Is It Naptime Yet

My eldest sister Andrea has been in town, since her husband went away for a dirt eating conference, and I’ve gotten to see her and my beautiful niece Zarina. ( Her husband is a geologist who test dirt, so we call him a dirt eater, even though he doesn’t eat dirt, though I think he has tasted my fathers dirt and that’s why we say he eats dirt.)

We visited Saturday at my niece Adrienne’s birthday party and then Monday I went over to my parents after having Britta for Sam that morning.

Lilah and Eden think Zarina is wonderful, but they had a ball playing with Mary’s kids, who were also over to visit Andrea on Monday.

Tuesday is when my girls got to dote on Zarina because we watched her while Andrea went to the temple. They were getting down the baby toys and if had I let them they would have covered her in all the toys. Eden was worried that Andrea would come take Zarina while she took her nap, but luckily she woke up right before Andrea left and she was able to say goodbye.

I took some pictures of the girls with Zarina, who looks like her daddy, but you can tell she’s related to my girls, if nothing they all have chubby cheeks, though mine are losing theirs.

Wednesday, or today, we went to Chuck E’ Cheese with Andrea, Zarina, Carolyn, Kristi and her daughters, Katy and Adrienne, poor Howie was still in school.
I let Andrea go and play with the girls or do whatever for a while and I stayed at the table to guard the purses and watch Zarina.
She is such a happy baby and really cute. She smiles pretty easily and on Tuesday I got a good giggle out of her.
I can’t wait to see her again!

Here are our “drawn portraits” from Chuck E’ Cheese.

I also took one with Zarina, but Andrea took that one.

We went to Chuck E’ Cheese because the girls have been dying to go and today Jon had the day off so we could meet with our life insurance agent. I thought lunch at Chuck E’ Cheese would be fun for the girls, since we promised we’d go, and I invited my sisters along for the fun of it. ( Also so there were more people to help with the watching of the table. 😉 )

Also, here are the girls enjoying some of their prizes they redeemed at Chuck E’ Cheese.

Eden put the stickers on her arm on the trip home.

Lilah loves fake tattoos.

So I’m not really into the whole princess thing. Our only Disney movie that comes close to being one of the Disney princesses is Mulan.
No Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Little Mermaid in our house. (Though Sleeping Beauty is one of Jon’s favorite out of the trio from his youth.)

Now, this wasn’t a conscious decision and if someone where to give us a princess DVD I’d let the girls watch it, but as two adults buying DVD’s for our children, we like to buy things we would enjoy, so we have all the Pixar films, some Studio Ghibli and other random Disney, or non Disney stuff in the mix.

So with not having the princess movies, the girls have not seen them, except Little Mermaid, while at Aunt Andrea’s.
So with not seeing them, they have no idea what to answer when people ask them who their favorite Disney Princess is. I never thought of this, except Carolyn’s boss once asked Lilah this question and she didn’t reply, not only because she doesn’t talk to people, but because she had no idea what he was talking about.

So now I am kinda proud that my girls aren’t enamored or obsessed with Disney Princesses, like so many little girls are. I’m fine with it if you’re daughter is, and in fact my girls still have princess stuff, just not the Disney stuff, and if a little girl does like the princess stuff it, makes it easier in buying gifts.

Anyways, this whole princess discussion started because Julie is entering Naia into this Pretty Little Princess pageant, a more natural, little to no make up or hair pieces aloud pageant, and Carolyn told Julie she should tell me and I should enter my girls. (But I think it’s ’cause Carolyn thinks my girls are the cutest, though she might be partial as their aunt.)

I pay a $20 entry fee and have them in two cute outfits, in which they would have to be new for me, because it is a pageant after all, and people give them a trophy, sash, and flowers, because all the girls get that and then the real winners get a tiara and a savings bond. There are talent scouts there looking for a fresh new face, blah, blah, blah, but parents attest to how wonderful it makes their daughter feel and all that good stuff.

I’m a little like “whats the point?”, but at the same time I have a desire to enter and see if my girls win, because they are so adorable to me, but I wouldn’t want to bank on them winning or go just because I knew they would win because, lets face it, you’re setting someone up for disappointment with that train of thought.

