I've Been Tagged!

Megan tagged me...hmm...probably a week ago now. I'm finally getting to it! I know you're all DYING to read this information. :)

What I was doing 10 years ago: Finishing up my sophomore year at BYU. I seriously think that was the most fun year of my entire college career. See this if you want details.

5 Things on my "to-do" list today: Hmmm...since the day is almost over, I can post what I did. 1. Visiting teachers came over, (risking lung and throat, since I'm still sick). 2. Sleep. 3. Eat ice cream, (only thing that makes a difference on my throat at the moment). 4. Pray that Nyquil induces a coma like it did yesterday afternoon, but failed to do last night. 5. Profusely thank my wonderful husband for taking such good care of me all day today--including a run for lemon chiffon frozen custard that I couldn't live without tonight!

3 of my bad habits: Only 3? Hmmm... 1. Wasting time on the computer. 2. Waiting until I'm fixing dinner to do the dishes from the entire day. 3. Staying up later than I really should.

Places I've lived: Mesa, AZ; Riga, Latvia; Tallinn, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Provo, UT

Things most people don't know about me: **I feel like I'm such an open book that there's not much people don't know.** I played the violin for about a year in elementary school; I took several cake decorating classes when I was about 12; I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue.

Thumbs Down!!

That's what I give my weekend. A HUGE thumbs down. It started off innocently enough on Friday: a prickly throat, an occasional cough...by that evening, I was hoping I could fend off the impending illness. Well, I didn't.

Saturday, I spent pretty much the entire day moving from my bed to the couch and eating soup and saltines. Sunday, I still felt a bit yucky, but thought I was on the upside. Until that night...I was coughing so much that I managed to make my throat raw and keep myself from sleeping. After drinking some "Sleepy Time" tea with a little honey and taking a vitamin that makes me sleep, I finally drifted off somewhere between 1:30-2 a.m. (I'm sure that's normal for some of you, but, besides midterms and final exam time in college, it has never been normal for me!) I woke up at 6:30 when Kallie came into our room to get up for the day. By then, I was so congested and my throat was so sore that I couldn't sleep anyway. So, I waited a while until Urgent Care opened and headed on over there. Basically, I'm just sick and there's nothing I can do about it. (Nevermind that I'm coughing up and blowing out technicolor blobs...) The Dr. was going to prescribe some cough medicine with codeine, but after informing him that all narcotics make me throw-up, (something I've learned between getting my wisdom teeth out and 2 c-sections), he told me that pretty much my only option was Nyquil.

As much as I hate taking drugs, I was willing to drink the entire bottle of Nyquil for some kind of relief. It's a good thing I only took the suggested dose, because I was in a Nyquil stupor for quite a large chunk of my day. At one point, after sleeping for what I felt was about 2 hours, Ryan came into the bedroom and commented that I hadn't slept yet. I assured him that I had, but was then puzzled by the comment.

So, here I sit. My throat feels like it has turned into very sensitive, sandpaper-covered, small rocks jamming themselves together every time I cough, swallow, breathe, etc. My fever is now up to 101, (Why couldn't it have spiked this morning?), and I'm not looking forward to another Nyquil induced coma.

Whitney's Turn

OK--since I wrote the funny things Kallie has done lately, I needed to write down some of Whitney's accomplishments lately.

First of all, she's REALLY picking up on signing. Her latest sign word is "noodles". It's just swirling your pinky fingers away from each other like a spiral noodle--but when Whitney does it, her arms and entire body get into it, so she looks like she's doing the Funky Chicken. It's hilarious!

Whitney has also started to say a few words here and there. Nothing consistent yet, but she has definitely said, "no," "done," and "night-night." It's exciting to watch her try these things out.

The last thing is that Whitney is finally starting to show an interest in walking. Kallie walked at 12 1/2 mos., but was free standing in the middle of the floor at 11 1/2 mos. Whitney still won't stand on her own, but has recently started to push her "walky toy" around the house. She also loves to push anything stable and slidable across the floor. I'm just hoping that she'll decide walking's the way to go before too long. I'm tired of carrying her!

Kallie Funnies

Today, Kallie has been more like herself than she's been in a LONG time. Guess that's what a little antibiotic plus pain reliever will do for a 2-year old. She said some really funny things today that I wanted to write down before I forgot.

1. Kallie had one of those "quick, run to the potty" moments today. After she'd been in there a second, I went to check on her. As I came to the door, she informed me, "I'm doing my buisness."

