Utah - July 2012

In July we went to Utah  to spend time with friends and family. We had a wonderful time together and even got some beautiful family pictures taken.

I took the kids to downtown Salt Lake to visit Temple Square and to eat lunch with Uncle Wes. The days were just gorgeous!

Aunt Steph came over to hang out and play with the kids. We always love spending time with her!

Lily and her cousin, Jet got to play for the first time.

Tommy and his cousins, Jarom and Makayla played in Grammy's sandbox and with Playdough. They just love playing and laughing together!

We had a doughnut picnic in the mountains near the creek. We always love spending time in the beautiful canyons!

And now for a truly stinky story. When we arrived at Grammy's house we noticed a faint sour smell in the basement where we were sleeping. We kept thinking that it was the classic Basement Smell, but it kept getting stronger every day. Finally, Ben mentioned the possibility that something in the deep freeze had gone bad. We checked, and sure enough, when we opened the deep freezer an unholy stench flooded the room. It was enough to make me gag instantly.

My mom's basement had flooded a few weeks prior to this. We think that what likely happened is that someone unplugged the deep freezer to plug in a fan to dry up the flood. Unfortunately, the deep freezer never got plugged back in. For a few weeks the hundreds of pounds of food that was stored inside defrosted and rotted. It was disgusting.

We spent an entire Sunday afternoon hauling garbage bags full of rotten meat through a downstairs window around to the side yard. My mom's kind neighbors helped us clean out the freezer and then haul the refuse to the dump. I don't think anyone actually hurled, but we all came close several times.

The next few days were spent disinfecting the freezer and the floor in the basement. And now whenever we smell roadkill or spoiled chicken breasts we are reminded of this lovely experience. :)

The day after we got home both kids crashed for a nap together. It was a great trip!

Our Lily Girl

Lily is one of those babies that makes you want to have more babies. She is happy and calm. She is easy-going and patient. Plus, she is so beautiful. She has clear blue eyes and when she smiles her whole face lights up. When I take her places people are constantly commenting on her chubby cheeks and thighs. That chub is so soft and squeezable. She is social and loves to talk to anyone that will make eye contact with her. We love our Lily so much. In June we celebrated her half birthday by feeding her baby cereal for the first time. She loved it! Even Tommy wanted to help feed her. Lily is such a special person in our family. We are so lucky to be able to raise her. Here are a few videos starring our little girl.
I especially love in this video how Tommy opens his mouth wide when he is trying to get Lily to open her mouth. Too cute!

Grammy's Visit May 2012

The pictures really speak for themselves, but in May we enjoyed a wonderful visit from my mom. She took a much-needed break from her stressful work and I got a much-needed break from my kids. It just works out for all of us! She played a lot with the kids and chatted a lot with me. We got a special treat on Friday night because Ben took Tommy camping, which left us three girls home alone for an awesome Girl's Night. We ate pizza until our stomachs hurt and watched TV. It was perfect. We love you, Mom, and can't wait until you come spoil us again! Also, sorry we sold your van!

A Little Chemistry Experiment

My educational background is in chemistry. It is something I am passionate about and something I have worked very hard to understand. Naturally, I want to pass my love and my knowledge of chemistry on to my children. When I was in graduate school people always asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated. I came up with an answer that sounded professional and meaningful, but what I really wanted, and what I told those who were closest to me, was to be a smart mom who taught chemistry to her children. Now I finally get that chance!

Even something as simple as dissolving sugar into water has captivated my three-year-old son's interest. It almost looks like magic, if you think about it, to watch the sugar disappear into the water. My son asks to do "dissolve" pretty often (although I think it's mostly because he likes drinking the sugar water afterward).

Doing simple experiments with your kids doesn't require an advanced degree or extensive knowledge about what is going on at the chemical level. Doing simple experiments promotes the question, "Why does this happen?" This promotes further learning, investigation, and experimentation.

A few weeks ago I set up an invitation with three clear cups, each with water and oil in them. I set the food coloring out and waited for him to ask what we were going to do with it. It took him about 30 seconds after he saw the invitation to jump right in and start asking, "Why?" I let him drop the food coloring into each cup and then we watched to see what would happen. The food coloring doesn't dissolve in the oil, but sits in small beads on the line between the oil and water. After a few minutes the beads break and ribbons of color fall into the water. It was actually really cool for me to watch, too!

This experiment opened up discussion about why oil and water don't mix, why the food coloring dissolves in water but not in oil, and how adding soap to the mix changes the entire experiment. Will my son remember the terms 'hydrophobic', 'hydrophilic', 'immiscible', or 'emulsion'? Not likely. But I know he will remember that chemistry is cool and that it is fun to experiment, and that's really what matters to me. Plus, the next time he hears those scientific terms they will likely sound familiar and he will understand them better the next time around.

