Fifty-Sixth Passage

There has been a case of infanticide at our house.

Here is the crime scene.

And here is the culprit.

She gutted her own baby. This is believed to have taken place in the morning hours, after the little mommy awoke in her crib, and before the little mommy's mommy removed her from the crib.
A proper burial (kitchen garbage can) has taken place.

Post-it #80

William was sick yesterday, meaning he was much more mellow and lethargic. Poor kid. I let him watch a couple movies since he wasn't really up for doing much else. Of course Morgan and Owen wanted to get in on the movie watching. I happened upon the boys watching tv together like this.

I thought it was sweet.

Fifty-fifth Passage

Lydia.

She is just about potty trained. She hasn't had an accident for several days, she doesn't need a diaper at nap time, or when we go places. It kind of just clicked, I guess. After weeks of trying to potty train her, it was still hit and miss. One day would be flawless, the next would have her in her fourth pair of underwear by lunch. But sometime within the last week, the accidents suddenly ceased.
I put her in a diaper at night time. That's usually when she poops. She won't try it in the toilet. And ever since we started potty training she holds it in for DAYS. No bueno. I've put candy in the bathroom where she can see it, so act as a motivator. She can have it when she poops in the toilet! That's what I did with Morgan and Owen, (their prizes were a hotwheels car, and fancy balloons, respectively) but even though Lydia is a candy fiend, she acts completely uninterested when she realizes that I won't give it to her without a price. Sigh.

In other Lydia news, she's kinda a little meanie. Ever since she was very young, like, pre-walking, she has taken pleasure in stealing things from people. I remember watching her in fascination as she stalked slowly up to something someone was using, but had set down, or something, and, acting nonchalant, hung around for a bit. Then, when it was least expected, her little baby hand would dart out and snatch away whatever it was that she thought the other person wanted. And she would laugh.
Now that she is two, it's not as funny. She is always stealing toys from her brothers, then running away screaming. And she doesn't take them to play with them, she takes them to take them. She throws them, or stashes them in a closet and slams the door, or slides them in hard to reach places, like under the couch. It happens often during school time. She will grab a pencil or book from one of the boys and run to the door, throw it out in the hall, then close the door and try to hold it shut so the offended boy can't get it back, and she screams bloody murder when they try.
How do I get this to stop? She gets in trouble EVERY SINGLE TIME. She really isn't getting away with it. Yet her behavior continues.
She is such an imp.

Post-it #79

We read another book. William got to pick it this time, from my little collection of children's books that I've been gathering from thrift stores. I was surprised when he picked Sarah, Plain and Tall.

The cover isn't very exciting, it doesn't have anything cool, like, a motorcycle riding mouse, a toy indian coming to life, or a vampire bunny. But he picked it, and we read it in two sittings, since it's a very small book. And it was another big hit. Of course, it's a pretty great book. A Newbury award winner. I guess you are never to young to appreciate great literature.

Post-it #78

This week I finished reading The Indian in the Cupboard to the boys. They really liked it, I think. In fact, they payed much better attention to this book than any of the others, and they would ask questions about the story, and they would comment on how it made them feel. At one point William said, "If Boone dies, I'm going to cry. He better not die."
Don't worry. Boone didn't die. :)
We watched the movie Saturday night. I remember liking it as a kid. But I don't remember the swearing in it, (at one point the boy actor said the "d" word, which prompted Owen to immediately repeat it!) or, in one scene, the brief shots of a music video about "girls, girls girls!" dressed scantily and dancing erotically. That wasn't something I was happy to endorse by sitting there with my impressionable boys and watching this movie I recommended...
But the book was great!

Fifty-fourth Passage

Valentines Day was great. We gave the kids some valentines.

 We didn't do as much school as normal, because I wanted to be sure to have time to make cupcakes with the kiddo's for Valentines for family members.

We had some picked up, and delivered others.

But the best part of Valentines Day was my date with my Valentine. My mom came over and watched Morgan and Lydia for us, and then our date was started. We went out to dinner, then just went to Cabella's to look at tents and bows, and, on the spur of the moment, we went to Toys R Us and bought a new board game called Dixit, which is actually pretty fun, and the older boys can even play it with us. We also stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate and a smoothie.

