Someday...

Someday Kylie may regret all the pictures that she has taken of herself.

Brynlie's Best Friends

A mother always hopes that her children will make good friends that influence them in positive ways. Brynlie's recent choice of friends have left much to be desired.

This is her musical friend with an added bonus of a keyboard on the bottom that makes animals noises. It is loud and obnoxious and every time you flip the page or push the button a new song will play. Her favorite "note" is the green one. It is the farmer and will say "Rock On, Rock On" over and over and over again. Brynlie's loves to wait until I am watching TV and then this friend of hers tempts her into bringing it up on the couch so they can watch TV together with me.

This is Gloworm. She has been a wonderful companion for Brynlie at night, but recently convinced Brynlie that she wanted to eat chocolate with her. Now her left hand is covered in the residue and every time Brynlie goes to bed she wants Gloworm with her. After she lies down with her Brynlie pushes her a few inches away and points out the offending hand and makes a disgusted noise. This toy really needs to learn better hygiene before Brynlie follows suit. In all honesty, this may have been a little bit more of Brynlie's fault than Gloworm, but it is a mother's prerogative to blame her children's friends if at all possible.This friend of hers is much too old for her. It was purchased recently at a book fair for Sadie, but it immediately picked Brynlie as a friend instead. It is a puzzle book that was not meant for the little hands of a 19-month old. Brynlie is able to get all the pieces out, distribute them evenly throughout the whole house, and then leave the empty book for me to fill back up. This happens at least three times a day. I try to return this friend to Sadie, but Brynlie goes looking in the girl's room for her older, mature friend. I wish she would stick to friends her own age.

These baby friends have convinced Brynlie that ALL babies are her babies. It doesn't matter who has the baby first, or if the baby is still in a box. Once Brynlie lays eyes on the baby, it is hers.Her squeals of delight at finding this baby at Target were short lived.

Once she realized that this baby was NOT going home with her. It was not a pretty sight. Brynlie has also found a couple friends in the produce aisle. Specifically, strawberries and bananas. This friendship wouldn't bother me if she would pace herself and eat them over a period of several days. Bananas need to be weighed at the checkout stand. This means a screaming baby from the moment they are placed into the cart until we can get to the car and allow her to pig out on the way home.

Last, but not least, Brynlie's best friend, her stool. Apparently, at 19 months, the only thing that you need to succeed at any task is about 6 inches. Opening doors, reaching the bananas, finding melting chocolate left on the counter, emptying the silverware drawer, pushing items off the stair rail, pulling down tubs of wipes, and getting into the toothpaste are just a few of the things her stool has been an accomplice to. There is nothing that these two can't do together.

Some of my favorite moments this month...

Finding Brynlie's missing shoe, the day AFTER I bought her a new pair.

Putting my foot in my flip flop, only to discover that someone had spilled something sticky in it.

Walking down the stairs and knowing three steps before getting to the bottom and turning into the basement that Brynlie had a stinky diaper.

Russ informing me after Sadie's weekend in Logan that"Sadie likes to fart...a lot".

Pouring myself a big glass of Sprite, only to discover that the girls had finished it off and refilled it with water.

Spending a good half an hour in a dressing room with all three of my girls, trying on swimming suits. For me, not them.

Vowing never to eat again after trying on the swimming suits.

Leaving the store with my new swimming suit and going directly to Chick-Fil-A for some much needed comfort food.

Checking out at the grocery store and having the cashier tell me "Good luck with all those kids". I only had my three girls with me.

Discovering Brynlie as she learned how neat bananas feel when squished between her toes.

Driving down the road and hearing Kylie say "Oh, that felt good", and then smelling what "felt so good".

Realizing that my friends are trying to make me fat. Delia forced her super delicious chocolate mint recipe on me (and gave it to Tawnie to make sure that I couldn't escape them), Maria baked me an amazing cookbook cover worthy Cherry Cheesecake, and Amanda took me out for Ice Cream and fries at Leatherby's.

Finding my flosser near the girl's toilet. The toilet.

Getting told at Brynlie's first ever dental check-up that her teeth are already getting soft and showing signs of decay. Why did she and Sadie both have to get my teeth?!

I'm leaving for Disneyland on Tuesday, but I really don't know how the rest of this month can top the first half.

Not a Fan

Ten years ago I had the privilege of working at the MACU in branch in Bountiful and commuting each day from Salt Lake. This was during the I-15 reconstruction for the 2002 Olympics. The traffic was horrible every single day, and I understood how desperately another road was needed. So I was all for it when they announced they were building Legacy Highway out there. I took Sadie up to Layton to meet Kristi last night and on the way home I decided that I would try out the fancy new highway. The highway is this nice, beautiful, wide, smooth road. And then they went and ruined it. Once I was fully committed to the road and had no way to turn around, I saw it. A sign. A big ugly sign. A big ugly sign that said 55 MPH. Then they made the road even uglier by adding several cars with bright red and blue lights on top of them. Never again.