Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2013 February

A stranger called me ambitious today. "ambitious" is not a word anyone who knows me (including myself) would use to describe me. But in context, taking my three young kids to Disneyland by myself, I'll take it!

Cheese is not a vegetable.

It doesn't count as exercise if you're the weight.

Stop eating your pants!

Dalton made up some poignant and fitting words to I am a Child of God as he sang. "Don't forget me. I can't go home without you."

The contacts on my phone mysteriously disappeared. I looked for a delete all button and couldn't see one so I don't know how it happened. But the disappearance of two Angry Birds apps on the iPad was not mysterious and was in fact accompanied by much screaming, crying, and yelling (respectively) and a time out and two days of no iPad for Dalton. It was actually nice to see him play with toys for a change.

The other night, Dalton prayed about not getting a piggy back ride. What!? We can't have that. I put Sienna in bed and went back in the kids' room to surprise him with a quick ride. He was thrilled. "I love you forever and ever, Mommy." I love you, too, sweet boy.

At Disneyland this week, Dalton made friends with two Chinese girls. He narrated Pirates for them which, other than being cute, was useless as I only heard them say seven words in English: be careful, the end, thank you and picture? Picture? Of course! They seemed really surprised I let them. On the tram, he deliberately cuted at two more Chinese girls across from us. What a flirt.

And from a recent Facebook status: Dalton, I love that you're friendly, but I'm going to draw the line at playing Angry Birds on a stranger's phone at the park.

Sienna is getting so big already. She's learned how to talk and makes such adorable noises. It's especially cute when she is falling asleep in my arms and practically coos in her sleep.

She can also hold her head up really well, finally, and enjoys sitting in her bumbo. She also likes her bouncer, and has discovered her reflection in the mirror that hangs above it. She is still a good sleeper. Most nights it's at least 7 hours, sometimes quite a bit more.

She's grown into her 3-6 month clothes, and out of her size 1 diapers (with much aplomb. I think I need to give up trying to use up all the size 1 because I'm tired of hand washing her clothes).

I was amazed at our family getting ready this morning. I'd say I don't know how single parents do it, but I manage to do the bedtime thing without John when he is working. Maggie is a huge help in this area.

This morning, I took Maggie into her room so she wouldn't wake up Dalton (who was in our bed). John played iPad with Dalton when he woke up, and Maggie joined them. I fed Sienna. John took a shower then entertained Sienna while I got the kids dressed and fed and unloaded the dishwasher. I took a shower and fed Sienna again while John played with the kids and got the diaper bag ready. Somewhere in there we both practiced the piano.

I guess it's not as complicated as it seemed at the time. We made it to church nice and early, since I was playing the organ. John went home to get his tie (oops) and Sienna proceeded to grump most the rest of the day until we finally got her in bed at 6:30. Except for a random 45 minutes she sat contentedly on Amy's lap. Hmm.

John and I were lucky enough to go to California Adventure by ourselves last night. No kids! I counted, and we've been over 100 times since we last went to Disneyland without kids. Which was before we had kids.

We got fast passes to Soarin' over California, and waited in line for Tower of Terror and the single rider line for Radiator Springs Racers. Those three rides (and free chocolate at Ghiradelli) were all we were able to do with our time, but they are things we haven't be able to do together. It was fun to be out together.

Our ward has been harping on the 2013 mission plan. Whatever. The Elders like to stop by occasionally. We are boring and usually let them in to talk. We asked the Elders in one of their pop-in visits if there were any neighbors in our ward and they gave us a couple names. So, the kids made some Valentines and we delivered them. We had a nice talk with a single guy. The older couple wasn't home.

I was really surprised when the Elders stopped by today. Not surprised that they stopped by, though Sienna was crying and I was making dinner and I didn't let them in. But surprised that they came to tell us that the couple in our neighborhood was at church today! Since I was playing the organ and my name was in the program, they even asked if that was me, their neighbor who had left treats and kid-made Valentines because John has brilliant ideas like that (it was). Hurray!

I took Maggie with me to visit/meet a girl I visit teach. She has a daughter Maggie's age and a baby just a couple days older than Sienna. We took them some chocolate-caramel covered pretzels. I hope she comes to park day (or, you know, church) because more friends is fun.

Our crystal dishes have started breaking in the microwave (oops!) so that finally sent me to IKEA to pick up some things that have been on my list a long time. Long enough that Dalton is finally tall enough for the play place! He was sooo excited to go with his big sister. I was surprised how not-crowded it was for a Tuesday and wondered if they had stopped doing free kid's meals on Tuesdays, but they still do.

