Bryan's new job

As an update for everyone, Bryan is loving his new job. He has his own office (albeit a small one) and gets to work quietly by himself all day and far from customers - his preferred atmosphere. His office mates are from his account a very nice bunch, who go out to lunch together every Monday and have a pot-luck at work once in a while.

When Christopher was showing his daddy yesterday that he's learning to count money (he has a few coins he's been allowed to acquire), Bryan said, "Do you know, that's what Daddy does for a job? I count money. There are some people with soooo much money that they pay me to count it." Christopher was not impressed.

Alexander is officially a toddler. Since that day he decided to walk, he's kept going. He still finds it faster to crawl when he really wants something fast, but he seems to enjoy walking, and he definitely enjoys the attention he gets from doing it around grownups, more particularly his grandparents. As to other milestones, he isn't talking and doesn't have any incentive to with all these people catering to him. He's finally sleeping through the night, 9-7. Only took him a year! He eats a TON. It seems that I'm always feeding him because he's always wanting food. I know this because he'll climb on me, point at the food, and make sounds that are probably supposed to be talking but just sound like cute gibberish. He's getting better at not eating everything he finds, and understands when I say "Ick!" When I do that, he will usually throw whatever small thing it was that he wanted to eat, just for show. It's pretty funny. When he was sick a while ago, he also developed an ear infection, which he is getting over, but I believe he'll be sad when we run out of the medicine because he loves it! He'll take the syringe from me when he's taken all the medicine, and he'll suck on it for a while just to be sure he got as much as he can.

Christopher is a wonderful 5-year-old. He's in a playschool twice a week and is both excited and scared that he starts "real school" this year. I think he's overestimating kindergarten. He's also got mixed feelings about our stated intention to get our own house. He loves to be with so much family, but he wants his own space and his own things. Lately he's been interested in learning how to count money since he's found some coins which we let him keep. He made a special jar for them and everything. He's getting better about going to church too, something that he couldn't seem to manage last year. For weeks we'd take him, and he'd cry before and during church, and during the week if you mentioned it. We finally gave it up, but every Sunday he'd ask worriedly if we were going to have to go to church. Now, church is later, his uncles are there with him, and he's older. It's going over much better. We had tears and distress at first, but they're nearly gone now.

Last week I took the boys to meet Bryan after work, and we went out for dinner. We asked Christopher where he wanted to go, and he said Sweet Tomato. When we said yes, he was so excited, he sang about it the whole way there! When we pulled into the parking lot, he turned to me and said, "Mom, do you know why I like Sweet Tomato? I get to pick all my own food!" He eats very healthy, I love it. His favorite 'meal' lately is tomatoes, celery, carrots, ham sticks, and Ranch dressing. I'm not complaining! We took him to the park this weekend and he had a great time playing with his dad, who sent him on "missions", loosely based on the old Inspector Gadget movies that Bryan use to let Christopher watch. Christopher gets to be Little Gadget and fight the evil Dr. Claw. Or, something like that. It was a great family outing, we even took the dog.

As for me, I'm adjusting to things. I'm thrilled that Bryan's got a great job that he loves. I'm also sad that I get comparatively little time with him now. Although it was very difficult over this past year, it was also wonderful to have so much time together. The boys are also having to adjust to having just one parent around. I wouldn't have thought about it before, but it requires a lot more patience from them when there's only one person to help them. Before they got almost everything quickly because there were two parents to do things for them, and now it's just me. Another adjustment is that instead of sleeping until noon and being up until midnight, our family is now having to get up at 6am and go to bed by 9pm. Quite a change! But that's not a bad thing, there's a lot of quiet time in the mornings, and I was a morning person to start with. It's also good preparation for Christopher who will have to get up early for school later this year.

Aside from the adjusting, I'm quite happy to be a stay-at-home mom to my two fantastic boys, I'm very happy for Bryan, and I spend my remaining (not free!) time looking for our own place. I'm happy that things are finally looking up for us.

