Memorial Day 2010

Ivan, Krystal, and Melissa enjoying the food

I've decided that today is a good example of how I'm a pretty good mix of both of my parents. From my mom I inherited the desire to have all of the family together for all special occasions (and to make any and every occasion a "special occasion"). And although my dad wasn't really one for family get-togethers, if he was going to throw a party, he was going to go way out of his way to make sure it was a swingin' party...and I inherited this quality from him. Not that I'm always successful at planning and carrying out awesome parties, but the "big ideas" aspect is definitely there. I think sometimes this combination of qualities in me makes Aaron a little nervous, but today we had the best of both worlds. We had a pretty descent family turn out, and I think everyone really had a good time. (And in Aaron's favor, we probably spent less than what it would have cost us to drive to Hooper.)

Tanya, Gramma Tam, Kirk and Steph and the table piled high with delicious food

Maybe I should start at the beginning. :) I planned a Memorial Day BBQ for the family. My mom and Kerry, my step-sister Tanya and her baby Graham, my step-sister Steph and her husband Kirk, my step-brother Bryan's wife Emily and their daughter Penny (Bryan stayed back in Cali to work), and Aaron's brother Ryan and his wife Melissa came. Plus we ended up watching two of the neighbor kids for a couple of hours, so they were out there with us too. The deal was that everyone brought their own meat and a side to share, and Aaron and I would do buns and condiments. Mom and Kerry brought their little grill and we had ours too. The result was a fabulous feast, with way more food than we could eat. We decided that all the local parks would be super crowded, so we just did the BBQ in the back yard of our apartment complex, which turned out to be perfect, because we had the place to ourselves and it was fenced in so the kids could just run around and play while the adults talked.

Here's a really cute picture of baby Graham. I can't believe how big he's getting. He was such a good baby too, perfectly happy to play on the blanket and watch what everyone was doing.

While I was at the grocery store this morning getting some things we needed for the BBQ, I spotted some little squirt guns and thought that they would be the perfect activity to go along with our dinner. It turns out I was right. I don't know who had the most fun with the water guns, Lincoln or Aaron, or Papa Kerry or Uncle Ryan. Either way, all the "kids" were entertained by them for quite awhile. And they made sure none of us escaped without getting at least a little wet.

Ivan was the funniest to watch I think. He thought that the water guns were there for the sole purpose of being squirted into his mouth. So he would chase around anyone that had a gun, with his mouth hanging open waiting for them to squirt some water into his mouth. He didn't even seem to mind when some of the water splashed in his face. He also didn't have enough finger strength to pull the trigger on his gun, so he just ran around shaking it at people. The important part is that he thought he was participating, and he was having a blast. 

 

Lincoln probably got the wettest out of everyone, but he didn't seem to mind one bit. He would shoot anyone and everyone, and if they had a gun they would should back, and he would laugh and run away to find the next person to shoot. He never got tired of it.

Aaron and Ryan never seemed to get tired of it either. In fact, between those two and Papa Kerry, the kids always seemed to have full water guns. The "adult" males also seemed to be playing against each other, just as much or more as they did with the kids. Of course, women...and wives in particular, didn't get to miss out on any of the action. If we weren't being directly shot at, then we became shields, or got caught in the cross fire. but it was a nice day, so none of us minded. And I'll admit, I borrowed Linc's gun a few times to take a few shots at Aaron. He always got me back though. :)

Penny, Graham, Ivan, and Lincoln Memorial Day 2010

For the first time since Christmas, all four grand kids on my side were together. And this time we actually got a decent picture. Of course, in order to keep their attention, they all had to have a water gun to hold. But I think that just made the picture even cuter.

Green Shakes...

If this picture doesn't make you want one, I don't know what will. :)

We tricked our kids for dinner tonight. They thought they were having rice with brown sugar and peaches, and a fruit smoothie. What they didn't know was that they were also practically eating a spinach salad. And they did it voluntarily. I love green shakes.

Playgroup at Bridal Veil Falls

Every Friday a few of us from our apartment complex do a playgroup for the kids and so that the women get a chance to socialize. All right, I won't lie, it's mostly for the women to socialize, but it's nice that the kids get to play together while we do it.

