Thanksgiving

Here's our thanksgiving in pictures (I know, I know...it's about time!)


My uncle David, pulling his favorite face for the camera. Ü
Me and Chase, helping prepare thanksgiving dinner

Yummy food! For our family, thanksgiving is simply not complete without a visit from Santa Clause.

Livia did just fine with Santa...as long as she was on my lap.
Playing with Great-Grandma

Meeting the newest member of my parent's family: Tiger

(He was SO patient with Livia. She would chase him, corner him, maul him, and he never once scratched or bit her. And he's only about 7 months old!)

Hanging out with Dave!

Everyone.

Playing with Great-Grandpa. (Can you tell Livia had a great time? She was actually really sick the whole time we were there, but had so much fun with everyone that you would never have guessed it)

Mmmm. Candycane. This is mom's new secret weapon in the grocery store.

Playing in the pile of leaves outside.

Where's (little) David?

It's always so wonderful to go home. I have the most amazing family...someday I'll have to blog about each and every one of them, but now it's time to work on my quiet book (I've finished 7 pages now. Woo!).

A few things

I've got a zillion things to do tonight, not the least of which is the quiet book I'm making for Livia for Christmas (why did I think this was a good idea considering my blatant lack of creativity and craft ability??), but I've also got about 6 things I want to write about swimming around in my head. So I'm giving myself 20 minutes to get down as many of them as possible.

1. Some things in life are just innate. Like putting olives on your fingers.

Also, saying "eleleleop" during the alphabet. Livia can repeat each letter really well, and recognizes A, B, and C. But as soon as I say "K," she's off and running all the way to Q. Now who taught her that??

2. Today Livia was eating crackers under our desk (maybe it's a cool little hideaway, I don't know), and when I checked on her she had managed to crush one cracker into a dozen pieces on the carpet. "Oh no, Livia!" I said, "Look at that mess!"

"Woah!" she replied, and ran away into the kitchen.

I was pleasantly surprised when a moment later she reappeared with a napkin and crawled under the desk to begin scrubbing! She soon realized, however, that that wasn't doing much good, and started eating the crumbs off of the carpet instead. Whatever works, I guess. Ü

3. We tried to have Livia sit on Santa's lap the other night at a tree lighting. She screamed.

4. Livia is growing up so fast. She understands so much, and is learning how to communicate it to us. She likes to use her words, but a lot of them sound identical to each other (namely jacket, daddy, and car seat) so sometimes it's frustrating for her when we don't understand right away. But her pronounciation is improving everyday, and it's really fun to actually be able to talk with my daughter now, instead of simply to her.

She loves to sing songs. Well, technically she can't sing yet, but she really pays attention, and jumps in whenever there's a word she knows. For example, when I sing Jingle Bells she always jumps in on the "hey!" and "hahaha!" and other little bits like that. Sometimes I'll stop singing and point to her, and she'll surprise me by knowing the next word that's coming. I don't think I always give her enough credit. She's the same way with books. She knows what's coming, and sometimes will say the words before I have a chance to. Especially in "Mr. Brown can moo, can you?"

My time is up. I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving yet! But I'll get around to it eventually, I suppose.

Who grocery shops with a toddler??

I'm beginning to think I shouldn't, anymore. On Friday afternoon Livia and I went grocery shopping, and though she's begun trying to stand up in the front of the cart (yes, she can get out of the belt), the whole process usually goes fairly well. Not this time.

About 20 minutes into the trip (meaning I still had a good 40 minutes to go) Livia began crying. Not just a little cry, we're talking big tears here. Huge. The kind where everyone in the aisle is now giving you dirty looks and you start to panic a little. And here's where I made my big mistake. I got her out of the cart to comfort her.

She calmed down after a minute or so, so I tried to put her back in the front of the cart. And she flatly refused. Some of you may think you can force a child to sit down. Au contraire! Knees locked, arms flailed, lungs screamed. Have you ever tried to get a kid to bend their knees once they've decided they don't want to? It's near impossible.

Plan B: put her in the back of the cart with all the food. I'd never done this before, and at first she just sat there, pleased with the turn of events and content to view the world from this new vantage point. Then she was standing up. Then she was dancing to the music playing over the loudspeakers (made me a little nervous, but was pretty cute). THEN she discovered the joy of stomping, and proceeded to intentionally stomp on two loaves of bread, a box of tissues, and a box of lasagna noodles before I could stop her (significantly less cute).

Yeah, sitting in the back wasn't going to work.

