Is It Naptime Yet

This year my parents went to Ceder Hills Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Robin and their family. Uncle Mike is my father’s half brother. Andrea and Brien went up to Salt Lake to stay with his family and then they went to my Aunt and Uncle’s for Thanksgiving day, since Salt Lake is only an hour away from Ceder Hills. Andrea and Brien are planning on staying in Ely for Christmas, so I’m not sure when we’ll see them again. Maybe I’ll visit them during Christmas break when Jon is studying for the GRE. Since my parents weren’t here we just had to worry about Thanksgiving with Jon’s family. Since we only had to worry about visiting Jon’s family I figured I could contribute to the dinner and I made some rolls and a banana cream pie. Everyone loved the rolls, even though I thought they we’re just okay. My pie wasn’t cut so no one ate it until Devin, Jon’s nephew, took a couple pieces on the go with him. I had a small piece and didn’t like it either. I think it needed to be in the fridge and I used the generic Jello pudding brand, which made it taste not as good. We have about half of it in our fridge. It might taste a little better now that it’s been refrigerated, but the memory of how it tasted on Thursday makes it less appealing. The food that Annie, Jon’s sister, made was delicious and we got very full while there. I was disappointed because I thought Shauntae, Jon’s niece, would be down, but their family ended up not coming. It was still good to see Jon’s side. We see them pretty much at the holidays and if birthdays come up.

Friday I made a small feast. Really I was tired so I made a turkey breast, beets from our garden, and then we had left over potatoes and rolls from the day before, along with cranberry sauce. The rolls were better the second day. I had yams that I could have made, but when it came down to preparing everything my kitchen was already a little chaotic, so I decided against yams and instead I made two pumpkin pies. Like I said earlier the banana cream pie wasn’t sounding appealing. It was a good Friday. Besides making dinner I can’t remember much about the day. I had an assignment for one of my classes due, so I stayed inside and studied while the girls and Jon played outside in the above average weather. We’ve stayed in the 70’s up until yesterday, Sunday, in which I think we’re finally in the 60’s or 50’s.

Saturday was the big day! Dixie Chicks!! We avoided dishes, and hung around the house a lot. I went over to my sister Kristi’s and watched her kids in the afternoon so she could do some toy shopping. I left Eden at home to take a nap and I took Lilah with me. She had a blast playing with her cousins. I got home took a shower and we dropped the kids off at the Villagomez’s to be watched.
I had the hardest time finding a babysitter for this concert. Our normal babysitter, Kelsey Lee who I’ve known since she was in her mother’s womb, went to Salt Lake this year with her family, instead of just St. George. Then the two girls in our ward that I would trust had a youth dance. I thought one of the older sisters might be able to, but since she graduated high school in May she’s had a party every weekend, and her answer was if there’s not a party I’ll do it. I was going a little crazy. I thought the Villagomez’s would be out of town because her family is in Utah, but luck had it that they’re going up in December for a wedding so they stayed here for Thanksgiving. (Danielle Villagomez is my visiting teacher and she helped me out a lot when my shoulder was stitched up. Her husband also loves our girls. He’s great with kids.) So there is my side note about how hard it is to find a babysitter on Thanksgiving weekend!
We met Carolyn and Derrek for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe inside the MGM. I don’t recommend their seafood selection. It was shrimp and red snapper. The red snapper was good, but they served it with it’s tail still attached. Derek dared me to eat it for $10 but I said he was already paying for dinner so what was the point of making $10.
We had seats against the back wall, and we were just about ten seats shy of being in the farthest spot from the stage. Derrek had also bought seats on the second level, but they had closed their section so Carolyn and Derrek were moved to the first level and sat directly across from the band in the far back. She said they had some annoying girls behind them that kept singing over the sound of the Dixie Chicks. So I am happy that we had our back seats. No one to sing in our ears or throw beer bottles at us. It was a great concert and they did a small encore. Really they finished the show since it appears that encores are now expected of groups. It was a great night and it’s still a little surreal that we were at a concert and in the same room as the Dixie Chicks.(Sure it was a really big room and they looked about the size of barbie dolls but it was the same room.) I really loved the night. We picked the girls up around midnight and got home and crashed. Sunday Jon missed his 6:30 am meeting and we amazingly made it to church on time even though I slept in until 9:20. Our church starts at 11:00 am.

