Where There Rain Stops....

Well May has certainly been exhausting. We started out the month by getting Matt back. His semester ended and we got to be reacquainted with him. For a couple of days Elijah was telling poor Matt to go back to school every time he got angry. Then he was telling everyone that he was happy to have daddy back and he loved him and liked to play with him. Mommy is a lot calmer and Ally just is happy to be smiled at. We are a much happier, even if it only lasts for the summer.

The first weekend we were able to see Debbie and Gary Griffin (Matt's sister) and their kids Alexis and Timothy. We went outlet shopping and got to do some major shopping. It was nice to see them because they will soon be moving to Texas which would be much harder for us to go to for visiting and we don't know when the next time we will see them will be.

In the middle of May we made a major purchase. We actually bought a Mini van. It was a really difficult decision for us to make. We wanted a car that would last us a while and we knew that a Honda Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna would do what we wanted, but they were still pretty pricey. I didn't like the Toyota Previa's because they are ugly. The Dodge Caravans have transmission problems until about 2002 and I wanted a car with AC, Cruise Control and Dual sliding doors if I could help it at all. We didn't think we could find what we wanted in a price we could afford. We also wanted something that would last us over 5 years. We did some internet searching and found a place that sold Toyota Sienna's for around $9000. We went to look and we found one that fit the bill and they were willing to give it to us for $8900. It seemed to have no problems and so we bought it. It is a 98 Toyota and had everything we wanted in a car. It doesn't have a CD player, but that was trivial to me. We are really excited and we finally have something that is comfortable to travel in.

Christian's wedding was the extravaganza we expected it to be. We spent a couple nights in a hotel and got dressed up in our fancy duds. They were married in the Bountiful Temple and the luncheon was at my Uncle Mark's house. My parents had the luncheon catered by Sugarhouse BBQ. It was really fun to have BBQ sandwiches for a couple days. (About the third day it was not quite the nice treat it had been.) The reception was at The Lion House (which was Brigham Young's HUGE house.) Elijah and Ally were very tired and we were all hungry (starving) by the end, but it was really pretty. Denise had a painting done of her in her wedding dress and they had a cute wedding video. The highlight for us was when we took Elijah, Ally, Leanne (my cousin) and Chris (Denise's brother) and several of his friends and decorated their car. I have this list of who I am going to take revenge on for doing our car (unless they really don't want it done, but then you miss out on all the fun stories and memories!) The last car I remember decorating was my Uncle Mark's when he and A'lissa were married. It's been a while.

For our anniversary we decided to take a family trip (mainly because I couldn't leave Ally for more than a few hours at a time). We went to Salt Lake and did a lot of fun things. We went to the Dinosaur Museum, went swimming, feed ducks and went to the zoo. The zoo was by far the favorite amount us all. I have never really liked museums all that much (yes Christian, the Air and Space Museum was torture all five times we went while in DC, thank you very much. Except for the flight simulator. That was fun. Likely, all my video game playing coming in handy.) A kid centric Dinosaur museum was funnier than most but I'm not sure if it was worth the cost. Elijah will go on and on about the zoo if you ask him, but doesn't say much about the museum.

We went to the festival of Orem and got a few tickets to let Elijah take a ride. Well, he cried at every ride from the kiddie roller coaster to the boat ride. We finally took pity on him and took him to the jumping castle and real helicopter. Then he had fun. But it started to rain and we ended up leaving anyway.

Elijah has been doing well. He was very sweet for a bout a month, then a neighbor mentioned that three was the whiney stage. "Whiney? NOOooo. I haven't seen any of that," I say. At least I didn't until the very next day. It was like a verbal curse. He is a very good boy, he just doesn't like any kind of change at all. This has been a presence in his personality before, but now it is present with ANY change, from eating dinner to getting in the car. I know to expect some screaming. I am hoping this is a very short phase. He has been getting more and more verbal and telling stories more and more. He even prays on his own. His prayer goes something like this. "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless me from the waterslide. Jesus Christ Amen." A couple weeks ago we went to a pool with our friends, Alan, Jen and Anya. They had a big waterslide and he wanted to go down. Well he went down and I caught him, but he hit his head and was terrified the whole way down. I guess this was a big memory for him because he asks for protection a lot from it. Elijah also can count to ten. I wanted him to learn to count so I decided to make him do his own counting to get out of timeout. It worked like a charm. I am thinking of making him out to 20 now to get out of timeout. With the amount of time we put him into it, he should be counting to 100 in no time at all.

