This'n'That

I have so many little things I need to write down before I can forget them, so that means it's time for another hodgepodge post!

-Ryder is getting closer to walking. After seeing his cousins (who are just a few months older) strolling around, he finally caught the vision that this was something he could do, too. So now he'll walk holding my fingers, and occasionally he'll let go of things and just stand without any help. It's a work in progress!

-He also likes to brush his hands back and forth against each other, sort of like the action for the song "Do As I'm Doing," but more up and down and less circular. He gets a huge grin on his face as he does it, too. He knows he's hot stuff!

-Bentley has finally transitioned into being a generally pleasant little boy! Not that he doesn't still have his Mr Hyde moments, but on average he's a really good kid for me. It's been so delightful! There were a few months there where I seriously considered shipping him off to Yemen.

-Kendra has decided that the best way to express her love is through food. She is constantly pretending to make cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and muffins for me and anyone else who stops by the house. This is making my diet even crappier, as she's constantly reminding me about the yummy things I can't eat. But I appreciate that she is so kind and loving! She is also going to primary now, which she loves. I think it helps that Bentley was already there-- she's always excited to be near her big brother.

-Speaking of the diet, I hit my first weight goal yesterday! I'm mostly thrilled by that, but a little worried, too. If I'm going to be honest, I think I may have lost too much too soon, and I'm afraid it isn't very healthy. I worry that I'll just bounce right back to my previous weight. So I'll be trying to ease off the super-strict diet at the end of the week without allowing myself to go completely crazy. Doing the yo-yo thing with my weight won't do me any good!

-After three trips to Costco (yes! 3!!!), and one week after I discovered that I had a flat tire, I finally have all new tires on my van. We've been talking about doing this since we bought the thing five years ago, so this was kind of exciting for me. Unfortunately, Costco was all out of the tires in the right size. My first trip I got no tires. The second trip I got one to replace the flat. And my third trip, I finally got the other three (and my $70 discount for buying four tires, thank you very much). All of this was done with Kendra and Ryder in tow. They were pretty good for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a huge pain in the you-know-where!

-Ryder is finally weaned! And around the same time that happened, he went back to sleeping through the night again. I don't know if there's a connection there, but either way, I'm enjoying it! All during Christmas break he kept waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning, and it was slowly killing me. I'm a wimp, but I really don't do well unless I get the full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

-We took the kids to the Museum of American History on Saturday. (We only even tried this because it was a 3-day weekend, so we knew we'd have Monday to recover.) Their favorite part was the Metro ride into the city. The rest of the trip was spent whining either because they were hungry or because they wanted to go home or (in Ryder's case) because he didn't want to be in the stroller any more (he did find three steps that he could climb up and down, and spent twenty minutes happily doing so). It was exhausting. And I think some of the major exhibits were closed, because people keep asking me what I thought of things that weren't there (like Julia Child's kitchen! And the sunstone from the Nauvoo temple! They weren't on display! And I wanted to see them!), so that's a little disappointing. But we managed to get out of the house with all three kids on a super cold day (requiring sweatshirts, coats, hats, and gloves for everyone) with no major catastrophes, so we counted the day as a great success. Craig says we need to do stuff like this now and then just to remind ourselves that we can. He's probably right about that.

-Monday was definitely my recovery day. Craig basically took care of me and the kids. I slept in late and then dashed out the door to yoga (leaving Ryder home, since he always climbs on me whenever we're doing sit-ups!). When I came home, I just hung out with some friends who dropped by and chatted on the phone with my Dad... I think the only things I actually did the whole day that could be counted as "work" were running to Costco for produce (but going to Costco without kids is hardly any work!) and making dinner. And then we all watched Monsters, Inc. together, which was great. I love that movie. And I really love three-day weekends!


That's probably enough for now. I have a bunch of opinions on things that I need to talk about, but that feels like it would be best if left for another blog post. And I still need to finish telling you about Christmas! But I think for now I should probably tackle the two loads of laundry that need folding...!

Catcha later!