thoughts on a sunday

I made my friend Starr be my photographer so I could send Brian away with a framed photo of his little support group.  He's doing so much right now and we're so proud of him.  He's amazing.  I just love him.

• We've had quite an eventful week, mostly on purpose.  I kept us busy so that we wouldn't miss Brian too much.  This week was much better, as far as being on my own.  I didn't even yell at my kids this week at all!. . .unless you count the two hours before Brian got home.  I was trying to change the sheets, fold the laundry, make dinner for a neighbor, vacuum the house and watch Oprah all at the same time.  I got stressed and all the sudden I just needed him home.  So waiting two long hours while trying to get all that done wasn't pretty.  But I started by saying how this week was better.  It was.
  
  
• My days are all kind of blending together, but I just realized as I almost typed no one threw up this week that I'm mistaking the first part of this week with last week.  Of course Ellery threw up this week.  At 3:30am Monday morning Ellery was at it- throwing up every twenty minutes or so until 6:30am.  Monday morning, meaning the very first night alone again.
  
  
• Poor little Elle.  I don't know what is up with her and vomiting.  She just does it a lot.  This was a lot more flu-like than usual, but no one else got it (thankfully) so I don't know what it was.  By the late afternoon she was begging for "real, big breakfast" and running around outside.
  
  
• Ellery was up to all sorts of little tricks this week.  I think it was Thursday when she "got lost".  I was sitting outside while the kids played and she ran up to me and said she had to go potty.  She went inside alone and after about five minutes I wondered why she hadn't come out yet.  I went inside and saw her  pants on the family room floor.  I figured I'd find her in her room and as I started calling her name I looked in her room and the bathrooms.  She was no where to be found.  I wondered if she'd wandered outside without me noticing.  I headed back out and started looking around outside.   Nothing.  I ran back into the house and really started looking for her- thinking she might be hiding.  When I couldn't find her anywhere and when she didn't respond to me demanding she come out, I kind of started to get worried.  I ran around the neighborhood again, this time asking people if they'd seen her.  I decided to sweep the house one more time and that's when I noticed her undies in a little ball on the floor of her bedroom.  I was staying pretty calm, but really I couldn't find her anywhere in the house, so that meant one thing:  she was outside. . .with no pants on!  I ran back outside and didn't know what to do with myself.  My mind was racing with the worse possible scenarios. . .mostly the kidnapping of a naked three year old.  Calling the police seemed like a good idea, but I know that you can't just do that right away.  I called my dad.  He is, after all, a retired FBI agent and current private investigator.  He can find anything, even from a different state.  But mostly I called him to ask him when I could call the police, because I was ready to right then!  I frantically explained to him what was going on and at this point I was crying and McKay was crying and we were both a big mess.  I guess someone heard all the commotion, because all the sudden a little three year old hops down the stairs and holds out her arms as if to say, "Ta daaaa!"  I screamed, and then cried, and then hung up on my dad and then I hugged her and yelled at her at the same time.  This is the response I got when I asked her where she was, "I was behind my door.  Didn't you see Rapunzel's head poking out at you?"  She was quite pleased with herself.  Behind her door is the ONE place I didn't look.  Little stinker!  I really was so glad that she was safe though- it was quite a scare.  So glad my little stinker is okay- I don't know what I'd do without her!
  
  
• My dad got quite a good laugh out of the whole thing, being a phone witness to the action.
  
  
• Poor little Rapunzel has had a pretty rough week, herself.  She was lost for a couple days, and just yesterday I found her with the whites in the dryer.  She had been washed and dried and her already rats nest head of hair was at a whole new level.  She now has one big, melted, frizzled dread lock, with remnants of a long ago braid.  It's interesting.  I started off telling Ellery only the good news:  I found Rapunzel!  And she's all clean!  She was so happy, then she looked at me and said, "What's the matter with her hair?"  It was hard to get used to, but after I put it into a beehive bun, she felt much better about Rapunzel's new do.
  
  
• Speaking of finding things in the wash, have you ever washed a diaper?  Just wondering.
  
