Three-year-old and Almost-two-year-old . . . Going Cheap

This is a vent post. I'm going to vent some of my morning frustration here, so I do not take it out on my children, who are currently locked in their room.

During my 5-minute shower this morning, my girls "dropped" a whole pound of dry black-eyed peas on the floor. I should have taken a picture, but I was too frustrated to enjoy the moment. Just imagine hundreds of tan beans with black spots strewn across an entire room, carpeted with tan carpet with black specks. Lovely. So, I made the girls help me clean up. It took forever. (Little fat hands don't pick up very many beans at a time and are easily distracted.) When the majority of beans were up, excluding those jammed into the window track (Mariah kept asking, "Mom, why did I put them in here?" Good question, child.), I pulled out the vacuum to finish up.

During my 5-minute vacuuming, the girls rushed off to my bathroom and got into my make-up. (Small break to rescue Elaine, who was being suffocated by a bored Mariah.) Even with the vacuum going, I sensed it was too quiet. I hurried off to find out what was going on. I was too late to save a few things--eye liner, and eye shadow, and had a mess to clean up. I did not allow the girls to help me with that mess; I locked them in their room, and here we are. (Actually, Elaine's now sitting on my lap, and Mariah's in their room. I couldn't leave Elaine in such a life-threatening situation.)

Oh, I almost forgot about the WHOLE ROLL of toilet paper that got flushed down the toilet while I was fixing breakfast.

Things can only go up from here, right?

Black-eyed peas continued . . . . I just changed Laney's diaper. There were 50+ beans stashed there too.

1 Hour Later: Just found both girls in the laundry room. Mariah had put triscuits in the washer's soap dispenser. Creative.

More Reading

I know I just posted a reading picture, but I walked in on this today and couldn't resist. (She had her fat little legs propped up on the dishwasher but took them down just as I took the picture):

Roosters

Elaine's favorite animal noise is the rooster. She does it all the time, randomly and unsolicited. I'm just waiting for a rooster to show up in Sacrament Meeting or somewhere else highly inappropriate.

Little Readers

Talent

generated with Smilebox

Obsession

Elaine has a bit of an obsession with sleeping. She spends a lot of time putting dolls, stuffed animals, little people, random toys to bed. She also, randomly and often, will lay down on the floor (carpet or tile--doesn't matter) and say she's going ni-night. I'm not complaining. She's a fabulous sleeper. This morning, for example, she slept until 9:15a.m. That's 14 hours of sleep! I sometimes wonder if this obsession stems from her love for (addiction to) her pacifier. She is only allowed to have her pacifier(s) in bed and during Sacrament Meeting. This is how she goes to bed. One in the mouth; five in the hands:

A Taste of My Own Medicine

I got a little snappy with Mariah earlier today. She looked at me, and in a very sweet, motherly voice said, "Mom, I sure like it when I hear cheerful voices."

Baby Names

I keep forgetting to post this funny story about Laney and baby names:

One night at dinner, I was asking the girls what they thought of baby names we're thinking of. We haven't narrowed things down yet, but we have a list of girls' names we like. One of my very very favorite is Luella. I love it; it's beautiful. Mike has vetoed it, though, so it's pretty much out. Anyway, here's how the conversation went:

Me: Should we name our baby Nancy?

Elaine: Ummm . . . . .

Me: How about Sally?

Elaine: Ummm . . . .

Me: What about Nichole?

Elaine: Ummm . . . .

Me: How about Lucy?

Elaine: Ummm . . . .

Me: What about Lillian?

Elaine: Ummm . . . .

Me: How about Luella?

Elaine: No!!!

She got a high five from her father.

Mariah thinks we should name the baby Chloe. It's not on our list (no offense to any Chloes or Chloes' parents out there). Tonight she prayed, "Please bless Mom and the baby. And please bless the baby to grow nice and healthy, and please bless her name to be Chloe." I'm afraid no amount of faith on her part is going to work on that one.

Mariah's Prayers

Mariah's been exercising some creative license lately during her prayers. Most of what she says needs a little background info to even make sense, so I'll try to provide some explanations:

Mariah loves to watch Playhouse Disney on the computer, as well as these books on DVD that we have. When she asks to watch something, I often tell her no on the grounds that "It's not very good for your brain to watch a lot of t.v. It's better for your brain to play or do a puzzle or read." I have explained, in 3-year-old terms, what her brain is. Well, apparently, she's not too fond of it. She has told me on several occasions, when she wants to watch something, "Mom, I don't have a brain, so I could watch (whatever show she wants to watch)." Well, the other day at dinner time, she prayed, ". . . and please bless our baby to get rid of her brain." I guess she's hoping the little one will come with immunity to my no-t.v. policies.

There, of course, has been a lot of pregnancy talk around here lately. Mariah has asked all sorts of questions (and made all sorts of statements) about being pregnant. I've explained to her that after she's grown up and married, she can have babies in her tummy. This has sparked all sorts of interesting conversations about marriage, etc. "Mom, when I'm 4, and I meet a nice man, we will get married and live at Grandma Shaunna's house." Or, "Mom, when I'm with my hus-a-band--the man--when I'm zero, I'll go to a meeting with my hus-a-band, and you'll stay here."

Some of her prayers sound like this: "Bless me to be preg-o-nant with my husband. And bless us to go on a date when I'm preg-o-nant with my hus-a-band."

Then, on top of all that pregnant-marriage-husband-date info swimming around in her head, we saw the LDS missionaries at the library. Several prayers afterwards sounded something like this: "Bless the missionaries to come to our house when I'm preg-o-nant."

A few weeks ago, in her Sunbeam class, she learned about the sun, the moon, and the stars. She has taken it upon herself to make sure God is keeping everything in order: "Please bless the sun to set well." "Please bless the sun to come up in the sky today." "Please bless the stars to stay in the sky." "Bless the sun to stay up in the daytime." And this is my personal favorite: "Please bless me to stay in my bed while the sun is sleeping and the moon is in the sky and the stars are in the sky."

As you know if you read this blog, there's been a lot of sickness going on here. She prays, "Please bless me to get rid of my cough, and please bless Laney to get rid of her sickness, and please bless Mommy to get rid of her cough . . . . (and so on)." She didn't like the menthol I put on her chest or the coconut oil I put on her back to suppress her night-time cough. She prayed: "Help me to get rid of my cough. Help me to get rid of the menthol on my chest and the coconut oil on my back . . . ."

Mariah loves to dance. She prays, "Bless me to go to ballet school."

Her prayer tonight: "Please bless me to stay in my bed and to not have any problems and to not jump on my bed and to not be crazy in my bed." Hmmm . . . apparently some things have been going on that I was not aware of.

Pregnancy, Sunny Days, and Other Random Things

It's been a while. We're finally feeling mostly better around here, and it's time for an update. Here are some random pictures and videos of the past few weeks.

We have lots of pregnancy going on around here . . . .

We've had a few really warm days among the stormy ones.

Mariah's big into circles and lines nowadays (drawing them, that is).

Mike turned 26! He was great at showing the appropriate enthusiasm for the gifts he received from his daughters:

Mariah wrapped up a bunch of her dress-up jewelry. Just what a man needs!

I let each girl pick a gift at the dollar store. Mariah gave some fabulous bubbles.

Laney gave a ball. Neither girl hesitated at all in her choice.

We spend a lot of time coloring:

Elaine helped Mike wash the car the other day.

She was drenched and freezing cold by the end, but she loved every minute of it.