More Bumps and Bruises

Here you can see the only picture I’ve taken in the last two weeks.

So, yes, Mariah has another big boo-boo, and there’s another one on her cheek, although in the picture it just looks like a shadow.  Both were received within 24 hours, and both were received on a wall/door jamb.  See, this little girl likes to run, and when she’s very excited, she runs VERY FAST.  Unfortunately she reminds me of one of the kids from the movie The Mighty Ducks 2 (doesn’t that reference date me? :)).  He was the fastest skater that anyone on the team had ever seen, but he didn’t know how to stop.  They finally had him setting up a wall of empty pop cans as a barrier to stop in front of, and every time he knocked them over, he had to set them all back up and try again.  Well, Miss Mariah has a similar problem—she can’t stop.  So she goes running to get something, trips over a toy, rug, sock, or speck of dust, and crashes headlong into the nearest large object.  I think the cashier at Babies ‘R Us last night was concerned we were abusive, but most parents who’ve experienced the joy of a one-year-old can understand readily. 

Today is the first weekend in the last month that we haven’t had company for dinner, and while it’s nice to rest for a bit, it’s kind of silly that we pick the one Sunday that we get out of church at noon instead of 2:00 PM to be by ourselves.  We’ve gotten to catch up with a lot of friends, and Anna has had a wonderful time playing with other kids.  She hasn’t even minded sharing her toys, which I think is a great sign that she’s getting ready for some kind of preschool in the fall.  She’s dealing better with other kids at home and at nursery.  Last night we went to the play area at the mall, which was absolutely teeming with children, and she was perfectly happy.  She didn’t let anyone scare her, and if another kid got in her way, she waited her turn and got on with life instead of giving up and running to mommy.  She also jumped off the tallest toy all by herself, and we were almost as thrilled as she was. 

The only other recent event worth mentioning was Monday’s doctor’s appointment.  We discovered that our little Anna, who has always been so tiny, is now in the 75th and 85th percentile for weight and height, respectively.  We never thought she’d catch up, but apparently she has.  I’d stopped even noticed how big she was compared to the other kids, but I realize now that she is one of the biggest.  That was the good part of the visit.  The bad part was Flu Shot #2.  Mariah handled it normally – a scream of blood-curdling fury, a few minutes of sorrow, then a return to cheerfulness.  Anna, however, was traumatized.  The nurse didn’t do a very good job of distracting her, so she happened to look at her arm right as the needle went in.  She cried, and was solaced by a Tootsie Pop, but Mariah got her shot second and Anna kept trying to look.  When Mariah screamed, Anna started sobbing uncontrollably and is still fairly traumatized.  She wouldn’t even let me take the bandage off her arm for days.  We were going to get her a pretend doctor’s kit for Christmas, but now I’m not so sure.  I don’t want to remind her about shots.  In the old days you could tell a kid they wouldn’t have shots for years, but there will be another flu shot next year, so I can’t make any promises.  It’s so sad, and yet, pretty typical I suppose.  Poor kid. 

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Black Friday!  Stuff yourselves with turkey and spend some money – help the economy!!!  :) 

Another Happy Birthday!

And now, only a month after Mariah’s birthday, we have some pics from Anna’s birthday.  She had a wonderful day, and she is very proud now to hold up her three fingers and tell people she is “Free.”  She got quite a few presents (despite our attempts to keep things more under control and not spoil her… yeah, right), so she was all set.  Her favorite present is her box full of dress-up costumes (yipee for a post-Halloween birthday – yipee for Clearance sales!), and she has spent a significant amount of time in the last few days as Glenda the Good Witch…

or a Cowgirl.  She loved her chocolate cake with strawberry frosting and strawberries on top.   And she’s already been enjoying her new sets of paints from Grandma. 

 

I am very proud to now be the mother of a 3-year-old and 1-year-old, and I think we’re all excited to see what year #4 of parenthood is going to bring.