Potty training has been going well. He still won't poo in the toilet that much he is getting better. I asked the doctor about it and he said some kids are easy and others take years. Not to worry about it. Easier said than done, if I had a nickel for every time another mother told me it was easy I would be rich. He is peeing standing up though. Which is the cutest thing, if such a thing can be considered cute.

Ally has been learning to crawl and cruise. She really wants to walk and her whole goal in life is to accomplish that one feat. She will crawl a little so she can get somewhere and stand up. Usually she will start chewing or um...gumming the table she reached at this point because she can't do much when she gets there. She can't quite figure out how to get food into her mouth. We are not sure what to make of this. On the one hand it is nice because she doesn't crawl around vacuuming things into her mouth, on the other hand she can't self-feed. Well, she has figured out how to get a sippy cup into her mouth, but that is it. She enjoys bouncing (which usually gets her hurt) and dancing. She is so proud she can do these things.

Heidi and Ryan came to visit. They were here for his grandmothers funeral. We got to spend a day chit chatting with them. It was a lot of fun. It was good to see them before they set out to (maybe) Italy.

Oh I have a new calling. On Sunday I was called to be the Enrichment Night Nursery Leader. I was a little disappointed because I just got out of the nursery, but I accepted it. A few days later they gave me a different calling and said they made a mistake. I now create the ward newsletter. It is a TON of work, but it is much more up my alley then the other calling. I really like this one. Everyone is happy to get a call from me and I have a little helper to help me gather info.

Well I think this is all. When I start typing I tend to type forever.

Dinosaur Museum. Elijah's "create-a-dinosaur" and Mommy making sure he doesn't fall off.

Excavating the dinosaur's. This was pretty fun, even Ally got into it a little
Ally at her bath. She loves the big bath tub and I love bath picture's, so we are both happy.
Elijah and Ally in the Jumping thing. Elijah got this for his second birthday and he loves it. Ally likes it too, you just can't tell by her face. It's kind of like the play pen we can't keep her in.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Elijah turned three. I have been a mom for three years. It has taken a lot of getting used to, but it is so much fun to be a mom. The drawbacks don't seem like drawbacks, just obstacles I need to use a bit of creativity to get around. It probably helps that Elijah is about halfway potty trained. What changed? Well, I did. I changed my approach, and figured out something just for Elijah and I kind of had to dump all the suggestions I got from everyone else.

Nothing worked. He was ready, I knew he was, it was just easier for him to pee in a diaper. So I had to make it a challenge for him. Now he has to choose between a diaper and underwear. But I don't make it easy to choose the diaper. I told him if he wants to be a baby, he will do only baby things. Only guys are allowed to play the computer, shoot hoops, and paint. Babies also have accidents. He no longer pees in his pants. Now I am waiting for a stroke of genius to get him to poo in the toilet or potty. He is trying at least. Just not at the right time. He loves being a guy like dad and grandpa (he started saying grandpa this week instead of papa.)

We have had one major turmoil for Elijah. He now has to leave his pacifier in bed. He can use it as much as he wants, it just doesn't leave his bed. He is adjusting to this very well. If he forgets, I remind him and he runs to pacifier back to the nearest bed.

Elijah is really cute. His behavior improves each day and he is becoming a regular little boy. He loves to play with anyone who has the time and likes to do puzzles. At nursery I caught him flipping through his new Wiggles Birthday Party Book and reading it. (I was in there to help out.) He loves to count and sing his "ADC's." I especially love the "no-no-no-o-p" (lmnop) that every kid I've ever met slurs together when they hear the song. He got markers for his birthday. I asked him to be careful with his new shirt and not get any one it. "Mommy, I won't color my shirt." Two hours later he stands up and says, "Oh no! I need to change my shirt. The marker!!" He changes his shirt. I run in and look at the shirt. It had a couple little marks and I laughed. How sweet to worry about what I said. He's never done that before.

