Better Late Than Never

So, it's been a while since I posted. This post is a little late for Thanksgiving, but I think it's a good season to be counting blessings anyway. I was reading an article in the Ensign yesterday and realized that I could benefit from following one of the suggestions. The article suggests writing down 100 things you are thankful for and breaks it into 10 groups of 10. I did make a list but decided not to post it here. However, I challenge each of you to make your own list of 100 things you are thankful for (go read the article to find the 10 groups of 10) and share it with someone you love.

To catch up on what's going on with us, we bought a duplex in July. That's why the blog posts stopped - we have been very busy with many details pertaining to that. We are living in one unit and renting the other to four college girls. Per and Tripp and growing like crazy and keeping us very busy as well. Per turned 3 in August, and Tripp turned 1 in June.

Per, after getting his hair cut at the end of August. I think that's popsicle all over his face.

Some of my favorite things about Per right now are that he recites parts of books to himself frequently. He has a great memory and quotes books to me that have long since been returned to the library. He has also started singing songs for people besides just Zak and me, and it is adorable. He is nice to Tripp (most of the time) and very snuggle-y when it's time for bed. He is going to be a Sunbeam in a few short weeks and says he is excited for it.

Tripp is quite a climber. Here he is in the half-bath at Grandma's house, with the water turned on and the soap in the sink. Rascal.

Tripp has started saying TONS and TONS of words. We say a word in conversation and he immediately repeats it. Tripp's biggest word is "bulldozer." Count 'em - that's three syllables. I don't even know how many words he knows now, but he is getting to be a great communicator. He can tell me what songs he wants for nap time and bedtime. He can tell me what he wants to drink. He can tell me what toy he wants or if he needs a kiss better because he bonked his head. It is amazing to see him learn so much, so quickly. He is a loving little guy and loves giving his favorite stuffed animals (Pinky Bear and Piggie) hugs and kisses.

Both boys are doing great. Zak is teaching and enjoying that and looking forward to Christmas break. I am doing my best to keep up with cleaning, sewing, cooking, and child-rearing. It's a lot of work, but definitely the most rewarding kind.

This sort of reads like a Christmas letter -- so I guess you can consider it that way. I hope you all enjoy this month of December and the holiday season!

Summertime

I just looked to see when I last posted. Sheesh. How does time get away from me? Here are a few pictures to show what we've been doing for the last two months or so.

Swinging at the park.

Going on lots of walks.

Reading lots of books.

Learning the fine art of stuffing-crayons-in-the-nose.

Struggling with sleeping through the night.

Tripp had a birthday, shout hooray! And he demolished his cake. It. Was. Everywhere.

Tripp is experimenting with self-feeding using a spoon.Per still has chubby toddler cheeks. I love them.

That's basically what we've been up to. Just lots of time hanging out with each other, enjoying having Daddy home for the summer, riding the bus, and going to the park.

Some Vids

They do play well together. Sometimes.

See what I mean about the food?

Catch Up

Per and Daddy reading The Bears' Vacation this morning before Zak left for work.

I am pretty sure that it marks some sort of rite of passage to find a booger on the wall. I found one on Per's wall earlier this week. Ah, he's growing up so fast.

Some other tidbits about Per: He now loves toast with cinnamon and sugar. He has always loved toast, but he goes through phases with what he likes on his toast. Most recently, he loved toast with honey. I love the way he requests his toast now, though: "Mama, can I have toast with shuga-man and sugar?"

He sneezed yesterday and after doing so, said, "Bless my soul and call me silly!" That's something Zak has said since Per was very small, since Zak's sneezes are loud and used to make Per cry. He started using that saying to make Per smile instead of cry. And now Per is saying it.

Per loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and though I SWEAR I have only showed him Thomas videos a handful of times, he walks around saying, "Bust my buffers!" It's pretty cute.

Per thought it would be funny to wear Tripp's pants the other night after we took them off of Tripp. The funny thing is that they look just like a pair of shorts he would normally wear except for the snaps on the inside of the legs.

Per's favorite days of the week are Saturday and Sunday, since those are the days that Daddy is home all day and available to play. Also, on Sunday he gets to go to nursery and play with the toys, which he loves. He could do without the other kids, but he generally plays just fine when they are there.

