Egocentric

On Tuesday, as I was giving Marianne a bath, I asked her if she'd like for me to cut her hair. She has gorgeous hair down to the small of her back and I love it. At the same time, though, it's a nightmare to care for. I've had to comb conditioner through it at every bath since shortly after her first birthday, and every morning it's a rat's next of tangles. Then there was the roadtrip we just took... At the end of the first 7 hours in the car, her Aunt Ellen gave her bath and attempted to comb through what I like to call her "carseat head" (similar to bedhead, but so much worse). I swear it took her a good 20 minutes to work out all the tangles. That evening I had Marianne pick out an assortment of ponytail holders - she chose 5 of them - and I used them all to put her hair into tiny braids. She wore the braids for the 10 hours we were in the car the following day, and had only a very minor case of carseat head when we arrived at the lake and removed the braids. As much as she hates having the tangles combed out, I wasn't too surprised when she gave me a resounding "YES" with respect to the haircut option. (Really, is she old enough to work through the cause and affect and truly understand that cutting her hair could mean less hassle with brushing every day? I have some doubts.)

The cut was nothing special. A straight cut that took off about three inches all around, leaving her hair just below her shoulders. It'll still fit in a ponytail, as I wasn't willing to go too short for that option. Most people probably won't even notice it's happened. I'm not overly emotional about it or anything because, hey, it's just hair. But it was such pretty hair.

*****

I heard a speaker recently give an idea for working with your child through tough transitions. She suggested that you write a book about your child. Nothing fancy - just a few sheets of paper folded in half with stick figure illustrations. According to the speaker, children are very egocentric, so a book about the child instantly becomes the best book in the house and reading it over and over can help the child move through the transition, whether it's a new daycare, potty training, moving into a big kid bed, whatever.

Sounded good to me, so the night before last I found some pastel cardstock and made a little book called "Marianne's Potty Book". It talks about how Marianne has been wearing diapers but they give her a rash, so she's ready to be a big girl and move to her "big girl pants". I mentioned how Ruth likes to copy her and sit on the little training potty while Marianne uses the big one, because sometimes Marianne gets a little possessive of the training potty and I wanted her to realize that it was okay to share it. I talked about how cool big girl pants are and how generally great it will be once Marianne uses the potty all the time.

I brought out the book first thing yesterday morning as I was changing Marianne out of her diaper from the previous night. We read it on the changing table and I said, "Well, what do you think? Do you want to wear a diaper today or big girl pants?" "I want my big girl pants!" she said. So off we went. There were a lot of accidents throughout the day, but apart from her pullup at naptime, Marianne never once asked to go back to diapers. On the contrary, after nap she said, "Is it time to get out of my diaper now?!" She didn't often volunteer to go to the potty, but anytime I was having a rough time convincing her to go to the bathroom, all I had to say was, "We can read your potty book while we're in there." and she'd come running. Egocentric? For sure.

In fact, Marianne so loved the book, that she actually dragged Ruth to the bathroom with her more often than not so that she could have Ruth sit on the little potty. Then Marianne would turn to the page about Ruth and say, "See Ruthie! That's you on the little potty!" (We're talking about some sweet illustrations here, believe me. The page about diaper rash has a sketch of a tube of A&D that Marianne identified immediately!)

I'm not saying I think this book will be the miracle that potty trains our kid, but I'm very impressed with the whole book concept. I'll definitely be using this again in the future. In the meantime, Marianne may manage to potty train herself AND Ruth.

Ungrateful little kids!

I hate when I find what seems to be a cool idea, and I go the trouble of doing it, and then the girls won't give it the time of day.

Today it wasn't anything big. I just saw something in a magazine about putting peanut butter on a whole wheat tortilla, wrapping it around a banana, and slicing it into coin shapes. I thought that was great! The girls love tortillas, peanut butter and bananas! I even drizzled a little honey over the peanut butter for good measure (might as well throw one more high-risk food in, right?).

Sadly, Ruth was over-tired before lunch began, and Marianne must have just been feeling a little prissy. In the end, I couldn't even wedge a bite of the thing into either of their mouths to show them how tasty it really was. Such a waste. There I was, left eating the whole thing by myself.

Note: Check out my previous post! I finally was able to add a few photo illustrations.

Not so much "relaxing", but great fun anyway

We had a fantastic ten days of vacation, but it's probably best that we're home now. The girls have been without any regular schedule for too long, and the result is exceptionally fussy bedtimes and late mornings. My hope is that now we've returned we can get back to some semblance of normalcy and within a few days all will be routine again. Thankfully my daycare lady, and not me, got to take the first shot at making that happen yesterday!

