The Soak Zone

We tried to give our kids an up-close and personal experience at Sea World yesterday, but Eliza didn't appreciate our thoughtfulness at Shamu's show.

Totally Backfired

Liam always comes in my room when he wakes up in the morning. This morning I was already up when I heard him coming, so I hid behind the door and yelled, "BOO!" as he walked in.

I can’t help it—teasing is a horrible trait I inherited from my dad.

So, while he whimpered and jumped a mile, involuntarily smashing pieces off the Lego ship he was carrying, I started laughing hysterically. Unfortunately, my laugh turned into a cough, which triggered my pregnant, early-morning gag reflex, which sent me running into the bathroom to vomit.

It was a very confusing 10-seconds, and 7 hours later, I’m still coughing.

Poor Liam deserves a better mom.

Reallocating Eliza's Movie Theatre Budget

There are several major differences between Liam and Eliza, other than the obvious boy vs. girl stuff. Eliza slams her fingers in doors or drawers at least once a week—she NEVER learns. And every single time she eats, I have to remind her to stay in the kitchen. Plus, she spills her drink almost daily. She’s perfectly capable of drinking out of a cup, but totally incapable of holding a cup upright while thinking about something else.

We took Liam to the movie theatre for the first time when he was 1½ years old. He sat perfectly still through the entire movie, Shrek the Third. I knew Eliza wasn’t ready for the movie theatre that young, but now she’s almost 3 years old and we really needed to get out of the house today.

We decided to try her out on her first movie theatre with Arthur Christmas.


She made it through two previews before she was out of her seat, climbing on the seat in front of us. Even a 50-foot screen and a lap full of snacks couldn’t keep her attention.

I guess we’ll try the movie theatre again in another 3 years. Hopefully Baby #3 is more like Liam than Eliza.

Plus, It's International Women's Day

I’m a c-section girl now, so if everything goes according to plan I should get to pick my baby’s birthday. Thursday is my doctor’s day off, but he usually comes in in the morning anyway, so he said I could pick any day of the week. His only suggestion was that it be a few days before my due date.

My due date is March 9th, and I was really hoping for a March 8th baby. March 8th is cool because, first of all, it’s my Uncle Barry’s birthday and he’s one of the nicest men on the planet. But more importantly, check out what my kids’ birthdays would be:

Liam: 08-31-05
Eliza: 03-18-09
Baby: 03-08-12

Five out of six of the same birthday digits! Crazy, right? I think it’s totally worth ignoring the "few days early" advice and making my doctor come in on his day off.

Sure Enough…

It’s a boy! I was secretly hoping for a girl all the way up until the Bravermans took my girl name on Parenthood last week. Now I’m over it.

But now I need to start looking for boy names. I need an old-fashioned English or Irish name that goes with Liam and Eliza. I like Oliver, Miles, Quinn and Alexander, but I’m not in love with any of them. Anyone have any ideas?

Weird Weather

Even after living in Utah for 15 Octobers, it always surprises me that we go from running the air conditioner one day to the heater the next. My kids went to bed in their summer jammies and woke up asking for hot chocolate. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.

Faux Peanut Butter

I can't believe nobody ever told me about this:


Somebody actually made a soy concoction that tastes exactly like peanut butter. I just had my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my own house since Liam was born. Next I think I'll try making peanut butter cookies.

Party of Five

A few weeks ago I lost my sweet tooth. I feel sort of dead inside, after going from a constant chocolate chip cookie craving all day, every day, for as long as I can remember, to no craving at all. This has only happened to me one other time--when I was pregnant with Liam. So based on past experience, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's a baby boy growing in my belly.

Kindergarten

Liam started kindergarten last week, but before school started we went in to meet the teacher and tour the classroom. That night, Ben asked Liam if he got to see his desk. Liam answered, "I don't think I have a desk. I don't even have a computer!"


Seriously, what a joke. Kids are expected to go to kindergarten without personal computers on every desk? Way to ruin a 5-year-old's expectations.

False Alarm

I promised myself I wouldn’t get my hopes up, but then I started planning our meals for the rest of the week: dinner at P.F. Chang’s, lunch tomorrow at Chick-fil-A, Five Guys after that, then Cold Stone for dessert and Thai Food the next day…

I even told Liam that maybe after we got his test results back he could have a bag of M&Ms. Can you believe that kid can’t even eat plain M&Ms?

Well, the blood test came back positive. The doctor can’t figure out what went wrong with his scratch tests, so we’ll be going back in for a re-test in a couple weeks. BOO.

Nutty Business

Today was Liam's annual visit to the allergist. I'm not getting my hopes up until I find out the results of his blood test, but check this out:


1: peanuts
2-9: tree nuts
10: shellfish
11-12: dogs and cats

The only red ones are dogs and cats! He could be cured! Just in time for kindergarten! If his blood test comes back negative, we'll go back in next week and the doctor will give him peanut butter. I thought this boy would never taste peanut butter! This is totally blowing my mind.

Pre-K Nerdiness

Liam just informed me that Saturday was his favorite day of the week because, "Dad doesn't go to work on Saturdays." Then he changed his mind and said, "Actually Monday is my favorite day because when Dad gets home from work on Mondays, his phone gets an update."

SYTYCD

Tonight while we were watching So You Think You Can Dance, Ben looked at the remote and said, "I really wish we had a Skip Mary Murphy button on here."

