KOTM and Family Babysitters

I found this article on ksl.com (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2958479), and it talks about a great program they have at Kids On The Move in Orem, which is the early intervention center that Lexi has her playgroups and therapy sessions at. The article is about the date-night babysitting program they offer, which is a huge service for parents with children who are disabled and can't be babysat by just anyone. I'm glad KOTM is getting recognition for the great services they provide, but the article also reminded me how lucky we are to have such awesome family members living so close. I know I could never trust Lexi to be watched by some random teenager in the neighborhood, because her communication skills right now, or lack thereof, would make it very difficult and stressful. Fortunately we have never had to worry about that, because we're lucky to Grandma and Aunt Suzie and Uncle Tom and Aunt Korbie and Aunt Mindy and Uncle Cory all close and willing to help out whenever we've needed it. Thanks guys! I know our lives would be completely different if we didn't know we always had so many wonderful people right there looking out for us, and willing to give up their free time to help us in any way possible. And I know Lexi loves it too, because get to relatives spoil us in a way mommy and daddy really shouldn't. So, once again, in case we don't say it enough, THANKS!

Fun and Charitable!

Everyone needs to go to this website and play this vocab game:

http://www.freerice.com/

All it is is a multiple choice vocab quiz, but for every right answer, the site donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program! Even if you just go on for 5 minutes an guess on everything, it's a good thing. But really, who doesn't love a good vocab quiz?

Walmart Tantrums

I used to be one of those people who would see a kid throwing a fit in a store and think to myself "My kid would never behave like that! It all comes from the parent...". That, of course, was before I had a kid. I've now learned that sometimes, despite your best parenting efforts, kids throw tantrums. Now, I'm still a firm believer that hitting your kid does not teach them not to hit, and screaming at them does not stop them from screaming. Sometimes a child's bad behaviors are learned from their parent(s). But sometimes it's not the parent's fault.

Today after playgroup, Lexi was hungry and I needed to get some things from the store, so I decided we would go to Walmart where I could get my things and Lexi could get popcorn chicken from the deli, which she loves. The entire car trip there, I was telling and signing to her that we were going to the store and she was going to eat. When she saw we were at Walmart, she knew to expect that the food I had been promising would be her beloved popcorn chicken. But of course, for the first time ever, they were out of popcorn chicken. Cue tantrum. It was completely understandable, of course. She was hungry, I had promised food, we went to the deli counter, but then nothing was delivered. We can get a lot of communication done through speech and sign, but because of her disability we're not to the point where I can clearly explain to her why she is not getting food.

So instead I had to speed through Walmart as quickly as possible, all the while trying to explain as calmly as I could to Lexi what had happened and how we would fix the problem. This did not stop the barrage of judgemental glares from nearly everyone in the store. Apparently Utah is filled with only perfect non-disabled children, and Lexi and I are simply too imperfect for sympathy. While in line at the in-store McDonalds (the best solution I could figure out with a screaming kid distracting me), one mother was even bold/rude/condescending enough to loudly say to her own, quiet toddler "That little girl is crying, isn't she? You should tell her to stop because she's being loud, shouldn't you honey?", as if I wouldn't get what she was doing. I would love for her to walk a day in my shoes and see if she could do any better.

Sometimes I wonder if this is why Heavenly Father gave me a kid with both a disability and a difficult personality, to teach me not to judge others. I hope everyone can think twice before they glare self-righteously at someone, because you never know the back story. Before, I would have thought badly about a mom if I saw her give her toddler a candy bar at the checkout simply because the kid asked. However, Lexi now gets almost anything she wants if she'll say "please" (sounds like "ee") or "more", simply because it's taken sooooooooo long and soooooooo much work and prayers to get her there, and we really need to reward her speaking so she'll actually do it. I guess that's why we're supposed to leave the judging for the big guy upstairs, because he's the only one who know the WHOLE story...

How early is TOO early?

