Mommy, wow! Tom's a big boy now!

Yup, and he's proud of it, too! We started potty training a bit over 3 weeks ago.  The first week was a little rough, but then suddenly everything clicked.  We started having better success and less fights over sitting on the toilet every hour.  Katie was a fantastic cheerleader for Tom because she wanted her Jelly Belly reward, too.  The only accidents we had were when I was distracted with Katie.  And then at the beginning of this week, Tom was waking me up at 7 am to tell me he had to pee on the potty...while he was still wearing the overnight diaper that he was fully aware he is allowed to pee in!  He usually wakes up around 7, climbs in bed with me and we cuddle back to sleep for another hour.  We've had several days with a 7 am potty run, more sleep, and another wake up call for the toilet.  There are plenty of other times that Tom will announce his need to go to the bathroom when he's still wearing a diaper or pull-up from bed or naptime.  And in public?  Yep, he still told me at the library and Pizza Hut that he needed to pee.  And we had some excitement this weekend when we went to Shad's parents' house and he kept up on his bathroom useage, even when I wasn't the one around to help him.  He also pooped on the toilet twice, one being voluntarily this morning! This boy is definitely going to be professional by the time Sundance arrives, which is my ultimate goal.

I am now 7 months, or 3/4 of the way pregnant and enjoy mild third trimester symptoms--having my energy run low on me, needing a nap occasionally, suddenly being wide awake in the middle of the night for half an hour and thus becoming aware of a grumbling stomach and venturing down to the kitchen, and starting recently, the "Woah! There go my hips."  So I'm trying to keep myself motivated to work hard any way I can when I feel able to because I still have so much to do before Sundance arrives.  Aside from keeping up with general housework, I still have spring cleaning, gardening, sewing projects, and a long to-do list otherwise, and a calendar that seems to be filling up as fast as we're approaching our due date.  Luckily, Tom has become a really good helper.  He voluntarily joins me for dishes, laundry, sweeping and vacuuming.  Mallory and I are planning on having our freezer meal prep day next Saturday, so that'll be another thing checked off my "must list" before May.  I did get my spring garden crops planted yesterday--spinach mustard, swiss chard, collards, lettuce, snow peas, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, radishes...I think that was it.  I decided to wait a little longer for the cauliflower and green onions.  I'm excited to think about how much the snow peas will love this snow!

Katie fell dead asleep in the middle of lunch a while ago.  Lately our naps have been pushing towards 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so it was a shock when, mid-hot dog, she just dropped asleep at 12:30.  She didn't like being woken up by a wash cloth cleaning the ketchup off her face, but welcomed her crib.

 

A potty training picture I can share without exposing my child's body to the world.  I wanted to go to the store, so we grabbed his toilet seat to bring with us, just in case.  He thought it was a fantastic idea to put it on his head!  He grabbed this hammer (axe) and told me, "I be just like Hiccup!"

 

Later when I was watching How to Train Your Dragon with him, he showed me the scene that he was talking about--"See, Mom! Just like Hiccup!"  Sure enough, there's Hiccup with a helmet and axe.  Tom's toilet seat has a warning on the underside, by the way.  "This is not a toy.  Use only as intended.  Do not allow child to place on or over head."

Sometime a couple weeks ago, a piggy bank was brought out to play with the coins inside.  Gosh, do I regret that.  We've still been picking up coins from all over.  But Katie sure had fun when Shad sat down to help her put coins back in the bank.

 

I've never taken a picture of Katie in this little pajama outfit before.  It was cute when Tom wore it at 9 months, but somehow, it's even cuter on a walking, talking 17 month old Katie.

 

Katie has this attraction to hats.  She just loves them.  She thought it was great when I put this one on her head for her, and I thought it was great when she smiled like this for the camera.

 

On Sunday, I was supposed to bake a cake for Haddie's birthday party Monday night.  But instead, I felt like baking chocolate chip cookies.  Because I wanted to eat those.  Nobody complained.  Shad just loved this POOF going on on the back of Katie's head.

 

We've had this box of diapers sitting in our dining room since my parents came last month.  We just didn't get it up to the kids' room, and they love sitting on it.  It also helps Tom reach the light switch.  Katie seriously sits here every day.  She'll bring her doll, or snacks, her phone, or Tom's shoes, sit down and just chatter away.

 

Shad remade this Captain America shield for Tommy one morning.  (He had to redeem himself from the awful freehand star he had drawn before).  Tom loves all things superhero.  Shad said that as Tom looked from the picture on the computer screen to what Shad was drawing on the pot lid, his eyes lit up as he realized what his dad was doing.  He'd help Shad out, saying, "Now color red here.  Now color blue here.  Be so careful!"  They came to wake me up (I slept in til 11 that day after having an awful night of pregnant and kid interruptions) and Tom's excitement just could not be contained!  He told me all about his shield, how it had a star and red circles and blue circles and it's a Captain America shield! He's also getting the hang of how photo shoots work, since I always have to take more than one picture in order to get the shot right.  This was our third try and afterwards, Tom told me, "Alright.  That's enough.  We're all done now."

 

Our friend, Haddie's birthday party was on Monday, and Mallory asked me to make the cake for her.  Haddie couldn't decide between a My Little Pony theme or a Tinkerbell theme, so we went for both.  Vines and flowers on the bottom for Tink, and a shooting star on top for Ponies.

