I voted!

So selfies aren't my thing but I voted in my first ever primary in March!  I've voted a few times before but never in a primary.  To be honest voting isn't really my thing because I figure most politicians are about the same and our government is set up to prevent any one person from doing too much damage.  This is with the exception of municipal politics.  I was super into that in Provo because I saw immediately the impact of my vote in my daily life.  But this year, I voted in the North Carolina Republican primary, even though I'm a registered independent and tend to lean more Democratic than Republican, but that's beside the point.  I voted in the Republican because I really, really, really do not want Trump to be the Republican nominee.  He scares me.  Usually, as mentioned, I figure one person isn't going to completely ruin our country, but Trump, he just might.  I've never been actually scared of a politician.  Trump is a first.  I voted for Cruz, not because I actually like him or know anything about his policy, but because he was the most likely person to be able to beat Trump.  He didn't but at least I tried.  As for the actual election in November, I'm not sure who I'll vote for.  I could see myself voting for Hilary, as I value her experience and feel like she's a bit like Henry Clayton and John C. Calhoun--can it just be her turn now?  But I also may write in Mitt Romney.  And have seriously considered  writing him a personal letter and begging his forgiveness on behave of all Americans for treating him so poorly last election.  I mean really, Trump is richer and jerkier than Mitt and changes his views 100 times more than Mitt.  Not that I think changing opinions on policy is bad.  In fact, I value it; I learn and grow and change so why not a politician?  They should be able to and encouraged to change their policy stances as they learn more.  But now I'm rambling.  I'll finish with my new favorite hashtags #nevertrump #makedonalddrumfpagain #writeinmitt2016

Heather's Guide to Potty Training

1. I do not change 3-year-old's diapers. Grant it Henry is barely 2, but on the advice of a friend, I did not want a baby of any age while trying to potty training a toddler.
2. I do not want 2 kids in diapers.
3. Lots of people said that Conference is the best time to potty train.  So I decided to start Conference weekend.  Not a good time to start.  It's hard enough to listen to Conference while entertaining 3 kids, and then try to add taking an unwilling toddler to the potty every 10 minutes.  Didn't happen.

And so on the Thursday night of Spring Break, I started the potty training of Henry.

Having potty-trained 2 children before this, I knew that no matter what the books and Pinterest say, potty training cannot be done in a day or even 3.  So I came up with the Heather Baker potty training method.

Step 1: Acknowledge that potty training sucks, is messy, and takes months.

Step 2: Get the kid to sit on the potty.  Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday (we took Friday off because we were camping), I focused on getting Henry to just sit on the toilet.  Every 10 to 15 minutes, I took him to sit on the potty.  Every time he sat on the potty he got a piece of candy.  We also sang a lot of songs so he'd sit there long enough for pee to come out.  We got teaspoons in the toilets and buckets on the floor but remembering step 1, I just cleaned it up.

Step 3: Magically catch the kid while peeing on the potty.  Monday evening, I was starting to get a little frustrated and was loosing hope.  Henry just didn't seem to be getting it, which was annoying because he can count to 12 and has the largest vocabulary of any 2-year-old I know.  And then, by some miracle, I caught Henry just as he was about to pee and got him to the potty before he peed all the way.  Then he started peeing on the potty and we watched and he figured out how to make himself pee.  It was glorious and just the break through we needed.

Step 4: Just keep going.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I worked on potty training myself.  As in, remembering to take Henry to the potty every 15 to 30 minutes.  I'm getting pretty good at it.  Still not good enough.

Step 5: Well, this is what we're working on now: rewarding Henry with a piece of candy every 30 minutes if his underwear is dry and making him clean up his pee every time he has an accident.

Step 6: Somehow I've got to get Henry to poop in the potty.  Unfortunately, he likes to poop in morning before I get him out of his crib, or right after his nap.  On the bright side, I haven't had to scrape poop out of underwear yet or off the floor.

