Quick 5, Christmas Style

Ah, the magical week of Christmas.

1.  Alaina finally got to sing on stage at church on Sunday.  Weeks before she had gotten too sick to sing in the actual Christmas program, our friend who was leading worship on Sunday the 23rd asked if Alaina could sing with a group of kids she was putting together.  I'm so glad I said yes, because it took the sting out of her missing the Christmas program.  She was so cute up there.  She was obviously the youngest one, and she did great.  You never realize how little your kid is until you see them in a group full of bigger kids.  I watched her sing in all three services, and in every service she would randomly wave at me and tell the other kids, "There's my mom!" in the middle of the song.

2.  This week has been full of cousin fun.  We didn't actually stay at my parents' house (too full) but we went up there as often as we could.  On Christmas eve Alaina was able to paint cookies with her cousin Naomi.  (All the younger cousins were napping.)

3.  Christmas was good and surprisingly calm.  There were only a few tears at a few random times.  I was most surprised by that.  The kids really did great at getting along, and only had to be reminded a few times about sharing toys and not taking toys that did not belong to them.

A play-doh set from Aunt Jamie and Uncle Nick

A kitchen from Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Jason

A sock monkey from Apple Ben

Joya's "Sock Nockie"

A sick puppy from Grammy

 4.  The beloved Cousins on the Couch shot:

Zeke, Alaina, Oliver, Joya, Naomi & Tegan

5.  And maybe this picture was taken yesterday, or maybe we can pretend it was taken on Christmas, but here are my sweet girls at Christmas 2012:

Alaina, age 4 1/2
Joya, age 2

Happy New Year, all.  Looks like it'll be another one full of change for the Kimble family.

Quick 5

I'm a little confused about this whole end-of-the-world thing.  Are we supposed to be worried today?  Or is tomorrow just never supposed to come?  If we woke up this morning, are we safe?  Or could everything just go to pot sometime during the day? 

1.  Lee's company Christmas party was fun.  It was the first time either of us had been to Sports Authority Field, and that place is pretty swanky.  We ate and then went on a tour of the stadium.  The tour was only supposed to last 30 minutes, but ours lasted about an hour because the gal taking us around let us take our time looking at things. We got to see a box, go on the field, see the visitor's locker room and one of the fridges where they keep the beer kegs.  We were not allowed within 100 feet of the Broncos' locker room, but whatever.  I could not get over how much money people spend on going to the games.  And not even the regular people who sit in the regular seats.  There are people who drop some serious coinage on the handful of home games each year.  It boggles my mind.

Us on the field NOT stepping on the grass. 

2.  Most every morning, the girls and I listen to the Mind Bender on the radio during breakfast.  It's a trivia contest that one of the stations does here in town, and it's fun.  One of the questions this week was: When asked to name the worst food that could be served at Christmas, people chose 'liver' as the #1 answer. What was #2?  We always like to guess, and Alaina shouted out "Turkey!"  I said, "No, you need to try and think of something gross.  What's the yuckiest food you can think of?"  She thought, then shuddered and said, "UGH.  Grilled chicken."  Who knew?

3.  On our snowy day this week I dropped the girls off at our friends' and spent the day Christmas shopping.  I know it's getting late, but we had those nine days or so when the girls were sick, so that kind of threw everything off.  Anyway, it was great to get it done, especially without the girls, but it about killed me.  Not the driving in the snow; that actually wasn't so bad.  Apparently I'm just a big fat slug when I'm pregnant, so the getting in and out of the car and walking all over stores made it seem like I was trying to climb my first fourteen-er or something.  By the third hour I was walking really slow through the stores, annoying all the other Christmas shoppers that day.  

4.  Speaking of shopping, I'm the worst when it comes to picking out presents for the girls.  Joya is a little easier, because she seems to play a bit more than Alaina does.  Alaina likes to watch movies.  And TV.  But she's not hard core into anything, like princesses or even a certain TV show, so I can't even use that as a starting point.  So far Christmases and birthdays have been really hard.  I keep hoping she'll grow out of it and will one day start telling me what she wants.  It'll make my life much easier.

