Genetics?

I guess this is what happens when both your mom and your grandma are classically trained ballerinas

a lovely attitude arabesque en relevé. Perfect pointed toes, too.

 I promise I didn't teach him this. He's just that good.  It was much cuter when he started doing it pants-less during our potty training marathons, but for obvious reasons, I didn't get a picture of that version.

Why I'm not a doctor

Putting aside my intense dislike of needles and my nausea around bodily fluids, the real reason I'm not a doctor is that I would never survive residency.  36 hour days multiple days a week would leave the people under my care worse off, and let's be honest, I'd probably be the cause of death for someone.

How do I know this?  Well, since seminary started on the 5th I've been nothing but tired.  And since 12 hour night shifts started I haven't gotten more than 4 hours of consecutive sleep, with the exception of one night, where I got 5.  And for the most part I've only had 2 hour blocks.  Of all the people sleeping in my house, I get the least and am still be expected to do things like drive and teach teenagers.  Not good ideas.

Then there's this problem:

Two days after the bathroom fiasco I posted about on Facebook, I finished feeding the baby to come downstairs to this-- my newly purchased 18 count of eggs, 3 used, 14 broken.  One survived and probably would have been a mean chicken had it been fertilized.  The mess was pretty contained, and The Captain was very proud that he broke all the eggs.  I made him help me clean it up, then cried because I was just so tired.  This was on the 7th.  

Fast forward 2 weeks and I was putting The Captain down for his nap.  He wanted me to rock him and sing some songs.  I climbed up on his bed and was so tired I literally could not move.  So I started crying.  He turned to me and said, "don't cry, Mommy, the eggs not broken."  I guess he learned his lesson--  

broken eggs=sad mommy

On a happier note, here is a comparison of the two munchkins at 5 1/2 months old, for those of you who think they look alike.

Apparently we have big boys and small girls because The Captain was bursting out of his 3-6 month clothes at this point and little Joy still only fits 3 month sizes with the occasional smaller running 3-6.  Which is fine by me.  I'd love to have her stay little for a long time.  And we have lots of baby clothes to get through, thanks to my generous family and friends.

Week from Hell

So for the 2nd time in 2 years, the plant Johnny works in had a power outage.  For a place that operates 24/7, this is not good.  We were not here for the first one, it just made our move difficult since we found out we were moving to Virginia just about the time the power went out, so no one would/could talk to us for weeks and weeks, which was all the time we had to coordinate our move across the country.

Anyway, this time Johnny gets to help, which means 12 hour shifts at night.  This is not the first time we've done 12 hour shifts, but it is the first time we've done 12 hour night shifts with seminary, and 2 kids, and winter, and for 9 days in a row.

Now, night shifts are better than having Johnny gone for the week.  And possibly in our situation better than 12 hour day shifts, but things have not worked out like I had planned . . .

In my naive brain I figured:  I can do my work in the morning as usual, get this kids down for a nap, everyone sleeps, everyone wakes up, Johnny plays with the kids while I get dinner ready, thus occupying them at the craziest time of the day, we eat together, Johnny leaves for work, I get the kids down, and then rather than hanging out with Johnny in the basement, I can have some major me-time to do some projects in my sewing room, or deep clean the kitchen, or eat ice cream in the basement and watch a movie.

Not a bad plan . . .

So how is it, that when Johnny is at Young Men's and I'm alone at night, bedtime is smooth and things are great, but when he's gone for work the nightmare begins?  Wait, don't answer that.  Anyway, I am currently on Day 3 in the week from hell.  We had Book Club today.  Most of the people there have husbands working 12 hour shifts at the plant, too.  The week from hell is universal.  Which double sucks because we have absolutely no one we can turn to for help.  We are muscling through, like civilians running a marathon.  It is not pretty.