So I tried the front of the cart again and was treated to an encore performance of locked knees, flailing arms, and screaming.

What now??

I tried to hold her on my hip, but she wiggled out of my arms to the ground and started pushing the grocery cart with me. "This could work," I thought. We were almost done, so I just needed her to be entertained by helping me push for a few minutes. Unfortunately the novelty wore off after about 30 seconds, and I spent the next two minutes chasing her all over the bakery section, enjoying more dirty looks from fellow shoppers. I was so exasperated at this point that I seriously contemplated leaving the store right then, cart and all, and going home. But then I'd just have to come back and do it all over again...

Finally captured, Livia was put back into the back of the cart, and wedged in between cans and other non-squashable items.

We finally made it to the checkout stand, where a store manager was eyeing me warily, and the bagger looked at me with a clear question in his eyes, "Where should I put the groceries?" So I told him there was no way she was going to sit in the front today, and just to put them all around her. So he did. She was standing in the middle of the cart surrounded by bags, and staring at me with very wide eyes.

After a few more outbursts all the bags were in the trunk, Livia was buckled in, and I promptly called Chase to beg him to come home as soon. as. possible.

The end.

That's what I said

"Chase! Chase! Get me a wipe! It's everywhere! Oh, it's everywhere! OH IT'S EVERYWHERE! It's in my shoes!!!"

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Curious? It sounds like it could be worse than it was. This evening Chase saw Livia steal a candy corn from our leftover Halloween candy. He thought she grabbed one--no big deal--but in reality there were 5 or 6 in her mouth, and she managed to ooze sticky candy corn juice ALL over the living room. Including, yes, in the heels I'd worn to church today. Yay!

pumpkin paradise

Livia loves pumpkins (or pun-tees, as she calls them). We decided to take her to a pumpkin farm last week, and she was in absolute heaven!

At first she was a little overwhelmed, but by the end she was running around yelling "PUN-TEES!" every 2.6 seconds.

For FHE we decided to carve our pumpkins. I thought that since Livia loved pumpkins, she would enjoy carving them and pulling out all the "guts." Unfortunately, I grossly underestimated just how much she loved her pumpkins, and when we cut into them she completely flipped out. So we hurriedly put her to bed and set to work. Chase did the spider, which turned out to be a little too fragile and collapsed within 24 hours, and I did the wolves. When Livia woke up the next morning and saw what we had done to her beloved pumpkins there were some major tears. But she's over it now and likes the pictures on her pumpkins. Ü

Livia went to a Halloween party with our playgroup on Friday. Here she is in the little costume I made her (the only way I could get her to hold still was to let her hold a pumpkin. Can we say obsessed??)

When we got to the party we discovered that one of her little friends was Bam-Bam! I couldn't have planned that more perfectly. Unfortunately, this was the best picture I could get. Trying to get one toddler to pose for a picture is hard enough. Two? Practically impossible.
She had fun at that party, but the ward trunk-or-treat that night did NOT go so well. She was completely overwhelmed and was glued to my side the entire night. Again, there were tears. But she cheered up once we got home, and we got a quick picture.

So Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm dreading throwing out our quickly dying jack-o-lantern. Livvy will be crushed. But at least we have Thanksgiving to look forward to!

5 reasons you should always keep a journal

I received my first journal on my 8th birthday, and have been an avid journal writer ever since. I recently acquired a box of my old journals from my mom, and found that first journal among them. As I began reading through it, I determined that it was WAY too good not to share. Ü

(I'm posting these verbatim, as the misspellings make it so much better. I'm also abbreviating friend's names, because it just feels like one of those situations where I should do that...)



There are a lot of reasons you should keep a journal, you know.


Reason #1: They're filled with great advice to your future self


7-26-96 (age 10)

Never, Never, have a chicken burrito with hot sauce. Never!



Reason #2: You find another reason to call up your parents and apologize/thank them for putting up with you.



8-21-94 (age 8)

Today is Sunday, the 21st. My Dad has made me really mad. I was changing into my play clouths, and some of my hair got stuck in a Button. So I yelled "MOOOM." My dad came instead, of course, he can't come in when I only have a slip on. But he said, "Mom can't come right know, because she's making Lunch," and he said "what do you want?" And as I said before he can't come in when I only have a slip on. So I couldn't tell him or he would come in.



But any way he's not being mean anymore. So I'm happy know.

