Apparently this is a post about hats

Okay, so now I really ought to start writing again.  Recording the memorable/everyday events of our family.  So I'm starting today.  Here goes!!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday.  I used to always tell people she was turning 21 again, but now that I'm 25, it's getting harder and harder to convince people of that. ;)

The important thing isn't that yesterday was Mom's birthday - it was that she flew to Austin to come visit us!!  She was going to come on Halloween and stay for a week, but at the last minute she decided she'd rather come later in the month.  It actually turned out really well, because Mace started crawling a few weeks ago. :)  I'm pretty sure that makes Mom's trip so much more exciting and fun, to have a crawling grandbaby. <3

We picked up Mom from the airport, then went to Mark's new job downtown, then ate dinner at the taco food truck by Mark's work (SO SO GOOD), then went over to 6th Street to look at hats at The Hat Box.  Mark has been asking me for weeks about getting a new hat from that place.  He has a coworker who, apparently, wears *amazing hats* and he got them all from The Hat Box.  Mark had a famous hat for a few years, but then we last it at Disneyland last year.  Funny coincidence: It was a hat we bought from the Indiana Jones store, and we lost it 3 years later on the Indiana Jones ride. :(

Old hat:

Carmen wearing Mark's hat!

New hat:

Mace wearing Mark's hat!  ... why do I not have any pictures of Mark in his own hats?!

We actually bought two new hats for Mark, but I only have a picture of this one.  The other one looks a bit more like the old hat.  Now I'm going to go on a hat tangent ... hats are big in Mark's family.  Sort of.  His brother, James, tends to wear hats and looks good in them.  We might get him a hat for Christmas (I doubt James will read this. phew.)  Mark's dad tends to wear fisherman hats.  But I don't have a picture of it.  Maybe some day!

I guess Mark looks really good in hats.  I'm just ... not used to them.  I don't wear hats.  Dang.  He's right.  He looks good in hats.  I should stop encouraging him to dress like a bum.  I'm such a boring t-shirt and jeans-type girl.

Jorgen's wedding, February 2011

Okay, maybe he doesn't always look great in hats.  But that doesn't stop him from always trying them on.

From our Mexico cruise in February 2010.  He tried on my cousin Emery's hat.

Taken some time in ... 2007?  One of our poor newlywed dates to DI where we bought a $35 couch.

Hm, somehow this turned into an entry about hats!  Okay!  So anyway, Mark got some nice new expensive hats last night as his Christmas present.

Today, I went to the gym in the morning to let Mom have some quiet time to get ready for the day.  All week long, Mace has been clingy and has cried (loudly!) the whole time I've been gone ... Usually the people in the gym day care try to let me work out for at least an hour if my baby is fussy, but this week has been so bad they've called me back after 20 minutes. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.  I had an appointment with a personal trainer last week who gave me a list of things to do, and this week I learned to immediately hit the machines fast and hard, because I'd probably only have 20 minutes to work out.  Hah! But then today, he was pretty cheerful and I got a whole hour in!  I was able to do all of the lifting I wanted to do, and I even got some time on the elliptical to read my Book Club book (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks).  When I came back to the day care to pick my kids up (I wanted to go home and keep my mom company), Mace had just fallen asleep in the swing.  Aww~ <3

Mace took a ridiculously long nap in the afternoon, and when he finally woke up we went shopping with Mom on a Christmas quest to find an elf to do the "elf on a shelf" thing.  I hadn't really heard of this until a few years ago, when a friend of a friend posted pictures on her Livejournal of this weird cute little Christmas elf.  Apparently it's like a little gnome you hide around the house at Christmas time, and the kids get excited trying to figure out where the elf is hiding.  We couldn't find an elf, so Carmen picked out a Christmas puppy.  Close enough. ;)

Then we went to the mall to ride on the carousel and walk around.  There's a little kids' play area by the carousel and Carmen likes to go play with the little kids.  Since Mace is crawling, I set him out on the floor and let him watch the bigger kids play.  He is kind of a road block, and other moms are constantly telling their kids to watch out for the baby and be careful.  I'm not sure if I'm being helpful (now they are more aware of other people when they are playing!) or if I'm being annoying (why the eff is that weirdo mom letting her baby potentially get run over by packs of 3-year-olds?!) but I don't care if a little kid runs over Mace.  It will make up for the fact that he doesn't have a whole bunch of older siblings to maul him!  He only has Carmen!

It was really funny to watch the kids play at the mall.  They ran around in circles screaming, "AAAAUUUGGGHH IT'S THE BABY MONSTER!  HE IS GOING TO GET US!" and they would run away, as Mace smiled at them and got up on his hands and knees and rocked back and forth.  He didn't really want to go anywhere, so he just spun around in circles, watching kids and smiling, then occasionally coming over to Mom or me to gnaw on our shoes.  Oh, baby Mace, how I love you.

So .... that was our day.

And here's a picture of my mom ... she and Mace were matching today!  It was not intentional!

Don't you think she looks 21?

Wow.  Writing this was fun.  I think I'll do this more often.

Personal family things

Now I'd like to take the opportunity to share a few things that have been going on in my life lately.

Mace is 4 months old.  I love him so much!

• He's a super-huge flirt who loves to talk.  He loves attention, and I love looking into his eyes.  He looks back at me, as if searching for some kind of reassurance, and when I smile, he beams at me.
• He loves it when people sing to him - one of the ladies at the gym day care even told me about it. :)
• He loves sucking on his Binky, and when it's not around, he sticks his entire hand into his mouth and sucks on it madly.  It's hilarious.  And for a kid who loves his Binky so much, he sure stinks at keeping it in his mouth!
• He loves to grab and pull at his toys.
• He understands when I'm promising him milk.  If he's fussing and I say, "Wait just a minute, I'll get you some milk, let me sit down..." he stops and looks at me for a while.  And if I get distracted and do something other than start nursing him, he furrows his brow and starts crying at me again. ;)
• He started rolling over about a week ago, and now he can roll from front to back and back to front!  But I think he only rolls over in one direction - when he's on his back, he'll roll over his left arm onto his stomach, then he'll roll over again and be farther away from where he started.
• He loves his big sister.  She is very good at comforting him, and when she got him to stop crying at the end of her swimming lessons a few weeks ago, one of the other parents was like, "Wow, she is the baby whisperer!!"
• Carmen loves him to death, too.  She helps stick his Binky in, she plays with him, she helps him roll over, she brings him toys, she talks to him in the high-pitched loving Mommy voice adults use with babies (apparently it's a natural thing for parents to do - babies are better at picking up the high-pitched sounds and we recognize that they respond to it.  We're not just being super-annoying with our baby talk.)  I love walking into a room and hearing her singing to him, or going, "Baby Mace, you're a cutie, you're a cutie!  Let's keep you forever!  I love you!  You are the cutest and sweetest baby!"  And when he's crying, she caresses his face and goes, "Shh, shh, shh, oh, sweetheart, you're okay, shh~"
• For some reason, I like to call Mace "Stinkerfish."  Sometimes Carmen gets upset when I call him that, and she goes, "He's not a stinkerfish!  He's a sweetheart!"

