The Tree House Museum

Last Monday we headed up to Ogden to go to the Tree House Museum with Grandma Van Bibber. Emma had a great time. Thanks Grandma!

Here she is listening to story time. She made it all the way through story time and singing time, yeah! But she won't participate yet even though she knows the songs and the actions.

Emma always has to line things up, she has even started grouping them by color.

The Music Room

What a cutie!

Lining up all the barn yard animals.

Doing a puzzle.

In the School House.


Trying to capture smiles!

Let's go fly a kite!

Quinn and Emma getting the kite ready.

James taking a nice snooze in the stroller.

We had just the right amount of wind.

Emma was even able to fly it and she was so excited.

Her Buzz Lightyear kite. She loves it but keeps asking me where Woody is.

She liked to run with it even though she didn't need to.

Of course we had to play at the playground too.

And watch a train go by.

Thanks for the kite Mom, she really loved it. She is not showing her excitment here because she is mad that we made her come inside.

James' Blessing Day

Last Sunday was a great day. Not only was it Mother's Day but it was the day we blessed James. The day was beautiful and warm. Quinn gave a very nice blessing to James. I am so grateful to him for being a worthy priesthood holder. We are so blessed it have it in our home. Thanks to all of our family and friends who came and brought food. We enjoyed sharing this special day with you. Here are the pictures.

James wore the same outfit that his father was blessed in.

Can you say polyester, but still so cute.

Our Little Man!
He was so good, even with all the passing around and no good nap!

Things I Wish I Could Tell My 2-Month-Old

1. "If you would just...stop...wiggling....I would already have your clean diaper on and you could stop crying!"
2. "If you would just...stop...wiggling....you wouldn't knock the pacifier out of your mouth and then you could stop crying!"
3. "If you would just...stop...wiggling...I could get the bottle into your mouth and then you could stop crying!"
4. "If you would just...stop...wiggling...I could get your pajamas on you and then you could stop crying!"

I suppose I shoudn't complain about his crying -- he's actually not much of a cryer. He's more of a snorter. I do have issues with his wiggliness though. Oh, man, the wiggliness!

Quinn

Emma's first haircut!

This week I took Emma to get her very first haircut. I knew she was going to be difficult so I took her to a place called Cookie Cutters that is just for kids and forked out the big bucks. When we got there she got to pick which car she wanted to sit in and pick a movie to watch. She choose the pick car and a Sesame Street video. Things were going well until the lady put the plastic cap thing on her. Then she started to freak out. She pulled it right off and started climbing out of the car. After I forced her back in and buckled her this time she was satisfied with a sucker. There is nothing like sucking on a sucker while getting your hair cut - yuck! She did okay from there as long as I didn't talk to her. At one point I made the mistake of saying what a big girl she was and that getting your hair cut isn't that bad. Well it distracted her from the video and she almost started to cry. Once I stopped talking to her she did great and the cut looks really cute. When she was done they gave her a balloon and she got to play on the slide they have.

Her pink car!

The before shots.



The after shots.

What a cutie! (It looks much better in person.)

My only regret was I forgot to grab the little bit of hair the girl cut off for the baby book. Oh well.

Daddy / Daughter Evening

Last Friday was one of those hallowed occasions that Lauralee circles on the calendar and anxiously anticipates: Girls Night Out. Every time she goes to Girls Night Out, I'm left at home to ponder many things, and it's not uncommon for me to drift off into a philosophical tangent -- when I really should be...you know...feeding the kids and stuff.

I often wonder why Guys Night Out has never caught on in my circle of friends. Perhaps it's because I don't have enough friends to make a complete circle. Still, I wonder why Guys Night Out has not caught on among my arc of friends. I think about this when I really should be...you know...giving the kids a bath and stuff.

If the definition of Girls Night Out is just a night where the ladies don't have to watch the kids, then I guess I do get Guys Night Out pretty regularly. I just don't spend them with other guys. I have Guys Night Out with the lawnmower. Last Saturday I had a Guys Afternoon Out with a new ceiling fan. I really shouldn't be complaining, I guess. Especially since I should be...you know...putting the kids to bed and stuff.

Anyway, I told you that story to tell you this one: Last Friday Lauralee had a Girls Night Out. To her credit, she took James with her, leaving me to watch only Emma. Emma's been around for awhile now and I'm getting pretty used to her.

We're going to be moving Emma into a toddler bed sometime soon, and we thought that maybe it would be a good idea to prepare her for this change. The crib she currently sleeps in has an assembly option to remove one of the side rails to make it seem more like a bed than a crib. We thought we'd give this a try, so I reassembled the crib in the new configuration. I called Emma up to her room. She seemed to love the idea of a "big girl bed" that she could climb in and out of with ease. She would climb in, read a book, climb out, run around, climb in, jump on the mattress, climb out.

