Art and Monsters Under the Bed

Sometimes the art geek side of me gets a little giddy.  Maybe 6 months ago I found that Lily had snuck my Georgia O'Keefe book into her bed and hid it under her pillow.  I was smiling so wide that I put her pillow back on top and let her think it was still secret.  It was definitely a proud moment for me.  I still catch her walking around with it every now and then.

 

A picture of Skyler's room.  At 10:30 PM.  Wait a second...

So before I talked about how he likes to build "nests."  Well this he called his "tent."

 

Finding a monster under the bed all of a sudden has a whole new meaning.

 

 

Quotes of the Week

 

My visiting teachers talking to Lily after meeting her:  "You look just like a princess!"
Lily *giving them a really weird look*:  "I am a princess."

Well dang, y'all.  Don't go stepping on her princess gown or anything because Lily gave them the look.  The awkwardness in the room after that was priceless.



I was holding Ella as she was drinking a sippy of milk and I asked, "How did you get to be so cute?"  She took the sippy out of her mouth with a huge milky grin and shouted, "Dada!"

True story.  But she didn't have to be so blunt about it.  I can't help it that all my kids seem to go for Macbeth-only genes.



When we left the zoo, I had horrible contractions for the rest of the day.  Braxton hicks are a daily part of life for me and so the kids knew the drill: during scripture study, sit as still as possible on Mommy and Daddy's bed -- absolutely no bouncing.  So when Skyler started getting a little rough I had to hold on to my stomach as more contractions started and I told him to calm down through gritted teeth.  Well that day, we're guessing that Lily ended up with shin splints because she kept wobbling and talking about how much her shins hurt.  So when Skyler started bouncing around I was surprised when I wasn't the only one telling him to sit still.  Lily started acting just like me when I'm having contractions -- heavy breathing and all.  Now I know what I look like to her.  I remember having Braxton hicks when I was pregnant with Ella and Lily asked me, "Mommy?  Are you.... dying?"  I just about died laughing.  But it is really sweet when I hear my kids praying on a daily basis for "Mommy's tummy to stop hurting."



First Day

 

She didn't cry.

 

I didn't cry.

 

Both of us are looking forward to next week when Kindergarten starts at 9:15 and gets out at 3:45.

 

She's ready.

 

And I think I am now that I've been able to talk to the principal personally, interact with other parents, see the teachers, and walk around the school.

 

So this whole moving-to-a-new-house-to-be-in-a-better-school business really was right.  We're supposed to be here.

 

We're all feeling good right now.

 

(Except for Skyler, possibly.  But I think that with a few days of him getting extra attention, that should dissolve). 

 

Cheers!

A Half Second

Lily was a baby a half second ago.

 

So why on Earth does she have a My Little Pony backpack and Tinker Bell lunch box hanging up by the back door? 

 

To all these people who are just becoming first time parents I want to wave my arms in their faces and be like those overbearing strangers in the grocery store who tell you that your time with them will go by so fast.

 

I'm not ready.  But Lily is.  And that makes me happy.  And Ben is truly excited for her.

 

I'm working on it and faking it for Lily.

 

It didn't help when she told me that she'd miss me because I'm her best friend.

 

Nor when she brushed Skyler's cheek with her hand and told him that she'd still love him even though she wouldn't be with him all the time.

 



And then Ben gave her a father's blessing tonight and it's almost like that made it official.

 



I told him that I've already cried about this so there's a chance that I won't do it again.  In return he failed to stifle his laugh in the other room.  Meh.  He's right.

 

So I'm trying to be positive.  And by positive, I mean I'm trying to see this as a blessing.

 

I'm blessed that I had the ability to spend every day with her for 5 years.  Not all moms do.  Now is the time when I realize that, yes, staying home and not having a career has serious blessings.  I may not bring home a paycheck or have something that proves my skill or intellect.  But I get something better:  time.

 

Tomorrow is the big day.  And I know I won't be the only one to miss her.  Skyler will lose his twin/playmate and Ella will lose her big sister/best friend.  I'll miss my little helper and Ben will miss his little Princess.

 

So to make this less of a downer, I'm going to post a happy video because in a half second, Ella's going to be going to school too.