We are the Bear den leaders in our ward, so we have a den meeting at the church two or three times a month. We hold that meeting in the nursery to help Per and Tripp be less bored. Per has taken to calling it "nursery cub scouts" and loves to say that he plays with Caleb and Payton in nursery cub scouts. He doesn't. They just show up, we do the activity, and then we hang around and play with the toys in the nursery or play basek-ball (Per's way of saying basketball) in the gym.

There's a view of those top teeth.

Tripp is a fast little baby -- he crawls up the stairs SO quickly! He is cruising along furniture more and more lately and tries to stand by himself often. He always has an extremely surprised look on his face when he falls down.

He is already learning how to push Per's buttons and likes to crawl all over Per when we read books together. He is also adept and pulling Per's hair and ears (playfully, of course) when we read together. Per is pretty good-natured about it, but when he has had enough he lets Tripp know.

Tripp wakes up a lot at night. Some nights are better than others, but he is slowly learning how to sleep for longer periods at a time. In fact, he has been asleep for six hours straight as I write this. It feels like a miracle!

Not a great picture since it's all blurry, but his face was so cute. I love Tripp's laugh.

Tripp is also a really good eater. He doesn't love baby food so much anymore, though he does tolerate some of the vegetables and likes most of the fruits. What he really wants is normal, big-person food. He devours anything we give him and wails if we don't share what we're eating. It's fun to see his personality emerging.

Per-snips

Lately Per loves to help me cook. He loves to stir things, to "knock down" the bread in the toaster, to turn on the Kitchen Aid, and he also LOVES to do the dishes. Like, he loves doing dishes more than he loves meatballs. And he loves meatballs. A LOT.


Here are just a couple of things that Per has said recently that I found funny:

The other day I was sitting at the computer working on paying bills and budgeting for a few minutes. Tripp was playing in his high chair and Per was in his favorite nook in the kitchen – under the computer desk. To tease him, I put my feet on him and started talking about how I loved this warm, soft footstool I had to rest my feet on. He immediately pushed my feet and legs away and said, “Mama, keep your feet to yourself please.”

Per likes to say (especially to Tripp), “If you don’t stop (insert action to stop here), there’s going to be a problem.”

Another thing Per likes to say to Tripp is, "That is not for you. Sorry, buddy. Sorry, kiddo. You may not have that."

We were saying a prayer before Per's nap time/rest time today. Here’s a pretty close rendition of what Per said, “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you Daddy can have a good day at work. Bless that we can sing Old MacDonald. Bless that we can sing the next verse. Bless that we can sing the tractor. And the tractor says, 'Chug, chug, chug.' Thank you for this body. Thank you for Mom’s body. Thank you for Tripp’s body so he can poop. Thanks for Dad’s body.” And then he closed the prayer, though not without giving Mom a little chastising swat since I had started shaking with silent laughter at the “poop” line. Kids are so great.

This just in: Per is eating a popsicle at the kitchen table and he just said to Tripp, "Trippton, that's cold, brotha!"

Playing

I love watching these boys play together. They are so hilarious!

P.S. I just figured out how to post video to my blog. Can you tell?

P.P.S. I just realized that Per is wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt in each of the videos I have posted tonight. Those are his two shirts of choice anytime they are clean. He looooves his Mickey shirts.

Tripp's Acrobatics

So, in my defense, it was laundry day. That's why Tripp is wearing a summer romper with a pair of frou-frou Baby Legs (note: they were FREE. So, yeah, they're kind of girly, and Tripp is a boy. Did I mention they were FREE?) and his jacket. At least, I think it was laundry day. Mama was at home having a much-needed break while Daddy took the boys to Grandma's house.

Our little Tripp is incredibly determined. It's fun to see him moving around and starting to crawl more and more. Now he pulls up and stands next to furniture. Or legs. Or whatever he can grab on to. He likes to walk around with someone holding his hands. Per walked at 14 months. I don't think we have that much time with this little turkey.

Also, nice face, Zak. And I'm not sure who was the scoundrel, Grandma or Per.

Finally, many thanks to Grandma for capturing this moment!