 

 

Wednesday was a fun day for us.  I put Tom and Katie down for naps at the same time, but Tom played for an hour before I cracked down on him.  So then Katie woke up a good while before Tom did.  I couldn't think of anything better to do with the alone time I had with my daughter than to paint our toe nails together.  She was delighted and sat so good and still for it.  Then I felt like we needed to do a little more fun pretty stuff.  She asked for a necklace and I put a bobby pin in her hair.  I was shocked at how she suddenly looked just like a picture of my mom!

 

We had a good long photo shoot of her countertop activities.  She really is a diva.

 

Pretty toes!  Since it's still sock wearing weather, we kept forgetting about her painted toes for the first couple days.  Every time I took her socks off she and I would see the toes and squeel with excitement over her "pretty toes!"

 

And after she had sat still sufficiently for them to dry, she just couldn't stop rubbing her feet on each other.

 

Then we went to go wake up Tom so we could hurry to the post office before it closed.  Katie was so happy to burst into their room to wake him up.  "Tom!"  Such a smile on her face and in her voice.  That dear little Tom, in the hour before I told him to lie down and go to sleep, had found a Sharpie somewhere.  And colored on their foam puzzle play mat...

 

and bookcase and books.  He was quite proud of his art, and, for something that could have been so much worse, I was quite relieved that he hadn't done anything to doors, walls or other furniture.  I actually like the decorated bookcase.  Still told Tom not to do that again.

 

Groggily waking up... 

 

and then showing me his hands.

 

 

And then Thursday morning, Tom wanted to do makeup with me.  He got hold of the lid to my concealer, which had some concealer in it.

 

I had to delicately explain to him that he had done a good job, but that we needed to wash it off so it wouldn't hurt his eyes.

 

We left for Geneva after lunch on Friday to spend the night before going to Omaha Saturday morning for a youth temple trip.  Said trip got cancelled while we were on the road, due to the big snow storm forecast to blow across the plains.  Norton got 6 inches while we were gone, but a lot is melted already.  Geneva's snow mostly melted as it fell, but stuck overnight as temperatures dropped.  We didn't go to Omaha.  So now we're looking at going to Colorado for the temple in April, because we haven't been since August.  Luckily, one of the weekends we're available is one that Lori is looking at going, so we're hoping that works out.  Anyway, Shad and I got to go 20 miles north of Geneva to York Friday night for a Walmart run, just in case we didn't make it to Omaha on Saturday.  We left the kids with the grandparents and had a nice, leisurely shopping trip.  We took our time.  And then got ice cream afterwards.  Tom pooped on the toilet on Saturday after I told him we'd get ice cream if he did.  So as soon as Katie woke up from her nap, we went out for ice cream.  Then he voluntarily went this morning.  So excited for the progress he's making!  This is all coming together a lot quicker than I could have hoped.

 

Tom had a couple funny quotes this weekend, but I seem to only be able to remember one right now.  At dinner on Friday, he started by saying, "Ruthie, shhh!  I'm talking.  Momma, sshhhh! I'm talking." And then when he had everyone's attention, "SO! What do ya fink?"  After we got over our fits of laughter, Bumpa replied, "I just think I'm so lucky to have you here." Tom looked at him and said, "You're not Loki. You're Bumpa.  Loki is on Da Vengers!" (The Avengers)

 

Katie has a little boyfriend that it'd be a shame not to make mention of.  Paul and Mallory have a 3 kids--Haddie, who just turned 4, Eden, who is a month older than Tom, and Micaiah, who is 5 months old and a full year to the month younger than Katie.  Katie is absolutely in love with Micaiah.  Since the birthday party on Monday where she got to play with him a lot, she's talked about him every day, nearly as a waking thought.  Yesterday and today were the only days that we made it past breakfast before she mentioned his name.  And then it was right immediately after breakfast.  She just walks around, asking about, "Caiah! Caiah! Caiah!"  Every baby she sees is "Caiah!" And even my belly is now "Caiah!"  She loves to pull up my shirt so she can pat, hug and kiss my belly.  She'll stroke it softly and say, "Soft!"  When we get together with Paul and Mallory weekly, Katie's first words when we walk into their house are, "Caiah! Paul!" She certainly favors males.  And she'll find Micaiah and just ooh and ahh over him, play with his hands, tickle his feet, hug and kiss him, and try to sit on him during his tummy time.  I was right there with them for that one, though, and stopped Katie, telling her that Micaiah was not Tom.

Recipes

One of my hobbies is spending time finding new recipes.  We usually like to try a new recipe once a week.  A couple weeks ago, I found that I had checked out 6 cookbooks from the library.  I also search through Pinterest and other websites...allrecipes.com, recipe.com, foodnetwork.com, etc.  Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my finds and start a recipe swap with whoever would like to participate, because I'm always interested in new recipes and new ingredients.  Oh, also, my particular focus right now is freezer meals, particularly those for the crockpot, with the summer heat coming up.  When I'm complete with my insane Saturday of meal prep with Mallory, I'll share the results.