Year #2 of Mariah has already brought it’s first significant accident.  I refuse to reveal details (because it was just too close to being MUCH more horrible than it really was), but it happened yesterday morning and here is the result. 

As you can see, it hasn’t left too big of an emotional scar, but I feel scarred.  I’ve always known that Mariah’s determination could combine with her lightening-strike temper to make trouble, but it’s so much more real now.  Oi.  We’re in for a ride.  Here’s a classic look at her earlier in the day, too.  The people in the restaurant last night were quite interested in the band-aids, especially older kids, so that’s why I took them off. 

Other than this event, we’ve had a great few weeks.  Hope you all have, too. 

All Hallow’s Eve… and Other Stories

Two weeks  with no posting have given us lots to discuss, so prepare yourselves. 

Here are some pictures of us in all our Halloween related activities.  First, a couple of weeks ago, we made Halloween cookies.  I bet you can guess which ones Anna decorated. 

For FHE last Monday, we carved a pumpkin.  Anna had a glorious time with all the goo inside, and she loved that we got to put a candle inside. 

Funnily enough, we only remembered to light the candle once.  :) 

Here are the awesome Halloween costumes.  Anna is holding her “magic wand” and her “flowers.”  She was also boing-ing around the house yelling, “Princess princess boing boing boing!”  Yes, she liked being a princess.  And luckily, she’s young enough not to mind that almost every single other little girl out Trick-or-Treating was a princess.  She just thought everyone else looked so pretty, too. 

We got to Trick-or-Treat at Adam’s work, and after going around one half-floor of one building, we had more than enough candy.  We came for dinner, then went to the Halloween party at the church.  It was fun to see everyone in all their costumes, even if the evening ended a little too late for at least one princess and one ghost.  And although we gave out our candy in handfuls, we still have plenty for Mommy, Daddy, and Mariah to all eat at least as much as Anna.  *sigh*  Anyway, we all had fun, and Anna is just sure she wants to be a princess again next year.

The few days after our last posting were filled by having our water leak repaired.  It ended up being right under the driveway, so I was absolutely dreading getting it dealt with, but luckily it was done very efficiently, and our landlords were great about everything.  All in all, it was done with relatively small inconvenience to us, excepting the 36 hours we spent without much running water.  It was easier than I had expected because, luckily, I had done laundry the day before.  The most frustrating part was having to go out to the street and turn the water on at the meter every time we needed it.  That’s why we just filled a jug and some pots and only turned the water on to shower, to wash the dishes in the sink, and to get ready for bed.  We just didn’t use the bathroom.  :)  It was rather exciting, though, after the pipe was hooked up, to turn my kitchen faucet on.  I was almost cheerful about doing the dishes that day. 

We had a great family experience two Mondays ago.  Sunday morning, we had let Mariah carry around Adam’s work badge (because she loves it so much).  Sunday evening, as Adam got his stuff ready for the next morning, he couldn’t find the badge.  We still couldn’t find it the next morning, so he paid for the bus and got a temporary work pass, but since we didn’t find it during the day (after cleaning almost the entire house), he was getting really frustrated.  Finally, I decided that it was a good time for us to have a Faith experience, so I taught our FHE lesson about how Heavenly Father gives us answers to prayer, and I told a story about EFY a few years ago when He helped a friend of mine find her room key.  It was a scary lesson for me to teach because although it’s easy to believe in the theory of answered prayers, it’s unnerving to put my faith on the line and test it for my vulnerable children.  Anyway, at the end of the lesson, I suggested that we all say a prayer together and then look for the badge again.  Anna was very excited, and for a few minutes after the prayer we all searched diligently.  And we found…. nothing.  Still absolutely no sign of it.  We decided to have our treat and get ready for bed, and while the girls were eating at the table, Adam kept looking.  After a couple of minutes, he thought to look under the oven and saw nothing.  But for whatever reason, he grabbed a flashlight and shined it underneath.  Sure enough, there was that badge, against the back wall under the oven.  Now everyone, as you sit in your chairs and read this, must realize that under-the-oven is not a place we often think to look for lost things.  We were all thrilled to have found it, and I was hugely relieved.  It’s not that I didn’t believe He could help us.  I just worry that for His own reasons, He won’t help how we think He should.  But I should have trusted more, and hopefully next time I will. 

