Hmmmmmmmm

Halfway through June and nothing to blog about.......... It's been pretty routine lately- nothing exciting. I think our back yard is finally going to be done next week. We'll see though. Zach will be here for a couple of weeks this weekend. OH- I booked our reservations for Disneyland- that's exciting I guess. David and Cari made the executive decision that Zachary was going whether he wanted to or not:) But we still have to wait six months to go. :(

Hope has started quoting thing she hears on tv. The other night she came into the family room to show us something she drew, and as we were looking at it she said "Dad, I'm thinking Arby's". There had been an Arby's commercial on earlier. What a nutjob though.

The other day I was on my cell with David and went out to the garage to get some food out of the freezer. Hope and Naomi trailed me out the garage too. I asked Hope to help me carry a couple of things, and so Naomi wouldn't feel left out I asked her to carry my cell phone. Hope and I took the food to the kitchen and put it away and I didn't think twice about my phone. Naomi kept following me around but I didn't think much of it. Ten minutes later, I was unloading the dishwasher and I saw her little hand reach up and put my phone on the counter next to me. She'd been following me until I asked for my phone back. For her, that's pretty sweet. Normally she'd call China or hide it somewhere, and then throw a fit when I wanted to put it away.

Joel has started cooing all the time. Especially at night, he's real talkative. I'll put him in his cradle when I go to bed and he coos me to sleep. He just lays there and talks to the ceiling. He's such a good baby. I think I may even be able to talk David into another one.

The Pot Bin

This cracks me up every time I see it. It's a big wooden bin where they put the used pots from the greenhouse at the bottom of our hill. But every time I see those words, I expect to see a bunch of stoners leaning in there looking for some weed.

The Middle Child

It probably really sucks to be Naomi. She does get babied an awful lot, and gets her way more often than Hope ever did. But she also gets ignored more often, I think. I'm making an effort to take her places with me rather than always taking Hope and leaving Naomi with David. But the other day at work someone wanted to see pictures of my kids, so I pulled up this blog and easily found pics of Hope and Joel. You know when the last picture of Naomi is from? Christmas. So I'm posting a couple cute pictures of her so she doesn't start counting posts like I counted lines in the Christmas letters. But in that family the middle child always got more lines..........

He once was lost but now is found

Slumbers was missing for a few days this week. We were pretty sure he had to be in the house somewhere, but we'd torn the place apart looking for him and he was nowhere to be found. I was feeling the way I used to feel when one of the cats didn't come home at night, and Hope was starting to sleep with "Soft Slumbers", as she's named the back-up bear we got for just this situation. We assumed he'd get lost when she was little enough that we could just switch and she wouldn't know the difference. Now she knows there's two of them, so it just wouldn't work very well. And with Naomi's tendency to put things in the garbage, the fact that the girls have been playing on the back deck the past few days, and that we'd gone several places that Hope might've taken him, we were afraid he might be gone for good.

But last night I saw a box of books in Hope's room that she rarely plays with. Naomi plays with it alot, so I checked in case she had crammed Slumbers in it. There he was! I actually had tears of joy in my eyes when I saw his little face poking out from between the books in the box. He may not be as soft and snuggly anymore as he once was, but he's still Hopey's baby.

Roly Poly Joely

Breastfeeding is supposed to result in leaner kids. Not working so well for this family. Hope was a formula baby; Naomi was bottle-fed breastmilk, which leads to similar weights as formula babies. At Hope's 2-month well-child check, she weighed 11 pounds. Naomi weighed 12 pounds at hers. Joel, well, Joel obviously isn't starving to death. I was betting on about 13 pounds. No, no; he weighs 15 pounds. On the dot. Fifteen pounds. Hope didn't even weigh that much at 4 months. My boss's daughter who is 9 months old weighs 16 pounds. After weighing Joel and looking at the percentiles chart, the nurse decided she must've written it down wrong because he was so far off the chart and asked if she could weigh him again. Same as before. He's officially a chunk. No wonder my arms hurt and I don't want to wear him in my BabyBjorn.

