thinking outside the box

if moms worldwide ever get wind of this honey of an idea, baby bjorn can just kiss its front-pack carrier profits goodbye.

maintaining the status quo

+1 parent point: carson and layla love to play a little game called "mom and dad," in which they imagine they are, surprise, the mom and dad of a family of dolls. (this game has caused no end of entertainment for paul and me. the scenarios they come up with are hilarious. we actually had no idea how naughty these dolls were, until we saw the frequency at which they were sent to "time out." carson and layla are power hogs, i think.) yesterday, c&l came upstairs while playing and informed me that they were going to the temple for their date, and that the "oldest" (translation: biggest) doll would be babysitting the other kids. they then proceeded to give all the dolls kisses before they left on their date, and went down the hall together to the "temple."

times like this, i think to myself, "self, you're doing something right. nice job."

-1 parent point: paul, addie, and i were downstairs while the kids were upstairs at the kitchen counter drinking their bedtime cups of milk, when i heard carson lament, "oh no! i spilled my milk!" no biggie, he can clean it up himself, so neither paul nor i moved. a little later, i went upstairs to put addelyn to bed, and layla approached me, "mom, tarsey spilled his milt." carson (half annoyed, half frantic): "layla! you're not supposed to tell mom! dat was supPOSed to be a secret! a BAD secret. you weren't supposed to tell her!" i told carson that he didn't need to keep secrets from me. "why not?" because i'm your mother.

times like this, i think to myself, "self, show more love to these guys when they do something wrong so they're not afraid to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

so...yep. status quo. not bad.

how do i love thee? let me count the ways.

there's nothing like a good old-fashioned bout of stomach flu to rekindle the flame, right?

yesterday, i was down-and-out. paul, my knight in spit-up-stained and pnut-butter-smeared armor, proved once again that i made the right choice in stalking him and forcing him to propose all those many years ago. :)

no, but seriously. feeding the kids. doing the dishes. carrying me to my bed (without grunting, audibly, from the exertion). tucking me in and closing the door to help me nap. taking the kids to church. playing with the kids. worrying about me. offering me ice cream.

i just fully appreciate all the little things he does to make my life easier. i hate being sick (the egomaniac inside of me somehow thinks that our household will fall apart if i'm not there to glue it together...when actually the opposite is probably true). good thing it was (i think) just a 24-hour deal, because i'm feeling much better today.

paul: 1,000,000
stomach bug: 1

7 quirks I have

I've been tagged, so here goes:

Quirk #1: I own, and proudly wear, this long canvas trench coat whose flowery print resembles an old lady's parlor wallpaper:


Quirk #2: I'm probably the only person on the planet who actually uses the "delay" setting on my dishwasher so it goes off as close to midnight as possible (to save on energy costs...pennies, if anything...and to cut down on kitchen noise during prime family time).

Quirk #3: I like to try to use "big" words in conversation, even though most of the time I neither know what they mean nor how to say them.

Quirk #4-A: I love accessories, but I don't care so much about earrings. In fact, I only own one pair of silver earrings...which, when I wear them, means I never ever no never am able to wear gold anywhere on my body.

Quirk #4-B: My phobia of mixing gold with silver or brown with black (as in accessories/belt/socks/shoes) is totally quirky. I'm kind of anal about that and have been known to scrap a perfectly good outfit over something as lame as a single gold bead in a bracelet.

Quirk #5: I often, without meaning to, drag out stories with way too many unimportant, unnecessary, and pretty boring details - speaking paragraphs when the whole gist of my idea could've been summarized in about 2 sentences. Unfortunately, I don't usually realize I'm doing this until it's too late, like when several hours have passed and I'm just barely getting to the point of the story. Much like I'm doing right now...

Quirk #6: I have piles of library books scattered all over the house, which is great and chaotic and all, but when it comes time to return them, the stack must be organized from largest on the bottom to smallest on the top, with some books turned sideways as needed to facilitate the "flow" of the book pyramid. If one of my kids rearranges these before we get them back to the library, I'll start all over in building the stack "correctly."

Quirk #7: I go through life creating stupid internal little competitions and games for myself - like "how few wipes can I use to change this diaper hygienically?" "where will I end up after the next 100 steps of jogging?" "can I empty the van-full of groceries in as few as 2 trips?" etc. etc.

There you have it. Quirky.

playing catch-up

honestly. 5 minutes unsupervised, maybe 10. we go from this:

to this:

and, for your viewing pleasure, a closer look at the caliber of the mess...many games with many, and TINY, pieces:

legos are great for little boys...and babies are great for little girls:

a brain-child of carson's, which he gleaned from a curious george episode: a tall hat in which to store food, so when one gets hungry, one can simply reach up and gather food from the hat. brilliant.

an aerial view of said hats, revealing bags of carrot sticks:


carson, who had readied himself to go to a high school football game with his grampa, waited out on the curb for at least 30 minutes in anticipation. i saw him sitting out there, but when i came back with the camera to capture the moment, he was marching while waiting. ahh, the excitement of kids. love it.

addie's blessing day (we missed getting a good pic while she was dressed...this was at the end of a very long and tiring day for her...):

have a nice day.

english 101

the other day i asked layla a question, to which she responded, "no, i amn't." (which is a contraction that, if you think about it, totally makes sense.) carson corrected her, "you mean you AREN'T?" layla: "yeah, i aren't."

hah!

before i forget...

as the closing prayer of today's second session of conference continued, i heard layla's whispering, "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." she tried this 3-4 times. i think she was trying to expedite the prayer's end so she could "legally" keep playing with her toys. heh. good idea, kiddo, but no such luck.

but, seriously, general conference is so great.