Life goes on

So I realize that I have been M.I.A. for a while. Summer went by too quickly. I do love the fall, but not the idea of winter being on our doorstep. Here are the big things that happened:

1. We went on vacation to Minnesota. We tried a new spot this year, Vermillion Lake, and it was a bust. The fishing was terrible for everyone we talked to on the lake. But it was still fun to go and have a relaxing time on the boat. As my parents say, "a bad day fishing beats a good day at work."

2. Jack stopped coming over regularly. His mom had her baby, Molly, and decided to become a stay-at-home mom. The adjustment was hard on Ruth. But then...

3. Ruth started preschool! She and Jack go together two days a week, which I feel is just right. They attend A is for Art in the Benson Community Center, which has an emphasis on fine arts. They have 10 children in their class, and the teacher is excellent. Last week Ruth told me preschool is her favorite thing, so I think it's safe to say that she likes it.

4. Ruth also started a dance class. She is taking ballet at the Y on Friday evenings. She really enjoys her teacher and seems to be the class clown sometimes. :)

5. I ran a half-marathon! It was my second time running the half-marathon in Grand Island, and it went better than I expected. I finished in 2 hours. I am contemplating running a full marathon in April, but I don't know if I will take the plunge. We shall see.

6. I also took the GRE. I think I did pretty well, but the writing part was quite challenging. I receive my scores the first week in November. I don't know what I am going to do with the scores... as in I'm not sure when I will apply to grad school. I would like to start in the summer, but I'm not sure the timing would be the greatest because...

7. Tony has decided to apply for admission to an MBA program. His employer will pay for the degree, and he feels that getting an MBA will help him reach his long-term goals. He thinks we would be okay going to grad school at the same time, but I'm not fully convinced yet. Still some pondering to do on the matter.

8. We have been doing a lot of work on the outside of our house. Tony has done some tree-trimming, removed a lot of old bushes, and painted the porch. We have to do a few more things outside before winter comes, and then we will work on the dining room walls and the bathroom.

9. Eva will be 1 next week. My baby is not a baby anymore! She is very close to walking and is still such an easygoing kid. She and Ruth play together so well. They are best buds. Eva has to have a some tests done this week at Children's Hospital because she had a kidney infection in August. They need to make sure her "plumbing" is functioning properly. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they won't find any problems.

I would upload photos but my internet is being slow right now. So another day! Hope your week started well.

Getting older!

Hello, hello. Eva is 8 months old today. Happy 8 months, Eva!


I <3 that baby. She is wonderful. She has been pulling herself up on things. It worries me that she will start walking early. She is very good at crawling, so our house is baby gate city. She really loves going after her sister's toys and books. Ruth is not so great about sharing, but at least she's getting a little more polite about it. Eva is also in the process of cutting three of her top teeth and it's making her fussy at bedtime. She already has one of her top teeth and two on the bottom. She is starting to prefer feeding herself. She likes bananas, ripe peaches, smashed blueberries, cheerios, baby puffs, etc. She also loves our cat.


She goes and tackles him, and he's a good sport about it. She comes out with fists full of cat hair, which is disgusting. I try to keep her away from him, but she can be sneaky.

Here's a peek at our garden:

It has grown quite a bit since I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. I will have to do a separate post on it sometime. This is just one of the raised beds - we have three. In this one is romaine lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, carrots, peas and green beans.

Here's a shot of Ruth with her best friend, Jack. We will really miss Jack when he stops coming over regularly in August.



I had a birthday.

Tony and Ruth got me my favorite kind of cake, Dairy Queen ice cream cake! Yummy! I'm now closer to 30 than ever... OOOOOLLLLD! (j/k) My parents got me tickets to Wicked, and Tony and I went last night for date night. Awesome show.

And my sister-in-law, Jenny, also had a birthday. Last weekend was her party, which had a "Minute to Win It" theme. It was a blast for both the kids and adults. I'd really recommend it if you're looking for a fun party theme.Jenny showing her mad skills catching 8 pencils.

Janalee about to kick butt at her challenge. She and her friend were "team John Deere."