Little by little, we'll get there.  Hopefully Henry will take himself potty by the time the baby comes.

One slightly amusing potty training story: Wednesday or Thursday, after his nap, I took Henry's diaper off and forgot he's supposed to be potty training so got out another diaper.  Then I remembered.  So I went to get some underwear instead, Henry followed me crying, "I love diapers!" and tried to put it on himself.  I managed to get him in underwear and we made it through church today with only slightly moist underwear.

This week

Greg went out of town last week.  To San Antonio for the big TIAA conference, which is the biggest industry conference.  He goes every year.  He left Wednesday afternoon and got home Saturday late afternoon.


Pros of Greg being gone:
1. No cooking.  The kids had oatmeal on Wednesday, quesadillas on Thursday, and a picnic on Friday.  I ate leftovers all week.
2. Fewer dishes.  No making dinner means I only have to rinse out a few bowls.
3. Fewer messes.  One less person in the house, means one less person to pick up after.
4. More TV for me.  Greg and I have taken to sitting on opposite ends of the couch and watching different TV shows on headphones on our computers at night.  But with him gone, I put my Downton Abbey up on the actual TV and didn't have to listen to him make fun of it.

Cons of Greg being gone:
1. I have to take the kids every where with me.  For example, I had to take them to Young Women's on Wednesday night and they were horrible.   Henry threw a giant tantrum because I wouldn't let him turn the lights off.  Rex banged on the piano, drew all over the chalk board I was using, and in all other inappropriate ways drew as much attention to himself as possible.  Even the Young Women commented on how naughty he and Alice (who was just following Rex's example) were being.
2. I go crazy.  It must be Greg's pheromones or something, but when he's not around, I go crazy.  Like on Wednesday, I flipped out at the neighbor girl for punching Rex.  Grant it, she shouldn't be punching Rex, but usually I handle situations like that better.  Instead, I told her to go home and not talk to us until the next day and made my kids come inside and called my mom and my sister to complain.  Then at Young Women's that night, I wanted to slap of few of the girls in the face because I was so sick of their petty drama.  And then I flipped out at an email my midwife sent me about state-mandated tests that I'm refusing to take.  It was not good.  I'm not usually that crazy.  I also had to take all the kids to Rex's baseball practice on Thursday and piano lessons on Friday, all of which led to some late nights for all of us.  By Friday, they were asking to go to bed.
3. I have to share beds with toddlers.  With Greg gone, my bed becomes a free-for-all for every little creature wanting to kick me in the stomach and pick my nose while I'm trying to sleep.  Not cool.
4. No adults to talk to.  There's a difference between having a condensed phone conversation and having an adult around to say whatever silly thing pops into my head.  There's something about that instant gratification that I miss.
5. I missed Greg.  In case you were wondering, I kind of like Greg and just like having him around and missed him not just being here.

Friday, I planned to take the kids mini-golfing and then to the park to play and picnic after Rex's piano lesson.  But the mini-golf was closed and the weather was a little cold and super windy, so we gave up and got frozen yogurt to celebrate the kids not dying/me not killing them while Greg was out of town.  And to make it even better, they actually  ate their frozen yogurt this time.  And then Alice pooped for like 20 minutes.  One of the workers kept knocking on the door trying to figure out who was in the bathroom.  It was a little embarrassing.

Saturday the wonderful Becky Wheatley offered to watch the kids so Greg and I could go out.  It was glorious and much needed after a few days apart.  But I ate way too much and was sick the rest of the night.  Oops.

Holiday Holy Day

I know I said we were done with holidays after Easter, but I love holidays so sometimes I make them up.  Well, this one isn't really made up; it's actually using the term Holy Day correctly (holiday is a derivative of Holy Day).  It's General Conference.  I mean really, what gets more holy than gathering with your family to listen to the prophet? The scriptures are full of accounts of people traveling for many miles over many days to listen to the prophet, and all I have to do is get on You Tube.  It's pretty holy.  

