What I learned on V-Day

Cory and I went on a trip to St George this weekend, sans kids. It's the first time we've gone somewhere by ourselves since Lear was born - so over five years. Cory had to talk me into it, because I was paranoid about being that far away from them, but we had a great time. We spent most of the weekend going through fancy houses on the St George Parade of Homes, but Saturday night, we went to a movie: He's Just Not That Into You. 

We thought it would be a fun romantic comedy, but I have to say, about halfway through, I wanted to leave. All the relationships in the movie were falling apart, and the one married couple in the film was in trouble, because of the man having an affair. I was thinking, "Why are we seeing a movie about how much love and relationships suck on our special Valentine's Day trip?" Luckily, things were brighter by the end of the movie - but it taught Cory and me something: we are very lucky. We have a great relationship, a wonderful marriage, and a happy life together. We've never played stupid mind games with each other, we have the same goals and priorities, and we got married for all the right reasons. I don't want to get too sappy here, but I just have this to say: I deeply love my husband, I'm eternally grateful he seems to think I'm cool too, and we are very lucky to have found each other.  We really have it good. 

Lear quote: "I am going to miss you, Mommy, because I love you so much."

Ella quote: "OK, I gonna lose interest very soon."

Coming soon: Evidence of Lear's indiscretion

Princesses and abscesses.

This is a picture of Ella with a train stuck in her hair. I'm really not sure why she decided to put a motorized toy train on her head, but I guess being two, she doesn't really need a reason. Luckily, simply putting the train in reverse was sufficient to get it out. I haven't ever cut Ella's hair, because she didn't have any for so long, so I was reluctant to put it to scissors.

Ella has been playing a game with me lately, which she calls "Mommy's Princess Dress." This consists of me sitting on the floor of the kitchen (it has to be a certain spot in the kitchen) and Ella draping a blanket around my shoulders. She likes to arrange the blanket so that it lays just right on my arms and legs. Then she will announce that I need to put my keys in my pocket, and put her hand into the side of her diaper and pull out an imaginary key with a "Ta-da!" and place it in a fold of the blanket. Note that I said the side of the diaper, and not the front or back. It's to be hoped that the "key" she puts in my pocket is clean. I thought this game was very cute the first couple times we played it, but after I sat on our oak floors for almost an hour yesterday playing it, I have to admit that I'm losing my enthusiasm - but not Ella. Now, when she wants to play it, I set the kitchen timer.

Lear had a tough week last week - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday he complained off and on that his mouth hurt. We tried to figure it out ourselves, and he swore that it wasn't his tooth, but his cheek that hurt. We couldn't decide whether to take him to a dentist or a doctor, until Saturday when he was screaming and writhing in pain. The painkillers we were giving him weren't helping, and so I took him to Kid's Care. He cried and screamed all the way there, and fell asleep about a block away. He pouted while I checked him in - until he saw the fish tank, after which he was remarkably happy for a child who was screaming in pain not ten minutes earlier. The doctor looked at his mouth from every angle, and told us it was a toothache. Doctor: 1, Parents: 0. Great. It's Saturday, and we can't get him into a dentist until Monday. Oh, the fun we were in for. Monday couldn't come too fast for any of us. But come it did, and when we took him in to the dentist, we found out that he did have an abscess in one of his molars. We then had to sit through him screaming and crying while the dentist gave him a shot, although once he calmed down, he did very well. I swear he brushes every day, but I guess not well enough. He's still complaining about his cheek hurting a week later, but now I suspect that either  he really likes his Motrin, or his six-year-old molars are starting to come in as well.

Lear quote: "Well, I guess that why you shouldn't be a slime monster." (Comment made while watching the beginning of Monsters, Inc.)

Ella quote: "I want Daddy to come home NOW!"

I couldn't resist!

Ella has been anti-diaper lately so we've been letting her wet her pants a couple times a day. She makes it to the toilet maybe once a day, so it's a start and we're optimistic. Last night, however, her little crack was peeping out of her cute cabana pants, and I just had to take a picture. Every parent needs blackmail pictures for use at a later date, right?

A surprise visit

The top picture is of Ella in Time Out. She refused to sit on her bum for Time Out, so protested by sitting in Time Out on her head. I didn't help her push up into the headstand, nor did I help her stay there - she did it all by herself. I guess she got my gymnastics genes. I was having a very hard time not laughing at her, even though she was screaming mad the whole time.

