Letters

Dear Missouri,

I'm sorry to say that I don't miss you all that much. I do miss Costco and Dagg Park's toddler swimming pool....but overall I like Colorado better. I'm sorry. Farewell.

Dear Friends in Missouri,

I do miss you. I admit that I stink at making new friends.

Dear Colorado,

I'm in love. Or maybe its just infatuation. I should give you more than 1 week before I call it "love". But I'm infatuated with the fact that it only takes 10 minutes to get anywhere I want to go and I never have to get on a freeway to get there. I'm infatuated with the fact that even "downtown" isn't a crazy, busy place....but rather nice and relaxed. I'm infatuated with places like Cafe Rio and Ross that reside with you and not within Missouri. I'm infatuated with the fact that it is only a four hour drive to visit my family and I don't have to think about the horrendous "mom and two small children plane ride" experience. Overall, Colorado...you rock.

Dear House in Colorado,

You'd think I'd hate you more than I do. But really I don't hate you at all. In fact, I really like you. Sure our house in Missouri was twice as big, had three bedrooms instead of two, had a large kitchen...with counter space, a pantry, dishwasher, and disposal, a fenced off back yard, non-coin operated laundry, and cost half as much rent. Hmm. But our furniture fits the space better so it looks and feels like a home. I don't have to worry about going up and down stairs...or worry about Leila trying to go up and down stairs. Less space means less maintenance and cleaning.

Hmm....I'm a little afraid that over time this co-operated laundry and small kitchen with no counter space, dishwasher, and disposal might get to me. But for now, thanks for turning me into a more efficient person.

Dear Children,

Thank you for the times when you are obedient and good, kind to one another, and give hugs and kisses. I love you.

Please work on those times when you disobey, aren't nice to one another, and make the house much harder to keep clean. I still love you.

Dear Husband,

After rocking your boards tests and had some free time before starting rotations, thank you for spending your free time getting the house together, hanging pictures, and dealing with my and the kid's craziness.

I realize that you are busy with rotations now....but there are a few odds and ends around the house that still need your love and attention. But no rush. Just keep being awesome.

Dear Self,

Get back to that long "to do" list of yours.

Leila's First Birthday

Can't believe my little Leila is one.

With Tyson doing boards studying, we originally planned to postpone the celebration. Then I went to Costco and found myself tempted by the red velvet cake.

So, we decided to get some cake and sing happy birthday.

She tried to blow. Then she tried to touch. Then we blew it out. And she ate.
Oh man, that girl knows how to devour cake. That piece was gone in less than a minute.
She was a happy little girl.
Scratch that. Make it a VERY happy little girl. (This is what she did when I told her to smile for the camera.)

A little about Leila:

• She's SUPER active. She walks, runs, climbs, jumps on the bed, dances, etc. She's a pro....a pro that often finds herself falling and crying and then trying again.
• Leila loves independence. She doesn't like help from anyone, she'd rather do it herself.
• She doesn't say much, but does babble and yell a good amount. She has said, "mom", "dad", "more", "no", "llama", and "hi". But when she's learning a new word, for a LONG time she tends to whisper the word quietly until she feels more confident, then she'll say it all the time. She's recently started whispering "woof" and "quack".
• While she's learning a few animal noises, she does do a rhinoceros sound. Which according to one of her favorite books goes "snort and snuff". She'll breath deeply in and out through her nose.
• She's got several teeth. She started with the two front bottom teeth. Then she got her canine teeth on top, then a whole bunch started to come out a little bit ago. We call her a "hobo" cause her teeth are kind of all over the place and then she'll give a big old smile to us.
• She loves baths. She loves to dunk her head under the faucet. She also loves to play with the toys and line them up on top of the baths edge. She also loves to stand up in the tub, and once fell where she bit all the way through her tongue. Ouch.
• She'd LIVE outside if we let her. She'll often grab her shoes and try to put them on herself or give them to me to put on. Then she'll pound on the door to get out.
• She loves giving hugs and kisses. She'll always give mom kisses. She'll always give Eden "hug attacks" if Eden's lying on the floor. And she'll give daddy a kiss....usually only AFTER she's given mom a kiss first.
• Leila loves being naked. All the time. She always tries to run away during diaper changes and while getting dressed. She puts up quite a fight.
• She is about 75th percentile in weight (a little over 22 lbs) and in the 90th percentile height.
• She loves waving and saying "hi" to strangers. Mostly guys, not as much girls.
• She's definitely got a sense of humor. She loves to do things she's not supposed to do. She'll start doing it, wait for you to notice that she's doing it, give a huge smile, and keep on doing it. She also loves when Eden fake laughs and she'll do a fake laugh back.
• She loves books. By far, her favorite books are by Sandra Boynton. She'll carry them around everywhere, bring them to you to read and she'll sit on your lap, or you'll just catch her looking through the books herself.

