Mr. Troublemaker

Danny is turning into a proficient walker who rarely resorts to crawling. He can climb onto the couch and dining room chairs. Just the other day I was surprised by his arrival at the kitchen with a peanut chocolate cluster victoriously clutched in the hand. The only way he could have gotten one was by getting onto a chair in the dining room and leaning over to the middle of the table.

Just a happy guy!

One of his favorite and, I might add, dangerous favorite spots is by the oven door. I am not sure how many times I have caught him pulling himself up by the oven door's handle. When we moved to this house Erin learned the hard way why dangling off the above mentioned handle is a bad idea. She pulled the door down and ended up on the kitchen floor with quite a bump on the back of her head. That was accompanied by a lot of screaming, wailing and a bruised ego. I am doing my best trying to prevent the repetition of that disaster.

Decorating the tree! Danny actually tried putting ornaments on the tree.

Danny loves slides. He prefers going down on his tummy and laughs the entire way down. He and Erin will occasionally slide down together and so far neither got kicked in the face by the other.
Danny has become a picky eater. I used to brag that the kid would eat anything I put in front of him, or at least sample it. Not anymore! He will shake his head and spit food out. At this point he lives off milk, oatmeal and an occasional banana(Sigh). At meal times, when he sees others drink out of glasses, he demands one for himself, dumping his sippycup on the floor. Oh, the food usually follows into that "reject pile" under his chair(bananas and oatmeal ought to be cleaned up immediately otherwise I have to deal with food cement on my floors). On the rare occasions when my child does find food interesting he insists on feeding himself. He attempts using a spoon or fork, but almost unfailingly switches to hands (sigh). It is messy, but I should not complain, because I know what happens if you continue spoon feeding this lot (Ha! Even after turning 3 Erin demanded that I feed her, and that doing it herself was too hard).

Finishing his jam left after eating waffles.

Our Danny is a very social kid. He loves company and is jubilant every time he sees Erin's friends. He starts clapping, laughing and making all sorts of happy sounds. Speaking of sounds. His vocabulary is rather limited. Danny says Dada, Sveta, Ein, bubbles and some random words. He shocked me and almost made teary eyed the other day when he said "Thank you!" while I was putting his shoes on his tiny feet.

Danny loves reading books and singing songs. He even does moves to "An Itsy Bitsy Spider". Every time we are done singing a song he claps and cheers! Such a happy guy!
However, you do not want to cross paths with him when he is out of spirits. Usually because Erin takes something from him or won't let him have that something. He begins to scream and it culminates in him biting her. Though he's been a little bit better about it lately. Now he just throws himself on the floor and begins a grand tantrum. Ha ha!

Danny is mama's tail. He has to be where I am and preferably doing what I am doing (or Undoing what I just have done). As you can imagine that causes problems. I finally started shutting him in his room with toys. He screams for a little bit, but than just plays. The other day, I snicked up on him in his premises and caught him just sitting on the floor with a book, hugging his blankey. When he spotted me he just ran over dragging his blankey and I am pretty sure he was hinting that it was time for his nap and he would like it now.

Redecorating! He is on top of his box, he puts toys on it, sits on it, bangs on it, rolls cars on it and does all sorts of fun things with it. I hope the content of the parcel will be as much of a hit as its exterior.

He does not mind vacuums anymore. In fact when I attempt to vacuum, he hops onto it and tries to convince me to give him a ride. However, I do not budge! This vacuum will not last much longer if extra 20 lb would be hitching a ride on it.

He had his second dental visit which he did not enjoy, particularly the x-rays. He's been suffering through four molars cutting through the entire month of November and as Dr. Howell put it "His molars are erupting!". Though they are done for now, and he is visibly a happier little guy.

We finally took Danny for his first official haircut (the trimmings that I've been attempting on his head do not count). He acted about as joyous at Great Clips (or Whatever is the name of the Clips nearest to our house) as at the dentist's. Erin and I took him in and I think he was convinced it was another dental visit. I held him on my lap and Erin stood nearby trying to comfort him. Even a sucker did not pacify him, however he did share it with me and Pooky. It was covered in his hair, but you do not refuse a crying child. Between his bouts of cry he shoved it in mine or Erin's mouth and watched us enjoy it. At that point he would picked up his crying.


After the haircut. I wish I had a good before photo for comparison.

I think he is catching up in his growth, at least he is getting to the point when 18 months clothing is starting to fit. I had to pull out Erin's old PJs and he is now slipping in them (call me cheap, I call it practical). Oh, did I also mention he sleeps with a doll? Andrew and I were putting him to bed the other night and he made a comment that "this is just plain wrong", ha ha! I am raising a well rounded and gender-non-biased boy. No worries he has no pink in his day wardrobe and plays with building blocks and trains.

I am sure there are many more fun facts about my little boy that I could relay, but this post is getting too long and I am not sure that many will even make it to the end (kudos to you if you are reading this!). Hence the photos of my handsome silly boy to jazz it up!

Ta ta for now!

My little chocolatier!

This year Erin and I made Christmas goodies for some friends and Andrew's coworkers. Sorry if we did not stop by with some of our concoctions. Our creations were a limited edition. Perhaps next year!
Erin loved making chocolates. Than again who does not! Not only do you get to make them, you also get to sample, lick spoons, consume rejects and have a good laugh! We will definitely do it again!

 Erin definitely enjoyed making chocolate peanut clusters! If this is not a happy face, than I do not know what is! I allowed her to lick the pot clean. She thought I was the best mom ever!

 Just contemplating whether to have another one

Andrew took this to work. The popcorn balls were my favorite, though that is most likely because I ate too much chocolate and could not look at it anymore.

We also made cakes in jars this year. You just bake regular cake batter in a jar. Take it out of the oven when done, put the lid on and close tight,. It can sit in the pantry for up to 6 months (if you manage to not eat it immediately). Isn't this ingenious!? I wish I could claim this idea for my own, but I got it from Fusion Grain Cooking...I think. If you ever try making these make sure to spray jars generously and pour half a jar of batter... if you feel lucky and brave try filling 2/3 of a jar. This is what happened to me when my luck ran out.

Cleaning baked cake of the oven floor was a pain! (Yeah! Yeah! I know! my oven door needs some scrubbing too!)

Happy Holidays!

Ta ta for now!

Festival of Trees recital

Is it worth putting a 4-year-old in a dance class? A few months ago I would say no, but not anymore. It is absolutely worth it! Erin has had so much fun and she dances constantly (hence a dozen of "dancing Erin" videos from the past few months that I took). Dancing is definitely enhancing her world!

At the end of the term Pooky and her class got to perform at the Festival of Trees (a Christmas money drive for Children's' Primary Hospital where you can bid on a variety of Christmas trees, decor and many other fun things). Andrew and I had a good laugh seeing this happy bunch attempt to do their routine. Enjoy!

