Is It Naptime Yet

“We should hang a sign on our door that says ‘No Bad People Allowed’, then they won’t come into our house.”

“We should get me a sword so I can fight the bad people and they won’t be able to hurt me.”
(She was obsessed with bad people for a while.)

“You need to shower”
(This is usually in the morning and I honestly think it because of morning breath. Once I brush my teeth she’s fine with the way I smell. )

“You’re getting too old to carry me.”
( I admit I have said that she is heavy and I’m getting old. One time she was dead weight and was not wanting help and she became a very heavy 4 year old, but she said this while I was twirling her around easily in the air.)

“You are getting old because you have lines on your face.”
I ask “Where are the lines that make me look old, by my eyes, my mouth?”
She answers “Everywhere.”

So Lilah is sick today.
She has a fever.
Go figure.
I could have gone to church, but for whatever reason I felt I should be home today. (I guess it was the fact that Lilah wanted to stay and cuddle in bed with me rather than watch TV and I wanted to stay and cuddle with her rather than get up.)
I’m letting Jon visit the Unitarian Church today.
It just seems easier to have it happen on a day where I don’t have to explain why my husband isn’t at church with me and my two daughters, though I wouldn’t of had either of my daughters with me today and he if he likes the church I’ll probably have to say it eventually since he’ll be going at least once a month.
Eden is not sick, but she still has a horrible sounding cough and since Lilah is sick and it just happened last night, I felt that she’d be likely to spread her sisters germs.

How many Sundays till you’re considered inactive?

Sunday was our second Sunday in our new ward.

Eden has been sick so we decided to not take her to nursery. We all went to the ward party the night before since she wouldn’t be playing with people or toys that would kept her germs, but Sunday she came into us with a fever so even Jon had to postpone his plans of going to the local Unitarian church. (Since she wouldn’t be playing with kids we thought it would be fine if they just went together and she only had a runny nose and cough until the fever came on Sunday. )

Lilah and I got to church a little late and the chapel was packed, and for some reason they weren’t opening the overflow. Lilah was pretty well behaved, but she suddenly got tired at the end of sacrament meeting.
I took her to Primary and waited for her teacher to get there.

And I waited.

One of the boys in her class is pretty, uh, busy so the Primary President asked if I would sit with the class since I was waiting in case a substitute came that Lilah didn’t know or hadn’t met which is very likely in this case.

No one came.

Sister Pooler, the President, voiced her concern and later asked if I would teach the class.
Sure why not.

So I looked through the lesson and prepared with what materials I could get.
Lilah was excited to have me as her teacher and the other kids were very nice.

The class went fast and I finished very early. I tried to sing songs but I just didn’t know what to do with these kids.
We’d colored, sang and even ate a few crackers I had for Lilah.
So we got to closing exercises five minutes early and sat in the back.
Lilah wanted to sit on my lap. “No one will get jealous.” is what she told me, but I insisted that she didn’t.
The boy who I explained as being busy before was very touchy and lovey.
He sat next to me and wanted to constantly hug me if they weren’t singing or lay his head on my lap and eventually he was trying to kiss my cheek or hand, or anything he could get his lips on.
I kept telling him no, but I’m pretty sure he has some sort of slight mental disability and was very persistent.
I was fine with him, but was mostly curving the behavior because it’s inappropriate to me, especially at church during Primary and towards a person you just met.
(When I was going to class the Presidency told me they could come and get him if he became a problem, but he was OK in class. I just had to give him periodic hugs.)

So I have yet to attend Sunday school. I’m not even sure what room it’s in.

I did met the woman who sat in front of us during Sacrament. Her son, about 6-8 months old, would smile at us and loved Lilah’s bow. Her husband, the first counselor in Elders Quorum, spoke and she had a hard time keeping their son quiet. He was noisy when he was happy and noisy when he was sad. They look like a cute family, and it reminded me how grateful I am for girls that are quiet.

Maybe I’ll get to go to Sunday school this week.

I had my mom make three nursing blankets each for Lilah and Eden before they were born .

They’re made of lightweight fabric with a simple edging of rick rack and I got the idea from my SIL Becky who told me about using lightweight fabric instead of flannel, which can get hot to nurse under.

