Just plain mean.

One of the downsides to living in student housing is that there are so many wasps here. The maintenance guys put a lot of work in keeping them at bay, but there are still tons.
Today Caleb, Emily, and I were sitting at the table eating lunch when, out of the blue, Emily just started to cry. I turned to look at her and saw a wasp fly from her neck to the window. I was pretty mad at that wasp but I decided to tend to my daughter first. I put some ice on and then a baking soda paste to soothe the stings - there were at least two, but I haven't examined it closely yet. Then I tossed Caleb into his crib for a forced nap because I couldn't handle two crying babies and settled Emily down on the couch with a Barbie movie and some cozy blankets. After that I hunted down that wasp and smashed it to smithereens with the fly swatter. Emily's neck is a bit swollen, but she's stopped crying now and seems okay. I think she's mostly excited that she was allowed to watch TWO movies today instead of her usual one.
Wasps make me mad. I can't believe Emily was stung while she was sitting in her high chair minding her own business. That is just plain mean.

They Turned Life Into a Musical

Joseph always told me he wished real life was more like a musical...


Found via Mormon in Manhattan

A Day In

My neighbor has a theory that we went to Utah and caught all of the sicknesses there, and then we came back to Texas and had to catch up on the neighborhood colds that we'd missed while we were gone. It might be true. I feel like we have been sick since we got back. Because of this we have had to stay in a lot more than usual so the neighbors don't get sick too. Or rather, so that when they do get sick we don't feel responsible for it. :)
Here are a few pictures from some of our many days in. Those stripey pants are Emily's absolute favorite things to wear. I have to work hard to stock shirts that will match. We were not too concerned about the matching while we were home sick though. I love that the two kiddos play together now!
It might be more Emily playing with Caleb than the other way around...











but he loves the attention from big sister!











We pulled out the play dough,
did some cleaning to keep those germs at bay,
sorted the kids' closet,
and ate big breakfasts, during which Caleb discovered his love for waffles.
We tried using the pack 'n play for one of Emily's time-outs, but it was just too much fun to be repeated. This was Caleb's "airing out" time. He is somewhat prone to diaper rash.
And through it all, Emily and Caleb have maintained their love for one another. I love to hear Emily telling me she can't take a nap at the moment because she wants to go play with the baby.

Finally, here is a little piece of what that same neighbor I mentioned at the beginning of this post would call "third-grade boy humor." I was looking through my pictures and found one labeled "tramp with dad." I was just so curious as to what this could possibly be. The picture was kind of a let down. Still fun though.

Today was Weird

This morning around 11:30 Emily asked me if she could watch The Incredibles. I told her she could after her nap and she surprised me by saying okay and putting the movie away. Then she went into her bedroom, closed the door, and was super quiet for a long time (like 15 minutes). This worried me, but I was feeding Caleb so I left her alone. When I was able to I peeked in and she had turned on her air conditioner and was lying in bed under the covers with her jingle bear. She said hi to me and I returned the greeting and closed the door. She has been there for over two hours now and is still sleeping. Weird, no?

Just Sitting Around

Well, it's been over a week since the last post, so I figured I should write something...

Emily and I have been fighting a naptime battle. Every day she tries to sneak into the baby's bed to sleep. Her loyal jingle bear hasn't been so loyal in this campaign though, since I am able to hear every time she drops it over the railing into the crib. My favorite was the time I parked myself inside her room, sitting against the door, and she attempted to tip-toe across the room with her eyes squeezed shut. If she can't see me, I can't see her, right?
I have found that the trick to getting her to stay in her own bed is to leave her on her own and then check in on her every once in a while to catch her doing the right thing. The praise is what keeps her in bed, not the reprimand for breaking rules.

Caleb is such a cute little cuddle bug! He learned to crawl while we were in Utah and has been following Emily around ever since. He has started pulling himself up to a standing position, but I don't expect him to walk for another couple of months at least. He was recently sick and also cut four teeth at the same time. That was not a fun couple of days, but now he is the proud baby owner of eight sharp teeth!

