and what's Moore...

Happy Birthday!

2011-09-01T00:16:00.000-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
I'm going to take my kids to the Church History Museum in Salt Lake. They currently have a "hands on" exhibit of the Book of Mormon and I'm dying to see what they do. I'm especially wondering if there will there be arms for us to cut off. But I suppose that would make it a "hands off" exhibit, so maybe not.
Anyway, for my birthday this year I am sharing a Christmas song arrangement I did a while back, a medley of We Three Kings and Amazing Grace. It's one of my most favorite things I've ever written, and I'm quite partial to my own work :). I've thought of a lot of ways to go about sharing it, and I settled on uploading it to the web (Scribd.com) and allowing people to download it. It works when I try it, but please let me know if it doesn't for you. I'm posting it to Facebook too but you're kind of my test group. Take it as a compliment.
Below is the explanation of how the song came to be. I've also uploaded this to Scribd, but thought it would be a nice touch here. Above all, have a very happy my birthday!

Guide Us to Amazing Grace: The Background

When I was eight months pregnant with my first baby and during a surprisingly sound sleep, I had a very vivid dream in which I was at a music conference where a man was playing the piano. It was very noisy and I had a hard time hearing the piece, but as I sat in my chair leaning forward to focus, I realized it was a blend of We Three Kings and Amazing Grace.

After I woke up, I thought about the two songs and how appropriate they were together. The reason the wise men were seeking the Christ child in the first place was because He is the source of pure grace and redemption! Of course Amazing Grace was their quest! As I worked to merge the songs, I felt that the melodies meshed together wonderfully. The original verses of "We Three Kings" outline the wise men’s gifts and their symbolisms. That didn't really go with the search for grace that I wanted to portray, so I wrote original verses to tie the meaning of the two songs together. The choruses fit beautifully with only minimal chord structure changes, and the words flowed together easily. The end result excites me more than words can tell.

I originally arranged “Guide Us to Amazing Grace” for SATB, and added an SSA version because I usually sing with women. My sister then asked for an SAB arrangement for her choir which for some crazy reason had about twice as many women's voices than men's. After a few years of not quite knowing what step to take next, I realize that the state of the worldwide web is such that it may be the perfect vehicle to share my song with whoever may want to use it.

Today is my birthday. In celebration, I would like to offer my song to the world. If you want to use it for church or school or family or anything, please do. Make as many copies as you need. Share it with your friends. I have the song (SATB, SSA, SAB, plus a separate piano accompaniment) on Scribd.com under “Guide Us to Amazing Grace” in a PDF file version. If you would like a clearer copy, please contact me at PaigeRLMoore@gmail.com. I will send you the mus version (currently, scribd.com does not support mus), and a link where you download FinaleReader, a free music-reading software program. My greatest wish is that the song will enrich your hope to guide you to amazing grace.

Paige Levanger Moore

1 September 2011

Family Pics 2011

2011-06-05T21:47:00.002-06:00

My brotherinlaw Spencer recently took some Family Pictures for us. He's cool like that. Although he did say that our family was the hardest group of people to do. Elijah just wasn't into it. Here are some of my favorites! Oh, and if anybody is looking for some free pictures while he figures out how to be a photographer, he might want to talk to you :)

Not just reading... PERFORMING

2011-03-16T23:17:00.007-06:00

Miriam has totally caught onto reading over the past few months. It was with Dick and Jane that she really figured things out. She had gotten to the point where she was reading most of the stories without help, then one time she was saying wacky words that I didn't recognize at all. I looked at what she was reading and said, "Honey, you know that word," meaning, "Quit goofing off and read it right." "But Baby Sally's saying it, Mama, and she can't talk very well." I but had to laugh. Sure enough, she created a different voice for every character. Jane talks high, Mother talks higher, and Father is deep. Dick is kind of like a beach bum hippie (kinda like Shaggy on Scooby Doo) and Sally starts all words with "N" (kinda like Scooby and the R thing he has going on). It kind of gets annoying, especially when Dick and Sally talk back and forth for two pages, but I'm totally impressed with her ability and desire to not only read the words but to own the characters. When she's tired, though, she tells me "I'm just going to read it all regular." Which she pronounces "reg-lee-ar." Gosh I love this girl! Anyway, here is Dick and Jane as performed by Miss Miriam. I looked for a story where the characters switch off pretty often so as to highligh the vocal personalities. I chose the one where Tim the teddy bear falls into the construction hole but (don't worry) the bulldozer brings him back to Sally. The first time we read this one it was kind of emotion. Remember, this is a pretty darn empathetic girl we're working with here.

When she saw I had quit recording she was a little worried that the story hadn't yet been resolved (refer to the previously mentioned natural abundance of emotionality). So we filmed the rest of it just in case you're trying to figure how exactly it is that Tim returns to Sally's loving arms.

Tootsie Rolls

2011-01-26T16:50:00.007-07:00

I have been much more cute and creative with Miriam's hair lately. It helps that her 1970s-little-boy-bowl-cut has grown out quite lovely. My hair interest might have started when she took ballet last fall and I had to have an "updo" for her. See, for myself, it was pretty fancy to put a barette in rather than just leaving it down. Then I started putting cute little braids in to hold my hair back. Then with working with Miriam's hair, I've gotten suprisingly good. I have found it is most important to have something to do with the top of her hair, then to take it back into ponies. If I just do the ponies, the front and top fall out and are in her eyes. My cousin Eve (actually she's my cousin's wife, but I claim her) taught me how to do this cute little thing on top. We call them Tootsie Rolls and we love them. Miriam adores all the attention that she gets when she wears them and it's so nice to be able to keep her hair out of her eyes. We do these every other day at least. Anyway, I check out www.cutegirlshairstyles to get ideas, and I sent a little how-to to CuteGirlsHairstyles because I constantly get the "how do you do that?" and it would be nice to give them a place to see how I do it. But I haven't yet heard back yet, and since I already have the writeup and pictures, I figured I'd pass it along!

TOOTSIE ROLLS

Time requirement: 10 minutes
Materials needed: rat-tail comb, spray bottle, rubber vands if finishing into ponies

1. Partition off a thin section in the front. Wet down and divide into two.
2. Take one side and cross it over then under the other like you're tying a shoe.
3. Go over and under once more with the same strand.

4. Go over and under twice with the other strand.

5. Slowly cinch the hair down. The twisted part will go underneath the tunnel formed by the roots of the hair.
6. Pull tight to finish.

7. Continue with the second Tootsie Roll.
8. And as far back as you want.
9. You can stop here and wear it down.
10. Or continue into ponies.
11. Or add twists, braids, etc.

I find it is easier (and stays better) to work with damp to wet hair. Smaller portions also work better than bigger ones.

Thanks to my sister Erin for taking the pictures, and to Miriam for sitting through it (my favorite shot is her playing her Leapster. VERY common hair-doing activity), and to my niece Adelle for posing with the twisties. This is Miriam's favorite way to wear it right now because she likes to shake her head back and forth and hit her face with the braid ends. Whatever floats your boat. But I feel like a COMPLETE SUCCESS when we do these because she looks so good and everybody knows that her Mama did it for her. YAHOO!

Real Life Commercials

2010-12-21T21:08:00.004-07:00

This is a shot of Miriam washing her hair in the bathtub tonight.

After perfecting the quaff, she turned to me and pronounced "I call this one the Santa Claus." She's thinking of opening a beauty salon if anybody is interested in a 'do.

And now Eli's turn.

"It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet."

TRUCKS

2010-12-19T22:33:00.003-07:00

My boy Elijah loves trucks. Oh boy oh boy. He loves watching big ones, he loves playing with small ones. He can sit and watch a ten minute youtube video of a garbage truck on its route without moving a muscle. "Truck" was one of his very first words but it took me a surprisingly long time to realize that DRRRRR meant truck. DRRRRR has evolved greatly and now most everybody understands that he's saying "truck." So for Christmas, Santa excitedly purchased a big old bag of matchbox-type cars, along with some track and other sundry truck accessories off of ksl.com. I wrapped up the bag nice and tight and stuck it clear under the guest room bed in the basement, because it was kind of heavy for the top of the shelf that Santa is using for the rest of his stuff. Imagine the joy and excitement that Eli felt in his heart when his random poking around under large objects finally resulted in a huge bag of TRUCKS! HOLY MOLY! I wish I could have seen him find the bag and realize what was in it. Instead, I only saw the utmost radiance around his face after he dragged the bag (and it's not light) to the bottom of the stairs and started unloading it. OH WHAT A FIND! "Can you believe this, mom? Somebody left a huge bag of trucks under the bed down here! I'm sure glad I looked because WOW these are just sitting there doing no good! Aren't you glad I found them?" Please note also the record amounts of snot this boy sports. When he was in the hospital with RSV at 6 weeks, the nurses said he had the snot production of a 2 year old. Now that he's almost two, that has multiplied accordingly. I wish I had taken the camera downstairs with me because once there, I saw that he was taking the cars out one by one and sorting them by type. To his right he has lined up all the van-type/big trucks. On one of the stairs he has the trucks with Sesame Street characters. I told him to help me clean them up and he could go show one to dad. Surprisingly enough, he did it right off. And ran as fast as he could to show his new car (he chose a crane with Bert driving it) to dad. I think Santa made a darn good choice! And Christmas morning will be a HIT!

My recent project

2010-11-17T16:52:00.009-07:00

I mentioned that we went to Mexico this April. GREAT TRIP. And it's even greater the farther we get from it because you kind of forget the hard parts (fitting in naps, the torrential rain, the freaking hot sun, two sick kids on the airplane back home etc). Brent's parents paid for the whole thing, and took Brent's two brothers and their families as well. So for Christmas, I decided to document the trip in a scrapbook. I have finally finished and I am quite proud of the result! I'm quite certain that my parents.in.law don't read my blog (if you do, Ron and Judy, you can pretend to be surprised on Christmas) so I'm going to post some of my favorite pages for your viewing enjoyment.

This is the only photo series that has all four grandkids. It made me laugh.

This is the right hand page of the Chichen Itza spread. Please note that the Chichen Itza main temple will go across the whole book. Pretty cool, I know.

I loved the beach in Mexico. By far my favorite.

And this is the cover. Oh I'm excited for the final book to come so I can see it in print!

My foray into couponing

2010-11-11T22:01:00.002-07:00

Last year at this time I got into couponing. It started with a seminar by the Grocery Guru and just snowballed from there. For a while I would take the coupons from our paper then go buy two more at the Holiday down the street and spend a couple of hours stapling, cutting and filing new coupons, purging the expired ones, and scouring all the couponing websites for the best deals at all the grocery stores. It was fun. And I got some really good deals. But it really did take a lot of time. And I was always thinking "oh I have to get to this store and I have to make sure I have these coupons and I have to update my coupons to make sure I have the most current ones etc etc etc." And it took so much time to make the list and get my coupons in order and shop for the best best deals that I didn't make my weekly menus and shop for those. And then there was the times that the thing I went for was sold out because everybody else had the same coupons and the same great deals as I did so I would be kind of antsy needing to find another great deal because I didn't get the one great deal and ARGGH. I would end up with some great cheap food but no meals. And no gumption to create meals because I had spent so much energy on obtaining the food. So the grocery couponing kind of settled out of my favor. But don't worry because I haven't given up on coupons altogether! I found that I could get FABULOUS deals on shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup, toothpaste, floss, medicines, etc at my local Walgreens. Seriously, I have so much of this type of stuff for virtually free that now I don't even get it unless it is free. I have tons. At least two years' worth and that's not exaggerating. And diapers! Not free, but a lot cheaper than Costco, which is where I was buying beforehand because it was the cheapest I could find. And the good thing about shopping the Walgreens deals were that there were just a few items a week and I could prepare beforehand. So now I don't cut all my coupons when I get them. Which is nice because instead of buying more papers I just asked the neighbors if they would pull their coupons for me. And then I just file them away and when I check my hip2save.com weekly Walgreens list, I just get out the file of the date of the coupon and see if I have it. And I rarely print coupons unless it's for multiple dollars... like on a dvd or diapers. Yeah, it takes a little time but nothing like the overwhelmingness I felt before. And my Walgreens is close (which is why I chose Walgreens over RiteAid or other stores with similar ads)... we frequently walk in good weather and the cashiers all know me and my kids and ask about them when I go without them and ask about me if Brent for some reason stops in without me. It's kind of embarrassing but I'm okay with it. And thankfully I've done it for long enough that I don't have to sit and think and figure for a long time to "get" the deal. And even more thankfully I've done it for long enough to see that the same deals really do keep coming up so if I miss it I don't feel as sad. What I've really gained, though, is just knowing that there are DEALS. If you do this and this you can get this. And I'm much more aware of things like that. For example, I noticed that at Burger King you could get a Whopper combo meal for 2.99 on Wednesdays. Cool. Then I got some BK coupons in the mail and one of them was buy a Whopper combo meal and get another Whopper free. So I went on Wednesday to get my combo meal plus free Whopper for dinner when I notice that on the same sheet of coupons I can get a kids meal for 99 cents with the purchase of a combo. So I added that on top of it. And then got an order of crown nuggets for the kid who wasn't getting the nuggets in the kids meal. SO I ended up with two Whoppers, a drink, fries, two orders of crown nuggets, kid fries, a kid drink, and a kid prize for $5. I was excited. And most of what it took was just being AWARE of the deals and the coupons. I do love seeing people with binders of coupons because I knew exactly what they're doing and how much fun they're having doing it. But I'm glad I've toned it down and am more moderate in what I do than before. Because I still save a lot of money. And I feel a lot calmer in my heart. And there's no coupon for that :)

Holiday home cookin'

2010-10-27T21:59:00.007-06:00

Halloween has been a lot of fun this year. My kids go crazy when they see halloween decorations on people's lawns, and OH they love the candy. This past week I have had a lot of fun making Halloween Dinners. Here's a sampling :)

1. Ghostly Shepherd's Pie. I think these ghosts are SO CUTE! They would have been even cuter if the mashed potatoes were a little more mashy, but whatever. Miriam also made ghost cupcakes for dessert for the same meal. Elijah liked them better prior to the cooking.

2. Jack O'Lantern Pot Pie. Miriam liked eating the eye piece slice.

3. Bone rolls. They didn't really turn out as "boney" as they were in my mind, but nobody seemed to mind. We dipped them in soup. I LOVE SOUP IN THE FALL!

Miriam got pretty into the at-dinner picture taking. There is a whole series of me eating this entire dinner. Seriously, there's probably 40 pictures documenting the meal. This is an awesome one of me. I thought I looked cute when I winked, but apparantly I don't.

I started taking some of the other side of the table and got this shot. I was looking at the image thinking "GOSH THAT'S A GREAT ONE" when Brent turned the camera he had to show me what they were laughing at... me winking. Oh well, at least it produced a good picture.

And here's the whole family as we currently stand.

I hope your halloween has been DELICIOUS ;)

Where in the world?

2010-09-24T20:58:00.009-06:00

Today Miriam, Elijah and I were at the Conservation Garden Park looking at plants to combine into my park strip. The Turkish Speedwell are doing good, but not thriving quite like I'd like them to. Anyway, I could not find anybody to question and was looking at some pre-planted potentials. I turned and saw Miriam running up the ramp that was behind me. I walked over to her, realizing with each step that Elijah was nowhere in my sight. I went back to the pre-planted tables where I knew he was with me and nothing. I went up the ramp and nothing. I ran partway down a pathway or two and nothing. I sent Miriam down one way while I took another and nothing. I still couldn't find anybody working there to ask for help (but positively didn't have to tell anybody that I'd lost my kid). "Don't worry, Mama," said Miriam. "I remember what he looks like." "Oh yeah?" This while running still, but quite interested to see how Miriam would describe Eli. "What does he look like?" "His face is... (grand pause here while she searches for the right word... and then finds it) ...funny. (Another pause, but shorter this time.) And he laughs." I laughed right out loud. And luckily not long afterwards we found that funny little face dancing and, sure enough, laughing on the rock beds. Being off the paths and trails, I knew he wasn't supposed to be there but I was so relieved to see him I didn't really care.

Boot-Scootin

2010-09-13T16:41:00.004-06:00

When I was uploading pictures from my birthday I realized that some of these pictures were in fact in movie form! That makes me really happy because when we arrived at the venue that night, I realized my movie camera's batteries were dead. As a member of the Midvale Arts Council, I participated in some karaoke contests this summer due to lack of a lot of other participation. After 50s night and 80s night, Miriam asked if she could sing on Country night. So she chose a song and worked it up. We did Alan Jackson's Tall Tall Trees. I am admitedly biased, but she did a fantastic job. I sang with her so she could stay "on," but I think she did a great job. AND she got 3rd place and won a $50 gift certificate to WalMart! Not too shabby!

The Prize

2010-09-13T15:53:00.004-06:00

I mailed Britney's prize off last week and got a Facebook message from her today saying that she had received it. HOORAY cause the Midvale Post Office has a history of taking a really really long time to deliver stuff. Here is what she got.

And here's a list of the songs on the CD and some of why I included each one. Hmmm. I actually don't have the exact order that is on Britney's CD. But I'll give them to you in chunks.

The first bunch are piano songs. As a pianist, I know more piano songs than other types and I really enjoy piano songs.

1. 12 Variations in C by Mozart. This is the "Twinkle Twinkle" song but in classic Classical form. I love it and really should learn it.

2. Fantasie Impromptu by Chopin. This is an awesome piece that starts with a crazy fast section, then transforms to a slow melodic section and ends up with the fast one again. The middle section's melody was used in the 40s song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows." I don't think I've ever heard that song, but my mom would sing it whenever I practiced this one. I played it my last semester at Boise State but sure can't any more. Again, I'll have to start practicing.

3. Rhapsodie on a Theme by Paganini. This is the song used in "Somewhere in Time." I played it in high school and is a crowd favorite.

4. Claire de Lune by Debussy. This is also a very popular one used at the end of "Ocean's Eleven," when they're watching the Bellagio's fountains.

5. Reverie by Debussy. Debussy was a composer during the early 20th century. He wrote music to sound like the impressionistic paintings that were popular at the time (think Monet). This piece is one of my favorites. It's not as popular as his Clair de Lune, but I think it's equally as pretty.

6. Prelude in C by Prokofiev. I played this at Ricks the first semester I started studying music seriously. It is one of my favorite styles of pieces: a very busy background with a slower melody over the top of it. I've never heard it anywhere but myself playing it, but if it were up to me, it would be much more popular.

7. Winter Wind Etude by Chopin. I loved this piece upon first hearing it when I was at Ricks. While I've tried to play it, I've never spent enough time to get it past the first few measures. Oh well, I can still listen.

The next section is vocal/opera. I had a hard time in school appreciating classical vocal music. Then I realized that it's like any other style of music... you just have to find the pieces that call to you and then you can totally appreciate it. I didn't ever study vocally nor was I in many choirs in college, so unlike the piano ones, I haven't learned to love these through practice, just listening.