I don't know if it was the unplanned nature, or the extra amount of body aches, but I am SO done with being pregnant, and have been for some time. I started thinking "OK, let's get this thing over with!" at about 25 weeks. But then my sister told me about her friend who recently had her baby at 25 weeks (due to complications, of course), and the baby was in the NICU for weeks and was at high risk for developmental delays later in life due to being born so early. So I stopped wishing for labor right then and there. Now I'm 30 weeks, and I find myself hoping for early labor once again. My ultimate fantasy is that I go to the doctor next week and something comes up that has them worried. So they induce me early, the baby is born, but then it turns out it was a false alarm, everything is fine, and the baby is SO big (he sure feels it!) that he does great even for being preterm, and everyone is healthy and wonderful and no one is pregnant anymore.

Somehow I feel this is an unrealistic fantasy.

Since I ought to stop wishing for an early labor (before Heavenly Father gets fed up and says "Fine! You want it, have it, trials and all!" ala the Joseph Smith History lesson a few weeks ago), I'm now wondering, how early is ok early? I mean, is early at all ever ok? I'm hoping so, even a few days shaved off this pregnancy seems like a sanity saver...

Preparing for Brother

Things are changing here in the Tomlinson house. The Tomlinson Trio will soon be a Tomlinson Quartet, and that's going to stir things up a bit (including this blog, the name has to change. Any suggestions? Tomlinson Troup? Team Tomlinson? Tomlinson Trio plus One?). This weekend Lexi moved into her new room and started sleeping in her Big Girl Bed. I decided to try out stencilling in her new walk-in closet, and it turned out fairly cute. Lexi helped me pick out a little elephant stencil, and I kind of like it. Unfortunately it takes two steps and two days to due, so I've only done one wall. I wanted to see the final product before I put too much work into it, in case it turned out dumb. It turned out good, but Lexi seems only mildly amused by it, so we'll see if the other walls get done. Besides that, Lexi seems to love her new room. She loves being in a big bed, and I feel better now that she can sleep on a real mattress instead of her old stiff crib mattress. Last night Wayne put up the crib and we put in the baby's new bedding. We want Lexi to get used to some changes before the baby actually comes, so she's not in complete shock later on. She's definately a girl who likes stability, schedules, and routines. When she woke up this morning, she was delited to see the crib set up and wanted in it immediately. She thought the new bedding was totally cool, especially the nice chenille-centered quilt. I told her it was the baby's bed, and pointed at my stomach, to which she responded (with sign) "Brother, yes!". She's definately caught on to the right response to what's in my tummy, but I'm sure she has no idea what a "brother" really is. She knows what a baby is, and she knows we sign "baby" when we point at my gant stomach, but she may not understand that a baby is in there, or that it's coming out some day. I'm a bit worried about how she'll handle everything. She's old enough that a new sibling will significantly effect her, but we lack the communication to truly explain what's going to happen and help her prepare. I'm hoping in the end she won't be totally blindsighted. But in the meantime, the decorating has been fun!

Prison Break

I'm a big fan of the show Prison Break, and today my day was made: the show has officially been picked up for a fourth season! Woo! It's just too bad I have to wait until September for more episodes, though...

Cute Video

I was playing with Alexis today and I turned on my computer camera and let Lexi watch herself on the webcam. She was being so cute so I captured some of her silly antics. (you might have to double click and play it for it to work) :

(Liz's note: Pay no attention to the big fat lady waddling around in the backround)

Government Green!

In case anyone out there doesn't know this already, the Senate passed the President's Economic Stimilus plan, which means everybody is getting some cash back from the government. Now I, being a crazy radical hippy Democrat (wink, wink), would have prefered that our tax money stay in the national budget to help under-funded programs, like, I don't know, public schools, but since the bill was passed anyway, I will happily accept any and all checks they want to send my way! Yesterday ksl.com posted a chart of when you should be expecting your big wad of cash.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2885060.

When I saw this, I felt compelled to make sure all my friends and family got their taxes filed by April 15th so they would get their bonus refund as soon as possible. You see, I LOVE doing my taxes, so every year I get them done just as soon as Wayne's W-2 comes in the mail (after I spend two weeks anxiously checking the mailbox for it), which is usually around the 3-4th week in January. Today Sharon informed me that April 15th is the regular tax due date, so everyone should already know to get their taxes in by then, regardless of this bonus refund. Huh. Seems a shame to wait that long...

