Let's Chat.

Ok, friends.  I know you have been holding out on me.  Why have you never told me about:

• Friday Night Lights - The TV show (Steve told me it's also a movie, but he didn't like the movie).  Umm.. I love it.  And I'm pretty sure I have cried a few times and I am only 7 episodes in.
• Pretzel M&Ms - Seriously... they are delicious!

You've all really let me down.  I feel like I am really late to both of these parties.  What else are you not telling me about??

Wanna Feel Good?

...about yourself in a bathing suit?  Go to my city pool.  Seriously.  I went there and thought "Oh my gosh! Why do I even care?? Obviously no one else does!"

...about your dancing?  Watch this video:

I love TaySwif, because either she doesn't care what other people think of her (and that's great) or she is oblivious and thinks her dance moves are totally awesome.  This kind of reminds me of the dancing of one of my old college friends.  Except she did it totally serious... like biting her lip and trying to look sexy.  We laughed at her behind her back (not great).  One time she told me (in all seriousness), "and he told me that I was the best dancer he has ever seen!"  About some boy trying to date her.  She was really pretty...

Reading Challenge

I am so bad at reading my scriptures.  I'll admit that right away.  This reading schedule looks doable.  So, join me!  If you're not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Book of Mormon, you can learn about my church here!

PS- I stole this image from something I saw on Pinterest.  There is also a 30 day schedule if you are feeling more ambitious.  I am going to go with 90 day for now and who knows... maybe I'll challenge myself with the 30 days later!

The Royal Baby

Today on the radio, they were talking royal baby names.  I only heard part of it because my own little babies were making a ruckus in the back seat.  (Mostly demanding "More firetruck!"... which means he wants "I See a Firetruck" on the Little People cd.  There's really only so much of that song that I can take.)

Well, they announced on the radio that bookmakers are calling "George" the favorite name if Will & Kate have a boy.  Another news article I just read said the favorite is "James."  Can I just say that all morning I have been saying a silent prayer that this little baby is a girl?  Is it selfish of me to not want my son's name to become the new trendy name??  We like the name "George" regardless of its popularity... but I think something we like about it is that it is a common name (ie- people can pronounce and spell it and our son will not have to explain it) but it isn't very popular.

Do I sound ridiculous, fellow mommies?  Did anyone else put this much thought into naming their child??

A Quick Trip!

We visited family for a short 3 day trip!  It was nice to get away and see so many people we haven't seen in a while!  We packed so much into those 3 days, though!  Including 3 trips up in the mountains (I saw a baby moose in the wild), a campfire and delicious smores, a ferris wheel ride, visiting with family, swimming, a hike, dinner at Cafe Rio, and lots of family fun!  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few:

After the most grueling hike of my life!

To be fair, it wasn't really that hard... I just don't usually hike.

Yes, this is as dangerous as it looks.

Oh, Steve!

On the Ferris Wheel!

Mean, but also a little true........

This is a baby moose!  The dark spot in the middle.

The Pediatrician

When I take my kids to the pediatrician, it feels like a test.  And I do well on tests.  I make sure they are clean and well put-together.  I make sure I am clean and well put-together. I try my hardest to be on time.  I spend the whole drive to the office making up stories about how little tv we watch and how I get my toddler to eat all of his vegetables.  (Lies... all lies...).  Really, I just want this to be the pediatrician's reaction:

But alas, like Ralphie, that is never the response that I get.  I suppose pediatricians can't have favorites... but I am sure if you asked her off the record, I am the best mother she's ever seen.

Our appointment did go well, though!  The kids are growing healthy and strong!  Ruthie's development (while still behind for her actual age) is catching up!  George didn't ask for his binky once while we were there and the subject never came up (so I can reserve that "fib" for his next visit)!  Here are their stats from today:

George - 30 mo. well check:

34.9 lbs (91st percentile)

36 3/4" tall (61st percentile)

52.5cm head circumference (98th percentile)

Ruthie - 9 mo. well check:

18 lb, 10 oz (39th percentile)

28" (tall? long?)  (57th percentile)

46.5 cm head circumference (96th percentile)

On the cuteness scale, they are both over the 99th percentile!

