random musings on being a mom...

My husband is out of town and I don't have anyone to share the funny little daily happenings of my life. So you all get to read about it instead.

Kids are just so fun. My sister went on a date with a guy the other night who told her he didn't like kids. She's not so interested in going on a second date. What kind of a sick person doesn't like kids? They are so great. I just got finished reading scriptures with Cole. This is one of my favorite activities. We have this old, illustrated set of the Book of Mormon. It's great for a kid, lots of detail to the pictures. He's way into it. He has a turn to "read" every night. We are somewhere in 2nd Nephi and his turn tonight consisted of "the words of Ishmael will bring great blessings and that's all." I love it. Floyd and I sit and smile every night when he takes his turn. We've heard something about Ishmael for the past five nights at least. I think he has Ishmael and Isaiah mixed up, but who really gets Isaiah anyway? He gave a talk in church yesterday. I had made little picture cue cards for him and got up with him to help prompt him. He stood up and whizzed through it with no help from me or the cards. At one point, I tried to insert a word for him and he just looked at me and said, "no" and continued on his way. I guess that means he just doesn't need me anymore. I realized last week that I have been demoted. We were playing dinosaurs. Usually when we play, I get to be Ducky's mom while he is Ducky or Little Foot or Petri (Annie is always Spike since Spike doesn't talk). He had been at my mom's house and when we are there, I basically don't exist and he just clings to her. She got to be Ducky's mom while we were there. When we came home, I had to pretend to be Grandma Rose so that I could pretend to be Ducky's mom.

Little Annie is not so little anymore. She has been army crawling for about two months and learned how to really crawl last week. The trouble is she also learned how to walk holding on to my hands and LOVES it. Every time you try to sit her down, she stiffens her little legs and refuses. She wants you to walk with her everywhere. Her favorite place to walk - the garbage. She loves garbage cans and if you leave her in a room alone, she will have it dumped on the floor within ten seconds. She found one in the primary room yesterday at church - luckily that was empty.

Oh my sweet babies. They are growing SO fast. I really do love being a mom - most days. Today was...um...mostly one of those days. Floyd is gone for the week, so of course Cole is sick - 103 degree fever and runny nose (I swear the kid gets a fever if he has a toenail snag). He even took a nap today, making a grand total of three naps in the past year. So now, it's 10:00 at night, he's feeling much better, he's been out of his room for "one more kiss" ten times, and will not be going to sleep anytime soon. His sister, meanwhile, used to be a good sleeper. Somehow I have ruined her just as I ruined him. It now requires a 3-ring-circus to get the girl to sleep. I've been in school for lots of years and had lots of child development classes, but I'm completely clueless about how to get kids to sleep. In my opinion, Dr. Ferber is a joke (hello, they are babies, not rats), Babywise probably works for some kids, I think mine have a bit too much "personality" for it ( also, I read the book and found several lies about child development and misrepresentations of data so even though I agreed with some of their ideas, I have a bad taste about it), so we do a lot of rocking and singing in our house. It's not so bad really. I like to rock her to sleep, even when it's 3:00 in the morning I don't mind it so much. And I'm pretty sure being rocked to sleep doesn't do any long term damage to the child. Figuring out how to go to sleep on your own really can wait until you are older than 1 (I promise, Cole did and children in many countries all over the world do it). She also likes white noise, but the trouble is that once she gets used to it, we have to switch sources of white noise and I've already tried the radio, the vacuum, the blowdryer, and a fan. She gets used to white noise really fast, which, although it is frustrating, secretly makes me happy. The best indication of later intelligence for an infant is how quickly they habituate (get used to new things and lose interest in them). So, even though I have bad sleepers, they are smart and adorable and we'll make it through!