Summer Time

I guess summer has officially arrived. Just before the weather turned hot, we learned that our air conditioner needed repairs before it would cool the house. We have been waiting for the right parts to arrive, so we have been without A/C so far. The past week has been pretty hot, sometimes getting into the low 80's on our ground floor. Violet and I do not handle the heat well, so we have been doing what we can to stay cool. I mist the kids with our spray bottle. We let the kids go without clothes while we're in the house. Last Wednesday, I gave each kid a damp wash cloth to play with. Eddie thought it was weird, but Violet liked it.

Don't they look a little overheated?

Tuesday night, Eddie woke up soaked in sweat at 10 PM, so we decided to have a slumber party in the living room. Eddie slept quite well downstairs and when he woke up the next morning, he had no idea he had been sleeping downstairs with everyone all night.

Luckily, our A/C should be fixed tomorrow so we can return to normal life.

Another indication that summer has arrived is Eddie's last day of toddler class. Today was his last class and I think that he will be sad not to go any more. Violet and I went to class with him for his last day and he had a blast. His teachers loved having him in class because he says the funniest things. He even had this month's story memorized and kept reciting it along with Teacher Lisa as she read it to the class. Here is today's art project:

(Hint: it's an octopus)

Violet has been growing up a lot over the last couple of weeks. She is getting pretty stable with sitting. She is much more interested in toys than she had been. When she drops a toy, she tries to get it back instead of just moving on to the next one. She is learning to clap and to wave.

Unfortunately, this was the best photo I could get of the two of them today.

Violet's Five Months Old

Violet is five months old today. She is growing up fast. Here are some fun facts about Violet:

Likes

Baby food. We started her on solids about three weeks ago and she seems to love it. We skipped rice cereal and went straight to fruits and veggies. She especially likes sweet potatoes, peaches, and pears. She is pretty good at eating, too, but drives me crazy because I can't shovel it in fast enough for her. She shoves her hands in her mouth between every bite, which makes the whole exercise a lot messier than it would be otherwise.

Spitting. I don't remember Eddie being much of a spit-bubbler, but Violet sure is. She blows raspberries at every opportunity. Just last night, Eddie exclaimed, "she has a bubble beard!"

Tummy time. Violet loves to be on her tummy... most of the time. She rarely rolls from her tummy to her back, but frequently rolls from her back to her tummy. She likes to play on her tummy and often falls asleep on the floor that way.

Most people. There are only a few people that drive Violet to huge frowns and tears (Not through any fault of their own. Sorry Grammy and Papa). Most of the time, Violet loves when people look at her and talk to her. She smiles. She laughs. She blows spit bubbles and coos. Her biggest laughs so far have been for Eddie, her cousin Caleb, and her aunt Cheryl. I am happy to say that even if I can't get her to bust a gut, she seems to prefer me over everyone else at the moment. I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

Dislikes

Being hot. Violet will not sleep when she's too hot. Fortunately, it hasn't been too hot yet this year. Unfortunately for all of us, it is now hot and our air conditioner is broken. Last night was bad enough that we slept over in Cheryl's basement. When Violet is hot, she screams and writhes around and cannot be calmed down. Hopefully the A/C will be fixed by the middle of next week. In the meantime, we're leaving town in search of cooler temperatures... for all our sakes.

Sleeping through the night. Violet has slept over 5 consecutive hours once. Yes, once. Usually she wakes up at least three times each night. I only feed her once each night, but she insists on waking up several more times just to make sure I am not getting any real sleep.

As you can see, Violet is a pretty happy baby.

Cute Kids

Our kids are really cute. Whenever they begin driving me crazy, I just try to remember that. Over the last week, we've gotten a lot of cute photos of them that I thought I ought to post (since I'm getting a bit behind). So forgive the randomness and enjoy the pictures!

I decided to start Violet on solid food. I opted to start with sweet potatoes and Violet loved them. After her initial confusion about what I was putting in her mouth, she did her best to gobble them up. She tried some bananas, too.

On Sunday morning, the weather was lovely, so we took a walk around the neighborhood. Then Dave took photos of the kids in front of my black tulips.

Violet makes great faces and especially likes to stick her tongue out these days.

Yesterday, our day started off a little rough. In an attempt to fix that before the entire day ended up in shambles, I decided to take the kids to the splash pool. As soon as I mentioned it, Eddie was ready to go. He had a blast splashing in the pool and putting his face in the water. And it was fun for me because he is big enough now that I don't really worry about him drowning himself like last year.