Only from the third attempt the correct music was turned on and off they went. It was adorable! Erin definitely enjoyed being on the stage and was not intimidated by the crowd! Andrew took the video and asked me to pass along that "blame the poor quality on him laughing or trying hard not to". Danny and I sat in the audience. He followed the older girls dance, but showed no interest in the little ones. He seemed to have had fun just being in the crowd, seeing pretty lights, trees and munching on his cookie (indeedo! I bribed my son).

Here is Erin with her friends and Mrs. Erin, her fabulous teacher. The silly girls would not stay still for a photo shoot. Pooky's best friend Aliyah is also in the class, but she got sick and had to miss the recital. That was sad.

After Erin's recital we wandered around the festival looking at some amazing trees. Majority of merchandise had been already sold by that point (not like we could have afforded $200- infinity decor) and it looks like the hospital will be getting a neat Christmas check. Children's' Primary is an amazing and for many sacred place! Almost every one of the trees had a photo of a child that was a patient there, some are not here anymore to enjoy Christmases, but they are still loved and memories of them are cherished.

So...I am extremely happy that Erin was dancing and not playing an instrument. We made it to the other stage at the Festival that was not for dancing recitals, but for music ones. Ehm! A string orchestra of kids 7-12 years of age was bravely performing Christmas songs. Erin insisted on sitting down to listen. At first Andrew and I were wondering why were the kids tuning their instruments for so long until it occurred to us that they were actually playing a tune. Yeah! We left only after a few minutes as we could not take it any longer. Scrap water-boarding! Put a 7-year-old violinist next to a suspected terrorist. He will crack in a few hours. Only parents and grandparents can take it, strangers like us can not, so we left. Sorry kids! I am sure you tried your best and kudos to you for that!

Merry Christmas Season to you all!

Ta ta for now!

The Carebear Duo

The glorious trick-or-treating day finally came! We kick started it by going to Macey's where not only did we get our milk and 'nanas, but also visited every counter to demand some sweets. We walked away with some loot and Erin impatiently waited for the evening to come.

This year Pook chose to be a Care bear and so to match Danny had to be one too.

This year we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat. I prefer going a more traditional route and go door knocking, but Andrew was tiered after work so we opted out for an easier and faster candy procuring way. We've never been trunk-or-treating before, but I decided that it is an acceptable option for Halloween. It turned out to be fun! We got to see so many of our neighbors, there were so many trunks and quite a few of them very elaborately decorated. My favorite was a monster mouth with a giant tongue (a rug), with a sole candy laying on it. To get the candy you had to touch the tongue, as soon as you did just that a puff of air puffed in your face. Scared quite a few little kids, ha ha. Loved it!

Than there was a Wolf-looking mascot that nodded and did not speak. Erin declared him to be from Disneyland (the entire time at Disney Erin was plagued by a question of why did Mickey, Goofy and Minny never said anything and only nodded and waved their limbs to communicate, ha ha).

There also was a Christmas trunk. Though Erin got confused when Misses Clause wished her a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Oh! Erin wished a happy Valentines day to a little cute Devil person (my visiting teacher Sarah). I am still not sure why, ha ha. Erin's Sunbeam teacher (dressed as Robin Hood) was so sweat! She wanted a picture with our bear and handed her a special Halloween gift on top of candy (a coloring book with some crayons). She is such a warm and kind person!

At some point we stumbled upon a table of doughnuts and a jug of hot chocolate. We all sampled some maple bars.

Andrew carried our smallest bear (a fictitious red colored bear with a heart belly badge- I guess a cross between an Amigo and Tender Heart bear) and the bigger one walked. She kept forgetting to say the magic words and to be polite, but than... everyone just dumped sweets into her bag (she finally grew into her bag size and it was not dragging on the ground unlike previous two years). I think she was somewhat overwhelmed by all the lights, people and her newly found wealth. Danny just observed everything with wonder. He was delighted to be up and about. He did not trick-or-treat, but some trunk owners gave him candy anyways. So he got his own sucker for the first time in his life all to himself (usually Erin let's him have a few licks of hers). By the time we got ready to go home, Erin's bag got quite heavy and I had to carry it.

At that point Danny went to bed and Erin and I hit the streets. Our neighborhood was mostly deserted, but we did get into a few doors. Funny enough we got a lot of candy. Every house gave us a handful as there were not that many kids out there. In one place Erin started telling the dude off for giving her too much candy. I just stood there processing in my head and trying to figure out was she being more rude or more funny. I decided it was funny. After her complains and thanks to the guy, while he was shutting the door Erin turned to me and said: "Silly boy! He gave me too much candy!", ha ha. Have you ever heard anyone complain about being given too much candy? This surely was the first for me.

Pooky was so eager to find homes accepting trick-or treaters that she would not only bang on the door, but also jiggle people's door knobs. She also yelled to me: "Mom, I hear people in there, but they are not opening!" After that we had a little chat about trick-or-treating etiquette.

Erin got tiered pretty fast and finally when she just started sitting down after knocking to wait for someone to open the door I decided that it was time to head home and maybe give out a few treats ourselves.

We had fun this Halloween! I hope that so did you!

Ta ta for now

Happy Halloween!

So what do you do with an extra pinata your husband get's for your kid's birthday party? You save it for later and use as an excuse to throw a Halloween party! This was the fate of Danny's pinata that we did not use. It got filled with candy back in June and made it all the way to the end of October (Neither I or our garage mouse broke into it!).

We invited a few of Erin's friends, baked a pizza, decorated the house, hid some dirty dishes in the dishwasher (shhh! do not tell anyone) and had a blast.


This year Erin wanted to be a Sunshine Bear, whose proper name turned out to be Funshine. A character very befitting Erin - she is my bear and definitely a fun one, ha ha. In the photo she of course is looking more like Winnie the Pooh, but that's because her belly badge came off. Why did it come off you ask? Oh, I'll tell you.

I made a mistake 3 years ago of buying an inexpensive Singer machine, sure of Singer still living up to the reputation of creating excellent products. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Come on, not even a cheap basic sewing machine ought to be trying to get away from you while sewing, so you end up pulling it back to you every few instances, producing chronically uneven stitches and surprising you with a personality of a whaling banshee.

I was almost done last night, having only the belly badge left (and apparently a tale and a pink heart on the bum). It was after midnight, my toe was hurting (Danny-boy grabbed a glass bowl of the counter earlier that night and it landed on my toe. The bowl was not broken, the chicken from it was scattered on the floor and my toe fractured, or so it felt). Anyhow, my Singer decided that was a perfect moment for sabotage and seized working. I spent another hour trying to convince it to , but not even a threat of hurling it from the second floor worked. My banshee was done for the night. Luckily for me my hot glue gun finished the job. Hence Pooky woke up this morning to a finished (almost) Funshine getup. She put it on in the morning and took it off only after 50% of it's surface became covered in stains.

