Just the Two of Us

Lately, Lucy has really been begging for special attention. She gets jealous so easily when we pay attention to Todd. 

Her solution? Steal his binki, crawl around on the floor, and pretty much mimic everything that Todd does... including playing in the toilet. 

My solution? Have a little mother-daughter morning... just the two of us. 

We listened to Winnie the Pooh in the car (on tape-cassete). 

made a stop at the post office

next was the library

then the park

and we finished it off with lunch at Wendy's

Not even a cute little Todd could get in the way of our special relationship. :)

Again?

This morning I watched the sun rise as I drove Todd to the ER... again. Last time we thought he may had fractured his foot, but this time it was for a head injury. (He's not even a year old and we've already taken him to the ER twice! Goodness.)
Last night, I put Todd in his high chair and scooted him up to the table to munch on some snacks. I had my back turned to him as I was preparing a salad. I all of a sudden hear this big *thump*. I turned around and saw Todd laying on his back, still strapped in to his chair...wailing. I unbuckled him as fast as I could, swooped him up, and put a bag of frozen blueberries on the back of his head. It was hard to console him. Then he started having concussion like symptoms. He got extremely lethargic and wanted to fall asleep (even though he had just woken up from a nap about an hour an half earlier). We had to keep him from sleeping about 3 times. We did some little tests on him, and after all was said and done we figured he had had a minor concussion. About an hour after his fall, he started being his normal self again. He went to bed and all was okay.
He woke up at 3am and went back to sleep... again, just fine.
But then at 5:30am he woke up with an extremely high temperature and his little hard was beating as fast as a rabbit thumping his hind foot. He hasn't been sick at all, so of course I could only assume that his rapid jump in temperature was due to him hitting his head.
I took him to the only place I knew where at 6 in the morning... the ER. Normally I wouldn't have taken him and would have treated his fever like any other fever. But because he had just had a minor concussion 12 hours prior, I wasn't going to take any chances.
We got to the hospital and his temperature was 103. One hundred and three! I was really concerned... but despite my concerns, they all got pushed aside as I was told over an over again that the fever had no correlation to Todd's head injury. I was getting really upset because I just didn't believe them. I couldn't understand how Todd could go from being perfectly fine to having a temp of 103 within an hour and a half. I especially couldn't understand it when they'd tell me he looks "just fine" and his fever is due to his runny nose. Really? A runny nose?
We hung around the ER for a couple of hours and his temperature finally went down, but not much. They let us go home and we have an appointment to go back on Friday.
The thing that upset me the most was that the 5 people who told me that his temp had nothing to do with his head injury made me feel so dumb... like I didn't know anything. All I needed and wanted was a little validation for my motherly concerns. I didn't get any. I just got "his fever had nothing to do with his head injury" repeated to me in a slow and concise manner as if I didn't speak English.
There was nothing for me to do about it anymore. I had told them that their answer didn't satisfy me, and so in response they asked me if I wanted them to call my husband for me for support. Oh sheesh. NO...I'M FINE. Thanks for your concern though. (....was that sarcastic?)
I'm sorry... doctors get such a bad rap (my husband is going to be a doctor!). They're doing their job the best they can. There are just so many emotions involved that make things stressful, and doctors are an easy target to unload that stress on.

We've got to keep an extra eye on that boy.... I don't want to be going to the hospital again any time soon.

A Tripod and a Timer

Sensitive

I don't know why it's taken me this long to realize how sensitive and shy Lucy is. She's not shy at all around me, so when she clams up around others I'm always taken back.
But lately, she focuses much of her attention on three emotions... happy, sad, and mad. If I ask her to give back Todd's toy, she gets so upset, runs to her bed, dramatically flops onto her bed and yells out "Lucy's so sad! Lucy's crying!" ...She knows how to break my heart.
A couple of days ago, it took me at least a half an hour to convince Lucy that I wasn't mad at her. She woke up that morning and all she could say over and over again was "Mommy mad... Mommy very very mad!" She has even talked in her sleep saying/crying "Mommy mad!" What?! Is that all she sees me as... mad? When we get upset at her, it cuts her to the core. And apparently if she is having nightmares about it, she is really affected by it. I think I need to be a little more careful with how I react to her sometimes.

