Just Life

I feel like we might finally be falling into a routine here. Chad has finally stopped taking the van every day. So I'm finally not so miserable stuck at home every day. It is a very small apartment, not even enough room for good steamrolling, and we have very little for entertainment. Yesterday was rough because it was too cold to do anything outside - very frustrating since all I want to do is swim. But today was much better. We went exercising (I'd been trying to do it after Chad gets home, but just can't get motivated. It's much better in the morning since we need to get out anyway.) I've been trying desperately to find a decent park nearby. I still haven't, but we found one where a couple of gals from the ward usually go. So I got to chat with them and maybe tomorrow we'll make it in time for the free lunches that the city brings.

Chloe is acting SO grown up. She and I had been really struggling with one another for a while, but at the moment, we're "Best Friends!" We really do enjoy each other. She's trying so hard to learn to keep herself dry at night, which just ends up in a lot of laundry, but she's trying really hard and sometimes makes it through the night. She hates her diapers, so she'll change into panties after we put her to bed. She's very possessive of her toys (big surprise) and struggles with the fact that Everett can take all of them now and she now has to share all of them. (Oh yes, Everett is crawling like a maniac now.) So she started stashing them in the cupboard. But tonight, Everett got in there too, so she was disappointed. Yesterday, again, it was cold, so she woke up from nap time with Everett's pj pants on. I sat down to check some blogs, and the one that we always dance to came up. I looked back and she had torn off Everett's pants, ran into her bedroom and gotten the skirt she loves to wear and was getting it on so she could dance. She LOVES that skirt! She's into changing clothes and is a total girly girl. She had me paint her toes despite the nail polish incident on Sunday. And she's finally decided she doesn't need our help at all anymore when going to the bathroom. In fact we've been trying to teach her a bit about privacy and modesty, so she says "Go away momma! You can't see my girl parts. I need privacy!" Well OK! She loves showers instead of baths now too and is very obedient during them for a change. Oh, and she's always telling me to wait for her which is nice because, she hurries a little more. And she's more willing to keep up and hold onto the stroller or shopping cart. It's so crazy the insane drive we all have to be independent! I mean, she was terrible last week before I started letting her do things a little more her way. But now that we both know she's getting bigger, and I know she can handle doing some more things on her own, things are great! Oh, she always has to pour her own cereal too.


Everett is of course really grown up too. When crawling, he sees all obsticals as a challange. Last night, I just laid my arm in front of him, and he crawled over it just to prove he could. He eats like a maniac too! He had a rough day today, some kind of stomach issues. When there's something wrong with him, it's so hard for me to get it because he just goes about his business gradually getting louder and louder until he's yelling like a banshee. It's wierd to me. But when I get to a point that I wanna pull my hair out I go "oh yeah, he's yelling at me...he needs something..." And he's always hungry, so he's always yelling at me. He yells so loud if I'm not shoveling it in fast enough or if I take too long to mix and warm it up. Seriously, I've gone through a box of baby cereal in a few weeks when Chloe might have polished off one - ever. She loves to feed him.

Nice big toothy grin. Poor guy's got such a big gap in those front two...Oh well.

When he gets tired, he rests his head on his hand like this. He only does it for fleeting moments at a time though, so I can't get a picture of it (he's scratching his neck here.) It's really cute though.

He always holds his pacifier like this. He does this more often than I see him actually sucking on it. That big gash across his eye, Chloe did that. I guess it's pretty good; he's gone 8 mo. without any real injuries. I was mopping at the time, but as far as I could figure out, she put a box on what I guess she thought was the floor and then jumped on top of it. Poor kid!