Lunch!

Lately I've noticed that Jesse pretty much always has a far away look on his face. He's off in another world with all of his commitments/responsibilities--senior film, work, internship hunting, school, wife/daughter, etc. I have to remind him to eat most of the time because he just doesn't remember. He's too busy. Well, today Jesse said he was going to make egg salad sandwiches for lunch and I left him to it. So what's wrong with this picture?



One needs to boil the egg IN the shell to make hard-boiled eggs. Yes, Jesse had "that look" on his face just before it happened. Most likely he was thinking of the rainbow dream sequence of his senior film. Who knows. But this is NOT how to boil an egg. As soon as he cracked it, he stopped to let it register. We both started cracking up. One day Jesse's brain will return. Just not until April 2011.

I love the laughs my husband gives me. :)

Polka dots and such

These are random stories over the past two days:

Abby woke up yesterday morning and I was still asleep. As always. She walked over, flipped on the light (my EVERY day rude awakening), and then climbed in bed with me. She was looking at my face when she started laughing. "Mom," she innocently began, "why you have polka dots on your face?" And then she pointed out my polka dots. "Here, and here, and another here, and another polka dot! Oh my goodness! Lots of polka dots!" Thank you, my lovely child, for pointing out the wonderful flaws of my complexion. But it was funny.

We have successfully had two days of NO potty-training accidents. The cold water tub trick has her completely freaked out. So tonight I was babysitting Samuel. I was holding him in one arm and attempting to crack eggs with the other. Abby was sitting on the diaper boxes in our kitchen, eating an apple, when she jumped up and ran screaming, "Use the potty! Use the potty!" Suddenly she stopped mid-living room. She calmly turned around and walked back saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay..." And as quickly as she stopped, she freaked out again, "Use the potty! Use the potty!" And she booked it for the bathroom. Number two. Go my Abby. I had to crack an egg, wash my fingers, and get Samuel situated on the floor faster than I can blink so we didn't have accidents, but hey, we did it.

The awesome part about having Samuel playing with us tonight was to see Abby with him. She LOVES Samuel--until he touches her. Which is the story with every child. So we've learned that Abby will love you as long as you don't touch her. Anyway, she was super helpful with him tonight. She would hand him toys, put his blanket on him, attempt to play "silly games" as Abby calls them, etc. She was dang cute. I'm glad I have Abby to help me out.

Here is a picture of the stroller I want:

Baby Trend Double Sit n Stand - Skylar

I'm THAT mom.

I did it. I committed one of the cardinal sins of mom-hood.

I yelled at somebody's kids at the playground.

And really, all I want to do is justify it to make myself feel better, but what's the point? I overreacted and yelled at someone's kid. I never thought in a million years I'd be the one to do that, but I did. I had maxed out on patience with Abby today for several reasons and in effort to take a break Jesse and I took Abby to the Carl's Jr. play place. There was one group there of three moms and four kids, and those kids were OUT OF CONTROL. In a relatively small enclosed room, with several kids screaming like banshees, it seemed all too easy to get impatient. But so far I had done okay. But then I heard Abby at the top of the playground crying, "I'm scared! I'm scared!" So I immediately walked over to where I could see her to try to find out the problem. She wanted to go down the slide, but ALL four of the kids were standing at the bottom SCREAMING up the slide so she was scared to come down. Before my rational side could take over, I ran to the slide and forcefully yelled at the kids to stop screaming because they were scaring my daughter from coming down the slide. Every person in Carl's Jr. stopped to look at me. And I could feel the eyes of those moms glaring at me too. But really? When your children are traumatizing other children from enjoying the facility and screaming so loudly that nobody can think or talk to each other, wouldn't you say something to them?
At the time I didn't care. But as the night has continued, I feel like crawling in a hole. Somehow writing about it makes me feel like not such a bad person. Everybody makes mistakes, right? I just haven't figured out how to learn from others' mistakes. I have to be the obnoxious nazi playground mom.
It'd be nice if they could have looked at me and said, "Oh, she's pregnant and looks tired and exasperated. She probably has a lot on her mind." But by the way they looked at me after... I'm going to say not.
So if it was your kids I yelled at, I'm sorry. I really am. It was inappropriate and since I've done it once, I hope that means I'll never do it again.

