2-year-old Smarts

Tonight we made cookies as a family. Cdc and Cpc were given instructions that they each got two cookies before bed. Cdc ate his cookies the quickest and then promptly asked if he could have another. In response Pmc asked him how many cookies he'd eaten. Cdc said "uh, two!" pmc said "How many is the limit?" Cdc responded "uh....(Serious visible thinking)....three!"

What amazing math skills from a 2-year-old.

Also, lately Cdc walks around with a toy helicopter saying "heli, heli, heli."

Love that kid!

One Blessed Little Girl

Arc is one blessed little girl. When I was growing up I often wished that I had an older brother to protect me. So I am so grateful that Arc has two big brothers to be her protectors!

Today we had Arc's blessing (a special Priesthood ordinance) at church. She got to wear the special dress I made for her out of my wedding dress. She sure looked beautiful. She also graced everyone with her beautiful smiles. She is becoming so interactive, and she is such a sweetheart. Her daddy gave her the blessing, and it was beautiful.

I also nearly forgot to mention that Cpc started Joy School last week. After celebrating Grandma Rvse's birthday this summer, Cpc has been pretty excited about Joy School. He has absolutely LOVED it so far. We have a group of five moms, six kids - including cousin Cac. He's getting pretty into learning the songs, and so is Cdc. I taught the first week, so Cdc was able to join in on the fun. But when Cdc discovered that he wasn't going to get to go with Cpc, he was pretty heartbroken. But once he discovered that it meant it got to do other fun stuff that Cpc didn't get to do - he seems to  have changed his tune! This week he got to enjoy lunch with Momsey! And this coming week he gets to play with his cousin Mec.

Moments

When Cpc was born I tried so hard to capture every little thing on camera. I didn't want to forget, and I wished there were more pictures of me hitting my milestones as a baby. I was a third child, and there weren't digital cameras back then! Now I have my third child - and while I'm certainly no less fascinated with her development than I was with my first two - I'm not taking quite as many pictures. And I like it. I feel bad for her - but it is so much easier to soak in the full moment when I'm not trying to capture a visual portion of it.

But I would like to capture this moment as much as I can through words: I'm sitting on my Ikea chair with the door open enjoying the sounds of our neighborhood. Arc is laying on my lap with a full tummy making her satisfied sighing noises, half in-and-out of sleep, startling a bit every couple minutes and stretching he body out. Cpc is in his room with the door open playing trains for quiet time. How he can play trains day after day for quiet time without getting bored, I just don't know. Cdc is on my bed talking to himself - some real words but also some gibberish mixed in. I love that he still talks gibberish sometimes. Over the past few weeks he doesn't nap as often during quiet time - but instead has taken to "reading" his books rather than using them as comfort objects. Arc just looked up at me and smiled - so now is the time to soak her happy face in...

Teeth

Cdc has been working on learning to use big-boy toothpaste, and therefore practicing spitting into the sink. When he does so, instead of spitting he leans over the sink and says "too-tah." cracks me up every time!

Cpc had to get two fillings at the dentist a couple weeks ago, and one more thi week. He was very brave but very nervous that morning. Last time he chewed his lip so bad that he gave himself a fever. So we were certainly grateful when he made it through the day with his whole mouth intact. We're also grateful for great genes that mean when we go to the dentist he says "I wish I had teeth like yours!" Cpc is lucky to have inherited my genes when it comes to teeth - and I really hope it stays that way when he gets his big teeth. Here's to a no-braces future!

Totally unrelated to teeth - we've been better about getting out on family walks lately. It has been so nice to enjoy the fresh air together. In fact now that it's cooling off a bit (and we don't have the waterpark and Bear Lake drawing us, or a quite-so-itty-bitty baby), we're going to try for some family hikes. Anyway, last night on our walk Cdc started walking in front of us and saying "come on...follow me!" even though there really was only one way to go. Love that kid!

