not so terrible

playing train

I love having a 2-year-old. I suppose 2 gets a bad rap because of the mess-making, tantrum-throwing, and hitting/pinching/biting/whatever-other-thing-your-toddler-does and somehow they get the title "terrible." Surely, Katie does have all of those "terrible" behaviors, but in my 7 years 8 months 11 days as a parent I have learned that ALL phases of childhood has its "terrible" things.  (And they all have their wonderful things too, for sure.)

But 2 (up to about 4) year-olds have the biggest pay off for me. I love how they learn and grow at this stage. They change and figure things out and learn to talk and express themselves and their personality really emerges.  One of my favorite things is the funny things they say.

Some of my favorite Katie-isms:

*Upon seeing her nightlight flicker a bit: "My nightlight has gone haywire!" (I didn't even know she knew this word. I guess she learned it from her favorite show, Paw Patrol.)

* "You the best Mommy ever!" (always accompanied by a big hug and kiss and said several times a day.)

*"Yoohoo! Hi, Family!" (quoting Frozen, her favorite movie.)(She is quite the movie/TV-quoter by the way. She quotes Paw Patrol, Frozen, and even occasionally Princess Bride.)

*"What I can do for you?" She says this frequently. She said it the other day for Jack and he didn't really hear her, but she said looked up at the ceiling scratching her head and then said, "I know. A drink of water." Then she ran to me and asked me to get her a drink which she promptly took to Jack. She felt very proud of herself for doing something nice for her brother.

*When she wears her puddle-jumper around the house: "I have big muscles!"

She also insists Dave shave his face before she will kiss him (not a fan of the whiskers), is known to say, "Its not fair!" anytime she doesn't get her way (something she learned from older siblings) and she frequently wants to wear her spinny-est church dress during the week. (I let her.) And she won't go potty by herself, which is somewhat annoying.

I can't imagine my home without a little 2.

match day

Friday might as well have been Christmas. Dave and I couldn't sleep the night before, I woke up a few times in the night and then as soon as the alarm went off I was awake. The kids were excited too. They were wondering when we would know and how we would find out. We got them off to school and then fussed around the house for a bit until it was time to go up to the school. Heather took pictures of the event for us and I am so glad she did.

Every school does Match Day a little differently.  After a couple brief remarks by the Dean and the UVM president, they began calling up students randomly to open up your envelope and announce it to your classmates. It was fun to see everyone's reactions. It was TORTURE waiting though. Dave was called up almost at the end.

Woohoo! We waited a long time for this day.

The class's grand entrance.

Waiting. We were trying to decide where to stand. Dave can't stand in the front, but I can't see in the back. A common problem in our relationship. :)

Here we go... Where is it going to be?

Nervous

"Hi, I'm Dave. This is Erin. I am going into Pediatrics."

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH - Primary Children's Hospital

Hooray! Our #1 choice.

They gave the class these signs to hold up. Of course Dave chose the one with the LeBron reference.

Dave had 4 other classmates (2 couples) that matched at the U. We are so excited to be going there with them. One of them will be in Pediatrics with Dave. They are all awesome.

When we told the kids after school they were so excited to hear that we will be by grandparents, cousins, and get to see so many of our friends that travel to Utah. They want to help us look for houses and everything. We are so excited!

2 days more

Want to hear a story?

Yeah, me too. Truth be told I can't form two coherent sentences. I am so anxious for match day on Friday, when we find out where we matched for residency. I am wandering around my house thinking that I probably should be cleaning house and doing laundry but then I walk past the big map of the United States in our dining room and all I can think is "Where?" So then I compulsively look up houses in various places so that on Friday morning when we open that envelope I can have some peace of mind knowing that we will find a place to live that will be wonderful for our family.

In other news, Ana has attended school 1 1/2 days in the last week due to a snow day, a teacher in-service day and now she is sick. She is now watching Frozen for the 2nd time. I love that movie!

