Meagan is driving me nuts with her contradictory behavior lately. She seems to not be able to make up her mind about things, and then gets upset when she doesn’t get what she wants, or I don’t understand what she’s saying. It‘s very confusing. For example, today she asked me for a bagel with cream cheese. So I got out the bagels and cream cheese, and started putting some on the bagel. Then she starts crying that she doesn’t want cream cheese. I verified that she didn’t want the cream cheese. I was annoyed, but figured that I’d eat the bagel instead, and gave her a plain one. She got made, threw the plain bagel across the table, and said she wanted cream cheese. Crazy, isn’t she?

Then the other day, as we were driving, we had this conversation:
Meagan: Look, it’s a bird.
Me: Oh, you see a bird?
Meagan: Yes, it’s a geese.
Me: You see some geese?
Meagan: No, it’s not a geese.
Me: What is it?
Meagan: It’s a geese.
Me: *Sigh of exasperation*

On the other hand, she’s becoming more imaginative in her play, and is really getting into dressups. We don’t have many around the house, so she tends to make do with whatever she finds. A few weeks ago, I gave her an old ratty maternity t-shirt to wear over her clothes while she painted. She liked it so much, that she tends to wear her new `dress’ around the house all the time. Today she also came up to me with a green washcloth on her head saying, “I’m a pincess!” It was pretty cute. Weird, but cute.

Potty training, here we come!

I must have hundreds of pictures of my sleeping children and the funny positions they sleep in. One of my favorites is of Bethany naked at my parents’ house (I think I’ll skip posting that one). It was really really hot there that summer, and I guess she decided to solve the problem by stripping—diaper and all. Tonight as I went to check on her, this is what I found:
It almost looks like she was sitting up playing, and just kind of fell over to go to sleep. Silly girl.

Meagan decided to start potty training herself today. After I got up this morning, I went to take off her nighttime, wet diaper and put a clean one on her, but found that she’d already taken it off and put on some panties. I thought if she really wanted them on, then I guess we’d just go for it. I even had a meeting at the church, and then plans to meet Nate for lunch afterward, but decided to just let her keep them on. Fortunately, we didn’t have any accidents while out and about. She actually did really well. She only had one really big accident. I was sitting on the couch feeding Sean, when she came in the room, really stinky. I told her to just wait a minute, and I’d help her get clean as soon as I was done with Sean. Five minutes later, she was back in front of me, and said, “I’m going pee-pee,” then proceeded to let loose all over the carpet. I tried to get her to stop, and she almost looked like she wanted to, but it was too late. She had one more minor accident later just before getting her pajamas on, but all in all, I thought that was a pretty good start.

Happy Memorial Day

We celebrated the day by going out and getting a new TV. I think Nate has been suffering from Wii withdrawal, because he actually suggested raiding some of our savings to go get a new TV. That’s just not like Nate. If so, he’s not the only one going through withdrawal. Within minutes of getting it out of the box and all hooked up, the kids were playing Mario Kart.

End of Preschool and the Zoo

Today was Bethany's last day of preschool. When I was asked a year ago if I planned to send her to preschool, I had said no. I always thought it was a bit of a waste. After all, no one I knew growing up went to preschool, and we all turned out well enough. I just didn't think it was necessary. But then I started thinking about Bethany, and the difficult time she had going new places and getting used to new people. I decided to put her in for the social aspects of it, and to slowly get her used to being away from home. It turned out to be a very good decision. Even if she's not ready for kindergarten yet, she's improved a lot this past school year. She may complain about going, but once she's there, she never looks back at me and she has a great time. She's learned to work in a group setting, and she's learned to play with other kids. Even with her two cousins in the class, she made friends with other girls in the class. All in all, it's been good for her.