Here are some trip highlights (There are pictures to go with several of these, but sadly blogger is not allowing me to upload them today. You'll just have to imagine the fun):

- Two of the four days spent in the car included Nathaniel's sisters. Liz (pictured) made the ride from NE to MN with us and Ellen rode along on the return. It was seriously squished in the backseat, but both of my sisters-in-law were excellent sports and entertained the girls commendably with toy dinosaurs, stickers and books. Thank you!

- The weather was hot everywhere in the country, and we were actually able to appreciate that fact since it made for better than usual swimming weather the first couple days we spent at the lake. Immediately after unloading the cars we all threw on swimsuits and went for a quick dip in the water before dinner. The girls immediately fell in love with the vacation! When else would Mom and Dad let them go out for a quick swim before dinner?!

- I had a chance to catch up with almost all of Nathaniel's siblings in a way that doesn't usually happen on the all-too-brief holiday visits. With 8 siblings, two other wives, and two other babies, not to mention Nathaniel's mom and dad, things are always chaotic when we're together. We had a week of time together, though, so it was much easier to relax and communicate. (Just imagine trying to have any real conversation when dinner looks like this every night!)

- I took two trips into little nearby towns to shop with groups of the girls on the trip. (I think the boys went to town some as well, but the girls seemed more interested in making group outings). I found some adorable little milk glasses and a great necklace for Marianne. I then proceeded to leave the necklace at the cabin - oops. But Marianne and I had milk from our glasses at lunch today and I love them, love them, love them. I should have bought more than two.

- Western night was a big hit. (One night during the week, the couple running the resort has a themed potluck.) Okay, so we were the only ones who actually got into the theme, but it was really cute to see all my in-laws decked out in straw hats and bandanas. Those of you on my MIL's Christmas card list will almost definitely get a little taste of that come December, since we took the standard family picture that evening. (Here's a little "Howdy" from one of the cutest cowgirls around.)

- Remember how much fun the girls had with dirt while camping? Well this might have been even better! There was a playground just outside our cabin that was a giant sand pit, and of course there was the beach sand for building castles... The added bonus? No baths. The cabins only had showers. Luckily our cabin had a big sink that became the official baby bathing place, but washing sand out of hair was a little more of a challenge that it was up to.

- I swam. In lake water. And enjoyed it. That's pretty much a first for me. I also fished a couple times, drove a little motorized fishing boat, went running twice with Liz, and had a generally fabulous time. (That's Liz and me fishing. In the pretty black and white photo by Sam, you'd almost think we had a clue what we were doing!)

I'm so lucky to have a great family of in-laws. When I hear other people's horror stories, I often just smile to myself and keep my mouth shut, because they don't really want to hear how great my family is. They helped with the girls when needed, but not in a pushy way. They let each other have quiet time, but they know how to have a whole lot of noisy fun playing cards and board games together. Plus, they've adopted "Nertz", a card game I grew up with and taught to them a few years ago, as one of their most often played games! Since I have a good 20 years of experience on them, I get to win. A lot. Now that's fun!

Coming soon....

... a full recount of the big lake vacation. For now, though, I'm swamped trying to catch up with work and with my personal emails, so here's a little taste of what I saw last week.

One more thing

I was just reminded by Kate's post that this weekend is my anniversary! Not that I hadn't realized before, but Nathaniel and I aren't much for anniversary gifts, and since we almost always seem to be traveling over the day, we don't generally make a big to-do of it. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the significance of the day!

This Saturday will make 6 years of marriage (that's the iron/candy anniversary, if anyone is counting - I'll take candy, please). Come August, I'll have known the guy for 11 years - more than a third of my life. All my friends know the story, but some of my readers may not, so here's a recap...

I was a recent high school graduate, off to start my grown-up life at a big, fancy college that I'd never even visited before I moved into my dorm. The school was kind enough to provide us newbies with a weekend of ice-breakers, mixers and orientation activities. Yippee. It just so happened, though, that I attended the right event: that fateful scavenger hunt, in which my team of 5 or 6 girls and two boys wandered around campus, acclimating ourselves to the beauty of this new place we'd call home. Yes, I spent most of the scavenger hunt chatting with the other guy on our team, Jason, who was from Colorado (and I'd always wanted to live there someday!). But after the game finished, Nathaniel, Jason and I sat in front of the statue of Jesus on God-quad, looking up at the golden dome, and talked. And talked. And talked. It was easily an hour, maybe two. At one point, Nathaniel's twin brother passed by and he introduced us. At another, a freshman orientation organizer stopped by and snapped a picture of us sitting there (this was before they'd walled in the space around the statue and filled it with unnaturally large tulips - back when it was just a little hill of grass that you could lounge on). Nathaniel asked if I was going to the social event at stonehenge that night, and I said I thought so. He called me at my dorm later to see when. I cleaned up before the evening event - took my hair out of the ponytail and changed clothes. My roommate and I headed over at dusk and hung out for a few minutes before I saw Nathaniel heading our way from North-quad. I was fairly sure it was him, and not his brother who lived elsewhere. Nathaniel walked right up to us, looking around, then walked on, making a circle of the gathering of the students and eventually coming back to near where we stood. I finally flagged him down, since he was still searching the crowd for someone. Turns out he was looking for me, but didn't recognize me with a head full of curly hair in place of a ponytail (big thanks to Indiana humidity for the help with that one). But he never passed me by again without recognizing me, and really, the rest is history.