2. Tonight, our family scripture study picture was the one of Nephi's family on the boat as they sail toward the promised land. Since we've been studying the Book of Mormon pictures all week, we started out by asking Kallie who the people in the picture were. When we got to Lehi, Kallie informed us that he was Santa Claus. Guess the long white beard and red clothing gave it away! LOL!

3. After singing bedtime songs to Kallie and doing our "kiss" routine, (a butterfly kiss, an eskimo kiss, a real kiss, and squeezes and loves), Kallie told me that she is very proud of me. When I questioned why, she said, "Because you sing lots!" It was so sweet!

OH! That's why she's been crabby...

After Kallie whined all last week, (to my complete frustration), Sunday night, while we were eating dinner at my mom's, she goes, "My mouth hurts!" I did what any decent mother would do and poked my finger into her mouth to determine the status of her teeth. Sure enough, she has at least one molar coming in. (Suddenly, the events of the previous week became clear to me!) I started giving her Tylenol/Ibuprofin that same night and suddenly, she slept better and was in a better mood on Monday. Tuesday morning, at the end of preschool, she started the fussiness and whining again--so I gave her a dose of pain reliever and she did alright the rest of the day...until she got more medicine at bedtime.

This morning, when she woke up, her eyes had bigger "sleepies" in them than usual and she was still complaining of mouth pain. Yesterday and this morning, she had a mild fever, (right around 100), but I attributed all of it to that darn molar. Well, after she woke up from her nap, her eyes were crusty and oozing green stuff...and I really didn't think THAT was a typical result of breaking teeth. So we headed over to the BYU Health Center's Urgent Care office. Apparently, after having a cold 2 weeks ago, the congestion continued, turned thick and green, and settled in right behind her right ear drum. Once there wasn't any more room there, it started coming out her tear ducts and infected both of her poor little eyes. My poor little girl feels absolutely miserable! (I can't blame her! I had something similar when I was a freshman in college--and it was neither pretty nor comfortable.)

Tomorrow we were supposed to have the preschool co-op Valentine's party at our house, but that's obviously not happening now. :( Kallie's always up for a party, so I'm sad she's going to miss it. Maybe we'll have to have a St. Patty's Day or Easter party instead.

The Learning Curve

When I was younger, I had visions of being a mommy. They generally included happy, smiling children, milk & cookies, and lots of figurative sunshine. Even though I grew up as one of the oldest children in a family of 6 kids and saw how day-to-day living was, I was determined that my kids, my home, and my own family wouldn't be like that.

For the first year or so of Kallie's life, things were great! I felt that I had a handle on this parenting thing and patience and perpetual feelings of love and goodwill came very easily. Even when I was sick during my pregnancy with Whitney, I still felt like I was doing a pretty good job as a parent. And then, in an almost fateful twist of revenge, Kallie turned two.

I will say, now that they're almost over, the "terrible twos" really haven't been too terrible. In fact, Kallie started going through that phase several months before she turned two. Being our oldest, we wondered how much more "terrible" she could get at that point and have been relieved that it hasn't changed much. But, that was about that time I realized constant milk & cookies just wasn't the way it was going to be--even in my own family with my kids.

For several months, I struggled through parenting. I had a new baby, a terribly two toddler, and was dealing with low adrenal functioning, (symptoms similar to post-partum depression). So, for many months, it was all a matter of just getting through the day as I pushed toward the light at the end of the tunnel. I thought that once the adrenal issues were taken care of, I would return to being the parent I imagined I would be. As my adrenal functioning improved and my parenting didn't, I slowly came to the realization that the problem wasn't with outside influences--it was with me.

Last Sunday, we had ward conference with the theme of "Behold Your Little Ones." In order to help us prepare for what we would learn at our conference, starting 2 weeks before the meeting, we were asked to study our scriptures daily, use the LDS Church Hymns in our home, use the General Conference Ensign for our FHE lessons, read talks related to the theme, and fast from media the day before. Since many of these things are already part of our daily routine, and I made a point to participate in the things that weren't, I felt like I was going to be really prepared for our meetings on Sunday.

