Reason #293847956 we should reconsider living in the South

Somebody save me!

Names

A lot of other blogs/bloggers use nicknames for their kids.  A way to protect their privacy I suppose.  Keep them safe from a bunch of creepers reading about them, seeing pictures of them, AND knowing their real names.  Maybe I just don't love my kids enough that I use their real names here--though Greg and I put a lot of thought into their names and have only used family names specifically so that our children have something to live up to--high expectations--don't shame the name.  I don't really want to change their names.

But if I were to use an alias, what would it be?

My first thought for Alice was Wonderland because that's what I tell people when I introduce her.  This is Alice, like Alice in Wonderland.  (Helps people remember and, as I have been constantly reminded since I moved out of California and especially since I married a southern, I speak too quickly and I mumble, no one can understand me.)  Then I thought, well that's lame.  It's nothing new or interesting and Wonderland says nothing about Alice and her personality.  But then again it tells everything.  She is a Wonderland.  Have you ever really sat down and thought--I made that baby in my belly?  Weird yet wonderful.  At the same time, have you ever seen a baby look at anything--their hand, a toy, Daddy, a piece of dust.  Everything is fresh and new and fascinating and wonderful to babies.  So if I were to use aliases for my children, Alice would be Wonderland. (It either that or "It's a made up family name.  Greg can't spell it either and Grandpa Baker can't pronounce it" [Alice's middle name is Chlotelle] but I thought that was too long).

 When I introduce Rex, I vacillate between saying, "You know Rex, like the dinosaur."  Or "Rex, like King in Latin."  So I guess I could call Rex 'Dinosaur' and it fits.  He is everything a two-year-old boy ever has been, is, or will be.  He is energetic, crazy, destructive for the fun of it, naughty, and pushing his boundaries.  But he is also ever so sweet.  He gives hugs and kisses when needed and loves to play with his sister.   So I guess Rex be Dinosaur if we're talking about Dinosaur Train or Land Before Time dinosaurs, but those shows are irritating so I'd rather not have to think of them every time I log into Blogger.  I think of my options, King fits Rex best.  He is definitely in charge--hence he has abandoned his room entirely and now sleeps on a cot in a tent in the dining/bike room (he slept in our bed for a while and then on the cot in our room before moving into the tent). Rex decides who says the prayer at dinner.  Rex will not be bribed into anything, including but not limited to pooping on the potty (though to be sure, he has recently decided that pooping in the potty is no longer beneath him).  Some of his favorite sayings as of late, "Dad, Mom beat me all the time"--"Hold me with two hands"--"Get out of bed!"--"MILK!"--"Soun like a plan?"  To which Greg and I usually respond, "As long as he's not crying."  So yes, Rex, like any other two-year-old, rules our house.  He is the King.

Rex's cheese face.  He really wanted to play and not take pictures.

Now for Greg.  The occasional mommy blogger also blogs about the husband with such clever names as "Daddy" and "Husband." Both of which apply to Greg.  He's a good daddy.  Plays with Rex; coos at Alice.  I have Greg in my phone as "Husband"--in case I ever get sent to the ER and the doctors need to notify someone it'll be easy to figure out who.  C Jane calls her husband Chump.  Cute.  And I suppose it suits him. I do not know him.  But, I think, for Greg "Mr. Patience."  And I mean that in all seriousness, especially since we moved here.  He puts up with a lot from me.  When I get lost.  When I find evidence of a critter.  When I don't get a nap.  When I want to take pictures of everything.  When I let Rex sleep in our bed.  When I refuse to get out of bed when the baby's crying.  He's a patient man.  So, yes, Mr. Patience.

Look at that face--tolerating my silliness.

As for me, I will just stay "I."  I'm pretty sure I've never used my own name in this blog.  Besides, aside from the title, it's really about me and what's a better name for an egomaniac than "I."  So I, I will be.

And, no, I will not be posting a picture of me, because, like I said, I am the picture-taker in the family so there are no pictures of me.

1.13.12

Yesterday was wonderful.  Just wonderful.  It was nearly perfect in fact.  I guess Friday the 13th is my day.  The last Friday the 13th, Rex was born.  Life has not been good or easy lately.  I spend a good part of my day daydreaming about moving back to Utah.  But last week I took Thumper's advice and every time I said something bad or thought something bad, I made myself say three good things about the thing I had just criticized and to make my game a little more interesting, I made myself come up with unique things each time.  It started getting a little hard after the first hour, but still it helped me change my attitude.  

