sick, but happy, girl

Yesterday I noticed that Kiddo was vaguely more cuddly than usual. And, she woke up four or more times during the night. I determined that she was fighting off some germ, and would be just fine (power of positive thinking, right?)

Today she was very wired, all day long. Did that have something to do with the visit of her grandma and aunt? I'm sure. She is usually not that entertained.

In the middle of dinner, her aunt (who is also a nurse) looked at her and said, she's about to throw up, which Kiddo proceeded to do. It's been a while since this happened. It upset her, of course.

I picked her up when it was over, and she cried on my shoulder while her dad went to prepare a bath. As we sat in the bathroom waiting for her bath, she reported to me: "I sad. I sad." I replied that of course she was, no one likes to be sick or throw up. Then she asked, "happy?". I told her that if she wanted to be happy, all she had to do was smile. So she gave me one of her fake toddler smiles. I told her if she smiled again she would be more happy. She smiled again, and then amazingly enough, it worked.

She was now happy. She slid off my lap, and went to help her dad fill the tub, just like always. And got ready for bed, just like always. I don't know what will happen tomorrow (or tonight for that matter), but I love her resilience, and her desire to be happy. What a good girl.

I eat Cheerios

Cheerios have been my go-to snack for my whole life. My mom started feeding them to me as soon as I was old enough, and I've never stopped. My sister is the same way. Which meant that today, I thought nothing of the fact that I ate Cheerios all through Institute.

The other ladies at Institute did think something of it. They wondered if I was pregnant. I am. Baby #2 comes in April. Thank goodness we'll have an income, a home, and most likely some sort of insurance by then. It's my relaxing thought as I practice for the upcoming labor.

ramblings on my home

I love my home. I'm vaguely disappointed that it will be mine for short a time, but I deal with that okay because I knew it was short-term. What I don't love about my home is that 1) it has almost no place to sit (our fault, we threw out the couch) 2) the dishwasher leaves a filmy residue on everything, so we handwash, 3) the capacity of the washing machine is literally 1/3 of our machine (in storage), and 4) the house is on the market, so it must always be clean, and every three or four days it must really be clean. Tomorrow is one of those days. And also we can't find our every day kitchen boxes in the storage unit (they are somewhere along the back wall, I know it) so our kitchen is very poorly equipped.

During the power outage, we realized that instead of doing the dishes before a showing, we could just put them in the dishwasher. But then it becomes out-of-sight-out-of-mind, and it is a long time before those dishes get done. Tonight is the night though, I'm getting them all done. (I hate doing two "loads" of dishes a day.) And I'm vacuuming. I don't like the pressure of cleaning my house on someone else's schedule. I do like having an incentive to make sure it is done often though. I can't imagine what it would look like otherwise. (Obviously not too bad though, because have I mentioned? most of my stuff is in storage.)

pa-pack

While in Texas we made a detour to Seattle (as it's so convenient to Texas). As always, Kiddo was an amazing traveller (made all the easier because my mom was there to help entertain her). We had found her a backpack before the trip, and she travelled the whole way with her "pa-pack." She was especially enthralled with the fruit snacks that kept showing up in them.

Now, a month later, she can ask for them by name, "sharks" but then she just insisted "I need dat!" "Open." until I got the message.

lucky girl

Today we met my husband for lunch downtown. He shared a brownie with my little girl after lunch. I told her she was a "lucky girl" and in her typical fashion, she parroted that phrase to me for the next five or ten minutes.

Much later in the afternoon, after naps, and a walk, and other events, we headed off to the grocery store. We had the windows open, which let Kiddo feel the "wind!" Once I identified what she was saying, I said, "can you feel the wind? That's nice." And then she informed me that she was "lucky girl."

This luck was further evidenced by the fact that when we went on our walk, we timed it just right to see both school buses that come to our neighborhood.

And this picture was taken by the ever talented Wendolin when we were in Texas (pre-bangs obviously). I thought about cropping it to just her face, then realized that you would then miss those adorable fat ankles. Enjoy.

changing expectations

I have done pretty well in getting things accomplished today, which is not so often the case right now. My husband just called to say he was coming home, and all of my initiative fell away. I found myself saying things in my head like: in 15 minutes, he'll be home, and he can .... (fill in the blank with chore still waiting to be done) and saying things to my daughter like: I can't draw a frog. Daddy will when he gets home.