8. Wachet auf from Cantata 140 by Bach. I don't know where I learned of this piece or why it calls to me, but from the first phrase I feel peace. Don't know why, because the words are in German and mean "Wake up!"

9. Barcarolle from Les Contes d'Hoffman by Offenbach. This is the opera that was in the beginning of "Life is Beautiful." Fantastic movie doing a fantastic job of incorporating opera music.

10. O Mio Bambino Carro from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini. Again, I don't know where I learned this piece but I love it. I think Sarah Brightman does a version of it.

Last chunk is orchestral music. Again, none that I've played but many that I love.

11. The Moldau by Smetana. I was at Ricks (living with Britney) when I learned about this song in my Music and the Humanities class. I instantly loved it. It is an aural story that tells of the Moldau, a river which runs through what is now the Czech Republic. There is a "river theme," the river passes by a peasant wedding, moonlight on the river, little woodland animals, and arrives at the castle. I have shared this piece with lots and lots of folk, but it is one that should be listened to much more than it is.

12. Brandenberg Concerto #3 in G by Bach. I think Bach was a genius. When I was working, I always used ribbons when I played this song. It's such a bouncy song that the kids would run around and wave the ribbons and it was so happy!

13. Rhine Symphony in Eflat by Schumann. This is another piece written about a river. The funny thing about this one is that Schumann, being the moody and depressed musician that he was, tried to kill himself by jumping in the Rhine river. Not sure if the jump was before or after he composed this piece, but either way it's pretty funny. There are parts of this song that remind me of the soundtrack to "Willow," which I have seen a lot more often than most people.

14. New World Symphony by Dvorak. This is another classic. I'm not sure if the melody is from a spiritual or if the spiritual resulted from this piece, but the tune is the same as "Goin' Home." Love it.

There you have it. Since compiling this list, I've thought "OH I should have put that song on or OH I should have done that one." But maybe there'll be a volume ii.

And for some other birthday shots, here is Miriam and Brent performing a Scooby Doo puppet show for me. I don't think I've blogged about Miriam's undying love for all things ScoobyDoo yet. I'll save that for another day.

And here's one of Elijah and I. I love this boy!

And the winner is...

2010-09-01T21:26:00.003-06:00

Britney!! By way of introduction, Britney is my dear friend with whom I was randomly assigned as roommates at Ricks College. Together we somehow survived homesickness, roommate drama, boy drama, lack of food, and school. We lived together in Rexburg for two school years. She went on a mission to Honduras while I was in Chile (and there's a hazy memory that we were in the MTC at the same time... but that might be just a dream). Afterwards, we both went to Utah State and always took Spanish classes together. She was in love with the way one of the teachers said "Ute and Payute." I never caught the vision, even after he repeated it numerous times, but I remember it to this day. Good times, good times. Britney married Brandon in May (I think it was May) of 2000 (so they don't have to count to know how long they've been married) and I was a bridesmaid. I still have the purpley/diamondy bead necklace we as bridesmaids wore. She currently lives in Idaho Falls area with her four girls, one in 2nd grade, kindergarten, then twin toddlers. And Brandon, of course.
The Happy-Birthday-to-Paige-Prize that Britney has won was inspired by Marika's comment and Ginger's follow-up. And dipping also from Eleanor Roosevelt. Yes, inspiration from Marika, Ginger, AND Eleanor! You can't beat that. A favorite quote of mine from Eleanor Roosevelt is "A day out-of-doors, someone I loved to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music. That would be rest." So to my favorite mother-of-twins, I am sending you REST! Even in Eastern Idaho, September is finally a great season for a day out-of-doors. For the someone I loved to talk with (loved here is used, I believe and at least when I say it, in the subjunctive tense meaning a wish or desire rather than in the past tense meaning the person is gone), you'll get a picture of me! For the good book, I am sending a pre-loved copy of Fannie Flagg's "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven." It is a delightful story that takes very little focus and brainpower, yet brought me such joy. You can keep it and read it, or pass it on if you've read it (or don't like it). For the simple food I am sending my favorite microwave popcorn, Pop Secret Homestyle. If you haven't tried this yet, you're in for a treat. Honestly the best popcorn ever. Well, maybe kettlecorn fresh from the kettle is better but even that's close. And for the music, I will openly admit that my knowledge of current music is pathetically woeful. My favorite song of the past year was Feist's 1-2-3-4, but the Sesame Street version. "1-2-3-4 monsters walkin' 'cross the floor. I love counting, counting to the number 4..." And that's not on iTunes. I know. I've checked. So instead of recent hits, your CD will be Paige's Favorite Classical Pieces. And there you have it. A day out-of-doors, someone I loved to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music. A recipe for rest if I (or Eleanor) has ever heard it.
Thanks to all who participated in my first-annual birthday drawing! It helped make my birthday wonderful.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-08-24T15:30:00.003-06:00

It's my birthday next week. Hooray! I have always loved my birthday, even the years that it's been on the first day of school or in the first week with brand new college roommates. It's always been MY day. Even when things are just normal, like they usually are, they're a little more special because those things are on my birthday. When I see people walking around with a silly smile on their face I think "it must be their birthday." I don't mind the getting older part of it, either. I feel it gives me more clout and authority to say "mid-30s" rather than "20 something." Anyway, this year I'd like everybody else to feel as much speciality on my birthday as I do. So I'm having my first-ever drawing. I'm not quite sure yet what I'll give away as a prize, but if you would like to enter the drawing, simply make a comment on this post. On Wednesday, September 1 (my birthday), I'll put all the names in something or other and pull one out. That lucky person will get some lucky thing from me! I'm going to do the drawing on my birthday even though it may mean that it won't be an on-Paige's-birthday-present for you (of the 5 people that read my blog, only 2 live in Midvale). It's all about me, see, so this birthday activity will be for ME on MY BIRTHDAY. It's kind of like when I mail a birthday package or card to somebody else, I like to do so on the birthday of the person, so that I get to celebrate that person's birthday ON their birthday and to heck with when they finally get the thing. If it gets there late, they can pretend their birthday lasts longer. So, shout out a birthday message to me and get ready to win! Can't lose on this one. Sorry about the generic birthday pic, but I am currently in Boise and don't have access to my pictures. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Family Pictures

2010-08-02T10:38:00.009-06:00

We took family pictures back in April. I had the same photographer that Kelsey got for her wedding and I really liked her (www.laf-photo.blogspot.com). She could improve in time-related things (scheduling was hard, then we took pictures in April and I just got the disc now), but otherwise I thought she was great. Miriam was being an absolute pain. She is usually delightful, but HEAVENS she had issues. Kudos to Linnea's husband's doll antics for getting her to smile. Elijah deadpanned a lot, but I'll take that over the girl's scowl. He did smile, but he is trying to escape the family hug. Here are some of my favorites!

I laughed right out loud!

2010-07-25T20:08:00.003-06:00

My thoughts on miscarriage

2010-07-10T17:53:00.002-06:00

My friend Shauna miscarried last weekend. It made me go through all the emotions and thoughts from our own miscarriage. I have a tendency to analyze, analyze, and over-analyze, but when I have things aligned in my mind it helps me to accept and understand them. So here are some of my personal analyses about miscarriage. My first pregnancy was in the summer of 2005. When I miscarried at 11 weeks, I hadn’t told anybody at all, mostly because it was so exciting having such a huge secret between just Brent and I. I know a lot of women don’t tell people about a pregnancy in case of miscarriage (and that’s absolutely fine for them), but when we miscarried, that was my biggest regret. By the time we told people, the baby was gone. There was no joyous celebration, no exciting loving of a new baby. I felt that I, and in turn my baby, missed out on the happiness of his existence. And I found that it helped when people knew and talked to me about it. My miscarriage was at the ward campout. We left after everybody had gone to bed, and the executive secretary brought things back to my house the next day. He called the bishop from my house, and after the next day’s RS announcement, everybody knew. A lot of women came to talk to me and I was surprised to see how much I loved that and how much it strengthened me. I had a great and strong need to talk about the miscarriage. I felt like it was the only way to still stay in contact with the baby we lost. And I loved talking with women who had also had miscarriages. There is a secret club of women who have experienced this incredibly unique kind of loss and we all band together when a miscarriage happens. The sisterhood that results is a true blessing. It obviously didn’t help to hear “oh, I had a few miscarriages, my cousin Darcy had four, and even our neighbor Stephanie had one…” But it did help when somebody would give me a tight hug and say “I had a miscarriage and I am thinking about you.” I also did a lot of reading about the how and why of miscarriage and found that there is very little that you can do to cause or to stop a miscarriage. The theory that made the most sense to me was that when the chromosomes combine, something doesn’t fit. At every stage of development, everything goes as normal until the stage where the missing/mismatched/wrong chromosomes are needed, whether that stage is 5 weeks, 11 weeks, or whenever. Then the body doesn’t know what the next stage of development should be and stops developing. Meaning it’s not that he would have been “deformed,” but that his body had already developed as much as it possibly could. It made sense to me, but didn't answer the bigger questions. Did the baby I lost have a spirit? Will he be waiting for me in heaven? Or was it never really a body and therefore a spirit never dwelt there and therefore not a person? Each mother has their own answer for this, and I believe each mother is entitled to her own answer for this, and I have heard a lot of different answers from a lot of different women. But since I’m writing, you get to read my answers. In my career, I worked with people with severe disabilities. I saw a lot of broken and virtually useless bodies, each one housing a strong and vibrant spirit. I realized then that on the spectrum of abilities, my “able” body was like a brand new sports car and theirs an old rusty bicycle. But I also believe that after the resurrection when we discard the mortal debilitations we have, our bodies will resemble (in the transportation analogy, of course) a slick, sleek space ship with heated seats and a gravity chamber and a built-in dvd player and more amazing stuff that hasn’t even been invented. Compared to this space ship, the sports car isn’t much better than the bike. We will look back on how we defined abilities and disabilities in this life and laugh because we were all so significantly hobbled when compared to our celestial destiny. Back to my little 11-week fetus-child, I saw his incredibly small and underdeveloped body, but it was still very clearly a precious body that had developed as much as it mortally and physically could. And when compared to how small and underdeveloped we all are compared to what we will eventually become, I felt strongly that his little body was just as capable as housing a spirit as mine, and that with his 11 weeks of development he could absolutely have experienced mortality. There is no specific church policy or stated doctrine about it. The best I found is an opinion by Joseph Fielding Smith about stillborn children. “There is no information given by revelation in regard to the status of stillborn children. However, I will express my personal opinion that we should have hope that these little ones will receive a resurrection and then belong to us.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:280.) But I searched for a prophetic statement or something scriptural to support my emotions and found one of each. Brigham Young taught that “when the mother feels life come to her infant it is the spirit entering the body.” (Journal of Discourses, 17:143.) Through more sensitive instruments, we know now that those tiny babies move and swim and dance very early in development, like five or six weeks. The mom just can’t feel it until he’s big enough to bump into things in there. So if it was the movement that Brigham was referring to rather than the mother’s senses, the spirit joins with the body pretty early in development. I know I’m reading quite a lot into the statement, but I’m okay with that. In Luke 1, we read that when the angel appeared to Mary, he told her that her cousin Elisabeth had conceived a son and “this is the sixth month with her” (verse 36). So five months along. Mary visits Elisabeth and “abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house” (verse 56). It seems that Mary left before John was born. To give her enough time to abide there for three months, she had to have arrived about a month after the angel had first appeared to her. And already, Elisabeth knew that Mary was pregnant with Christ. When Mary showed up on her doorstep “the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost” (verse 41) and she greeted Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (verse 43). Baby John, only in the second trimester of development himself, recognized Baby Jesus mere weeks after conception. I could be completely wrong on my calendaring and the meaning of the statements. And even if I am right, it is absolutely possible that half-God children develop differently than mere full-mortal children. But what I get from it is that it is entirely feasible that an extremely newly developing body can house a spirit. So I feel that there is a spirit waiting for me in the afterlife. If, when I get there, that’s not the case, I’ll be fine with it. I have a friend who says the same thing but opposite. She feels that there is not a spirit waiting for her. If there is when she gets there, then great. Each mother is entitled to her own revelation and there is a huge possibility that each situation is different. So after all of that, what have I done differently because of my miscarriage? First of all, as soon as I found out I was pregnant with Miriam and Elijah, I started talking to them and loving them because I didn’t know how long I’d have with them. We told our families and friends early on in the pregnancies for the same reason. Luckily, they’re now 3 and 1 and I still adore them. I worked to enjoy pregnancy rather than wish it to pass fast and complain about everything because that’s what I didn’t have and wanted so badly for so long. It is also surprisingly nice to be in that club of mothers who have miscarried and it is a unique feeling to be the one to hug another woman and tell her “I had a miscarriage too and I’m thinking about you.” I know that I love my babies differently because of that first loss. I don’t think I love them better or stronger than other mothers love theirs, but it is a different kind of love than I could have given them otherwise. So there you have it. I didn’t realize I was going to be writing a novel, but after I started it just kept coming and coming. It is a topic I feel strongly about and quite frankly there’s a lot I left out. Unfortunately, miscarriages are rampant. More women that I thought possible have experienced it. As much as I would have preferred not to have experienced it, I’m grateful for what I have learned and who I have become because of it. But I’m also glad I only had one.

Sports. And. Us.

2010-07-01T22:44:00.005-06:00

I've been planning to do a post on our summer sports adventures. But it's going to be just a list of honorable mentions instead.

I've love the World Cup. Love it. But with the US, Chile, and Mexico being knocked out the passed round, I don't quite know who to watch. Probably Brazil. Maybe Argentina.

Miriam is taking a little sports class. She's pretty cute about it and, biased as I may be, is quite good. She's much better at soccer and kickball than basketball. But she sure is excited for t-ball, which is next week's sport. Not that others have to do poorly for me to think she's amazing, but she was the only one in the class that got the concept of kicking the soccer ball around the circle of moms and arriving back at her own mom. I'm so proud.

I also signed is up for a little dance class. It said 12 months and up and that it was for families, so I figured it would be little-kid oriented with the older kids being okay. When we signed up, Miriam voiced that she did not want to go, so I made a point of saying that it was Eli's class. She sighed and consented to help Eli at his dance class. Well, we showed up and the class was pretty much aimed exactly to a three year old little girl, even one who isn't into the dress-up-ballerina-sparkly-tutu stuff at all. Before I could even get into the circle with Elijah, she was involved and loving it. She jump, claps, turns around, freezes when the music stops and even gets into first position. Of course instead of doing pleis while she's in first position, she likes to "dance crazy." I guess she can't be perfect at everything. Elijah's likes it when we get to dance crazy right by the mirror. Other than he's not too involved. It may be Miriam's favorite 30 minutes of the whole week but she still calls it Eli's dance class.

The Jazz drafted Gordon Hayward from Butler for their #9 pick. I LOVE THIS GUY! He's clean-cut, adorable, humble, underdoggish, but at the same time amazingly talented in terms of both athleticism and leadership. No, he's not the "big guy" we need, but we've needed a good big guy ever since Ostertag left. Or got there :). I think he'll be perfect, I think he'll fit in wonderfully, and being from Indiana I think he and Coach Sloan will have a lot of great crop talk. And to all those who boo-ed when they annouced that Gordon Hayward was the man, I dare you to tell me you didn't like him in March. I dare you to because pretty much THE ENTIRE WORLD LOVED HIM IN MARCH! Or at least everybody but strict Duke fans. So there you have it.

And a non-sports item. Brent's going backpacking in Southern Utah tomorrow. I'm driving to Boise with the two busters. Yep, me driving with two little children. Let's hope for the best.

GO WORLD!

2010-06-24T22:58:00.005-06:00

I tried to make us look tough and it worked for everybody but me. I look like I'm trying to get a popcorn kernel out of my teeth. Still, I think Brent and I really could take on Elijah, Miriam AND Barack himself. Enjoy!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Stuff On My Kids

2010-06-13T21:21:00.002-06:00

A book we frequently check out of the library is "Stuff On My Cat A to Z." It goes from A to Z with pictures of stuff on cats. You can see it here. After reading it many times, I started picturing some of my own pictures with my own A to Z stuff and my newest creation began. I put together "Stuff on my Kids A to Z" with my digital scrapbooking software and got it published (Kelsey's wedding guestbook was the first thing I ever published, but this is the first thing I've publish of my stuff for me... oh so exciting!) at an online publisher place. I was even more excited when I got an email from the publishing place (viovio.com) saying that they thought my book was adorable and wanted to feature it in their June/July newsletter! I'll be famous! Of course, they have since told me it will be the August/September newsletter, but still... if it ever is I'll sure and let ya know. Anyway, the book came this week and although it was supposed to be for Father's Day, we celebrated early. Here are some of my favorite pages.

Here are the front and back covers. I am both prejudiced and biased, but I think the whole thing is absolutely adorable!

When the books got here (I ordered a small size which came with two books automatically), we were just leaving for a walk. I opened the package and showed them to Elijah and Miriam. They each took one and plopped down to have a read. Perhaps the Father's Day present won't really be for dad...

Who needs preschool?

2010-06-06T22:41:00.004-06:00

Signs that my 3 year old may be watching too much PBS or perhaps may not be watching enough:

While at the aquarium looking at an informational setup on the life of kids who live in the Amazon, she asks "so is this a habitat or something?"

While Elijah spins her in circles in the bathtub, she squeals "he's trying to rotate me!"

Looking out our window and excitedly pointing out the stop sign on the corner, she states "there's an octagon outside our house!"

Feeling much better after throwing up and being sick for a day, she tells me "my immune system chia-ed down my germs." (The term "CHIA" is pronounced like chia pet and is her own verb meaning to kick or punch.)

Gazing up at some seabirds at the beach, she gasps "Mama! They have pteranodons in Mexico!!"

It's EDUCATIONAL television! And we obviously love it at our house!

Buck up, little camper

2010-05-25T08:15:00.003-06:00

Miriam is now a camper! Brent took her on her first outside outing this weekend with his parents to Topaz Mountain. It's one of Brent's mom's favorite camping places because of all the topaz chunks to find. It's also where Brent asked me to marry him. Anyway, not being an avid sleep-outsider myself, I was interested to see how she would do. Turns out Miriam is a star camper. She cooked marshmallows on sticks, hammered out rocks, and loved every minute of it. While he woke up every hour throughout the night, Miriam just slept and slept and slept. I was most concerned when it started pouring rain here. I pictured them huddled in a soggy tent with the wind and rain whirling around them. But then I checked the weather radar map. There was a huge red/yellow storm right over Salt Lake County, with a huge circle of green. There was only the extreme edge of the storm, the feathery green parts, over Topaz Mountain. As a mother who has only spent three nights away from her little girl, and all of them in the hospital with Elijah, I think I did as well as she did.

Miriam with her hat, flashlight, bunny, candy necklace, and fanny pack for collecting topaz.

Showing off her topaz.