Anyhow, the party was so enjoyable and not even stressful. Not everything was perfect and the two hours I had to prepare were not enough to cook, clean the house, decorate and finish planning (yeah, I am "do-it-at-the-last-moment type of a gal, ha ha). Our guests were Shyann and Sadie, Arianna and Natalie, Lakai and Brighton, Jasmine, Aliayh and Caylee. Danny napped, but I am sure he did not regret missing out on all the chaos (he just came back from Disneyland and is still recuperating, ha ha). We colored Halloween pictures, played limbo, ate suspended in the air doughnuts, broke a pinata, ate pizza and had tons of fun. I also served mouths full of rotten teeth (apples with slithered almonds), eyeballs (grapes) and bat cupcakes.

Get that doughnut!

Limbo four-year-old's style! Two at a time and on all four!

Cupcake time!

As you can tell from looking at Erin's face, she gorged on cupcakes before it was pinata's time to spill its guts. By this moment Funshine bear is covered in pizza sauce, root beer and frosting. She and her friends went and rolled down the hill behind the house later, so add grass and dirt stains. Fortunately fleece rocks and the Funshine bear will be funshinier than ever after a good soak in OxyClean.

Anyhow, this was a great day and I hope that we'll have an extra pinata laying around the house next year so I can have an excuse for another Halloween party!

Ta ta for now!

PS: Did you notice Andrew's Mad Hatter hat. Doesn't he look great?! And by the way what a wonderful game master he is! (he he)

Echolocation and show-and-tell, part I

Erin has been picking up quite a few new words lately. However she does not always get to use them as applicable circumstances just don't arise. Hence she gets creative and adapts words. According to her we went on an echolocation (vacation) and stayed at show-and-tell (hotel).

We made our first family trek to Disneyland with a night pit stop in Vegas. The trip was an amazing experience, sometimes bumpy, but nonetheless amazing!Our first real family vacation!
This year Andrew got a ticket for Blizzcon and so did his buddy Tyson. I decided that Danny, Erin and I would tag along for the Happiest Place on Earth!

Ah, packing for a family of four! Andrew and I got a puny suitcase and the kids got the jumbo one. Of course add to that a snack pack, a fun pack, the other fun pack for when the original fun pack stops being fun. We were to spend a night in Vegas at Circus! Circus!, as I got a killer room rate of $30 a night. I will not bore you with the details of our drive, it suffices to mention that there were many potty stops, a gas stop in the middle of nowhere on a bug migration route ( oh my gosh! it was so nasty, you had to shut your nose, mouth and eyes while running to the gas station. It was so bad that a Subway shop inside was closed, because a bug sandwich would be the only kind served there! The cashier kept a dust buster right next to her and used it every few moments to suck up this plague. I can honestly inform you that I have never experienced anything like that...and I hope to never experience it again.), lunch in Cedar City and plenty of crying. We got to Vegas around four. Found our way to the hotel, checked in and kicked back for a few moments.

Here are my pet peeves with Circus!Circus! and for that matter most of the hotels over yonder:
*The cigarette smoke! There is not escape! It will find you on the 10th floor of no smoking hotel, in every restaurant and shop.
*To get anywhere  in the hotel you have to walk through what feels like miles and miles of slot machines and card tables. I really did not see that much fun going on there, mostly dazed faces, though it was hard to see through the cigarette haze. It is quite possible that someone in the crowd was enjoying themselves.
*Do NOT ever go to the Circus!Circus! all you can eat buffet (a coupon lead us there and it was a trap!). Chuck-A-Rama comparing to that place is a gourmet five star restaurant. We had a rather hard time finding something good looking to eat.

On the plus side we got to see a circus performance that completely dazzled Erin. Danny thought it was "meh!" as there were no dogs. I thought that the performers were amazing (and Russian, by the way, ha ha)! Too bad it was short and waiting for the next one was too long. Our room was clean and acceptably comfy for the kids.

Asian tourists, mostly Japanese, as far as my distinguishing of Asian features goes! They are my favorite kind of tourists. I am mentioning them as during our trip we came across many buses populated by them. There are three things I noticed about them. 1. They are extra curious and take photos of absolutely everything, including my kids at a rest stop. Now if that would have been a local looking dude doing that, than Andrew would have probably punched him, but when some Japanese guy is doing that than it is cute.(I can just see him sitting with his familia and friends in front of a screen showing a slide show of his voyage. "And these are some local kids! Don't they look exotic to you?!"). 2. They are always happy and polite! 3. They are everywhere!

In the morning we continued on our way. While driving out of Vegas I kept looking around hoping to see the Pawn shop from the history channel show. I did not, but oh well! You can't have everything in life! Anyhow, I was so excited because we had less than a half trip left. Danny screamed in horror when he realized that there will be more driving, so it was in our interest to arrive at our destination ASAP. We finally rolled over the last mountain range and were greeted by LA smog. Ah! A sight for sore eyes! We were almost there, but of course this was when Erin insisted that a potty break was unavoidable! Bah! We had to oblige! After that we joined the insane California traffic and got to Anaheim before 2 pm. That meant that we came a tad too early for checking into our room at Sheraton. So we headed to Ihop for lunch. I have to say that during our stay we ate many dinners there. A caution to the wise! If you are in Anaheim than go to the Ihop right outside of Disneyland main entrance. Service is much better there than in the one by Sheraton.

Sheraton is not a child friendly hotel, at least when they are age 4 and 1. Bedspreads were white, no room to run and no continental breakfast included. For over 120 bucks a night you can offer some complementary eggs and toast with orange juice to wash it down. Come on Sheraton! Of course for extra 40 bucks we could have enjoyed an unlimited number of  muffin accompanied by pots of coffee. No thank you! Tyson and we shared a room. We brought a pack-and-play for Danny boy and Erin squeezed in between Andrew and I on our king size bed. Of course, she ended up taking most of the bed leaving us to hold on for our lives on the edges. We however were so tiered that slept just fine.

My grandiose plan was to head to the beach on the day we checked in. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. Poor Andrew started getting kidney stone twinges, that turned into a rather disturbing pain. I of course did not plan for that and packed nothing to make him feel better. Fortunately the stupid rock seized to bother him in a few hours, but by then it was too late to go anywhere. Even though we were on the tenth floor and had an ocean side balcony I saw no water, the smog took care of that. That overall was my only disappointment on the trip. I love the ocean and was eager to dunk Danny and Erin in it. Alas, not this time around.

We stayed for four days. Andrew and Tyson spent Wednesday and Thursday with us at Disney and then headed to their Blizcon (AKA Geekcon). For two days I flew solo with the kids. We made it work.