Oh, and David spoiled me rotten. Check it out. A dozen red roses, a box of chocolates, a stuffed animal, a little journal with pens, and a lovely white gold necklace.

This made me feel a little foolish for the very inexpensive gifts I got for him. But I did give David an awesome card, if I do say so myself! I found a great greeting card at Wal-mart, that was like a mini-book, and it kinda sounded like it was in my voice, ya know? So I got it. Then I got the idea to cut our heads out of pictures of us, and glue them onto the stick figures. And it turned out to be the best card I've ever given. Or seen...

Lookit!

Post-it #77

Morgan: have you ever seen the movie 'diarrhea of a wimpy kid'?

Me: Morgan, will you get the milk out?
Morgan: which milk? The only milk, or none?

I seriously heard my boys say this. "wanna play 'kiss a wedgie?'" what. The. Heck.

Lydia's favorite phrases: "I got it!" Meaning, I'm super independent, and I don't want your help with anything!

and, "Stop it, now!" Sometimes she chants it in a sweet, sing songy voice, like, when she's bathing. 

Fifty-third Passage

Yesterday I thought it would be interesting to track everything I did from the moment I woke up to the time I went to bed. Just to see how my time was actually spent. Also, people always ask what I do with my time, and now I can just be lazy and direct them to this blogpost.  Haha.

So here is a day in the life of Melanie.

7:30 Alarm goes off - snooze- Pray.
7:40 Go down stairs
7:45 Greet William and Owen as they get dropped off.
8:00 Get three boys breakfast
8:15 make myself breakfast
8:30 Get Lydia up and feed her. Have boys empty dishwasher. Put Owen in timeout for repeatedly telling me no about doing chores.
8:45 Put dirty dishes in dishwasher. Send boys upstairs to clean up the school room. Go to the bathroom.
9:15 Get Lydia dressed. Take her to the bathroom.
9:20 Throw load of Lydia's clothes in washer.
9:30 Go upstairs to find new giant mess in boys bedroom.

Clean clothes all over the floor. They blame Lydia, so I clean up the mess.
9:37 Get dressed.
9:40 Gather boys for school. Start with devotional. (Song, prayer, alphabet, Article of Faith)
9:48 Spelling for older boys, letter sounds book for Owen, reading with Lydia.
9:55 Owen spills box of colored pencils on the floor.

9:59 Move on to reading comprehension with older boys.
10:16 Move on to parts of speech for older boys. (subjects and predicates) Owen does an alphabet dot to dot. Flash cards with Lydia.
10:20 Lydia goes potty in the toilet.
10:24 Owen finishes his school work and gets a sticker on his chart.
10:29 William moves to math. (beginning fractions)

10:32 I put Dragon Tales on downstairs for Lydia and Owen.

10:34 I put Lydia's clothes in the dryer, and wash her pillow pet and a bathroom mat.
10:39 Return upstairs and check Morgan's work after he'd moved on to math while I was away. Manage to read two pages in my book. (Empire, by Orson Scott Card)
10:54 Learn a new state with boys. New Hampshire.
11:03 Leave boys to color in their state binders and go get ready for the day. Hair, make-up, etc. (fortunately I showered just before bed the night before.)
11:22 Give kids a snack. Gather extra underpants for Lydia in preparation for leaving the house.
11:24 Have a twom minute phone conversation with my love.
11:27 Put all the boys on the bench for being crazy and wild.
11:28 Do Lydia's hair.
11:29 Move Morgan to the wall for being "the next one to talk" to continue his time out.
11:30 Lydia goes pee in the potty.
11:31 Let boys out of time out. Send Morgan to get socks on. Regret letting the boys out of time out.
11:36 Get everyone in socks, shoes, and coats.
11:42 Finally have everyone in the car. Lydia is still in underpants. The first time ever I didn't put a diaper or pull-up on her before leaving the house.
11:55 Arrive at library. Put shoes and socks back on Lydia's feet. Go inside.

12:03 Take Lydia to the bathroom for a false alarm.
12:17 Check out and get Morgan and William their own library cards.
12:23 Get back in the car with one book for me, and two each for Morgan and William that they can read themselves. Owen didn't want any.
12:36 Arrive home. Change Lydia out of her wet underpants.
12:38 Take picture of Moran and William with their new library cards and books.

