Mother’s Day started with a delicious breakfast in bed, as usual. Raine was so excited about it and couldn’t wait to “share” with me.

After church I opened the gifts she made at school. The theme was “My Mom Rocks!” and the gifts included a “guitar,” hand-print flower, bookmark, and two cards.

After presents, it was time to pack for our big trip to Wales. Packing for an international vacation is always a major ordeal, but throw in packing for two kids and you’ve got yourself a monumental undertaking!

Tonight was Raine’s last tumbling class. She has come a LONG way from last year. She does somersaults all by herself and even walked across the big balance beam without assistance — although she wouldn’t do it while I was recording, of course.

The parachute.

The bear crawl.

The short-wide balance beam.

The obstacle course.

Raine showing off the stamp she received on her hand.

Here is a video of some of her skills, if it doesn’t show up right away hit F5 or try this link.

Friday night we had some friends over for an Easter-egg hunt and bar-b-que in the backyard. DJ cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on his new grill while the kids played and the adults lounged on the patio.

Carter missed most of the party because he was inside taking a nap, but he made up for it by Easter-egg hunting in Raine’s basket after she went to bed.

Sunday morning, before we left for church, I tried in vain to get a descent photo of Raine and Carter in their Easter clothes. But all we ended up getting was a seat in the back of the chapel because we were late.

This year we had a fairly “crafty” Easter. Raine made this cute, environmentally-friendly Easter basket at school, so we decided to make a matching one for Carter.

We also colored eggs,

and frosted cookies.

Now that Raine is old enough to have a conversation, we’ve had the opportunity to teach her about the true meaning of the highly secularized/commercialized holidays. It is an interesting position to be in, as a parent, deciding exactly how much of “the world” we are going to let in to our holiday celebration at Easter and Christmas. Raine doesn’t know what the Easter Bunny is or have any expectations of candy or presents, so we feel a big responsibility to balance teaching her how to celebrate the holiday with teaching her why we celebrate the holiday.

I feel like we are doing okay so far because Raine wanted us to sing “Away in a Manger” for at least a month after Christmas and still talks about baby Jesus and Mary whenever she sees the picture of them in her scripture stories book. Although, I’m not so sure we did quite as well with Easter because death and resurrection aren’t as easy to explain to a two-year-old as birthdays and babies.

Every month the local parent’s magazine has a section detailing a day in the life of some local mom. Their days are always so calm and organized — at least it sounds that way. So I would just like to share what a day is like in MY life:

6:00 a.m. (or somewhere there abouts, I’m not sure because I didn’t look at the clock): Carter starts whining/crying. I think, “please let him just fall back asleep.” Unfortunately it escalates, so fearing that it will wake up Raine I kick DJ out of bed to go get him. (I know, you were thinking that I was going to get him. Nope, in this house if a child wakes up in the middle of the night then DJ goes. I will have to explain that in another post.) Apparently he got him back to sleep because some time later I woke up again to Carter crying. DJ went to get him, changed his diaper, and brought him back for me to feed.

7:00 a.m. DJ leaves for work while I lie next to Carter thinking how lucky I am and wishing that I could just go back to sleep but knowing that I better get the laundry started so we have something to wear today — it has been piling up for A LONG TIME and we are really down to the bottoms of our drawers. So I get up and start sorting laundry. When I go into Raine and Carter’s room to get their hamper, Raine is lying in bed wide awake — so much for my childless few minutes of productivity.

7:30 a.m. I finally get the first batch of laundry into the washer while repeatedly saying, “Raine, do you need to go potty? I think you better go potty. Yes, just really quick. Hurry, go potty. Well you have to keep your underpants dry. Are you going to keep your underpants dry? Well then you better go potty.” All the while Raine is saying “No, I don’t need to.”

8:00 a.m. Raine is finally pottied and we head to the kitchen to make breakfast. I pull out the griddle so we can cook french toast. As soon as I get the bread on the griddle Carter starts whining. I go into the room and he is still asleep — yeah, I actually get to eat breakfast while it is still warm!

8:30 a.m. Just as Raine and I are finishing our breakfast Carter wakes up for real. I go get him and debate whether to change his diaper or just feed him. The ultra-sad face he makes when I lay him down on the changing pad wins and I feed him first.