Over the last few years, my celebration of this Holy Day has evolved.  I used to think that Conference is for adults and the kids can listen if they want, but it's a bit much to expect them to sit for that long.  Then Elder Hales gave a talk a few years ago on involving kids in Conference and helping them watch.  Groan.  And then I became more and more ridiculous with my other holidays and spent more and more time on Pinterest, and this is what we did to celebrate the April 2016 General Conference.

The Monday before Conference, March 28th, for Family Night, we put all the Apostles pictures on the floor and gave each kid a wooded spoon.  Greg and I then told facts about them and had the kids guess which Apostle we were talking about by slapping the picture with the spoon (this is a game from my old teaching days).  Then, and I took this idea from Pinterest, I got 2 gift bags and filled one with popsicles while I left the other empty.  I had the kids guess which bag had popsicles.  Then I had Greg look in the bags and we voted again, this time Greg voted.  The idea is that Greg is like the prophet and knows what's in store for us so we if follow the prophet we get popsicles.  Then we ate our popsicles.

Several days before Conference, I had the kids make a list of topics they thought would be discussed in Conference.  I then printed out corresponding pictures for each topic (since not all our people can read) and taped them to jars.

On Conference day, I pulled the dinning room table into the living room and covered it with craft paper so we had somewhere to sit and color while we listened.  Then as each person spoke we either drew a picture of him or her on a laminated piece of paper or put up his picture (I had printed out pictures of all the Apostles).   The kids then color ties or flowers to add to our pictures and write a brief phrase about the speaker's topic.  Then we tape our pictures and notes to the wall.  Also, each time a speaker talked about one of the topics the kids had picked earlier in the week, we added a puff ball to that jar.  Pinterest suggested having candy in the jar and having the kids get a piece of candy, but that was just too much junk for me.

The kids did get bored of this from time to time, so I didn't push it, but if they wanted to listen, they had a way of focusing their energy.  On the other hand, I was pretty busy passing out ties and flowers and picking crayons up that I didn't really get to listen.  But I decided when Rex was a baby to not worry about that kind of stuff--right now the most important thing is to teach my children, I'll listen to every word of Conference and Sacrament meeting in a few years.  Besides, all the talks are already posted on lds.org, so it's not like I can't and won't read them in the peace and quiet later.

The Monday after Conference for FHE, we counted all the puff balls in each jar and had a lesson about the topic with the most puff balls--temples.  We actually talked about ordinances and covenants and how they lead to the temple and to Christ because that covered several of the jars.  We used blocks and the little men from the Candy Land game to build a tower to the temple with each step up representing an ordinance and covenant.  You know like the Tower of Babel...

Don't fret, we also had a big breakfast for lunch on Sunday because Conference starts and noon here but big breakfasts are a requirement of celebrating Conference, even if it is at noon.

The Great Wall of Spirituality

Alice in deep mediation over what Elder Christofferson is saying.

Henry coloring on the table, of course.

Rex filling up our jars.

Camping with Dad

Greg decided he wanted to take the kids on a real camping trip (as in not in our backyard) for Spring Break weeks ago.  And then the week of, he checked the weather and it was to rain all 3 days he planned to camp.   Greg decided that he's too hard core to give up on camping but that Henry was no longer invited to camp in the rain. 

So Thursday I spent the day packing and sent the kid off with Greg while Henry napped.

When Henry woke up, I felt a little bad that he was stuck at home with me while the big kids had a good time, so I told him we'd go on a truck ride after dinner and get ice cream from Chick-Fil-A.  He then responded, clear as day, that he wanted, "Bojangles mac n cheese."  So that's what he had for dinner.  I opted not to get Bojangles for dinner for a second time in a week; I ate after I put Henry to bed for the night in peace--smoothie and toast.  We then went to Target for candy and lots of underwear.  More on that later.