Day 1:  The Captain's loud after we get back from seminary, but I manage to feed everyone and vacuum the main floor.  I have to carry the baby while doing this, which is physically exhausting.  Most of the way through, I discover The Captain has taken refuge in the upstairs bathroom and is wrecking havoc again.  So I throw more and more of my stuff away, (why just my stuff, child?) have him help me clean up, and get us all down to the basement. Yes, I would love to shut him out of my bathroom, but he's potty training, and sadly, needs the access.  I have no master bathroom.  What else can I do?  The Captain goes poop in the potty (first time in weeks), so I promise to make cookies with him after nap time (my incentive to get him to poop in the potty).  After nap time, he goes poop in his pants.  We don't make cookies.  Johnny goes to work.  I start bed time.  7 pm- The Captain in bed.  7:45- Joy in bed, The Captain out of bed 4 times.  10:00 - The Captain finally asleep, after 2 more attempts to get out of bed.  Sewing room organized! 10:30 - bed time for Mommy.  11-4:30 - The Captain wakes up 3 times, each time putting himself into hysterics and getting out of bed to sob uncontrollably outside my door until I carry him back to his bed and help him calm down.  5:00 - Joy wakes up to eat, during which, The Captain wakes up again to go into hysterics.  6:00 - alarm goes off.

Day 2: 6:10 - get out of bed, wake up the kids go to seminary.  Get to the church, and check my phone.  No school today, which means no seminary.  Why oh why didn't I check my phone at home?  Go to Walmart.  The Captain goes pee in the big potty.  Suppress my loathing, spend more money than planned (kids summer clothes on clearance!).  Go home, hang out in the basement.  11:00 - early lunch and nap time.  11:30 - The Captain is asleep!  Wait for a bit, crossing my fingers.  12:00 - Joy is asleep.  Lay down for nap.  2:00 - Johnny gets up to pee.  2:05 - The Captain wakes up, wakes up the baby, I get up to deal with it.  Johnny goes back to sleep.  3:00 - Pack up the kids and drive 30 mins. to get new tires on the car.  The amazing auto center not only has a really nice waiting room with lots of fun kids toys and a play area, but Taste of Home magazine and a nice bathroom (another successful public toilet pee!!).  Stop at 2 more stores for wreath supplies and rice noodles for Johnny's birthday next week (I'm hoping to not shop again until then).  5:30 - get home.  Johnny is playing video games on the computer and watching shows in the basement.  Fix a quick dinner.  Complain.  6:15 - Johnny leaves for work.  Clean up the house, The Captain gets a bath.  7:00 - The Captain's in bed.  Joy gets a bath.  7:30 - Joy is in bed.  The Captain has gotten up 3 times.  8:00 - The Captain's still awake.  Joy starts crying.  9:00 - finish wreath.  The Captain's still awake.  Head to sewing room.  9:30 The Captain's asleep.  11:00 - Finally go to bed.  Joy is fitful.  Get up 3 times to put in pacifier.  5:00 - Feeding.

Day 3: 7:00 - The Captain gets up.  I refuse to get out of bed.  He gets into the marshmallows right before Johnny comes home.  Johnny plays with him until 8 am, when Joy will no longer lay (semi) quietly in her crib.  8:00 - shower, Joy starts crying 1/2 way through.  Johnny helps then heads to bed.  8:30 - Joy has a poopy blow out.  While I'm changing her diaper and clothes, The Captain goes poop on the potty by himself.  I know because I help him clean off his toilet seat and his bum.  9:10 - finally done cleaning up just in time to print up Book Club stuff, gather things together and get out the door.  9:30 - leave for book club.  Locked out of the basement in the library.  We were not on the calender, but the librarian lets us in anyway.  11:30 - done with book club.  Chased and chastised The Captain half a dozen times during it.  He had to leave the room once, which is when I realized that he is the cause of most of the chaos and noise.  Yay.  Of course, while he was out of the room (as a punishment) he started venturing up the stairs to the main library.  Which is where he went by himself as I was cleaning up.  12:15 - leave the library.  Go home, eat lunch.  1:30 - Lay down for nap.  Feed Joy in an attempt to have her join us.  She doesn't.  2:00 - Wake up Johnny, as requested.  Pass off the baby, take a nap.  4:00 - wake up to The Captain crying.  He wet the bed and is horribly upset.  I finally convince him it's okay and he's not in trouble and remind him that we get to make cookies cause he went poop in the potty.  Let Daddy make The Captain's choice of cookies while I make dinner (and make cookie making go smoothly).  5:15 - Eat dinner.  Eat cookies.  6:00 - Finish Cars.  Daddy goes to work.  Start bedtime.  7:00 - The Captain's in bed.  Joy's acting tired.  Change her and feed her.  The Captain gets out of bed to eat a cookie.  7:30 - Joy's in bed.  The Captain's back in bed.  8:00 - The Captain's been out of bed 2 times and is still pretty loud.  Joy starts sobbing uncontrollably.  Take her out.  Strip her down.  Find no reason why she should be hysterical.  Go in basement to cool her off and download pictures.  Come upstairs to find The Captain out of bed.  9:00 - The Captain's in my room, in my bed.  Swaddle the baby, go put the nightly poop/pee laundry in the dryer.  Go upstairs.  The Captain's turned on the lights in my room.  Put him back in his bed with door closed.  9:45 - Both kids asleep.  Finally.

I didn't include dishes and garbages and diaper pail changing, or getting the mail, and I did all those things, too.  And you wouldn't think getting the mail would be such a big deal, but the storm door on our front door is stuck.  I'm not sure what happened, but the dead bolt has been pushed out and won't go back into the door enough to let it open.  Johnny was going to fix it, but then he got the call about the plant . . . so it currently doesn't have a handle and is on the To Do list.  This means I have to get the mail through the garage and the front yard.  I forget to do it until it's dark and the ground is frozen and I'm in my slippers.

Did I also mention that in addition to all this we also have a mouse in our pantry?  I was supposed to use today to clean up the kitchen, clean the fridge, the walls, the table, and organize all my food into the plastic containers we got.  I did not do that.  I will be lucky if I have the energy to maintain slightly less than the status quo.  And it's really hard to spend the day out of the house when it's freezing outside and you're potty training.  Just saying.  This has been hard.  And this week will be more of the week from hell.  I will probably be alone at church tomorrow, oh, and my seminary lessons aren't done yet.

January Wreath

Ha ha, I bet you thought I forgot about making a wreath this month, or blogging about it, but I did not.  I got a group of 3 other women (because $$ just divides so easily into 4, and we'll be buying some stuff in bulk.  Plus these ladies are awesome and just as excited as me to be crafty and social.) and we meet the first Thursday of the month.  So with any luck blog entries will follow shortly thereafter.  With this wreath we ran into some supply troubles, and I didn't get the rest of my supplies until yesterday, hence the late post.  It really bummed me out, too because this wreath is so beautiful I want it on my door as long as possible.  Good thing I will have these wreaths for years because it will be so sad to take it down in February.  Hopefully, I'll feel that way with all of them, though.

Enough preamble, onto the main event.  Here was my inspiration for this wreath.

I figured with blue ribbon instead of pink it could look winter-y.  Plus I was hoping to find some snowflake ornaments after Christmas to hang inside making it unmistakably winter-esque.

Supplies:

• 1 12" foam wreath (I actually used a 14") $5 @ Michaels.  $3 w/40% off coupon
• 5+ yrds. of 1 1/2" ribbon (again, my ribbon was 7/8", but I had 25 yrds.  I used about 20).  $1.79 @ going-out-of-business sale in Salt Lake a few years ago
• 3 lbs. clear gem stones.  4 bags @ Dollar Tree = $4
• After Christmas ornaments @ Walmart = $2
• Glue gun and 8-10 glue sticks

Total

a little less than $13

1. Hot glue ribbon to the wreath and wrap. Hot glue the ribbon intermittently to avoid starting over.  

2. Glue the stones around the wreath, leaving the back blank.  Be sure to hold your wreath at different angles to make sure all the visible parts are covered.  Warning, this make the wreath very heavy.

   3. My stones were oblong, but everyone else used round stones.  It's easier to fit them around when they're round, but it's nearly impossible to get them to fit perfectly at the end.  That's okay. (Awkward spot?  What awkward spot?)

4. Hang your ribbon around the wreath where the stones meet.  

5. Add any bows or embellishments. 

6. Check for hot glue strings.

7. Hang on door.

What I loved about this wreath was how glamorous it looked.  And how great it looked with so many variations.  One woman used light blue ribbon and tiny stones--awesome.  One used grosgrain ribbon--beautiful.

The other used dark blue and a mixture of clear and blue tinted stones.

This is the one pictured above.

It also looked good with just a third of the wreath covered in stones.  

I think the oblong stones made mine look especially icy.  So I call this the ice princess wreath.

More Videos

Maybe I should space these out, but I can't wait to share.  Here's some giggles from Joy.

Rolly Polly Olly

I commented on Facebook awhile back that the baby goes into stealth mode occasionally.  This means she'll move, but only when no one's watching.  She'll poop, but only if it's silent.  And she'll spit up, only when it's strategically inconvenient.  She spends a lot of time in stealth mode, actually.  She you'll appreciate this gem, I call it Rolly Polly Olly, because she's actually very good at rolling, just don't try to watch.

Story Time

This was filmed awhile ago, but I haven't uploaded videos and pictures from this camera in awhile, so there you go.

Anyway, this is mostly for the grandparents (hi, in-laws!).  I bring you:

Adventures in Potty Training

 

We have dove (dived, doven?) head first into potty training here at HQ.  I only had 2 weeks off of teaching early morning seminary until the summer and neither of us could have waited that long.  So awkward and frustrating as it was a few times, we charged ahead.  

We've been planting the seeds for awhile.  We bought this little potty after he turned 2 and he has enjoyed sitting on it. 

 We practiced taking off his pants and sitting on it with his diaper.  We practiced wiping and throwing toilet paper in the potty.  (I've been really lucky.  The Captain has never tried to flush any foreign objects down the toilet.  Also, he is not scared of flushing.  Knock on wood.)  We also told him he wouldn't be a big boy until he went poop and peep on the potty.  

So we made a Big Boy sticker poster.  As you can see there are lots of stickers.  The Captain has been doing really well, but we'll get to that later.

The Captain really enjoys his big boy undies.  In fact, that was a break through for us.  This is still his favorite way to wear them.

   

And he is very good at getting dress by himself.  At least from the waist down.

So, I have decided to break potty training into 10 steps.  That way I remember it's a long process, and it gives us many things to celebrate along the way.  So here are the 10 Steps to Potty Training (a boy) by Tara:

(I have no idea of the actual order of some of these)

1. Go pee on the potty
2. Tell me he has to go pee BEFORE going
3. Go poop on the potty
4. Go a whole day with no accidents
5. Make it through a nap with no accidents
6. Go pee standing up
7. Go on a big potty
8. Go on a public toilet
9. Go all by himself, without telling me
10. Make it through the night with no accidents

The blue steps are the ones The Captain has already done.  Not a bad list for 3 weeks.  However, he has only gone poop on the potty once, so I've cleaned up plenty of those messes.  Also, we haven't had many accident-free days.  He's not very good at telling me yet, so our accident-free days come from constant vigilance.   And he only goes on the big potty when it's a public toilet.  

In other words, we have a long way to go, but we've definitely made huge strides.  I'm so proud of my big boy.  He doesn't need stickers any more, he just likes to tell everyone around how he goes peep in the potty.  

We also have teething to deal with (with Joy) so our plate is full.  Also, there are mice in our kitchen, apparently.  So pray for me.