Carmen loves being a big sister.  I think she's hilarious, too.  I love having a creative 3-year-old!!

Carmen Dewey: Dinosaur Hunter

• For some reason, she is obsessed with death.  I've probably been watching too much Burn Notice with her. ;)  I hear her playing in her room, and she's like, "Hey, everypony, Pinkie Pie is dead."  And a few weeks ago in Nursery, she told her Nursery leaders that one of her friends died, and they were a bit worried about that ... I asked her about it in the hall, and she told me that it was one of her pretend friends that died.  "Yeah, she went out into the street without looking and got hit by a car and she DIED."  O.o;  I don't teach her that she'll die if she gets hit by a car.  I say she needs to be careful because the car might not see her, and if it hit her she'd get "big ouchies".  Apparently big ouchies = death.
• The best part of my day is when Carmen comes up to me and gives me a big hug and says, "Mommy, I just love you!"
• Sometimes, she says, "Ugh, Mommy, if you [do thing I don't like], I will not love you any more!"  (What?!  I don't threaten her with taking away love!  Where does she get this from?!) and other times, when we get frustrated with each other, she glares at me and goes, "But Mommy, I still love you!!"  Hehehe.
• I haven't quite figured out what this means, but sometimes she says, "I am the MADDEST Carmen!"  Usually this is when she's going to go out and kill dinosaurs or something.  I think she also says it when she's recently been scared by a bug (usually a spider/ant/fly).
• We're kind of working on our fear of bugs.  When bugs are inside, it's okay to freak out and get Mommy and Daddy to kill them.  When we're outside, I try to tell her, "This is their home; they're not scary and I won't kill them for you."
• Carmen is very thoughtful and obedient.  While we were on vacation in Utah, my dad and I were both taking naps downstairs on the couch.  I heard Carmen come down the stairs, calling out, "Mommy?  Grandpa Brad??" and when she saw both of us asleep, she sighed exasperatedly (it sounded a bit like Napoleon Dynamite) ... then turned around and went back upstairs, instead of waking us up and bothering us.  Seriously?  Seriously!!  I was so happy!!!!
• My favorite made-up word by Carmen?  "Yestertime."
• She is super-upbeat and optimistic and sweet.  "That sounds super-delicious!" "That is WONDERFUL, mommy!" "Mom, everything in this grocery store is SO PERFECT!" and our favorite descriptor for tasty fruit is, "It's super-juicy!"  Super-juicy strawberries, super-juicy apples, super-juicy pears ... Also, whenever we go to a place that will have kids there she can play with, she calls them, "All of my very best friends!" (I think she gets it from the My Little Pony theme song?)
• Everything exciting that she is looking forward to doing is happening TOMORROW.  I can't wait to go to my swim lessons TOMORROW.  I can't wait to start my dance lessons TOMORROW and wear my tap-tap-tap shoes.  I want to move into our new big house RIGHT NOW.  (or tomorrow. ;)  )
• Carmen reminds me of the little girl from Toy Story 3.  She runs around with her toys and everything that happens to them is SO DRAMATIC.  I love it!!

I want to write more in here about family happenings.  I've been distracting myself too much for the past year or so to write, but I really need to do it!!  (Facebook status updates are enough, right?  Right???)

In other news ... we are moving into a house next Saturday (yaaaaayyyyyy!!!!) so this week should be crazy full of packing and whatnot.  Being OCD and all, I started packing boxes last week to take downstairs to the garage (I don't want to ask my friends to carry all of our stuff down two flights of stairs) ... then Carmen decided she wanted to help and she put all of her ponies and other favorite toys into her backpack.  Ahahaha.  I love her.

Days in the life ...

Often times I feel like my day consists of nothing but, "solve crisis, solve crisis, solve crisis, solve crisis ..." (the preschooler lost a toy, needs to go potty, or is hungry, and the baby needs snuggles or milk or to be changed) and it's amazing I manage to clean or run errands, considering I have about 10 minutes (when lucky) before I get called into another room for one thing or another.  It's like having ADD!

"MOMMY, baby Mace is crying and it hurts my ears!"
"Can you give Mace his binky?"
*long pause* "Um ... nooooo ... by the way, is my lunch ready yet?  And can you make me chocolate milk?  And I need to go potty.  And Mace is still crying."

I wish I were an octopus or ElastiGirl. ;)


According to my Facebook:

Me: Ah, those blissful 2 minutes between the moment you finish cleaning/organizing something and when your 3-year-old (or husband) turns everything upside-down again ...
Amanda: You get two whole minutes? :) (2 likes)


It's actually easier to run errands, because then both of the kids are in the same place and Carmen can be distracted by all of the goings-on.  I just have to, you know, find time to get dressed first. ;)

Mace's Names

There are three things Carmen calls Mace most often.

(in order of popularity)

• Mister Macey Man
• Sweetheart
• Silly Dude

2-year-olds are hilarious

I love talking to Carmen and hearing her talk.  We had a blast on the Oregon coast with all of her Dewey cousins and aunts and uncles.

Mark's sister, Karen, has a sweet husky named Koda.  Carmen fell in love with him and figured out how to get along with him.  They snuggled a lot and did a lot of chase, and the most common phrase I heard from Carmen was, "Ohhhhhhh, he give me kisses!!!!"

On one of our last nights there, we had the following exchange:
Carmen: Koda's my doggy!
Me: Actually, he's Karen's doggy.  Karen is Koda's mommy.
Carmen: *thoughtful pause*  No, he's my doggy.  We'll buy him!
Ben (Karen's husband, happens to be walking outside at that moment): SOLD!!!

They had offered to trade their dog for our two-year-old.  I'm sorry to say the offer wasn't the least bit tempting. ;)


Another time, we were doing a final load of laundry before packing all of our stuff to go home.  We got some clothes from Mark's parents, and Mark's dad decided that this might be a good time to sneak off and take a shower.  Carmen walks past my in-laws' bedroom and goes, "*gasp!* Grandpa Larry is naked!"

I nod my head a little and try to talk about something else, hoping she's done with her announcement for the day.  Sometimes they'll stop if you don't draw attention to it.  But this is an exciting deal to her.  She continues.  "Mommy, Grandpa Larry is naked!  HE'S NAKED, MOMMY!  Grandpa Larry's NAAAAAAAKED!!!"

Finally, my father-in-law manages to stand up for himself and he squeaks out, "Carmen, I'm not completely naked!  I'm wearing a towel!"

"Oh, he's not completely naked, Mommy.  Grandpa Larry's wearing a towel!"

"Thank you." and he scurries off to the bathroom without further incident.


You just can't hide anything from a 2-year-old.

More Carmenisms

Carmen used to call her friend Braxton "Bobby".  He would get really upset every time she said his name.  "I'm BRAXTON, not BOBBY!"