My Summer Project

2010-05-21T19:36:00.008-06:00

In the area we live, many homes (if not most) are fronted by a sidewalk. Between the sidewalk and the road lies a thin strip of landscapable terrain called a park strip. Park strips give pedestrians a cushion of space between them and the road with all its busy cars whizzing by, and studies show that the park strip indeed calms traffic, assumably by making the road appear narrower by separating the sidewalk. These things are all well and good, but gosh the darn things are terribly hard to deal with! When we moved into our home, the park strip immediately in front of us was filled with grass and lined with four stunted catalpa trees. I'm not sure how widespread the custom is, but in our area it was quite popular during the 60s to plant catalpas or other fast-growing trees in the park strip area, then to cap them, cutting off their top branches to create a ball effect each year with the new growth. We call them "Dr. Seuss trees," although I have also heard them referred to as "lollipop trees" and "wow those are really strange trees." Anyway, our four trees were surrounded by grass. Which was very difficult to water. And really bizarre to mow. So we jumped on the Slow-the-Flow bandwagon and ripped our strip. I wanted something in that area which was alive, but required little maintenance, which included water. We decided to transplant some ivy, growing profusely on the south end of the back yard without any help from us, into the park strip. Over the next few years, sections of this ivy flourished and looked beautiful, climbing and winding up the silly little catalpas trunks. The other half of the park strip was less desireable, sporting dead chunks of transplanted ivy. Every year it was the same. Transplant more ivy to bare areas. Watch ivy dry up and die. Despite the water and fertilizer I lovingly gave it. More dead ivy. While I know I'm not a green-thumb-make-everything-outside-gorgeous person, I enjoy growing things and felt like an absolute failure. So I decided to (finally) try something different. After attending a "Simple Solutions for Problematic Park Strips" class and going to the Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan, as well as the Central Utah Gardens in Orem, I realized my fatal flaw. Ivy is a shade plant and literally shrivels up when too much sunlight shines directly on it! The half of my park strip that is empty isn't a sign of my failure, the half that has ivy growing in it is actually a sign of my abilities and successes in the growing world! What I needed was an aesthetically complementary yet sun-loving groundcover which is tolerant of poor soil and drought to put in the patches of park strip where the ivy turned to dust. After much searching, I chose "Turkish Speedwell," a tiny dark green plant which spreads across the entire ground and produces a carpet of beautiful tiny little purpley blue flowers. You can see seasonal pictures of it at this link. I loved this plant at first sight when I saw it in the demonstration gardens, but the bright blooms made me think it required a lot of water or at least shade. Not so! According to one website, "this charmer is as tough as it is beautiful." Turns out it is a very desert-y non-water and sun-loving plant! So last week was action time. I dug out all the dead ivy and prepared the soil, then planted my little Turkish Speedwells. Miriam was a help, but Elijah tended to run down the sidewalk while we were working, so I did it mostly during naptime and after Brent got home from work so he could run after Eli. But my little plants are so dang cute! And I have such high hopes for their prolific survival! They're DESERT plants, after all! I just hope they feel happy and at home in my park strip. Because I sure feel happy with them! It is my summer project to keep them alive and make my park strip a beautifully low-maintenanced area. I'll keep you all updated whether you like it or not ;).

Here is a shot of the entire park strip. You can see some of the bare spots up close, then again surrounding most of the area around the 3rd and 4th tree. You can also see the loveliness of the ivy winding up the tree. I really do love that part.

Here is an above-shot of one patch of my newly planted plants with the soaker hose winding around them to help them get established.

One already has a bloom! SUCCESS!!

"In Praise of Boise"

2010-05-18T19:41:00.002-06:00

Just sharin' the love!
Lexington: In Praise of Boise. TheEconomist May 15, 2010

Is GENII the plural of genius?

2010-05-11T20:09:00.005-06:00

Cause I've got two of them on my hands! (And perhaps I can add myself, too! It only took me two days to get the video clip saved to my computer and uploaded to blogspot! WOW!)

ELIJAH: He mastered crawling, walking, running, running in circles, and walking backwards. But those darn stairs were giving him fits. We worked and worked and worked on the feet-first-belly-down skooching method. He could cruise right down if I put him on the stairs in the correct position, but he had a heck of a time trying to figure it out. One day he actually fell from top to bottom (thank heavens they're carpeted!). Funniest part of it was that he was wearing a bumble bee costume (Miriam was in a carebear costume and had chosen Eli's outfit). Flight of the Bumblebee if I've ever seen it. He was awfully wary of stairs for quite a while after that. Definately safe. Anyway, he finally got it! He lays down on his belly and then pushes himself backwards until he gets to the stairs. If he hits the wall then he just tries again. Then he just skooches on down and he's in business. He has transferred it to other getting-downs, too. He's aok with beds, tables, and has even tried the trampoline. I helped him on that one. Take a gander at his early technique. Sometimes he would get on his belly and slide for a long time before he hit the stairs, if he ever got there. He's a pro now and can get from standing to the bottom of the stairs in the time it takes him to get in position now, but it still is cute to see!

MIRIAM: After she could identify by sight all capital and lowercase letters, I started on writing. She wasn't ready, though. She just couldn't get the concept. So I dropped it. Then one day at library class, she said she wanted to write her name on the back of her bird craft. She picked up a marker and wrote MiM. I was amazed. I call her Mim all the time, but didn't realize that she knew how to spell it and how to write it. The next day, she asked to write her name. I wrote it out and she copied it directly underneath. She's sporting her dorky smile, but the name is pretty impressive, to her Mama at least. I was amazed. What a girl!

I still have a blog!

2010-04-27T18:44:00.005-06:00

"I used to have a blog," I thought the other day. Then with excitement I realized that they usually don't just delete those things and I probably still have a blog! YAY! I DO! And since I quit being a lively blogger...

My baby girl turned three. THREE! Can you believe it? She posed, but see, she's three, so it had to be HER pose. If the camera panned out, you would see she is bent double at the waist and has her arms straight up in the air. Very chique.

My baby boy turned one. I get so dang sentimental on my kids' birthdays and to have both so close makes me kind of basket-case-y for that block of time. He is such a happy boy. He loved his candle and cake. He had that huge smile even though the next day he was finally diagnosed with a raging ear infection. What a trooper!

My baby sister got married. Okay, I don't think I've ever ever called her "baby sister," but it fit so sequentially with the first two that I just couldn't help it. Kelsey and Spencer got married on March 20, and we had a fun-filled two weeks preparing for and enjoying the many festivities that accompany wedding celebrations. Miriam loved it and is all about who is married to who. She is sure that she will marry Elijah when they grow up. Eli seems to agree. I've decided to put off the incest discussion and just appreciate that they like each other.

We spent a week in Mexico. MEXICO! Brent's parents took their three boys, along with wives and children, for a fun-filled weeklong Mexican extravaganza. We visited Chichen Itza and Tulum, some Myan ruins, along with Xcaret and Cozumel. Our favorite times were playing on the beach, building sandcastles, and collecting seashells. It was hot. And it was wonderful. This picture is from a dinner at the restaurant at our resort (yep, right on the ocean!).

Anyway, last week we came back from Mexico with ear infections in both kids. And I'm pretty sure Elijah got some sort of a Mexican virus (or do they prefer the term Latin virus?). And what with the crazy schedule the week before in Mexico along with the various maladies, sleep has been bizarre. Strange. Almost nonexistant. Very hit-and-miss. This morning, miracle of miracles, I woke up in the morning without having been awakened all night long. HALLELUJAH! I could easily have slept a few more hours, but I felt great. It's amazing what the value of non-interrupted sleep is.

And that about sums it up. Hope your lives have been as eventful (and maybe more restful) than ours.

She said it

2010-02-25T21:03:00.003-07:00

We were watching the Olympics and they were doing a clip on the women's snowboarding halfpipe. They showed fall after crash after magnificent wreck. Then they showed a clean run.
Miriam: Wow!
Me: She was really good, wasn't she?
Miriam: Yeah!
Still Miriam, but very solomnly now: Those other girls were not good.

We were at dinner and I mentioned that the school district equalization bill died in committee.
Miriam: Oh. Was he sick?

Take 72

2010-02-16T20:16:00.009-07:00

My mom asked for a picture of my kids together, which is actually something I've wanted for a while. Still, it's easier said than done. Can I just say how much I love digital cameras?

I've always thought these two looked like siblings, but not alike. This proves that they look the same when they laugh at their mom. I can be pretty funny :).

Wrong tax website

2010-01-31T20:20:00.002-07:00

So I clicked on my own link to get to the free tax help website to schedule an appointment and OOPS! I put the wrong one down. It's UtahTaxHelp.org. Not com. Sorry if anyone actually tried to go use the services and thought I had stuffing in my head, but now it will work!

Brilliant Boy

2010-01-16T10:15:00.003-07:00

Elijah is 11 months old and absolutely fascinated with putting things into other things. I find crayons in the recycle bin, his glowbug in the dirty laundry, and cookies in the toy box. I have a lot of bins around to organize the stuff of life, and most of the toys are separated by toy type. The other day Elijah and I had put away the crayons in the crayon bin, and had moved on to putting away a building set kinda like huge Legos but not really. He picked up each piece, looked at it, and put it in the bin. Over and over and over. He picked up a crayon we had missed, looked at it, and put his hand over the building set bin. Then he froze. Utter confusion passed over his little face, then he looked all around, almost panicking, for the crayon bin. I slid it off the shelf and into his line of sight. A wave of relief flooded his expression and, shreiking happily, he put the crayon into the crayon bin with a satisfied "AAAAA!" Then it was back to the building set. I was so proud of my little guy! He is already a sorter, an organizer, an arranger. A genius! I LOVE MY BOY!

Free Tax Preparation

2010-01-12T21:10:00.003-07:00

I just found out about this program called VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance). This is from their website: "VITA is a program implemented through the statewide EarnIt.KeepIt.SaveIt. Coalition made up of local community partners. The coalition works to recruit volunteers that proved free tax preparation services to low-to-moderate income households... If your household income is under $49,000 a year, you may be eligible for free tax preparation from IRS-trained community volunteers." WOW! How awesome is that?! I don't think I'm divulging too much when I say that our family comes in below the 49/year mark and we will be participating in these services. I'll let you know how it goes! Go to UtahTaxHelp.com.

Congratulations Kelsey and Spencer!

2010-01-08T19:53:00.001-07:00

Kelsey and Spencer are getting married! Hooray! I first met Spencer at Kelsey's birthday party about a year and a half ago. Kelsey had told me about him prior to the bash and told me he would be the one with a mustache but to not let him know I knew anything about him. He was indeed sporting a big fat hairy one but I just pretended that he looked normal and then I pretended that I didn't know all about him already. ANYWAY, Spencer has been a part of our lives since then and has attended major Moore family events such as Miriam's birthday party and Elijah's hospital stays, along with babysitting for us on our anniversary and other sundry nights. He and Kelsey hosted Thanksgiving dinner for us as well as my parents, Spencer's brother, and Spencer's mom. Brent likes that he is a fellow proud hair-shaver. I like that he will do all the research on major purchases and tell me about them. We ended up buying the virtually same tv on black Friday. Miriam likes that he has a Mexican league soccer team. The Pumas, if you were interested. Elijah just like him. Any time that Kelsey is going to come over, Miriam always asks "Is Spencer coming too?" I always have to text ahead of time because if he's not, I have to prepare her for that. We're so excited that he's going to be a permanent part of our family. CONGRATULATIONS TO KELSEY AND SPENCER! If you'd like, you can read Kelsey's post about the engagement on her blog.

New Year New Look

2010-01-07T11:32:00.008-07:00

So on New Years Day we decided to go sledding. We borrowed some sleds from the neighbors and headed out to Union Park. The park is just down the street has only one very small hill. It's not a huge magnet for sledders, but was exactly perfect for us. We had a fantastically amazing time. Miriam was a sledder extraordinaire. She loved coasting down the icy hillside. Really, it was only about 50 feet and even I liked it. And I don't like activities in the cold outsideness. Miriam decided to go by herself, and she did amazingly well. But on her second solo flight, somebody (okay it was me) put her sled on a direct collision course with a tree. The sled hit the tree. Miriam flew off the sled. Miriam's face hit the tree. Oh the guilt. She was scraped up, her nose was crooked, and there was tons of instant swelling, so we headed for the car and took her to the local docinthebox. When we arrived, we had nothing but shuddering sobs. After we got settled down, Miriam was much more animated about this adventure. And when the doctor told her that because she was such an awesome patient she could have tokens to the toy machine, she was absolutely energized! Amazing what a ten-cent toy can do for a girl. She had an x-ray, and still likes showing people how she had to hold her head. All of her bones are perfectly intact and her septum is straight. No more guilt! Anyway, here's a track of the first few days...

Day one: This is when we got home from the doctors. She's still in a lot of pain, but is an absolute trooper.

Day two. This might have been the worst of the swelling days. Remember on Willow when everybody was getting turned into pigs? She was sporting the half-way between human and pig look. Very cute.

Day three. Still kind of swollen. A lot more bruising. I don't think the flipping off is intentional. Then again, maybe she realized it was me who aimed her sled for the tree...

Day four: This was probably the worst bruising. It was this day that she looked in the mirror and said "I'm a monster from PBS kids dot org!" She didn't seem too sad about it, but I was a little sad to hear that that was her opinion of her own reflection.

Day 7: Today: The swelling has mostly gone down and the bruise is more green than anything. Even the black streak under her eye is more lavender than purple. And yes, I know she has the same hairstyle and pajamas on as she did on day 2. But I have proof that she has changed clothes since then!

We did it!

2010-01-04T14:03:00.007-07:00

We did it! We did it! We did it! We did it! Yeah, lo hicimos! We did it! Imagine, if you would like, Miriam, Elijah, Brent and I along with even JoAnn and Zeke doing the Dora Victory Dance. Why? BECAUSE OUR BASEMENT IS DONE! AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Okay, so we really didn't DO a lot, just watched all the workers come in and out and out and in. And we painted. And that's a bigger job than it sounded like when we initially said "oh yeah, we can paint..." BUT IT'S DONE! We finished one big play/tv/office room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. There are 8 doors (do you know how long those take to paint?), two colors of wall, white ceilings, a granite shower, and a warm happy feeling. We still have an unfinished bedroom, along with the washroom/storage room that will probably always be unfinished. We gained three closets (some of my favorite things), a place for guests, and virtually twice the house we had before. They finished everything the Monday before Christmas and we started moving in. We have already hosted our first houseguests-who-get-a-real-place. Brent's grandma died and Steve and family stayed with us while they were in town from California for the services. While he was here, he helped us get our internet set up a lot better than we had it. Phew. Somebody has to take care of us. Anyway, here is a before and after shot. The before shot was taken from the bottom of the stairs, which is about ten or so feet in front of where I took the after shot. I also would like to show you the wall behind where I was standing, but Ikea was out of the bins that we wanted, so everything on my flashy new shelves is in reusable grocery bags. So I'll wait on that, but you get the picture that this is AWESOME.

Needless to say, we absolutely LOVE IT!

Real Simple!

2009-11-30T20:18:00.003-07:00

I rarely read magazines, but I love Real Simple. It's fabulous. AND RIGHT NOW YOU CAN GET A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONLY FIVE DOLLARS! It's one of Amazon.com's big deals right now. If you want, you can head over there and snag the thing through tomorrow night.

Always guess conservatively

2009-11-20T20:39:00.002-07:00

I have learned in my life that if somebody excitedly asks you to guess what grade they got on a test, guess like an 85%. That way, when it's a 92%, it'll sound fabulous. If you would have ventured a 100%, then the 92% would in turn seem a little lackluster. When Brent comes home from playing basketball and asks me to guess how many baskets he made, 4 is a much better guess than 14. Because then the answer will impress. Just this week, I was the one that got to impress with the real answer. Elijah had his 9 month checkup. We were about a week and a half late with the checkup because our normally scheduled appointment on his actual 9 month birthday got postponed due to an extended vacation in Boise where we were waylayed with H1N1. So as we were waiting in the exam room, Eli was gollum-crawling around, pulling himself up on everything, trying to work the blood pressure gadget, and in general being a pretty typical 9 month old little boy. The doctor came in and welcomed us, commented on how well Elijah was moving around and of course how adorable he was. He then looked at the chart and said "9 months? I would have sworn he was 12 months based on his getting around!" Even though I knew the game, it still made me feel good. Yes, my 9 month little boy is performing at the level of most 12 month olds. Aren't I a wonderful mother? He's down to the 50th percentile of weight, but still in the 85th percentile of height, which makes him the same ratio of height to weight as Miriam was (and presumably still is) on most of her chart but I think that's off a bit because Eli is admittedly a lot squishier than Miriam ever was although it could be the difference between boys and girls... ANYWAY, at the end of the appointment, I asked for flu shots for both Elijah and Miriam. The doctor poked his head out the door and asked the nurse if she had vaccines for Elijah who is 9 months and for Miriam who is (at this point, he turned back to me and asked) "four?" I smiled and said "two." The girl is precocious and knows it, but there is no way she could pass for four. So here is my advice: ALWAYS GUESS UP. OR DOWN. Whichever is more flattering. People will always want to be around you.

Frazzled

2009-11-16T20:59:00.003-07:00

Do you ever feel like you're behind in absolutely every aspect of your life? That there are about ten million projects that are half done and waiting for you to get back to? That you think you know what's going on in your church calling, but are about a month late with anything you do? That you think you know what's going on with any work-related happenings, but really you're way off base? That any time you sit down to get caught up with bills or paperwork or anything else that you can't focus for long enough to even find the project? That every room of your house needs a scour-down or at the very least a tidy-up? That you have all these awesome ideas of how to do things better but the thought of implementing them seems virtually impossible? That by having virtually quit posting, you're letting down the blog followers that have developed a deep appreciation of your wit and wisdom (and rightly so)? Then you, my friends, know how I'm feeling now. Sigh.

An ineffective punishment and a grand compliment

2009-11-03T16:22:00.002-07:00

Miriam is absolutely amazingly wonderful and I love her to pieces. One thing I love about her is her determination. Unfortunately, it causes at times some motherly frustration. Something that we struggle with is getting dressed. It's not that she minds wearing clothes, she just doesn't like putting them on. She has developed a habit of running laps (down the hall, through the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, and back to the front room and the hallway again) any time I get clothes out. I didn't want to make it an issue, and figured she was old enough to be embarrassed, so one day last week I told her that if she wasn't dressed, she'd have to come running errands with me in her jammies. She may be old enough to be embarrassed, but she is not embarrassed by wearing jammies in public. She thought it was awesome. So much for that route. I now give her a piece of her Halloween candy for every item of clothing that she puts on. It works much better. It's only bribery if it's illegal, right? Anyway, after we got home from the jammies-in-public event, it was lunchtime. She chose to have a cold hot dog stick (as in not cut up) with ketchup to dip-dip in, cold canned green beans, and some cheese cubes. I almost gagged as I watched her dive in, but my little mama heart just melted when she enthusiastically and through a full mouth said, "This is the best dinner I ever had! I love the taste!" Ah, a little appreciation sure goes a long ways!

