A Day in the Life of 2 year old.

Thus far today ( it is nearly 4 o'clock) my 2 year old has-

• Peeled and then refused to eat a banana resorting to putting it in a bowl of dirt.
• Fed his little sister incredible amounts of oatmeal. Well ok put lots on a spoon that went in her direction.
• Taken a bath and still managed to be dirty 10 minutes later.
• Tried to put strawberries in my pocket.
• Took a q-tip that had been dipped in gentian violet ( one of the most incredibly staining substances I have ever encountered) and rubbed it all over the toilet seat.
• Put 2 rolls of toilet paper in the toilet.
• That was followed by putting my curling iron in the toilet.
• Threw graham crackers on the carpet I had just vacuumed.

As I type this there are giant globs of strawberry juice dried to the wall behind me where he had thrown half eaten strawberries. He is lucky he is charming when you talk to him. He might not survive until tomorrow.

He has voluntarily started potty training. I just am afraid of leaving him the bathroom alone for earlier stated reasons.

The mind

I have never been one for horror, gore or just plain creepiness. That stuff sticks with me. I see it over again as soon as the lights go out.

I also happen to have a baby who requires me to get up during random hours of the night.

Watching a TV show with grotesque images shortly before bedtime is not a brilliant idea for me. I wound up doing that anyway last night. Even though we then watched something humorous immediately following the image was still burned brightly into my brain and was haunting me when I needed to fall asleep. Phebe however did not think we should go to sleep.

I learned an interesting lesson last night about my mind, as I was up over and over again taking care of an infant at 1 am trying to rid myself of a terrifying scene.

I realized I can not fence off a bad image in my mind.

I can't simply tell myself that we aren't going to think of that any more and hope my thoughts will find something else to do.

We have all been told not to think of something and suddenly that is all we can think of. The same concept applies here. I do not want to think of it so what do I do? I obsess.

When left to wander my mind always came back. However, if led in a very purposeful distinct direction the results were significantly better. I have to give a talk soon in Sacrament meeting at church. Once I decided to think about how I was going to present my material I no longer had any problems of drifting back. My mind had a direction to go and was doing a great job in accomplishing its task.

You must replace not just try to avoid.




Sorry if you already knew all that. It was a pretty profound moment for me.

Naomi's dream

Naomi had a dream lastnight that Raphael the Ninja Turtle came to visit her. He asked her to watch a movie with him. What did they watch you might ask? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I. Raphael really likes that movie .

Hugs

Me: (pulling Caleb in for a hug.) "I need a hug."
Caleb: " I need a hot dog."

Alter egos

Caleb can't say Naomi. It comes out similar to "wo-i". The other day I came down stairs to him struggling to get her attention calling "Wo-i, Wo-i"!

Naomi turned around and said "No! That isn't my name! My name is Squirrel. Call me Squirrel!'

Mother's Day

Last night my elder daughter woke up at 3:30 am crying and wheezing and coughing and choking out,"Somebody please help me breathe." It was truly terrifying. I am so glad that prayers work and the Holy Ghost is actually there to help. We finally all went back to bed around 5; after baths and Vicks Vapo Rub and goofing off.

Dr say it is probably croup. Bleh. Also claims croup is an illness that nearly disappears during the day and shows back up full force at night. 3 days long. 2 more nights to go.


Today I was honored to attend a "Mother's Day Tea Party" in my son's kindergarten class. It was wonderful. A room full of kindergartners singing about how they love you is a touching thing. There were many highlights of the morning. I will share some:

When asked what your mother would do if she had 5 minutes of peace a little girl told us her mom "would bake cookies for her sisters and me." Her mom commented " Well isn't that nice of me."Every child was asked what food their mom makes best. I am pleased to report that my son said I cook the best shrimp fried rice. Out of a class of 20 kids there were:

• cookies- 4 votes
• brownies-2
• pizza -3
• cake-7

They then drew a picture of their mom cooking and wrote the recipe on the back. All of the recipes were compiled in a book for us to take home. I bet you thought you knew how to make cookies. Well wait till you hear some of their tips.

• "Put in bowl for 20 or 6 minutes a little bit hot and a little bit cold."
• "Put into the oven (warm for a minute). Take out and put a doll in.
• "Put it in the oven for 10 mins at 2 degrees"
• "Put them in the oven at 1 degree. Bake them for a while... one minute."
• "Put in microwave at 50 degrees for 10 minutes. Put mayonnaise on the sandwich ( a little... actually a lot.) Heat up the whole sandwich in the microwave for 50 mins. Eat and watch some television.
• "Put in the oven for 43 seconds at 700 degrees."

And you thought you knew how to cook.....

Amazing updates.

This is just a list of random things going on. I'm not very good with consistent thoughtful updates.

• I hurt my ankle 3 weeks ago. It still isn't healed. At least not as well as I want it to be. My husband is getting concerned. I really don't do very well with "take it easy for a while." If I "take it easy" I tend to just think of more things to do since I wasn't doing something else. Plus I do have various sized children expecting me to actively participate in their lives. Trying... but oh how planting blueberry bushes and doing laundry seemed important.
• I invited the Muslim man at the bus stop to see one of our church general authorities ( Richard G. Scott ) who is coming to speak to us on Sunday. Very excited! Sadly he is moving away and won't be able to make it. We have had many religious discussions in the last few days and I am impressed at how many similarities there actually are between our beliefs. There are still plenty of things we don't agree on but I thought Islam was much farther away then it actually is. ( At least according to what this man told me anyway.)
• We figured out how to wire our TV to the computer. Awesomeness. Sound and everything.
• Today is a movie day. All day. Movies and naps.