Weather, Cookies, New Camera, Other Miscellaneous...

The weather has been unspeakably AWESOME lately.  We're talkin' 80 degree days with a light breeze.  Tess has been spending a lot of it out on the screened porch. 

As you can see, Josh has been spending it moping around, generally on chairs.  He's upset because I won't let him play Wii or computer games and instead am making him play outside where there's "nothing to do".  I'm a real jerk sometimes.

But Tess likes me - she even applauds whenever I come into the room.  Okay, she applauds for anyone and anything, but still, it's nice to be appreciated.

I updated our 72 hour kits yesterday.  Josh is in heaven with being able to eat all the fruit snacks, pop tarts, beef jerky, granola bars he wants.  Erlack.

I made my traditional 72 hour kit cookies today, using the raisins and instant oatmeal from the kits.  They turned out so yummy this year - raisin/appley/cinnamony with a few leftover dark chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.

Tess helped.  And approved.

Oh yeah, besides applauding Tess likes to eat her feet.  She's also starting to scoot around on her back.  I'm not quite sure if she realizes yet that she's doing it, but it's definitely only a matter of time before she's (finally) crawling.

My old camera was definitely dying, thus the reduced number of pictures on my blog lately.  For a while I really wanted a nice DSLR, but ended up getting another point and shoot.  I just couldn't justify the money I would have had to spend on a DSLR.  Plus, I found a great deal on another Canon (a brand I've been very happy with), and I figured right now a DSLR would just be another big thing to have to lug around when I was out with the kiddos.  There's something to be said about a camera that can fit in your pocket.  So while I may not take professional quality pictures, I will still get some pretty good ones.  Like this one of Tess letting us know that she definitely does NOT like grass.

At all.

For some reason Spencer petting her head didn't help.

And here's Cole, already in his summer uniform: pantsless. (In a few more months I'm hoping he will replace the diaper for underpants.  That's right - we're starting potty training as soon as preschool is done!)

I would show a picture of Josh, but he was being Josh and wouldn't let me take a picture of him.  So here's another one of cutie-pie Spencer, who definitely doesn't get as much blog time as he used to.  (I told him that's what happens when you get old.) ((Which is why you rarely ever see Lance or I on here - we're ancient.))

Joshie's One Christmas Wish

Josh: Mommy, guess what I want for Christmas?

Me: What?

Josh: A CREDIT CARD!!

Me: Not gonna happen.

Josh: But I want to buy everything!

Afternoon Sightings

I walked into the kitchen this afternoon and discovered this:

Why yes, those are Cole's hand prints.  He put them on the window and the afternoon sun cast their shadows on the window seat.  

This neither surprised nor bothered me.  As a mother of four children I am at peace with all the stinkin' hand prints around my house.  These may or may not be gone by the time we have our annual donut party.  In October.

I also discovered a Tess with crazy hair.  How young is too young for a haircut?  The girl really needs some help.

 

Of course, rubbing food in it during every meal probably doesn't help matters.

It makes for a tasty baby, though!

I also found a Cole, sans pantalones, of course.  That boy sure does love his Thing 3 shirt.  He'd wear it every day if I let him.

Tess loves sitting in the sun and playing with her toys.  And by playing I mean throwing them away from her and then whining until someone brings them back.  I refuse to do this anymore.  I keep telling her crawl and get them but she won't because she's stubborn.  And a Madsen.

Then Cole and I had a dance party.  I discovered Cole is a Bieber fan.  So is Tess, apparently.  (Video highlight: Cole singing along with the song.  Awesome.)

Nine Lives

I caught a lucky break today when I caught Cole right after he had unzipped my make-up bag.  Had I been 30 seconds later I'm pretty sure I would have walked into a disaster. 

Lance reports that he found the boy in the refrigerator yesterday.  The refrigerator.  Apparently the door was still open about 1/2 an inch.  Needless to say, the fridge is now locked.

The child also likes to stand on the slippery edge of the bathtub, jump down the stairs to the basement, knowingly walk in front of kids who are swinging, and run out into busy streets despite my frantic screams to stop.

