The Princess and the Lion

It has been awhile since I have done a straight toddler update, so I thought I would do just that. These kids are sweet, hilarious, adorable, and extremely two (read: whiny!) They have us exhausted and so full of joy and frustration and adoration all at once.

Recently we asked them what they would like to be when they grew up.

B quickly responded, "A Princess!"

T also responded, "No! Nufing! (nothing!)" so we would leave him alone and let him go down his slide in peace.

We were happy to see such lofty goals. When asked again, T said, "Ummm... a big one lion!" Very cute!

B is quite enchanted by princesses right now. Here, you see her as a princess...

in the bathroom...

and going to her first movie.

She talks like an adult, but has such a joyfulness in everything everyday. Nothing can light up a room like her giggles or her dancing! She is incredibly dramatic, observant, and she asks great questions. She is extremely maternal and takes great care of her baby dolls, calico critters, and especially her brother. She is also being sure to teach him good manners. When he excitedly ran up to her to to tell her something, she looked up from her coloring and said, "T can you please say excuse me?" She will never pass up ice cream with sprinkles or snuggling and reading a good book with mommy. She says that daddy is her prince!

T is a bundle of energy and trying to corral him in places like the library is like trying to corral an energetic, curious, and happily loud tornado. In the common area of his great-grandmother's retirement home, I cringe to see him stealthily run past the almost finished 1000 piece puzzle sitting unsuspectingly on the table. People adore him everywhere he goes! His smiling eyes are charming and he is talking so much. In fact, he will often tell B or I to "Stop talking, B/mama!" He is always on the lookout to defend his sister from anyone who may try to take one of her things or get in her way, and he is happy to assist her in breaking into bags of candy behind the couch.

Here he is gardening with Dad...

They seem so old these days (and who wouldn't...three is sneaking up on them.) But, then they do something sweet like get very scared of "monsters" and we get to play hero. This is something we are trying to savor...

Life In Abundance Banquet

"Characterized by vast slums and an impossible job market, LIA is empowering the youth on the street by providing them with a place to live, food to eat, education and training and start up funds for a small business allowing them to create a sustainable livelihood for themselves upon completion of the program.  At the same time, we are working to prevent future generations of street children by identifying and serving female headed households with micro-loans, tutoring for their children, school supplies/fees and much more." - blog.liaint.org

J's organization, Life in Abundance International created their first documentary this past year. They hosted three banquets to premiere it at, with the second one held in Phoenix this past weekend. We had an amazing time with over 200 people who share in caring about some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The benefit dinner was held at the Phoenix Zoo and featured the documentary on street children in Ethiopia and a talk by the organization's president, Dr. Florence Muindi (who was the first person to actually let J and I come visit her in Africa almost 4 years ago when all of this began!) It was a special night and J, his parents, and his aunt did an awesome job of creating it! I also need to give a little shout out to my brother and brother-in-law who came over and watched the toddlers for 5 hours straight while I went to the event. When we returned home we were happy to find them in one piece (the babysitters, I mean!) :) 

Doing the Desert...

We have been keeping ourselves very busy exploring the valley! Here are some of the things we have been up to:

The PHX Zoo, followed by our own homemade zoo :)

Artville and the AZ Youth Museum

AZ Historical Museum

Phoenix Children's Museum (Our Favorite!)

Desert Breeze Park (Twice!)

Tumbleweed Park (Twice as well - it's our new favorite park)

Making Pizza

AZ Puppet Theater (Surprisingly really fun!) followed by the park

We have friends in CA who we are trying to convince to move here. I hope this is convincing that there is stuff to do! Especially now that the weather is GORGEOUS! 

Thank Goodness for Good Parents!

          I am not sure how I survived in CA with a traveling husband and no grandparents within 350 miles. J was out of town this weekend again (only three nights this time! Yay!), and so the kids and I showed up on my parents' doorstep at 8 am on both Saturday and Sunday. They were unbelievably sweet to us the entire weekend (and I do mean the entire weekend - I really only took the kids home to sleep!) 

They fed us, laughed with us, played with us, took us on train and carousel rides at the park, and took us swimming (Grandpa was the only one brave enough to get in the cold water with them!) They even let me escape to the gym for an hour and a half (it's amazing how when I was working I used to drag myself to the gym, but now working out on my own sounds incredibly relaxing :) 

         The kids had a ball, and I did, too. It was so much fun for us to have time to just hang out together without one of us "visiting" from out of state. And, it was just such a great reminder of what wonderful and selfless parents I have. You couldn't find someone who loves their kids or grandkids more than they do. I don't know what I'd do without them!   

  

        Sleeping Side Note: My kids' sleeping is still pretty terrible. I was reassured of that this morning when I went back and forth between the two of them from 3:00-4:30 a.m. Yesterday in a magazine, I saw that 2-3 year olds should be sleeping 13-14 hours per day. Ha! My kids sleep between 8 and 9 hours per night with plenty of wake-ups in between. Then I get a 45 min. to 1.5 hour nap during the day if I'm lucky. B didn't nap at all this weekend. That brings them to a grand total that doesn't even laugh at the minimum. Hmmm....

Seriously Slacking...

