Sicknesses, Seasons, Surprises, Stress, Sleuths and Sleep (or the lack thereof)

What a week!  How can so much fun and stress get crammed into one week?  Let me begin:

While we have been working hard to get little Thomas to sleep good, another has slipped into his place in causing a lack of sleep.  Elsy. (Imagine me saying her name through slightly gritted teeth and squinted eyes).

Here we are, the entire family! up before the sun.  You see, Elsy got up much to early and Logan kindly said he would watch her so I could sleep.  Not to long later Thomas woke up with an empty stomach so we were all up.  Logan had Planet Earth going and he and I watched it while the kids played on the floor until the sun came up.  

What is to be done?  Elsy was such a good sleeper for the longest time but only recently just started getting up at the wrong times.  I really do blame it on the sun coming up later.  She used to wake up and wait in her bed but now that it never gets light I think she gets impatient.  I bought her an "Okay To Wake!" clock that you program to turn green at a set time so she can leave her room when it turns green.  The poor girl is mortified of it!  We had an experience about a year ago with a space heater overheating in her room in the middle of the night so it's alarm went off.  She woke up to a scary sound and a bright red light and ever since then she has been scared of colored lights in her room (besides her yellow nightlight that is on the baby monitor).  So we are working toward getting her to use that.

Elsy and Tommy are starting to play a lot better together lately.  It is so funny to watch Elsy tackle Tom and roll around with him laughing.  Tommy usually ends it in tears but he loves it at the beginning.  Tommy has been working on his two bottom, front teeth all week to no avail.  But he still manages to smile.  He loves baths, bread, and toys that make noise.  My favorite thing he has started to do is hold both his fists straight up in the air while he eats in his high chair.  I don't know why he does this, but it is hilarious.

Elsy got really sick this week.  We finally took her in on Friday because she was wheezing pretty bad.  They said she had an ear infection and sent us home with some antibiotics.  She is doing a lot better but she still has a rattly cough and has lost her voice.  We kept her home from nursery today.  Tommy and I started to get it (I had a sore throat for a day and Tommy a runny nose) but we seem to have dodged a bullet.  (Fingers crossed!)  But because Elsy hasn't been sleeping good and Tommy still eating twice a night I have been a little bit of a zombie.  On Tuesday night I pulled an all nighter by going to bed at 11:30.  Elsy woke up at 12:30 and didn't go back to sleep until 3.  Then at 3:45 Tommy woke up and had a hard time going to sleep until 5:30.  I crawled back into bed and lay my head down just as I heard Elsy crying again.  I got back in bed at 6:05 and was up at 6:30 with Tommy.  Luckily my husband works flex hours and he took the kids so I could get two hours of sleep from 7-9am.  Bleh.

Because Elsy was sick I missed going to Activity Day's this week.  They did a Family History Mystery night.  If you haven't seen it, in the Friend magazine they have a different Family History Mystery every month.  We did one about heirlooms.  I had made them all sleuth books and was sad to miss out because I had been excited to share my blessing dress as my heirloom.

In other news!  I am also on the Relief Society Activities Committee and this month I was in charge of the activity... I couldn't really skip out on that one this week.

I found a fun idea on Pinterest (here) called "Finding Joy In Every Season".  We decided to run with it.  We focused on looking at the different seasons we all have in our lives and how we can find happiness in each one.

We started out the evening with a baked potato bar (I took this before they set out all the food).  We had baked potatoes and a super yummy Pear Gorgonzola Salad.  

   

A lady in our ward is an amazing decorator and has tons of beautiful centerpieces and whatnots.  She let us borrow some of her stuff and we decorated each of the four dining tables in the four seasons.

After dinner we asked five women to sit in on a panel (this is our panel table) to discuss different aspects of their season of life.  Each women represented a different 'season'.  They each answered three questions:

• What brings you the most joy in this season of your life?
• What are some of the things you are learning during this season of your life?
• How is this season different than you thought it would be?

Afterward we opened it up for questions and discussion.  There were so many wonderful insights shared.  What an awesome night!  We ended with a video presentation Logan helped me put together called "The Parable of the Pear Tree".  Please watch it!  I was so pleased with how it turned out!

At the very end we served up some Pear Pie Crumble Bars. (Did you noticed our pear themed salad and dessert to match the video? ehhh?)  