Two-year-olds learn quickly as they master making sounds with their mouths and learn to formulate sentences.  "Bobby" has now evolved into a name that sounds a bit like "Button" with an occasional "x" in it.  This weekend, Braxton's family went to Grandma's house and I had the opportunity to feed their cats.  Carmen loved coming over and seeing Kanga and Roo.  This morning, after dropping Mark off at work, she said, "Bra-tin's house!  Roo house!" because she remembered the names of the cats that lived there. <3  I love having a two-year-old!!

She also used to use the phrase, "I hold you!" to ask us to pick her up and carry her downstairs or wherever we're going.  This morning, her grammar evolved again.  "I hold you me!" she said.

On Friday night, we had another game night at our house.  Jorgen came over and while they were saying goodbye to each other, I said, "Hey, Carmen, can you say, 'I love you, Jorgen'?" and she parroted, "I love you, Jorgen!"  This is the first time she's said, "I love you" to anyone!  Cute!!

Today, I was cleaning the kitchen and I turned around and saw Carmen standing there with her eyes closed and her arms folded.  "Father, thank you thank you, sippy." she said.  Sadie said, "Carmen's saying a prayer!"  ... which I thought was really cute.  When we say prayer at dinner, we ask Carmen which parent she wants to have say it.  Lately, she's been saying, "I do it!" and then folds her arms and starts mumbling gibberish.  It's kinda funny, because sometimes she actually says words and other times she just mumbles cute stuff.

Anywho.  I've been kind of sick since Carmen's birthday on Wednesday.  I hope to write more in the future, but life just got really busy.

Mark got a job in Austin and we're moving in July.

HOLY COW.

You know the phrase "retarded cat" is redundant, right?

Random thoughts of the day:

A few things I love:

It's so much fun watching Carmen pick up new words and express her interests and thoughts.  Every day, we pass the Mount Timpanogos temple on our way to Sadie's school.  I've pointed it out a few times, and today on our way back Carmen pointed out the window and said, "Temple!!!  Look!"  (Sure, it was "tampoo" but still!)  It reminds me of my friend's kid who was watching Star Wars and said, "Hey, it's Moroni!" when he saw C-3PO.  Ha ha!

I also like how instead of asking to be picked up, Carmen says, "I hold you!"

Carmen loves the song "Popcorn Popping" and knows two parts: "me" in "Spring has brought me such a nice surprise" and "Soooo!" in "It wasn't really so".

This morning, we stopped at the Wal-Mart by Sadie's school before dropping her off.  Carmen recognized the direction we were going, and when we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, Carmen turned to Sadie and waved and said, "Bye bye, Sadie!"

I went to the gym last week and when I came back to pick Carmen up from the day care, the ladies said, "Carmen had a rough time this morning.  There was a baby crying and she really wanted to comfort it, but every time she would snuggle the baby and try to pick it up, the baby would cry even harder.  We had to tell Carmen to leave the baby alone and told her to sit away from the baby, and Carmen sat there and pouted and glared at us."  I'm sure that actually it was quite comical.

I love kids' empathy.  They are the biggest sweethearts in the world!!!

Also, our cats are hilarious.  Every time I open a closet door, Ravis comes BOUNDING across the house and DIVES into the closet.  So I shut the door on him, and a few minutes later he starts meowing.  I open the door and he's got this confused look on his face, like, "What just happened?" and he comes out of the closet.  So our cats are both retarded AND gay.



Some things I love about having a 2-year-old:
~Fewer diaper changes (looking forward to when she's ready to potty train!)
~Able to feed themselves
~Able to talk and express themselves
~HILARIOUS when they talk
~They understand you
~They are independent and can move and climb onto things and do things for themselves.  Sure, they can get into things, but exploring is so important for learning!
~I even love temper tantrums.  It gives us a chance to learn how to appropriately express emotions and deal with them.

I'm also looking forward to when Carmen gets even older.  We found a "letter" Sadie wrote in her kindergarten class, and it says, "Dear SADIE To SADIE From SADIE."  Guess what word Sadie knows how to write? ;)  It's adorable!!



The first year is pretty hard because it seems like it's all maintenance.  But then it pays off for the rest of time!!!!  Awesome awesome awesome!

Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Well, I'm back from my vacation in Sammamish!  It's fun to go out and see my family, but at the same time it's wonderful to be back home.  I have my own bed, my own food, my own neighborhood, my own schedule ... Carmen loved staying up late partying with her uber-exciting aunts and uncles.  She also loved sleeping in and napping right before dinner.  We're still slowly adjusting her schedule back to normal. ;)

I really appreciated Elder Cook's talk in Conference on Saturday morning.  I have to wait until the transcriptions come out online before I can do a lot of analysis on the talk, but I loved how he talked about how valuable mothers are and acknowledged all kinds of mothers (those who work, those who stay at home, and those who are single, etc) and praised them.  I felt appreciated and loved, even though motherhood tends to be undervalued (read: unpaid!!)  I liked how he talked about telling a nonmember about women serving in the Church and she said, "The last thing women need is another unpaid job."

I've loved and valued work and education so much in my life that it's sometimes hard for me to keep things in perspective.  When Carmen was a baby, I had a hard time feeling like I was much more than an unpaid robot.  She'd lay there (and cry most of the time ... she was very colicky) and my job was to simply be there and hold and comfort her and feed and change her until ... I don't know.  Until she needed something else.  I felt like I had very little to offer her different from what anyone could offer her.

Now, however, life is great!  Ever since she started noticing the world and crawling and walking and wanted to know things, I feel like I've been able to do a lot and I'm thrilled to be a mom!  (So things got much better after 5 or 6 months, then after a year, then after 15 months, then after 18 months, and now she's turning 2 next month!  WHAT HAPPENS TO THE TIME?!)  She is so expressive and loves to talk and we share such sweet moments together.

It's been wonderful to watch Sadie every morning.  I love watching her learn and grow, too.  Today, she told me how she can count by 5's and 10's to 100.  She told me she doesn't know how to read yet, but I told her at least she knows how to spell her name and loves to look at books together so at least that's a start.  She told me the other day that her mom gave her permission to get her ears pierced when she asked, but has decided she doesn't want to get her ears pierced because it will be painful.  She and Carmen are learning how to get along together and I get to practice more of my teaching and mediating skills.

I'm enjoying the book Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child.  It talks about empathizing with your children and helping them learn to address and deal with their strong emotions instead of dismissing or demeaning them.  It requires a lot of intimacy with and attention to your child, so ... I guess I feel really thankful I have the opportunity to stay at home and develop that kind of a relationship with my children without having other major distractions in my life.  There is nothing else I'm doing that is more important than teaching my children to be the best they can be!  (And yet, I find room and time to do so much and my life is full!)


A few Carmenisms:

Carmen put a sticker onto a piece of paper then tried to pull it off.
"Stuck!!" she complained, surprised.

