Words of Babes

Talk, talk, talk.  There is a lot of talking going on around here all. the. time.  Adam is trying out dozens of new words every day, and while I don't always understand what he is saying, he makes it clear when I get it wrong.

A: Moneee!  Moneee!

M: Monkey?

A: No....

M: Money?

A: No....

M: Melanie?

A: Uh-huh!

Leah loves to get Adam to say things, too.  They were taking turns bearing their testimonies the other day, and Leah was prompting Adam with each word of his.

L: Say...

A: Say...

L: Ummmm....

A: Ummmm...

L: I'd...

A: I'd.... (and so on, all the way to "Amen")

Leah's testimony went something like this- I know that God loves me.  And I know that when I die my mom and dad will die, too.  (What?!  Says who?!)

*****

Leah is very concerned about the fact that she will not get to marry Adam when she grows up.  She told me that she would be very sad if she grew up and married someone else and didn't get to see her brother every day.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that things change when you get older, and you grow to be okay with the fact that you don't get to see all the members of your immediate family every day. The thought was actually pretty sad to me, too. 

Then she asked, "If Daddy's not your brother, then how did you ever find each other?"  Good question!

*****

M: Instead of a nap today, you and Daddy get to go on an Easter egg hunt!

L: No nap?!  But I will be so tired.... (huge sigh) I guess I'll just have to rest my head in the car.

 *****

I took Leah with me to visit some church members today.  On the way, I tried to describe the man of the house, who used to be her nursery leader.

M: You know Brother H.  He is a little older, has glasses, and is kind of bald.

L: Mom, I think you're talking about Grandpa Mark!  Yep- he's a little older, has glasses, and is kind of bald.

True, true.

*****

After months of debating and weighing pros and cons, we finally decided to check out the local preschool to see if it's a place Leah might like to go in the fall.  I have fully supported her decision to be a homebody (I take it as a compliment!) but the reality of life is that teaching Joy School could be pretty tricky with a 2-year old and a 1-month old in the group.  After visiting the preschool, Leah declared, "Preschool is my favorite place in the world!  I can't wait to go to preschool!"

I asked her if home was her favorite place, and she said, "Nope!  It's preschool.  And Joy School is my second favorite place in the world....  But I guess home could be my third favorite place in the world."  Gee, thanks for tossing me a bone, sweetie.

At least I know she'll be happy at preschool!

Directions

One of my favorite things about living in Indiana is getting directions to people's homes.  We live just outside the city limits and are quite close to everything essential.  But we have church members that live up to 30 minutes away, and visits to their homes include directions like,

"Take the first right after the yellow guardrail at the top of the hill."

"We live in the white house off the dirt road in the back of the woods."

"If you get to the soybean farm that was just plowed up yesterday, you've gone too far."

"We're after the second cemetery on the right, just behind the big pine trees."

It also makes for beautiful Sunday drives and picturesque sunsets.  And I can never get enough of mailboxes like this-

image here

Girls Trip!

What happens when Leah and I take Adam shopping...

Easter Morning

Expectations for Easter morning are pretty low in our house.  We certainly don't hype up the Easter bunny like we do Santa Claus, nor does he deliver nearly the same amount of loot.  We just had "find baskets and eggs" on the to-do list, then moved on to a tasty breakfast.  But the kids still seemed to love the early morning overload of candy, new supplies of bubbles and giant balls, and finding their beloved Easter eggs.  I'd say that makes it a hit.

Baby Sister Egg

Easter egg dyeing is Jason's specialty.  The one on the right is the "Meno!  Meno!" egg that became Adam's favorite.  (That's his way of saying Nemo.)

The kids dropped and cracked as many eggs as they could get their hands on, picked their favorites, and have refused to let us eat them. 

This was my contribution to the event- the baby sister egg.  It quickly became Leah's favorite, and she has loved and cared for it ever since.

We have even made a bed for it, which I let Leah take to bed with her the other night.  Only, when I went in to retrieve the egg, it wasn't in the box.

After a second look, I found the baby sister egg.  Can you spot it?

Conquerer

We have a huge tire in our backyard.  I have no idea why it's there, but it has been calling Adam's name since the day he first eyed it.  This weekend, he finally conquered the tire.  The victory fingers at the end are my favorite part.

If you don't want to watch the video, here are the highlights.

The ascent-

Check out that determination- 

The victory pose!

Easter Pictures

The little girl in me still insists that I get a new dress for Easter every year... the timing this year was good because not many of my dresses are fitting these days!  I love this picture above, but couldn't resist adding this second one just for Adam's face.

