These are a few of my...

Favorite snack.

 Favorite shirt.

Favorite hat.

 

 Favorite way to punish my children.

 

Favorite shoes.

 

Favorite way to de-stress.

 

(laughing near you! not at you!)

 

Favorite thing to do with my toddler.

 

Favorite toothless grin.

 

Favorite sister. 

(Even though she's prettier, skinnier and teeth white-ier.) 

 

Favorite big brother.

 

Favorite niece.

 

Favorite pretend house.

("the beautiful grounds at Pemberly") 

 

Favorite pretend boyfriend.

 

Favorite pretend legs. 

*What's your FAVORITE thing in life?

Chapter 5: In Which the Day Passes in a Delightful Fog

Last night while watching Jack Bauer administer my weekly dose of violence, I polished off the remains of the best (best!) chocolate cake I've ever eaten.

We had dinner that evening at a great little restaurant. My poor father had taken home the rest of his cake, but it never had a chance--my mom and I pounced upon it like jackals late last night. (best!) A great way to end the day: "24" and rich chocolate dessert.

Today was a relaxing day, I'm pretty sure. It's a bit of a blur, as I was floating through it on a drug-induced haze. I am still getting electric shocks of pain through my head, originating at the point of root canal impact.

Or perhaps I am being struck by lightning in punishment for my regrettable habit of swearing under my breath.

Either way, the pain meds help.




My mom and I took Jack to his favorite playland and he wore himself ragged.


Afterwards, he came home and napped, exhausted from jumping and sliding. I also napped, exhausted from lightning bolts through my head. And that felt so decadent--to take a nap in the middle of the day! With no interruptions from tattling or arguing children! Luxurious.

We met up with my dad at Red Robin for lunch.


At one point I noticed that my dad had a sensible plate of grilled chicken & a salad, and I had...

....this.

Later I accompanied my mom to the mall where we had a delightful time checking out pretty spring shoes.

These were one of my favorites, in a soft turquoise. I canNOT believe I didn't document the other ones we saw because they were all so luscious! This season's shoes are the best I've seen in years.

And wouldn't you know it....This season I am the poorest I have been in years! Hmmm, what price does vicodin fetch on the street? Kidding! I wouldn't sell my precioussss even for shoe money.

And here is the crowning achievement of the day.

A black jacket, ruffley and feminine.

(The picture certainly doesn't do it justice, but by the time I thought to take a picture I was wearing my nerdy polka dot fleece jammie pants--and that would just be a very weird outfit. Even for me.)

But! It was $99 and I got it for $23! And I'm pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating, even though I was in a delightful, drug-induced fog.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Quick Backtrack

Quickly, before I continue with the Christmas festivities, I give you some highlights of our Thanksgiving week.
Here is Isabelle's 3rd grade class play, "The Ugly Turkey," about a different-looking turkey who taught all the other turkeys that you judge a turkey by her character and not by her appearance. Notice that Isabelle is a head taller than most of her classmates. Do you think the other turkeys will be judgemental to the tall turkey?

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, we road-tripped to Idaho Falls for a feast hosted by Sky & Heidi--my brother & his wife--whom we just blend into "Skeidi." [Mike remained home to work. I allowed his mom to have custody for Thanksgiving.]

The above photo is the baby pestering Max on our 4-hour drive. It was hilarious! He spent a half hour stretching his foot wa-a-a-a-y over, as far as he could reach, to tap on Max's leg. Max didn't even notice the antics, immersed as he was in making a BB gun from a pen (don't ask). I happened to glance back and saw this little blue jammie foot stretched out so it could bother Max. We spent the next half hour laughing at the baby-pestering.

We arrived safe & sound Wednesday evening, and by 10pm that night it was clear that I had a very sick baby. A screaming, in-pain, inconsolable baby. I walked the floor with him that night from 1-5am. Every night thereafter, for the entire holiday, was spent in a similar manner.

It was a delirious Thanksgiving.

Thank GOODNESS for a mom & dad who helped out when it became too much--like when Baby woke up for the morning at 7am, after being up crying ALL NIGHT. My mom & dad took over so I could squeeze in a few hours of survival sleep.