My other dilemma is more of an internal one. In a way I try to keep them away from the whole, ‘you’re my little princess’ train of thought. I want them to have more confidence in themselves than ‘I’m so cute’, since they already hear that a lot. (I know, could my head be any bigger about my two beautiful girls? 😉 ) So to enter them in a contest to make them feel like a princess is a little against my morals or really to enter them in a beauty pageant.

Plus what’s the point? To have complete strangers tell me my child’s adorable, or that there might be others cuter than them? Or to turn down talent scouts because I don’t want my daughter in TV? (I feel like talent agents try to get anyone who is willing pay a fee so I’m not saying this because I automatically think talent scouts would want them or at least one of them.)
But at the same time I want to show how cute my girls are and see if it helps Lilah be better with people, though she is usually better with large groups than one on one interaction.

I don’t always see the point of making a girls feel like a princess or that they’re the prettiest, though I would love for my girls to be the prettiest little princess, but I’m also so competitive that I wouldn’t want to have my friend’s children enter because I want mine to win and then if they knew the winner it might also stay in their mind more that they didn’t win, even though they get all sorts of stuff anyways.

So I’m undecided.

My silly princesses in their princess pajamas.
( I thought the frog ones were cute and my mom gave us the other ones. )

Yesterday was Lilah’s preschool class, but I it was one of my off days from teaching and assisting and since Eden still has a runny nose I thought we should stay away from other kids. So instead we went to Henderson to pick up a couple things from Costco, return stuff to Jo Ann’s and we enjoyed lunch at Sweet Tomatoes.

My girls are fantastic veggie eaters, so a salad buffet is perfect for them. They also sat us right by the food area for the bread, soups, and pasta’s so I didn’t have to go to far from them and I could keep our table in my sight whenever I got up.

Eden never eats well when we’re out, but she tried a little of everything I gave her. Lilah loved the grapes and macaroni and cheese. It’s now her favorite macaroni and cheese. They also loved the ice cream at the end. Lilah stuffed herself so full she said her stomach hurt.

Before we left Eden was smiling at an elderly woman at the table behind us. The woman started conversation telling me how cute Eden was and how she was giving her big smiles, she also said Eden looked just like one of her granddaughters. She then asked if I wanted to see a picture and of course I said yes. She then took a picture out of her wallet and showed Eden and I a family picture of three generations. Her granddaughter, who I would guess was about 6, had short brown hair like Eden and the woman said she had blue eyes, just like Eden’s, and a big smile, just like Eden’s. Lilah of course also wanted to see so she came over and we introduced her to the woman also, who then complemented her on a pretty name.

It made my day to see the girls being friendly. I love having kids because they often help cheer up someones day and mine at the same time.

The rest of yesterday went the same as any.

Today my friend Anna had the day off, so after a morning engagement she came by and we went to the park. My girls were exploding with excitement waiting for her and the thought of going to the park. We thought she’d make it for lunch, but she didn’t, so after we ate they were just waiting for her and running around.

Eden earlier in the morning told me how nice Anna was. I asked if I was nice and she said no, Mommy’s mean.
Thanks.
I guess if I just came by every once in a while and chased them around she would think I was nice too, but atlas my duties as a stay at home mother keep me here each day during happy and sad times. (Sad times being time out and fights.)

The girls had a blast at the park, though the swings were not Lilah’s friend. She fell off while trying to fix her hat, in which she easily fell 4 feet. The second incident she wasn’t far enough away from the swings as she tried to walk past a mom and her daughter and she got hit with that swing. It was tough, but she got over it quickly and just wanted to swing in the baby swing.

After the park we had to come home and get Eden down for nap. She kept saying she didn’t want Anna to go. 🙁 Then when she woke up that afternoon, after Anna had left of course, she told me she wanted Anna to chase her. 🙁

Eden really loves Anna.

Lilah also loves Anna, but while at the park she said Auntie Carolyn was sillier than Anna. 🙂

It was a fun day. Anna was able to hang out and Lilah showed that she really does know nearly all the sounds the letters make, except of course the ones her mother screws up on because I didn’t learn by phonics.

It’s fun to have visitors.

So most of you know that we’re planning on homeschooling our girls. I’m needing to do some research, but I’ve been teaching her since birth, as Jon would say, and am going to start a couple of new things with Lilah.