Marcie and Leila enjoying their winnings, and sharing with Ruthie. Such nice girls. :)


Tony and Eva the Diva.
Marcie with pantyhose on her head. It was the "elephant game." This is blackmail material for when she gets older. :D

In other news...
-I got a little job working for a hyper-local news publication here in Omaha, the Metro Neighborhood News. It's been a little crazy getting started over the last few weeks, but I'm enjoying it. If you live in NW Omaha, look for my articles at the end of the month! The paper will come in your mailbox.
-I've lost 16 lbs on Weight Watchers! Woohoo! I originally lost 18 lbs, and I've fallen off the bandwagon during the last couple of weeks. My half-marathon training has fallen by the wayside as well. But I'm getting back into both this week. And I'd really recommend Weight Watchers. I've learned a lot from it.
-Ruth's birthday is coming fast!!!! She is getting so tall. And imaginative. And her hair is reeeeaaally long, but you can't tell because it's so curly. Right now we're working on the ever-important skills of putting her underwear around while still in the bathroom (instead of running around the house naked) and not whining. She has a chore chart on the fridge right now and is doing an awesome job with it. Yesterday she got enough "smiley faces" to earn a pack of Dora the Explorer stickers and a piggy bank (found it at the Dollar Tree for $1!). She loves getting change to put in her piggy bank.
-Also next week is girls camp, and I'm going to stay overnight one night. I've never, ever stayed overnight at girls camp, so wish me luck! If you have any tips, let me know. :D

Have a happy weekend!

Easter

Easter weekend was lots of fun. I had been optimistic that it would be warm on Easter because it was at the end of April this year, but it was still pretty chilly. We went to an egg hunt at church on Saturday, which was cold but fun for Ruth. On Sunday, Ruth and Eva received their treat baskets, and we took pictures of the girls' new Easter dresses before we headed off to church.

After church, we headed straight to Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's farm for another Easter egg hunt and a prime rib dinner. Ruth loved playing with her cousins. We stayed the night in the little house Jenny (Tony's sister) and her girls just moved into. They have put so much work into that house, and it will be a wonderful space for her family.

Lesson learned during playtime: I guess Crayola makes colored bubbles now. DON'T buy them unless your kids are perfectly neat and clean and never splash bubbles on themselves or others. Seriously. While we were at Jenny's house, the girls opened their colored bubbles, and they made a HUGE mess. It didn't take them long to start flinging bubbles at each other. All of the girls had to take a shower when they came inside, and some of them still had colored streaks in their hair afterward.

This was only the beginning of the mess for Ruthie.

Chaos ensued.

Monday morning the girls didn't have school so Tony took them fishing at a little lake near Jenny's house. They caught six fish, and Ruth had a fun time throwing rocks in the lake.

Easter was a lot more fun this year since Ruth was old enough to appreciate all the celebration. We started our garden over the weekend (another blog post for maybe later this week), and Tony has this week off. Big repairs/updates to our house will be happening this week! I'm excited!

Spring has sprung

I'm so happy that spring is here! We have had a busy couple of weeks, and things aren't looking like they will slow down anytime soon. Here is what's new at our house:

1. We are getting ready to plant our garden. Last year's gardening adventure was difficult, as our garden was easily overrun with weeds and difficult to maintain. This year, we are planting a square-foot garden using the method in this book:
Basically, you plant seeds in raised beds divided into square feet instead of rows. You also use "Mel's Mix," which creates the perfect, weed-free soil. I'll be sure to make some individual blog posts about our garden as we get it put together so you know how it goes.

2. We had a leaky dishwasher. It was leaking for who knows how long, and we discovered it earlier this week. We didn't know it right away because the leak was very slow, and the vinyl flooring in our kitchen doesn't go underneath the cabinets. The inside of our cabinets and part of our subfloor are water damaged. This has meant bleaching and fans in our kitchen. We called the insurance company, and I'm not quite sure if that was the right thing to do. But an adjuster came out and is supposed to let us know today if insurance will pay for any of the costs. (Hopefully they will not just drop us, which is my biggest fear.) No matter what, a new kitchen floor and cabinets will be in order in the coming months. We will keep you updated.

3. Our babies are cute as ever! Ruth is now aware that her birthday is coming, and she likes to talk about having balloon cupcakes with blue frosting (she came up with that). Eva is now more than 6 months old, and she is in the 90th percentile for her height and 80th for her weight. She is already outgrowing some of her 6-9 month clothes. Here are some pics:

(styling by Tony)

(Ruth with her baby doll, whom she has creatively named "Baby Eva.")

(Sweet sisters.)

Happy Easter weekend!