Gotta Let Go

Last night, I only read a few verses of scripture before bed.

After the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors the battle continues. Soon there are so many people inside the prison that the people realize that they need to get rid of the prisoners or else they will grow too strong.

These few verses helped me.

Lately I've been hearing about people's problems and I've been putting that sadness and worry and trouble onto my shoulders...even if it doesn't help them. I couldn't help myself. I almost felt guilty for feeling happy when I knew others weren't happy.

Then there's my family.

Additional stress continues as I try to make things perfect at home. Make sure Eden and Leila are "perfect" children. Be the "best wife in the universe" for Tyson while he's busy studying for boards. Keep the house in "perfect" order.

And quite honestly, the more I TRIED, the worse things have become.

I'm still trying to fix up the mix up.

The house is a disaster and the kids are moody (cause I've been moody) and then Tyson ends up stressed and moody...and the downward spiral continues.

But I know that if I get rid of the unnecessary stress in my life (get rid of people in my prison) then things will be better.

Keep it simple.

There truly is a power that lies within simplicity.

I'm not saying that I'm not gonna start caring about other people, my children, and my husband. Definitely not the case. But I want to only take on burdens that I can do something about. Help those I'm able to help. Pray for those I can't help. Work on being happy and doing what I can. If I don't get EVERYTHING done, don't stress...tomorrow's another day.

Speaking of keeping it simple and getting rid of the unnecessary...

I need to spend less time on the internet. Period.

So, on that note, FAREWELL.

(I'll still blog on occasion, I'm not leaving that...just gonna pay more attention to my children right now.)

I May Have Gone a Little Picture Happy

(This is only a minuscule sampling of how many pictures I took.)

But you gotta admit that

she's pretty darn cute...

I couldn't resist taking millions of pictures when Leila INSISTED she feed herself baby food. Her little fingers exploring. Learning to use a spoon. Discovering alternative ways to get the food out of the jar.

And of course...having OODLES of fun!

In the end, I was extremely impressed by how much food she got in her mouth. After cleaning her up and trying to take a picture of how little food remained....she found her way over to make a new mess.

She knows how to keep me on my toes!

Time To Eat

Sorry for the poor quality of this video. It was taken with my phone. But it just made me smile.

Eden decided to try the baby food applesauce and she found that she liked it. She occasionally eats it (more often than Leila eats it). But when Leila sees Eden with something, she wants it. Solution? Have Eden feed Leila. PERFECT.

Although, I wish you could see how much applesauce is on Leila's face.

"When I'm Three I Get To Do Potty Training!"

Remember my post back in January about this little adventure?

And remember how it ended in....well....what's the word....

FAILURE?

Oh yeah, I remember.

Since then I stuck her back in diapers and decided to try potty training again when she turned 3.

People would ask her age.

I'd say, "She's almost three."

Eden would then reply, "And when I'm three, I can do potty training!"

Then she turned three. The next day I said, "Guess what? You're three! What happens when you are three?!?"

*Silence*

Bow her head down and walk away.

....Great....

But this story has a HAPPY ENDING. :)

It was a bit of a challenge cause one "method" would work for a while, then we'd need to do something new, and then change it again when she got tired of that method.

Method 1:

I put her in cute underwear and told her she could get a treat if she went potty in the big girl potty. She was somewhat motivated. But that faded relatively quickly.

Method 2:

We reminded her that when you learn to go potty in the big girl potty that you no longer get "owie bummies" and need to use "bum cream". (She had that experience not too long ago and didn't like that at all.) That helped a little, but that faded.

