...are Nick and Karli going on vacation? We just booked tickets to here:

Can you guess?

I'm boy crazy. As in... this boy is about to drive me crazy!!!

Nolan's newest biggest accomplishment is discovering how to get out of nap times. And not just, "I don't want to go to sleep so I'll stay awake in my crib". Oh no. He wants to get everyone out at nap time.

On Thursday, he came up with this brilliant scheme:

Just before I was about to put him to bed, Mylie comes running into my room as says, "Nolan did something bad."

"Oh? What?"

"And I did something bad too."

That's when I knew I was in trouble. "What did you do?"

"Just come see."

So, I came into the kitchen to this scene.


I almost lost it, but something stopped me. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, "Well, you better get down and play in it and have fun, because you're going to be cleaning it up. And it WON'T be happening again."

Did I mention the outfit he's wearing was actually black when I put it on him that morning?

They had an excellent time pretending it was snowing in the kitchen and bringing all their toys in to join the party. After almost an hour, I finally called the game, and threw them in the tub (which made a sickeningly thick corn starchy water). Naptime was further evaded with an immediate trip to Target, and we are now the proud owners of one of THESE babies on our pantry door:


So, after one napless day, I thought he'd be due for a good nap on Friday. So, to really tire them out, we went for a bike ride. Okay, I was the only one getting tired out since I was riding the bike and they were in the trailer. For a treat, I took them to Taco Bell. Nolan finished his lunch first, and really wanted out of the high chair. I agreed on the condition that he wouldn't run around or else he would get back in.

It worked. For a minute. And then he decided running up and down the booth seats was too irresistible. I told him to come back; he declined. I counted down from five. When I reached one I went to grab him, causing him to sprint back (along the seat) to his spot. He was just about there when we had one of those slow-motion moments as I watched him trip over Mylie's leg, and tumble with his face headed right toward the edge of the table. He barely grazed it, but by the time I got to him there was already blood all over the place, and he had filleted a small piece just outside his lip quite nicely.

Ugh. Did I mention I was there on a BIKE?! I tried to get the bleeding to stop with him still screaming. Then, leaving all our trays on the table, I hauled both kids outside, got their helmets on, put them back in the trailer, handed Mylie a napkin and told her to hold it on Nolan's lip while we rode, unlocked the bike and trailer, attached the trailer back on the bike, and took off to my friend's house (the poor woman I call any time my kid punctures himself). She was nice enough to take a look at him, stash my bike and trailer in her garage, and then haul both of her own kids into her car where we threw Mylie in the back seat and shoved Nolan on the floor of the front seat so she could drive us back to our house. Once there, we loaded up in our van and headed the 20 minutes to the doctor's office, where we waited another 30 minutes to be seen. Of course, by the time the doctor saw it, his lip was too swollen to derma-bond back together. We decided against stitches, so.... we left. Neat. Turns out the cut is small enough that stitches would have made almost the same size of scar so....

At least he got himself out of another nap.

I couldn't get a great shot of the little monster's lip, but you get the idea.

Seriously, boys are a different breed. After four and a half years of girl, I have not once had to consider stitches, and now in the last 2 months I've had to consider it twice with little brother. This kid might make me crazy....

...if he weren't so darn cute!

We're commanded to be humble, but sometimes it's just so hard when you've got one of those super pride-in-my-child kind of days. So, because I have a blog and a captive audience, I'll take a little time to brag and boast about my sweet girl.

Each week at church, Mylie attends Sunday School classes for kids ages 3-11 (broken up into age groups), called Primary. As a part of the Primary program, kids are asked to give talks on different subjects each week. This week was Mylie's turn.

As usual, Mom and Dad had the best of intentions about writing out the talk early, giving her lots of time to practice and having her totally prepared. And as usual, at 8:00pm on Saturday night, we remembered about our good intentions, and raced up to the computer to put something together.

Now, it is typical for most four-year-olds to have a parent at the microphone to feed them their talk while they repeat it. So, that's what we anticipated doing. But when I printed out her talk and handed it to her, she started reading it all by herself. In fact, with the exception of the last six lines, she cold read the whole thing almost perfectly. I helped her sound out the last couple of paragraphs, and after that she was reading those too. So, after about 10 minutes she had the thing down and was excited to get to do it all by herself.

And that's exactly what she did. Little Miss hopped right up to the microphone this morning in front of all her peers and read her talk all by herself. I stood next to her and pointed out the couple times where she lost her place on the page. Other than that, it was a one-woman show. Yeah, I'll just say it... mama was proud.

So, for those of you who couldn't be there this morning, here is Miss Mylie's talk, as read to the Primary today:

Article of Faith #1 says: We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

I know that God created me.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me.

They love all the children of the world.

When Jesus came to the Nephites, he let all of the children come sit on his lap, and touch his hands and feet, and he blessed them. He loved them.

We were not there to touch Jesus or sit on his knee. But we can still know that he is real. We know that he loves us just as much as he loved those little children. Maybe when he comes to earth again we can be there to touch his hands and feet. We can follow his teachings today so we can be ready when he comes again.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

...On second thought, please ignore the previous post. It was just a fluke.

Meet Lolly......and her pal Neeno

Lolly and Neeno are the terms by which these two have come to be known in our house. The nicknames are really not nicknames so much as, it's how Nolan pronounces their given names. And we think it's downright cute. These two partners in crime have started to worm their way back into my heart. We had a really long year brief stint recently where, although I loved them very much, I didn't really like them a whole lot. In fact, there were a lot of days I didn't much like to be around them at all. It was one tantrum after another, and competitions over who could do the most damage to my ear drums with Mariah Carey-style screaming. And then there's the whining. I swear, before I had preschoolers I thought, "Well, just don't give them what they want when they whine and they'll learn not to do it." Yeah... I guess that may be true, but I didn't realize preschoolers are such slow learners!! Even though I have NEVER given in to a whine, it's still an ingrained tactic. It must be part a part of our genetic makeup as humans.

But that's all starting to change.

Both kids have discovered a new parental tactic which gets them far more than they ever dreamed possible... politeness! Lolly has taken to randomly telling us thank you for things. "Thank you for making me this yummy dinner, mom," or "Thank you for playing with me today." Sometimes she'll throw in a real zinger: "I had a great time being with you today, Mom."

Neeno also says thank you for just about everything, including diaper changes.

Me: "Nolan, can I change your diaper?"

Neeno: "Geek ku Mommy."

Lolly: "Nolan, do you want to be my pet kitty and have me boss you around and lead you around with a leash?"

Neeno: "Geek ku, Lolly."

Truly, it's just about the sweetest. thing. ever.

The other heartwarming trend that is appearing is how much these two love each other. Since Lolly was never really baby-crazy like a lot of first-born girls, she didn't really ever dote on Neeno. So, they were close enough, but nothing special. Lately, it seems, though, that a new relationship is budding. Perhaps it's stemmed from sharing a room, or perhaps it's the northwest weather which keeps them locked inside the house for way too many days in the winter. Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

These two have so much fun playing together. And they like the same things, which is amazing to me for a brother/sister pair. Lolly LOVES to play with Neeno's trains, and Neeno loves to sing and dance to Lolly's show tunes. And though their play time is punctuated with regular intervals of screaming and chasing each other down for a toy that one or the other has stolen, they quickly resolve it and move back to their games of make-believe.

So... I'm happy. I was really feeling down for awhile, like I had done something to cause my children to be bratty, ungrateful monsters. Turns out, it's just another one of those phases that "they" don't tell you about. It just happened to be a REALLY long phase at our house. But boy am I looking forward to this lovely new chapter!

So, after I aired all my dirty laundry in my last post, I thought I deserved a little reprieve. It turns out, I do (sometimes) have mommy successes and I need to broadcast them as the come. :)

I'll be the first to admit, however, I hate making my kids breakfast and lunch. Breakfast I hate, because, well, I highly dislike most breakfast foods. Luckily, my kids don't and would be perfectly content with cereal every day. I often feel guilty about letting them do that.

In the case of lunch, however, I am the one who would be content with PB & J's every day. It's so much easier... such an efficient lunch. And yet my kids grow weary of them. Unfortunately, when I try to get creative, it usually blows up in my face. I read about all kinds of moms who make lunch out of things they can put in muffin tins. My kids just stare at muffin tins and then look at me like I'm nuts for trying to serve them something in such a ridiculous manner.

I've tried making "ants on a log," or a various assortment of things rolled up in a wrap. They occasionally eat quesadillas, but once I got the healthy tortillas, that lost it's appeal as well.

But today, I succeeded. Mylie has been studying butterflies in preschool this week, and for some reason requested a butterfly lunch on the way home from school today. I took the opportunity and ran with it!

I give you:

The Butterfly Life Cycle Lunch
I neglected to take pictures of the actual lunch, so I'll have to describe it.

Eggs
Butterflies lay their eggs on leaves, so for this portion I took one leaf of baby spinach and added some dried cranberries on top.

Caterpillar
From the egg, a caterpillar emerges. Keep in mind, I was punting here... but a baby carrot made a fairly acceptable caterpillar representation.

Chrysalis
Anyone who's read The Very Hungry Caterpillar knows that after he eats his way through a smorgasbord of food, the caterpillar wraps himself up in a cocoon and becomes a Chrysalis. I was stumped on this part, but finally figured it out. I spread cream cheese on a tortilla and cut it in half. In each half I rolled up a baby dill pickle. Voila! Chrysalis.

Butterfly
And finally, after 14 days, a beautiful butterfly emerges! So, for the end of our butterfly life cycle, I cut a (that's right) PB & J into triangles. I put the points of the triangles together for the wings. I thought about using a celery stick for the body, but didn't want to press my luck, so our butterfly just had wings.

The main reason I'm so ecstatic about sharing this lunch was that it was a raging success! Both my kids devoured every last bite, and asked for more. Of course, if I were to offer any of those things to them individually, they'd give me that crazy look again. So, thank you Eric Carle, for inspiring healthy eating in the Winter's Home.

