November is for Fashion

November was spent trying to figure out our new routine with a toddler who likes to stay busy and a baby who really, really, really hates being in the car. Monday we do grocery shopping and errands, Tuesdays and Thursdays are Toddlerschool, Wednesday is usually library/ riparian preserve time, and Fridays we have dance class and a weekly play date with Rebecca. Ada hate, hate, hates the car and screams at the top of her lungs the entire ride. Rory is surprisingly patient, especially for a three year old. 

For our new scheduled lifestyle we have a rule that mom gets to pick out the outfits for Toddlerschool and dance class, but if it's an errand or just for fun day then Rory gets to choose if she wants to. This stripe outfit was my choice. The giant bow was a gift from Grammy and it makes Rory look equal parts naughty and adorable in my mind. 

My friend Jax is an award winning Irish dancer and she recently started up a little beginners class for girls Rory and Naomi's age. It starts on Thursdays before Rory is done with Toddlerschool, so by the time we make it to the church from class we just catch the last 20 minutes of it. It would not be so bad in theory except that both girls fall apart on the 8 minute drive from the community center to the church building. Ada screams because I have had the audacity to put her back in the car after she just calmed down from the last traumatic drive and Rory cries for a different reason every week. Irish class for us really means watching other girls be distracted from learning dance because both of my children are losing their minds and all the other well-groomed mothers looking at me with eyes that say, "My, don't YOU have your hands full?" It's a blast all around. The funny thing is that even though Rory has cried through every single class, she still asks about it and talks about it throughout the week like it's her most favorite activity ever. Kids.

Marisa started teaching a Saturday morning High class at my gym and it is an absolute miracle! It's early enough that I can feed Ada and then get ready to go while she and Stephen catch up on all the night sleep that no one in the house is getting. Rory comes to the gym with me and she LOVES being in the car without Ada and her crying. We both love it, no offense Ada. After I get a solid sweat on and Rory gets in her morning cartoons in the gym daycare, we usually stop on the way home at Ross or Bath and Body Works to keep up with the sales and to continue to enjoy being baby-less for just a little bit longer. Again, we love you very much Ada. 

Rory has taken to wearing socks on her hands basically all the time to protect people from her freezing powers. It makes her look like a crazy person and I love it. She also believes her BYU shirt is the best one she owns. She's a Marsh alright. 

We do little toddler-based activities for our Come Follow Me lessons and Rory and I lovingly call them "Jesus lessons". They are fun and short and often times involve marshmallows so Rory loves them. This is us building toothpick and marshmallow temples. Rory is wearing her Minnie Mouse outfit and, as requested, Minnie Mouse hair. 

Rory is falling completely in love with books and it is so fun to watch. She could gladly be at the library for hours looking through pictures and asking me to read the ones that look really fascinating to her. Ada does alright at the library, but she usually requires that her stroller remain in constant motion which is difficult to maintain while sitting down to read stories. It definitely makes for a good little arm workout. Often I take these pictures as proof of life to send to Stephen. What an attractive bunch. 

Our superstar realtor, Bryce, held another client appreciation activity and we were there because we never miss out on free. They did a family picture mini session (hallelujah) at the park and also served Waffle luv (double hallelujah). The best part was I was already taking the girls to the park that day for a Christmas mini shoot so it really was like all my lucky stars were lining up. The set up ended up going a little awry as the waffle people couldn't get a reliable power source for their waffle irons and the photo guy had to help solve the crisis so by the time our family took pictures Rory had a bleeding knee, torn tights, and one less than cooperative attitude. It still turned out great and any activity that ends in waffles is usually a good one. At the event we won a cookie decorating kit and Rory obviously loved it. I did not let her eat the puddle of frosting that happened to be on top of a cookie, in case you were wondering. 

Here is Rory on a grocery day, just so you get a sense of her style. Very Wal-Mart appropriate. 

Looking so cute all dressed up for Toddlerschool. They made these Indian headbands and learned a "rain dance" which was basically what they do in Peter Pan so I'm not sure it's the most politically correct school, but it is adorable!

Here's another example of when I allow Rory to choose her own clothes. Sorry to anyone who has sat on our couch, but you had to know that bare toddler bum was gonna be on there at some point, right?And here is Rory insisting to wear her "dress" (my nursing cover) while shopping. She was pretty sure she needed these sunglasses.

We have been bribing Rory with a star system lately and it is working. She gets stars when she poops in the potty instead of her nighttime pullup. She gets stars when she is soft to Ada instead of biting her or pulling her off the bed. It takes a lot of hard work but when she gets ten stars she gets a prize and this was the week she chose an ice cream date with dad. She got purple ice cream just like she requested and she talked about it for weeks and weeks. I earned my ice cream by keeping two kids alive for another month.

Last, but not least, a story that is not a fond memory but is definitely worth remembering anyways. I have mentioned before that Ada hates the car. We have tried everything. Pictures of me, toys to play with, mirrors, windows down, windows up, iPad playing videos, loud music, quiet music, no music, baby music, white noise... if anyone blogged about it, we tried it. Some resulted in one or two pleasant drives before they quickly stopped working, but on the whole we were no where closer to teaching Ada not to scream incessantly in the car. Then one fateful Friday in either October or November, I can't actually remember at this point, I locked my keys in the car. With my phone. And Rory. And Ada. Both girls in the car, no way to call Stephen who has the spare van key, and Ada already losing her mind just because she was set down in the car. I freaked. I ran to my neighbor Jessica to try to use her phone but she wasn't home. It started raining- when is it ever raining in Gilbert?!- and I ran back to the car. I tried to coax Rory into pressing the door open button with her toe. I happened to know she was capable of doing so because just the week before she had freaked out when I pressed the door open button instead of letting her do it with her toes. She tried a few times unsuccessfully and then, as soon as she noticed my real panic set in, she started crying and refused to try any more. 

My neighbor across the street had just come out of her house to walk her dog and I rushed over to ask her if I could use her cell phone. I can't think of her name for the life of me, but she was so sweet. I called Stephen and he said he would try to come home to unlock it, but with his commute he was at least 45 minutes away, probably longer with traffic. My neighbor's husband Gary came over and tried to break in to the car for me. He tried and tried, but just couldn't get it to work and was worried about ruining my car. I finally called 9-1-1 and they sent the fireman right away. Before the firetruck arrived (yes they send the whole truck for dummies who lock their children in the car) a policeman pulled up. He heard the call and was in the area so he came by first to make sure no one was in any immediate danger and to see if I was a crazy person who was abusing my children. Once he deemed me a safe, albeit dumb, mom ("Why were the keys and the phone on the front seat and not in your hand?") he and is doggy police partner stuck around and chatted all things dog with my neighbor. The firetruck finally arrived and four, yes FOUR, fireman started working on the car and asking me the same are-you-an-unfit-mother style questions. With all their tools and training it still took them about 20 minutes to get into the car. Rory seemed completely unfazed by the sight of four fireman, two neighbors, two dogs, and one policeman gathering around our car and Ada screamed the entire time as if, well as if I had made her ride in the car to the grocery store and back. So in the end, I was a mess, everyone else was fine, and Stephen got to get off work early to take care of his neglected children and incompetent wife. All's well that end's well. 

A Warm, Yet Frozen October

Nothing says, "Party's over" quite like a stomach bug the Monday after your birthday weekend. Poor Rory was miserable for the whole day, but movies pulled us through it. I was able to get a lot of baby snuggles and audiobooks in, so minus cleaning up puke it was a pretty good day for me. P.S. how on earth do you teach a toddler to throw up in the toilet! I was barely able to get her to sit on it and now I have to teach her to put her head in there? Blech. Motherhood. 

Luckily it was just a 24 hour bug and by Monday night Rory was feeling much better. Even better news, no one else in the family got it! By Friday Rory was back to dance class and her weekly play date with Rebecca. I'm not one to buy a ton of toys or dress ups, I found this Anna dress on super sale a while back and couldn't resist buying it. Now that Rory has her Elsa dress from her birthday and we've got the full Frozen set, it's made for some pretty cute princess pretend play time. These girls could be Anna and Elsa all day long (which is fantastic because Rebecca enjoys being Anna WAY more than I do.)

I'm not getting much accomplished with this baby but my oh my do I love the snuggles. She cracks me up with the positions she ends up in. 

Now that things are finally cooling down here (the worst part of AZ for me is when everyone else is starting to get fall weather and we are still sweating through shorts), we were able to go to the zoo with our friends, the Boyces. We almost didn't make it because it was absolute chaos at the zoo that day. It was the Friday of fall break here, so I should have guess the zoo would be packed, but I did not. One thing Ada has learned in her mere two months of life is that she HATES the car. She screams and cries the entire time and I, so far, have yet to find anything that calms her down. Music on, window down, picture of mom, mirror to see herself- you name it and she will cry through it. The zoo is about a thirty minute drive from our house plus there was morning traffic so it took us about 40 minutes to get to the zoo that morning. 40 minutes of my new sweet baby screaming her little head off. 40 minutes of pure torture. When we were about three minutes away from the zoo I saw a light up message sign that said, "Zoo parking full- additional parking full." I looked at it, confused, and kept on driving because we all had to get out of the car as soon as possible before we lost our minds. I pulled onto the zoo street and was immediately in a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot. Zoo workers directed us forward in a line and when my car FINALLY made it into the car parking lot the workers directed me around the circle and right back out of the parking lot and into the street I just came from. I basically started to melt down because I had no idea what to do, but I knew I couldn't turn around and go home and have to listen to a baby AND a toddler cry for another 40 minutes. Rory noticing we did not park at the zoo immediately started in with, "But mom, why did you turn? Mom, I wanted to go to the zoo! Mom the zoo is that way!". I turned off the music and said over Ada's screaming, "Rory I am going to try to get us to the zoo but I need to focus to solve this problem so please be quiet for a minute" I went right back and got in line. When I got to the parking lot and the traffic person tried to direct me back out I channeled my father, ignored him, and turned down the parking lane currently blocked by cones (and to avoid the cones I had to do about a 16-point turn so that was basically the epitome of my worst nightmare) and was able to miracle of all miracles find a parking spot! When I finally parked, Rory who had been obediently silent, yelled, "You did it, Mom! You worked hard and you solved your problem!" I rescued Ada from her car prison and we had a wonderfully uneventful day at the zoo with the Boyces.

Jax and Jocy are great  playmates for Rory because she completes their spectrum. Jax is a little spicy, Jocy is super sweet, and Rory falls somewhere in the middle. The kids liked the animals but LOVED fighting over sticks they found on the ground, so I bet Ada, who slept the whole time, felt like all her tears were well worth it. 

Now that Rory is three I decided it was time to finally take her to the dentist since her doctor has been telling me to since she turned one. She was excited, but nervous. I could not believe how brave she was! Is it normal to have tears in your eyes while watching your child have a dental cleaning? She looked so tiny in that chair, but she played it cool and casual like she goes to the dentist all the time. They had a movie on the TV while they did her cleaning, and I could tell her biggest issue while the dentist was poking around her teeth was that she couldn't hear what the movie was saying. Still she loved it and she couldn't believe she got a prize at the end for something that was so fun. I love this kid.

And here's some sweet sleepy baby Ada goodness. 

Last year we went to Vertuccio farms with Rebecca and Sarah and it was hot and gross and I hated it. I had basically planned to never go again... until they invited us again this year because they had so much fun last year. Well, it was much more mild weather this year and was way less busy than the last time we went. Rory loved running around and playing on all the toys and we had a really fun time with our friends. We ended the adventure with a lunch at McDonalds that the girls also loved. 

On October 21 Stephen turned 31! I made him a raspberry lemonade cake with a cookie log cabin on top to signify his love for watching cabin videos on YouTube. Stephen is not big on birthdays, but he is always the best sport of letting me go all out and acting excited about it. 

I signed Rory up for a "Toddlerschool" through the city of Gilbert Parks and Rec. She meets with her little class for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I have been so excited about it. I curled her hair for the first time and it made her look so much more grown up. I had to sneak a picture of her while she was eating her lunch because she wouldn't pose for me. Then I also had to take a sneaky picture of her going into class because I just couldn't even handle the cuteness.

We have gotten to enjoy some beautiful park days lately and it's about this time of year that I remember that we do like Arizona. We love our little neighborhood park, but if we don't go with friends Rory doesn't last long with just me because it turns out I am no fun at all. 

Also, look at this little finger monkey. Boy, do we love this baby. 

We volunteered to head up the ward Fall Festival this year with two other families and it kept us a little busier than we had anticipated, especially the day of the party. While I was distracted making food or decorating the trunk or something, Rory took a pair of scissors into the bathroom and cut off the end of her Elsa braid. If this is her only hair cutting incident I will feel like such a winner because she really only cut off the dead ends. I wanted to scare her enough that she won't want to do it again and I said, "Now we have to go get you a haircut and you are going to have to pay for it with your own money." She said, "And we won't have any money left? And we won't have any money for our house? And we will have no where to live??" To which I replied, "Yep. Exactly." So now she thinks the only thing keeping us from becoming homeless is her not cutting her own hair. 

After the fall festival Rory came down with another stomach bug (or ate something bad at the party?) and two stomach bugs in one month is just not fair. Also, this little bug made it's way through the entire family. First, Rory had it and then poor little Ada started throwing up. If you've never had a newborn with a stomach bug it is even more heartbreaking than toddler stomach bugs. We just lounged, threw up, and watched movies all day. Towards the evening I started to feel nauseous myself and finally had to call Stephen when the aches and chills were so bad that I couldn't pick Ada up anymore. He rushed home from work just in time for me to throw up in our trusty barf bowl. The funny thing is I could not convince Rory to puke in the toilet OR the barf bowl so I basically just had to sit around on guard and sneak that bowl in under her mouth when I saw more throw up coming. After watching me throw up in the bowl (which had been cleaned many times that day, I should add) she was excited to try her hand at it. Except her stomach had calmed down by then so she never got the chance. Now she just says, "Mom, remember when you threw up in that bowl?" all the time, so that's one lesson learned.
On a side note, I love all these pictures of these sad sleepy babies because it looks like I did some photoshop time warp magic. You look at Ada and see exactly what Rory used to look like and you look at Rory and can basically see what Ada will look like in the future.
Also, Rory was never sick as a baby because I never had to go anywhere with her, but poor Ada has gone through so many colds and yucky bugs already. Having a baby throwing up for real instead of regular spit up just about broke my heart.

Luckily the sickness worked its way through us pretty quickly and after two days we were back to life as usual. Rory was so happy to return to Toddlerschool so she could proudly tell everyone all about watching her mom throw up in a bowl. 

And, the moment we have all been waiting for, here are our Halloween 2019 costumes! Rory- Elsa, Ada- Sven, Stephen- Kristoff, and Kylie- Olaf. Stephen said he's tired of costumes where he is decked out head to toe and all I wear is a t-shirt and that he is doing the costumes next year. We will just see about that... 

Rory loved trick or treating at the senior center for her Toddlerschool Halloween party and she did not let one bite of that sugar cookie go to waste.