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures, among the many I have hiding away. Today I have the unusual luxury of having my computer to myself, and having nothing more pressing to do, and the children are not destroying things or needing me. It's a very rare event. I hope you all enjoy these!

Here comes (more) trouble

Today Alexander decided to walk. Up until now, he hasn't really taken an honest step. Sure, like all kids he stumbled forward with one foot, but there was no intent, and no repeat. Today, however, was different. He just decided to walk. It started with stepping away from a chair this morning. Several steps away. With balance. Then more stepping from place to place, just one or two here or there, very obviously intentional. About mid-afternoon, he stepped three steps, stood there for several moments looking like he was really thinking it all over, this whole "walking" thing, and then in excitement he threw up his arms, jumped off the ground, and landed PLUNK on his bottom! I laughed at him, and he laughed back at me, obviously pleased with himself over his stunt. Late this evening, he's taking steps as often as not, if it's a short distance he has to travel. And what crawling he is still doing is giving way to a half-walk, where he uses one hand and the opposing knee, but keeps one foot on the ground and one hand out, in a very odd sort of half-crawl. I think I'm happy about it... I'm interested to see what new things he obtains to chew on. *Sigh*


P.S. (Edit) Look back again soon for pictures. I actually have them, it's chasing children away from myself AND my computer simultaniously that's the major preventative for their arriving here.

Whoa!!

Wait, did that last post say October?!?!?!? Oh my!!! Well, a LOT has been happening, and at least I'll squeeze a post in before the new year, just to say that I'll make another soon, haha! I do have a lot of great pictures and stories to share, and I am committed to getting them out soon. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and I wish you all a wonderful New Year!

More food fun?

So the last post was about Christopher and food, and this one is too, because he's still having such interesting reactions to how others relate to his food. He's still being defensive (nicely and articulately, for someone his age!), and he varies between eating nothing and then saying he's starving and gulping down 5 bowls if cereal in 30 minutes. But here's the best funny thing to come from this so far:

So the other day, I come home from work, eat the nice dinner Bryan has made, he and I go to our room to sit down for a while, and Christopher follows us in. Christopher - completely ignoring me - walks up next to his Daddy, grabs his shirt sleeve, and looking earnestly up into his face asks, "Daddy, can I have some of that secret pudding you sneaked in here?"

Bryan looked up at me with that kind of "I can't believe he just did that to me!" look. I laughed and laughed. And Christopher held on to Dad's shirt, earnestly hoping he'd get some 'pudding'. What had happened prior to this was that Bryan had gone shopping that day, bought some ICING to eat, offered to share some with Christopher, and upon Christopher's declining to have any, Bryan had hidden it away in our room to eat it later in peace. Only to be exposed by his son.

Food is serious business!

For some odd reason, my grandmother has always had a strange way of teasing Christopher. It generally takes the form of "You can't do that!" in a mocking tone, so that of course he knows that she knows he can, but she's saying that he can't, presumably to reverse-psychology him into doing it. Which I find rather pointless because he's such a great kid that he just does what you ask him almost all the time. But she's always done it, and they seem to have an understanding, so I just smile and let it go on by.

One of the things she always teases him about is food. When we sit down to eat, she'll say something like, "You can't eat all that!!" or "Don't eat all that, then you'll grow and be bigger than me!" or "Look at how much you ate! I'm going to have to bop you on the head and make you smaller again!" He always laughs at her and eats away.

So a few days ago, she starts that as we sit down, and Christopher says, "Grandma, you shouldn't say things like that. I need to eat or I'll die!" I laughed out loud, it was so funny! She rolled her eyes at him, and we all had a nice meal. In which Christopher ate chicken, asparagus, rice, and cantaloupe. Yummy fare for a 4-year-old, huh? (More on the asparagus to come!)

