Pollyanna's glad game

My Aunt Judy once told me that there came a point in her marriage that she prayed for trials in she and her husbands lives since trials make you stronger. Soon after, her husband (a pilot) got in a plane wreck. He survived, but it was definitely a trial, and they grew from it and became stronger in their marriage.

Though I understand the principle, I'm waaaay too chicken to ask for trials, because 1) I don't like trials, tests, or hardships and 2) I like to play things safe and would rather have a life of boring same ol' same ol' rather than an exciting life filled with unexpected challenges and possible horrors.

So even though I've never prayed for challenges/trials to test our marriage or lives, it seems we've been loaded with them nonetheless.

Sometimes I feel like all I do is complain, worry, fret, stress, and plead. My faith waxes and wanes according to my stress tolerance. I wonder what we've done to deserve the mole hill of bad luck that appears to be forming into a mountain right before my eyes as each day passes. I go over the things we should be doing to see if we're leaving something out, and thus "asking for trouble". I go over the things we could possibly do to cast out the demons of bad luck. Will all that's happened to us over the last few months (things I've blogged about and things I haven't), it becomes easy to feel negative about life, get a little blue, wish to go back to easier times (man, I was naive to feel that a college final looming over my head was "stress"), and wish for sleep to come until the good times roll again.

As my little family has mucked along in the quicksand of bad luck, I've realized that focusing on all the negative in our lives has gotten me nowhere. Clinging to this negativity is like clinging to a blade of pampas grass to pull myself out of the quicksand. It's not strong enough to pull me out. It'll break, and just before it does, my hand will slip on it and it will slice my hand open in paper-cut fashion, as pampas grass always does. I've decided that if it's a strong branch I'm looking for, I'd better change my outlook on life and cling to any positive aspects of each negative that kicks us in the rear.

Pollyanna! If you've never seen that movie, why in the world not!!!?? It's a classic Disney. Pollyanna had a game called the glad game that she'd play to distract you from feeling down or grumpy. I'm going to play the glad game with things that I could otherwise choose to view as bad luck.

I'm getting old(er).
I'm glad I'm aging since older women make better lovers.

I'm older than Hyrum.
I'm glad I'm older than Hyrum because wisdom comes with age, so I'll always be smarter than Hyrum! Don't dispute me on this, Hyrum. If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. :)

I'm getting grey hair.
I'm glad I'm finding grey hairs since the silver sparkles against my brown hair and makes my hair shiny, which is much more interesting than just plain dark brown hair.

My kids have been sick almost nonstop this winter and spring.
I'm glad my kids will now be immune to about 40 strains of viruses since that's about how many times they've been sick these last couple of seasons.

Business is down. Way down.
I'm glad business will be improving since when you're down, there's only one way you can go...up!

We're stuck in a tiny apartment with 7 people and no idea of when our house remodel will be complete.
I'm glad we get this chance to bond so closely. The family that crams together, stays together, right?

I'm finding it difficult to lose the baby weight.
I'm glad I have plenty of food to eat and I don't have to scavenge from a dump like the people I saw on TV.

I have wretched carpal tunnel syndrome that makes it painful to do yard work, fix my hair, apply make-up, hold kids and sleep.
I'm glad I have carpal tunnel as an excuse to not blow dry or curl/straighten my hair because over the last couple of years it's been too painful to fix my hair, so over that time of letting my hair air dry the majority of the time and not styling it or using any hair products, my hair has become the healthiest it's ever been and has more than quadrupled in thickness, and I'm getting compliments on my hair all the time, when that rarely happened previously. I can wear a pony-tail for the first time in my life without it looking spindly and pathetic. I'm also glad that my morning routine is so short because of the lack of styling. I wouldn't have the time for it anyway.

Well, I feel better now. The sun is starting to shine, metaphorically and out my window. I have my little family and that's all that matters. My hair will continue to grey, my waistline will never return to a pre-baby size, business will wax and wane, and life will go on. The only thing that won't change is my love of my family, and their love for me. I'm so grateful for each of my kids and a loving husband who tells me I'm the best friend he could ever have and that he can't stand to be away from me because he misses me so much. Ahhh. Eat your heart out Edward and Bella!

Speaking of Twilight, I listened to the book on Hyrum's phone while I walked in the mornings and all the gaps and strangeness in the movie were filled and explained. I really enjoyed the book, though I was surprised at her use of profanity and sensuality. A good book nonetheless, and now I enjoy the movie much more. We even decided to buy it. For anyone who saw the movie before reading the book, you'll understand why the movie was a little strange to me. I'm glad I saw the movie first though because I think I'd be a little disappointed in the movie if I'd read the book first. The problem now is, I'm anxious to read the next book but the movie's not out yet!! What to do...