Also entirely unrelated: I am so pressed with Cpc's imagination as of late. This kid hardly requires any toys these days, and certainly doesn't need any dress-ups to act his part. He's perfectly content to work with what he has (sticks, rocks, other toys) or just pretend he has what he needs. I am frankly grateful that we are in a financial situation that helps me to not give in to thinking we need to buy him things at the toy store in order to have quality play/learning happening! I adore watching him out the kitchen window while making dinner. He recently got into being a fireman - and he can put out fires, save people from floods and holes in the road, etc - all with just his tricycle as a firetruck to get there!

Smiles and Giggles

Arc is throwing out smiles with a very generous heart these days. We can hardly get enough of it! Cdc was also a little sick this week, and we could hardly get enough of his cute "sick voice."

But the rest of us have been pretty happy as well. Especially when we got to spend Labor Day at Bear Lake. It was a glorious weekend even if it was crowded.

There are two kids under this towel:

This is how I felt about the cold water:

Until I started doing this:


Arc enjoyed sleeping upright in her life-jacket:






These boys are REALLY going to miss Aunt Ace. She left today to go back to Seattle for her final year of school there.

We even got our chance to go to Bloomington Lake.


Cpc has asked a few times to try waterskiing - and we finally remembered to take the kid skis out on the boat with us. So I helped him get all set up and we yelled "hit it." He unfortunately went right over the top of the skis, but he kept hanging on for a bit until Momsey realized he was under the water and stopped the boat. He of course was crying and as I swam up to him he said "Mom, I don't want to ever do that again." So I said to him "Cpc, you don't have to do it again, don't worry. But I think you could try again next summer when you're bigger." And he quickly responded with a delighted "OKAY!" I was so proud of him for trying! We missed a picture of the actual attempt - but this is right after. See! He's not even traumatized by the experience!

Prayers and Sharing

Today Cpc did three things that just melted my heart!

We were running errands and I bought the boys a drink to share. I handed the drink to Cpc and told him he needed to not have any until we got to the car, and then he needed to share with Cdc. Cdc has a cold and was ready for a nap, so I guess the drink wasn't very enticing to him. So after Cpc waited patiently until he was all buckled in the car, he also patiently continued to offer the drink to Cdc after every sip he took. Cdc only said yes about one in every twelve offers, but Cpc continued to offer until it was gone!

As we were driving home I got a call from my little sister, who's car had died and she needed me to come pick her up. But we needed to stop at the house and put a few groceries in the fridge and freezer. So as we pulled in I told the kids to stay in the car while I ran inside. But Cpc forgot and still unbuckled his seatbelt. So when I came outside he said something about needing to pray, and I told him he could pray anytime, that he didn't need to wait for me! But I apparently misunderstood because he then explained that he was having a hard time getting himself buckled again and so he and Cdc were praying for help to get it buckled!

Then when we finally got home with Aunt Ace, we made lunch and I asked Cpc to pray. Something must have clicked recently for him because he said the most thoughtful prayer - for him and Cdc to get better soon, for Ace's car to get fixed so she could go back to school, for daddy to be happy, etc.

I love that Cpc and his big heart!

Competitive Kids, etc.

When I married Pmc, I knew somewhat the competitive nature of his family. So you could say I knew what I was getting myself into. However, I think I failed to note one important thing. Genes get passed onto children, and we recently realized that the competitive gene has been passed to all three of our children. After observing Arc's happy time (the periods during the day where she is awake and happy) over the past week, I feel pretty confident that our children came to this earth life with a competition already in place. These children of ours seem to be fighting for status of "earliest walker." Cpc took his first official steps on his own at just under 10 months, Cdc came in just under 12 months, and obviously we have yet to see what Arc will do. But all three of our children so far have basically come out of the womb determined.

See, pretty much Arc's only "happy time" is when we let her practice "standing." And we noticed this week that this "standing" practice she's doing includes a very determined face that says "I'm gonna get this, and I know I've got to practice, practice, practice!"

Cpc and Cdc are only too pleased to help her though - they beg to feed her a bottle. Every time Arc cries Cpc goes running to the fridge to find a bottle so he can feed her because she must be hungry! It almost breaks my heart every time I have to tell him that he can't feed her a bottle, so I'm trying to pump as often as I can so that he can be the good big brother he wants to be.