I was pretty stressed but it all came together in the end!  My favorite part of the evening was my mom and sister Leisha slipping in the back right before we showed the video!  I had no idea they were coming to visit.  I was so surprised and excited I got a little frazzled while trying to pull up the video on the big screen and accidentally pulled up a valentine I had sent Logan way back in February.  A picture of Sirius Black that said "I am seriously in love with you right now".  Talk about super embarrassed... and 'seriously' how the heck did that randomly pull up?  Gosh.

Ahh! What a wonderful weekend!  After all the stress and lack of sleep it was so wonderful to have my mom and sister in town.  Leisha brought her husband and two kids.  My mom babysat while Leisha and I went to IKEA.  She even cleaned out my fridge and washed my stove.  !!!! Mom's totally rock.  I was a little embarrassed because I always try to have things perfect when people come to visit and after my busy week my house wasn't exactly in tip top shape and we had zero groceries.  But we ordered pizza and went to Bellevue Square Mall and just had a fun ole time.  

Both of Leisha's kids are the same ages as both of mine so they just all played in the living room.  Matt (Leisha's husband) said "There sure are a lot of toys everywhere!" and it was true.  They were everywhere.  But it was so fun.  Ezra likes to chase Elsy around and would just shout her name "Essy!!" all around.  Sadly, I heard back that he is now sick with what Elsy had and Matt is too. :(

The last thing I was stressed over this week was the primary program in sacrament meeting this week.  Besides Activity Day's leader and Relief Society Activity Committee member I am aaaalso the Primary pianist.  Usually I can balance all three of my callings really well and I really enjoy them all so much... but this week I had big things to do for all three of them!  The program was today and it was a total hit.  The primary program is so many people's favorite sacrament meeting of the year and for a good reason.  Every single kid shares a little talk and they all sing beautiful songs they have been practicing all year long.  I tend to get very VERY nervous in any kind of performance setting where I play the piano and this one was no exception.  Especially when one of the special arrangement songs I had yet to play through without messing up.  I was sweating and a little shaky during the first song but all my prayers and practicing payed off.

I love music and I feel like it brings a special spirit to the meetings.  I prayed a lot that I would be able to play well and help aid that spirit, rather than distract from it.  While I was playing as I focused on the spirit that I wanted to help portray I was better able to play my songs than when I was worried about messing up.   I can honestly say that when the hard part of the song I kept messing up with came up my mind sort of fuzzed and my hands seemed to have a mind of their own and they played the part without messing up for the fist time.  Boom. A total miracle. :)

  This picture of Elsy pretty much sums up my week.  It totally should be a picture of me... but I don't think I could get away with wearing that much pink.  ;)   We went to Red Robin on Saturday for lunch right before my mom left and both kids crashed on the car ride home. This week was a total party (hence the balloon) but total exhaustion also.  

I am so ready for the fun we have planned this Halloween week.  I just need to sew some costumes by Wednesday (the Ward Trunk-or-Treat is that day).  Next weeks post is going to be so fun because we will get to share our pumpkin carving party, trick-or-treating, costumes, and most especially the spook alley Logan has been asked to be in charge of for a family in our ward that throws a Halloween party every year.  Logan spent all week making some pretty stuff... but I can't say what because I don't want to spoil the spook alley.

I think from here on out for the rest of my life I am going to have crazy weeks. And even though this week was no exception, my goal was to try and remember to smile.  I found whenever I remembered to smile, even when I didn't feel like it, my situation always seemed to brighten a tiny bit.  Elsy watches Daniel Tiger and one song she always sings to me is "Keep trying!  And you'll get betterrrrrrr!"  I hope I do.

Just another week at the Beans

Aloha.  

I think maybe I just endured this week and didn't really live it to much.  Do you ever feel like that?  Living actually takes effort, while enduring you know... you can just... get through things.  Goin' through the motions...Haha... but seriously.  When you are not sleeping like you should, you do a lot more enduring.

However!  It is good to recognize when you are making the mistake of just enduring.  I recognized this about half way through my week.  Maybe because Logan brought me a bouquet of flowers and some bon bons because he was like "Kayla, you need sleep.  And since I can't give you sleep I can give you something to make you feel at least a little better!"  (Thankfully he left out the part where he could have said "You are an emotional wreck get it together" even though we know he was probably thinking it! I'm kidding, he is way to nice.)  Its when things like that happen you think a) "Oh my gosh I have the best husband ever" *kiss*kiss *smooch *smooch and then b) "Oh gosh is it that bad?  I better  get my life together!"  I did some thinking and realized I (again!) needed to slow down and focus on what is most important.  Stop freaking out about cleaning the house and making decorations for the RS dinner and just let your kids bounce on your tummy laughing for a while and enjoy it.  So I did. :)

We went outside and chalked up the sidewalk.  We read lots of books.  I let Elsy walk on the treadmill with me.  We played patty cake.  Sang songs.  That kind of stuff.  And you know?  Its actually fun when you aren't rushing.