Then as I sat, looking forward to my parenting reprieve, I remembered. My husband has already been working for 13 hours today, and has a few more before today is over. I guess my parenting/homemaking reprieve won't be until Kiddo goes to bed. I'm not glad that's the case, but I am glad I remembered before he came home, and I had false expectations of him.

He's finishing his dissertation in the next two weeks. I'm sure we'll have plenty more days like this before he's done (like, about 12 of them, thank goodness for Sundays.)

sometimes, we receive

Our family is in a stage of life where we receive service much more than we give. The last two days were just one more opportunity to take.

After writing my last post, I went to bed, and my husband worked on his dissertation. Sometime later in the night, he came to bed, bringing with him one small child. Why? Because her room, and ours, were about to get really cold. As my husband was shutting down the computer after finishing his work (for that night) at 2 am, everything went dark. We lost our power, just like our neighbors across the street. About two hours later it came on for about 45 minutes, then it was gone again... seemingly never to return.

So, as my husband went to work that morning, Kiddo and I ran errands. We returned for a nap in our house which had now cooled to mid-60s. After the naps we went to a friends for the afternoon. We got dinner, and returned to a house now in the high-50s, and dark (and you know all our flashlights are, yes, packed).

While I was pretty useless, my good husband called some people we know, and our good home teacher invited us to stay the night at his house, so at least we slept warm last night. Today my husband is back at school, and we ran more errands. And at 2 pm, we came by the house, and the power was back on! About an hour later the heaters finally started producing heat. Each degree we gain is a personal victory for me. Why are we staying in our still cold (but getting warmer) house? Because I'm tired of being gone. This is my home (for four more weeks) and I'm enjoying it.

My brother and sister-in-law were out of power for a week last year. I can't imagine how they survived. I guess it helped that the temperatures weren't freezing and it wasn't snowing the entire time. Still, that's a long time to live in the dark...

Two blessings I am never grateful enough for: 1- water that comes straight into my house, and still runs when the power is out, and 2- the amazing science behind the flipping of a switch, and the light that comes.

nose!

This morning it was raining. I was debating whether or not to drag myself and Kiddo to a store when I figured I'd check the temperature. Mid-30's. Hmm. We'd be staying in today.

Then, throughout the morning I watched the rain thicken to that rain/snow stuff (wintry mix anyone?), and then all of a sudden it was snowing. Apparently this is the earliest snow on record for our little corner of the world. I summoned all my energy and good mom vibes, and took Kiddo out of a few minutes of photodocumentation before it was all over.

Here she is with "baby-doll," her favorite scarecrow. (Each time we get out the car she has to go say hi and spend a moment with baby-doll. Trying to skip this step leads to tears, frustration, and a literal digging in of heels on her part.)
Much to my surprise, the snow just got thicker and heavier throughout the day. After her nap and a snack we went out again:

Kiddo loved every minute of it. She loved watching it out the windows, loved being in it, didn't mind the hat, coat and boots required for participating in, she loved it. And she calls it "nose." I guess so long as all the consonants and vowels are there, that's what counts, right?

And the blessing of it all (besides my child's utter enjoyment)? Since the trees still have leaves, the snow is wreaking small amounts of havoc. Across the street (and in much of the area) there is no power, but clearly, we're okay. We had dinner and our heat is still on, so my child can sleep in her own bed.

communication

This picture is of the house we stayed at for six weeks this summer. Here is Kiddo with the dog, Allie. Today we stopped by the house to pick something up. I was hoping to leave Kiddo in the car while I ran in, but as soon as we pulled into the driveway she started saying "puppy. aah-eee. puppy. aah-ee." So she got to come in too, and remember that she has a healthy respect for Allie (in other words, she wouldn't touch her). This is in contrast to our visiting teaching appointment this afternoon, where Kiddo kept getting right close and personal with my friend's dog, who would have preferred that she didn't (the dog cared). Kiddo also got almost all of the dog toys out. I sigh as I say that she's inquisitive, and shows little restraint.

But her vocabulary keeps growing, and helps us help her. Last night, I asked Kiddo to throw out her wet diaper. I ask her to do this after most of her diaper changes, and she's very willing and able to do so. I like to think she's taking some responsibility for herself. Last night though, instead of her usual "trash" chant, I heard "tilit." It only took me one moment to yell out her name, and chase her down to fish her diaper out of the toilet, which I suppose she thought would be more interesting than the trash.

Her new favorite song is "animal crackers in my soup" which we play for her on the computer. She'll walk up to one of us (usually me as my husband in mostly gone writing a dissertation) and say "soup." No matter what excuse I give her for not listening right now, she looks at me earnestly and replies "tay. [okay]" and walks straight to the computer to listen. Most of the time I give in, because then she entertains herself for a while.

