Kiersten’s Blog

I can’t believe how fast my baby is growing up!  He’s 11 months today.  He has been learning and growing so much.  The kid is HUGE!  I did notice today, however, that he looks like he’s starting to thin out a big.  One lady in church said to me today, “He’s just so cute!  I don’t know how you keep from kissing him up and down all the time!”  I thought that was a nice comment!  I think he’s adorable too.  He has such a personality.  A couple of days ago, he started to dance.  London was listening to some music and Ashton just started bouncing up and down.  Since then, he dances all the time when he hears music.  He also loves to play the piano.  What a cool toy that is for a baby!  He also does a lot of boy things, like playing with cars.  He drives them back and forth while buzzing his lips.  I guess things like that are just engrained in little boys.  Recently he’s also started waving and clapping.  I have also been working on teaching him to sign, “more,” which he now does as he says, “ma, ma.”  While signing, he has a HUGE smile on his face.  He’s so proud of himself!

Ashton has some favorite things to get into.  If we leave the gate off the bottom or top of the stairs, he makes a beeline for it.  He can climb the stairs pretty fast now, but going down is another thing.  He hasn’t quite figured out that he needs to go down backwards.  When he notices me coming after him, he goes even faster.  He also loves to play with the blinds.  We have quite a few windows that are low to the ground.  He stands up by them and pulls on the blinds all the time.  I’m constantly opening them up and tying the strings up high so that he can’t get to them.  He still hasn’t figured out walking yet, but he’s cruising around furniture really well and standing on his own for a few seconds at a time that I’m sure it won’t be long before he figures it out.  He is such a fun little boy to have around and so pleasant and happy most of the time.

As you know, I woke up to this this morning.  Waking up to rain wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if I didn’t have to wake up so early.  I don’t even know what time it was.  All I know that it was too early, especially after the 4 a.m. episode London and I had this morning.  She told me (at 4 a.m.) after I had come into her room to say down with her to get her to go back to sleep, “Don’t go to your bed, Mom.  I need a sleeper in my bed.”  Don’t ask me why she couldn’t be the sleeper in her bed.  After that, I think both kids were up before 6:30.  Like I said, too early.  Anyway, because of the rain, we saw a mallard in a puddle in our driveway.  It’s funny how ducks always seem to find the strangest places to hang out.  We’re only a couple of miles from a lake, so I guess that’s where they come from.  It’s still weird.

Because of the lack of sleep, London was really tired today.  I don’t remember the last time she was this tired and willing to sleep.  She fell asleep while eating dinner!  I was making the other pizza while Taylor and London were eating.  When I sat down to eat, Taylor and I chatted for a bit before I realized that London was really quiet.  I thought she had just put her head down for a minute, but I noticed her eyes were closed and she was unresponsive.  So Taylor took her up to bed and we woke her up an hour and a half later.  Nice!

Later, after London’s nap, Taylor was cold, so we had our first fire in our fireplace.  I think the wood wasn’t totally dry because it didn’t want to burn at all.  It was kind of fun and cozy to have a fire for a few minutes, though.  Ashton liked it a little too much.  It was almost impossible to keep him away from that thing.  After the fire, London decided that she wanted to play games.  She and I played every game she owns, which included: Don’t Spill the Beans, Cootie, Princess Yahtzee, Chutes and Ladders, and Candyland.    I love lazy Sundays with my family.