First I’ve gotten some Zoo Phonics cards from a friend (so let me know if you want hooked up), in hopes that Lilah will have better memorization of the letter sounds, though she probably knows all of them except the vowels easily, so she can hopefully feel more comfortable sounding out words. (She hates sounding out words, ’cause she hates to make mistakes depending on her mood.)
She only likes to read when we read scriptures at night. If it’s one of their books she doesn’t want to help read, but be read to.

At night when we read scriptures it use to be I taught her a word and as I read I would continue to point to the words but pause at the ones she knew so she could read them. Now she’s having me read each word, she repeats it and on words she knows I still don’t say anything. She recognizes a lot of words like: and, is on, be, the, that, etc. and the other night she read the word people! I just wasn’t fast enough and she read it before I did!

She saw the zoo-phonics cards and I think she’s excited about them, so I’m hoping this gives a boost to her motivation to read and to sound things out especially. (I just need to get more self laminating stuff, which was expensive so if I’m planning on making my own stuff I need to find a cheaper way to make it last.)

The other thing, which I just started yesterday, is writing in a composition book.
To get a real feel for dates, months, and the days of the week, which she already knows, I’m planning on writing with her each day. I basically ask what she wants me to put down and I do, then we read it together. (I’m planning on reading about seven days worth each time we go to write once we get at least seven pages down.) I’m also having her read the words she already knows and she likes to repeat the larger ones. She pretends to phonetically read sometimes. She’ll ask what the word is and then slowly read it like she’s sounding it out, though she does also try to point to the letters. It’s cute. I think it does help her remember the words though.

With the notebook I’ve made this our Mommy and Lilah time. I think she’s been feeling a little left out in not getting a specific time with me anymore. Right before each of the girl’s naps is Mommy and (insert name here) time, but since Lilah doesn’t take naps anymore she doesn’t always get a specific time where my attention is on her, since by the time I’m done putting Eden down it’s time for Super Why and her shows, or she’s playing the computer, or I’m tired and need a nap well, you get the picture.
She’s been wanting to encroach on Eden’s time with me, so I think this will help her know and look forward to our time together and know that she will get time with me.

This was our first day’s work, in which I think my girls are bound to have terrible handwriting, due to their mother teaching them, though it’s kinda hard to write so large, and excuse my misspelling of gymnastics, I almost forgot the y at first.
She did the drawing and that top part is her writing her name without my dotted lines and help.

So these are two things I’m doing to encourage reading and writing with her thus far.

I need to find a way to help her correctly write letters. I remember my friend Danielle talking about a video they had for it and having the kindergartners trace the letters with their fingers for practice. I just need large letters that are more in the handwritten manner or a video, since I think tracing with her fingers, on paper, with mommy will probably wear off fast with Lilah.

Also our next science project: to order some caterpillars and watch them become butterflies.

I’ve been trying to think of what we’ve been up to. Not much outta the norm really.
We had Lilah’s preschool class on Thursday and both girls have runny noses today, though Eden’s been dealing with it since Tuesday off and on.

Wednesday we had a North and South marathon with the Jewitt’s. Beth’s not one to sit still, let alone sit still for 4 hours, but she did a good job and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. She wanted to watch it again later that night.

Today I went to Target by myself. I desperately want to get Lilah into a booster seat. I don’t have any good reasons but I do have a few mediocre ones.

First, the car seat we have is a pain to adjust straps, you have to unlatch it from the car and do it from the back, a total pain when they stop wearing coats and begin swimming in the extra space at Springtime.
Second, we got it from my parents so it’s had some good wear and tear on it and the straps are always weird.
Third, I’d like to have a seat for Jon’s car so I can always drive mine. (The one with both girls gets the Toyota in case of an emergency since the Subaru has only one car seat.)
Lastly, it’s easier to take a booster seat out to let friends or family take Lilah than to unlatch a car seat.

I didn’t buy one because Lilah’s in an awkward stage of growth and even though she’s large enough for a booster with a back I think laws want her to be 40 pounds and that she is not.

So instead of spending lots of money on a booster I spent money on clothes for the girls and sunglasses.

I love and hate buying clothes. I just love to buy them but I hate how much it costs to buy a new wardrobe each season.