Since it was the last day, the morning and afternoon classes met together in the morning and had a program for the parents and whoever else wanted to come. The kids stood in a couple of rows on the stage and sang some songs, then they each got a "diploma" for finishing the year. It was really cute. They sang one of Bethany's favorite songs, "Octopus" by Charlotte diamond. They also did Old MacDonald Had a Farm, but with a twist. The last animal the farmer had was a T. Rex. After all the roars, the last line was, "Old MacDonald has no more farm."

After the program, the kids went to the park to play and have lunch. Since Nate had the day off as part of the Memorial Day weekend, we decided to skip the park and go to the Columbus zoo. The kids have been asking to go, I think because of Bethany's Zoo Tycoon game that she plays a lot on the computer. It took us longer to get going than we'd hoped for, so it was nearly noon by the time we got there. We were shocked at how full the parking lot was. I think Nate counted somewhere around fifty buses. I'd expected it to be fairly empty still, since it was a weekday and before most kids were out of school, but it was pretty packed. We headed for the far parts of the zoo first, hoping those would be less crowded. They weren't at first, but then they slowly emptied out. By the time we left at about 3:30, the place almost looked like a ghost town. It was pretty hot, though. We had a great time, and also got a membership, so we can come back over and over again this year.

Is it bedtime yet? I mean for me.

I'm really tired. Really, really tired. Almost too tired to write this, which is why it will probably come out sounding stupid. Oh well.

I was out and about with all three kids for over four hours today. First stop was a doctor's appointment for me. I have a mild eye infection. I get to put this gloop in my eye three times a day for five days, and my vision is blurry in that eye for an hour or so after I put it in. Cheers.

The kids were actually pretty good at the doctors, so I dared to run an errand afterward. Target is the only place I know of around here that sells filters for my vacuum, which is kind of bizarre, since I originally bought the thing at WalMart. Of course, after getting all three kids out of the car, and into a cart and into the store, bypassing the popcorn counter with only a few demands/whines, I found that they were out of the filter I wanted. Oh well.

On the way to Target, we passed the mall. It has this mini playground inside that the kids call the "mall fun place". Bethany asked to go there as we were driving by. I didn't really have anywhere else to be, and I figured that it would be good for them to run around, so we headed over. We went in the mall through a different entrance than normal, and Bethany really flipped out: "This isn't the fun place!", and almost sat down on the floor crying. She wouldn't listen to me, so I had to more or less drag her along until we got to familiar territory, which thankfully wasn't that far away. They did have a great time playing there. It was nearly deserted, which was great. I figure the good weather and the time of day we were there is why it was so empty. There was one little girl who looked to be about four who ran up to Bethany and said, "Can we be friends?" Bethany just said, "No" and kept running. I was shocked, but I guess I shouldn't have been. The poor little girl looked so sad. We left fairly soon after that.

The outing itself really wasn't all that bad. It just wore me out, coralling kids for that long, and lugging Sean all over in his carseat (I left the stroller home, something I'll make sure not to do next time). I just wish the kids were as tired as me. Scratch that. They probably are nearly as tired as me, judging by their whines, so I guess I just wish that they were as ready to go to bed as I am. They were pretty active today, no TV at all. Nate even took them outside after dinner. They played in the water of the pool, but wouldn't get in, because it had dead bugs and grass in it. Silly kids. I had to tell Meagan yesterday that it was okay to get a little bit dirty when she's playing outside. Hmmm...maybe I'm rubbing off a little too much in some respects. So I'm something of a germophobe. So sue me.

But I digress. I was originally talking about bedtime, or something, wasn't I? If only Sean would go to sleep, so could I.

"I want the swimming poo"

I made a big mistake. For weeks, now, Bethany has been very sadly mentioning that we don't have a swimming pool. I think playing in water is one of her favorite summer pastimes, and I've been wanting her to play outside more anyway, so I decided to indulge her. I was out running errands by myself one night and picked up a swimming pool. Nothing fancy, just a three-ring inflatable pool. But I bought it before it was really warm enough outside to set it up, so I kept it where they couldn't see it, and didn't tell them. And then came my mistake. A few days ago, Bethany looked so sad when she said once again that she didn't have a swimming pool that I caved in and showed it to her. I knew it would happen, but it was worse than I was expecting. I was hounded for days, all the time by the kids wanting to go outside and swim. Meagan kept calling it the "swimming poo" (I hope we don't get any of that). She even got the box somehow, and ripped it open and dragged the pool around the house. I had to hide it in my closet so it didn't get punctured before they even used it.