So there is a summary of our Holiday weekend.
I have pictures I need to post of Eden with her black eye. It was so cute and now I kinda miss the rugged looking girl. Happy Holidays!

This is a post my friend Anna re-posted from an e-mail she got. I found it hilarious and it reminded me of my mother.

A.A.A.D.D. – Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests itself:

I decided to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I looked over at my car and decided my car needs washing.

As I started toward the garage to get the sponge and bucket, I noticed that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.

So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only 1 check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find a can of diet Coke that I had been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye–they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. Then I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on
the table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spilled on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill, then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my checkbook, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I don’t remember what in the world I did with the car keys!

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled, because I know I was busy all day long, and I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail.

P.S. I just walked outside and SOMEONE LEFT THE WATER RUNNING IN THE DRIVEWAY!

Sometimes being a stay at home mom is long, tedious, and draining. Sometimes it seems the bad outweighs the good as we take care of the kids and find ourselves fighting and contending with one another. I forget that I love my children on occasion, on those occasions I just want to out them in their room and to forget about them. There are many moments that show me that I love my children. Sometimes it’s all day long, other times it’s when I don’t open my mouth before they do. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving and because I’m in a gushy mood I’d like to write some reasons I’m grateful for my children, or times when I feel their love for me or someone else.

Lilah
1. She shares her Halloween candy with everyone.
2.She often says thank you and she’ll say that dinner is delicious or good.
3. She’ll get me things when I ask, usually.
4. She puts her feet against mine when I’m resting on the couch…..usually it’s annoying because she plays with them and it interrupts any rest I’m getting, but it’s also nice to know that she likes to be close.
5. She’ll cuddle next to you when you’re sitting together on the couch.
6. She’ll say she’s thankful for ____  during the blessing when we’re visiting or when they’re visiting us.
7. She thinks of silly games.
8. She always wants cuddles at nap times.
9. She appeared at the doorway of her room one night and before I had the chance to chastise her she said she wanted a kiss and hug goodnight.
10. She won’t let you leave her for her nap or bedtime before she gives you a kiss and hug.
11. She won’t let you leave the house before giving her a kiss and hug.
12. She’ll play with her sister.
13. She’ll read to her sister.

Eden
1. She plays with your hair while your holding her or cuddling her.
2. She plays with my hair in the morning when she’s in my bed waiting for mommy to fully wake up.
3. She gives you a smile if you look at her.
4. She follows you.
5. She’ll follow you and hug your legs so you can’t walk…Luckily I’m usually doing something at the kitchen counter when she does this.
6. She gets so excited when Jon comes home. Their is no separating Eden from giving her Daddy a welcome home hug.
7. She puckers her lips out and looks like a duck.
8. She does everything her sister does…or at least tries to.
9. She loves being read to.
10. She’s patient with me and Lilah
11. She does some things she’s told.
12. She learns something new all the time and it amazes me to see her growth.

First I would like to say just seven days until I go to my first Dixie Chicks concert! I’m so excited!!! Jon and I are going, they’re one of the few bands we both like, well I love Dixie Chicks. Whenever the Dixie Chicks have come to Vegas I’ve been poor, pregnant or I just had a baby so I was super excited to see that they we’re touring and that we could go. I consider it my graduation present, or maybe Christmas. (I’ve decided not to walk…it would cost $40 for the cap and gown and it just seems like a big hassle….so I just want to have a day with my family rather then a long ceremony.) Carolyn, my sister who is just older than me, is going to the concert with Derrek, a guy friend. She thinks he got tickets after I saw them on Halloween and mentioned the concert. Carolyn also loves Dixie Chicks. Since we’re all going he gave the suggestion of going to dinner together. I think it will be a great night.  I believe he is just a guy friend, at least on her end. Carolyn is a very private person and even if she is dating someone she will deny it. I try to be good and not pry, but Jon mentions anytime a person asks if your dating someone the next question, even if not asked, is are you gonna marry this person, in which the second question can be earnestly implied by the way the first one is asked. So I try to be good and not all nosy, but it’s so fun to know if she’s dating someone, even if she’s not going to marry him.  She’s a totally sweet girl and I know if she ever has kids she will be a great mom, a slightly OCD mom, but a great one none the less. At times she says she will never have kids because she’s already been a mom when she nannied for about 6 years…it was somewhere between 4-6 years. ( Carolyn is one of the neatest people I know, and she can’t stand for kids dirty hands or face. She did pretty well at keeping Dominick, the boy she nannied since he was born till about 4, clean. It even started rubbing off on him because he would not hold his own m&m’s at one time because his hands might get dirty. So I’m not the up tightest person about kids getting dirty…just one of them.)