We've learned over the past few days that Violet does not like to be hot, so she was really fussy as I tried to get her ready to go. She was not happy about getting her cute new swimming suit on, so I wasn't able to get a good photo of her in it. Here she is as we were getting ready to come home.

She liked sitting and kicking in the shallow end for a few minutes. Hopefully the next time we go she'll be in a better mood so we can get a nice photo of her outside the car seat.

On a side note, the day did end up in shambles after I found Eddie (while I thought he was napping) pants-less in his bed covered in poo. It called for an emergency bath, an emergency load of laundry (or two), and all the patience I could muster. Luckily we all survived...

Don't Say That

Eddie loves to watch movies. He goes through phases where he will only agree to watch one or two different ones, then later, he'll move on to one or two others. I really appreciate Pixar and the way the writers try to make them appeal to adults as well as children, but as Eddie has begun to memorize and repeat his favorite lines, I have realized that there are a lot of things in their movies that are not really appropriate for a three year old. For example:

"Do I look stupid to you?"
Hopper // A Bug's Life

"Did you all take stupid pills this morning?"
Mr. Potato Head // Toy Story

"You stupid, pathetic waste!"
Randall // Monsters, Inc.

"SHUT UP! Just, SHUT UP, you idiot!" Woody // Toy Story

"Oh would you just shut up?" Nigel // Finding Nemo

"Turn on your lights, you moron!" Peterbilt // Cars

"I'm in hillbilly hell!" Lightning McQueen // Cars

"Welcome to hell."
Chef Skinner // Ratatouille

"Hey! Turn your butt off!"
Francis // A Bug's Life

"I told you kids to stay out of my butt!"
Mr. Potato Head // Toy Story 3



That being said, there are many quotes from the same movies that Dave and I think are hilarious and use as often as possible:

"We'll get there when we get there!"
Mr. Incredible // The Incredibles

"Oh, this is just too good."
Syndrome // The Incredibles

"Oh dear, seems I'm off to a poor start." Doc // Cars

"No, no! Don't just hork it down!"
Remy // Ratatouille

"It's a disaster." Remy // Ratatouille

"The rat! It stole my documents!"
Chef Skinner // Ratatouille

"Let's do this thing!"
Linguini // Ratatouille

"Have you seen a bird?"
Dug // Up

"Who cares? Who cares? Sequins are tacky!"
Ken // Toy Story 3

"The Groovy Formal Collection, yes!"
Ken // Toy Story 3

Violet's Four Month Stats

Violet is now four months old! Today, Eddie and I took her to visit the pediatrician. She weighed in at 15.4 pounds (86th percentile) and measured 25.7 inches (93rd percentile). Before the doctor saw the stats, she said she thought Violet looked skinnier. Then she looked at her percentiles and said, "never mind!" We just have a healthy girl on our hands. Luckily, she is still a friendly girl, too. She smiled at everyone we saw at the doctor's office right up until about 3 seconds after her first shot.

I decided today that if Violet slept better at night, she would be the perfect baby. She doesn't cry needlessly. She isn't stingy with her smiles. She doesn't hold a grudge against her brother. She is strong and doesn't get sick often. She eats well (and efficiently). But she still wakes us up 3-5 times each night. So as soon as I get the nerve, we will be doing some sleep training.

After our visit to the doctor, we also took a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium with some friends. We got a sweet deal on a year membership, so we'll be going a lot over the next year. I was a little concerned when I saw five school buses in the parking lot, but it turned out to be less crowded than I expected. Eddie and Hailee were especially excited to see all the fish that look like Nemo and the big sea turtle.

Weekend Fun

Last weekend was pretty crazy. We had our yard sale (which Dave posted about here). In the midst of all that chaos, we still managed to get some fun photos of the kiddos.

Eddie has an evil look in his eyes because he is always about to dump Violet on her head when we let him hold her like this.

At this point during potty training, we have given up on pants if we are just in the house. He got his boots for his birthday from Grammy Andrews and his vest from Grandma Barton. The hat is from my witch costume, but it was the closest thing we had to a cowboy hat.

Eddie spent a solid hour putting "new tires" (chocolate cheerios) on his McQueens with Dave.

Violet is not very lady-like when she sits in the swing. Eddie used to throw one leg over the bar when he would swing, but Violet took it up a notch by putting both legs out.

Eddie's Third Birthday

Eddie turned three last Tuesday (the 3rd). Since he currently loves the movie Cars, and especially Lightning McQueen, we decided that would be the perfect party theme.

Eddie and I spent hours poring over McQueen cake designs before finally settling on this:

Since I baked the cake in advance and started frosting it a day beforehand, Eddie had some difficulty with the fact that he could not eat it. So, he settled for gazing at it and whispering, "I love you, cake," in the time leading up to the party.

