Nice or Nasty November

It's been a nasty Fall for sicknesses–for all of us. We just can't seem to keep the bugs at bay! And how many viruses does a pint size Carice have to endure? She had a head cold in September, one in October and now one in November. Not to mention nasty Croup found its way into her little body about the middle of the month. Yucky. She didn't receive any meds from her doctor for it though, and seemed to make it through the nights okay, which is when it's to be at its worse. Cali healthfully escaped all the cold viruses, but unfortunately not Croup. And I think she was in a little denial about it all as she tried to hold in her coughs! (No, I'm not sick!) Not fun. At one point, I opened the back door and a window another day hoping to clear the germs from the air. Do we dare have hope that winter will be better? Bring on Dapper, Dazzling, December! (Are there any 'D' words that go with health??) hee hee hee

At the beginning of the month, Cali and I had *Girls Night* We went to the Southtown Mall to mainly share a cookie together. We (I) looked at clothes for her a little bit (she wasn't really diggin' that) but wanted to ride on the escalator. And ride on the escalator. And ride on the escalator. ;) On the way home we did a drive-thru run at McD's and got a rootbeer and a milkshake. Okay, I confess, it was me who ordered the milkshake. Yum! November 15 was the day we marked on the calendar for Cali being officially 'dye-free'. Just within a fews days we noticed a pretty significant change in her demeanor. She was much more calm. She seemed to play more. Happier, even? And when she would have a 'crazy moment' perhaps it didn't seem to last as long?? Rick and I couldn't believe our eyes. Is this really real? Were we making this up? She may have not eaten anything artificially colored some days prior to the 15th, so the data may be a little skewed, but this was nice! She was nice! So, we've kept it up. And we aren't going back, either. I've heard that this dye elimination can be dubbed an 'allergy', an 'intolerance', and I think another term I read was a 'sensitivity'. I don't really know what to call it for her, but whichever it is, eliminating them seems to be working very, very well. Life is so much better and nicer for everyone...especially Cali. For the most part, now no more nasty 'bees' buzzing in her already energentic little body. We did move her to the morning class at Gymboree where there are more children enrolled. She likes class and made a fun friend, Piper. I forgotten Cali has out-grown Gymboree somewhat now that we have been there, but oh well...it's a nice place to play sometimes when we are able to go. (no sick kids allowed). And Little Sis is signed up for open gym days so they both get to go together for that.

Carice and Cali have been having 'orange juice parties' or as Cali pronounces it 'pearty'. This basically envolves a sippy cup (matching, of course) with orange juice there-in, a CapriSun straw stuck in the sippy lid which is then placed on a gray Rubbermaid stool used as a table. *phew* Sometimes the girls sit opposite each other and its really kinda cute ;) But as you can see Cali still hates pictures, so this is a picture of the o.j. all by its lonesome with Carice doin' her thing in her picture. But its at least one nice thing they do together...well, sometimes it works our nicely. Sisters!! Siblings!! Kids!! AAhhh!

Carice has now mastered walking with two princess shoes on and is learning to color with crayons. She loves to put things in a container and then dump it all out again. And you can see from this picture, she figured out what Q-tips are for! The silly goose! She's just a cutie with her delicate spider leg-like eyelashes and her little two-tooth grin. There are almost 4 teeth completely through the gum on top but you can't see them at all in daily interaction with her! :) All in good time. Can't believe she is growing up so big and fast. I'm working on making a nice printed photo book to give to my mom for Christmas of her visit here when Carice was born. I wanted to do it last year, of course, with it being a nice scrapbook look, but I am doing it through Apple. It is so much easier and nicer. Apple does everything with such simple elegance. I know my mom will really like it.

We had a nice traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Rick's mom's house-turkey lurkey and all the trimmings! Thanks everyone for all your hard cooking work on our behalf! And I was to celebrate going out to dinner for my birthday a few days prior to turkey day, but that was the day I took Carice to the doctor, so I opted to go another night. Yes, I'm 25 again. Isn't that nice? :) Jus' kiddin'....My sweet hubby of 11 years bought me a beautiful leather set of Scriptures for my birthday, complete with my name engraved on the front cover. The Scriptures I had before were from Seminary, if you can believe that! Old! The cover of my triple was completely ripped off, along with a few first pages, I think. I'm hoping it's still in a box in our nasty garage (yes, it needs a good cleanin') somewhere as I need to remark my new ones to match my old. Yea! I've been wanting a new set for a few years now and I am so happy and thankful to have them. They will last me the rest of my life ;) Thanks, Love! And a huge thanks to all my wonderful, stupendous family members for showering me with all my other lovely and useful birthday gifts! You're the best!

And last, but certainly not least, Rick has good news to report, he was promoted to a lead at work! Or so we thought. There was confusion as to if he actually was a lead because of some things that transpired, but now after the dust has cleared, he is considered a 'lead in training'. Either way... nice job, honey! Not bad for only being there since June!

