Does your tummy hurt?

I don't know if this is spillover from my pregnancy with Soleil, but occasionally Caden will ask if my tummy hurts. He is genuinely concerned, and is very cute. Today the kids were playing, and for once, I was sitting down watching. This alone is apparently cause for concern, because Caden climbed up on the couch next to me. I was slouched down pretty far, and he reached over and cups...my chest. The conversation was as follows:

Caden: "Mommy's tummy hurts?"

As I move his hand down to my actual stomach, "No, my tummy doesn't hurt."

Moves hand back up to chest. "You sure Mommy's tummy no hurt?"

Move his hand back down again. "This is Mommy's tummy. No hurt."

It's happened. I turned 30 and you can't tell my stomach from my boobs. I'm gonna go do a 100 crunches before bed.

Backseat driving

It's late, I have at get up at 6 am to willingly jump into a cold pool (what??), and I'm on Scott's new laptop, so I can't add any pictures. But Momma's memory is a thing of the past, so this needs to go down now.

Yesterday it was raining and cold. Scott had his usual EQ meetings before church, so I was trying to get the kids and I out the door on time. I like to think of myself as a good driver, but I guess most people think they are good drivers, and both you and I know that the world is full of HORRIBLE drivers. (Especially in Utah.) Am I one of those unaware bad drivers? Anyways, I digress. As I am safely yet quickly driving the church in the rain yesterday, Caden calls out, "Mom! Slow down! Don't drive so fast!" 

He's 3. The backseat driving has begun. 

Achoo!! and other thoughts

I need to do some serious catch-up on my 52 Blessings. Sorry that this is all I'm blogging about right now...but hey, at least I'm posting once a week.

Blessing #4 - HEALTH. We don't have it at my house right now, so I'm really missing it. I shouldn't complain....we don't have any big problems. Soleil has a virus infection that made her lymph nodes swell so big she won't eat or drink anything. Poor thing. Caden has a cough and runny nose; nothing too big. And both Scott and I woke up this morning with the starts of colds. Just annoying, but thankfully nothing alarming. So I am thankful for HEALTH. (and you should be thankful that I didn't post any pictures of our non-health)

Blessing #5 - PHOTOGRAPHS. My mom went through her thousands of pictures and organized them into boxes for us 5 kids. I went through my photographs and discovered ones I've never seen before. It's been so fun finding these. I'm not sure how old I am in this picture (one-ish), but it's pretty funny. Some habits never die, huh? JUST KIDDING!

Blessing #6 - MEMORIES. Looking at all these old photographs but having no memory of them makes me very thankful for MEMORIES. My dear Grandmother was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Makes me want to start doing brain/memory quizzes right now. Hey - isn't that why I love Sudoku? This is my Grandmother and I on my 1st birthday. (She's an Arizonian and I get my coloring from my dad.) Love you, Grandmother!

Blessing #7 - HERITAGE. I know our church is really big into geneology, but I'm not. Yet (maybe in another 30 years). But I am thankful for my ancestors. And I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to have known all my grandparents, even some great-great grandparents. Knowing where we came from enriches our lives. This picture that I came across is a 5 generation picture of my mom's dad's side of the family. Seriously, did I have any hair??

When there's love at home

Blessing #3

What a hottie!!

Normally I would have posted about family before friends, but I had to get a current picture of Scott. This week I am so thankful for my family. I have the most wonderful husband. He is patient with me, even when I don't deserve it. He is loving and kind and smart. When he really gets laughing, he has the funniest, best laugh! He works hard and plays hard. He is athletic and handsome and sexy! (Have you seen his cute behind?) And he didn't dumb down the gene pool! (that was for my mom) I really could go on and on about how wonderful Scott is, but let's just say I LOVE YOU!!

Cuddlebugs

I love my kids. They are sweet and playful. Both are opinionated (I wonder where they get that from?), but so far it's been fun to see how they think. Which means they are smart, of course. I am years older than my next sibling, and always felt more like another mother than sister growing up, so it is so exciting for me to see these two so close in age (23 months) interact and to watch their relationship develop. I envy it a little. Caden loves being a big brother, most of the time that is, kissing Soleil if she falls down, trying to make her laugh, getting a toy for her to play with. And by toy, I mean car or train.
I also love my extended family, which if you've read my blog before, you know is numerous. (See family pix on sidebar.) I have 4 wonderful parents, 7 fantastic siblings, and Scott's family is great. Seriously. I hear in-law horror stories, and am thankful that I married into such a great family. My dear cousin Jill is also one of my closest friends. I am so thankful to have such great people in my FAMILY.
Ok, Soleil is screaming now...better not ignore that "family" anymore.

