Another Saturday

What happens when a 2-year-old arms herself with a container of baby powder pulled out of baby stuff in the parents bedroom? Nothing good! Andrew and I were enjoying our breakfast waffles. Erin was already done eating and removed herself upstairs to play. As any naive parent I was sure there was absolutely nothing within her reach that was both dangerous and interesting. The outlets were covered, everything breakable was out of sight, no knives or electric saws laying around; I thought I was covered. I was wrong!

Andrew just finished his last bite when our child came down to grace us with her presence. This is what we saw:





Our adorable Pook found her baby head bands (that she, as a baby, never allowed to be put on her head ) and could not decide which one to wear, so she put three of them on. She was also sporting her leash/backpack. I helped her with putting it earlier this morning. By the way we played a fun game of me holding the leash and Erin running away. I kept encouraging her to speed up by yelling "Mush!". We kept circling the dining table until I could go no more. To slow her down I would yell "Tpr!" Now my question is does controlling my child on a leash by a combination of dog sled lingo and a Russian horse stopping sounds makes me a bad or a fun Mom? In any case we both had a lot of fun, but back to my baby powder story.

After Andrew and I stopped going "ooh" and "ahh" over the adorable looks of our babe I realized that Erin was covered in some fine white powder. My mind raced trying to identify what it was. I excluded flour (it was downstairs and she can't get into the bucket) and cocaine powder (I hear it looks like a fine powder, but we don't keep that in our house), so it had to be the only other option-baby powder!

I stomped upstairs giggling and not really being mad expecting to see a little cute mess. What I saw upon entering our bedroom made my jaw drop! Who could think that a small container could be enough to white coat an entire room. Erin methodically went around sprinkling a generous dose of the stuff onto toys, PJs, books, TV and entertainment center and anything else around. The carpet got its fair share. Erin worked hard until she ran out of powder. Than she returned the EMPTY bottle into the drawer she pulled it from.

Andrew came and video documented the baby powder incident. I began the clean up and Andrew tossed Erin into the tub. We vacuumed and scrubbed. Though the entire second floor smells like baby powder and me thinketh it ain't going anywhere for a couple of weeks. I am grateful though that she did not figure out how to or try opening a bottle of baby oil, ha ha. I am rather impressed though that both Andrew and I kept our cool and found the event more amusing than upsetting.

PS: We spent an hour vacuuming.

PSS: Erin is developing her own sense of style. Here you can see her modeling a swim suit over more traditional for the season clothes. The swim suit was found in the bathroom drawer and she insisted on wearing it that day. It looked strange but cute!

We had an adventure today! Erin and I walked to Macey's on this fine morning. We made our usual stop on the little bridge across a stream where she watched me spit in the water. It takes practice, because I can't stick my head much past the tall railing and if the wind is in my face than I don't even try (you can tell that there is not much to do in our neck of the woods this time of year). Hence while I was polluting the water source Erin, holding her piggy bank, released her grip and lost her pal to the raging water below. For a moment she tried to process why her piggy was not in her hands anymore. I on the other hand was yelling ('cause what else was I supposed to do)"Ahhhh!" There went our plastic piggy bank ($7.50 after 20% off) personalized with Erin's name on the side. Erin loves her piggy! She sleeps and plays with it, though she does not keep her money in it (but that's all right, it's not like she has any). As any kind and devout mother would do, I rushed to chase Erin's plastic pal downstream telling Erin not to get close to the water. Fortunately for me the pig got stuck in the reeds and Erin followed my request. I just hoped not to follow the pig and my spit into the cold water. Somehow I fished the poor creator out and a happy reunion took place. The pig was saved, I did not get soaked and Erin did not drop it again.

The rest of the trip was quite pleasant. Erin held my hand, did not get in any mud, stayed away from traffic, got a balloon at Macey's and ate a complementary cookie from their bakery. We sang songs on the way, explored and admired a lovely and almost springish weather and found some spiffy deals on what we needed.

So the IRS...Does anyone have anything good to say about them? I don't, but that's mostly because I did our taxes today. So remember the Utah grant we got for buying new construction? Without it we would still be renting. A week ago we got a form informing us that it is a taxable grant. Utah Housing Commission who was giving those away asked the IRS whether those will be taxable or not. The answer finally came sometime last fall (half a year after they gave it to us) saying "Oh yes! Give us ze moneys!". Basically of $6000 they want about $1500 in taxes. Just shoot me now! Wouldn't it just be easier to give out only $4500 and save us the trouble, but NO. All of a sudden out of a blue they stick us with a bill. I got mad and went to the pantry and ate what was staring at me. I normally don't quench my anger with food, but I was so mad (and probably hungry). So this is the first year when we owe taxes. I am so used to being a poor student and getting every penny of it back, but I guess no more of that. There go my garage shelves, a new couch and fixing the front passenger door that I planed on funding with the tax return. Oh, well!