We didn't start "dating" immediately, but it wasn't long. I only remember one dance attended with a date other than Nathaniel, and that one only because he was studying abroad for the semester (although in retrospect there should have been a formal and an SYR that semester... so maybe there were two). We did one 15 month stint of long distance relationship while we each took a semester to study abroad and I did a couple summer internships too far for away for easy visits. While I didn't love not seeing him, I think it was good for our relationship and made us stronger in the end (despite a few pointed comments from a "friend" who assured me that she'd never known anyone to be happy in a relationship after that long apart).

We had the most amazing time in college. If I let myself think too much about those four years, it almost hurts because we had the best friends (hi, guys!), the most beautiful home (in Indiana! who knew?), and each other. We still have each other, but we'll never have that college experience again. Nights spent talking till the wee hours of the morning in the 24 hour lounge or on a bench by St. Mary's Lake after I'd nearly flunked an Econ exam, or when we were some of the only people left on campus over Easter break or senior week (because we sang in choirs that got to stick around for those events). Movie nights at Cushing or the Snite. Countless walks around the lakes or to the grotto or to Lula's for coffee. That was our courtship, and no other time will ever be as fun and romantic in my memory.

Now we've moved on (way, way on) and we have a home, two kids, a family vehicle. Nathaniel loves to take care of our yard and work in our garden (we just gave a away several zucchinis and a big bowl of lettuce last night because we can't keep up with the produce). He's installed ceiling fans where there weren't even light fixtures and he's painted our popcorn ceilings. He's completed a PhD and officially become the breadwinner for our family. He's a handyman, a gardener, a chef (when he has the time), a scientist and, most importantly, a husband to me and a father to our children. I love him more every year as we develop in the roles of our relationship, even if we have less time to talk about it.

This year on our anniversary we'll be roadtripping to a lake in Minnesota, where we'll share a cabin with 2 or 3 of Nathaniel's siblings (and some of their kids). We'll kick off a week of swimming, boating and always (with that crowd) good eating. It may not be a romantic evening out, but we'll be surrounded by family we cherish and the evening promises to be noisy and fun. I couldn't ask for more.

Busy busy busy

I thought I'd have more time to post this week so you would have plenty to read and think about while I'm away on vacation next week (because my posts are so deep, I'm sure you spend days mulling them over). However, work has been exceptionally busy, and with Nathaniel away from home for the past week life has been generally hectic. Here are a couple random thoughts for now...

Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing. At least not when the failure to fix a telescope-related instrument (and indeed the breaking of said instrument instead) results in my husband getting to come home from a business trip a day early! Sure, the thing will have to be shipped back to England to be fixed (again) and at this point I'm not convinced it'll ever really be functional. But hey! That's one more night I have him around to help me do laundry and pack. I take what I can get.

One batch of mini-cupcakes goes a long way. In an effort to eat less cake while Nathaniel was away but to still offer a special treat to the girls, I made cupcakes in mini-muffin tins. The result was 77 tiny cupcakes. Since two seems like a fair limit to allow the girls at any one meal, and I tried to eat only one or two a day myself, a week has passed and we still have 30-some cupcakes in the fridge! I'm going to have to send them to work with Nathaniel tomorrow, I think, since they're too crumbly to be a car snack on the road. This has been a good discovery for me, diet-wise. I get a taste of cupcake without feeling compelled to eat a whole one (or two, or three). Mmmmmm.

Ruth can wear a ponytail! Sort of. These hairdos were courtesy of some of the older girls at Marianne and Ruth's daycare. Braided pigtails for Marianne (I've done it before, but can seldom find the energy to bother) and a top-of-the-head ponytail for Ruth (it had not yet crossed my mind to attempt such a thing). According to the daycare lady, they actually tried to use a topsy tail on Ruth, but her hair wasn't quite up to that challenge yet.

Minnesota, here we come! If I think of anything else exciting to write about tomorrow, I will. Otherwise, have a fabulous week next week and hopefully I'll have all sorts of fun pictures and stories to share when I get home from vacation!

