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.

Just When I Bought The 24 Pack....

In the early days of our marriage, we knew a couple that seemed to have a new plan for the path to success every week.  He wanted to be a doctor of sorts and, despite poor grades and test scores, was determined to make it happen.  Their plan constantly changed- from week to week they had a new plan on how they were going to get into medical school and get that degree.  One way or another, they were going to make it happen.

I didn't have any vested interest in the decisions they were making, but I always loved updates and found them quite amusing.  Not that we had a great plan of our own, but they just didn't seem to quite have it "figured out".  Well.... here I am years later, eating my very bitter humble pie.

It has been nine months now since Jason accepted employment with Dow, wrote and defended his thesis, and started work (yesterday!  Woo hoo!).  And for every day of those nine months, we have had a different plan on how and when to get our family to Iowa.  The dates have changed, the housing arrangements have changed, the various combinations of people living where and for how long have changed.  I'm sure for many people, it has been quite amusing to watch our little family flounder and fumble our way through these last nine months.

Up until last week, the latest plan was that the kids and I were going to stay here until the end of the school year and Jason would go there himself in April.  We'd meet up in May, take a quick trip out west, then move into our new house in June.  Only, I'm getting a sneaky suspicion that our house is not going to be ready as soon as I want it to be ready (everything should have been done yesterday, people!).  Which leaves us with no option in June than to stay in my parents basement until the house is done.  Which would be fun in it's own right, but would bring us up to 3 months without a daddy and husband around to complete our family.  So we've kept looking in Iowa.

Thankfully last week we found a reasonable short term lease option that will keep our family together- and housed- until the end of July.  And if our house isn't done by then, we'll just pitch a tent on the dirt and sleep there until it is.  (Oh, how I hope I'm joking as I type that.)

So, the great news is that we've finalized our plan.  The slightly more scary part of the news is that we're moving in 18 days.  Not even a full three weeks and we'll be packed up and moved on.  On to a new school, a new town, a new church.  A new job, a new neighborhood and an eagle eye on the construction of our house.  I'm not sure I've got my head wrapped around it just yet.  But I am thrilled that we are doing it together.  I'm also overwhelmed, excited, anxious, nervous... I've moved a few times before (this will be lucky number 13 for me.  I've certainly gotten used to saying, "Hi!  I'm Melanie and I'm new here...")

Now, if I only had a buck for every time I've said, "Well, the latest plan is..." our down payment on our house could be a heck of a lot bigger than it is right now!  But I'm completely thrilled that I'm done trying to figure out just how many rolls of toilet paper we will need, or what size bottle of olive oil to buy, or how many diapers I should order so I don't have to pack along any extras in the move.  I'm excited to face forward, to prepare for the days of settling into a new home (far off as they may seem right now).  And some day, presumably not too far from now, we'll be able to look back on this all and see the reason for our plans ending up as they did.  I hope.

And because they are far more exciting than pictures of piles of junk I've yet to sell/donate/pack, I've sprinkled this post with pictures of our recent snow day.

The Disney Dream Dining

The Disney Dream is a place visit in my mind at least once a day, usually during breakfast when I'm realizing that the dishes have to be cleaned up and the floor swept and the trash taken out... all by me.  The kids and I close our eyes and take deep breaths and say ".... Disnnnnnneeeyyyyyyy!"  We love to pretend that we are on on the cruise, ordering our food from Kurt (who yells out "Sweetie!") and trying different drinks from Aut ("Oooohhhhh- you like cranberry juice tonight!").  Once, while playing genie in a bottle, Adam looked at me with all the sincerity of his little body could muster and said, "I wish that I were on the Disney cruise again."  It remains a topic of daily conversation around here.

The food on the boat was everywhere.  My favorite memory was when Jason and I decided we wanted a little treat and we turned down a hall and found a pastry corner.  We pointed to which among the chocolate eclairs, gourmet cookies, and powdered truffles we wanted and they just handed them to us.  It was like a dream (especially a graduate-student-budget dream, where the closest we get to picking out what we want from behind the bakery glass is choosing the free sugar cookie or no cookie at all).