Update (finally)

Hello, all. Here is a long overdue update:

1. Eva "Diva" (what I affectionately call her) is 5 months old! She is BIG! I think she is in the 80th percentile for her weight and 90th for her height. She has outgrown her 3-6 month clothes. She is my smiley, easygoing baby.
2. Ruth is registered for preschool in the fall. She will be attending A is for Art in Benson on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her friend Jack (the one I will be babysitting until August) will be attending with her. They are so excited to be going to school together. I cannot believe I have a child who is old enough to be in preschool. Where does the time go?
3. I am doing Weight Watchers online and have lost 4 lbs in the last week. Woot! Tony and I are also gearing up to train for the Bill Seymour Half Marathon (in Grand Island) in September.
4. Tony is almost done with is undergrad degree!!!!!!!!!! This is super exciting. He is halfway through his last full-time semester. He applied for graduation last week and should be completely finished by either August or December.
5. Eva has no more binkies. She is sleeping better than ever.
6. Home improvements are continuing. We took down the ugly wallpaper in the living room and have repaired the damaged walls. Next up is sanding, priming and painting.
7. Tax return money is coming! That means more home improvements: finishing the dining room, bathroom and some landscaping.
8. We got a new cat. His name is Zane. He likes to sleep on my dining room table and attack my feet at night. But he is a good cat and tolerates the toddlers very well.

And here are some happy pictures to send you on your way.

This and that

Wow, it has been too long since I last blogged.

Long story short, things are going well! We are all into a new routine now, and Ruth seems to be over "new baby syndrome" and enjoys being a big sister. Here are some things that have happened over the last couple of months:

-Our family joined us for Eva's blessing on Nov. 7. Thanks to everyone who was able to join us, and also thanks to those who could only join us in spirit! :)


-We got a piano! Thanks to the Zendejas family for gifting us their old upright. Ruth and her friend Jack enjoy playing on it, and Ruth is now an aspiring singer/songwriter because of it. She likes to play on the piano while flipping through the pages of the Children's Songbook and making up songs to go with the pictures. :)


-Ruth threw away her binkies. Yes, she literally walked to the trash can and threw them away. I suggested it, and she just did it. It was an unplanned thing, but she is doing really well, and I'm proud of her!

-Eva has changed from a newborn to a baby seemingly overnight! She is big - about 12 lbs already - and is wearing 3-6 month clothes. She is so smiley and chatty. Waking up to her smiling face every morning is a wonderful thing.


-On a somber note, Tony's Grandpa died. Tony traveled to Utah about a week and a half ago to attend the funeral. His Grandpa performed our sealing, and he was a wonderful man. He will be missed.

-Christmas! Wow, Christmas is so much more fun with kids who can appreciate it! Ruth loves looking at all the lights, learning about the nativity and Santa, and anticipating Christmas presents. I'm working hard to make it special for her. :)


Also, since Ruth has gotten so much better at talking during the last few months, here are some Ruth-isms:

-"I don't like it no more."
-"No! Nuffin!" (spoken when she doesn't want to do something)
-"I like it!"/"I want to!" (spoken excitedly whenever we mention something she likes to do)
-"Peeeeeeeease"
-"Perfect _______" (perfect pumpkin, perfect orange, perfect Christmas tree, etc. -- anything she sees that she likes)
-"I wub you!"

I will try to post more frequently!

Welcome, Baby Eva

Tony and I are happy to announce that our lovely little Eva Faith made her appearance at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, October 11. She was just 31 minutes shy of being a 10-10-10 baby, but the hospital had 10 babies on 10-10-10, so we were fine with not messing up those numbers. :) While part of me wished she had come earlier in the week, I know she came just when I was ready.

With out getting into too many details that would be TMI, let's just say the labor was intense. I was actually having strong contractions all throughout last week. I went to the hospital thinking "this is it!" on Tuesday night (10/5) and had 10 hours of contractions, dilated to 4 cm, and then my labor stopped. By that point, I had only slept a few hours in 24 hours and I really didn't want to stick around the hospital to get induced. So we went home and I continued to have contractions on and off throughout the week. On the way home from church on Sunday, around 4:30, I started having very strong contractions that, once again, stopped at about 7:30. I decided to go get some rest since I had been up with contractions Saturday night. I woke up at 9:15 p.m., puttered around the house, and then the contractions came on really strong, but they weren't any closer together than about 6 minutes. Finally, when I could no longer walk or talk through them, we called the midwife and told her we thought it was time to go to the hospital. She agreed. The ride to the hospital was a little crazy, as the contractions started coming very close together. We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 and I was dilated to 6 cm. About 30 minutes later I had dilated to 9 cm. The midwife broke my water, and we had a baby 30 minutes later! It was intense, but I did it!