5.  This year is Christmas with my family.  Over Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law mentioned something about us having three two-year-olds running around at the Marsh family Christmas.  I have no idea why this never occurred to me, but it's true.  This could be the loudest, most unpleasant Christmas ever.  We'll need to document it very closely so we can hang it over their heads for years to come.

Merry Christmas, all!  God is with us.  :)

Quick 5

Oy.

1. We survived the Great Plague of 2012 Part II.  Alaina had the worst of it.  She was hard core down and out from Saturday to Monday, and didn't really come fully back to life until Thursday.  We had to miss the Christmas program at church on Sunday and the last MOPS of the semester on Monday.  She was so out of it that on Wednesday when I told her she needed to stay home from Cubbies, she started to cry about the Christmas program.  I had told her on Saturday and Sunday that she was missing it, but I guess she was just a little too out of it to realize what was going on.  It's sad enough watching little kids be so sick without watching their little hearts break too.

2.  I think that there is a problem in Alaina and Joya's bedroom.  The bedroom sits on the northeast corner of the house, and has two windows, a larger one facing east and a smaller one facing north.  The windows are fairly new and are locked.  But their room is about 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house.  There is one vent into their room and it's not blocked.  Heat comes out of it.  But it seems like their room can't hold heat worth beans.  So I'm wondering if there isn't any insulation in their walls.  I let the house get down to 65 at night, which puts their room at about 60.  The thing is they never complain about it.  Well, Joya wakes up moaning sometimes, but only because she's kicked off all her covers.  If I cover her up with her two little blankets, she goes right back to sleep.  Lee and I have an electric blanket and a big comforter that we sleep under; I even have one more heavy blanket on my side.  I don't know how the girls sleep in that freezing room.  And I don't really know what to do about it.

3.  As frustrating as two-year-olds are, they are so fun to watch as they learn to talk.  Joya and I play a little game: I say, "Joya!  I love you!" and she says, "Mommy!  I wuv you too!"  Most of the time.  Lately she'll just say, "Thanks!" and go about her business.  Makes me think she's practicing for all the unsolicited declarations of love she might receive from boys as she grows up.

4.  This weekend is Lee's annual Christmas party.  They always do a nice job, and it's fun to go.  The girls get to spend the night at Grammy's and we get to have a kid-free evening.  This year's party is going to be held at Sports Authority Field (where the Broncos play.)  We'll get to eat wings and have a stadium tour.  I'm really looking forward to it, even if it is an evening filled with awkward chit chat with a bunch of people I don't know at all.  I do kind of know one of Lee's co-workers, so maybe we can hang with him.  It'll be fun to have free food and be out, anyway.

5.  No, I'm not done with my Christmas shopping.  I'm about 30% done.  That's all I have to say about that.

Here's praying that your family avoids all the plagues that seem to be circling wantonly this time of year.

Quick 5

Having a Christmas tree in my living room makes me happy.

1.  To counteract a couple of the more unfortunate aspects of pregnancy, I've been eating some hard-core fiber cereal.  The cereal boasts 40% of your daily fiber intake in each serving, along with only 1g of sugar, so you can imagine how it tastes.  It's not so bad after I add another tablespoon or so of sugar to it.  Anyway, it's made from wheat berry flakes and straight up flax seed.  The problem is we're still having trouble with a certain brazen rodent, and the flax seed bears an uncanny resemblance to mouse scat.  I literally have to tell myself with each bite that I am NOT eating mouse poop. 

2.  Speaking of our unwanted house guest, that little booger is getting super brave.  We're starting to see him most days, shortly after the girls are both in bed.  He boldly trolls around under our dining room table, which is in full view of our living room where we are sitting each night.  Apparently he does not care that we can see him.  And it vexes us.

