Princess Mom

As we were walking out the door to walk to the bus stop Rachel said, "Mom, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Can I be a princess? A princess mom?" I told her I thought it was a great idea and asked her how many kids she wants. She happens to want 10, but does not think I should have 10 kids because it would be "too many for you." I said I thought her plan sounded great but there are two things she needs to do first. She jumped right in and said "go to college!" I said "That is the first thing but the second thing you need to do before you have kids is get married." She quietly took this in, and then asked me "is it when I am done with college and walking down the stairs, my husband will be there?" I think she was picturing a husband as sort of this college graduation gift. I so love our walks to the bus stop.

While we are on the subject of Rachel, she competed in her first karate tournament on Saturday. She did well, considering this was her first tournament. She was up against five other kids, three of which were much older than her. She came in fifth place, and I was worried that she would be disappointed. But here is the great thing about competing when you are young. She has no idea what fifth place means. All she knows is she got a ribbon and a trophy and that is all she needs to be happy!

On the day of the karate tournament, Lilly got the stomach flu. I was running when it started, so Shelby called me to tell me that she threw up but felt fine now. When I got home, she was in the bath because she had thrown up again. You have never seen such a cheerful sick kid. I came in to talk to her and she presented the following monologue: Mom, I woke up and came upstairs and dad said "Hey Lilly Bug!" and I said (in a higher pitched tone) "My tomach hurts." And dad said "Want to watch a movie?" and I said (same high pitched tone) "yes" and he cuddled me up in a blanket and then I threw up on the couch." As cheerful as she sounded during this monologue, I know she felt lousy because anytime she was sitting still she would fall asleep. She got over it pretty quick and was herself by dinner time.

Carson loves Emilia, and Emilia loves Carson. He will spend as much time as I allow talking to her, and she just smiles and smiles. He is never rough with her anymore, but sometimes he still growls in her face. I am sure he does it because he thinks Emilia finds it amusing. She does not find it amusing, but she does find it frightening. Whenever he does it she gets this terrified, shocked look on her face. Overall I think they are going to be good buddies.

We officially do not have to see Emilia's doctor for weight checks anymore. She is now over 10lbs, which is a huge milestone. We were supposed to be done with these weight checks about a month ago, but she had a couple of weeks of stagnant weight gains. As of Monday, her heart sounds "beautiful" and her weight is right on track of what my other kids were at this age. I know it seems small but she is in the 10th percentile. For my kids, this is very normal.

Mud Puddles

At boot camp Wednesday morning, it was raining hard enough to create a nice sized mud puddle in our driveway. Carson and our neighbor's one-year-old, Trevor, found this to be very entertaining. It seemed like a perfectly innocent little boy thing to do, so I did not stop them. After boot camp I changed his pants and shoes and assumed he would be good to go for the day. I was getting myself and the house ready to go for our very busy day when Lilly said to me "Mom, I have a bad word for you." Curious to know what Lilly considers a bad word I said, "OK Lilly, what is your bad word?" "Carson is playing in the mud puddle." She was right, that was a bad word. I got his pants changed once again and sent the kids outside to get into the car without me. This was, of course my mistake. Carson walked outside and ran right out into the mud puddle again. At this point I was out of shoes, out of time, and very nearly out of pants, so I let him live with damp feet.

Pretty much everything Lilly says cracks me up. We were in the car the other day and she had a discussion with herself that went like this: "Where is the baby's blanket? Oh, it's back here. How did it get there? Maybe it walked. Oh, wait...I put it back there."

Our renter moved out last week and left us with a huge mess. She left couches, beds, dressers, clothes, and bags and bags of garbage. Shelby went to clean it out on the busy day that Carson spent playing in the mud puddle. I volunteered that evening at the Ronald McDonald house. This was something I really wanted to do because we stayed at a Ronald McDonald house in Salt Lake and had a very good experience. I wanted to reciprocate. On the way home I called Shelby and he asked if I could stop by the rental and help him load up a couple of the big things. It was late and the kids were tired and hungry, but I couldn't leave Shelby with that big mess, so we headed out. By the time I got there, no more that 30 minutes later, there were three neighbor guys helping Shelby load up the last of the stuff. I had time to fill one bag of garbage, and by then the whole place was cleaned out. They just saw that Shelby needed help and jumped in. It just goes to show that when it comes to service, you always come out ahead.

Knees and Toes

I had an exceptionally intense lower body workout last week, and the next day I volunteered in Rachel's class. Towards the end of the day we sang a song about letters starting at the top. Throughout the song we are required to touch our toes several times, which considering my sore bummy was a real struggle. The song went on forever! I kept thinking "surely this is the last time I have to touch my toes." Rachel must have noticed my issue because she finally leaned over and whispered "Mom it's OK if you want to just touch your knees."

We had a cool morning at boot camp last week. One of the ladies who comes asked Carson where his jacket is. He ran inside to find it and came out with a life jacket, which he insisted on wearing. Every boot camp since he finds that life jacket and brings it outside with him.

Lilly's new thing is to tell us nobody likes her whenever she gets reprimanded for anything. Usually we just ignore it, but I finally told her the other day "Lilly stop it. Nobody in the world is as well liked as you!" And that is the truth. Lilly makes friends easily wherever she goes. She is sweet and fun and really funny. I think this is why it pushes my buttons when she says nobody likes her. The truth is everyone likes her! I sometimes have a hard time coming up with stories about her for the blog because nothing she says is anecdotally funny, but everything she says cracks me up.

What a good baby Emilia is getting to be. I put her to bed at 8 last night. I woke her up to feed her before I went to bed and did not hear a peep from her until almost 8 this morning. She is growing out of her "fussy in the evening" phase, and she smiles all the time. There is a sweetness about that baby, and I am so excited to see how it plays into her personality as she gets older. I was feeding her and Carson started crying in the other room. As soon as he started, her face scrunched up and she whimpered a little. I wonder, is it because it hurts her little heart, or just her little ears?