Or like when, another morning, he decided to get up from 4am-7am after--yes--crying off and on from 1-3am. On that morning, I just started to cry along with him. My dad got up at 4am that day and played with Jack, allowing me to zonk for a few hours.

Thanksgiving recap: The food and company were great. The rest of it was nightmarish.

The baby did sleep quite well each night from 9pm-midnight. Foolishly, I spent that time socializing and playing games. Then I'd fall into bed, only to be awakened an hour later by a screaming baby in pain. (He ended up having two ear infections, the poor brave sweetie.)

I had big plans to document the fun and the food. Didn't happen. A sick, non-sleeping baby by night and a hyper, mischievous baby by day meant no photos. None. I did take a second to snap a photo of their amazing bar stools, which came with their new house.

And on the way home, we saw this beauty. A bubblegum-pink truck. We stared. We laughed. Don't you think my minivan would look great in this color?

(please tell me you caught the tongue-in-cheek tone there.)

Up All Night

All day long today I held this sick little baby while he cried and fussed and squirmed.

Every night before I go to bed, I sneak into his room and change him into a fresh diaper so he doesn't wake up soaked to the skin. When I open his bedroom door, I am hit with a wave of baby smell--so strong, I suppose, because he's been in his room, freshly bathed, with the door shut for hours.

I love the little sleepy sounds he makes as I change him. I love that my mommy-shushing and nonsense talk comforts him back to sleep. I love to rub his warm little round tummy as I zip his jammies up.

But last night his tummy was burning hot. I could feel immediately that he wasn't warm and cozy--he was burning up. And so began a long night--a very long night--of him tossing and turning and being awake, deliriously trying to play with toys and the tv remote.

Today was more of the same. And when Jack is sick, he doesn't have the courtesy to be snuggly and just lay quietly in my arms; he is restless and disquiet. So I don't even get to sit and rock a sick baby--I wrangle one.

And after 24 hours, I'm exhausted. And poor Baby is, too. For a little guy riddled with ear infection, he's been a good little boy and so brave.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

High on life. Or on sleeping pills. You decide.

Tonight as I write this post, I have a very small window to work with because I took my sleeping pill before sitting down at the computer. (oh, the delight of sleeping drugs; as my mother said not-so-long-ago, "I am in complete control of my sleeping patterns. As long as I have my sleeping pill.") I didn't realize how much I had to write about until I began loading photos; a lot happened, yet not much. The dichotomy that is my life. Lots going on, but nothing monumental. I suppose that is what composes our lives--many seemingly inconsequential tidbits combining to create a life of meaning. (Aristotle, anyone?)

So, a quick run-down of the weekend before I fall into a drug-induced coma onto my keyboard. We received this package on Friday from my mom, which was stuffed full of books for the kids. I was kind of expecting them to open it and say, "Awww, books," and fizzle away to play; instead, they said, "BOOKS!!!" and wanted to read them immediately. Max is very excited to read his, which is an adventure about a boy lost on a river, but can't tear himself away from Fablehaven quite yet. Thanks to the Grande Dame of Good Mail. We love you!


Also in the mail on Friday was a letter tres elegante from darling Claudia. These two morsels of mail cheered my otherwise blase day.


I have been living in between worlds this last week--half of my brain has been dwelling in this book while I go about my daily rigors:
I finally finished on Monday, feeling physically and mentally EXHAUSTED. I'd been reading late into the night, thinking about it all day but unable to read (busy toddler!), then reading again late into the night. A fun read.



Max has been taking Jack out for evening stroller rides, before Baby's bedtime, to calm him down. Unfortunately, that habit is coming to a close due to the sudden chilly weather.