Even though Becky had given me this advice the first time we met and it was a year later that Lilah would be born, I remembered and took her advice and had my mom make me some for Lilah and then Eden, and the grandchildren who have followed were also made these blankets on my side. ( They’re so great for swaddling and blocking the sun off of the babies eyes in car seats or for toddlers to cover their own heads when the sun is in their eyes. Also my mom made them because I wasn’t sewing when Lilah was born, and just for traditions sake she made Eden’s too.)

My girls love their blankets. Around a year old we allow them to start sleeping with blankets and just rotate them through.
They each have their favorites, always the brightly colored, or richly colored ones.
Lilah’s have definitely been used and worn through and as the holes began I started taking each one away.

The blue one was Lilah’s favorite.

To compensate for getting rid of the beloved “soft blankets” I took Lilah shopping last Wednesday to chose fabric for two new blankets. I wasn’t going to add edging, but they’re so much cuter with edging. Jon called me Marcie when I got home and he saw I had also bought edging. (She’s an old friend who always goes the extra mile in sewing projects, or really any project, even though it’s not always needed. Plus over half the cost is edging.)
Eden loves Lilah’s new ladybug blanket, and now wants to go shopping for her own blankets. I keep telling her she has to wait till hers get holes in them too.

New blankets. I let Lilah chose the fabric and edging.

Lilah’s not much for change and so far she’s experienced a lot, with more to come.

First, Sunday was her first day in her new Primary class. We didn’t know who her teacher would be, rather the substitute since her teacher just moved and they haven’t called a new one because they’re changing ward boundaries this Sunday in a special 4 ward meeting.
So Sunday during sacrament meeting she was whinier than normal and she cried when we took her to primary. The teacher was her classmates mom and she has seen her, but I think it was just a lot for her to handle with not knowing until that moment. Plus her friends came into Primary and are now Sunbeams, but she’s in a different class and doesn’t quite understand why she had to change.

Then Tuesday was gymnastics. They had her old instructor but their was also a new one and lots of new kids. We didn’t know about it and I don’t know if Jon introduced the instructor to her or what but I think that may have been too much with the whole primary thing. She seemed to break down after she saw me have food, which is odd because we always are eating a snack while there. I think that was just he breaking point for her.

Wednesday when I was telling her about preschool, or the mommy class that we do, she didn’t want to go to it Thursday.
She did fine today, but I think she’s had a hard time adjusting and with the ward boundary changes who knows what things will be like. We are planning on possibly keeping her out of primary until we know who the teacher is, which hopefully won’t be more than a week. I think to have it constantly change will just make her want to go less and she was having problems before all this happened.

Changes suck when you’re child doesn’t like change.

On an upside the nursery class is smaller and with younger kids so they had a nap time on Sunday. Eden didn’t sleep but she had fun.

I don’t have the girls do much.
They clear their dishes from the table after each meal.
They have to put their clothes away after I fold them.
They have to pick up whatever mess they make.
That’s pretty much it.

The other day Jon was doing dishes and the girls helped him empty the dishwasher and Lilah helped put dirty dishes in.
I use to have them help unload but often it’s easier to just do it on my own, or not interrupt them playing nicely together.

The other day I was talking to my sister Kristi and chores came up. I realized I don’t have the girls help out has much as has they could so today I decided to have them do stuff.

They loved it.

Lilah kept talking about helping and how nice it is to help others and Eden just did her own thing but had fun along the way.
I had them help wash their sheets and put new sheets on.
Then they both helped to unload the dishwasher and Lilah helped to load.
It was kinds fun having them help, though they fought over what dishes they got to put away.

So don’t have your kids do chores and then they’ll want to help later on. Though I’m sure about 5 is when this wears off.
I’m thinking I’ll do a family home evening about chores and maybe we’ll make some chart about what they can help do.

I like to do things my way so it’s a little hard for me to have them help, but I think they liked it because they like to help and because they got to spend time with me rather than just do their own thing while I did mine.

So I’m no longer watching Naia on a regular basis.
Things happened and now Julie has family who can watch Naia, and her new cousin, for free.
I definitely can’t blame them for wanting to take advantage of free child care.