100% Whole Wheat Rolls--This recipe is not designed for whole wheat, but turns out wonderfully!  I make the dough in my breadmaker.
Naan Bread--I use this as a pizza crust for our weekly pizza night.  I make the dough in my breadmaker.
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Enchiladas--Mom's recipe that I've made such an overhaul on, it's become it's very own thing.  One breast shredded chicken; 1 can black beans, drained; 1 can corn, drained; 1 cup of cooked rice.  I make my own sauce: 1 can tomato sauce, 1/4 c water, 1/4 c vinegar, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, a pinch of cayenne if desired.  Assemble enchiladas, top with cheese, bake at 350 for half an hour with foil on top.  Remove the foil and bake another 5 minutes.  *This makes approximately 2 9x13 pans' worth!  With only ONE chicken breast!  I love cutting down meat and expenses:)


Ham Soup--from my friend, Kathy, in Denver *great in the crockpot!*

Ingredients:
4 c. water
5 red potatoes, cubed (leave the skins on)
4 carrots, cut into slices
1 onion, chopped
3-4 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper
1 bag frozen broccoli
3 c. cooked ham, cubed
1 stick butter
1/2 c. flour
3 c. milk
4 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Combine the water, salt pepper and all the vegetables except the frozen broccoli in a big pot. Bring to a boil. About 5 minutes before the vegetables are done, add the broccoli. Cover and boil until all the veggies are done. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the flour slowly, whisking constantly to make it smooth. Add one cup of milk. Continue whisking. Add another cup of milk. Still whisking. Add half the cheese. Don't stop whisking! Add the last cup of milk. I hope you're still whisking! Add the last of the cheese. Keep whisking until the whole mixture is perfectly smooth. Re-attach your arm. Now pour the cheese mixture into the cooked vegetables - you definitely want this still. Stir until well blended. Turn to low heat and add the cubed ham. Leave on warm heat and stir a bit until the ham is warmed through. Serve and Enjoy
Hot and Sour Soup
Chicken Gnocchi Soup--I was going to make the gnocchi myself, but lost track of time and substituted diced potatoes instead.  Still good.  I also used half the butter she said, and I think only 1 tsp of salt.
Tortellini Sausage Soup
Venison Stew
BBQ Sauce
Popped Chickpeas--Tom calls these peanuts because he won't eat them as long as they're called garbanzo beans.  We love them as a snack with fruit smoothies.  We've tried this with Montreal Steak Seasoning, Seasoned Salt, Parmesan and garlic powder, and Cajun and Creole Seasonings.  Cajun and Creole are our favorites.
Egg Rolls
Steamed Dumplings
Butternut & Barley Pilaf
Sunburst Lemon Bars
Shepherd's Pie--Lots of adjustments with this.  It's from Paula Dean and I don't like her overuse of butter and all things fat.  Made my own mashed potatoes. Didn't put butter on top of the biscuit mix. I used a total of 3 T butter instead of 12. I didn't have tomato sauce, so I pureed diced tomatoes. Used pork sausage, celery, onions, and frozen mixed veggies.
Chicken Pot Pie
Meatloaf Cupcakes
20-40 clove garlic Chicken *crockpot!*--This recipe will be a snap now that I know about this method of peeling garlic!
Creamy Chicken and Broccoli over Rice *crockpot!*-- I modified the recipe in several ways: 2 tsp Cajun seasoning + 1 tsp garlic powder; 1 head of broccoli; and 1 cup grated cheese melted into the chicken broth instead of cheese soup. I didn't try subbing yogurt for the sour cream this time, but I probably will next time for less calories and fat.
Chicken Yakisoba
And just in case I failed all the other times I tried to share this recipe, here's Cookie Dough Dip

Non-edible recipes:
Baby Wipes
Laundry Stain Remover
Household disinfectant spray (my all-purpose cleaner)--3 T vinegar, 1.5 tsp baking soda, 1.5 tsp Borax, 3 c hot water. Fills a 28 oz spray bottle.
Cleaning your washer
Important Documents for 72 Hour Kit


Not a recipe, but I found a one-job-a-week Spring Cleaning list online that Mom wanted me to share.  It can be found here.

Open up, Mr. Mayor!

"It's shnowing in the shummer!  It's a dramatic change in the weather.  As if we're on a shpeck floating to shpace. I don't know how you knew it, but shomehow you did.  And Whoville is headed for...DIZHASTER!"

Okay, so Tom has been watching Horton Hears a Who lately and so when it started snowing on Wednesday morning last week after 70 degree weather the preceding Sunday, I couldn't help but think of Dr. Larue. Shad got a snow day on Thursday, with a mandatory work day on Friday.  Fair trade.  A good bit of Natoma's employees come from Nebraska or countryside, not to mention that it just doesn't work well to have power flickering on and off at a machining company.  The snow finally stopped around dinner time Thursday.  We accumulated about 18 inches.  There are mounds in the streets left from the plows that are taller than our mini van.  My bet is that they'll be there til April.  Or at least the biggest one we found...

We had a very lazy day on Thursday.  Even "very lazy" sounds like an understatement.  We did nothing.  I cooked breakfast in bed for Shad because I felt like it, but after that, I felt nauseous.  My method for coping with that is to lie down...and then I just naturally fell asleep from there.  Tom wanted to play the Lego Pirates video game with Shad, so they did that while I slept.  And Katie beat up one of our plants.  And then the rest of the day we just hung out on the couch.  So I made up for that on Friday by getting all of the dishes and laundry done, vacuumed the living, dining and basement rooms, watered the plants, cooked dinner, and still managed to write a lesson plan, study scriptures, and let myself have fun in the sewing room.

We did try to go out and play in the snow on Thursday while Shad and I shovelled the driveway.  Katie lasted 5 minutes and Tom lasted 10.

 



 

Tom always has to pick up a walking stick everywhere we go...even if it's a block away to the mailbox in 20 degree and windy weather.  Gosh, he made things slow!

 

Tom and Katie like to play in the snow now that it's not actively snowing in their faces, and a little bit warmer.  It amazes me how warm 35 degrees can feel.  Just yesterday, we played in the snow on the driveway for over half an hour without coats or jackets, or pink noses!  Here they are helping Shad shovel more off the driveway today.

We had a very fun visit with my parents over Presidents' Day weekend.  My mom didn't have work Friday, Monday or Tuesday, and Dad's been out of work for a couple months, so they were able to come have a nice long weekend with us.  Tom and Katie loved it.  Katie asked for Grandpa every morning when Grandma got her out of bed.  The first morning, she asked for Grandpa, so I took her and Tom to go wake him up.  Even though she had asked for him, it still took her a couple hours to warm up to him.  I've never had her so clingy to me--physically clinging onto my side, refusing to be put down from my hip.  But then she was good friends with him after that.  Tom introduced Grandpa to sword fighting, complete with, "Make it sword stone!"  "I'm Kay.  You be Wart."  We got to go to the park on Saturday.  Tom took Grandpa for a walk and found huge sticks for them to continue playing swords.  Katie found little 3 inch sticks on the playground and handed one to me so that we could play "engarde."

For 5 of the last 6 baths the kids have had, I've had the joy of Katie pooping midbath and having to re-run the water after washing everything out.  I wouldn't bring this up, because who needs to discuss this over the internet and broadcast it to the world, but I'm getting a bit pooped out with baths.  Any suggestions from parents?

Tommy likes the word "probably."  His food is "probably so hot."  Or today, when he was done eating cornbread for dinner (he tried a bite of the lentil soup), I asked if he was done and the reply was, "Yeah, I'm all done.  I'm probably so full."  He also likes casting our family to be characters from movies he likes, and he also relates things in his life to things in movies.  Yesterday morning, he told me that he was Captain America, I am Iron Man, and Katie is The Hulk.  Any time I slipped up and called somebody by their real name, I got corrected.  And at bedtime, I always have to tell him, "Tiger, it's bedtime."  He's Tiger, Katie is Monkey, I'm Panda, and Shad is Mantis, all from Kung Fu Panda.

Tommy is our designated prayer sayer for meals, mostly because he just enjoys doing it so much.  He can pray all by himself, and is quite proud of himself for doing so.  Once when we were at Paul and Mallory's house (they're our weekly Thursday night dinner and games friends), Paul was going to pray and we explained to Tommy that it was Paul's turn to say the prayer.  Paul had just started when Tommy started praying quickly in a volume to be heard over Paul.  Paul stopped, allowed Tommy to finish, and said, "Yeah, what he said, Lord.  Amen!"  Tommy also says his bedtime prayers.  Once, when it was naptime, he told me he needed to say prayer, so I let him.  He said it by himself, and prayed for Lori to have a good day.  Shad and I have never prayed aloud for Lori, so this was entirely out of the blue for Tommy.  I texted Lori to tell her, and her response was, "Thanks!  That just made my day.  The past few days have been really hard and I was worried about today, but it's been great."  When Tom woke up from his nap, I told him that his prayer worked, that Lori had a good day.  He was so happy about that.

We started another round of potty training today.  I simply told Tom that he was all done with diapers, that I'm not doing that anymore because he's a big boy and big boys go to the bathroom on the toilet.  I explained to him that he gets jelly beans (yeah, we opened our Jelly Belly's before Easter) when he is successful.  He had one accident this morning in his train underwear.  All morning he kept telling me that he needed to sit on the potty.  I didn't have to regulate him.  He never went, but at least he was taking the initiative.  Then after lunch, he suddenly dropped his toys and told me he had to go pee on the potty.  We ran and got to the toilet in time for a successful pee!  It's been hours, and I'm still elated!  Katie was super excited too, because she knew that meant jelly beans for her as well.  And aside from the successful pee and jelly bean excitement, Tommy kept telling me over and over about how happy he made me, and that that made him happy.  Yay, Tom!

When Shad comes home from work, Tommy often wants to play games in the basement.  He usually asks for a video game, or ping pong.  He's tall enough to actually try now, and Katie gets to sit on the table.

 

Katie is a spunky little being, and starts wrestling wars with her brother.  We often see her come up behind him, whack him a few times, then grab him in a headlock and knock him to the ground (when he's sitting).  From there they wrestle, and Katie will then squeal for help, but when we remind her that she started the fight, she stops and continues to just enjoy the playing.

 

She's a princess and she knows it:)

 

I let Katie feed herself oatmeal one morning...

 

Tom needed me to take his picture, too.

 

I think I'll continue to feed her the oatmeal for a while...it's just not worth the mess to me.  It was all over her hands, arms, face and hair.  She can be independent for her cereal.

 

 

Tom and Katie love after bath cuddles.  This was before they got evicted from my bedroom and bathroom.

 

Kiss me, I'm Irish!...and quite the flirt, especially when she knows she's being cute and silly.

 

We had a pizza and movie night a couple weeks ago.  Tom was flappin' excited.  Weird kid doesn't like pizza though.  He had salad.

 

My parents brought a new pair of shoes for Tommy when they came, because nowhere in our town or the next one 33 miles over sells toddler shoes.  Really?  You've got to be kidding me.  Garage sale season can't come soon enough.  Anyway, they got a Buzz and Woody pair, so I had to check out Toy Story from the library.  They only had Toy Story 3 on dvd, so I told Tom that Grandma and Grandpa would watch that with him because I hated it.  He now knows who Buzz and Woody are.  He thinks his shoes are pretty darn cool, and that they are "just like Grandpa." They do look relatively like the running shoes he wears!  And Katie loves them, too!  She grabs them from by the door daily to ask to wear them around the house.

Roses v. Thistles

"What's in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  As much as I like Shakespeare and his writing, he got this one wrong.  With Tommy and Katie, we just knew what their names would be.  With this pregnancy, we were absolutely convinced that we were having a boy, and a boy name we had.  We were so certain that we didn't even discuss girl names.  But then we had an ultrasound last week.  And we saw some girl parts.  I almost asked Dr. McKinley to check again because he was wrong, but then he had another technician come in for 3D imaging, and she confirmed it.  Guess I don't need further checking after a second opinion.  So then who is this girl?

That was Friday.  All day Friday and Saturday, I thought about names.  Sunday, we stayed home from church for health and sanity reasons.  I searched through dozens of baby name websites (which are all obnoxious and aggravating to use), and only ended up getting more stressed and filled with anxiety.  I can't call my child by object names (girl, baby, little woman, etc).  She is a person and needs to have an identity and that's all stripped away by object names.  Shad finally told me I had to stop and he took over searching.  I didn't like much of what he came up with and he admitted that he's not very good at naming girls.  So we quit and decided to finish watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Shad said, "Hey, what about Cassidy?"  Gross.  That name just makes me want to wretch.  So I countered, "How about Butch?"  Then Shad suggested Sundance.  I was fully prepared to shut that down as well, but thought about it for a minute.  We both said, "Awww, Sundance!" at the same time.  We laughed at ourselves, but the more we thought about Sundance, the more we fell in love with the name.  And all my stress and anxiety was replaced with peace and calm.  And then Shad suggested Victoria for a middle name and that just fits so well.  Even having several days to think it over now, we still love it and smile every time we think about Sundance.

I told Tommy that our baby's name is Sundance.  He can say the name.  He just gets a little confused each morning when I ask him if he remembers our baby's name.  "Barnyard Dance!"  It's one of his favorite books.  No, her name is Sundance.  "Oh wwwrrrrright!  Sunnnndance."

So here she is: Sundance Victoria Kendell

We had an ultrasound today!

Completely threw us for a loop--she's a girl!  We've been absolutely convinced baby was a boy.  I almost asked my doctor to check again, but then he brought in another tech who knows how to do the 3D imaging and she confirmed gender.  Guess we'll have to come up with a girl name now...

A Little Diva and A Superhero

 

Wearing Dadda's coat

Well in case nobody figured out from what I've already written, Katie is a born Diva.  Just thankfully rounded out by her adoration for her dear older brother.  She loves playing dress up, wearing jewelery daily, and now we've made some new discoveries: shopping, leg warmers and blankets.  She loves to play with money and I think she's got the idea of what it's for.  Last week when we were hanging out at Shopko, Tommy was playing in the toy aisle learning about Captain America and Iron Man, and that they're part of The Avengers.  And Katie...well, she was across the aisle in the jewelery section.  Another day when we were at Dollar General, she found an aisle that had glitter lip glosses on the bottom shelf and helped herself to a collection.  On Sunday, I needed something warm for her legs and the sweater stockings I had sewn were needing repaired.  So I found a pair of the leg warmers I made for her baby self.  She's worn them every day and night since then.  At her demand.  She just loves them.  And then blankets.  Well, from what I understand of teen females like Lori, their beds are generally filled with all manner of blankets and plush, cuddly things.  Katie's got that figured out already. She needs to have 4+ blankets, 2 stuffed bunnies, 1 dog, and a baby in her bed.  And she loves cuddling with whatever blanket she can find around the house.  Hers are required to stay in her bed, so she finds the big people blankets that we have.

Have I mentioned this girl's love for food, too?  She loves food.  Yesterday, I had planned on BLTs + avocado for dinner, but then I saw that the avocado wasn't ripe.  So we pulled a DiGiorno out of the freezer.  While that was in the oven, Katie found my cup of Cookie Dough Dip that I had made (seriously, that stuff is amazing and for real healthy, too. Check it out!) It was love at first lick.  Anyway, I found her with it and her eyes just lit up and her mouth went babbling to tell me how amazing it was.  I sat down with her to help her eat it, but even after that, she continued scraping and licking the cup clean.  It was a delightful momma-daughter moment of sharing a love for cookie dough.

 

And then she followed me into the kitchen where there was 2 minutes left on the oven timer.  I turned on the oven light to show her that there was pizza in the oven.  Holy cow, I don't know when I've seen my girl so excited over something!  She just couldn't contain herself!  She started stomping her foot (a new expression of joy for her), clapping her hands and yelling, "Pi-ta! Pi-ta! Yay! Yay! Pate! Pate!"  So we got plates out and then had to stall until the timer went off.  "Bee! Bee! (Beep) Yay! Pi-ta!"  She was all shrieks of delight when it came out of the oven.  I've also never seen her so patient for food before.  She was just happy as can be to watch me slice the pizza and serve it onto the plates, and wasn't yelling at me to go faster like she usually does.  Much of her latest vocabulary is food related--pizza, hot dog (another exciting, obsessive food for her), ketchup, spoon, bowl, plate, cup, (rice) crispies, etc.

 

Tommy has made some amazing leaps and bounds in the past couple weeks with food.  Two weeks ago, we went to Subway for dinner.  Eating there is an exciting treat for the kids.  Tom loves to pick our Subway seat (the same one every time), and have Subway water in a cup, with lid, straw and ice.  Anyway, we noticed that he was picking out the green peppers and cucumbers from the sandwich.  Not to dispose of them, but to eat them separate from everything else.  I went to the grocery store that night and bought a pepper and cucumber for him.  He now eats veggies daily and is even getting closer and closer to the full number of servings!  I've started giving him his veggies as an appetizer to his lunch while I make the main lunch.  He knows I won't give him his sandwich/mac&cheese/hot dog until he eats the veggies.  So that usually happens pretty quickly.  I also used that technique today when we had Manhattan Salmon Chowder and grilled cheese.  He didn't get the grilled cheese until the soup was down to just broth for dipping.  He's also been getting better about eating what we eat for dinner, instead of taking his one bite and then going for PB&J.  He still prefers to avoid pizza though.  Weird kid.  Another veggie discovery was from my dear Colorado friend, Robyn Bailey.  She had written on her blog about Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  I had to give it a try.  Make your oatmeal as you normally would, and mix in pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie seasoning.  We also needed some brown sugar to sweeten it some, and raisins.  But now Tommy asks specifically for Pumpkin Oatmeal.  And he has second helpings.  He'll also eat salad with me.  He likes the chopped celery because he can actually eat it.  Final veggie discovery (I know this is a lot, but I'm so ecstatically pleased with these breakthroughs when I've struggled since April to get this boy to eat any veggies): green peas!  Yes, I was beyond pleasantly surprised when I asked him to try a bite of my steamed frozen peas and he loved them!  Holy moly, child!  And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world!"
 

Tonight we watched The Avengers after dinner.  Tom had a rough time with dinner tonight, and the thought of The Avengers helped get him through it.  Besides, I've had a bit of a frustrating day and needed to have something calming for us to do while Shad is gone to his Young Mens activity.  At one point, Iron Man came flying onto screen and I was getting Tom ramped up excited about it.  I told him, "Here's Iron Man!  RRRRawwwrrr!"  However, I was quickly corrected with, "No, Mom. It's not da Hulk. It's Iron Man."  He has to watch this movie (and other such Boom Bang movies) with his gun collection.  He shoots the screen during all the action scenes.  Katie has to be armed as well.  At one point, I heard this quote from Tom: "Hulk! You kidding me? Right now?"  I don't know what Tommy was scolding Hulk for, but it was funny.

 

A couple days ago, while I was trying to get us dressed after breakfast, I had to go downstairs to get an article of clothing.  The kids followed me.  They just didn't follow me when I went back up.  So I waited patiently, figuring that they'd come back to find me.  I mean, they were only in their diapers and knew we were trying to get dressed.  Psh!  Right.  Totally overestimated their concern for getting dressed.  Instead, Katie found the box of Life that I missed when I cleaned up breakfast.  Tom came upstairs to report, "Mom? Katie make a mess... I not mad at you."  I thought it was sweet that he said "I'm not mad at you."  It's something we've been saying a lot lately just to clarify when we correct his behavior that he's not in trouble and we're not mad.  So, to report his sisters mess and say that, was like telling me not to be mad about it.  It put a smile on my face:)

Sporting her leg warmers amidst her cereal mess.

 I feel like I've been extra prone to stress and subsequent frustrated/angry outbursts lately.  If Shad hasn't been working overtime, it's because he's sick.  Sick Shad is worse than Gone Shad because that means one more person with demands for attention and care, and still no help with housework or kids.  You can ask any family member or roommate I've lived with and they'll tell you that I've never been one to be stressed over having a messy living space.  Somehow that's changed.  I feel like I've been getting more and more agitated with the state of my home.  I've got a long list of things I need to do or take care of, but heaven help me if I can just keep up with the daily messes and laundry.  And scripture study for my Sunday School class.  And I'm supposed to be trying to write lesson plans, too?  Well, that's a joke.  It's getting more and more complicated with coordinating topic themes, vocab lists, Key Functional Expressions, multiple variations and backup plans for each lesson, and templates...incorrect ones and then correct ones (I still have yet to see that one).  And then needing to take care of myself on top of all that--eating, vitamins, exercise, spiritual, emotional, etc.  Somehow I need to find a balance in things so that I can have a clean home (or at least a couple clean areas in which to find temporary peace and sanity), daily prayer and scripture study, exercise, and complete my wishlist projects.  Oh, and still be able to have some "me" time for hobbies.  Luckily, I count sewing as a hobby, because now that my machine is $45 "fixed" (I don't think it is, but I've possibly found some internet help), maybe I can continue working on my Christmas sewing list.