Method 3:

She started to care less and just have an accident while playing....then just continue playing saying, "Mommy! I had an accident!" Not gonna fly. So, I started to have her scrub up her accidents, throw old underwear in the washer, and go get new underwear herself. She oddly didn't seem to mind the work. Accidents continued.

Method 4:

Tyson and I put on our "mean faces" and took out the big guns. "Eden, when you have an accident, you get all dirty and we've got to start giving you a (cold) shower."

Accident.

Cold shower.

Screaming.

New underwear.

After two showers, she started really trying to go potty in the big girl potty. SUCCESS! She was doing a good job. But she was holding in the poopy part of going potty, you could tell.

Method 5:

We put her in Pull-Ups when we went somewhere and at night. She learned that you don't have to take a shower if you have an accident in your Pull-Up. So, she learned to save her poopies until she had a Pull-Up on. I had to go back to reminding her about "owie bummies", try to stay in the house as much as possible so we didn't put on Pull-Ups, and told her that if she goes poopy in the big girl potty then she'd get to pick out a "special prize from the treasure chest". She liked that idea. (When she went poopy in the potty she would choose out a few little rubber snakes and frogs and lizards. She's now got herself quite a collection.)

Method 6:

She had another accident. She had more fear in her eyes than I'd ever seen in her before. She yelled in terror, "I DON'T WANT TO TAKE A SHOWER!" I felt awful. I with love said that we'd take a really short shower and then warm up with a little bath. She felt a little better about that. I had to use the method of lots of love and comfort and showing pride in all that she's been accomplishing. We don't take showers anymore....then again, she hasn't had any accidents in underwear since.

Method 7:

We tried to give her a long term goal. We said that if she went 3 days without an accident in her underwear or Pull-Up (except at night time) then we'd take her to the store and get her a My Little Pony. She was THRILLED. She'd been looking at a paper that came with her other birthday ponies and there was a unicorn. While she loved the two she got for her birthday, it didn't seem complete without the unicorn.

On Friday.....we were able to go get her unicorn.

She was very, very happy.

In that picture she's saying, "UNICORN!" as we got ready to drive to Target.
This is Eden hugging her new unicorn with love.
She's been really good about going potty. I still ask her "Do you need to go potty?" often (although, she actually may not need to be asked much. She tells me herself if she needs to go and if I ask and she says "no", I trust her.) She hasn't even had an accident in her Pull-Up, not even at night time since one of the first days of potty training.

And really, potty training didn't take as long as this post makes it seem like it took. Really all those methods were done within 3-4 days with maybe 1 accident after that. And she actually probably went about 4-5 days before we took her to get the unicorn, we just hadn't kept careful track of days.

The only negative that we're currently facing....going to the store.

When Eden wore diapers, she almost 100% of the time went poopy in her diaper while at the store, at a friends house, and in nursery.

I think Eden is currently afraid of having to go poopy while in public. So, I end up taking her to the bathroom SEVERAL times when we go anywhere. She'll say, "I need to go potty." We'll go and she'll have a little "tummy bubble" and give a little nervous chuckle saying, "Oh, I just had a tummy bubble. I don't need to go."

But hey, I don't complain. Overall, I'd say she's doing AWESOME!!!

Play Time with Grandma

*Several posts about my mom's visit below.*

Between Hayden visiting and then right after (literally the day after) my mom coming to visit.....this picture best sums up how awesome these past few weeks have been...

Eden was so tired that she fell asleep while eating dinner.

My mom came to visit last week....and it was loads of fun. We had a party. We actually had a longer parter than expected because she missed her flight home on Friday and couldn't get another flight until Tuesday. (While it was unfortunate that she missed her flight....I admit I loved it...we had a good time).

The girls loved it too.

We honestly did so much. It was a blast. We went to the Moon Marble Factory, Crown Center, Kaleidoscope, Deanna Rose Farm, book fair, Legends, and out to eat more than I probably should admit.

I decided to put this picture on here cause I only have one picture at the Moon Marble Factory....but it was AWESOME! It was a little building FILLED with marbles and old-school toys that made me remember my childhood.

This lady in the picture actually made a marble in front of our eyes. She even put a little glass frog on the top of it that looked awesome.

...To see the rest of my mom's trip here....I've got several more posts below.