Adventures in Potty Training... and Other Stuff

So, this week we have attempted to start potty training Ellie. It would be really nice if she was diaper-free by the time a new baby was in the house (I have heard that it is common for small kids to regress to diapers with the traumatic entry of a new sibling, but I figure she would at least know how to do it, and could return to it quickly if this chances to happen). Ellie is excited and wants to wear her new Little Mermaid underwear and sit on the potty, but we have yet to actually have her go there - she seems to save it until 5 minutes after her potty trip. I have heard that some parents have had their toddlers sit on the potty with a juice box until something comes out, but it seems that would make her not want to sit on the potty at all. Oh well, we'll keep trying.

On Friday, Ellie and I went to Alicia's graduation at BYU. I'm proud of my little sister. She makes number 6 of the 12 kids in our family to graduate from BYU, and the 9th to recieve a bachelor's degree (if my figuring and memory is correct). Yes, I am well aware of the fact that she is like, a foot taller than me... Saturday was a busy day, as it always seems to be at our house. First, our ward had a 5K, and we participated, as well as Nick's dad. Nick ran it, and Dale and I walked pushing Ellie in her stroller. She loves going for a ride and kind of "phases out", she doesn't respond to questions, just checks out the new surroundings. After that active start to our day we worked in our yard. I mowed the lawn for the first time this season - I love mowing the grass, it is so relaxing to me, and just smells so good. Then I cleaned out a big flower bed and spread woodchips while Nick prepped and planted potatoes, which we should have plenty of come the end of the summer. Nick loves his garden and tends to get a little carried away... We also purchased and planted the last of our fruit trees. We now have a tart cherry, bartlett pear, danjou pear, sugar plum, fuji apple, gala apple, and lemon elberta peach. Ellie had a good day, too. She helped mom pull weeds and dug in the dirt with dad. We always have more work to do than time to accomplish it. Nick had good intentions to work on our fence, but that will have to wait for another day.

The baby must be growing fast these days. I feel like I am ballooning, however, to the outside eye I am just beginning to 'show' and some people in my ward are surprised to find out that I am pregnant (instead they were thinking, 'gosh, Wendy's getting fat lately...'). I started wearing maternity clothes about 2 weeks ago. Our baby girl is just reaching the size to make me uncomfortable - sleeping at night especially. Her muscles must be getting stronger because in the last few days she has really had some whopper kicks, and I can watch my tummy jumping. I am now almost 27 weeks, and am a little concerned because with Ellie I was put on bedrest at 28 weeks - although I don't plan on doing bedrest this time, and so far my BP has been okay, - I still think about all I want to do before this baby makes her entrance (specifically making our office into a nursery). We have been discussing lots of names. Our favorites thus far are Maren, Saige, or Claire. Maren seems to be our front-runner, despite both of our families expressing dislike. We like it and that's what really matters, right!?! In fact, if you ask Ellie what her baby sister's name is, she will likely say "Maren". Her middle name will probably be Patricia, after my mother.

And here's a cute photo of Ellie. She'll put her sunnies on and wear them around the house. This morning I walked into her bedroom and she was playing with her dishes and wearing them. Sometimes she'll even push them up on her head and wear them like that - she must have seen mom doing that while we were in California. What a cute girl.

Spring is teasing me.

As the warm weather has been teasing us, it's yard time. You've seen our tulips, but our vegetable garden is starting to take off. Our peas are a couple of inches tall, and many of the onions are on their way up. I can't believe all of the research I've done on onion varieties. I found that I need long-day onions for this area, but they are not commonly available for red onion seeds here. Strange. Last year we had about 300 onions, started from sets or sprouts. So the seed method is an experiment. And another experiment will be finding a good way to keep them throughout the winter. Wish us luck.
So, as some of you know, I've taken up running again. I have been running at the nearby rec center for about 45 minutes a few days a week, but I haven't been bothering to count the laps. Last week, I decided to try out the Jordan River trail. Using the markers there, I found I'm doing about a 10.5 minute mile. I figured that if I'm running over four miles already, I could easily do a 10k, which is 6.2 miles. I went out on Saturday morning, and did it, no problem. Sure, I'm definitely not the fastest runner in the land, but I was surprised. I think I'm going to sign up for the Deseret News 10k on the 24th of July. I may not actually run it, being that Wendy will either be nine months pregnant, or no longer pregnant at that point. At least it will give me some motivation and a cool technical T-shirt. I am officially challenging anyone who reads this to join me. Come on, what are you afraid of?
For all of you that were hoping to see an episode of Nick's Trivial Rants here today, you'll have to wait. If I give you one too often, you just wouldn't appreciate them. Besides, I can be positive and upbeat too!