3.  Poor little Joya.  She woke up at midnight on Monday (Tuesday?) and puked in her bed.  She ran a fever all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday.  Then the stomach bug moved into her lower intestines and have been causing her MUCH discomfort ever since.  We even ended up at the doctor's office yesterday evening because she was crying so much about it.  I was pretty concerned about it being a UTI or something, but I'm more convinced that it is just related to the stomach bug and is truly in her intestines.  We spent an hour at the doctor's office trying to get a sample to test for a UTI, but the girl would not pee on command.  So I brought her home with the supplies and she STILL wouldn't give me anything.  I'll see what the doc says about it, but I'm starting to think if she has this much control over it, then maybe she's ready to potty train.  Anyway, she's mostly her normal, cheerful self and that's good news. 

4.  We don't do Santa around here.  It's really just a non-issue.  We've never told her that Santa comes, but we've never made a huge deal about him not being real either.  I suppose he's just a part of Christmas decorations to the girls.  But Aunt Mindy gave them an Elf on the Shelf book last year, so I brought it out this year.  We read the story and named the elf (Jingles.)  And then I started moving him around each night.  And Alaina is simply baffled at how he gets in his new spot each day.  I guess you don't have to make a big deal about magic for kids to latch on and believe. 

5.  We've lived in our house for six months now.  There are still a few boxes to be unpacked, and much decorating to do, which I am aware is very lame.  I've been threatening to just take the unpacked boxes to the Salvation Army.  We haven't needed any of that stuff for six months, so surely we won't be sad to live without it.  Maybe my New Year's resolution will be to follow through on that.  Anyway, our walls are still fairly bare, and it's made decorating for Christmas difficult.  I have plenty of stuff on hang on the walls, and I'd usually just put it where something else belongs.  But I don't want to create new holes in the walls just to hang Christmas stuff, without a plan to replace it with something in January.  So I had to put away most of our stuff this year.  Our living room is nice and festive, and the rest of the house looks like it always does: bare and sad.

And that's all she wrote.  Merry Christmas!

Quick 5

Greetings!

1. I don't ever really have a problem with laundry.  I know there are a lot of people who can't seem to stay on top of it, but I've always just done it all in one day.  Tuesday is laundry day around here.  If I do it all in one day, it allows me to wash diapers every other day without feeling overwhelmed.  Anyway, I was able to do laundry twice on our trip; once on Tuesday, and once on Friday when I was packing up to come home.  It was so nice to get home and unload clean clothes rather than bags of dirty ones.  I thought for sure that this week Tuesday would be a light laundry day, since I did the bulk of it on Friday.  But somehow between Friday and Tuesday, we managed to get a whole week's worth of laundry piled up.  I don't understand it.  We don't have more this time of year.  Where did it all come from?  I finally understand why people feel overwhelmed with laundry.  It really does multiply.  (I got it all done on Tuesday, but I'm still a little baffled.)

2.  On Wednesday we got home from our errand, and I opened our front door and stepped inside the house just in time to watch a mouse run from our living room into our dining room.  I shrieked and commanded the girls to stay put, then stomped into the dining room and kitchen, hopefully to startle the brazen vermin out of whatever hiding place he had found.  But I couldn't find him.  There really aren't any places to go, except down our vents, which don't have covers.  (It's on our to-do list, people.)  Do mice live in vents?  Anyway, Lee set traps, and I thought for sure we'd nab him in the first night.  No such luck.  Nothing like going to sleep at night knowing there's a nasty little creeper in the house.

3.  I'm now 27 weeks pregnant, and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to put on socks.  I'm well aware that I'm blessed with a ginormous belly when I'm with child, but this is getting silly.  I suppose I didn't notice with Joya, because I was able to wear flip flops until she was born in mid-October.  But I really need socks now.  I just might get to the point where I need Lee to put them on for me.  Which he'll love, on the days he gets up way later than me.  And then there are the days when he's already out the door before I'm dressed...what will I do then?

4.  Speaking of large bellies, random strangers are starting to see me in stores and politely asking, "Oh, are you due soon?"  I just smile and say no, I have three more months to go.  They smile back and move on their way.  If people are asking me this now, then I can only assume that soon people will respond with, "Oh, is it twins?"  or "Bless your heart!"  Mostly I just want to tell them that they ain't seen nothin' yet.