Last Wednesday my brother Scott and his wife Fallon got in to Vegas from Pensacola Florida, where he is stationed for the Navy. They left Monday morning and drove across the U.S. to arrive at 4:00 am Vegas time on Wednesday. Because of school, schedules and only having one car, I didn’t see them until Saturday. Fallon is a great influence on Scott, he’s active in the church and she just got baptized this July. I think Scott has always had some testimony of the church, but after being in such a strict house, once he joined the navy he went a little wild. I can understand in some ways. The rules growing up were if you live under my roof you go to church and uphold it’s teaching of morals. Of course there wild unruly times, but we all knew we had no choice about attending church. It was the rule. My parents are quite understanding though. They never told us we couldn’t hang out with someone just because they might be trouble. We got in trouble with that friend and then they said no you can’t hang out with them. It wasn’t all bad growing up.
Anyways it was fun to see them on Saturday. I had a baby shower in Henderson so they watched the kids while Kristi and I went to the baby shower. Eden slept the whole time or I would have taken her with me. She gets into so much climbing trouble and it’s hard to keep track of her when you have three other toddler/kids, and one other infant. I was able to stay for dinner and enjoy their company. I saw Scott and Fallon again on Sunday, for FHE, and then I went over and spent the day with  them on Tuesday with the girls.  Lilah had a blast throwing “approved” toys over the stairwell to have Scott retrieve them and throw them back. I say approved because at times she was trying to throw hard Lego’s, and the rule was it had to be relatively soft. It was hilarious to watch them and I think Scott got a bit of a work out. Maybe he lost a 1/2 pound for the 26 he needs to lose in the next six months. I didn’t get any pictures because I kept forgetting my camera. :(  It was so fun to see them. I keep in touch with Fallon though myspace, so it’s really just great to see and be able to talk, rather than leave comments on her page.  I wish they lived closer so it would be more feasible for us to visit them. They left Thursday morning. They’re hoping to get in Sunday morning so Scott can rest. You see his leave is up at 11:59 pm on Sunday, so they have him coming into work at 12:00 am Monday.

I went to my parents house Tuesday to visit Scott and Fallon. I left with a stuffed up Lilah. I think it was allergies or possibly my mom that got us sick. Tuesday evening was horrible because both girls got stuffy noses and had difficulty sleeping. I was awoken pretty much every hour, if not two. Lilah was in my bed the first part of the night. That was horrible. I put her in her bed at who knows what time so she wouldn’t wake me up each time she was having trouble breathing and tossed and turned in the bed.  Eden joined me around 4, I think, because of breathing problems. She did okay and pretty much rested the rest of the time, except when Lilah came in the room then threw up on the floor. I actually felt pretty good on Wednesday considering the interrupted and lack of sleep. The girls have been pretty good, but needy. I’ve had the TV on a lot because it keeps them rested. I started getting sick Wednesday night, and it has gone down hill from there. I am happy to say that I haven’t had a killer sore throat, I always get the worst sore throats during these things. I am at the stage where I’m sneezing and my sinuses are so full of stuff that I feel like my face wants to fall off.