Despite or maybe because of this, yesterday was nearly perfect.  We had had a long week of outings and adventures, so we decided to stay home, besides I told a friend I would babysit for her, but at the last minute, she didn't need me anymore.  We stayed home anyway.

For breakfast, Rex wanted pancakes.  So pancakes he got.

Rex trying to make Alice smile.

Alice smiling.

Rex smiling--but no pictures of both smiling at the same time.

Then I decided to follow up on one of my New Year's Resolutions--home school preschool with Rex.  We played match the letters.  We played for about an hour.  I was surprised at how long this held Rex's attention.  Here's how it's played: select a foam letter from the jar.  Discuss said letter--shape, sound, words that start with said letter, tape said letter to its corresponding letter written on copy paper and stuck to the wall.

Alice was not to be forgotten.  She also did preschool--she had PE.  Tummy time.

This is how she feels about tummy time.

I had to take a break to go through some papers and make a few phone calls, after which Alice got hungry so Rex brought me a book to read with him.  There was an egg in it and Rex kept asking how birds got out of eggs, so we watched YouTube videos of birds hatching for a while, which led to videos of caterpillars and finally a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  For the next hour, Rex and I re-enacted the life cycle of a butterfly.  Every time Rex was an egg, he snored.  Apparently that's what eggs do, snore.  Rex's favorite part: the cocoon.  That' when he got rolled up like a burrito, or cocoon if you will,  in a blanket and hung upside down from the tree (me).  This was the longest phase in our re-enactment.  I'm surprised his head didn't explode. 

We didn't forget Alice though.  She was a leaf.  A very giggly leaf.   She has recently learned to laugh and is ticklish when play eaten--though she does cry when she is real bitten on the belly.  (Rex later learned how to play bite.)

We stopped to read stories, give Mommy a short nap/break (10 minutes, during which time, Rex  pooped on the potty all by himself), do puzzles, make a few shape patterns ,make and eat dinner, show Daddy how to play the caterpillar game, and finally watch Wipe Out.  

Notice: we never did stop to dress Rex.  He insisted on going commando in his jammies all day.  

As a reward for pooping in the potty all by himself, Rex got to sleep in the tent.  Greg set it up in the bike room.  It was lovely.

I'm not really sure how yesterday could have gotten any better.  OK I do.  Alice could have slept through her 11:30 feeding and I could have not found a fourth mouse's trail.  But other than that it was a lovely day.  Just perfect.  Let's leave it at that and not over analyze.

1.3.12

Apparently I'm really bad at keeping New Year's Resolutions.  Here's my list from last year:

--Be better at grocery shopping. I don't need to save 70% on my groceries, but I'd like to spend about 10% less. I don't want shopping for food to be my life, but I'd like to spend less on it at the same time.

--Communicate better. I feel like either I get my way and offend a lot of people, or I don't get my way and don't offend people. I would like for everyone to be happy and unoffended.

--Save a bit from every pay check. This is a goal every year and for a while Greg and I were really good at it, but lately we've sucked. Saving is like tithing, do it first so it hurts less.

--Paint the kitchen and my bedroom. Greg and I painted our kitchen last year but just last week admitted to each other that neither one of us like the color but were too afraid of offended the other so we left it (see what I mean from #2 above).

--Make curtains for the living room and kitchen.

--Learn the stories of Jesus and tell them to Rex frequently.

Anything on there look familiar?  How about the whole actually save money and do better at grocery shopping?  Well, like I said, a new year right?  I'd actually forgotten that I'd made this post until a few days ago when Rex and I were looking through my blog for pictures of him and I stumbled upon it.  So much for the whole "write it down so you'll remember it thing."  Guess that didn't work.  Maybe it will this year though--look I'm already working towards one of my goals--update blog more frequently.  Half way there.

And, for the record, I didn't reach any of my goals last year except paint my bedroom.

For my mom ONLY--don't even think about looking at this Elizabeth

The Hair

Alice has a ton of hair.  From day one lots of dark, nearly black hair.  See picture below.