We Went to the Zoo

Back in March I purchased a Groupon deal for our local zoo.  With the move, we put off using it even though it expired at the end of August.  So when Lily, Ben, and I decided it was time for Lily to try to quit thumbsucking (again... this has been happening off and on for the last 2 years) I told her that if she could go a whole week without sucking her thumb that we would take her to the zoo.  So we ordered some thumb guards off of amazon, tried them out, decided that we could sew up more efficient ones (Ben sewed them, not me) and she tried so hard to quit.  She had tons of encouragement from everyone and the Tooth Fairy even talked to me on the phone and left Lily a fairy dust smothered letter telling us all about how she doesn't bring money to kids who still suck their thumbs.  Lily freaked out.

 

Lily's worked hard.  One of the rules was that if she sucked her thumb, she'd lose all of her days and she'd have to start over to get 7 days in a row of no thumbsucking.  We had to start over a few times and it absolutely crushed Lily.  She still doesn't trust herself to not wear her thumb guard, but I know it's only a matter of time when that instinct is behind her.  She's almost gone 2 weeks and we're so proud of her.  So today we went to the zoo.

 

The giraffes were first.  They were galloping around in circles and it was probably my favorite part of the day.  It was so cool.

The Lions were taking a nap.

 

 

The lioness woke up her hubby by smacking him on the head.  Bad move.  We saw quite the little lion fight complete with roaring.  It got my heartbeat going a little bit.  Needless to say, he was not pleased to be woken up.

 

Then she stuck out her tongue at him.

 

And they gave each other the silence treatment.

 

Ben told me that this is how I act when he tries waking me up.

 

 

 

 

 

Mama and baby.

 

Ben told me to kiss the chimp.  Lily, who likes to mother me more than my own mother, was completely disgusted by that idea and tried dragging me away and yelling, "Nooooo!  Eww!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids' favorite part was probably the dinosaur exhibit.

 

To encourage Lily to stop sucking her thumb, I'd let her look at as many pictures of the zoo online as she wanted.  This included pictures of the animatronic dinosaurs.  Yesterday Lily told me that she didn't want to see the dinosaurs at the zoo because they might eat her.  So I told her all about how dinosaurs died a long long time ago and that they wouldn't be real.  She perked up and kept saying, "I can't wait to play with the dead dinosaurs!"

 

Okay.  Creeeeepy.

 

 

 

Proactive model

 

 

 

Through the whole exhibit my mom and I were talking about how much this made us want to watch Jurassic Park.  My mom kept joking, "Must go faster!"  Then at the exit, a jeep with this picture behind it was practically glowing with irony.  It was a perfect opportunity for my parents to reenact one of the scenes.  Although I did tell my dad that in order for it to be accurate he would need a broken leg and a torn open shirt...

 

 

 

The aviary just about killed me it was so warm and muggy.  But they had these huge fans in the floor that kept me alive.  Lily loved them too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skyler pretending to be a dinosaur. 

One word:  ferocious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the carousel was done we decided that sugar was a must.  Ben knows the way to my heart and got me some cotton candy.  He got himself a frozen lemonade and my parents got the kids some ice cream.  Ella ate all of it.

 

Ella sadly didn't take her morning nap on the way to the zoo like I was hoping, but she was such a trooper.  The only time she cried today was when we ran out of ice cream.  She may not look like me, but she is SO me.

 

 

 

We only made it through half of the zoo, but the kids don't know that.  I'm glad that we were able to celebrate Lily's achievement and that my parents were able to last minute come with us since they were nervous that our zoo trip would be a repeat of IKEA.  But bless the NC zoo because it was mostly wooded and had tons of benches so that this 36 week pregnant girl survived.  Although all the day's walking started up horrible contractions that left me cursing every bump on the drive home. 

So thank you, Lily, for taking us to the zoo!  I think the Tooth Fairy might be leaving you another glittery note tonight under your pillow...

The Daily Grind Part II

 

Ella hugs are one of my new favorite things.  She crawls over to me when I'm cooking and pulls herself up until she's hugging one or both of my legs and buries her face.  And since Ben is her favorite person (or is it Lily?  Some days I can't tell) he gets lots of Ella hugs.  I think it's safe to say that Ben is a complete Ella pushover.