Poor Empty Pants

I made these pants for Per Saturday night, as he had very helpfully gotten marker on his other khaki Sunday pants. Found the pattern here. Loving the Celebrate the Boy month that is going on on MADE and Made by Rae. There are some variations on the pants on her site which I am really excited to try making, too! The pants were really easy to make (And I am not great with sewing clothes. Really. I'm not.). It took me an hour from the time I decided to make them to completion. I used some fabric my mom sent me a while back (thanks, Mom!).

And then I remembered these pants from circa 1978 and dug out this picture from my parents' slide collection. (My sister left a comment that these pants were made for her and she was totally embarrassed to wear them because my DAD made them! GASP! I think that's awesome! And, BTW, I would totally wear those pants if I had them.)

And so I thought a little Dr. Seuss was apropos:

I put my arm around their waist
And sat right down beside them.
I calmed them down.
Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them.

I guess we have a sort of family tradition with Empty Pants. Poor things.

The Radiation Suit

Tripp wasn't digging his IKEA bib-with-sleeves.

This is his face when he saw me coming with the food. It must've been pears or sweet potatoes. Those are his favorites right now.

And I set the food down on the table as he looks on beneficently. Said beneficence being that he is actually going to eat the food I'm going to attempt to feed him.

Oh, what a cute baby. I can say that about my own kid, right?

The Buzz

Kind of like The Sting, but instead, it's The Buzz. Yeah, okay, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This is how long Per's hair was.

This gives an even better idea.

Here's mid-Buzz.

And the finished product.

We didn't know it was possible for Per to be even cuter.

But it is.

Shenanigans

Tripp has been growing lots and learning to do new things. He can sit up by himself for about 30 seconds and is getting better at it every day. He started eating rice cereal last week and has a healthy appetite. He had his 6 month check up yesterday and is 27 1/4 inches tall and weighs almost 17 pounds. He is a friendly little guy and always has a smile on. The hat is courtesy of Per. He thought he was hilarious for putting this hat on Tripp.

Per is also a delight.

He discovered recently that crayons color on lots of things besides the pages of his coloring books, such as the wall, the dishwasher, and the refrigerator. Even on the screen of our Mac. Luckily crayon comes off of computer screens with some water, a microfiber cloth, and lots of patient, gentle rubbing, and Goo-Gone works wonders on all the others.

Yesterday I was trying to get him to be cheerful about something he didn't want to do and I asked him to give me a smile. His response: "No, Mama. I don't want a make a smile."
He is also growing like crazy. He is 36 1/2 inches tall and weighs around 31 pounds. He learns multiple new words every day. And he's not afraid to use 'em.
His first foray into sugar cookie decorating. He would dab a tiny bit onto the cookie and then request "annuzer one." Guess there's nothing like a blank canvas.
Per's Christmas haul. His favorite present is his lair (pronounced "yay-er") which he's sitting in. He likes us to put a blanket over it and play hide and seek. He directs us from the safety of his lair as to where we should look for him. Some favorite spots are: in the closet, behind the tv, behind the Christmas tree, under the couch, and behind the blue chair. It's a pretty funny game.
Per loves his little brover.
"Dis Twippton Max Lewsis."

Today's Affirmation

I am a responsible parent.

I am a responsible parent.

I am a responsible parent.

I am a responsible parent.

Tidbits

Tripp is soooo wiggly. He wiggles right out of his pj's sometimes.

Oh, to be able to sleep like this. Per loves his big boy bed. And his Mickey Mouse sheets.

These kinds of moments make me happy.

An Early Morning Testimonial

I was only recently introduced to this sinus rinse. I have to say, it's probably the best thing to happen to my nose and sinuses ever. I was hesitant to try it at first, seeing as water going up my nose has not ever been and will never be my favorite thing. (Who likes water up their nose? Anyone?) I don't enjoy swimming underwater because water gets up my nose too easily.

BUT.

I was getting a cold earlier this fall and was all stuffed up and having trouble sleeping and I thought, "What's the worst thing that could happen?" The worst thing, obviously, would have been that the sinus rinse did nothing and I continued to having difficulty breathing through my nose. I tried it (and you really do have to kind of get the hang of it--I have to consciously tell myself to breathe through my mouth while I'm using it) and it worked!! I was able to breathe through my nose better and I really believe that my cold was of shorter duration than it otherwise would've been. All that yucky stuff was getting flushed out at least once a day, so that has to help, right?