Alice and her hair at about 2 hours old.

 She even has a little mullet.

 She gets baths about twice as often as Rex did when he was this age because her hair.  It stinks.  I picked her put a few days ago and her hair was all wet, I couldn't figure out why. And then I smelt it.  Puke.  She got a bath.

For the past 3 months I've been resisting the urge to ponytail her hair--I didn't want to break/damage her little baby hair.  This week I could resist no more.  Now that she has bumbo and can sit up...well, it was just too easy.  And then Thursday night Greg worked late and after playing Where's the Sock Monkey with Rex for like an hour...Greg really shouldn't work late.

One ponytail

Really, stop at one, I think not.  She ended the night with 3.

Pretty baby.

I added this one because I think it's funny.

1.1.12

I am not a fan of New Year's.  It's in my top ten of least favorite holidays--right up there with Mother's Day and Father's Day.  It just rubs me the wrong way.  Maybe because I never had anything to do on New Year's, even when I was single and could/wanted to party, I couldn't ever find one--probably because I didn't know where to look but let's not go into how lame I was/am.  Moving on.  Knowing that New Year's is a lame holiday and that I am less than good at finding parties, I put a concerted effort into making a party this year and it was pretty fun.  We invited Rex's friends.

We started the night with some take-out Chinese.  Might I recommend getting take out for your next dinner party.  Don't have to cook anything, fewer dishes to do, less time to prepare, and you can all make fun of the food with no one feeling bad when the food is gross.  Good idea Greg.  

Then the kids played like crazy while the adults chatted/broke up fights.

Then we had dessert, which I made/made up.  My sister (Hannah) makes a super good chocolate cake but it was 6 am her time when I was making the cake so I decided to just sort of, try to remember her recipe.  It turned out pretty good even if I couldn't get it out of the bunt pan in which it was cooked.

Then because it was a party and not just dinner, the kids made shakers out of toilet paper rolls and black-eyed peas (those were for you Georgia).  

Then Greg pulled out the Rock Band and he and the other dad played while the kids thought they were playing, I put Alice to bed and the other mom comforted her 7 month old.  

At the ripe old hour of 9:40, we pulled up the YouTube video of last year's ball dropping, shook our shakers and called it a night.  Rex told me this morning that he was "so tired" last night.  So late.  

Just to prove how late we stayed up.

Rex and friend not really sure why they were shaking shakers but doing it anyway.

Greg and I went to bed at 11:50 just to spite New Year's Eve/we were tired, but then Alice woke up as soon as I got my spot in bed all warmed up so I got to listen to the crazies/hicks shoot off a million rounds.  For once, I was grateful we live on such a huge plot--no bullets through my windows. 

Oh, you're still here?  Still reading?  Then I'll go on.

I didn't used to be a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, probably just because everyone else makes them and I didn't want to be like every one else.  I'm such a rebel.  But I'm not going to lie.  2011 was pretty sucky.  The whole year was bad overall, and it only got worse as the year progressed.  There are bright spots and days and people in 2011 but I'm glad it's gone.  Not that the single tick of the clock that changed the world from 2011 to 2012 really changed anything, but I'm going to suspend my disbelief and say that it really is a new start, but it's not.  There are a lot of things I want to be better at anyway. As such, I've decided to make a few goals, and few things to work towards so that when the kids go to sleep I have something to do besides sleep.  Here it goes, 2012 goals/lifestyle changes:

1. Read my scriptures every day.

2. Say my prayers every day.

3. Blog at least once a week--daily even, but once a week is more likely.

4. Run a relay, half marathon or two 10ks.

5. Learn how to coupon.

6. Start a preschool for Rex.

7. Have a better attitude.

8. Believe more in myself and my ability to change my surroundings or attitude as necessary.

9. Have more courage.

(7-9 courtesy of President Monson)

10. Save 10% of our income each month.

11. Control my spending more.

12. Cultivate a better attitude about money.

13...ok this was not meant to be a confessional, which is what it's turned into so I'm going to stop.

The point is, it's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of North Carolina and really (REALLY) want to go back to Provo,but seeing as that isn't an option at this point, I need to make some changes in my life so that I can be ok or even, maybe, someday, actually enjoy living here.  Maybe one day I'll like it as much here as I did in Provo...maybe.