Sometimes we have silly face contests at the dinner table.

Leah was thrilled to get a beautiful new Easter dress, too.

Adam is usually just thrilled about everything.

Another fantastic face by Adam.

And one more taken by Leah.

Just Thinking

I love packages!  Is there anything better than knowing that someone else is loving and thinking about your family just as much as you do?  We have so enjoyed the crafts, treats, and toys that have come in the mail this week.

I taught my last Joy School lesson today.  As is tradition, when it was over, I plopped down on the couch, put my feet up and exclaimed, "We survived!" 

Adam, who wanted to go outside, came over and said, "Swing!  Swing!"  That didn't get a response, so he started trying to lift me off the couch, and finally said, "Geeeeeeeeet UP!"

That worked.

This is the view outside my front window.  I love having so many beautiful flowers to look at!  The smallest, deep pink tulips in the back are my favorite.  Those are the ones Jason brought us from Holland.

 *****

I hate mommy/baby brain.  Tonight I walked down the stairs with the sole intention of turning up the heat, got distracted by the toys that needed to be put away, the toilet paper roll that needed to be put in the stash ((I fully intend to make something amazing with those rolls some day), stopped for a quick bite of caramel brownie, and walked back up the stairs with my arms full of jackets and shoes before I realized that I had completely forgotten to turn up the heat.  Gratefully, Jason went back downstairs and turned it up for me.  This happen to me several times a day.

Leah and I like to ponder about what the baby sister will come out looking like.  "Maybe she will have black hair like Daddy," she says. 

"Maybe she will have blue eyes like Mommy," I reply.

"Maybe she will have brown skin!" says Leah.

Uhhh.... there is a very small chance of that due to Jason's heritage, yes, but as far as Leah is thinking-

 probably not so much.

Things That Make Me Happy

Mini cupcakes-  they are even better than regular cupcakes because you can stuff an entire one in your mouth and not think twice about eating another two... or three... or four.

The lock on my closet door- my own little slice of privacy.  Great place for hiding presents, lingerie, and myself, if needed.

My blog- I usually think my posts are just the mundane details of our life that I will never forget, yet I always love to read back on the small reminders of days gone by.

Fridays- I haven't received a paycheck in my name for 5 years now, but I always get a little excited at the prospect that Friday might be payday.  (It usually isn't- now we just get paid on the last day of the month only.)

Making plans- I inherited this one from my mom.  I love having events and trips to look forward to, no matter how big or small.  A few currently on the radar- making a giant chocolate birthday cake for an upcoming birthday celebration, our ward's youth fundraiser (last year's was quite entertaining), the opening of the local zoo (next week!) the babymoon, a day trip to Chicago without the kids to see the Cubs play in Wrigley Field, and an extended date night down to Indy to check out their MOA.  Oh, how I hope I can add a trip to Utah to that list soon!

Naptime- my mid-day sanity saver.  I couldn't function without naptime.

Restaurant gift cards- eating out is such a guilty pleasure for me, but the gift cards take away the guilt!

That picture up there doesn't make me happy, but the baby girl that is causing my cheeks to puff up like that sure does.  I've decided that the last place I gain baby weight is in my belly.

April Showers

Most days lately are beautiful.  The weather is consistently getting warmer, our daffodils and tulips (from Holland!) are blooming, and we spend entire afternoons outside with nothing to entertain us but clouds and sticks and sidewalk chalk.  If only I could somehow keep the weather just like this every day until August...
 
But some days it seems the sun forgets to rise and the wind beats down our house.  Those days we stay inside and spend a lot of time coloring and making silly crafts. 

On these gray days I feel like a character from the Wizard of Oz.  I told Leah such the other day. 

M- Leah, I thought this morning we were going to wake up on the other side of the rainbow!

L- No Mom, that only happens when the wind goes whipping across the prairie. 

Oh.  Well, never mind then.

We had an Easter egg hunt with friends in the drizzling rain.  I couldn't resist making these little cuties.

Jason told me I need a new hobby.  I told him staying up til midnight to carve out little chickies (and forcing him to help me) is it!

But whatever the weather, I'm not complaining!  The long, cold winter is finally over, but the insane heat of the summer hasn't made it's rude appearance yet, either.  I just love spring!

Ode to Dirty Socks

I tucked myself into bed last night 

Sleepy from a busy day.

Grateful for the food we ate 

and the games we got to play.

I left the student to his work, 

Another deadline looming.