Eva is great. She looks so much like Ruth to me, but she has a darker complexion and hair. For comparison sake, the top photo is of Eva and the bottom is of Ruth:
She's eating well and starting to get into a better sleep schedule. After just a few days of her being home, I'm convinced that newborns are easier to care for than 2-year-olds. Ruth really enjoys having a new sister. She loves greeting her in the morning and tries to share her toys, snacks, books and whatnot with her. It's actually very sweet. But Ruth is having a difficult time sorting out her feelings and has been having an overabundance of temper tantrums. Obviously, she has been out of her routine for well over a week now, and I think she's just wishing life would start to feel normal again. Hopefully it will pass within the next couple of weeks. I'm sure it's hard to share your mom and dad when you've had them all to yourself for more than 2 years.


I've been doing well -- just trying to keep up on my sleep. I have been starting to feel a little stir crazy, but I know I need to take it easy. I feel really good all day and then start to feel blue in the evening after dinner. The feelings tend to fade after a couple of hours. I have to say, it's the worst part of having a baby for me. With Ruth, those feelings went away after a couple of weeks. Here's hoping the baby blues fade faster this time around.

I am so grateful to be a mom to such wonderful little girls! Tony and I are very blessed. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, kind acts, and well-wishes. :)

Happy fall!

For me, Labor Day marks the crossover from summer to fall. At first I was sad about it, but now I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures and the smell of the fall leaves. I feel like there was a lot I wanted to get done this summer around the house and the yard, and much of it didn't get done. But that's okay -- the winter months are still good times to work on the inside, so hopefully we can get some more rooms painted and redone as the weather gets cooler.

I have been doing some serious nesting. The upstairs is pretty much all put together right now. The rooms are bigger than I anticipated and are looking a little sparse, but that's okay. I don't like having lots of stuff just to fill space. We peeled the wallpaper off in the dining room on a whim, and now the wallpaper-less walls are starting to bother me. I'd like to get the room painted, but we need to take down the wood paneling first, and that will probably be a bigger project than we anticipate. So for now, we just have an ugly dining room! It will get done eventually. I think the bathroom will end up being our next major project. Because it's our only bathroom, the remodel will have to be carefully coordinated. We've already gathered most of the supplies we need to redo the room -- flooring, faucet, new vanity, etc. We've picked out a new tub surround and paint. We just need to block out a weekend and get it done! I don't know if it will happen before the baby comes, and that's alright, too.

I'm now in my 36th week of pregnancy. It's a little crazy. Pregnancy definitely goes by faster when you already have one child and you have a lot going on. It's starting to sink in more and more that we will have another person in our family. We have a few different names in mind, and Tony and I are looking forward to seeing what she looks like and what kind of person she becomes. I'm hoping that Ruth will adjust to it well and that she and her younger sister will grow up to be good friends. Tony and I went on a tour of the new Methodist Women's Hospital a couple of weeks ago, and it will be a great place to have the baby. They have great big whirlpool tubs in the L&D rooms, and the postpartum rooms are like mini-hotel rooms. The details of actually having the baby may get complicated depending on when she decides to come because we will have to find someone who can watch Ruth at the last minute. I am going to line up a few different people who can watch Ruth and cross my fingers that one will be available when I need them. My hope is the baby will come around her due date or later because that's when my mom has taken some time off work. But it'll work out no matter what, I'm sure.

Tony's new job is going well and he is really enjoying the management side of the business. He's been doing a great job in his classes, too, and he and Ruth have been doing a lot of fishing together in his free time. Tony recently went out and bought her a little pink Barbie pole, and she can reel in the fish all by herself now. I love watching her as she discovers new things while fishing; she gets so enthusiastic about the frogs, worms, squirrels, water bugs, ducks -- little things I often take for granted.

I have some more organizing and cleaning to do over the next few weeks, and I know the time will fly by and we will be a family of four before we know it!

