Schtuff

 We woke up the other morning to find our back yard looking like this. And it occurred to me for the first time, that we live right at the base of the mountain, and are probably going to get a lot more snow here than we did in Provo. I hate to be cold, but I do like the snow (as long as I'm not driving in it), and I think the kids will have fun playing in it. I have lots of great memories of playing in the snow as a kid.

Daylight Savings Time, is another matter altogether, however. And I hate it. Even with the "extra" hour we get of sleep this go around *roll eyes*. As a mother, what I like is consistency. I like to know when to expect that the kids will be hungry/tired/getting up in the morning, etc. And with Daylight Savings, no matter if you're springing forward or falling back it screw EVERYTHING up. Grrrr.....Plus I hate that it's dark at 5pm.

But I think I've got the kids all ready for winter. They've got all their coats, snow pants, boats, gloves, and so forth. I even found this great monster hat for Adelia. In this picture she's marching around the house in it, waving her toothbrush (which she would take everywhere with her if I let her) and just generally being very silly. I love her.

She's been talking up a storm lately, and it occurred to me that I should try to write down all the words she can say. Here is goes: Mama, Dada, water, milk, shoes, socks, toes, baby, panda, raff (giraffe), Eeee-en (Lincoln), Mah-maw (grandma), blanket, finished, bird, pants, ball, dog, meow, chicken, walk, no (except it's always more like NO!), ears, nose, and mouth. And she repeats mostly anything you say to her. It's cute. She's doing pretty good with her signs too. She can sign finished, milk, water, horse/cow (she does the same sign for both), shoes, more, food, dog, baby, ball, bird, and chicken.

 It's kind of funny how night and day different this kid is from when she was a baby. I tell people all the time what a hard baby she was, and they don't believe me. Don't get me wrong, she still has her share of drama and throws tantrums and fits, but nothing like the 24/7 unhappy, non-sleeping, screaming, colicky baby that she was. Now she's just a funny little person who makes Aaron and I laugh multiple times every day with her silly antics. I think we need to get a picture of Adelia and Aunt Melissa in their twinner monster hats. :)

 I was cleaning out the camera card, and found some pictures. This one of Lincoln showing off his apple sun catcher. I did a post about these back in September. They were an art project we did for Little Boys Club. I thought they turned out so cute. I still have both Lincoln's and Ivan's hanging up on my sliding glass door.

Another picture I found was this one of Lincoln and Ivan wearing their fake fangs that they got at the Van Orman's Halloween party. They love their fake teeth, and each have several pairs. Apparently they loved Halloween too. They keep asking me when it can be Halloween again, like I just make up holidays whenever I want, haha. I guess to a little kid that has no concept of a year, that's probably how it seems. I'm trying to get them into Thanksgiving mode.

 Potty Training. Oh how I loathe you. Someone please tell me... if you wait long enough, will the child eventually just train himself? We keep flirting with the idea of potty training Ivan, Aaron really wants to, but I just don't have a solid week that I can block out to stay home all day and do it. It's A LOT of work to take the child potty in public because I have to hold him up on the potty, which leaves Adelia free to run around and touch every single disgusting surface in the bathroom while I'm at it. Not to mention squeezing 4 of us into a stall is no small feat. And let's be completely honest here, cleaning up pee and poop off everything in my house from sun up to sun down isn't the most appealing activity I can think of for myself to do all day. Not to mention having to be a constant form of entertainment to keep the child sitting on the potty while we wait for him to do business. Ugghhh. I told Aaron that if he wants him potty trained so badly, he can stay home with him until it's done, and I'll go to work. Ya, I'm sure imSAR would be thrilled with that solution. Seriously though, I'd rather give birth than potty train. At least when you're in labor you're done after a few hours. Yes, they are long, painful, exhausting hours, but hey, after that you're done. Mission accomplished. Potty training, not so... you're in it for months. How long did it take to potty train Lincoln? About 9 months. 6 in the very least. Please, not again. Ivan my friend, you might be on your own with this one...I just don't know if you're mother is up for it at present.