Chelsea squared

Okay, I know, a corny title, but it's getting late. :) I traded babysitting with a friend who has a daugther named Chelsea. Most of you know how much Chelsea LOVES babies, so you can immagine how excited she gets around REAL babies.However, the last few times that we've babysat a baby, it is always during their nap times. Chelsea is so sad when they leave and she hasn't had a chance to play or hold them. This time, Baby Chelsea (as we call her) woke up before her mom came to pick her up, so Chelsea begged was able to hold her and feed her. Aren't they cute?

Nuttin but trouble

Friday night Michael just seemed to be getting into everything. Everytime I turned around, he was doing something else. Finally, I got the camera and tried to catch him in the act. 90% of the time I was unsuccessful. MOst of the thigns were harmless, but some were starting to get irritating as I was trying to get the house cleaned up before bed.

Michael loves to try to put Chelsea's hair accessories in his hair. He almost got this one right!

Michael dumped the entire box of Triscuits on his plate. He has no knowledge of self-restraint. He always has to have them all...and then proceeds to try to stuff ALL of them into his mouth. He then gags, and ends up spitting them all out. What fun.

This is what prompted me to finally grab the camera. These pants just won't stay up on Michael, as I bought them a little too big. I found him in the refrigerator, pants around his ankles, sucking on the hershey's chocolate syrup bottle. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera, this is all I could get. Still cute though, eh?

One sweet trade.

So, I found a girl in my ward who is learning to play the flute at school. I haven't taught flute lessons since I left Provo and I've been really missing it. I offered to teach her for free, but her mom seemed a little hesitant, so I suggested it could be a trade for babysitting. Ashley comes over on Wednesdays after school, I give her a half hour flute lesson, and then she plays with the kids for an hour and a half or until her mom picks her up. Chelsea and Michael love her and are always asking when "Big Ashley" is coming. (Chelsea has a friend her age named Ashley, so we have to differentiate between the two.) It's a huge break for me. I tear around the house doing the things that its hard for me to do when trying to take care of the kiddos. She's also a very good flute student, so for me, it's a win-win situation! :)

oops...we lost another one.

Yup. Teddy Bear is now dead. That was quick you might say, and you're right, but we're pretty relieved. He was too fiesty to hold and play with, which is the main reason we got a hamster over a fish. I have no idea what happened. I put him in his ball last night to run around and when I came upstairs an hour later (okay, maybe that was too long, but we did it with Santa Claus and he was fine!) and he was barely moving. This is gross, so skip to the next sentence if you have issues with BM's. There was poop smeared all around the ball! It was soo gross and stank like crazy! I should have checked on him earlier, but I was hooked with Prison break.

Anyway, we already have a new one. His name is Carla. :) I told Chelsea that we couldn't name a boy Carla, and she got upset and wanted HIM to be a GIRL. So I figured, what the heck. It's a hamster. Only a vet can probably tell the sex as I don't even have a clue, nor desire, of where to look for the defining parts. So, Chelsea has a girl hamster named Carla. She's already been able to play with him, so as mean as it sounds, I'm glad we had the opportunity to get a new one without having to do anything drastic to the other hamster, God bless his soul.....

(For the record, Chelsea thinks we exchanged Teddy Bear for a "nicer" hamster, so please don't make a comment about his "death")

Time for reflection...

Okay, so I'm actually going to write my thoughts down, intead of bragging about my kids. :) This is a stretch for me, but this is what blogging is all about, right?

I guess it all started with the beginning of Dan's last year of Dental school. The time seems to have flown by, until now. I seem to have become unsatisfied with my life. I can't wait to have a house like all of my friends seem to have now, I can't wait to not have to work anymore, I can't wait to be able to not have hand-me-down furniture and to decorate how I want, I can't wait to have more room, I can't wait to blah blah blah. Then one day, I was talking with my little sister about how easy it is to wish life away. Everyone says that their favorite time in life was when they were just starting out and didn't have everything they wanted. The "poor" days.

I was watching Chelsea and Michael play, thinking once again about the future, when it hit me that neither of them will probably remember when Daddy was in dental school. They won't remember this cramped apartment. They probably won't remember their friends or places we often go too, like the children's museum or zoo. I found myself wishing life would slow down.

At church I noticed a friend whose kids were all grown and married. In front of her was another friend who was a young mom like me, struggling to pay attention to the speaker while attending to her active children. I immagined the older couple remembering when their kids were young and how they wished they could have those moments back. I'm in that moment right now. I looked at Chelsea and Michael and almost broke down right there. Michael turns 2 this next week. It's hard to believe how much he's grown. The things that usually drive me crazy are now things that I try to burn into my memory so that when they're gone, I will be able to remember. Chelsea tells me that when she gets older and marries Michael, they will be my neighbors forever. I hope that's true...except for the marrying Michael part, of course.

It's already almost December and each month is a month closer to when my kids will be grown. I love them so much and I am so grateful for this enlightenment in my life that came sooner rather than later. I am looking at life through different eyes. Don't get me wrong, I'm still VERY excited to live in my own house, with my very own WASHER and DRYER, but I would love to stay in this moment when my kids are still young and love their mommy. :)

Blog help!

Okay everyone...let me in on the secret. How are you all changing the backgrounds to your blogs? Some of you change them almost daily, so hopefully it's not that hard...but I just can't seem to figure it out. Is there a website? Bloggers for dummies? I'm so bored with the templates offered on blogger. help? ;)

A friend dies...

Chelsea's hamster, Santa Claus, died this past week. Chelsea was pretty sad when she first found out, but took it pretty well. She even wanted to help burry him. She helped find a box for him, dig the hole, and even cover him with dirt. She then wanted to find a rock to put his name on, so that people wouldn't step on him. We now have a new hamster, named Teddy bear. He is a panda bear hamster (basically meaning that he is black and white). Teddy is quite different than Santa was. He's VERY jumpy and fidgety, so we haven't been able to hold him yet. Chelsea talks to him and feeds him through the bars on the cage everyday, so hopefully he will calm down enough for her to play with him.