Good vs. Bad: Several Times a Day Every Day

I'll start with the good, since I want everyone to know just how wonderful my children are and how much I really do love them. Here is a shot taken last week when we spontaneously spent the entire morning cleaning our car and the front yard garden. It turned out to be a fun way to spend our first day of sunshine that was tolerable to be outside. We really haven't seen much of the sun since, so we are happy we went out while we could.
While I pulled all the dead leaves and branches out of our yard, the kids played a cute game of ring around the rosie and tag, mixed with trying to help me. Nate was in charge of vacuuming the car and he also took the picture for me. I love it. It captures my kids at their best: all getting along, none crying or getting hurt.

Carter is a great helper and loved sweeping so much he decided he'd sweep the neighbors grass. Meanwhile, Lily and Abigail had a cute moment where they held hands and were friends, which is a welcome change from their constant fighting and crying. I have struggled a lot with them lately, and the following pictures will give you just a small taste of why....

After a bathroom break, I came downstairs to find the girls had managed to open my new 13lb. bag of baking soda and were playing in it on the floor.

I had to put my finger in the picture to make Lily decent. She is our little stripper and doesn't seem to like to keep her clothes or her diaper on. I probably get the girl dressed at least 7 times a day, but I am about to the point of giving up and just letting her run free (at least while at home). The worst part about the baking soda was that they were trying to eat it. Abigail has a problem with eating everything and not spitting it out. I am actually worried for her safety and have had to buy a lot more door locks and things than usual because she keeps eating everything. I have found her eating toothpaste, body wash, shaving cream, soap, baking soda, flour, dirt, etc. I'm beginning to seriously believe she might have one of those rare childhood eating disorders where she doens't every seem satisfied and doesn't seem to be able to distinguish tastes. But then I serve her vegetables with nearly every meal and she manages to pick them out of every dish, so maybe she just has weird taste buds?

I made the mistake of letting Lily have some books during nap time. What I didn't know was that there were several other books under her bed or somewhere stashed away. I was so tired that I listened to her ripping them down the hall (thinking it was only the 2 books I gave her and didn't really care about) for about half an hour. When I finally went in there to stop her I found the remains of these 7 books and several more waiting for her to tear apart.

I think that books must fear her as much as toys would fear Sid from Toy Story! Nothing seems to get me as angry as when the kids waste, destroy, and break things on purpose. I am trying to control my anger in these moments, but I have a long way to go.

Another day another mess. Nate made the mistake of leaving his hot sauce out on the counter.

They also found the chili powder to heat things up on our floor. Little chefs in the making.

Other than these naughty things, a few moments I want to remember include:

1. Abigail is now officially in Kaylie's room in a crib. Last week we went into master closet bedroom and realized that she had a new obsession with folding the "mattress" for the port-a-crib underneath her, so that she was left sleeping on balancing on the bars below it. It only took a few days to convince us that although it would be painful to have all the kids sharing rooms, it would probably be worse to leave her in the closet. Since then they have all woken up with Lily at the first sign of light (or earlier), usually around 5:50 am. Abigail used to sleep in until at least 8:30-9, so this lost her a good 3 hours and it hasn't faired well. Carter hates sharing a room with Lily, but since she is another late night owl and early riser, we had to give Kaylie the best option for a good nights' sleep before school. She is no longer allowed to share a room or anything with Carter. We probably let them share a room together a little longer than we should have.
2. The first day that Abigail was in her new crib she pulled the curtain rod and the thing holding it up off the wall and we haven't been able to figure out how to repair it. We will have to put a new one up, but want to use what the landlords left so it looks like the original when we move. The window in their room is huge and having the sun come in early in the morning hasn't done any good. I've fixed it twice and she's pulled it down each time. The only other place to move the crib in the room has a big mirror hanging up which we might eventually have to take down in order to save the curtains.
3. Abigail has been talking a ton lately and my favorite things I've heard her say are: (referring to her dirty diaper) "dats diguting" (that's disgusting); and when she was supposed to be napping, "hungee get down".
4. Carter can finally count to 20 without any mistakes and can usually count to 30 without mistakes. He can recognize nearly every letter of the alphabet and is getting really good at writing his name and numbers and letters. He is finally to the point where I am not worried about him going to kindergarden. I just have to work on him socially, he gets really scared listening to other adults and making new friends. I'm not too worried, but we shall see.
5. Kaylie loves writing and illustrating her own books now. She makes books, word searches, mazes and other fun things for us to do. She is reading at a 2nd grade level without any difficulty now and today she did her homework for the entire week so she would'nt have to do it again until next week. Part of me thinks that it is great (she is getting ahead and not procrastinating) and the other part thinks it will not help her form good habits of working every day. I'm torn, but think for now I'll just let it go and still make her read every day as that is part of her homework.
6. Lily has now successfully gone on the potty several times and shows great progress to being potty trained, although I haven't pushed it with her at all. She is one of the most independent and head strong people I know so I'm going to let her call the shots until she is ready. She has no problem with #1, but seemed frightened of the idea of #2 outside of a diaper. I think that is pretty normal.
7. Lily is finally letting me read books to her and even repeats the words I point out. Her vocabulary has increased by at least 50 words in the past week, though I'm probably the only one that can understand her. I am relieved that it is not autism or anything hard like that since I was worried that she was so far behind where she should be at her age. She is a super smart child and can do puzzles, put the silverware away, and all sorts of sorting and color things. It is only her speech that seems slow and now it is taking off so I am happy.
8. Nate sprained his ankle last week while playing church basketball. He doesn't own basketball shows and some of the men at church made fun of the "foot doctor that sprained his ankle". He was also recently called into the Elders Quorum presidency and it has taken him away from home for 2-3 hour long meetings every Sunday. He seems to enjoy it although neither of us think the meetings should be that long.
9. I have been really enjoying playing on the women's basketball team for our ward and getting some great exercise. Our team is random and we never know if we will all show up or not. When we do have enough players to not have to forfeit we have won every game. But, we've have to forfeit half of our games. I'm not sure if that is good enough to get us into the top 4 team tournament. I love basketball and feel like I'm actually pretty good at it, although I usually end up pretty sore after the games. We had to forfeit our game on Saturday, but still played a scrimage with the other team. I always have to play center since I am the tallest on my team, but I always have someone taller than me that I go up against. This last game the girl was at least 6' 2 and was a really good shot. I felt like I was jumping and holidng my hands up the whole game.. My knees and back hurt a lot afterward. I continue to do "the 30 day shred" at least 2 times a week and try to exercise a total of 3-4 times a week.
10. I have also been getting up earlier in order to study my scriptures (or exercise) before the kids get up. That was working great until the kids decided to get up with the sun. Now they either watch me work out, or they interrupt my study with demands for breakfast. However I must say, that for the first time in my life, I was actually grateful for "spring ahead" day light savings time. This morning the clock said 7:30 before the 3 younger kids got up (I had already been up to get Kaylie to the bus by 7:20). It was dark until the kids got up, so I at least have that going for me now and hope that once my body adjusts to the new time I can relive my hour in the morning without kids.