Today, Saturday, Jon had some work to do, so he took Lilah into the office with him. Eden wanted to go also. She had retrieved one of her shoes once she saw Lilah getting hers on. It was soo cute. Jon can only handle one child in his office, plus Lilah is better at entertaining herself and won’t need a nap while they’re there.  Jon’s printing 2,000 and some odd letters to students who will be dropped from there classes for the Spring semester if they don’t get their immunizations updated. You see registration has already started so they can’t put them on hold to register, so they’ll have to drop them. It’s federal law to have immunizations for school and the vice president of UNLV decided it needed to become a priority because they’ve been pretty lax in previous years, hence why they have at least 2,000 students who have not had updated immunizations.  I’m happy I’m graduating because I would be one of those students, except I did just get my tetanus and I believe that was the one I was missing. Anyways Jon didn’t want to tie up a printer for hours while at work so he went in today. I’m happy he decided to take Lilah, but now I don’t know what to do with Eden. She’s playing with blocks and putting out a lot of snot right now.  I’m just happy I have time to blog without feeling guilty for neglecting my school work. I had a test yesterday, and since I’ve been sick I haven’t been very productive. Today I feel like I could do chores around the house, if it weren’t for the bending over and losing you face feeling. I guess I’ll settle for trying to read and do my assignment that is due Monday for my music class. We have the adult meeting for Stake Conference tonight and our ward is doing the musical number. I want to go and support because we have small ward choir. I could probably sing, but I don’t know if I’m contagious still, and if other ward members want to be sitting next to a sniffling sick lady. I guess we’ll see if my sickness becomes less obvious as the day goes on, maybe then I can trick people and just not sit to close or breath on anyone.

Last night I was watching Desperate Housewives. I’m not really sure why I started watching this show, but I find it a little interesting and frustrating. Frustrating because it is so not real, but it’s really not suppose to be. Interesting because of the crazy story lines. Anyways at the end of last night’s episode. The blonde mom of three boys goes to drop off a cake to the neighbor who saved her life. One of her boys came with her because he’s too afraid to leave her side. Well the boy starts playing with this toy train in the house and it leads to a basement full of toys and a pinball machine, things like that. When I saw this I said to Jon he was a child predator. Then the mom finds a corner of pictures of topless boys. One thing wrong was the boys were of very different ages. I’m pretty sure I saw teenagers and then young boys of the age of ten or so, this is inaccurate of child predators. They usually have a specific age range of a certain sex that they like, though they may cross over to the other sex and they may molest someone of a different age if the opportunity arises, but most child pedophiles have an ideal victim type (IVT) and they do not vary much from this. Anyways, a while ago Amber asked for any pointers, since she is a mother of all girls, when I mention that I was learning a few tips about child predators in my CRJ class of sex crimes. So here are some things to watch for, many of them I think are already common knowledge, but some of them might give you insight.

First I want to separate pedophile from child molester. A pedophile is someone attracted to children. I would compare them to a homosexual. This is their attraction, but just because they are attracted to children does not mean they molest children. A child molester is a person who sexually abuses a child, but they may not be sexually attracted to children, it may be out of opportunity or vengeance. I say this because I feel that pedophiles are mentally imbalanced and it’s just who they are. I don’t agree with homosexuality or pedophilia, but this is more the way a person’s thinks, rather then how they act. I do feel for them because they honestly are attracted to children, but that does not mean I agree or condone their behavior. So a pedophile does not mean they molest children and a molester does not have to be a pedophile.

That said here are traits of child pedophiles that abuse children. Their are two kinds of child pedophiles, those who seduce the child and those who are predators. The predators are strangers who take and abuse random children. For these there’s not much to do except warn your children about strangers and to let them know to make as big of a scene and run away if possible if someone tries to abduct them. These are the less common of child pedophiles.
Seducers seduce your children. They are most often married men, though not always, and can be of any age or intelligence, and are often very intelligent. They often try to work with children in the age range of their IVT. They can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, coaches, or neighbors. This of course does not mean any man in these jobs are child predators, but don’t think child predators fit any particular stereotype of being dumb or a social misfit.
Often they will prey on children who are longing for attention, these are the most susceptible children, but it really doesn’t matter.
One thing abuser do is groom a child. They give gifts, or money, and befriend the child. If your child has new toys that you didn’t buy, find out who did. If it’s from one particular person and there is no apparent reason, like teachers often give small rewards, but if it’s expensive be suspicious. If the child won’t tell you who the gift is from because it’s a secret they are probably being groomed and possibly have already been molested.
Secretiveness is the next thing. The abuser will tell the child not to tell anyone of the abuse and to keep it a secret. “It’s our secret game.” Try to communicate with your child that anyone who tell them to keep secrets is not a friend and is someone they should beware of. Remember that the abuse is often enjoyable for the child. They are sexual beings and the pedophile is attracted to this.