Usually we stick pretty close to home and either have it at someone's house or the local park or restaurant's play place, but for the summer we decided to branch out a little and do a couple of bigger things each month. Today was our first bigger activity. We went up Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. There is a cool park at the bottom and has a nice paved trail that you can push a stroller along (I think it's actually a biking trail?) and there's a small pool at the bottom of the falls that's shallow enough and safe enough for even little kids to play, splash around, and throw rocks in.

It was supposed to be overcast and rainy today, but when we woke up the sun was shining and I was so glad! I've been looking forward to this for awhile, because it's such a pretty place and the kids love to be in the water, and I can let them be because it doesn't require a whole ton of supervision like going to a swimming pool would. Plus, it's just a good chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful world that God has put here for us.

Since the water is melt from the snow on the top of the mountains, it was still pretty cold, so my boys weren't as adventurous as they probably would have been otherwise. Neither of them got very wet. Well, until Lincoln sat down in the mud and then I made him sit down in the stream to wash it off, but he still wasn't that wet.

Linc climbing up a big rock

Ivan throwing rocks into the water

Masking Tape Town

Lincoln woke up 45 minutes before Ivan at nap time today. I wanted to keep him occupied and quiet at the same time, so I got down on the floor and played cars with him. The only problem was that after driving all around the living room on my hands and knees, my pregnant back was telling me to call it quits. I decided I'd have an easier time playing if the cars could be contained to driving in a small area. So, I got out the masking tape and made Linc a little car town. We even set up blocks to be the different places we go, the gas station, Target, Costco, Macey's House (Macey's Grocery Store, Linc calls it Macey's House for some reason), The Mending Shed, etc. It wasn't my intent to make it look like a face, but that's how it came out. Lincoln deemed that the "mouth" was a big sandbox and had all the cars/trucks pick up sand from there and go dump them at different locations. He also spent a lot of time filling up each car with gas. He was so into it that I didn't even have to play, I just watched. He played really well with the little car town, until Ivan woke up and promptly began pulling all the tape off of the carpet.

Q Day: Q-Tips, Quack, Quiet, Quarters, Quesadillas

Somehow, I lucked out and scored being in charge of the letter Q. Please note my sarcasm. :) Luckily there are a lot of people out there who are more creative than I am, so I was able to find some fun ideas by looking online.

I made this Q poster in Word and printed it on a piece of card stock. I put the big Q and the little q and then a picture of all the different Q words we would be talking about for the day. Then each of the boys got a hand full of Q-tips and I got out the watercolor paints and they painted their Q posters using Q-tips.

Ivan wanted to play too, but I wasn't in the mood to clean paint off of him, so instead I just put him in his highchair, gave him a couple Q-tips and Aaron's Popular Science magazine and he "painted" that with invisible, dry, easy to clean up, imaginary paint. He was tickled. :)

We put the posters aside to dry, and I got out my flannel board for the next activity. It was my first time using the flannel board, and I was really excited! I've been thinking up, printing out, and laminating pictures and stories and ideas to use on the board for weeks now, but I hadn't gotten around to putting flannel on the backs of any of them yet, and today was the day. I had done the characters from one of Lincoln's favorite songs, 5 Little Ducks. Here are the lyrics:

5 little ducks went out to play
Over the hill and far away
When the mommy duck said, "Quack, Quack, Quack."
4 little ducks came waddling back.

4 little ducks went out to play

Over the hill and far away
When the mommy duck said, "Quack, Quack, Quack."
3 little ducks came waddling back.

(...and you keep counting down until you get to)
0 little ducks came waddling back.

But when the daddy duck said, "Quack! Quack! Quack!"
5 little ducks came waddling back.
 

 
The boys took a little bit to get used to the idea that I wanted them to keep moving the ducks back and forth and count them as we did so. But I think they still enjoyed it, and hopefully more exposure to the flannel board will get them accustomed to it.
 

Next I read one of Lincoln and Ivan's favorite books, Quiet Loud by Leslie Patricelli. It's a really simple book that talks about quiet things and loud things. For example on the first two pages it says, "Whispering is quiet. Screaming is loud." And has corresponding pictures. I had the kids do the quiet things and the loud things. At first they looked at me strangely that I was actually encouraging them to be loud inside, but they got over it rather quickly. It was a good chance to talk about how quiet starts with Q, but also a good chance to introduce opposites.
 