Happy December :)

Oh, October

Bloggity, blog, blog, blog. Oh, what to write. It's been such a hodge podge month, so I will start out by showing you this incredible log cabin Cali and I built out of Lincoln Logs! Of course, we can't build this when little sister is awake; up and around playing amongst us. She is one years old and well...doesn't understand that you can't just come and knock down all that hard work. Siblings can be rough. Rough to have and rough on each other. I know Cali loves Carice and they can have fun together, but sometimes I think the green-eyed monster blows her wrath around our little townhome as well. Like when little sis wakes up from her nap and has to join Mommy and Cali back into the play day. It's hard to share your parents. Plus, like I said, Cali abhors when Carice does awake from naptime and has the potential of coming and wrecking creative buildings and zoos Mommy and Cali have made. I must say, Carice is not completely innocent. She has been known to grab a handful of blonde Cali hair and give a mighty yank. Self defense? Paybacks? I don't know. And sharing of toys with these two? Not on the radar screen, I'm afraid. Well, sometimes, they do. But snacks? Totally cool for sharing. In fact, when picking out a 'helpful treat' (Cali's reward for being helpful and not a pain in the patooty while in a store shopping) she thinks of what she can get to share with her sister. And nothing has been cuter than seeing them share messy orange Cheetohs together in the back seat of the car with big sis being the 'doler-outer' and little sis begging with one hand extended meaning, "Gimme more!" She seemed to like having one in each hand. ("Hey, I've got two hands, so I need two Cheetohs!)

Unfortunately, we had to curb the Cheetohs and have Cali choose something that doesn't have artificial dyes in it. Have you heard about this? Dyes, artificial colors in food, specifically Red #40 and Yellow #5 (6?) causing behavioral disturbances. We thought we would do a little experiment to see if made a difference in Cali. We read about the Spirited Child (it pretty much saved my relationship with her not to mention my sanity and recommend the book very highly), however, at times Cali seemed even more off the charts. So, we cut out things like fruit snacks and Cheetohs and candy that are artificially colored. Was it coincidence? She did seem less 'edgy.' Maybe four is just the most challenging. Is she mental? Is she just 4? Is it sibling jealousy? Is it the Spirited/Dye Eating Child? Oh, it's been a ride. You can see, however, that even though she still isn't inthralled with picture taking, we've got a few new snapshots to share.
Cali is so beautiful, smart, creative, persistant and has so much to offer herself and others in the world to come. We just have to figure out the best way to get her there. At times, I view her with what I call the "Parable of the Pineapple". Looking at her is like looking at a fresh pineapple while thinking to yourself, "How in theeee heck do I get to the good stuff". There is no little paper tag hanging from her explaining how to do it either. I pray Rick and I won't fall short of helping Cali reach her full potential.

We signed her up for a Gymboree class again. (Oh...the playgroup? Pretty much a complete bust. An 'E' for effort for the Mommy :) Gymboree offers something similiar to a preschool class, only it's one day a week instead of two or three. But she can attend open gym 3 other days of the week to just play for two hours, so I thought this would be a good fit. She had her first class on Halloween day. I may try the other time offered because more kids are enrolled in that class. And Cali needs friends and people. She's an extrovert! She attended two birthday parties this month.

She dressed up in her doctor costume for the first party, but ended up being sad because another attendee was dressd up like a princess. So, needless to say, she was not a doctor this year for Halloween but a princess afterall. The other party was going to Build-A-Bear Workshop. She came home with the cutest brown bear named Snickers in a blue and white cheerleading outfit. Now that was a great party to be invited to! She earned her 'toddlers' (twin baby dolls, a girl and a boy) by completing an eye-patching chart. She has been wanting them for awhile and named them Jordan and Brianna. She also was to take part in a Sacrament Meeting Presentation with the rest of the Primary children reading parts and singing songs (with me!) but she just didn't have it in her to do all that in front of everyone. And that's okay...stuff like that isn't easy.



But I can tell you what is easy...getting presents on your sister's birthday! Yep, Grandma Le Bel was so thoughtful and kind to send not only Carice a box-load of things for her birthday (so she was a wee bit late...who cares!) Cali got some wonderful goodies also. Thanks, Mom! And Carice also received more presents from Aunt Sue, Uncle Carl and Cousin Richard in the same box! (Relatives living together=more presents at one time!) She likes to sit in our Thonet chair in our bedroom and 'read' her books which she got a couple more of for her birthday. She also has been honing not only her walking skills, but walking while wearing a 'princess shoe". I think we have an 'all girl' on our hands :) She was a doctor for Halloween, complete with a nametag that Daddy designed: "Dr. Carice Moore, MD, Resident OB-GYN (Cali was to be Chief of Staff, but the power of the princess dress took over) Carice went with big sis to the 'Halloween Hoopla' at our local library. They had songs and stories and a goodie bag for the children. I love our Draper Library. The girls also went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. They didn't get a whole lot of candy this year, but enough for their little bodies. Not to mention the bowlful we had left over of Reese's peanut butter cups and "Mus-greeters" (Cali's reading of the 3 Musketeer candy wrapper)....not many trick or treaters at our door this year.



We tried something new this autumn; we spent a few hours at Cornbelly's. They have a lot of fun fall activites like being able to pick a pumpkin out of a patch, a cute cow themed train ride, slides to slide, a hayride, food, and of course a corn maze. I have to admit I got a little freaked out in the corn maze even though it was the 'easy' one. But then again, I could get lost in a paper bag. I have serious compass issues! Oh, and just a word to the wise...strollers and corn mazes don't mix. Yikes! Won't be doing that again. I think Cali thought Cornbelly's was a free-for-all as we lost her at one point. :( Thankfully, Rick spotted her across the field and I ran to get her...she was so far from us. It was scary! I guess she was too excited and wanted to have as much fun as she could going from one thing to the next. Oh! our crazy, coronary causin' children! We hope you all had a 'spook-tackular' Halloween! :)








What started out as learning a 'squooshy face' - ended up what we hysterically call 'Monster Face!'