Then today just me and my boys sat down for a family meal, and Bryan said something to Christopher about his food and how he shouldn't eat that because it will make him strong and smart. And Christopher clearly and calmly says, "Daddy, that was rude." I'm still laughing as I write about it!!! Bryan didn't think it was so funny, but I sure did! I think it's so interesting that people tease him about his food - not anyone else, just Christopher - and he's starting to tell people off (nicely!) about it!

Now about that asparagus: I made some with a meal a while back, and Christopher ate his whole plate, so I served him more. He ate all that. So I served him more. As I was serving up his third plate of food, Grandma pointed out that if I gave him any more of the asparagus, Bryan wouldn't have any. I said, "Grandma, if Bryan were here, he'd give Christopher as much asparagus as he would eat. So I'm giving it to him for as long as he'll eat it, and Bryan can have rice today." And so it was. Christopher at 4 helpings of asparagus, and Bryan didn't have any and he didn't mind a bit!

A while after that, Bryan made up a meal and he also cooked asparagus. Remembering Christopher's last encounter with it, he made a lot, and he added a few extra ingredients. When we sat down to eat it, the asparagus was nearly inedible! So I didn't serve Christopher any. When he noticed this omission, he told me he needed asparagus too. I told him it wasn't very good, so I gave him a tiny bit off the top and told him that if he liked it, I would give him some on his plate. He tasted it, made a face, and said: "Can I have some of the first one you made?" He's so much fun!!!

Happiness is a state of mind.

Wow! It has been a looong time since I posted anything! Things are flying by so fast around here. Working is HARD for me, not that the work is hard (compared to being a mother and wife, it's very simple!) but it is hard for me to be away from home. When I am here, I feel like I am always playing catch-up.... feeling like I'm behind on spending time with each of my boys, on helping out around the house, on doing anything that reminds me that I'm human too... I know that all my friends who are working moms are nodding their heads right now in exhausted sympathy.

Really, things aren't bad. I believe that Bryan and I, and thereby Christopher too, have a very upbeat view of life and it's.... difficult moments. Christopher seems much less needy lately and pretty happy with how things are. We started him on a "bathroom chart", wherein he gets a sticker of his choice (there are several kinds to choose from) for each bathroom-related activity during the day - provided it's done right. Cleaning up after him was getting to be irritating as well as unpleasant, and this is doing a fantastic job of training him in bathroom etiquette. Brushing his teeth at least twice a day, using the toilet properly, taking a bath, and cleaning up all his things in the bathroom, as well as not wetting the bed at night, earn him stickers. He has been doing a great job, and is VERY excited for when he gets his whole chart (a week) filled up with stickers and gets a big reward. What does he want? A visit with Caleb! I DO need to get on that, I suspect that Lisa and I could use some sane adult conversations. =)

Alexander is growing and growing. Only a few minutes ago I laughed out loud because he's tired but not wanting to sleep, so he's been flopping around in here -- on my lap, on the floor, on my bed, in his bed -- and I finally set him in his bed and just turned the lights off. I hear what we call "dinosaur scratches" for a while as he stirs around in his bed, not wanting to sleep, and then I hear what sounds JUST like a mechanical dinosaur growl! It was so funny I laughed out loud, and he sat up and looked at me as I laughed. Bad mommy, waking up baby! But it was hilarious! He does sometimes growl, especially when it's food-related (You have something I want to eat, I'm going to growl at you and see if you let me have it!), but this was louder, more irritated, and much funnier than normal. It's fun being a mom, usually.

On that "usually" bit, Alexander still doesn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time, but the night before last my mom took him overnight, and I was SO STINKING EXCITED!!! I haven't had a GOOD, FULL night's sleep (either one of those!) since before he was born! I am sorry to say I didn't get extra sleep that night (unlike Bryan who slept for 12 hours!), but I slept soundly and very well, and I felt fantastic the next day. It was so great. Even the remembrance of what it's like to sleep well was and is enough to keep me going on some of the rougher nights. Someday they'll be back... someday. And last night, having him back again, he slept a whole whopping 5 hours, so maybe we're on to something? Maybe?