Then it was time for a more energetic activity, so the boys could get their wiggles out. I got the idea for this activity and the next one here. I got out 5 paper plates on each one I had drawn either a big Q, a little q, or both. and arranged them fairly close together on the carpet. Then I put a tape line a little ways away and had the boys stand behind it. I gave them each a handful of quarters and showed them how to toss the quarters and try to hit the Q's on the plates. I'd say this was probably the favorite activity of the day. :) The pictures that I took didn't turn out though, so I'm going to see if Suzy will share hers with me, and then I'll post them.
 
Last it was time for snack. We made Q shaped quesadillas. The boys were really excited about helping to spread the cheese, and about eating the tails.
 

Book Review: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

by Novella Carpenter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. From the very first paragraph I was drawn in...

"I have a farm on a dead-end street in the ghetto. My back stairs are dotted with chicken turds. Bales of straw come undone in the parking area next to my apartment. I harvest lettuce in an abandoned lot. I wake up in the morning to the sounds of farm animals mingled with my neighbor's blaring car alarm."

Novella Carpenter lives in the ghetto of Oakland, CA by choice. She squat farms on a vacant lot. She keeps bees, raises chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and pigs.

This book is intriguing because Novella makes possible things that seem absolutely impossible. And shows she's not alone, by befriending different people who do the same thing. Urban farming. It's a very interesting read to say the least.

The book isn't super fast paced, but it's not hard to stay interested in it either. Compared to other books I've read, specifically Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I think Farm City is a lot easier to get through, and I like the style a lot better. While Kingsolver's book is very informative and does a lot more to instruct a person on how to repeat the process she goes through, Novella Carpenter writes a lot more about her personal experiences and personal thoughts, and less about the research she does. And although I think both authors made specific choices to write the way the did for a reason, I think Farm City is a little bit more entertaining.

Novella has a blog that she updates pretty frequently about the Ghost town Farm, if you're interested. It'll be interesting to see what happens to her farm now that her book is getting so much publicity.

Anyways, I really liked this book, I thought it was fascinating, and definitely a lifestyle I will likely never choose to live, but nice to know that it's possible if I were ever in that circumstance. I will just mention that there is a little bit of strong language in the book...she lives in the ghetto, mind...so just be aware of that when you pick it up.

FHE: Jonah and the Whale

For FHE tonight, Aaron did Jonah and the whale. I think we'll be doing our "Follow the Prophet" theme for awhile, although thinking of the activities is getting harder. But Aaron did a fantastic job tonight coming up with something the boys were both thrilled about participating in. As usual we started with the song, here's the Jonah verse:

Jonah was a prophet, tried to run away
But he later learned to listen and obey,
When we really try the Lord won't let us fail.
That's what Jonah learned deep down inside the whale.

The we read the story out of the Bible, which is about 3 chapters long, short chapters, but it's still a lot more than I remembered. Next came the activity, which Aaron had prepared in secret, so I didn't know what to expect.

Aaron spread a blue sheet on the ground for the ocean. Then he told the boys how the Lord asked Jonah to go preach to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah was afraid so he ran away and got in a boat. Aaron had the boys take turns getting in our small laundry basket and Aaron took them out to sea and had them get caught in a storm. Aaron explained that the people in the boat were afraid and threw Jonah over board because he hadn't listened to the Lord.

Then Aaron brought out the "whale" which was our tall laundry basket with blanket taped around it, and eyes and a blow hole taped onto the blanket. The whale swallowed each of the boys, and then spit them up on the land, and Aaron told them that once the whale had spit Jonah out, he went and taught the people to repent and they did and were saved.

Here is a video of one of the swallowings (both Linc and Ivan wanted to be swallowed by the whale multiple times, so we got to reenact the story lots and lots) of the boys.




And this next video is mostly for the grandmas...it's Lincoln singing Follow the Prophet and then telling (sort of) the story of Jonah. It's cute :)



Oh ya, and don't mind Lincoln's lack of pants throughout this post...he just refused to put them on pretty much all day today and it wasn't a battle I was willing to fight at the moment. :)

Our Weekend

We had a really fun weekend this week. On Friday night, for date night we went to eat at The Malt Shoppe here in Provo. For the first little bit we had the whole place to ourselves. It was fun. The boys LOVED the jukebox, and we caught them dancing quite a few times, especially Ivan. They also got to have their very first ever corn dogs. And both boys gobbled them right up, which was nice because usually when we go out to eat they are too distracted to actually eat. After we got home and put the boys to bed, Aaron and I finally got to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which we bought for our anniversary. I love that movie. We've seen it so many times, but it cracks me up every time.