Happy fall! :)

Summer update #2

I finally found the camera cord! Woohoo! So here is the summer update continued:

Shortly after the Pioneer Trek was Girls Camp. I went up for a day and got to watch the girls have a shaving cream fight, go down the slip-n-slide and race in their canoes. It was a ton of fun, and I'm looking forward to being able to spend more time at Girls Camp some summer in the future.
After Girls Camp was hanging out with our friends in North Platte, the Olbrichts. Tony and Josh had an "Iron Chef"-style cooking battle and a spending limit of $20 apiece.
Both dishes were good, but Josh's use of bacon pushed his food to the top. We're looking forward to having more "Iron Chef" battles in the future.

Then we came home and decided it was time to get Ruth in her big-girl bed, especially since she's outgrowing her Pack N Play (which would make it tough to travel). We got the bed all painted and set up, and it is lovely!
Tony did a great job building it, and it's so sturdy that it'll last forever. Ruth fell out of it a few times, so Tony had to make another side rail to keep her inside. I'm just using the fitted sheet and her baby quilt right now because that's what she's used to, but eventually she'll start using regular bedding. She loves her big-girl bed, although after a couple of weeks she still won't get out of it on her own. I don't know why, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

On July 2, we celebrated Tony's birthday! He's a whole quarter of a century old now! We went on a fun date in the evening to the Greek Islands, followed by the Shakespeare on the Green performance of Romeo and Juliet. The fireworks at Memorial Park were on the same night, so we got to view a great show while walking to our car. It was great fun!

On Independence Day, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house and enjoyed a wonderful cookout and some fireworks. Tony's inner pyro definitely came out that night -- I think he had more fun with the fireworks than a lot of the kids did. :) I forgot my camera, so no pics!

This week we decided to start potty training Ruth.
I thought she might be ready because on Sunday morning she announced she had to go to the bathroom but wouldn't go in her potty chair. Of course, a couple of minutes after getting her diaper back on, she was stinky. So on Monday morning Ruth and I went to Target and I let her pick out some big-girl underpants. She chose ones with Minnie Mouse and the Princess on the Frog patterns, and when we got home she went on and on about how "cute" they were. She loves wearing them, although she doesn't get to wear them often yet because the only time she has accidents is while she's wearing them. I've been using the bare-butt method (meaning she runs around naked while at home), and she's learning to tell me when she has to go to the bathroom. She doesn't like wearing a diaper anymore, although I told her she has to wear one during nap and bedtime until she wakes up and the diaper is still dry. She had no accidents yesterday and even went to the bathroom for a friend who babysat her for a little while for me. She's had no accidents so far today. She also started going on the big toilet today using a potty seat. Yahooie!

As for baby Numero Dos, I'm starting on going to my doctor's appointments every 2 weeks now because I'm 28 weeks along. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going! I only have 2 1/2 months to get ready for this baby's arrival and I feel like I have a ton to do - painting, shopping, sewing, etc. I'm going to make a couple of big swaddling blankets, a nursing cover-up and a sling wrap. Tony and I are going to finish painting the upstairs during the next couple of weeks, and then I will feel better about our baby preparations.

We LOVE our cat! He is wonderful and perfect for our family! Ruth and her friend, Jack, thoroughly enjoy playing with him, and he endures their screams and prods very well. Here is Ruth being naughty and sitting on top of the cat condo:
Unfortunately, Justin got sick last week. He threw up at least once a day for about five days, and so we took him into the vet on Tuesday. Turns out he has a bowel obstruction, so he gets Metamucil mixed in with his food now and seems to be feeling much better.

Lastly, I'm a new Mary Kay consultant! It's great fun! Check out my website sometime, and let me know if you need anything! www.marykay.com/meredithgardner

I think I'm all caught up now! :) Here is a picture I just thought was funny. Ruth loves wearing gloves and other people's shoes!

Late-night blog

It's almost 1 a.m., but I'm still unwinding from work, so I thought I'd post a quick blog with some family updates. I'm 18 weeks along now and have been able to feel the baby kicking for a couple of weeks. We will find out the gender of the baby on May 19th. I'm very excited. :)

Ruth has been really grouchy during the last few days. On Tuesday she came down with a fever. I think she just has a cold/allergies, but I'm really not sure. I think my work is taking its toll on her, and I feel bad about that. I very rarely get to put her to bed anymore, and I miss spending the evenings with her and Tony. I think the Census will probably have enough work for me to stay at this job until the end of June or well into July, but I might leave in the beginning of June. That will mark the end of the 4-6 weeks I originally committed to. It's nice to have some extra income coming in, and my job really hasn't been stressing me out as much as I thought it would, but I miss putting Ruth to bed, and I want to be able to spend summer evenings with her and Tony. Tony and I are going to be a "Ma and Pa" during the stake's youth conference pioneer trek this year, and that's the second weekend in June, so I think I might just be done working then. My parents have been very helpful with watching Ruth in the evenings until Tony gets off work, and I would just hate to ask them to keep doing that well into the summer.