In my years as a mother I have decided this: you simply cannot be the mother of a toddler and not believe in some sort of higher power.  There is no other explanation as to how they do all that they do and still live. 

The child has 9 lives.  And twice as many guardian angels.

A Bit of This and That

1.  Instead of posing, Tess now likes to take pictures with her mouth Wide Open.  Behold:

For whatever reason, her facial expressions remind me of this woman I used to work with at the advertising agency I worked for before I had kids.  Actually, it reminds me of her husband.  The woman was pretty nice and normal, but her husband was weird, especially in any type of formal social situation.  We were all at this really nice restaurant once (I got to do lots of fancy-shmancy dinners like that), and our spouses were with us.  This couple had to leave early to relieve the babysitter, and as they were leaving the husband (who had shown up in a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt with a rude saying on it) held up his hand in that rocker way (with the pinky, pointer, and thumb in the air, the other two fingers touching the palm) and said, in a really weird, rocker, Metallica kind of way "When you drive, drive maniacally".  And then he opened his mouth up wide as a sort of smile, I guess.

So anyways, I've really got to stop Tess from doing this.

So far I've only found one fool-proof way: feeding her.

2.  How windy do you suppose it has to be for a box of that size to get blown into our sand box?  I'm thinkin' pretty dang windy.  It's been pretty dang windy around here lately.

3. Tess has finally outgrown her car seat carrier.  Actually, she probably outgrew it a good month ago but I kept forgetting to ask Lance to get the other car seat out of the attic.  Tess is Quite Pleased with her new throne.  (Don't be fooled - I got this smile only after she sat there, staring at the camera with her mouth wide open for a solid minute.)

4. Tess is trying to grow dreadlocks.  She keeps rubbing the back of her head against everything and so her hair gets all matted and crazy, and I just cannot comb it out.  It's all frizzy and wild and pretty great looking.  I would show a picture of it, but my camera has been acting stupid lately, which is why I am getting a new one.  Soon.

Mystery Pain: Update

Today I finally broke down and went to the doctor about my mystery pain.  To be honest, I was getting a bit nervous about the whole thing.  And who can blame me, given my family's sordid history with with cancer and such?  (My mom was diagnosed with cancer at 39.  Thirty-nine.  That's only 5 years away for me.)

Anywho, I went to my general practitioner, who took a really good history, asked a lot of questions about my symptoms and lifestyle, and then got to work poking and prodding me.

Verdict?

I have a deep muscle tear.

Wait, what?

I mean, one would think that I would have felt my muscle being torn.  But what probably happened was that I injured it and then it got a bit worse over time. 

We talked about it, and I realized that this was probably all Cole's fault.

This is probably not the last time in my life that I will be using that phrase.

Anyways, Cole has a bad habit of jumping on people when they're on the floor.  In his eyes, if you're laying down you're fair game for a battle royal wrestling match.  Quite frankly, the child jumps on me every single time I'm at aerobics.  (Which I try to get to 3 times a week.  Not that you can tell, but hey, I go!) The doctor agreed that a toddler elbow to the abdomen could very well have caused this. So there's every possibility that that's what happened last Monday.

At first I felt a sense of relief that it wasn't anything more serious.  Then I thought "Wait, I paid $25 for a muscle tear?"  But then again, $25 is very reasonable for peace of mind, right?

So I've been prescribed to basically not do anything to aggravate it, which means I'm going to have to find some sort of low impact exercise.  Watch out, Lance - I feel some Dance Dance Revolution battles coming on!

Aspirations

I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to quickly jot down an impression I received this evening.

I am constantly astounded at the caliber of people I meet and work with through church.  These people are amazing spiritually, intellectually, and socially.  They give freely of themselves and their time, two commodities that can be particularly rare these days.  Love, faith, hope, and charity are abundant.

Not only that, but these people are interesting.  Everyone seems to have some aspect of their life that is absolutely fascinating to me.  If I could, I think I would like to write mini autobiographies of several people in our ward. 

And rather than comparing myself to them and focusing on the areas in which I am rather lacking (and there are many!), I find myself inspired and uplifted.  I aspire to be a better church member, a better wife and mother, a better friend, a better daughter of God, a better me.

Now.  Time to get start acting on those aspirations.