This is how we waited out the snow storm

If you want to watch the Match ceremony, you can follow this link. It is Friday at 12:00 Eastern time.

https://www.uvm.edu/~comvideo/podcast_folder/show.php?fn=/2014.03.21_MATCH_DAY.mp4

stories

"Tell me a story." I think this was the basis of my courtship with my husband. We would be sitting on a couch - in his apartment or mine or in a student lounge somewhere - with his legs stretched out over mine and he would ask for a story. And then I would tell him of something that happened when I was little, or past boyfriends, or whatever experience came to mind. He would tell his stories too. We both had relatively light-hearted and happy childhoods, so the stories were usually happy. And then we decided to have to same story for the rest of forever. And I think we are just about to the point where we know all of each other's stories. Once in a while, though, a story will come out that we don't know. I like it when that happens.

I am currently reading this book. It was recommended to Dave by a doctor and after he was done I picked it up. It is a collection of stories by a pediatrician turned grief/cancer counselor and it is full of beautiful stories of life and hope and faith and truth and, mostly, healing.

Everyone's life is a collection of stories. We all have painful stories. We all have triumphant stories. We all have stories of turmoil and stories of peace. We have stories that teach us obvious things and stories that we wonder what the lesson is for decades. As we share these stories, we connect to others. We bless their lives and our own. We give and receive and learn about ourselves and others. We learn to love - truly and deeply. We become less judgmental.

In this era of social media, I hope we don't forget to tell our stories. Blogs are wonderful for sharing stories and that is one of the reasons that I love them.  In fact, sometimes I get so caught up in strangers' stories that I forget that the people in my life that I love the most have wonderful stories that I am not hearing.

Recently we have started sharing stories around the dinner table. Dave and I take turns telling the kids things from our past. There have been a few of Dave's stories that I haven't heard yet. I love it when he tells the kids his stories, even the ones I already know. They love it too. When I tell Ana that I know how she is feeling, she wants to hear the story about it. Often it helps her deal with her emotions. 

When I was young I used to beg my mom to write down her life story. She always said that there was nothing to tell. But the stories I have heard over the years have brought a lot of strength to me. Like the time when she was pregnant with her 5th kid and my dad was writing his master's thesis. My dad had never learned to type, but Mom had so she would stay up late with him while he wrote it out by hand and she typed it. While he was writing she would lay down on the couch and sleep and then wake up to type some more. That is love. Or the time she had such a rough time handling the kids in sacrament meeting while my dad was in a bishopric or overseas or something and so afterward she went home and skipped the rest of church. I was shocked to hear that from my mother, but also relieved because she always seemed like she could handle anything and I was so far from that. Suddenly I felt like I was probably doing just fine.

I love the subtitle of the book: Stories that heal. Sharing our stories, around the world and around the dinner table, can heal our hearts, our lives and probably the world.

musings of math, mars, and moving

It is still very cold outside. I am so ready for spring, but I know it is still weeks away. I can get through this. ... Two things have been occupying my spare time the last 2 weeks, both of which will probably just prove how big of a dork I am.

1. I have been meticulously going through the World of Math challenge over at Khan Academy. Basically I am brushing up on my Math skills to see what I remember and what I never learned.  And I really really like it. I spend about 30 minutes or more a day doing it.  I am not even going to pretend that I am naturally good at it. I make a lot of really simple mistakes. But I feel good doing it.

2. Dave and I over the last 2-3 weeks have been going through Veronica Mars on Amazon Prime. He started it and I was skeptical but after a few episodes we were both hooked. We just finished a couple days ago, just in time for the follow up movie to come out next week. And we will be watching the movie.