Me: "Emma, do you want to sleep in this big girl bed tonight?"
Emma: "Yeah, I do!"

Fast forward to bedtime. Lauralee had been gone for several hours. I had somehow managed to feed and bathe Emma between my Guys Night Out ponderings. We went through the usual bedtime routine: jammies, books, prayer, singing and rocking. It should be noted that up to this point Emma had shown no trepidation regarding the new look of the crib. I stood up from the rocking chair to lay her down in the crib and Emma said: "Put the lid on."

It's not unusual for me to have no idea what my 2 1/2 year old is talking about, so I went ahead and laid her down on the bed.

"Daddy, put the lid on."

Still not sure what's up, but now fearing that this bed transition was not going to go well, I gave her a kiss, walked out the door, and started my stopwatch. 6 seconds. My daughter lasted 6 seconds in her big girl bed before she got out, opened up her door, and came running to me, whining "one more song, one more song." I'm not a good singer, even by William Hung standards, so I knew that something was up. I walked her back to her room, but when I picked her up to put her back in her bed, she turned into Jack Jack from The Incredibles -- just a big, writhing mass of fury. Finally I got it: she pointed to the unused crib side rail on the floor and said "Put the lid on, Daddy." She was upset about one of the side rails missing.

Some people (and some No Fear shirts) will tell you that quitting is not an option. That's a bunch of baloney. Sometimes quitting is the only thing that makes sense, and this was one of those times. I did try briefly to sit with Emma, hold her hand, etc, until she fell asleep. But it became very apparent very quickly that this was not going to happen tonight. I also felt that we would go through this rigamarole again when we moved her into her actual toddler bed. So, I thought, why not eliminate the middle man? Why fight this fight only to fight it again in a few weeks? And that, my friends, was when I quit.

I pulled out the screwdriver and hardware to begin putting the crib back together. Emma was delighted. She just ran around her room in a circle, pausing occasionally to ask "What doing, Dad?"

Here's a transcript:

9:37 PM
Emma: What doing, Dad?
Me: Putting the lid on.

9:41 PM

Emma: What doing, Dad?

Me: Putting the LID on.

9:43 PM

Emma: What doing, Dad?

Me: Putting the LID ON.

9:44 PM
Emma: What doing, Dad?
Me: PUTTING the LID ON.

9:45 PM
Emma: What doing, Dad?
Me: PUTTING THE LID ON! GIVE ME BACK MY SCREWDRIVER!

Because it wasn't difficult enough for me to balance one side of the rail on my knee, steady it with my chin, hold an Allen wrench in one spot and screw a Phillips head into another spot at an awkward 90 degree angle. Nope, I had to have the toddler who was constantly peppering me with questions grab the screwdriver and run to the other side of the room.

After some deep breaths, the crib was finally put together, Emma was corralled and on my lap, and I was singing Shebangs...er, I mean Give Said the Little Stream. The sweat was wiped from my forehead, my blood pressure back down to normal. I laid Emma down in the crib and was just about to walk out of the room when:

Emma: "Daddy?"
Me: "Yes, sweetheart?"
Emma: "Did you put the lid on?"
Me [in a calm voice, but through clinched teeth]: "Yes."
Emma: "Cool!" [rolls over and starts to fall asleep.]

It's totally Laura's turn to put her to bed when the toddler bed gets here.

Where did April go?

I can't believe April is gone already and that James is 7 weeks old. We are all doing well. Emma is more accepting of me taking the time to care for James. James is still a very good baby, not demanding at all. I do feel bad for him though because he just doesn't get the attention and the cuddling that Emma had. Oh well, that's life for a second child I've been told, but I still feel bad for him. He is getting so big, about 12 lbs. now. I just hope he is close to sleeping through the night or for longer periods than 4-5 hours. Here are the pictures from the last few weeks.

My first trip out alone with both kids was up to Mckay Dee Hospital so that James could have his hearing test. He passed with flying colors. We then had lunch with Grandma and Aunt Annie.

Ready for church - the only way to get Emma to stand for a picture was to let her hold the football.

Posing with her bracelets.

Ready for church with her church "packpack" as she calls it.

My precious boy!

James is ready for church with his very cute tie but since he has no neck yet he was really uncomfortable so we just put it on for the pictures.

We are not sure where his big pouty lips come from yet.

We are trying to enforce the binky this time in hopes that he will stick with it and not his thumb like big sister.

Here is James in an outfit that his Daddy once wore.

Real smiles are finally here is you work hard enough for one. I was able to catch this half smile. Soooo Cute!