Attempts at Discipline

Carter is in his terrific twos- and has a few slightly terrible moments. On one of the days when I was not acting like the mother of the year, I told him to "go away!" I don't even remember why- I just remember I had had it. Well now I'm paying for it! Anytime he gets upset he's been yelling at me to "go away mom!". Oh it hurts my feeling so much it's almost embarrassing. So I decided I needed to teach him that saying things like that wasn't nice, but without getting angry. So I decided to try putting soap in his mouth- my mom used to do this. So the first time I put a dot of soap on his tongue he cried and it was sad. The second time he fought me hard, so I said I'd let him have another try. The third time I tried to put soap in his mouth (all in about 20 minutes) he says to me "Mom, no not in here, soap is for my hair!" Haha. Maybe he's too young to make that association yet! I also make Carter hold my hand when we cross the street or in parking lots which he hates. We walked from the car to the doors of walmart yesterday and as soon as we walked in the door I let go of his hand. While then he was so upset and bolted towards the door which terrified me because he would run right into the street!- but he turned around as soon as got just outside the doors and stepped over the threshold himself! Haha. That boy is so independent- how dare I take him one step further holding his hand then absolutely necessary!

Like 13 Carter Moments

Carter Moments: 1. "I not tired, I happy!" 2. When he's mad at mom points a finger at me and says "you're tired!" 3.Where's Jason Carter? "Jay is on a missin' and teach about Jesus"! 4. "Mom, shut the door I goin' on a mission". (zthe day Jason left our house to report to the MTC. 5. Carter we're going home to see papa and Nina and watch president Monson on friday! "No pwofet monson, only Pluto!" (my parents neighbors' dog.) 6. I was trying to get ready in the bathroom, Carter was playing in the bath, and Kai was sitting between my legs. Kai tipped over and hit his head on the base of the vanity. (ouch!) Carter gets a very concerned look on his face, almost to tears and says, "Mom be carwful wis my bruder!" Haha. 7. We made pumpkin bread tonight and of course left a loaf within his reach on the counter. He reaches up and grabs half of the loaf in his hand and then with huge bulging eyes says, "Wow! I gonna eat cake!" 8. Carter do you want to go to church today? "Yeah and have snacks and sings songs with fwiends!" (so glad he loves church for the food!) 9. After every suggestion we make to go anywhere or do anything he says, "Yay! That would be fun!" so cute. 10. As I'm loading the dishwasher one day he says, "mom, I wanna be a helper!" and then he loaded all the silverware himself and was so proud! 11. Oh this one is funny. His little bum hole is all sore and red so whenever he needs a diaper change he tells me, "mom I need some toothpaste fow my bum!" (his diaper rash ointment is called buttpaste) Haha. 12. His new favorite story is about Jonah and the "big fish"! We are reading bible stories right now. My favorite thing is he says, "And the fish ate Jonah's hairs!" 13. When I listened to the general relief society broadcast last night, President Monson was of course speaking. Carter was sitting on my lap in front of the computer, he kept saying, "Hi pwofet Monson! Hi Pwofet Monson!" He was annoyed that he didn't stop and say hi back. -Probably why he only wants to see Pluto now. Haha. Kai Moments: 1. Kai is rolling around the floor now. Maybe two weeks ago he just figured out that rolling will get him from one side to another. What he hasn't figured out is that is won't get him forward and backward but he still tries to roll and then gets frustrated when he can't reach the toy in front of him. 2. Kai is cutting teeth. A few weeks ago he got his bottom two, and now he has one top one and the other one is going to break the skin anytime now. Story: Because I'm sure his mouth hurts, Kai has been biting me to the point where I bleed when I'm nursing him. Ow. and Yeah, Ow. It had gotten so bad a few weeks ago that I decided I was going to quit nursing and transition him to formula. I was kind of complaining to God about this, because I know nursing is best for Kai, but I was in tears everytime I nursed him. After a particularly painful day, I woke up the next morning, and I my cuts were completely healed! It was amazing. I didn't have anymore pain. It was a small thing, but I was the first time I really recognized the physical healing power of the atonement. I really felt like it was a blessing from God. And now we are happily nursing away.

Mommy I hear Dancing...

We have been working on tiling our tub for weeks now-pushing months actually. Consequence = baths. Exclusively baths. Darn. Luckily my brother, Riley, is here with us for the week helping us try and finish it up so that we can all be a little cleaner :)

Carter said to me today: "Mommy I hear dancing!" (He was watching a recording of people dancing) So cute.