Ruth has started swim lessons and she really enjoys them. She thinks it's funny when I blow bubbles, but she hasn't figured out how to do it herself just yet. Instead she just ends up drinking a bunch of pool water.

Also, Ruth's Grandma Christensen bought her a cute little playhouse for her birthday (June 20) and Ruth LOVES it. It was so cute to watch her and Jack play in the house together on Wednesday. My camera battery is still dead, but I will have to charge it so I can get some pictures. Ruth and Jack like to give each other kisses now when they say goodbye, by the way. It's SO cute! But Tony said, "Let's not start that yet!" when he saw them do it. Too cute. :)

Well, I should actually head to bed because we have swim lessons in the morning. I hope to post more soon!

Numero Dos

In case you haven't heard yet, I am pregnant with Gardner baby #2. We are affectionately calling him/her "Numero Dos" right now. Maybe we will just end up naming the baby Numero Dos Gardner. Just kidding.

I'm about 8-9 weeks pregnant, and I'm due October 8. The baby is about the size of a kidney bean right now.


(Image from Babycenter.com)

I had my first appointment with my midwife this morning and everything is going well. I am feeling very tired and sometimes nauseated. The midwife said (paraphrasing), "I'm glad you're feeling so bad. It means your pregnancy is going well." So yay for feeling bad and having a good pregnancy so far. :) We are excited. Ruth is going to be a wonderful big sister.

My big girl

Ruth is becoming such a big girl and she has done some really cute stuff over the last few months, so I have a handful of photos I wanted to share.

First of all, she has really gotten into hats. She loves taking them off and putting them on all by herself. This is one of my new favorite photos of her:




Notice how this hat actually goes with her outfit. Luckily for Ruth, her love of hats is being encouraged by her Grandma Christensen, who bought her two new ones during their shopping trip to Target last weekend.

Secondly, as is evident from this photo (hair style by Tony), her hair is getting REALLY long.

She had a trim back in November, but I think I'm going to take her in for another one during the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to let her bangs grow out so we don't have to deal with cutting bangs all the time.

Thirdly, Ruth LOVES coloring. Her self-appointed job during our move was the "box decorator" :


The girl would spend hours coloring boxes. She came up with this idea herself, and she was actually very good about not coloring on walls. When she's really into her picture she gets this very focused look on her face, and she makes really little scribbles. I think she's actually starting to understand the concept of coloring within the lines, although she's not good at it yet.

Thirdly, the girl is a little ahead of herself with her interest in women's undergarments. She thinks her mommy's bras are quite peculiar, and whenever she can get her hands on one, she likes to see if she can try it on herself.


In this situation, she was "helping" me fold clothes and found one she wanted to try on herself.

I don't have a photo relating to this, but she has also taken a very sudden interest in butterflies. She loves going through books to see if they have pictures of butterflies and pointing out all the butterflies. I think I'm going to buy some vinyl butterfly wall stickers for her room.

Anyhow, that's what's up with Ruth! More updates tomorrow!

Baby rock!

Ruth and Jack decided to start their own percussion band on Friday.


They got out a couple of big metal bowls and some cooking utensils and rocked out. You can't tell from the videos, but their banging is extremely loud! I love how every once in a while Ruth taps on Jack's "drum." And in the second video, Jack decides to lick the spoon. :-) They're so funny.





I am looking for more things for them to do, though. Ruth has been getting bored in the house, and Jack gets bored when he is here, too. We read books, play with blocks and color every day. Ruth also enjoys her little play tent. I'm trying to keep movie time to a minimum. I tried getting them to play with playdough, but they try to eat it. Any toddler activity ideas are welcome!

The terrible...ones?

About a year ago I had a friend who had very active and sometimes mischievous 1-year-old. Honestly, watching her 1-year-old made me worry so much about what Ruth would be like when she turned 1 that I didn't at all look forward to her toddlerhood. To me, it looked like the ones were just as terrible an age as the twos!