Now I have a cold again that started a few days ago. My littlest is going through this cold with me, which is all the more incentive for me to get better fast. He doesn't sleep as well with a cold, therefore, I don't get as much sleep either, since he wants to eat every time he wakes up. Can't blame the poor little guy. As soon as I realized that I was getting stuffy, I started using this rinse twice a day. And it is just as helpful this time around as it was the last time. For anyone reading who has ever wondered about using a sinus rinse (or neti pot, I think they are pretty similar, though I haven't ever tried the neti pot), you should go for it!

p.s. One other major benefit to this (at least for someone in my stage of life) is that it is safe during pregnancy and nursing. So no worries about side effects. I wish I had known about this during my pregnancy with Per -- I had sinus infections non-stop!

Early

Just finished watching the movie Ondine with Colin Farrell. Weird. Weird, weird, weird. It was categorized as Sci Fi/Fantasy on Netflix. Huh. (**Spoiler Alert**) This Irish fisherman finds a woman in the sea while he's out fishing one day. His daughter (and he) come to believe that she's a selkie. It turns out that she is actually a drug mule who escaped from evil drug lords in Romania. But she "heals" the fisherman's daughter. Except it was actually just chance that an accident happened and someone was a match for the kidney transplant she needed. And it ends with a wedding.

As I'm finishing this... weird... movie, I hear Per rattling his doorknob. The rattling stops and I think that I have a few minutes to finish up what I'm doing before I go up and get him. Then I hear him coming down the stairs! He has learned to open his door. Oh, joy. When he catches sight of me, he announces, "Mama, I'm done with my nap!"

This day is beginning a bit early for me.


ps Why am I watching movies at 6:30 in the morning? Because that is my sewing time. It's the only time I can find lately to do something I like to do before the day begins. So. I like to watch movies while I sew.

Keep in mind, I don't really recommend Ondine. Too... weird.

Just Watched This.

Now that's funny.

Is it wrong that I find this so funny?

Frances and other sundries

Per is a big Frances fan. He also likes Berenstain Bears, Little Critter, and anything remotely resembling a backhoe. And even things that are really nothing like backhoes, but are big and yellow. Such as school buses. He goes crazy for 'em. Oh. And he loooooves Mickey Mouse.

We were reading Best Friends for Frances (though A Bargain for Frances is still my favorite Frances book) this morning and there is a passage that is so funny to me. Here's the scene: Frances and her little sister Gloria are going on a Best Friends outing, No Boys allowed. This is because her friend Mr. Fat Albert said she couldn't play baseball with him and Harold. Frances is quite put out by that, so Frances and Gloria parade past Albert's house with a wagon containing a large hamper and a sign declaring their intended BF outing. Albert rushes out, quite sure that the large hamper is full of food.

And here's the passage:

"What is in that hamper?" asked Albert as he came running out of his house.
"I don't know," said Frances. "Nothing much. Hard-boiled eggs and whole fresh tomatoes. Carrot and celery sticks. There are some cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches, I think, and cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches too, and salami-and-egg and pepper-and-egg sandwiches. Cole slaw and potato chips, of course. Ice-cold root beer packed in ice, and watermelon and strawberries and cream for dessert. And there are other things I forget, like black and green olives and pickles and popsicles and probably some pretzels and things like that. And there are salt and pepper shakers and napkins and a checked tablecloth, which is the way girls do it."

Have you ever heard of two small children (though they are badgers, and perhaps they metabolize differently than humans) eating THAT MUCH food in one sitting? I especially like the last sentence where Frances informs Albert that having napkins and a checked tablecloth is the way girls do it.

I mean, earlier in the book, Albert gives a list of what is in his lunch for his wandering day, and it's no small lunch:

"It's nothing much," said Albert. "Four or five sandwiches and some apples and bananas and two packages of cupcakes and a quart of chocolate milk."

Yeah.

Nothing much.

And by the way, who eats cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches or cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches? I guess I need to have a more adventurous palate, but neither combination sounds very appetizing to me.

It Takes A Village

Now, I know I am not the only person out there who feels the truth of this equation.

That being said, I want you to know that it takes a village to do my laundry. Or, it would. If I had a small village at my disposal. Any takers?

There are several steps involved in the whole grueling, never-ending process.

First:
I have to work up the motivation to actually begin the laundry. This sometimes includes some motivational internal dialogue with myself, and sometimes not. I find it's easier if I don't think about it. I just make myself get started. That seems to work well most of the time.