Katy and Lilah are close enough in sizes that I can’t borrow clothes as easily so I’m stuck buying Lilah a new wardrobe as she gets bigger and then Adrienne and Eden are also close enough in size that I can’t borrow for her and I buy to supplement what Lilah had.

Lilah really wore out a lot of her 3T’s so I bought Eden one new outfit so she has something that’s new for her and not too worn. I bought Lilah pajama’s and one outfit then I bought the sunglasses for an Easter gift. We’re planning on being outdoors more this summer so I figure sunglasses would be fun. By we I mean Jon wants to buy a family pass to the Spring preserve and take the girls there often, and he wants to do some camping and hiking this summer at the Grand Canyon.

I of course hate the sun, getting sweaty, and anything that includes dirt. 🙂

I am enjoying the warm weather. I ventured to try on a pair of shorts and since I’ve gained a few pounds they are a little tight. (Thankfully they’re made from a stretchy material.) I’m thinking of losing weight but we still have half of a Costco sized box of Oreo’s and today I just bought 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. ( I admit I heard someone on another blog talk about Girl Scout cookies and I went to the store today specifically to buy some, plus cereal since we’re almost out, but that was just a good excuse to go so I could buy Girl Scout cookies. I bought Peanut Butter Patties, Caramel deLights, and Lemonades which are delicious if you like lemon flavored sweets. I think they’re my favorite cookie excluding ones that have chocolate, peanut butter, or caramel in them. )

So I’m thinking I need to exercise a little (I say a little because I don’t exercise at all.), eat less and drink more water. I bought a scale today and I’m not as heavy as I feel, but I do want to fit into my summer clothes and look nice as the weather warms.

First I think I’ll grab a Peanut Butter Pattie.

The flowers Jon sent me are so beautiful and are in full bloom. I though I’d take a picture.

This one is with the flash.

This one is in natural light and really the color we see.

Also here are some pictures of my hair.

To show how light it is I’ve posted one of my natural hair color which was taken at Zarina’s blessing in December and I happen to be wearing the same shirt. ( I guess it is one of my favorite shirts.)

I told her to be bold with the highlights and this is what she did. I wanted to do more red, but the light brown is fun, I’m just not sure if I like it.

I really like having dark hair and fair skin and Carolyn says this coloring makes me look more tan, I also look a lot more like her which is freaky according to Derek. (He cracks me up. )
She also didn’t cut bangs because they don’t go with this hair cut, but I’m fine with that.

I think I need to get a larger round brush and some smoother stuff for my hair.

Also Lilah’s response to my shorter hair, she doesn’t like it and yesterday she noticed the highlights and said my hair had funny stuff in it.

Oh well.

Jon took Yesterday off. We had dentist appointments in the afternoon and he has tons of vacation time since we hardly use it.
We took his car into the mechanic in the morning. The AC appeared to not be working and we’ve had an oil leak that has progressively gotten worse.

Well the AC actually does work it’s the knob that’s broken, which isn’t too surprising to me and they fix the gasket that was leaking.
Since they don’t keep 94 Subaru Impreza AC knobs handy they’re ordering it and we’ve decided we’d just bring the car back in for that.
So instead of blowing all hot air, it now blows all cold air, and it’s really not warm outside.

After we dropped our car off in the morning we went to Costco to buy nuts. I forgot to get almonds for Jon earlier this month and he wanted to also price walnuts, two things he uses in his daily nut mix for his snack at work.

We found the almonds and the walnuts, but we also found a no salt seasoning Andrea told me about, dresses for the girls and a CD of all the Beatles #1 hits.

We did stop at that, though had I gone alone I would have just bought nuts, because we have a tendency to approve things for one another when we’re together at the store.

So we get back to the car and I smelled something.
It was odd to me because I noticed this smell in Costco  and now it was also in my car! It reminded me of a strawberry scented car freshener. I asked Jon if he smelt it too and he did.
So while I then drove us to the jewelry store for my semi-annual ring check I realized what the smell was.

My new deodorant.
Apparently Secret Platinum botanical silk smells like strawberry air freshener when mix with my sweat.

After the ring check we headed home for lunch.
After lunch I dropped Jon and the girls at his parents house, which is only five minutes away from our dentist, and I went to get some cavities filled.

After that I then stayed at his parents house while he went to have his semi annual check up.