9-3-94 (age 8)
Today is Saturday. We're soposed to do something fun today but my mom's to tired so she's leaving Daddy in charge, he wants to go to the temple for fun. but Laura said "we can make the day fun." So I guess it will be alright but I just wish that my Dad would remember us.



Reason #3: Spiritual instruction



8-7-94 (age 8)

Today is fast Sunday. I fasted Breakfast. When I first started fasting, I didn't know that I had to do it for a Reason. Then my mom told me so that I could tell that to Heavenly Father in my fasting prayer. A fasting prayer is a special prayer that you say before you eat, The things that you say are why you fasted, to do that Blessing, and something else I forgot what it is. I was starved! I enjoyed fasting for a purpose. Bye-Bye. Sincerily, Mary



8-29-94 (age 8)

Yesterday after noon, I was Babtized. When I got Babtied I felt 3 things. I felt Important, happy and cold. I'd better explain what being Babtized is. Being Babtied is a very important thing to me. It's where you go to church to have a special meeting. When you get there the person that's getting babtized get's Dressed in some spiecial cloths. (So does the person that's Babtizing you.) then you sit down for the opening prayer and talks. Then you and the person that is Babtizing you goes down into a font (by the way the person that's Baptizeng you has to have the Priesthood.) That is filled with warm water. The person that's Baptizing [finally spelled it right!] sayes a prayer and Dunks you in the water. Then your Baptizied! then you change into a white dress. Sit down some more and then people take lots of pictures. I'm so happy. Sincery, Mary

Reason #4: The drama!

11-6-94 (age 8)
On Friday K (my best friend) spent the night at my house! I was really exited because K hasn't spent the night at my house for a long time...we wrote secret admirerer letters. And talked about who we liked. Me and K both liked this one boy who's name is J. K said she loved him. I said I loved him to. He's awfully cute, he's nice, and funny and friendly. So you probly think he's perfect but he's not. He said Heavenly Father's name in vain so now I just like him for a friend now. I might still love him.

11-27-94 (age 8)
Well a few days ago on Tuesday. On Tuesday I found out that J (the one I love) likes K!
How did I find out? Well M, one of my friends asked J if he liked K. Well, J said "Yes." And of course M told a few people (me of course) but this one girl named Cherl told almost everybuddy about it. So now I don't have any one I like. I'll just have to wait till high school, or colage.

12-11-94 (age 8)
Today Laura and Perry have been bothering me all day about J. I promised I did not like him. Then I went into another room and said, "Sike, sike, just kidding, just kidding." Well, see you next time.

[I wish you could see the drawing I included depicting all of this. ]

Reason #5: Personal history

2-5-95 (age 8)
[I gave a really long explanation of getting a tooth pulled at the dentist and then...] My mom looked at me and told me to smile. I did, and I looked so weird. My smile was lopsided. Anyway that night the toothfairy gave me 2 dollars! Maybe I should go onto another subject. Yesterday I went to Millisa's baptimin [seriously, this word apparently gave me major issues]. I guess it was sorta cool. Yesterday I also went to my first BasketBall pratice. I guess I'm pretty good. But I don't think so. Afer that we went to the mall. I love it there. Espeiselly is I get to go to B. Dalton. A book store. We got to go their and I bought a book. I also got a jaw breacker at the general store. Well I guess that's it. See you next time! Bye.

[again, I included an awesome picture of the dentist pulling my tooth]

Okay, so this may have only been entertaining for me. In any case reading through all of this renewed my love of journals, and I've now gone from being not-so-consistent to writing every single day again (sleepless nights with Livia were what first killed the habit).

18 months

That's right, folks! Livia just had her half birthday! (In case you were wondering, we did celebrate: ice cream, balloons, and a reason to give her the play food I had just bought and was trying to convince Chase to let me give to her before Christmas). It's amazing how fast they grow. One second they're a totally dependent newborn in your arms, and the next...


Holy cow! They're driving!!!



And playing wii (with excellent form, I might add)
Helping you clean up the house

Sword fighting with their uncle

And practicing for their piano recital

In all seriousness I can't believe how much she's grown. Her vocabulary continues to grow and her pronounciation has become quite good, thank goodness. Her wilfullness has also increased, resulting in an extremely long grocery shopping trip this afternoon, as she figured out how to get out of the little seat belt-thing and stand up in the cart! Over and over...and over again.

Livia loves to read, and I love the opportunity it gives me to cuddle with her everyday.

