Play Date

Emma and I had a chance to play with our cute friend Maxwell while his parents were out.

Emma played her part of 'bossy older child' well, but she also did a great job sharing and interacting too. I enjoy seeing Emma interact with younger children, she does it well and to me that means there is hope for this second baby.

Four Years

Well I was in the middle of my anniversary post when my computer had a total freak-out and shut down. I was rather agitated (blogging currently feels like a lot of work) and didn't attempt a new post until today.

 In short, I was married 4 years ago June 12th. I absolutely love building memories, struggling, laughing, and perhaps on occasion bickering with Shane.

The long:

It's funny, looking back at a short but LONG 4 years: We have our routines, and although I used to pretend I was very independent and slightly feminist I really like to have routines. I understand them now.    I am aware that 99% of the time I'm the one to change the toilet paper roll, but on the other hand Shane 99.9% of the time will put Emma in her car seat if we travel at the same time etc.


 In our house we have an unwritten rule: There are no assigned tasks to either husband or wife outside of the "Family Proclamation". It's not 'my' job to do the dishes. Yes I'm an at home mom that usually takes care of those things but it's not 'my' job. Shane and I work as a team, he is just as responsible as I am to wash the car, bath the child, plan and prepare dinner, mow the lawn, or make the bed. One of the reasons this marriage works is because we discuss who is more or less capable of tackling a task at the time, and we consider it service towards the other spouse when accomplished.

Thank you Shane for being my husband and naturally my best friend. I'm grateful to learn the attitude that this partnership is all about putting each other first.

It's Potty Time

Today is our first potty party: anything salty, juice, a timer, and panties.

We started the day with 2 accidents in less than 10 minutes which led to serious tears and embarrassment, but have had great success since. I'm sure there are more episodes of embarrassment to come, especially when we use a foreign potty.


But in the mean time I'm exhausted, and seeing as my own bathroom breaks are currently many, I'm cutting out excess fluids to make way for the child who keeps running to the one and only toilet. We set the timer for every 20 minutes to stop what we are doing to practice sitting on the potty...this in and of itself requires all the patience and energy a pregnant mom can take.

I'm mostly worried about when we are outside for a walk or at church on Sunday, if anyone has any advice I'm pretty open to suggestions :)

Here's hoping that this is truly all worth it.

It's Time: Five Things Friday

Well my own Grammy has called me out on not blogging and it's time. I don't enjoy blogging without pictures but I haven't unpacked my camera charger yet and the battery is dead.


It's time to write something so here comes the randomness:

1. I'm Pregnant, started my 2nd trimester today. I'm due November 25th. If all goes according to plan we will have two September birthdays and two November birthdays. It's a good thing I love cake!

2. I passed the baton on sharing the pregnancy info with most of my family. I felt weird about sharing, I originally thought I was embarrassed, but with more contemplation on the subject I realized I just have a hard time being the center of attention. In fact, I hate it. I don't like doing anything that involves people staring at me. Naturally, I'm a Succo and can't help but open my big mouth and draw WAY too much attention to myself at times. If regret were a liquid you'd mop me right off the floor after moments like these.

3. I used to love grocery shopping. I loved getting out of the house to find a good bargain, to people watch, and to enjoy someone else's air conditioning. Now that I live up three flights of stairs I can't stand it. I dread it! Stairs are fine on their own, but I have a toddler who is slower than molasses, a belly that is only getting bigger, and arthritis in my hands. Those things combined cause me to really dislike shopping right now.

4. I love lists, I love crossing things off and feeling accomplished. In fact I love it so much I'll sometimes write things on my to do list that I've already done just so I can scratch it off. I even created a Pinterest board where I can move all the things I've done into one place and feel accomplished...silly I'm sure but I am who I am.

5. I'm thinking of getting my cat a leash...yup that's right. I'm seriously considering being the crazy cat lady that takes her cat on walks. It's not because I wish I had a dog. I just feel really bad that she is stuck in this small apartment. My cat is so crazy I'm afraid if I let her on the balcony alone she will jump the three stories after some bug, but if I had a leash I could give her some time to be outside without me standing there like a chaperon. It's still up for debate, I'll have to do more research about cats on leashes.


Well enough random for now, Happy 'Five Things Friday'.

Life as we know it

Well, it's still a little crazy around here: trying to organize the house, understanding new schedules, and adapting to crazy drivers in a VERY busy valley.

I would say we are all happy and well. Sure I could give a pretty big list of pros and cons of moving and being back in SLC but I think we all know the cons and there is no need to sound pessimistic. As for the pros I'll just keep it short today and mention we love visiting Daddy at work and I love to be back in familiar country. I didn't have to go through the hassle of learning what doctors were best (just went back to our old ones), or learn the roads, or even figure out where my grocery stores were located. Those are some pretty good pros.

Emma is doing very well, she is getting bigger and smarter every day.

What have I done?!

Well via suggestion of a friend we used a creative way to help Emma stop using 'Binkies'. We were down to 2 (one for night and one for long car rides) and we bagged them both and went to the store. I told Emma we would find something she could 'buy' with her binkies.

We hit up the pink toy isle first and there were 2 or 3 different things she liked, I made it very clear that she had to pick one and had to decide. I would ask "Emma, do you like this toy better than this one?" When we found the Barbies her eyes got big. When we found some equestrian Barbie that came with a horse the search was over. She said to me "Mommy you don't have to ask me anymore."

 I let my 2 year old get a Barbie...I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Less than a Week:

We are moving in less than a week. My house is in disarray, both the cat and the child are confused and stressed, I had to make banana bread in muffin tins because most of the kitchen is in boxes, nobody is sleeping well, and the waiting is building tension like carbon dioxide in a shaken pop bottle!

We have one more Sunday with our ward, we just did our last playgroup today, and we have one more day at Papillon Helicopters. It's all so bitter-sweet. I hate to say good-bye but I'm so tired of the limbo-time to move on and get the change over with. I will miss so many people and so many things about Henderson; it's a shame to feel all this tension over being here still.