A few months ago, we got a free broken key from a locksmith.  It's got buttons on it.  Carmen found it in the toy basket and started pushing the buttons.  "Beep, beep!" she said (because that's the noise cars make when you lock and unlock them.)  She walked over to the window and looked outside, to see if any of the cars were reacting to her key.  "Papa's key." she said.  (Grandpa has a key like that to his Honda Pilot.)  This is proof that Carmen loves Grandpa Brad and pays attention to him.

Sometimes, Carmen blows her nose with toilet paper, but more often than not, she rips it up into tiny pieces and sticks the pieces up her nose.  Then I hear her snort and sniff for a few minutes and she goes, "Stuck!  STUUUUCCKKK!!!"
(PS. I remove the toilet paper with tweezers to make the extraction process as excruciating and obnoxious as possible.)

Last night, our friends blessed their baby, Phoebe.  Carmen loves babies and has been picking up names really well this past month.  While we were getting into the car, she sat in the back seat talking to herself about how excited she was to go see "Baby Pee-Pee."  She also learned our friend Sterling's first name: "Durling."  IT'S ADORABLE.

I guess while I'm talking about names, I'll have you know she calls Marissa "Sissa", gets ridiculously excited about our friend Ray (and can say his name no problem), and loves her friend Braxton who is 6 months older than she is.  She calls him "Bobby".  One time we were playing at Braxton's house and the conversation went something like this:
Braxton: Carmen, I am not Bobby.  I'm Braxton.
Carmen: Bobby!
Braxton: No, Braxton!
Carmen: Brrrrrrrrrrrr-obby!
Me: *lol*

I love hearing Carmen talk to herself.  She walks around the house and plays with her toy kitchen or her tool set and talks about what she's going to cook or fix.  She carries her babies around and changes their diapers and puts medicine on their ouchies.  (She's got a sad history of diaper rashes and so she is quite familiar with Bordeaux's Butt Paste.)  When I was a kid, I'd put my stuffed animals in time-out and spank them for trying to leave.  Carmen kisses her babies and gives them medicine.  Hmm.

Cub Scouts

A few weeks ago, Mark and I were released from our calling in Nursery and called to serve as Cub Scout den leaders.  This means a few things ...

1. We get to go to Gospel Doctrine ... for the first time in about 4 years!  We were called to be Family History consultants shortly after we got married (and taught the family history class), then we were ward missionaries after we moved to American Fork (so we taught Gospel Principles once a month and had to attend that class), then we were in Nursery for a year.
2. We get to GO to Gospel Doctrine!  Carmen's been old enough for Nursery since November, and so we get to drop her off and leave her behind!  Apparently she's done great without us these past few weeks. :)  (She's also had a lot of fun at the gym day care when I drop her off ... I actually stay almost the full 90 minutes and the day care ladies don't seem exasperated when I pick her up!)
3. Um, can you tell I'm excited to feel like I'm actually going to church again?  Hahaha.




Anyway, tonight was the Cub Scouts' Blue and Gold Banquet.  I'm still not exactly sure how everything goes together (last week was our first week, and the activity was having the boys make invitations for their families) but I'm very excited to work with the 8- and 9-year-old boys.

I think there are 5 or 6 boys who will be coming to Cub Scouts with us.  I already knew one of them.  His name is Sam, and he lives down the street from me.  When the weather's nice, he plays outside with Jefferson, who is Carter's older brother.  I love these kids.  They're friendly and funny and creative.  They're part of the reason why I'm excited to watch my kids grow up, and the main reason I'm not completely terrified of the thought of maybe having a son some day.  Mark has this secret fear/thought that he's going to end up with 7 daughters.  Actually, I wouldn't mind that ... and when we have our 5th one, I'm going to call him Tevye. ;)


Anyway.  Sam.  So we were at the banquet tonight, and Carmen spent much of the evening chasing the boys around.  (Sounds a lot like me!  Let me clarify: I wasn't boy-crazy, I just tended to have a lot of guy friends growing up.  We'd go swimming and ride bikes and jump on the trampoline and stuff.  SO much more interesting than Barbies!)  Around a quarter to 8, I knew it was getting close to time for Carmen to come home, take a bath, and go to bed.  If you keep a kid up too long, they'll get really cranky but have a hard time falling asleep because they're too tired.  Carmen was sitting on Sam's lap, enjoying the presentations, and was very upset when I told her we had to go home.

"Sam!  SAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!" she cried.

She does the same thing every time Sam is playing outside and it's time for dinner.  It's so cute.  I love how much she loves the older kids, and how much they love her too.  Sam (and Jefferson, and Carter, and all of the other kids I associate with. EVER.) is so good to her!!!  I told Sam's mom she could make money marketing him as an older brother for rent.  ;)

Oh, and Jefferson's mom had our job in Cub Scouts right before we did.  She stopped by our house today to drop off a few things she used.  I love having neighbors like that.  It helps me feel more confident that I'll be able to do this. :)  I'm so excited to work with the Cub Scouts!  SO EXCITED!!!

Carmenisms

I love the funny little things Carmen does.

For example, we have this smoke detector in our bedroom right by the bathroom door.  If someone takes a hot shower and doesn't close the door, the steam sets off the alarm.  My sister, Marissa, is notorious for setting off the fire alarms once every time she visits and spends the night.  Often times, it's about 30 minutes after Carmen goes down for a nap, and we feel SO BAD we've woken her up.  Sometimes, Mark sets off the alarm in the morning when he gets back from the gym.  The cats might push the door open or he might forget to turn the fan on, so when he opens the door to leave the bathroom, all of the steam escapes and our house starts beeping loudly at 7:15. O_o;

You'd think all of these rude awakenings would cause Carmen to have a fear of smoke detectors and the sound of the fire alarm.  Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to mind it (even though it drives me crazy!)  Lately, when Mark's putting Carmen through her bedtime routine, she'll look up at the ceiling and point to one of the alarms and go, "Beep!"  Mark says, "Oh, are you looking at the alarm up there?" and she goes, "Uh-huh.  Beep!"

It's a beep!  So cute!  Not a, "ZOMG THAT THING IS SO NOISY IT WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NAPS AND SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME!"  Phew.  One potential psychological bullet dodged!!

Carmen developed a rash on her stomach a few weeks ago.  The doctors couldn't figure out what it was, but they prescribed me this antibiotic ointment that seemed to help clear it up.  Carmen was terrified at the doctor's office because she KNEW she only goes to the doctor's to get shots (why else go to the doctor when your kid is perfectly healthy all the time?) ... and it was hard to convince her that we WEREN'T going to hurt her that time.  Poor girl.  But one thing she loves about the pediatrician's office is their aquarium.  She loves to watch the fishies, and the SADDEST part about going to the doctor is not getting the shots - it's the having to say goodbye to the fishies.  ("FEESHIES! FEEEEEESSSHHIIIESSSS!!!")