He is still asking me if I am happy. Like when he is sitting on the potty.
"Are you happy mommy?" I am feeling pleased, but don't want him to spend his life doing things for my benefit. I want him to learn to do them for there own reward, but I say, "Yes Elijah I am happy because you are my son. You are doing a great job using the potty!" It doesn't seem to help. I read recently oldest children are eager to please. I guess my desire to have him not do this is the middle child coming out in me. I find the trait grating in other people. Maybe when he becomes a teenager I will miss this, but for now...

Elijah has been really cute about his birthday. We had two parties for him this year, one friend and one family party. At the family party we had pizza, cake and ice cream. He came with me to get the pizza. Although it isn't the greatest pizza in the world (Little Caesars), there is something to be said for a place where I can walk up, ask for four pepperoni pizza's and an order of crazy bread for twenty dollars and have them hand it to me in 2 minutes. Elijah was really excited about having "Crazy Pizza." He had a cake and the highlight of the party came when I was about to walk it down the stairs. I had the cake full of lit candles and got to the top of the stairs when it slipped off the tray and landed top down on the top of the stairs. Elijah ran to his room and started crying, "My birthday is ruined!" Daddy explained that mommy saved the cake. Well, "saved" being the operative word. I had to get new candles, but the cake was completely intact except for his name. The cake now read, "Happy Birthday El j ! That's okay. Frosting is overrated anyway. Matt brought Elijah up to show him the cake was basically okay and he was happy. All he really wanted were Wiggles cupcakes anyway. While he opened the family presents he was excited to receive everything he got. He was just excited about the clothes as he was about the bathtub crayons. He opened the cards first (even though he could read them) and looked at the pictures. It really was adorable to watch.

Elijah also had a friend party this year. It was a Wiggles party. Honestly, for as cute and sweet and he was for the family party, is equal to as much of a little monster he was at the friend party. To be fair to Elijah, on Wednesday he got strep and a virus. The doctor gave him cough syrup with codine in it. It helps him sleep, but apparently makes it very hard to wake him up. The party started at 11 am and Elijah woke up (begrudgingly) at 10:40. But when all was said and done he was really happy all his friends came to play with him. That was his favorite part of the party. Not the treasure hunt, not the Wiggles food (you know Cold Spaghetti, Hot Potatoes and Mashed Bananas), not the presents and not the cake (which I managed to keep intact this time.) Oh well. That was the point wasn't it? He was excited for the gifts. He is a little perplexed though as to why his friend Gary would give him his clothes. He doesn't get they are a present.

We finally have Matt back and are spending more time together as a family. I feel like I haven't really seen him in months and I have been very sad without him. Now we are able to do things together again and I truly love him and know I married a really amazing guy. Through no fault of him own he has been really busy. Grad school is way harder than I thought it would be.

Ally is getting more and more mobile. She is on the verge of crawling. At this moment she is doing the worm across the office floor. We went to Daniel's Chuck E Cheese party and since then she has been extremely loud at times. If she doesn't get something she wants she starts to screech. I am trying to rid her of this extremely annoying habit. It is the first annoying thing she has done so I can't complain. It seems to grow less loud everyday. That or my hearing is decreasing in it's ability to hear the high decibels. Either way, it is getting better.

