Babysitting fiasco

A few days ago, Russell asked me how many children I wanted to have (we've talked about this before, but we've never decided on a specific number). I answered the same way I usually do: "as many as we can handle". Then he told me how many he might want, and I was surprised because it wasn't as many as I would have guessed.

Anyways, after debating what constitutes a large family, I started thinking about how "as many as we can handle" can be interpreted differently. For me, it means as much as I can. For Russell it means not TOO many.

After today and last Wednesday I've come to the realization that "as many as I can handle" might possibly be only 2.

Wednesday morning is the day I babysit our friends' children, Kaden and Sean as an exchange for them watching Joshua on Monday and Tuesday mornings (3 families, 3 boys about the same age). It usually goes a lot smoother than that, but today was a nightmare.

I'm surprised my neighbor hasn't called Social Services yet.

The funny part was Joshua giving his friends the evil eye because they were crying louder than him. He even went to Sean and told him: "Stop Seanie! My crying!"

Favorite blogs

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/

Conference Week-End

This week-end was conference week-end (meaning we watched a live broadcast of the prophet and apostles talk from the Conference Center in SLC).

We decided to stay at home and watch them on our computer instead of going to church because I was on duty and it would allow William to take his nap.

The boys were so cute dressed in their white shirts and dark pants.

This is Josh taking "notes"...

Until he decided playing with his car was more fun.

In between two sessions, we made pipe-cleaner glasses for the boys. (I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs http://meetthedubiens.blogspot.com/2011/03/pipe-cleaner-glasses.html).

Josh loved them.

What a cute little nerdie

And William... Let's say we took this picture really quick before he grabbed them and put them in his mouth.

My favorite talks were Elder Richards' on Saturday morning (he talked about why we experience pain in this life), Bishop Burton's (about the Church welfare program) and Elder Scott's (treating our spouse and children better).

http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/04?lang=eng

I'm sure I missed a ton of really good ones, but I'll have to watch them when the kids are in bed, or read about them in the Liahona.

Anyhow I was so edified, I feel happy and confident that I can be a better person and I wish everybody could feel this sweet feeling of peace.

Crochet Flower Necklace

I found the pattern for this necklace over at http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com

It is so easy to make, I did it while watching conference.

The instructions can be found here.

The only thing about it is it keeps spinning around my neck because the flower is too heavy.

I still like it a lot, and it would make a very cute gift.

He's "almost" crawling

William is 8 months 1/2, he doesn't sleep through the night, he won't eat anything except breast milk, but he is "almost" crawling. And he sure is plenty cute!

Enjoy the video here

A Saturday without Daddy

The week-end of April 17th to the 21st, Russell went to DC to visit Gramma Rogers and Uncle John, so I had to find a good occupation for the kids and me.

Living in the Family Housing is a paradise during the week, but on the week-end it can get pretty depressing if you don't have anything planned.

During the week we kind of have a schedule set: In the morning everybody is taking care of their own business, some of us are organised with neighbors to take turns babysitting, we clean the house, go grocery shopping and take care of various chores. In the afternoon kids nap between 1pm and 3pm and the entire Family Housing is calm for "quiet hours". But when the clock strikes 3pm, everybody rushes to the playground (now that the weather is nice).

On the week-end it's different. Daddys are home. Often, people go out as a family, or the Dads watch the kids while the Moms go shopping, and surprisingly the playgrounds of the Family Housing are deserted.

So honestly, being alone with the kids on the week-end is deadly.

Since I've already been in this deadly situation, I decided this week-end would be different and I wouldn't be haunting the playgrounds like a loner. So after William's nap we took the bike, a picnic, pizza leftovers for the ducks and headed to the library.

Well, on our way, Jo insisted to stop at the playground, so we still had to eat our picnic like loners. But then off to "Boulder creek" to go to the library.

The path was not as crowded as it can be in full summer, so we took things at our own pace (meaning my snaily pace, given I haven't biked in 10 years and I was pulling two kids fighting for the same ball). Josh and William enjoyed feeding the ducks, although none of them seemed interested in our pizza... maybe as true Boulderites they didn't appreciate the pepperoni on it.

At the library, Joshua likes to look at the fish in the aquariums, and he loves to play with the puppet theater and computers. We also met our friends Sarah, Zoe and Owen who used to be our neighbors last year but they live in Smiley Court now.

On the way back, William fell asleep on Joshua's shoulder. He was really cute, until Josh nudged him with his shoulder and woke him up.