Back to the rash.  Carmen's been really good about letting me put the medicine on her.  She calls it "Memmin."  I put it on her in the morning when I change her diaper and in the evening when I put her pajamas on.  It goes a little bit onto her back, too, so when I need her to stand up, she stands up and turns around for me.  It's so sweet how helpful and obedient she is! <3  She then likes to take the little tube and pretend she's putting the medicine on herself.  "Memmine." she says.  "Ouchies."


Remember how she calls fingernail polish "candy"?  Turns out it's definitely her word for fingernail polish, not just the fact that the shiny colors makes your nails look like Jolly Ranchers.  I put clear sparkle polish on my nails the other day for the heck of it, and no less than 2 seconds after I finished, Carmen grabbed my hands, touched the sparkles, and cheered, "Candy!!  Hannals!"  (She's learned the word for "fingernails" and it sounds a lot like "hang nails".)


Some of her favorite things to do these days are to color (either with real crayons on paper or with this free "Doodle Kids" iPod app) and ... well ... play pretend.  It doesn't matter if it's with her play kitchen, a play phone, a real phone, an iPod, a baby, her little doll stroller, her big (umbrella) stroller, or someone's shoes ....... she's really creative!  It's fun hearing her sit and chat away about how excited she is about her kitchen, or taking her baby for a walk, or wrapping her baby in a blanket ... and it doesn't matter whether the baby is a doll or a stuffed animal.  I'm sure I could convince her a crayon was a baby if I wrapped it in a toilet paper blanket for her.  IT'S AWESOME.

Speaking of toilet paper ... she does this funny thing where she rips up toilet paper or tissues into little pieces and wipes her nose with them.  It's winter - kids get runny noses.  The other day, we were at Mark's work and she was stuffing the tissue pieces up her nose.  I heard her inhale through her nose and gasp a little bit.  "Oh!  Stuck!" she gasped.  I laughed and said, "Yup, you've got that stuck up your nose!  You probably don't want to put stuff up there!" and helped her pull the tissues out.  She looked at me and said, "Yes!  Stuck!!"

It will be less funny when they're frozen peas.

Carmen is a Sweetheart

Carmen wasn't a very snuggly baby, but for some reason, ever since we got our cats last year, she's gotten really snuggly.  I love it!

I know we shouldn't necessarily be encouraging this behavior, but lately when she's woken up in the middle of the night, Mark and I have taken her into our room to let her sleep with us.  Sometimes, she rolls around a lot and Mark ends up going downstairs and sleeping on the couch while Carmen and I take up the rest of the bed.  Sweet.

Sunday morning was one of those nights we let her come in and sleep with us.  Carmen woke up around a quarter to 7,  and the first thing she did when she woke up was roll over, wake me up, and say, "Cheese?!"  ... so I went downstairs and got her some cheese so she would be quiet and let me rest for another 30 minutes.  Hah.

Anyway.  Lately she's been doing a lot of good telling people goodbye.  When I used to drop Sadie off at school, she'd sit in her car seat and cry.  When Dad had to go to work, she'd cry as he left.  Now, all we have to do is tell her goodbye and ask her to say goodbye to [insert name here] and she'll wave happily at them and say, "Buh-bye!!" and be cheerful.  She's still not a huge fan of when Dad leaves for work, but she'll calm down and wave goodbye when he has to go.  How sweet!

She also gives people hugs and kisses when they leave.  It's so much fun getting toddler hugs and kisses!!

Yesterday in church, we sat in the front row with our friends Dorie and Jake.  At the end of Sacrament meeting, Carmen crawled into Dorie's lap and snuggled with her while I fed Carmen some cereal puffs.  Carmen kept closing her eyes like she was about to fall asleep, then she'd wake up and grab for some more puffs.  It was like she couldn't decide if she was too tired to eat or too hungry to sleep.  Ha ha.

Yesterday, she grabbed Mark's face and gave him a big kiss for no reason.  It was so cute!!  And today before going upstairs for a bath, she was snuggling Mark and I asked if I could join in on the snuggle time.  "Could you give Mommy a kiss, too?" I asked hopefully.  She smiled, said "Mm-hmm!", pursed her lips, and gave me a kiss.  IT WAS SO SWEET.

Lately, she's also been asking for us to put her down for a nap.  We'll be in the car on the way to Sadie's school, and she'll be like, "Hmm, nap?" as if, "The next thing we do is nap time!"  And we usually give her a bath around 7:30 so we can put her to bed around 8.  For the past few days, between 7:20 and 7:30, she'll stop whatever she's doing and look at us and go, "Bath?" and go upstairs if we ask her to meet us upstairs for bath time.  Whoa - this is awesome!  She's settled into a really good schedule!

The lesson?  Schedules really are good for kids and they'll stick to them really well if you stick to them.  It's worth trying to get your kid on a schedule when they're young (there's no need to force babies into them) because ... seriously?  Raising Carmen is awesome.  I love it.

I'm having so much fun right now I think I must be crazy to be wanting to get pregnant again some time later this year.  (another baby in 2012? yes, please!)  Then I remember how babies can't crawl or walk or talk or tell you what they need and you have to figure out what their inexplicable cries mean (do you need a diaper change? are you hungry? are you tired? are you sick? are you in pain? are you bored?) and sometimes they cry for NO REASON ... and I dread having another baby.  But then they start to grow up and they are SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH.  Luckily, babies are incredibly, incredibly cute and fun in their own special way ... hopefully I'll be able to handle my next kid.

Being a parent can be so crazy and confusing sometimes.  It's a completely irrational thing (being a parent) but it's so ... fun ... and ... rewarding ... and ... inexplicably awesome ... I love it.  Hah.


Anywho. There's a bunch of random thoughts for the day.

My Best Friend's Wedding, Part I

Last weekend, my best friend from school (Renai) got married.  She lives in Arizona, and I thought, "You know what?  It's really not that far away, it's the perfect time of year to visit, and I haven't been there in a long time.  What better excuse to visit Arizona than my friend's wedding?"  So I filled out the RSVP card and said I was coming.  She seemed pretty thrilled that I was going to come!  Apparently, one of her OTHER best childhood friends (from New Jersey) was coming out, too!  "How awesome is it that my best friend from Arizona and my best friend from New Jersey are going to be at my wedding!" she gushed.

On Wednesday evening, we drove down to Richfield to stay with my grandparents.  It would cut off about 2.5 hours from the total length of the trip, and it's always nice to stop and visit with family for a while.

Kids get restless after spending long periods of time in the car, so we took a few breaks at rest stops to change diapers, eat snacks, and run around.

For the record, scorpions are arachnids, not insects.

She's just so cute ... I can't resist!

We got to Phoenix early Thursday evening, and I took the opportunity to go by the house I lived in until I was 8.

We used to have bunch of cacti and stuff in the front yard.  It looks a lot like the last time we came by (about 8 years ago) ... I'm disappointed they haven't gotten around to landscaping the front yard.  It looks terrible.  But they DID put a pool and a hot tub in the backyard.  I wanted to peek over the fence to get a good look at the yard, but there were a few ladies in the hot tub out back and that would've been awkward ... "Um, hi, I lived here 15 years ago and I just wanted to see what you've done with the place!  Don't mind me ... can we steal some of your neighbors' lemons, too?"