Have a great week, everyone, and welcome to November! 

Happy Birthday, Mo!

This week has been… eventful. Ahem. Adam is still depressed about the BYU game, so for my sake, don’t ask him about it. But that sorrow has been tempered slightly by our successful second canning experience of the season: applesauce! Adam worked hard to talk me into this one, but he finally managed, and at 11:30 PM on Tuesday night, we had almost 40 bottles of applesauce. In some ways it was easier than the peaches (the actual process was faster), but we were cleaning up until nearly 1:00 AM, so it’s a good thing we didn’t spread this one over two nights. Ah, the joys of mopping a kitchen floor at 12:30 at night. *sigh* And no, we didn’t take a picture this time. Just go back to the entry about peaches weeks ago and imagine the bottles are whitish yellow instead of orange. :)

Mariah’s birthday was also this week, and here’s a video and a few pictures of the event.

Mariah loved her cupcake, and especially loved the gummy bears.

She received a lot of books, some shirts, a spinning top (from Anna), her very own backpack (from Grandma Sherri), and…

her favorite present of all, the vacuum cleaner. She runs around the house with it, banging into walls with joyful abandon. Anna likes it, too, and is really struggling with the idea that something in our house is NOT HERS. We all get opportunities to grow up.

Anna went to her first play this week. Molbak’s nursery in Woodinville puts on an annual harvest play, and this year it was Hansel and Gretel. We went to the first showing, and it was packed, but Anna still had fun. She loves when I tell her stories, but seeing people act one out is ten times better. I thought the actors did a really good job, especially considering a distinct lack of props, and they even managed to entertain parents with some adult cleverness (for instance, Stepmother put a magic spell on Daddy Woodsman that went something like “Omino ducani urbanus condominate,” which convinced Dad that he wanted to move to the city, get a job with CarrierPigeon.com, buy a Vespa, and purchase a one bedroom condo downtown for an outrageous price). We met Kayleigh’s family there, but we also got to see a lot of old friends from previous wards, and it was great to catch up for a bit. My favorite moment was when Rachel, a friend from Redmond two years ago, said, “Wow, you guys have two kids now. You’re, like, all grown up!” And while it’s true that we’re entering into the more “average American family” phase, sometimes I still feel like we are very young (I stick my tongue out anyone who just said, “Of course you’re still young!”—I don’t want to hear it).

But life certainly does conspire to bring experience. Yesterday afternoon Adam opened our water bill and almost set the tree above him on fire with the smoke coming out his ears. We spent the evening discussing ways to reduce water consumption, but after more investigations in the after the girls went to bed (since, as you may know, sometimes bills are hard to really understand), we realized that we couldn’t possibly have used as much water as the meter said, and we all know what that means – a leak. We followed the water company’s instructions and discovered that there’s a water pipe leak somewhere between the meter at the curb and the house, which our landlord confirmed this morning. After a day of investigations, Adam thinks it’s under the driveway, which is going to be SUPER FUN to have fixed, but I keep being grateful that at least we don’t have to pay the plumbing bill this time. Water leaks seem to be our destiny (see blog entries from last fall). So, we’ll see how that goes.

Sometimes life throws curveballs, as was illustrated by some dizziness and nausea from me this evening (shut up—I’m not pregnant) that led to us cancelling a dinner with Jason, Jen, & Co., but I was thinking tonight about how grateful I am for how generally good our lives are. Adam made dinner, for which I am ever grateful. I was munching on one of his rolls (he gets better every week), watching Anna sucking the “broccoli juice” (the water the broccoli cooked in) out of each piece with relish, and laughing at Mariah’s enraptured, passionate expression at the sight of a bag of fruit snacks coming toward her, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with how beautiful life can be in its simplicity. My cynical side immediately revolts against my contentment, assuring me that something will soon go disastrously wrong, but I’m trying to ignore it and just enjoy a sense that life is wondrous. I hope we can all find something to be joyful about today. Like a new pink headband.

Finger-painting

The last two weeks have been mostly very… normal. Not to say boring, but there was nothing momentous, so here’s a few pictures of various activities that have filled our time.

Anna’s dress is finally almost done (minus a few sequins), so we started working on a crown. We’ve been to every store in a 20-mile radius, and nothing I’ve found there has been good enough for either of us. Everything Anna likes is either topped by The Little Mermaid or doesn’t fit, and everything I like is given a thumbs down before it can come off the display. So we finally compromised on a pipe cleaner crown, and this is a photo of one of our practice crowns. I haven’t made the real one yet, mostly because I know it will be destroyed within the first 24 hours of its life, but Anna sure loved this one.

Another of our activities was saved for Mariah’s naptime for obvious reasons. I’ve painted Anna’s toenails before, but that day we had a little pedicure session and did both of us. Anna wouldn’t wear socks for a week afterward because she loved her red toes.

And here’s a movie of my most adventurous activity in a long time: finger painting. It was a gloomy, rainy day, we’d been inside all afternoon, and Mariah had decided not to take an afternoon nap, so I was desperate to fill the time. It took up about an hour, which sounds impressive to you mommies out there, but it’s less impressive when I explain that it took 15 minutes to set up, ten minutes to paint, and 35 minutes to take a bath afterward. :) But those ten minutes of fun were golden. Here are also a few other shots of them that were just too cute not to post.

A few more cute stories from the week:

Last night was mine and Adam’s first real date night in months. We haven’t had Mariah babysat very often because she has never been very friendly about it, but we finally got up our nerve and had Josh, Melissa, and Kayleigh watch the girls while we went to dinner. It all went very well, and Mariah even had a good time, for which I give all the credit to J,M, and K for making her comfortable and keeping her busy. Anna, as usual, had a wonderful time. Adam and I also enjoyed our freedom, although our less-than-stellar meal took the wind out of the evening. We ate at Buca di Beppo, which I’ve heard good things about, but we were disappointed. It’s got a fun atmosphere, and the menu was comfortable, so that was nice. Unfortunately, we were consigned to the smallest room (eight tables) in which six tables were holding a wedding party. The people were loud and high-priority, which meant they took up more than their fair share of space and attention. When we finally got our food, it was okay, but I think it contained a month’s supply of garlic. Even the broccoli was drenched in a garlic sauce with garlic chunks the size of peas. I like garlic, but really. Yes, I know – it’s all a matter of taste. Anyway, then we ran over to Toys ‘R US for Mariah’s birthday present. And so that you all know, toy shopping is a really good marriage workshop--lots of opportunities for learning to discuss different points of view, compromise WITHOUT guilt, practice forgiveness, etc. *wink*

Another recent development is that Adam is learning how to make bread. And yes, that partly means yummy dinner breads (Conference Sunday yielded a very tasty ciabatta), but it mostly means a practical, dependable, and pleasant sandwich bread, which is sometimes even harder to create. He’s already good enough that we’ve stopped buying bread at the store, but different experimental batches produce varying degrees of dryness/moistness, stickiness/crumbliness, and sweetness/blandness. I’m very proud of his efforts and his success, but I’m proud even more for another reason. I am not ashamed to say that despite wanting to be a “good Mormon wife,” I choose not to care about making bread. I don’t care, and I’m not currently feeling any pressure to make myself. But homemade bread is important to Adam, and instead of being annoyed at me for not making it, he’s stepping up and making it himself. So now he’s learning a new skill that he’s finding very rewarding, and his family is enjoying the fruits of his labor. It works out for everybody.

That’s about all I’ve got. Mariah’s birthday is this week, so we are gearing up for celebrating. It’ll probably just be the four of us, since like most one-year-olds, she’d probably rather spend her birthday eating cake and playing with her new toys than having too many people in her house after Mommy has spent all day cleaning. But we did buy some snazzy birthday hats to wear, which I’m sure you’ll all see pictures of next week.

Here’s one more cute picture of the girls from last week. Anna is holding Maggie (her beloved kitty) and Tess (Mariah’s beloved bunny/dog/creature). Yes, Mariah has an animal named Tess. She also has an elephant named Joe. Anyone who realizes why that’s cute and clever gets a gold star. :) Adios!

Let’s Be Grateful for Washable Slippers

Here are the only two cute pictures I took this week.  This is the first time in months that Anna has asked me to do her hair, so I captured the moment.  Plus, this hairdo lasted longer than any of her others have – at least four hours – before she got annoyed with it and pulled it out.  I can always hope that Mariah will like having pretty hair, but since she won’t even keep a hat on for more than five seconds, I may just be kidding myself. 

We’ve all been a little under-the-weather this week, although I have been the worst.  My cold got out of control, and the couple of you I talked to this week can testify that my voice was pretty much gone from Sunday through Wednesday.  I finally started feeling better on Thursday, but Anna woke up that day with a runny nose, so I knew it was only the beginning.  She’s all stuffed up now and a little emotionally unstable (even more than normal two-year-old stuff).  We decided not to send her to nursery today just so she didn’t get any worse or get anyone else sick.  Then last night, Mariah started getting crabby and walking with a wobble, so we figured she might be getting sick, too. 

This morning, her nose turned into a faucet, her eyes got all watery, she can barely walk without toppling over, and she let me hold her in my lap and rock her for fifteen minutes.  She hasn’t wanted me to hold her like that since she was about three months old.  We decided to keep her home from church because she was so miserable, and it turned out to be a good thing.  I got her ready for her morning nap, gave her a bottle, and held for a few minutes, and just as I went to lay her down, I heard the pre-throw-up burp-of-doom.  Sure enough, up came everything she’s eaten this morning.  Let’s all be thankful for my washable slippers.  She has a fever now on top of everything else, and of course, my Mommy Worry Mode has kicked in, but we’ll just hope it’ll all blow over by tomorrow.  Cross your fingers for us. 

The other main part of my week has been working on Anna’s Halloween costume.  This is a picture of my progress, and I’d say the results are impressive considering my lack of recent experience.  I haven’t really used a sewing machine since I was fifteen or sixteen, and although we bought my current machine in February, I had to put it away almost immediately because we were staging our house for selling (no one would be impressed with a sewing table in the master bedroom instead of a nightstand).  Then we had all the unpacking and some nighttime adjustments, so I’m finally in a place now where I have some time and interest again.  And by the way, for all you ladies at my mom’s work who reportedly laughed at me for making my first project a satin and chiffon princess dress, I thumb my nose at you.  With all the love in the world, of course.  :)  I wouldn’t say it has been easy, and I wouldn’t want anyone to examine it too minutely, but I figure I may as well start with the hardest first.  After this, ANYTHING will be easier.   And besides, it’s only a Halloween costume.  *wink*

Adam’s main news from the week is that he’ll be biking to and from work even more often now.  This week was the first of a change in the bus route, which he has known about for weeks, but the ridiculousness of it didn’t become fully apparent until the first day of the actual change.  One of the main reasons we moved to this area was that there was a bus running straight to work in only 30 or 35 minutes.  Now, because of the change, the trip takes almost an hour.  That’s worse than where we lived before.  So, since he can still bike in less than 45 minutes, that will probably become his best way home.  Usually he doesn’t mind, but very few people love to bike in a downpour.  All I can say is that he’s a good man. 

Singing Time

Here’s a picture of one of this week’s fun activities: Play-Doh with Kayleigh. These are two adorably silly girls. You can also see on the table my version of our two families. Yes, I love to play Play-Doh, too. Kayleigh came to play with us twice this week, and Anna loved it.