I pulled up all of my bins of kids' clothes to go through. I am working towards getting rid of 40 Bags in 40 Days. I have always liked the tradition of Lent, though we don't officially observe it, and I was trying to think of what I would give up for Lent this year when my sister pointed me in this direction. It goes perfectly with what I wanted to do to get ready to move, too. Do you know how weird it is to know you are going to move but not to know where you are moving but you know the exact date on which you will find out where you are moving and that it is now out of your hands? It's crazy.  Maybe that's how my Mom felt all those military years. I have a new appreciation for her and my sister who is currently doing that. Anyway, I now have 2 large garbage bags full of kids' clothes that are either worn out or I don't love and tomorrow they will be removed from the house. Dave and I also went through our own clothes and found another garbage bag full of clothes. Yay for getting rid of stuff so we don't have to move it! Here is a crappy iPod photo of my view of my living room. 

Also, today was my last day watching little Zach. I can't believe how fast time has gone. On Monday his mom is having another baby and won't be going back to work. He is such a sweet little guy and I have really loved getting to know his parents better. They are such a great family and we will miss them so much!

And that is my last two weeks. In two more we will know where we are moving. Time flies.

typical new england february

Sometimes when I am driving down the street with mountains of snow piled up on each side, I think to myself, "I can't believe I live in a place where this is normal. And where 25* is described as 'not too bad.'" But alas, I do live in a place where that is normal. Last week after a big storm dropped us a foot of snow, I took Zach and Katie outside to play in it. Except 2 year olds can't really walk in 15 inches of snow. I tried pulling them in the sled, but it kept tipping over into my footprints. They only lasted about 30 minutes.

I will say, the snow was beautiful. And on Saturday we bundled up as a family and spent 15 minutes building an enormous snowman that is waving to all the cars that pass by our house. So, there is that awesomeness. And not only that, I really appreciate spring and summer when they come around.

elementary school spirit week

Last week was "Spirit Week" at the kids' school. Basically each day was a different fun day. Ana was really in to it this year.

Day #1 was mismatch day. That was interesting. Mostly because I don't really care what my kids wear to school as long as it is clean and not raggity, so they kind of think that everything matches. Jack finally decided to wear bright red warmups with a nice striped sweater, but I am not quite sure he knew why they didn't match. He did get a big kick over the fact that he wore mismatched socks. It took a while to figure Ana's outfit out though because she kept asking "Are you sure?" when I told her that a bright red skirt didn't really match with a coral and purple shirt.

Day #2 was "favorite sports team." Ana insisted that I make her a Broncos t-shirt (she decided on her own that they are her favorite sports team).  I just so happened to have a bunch of plain white t-shirts to I traced the bronco onto the back. I am actually quite proud of the result.

Ana was a little disappointed to find out that not all of her classmates shares her love of the Broncos. In fact, when she got into the car after school she said, "Everyone said the Broncos stink." At which time I told her, "Welcome to fandom." But I didn't say it quite like that. I told her about how a lot of people like the Patriots around here and the Broncos beat the Patriots. I also said that Gramps likes the Cowboys and sometimes I tell him that they stink. She laughed at that and I told her it was just part of liking sports.  Also, that afternoon I chopped off her hair so I didn't have to deal anymore with crazy tangles like the one in that picture.

Day #3 was interesting. It was "crazy hair day."  Ana wanted really while hair, but after discovering that we have absolutely no hair products in our house, she decided to go with lots of braids. (And to wear her broncos shirt again. I guess she got over the trauma).

Jack on the other hand was super conflicted. First he wanted crazy hair, then he insisted that he was absolutely not going to school that day. Most of the morning was a struggle for him that included him breaking down into hysterics over crazy hair day. It seems that he didn't want to do it, but he also didn't want to be the only one without crazy hair and he just didn't know what to expect when he got to school. So I ended up walking him to class and showing him that most of the boys in the class didn't have crazy hair and then he felt better. That kid isn't the most flexible.

