Good News!

I am NOT a nerd! Yippee!

I think I will have to have my husband take the test. While I don't think he's a nerd in the comic book/star wars way of thinking, he definitely has some dork tendencies.

You're my best friend!

I have been having so much fun with my 2.5 year old, S, lately. She has an amazing vocabulary. All of my children are exceptionally brilliant, but of the three that are talking, her speech seems the most advanced for her age. It's just amazing to listen to her talking, and getting to know her as an actual person.

She has taken to carrying her jaguar all over the place, and she is the momma jaguar. She also has been carrying around her little stuffed ostrich. She also tends to cook the ostrich on the cooktop of her play kitchen (note to self: don't let her babysit Z any time soon), so her maternal instincts only go so far. In the picture, you can see she's cooking Noah (she refers to him as Santa Claus) and a pony on the stove, while the ostrich is being microwaved.

A couple times a day, she will come up give me a huge hug and say, "You're my best friend!" It just melts my heart. When she hears a song she likes, she'll announce "They're playing my favorite song."

A couple of weeks ago, my mom was babysitting her while I could go to the doctor for my sore throat. It came time to put S down for her nap, so my mom was looking for her pacifier to put her down to sleep. She looked and looked, but no dice. Finally, she said, "S, I can't find your binky anywhere, and your mommy said it'd be right by your bed." S replied, "Grandma, this is Z's bedroom. My bedroom is downstairs". You gotta love a kid like that.

I don't remember having nearly as much fun with my older two. I know they were just as funny and delightful. Maybe I've forgotten all the little stories in my old age? Or maybe having the knowledge and experience of years has taught me to slow down a little and enjoy the small joys that each day brings.

A really cute gift idea

A friend of mine makes these darling custom spoons as a unique baby gift. I think they are so cute, and so much more interesting than the typical baby gifts you see out there.

Anyway, I wanted to spread the word because I think they're really adorable. Plus, they are having a customer appreciation sale. If you go to Beaded Things you can look around. From now until November 1, she is having a buy one, get one free sale. The coupon code you'll need to enter is "bogo".

In addition to a great sale, there's a great cause! In addition Beaded Things will donate $1 for each spoon sold during the remainder of this year to Susan G. Komen for the Cure via the 3Day Walk for Breast Cancer. She have walked in the 3Day for the past three years (60 miles in 3 Days) and so far raised over $6,500 by walking. She plans to walk again in 2008.

Fruit Leather

My domestic goddess activity for the week has been to dehydrate fruit. My grandmother has a plum tree, and I took a bucket full of plums home, along with my parents' borrowed food dehydrator.

K and I took all the pits out of the plums, and blended up a blender full of the fruit (leaving skins on), and added 1/2 c. sugar to the mix. Then spread the puree'd fruit onto the trays of the food dehydrator and let it run for about 12 hours. The resulting fruit leather has been really good. K is looking at me like I'm magic.

I'm now drying banana slices and apple slices.

D!OH!

We went out to eat with my parents recently. One of the waitresses was pretty excited to see me, and said hello to me, calling me by name. I knew I knew her, I just couldn't place where. Having children has seriously affected my ability to put names with faces with places.

I told my mom the above, and she suggested I chat up the waitress, saying something like, "Oh, you live up here now?". I responded (for the waitress) by saying, "Yeah, idiot, I'm in your ward!". I just stuck to the general pleasantries and didn't try to figure out where I knew her from.

The next time I was at church, she comes up to me, "I NEVER see people I know at work!!". Huh. I guess I subconsciously knew where I knew her from.

I feel bad because she's really sweet, really nice, and I would like to be friends with her. I hate being so oblivious about this sort of thing. I'm glad I didn't make a fool out of myself.

Sick Sick Sick

I had the worst sore throat for almost two weeks. It was so miserable! After about 5 days of pain and fever, I went to the doctor, where a strep test came up negative. However, the doctor was so impressed by the ugliness and swelling in my tonsils that he gave me a massive dose of antibiotics. It took almost three days to start working, but it finally is.

It is funny the things you appreciate after being sick. I am so happy to be able to swallow normally and without feeling like I'm eating shards of glass. I'm glad that going up and down our stairs doesn't seem like an almost insurmountable task.

My husband really stepped in and helped out while I was down though, which was really sweet and appreciated. In fact, he took more time off for this sore throat than he did for the birth of three of our four children! He did dishes, laundry, meals, childcare, floors, etc. It was very nice. Some may argue that it was expected that he picks up the slack when I'm sick. That may be true, but it was still very much appreciated.

The green fog

Z is exclusively breastfed. He hasn't ever had anything else. Now, in my experience, the gas and poop of an exclusively breastfed baby isn't at all offensive in odor. But the gas this kid has?! Whew! Seriously, it's like toxic waste level of stink.

His daddy had the nickname of the "Green Fog" as a teenager due to his superpower of being able to empty out a gymnasium in a single fart. It appears that Z has inherited this trait. I'm soooooo excited. Not.