K, what a bizarre post. Here are some photos to smooth all the weirdness.


She likes headphones



Erin rolls in her tent around the room, that's why it's so crooked


Just making some noise

Catching up

So... the only resolution I made this year was to blog at leas once a week. Scratch that! It ain't working! There is a good reason I never make resolutions, I simply don't keep them. What can I do-I am a wimp! It is more prudent to just do things without making any resolutions (Wow! What a profound thought! please, don't laugh at me too hard).

So...what is happening in this neck of the woods... Erin is trying to babysize herself (Look ! I just made a word up!)I am not sure if it is due to the fact that Pook finally believed that mama has a baby in her tummy or if it is just a normal stage for a 2 and a half -year-old. Anyhow, Erin spotted her old sippy cup, that she used to transition from a bottle and asked me to fill it with juice. I thought that was cute and obliged. Not a smart move! Now she wants all of her drinks in the "baby bottle" as she calls it. Yesterday, she came to me and asked for a binky. Remember, that this is the child who rejected the above mentioned binky at the age of 3 months. Now she wanted her binky! Again, I thought that was cute and dove into the changing table drawer to find the requested item among different baby stuff. I finally dug one out of the very back corner. Erin's been walking around the house with the binky since. She won't even take it out to say something. This makes the task of figuring out what she is saying even tougher! There is more-the babe refuses to climb into her crib. She drops on the floor and wants me to lift her up like baby. It is cute and all, but I hope this will pass. What will come in September?

Andrew is carrying on at work. Things are going well there and he is even considering applying for another position that might be more interesting to him. Despite the company's relationship with the car industry things are going quite well.

I am home (duh!). I have been perpetually tiered for the last months, so the house looks ....rather eclectic. I am kinda glad we live far away from family, which means no one will drop by unexpectedly and I won't be embarrassed. Though, I am proud of finally making an effort to put the Christmas tree and decorations out of the house. We have been eating pizza and frozen isle bounty (which reminds me of that bag of frozen cherries downstairs!) Erin has been living of yogurt, apples, juices, cereal, soups and oatmeal with raisins. We also eat out. The other day the baby numero dos told me that she needed Jason's Deli sandwich (if you leave in Orem area and have never been to that place than you need to go. The food is amazing!). Off course we went there! Erin, instead of behaving like a little Tasmanian devil, behaved as a dove. She sat in her chair, ate her food and entertained us with a conversation.

This Monday Erin and I went to a funeral. The last funeral I have been to was my grandpa's in October 1999. Grandpa Aliosha died in front of me. Everything happened so fast. He was fine and than he was not. The ambulance came, tried to revive him, injected something, put an IV, but it was his time to go...I will never forget the smell in the room, mix of blood, sweat, medications odor...to me it was a smell of death. He was 78. I miss him...I can still hear his footsteps as if he was walking towards me. I remember him reading me fairy tales ("Poidi tuda ne znaju kuda, prinesi to, ne znaju chto"), making me jam on baguette sandwich to take to school (I can still taste it), teaching me to tell time on the clock in the kitchen.
I remember not long ago looking at the pile of dishes on the counter and thinking that if he would see it, he would disapprove. Grandpa was so neat, he even brushed his hair before going to bed, he was usually the last to go to bed and always made sure the kitchen was immaculately clean. I do not know if our loved ones come to visit us after they step though the veil, but not long ago, I felt like he came to see me and look at his great grand baby. I hope this was the case and this makes me want to get up and go get my kitchen immaculately clean so that he does not disapprove in future...After his death my grandma's sister, grandma Tania told me how happy he was when I was born. He had sons and I was the first girl born in his family. I was special to him. He was the only grandpa I knew, he was special to me.

The funeral was for Gwendolen Mary Franck, aunt Theresa's Mom. My memories of her are happy. There was always a smile in her eyes and a sincere inquiry about how I was doing. She was always doing something for those around her. After this thought occurred to me I tried to remember an instance when she did something for herself. Despite how hard I tried I could not. Her life was a service filled with kindness and care, an example worth of emulating... loosing loved ones is the most painful experience of mortality, nothing else gives such hurt. Saying good-bye is hard, even after years and decades separate you from the day of their death. But at least there are only hellos in the future.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that death is not the end. Life never ends and families are eternal. Bonds of love and friendship can not be broken and will prevail through the mortal death, all of it because of my Savior.