After making that quick trip down memory lane, we went to Ahwatukee and had dinner at my friend Carmen's house.  Yes, that is the Carmen my little Carmen is named after.  We met her sweet boyfriend, James, and her scaredy rottweiler puppy, Eza.  (I'll refer to my friend Carmen as either Big Carmen or CJ from now on ...)  Carmen was so excited to meet them both she learned a bunch of new words quickly.

CJ had fun playing with Carmen.  She and her mom (Gina) showered Carmen with gifts - clothes, a bead necklace CJ made when she was little, and a pink Beanie Baby bear.  Gina tried offering Carmen TWO Beanie Babies, but Carmen soundly rejected one.  (Like, smacked it onto the floor saying, "No!")  Carmen's favorite activity was bouncing down the stairs with Big Carmen.



Soon, it was time for bed so we went to Jeanni's house, where our family was going to sleep.  Jeanni was my piano teacher and Beehive leader when I was 8-13.  She's pretty much one of my other favorite people in the world ... but Mark won't let me name a kid Jeanni.  Yet.

I had baked a big batch of tasty oatmeal chocolate chip butterscotch cookies (with coconut, too!) to give as a gift to Jeanni when we arrived.  The bag of cookies made it the whole trip and Mark and I enjoyed snacking on them ... then something must've happened on that final stretch to Phoenix, because when we got to Jeanni's house the cookies were totally smashed up.

Mark walked into the house with the bag of mooshed cookies and said, "Hey, was I supposed to give these to Jeanni?" and she was standing right there in front of him.  I was thinking, "Oh, great presentation there, Marky." and Jeanni looked at him, looked at the bag of cookies, and totally cracked up.  She graciously accepted our offering and went into the kitchen to get some milk.  "Brian," she called to her husband, "Would you like some incredibly tasty cookie crumbs?"  We still managed to find several intact cookies!!!

Speaking of that particular batch of cookies ... when I was making the final pan of cookies, I turned off the oven when the cookies were almost done and forgot to take the pan out of the oven.  They weren't really burned, but they were incredibly crunchy.  Want to know something I learned from this experience?  FEED THEM TO BABIES.  They'll be highly entertained because they're getting cookies, but it will take them forever to eat each cookie because they're so hard!  Our trip to Phoenix was made a lot easier because Carmen was kept quiet in the back seat with her crunchy cookies. ;)

Or, just don't overcook your cookies in the first place.
You know.  Lemons, lemonade.

Recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 c butter
2 c sugar
2 c brown sugar
--cream ingredients together--
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
--cream ingredients together--
4 1/2 c flour
4 1/2 c oatmeal
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
--mix ingredients together--
12 oz chocolate chips (if you want butterscotch, make it half and half)
(If you want coconut too, you can put in about 1/2 c coconut flakes.  I didn't measure it ... I just added the stuff that was left over from making coconut shrimp the week before.  hahaha.)

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, like you do with just about every other cookie recipe.

I decided to invent this recipe because I bought butterscotch chips at Winco and didn't have the right ingredients for magic cookie bars.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the wedding and how much I love Renai's new husband!

Candy Toes

I generally avoid painting my fingernails and toenails because I'll always ruin my nails less than 10 minutes after they're done being painted.  A week before Carmen was born, my friend Kara (who was in cosmetology school) gave me my first pedicure.  I thought it was really cool looking down at my purple toenails while in labor.

But still ... I'm usually too lazy to paint my nails, whether they be my fingers or my toes.

Last Sunday, I decided to change things up and paint my nails!  The next morning, Carmen was playing with my feet and started poking at my shiny pinkish-red toenails.  She gave me a curious look and said, "Candy."  She was right!  My toes DID look a little bit like Jolly Ranchers!!

Yesterday, we went over to our friend Jorgen's for dinner.  His fiancee, Nicki, is in love with Carmen and has been asking to paint her toenails.  I haven't done it yet because Carmen's a bit squirmy and I'm afraid I'll screw up or make a mess (seriously, how can you 'mess up' on a baby's teeny toenails?) ... so I happily gave her permission.  Carmen would love it.

Carmen picked out some purple nail polish and was SO EXCITED when Nicki was done painting them.  We taught her the nail polish was "purple" and she still seemed to think they looked like "candy".  I love her purple candy toes!!

Also, we had something I consider a "big girl" moment today.  I was getting ready to go to the gym, and I came down and Carmen had put her own shoes on!  Granted, they were on the wrong feet, but she had velcroed them on and everything!  It was awesome!!!  I love 20-month-olds!!

 

PS. I did actually take an inventory of everything in the freezer today.  Now I'm going to go through the pantry and count up how many cans of cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, pineapple, and refried beans we have.  That way I know when we're getting close to "need to stock up time" and can scan the weekly ads for good deals.  Nothing stinks more than running out of cream of mushroom soup or frozen broccoli the week after it goes on sale for 49 cents! (did you know frozen veggies are often times more fresh than the 'fresh' produce at the grocery store?)

Crazy Things we do for Love ...

It's funny how much I love Carmen.  Okay, so "funny" may not be the right word, but sometimes I'm surprised by the weird things I decide to do because of her.

For example, I was eating a bowl of Special K cereal the other day, and I was picking out the freeze-dried strawberries.  I used to pick out the strawberries and eat them because I like them, much like I used to pick out the marshmallows from my Lucky Charms or all of the M&M's out of the trail mix (Mom loved that, let me tell ya!) ... but no, I wasn't picking out the strawberries so I could eat them because I love them so much; I picked them out so Carmen could eat them because it's so adorable how much she loves them!

Today, I got to enjoy the fruits of my labors (no pun intended?) ... Carmen was eating lunch and saw the box of cereal on the kitchen counter.  "Cereal?" ("see-yo") she asked.  I poured some of the cereal out onto her high chair tray and was pleased that it was mostly strawberries.  Of course, she ate all of the strawberries and asked for more.  "Strawberries?  More?" ("stawbizz?  moh?")  It was so stinkin cute.  Plus the "thank you" is like a cherry on top.

Carmen is so sweet.  I love seeing what she loves and how passionately she loves it.  Today she carried around this little black Beanie Baby cat and called it her baby kitty.  She fell asleep with it in the car when we dropped Sadie off at school.  My sister got really sick over Christmas and it was a really stressful time for our family.  It was great to be able to spend time with Carmen and experience the pure joy she emanates and brings with her everywhere she goes.

I'm sure there are other weird things I do because Carmen likes it (like the funky dances in the car) ... but the strawberries thing really stuck out today. :)

Carmen's Shoe Obsession

Last month, Mark and I went to Famous Footwear to find him a new pair of snow boots he could wear to work. We're very cheap frugal and don't often go out to buy new stuff unless the old stuff is completely worn out.

