Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2011 November

(1) Sun Nov 06 2011 12:26 Home Sweet Home: For reals! It is soooo good to be home.

6 countries
4 states
23 flights
16 airports
1 30 minute delay
ZERO mishandled bags
It's been a long 17 months.

God Bless America and all that. I might have cried when we landed in New Jersey. America is amazing. They have freeways! And you can drink the tap water. And my refrigerator is HUGE! The kids are happy to be home and surrounded by "new" toys and lots of family members. Dalton went walking around the house after church calling for Ember.

Dalton has learned many new words since we got home, including Cold, Mountains, Coat, Grandma, and Snow. He went to nursery today and just loved it. Maggie went to Primary and appeared to survive. Her teacher said once she was in the class, she just started talking away, and that she said she went to Primary in India and didn't like it. No kidding.

Mon Nov 07 2011 10:06 Maggie's First Day of Preschool: So big! She said she was scared. Dalton and I went in with her, but it was so busy that she didn't even have time to be scared. She did what she was supposed to - write her name, wash her hands, glue a house on a paper - and then played with the dinosaurs the teacher had gotten out. By circle time, she was ignoring us, so we left.

This was pretty amazing. When we went to meet her teacher, Maggie wouldn't even go in the room, or let the teacher look at her.

Dalton and I ran some errands and I am amazed at how convenient things are in America. We'll see if I feel the same way after our trip to the DMV.

(2) Wed Nov 09 2011 15:16 Pokies: I took both the kids for well visits yesterday. Between them, they got 9 shots, PLUS the flu mist. Poor kids. We had to hold Maggie down and she screamed and said she was NEVER coming back. By bedtime, Dalton could barely walk, but they both seem ok today.

Afterwards we went to IKEA for free kid's meals on Tuesday. My kids are car-seat-challenged. When I undo the buckles they just sit there. Luckily neither of them has thrown a fit over having to be buckled in. Maggie is still loving preschool.

We're supposed to get internet on Monday. I think the kids will miss visiting their grandparents all the time, but I'm sure we'll think of another excuse.

(1) Sun Nov 13 2011 13:47 Praying for Revelation: The other night, Maggie asked prayed to know what color dinosaurs are.

(1) Thu Nov 17 2011 11:51 The Smooth: I am eating The Most Delicious peanut butter sandwich. Sara Lee soft ww bread, jif peanut butter, black raspberry jam. I opened the jam oh-so-cleverly using a rubber drawer liner. The peanut butter was also a new jar. Rachel and I used to argue over (or nicely share) the "smooth" - that lovely top layer of a new jar. Today I got both. Hiya.

(3) Sat Nov 19 2011 16:39 No Plans: We weren't really planning on doing much today, but we ended up with quite a busy day! First, we went to IHOP for breakfast. Maggie got it right on the third try... iPod... iPop... IHOP! Yum. The kids got balloon animals. Maggie got a dinosaur that look an awful lots like the scary grasshopper in A Bug's Life. Dalton got a snowman!

We put up some Christmas decorations, which thrilled the kids. Then we went to Old Navy. They were having a 5-hour frenzy of 75% off coats. Since our coats got lost in the mail, we took advantage. We got $250 worth of clothes for $88. Yay! We love our new coats.

After that, we went to Jodi & Franco's, to see what they've done to Grandma June's house. It looks great! We also got back some of our toys and books, which the kids were excited about.

Then we went to the Lehi Cemetery to see Grandma June's grave. Maggie brought a little Christmas tree to put on her grave. As soon as we got out of the car she asked, "Where's Grandma June? Is she getting fixed?" and when we got in the car she said, "Wait! I want to see Grandma June's bones!" ... Well. Perhaps now we have a better understanding of what we do with bodies.

While I'm blogging, I'll mention that yesterday I went to the new Utah Museum of Natural History with my cousin Sarah. Sharon got us the free tickets. We didn't get to see everything, as is often the case with little kids, but what we did see was pretty neat. My favorite part was a wall of ceratopsian skulls - over a dozen triceratops relatives. They also let us go in the storage rooms and labs where they keep dead animals in formaldehyde jars etc.

Tue Nov 29 2011 14:41 Time Out!: Maggie gave me a time out because I took away the toy she and Dalton were fighting over. Sweet! I grabbed my stuff and hurried into her room and closed the door. It wasn't 3 minutes before the kids were politely knocking on the door asking if they could "help."

Later, Maggie smacked her face on the stair railing. I snuggled her in the rocking chair until she felt better. Dalton came over to investigate. Maggie was kneeling on my lap with her face snuggled into my neck. He looked at her snuggling me for a minute and then announced, "Bum!" For some reason this was hilarious (even to me) and now the kids are running in circles around the house singing, "Ready to go to... Bum!" They are actually ready to go to Ember's house, and have been for hours, but Ember isn't home from school yet.

Tue Nov 29 2011 20:03 I Am Woman: I just replaced the ball rod assembly on our bathroom sink. Because I'm awesome like that. It took much longer than it probably should have, and it's a bit jiggly... but the sink drains now!

Wed Nov 30 2011 16:59 Wild and Crazy Animals: Last night, we went to visit Erin, Ember, Jetta, and Jazzy. Dalton sure loves doggies. Maggie was scared of Jetta, who is bigger than she, after all. On the way home, we took the long route, then drove up each street in our neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights.

Maggie was the special helper in preschool today. She picked "windy" for the weather, got to be the line leader and choose beads first (I don't know what that means), and got a fancy sticker.

Today was the first free zoo day of winter. We carpooled with Tasha in her fancy van. It was supposedly supposed to snow (I don't pay attention to things like weather predictions) but the weather was actually very nice. It sprinkled on us for a few minutes, but that's it. It was too cold for the elephants, but we watched as they let the giraffes out. One of them was literally cavorting around, he was so excited to be outdoors. We got to see one of the tigers up close, too.

Dalton has spent the past 5 minutes jumping off a chair into Maggie's arms. He spent the previous 10 minutes jumping off the chair and landing head-first on the floor, so I guess this is an improvement.

Maggie made me a present and told me I couldn't open it until Christmas, by which she means tomorrow. She thinks tomorrow is Christmas because she gets to open one of her presents (a Lego advent calendar from Uncle Leonard).

John is out of town. I have another home improvement project planned for tonight, and Erin lent me The Help.