We went to Zion

For a few days at the end of March, we went to Zion National Park with my parents. Originally, it was on my list of "things to do before I leave Utah." Now it is simply on my list of "places I ought to see because I live here and will probably not leave for decades." Regardless of the reason for the visit, it was beautiful.

We hiked. We played in the river. We drove through the scenic byways and through the Mt. Carmel tunnel. We saw the Emerald Pools and the place where we could start hiking the narrows if we were without children and the weather was 20 degrees warmer. We gazed over the canyon from a high overlook... for five minutes before I got too antsy that my children would plunge to their death. We got covered in red dirt. And then we enjoyed ourselves in a condo in nearby St. George that had a swimming pool.

I will remember fondly my first foray to Southern Utah. By the time we got as far as Fillmore, I was homesick for wide open spaces. I learned to pronounce a few more these previously unseen places correctly. And I was surprised at how gorgeous the green trees (there are some green trees there) are against the red rock.

Spiking the punch

Last Saturday, we got the girls dressed up and headed to a wedding reception. Since they were serving a light dinner, I popped an empty sippy cup into my purse so that little Ainsley could imbibe whatever beverage was served without chancing her still-developing regular cup skills. The food was amazing. (The bride's grandmother was filipino and made these amazing Filipino dishes - when we went home, I told tony I felt like we had eaten out a restaurant.).

And sure enough, there was also a table with punch. We filled up Ains's cup. She guzzled it down. In between eating bites of noodles and rice and meatballs, she demanded drinks alternatively from my cup and Tony's cup. Later, she somehow convinced Tony to fill her sippy cup with punch once again.

We left around 7 pm and put the girls to bed at their usual 8 p.m. bedtime. Then the fun began. Ainsley refused to go to sleep. We kept going into her room to soothe her, but she was resistant. Finally around 9:30 that night, all was quiet.

Unable to sleep myself, I was still awake at midnight when I heard Ainsley crying. I went to her room, change her diaper, and set her back in her crib. At 2:45 am, Tony heard Ainsley crying again. He went to her room and tried to soothe her back to sleep, but she was restless and WIDE AWAKE. Tony lay down on the bed in Ainsley's room, hoping she would do what she normally does: either snuggle against him and go back to sleep immediately or wiggle around quietly next to him while he falls asleep. Neither worked. She ran around the bed. Every time Tony tried to sleep, Ainsley would shout "Dad!" and pry his eyelids open with her fingers. She didn't go back to sleep until after 5 am. Sunday morning, Tony looked like death warmed over.

The next Tuesday at work, the groom came into Tony's office and said he needed to apologize. Tony asked why. "We didn't even think to tell people that the punch was Xango mixed with Mountain Dew," he said.

I haven't decided which was funnier: the fact that the most caffeine-intolerant demographic in the nation (the guests were mostly LDS) were unknowingly guzzling Mountain Dew (in the evening no less), or the fact that the person in our family who consumed the most Mountain Dew-laced punch was our little 24-pound 20-month-old. Water for everyone next time around!

We did it!

Two days after Christmas, we did family pictures. I had been dragging my feet on this photo shoot for two reasons: (1) I was waiting for Afton to become more "easily entreated" (e.g. bribe-able), and (2) I was waiting for me to lose all my baby weight. Neither happened by fall (despite all the hours I've spent at the gym since last January... But the fact that I hate aging is an entirely different blog post....). Alas, we got the girls dressed up and hauled them down to the Fotofly studio in Draper only to reenact the same scene from family pictures 2009: Afton spent the first 20 minutes of the session pitching a fit.

But all's well that ends well. Afton pulled it together and we managed to catch these imaged to preserved for time immemorial.

Drink it in, because we probably won't put ourselves through the ordeal of family pictures again for a couple years :).

Merry Christmas (the 2011 version)

Merry Christmas! (a little late).

Afton was absolutely enthusiastic about decorating the Christmas tree this year. She was so excited, that she redecorated it nearly every day after it was up. The tell-tale sign of Afton's handiwork was ten ornaments hanging on a single branch. Ainsley, however, was more captivated by the boxes the ornaments came in than any part of the decorating process.

Christmas eve was truly fun. The girls got in their matching Christmas pajamas (courtesy Grandma Debbie) and Tony made a fire. They roasted marshmallows and had Danish strawberry pudding. Afton was very pleased to leave Santa a cookie and strawberry milk.

Christmas morning was, for the first time this year, a moment of excitement too. The girls liked their gifts, but I had to laugh when they seemed most exuberant over the fruit snacks Santa had left in their stocking. Then, after a short time playing with the new goods, we got dressed up for church.

