Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2013 March

Sat Mar 02 2013 21:44 Round Trip: Today we went to Disneyland. (hah! No, we really did! Seriously! Only the 62nd time on these passes. Gah.) Anyway. Yes. It was lots of fun. We got some awesome pictures with Star Wars characters. Maggie and I went on Space Mountain together. I couldn't believe it when I realized she had her hands up! Crazy girl. She is so big. I think I might cry when she turns 6 in ONE WEEK.

Speaking of Maggie turning six, we are having a Lego birthday party for her. I'm not going all out like I've done in the past. I don't want to be overwhelmed, so I'm keeping it simple. We made Lego invites, and we're making Lego plates and a Lego cake. I ordered little Lego sets for each kid, and Maggie wanted to do Lego coloring pages. That's it.

Sienna was great. She was up most of the day, though she slept nearly all day Thursday. Crazy Girl #2. She slept over 12 hours last night, because I didn't wake her up around 10 like I usually do. She was interested in the rides, scoping out heffalumps and woozles and twirling in tea cups.

Guess I'd better write about Dalton. We are putting effort into nighttime potty training, with a pair of Angry Birds pajamas on deck as a reward. The kids are obsessed with Angry Birds. All Maggie wants for her birthday is an Angry Birds t-shirt. We couldn't find a cute one, so she is getting PJs too, instead.

So, if you want to get Maggie a gift for her birthday, I recommend an iTunes gift card. Because they've beaten every Angry Birds level and it's time to move on.

Sun Mar 03 2013 21:27 Tickle Me Sienna: Sienna started being ticklish this week. It only seems to work once at a time. She's laughed at my when I tickled her feet, under her arms, her chunky thighs, and stroked her adorable cheeks. Her laugh is even gruntier than Dalton's was. I love that snuggly girl.

Mon Mar 04 2013 12:38 Out of the Mouth of Dalton:
Me: Who has gymnastics today!
Dalton: The Pumpkin King do. I do. That's me, the Pumpkin King. Because I was Jack in the book because I had a Jack apple. (The book in the Animation building at DCA, and it tells you which character you are most like. Dalton was Jack Skellington, right after he picked out a Jack caramel apple for a treat.)

5 minutes later, he interrupted a story I was telling about baby Dalton. "I were a gril baby." Sure you were, boy.

Thu Mar 07 2013 20:09 More Dalton Mouth:
Me: I like Daddy.
Dalton: I like Daddy, too.
Me: I like Daddy, three.
Dalton: I like Daddy, four!
Me: I like Daddy a million.
Dalton: I like Daddy a fleeceman (policeman).

Thu Mar 07 2013 22:09 Early Bird Day: Maggie was on the early bird schedule today because the school was doing a jog-a-thon fundraiser. Ironically, we were not very early birds this morning. John woke Maggie up and took her to school at 8:15. Dalton and I snuggled in bed, and once Sienna got up, we headed over to the jog-a-thon to cheer Maggie on. I didn't realize this was a big thing, but apparently it was. So I'm glad I decided (at 5 am when I was up with Sienna) to go.

I had to park down the street at the park. So we walked to school while I nursed Sienna and Dalton ate his breakfast of fruit snacks, wearing Maggie's My Little Pony jacket from the car. Don't judge. Right after we got there they announced only 5 minutes of running left. Maggie ran 37 laps on the little track they had made. Her face was pink, but she was proud of herself. Afterwards, the kids had popsicles and I chatted with some moms. Then we walked back to the car.

We did a quick grocery shopping trip after this. In fact, we got home from the grocery store at the same time I normally get home taking Maggie to school. Since we were only getting a few things I let Dalton get a little "Dalton-sized" grocery cart. He loved pushing it around.

I fed Sienna again and made lunch and got half of dinner ready. Then we picked up Maggie at school and headed to Disneyland. I wanted to take advantage of the early day to have more time there on a weekday. We had a good time. Small World was open again, and we also got to attend the Annual Passport preview of the new Princess Fantasy Faire thingy. We waited in line a few minutes to see Ariel, Aurora and Cinderella, then we sat in the theater and ate lunch and saw Belle and Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Ariel asked Maggie what her favorite part of her ride was. "What's your favorite part?" is Maggie's favorite question, so I laughed out loud when she said this.

Then we came home and had a delicious salad for dinner and Mickey cake pops for dessert.