Sometimes the pedophile will use negative inducers. Inducers are basically anything to keep the child from telling about the abuse, toys, or possibly threats. Threats are usually not used unless the predator or child is trying to break off the relationship, though they might be used if the child does not want to be abused. Earlier I said a child predator usually likes children of a certain age range. Once they get too old the abuser will break it off. Sometimes the child does not like this because they are used to getting gifts and often the abuse is enjoyable to the child. So the predator will use threats, such as killing a family pet or even member to keep the child quiet.
We haven’t talked too much about traits that children have if they are being abused, because the class isn’t about that, though I think I’ll try to find a good book which covers that.

So Here’s a list:

Traits child predators have:
1. Around and like children in which they show a higher than normal interest in children. If they’d rather play with your children every time they’re around them and have a tendency to have physical play, they might be a a pedophile or a child molester.
2. They give gifts and money to groom and induce the child into the abuse.
3. They are intelligent, they can be in any occupation but can also be found in occupations with children. They are often photographers or have this hobby.
(My professor told a story of a former cop attending his granddaughters soccer game. The girls wore little skirts with shorts or bloomers underneath. He noticed a gentlemen that seemed to be taking pictures when the girls fell and the skirts came up. He started a conversation with the man and at one point the man said how cute it was when the girls fall and their skirts come up. The photographer had no children there. This is a trait of a child predator, or pedophile because he was taking obscene photos of the girls. Focusing on the genitals or chest area of a child, even clothed, is considered obscene. If you have children in a sport where their are spectators, watch the crowd for someone who is not a parent with no legit reason of being there taking pictures. In this case since the grandfather was a cop he got the license plate and they were able to get warrant and prove that he was collecting children pornography and was taking obscene photos of children.)
4. They are often male and married. (We haven’t gotten or covered much about women who abuse.)
5. Predators often have other paraphilias. They might test the water by exposing themselves to a child (exhibitionism) or making obscene jesters or phone calls to the child (scatophilia).
6. Collect child and adult erotica, or pornography.
7. Talk to a child like they would a lover or spouse.
8. Have an ideal age for their victims.

Of course their are so many other kinds of child abuse, interfamlia, sexually indiscriminate, or those who have sex with children just because they are sexually experimental, and others. I might cover interfamlia on another day, because that is really the only other one that you would see specific traits. The other abuse of children are mostly because of opportunity.

Truly you can’t protect your children from each kind of predator but beware of men who are overly friendly or helpful. Often the abuser becomes friends with the parents, in which the child knows the abuser and when the abuser has a moment alone with the child, they abuse them. Single moms are especially prey to this.
Like I said most traits and things are common sense and of course not everyone who has one or two traits will abuse your child. It’s a combination and accumulation of many. I would most be aware of gifts, secrets, and if any adult who only wants the company of your child, an not other adults. Child abusers do enjoy the company of other child abusers though. Some of the other traits you may not be able to observe, unless you accidentally find child porn in their house or car and that is an obvious sign. You can also do background checks, if they’ve been sighted doing exhibitionism to children I would beware, or even if they have tremendously bad credit. This could be a sign of giving gifts to children because they often have multiple victims at once and that can get costly.
We have rules of no male babysitters. One to protect our girls, another is we don’t want to pick and chose. There might be one teenage boy, or adult male, we fell comfortable with and another whom we don’t. I don’t want to pick and chose. We do let grandpa babysit but that’s the only male. We allow married couples, and even with that I’m careful to have those I trust. I chose couples that I believe wouldn’t leave the husband alone with my children, or have him do the inappropriate things of taking care of the girls. Such as Lilah needs help wiping her bottom when she poops. If a man wanted to help, I would beware and never let him watch my children. I don’t mind a man changing Eden’s diaper, but as she gets older I am weary of who does it.
It’s hard because I don’t want to suspect everyone, but at the same time I need to suspect everyone. Lilah isn’t in any sports or dance classes so I don’t worry about that yet. I know there are many male gymnastics teachers, in which I would not let her take one with a male teacher because of the close body contact that they sometimes have with training. Soccer I might do, but even that I’m not sure if I would leave her alone at practice. It’s a hard world and to tell you the truth I think their are even more crazies out there. I hate thinking everyone is guilty, but if you find offense to my over protectiveness, then I don’t think you understand how dangerous the world really is.

