doctor love

Whenever George wore his Valentine's Day shirt he would ask people, "Are you heartsick??? Because I am Dr. Love!" It was (and is-- he still wears the shirt) awesome. There are a few pictures of his shirt down at towards the end of the post. Here is a little peek at our Valentine's Day preparations and festivities this year.

G needed to make a Valentine's box for his little classroom party. The only kinds of boxes that I was familiar with (from making them for myself and with my little sisters) involved lots of pinks and purples and hearts. George was less than thrilled with the proposition of making such a girly box, so I had to get a little more creative. My sister Hannah had a mini basketball hoop on her bed and I decided to use that as the main focus for George's box; his friends could shoot their valentines through the hoop. George was super excited about it, and it turned out pretty cute (though it is in the dumpster now). I just spray painted a Nike shoebox black (using duct tape to reinforce the creases so it wouldn't fold down), duct taped the basketball hoop in place, and then let George go wild with the stickers. I wanted to let George do as much of it himself as possible, but as it turns out, black spray paint and duct tape are not very 3-year-old friendly, so he mostly just did the stickers. Here are a few photos.





Baby sister played around under the table at our feet while we decorated it. She doesn't like to be too far from the action :).


Georgie is getting pretty good at writing his name all by himself so I let him write it on all the valentines that he passed out to his friends.


If he looks a little disheveled it's because we did this right after he had woken up on Valentine's Day morning :).


We combed his hair :) and then went to his school for his party. It is still amazing to me that I have a little boy who goes to school, has friends and teachers, and sits down at a table to play Valentine's Day Bingo all by himself. He put a bean on the number when it was called out, and was so excited when he won (all the kids won at some point). Here he is with some of his classmates, apparently studying his bingo card very thoroughly to find a number.



While the big kids played bingo and I took some pictures I parked my littlest valentine around the classroom. She was all decked out in hearts :).


After a few rounds of bingo (and some other games), it was time to swap valentines. Here is George all ready with his box.


His hoop got a little clogged with all of the goods that came his way :).


Every time someone would put a valentine in his hoop Georgie wanted to take it out and show it to me proudly. He was excited, little cutie.


I wanted to snap a picture of my two love babies, but Pearl was not feeling it. She was ready for a nap.


She's like, "George, please stop trying to make me smile. Just go away, I am sad."


My happy Dr. Love and my sad heart baby.


The rest of our Valentine's Day was pretty low key. When John got home from school I gave him the little gift that I had made for him, and I'll post a couple of pictures of that so that someone can use the idea next year :). I always like to get creative ideas for fun gifts, so I thought I'd share. This was so easy and inexpensive, but also pretty meaningful and personal. I just made little fortune cookies out of felt, came up with some personal and thoughtful fortunes for John, and then put it all together in a cute take-out box I found at a craft store. I got the idea for the felt fortune cookies on marthastewart.com (if you search for fortune cookies on the website the directions will come up). The only thing I did differently was use pipe cleaners instead of floral wire and ribbon to shape them (which I would recommend doing-- much easier and less expensive). Here are a few pictures.



Pearl still wasn't feeling great that evening, so we opted to just stay home, get the kids in bed, and order take-out. Hey, we're parents, that's what a relaxing night looks like sometimes :).

our latina cry baby

Pearl does something funny when she cries. Upon exhalation she rolls her tongue on the top of her mouth as she cries/screams out. It is the same sound you make when you are rolling the /r/ sound when speaking Spanish (and other languages), except she does it for a long time. It is a pretty fancy trick, if you ask me because I can't even begin to do it. I can barely muster up a tiny /r/ roll for half a second in a word or something, but the ability to continuously roll your tongue to make that sound eludes me. Not my daughter though. She is a pro. We have tried to capture this on camera a couple of times because it really is a cute little quirk of hers that we want to remember, but she stops doing it whenever she sees us or the camera. One day a couple of weeks ago she was having a hard time falling asleep for a nap (which is not typical-- nursing usually puts her right to sleep if she's tired). I was growing weary and decided to just put her in her bed to see if she'd fall asleep on her own. The answer is no, she did not fall asleep, but YES! we did finally get a little footage of her unique cry.

You'll have to excuse her mismatched and disorganized room. She's almost one and we still haven't made the full switch from a boyish nursery to a more feminine one. There are bits and pieces of George left over in there that I've had intentions to change but haven't yet. And also don't mind the boxes full of clothes on the floor. Those are the things the kids have grown out of that are supposed to be making their way to D.I.. Allegedly they were going there last week. Oops. Maybe this week. Anyway, the best part of this little video is the way she goes from crying in earnest (with the Latina flair, of course) to all smiles and rainbows when she sees her daddy walk in. (You may have to turn up your volume a bit to hear the cry.)