Today it got into the lower 80's. My mom's rule growing up was that it had to be at least 80 degrees before we could swim. Quick side story--one day I really wanted to go swimming, but it wasn't hot enough yet. So I lit a match and held it up next to the thermometer outside our kitchen window to make it seem hotter outside than it really was, and then called my mom to come look at it, so we could swim. Somehow she didn't really believe that it was 120 degrees outside. Go figure. Anyway, I decided to set up the pool. I even had the perfect time to do it--while Bethany was at school and Meagan was napping. I got it all inflated and partially filled with no one whining at me, or running around crying because the water's not on yet, blah, blah, blah. It was great. All I had to do was pick up Bethany, get them in their swimming suits and sunscreen on, and let them go.

I only partly filled the swimming pool because Bethany likes playing with the hose, so I turned that back on and watched them play. They both have a hard time keeping water in the bathtub at bathtime, so I told them that outside it was okay to splash as much as they wanted. That prompted Bethany to start stomping up and down in the pool, and then jumping in and splashing. They also ran back and forth from the sandbox and added lots of toys to the pool.

In past years, Meagan's never really liked the swimming pools. She's preferred to sit in my lap and just watch--I'm not really sure why. So it was good today to watch her get in and play with Bethany. Her favorite part was getting buckets of water and dumping the outside of the pool, who knows why. She also insisted I come take a picture of her foot in a puddle of water outside of the pool, because "there's water in my shoe".

Tonight I left Sean for an extended period for the first time. The ward had a mother/daughter outing, to coincide with the priesthood father/son campout. The mother/daughter thing was for primary aged girls and up, so I took Bethany out for some mommy time, and left the other two with Nate. I had considered bringing Meagan with us, since she's nearly Sunbeam age, but Bethany and Meagan had been fighting all day, and I didn't want to deal with it anymore. So Bethany got some focused mommy time, and Meagan got to go out with daddy. I found out later that they went to Cici's for dinner, and had a great time.

I pumped some milk for Sean before I left, so Nate could feed him if he got hungry while I was gone. Of course I had an audience for the procedure, not that I really wanted one, but Bethany wouldn't leave. I suppose I could've forced the issue if I'd tried, but it wasn't worth the effort. She was fascinated by the whole thing. At first she really didn't like it, and kept telling me it was going to make me "get broken", but she calmed down after she saw that it wasn't doing anything to me.

Sean did fairly well with the bottle--he eventually drank all four ounces that were in it, but he was awfully gassy later. I think we'll have to work on that.

Meagan has a knack for making messes

Meagan seems to be an early bird. She almost always gets up before I do. On days where Nate is still at home when she gets up, it's not too much of a problem. But sometimes Nate's already left for work when she gets up, and then she seems to take advantage of more or less being on her own for a bit. This morning, I woke up and went into the kitchen to find my purse on the floor. Meagan had taken all my credit-card sized things (ID, driver's license, insurance cards, etc.) out and spread them around. There was also a package of gum that she'd taken out. Every single piece was unwrapped on the floor, and several of them were half-chewed and spit back out. Yuck. While I was picking that up, she ran off down the hall. Since Bethany was still asleep, she couldn't go play in her room. It got too quiet, so after I picked up my purse, I went to she what she was up to. I found her in the bathroom, squirting Nate's hair gel all over the counter.