Surprise!

I know that at least for a few of my readers the new additions on the right side of the site are out of a blue so...SURPRISE! Erin is going to be a big sister! She will be great at it. I noticed that she often prefers younger children for company than the older ones. I guess if they are younger than they are less likely to take off with her possessions and Erin can relax around them.

We had a lovely Christmas and New Years! We cooked a full turkey dinner completed with mashed potatoes, gravy, salads, rolls, jello and other yumminess. I had fun roasting ze beast, I even pretended to be a devout cook and smeared the turkey under its skin with rub. I'll tell you though that sticking my hand underneath turkey's skin up to my elbow...just kidding, only up to my wrist was weird. I am willing to do it not more than once a year. By the way Andrew and I discovered that we both are not huge fans of rosemary, our turkey rub's main ingredient. Funny thing was when I was working on turkey I really wished it was a big juicy ham, it sounded much yummier. I don't believe I'll ever be a huge turkey eater. As they say "It ain't my favorite fowl!" ( Isn't it lovely how you can attribute any saying to Them, hehe).

Erin as usual did not want anything to eat (the kid runs of air:), though she drank Martinellis. This is the drink of her choice at any time of day if we would allow it. She also sampled some jello. I really hope that her eating habits improve, I hate mealtimes. I cook for her and she does not even taste any of it, she gets nothing instead and just goes hungry. I am thrilled on days when she gets 2 meals. But back to Christmas. I don't recall what we did after the meal (blame the baby who is messing with my memories).

Christmas morning was so Christmasy! We got Erin up (no waking up at 7 am in this household) around 9 am and went to open our presents. Andrew took pictures and I helped Erin get her gifts unwrapped. The kiddo got way too many presents for a 2-year-old, hehe! Her favorite plunder included

Go, Dog,Go! book (this is currently Erin's favorite book and did you know that it was not written by Dr.Suess?)
wooden fish puzzle with a fishing poll (hours of entertainment and just 4$ at Target on sale, haha)
little Elmo doll
stuffed tiger that roars if you press his paw
a pair of Sunday shoes with heels (Erin looves running on hard floors in those and hear the tapping of her heals)
Elmo blanket
Little ponies
Elmo book
A beautiful cross stitch Dragon wall picture

This is probably a half of what she got. For Erin this was not a recession Christmas. We are blessed! We have all that we need and beyond that. I know that there are too many parents for whom this Christmas was bitter sweet. Erin and I were in the Dollar store a couple of weeks before the holidays. We were just killing time while our car was being services. There were a lot of Christmas shoppers in that store. I particularly remembered a gentleman in a bright orange beanie hat probably in his late 30s. He was going up and down the toy isle trying to choose with the look of deepest frustration in his eyes. It is close to impossible to give a happy Christmas morning to your kids expecting Santa's visit when your wallet sends you to the Dollar store...

After we were done with the presents we went over to the Dyers for the traditional Christmas morning breakfast of scones and finnan haddie.I love Christmas breakfast with the Dyers! Erin got to see baby Evelyn and even was able to give her her present, a doll stroller. She actually hoped she'll get to push Evelyn in it around the house, haha. Some other time!

For New Years we stayed home had a lasagna dinner (again! Erin did not eat, though she nibbled on garlic bread and washed it down with Martinellis). We watched movies and just did nothing, which was rather pleasant. I had no energy for any sort of activity requiring me getting up, so it was nice to have a quiet New Year's this time around.

This was a wonderful holiday season for our family! The best part was finding out that there is not just three of us anymore. I declare that 2010 will be a wonderful year for the Mortensens!

Polar Express and Jumping

Christmas is coming! Even Erin is aware of that. She is into watching Polar Express nowadays. This is how she learned about Santa and presents ["pesents" as she calls them]. Though she thinks that he carries all the goodies in a giant balloon and not a sack. Though in the movie the sack does look like a balloon. By the way, her friend Ariana is of the same opinion. Pook calls the show "Choo-choo train" and is ready to watch it all day long.

Our babe overcame her fear of Christmas lights and takes the ornaments off the tree without any hesitation. It is too bad that most of the time she does not return them onto the tree. I find ornaments all over the house-behind the couch, on the floor in Erin's room, under the kitchen table, bike trunk, etc. Erin also loves our Christmas stockings (all made by Grandma Corder). She studies the images, rings the bells on reindeer necks and pulls Santa's beard. But at least she is gentle with them.