The first cut is the deepest

2009-11-02T20:16:00.004-07:00

After much discussion and debate, we have decided to finish the basement. Brent would have done it a year ago, I needed more time to realize that it will be well worth it. We hired a contractor, moved all our stuff to the corners, and they started last week.

This is the north wall of our basement as of last Thursday morning:

And this is the same wall tonight:

The process has begun! We're going to have a large play/family/tv/office room, a bedroom, a bathroom, a storage area, and an unfinished bedroom/additional storage area. I am so excited for this! I usually get terrible cases of post-decision dissonance, but I'm really excited for this! HOORAY FOR STEVE THE BUILDER!

Gentlemen, start your engines!

2009-10-22T20:36:00.007-06:00

Elijah loves food. There's just no getting around it.

A few weeks ago, I figured Eli would be crawling within the week. He was just SO CLOSE! I would surround him with his favorite toys and wonder why he just sat there crying. Last week Brent figured out that I was using the wrong kind of bait. FOOD. In one afternoon spent with his dad, Elijah crawled to cookies, crackers, and cheese. The only times he didn't get there were when Miriam took pity on him and moved the food closer so he didn't have to struggle so much. The next day, a mom got goldfish out for her kid during storytime at the library. Eli honed in on it and took off. Now he can go pretty much anywhere he wants to and he is simply pleased as punch about the whole thing. He is so much more content and happy and it is so fun hearing squeals of delight when he gets to something he's been working on. He has a hitch-in-the-get-along technique that we call the Gollum Crawl. He crawls on one knee, but uses his foot on the other leg. He cruises along at a pretty good clip considering that last week he couldn't even hold himself in crawling position. Eli's cousin Henry was the first kid I ever saw use the Gollum Crawl and I was fascinated with it. When Eli started doing it I was thrilled! It's definately hereditary. Anyway, I was going to put on a little clip of Elijah going after a goldfish. It's completely adorable. But I can't find the camera right now and don't want to look for it. When it shows up, however, you'll be the first to know!

Things I Love #4: Orson Scott Card

2009-10-12T20:15:00.009-06:00

In celebration of Columbus Day, there was an article in the paper this morning about how kids these days are getting a more rounded view of Christopher Columbus, such as that he really didn't know where he was going or getting into and that through his efforts he brought smallpox to the Americas and killed off thousands of Native Americans. Quite frankly, the most I remember about my Columbus lessons was the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria and that we got banana boats with our school lunch. But between the Columbus article and today's celebration of Columbus Day, I remember one of my all-time favorite books by one of my all-time favorite authors. "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus," by Orson Scott Card tells of a future where people have invented a machine that lets a person see what happened in the past. They are the researchers of the future watching past actions and listening to past conversations, discovering how things came to be the way the are. When these people of the future find that the resources of the world can no longer sustain life and that their future will not exist beyond two generations, the pastwatchers decide to intervene in the past. They choose Christopher Columbus' search for a water passage to the east and ultimate "discovery" of America as the key event that will make the future happy and healthy for all humanity. It is a fascinating voyage both through the histories of Europe and Latin America and through "what would have been if..." I love the research that Orson Scott Card shows by the detailed historical references that are laced throughout his writing both in this book and many others. Another thing I love is his focus on interpersonal relationships and how many of his characters' thought processes include how they should word or phrase an idea for the receiver to understand it in the way it was meant. This makes the characters much deeper. It helps me to consider how my tone may be taken by others, as well as considering that the way I initially take somebody else's mean tone may not be the way he meant it. It also makes for fascinating parallel books, where the same interaction is shown from another character's point of view and the whole meaning of the conversation is different. It makes for quite enjoyable reading. Orson Scott Card is on my personal list of fascinating people I would like to meet. I am just amazed at his ability to depict history and its influences on the future, his understanding of the human character and how we relate to each other, his imagination of how the future could be, and the manner in which he combines it all. There are some Orson Scott Card books that I didn't like (Magic Street, Songmaster, and Homebody for some), and some that I enjoyed but don't recommend highly (the Alvin Maker series, Empire, and Saints), but I think that makes my enthusiastic recommendation of others even stronger. The Ender series (starting with Ender's Game, then following through Ender's lifetime with Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, then starting over with Ender's Shadow [taking place at the same time as Ender's Game but focusing on a different character], and following the lives of the other battle school kids in Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant) is wonderful albeit a bit tedious if you take them all back to back. The Women of Genesis trilogy (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah) and Stone Tables, the story of Moses, are interesting and thought-provoking takes on Bible prophets and events. Enchantment is a delightful dip into fairy tales and fantasy whose main character is a distance runner. I read this one for the first time while I was dating Brent who is also a distance runner, so my view of it could be clouded by rosy glasses of happy happy times, but it only enhances the joy. And Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is simply fascinating. I highly recommend it. Oh, and Happy Columbus Day!

Hay-Maze-ing

2009-10-09T20:47:00.009-06:00

Last year I discovered that Engh Gardens on 7th East in Sandy has an amazing setup for kids in October. They have a hay maze, a pirate ship, all sorts of put-your-face-in cutouts, and it's all for free. FREE! My kind of place. If you live in the Salt Lake area and have kids, you absolutely should go. We spent the afternoon there with our whole family, plus Shauna and Charlee, and had a great time. Charlee loved the pirate ship, but my kids were all about the maze. I have had my share of corn mazes, and they're one thing that I can honestly say I don't like and I don't want to like them. But hay mazes are definately the way to go. We went through this one a lot. And I never once felt trapped, exasperated, anxious, bored, or even mildly irritated!

Elijah is becoming quite the walker. After being carried and flown through many times, he fought and struggled to get on the ground and in charge of himself. He is a very determined little boy in many many ways. Brent held his fingers through the first half and I tagged teamed to save Brent's aching back and held him up through the second. I can attest that he chose where and when to turn. If I tried to make him go down an aisle he didn't want to, he dug in deep with his heels and gritted his gums together. He only made one wrong turn and that was when he followed Miriam (who had lapped us) go down a dead end. I'm fairly certain he did just for fun and completely on purpose. When they got to the end, Miriam put her hands on her cheeks and said "OH NO!" Elijah laughed, turned, and headed straight out the end. What a boy! And just to glimpse the joy of the hay maze journey for him...

And one more thing... what happened to my cute little baby? This kid is practically a toddler-adolescent-adult!!

Let the celebrations commence!

2009-10-06T16:31:00.009-06:00

The grand annual Moore Family Halloween Party took place last night. It sure felt early, but here we are weeks from Halloween and we already have all our costumes not only decided on, but gathered and prepared.

This is us having a great time at the party. I'm a bat (the wings are made from an umbrella and though you can't see them are fabulous), Brent is Grandpa Moore (who when we went through his closet after he died had innumerable white button up shirts and about fifty virtually identical v-neck sweaters varying only in the weave and slight shades-of-gray/blue changes), Miriam is a doctor (notice the no-nonsense aura of efficiency and competency), Eli is a frog (and not quite sure about the whole experience).

A month ago, Miriam told Brent that she wanted to be a doctor for Halloween. I'm sure not going to disuade her from such a noble aspiration, but when I found a CareBear costume at my new favorite thrift store for $2, I grabbed it. She loved it and wore it for two days straight, but it never entered her mind to change from Doctor to Care Bear. She got so excited as we prepared her doctor costume, and even at one time said "I AM DOCTOR VILLALOBOS!" Who is in fact, our family doctor. When we arrived at the shindig, her cousin Carter was a surgeon. Ah the flurries of cameras catching the two pint-sized doctors before the discardment of stethoscopes and lab coats! Does anybody else look at this little series and have nightmarish flashbacks of those awkward-corsage-pinning-high-school-dance shots?

Elijah decided to be a frog. Frankly I think he has a definately frog-like smile, in the nicest frog-like way possible. It may be in the genes: Miriam had a definate frog-look to her during those early months although I haven't noticed it for a while. The decision to be a frog came last Spring when my mom called and said there was a frog costume at a garage sale. Good going mom! But have you ever seen a cuter frog? With Eli is cousin Avery. She sadly got scooted out of the doctor shot, but Elijah the Frog thought Avery the Witch was great. Although he was highly attracted to Avery's golden white hair and had to be untangled from it more than once throughout the duration of the evening. The stuffing actually made him feel like a big old teddy bear. He's usually squishy and cuddly, but that extra padding really enhanced the effect.

Although I have never been a huge Halloween fan, I find myself getting more and more into it. Strange how two little people can change your life so much! Miriam has been talking about the party all day, reviewing who was dressed as what and all the things we did. At dinner she gave a big sigh and said "that was a fun party last night." HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My new favorite picture

2009-09-25T14:43:00.002-06:00

I don't know what it is about this picture, but I adore it. This was a few weeks ago, but I haven't done a lot with pictures lately. Last night I sat down to empty my memory card and when I saw this I was about as happy as a clam. Although how happy can a clam get? I was about as happy as a little boy going down the slide and running into his adored and adoring big sister. I put it up as my desktop wallpaper and this morning when Miriam woke up (she's an office sleeper now) she said "MAMA! IT'S MIMI AND EE-EYE!" I stepped in the room and she was excitedly pointing at the computer screen. I said "Yeah! Look at how happy you are!" She looked, smiled, and said "we both have shirts on!" I didn't realize it was that momumental of an event, but apparantly that's the first and foremost notable element of the photo. Maybe she'll be a fashionista after all. Either way, I LOVE this shot of them. And I've always said that Brent has nice legs.

A boy and his cat

2009-09-24T22:50:00.004-06:00

My boy is absolutely wonderful! He's been scooting around and is AWFULLY close to crawling, although not close enough for his liking. He especially likes to be by Zeke (I don't know if JoAnn has been around him enough for him to know that she exists) and any time he's in the viscinity Eli totally hones in on him and lets me know that under no uncertain circumstances that he wants to be THERE. NOW. Today Elijah convinced me to place him right beside Zeke while Zeke was waiting to go outside. He shreiked with joy for about ten seconds before I opened the door and Zeke slipped out. Nevertheless, Eli was sporting a blue balloon on his wrist after a trip to Macey's and balloons are Ezekiel's weakness. It was so funny watching Zeke's complete attention and scratching on the door and he watched through the glass to the up and down movements of the balloon. And Elijah was going crazy that the cat was so close yet so so so far away. But because of the glass, it was the longest interaction that they have had with each other so far. It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Definately worth trying!

2009-09-14T21:59:00.003-06:00

In my quest to be even more thrifty and providential (as opposed to cheap) I have been frequenting websites that offer coupon-using and low-cost-living tips. UtahDealDiva.com and 5DollarDinners.com had a recipe last week that looked good enough to try and basic enough that I had everything for it. Tortilla Chip Chicken Casserole. I was amazed how tasty it was! I even looked forward to having it for lunch, which is big in my world. This is what I did...

In a 9x13 pan, layer:

1 can of diced tomatos (I used the kind with green chilis)

1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

A couple of breasts of chicken boiled and shredded

1/2 a bag of stale tortilla chips (crushed)

Mix in bowl and pour on top:
1 can cream of chicken
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream

Bake at 350 for a half hour, top with cheese for the last few minutes. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

I also put green onions in cause I had some and thought later that olives would have been quite tasty. The picture is from the website (ours was devoured prior to a photo-op) and she used pinto beans and cilantro. Do what works for you, but I think you're in for a treat!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL!

2009-09-09T20:49:00.002-06:00

Brent has developed a new passion for Mexican league soccer. He knows the teams (Atlas is his favorite), the players, and watches the games. It is his new favorite pasttime. On Cinco de Mayo, he took Miriam to the local Mexican "stuff" store and laid out all of the keychains of the various teams. After much careful deliberation, she chose Pachuca. She knows their symbol and can identify them by name. She can also identify the favorite teams of everybody who has told her. Despite the fervor that is in the home, however, Brent hasn't played soccer since his Sandy Rec days. Long long ago. That doesn't stop Miriam from seeing her dad as Superman. The other day as they were watching a game she said, "when I grow up, I want to play soccer just like you, daddy." Ah to be adored and idolized!

Top ten things you missed since I quit blogging

2009-09-04T22:56:00.003-06:00

1. Miriam has become a star sleeper again. The night spent screaming with Elijah to no avail from her mother has scarred her, although I hope it's not too deeply. The night after my last success email, Miriam figured out how to climb out of the crib so she could run into the hallway. After I picked her up twice and placed her kindly but firmly back into the crib, I heard her getting out again as soon as I left the room. I stood in the doorway of my bedroom so she didn't see me until she was walking down the hall. My heart thrilled at the fast flight response she had when she did see me. I remember all the times I thought I was sneaky but then saw my own mama and ran like heck to get somewhere safe. Miriam indeed displayed a jolt of energy and ran straight to the office and closed the door. When I opened it, she was climbing into the twin bed we have there for guests saying "I'm going to sleep here tonight." The girl didn't leave the room once and indeed did sleep there all night. The next night when she went straight to the office at bedtime, I said "YOU BET, but no bottle in such a big bed." It only shows the depth of desire to sleep there that she didn't complain. She has gone to bed every night since with little complaining and no bottle. She's earned her yogos (for not getting out of bed after I tuck her in) most mornings, and her Pullups are dry most mornings. My little girl is growing up.
2. With a little girl sleeping in the office with such great success, we decided that the best planners realize when their plan isn't going to work and change the plan rather than keep hitting heads against walls. After simply going without computer access after bedtime (as seen by such little blogging activity), we moved one computer temporarily into our bedroom. Sigh.
3. Elijah is also back to being a great sleeper. Without Miriam's crying to wake him up, he's a master. He's now in the crib rather than the cradle, which fits him MUCH better. He usually is chomping at the bit to get down about 6:30, and usually sleeps til about 7, although if he wakes up before 6:30ish, I give him a bottle and he sleeps til 8ish. At least that's what I want to happen, and since it happened more than once I can call it "normal" in my head. I love that kid.
4. We went to Boise for a week for a monumental Family Picture. We drove there and we drove back and my two kids did AMAZINGLY WONDERFULLY for so long in the car. I sat in the back for a majority of the trip there and back and did a lot of entertaining, but between the songs and food and dvd player and books and toys and everything else, the boredom never set in too strongly. I can be pretty entertaining :).
5. My babyfood making has reached another great pinacle. My mom has an icemaker and therefor does not have ice trays. Due to the fact that I usually heat up about 8 ice cubes of veggies for the boy's meals, I thought that my mom's suggestion of muffin tins just might work. It were easier to pour into a bigger casing and it felt easier taking 1-2 of the veggie muffins out instead of 6-8 of the veggie cubes. And they were gorgeous too! I felt so proud of them that I showed them off to every adult female that came into the home. I haven't done it since I got back but mostly because I haven't gone shopping for anything other than milk and eggs and diapers. We'll see what the next few days bring.
6. Elijah picked up his binkie and put it in his mouth all by himself. This is big.
7. College football started. Ah the joy and excitement! Boise State beat Oregon last night for a dramatic statement of the non-BCS-ers. For the opening night of football action, BSU was the only non-BCS team to play a BCS team and they beat them soundly. Take that. If you somehow missed my diatribe on the Bowl Conference Series last year, you can read it here.
8. Okay, so my top ten list only has 7 real things, but it's late and I want to get to bed and I'm going to wrap it up without changing the title.
9. Or adding pictures.
10. Thank you and good night.

They did it!

2009-08-15T09:27:00.002-06:00

I am happy to report that Miriam and Elijah both slept through the night in the same room! Miriam had fallen asleep in the afternoon which always wreaks havoc with her bedtime, so we had gotten a Friday night party movie to watch. Elijah had shots this week and has been very whiney and clingy for the past few days. So Eli went to bed in his cradle in Miriam's room at 6:30 while we started The Dragon Hunters. Although Eli cried off and on throughout the evening, we put them both down awake at 8, listened to one or the other or both cry for the next hour or so, and then it was blissfully quiet. Everybody slept until 6, when Elijah started talking. Brent was already awake (a normal day's wake up time is 5), so he was in charge. Miriam got up at 7 and when I talked it up to her that they both slept in the same room, she said, "We were crying." So much for not remembering the trauma. Anyway, gold stars for all Moore children today!

The Great Experiment Take Two: Failure

2009-08-11T19:56:00.002-06:00

The plan has always been to have Miriam and Elijah share a bedroom. We have a three bedroom home, with one bedroom belonging to Brent and I, one bedroom serving as an office, and one bedroom housing to the critters. I have been nervous to put Eli in with Miriam at night. Call me crazy, but we're just now getting to the point where neither child gets up at night and gosh it makes a huge difference. For most of his life, Elijah has slept in his cradle in our bedroom. A few weeks ago, I laid in bed (after tiptoeing in to not wake up the boy) and realized that sleeping in my bedroom were: me, Brent, Elijah, JoAnn the cat, and Ezekiel the cat. Sleeping in the other bedroom was: Miriam. Now, I love my girl and I aim to give her the best but this is just too much. So a few weeks ago we moved Elijah's cradle to the office. This worked great, but made my blogging-emailing-billpaying-anythingelseonthecomputer-time reduce to virtually nothing. So one night last week we talked it up to Miriam and put Eli in her crib with her in the big girl bed. It didn't last more than a half hour. Last night we tried again. Miriam went to bed in her big girl bed, Eli went to bed in the crib. They were both awake and both quiet. Fifteen minutes and no noise later, I peeked in to see two of the sweetest kids in the world sound asleep. Success! Around 9, Elijah wakes up screaming and screeching. It's a new thing for him to have the world in crisis when he wakes up in the middle of the night, but hopefully it's just a phase. Miriam started crying too. She's an empathetic little girl and was worried about "my bruh-yuh Ee-eye." Eli wouldn't quit screaming so I finally took him out of the room to rock him. He fell asleep and I reluctantly put him in the office. So much for computer time for Mama. It's a good thing though because Miriam woke up screaming at 3. After calming her down and getting her back to sleep by 3:30, she started screaming again at 4. Because I knew she was okay, I let her go. And she woke Elijah up. Who started screaming. She finally realized that she was in a big girl bed, and finally she got fed up and got out to wander the house. Most nights I'm pretty levelheaded about the importance of sleeping time and keeping a cool head, but I was ready to skin the busters alive. I stormed out of my bed, throwing pillows at Brent just in case he didn't realize that I was mad, and found Miriam standing in the front room. I picked her up, decided to be calm instead of mad and sat in the rocking chair. She told me that "Ee-eye's crying." Really. She scooted off my lap and nudged in beside me in the rocking chair so there was room for him. Sweet. But still annoying in the 4 o'clock hour. I got up to get Elijah, who was still screaming, and Miriam made her break for the fridge. She had just enough time to snag a bag of carrots before I got back with Eli screeching in my arms and started yelling at her. Brent finally realized that our normal strategy of letting them cry it out wasn't in force and showed up to save the poor children from their murderous mother. I don't remember what he said, but I answered to "TAKE ONE OF THEM! I DON:T CARE WHICH!" Miriam was in more danger of having bodily harm, so he chose her. He took her back to bed and tucked her in the crib. Smart move... she can't always get out of that one. He said he heard carrot crunching before he left the room but because she was calm he wasn't about to take them away. Once everything else quieted down and he had his binkie, Eli drifted off to sleep too. After I dumped him in the cradle in the office and crawled back in bed, I told Brent that maybe when we finish the basement we need to put in an office in the corner. We may never get ours back.