In other news, Mariah is walking in a serious way. It’s amazing how quickly it happens—we’ve watched her go from a few tentative steps (not that she does “tentative”—my nickname for her is The Bulldozer) to walking all the way across the room carrying Daddy’s scripture case. Or a couch pillow. Or a box full of play-dishes. She loves to carry things. Here’s a video of her in action.

And in case anyone wonders, yes, I was talking with my mouth full, and yes, we did have to Spot Shot the carpet. Nothing stains quite like licorice rope.

Here’s another movie that I’m uploading just because I thought it was funny. It’s nice to have some lazy moments every now and then.

Mariah moment: On Tuesday night at bedtime, Mariah was very wound up. I had fed her and read to her, so I turned off her lights and held her for a few minutes. She seemed like she needed to burp, so I was patting her on the back while she rested her head on my shoulder. Then, out of nowhere, she reached her hand around to my back and started patting my shoulder. I thought she was just trying to keep herself awake, so I laughed and stopped burping her. She stopped patting me. Then I started patting her again. She patted me again. When I stopped she stopped, when I started she started, and by the last few times, she was patting me in the same rhythm I patted her. I got the giggles because it was just so cute, which completely wound her up again, but it’s still one of my favorite moments of the week. If you pat my back, I’ll pat yours. :)

Anna moment: On Wednesday, I went to playgroup, and one of the mom’s was telling me that she conducts singing time for the nursery kids. She said that she loves to sing with Anna because she’s so enthusiastic. Well, during nursery today, I watched Anna during singing time. I know she loves to sing at home, but now she sings in public, too, and BOY does she sing. She was the loudest and the most excited and the happiest of all the kids. She knew every word to every song, as well as all the actions, and she was even annoyed at the other kids for not singing (isn’t she just her mother’s daughter??). And that brings me to my…

Adam moment: which is actually a memory from when we first started our pre-dating hanging out. This may surprise some of you, so be prepared to learn something new about Adam. The first time I really knew I could date Adam was the night we played pool at his house, just the two of us, while we waited for another friend to come over for a movie night. I’m no longer sure how it started, but we ended up spending an hour or more in a conversation made up almost entirely of snippets of songs that led to other songs and other songs. We sang everything from Disney (“Let’s get down to business… to defeat… the Huns!”) to Third Eye Blind (“And there’s a demon in my brain that starts to overwhelm…”) and loved every minute of it. And even now, at least half of the conversations held in our home dissolve into lyrics of one sort or another. We also enjoy making up our own lyrics to beloved songs – one of Anna’s favorite’s is the Mommy version of the Ben Folds song “The Luckiest.” The real lyrics say, “That I am… I am… I am… the luckiest.” Our version goes “’Cuz Anna is… Anna is… Anna is…” and is completed with an appropriate phrase such as “the naked-est” (for bathtime), “the messiest” (for mealtime), or *blush* “the poopiest” (for diaper changing time). Don’t let that ruin the song for anyone – it’s one of our favorites, and we even put it on our wedding video. Anyway, I like to think that Anna’s musical interest is somewhat owing to us, although that may just be part of her personality.

Sarah moment: This morning I got called to the nursery at church. I’ve known it was coming for a while, I think, although I tried to pretend I might get called to something else. There’s a hundred reasons while this is a good calling for me to have right now, and I had fun with the kids today, but I have already made my first sacrifice for my calling. I sacrificed my fingers today by spending 45 MINUTES winding up a travel-size version of the magnetic fish catching game where the fish rotate around and open and close their mouths. It was the tiniest winding mechanism I’ve ever seen, and I gave myself blisters on two fingers from turning it so often. It was worth it because I got to know a lot of the kids, but my fingers are killing me, and next time SOMEONE ELSE can play the fishy game. They said they try to keep nursery workers in for about six months, but I’m going to do my best not to keep a mental count-down calendar. I’m just gonna have fun.

To end today, I’m posting another comparison: Mariah at 11 months and Anna at 11 months. I think the difference is pretty obvious, but maybe I’m wrong. And yes, they ARE wearing the same shirt. So sue me.