Friends

I obviously need to do a little catch up with my 52 blessings. Yesterday I hosted playgroup at my house. It was probably one of the biggest playgroups we've ever had. I think we had 9 or 10 moms there, each with their kids. Good thing it stopped raining so the kids could go outside. (and get completely muddy) It was hectic but fun having everyone here to play. While I didn't get a picture of the craziness from yesterday, I thought I'd post some pictures from when Caden had a couple of friends over. Ady and CeCe are my friend's girls, and between them and Caden, they played with just about every toy we have. I love having people over, and since we live so far from any family, our friends here become our family. So FRIENDS are my blessing for this week. My friends (love you guys!), my kids' friends, Scott's friends. I am so thankful to have wonderful people surrounding me and my family. And since this blog is about friends, I have to give a shout out to my best friend, Jenna. We have known each other since 1st grade, and have been best friends for 15 years. She lives in Utah, so I don't see her as much as I like. But she is the greatest friend and confidante. Love you, Jenna!

Also, this picture was taken in 2004 - Jenna was 36 weeks pregnant with her son, Matthew, and I was 27 weeks pregnant with Caden. (sad that our bellies are the same size with a 9 week difference, but that's another story!) Normally I would not post a prego picture, but this is the only picture I have of just the 2 of us. Time to update!

Can you relate?

My aunt sent me this email today. I don't think she even knows that we are knee-deep in potty training right now. Maybe because I am, I found this so funny. I was crying from laughing so hard. Hopefully it will tickle your funny bone too.

A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's rest-room stall. By Shannon Popkin
My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several embarrassing times that I've wished the meaning of his words would have been masked by a not-so-audible voice, but never have I wished this more than last week at Costco. Halfway, through our shopping trip, nature called, so I took Cade with me into the rest-room. If you'd been one of the ladies in the rest-room that evening, this is what you would have heard coming from the second to the last stall: 'Mommy, are you gonna go potty? Oh! Why are you putting toiwet paper on the potty, Mommy? Oh! You gonna sit down on da toiwet paper now? Mommy, what are you doing? Mommy, are you gonna go stinkies on the potty?' At this point I started mentally counting how many women had been in the bathroom when I walked in. Several stalls were full ... 4? 5? Maybe we could wait until they all left before I had to make my debut out of this stall and reveal my identity. Cade continued, 'Mommy, you ARE going stinkies aren't you? Oh, dats a good girl, Mommy! Are you gonna get some candy for going stinkies on the potty? Let me see doze stinkies, Mommy! Oh .. Mommy! I'm trying to see in dere. Oh! I see dem. Dat is a very good girl, Mommy. You are gonna get some candy!' I heard a few faint chuckles coming from the stalls on either side of me. Where is a screaming newborn when you need her? Good grief. This was really getting embarrassing. I was definitely waiting a long time before exiting. Trying to divert him, I said, 'Why don't you look in Mommy's purse and see if you can find some candy we'll both have some!' ' No, I'm trying>to see doze more stinkies. Oh! Mommy!' He started to gag at this point. 'Uh oh, Mommy. I fink I'm gonna frow up. Mommy, doze stinkies are making me frow up!! Dat is so gross!!' As the gags became louder, so did the chuckles outside my stall. I quickly flushed the toilet in hopes of changing the subject. I began to reason with myself: OK. There are four other toilets. If I count four flushes, I can be reasonably assured that those who overheard this embarrassing monologue will be long gone. 'Mommy! Would you get off the potty, now? I want you to be done going stinkies! Get up! Get up!' He grunted as he tried to pull me off. Now I could hear full-blown laughter. I bent down to count the feet outside my door. 'Oh, are you wooking under dere, Mommy? You wooking under da door? What were you wooking at, Mommy? You wooking at the wady's feet?' More laughter. I stood inside the locked door and tried to assess the situation. 'Mommy, it's time to wash our hands, now. We have to go out now, Mommy.' He started pounding on the door. 'Mommy, don't you want to wash your hands? I want to go out!!' I saw that my 'wait 'em out' plan was unraveling. I sheepishly opened the door, and found standing outside my stall, twenty to thirty ladies crowded around the stall, all smiling and starting to applaud. My first thought was complete embarrassment, then I thought, 'Where's the fine print on the 'motherhood contract' where I signed away every bit of my dignity and privacy?' But as my little boy gave me a big, cheeky grin while he rubbed bubbly soap between his chubby little hands, I thought, I'd sign it all away again, just to be known as Mommy to this little fellow. (Shannon Popkin is a freelance writer and mother of three. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan , where she no longer uses public restrooms.)

52 Blessings Project

Since I finally got on my blog to update yesterday, I also finally checked out some friends's blogs. On Katie and Christin's I found the 52 Blessings Project. I LOVE that idea! So I'm a little late and will have to make up the last 4 weeks, but better start now than never. The idea of the 52 Blessings Project is this: Once a week post a photo of something you are most grateful for. This gives us a chance to reflect on the good things we have learned from or that have made us better in our everyday lives or things we just enjoy! I think everyone needs to be more grateful for what they have now days instead of always thinking about what we want! This is one of the things we can do to be more gracious people. It will be like a photo gratitude journal.

So my Blessing for this week is President Gordon B. Hinckley.

I am so thankful to have lived while he lead and guided our church. He was such a wonderful, loving man, and he inspired me to be a better person. He was 97 years old when he passed, and he will be missed.