8:45 a.m. Now it is crunch time. We need to get Raine ready for school and out the door in a half hour. I remember that she is supposed to take 13 filled easter eggs for the party on Thursday so we pull out the eggs and candy that I purchased last week. Since I needed 13 eggs and the bag only came with 12 I searched DJ’s drawer for the eggs that he put in there last easter. I pull them out and realize that they are still full of jelly beans (good thing I didn’t buy jelly beans again this year, obviously they weren’t such a big hit). As I open the first egg and try to put in one of the little chocolate bunnies I bought, I realize that it isn’t going to fit — oh great!! Who makes easter candy that doesn’t fit into a standard sized easter egg??? Luckily, I had a hidden stash and soon we had all the eggs filled.

9:10 a.m. Raine gets dressed and I make her lunch while we have our standard “can I take ____” debate.

9:30 a.m. We finally get out the door and into the car with only the agreed upon baby doll, bottle, blanket, and a pair of sunglasses that can be worn in the car but not into school. The arm-loads of other items that didn’t make it through negotiations were haphazardly dumped in the entry hall.

9:40 a.m. I drop Raine off at school. Technically school starts at 9:30, but we haven’t made it there on-time more than twice all semester. I figure that since I take her to Parent’s Day Out for MY convenience, I’m not going to inconvenience myself by busting my buns to get her there on time. We will get there when we get there. (Interestingly, none of the kids in her class are there on time. There is just something about getting a two-year-old out the door that doesn’t lend itself to punctuality.)

9:50 a.m. Carter and I return home. I swap the laundry and start to fold it. Carter is playing blissfully on the floor for a few minutes but as soon as I leave the room he throws a fit — welcome to the separation anxiety phase.

10:00 a.m. I feed Carter some yogurt and cheerios and within a few minutes both of us are COVERED in yogurt. No, he wasn’t feeding himself. He has this lightning-quick hand that comes out of nowhere and sends the spoon full of yogurt flying out of my hand, flipping yogurt all over us and the floor. He starts laughing hysterically so it is impossible to be mad, but it sure is a mess.

10:30 a.m. I am hoping to take a shower but then my phone rings. It is a sister in the ward telling me that another sister is home from the hospital with her daughter (who just had brain surgery) and is ready for the meals that the Elder’s Quorum President promised her that the RS would bring. Ok, good thing I asked for volunteers on Sunday, we should be ready to go on Wednesday.

11:00 a.m. Attempt #2 at the shower when my phone rings again, this time it is DJ. By the time I get off the phone with him it is too late to take a shower before my eye appointment so I am just going to have to go as-is (good thing I took one last night so it really isn’t a huge deal).

11:30 a.m. Carter is finally asleep so I put him in his car seat and get ready to go. I grab a power-bar since I am obviously not going to get lunch — as usual.

12:00 p.m. I am at my eye appointment, Carter woke up as soon as we arrived in the office, and I realize that I didn’t change his diaper before he fell asleep — this could be a problem since I can’t do anything about it now.

12:20 p.m. This is not going to be a quick appointment, the Doctor is very chatty. She has three-month-old twins so we are talking about all things baby. (Isn’t it funny how after you have a baby the realm of “appropriate conversation topics with strangers” vastly increases. All of a sudden you don’t think twice about discussing breast-feeding issues, milk production, weight gain and loss, and a myriad of other medical issues that you previously would have never dreamed of discussing with another person, especially not one you just met.) Well, so much for my hope that I could just leave Carter in his car seat during my exam. He did okay for the initial eye tests, but once she got chatting he got antsy so I had to take him out. The rest of my eye exam was performed with Carter sitting on the seat beside me — interesting.

12:45 p.m. After changing Carter’s diaper in the front seat of my car, I am now sitting there in the parking garage breast-feeding him so that we can go to the grocery store without a meltdown.

1:20 p.m. I am checking out at the grocery store. The clerk asks if I found everything. I told him that I was hoping they would have one of the grills that was listed in their ad but didn’t see any. (I really wanted to get one for DJ for Easter so he can grill for our friends at our Easter egg hunt.) He told me that they would be there tomorrow. Confused, I say “oh, you’re getting them tomorrow?” For some reason I thought today was Wednesday, the day the new ad starts, rather than Tuesday, the day Raine goes to school and the whole reason I was at the store WITHOUT her.
Lucky for me, my diminished mental capacity finally worked to my advantage. The checker told me that they had the grills in the back and he would sell me one if I really wanted it. I said “absolutely” so they went back and brought one out for me. I took Raine’s car seat out and they loaded it into my back seat.