12:43 Change out laundry. Throw David's karate uniform in washing machine.
12:46 Start lunch preparations.
12:48 Take out trash. General kitchen tidying. Sweep. Kids play loudly around the house.
12:52 Read Morgan's library book to the kids.
12:58 Have altercation with Owen over food, bad choices, and obedience.
1:04 Continue preparing lunch. Just chili-mac&cheese.
1:08 Send boys upstairs for being way too rough and loud downstairs.
1:18  Serve lunch.
1:34 Lydia goes potty in the toilet.
1:37 Clean up lunch and dishes.
1:40 Owen spills his water everywhere. Spilling water or bowls of cereal or something, is becoming a daily occurance with him.
1:47 Hang up David's wet karate uniform to dry.
1:49 play the piano with Lydia.
1:55 Put Lydia in a diaper and down for a nap.
2:02 Read The Indian in the Cupboard to Morgan and William as they draw pictures.
2:30 Clean up living room with boys.
2:38 Put wii game on for boys.
2:41 Transfer David's temple stuff to a new backback.
2:45 Tidy my bathroom.
2:52 Me time! Facebook, phone games, then reading my book. Chatting with a friend about plans to take our kids to the hotsprings the next day.
4:20 Back to real life. (Whew! Look at that break! Normally if I get to have one, it isn't so long since I have to be leaving the house at this time to take the boys to their mom's house most school days. This day was unusual since she came to pick them up.)
4:25 Save the shelf that Morgan knocked off the wall and frantically held up as he called for help.
4:30 Fixed the broken wii.
4:31 More clean up in the living room.
4:36 Pickles all around.
4:38 Owen spills another cup of water.
4:45 I start an episode of Downton Abbey and start folding three loads of laundry (two little boy loads, and one Lydia load. Some from the day before) while the boys do puzzles at the table.
5:27 William and Owen go with their mom. I send them off.
5:34 After finishing the laundry, I set Morgan up on Nick Jr website to play while I try to figure out what to make for dinner.

I lost track of things a bit here, but I called my mom, made taco soup, got Lydia out of bed, (long nap!!) talked to David on his way home from work, greeted him when he arrived around 6:00, accepted the offered Blizzard from Dairy Queen, set the table, ate the blizzard with David, then ate dinner with the family, tried a few times unsuccessfully to make Lydia go poop.
6:56 Cleaned up dinner and did dinner dishes.
7:05 Mentioned that I was gonna take the garbage can to the curb, then watched as David did it. (I really was planning on it!
7:06 Put Lydia's folded clothes away.
7:12 Cuddled with David on the couch while Morgan and Lydia played.
7:29 Played Mario Kart with David and Morgan. Lydia thought she played too.
8:15 Took Lydia upstairs to get her ready for bed.
8:20 Family prayer.
8:25 Put Lydia in her crib.
8:26 Took Lydia out of her crib on grounds that she was whining excessively about having to go "poopy". Since she hadn't gone for 3 days, I thought we should try.
8:36 Put Lydia back in bed, with no success.
8:45 Watch Downton Abbey again while folding the clothes for David and I. David plays video games with buddies.
After one episode, (which is about 1 hr and 10 mins) I had to search long and hard for a place on the internet that would stream season 2 of the show. Found it. I also ironed, which took the bulk of my time.
11:35 David joins me.
11:40 The show ends. I turn off the projector and computer, (we don't have a tv) and take the clothes upstairs and put them away.
11:55 Return downstairs. Put away kitchen towels and washrags. Bathroom. Put away pickles. Glug some water.
12:03 Back upstairs. Get in bed. Play wheel of fortune for a few minutes with David. (He on his ipad, me on my iphone.)
12:15 Go to sleep.

Whew! That was my day. It was actually a very smooth day. The kids were pretty well behaved, they were fantastic at the library, nothing major or dramatic. The library isn't actually part of my normal day. And folding and ironing clothes is only normal for one or two nights a week. But there is always something.

Many of my evenings are spent with David and I doing something together. Movie, video games, board games, etc. But this is still an accurate representation of what a day in my life is like.