Saturday we spent all morning doing yard work around the apartment complex. We have these huge trees that get this little seed pod petal things that come off by the millions and blow everywhere. So we tried to clean those up a bit, and planted some new lilac bushes (my fav!), and did the lawns. After that we loaded up the boys and took the to the Lehi Aquatic Center. We've been promising Lincoln to take him swimming for completing his potty chart for about a month and a half now. It was such a cool place! They had a baby area, with little slides and bouncy seats, and a lazy river, and a regular pool, and then the coolest toddler area I've ever seen I think. It had a big play set with tunnels and wheels you could turn to make water spray out, and a bigger slide, and on top of that structure was a giant bucket that would fill with water, and every 20 minutes or so, bells would ding and the bucket would dump out onto a roof with grooves in it that sent the water flying in all different directions. That was Lincoln's favorite part.

Since it was indoors and muggy, we didn't want to take our camera, but here's a picture of the bucket tipping that I found online. Linc had a blast swimming, as usual. Ivan on the other hand, still hasn't really warmed up to the idea, and he clung to either Aaron or I almost the whole time. We're hoping with more exposure he'll come around.

Sunday after church and naps, Aaron wanted to do a fun project with the boys, so he built them a whirl pool bottle. Basically you take two empty 2 liter bottles, fill one about one third to half way full of water, and then duct tape the other bottle to it so that the water can pass between the bottles. The boys thought it was great fun, even if they don't totally understand the concept of a whirl pool. They really liked watching Aaron make the whirl pool, and they also liked making the water just bubble (which is what happens if you don't spin it to make the whirl pool) like a spring.

And since I haven't posted a picture of my pregnantness since I started showing, I thought I should probably do that. Here's me and the belly at about 29 weeks.

This pregnancy the baby is riding low again, like Lincoln did (Ivan was up in my rib cage the whole time) so it'll be interesting to see how things go. I don't feel as big as I felt with Ivan, probably because there is more space inside of me. But I think I look bigger. But that could just be that it's pregnancy #3 and I'm all stretched out already. Either way, I'm not really concerned about it, just observing. It always amazes me how each pregnancy is so different. August still seems forever away in days, because the days go by so slowly, but the weeks go quickly and I'm trying to plan lots of things to keep my mind occupied for the next two months so that it will go by as fast as possible. At the same time, I have a lot to do and wonder if it will all get done before she gets here. :) Don't try to figure out the mind of a pregnant woman, it'll just confuse and frustrate you as much as it does her.

Toddler Train

Since Ivan started walking he's been a lot more insistent on being part of things. So I've been trying really hard to do a few activities each week that target him specifically, and then also finding ways to involve him in what I'm doing with Lincoln.

This morning while I was trying to get ready for the day, Ivan was on a rampage and needed a distraction. So I took a 5 minute break from getting ready and made him a toddler train. I got the idea out of The Toddler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 1/2 to 3 Year Old Busy by Trish Kuffner. I like this book a lot, I'll do a review on it one of these days.

To make a Toddler Train you'll need

3 or more assorted boxes (I made boxes out of sheets of card stock, and I only had two)

String, ribbon, or yarn

Plastic straw
Scissors

Use scissors or another pointed object to poke small holes in the ends of each box. Insert about a foot of string, ribbon, or yarn, into the back hole of the first box, then tie the end of the string around a short piece of plastic straw to prevent it from pulling through the hole. Insert the other end of the string through the front hole of the next box and fasten it in the same way. Use more string to continue connecting boxes until the train is finished. Use a longer length of string for the front hole of the first box. Tie a cylindrical wooden block or small plastic vitamin bottle to the end of the string for a handle.

I couldn't convince him that it would be cool to pull his toys in his train, but the empty train kept him busy for the next 25 minutes while I finished getting ready, so I'm not going to complain.

Today in my Kitchen I Noticed...

Oops. Even though it has been snowing, I should probably take down the Santa towel since it's MAY! Haha. I guess keeping my decorations up to date hasn't been on the priority list.