Here she is in her reading chair:

She also loves to get outdoors, make us laugh, and has a gazillion little routines that she likes to follow. For example, whenever we put her pajamas on we have to say "pop!" every time a hand or foot is in it's right place. If we forget, she says it for us. Ü Her bedtime routine is also extremely exact, and if we do anything out of order or forget something (like to get out her blankie AND bunny during scripture reading) she lets us know!

All in all, she's a toddler. That means one second I'm loving her to death, laughing at her antics, and feeling joy as I watch her learn, and the next I'm about ready to tear my hair out, cry, or lock myself in the bathroom for a minute to calm down.

But really, I can never remain frustrated for long with this cute little thing around!

(note: it was a really cloudy day, but she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were at the park)

In other news she had her 18 month check-up today...and screamed as soon as the nurse walked in the room She never really stopped until we left the doctor's office. Yikes! You think she might remember the shots or something?? In any case she's doing great! She's still small: 25th percentile weight and 50th percentile height, but that's consistent with how she's been since she was a year old. Chase and I both feel so lucky to have this little sweetheart in our family. She is such a blessing to us, and I continue to learn from her each and every day.

We love you, Livvy!

It's about time!

Believe it or not, Livia is finally in a big car seat! I know, I know, most kids make the switch at about 12 months, but in my defense her infant carseat held up to 30 lbs, kids are not even allowed in a forward facing seat until they're 20 lbs, and at 18 months she only weighs 22.5 lbs.

In case you couldn't tell, she loves it. She spent a few hours playing in it before I brought it down to the car. She also loves being able to see what's going on, and now points out cars, trees, and dogs to me all the time when we're driving along. Unfortunately there is a down side: she can now see everything I do in the car! No more sneaking food without her knowing, no more faking the actions for the songs we sing as we drive along, and no more pulling out the cell phone without her demanding to hold it. Sigh.

It's still worth it though. Ü

My life is now complete

(this was a working robot some guy built and had wandering around Fisherman's wharf)

Vacation

Last week Chase and I went on a marvelous vacation. We drove down to Apple Valley and left Livia there with my parents!! Chase and I continued on to San Diego and stayed there for several days, as he thoroughly enjoyed not having to go to work for a week, and I even more thoroughly enjoyed being able to do whatever I wanted without the constraints of a toddler! We had many peaceful meals at restaurants, took afternoon naps, and could even stay out past 8:00. *Gasp!*

We took the opportunity to go to the San Diego temple, which we hadn't been back to since we were married there almost 3 years ago. It was kinda fun to go on a Wednesday morning...I'm pretty sure we were the only people there under 65. Ü


We went to Sea World one day and were surprised to discover that they now administer bioscans as you enter. Seriously, they take your fingerprint and connect it with the barcode on your ticket. We were wondering why until a man in line ahead of us got into a huge argument with the employee--turns out he had been planning on getting in with his ticket, exiting and getting a stamp, and then giving the same ticket to his son. Really?? I didn't know anyone did stuff like that, but it must be a problem because otherwise I don't think they'd bother with the bioscan.

Chase ended up lasting a minute and a half at this exhibit. My time?? 20 seconds. How embarrassing! (But at least it adds credence to my assertions that I have horrible lung capacity)
(I did try again later and got 45 seconds, but that's still pretty wussy)


We also went sea kayaking, which was cut short because I got seasick. I have a ridiculously weak stomach nowadays. I've now gotten sick snorkeling, kayaking, and fasting (I have thrown up multiple times when breaking my fast. It's kind of a problem). I felt badly that we didn't even make it through half our kayak rental time! So lame.

Livia was happy the entire time we were gone. I honestly don't think she missed us at all. It took her a good five minutes to warm up to us after we came back to AV, but then she was excited and wanted to show us all the fun things she had played with in our absence.

Since we were in Southern California, we took the opportunity to meet up with some good friends of ours from BYU. It was so much fun to catch up!

It was a perfect vacation. We got to spend time with friends and family, as well as have time all to ourselves to relax and have some child-free fun. (Not that we don't love having Livia with us...but since she is, in reality, my full-time job, it was nice to get a complete vacation from all my normal responsibilities.)

My parent's house has a LOT more toys and interesting things around than our little apartment does. Not to mention doting grandparents and super fun aunts and uncles. She had an absolute blast, and has been suffering from withdrawals ever since, I'm afraid. Here's a video of her playing the piano. I love how she wants to use the entire length of the piano, and how she sings along. Also, when she played she insisted a piano book be open, and would occasionally request that we turn the page. Ü

I don't know where she learned that since we don't have a piano, but it sure was cute!

