Big girl bed and other adventures

I meant to make an entry last week, but as you can see did not get to it.

I was debating whether to get Erin a bunk bed or a toddler bed. Erin's room is too small for two beds, so bunk beds would be ideal for when the time comes for our baby-boy to migrate into a big boy bed. Erin would take the top and he would take the bottom. However that meant that between a good wooden bed and a mattress we would have to cough up about 500 buckos. Kinda pricey for us at the moment when uncle Sam is knocking on the door (see the post from 4 Feb 2010). On the other hand we could get a toddler bed, but bite me if I am willing to pay an average $200 for the bed my child will use for a year or two only. Thus I went with a sensible decision to look at used beds. To my surprise crazy people getting rid of their beds wanted insane amount of money for the used bunk beds, the toddler beds were more reasonably priced, but of questionable quality. Finally I came upon an add selling a used Pottery Barn bed. Ha! Now that is solid wood and construction that can make it through several toddlers hopping on it without squeaking (sorry Waldemart, your beds are no match for my kiddo). We picked it up last Monday! Here it is:



Erin transitioned very willingly. She even tried to help assemble it. She held up the headboard for papa to attache the sides to it. After almost getting injured by dropping it (again keep in mind we are talking about a solid rather big chunk of wood here. Ouch!) on herself she departed to watch some kid's show. Finally without Erin's assistance we put it together in a jiffy. I began cleaning and getting it ready for my babe to try out. When I invited Pook to come check out her new bed (completed with her old mattress, bedding and the "crib crew", aka monkey, bear, bunny, Murky, etc.) Erin would not sit on it, but kept coming back to the room when she thought we weren't looking to take a pick at her new piece of furniture. Eventually she became brave or curious enough to come sit on it and decided that the bed was worth her approval. She has been sleeping in it for the last week and enjoys the freedom of getting up when she feels like it and not when mama feels like it.



Andrew took Monday and Tuesday off (long weekends are so enjoyable), so I had both days planed. After picking up the bed , according to my agenda, we were supposed to enjoy a lovely late lunch at Jason's Deli and go catch "The Princess and the Frog". That was supposed to be Erin's first movie experience (the baby viewing of Harry Potter and other movies doesn't count). We got into the garage ready to go and my jaw drooped. The front tire was as flat as a loaf of bread when I bake it (I have a bread baking curse). I almost began crying. My perfect day was being ruined and you do not do that to a pregnant woman! Plus the cash register in my head made the till opening sound- tires are expensive. But oh well! It is the irony of life. Your plans hardly ever work....especially when they are perfect. Changing a tire turned out to be quite fun for Erin. Andrew got to it right away and Pook and I observed from the garage stairs. Erin found the process of taking the flat and putting the spare on rather exciting.

40 minutes later we pulled into a tire garage shop and 20 minutes later we pulled out only $22.33 poorer. Our invalid tire got patched up and that made the cash register in my head very happy! By the way garages could charge a fee to toddlers for watching mechanics at work. Erin was super entertained and well behaved. She stood there at the entrance squealing in delight seeing water bath for tires, tools and fire, though the loud sounds were a tad bit scary, she just grasped my hand tighter. We got in the car and she kept sharing her impressions of "tires" and "fire". Because of the accident we missed the movie, but the late lunch happened and that put us in a good sleepy mood. Instead going to the movies we all went home and took a nap. We'll just get this cartoon through Netflix.

Tuesday was great. Erin and I attended a play date and than went to leave Erin with aunt Theresa, one of her most favorite people in the world (and it is not because she has a dog, though Bentley, of course, is a bonus!) Andrew and I went out to another late lunch (we just never manage eating at normal times) at Chinese Buffet. Andrew goes there for Mongolian BBQ, I go there because he goes there and eat salad and their good deserts, the rest of the food there is not that good. By the way I think Mongolians would be rather surprised to find out that such thing as Mongolian BBQ exists. The same way as Russians would be surprise by the existence of Russian dressing (at least I was, never heard of it before and did not like its look and taste).

