Grandma-grams

Benjamin climbed up onto Grandma's lap her first evening here and felt her face, just to make sure she was really here. He kept turning her face so that she would look at him and saying, "Oh!" He was just so happy to have Grandma here and not on a screen. But then his face fell and he scrunched up his eyebrows with worry. Grabbing Grandma's face again he said, "Gammy-mom! Don't leave from us!"

"I'll stay for a few days," Grandma promised.

Mini-vacation

"Are we officially boring old people?" I sighed to Andrew as we were driving home from our mini-vacation this morning.

"I don't think so," he said. "I think this pregnancy has been hard [insert short discussion of things I did while pregnant with Rachel and Miriam and Benjamin that we didn't even dare do this pregnancy, like traveling to Israel or camping in the middle of nowhere] and that's what's made life seem boring. With you having doctor appointments every week and not being allowed to drive more than two hours away we've been pretty much stuck since we got back from Utah in January."

"That, and soccer or cheer every Saturday and you being so busy finishing your prospectus," I said—because not everything's my fault, surely!

But it's true that we haven't done anything, really, and can't do much, so when Andrew's mom suggested we take a vacation I was wondering where and what'd we'd do. I had my doctor appointment on Thursday, Andrew needed to coach soccer on Thursday, and then Saturday morning we have soccer games. And we can't go far away anyway. I was like, "What is even the point?"

Andrew said "the point" was that I haven't ever been away from my kids, except to have another baby, so it was high time I experienced that because he's gotten to do it loads of times (always going off to conferences and leaving me behind with the kids) and it's awesomely relaxing.

So Andrew ended up booking a hotel in south Durham (how exotic) with a beautiful view of a lake. We skipped soccer practice on Thursday (it ended up being cancelled due to a thunder storm, anyway) and went to the temple instead. We went out for dinner at Chili's—Andrew wanted to do a more local "foodie" restaurant but with diabetes it's easier to go to bigger chains that have published their nutrition information online—and then went to Target and walked laps around the store to burn off the dinner we just ate (because food is the bane of my existence).

A sunny day for Andrew's prospectus defense

It's been rainy, rainy, rainy since Grandma arrived, but Wednesday morning was beautiful so I took the kids to the park while we waited to hear about whether or not Andrew passed his prospectus defense.

The night before when he was working on finishing up his presentation he moaned, "I just wish it was 11:00 tomorrow!"

He texted me at 11:02 on Wednesday morning with three big letters: ABD

So now he's an official PhD candidate!

A much more relaxed Andrew met us back at the house a few hours later and helped clean things up a bit (we had so much stuff in our room waiting to go into the attic) before his mom got here. But before putting the kids to work cleaning their rooms and sweeping the floor we had a beautiful morning at the park.

We even took pictures!

It's finally gone!

Last night Grandma convinced Rachel, who was almost having an existential crisis about it, to put out her tooth. She was bawling in bed because her tooth hurt even when her lip would touch it and she was afraid it was going to fall out in the middle of the night and then she'd choke on it and...basically she'd never be happy ever again.

So Grandma let her get out of bed to play on the iPad with the condition that she wiggle that tooth the entire time. She did, and eventually that tooth popped right on out! Hallelujah!

We didn't get to see Rachel's beautiful gap until she came home from school today:

Happy Birthday, Maren!

Grandma flew out to visit us on Wednesday night; she wanted to see the grandkids and offered to give Andrew and me a night away from them, something we've never done. The kids didn't know she was coming so we were busy getting them into bed like usual when there was a knock at the door (Grandma rented a car). We asked Miriam to stop what she was doing and to answer the door and when she did Grandma said, "Anybody need a Grandma?"

Miriam stood there with her mouth wide open for a second before jumping into Grandma's arms. Grandma had to go into the girls' room to see Rachel (whose nose was already stuck in a book); Rachel flew out of bed to see Grandma. 

Benjamin took a little more coaxing to get out of his room. He actually asked for permission to get out of bed, which was kind of strange because he usually has no qualm getting out of bed for any reason ("Where's my cup? Where's my bus? I want to read another book! What's that noise?" and so on). By this time, Grandma was sitting on a chair in the living room holding Rachel and Miriam on her lap. Benjamin came to his doorway, looked out, and fell over he was so surprised.