Oi, Hyatt!!!

You know how it takes a kid a little while to be able to speak properly? I used to say w's instead of r's (wudolph the wed nosed weindeew). Tilly couldn't say her l's forever (she said her name as Tawea Wiwa). Hyatt can't say the "or" sound.

Anything with "or" in it is pronounced "oi".

Hoise (horse)
Yoi (your)
Doi (door)
Moi (more)
Oinge juice (orange juice)
Foik (fork)

You get the idea. It's so stinkin' cute I don't want him to change.

He's beginning to pick up Talea's characteristics now that he's older and spends ALL of his time with her. The two are inseparable. Talea insists he goes to preschool with her, so he goes since the moms don't mind. Hyrum took Talea on a Daddy/daughter date to a movie on the Saturday before her birthday, but Hyatt was a little bummed he wasn't going so Talea was quick to invite him along and say she wanted a Daddy/daughter/Hyatt date. Since he's with her so much, he's starting to shed his shyness shell he's been hiding in his whole life. I've taken the kids to the park after work a couple times this week while Hyrum's wrapping things up at the shop, and I've noticed that Hyatt has suddenly decided he's brave enough to run onto the playground yelling things like "hi guys!" to the other children and going up to random kids and just chatting with them on a bench for a while. That is soooo Talea, not Hyatt.

Even though he's picking up her courage to make friends with stranger children, he doesn't have her guts when it comes to bugs. He refuses to hold worms because they're too slimy. Kiersa has a lot of interest in bugs just because they look intriguing, but she follows Hyatt's example and doesn't want to touch them. Looking is enough for her. I thought all my kids would be into bugs, but it looks like Talea is alone with the entomology interest. She could be Daisha's child easily (competitive, tom boy, etc).

When Hyatt gets tired, he doesn't fight it like Talea. He simply states, "I'm tired", then he goes and puts himself to bed. He's very low maintenance, though he does cry more than I'd care for.

Oi!!! Isn't he a cutie?

Paisli Taya

Paisli is 3 months old now.

I've been thinking of the contrast between when I had Talea and when I had Paisli. With Talea, being my first, she completely consumed my time. I had no other distractions, so I was extremely focused on her and every single milestone. I didn't have any other noses to wipe, no other crying babies to hold, no other kids to feed, no other diapers to change, no other baby books to update and no other bodies to dress. I wasn't working either. Things are VERY different now. It's strange how I was able to adjust to having several kids when one seemed to take up everything I had in me.

With one, I updated the baby book constantly and most everything was brand new. After the fourth, it seems that I'm lucky to notice when something happens, and I never have a pencil handy or time available to write those milestones down and when they happened. Everything is hand-me-downs from someone or somewhere. Ah, the joys of being the youngest!

I haven't had time to blog lately (until the last few days), so I feel like I've neglected Paisli's newness a little too much. Here's a little catch up on what she's been doing in her life during her first months, and some cute pictures I took the other day.


During her 3 months in this life, Paisli has...
-started to laugh, a little (mostly she just holds it in letting out slight bursts)
-smiled constantly
-slept through the night for the past few weeks, never waking earlier than 5:45am.
-discovered her hands
-started scooting around when she's mad and crying and kicking (she was crying on the bed, then I heard her freak out for a few seconds but figured she was just mad since her crying settled a bit, then sounded muffled...I checked on her and couldn't find her...I found her in the crack between our bed and Kiersa's crib, legs flailing straight up in the air, head-down with her face in the pillows that were shoved down the crack...Hyrum said he put her far away from the edge, so apparently she can move quite a bit now...thank goodness she was only stuck in a crack on some pillows and didn't fall off the edge on our hard floor)
-held her head up almost since birth
-cooed and "talked" to us for a while now
-tracks you around the room with her eyes
-always loved showers and only grudgingly tolerated baths
-figured out the power of crying to get attention
-chunked up faster than Tilly and Hyatt ever did, but nowhere near as fast/much as Kiersa did
-decided she'll make a fuss if she's put down and has started to stay awake for a large part of the day, which makes for tired mommy arms. Thank goodness for slings!

Pooped

Some things in life are just soooo exhausting that they leave you "pooped".


This is how I found Hyatt yesterday. He needed to be wiped, but I was outside and couldn't hear his calls, so he fell asleep. It took me a while to find him because I could hear his breathing, but couldn't find him in any of the beds.

To shave, or not to shave.

That is the question.

I've always shaved my babies' heads around 2 or 3 months old. I just can't stand when babies have the balding spot in the back, or thinning up front when everything else is full, or when the dark wispy baby hair is being overrun by new blond hair, making the baby look like it got a bad dye job. When my babies get any signs of the above, off goes their hair. It usually grows back really fast because of it, and passes up babies who never were shaved.

Now, Paisli's hair has been bugging me for a while. It's seriously receding, thinning in the back, and her new hair is coming in blondish red, making her baby hair look a bit two toned. It's time for it to come off.

But...I'm a little curious as to what my babies' hair would have looked like if I'd never shaved it, so I ALMOST want to leave it alone.

Almost.

After all, if any of my babies was to break a streak of something, it would be Paisli. She was the only one of my kids to be born without a birthmark. She is my only girl to start sleeping through the night at 2 months old (Hyatt did too, but he's a boy...and Paisli sleeps longer than Hyatt did). My other girls refused to sleep through the night until 9 or 10 months old.

So though I'm a little tempted to leave the hair, I think it'll be gone soon. Sorry to those of you who are a fan of the thinning wispies. I'm not.

This is Paisli's most famous expression. She still hasn't gotten past the scowling stage. I can't remember how long it lasted with my other kids. She definitely has the biggest mouth of all my kids, and she and Hyatt have the biggest eyes. She's a perfect combination of Talea and Hyatt.


Here's her hair (the back and front, with her hair spiked and mohawked). Don't you love the mullet? I don't.

Mischief maker extraordinaire

First, she found an open marker the kids left within her reach. (You should have seen her face before Hyrum wiped it off.) This was a third offense.


Then she snuck out the back door of the shop and walked along the side of it in the tall grass and rain, soaking her pants and getting all muddy.


What a cute little stinker!


Even with all her mischief, how can anyone resist her adorable smile? She's ALWAYS smiling it seems.


Kiersa loves to flirt with men (with her smile), but does NOT like to be held by them, other than Hyrum or my twin brothers. She will, though, randomly go up to strange women in our office and reach her arms out to be held. Weird.

Suggestive? Maybe.

This is how Talea always draws people. ALWAYS. Well, they don't always have this long of hair (she has a long hair obsession right now), but the bodies are ALWAYS like this.


A stick body. A belly. Underwear.

Jeremy, our installer, saw one of her pictures, and blushed when he saw the "underwear", not knowing that's what it was. He had to go ask Hyrum what it was, to make sure she wasn't drawing what he thought she was drawing. Poor Tilly. Art is not her greatest subject, but at least she puts underwear on her people! Oh, she started drawing the stomachs while I was pregnant, and she'd draw a little stick figure in my belly. After that, everyone had a round belly. I guess occassionally she outlines clothes on the people, but I had to document this girl she drew in case she changes how she draws any time soon.

You're not imagining this!

You are witnessing an actual, though rare, event. Hyrum mowing the lawn! He thinks he has mowed the lawn at this house more than I have, but we all know how untrue that is. I am the lawn mower, not him. And that's by choice. I LOVE yard work!

(Note my garden in the background. I finally put one in this year!)

Cruel and unusual punishment

The barbaric entomologist struck again.


If you can't tell from this picture, this is an enormous fly who suffered terrible torture at the hands of a young girl (can you guess who?). His wings were ripped off first so she could play with him without him flying away, then she pulled the legs off one by one until one leg remained, forcing it to pull it's bulbous body along the counter with that one leg. She pulled the last leg off before I could document the one-legged body-pull. Did you know flies still buzz even without their wings (or legs)? I didn't know that until now.

I learn something new because of Tilly almost every day. I'm telling you, hanging out around Talea is constant deja-vu since she's almost exactly like Daisha was as a child, and since Daisha's my closest-in-age sibling, I spent most of my time with her. Insect torture was her specialty.

Granite sink

I finally found the pictures I took of our granite sink. They were on my little camera which is usually buried at the bottom of my diaper bag.




They can make a double bowl sink, but I prefer one sink bowl since I don't hand wash dishes in two separate sinks. Makes a great place to bathe a baby, doesn't it (though I've never washed a baby in a sink)? I made sure it's big enough to hide my dishes in when people come over and can see my kitchen from the front door. These sinks are a new thing, and I can't wait until I can use mine! Patience....