Things I never thought I would do.....

All of this is true and given in raw detail. And this all happened during a single trip.

1. Allow my child to enter a McDonald's public restroom with bare feet, while double-fisting chicken nuggets. At least I did say, "Don't touch ANYTHING!"

2. Have a child whose favorite place to eat is "Old McDonald." And go there when we need to kill a hour or two if my husband's out of town or busy and get a "meal" in too.

3. Have a child who has an accident while at "Old McDonald," dry her pants in the bathroom hand dryer, and call it good. Reassure her that her pants are fine when she protests.

4. Have a child who has a screaming melt down when I throw her toy away because she isn't complying when it is time to go. I know, I am the meanest mother, but this is a recurring problem EVERYWHERE we go.

And this one is just for the record books under the title "Things I never thought MY child would do." While I was talking to my neighbor outside, my daughter came up to me and matter-of-factly said, "Mom, I pooped in the bushes and Ally (our dog) ate it."  You what??? She did what??? Oh. my. gosh. I am never touching that dog again. Ever.

I love my kids and I love being their mom. They are ridiculously cute, bright, and fun loving. But they are also thoroughly embarrassing, stretch the lengths of my patience almost everyday, and have changed my life more than I thought they ever would. It's a mixed bag sometimes, but I am grateful that I get to be their mom.

Dedicated

After watching general conference this weekend (some of it-I'm not going to pretend like I got all of it in), I was reminded of my dedication to the Saviour. I feel like I was able to rededicate myself to him. And I know that this is really for my own benefit. It feels freeing, enlightening- I don't know how else to describe it. Like I know that I can handle what life will hand me because I have his help. As the MoTab sang 'O thou Fount of Every Blessing" the words "here's my heart O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts on high" really resonated with me. I'm not one to talk about this stuff much, but I just wanted to record my feelings in my cyber-journal.

Child, oh child of mine

Here are Brooklyn's goals each day:

1. Locate the mothership. That's me. Especially if out of sight.

2. Hold hands. All day. All around the house. Even with a strange man at the park once.

3. Follow the leader. That means do whatever Shayne is doing and how ever she is doing it.

4. Forage for food. In the cupboards. In my purse. Anything anyone else is eating. Since I've been writing this she's brought 3 bags of trail mix and a box of Ritz crackers for me to open for her.....

5. Avoid solitary confinement at all costs. Especially when the warden really, really, really wants to get something done or take a nap herself.

And that's about it. Oh the life of a 1 year old.

Brooker (say it with 'w's instead of 'r's if you're Shayne)

I love this little nugget. She is much more attached to me that Shayne ever was. Even if we are at home without any 'strangers' (anyone besides me in her eyes) around, she still cries if I set her down. Frustrating, yet very flattering at the same time.

She thinks every cell phone is her personal toy. That includes random strangers with their phones out anywhere we go. Here she is with my dad's:

Danny took this photo of her just to document this face:
She is a good eater and really likes mostly everything, except for the vegetable I try to sneak in amongst the rest of her meal. She can pick that thing out of a bite and spit it out every time. Here she is enjoying some chocolate mousse:
She loves to dance, play outside, and is learning a few words lately. She can say ball, hi, dada, momma, woof woof, more (sign & say), and all done (sign and say- sort of on this one). She's got 7 teeth with a molar on the way. She has the skinniest little baby legs without hardly a roll of fat. I wish I could say the same!! Haha!

She is a great little kid.

Grandma Carol's 80th Birthday!

We went out to Price for my grandma's 80th birthday party! It was so fun to see some of my extended family. I love them all so much! I spent time almost every summer growing up with my grandparents and cousins here in Utah. I have so many memories at my grandparents' house. I always love visiting and wished I got out there more than I do.

My 3 year old!

Catching up with bog posts at this point isn't even an option it's been so long, so I'm just going to randomly post a few.

I can't believe I have a 3 year old. Although really, most people my age have a 10 year old. Still, I can't believe how fast Shayne has grown up.

Now that she is 3, she likes to talk about how big she is and how she isn't little anymore. We used this "you're too big" tactic when we told her it was time to get rid of her binkies. I had been prepping her for months and so the day after her birthday, I told her it was time. We got rid of them (there were two) in two consecutive days. The first night she woke up in the night crying and saying she wanted them. Mother guilt kicked in and I probably would have dug one out of the garbage if I hadn't already snipped the plastic off of it (which I did to insure that I would stick to the plan). So instead, I cried too. She has always LOVED, LOVED, LOVED her binkies.

Seriously, getting her binkies taken away was so traumatizing that this kid broke out in hives over the next two days, when we took the other one away too. I have decided that that is the only thing it could have been, since I couldn't figure out any other food or environmental factors that would have caused her hives. And- it was only for those two days that they kept reoccurring. This kid!

Here she is enjoying her pink waffles that daddy made her for birthday breakfast:

I just did a really simple birthday party with her play group friends. The kids' favorite game was called 'cat tails,' which was simply taping a long piece of crepe paper to their backs and letting them run around and stomp on each other's 'cat tails.' So funny and they loved it!
My mother's helper who helped me during the party:

Bad picture, but it was the only time I wrangled a few of them together in the same spot:

My mom sent me one of the ballerina figurines that I always had on my birthday cakes growing up. It was fun to pass on the tradition:
Happy 3rd Birthday Shayne!