It was bound to happen

At some point we knew that Collin would become the subject of Clara's dress up games. He thought it was pretty fun and even did some ballet twirls for us. He was really getting into it. Notice the bow in his hair, too. Ah, the joys of having a big sister.

The Giver

I just designed the lights for "The Giver" at BYU. It's been probably 5 years since I've done a design by myself. I assist my boss on every show he does but haven't designed since before we moved to Vegas. It's been fun working on the show. Go see it if you get a chance.

Independent

Don't you love 2 year olds and how independent they want to be. Collin is now wanting to do everything by himself. And he always wants to be a helper. Today he insisted on helping carry in the grocery's and happily chanted "helper" the whole time. It's cute but frustrating at the same time. He's big enough to ask for help but then refuses the help when you offer it. Here was a typical conversation we had today.

I opened up the fridge and he saw the cheese sticks and asked for one. "Do you want a cheese stick?" I asked. And went to reach for one. "No" he responded, furiously shaking his head. So I shut the fridge. "Cheese stick" he asked again and we repeated the above conversation. We did this about 4 times. Finally I lifted him up so he could get the cheese stick out himself. He seemed satisfied with that and proceeded to try and open the cheese stick. Obviously he couldn't do it so he said "help you". So I went to try and take it from him to open it and he held it behind his back and screamed no. We repeated this scenario about 4 times as well. So I stop trying to help. By this point he's on the floor crying "open it" over and over again but won't let me help him. I finally just loaded him into the car to go to the store and while I was buckling him in I sneakily opened the cheese stick just enough to start it so he could finish it off and feel like he had done it himself. Well, that didn't fly. He screamed the whole way to Walmart. How dare I even attempt to open the cheese stick. Finally I just finished peeling the cheese stick open, which prompted more screams. I set it on the seat next to him in the cart and told him he could eat it when he wanted. He's still crying "no, open it" over and over again. I do my best to ignore the crying and start my shopping. At some point I guess he decided he was hungry enough because he eventually calmed down and ate it and returned to his normal happy self. Why the drama? I don't remember Clara being this obnoxious about doing things herself. Maybe she was and I've just blocked it.

Clara lost another tooth

Clara lost another tooth. She has now lost one on the bottom and one directly above it on the top. Between my parents, they gave her 16 dollars in payment for loosing the tooth. Grandparents just get to do that, my mom said. I told her to stop trying to upstage the tooth fairy. No way is she bringing that much.

If mom says no, ask grandma

Mark gets back from China tonight. Yay. But I am designing the lights for the Giver at BYU and I had to be at rehearsals every night this last week. So my mom came to stay to help with the kids. My dad also came down part way through. I am so thankful to my mom. She had a hard time getting around because of a hurt back, but she trooped around my house helping with everything. Collin and Clara loved having her here. And my dad also. Collin particularly liked the m & m's he got for a treat everyday. Today just before they left my dad gave Collin some in a bowl. After he ate all those he wanted more. I told him no that we were done with m & m's. Without missing a beat, he turned and yelled "bampa, bampa" and wandered around trying to find my dad. I told him that grandpa had gone outside. Without missing another beat, he turned and yelled, "mamma, mamma" He knew that if I wouldn't give it to him, one of them would. After waving goodbye to them today, I put Collin down for a nap. My mom predicted that where's bampa would be the first words out of his mouth when he woke up. She was right. Where's bumpa. Where's mamma, he asked. They went home I said. No, upstairs, he responed. He was very sad to find that they had really gone. Thanks again mom and dad.

Happy Mother's Day

Clara was so excited for Mother's Day today. She had made a couple of gifts at school for me that she hid in her room and ordered me not to look at. She was up this morning at 7:30 popping into my room with her gifts. It included a coupon book and a book about me. One of her coupons included breakfast in bed. She was so thoughtful bringing me breakfast and my big mug of water. Such a cute, thoughtful girl. She has also been collecting flowers for me. Sorry to the neighbors if she picked your prized petunias.


Clara holding her coupon book.


The Breakfast in Bed coupon. If you'll notice she spelled breakfast, brextfist.

One page from the book about me. If you look really closely you'll notice she said "She has bland hair" I think she was trying to spell blonde but the former is probably true too.


My breakfast, complete with tray. A tangerine because she told me she could reach those. And a hunk of banana bread which she cut herself. She was so proud of herself for putting it all together.


On another note. In an ongoing attempt to spice up my "bland" hair, I got a haircut. I have been toying with cutting it short again for a while now. This is a horrible picture. I could do without the double chin. But Mark is gone so I had to take the picture myself in the mirror. Overall, I like how it looks. The problem with going so short is that I already feel like I need a haircut again and it has only been 2 1/2 weeks.

A sad goodbye

Kira and I were introduced last summer by a mutual friend. We were both looking for a babysitter. She was going back to work after recently having a baby and my babysitter had moved. We both work part time so we worked it out that I would watch her baby Melody in the morning and she would watch Collin in the afternoon. It worked out great and we loved playing with Melody. Then Kira quit her job in November but she agreed to continue to watch Collin. Collin loved going to her house everyday and as Melody got older they became fast friends. We would turn the corner to their house and Collin would start chanting "baby, baby" And he would walk right up, knock on the door and head into the room. We knew that this situation would be only until BYU graduation since Rich would be graduating from law school. But it came too fast. We were sad to say goodbye. We watched Melody on the last day they were here so that they could move all of their stuff. When Kira came to get her, we said our goodbyes but Collin kept hiding. Kira kept trying to coax him out to give her a hug but he wouldn't. So she finally just picked him up and said goodbye. I followed them out to the car with Collin and after Kira strapped Melody in, I put Collin down. He ran down the driveway into Kira's arms and gave her the biggest hug. It was so cute. We are sad to see our friends move. And sad that I have to find a new babysitter. It's going to be hard to find someone as good as Kira.





Melody soon after we started watching her. She was about 4 months old.




She went through this funny time when she would put her hands behind her head to sleep. We would laugh so hard to see her doing this.


Melody had her 1st Birthday party at our house because it was so rainy. Kira had planned to have it outside but the weather was too bad. Melody was so funny eating her cake.


Collin and Melody loved playing together. They look like they could be brother and sister. They have the same color of hair and eyes. And Melody's hair sticks up in the back just like Collin's. This was them playing together on the last day. We'll miss you guys.