Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Problem with Growing Up



 Hollyn is now over 16 months old.  I'm looking VERY forward to nursery in a month a a half. :-)

One of her current endeavors these days is that, after having learned how to open all our cupboards and what items are in each, she hits the snack-food cupboards all day.  There are granola bars and cracker packages ALL OVER my house, because Hollyn spends all her waking moments fetching an item, and handing it to me.  Unless I give in and open it for her to eat, I usually just accept it and set it down in the nearest convenient location.  If you're wondering about the package of pistachios and the bag of cereal on my desk, that's why it's there ;-).  If I don't open the food item for her, she silently walks back to the cupboard to grab another one and try again.  If/when she gives up on that, she starts going through all the other drawers and cupboards leaving things scattered all over the floor and often hiding them in other drawers and cupboards. *sigh*  As if I didn't have enough trouble keeping up on the housework.  And it isn't just the kitchen.  She loves to notice when the upstairs bathroom door is left open, and has a ball carrying my feminine products all over the house.  I keep having to throw away tampons that she opens (paper-wrapped) and chews on. (Of course they're no good once they've gotten wet.) I usually pretty much feel like I'm about to lose my mind.  I don't have enough space to move everything from out of her reach so I suppose I'm doomed to just do what I can until we move past this stage.


Still, we sure love this little girl!  With all her gettin' into stuff I'm starting to call her Goldilocks. :-)  Seems like a good fit.  Brian still likes to call her "Smallyn" because she's so tiny.  At 18.5 lbs she's in the 10th percentile for height and weight.  I like my tiny one though.  So much easier to carry and clothe than a big chunker.

She loves to play with her brothers.  It's so fun to watch her "get" the games that they're playing.  She also loves to color (at least for a few minutes).  She still says "Up-mmm" instead of just "up" and FINALLY will say "Mama" on command.  She doesn't call me that, but can at least repeat the sound now.  She loves to snuggle things close to her face while we say, "Oh sooo pretty..."  She has a huge tantrum if someone goes outside and doesn't let her come along.  The other day I went to deliver a cake to some neighbors.  I left her home with Brian and even though I snuck out the back door she noticed her brothers go out the front.  And immediately started crying.  I didn't give it much thought when I ended up staying and chatting with my friend for a while.  About half an hour later Brian came in delivering Hollyn to me because she'd apparently not gotten over her upsetedness.  Oh brother am I in trouble.  Luckily it's a some-what easy fix at this point.  If I let her step outside for even just 30 seconds she usually feels satisfied.  I'm not sure what we'll do come rainy winter though.


 Also still likes to "talk" on the phone.

Remember that cake I took to the neighbors?  It was sort of a joke because they moved next door to themselves, from the 3-bedroom across from us to the 4-bedroom diagonal from us.  But I brought them a "welcome" cake anyway.  I made two smaller cakes out of the recipe so we could have some.  The boys kept asking "which one is ours?" so I used some icing to make it more clear ;-)



 My cute boys!
Yay!  Mom let me walk outside for a bit!



Thursday, August 23, 2012

How They Talk

Both of the boys are slow talkers.  Well, more like over-fast thinkers.  So they take a while to get to the point.  They go about it differently though.

Asher:
Asher sort of stutters.  Not in the traditional sense however, where a person has trouble getting past a first sound.  Asher repeats the ending syllable.  "When I was a grown-up, I used too-oo-oo drive to the beach and see-ee-ee the ocean!"  That's a made up sentence, and even now it doesn't seem like quite a good example.  It's taken me so long to get around to recording this that I think he's starting to outgrow it.  Anyway, that's the technique Asher has used when his brain is going faster than he can spit stuff out and needs to buy himself some time.

Brennan:
Brennan takes forever to get through a statement because he starts over repeatedly.  And he throws in "Mom!" every couple of words. "Mom! I had an idea!  If you wanted, Mom!, if you wanted to go to the store but, Mom! If you need to go shopping but not me,  hey Mom!, if I don't want to come shopping, then maybe I could stay home and Mom!,..."  Brian and I get a kick out of it while also trying to help him just get it out for goodness sakes.  Sometimes for every time he exclaims "Mom!" I immediately interrupt with "What?!?"  But that distracts him and makes him take even longer to get to the point.  It's really interesting to hear your name exclaimed every other second.  I sure love this kid. ♥

Can you imagine how our dinners go when both boys are fighting to get their stories out at the same time? :-)

Monday, August 20, 2012

Family Camping Trip

The little nature trail bordering the campground

 You know what's really sad?  Because I relied on Brian to take pictures on his cell phone, we have basically NO pictures of Hollyn on her FIRST camping trip. :-(  And we're not camping again any time soon.  These pictures you see are it.

Still, despite the lack of evidence, we had a great time.  Just 2 nights, but that was the perfect amount.  Concerns:
Hollyn Sleeping: Although she took hours to fall asleep the first night and nap time, she was quiet and didn't disturb any neighbors.  The first night around 3am she spent about two hours moaning, "mmmmm-nnnn-mmmmm-nnnn-mmmm-nnnn..."  It was cute.  I think a result of being so chilly in the tent.
Hollyn hanging around campsite: She was rather a beast to watch around the campsite, but thankfully when I picked out our site months ago, I picked one that bordered the playground.  It could not have been MORE perfect!  We had a straight-shot view between the trees which allowed us to send Hollyn with Brennan, and I could keep my eye on him playing with her. :-)  Brennan basically lived at the playground as it was the hangout for a whole bunch of boys who made up a specific game of tag with a slew of rules and terms ("You forgot to say 'upsies'," "no cherry picking!" "You have to say one two ten!")