In other important news Ally and Elijah had there first babysitter alone together. My cousin Taylor invited us to see he choir perform. I said sure! Anything for Taylor. I guess in my mind I was thinking of something like a school choir. Silly me! I had no idea she was in the Salt Lake Children's Choir. We couldn't bring children so I asked my friend Jen to babysit. (For those who pay attention and read these things Jen is Anya's mommy and Anya is one of Elijah's best friends.) Jen was really sweet to do this and I trusted her because she does daycare out of her home. I was worried about Ally. She doesn't take the bottle and doesn't drink formula and she really loves ME. Which you would think would be nice, but somehow I just feel a little trapped at times. Don't get me wrong, I really love my daughter, she is such a snuggle bun, but I can't ever get away, by myself and this would be the first time in about nine months. I knew Jen could handle whatever Ally and Elijah dished out to her. Ally cried for a bit of the time, but we got to enjoy the concert. (Oh it was beautiful Taylor. You are definitely much more talented then a mere school choir which is what I always stuck too. I need to talk to you more if I am missing something as major as this in your life.) It was really strange not having kids to worry about, but we enjoyed the night out doing something we both enjoyed. Jen survived and amazingly Elijah was the good one. I love being the mother of a three year old. I understand three-year-old's so much better.

Ally drinking from a cup. She really likes it if I am eating or drinking it. I had a cat like that once.
Elijah's bed without railings. His bed is now too dangerous.
Sidewalk chalk. Elijah thinks this is pretty cool. Beautiful baby girl. She is posing for the camera. She looks more like my mother-in-law the older she gets. (this is a good thing) I got a comment on her apple red checks today. She still has my nose and ears (I think).

I Think I Can, I Think I Can...

Life has been kind of busy. I started the Cardio-Kickboxing class just to get out of the house. I must say, Best Exercise Ever. In my life I have done Aerobics, skiing, hiking, Rock-climbing, rollerblading, biking and running. I have never had such a total body workout. The things they have us do are amazing. Once they had me do Tae Kwando Sparing with some students (keep in mind I had never done it) while it was fun, it was definitely NOT my thing. My feet just can't tolerate that much activity barefooted for an hour. I was in agony.

I haven't really seen Matt much at all the last three weeks. I know he had something like 5 tests, two papers and three presentations. I miss my husband. Life is really hard without him. We were able to go to a hockey game. We went to a Grizzly's game and ended up in box seats. Hockey pretty fun to watch. I was kind of perplexed as to why there were four different mascots there. The was the Grizzly's bear who looks like Yogi bear, a raccoon for the apposing team, an Eagle for U of U I think and something else I can't remember. It was kind of strange. The Drill Team for the Grizzly's has the worst ever. I can't think of anything worse than dancing on ice with zamboni going around. Instead of dancing on the sideline, they were waaaay up at the top of the bleachers. It was kind of sad. We did have a good time and got to show Ally off some more. Heather was nice enough to take Elijah on a Nephew and Aunt night out. He watched Twice Upon a Christmas (sorry I missed it) and Rollie Pollie Ollie.

We took a family trip on Trax this Saturday to give Elijah a train ride. Initially, he sat down and "read" a three page book over and over. Then he started to warm up to pushing buttons and hanging on straps. We took him to Temple Square and ate at Crossroads Mall and did a little shopping. And I do mean a little. There isn't many stores left to shop from. We hopped on the train to go home and ended up on the wrong line. So we got to see the University of Utah too. We didn't mind that. It was a lot of fun. We are thinking of doing it again soon sometime.

Elijah has been taking Tumbling. He really likes it a lot. He loves to run back and forth. I just kind of stand there directing him most of the time because I can not keep up. He is really cute. He is the only two year old who can climb the rope wall and the only one who cries when jumping into the sponge pit. He also lost his pants in the pit once, but no worries. We found them. He has learned to do straddles, forward rolls, and backward rolls into the pit. He is also potty training. That is not going well. Noooo, not well at all. We have established that is not a baby, he is a guy. Boy don't call him a baby or you are going to get it. I think I have tried every suggestion in the book (except for the castor oil, I am getting MUCH closer to using it, but I'm still not there yet.) We have started a sticker chart now and the potty seat is in the family room (what a joy THAT is). He was recently called the smartest kid on nursery by a nursery leader. I agree, but what do I know? I also think he is the cutest one in nursery. We are currently planning a Wiggles Party for his birthday. The plan is to have a Treasure Hunt. It should be fun. He is still fascinated with cars, trucks, trains and the emotional well-being of everyone. This is a typical conversation with Elijah:

"Mommy, are you happy?"

"Yes, I'm happy."

"Not sad?"

"No, not sad."