But I do take a little advantage of her current focus on emotions. Like when she won't stay in her bed when it's 9:30 at night. I tell her that if she gets out of bed then "I'll get very, very mad"... but if she stays in bed, "I'm so happy!"
Most of the time, it works like a charm.
My favorite is when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap, runs out of her room with a big smile, gives me a big hug and says, "Mommy happy!"

"Yes, Mommy is happy! Because now I get to be with you!"

Temple Open House

Yesterday was our day to be tour guides for the Kansas City Temple open house.
Yesterday was one of my favorite experiences with Alex since we got married.

Yesterday...
...we got up around 5:30am and dropped the kids off from about 6:15am-12:45pm
...we goofed off with each other while waiting to get our tour group. (we're we allowed to have that much fun?!)
...we each got to take turns hosting a tour group consisting of about 30 people
...we fell more in love with each other
...we had such a feeling of fulfillment giving up our morning and serving at the temple

and most importantly, we were able to share the gospel with people who didn't know very much about the church. The Spirit was so strong and so peaceful, it was hard to deny it.
This was the closest to a mission that I have ever experienced. I can't wait to serve a mission with Alex one day!

After our time as tour guides, we came home and all of us crashed for a couple of hours. (I can't tell you how grateful I was that both kids slept at the same time! Very rare.) Alex then took off for his only class that day and invited some of his classmates to the temple house that evening. We had 7 friends over for dinner and then all went to the temple open house together. We had even more amazing conversations about the church with Alex's classmates... most of whom don't believe in Christ. But we were able to share our testimonies with them and I know that they felt something special.


One of these days I'll get pictures up of the temple when I finally remember to bring my camera with me!
It's so beautiful.

Tagged

My friend tagged me in her blog to answer some questions. But I'm going to cheat and instead of doing all of the rules of the questionnaire, I'm just going to list random things about me. (hope you don't mind, Lauren!) :)

1. I'm obsessed with my kids noses... meaning I'm always picking at them or wiping them. Poor kids.
2. I LOVE sauteed  mushrooms! Mushrooms are a staple around here.
3. One of my biggest fears is dying young and not being there for my children as they grow up.
4. I secretly want to name a son Walt... yes, after the man himself! (I know it will never happen though) 
5. I hate flossing. It is like pulling teeth to get me to floss. But I still do it... not often enough though. Sure glad Alex is going to be a doctor and not a dentist. :)
6. I occasionally have dreams that I still work at Disneyland. Sigh...
7. I joined the swim team in high school. I lasted two weeks.
8. I want twins. Specifically twin boys. When trying to name Todd, it was either between James and Ben, but neither of those felt right. I like to tease Alex that those are my twins coming. I'm crazy, I know. But if my mom can handle two sets of twins... I could surely handle one, right?
9. My dream house would look along the lines of this:

10. My go to movie when I just feel like watching something is either Oklahoma! or Sleepless in Seattle.
11. (I am so ashamed of this) I was a bully to a little boy named Billy when I was in 5th grade. Pushing and all. I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it! Billy... if you're out there.. I'm SOOO sorry!! I promise, I'm not a mean person!
12. If I could be any fictional character, I would want to be Laurie from Oklahoma!
13. I love the show Once Upon a Time. Yes, it's definitely cheesy at times, but I love it!
14. I like to read, but I don't usually read fiction. I'm more drawn to self-help books, parenting books, religious books, ect.
15. I make Alex two turkey, cheese, and tomato sandwiches everyday for his lunch. So that means by the end of 4 years of med school, I will have made approximately 2080 sandwiches. That's a real calculation, people!
16. I'm a fish taco expert. Pretty much any where we go that offers fish tacos, I've got to try them! By far, my favorite fish taco is still at Rubio's. Simple and delicious.
17. When I'm really tired, I sleep talk. I have even on occasion gone around our apartment looking for our "other baby" knowing very well that my kids are both in their beds.
18. Me and Alex constantly quote movies back and forth (we're geeks). I love it, though, when I can stump him as to where the quote came from. The most quoted movie around here is probably Toy Story. (again... geeks)
19. My dream car in high school was a lime green V.W. bug with a Texas licence plate. Don't ask about the Texas thing. Okay, I'll tell you... it was because of a Sponge Bob episode. Haha! I'm so lame!

That's it... I can't think of any more!