Our basement project is at least getting closer. After going through at least 10 samples of  grey paints- no lie- we found one we are settling for. It is still not grey. We don't understand why all the "greys" really look blue or purple or green. We even tried white paint with a few drops of black. Nope. That one looked blue. So our labor day = painting. Yesterday, we finished almost all of the wainscoting! We actually had a great time together. It was fun putting it up expect that we messed it up twenty times and had to keep recutting and renailing and reglueing everything. But hey- what else are old houses for? Oh and aside from my occasional lung bursting coughs the family is doing great.

A Carter Moment: We went on a walk today and he saw an old lady with white hair- he shouts out "look mom the prophet"! Haha. So funny. I'm imagining he got that idea from all of our storybooks where the prophets have white hair and beards. Who knows. New phrase of the week: "I can't mom." -actually means " I don't want too". Other favorites: I say, "Carter what do you want to eat?", he says "uh pink-a-butter and a nana, and eggs, and beans, and juice!"

A Kai Moment: We are so proud to announce that this week Kai got two teeth on the bottom! He's thrilled. He gets to try more foods now. He loves to eat pieces of fruit cocktail and he even tried shredded chicken this week. In other news- he fell off the bed last night! oop! And he might kinda have a small black eye from it. Parents of the year living in this house! Oh yeah- and he can sit up for a few minutes all by himself! Wow! Oh and- Carter and Kai can where the same size diapers and seem to have similar appetites. Hmmm...?

A Few Carter Moments:

He loves to play hide and seek. He'll go hide somewhere obvious- like putting one of Daddy's hats over his head and then say "where did Carter go?". As in- "mom pretend you can't tell where I am and go looking for me". So that's what I do. I look on the ceiling and behind chairs until he jumps out from where ever and says "here is Carter"! So funny. While today at dinner, I had Kai sitting on the table eating food in his bumbo. Kai blocked my head from Carter's view and so Carter said, "where's Mama?" Then he points to the ceiling and says. "Mama up dere....No." And then he says "Mama hind the nannas...No." Haha. He's so funny.

Other favorite saying lately: I say, "Carter, are you tired?" He says, "No, I happy!" Love love.

A Kai Moment:

Kai is eating solids! I really wanted to just nurse him exclusively for a year, but I guess that's not fair because he loves to eat and seems to need the extra calories. He's loved everything so far except alas my pureed broccoli. Oh darn.

I'M CUTE...!

In the last few weeks we've been getting serious about putting TaVaci together. We bought the name and started advertising about a month ago now. After I went to a seminar last week in Brigham City Casey and I decided we should just utilize our own house for TaVaci. So we've decided to remodel our basement a little in order to accomodate a studio. I'm pretty excited about it and I know already Carter will love it because he stands in front of the DVD with me and tries to do the dances! So awesome. Last Thursday Casey biked his very first 26 miles! Wow! So proud of him- go big or go home Baby!

A Carter Moment: Today Carter was in the bath and I walk in the room just having dressed myself. Carter: Purple! and...Red... and Nen! Big Purple! (my shirt was purple with one bold red stripe and one bold orange (nen) stripe). I say: Yep! Good job! Carter: (tips his head to his shoulder and thinks for two seconds)...that's cute! Mom cute!

That's the best compliment ever! Two year olds don't lie.

A Kai Moment: Scary Scary Scary. At my Nanny and Bompy's 60th wedding anniversary this last weekend, Kai got hit in the head with a soccerball. A soccerball kicked really hard by my poor dad. Of course it was meant for someone across the yard but it got Kai instead right in the temple. Oh it was scary. But he seems to be fine. He cried almost immediately...good sign. So maybe he lost a few brain cells but we are just glad it didn't hit him in the front of his head where he might have been more seriously injured. I'm thanking God for protective angels this weekend.

On a fun note- Kai has discovered he can grab his toes. So fun!

A Carter Moment: Carter will not stay in bed. It's the new thing. First he needs water. Then a kiss. Then water. Then he wants to sleep in Mamma and Dadda's bed. Then he just comes out and says "hey mama" and stands there. Oh the naughtiness. But it is so dang cute. I do wish he would stop coming into our bed in the middle of the night. Neither Casey or I are sleeping well. Ugh.