So give it try! Do some science in your home and let us know how it goes!

Runnin' The Boy Ragged

Tommy has recently been waking up several times during the night and either climbing into bed with us or crying in his room until we went to get him. He has always been a great sleeper so this change of events has been disturbing for all of us, especially Ben and me who are now waking up at least twice per night with Lily and a few more times with Tommy. This makes us all grumpy.

Last Sunday night Tommy was wide awake from 11:30pm-2:30am, chatting us up about dinosaurs and the like. As I was trying to convince myself not to strangle the child an idea hit me: he's waking up because he doesn't get enough exercise. Duh, right? My one goal in life then became Get-Tommy-to-Run-as-Much-as-Possible-All-Day-Long. It's not like we are lazy, but when it's 110 degrees outside, the walk to the mailbox and back can be long and taxing.  We needed to get outside more often despite the heat. I decided every day that I was going to do one activity to engage his body and one to engage his mind and I figured this would probably leave him no option but to sleep right through the night. I was right.

So, here are the pictures of our week of being engaged in mind and body. It worked beautifully and we had a ton of fun on top of it. I am learning to be more of a yes-mom, to go with the flow, and to let Tommy lead me in his play and discovery. I don't actually have to be that creative (for those of you who know me well, this should come as a relief), I just have to listen for cues Tommy gives me about things he is interested in and things he wants to do. Nobody told me that actually playing with your child makes being a mom so much more fun!

We recently changed our bedtime routine to include me playing the piano after the kids have gone to bed. Tommy especially loves to lie down and listen to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" while he drifts off to dreamland. Surprise, surprise, once I started playing the piano consistently Tommy got interested in playing, too. I pulled out the old keyboard my grandma gave to me when I little and marked it up so that Tommy could start to explore it and see the patterns in the keys. I marked all the keys of the same letter the same color (ie. all the A's are red, the B's are purple, etc.). Then I wrote out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in the coordinating colors. Mostly I just let Tommy explore all the sounds the keyboard can make, but we played through "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" a couple of times together and he actually did really well! It is really fun to share my love of music with my talented little boy.

This is Tommy doing Car Paint. He drove his cars through the paint onto the cardboard. He had fun, but to be honest, I was a little disappointed it didn't last longer. Once he drove his entire fleet through the paint one time he decided he was done and then I had to wash off all the cars. Oh well, it was still fun.

Here is Tommy finger painting. We need lots of fun indoor activities during the summer! I went to Wal-Mart and spent a pretty penny on lots of new outdoor toys, including this awesome pool. It's actually big enough for more than one person to sit in! We also got a Slip 'n' Slide, some water guns, and some new balls. Perfect for summer. Going to the Splash Pad is a favorite summer activity for us. This year Tommy has been especially fearless. He runs through the whole thing and even waits under the buckets for the water to dump right onto his head. I love that I can sit back and relax with Lily while Tommy just runs and runs. Last week we had an pool party with the Activity Days Girls. In the past Tommy has always been very scared of the pool (this is a good thing in my opinion). This time he decided to be brave and jump off the side into my arms. He did this over and over and over again. I couldn't have been more proud. We worked on kicking and moving his arms, too, but I think the most important thing is that he has fun and overcomes his fears of the pool. Lily, however, did not like the pool, and spent almost the entire time watching from the sidelines.

I read the blog Play at Home Mom and it is truly a treasure house of awesome ideas to do with your kids!

"I Just Can't Keep My Fingers Out Of It!"

This is what people (strangers and friends alike) say about Tommy's hair all the time. One lady at the temple this week told me his hair looked like "spun gold." The curls, the color, the thickness...it's every doting woman's dream. Luckily I've been running my fingers through his curly locks ever since they grew in so Tommy doesn't seem to mind for now if a stranger comes up and starts caressing his noggin. This week he wanted to wear a hair bow "just like Lily." He picked these two and told me he looked like the Hippy Van from Cars (Filmore). I guess he is blue and yellow! Way to wear hair bows and still retain your incredible masculinity, Tommy!

Isn't this a great blackmail photo for later?

Two Little Piggies

This is by far my favorite picture of Tommy and Lily we have captured so far. Tommy wanted to give Lily a piggy-back ride. He calls it "going on an adventure." I helped him do so and he was just thrilled. Then he pointed to his chest and said he wanted to carry her up there. As he held her he cried, "Oh my holy crap!" I laughed for a long time and asked if she was heavier than he thought she would be. He laughed and nodded. She's over 20 pounds now at almost 6 months old. Not too shabby. We love those kids.