Happy Talk

#2 had his last week of speech therapy this week, as he turns 3 on February 4th and the early intervention program ends. He has come a LONG way. The greatest result is that he is happier. It's been at least three weeks since he hit, pushed, bit or threw sand at anyone at the park. The frustration is draining and the happy spirit that was always in there is now becoming apparent in the little songs he sings to himself, or the pleasure he gets when he says something and people understand! We still have a lot of work to do for him to catch up, but with his new confidence and attitude, I have great hopes.

CTR

On our way to our friend's house today, #1 pointed out that she was wearing her CTR ring. In a very knowing voice she asked me, "Do you know what that means Mom?"

"Yes, I do. Do you know what it means?"

"It means be good and be kind."

"Oh. I thought it meant Choose The Right."

"Nope. But you were close."

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In the car again later today and #1 looked so lovely with her head leaning on the window. I told her how beautiful she is and more importantly how beautiful her spirit is. She said, "Do you know what my spirit looks like? It's purple with a pink heart on it."

top teeth

This picture is one of the attempts I made at getting a picture of #3's new top teeth. They broke through about 4 days ago and look so cute! (PS the teeth that you can see in the picture are actually her bottom teeth)

My wildest dream come true

I've mentioned on this blog how tiny our house is thus making every square inch valuable real estate. Living in this house is a continual process of organizing, rearranging and reorganizing. Every trip to Costco means an afternoon making room. Holidays, even though I love them, mean that I've got to find space for new things. Food storage requires great creativity. So shelves in my kids closets have been a priority for quite a while. And finally, after more than a year of begging, I've got them.

sweet spouse wielding a nail gun

#1's closet - the finished product

No pictures of #2's closet - it didn't stay clean long enough to get a picture

All's Well that Ends Well

About half way through The Water Horse, #2 became a bit agitated by the suspenseful scene. He jumped out of his seat and ran up the theater stairs behind us, screaming in terror. Spouse retrieved him and took an empty seat near the top of the theater with #2 on his lap. I watched this unravel helplessly with #3 enjoying a bottle on my lap. A few moments later I was surprised to be approached by the theater manager who crouched down next to my chair.

"We've had a few complaints about one of your kids making a disturbance."

I played dumb. #1 was sitting quietly still next to me, #3 was in a milk drunken stupor in my arms. I looked at the man and said, "I'm sorry, what is the problem?"

"I've had two complaints about your kids running around."

"Well, I don't see any of my kids running around."

I felt defiant because my son was not the only kid out of his seat. And besides, who goes to a kids movie and is bothered because there are kids there? They deserved to be "disturbed."

A little bit later spouse and #2 rejoined us in our original seats. I told him about the complaints and we both rolled our eyes. But a few minutes later, during another tense scene, #2 shrieked in fear and because he felt so self conscience, spouse took #2 out of the movie.

After the show I complained to the manager and he gave me three free movie passes. All is forgiven. (Except for my precious pedometer that fell between two seats and is never to be seen again!)

I dream of #3

After a few too many quiet minutes I finally checked on #1 and #3 who were playing in their room. This is what I found. #3 is helpless to the dressing impulses of #1. Yesterday it was a pair of Thomas the Train 3T underpants.

pedometer

I got a pedometer yesterday. Of course, it only arrived after I walked 4 miles, so my final step count was only 596 instead of the target goal of 10,000+ steps. When I pulled it out of the packaging, #1 grabbed it and said, "Cool! You get your own timer!" It doesn't actually time anything, but it calculates calories burned as per your inputted height and weight. Right now, my pedometer reads 3989 steps (I sat in church for 3 hours.....so give me a break!). That kind of sounds like a lot of steps, right? With 3989 steps you would think I had earned myself an extra snickerdoodle, right? WRONG! 3989 steps only burned me a measly 114 calories! Isn't that lame!

I've never given much credibility to calorie counters or calorie charts, especially the ones on treadmills. They don't even consider that I'm BIG BONED! Shouldn't that count for something? Big bones should be burning more calories!

Spouse hates it when I talk about being big boned. He considers it akin to having a "sweet spirit." It's like I'm insulting myself.

My senior year in high school my aerobics teacher had us figure out our BMI or some kind of health index. It calculated your healthy weight based on height, weight, age and BONE STRUCTURE. There was a formula to decide if you were small, normal or big. I was big.

So I just think that my nifty new pedometer should have had me input my bone size, then I'd be eating that extra snickerdoodle right now instead of complaining about it.

#2 and #2

Fairly early this morning as I was wrapping up a smelly diaper (courtesy of #2) I suddenly decided that today was potty training day.  I immediately started filling him up with beverage after beverage and after a few tries, he finally peed in the toilet. I made a huge deal out of it, we called Nana and Dad and then had some m&ms.  He successively peed 8 or 9 more times throughout the day, with no accidents.  However, there has been no poop. This child typically fills 4-5 diapers a day with the brown stuff, so today is certainly unusual.  I don't remember #1 having a poop problem potty training.  What do I do?  