A Kai Moment: Yay! Kai rolled over by himself- yesterday- I am told by my hubby. But I saw it for the  first time today! And I've been so worried that because I've done almost zero tummy time with Kai that maybe he wouldn't figure it out or something. Nope. He did just fine with no practice.We go on a lot of walks together and he does the cutest thing. He arches his head almost to a 90 degree angle to his shoulder just so he can see me. How cute is that. He just stares at me and then when ever I talk to him he gets the happiest biggest open mouth smile. I'm in love!

A Carter Moment: I just have to write this one funny story today. Carter was trying to get me to pay attention to him while I was changing Kai's diaper in one room and he was in the kitchen. He would say "mama, mema (movie)" and I would reply "just a minute" or "one second". This conversation was happening the whole time I was changing Kai. Finally Carter came into the room- tipped his head sweetly to one side and said, "Honey Babe, Desus Mema?" Haha. Oh it tickled my funny bone. Maybe he thought if was really nice he would finally get my attention long enough to turn on his very favorite movie, The Testaments. Haha. So cute!

Fly Lady day 11 says: add inspirational quotes to your "control journal" which is this blog. My favorite right now is-

"Motherhood is not something you do if you can squeeze in the time, its what God gave you time for." Helps me with perspective.

This week was not what I expected- but it was full of good lessons. Casey's brother Kelton got his mission call- but decided before it showed up that he didn't want to go- at least for now. Long story short- between that and the constant battle of taking care of Grandma Lucille/feeling like she can't ask for help, Camille needed some help. So the little boys and I took off on Wednesday afternoon to go relieve grandma for a couple of days. I love that lady! She is sweet and kind and good. But I am secretly so excited that I got to encourage her to try some things with her kids that I've been  hoping she would do for a while now. My little brother and sister in law are good kids- they really are- but they don't help out their mother much around the house. So me- being my mother's daughter- wanted to try to help relieve her burden my organizing! Haha. My mom would be proud. We made chore charts and assigned consequences and made a calendar to hopefully bring her some help and some consistency to her life! Now the trick will be if she follows through with it and her kids cooperate. May the force be with her! :) I did learn some things about Case's family this week. My respect and understanding for my father in law grew. It's very interesting to see the workings of a family that is different then your own. It was good for me.

In other news- Casey sold his bike for $200 so he could buy a road bike this week for lets just say... more than that. He's super excited about it so he can race in the Spudman. He also finished killing our backyard full of weeds! Yay! And then he hired to boys from the ward to come haul all the cut sod off the lawn. One did a great job- the other (younger brother) had a great time looking at bugs and worms. Hmmm. Oh well.

A Carter Moment: Today Carter kept yelling "babe!" at Casey everytime he wanted his attention. Haha. Just goes to show you that kids really do pick up on what we say and do. We could not convince him to call Casey, Daddy. To Funny!

A Kai Moment: This week at Grandma's house Carter kept trying to take Kai with him on the trampoline. Kai is such a little trooper. He just locks out his little legs and looks at me with wide eyes and holds on for dear life while his brother tries to love/torture him! He is so good about it. I believe he will be my patient boy.

We could have lost our sweet baby Carter this weekend. It was terrifying. The short version is- two friends from the ward and I had a yard sale this weekend at one of the friends' houses. Her house borders a canal. I went to nurse Kai and asked my other friend to keep an eye on Carter. Like any normal mother she must have just gotten side tracked. When I came back from nursing Kai - I asked where Carter was and nobody knew for sure. After I had eliminated the house and the garage I started to panic and just then some Angel hispanic men driving down the canal bank on the back of an old pickup starting yelling over the backyard fence "is this someone's kid?" It was my kid, my little baby had been playing on the bank of the canal alone. He loves the water. He says "hi" to the water when ever we go on walks past the canal. If those men hadn't been there at that time and picked him up he might have drowned and I think my soul would have been buried with him. I cried. And then later I cried some more. How I thank God today that my little boy is still here. That night it was almost like mourning his loss even though he obviously survived. I couldn't get over that devastating feeling- I can't imagine the pain of parents who lose their children in accidents like that. I don't know if I would ever feel alive again if any of my babies died. They are the reason for my life. I have dedicated the rest of my life to serving the Lord by trying my best to raise His sons to be like Him. I'm a little more grateful today for my boys, and even though I like to think I'm not racist- I'm a little more humble- and very thankful that is some Hispanic laborers- people we label as unrefined- saved the life of my little boy.

A Carter Moment: We have started using time out with Carter. He sits on a little chair and I count to ten when he hits or pinches. Today during dinner -out of the blue he sat in his little booster chair and counted out ten pieces of roast! Wow! Haha- the lessons that time out teaches. Who knew. However, so as not to be vain and think my child is completely brilliant- while on our Sunday drive he kept calling the Cow's horses and the horses pigs. And was totally confused about which animal made which sound. It was pretty funny.