I smiled sweetly and skipped off to bed

I didn't mention his hair needs grooming.

While I enjoyed dreams of tidy rooms, 

playdates and waistline ever-expanding, 

The student was working late again, 

not a thing from me demanding.

This morning when I woke up

I found no signs of night-life.

No piles of papers, books or pens

In the sink, no fork or spoon or knife.

There are no breakfast dishes, 

or midnight-snack crumbs to be found.

Just the balled up, stinky Dirty Socks that,

Exhausted, he dropped to the ground.

Although these Dirty Socks drive me mad, 

(They always make me recoil)

They serve as a great reminder- 

He was up burning the midnight oil.

While I was sleeping peacefully

though alone again last night, 

"Another test I have to study for!

Another paper I must write!"

The Dirty Socks are here again, 

Reminding me every day- 

 If you want to get that PhD, 

There's a price you all must pay.

So I'll pick up those Dirty Socks

and stick them in the basket.

 With all that he's got on his plate-

I can't bring myself to ask it.

Thank you for being wonderful, Jason!  The 4 Musketeers love you!

Campaigning

L: "So, Mom," Leah settles in casually next to me.  "What ideas do you have for naming the baby sister?"

M:  "Uhhh... I don't know.  How about Francis?  Or Helga?  Or Rapunzel?"

(Her eyes light up momentarily for the last one, but she quickly dismisses them all.)

L: "No.  Those names are no good."

M: Well, what do you think we should name the baby sister?

L: "Emma!  Her name is Emma!"

*****

Every single prayer she offers goes something like this-

"... and please bless my baby sister (whose name is Emma) to be healthy and strong and happy in Mommy's tummy, to eat well and sleep well, and not come too soon so she doesn't get sick, and..."

*****

"That's you, and that's me, and that's my baby sister Emma.  The three girls!"

*****

We won't decide until the baby sister is actually here, but with all the campaigning that's going on around here, Emma is definitely on the list.  And I hear the name so often, I've even had to stop myself from calling her Emma once or twice!

The Moves

Adam recently discovered his eyebrows, and, more importantly, that they can wiggle. 

He is always very serious about it.  He will just look and look and look at me until our eyes lock, and then he'll start wiggling them up and down, up and down.  Cracks me up every time.

He has made more than one friend with someone sitting behind us in church with these looks.

Who's That?

At church today, Jason and I were called, "Ar-Cheerio" and "Mee-Lane-ey".... I'm thinking maybe we'll take those names on as our super alter-egos?

Lazy Weekend

We just concluded a delightfully lazy weekend full of picnics, ice cream cones, planting the garden, several bike rides, craft projects, lots of storytime, hide-and-seek, dancing, a trip to the park, and decorating for Easter.

Somewhere in there, there was also cleaning the bathrooms, weeding the front yard, mopping the ever-sticky kitchen floor, cleaning out the garage, and a date night spent at the farm (read- helping Jason work!), but who really wants to see pictures of that stuff?!

8:07 AM

The last of this season's hot chocolate finds it's final resting place.

 8:02 AM- I finish cleaning up the spilled glass of milk.

8:19 AM- Adam escapes mid-diaper change and pees all over the kitchen floor.

Guess I've got some mopping to do. 

Life BC- The Babymoon

The chance to get away one more time before Leah was born came pretty easily to us- Jason had a conference in Chicago, and we jumped at the chance to visit the city for what we assumed would be the first and last time in a long while (Ha. Ha, ha.).  I was especially excited to see the musical Wicked, and to take a few days off from work. 

Jason got to Chicago a day before me and then I flew out by myself to meet him.  Since we didn't have a rental car, we relied on taxis, shuttles, and buses to get us around the city.  Our hotel was on the Magnificent Mile, and averaged $350 a night.  Thank you, BYU for paying for our room and all of Jason's travel expenses.  It was an beautiful hotel within walking distance of all things amazing in Chicago.  The only trick of it was that Jason was there for a conference that kept him busy during the days.  I had three days to fill by myself in the big city, and my plans started out pretty great.

The first day I got up early, walked up and down the Magnificent Mile and enjoyed the huge and historic buildings by myself.  That night we went out to dinner with some of Jason's labmates and then found the tastiest little chocolate lounge on the other side of the Chicago River, where we sat and chatted late into the night.

(I had to add this stunning picture of downtown Chicago and the Chicago River.  The first time it was breathtaking, now it's a familiar, almost old sight!)

