Digging a Pit

A scripture from the Book of Mormon has been running through my head all day.  (This scripture is talking about some false attitudes that are seen in religion).

And there shall also be many which shall say: ^aEat, drink, and be^bmerry; nevertheless, fear God—he will ^cjustify in committing a little ^dsin; yea, ^elie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a ^fpit for thy neighbor; there is ^gno harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

2 Nephi 28:8 

Today I dug a pit for my neighbor.  This particular neighbor happens to also be my 3-year old.  For weeks we've been prepping Claire to get rid of passies.  She gets them at night and according to the rules she is only supposed to have them in her bed at night.

When we got home from Utah she asked if we could have a water-table like grandma has {to be perfectly clear she also asked for a back yard and a pool and a trampoline but we latched onto the one item of all of those that might actually be possible}.  I told her I would love to get her one as soon as she is ready to give up passies.  She said, "maybe when I'm older."  

It's been back and forth like that.  She also wanted a scooter {when you give up passies} and we had a friend who got a stroller for her dolls when she gave up her passes.  We haven't tried to push it too much {mostly because when we do she says, "maybe when I'm 10"}.  Yesterday walking through Target Claire saw a $1 sparkly magic wand that she wanted.  She asked for it and I said, "you can have that when you're ready to give up your passies." 

She looked at me and clarified, "and the scooter and the water-table?"

"Yep," I said very cheerfully.

"Then," she said, "I'm ready."

I told her that when we got home we would have to cut up her passies and it would make her very sad.  She said that she knew but she had a blanket that she could cuddle or she could get a cuddle from her mom {like I said, we've been working on it.}  She also told me that she didn't think she'd be sad.  

I wish you could have heard her walking around Target collecting her goods.  She kept saying, "I am ready for this. I can do it.  I am good at doing hard things" under her breath while holding her sparkly wand.

Once we were home she cheerfully handed me her passies after taking one last suck.  I cut them up and put them in the garbage which is precisely when the gravity of her decision hit her.  She was devastated.  

In the end, I do think she was ready.  She cried for a little while last night and again for a few minutes this morning but it hasn't been too big of a deal. She slept all night with no problem.  She also oscillated between crying and being thrilled with her new purchases.  She would go straight from sobbing to cheerfully talking about how she was going to ride her scooter with our neighbor and tell her that she doesn't use passies anymore.

The trouble is that I am heartsick about it.  I would have thought that I would have been pleased that I got what I want {which, in the end is what I really believe is best for Claire} but I'm not.  I am sick that Claire knows that I let her make a decision that wasn't what she really wanted and that, truthfully, she didn't really understand. I dug a pit to trap my 3-year old using a $1 sparkly, pink wand from Target. 

The best little museum exhibit

There's this little museum in town called the Hudson River Museum.  It's a fun place to visit and most Saturdays they have a family craft project you can do.  The museum is also part of a museum conference that includes all of the museums in Salt Lake so when we go to Salt Lake we can visit all of the museums for free (all for $60 a year--totally worth it).

A couple of weeks ago the museum opened a new exhibit and for some reason I just didn't get there to see it until this Wednesday.  We took Nathan back on Saturday because it was was just that cool.  Federico Uribe is this amazing artist and the instillation is so worth it.  It closes on August 11 and if you're close, go see it.

Those are keyboard keys.

The two older girls live across the street and they come over every day.  My new plan is to take them places because when we get home I can just send them home (if I don't they linger here all day asking me to do craft projects with them and Claire cries when I make them go home--there's a longer post about this somewhere because dealing with them has been a pretty big parenting challenge.  This new plan is making things a lot better)

Claire spent most of our time there using her magic spelling wand.

Those are bullet casings.

And those are phone cords from when phones used to actually have cords

I want a window-box like this

Pine tree made of book spines and those fish in the background are made of paintbrush handles

This was a beehive and the bees were made of the metal eraser holder part of pencils and press-on nails.

And afterward Claire worked on a card for her cousin Janey-poo.  She read me the card today and told me it said, "Janey, we should play and have a sleepover and then we can go to your house."

Remember what I said about romance?

Last night, in honor of our 5-year anniversary, Nathan came home early from work and we all went out to eat.  We looked up restaurants on Yelp and reviewed menus of restaurants that other friends with kids have recommended and ended up at our favorite restaurant--Costco.  It was a double-win because I also got to do our shopping and the ratio of parents to adults was WAY better than it normally is.

Sadly, we eat at Costco enough that Noah saw the pizza through the glass case and started grunting and pointing

Everyone had a lovely time.  Especially Claire who convinced her dad that she needed flowers for our anniversary too.

The Luckiest

It's my 5th anniversary today.

And I have to tell you that the hubbs out did himself.  The hubbs leaves really early in the morning (out the door by 6:45).  I woke up around 6:30 and talked to him while he finished getting ready.  He got out his present (which I think is too big and will have to be returned) and headed out the door with a kiss and a happy anniversary.