But since Ruth turned 1 almost 6 months ago, I must admit that having a 1-year-old generally hasn't been bad at all. I actually like the fact that she can walk -- it's much better than her crawling all over and eating stuff off the floor, and she can actually run around and have fun at places like the Children's Museum or the park. I also like how much fun she is to play with and how hard she works to communicate. Of course, there are days that my 1-year-old is more than a handful (especially now that she has figured out how to climb), but she was sometimes a handful when she was a baby, too. I have to say, though, that this weekend has been by far the most "terrible" yet, and it makes me a bit nervous about our plane trip on Friday.

Don't get me wrong - most of the "terrible" things Ruth does are funny (if not at first, they are looking back), and 90 percent of the time she is a very good girl. She got her first haircut (just a trim) yesterday and was a little squirmy at first, but eventually got distracted watching other people get their hair cut and sat nicely. Here is her first salon hairdo:



Later on in the day, however, she managed to dump almost a whole bag of brown sugar on the kitchen floor while I was doing the dishes. I turned around and saw the pile of brown sugar, which she had been eating for who knows how long. :) (When I put her in the dining room so I could clean up without her "help," she kept licking her fingers and saying "mmmm." :D ) At the time, I was a little more frustrated than amused, so I cleaned up the mess without getting a photo. After I cleaned all the sugar off the floor, I went into the living room to check on her and found her playing with a pair of scissors she found in the desk drawer. Needless to say, the scissors have found a new spot on top of the fridge and are no longer a threat. Of course, neither of those incidents would have occurred if I had been watching her more closely, so I am to blame for some of her "terrible" actions!

There are other "terrible" behaviors that I can't do much about. On Thursday, for example, we did a second walk-through of the house we wanted to buy. It ended up taking longer than planned because the real estate agent forgot to bring the key to the house, and by the time we were able to actually look inside, Ruth was ready for dinner and probably some quiet rest time. By the end of the walk-through, she was inconsolable and had her first official toddler melt-down. She just laid on the floor as flat as a board and cried.

Then there was Stake Conference this morning. Ruth woke up a little too early, so she wasn't in the best mood. (The girl needs her beauty sleep!) She was not at all interested in sitting nicely in the folding chairs and watching two hours of conference. She also fell over and hit her head on one of the chairs, resulting in a good amount of screaming and a nice little bump on her head. (Poor baby, I felt so bad!) When she didn't want to color or play at our seats, Tony and I took turns taking her out into the hall and holding her. I almost got her to fall asleep, but another little toddler came screaming down the hall and snapped her awake. Overall, conference was very uplifting and edifying -- especially with the visit from Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles -- but it was much harder to concentrate with an uncooperative 1-year-old.



On Friday, Ruth will embark on her first airplane trip to Utah to visit her Grandma and Grandpa Gardner, Uncle Mike, and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Wayman. Our plane leaves at 6 a.m., so we will have to be to the airport no later than 5 a.m. Hopefully, I will be able to get her to sleep on the plane. Otherwise, I'm afraid we might have another toddler meltdown at some point on Friday morning (hopefully not on the plane!!!)

I wouldn't trade my 1-year-old for anything, but I am noticing that as she gets older, it's harder and harder to get past that stubborn, mischievous, little mind she's developing. :) Maybe they should start warning parents that the "ornery ones" come before the "terrible twos." :D

Happy Sunday!

-Meredith

Halloween Madness!

This weekend was filled with Halloween fun! Jack was over on Friday and Tony had the day off, so we made bat cookies using the new cookie cutters and rolling pin Tony's mom bought us:


We had the ward Trunk-or-Treat at church on Friday night, and our "little brother" came along. It was a dual-ward activity, so it was a little crazy, but we had fun! Ruth was a leopard and wore the same costume her daddy wore when he was a 1-year-old. She is her father's daughter:





The pic on the right is one of Tony in his costume. It's a picture of a picture, so it's not very good quality, but they look alike! :)

The "real" Halloween was last night. Ruth isn't really old enough to appreciate Halloween and eat lots of candy, so she just trick-or-treated at her grandma and grandpa's before we went to get Tony from work. She got to hang out with her cousins, Christopher and Kora, for a little while.

Christopher was a Power Ranger and Kora was Dora the Explorer. Kailyn, who was handing out candy and not in this photo, was Hannah Montana. Ruth actually kept her leopard ears on for a little while and let me draw whiskers on her face!

On an unrelated note, Ruth has discovered the joys of falling into a pile of blankets. Enjoy this video:



I'm so happy it's fall! Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

-Meredith