Watching My Tongue

Nicole as a Pirate

So, when Nicole started to parrot everything that I say (like at 18 months), I decided to try and clean up my language a little. I don't swear, and I don't bad talk, but I have been known to say the Mormon swears, "crap," "dangit," "gosh," and "heck."

But, because I still need to say something when I am feeling exasperated or frustrated, I needed some sort of new substitute for my old words. So, I now have, "rats," "goodness," "flibberty gibbit," and "confoundit."

But, one word that I had trouble phasing out was "crap." I just couldn't seem to stop myself from saying it. So, I decided to do it in phases. "Crap" became "Crepe." I would start to say "crap" and would change it after I got out the first two consonants, "Crrrrr......epe." Then, I changed it again, trying to get away from gesticulating about french pastries, "Crrrrrr.....ipe." And then one more time, "Cripes." Which seemed to stick because it sounded old timey and okay.

Then, the other night, Nicole was playing with her toys and something didn't go her way and I heard, "Awwww, cripes!" come out of her mouth. First, it was really cute, and then I realized that despite changing my upset words, I'm still passing on formulation of language to my children. Do I really want my children to have upset words that mean nothing at all except "Blast! I'm upset!" in their speech patterns? No. I hate that I do it. I hate that it is so hard to change the way that I speak, that I have to catch myself and change my words and that I am so used to speaking that way that it is hard to stop. I don't want that for my kids.

So, I will have to find a way to be silent or express myself in multiple words rather than one word speech explosions.

Pumpkin Land!

Yesterday we went to Pumpkin Land! We go every year and in the past it hasn't been a lot of fun. Pumpkin Land '11. Pumpkin Land '10. But, this year was much better. We chose to go after naps rather than before naps because Nicole has had problems in the past with being too tired and then not having fun.

We went with Marie again this year and actually got to spend time with her there because I went and picked her up. In the past, she arrived later than us and we always had to leave early because Nicoley broke down.

Nicole had a fun time this year and actually enjoyed Pumpkin Land. But, what was really surprising was how much Dano loved it. He was SO excited! We actually did the corn maze this year and Dan was ahead of all of us racing through the corn stalks or holding my hand and dragging me along.

Dan tripped and fell in the dirt multiple times, but he just brushed himself off and kept on going. So very different from Nicole cries and breaks down if she gets dirt on her. Dan was just covered in dirt and he did not care.

Here is a pic of Cole in the Maze the last three years.

Nicole '12

Nicole '11

Nicole '10

And Dano the last two years.

Dan '12

Dan '11

 Holy cow they grow up fast!

Well we loved Pumpkin Land and actually got to look at everything this year. Now, tons of pictures.

Dan loved the chickens.

Nicole and Damon really loved the bunnies (not pictured). Damon kept saying, "More bunnies." And Nicole almost had a melt down in the corn maze because there were no bunnies in the maze.

See Damon smiles! Why won't my kids smile for pics?

Fun in the Backyard

We went to play in the backyard a couple days ago. We are trying to enjoy the warmer weather before it is gone completely. The kids were actually happy and good enough to smile for pictures for me.

Snotty face boy.

I actually really like this picture of her. She is really smiling and not making a weird face. If only she wasn't hiding behind the basketball hoop.

I kept asking them to stand together for a picture, but they did not want to both look at the camera at the same time.

So, I then tried to take a picture of all of us together. That didn't go so well either.

All bad pictures of the three of us. Oh well.

As I look at the pictures of my kids that I take I have to conclude one of three things.
1. I am a bad photographer.
2. My kids are not photogenic.
3. Or, my camera does not have a fast enough shutter speed.

I definitely need to be getting better pics of my kids because they are really cute in person, but in photos they always look a little wonky.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Monday was Matt's birthday, but we celebrated on Sunday after the second session of conference. We had all the Kimball's over for dinner and cake. Matt isn't very big on going all out for Birthdays (unlike me), so it was just the Kimball's and it was all low key.

I opted to get Matt an ice cream cake this year because they are delicious and fulfill the two requirements of a Birthday: ice cream & cake.

I had put the ice cream cake in our big freezer and took it out when the party started, but I couldn't even get the candles into it until it had been out for an hour because it was so very frozen.

 Mmm... cherries jubilee cake.

 Nicole stopped crying about nothing long enough to help Daddy blow out the candles.

It was a pleasant party without too much for me to do. The Kimball women were good enough to clean up my kitchen afterward and let me rest my poor back.

I love Matt so much and I am so happy to have him in my life. Every year on his Birthday I am grateful for him. I am especially grateful to Momma Kimball for raising such a good man.

Oh My Aching Back

A couple of weeks ago, on a Wednesday, I was sitting at work and I started to have some pain in my lower back.  As the day went on, my pain got worse and moved down my leg and into my right knee. The next day I went to the chiropractor who said that my tail bone was crooked. He adjusted me and I went home.

The next day, my back hurt worse. I went a weekend being in pain and trying not to sit because sitting hurts worse than standing or laying down. I returned to the chiropractor on Monday and he adjusted me again, but I did not feel relief from my back pain.

So, two days later (Wednesday) I went to my Family Practice doctor. She looked at my back, took x-rays and determined that it is my sciatica that is having problems. She prescribed me pain meds, steroids, and muscle relaxers.