All in all, Christmas 2011 was a success. We can safely say that this Christmas was a less hectic, less chaotic, less stressful time of year than Christmas 2010. Bishop Tony crammed his 125 tithing settlement appointments into a marathon day in November and a couple additional evenings. He managed to visit most of the 100 widows in our congregation during December with a cake pop treat and Christmas message. (Several of them got after him for not wearing a coat. He told them they sounded just like his wife. They told him his wife was right.) The girls were easier to plan presents for this year, relieving much of my stress. We did not travel 600 miles in questionable winter weather. Half way through the month, I started crossing things off my Christmas to-do list not because they were done, but just because I wasn't going to do them anymore. (My apologizes for no Christmas card or Christmas treats to any who usually get them.) And, oh yeah, Afton is no longer two and Ainsley no longer wakes up two to three times a night these days. And on top of that, we got to spend time with extended family and enjoyed feeling their kindness and generosity during the season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

For Ainsley

As promised, a post loaded with pictures of Ainsley. (Recent pictures, no less...) This hodge podge collection captures a lot of Ainsley for me -- her likes, her habits, her personality. So in no particular order, here's a glimpse of sweet Ains.

Ainsley likes people, saying hello, hamming it up for the camera, and putting on socks. She is dead serious about sock wearing. She insists on putting them on all by herself most mornings.

Ainsley finally got enough hair over the summer to sprout pigtails, and she developed an intense curiosity to try out anything anyone else is doing (or eating -- but more on that later). Too bad her mean mama won't let her play with an expensive camera.

Ainsley does not like being left out. Fortunately, she has finally gotten old enough to be included on the Daddy-daughter Saturday excursions. They usually involve some amount of french fries, which Ainsley doesn't mind at all.

Ainsley loves her sister's shoes and clothes. Any pair of Afton's shoes is rather awesome to Ainsley, but she was particularly fond of Afton's jelly shoes from last summer. (We finally bought Ainsley a pair to end the shoe stealing madness, aka Afton's conniptions and Ainsley bouts of despair.) Afton's shorts and pajama bottoms are other favorites too. The best part is that Ainsley knows that this clothes and shoe stealing is a bit of a no-no (or at least it will provoke her older sister's ire). Occasionally in the morning, I'll find Ainsley lurking near Afton's drawer. Then she'll snatch a pair of shorts out of it and make off in a mad dash out the bedroom door. She rarely makes it much past the kitchen before Afton near tackles her in an attempt to reclaim the clothes (that Afton has no intention of wearing). But lately, Ainsley has had more success.

We should have known when Ainsley was just a few weeks old, and was best soothed to sleep by being worn in the Baby Bjorn carrier, that Ainsley was a huge fan of the human pillow. And lately, she much prefers the human pillow in the form of her father. This human-pillow love, I believe, is the reason she didn't sleep through the night on a regular basis until a month ago. (Why soothe yourself back to sleep when you can get your parents to snuggle you? And just for the record, we did the tough love/scream it out sleep-training thing four different times. She was untrainable.)

Ainsley loves to eat. When combined with her fear of missing out on anything, it means that if you are chewing in front of her, she'll pry your mouth open in an effort to get a bite. She is also a disaster when she eats. It's actually rather funny, but it means that I do a lot of stain removal. It also means that Ainsley is often not allowed to eat while wearing clothes. (It's easier to hose her down in the kitchen sink that way.)

And, just because the universe wanted to give me a break after 18 months of brushing Afton's teeth while performing wrestling moves on her and jamming the toothbrush in her mouth, sweet baby Ainsley loves to brush her teeth. (And again, for the record, we tried a number of different things to make teeth brushing fun for Afton, and she didn't buy any of them. She just needed to turn 3.) Ainsley also likes to brush other people's teeth and other people's hair. She combs (or at least tries to comb) Afton's hair every night before bed. One of her babysitters recently called her a "little mother."

And finally, despite all the squabbles, Ainsley seems to really like her big sister, whom she calls "Aa" (only the first phoneme -- no "fton"). Ainsley lights up when we pick up Afton from preschool or when we wake up Afton together in the mornings. She will usually give her a kiss goodnight.

A couple days after Ainsley was born, I noticed this strange phenomenon. I had lived 32 years of my life without Ainsley and didn't feel any less because of it. But as soon as she was born, it felt like she'd just always been there -- part of our family, part of my life -- and I couldn't imagine her not existing. Kids are a funny thing that way. Now I just can't wait for Ainsley to learn to talk more so the good times can really begin.