Second:
The sorting and gathering.
Laundry is generated in every room in my house. Literally.
Okay, so it's not a house. It's a small apartment. But still.
The kitchen generates towels, dishcloths, washcloths for children's faces, and bibs.
The front room... well, let's just say that Per sometimes likes to take off various articles of clothing here. Socks. Pants. Shirts. Depends on his mood.
The hallway is the site of our diaper pail. Since I cloth diaper our two boys, there is a huge amount of laundry generated there.
Per's bedroom and our bedroom are pretty obvious. Laundry central.
The laundry room is the landing place of much of the kitchen laundry that is damp. It sits on the dryer until I am ready to begin a load.
And the bathroom -- towels, washcloths.

And can I just interject here: sometimes the basket in our room gets so full that the laundry begins to climb the wall. Literally. It has been as high as the light switch before, and very occasionally, higher. I am a bit ashamed of that fact, but for the sake of honesty, I thought I'd best admit it. That is one of the reasons I sometimes cringe when it's time to fold.
There. Is. Just. SO. Much. Laundry.

So you get the picture.
Doing laundry requires me to gather all items needing to be washed from these various rooms and to sort them into their proper loads.

Then I have to put the laundry in the washer. Yeah, yeah. You know how laundry works.

Third:
Sometimes it's a Herculean feat to get the laundry started in the washing machine. The washing/drying process usually goes pretty well once I have it started. But sometimes I stall out. Or forget that the laundry is meant to be going. Or whatever. I have two kids. Life happens.

Fourth:
Once the laundry is dry, it generally gets put into a laundry basket and transferred either to my bed (the strategy here is that I will not be able to get in the bed until the laundry is folded and off the bed) or the couch in the front room. Usually the couch wins out, since I am prone to scooping up the laundry from my bed and depositing it on the couch so that I can go to bed without folding it. May as well save myself a step, you know?
It may sit on the couch for a number of days. Or not. Depends on how motivated I am. Usually not very, sadly.

Fifth:
The folding. Grrr. Enough said.

Sixth:
The putting away. This is sometimes the most difficult part for me. It's like, I'm so close to being finished with this load of laundry (or loads, more likely), I can taste it. But I just can't make the time to get the laundry transferred from its clean, folded state in the basket back to the drawers and closets where it belongs. Sigh. I frequently find Zak digging through the basket for socks or pants or whatever. And I've done that myself, too.

One final note:
While I mostly enjoy cloth diapering, the diaper laundering process is something I am still fine-tuning. I recently started hanging all of the diaper laundry on a drying rack which means it takes quite a while to dry. So there're another few steps to the routine -- it comes out of the washer and I have to hang it up. Then I have to wait for it to dry, usually 24 hours or so, in the meantime hoping that I'll not run out of diapers for either of the boys. Then I have to take it off the rack, sort out the inserts for Per's diapers and the inserts for Tripp's diapers, plus the little flannel liners I put in Per's diapers. Then I stuff and fold the diapers. Then they sit in little piles in the laundry basket until I get them put away in their respective rooms.

And, did I mention? As soon as I get a load in the washer, someone dirties something else. Without fail. Sometimes it's me that does it. The piles begin again, ad nauseam, ad infinitum...

So, wanted: A small village with nothing better to do than do my laundry...


P.S. There is a basket of laundry sitting in the front room RIGHT NOW, waiting to be folded. And I could've been folding it while I was writing this post.
To borrow a phrase from Per, "So silly Mama."

Favorite Things

Tripp is a great sleeper. He has been sleeping for 6-9 hours at a time at night! What a lucky mama I am!

Isn't Per adorable? That is my old Raggedy Andy pillowcase from when I was little. I love when he sleeps in til 9 o'clock.

BountifulBaskets.org. $15 gets you all this. It's a co-op that operates in 8 states. I think you save something like $35 per basket. You can't see the green beans and plums since they are in plastic sacks in the back. But they were there. And they were gooood. All of the produce has been really good. It has been nice to have such a huge supply of fruits and veggies without paying grocery store prices.

Finally catching some of Tripp's first smiles on camera. He is so happy first thing in the morning.

King Peregrine. It has a nice ring to it, huh?