3.21.11: Boy crafts at FHE

On Monday (the 21st), Greg came home and decided that he needed to teach Rex how to do boy crafts (whatever that means). Luckily for him, we had had a wind storm, after which Rex and I went on a nature walk and collected quite a few sticks. So Greg started his boy craft night by turning the collected sticks into some sort of throwing star that explodes on impact. Rex thought that was pretty cool.

Then it was time for dinner, so we ate.

While eating, Greg decided we would make boats for family night. Obviously, we had to have a lesson to go with the boat making and since we'd already learned about Noah, we learned about Nephi. I guess we could have also learned about the brother of Jared, but we didn't make boats tight like unto a dish. But there sure is a lot of boat-building in the scriptures. Maybe we should start building a real one in our backyard...but I digress.

So for family night, we read the story of Nephi building the boat, sang Nephi's Courage, and then raced our boats in the bathtub, and learned how important it is to have the Spirit with you when building a boat.

Here are the pictures/video to document:

I can't tell from here, whether the video loaded. In case you hadn't guessed by this point, neither boat floated. Greg added styrofoam packaging peanuts to his later and it now floats.

3.23.10: Janice Young

Today I was super tired. Reagan's mom told me she only had to work until 1 today. And then at 2, she said she was on her way to pick Reagan up. She showed up at 3.

Rex, meanwhile, is getting his 2-year-old molars and as such is having a hard time sleeping, especially since he only cries at bedtime so I think he's being a stinker instead of giving him Tylenol.

I just need a break. I want to go shopping without Rex and Reagan (or even Greg for that matter) and just wonder around the mall, but finals are coming up and with Rex not napping I don't have a ton of time to work on my schoolwork.

I was in the midst of feeling really bad for myself when I had to go visit a sister (Janice Young) in our ward, who wouldn't let children over to her house. Needless to say, I was thrilled at having to find a babysitter so I could not go shopping by myself.

But then I got to Janice's house and had one of those experiences where I gained so much more from the encounter than she ever could have.

Janice is 72 and is in terrible health. She spent an hour and a half telling us the story. Here it is in a few sentences: About a year ago, her heart started bothering and then her lungs. She went to several doctors, tried a cocktail of pills, and had a few procedures performed. It was the last procedure that nearly killed her--three times. I forget the name of the procedure but it involved using a lazer to fix her heart, but the lazer got wound up and ended up blasting a hole in her heart, so she ended up having open -heart surgery to repair the hole and all the other damage done by the doctors as they tried to fix the hole without cutting her open. As a result, she was in the hospital or a rehab center, spending several weeks in the ICU, for about a month and a half. I can't even image what her medical bills look like. And like I said, she almost died three time, and would have gone, but she couldn't find her husband, who died 11 years ago, so she decided to stay.

As she told this story along with a mountain of faith-promoting stories, she kept laughing and telling jokes about funny things the doctors and nurses said, and, this is what really got me, kept telling us how fantastic her doctors were.

When she was done with her story, I told her I wanted to be just like her. Really. How different would my experience with Rex in the NICU have been if I could have laughed just a little? Instead, I spent a lot of time being angry and hateful. Her doctor's mistake almost killed her 3 times; Rex was never in any real danger. While I don't regret being angry, or think that Rex's doctors made a good call in delivering him early, I think this time around is going to be different. I can still assert my rights as a patient and get the care that I need and want, but it's true, you really do catch more bees with honey than with vinegar...or however that saying goes.

So I'm heading to a party store to pick up a few props to dress baby in, just to get a laugh. Janice wore a clown wig while she was in the hospital just to be funny, and I really do want to be just like her.

3.17.11: It's green

My mom thought this was funny. Emma thought this was funny. Rex thought he was clever and cute. Thanks to Shaundria for sharing the horrors of what this acutally is. That's right--green crayon all over my freshly painted wall. And this is only of the walls Rex attacked. By the time he was done, Rex had colored 3 walls in my room, the floor, my dresser, my white comforter, and his table in the kitchen. I yelled at him for the first time (that I remember/admit to).

Here's how it happened:

Until last week, Rex has never had a problem with crayons and walls. And then last week when Reagan's dad came to pick her up, he encouraged her, in front of Rex mind you, to draw on his arms. Obviously, Rex followed suit, drawing on his shirt, and then his pants and then an old blanket with marker. None of it came out. I threw his markers away and put him on time out. I thought we were done.

And then today...