You'd think she'd used up her quota for messes for the day, but there was more. At lunch she spilled milk all over the table, herself and the floor, but the worst mess came later in the day. She was helping me do some laundry, mostly by shoving stuff in the dryer after I took it out of the washer, or dragging clothes over to put in the washer. She saw me put detergent in the washer, and wanted to do it, too, but I wouldn't let her. A couple hours later, she was upstairs watching a movie, and I noticed that the room smelled extra fresh, for lack of a better word. Then I saw this white powder on the futon, and I knew she'd gotten into the laundry detergent. I went dowstairs to find that she had indeed gotten into the soap. It looked like she'd brought some toys into the laundry room that she could stand on to reach the washer. The toys, floor and washer were covered in detergent, with a sizeable pile out on the carpet outside of the washing room. Some had gotten into the washer, on the already clean load that was in it. Then there were the little white footprints from the pile all around the family room, on the couches and the trampoline. I was just glad it was powder and not the liquid--that would've been a lot harder to clean up. I know the whole thing stemmed from her desire to help me with the laundry, but there are some kinds of help that I can do without.

I would be flattered, but...

Today I was watching "Secondhand Lions" with Meagan while I was folding my laundry. We got to the part where young Hub sees the beautiful princess Jasmine for the first time. As she's climbing out of the water on the sea shore, Meagan starts saying, "It's you, Mom, it's you!" Well, I would be flattered...but she's also been saying this is me, too:

This is a toy hanging from Sean's bouncy seat. If Meagan can see a similarity there, then it's not much of a stretch for her to see a similarity anywhere else.

A few days ago, we bought a little jungle gym for the girls--something new to occupy themselves with in the backyard--but didn't get around to fully assembling it until last night. Nate at first said it would take him ten to fifteen minutes to put the whole thing together. I was skeptical, but let him have at it. I went out to check on his progress later (a lot later than just fifteen minutes), and found that he was nearly done, until I noticed that he'd put some of the bars in wrong. He really did just "have at it." He didn't even read the assembly instructions or look at the parts list. There were two types of bars that were the same size, but intended for different places, and he hadn't noticed and put some of them in the wrong place. He had to disassemble three or four bars and redo them, which was kind of a pain. Finally, we got the whole thing together, and the kids had a blast playing on it. I'm glad we got it.

Recent witticisms

The funny things kids say are always funnier if you're there--you get the full impact of their voice and inflection, but sometimes you can still get it when it's written down. For example, this evening, Nate was asking Bethany about something she didn't want to answer. She just said, "Just don't worry about it", as she went down the hall.

I think Meagan made up a new word today. Apparently, "Sean's making noise" took too long to say, so she started saying, "He's noising" every time he made a sound. It was really funny.

Another of Meagan's favorite phrases lately is, "Are you serious?" I'm not sure where she picked it up, but for the past several days, she's been asking me that a lot. She'll just randomly walk up to me, and say, "Are you serious?" She asked me that while I was cooking dinner today, and thinking I'd teach her what it means, I said, "Yes, I'm really serious. I mean it." She replied, "Yes, you're mean." Hmmm...not quite what I was trying to convey.

Gardening with the kids

I've always loved the smell of wet dirt. Outside, that is. I love digging in the dirt and planting new things. I even occasionally like weeding. It can be very soothing. When we were looking for a house when we moved here, one of the things I looked for was a place to plant a garden. I thought I'd be able to have one here, but there were so many tall trees around, that our yard is too shaded, and nothing really grew, so I had to give it up. The extent of my garden now is two pots of tomato plants. It's not great, but it'll do for now.

So yesterday I went out and bought my yearly seedlings. I decided to let the kids help me transplant them into the large pots. I dumped some soil in the pots, then let each one dig out a hole to put the tomato plant in. They had so much fun with it, that I decided to plant some flowers as well. I had a few old containers that I hadn't used in years, and a packet of seeds full of a mixture of flowers that are supposed to attract butterflies. I demonstrated how to sprinkle the seeds evenly over the dirt in the first container, then let Bethany have a turn in the second one. Instead of spreading them around, she dumped a huge pile of them into one spot. Meagan didn't do much better when she had her turn. Oh well. We spread the seeds around, but they are awfully thick in that second pot. If they all germinate, I may have to do some thinning. The kids had fun at any rate, and eventually they'll learn.