According to Lincoln

Lincoln is a lot more aware this go around of my expanding stomach. So we told him that his little sister Adelia is in there. He seemed ok with that, but now every so often he claims to also have a "Delia" in his tummy. He says things to me like, "Mom, Delia kicked me." or he'll go lay on the couch and I'll say, "Linc are you tired." and he'll say, "Ya, I'm tired, my back hurts." Gee, I wonder who he hangs out with all day :) And even more recently he's been sticking stuffed animals up his shirt. It's cute and ridiculous at the same time. I love it.

Every Day at 5:10pm

Every day at approximately 5:10pm the boys climb on the back of the couch and look out the window.

Waiting.......waiting......waiting......

And finally.........

The Reward!

I feel the same way, except I'm too big to climb onto the back of the couch. :)

P Day: Pizza, Pavement Painting, and a Picnic at the Park

Today for P Day, Suzy had the boys make their own personal pizzas. They got to pull the dough out of the bowl, and push the dough down to make it flat. Then spread sauce and put cheese and pepperoni on top.

While the pizzas were baking, Suzy showed the boys how to paint on the pavement. I'll admit, as the manager of our apartment complex I was slightly nervous when she announced this as the activity, until I realized that she meant painting with water. :) She gave each boy a yogurt cup full of water and a popsicle stick. They got to dip the popsicle stick in water and use it to make fun designs on the pavement outside. All the boys thought it was great, and didn't seem to notice or mind that it was just water and not real paint. I'm going to have to do this again...same entertainment and no mess! You can't beat that. And it was easy enough that even Ivan could participate and have a good time.

After the pizzas were done, we packed up and walked to the park for a picnic. Then the kids got to play on the playground. It was a great day, and nice to have a little bit of a different approach to letter day. And the kids still got the idea of the letter P even though they were at the park and not really in a setting where they were continually reminded to focus on the letter. :)

"I'm Tough to the Finish, Cause I Eats Me Spinach..."

I've been tired a lot lately. I think it has a little to do with getting sick, being sick, and recovering from sickness, and a lot more to do with being pregnant in general. The other day I was doing some reading about the third trimester, here is just a small portion:

To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.

And it occurred to me, that the reason I'm so tired is because the baby is soaking up all my nutrients and I'm not eating enough of them to give both of us what we need. Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself to be a fairly healthy eater, especially while pregnant, but it's looking like I need to be paying more attention and making sure the healthy things I eat contain the stuff Adelia and I need. As I was pondering the best way to go about this, I came across a really awesome post by my friend Paige. She suggests lots of great ways to get some good things going with your diet. One of the things she suggested were green shakes. And since I think I do fairly well on my protein and iron already, and the thing I have the hardest time getting lots of are veggies, I thought I'd take her up on her idea. She was right, the thing was amazing! I put 1/2 cup spinach in mine today along with 1 cup blue berries, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup blackberries, 4 oz of yogurt, one ice tray's worth of ice, and just enough milk to get things wet. It was really really good. I ate almost a whole blender full of it. And she was right, you can't even taste the spinach. I'm excited to try some different combos this week and see what I can come up with. Thanks Paige!

 

As I mentioned, I had the shake for lunch, and by the time my kids woke up from their naps, I still felt like I had energy! (Usually that's our hardest stretch of the day because I'm tired and out of ideas, and it's still a long ways 'til dinner.) And since the sun had decided to come out (it rained all morning) I decided we'd go for a nice long walk up to campus and meet Aaron and walk home with him. The walk to campus was beautiful, perfect weather. Just as we picked up Aaron and got headed in a homeward direction, dark clouds rolled back in, and before we even got to the edge of campus it was pouring rain. There was really nothing to do about it except keep walking. We all got absolutely soaked. But we had fun. At one point Lincoln wanted Aaron to carry him, so Aaron put Linc up on his shoulders and Linc said, "Dad your head is all wet." It was really funny because by then all of us were all wet all over, but Linc thought he'd point out Aaron's head being wet.

 

 

When we got home, we had our neighbor take our picture. I don't know if the picture does enough justice to our soaking state, so just in case you can't tell, we are all thoroughly soaked through, except Ivan's head, it managed to stay dry underneath the stroller visor, but the rest of him and the all of the rest of us are wet everywhere there is to be wet. I'm just glad I thought to take all our jackets, or else we would have been cold too. We went in and gave the boys a warm bath and had tomato soup and cheese sandwiches for dinner, yum!