So now I’m trying to find ways to work from home.
I thought about selling truffles but that was my only thought.  (About half of Jon’s co-workers told him I should sell the truffles.)
It might take more work and time that I’m able to give and room in my freezer that I don’t have. We don’t need the extra income, but life is pretty tight without it and I like having flexibility.

I’m mostly sad that the girls won’t see Naia as regularly.
They loved her and Eden still asks about her, especially since Carolyn brought her over the other day.

We have some nick names in our house.
Lilah is Lilah Bean
Eden is Eden Beeden or Miss Eden  
I call Jon Hunny Bunny.
But I don’t have a nick name. Well I use to not have a nickname…

Our conversation earlier today

Lilah: Why do you call Daddy Hunny Bunny?
Me: Well, Hunny Bunny is a nick name for Daddy.
Lilah: What’s a nick name?
Me: Well a nick name is kinda a fun name. You’re name is Lilah but we call you Lilah Bean. Daddy’s name is Jonathan but I call him Hunny Bunny. What do you think Eden’s nick name is?
Lilah: Eden Beeden. What’s you’re nickname Mommy?
Me: I don’t really have a nickname.
Lilah: Your nickname should be Mommy Bean.

Pass the Beano, apparently we’re a gassy family.

Pictures to come later. This is my long journal entry of what happened this Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house.
It’s tradition to read the Christmas story from the book of Luke in the Bible and to open one gift with my family.
Since we only had my parents to visit on Christmas day, Jon’s family is having a celebration later this week, I talked Jon into driving out there for the 24th. We also only had about 4 gifts for each of the girls to open, so I thought it would work out better to go there and open a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Harvey.

We got there around 5:45 pm and I did some tidying up. I wasn’t aware my mom had to work till 6.
Carolyn and Derek showed up later and eventually we had dinner.
Lilah was super silly during dinner, it was chili which is not on her list of favorite foods, so she didn’t really eat until everyone was down from the table and I had set the timer. The timer being my way of saying dinner is done when the timer goes off and if you’ve played too much and haven’t finished you are done eating for the night, which means no dessert.
I was a little soft and since Lilah only had one bite left, and had been trying to devour her food after everyone had left the table, I let her have a brownie even though she wasn’t done eating when the timer went off.
My mom hadn’t wrapped any gifts due to being super busy with work and having my Aunt Roscena, who has cerebral palsy, in town so we opened gifts from Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Derek, the sibling who had us this year.
The girls got some needed clothing and they gave Jon and I DVDs that we had wanted.

We eventually got home to set up the stockings and got ready for bed.
Jon told a short story about St. Nicolas before we put the girls to bed.

I put out the gifts and Jon was asleep on the couch by the time I was going to fill the stockings.
I asked him to move and he replied “Don’t you just have to lay them out?’
As in, “Why do I have to move if I can just lay them out when I go to bed later.”
So I filled them and set them aside and also fell asleep on the couch.

When we went to bed later we put the child’s gate up in the hallway to ensure the girls would get us before opening any gifts. (Lilah could probably climb the gate if she wanted, but she’s pretty good at not doing things like that.)

Jon was the first awake, like always, and Eden woke up a little before 7 am.
Instead of staying in bed and keeping me awake I sent her with Jon while he cooked the orange rolls for breakfast.

Jon said Eden was excited to see the stockings but didn’t care about the presents and wanted to immediately play with play dough.

Lilah woke up sometime later, long enough that the orange rolls were now finished baking.
We had them wait at the gate together until we took pictures and then let them into the living room.

Eden was now excited and tried to open any gift she could get her hands on. She did usually ask if it was hers before opening it, but we had to take a couple away because she was already removing the bows.

Lilah opened her gift from Eden first because she recognized it and she had Eden do the same.

I did label one gift from Santa. It was the DVD Ratatouille. Lilah kept saying how nice Santa was for giving us the movie.
Jon asked why Santa got all the credit.

I opened my gift last. I only had one under the tree so I wanted to wait.
It was pots and pans, we needed a new set and it was above our budget for gifts for one another. (We don’t spend a lot on gifts for one another, usually less than one hundred dollars each.)
I asked if I got another gift since the pans were kinda for the family but Jon never answered me.