The girls had fun at the Blake’s and Lilah did this foam floor puzzle they have for about an hour and a half, just taking it apart and putting it together again a couple times.

Our Subaru was ready to be picked up after Jon’s appointment so we went straight there to get it and then home.

We had no silverware or dishes so I then went to Quizno’s for dinner. Soup sounded so good and hot sandwiches seemed appropriate for last nights chill.

Now today, Thursday, Lilah’s class is canceled because all the other five kids are sick or have a sibling that is sick.

The girls are playing nicely together, something that started earlier this week. But they are making a huge mess. Something I just got upset about.  Lilah says she’s tired whenever I tell her them clean up. I’m now going to try to enforce a one toy rule. They each get one toy and once that toy is put away they may get another.  Lilah uses the tired excuse a lot and I’m tired of hearing it.

I have things I need to do around the house, like mopping the floors and dishes, but I don’t want to get sweaty while mopping the floor since I’ve already taken a shower and dishes just aren’t appealing.

I feel like I should go take the girls somewhere fun, but it’s a little chilly outside and I’m a wimp. Plus we need to get a gift for Lilah’s friend who’s having a party on Saturday, if she’s felling all better.
Maybe we’ll go shopping and to the Library.

Tuesday we made truffles at the Jewitt’s.
Wednesday we made muddy buddies to give to the girl’s classmates and printed off Valentines for the girls to give away.

Yesterday was Valentine’s day.
I had to teach Lilah’s class. I wanted to send her away with all her whining. (She is so needy when I’m around. Later she said she didn’t like that the other kids needed me too.)
So my morning was pretty stressful. Lilah did become her normal none whiny self for the second half of class and was able to enjoy handing out Valentine’s to her classmates.

So after class we came home and ate lunch.
Then we baked a red velvet cake.
Then I put Eden down for her nap and I was tired and Lilah has been extra whiny lately, for the past week, so I tried to have her take a nap. Instead she lied there stroking my arm, keeping me a little awake, which was kinda good because I was too asleep to hear the timer on the cake and she was the one who told me it went off.

My sister called and since Lilah wasn’t falling asleep, I let her stay up and help make frosting and watch me frost the cake.
I talked for a while with my sister so my floors didn’t get mopped, oh well, and I just made a wonderful dinner of black bean enchiladas and we had some hummus on that side that I had bought last week.

Jon got some candles out so we had dinner by candlelight.

The red velvet cake was fun, since it’s red, but it’s not our favorite.
The girls loved making it though.

Then I found a note from Jon.

We played a little and put the girls to bed.

More on accident than on purpose we had Hitch from Netflix and Jon fell asleep while I watched it. He did wake up for the ending though.

Valentine’s day usually turns into my day to do stuff for Jon and the girls and we keep it pretty low key.
Our anniversary ends up being his day to do things for me.  (I can’t wait, especially since it’s on a Saturday this year so we’ll have the whole day together.)

With my recent post about Lilah I thought I’d write about Eden.

One things she’s up to is being a monster. She loves to growl and eat people. She’s also eaten the grocery list, her clean diapers, and on Sunday she ate play dough.
Yummy.
Hot pink play dough always hits the spot.

Luckily play dough is non toxic, I think, and I’m pretty sure she just had a mouthful and I had her spit it out.

Another thing Eden does is come up and spank you and says “spank spank”, or she’ll pound her head into your butt. Lilah also loves to spank people too, but she doesn’t do the butt head butting. Eden also tries to pinch your butt, but it’s more a tickle. (I pinch and spank their bottoms teasingly.)

Eden also asks “Are you OK?” if she hears a loud noise. Like you drop something. “Are you OK?” or if you run into a wall. “Are you OK?”
She’s very thoughtful. To the point that she annoys Lilah with her “Are you OK?”‘s.

So there’s a little about Eden and a video of her animal noises.

So I’m not very computer savvy.
In fact I’m like an old dog, I hate new computer tricks, though I’m not bad, I’m just not good. (Jon can attest to how I hate being taught computer stuff and how I always take the long route cause it’s what I know best. )

Anyways, I was messing around in my Windows Photo Gallery and I realized I could make movies!
So I’m putting Lilah’s gymnastics program up from December.
It was 4 different clips and I’ve tied them all together.

I feel so smart.

Enjoy her cuteness.