It’s a good thing I’m sure that the church I belong to is true, because today might have been one of those days that would make me decide to not go anymore.  Wow.  Now that I see that in writing it looks kind of harsh.  Let’s just say that I was really annoyed at church today.  That shouldn’t be how I feel while I’m there.  I’m pretty sure I go to feel the Spirit and be uplifted.  I’m sure it was partly my attitude and my choosing to be annoyed, but that’s how I felt today.  Plus, if any of you have ever gone to church with a crazy 11 month old and an emotional 4 year old, you might have some sort of idea what I’m talking about.  But that’s just part of the problem.  My main annoyance is our new ward (congregation).  I really like everybody I have met, as individuals, but as a whole, I’m kind of struggling with the ward.  The main reason is, it’s SO big.  I don’t think we’ve ever been late, but every week, it’s a fight to find a seat.  We sat down on the back row today because that’s what was left, and an old man walked in and said, halfway joking, “Don’t you know that you have to be older than 70 to sit on the back row?”  I told him that we would be happy to move if he could find us another place to sit.  We moved anyway.  I also noticed a pew closer to the front that was empty.  I walked up there and, of course, somebody had left their jackets and scriptures there to save the seat.  It was still empty when the meeting started.  It bothers me that people do that.  If they want that seat, they need to be there, keeping it warm.  These scenarios happen week after week.  I know I need an attitude adjustment and none of these things are what the gospel is about at all.  They’re just small things that make this already difficult transition a little bit harder.

This is what I woke up to this morning: the sound of pouring rain and my two blurry kids watching it fall out the window.

When we first moved into our new house, it was a mess.  We weren’t finished with the remodel and we hadn’t unpacked much.  Since then, we’ve made a lot of progress.  My goal has been to keep our home clean.  Isn’t that always the goal?  I’ve tried my best to find a place for everything.  This process is a long one.  There is still a bunch of stuff in our messy garage and our closet downstairs is also a bit of a mess.  Besides those things (and a couple of others) I have felt like we have kept the house pretty organized.  In fact, London’s room stayed cleaner for a longer period of time than it ever has.  But in the last week, I haven’t been very on top of things.  Other things have kept me busy, not giving me the time I need to keep my home organized.  As it got worse, I had less and less motivation to clean it because it seemed like such a huge job.  Today I had the time (not really the energy) and the endorphins from my run this morning, that I got to work.  I started with London’s room and moved on from there.  We got rid of some toys and consolidated the rest.  I was afraid to tackle the kitchen, but once I got started, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.  Now I feel so much better!  Sure, I’m not finished cleaning the whole place yet, but having clean carpets and a clean kitchen sure make a difference.  Hopefully I can keep it up better this week.

A while back (6 weeks ago) I started a couch to 10K program.  I’m very proud of myself for sticking with it so far.  I’m halfway there now and I’m feeling great!  It started out REALLY easy.  It’s quite a bit harder for me now, but I’m seeing results!  I stepped on the scale today, and it says I’ve lost 5 pounds!  It’s completely possible that the scale isn’t quite right.  I’m pretty sure that’s the case, but either way, I have lost weight.  I feel better about myself and I look better.  I’ve actually started to really enjoy my morning jogs.  I go three times a week and then sometimes on my off days I do pilates.  I don’t feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, although it is hard to get up early.  I’m glad I made the goal and I’m excited to continue to get in shape.  Now if I could only curb my sweet-tooth…

Thanks for listening to my self-absorbed ramblings.  But isn’t that what blogging’s all about?

I don’t nap.  I don’t like the way I feel after a nap.  I’m always groggy and yucky feeling.  It’s especially bad if I decided to fall asleep with my contacts in.  Then my eyes are dry and irritated.  Furthermore, I feel like napping is a waste of precious daytime hours.  Today was different.  We got home mid-afternoon.  I put Ashton to bed.  Quiet time for London was a necessity, especially in light of the way she was acting all day.  Once the kids were down, I decided to lie down for a bit.  I took my contacts out because they were really bothering me and I just planned on resting for a minute.  I woke up a half hour later, rolled over, and fell asleep for another half hour!  It’s a good thing we had leftovers that we could have for dinner.  I was awakened by a baby, ready to eat.  It was nice to sleep, but I’ll have to say, that I’m still tired.  I can’t imagine I would be any more tired if I hadn’t slept.  The good news is, London slept too!  And she napped yesterday!  One day of napping for her is a miracle, but 2 days in a row?  I don’t even know how to explain how lucky I am!  Both days we have had to wake her up because we want her to go to bed at night.  And right now it’s 9:30 and she’s still not asleep, but she’s been in bed for an hour.  The bad news is, she wakes up from her naps really cranky.  Once she’s totally awake, she’s great, but by that time, it’s bed time again!  Then we start over with the grump in the morning.  Here’s to hoping tomorrow will be a better day.