5.  My friend Becky has been talking up the Les Mis movie for quite some time now.  I tried cracking open the book, but that sucker is a beast and I only made it 50 pages in before feeling the urge to read the more manageable Sense and Sensibility.    In all her talk, though, she failed to mention that Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe were in it.  I feel like that is an important piece of information that us regular people should know about.  That's all.


Merry December, everyone!

A Kansas City Thanksgiving

Instead of the traditional Quick 5, this week you get an overview of our Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City.  I wasn't sure I could break it up into five things, so I thought I'd just smash it all together. 

We drove out to KC last Friday.  The girls did fine on the trip.  There was snacking.  There was crying.  There was very little sleeping, unfortunately.  There was no barfing, thankfully.  We leave tomorrow to go home, and I hope we have a repeat of the trip out here, because it was all very manageable.  Of course the trip home is never as fun as the trip out, mostly because the last three or four hours are spent in the horrid places of Kansas and Colorado.  It always makes those mountains an especially welcome sight.

The girls have been living it up at Grandma's.  They've played and roughhoused and played outside and eaten and snuggled.  They've also showed their true colors a time or two, much to the embarrassment of their mother.  Nothing like having a two-year-old meal showdown with a full audience watching.  (I won, but it wasn't pretty.)

On Wednesday Alaina got to go with the crew to see Christmas in the Sky, a firework show set to Christmas music the day before Thanksgiving.  Joya had had an especially two-year-old day, so she and I stayed home and she went to bed early.  Alaina mostly enjoyed being out at night with her grandparents, aunt and uncle.  She said the actual fireworks "made me bored" whatever that means.

The rest of our trip can be shown in pictures (courtesy of my mother-in-law's great camera):

And so the Christmas season begins.  I hope in the unsavory moments of these next few weeks that you remember the reason we celebrate all month long is because God came to earth, and that is a pretty cool thing.

Quick 5

Warning: this Quick 5 is being written with a severe case of vacation brain.  Please adjust your expectations accordingly.

1.  Joya is more 2 than Alaina ever was.  She has destroyed two big, sturdy cardboard toddler books, along with a few other traditional paper page books.  She figured out a way to chew on the blinds next to her crib.  Yesterday I found that she had unloaded an entire box of Kleenex into the toilet.  And every time you ask her what she's doing, she'll call out, "Nufing!"  I think I'll be a little more diligent in looking for gray hairs.

2.  I had my glucose tolerance test this week.  It always seems to mark a big milestone in a pregnancy.  The ladies at the lab made fun of me for how fast I chugged that nasty juice.  My theory is, once you start it don't stop, because then you'll really realize how gross it is and might not be able to choke the rest down.  They all wanted to see me with a beer.  I didn't have the heart to tell them that I've never chugged a beer in my life.  (My test results were normal, in case you were wondering.)

3.  Whose bright idea was it to buy a house?  We've lived here less than six months and we've already had to replace the motor on the a/c, replace a spring on the garage door, and have the furnace serviced because it wasn't working right.  Apparently the furnace was the dirtiest one the guy had seen in 30 years.  And he said that he hoped he got there in time, because we were dangerously close to have the motor burn out on that one too.  I suppose this is a lesson in "You Get What You Pay For."  Because of all this, our lovely dead dead dead pine tree stands tall and brown in our front yard.  Every time we think we have the moola to have that puppy cut down, something else pops up.  It's like the tree has nine lives, only it's dead.

4.  We leave for Kansas City tomorrow.  I'm ready for a week away.  But I'm also slightly dreading the drive, since the last time we drove across Kansas Alaina puked the whole way.  We're hoping that the smoother ride of the van makes it easier on her tummy.  Regardless, I am packing an entire car sickness kit: towels for her to sit on, paper towels, plastic grocery bags, wipes, two extra changes of clothes and ziploc bags (which make excellent barf bags.)  She will also not be allowed to have any dairy products for the duration of the drive.  Mostly I hope we don't need any of it.