Sunny California

Ellie and I just returned from vacationing in sunny California. My sister-in-law, Shauna, took her four kids down for Spring Break and needed someone to come along, and I was the lucky recipient! We stayed in a beachhouse owned by Shauna's grandparents in Newport Beach. It was a good time, away from the cold (and snow) of Utah. We all enjoyed spending time on the beach - one day in particular was perfect with just a slight breeze and nice, hot sand. The other days were a little chilly and windy to spend too much time at the ocean (of course, that didn't stop this crazy bunch of Utahns from trying!). We went for walks on the boardwalk and I especially enjoyed rollerblading. Ellie had a great time playing with her cousin, Aspen. The car ride there and back wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. The kids traveled surprisingly well, thankfully.

Ellie had a grand time at the beach. She was not afraid of the ocean, and was ready to run in and go swimming. In fact, she preferred having her feet in the water over playing in the sand, although she enjoyed that too.

l.


Ya'll should check out Shauna's blog as she will surely be much more detailed and post some good photos of our get-away.

Meanwhile, back in Utah, Nick was working hard. He is in the process of putting up a gate and fence at the sides of our house. So far, he has leveled some ground, and has several post holes dug. It will be nice to have it finished - along with our other long list of things to be accomplished this spring and summer. Now if only the weather would cooperate. Our tulips and daffodils are all in bloom and look beautiful.

Conference, Baby, and Promotions

I thoroughly enjoyed Conference over the weekend. It always seems to go by too quickly. We went to my parent's house on Sunday for the bi-annual between-the-sessions-lunch. Ellie wanted to be outside on the play equipment, and thankfully, her cousins were willing to oblige. Mom and dad weren't.

Today I had another Doctor's appointment. It was about this time with Ellie that my blood pressure was a problem, so he wants me to have it checked regularly (more regularly than every 4 weeks). Today my BP was okay, but he still wants me to take the extra precautions. I am now 24 weeks, although I don't really look it, and everyone is quick to tell me that. They can't believe that a baby is in there somewhere. Well, I promise you all, there is! I look in the mirror and I can definetely see that my belly is growing. And I can certainly feel that baby in there. I am told that it's a good thing that I'm not showing yet, but I disagree. I wish I was really showing just so people would stop making comments about it, and so that I would be over this 'fat' stage and be into the 'obviously pregnant' stage. I am grateful that I have only gained 8 pounds or so. Hopefully that means it will be easier to loose the baby weight.

We had some great news in our family this week. At Nick's work, they lost a team lead, and another team lead moved up a position, so they did some reshuffling. Nick applied for a team lead position because he wanted some growth opportunities, although he was nervous to be a boss over his co-workers. Anyway, he got the position! He was a bit surprised (although I don't think anyone else was...) and excited too, of course. Way to go, my sugar daddy!

Ellie is just growing up more every day. She has been 'saying prayers' (which means she repeats some words of mine or Nick's prayers) for several months now, but she has been saying more and more of the words. It is really cute. She knows how to open her CD player and change her CD and play it, so there is usually music coming from her room. Lately her favorite thing to eat is cereal. She can eat several bowls in a day. She likes Frosted Shredded Wheat the best. She knows that she will have a baby sister, although, I'm sure it will be a shock to her system when she really does. Yesterday she was playing with play-doh and informed me that she was making a fish - see the photo below. Yep, looks like a fish to me! :) She has her moments, but she really is fun.

Easter Second Round

My family has an Easter party every year with an egg hunt, lunch, and other games for the kids. This year, because Easter was so early, we had our party late. It turned out to be a beautiful day, with lots of sun (which we were grateful for, the forecast was for snow). Ellie loved the hunt and playing with her cousins. I think the best part of her day was playing on the swingset, or trampoline. It was a fantastic day.

