Maddie's name change, and other musings

Yup, we've done it. We've offically changed Maddie's name. It is no longer the lovely and respectable Madeline Grace Jorgensen, she shall henceforth be known as Stinky, the scoot-scoot. Her name change may cause some snickers as she enters school, but such is life. She's been eating rice cereal for 3 weeks now, and oatmeal for 1, so the "Stinky" is pretty self-explanitory. As for "scoot-scoot", that's all she does now, scoot-scoot (infantry crawl) to where ever she wants. And she is fast too. I set her down in her room with some toys whilst I dealt with Eme in the bathroom, she had scooted herself down the hall and halfway into the bathroom before we were done! She prefers the carpet to the tile, so if left on the floor of the family room, she won't, as of yet, venture into the kitchen.

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Oh, by the way, does anyone know where do these blasted coins keep coming from ?! That is the question I ask myself after every load of laundry. Now, if it was real money, then, hey, it's a tip for my time and effort. But, alas, it is just tiny plastic play-mobil pirate gold. I'm not sure how it ends up in the wash, especially when all I've done is towels and tablecloths, but it does.

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I've noticed something in my time as a mom, it's in regards to cleaning. Why do I bother telling my children that I've cleaned their rooms, or any other room for that matter? It's like an open invitation to mess it up. I've noticed that a room will stay neater if I don't ask my kids to try not to make a mess. Seriously, their rooms will stay clean and neat for 2-3 days if I don't say anything. But, if I do, then they will have destroyed said room by the end of the day.

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One final musing, what is the facination with someone else's new toys? I understand when it's Aidan or Davin, because they like the same, or at least similar, things. But today is Eme's birthday, and so she got to open a gift at breakfast, our tradition. She got a new princess snap doll. And from the time that doll came out of its box, until Davin went to school, they've been at it. Any other time, and Davin wouldn't care, but since it's new, he wants in on the action. Oh, well.

To preschool, or not to preschool,

That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to be taught outside the home or within.
Anyway, that was what we were begining to wonder about, it all came to a head yesterday. We've been noticing that Davin is often more aggressive towards Eme on days he has preschool (i.e. they fight A LOT) then on his off days. On Wednesday, after a particularly rough afternoon, he told me how one of the kids ate all of his snacks today (the said little boy got a time-out for it), and he often fights Davin for the toys.
We spent the day trying to decide what to do, since we pay at the begining of the month, we had to decide quickly. After all, I could teach Davin and Eme together in our own little preschool. I could do it for 2 hours, 3 days a week. Yes, I could, but the question eventually became should I? When faced with two equally good choices, we, of course, turned to prayer.
And the answer was both; maybe the aggression was from boredom, not frustration. So, we'll try implementing a little more structure into our days (our days have gotten very lax lately-blame it on the baby): on Tuesdays/Thursdays we'll start with 1 hour, and build to 2, of our own little school, and on M/W/F, we'll do more together. We'll see how it all goes, wish us luck.

He's a Wolf!

Because of our two family vacations/reunions, we've missed the last two pack meetings. Our goal was for Aidan to finish up his bobcat by his baptism. But that didn't work because we forgot to bring his Wolf manual with us to Utah. Then RS and cubscouts switched weeks in August. So last night, finally, Aidan got his Bobcat patch and my pin, along with his first belt slide. They don't do the pin the way I, or Eric remembered: they didn't hold Aidan upsidedown to pin him, they just put the pin on upsidedown. Oh, well, we've decided to to it the right way ourselves tonight. He already gets to turn it rightside up, he made Davin a 'smore last night with out our asking him too. He's loving scouts, and is well on his way to getting his wolf.

Going Private

This little blog of mine started out just for my family, but over the past two years it has grown to encompass many friends as well. When I first started, I knew who would be looking in at our little world, but with the growth I can no longer be sure of who has access to my family. So with that in mind, we are going private as of October 1st. I love having all of your interaction, and I do still feel that blogging is a great way to stay in touch with friends we've left. If you'd like to keep up with our happenings, please leave my your email address (I have some of yours, but not all) and I'll get you our info. Thanks for the interest.

Thanks Grandpa!

Thank you Grandpa for the most wonderful gifts EVER! What could possibly be more fun than two sheets of bubble wrap?! That other stuff in the box was boring, but this is so cool. Look, if we jump on them at the same time, it sound like someone is shooting (it's really great in the front hall, where it echoes off of everything!) It's a good thing mom suggested stomping and running on them, it's way more fun than just popping them one at a time. Looks like we've found something else to put on our Christmas lists this year!

Cereal!?

Maddie did far better with her first bowl of cereal than any of my other kids. She wasn't sure what to do with the goo in her mouth; to get her to swallow, we let her suck on the spoon, it worked. She didn't finish the little bowl full that first night, though she did eat most of it. However by the second night she was finishing it all off (just a 1/4 cup of dry rice cereal, but still). In another week, we'll move her up to cereal for lunch and dinner.

Baby Grows Up

My little Maddie is growing up far too quickly, she'll be 5 months tomorrow. It's bad enough when your last baby reaches certain milestones, but it is far, far, far worse when said baby does them all at the same time (give or take two weeks). Let me explain...

• First we discovered that Maddie is cutting her first 2 teeth the day after we arrived home from Pennsylvania (this did explain her drooling and chewing on people's thumbs).
  
• Then she decided to roll over on a regular basis. If she is on the ground for more than 30 seconds, she'll roll over, she doesn't care where she is going (front to back or back to front), she just likes to be going somewhere.
  
• And she likes to scoot while she is on her back: I left her on her floor blanket to get Eme a drink, when I came back, she was a good 4 feet from where I laid her down, almost to the fireplace.
  
• Because of the scooting, we are now putting the craddle into storage-she scoots herself into the corners and gets stuck. I'll miss it even though Maddie only naps in it now, she's been sleeping at night in her crib since she was 4 weeks old. This one is really quite difficult for me, after all, it was our craddle, not just my babies'. Mom made the bumper, sheets, and mattress for it when Eme was born. I had so much fun picking out the fabric, I remember specifically avoiding "girly" colors for the bedding, because I didn't know who our last baby would be. But I love the pale greens and yellows, and the soft, pastel flannels we used for sheets.
  
• Next Maddie has decided to try her hand at sitting. She does a decent job: she can sit, without help, for 30 seconds before she does a face plant onto the floor. She prefers to be up rather than laying down.
  
• And finally if all of the above weren't enough to handle all at once, it is time to start Maddie on rice cereal. She's needing more than just nursing, and I need the break too. On the bright side, this means that I'll be able to go to the temple again without worrying about Maddie, or those watching her.
  

So many milestones, not nearly enough time between them for me to adjust to my growing baby. Sigh...