Tales of a picky eater

A couple of months ago my previously adventurous daughter suddenly started hating pretty much everything I tried to feed her. Oh sure, she would eat fishie crackers and raisins, but we were seriously lacking in a lot of very important food groups. We're still working on it, but here are a few of my successes...

1. Edamame.
She loves the stuff! I already knew she liked it, but the only kind I could find at Safeway was a huge package of shelled edamame that went bad before she ate even a quarter of it. It felt like a huge waste of money to me, so I only bought it that one time. But, lo and behold, Trader Joe's sells frozen shelled edamame! I can prepare a small amount at a time, and it's perfect! Definite success.

2. The Dip
Everything's more fun to eat when you can dip it, right? Using yogurt, peanut butter, or hummus as dip, and carrots, apples, and pretzels as the object to be dipped = actual eating! (It also keeps her really busy, which means I have relative peace during mealtime...always a plus)

3. Presentation
How I serve food seems to make a big difference. Most anything with a straw will at least get a few bites (yogurt, in particular). She's terrible at utensils, but loves attempting to eat with a fork. If I get a piece of meat onto a fork for her and let her feed it to herself, she will sometimes swallow! (meat/protein is one of our greatest battles)

4. Smoothies
Whole-milk yogurt, fruit, ice, sometimes carrots, and yes, a little bit of sugar and she's in heaven! I don't always take the time to make them, but smoothies, eaten through a straw of course, are another success.

5. Adult cereal
This one really surprised me. I had been trying different dry cereals out on Livia after she got tired of cheerios. She liked kiddy cereals, but she LOVED muesli! She eats the raisins and dates first of course, but then she systematically goes through and eats all the grains and nuts, too. Who'd have thought? It seems like most kids like oatmeal, but Livia despises it. I can't blame her. I've never liked it either.

So there has been some major progress made, but most of her meals still end up on the floor or stuffed down into her high chair. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I know a lot of toddlers go through a picky phase, and so I'm rather desperately hoping she'll grow out of it.

Dandelions

Livia discovered dandelions at the park this week.

While we were there a pre-teen girl approached me and said, "Aww, how old is it?"

It? Really?

I could be wrong, but Livia looks quite feminine to me. Particularly with the ponytail and pink shirt with little hearts all over it. I dunno.

And it just felt weird to have someone call her an it. I'd almost rather have had her say, "Aww, how old is he?" (!!)

(Fairly) recent happenings

In other words, things I kept meaning to write about but somehow never did, so now it's all going to be thrown together in one big post. 1. We went camping...a month ago...with our friends the Mayfields.

We camped at Mt. Diablo, and had a great view of the sunset from our campsite.

We hiked to the top, and Chase was a trooper to carry Livia the whole way up.

Two things: 1) DO NOT laugh at me! I know the backpack is almost as big as I am!

2) I'm diggin' Chase's capris.

Yay for friends who put up with our crying baby at night! One tent + two different bedtimes = TROUBLE!!! (Livia woke up when we finally crawled in the tent, and didn't go back to bed until 1:30 a.m. when Chase got the brilliant idea to stick her in her carseat in the car. He didn't even have to drive around. She fell right to sleep. )

2. Livia is growing up so fast!!

This month she learned how to color. We now have drawings up on the fridge. I swear I'm too young for that.

She's starting the I-want-to-dress-myself phase. In this photo she's sporting a long-sleeved onesie over a summery dress.

Her hair is now long enough that I have to do it everyday. It's not quite long enough to look good, but we try. Chase calls this the "bug look"

We're still working on feeding ourselves with a spoon...I don't think I need to say anything more about that.

Livia fell and got her first scraped knee! She didn't cry once, not even when I peeled off the band-aid later. Pretty sure she did NOT get that from me. Ü

She's also demonstrating her "smile for the camera" smile.

Livia will be going into nursery in a month, can you believe it?! She's growing up so fast and is asserting her independence more and more. She LOVES having friends over, playing hide-and-seek, ring around the rosie, getting piggyback rides, reading, and going on walks. She's starting to talk more, but I can't decipher everything. She says something that sounds suspiciously like "money" everytime she wants something. Should I be worried???

3. Chase has been working crazy hours for the past few weeks, but things should be calmer now. Hooray!

4. I started taking a ballet class! Even after just one class a lot of what I learned in past years is coming back to me. I think I'm gonna love this!