C Jane

Read this post here, called "First The Babies". I mean, if you want to. It's not an order.

For anyone unfamiliar with C Jane, she is Mormon and has her own blog. She started her blog to help her try to enjoy life while battling with infertility. Her sister is Stephanie Nielson of The NieNie Dialogues, another blogger who is read by many.

I loved C Jane's post and totally agree with it. Right now is my time to be a mother. I don't need to be anal about if my house is all in order, or busy myself with projects and other things that take a lot of time away from my children. I mean, obviously we all need one or two things to keep ourselves sane, but right now is the time I have to take care of my children, to teach them gospel principles, and to be the best I can be for them. I shouldn't allow myself to be distracted by trying to cook picture-perfect dinners or to be overly obsessed with trying to stay in fashion.

It will all come later, after the kids.

I Smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Going In The Book

Last General Conference Elder Eyring mentioned that he wrote one sentence a day about each of his children in a diary. I am going to start that. I don't want to forget that today Ian told me I had a big head, or that he was playing with his bear and looked at the tag (placed on the bear's bottom) and said, "Eeeew! Poop!".

I also don't want to forget that yesterday was Kellan's first attempt at pulling himself onto something with any kind of height to stand up. I don't want my kids to blend together.

???

The other day I woke up in the morning to find that my pillow was missing. I found it in the hallway.

Favorite Books List

I loathe reading stupid kid books, so in an effort to spare others the same pain, I am going to put a "Favorite Books List" on the side of our blog. If you're a mom and looking for a good toddler book to read, we can recommend some. Not that that really applies to that many of my friends, but I have to feel like I'm doing something with my life.

Car Woes

My Subaru has problems. We took it in and they said that the heads had become warped, causing the head gaskets to leak. To repair the problem, as well as replace the timing belt and water pump (which needed to be done anyways), would be a little over $1800.

So Jesse's dad went in and talked to the Subaru dealer in New Hampshire and basically said that Subaru should fix the problem--warped heads had been a problem with their cars in the past, it was still a problem for their cars, and they should take responsibility. They agreed to fix the problem if we would pay for the parts--amounting to $750. Unfortunately this would require us to get our car up to New Hampshire. Jesse went in and talked to our local Subaru dealership, told them what the NH dealership agreed to do, and they basically agreed to do the same. We will end up paying $900 for the problem to get fixed.

That's a lot cheaper than we originally thought, but it's still a lot of money! Wouldn't life be better if we all rode bikes, or horses?

Only the Beginning, I'm Sure

Today as I was trying to put Ian down for a nap, he kept saying "bite cheek?" or "bite hand?", and then he would pretend to start to bite me. I don't like it when he plays this game because I'm seconds away from actually getting bit. Then he said "bite big nose?" Yeah, I really don't like that game.

Question

So, what does a caterpillar do when it's in the cocoon growing its wings? Is it sleeping? In a coma? Still awake? How come they don't teach these things in school?? I remember learning about the polluted Chesapeake (btw, the drains here STILL run into the Chesapeake. Shouldn't that have been solved?), but NOT what a caterpillar is doing in there. According to Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", they stay inside for more than two weeks. That's a long time. I want answers!

Ian

Lately Ian has started pretending, which is so cute. He'll crawl around on the floor like a dog and bark, and a surefire way to get him to eat when he's too busy is to pretend to feed a bite to his truck. He likes lining his cars up along the edge of the desk when we're rocking before he goes to bed, and he loves his truck books. We're doing the "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" thing, and he loves loves loves when I pull out his words.


He counted to two yesterday, which was a huge victory for us, and he pointed out two things that were red, and one thing that was yellow. I was really happy about that, as it's the most interested he's been in colors and numbers since...well, ever.

Ian loves Kellan and likes making him laugh. He likes laying down next to Kellan and letting him grab his hair and face and ears. He tries to share his food with Kellan all the time, likes getting in Kellan's crib when Kellan wakes up, and when Kellan is sleeping he tries to go in and wake him up so he can play.


Ian loves riding his bike, but even more than riding it, he loves pushing it.


The other day in nursery Ian was running across the room and he tripped and fell. This is what his nose looked like:


It's the worst rambunctious-induced injury he's ever had. I expect more to follow, especially when Kellan is old enough to participate.

I bought Ian tractor fruitsnacks the other day to give him if he used his potty chair. The only thing that happened was Ian would randomly go into the kitchen and scream "tractor fruitsnacks" through out the day. Ian won't be getting food bribes anymore for potty training. I can't take it.

A semi-related problem (in that it involves food, and sometimes the toilet) is the fact that Ian loves playing with liquids. If I give him milk and he has emptied out his cereal bowl already, he pours the milk in the bowl, then back in the cup, then in the bowl....He dumps things in his potty chair, in his dump truck, in our SHOES. Sometimes it's funny. Other times, not.

He loves putting things in his pockets. I have found a fair few rocks in the dryer after I have put a load through, so I need to start checking his pockets. The other day I went to change him and I found a five dollar bill in there that he had pulled off of the sewing machine! I had caught him poking the twenty under the front door, and we're still missing a five somewhere.

I remember taking this picture when Ian was 11 months old:

Obviously the toy box has some kind of magnetism for him.


Next up: deep questions.

Six Months Old!

I can't believe Kellan is six months old. Like Nancy said, it seems like he was a baby for a second. I apologize about these pictures. I think our camera makes them such a huge file size that they don't look good unless I size them down before I upload them, and I'm much too lazy to do that.



At his six month appointment, Kellan was nineteen pounds and 26 1/2 inches long--75th and 50th percentile, respectively. He sits up all by himself and never falls backward. He scoots all over the apartment (right now he's in my bedroom) and uses some kind of sixth sense to find every single piece of paper on the floor. He chewed up two books of Ian's, along with a few magazines, the two handouts I got in Relief Society on Sunday, and ate a recipe Jesse saved for me. And that was just yesterday. It's kind of scary and dangerous, so I try to keep things picked up, but with Ian it's impossible to keep things off the floor. I just have to do a sweep every now and then.



Kellan loves eating. His favorites are peaches, pears, carrots, spinach, green beans, and peas. He HATES broccoli. I am excited for when he gets a little older and can eat the same stuff we have for dinner. He watches us eat so intently I feel like I'm being a jerk and hoarding my food by not sharing with him. Last night he grabbed a handful of my salad while I was eating it and had it in his mouth before I could put my fork down.



Sorry--had to take a break. I heard Kellan coughing and it turned out he had left the bedroom for the bathroom, and was eating toilet paper Ian had left on the floor. Don't worry, it wasn't used.



Kellan LOVES watching Ian. He'll just sit there and laugh while Ian tears around the house. He loves playing with Ian, when Ian shares his toys, and his new favorite thing is for us to hold his hands and help him "walk". He gets so giggly and smiley he loses it for the first couple of steps. I think he wants to do everything Ian does.



His teeth are coming in and he's quite a bit more dramatic than Ian ever was with any of his teeth. Not as dramatic as other kids I've babysat, but it's still funny to compare the differences. I love looking at ways they are the same, and the ways that they are different. Kellan will probably be a quieter person over all, but more likely to get upset about things than Ian--at least as far as physical pain goes.

Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I'll post tomorrow for Ian, for the grand parents.

Survival of the Fittest, Part 2

If your toddler came up to your side of the bed in the wee hours of the morning, held his finger up, and said "Poop finger!" would you ignore him and try to keep sleeping?

Again, if life were like nature, Jesse would be a goner.