 

**Ella, if you're reading this when you're a teenager please be aware that Daddy and I will always love you, even when we say no to things you want.  Okay fine.  You want to go to Paris?  Let me find my credit card....**

 

I snapped this candid photo during lunch today.  When Ben is home this is what it typically looks like: having fun until we then remember that, Oh yeah, we're eating lunch and you kids should probably actually eat.

 

Around here I try to keep things healthy and on a budget (for the most part, anyway).  This means my kids have had very very few individually packaged foods.  But with Lily going to school (it's full day Kindergarten here) I knew that there would inevitably be packaged foods in her lunch box (i.e. tubes of yogurt).  So for the last week we've been pretending to eat lunch in the cafeteria and she has learned how to open all sorts of things, including her tupperware, and then she has had to figure out what to throw away and what to put back into her lunch box.  I'm so proud of her!  She's doing great!

 

I am a college drop out, and I have mixed feelings about it.  I know it was definitely the path that I was supposed to take, but I always imagined myself finishing school and it was sort of a bummer that I didn't.  BUT, majoring in Elementary Ed was one of the best things I think I could have done.  It has proven useful to me over and over again as a mom.  I've done a "sort of" preschool at home with the kids and have tried to keep them interested in learning, in all sorts of different ways.  So in a way, I really try to use my college experience as a mom since I know I'll never use it in a class room.  I'm hesitant to put my kids in preschool because I want to put what I actually learned in college to use.  Plus it saves us money -- another perk.

 

That being said, I spent a lot of time volunteering in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms between my high school and college days.  I mostly worked with Kindergarteners and I can remember how annoyed teachers would get when it was time for recess and there would be a line of kids who needed to have their shoes tied or their coats zipped.  I kept that in the back of my mind all these years and so Ben and I have been working hard with Lily on being independent all around (hence the lunch box eating at home) and I'm really impressed with her progress.  She's wanting to grow up so quickly it's almost killing me. 

 

And in case you're wondering, yes, I have already cried about Lily starting Kindergarten on Monday.

 

Ugh.  WHY?????? 

 

 

 

 

 On top of her hugs, Ella has also learned how to give open-mouth-and-tongue-out-kisses.  Yum....

The Daily Grind

I've had a goal lately of taking pictures of the everyday things that make me smile.

 

 

This is how Skyler sleeps.  He likes to fall asleep with his light on now that he sleeps without Lily.  He builds what he calls his "bird nest" -- aka pile of stuffed animals -- and he usually sleeps smack dab in the middle of it.  He also likes to squish everything onto the bottom half of his bed and he always keeps a water cup on the edge of his bed.

 

Skyler likes to build "bird nests" wherever he goes.  He's made them at my parents' house and he keeps one in our master bedroom so he can chill in there while we do family scripture study.

 

Breakfast on the deck on a rainy morning.  I really love Lily and Skyler's bedhead and tired (or is it pirate?) smiles.

 

The excitement that comes when you open Ella's door when she wakes up from her nap.  Her curls bounce as she jumps up and down hyperventilating.  Oh chubby legged babyliciousness... When I posted on facebook about how excited I was that she was starting to pull herself into standing position on her own I loved what April said when I mentioned that Ella was behind physically:  "Of course she's behind. Her cheeks weigh more than any other kid's. It's hard work lifting all that adorableness!"  Truer words have never been spoken.

 

The kids constantly share food with Ella.  There's a reason why she's so chubby and it's not solely because of Ben and me.  Just tonight Lily was feeding her some frozen yogurt at Costco.  In this picture Lily is sharing her snowcone with Ella because our HOA hired an ice cream truck to give free ice cream to everyone in the neighborhood (I love this house!)  There are times when Lily and Skyler share food with Ella when it's not cute.  Like at dinner.  When it's green beans.  "But we're shaaaaaaaaring, Mom."  Riiiiiiight.

 

Adventures in the back yard.  Getting a bigger yard was pretty big on our wishlist when we were house hunting.  We had debated getting a nicer house with a yard the same size as our last one, but I'm so glad we went for the bigger yard now.  After just a couple of days in our house I told Ben that I had never seen their imaginations so alive before.  They would go back into the trees with a frisbee and make leaf soup and all sorts of other delicacies and come in covered in dirt.  To me, that's exactly what they should be doing at this age.