Rollin' again

2009-07-28T15:25:00.003-06:00

When Miriam was born, we got a jogger stroller from Target. We chose it basically because it was a tough stroller (meaning we could take it on grass and not be frustrated) and it was priced right. Miriam loved the stroller and her stroller rides. They were her "chill time," and she would just sit back and watch the world go by, and we used it all the time. So when we found out Elijah was coming, we started looking for a doubler. I focused mainly on ksl.com, thinking that used would be cheaper. I found a good deal and snagged it. Then it turned out that I hated it because the shade thing on top couldn't go back and forth and was basically useless unless you were walking with the sun at your back. I found myself pulling the busters backwards more than once because of that darn sun and not going on walks because it wouldn't be fun for any of us. It turns out that my priced-right brand of stroller (BabyTrend) is one of the only kinds that has a moveable shade thing, and it's absolutely wonderful. It can ratchet down to right in front of them with just a slight push. It's so nice! As we go around a corner to face the sun, I flip the thing down and my kids are not squinting and hot. As we turn the corner back, I flip it up and they can see everything again. I'm so lucky that my favorite feature just happened to not be standard on all strollers, although I for one think it should be. SO, I sold the doubler that didn't have the flip-down shade on ksl (for the same price I bought it at and had about ten calls in the first half-hour... I should have tried to make some money off the deal!) and found a doubler that was our exact kind but doubled (also on ksl... gotta love it). HALLELUJAH! We love going on walks again.

On a side note, Brent commented that he really liked having Elijah drinking Dr. Pepper and eating Oreos in the past two consecutive posts, and so I have chosen a Cheetos-eating picture for our double stroller representation.

Perhaps the best possible news in a streak of 100 degree days

2009-07-24T15:41:00.006-06:00

Okay, kids, if you haven't heard about the Dr. Pepper deal going on at Albertson's, you're in for a treat! The 12-packs are on sale for $5.29. When you buy 4, it adds up to $21.16. Albertson's has a buy2get2 deal so the end price is $10.58. Dr. Pepper has a deal where if you purchase $20 worth of the stuff, a $10 coupon for any Albertson's purchase spits out with your receipt. Which means you get all 4 12-packs for a grand total of 58 cents! Wo! Then if you want to, you can go back and spend that $10 on 4 more cases of Dr. Pepper, which is precisely what I did, and get another $10 coupon! You can do it as many times as you want through Tuesday at closing and get as many 12 pack cases for 58 cents per 4 as you want. The only thing to be wary of is to make sure the register takes of the first $10 for the buy2get2 thing. But if it doesn't, the cashier can add it on for you. Time to build up your year's supply! This is even better than the Guns n Roses thing which quite frankly no matter how I tried the website was always too busy. But this totally makes up for it! I go in phases of drinking Dr. Pepper, and since it was the only thing that made me feel not terrible when I was pregnant with Elijah, I've been in a drinking phase for a while. I've been planning on cutting back but not now! I have in my trunk right now 12 12-packs of the 12 ounce cans. Cheers!

Where's the beef?

2009-07-20T21:14:00.008-06:00

Guess which part of an Oreo cookie is Miriam's favorite? This was on my kitchen floor the other morning. There were similar piles in other parts of the kitchen, as well as in front of the television.

Elijah, however, prefers them whole. This was at a ward party. Eli loved the after-dinner cookie bits the second counselor in the bishopric kept slipping to him.

In other grocery-related news, I revisited the babyfood making business and am much happier with the results. I skipped the grinder and just blended, then scooped it into ice trays (thanks for the tip, Kacie!). It took very little time and very little effort and so far he likes them great. He didn't even shudder on the last feeding of peas, and that's pretty good for him (green veggies have never sat well with him).

And in still more grocery-related news, I bought a pack of hamburger the other day. When I went to bag it and freeze it, it wasn't in the fridge. Nor was it in the freezer already. Nor could I find it in the car, the kitchen, or anywhere else. Nor have I smelled it fermenting anywhere. Obviously I either left it at the store or somebody took it out of my cart on our walk to the car. Sure is a good thing I'm saving money on babyfood!

Already reading

2009-07-18T09:46:00.007-06:00

My friend Ginger posted a video on her blog of her little boy reading "Brown Bear Brown Bear" to his baby brother. Miriam saw the video and immediately decided she wanted a movie of herself reading the book to Elijah. When I told her that Eli was asleep, she confessed that she didn't care if Eli was there, she just wanted to make a movie of herself reading the book. So here it is. One of her most-common phrases right now is "I do it all by myself!" I love how it slips in there during the "silver fish" page. Oh, and so you don't get confused, instead of "black sheep," Miriam says "black lamb," and she calls the "goldfish" a "silver fish." So maybe she's not reading the words after all. I still think she's brilliant. At least after seeing Axel's stellar performance and realizing that it was possible...

Just chattin'

2009-07-17T22:47:00.002-06:00

I overheard Miriam playing in the corner the other day. She had her hand up to her ear and she said, "Hi Nana. Doing good. I love you. See you next time won't you sing with me." I asked her if she would like to call Nana. "No, I already talked to her on my pretend phone."

What more could I ask for?

2009-07-10T21:41:00.003-06:00

I love being a mom. I adore my kids and I have so much fun with them. I also selfishly love being the one that they turn to when they're excited, hurt, happy or sad. I love being able to be with them all day every day because I get to see every little thing that they do and really know what's "normal," versus what's not and that they might not be up to par. And I love being the one that they cling to and want to be with. Tonight Brent and I went to the second round of Harvest Days Heartthrob, Midvale's form of the always-popular Idol singing competition, and we got a babysitter for the evening. To make a long story short, the babysitter called midway through the concert and said, over his screaming in the background, that she couldn't get Elijah to stop crying. I immediately came home to a sad little boy and a justifiably frazzled little babysitter. Thankfully Miriam had slept through the whole ordeal. Eli isn't hard to calm down usually, so I knew something was up. Even after doing everything for him, he was still tense and worried. I finally decided to just stay home rather than go finish out the concert and said "I think I'll just stay with him." As soon as those words were out of my mouth, the little guy took a big deep breath and his entire body completely relaxed. His binkie-sucking started to be more relaxed rather than panic-stricken. As the babysitter walked out the door (thankfully she just lives down the street and it was light enough for her to walk home), he smiled at me and his eyes started to roll. I almost cried. All he needed was his Mama, and I was the lucky one who got to be everything for him. I sat and rocked and sang to him until he was completely asleep, his binkie finally falling out of his mouth and his little hand finally growing limp after grabbing my finger the whole time. As I kissed his fuzzy little head for the hundredth time, I thought OH I JUST LOVE BEING A MAMA!

Cow Appreciation Day!

2009-07-09T21:57:00.003-06:00

I'm so glad I stumbled upon an article about this or else I may have missed it! And that would have been tragic! For those who for some reason may have missed my blog post last year, Chic-fil-A gives away FREE CHICKEN SANDWICHES to those who are partially dressed up as a cow, and FREE COMBO MEALS to those who are fully dressed as a cow. For more info, go to www.CowAppreciationDay.com. See you at Chick-fil-A!

Update...

2009-07-06T19:37:00.003-06:00

Last night Eli shuddered and gagged on his homemade babyfood dinner. Sigh. So today we opened it all up and put it in the blender. OH IT WORKED SO MUCH BETTER! If there is a next time, I'll skip the meat grinder all together and just focus on the blender. It would cut the time down dramatically. Plus, with the added water, it made a lot more than I had before. I didn't count the containers, but it's feeling more worth it. We'll see if I ever feel like it would be worth my time and money to buy more food and mash it up for the kid. But see how happy he was? Sometimes all it takes to get some real recognition is to feed the kid a gloopy meal so he realizes how good he normally gets it!

It might not be worth it

2009-07-04T21:01:00.005-06:00

Today for the Fourth, I kept trying to think of something we could do to celebrate, but every time I stepped outside it was too hot to think of packing two kids up and going to the park. So I took Miriam to Macey's to get some groceries and picked up a pizza on the way home. I declared that we were going to have a party at home instead of going to the park for the party. Miriam immediately ran into the front room and yelled "SURPRISE ELI!" Apparantly every party is a surprise party. She handed out pretend party hats, frosted everybody's pizza with pretend frosting, and threw pretend confetti into the air. No matter how many times we told her that it was America's birthday, she kept yelling SURPRISE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Elijah. Anyway, lately I have been trying to find ways to live more frugally and thriftily. After spending more money on Eli's food than on the other three of ours put together last week, I decided to try my hand at making my own baby food, being more independent in honor of Independence Day. Some of you, I'm sure, are aghast that I've ever bought store-bought baby food. Others are shaking their heads now thinking "OH PAIGE WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!?!?" On our Macey's trip, I purchased some sweet potatoes, as well as some frozen veggies that were on sale. After everybody was in bed I got things boiling in the kitchen. The sweet potatoes were cake. I mixed them up just like normal, but added a bit more water. They were fast and easy and made quite a bit. The peas, carrots, and beans weren't quite so easy. After boiling them, I put them through the meat grinder twice and then used the hand mixer. They're still pretty chunky and I'm not sure if Eli will be able to eat them. Well, he's actually not that picky so he probably will. Still, I don't know if I didn't boil for long enough or if I should have blended... Anyway, I ended up with 24 little servings of veggies. Normally priced, this would have cost about $12. I saved $6, but I spent $6, along with an hour and a half or more of time that really is pretty precious. Verdict: I'll think about the sweet potatoes again, but the others weren't worth the time or effort. Now I know. And knowing is half the battle. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYBODY!
Below: Miriam and Elijah at the surprise party. Thankfully, it was a lot more fun than it looks.

Click! Click! Take a pic! Pic!

2009-06-29T21:41:00.008-06:00

Lately, Miriam has been fascinated with the camera. More specifically that they take pictures. And even more specifically that she can control what pictures are taken. For a while, I would pick up the camera and there would be twenty or so red-fade-to-peach shots of her fingers over the lens.
Then she got better and there was a whole bunch of this:

I'll spare you the hundred or so other virtually identical shots, varying only in which portion of face is included and the degree of overexposure. She for some reason kept pointing the camera at herself. It may have been the egocentric take-pictures-of-yourself thing that all the kids are doing these days, but I don't think so. For one, she would say "SAY CHEESE MAMA" as she was doing it.

Anyway, her aiming skills have improved dramatically. When I picked up the camera the other day, there was a pictoral diary of her day. I loved seeing the things she found important enough to document by photo. See for yourself. And don't worry, I've trimmed it down from about 30 to just a few.

Her pink bear Zeebo:

Her dirty clothes:

Her baby doll "Baybuh Baybuh" sitting in the doll stroller:

Herself in the mirror:

And... her brother Eli:

There were lots of pictures of Elijah. The first one he was clear across the room, just in the corner of the shot. In the following ones he got bigger and bigger until he was the main subject. I love that he is important enough to her to be so prominent in her picture-taking. And I love that she is important enough to him that that he's watching her in most of them. I wondered a little bit why I wasn't in any of the pictures. She must have known that I would have taken away the camera.

Good Eater

2009-06-27T09:37:00.003-06:00

The other night at dinner after polishing off two and a half baby food containers (the Gerber 2nd Step size), Elijah was still not satisfied. He finally took the spoon away from Brent and carefully put it in his mouth. Each time Brent took it away to put more food on it, Eli would break down. But once he he got the spoon back he was all about the concentration again. This kid is four and a half months old and already feeding himself! That's genius if I've ever seen it. Treat yourself to another Moore family post-dinner video. Bon appetit!

The happiest sound in the world

2009-06-22T21:54:00.006-06:00

The hardest part is figuring out which is Elijah and which is Miriam!

Two-year-old logic

2009-06-18T21:09:00.005-06:00

EXAMPLE #1
We are on a walk with Elijah in the sleepy wrap when Miriam vacates the seat of the stroller and is now pushing it. She stops on a regular basis to pick up rocks and sticks and other sundry items to put them in the undercarriage part of the stroller. I realize that she is trying to crawl into the area, which is made of a thin canvas-y type of material upon which is stamped very clearly that it is not to be used as a baby carrier.
Me: Miriam, don't crawl under there.
Miriam: I want to go under there.
Me: You can't fit under there.
Miriam: Yes I can fit.
Me: It says it's not for little girls.
Miriam: Oh.
She immediately stops trying to get in and turns to me.
Miriam: Put Eli down there? For little boys?

EXAMPLE #2
We are in Boise with Miriam crying in her bed. Due to the facts that we are transitioning to no naps and that we are on vacation, I get her out. When it's time to go back down, I lay her down to change her diaper and find it is completely dry.
Me: There's nothing in this diaper. It doesn't need to be changed.
Miriam: Yes! Change my diaper!
Me: But there's nothing in it.
Miriam: Yes! Change my diaper! Clean diaper please!
I show her the empty diaper.
Me: There's nothing in it! It IS a clean diaper!
Miriam: There's toots in that diaper.
I changed the diaper. Without letting her see me rolling my eyes.

Great book. Not so great movie.

2009-06-16T14:42:00.002-06:00

A while back, I listened to "Marley and Me" on my ipod. It was absolutely wonderful! I loved Marley and thought about him all the time. I also loved John and Jenny and completely felt like a member of their family as I listened to the book. I laughed right out loud at times at the crazy situations that Marley would get himself into and imagined how I would react. The writing was fabulous, the story flowed, I laughed right out loud at times and I got a little choked up at others. I would and do recommend the book to anybody.
As soon as I finished the book, I requested the movie from the library. It came this past week and we watched it over the weekend. It was one of the worst book-to-movie transitions I've ever seen. Honestly, I couldn't stand Jennifer Aniston as Jenny and Owen Wilson was just not John Grogan. It seemed like the whole plot of the book was Owen Wilson (and I say Owen because it wasn't John) wanted a different job and didn't want to be stuck with his wife and kids but by the end he realized that having a family was great. Oh and he had a dog named Marley. Owen spent the whole movie wishing he was a news reporter, whereas John in the book loved being a columnist. Sebastian, his movie best friend who goes off to Columbia to write a big article on drugs was not to my knowledge a part of the book. And maybe because it's just the movie, but you really don't see much of Marley at all. Yeah, he gets kicked out of obedience school and he chewed up some couch cushions, but that was about it. You don't really see how he's the "worst dog in the world" or how he just loves the family he has. I know it's hard to put an amazing book into two visual hours, but it would have helped to stick with the plot and have more about Marley. That could have been done with a simple narration. The point is I really didn't like the movie. But I LOVED the book. So don't let the movie keep you away from one of the most enjoyable reads I've had for a long time!

Lovin' this boy!

2009-06-13T21:43:00.003-06:00

Elijah is officially one of the most amazing little four month olds ever. We had his official appointment on his official fourth month birthday, and the doctor said he was a "perfect specimen." Yep, those were his exact words and nope, I don't think he's ever used them about any other kid before. He lands delicately into the 80th percentile for both height and weight, making him a perfectly proportioned little big guy. Although four months old, his 9 month clothes are getting pretty snug. The doctor commented about the congestion, which he has had virtually all his life causing the growly breathing that first led to one of his nicknames being "Beast," but that didn't affect his perfect rating at the end. Miriam was an attentive older sister, telling the doctor that Eli's favorite color is blue and demonstrating how he grunts. She also was extremely empathetic, crying as loudly as he did when the shots came. He quieted down as soon as I had him wrapped up in the sleepy wrap with his binkie. It took a sticker from the nurse for her. Either way, it was a magnificent appointment for a magnificent little boy. I LOVE THIS KID!

Five Six Seven Eight

2009-06-13T21:29:00.006-06:00

Miriam attended her first official dance class this morning accompanied, of course, by her Mama, her Daddy, and her brother Eli. It was at the community center and advertised on one flyer for kids 2-5, on another kids 3-5. Either way, it was a pretty big span of ages and I was afraid my little 2.5 year old would be the littlest and most immature one who wouldn't follow directions and would make all the other kids and parents mad. Especially if they had the 3-5 flyer. But when you go into something expecting it to be rather awkward, you're usually pretty pleased with the results. Positive negativism, as I always say. Miriam did great. She was one of four little girls. One girl is three and a half, exactly a year older than Miriam, and the other two were twins who are three turning four. All of them were extremely attracted to the wall-sized mirror and the barre. I was glad that both the other moms and the grandma had cameras. Miriam was the second tallest of the four, the only one not in a leotard, and usually the first one to raise her hand and say "I KNOW" when the teacher asked a question even if she didn't know the answer. She followed directions during stretching and was able to at least attempt the things. She did fantastic at walking on tiptoes across the floor with her arms up in a ballerina position. She did surprisingly well at the gallop step. Skipping was an issue, but she wasn't aware that she was just running, so all is well there too. She was a fabulous hip-shaker, partly I'm sure due to her love of the Wiggles. They hip-shake quite a bit. Brent's favorite moment came when one of the twins seemed sad and was standing apart from the group. Miriam walked up to her and threw her arm non-chalantly around her shoulders. She looked at the girl and gave her a big cheesy grin. I could not but laugh. The class was scheduled for 45 minutes. Forty two minutes into it, Miriam turned towards us and lolled her head to the side, her body virtually limp. That's always a sign that she's not going to be doing anything anybody asks her anytime soon. Sure enough, she made a beeline for the sidelines and said "ALL DONE!" She collapsed and watched her friends finish the last three minutes. All in all, it was a perfect class and Miriam was a perfect little lady.

Welcome Home!

2009-05-30T13:00:00.005-06:00

We've been home for three days, but since I haven't finished unpacking this is still current news. We had a fantastic time in Boise and flying with one adult, one two-year-old, and one baby is really not that bad. Eli slept the entire flight there, and Miriam was just thrilled with life on an airplane. On the way back, our flight left at bedtime so I figured they'd both drink their bottles and fade away. Not so.
Miriam not sleeping on the flight back to Salt Lake:
Eli not sleeping on the flight back to Salt Lake:
As you can see, they were both in great spirits. I think they knew that they'd just had a fabulous week with their Nana and Papa who love them and were heading back to their Daddy who loves them. How much happier could two kids be?

How cheap am I?