Loads of pictures and videos

I've been wanting to write for about a week, just haven't been able to get to it.  So I've worked on it bit by bit, here and there.  I got my videos uploaded one day so that would be ready to go, then I got pictures uploaded another day so they'd be ready to go.  Then I just had to wait and wait to find an opportunity where I could fill in the text.  Still not sure if I really have time now.

 

I've been horrible at writing in my journal, so I don't know entirely what the last 2 weeks have been like.  We've still been cycling through colds and other stuff.  Got a taste of pink eye last week.  Shad called in sick yesterday and then obviously didn't take on any overtime today.  We've been drinking lots of warm lemon-honey-cinnamon-ginger water.  It's delightful and really helps.  The lemon breaks down mucus in the throat, honey coats and soothes the throat, cinnamon in combination with honey is helpful in curing many ailments, and drinking herbal ginger tea is an old Chinese remedy for sickness.  Hence, our concocted tonic.

 

Since Shad's been Young Men's President at church, we've been going with him to Phillipsburg the past 3 Wednesdays.  The first one was simply because I was desperate to get out of the house after missing a day of church and being stuck in the house for a week playing nurse.  I had already taken a day of domestic explosion--decorating a baby nook in our bedroom and putting up decorations on walls in 6 rooms that I've been wanting to get to for months.  So that Wednesday ended up being anti-domestic and I needed out of the house.  Tom had so much fun playing in the gym the whole time, that I decided we'd probably just make a habit of going on Wednesdays so we get more Dadda time and have social and fun time out of the house.  Aside from that, Phillipsburg has better shopping options for retail and grocery.  I had a blast in the produce department and ended up getting $30 worth.  That finished my month's food budget.

 

We've had a few days reach up into the 50s, so we've had fun playing outside, going for walks and even braved the park that still had snow on the tire shreds.  Tom couldn't have been happier.  Last weekend there was a gun auction at the National Guard Armory.  We had fun going to that and having something different to do besides, "Which store are we going to go play in today?"  The kids loved it.  Katie is interested in guns just as much as Tom is.  She got excited over each one, pointing and saying, "Guh! Guh!"  Oh, and flirting with all the men.  She's into that, too.  We did buy a Marlin .22 rifle and then hurried to find a babysitter to come over during nap time so we could get out and go shoot it at the range.

 

Most days, we really do just go to a different store in town to play.  At Kowpoke, a hardware store, they have snacks that Katie likes to pull off the racks.  She's able to sit on the shelf in the picture here because she unloaded 28 (yes, I counted them as I put them back) bags onto my lap.

 

 

They also have fun John Deere and truck toys that make sounds.

 

Here's Tom playing with a hat washing rack at the thrift store.  He knew immediately seeing it that it was for baseball hats.

 

So there was a crate at the gun auction that Katie kept walking over to so she could sit in it.  She'd try on her own and then ask for help.  She finally got it once on her own and Tom and I were so proud of her.  Gave her a good cheer and applause.

 

Tom's face in this picture just makes me laugh!  He's telling me that Katie had climbed into this cabinet.  Katie is eating a McDonald's chicken nugget that she got from a lady because she's cute.  Big brother got one, too.

 

One Friday, we hung out upstairs and mostly in my bedroom for the whole morning and after lunch.  I finally caught loads of videos I've been wanting to catch, and some that were new experiences for me.

 

Tommy has been vaguely interested in The Hulk for a while since he got a 4 page cardboard book from Uncle Jimmy for Christmas 2 years ago.  But then when we watched The Avengers a few weeks ago, he got a good taste of The Hulk and really liked it.  Since then, any time he's bare chested or Katie is bare chested, he tells me that he or Katie is The Hulk.

Tom being The Hulk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lTLnIyy0ZA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TTmD5vvo8k

The first video was a little blurry (fingerprint on the lense), but better portrays how Tommy is The Hulk.  As a result of Tommy pretending to be The Hulk, we decided that a movie night was in order for Tom to watch The Incredible Hulk.  Since then, he tells me that Katie is the Green Hulk, and he is the Yellow Hulk.  He even told me the other day that I can be the Pink Hulk.  This reminds me of a kindergartener, Dylan, when I worked at the elementary school in Colorado.  He and his group of friends at lunch were the Justice League.  Dylan himself was Batman, Superman, a Green Lantern, and Aquaman.  He inducted me into the League as a Green Lantern and had some little hand thing and sound effect that he made so it was official.

 

Anyway, after The Hulk, then I got Tommy to sing Manamana for me while I had the camera on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_FLeX2f16Y

 

Then we went to my room for me to go through a bag of maternity clothes.  Tom and Katie always like to play on my bed after I get it made.  It's just super exciting to them for some reason. But Tom and Katie really love each other and it's so sweet to me to see them give hugs and kisses to each other, and hear Katie spontaneously say, "I love you!" to Tommy.  She's such a sweet girl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq2BnM8DTD8

 

Tom started this game a while ago of talking into the lamp on my headboard, pretending to talk to Shad.  Last week he and I were standing at the foot of my bed as I was getting dressed and Tom told me to say, "I love you, Dadda!"  I said it kind of quietly, and Tom told me, "Be so youder (louder)."  I said it a bit louder, but not sufficiently for him.  He demonstrated, "No, Mom, yike dis: I YUV YOU, DADDA!!!!"  Funny kid.  Katie playing the game, though, let alone initiating it, was new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpdhhP_QsGY