What I didn't anticipate was that the week before was one of the most challenging weeks in recent history for us. Honestly, nothing major happened, (it's not usually the major things that get to us, anyway). The fact was that from Monday morning until...well, this is still happening today, Kallie whined and cried literally ALL DAY LONG. And, when I say that, I'm not exaggerating. One day of a fussy nearly-three-year old starts to grate on you...but seven days straight is more than enough to rattle even a veteran parent. I tried so hard to stay calm and be patient and loving, but by Sunday morning, I had had enough. To compound my frustrations, Kallie decided, after 4 days of NO accidents, (I was so proud of her!), that she didn't need to put her poops in the potty that day. Honestly, even with all of my careful preparations, I don't remember a thing that was said on Sunday. I was much too frustrated to let anything sink into my heart that day.

The next night, my wonderful, amazing husband and I started talking. You know those talks you have when it's time for bed, but you just have to much to discuss to put it on hold for the sake of sleep? We shared our concerns about the way things were going with Kallie, as we both felt we weren't parenting her the way we would like. As we talked, Ryan said in the Priesthood lesson on
Sunday, they had talked about giving blessing to their family members. I said, "What a great idea! You can give Kallie a blessing!" (And, my thought was, "Then all of these issues will be solved!" I know--you can laugh about that one with me.) And, my ever sweet and patient husband said, "Actually, I was thinking that you might need one." I agreed that it could only help...and he gave me a beautiful blessing that I didn't know how much I needed.

Since that evening, (I realize it's only been a couple of days), I have felt such a change in my life. I feel that Heavenly Father has started breaking down whatever walls I had put in place and I am now ready to progress again. At first, I was a little perturbed that I "had" to go through this difficulty. But, as I thought about it, within moments, I realized that there is no other way but straight through to get me where we need to be. As much as I think it would be nice to skirt the issue and not really deal with it, that would not give me the chance to improve and become a more loving, more patient, and more understanding person.

I am actually excited to have such a challenge in my life right now. Since God never gives us more than we can handle, I feel that it means I'm done dealing with the physical adrenal issues and am ready to take on this next challenge, which is of a more spiritual nature. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to let me have these experiences--and helps me through them every step of the way. I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ--because that is what allows me to improve and move forward with my life. I am grateful for Their love for and confidence in me and my abilities--otherwise, I wouldn't have this chance to grow and become a better person.

Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?

If you are what you eat, then Kallie is going to start looking pretty interesting. The other day, I left a green bell pepper sitting on the kitchen table while I went to do something else. When I came back, it looked like this:

...Well, it was a little more intact when I first found it. Have you ever known a child who likes to eat peppers like apples?

Since it was Kallie's nap time when she started gnawing on it, I put it away until her usual post-nap snack time. When I placed it in front of her again, she got this "I'm so excited!" look on her face, (and if you know Kallie, you know the face), and she went to town and had it finished off before I finished the dishes. This kid LOVES peppers...and actually most vegetables. In fact, at the family SuperBowl party on Sunday, she ate about 5-6 mini bell peppers, a couple of handfuls of pea pods, and at least a handful of cherry tomatoes before I finally moved her away from the veggie tray. Compare that to the birthday party she went to last week where she ate two bites of cake and refused to eat any more. At this point, I'm glad she didn't get my sweet tooth, but seems to have inherited Ryan's broccoli tooth instead. Hopefully, it will serve her well in the future!

A Literate Family

Last Friday, I was invited to attend a mini-conference on Family Literacy at the Provo City Library with a couple of friends. The keynote speaker was Mary Leonhardt, author of "99 Ways to Get Kids to Love Reading: And 100 Books They'll Love," whom they flew in from the East Coast just for this event. She was SO entertaining to listen to! She had about a million reasons to get your children to love reading and a million entertaining stories associated with them. The overarching theme was children who see parents reading will become avid readers themselves. She also emphasized that it doesn't really matter what kids read, (magazines, comic books, etc.), as long as they're reading, they're headed in the right direction. There was also a lot of discussion about getting boys into reading--since it's becoming a dying art among younger male generations. Although I don't have boys, I'm pretty sure we'll have at least one somewhere along the way, so I filed the information into the "very useful in the future" section in my brain.

There were several breakout sessions to choose from after the keynote speech was over--and I chose to attend "Books for Boys and Books for Girls," which basically taught about the differences in what boys and girls like to read. They illustrated the point very well by starting off with a story called "Once upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude"--a story told from the perspective of a girl and then a boy and finally both. It's a really cute read! (I have to admit, out of all of the books we talked about, I was a bit more interested in the boy books...there were some really fun stories!) Overall, I enjoyed the evening and feel that I learned a lot about making my home a reader-friendly environment.