Carmen had a blast running up and down the aisles, chanting, "Shoes!  Shoes!" and trying on everything that wasn't in a box - whether it was her size or not.

So I guess it's not surprising that one night she decided she really wanted to put Mark's boots on:

She even tries to walk in them!  It's amazing that she can actually shuffle around a little bit in those monstrous boots!


On Sunday, I was reading a book on the couch while Carmen played with her toys on the floor.  She was sitting out in the middle of the room, and I watched her take her pants off and put on a pair of the long fuzzy comfy socks Mom gave me for Christmas (my mother rocks.  I love the fuzzy comfy socks she gets me for Christmas ... I wouldn't think to spoil myself in that way!  She makes up for those mental blocks I have!)  They went up to her thighs.  I got a good laugh out of watching my pantsless baby run around the house in my big long socks.  I didn't have the heart to tell her it's probably not very practical to take your pants off and expect your mom's socks to keep you warm.  But then again, what do I know?

Today is another day that's not too out of the ordinary.  Carmen decided to put socks on herself again today.  (Oh, good, does this mean she's going to dress herself from now on?)

I think she's nothing short of adorable.  (I took this picture right after I put her down for a nap ... not sure how I'll capture this otherwise, because when she's awake, she runs around like crazy!!)


Seriously, Universe, having a toddler is just about the most hilarious thing ever.  It's funny the things they pick up and fixate on!!

What does a ninja say?

This is the best age.

Me: Hey, Carmen, what does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: No, hi-yah!!  Hi-yah!!
Carmen: Yah!!
Me: Yes!  What does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: *facepalm*


I love that little bug.  She now says "iPod" and calls me "Mommis" (a cross between "Mommy" and "Kamis"). She follows me around the house and tries to help me clean.  She wraps her toys (any toy) in blankets (or washcloths) and carries them around, calling them her babies.  She calls the Prophet "hoppit".  I'm also trying to teach her that there are more ways to dance than just head-banging.  This is THE BEST.

Oh, and this week in Senior Nursery, one of the kids was in a sour mood and wasn't too excited about going to Primary.  The little boy turned to Mark during Sharing Time and said, "I don't like Jesus."

I'm gonna miss those kiddos!!!

Parenting with Love and Logic

Today is one of those days many parents fear - Carmen learned how to pull down the door handle to open doors!  Correction - she's finally tall enough to reach the door handle.  I'm happy because now she won't accidentally shut herself in a room and start crying because she can't get out. ;)

My friend, Tammy Fillerup, once recommended the book Parenting With Love and Logic.  I checked it out from the library last week and have been reading it at the gym.  It's a lot like how I've always figured I wanted to parent - let children figure out how to handle their own problems, only intervene when your kids are in danger, give them choices with options that are acceptable to you ("eat nicely at the table or play on the floor..." "red pants or blue pants" and they know you'll make the decision for them if they won't make one), don't use a lot of emotion when disciplining because kids thrive on getting a rise out of people, etc.

When Carmen gets into things she's not supposed to get into, I don't freak out.  I simply say, "That's not food/a toy" and take it away if she won't hand it back to me.  Sometimes she really wants it, but the resistance only lasts a couple of seconds.  She's learned that if she's not supposed to do something, I'm not going to let her do it no matter how much she fusses.  But if she IS allowed to do something and I just prefer her not to, she only has to complain once and I say, "Oh, fine, you can have my spoon.  I'll get another one."

The trickiest part for me was figuring out what I was and wasn't going to let Carmen do before she did it, or making a split-second decision when she does something so she could learn, "If Mom doesn't give in within 10 seconds, she's not giving in EVER."

Another friend of mine, Julie Johnson, talked about disciplining her 8-year-old.  When he does something he's not supposed to do, she's trying to train him that when she says something like, "Uh-uh-uh!" he knows he's about to get into trouble.  I think Carmen's learned that when I say, "Oh, be careful, Carmen!" she knows she's probably about to fall and get hurt.  So she stops and looks at me for instructions when I tell her to stop or be careful.  Parenting so far has not required much yelling.  :)

I was afraid my kid would be one of those kids who gets into the toilet paper roll and empties the whole thing before you can grab them and say, "Stoooooooppppp!!!!"  But I guess the whole, "Not a toy" thing worked pretty well with Carmen before she was mobile enough to unroll a whole thing of toilet paper.  That doesn't mean she hasn't played with it.

The other day, she pulled off a few pieces of toilet paper.  I followed her curiously and said, "You know, Carmen, I'd rather you not play with that.  It's not a toy.  What are you doing?" and she proceeded to bring the toilet paper to her face and wipe her nose, like I do when I have a cold.  Then she went over to Ravis (our cat) and started scrubbing him down.  "Oh, you're cleaning!" I squealed.  "That's so sweet!"

Pretend play and creativity is worth a few squares of toilet paper.

Today, she asked for a glass of water in the bathroom and spilled a little bit on the floor.  I was going to grab a towel and start cleaning it up, but Carmen went into the bathroom and started unrolling the toilet paper again.  Oy!  And it wasn't just a little bit this time - it was like 3 feet.  "Carmen, do you really need to use so much of the toilet paper?  Can we put some back?" and she went to the little spot where she'd spilled her water and started wiping it up with the toilet paper.  I pulled out a towel and said, "I use a towel like this when I clean up spills!" and helped her clean the rest of it up.

I'm not sure if I should've let her clean up the whole mess herself (2 whole ounces of water!), or if I should've handed her the towel and let her do it on her own, or what ... but it was a really neat experience.  She even put the wet toilet paper into the trash when she was done wiping the water up!  Cleaning up her own spills ... She's the coolest 19-month-old ever!!

Now, if only these molars would come in, then we could sleep again ...

Things Kindergartners Notice

If you lack self-esteem, you probably shouldn't spend too much time with kindergartners.  They notice lots of things and say just about everything on their mind.  But if you do have good self-esteem, they help you laugh and smile a lot.

For example, these are a few of the things Sadie has figured out:
"You wear makeup to cover the red spots on your face!"
"Hm, you don't look like you've put your makeup on yet!"
"Your hair is usually crinkly unless you straighten it."
(She comes over at 8:45.  I usually have the kids play in my room while I finish getting ready.)
"Your vacuum looks weird."
"Did you put water in this juice?"
"Wow, when we play, we make a big mess!"
"I don't want to color on both sides of the page!  I want a new piece of paper!" (we've been printing out Christmas coloring pages, and today I asked her to bring back the page she had colored on so I could print on the other side.  I guess we're not born eco-friendly. ;)  )
"Am I allowed to use those crayons?" (We have several boxes of crayons around the house, and most of the crayons in this particular box are still pointy, so I never use the newer crayons ... she caught on to me!)

She's tons of fun to be around and talk to.  There's never a dull moment, and Carmen ADORES her.