1:45 p.m. Once home I unload my very heavy grill, put it on the hand-truck, and maneuver it into the backyard since I don’t want DJ to see it. Then I re-install Raine’s car seat, trying to finish before I sweat to death in the 92* heat — good thing I haven’t gotten a shower yet.

2:00 p.m. With Carter asleep, I finally have a few minutes to eat lunch before I have to pick-up Raine.

This is as far as I got with my narrative before my day completely blew up and I spent the rest of my time trying to keep kids happy.
Oh, and the grill that I so painstakingly maneuvered into the backyard so DJ wouldn’t see it…it got soaked in the rain storm that moved in that evening so DJ saw it before I was ready—very anti-climatic. But that gives you a small taste of what I do—it certainly isn’t pretty, but it’s my life!

It all started last Saturday when we went to Family Fun Day at the elementary school. Raine loved the obstacle course, bounce house, and giant slide. She also had fun winning prizes at the carnival games.

Monday, we went to the zoo where Raine and Carter rode the merry-go-round.

Tuesday, Raine went to school.

Wednesday, we went to the zoo again, this time without a stroller. Carter rode in the backpack and Raine walked the whole way around the zoo. Raine was so worn-out that she fell asleep at 5:00 on the way home and didn’t wake up until the next morning!

Thursday, Raine was at school again and then had tumbling class that night. She and DJ are taking the parent-tot class at the rec center like they did last year. They LOVE it! I haven’t gone to take photos yet, but when I do I will definitely post some.

Friday, my cousin Linda took us to the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. The entire basement is a children’s museum and the kids had a blast.

Saturday, Daddy ran in the Zoo Run 5K.

And then we went to the Stake Get-Moving activity.

I’m not sure what about cellulite thighs and knee dimples says “tall and skinny” but that’s what Carter’s doctor called him today at his nine-month check-up.

He was 19 lbs. 4 oz. (>25th %ile) and 29.5 inches (<90th %ile).

Ummm . . . it didn’t go so well.

I started cutting the top and everything was fine, he was a bit wiggly but no more than expected. Then I started down his left side and things were going okay until I nicked his ear. He started screaming, I felt like the WORST mother in the whole world, therefore I quit.

So be it known that Carter’s first haircut was a disaster! Luckily he is so cute, and his hair is so fine, that you really can’t tell.

And now I am in the market for some good clippers. Ours didn’t do anything with that baby hair — that’s why I was using scissors, but I’m not going to do that again. Any recommendations?

Carter is growing up so fast — in spite of my best efforts to stop him. These past few months, he has turned into quite the little ball of personality.

Carter’s favorite foods are vegetables; he doesn’t like fruit much at all. He also loves Cheerios and has mastered the pincer grasp. His favorite song is “The Wheels on the Bus”; it can stop him from crying like nothing else. His favorite toy is a ball; it doesn’t matter what size or color, if it is round he needs to be holding/licking it.

Speaking of licking something, a few weeks ago I was in Sunday School with Carter — a rare occurrence since Sunday School is right during nap time — and he was playing with one-year-old Stella. Stella kept saying “baby, baby” so I thought maybe she wanted to play with Raine’s doll that was sitting on top of the diaper bag. Apparently, she had just been referring to Carter because when I handed her the doll she wasn’t interested. Carter, however, grabbed it and quite aggressively started trying to eat its face. It looked a little “odd” — my son sucking the face of a doll — so I ever so carefully attempted to get it away from him. It was one of those delicate situations where one false move could send the child into hysterics over the stolen toy and therefore cause the exact attention that I was trying to avoid. After a few failed attempts I finally diverted his attention enough to swipe the baby without creating a scene. It was pretty funny . . . if you were there.

Carter is such a great little brother. He loves to play with Raine and endures her constant toy stealing, violent luvies, and smothering without protest. He is always there for her with a shoulder (or head) to lean on.

