Good News

Kate just found her CTR ring. And it wasn't in Faith's diaper. Turns out that Faith is a pretty good little liar, and I searched through a whole bunch of fecal matter for nothing. Ah well, such is motherhood. :)

Update

Diapers examined: 5

CTR rings found: 0

If anyone is looking for a good appetite suppressant, let me know. I can make you my official examiner.

What do you think of when you see this ring? Choose The Right, perhaps? I once thought the same. However, as of this morning, all I can think about is the effect it might have on one's gastrointestinal system. The one I refer to is Faith, for Kate informed me that Faith swallowed her CTR ring. Kate didn't see it happen, Faith told her about it. I asked Faith where the ring was, and she said, "Ate it all."
Hmmm. 2 year olds can have a pretty fleeting grasp on reality, so I went upstairs and did a thorough search of the room where the event took place. I found nothing. It was time to do some detective work.

Mom: Faith, did you eat the ring?
Faith: Yup.
Mom: Why? (I know, I know, ridiculous question)
Faith: Cuz.
Mom: Did it feel good?
Faith: No.
Mom: Did it hurt?
Faith: Choke.
Mom: Was it yucky?
Faith: No, yummy! Taste good!
Mom: Where is the ring, Faith?
Faith: Ate all.

I repeated many of these questions to see if she would stick to her story, and she did. So I called the Dr. (I was worried about the pointy edges) and she just said to examine her poop until it comes out. Yipee! I am now glad she isn't potty trained.

Believe it or not, that was our 3rd call to the Dr. this week. Kate contracted Fifth Disease and I had a freak out moment because I wasn't sure what it did to pregnant women/unborn babies. My Dr. never called me back, but after doing some online research, I'm not as worried. On the bright side, Kate is rather excited about what she calls her "puppet cheeks."

Okay, she doesn't look that excited in that picture, but this next one shows her rosy enthusiasm. When it first showed up, I thought that she had suddenly inherited my flaming red face. I'm glad it's only a rash.

Did I mention Faith's aversion to normal clothing? She changes so many times a day, and is so stealthy about taking off her clothes that I've developed this philosophy. If we are at home, she can wear whatever she wants as long as she puts it on by herself. I want her to keep her clothes on, so I won't assist in the 50 wardrobe changes per day. Consequently, she has gotten pretty good at dressing herself. It's funny to watch her struggle and wrestle with a dress until she gets it on, and then proclaims with happy astonishment, "My do it! Yook Mommy! My do it!"

Then she found her swimsuit.
(She's trying to put her head through the leg hole.)

Look at those imploring eyes, wondering why I'm laughing and taking pictures instead of coming to her aid. And yes, I broke down and helped her put it on. Can you blame me?


On a completely random note, this is why I want to be a Chinese ballerina in my next life. (Even if you can only tolerate ballet, this is still pretty sweet. Watch to the end.)

Kate brought this drawing home from Sunday School. As you can see, they were learning about Heaven. Just looking at this picture was enough to make me want to go there some day, but I asked Kate to tell me about it anyway. Her reply:

~

"Well, that skinny guy is Jesus, and that big tough guy is Heavenly Father."

~

I wish I could get inside that girl's head. I think it would be a very interesting place. Kate is such a sweet girl. Lately, she is into surprising me with acts of service. This morning after breakfast, she asked me to come upstairs to look at something. She had mischievous look on her face, so I was suspicious. As I walked upstairs, I saw that she had cleaned up the play room! Then I looked in her room and she had made her bed! I gave her a big hug and told her how happy I was that she surprised me in that way. Then she said, "Mommy, my heart feels warm." :)

Next thing I know, she is calling me downstairs to see something else. And wouldn't you know it, she had made MY bed! I sure love that girl.