Bryan's still in school, and it's going fine. Not great, it's harder for him this time around, but it's going along. And me working, like I said, is tough, but I have hope that it will get us through this rough patch.

On a different note, it's really great to be around so much family. Having my mom, my brothers (usually), and my grandparents around is really nice. I really enjoy this side of my family, they are very laid-back and everyone has their own fun sense of humor. It's nice to be part of a large group of people who get along and who you can talk to, play with, be with, and enjoy. I would say my only sad note is that we don't get to spend more time with Bryan's family. I really like them, and they're so far now that we've seen very little of them. We're also so swamped in just getting through life right now that going more than a mile or two to work, school, and the corner grocery store, is like an epic journey and requires more effort than we can usually muster. Quite a pity, in my own opinion. I miss friends and other family. But I know that this won't last forever. Right? ........

All in all, we are happy. I can't say that things are so good, or anything else that's concretely cheerful, but nothing's terribly awful, and we're happy. And I have a definite knowledge that while you can't always control your circumstances and things happen that are rough, each person can choose how they will act, and how they choose to feel about things. And my little family is happy, loves being a family, and is enjoying the things and people around us.

Updates

Just before I crash back into bed, I feel bad that I haven't been letting anyone know what's up with me and my family.

Bryan is in school. He's going back for another degree in accounting. Since he already has so many classes under his belt, it was something that he could get in a year and that he liked. Bad news was that since he has a degree, there are zero funding options available, so we had to pay for it ourselves, up front. Ouch. But obviously we feel like this is the right thing and will be worth the investment of time, money, and family effort.

Living. We are, thankfully. We're staying at my mother's parent's house on the far west side of town. It was a little crowded over the summer when my mom, my two brothers, me and my 3 boys, our dog, and my grandparents were all in the house. It was chaotic, but pretty fun. Having a lot of people around is pretty neat, I think. But my mom and her boys now have their own house - one house over - and we're settling in for the short haul over here until Bryan gets a job.

I have a job now. I applied at Michaels, where I've worked before, and was hired back. I always loved working there, and I still do. The people are nice, the customers are fairly nice, it's a pretty easy and enjoyable job. But! I work nights right now, and it's killing me. I get almost no sleep, and so I spend most of my days and days off sleeping. It's been really rough. And I REALLY miss being at home with my boys. It's NOT a break to go to work. Although I can say with certainty now that working is easier than parenting by a bajillion miles. My first day was a real doozy, and all my coworkers were asking "So, how are you doing?" And I replied very honestly that it was much easier than my other job -- Mom.

Alexander is an interesting child, shall we say. He's so opposite everything that Christopher was. He eats EVERYTHING he can find, but he's also a crawler and scoots amazingly fast all over the house. Keeping the floors clean enough to prevent him from eating/chewing at least one really bad thing a day seems to be impossible, and I have pulled several nasty things away from him while he was on floors I'd just cleaned, including a trip to the ER after he ate BOTH a piece of glass and a pill not five minutes after I'd scoured the floor he was on and I could have sworn it was perfect. He must have a radar for those things, either that or I'm blind. Other that than terrible habit, his only other bad habits are that he doesn't sleep for more than 2 hours, ever. Night or day. He eats constantly, leading me to surrender my plan to fully breastfeed for most of a year, and give in to giving him bottles and baby food. I still mostly nurse, but he'll just keep eating and eating. He loves those puffed crunchy things they sell for babies (something like flavored, mushy rice crispies with a fancy package and a high price tag), because he can eat them I suspect. He loves eating anything you let him put in his mouth. And he HAS teeth, they've been there for over a month, but they just aren't coming through. You can see them, they just don't wanna come out. Poor baby. And he crawls, stands up on everything he can, babbles, laughs at everything, and generally is very adorable. I love him a lot, bad habits notwithstanding. I'm very glad he came to join us.