Smiling Sean

Sean was smiling like crazy this afternoon--it was so cute! What's more, he kept it up long enough for me to get a couple of pictures.

This one is the best. You can see his left dimple really well, with just a hint of the right one.

I also gave him a bath this morning, and used a towel with a shark's head that Nate's brother, Aaron and his wife sent us. As I was rubbing his hair dry, Meagan said, "It's eating his hair!"

Sean took a bottle!

Yeah! I tried Sean out on a bottle for the first time today, and he took it, no problems. Well, he didn't like it at first, but I managed to get him to drink the full ounce of milk I'd pumped. It gives me both a feeling of freedom and relief. The relief is mostly that I know that even if something happens, I know he'll still eat. Now I can plan to be away from him for longer than an hour or two if needed, and if I need to go somewhere where it won't be easy to breastfeed, I can bring a bottle. Hooray!

The only downside is that Meagan is now lying on the floor crying because she wants a bottle, too. :(

Bethany's kindergarten screening

Wow, yesterday was a very draining day.

The night before, Sean didn't want to go to sleep, so I was up until 1:30 with him. I finally got to bed, but got up three times in the night with him, so when morning rolled around, I was already really tired.

Bethany's screening was set for 11:00am. I was already nervous about the testing, because it was in a place she'd never been before, with people she'd never seen before, and I wasn't supposed to go in with her. I knew she wouldn't like that. When I signed her up, the lady told me I could go in with her if she refused to cooperate without me, which made me feel better. And then I promptly forgot about it. Meaning I didn't talk to Bethany about it to prepare her, and I didn't get a babysitter for Meagan, so she came along. Bad setup from the beginning.

I decided to go a little early, so I could have a few minutes to talk to Bethany and try to help her feel good about going in by herself. She didn't want to get in that car, and as we were driving kept telling me she wanted to go home. That was another red flag that she wasn't going to cooperate. It turned out that it was a good thing I left early, though, because when I pulled up to where I thought the school was supposed to be, I found an empty weed-filled parking lot, with a derelict building in front of me. I had the wrong school, an apparently abandoned old school. Oops. I sat there trying to decide what to do next. If I went home and looked it up, I would be really late, and getting the kids in and out of the car would not be good. I knew I'd be really late. Then I thought of calling someone. There was only one phone number programmed into my phone of someone local. Fortunately, they were home, and helped me find the right place. We were only a few minutes late by the time we got there. It was a good thing I'd decided to go early, and thank heaven for cell phones.