I could hear the kids singing and cooing in their room and I took the opportunity to walk into the kitchen for a few quiet cleaning minutes before the kids were really awake.  Sitting on the kitchen counter was 1 Reses Peanut Butter Cup and a love note.   Claire has a peanut allergy so we don't have peanut butter candy around here so the Reses was a major surprise but the love note....ahhh the love note.  The hubbs has never written me a love note.  We are talking about a man who clams up and wants to leave the room when I ask him to tell me 5 things he loves about me.

It was amazing and I cried.

The hubbs proposed to me while we were on vacation in Oregon.  We were at the bottom of Multnomah falls and I ran into the use the bathroom (hardly a surprise).  I remember very vividly sitting down to pee and thinking, "what if he asks me to marry him?" (it's beautiful there and pretty romantic).  I count the next thought that came to my head as perhaps the greatest inspiration I have ever received.  I was somewhat frantically thinking about if I was ready and what marriage meant and then a very calm and clear thought came to me.  It was simply, "It would be a happy life with him."

And this life may not be glamorous or hip but it has been happy.  Very happy.

Here's to 5 happy years and many many more.

The Frog Princess

This is the Frog hand puppet Claire made at camp yesterday.  She told me that she used pink because it's a frog princess.

Obviously. 

Day Camp Co-op

I didn't grow up in a land of day camp.  In Salt Lake summer rolling around just meant that you could spend every day playing with friends, watching TV and riding bikes to tennis and swim lessons.  I have vivid memories of riding my bike to the Salt Lake Swimming and Tennis Club with my towel wrapped around my neck and my tennis racket stuck down the back of my shirt.

Summer was blissful but pretty unorganized.  

That is not the case here on the East Coast.  Summer Camp is a pretty big deal even for someone Claire's age.  Because I refuse to go broke putting my 3-year-old into day camp I opted to join up with a Co-op day camp.  We spent last year pal-ing around with a group of women I met via meet-up (yes, I have a whole slew of friends that I met online.  I know...a little weird, but it's the times we live in people) and they planned on doing a co-op camp.  We have loved it.  We go twice a week for 2 hours and it's perfect for Claire.  I have also loved it.  Claire still feels anxious when I leave her so Noah and I putz around for 2 hours in a huge backyard which isn't bad for us either. 

Thursday is my first day hosting.  I, of course, may change my mind about loving camp after my turn to host.

making an ocean

sensory bins

Noah and the other babies hanging out on the ocean

dyed hands after they made slime

Mac and Claire stop by the baby pool.  Later that day we went to Costco and Claire was still decked out in just her swimsuit.  I didn't even worry about it.  Do you know how hot it's been here

Another reason we love camp is that there are lots of other babies to play with. 

Ladies Weekend

This weekend Frances had a baby shower.  Friday night I boarded a $25 bus bound for DC and didn't look back (okay, somewhere during the supposed-to-be-4-hour-ride-that-turned-into-6 I might have looked back a little).

Celebrating Frances and her soon-to-be little lady was totally worth it.

 Dana stole the show with her original poem (in rhyming couplets no less).  After the shower Dana and I headed downtown to take in a little bit of the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Modern Art.  It was lovely to spend a whole weekend chatting with the ladies but I think my favorite part was, in the middle of the Museum Dana turned to me and asked me if I knew what a certain sculpture was made of.  I guessed wood (wrong) and Dana said, "There aren't any guards around.  Touch it."

And I did. It's actually metal


And this made me cry.  Try reading it.

The hubbs and the kids had a great time too.  Claire summed up her weekend with dad this morning when she said, "when I was home with dad I got to watch TV all day.  Can you believe that?  I want to do that again."

I'd like that too sweetie.

The fun bus

I'm currently in the middle of Delaware on what is affectionately known as the 'fun bus'--the cheapest, trashiest way to get to DC from New York.  

The driver has been singing a loud tune-less "summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind" which has helped distract from the man across the aisle who was having a full-out fight with his wife on the phone. Luckily his phone died in the middle of calling his daughter to recount the whole thing and we were all spared having to live the fight twice. (But hey, free wifi)

I couldn't make this stuff up people.   I'd do this again even if Auntie Frances wasn't having a baby shower.

And if you are wondering if I have pulled my extra clothes out of my bag and layered them over my body because it is a freezer in here the answer is yes.  I am that lady.

Knox Reunion on the CT coast

A couple of months ago a friend from college and I hatched a plan to meet up this summer.  We started out talking about just meeting up for a night while she was visiting her brother.  I didn't know if the hubbs would have enough vacation to join us so we started out thinking small.

Then it changed.  And suddenly we had rented a beach house in Guilford, CT for the 4th of July weekend.

{and here are the gratuitous photos}

The craft bag--all ready to go with high hopes

Sadly, all of New York had the same idea we did.  

We kept our spirits high though

The weekend was full of things like bathing in an iron claw-foot tub,

Making rock monsters,

practicing entries,

Sun bathing

and taking pictures that make it look like our kids eat vegetables.

Noah had a love/hate relationships with the weather--he is the sweatiest boy known to man (here he is on a sweaty tour of the thimble islands; the most outright display of rich, white people being rich, white people I have ever seen)

But his sweaty nature also means he loves a good dip in the splash pad.

The good news is that we have just gotten cuter since college and it was like 13 years had hardly passed at all.