5.  I'm afraid I'm not feeling very thankful this month.  I've caught myself rolling my eyes at all the daily thankful posts on Facebook, and I know that this attitude of my heart is very wrong.  Really, it's been a crappy month, and no one seems to care.  But I read a book once where the author noticed that when Jesus did miracles, thanksgiving always preceded it.  So, even though I still don't have warm fuzzies in my heart, I am thankful for many things.  My healthy three girls, my husband and his job, the fact that we have money each month to pay our bills, and my electric blanket.  Maybe the warm fuzzies will come on vacation.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. 

Quick 5

1.  On Tuesday, Joya got the stomach flu.  Thankfully, she only threw up twice and was mostly cheerful all day.

2.  On Tuesday night, Obama was re-elected.

3.  On Wednesday, I got the stomach flu.  It hit me with a vengeance.  Thankfully Lee was able to come home from work early and take care of the girls for the rest of the afternoon/evening, because I definitely got worse as the day went on.

4.  On Thursday night, Alaina got the stomach flu.  She stayed up half the night throwing up.

5.  On Thursday night, about 3 hours after Alaina, Lee got the stomach flu.  He took care of himself while I took care of Alaina.

I believe that all five of these events are distinctly related.

Quick 5

For a million reasons, welcome November!  I'm SO glad to see you.

1.  The girls both had well check-ups with our new pediatrician this week.  He really is as nice as everyone said he would be.  And the girls checked out great, of course.  Joya is still a super tall girl, and Alaina is growing along just fine.  The doctor was slightly concerned that Joya can't walk up stairs by herself yet.  That's a big Mommy Fail, since we've blocked off the stairs at our house and I just never let her use them.  Apparently she really needs to learn to walk up the stairs to help build her thigh muscles.  So now we need to practice as often as we can.  I suppose that means letting go of my fear of her falling down the stairs and take down the baby gate.  Lots of kids have fallen down the stairs and survived, right?

2.  Confession: I've been listening to Christmas music for over a week now.  Not all the time, just sometimes.  Mostly at night when I'm working on the never-ending rag quilt for Alaina.  There's just something about hearing the music that makes me contemplate the fact that God came to earth, just to save us.  It's a delicious feeling.

3.  This Sunday is my most un-favorite time change.  I like the one in the spring better, because it is much easier to force my girls out of bed an hour earlier than it is to try and get them to sleep an hour later.  Joya wakes up around 6:45 like clock-work these days.  She's ::fairly:: quiet when she wakes up, but not exactly.  So we plan to go to my parents on Saturday and do everything we can to wear them out.  And maybe stay out later.  I know that generally putting kids to bed later does NOT guarantee that they'll sleep in, but I do know that putting them to bed on time will probably mean that they wake up at 5:45 instead of 6:45 on Sunday. 

4.  My family has a history of naming babies in utero with temporary names until they hear the actual names.  We called my brother Fred until he was born.  My brother and dad deemed Alaina "Kiki" (for some weird baseball reason.)  Joya kind of got the shaft, and we just called her Baby Sister until her birth.  But now, for reasons known only to her, Alaina calls our new baby "Baby Meatball."  Or "Baby Meatball Banana."  It's fairly consistent.  And I'm not sure she'll appreciate it when she finds out.  (For the record, the baby is measuring completely normal.  I don't know where Alaina comes up with this stuff.)

5.  And because I can't think of anything else, here is a pic from two years ago, around this time:

Adios, folks.

Quick 5

Happy Gray Snowy Friday!

1.  Introducing our third little girl:

 2.  We are thrilled it's a girl.  We have all girl stuff.  We know how to handle girls, from their anatomy to their drama-filled mood swings.  Plus, both Lee and I had strong feelings it was a girl.  So we would have been shocked and would have needed a serious shift in our thinking if she had turned out to be a boy.  I know boys are wonderful, but we just had a feeling that our family would have three girls.