In the morning of our first day we packed the kids into our Darinmobile and headed east in pursuit of fun!
Have I ever mentioned Darinmobile? When you yell at your kids you typically go through everyone's names before you get to the one in trouble. As any normal mother I do that. Danny is always with me, but Erin is usually the one in trouble. Hence I begin yelling Danny out of habit, but before I get to the end of the name I realize that he is not the one I need and switch to Erin in the mid word. It sounds like Darin! We are always going places with our stroller so I christened it Darinmobile. I think it is cute.

The next post will be the account of our adventures with lots and lots of photos. So make sure to tune in later for the follow up!

Ta ta for now!

Proof that KIAs are durable

There is nothing like jumping out of bed at 5 am upon hearing a loud BOOM. Andrew does not wake up easily or fast, but on this occasion I think he beat me out of bed. We both yelled "What was that?" We looked out the window, but spotted nothing suspicious - just a car driving away from our house and a lady standing on the sidewalk talking on her phone.
Next we checked the kids, made a swift run around the house, checking every door and window. No plausible BOOM causes were found.

I headed back to bed, but Andrew would not let it rest and dressed to go outside. When he did not return I threw my bathrobe on (it was freezing!) and headed downstairs. Yeah! The wall between our and neighbor's garage did not look right and it was clear that it just got driven into. The decorative rocks were busted, the wall itself was arching towards the street and stucco all around was cracked. Oh and on top it all the neighbors' garage door was pushed in and functional no more! While we (Andrew, I, the hit neighbors and the next door neighbors) were admiring the results of someone's night escapades we heard footsteps (dund-dund-dund!).

Ashley was coming! At least that's how the girl introduced herself. "It was my sister! I am sorry! I am Ashley! She also hit my garage! Don't worry about it folks, I'll take the blame! It was my insurance and the car!" "Was she intoxicated?" "Yeah!" That's when the cops arrived. The mysterious Ashley yelled "It was me! Over here!" and headed over yonder to explain herself to the law enforcement.

The neighborhood consilium huddled together to discus the "sister" piece of information to decide whether the police ought to be enlightened about the possibly another perpetrator. We decided that heck yeah! D.U.I and hit a wall today, D.U.I. and cause a funeral tomorrow. No covering up for dumb drunken drivers! So we stood there and watched from afar the gal talking to the cop and waited for him to come over to us.

He came over, looked at the damages and we had a chance to spill the beans. "Why would she do that?" was his question. At that point the interview was over and he headed back. It all ended by him handcuffing our new acquaintance. Apparently our fervent sister protector was twice over alcohol limit. Was indeed the wall hater and hitter and lied to us, probably to make us not hate her for getting us out of beds at the crack of dawn, knowing that our church meetings start at 8:30 am. Another cop searched her house and found no other people inside. Her garage had no visible hit-and-run traces, by the way.

Ashley was whisked away by the night patrol car (one of the three for Pleasant Grove apparently). Another cop stayed behind to supervise towing of the Ashleymobile (aka battering ram) which turned out to be KIA. Seeing the damages to our wall and assuming that stone we'll beat metal anytime (or more like plastic if it's a car from the last decade) we stood there feeling vindicated. Ashleymobile must have been slapped in the face. When I saw her KIA, my jaw dropped. A little dent and a few scratches on the bumper was all our wall caused! Now that was unfair! On the other hand-People I can tell you now, that KIAs are good cars, fearing neither drunk drivers, nor the walls that they come across.

PS: Ashley almost got away with driving drunk that night, but our valiant wall stood in her path and provided cops with another D.U.I. suspect mugshot! Go wall!

PPS: Andrew got to provide an official witness statement! Go Andrew!

Ta ta for now!

The probation week report

We laid out the rules for the week of "punishment" (for abusing Danny, if you have missed my last post) and we stuck to them. I am proud to report that I did not cave in and Pooky went with the rules understanding that she had to obey and that the deprivations (no TV, treats, kakao and no PBSkids.org) were the result of her behavior.

Today at the grocery check out before the cashier had a chance to open her mouth to offer the usual Smarty, Erin informed her: "I can not have a Smarty. I kicked Danny in the face and I am on probation! I can not have a treat." She has also been entering her friend Aliyah's house covering her eyes every time she heard the cartoons were on. I love it! She also turned down treats. Except for the one.

The neighbors were having a BBQ completed with making smores. She could not resist and accepted the offering, ha ha. Dads were making smores and you have to give them a slack as to what man will it occur to send the kid home to ask mom (well, the fact that it was around dinner time, that the kid might have allergies, that the kid is going to bed soon and any other reason you might come up with, ha ha). Aliyah's mom intervened reminding my child that this is a no treat week. As soon as Erin sensed that her smore will be confiscated, she began licking the chocolate off with the speed of a parched camel scarfing water. Other than that there were no glitches.

We had a fantastic week with little whining and lots of fun. We've been on a tour of playgrounds, harvested carrots (three bags full), had cleaning competitions, went shopping, played with friends, fed the ducks, cooked together and simply had a fabulous time . There was no fighting! There were many reassurances that Danny will be safe from and protected by his big sister. Hence I declare that the probation is complete!

Ta ta for now!

Another first!

Another first for both Erin and Danny-a bloody nose! Erin was on the giving end-Danny on the receiving... Yeah, we had quite a Saturday. I actually was gone most of the day and Andrew was holding the fort. My gang was supposed to pick me up from the bust stop around dinner time when our daughter became rather out of spirits! Her whiny and uncooperative behavior escalated into a complete aggressive meltdown that Andrew had to fight while driving (I am so grateful that the back-to-front-seat battle did not culminate in a car crash!) Pook could not get papa, hence she turned her fury towards the blond innocent angel sitting in the next seat. She proceeded to kick our Danny which resulted in giving him a bloody nose. So there was Andrew, trying to get through the traffic and see what is happening in the back at the same time. Erin completely freaked out when Danny began to bleed, so both of them were screaming in the back seat, one in pain-the other in horror of what she's done.
Let's just say that when they pulled into the parking lot Andrew let Erin know in no uncertain terms that this was not all right. He was furious! That's when I arrived to join this pandemonium.
Andrew's suggestion for a punishment was water and oatmeal for a week and no coming out of her room except to use the potty. After he cooled down we settled on no TV, PBS kids games, treats and kakao (chocolate milk)-all her favorite things. Her probation period is 1 week. Oh, and she spent the rest of the day in her premises, let out only for dinner. On Sunday she got to go to church, but had to spend the rest of the day home.
Here is my tale of another first!
Ta ta for now!

I made them lie!