I took Lilah with me to vote yesterday in the election. Jon voted early in the morning so I went once he was home. Our area is pretty small and full of immigrants, in which I’m sure many of them are illegal, so they don’t have the right to vote. I had to wait about ten minutes and then I was up. Lilah was playing around and under the machine. One of the volunteers was afraid it would collapse on her so she pointed it out and I got her out from underneath, but she continued to play on it or by it in some way. The woman came over three times, the third offering animal crackers that could be given on the other side of the room. I declined and put Lilah against the wall behind me. She then just played on the wall and stayed out of trouble. I was emerged in voting, reading my practice ballot and checking the screen. I did over hear them talking about a couple of things. One was they didn’t want anything to happen to Lilah because she was so cute, and they also didn’t want to get sued if the machine fell on her. Another was an experience one of the volunteers had had on another day. It was about a mother and her son. The boy was pointing rubber bands or was using something to fling things at people. Someone, if not the volunteer, had pointed the boys actions to the mother, but the mother disregarded it and was upset that others wanted her to discipline her child because of his behavior. The volunteer then told the women she would sue if her son hit her with the object, because of her disrepect for others. It was just interesting.
Yesterday I also took the time and researched each candidate and voted on all but one. The one I didn’t vote on dealt with the school board trustee. Neither were good candidates and I’m planning on home schooling anyways. I was disappointed in about half of the outcomes for the amendments that were proposed. Two dealt with second hand smoke. One was more lenient and to me pretty much kept things the way they are, the other took smoking out of any establishment that serves food. I found it to be too extreme. I guess I do enjoy completely smoke free restaurants, but it took it our of bars also, in which children shouldn’t be there anyways, so who cares if there is smoke, and those parents who take there kids to bars with them probably smoke, or are irresponsible in some way so it doesn’t matter. Like I said, I found it to bee a little too extreme. Smoking is not illegal and in essence your telling people that they don’t have a right to smoke. Now I do hate second hand smoke. You have students right outside the doors to buildings because they can’t smoke inside and everyone has to walk through their smoke to get to the building. I think that’s all that’s going to happen. People won’t be smoking inside, so they’ll be right outside the door and we’ll all have to walk through it. I suppose that’s better than sitting in it even when you’re in the nonsmoking area of a restaurant. I suppose Jon’s idea of a small and limited government is rubbing off on me. We have so many laws or amendments or rules that we can’t govern ourselves, or are even given the opportunity. I hate that parents can get fined or imprisoned for their child not going to school, but we’re in a country that has people wanting to give that same child the right to have an abortion without telling their parent. Things are just backwards. Anyways. I voted I put in my two cents and in some I was the minority voice, but at least I voted.

So the second child as the advantage of watching the first child and learning from them. This is usually good. Eden loves books and will sit through long ones, like Bernstein Bears, because she watches and learns from Lilah sitting through them. She follows Lilah’s example when we fold our arms for prayer and she behaves pretty well. One thing that I never worried about with Lilah was climbing. I know some first children are climbers, so it may not be that Eden is my second child, but Eden is now a little climber. She climbs onto the rocker, she climbs onto Lilah’s bed and once she climbs onto Lilah’s bed she then climbs onto Lilah’s dresser that is next to the bed. She did this yesterday. I was in the living room doing school work at the computer and the girls were in the bedroom playing. I knew Eden was on the bed. I figured at least there’s carpet in the room if she falls off, and it’s only a foot and a half from the floor to the bed. Well I don’t remember if I just decided to check in on them, or if I had already heard Lilah tell Eden to get off the dresser. I walked down the hall and my heart skipped a beat as I saw Eden on the dresser trying to look out the girls window. Lilah was telling her to get off the dresser, but Eden was not listening.