-----------------------------------

Faith is becoming harder and harder to discipline, simply because she is so darn cute! (okay, that's not the only reason) When I've spent a half hour trying to get her to do something (put shoes on, change diaper, clean up toys) and I'm about at my wits end, she will sweetly say, "Okay Mommy!" like she'd been planning on doing it all along. She is really starting to talk now. Her favorite phrases are "MY do it!" and "That thingy." She also adds "member?" (remember?) to the end of most sentences. It's funny, Kate used to do the same thing. Faith does a lot of things that Kate does. She already into princesses, unfortunately. Whenever she plays princess, she insists on being "Jasmine-Belle." Does it disturb anyone else that she knows their names?

Faith loves pretty dresses. If she can't wear one, she wants to be naked. This makes getting ready in the morning quite difficult. The dresses she likes are sun dresses with no sleeves, and she won't wear anything under them. It's winter, so she can't wear that, of course! But she doesn't give up.

Ever.

She is one tenacious kid. Her persnicketiness will pay off some day, I'm sure of it. Faith sleeps in a big girl bed now, and is enjoying the freedom immensely. She comes down several times each night to show us some new ouchie. Most of the time, she hasn't decided where it is yet, and quickly has to come up with something. Again, it's frustrating, but she is so darn cute about it, how can I get mad? I'm pretty good about keeping my stern face and not laughing until they've left the room, but I still don't think they take me very seriously. Maybe I'll follow Bill Cosby's example and start holding nightly beatings.

Happy JoyGerm Day Newsletter

In honor of this national holiday, I thought I'd send out an update on our little family. (Come on, everybody does a Christmas newsletter!)

Last month, Kate turned 4 and Faith turned 2. They are both sweet girls that are really really funny. Kate loves princesses and fairies and dancing, and Faith loves everything that Kate loves. Faith is going to grow up to be the big boss of something. She really likes it when other people do what she wants them to do. She is the most stubborn person I know, and it will take her far in life! Right now, Kate is VERY excited that a new baby will be coming to our family soon! Yup, I hopped on the bandwagon, and I'm due August 6, 2010. Kate is now more cautious around me, and tries to not jump on my stomach so much when we wrestle. Mike is still at Micron and really enjoys his work there. We recently decided to try something new as a family, so we took up figure skating. Those of you who know me well will not be a bit surprised at this. Those of you who know Mike well won't believe that he would ever do such a thing. Well, here's a picture to prove it:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/BCYpfSokP02NRhB4

Hope you have a wonderful JoyGerm Day!

Mike, Suzy, Kate, Faith and little Raul Garrett

Fall Recap: CA

In October, we took a trip to Southern California to go to some of the attractions down there and spend time with family. Get ready for a ton of pictures.

The plane ride was surprisingly pleasant!

This is the only animal we waited in line to see at Disneyland. Luckily, Kate and Faith were more in to the rides.

This is some pier I can't remember the name of in San Diego.

Sea World!

My cutie niece Alison

I was able to get the whale to jump for the camera, but I hold no such sway over my own children.

All the little girls loved Mike :)

Believe it or not, we actually got away with not going back to the hotel for Faith's nap each day. She did just fine in the stroller. The one day we went to the hotel for nap time, neither Kate nor Faith slept. In fact, those sneaky little girls got into my makeup bag and applied liberal amounts of mascara. Faith had it everywhere, but Kate kept it exclusively on her lashes. As I examined them, I also noticed that she had cut all the eyelashes off of one eye. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or be horrified that she had scissors that close to her eye! FYI: Eyelashes take approximately 2 months to grow back.

"Who are you tellin to keep their arms and legs in?"

This was Grandma's kind of ride.

This was not.

(That low-riding was not for Faith's sake)

Thanks for being a trooper Mom!

Please note the sequence of events in these next few photos. Kate hugs Zoe as Elmo approaches.

Zoe distracts me while Elmo works his magic.

"Come with me, little girl. I'll give you some candy."

I then look up to see Elmo leading unsuspecting Kate off to some tent. It is also rather distressing to note that the girl's father is simply taking pictures of the abduction.