Mon Mar 11 2013 21:24 Proud Moments: Today started off with Dalton's 10th dry diaper since we made him a new sticker chart. This earned him a new pair of pajamas - Space Angry Birds pajamas. (For the record, when Dalton potty trained himself a year ago, he was also dry at night, but that stopped when we moved. Boo.)

Then, at gymnastics we heard the bell ring and looked up to see that it was Maggie! She showed off her new "trick" for everyone, a forward roll on the bar. Ironically, I have a series of pictures of her doing this at her last gymnastics class, but since that class was a make-up, she didn't have her regular coach. The coach told me and her that if she works hard and practices at home building up her arm strength, she will probably get to move up the next time they do evaluations. So, Maggie came home and practiced in the living room for half an hour. I caught a glace of one of her cartwheels and was very impressed! She also always wins the "quiet contest" in gymnastics class, and I think she's brought a star student certificate the last four classes in a row.

Not to leave Dalton out, he has gotten the hand-foot placement of the cartwheel down. There's just not much wheeling involved yet. He's great on the trampoline, though! One of the things his class does is kick bean bags off the balance beam as they walk, and he's great at that.

Very proud of my kids today.

(1) Fri Mar 15 2013 14:48 Proud Moments Part 2: I forgot to mention that on Sunday Dalton gave his first Primary talk. It was So. Adorable. He read the 3rd Article of Faith and said, "I know Jesus loves me and I love Him." That's it. He spoke clearly, right into the microphone (he does get a bit of practice with this in the chapel when I'm practicing the organ).

Maggie has been memorizing the Articles of Faith. She already knows four of them. The easy four, of course, but she is able to memorize them pretty well.

Sun Mar 17 2013 23:03 Good, Better, Best: The Relief Society lesson today was on becoming perfect. A lot of it was on not worrying about being perfect in this life and the atonement. But some of it was on doing our best. I didn't share this but I was thinking about an experience this week and decided to blog it instead.

I knew a few weeks ago that I would be playing the organ in church today. The last time I played, my lack of practice showed so this time I played the songs regulaly over the few weeks. One of them (God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand) had a few bass notes I couldn't reach with my hand so I decided to go to the church, practice on the organ and play those notes on the manual pedals. So I did.

This led to the discovery that the other ward has a badminton club -yay! But anyway, one of the ladies mentioned her lack of musicality when I explained I wasn't actually the organist, but wanted to try using the pedals. She said, "that's great that you're still working on it, even though it's good enough."

She's right. I do a lot of things that are good enough. But I need to be doing better, or even (!!!) my best. Today I did.

Side note: let's hope the lack of regular organists was so I could learn this lesson. I think we might actually have some good, reliable organists now!

Sun Mar 24 2013 19:29 Sienna at 4 Months: Sienna's 4 month appointment was this week. She is 26.5", 90th percentile. Very tall! In the mother's room today, we stood her next to her friend Valentine (8 months) and they are the same height. She is 60% in weight at 14 lbs 10 oz.

She slept completely through the night 5 of the last 6 nights. I stopped waking her up to eat around 10:00, so I've been going to bed earlier, which is nice. I like feeding her at night, because sometimes that's the only chance I get to feed her snuggled in the rocking chair, all comfy with our pillows etc. But we are both getting more sleep, and she clearly didn't need that feeding.

She puts her hands in her mouth, and sometimes sucks her fingers or thumb when she is going to sleep. She also likes to bring toys to her mouth, and really likes having a toy in the car. Her favorite at the moment is the Skwish. This week she rolled over onto her back the first couple of times. I don't put her on her tummy enough, or she might have done it earlier.

She still thinks Maggie is hilarious. She giggles if I pretend to eat her tummy, and sometimes if I tickle her legs or under her arms. More of a grunt than a giggle, but clearly a laugh. She gets excited to see her daddy. She and Dalton continue to grow on each other. He's going to be a great big brother once he gets around to it.

(1) Sun Mar 24 2013 19:52 Star of the Week: Maggie was the "Star of the Week" last week at school. On Monday, she took a poster we had made with pictures of baby Maggie, our family, Maggie in India, Maggie at Disneyland, etc. She filled out some star topic starters with things like: "My goal is to go to the next level in gymnastics." "One thing I like about myself is I'm smart." "I am good at reading."

On Tuesday, she took on of her Angry Birds drawings to show her hobby. I think she took one John drew as well, since she likes to draw with him.

Wednesday, she took the certificate she got for ringing the bell at gymnastics.

Thursday was favorite book. She took a book called Doggies and her teacher read it to the class.

Friday she took her little Piglet as her favorite toy.