Cdc has been having a bit of a rough week. It seems that no matter what we do to reassure him that he has not lost mommy's love, he's just not convinced. Ever since Arc was born he's really been struggling to get himself to the potty before he gets his underwear wet or dirty, and this week has been the hardest. We're going to make monumental efforts this week to give him extra love and attention for good choices because 1) We really are proud of him and appreciate it must be hard on him, he is the middle child right now and it's true that he's getting the least attention - but he is oh so loveable! and 2) the punishments we're giving sure don't seem to have any effect on him!

Cpc had his last horse-riding lesson (for a while at least - he's starting Joy School and some other activities) this week. He did amazing. I don't know if it was the time of day or the fact that he knew it was going to be his last one - but he did awesome! He did all of the things Miss Luanne asked him to do and he just had a blast the whole time.

Cdc finally got his chance to ride that horse (Poco), and boy was he thrilled. Unfortunately his turn got cut a little short by the rain, but Miss Luanne offered to have him come back sometime while Cpc is at school!

We are pleased as punch that Arc has kind of gotten a sleeping/eating schedule down and our family is actually running on a pretty regular routine again. I can hardly believe this has happened already, but it sure is limiting the stress around our house!
Personally, I've been struggling a bit - mostly with the multi-tasking that adding a new little person to our family involves. See, I've been talking to some good friends this week who are also mothers. Two topics have been on my mind lately. 1) Mommy Brain 2) Expectations of ourselves as moms

On the Mommy Brain topic we talked about how, although the term can seem derogatory or on the other hand, just an excuse - to me it's actually very real and not an excuse at all. I don't think of the term as something that says "excuse me, I'm a mom so I'm just not very smart." There are plenty of things I do, and most moms do to keep themselves progressing intellectually. Most moms I know are exceedingly smart. However, one thing that I've noticed happening the longer I've been a mom, is that my brain is pulled in so many extremely important directions at once that the little things that aren't so important just don't stay on my mind the way they used to. Moms are actually managing people's entire lives - everything from protecting them from extreme danger to just nourishing their bodies to stay alive. It doesn't always seem like we're dealing with "life and death" - but really, that's precisely what we're doing all day long. We're making sure our kids don't run out in front of cars, and that they have enough food in their bodies, etc. With infants it's even more intense - one wrong moving while holding an infant literally can result in instant death or paralyzation - all you have to do is not support that head at the wrong moment! So really, is it likely that I'm going to remember where I set my keys down, or that I left the oven on as I'm trying to get three kids through the day? For me? No, not really! And this is what I term "mommy brain." I'm not dumb, I'm just managing 3 people's lives in addition to my own. And you know what? I love it! It is intense and satisfying work!

As for expectations, this totally relates to the first one. I have found that when I hear other mothers praised for certain things - somehow, that becomes the standard. And I know many other mothers who feel the same way. "So-and-so bakes bread" or "so-and-so has a beautiful garden" or "so-and-so has 10 kids." And my favorite is the term added at the end - "and she has it all together!" And suddenly that is what the definition of success is. How silly! Each woman is so different, and each of her children is so different that really, there is no standard for success as a mom - except that their children are loved! Some mothers really cannot mentally handle more than one kid - and it's not because their brain is lesser than anyone else, but because they are different and their child is different than others. That simple. Period. Some moms can mentally handle 12 children. Same thing. And in addition to the mental ability to handle kids - there is the physical ability. Every BODY is different too! Lately I have been so frustrated when people tell me "I look good for having had a baby 6 weeks ago." Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate the compliment - but on the other hand I recognize that I have nearly NOTHING to do with that. It's my genes. I have a high metabolism. Yes, I do work to keep my metabolism, but I know many moms who try so much harder than me and just don't lose the weight like I do!

At this point in time, I really think I'm a person who is meant to have 7 children - and some days my brain is pulled in so many directions that I think that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. But most of the time, it still seems like the right thing for our family. When I receive compliments as a mother, I really do appreciate them. I love it when people tell me my children are well-behaved, or that I look good. But I want people to know that I have inadequacies and faults as a mother too - and that the best thing moms can do is be themselves and try their hardest to be a good mom their own way!

Boy, you'd think I'm a little passionate about this "mothering" thing wouldn't you?

Goodnight!