I consider myself to be a pretty honest person-I do not cook my tax returns and I do not swindle my neighbor's Sunday paper for coupons ( though I will admit that the thought has crossed my mind before). However, I feel pretty guilty about today, for I made three lovely ladies lie for me!
Erin, Danny and I went to the library. I love our library outings! As a kid I frequented the one in my neighborhood. The smell of books is one of the most fabulous smells in the world and it alone makes it worth the trip. I normally combine our library trip and a morning stroll and this is exactly what we did this Monday morning. Danny rode in the stroller and waved his pinwheel cheering every time it caught the wind. Erin collected chestnuts (for crafts), captured bugs and did other Erin type things. I pushed the stroller and sang praises to the weather gods for sending me temperature in the 70s (particularly while going uphill).
I mentioned to Pooky that we will be making our traditional pit stop at the bistro by the library for some cake pops. My child on the other hand decided that she felt like ice cream and told me that she'll have that. For next five minutes we had a healthy debate on whether or not she should get the messy, melting treat (guess which side of the issue I was taking).
We made it to the bistro. Danny began smacking his lips in anticipation of the treat. Erin burst inside with a yell: "Do you have ice cream?" Danny and I were on her heals. The lady at the counter (bless her heart), also a mother, made no mistake at interpreting my mad head shaking behind my child's back. Her answer was that they ran out. We were the only customers inside, by the way, and the place is super kid friendly and both ladies who work (and I assume own the place) know me and my zoo. At that moment the other lady emerged from the kitchen to investigate the source of commotion. This is when Erin yelled her second question:" Do you have lemon soda?" My head resumed shaking and the lady informed her young customer that unfortunately they ran out of soda as well. Then we chose our cake treats and departed outside to gobble them down. They were tasty! Mine had a guilt aftertaste...
After loading up on books and paying 20 cents in fine (my record is almost 7 buckaroos) we departed for the park playground and eventually home.
So here you go, this was my confession! I promise to be better next time!
Ta ta for now!

Getting dirty!

Last year we embarked on a gardening adventure that turned out to be fun and nutritious! Our church building is sitting on the outskirts of the town and is surrounded by fields. Some of them belong to the church , hence our stake president- a gardening enthusiast- suggested we get gardens going and going we did!

Last summer we had just one plot, that showered us with tomatoes and carrots. We also planted green beans, peppers and cucumbers. Peppers looked pitiful, cucumbers were nasty and green beans...well, we missed the right moment to pick them. I was put on a bed rest and then Danny was born, so by the time we made it to the garden, they were too tough. I might also add, that the first time I came to the garden after Danny's arrival I could not see the garden. The weeds were taller than Erin and I was not sure where to start. Did I even want to start?... should I just pretend that this embarrassing looking dirt patch was not mine. Also, who knew what sorts of creators were lurking in that green vegetation. Despite that, I ended up pulling and yanking all the weeds out and eventually found all of my plants in that Utah jungle. Weeds:0, Sveta:1.

Then my mom came and pruned my tomato plants so they did not look like some overgrown bushes on steroids. She also told me to leave the green beans alone and wait for the pods to dry up and just collect the beans for soups and whatnot. Brilliant! Cucumbers...they were nasty tiny veggies with gigantic seeds of disgusting texture and questionable flavor if you could convince yourself to swallow them. We had so many tomatoes we did not know what to do with them, so we made and canned lots of tomato sauce. Erin was cranking tomatoes in the strainer and baba Olya and I assisted her.

This year the gardening experiment was repeated and with much success. I increased our dirt patch to two plots and planted tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumbers, green peas, red beats, green beans, lettuce, carrots, corn, strawberries and herbs.

My dad was visiting right at the start of the gardening season and he helped me so much with planting everything. Papa made my life so much easier, by doing all the hard work! I was lucky! I have to say that I gardened as long as I can remember myself. We had dacha! To say the least I had a resentment towards the place, because who wanted to spend their summer watering, weeding and harvesting (gooseberries and black currants were most hated by me and my brother). How much though I appreciate all the hard work my parents and grandparents put into it now. We actually had no need to buy any fruit or veggies almost entire year round. We had everything either in the root cellar or in the pantry (haven't tasted store bought jam until I married Andrew). I was an organic child, ha ha. I so wish I could give the same to my children. I took for granted all those apples, that had an apple smell, raspberries and strawberries so sweet and aromatic, carrots without any pesticides and tomatoes of proper (not wooden ) texture. This is why I garden now. So we can have REAL food, and I guess it is fun (when administered in moderate doses, ha ha).

Erin is a most enthusiastic gardener. She loves to dig and pull weeds and look for pea pods. She even eats them. The corn plants are Erin's. Every time we go the garden it is taller. It appears that we have the tallest corn stalks in the entire community, ha ha. Erin finally gave up on measuring herself against it every time we visit.
Here is the view of our plantation. The cucumbers are slowly taking over the entire plot. We bring a sack of them home every time we go to the garden. I am making pickles and serving cucumber salads every dinner ( sorry Andrew, one more month). Erin tasted a cucumber this year ( this is progress) and decided she is not a fan and Danny is not toothy enough for them.
The corn in the photo is neighbor's and where the weeds are taking over is not ours either. Here is the rest of what is ours.


Danny is being very patient with our gardening outings. He spends them in the stroller and usually finds something to entertain himself with.
Hopefully next year we can have 4 plots. I have big plans, ha ha! However, my biggest plans are for the backyard that I will own someday. I plan on having fruit trees, a strawberry plantation and raspberries growing along the fence. Someday! For now this American dacha has to do, ha ha!

Ta ta for now!

Zoo Friday!

Erin got a zoo trip from Christine and Emily for her birthday this year, so today she got to go see all the creators great and small. Danny and I decided to tag along. We drove up with Christine and met up with uncle Gibb, Emily and Evelyn at the zoo. The weather was hot, but tolerable and I ought not complain, as unlike lions, tigers and bears I am not dressed in furs.
First we went to see the elephants and rhino.
Hm, I have to say that elephants from up close look like they have a lot of extra skin. Both Erin and Danny liked them. Last time we took Pook to the zoo, she was almost two. Elephants did not interest her, only the big red ball under their feet caught her attention. This time around she watched them with much interest. Danny, also noticed them, though it is hard to tell what he thought of them. Possibly that they were dogs on steroids. Anyways, he waved at them and vocalized his approval. Of all animals, however, he liked monkeys the most, well technically they were orange marmosets, but for my convenience I'll call them monkeys. He watched them with fascination. Erin also liked them and I have to say, that I am impartial towards monkeys. They are adorable, cute and probably rather destructive and mischievous if you have them as pets. I can just picture that adorable marmoset gnawing on our couch leg.

It was rather hot for the furry animals in the outside enclosures, so quite a few of them were either hiding or napping (or both). These four tigers lined up for their nap. We asked the girls to count the tigers-Evelyn got 2 and Erin got 8.