3.  Alaina was NOT thrilled about her new baby sister.  She's been wanting a brother for a long time now.  She wanted a brother to take to the new Cars Land in Disneyland (even though I told her she could just as easily take a sister.)  And every time we pass boy toys in the store, she says, "Oooo!  Let's get that for my brother!"  So you can imagine that when I told her that she was definitely getting a baby sister, she burst into tears.  We tried to remind her that God chose this little girl for our family and that He must have thought that she was such a good big sister to sisters that she needed another.  It brought little comfort to her.  Good thing she has a few months to come around.

4.  Alaina's desire to speak Spanish has crossed over to her little sister.  Whenever Joya is telling someone goodbye, you'll most often hear: "Bye!!  Adios!"  It is SO CUTE to hear a two-year-old say "adios."  Maybe I should start checking out baby Spanish vocab books and see if there are some more words we can all learn.

5.  On a serious note, I came under a bit of fire this past week.  During the debate I was on Facebook, having discussions about political things with a few other friends who were doing the same thing.  This election has become quite fascinating to me, and while most people shy away from talking politics, for some reason I enjoy a good debate these days.  However, in my post I unwittingly made what is considered to be a racial slur.  Now usually I'm not bothered by being called out on things like that because a.) I usually don't care THAT much about what people think about me and b.) it never happens because I never make those mistakes.  However, this WAS a mistake because I had NO. IDEA. that what I said was considered offensive.  What bothers me about the whole exchange was that I offended family, and I care much more about family than about random Facebook friends.  So here is my conclusion: I've apologized for the offense.  I truly didn't mean it that way, because I had no idea it could be taken that way.  I am definitely ignorant when it comes to most racial slurs.  I honestly don't think about race that much, and that might be a huge mistake in itself.  But I just don't consider someones race.  That being said, I am NOT going to Google every single way that I can offend a person of color, just to make sure it doesn't happen again.  So I'm hoping that you, as people who love me (whether by choice because you're my friends or because you have to because you're my family), will let me know when I err.  And you don't have to be mean or chastising about it; I truly don't know.  Just say, "Hey, don't say [this] in reference to [that].  [Someone] might take offense."  Mostly I'm sorry that the people who DO know these things know them.  It's sad that they have to.  But as far as I can tell, I have no racism in my heart.

Go Broncos.

Quick 5

Happy Friday, one and all!

1.  Joya's birthday party was fun for all.  And tiring for mom.  But mostly fun.  It's always fun to have the cousins in the same room, and it's always fun to eat Papa Murphy's pizza.  I'm sure Joya would have been content to open her presents over an hour so she could look at everything, but we pushed it along for the sake of time and everyone else.  She's been really enjoying her presents, which is fun for me to watch, because until now she hasn't cared much about anything.  Anyway, it was fun to have the family over to celebrate our little Joya Bear.

2.  This fall weather is making me happy.  On Tuesday, following the fastest emissions test in the world, the girls and I stopped at a park.  I definitely don't do that as much as I should, and the weather was perfect that day.  Upper sixties and sunny, with a gorgeous backdrop of blue sky and yellow and red trees.  Joya spent a full half hour going down the slide, saying "Ta!" (her version of Ta Da!) and climbing back up to do it again.  Around and around and around.  Alaina was all over the playground, but give Joya a slide and she's happy for a good while.  It was a spontaneous trip, so I didn't have my camera.  Which is too bad, because it was such a pretty day.

3.  Last week a bunch of ladies at our church put together baskets of goodies for Pastor Appreciation week.  Apparently they had so much stuff, that I, as a lowly, yet still qualified member of the staff, received two myself.  It has been a joy to have baskets of various baked goods in the house.  Cookies and zucchini bread and chocolate covered pretzels and homemade macaroons...we've had to consciously remember to eat the rest of Joya's birthday cupcakes.