Joseph and I have been keeping busy. Joseph was asked to lead the choir for stake conference about a month ago, and that happened last Sunday. It made for a long day, having to be at the stake center an hour early and then staying to sing in both sessions. Luckily, we have a fantastic ward and at least four families offered to help with the kids during conference. We had been relying on families in the ward for the previous three weeks to watch them during rehearsals too, so I'd kind of thought we'd used up all of our resources. We were very grateful when someone offered to take them home during the second session and the kids had a great time playing at their house while we were busy. The choir numbers went pretty well, but we are glad to have that experience behind us.

Here are a few leftover pictures from our Utah trip.
Emily spent some time playing Rockband (Beatles edition - great fun!) and loved the drums. That's Joseph and my dad backing her up.

I loved this picture of Emily and my mom looking out the window. This and the last picture were cell phone pictures, and as bad as they are, my new (old) phone pictures are even worse. Thank goodness for the new camera!

This is me in 2004, before Joseph and I were even married, feeding the Bean Museum moose a tattoo. I believe I am holding a couple of insect collection boxes we were picking up for a couple of siblings in high school.Here are Joseph and Emily visiting that same moose
And baby Caleb with Uncle Nathan continuing the family tradition.

Here is Emily on the airplane as we were completing the last leg of the flight, coming back to Austin. I think she was ready to be done. Thank goodness we had a good friend with a big car to pick us up from the airport!

Here is Caleb sitting at his table after a meal, well supplied with toys to keep him busy. Emily takes good care of baby brother (and this proves she is related to Derek).

And finally, here is one of my favorite pictures of Joseph and Caleb at a friend's birthday party. Caleb is definitely a hair puller, but look how happy it makes him! I love that little guy!

4 Bad Things, 1 Good Thing

I can see four bad things and one good thing in this picture. Can you?

Bad Things:
1. Cute baby mobile. No longer cute. No longer really a mobile. No longer there. Emily destroyed it yesterday.
2. Cute letters on the wall. Now safely stowed in the crack between the crib and the wall. (Okay, maybe you can't see this. It's still true though.)
3. That outfit. She chose it herself.
4. Emily in the crib. She sleeps in a big bed now. And that's been the case for the last six months.

Good Thing:
Emily is sleeping? During nap time? I'll take it!

$95 later...

I have a place to keep my phone and keys (and wallet) out of Emily's reach. We're hoping to have moved out of this apartment by the time she can reach that. We also hope that she has a little more sense by the time she's that tall.
The most expensive part of all of this was replacing the apartment lock and keys. That was $75. The other money went into buying the car key duplicate and shelf and hooks. The phone part ended up being free because I am now using this beauty:
It weighs three pounds and is like two inches thick. Good thing my "new every two" date is coming up so I'll only have to use this fossil for five months. Same phone number though. Phew!

I have decided that the phrase "mischievous toddler" is totally redundant.
Thanks for the adventure, Em. This is all coming out of your college fund. :)

Bad News, Boys

We have a grocery sack full of dirty diapers that hangs from our closet doorknob.

That in and of itself is bad news, but it gets worse.

Wednesday afternoon:
Emily amused herself by stuffing as many electronic gadgets and cords into this bag as she could.

Wednesday night:
Joseph took the bag out to the dumpster and heard a suspicious clank as it landed, but decided the dumpster was far too stinky to root through.

Early Thursday morning:
The garbage man came (while Emily watched through the window and cheered).

Late Thursday morning:
I packed the kids up to go to story time and could not find my keys or phone ANYWHERE.
I poked around the apartment, certain they would turn up, but they stubbornly remained hidden...
Or gone?

We officially have a toddler. And a mischievous one at that.

Family Pics

Before we went to Utah, we arranged with my sister Michelle to have our family pictures taken. She agreed, but our first agreed-upon date and time fell through due to a wedding dress emergency. Since that had been scheduled for a day before her wedding and she was leaving the next evening, we decided on the next afternoon (her suggestion, not mine - I promise). So, Michelle got married in the morning, went to the luncheon around noon, and then went straight to do our pictures. Here's what we got.



Cute, huh?

PS - I'm pretty bugged I forgot to take my hair out of that ponytail...

Compared to my mum, I am quite huge

Seriously.
I've probably got 50 pounds on her.

Just in case there were any misconceptions about that last post.