If you're wondering how much you'll get, it's up to $600 per individual, plus an extra $300 for each child under 18 living in your home. Now, I don't know if that $600 is for every incoming earning/tax paying individual, or just anyone who is breathing. In other words, I don't know if, say, I count. I'm cute and all, but I just don't put a whole lot into the national budget. I guess we'll just have to wait 'til May 9th and see...

Cheese!

For a while now, Lexi has been going deadpan every time she saw a camera. But today, for some reason, she wanted to pose for the camera. Every time I put the camera to my eye, she'd stop what she was doing and hold still for a picture. She even did a big cheesy grin when I would model it for her first. So I finally got some pictures of her new haircut, and aren't her ridiculously large bows adorable? I think so...

Tire Update

Despite the annoyance, the tire turned out to be a pretty small deal (well, at least for me). Wayne got home, took the tire off, took it to Walmart (the only tire place open by then), and they had it fixed in 30 minutes for $10. He brought it home, put it back on the car, and all is good as new again. And actually, a good thing came out of all this: Wayne's been desperately searching for his iPod for months, and he found it when he lifted the seat in the Trailblazer to get the jack out. Hurray!

Glider pic!

It's real, and it's fantastic. Wayne picked up the glider from Walmart tonight and put it together in a quick 15 minutes. Go Wayne! I absolutely love this glider. The reviews I read were right, this glider is definately made for a smaller person. It's perfect for me. The arm rests are just where they should be, and the back cushion gets all big and puffy at the top so I can just rest my head back and it supports it perfectly. I can seriously see falling asleep in this chair, and I've never been able to say that about any chair I've ever sat in. Thanks everyone once again for such a great gift. This is definately going to make those first few weeks of getting up all night much easier, and thus make me a much less cranky person. So... it's sort of a gift for all of you as well, huh? I get it now, guys...

HOLY COW!

I'm am totally and completely in love with the Holy Cow Boutique. About four times a year, a sort of indoor crafts fair is held at the Pleasant Grove community center, and I simply have to go. It started today, and conventiently Lexi had her no-moms-allowed playgroup at Early Intervention, so I had an hour and a half to shop 'til I dropped! But of course, after many experiences wishing I could stay and peruse longer, seeing lots of thing I wanted, and having a crabby toddler insist I leave early, this time I had all the time in the world and found very few things enticing. I did get several cute clips for Lexi, as I always do, and found a few "I would buy that if I was spending money on home decor" items to put on a mental post-it note. One thing I did find that I LOVE are these vinyl wall graphics. They had a booth with several designs, but they didn't have exactly what I wanted on hand. But the catalog had exactly what I wanted for in the walk-in-closet in Lexi's new room (when she moves in). I love these flowers in the "spring" colors. I was going to try to handpaint some fun flowers in there, making it like a cool fort, but this is way easier and doesn't depend on me having any artistic talent. I also liked the "circles" for in Nameless Baby's room, in colors to match his bedding, and I may even think about something for on Lexi's walls. I think this may have been a great find. Here's the website to check out everything they have:

http://www.modernwallgraphics.com/

Timing is everything...

Have you ever had an experience where you're left thinking "If only I'd been there 2 seconds later...", or something along those lines? Well, that's what we had today. Lexi and I were driving home from Orem on I-15, traveling at a safe speed and with an appropriate distance between us and the car ahead of us. It was by no means heavy traffic, but there were a good number of cars on the road, as can be typical in Utah county around mid-day (all us stay-at-home moms, out on the prowl). So there we were, driving along, when all of a sudden the car in front of us swerves to the left to narrowly avoid a big, well, thing, on the right side of our lane. Seeing it, I instantly think that I should avoid it too, but sadly, I hadn't noticed until that moment that there was a car driving right next to me in the lane to my left. I swerved as much as I could within my lane, but sadly I could not avoid hitting this... well, thing. Seeing as it all happened so fast, I didn't get a good look at it, but what I gathered is that it was metal and large, roughly 5' x 5', and seemed to be kind of like a square grate with all sorts of pokey parts on it. I don't know, that's a horrible description, but either way it just did not seem like something you would want to run over at a high speed, and the bump upon doing so confirmed that feeling. Nothing happened to our tire immediately, but I stayed completely alert to how the car way driving as we continued for another 5 or so miles until our exit. In fact, we made it off the exit, another couple of miles home, and I even stopped to get the mail (momentarily forgetting about the tire as I went into auto-pilot mode)! When we pulled into the garage and got out, there was, by then, a very LOUD hissing sound emitting from the visably deflating rear passenger tire. At that point it was about half full, and when I checked on it again about 10 minutes later, it was completely gone. Thank heavens we made it home safely, but it still just leaves me thinking... if only we'd come upon that stupid thing even two seconds later... there would have been no car to my left and I could have safely swerved out of the way and avoided this whole mess. Lexi and I are now stuck at home until we can get the tire replaced, which may not be until tomorrow morning. We don't have anywhere we have to go, but suddenly being unable to leave the house if I were to desire to do so has me feeling trapped and clausterphobic. Sigh, it's all about timing...

