I Need a Nap Just Thinking About This Post

This post is comprised of several short stories about Tommy. Most of these happened around March and April. He is such a good boy, but he sure is a handful! He keeps me on my toes constantly, in a good way, of course:)

The first three pictures were all taken on the same day. It was a progression from one messy activity to the next. It all started when I was grinding some wheat outside so I could make bread. I always grind my wheat on the porch because it can be really messy. That day was no exception! Tommy wanted to help me measure the wheat and dump it into other bowels bowls, so by the end he was just covered from head to toe. Then he got wet in the hose while I was washing off the porch so he had a layer of pasty flour all over him. I stripped him down to his underpants so he wouldn't track flour into our house. Next thing I knew, Tommy was washing his bike and getting all wet. This was fine, of course. It kept him busy while I cleaned other stuff up. Then we went upstairs to take a bath and I thought it would be fun to use "bath paint". It's really just shaving cream mixed with some food coloring. We had an amazing time painting his body and the bathtub with our bath paint. He stayed in the bathtub until the water was cold, and even then I had to coax him out. Daddy got in on some of the bath paint action, too:)

The next story was much more exhausting on my part. Again, it started with making bread. Somehow I got distracted and left a bunch of flour sitting on our counter. Tommy's two-year-old fingers couldn't keep themselves out of it! After coating our entire kitchen in a nice layer of flour I convinced him that I needed help doing the dishes. I figured he could play in the water at the sink while I cleaned up the flour. This worked just fine until he decided to "help" me clean up the flour on the floor by pouring at least a liter of water onto it. He's such a good helper, isn't he? So while I cleaned up the water Tommy stripped himself down naked (since his clothes were wet) and threw his underpants around the kitchen. After getting hit in the head several times by said wet underpants I got desperate. I broke into our Easter stash, threw some jellybeans into a bowl, and sent Tommy to watch a movie and eat candy. Remember, at this point he was still naked. I didn't care, but he thought it was the best thing ever. All he could talk about for days after that was how I let him eat jellybeans naked. What a weirdo.

"I drive my mom crazy on purpose so she caves and gives me Easter candy before it's Easter and lets me watch a movie and eat candy whilst naked."

The last story is told best through video. I'll just give a little bit of background. I used to (used to) let Tommy play in our big container of rice. We have about 20 pounds or so of rice in a plastic box that he loves to drive his cars through, scoop up, and push around. One day I was nursing Lily in the living room and Tommy was playing in the rice in the kitchen. He can usually keep himself occupied in that box for at least 30 minutes, so I thought I was set. Little did I know that he would take advantage of that time when I was otherwise occupied to experiment in the rice. I think it started as an accident, and then he found that it was actually very fun to dump rice on the floor and throw it around the kitchen. When I finally got Lily down for a nap and walked around the corner to see the mess he made my heart just dropped. It was a mixture of thinking it was funny and having a complete panic attack. (Those of you who know me well know how much I can't stand even small crumbs on my floor.) Don't worry, I kept my cool and Tommy and I had it cleaned up an hour later. I still find rice in the cracks and crevices in my floor once in awhile and this happened six months ago!

Lily is a Poopy Baby

Ever since Lily was about four weeks old she has been on a fairly consistent schedule of pooping every 10 days. This is blissful, of course, until Poop Day. She inevitably blows out of her diaper and we have to change clothes, take baths, and sanitize her entire bedroom. I actually think it's a great tradeoff:) At least it only comes around every 10 days.

Back in June one afternoon I left Tommy downstairs to paint while I took Lily upstairs for a diaper change. When I returned downstairs to see Tommy's progress he excitedly pointed at this picture and said, "Mom look! I painted a blow up!" Then he looked at Lily and said, "Lily is a poopy baby."

Any of you who have had babies know that Tommy picked the exact right color for baby poop. Any old kid can color a truck, but a kid that can capture the essence of newborn baby poop is a rockin' genius.

The Two Most Adorable Kids You Can't Live Without

Thanks, Sadie, for the swimsuit!

Here are a few pictures of my kiddos taken in the past week. Aren't they cute? Tommy is quickly turning into a little man. He is learning how to read, he no longer uses Pull-Ups at night, and he knows how to get himself completely dressed. The other morning I left at about 6:30 am to do some shopping. When I got home at 7:30 he met at the door and proudly announced, "I went potty and got dressed all by myself!" Every mother's dream. He is very stubborn, which is good and bad. The stubbornness pushes him to do things like dress himself and put on his own seatbelt, but it also makes it difficult when I need him to hurry faster or do something that he doesn't want to do. Take this picture, for example. We were going swimming at a friend's house and it was a struggle to get sunblock on him. So when he put his shirt, his shoes, and his sunglasses on all by himself and all backwards, I just had to laugh and take a picture rather than insist he do it the "right" way. Some things just don't matter:)

Thanks to Jamie for the shoes and headband, and to Sharene for the dress!

Lily is a delight to have in our family. She is truly a baby that makes me want to have more babies. She is not crawling yet (gratefully), but she can sit by herself happily for 30 minutes sometimes and play. She loves to growl at me and she loves to laugh. She is getting more and more into solid foods. Tommy always gives her a taste of his popsicle or sucker and even lets her have a bite of his sandwich or an apple. Those two are so cute together. It makes me really happy to know that they love adore each other.

No, Lily, you don't push that button.

We went to the Dinosaur Museum this week and the kids hid in this awesome cave.

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!