In other news, Tommy is a total boy.  I guess that's not really news, I mean we knew he was a male.  But he is SO different from Elsy's princess pinkness.  He tried to climb the stairs this week. And he is really good at making messes.  But it is kinda fun to see him getting into everything.  He learned to pull himself up into the standing position this week and he has been really excited about that.

I told Logan that we have a definite boy and a definite girl.  I burped (yuck I hate burps I really do but this one slipped out) and Tommy started laughing while Elsy said "EWWWW!"  Actually, today while Logan and I were kissing in the kitchen Elsy came up behind us and said "EWWW! again.  We asked her where she learned to say that and she said Aunt Kelsy.  Thaaaaanks Kelsy.

We went to our friend Navy's birthday this week (she is in the middle).  There are two girls in our ward who are Tommys age.  It is going to be fun as they all get older.  Elsy is one of six 2 year olds in our ward.  We have been getting together once a week for a toddler play group and rotating mom's houses.  Elsy is loving it.

Elsy has become quite the singer lately.  She found a maraca and has been using it as a microphone.  Really I had no idea she knew so many lyrics to songs.  She is a little flat and of key at times but I really try to encourage her.  I love singing and I am so glad she is picking up on it.  She is always singing the Ariel song from the Little Mermaid, you know, the part where she gets her voice take away? Kinda goes like this: "Aaaaaaawwwwwwaaaaa!! Aaaaaaawwwwwwaaaa!"  Yeah, she sings that part a lot.  She sings the same lines "Beauty and the Beast" over and over again.  "Beauty and the Beast".  She sings "Uh uh oh! Woke up today, feeling the way I always doooo!" (Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray) and "Boys only want love if its torture" (Blank Space by Taylor Swift).  She knows primary songs and play school songs and songs that come from my Grarndma ("Oh my mother and my father go to church Sundays!  Ak-ya! Ak-ya!!)  I just love it.  Today Logan had the Tabernacle Choir music on while he was doing the dishes and Elsy danced ballet to "Come Thou Fount."  Totes presh.

My husband is a very accomplished fellow.  He can play piano, guitar, ukulele, the kalimba, and the trumpet, and the tin whistle (that LOTR hobbit music is ta die for).  He even rented a cello for a time while we were dating.  I love how he will sit with the kids and play them songs.  Tommy has started whining though every time Logan gets out the ukulele because he just wants to touch it.  Logan gave a talk in church today and he did an excellent job.

Here is my scripture I picked for this week.  My brother-in-law Matt made this and posted it on Facebook.  He didn't know that this was the scripture I had picked to Ponderize this week.  However, I didn't do as good this week with trying to memorize.  I have to remember that it is going to take at least 6 weeks before Ponderizing becomes a habit.  I just have to make the effort.  Oh, and remember the chalkboard I got last week to write my scripture on?  Weeeeell, the chalkboard marker I got is kinda more permanent than I thought.  So I am stuck with last weeks scripture on it for the time being.  Ah well, its a good scripture.

I asked Logan if all my blog posts sound like a 'oh woe is motherhood' kinda thing.  And maybe they are in some respect.  But I want to be honest with what is going on in my life.  This blog is my family journal, after all.  Each week really does bring new, sometimes old, challenges.  But I am trying to learn how to maneuver my way through them.  So sorry if they come off as doomsday. Really, I am happy!  I will try to make a better effort to tell about the positive.

Rain Rain Go Away

Autumn is here!  Which means rain in Redmond.  

But there are gorgeous trees and plenty of pumpkins to go around.  I went to Trader Joe's today... did anybody else know that they are obsessed with pumpkin flavored everything at this time of year?  Pumpkin potato chips?  What?  I did happen to buy some Pumpkin butter though...

Elsy is so in love with pumpkins.  I was able to grow two pumpkins before our pumpkin plant succumbed to a bad bout of blight.  They are on our front porch.  Elsy tells everyone who comes over "Those are my pum pums!!"

A definite highlight of our week was the open house at the fire station on Tuesday.  Elsy has a thing for ambulances and gets pretty nervous when she hears them, especially since the fire station is one block from our house so we hear it quite often. 

We got fireman hats and got to sit in an ambulance.  To fun!

Elsy loved the tour.  It was a fun night and she didn't want to leave.