The girls spent Friday afternoon setting up their school--and played far into the night with our cute neighbors, Emma & Lucy. They were so enthusiastic about it and playing so perfectly together, I didn't have the heart to put a stop to it. So basically school was in session in the girls' room from 4-9pm. And the next day Lucy was at the door, 10am sharp, ready for school, bright-eyed and ready to play. They played school ALL DAY, again, from 10am-6pm. I was kissing Isabelle & Mimi goodnight on Saturday, 2 yoga-breaths away from melting down because of their trashed bedroom, and stopped in my tracks and just had to smile. I realized that they hadn't watched one minute of tv or played one minute of video games all weekend. Totally worth the mess.

And then I remembered walking into the room earlier that day, baffled at the total chaos and asking them, "How do you girls make such a giant mess???" Mimi looked up at me from the floor where she was diligently doing her "schoolwork" and said, "But we like to PLAY!" Well. That pretty much sums it up. Totally worth the mess.

(I love these sweetie friends for my girls. They're all going to have such good memories of playing their guts out with each other! Remember Emma from the Cilantro Incident? And their mom Christine, of the famed Yellow Diet Coke Cup, is a lifeline for me. I don't know how I could have survived this last 18 months without her! She's the kind of neighbor who's got your back. The kind of neighbor who won't turn you into Child Protective Services. Thank goodness.)

Anyways. We somehow managed to watch General Conference on Saturday; actually, it was pretty manageable. The girls and friends and baby were in their room listening (mmm hmmm. sure.) on the radio, enabling Mike & Max to watch peacefully in the family room and me to watch on the internet downstairs while I assembled their conference packets for Sunday.

I loved Elder Scott's talk about spiritual promptings and also Elder Bednar's talk about 3 ways to become more "diligent & concerned" at home. These can be downloaded here. Hopefully I will remember to post later about these talks because they impacted me quite deeply.

After the Saturday Conference sessions, I beelined to Ali's house to help with her baby shower she was hosting at her house. Isn't her buffet table pretty? I take no credit for the table layout; I acted as dish-doer, food-replenisher, water-refiller, platter-hauler, punch-maker, brownie-bite-sneaker (did I say that aloud?), kitchen-tidier only. I can't even claim altruistic motives because I was there gathering reconnaissance for my own future gatherings: I wanted to snoop out the logistics of a successful event because I have hostess phobia.


Sunday I made our traditional Conference cinnamon rolls. Actually, it's not much of a tradition, more of a hit-and-miss kind of thing, but it WILL be a tradition. Starting....now. (quoting Kramer from "Seinfeld.")


Monday was chilly and we all thought Jack was so cute in his fall fleece. It was a day off from school (girls, of course, held school upstairs in their room), so we spent the day hanging around the house being cozy and then went to the park.


Here are the kids before school today. Immediately after taking this photo, I thought of this one photo of myself in 1st grade...I have Mimi's EXACT FACE in that photo! It's uncanny, really. And after I emailed this picture to my mom she responded, "This is the most Crystal-lookalike Mimi Rose I have ever seen yet!" (we've remarked through the years, at her different stages, how much she looks like me at said stage.) I really must get ahold of my 1st grade school photo and post the two faces together.


Here's a back view of her hair--what we call "Mouse Ears." I take a photo of Mimi's hair nearly every day because we have such fun doing it each morning. I will have quite the photo documentary of her kindergarten mornings!


This is the Favorite Walking Path this morning. Chilly and the leaves are turning.


Baby wasn't too keen on the 34 degree weather. I suppose I'd better bite the bullet and just start going at 6am again, instead of dragging him out at 9:30. Sigh. It is SO hard to drag out of a cozy warm bed and go running (wogging) in the cold dark!!!

The sky was crisp and blue this morning.

I really, really love this path.

In just 6 short days we went from weather suited to this:

to this...

...to this!

What happened to a nice, crisp Fall? It's frigid!

Jack & I play Run & Chase as part of our morning routine. He giggles uncontrollably and it tires him out for naptime.

These pictures are blurry because he's running.

And chasing.

We also snacked quite decadently on pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Look at that cute little bird mouth. This kid is my joy. I just love him to pieces.
And...the post that I started at 9:50pm has taken me two hours to write. TWO! Now I'm having a anxiety about my 6am wogging-wakeup-call. Drat.