Once Eddie's cousins and friends arrived, he opened presents. He got tons of cars, a couple of buckets, some books, and some Batman underwear. He was especially excited that he got another McQueen car (his fourth) and McKing (which is what he calls The King).

After the gifts were opened, he blew out his candles (with a bit of help from Daddy) and we cut the cake. Eddie was too busy lining up his McQueens to be bothered with eating cake and ice cream.

All in all, it was a fun birthday for Eddie. Thanks to those who celebrated with us and showered him in gifts!

Today I took Eddie in for his three year check up. He weighed in at 33.5 pounds and measured 38 inches tall. That is pretty average, about 65th percentile on both. He impressed me by handling the doctor's exam like a champ. And Violet sat in the car seat smiling throughout. I think it was the easiest doctor appointment we've ever had with Eddie.

We sure love our boy and could not imagine life without him. He makes us laugh every day. Sometimes he baffles me with how smart he is. He is learning his letters and loves the letter W. He can count to ten, though he sometimes gets lost after 7. And he is really starting to grow out of his shyness and wants every kid we see to be his friend and talk to him.

Temple Square Visit

Today, the children and I ventured downtown to visit Temple Square with some of the cousins. We went to see the flowers and to visit the children's exhibit at the Church History Museum. I had never been to the Church History Museum before, so it was fun for all. After eating our lunches and terrorizing the tiny cabin next to the museum for a while, we walked around the tabernacle to see the flowers. I was surprised that Eddie allowed me to take his photo. Maybe it was peer pressure.

After we saw all the flowers the children could handle (about 5 minutes worth) we went to the museum to play. Since I was wrangling Eddie, I didn't get a chance to see much of the museum. We stopped off on the second floor to see the Angel Moroni statue and then moved quickly on to the children's area. In my opinion, this place rivals the Children's Museum at the Gateway. They have Nephi's ship, where kids can go fishing. Luckily nobody was standing too close while Eddie cast his line.

They have giant foam shapes to build with, computer games to play, a truck for the kids to sit in, and a place where the kids can dress up and dance along to a video. Sarah put on a skirt so she could dance like the lady on the screen, so Eddie demanded a skirt, too.

Since Violet was sleeping in the stroller the whole time, she didn't really take part in the fun. However, I had to include a photo because today I put her hair in pigtails for the first time. She is now three months old and is growing up really fast. She has started grasping things and putting toys in her mouth. Despite her insistence on eating three times per night, she really is a joy and I can't really remember what life was like without her.

Number Two

I always said that I would never have a three year old still wearing diapers. Boy, was I naive. Now here we are, with two weeks until Eddie's third birthday, and I am just happy that we've started potty training, even though I'm fairly confident it will not be completed by May 3.

After one reading of My Big Boy Potty a few weeks ago, Eddie decided he wanted to use the potty. And so it began. By now, when I consistently make him sit on the potty, he is pretty good about using it. He still doesn't understand that he can tell me in advance when he needs to go. I'm not really sure how to teach him that part.

Once he got pretty good at using the potty for #1, I started getting frustrated that he continued using his diaper for #2. So we resorted to bribes. Eddie is currently obsessed with the movie Cars. Even though he already has two McQueens, we decided that the best bribe would be another one.

We bought a blue McQueen and kept it in the closet. Every day, I would remind Eddie that all he had to do to get a new blue McQueen was to do you-know-what in the potty. I even resorted to telling him that blue McQueen was bored in there, just waiting for him to do his duty so he could come out and play. Finally on Sunday, when it was obvious that Eddie needed to go, but refusing to do so (and even claiming that he wanted us to take blue McQueen back to the store), I got the car out of the closet so he could see it, and demanded that he sit on the potty. About ten seconds later, we heard "I did it!"

Since then, Eddie and blue McQueen have been inseparable. He went to church with us. He took a bath with Ed. And he slept with Eddie and his other two McQueens last night.

So even though potty training isn't going as quickly as I would like, we are making progress. And, if nothing else, it has led to some amusing conversations with Eddie (which I won't post… because I'm sure he would hate me for it later).

Hair Horn

Violet's hair is too long and wild to consistently mohawk nowadays. However, in between sessions of conference, I started playing with her hair and got a nice horn going, so I grabbed the camera.

I had just changed her diaper, hence the reason for a changing pad being the less than ideal backdrop.

Soon Eddie joined her on the floor for some snuggles.

We've got cute kids.

A little while later, her hair settled back into her standard combover.