Predictably, Bethany wanted to have nothing to do with anyone at the school. She was supposed to wear a nametag on a string around her neck. The tag had numbers one through nine on it, for the differnt stations she was supposed to go to, and she'd get a sticker at each one after she completed it. Of course, she didn't want to wear the nametag, and didn't want to go with the strange lady who tried to take her away from her mom. Then one of her preschool teachers came in, and I thought everything would be okay, but Bethany just kept crying. If she'd been less tired and the whole thing hadn't been such a surprise, then she probably would've gone with Mrs. Rose. I left her in the gym with Mrs. Rose anyway, hoping she'd calm down in a few minutes. I'd planned to sit in the hallway and keep Meagan entertained, but then I found there was a parents' meeting going on. It was up on the stage of the gym with the principal from Bethany's kindergarten school. I tried to listen, and I heard snippets of what he said, but Meagan was crying because she didn't get to go play games like Bethany (that's what Bethany's teacher told her they were going to go do), and Meagan kept crawling and hanging all over me, and mad that I wouldn't look at her, etc, etc. In the background was Bethany screaming. I sat through about ten minutes of it, and finally packed up and left the meeting when Bethany's screaming hit a new high. I lugged my big heavey bag (full of things to entertain Meagan, snacks, diapers and my purse), the carseat with a sleeping Sean and a fussing Meagan down to the gym. It took me several minutes just calm Bethany down. Even her teacher hadn't been able to do anything with her. Then after she stopped crying, she kept saying she wanted to go home, and it took me another ten minutes or so to even get her to agree to going to one of the stations. They had a variety of objects out that she was supposed to identify. The speech therapist there was testing her vocabulary and listening for any speech problems. Bethany didn't want to have anything to do with it, until Meagan piped up and started naming everything. Even then, she wouldn't cooperate with the therapist at first, and would only respond if I asked her something. By the end, she'd thawed out somewhat and we moved to the next station, me lugging my whole entourage with us. Next she was supposed to demonstrate gross motor skills. She walked backwards and played catch alright, but only hopped on one foot three times instead of five and couldn't skip (I've never taught her to, but she probably could if I'd ever tried). After that station, she responded okay to the various testers, but it still went downhill--for me, at least. She wasn't doing well at all. She did best on letter/shape identification, testing above average on that, and on number identification and counting. But most of the rest of it she tested below to significantly below average. I thought some of the questions they asked were kind of hard, and I started wondering if all pre-kindergarteners knew the answers, or if Bethany was just really behind. Some of them I think she would've answered better if they'd been worded slightly differently, or if she'd been calmer from the outset. For example, one tester said, "Coffee is hot, ice cream is ______." Bethany was supposed to say "cold", but she just stared at the lady. I told her that Bethany didn't know what coffee was, so she tried to substitute "tea". When I said she didn't know what tea was, either, the lady got flustered and didn't know what to say, and Bethany didn't get that question. This morning at breakfast, I said, "Bethany, eggs are hot, ice cream is _____," and she promptly said "cold". So see, she does know some of the answers. On the other hand, there were things she obviously couldn't do. Some of the memory testing and the drawing and other basic knowledge testing she didn't get. She couldn't draw a picture of herself, she couldn't say what a fireman did, she didn't always identify the right picture she'd just seen when it was mixed in with other pictures, she didn't get the rhyming, and things like that. Listening to her, I knew her scores weren't going to be good. It didn't help my frame of mind that while I was trying to get her to cooperate and pay attention--she was having trouble focusing--Meagan kept getting in the way, they were both hungry, and Sean woke up and started to fuss because he wanted to eat. While we waited for her scores to be compiled, Meagan and Bethany were given some animal crackers, so they calmed down a bit, but Sean was still fussing. Then one of the kindergarten teachers and the school psychologist came out to show me her scores. They suggested I have her tested for a county program that provides free preschool for kids with learning or physical disabilities. Each class is really small, and and has two teachers, so she'd get some specialized attention. If she were to go to a regular class right now, she'd get lost. The psychologist also suggested having her tested for ADHD and/or Asperger syndrome. That was about the last straw for me. I kept it together until I got the kids in the car, and then I cried the whole way home. And off and on for pretty much the rest of the day.

Neither of those things were really a shock to me. Asperber's had actually already been suggested to me months ago by my sister-in-law, Tanya. I'd looked it up, and some of the symptoms did fit Bethany, but there were enough that didn't that I didn't ever follow through on it. (Truth be told, though, I cried then, too). I've suspected ADHD myself, after seeing some of her behaviour at school and home. A lot of those symptoms really do fit her, so I'd already planned to have her tested for that. If that's what it is, I can deal with it. I mean, it won't be fun or easy or anything, but I can live with it. In fact, I think it will make some things easier, just having it out there. I'll tend to be more patient with her, I think, because I'll know that she's not just being stubborn or disobedient when she doesn't do what I tell her, but that there's something else going on. And I'll have a better idea of how to handle it.