There was never anything to want for- from 24 hour room service that delivered Krispy Kreme donuts to our door-

to endless buffets and ice cream cone stations- 

to giant chocolate chip cookies handed out on the island and Mickey-shaped waffles with strawberries and cream-

it was everywhere and it was amazing!  

Every night had a themed dinner of sorts- Pirate Night was the most fun.  

There are three dining rooms on the boat, each with a different and beautiful theme.  Leah's favorite was the Enchanted Garden-

 

My favorite was The Animator's Palate- 

the food was absolutely amazing, although all I can remember about it now is the mushroom truffles.  

And we all loved the Royal Palace- 

The same two people served us each night- Kurt from Jamaica and Aut from Thailand.  We like to pretend that they followed us home, and are in our house serving up Mickey ketchup, refilling our cranberry juice, offering double desserts and sneaking us pb&js.  They were one of the very best parts of the cruise.

 Jason was sitting next to Adam the two nights that he passed out at dinner.  There was so much to see and do all day long, dinner was one of the few moments that he was sitting still!

Adam-isms

Der was a big car driving by... it was terrifying... Emma's nerves were shot.

*****

I helped Mommy make the dinner.  I peeled FOUR carrots.  FOUR!

*****

Adam- I caught a dolphin from the ocean!  I put it in my backpack.

Leah- Dolphins need water, Adam, so it can't be in your backpack.

Adam- My backpack is made out of water, so it's happy in there.

*****

On the joys of growing up- I just need two more birthdays and then I will get to got to kindergarten!

*****

Musings in the car- Mommy, where is heaven?  

Me- Well, we don't know exactly where heaven is, but we do know that Heavenly Father and the people who love us are near watching us to see if we are doing good things.

Adam- And where is Satan?

Me- Well, Satan is here on the earth.  He doesn't have a body like us, so he likes to try to trick us into to making bad choices with our bodies.

Adam- If Satan tried to trick me I would punch him in the nose!

*****

Screaming through the house- Mommy!  Moooooommy!  Oh!  I forgot I'm not supposed to scream through the house.  I just needed to tell you that I LOVE YOU!!!!!

*****

Whispering in my ear while I'm lying in bed- Mommy?  Are you sick a little?

Me- Yes, just a little.

Adam- Guys!  Mommy is sick a little bit!  She is in her bed!

*****

Lying in my bed early in the morning-

Adam- Dis is how you spell "no"- N. O.  Dis is how you spell "ok"- O.K.  Dis is how you spell "spoon" S.P.O.O.N.

Me, wondering what else he can spell- Can you spell "dog"?

A- D.O.G.

M- Can you spell cat?

A- C.A.T.

M- Little smarty pants.

A- It's because I ate sooo many smarties!

*****

Me- Adam, why are you so adorable?

Him- Because you love me soooo much!

And now for a picture that will mortify him in years to come-

I couldn't help taking this picture after church on Sunday.  It was a very nice day out, but I insisted that Adam wear shoes outside.  Guess I should have mentioned the pants part, too.

I Had A Birthday

 This one kind of snuck up on me, but boy was it a good one!

I woke up to a surprise of 31 hand written notes posted around the house from all four of my sweeties, beautiful flowers, and a tasty breakfast made by someone else!  (Jason, so it was edible, too!)  Thanks to a very generous friend, Jason and I were still able to go out on a date night dinner even though Leah came home from school sick that day.  She came to our house and let us go out for a few hours.  Then we had a family birthday party.  Jason asked me what the best part of being 30 was (the Disney cruise, naturally) and what I was most excited about in turning 31.  When I responded, "I think I'd like to have another baby this year" I laughed as two sets of huge brown owl eyes turned to each other, blinked in disbelief, turned to me, then blinked in disbelief again.  So cute, and so funny to watch.

