Since When is Napping This Horrible?

I don't believe that parents don't have favorites.



I gave up after an hour. The screaming and fit-throwing was much worse every time I closed the door. She's also picked up the naughty habit of hitting me in the face when she doesn't get her way.

Some days Maya pretends to be a sweet, adorable baby. She'll blow kisses, play mmm, have dance parties with me. See evidence below.

Just Because He Loves Me

 I miss Ammon today.  I'm glad we are different from each other.  It keeps life interesting! 

Here's proof he loves me. 

1. Doesn't understand the non-logic of sleeping in between clean sheets, but he will put the top sheet upside down on our bed anyway. (Obviously both sides are clean . . .)
2. Attended Swan Lake with me. Strike to his manhood ego. But gold star - double brownie - husband points.
3. Hasn't been remotely upset or irritated or annoyed about me using his stuff (and by stuff I mean everything - you imagine it, I've used it) without asking (and I do it ALL the time).
4. Making all us girls laugh during family scripture study. (Examples: Maya kept licking Ammon, so he started licking her whole face, or the "real" dialogue between Lehi and Sariah).

Hair

I found a hair blog here that has a plethora of fun ideas.  

One of our simple hair fixes.

On bath days, we do princess hair down - meaning little or no fixing from me.

Rewind: Birthday Girl

India had a car birthday party with her friends.  India decided last summer that she wanted a pink Smart car for her birthday, so she could get a job and drive her friends to the store.  We compromised.

Happy Birthday to our girliest girl!

Am I Feeding a Neurosis?

She prefers her food to be served on different plates and bowls, so it doesn't touch or get "dirty" from other crumbs.

Verde

Green eggs & ham and loads of watermelon

Rainbow Fruit Dessert

Haircut

I gave Maya her first non-dorky trim, and she looks so grown up now!  Maya cried every time I snipped her straggly ends.  She can climb onto the kitchen table now, spits out green beans, gags on cottage cheese, will do dishes with me and India (really), hates being left out, cries when India leaves to play with friends, pretends to eat imaginary food and talk on imaginary phones, and plays dress-ups.  And she's finally addressing her parents as Ma and Da!

India is Maya's role model.  I love it when India will let Maya play with her (as opposed to screaming at her for messing everything up)!  India has started coping with sadness and stress by making up songs.  Her heros are princesses, and they sing when they're sad too.  I will wake up during the middle of the night to India belting tunes at the top of her songs and sobbing at the same time because she's had a bad dream.  Other times India sings songs about how sad she is and how much her parents hate her while she's sitting in time out.

One more blurry peek at Maya's new do.

Rewind: Sunbeam

 India is so excited to be a Sunbeam.  She doesn't miss nursery at all.   Shortly after we moved to Centerville, I got this note from the primary president:

Bishop J asked, "What does it mean to make the sorrow spirit sing?'"  India was the only one to raise her hand. She said, "To make them happy again."  After further talk on Jesus, India told Bishop J, "I'm not afraid of Jesus. He doesn't know where I am because I moved."

Rewind: Birthday Baby

We celebrated Mookie's 1st birthday by swimming till our lips were blue at the Orem Rec Center. Then we went saw The Princess and the Frog with the Shumheads followed by cake and pictures at home!

Mmmm.

MMMMmmmmmm.

MMMMMMMM!

Gimme more cake!

Au Naturale with some censorship.

She is the best thing that ever came of a car accident.
We love Maya!

Rewind: Christmas 2009

The week of Christmas Ammon's dad was able to come visit us. He dressed up as Santa and surprised the kids with piggies banks, piggy bucks, and lot of sticker decorations. Later that night, India threw up all OVER Grandpa W's bed. A few hours later, Maya started throwing up. And then Ammon started throwing up. And then Grandpa W started throwing up. And Aunt Hannah. But I didn't (gloat gloat - but seriously, I've paid my throw up dues and I have the fillings to prove it).

Christmas day was spent in our pajamies. We were spoiled and happy to be together. On the 24th, India and I saw the Nutcracker ballet together. India was yelling at Fritz for breaking Clara's doll. And her other favorite part was the children who came out from under Mother Buffoon's skirt.

This is poor sick India in the background passed out from troubles with her tummy bug.

India knows that Santa and the Easter Bunny are not real, but a fun tradition. However, I have no qualms about blaming things that go wrong or missing on St. Patty's leprechaun.

Rewind: No More

Footage blurb after Maya had eaten the first three oreos in her life.

Rewind: Mookie

Crazy Pigtails

Another princess in the family

Rewind: Fall & Halloween 2009

Fun in the leaves

Not so much fun in the leaves.

Hannah and I did a costume swap!  Isn't Maya such a scary bear?

Always a princess.  

Snuggling in bed together.  Maya still hasn't learned.

Started out Halloween morning with Run for Your Vida 5k with Lauren, Trent, Janel, and Hannah.  We ROCK ladies (and Trent).  I already miss our runs together!

Trick or Treating with Hannah & Asher-man on a mild Halloween night.

Bears will eat whatever they can get their hands on.

 Who can't wait for Halloween again next year?

Confession and a Happy Ending

After India sat in time out over and over and over again for the same thing (telling me no when I asked her to do something), I flipped and went overboard with consequences: No toys, no movies or cartoons, no friends - for an indefinite amount of time.  I finished picking up her messy room and moved all of the toys into my room.  I left her in bed sobbing.