On another sleep note, last Monday I woke up too late to go jogging before I took London to school, so I dropped her off and came home to go on my morning jog.  Of course, I had to push Ashton along in the stroller.  He had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from dropping off London, so I wasn’t sure how the jog would be.  On top of that, just as I was about to leave, it started to drizzle.  I grabbed a blanket to use to cover him so he wouldn’t get wet (if needed) and headed out anyway.  It drizzled a bit, the wind blew, then the sun poked through.  Through it all, Ashton slept.  Once we got home an hour later, I pushed the stroller into the house and showered and got ready, while he kept sleeping.  Amazingly enough, he woke up just in time to eat and get back in the car to go pick up London.  Somehow the stars were all aligned and I was able to make sleeping work in my favor that one morning.  It’s the little things that make me happy.

Last week I went to a Relief Society activity where they talked about couponing.  A couple of women were there to show us some of the tricks of the trade.  I’m definitely a bargain shopper.  I get really excited when I find really good deals.  For this reason, I can see myself getting really excited about saving a lot of money by couponing, but I won’t do it.  Sure, I use coupons when I can find one for something I usually buy, but I don’t go out of my way to find coupons or deals on everything I go grocery shopping for every week.  And I’m not willing to buy 20 jars of peanut butter just to get $10 back.  This new-to-me idea of couponing also seems WAY too time consuming!  I can’t imagine trying to sort through all of those coupons, as well as taking so much time at the store, just so I could save a few bucks.  And the multiple transactions?  It reminds me of being on WIC and I would rather not go back there.  I was finished with that when Taylor got a real job.  So in case you were wondering, I won’t be clipping an outrageous amount of coupons any time soon.  And I won’t be taking pictures of the 20 jars of peanut butter I just bought for 50 cents.

Sometimes I wonder how much longer I’m going to be sane.  Maybe I’m already insane.  My daughter is driving me crazy.  You may remember this.  I don’t know what the problem has been the last two days but I’m sure tired of it.  Maybe it’s the lack of routine.  Usually she goes to pre-school on Fridays, but it was cancelled last minute yesterday.  We went to the lake and fed the ducks instead.  It was a fun alternative activity and both kids were really good.  The hard parts started yesterday afternoon.  Of course she refuses to nap.  Then quiet time becomes “time for London to try anything she can to get out of quiet time.”  That becomes not so much fun for her parents.

I’m pretty sure her actions are ways for her to get attention.  Maybe she feels like Ashton is getting more attention and she wants it.  She does everything possible to make me mad at her.  She even hit me once yesterday and once today.  I don’t know where she gets that because I have NEVER hit her.  Sure, I’ve spanked her once or twice, but never hit.  And even so, I can count the number of times she’s been spanked on one hand.  But nevertheless, I guess she’s starved for attention.  She wants it, whether it’s negative or positive.  This afternoon after coming home from running a few errands as a family, I left again by myself.  London threw a fit because she wanted to come with me.  Of course I didn’t want to take her.  She was rude and disobedient all day.  Why would I reward that?  So I left her home with Taylor to deal with the craziness.  She’s not as bad around him.  She wants the attention from me.  Maybe I need to re-evaluate.  I guess she needs some London/Mommy time.  Maybe that would help us both to me more sane.

I need some pie.

Last Christmas my parents bought London a DoodlePro.  She has always really liked it, but recently, she hardly ever puts it down.  She is constantly walking around with it like she’s carrying a painter’s palate.  She draws pictures of everything and she’s getting really good.  My favorite is her cow drawing, udder, milk bucket and all.