And on another note, do you remember Seriously So Blessed! ??

Summer Reading Fun!

George loves to read books!  His favorites these days are anything "Curious George."  Seriously... he can recite "Curious George goes to a Chocolate Factory."  I'm going to record it sometime... but we have to do it secretly.

Anyway, we might as well take advantage of his love of reading.  We are just signing up for any summer reading program we can find!  So, I am passing the information along to you!  I don't know if I am weird, but I just love owning books... and this is a way to build your little one's library for free!

George finished the library summer reading program this week.  Actually, we could have been done the very first week, but I slowed him down.  I decided to keep track of the books that we read to make sure we weren't counting the same book more than once.  I don't know if you have a toddler... but repetition seems to be a theme in our house.  So, we collected our prize.  Lots of coupons for kid's meals (The program was "Reading is Delicious!") and a nice board book.  We chose "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" since George loves that rhyme.  Ruthie only has one book left to read and we will pick up her prize this week.

George also finished the Barnes & Noble summer reading program tonight.  Read 8 books and get a free book.  Maybe we will pick up his free book tomorrow.  Ruthie will start this program when she finishes the library program.

I am printing the Pottery Barn Kids reading program log tonight.  There are 14 classic children's books on this list.  I know they think that you are going to spend lots of $$ buying all of these other books, but our library has them all!  So when we pick up Ruthie's summer reading prize, we are going to pick up the books that our library has.

HEB (a grocery store chain) has a program where you read 10 books, fill out a log, send it in and you get a prize.  It asks for your kid's t-shirt size... so that is fun!  But there are rumors that there may be additional prizes, too.

Half-Price Books gives away a $5 gift card if you read 300 minutes in June and July.  In addition, the kids are entered into a drawing for a $20 gift card for each age group.  We are too late to join in for June, but I am going to fill out a reading log for July.

I knew about the first 3 from years past and emails that I got.  I heard about the last two from this list.  There are a few more on that list.

Anyway, maybe I look crazy?  Join me!  Get rewards for something you are doing anyway!  (PS- I am not doubling-up... I am doing the programs one at a time.  We will repeat books, but if we log "Curious George and the Birthday Surprise" for every program, that means that we read it that many times!  And trust me, I think we have read that book a million times already!)

Picture Update!

Here's all the new stuff going on here:

George got a water table.  He loves it, but makes a mess.  We are working on learning what toys can/can't go in water.  Poor Buzz Lightyear.

 I was on the computer and when I looked up, I couldn't find Ruthie.  She rolled across the room and under the table! (I was on the couch)

 Steve was attacked by fire ants and his whole hand puffed up.  I don't even think this was the worst of it.  Of course, he didn't talk about it at all.... (kidding...)

Ruthie sat in the shopping cart for the first time!  She didn't know what to do with her arms.

Not pictured:  George moved from the younger nursery at church to the older nursery.  He loves the kids in the younger nursery, but he was starting to look noticeably old for that crowd.  Now he is the youngest kid in the older nursery.  In the car, I noticed a little red spot on his cheek.  He told me that a little girl pushed him.  I told him that if she does it again, he needs to push her back.  I don't think Steve liked this... but my dad always taught me that I better never start a fight, but if someone is picking on me, I better stand up for myself.  Luckily, I never had to use this little gem of (bad?) advice... but George may have to!

It was Father's Day... and this is the best picture we could get!

Steve stood Ruthie up.  She stayed up for a while!  When she fell, she reached up and wanted to try again!

Ruthie finished a whole huge bowl of cereal yesterday!  (The first time she finished one!)  So today, we tried peas.  She shivered every time she tasted them, but she kept opening up for more.  Darn it, I want a kid who likes veggies!

George drew "animals" while I helped set up for a Relief Society activity.  From L to R:  monkey, alligator, giraffe, and zebra.  Giraffe is the only one I really see.  It was the first one that he drew and he was so proud!