 

Playtime in the bonus room.  This was the very first house we looked at when we were starting to look into buying again.  The kids ran upstairs without us and we couldn't even hear them running around and playing because of how well the house is built.  Ben and I looked at each other and silently said, "SOLD!"

 

I'm going to keep taking pictures of the daily grind and I'll post a few here and there because sometime in the next few weeks our "normal" is about to be flipped upside down with Lily starting school and Thad making his first appearance. 

Kiddo-isms

Sadly I got this shot just seconds after the A/C turned off and Ella's dress was left deflated.  Just imagine it being all puffed up and I'll virtually fist bump you.  She loves that vent.  But let me tell you that that vent does not love her hair.  If you've ever wondered what a blond baby afro would look like you should check out Ella after she's done playing with the vent.

 

 

While we were getting into the car after church on Sunday:

Ben:  "So what did you learn about in Primary?"

Lily:  "Sharing.  And look!  I got a whole bag of candy!"

Ben:  "So are you going to share your candy?"

Lily:  *shrugs*  "Maybe."

(Despite her less than enthusiastic reaction, she actually gave Skyler about half her candy)

 

 

When it was Skyler's turn to pray Sunday night:

"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless this food (he still struggles to remember that you don't do that during family prayers).  And please bless us that we can live with Jesus again someday because when we get old we're going to die.  Name of Jesus Christ, amen."  He also told me tonight that since I'm old (25......riiiiiiight) I'm going to die soon. 

 

 

After Skyler's pooping incident, we had some pretty serious talks with him about how he needed to tell us anytime he needed to use the bathroom.  We must have stressed the subject a little too much because as we were leaving the pool on Monday night Skyler started announcing to everybody who would listen that he "DIDN'T POOP IN [HIS] SWIMSUIT!!!"  We would try to hush him and change the subject and then he would yell it again, so proud of himself. 

 

 

Lily sings all. day. long.  Sometimes it drives me completely crazy.  I'll ask her what she wants for lunch and she'll sing back (in total pop star fashion), "Peanut butter and je-eh-eh-eh-lllllly!"  Complete with a 5 year-old fake vibrato.  Anyway.  This week she was singing the Super Why theme song, and of course, she typically gets half the words wrong anytime she sings any song.  But she knows the Super Why song pretty well because I get it stuck in my head all the time and I sing it myself.  (Okay.  So she's a mini me.  No need to point fingers).  This was how Lily chose to sing it one day this week:  "Super Why!  Super Why!  He's the guy, he's --  SUP-AH FLY!"  Yep.  My daughter.

 

 

Also, since I'm super pregnant (not that that's my real reason but I like to make excuses for my weirdness) I pick up a lot of things with my toes rather than squat down and start up my Braxton hicks.  Lily and Skyler have learned over the years to pick up things with their toes rather than being normal and just bending over.  I sort of have this mixed sense of pride and shame in this.  Ella is really quick at mimicking.  So you guessed it.  My 12 month-old is now picking things up with her toes.  And when it gets too hard to pick up she'll jam the item in between her toes and then "hand" it to herself.  Yep.  That's my other daughter. 



In case you forgot, I have 3.5 kids.

Every now and then I feel the need to provide my future self an accurate description of real life as a pregnant mom of 3.  Some days are glorious.  And other days are full of Braxton hicks, marker on something that shouldn't be colored on, and lots of saying "Give each other space!" etc. 

Today was one of the bad days, though it wasn't supposed to be.  Today was an IKEA day.  I treasure these trips since we only allow ourselves to take them once a year because a) IKEA is almost 3 hours away and b) we could spend a lot of money there if we didn't have self-control.  I was excited to go, even though I'm 34 weeks along.  Here's a run down of what happened:


- Leave 12 minutes late.  Not bad.
- Pick up some Bojangles because that is our tradition for any multi-hour roadtrip since we take them so rarely.  Boberry biscuits and chicken biscuits.  The day is starting well.
- Take a new route to IKEA.  It's back roads and farmland 90% of the way.  In other words, free therapy.  There were only a few, "Are we getting close?" and "Sort of, we're only 2 1/2 hours away!" comments.
- Arrive at IKEA at the same time as my parents.  Score!
- Make the kids go to the bathroom as soon as we arrive.  They are deathly afraid of bathroom fans so we had to wait for a family bathroom to become available.  No biggie.
- We start our journey through the maze of furniture amazingness.  My heart issues kick in immediately.  I start losing my hearing and vision.  In the meantime, Lily and Skyler are really bummed that we didn't put them in the play land right away (we were waiting to do that later).
- I try to see how far I can go on my own two feet.  It's not far.  Maybe 15 feet at a time before I lose my hearing again?  Eventually my dad gets a wheelchair for me.  This fixes all of my whooziness. 
- Lily and Skyler continue to complain about not being in the cool play area.  We all convince them that we'll be eating lunch soon and as soon as we're done eating they'll get to go play.
- Eat lunch.  Make the kids visit the bathroom again.  Drop kids off.  Yes! 
- 10 minutes later my dad hears someone say over the intercom that "Heather Macbeth is needed at the play area."  My dad wheels me back at lightning speed.  They tell me that Skyler pooped in his pants.  "They have to be potty trained to come in here."  "He is potty trained."  "Well now we have to shut down the whole place."  I watch as a screaming Skyler and Lily come out of the play land.  I also watch as the line of parents who want to drop off their kids are turned away.  "Oh, so can we just drop them off later?"  "No, we're closed for the rest of the day." I'm embarrassed and extremely frustrated.  Because anyone who knows Skyler knows that when he's upset, the whole hemisphere knows about it.  I try to quiet him unsuccessfully.  Ben takes him to the car to get cleaned up and changed.
- We hurry and get our things out of the warehouse which takes some time since we lost our list of aisle and bin numbers.  While Ben and my parents are checking out, all 3 kids are whining and I'm still weak from my heart.  I am emotionally and physically drained.  We take our stuff outside in the 95 degree heat and I'm dying of thirst.  So we stop at a McDonalds to get water for everybody and to take one last potty break before the rest of the trip.  I take Lily in.  The automatic toilet flushes itself before she even gets on and she screams louder than I've ever heard her.  After 5 minutes of this, I give up on any hopes of her doing anything.  We leave.
- Lily sucks her thumb on our way home (we've been working hard on getting her to stop for the last couple of weeks) and lied about it.


I was ready to yell, "Bedtime!" as soon as we got home at 5:30, but I knew we would pay the price for that tomorrow morning. 

But almost immediately it was like the skies cleared (not literally.  It was pouring buckets) and I noticed our newly delivered rug waiting on the porch.  I was a little giddy.  Rugs are expensive.  But we were able to combine a sale and a coupon and get a pretty awesome deal on a rug that miraculously matches our house really well.  Pay no mind to the matchbox cars that are vrooming down the roads on our Moroccan Rug.

I'm feeling a little bit better now.  But here's my new problem.  Our rug is made of wool and comes from India.  As Ben put it, "Our house smells like a dairy farm."  Here's to hoping our guests don't think we're making our baby live in poopy diapers when in reality we just have a gorgeous rug that puts off that aroma.  Cheers!

An Unexpected Note

When I was released from the Primary presidency in the Garner Ward, I was given a thank you card signed by all the Primary teachers.  Even though this kind of has nothing to do with this post, I had to add that they also gave me an orchid.  It was GORGEOUS.  And all I had to do was feed it 3 ice cubes a week and it would stay in perfect condition.  It was ideal for when we were staging our home and everyone who ever saw it thought it was fake because it was that perfect.  And honestly, I say this while I laugh because even my dad was so convinced that it was fake that he left it in his car during the move because he wasn't worried about it dying.  Ha!  Needless to say, it's a goner. I love that story.  I had to record it.

Anyway..... back to the real post.  Apparently I had put the card on top of the fridge and it somehow slipped behind it, so when we moved, I lost the card.  But in the mail this week, I noticed a card from our old address.  What?  Inside was the card I had received from Primary and a letter from our buyers. 

Hello Mrs. Macbeth,

I hope you and your family are doing well and settling into your new home.  We are enjoying your "old home" -- you took such great care of it!  (that's because they don't know about any of the crayon, marker, acrylic paint, and vaseline that was once on practically every surface of our house) -- and the new neighborhood.