2009-05-28T07:48:00.002-06:00

Brent wanted a Master's celebration camping trip to Southern Utah and I wasn't willing to take a baby and a two-year-old. Nor would I think that the baby and the two-year-old would want to participate in the hikes that Brent had planned. So he went south and I took the baby and the two-year-old to Boise to visit my parents and their Nana and Pop. While I was there, I left the kids with my mom for an afternoon so I could hit a few thrift stores and hopefully replenish my dwindling supply of clothes that I enjoy wearing. I was thrilled to find quite a few things at St. Vincent's, all at an amazingly low price with an additional 35% off for Memorial Day, and brought them all to the counter to purchase. Cindy, the surprisingly stylish bleached-blonde cashier, was gushing with the customer ahead of me about the American Idol finale. When it was my turn, I continued the conversation which led to, among other easy-chatting topics, my having attended Utah State and the NBA Playoffs. As she was ringing up the last of the items, she casually asked if I liked anthropology. For about three seconds, my mind raced as I tried to come up with a connection between the topics we had skimmed and the study of humankind. Was USU known for their amazing anthropology department and had they just come out with a groundbreaking study in anthropological discoveries? How did I not know this? Or perhaps I just seemed like the kind of person who would have studied anthropology? Or maybe the big "NBA Cares" campaign originated with the Jazz and so as a Jazz fan I should obviously have some anthropology connection? Apparantly as my mind raced, my facial expression froze because Cindy said, "you know, the store?" Oh! Anthropologie! The store! Of course! "Oh yes, I do but I try to stay out of it... the prices here are much better!" The truth of the matter is that I've never been there, although I am aware the I do like their style. I'm pretty sure I fell pretty high on the fashion-lameness scale by not responding immediately to the question. But I'm going to take it as a complement that perhaps the clothing I had selected and therefore myself as a person has an Anthropologie-esque-ness to them. Man, I am stylish!

Master in the House

2009-05-25T22:28:00.003-06:00

It is with great pride and deep honor that I announce that Brent has finished the requirements for his Masters of Urban Planning program. He is now Brent Moore, MUP. Ah it's nice to have letters! It was a little sticky after he turned in all his stuff on time yet it wasn't finalized even after the deadline for teachers to give grades came and went. Gulp. After talking to one professor who forwarded everything onto another professor who finally got this put together, Brent recieved an A for his final professional project, which had to do with comparing land values across Salt Lake County, how they change over time, and devising possible reasons for the value and the change. Fun stuff. Anyhow, when you refer to Brent in your thoughts and conversations, please remember to call him "Master Brent." CONGRATULATIONS BRENT!

Still insinkerating

2009-05-24T23:18:00.008-06:00

For those who have checked this blog over the past month, you must think I use my disposer a lot. And I do. See, I have two great kids who love to eat......but despite what they look like and the enjoyment they get from it, they don't always finish their food. Their mama has no qualms about it anymore, however. If you wonder where I've been or what I've been doing for the past month, just listen to the whir of the garbage disposer and know I've been pretty happy. Oh, and don't mind Eli's demon eyes. He's really a nice kid; I just didn't feel like editing out the red...

In-sink-erating

2009-04-29T14:25:00.002-06:00

Most of my adult life has been lived without the aid of a garbage disposal but with the desire to have the aid of a garbage disposal. It was a luxury that just didn't come with any of the apartments I lived in nor the house Brent and I bought. I figured the decision to purchase one would be like other major purchase decisions... the one of us that wanted it least would finally want it enough to justify the purchase. That's how we finally got a sprinkler system, a couch, and a computer. Every time I visited my parents, I would toss stuff down the sink and sigh, thinking about how nice it was to just scrape and go rather than to push stuff into the garbage unless it was too gross and then all the way into the outside garbage unless it was too watery and then into the toilet. But then I realized that Brent's parents don't have a garbage disposal and therefore Brent is not aware of the glory of just rinsing away globs of gross stuff rather than having to transport it first to a garbage can and then outside. He therefore would never want one because he never knew the glories of it. You can never know the good if you've never known the bad. So I decided to do it myself. I used my birthday and Christmas money from last year and shopped around. I found a good deal and a coupon and with a deep breath, set up the appointment. The plumber came, took one glance under the sink and declared I needed to call an electrician first. I was so excited to get going that I didn't even think about needing to get power to the thing. Sigh. So I called the electrician who came over for a few hours last week. Miriam dubbed him "Nice Guy," and was amazed by his yellow sunglasses. She asked politely for her blue sunglasses so they could wear their sunglasses together, but sadly we didn't find them until after Nice Guy left. After the electrician graced us with power to the netherregions of the kitchen sink, I called the plumber back. He showed up, and Miriam referred to him immediately at "Nice Guy." I'm not sure if she thought that the original Nice Guy was back or merely that anybody who would come over and help mom fix the sink is a Nice Guy. Twenty minutes later we were up and running. Or more appropriately, up and grinding. I turned over my coupon, and Nice Guy #2 said he didn't have a calculator and did I know what 15% of the total was? Anyway, I LOVE HAVING A GARBAGE DISPOSAL! It is complete freedom in the kitchen. Clearing out leftovers is a breeze, rinsing a toddler's plate is cake, and oh I love the smell of ground up citrus rinds. Sometimes I'll eat an orange just to grind up the peel and breathe in the scent. I should have made the purchase years ago!!

Primarily talent

2009-04-27T11:12:00.003-06:00

The big Primary Talent Show was Saturday morning. Miriam chose to sing the ABCs, and we practiced all week long, using a glue stick as a microphone. She was doing awesome, but I wondered how she would do in front of people. I shouldn't have worried. The first little girl who volunteered to go shared a video that she had made with her toys acting out a story. Then Sister Thomas asked who wanted to go next. Miriam immediately hopped up and went to the microphone. She asked me to go with her, but stood and proudly sang the song without crying or laughing or turning away. She ran back to her seat so excited and smiled and laughed and clapped throughout the rest of the 10 minute show (it doesn't take long to showcase about 9 primary kids). She was so proud of herself and told everybody that we saw that day about the "Talent Show." Here's a shot of her in the spotlight!

Have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay!

2009-04-21T21:12:00.005-06:00

Miracle #1: I am back in the swing of church and was giving my lesson to my Beehives on Sunday. Because Eli does so much better if he's not getting in or out of his carseat, we walked to church. I pushed Miriam in the stroller and had Eli in his wrap. He fell asleep on the walk to church, stayed asleep through opening exercises (we have Sacrament last), and continued sleeping peacefully through the entire lesson. He started fussing and crying after the closing prayer and as the girls were filing out of the class. Perfect timing!

Miracle #2: Brent opted to stay home and utilize the three hours of nobody-else-home time to work on finishing his Master's thesis (barring an unforseen catastrophe, we should have his degree in May). Which meant I was going to be in Sacrament meeting with a two year old and a two month old alone. And being in Sacrament meeting with the two year old and two parents was hard enough! But Miriam was an absolute angel! She sat and talked with Eli and Piper, the baby girl behind us, most of the time. She asked for some goldfish and sat munching on them until some of them swam off the bench (it was more like getting thrown off, but as she let go, she said "swim swim swim!"). When asked, though, she quietly got down and picked them all up. She then colored until the closing prayer. Elijah was awake at the start of the meeting, then finished his bottle and fell asleep. And stayed asleep. Easy as that. It was the calmest and most relaxed Sacrament meeting I have had for the past two years! The patriarch and his wife even commented how good Miriam had been and that she definately earned an A+. Hooray!

Miracle #3: This morning at 5, Miriam started screaming and crying saying "OW! HURT!" She has constipation issues (considering the last post, it may be in the genes) and hadn't pooped for a while. An hour and a half later after two enemas (she hopped on the potty after the first and it all fell out), 12 ounces of pear juice and a lot of straining, she finally produced. Exhausted, she went back to bed and back to sleep. Eli had gotten up in the middle of all this. Brent gave him a bottle and put him back to bed. After washing the night's bottles, I decided to risk going back to bed myself. I hate having to wake up to crying, so frequently I'll just stay up once I'm up but I was so tired... Anyway, I woke up sometime later and felt rested! I checked the clock and it was 9:30. YES! NINE THIRTY IN THE MORNING AND BOTH OF MY CHILDREN WERE STILL ASLEEP! I luxuriated in bed for about fifteen minutes, which really is my favorite thing to do in the world and which I needless to say don't do much these days. There just is nothing like the feeling of being rested and still in bed, stretching and thinking. Ahhhh! Anyway, they both started stirring about 10 and have both had marvelously happy days. And so have I. It's amazing what a little (or a lot of) sleep can do for a mama and her two kids!

Can I get an HALLELUJAH!?!?

Focus

2009-04-18T20:43:00.012-06:00

Some of my favorite Elijah expressions come when he's trying to poop.

When he is all done he can finally rest.

Our Ikea makeover

2009-04-16T19:29:00.007-06:00

I am sometimes terribly frustrated with our bathroom situation. We have one full bath and then a tiny little powder room. And our full bath is pretty little, too. We've just always lived with it, but lately the lack of liveable space due to storage of bath toys and towels has really been bugging me, especially with the addition of a baby boy and all of his bath stuff. So a few Saturdays ago, I left Brent home with the kids and made my first excursion to Ikea. Wo. I was overwhelmed and all alone. I looked at all of the displays upstairs for like an hour before feeling like I could make a decision and even then I stared at the shelves and the hooks in the home organization area for about a half hour before putting anything in my big yellow bag. Then as I trekked towards the cash register, I doubled back about four times, changing my mind with every pass. Anyway, I finally made it to the registers and then home with a shelf and some wall hooks, feeling pretty successful. Miriam and I got the drill out one morning and put everything up. She was so proud to show Daddy the new shelf when he got home from work (I was too). And I love it! I've never liked towel racks because they're so unfunctional. But now I feel that we are making our tiny space work for us like it never has before. Plus, our door hit the towel rack and could never open all the way. I never knew it bugged me, but I cut the shelf to fit in the space and now that the door CAN open all the way, I am amazed at how much more I like the place.

Before: lots of towels shoved onto the rack, a plastic milk crate of bath toys in the corner and a door that doesn't open all the way. This picture was taken standing on the toilet, just to give an idea of how little the place is.

After: towels accessable, toys off the floor, with the door opened all the way adding mere inches to actual area but feet to perceived space. This was also taken from the toilet, hence you can see into the toy bins which you normally can't from a standing position.

I feel like it's a complete success. And although Miriam has always loved baths, she has really gotten into them lately. I like to think it's because she put up the shelf that helped the bathroom to be organized so well. Today she asked for a bath during the day, which I really like because it keeps her contained, content, and clean. All good things. She really got into it and was there for over an hour. Once when I peeked in on her she was playing waterslide. What a girl! And don't worry... the video is only 13 seconds...

The Social Smile

2009-03-31T21:41:00.005-06:00

What a difference a week makes! This is Eli last Tuesday. I know, it's pretty pathetic.

And this is him today.

I don't know if he was ready to socially smile last week and just didn't feel like it, or if it just hit perfectly, but he started working his dimple the day we got home from the hospital. He's also starting to talk a bit more. He likes to say "oh!" when we beep his nose. Yesterday he was sitting on Brent's lap on the couch with me and Miriam on either side of him and all of us were laughing at each "oh!" I remember when my sister Kelsey was a baby thinking how sad it must have been for Nathan, my oldest brother, to only have mom and dad to laugh at him. I'm so glad that Miriam likes Eli and thinks he's funny. I haven't done a scrapbook page for a long long time, but after a great photo shoot this morning, I put one together to mark this momentous day. Really it just means I get to show more pictures of my cute little boy without you having to scroll through them all. Never say I don't think of what's best for my blog followers.

Home Again, Finnigan

2009-03-26T18:25:00.002-06:00

Brent called me this morning from the hospital to say that Eli was coming home! Hooray! He had been off oxygen the entire night and they never had to use the "deep suctioning," but just the bulb that every baby comes home with from the hospital but rarely gets used, in my experience at least. But I now know how to use it. I'll admit I kind of freaked out when Brent told me he was ready to come home - what if he got sick again? What if he needed to be deep suctioned again? I guess I'm the kind of parent that is cool as a cucumber when the kid goes into the hospital, but scared to death when he comes home. Is that normal? It was just that all of the sudden we, his parents, had to take responsibility of his health again and I wasn't sure I was ready to do that. But when I got up there and saw the little guy, I could tell that he'd made huge improvements even in just the night that I'd been away from him. He got home about 3 this afternoon and has had such a calm and peaceful time since. He's been happy or sleeping the whole time he's been here and has only needed to be cleared out once. Welcome home Elijah!

March Madness

2009-03-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

And this time it's not basketball. Things have been CRAZY lately. You can tell the state of my mind when I posted yesterday by my title. I tried to do a clever little acronym with the RSV thing, but Really Very Silly would be RVS. Which is... nothing, really. RSV is what we've got going on and, sigh, Really Silly Very doesn't make much sence. Anyway, Elijah is a star. He produces lots and lots of snot for the nurses to suction out. It's pretty gross but cool in a strange sort of way. He is still on oxygen, but it's a really low level. The doctors say that he should be off of oxygen for 12-24 hours before they let him go home so we're still just hanging out here. And here is a good place to be. Primary Children's is seriously the best hospital I have ever had anything to do with. Great nurses, very friendly and personable care. I feel that they actually know who I am and want to help me and they take the time to know me and Elijah. So thanks for all of your Pennies By The Inch donations. I'm reaping the benefits. I'm at the computer station in the Parent Support Center now, but I'm heading back upstairs to check on my little guy. My mom got here this evening so she's rocking him now. Miriam loves being here, but politely requested to stay home and play this afternoon, so Brent's with her. WHAT A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD!

RSV: Really Very Silly

2009-03-23T12:24:00.005-06:00

So last week Miriam came down with a terrible cold. She was snotty and coughy and sneezy and just gunky. So of course Elijah got it too because Miriam is such a good sharer. Thursday and Friday nights they both just coughed away and it was kind of pathetic at our place. Saturday night Eli felt really hot so I checked and sure enough we had a temperature of 101.4. Wait... for kids this little, they care after it hits 100.4, right? So I called the doctor on call and she said to not worry but call the office Sunday morning and schedule an appointment (of course she said that... why do they even have doctors on call?). So Sunday I took Elijah in to the doctor's and sure enough, he has RSV. And they want to hospitalize him. At Primary Children's. And they want to take him there in an ambulance. They didn't want him to be off of the oxygen, see. So they strapped my little guy onto a stretcher and toted him off into the ambulance. I know that RSV is serious, but it's also pretty routine, so I was able to enjoy the whole thing without needing to worry. In fact, it was absolutely hilarious! This tiny bitty guy was strapped into his carseat and the carseat was strapped onto this huge stretcher and it took two big burley guys to get him into this huge ambulance just so he could have a little fan on his face. Okay, it was 100% oxygen coming out of the fan, but still it felt a little like overkill. I laughed the whole time. Inside at least. Outside I politely answered all of the questions and was the picture of a concerned mother. He was just so dang cute! I wish I had my camera, but at least I have a little one on the phone. My favorite shot is the one inside the ambulance where he's waving his little hand. It looks like "Hi mom! I'm in an ambulance! How cool is that!?" It was my first time in and ambulance and the whole time I felt like Tom Hanks in The Burbs when he crawls into the ambulance and says "I'm sick! Take me to the hospital!" Anyway, we made it to Primary Children's and he made it through to our little room and we've been there ever since. He's still on the oxygen and they come in and suction him out every few hours. It helps a lot and he breaths much better for the first few minutes afterwards until he builds it all up again. Because it's a virus they really don't have a medicine they can give him. It's just take care of the symptoms until it runs its course. Which could be two days and could be five. I stayed with him last night and now Brent is with him while I came home to put Miriam to bed and take a nap myself. So although I could elaborate on the story a bit more, I'm just going to go to bed.

My Favorite Things #4

2009-03-16T12:43:00.004-06:00

Every March, the Girl Scout Cookies get delivered. Oh how I love Girl Scout Cookies. As a side note, I was the biggest cookie seller in my Brownies troop. Two years ago, I discovered Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream. Now, I'm not a huge ice cream fan. I like my fair share of soft serve cones, but otherwise it's just a dessert. But I have found my VERY FAVORITE ICE CREAM of all. Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream. It is a chocolate mint ice cream. BOTH chocolate and mint. Then it has thin mint cookies crushed up in it. They get all chewy and kind of taste like a mint brownie. Oh it's good stuff. Two years ago I was thrilled to discover it, and bought a half gallon of it each time I saw it at the store. Then the "limited time only" expired and I had to wait for the next year. Last year, I bought the first half gallon I saw only to be disappointed that it was merely chocolate ice cream with the cookies in it. Good, but not delectable. Later that season I saw a half gallon that was white mint ice cream with the cookies in it. I didn't even bother purchasing. I wrote Dreyer's Ice Cream a mild complaint in the form of the question "is there anywhere I can buy it with chocolate mint ice cream this year?!?" They sent me a coupon for a free half gallon of ice cream which I gave to the neighbor boys when they watched Miriam one day while I went to pick Brent up from work. I'm sure they enjoyed it. But no response to my chocolate mint ice cream question. This year, however, the Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream has chocolate mint ice cream in it! HALLELUJAH! What joy! Brent wondered how much of the proceeds the Girl Scouts get from the Dreyer's ice cream sales. Whatever it is, add it to the cookie sales they get each year they've got to be making a decent profit. After purchasing a $5 Scout-a-Rama ticket from the same neighbor boy who got our ice cream coupon last year, Brent decreed that the Boy Scouts need some help. I'm just going to stick to my ice cream.

Give peas a chance

2009-03-12T12:09:00.003-06:00

Miriam most repeated creative creation is "Funny Man." I'm not sure where she got it, but she draws him, colors him, makes him with Play Doh, and organizes her toys to be him. It amazes me to watch her identify eyes, ears, feet, and the sundry other body parts she thinks are important enough for Funny Man to have. The other night we were having lasagne with a lovely side dish of peas. Miriam decided to make Funny Man right there. She took two peas, deposited them into the lasagne and declared "eyes." Then she took another pea and said "mouth." And another for "head." Not sure if the head was supposed to be big enough for the eyes and the mouth to be on, or if head is something else in her mind. She continued on until she had a complete Funny Man. She didn't eat her lasagne that night, although quite a few of the peas made it into her mouth. She gobbled up the leftovers, however, when I served them without the peas. Maybe the creative pull of the pea is just too strong. I know most all kids play with food, but thanks for indulging my belief that my daughter is an especially creative genius.

A Month of Elijah

2009-03-11T07:29:00.003-06:00

Eli turned a month old on Monday. I tell you, I simply adore this kid! For the most part, he's pretty chill. Yesterday Brent had city council so I was doing the nighttime bath books bottle bed routine alone. At one point, I had a post-bath Eli on the couch getting his pajamas on when a supposed-to-still-be-in-the-bath Miriam came running through the room. I set Elijah up with some homework and made sure he could see the window blinds (perhaps his favorite thing in the world to look at) (besides his mama, of course) and went to finish cleaning Miriam. Including a face wash and hair shampoo. Eli just laid on the couch taking it all in. Amazing. Anyway, he's a wonderfully amazing little boy. He usually has only two or three short wake-ups in a night. And although the past few nights have been the exception, I'm going to say that they're the exception and not the new normal. He fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, is no longer in the running for World's Homeliest Baby. His receding hairline has receded enough to make him look pleasantly bald and not the malnourished thin and scraggly look he had for a while, his cradle cap has mostly all flaked away, his baby acne is clearing up quite nicely and if we're lucky won't scar (it was really bad for a while). He adores his mama and daddy, and knows when they are in the room. He also knows when Miriam is in the room and loves her too. He's also very forgiving when her love and adoration are a bit too smothering. I love that I can hear his humming and squeaking whether I'm rocking him or he's sleeping across the room. I love his eyes, his facial expressions, his hand control, and mostly I JUST LOVE ELIJAH!