The other picture is our kitchen, and it's new grayish-purple paint. I really like how it turned out a lot.

Thursday night, my mother called me up to tell me that her jury duty had been cancelled (I didn't even know she had jury duty), and that they wanted to make the thirteen-hour drive to Salt Lake to see the grandkids, since she had all this time to spare. I told them to come on down. So, Friday they came with my oldest bro Barton and stayed until Monday morning. It was a short and sweet visit, and we were thrilled to have them - especially the kids. We didn't tell them that they were coming, so Lear and Ella got a big surprise when they showed up on our doorstep.

Finally, another Lear story. You all know Lear loves Transformers. He also loves to save the Transformer boxes. He had one in particular that he's been saving since Thanksgiving. He's been keeping his collection in it, but it was getting very ratty and ugly, so Cory and I secretly threw it out when we did our de-cluttering of the house a week or so ago. When Lear noticed, he was MAD! He threw one of his rare fits, and demanded that we dig through the dumpster to retrieve it - we told him that it was too late, and that it was already at the recycling center. We finally pacified him by showing him that he could arrange them to display on a newly-empty bookcase that we had relocated to his room. He kept telling me that he couldn't wait until someone came to visit so he could show them his Transformers on the shelf. Now, if you enter his room, he will stand next to the bookcase, wordlessly gesturing toward the bookcase (one arm extended, palm up and fingers together) and waiting expectantly for your admiration. 

Lear quote: "Mom, why do we have those short spiky things on our eyes?"

         Mom: "Do you mean eyelashes?"

Ella quote: Mom: "Ella, stand at the window and wave bye-bye to Grandma, Grandpa, and Barton."

         Ella: "No, I don't want to!"

        Mom: "Lear is at the window and waving goodbye."

Ella: "I wan' go to da winnow an' wave bye-bye, too!"

Well, shoot!

I can't find my camera! We've been doing so much cleaning and reorganizing lately, and I guess I must have put it someplace very safe, because I can't figure out where it is. I'm sure I'll find it eventually, and then I'll post pics of Christmas, the short-lived gingerbread house, our kitchen, and other fun stuff. 

We did so much with family over the holidays, which we always enjoy. We have a wonderful extended family. Really - I'm not sugar coating things for the sake of a cheerfully saccharin-sweet blog. We had fun watching little Saige (I hope I spelled that right!) with Chris and Brindy while her parents were having a nice dinner. She is so fun, and Chris and Brindy are going to be awesome parents. We had Nerf gun fight at Nana and Papa's house during a family sleepover, where the kids got to play with their cute cousins Danika and Aryanna all day. We had a fun time watching Utah bust the BCS at Bryce and Carolee's house, and had a great Christmas Eve dinner with Gia, Matt, Bronson, Nana, Papa, and Karen. I'm grateful for the Christmas season, for giving us excuses to ditch our busy schedules and spend quality time with family. I just hope that they're not all sick of us!

Finally, a word to the wise: Don't schedule home projects during December! You might think, "Well, I've got the time to replace that toilet or rip down that wallpaper, because I'm taking time off work for the holidays anyway," but don't do it. You'll just be sad you added that much more stress to the holidays. This month we painted floorboards, the kitchen, a bathroom, a vanity, fixed a drop ceiling, we replaced a toilet, the floor of said bathroom, six door handles, all the mismatched light fixtures, and still put up and tore down Christmas decorations. However, Bryce and Carolee have us beat, hands down - a full kitchen remodel and replacing the floors in half the house makes painting a bunch of stuff pale in comparison. (So, stop whining, Tia!)

Lear quote: Mommy: "Lear, are there any presents you wanted that you didn't get?"

Lear: "No, Mommy, I'm happy with everything I have." (He said this before I gave him the Bumblebee Transformer that he spent weeks nagging me and throwing fits in Wal-Mart about.)

Ella quote: "Mommy, I got crying on your arm." Said after sobbing on my shoulder because of some injustice.

I found the cable!

The top picture is of something that Lear made by himself while the rest of us were getting dinner ready. Can you believe that a five year-old did that without help? The next pic is what it evolved into later that night. I don't know if it's really unusual for a kid that young to do something like that, but to me it seems remarkable that he can think in 3-D like that, and with such symmetry. This is why Cory and I think he's going to be an engineer or architect of some kind.

