Like Mother, Like Daughter

I came into the bathroom the other day and found Olivia on the counter rocking a container of Colorox Wipes and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It appears she may share her mother's love of sanitizing products. The only problem we have is that she doesn't understand the difference between a clorox wipe, a kleenex, or a wet wipe. She thinks they are all made to blow her nose and wipe her arms and face. It looks like I need to re-direct her love of cleaning to the toilet or the kitchen floor. Give us time...

Mystery solved!

Sometimes things happen that have no explanation. I scratch my head, walk around, look under couch cushions, do what I need to do to super-sleuth the problem and still, no answers. This happens to me more often than I would like it to, you know, with all these meddling kids around. Sometimes I find out how "it" happened and other times, no such luck.

Well, lucky me, I quite easily found the answer to one of my latest head scratchers. All it took was a little download of the pictures onto the computer to realize why my battery had such a short life this time around.











I like the claw- kind of a twilight zone/mystery theater thing going on. This was all taken on what I like to call "the diaper bag camera". Small enough to fit into the diaper bag and easy to confiscate under mom's watchful eye. I did spare you the bazillion other pictures taken- you know, extreme close-ups of knees, eyes and other unidentifiable body parts, scenery out the window, car seats, ceiling, floor, garbage in van, back of my head, the list could go on all day.

Oh me Oh my!

Remember how I tip-toed around using the words "comb over" in reference to Olivia. Well, this one speaks for itself. Sara just came up to me and said, "Mom, do you think I look beautiful? I did this all by myself with water." And my response, "Yes honey, you look beautiful". Because what else do you say to your 3 year old?

Sara, Fashion Connoisseur

Sara loves the book series "Fancy Nancy" by Jane O' Connor. The books are about a little girl named Nancy who, you guessed it, likes to be fancy. She uses fancy french words, dresses fancy, walks fancy- you get the idea.



Sara came to me the other day dressed like this, announcing that she was "Fancy Wancy". You see, no matter how much we try to tell the child that this book is called "Fancy NANCY", she can't seem to stop calling it "Fancy Wancy". It's cute and funny and makes us laugh.

You may be wondering what is so fancy about this outfit- well, let me break it down for you- the hat, the scarf, and the white shiny shoes. This is actually quite dressed down for Sara so I was rather surprised she made the Fancy Nancy connection on this one. Usually there is a princess dress, shoes, & earrings involved, tights, and most definetly a tacky mardi gras necklace or two. Oh, and hair clips- always a hair clip or twenty.



My Sara. Seriously. She can be a crack up. As you may have guessed, she is now very much into compiling her own outfits. It's funny (and sometimes rather frusturating) to see what she comes up with. The other day she put this little number together and was oh so proud of it.



She said to me, "Mommy, my shoes match the white fings on my shirt". Let me translate. Apparently the shoes match the white stripes on her shirt, and by stating that fact, she doesn't feel threatened that I will make her change her shoes. You know, just as long as something matches... At this point in the game, I'm just glad she doesn't smell like pee... yet. The way she is standing is pretty much an indicator that I should be getting worried.

Livvy's first piggies

I know, I should just start Livvy her own blog. She'll grow out of being so mischievous, right? Please, somebody back me up here? But then again, without her being so "curious", I wouldn't have as much to blog about. Who am I kidding? I always have something to say, even without naughty children in tow. Let's just stick to- "hopefully she will grow out it."

Anyway, a week or so ago I introduced piggies to Livvy's hair. I had to hold her down while she was screaming at me and trying to rip them out. But we've made progress since then and she will happily sit for me and let me put them in. She doesn't have enough hair on top to pull into the pigtails so I pull as much from the back as I can. I then comb the top hair over and hairspray like crazy (please note that I tried to word that without actually saying she has a "comb over" because she doesn't...) Works for me.

I couldn't get a decent picture of just Olivia. The other kids wouldn't stay out of the pictures. And so, here are my little ones, celebrating Livvy's piggies.

Cribs are over-rated anyway, right?

Trying to keep up with a baby who jumps out of her crib is enough to drive anyone insane. Dave switched one of the locks out on the bathroom door and put it on Livvy's door. When I went in to check on her, I found her asleep under the crib. I felt bad that she couldn't get back into her crib after she jumped out and realized she was locked in. She found the closest place to it, poor little thing!

And so, about two weeks ago we helped Olivia say goodbye to her crib by taking it down. I was afraid she was going to break a bone with all the jumping out she was doing. She walked into the room while Dave was pulling it apart and burst into tears.