PBS Musings

2009-03-06T21:12:00.001-07:00

For some odd reason (okay, it's all Eli's fault!), the television has been on a lot more often than normal lately. I'm awfully glad that Miriam likes to dance and sing along with the characters and answer all of their questions and even play with her other toys rather than just sit and stare. If that were the case I might be rethinking our routine. But as it is, I'm aokay with it. STILL, here are some random comments about the PBSKids morning lineup.

*Did you know that Curious George is narrated by William H. Macy? And produced by Ron Howard? No wonder it's such a quality show! It's honestly one of my favorites.

*The only thing I'd change about it, in fact, is when they cut to the "kids" part, the narration is "George is a monkey, so he can do things you can't do." I wish they'd change it to "you don't do." Cause quite frankly, most of the things George does I COULD do if I wanted to, but I just don't. It also might be part of my focus-on-abilities-not-disabilities background.

*And speaking of disabilities, there is a dog with three legs and a girl in a wheelchair on Clifford. There's a boy with one arm on Maya and Miguel. And a dragon in a wheelchair on Dragon Tales. I'm not sure if they're really trying to make disabilities more approachable, but I find it incredibly entertaining.

*Ziggy Marley, Bob's son, does the theme music for Arthur. Just an interesting tidbit.

*It bugs me a bit that Clifford and his friends talk with each other when there are no humans around, but as soon as humans show up they can only bark. I know I'm getting picky, but gosh can't the rules stay the same? They do for Curious George!

*On Word World, all of the animals talk. Except for Dog. He has a huge house and can spell, but he can't talk. He's not a pet, either. He just can't talk.

*Sid the Science Kid goes to kindergarten and there's only four students in his class! What state does he live in, anyway!? And the teacher always bases her lesson on the question that Sid asks that morning. Is it luck? Did she already have it planned and was just relieved that Sid asked the question he did? Or is it kind of like a Montessori situation where it's student-guided? And does the teacher really have everything for every lesson there every day? I'm impressed.

*Barney isn't purple. He's magenta. Which in my book is much closer to pink. I would just say they're going with a different purple, but when they have all the kids wear purple to Barney's birthday party, they're not wearing magenta. They're wearing purple. And even lavender. But not magenta. And when they sing "purple is the color of fun fun fun," the crayon that Barney holds up is not the same color as him. And it really bothers me that they speak-sing a lot of the song. Even if you know the tune, it's really hard to sing along.

*I still love Sesame Street. And I recently found out they have podcasts that you can download to your ipod! Miriam loves to watch these and she's awfully adorable when she does it, too.

*Between the shows on PBS, they have a little preschool class with a teacher and students. Miss Lori was the teacher last season and she was absolutely wonderful. Now they have Miss Rosa. Miss Rosa I'm sure is a wonderful teacher, but she's awfully awkward in front of the camera. And her interactions with her students just doesn't feel natural. Miss Lori at this point does the Reading Time segment and nothing else. I hope that was a promotion for Miss Lori and that they didn't just demote her because Miss Rosa is younger and flashier and bilingual. I highly prefer Miss Lori.

*Mr. Steve does their music section. Last season (the ones where he's wearing a long sleeved red shirt and sitting down) I thought he was a little awkward. But he's come a long way. This season's takes (on the playground wearing a red polo) are quite a lot of fun and I find myself singing his songs throughout the day. He's a boy-next-door kind of a guy and I just want him to do good.

*I highly prefer the weekday lineup to the Saturday cartoons. It's not even worth turning the tv on on the weekends any more! But it just feels like a good morning to know that after George and Sid, Super Why will come on.

That's all for now. I'm sure that I'll wake up in the middle of the night with an insight that I forgot to share, but until then... may all your tv watching be happy!

I would have chosen Jacob

2009-02-28T19:52:00.002-07:00

I have officially joined the ranks of those who have finished the Twilight series. It took me a little while to join the bandwagon of this one. My sister Kelsey gave me the first book for my birthday this past September. Despite how much talk I heard about it I just hadn't gotten around to reading it before that. I am going to share my thoughts on the series, and while I'm not planning to write a summary, if you want to read the series without my opinions which may or may not be spoilers, then stop reading here. I'll be honest about the first book: I enjoyed it, but it made me frustrated. I didn't agree with the choices that Bella made and Edward quite frankly bugged me. He seemed to me to be incredibly arrogant, overly protective, and self-righteous in his opinions (meaning that he did what he wanted to and nobody else's ideas mattered). He knew he was gorgeous, he knew he was intoxicating to Bella, and he knew he could do and say anything and she'd just go along with it. Plus I thought it was creepy that he sat in her room at night and watched her sleep even before she knew about it. And Bella just accepted it all! Like it was fate! Oh I just wanted to give some gumption to that girl! I felt that she was just becoming Edward rather than developing her own persona. I am fully aware that as a person reads a book, she automatically may transfer her own experiences and emotions onto the characters, and I am also fully aware that I perchance have done this. But I dated a few guys like Edward. The kind who knew they could have anybody they wanted, and wanted a girl who would just to orbit them and tell them how wonderful they were. The kind who didn't take the time to find out about the girl's talents and potential and to help her become who she could be. Anyway, to say the least I had a hard time with the first book. I was telling my sister Erin about my feelings and she gently reminded me that the book was written for adolescents. Hmmm. It made me think, and I ended up requesting the final three books on CD from the library. The series definately got more interesting as it went on. It introduced Jacob (well, I guess he was in the first book but he wasn't a big player), who tried to woo Bella away from Edward and was initially moderately successful. I felt that Jacob was perfect for Bella and that she was an idiot for considering anything else. He was funny, down to earth, focused on her rather than on himself, brought her joy and happiness, helped her learn and become and develop, and in general trusted her judgement. I loved how he was confident, but not overly so. He made mistakes but moved past them rather than beating himself over the head with them. The saddest snippet of the book was when Bella saw her future as it would be with Jacob: happy, sunshiney, and with two dark haired kids running around. And she still turned and walked away from it. Sigh. Yes, things ended up fine and dandy for everybody involved, but I'm not one that likes to depend on fate. See, when fate chooses somebody for you, and unfortunate things happen (as they always will in any relationship), then all of the sudden you're stuck thinking "WHAT CRAPPY LUCK DO I HAVE THAT FATE CHOSE THIS FOR ME?" Rather than if you take responsibility for your own relationship choices, and unfortunate things happen, then you think "OK, what choice can I make now to improve this...?" And although Bella was happy with Edward, I think I would have liked Bella as a person better if she had become the person she would have with Jacob. And I think she would have liked herself better. So I think I've made my point in enough ways that everybody can see the reasons that I wish she would have stuck with Jacob. Although if she would have stayed with Jacob it wouldn't really have made as interesting a read what with forgoing the whole vampire/human relationship. But another great thing about the book is that just as I felt the whole shebang was nothing more than a twisted love triangle, the plot thickened and honestly became pretty interesting and intense. And quite satisfying. I became very intent in how things were going to end up and began looking forward to bottle-washing time when I could put my headphones on and hear what they were doing. I finished the final book just this week and was very satisfied with the resolution. It not only held my attention through the entire series, but the grasp on said attention was stronger in the middle of the fourth book than it was in the first. Needless to say, I've already requested the DVD from the library. As soon as it comes out, we'll be the 15th person to watch it. And since they usually get like 50 copies of movies, we'll probably be the 1st people to watch the copy we'll get! So exciting!!

We have now entered the video age

2009-02-20T13:12:00.004-07:00

In celebration of the birth of Elijah, my family gifted us a camcorder. I was in tears at the presentation and still cry when I watch a lot of the clips we've taken. I am SO grateful to have another way to save memories! My brother Adam once said that men want to pass on wisdom while women are more concerned with memories. Now, I am as wise as the next one, but he may have a point here. Anyway, here are two of my favorite clips so far...
First, this is when we were leaving the hospital. From the very beginning, Miriam was incredibly protective of Eli. The day he was born, she walked him down to the nursery. She was not invited to go in and when the door closed, she broke down crying. "BABY ELI! BABY ELI!" My thought is that she remembered the stuff they did to her behind those doors as a baby and was trying to stop the madness. ANYWAY, this is on the way out of the hospital. It was so incredibly tender to watch her carry his carseat all the way to the car. I'm crying now just thinking about it!

Here's the second one, and it's funny (in my oh so humble opinion - she IS my daughter, after all). Hopefully it will counterbalance the emotion of the first. Miriam learned how to play Hide and Seek and thinks it's great fun. The problem is, if Daddy isn't hiding in the same place (the bathroom), it really throws her off. She also has a hard time hiding and usually jumps out and says "HERE SHE IS!" as the Seeker is still seeking. ANYWAY, here is a round of her as Seeker. And yes, I know that her diaper and pants are completely sagging and not doing any good. It kind of adds to the moment, don't you think?

Name them one by one

2009-02-19T20:30:00.003-07:00

Things I am grateful for:

*That I don't have to worry about going back to work.

*That Eli is so much milder than Miriam was. With Mim, every thing (waking up, diaper changes, even eating) was extreme trauma. She was a happy happy baby, but needed a lot of maintenance to be happy. Elijah just takes things as they come. It is so much nicer to wake up to squeaking and sqwaking that escalates to crying rather than intense screaming all at once. Plus, when he is worked up it is much easier to calm him down. To give Miriam some credit, she was the first child and we did learn a lot with her.

*My Sleepy Wrap. We love it! I can put him in and go about my normal routine but have a humming and squeaking little boy right with me.

*How Miriam adores Eli. She loves talking to him, getting things out for him, helping to hold his bottle, and sharing her toys. She'll even offer her blankets to him, which is big.

*That Elijah was born healthy even with the cord wrapped around his neck three times.

*The way Eli's little head is warm and fuzzy when I kiss it.

*How my recovery from this birth is so much better than from Miriam's. I honestly feel like I'm a month after birth rather than a week and a half.

*That Elijah is man enough to use a pink blanket, a pink burp rag, or a flowered binkie. This picture is pretty mild: Miriam spread her blanket out on top of him after he was asleep. Sometimes he gets the total swath of pink. But he still looks like a boy.

*The "Ba-ba Machine," aka my breast pump. I love being able to give Eli breast milk, for health and even more so financial reasons, but I adore feeding him with a bottle because I get to see his little face and eyes so much better. With pumping I get to do both. Plus it doesn't hurt while I'm actually feeding him.

*The way Eli likes to hold one of my fingers while he eats.

*That Gripe Water, an old-fashioned remedy for upset stomachs in babies, seems to help him so much. He's a lot calmer and sleeps better after a dose of it. No gripes here!

*That my mom stayed with us two days more than she planned on. Thanks mom!

*That Brent can take care of either or both kids without flinching. Here he is rocking Elijah and donning slippers on Miriam's request.

*He also gets up during the night as often as I do without complaining.

*Indoor plumbing and electricity. I can't imaging trying to clean up a dirty diaper in the middle of the night without at least a little light. And I just shudder thinking about doing anything with this sweet little guy without indoor heating!

*That Miriam loves having Eli do ANYTHING with her. She was extatic when we put his rocker next her hers.

*Just that I have such a great life!

*That I can't figure what's up with my font or my spacing but that I'm not going to worry about it!

Elijah Brent Moore

2009-02-13T19:00:00.002-07:00

I got on to post this yesterday and thought I had... when I logged on this morning it was still in the editing phase. Stay tuned for more details!

Rock-a-bye baby

2009-02-07T13:13:00.009-07:00

First of all, sorry to those who logged onto my blog, saw the picture of the gorgeous baby girl, and initially thought that Eli had come and was Eliza rather than Elijah. He hasn't, and he isn't. As an update on him, we are smack in the middle of our two due dates (the ultrasound lady said February 5th, the doctor said February 10th). If he doesn't come before then, we're heading in on Monday morning.

Secondly, I think we are finally ready for this kid. I've had everything except for his bed done for quite a while. But the bed caused some thinking for me. See, Miriam still sleeps in the crib and doesn't act like she's trapped in there, so I would like to keep her in there for longer. But I also remember that Miriam grew out of her bassinette superfast, so I wasn't sure if we'd have time to transfer both kids to their respective beds. I decided to get a cradle instead, thinking that it would be big enough to hold Eli for enough time for Miriam to transfer out of the crib on her own timetable. I looked on ksl.com and at Kid to Kid and other places and never found one that I liked at a price I was willing to pay. Remember, I'm a cheapskate. So I was telling my mom about my thoughts when she offered the cradle that she rocked five of her six kids in. She got it when Nathan was little and they were expecting Erin for the same reasons that I have wanting one now. So when I was home at Thanksgiving, I took a gander at it and decided it would be perfect. Mom and dad brought it here on Christmas when they made a spontaneous trip to visit Kelsey. It has since been sitting in the basement with me thinking that I just need to wash this down and sand it so that Brent can paint it. And I just kept thinking that. Finally I went down and washed it and sanded it. I don't think I sanded it enough, but I washed twenty five years of garage grime off of it. I also figured out how to reproduce a non-standard sized cradle mattress without utilizing the twenty five year old foam. No dust mites on my watch! Last week Brent hauled it up and onto the back porch when he carefully laid out some newspapers under and started to paint it. The first coat was spray paint and done in the virtual darkness. Miriam stood at the window and watched in fascination. The next day when Brent got home from work, she was not going to let him paint without her help. So Miriam got to paint. And she loved it. Brent had decided the second coat would be regular brush paint what with the round bars causing difficulty with the spray paint angle, and Miriam threw herself into the project with reckless abandon, holding a brush in each hand and layering on the paint like nobody's business, the whole time talking about how she was helping Daddy paint Eli's bed white. The newspapers only made it so that there is now a clean square amongst all of the white splatter on the porch. The resulting paint job has some cracks due to my not sanding and a lot of lumps due to her effective can-to-brush-to-cradle techniques. Brent said he got most of the paint he used off of the areas she took charge of. She stayed focused and energized the whole time and had to be pulled away to let the coat dry. Even as she jumped on the trampoline, she kept a close eye on the cradle to make sure it was okay. She went out the next day and helped with the final spray paint coat, then was thrilled when it got brought inside to mama and daddy's room. She was a little disappointed we didn't put it in her room, but it'll be there soon enough. Probably too soon in fact for her liking. Either way, this little girl is so excited for Baby Eli to sleep in his brand new white bed and she is fully aware that without her, the bed wouldn't be ready for him. And I love the lumpy paint because it shows how much she already loves him.

This is her first energetic swipes when I thought I'd better get a picture before she lost focus. I shouldn't have worried.

This is about fortyfive minutes later when she finally consented to take a break. I love the casually crossed ankles and the impish smile as she continues to dip the brushes. And I think Brent is pretty handsome too.

TWO!

2009-02-02T20:51:00.005-07:00

My baby girl turned two on Saturday. My, where has the time gone? Here she is at five days when we finally got her home from the hospital. We were so glad to get out of there we forgot to wash her face before we left. Oops.
By her first birthday she was walking and talking and laughing and loving life.

But two is an entirely new story. Miriam is an AMAZING little two year old girl. If you'd like to know all the brilliant and astounding things she does and can do, just keep reading.

She knows all of her colors, foods, animals, body parts, and clothing. She knows where all of her toys belong, and can get things out or put them away with just a little reminding.

She can crawl, walk, run, gallop, and somersault. She can squint her eyes (especially if I tell her to keep her eyes peeled or to only look with her eyes and not her hands), do a wobbly walk, a cold walk (crouched down with her hands shaking), and adapts other animal walks at random times. She does a great horse impersonation.

She knows that if she gets up in the night, she can't watch TV. Or read books.

She knows Baby Eli is coming and is so excited. She's helped with his bed, his mattress, and his clothes. She remembers that for Christmas he gave her the set of Baby Einstein books she loves, and calls them her "Eli books."

She loves french fries and brown juice (root beer). She also loves green beans, peas, and broccoli. And chocolate milk. And even if she doesn't eat them, she'll still say she likes them.

Her language skills are great. She does have a tendency to put Ts on the front and/or end of words. "Milk" is "mit," "cat" is "tat," "stuck" is "tut," as is "truck." And sometimes she drops the Ts out of the middle of words. "Letters" is "ay-yuhs." But she's understanding how to string them together and create some great sentences. Tonight's big one was "Bubbles taste gross." You've gotta learn it sometime. The longest sentence I've heard yet was 6 words. "Big green truck take Mimi's diapers." Initially, this was traumatic but then she realized she didn't WANT her old poopy diapers and the garbage truck could have them. We now thank the big green truck when it takes Mimi's diapers.

She has a sense of humor that makes me laugh. She knows when she's doing something funny, and she'll keep doing it just to make us laugh. Sometimes she thinks things are funny when they're not, like running around the car in the driveway three hundred times instead of getting into her carseat. Or kicking her feet while her diaper is getting changed. But we're working on that.

She knows a lot of her shapes. She always gets circle, square, triangle, and star. She's a little iffy on oval and rectangle, but sometimes she remembers them.

She loves letters and numbers. She knows most of her capital letters and quite a few of the lowercase letters. She knows that her favorite letter is M, for Miriam, and dad's favorite letter is B, although I don't know if she knows why. She can count to twelve on her own and to 20 with just a little help. She can identify the numbers up to 10 (I haven't really tried her on the double digits), although she sometimes understandably calls the 9 a 6.

She totally understands the potty and the diaper and even tells me when she just went peepee. She gets marshmallows when she sits on the potty and fruit snacks when she peepees or poops in the potty, but because of Baby Eli, Mama decided to put off the serious "potty training" until a bit later.

Most of all, she loves her Mama and Daddy (although the other day she just called me "Mom" and it made me just a little sad), Baby Eli, and Zeke and JoAnn.

And most of all I just absolutely adore my little two year old!

Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious!

2009-01-30T12:47:00.001-07:00

Just in case you were wondering if I've been quoted in the paper lately...
http://www.sltrib.com/midvalley/ci_11565910

Going extinct

2009-01-29T21:38:00.005-07:00

So the big SWITCHOVER from analog to digital is coming right up. Is anybody else worried that their television reception is going to take a hit? Don't get me wrong, digital is MUCH clearer than the nondigital, and usually I highly prefer watching in digital. But it's also much harder to get it to stay. Here's the thing. After the television that my sister Erin gave to us instead of the DI (for which we are grateful, and which was made by a company that quit making TVs in 1983) finally gave up the ghost, we purchased a brand new television that has the digital option. So we're good, right? According to all the question/answer websites, we are! But what about the fact that the digital side of things only comes in half the time? Even when we balance the antenna just right and get it to come in clearly, if somebody walks through the room it blanks out. Or even if somebody just moves from one place on the couch to another, it freezes. Or if the microwave is going or a cell phone rings, it gets shuddery. Even Miriam recognizes when it gets jagged and she puts her arms out and says, "what's up?!?" That's my question too! Anyway, once they cancel the analog, is the digital reception going to be easier to get? Or are we going to be forced to decide between downright nondependable reception or actually paying for cable? Does anybody else have issues with their digital reception? Has anybody else solved their issues with their digital reception? Help! Time is running out!

