Ana-ism #2

The other night, as we sat down to our dinner of biscuits and gravy:
Ana: Mmmm... paint pots. Mmmmm... paint pots! MMMmmm! PAINT POTS!

Number 3

My blog title reminds me of a terrific They Might Be Giants song of the same name. It goes:

There's only two songs in me, and I just wrote the third.
Don't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the words.
Spent my whole life just diggin' up my music's shallow grave.
For the two songs in me and the third one I just made.

Not that this has anything to do with the post (besides the title) ... I just really like TMBG.

Anyway, down to business. (Drum roll, please.)

Seth and I are expecting our own number three! He/She is due April 5, 2010.

We went to the doctor on Tuesday, August 25, and came back with these:


I'm not going to point body parts out, because we're not entirely certain what's what. The well-defined circle is the yolk sack, and we think we can see some arm and leg flippers and maybe a head, but it's a lot like those darn Magic Eye puzzles I could never make out.

Both girls are excited at the prospect of having a younger brother or sister. At first Bekah wanted a boy and Ana wanted a girl, but I think they disagreed only because they wanted to disagree; now they both want a little brother.

And Bekah has made the difficult name decision for us. If it's a boy, we'll name him Pinocchio. If it's a girl, Spongebob. Needless to say, we reminded her that the final decision is left to Mommy and Daddy.

We're happy to report that all members of the Grover family are excited about having a new baby in the family. Bring on the sleepless nights and endless spit up!

Six years

Six years ago today, I was here:


That's when I married the most
sweet
handsome
talented
cute
loving
awesome
intelligent
chivalrous
faithful
lovable
perfect man.

I love you, Seth!

Shopping trauma

Today's Wal-mart shopping list: new sneakers for Bekah, cold cereal, hair elastics, an umbrella, eggs, milk, bananas, Crystal Light.

We were in the drink aisle when I heard something and turned to see something all over our cart of groceries.

My idiotic response: "What happened?!"

I looked at Ana just in time to see her throw up again. And again.

I had no idea my little girl wasn't feeling well. Sure, she didn't eat that much for breakfast this morning, but I just thought she was being a picky eater. Instead, I had a poor kid who didn't understand what had just happened and certainly didn't like it.

I grabbed the wipes out of my purse and started cleaning her up. After I had picked her up out of the cart and removed her shoes and shirt that were both covered in ick, I ran out of the aisle to find anyone in a blue shirt with a name tag. The first one I came to proved to be mostly unhelpful.

"My little girl just threw up all over in this aisle. I'm sorry! I had no idea she was sick."

She came, she looked, she called maintenance on her walkie-talkie and left. She came back with "wet floor" cones, put them down and left again.

Meanwhile, I was using every wipe I had with me (along with about 20 more a sympathetic mom had given me) to clean off all of our groceries. I would pick up an item, use two or three wipes to clean it off, set it on the floor and grab another. By the time my cart was empty, still no one had come to clean up my kid's mess.

I found another Wal-mart associate, told him what had happened, and asked if he could possibly bring me a new cart. He left, returned promptly with my cart, and asked if there was anything else he could do to help me.

By that time, however, I had taken care of as much as I could. I had wiped down every item in my cart, put in a puke-free place, stripped my kid down to her diaper (after I discovered that her shorts hadn't escaped the disaster) and placed her yucky clothes in a Ziploc bag I happened to have with me.

So it was in this condition that I reloaded everything up in the new cart, along with my 2-year-old clad only in disposable underwear. I left the cart, the vomit and a mountain of soiled wipes, and practically ran to the check-out area. Trying to be considerate of other people (cashiers are people too ... people who probably don't enjoy something that's been soaked in throw up), I checked myself out at a kiosk and booked it for home.

That's how Ana got a second bath today. And, harried as I was, I remembered to remove her diaper this time.

Just how absorbant is a size 4 Huggies diaper?

Pretty darn. In my extra-super-sleepy state this morning, I plopped Ana into the tub while she was still wearing hers.

And it wasn't until the girls called for me (I was making the bed in our room which, by the way, has a direct line of sight to the bathroom, in case you think I'm a delinquent mom) and told me that Ana still had her diaper on that I realized what I had done.

The diaper was filled to capacity. I'm sure the tub was no longer filled to its previous capacity.

That's what happens when I don't get a full eight hours of sleep.

Pretty princesses

This just goes to show what a girly-girl I've become.

Last night, Seth and I packed up the girls to head to downtown and do a photo shoot with the girls in their princess dresses. Grandma Scott let the girls pick out the fabric, and she sewed them together for their birthdays. Guess what our girls are going to dress up as for Halloween?

Here is a sampling of the results. To see more, click here.