While opening a generous pile of packages that had been sent our way, I laughed as a mystery package was opened to reveal a sample of the wood flooring that we selected for our house.  What a timely reminder of the huge present I will be getting in a few months!  And though I made him promise me that it wasn't a birthday present so much as a sanity-saving necessity, Jason bought me a fantastically huge and fast computer last recently that puts my 7-year-old dinosaur to shame.  Even Adam has figured out the difference between the "fast" computer and the "slow" computer and insists on playing on the new one.

But the best present by far was the day trip I got to take to Chicago with my dear friend Rachael.  We left early in the morning and got home suuuper late at night and had a wonderful day talking, eating, shopping, climbing to the top of the John Hancock building, getting hand massages at Lush, and experiencing many firsts- some Chicago related, some not so much (Trader Joes!  Garrets popcorn!  Home Goods! The Grand Lux!).  And I'll always remember the crazy bird that attacked me in the parking lot, backing up in the dark to pay a toll on the expressway, the luxury of a two-hour lunch, and the impressive sprint Rachael took up the escalator- in the wrong direction- to catch our cart in Ikea.  There is nothing quite like a day with a girlfriend to feel completely rejuvenated- it was so nice to remember that above all of the other names I'm called, I'm Melanie first.  Many thanks to our awesome husbands for helping to make it happen.  Now let's see what this crazy year is going to bring!

For another fantastic take on the day away, go here!

The End of an Era

Leah is started full-day kindergarten tomorrow.  Yes, 6 months into the school year and only about 9 weeks to go, she and I have finally decided that it's time.  She is excited to start spending more time with her classmates and her teacher, to eat in the cafeteria, to enjoy recess and getting to do specials- math, art, science, gym, and music.  I am excited for her to gain a little more independence- she is such a funny, sweet, smart little girl, and she is very shy around adults- at times it is nearly impossible for her to get the words out of her mouth when she is speaking with an adult.

Her fabulous kindergarten teacher told me that Leah is "in love with Mommy"- she loves to talk about me and tell and write stories about me (heaven help me as to what she might be disclosing!).  I love that she loves me, and she has always been my special little sweetie, but I'm excited to see how spending more time away from her might help her gain confidence about who she is.

At home, we are looking forward to getting Emma down for a nap when she needs it (she falls asleep on the way to pick up Leah every single day), for Adam and I to get a little more one-on-one time, and for Leah to be all the more excited to be home when she is with us.

Still.... I'll miss the lazy afternoons of make-believe, reading, coloring, napping or resting, baking, crafting and homeschooling- my attempts to make up for what she has been missing at school (although her teacher tells me she is ahead in every academic area that she has been tested).  It will be harder to squeeze that same time in once Leah is getting off that big yellow bus (that still tugs at my heartstrings daily) at nearly 4 in the afternoon.  It's the end of an era... at least until spring break starts in 3 weeks!  Then we'll be glad to have our sweet little tiny with us again!

Resilient

There is a scene in Home Alone where Kevin decides to sled down his stairs and out the front door.  Adam decided to recreate the scene last week, only the sled was our laundry basket and Kevin... was Emma.

She seemed a little fazed but largely unhurt after she unearthed herself at the bottom of the stairs (he was thoughtful enough to pad the basket with sheets that were waiting to be washed).  Given the fact that Adam ran and hid from me, then tried to convince me that she scooted herself over to and then down the stairs, I'm guessing he knew it was a bad choice, at least after the fact.

He is a lot rougher with her now than he was when she was a baby.  When she was a cooing lump of cuteness, he never really seemed to notice her, and certainly never tried to hurt her (intentionally or unintentionally).  But now that she is a walking, talking, running, biting, eye-poking, face-slapping little girl that can inflict pain on her big brother, he's decided that she can hold her own.

And for the most part, she can.  But we had a good long talk about what is right and wrong an determined that pushing your little sister straight down 15 stairs- at any age- is always going to be considered wrong.