Annual Haircut

This year I went with her, and we both decided to go curly.

5 Minutes of Fun

I thought Leah might be bummed after her last day of school (and she was), so I had a treasure hunt waiting for her when she got home.  It was So. Exciting.  The kids ran from the mailbox to the slide, to the books, the TV and back up to find the hidden treat- brownies in the bathtub!

And sweet little Emma tried to keep up with it all-

This was a minimal effort fun-mom moment, but it went a long way.  The kids spent the rest of the afternoon making up clues and sending each other on hunts all over the house.  With all of the have-to-do's that are going on around here lately, it was nice to do something fun and exciting for a change!

Monkey See

Emma has been cracking us up lately- insisting on doing this-

The best part is stuffing the toilet paper between her legs!

And no, no success yet, but wouldn't that be awesome?  I have a sneaky premonition she will be one oddly tough cookie to potty train.

Bathtime Conversation

L- Mooo-o-ooom!  Adam's sticking his bum in my face!

J- Adam!  Keep your bum to yourself.

A- Okay.... (thinking.... thinking...) How do I stick my bum in my own face?

M- Time to wash!

Quick Takes

So... we're moving next week.  This week we are just kind of hanging around.  Enjoying the calm before the storm of next week hits.  I've been organizing, sorting and purging, but in general, the stress of packing just isn't there.  There is something very nice to be said about those magical men that are going to come and whisk away all of our stuff to Iowa for us.

We're moving into a 2 bedroom apartment.  I am quite excited about this (she says naively before she's actually reminded what 1100 square feet looks and feels like when shared by 5 bodies).  I'm thrilled to not have a big house to pick up, no unnecessary toys to step on, no flights of stairs to be running up and down 5 dozen times a day.  It will be a nice respite from the regular life that we live.  And then our new house will be done- two stories plus a basement- and I'll be back to cursing those stairs and "all" that square footage.  First world problems, no?

Because of spring break, Leah's last day of kindergarten here is this Friday.  Two more days with beloved Mrs. K.  She tells me she gets butterflies in her tummy and in her throat when she thinks about moving.  It is a huge deal to a little girl who has lived here since she was 2.

I hate remembering what is like to start every conversation with the "Hi!  I'm Melanie and I'm new" line.  It takes a long time to find friends, and while I'm feeling up to the adventure, a little voice in the back of my head keeps reminding me that it's not always a fun one.  So I'm gearing up for that.  When we moved to Indiana, we had half a dozen or so contacts- the friends from our newlywed days at BYU, the old mission companion, childhood friends from home wards, the parents of the friends we made in our first married ward.... even if we didn't know people directly, we knew OF people.  So far, in Iowa, we have no one.  No one we know, no one that knows of us.  Turns out not a lot of people we know have connections to Iowa.  None, actually.  I'm hoping that will change once we get to church- the church makes the world very, very small.

Kind people keep asking me if I need any help getting ready to move.  I appreciate that so much, especially the offer to have my kids over for a playdate, which is 10,000 times more fun for them than watching me try to work through my ever-lengthening to-do list.  People also ask me if I'm feeling stressed out at all, and seem surprised when they see me out and about (instead of home packing boxes, I suppose).  But this is the fun week!  I've been out with my dear Relief Society presidency friends, out with a delightful handful of my fellow mommy friends, to playgroups, and I'm going out again tomorrow night- twice!  We've got dinners and one-last-get-togethers to look forward to, and even a kid-free trip to the temple this weekend.  One of the very slim silver linings of moving is that you have a fantastic excuse to see all of your friends one more time before you go.  I love that.  The good-byes stink, but nothing feels so final anymore with email, blogs, and Facebook (now if I could just get on it...) to keep us connected.

As for the house, I'm loving finally having an excuse to get rid of some of the things that we've been holding on to for way too long.  Other things I'm having a hard time letting go of, like our awesome "Family Power" poster that included all of our 2012 family goals (pictured up there).  But I'm excited to move forward, so I'm letting go of the past and looking forward to what the future has to bring.  In so many ways.

Write Away!

More often than not, lately I find Adam here- 

 looking like this- 

because he's concentrating on this- 

I'd dare say he has the best handwriting in the family.  

Being 19 Months....

Emma Grace is so full of personality.  She talk talk talks all day long, unless she happens upon her beloved "pac" then she is silent and rolls around happily on the ground like she's about to fall asleep.

Some days are better than others- usually she is full of smiles and giggles and nonsensical strings of words that she thinks we understand.

Other days there is no juice in the house...

The love for juice and the pac are two things that I haven't dealt with before.  Adam and Leah both rejected a pacifier around four months, and I try to offer juice only sparingly.  Water is the beverage of choice for the rest of us.  Emma does not appreciate that.  She knows what she wants and she wants it now!  We had a lively conversation at lunch yesterday that went something like this-

M- I'm making peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Who wants one?

E- Ah do!

A- I want peanut butter (he doesn't like the honey)

M- Okay, here you go.

E- Butter!

M- Yes, I made you a peanut butter and honey sandwich!  Eat up!

E- Butter!  Butter!

M- Oh, you want only peanut butter?  Okay (scraping the honey off the sandwich)

E- Butter!  Butter!

M- What?  I don't know what you want.  Adam, what is Emma saying?

A- She wants only butter.

M- Oh!  You want butter?

E- Butter!

M- On bread?

E- Toast!

M- Okay, butter on toast.  Here you go.

E- (licking the butter that hasn't melted off the bread) Butter!  Butter!

M- There is butter.  It just melted so you can't see it.

E- BUTTER!  BUTTER!

M- Okay, naptime!

It's amazing to me that we are having conversations at all, let alone ones in which she places mealtime orders and rejects the items I get wrong.  Sheesh!

She has an unequivocal love for "Daddy" and asks for him all day long.  We Skyped with him for 5 minutes this morning just so she could see his face and wave to him.  And now I'm "Mommy" (not mama) a name I love, but prefer not to hear in the middle of the night, especially if I'm being called in to locate the beloved pac.  But the snuggles and kisses are always lovely- day and night- and Emma Grace is altogether growing up too fast.