Luckily, India's other parent was sane at the moment.  While I was still pouting and fuming, Ammon got India out of bed and cuddled her and talked to her about why she was upset and why we (he said we, even though I was the only upset lunatic) were upset.  Then we all came up with a plan of what India could do to earn back her privileges.  I'm sharing because Ammon and India sure have cute brains:

• wash dishes --- earns costumes
• sort, fold, and put away laundry --- earns toy drawers
• play with and read books to Maya --- earns cartoons/movies
• vacuum --- earns rocking horse
• email Grandpas and Grandmas --- earns playing with friends
• draw Daddy a picture --- earns backpack with tea set
• sweep floors --- earns play kitchen

India and I stayed up late because Maya will not stay in bed if India is in there.  While we're waiting, India is jumping up and down, making her heart go bouncy bouncy, which, she tells me, is the way to stop a heart attack.  I love my little problem-solver. And then the power goes out.    And all TEN smoke alarms go off.  And we found all TEN smoke alarms by the light of my cell phone and the ringing in our ears because a) I could not find a flashlight in our 72 hour kits, and b) when I finally did find a wind-up flashlight, it sucked.  And how did Maya and Belle (family dog we've inherited till she dies) sleep through that?  So there will be a few adjustments to our 72 hour kits.  Anyway, we found candles and glow-in-the-dark bracelets. (I am so stocking up on more of those).  India and I decided to have a sleepover on the couch, which was really fun besides her kneeing me in the eye nine times.

So I've got a lot of work to "oversee" today.  I wish I had had the foresight to also assign India Project Poop this morning.  However, Maya is now in the bathtub, and India and I have a lot of air freshening and laundering to do.

I'm Thankful For

1. Sisters sharing a bike and ABC racing with India.
2. Abe Lincoln.  And thank you Abe.  I am awesome!
3. The new computer we ordered, which is almost here.  I will be able to download pictures from my camera to the computer and to our blogfrogblog once again.
4. My sister will be off her mission in 1 month and 1 day.  The New Hampshire family will get her first, but I'll be able to call her.
5. My Centerville library card.

Something Redeemable About Walmart

I think there is only 1 kind employee at Walmart.  After 11 pm too.  As I was paying for my made-in-China loot, the checker stuck a bunch of plastic bags in my newly purchased garbage cans.  And I didn't notice till I got home.  

I love meeting nice people.

Crimeny - We're Really Moving!

I'll be back soon!

Yesterday was my favorite day of the week.

We have late church now, which I love.  India and I  played Princess Dominoes and Cooties, we made waffles again, Ammon was home, and the weather was nice as long as you weren't breathing it. 

Before church Ammon and I had a talk with India about the earthquake in Haiti.  We looked at pictures on ksl.com and discussed what the people were doing/feeling in each one.  She noticed Haitians had a different color of skin than we do.  I'm glad because we've been talking about race since last summer.  Then we asked India if she would give some of her money from her piggy bank to help the people in Haiti.  India started crying. She said it was hard.  She didn't want to because she was saving up to buy a toy.  I started crying because how do you help a three-year-old understand starvation, devastation, and urgency? I told India the story of The Good Samaritan, and Ammon explained that Jesus wants us to help other people however we can. India understood.  And she willingly gave up her money. We are so proud of her for doing hard things. Later in church, we showed India the picture of The Good Samaritan, and she told us the story word-for-word after only hearing it once!

To end a beautiful day, we went to Centerville for church and Rachel's 13th birthday (sniff sniff - my beautiful little sister is a teenager).  We played Junior Trivial Pursuit and got mad at Ammon for answering everybody's questions.  The only thing missing was Dad.  It's not right to have our family traditions without him.  Hopefully, my family can be with him soon in New Hampshire.  We miss you Dad!

Waffles: So Much Better For Dinner Than Breakfast

After a cooking catastrophe earlier this week, India and I opted for waffles for dinner. And they were delicious.  And since we don't buy syrup and the Royer's didn't have any, I made homemade syrup (Brad offered to make some syrup since he didn't have any - it never dawned on me that you could make syrup. Stop making fun of me).  I can't tell you what it tasted like because I'm not a syrup person, but it made India happy and that's all I needed.

I don't think I'll ever like cooking.  What turns me off is the mess it creates.  And then when it doesn't taste good, I've wasted money and time.

In other news, I nearly left Maya on someone's doorstep this week. She's cutting four teeth and is as temperamental as carnivore on a banana-and-green-leafy-stuff diet.  If she had acted like this before her 1 year guarantee expired, she'd a been put up for adoption in Russia.  I'm not one of those unconditional lovin' mothers. Lucky for me and Maya we've got Ammon to save us from each other at the end of the day. I love my husband.

Aunt Elaine's Best Ever Waffles
2 cups flour                       2 eggs (seperated)
2 tsp baking powder         2 cups milk
pinch of salt                      1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp sugar                        6 TB oil

Seperate eggs. Add yolk to liquid ingredients. Beat in dry ingredietns. Beat eggs whites until soft peaks form. Fold into batter. Bake in preheated waffle iron.  ENJOY!  And thank you Grandma Parker for the deluxe waffle iron.  You have no idea how many times I use that thing.

What!

I asked India what she wanted for Christmas.

India: "Another costume."

Me: "What kind of costume?"

India: "A Hannah Tanna dress costume."

Me: "A WHAT? Where did you learn about Hannah Montana? Which of your friends has a Hannah Montana costume?"

India: "Not Tristan. Him don't wear dresses. He not a GIRL!" (lots of giggles)

Now fess up. Who taught India about Hannah Montana?