 

And yes, if you're wondering, I'm one of those terrible mothers who makes her child where the harness backpack when we walk to campus, because I'd rather he be safe and tethered to me, than squished like a bug because he ran out into one of the busy intersections we have to cross on our way without waiting to hold my hand. I never use it to drag him or pull him along, just to ensure that he not dash away faster than I can catch him, resulting in him hurting himself, or me hurting myself (or baby) by trying to run after him. And he's happier because he doesn't have to hold onto my hand, or the stroller for our entire walk. So yes, I think there is a time and place for the harness backpack if you use it the right way, so sue me. If you'd like to debate the issue further, I'd be glad to, just let me know.

FHE: Daniel and the Lions' Den

Ivan and Lincoln the lions in front of their "den" before Daniel was thrown in.

Continuing on with our "Follow the Prophet" theme...tonight we did Daniel and the lions' den. Here is the verse for Daniel:

Daniel was a prophet. He refused to sin;
So the kind threw Daniel in the lion's den.
Angels calmed the lions, and the king soon saw
Daniel's power was great for he obeyed God's law.

Then we read the story out of the scriptures. And as many times as I've heard this story, I saw kind of a different side of it tonight, which I thought was interesting. Usually the focus is on Daniel and how good it was of him to keep praying even when the law said not to, and how because of this he was saved. And yes, all of that is true and good, and I like it. But tonight, for some reason, I was focused more on the story of the king. The king was tricked into making the law, he didn't do it on purpose to catch Daniel, that was the other princes. And when he realizes that by signing that law that he put Daniels life in danger, he feels really bad, but can't go back on the law. But the king, I think, shows great faith as well because he tells Daniel, "Your God will protect you he always does." And then the king goes home and fasts the whole night for Daniel's safety. I just thought that was really interesting, and I wonder, if at least partly, the king's faith had something to do with Daniel's safety.

Anyways, after reading the story, we all acted it out. Earlier in the day I made little lion manes for the boys to wear (somehow I knew they would want to be the lions) out of a paper plate and construction paper. I just cut the middle out of the plate and cut strips of yellow and orange construction paper and glued the strips around the outside of the plate. Wha-la, lions. Easy. The den was made out of kitchen chairs and a blanket. Aaron got to be Daniel and I was the angel. I, as the angel, had a bit of a rough time convincing our ferocious lions to "shut their mouths" and not eat Daniel. But luckily he made it out alive and we sent the lions to bed. Much to their dismay.

Everyone Loves a Slinky...and Other Sunday Thoughts

Pretty much I spent all of Saturday either in my bed or sitting in front of the toilet. I hate when that happens, but thankfully I have an amazing husband who stepped up to the plate and took care of everything, including me, so that I didn't have to worry about a thing. I love Aaron so much.

I was still feeling a little off today, so I stayed home from church. I re-listened to Elder Uchtdorf's conference talk, the one about us being Christ's hands, and the whole time he was speaking I kept thinking of Aaron. Aaron is such a wonderful example to me of so many of the attributes of Christ the President Uchtdof mentioned. Aaron is always quick to help out, slow to judge, and most definitely makes love an action word, instead of just something spoken or written about. I love you Aaron. And my goal is to work on being better at showing it than I am at saying it.

Aaron took both boys to church by himself AND taught the Sunday school lesson. The least he deserved was a nap. So when Ivan woke up from his, I let Aaron sleep and got up with Ivan. We played together in the living room. At one point Ivan found a slinky. I think this video is funny.



Ivan sure is getting to be so big. He's not really a baby anymore, which I guess is good, since we have another baby on the way, but I still can't believe how fast he's gotten so big. He's starting to say things now. He says Mama, Dada, no, duck, light, ball, boing boing (while he's making something bounce), and what's this? (he slurs that one together pretty badly, but you can still tell what it is.) And he makes barking noises for things he thinks are dogs (almost all furry animals) and he can make a duck noise and a monkey noise too.

