Christmas came early

This past summer, I presented Tony with my list of home improvement "requests," aka "let's get these things remodeled because its driving me crazy now that I'm home all day." Old homes are charming, but they are not always functional for a modern family -- particularly when it comes to closets and storage space. I wanted a real pantry, shelves in basement closets, and our bedroom closets modernized. And while we were at it, I wanted a sink in the laundry room with a counter and cupboards underneath.

Be still my organization-loving heart! Here are the before and afters.

We had an oddly shaped broom closet that is now an L-shaped pantry...with a light! Now nothing falls on me every time I open the door, and I can see everything that is in there. Sometimes I just walk by, open the door, turn on the light, and look at it.

Our bedroom closets. Note the regular door and the bar that holds your clothes runs only the depth of the closet (rather than the width). We can now fit twice as much stuff in them!

(The girls' closet)
(Our closet)

Random closet in the basement... Now we can store our cans of food on shelves rather than on a pile on the floor.

And the old laundry room sink gets an upgrade.

While we probably won't be featured in Better Homes & Gardens any time too soon, I am loving the changes. There is a bit more order in the house, and I like it.

This and That

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I figured a general update was in order. Here goes!

Ainsley

On November 1st, Ainsley had her 4-month check-up where she weighed in at 14 lbs. and was 26 inches long. This places her in the 55th percentile for weight and the 76th for height. All I can say is, Who woulda thunk I'd have an average-sized child? I hope it keeps up.

Ainsley is a pretty good little baby who doesn't cry much, except at the usual times: when she's hungry, tired, or being overly "loved" by Afton. If I could maybe add one little skill to her list of accomplishments, it would be taking a bottle. She absolutely refuses. We're talking beet-red face and full-on screaming whenever I place that plastic nipple to her mouth. Off and on this past month, we've tried some heavily diluted rice cereal from a spoon, and she's not much of a fan of that either.

(And back to normal when the spoon practice is done.)

Afton

Afton is... still 2. But I must give credit where credit is due. When we go to the grocery store, she will ride in the cart (rather than spend her whole time screaming and trying to jump out of it). She's willing to get in her car seat about 75% of the time now (as opposed to almost never). She's generally okay with eating whatever the family is having for dinner (as opposed to refusing to eat almost anything put before her). She no longer goes into hysteria every time I sit down to nurse Ainsley (think tears and tears and tears while yelling, "No feed her! No feed her!") And the only time she hurts Ainsley anymore is when she is giving her too many hugs and kisses.

In fact, Afton's nurturing side is coming out. When Ainsley starts to stir in the morning, Afton is the first one to run in and say, "ood orning Baby Eeslie." She tries to soothe Ainsley when Ainsley cries. Every once in a while, I catch her trying to read Ainsley a book. Sometimes she'll try to find toys for Ainsley to play with.

And sometimes she just wants to hold Ainsley's hand. (This wasn't posed!)

Tony

Bishop Tony treks on. When Ainsley was 8 days old, our stake president came to our house and called Tony to be the new bishop of our congregation. He was ordained when she was about 6 weeks old. In those intervening 5 weeks he lost almost 10 pounds. (He claims it was only 5.)

I suppose all bishops are busy, but our congregation is a bit unique. It has 538 people and 99 widows. Tony spends a full day at church on Sunday, as well as every Tuesday and Wednesday evening. It seems that every other Thursday he comes home for dinner only to turn around to go to a meeting. (There is no shortage of meetings.) And because our ward has so many elderly people, there are many funerals to conduct. The previous bishops averaged about 12 or more funerals each year. Tony has had three already.

Tony has laughed quite a bit about how the main beneficiary of our new 42" HD TV and souped-up cable (purchased just two weeks before he found out about the bishop thing) is Afton (who can now watch Nick Jr.).

Me

Needless to say, I was very excited for Thanksgiving this year (three whole days with Tony). And I'm very excited for Christmas (potentially seven whole days with him). I'm also very excited for January when I can start going to a nearby gym and get rid of the last bit of this baby weight and all the tension in my shoulders from carrying around little bodies all the time. I am very grateful that Afton no longer pats my belly each day and says (in a deep voice), "Mommy BIIIIG FAAAAT." (Yeah, that was a daily occurrence for the first three months or so after Ainsley was born. I loved it.) And I am building up the courage to drive--by myself with two little kids--to Oregon next spring for an extended vacation.

