Blue Eyes

Today while waiting with the boys, I interacted with a woman who kept staring at my boys' eyes. "I love how big they are," she said with sincerity and admiration. I felt the compliment completely and am still touched by it. I guess I needed to hear something kind from a stranger today.

And now I can't stop looking at their beautiful eyes and thanking God that I get to look into them every day despite my mistakes and shortcomings.

Thank you, new acquaintance. And thank you President Uchtdorf. The best way to find happy things is to look around you, even recognizing the background of things you see everyday as that thing to bring you a bit more joy.

Sean at 6 months

Alan at 7 months

And as a side note from a mother's love, they also have amazing eyelashes. And Al, that dimple kills me. Stop it already.

Today I asked Sean some questions. Here it is:

What kid of food do you like to eat?
"My favrit food, eat PIZZA."

What sport do you like to play?
"Golfing. And... I like... bakoball. And I like bakoball and golf. And I like spiderman backpack."

What's your favorite show to watch?
"Um, Dragon. And... Handy Manny. Please I watch Handy Manny." (Dragon is How To Train Your Dragon)

What is your favorite color?
"Um, the table. White. Guess what, it's white."

"I like tools and I like no tools. Two tools!" (I don't know why he said this.)

What do you want to do when you grow up?
"Play with Daddy!"

What is your favorite snack to eat?
"I like to eat some heatbutter and sandwich! Heatabutter and honey!" (Peanutbutter and honey is his sandwich of choice)

What food don't you like?
"I don't like, like FOOD."

What do you like to do with Daddy?
"I like to WORKS with Daddy."
Why do you want to go to work with Daddy?
"Cuz I do."
What is at Daddy's work that you like?
"Candies."
Is that why you want to go?
"Yeah."

What is your favorite work to do  at school?
"ABCs." (We do a Montessori Preschool and they call the activities 'work')
What did you learn at school today?
"I learn ABCs." (These are his typical answers to these questions.)

What is your favorite song to sing?
"Uh, just Child of God."

What is your favorite toy to play with?
"The train."   
Tell me why
"*laughing* But it is."

When you were little, what did you do?
"I hit."

What do you like to do with Alan?
"Uh, I just do work with Alan."

Who's your favorite person?
*points to me*
I laugh and say 'That's right.'
His response: "Daddy is at work. Daddy is a person, you are a mudder. But you are a mudder, mom! But you are a mudder!" (Apparently he's trying to say that I am a person and also not a person.)

I decided to end the interview there before he told me what he really thinks of me.

Wow. I haven't posted since July? Really? Strange.

Well let's go month by month and talk about the awesomeness that ensued.

July - I had a good birthday. Climbing up the ladder to 30 is always a fun concept to think about and I'm tired of the years passing by so quickly. But then again it's fun to feel like my birthday is always about to be celebrated. Right? Anyway. We also went up to Idaho for a sweet family reunion. Alan consumed a large amount of dairy the first night and then proceeded to puke all night followed by some really awesome diaper changes for the next couple of days. Definitely an allergy there. Poor kid. Sean had lots of fun and both boys were fantastically dirty by the time we got home. I loved it. It was so nice to see Grandma Avery and her remaining living sisters and all of their kids and grand-kids that came. There was a lot of people. The cabin in Idaho is kind of a place of nostalgia and calm - I always come back home refreshed and ready for civilization. And a kitchen where your brother-in-law didn't just kill a mouse. With an eight-foot-long 2x4. It was exciting. Pioneer Day was cool. Actually, I don't remember what we did. Brian was probably working. I also called my grandma because it was her birthday that day. This is a novel thing for me - I'm terrible at calling people on their birthday. Then we celebrated my Muncle Matt's birthday! He and my auntie were up in Utah and a whole bunch of people went to Tucano's to celebrate. I had never been there before. Verdict: Good experience. I got plenty of the meats that I wanted (yum!) and lots of cheese bread (which I almost let Alan eat because I'm really awesome at reading placards of what the foods were) and various other deliciousness from the salad bar. This is definitely a place I don't want to frequent more that once or maybe twice a year. Too much food. Good good good food. I didn't eat for the rest of the day.

August - I had a brief respite and then we went full-on into the Gudmundson Family Reunion. It started with a Clair & Zelta Gudmundson family Reunion at the park. There was fried chicken and millions of kids and lots of chatting with the adults. Very enjoyable. Then for the next week it was all of Brian's siblings and their kids with few naps and late bedtimes. We visited and ate and played and just plain exhausted ourselves. And then the day after the reunion ended we helped Brian's parents pack and clean their house. And then the next day Brian and I cleaned our house so that they could comfortably stay with us. They're going on a mission to Texas next month and have rented out their house. Sean has liked having them here, and I think Alan has, too. Then they went a-visiting out-of-state kids. Sean and Al and I then had a few adventures at Thanksgiving Point and letting the house get really messy. I was experimenting with my emotional/mental state and solutions for it and it really wasn't a good idea. I had no patience with anybody or anything. It didn't help that I was preparing for a a ward activity (5k/fun run/fun walk + breakfast! it went wonderfully) and then a lesson in Relief Society. That was a crazy 2.5 weeks. I am very glad it's over. And I learned my lesson to not plan a giant activity for the week before I give a lesson. Duh, Tay.

September so far... - Sean started preschool. Oh my land. I can't believe everything that he's learned in just two weeks. His sentences are more structured, his thoughts are more easily articulated and I swear he's grown an inch. Alan went three nights in a row last week of sleeping in four-hour shifts. It was beautiful. He has since stopped, though seems to be working back to that blessed preferred schedule. I am very tired. That's what happens when you get spoiled for a few days and then jerked back into reality. My parent-in-laws are back here for a few more days and then will be switching where they stay more until they leave next month. I am concurrently learning Spanish with my MIL as she is listening to her CD from the Missionary Training Center. :) It's a nice refresher. My lesson went well though I feel like it was disconnected. Oh well. It seemed to get across to the ladies what I intended it to.

And meanwhile, Brian has been working the European shift. 2AM until 10AM. It's been really, um, something. Nice to play with him all summer, but I think we'll all be glad to get back to a normal schedule. He works downstairs until around 8 and then he goes into the office until 12 (I am not sure why he stays that long, but I think it's so that he can stay on top of his actual job and keep up with what's going on there, and various meetings that are held). But tomorrow is his last day of that nonsense! Woohoo!

Coconut

All this time I've been without milk products (mostly), I have found that my FAVORITE replacement for ice cream has been coconut milk ice cream. Specifically the SO Delicious brand.

And today I discovered the frozen dessert bars. It's an ice cream sandwich, but oh so much more amazing.

Oh, no, I don't plan to share.

Just so you all know

This guys has four (almost six) teeth, says mama, doesn't always wake up every two hours, and pulls himself up to standing on everything that doesn't fall over on him. He also tries to let go and balance while standing. There are more bumps and bruises on his head than I know where they came from.

His love of life is amazing and he sure keeps us busy.

5K #1

Well, I ran it! And I didn't die. Good news, no?

But I ran up the hill towards the temple because it's ridiculously steep and I'm a little bitter that it was even part of the course. My achilles tendons JUST stopped aching today.

Somehow I need to keep running because I have another one on Monday morning. Brian is currently on the European shift (2-10AM) so I'm going to have to recruit the neighbors to come listen for when Alan starts crying so he can stay asleep.

Somehow he is going to run said Monday-morning-race with me. He totally procrastinated getting ready for it and now he's not only unprepared, but will be totally sleep-deprived. We are going to make quite the pair. If we wind up sticking together the whole race it will be awesome if we don't run into each other because we're running with our eyes closed.

Back to last Saturday. The race was totally worth it. It was perfect weather, I passed tons of people (which is why I started in the back - it made me feel really good about myself), and I finished at 36:58, making an 11:56 pace. I am totally satisfied with this. I've had to take a lot of breaks in training due to ankle issues, sleep deprivation and laziness. In April I was running 15 minute paces, so this is fantastic, IMO. Maybe if I hadn't walked up the hill that only crazy people ran up I would have done better. Or maybe I would have passed out into the water station. Who knows?

And to my Brother-In-Laws who are running a marathon in August, don't even ask. I will not be joining you. Three miles was plenty for me, thankyouverymuch. Maybe next year I will do a 10K, but don't hold your breath for that either.

At the very end of the race, I could see the balloon arch at the finish as I entered the final, forever-long stretch. I wanted so badly to walk again. I was a little discouraged by the half-marathon-ers passing me in their 4-minute mile pace. But then I thought of my little Sean and how he'd been asking me "you going running, mom?" every time I left the house without him. He was starting to ask if he could come with me. I couldn't make myself look like a liar in his eyes - I had to finish running. I didn't know where in the final stretch they would be, but there was no way he was going to see me walk. Even though he's three and only really cared about drinking my chocolate milk and eating my french toast afterward, he saw me do a hard thing. And that is what I wanted for him - to know that mom won't take the easy way out when it comes to hard things.

kids n stuff

Sean's conversation with himself while playing with a toy car. Further background: it has doors that open and he calls it a police car (it's actually a convertible, go  figure). I tried to differentiate between the different personalities in the conversation:

"hey honey

I on my bed. yes. i open my door. i opened up my door. yes?
I get up. Hey, come and open my door.

*thud*

hey come in! get out of the car? hey i got ..uh... oh. uh.. i come? Uhhh no. Hey I crash!

What? You crash? What you crash.

Yeah. I drive drive drive crashing into it.

You crash into it?

Yes, over there.

Where where where? I don't see it.

I riding to sean's house. It's police car over there. It's a police car at sean's house. Sean's house?

I not home. Not home. I go to a hotel.

A hotel! A big hotel. Big giant hotel, huh. *whispers* wow!"

I can't wait until he starts repeating conversations Brian and I have. He's already starting to ask questions about things he overhears (which has been making us more careful about our topics and words of choice). And today he kept saying to his bike helmet "stupid helmet" over and over. I think I may have said "stupid helmet" yesterday when I accidentally kicked it while walking through the kitchen. I guess it could have been worse, but I was in a good mood so none of the swears popped out that would have had my mood been foul. :) I'll count my blessings.

Potty training is going well. We have good days and bad days, and I will admit that the bad days are usually my fault. And then today he peed on the floor, but then pooped in the potty. I'm still trying to make sense out of that one.

Alan produces more crumbs than any other child I know. He is at least 4x messier than Sean ever was, but that's ok. I enjoy his curiosity, even if that means a lot more clean-up.

And what makes the bad days worth it? Moments like just now when Sean ran into Alan's room, hearing the baby playing in his crib, and excitedly saying "I miss you" over and over. And finding Al's stash of binkies under the crib and playing with him with them. Almost makes up for the daily witching hours of 4-6 PM. Almost.