Rex and I had been coloring when I gave up hope that the sun would come out and be warm enough for a run (I'm a pansy when it comes to cold-weather running) and decided to get in the shower. I left Rex coloring. When I got out of the shower, I noticed my bedroom door was closed. No big deal, Rex does this a lot by accident. I opened it and ran downstairs to check the pool times so Rex and I could go swimming. When I came back upstairs, I noticed the door was closed again, so I opened it and looked for Rex. He was lying on the floor with a crayon. And then I saw the wall. I informed Rex that he was naughty and would have to clean his mess. Then he showed me the other wall he'd graffitied. I got him a magic eraser and told him to start cleaning. He tried. Then he had to sit on my bed while I attempted to clean the crayon, but the magic eraser took the paint off the wall and Rex got off the bed. So I put Rex on time out in his room while I called my mom. She said to let Rex out, so I did.

I continued to clean with Rex playing mountain climber on me. This is when I yelled at him (Mommy is too busy cleaning up your mess to play with you right now. You have to play by yourself.) and he ran away (he knows what's good for him). I scrubbed some more.

I tried magic eraser, which removed paint.

I tried a blow dryer and dry rag, which made the paint bubble.

I tried toothpaste and a wet rag, which made my wall smell minty.

I tried baking soda and a wet rag, which also removed the paint.

I tried paint. That worked.

Next to tackle the comforter (maybe Emily can lend some of her amazing stain-removal advice).

Rex made it up to me by cuddling with me at nap time and letting me lay down with him for a bit. While he's no longer allowed unsupervised crayon use, I forgive. But it's still not funny.

3.13.10: One year ago today... oh wait 2

A list of disclaimers:

1. Sometimes Blogger really bugs me because it won't allow me to easily rearrange my photos once I've loaded them into a post so these are not in chronological order---they are in Blogger order.

2. There are a lot of pictures in this post.

3. Rex is two, not one, but when Noah asked Greg to tell him Rex's birth story, Greg began with, "One year ago today..."

Now, onto the 2 day celebration that was Rex's birthday (again, not in chronological order)

Yesterday, Rex got to open his birthday presents. He might be a little spoiled. My favorite--the rocks to his swing set so that I don't have to lift him up to th top of the slide anymore.

Last night, Rex helped us turn his crib into a toddler bed. He's been such a good boy sleeping in it. We haven't had any problems. He loves his big boy bed and as long as I keep the door to his room closed, he stays in bed. Also notice his new car rug--he has a big boy room now. PS Rex didn't want to pose in his bed--he was too busy fixing it, so Greg did instead. Pretty study little bed.
Last night, after eating Rex's favorite meal of curry with nann, we went to Earth Fruits yogurt for dessert. Rex put cookie dough, jelly beans, strawberries, and a variety of other toppings on his yogurt. Gross.

Today (Rex's actual birthday), we had the family over for dinner and I made Rex this tiger cake, which I thought was suiting since we went to the zoo yesterday and he loves his tiger coat. Compared to my previous cake-decorating attempts, I thought this turned out pretty cute.

Rex blew out his candles, while Grandma and Grandpa Robins watched on the computer.
Yesterday, we went to the zoo. Rex loved the train ride around the zoo and said "chooo choo" the whole time we were on the train.
Greg and Rex posed on some bronze lions.
Rex even got to ride the carosaul twice because we didn't know that we didn't need to buy a ticket for his supervising adult. Both times he insisted on riding the snake--he kept saying hissssss, hisssssssss, until we gave him and let him ride the snake (it was on the inside and I wanted him to ride something on the outside so I could get better pictures).

As we were leaving, we let Rex pick out one toy from the gift shop, because it was his birthday. I picked out a set of rubber animals for him. But he really liked the boo (blue, by which he means green) sun glasses. He got the rubber animals.

And just as we were leaving and Rex was screaming for his nap (he'd been up since 5 or 6 and it was 1/2 an hour past his bed time) we snapped one more picture in front of the zoo.
All-in-all, we had a fun, busy day. Rex loved the zoo and mimicking all the animals. He kept telling/showing me what the animals were doing (mostly sleeping). The zoo wasn't too crowded so we got good views of everything and it's small enough that we saw all the animals and ate a picnic lunch and road the train and rode the carousal twice and picked out a prize all in 3 1/2 hours. Perfect 2nd birthday if you ask me.

3.13.10: #26

Greg turned 26 this week. He is now closer to 30 than he is to 20. So old.

To celebrate, I wrapped and set out Greg's presents a day early so he could enjoy looking at them and guessing what they were. Kind of like Christmas but with just his presents. That was on Monday. After dinner, Greg announced that for family night we would be opening his birthday presents. So he and Rex did. Notice Rex pictured below in my hoodie--after his throw up incident in the car last week he thinks it's normal for little boys to wear their mother's hoodies.

Greg got everything he asked for and then some.

One of his favorites was the Sperry's my parents got him. They make him look more mature and professional, even with the same jeans and t-shirt on. They are a nice addition to his big boy wardrobe.

