariah learns to be nice.” It was particularly funny since the moment before, she had been yanking a book away and commanding Mariah loudly to “yeeve” her “ayone.” (Anna’s “L’s” are still “Y’s.”) Anna has been downright unpleasant lately, and last week, she had the her first official tantrum. I think my daughter has finally turned three.
And for those of you who are shaking your heads in disgust saying, “Her first tantrum? They don’t know how lucky they are!” I just don’t want to hear it. I know we are lucky, and I’m grateful every day that Anna is still so mild-mannered. Just remember the first time one of your children had a full-on, ear-splitting-screaming kind of tantrum, and try to have some sympathy. Please.
Mariah’s quote of the month is “No.” I haven’t yet been able to capture on video the real kind of “no” I would like to convey to you. She gets a very serious look on her face, complete with furrowed brows, she purses her lips very tightly, she opens them just slightly as if to say, “Oh,” and then she says “Nooooo,” dragging it out for almost a whole second and shaking her head. It’s absolutely adorable, even when she’s being a poop. She says it about almost everything, which is the annoying part, but it’s pretty age typical. We just have to laugh because when Anna was Mariah’s age, her word was a shyly whispered “Yeah” for everything, even if she meant no.
Now, combine Anna’s bossy, sassy, know-it-all attitude with Mariah’s love for the word “no,” and what do you have? That’s right—our first arguments. Anna asks Mariah to do something, and Mariah stands up, walks up right to her face, and says, “No!” Then Anna giggles, puts her face very close to Mariah’s and says, “Yes.” And they go back and forth, giggling and chasing each other around while they yell, “Yes!” and “No!” That is actually a pretty good representation of the last month or so of our children’s part in our lives: funny, adorable, and ever-annoying.
Here are my last pictures, and they, too, are very representative of that last line. FYI, this is our hallway, those are Styrofoam packing peanuts, and they took me exactly 45 minutes to clean up. ‘Nuf said.
Ciao.