Next is the children hiding in a cabinet at my parent's house. Lear is holding up two miniature Transformers that Nana gave him to keep him occupied on the 13-hour drive from SLC to Salem. He loves them. He sleeps with them. He gets very upset if he can't find them. 

Then there is Ella, who has fallen asleep on her daddy's chest. I was upstairs teaching flute lessons, Lear was playing internet games, and Cory and Ella were watching basketball. I guess that tells everyone how much Ella loves b-ball. Lear NEVER falls asleep in random places, but very, very occasionally Ella will. In fact I can only think if three instances in which this has happened. However, it was a perfect Kodak moment.

Finally, I want to share a story of Lear. As I mentioned above, Lear has a fascination with Transformers. This is a relatively new obsession, probably only a few months old, but it is fervent. He is convinced that he is getting a Transformer called Bumblebee for Christmas. He talks about getting it all the time, even though I've told him that I couldn't find it in any stores, and neither could his grandmas. (I've got it, but he's not finding out about it.) In fact, today while we were shopping, he saw one on a shelf full of pens and pencils, and threw a fit that I wouldn't buy it for him. We have a Burger King toy that is a couple years old, that he's never been particularly interested in until he noticed Sunday morning that it is a Transformer. He then noticed that it did not turn into a robot (it's a truck), and that the only thing it does is "go fast and open it's doors." He was very upset about that, and pouted all morning about it, even though Cory and I tried to explain that we couldn't do anything about it. He was actually very emotional, and several times could be seen to be valiantly holding back tears caused by this extreme injustice. 

Cory finally suggested that he write a letter to Burger King about it. Lear thought this was a wonderful idea. He got a piece of paper, and wrote the word "Transformers" across the top and his name at the bottom. He then asked me to draw a picture of what he thought the robot should look like, and the what the truck looks like now. He even told me he wanted to write directions on how it should move in order to transform, but I told him that there wasn't enough room. That letter was gold to him. He kept it with him all day - he took it to church, and had it at the dinner table, and finally put it in a safe spot while he slept.

Monday, he insisted that we take it to Burger King. We gave it to the counter person, and explained to her what the letter was. While we were ordering, she discreetly handed it back to me, and we took our food back to the car to eat at home. As we were driving home, Lear said, "They didn't fix the Transformer for me or give me a new one, Mommy." I guess he thought he would get instant results from his letter of protest. I explained that it takes time to make toys, and that although we made a suggestion to Burger King, we couldn't make them do it. Still, I'm sure it was very educational and empowering to Lear to know that he can make his opinions known. I'm looking forward to the day that he starts a letter-writing campaign to his Senator to protest soggy French fries in school cafeterias...

Ella quote: "I a pin-cess!" 

Lear quote: "If you give me that Christmas tree ornament, Mommy, I can install it for you." 

Excuses, excuses

I know it's been a while. I hereby exercise my worst habit, making excuses: 

1. I can't find the cable I need to upload pics. I have them. They're cute. I just can't find the cable.

2. I've had five concerts and seven rehearsals since Thanksgiving. I even skipped a couple rehearsals to accommodate more rehearsals and concerts.

3. Christmas shopping and decorating.

4. Catching up on all the DVRed shows I missed while we were in Oregon.

5. I decided to paint all the non-painted floor moldings in my house, which included a lot of cleaning and moving of furniture.

6. Painting floorboards has evolved into repainting my kitchen. (I now pause for all the shouts of joy from those of you who hate my lime green kitchen - you know who you are!)

7. I have a two year-old who put the capital letters on the term "Terrible Twos."

8. Laundry, which spawns in hampers like maggots on rotten meat.

9. Oh yeah, and I have a husband who needs to be entertained. (Love you, Cory Chou-Chou!)

10. I'm tired. Of whining, complaining, fits, fighting, screaming, pinching, scratching, messes everywhere, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, organizing, and that ubiquitous layer of goo that covers everything little hands touch.

If it weren't for all that, I would have made some great posts! (And don't worry, I'm not in danger of an incipient mental breakdown.)

Lear quote: "Don't worry mommy, I'll protect you." 

Ella quote: "Because I want to!" Ella's reason for everything.