Christopher LOVES his brother. He's very helpful, and surprisingly trustworthy around him. He's not mean to his brother, and he's careful to make sure that his brother has safe things, and he keeps his own little toys (legos, etc) locked safely in his room on a closet shelf. I've been so impressed with Christopher and how responsible he is. And I never even asked him to really. He's LOVING living near his uncles and his "DeeDee" - my mom. Living at Grandma's is fun too, like a permanent sleepover at party central! He loves the big backyard, all the people around him, the fact that there's a TV here with kid's channels, how much room there is to play, all the toys.... it's great for him and he's having a blast. The only thing I'm sad about is that Christopher is a very schedule-oriented kid, he always wants to know what's happening when, and this place is pretty chaotic, so he doesn't have that and sometimes it's tough on him. But otherwise, he's having a blast. He's growing up so fast. He likes to do "school" with me, and I'm happy to see that he's getting a little better with his letters. He's great with numbers, he loves to count and he can add and subtract in his head with basic numbers. He really surprises me sometimes with what he can do with numbers. But letters don't seem to interest him. But a little "school", some fun home-made flash cards, and time with Mommy seem to be working past that aversion, and he's getting better with letters, although I don't know that he'll ever love them like he does numbers.

So, I waxed a little long-winded about the boys, but I'm a mommy who loves them very much, and I know that most people want to hear about them anyway, so I don't worry about it! I hope this little update helps everyone "catch up" with us just a bit. It's been so crazy (and exhausting!) that I haven't done anything with anyone for so long and I miss everyone. I hope you are all well.

The Joys Of Marriage

Today my dear sweet lovable husband was working out in the backyard with my grandpa. It was fun to watch him be the handyman. When he came in one time he handed me a cup with plastic wrap rubber-banded over the top.

"Look what I found!"

It was a little baby snake! I had caught one just like it the day before, and he was bringing me a second! If you didn't already know, snakes happen to be my most favorite animal. So this was a great present that I was happy about.

Later I was in the kitchen, and I hear him at the back door.

"Hey Hon! I've got something for you!"

I come to the door and notice that he's got his fist closed and dirt on it. I know he's got a critter, maybe a third snake. He gives me a kiss and drops a lizard into my hand. How fun!

Now, I know some people will go "EEEEEWWWW!!! That is SO GROSS!" Well, tough. For me, that was a very awesome thing for my husband to give me as a gift. In years past, he let me get a pet snake for an anniversary present, and was not exactly excited but still patient at another time when I showed up with 4 baby snakes after an "evening out". It's his way of loving me the way I like to be loved. And that kind of respect and courtesy goes both ways. I love my marriage. (Let me brag once in a while. =)

So now I have 2 tiny snakes and a baby lizard. And as I was looking at them, I thought how very interesting it was that Bryan would do that for me. When we first got married, I don't think he would even have touched those critters, let alone chased them down and brought them to me! And yet here he is, catching me creatures. As I thought about it, it amazed me how much our marriage has matured into something really fantastic. Each of us has grown and changed into people that the other person really likes and is happy with. Each of us does things for each other just because we know it makes the other person happy. I feel that we've managed to take the best of each other and make two better people. I love my husband, and I love our marriage. I'm so happy that my life is what it is.

A Trip!

Most everyone probably didn't know this, but I just went with my two little boys to Utah this past week. It was a great trip! I went to bid farewell to my sister Susan, who is leaving to serve a mission in Carlsbad, California for a year and a half. In spite of it taking 8 hours to do the 6 hour leg of the trip and 10 hours to do the 5 hour leg, I made it to Utah in time to see Susan get set apart, which was neat. My brother Joe, who is attending BYU there, and his friend Jessica was kind enough to watch my little boys while he and I went to that, so afterwards Joe, Jessica, the boys, and I went out to eat at this nifty little noodle place. It was exactly like Chipotle, but served noodles. It was yummy. Then the boys and I went back to our hotel, which for being a budget hotel was amazingly nice. It was a lot better than I had anticipated.