My second p.t. concern:  So all day he went around with no pants or diaper on. Remember, I hadn't planned on this happening today, so I didn't have any underpants ready.  When spouse got home today, I ran to Target and grabbed a few packs of underwear. #2 looked so cute in his new Thomas the Train underpants!  But within a half hour of putting them on, he had wet them!  All day, running around buck naked he didn't have a single accident.  What is it with the underpants?  Unfortunately, this happened fairly close to bed time, so I felt undecided about what to do during the night. He's in bed with underpants on, but I'm so afraid he's not only going to wet them, but also.......#2 in them!  Mothers of potty trained boys, please share your wisdom.  (and anyone else with a good hint)

Power to the People! (Shabby Apple revisited)

REVOLUTION! Alright, not a revolution. But a small battle on the field of the little people has been won.

A few weeks ago I received a very polite and apologetic letter from Athelia Woolley, the owner of Shabby Apple regarding my poor experience with Shabby Apple. She wrote :

I came across your blog in the cyber-world and was horrified at the terrible experience you had.

1) It's always terribly disappointing to get something you don't like.

2) It IS indeed a pain to ship things back. (I hate doing it and rarely do.)

3) You absolutely should have been refunded your shipping cost.

4) You should have been treated MUCH, MUCH better!

I know that this apology does not make up for your bad experience but I DO want you to know that you've made a difference in our company. (text enlargement by PfP)

1) We've changed our customer service representative.

2) We are in the process of changing our return policy.

A week later I received a free dress in the mail. And if you go to the website you can see that the shipping policy has indeed changed; if you are not pleased with the dress you can ship it back for free.

The dress that S.A. sent me fits much better than the one I had originally ordered. The knit material is a bit bulky for my borderline-bulky body, so standard dress shoes seem out of balance; the dress needs to be worn with tall leather boots. On the website the dress is shown as being worn with the collar up, however, I think it looks better folded down on me. I wanted to post a picture of me wearing the dress. Under the dress I had on slim boot cut jeans and 4 inch heel black boots, but spouse said he wouldn't take the picture.... he hates the jeans under dress trend. I thought it was a great combination.

Apparently right now, this dress (the polo) and a few others are on sale.

Whatever you conclude about the Shabby Apple dresses, at least now you can try them out practically risk free. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Sugar withdrawl

Except for the occasional diet coke (ok, a little more than occasional) I would consider myself to be free from bad food and drink habits.  I'm no health nut, but when you consider all the people with alcohol, tobacco and drug addictions, my diet looks pretty squeaky clean.  However, because of the constant baking and eating of delicious buttery and sugary treats over that past month I think I might have a small sugar addiction.  NOT SMALL!  Every night for the past week, I've been going crazy craving for cinnamon rolls! peanut butter balls! peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses on top! Godiva Almond Truffles! sweet breads! Where are the treats? I need sweet treats! 

This really sucks. And brushing my teeth isn't helping.  

I'm not making this stuff up.  I learned in Supersize Me that your body can in fact form a legitimate addiction to sugar and fat.  

Anyone interested in forming a support group? 

9 years and counting

Spouse and I recently heard an interesting observation about marriage given by the officiator at my little sister's wedding.  He said, "Marriage is the most awful wonderful thing." What a perfectly realistic summation.  I love the law of opposition and that it rings especially true in your marriage; you experience the worst so you can appreciate the best.  

So to commemorate our 9 year anniversary (December 29) here are 9 of the most awful wonderful moments of our marriage:

February 2001 - Spouse and I spend a lame 5 hours in jail because we forgot to pay our seat-belt tickets. Yes, I got a ticket too as the passenger. We got one phone call and we used it to call spouse's mom to let her know we'd be late for Sunday dinner.  This is serious crime work for Utah police.  

June 2001 - We move into our 1st home. Spouse did tons of work on this house, he even built the mantel, the bannister and all the finish work. Although we loved it, we didn't really appreciate how lucky we were. 

May 2002 - We leave our family and beautiful home and move to Arizona.  Spouse and my brother narrowly escape death on the drive down. However, the trailer they were pulling with all of our stuff didn't fare so well. Everything (but my new piano) was smashed to splinters.

November 2002 - #1 is born after an dramatic labor and delivery. At one point I was screaming, "You're killing me!" 

November 2002 - Spouse breaks his ankle playing Turkey bowl tackle football - has two screws put in two weeks later.  Nice timing huh? 

February 2005 - #2 is born weighing a whoppin' 9 lbs 12 oz, 22 1/2 inches long - and this is when the madness which is our lives began.

May 2005 -  HALLELUJAH!! Spouse graduates from Architecture school.  Coming home after two days only to shower and go back to school - OVER! House filling with existential architectural theory thesis material - OVER! Single motherhood - OVER! 

June 2005 - Move to current residence, and within hours totally regret it- It was our neighbor's live Mariachi band that played until 5 am. This was during the time when houses were selling within hours, and we didn't have many options.  However, it didn't take us long to find tons of great friends who were stuck in the same boat.

May 2007 - #3 is born after a quiet, calm labor and delivery.  She is a calming force in our family, just what we needed.

Spouse, if you ever read my blog, listen up because I'm about to shout from the rooftops - I LOVE YOU! You keep me laughing and loving life. Thank you for not letting me take things too seriously and for somehow seeing past my many flaws.  The past nine years have been the most awful wonderful years and I'm so glad they were spent with you. Happy anniversary.