We continued our date by going to the Temple. I do not recall when was the last time we attended together, but it was wonderful. Stepping into quite and peace of the Temple after the hustle and bustle of every day is healing for a soul! Our friends were going for the first time and invited us to share this day with them. It was a beautiful experience for them, but not so much for Andrew. A kidney stone began to move and rained on this parade. It is impossible to enjoy anything when searing pain is travelling through your body. We had to go home and medicate poor Andrew. That made it better, but we missed a dinner at PF Changs, that we really were looking to. Grrr!. Not knowing whether a visit to the ER for pain control was in a very near future we decided to have Erin spent the night at aunt Theresa's (what would we do without her?).

Andrew turned out to be fine, the stone decided to sit quietly for the rest of the night. We were spending evening at home all by ourself. That just does not happen to us. It was weird not to have someone jump on me or Andrew and hear Erin's sweet voice! In fact, it made me sad and at some point I almost cried. Shhh! Don't tell Andrew or he'll make fun of me. Erin returned in the morning and Andrew went to work. Life continued!

Now a big secret about me. I do not drive. I had a learner's permit twice and took the driving test twice. I almost passed it the first time, but the second one was a disaster. I blame the testing dude. I was very uncomfortable in the car with him, so uncomfortable that I even forgot to put my glasses on and realized that only when we pulled to the speed limit sign and I had no idea what it said on it. NOT GOOD! I kept my mouth shut thinking he would just fail me riht there for driving "without correctional lenses". I drove like a blind mole with the results of a blind mole, he he! Or maybe I am justa terrible driver? Anyhow, soon after we were in the car wreck and became carless for next four years or so. Since we got a car again I just never got around fixing the driving situation. Now keep in mind that Andrew have been having kidney stone after kidney stone for the past year. Of course they come at the most inconvenient time in the middle of the night. I am the one who gets to secure the ride to the ER (imagine waking someone in the middle of the night asking for a ride, ha ha!) as you are in no shape to drive while agony becomes your second name. We have some very good friends, bless their hearts and they still talk to us! But every time I told myself, this is enough, you are going to get the stupid learner's permit next week after you read the stupid manual and start driving Andrew to the ER yourself. It has not happened until this last Thursday. I finally did it! I went into DMV (Thanks aunt Theresa), waited in the stupid line, took the stupid test (one of the questions was "is ss26 a motorcycle insurance?" why on earth would I care! I am not driving a stupid cycle), got the stupid learners permit and now have to remember how to drive the stupid car, ha ha!

Oi! this is a long post, but I promise, I am almost done. The last good news is this. On Sunday I learned that our stake is using one of it's fields for vegetable gardens for members. Yippee! I signed up for one plot! I have gardened my entire life and hated it! A good chunk of summer was spent watering, weeding and harvesting fruits, berries and veggies, while everyone got to watch TV and kick back. Bah! But now I really miss digging in the dirt and eating veggies and fruit that actually have a smell. Everything from the store has no smell after it was coated in whatever they coat it. That just drives me nuts! So am looking forward to having tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and all other goodies that smell like real food. We will eat what can be eaten, freeze what can be frozen and can if our almost ready to be born baby allows it (anyone interested in becoming my canning buddy? that means you do all the work and I sit on the couch and order around, he he). Anyhow, I am super excited about getting down to earth. The field is not too far from home and I am on a look out for a little red wagon to transport gardening tools and alike. Erin will be enlisted in watering and pulling the wagon, ha ha! She loves helping and I hope I do not plant an aversion to gardening into her. It is a fun thing to do!

There now I am done. Here is a cute photo of Erin in the tub to reward you for going through so much text.




Ta ta for now!

It does not get any sweeter

You know you have a sweet child when she asks you to take off your cast and bandage to blow on your swollen and bruised ankle and "kiss it better". Erin has been doing just that for the last couple days.



I sprained my ankle on Monday while chasing Erin in the street. It was so warm outside and a bunch of kids were playing. Erin was really enjoying the company and fun, no one was outside the entire winter and it was great to finally run with a pack of kids. They went down the slide, played in the play house and rode their bikes.

Erin seems to have caught on to what the sidewalk and road was and appeared to be following my instructions of staying on the sidewalk only, but than she decided that I ought to mind my own business and peddled onto the road. I stormed off after the culprit watching for cars like a hawk and did not realize that I was stepping off the curb. Oh boy, did that hurt! Anyhow, needless to say we had to go home, our little 5-year-old neighbour Jasmine drove her bike behind Erin's trike pushing Erin home. There was much protesting and whining about going home, but Jasmin kept pushing and a few moments later Pook parked by our door. By that time I limped all the way there and we got inside.