Shaping Up

Liam is on a shapes kick today. He drew a picture of a triangle, a square, a star, and an octagon, and then called them by name. When I asked him what a 5-sided shape was called, he said, "Umm...a decepticon?"

The Smell of Sweden

I just gave Liam a cinnamon roll for breakfast. He said, "Mmmm...it smells like Ikea."

A Whole New World

Am I the only one who can’t get Mod Podge to work right? I always have serious air bubble issues.

I had originally used spray adhesive on Liam’s world map canvases, but they just looked too poster-y for me so I Mod Podged them. That was a huge mistake. Now they look like bubble wrap. I would show you a picture, but I didn’t take one before I ripped them apart.

For my second attempt, I went to the Silhouette machine. I started by painting over this canvas that used to hang in our old house.


Then I asked my Silhouette to make a world map out of contact paper, stuck it to the canvas (like a stencil), and painted blue around it.


And now Liam is stuck with another imperfect map of the world on his bedroom wall. No one is allowed within 10 feet of this...especially if you’re from the east coast or Saudi Arabia. But at least it has no air bubbles.

And So It Begins

No more than 10 minutes after we finished watching General Conference this morning, while Eliza was eating lunch and minding her own business, I walked into the kitchen and overheard Liam say, "I hate you, Eliza."

I sure didn't see that one coming at age 5.

Hearing Un-Impaired

Liam scored 100% on his most recent hearing test, which is about 90% better than I ever did at his age. Ben and I both had multiple sets of ear tubes when we were little, so I can't help but be proud (and sort of jealous) of these perfectly-working ears:

Lately

I saw this girl's idea a few weeks ago and decided Liam really needed a map in his nautical-themed bedroom. So I bought one off Amazon and made my own version:


I also joined the fad and bought a Silhouette machine with my recent gig money, and now my house is turning into a vinyl explosion. Are you wondering where Liam's room is? Don't worry, I labeled it:


Oh, now you're looking for Eliza's room? Here it is:


And just for fun, on the front door:


I'm pretty much in love with that machine.

You Might Be Slightly Addicted If...

Your almost-two-year-old knows how to say five words, and one of them is "ipad."

Because We Can't Get Enough of the Superhero Theme Around Here

Yet again, I borrowed somebody else's idea.

Silhouettes

A couple days ago we woke up to tons of snow, and since I’m incompetent at driving in the snow it became a stay-at-home day.

At one point Eliza was staring out the window at the snow, and her profile reminded me that I’ve been meaning to try making some of those silhouettes I keep seeing all over. You know the ones, right?

So I took pictures of Liam and Eliza:


Then Photoshopped them and hung them up:


And now that spot above the light switch in the hallway is my favorite place in the whole house.

The Better to See You With, My Dear

I just heard that eyeballs never grow. From the second you exit the womb until you die, your eyeballs stay the same size.

Right now I'm finding that a little hard to believe.

Meltdown

This is what happens when Ben stays at work for an extra half hour:



Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth for no apparent reason. How dare I make Liam clean his room and Eliza pick up the cup she threw downstairs before they can eat dinner. Honestly! Can’t I see how busy they are?

I told Liam he was out of control and he sobbed, “Only robots get out of control, Mom. Not humans.”

After-Hours Superhero

I just went in to check on Liam in bed, and found him in his cape, mask, gloves, and Iron Man wrist-gun. Ben said, "He was NOT wearing any of that stuff when I put him to bed." Apparently he takes his superhero patrol pretty seriously.

Surgery Fun

At Liam’s last well-child visit, the doctor found a tiny white mass in his right ear. He called it a “cholesteatoma” and sent us to the ENT. The ENT said it’s not uncommon, and scheduled surgery to have it removed today.

I warned Liam a few weeks ago that after we got back from our Christmas in Colorado, the doctor would take the little white ball out of his ear.

On Christmas night, as I was tucking Liam into bed, we talked about all of his cool new presents and I asked, “Can you believe Christmas is over?” He answered, “I thought the dentist was going to take the white ball out of my ear when Christmas was over.” Apparently he was a little excited about it.

And really, why wouldn’t he be? He got to wear cool jammies:


And play lots of games on the ipad:


And then some more games on the Wii:


And then take a nice nap:


Then wake up and watch TV:


And roll on out of the hospital in a sweet ride:

Most Embarassing Moment of My Christmas Vacation

Right before Eliza was born, Ben’s grandma bought her a fancy, expensive Christmas dress in size 18-months. When she found out she was probably going to die and her biggest regret was that she wouldn’t get to see Ellie get chubby, I think Grandma Great imagined the future Eliza in that Christmas dress.


We spent Christmas in Colorado with Ben’s family, so of course I brought The Dress. On Sunday morning, I asked Ben’s mom if I could iron Liam’s shirt for church. The Dress was a little wrinkly too, but I knew better than to iron such weird fabric. AND YET…I talked myself into just ironing the inside-back section of the skirt while the iron was heating up. It worked really well, and then suddenly it didn’t. The third time I set the iron on the dress, it totally stuck, simultaneously melting the dress and ruining my mother-in-law’s fancy iron.


In less than five seconds, I won the awards for Daughter-In-Law of the Year and Granddaughter-In-Law of the Year.