As I was cleaning up from the huge mess of wrapping paper and gifts Jon was taking a video.
He mentioned there was one more gift under the tree that mommy had missed. (I had actually picked up paper right by it and didn’t notice it. )
I saw it was the size of a DVD and I was excited.
I tore the paper off like a child and it was exactly the one DVD I really wanted. BBC’s North and South. (It’s such a good movie.)
Jon had hidden the gift far under the tree and later decided to make it visible so I could find it and open it.

Jon told me today how he intentionally ignored my question when I asked if I got something else, we were watching the video today. I knew the pans were expensive, at least for our Christmas budget, so I felt a little bad wanting something else, but it was just pans and it wasn’t like I had asked or begged for them, I just had them on my wish list for the day we were ready to buy new pans.
Jon said he got me the DVD so I didn’t just get pans because that seems a little well, not nice from a housewife perspective, though I would have been happy with just the pans, but I was very happy to get the DVD also.

After the morning we eventually headed over to my parents house to spend time with them and open presents.

I watched Derek, Carolyn’s husband, open his gift and I noticed it was a Beatles CD. This was odd to me because I told my mom to get a Beatles CD for us. It was ironically the one CD he doesn’t have of theirs, or Let it Be.
Later we found out mom had mixed the gifts. Derek was to get a Roy Orbison DVD, something from his wish list and we were to get the Beatles CD.
It’s becoming pretty normal for my mom to mix gifts up. Last year Eden got MASH the entire series on DVD. It was really for my brother and obviously not a gift for a one and a half year old. My mom mentioned how she wondered where that gift went when she realized Glenn hadn’t opened it that morning and yes, we gave it to my brother.

We also now have two of these pigs.
After I really looked at it on Amazon I thought it was more age appropriate for Eden so we gave Eden the pig and got Lilah a V-tech laptop for kids, though I knew Lilah would still be entertained by the pig.
My mom also saw it on my wish list, before I took it off since I bought it, and she got it for Lilah.
Jon couldn’t resist Lilah’s sad eyes and said we could have two when I mentioned we could return it. (That is the one bad thing about the wish list. I’ll put things I intend to get for the girls, but haven’t decided on, or I put it on to remind me what to get them and someone else gets the same thing. One year Lilah got two doodle-pros.)

So I now hear, “Mommy Eden’s stealing my coins”, because Eden wants all the coins and then we all have to count them out, Eden wouldn’t dare trust Lilah’s counting. I’m thinking of putting an E for Eden on the pig and coins and an L for Lilah’s, but that will ruin a toy that we will likely give away sometime because I’m sure we won’t need two forever.

We also got our block for my cutco knives, but my mom got a block that holds 8 knives and two different fork things, instead of 6 knives and just the one turning fork. (She mixed up the names.) So we now need 4 pieces instead of just one knife. So over the next year we’re looking at purchasing some knives and I will have empty slots in the block until we do so. I just really love the knives.

The girls most played with gift thus far is actually a doll house Jon’s brother Conrad made. Well, it looks homemade and he does different projects to help with his Parkinson’s disease, such as cross stitching, so we imagine he made it also.

Jon got books, a pocket microscope, and Monkey balls, which are two very powerful magnets that make interesting noises when played with.
With the pocket microscope we’ve found the security number that is engraved on my diamond in my engagement ring and we’ve looked at hairs and open cuts we have, such as paper cuts. Jon’s also had Lilah look at salt and different things like leaves, rocks and chalk. It’s provided hours of fun already.

For today, the 26th or the day after Christmas, I have purged myself of old pots and am trying to convince Jon to get rid of one of our knife sets. (He really only likes the chef’s knife and it won’t fit in the block we’re keeping chef’s knife slot, if that makes sense.)
We’ve also watched more movies and let Lilah freeze her hands while she was outside writing with sidewalk chalk she received and was digging in the dirt. She now has a jar full of dirt that would be a good home for pet worms, according to her anyways.

I took a video of the girls singing Jingle bells.
Lilah says she learned the words in her class from Sis. Jewitt.

I was going to fix their hair and make them look pretty, but in reality they looked this way at noon on Christmas Eve.

Enjoy the silliness and we wish all who watch this a very Merry Christmas.