Another highlight of this week was that Nick and I actually went out on a date. That hasn't happened for several months. It is hard to get away when a babysitter has to be arranged, and the last few months have been especially difficult because it seems someone has always been sick. We are very grateful for Grandma and Grandpa Johnson watching Ellie for us. Nick and I enjoyed dinner, a movie at the Clark Planetarium, and some shopping at the Gateway. Honestly, I didn't care what we did as long as I was alone with my husband. It was wonderful, we should do it again soon!

Goin' out for dinner

Is it just me, or has the allure of going out to dinner been waning lately? Growing up, it was always exciting to go out to eat. The food was something we just couldn't quite get at home, and for some reason, was always really tasty. Back then, I could eat out every day, and oftentimes did.

As I've grown up, it seems that I am expected to shy away from the kiddie food of years past, my old staples of burgers, pizza, and subs, and delight in the "sophisticated" tastes of seaweed and rice (aka sushi), dandelion salad (aka lawn weeds), or the trendy "Fresh" Mex. (Fresh Mex is another topic of its own that I may delve into next week.) Then there are the more common dishes and the chain sit-down restaurants. But that is the problem -- they are the common dishes. Don't get me wrong, they are tasty. We're talking about pasta with alfredo sauce, chicken stir-fry, lasagna, or country-fried steak. But nowadays, these kinds of foods never seem to have the magic and excitement that a pizza or even a box of Chicken McNuggets with hot mustard sauce had for me when I was a kid. These are the kinds of foods I can easily make at home. In fact, I get much more excited to experiment in my own kitchen with these recipies. I can invite several people over for mighty calzones with their choice of homemade pesto or red sauce, and all kinds of fillings. And I get value for my money. It costs about the same to feed these mighty dishes to a dozen friends as it would to feed one or two people the same things at an Italian restaurant.

Although my palate has expanded over the years, strangely, I still have many of the same guilty pleasures that I enjoyed going out for as a kid. And I'm not talking about the bacon sandwich with just ketchup that I still think is great -- you could never find a restaurant serving that. I am talking about the simple fast food burgers, Round Table pizzas, and old fashioned traditional Mexican food. These kinds of things have a unique taste that just can't be replicated at home.

In an effort to understand my thinking in my old age, here's what I've narrowed it down to:
1. I have not biggened my palate like unto my peers.
2. I have become cheap, always expecting something better than I can do for the money I pay.
3. I have actually become a food snob, with a healthy respect for my old stand-bys.

I'm hoping it's number 3, mostly because it makes me appear a little more positive and matured. As many of you know, I do love to cook, and it only makes sense that I would want to have a hand in preparing the dishes that take a little more time and creativity to produce. I'm happy to knead semolina and eggs to make my own ravioli, but I will still feel free to stop at good ol' Burger King from time to time for the kiddie treats. But when I need to satisfy my other grown up tastes, don't be surprised if I grill up a burger at home, gushing with ketchup, mustard, and lots of red onions, sliced just the way I like them.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. We did most of our celebrations on Saturday. Ellie's favorite part of her Easter basket was eating all of her jelly beans. That evening we dyed eggs, which Ellie loved. She is at a fun age where new things are exciting and she's old enough now to participate. She loved fishing the eggs out of the dye and putting stickers on the colored eggs.

Nick's family came over Sunday night and we enjoyed a delicious Easter feast. It was a special treat to spend time with Nick's uncle Tom, aunt Brenda, cousin Tommy and his family. And now we have entirely too much candy in our house! The party continues as my family will be having a get-together this coming Saturday.

Ellie is really into the words, "be nice", lately. She informs Nick and I when we need to "be nice" (which usually means we have told Ellie not to do something, or we are between her and something that she wants). The other day I was picking up Ellie's toys off the floor and putting them in her room. She followed right behind me, putting the toys back on the family room floor, telling me to "be nice". Then she told me that I needed to put my nose in the corner. Uh, yeah. I had to close Ellie's bedroom door so I could at least vacuum before the toys descended upon us again.

A treat from Ellie's Easter basket.

Dying Easter eggs.

When Ellie was asked to look at the camera and smile, this is what she came up with. Lovely. What a funny girl.