Don't you think that little cry is funny?

She did fall asleep. After John rescued her I went in and nursed her again and she quickly settled into slumber. Her room isn't normally this bright while she naps but I opened the blinds to snap these pictures.



This one is my fave.

while i nurse pearl...

... George helps himself to a snack. Strawberries. The entire carton. Minus the top halves.


I love this view because it shows exactly what I saw when I went out to the living room to see what he was doing and why he was so quiet. He's just lounging on the couch enjoying his snack quietly by himself, discarding the parts he doesn't want on the coffee and end tables.


This is why I will wash and cut the tops off of the strawberries from now on before they are put away in the refrigerator.


Along with eating strawberries by the half, George does things that make me laugh every day. He tells elaborate stories, asks thoughtful questions, and still loves to cuddle. He is so curious about what letters spell and is constantly saying things like, "Mom, what does G-P-E-T-O-O-L spell?" He is getting the hang of writing his name and he loves to point out letters that are "his" (meaning in his name) wherever we go.

George loves reading (by reading I mean having them read to him) the scriptures and is the first to remind us to do so before we put him to bed. He is fascinated by the stories of Ammon, Abinidi, the Stripling Warriors, Noah and the Ark, and Nephi. We are trying to reinforce that it is really cool to be the good guys, but George isn't totally convinced; he loves the parts of the stories where people use swords and arrows and often says he'd rather be Laman than Nephi when acting out a story. We're working on it :).

John and I found ourselves backpedaling one day when George overheard a conversation we were having about Satan and asked about him. We tried to explain who Satan was and what he did, but all that ended up happening was George sobbing about a scary man that lives in a really dark place where there is never any light who tries to make people be mean and do bad stuff. "Does he live in our town?" he kept wailing, and we were like, "NO! Just forget about him!" which is why we tried to tell him that he lived far away in a dark place (outer darkness, ya know?), but that was so scary for his little mind, too. Ummm, how do you explain Satan to a three-year-old? We calmed him down by reminding him that Heavenly Father could help him feel better and peaceful and asked if he wanted to say a prayer. He did, and there haven't been Satan tears since, but there have still been questions. I guess we're still working on that one, too. How have you taught your little children about this? Have you? Maybe three is too young.

Another thing we have had a hard time conveying to George's inquisitive little mind is the Holy Ghost. We explained it to him and have talked about how it is a feeling of peace and safety and that The Holy Ghost can come to you when you are scared or need comfort. He was okay with that until one day he was alone in the car for a few minutes while I ran in the house and got scared. When I got back out to the car (I was literally inside for less than a minute) George was sobbing hysterically. I hugged him and tried to soothe him but he just kept sobbing, "I said a prayer to Heavenly Father and I thought the Holy Ghost would come, but he didn't!" which of course made me feel like a failure as a parent. I told him the Holy Ghost would come if he was scared, and with his perfect faith, he believed me. But how was he supposed to understand that the person who is the Holy Ghost would not likely actually come to him in the only way that would have made sense to him (an actual being coming to him when he called)? I know that this is actually a really sweet and endearing (maybe even a little funny) story, but it has actually caused me quite a bit of heartache. I can't bear confusing him and losing his trust, and all I can think about is how I will do better to provide him with experiences where he can feel the Holy Ghost, where I can explain to him what that is, and hope that he will understand. Do you guys have experience with this? I would love to know how you have explained these really not-concrete things to your young children.

While it may sound like we are spiritually failing our son right and left :), one place that I think he does have a pretty good grasp is prayer. Somehow he understands that he can talk to his Heavenly Father (and, *wince* don't think I am apostate, but Heavenly Mother, too) through a prayer and that he will be heard. He prays constantly. Almost daily I hear him in the backseat saying things like, "Heavenly Father, please don't let a big storm come to our town, okay Heavenly Father, OKAY?" And then he will announce, "He said okay!" So far we haven't run into any issues with something happening that he had prayed wouldn't happen, but I am sure that conversation is not too far down the road. How do you explain to a toddler that yes, Heavenly Father will always answer your prayers, but sometimes it might not seem like it because it may not be answered in a way we would expect or hope? Agh, this parenting stuff is not for the faint of heart. It makes me weary just thinking of it all.

