Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing

Yep, there has been a lot of that lately. Chloe has been getting four molars and some other teeth too, and she has not been too happy about it. I noticed that there was a problem when she stopped eating (she used to out eat Clancy and was much less picky). Then the unstoppable mid-night crying started. We tried every thinkable means to get her calmed down and settled (including the usually magical infant Tylenol) but nothing worked until we all went downstairs to watch an Elmo movie. As soon as the fuzzy red guy appeared, the crying stopped. Andrew and I catnapped through the movie periodically being poked back into awareness by our little daughter who didn't want to be the only one awake. Luckily we haven't had to resort to another midnight showing of Elmo again...yet.
At Stake Conference we decided to sit in one of the smaller side rooms and watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television rather than take our chances in the enormous main hall. About 5 minutes into the meeting, Clancy decided to explore a bit and while running, tripped over the piano and gnashed his bottom lip. Andrew quickly extricated him blood and all. When he came back I could barely look at his lip, it looked really painful. Though it swelled and he got a fat lip, he also held it out artificially so it looked really swollen and yucky.

That same day we took a picnic lunch to the University of Washington quad where the famous Cherry Blossoms are. We were not alone there, there were hundreds of people vying for an opportunity to snap their photos with the blossoms. Luckily we were able to elbow our way to take ours (just kidding, it wasn't THAT crowded). There were few times during this experience that I saw Chloe crack a smile (teething) and I think most of them were when she was admiring one of the many many purebred dogs that the Seattle populous seems enamored with (I am not sure I saw even one purebred dog growing up, but here it is like the Westminster dog show every time we go outside).

St. Patrick's Day Greetings from the Emerald City by the Sound

This year we celebrated St. Patrick's Day not with corned beef and cabbage, but with rainbows and paper. On Monday night we had a St. Patrick's Day family home evening where we talked about the legend/maybe or maybe not truthful story that St.Patrick used a shamrock to explain the Godhead to a Pagan mob. I have never heard that story, but I think it is interesting...shamrocks have three leaves (or three lobes of one leaf?) united by one stem--just as the Godhead (Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate beings but so united in purpose that they are often confused as one being. So in honor of the shamrock we decked out our ceiling (after first cutting down the red, white, and pink hearts that were there).



Clancy saw me preparing the shamrocks before FHE, and of course asked about a bazillion questions about them so when it came time for him to say the opening prayer, he thanked Heavenly Father for the "what kind of rocks are they?" (imagine this question repeated several times until we could figure out that he was asking a question).



This little leprechaun showed up overnight, much to the kids' delight!

This morning when I burst through the door to wish the kids a happy St.Patrick's Day, I was, of course, wearing green and Clancy was wearing green pajamas. Chloe, however, was wearing her obligatory pink pajamas with no green. When I reminded Clancy that Chloe didn't have any green and asked him what we should do, I expected him to volunteer to pinch her. Luckily, he surprised me by saying "we'd better get her into green!". He reminded me to have her wear green in his most frantic animated voice when I started putting on her pink tights (with a green dress to follow of course). He also very thoughtfully included in his breakfast prayer a thanks to Heavenly Father that he can wear a green shirt and a plea that Heavenly Father would bless me that he (Clancy) can't pinch me today (Many Thanks Clancy).






The green eggs and ham and Irish Soda Bread didn't make it to our table this year, we had leftovers instead, but our big splurge was some rainbow cupcakes with a cloud on top. A friend saw this in "Family Fun" magazine and made it for ABC school. I thought they were so neat that I was excited to make them for Activity Days. It was so fun, but I think next time I'll save myself the trouble and make it a cake!

Re-purposed

So we northwesterners like to think that we're ahead of the game in green-ness and as my mom recently discovered, some of the choice has been taken out of our recycling. Our garbage can fits 2-3 tall kitchen bags while the recycling can is probably 1.75 times its size. I must say recycling has become a hobby and a way of life, and when I went on a tour of a preschool and they talked about letting the kids play with recycled materials, the wheels in my head started to turn.

Lately I have begun to re-purpose things instead of recycle them. We've used cardboard TP holders as trumpets, telescopes and all the normal things but lately we've started to branch out.




Clancy and his friend Alan are the happy owners of these rockets, though Clancy's is probably much a NASA rocket, waiting for some interest and a mission. My latest brilliant re-purposing idea struck me when a friend gave me flowers for my birthday and I didn't have an appropriately-sized vase. Do you recognize this container? I'd have to say that noone that saw it could recognize it, and some even complimented me for it.



For all of you with creativity as a talent, pass on some re-purposing ideas before the drawers in the craft room fill with cardboard tubes!

Taken

Excuse me Mr. O'Brien, but I think your nickname is already in use...she is a lot cuter and a whole lot funnier too! Yep, this little lady has been called "CoCo" by her older brother since he first spoke her name. Give it up.

"Can I wear my socks in the bathtub?" and other Wacky Tricks

So once again I've waited a ridiculously long time to post this so hopefully it is worth the wait!

1. Conversation with Clancy:
(he was eating yogurt)

Clancy: "Mom, what flavor is this?"

Mom: "Strawberry"

Clancy: "Can I borrow the recipe because I want to make this at my new house?"

Mom: "You mean this house?"
Clancy: "No, my other house, it's called the White House"

2. Chloe is learning to act like her Chinese zodiac animal (She was born in the year of the Rat). She flashes this "Rat Girl" smile at anyone who will look.

