Jo Jo

I'm also exceptionally grateful for this extremely amusing child.

He makes me laugh multiple times a day. I was trying to think of funny things he's been doing to tell my dad on the phone yesterday and I remembered a few.
1- Jonah loves helping me by throwing things away in the trash. He especially feels responsible for throwing away used diapers, both his and Elora's. He immediately picks them up after a changing and says, "trash" and I go open the bathroom, pantry, or Elora's bedroom door so that he can go in and throw it away. He even opens the lidded trashcan with his foot on the foot pedal. When I don't let him go outside with me to the outside trash to throw away his poopy diapers he is really mad. Also, twice recently I was laying him down for his nap and he got upset yelling "trash" from his bed because I was going to leave the room holding a used diaper and throw it away myself. I got him out of bed so he could do it and he went down quietly for his nap after that.

2- I have been careful to try and not let Jonah get too attatched to any one stuffed animal or blanket. He always goes to bed with a couple soft things, but never the same ones too often. Lately he has taken to requesting which "stuffy" he would like in bed with him at naptime and bedtime. We'll lay him down with a stuffed animal or be about to grab him one and he'll say, "bear", "dog", "muk-ee", or "frog" and we'll have to find him that particular one. It's pretty cute.

Well, I'm off to clean house, play with kids, prepare for company, and get ready for staying at the cabin tonight and having Thanksgiving tomorrow.

I am grateful that my good friend Victoria is able to come out from Las Vegas to spend this holiday and the whole weekend with us!

Giving Thanks

My cousin Jill's blogs this week are all about being Thankful. What a great idea! I am grateful for so many things this morning. I got a good night's rest and am in a great mood with lots of good things on my mind.


Yesterday was Elora's six month check up at the doctor. She is again confirmed as perfect. Her tiny little head is actually exactly average for girls her age. She is only in the 25th percentile for height (meaning 75% of 6 mo. old girls are taller) and in only the 5th percentile for weight. He said we should be able to get some more chub on her now that she's starting solid food.
My baby is getting pretty mobile with rolling and scooting. She gets up on her knees to try and crawl but can never manage to go forward. She sleeps 12 hours a night with only one feeding at about 3am. She has started doing the super-cheese smile a lot now! She LOVES her big brother and likes everybody. She is a great baby.

Elora,
I can't believe you're so grown up already. I remember when Jonah was 7 months old I suddenly felt like he didn't need me so much anymore, I feel that way with you now. I continue to "punish" you for naughty things like being TOO cute with lots and lots of kisses. You make me smile so many times a day. I especially love when you wake up and I come in to get you out of your crib and you smile like you are so happy to see me and then usually "talk" to me a bit. You have the cutest voice imaginable!
I am so thankful to have such a gorgeous, strong, smart, healthy baby girl. I am glad that even though you've had a runny nose for almost a week that you haven't had a fever, haven't been fussy or sick-acting. I am grateful that you can entertain yourself so well. It's fun that you like other people so much and are so into toys now and also love watching and grabbing at the cats.
You spend a significant portion of your days sitting in one of your exersaucers where you can play with all the toys on it, exercise your legs by standing or bouncing and best of all you have a good view of everything around you.
You suck on three fingers a lot, especially when you are tired or hungry. You don't cry much at all. Sometimes I think I hear you wake up from a nap but then don't really hear anything from you for awhile and I sneak in to peek at you and you are laying there happily sucking your fingers and kicking your legs.
Jonah has stopped calling you "Lor-Lor" and now calls you "La-Lo" or just "baby". I still call you Lor-Lor sometimes though. Mostly I call you "little woman". I always thought I'd be happy just having boys but I am really SO thrilled to have my petite, gorgeous, feminine little gal.
I love you so much!
Your Adoring Mother

Date Night

Brandon and I celebrated our 11th anniversary this weekend (though the actual date is on Wednesday). We dropped the kids off with the in-laws for 24 hours!! Our date yesterday looked something like this:

Elora's First Solid Food

Elora tried rice cereal for the first time yesterday.

Stuck

About two weeks ago Jonah made up a little game called Stuck. Several times a day he would climb up onto something and claim he was stuck. He would stay on the couch, coffee table, or whatever playing and occassionally proclaim, "stuck." Eventually he would get bored but still insist on yelling "stuck" over and over until I got him down.

Friends

Here is Jonah on Friday with his best friend, Vivian.

Today I sat down in church next to my neighbor, Sheryl, and her three-year-old son, Seth. We were directly behind Vivian and her parents. Vivian looks at me, then scowls, then asks, "Nonah?" I told her that Jonah was at home. She was not happy.

Seth: Why is Jonah at home?
Me: He has a really runny nose.
Seth: Why?
Me: I don't know, I guess he's kind of sick cause he sure has a lot of snot.
Seth: Oh. Guess what?
Me: What?
Seth: My penis hurts.

A Comparison

Jonah at 4 months.



Elora at 5 months.

Do These Make Me Look Smarter?

Jonah wearing Gampa Alan's glasses in quite possibly the cutest picture of him ever.



wearing Grammy Linda's glasses, which make him look a bit like Papa Stan

Bouncin' Baby

Go Miners!

After a rocky beginning to the season, Coach (my brother-in-law) and his team made it to the playoffs and get to play at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the UofU tomorrow night. Last week was a close game and we were all glad we got to see it. Congratulations! Good luck, Park City and Uncle Brandon!

Pumpkin-Head

Despite the fact that Jonah wore his costume no less than four times, Elora only put hers on once. On Halloween evening , we caught the end of my BIL's football game. It was an early kickoff so we brought the kids to the game in their costumes since they're too young to appreciate trick-or-treating yet anyway. We got back to their Grampa & Grammy's place by their bedtimes and in time for us to catch the late trick-or-treaters and to watch an old black and white horror flick.