Then she decided to take matters into her own hands. She went over, lifted up a rail, and hauled it out of the bedroom. It was quite funny watching her haul that thing- she was grunting and breathing heavily- quite the work out for her little self.

We have temporarily put her crib mattress down on the floor. She is totally fine with it- just glad to have a place that belongs to her.

As you may have guessed, she won't stay put on this bed either. I can hear her walk over to the door, try to open it, occasionally she lets out a wail or two, and then she makes her way back to her bed- or Sara's bed- whatever she is in the mood for. After she has fallen asleep, I unlock her door so she can happily come and greet me in my bed in the morning. She really is a good baby girl, just so busy!

Notes to self...

1. Don't change the laundry right after washing dishes. Fingernails can and will bend backwards (shudder).
2. Don't try discipling children in front of their dad. Dad will laugh resulting in laughter from naughty child and nothing has been accomplished but annoying me.
3. Cleaning the shower in my underwear (and a t-shirt- I was wearing a t-shirt) is a great idea until the neighbor kid walks in...
4. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can be kept from the clutches of Olivia. Nothing is safe. Must bubblewrap house.
Just in case you are wondering what I am referring to- items include vaseline, fingernail polish, lipstick, hi-liters, pencils, pens, Vicks vapo rub (this item has a toddler self-protectant thing going on- one swipe of that on her face and in her mouth and she came running to me with her tongue hanging out, panting like a dog), chapstick, gluesticks, mascara, lotion, crayons, the bathroom sink, Dave's electric toothbrush, the junk drawer (which I have now completely emptied out), bathtub, table, opening and slamming shutters, opening front door- and these are just a few of her favorites. Oh, and this is all just one day. ONE DAY. Okay, maybe two.
5. Don't assume a handle-heavy whisk will stay put in a small tupperware bowl. While moving the bowl from point A to point B, the whisk will fall out, splattering chocolate pudding all over you, the floor, the shutters, the wall, and the window.
6. Kids need to be in bed by 8:00. And yes, it's 9:30 and they are still awake.

Out with the old- In with the new!

Things are ch-ch-ch-changin' around here- we have been getting ourselves a good night's sleep on our BRAND NEW BED. Say that just like they would on the Price is Right. It's much more exciting that way.

A couple weeks ago UPS dropped off our new bed on the front porch in a bazillion boxes. We were quite perplexed as to how a king-sized bed could possibly fit into boxes of this size. We just sprinkled around a little pixie dust and wouldn't you know it, a king size bed popped out of all these boxes. Truly amazing.



Before I go any further, my main motivation for this post is to display our old bed. There isn't anything wrong with the bed itself- it's just that a few parts of its decor are worse for wear after nearly 8 years of marriage and it makes me laugh.

The bed skirt (given to me back in Cleveland by my friend Debbie who was about to toss it- I aim really high) started ripping. And you know how those things go- once they start, there is no stopping them- especially not me because I don't have a sewing machine OR the motivation to lift off the mattress to gain access to fixing the skirt. The last couple months it has looked rather pathetic and I've just figured "eh, nobody sees it but me". You can also see the orange and blue stickers on the bed frame from different moves we have made. The quilt is from our wedding- made with love by the Relief Society in my parent's ward. My kids took dry-erase marker to our sheets (also a wedding gift) a couple years back and it never came out. Usually we have 4 pillows on the bed and none of the pillowcases match. Oh, and the fitted sheet- didn't fit so well, always popping off. I just have to laugh. Mostly because it's gone now!



Here is the bed under construction (so I lied about the pixie dust...). I cheered Dave on and did my best to stop the kids from destroying all the foam parts before we could get the bed together.



And the finished product. Dave is looking rather fierce.



We have sheets for it but I have yet to get a bedding set- that's opening a can of worms because I have to decide on paint color for the room. And we need bedroom furniture which I have a feeling won't be happening any time soon. That's alright, I'm just happy to have a big fat bed.

And so is Dave.

A little too happy if you ask me.

I don't see anything wrong with me draping myself over him while he is trying to sleep. Sheesh. But now with eons of space between us- he feels liberated from me and my claustrophobic infringement of his personal sleeping space.

The other night Taylor slept on our bed. Taylor didn't touch me- I didn't touch him- nobody touched Dave. Three people on a bed and nobody kicked anybody in the face! It was amazing and made us feel that our purchase was well worth every penny.