Meanwhile, Greg used some $1.50 tarps from Walmart and lots of paracord to create several perfectly dry shelters for him and the kids.  While Greg did refuse to put the table cloth I sent on the table (I put it on when I arrived Friday morning), he is the guy you want to get stuck in the woods with.  Despite heavy rain and loud lightening, Greg and the kids stayed a little too warm and dry all night.

Friday morning, Henry and I had a quick breakfast, did a few chores then set off to meet Greg and the kids for some more camping.  Luckily, Greg picked a camp ground only about an hour away, which worked out perfectly for me and Henry.

We arrived around 10, just in time to help clean up from breakfast, sit in camping chairs a while and take Alice to the bathroom at least 50 million times.  

Then we headed off to do some hiking.  Unfortunately, Greg sent me to ask where the trail head was, and I, not knowing there was more than one trail and that Greg had a specific one in mind, led us astray.  We hiked for about a mile before finding a sign indicating that we were not on the right trail so turned right around and headed back to the cars to drive to the paved trail around the scene of an important battle in the Revolutionary War.  We checked out the museum for a bit; Greg and the older kids watched a video about it while Henry and I checked out the gift shop; then we walked the mile and a half around the old battlefield.  Very slowly, as Henry insisted on walking the entire way and looking at every rock and leaf and jumping in every puddle.  He ended the hike completely barefoot with several pockets full of rocks, but not nearly as tired as I would have liked.

We headed back to the camp site and met up with Greg's dad, who'd driven down to eat dinner with us.  Then marshmallows and playing with the kids from a nearby camp sight, and I learned the importance of always bringing the kids' bikes when camping.  Sorry guys, next time I'll send bikes.

Around 9:30 we decided to head to bed.  Greg and Henry were to sleep in the little tent and the big kids and I were in the other.  Until Henry heard my voice, then he refused to sleep with Greg and got in the big tent with me and the kids.  But he jumped on the air mattress, sat on Rex's face and in all other ways refused to calm down so Greg packed up as much stuff as he could and he and Henry headed home.

The kids and I then spent a rather rainy night on a slight slope.  Again, we stayed dry due to Greg's handiwork, but I woke up several times to find Alice curled up in a ball in the corner of the tent due to the slight incline.  She'd then scoot her way back to her mat only to slowly slide back into the corner.  

We hung out in the tent for a bit when we woke up Saturday morning waiting for the rain to stop, ate breakfast, packed up and made it home just in time for the first speaker of Conference.  Even with the rain, we had a great time and maybe next year Henry will actually get to sleep in a tent.  Maybe.

Spring Break

I debated, after the last super long post, breaking this up into individual days but decided that nobody wants to read that many posts about our stay-cation Spring break.  So I'll spare you and try (try) to keep it brief, but I also keep a blog so I don't have to be brief.  If I wanted to be brief, I'd do this all on Instgram or Twitter.

Monday

is always clean the house day.  Mentally, I cannot deal with knowing that I didn't clean all the bathrooms, sweep every floor, and mop on Mondays.  The kids hate it because I am rather unpleasant on Mondays as I try to get the entire house deep-cleaned and all the laundry done but I just have to.  If I had a baby on a Monday, I'd probably not clean the house, but I'd seriously consider it and have to really justify to myself why I should not clean the same day I had a baby.

But the kids were glorious on Monday.  I cleaned for five straight hours and they played together without fighting, bickering or complaining for five straight hours.  Rex and Alice made up a game where they put the little bunnies they got for Easter inside potato head bodies and flew around the house to different planets.  Henry drove cars around.  Sometimes, I think they just need a day to play.  And they got it.  I even let them watch extra TV because they had played so well together all morning and early afternoon.

Tuesday

zoo day.  Of course.  Zoo day is a traditional Robins spring break activity.  And I love zoos.  Especially the Asheboro Zoo.  Every one else complains about how big the enclosures are and how far you have to walk between animals, but I think that's what I like about it--the walking.  I really like walking and still miss being able to walk to every where I need to be like I did in Provo.  Alas...