How do you explain hell?

David was trying to explain what hell was like to Hope. Eternal separation from God doesn't quite convey to a five year old, so he was using other examples. He apparently got the point across though. She said, "So it would be like mommy was spanking me and never stopped?"

How things have changed....

This morning Hope asked me if I watched Bug's Life when I was a little girl. I told her I didn't, and she asked "Well, then, what movies did you get in the mail when you were little?" I told her when I was little you didn't get movies in the mail; you had to go to the video rental store and rent movies. "Rent store. What the heck is a rent store??" I had CheapFlicks' movie list memorized; she doesn't even know you can go to a store to get a movie.

Things you don't hear every day....

This morning David poured a bowl of Rice Krispies for Hope and told her breakfast was ready. Since she is the world's biggest dawdler, she was still trying to get dressed. So he yelled up the stairs, "Well, get your pants on and get down here! Your cereal is getting cold!" Um, isn't cereal supposed to be cold?

Hopey then proceeded, because she can't sit still at the table, to dump that same bowl of Rice Krispies all over the carpet. My medications must be working better, because I didn't yell at all. I just went and got the dustbuster to clean it up. But seriously, what genius puts carpet in a main eating space? One more item to add to the list of things I don't want in my next house.

Well good morning to you, too....

This morning I took Joel into Naomi's room and put him on the changing table so I could change his diaper and get him dressed. Naomi was awake, but I left her in her crib till I was done with Joel. This was the conversation that went on:
Naomi: Hi!
Me: Hi Naomi
N: Hi!!
Me: Hi
N: Hi...... Hi!..... HI!..... HIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!
Me: are you saying Hi to me or Joel?
N: Dole
Me: well, he isn't gonna say hi back.....

Effective Discipline

You know you've found an effective punishment when your child asks if you can just spank her instead. Hope has had to spend the day in her room, and has twice yelled down the stairs, "Can I come downstairs and you can spank my bottom?" What nutso kid asks to be spanked?? She deliberately colored on the kitchen table for the second and third time this morning, so she got sent to her room. I actually told her at first that she was going to get spanked and asked her if she wanted me or David to spank her. She said David, so I just took all her markers away and made her quit coloring. Then she changed her mind half an hour later, and it didn't seem as effective to spank her then, so I sent her to her room for the rest of the day. It's killing her to be up there by herself. She's yelled down here about a few different things- wanting some stuff that was up on a shelf, telling me about the weeds in the back yard-real important stuff. I know she's been up there long enough to learn her lesson, but I told her she had to stay there till David got home and, honestly, my ears are enjoying the break! But at least I won't be as likely to spank her anymore when I've seen how well just sending her off by herself works.

Seven Years

I've thought a lot the past few days about how long seven years is. I can't really make myself feel much of anything about it. It doesn't seem like a long time ago or a short time ago. It isn't a big anniversary like five years or ten years- it's just one more year. I think I'm starting to feel like it was forever ago, rather than feeling like it just happened yesterday. Some things seem like they just happened, but overall it seems like a lifetime ago.

The most popular girl in school

A few times in the last couple of months, Hope has cried over the fact that her friend Hannah sometimes doesn't play with her at daycare; she plays with Makenna, another little girl who Hope isn't supposed to play with very much. Hopey's trying to obey and not play with Makenna, but then that means she feels left out when Hannah and Makenna play together.

Yesterday was the girls' first day back at daycare. We kept them home for two weeks because David's parents were here to help, but since we have to pay whether we're there or not, and they have preschool every day that Hope would miss out on, I decided to take them to daycare on their normal days even though I'm home with Joel. So when we walked in yesterday, it was like Santa had walked into the room. All I could hear was "Hope's back! Hopey's here!" We were mobbed by about eight little girls wanting to give Hope a hug. Hannah was first in the hugging line and was SO excited to see Hope. It was nice to see Hopey's little face light up from all the attention. Last night she told me how much all her friends had missed her and that Hannah played with her most of the day. I certainly don't think having lots of friends should be anyone's goal in life, but for the social little bug that is Hopey, it meant the world to be the center of attention and know that so many little girls were happy to see her again.