I also took a few shots of giraffes. I do not know why but I am fond of taking photo's of giraffes. Perhaps it is because it is so refreshing taking photos of someone who can actually keep still.
Right now Hogle Zoo has animatronic dinosaur exhibit. You stumble upon different species of dinos throughout the zoo. Some looked rather intimidating to a 4-year-old. T-Rex fell out of Erin's grace. He was too tall, bulky, loud and with sharp looking teeth. Pook kept covering her ears and tried to pass it fast and put as much distance between them as possible.
She really enjoyed the terrarium though. She liked the snakes and was very excited about seeing a crocodile. She also finally got to see a skunk (until now she only smelled them) and a bunch of various gerbils, squirrels, little monkeys, tortoises and toads. Unfortunately there were no ugly Louisiana snapping turtles in the exhibit.

At the start of our zoo tour we passed a playground where kids could dig for dinosaur bones. We did not stop there though and Erin kept talking about going there to dig. At some point the animals were just not interesting her anymore, all she wanted was dust of her paleontological skills. She did not even go see baboons (baboona as she calls them). But my child did pose to measure up against a gorilla outline. It is too bad that Danny would not stand on his own, otherwise I would make him stand in the infant outline. Oh well, another time.
Erin and Evelyn had a go on a carousel and as you can see Pooky enjoyed it tremendously. Both girls rode tigers.At the end of our zoo trip we went to the playground where girls climbed, went down slides, Erin did monkey bars and ran around. Danny watched everyone, ate a banana and waited for us to head home. Which we eventually did, but not until Christine ran into a girl who was lost. So we looked for her parents, who were found fast. The little girl was surprisingly calm for a lost child. That can not be said about the second girl, who we came across a few moments later. Now that older girl was anything but calm, she was panicky, but fortunately she spotted her dad at the playground. Note to self -pin a note to Erin in a public place with my phone number. At that point we decided to hurry out of the zoo before a third lost child would stumble upon us.

On the way home Erin kept informing us that she had fun at the zoo. Hence, I declare that this was a great day! Plus we finished the trip by stopping for ice cream, a perfect ending to our Friday zoo adventure!

Ta ta for now!

The rainstorm of the season!

It poured today! The rain came with vengeance and no mercy. Erin and her friend Lakai were running under the downpour and Danny and I watched from the porch. He was impressed! This was probably the first rain of any sort that he had ever noticed.
Erin came home completely soaked but with a look of pure joy on her face! Rain like this in our desert is a special treat. So happy she enjoyed running in the puddles!
Ta ta for now!

The pool

Erin loves and always has loved going to the pool. We have not put her through formal swimming lessons thinking we'll turn her into a mermaid on our own. So two years later it has not happened yet, but yesterday Erin finally ditched her doughnut floaty and hopped into the pool with only arm floaties. Her face was beaming with joy and happiness! My Pooky was swimming like a big girl and I am so proud of my baby.
She had a few pool mishaps in the past. When Erin was two she jumped in and I did not catch her. She went completely under for a split second before clumsy mommy fished her out. Ever since that day she held on to her floaty and would give me a nasty look at any mention of "jumping in and mommy catching her". Last summer she learned how to kick while floating and let me know that I do not need to be next to her. Her favorite thing to do in the pool became twirling.
This year she would have probably parted with her floaty sooner if not for a little accident on the opening day of the swimming season. It was freezing! Despite that she insisted on going to the pool. So my Dad, Danny and I accompanied her on this adventure. The three of us did not even bother wearing swimming suites, in fact we all wore jackets and if I remember it right I even used Erin's towel for a blanket. Here is Danny absolutely unimpressed with the huge bath tub on a cold May afternoon.

Despite the cold weather Pook was in luck! Three brothers equally immune to May chill were at the pool and my Pook had someone to play with. She and the boy her age devised a game where she would push him into the pool. It was going great , they both laughed and giggled (yeap! boys can giggle too!) until it occurred to Erin's friend that she would have more fun if he pulled her in. He did just that. Falling into the pool was not in my child's plans and the hand that would not let go of her's was unaware of that. Erin fell in head first slipping out of her floaty on the way. At that moment my Dad was holding Danny and I was holding a rather expensive camera (jumping in with either of the two was undesirable). I put the camera down, my Dad sat Danny on a lounge chair (face palm here) and we rushed to her rescue. By the time we reached her , her floating vest turned her into upright position and we pulled her out. Talk about being terrified! Surprisingly she recovered pretty fast and after her friend got a scolding from his mother they sat in the hot tub as if nothing had happened. However she learned yet another lesson to never let go of her doughnut.

However, she noticed that this year majority of her friends are floaty free. It took her two month to get enough courage, but she did it and I can not describe how proud I am of her. I also can not describe the joy in her eyes when she is in the water swimming "like a big kid"!

Ta ta for now!

PS: Danny, you are next!

First Birthday!

Danny turned one! It is hard to believe, but an entire year has gone by since I got to hold my tiny sweet baby for the first time! He was, and of course still is, just wonderful! I can not describe the joy this little guy's smiles and giggles bring us! He is a perfect addition to our family!

Here are 10 things you probably do not know about our Little Monkey:

1. He loves dogs and spots them from afar. I know that there is a dog in the area when Danny starts gibbering away and waving his cute pudgy arms in extreme excitement (cats do not get the same reaction).

2. He will eat almost anything. He will never let you eat something and not let him have a piece. Danny will drop doing whatever he is busy with and arrive at your feet at a speed of a bullet train and will not leave until you share.

3. His favorite book is a puppet book "Meet Little Lamb"

4. He loves to clap!

5. He loves to swing and laughs so infectiously while doing it!

6. Splashing in the bath tub is at the top of his "fun things to do" list!

7. So is splashing in the toilet...

8. He almost always sleeps with his bummy-bum in the air

9. He can eat a banana under a minute!

10. He has 6 teeth and is not shy using them on people (knees and shoulders in particular).

About a month ago I would say that Danny was a papa's boy, though right at this moment he is more of a mama's tail. If I am in the room he has to attach himself to my leg and not let go unless I sit on the floor and play with him or pick hm up. Erin sometimes saves me and plays with him instead. Occasionally Danny will play by himself. That normally happens after he has eaten and taken a good nap. One of his favorite games is rolling a ball around the house or climbing in and out of the blue chair .

We did not have a big party for Danny's birthday. Andrew took a day off and we just spent the day together. We took our birthday boy his present shopping at ToysRUs. Erin felt that she died and went to Heaven. I felt like I died and went to China. You know that smell of Chinese merchandise (Payless shoes has the same smell). I imagine that's what the entire country smells like. Anyhow, an hour later Danny became an owner of a new shiny bathtub wale that squirts water into the air. We decided against buying more toys as we already have more than enough in every nook and cranny of our house.

In the evening we had a nice birthday dinner (chicken Florentine was the main course, mmmmm) completed with a birthday cake (chocolate with whipped cream for frosting). Danny actually ate his cake and liked it. As any responsible big sister Erin blew the birthday candle out.

Danny is almost walking, but does not find it to be a very important skill as he is an excellent crawler. He is fast and can get places without falling down (it's hard to fall down when you crawl, ha ha). He is also and adamant climber. He can go up the stairs and tries to scale shelves, cabinets and anything else when he can find footing and he does find it (boxes of cracers work well).