This, however, was not an ideal zoo trip.  It was Disneyland crowded.  I have never seen a zoo this crowded.  We stood in line for a good 20 minutes before I ventured to the front to discover a shorter line for season pass holders, which I am, of course.  Also it was only an extra $15 to get a zoo pass that also gets me into Discovery Place in Charlotte, so it was a no-brainer.  When we finally got into the zoo and met up with Greg's sister and her kids, we couldn't see any animals because it was so crowded.  The crowd outside each enclosure was 4 or 5 people deep.  Luckily the kids were able to weasel their way to the front to see animals, but Maurine, the strollers and I were stuck in the back not seeing a thing.  That's not to mention Henry who threw a tantrum every ten minutes about every little thing (not being allowed to drink his juice box until lunch, not being allowed to throw rocks at people, Alice trying to sit on her seat on the stroller, people looking at him) and Rex who refused to stay on the side walk, climbed on everything, ran off, and rough-housed with the cousins the entire time.  I was a little glad when he finally fell on a sharp bush and cut up his arm and face because Maurine and I had been telling the kids that someone was going to get hurt and I just love being right.
We did play at the playground for a good hour or more, which was nice because Rex could finally get his energy out and Henry could get in some water (his favorite thing) and I could relax about them running off because the whole thing is fenced in.

We checked out a few more animals before taking nearly an hour to get out of the park (it's a really big zoo).  We stopped for dinner on the way home where Alice was the only one to get a soda because she actually behaved at the zoo and finally got home at 8, after leaving at 9 that morning.  Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

Traditional flamingo shot.

 Finally getting to play in the water and sand. We packed bathing suits because I knew he'd want to get in the little wading stream.

 Rex and Alice spent a lot of time looking at the map.  Who needs to see animals at the zoo?

 This is Rex's face the next day, but doesn't do it justice.  He has 4 good scratches along his entire cheek.

Wednesday

We decided to take it easy again and Rex really wanted to go to the library.  When I suggested it last week, he got really excited about going to the library and picking out his own books because he never gets to go anymore.  So that's what we did.  Rex and Alice even went to story time, but Henry, in true Henry fashion, threw a giant tantrum when I tried to take him in, so he and I did puzzles while the big kids went to story time.  Then the kids picked out way too many books, as usual, Henry threw a few more tantrums over wanting to carry the basket, wanting to get a drink from the drinking fountain, and the librarian making eye contact with him.  I was glad to get out of there.  Not ready to go home yet, we hit up the park near the library to play for an hour and to sufficiently wear Henry out, went home, ate lunch and put Henry down for a nap.  Rex and Alice then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the neighbors and being otherwise very pleasant.

Thursday...

Greg took the big kids camping, but I feel like a 3-day camping trip deserves its own post so you'll just have to wait for that.  I know: I'm so cruel.

Easter Sunday (and too many pictures)

Easter finally arrived on Easter Sunday (fancy that).  I even got up before the kids and ate breakfast all by myself.  An Easter Miracle!  Actually, I usually get up before them on Sunday since we have 9 am church and the building is 20 minutes away.  But that's beside the point.

Once the kids woke up, they went straight to work finding their baskets.  I didn't give them long to enjoy their baskets since we do have 9 o'clock church.   The kids all tried a Resurrection roll for breakfast.  Only Rex really got it.  When the rolls bake the marshmallow melts leaving an empty tomb--what!?!  Rex's mind was blown.  But where's the marshmallow?--it is not here for it is...melted.  Ok not the same thing as risen but Rex was pretty excited.  Alice and Henry licked theirs and then I made everyone oatmeal.  My kids aren't really into bread or bread products.  Weird, I know.  Greg and I enjoyed the rolls though.

Easter did dawn chilly, overcast and foggy, which made for some interesting Easter pictures.  Alice still hasn't quite got the whole look at the camera and smile thing but I thought she looked adorable.  I had to threaten her to wear the flower on the side of her head and as soon as we were done with pictures, she moved it to the exact center of her forehead so I called her unicorn.