It's the idea of Asperger's that disturbs and upsets me so much. I can't really put my finger on why. I mean, who wants to face the possibility that their child has a disability like that? I guess I feel that that's something that she's less likely to overcome. The disability will always be there. Future options for her life are much more hampered than with ADHD. That's what makes me sad, I think. What will her future life be like. Would she be able to hold a job, get married, etc? I know I'm going way overboard on that, because she hasn't even been diagnosed with anything, but I do get anxiety attacks, especially when I'm sleep deprived. Even if she does have Asperger's, she'd be really high functioning for an autistic child, compared to some I've seen. I just need to back off a bit for now. I've got the wheels going to get her tested for the preschool, and I've made a doctor's appointment for her, to get a referral to a specialist to test for ADHD and Asperger's. I think I need to just hold off imagining anything else until that's all done, and we get some results in. Deep breath and smile, everything will work out one way or another.

Hooray for Nate

Nate is off at a banquet tonight. He's receiving a pretty big award--the AFMC 2009 midlevel career military scientist of the year. Since the AFMC pretty much has all the scientists doing research and stuff in the Air Force, he's the equivalent of the captain-level scientist of the year for the whole Air Force. I'd planned to go with him at first, but then I realized that it's not exactly the sort of place you bring a newborn to, and I wasn't ready to leave him with a babysitter yet. I haven't tried him on a bottle yet, so I don't know if he'd take it or not. He really doesn't like pacifiers, so I won't be surprised if he doesn't like the bottle, either. So I ended up not going. Oh well. But congrats to Nate.

Dentist and new bedtime idea

Ugh. Going to the dentist is always such a pain. Sometimes literally. A tooth on the top right side of my mouth has been aching for a couple of weeks. I put off going to the dentist, because several times in the past I've gone for that same reason, only to have the dentist tell me he can't find anything wrong. Apparently, some of my teeth have roots extending into the sinus above them, and so when I get a cold or other sinus infection, it can make the teeth hurt, sometimes well beyond the time I have symptoms of a cold. I really hate it. So this time, I assumed it was the same thing, but it kept getting worse, so I gave in and made an appointment. They took x-rays, and sure enough--couldn't find anything wrong. Except one old filling that was starting to look bad. The dentist said he could redo that filling and see if that helped, but if it didn't, then he'd look at referring me to have a root canal done on that tooth. I went ahead and had him do the filling. Hopefully that will help.

Tuesday nights are often difficult around bedtime, because Nate isn't home to help get the kids in bed--he's off with the Young Men. Tonight wasn't so bad, though. After dinner, the kids had a bath, and got out at about 7:00. I'd had a long day, and was really tired, so I got them in their pajamas, and started telling them that it was almost bedtime (hey, they don't know how to read a clock yet). We cleaned up their bedroom, and then I told them it was quiet time. They could play, but they either had to look at books or sit on the floor and play with a quiet toy. No running or yelling. It actually worked. I helped Bethany build a marble track, and Meagan bounced between helping us and looking at a book. It was rather nice. Then when it was bedtime, I put a blanket on the floor, and told them it was the story blanket. While we read our nighttime story and scriptures, and sang songs and had a prayer, they had to stay on the blanket, and no toys were allowed on the blanket. That worked pretty well, too. I've been getting frustrated lately with the kids running all over the room and not settling down for our nighttime routine. So I decided to confine them with the blanket. It helped. I'm going to keep it up, and see if it keeps working.

Good morning, mom!

I had a rather late night last night, so it was no surprise to me that I fell asleep this morning while feeding Sean. Meagan came in a gave a rather unpleasant wake up call. Completely naked, she stood by the side of my bed and said, "Mama, it's a big one poop!" Great. Sean was still eating, too, so I was kind of trapped, and couldn't get up to see what she was talking about. When I did, I almost wished I could just go back to bed. There was poop smeared all over the carpet and even on the chair in the room where Meagan'd been watching TV. Ugh. I guess I really need to potty train her.