So it turned out to be a photo booth. Still, large creepy animals/monsters shouldn't take children away without parental consent.


On Sunday we walked around the San Diego temple and borrowed some of their flowers...

Isn't it spectacular? Kate says it is way prettier than her temple. :)



Then we went to Balboa Park. We walked around a bit and the kids danced on the big, beautiful stage.

Kate's pulling a Michael Jackson.

Actually, she really had to go, and this was a reeeeally big park. We had to crash a formal dinner event to find the nearest bathroom.





Next up, Sand Diego ZOO! We sure didn't take many pictures, but the kids loved the playground and the polar bears. Okay, I loved the polar bears, and told them that they did too. Kate also really liked the hippos, and Faith always loves ducks. I saw the biggest baboon I've ever seen. I couldn't believe how huge it was! No, we didn't get a picture, so you'll have to imagine it.

That's not it. That's a fake gorilla.

The petting zoo was a huge hit. Faith hugged every sheep and goat there at least twice.

Mike and I reasoned that if we let Kate get her face painted, we wouldn't have to buy her a princess dress.

Fortunately, Kate really wasn't that into Princesses the whole time. At Disneyland, we got in line to see the Princesses and it was a 1.5 hour wait. I asked her how bad she wanted to see them, and she said she wanted to go on Thundermountain!



Universal Studios

This place turned out to be the only thing good for little kids at Universal. FYI: Don't take small children to Universal Studios around Halloween. They are all set up for "Nights of Horror" and it was decorated to the theme of "Saw," a movie that I have not seen, but must assume has lots of dead and mutilated bodies in it.

This room that we are in had tons of these little foam balls and almost as many ways to launch them at other people. It was really fun for all of us :)

Even the vampire's seductively velvet voice and astonishing good looks could not tempt Faith.

However, Faith loves doggies.

"You might be a doggie..."

Not to toot my own horn, but is this not a perfectly timed shot?? It brings me back to the time my family went to Universal when I was 7. We got on this very boat, and my family had me sit apart from them so I could be on the edge next to the water. An elderly couple seperated us, and I suspected nothing. Then I saw the scuba diver disappear in a cloud of blood. Next thing I knew, there was a shark fin headed our way, and there was no way on earth that I was going to stay where I was. I screamed and launched myself toward the center of the boat, using elderly laps and faces as foot holds. My parents will probably laugh when they read this, but that is only because they don't know that I've been plotting revenge for over 20 years, and when the time comes, it will be sweet indeed.

whew! They caught him!

Back to Disneyland

We headed over to California Adventure Park and we LOVED it! It was way less crowded, and Faith could ride most of the rides that Kate did. We hung out in a replica of Bug Land from Bug's Life. It was really cute. And our camera died. So once again, use your imagination.

Then we headed pack over to the Disneyland. We waited in Pixie Hollow for 45 minutes to meet...

Some random fairie that was NOT Tinkerbell. Kate had no clue who she was, but she was beautiful, so she didn't care.

On our way to the airport, we stopped at the beach. Not the wisest thing, and I should have known better since it's exactly what my family did when I was 7, and I remember sitting on the plane in wet sandy clothes for hours.

Nevertheless, it was worth it. Especially when Kate got brave enough to get in the water (it was a bit chilly). She LOVED the waves! We had a blast!

I couldn't believe how well the whole trip went. The kids were awesome! The only time they acted up was when we went to my brother's house (sorry Brent and Amber!). I think Kate wet her pants twice there. Other than that, it was so wonderful! I was worried that Faith would be a bystander the whole time, but she had a blast too! She spent the 3rd day at Disneyland chanting, "Teacups! Teacups!" I'm glad I have a fun family :) I sure love them.

A question:

Monday night we drove around looking at Christmas lights. We were parked in front of a house that had their lights set to music, when Kate asked,

"What happens if I see too much lights an d I throw up?"

I believe the answer lies hidden within the question.