The rain in Spain

The girls and I spent the weekend in Seattle. Okay, not really. But if you'd seen the weather you would have thought so. Friday through Sunday it was overcast and drizzly with occasional full-out rain. That’s so unusual for Denver that we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves. Thankfully we hadn't had any big plans for outdoor events! It's a shame for all those visitors to the state who thought they'd avoid the 4th of July rush and come out to camp the weekend after. I hope they had high quality tents.

We did venture out of the house to hit the library in preparation for our lake vacation next week. (We're heading to Minnesota with Nathaniel's family - all but one sibling! My sister-in-law Renee had a lovely post about her family's annual trek to the lakes you should check out.) As usual, though, every book I searched for at the library was already checked out. I have the worst luck. I picked up a couple books I've never heard of by authors that I like, so hopefully they'll be good reads. I can probably count on Renee to have at least a couple books with her that she's already finished during her first week of vacation, too.

I did, at the suggestion of all my commenting friends, recently finish "The Time Traveler's Wife". It was excellent, as promised! I stayed up late to read, and those of you who know me well know that I place a high value on sleep. I'm adding it to the list on my sidebar. Thanks for the recommendation!

You're not leaving the house dressed like that, young lady!

This is how Marianne wore her shirt most of the evening. I swear it has straps (you can actually see them tucked under her arms) but she saw no need for them. I'm not prepared for a child who wants to run around in a tube top. No, no, no. I fully foresee the battles ahead of me with respect to what my girls are, and more importantly, are NOT, allowed to wear. But she's only two, for pete's sake.

So I let it go. Just this once. But I wasn't happy about it.

(Ignore the hair - Marianne had recently gotten up from a late nap and we hadn't bothered to brush it out since we were taking baths right after dinner.)

*****

In other news, Marianne has begun an almost obsessive habit of singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star anytime Ruth cries. Time, place and reason for tears make no difference. It can be the middle of night and Ruth crying in her bed (bless the girl for taking care of this one on her own so that Nathaniel and I can stay in bed!), or it can be mid-day and Ruth crying because I just told her she could not climb onto the arm of the sofa. It takes some of the punch out of my telling Ruth "no" when, as soon as she begins to cry about it, Marianne breaks into song for her, hassling me to sing along. If I join Marianne in song in an effort to soothe Ruth, I feel like I'm comforting a tantrum that ought to just play itself out. If I don't join in, though, Marianne will sing two words then stop. "Sing with me, Mommy!" Two more words sung, then again, "SING with me, Mommy", and so on. Kind of a lose-lose situation there.

The whole comforting-her-sister thing is truly sweet and I don't actually remember my sister ever being that nice to ME (Hi, Marci), but I'm hoping Marianne will branch out and start singing some of the other songs in her repertoire soon. Ruth cries with a fair amount of frequency, and Twinkle Twinkle is quickly rising on my "most overplayed" list.

The camping trip, in photos

This weekend was spent in exploration of Rocky Mountain National Park. Here are some photos of the girls enjoying the experience. (Yes, there are three girls in some of the pictures. Miranda and her folks joined us for the weekend. That made three girls under three years old. Sleeping in tents. You can borrow some of our courage if you want, as we obviously have plenty to spare.)

Marianne had no fear when it came to climbing on any and every rock.

Ruth was content to stay a little closer to the site, exploring trees and dirt.

Camp chairs are not just for sitting on! In fact, that hardly seems to be their purpose at all when you're this age.

When the girls got to be too tough to keep track of, the play yard, a.k.a., the cage, came in very handy.


Mid-hike, the girls take a break to ham it up for the camera.

Taking turns jumping from the rocks into waiting parental arms was a favorite game all weekend. This rock was in our campsite. The real trick was to convince them NOT to jump when the parents walked away.

On the final morning, everyone was a little tired, but still enjoying the experience.

Babies. Dirt. Fun. That sums it up nicely.

Happy 4th!

I hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July weekend. We survived our first tent camping trip with the girls this weekend. Moreover, I think it was a huge success. Yes, there was middle of the night crying. Yes, there were some very (VERY) dirty children. Yes, we spent a lot more time chasing kids and keeping them from falling off rocks than we did relaxing around the fire. But all things told, it went well. The new tent we bought served our purposes beautifully and the girls had a great time. We will be doing that again.

There will be stories and pictures coming soon, hopefully. For now I just wanted you to know that we were not eaten by bears (though we heard some coyotes yapping a little too close for comfort, which resulted in one of the middle of the night screaming fits by Ruth). Work is too busy to allow me to share all the fun today. Plus, I forgot the memory card from the camera. Oops.