Yellowstone

We thought we'd take advantage of the free weekend at Yellowstone (August 15-16), but then changed our plans and paid the $25 to go on Friday instead (August 14). It's a good thing we did, because Obama and his entourage took over the Old Faithful area for four hours on Saturday.

Of course, our girls had never been to Yellowstone before, so this was a new thing for them. And Seth hadn't been since he was a young teenager, so I was in charge of charting our course through the park.

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin on the night of the 13th and woke up the next day only to have the electricity shut off. We had planned on having a delicious crock pot meal awaiting our return that evening, but without the power, we couldn't set the cook time on our unit. I pulled Bekah's hair back and tried taming my bedhead (there's only so much you can do without a blowdryer and curling iron), and we set off on our journey.

Shortly after entering the park via West Yellowstone, the traffic slowed to a crawl. It continued that way for about 20 minutes. Then we finally saw what everyone was slowing down for. A bison. ONE bison. It wasn't in the way; it was next to the side of the road. Every car had to take a turn stopping right next to it, rolling down their windows and taking countless pictures of the animal. Good grief, people. Keep driving and see the rest of the herd!

Our first stop: the Fountain Paint Pots. The girls were sufficiently impressed with the sights, but Bekah did not enjoy the smells. Several times she would crouch down to avoid a smelly steam cloud and squat-walk.

Seth and Bekah walking along the boardwalk at the Fountain Paint Pots.

Analee and her unbelievably cool glasses at one of the geysers in the Fountain Paint Pots area.

Second stop: Old Faithful. We got there in time to wait just 15 minutes before the geyser erupted. Analee enjoyed watching the spouting water. Bekah barely glanced in that direction. She was too busy building a sand castle. In fact, on our home videos, you can hear Bekah say, "Look, Dad! A sand castle!" only to have Seth (the camera operator) wryly reply, "Look, Bekah! A geyser!"

Analee watching Old Faithful, Seth recording it, Bekah ignoring it.

After watching the geyser, we went inside the old Yellowstone Inn to check it out. Seth was skeptical that it was worth a stop, but he found out why I wanted to see inside. The girls loved climbing the old log steps, and would have gone all the way up to the crow's nest had there not been a gate with a lock and a sign saying it was no longer safe for visitors to ascend.

We also did one of the walking loops in the area to see Beehive and other geysers. We were incredibly grateful Seth thought to load up the wagon before we left home. The girls enjoyed the ride. Seth enjoyed the workout.

Third stop: Lunch. We stopped at the Scoup Lake picnic area to pull out our blanket and fare. As we were finishing the meal, the girls found a friend.

They named the beetle Noodly.

Although we were the only patrons of that picnic area when we arrived, by the time we left, there were about a dozen cars there. We are quite the trendsetters.

Fourth stop: the Mud Volcano area. Seth said he didn't think he had ever been here before. We're glad we stopped here because it proved to be a family favorite. The girls loved looking at and listening to the Dragon's Mouth, smelling and seeing the mud volcano and watching the Black Dragon Cauldron churn.

Ana and Bekah checking out the Dragon's Mouth.

Fifth stop: the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Another place Seth had never visited. We had to trek down paved switchbacks for three-quarters of a mile to reach the brink of the Lower Falls, but it was worth the time and effort.

The view of the river and canyon from the brink.

Analee, Seth and Bekah on the way to the bottom.

Andrea, Analee and Rebekah at the falls.

Although Ana wanted me to carry her the whole way up ("But, but, but, but ... I NEED you, Mommy!"), Seth chivarously took her from me, plunked her on his shoulders and practically ran back to the parking lot. Bekah hiked all the way back up by herself, but we did take two rest stops on her behalf.

Sixth stop: Norris Geyser Basin. By this time, it was early evening, and we were all tired. We didn't walk the 1.9-mile loop to see everything that could be seen. Instead, we walked far enough to see Echinus Geyser, Steamboat Geyser and Cistern Springs.

Again, Bekah was overwhelmed by the smell.

Rather than risking going back to the cabin and having no power, we stopped in West Yellowstone on our way back and ate a hearty and costly McDonald's dinner. (By the way, there WAS power by the time we got back.)

The next day, we had a few Grover festivities of our own. The girls and I had made piñatas at the house, so we took the time to fill them and whack them to pieces.

Bekah's expertly crafted and painted piñata, about to fall off and be crushed by a big, wooden bat.

Ana's attempt at cracking open her piñata. Notice her hold on the bat, which ultimately ended up with her ...

... whacking herself in the head and having to be comforted by her mommy. I did help her crush the papier-mâché contraption following the storm.

All in all, we had an incredible time. The girls got to see elk, bison, a coyote, geysers, mud pots, springs and stinky steam clouds. Who wouldn't want to experience all of that?! To see even more splendiferous images of our trip, click here.

A not-so-tender moment

Every night, Seth and I kneel down and say a prayer with Rebekah. Then he gives her one sweet kiss and leaves the room so I can sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" to our four-year-old. She usually climbs up on my lap and cuddles with me, and then I put her in her bed and tuck her in.

The other night, I paused after singing our usual lullaby.

Me: Bekah, do you know what I love about you?
Bekah: What?
Me: I love your pretty blond hair. I love your cute smile. And I love your beautiful blue eyes.
Bekah: Do you know what I love about you, Mommy?

(I, of course, am flattered and expectantly ask ...)

Me: What?
Bekah: Your eyeball, your boogers and your bum cheek. (Notice the singular. I'm not sure which one she favors.) HAHAHAHA!

So much for a special mother-daughter moment. Four-year-olds have the strangest sense of humor.

Hooray for cuteness!

Seth and I decided to tackle a huge project this summer: our middle level. This includes our kitchen and living room. We hadn't previously done much in these rooms since moving in, so we felt it was time to take them on.

The rooms are not entirely finished yet; we still need to caulk the baseboard and put tile down in the living room by the back door. But in the months since we got started, a lot has been fixed.

First we had to tear down the crown molding, chair rail and baseboard. Although the two rooms are pretty open and run together, the previous occupants of our house had tried to distinguish between the living room and the kitchen by having two entirely different kinds of trim. So on the living room side of the door leading to the garage, there was one kind of chair rail. On the kitchen side of the door, there was another. We thought this was entirely weird, so we did away with it.

While I was tearing the chair rail down on our west wall, I found that not only had the previous owners painted over the top of wallpaper, but they had also wallpapered straight on the sheet rock without first priming or texturing the wall. So this, along with all the dents from the trim, made it so we had to re-texture all the walls on the middle level.

So besides ripping things down and putting new trim up, we had to tape everything off, have my dad come in with the orange peel texturizer, spray all the walls, then paint everything.

But it's totally worth it. Our cupboards are nice and shiny white with new knobs, the black microwave and dishwasher don't stand out as much because I painted some shelves and trim in in the kitchen black, the walls are all nice and even, we don't have awkward lines across the ceiling where two different colors merged, and all of our light fixtures match.

Here's a sampling of the finished product:


You can see our white front door on the very left of the picture, and the railing and doorway leading down to the family room on the bottom and right side of the picture. The vinyl letters were cut by a friend from the high school yearbook staff days.

I absolutely love our "new" rooms. We're especially grateful to Dad who helped even out our funky walls and textured everything for us. And for letting us borrow his saw. And nail gun. And laser level.

One other small project I have in to make a small hanging quilt to drape on a shelf in our living room. Pictures of that will follow once it's complete.

SRRYJ

No, I didn't sneeze while typing the title of this post. For those non-I.F.-event-savvy people, SRRYJ stands for the Snake River Roaring Youth Jam. I found out about this totally free and fun event last year, so when I saw the announcement in the paper last week, I knew we had to make a morning of it.

One of the first booths we came to is the Junk Jam. They have all sorts of ... well, junk (e.g. bumpers, barrels, buckets, hubcaps) and plenty of spoons and let the kids bang away.

Ana couldn't keep her eyes open because of the ... noise? Seriously, I don't understand it, but it's the truth. She blinked every time she banged that drum.

Ana and Bekah at the Junk Jam.

I had heard that you dress for mess when it comes to the Youth Jam, and Bekah proved that point last August when she came home with paint from head to toe. So I put the girls in their old clothes and let them go to town when it came to the painting booths.

Bekah painting a black smiley and eyes on a giant duck.

Bekah with her pink paint; Ana with her red paint.

The girls' favorite booth is the Xtreme Xylophone. It's a 500-foot long xylophone that kids can paint, sprinkle with glitter, and play with giant mallets. They spent an entire 30 minutes at that thing.

Bekah spreading glitter on the keys that Ana is trying to play.

Bekah showing off her blue paint.

The girls working side-by-side.

Ana's turn with the glitter.

The girls had a blast, and we all went home happy and tired. Some were worse for wear ...

Ana's "battle wounds."

... while others were more unscathed (less scathed?)

At least her face stayed pretty clean.

But you can definitely believe that the first order of business upon our return home was a good scrub down.

helpers

I had to change the oil in our van Vincent (as in "Vincent van, go!") today. Of course, the girls couldn't miss out on a chance to help their daddy. Bekah put the new large rubber seal on the filter, and Ana rearranged all of the sockets in my socket set. I was glad to have their help.

-sg

Hyperbole

I thought it would be years before I heard such gross exaggerations from one of my children.

Bekah: Analee, don't do that. Mom has told you millions and jillions of times not to do that.

AND

Bekah: Mom, when will lunch be ready? I'm starving.
Andrea: Just a few minutes, Bekah.
Bekah: I hope we eat before I die.

Such an attitude!