A Kai Moment: Kai likes his mommy. Poor daddy. He tries so hard to comfort Kai for me, but just as soon as I take him out of Daddy's arms he calms down and wants to hold my finger with his little hands. It's amazing that a tiny baby can make you feel so important and special. He needs me and I feel fulfilled meeting his needs. However to Daddy's credit- I cannot get him to laugh. He will smile at me but Daddy can get Kai Guy to giggle. It is the cutest happiest sound in the world! He is especially ticklish in his little chubby leg rolls and under his chin.

PS- fly lady is still going well. I'm lovin' it! My house isn't perfect but it's getting a little better every day. I have to start at day 8 now even though technically I should be at day 11 or something. But I'm not discouraged. I'm just happy to be having success as far as I've gotten so far.

Day 5 of fly lady. I'm not doing perfectly at it. But everyday I have gotten my shoes on and tried to get ready at least before noon. I'm getting better at it everyday. The clean sink thing is amazing! I love it! And I've stuck with it this week. It's a Sunday night and my house is actually in good order. What an amazing feeling that is. And it paid off when my brother and sister in law surprised us with a visit. I was so happy I didn't have to worry about trying to pick up all the dirty diapers and clutter in the 10 minutes warning that we had. So awesome.

Yesterday was Carter's official two year old birthday. We actually celebrated it last week in Boise with my family at Jump Time- the ultimate trampoline park. Carter loved it! It was definently a much better idea than his one year old birthday party. When he turned one I themed his birthday party after Dr. Suess and it was adorable- looked like it should have been on pinterest. However- I realize now that was pretty dumb since he didn't care one bit about all the decorations. So this year we celebrated in a way he would enjoy!

A Carter Moment:

Anyway- we decided to put him in a toddler bed a few days ago. He calls it his "new bed" and loves it until its time to get in it. Well after the battle of putting him back in bed about four times we thought he had fallen asleep so Case and I went outside to finish planting our garden. After a few minutes, Casey went around the front of the house to get a few more plants from the front step where we had been "hardening" them. Much to our suprise- there was Carter banging on the outside of the garage door. Yikes! Of course my imagination ran wild about the things that could have happened had Casey not gone back around the house. So Carter looks at Casey and says- "No Bed"! Oh so scary.

A Kai Moment:

Kai learned to scratch his diaper. He thinks the sound is super awesome. He has also started spitting up like every time he eats.  I forgot they do that. Darn. More laundry.

My life feels like chaos-fun, crazy, messy chaos. With my two beautiful boys Carter (2) and Kai (3 months) my house is filled with silly songs and dirty diapers. Since yesterday I about had a major meltdown over the chaos that is my house- I decided I needed to do something different. I remember reading about FlyLady a while back so I decided to try it to bring just a little order to my happy- but extremely messy and cluttery life. There are 31 days of flylady bootcamp so I decided to try it and do it as a personal progress goal to modivate myself. For day 1- yesterday- all I had to do was shine my sink-like some major serious shining. I did it and I was so happy. The goal is to keep it empty and shining all the time. Done. Day 2- get dressed from head to toe- including shoes hair and makeup so I feel like a person with a purpose instead of a pajama wearing barefoot housewife. Done (even though it took me till two and I was supposed to do it first thing). Oh well- I did it and I feel good about it! I'm excited and motivated to continue this total housewife makeover - mostly to preserve my own sanity and perhaps to save the lives of my little boys- and perhaps the affection of my husband. :) 

A Carter Moment: We had FHE on Monday about Temples- we took him to the Twin Falls temple and walked around the grounds pointing everything out about temples. Then this morning in our breakfast prayer (which I say and he repeats) I tried to say Amen, and he said to me "no, no". And then kept praying himself saying "tayto" for "pepple"-his version of Temple- and a long string of others things including the whole extended family and his "nanas and bubber" (bananas and peanut butter) and then finished all by himself with "Christ, Amen". Oh what a proud moment. 

A Kai Moment: Poor baby. I think he has an ear infection. He is still recovering from a yeast infection. (hmmm wondering if this is related to my fairly disgusting house and lack of good hygiene such as washing hands and binkies regularly. oops.) Mother of the year right here. As a side note- while I'm bragging- he is currently sleeping on the counter- soundly and maybe not so safely.