We had spaghetti for dinner. Which Lincoln calls pa-sghetti. So Aaron, trying to teach him to pronounce it correctly said, "Lincoln say, Spa (small pause) ghetti." So Lincoln does, says it just perfectly, then turns to me and says, "Mom say, Pa (small pause) sghetti." Subsequent attempts from Aaron to get him to say it correctly only resulted in Lincoln trying to teach me to say it incorrectly. We had a good laugh over it.

Tonight I was feeling quite a bit better and decided that we should make one of my favorites, Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake, for dessert. Everyone pitched in to help out, especially when it came time to lick the spoon and beaters.

The Potty Project: Bathroom Humor

It's been a long time since I posted anything about how Lincoln's potty training is going. Mostly because not much is happening. Oh, we are still doing it, don't worry, it just feels like making any progress is taking forever. Maybe slow and steady will eventually win the race...in our case I don't care if we win or even place, I'd just like to finish all in one piece. :) I think my sister-in-law Sydni said it best when she said, "Potty training is good birth control." Yup. So is being pregnant. But that's a story for another day.

I guess I should note what progress we have made with it.

-We are (FINALLY!) past the point where Lincoln would scream for up to an hour at the top of his lungs while sitting on the potty because he didn't want to poop because it hurt. I think our little bout with Hand Foot and Mouth can be given credit for that, diarrhea. Super. But at least he got used to going while the going wasn't tough, and can now do it without as much drama.

-Lincoln can, about 75% of the time, put his underwear on facing forward. Big improvement.

-We have successfully transitioned from having to give him a treat every time (aka ruining his meals) to having him move a magnet along a potty chart to get a bigger reward at the end (we will be taking him swimming sometime if we ever get all of us feeling well at once), and from that to just going because that's what you're supposed to do (this is mostly the result of my laziness because I never got around to making another potty chart once he filled the last one).

-He hasn't peed while sitting in time out for a long time, whew!

-Linc can keep his underwear dry all day IF I make sure to have him use the potty every so often.

-IF I can get him to use the potty before we go out in public, he can wear underwear without me being scared to death he'll have an accident.

-Lincoln mostly always wakes up dry after naps and in the morning. He gets credit for this all on his own. I have done nothing to attempt to potty train him in his sleep. :)

-We have also transitioned from the little potty to the big potty. This came about because now that he can hold it for longer periods of time, he has a lot more pressure built up, and even though he was pointing down in the little potty, he was too close to the bottom and the pressure would cause lots of splashing and mess everywhere, and I got tired of cleaning it up. So now Linc uses the big potty with a stool. Much easier to handle, for me at least, and he doesn't seem to mind, so we're good.

-And lastly, but this is the biggest, most important step so far, sometimes he tells me he needs to go BEFORE I suggest that he might want to go. This is a very big step in the right direction.

-Oh, and I should probably mention our "special case". This has only happened one time so far, but it gives me great hope. Once when the boys were taking their naps, I went out to get the mail. When I came back, Lincoln had gotten up and was sitting on the potty. AWESOME! That proves he can do it all by himself.

So those are our improvements from last time. Here are some things we are currently working on.

-How to wipe. He has the motions down, but the effectiveness is still pretty shaky.

-How to wash our hands. He'll do it if I remind him, but he does a lot more playing than actual washing, so I always have to supervise.

-How to pull his pants down far enough that they don't get in the way while peeing. Self explanatory.

And lastly, I'm not generally one for bathroom humor, but with potty training you either have to laugh or you'll cry. Here are some of the funnier moments.

- I took the kids with me to one of my Dr appointments, and I had to sit up on the exam table. While I was up there Lincoln kept saying, "Mommy on the potty? Mommy need to pee? Mommy go potty?"

- The other day during dinner Lincoln mentioned that he needed to poop, so he got down and sat on his little potty, and proceeded to do so. When he was done he said, "Look Mom a C!" My first thought was that Ivan had put one of our magnet letters in the potty and Lincoln had gone on top of it. Lincoln kept persisting that I come and see the C, so finally I went to look. To my relief there was not a magnet letter in the potty. What I did see was a perfectly shaped C poop. Linc was so proud of himself and kept saying over and over, "I pooped a C! I pooped a C!" I don't know whether to be grossed out, or just glad he's recognizing his letters.

-A little while ago Lincoln told me, "Mom, pooping is still hard."