  
• So we always sit in the same place at church.  Second row on the left.  We are rarely late for church, but in our ward you have to be their very early to get a bench, in which we are not.  Our secret?  The Grooms family.  They get there very early, and happen to sit in the first row on the left.  Somehow it happened so that they save our seat every single week.  We show up, pass their bags forward and sit down.  I love this, but then sometimes it makes me laugh.  How did this happen?
  
  
• Layla is at the point where she no longer naps in her seat at church.  I've been hanging on for the past several weeks, hoping she will.  But she's done.  Fun for me.
  
  
• There's something I've admitted about myself as a mother this week.  I'm not rigid with naps.  I'm not even structured with naps.  I am just a blowin' in the wind with naps mother.  I don't like this about myself.  But being way scheduled just hasn't happened yet, and so with number three, I'm finally calling myself out.  This means that Layla is all over the place with naps, which means that it drives me crazy, which means I can't really do anything because it's my own fault.  Maybe this is why my kids gave up naps so early?
  
  
• Layla doesn't like food.  Haven I mentioned that?  Maybe, but anyway, she refuses to eat those little puffs and acts like there is nothing more disgusting than a puff in her mouth.  Today I gave her one of those teething biscuit things and she kind of liked it, until it started to come off in her mouth.  She doesn't have an interest and I feel like this means that I'll be nursing her until she's four and honestly, I'm counting down the days until I'm done nursing her.
  
  
• Except, I'm not.  I'm not really counting down the days.  Because maybe I'll never nurse another baby again. . .so I don't want to count down too fast.  But I do kind of want her to eat puffs.  At least.
  
  
• Something pretty amazing and eventful happened this week.  McKay got his cavity fixed, which resulted in a baby root canal. . .which is really just a silver cap on the tooth.  You would have thought he won the lottery.  More on that later though, in another post...
  
  
• McKay was playing outside with some older girls and his good friend Isabella, who's also five.  They were playing duck, duck, goose- except making up different words for duck and goose.  I heard one of the girls saying some potty words for her turn and I reminded them to not use potty talk and gave McKay one of those looks.  They kept playing for awhile and I went inside.  Later, when we were just about to eat dinner he came up to me, chewing his fingernails with guilt-ridden eyes and whispered in my ear, "Mom, I said some bad words outside for duck, duck goose.  I said butt slime."  He was dead serious and the guilt was palpable.  I could not help but laugh.  I really, really tried not to, but I cracked a smile and then quickly covered it up.  "But Mom.  That's not all.  I said another bad word.  I said weenie slime."  I mustered up all the seriousness I had, and talked to him about what he said, but really inside I was dying.  Brian heard us talking and asked what had happened at the dinner table.  I told him it was okay and not to worry about it (because I knew Brian would laugh) but McKay fessed up to his dad before I could stop him.  Brian had to duck his head and I'm sure McKay is totally confused as to if it was bad or funny.  So if McKay says  butt slime or weenie slime to you, I'm so sorry, but maybe this background info will be helpful to know.
  
  
• I absolutely love that my boy has such a strong conscious.  He is one amazing boy who I just love so much.
  
  
• There is another boy I love too, and I didn't want to do anything but stare at him all weekend.  We had several things going on this weekend, but we scraped them all so that we could just be together.  We went out to dinner, went on a bike ride, enjoyed McKay's last tee ball game and just hung out together.  It was a good weekend.
  
  
• Ah, I miss him already.  I think our kids are starting to get a bit confused about what's going on.  When Brian left today Ellery was concerned and kept asking if I was going to leave too.  And I can tell that McKay gets a certain little attitude when Brian leaves or comes back.  They have no idea what is happening, or why, and I'm sure it's making them feel a bit weird.
  
  
• I'm super busy this week- getting everything done and ready before our month-long trip to Utah!  I'm so excited to live by/with family for awhile.  Lots to do to prepare, so hopefully this week will fly by.  

Happy Sunday and happy, happy birthday to my beautiful sister, Lisa!