 

And then they wanted to play with the mirror that I brought into the room.  Tom said we needed to sing the "Up Down Song," which is the stoutness exercise song that Pooh sings in front of his full length mirror.  I've never seen Katie act along with it before.  That was fun for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plAlTViNQJY

 

After lunch, we wanted to Skype with my dad for his birthday, but he was on the phone with my sister and nephews.  Tommy was quite okay with that.  He understood that Grandpa was talking to Bode and that it was Bode's turn, and then Tommy's turn.  Unfortunately, he couldn't stay awake long enough to wait for his turn.  He turned me down when I asked him if he wanted to go take a nap, telling me, "No, we're all done with that."  But he went ahead and grabbed his blanket and laid his head down in my lap and was out in a matter of minutes.

 

This was not a sick time, but a time when I had just scolded Tom so he sought Dad's comfort.  He was asleep in a matter of minutes. 

 

 

We've got new friends at church that we've gotten together with twice after church so far.  They live in Phillipsburg, which is where church is, so we just go over after church and have dinner and games.  I brought my crockpot over before church to plug it in when I brought dinner.  They have a boy who is just a bit older than Tom, and a five-month-old daughter. Tom and Wolf play so well together.  Seriously, I've never seen Tommy play so well with someone so close to his age.  He just loves playing with his friend Wolf and going to Wolf's house.  Robert and Amanda (the parents) have a pack-n-play, so Katie can take a nap and Tom does just fine skipping his nap so long as he's playing with Wolf.  Otherwise, they have accommodations for Tommy to nap as well.  So we've been able to stay til 7:45 the first time and 5:30 the second time because Tommy woke up from his nap and didn't feel well.  It's just really fun to be able to stay so long because the kids don't force us to go home for naps.

 

Despite her face (she's wanting to get cleaned up and upset that I'm taking the time to get her picture first), here's a picture of how Miss Katie always has to be pretty.  This was a Sunday and she picked up a head band with flower all on her own and asked me to put them on her.  Then when she saw that I was wearing a necklace, she needed one, too.  Hence the orange plastic one.  Then during church she ended up taking my red necklace.  After church, we were at Robert and Amanda's house for dinner and games, and she acquired two jingle bell Mardi Gras necklaces.  She just loves to play dress up and be pretty.

 

 

Here's the baby nook I created in our bedroom.  I put up a shower rod and sheet to close it off.  I still need to even out the length of the sheet.  It's missing a square that was cut off for Katie's Dobby rag.

 

We were given this framed picture for Katie when she was born, and I've never put it up.  And as I tried to decide how to decorate the walls of the nook, I was inspired by the bears on the mobile.  But then my mind thought about how babies see bright colors first, not pastels, so put some bright colored bears on the wall.  From there, it was easy to figure out what to do. Any kid can have teddy bears on their wall, but not any kid can have dancing Grateful Dead bears to make Grandpa proud.

 

The technique I used for the bears was the same that I used to decorate Tom and Katie's room...which I guess I've never put up pictures of that.  But they're fabric.  I found the bear pictures on google and put the fabric over the computer screen so I could trace it with Sharpie.  Cut it out, spray with spray starch and slap it up on the wall.  It's a peel-n-stick decal.  I can take them down at any time and reuse them elsewhere.  Awesome!

 

 

Just yesterday Tommy read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to himself.  I was very impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Okp_z6PeY

 

Katie has added many new words to her vocabulary: pop (from The Very Hungry Caterpillar "...the warm sun came up and -pop!- out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar."), caterpillar, peanut butter, jelly, bear, bean, cheese, quesadilla (yes, she says, "dee-ya"), hot, necklace, pants, down, downstairs, Shopko/Kowpoke (her word is the same for both), library, Mary (our favorite librarian), Barb (our favorite employee at Shopko and the grocery store), Haddie (the 3 year-old-daughter of our Thursday game night friends), please (signed and vocal), and thank you.  Ruth and I worked on Katie one day over Christmas to teach her please and thank you and she picked them up far faster than I'd ever expected her to.  She says thank you spontaneously for everything!  Even when she hands something to me or Tommy, she'll say thank you after placing it in my hand.  And please just started to be more prevalent yesterday when she watched me make quesadillas and was begging for beans and cheese.  A fun little game that she played yesterday while I was trying to get food from the fridge was pulling out the jellies from the bottom of the door.  She'd pull the two jars out one by one and give them to me, saying thank you, then put them back one by one.  Then repeat the game.  She and I were both so proud of her for being able to maneuver the jars in and out of the door.

She knows can identify head, eye, nose, mouth, tongue, ear and hands.  She likes to hold my hands so that she can walk up the stairs, which she takes one foot per stair, not stepping both feet on a stair before progressing.

 

Tom has been coming out with more and more complete sentences.  "Mom, where's your water?  I can have some your water?"  "May I please have pretzels?"  "Katie's not awake."  I don't know if I've written about it yet, but a while ago, he made popcorn by himself.  Yep, my two-year-old made popcorn in the hot air popper all by himself.  He scooped the popcorn, poured it in, placed the lid back on, plugged in the cord.  I reminded him to get a bowl.  Not gonna lie, my kids just impress me all the time.