On Greg's actual birthday, Noah watched Rex so Greg and I could go to our favorite restaurant in the whole world--Communal. We sat at the bar and talked to the chef about the food and about what we should make for Sunday dinner and watched him cook. It was really fun. I wish I were as amazing as him. Since it was Greg's birthday, we went all out. We got a meat and cheese appetizer that was amazing. Homemade ricotta. Then we got a bitter green salad of some sort that was also amazing. For our main course we had the moistest pork shoulder I have ever seen with biscotti rice and golden beets. Usually I just use rice as a filler, but this rice had a taste and I loved it. And the beets, very sweet. As Doug would say, They're nature's candy. For dessert we went across the street and got a second-rate creme-brulee (our bad) at Rooster before heading home to finish the night off with some video games and, of course, Law and Order.

We enjoyed ourselves.

3.10.11: Lists

Top 5 reasons why I don't mind being pregnant:

1. Finally filling out my A-cup. What now!

2. Getting to take guilt-free naps every day.

3. Getting to eat guilt-free 4th meal every day.

4. Making Greg go to the store to buy me whatever food I want, even though I'm not necessarily craving it, but would enjoy it.

5. Sympathy from others and excuses not to do things that I don't want to do (Oh, I totally forgot about that...man these hormones are killing me).

Top 5 reasons why I mind (a bit) being pregnant:

1. Going back to my double-A Hannah Montana bra after pregnancy. Woowho for a 12-year-old's body.

2. Having to take a nap every day and not getting anything done.

3. Allowing myself to eat an entire bag of Starburst jellybeans because the baby wanted them. Gross.

4. Getting fat.

5. Not remembering to do all the important stuff I'm supposed to do/not having the energy to do it.

And in case you haven't caught on by now, I'm pregnant. Due September 16. That makes me just about 13 weeks and exiting the first trimester. Hopefully I'll get that promised burst of second trimester energy next week.

3.5.11: We were supposed to go to the temple, but..

Yesterday, Greg and I were supposed to go to the temple. We even had a babysitter. But it didn't work out.

First, on Wednesday, Greg found out for sure that his company was moving from Provo to the Thanksgiving Point and after looking at how much gas his 1971 Ford truck was guzzling, decided that a change needed to be made. He sold the truck in less that 24 hours for about what he bought it for and began looking for a new (new to him), smaller, more fuel efficient one. On Friday night, he found one.

On Saturday morning, we all packed up in the car to drive to North Salt Lake to look at the truck. Greg liked it and decided to buy it, but because we bought it at a dealership, we couldn't just hand the guy the cash and leave. So Rex and I played drive the car, and then drive the truck for about an hour and a half while Greg signed papers and blah, blah, blah. But the breaks on the truck were acting weird, so Greg asked the dealer to fix them. He said sure, but you'll have to drive to my shop, by which he meant my son's house in one of those ridiculous neighborhoods that are essentially circles. So we did that. After waiting a while, Rex and I decided to leave. But we got lost, drove in circles, and somehow ended up back at this guy's house. Greg was gone, but they told me how to escape the matrix that is the neighborhood.

By this time, it was noon and Rex was hungry so I stopped at a Subway to get him some food. I thought I'd be a nice mom and get him his own kiddie meal instead of just sharing mine with him. He took one bite of his sandwich, chewed on but did not swallow one apple slice, and split most of his chocolate milk on the floor. I ate. We left.

As soon as I got on the freeway, Rex told me he wanted more milk. I felt bad for him because he'd had such a boring day and now it was his nap time and he wasn't home, so I stopped at a 7-Eleven and bought him some milk. He was pleased.

We get back on the freeway, and I was hoping Rex would drink his milk and fall asleep. He drank his milk, he didn't fall asleep. He threw up. All over. So I got back off the freeway, found a gas station, undressed Rex just to discover that he had also peed threw his clothes, put my hoodie on Rex, and then let him play drive the car some more while I tried to get as much of the puke out of the car as I could. I lined his carseat with paper towels, buckled him back in and we were off.

He got back on the freeway; Rex found a sucker, opened it and ate it while drinking the rest of his milk and then finally fell asleep.

We got back to Provo around 2. Emma was already at our house, doing laundry and ready to babysit Rex. But I have terrible temple narcolepcy, so I decided to lay down for just a bit so I wouldn't fall asleep during the session. I woke up an hour later, but Greg and Emma were just leaving to pick up Emma's wedding dress, so obviously I got back in bed. Greg woke me up at 4:30. By that time, Greg was hungry for dinner, so I thought we'd eat dinner and go...but we gave up. We're going to give the temple another shot this weekend.

Some days you just can't win.

On the bright side, because of my amazing nap, I got a ton done last night after Rex went to bed.