So I have put all this out there and I know that there are some people (dear people that I love) that may think, "So if you can't even know how to teach your child about God, or how to answer a three-year-old's questions about how the Holy Ghost works, how can you actually believe in these things, how can you perpetuate these confusing concepts onto your child?" And to them I would say with all of the sincerity and honesty in my heart this: while I don't necessarily know all of the best ways to convey these things to my children right now,  I truly do know that teaching them about God and their spiritual natures will eventually bring them more answers than I ever could, that it will be the key to finding peace when they are confused, that it will offer them hope and light when anything or everything else fails them. I don't always know how to teach them about these things, but I know that if I don't, if I don't do my very best to at least try, I will be failing to give them the one thing in life that I am 100% sure of: my knowledge that they are children of divinity, that they have access to happiness and peace and love bigger than anything hard or scary that may come their way. Even if I don't always know how to teach them, I know that I must teach them. And I know that I, too, have access to Heavenly Help as I seek to care for and nurture these precious little souls that have been entrusted in my care. I could not do this whole motherhood thing if I wasn't sure of that.

my 11 month-old pea

I'm feeling extra tender for my baby girl tonight (perhaps because she has had a fever of 102* today and has been so cuddly and patient and sweet despite it). I know I say it constantly, but I truly feel such deep gratitude to be a mama to this little 11 month old wonder. As I rock her before bed each night and say a prayer, that is typically the only thing I can think to say: I am so, incredibly grateful for this precious chubby body to cradle in my arms, for the way that she needs me, for how much she fills me. Taking care of her is loving her, and it is never a burden. I pray that I will always live to meet her (and her brother's) needs.



She is all kinds of trouble these days, crawling like a crazy person at super speed. She is especially fond of crawling into the bathroom and breaking off little pieces of toilet paper to eat, and she has some serious radar for finding small choking hazards to put in her mouth. I don't ever remember George doing that, and it keeps me on my toes for sure. At her 9 month doctor appointment I specifically asked her pediatrician about the Heimlich Maneuver vs. back blows for a baby of that age who is choking because it is something that I have been worried about-- she seriously puts small things in her mouth all the time (it's back blows, by the way, until she is one). I mean, I am not planning on her choking (and I really do try to make sure there are not choking hazards within her reach), but better to know just in case, right?



Her first word was "Da Da," at a little over 9 months. She babbled "da da da" and "ma ma ma" a lot before that, but that was when she started to say it associated with her daddy. He would come in the room and she would grin from ear to ear and, in her high little voice, say, "Da Da!" A few weeks after that she started saying "Mama" legitimately, and she has now added "num num" (for food), and "na na na na" (while furiously shaking her head back and forth for "no no no") to her vocabulary. My favorite thing she says is a very breathy "Hhhiiiiiiiii." We say hi back and forth to each other a million times a day because I love it so much.



She also loves to click her tongue (first picture above and below), and it is my favorite when I can hear her in the other room just happily clicking away. My aunt Kim taught her "peek-a-boo" a while back, and while she sometimes does the typical two-handed eye cover, she often likes to cover both her eyes with only one hand, right in the middle of her face, and I love it. She also does pattycake, waves bye bye, and dances on command. One of her cutest tricks is something she does with my dad every time he holds her. He started having her give him a high five and then bump foreheads whenever he would pick her up, and now, as soon as she is in his arms, she puts her hand up to slap his and then promptly leans in to bump her forehead to his. It is seriously darling.



Pearlie has been pulling herself up to standing and cruising around furniture for awhile now (maybe a month or two), but has just recently begun flirting with standing alone. She loves to let go and balance, and is getting really good at it. This morning she stood up from sitting, without the help of furniture or anything, for the first time. She was so proud of herself. She tried it once and fell down immediately, and then tried it again and stood there for about 10 seconds with her arms out to her sides to steady herself. She was looking at me with a big grin like she knew she was pretty awesome.



The other day she was playing with my mom's phone and put it up to her ear like she was talking on it. It was so cute to me because I had no clue that she would know to do that. And yesterday she found a brush on the bathroom floor and put it up to her hair and moved it around. That surprised me too, because I have never brushed her hair before. Babies don't miss anything, I tell you what.



Georgie refers to himself as her "bruh bruh" and really wants her to learn to say that. We are working on it, I keep telling him, but he doesn't think she is catching on quickly enough :). She loves her brother, though. She is happy in her carseat as long as she can see him, and they are constantly playing a game where they take turns wildly shaking their heads back and forth against their carseats. They think it is hysterical, and I do too, unless I am wanting Pearl to fall asleep. Then the humor wears off pretty quickly and I wish for a barricade between them that is sightproof (not a word?) and soundproof. I owe a separate blog dedicated to their blossoming relationship, so I won't write much more here, but it is so soul-warming to watch your children love each other. More on that (and on Georgie-- he is every bit as delightful as she is) soon.

vintage babies

A couple of Sundays ago I decided to keep the kids in their church clothes and get a few pictures of them outside on our way up to my parents' house. Mostly I wanted to  get pictures of George because, hello, he had a plaid suit coat on. Pearl is just a bonus :).


When Georgie wore this suit to church the first time he asked me if it was an "old man coat." I thought it was funny that he picked up on that. My favorite part of this photo (besides George's over-smile and Pea's sweet smile) is Pearlie's arm up on her brother's shoulder. She likes him.


I stayed in my skirt and forced John to put back on a shirt and tie (he rips off his suit as soon as he gets home from his meetings) because I thought we could maybe get a few shots of all of us. What I didn't bargain for was the freezing cold. John thought I was crazy (and perhaps irresponsible) to have my children outside, so we literally only took 4 pictures. All right in a row. But we got a couple that we can work with, I think. One of these days I just need to get a real person to come snap pictures of us. It is quite the challenge to get Pearl to look at an immobile, mute camera.


This one wins, I think.


Can you tell how cold it was?

blue eyed valentine

Pretty happy she's mine.






I get the comment, "Oh, isn't she just a little Gerber baby?" all the time. I get why people say it (I think it is the combination of her round cheeks, wide eyes, and dark hair), but this picture really makes me see the "Gerber" look that she has. I took it at a weird angle, but if you tilt your head a bit you can kinda get the idea :).


This first photo was an attempt to photograph her shiny new tooth, but it was still so tiny that you can't really see it.


Here you can sort of see it. Bottom right. I took these pictures about two weeks ago, and they are already way old news. A couple days after this photo was taken she had the other bottom tooth poking through, and a couple days after that, her top right one as well. She waited awhile to get teeth (10 months), but when she did, she didn't mess around. George actually did the exact same thing, and I hope all of my children get those same genes. It is so nice to keep those gummy, baby mouths for as long as possible, in my opinion :). I'll have to get some current photos of my three-toothed wonder-- she totally looks like a hillbilly with that one top tooth.




At what age do baby girls start playing with baby dolls? I want her to love her baby, but so far she only likes holding her for about 10 seconds before she gets bored. She will give her hugs and kisses, but only because I tell her to. I am hoping that I am not raising a cold-hearted daughter that has zero mothering instincts :). She is probably still too little to really "get" the whole baby doll thing yet, I guess.


Something she does love? Opening up her drawers and emptying them, one article of clothing at a time.


Seriously, she could entertain herself for hours with this.


I decided I didn't want the entire drawer emptied, so I sat her down. She screamed (first photo). Then she reached over and got one of her shirts, which for some reason made her stop crying (second photo). Maybe she thought that holding the shirt meant that she would get to go throw the rest of them out of her drawer?


When I made the mistake of taking the shirt away so I could fold it any put it back, she did this again. Baby Girl has got some attitude and definitely lets me know what she thinks about things. I can't get over how much fun it is to watch unique personalities develop in these little people that are mine. George was (is) my mellow, cautious, gentle boy. I have so loved his easy-to-please demeanor. And now I have Pearl. Before she came along I would have thought that I would have always chosen to have an easygoing child over a little spitfire (if we could choose those things, obviously). Oh how she has changed my mind! I seriously adore that she is a little feisty, that she knows what she wants, that she is determined. I love that she has a little sass and spice. Really. She is all kinds of sweet and easy as well, but she can definitely hold her own too, and I love that. She's gonna need all that fire one day :).


George was in the room with us "reading" a book while I was taking these pictures. This book has a CD that goes along with it that reads the stories and George follows along and looks at the pictures. He LOVES this, and I think it is brilliant for times when I can't sit down and read with him. Anyway, Pearl likes the book, too, and I am constantly having to move her away so she doesn't rip all the pages in her zeal to see what her brother is doing (there have already been two casualties). It will be a fun day when she will just sit nicely next to George and "read" with him. For now, George and I are left trying to keep her away. I love these pictures because they show how gentle George (usually) is with his Penguin. She reaches, he, without bothering to look up and see what is happening, knows to just calmly move her hand away.


This happens over and over and I call her name to try to get her to come over to me.


There is no distracting this baby from getting what she wants. She goes for it again.


In a moment of brilliance, George moves the book higher and rests his leg out on his sister to keep her at a safe distance.


Love these little readers.


And lastly, in case you needed more proof that our Pear girl delights in emptying drawers, here you go. This time it was George's underwear bin that she got ahold of, and oh how happy she was. Until I found her :).