Day #4 was "favorite number day." Jack decided his favorite number was 23 (because that was Michael Jordan's number) and so once again I pulled out the stack of plain white t's and wrote a big 23 on it. I didn't take a picture but I loved what Jack did to it. He decided he needed to write different ways to describe the number 23. This included writing "twenty-three" along the bottom, writing "20+3 is 23" to the side of the big 23 and then drawing 23 dots, 23 tally marks and 23 squares on his shirt. I thought it was awesome.

The last day the kindergartners wore blue, and the 2nd graders wore red so that was easy.

It was actually fun, despite a few meltdowns and last minute throwing together of outfits. It was interesting to see what they wanted to do with each day. They are so different from each other and each day brings some new thing that they throw at me. And I guess they did go to school with a bit more "spirit."

my funny valentines

The kids had a snow day today. So far we have gotten about a foot of accumulation.

But of course, that just means we get to stay home and do crafts and eat heart-shaped pancakes and watch Robin Hood.

I love my little Valentines.

why my new year's resolution is not to lose weight

I have been feeling super ... blah... and grumpy. I always get this way in the winter. I know one of the reasons is because I get pretty sedentary. I am so so much happier when I am active. But I live in a climate where "warm" in January is 20 degrees, and so I don't go outside much.  And my waistline is showing it.

So, like many Americans I decided to set a goal of health. I want to feel good. I want my body to be strong and my mind to be clear. I want to eat more fruits and veggies and fewer treats.

But I am not trying to lose weight. Weight is an easy way to measure progress, but it is also flawed. People get discouraged when the scale doesn't reflect what they want it to, even if their new habits make them feel physically better.

I have never watched the Biggest Loser. I can appreciate the idea of helping people create new habits and changing their lives for the better, but I have never watched it. However, I was intrigued last week with the outcry over the winner. She weighed in at 105 lbs. So many people said she took it too far. All I could think was: What do you expect? You give a big reward to whoever loses the most weight, as if weight equaled worth, and then get upset when people take it too far. I know women, skinny women and not-so-skinny, who obsess over what the scale says or what size pants they wear. They talk about it to their friends. They talk about it in front of their daughters and your daughters. This has to stop. Stop talking about changing your body's shape.

I do not talk about my weight or my physical insecurities in front of my children. Ever. If they see me exercise, I tell them it is because exercise keeps my body strong and healthy and makes me feel good. If they see me eating fruits and veggies (and encouraging them to do so too), I don't tell them I am trying to lose weight or because treats make you fat. I tell them I eat it (and they should too) because it is good for them. It gives their body nutrients and energy. (Often when Jack is having a hard time eating his fruits and veggies, all I have to do is tell him what the nutrients in the food will do for him, and he is much happier to eat them.)

Please, let's stop the discussion about weight. Instead of telling people how much weight you have lost, let's talk about how good we feel and how much more energy we have. Let's talk about how much longer we can walk or run and how we don't get out of breath so easily.

Happiness is not found on a bathroom scale. Worth isn't found in a size 4 pair of jeans. My body is amazing. I want to take good care of it.

once upon a january....

... my friend and I went to a specialty Christmas shop. (We had wanted to go in December, but it didn't work out.) There were a lot of cool things. And some interesting ones too. Like this...

... in an attempt to get Dave's headphones off his dresser, Katie pulled the dresser over on top of her. I was in the room so I was able to catch it before she got really hurt. This was aftermath.

... I cleaned out a closet. I should have taken before pictures. See those drawers down there that now contain Katie's clothes? That thing was full of fabric in this closet. I also had a bin under my bed with even more fabric. So I combined it all into the one under my bed, got rid of a ton of potential projects that I never got around to in the last 4 years, and then put Katie's clothes in the drawers instead of baskets on the floor. And the closet is no longer overflowing.

... I took Katie and Zach to the Wal-mart. Katie leaned back in the chair like that and said, "Let's take a break, Zach."

...We made a huge fort in the front room. Despite Jack's face, he loved it! I think he was just mad that we were about to take it down.

... Katie and Zach played Super Heroes. Cutest thing ever.