Now the biggest drama is that Sadie really likes Carmen's favorite baby doll.  And by Carmen's favorite baby doll, I mean FAVORITE THING EVER IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.  She carries her baby around with her everywhere, shares her sippy and food with the baby, carries around a little medicine cup and fills it with water from the cat bowl and feeds it to the baby, wraps the baby in a blanket (or a washcloth if that's all she can find) and carries her around, walks the baby around in her play stroller/car seat, asks me to put the baby's hat on 3,938,281 times a day, and wishes she could take the baby into the bath with her.  I sit the baby on the counter and say the baby can watch Carmen bathe, and she seems to be okay with that.

Another random fact about bath time: we have this little toy walrus Cat gave us for Christmas last year and Carmen has re-discovered it.  According to Carmen, walruses roar like dinosaurs.  It's awesome.

Carmen loves ...

I've been running errands like a madwoman since we got home Monday night.

Mark needed some new shoes, so we went to Famous Footwear after work on Tuesday to go on a quest for new shoes.  They were having a "buy one get one half off" sale (which someone pointed out can be abbreviated to BOGOHO) and I received a 20% off coupon in the mail.  SWEET!  Mark tried on shoes and I grabbed some black Bearpaw boots and Carmen ran around the store excitedly screaming, "SHOES!  SHOES!" and trying on every pair that was out on the floor.

It's really hilarious watching an 18-month-old put on men's size 9 shoes and try to walk around in them.

She found a few pairs of shoes that were more size-appropriate but couldn't figure out how to unfasten the shoes to get them on.  Then she found a pair of pink sparkly size 6 kids shoes (close enough?) and carried them around the store like they were her precious babies.  It was awesome.

Before we left, she found a girl who looked to be about 5 and fell in love with the girl's jacket.  She followed the girl around and would touch the girl's buttons saying, "Oooh, jacket."  The other girl was very tolerant and only looked a little bit awkward.  Ha ha.  Her mom was in line in front of me, and Carmen sobbed hysterically when the girl and her mother left.  Luckily, there was another girl (probably about 4) with another jacket that Carmen could follow around.  They chased each other in circles around the sock display.

Awesome.

We found a Christmas tree in the place they set up in the Big Lots parking lot here in American Fork.  We like having a real tree because they smell SO GOOD.  We like small trees because they're easily carry-able and we don't have a truck.  Mark and I quickly found a tree we both liked (but of course I have to look at ALLLLLL the other trees to verify that the first tree was, indeed, our favorite) and it fit perfectly into our trunk!

Here's a quick picture of our tree:

I've been reorganizing the house since we got home, so it's kind of a mess.  Also, the camera's batteries are dying.


STUPID STORY TIME!  (You've been waiting for this, you know it!)
So I've had this camera for just over 3 years now, and I've kind of hated it for the past 2 years.  It's because the beast eats through batteries like candy.  I thought it was because I was using rechargeable batteries, and maybe those batteries had a hard time holding a charge, but no, the camera is just evil.

At least that's what I thought.

We went to my in-laws' house after Thanksgiving and I spent some time looking through all of the store ads, trying to get ideas for new things I might want to hunt down on Amazon (amazingly, things are generally still cheaper online than when on sale at the store!) and saw a spiffy-looking new camera for somewhere around $200.  I thought, "Man, my camera drives me so nuts with its battery-eating, maybe I should use this as an excuse to get a new camera!"  My next thought was, "Maybe I should look up reviews online of my camera to see if other people think the battery life sucks, or if I'm just retarded."

It's the latter.

Some reviews complained about poor battery life, and other reviews said, "Those of you who think the camera eats batteries ... READ THE USER MANUAL.  YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO USE LITHIUM ION BATTERIES, NOT REGULAR ALKALINES.  YOUR BATTERIES WILL LAST A MILLION TIMES LONGER."

I stared at the review for a good 30 seconds.  ......... duh.  How could I have not noticed that the lithium batteries at the store are all like, "Great for digital cameras!" and are even next to the digital cameras?

I thought I was a smart person.  But seriously.  YEARS of battery-induced-hating drama.

Instead of buying a $200 camera, I spent about $25 on eBay for a huge box of Energizer uber-something lithium ion batteries.  Hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas.  And this means I will feel a lot more comfortable pulling out my camera without fearing the batteries will die while I'm out.

Lessons learned?  Even if you think you've read the user manual, read it again.  You might miss little details like what kind of batteries to use.  Other lesson?  Actually do what the user guide suggests.  Go figure!

Playing with Carmen

Carmen's tons of fun to play with!!  I love the random things she does and the stuff she gets excited about.

I was sweeping the kitchen floor the other day, and she wanted to take the broom and help me sweep.  Luckily, my parents have approximately 193834 brooms, so we had one to spare.  As she ran around the house "sweeping" the carpet, I decided her name should be "CinderCarmen" because she reminds me of Cinderella.  And I can't call her "Carmenella" because it sounds too much like "salmonella" ... which is just wrong. ;)

The last of the autumn leaves have fallen from the trees, so at another point last week I went into the backyard and raked up all of the leaves.  When all of the leaves are raked up, we put them in the yard waste trash can and dump the leaves into the wildlife preserve on the other side of the fence.  While I was picking up the leaves and putting them in the trash can, Carmen would walk across the backyard to another pile of leaves and dump her own handful into the trash can.  It was so cute!!

We've started watching a little bit of TV together.  I happened to stop on the Disney Channel while Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse was on.  It was an episode about giving Pluto a bath, and when Carmen saw Pluto, she got really excited and said, "Doggie!  Doggie, doggie!!!"  Then there was an episode of Sesame Street where Elmo talked all about bananas.  It was pretty much a perfect day. :D

Another time, Logan and Torrey were watching an episode of The Office on Netflix.  They were interviewing Kevin (maybe this was the episode where he got Jim and Pam's credit card cancelled while they were on their honeymoon?) and there was a container of M&Ms on the desk.  Carmen looked up at Kevin and said, "More?  MORE?!?!" because she really really ridiculously likes M&Ms.  HAHAHAHA.  I think it's fabulous that she wanted the M&M's on TV.

I was at Costco a few weeks ago and found this awesome Dog book I thought Carmen would like.

You can pull on these little arrows and it makes a dog's tail wag, or there are some parts where you can pet a fuzzy dog, etc etc.  It's adorable!  You can get it used on Amazon for $4, including shipping!  It looks like they have a Cat book, too!  I'm totally buying another one of these for Carmen!  She loooooooves dogs and cats.  And she can say "puppy" too.  Whenever she sees one, it sounds like she says, "Ooh, issa doddie!"

Yep.  Definitely buying myself a zillion Matthew Van Fleet board books ... looks like they've got "Dog" "Cat" "Tails" "Heads" "Frogs" "Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings" "The Alphabet" ....  I can't tell you how much I LOOOOVE board books, especially one with fuzzy things in it.

Part of me is still 4 years old.  Does anybody remember the Rainbow Fish book?  I loved it because it had those pages with the sparkly scales.  I loved activity books (also called "quiet books").  I have friends who have made some ... I should go get some ideas from them.  I think Carmen's ready to play with 'em.  YAY.