We took our monkey to his 1-year-old well visit for his vaccination and to see how he is doing. He is still tiny standing at 28 inches tall (under 5%) and weighing 17,5 lb (0,4% yeap! 0,4%). He is still following the curve though and that is the important part. Developmentally he is doing great! He picks up his raisins, self feeds crackers and expresses extreme displeasure while getting his diaper changed. Danny is very curious and social, just what a 1-year-old ought to be. He is our wonderful Danny! Happy birthday Little Monkey! I am so happy to be your mama!

Ta ta for now!

Take me to Coney Island!

Today my sweet Pooky turned four! I will always remember the moment when I got to hold her for the first time. Well, it was actually my second time, because right after delivery I was rather dazed from the experience, so I do not recollect holding her, though I know I did (I have photos to prove). She was so tiny and fragile. This was my first time holding an infant, more over a newborn, moreover my own newborn. I did OK though. My Pooky was not dropped and I figured out which way was the top and which way was the bottom. After that day I knew what a complete and utter happiness felt like. By the way we almost named her Sonya. What a mistake that would have been, that name does not fit her, but Erin Sophia absolutely does.

My amazing and beautiful Erin Sophia is my joy (and sometimes pain, ha ha) and life (along with the Little Monkey). She barged into our family( just a 4 hour labor) on that day and what a bliss it is to know that she is ours for ever. I love her as much as it is humanly possible to love!

10 random things you most likely do not know about the birthday girl:

1. She always puts her shoes on proper feet

2. She thinks that 64 comes after 20

3. She had known the alphabet since she was 2 and a few months old

4. She'd better not catch you washing away her chalk doodles on the sidewalk (all hell WILL break loose)

5. She has a row of corn growing in our garden

6. She loves salmon and grapefruit, but hates majority of other foods

7. Her favorite color (currently) is blue

8. She is going to need braces (I saw the x-rays and it is obvious even to me)

9. She wants a blue motorcycle just her size from Santa (not going to happen! ever!)

10.She will bring home a kitten if you offer her one, so please do NOT! I mean it!

Today we were snuggling on the couch watching a documentary about amusement parks in America. One of the first mentioned was Coney Island. That was it! "Let's go to Coney Island!" She's been talking about it for the rest of the evening. Her plan is that papa will take her to Coney Island and I will stay home with Danny. Some day we will! But for now she is a child equivalent of Coney Island, our personal Coney Island: fun, special, beautiful, significant, happy and just wonderful! Happy Birthday my Erin Sophia!

PS: We were taking our friend Tyson home this evening and while in the car she was entertaining her audience with " Skip , skip, skip to the lou. Skip to the lou my darling!" It was was rather enjoyable.

Ta ta for now!

Another PS: We did have a party for her on Friday , but this tale will come at a later time, hopefully this week, along with the many other tales of the past month. I have much to tell!

Day out with Thomas

Erin loves Thomas the Train. So this year we treated ourselves to Day out with Thomas. Andrew took two days before the Memorial weekend off and we headed for a fun adventure (despite a promise of a rain, which never materialized). We drove to Heber through Provo canyon. I love following these wounding mountain roads (that is because I am not the one driving, ha ha). There were so many small and medium size waterfalls throughout the canyon from all the snow run off. Indescribably beautiful! Plus the back seat passengers behaved and no one screamed in displeasure.

Anyhow, I am a tiny bit disappointed by the magnitude (or more like a lack of it) of Thomas the Train event. I imagined a bigger place, a longer ride and more activities to do...oh, and train cars not from my grandparents' era (no, they were not antique, they were junky, at least the one we were in). Something just was not quite right, but despite the minor aesthetic drawbacks it was an enjoyable trip.

I am not entirely sure what Erin's expectations were. I suspect that she hoped that Thomas would be more animated and capable of having a conversation with her. As you might imagine, he did not. However, even if he did Erin would be too shy (though impressed) to meet him. She appeared to be shy as it was...or maybe it was boredom. She also refused producing a suitable quality smiles for photos with Thomas and instead scowled .

She did love the train ride though. I believe it was her first time on a train and my Pooky grinned the entire 20 minute trip. Erin looked truly happy to be riding the train. In the best spirit of the Thomas show everyone along the way was so friendly. I am telling you, there were rough looking road fixing crew dudes, random people who walked onto their back porches, drivers waiting at the road crossing and other folks all waving at the passing train. I guess any person with a heart will wave when a train full of little kids is passing by and you see those happy faces. What other reaction can be natural? (No, throwing a rock is a wrong answer Andrew). It was a very sweet experience! Here we are riding. Danny's expression can be translated as "Meh! train-shmain. Is it lunch time yet?" He was bubbly and happy for the most part of our outing though. Being around people usually puts him in excellent mood. Here is Erin waiting in line to get a photo with Thomas. She just could not give us a good smile. Me thinketh she was nervous. We did not manage to get a good shot with Thomas' face and I noticed that there were quite a few kids not thrilled to stand next to their train hero. I think he is best admired from the couch at home. He must look rather intimidating to the little peeps.

Erin and Danny got balloon animals. Erin's is obviously a butterfly and Danny got a monkey holding a banana that I held for him. Erin got acquainted with Porto potty on this trip. She was actually impressed, ha ha.


There was a huge tent devoted to nothing but train sets. Erin spent at least half an hour playing there. I took a notice that for the most of that time she was the only girl in the entire tent (moms and grandmas do not count). Just an interesting observation.

Erin spent another half hour making bubbles. Bubbles and trains obviously go together. We also watched a part of a magic show, but neither Danny nor Erin were impressed, so we had to leave. All in all it was a fun day, full of smiles, good weather and choo-choos. We might be back some other year.

Ta ta for now!

May rambling

I am just going to pile up all of the May updates into this post.

We opened the gardening season. I took two plots, but because of the rain haven't had a chance to plant anything. This year I am not using a spade to dig. No way Jose! We are renting a rototiller! The field where we garden used to be occupied by alfalfa and I have a first hand experience of what nasty roots this plant leaves behind! No manual labor for me!

Danny had his first visit with Dr. Howell, who is our wonderful pediatric dentist. One night Andrew noticed that our little dude had a chip on his top tooth. We are still not sure under what circumstances the chomper got damaged, but figured we might as well take Danny to the dentist to make sure his tooth was fine. As it turned out the tooth WAS fine. Danny got his first X-ray and got to sit in THE chair. He was not sure what to think of it all until Dr. Howell began applying some fluoride on his 4 chompers. At that point Danny decided this was not cool and started screaming!