This week was super duper cold, but at least it snowed [ Hallelujah!]. Erin got to play outside on Monday and Tuesday. I pulled her in the sled, pushed her down the hill and Erin tried to pull me (Hehe!), off course it did not work. We had fun! However, we've been home since Wednesday due to freezing temperature. Even though Erin seems to have inherited my cold weather resistance, 3F is too cold for her. Her nose and cheeks turn red in a matter of seconds.

Today we opted out for some indoor activities and went to the Kangaroo Zoo. Nope! There were no kangaroos or any other creators in this zoo. This is a residence of 3 story inflatable
DRAGONS

DOLPHINS
ALLIGATORS
FROGS
LIZARDS
STARFISH
SNAILS and
LEOPARDS
on which to
SLIP
SLIDE
SLAM
SWING and
CAREEN.
I did not think to bring a camera, so here is a photo from their web site. Just imagine that one of those kids is Erin. We are definitely going back and with a camera. Erin LOVED being there. She and her friend Ariana jumped, slid, slammed and had fun in any possible way. After 2 hours of being there both girls were absolutely against leaving. We had to drag them home screaming and kicking. As expected Erin was exhausted and took a nice three hour nap. I put my stamp of approval on Kangaroo Zoo. Highly recommend it to the owners of overactive toddlers.

Blogging

When you begin a blog you enthusiastically post few times a week. About a month later you post once or twice a week, than a few times a month until you get to the point when you can squeeze just one post a month or even fewer. I am at that point now, ha ha. I think that one of my resolutions for 2010 will be to blog at least once a week.

Erin is finally into reading books. She actually allows Andrew and I to read to her. Before she would just flip through pages not even wanting to hear what it says below the picture. Andrew finally sat her down and taught her that there is more to books than just pictures. I ordered a few books from Usborne books (MaryKay and Pampered Chef of children's books) and she loves them. I like that Usborne books are so well made that they actually will last you through several children even if they get pulled, kicked, drooled on and smeared with food. A huge plus is that the binding does not fall apart even under super-duper pressure. Besides the physical superiority of the books, Usborn can boast a huge selection for any age group with perfect illustration. Erin loves their toddler books. There! This is my sales pitch for the company, he he!

We put our Christmas tree up (I have to say that a 3 foot tree looks pitiful in the room size of our living room). Apparently Erin is being bothered by the tree lights. She likes the way they look , but she thinks that if she touches them while they are lit up she'll burn herself or something, which is good. To prevent Erin from yanking the decorations of the tree all I need to do is turn the lights on. This year Erin even helped me to decorate the tree. Erin rearranges the ornaments at least once a day, off course when teh lights are off. Christmas season will definitely be more fun for her this year.

Erin likes mama's stuff! Rollers are among her most favorite of my possessions. The other day she asked papa to help her put them in her hair , which he gladly did. Doesn't she look older in those :)?



By the way what do you think of Andrew's goatee?

A new sheriff in town

Erin is a happy camper. On Monday morning I dragged her out of the house to stand in line to pick up a ticket for H1N1 vaccine. Papa gave us a lift to Provo, handed 2 buckos in cash for a bus fare and zoomed to work. We arrived an hour after the line has began moving and it was loooong. As soon as we joined the tail of the line Erin said: "Go home!" What can I say, our child has aversion to lines, but don't we all? Fortunately for me the line moved fast and Erin and I emerged triumphant just half an hour later holding our golden tickets for 9 am on Thursday.

We caught the next bus and our journey through Provo, Orem, Lindon and Pleasant Grove begun. It was uneventful, but quite enjoyable. Erin kept shouting out "Truck! Truck!" and I kept confirming the type of the vehicle for the fellow bus riders (Erin pronounces truck with an "f" and swallows the "r"). Next we played at the park, went to the library and then I carried Erin home, because she refused to walk. That seems to happen when she is tiered.

Thursday morning came and we made another pilgrimage to Utah county Health and Justice building to get vaccinated. Ariana and her mama came with us so it was a delightful trip. The line was fast and the girls behaved. Erin was lucky, because she was to get the nasal spray vaccine and not a shot. I imagined that nasal spray required willingness of the party being vaccinated to snort it in. I was wrong. Erin was rather displeased with the nurse jamming a little push thingy up her nose twice, once in each nostril. For her bravery she received a sheriff star sticker. I slapped it on her jacket, but had to scrape it off after Pook began protesting. Despite that she is a sheriff at heart!

Go get vaccinated if you have an opportunity. At least for once the dudes making vaccines got the flue strain right. Do your research and learn for yourself whether the vaccine is safe and effective. Don't listen to people just repeating the rumors and hear-says. Get educated and make an educated choice, whether it is for or against H1N1 vaccine.

Ta ta for now!