Sienna took a nap and the kids played while I shopped. It turned out to be cheaper to buy an entirely new set of dishes than to buy individual plates to match the bowls I bought a while ago. I also bought a giant bag for beach stuff, a shelf for the kids' room (for Maggie's clothes), and a little tea strainer for John's apple cider.

I picked the kids up and we ate lunch. The only downside to this event is that they stopped carrying root beer. Sad. The kids played in the two other play areas while I fed Sienna, then we went home in very little traffic, Dalton bragging about his first time in the play place the whole way.

Got up at 4 something with Sienna. Fed her and went back to bed. I had a hard time going back to sleep, but I was asleep when she woke up at 6. I changed her dirty diaper and took her back to my bed to nurse her back to sleep, which I hardly ever do, because I was so tired. Another dirty diaper. I got her dressed and put her back in her own bed. She finally went back to sleep, and she actually slept the rest of the morning. Got the kids ready, and I got some good work done in the morning. Woke Sienna up in time to take Maggie to school. It started raining. A good Samaritan took Maggie into the class for me so we could hurry back to the car with Sienna. Dalton sat on the front seat with my phone while I fed Sienna in the car. And changed a dirty diaper. And her outfit. And another dirty diaper.

We headed to Target where I got some great deals. I got 10 boxes of cereal for about $9, a huge bottle of ketchup for free, and a bag of Valentine's candy on clearance. I also price-matched the owl bin for Maggie's clothes that was out of stock online. After Target we went to Costco. There were a few snacks, but we ate some Valentine's Day candy in the car, because the line for lunch at Costco was too long. Sienna made it through Costco in the carrier but fell asleep as we were getting to the car. In the rain. We drove to Walmart and I left her in the carseat because she was really asleep by that point, and also because it was raining this whole time. In and out of the car in the rain with both kids. Bleh.

We got home with enough time to bring in the groceries (Dalton is a good helper with that, except he piles it all in the doorway and then how do we get in?), shove the perishables in their places, and feed Sienna before we had to pick Maggie up from school. Oh, and change two more dirty diapers. And eat a piece of chocolate.

We picked Maggie up from school, in a lucky break in the rain. Though this time Sienna was wearing fleece pants and a fleece hoodie and a big fluffy blanket. I made the kids a snack (lunch for Dalton, really, though he never did eat it). Got Sienna down for another nap. Maggie did homework. I did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen and got dinner prepped. Smart mommies do two-handed dinner prep while babies are sleeping, even if they are very tired and would rather take a nap.

We had a delicious dinner of copycat Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower soup, and rosemary olive oil bread from Costco. Dalton was not impressed. He ate a piece of bread, which was basically all he ate all day that wasn't 99.9% sugar. Maggie was thrilled, though, and John and I both were happy with it. Yum. I miss Zupa's.

Dalton and Sienna had baths after dinner and John came home. I put the laundry away and got to enjoy my baby some more while Daddy enjoyed the iPad with the kids. Just relaxed once the kids are in bed. Now I get to go to bed! Sienna sleeps through the night about half the time. I hope tonight is the other half.

Sienna is three months old already! I feel like her babyhood is slipping away so quickly. Even by six weeks she was already so big. This week Sienna has brought her hands together, worked on sitting up on her own and started showing interest in toys. She puts her hands in her mouth. She likes to suck on her fists and sometimes a couple of fingers. This is making swaddling less effective but she is still sleeping pretty well.

She almost always sleeps at least 6 hours at night. She usually goes to bed around seven. I wake her up at ten to eat and most nights she wakes up at either four or seven. Nap times aren't working out as well but we are slowly figuring out something. Nap at nine and eleven (before and after school drop off) and again around three. The afternoon one is iffy though and sometimes the afternoons and evenings she is just a mess.

Sienna has a little bald spot on the back of her head. I think Dalton did also. Her hair is really growing in well though, unlike Maggie's comb-over. She thinks the kids are hilarious and especially likes Maggie. She will laugh and play with them, following them around the room with her eyes. Maggie is a great big sister and sings and takes care of Sienna for me sometimes. She is growing on Dalton who loves to say, "She gave me a 'mile'!"

I bought baby food today. I had a coupon, so I went ahead and used it for the one pouch. Not sure where baby food is going to fit in my cupboards. So crazy to think she can be eating food in a couple months. She is finally getting to be a more efficient nurser, other than the ten PM feeding. We nurse on the go a lot, in the car between errands etc.