Rex, on the other hand, can finally take a decent picture with only one shot.

And we won't even talk about Henry who is completely obsessed with mittens and is almost always wearing a pair.

This isn't a super good shot, but I couldn't resist getting me and Alice nearly-identical sandals.

I missed most of Sacrament due to the mischievous naughty-ness of Henry and then Sunday school was about who-knows-what (the teacher rambled quite a bit and told a hodge-podge of personal stories) and then I taught an awesome lesson during Young Women's because I am the best thing that ever happened to those girls.  Really, though, the lesson went pretty well.  We talked about the last week of the Savior's life and the joy we can find in even what was probably a pretty horrible week for the Savior and how we are meant to find joy and happiness amidst our trials.  I learned a lot from preparing for it and the girls said they needed to hear it, so pat on the back for me.

We had planned on going to my in-laws for Easter with Greg's sister's family, but his sister spent the previous week on a field trip with a bunch of fifth graders and couldn't (understandably) summon the energy to drive down and then Greg's mom got pretty sick so Saturday morning, I had to come up with a plan.  And because I think Easter is more important than Christmas and because I think that one way we can show our gratitude for people and tell them they're important to us is through a nice dinner (especially on a holiday like Easter) and because I enjoy setting a nice table, I couldn't just throw a roast in and call it good.  Luckily, I have a habit of saving weird things like tin cans and the brown paper that comes in Amazon boxes. I covered some cans in scraps of scrap booking paper, lace and Amazon packaging paper and then cut some of the beautiful flowers from our yard for a center piece.  Then I made chicken cordon blu for dinner (because it has the traditional Easter ham in it but I didn't feel like just having ham) with a side salad, roasted Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and rolls.  I did cheat on the rolls and just bought brown and serve rolls, which I usually refuse to do for nice dinners because I feel like nice dinners deserve homemade deliciousness, but I knew I wouldn't have time to make rolls in addition to all the other food and still actually spend time with my family on the most important holiday of the year.

Enough with the food.  We all know I'm pretty awesome by this point.

For dessert, I made a lemon poppy seed bunt cake that kind of fell apart when I took it out of the pan but was moist enough to just kind of stick back together.  Greg was surprised that I voluntarily made and then enjoyed a chocolate-less dessert.  As he should have been but I thought it was a nice, lighter spring treat.

After dinner, we dyed eggs.  I only boiled 12 since in past years the kids got bored before finishing their 4 eggs.  This year they could have each done six or more.  Oops.

I have this same picture of Alice every year.  After dying her eggs, she cannot resist sticking her hands in the egg dye.  Henry followed suit (see above).

Before my mother-in-law got sick, I told her I'd prepare a Christ-center Easter activity for the kids to do and since I spent a few hours cutting and pasting, we still did the activity.  We usually do the Easter Walk every year so it wasn't amazing for my kids, but they mostly played along.  I had planned to go on a long walk/hike around the compound but due to the rain, we stuck mostly to the backyard and found out items as quickly as possible.

Henry got bored after about 10 seconds and decided to push the dump truck around the yard instead.

Then we went inside and read scriptures that corresponded to all the stuff we found (something red, something pointy, something hard and round...you get the idea).  We finished the evening with watching the MoTab Virtual Hallelujah chorus and talking about how joyful we should be that Christ died and was resurrected so that we can be too.  Then, actually, in true Roberts fashion, we ate dessert and went to bed.  Well at least the kids did.  The problem with cooking a large meal is cleaning up after it.

All-in-all, I thought Easter Week and Easter Day were a good mix of the silly (yet fun) secular stuff mixed with the more spiritual.  I feel like I learned a lot about Christ and joy as the children and I did our nightly activities.  I think they learned a bit too, which is why we have the same holidays with the same traditions year after year--so we can keep learning and growing.

And that is the end of the holiday season, which starts on October 1 at our house because I just love holidays.