Makeshift Walker

Alex constructed this walker for Todd to practice his walking. Not bad, eh?!

(We're on a med school student budget, remember?) 

Maybe Todd could pick up a little more Isaiah while he's at it... child prodigy? :)

According to Lucy...

she has pink eyes,

and i've got a big nose...

Happy Easter!

Lucy was delighted to see our back yard covered in colorful eggs. As you can see, I couldn't get a picture of her face because her eyes were glued to the ground, scouting for her treats. And if you're wondering... Todd was napping. It worked better that way because then otherwise he would have been crawling around on the wet grass. He'll be ready for next year, though!

Happy Easter!

This Month...

I'm going to be more determined, consistent, and put forth more effort in my personal goals along with my goals as a wife and mother.
It's only April 6th and I haven't been so consistent, nor have I had much determination...and the effort seems to be lacking. But there are still 24 days left in the month, right?!

Today, despite my desire to be lazy and sit around, me and the kids are going out to enjoy this beautiful day. Effort... check!

Just Not Worth It

A couple of days ago, I started off my day great. I woke up at 6:15 (not by choice, mind you) and read my scriptures. After breakfast and whatnot, I put on a yoga video that I rented from the library. I've only tried yoga probably twice in my life, so I thought I'd give it another try. (It was great, relaxing, and I can see why people love it... but it's just not for me). I couldn't help but think while doing the Down Dog how I never exercise and I should maybe try it out. After all, we have a community center nearby with a day care where I could drop the kids off and go exercise for a bit. I'm pretty proud of myself that I actually got the kids loaded up and went! Very much out of the norm for me to go exercise. Probably the best part of going to the gym was dropping off my kids for an hour and running while watching the news with no distractions. Is that bad? (I'm gonna say no, because believe me... after picking them up I had to work through some guilt issues for doing that.)
We got home and it was nap time... my favorite time of day! It's always a mission of mine to get the kids to take naps at the same time so I can get a little shut eye myself. I love naps... and I mean LOVE them! And today I was going to take one! My legs felt like noodles and I was going to crash. But of course, Lucy just refused to take a nap. I did everything in my power to get her to sleep. I even put on Winnie the Pooh hoping that she would at least just relax, giving me a good 30 min nap. But no... oh no. She couldn't resist poking at my face or hopping around on the bed. I was half asleep and getting so angry at her. I hated it! And I didn't understand how could I feel so guilty for taking time for myself in going to the gym, yet here I was so angry that I wasn't getting the nap that I wanted. I realized that this has been a pattern of mine. When I make getting a nap so important, and things don't work the way that they were perfectly planned, I turn into some mean, nasty woman. It's not fair to Lucy and Todd. It's not fair that I get a little resentful towards them, all because I didn't get my dumb nap. It's just not worth it.
So yesterday, even though I was once again up at the crack of dawn, I decided to forget the nap all together. I was a walking zombie by the time 6 rolled around, but what a difference it made in my attitude towards my kids for the rest of the day.
Sure enough Lucy didn't take a nap that day, so we all went to bed really early. Thank goodness!

I Love This

I can't begin to tell you how much I love this picture. It's my current favorite. When I first saw it uploaded to my computer, I layered my hands on my heart and just exhaled a breath full of immense love that was almost painful! I love this picture for a number of reasons. First, I love the composition... the rule of 3rds, the setting in which Spring has sprung, I love the movement captured, and I love how Alex and Lucy mimic each other in their body stance. But mostly I love the utter joy and wonderment captured in Lucy as she is chasing after something so new and exciting. And I love that her dad is the one to experience this with her. 

A close up of Lucy (I'm so sad that my camera isn't good enough to have caught her expression clearly.) 

It's pictures like this - stopping time in that brief moment - that make me love photography so much. And now I get to keep this moment for the rest of my life. I am so lucky. 

Daffodils

I came across this daffodil patch one day and of course I had to go back and take some Easter pictures of the kids in it! I'm so glad I didn't wait to take them because a week after taking the pictures, I drove by it again and they were all dead! :(

I've never seen a daffodil patch... except for in the movie Big Fish. :) I've always thought it would be so romantic to see a little field of daffodils. So you can only imagine how giddy I was when I came across this one. Lucy was pretty giddy too. 

Happy Spring!