Sciatica problems are often caused by excessive amounts of sitting. So, I applied to get workers comp because I sit all day at work. HR sent me to their doctor to get checked out. This doctor determined that it was not my sciatica, it was my hip causing problems and she cleared me to work and my workers comp claim was denied.

So, full of pain meds, I returned to work. My back is feeling a little better, so I'm hoping that the steroid is working, but I'm still in pain. I haven't been feeling very posty because I'm just trying to make it through work and taking care of the kids every day.

Hopefully, my back will heal from whatever is hurting it and I can feel regular again and not feel loopy from the pain meds all the time.

Own Room

Nicoley finally has a room of her own. I finished cleaning out the office last week, but Dan was still sick, so I didn't want to move Nicole out of the room until Dan felt better because he is very attached to her.

So, as soon as Dan started feeling better, I just did it. I vacuumed out the office, and started moving furniture. Matt did most of the heavy lifting, but I supervised.

It is a small little room, but I think it works quite well for a little kids bedroom because they don't really need that much space.

The room from the door. Nicole is getting ready for bed here.

Nicoley in her bed. I am going to get new bedding for her probably for Christmas since her bedding is all mismatched.

View of the "closet" that is behind the door.

Cole's toy box and dresser. This was the day she moved in and she had already scattered toys. Sigh.

I really thought that it would be a difficult transition for Nicole to go to her own room. Every other sleeping transition that we have done up to this point has been really awful, so I assumed that this would be the same. But, it turns out that this was the best plan ever!

Nicoley wasn't scared of the downstairs like I thought she would be, she wasn't lonely without Dan like I thought she would be, and she didn't freak out like I thought she would.

The first night, she just went into her room like it was a new adventure and she did her usual thing where she comes out of her room a few times, but it was actually less than she usually does and it was actually easier than most nights.

Dan, actually freaked out more then Nicole did. When he went into his room and saw that Nicole's bed was gone, he panicked and started running over the place where the bed used to be and yelling and looking at me with frantic face. So, we put the love sac where the bed was and then he calmed down. I guess he didn't like the empty space.

Bed time has become so much easier since we moved Nicole downstairs. Nicole can be louder and sing to herself and cry and we don't have to worry about her waking up Dan. I think waking up Dan was stressing her out because she told me that she didn't have to worry about waking up Dan when she sang to herself in her bed.

Nicole is actually going to sleep earlier than she used to. She was staying up until 10:30 or 11pm every night (and keeping Dan up with her). But now, she is asleep most every night by 9:30pm. Which I realize is still late for a three year old, but it is better then it was.

Dan is sleeping SO much better. We put him down at 7pm, we shut the door and then he just sleeps through the night until 7am the next morning. It is amazing! Nicole isn't waking him up and he is actually sleeping so much better.

Making this move was an excellent decision. I didn't think that we would ever use the downstairs room as a bedroom because it was far away from us and it was so small, but it is just right for her. She likes having her own space and she especially likes that she can go in her room, shut the door, and keep Dan out. I think that this will also make it a lot easier when we finally move Dan to a big boy bed (not for another 6 months though).

Not all of our bedtime problems are solved. She still cries, and comes out of her room, and uses a pacifier. But, because she is downstairs, it doesn't seem to bother me as much because it is so far from my room that I don't have to hear it as much. We will have to baby steps to the perfect bed time. If such a thing exists.

Happy Boy

I love this boy. And he is growing up too fast! Be a baby longer!

He Just Can't Leave It Alone

Every time the bathroom door is open, Dan does not miss the chance to go into the bathroom and get into the toilet. I don't know why he loves playing with the toilet so much, but he sure does, and it is gross.

He sure is happy about what he did though.

Apparently, the toilet needed to be moisturized. Please ignore my toes in this pic.

Company Party!

These are hurdles, but they were too big for Cole to go over, so she went under.

 A couple of weeks ago, my company had its summer party. I helped to plan this party and it was a LOT of work to set up, but in the end it turned out really well. The theme for the party was Olympics and we planned and set up a lot of games for kids and adults to play that were Olympic-esque.

We had Hurdles, and a Javelin throw that were made from pool noodles. We had an equestrian course for kids to do with stick ponies. You can see the course in the left side of the picture above. There was limbo, water gun marksmanship, nerf gun archery, bicycle and tricycle courses, soccer, croquet, bacci ball, ring toss, bowling, volleyball, rock band, just dance, bounce houses, basketball, duck wading pools, and dodgeball. Like I said, it was a LOT of work to put together and set up. I obviously didn't do it alone, I was just one of the people planning and setting up.

 The kids loved it! They loved playing on the bounce houses and getting prizes for the courses. But, in true fashion, the things my kids loved the most was not all the fun things that were planned, it was the playground. They just wanted to play at the playground at the park.

 Dan did love the tricycle course even though he didn't actually know how to use the pedals.

My favorite part of the party was the food. Some guys at work smoked pork, turkey, and sausage for the food and it was awesome. I wish I could have enjoyed the food more, but because I'm a parent, dinner was spent trying to control the kids and eat as fast as I could.

The company party was a lot of fun. I love free parties, free food, and free stuff. Unfortunately, we missed Adobe's company party this year because Matt works the graveyard shift only on the weekends and by the time Matt read his email at work, the party had already occurred. Curses!