The second day I got up a little later, walked down to the lobby for breakfast and went swimming.  I spent the afternoon sightseeing, and that evening we took a taxi down to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner and then to see Wicked.  It was completely amazing, and so fun to see a musical that we knew basically nothing about.  I've never looked at the Wicked Witch of the West in the same way since.  After the show we walked down to Navy Pier, which was closed, and got a glance of Lake Michigan.  Being the middle of November, it was a freezing cold walk.  Thankfully I had my little incubator to keep me warm.

The third day I tossed all other plans out the window, slept in, ordered in breakfast, and took a nice long nap after watching Oprah, which was recorded just down the street from our hotel room.  I remember the bed being one of the most fluffy and comfortable beds- hotel or otherwise- I have ever slept in.  Granted, I was 8 months pregnant, and I could sleep anywhere (read on for the Babymoon #2 proof of that).

Everywhere I went, people glanced down at my belly and then looked up at me with either a smile or a questioning look.  More than a few strangers in elevators even asked if I needed a ride to the hospital.  What is it about pregnant ladies that make people say such dumb things?

The next day was Sunday.  We found a local ward to attend, and I was shocked to see that one of the counselors in the bishopric was from the ward I attended in Virginia while I was in high school.  The world is so, so small in the church.

 

Then we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry, where I took the only pictures I have of this trip.  I loved looking at the unborn fetus display that they had, which displays a stillborn fetus for every week of gestation.  Amazing to see what our little babies start out as. 

We had several undergraduate students tagging along with us, which made for a very interesting trip from the hotel to the museum and, on public transportation, to the airport in time to catch our flights.  We got to see the real heart of Chicago, and all the many different people that live there.

Our trip to Chicago, overall, was awesome.  It was the perfect chance to get away and enjoy each other and have one more hurrah before we officially became parents.  Of course, had we known that, just a few years later, Chicago would become the nearest big city of choice, we probably would have gone to Aruba!

Our second babymoon wasn't technically in Life BC, but since a trip like that is all about taking a break from parenthood, I think it fits.  When I was 8 months pregnant with Adam, we left Leah with my parents and flew from Utah to Indiana to find a place to live while attending graduate school.  Since this trip came with a mission, it was hardly as restful or recreational as the first trip.

The night before we flew out, we stayed at my parents house to help Leah get settled in and to ease our early morning trip to the airport a bit.  It wasn't until 11:00 at night that I realized that I had forgotten to pack my tennis shoes- the only ones I could comfortably squeeze my fat feet into.  My sweet husband didn't hesitate to drive back to our apartment to pick them up and bring them to me- an hour long trip.  I think I cried the whole time he was gone- it was pretty hard for me to leave Leah for such a long time.

We flew into Indianapolis the next morning, and I was shocked at how small the city was and how flat the landscape was.  We passed a field that looked like the crops had just been burned, but Jason pointed out that the soil was just that black and rich.  It was amazing.

Once we got into town, I was further shocked by the variety of places we could live, the variety of people we encountered, and the wide range of emotions that I felt, most of which expressed how much I did NOT want to move to this place.

We stayed the first two nights with one of Jason's future professors, who was in the middle of renovating his 110 year old house.  Read: no air conditioning in Indiana in June.  We slept on a blow up mattress in a guest room that had no door, and there was no electricity in the house.  There is nothing sexy about taking a shower by candlelight in a bathroom that doesn't have a door when you're 8 months pregnant.  Beggars can't be choosers, I know, but the conditions were not ideal.  That first night we laid on our air mattress and watched massive clouds roll across the sky all night long.  We didn't know it was tornado season.

The last two nights we stayed with some friends from our student ward in Provo that had moved to Indiana a few years before us.  They kindly let us sleep in their bed while they slept on an air mattress (a level of hospitality I have yet to reach) and we felt much better after a good night's sleep.  That feeling was rather short-lived when we were delayed and delayed and delayed on our flight back to Utah.  Completely exhausted, I ended up curling into a ball on the floor of the Denver airport and sleeping half the night away.

Although this second trip was hardly glamorous, it was still a great chance for Jason and I to get away together, to recommit to our relationship, and to gear up for the awesome changes that our little family was about to experience.

And the most exciting news of this post is that our third babymoon is in the works- a trip to Washington DC in June.  I spent a total of 6 years there while growing up, and Jason has never been (gasp!)  It seems like the ideal place to visit without our kids, and we will be staying with family friends (again).  I guess we are just suckers for a cheap trip with a free bed- we need to make some friends in Aruba!

all pictures I didn't take came from wikipedia.com