Their are a few reasons this scared me. 1: the dresser is about 6-9 inches from the wall/window because the curtains are longer than the dresser height. This is just the amount of space a little one year old could fall in between and probably get beat up a little on the way down since it is a small area. 2: The dresser is about 3 feet tall and it would be a much harder landing if she fell. 3: Eden doesn’t always comprehend edges. She’s almost fallen off my bed and the couch a few times because she likes to lean her head forward and doesn’t know where her center of gravity is, in which it is very close to her big head.

I really hate this. I loved being able to have the girls in there room while I did school work. They would play and I would check in making sure Eden wasn’t being suffocated by Lilah covering her in blankets and toys, and once I saw everything was okay I could go back and do more work. This would give me anywhere between a half hour to nearly two hours depending on when they started playing and when Eden needed to go down for a nap. It just is not fun because for the next six weeks, until school ends, I will have to supervise their play more and that will take away my study time. I’ll need to be in there with them to make sure Eden doesn’t try to climb onto the dresser or to condition her by putting her in time out every time she does. I really hate the time toddlers learn to climb, but don’t completely understand heights and consequences. I just hope she learns them soon, and before she falls and does any major damage.

On a funny note about having two kids. My friend Anna came over for lunch on Thursday. She was holding Eden and Lilah said in a very serious voice that Eden was not hers and that she needed to put her down. Well something like that. It cracked us up that she was so protective of her sister. She knows Anna quite well and Anna likes to hold both of them, but this is the first time Anna got into trouble by Lilah for holding Eden. Strange people… uh, I mean… Strangers beware, Lilah has her sister’s back.

Wednesday was crazy. Eden had a doctor’s appointment so I dropped Jon off at work and went to my mom’s house. She watched Lilah, or well, took her to her piano lessons while I took Eden to the doctor. Our pediatrician left for California in October so we are now assigned to the head pediatrician, Dr. Gary. He’s an interesting fellow. He talked to Eden like  a regular person, which I’m totally cool with because we try not to baby talk, but it was funny because I couldn’t tell when he was talking to me, compared to talking with Eden because even the tone of his voice stayed the same. (We usually have a slightly different tone when we talk to the girls, really our voices just raise.) He was nice and Eden did pretty well with him, of course she is only 15 months old. She weighed in at 19 lbs. 12 oz. and is 30 1/2 inches tall. I said to the nurse that with clothes and shoes she probably weighs 20 lbs so we can turn her forward, right? She said she thought that was true, but she couldn’t tell me to turn her forward in the car yet. I mentioned it later to the doctor and he did agree, so I had the doctor’s approval, in which that is all I needed. It’s nice to put her forward, it makes things a little easier in our two door car. She also got three shots while we were there, and didn’t cry. I think Lilah was the same way at this exact appointment. Eden puckered up and had the saddest face but right before she did cry the last shot was over and she decided not to. She’s actually been really good the past couple days and her legs haven’t bothered her a bit, plus she hasn’t had a fever.
After the appointment we went back to my moms and had lunch. We came home so I could cash some checks and have the girls take a nap, I also needed one. They both fell asleep on the way home which made it a little easier. Eden stayed asleep and Lilah watched some TV while I took a little nap. I was super tired since I got up at 6 to get ready with Jon. Well as I awoke I remembered I had left our cell phone charging on my parents counter. It had died so I brought it to charge while I was there. I did not want to drive back out to my parents to get it. Jon and I decided I’d pick him up and we’d get it, and since it was my fathers birthday we would go out to dinner with them. It ended up being Mom, Dad, Glenn (my eldest brother), Kristi (my second sister), Howie, Katy, Adrienne (her kids), and us. So 6 adults and 5 kids at Applebee’s. It was crazy and Lilah only ate her fries. She then proceeded to play under the table with Katy. Eden was mostly okay, she loved having a cup with a  straw, but she was antsy because she had been in a car, sleeping, or just not able to play nearly all day. We got home at 8:30 and put the girls to bed after playing for a short time.

This daylight savings has really messed up my sleep schedule. I feel tired all the time, no matter what time I go to bed or wake up. I try to take short naps because I get tiered in the afternoon and feel like I need a nap, or I start falling asleep when I’m lying with Lilah trying to get her to take a nap. It’s just crazy.