We stayed at Beverly Beach, and just as you can guess, it's located at the beach. :-)  Although very hot in the valley, the coast was in the low 60's with some awfully chilly wind.  We spent a couple hours playing there and had fun, but spent most of our time in the non-windy campground.










Visiting the Bay Front on our way home


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Some picture catch-up


Well, my camera is still in Idaho so the only pictures I have are from Brian's cell phone.

After our SUPER fun weekend at Sunriver with my parents at the end of June, we took a pit-stop at the High Desert Museum in Bend.  What a neat place.  I was at first disappointed at how expensive it was, but soon realized that it was worth every penny.  The only whining we heard was when it was time to leave!
Don't you love this?  Daddy and Daughter... so sweet ♥
Remember how we went to Oaks Amusement Park on our way to Idaho?  I love that place.  Another recommend from the Stevenson Family.
I'm not sure if Brennan realized he was in the girl spot (lol).  I think his focus what on getting his hot-pink squid in the shot.  And what's with Asher's 'tude?

Not too afraid to ride the Ferris Wheel with Dad

 Going to the Idaho Falls Zoo is always a hit... and always super hot.  I've been there many times now, but never (not once!) have I NOT roasted through the whole experience. :-)  Clearly a fun enough place to be worth it.

Roarrrrrr



Brennan was nervous about his surgery.  But not so nervous he couldn't do a few model poses for us.
The serious underwear model face

The, ummmm, sleeping model look?

This is how he thought he would look when he returned

This is how he actually looked when he returned

All told he got several hours worth of Sponge-Bob Square-Pants in, plus a bunch of Fairly Odd-Parents.  Not bad, eh?

Monday, August 6, 2012

Catch-Up

I didn't look at when my last entry was, but it feels like it's been a while.

The first week and a half of July was busy getting ready for our trip to Idaho which took place the rest of the month.  We left on a Friday and spent the afternoon at Oaks Park in Portland with my sisters, nieces and nephews, and parents.  That was super fun.  Hollyn rode a couple rides but seemed indifferent to them.  That evening we continued on Pendleton and stayed the night, which was great to break the long drive up. The following day we took MANY stops and finally rolled into the driveway after 9pm.  Whew!

Idaho was great!  We (as in Brian and I) got to attend the temple with a whole bunch of family as it was his brother's first time before leaving on his mission in a couple of days.  It was a-mazing(!) to do a session with so many loved ones. ♥  Also on our trip we went to playgrounds and restaurants, cheep kids movie at the theater, Zoo, bike ride, Lava Hot Springs/Water Park, Riot Zone, and the Art Show.  We visited with family and played games in the evenings.  And we pigged out on good food and cool treats.  After spending 6 weeks losing almost 15 lbs, I gained 3 back the first couple of days there!  Thank goodness I reined things in (cutting the soda back out was the key, I think) and came home none the worse. ;-)  Anyway, it was SUPER to see everyone!

Arriving home was busy.  We had several appointments to get to the first several days, including Brennan's surgery 3 days home.  He had ear tubes put in again, PLUS an adenoidectomy.  (With our camera left in Idaho :-( the pictures were taken on Brian's phone, so I'll post some when I get 'em.)  Reaching the adenoids is done through the mouth, (they're located behind the tonsils) so we were warned that Brennan would probably experience a sore throat and may need a soft foods diet for up to a week.  So I was prepared.  I bought all sorts of soft goodies for Brennan, and won him over with talk of getting out of chores and watching movies all day while he recovered.  Turns out this kid is an amazing rebounder.  Maybe it was the priesthood blessing.  All I know for sure is that he was skipping to the car as we left the hospital, and eating chips a couple hours later at the Company Picnic held the same evening.  His prescription Tylenol was never taken.  He only mentioned his throat being sore when he suspiciously wanted something like ice cream for breakfast.  Lol.  His snoring seems to have hugely dissipated, and I'm excited to note if he ceases to snort/sniff or breath with his mouth open all the time.  Yay!

Yesterday at church little Miss Hollyn was bested by her mischievousness.  As I often do, I let her out of the library to wander a little during the down time - up and down the stairs.  I've mentioned these stairs before - they make a raised hallway with several classrooms on one side and the stage on the other.  Usually the door leading onto the stage is closed, but yesterday I saw Hollyn enter it.  Fearing that she was interrupting Elder's Quorum who meet there, I went chasing after her.  I entered the stage to see, thankfully, it was still empty.  Except for Hollyn standing near the edge overlooking the great expanse of the gym.  I went towards her to get her, trying not to move too fast.  Hollyn turned and noticed me coming and, with a challenging gleam in her eye, immediately dropped onto her tummy and started backing towards the edge of the stage, trying to get down as she would a simple stair-step.  I ran towards her, crying "No Hollyn, NOOOO!"  But my lunging towards her only caused her to determinedly move even faster.  And I was too late.  She dropped over the edge and I barely missed grabbing her, arriving just in time to watch her landing on the hard gym floor.  She was NOT a happy girl.  I had to take her outside because she was crying so loud.  But, within a couple minutes the crying subsided and she fell asleep.  A nice sound sleep which allowed me to set her on the floor where she slept until the end of church.  She seems fine, except for a nice shiner on her cheek which we think may have occurred by her face hitting her knee during the landing.  Poor baby.  I read recently in my own baby book where my Mother mentioned me being strong-willed and that when I decided to wanted something no one got a moment's peace until I got what I wanted.  That must be where Hollyn gets it from.  Because if she knows she isn't supposed to have or do something, then she wants it real bad.  I already have to use reverse psychology with her to avoid a fight.  Oh man are we in trouble when she's a teenager!