Her response to many things is "tay." Often she will come up to me with a book, or a toy, or a request for a song, and then when I interpret her need she'll reply "tay." It always seems incongruous to me. It was her idea after all.

When she wants to sing, she comes up to me and starts repeating "about, about, about..." Because whenever she requests "song" I reply "about what" so now she skips the song request, and moves straight on to the about instruction. She has yet to learn how to communicate which song she's thinking of though. Maybe it's because most of the time she doesn't care.

And this is old (probably a whole month by now), but classic, and should always be remembered: We had recently taught her about taking turns, specifically with food. My husband walked out of store, got in the car and pulled out a lollipop (he somehow thought she wouldn't notice if he enjoyed in the front seat). Before too long I hear an insistent voice: tun. tun. tun. I looked at my husband and said, she'd like a turn with the lollipop too, it seems only right to share. So they did.

my daughter's conference experience

This last weekend was my church's General Conference, where the prophet (think Moses, only for today) and twelve apostles (think Peter, James, and John, again for today) speak specifically to the membership of my chuch, but with words for everyone. It is a two-day spiritual feast, held every six months.

At almost 22 months, Kiddo misses a lot of the finer points of conference, there are a lot of speakers. While watching conference with my almost 22 month old, I miss a lot of the finer points as well. But, she loved the singing. She would sit on my lap, and announce "song" every three or four words of the song. When there are shots of the organ, she would announce "play" because I told her that someone was playing the organ. And the conductor was often mistaken for singing "rain is falling" because of his hand motions. Each song concluded with a rousing cheer of "YAY, song!" from the little girl.

My cousin blogged about watching conference without the music. What a fabulous idea. We can only watch the music, which will keep Kiddo occupied for at least 30 minutes.

ps- she seemed to figure out colors overnight. So she can tell me the dresses are "blue" which adds a whole new distraction to our listening.

"I p[r]ay"

Today Kiddo followed me into my room, and proceded to kneel down and fold her arms. She looked at me and announced "I pay" (she still can't get the 'r' sound).

Then she said something that I could imagine sounded like "Heavenly Father" then clearly announced "dada work" and then kept going, but none of the rest was in my language. About 30 seconds later she looked at me again, told me she was done and got up and went on with her life. I love that she prayed for her dad.

In my attempts to be better at saying morning prayers, Kiddo sees me at it much more often. She comes in and pokes at me and wants my attention and I either ignore her or pause long enough to say "I'm praying, wait a minute." Apparently my example is sinking in.

fishies

I felt like Kiddo needed a snack this morning. So, in a total leave of my senses, I left her with the box of goldfish crackers while I started a load of laundry. It wasn't long after that I heard the now familiar sound of the contents of the box being dumped joyfully on the floor. As I started to feel angry I reminded myself that I had no right. I have never left Kiddo with a box or bag of crackers where she has not dumped them out, so I could not be surprised. I quickly retrieved the box from her (mostly empty) and finished putting on the laundry while she spread the crackers around as much of the floor as she could.

I then pulled out the broom to clean it up. "Helping!" she merrily yelled, trying to grab the broom. I instructed her that if she wanted to help, she needed to get her own broom, which she obediently found. How did I miss the fact that if a broom can be used to gather dirt and crackers, it can also be used to spread them out again?

So I bribed her with the opportunity to watch my e-card from my aunt and grandmother. It has a kitten, flowers, and music. Kiddo happily obliged, and the goldfish are no longer all over the floor (plus, my husband doesn't have to sweep tonight, so that's a bonus for him).

welcome home

We have a yard. With flowers. My husband taught Kiddo that she could put them behind her ears. Now she wants to do this each time we go out. The small issue is that they are mums, which happen to be the one kind of flower I know I am allergic to. Oh well.

It is absolutely fabulous to have our own space again. I am so much less stressed. Because it is a house, not an apartment, I am always surprised by the idea that no one can hear Kiddo as she runs from one end to the other and back again. Because we have limited furniture, we have tons of space. Kids love coming to visit because there is space to run, inside and out. I am trying to enjoy the time, because it is pretty sure that our next place will not be so open, oh well.

The best part of this house is that Kiddo already feels at home. She knows where all the rooms are, is excited about her few toys and few books, and is happier than she's been for a while. This is good for this mom's heart. (And we may have finally convinced her to sleep in her own bed again, which is a great blessing as well!)