This week was pretty slow in regards to pressing matters.  Every other week is really busy and then really slow for us.  We try to go to Story Time at the library when things get boring.  I am so glad both my kids are super interested in books.  Ever since she was little and tiny Elsy would look at books while I got ready for the day.  She still does every day and I just love sneaking in on her and listening to her reading/talking to herself (no of course she can't really read yet haha).  Tommy has been starting to show an interest too... although he is a lot more violent and carnivorous with books.  He tends to love to demolish more than sit and look at the pictures.  But Elsy started the same way.  I just let them do it.  So long as I have some good tape I figure I can patch any book and I feel like the practice of reading and getting familiar with books is far more important.  I do have a few special books that I keep on a different book shelf in my room if I don't want it ruined.  I love that Tommy turns the pages already when I read to him at night.  I read "The Going To Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton every night, along with others.  He always gets the giggles when I read the last page "The moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep."  I rock the rocking chair as I say rock and he just giggles.  Aaaah I love my kiddies.

We also went to the Crossroads to get Elsy some Halloween costume fabric.  She wants to be Ariel.  We can't go to the Crossroads without her wanting to ride on the horses.  Someone kindly gave us a quarter when they heard me telling her I didn't have any.  Phew, bullet dodged.  We also stopped at Old Navy to get Tommy some pants.  I love shopping the sales there and I really like their kid clothes.  However, Elsy peed her pants while we were there (seriously, when was the last time she did that!? I had nothing for her) and Tommy cried the whole time.  So by the time I got through the amazingly long line to the register and they told me the jeans I had picked out weren't on sale like I thought I just bought them anyway.  $17 pants for a baby?  Jeeeee whiz.  But I figured it was worth it to pay full price than to have to go back with my bazerko kids and find a new pair.  I told Logan and he laughed and laughed. 

This week we have been sleep training this poor kiddo.  I feel like I should win the most neglectful mom of the year award because on the second night he woke up with no voice from the crying.  Logan and I are NOT cut out for this kind of torture.  Logan will sit and hold the video monitor in his hands and just watch him... as if somehow watching Tommy cry will make it all better?  I try to keep busy and distract myself.  All three of us end up miserable.

But it has been paying off!  The last two nights he has fallen to sleep on his own without a peep!  YAY!! .... now for the middle of the night... ugh.

On Saturday it poured and poured rain.  But we needed to get out of the house so I put Tommy on the porch with a bouncy car and some puffs and Elsy and I played in the gutter with our rain boots.  We were sopping wet by the end but it was a lot of fun.

General Conference was last week.  One of the challenges I decided to take on was the "Ponderize" challenge from Elder Devin G. Durran of taking one scripture every week and trying to memorize it and ponder it throughout the week.  To make sure I was serious I bought a little chalk board for the kitchen and will be writing my scripture on it.  I also made the home screen of my phone the scripture and each time I opened my phone I tried to recite the scripture.  I chose this scripture (Doctrine and Covenants 101:38) because I feel like my life has been lacking much needed patience on my part.  I think that seeking the face of the Lord, or in other words praying to him, has helped me keep a cool head several times this week.  I definitely have had my moments of "I am never praying for patience again!!" (because sometimes I feel like when I pray for patience the Lord 'blesses' me with 'opportunities' to try and be patient haha) but others where it has really helped.  I thought to myself this week that some people are just patient by nature and that must not be me.  But then I remembered the scripture that says weak things can be made strong through the Lord.  I decided that patience isn't going to be a weakness for me any more.  It might be a long road to get there, but I am working on it. And as long as I keep telling myself "I'll try again tomorrow" the Lord will keep helping me to get there.

Movie Nights and General Conference

I was bound and determined to be productive and busy this week.  I went and bought some paint and spent a few days painting a nightstand I got for free for Elsy's bedroom.  No pictures yet because it still needs one more coat.  I also spent a lot of time trying to get ready for a ward daddy daughter movie night I was asked to head off.  More on that later...

Whenever I ask Elsy what she wants to do she says she wants to go to the park.  We go to the park several times every week and I always try to change up what park because I get bored.  

Lately Elsy has been a lion... all the time.  She will randomly let out a fierce "RAAARR!" throughout the day.  She knows now that there are no lions at the dinner table. :)  She continues to surprise me with how smart she is.  This week she opened a book I have been reading to her and quoted it almost word for word.  I couldn't believe it!  Now she does it for several books (give or take a few words).  It is so fun to hear her jibber jabbering around.  She can speak so well but sometimes when she wants to carry on a conversation her mouth moves faster than her brain and out comes the most random jibberish mixed with real words.  We have spent so much time repeating what she says to us to make sure that we understand her.  Now that she is easier to understand I am trying not to repeat what she says.  Its pretty funny because she thinks I don't understand her anymore and will repeat over and over again. (for example she says "Are we going to the store?"  I used to say: "Are we going to the store? Yes!"  Now she will ask and I will just say "Yes" and she will ask over and over if we are going to the store because she doesn't think I know what she said.)

Tommy has had a few rough days this week.  He got his first cold of his life (I know, 8 months right?  Awesome!) from hes loving sister.  He also seems to be teething.  He army crawls all over the house and has begun to demolish and devour books.  I love his little mouth because he makes it go in a straight line and his cheeks hang over it.  So smug.  We are currently trying to sleep train the little guy but his cold has put a stopper on that.  He gets so excited when Elsy wakes up from her nap or when Logan comes home from work.  

A big surprise this week was Grandma Bean having an extra long layover in Seattle on her way to Utah.  Logan went in to work late and we drove down and had a brunch with her at Denny's.  (I love this picture because their smiles match haha!)

It was good to catch up.  Grandma brought Elsy a mini pumpkin and Logan and I a box of chocolates from the Fudge Shop.  I would have to say that if Logan's parents were ever to move away from New Jersey the only downside...but it is a BIG downside.... would be that they moved away from the Fudge Shop.  I am serious!!  It would be a sad day to never get any of those delectable chocolate covered gummy bears ever again.  (But of course we would love them to be closer more. ;)

On Friday we had our ward Daddy Daughter Movie Night.  After the Father's and Son's camp out this summer apparently some people wanted a daddy daughter activity as well!  They asked the Activity Day leaders to head it off and as that is my calling I kinda took this on as my project with the help of my friend Lacie - who is also Activity Day leader ;)  We watched the new Cinderella movie and had an awesome turn out! Everyone brought blankets, lawn chairs, and pillows.  The early people moved in some of the foyer couches (like Logan haha).

I made a ticket booth out of a box I found behind Pier 1 (that's Lacie, she is so cute!).  Lacie handed out tickets and then they came to the entrance of the gym where I stood at that podium and ripped the ticket stubs.  We made a little walkway with Christmas lights.  My favorite was the slide show I made before the movie played... you know like the ones they have at theaters?  It had adds for upcoming ward activities, conference, MormonAds, funny LDS memes, and reminders that there was all the candy and popcorn you could eat.

I also made a fun little concessions sign.  Yum we ate so much candy.  It turned out awesome and my favorite was seeing several little girls cuddling up to their dads and dads giving their girls kisses on the heads.  Aww melted my heart.  Elsy sat with Logan on the couch.  He said a couple of times she just scooted over to him and gave him a big big hug.  So sweet.

The next two days was General Conference.  How I just love conference!  Since last conference Elders L. Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer, and Richard G. Scott all passed away.  They were all such wonderful leaders.  This weekend they called three new apostles:  Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund.  It was good to hear their testimonies and it is going to be fun getting to know them.  President Monson seemed especially worn out and it was sad to see him falter and loose his strength as he was giving a talk.  I love him and know he is the Lord's mouthpiece on the earth.  Logan and I have talked a little bit about some of the goals we want to set for the next coming months... including 'Ponderizing' (picking a weekly scripture to ponder and memorize). 

One thing I realized during conference was how hard it is going to be to get the same spirit I have always felt watching Conference when I have young children demanding my attention.  Now I know why my parents would record it and watch it late at night in their bedroom while us kids were in bed!  About halfway through the first talk on Saturday morning Elsy came to me and said "Conference over?".... ummm... no... Haha.  We survived though and I still was able to feel like the Lord was answering my questions and prayers through the leader's words.

Whenever Conference ends Logan and I feel so restless.  We have sat around all day and snacked a bunch and are strangely exhausted and the house is a tornado.  We were feeling antsy and wondering what to do.  Before I knew it Logan had flipped our couch on its side and was pulling the staples out of the bottom so he could look at the springs and see if he couldn't fix it.  Apparently after sitting on it for eight hours he decided it needed fixing.  (We got it off Craigslist after we got married and it has had a hole in the bottom since we got it.  We have been making do with a board over it.)  I was so surprised when he had it all fixed!  He screwed a new beam in place, re-aligned all the springs, and slid a wire through the whole thing.  Yay for handy husbands!  Then he took the kids on a walk so I could clean the house.  :)