How Comfy Am I ?!?

It didn't take Joel too long to figure out this comfy, cozy sleeping thing!

And he honestly is not the chunky monkey he looks like in this picture.

Happy Birthday mom. And Happy Birth-day Joel.

I love you, Hope

Mandy's post about Alex reminded me of something Hope said the other day. We've told her that no matter how much mommy and daddy love her, God loves her even more. So the other day I told her I loved her lots. Her reply? "Well, God loves me lotser!"

The Best-laid Plans

Tonight I was trying to have the "just cause there's a new baby doesn't mean I love you any less" conversation with Hope. I told her that I'd have to spend alot more time taking care of her brother, at which point she informed me that I needed to take care of Naomi and she could take care of Joel. I told her I'd probably need to take care of Naomi and Joel; contrary as usual, she had a better plan. She'll help me take care of Naomi and I can help her take care of Joel. At least she's helpful; she fully expects to be the primary diaper-changer for her brother. When we got a cradle for Joel, she was upset because we put it in our room instead of hers. I told her if she had the cradle in her room, then she'd have to get up with her brother in the night and feed him and change his diaper and rock him and put him back to sleep. She was fine with that. I think she's forgotten how much babies can cry.

Colorblind

I know I've said, and so have others, how lucky we were to have Danny and Debbie in our lives at such a young age so that we were around other people who didn't look exactly like us. Otherwise we could have easily grown up with the same prejudices as some of our relatives. Now I'm realizing how lucky Hopey is, how lucky we all are, to have Lexiepie in our lives to teach Hope a similar lesson.

Tonight two girls came to the door selling something for a high school fundraiser. One was blond, all-American looking. (as a side note, what exactly is all-american? is it native american? I think really, instead of all-american, we should say all-northern-european-looking. that's what we mean, isn't it?). Anywho, the other girl with her was Indian or Pakistani or something similar. Hope was in the living room when David answered the door, so she had to say hi to them. After they left, we were all in the kitchen and Hope said, "I wonder if those girls were sisters or just best friends?" David was the one who pointed out how sweet it was that, although it should've been obvious that they weren't sisters, Hope doesn't see those sorts of limitations. For her, you don't have to look alike or be biologically related to be a family.

I guess it's genetic.

Bryn, you'll be happy to know that Naomi loves it when I do "that thing to her head". I don't know how she figured out she likes it, but she's walked over to me about 10 times today, picked up my hand and put it on her head so I can rub her head for her.

I Need Earplugs!

So Hope wanders into my room at 4:00 this morning and starts talking to me. After much discussion about which toys she can't find (cause I threw them away) and where she thinks they might be (the moving truck must've lost them), this is what she says:

H: You know Alex, he has a long black thing on his bottom.
Me: Ok
H: Why does he have that
Me: That's just what boys have on their bottoms
H: Well, Grant's a boy; I bet he has a white one
Me: Yep, he does
H: These jammies are soft; here, feel............

SHE'S NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He knows me so well

That show "The Moment of Truth" just had a commercial where some guy asks his ex-girlfriend if he wanted to get back together, if she'd leave her husband. So David asked me which of my ex-boyfriends I'd leave him for. I didn't have to think about it for more than about two seconds; I said there wasn't one. But David knows me well enough to know that wasn't the question he needed to ask. So my dear husband smiles and says, "What if Peyton Manning was single and wanted to marry you. Would you leave me then?" I think my answer was "Yep!". Never gonna happen, so it's ok; besides, he said he'd leave me for Jennifer Love Hewitt.