"Not angry?

"Not angry."

Time goes on like this....

"Mommy, are you happy?"

"Well, no. I am getting frustrated."

"You sad?"

"No, not sad. Frustrated."

"You angry?"

"NO, frustrated, Elijah. Please go talk to your daddy for a while."

I have been surprised by my children's growth. Elijah spent two years in the 100% in height. Ally was in the 95% a couple months ago. They have both slowed down. My children are no longer bemahuthes. (HA!HA! Mom I couldn't resist. Long story!)

Ally is starting to become mobile. She rolls and rotates around and gets toys she wants to play with. She rolls over and sits up. She is getting the hang of this even faster than Elijah did. She loves her pink teddy bear and anything else that goes in her mouth. She also likes to move backwards in her walker. Her new approach to getting something that you are eating/holding is to stare at it. If she stares at it long enough I guess she figures we will give it to her. Well, that is usually true. Elijah doesn't like this approach sometimes. Once he yelled, "Ally (or rather "Halle" as he likes to say) Stop looking at ME!!" I did not know what to do then. "Elijah she doesn't understand that bugs you." "Ally, he doesn't understand you want his drink. It doesn't matter anyway because you can't have milk."

Ally also really likes mobiles. She loves the one over her crib and thinks it is extremely cool that everyone else has one above there bed too. Really? You ask. Yes, she believes that ceiling fans are also mobiles and will stare at one until you turn it on, just like she does in her crib. She also really likes baths. This is like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." If she hears you start a bath she cries until you take into the bathroom. If you take her there she smiles really big with this expectant look on her face. If she looks at you with that expectant look on her face you feel like giving her anything she wants and who really needs a nice relaxing bath anyway? And in the end she gets into the tub with you. Or rather ME because Matt doesn't take baths.

I have an interesting diaper problem. Elijah is a size four (no butt) and Ally is a size three (girl butt) and I get their diapers confused. But I ingeniously found a solution! (This didn't really take that much thinking.) I buy him Pampers and her Huggies. Now it is easy. I know, I know. Save the applause for later. I can come up with amazing ideas at the drop of a hat.

In other news, Elijah and Ally have been suffering with walking pneumonia. Matt and I have been suffering right along with them. Elijah was the sickest with fevers up to 103 degrees. Ally only for up to 101. Elijah was kind of a bear the entire time Karyn was here. The day after she left he was his old self, a total scamp. He has also contracted pink eye. I HATE when he gets pink eye because HE hates eye drops. I have to hold him down four times a day! I think I have now contracted the Walking Pneumonia because I was getting bored and needed another obstacle in life. Maybe it is just the flu.

Karyn's (Matt's sister) visit was fun. She and I went shopping, she played with her friends, we went shopping, Karyn got a haircut and she went to school with Matt. We had fun, we did the things we enjoy doing the most together. Heather highlighted my hair. It was a long process (four hours) it was Heathers first time, and mine too. It looks rather nice. I like it, it is a caramel/orange color. I am going back in soon to take the orange parts out.

We have some good news. We may finally be able to see Matt's paternal grandmother. I remain the only spouse she hasn't met and my kids the only kids she hasn't met. (Except Timothy, who is five months older than Ally, so I don't feel so bad.)

Okay here are the pictures: (Lets see if I can get it right this time. When I said "Elijah in a box", I really meant, "Feeding the ducks with Alexis.")

1.) Ally using a sucker to get the taste of medicine out of her mouth. Nothing is like..bad..medicine... ehm.
2.) Cyclops Baby. Does this happen to anyone else? Ally doesn't really say much when it happens. She just takes a nap.3.) Elijah and Anya taking a bath. There is one way to improve on the basic bath. Involve a Super Soaker.
4.) Family outing on Trax. Ally kept her eye on the window and Elijah picked up Pink Eye. 5.) Elijah and some random girl at the Christus.
6.) Ally talked me into giving her ice cream. She has such compelling arguments.7.) Kisses anyone? Elijah at the water fountain in Crossroads Mall/Not Going to Remain Open for Much Longer at the Rate it is Going Mall.