And just because I like it...

Week in review

2009-01-25T20:51:00.006-07:00

Here are three moments from this week that didn't get their own blog post, but I love the memories, so they are going to be here, in a "Week in Review" post. When you have a week where I, the blogger, am fixated on the croup and a broken-then-fixed washer, some things just get missed.

First, Wednesday, January 20th was Inauguration Day. Although I did not vote for him, I think that President Obama will be an excellent leader and hopefully will be able to accomplish many of the things he wants to. I am excited to see where the next four years will go for this country. Miriam has been able to identify President Obama by a verbal question. I'll ask, "Who is the next president?" and she'll say "OH-BAMA!" Although we'd talked about it, I didn't know that she could also identify him by picture. But as we were watching the Inauguration, I asked, "Who is that?" She looked at the television and said "OH-BAMA!" I was proud! She sat on my lap and watched as much of the speech as you would expect a two-year-old, albeit one who can identify the newly sworn in President of the United States, to focus on. Then she was off. But I loved the attention she gave it, seeming to know that it was an important moment.

Secondly, Brent's birthday was Wednesday the 21st! Happy Birthday Brent! Miriam had a great time helping to make the cake, and talked about it being dad's birthday all day long. She chose the number, color, and placement of the candles, but was a little overwhelmed when we lit them, as you can see. I guess it's a good thing that open flame bothers her. Anyway, we had a fabulous day, and I think Brent did too. It is really good timing to have Brent's birthday just 10 days before Miriam's, because now she completely knows what a birthday is. She's already talking about how daddy had a brown cake, but she wants a pink one. We'll get it for her!

The third noteworthy-but-not-yet-noted event happened yesterday. Miriam found her babydoll stroller and was dead set on taking her babydoll for a walk. So we bundled up and headed out. She headed straight for the middle of the road, and I guided her back to the sidewalk, pointing her in another direction. She walked her stroller that way until there was a break in the foliage, where she again headed out to the middle of the road. We asked if she wanted to cross the street and she gave a resounding YES! Unbeknownst to me, she was making a beeline for her favorite winter-walk destination, the amazingly decorated-for-Christmas yard across the street that still has a few Santas up. She walked her little stroller there, then stopped and pointed all the Santas and snowmen out to her babydoll. When she was done, she went back to the place to cross, waited for us (thank goodness), and went back home. It was so dang tender I couldn't stand it! This picture is when she's heading back home after showing the baby all of her favorite winter things.

Hope you all had a great week and here's hoping for another!

We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship

2009-01-23T21:43:00.005-07:00

Has it been long enough since I wrote about the glories of the public library system that I can do it again? After such a sick day yesterday, Miriam had a great night. She only woke up between 3 and 4:30, then slept again til 8:30! Wow! What a girl! And although she was coughing and breathing raspily, she was pleasant and happy and was playing with her stuff and asking to eat and watching her movies when she politely asked for Little Einsteins. "Mimi watch Einsteins please?" Uh... we didn't check out a Little Einsteins last time we were at the library. Oops. Usually when she wants something we don't have, she understands and chooses something that we do. But not this time. She was sick and gawldarnit she wanted Little Einsteins. So we went to the website and saw that it listed a copy of Little Einsteins at our library. But that's been wrong before. So before I packed up a much-better-but-still-sick kid, I called Miss Kami and gave her the scoop. She went and checked on the shelf and pulled not one, but TWO dvds of Little Einsteins for Miriam. Oh hooray! So I packed up my much-better-but-still-sick kid and drove down to the library. Miriam was so excited to see Miss Kami AND get Little Einsteins that she just couldn't keep calm. She bounced her way to see Miss Kami, received condolences along with her stamps, and we picked up our two Little Einsteins. On one of them there was a taped get-well-soon note from Miss Kami adorned with the stamps Miriam gets every visit. I am so lucky to have a librarian who loves my daughter! Miriam was thrilled with the movies and we watched them as soon as we got home, then after her nap, then before dinner. She was so excited about it that she didn't even want to stop for fries on the way home... just get there and watch Einsteins! Below, you can see Miriam hugging the box as she watches the movie, and a closeup of Miriam pointing to Miss Kami's note. What service! And I didn't have to spend a penny! Hooray for the library!

Liberation on all fronts!

2009-01-22T20:38:00.004-07:00

It is finally Thursday, January 22nd. Finally the washer guy was scheduled to come to our house sometime between the hours of 8 and 12. Hallelujah. For those who had the image that Miriam's clothes were getting moldy sitting in gross water for the past week and a half, please let me clear up the misconception. The fatal door lock occurred before any water was let into the wash drum. The clothes were fine and dry, just dirty and locked in the washer. So here's how it went down. Last night Miriam was coughing and had a scratchy voice. She thought it was pretty funny, but ended up coughing quite a bit throughout the night. She woke up about 4:30 and was definately sick. She struggled to breathe, coughed every time she took a deepish breath, and choked herself awake anytime she did get to sleep. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse until I honestly wondered if she was getting any oxygen at all. I called the doctor to see if they could fit us in today and she set an appointment for 10:20. Great for Miriam's health, not so great for Miriam's clothes. I called the Sears repair place where, after some explanation and waiting, the repair guy called me back and said that we were pretty far down the list and he probably wouldn't get there til after noon. So far so good. We headed into the doctor's, where after a few stethoscope listens to her breathing it was decreed that she did indeed have the croup and needed a steroid mist for 20 minutes followed by a three hour "watching period" where they could see if the steroid mist would help for the long term or if they needed to do something else for my poor little girl. So I called Brent who said he could come home for lunch if the Sears guy called and we got the steroid mist in a face mask thing, the entire time Miriam was yelling "Mimi house please!" over and over with tears pouring out of her eyes. Add that trauma to her already fever-stricken and chafed face and she looked pretty pathetic. Poor little girl. She was simply miserable. After the treatment was over and we were in the waiting phase, I asked if I could take her home and just bring her back in three hours, but that wasn't good enough. We moved to a chair in the waiting room where were sitting by the fish tank and could see the television and Miriam finally calmed down. I can't remember the last time where she sat so placidly on my lap for so long. It was nice, but made me realize how terrible she must feel. Anyway, after getting her breathing listened to every half hour for a long long long long time, the doctor told me that the nurse who was helping us had to take her own daughter to the doctor and he had some errands to run. So they were going to head out for a little but they'd be back before our waiting time was done. Sure, THEY can leave and come back but we can't?!? ARGH! Anyway, to make a really really really long story a little bit shorter, the steroid mist seemed to work great on Miriam. Every few minutes she'd get more energy and be more herself. When she asked for fries (after denying any sort of caloric offerings all morning), I knew she was swinging in the right direction. Being at the office, all we had was a vending machine so she took Cheetos as a consolation prize. The doctor finally came back and cleared us for takeoff, telling us that the croup is always worse at night and she'd probably have another night or two of rough times. Got it. When we finally got to the car, it was 2:30, an entire FOUR AND A HALF STINKING HOURS since we had left our house. Still I imagined that our finally leaving the office was comparable to those clothes finally getting out of the washer... THE CLOTHES! I had forgotten! Once I got home and Miriam set up comfortable with an Elmo movie, I called Brent. No Sears guy. No call. No free clothes. It was after 3 by this time and I was a bit discouraged but decided to just not worry about it. I'd taken care of enough today. Then at 4:30, Jack from the Sears Repair Center called and said he was on his way! HOORAY! He opened the washer door and showed us how to do it through the top panel. He diagnosed that it was merely a power surge that had put the electronic portion of the washer on hold and told us to get a good surge protector so it wouldn't happen again. After looking at our paperwork he said that we were still under the warranty time, so the whole thing cost us absolutely nothing unless you count the week and a half that we were washerless. Which I don't because I didn't have to pay any real money. So Jack saved the washer and the doctor saved Miriam and both Miriam and I made it out of the doctor's office finally and all of Miriam's clothes made it out of the washer finally and are nicely folded on the table (look! socks that fit! pajamas that don't stretch at the neck when we put them on!) waiting to be put away tomorrow after Miriam gets up. After sleeping in late, I hope. It's not July, but I'd like to wish everybody a very Happy Independence Day!

Perseverance

2009-01-20T07:20:00.006-07:00

I know I've done a lot of digital scrapping posts lately, but since this is my blog and you can stop visiting any time you want, I'm going to put another one up that I am particularly fond of. If you're getting bored of them, just think of how many I'm NOT posting and be grateful. I was really excited to figure out the overlay thing of putting Miriam's face into the background. Fun stuff! This is actually a layout of some pictures from a blog post back in the day so I thought you might enjoy them. If you for some reason don't remember, you can refresh your memory here.

And for those who were wondering, Elijah has not yet arrived into this world of air and light. He's doing great at 37 weeks and we're just waiting on him. I think he realizes we're in the middle of a streak of red days what with the smog and inversion and is waiting for it to be cleared out before he has to start filtering his air on his own. We're planning the 9th of February - I quite like the sound of 2-9-09. When he does get here, you'll surely know. If you can believe it, I already have a scrapbook layout just waiting for his picture!

Great men

2009-01-19T13:05:00.004-07:00

Miriam has developed a great interest in money. I have a coin jar where I throw all my loose change, and she knows where it is and how to get it down to play with. She puts the coins in the bathtub, under the rug, in the couch, and everywhere else. She also remembers where they are and can show you. She thinks its really funny to say "where money?" and then lift up the rug and say "there it is!" She loves it, and I love hearing her say "more money please?" when she gets to the bottom of the jar. I know just how she feels. Anyway, yesterday Brent and Miriam were playing money. He held out a nickel to her and asked her whose picture was on it. Not having discussed this with her previously, I was interested to hear her response. She looked at it carefully and solemnly said, "Jesus." They only put Very Important People on coins, ya know.

Today's project

2009-01-16T22:04:00.002-07:00

I really like this one. It's actually a collage of seven separate pages that I put together in one happy collection. Here's my critique... In doing it again, I would make the "mood words" darker so they could be more visible when shrunk down. I would also just do without the place and date words. You probably can't see them anyway. I also think I would do less "background" stuff in the small pictures and focus more on the pictures themselves. But this series didn't start as a collage, so what can ya do? Other than that I think it's perfect!

Held hostage

2009-01-15T21:21:00.003-07:00

After a week of doing only two loads of necessary laundry, I woke up Monday ready to tackle all of the dirty clothes, towels, and other sundry dirty items in our home. I started with Miriam's, put the load in the washer, shut the door and poured some detergent into the drawer thing. Although unfinished and slightly frigid, the newly cleaned and organized basement is one of Miriam's favorite play areas, so we ended up by her little kitchen cooking all sorts of plastic delicacies. After a bit, I realized that I was hearing no washer noises. I checked to make sure I had started it, and the outprint box was flashing "F-22." I turned it off, went through the startup sequence again, and again "F-22." I decided to start from scratch and went to open the door hoping to reset the thing. The door was locked. And nothing I could do would open it. I unplugged the machine, I pushed restart, reset, I tried to start at the rinse cycle... nothing. I dug out the troubleshooting portion of the handbook. F-22 is a call-a-repairman code. Argh. So I called Sears where I hope we still have a warranty (we bought it in July) and felt like I was on hold for an exorbitant amount of time. So I went to the online repair scheduling schedule and the first time somebody could be here was Thursday. Okay, I thought, Miriam's favorite clothes and blankets might be locked in the washer, but she has others, this might be a good chance to see if any of her off-the-bench clothes should be moved up or gotten rid of... so I took it. Like I had another choice. I did gather up some things that I felt couldn't wait until Thursday and washed them at my friend Shauna's (thanks, Shauna). Then I set out to live life as normal until Thursday when, after the repairman came between 8 and 12, I planned to spend the day doing laundry. Yesterday, the day before washer-fixing-day, I was tidying up the office and picked up the printoff of the appointment. I glanced at it and was shocked to see that the appointment was for Thursday, January 22nd. Due to the lack of being able to capitalize numbers, I'll do it this way: the TWENTYSECOND! As in NEXT week! Not today, but NEXT WEEK! I was so sad! I can resolve most of my laundry woes by just giving in and doing some wash loads at the laundromat down the street. I have many happy memories of laundromat times in my college days, so although it would be a pain it wouldn't be that big of deal. Our dryer still works, so I'd only have to do the wash cycle and then come home. Not bad at all. But remember Miriam's clothes? Locked in the washer? Where I can't get to them? I'm just lucky that she hasn't asked for her soft blanket specifically this week. Or that I've not had an overwhelming desire to dress her in her/my favorite jeans or shirt or coat... I'll get through this, and trust me I know it's not a big deal but GOSH it's been a sliver in my side this week. You will notice in the picture that the F-22 code is thankfully no longer flashing. Now there's just the bright red light on "DOOR LOCKED" that seems to mock me every time I venture down to look at it. Even though it's been since Monday, it seems like a fresh wound because I had planned on it being fixed today. Oh well. If anybody knows how to clear an F-22 error code on a Kenmore HE-2 washer, please let me know. An entire load of Miriam's cutest clothing hostages and I would be ever so grateful!

I'm getting better at this...

2009-01-13T23:35:00.005-07:00

I finally sat down and watched some tutorials about my scrapbooking software and I feel so much more competent and so much more able to do things. Funny how a little education will make that happen. I've figured out things like "actions," which brighten a picture or make it sepia toned or black and white. I can add "elements" and feel like I have seen enough to not make them feel awkward but rather that they accentuate the page. I've downloaded freebies from other sites and incorporated them into my doings. I really have had a lot of fun. And I really need to start setting a timer when I sit down to work on it because I could keep doing different things and dig into old pictures and just spend forever if I could. But I am going to post a few of my favorites that I've been doing lately. The first is a very simple page of when Miriam was a baby. In the sake of full disclosure of copyrights, the background is a freebie from simplementscrap.free.fr. The second set is the first of my version of the "365 Project." The idea is to take a picture a day and get the "daily living" portion of life instead of the highlights like scrapbooking usually does. I've kind of changed it to a photo scrap journal. I don't worry if I miss a day :). It's desiged to be side by side pages, but I don't know if they'll post that way. You can get the idea though, from what's here. The backgrounds and some elements come from the "It's a Boys World" kit from sweetblossomdesigns.blogspot.com. The rest of them came with the My Memories Suite Software. Enjoy! I certainly have!

Miriam in Miseryland

2009-01-11T21:02:00.005-07:00

Yesterday Miriam had her first empathetic emotional experience. It was actually quite traumatic. She had checked out "Elmo in Grouchland" from the library and put it in to watch. For those who haven't seen it, it starts out with Elmo dancing around his bedroom looking for his blanket, who is also dancing around and teasing him a bit. Miriam loved this because she, like Elmo, loves her blankets. In fact, I have a half-composed-in-my-head post of "Miriam's Favorite Things #2" about her blankets. Stay tuned for that one. Just know for now that she does have an emotional attachment to her blankets and was totally getting into Elmo and his blanket playing peek-a-boo. Elmo and his blanket then went outside where they found Zoe, who was really sad because her dad was working and couldn't take her to the zoo. Elmo put the blanket down and started pretending to be different animals to cheer Zoe up. It worked a little bit, but Zoe picked up Elmo's blanket and wanted to use it. This made Elmo very nervous and after numerous grabs to get it back, the blanket fell into Oscar the Grouch's garbage can. At this point, Miriam began to be extremely worried. She kept repeating over and over "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." in a very tense voice. She climbed up onto her dad's lap and peered out to see what Elmo would do. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." So Elmo climbs into the garbage can and sees the blanket falling down a psychadelic rainbow tunnel. Elmo jumps in after it. "Elmo blanket... Elmo blanket..." We both kept telling Miriam that Elmo was going to go save his blanket and that everything would be okay. It was actually pretty funny because at this point the movie action stops and Ernie and Bert show up on the screen. Bert is all worried about the blanket but Ernie assures him that Elmo won't give up until he gets his blanket back. I wonder how many kids were freaked out by this part during pre-screenings to make them put in the Bert and Ernie segment. Anyway, during the fall, the blanket goes through one tunnel and Elmo through another. Elmo lands in Grouchland, which is populated by, you guessed it, Grouches. It's actually pretty funny... the carwash slaps slime and goop on all the cars coming through, the hair place is called the "Ugly Parlor," and the streets are paved with mold. Miriam calmed down a little while Elmo looked around for his blanket. Then came the tragedy. Mandy Patinkin, the guy who plays Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, showed up with the lost blanket. Miriam watched in horror as he sang and danced around teasing Elmo with the blanket. When he threw the blanket into a chest in his airplane and flew away, she absolutely lost it. Shudders, sobs, and tears poured forth from my little girl as she collapsed on her dad's shoulder. "Elmo blanket back! Elmo blanket back!" Ernie and Bert showed up to reassure us, but it was way too late. I told Miriam that we were going to fast forward the show and see what happens. We put the DVD onto the 8x forward and narrated the show through the flashes of pixels that we saw. Elmo is brave and going to get his blanket, Big Bird comes to help, even Oscar shows up. Still Miriam is bawling and shaking. She has switched from dad's lap to mine and my arms are positively wet with her tears. We get to the end where Elmo finally gets his blanket back and is safe on Sesame Street. They start singing the happy "Together Forever" song, and Miriam finally calms down. She's still crying, but finally laughing and smiling a bit through her shaky and shuddery breathing. Ernie tells Bert that he shouldn't have worried, that Elmo of course was going to find a his blanket. Yeah, thanks Ernie. A lot of good that did us all. As soon as they cut to the credits (where Bert was excited to see who the caterer was because GOSH those sandwiches with the crusts cut off were so good), Miriam started crying again. "Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back? Elmo blanket back?" So we had to watch the closing segment a few times before she calmed down. I think it was emotionally draining for all of us. This morning, Miriam again asked for Elmo. She shuffled through her stack of movies and pulled it out. I didn't want to tell her it's too scary or make her think that she's not tough enough to watch it, so we tried it again. Same thing. This time, though, she knew that the guy wouldn't give the blanket back and she started crying as soon as he came on the screen. Ernie and Bert certainly couldn't handle this one. We fast forwarded it, sang the happy song a few times, and put the movie up. It's going back to the library where it can haunt some other poor little child. I was planning on getting "Elmo's Potty Time," thinking that it would be an enjoyable romp through the potty world. But now I see that it's "Not Rated." Seeing as though "Elmo in Grouchland" is G, I just don't know what a "Not Rated" would do to our otherwise happy and well-adjusted little girl...