I called my doc's office to see if they had any openings for that day. Luckily they did. An hour and a half later, all three of us were sitting in the office and Dr. Pratt pulled and prodded. I was diagnosed with a grade 2 ankle sprain and a possibly torn ligament, but we decided against an X-ray for the baby's sake. Funny enough the doctor pointed out that " hospitals x-ray the crap out of preemies after they are born, but advise against x-rays for pregnant women" (ah! the lovely era of malpractice law suites and by the way it is the exact language he used). Three days, later I am feeling much better which must indicate that nothing was torn. Hurrah!

You might smirk at me for running to see a medic for something like a sprained ankle. My logic is "Better make sure that nothing is torn or broken!" When I was pregnant with Erin I sprained my right ankle (left this time)and it did not quite heal properly. I have a bump on my foot and off course there is no guarantee that see I doctor and it would heal perfectly, but who knows. Anyhow, I'll pay 20 buckos for a peace of mind and a nifty brace and a bandage (it would end up costing about 15bucks anyhow, he he).

On Tuesday Erin and I hosted a play date! Getting our house ready while limping in pain was no fun, but way worth it. We had a blast and Erin did really well seeing a bunch of kids playing with her toys. Erin was a gracious hostess!

We found out that our baby turned out to be a boy! Very happy about it, though if it were a girl the reaction would be the same. The due date was bumped up to 18 August, and here he is!



Erin's new job in our family is mixing juice! She gets rather upset if someone else does it so we don't even compete for the job. Notice a swimming shirt over a normal one, this is a fashion statement! Erin has this obsession with swimming clothes, rather funny, he he!



Erin is an adamant Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan. She just watched "Super Goof" episodes, where Goofy used a towel as a super hero cape. She found her baby towel and had the same idea. She wore it the entire night and insisted on going to bed wearing it. Here she must have been saving her baby from hunger. As I said earlier " My sweet, sweet child!"



Ta ta for now!

Here and back again

Erin got to visit Kangaroo Zoo last week. We both enjoyed it. Erin jumped and hopped to her heart's content. I sat and read National Geographic.



Erin is finally beginning to form 2-4 word sentences and we can even have conversations. This morning she came into our bedroom to give papa his morning kiss. Andrew was still asleep- Erin did not care. She climbed onto bed, found his face and planted a wet one somewhere on his face. However, papa remained asleep and did not smooch her back. At that point she turned to me and said "It did not work". I said, "Try again". "K, Erin, try again!" That was super cute. She was more successful the second time around. She also helped papa get up. She was telling "Wake up!" until he got out of bed. Who needs an alarm clock if you babe is up.

After church we had some friends over for dinner. They have an 18-months-old Sophie whom Erin really likes and the two play pretty well together. We sat at the table, Erin was told to fold her arms and close her eyes, which she did. As soon as Andrew started saying the blessing on the food Erin opened her eyes to make sure everyone else had their arms folded and eyes closed. Next thing we heard was "Fophie, close eyes!" repeated over and over again (Pook calls Sophie Fophie). She continued urging Sophie to close her eyes until Andrew said Amen, ha ha. I could barely keep from laughing. Erin is our household's "fold your arms and close your eyes" police. She keeps us in line, ha ha.

I lost Erin at Maceys this Saturday. I was getting her prescription and she used the opportune moment to sneak away. I almost had a heart attack during those minutes I could not find her. I found her way away from where I saw her last. She stopped by a bunch of bouncy balls and was playing with them. I wanted to cuddle and beat her up at the same time. Didn't do either! Just gave a talk on staying with mama. I so hope she listened somewhat. Next time, I won't be as kind, though I really hope there will not be a next time. I wonder how much those GPS bracelets cost...

Erin's new thing is standing upside down anywhere she finds support for her feet. She always informs me that Erin is upside down. Very cute! Another favorite acrobatic number laying on her back and riding an imaginary bike. She always invites me to join in.


My beautiful babe with a binky. I am waiting for them to be lost and she will go cold turkey. By the way, Sophie is the one she picked the binky habit from.

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!