3. Clancy's aspirations for greatness:

"Mom, one day I want to be a:

Dinosaur

stegosaurus

Leader (about 30 minutes after telling me his other house is the "White House"

Missionary

Mama

Dada

an accounting penguin, tiger, toucan NOT a pirate penguin!

4. Clancy is trying his gymnastics skills out--he does somersaults and headstands!

5. Chloe is walking! Now it is more like a half-run, but in the previous movie, you see some of her first real consistent steps

6. We were watching "Cars" at the point where Lightning McQueen runs out of gas when he is trying to escape town and Clancy asked me what happened

Mom: "He ran out of gas"

Clancy: "Did he forget to go to Costco?"

7. Clancy is READING!

8. Chloe does the actions for "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"



9. Chloe scrubs her own hands, lathers her own shampoo, folds her arms for prayers (sporadically), and blows on her own food to cool it down

10. Chloe stands on one leg when she is happy about something. She got a new table toy and to show how happy she was, she kept standing on one leg (while holding onto something of course). This picture doesn't show the one leg thing, but it does show the shear joy of being one year old!

11. Chloe is now a little girl, no longer a baby (sniff) since she had her 1st birthday. Her favorite things are purses, shoes, and girly stuff.

12. Clancy is a big boy now since he is a potty-trained three-year-old

(Clancy with his stegosaurus cake)

13. The kids are always riding in "boats" together. We are going to miss this when they're not both small enough to fit!

14. Clancy and Chloe are really into choir for some reason. Clancy starts singing a song and then yells "Everybody, sing with me!" Then after you sing the song way too many times, he says..."Again, faster"....After way too many more times, ..."Again, louder". That is the worst part of choir--practicing. Chloe is content to wave her arm whenever "choir music" or church music is playing. I should get these kids some lessons, they may be the next Osmonds.

15. We brought home some zoo animals!

Chloe guarding the flamingo egg

16. Having facial hair is NO fun!
Ok, maybe a little...

Funny

So lately I've been enjoying the little funny moments that happen. As you can see my world pretty much revolves around Andrew, Clancy, and Chloe and grocery shopping, so there is a definite trend to these funny moments, but I hope you enjoy them!

1. Clancy, who had stripped down to just his new hightop Converse and his diaper in preparation for dinner, put a sticker on his belly and then did a belly dance while breathing heavily. "I'm having a baby" he announced. Too much Discovery Health channel?

2. A guy in his convertible Benz with his arm stretched out hanging onto a shopping cart that he was towing from the Pickering Barn parking lot to the Costco parking lot across the street. I want to think that this was his good deed for the day and not that he is just a wealthy guy

working as a cart fetcher for Costco

3. Clancy's repertoire of songs which includes "Hello Hello" By the Beatles, "You Are So Beautiful to Me", "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel", and of course "Latter-Day Prophets"

4. Chloe grunting and growling really loudly during the quietest part of church and sleeping in her high chair

5. A man was walking away from his Benz in the Fred Meyer parking lot and then, noticing an invisible speck of dirt on his car's tail light, he bent down and with much drama, licked his finger and polished his light. Wow!

6. I often have to give Clancy a run-down of the day's events so that he can mentally prepare himself and one day I gave him the run down as we were driving home from an event "go home, eat lunch, read books, take a rest, go to Costco and get gas with Dada" and he said "No, how about we go to Costco get gas, eat samples, get in our car, go home, eat lunch, read books and then take a rest". I couldn't resist, we had to go to Costco and get samples.

7. Chloe getting high-centered on the toy bin

8. The show "Wipe Out" on ABC. We've only seen it once, but it is just basically people going through challenging obstacle courses that often involve water, dizziness, and a lot of really funny falls. Andrew, Clancy and I laughed our heads off.

9. Chloe tipping her head to the side and batting her eyelids when she wants to charm you

10. Andrew losing his glasses for 24 hours when he swore they were on his bedside table. Luckily he has a good looking back-up pair. We looked everywhere for them and eventually found them in his scripture case.

11. Clancy disappearing for a few minutes and then throwing the door open and shouting "TaDa" with some black snow boots on (These boots are actually a hand-me-down for Chloe, but somehow Clancy squeezed his feet into them). He then proceeded to try on all the shoes which were all really girly. Finally I got him to try on his new Converse and then told him to strike a pose. This was the result.

12. Chloe's reaction to people eating ice cream without offering her any.

13. Us having a room dedicated entirely to fort building. There is one really large room in the house we live in that has three big couches with a lot of cushions and not much else. It is Clancy's dream come true. So far we've constructed rockets, planes, trains, and of course, the Tower of Babel.

14. Andrew putting me in charge of handling bee removal. Honestly, does he not know that "I am afraid of things that bite and sting"?

15. Clancy telling his uncle Jacob to wait at the bottom of the stairs. "I need a little space, I need some PIE VUS EE" he says.

16. We found this candle when we were moving in and Clancy was excited about it. We told him that when he is 5 we will put it on his birthday cake. We left it at that and then a few minutes later Clancy brought it to me and said that it was broken. Strangely enough, the break marks were exactly the same size and shape as Clancy's teeth. Maybe we should save it for his 5th, 15th, 25th etc. birthday cake!
17. Clancy helped us move in. He had breaks and wasn't worked too hard, and he does own pants, but you can't tell that from this picture!