A morning with Rachel

Andrew's defending his prospectus today so had to leave the house a little earlier than usual which meant that I got to wait for the bus with Rachel. I completely checked out of her morning routine this year, which makes me equal parts sad and happy. It's been so nice to not have to wake up early in the morning with the pregnancy blahs and I really appreciate Andrew adjusting his schedule so he can be the one to wait for the bus every day, but I also felt a little bit of guilt for never seeing her in the morning. Then a friend reminded me that those one-on-one moments with her dad are important, too, and that I had nothing to feel guilty about.

It was nice to see a fresh and cheerful Rachel, though! Usually by the time she's home from school her hair is wild and her temper short. That's how she gets out of bed, too, but it wears off over breakfast and she eventually morphs into a happy (slightly silly) child.

Benjamin's Birthday Poster

It's finally finished! It only took, like, three years, but it's finally finished! I had it all put together by March and was just waiting to get some pictures from Andrew's computer (since we usually download our "nice" pictures there and I only have snapshots from the point-and-shoot cameras on mine). We vowed we'd have it on the wall before Zoë was born so last night I said, "We need to just finish this already—do you have like five minutes?" And when we were finished he said, "Oh, is that all you had left?! I was totally holding you back!" 

Just a little bit, there, Mr. Prospectus.

Sleep, baby, sleep...

In a crazy turn of events, I missed singing to Benjamin and Rachel this evening. They were both fast asleep by the time I went to sing (at 9:00), while Miriam—Miriam!—was still up reading.

Rachel went to the zoo today on a class field trip (which she'll write about later, in theory). She had to be at school at 7:15 AM and didn't arrive back at school until 5:15 PM. It was quite a long day for her.

We sent her with a camera (our old semi-problematic camera) and she proved her responsibility by not losing or breaking it and by taking a million selfies:

Rachel's FHE lesson

Rachel was in charge of tonight's family night lesson; she decided this during yesterday's quiet time and made a poster and everything! She wanted us to learn about how to take care of the earth (since it's one of Heavenly Father's creations and we're supposed to be good stewards).

First she showed us a diagram of the greenhouse effect and we discussed climate change and how it's hurting our planet. Specifically she wanted to inform us that there are polar ice caps on either end of the globe and that global warming negatively impacts "these little guys right here" (meaning her stuffed polar bears and penguins).

Whistle while you...JUST DO IT ALREADY!!!

Today it took Benjamin two hours and twenty minutes to put away the dishes, and by dishes I mean the silverware and the plastic plates and cups. It's not that intense of a job. There were tears and time outs and utter rebellion.

"Grab another plate and put it away, Ben," I'd urge.

"No, thanks," he'd say.

"You need to put away your dishes before we have lunch," I'd remind him.

"You put away the dishes," he'd say. 

"I already put away my dishes. You need to do the rest. It's your job."

Eventually Miriam and I gave up and had lunch without him, which just about broke his achy-breaky heart into a million pieces. But, honestly! He was driving me crazy.

"Where this fork go?" he'd ask.

"You know where that fork goes," I'd say. "You know where everything goes. Just put them away!"

He put a bunch of silverware with the tupperware and then put some plastic plates in the silverware drawer—just for kicks. Then he'd open the drawer and hang on it like a monkey, which is a big no-no. Did I mention he was driving me a little bonkers?

Finally, finally he finished his job and I gave him his lunch. And, truthfully, he's still getting on my nerves. He's not being terrible; he's just being two. 

The other day I was equally frustrated (with everybody). I can't even remember what everyone was doing, which probably means no one was being terrible but sometimes things just get a little loud/overwhelming in our house and I start to lose it. Andrew stepped in and said, "Rachel—you need to stop doing x! Miriam—you need to stop doing y! Benjamin—you just need to stop being two!"

And he almost can, but then he'll be three and...that's not much different. It's a good thing the hilariousness of two- and three-year-olds offsets the hysterics otherwise I don't know what I'd do.

Thankfully, Miriam was wonderfully helpful today. She helped me fold the laundry (in exchange for points) and then said, "I ran out of time to do my Saturday chore so I guess I'll do that today to make up for it!" She tidied up the living room and vacuumed all by herself (for no points) while I was doing my postprandial workout this afternoon. I could have kissed her (and I did)!

So I guess it was worth it to spend those two painful hours haranguing Benjamin about dishes—because hopefully by the time he's five he'll be as capable/helpful as his big sisters (which will leave me free(er) to pull my hair out over Zoë's two-year-old antics).