(Apparently we need to adjust that helmet.)

Carter also thinks Raine is hilarious. He will laugh at her all day long. And he has the most infectious laugh!

We really love our little Carter bear.

It’s official, Raine is POTTY TRAINED!!!

Honestly, I had put off potty training because we are constantly on the go and I didn’t think I could fully commit to it. I was afraid that if I didn’t give it 100% then she would be turned-off to going on the potty and stay in diapers until she started kindergarten — rational, irrational, I don’t know, but moms sure have all sorts of dramatic concerns when it comes to stuff like this.

In the past, I had talked about potty training over spring break so I could let Raine run around outside naked and not have to worry about accidents on the floor or furniture, but I hadn’t fully committed to it so it wasn’t going to happen. Then, the first Sunday of spring break, Rashae asked me when I was going to potty train. Rashae’s daughter Elyse is Raine’s best friend and just turned three last Sunday. Rashae tried potty training in the past but Elyse is very strong-willed (to say the least) and refuses to go on the potty. With baby #3 on the way, and Elyse being the oldest, Rashae REALLY needs to get her out of diapers. She thought that maybe if Elyse saw Raine doing it, then she would want to do it too. So I decided to give it a try.

Monday morning I took Raine to Target to pick out a little potty, underpants, stickers, and treats. I also picked up Elmo’s Potty Time DVD because I had heard it is a must-have and some training pants because I wanted something a little more absorbent than the Hello Kitty panties that Raine picked. Grand total: $60! Who knew you could spend two months worth of diapers just to get your kid out of diapers? I guess I should have looked at the price tags before giving Raine free-reign of the underwear aisle. I’ll tell you what though, spending that much certainly made me a lot more determined to make this work the first time. I had no excuses for failure — “oh, well if only I would have gotten the Elmo movie like everyone told me, THEN she would have been successful.” Nope, if I failed I couldn’t blame it on a lack of supplies.

When we got home, Raine was soooo excited! She wanted me to open the potty as soon as we got it unloaded so she could sit on it. I pulled it out, set it on the kitchen floor and she sat down and peed. The potty played a little tune, she received a treat, I hurried to make a potty chart so she could stick a sticker on it, and Raine put on a pair of pull-ups.

It went a lot faster and a lot easier than I thought it would. I talked to people who said stuff like, “my four-year-old still only goes at home and only when I ask him” or “my kid was in pull-ups for about a year” or “my daughter is still scared of toilets with water in them” or “my son still won’t poop in the potty.” So I expected that even once we got Raine using her little potty regularly, it would be at least a couple months before she was doing everything. Well, imagine my surprise when after a week-and-a-half she had mastered all of the following:
* Peeing in the big potty
* Pooping in the big potty
* Telling me when she has to go so I don’t even ask any more
* Keeping her underpants dry all the time, even overnight
* Going potty at school when I’m not around.

The only thing we haven’t worked on yet is going in a public restroom. Last Friday we were at a restaurant and Raine said she needed to go potty. I took her to the ladies room and she looked at that great big potty with this look that said, “what the h%*# is that.” I told her that I would hold her and she could just sit on the edge, but there was no way she was getting anywhere near that thing. Then, right on cue, the toilet in the stall behind her flushed as loud and scary as any toilet has ever flushed before. Raine couldn’t get out of that bathroom fast enough! And since I didn’t want to traumatize her — resulting in diapers until kindergarten — I got her out of there as fast as I could. But that was our only attempt and she wasn’t even using the big potty at home at that point. So we’ll see how she does.

UPDATE: When we went out tonight, Raine needed to go potty so I took her to the restroom. Luckily, it was just a one-holer (no stalls) and since we were at a Mexican restaurant, it was very brightly painted and fun looking. Raine didn’t hesitate at all. She sat up there and did her business. When we got back to the table she announced in her proudest, loudest voice to DJ and all the other diners around us, “I went pee-pee on the potty!” The ladies at the table behind us started laughing and told Raine good job. And so, that completes the final step of our potty training.

P.S. I regret to inform you that Elyse still refuses to use the potty. She came over that first Wednesday with her potty in tow. They watched Elmo together while sitting on their potties, the whole nine-yards, Raine even went twice while Elyse was here and received treats and stickers, but it didn’t help . . . sorry Rashae.