The best part of all of this, though, happened today. Even before the conference, I felt it was important for my kids to enjoy reading. They're going to have to read at some point for school, so they might as well view it as an enjoyable activity instead of drudgery. So, this afternoon, while Ryan and I were watching President Hinckely's funeral, Kallie disappeared into her room and closed the door. She was quiet for a while...and I realized it was a little TOO quiet, so I went in to investigate. I opened the door and said, "Kallie, what are you doing?" And she replied, "I'm just readin', Mom." I love that she took her doll stroller full of books into her bedroom and sat in the quiet to enjoy "reading" her books. I really hope she will keep this habit up for the rest of her life!

Kallie the Fairy

The side bar on my blog contains sections of a few of my favorites. Under the Kid's Book section, you'll see that "Alice the Fairy" by David Shannon is one of the favorite books around our home. So, it's one of the books we got the girls for Christmas. Kallie now insists that we read this book to her almost every day. And, every day, she says the same things as we read the same story over again. Things like, "I want to turn my daddy into a horse!" and "Mommy, tell me about the light switch." We even made Kallie a "magic wand" just like Alice's. I knew that she loved the book and I was pretty sure she was close to having it memorized, but what she did last week caught me off guard.

Kallie had gone to her first "real" birthday party...you know, the kind where there are about 20 kids running around and they play games and have cake. Well, this party happened to be a princess themed party and when Kallie explored her goodie bag at home, she found a little "compact" style mirror--minus the makeup. A few seconds later, I heard her flip the mirror open and say, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the greatest...MOST of all?" And then she would smile and flip it shut. Of course, I know that she picked this up from Alice the Fairy because Alice says something very similar in the book--but to hear it coming from my 2-year old was absolutely hilarious! I couldn't help but laugh inside!

The Jump Seat

Anyone who has ever potty trained a child has experienced the "hurry up and run" situation in random places. No matter how many times your child goes potty before you leave...even if they happen to go literally 2 minutes before you head out the door...this situation is inevitable. This past week, I was lucky enough to have this experience twice--in two different locations.

The first event happened two weeks into potty training when we realized that 17 pairs of princess panties are not enough to get through a week. So, I loaded the girls in the car and headed over to Wal-Mart. Apparently, just the thought of new puppy-printed panties is enough to make a 2-year old girl need to go potty. After encouraging Kallie to hold it for a few minutes, the urgency became apparent and we rushed to the bathroom. Now--keep in mind that carts and merchandise are not allowed in the bathroom AND I had both Kallie and Whitney with me. So, I ditched my cart, merchandise, and our coats next to the drinking fountains just outside the bathroom. (I may not have been so bold, but saw another mom had done the same thing...) I slung my purse over my shoulder, hitched Whitney up on my hip, and took Kallie by the hand into the bathroom. When I got in there, I headed for the stall usually reserved for disabled people. Having a party of three, I decided I needed the extra space just to maneuver everyone. NO ONE wants to put their crawling child down on a Wal-Mart bathroom floor, (or ANY bathroom floor!), so I held her on my hip with one arm while trying to help Kallie assume the potty position. The 5 seconds between getting Kallie on and off the potty were quite do-able. But, once she was done, I once again had to shift Whitney around while trying to help Kallie finish up. At one point, I needed two hands to assist my 2-year old, so I had no choice but to tuck Whitney between my legs and hope I could hold on until I had a free hand. By the time we finished our 3 minute pit stop, I was exhausted and thoroughly frustrated that, especially in Utah--where families generally have more than 2 kids--there was no place to put a baby while helping another child go potty.

Fast forward to Thursday morning. Although I had a major cold coming on, I decided to take the girls to the library. After spending about an hour picking out books and movies for Kallie, I headed upstairs to the QUIET section of the library to get a book for myself. Of course, as soon as we stepped off the elevator, Kallie insisted that she needed to go potty. I parked the stroller outside the bathroom, grabbed my purse, slung Whitney on my hip and headed in for another Gladiator challenge. Once again, we selected the large stall...but this time, to my complete surprise, I saw that there was, attached to the wall, a "jump seat" for children to sit in while their parents used the potty. I snapped the seat down, buckled Whitney in, and helped Kallie with both hands! No juggling a squirmy toddler and a pee-pee dancing preschooler while trying to keep my cool! It was such an improvement over my previous experience. I left the library bathroom feeling completely grateful that SOMEONE on this planet realizes what a hassle it can be to take your kid(s) into a public restroom. Now, if we could get everyone to have this same realization, we could change the world--one stall at a time.