Today is Steve's birthday.  Last night, at 12:30am, yes... AM... four of his students dropped by for a surprise party. They brought delicious ice cream cake!  His students love him!  They live 45 minutes away from us!  They did this last year, too.  They are nice kids!  I was pretty mad at them this morning when George came in my room at 7:30 (which is actually very generous of him because we usually start our day between 6:30-6:45).  But seriously, it was a fun little surprise for Steve (I knew they were coming over).  Surprise, my phone doesn't take great pictures of candles in the almost-dark!

Later, we are celebrating Steve's birthday by going swimming and then going to Central Market (a very posh grocery store) for dinner.  We will come home for cake and presents!  I decided not to make a cake because we have so much ice cream cake left over!

The Chore Chart

It officially started yesterday.  George now has chores.  They're not really chores, though... and they are things that he should be doing anyway... but they are things that cause contention in our home:

Like, really... why should I have to give him a sticker for getting dressed nicely?  Sometimes I would love to be able to read his mind!  And "Be Happy" is the shortened version of "No yelling/hitting/throwing/being too rough and just general bad behavior."  In short:  "Be Happy," because that's all that would fit in the box.

So, yesterday he got "sad faces" in the "Be Happy" and "Eat Dinner" categories.  He got stickers in everything else except for "clean up."  I kept that blank.  He didn't help me clean up, but he didn't make more of a mess while I was cleaning, so I consider that neutral.

George's behavior has been SO much better today because he is terrified of getting a "sad face!"  We made a big deal over giving him stickers for "staying in bed" and "getting dressed" this morning!  He loves it!  Let's hope the excitement continues! 

Sleep, Cereal, and a New TV...

There's lots going on here!  My children have staged an all-out coup.... one in which their sleeping habits have totally changed.  As in, George now comes out of his room a billion times before he goes to sleep (and cries at the baby gate until we put his blankets back on him... that's it... he gets out of bed so that we can put his blankets back on him).  Ruthie has started un-sleeping through the night... in fact, she wakes up about 3 times.  I try not to feed her, but I can't let her cry it out because this place just isn't big enough and she keeps waking up George.  So I feed her around 5 am, which is what I have been doing all along.  They both wake up sometime in the 6 am hour now, which is equally uncool.  In addition to the lack of sleep that I get at night, they also tag-team naps now.  Ruthie is adjusting to two longer naps instead of 50 cat-naps and George takes one long nap right after lunch.  So now, right after George takes a nap, Ruthie wakes up... and then when she is ready to go back down, George wakes up.... which leaves no nap for Mommy.  I saw something on Pinterest that says, "When we don't get enough sleep, we all act like 2 year olds" and boy is that how I feel right now!  Just when we were adjusted to having a second baby, everything changed.  Hopefully I will get this figured out soon!

There are some other things going on, too!

Ruthie ate cereal for the first time!  She's not sure how she feels about it still... but we're working on it!

We got a new TV!  This is actually a funny story.  We got a free tv about 4 years ago when Steve helped one of my friends move.  It wasn't fancy, but it was free.  Well, when it finally died last week, we decided to replace it with an equally non-fancy tv for $25.  The "new tv" is actually older than the old tv... and the tube on the back is so huge that it doesn't even fit in our tv space in the living room!  We moved it to our bedroom because I didn't want it to fall on George.  It weighs about 150 lbs!  So we have it back for sale and we are going to have to spend real money on a new tv.  The funny thing is how excited George was for our "new TB!"  He was dancing around and just thought it was the greatest.  Isn't it cute how innocent and humble little babies are??

We are going to have to pack up the baby swing.  Mostly because of Ruthie's new trick.  Sad because sometimes it is the only thing that gets her to sleep.  Like right now, when she woke up from what she apparently thought was a nap, but I considered it bedtime.  We really need to work on our communication.  Anyway, here is video of her new trick:

And lastly, George called the bears to give them a piece of his mind: