6/13/09-7/2/09

Saturday 6/13/09 – We went to the library this morning to see if we could get some MN Zoo passes. But they were all gone when we got there. I asked the librarian if she knew when the passes would expire and be available again and she said that she did not know. So I planned to quickly get our stuff and leave so we could go to another library to see if they had them (we planned on bringing Lijah to the MN Zoo on Monday for his birthday). A few minutes later the librarian came over and whispered to me "Which passes were you looking for?" I told her which ones and she waved me over to the desk. She must have had a secret stash somewhere because she let me secretly check one out. This was great because it saved us about $30! I guess it makes up for the $20 library book I had to buy a few months ago…..

Sunday 6/14/08 – Went to church and it was super hot when we got out. I planned on playing in the pool after Lijah's nap so I filled it up right when we got home. But then when he woke up it wasn't so hot anymore. But we played a bit in it anyways.

Monday 6/15/09 – Today was Lijah's birthday! Grandma came over to drop off Abbie and then we all went to the Minnesota Zoo. I remember it taking forever to get to the zoo when I was younger so I packed a puzzle book and magazine in the car and then thought I might take a short nap before getting there. But to my amazement, we were there in about 20 minutes. I was happy, but disappointed at the same time. We rented a double stroller, which did not have a very good fastener for Clark, but we tried it anyways and it ended up working really good. Clark liked having a bit of freedom and there was plenty of room for Lijah to hop on if he got tired of walking. We got some lunch and Lijah ate a lot – he especially liked the waffle cut French fries. I think Lijah liked the underwater fish room the best, Clark looked pretty excited about it as well. While we were walking around we noticed that Clark was all wet. I thought maybe he exploded out of his diaper, but it turns out that the can of sunscreen in my bag got hit and all of it sprayed out, leaving all over the stroller seat, soaking up into Clark's pants. Poor kid reeked like sunscreen and was all wet. I carried him the rest of the way and let Jason push Lijah, and eventually Abbie, in the stroller. It was a great day – we all really liked seeing all of the animals. I was rather impressed at how peaceful the animals looked – a big difference from the Como Zoo where all the animals look sad. When we got home Lijah and Clark napped and I laid down to rest a bit while Jason took Abbie home. Then when we got up again Lijah opened his presents. Here's what we got for Lijah: a Thomas the Train bedding set, a wooden train set with stacking blocks, a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends video and coloring book (the video was also partly for me because I love this show), a set of water flutes for the bathtub, tub markers, a fizzy bath ball with a dinosaur inside, and 3 shirts (which actually were hand-me-downs from his cousin Dylan that I pulled out of the closet, but they were new for Lijah!). Then we ate some cupcakes that Jason picked up on the way home and watched Foster's. I put Lijah to bed and he woke up a bit later crying. I went in to see what was wrong and he said that he did not want the day to end. He had such a good day that he did not want it to stop. It melted my heart.

Tuesday 6/16/09 – Biked to work and got absolutely soaked on the way home. It was kind of nice riding in the rain. I didn't get hot, and I knew I would be soaked so I didn't worry about getting wet. A project I was working on at work is going live to the whole company tomorrow so we were setting everyone up to have access tonight and ran into some snags. So I had to work for a few hours from home. But it actually works out because then I can take off early on Friday. While I was on the phone with someone at work I let Lijah play with some tape to keep him occupied, and quiet. I turned around and he had taken the tape and wrapped it around his big race car's fender, then attached the tape to himself and was in the process of wrapping the tape around and around his stomach. I reminded him of the snake he saw at the zoo and what he was doing to himself was like a snake and it could get too tight and hurt him. So I unwound the tape from his little body, to which he replied 'ouch' many times (he didn't realize that taking tape off is not as fun as putting it on). The person I was talking to was laughing on the other end.

Wednesday 6/17/09 – Biked to work. Just before bedtime Lijah decided he would be crafty in trying to stay up late. He put on quite a show for us climbing up on the couch's arm and jumping off over and over and over. Then He got out his new water flutes. Each of us had a flute (Clark too) and played, and then Jason turned on some background beats to play along to. We sat and played for quite some time and Lijah was very into it. If one of us stopped playing he made sure we started again. Then we had to call it quits because it was getting quite late. I went to shut the windows and saw our neighbor Margaret sitting out on her deck. Hopefully she enjoyed our rowdy concert!

Thursday 6/18/09 – Biked to work. After work I went to pick up our veggies from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm – it's our first delivery of the season. Here's what we got: 2 heads of bok choy, about 40 radishes, a bag of baby kale, and a huge bag of mixed greens. Being the first delivery, and having had colder weather this spring, we were warned that it would be a small share this week. However, I was amazed at how much we got. And even after splitting it up (we're sharing the share with Nate and Becca Robison) I still don't know how I am going to eat all of it! I am a bit scared to see what happens when the shares get really big at the end of the season. Then I took Lijah and Clark outside while I mowed the lawn. Lijah sat on the deck because he was scared of the lawn mower (but that didn't stop him from shouting 'let me try' the whole time I was mowing) and Clark hung out in his play pen. When I went to the front yard to mow Lijah was not as scared and brought out his little toy mower and pretended to mow with me. Jason spent some time cleaning up the backyard for the barbecue this weekend and then we all went inside.

Friday 6/19/09 - Biked to work and got off a bit early (1:30pm) since I worked from home Tuesday night. Jason finished up cleaning the backyard and I did the dishes and cleaned up inside the house. I baked the cakes for the airplane cake, then I brought the veggies from yesterday over to the Robisons, swung back home to pick up the boys and Jason, and headed to Sam's Club to meet Cherie to buy food for the party. After that we stopped at Target for a few things, and then Rainbow since Target was out of charcoal. I was going to put together the airplane cake before bed but then realized that I had nowhere to put the cake overnight where the cats would not eat it. So I went to bed instead.

Saturday 6/20/09 - Today was Lijah's birthday party. In the morning I put together the airplane cake. I had been really nervous that it was not going to turn out, and even as I was putting it together I was sure it was going to be a mess. But then once I got it all frosted it actually looked pretty cool. Then I made an Asian salad with the bok choy we got from the farm - and it turned out to be really good.

Lijah was super excited before everyone came and was helping me hang up balloons, then grandma came and he got his bike. I attempted to put it together but got frustrated and decided to wait for Grandpa Dan to come and help, but then Garry started to put it together because he felt bad for Lijah. The kids all played in the sprinkler and played with the bubbles. Lijah, on the other hand, started to not feel well once everyone arrived. The past few days he has been complaining of a tummy ache and he had the runs during the party. He did manage to perk up when we brought the cake out and blew out his candle with dad and ate a bit of cake. But he was not at all interested in opening any presents and just wanted to be held the whole time. Then I was going inside with him to change his diaper (for about the 5th time) and he barfed all over the deck. Jason and I thought that he was just being an irritable three year old and was maybe overwhelmed by the people at our house, but it turns out that he was actually sick. I felt bad for trying to get him to play when he was feeling really icky. So I brought him up to his room and he laid and rested while people started to trickle out of the party. I wasn't able to tell if people had a good time because I was so preoccupied with Lijah the whole time, but I hope they did. When I came back downstairs I was sitting on the deck with my dad and a bright red cardinal landed on the crab apple tree right above us and sung a pretty song for us and it reminded me of my mom (she loved cardinals). Then when most people were gone we headed indoors and Lijah came downstairs and had regained his energy. Then we put him down for a nap once everyone left.

Who was there (and presents): Grandma Cherie-Aunt Abbie-Grandpa Dan (Big Wheels bike, personalized Cars book), Aunt Dawn (Bubble machine, big jug of bubbles, and a sprinkler that shoots balls up in the air), my Dad-Aunt Nikki and her boyfriend Tim (Memory game), Garry and Rossi Clem with Astrid and Iris (Puma outfit, puzzle, colored pencils, bubbles), Zeke and Kendra Hernandez with Lucas and Mathias, Rachel Gaulke with Will and Eddie, McKenzie Parsons with Brad Gavin and McKenna (Bubble machine, matching egg/farm game), Aunt Angie with Dylan Alyssa and Zach (Thomas the train tracks and engine), and Nathan and Becca Robison (Shark book).

What we ate: Hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, mozzarella and garlic chicken sausage, Asian salad, broccoli salad, pistachio desert salad, chips, some dessert bars, and hummus with pita chips. And of course the airplane cake.

After naptime we had a potluck to go to. We weren't sure if we were going to make it because of Lijah but once he woke up he was back to his normal self again so we decided to go. During his nap I made a strawberry apple pie and then we headed out. We went to Ron and JoAnn Holm's house. Lorraine Blake and her husband, and Kathleen Earth and her 2 kids were there as well. We grilled burgers, Lorraine brought a delicious potato salad, and had a bunch of other side dished that JoAnn had prepared. They live on a pond and we saw a heron and a deer while we were eating.

Sunday 6/21/09 - Last night and this morning I started to not feel very well, but I was teaching a lesson at church today so I had to get up and go. It turned out to be good that I went because I got alot out of my meetings and was able to feel the spirit. During 3rd hour was my lesson and it was on redemption for the dead. I compared what the world believes happens when you die (judgement-wise) to what we believe and then talked about doing baptisms for the dead. At a high level we talked about how many churches believe that you are judges according to your status when you die, whereas the LDS church believes that Heavenly Father gives ample opportunities in this life or when you die to accept the gospel. Not everyone on Earth has the opportunity to hear the message and accept it and they are not just 'out of luck' because of that. Part of the lesson manual stated that Heavenly Father knows the situation of both the living and the dead, and has made ample provision for their redemption, according to their circumstances, whether in this world or in the world to come. It's reassuring that even though an individual may not attend the "right church", it is ok and Heavenly Father has a plan to allow them to be redeemed. Then we talked about how the LDS church does baptisms for those who have already died without having been baptizes for themselves. We do baptisms by proxy and allow those individuals the opportunity to either accept or decline what we have done for them. Some people will never accept the gospel, and they still have that choice - but there are many who would have accepted the gospel had they heard it so we do the required ordinances for them. This lesson was a bit tougher to teach than others and it was harder to draw out comments from the group, but I got alot of good feedback after the lesson that it went well. I even got a comment from the Stake Education Leader, Cheryl Baker, that she thought I did a great job - and since it is her calling to make sure the teachers are prepared to teach well it must mean that I am doing something right. After church I took a 2 hour nap with the boys then got up and made carrots and potatoes for dinner. Jason went to a fireside meeting in Bloomington with the missionaries, a new member of our church, and someone investigating our church. Lijah, Clark and I went out and played in the rain. Lijah wore his new rain boots that I got at a garage sale on Friday and played on his new big wheel and I enjoyed the cool air which helped me feel a little bit less sickly.

Monday 6/22/09 – Last night Clark was crying (I think he may have gotten the stomach cramp bug that Lijah had) and Lijah came up and told me that we should give the baby away. Then Lijah was playing with his new train set and Clark keeps going over and grabbing the tracks, ruining Lijah's fun. So then Lijah started yelling "mommy, baby needs a nap!'. He was trying everything he could to get that baby away from him and that train set. Then this morning he did the same thing. As soon as we went downstairs Lijah declared that it was time for baby to have a nap. On the way home from work (biking) it was very hot! When I got home I immediately filled up the kiddie pool and got wet before going into the air conditioned house to maximize the cooling effect when I went in. Then I say and laid on the floor while Lijah and Clark crawled all over me as I cooled off. Then once I was functioning again I took the boys outside to play in the pool. Clark always freaks out in the bathtub so I was not sure if he'd like the pool, but he did. He sat down and put his hands in and out of the water over and over – learning what happened when he did. His diaper got so big that I just decided to strip him down and let him go naked. Thankfully he did not have an accident on me – although I was fully aware that it could happen at any time. Lijah had fun playing with his new sprinkler from Aunt Dawn. He doesn't like to get wet when the getting wet is unpredictable but the sprinkler shoots balls up in the air and it was so tempting for him to go pick up the balls under the sprinkler that by the end of our time outside he was soaked. Hopefully it will help him get used to unpredictable water!

Tuesday 6/23/09 – I got a ride to work today because the heat index was over 100. There was also a parade tonight and I figured that I would not want to go outside again if I biked home. Dawn came over when I got home from work; we got ready, and loaded the boys in the wagon. The beginning of the parade is about 5 blocks away and we found Rossi with Astrid and Iris right where the parade was beginning. Lijah had a great time eating candy and seeing all of the floats and people go by. There was not as much loot at this parade as normal, but that's ok because it's less junk we have to figure out what to do with. Lijah's favorites this year:

Chicks on Sticks (2 ladies on stilts with big wings)
Diane Hofstede for City Council (because she had bubbles blowing from the back of her car)
Zuhrah Mariners (rode around in little boats)
Zuhrah Shrine Flyers (rode around on little helicopters)
Zuhrah Shrine Horse Patrol (horses)
There were also 2 sets of other little go carts

The only downside to the parade was that Lijah lost his new cup.In the middle of the night (at 3am) Lijah woke up crying. I went in his room and his whole bed was wet, so I took off the sheets. Then I decided that I was just too tired to deal with it so I asked him if he wanted to come back to bed with mommy. He gladly agreed! As I was falling asleep I kept hearing him whisper "mommy, the kitty is in here too". Finally though, he fell asleep. He did wake up before me but patiently waited for me to wake up. I knew he was staring at me so I slowly opened my eyes, and he would start to smile, so I'd close them again. He was excited when I did finally get up.

Wednesday 6/24/09 – On the way to work I biked up Central to see if I could find Lijah's cup, but they had cleaned the streets and it was gone. Good thing we have another one he can use. After work my visiting teacher, Trish Howard came over. She is having her baby in a few weeks so we talked about baby stuff. We also discussed the lesson I taught on Sunday at church and about how difficult it was and we thought of some ways to try to get more participation from the group. Then after she left we just hung out in the living room with the kids. I made some sloppy joes for dinner. That's about it.

Thursday 6/25/09 – Biked to work. I think my tire has a slow leak so my co-worker Scot offered to fix it for me. He's brining in an extra tire to work and will change it for me the next time I am in. Clark woke up with a fever and was burning hot. The fever went all day and through the night and Clark had to come sleep with me.

Friday 6/26/09 - I stayed home from work today. Jason was starting to feel sick, but Clark woke up a bit cooler than he was last night.

Saturday 6/27/09 – This morning our order from Walton Feed came in. The truck was at the Cottage Grove Ward building and everyone met at 10am to unload the truck.

Sunday 6/28/09 – Clark woke up with a horrible cough, but then it got better when it was time to leave for church. So we all got ready, got in the car, started driving, and his cough came back worse than before. So Jason drove back home and I stayed back with Clark and Jason took Lijah to church. Clark slept most of the time they were gone so I took some time to putz around. I clipped some weeds outside, made a pot of soup, did the dishes, and made potato salad. I was busy, busy, busy – but it was nice to have a quiet house to do whatever I wanted…..

Monday 6/29/09 - Today the boys had their doctors' appointments so I stayed home from work again. I have been practicing with Lijah what was going to happen at the doctor's so he wouldn't freak out. We found most of the pieces to his doctor bag so he could bring it with to the appointment. Lijah enjoyed watching the fish in the waiting room and Clark enjoyed trying to run away while I was filling out paperwork (meanwhile Lijah was yelling "uh oh, baby's running away mommy!" over and over). When they called us in Lijah was ready to go, but when the nurse started asking him to do things he got a bit nervous. So we let Clark go first and then I finally crouched down with Lijah so he could get his height and weight taken – and Clark was running 'away' again. Then the nurse told Lijah that he would get to play a game today. So we went in another room and she gave him a card with 4 letters on it and had him sit on a chair. Across the room was an eye chart with letters on it. She would point to a letter and ask him to find the letter on his card. Like the adult eye doctor she started with the big letters and went down and down through the small letters. He thought it was a fun game, and it let us find out that he has 20/20 vision. Then we tried a game where he puts on sunglasses with one lens covered and the other popped out to play the same game, but he wouldn't do it. She said it was normal for 3 year olds not to want to play that one. Then we met with the doctor and she had a little talk with Lijah about putting away his diapers and wearing underwear instead. Both boys checked out fine, even though they have a bug that's been going around. When we got home from the doctor Lijah put on his underwear and wore them for the rest of the day.

Tuesday 6/30/09 – When we woke up this morning I went to take off Lijah's diaper and change him into underwear. He grabbed a diaper and hugged it and said 'nooooooo, I love my diaper' over and over. I told him that he would either have to wear his underwear or sit on the potty chair until he put the underwear on. He opted for sitting on the pot. I biked into work and when I called home Jason had finally got him to put on his underwear but said that Lijah would probably still be sitting on the pot if he hadn't made him get the underwear on. Lijah is not very good at making it to the potty in time and has an accident every time, but he'll get the swing of things (hopefully…..). When I got home we went outside to play with his bubbles while Clark napped and there were the neighbor kids across the street. Lijah stood at the edge of the curb longingly until the mom asked if he wanted to come over. So we went over and played for a bit. We also saw that a man with a little boy moved into the house 2 doors down – he looks to be about Lijah's age! I hear that the boy lives there part-time and part-time somewhere else with his mom.

Wednesday 7/1/09 - Biked to work.

Thursday 7/2/09 - Biked to work. At work I decided that I wanted a Blizzard for lunch rather than a real lunch, so my coworker Amy Carlson and I headed out to Dairy Queen, then stopped by Barnes and Noble, and the Farmer's Market on Nicollet. The July Blizzard of the month is with the Girl Scout Peanut Butter Tag-a-longs. I found it to be quite waxy tasting and I was not very impressed. At the bookstore I got a Family Fun magazine and a book for Lijah with songs in it (The Ants Go Marching, Yankee Doodle, and a few others). Amy is a bookstore member so she bought my items and I got a 20% discount! Then I picked up two packs of blueberries and 5 garlic heads for only a buck each. When it was time to leave I headed for my bike and started to feel pretty sick. I wasn't sure what was wrong but figured it would pass and hopped on my bike. Well, it didn't pass. It only got worse. My ride is usually 30 minutes home and today it took me an hour and I cried almost the whole way home. I was a hot mess. It was 5pm when I got home and I had to pick up our CSA veggies by 6pm and I just could not do it. I sat on the couch and cried and cried and cried and Jason looked pathetically at me since there was nothing he could do. He went to pick up the veggies for me and delivered the Robison's half to them. The rest of the night I just laid low..... Lijah has been doing an amazing job with potty training. The first two days he had some accidents, or 'on purposes' we could call them since he thought it was pretty funny that he peed on the floor, but he has not had any accidents today.