4.  Apparently I'm something of a political junkie.  I've always been slightly in political things, but it's been magnified in the last couple of weeks.  Maybe because the presidential race has taken such an interesting turn.  It honestly felt hopeless and boring for most of this year, but now it's not so cut and dried.  I wish the nation wasn't so split on the decision; that seems almost counter-productive.  But it is so exciting to think we might actually get a change in leadership.  So now you know what I'm browsing on the internets these days.

5.  Our backyard is actually kind of pretty these days.  If you ignore all the yucky apples on the ground.  We have one bush that suddenly erupted into a rainbow bush.  These are the fun little surprises you find during the first year in a new home.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Joya!

October 14, 2012

Sweet Joya, you're two!  You are such a fun part of our family.  You bring joy, humor and hilarity to our household.  You love to dress up, and could spend hours in pretty princess dresses.  Your favorite toy is usually the one that Alaina (or "Lalala" according to you) has in her hand at the moment.  It is so fun to watch you learn to do things by yourself.  This year will be one of many changes for you: moving from the crib to a big girl bed, becoming a big sister, and ::maybe:: even potty training.  I think you're going to be a great big sister.  In fact, I think you were born to be a big sister, although you make a great little sister too.  Even in the midst of all your antics (like stripping down naked during nap time) I can't help and be so amazed by your sweet little face. 

We love you so much, baby girl!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Alaina and Baby

October 14, 2010

Quick 5

This Quick 5 is dedicated to my sis-in-law, Mindy, and her crappy week.  I mean, because she had a crappy week.  I hope it's everything you hoped it would be.

1.  A sign that perhaps Alaina watches a little too much PBS Kids: she has an intense desire to speak Spanish.  She's always asking me what words are in Spanish, and all I can give her is the very basics.  No joke, she will ask me for "Leche, por favor" at breakfast.  If I give her instructions, it's common for her to say, "Si, madre."  She tries to get Joya to speak Spanish too, but I usually intervene, since Joya does not even have a very good grasp on English yet.

2.  This weekend we'll celebrate Joya's 2nd birthday.  Her birthday is on Sunday, but that's a really busy church day for us, so we'll have our traditional 2-Year-Old Pizza Party with the fam on Saturday.  No theme.  No fancy cake, just cupcakes.  And we're doing pizza, because serving pizza is really the only thing this tired, pregnant momma can handle serving a crowd.  Luckily, pizza is one of the three meals that Joya will actually eat for dinner (the other two being mac and cheese and spaghetti.)  The good news is Apple Ben will be home from college on his fall break.  It'll be like old times.

3.  This past Wednesday night was Backward Night at AWANA.  I told Alaina about it, and then right before she and Lee left, I got down and started turning her clothes around backward.  She freaked out, and started crying really sad tears.  I told her all the kids were going to be wearing their clothes backward, but you would have thought that I was trying to subject her to some awful humiliation.  So I turned her clothes around, figuring she should wear her vest backwards once she saw the other kids.  She did come home with her vest on backward, but said she didn't like it because the tag kept "poking her in the chin."  I wonder how she's going to react to Crazy Hair Night in a few weeks.

4.  October is the month of the 31 Days blog posts.  I participated last year with 31 books that I recommended, and it was really fun to have hundreds of hits on my blog each day.  But this year I couldn't think of anything to write about.  Plus, apparently over 1200 people are participating, and it loses much of its appeal to know that so many others are doing things.  One of the blogs hosts it, and you can link up your blog there.  But, really, who is going to read through 1200 topics to find one they want to follow?  I think last year I was successful, because my blog was around #125 on the list.  I suppose, though there really aren't 1200 different topics.  And I didn't really want to write about something that someone else was writing about.  But I do have an idea now.  Maybe I'll move my 31 days series to January, when things get boring after the holidays.  I'm thinking of doing 31 Days of Normal, and posting pictures of Joya's plain chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting or pictures of the shoe pile in my girls' closet, just to show our fancy Pinterest blogging world that there are normal people out there who don't strive to make every single aspect of their lives magazine worthy.  It's a 31 Days that I would want to read about.