All told, although we are busy and tired, we are happy. We have two healthy little girls, and we still like being married to each other. In the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have been untouched. We feel grateful for all our good fortune.

The bumble bee and the butterfly

The obligatory Halloween post...

Since Afton has been showing a preference for what diaper she wears during the day, ("No Mommy, not Elmo. Big Bird!"), we thought it best to get her input on Halloween costumes this year rather than risk her refusal to wear our selected one. On a trip to Old Navy, we learned three things: (1) Afton, sadly, had no interest in the shark costume; (2) The only portion of the princess costume she fancied was the wand; and (3) The only portion of the lady bug, butterfly, bumble bee, and bat costumes she took a liking to was the wings. (I had to stop her from trying to rip out the wings that were sewn into the plush costumes. That was after I carefully tucked a wand into the tag of a princess dress because Afton had succeeded in ripping it off the plastic string/tag thing....) I figured the butterfly wings would be a safe bet along with a tutu and a pair of pink leggings. As soon as I had her try that ensemble on last weekend, she immediately asked, "Where's my wand?"

As Tony put it, Afton took the "a la carte" approach to costumes this year.

I kid you not, as we were heading to the craft store to buy a wooden stick, pink paint, a yellow star, and pink ribbon, I cleared the diaper bag out of the car and this book fell out:

Yes, Afton inadvertently turned herself into Pinkalicious (minus the tiara -- she doesn't like things on her head.) Oh sweet diva of mine!

But back to Ainsley. Don't the cheeks make the bee?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Only my mother's granddaughter...

would look out the window at the sight of the season's first snowfall and declare, "Oooo, messy."

Oh Afton...

A couple pictures please

I appear to have entered the phase of life where the weeks fly by quickly, but the days pass by slowly and are often judged by then number of time-outs inflicted upon one kid or another. Although I doubt I'll entirely forget some of the less-than-pleasant aspects of mothering small children, I hope I don't forget some of the funny moments like this. It all began with a suggestion that Tony take a picture or two of me and the girls. Afton's exuberance took it to another level.

The forgotten child

As I suppose is only natural, most parents aren't able to lavish as much attention on their second child as they did their first. I also assume that most parents feel very guilty about this. I know I do. With Afton, I'd come home from work and spend the whole evening with her. We'd walk around the backyard, I'd give her a bath each night, and we'd spend most of Saturday and Sunday together. With Ainsley, I haven't been able to give her that same undivided attention and I feel bad about that. The lack of attention is due, in large part, to simple arithmetic: Ainsley was born with a pre-existing sibling whereas Afton was born without one. Ainsley was therefore destined to not receive as much attention as Afton did. But some of it has to do with the fact that I'm now gone on Tuesday night, Wednesday night, some Thursday nights, and virtually all of Sunday. Needless to say, I haven't been able to spend as much time with Ainsley as I would like.

So here are a few pictures of Ainsley. She is a beautiful baby with chubby cheeks, light hair, and, incredibly, almost blue eyes.

I love you Ainsley!

Afton's ride

As Heather mentioned in an earlier post, Afton adores all things bicycle related. Last week she announced to Heather that she needed to talk to her Dad about getting one. On Saturday morning Afton told me that she "needed" her own bike. Being a push-over, we immediately went to Target and found the tricycle I had previously researched online. Afton could hardly contain her excitement to get home and ride it. I could hardly contain my trepidation at having to assemble the thing since I have zero mechanical ability whatsoever.

Only one of us in this picture actually understood the instructions. Here's a hint, it wasn't me.

I was apparently taking too long so Afton decided to start reading the instructions on her own.

Are you done yet?

Ainsley was very patient throughout the whole thing.
Almost done...
Riding her bike the next morning.

Even though Afton has loved her tricycle, I am afraid her crush may be short lived. Tonight when I got home, Heather informed me that when Afton saw an open top jeep today, her jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she told Heather, "Afton need a jeep!" She then told Heather she would talk to "Dad" about it tomorrow. Anyone know how to assemble a jeep?