FIERCE!

Ok, so this is a bit of old news, but I watched him on Ellen today and I'm in a blogging mood, so... I'm just so excited that Christian won on Project Runway! Before the season even started airing, he was my favorite because I loved how he would say "I'm kind of a big deal" on the promo commercials, 1) because it reminded me of old effeminate guy friends from Seattle, and 2) because cute little 2 year old Mac has a t-shirt that says the same thing. But when the season started and I saw his designs, I was even more in love. His stuff is totally fierce! If I was a) cool, b) rich, c) super skinny, and d) not commited to temple standards, I would so want to wear all his stuff. Plus, I just love that I picked the winner to back, straight from the beginning! I never do that!

So, congratulations to Christian, thanks for giving me weeks and weeks of FIERCE entertainment.

Oh, and sidenote, isn't Heidi Klum too cute for words. I have to think that Heavenly Father has bestowed huge secret trials upon her life, otherwise it's just not fair...

My Glider Came In Today!

I have the coolest in-laws ever, because for my birthday, all the Utah Tomlinsons (Sharon, Don, Tom, Suzie, and Korbie) pitched in and bought me a brand new glider and ottoman! With Lexi, I used a big wooden Rocker that we had, and while it's comfortable for everyday sitting, I quickly learned it was way too big for a small person like me to sit and rock a baby in. My short pathetic legs had to stretch and push furiously to get any sort of rocking motion, and the arms were way too far apart to offer any support while holding a baby. I had decided for my own survival I needed a glider this time around, and had been looking for a used one, so getting a beautiful new one was the greatest shock of all! THANKS EVERYONE! Sharon picked out a beautiful one at Target, but unfortunately after the whole thing was assembled, it was discovered that the base came horribly broken. Trying to get it replaced through Target was a runaround, and in the process I found several reviews online stating that this model broke frequently. We decided that while it was exceptionally pretty (the wood was gorgeous!), it probably would be a bad investment. Instead, Sharon and I ordered one from Walmart (I had tested the same model at a friend's house) in a pretty cherry wood to match our crib, and I just got the email today that it has arrived! YAY! We'll have to post a picture of me happily gliding back and forth with it in our house, but I just wanted to post this and thank everyone again for such a wonderful and unexpected gift. You all rock!

She Speaks!

Lexi has started to sort of kind of maybe almost say words. Just this past week we've been able to get her to say what roughly sounds like "More", "Meow", "Ruff", and "Please". In reality, they sound more like "Mo", "Eow", "Uf", and "Ee", but we're not picky. Today Grandma Tomlinson tried to help get her to say "Mama", and it was almost a success. She made the mouth motions nice and clear, but no sound came out. But Sharon's idea to get her to say it was a good one (I hid behind the corner and Grandma and Lexi would "say" Mama, and I would pop out), so we'll have to try that tonight and see if we can get "Daddy" out of her. She seems to not understand how to make a consanent sound besides "mm", which makes sense because that's an easy one to see someone else do and imitate. She's made "gg" and "dd" sounds before on accident, just while babbling, but when we tried to teach her to say "go", it came out "mo" and she looked confused. We'll have to ask her speech therapist how to teach her that, short of sticking our hands in her mouth and moving her tongue for her (somehow I don't think that's the recommended course of action). Everyone, keep saying your prayers that Lexi will talk, and hopefully she'll continue to make improvements!