So, I have been seriously slacking in the blogging arena. I have some good excuses though:

1. J was gone in Africa for 9 days. I made it. But, barely. The first 4 days I was getting a little cocky with how well I was doing, and then in the last five days I had two days where I was on the verge of tears, mostly from being tired (is it really necessary to wake-up at 4:30 in the morning several days a week?) They started the week with runny noses which caused a lot of night-wakings but they mercifully slept through a couple of nights (even if they weren't in their own beds.) We stayed very busy that week, which was good. Friends were fun, as was the baby pool, sprinklers, splash pads, train rides at the park, sidewalk chalk, museum, library, Costco (twice), church.... Our backyard was used almost every morning and evening and some afternoons in between.

  

    The garage became one of my closest friends. We did not have one in Pasadena, where we lived on the 2nd floor, so being able to drive until the kids fell asleep and then transfer them one by one to their beds at night has been amazing. It has saved us approximately 6 viewings of CARS that week. That was especially good news since our dvd player was currently only showing movies in black and white. Being by the grandparents was awesome, too! They each took us out to dinner and lunch and gave the kids some much needed energy expenditure and attention. My mom also watched the kids for three hours one day so I could go to book club/bible study (this happened to be a tearful day, so that was VERY good!)

      I feel like these times always put a lot of things in perspective for me. For one, they help me to suck it up a bit once I realize that even though these children can be absolutely exasperating, if the worst thing is the fact that I have two beautiful, healthy, energetic toddlers (who require freakishly small amounts of sleep) and love to be with their mama, then I am extremely blessed. Only 3.5 years ago right after our miscarriage, I would have given anything for these two, and now I am so amazingly thankful for them. 

       And secondly, it makes me appreciate J. I am so proud of who he is and I know that these times we are apart are for a very good reason. I totally love what Life In Abundance does. We just miss him so much when he is gone. I don't just miss his help (though I definitely will be happy to have his assistance again!) but I really missed being able to talk with him. We don't get to talk on the phone, skype is super choppy, and internet access is sketchy, so I can't share with him those times I am laughing or crying or giggling at something one of the kids did or about to lose it. That's really the hardest part...so now I am gearing up for the fact that he will be gone a lot more this fall...

2. My second is excuse is that I had a lame week after that, too. I went to the gym without tennis shoes (Can you tell I don't go that often? Don't worry I did the elliptical in flip flops like a true athlete.) I lost my glasses. I got a traffic ticket on my way to the dentist where I had cavities. I went to take care of the ticket and sat in the court room trying to keep 2 2-year olds quiet for 45 minutes (without our snacks which had been confiscated at the metal detector) before they told me the officer had not done his job of turning the ticket in yet and I would have to come back and do it again. Then, I took the kids to a splash pad that had the water turned off where B proceeded to be bitten by 30 ants (literally!) and we were almost hit by a pigeon that fell dead from the sky. I had been thinking lately that I really want to learn to be more patient and to roll with the punches. God seemed to think I really needed to see just how badly I do with that apparently before we can go about correcting it. :)

3. I started cloth diapering again. My motives are not altruistic. Enough said.

4. We had some dear friends come into town fro CA for the weekend so we were very busy with lots of fun! The mommies got to go for a wonderful lunch out and the kids had a ball together. Then we ended the weekend with a family party. We were tired!

Hopefully, now I will be back in the game... :) I think I made up for it with my rambling... 

Stay Wet or Stay Inside!

      We have figured out that the secret to desert living with toddlers is stay wet or stay inside. And avoid as many "getting in or out of the car" episodes as possible. It also helps if you arrive in the desert with only 1-2 months of ridiculous heat staring you in the face rather than 5.

      We have been spending a lot of time with friends at splash pads (I am infinitely grateful to the creator of such wonderful water goodness - all without the paranoia of one of your two toddlers becoming submerged). Our experience earlier this week, was almost spoiled by the evil mom that very intentionally stole T's Croc shoes (another mom witnessed it and told me the woman had asked if they were hers and when they weren't proceeded to take them knowing they did not belong to her! What kind of a person would take a little kid's shoes knowing they would have to walk out on burning sidewalk without any. I was livid! Okay - now I'm over it.)

      We have also been outside in our backyard a lot. When you wake up at the ever so early hour of 5:30 a.m. (ahem, B) you still have a good 4 hours to be outside before it's too hot. Last week, we painted birdhouses. And at dusk the kids enjoy watering the plants with dad and finishing it off with a good run in the sprinklers. It may just be because this is all novel at the moment, but so far, so good! Now if we could just transport our CA friends here....

Wedding on the Midway

My cousin, Kristen, got married labor day weekend on the U.S.S. Midway, a permanently docked naval aircraft carrier. We got to spend the weekend in lovely San Diego, which was even more beautiful after a week in the heat. The wedding was gorgeous (on the flight deck overlooking the sunset on the harbor) and the entire event was great as Kristen and Andrew are both very special people. 

I was a bridesmaid, so I had lots of pictures and prep time where my parents, brother, and J took the kids. They did great with the toddlers - they even managed to get them to suck on lollipops during the ceremony in the front row, with nowhere to escape to. They are brave people! 

The reception was lots of fun - B LOVED dancing at the "Ball." She is definitely in a princess stage right now - she loves the idea of getting dressed up and dancing. In fact, she will not wear anything other than a dress. Ever. Enjoy the pics!