By the way, I am a fluoride-twice-a-year advocate. A few of Erin's friends already have cavities (seeing dentist for the first time at about 3-years-old), Pook on the other hand with her terrible tooth brushing habits sports a set of perfect pearly whites. She's been getting the treatment twice a year since she's been 16 months old. By the way Danny was diagnosed with a heavy frenum between his two top teeth. That explains the giant gap between them. But we'll take care of that when he is older. Of course dental insurance is making it all easy, without it...

This last weekend Danny was sick. This was his first ever nasty virus of some sort, well actually not of some sort. As it became obvious today it is roseola. Poor babe had a fever of 102-103F since Friday, then all of a sudden it was gone on Tuesday, but I noticed some rash and it spread today. Lesson I learned from it all is that Infant Ibuprofen trumps Acetaminophen. The latter would not lower his temperature for long or by much, Ibuprofen on the other hand lasted long and completely knocked it down. Now that the fever is gone he is a happy little dude as usual. Rash does not bother him, so life is good again.

This little guy melts my heart! While sick he kept putting his head on my shoulder, which he's never done before. So sweet...

On Monday we went to the wedding. Christine and Peter got married for time and all eternity.
The night I arrived at the Dyers 11 years ago, she was spying through the upstairs banister to see exactly what the cat dragged in. In her imagination I had darker skin (she obviously knew nothing about Slavs, ha ha)and she was concerned that I might have an unpleasant personality. To her relief I turned out to be OK, even though I had greenish skin tint ( I blame it on the sack lunch on my last Delta flight and too much flying- Vilnius-Frankfurt-LA- Salt Lake, night in Germany and over 20 hours in flight). I arrived in August and by Halloween we discovered to be kindred spirits after all or to put it in the words of Anne of Green Gables - "bosom friends". We talked, we laughed, had countless marathons of "Pride and Prejudice"and "Anne of Green Gables" (of course), walked to get some ice cream, built snowmen, goofed around and had wonderful time. So on Monday my Beanie married a wonderful guy! So happy for them!

Pooky got to be one of the flower girls and she loved it (I'll post photos later). I instructed her to say "Congratulations!" when Peter and Christine were coming out of the Temple. Instead she yelled "Ni Hao!" Where did that come from? She made a second attempt at the reception and it went better, though she almost knocked both the groom and bride off their feet. Erin looooves Peter, she just hangs on him every time she sees him. So after her congratulations line she gave Peter a bear hug and hung on his neck. She did the same to Christine, who made a mistake of getting to Erin's eye level. Our child assumed this was an opportune moment of lunging at her favorite Christine and trying to climb onto her back for a piggyback ride or something of the sorts. After that I dragged her away. Oh, while posing for a photo with the bride, Erin began twisting a bead from her wedding gown (those hands just can't be still). Everyone around began yelling "Erin, stop!", but my child kept twisting. I do not think she was even realizing that her hands were doing something, she was concentrating so hard at staring into the camera. The bead was saved!

Danny was not feeling well and refused to smile, period. So he looks rather grumpy in all photos, but he got to wear his suit for the first time. It was a tad big, but he looked very handsome.

Other than that this May has been rainy, cold and we've been watching a lot of shows and played a lot of PBS games on line. Danny turned 10 months and Erin is almost four. Sometimes I want to pinch myself, because it seems impossible that I am a mom of two children, one of whom is not far from starting school.

We are still working on potty training. Today after Erin needed a replacement for her third pair of pants in one day I expressed to her my frustration with her going through the entire collection of pants and shorts in three days. To that my Erin replied: "Don't give up mommy!" That of course was said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Oh, how can you be getting upset at this child!

Danny is fully mobile, crawling everywhere, getting his cute button nose in everything, pulling up on furniture and walking along it. He talks non stop and wants me to constantly hold him. I finally installed a gate (a nifty one with a door) at the top of the stairs, so at least I do not need to worry that he is heading downstairs while I am folding laundry. Now I only need to remember shut bathroom doors. The little guy is fascinated with toilets. I have caught him sticking his hands in the one downstairs last week. Ewww!

Apparently I have been awful at taking photos this months, but here is one I took. Here Danny is sporting a tutu and seems rather pleased about it.
Ta ta for now!

We have a climber!

Danny learned to pull up this last week. I put him down for a nap one day, went into the bathroom and on the way back discovered that the little guy was holding onto the bars, standing and mischievously staring at me. Here comes trouble! He is so excited to be able to stand tall and reach things. And what a curious little boy he is! His favorite place to be is the pantry! He used to kneel down by the lowest shelf, now he can stand holding to it and today I caught him attempting to climb higher. He stood there, than put his foot on a can of Crisco, lifted his arm, grabbed the next shelf and pulled himself up. By the time I got to him he was already standing on the lowest shelf and holding to the one above it. Oh boy! Another climber in the family. What shall I do? Erin of course is an excellent teacher. He watched her monkey up to the top pantry shelves for snacks a few times and decided to try it out for himself. Perhaps he wanted some pickles?

Being a mom is wonderful! It is a tough job, but oh! so wonderful. Watching Danny today learn a new skill (even though it will make my life harder, ha ha!) made me so giddy. Having Erin tell me that she loves me is so touching and makes me want to be a better mom. Life is beautiful!

Sledding anyone?

To Erin and Danny's immense joy we woke up to about three inches of snow on the ground on the last day of April. Seriously! It is not supposed to snow on April 30th, ever. We ought to be enjoying a light breeze from the mountains, sunshine and bird chirping. Anyhow, it was a great opportunity for the last time sledding this season. It was fun and short (the funnest part for me, he he)! Danny loved it and Erin was excited to finally have someone to enjoy it with.

Danny stretched out at the bottom of the sled and Erin pulled him.

He was visibly enjoying himself while Erin huffed and puffed trying not to slip while taking him for a ride.

That's when I took over as for Erin it was work and not much fun , he he. I pulled them back and forth and helped going down the hill behind the house. It was wonderful!

Then the snow melted and Erin went to ride her bike. You've got to love Utah spring!

We had some friends over for a dinner on Sunday. Erin was given the honors of saying the blessing on the food. The child proceeded listing everything on the table and even went into trouble of blessing every single ingredient in the "yeekee" salad. That is when both Andrew and I began chuckling. Erin was quick enough to put a stop to that: " Hey guys, close your eyes!"

When she went to bed she continued being very thankful in her prayer. I am not sure if she was full of gratitude or just tried to stall. She went on to thank Heavenly Father for , but not limited to " walls, windows, blinds, pillow, washing machine, wood chips, Aliyah, Skitz (a dog from Martha Speaks), Beebee, toys, mommy who takes me to the park, Daddy, Danny, Gemma, projector, etc." No kidding! she continued her list for good 3-4 minutes. To me it was indescribably moving to hear my Pooky express gratitude for things that I do for her.

PS: Danny got to eat my lasagna today. He wolfed it down. That made me happy. No more that blended tasteless baby paste for him. Immersion blender to the rescue! (why didn't I use it before?)