- When Lincoln was having trouble pooping, we'd sit by him and hold his hand and try to help him relax. So the other day I was using the bathroom and Linc came in (do mothers ever get to use the bathroom alone?) and said "Here Mom, I squeeze your hand. Now do this (and he proceeded to take a big exaggerated deep breath), good." Thanks for the moral support Linc. :)

-Ivan is now a pro at the potty dance, even though he has no idea what is going on, whenever Lincoln and I start singing, Ivan waves his hands around and dances right along with us.

-We manage our apartment complex, so that means we have to show the vacant apartments. Anyways, a guy (single, probably 21 or so) came to look at one. When we let him in, Lincoln quickly informed him, "I peed in the potty. And pooped." I think Linc was a little disappointed that the guy didn't show the same enthusiasm about it as Mom/Dad/Grandma etc. usually do.

O Day: Orange, Oceans, Octopus, and Doughnuts :)

For O Day, I started out reading Lincoln and Nathan (and Ivan and Kaitlyn) one of my newest favorite board books called Ollie the Stomper by Olivier Dunrea. It's a simple and cute book and captures the nature of toddlerism almost perfectly. Check it out!

Then we went into the kitchen for a little practice making O's. I had cut out two big pieces of cardboard from a recent box I received in the mail, and drawn a big black O on each one. I remember loving to paint with sponges when I was in pre-school, and I haven't had Linc try it out yet. Today was the day. I gave both boys a piece of sponge and squirted some orange paint onto a plate and told them to try their hand and making orange O's. Lincoln did really well with his, except he wanted to fill them in after, so his look more like orange circles, but it's all good.

To introduce our next topic, I played the song "Way Down Here Beneath the Ocean" off of the Disney Silly Songs CD, and had them try to pick out the O word. They had a little bit of a hard time with this, since I hadn't told them the word before hand, but after a few clues from Suzy and I, they got it. Then I asked them what kind of things live in the ocean. Lincoln told me Nemo, which we categorized as a fish, and Nathan said octopus.

So we made wind sock octopi. I got the idea from here. She made hers out of a lot sturdier material though. We just used construction paper, tape, and streamers for the legs. We also glued on googly eyes, and a puff ball for a nose. We tried using a pipe cleaner for a mouth, but it wouldn't stay on, so we just drew one in. I think the most exciting part for the boys was hanging them outside and watching them blow in the wind.

For our last activity, we talked some more about the ocean, and I asked the boys if they would like to make one. They thought that sounded cool. I got the idea for this here. I gave each boy an empty plastic bottle (soda or juice work great, I think ours were V8 Splash) and I made little funnels for each one out of paper (not a necessity, but it helped with the mess) and had them use a plastic spoon to put decorative sand in the bottom of their bottles. You could use regular sand or dirt, but it might cloud the water. Then I filled each bottle with warm/hot water. Then I let each boy pick two Magic Growing Capsules (you can buy these in all varieties at the dollar store, if you are doing ocean you want to make sure you get the sea life ones)

to put into their bottles. After a few minutes the capsules grew into sea creatures. Lincoln got an octopus and a fish, Nathan got a penguin and a sea horse. Cool! Then we screwed the lids on tight (ideally we would have super glued them on, but I ran out of super glue) and let them have a good look at them.

The last thing we did was our snack. We had leftover doughnuts, so that's what I gave them. And yes, I am aware the doughnut does not start with O, but it is shaped like an O, so I used that to my advantage.

Nathan and Lincoln with their mini-oceans

Adelia's Early Birth Present

Even though Adi won't be here until August, she got an early birth present in the mail today. Aaron's mom and my mom (and probably our dads too, though most likely they weren't as involved, hehe) went together to get us this awesome new pack 'n play. I'm really excited about it, since our old one is one we got for free from someone who got it for free, when Lincoln decided to have a change of plan and be born in Arizona instead of waiting until we got back to Utah where his crib was.

This new pack 'n play has a bassinet AND a changing table AND a new born napper. It's also adorable, and the perfect color. I'm really excited about it (did I mention that yet?) since Adelia will probably sleep in this for the first few months so she can be out in the living room where it's a little warmer. And so that if Ivan has trouble adjusting to sleeping in a bed, we don't have to kick him out of his crib right away.

Aaron was a good sport, as soon as he got home from work, I had him set it up for me just so I could see it all out. He loves me and puts up with me :) Thanks Aaron.