P.P.S. Here is a little bit of advice for any other first-time potty trainers. When you buy treats to reward your little one for using the potty, think small. Why? Because they pee A LOT! I didn’t realize that Raine would be “earning” as many as 12 treats a day. We quickly downgraded from Reese’s miniatures to Reese’s pieces once I realized the error that I had made. I think it is going to take another two weeks to get her off this sugar high.

Life is always exciting with a walking, talking toddler around. There is no end to the off-the-wall things that come out of her mouth. It really makes me see life differently — from the perspective of someone three-feet tall who knows virtually nothing about social norms except what she learns from watching people around her, particularly me and DJ.

I always try to remember her one-liners, but by the time I get around to writing them down, most of them are gone (lately my memory has rivaled that of a fruit fly). However, I have managed to document a few of them over the past couple months (the dates are when they were recorded, not necessarily the day they happened).

Sunday, January 9, 2011

I was sweeping up the crumbs under the table while Raine was sitting on a chair, out of the blue she says, “your’re a good helper, mommy!”

*****
DJ: “Raine, you’re a nut!”
R: “Daddy, you’re a sprinkled doughnut nut!”

*****
R: “Daddy, I got a poopy nugget. Change my stinky bum.”

*****
R: “Mommy, you have a big bum.”
Me: “Oh, really?”
R: “Yes, and Daddy has a big bum. And I have a big bum. But Carter has a little bum.”

*****
Raine said her prayers all by herself for the first time. Most of it was incoherent, but I did hear, “Please bless the food, and the doughnuts, and the sprinkled doughnuts. And bless mommy, and Carter, and Daddy.” (She always prays for everyone she can think of, usually multiple times each.) “Gama and Gampa and Aunt Sara and Carson and Logan and Gama and Gampa and Uncle Dallin and Aunt Sarah . . . “

Tuesday, February 1, 2011
After my RS presidency meeting, Rashae and I were still sitting at the table talking. Raine was sitting on my lap writing on my agenda with a pen (all of my notes have “Raine scratch” all over them, some to the extent that I can’t even read what I originally wrote). All of a sudden, as I was talking, I noticed that Raine had her pen poised above the paper, looking right at Rashae with her best “grown-up serious business” face, nodding her head in agreement. Rashae and I couldn’t stop laughing. Sometimes I think this girl is two going on twenty!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I was in the restroom while Raine and Carter were playing on the bed when the following dialog took place.
R: “Ewe, gross.”
Me: “What are you doing, Raine? What’s wrong?”
R: “Carter has a snotty nose.”
Me: “Can you wipe it for him?”
R: “Yes, I can.”
** A few seconds pass. **
R: “That’s disgusting, Buddy. That’s disgusting.”
** A few more seconds pass. **
R: “You need another tissue. I will get you another tissue.”
Me: (worried that she is either wiping his face to the point of suffocation or allowing him to eat the tissues) “Raine, did you get it wiped?”
R: (coming into the bathroom with her best “grown-up serious business” face) “Yes, I did wipe his slobbery face.”

*****
“My bum is hanging out.” This is heard all the time because Raine refuses to wear pants so her diaper slides up her cheeks as she climbs around.

Friday, February 11, 2011

R: “Mommy I hurt my bum.” Sticking her back-side out toward me, “Kiss it.”

Friday, February 25, 2011

After spending a couple hours preparing food for a funeral luncheon and then delivering it clear up to Keller, I got a call that I needed to do a food order on my way home. Not wanting to make Raine crabby by dragging her to yet another RS duty I decided to play to her LOVE of meetings.
Me: “Raine, I need to go to a meeting, do you want to come and help me at the meeting?”
R: (Thinking for a second and then lighting up with a HUGE excited smile.) “We get pens!”
In her little mind, going to a meeting means that you get to write with a pen, and she loves writing with any sort of contraband. The rest of the drive to the appointment she talked about getting a pen and how she would use the black one and I would get the blue one.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

R: “I’m sharing!” Said as she takes Carter’s puffs or cheerios and eats them. But don’t worry, she gives him some too.

What you don’t see in this photo is the burp-cloth that she has next to her so she can wipe his slobber off her fingers every time she feeds him.