The next day we woke up and hurriedly got ready to meet up with Susan, with whom we spent a few hours. When time was up, we gave parting hugs and goodbyes, she handed over her cell phone and a few other things she can't take on a mission, and off she went! We didn't go to the MTC with her, a friend took her, but we did get to enjoy some time with her. She was happy that she got the chance to see Alexander, because otherwise she wouldn't have seen him until he was 2 or older. I realize that for some families that's no big deal, but in our family we're pretty close, so that seemed quite sad to miss out entirely on meeting one of her nephews for that long. Personally, I also enjoyed the drive, the trip, seeing my siblings, and visiting Utah. It was so gorgeous.

Afte dropping off Susan, we went back to the hotel and the boys and I miraculously all fell asleep together and had a nap! When we woke up we got ready and went out to meet Joe and Jessica at "the duck pond". It's this place on the BYU campus where there's a tiny pond filled with ducks, and you can feed them. The night before, I had stopped at a grocery store on my way back to the hotel and gotten, among other things, two loaves of bread. We used both loaves. Christopher (and admittedly myself) had a blast!!!! These ducks were completely 'people-a-tized' and would eat out of your hand. They also would walk up behind you and steal your bread from your lap if you were dumb enough to set it down momentarily. That was actually very hillarious, because once that duck stole the whole big piece of bread, the other ducks started what looked to be a game of full-contact football in their attempts to steal it. Also, Christopher wondered if the ducks would do tricks like Onyx (his dog), so he held up a piece of bread, and what do you know! One duck sized up the situation, jumped/flew up to grab the bread, and dropped back down with bread firmly in beak. It was awesome! We also saw turtles, and I picked one up to let Christopher/Jessica see it, but neither one wanted to really get too close or touch it, so I put it back. There were also some adorable ducklings, which we tried to feed with little success.

After that I ran around a bit with the boys, visiting the Provo temple, and a store along our way, eventually winding up at the hotel. Alexander cried for 4 hours that evening. I was glad that we were in a satilite room and the hotel wasn't busy, because I'm sure somebody would have been pretty mad if there was anybody near enough to have to listen to that. It was then that I realized how vital it is to have two parents, because the baby drove me crazy and there was nothing I could do and no way to take a break. In the end I lay him in his crib and let him cry until he fell asleep, which was two of the four total hours that he cried. Christopher doesn't like his crying, so I gave Christopher a bath so he wouldn't hear it so much, then I sunggled him to sleep with me.

In the morning we took it slow, watching morning cartoons, eating breakfast in bits when we felt like it, and cleaning up and getting ready to go at a nice slow pace. Joe came over after his classes to help me out by emptying my camera on to some disks so that I could take more pictures; I had filled up my memory card already. Then we went on an adventure to Bridal Veil Falls, where neither of us had been before. It was really great to spend time with Joe, he's amazing and I'm so proud to have him as my brother. We arrived at a trailhead, put the baby in the baby backpack, and started walking. Before we even started the walk, Christopher had found a hill, climbed up, slid down, and gotten covered completely (really) in brown powdery dirt. I was glad that we were going to find some water. I didn't want him back in the car like that!

We walked a ways and found the falls, which were beautiful!!! The water was very cold, but we played in it anyway. Christopher ran around for over an hour, climbing the falls, splashing in the water, playing imaginary games, and being cute. I sat with the baby mostly, but I really enjoyed myself. We eventually left when I realized that I needed to get on the road again.

The drive home was much faster than the drive up. The boys slept or were mostly good, so I didn't have to stop as much. All in all, even though the trip had it's stresses, it was fabulous and I was so thankful I got to go. I enjoyed the time with my siblings, doing fun things with Christopher, and being in such a beautiful place. But it's also great to be home!