Nuttin' Honey

Odell and her little cousin, born about 3 months-ish apart.
I feel an obligation to blog but I'm not sure what to blog about. Some days I sit there and ideas will come to me to blog about and I think "Aw, I should write that down so I don't forget it"...and I don't. I bet that's what "real" bloggers do, I'm sure they have a whole drawer-full of ideas to draw from when they need it...someday I will be that prepared.
I would like to share a little about our quickly dwindling summer. I know that there's still a whole month left of August, but I think most people are revving up for the "end" once July is over. We have been chilling out and just soaking up the sun every day. Okay, actually...nope, no chilling out over here, it's been HOT the last couple of weeks. I know that hot is a relative term, but out here in Colorado we get up into the nineties and I feel like I need to start being wrung out by the time afternoon rolls around. Especially because, although our house stays pretty cool for having no AC, it still gets unbearable around here sometimes when the air get stagnant in the late afternoon. Blecc. And I guess, well...as far as soaking up the sun, it happens in moments here and there, but can I just say that the misquotes out here have been MISERABLE. Truly miserable. I can't step foot outside unless I know there is a good breeze out because they are just terrible. Our wet spring invited them all in and their stay has officially worn out.
Anyway, I would also just like to say how much I love my husband and my children. I read an article once that said that LDS women were especially known for their "put on a happy face" attitude...and I just have to say that nothing is "put on" in this house. Of course there are hard days, I've even blogged about my fair share of them, but there's no reason I can't shout about the good stuff too. And be genuinely content with life. I just love it when I lay down in bed at night with my children's kisses on my cheeks and my husband's arm around my side and think that life is just good.
Some things that Chloe is up to:

• Asking every day when "preschool" is starting (her weekly playgroup).
• Asking to wear a skirt every day, and always the one that is too short for her and doesn't match any of the leggings she has...*sigh*.
  
• Being able to almost spell her name. I know, a lot of four year olds are like computing Quantum Physics at her age, but we're just taking it one step at a time...
• Looking through lots and lots and lots of books on her own. She loves them! Hooray!!
• Being a great five minute at a time babysitter for Odell. :-)
• Giggling and being silly all the time.
  
• Gathering up her pants or skirt and wading through the kiddy pool in the backyard as long as she can.
  
• She got a stuffed pink dog from her Daddy's aunt and uncle that she named "Kayla", and then promptly forgot the name and asks me about it every five minutes.
  
• Letting her hair grow out like Rapunzel.
  
• Beating us all (NO JOKE, she's uncannily good) at swordfight on the Wii. Like seriously...none of us can beat her, it's weird.
  

What Linus is up to:

• Yelling really loud at the library whenever we go like it's normal for people to talk like that. I don't know if I am just more sensitive to it while we are there or because every eye in the entire place is on him whenever he says anything, but I'm pretty sure he's louder there than he is anywhere else.
  
• Getting better and better at letting me reason with him. Yay!
• Completely potty trained for about a month and a half now. Whew! I seriously thought that one was gonna take forever, but once he decided it was time, he was way easier than Chloe.
• Yesterday I warned he and Chloe after they had had about their third or fourth fight in an hour and a half that if they couldn't get along, they would have to play in separate rooms the rest of the day. Later when they began arguing about something, Linus stops and yells, "CHLOE! Let's stop fighting, okay??!" Never thought I would hear that come out of his mouth...
• Starting to look through books on his own as well. He was going through a spout where he did not want me to read to him, did not want to read himself, and completely zoned out and interrupted rudely every time I tried to read with Chloe. Then the last few days he's been doing it on his own...that's eased my worries, his father never liked reading when he was growing up (I'm working on that...)and I thought Linus would be heading down the same road...maybe not though..
• Pointing out the "thunder" that hit our tree whenever he looks out the window.
  
• "AW, BABY! You're so cuuuuute! NO NO Baby, don't eat that. TAKE THAT OUT OF YOUR MOWWWWWFF! *knocks Odell over in the attempt as I'm coming over to intervene* OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH! SOWWEEE BABY! I sowee, I sowwee, I soweee *smothers her with hugs and kisses when I finally get to them to the point that she is wailing and thrashing to get him off of her*" This happens at least once a day, if not more. *sigh*
• Ticklish and giggly as ever and even snuggly sometimes still. :-)

What Odell is up to:

• Crawling for about three weeks now. Tried to teach her how to go down the stairs, although she hasn't figured out how to go up them yet. Not sure she really understood what I was doing.
  
• Claps her hands a lot. Over just about everything, even when she's mad sometimes.
  
• Silence in the house. "Ah.....ah......ah.....ah......ah.....ah......" More silence. "......AH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH!!!!!!!!" Until she gets attention, or she repeats sequence.
  
• She figured out how to fold her arms about three or four weeks ago during prayers. But now whenever I ask her to do anything else, she folds her arms and then looks at me eagerly for approval. "Odell, where's Momma's nose?" Folder her arms. "Odell, PEEKABOO!" Folds her arms. "Odell, stop moving I need to change your diaper." Folds her arms. Very reverent child...
• She's also figured out that when she puts things in her mouth, she gets attention. Now if I put her in the playroom to wander around while I'm doing things around the house, when she sees me approach her as I'm walking by, she immediately looks at me and puts her hand to her mouth like she's trying to eat something she shouldn't. The first couple of times I swiped her mouth out like four or five times to find nothing until I realized she was just pretending to get my attention. Little stinker.
  
• Starting to try to pull herself up on things, sorta. I had a dream the other night that she figured out how to pull herself up in her crib and then fell out of it. The next morning I woke up to find her starting to pull herself to a standing position by herself in her crib. And we lowered her crib that day.
• VERY flexible. This is how she gets to a sitting position: after rolling on to her stomach, she pushes herself up with her arms, does the splits all the way around until she's pushed herself up all the way. No big deal, on with life. Yeah, she doesn't get that from me...

Coming in the near future: my sister-in-law's baby shower (first baby, it's a girl! SO excited about the things I got her, which I will blog about later too...), Odell's big NUMBER ONE birthday (I know, already???), and other end of summer fun-ness. Won't be too long until I'm blogging some "jumping in the autumn leaves" pictures....