We found this thank you card when cleaning behind the fridge.  You seem to have meant a lot to the people who signed it; I couldn't just throw it in the trash.  By the way, you've had a lasting impression on the neighbors I've met too -- they all speak so highly of you!  Please relay to your husband that our children LOVE the castle.

When I read this I think I just blinked a couple of times and was left dumbfounded.  Things got a little hairy the closer we got to our closing date.  Between them asking if they could move in before the actual closing to repairing things that didn't need to actually be repaired, we were starting to get a little frustrated.  But I kept telling myself that when Ben and I had two comparable offers on the table, it was beyond clear to us who was supposed to have our house after we said one short prayer.

I think this letter really sealed the deal for me.  I strangely haven't missed our old house at all, even when Lily and Skyler have said things like, "I miss the castle."  But I especially know now that our old house is being loved by someone who is supposed to be there. 

In the meantime, we feel completely at home in our new house.  It is beyond awesome.  Lily is getting ready to go to school.  I'm getting ready for Thad to arrive.  Ben is enjoying a shorter commute.  Skyler is loving lots of space to play in the backyard without adult supervision.  And we are all loving the neighborhood pool where Lily and Skyler are suddenly not deathly afraid of swimming now that we have a 3-story water slide to enjoy. 

Life and change are good.

My wife is AWESOME!!!

I

LOVE

YOU

HEATHER!!!!!

 

:p..............q:

4

Skyler turned 4 on July 30th.  We had a combined celebration for Ella and Skyler's birthdays with my parents.  So the first few pictures are from Ella's birthday.  Skyler held all the presents over his head after he unwrapped them and it reminded me so much of my Grandpa because he would do that, too, even with his Alzheimer's.  I think it was a Samoan thing?

 

 

 He loved his books from Grandmum and Pop Pop.  He was even nice enough to share them with Lily that night.

Oh the Plasma Car.  I'm going to have to write up a whole post about that probably.  It has been a HUGE hit.

 

Today was Skyler's birthday party.  Check out those light up LEGO'S.  Umm... awesome!

 

 

 

After all the presents were opened, the kids all went on a treasure hunt to find their party favors.  It shouldn't have been a surprise that Skyler ended up in tears.  Oh Skyler. 

 

They found the "treasure" under the deck.  Big water guns for everybody!

 

The kids sort of squirted around a little bit.  Or cried a little bit if you're Skyler.  *sigh*  I love that kid.  I just don't love his constant screaming tears.  One day he'll get past it.  One day.

 

But then Ben distracted them and got them to attack him which they all enjoyed.  Poor little Phoenix.  He should be a stunt man when he grows up. 

 

And for the third year in a row Skyler chose donuts as his birthday treat.  I love living in an area that has so many Krispy Kremes.

 

Things I love about Skyler right now:

• That he actually wants to participate in family scripture study and prayers now that we do them on Mommy and Daddy's bed.  He went through an extreme rebellious stage with this for quite a few months, and after praying and praying and praying, we somehow came up with the whole change of location thing and it has been a hit ever since. 
• He adores his sisters.  He says goodnight to Ella for every nap and gets depressed when he has to say goodnight to Lily at night.  He watches in the hallway as I close her door and it sinks in all over that they don't share a room anymore.  It's slightly depressing yet sweet.  Today at his party, some of our friends were joking about taking Ella home to stay with them and Skyler got genuinely upset about it.  Ha!  It was sweet.
• He's a little smarty-pants.  Since he and Lily are so close in age, I work with them on the same things at the same time.  So he's almost at Lily's level when it comes to academics.
• His mind works just like Ben's.  He likes to build and create whereas Lily prefers drawing and pretending. 
• Right when you're not expecting it, Skyler will come up behind you and give you the biggest hug and kiss ever.
• He is still obsessed with all things tiny and cute.  I think he would die of happiness if I ever took him to a pet store to actually choose a pet.  He is Mia's favorite kid.  She trusts him more than the girls.
• He is beyond thrilled that Thad will be arriving in a month and a half.  Skyler loves to tell people (especially strangers) all about his yet-to-be-born little brother.  Of course he pronounces his name "Fad."

We love our Little Handsome and always will.  Happy 4th birthday Skyler!