'Primary Helper' and generally just a "Good Girl"

Lexie has turned into sort of an awesome kid. I've mentioned that lately she's been sort of clingy, and that is true. In fact, at this very moment she's clinging on my arm watching me type. While sometimes her constant contact with some part of my body can be inconvenient, it's really nice to get numerous hugs and kisses and cuddles from a child who I thought for some time didn't even like me. It seems like Lexie is turning a corner and changing from "Tremendous Terror" into "Good Girl". She's helpful, she's loving, and she's even starting to become (gasp!) somewhat patient! She's even starting to play with her brother on the odd occation, which is a step up from seeming to wish he was never born. She's been actually enjoying and participating in her therapy, and as a result she can say the following "words":
Mommy (sometimes)
Daddy (sometimes)
SpongeBob (always)
Up
On
Off
Help
More
Meow
Woof
Moo
Oink
Hop hop
Up, up, up!
Rar
Beep beep
Tweet
That One
I Want It
Uh oh
Nay
Baa
Grandpa (apa)
Grandma (ama)
Swish Swish
Ssssssssss
... and a bunch more I can't think of right now. A lot of them are onomonopias (noises associated with a object or action), but that's the start.
Lexie is also becoming my little Primary Helper. I've had a lot to do these last two weeks, and it became impossible to wait until after her bedtime to get everything done. I'm finding that she can be a good little helper, once she is shown the papers she can touch and those she cannot, the piles she can play with and the ones she cannot, and expecially when I can find a small task for her to actually physically help me with. She LOVES that. Sometimes it means tasks take just a bit longer than if I did them myself, but it's worth it for her to get the feeling of accomplishment and being needed. Besides, with her right by my side I can turn my chore into Lexie Therapy time.
All in all, Lexie has been a good little Penguin (a new little thing we have going).

Cryin' It Out

For two nights, Seth has been... SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE! Can you tell I'm excited? This kid, while the easiest baby when awake, is the worst sleeper! Recently his 10-20 times getting up a night (seriously!) combines with my chronic insomnia, has pushed me to my limits. As hard as it was, we finally decided to let him 'cry it out' on Saturday night. So he cried. And cried. And cried. It seemed like days, or at the very least hours. In reality it was about 35 minutes. But then he fell asleep! He woke up at 4am that morning and wiggled his way down to the end of the crib. I got up and repositioned him, wrapped him and stuck the bunky in, and he was alseep again within 10-15 minutes, no real crying. Take all that and repeat it for last night, 4am thing and all. Kind of weird, but I'll take it. The whole 'crying' thing sort of sucks, but the whole 'sleeping' thing is WAY worth it.

Be careful what you wish for... : )

Two weeks ago, our ward split, and it couldn't have come a moment sooner. Since we moved in over almost a year and a half ago, it was ready to burst with members. What took them so long to make the change, I'll never know, but either way I'm just grateful to be in a new ward, even though we had to leave some great people behind. We are now in the Spring Creek Ward, and we get to meet in the building right behind our house. Woot Woot! But back to two weeks ago: the ward split, and I thought that maybe it would be my opportunity to finally get a callings, since it'd been years since I'd had one. Like many young women, my dream calling would be Young Womens (like my wordplay?), but with my responsibilities with Lexie, I knew that at this time that would not be the calling for me, since I couldn't possibly give the calling the time it would need without my children suffering. So I started praying. For a week, every night in my prayers I asked Heavenly Father for a calling that would be a good fit for me, one I would both enjoy and grow from, and one that I would have enough time to fulfill. As the week neared an end, I started wondering what calling I might receive. It occured to me that if I was called to something "small", like a commitee member, or to be the person in charge of putting away the hymn books after relief society, I may feel disappointed, but apparently that would be all Heavenly Father felt I could fit in my schedule, and I should trust His judgement. It then also occured to me that if I were called to something "huge" and time-consuming, I may feel overwhelmed, but I specifically asked for a calling that would fit in my life and allow me to give Lexie the time and attention she needs, and I would have to have faith that He knows what I can handle better than I do. Heavenly Father chose the latter.

A week ago I was called to be the Secretary in the Primary presidency. In a new building. In a brand new ward. With no teachers. And no supplies. Oh, and a primary of over 150 kids.