A post has been rolling around in my head for quite some time (approximately 2 months, as you will see from the date of my last post). I've been hesitant to post it, as I am not completely sure how to present my ideas without appearing to fish for compliments from the three of you who still occasionally check my blog my loyal followers. And yet, I proceed.

I've espoused the wonders of "Google Reader" on here before. Google Reader, or any other "feed reader" allows you to "subscribe" to your favorite blogs, being notified instantly of any new postings. And as soon as I caught the fire of a feed reader, I ran with it. One blog that I follow will link to a new blog that they like, and so I discover hundreds of new blogs. I am also able to cyber-stalk friends and past acquaintances by finding links to their blogs on my other friend's blogs. It's a wonderful system.

But here's the rub. I am currently subscribed to 132 blogs. Yes, that's right. 132. No wait, I just added another. Now it's 133. And I've got them all sorted out in folders for different categories. I've got blogs on Digital Scrapbooking, Emergency Preparedness, Home Improvement, Education, Crafts, Penny Pinching, Family, Friends, Fun, Recipes, Religion, Politics, and blogs to tell me about when Google updates it's feed reader. Seriously, it's an addiction.

Now, of course, some bloggers are like me... their activity ebbs and flows, sometimes going dead for months. But, others make their living blogging, and so they post upwards of...well...let's just say the number is infinite.

At first, I was really excited about all the cool information I was collecting. I got great deals, I got great craft ideas, found awesome recipes, and kept track of my family and friends. But as time went on, what I really started focusing on was how much I'm NOT doing. I'm not spouting crafts out my ears, like my friend Summer. I'm not an ace of cakes like Nick's cousin. I don't do educational activities each day like the chick on Chasing Cheerios. I try using coupons and save our family a little money each week, but it's chump change compared to what the women on Frugal Living Online and Super Coupon Girl save. Occasionally I find the time to make my family a nice, well-rounded meal, but Annie at Annie's Eats works full time as a Resident Medical Student, has a toddler, and still manages to create gourmet dishes from scratch AND blog about them - usually daily. I think I feed the kids fairly healthy food, but when I read the blogs at Super Healthy Kids it makes me feel like I'm practically poisoning them with garbage.

And then there's the parenting skills. I've got a couple good blogs that post GREAT articles on parenting techniques. My favorite, Half-Full Blogversations, espouses such gems as "Emotion Coaching" and "Positive Parenting" and "Teaching Emotional Literacy." They teach you how to stay calm when you're angry and believe that rewards are bad for raising healthy adults. Sounds pie in the sky great, but when I try it out on my own kids - well, let's just say the conversation doesn't go quite the way they describe it. And when my kid gets more worked up the calmer I stay, I have to wonder what I'm doing wrong?

Growing up, I always pictured myself as becoming the kind of mom that did cool projects, that always had a stash of things to pull out of her hat to do. I pictured myself loving to spend time in the kitchen cooking with my kids. I pictured educational adventures abounding, and my children gathered at my knee singing in 4 part harmony. I thought I would be the quintessential Maria Von Trapp mixed with Martha Stewart with a little bit of Marie Curie thrown in. And that's just what I see when I look at all these blogs. The culmination of everything I ever wanted to be... and I continue to fall short.

But wait... there's still the life lesson. This Christmas, my wonderful and adoring husband gave me the best Christmas present ever... he published my blog into a book. It was something I have wanted to do for awhile, but... again... couldn't find the time to fit it in. So, I got a little time to spend perusing the last two years of my life. And a light started to come on...

Then, as we've thought about our goals for this wondrously hope-filled new year, we've started to list our priorities. What is it that we want to make sure we fit in to each day? Turns out... all those things I thought I wanted to do are not even listed on my priorities list. Sure, I'd still like to get there some day. But what most of those people do... well, they specialize. They're like a gourmet restaurant that knows what they do well, and they serve that up perfectly every night. They've got talent and they capitalize on it. Of course, I'm not saying these people can't do anything else besides what they blog about. It's just, that's the only thing we get to see about their lives.

My talent? Well, from the day I was born my talent has been a desire to do EVERYTHING. And some of the time, I can make it happen. But as I grow older, I'm learning that "Jack of All Trades, Master of None," is not just some meaningless adage. My list of things I want to do keeps growing bigger and bigger, and my time availability keeps growing smaller and smaller.

So, my goal for this year? I'm going to stop comparing myself to the blogosphere. I'm going to remember that what people publish is just a little tiny capsule of their lives... one that they choose to let you see. I'm going to remember that I'm just one person, and couldn't possibly do the work of 133. I'm going to focus on my priorities, and realize that even if I yell at my kids, or never make a paper mache' volcano with them, or let them watch TV for an hour every day while I sit at my computer, I can still keep my priorities in order. I can and will do the important things... I will read to them, I will spend a little more time with them. I will teach them the things that I AM good at, and I will give them the space to determine what they're good at. I will pray with them, and read the scriptures with them. And, hopefully, I will teach them how to love, be loved, and how to love themselves. And maybe one day I'll figure out how to do it all, and I'll be that gourmet meal of a mom. Until then, I'm going to be satisfied with this delicious buffet line I get to dabble in and sample from.