5.  Heard in the van on Monday on the way to MOPS:
Alaina: Hey Joya!  Knock-knock!
Joya: Knock-knock!
Alaina: No, it's a joke.  Knock-knock!
Joya: Knock-knock!
Alaina:  No!!  KNOCK-KNOCK!!
Joya: Knock-knock!
Alaina:  No!!!
Joya: Knock-knock!
Alaina: NOOO!!
Joya: Knock-knock!
I didn't intervene.  I just laughed my head off. 

Happy Fall Day.  It sure is pretty outside.

Quick 5

Well, I'm hungry.  Really hungry.  All the time.  But I'll do my best to refrain from making the Quick 5 about all the things that sound really good to me right now.

1.  Last Friday I baked cookies for the first time in who knows how long.  Maybe even for the first time this year.  I've had a strong urge to bake for a few weeks now, and I was waiting for our island to be up and operational to do it.  Then I was trying to decide on a good time to bake them, because I get really tired so easily.  Afternoons are out, because I can't bake something and then make dinner a couple of hours later; I don't have the energy for that.  But last Friday morning we had nowhere to go and nothing to do, so I busted out the old tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe.  According to Alaina, she's "easy at cooking" so she helped.  Joya looked on.

Alaina's stool allowed her to help.  Joya's stool allowed her to barely peek over the edge.

You don't have to teach a girl how to eat cookie batter off a beater.

2.  Much to our surprise, we have apple trees.  We bought the house and lived all summer believing we had crab apple trees in our backyard.  But those little apples grew bigger and bigger and turned from green to red streaked with gold.  Lee got brave and took a bite out of one, and lo and behold it was sweet.  Sweet and crunchy, like store bought apples (if store bought apples had bug marks on them.)  Most of the apples are actually salvageable, if we cut them up.  Now we have to figure out a.) how to cultivate apple trees and b.) what to do with all the apples.  The thing is, I don't really like apples.  I enjoy an occasional Gala apple, but if I had the choice between apple pie and no pie, I'd pick no pie.  And I've never cared for the taste of homemade applesauce.  But now it appears that God has given us many many apples that I need to learn how to be a good steward of. 

3.  Alaina had her first paying chore last week, speaking of apples.  Of course those apples are falling all over the backyard.  (They also fall on our roof, and since one of the trees is right outside our bedroom, I get to hear the lovely thunk...roll in the middle of the night.)  Anyway, Lee paid Alaina one cent per apple to pick them up last week.  She filled her bucket and brought them to Lee, who counted them and put them in a trash bag.  She made $1.04 last week.  And probably could make that again this week.

Alaina picked up apples.

Joya played with the soccer ball.

 4.  Last week I was doing dishes after dinner and I hear Lee ask Joya what she was eating.  It was after dinner, and she shouldn't have had anything in her mouth.  Suddenly he called, "Tori!  Joya has something all over her face, and she smells like fruit snacks!"  Upon further investigation, Joya had found and consumed approximately half of my green apple Chapstick.  She is now forbidden from our bedroom, unless we are in there.

5.  Wednesday night was one of the those long nights with a fevery baby.  Joya spiked a fever again and spent a good two to three hours awake.  However, she was not fussing or crying or moaning.  She was singing.  She started singing at about 8:30 and at 9:30 I told her to stop and go to sleep.  She said, "Okay, Mommy!" and proceeded to continue singing as soon as I shut her door.  Finally after another hour I discovered that she had spiked a fever, so I brought her in bed with me to try and get her settled.  Again, she wasn't fussy.  She was just singing up a storm.  She fell asleep around 11:30 (in her own bed) but at 2:00 I heard her singing again.  I gave her another round of meds and told her to go to sleep.  She did fairly quickly that time.  I have never heard a baby sing instead of fuss when they don't feel well.  But Joya did.  You would think that singing is much better than crying, but in the middle of the night when you have a tired, pregnant momma, singing is almost just as annoying as fussing, and that is something I never thought I would say.

If any of you ever feel the urge to bring me some fried chicken, don't fight it.  Just go with it.