Temper tantrum

A tantrum is an emotional outburst of ill humor or a fit of bad temper wherein the 'higher' cognitive functions are unable to stop the emotional expression of the putative 'lower' (emotional and physical) functions. -- Wikipedia

It also adds that it is characterized by angry ranting, screaming, defiance, and resistance to pacification. That is definitely me. I don't necessarily cry and scream, but angry ranting and resistance to pacification is great.

You thought this was about Abby, didn't you?

I threw a version of my temper tantrum tonight. Crazy high emotions that take over the rational side of my brain yelling at me to stop. I've had a temper ever since I can remember. From the time I five-starred Seth's toddler back to my DAILY after school shout matches with my mom to even now with Jesse. I don't punch or five-star anymore, but I definitely have an acidic attitude, emotion, and sarcasm that create searing emotional pain. I never realized how bad or inappropriate it was until I married Jesse and he met the real me during our first year. Poor boy. If I were to get in a fight with my siblings now, I'd definitely lose. Thanks to my husband, I've lost a lot of my fight. Really, I do thank him. But that temper is still there and waits to pounce. Like tonight.

So no, I won't tell you what the tantrum was about. It's my first for the year and I hope it's my last. New Year's Resolution: no more temper and DEFINITELY no more "tantrums"....

When I'm 80, you can ask me how this resolution fared.

Three stories

#1 I either got really brave... or really stupid. I cut my bangs again. Straight across at my eyebrows. So I now have long straight dark hair with severe bangs. The funny thing is that I can't get them to totally straighten. I've tried product and everything and they either stick straight off my head or they have a bit of a curl to it like when we were in sixth grade. BAH. I wish I had a great celebrity picture or even a pic of me to demonstrate this bizarre action I decided to take.

Everyone says it's cute though. Let's hope they're all being honest. (I just need to get used to them)

#2 We are officially on day three of potty training. Abby has been in pull-ups for two months and totally knows how to use a potty. She just doesn't want to. Jesse and I decided that with another babe coming we do NOT want to be paying $80 each month for diapers. So one of them has to stop. We borrowed some padded underwear from my mom from my days of potty training, and starting Monday morning Abby has been in these underwear. The padded underwear just absorbs more when they have accidents. I HATE accident clean-up. Padded underwear are good for sanity. Anyway, so this is the point of the story: Abby refused to go #2. I hope you're okay with that term. We have bribed in every way possible to get her to, but she just wouldn't. My mom told me about her cousin who had twins first and when she potty trained them... she put them in cold water when they had accidents. I don't think this is abuse. With Abby, we HAVE to use extremes or she doesn't care. So Monday morning, five minutes after I had just taken her to the potty, she pooped in her underwear. So into the cold bath we went! Come on folks, it was only 1 inch deep and I only made her sit in it long enough to wipe her off. So like 20 seconds. She refused to go #2 on Tuesday because she was terrified of the cold bath. Then today, around noon I heard her make that sound. The one you all know. And I flipped around and sternly asked, "Do you need to poop?" She gave me this wide-eyed look and ran to the bathroom yelling, "I don't go in the cold bath! I poop on the potty!" And she did. :) Gold star for Abby. I know there will be more cold baths to come, but in the meantime, we're finally making progress!!

#3 This is for Jesse's sake. Jesse is practically NEVER home. Not during Abby hours anyway. He leaves at 6:30 or 8:00 a.m. and doesn't get home until just before Abby's bedtime. Today as I was putting Abby down for her nap, she started crying. Like not stalling crying, like real tear crying. So I asked her what was wrong and she sniffled out, "I love my daddy. I just love my daddy." Which I think means, "I miss daddy." I thought it was tender. :)

There's a double meaning in that.

I find myself sitting my mom's house with absolutely nothing to do. Abby's not even asleep. But she doesn't want to play with me. I asked her if she'd like to play Princess and the Frog toys with me and she turned to me and lamely replied, "No, I play with Uncle Stephen, Ashtie, and Samuel." Stephen laughed and in mock excitement asked, "Abby! Do you want to come play with us downstairs?" "Sure!!! I would love to!" is what she said. Good grief! Moms are boring apparently.

Maryn's teaching piano lessons. My mom's on the phone making a Cafe Rio take-out order for Ashton's birthday. And Jesse and dad are on their way home from work. AND Sarah's in Chicago. What am I to do?

Hmm. Apparently my mom is done. Now she can get me the recipe for the chocolate frosting I need. We made peanut butter bars. Mmmm....

P.S. Jesse was made producer of their senior film. The director is his buddy with whom Jesse co-developed the story. So basically he co-directs. And if they get any awards at the student emmys, he gets to attend the awards show thingy. Cool, yeah?

My subject has nothing to do with this post. It's just from one of my favorite movies Sarah reminded me of this week. :) Sarah, I love you. And Maryn too.

Infinite-Power-of-Hope

Infinite-Power-of-Hope

An Abigail moment

For Christmas, I bought myself The Princess and the Frog deluxe figurine set. I LOVE that the Disney store is in Provo. Anyway, as soon as I opened them, Abby took possession of them and I really haven't had a chance to play with them since. Abby refers to playing with her figures as her "homework." Tonight, I got home from relief society meetings and I thought I might die. I left at 6:50 a.m. and got home at 5:00 p.m. "Holy cannoli" in Abby's words. Funny that we've never actually eaten cannoli (see right). So I got home super tired and Jesse had homework, so I asked Abby if she could do her homework while I rested on the bed. The set came with two princess Tianas and two Prince Naveens: daily attire and wedding attire, of course. Abby has named one The Princess and the Frog and the other is Princess Tiana. Both of the princes are just The Prince. Abby was playing with the princesses and this is the conversation I heard:

Princess and the Frog: "Wait right here. I'll be back"
Princess Tiana: "Where are you going?"
Princess and the Frog: "I'm going to find my prince so he can hold my hand."
Princess Tiana: "Oh, okay."
Princess Tiana then fell off the toy box and Princess and the Frog leaned over the edge to say, "Are you okay?"
Princess Tiana: "I'm okay."
Princess and the Frog then left Tiana on the floor to get her Prince. Then the Prince and Princess and the Frog rescued Tiana.
Princess and the Frog: "He's holding my hand! Hooray!"
Tiana was then jealous and walked off to find her own prince.

They played outside their house until Princess Tiana declared it was "freezing and go inside". They all jumped through the windows into the house.

At this point, Jesse entered the room and Abby yelled, "RUN!" She took of running through the basement screaming as Jesse chased her back and forth. Ah, Sunday joy.

Prince Naveen is so cartoon eye-candy. Twisted, but true. ;)

Piece of advice

I read this on an MSN article about 27 things men don't get about women. I don't know how funny it truly is or if I was just happy to have a distraction from my overflowing living room, but I was laughing to myself and had to share. I hope it's relatively funny to some of you:

Alyssa Milano



"Women are innately self-conscious. This is not a choice; it's a gender-wide condition. On a bad day, I look in the mirror and see my ten-pound-heavier alter ego. Her name is Bertha. On a really bad day, Bertha sees her two-hundred-pound-heavier alter ego. Her name is Brian Dennehy."

This inspires me to have an alter ego on those bad days. I'm taking suggestions for names.
I did have a wonderful Christmas/ New Years break, in case you were wondering. And I hope I'll post about it later. For now I'm home, and that means I have to empty the 26 boxes and bags that are concealing my carpet. I'll let you know when I find it again.
Loves.