Not Necessarily Newsworthy

In case anyone misread my last post, it was not a complaint, just stating facts. I love my life. I love being a mom. I love being able to stay at home to raise my children. I don't mind not leaving the house much. I don't mind doing any of those things listed on my daily list really. Life is good. I am happy.
That said, there was a lot of snot today. Poor Jonah was a snot machine. I had to have a tissue in my hand at every moment. The snot bulb (you know those baby nose-sucker-thingies) saw a lot of use today. Poor little guy.
And now for something completely different...
Sick of not having anywhere in the house to put cute knicknacks, I finally bought a couple shelves and had Brandon put them up in the family room. I also had him put up two shelves on Elora's poor, bare walls. I didn't have anything to put on the shelves in her room, so I made due with what I did have. I think the result, though temporary, is both practical and darling.

Daily Tasks

Everyday I...

Get dressed
Prepare three meals
Breastfeed Elora 6 times
Feed the cats
Change about 11 diapers
Get Jonah dressed
Do a load of laundry
Check my email
Unload & load the dishwasher
Email and/or blog and/or at least read my friends status updates on Facebook
Read Jonah at least one book
Spend 10 minutes in the bathroom with Jonah for potty practice time (new)
Try and find new ways to entertain my kids and help them learn
Sweep the dining room floor
Put away toys
Have a conversation with Brandon
Watch a show or read
Brush my teeth at least once
Pray at least once

Notice some things are missing from my list, such as:
shower
bathe the kids
put on makeup and do my hair
leave the house
talk on the phone
return emails
clean the house
spending much quality time with Brandon
time for friends
exercise
read my scriptures (this has got to change!)

Things I dread but have to do a lot anyway:
clipping the kids fingernails
cleaning
changing the litterbox
grocery shopping
running errands

Bookclub once a month is basically my social life. That and hanging out with my in-laws most weekends.
Storytime at the library every week and nursery for almost two hours on Sundays is Jonah's social life.

Actually a lot has been happening here lately and there is more coming up.
Last Wed. Brandon and I saw Noises Off in Salt Lake at Pioneer Theater one evening and left Elora with a non-family babysitter for the first time. She did great and has been really good with taking a bottle about once a week lately. She is almost ready for solid foods now.
Picked up a permit to cut our out Christmas tree again this year.
Went to my brother-in-law's football game on Friday evening with the kids and in-laws.
Spoke in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. Had the missionaries over for dinner that night.
Left the kids with B on Monday morning while I ran errands.
Got to babysit Jonah's best friend Vivian for a couple hours this morning. Supposed to watch a movie with her mom, Angela, this evening for a little girl's night out.
More to come...

Sibling Time

Feet

Last Wednesday

Last Tuesday night we had our season's first real snowfall. Brandon took Jonah outside in his pajamas for a minute to see and feel it falling on him. We took him inside to look in the mirror and his pjs dusted in snowflakes. He was very amused.
Wednesday morning we went to the library like usual. I could hardly get Jonah took the car because he wanted to touch the snow, play in it, and eat it.
When we got home and I got him out of the car he ran to the driveway and immediately started playing with/in the snow. So cute! He doesn't remember it from last year I suppose.

Last Thursday

Last Thursday was pretty cold, there was the year's first real snow on the ground. We'd been invited over to someone's house for a home party just around the block. I decided to bundle the kids up and get some exercise. There will be plenty of days that are just too cold to go outside, but this wasn't one of them.

My Angel Baby

Elora is a finger sucker. It's really cute. She self-soothes really well and it's easy to tell when she's tired.

Pumpkins

Picking out a pumpkin (that he and Dad never carved).



The silly pumpkin I carved at my girlfriend's 3rd annual pumpkin carving party.



All of the finished jack-o-lanterns at the end of Jen's delicious dinner and carving party.

Somebody Adores Her Big Brother

I'm Not Voting

It is election day, I have someone willing to watch my kids while I run to the polls, but I have decided not to vote. I feel guilty for not directly participating in the democratic process. I feel doubly guilty because I did not vote in the 2004 presidential elections. At that time I felt that neither candidate was suitable, at least this time I feel that either one will do.
I don't know if I have disappointed all of my politically active friends or none of them now, but I feel I am making the right choice. I have always found it amusing that people can so enthusiastically back a candidate they do not know personally and do not agree with on everything, though certainly I see the point in voting for the one who most agrees with your personal politics and values.
At this point I feel that both candidates are fairly decent people. I don't despise either of them and I don't detest either of their policies. I think they both have weak ideas on how to reduce our national debt, I don't feel that either are well equipped to boost our economy, and I feel that they are either weak or misguided in their ideas about what is needed in educational reforms. Those are the biggest issues to me in this election so I don't feel it necessary to put my name down as a disciple of either candidate. I will support whomever is put into office and I will pray for help for this country and hope for major changes.
I could write oh so much more, but I have decided not to at this time. I welcome your remarks though.

Dad, I Don't Embarrass That Easily

While trying to encourage my dad to write a blog on why he likes Sarah Palin I mentioned some concerns I had at the front of my brain. One was who takes care of her young children while she is governing/campaigning. I thought that would also have been a concern to my very conservative father. I am as equally concerned about who takes care of Obama's children while he's out campaigning (or working as a senator or president) as well. I read a really great blog on the subject that mirrors my own feelings on the subject of politics and childcare and also feminism. You can find the article here.

Thank You Karen

...for the extremely cute witch bath towel that both the kids like. You should hear Jonah's witch laugh (Brandon's is pretty good too).