Sometimes I wonder if Heavenly Father has me mixed up with another "Lizzie", because He seems to have an overly high standard for what I can handle. That being said, I'm loving my calling! It's been a crazy week. It was literally a week ago when the presidency was called, and that was it. But the Bishopric asked us to have Primary up and running by the NEXT week, and may I remind you we had no teachers, no music people, no supplies, no nursery toys, no classroom assignments, and once again the little complication of 150+ children to consider. Needless to say, there was a lot to accomplish in a short period of time, but we did it! I'm personally impressed with myself considering I knew NOTHING about what it takes to run Primary, or what a Primary Secretary even does, added to the fact that the week was a perfect storm of inconvenience. Lexie has been excessively clingy (thankfully in a very lovey dovey way), Seth is teething and wants only to be held, and I had an all day AG Bell conference on Saturday, all of which limited my available working time. But our awesome President knew what she was doing, crossed her 't's and dotted our 'i's, and planned out every possible disaster. Primary ran nearly perfectly today, which has me excited for what we can do in the future with even more time and planning. Our ward is going to rock! And I'm honestly in love with being the Secretary. Sharing Time is way more fun that Sunday School and Relief Society. No offense, but we have songs and games. You just can't beat that. And the kids in our ward are great. I spent the two hours trying not to crack up at the things they would say.

So here's to the future. I'm sure there will be countless more posts on this subject. If anyone has any ideas or tips, those of you with more experience than me, please please please pass them my way. I want our Primary to be the coolest Primary ever, and we all know that's not coming from me (without any assistance, that it).

Happy Voting!

"Eating Ivars. Life is good."

That was the text I sent to Wayne as I sat in the Seatac airport a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I'm lame, and it's taken me two weeks to post about my awesome weekend trip to the hometown. My sister Sam got married in Hawaii in September (as you all know from the posts), and she had a reception in Seattle on Oct 19th. Since Seth is free on an airplane, he came along with me, so Wayne had a little Daddy-Daughter weekend in Utah.

Seattle was awesome! I wish we could have stayed longer, because with the reception being the main event, I didn't get to do a lot of the big "Seattle" things I would have like to, but I just loved being around trees and that northwest vibe. The touristy things will have to happen next trip, whenever that happens, but I was completely satisfied with just being around the cities I love and miss. Here's some shots from the car as we drove, just sort of reminders of what home feels like:


The first day we were there, we went shopping at a cool outdoor mall in the University district. Seth was a super trouper for several hours of walking and shopping, and at the end he enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa, picking up chicks as they walked by (literally. He was a major babe magnet). Here's the cuteness that got him so much attention from the ladies:


While we were there, my parents took me to an student housing building right next to the mall where we lived when I was born. It was really neat to connect to that piece of my past (and to know I was born a stone's throw away from awesome shopping. Score!). Here's the apartment we lived in, and a shot looking up into the trees outside.


As beautiful as the wedding and reception in Hawaii were, the Seattle reception gave them a run for their money. Ok, so there wasn't a breathtaking sunset across the ocean in the backround, but there was a "Mama's for Obama" rally in the park across the street! It was fun to see some old ward friends, the cake was amazing, the music was awesome (especially the live music performed by Sam and Rob's talent friend. I'll find out his myspace page and post it here. He really was great), and it was just overall a great time. Extra thanks to my aunt Cherie who held Seth the entire time. He was a happy clam sleeping on her, despite all the noise. I'll let the picture speak for themselves:


Even though it was short, it was a great trip. Being a single mommy for three days was kind of tough, but it let my try out my Super Mommy tricks. I can now say that I am an expert at sanitarily using a public restroom while carrying a baby in a Baby Bjorn. I also managed to get through security with the baby, twice, with just a little help from a flight attendant behind me in line in Salt Lake. I also managed to get my gear onto the parking van, off the parking van, and over to my parked car all by myself. I'm talking two rolling suitcases, a carseat, a diaperbag, a handbag, a winter coat, and Seth in carrier. That's right, I rock. It was tough, but totally worth it to be able to have such a fun little trip (and bring back a ton of hand-me-down clothes for Lexie). Can't wait to go back. I heart Seattle!

Winterized!

This blog has officially been winterized! Like the new colors? I love the blog backrounds from leeloublogs.blogspot.com, they're all so cute. I'm so glad they put out the same pattern with a different color palete, because I'm all about keeping up with the seasons, but I love the argoyle!

Some of Lexie's Favorite Things

I was realizing that when I blog about Seth, it's about all the cool things he can do, what he likes, how cute he is, etc, but when I blog about Lexie, it's usually about her hearing or speech, and never really about her as a person. So, for those friends and family who never get to see her, I'm going to start writing things about her personailty when I think of them.

Lexie loves cartoons, and I'm a bad mom and let her watch more than she should. One that she really likes is Phineas and Ferb. Here's some clips that she loves. The first one is a song we like to dance to. We have a lot of fun when this episode comes on, and it's hilarious to watch Lexie try to imitate the dance moves (and I'm sure I look goofy as well):



This one Lexie likes because A)She loves Perry the Platypus, and B)she likes when they run towards each other in slow motion, and we have to act it together when we see it: