Rub a Dub Dub

My girls love the bath. If there is ever a time that I want both kids to cheer up with little work on my part, all I have to do is toss them in the bath. I don't have to entertain them. All I have to do is sit by the tub to make sure no one drowns herself (or the bathroom). I also have to make sure to spot Phaedra so she won't have a bad fall, since I can't yet convince her to stay sitting in the tub. That's about it. They are happy as soon as they hit the water, and I just have to supervise.

Phaedra loves the bath so much she begs to get in any time we are in the bathroom that has the tub. Mentioning the word "bath" in front of her is like saying "ice cream" in front of Eleanor. She starts chanting the word, and if you don't get her there fast, it's as if you've broken a promise to her.

I think Phaedra has taken a total of two or three baths without Eleanor in her entire life. If Eleanor is ever saying she doesn't want to bathe, all I have to do is put Phaedra in and let Eleanor watch her happily swimming around for a minute. Eleanor can't resist joining in.

I love pictures of bath time. I love the cute baby pot-guts and the dripping hair. I think I took more pictures of Eleanor in the bath as a baby than I have Phaedra. That's probably because my camera wasn't so fancy back then, so I wasn't as afraid of a splash here and there. Also, with Eleanor in the tub with Phaedra all the time, I have to be careful to get "tasteful" pictures since Eleanor is getting older. I still think bath pictures are fun, though.

Don't even think about it, sister.

R.I.P. Lappy

Last night, not long after finishing my post about Eleanor's latest antics, we had a death in the family. My laptop gave me a message about a hardware malfunction, and then everything went black. Grant, my faithful surgeon, carefully took out all of Lappy's organs and tried to revive them. It was a massacre. Grant did all he could to save my dear Lappy, but he said it was just her time to go.

She was a good friend. I loved her guts. She was warm. She was sharing. She loved long walks down memory lane. She even had pretty decent taste in music. She stood by us during the tough times when we had to turn to her for all our entertainment --not because we didn't have a TV but because we lived in a small house with a daughter who was a light sleeper. Lappy was ever so careful to let us hear the movie without waking the baby. She has been a support through church callings, finances, and countless blog entries, but she wasn't just about the work. I think she especially liked it when we would take her to the beach house; we were cut off from the outside world, with nothing to do but play games and watch movies. Those were the days.

I will be in mourning for the next few weeks until her younger cousin arrives to release me. Lappy wouldn't have wanted me to dwell in sadness too long. Until then, I do have some friends who can offer support when they aren't too busy. Grant's tiny friend, Lapita, will get me through where she can. I don't know how to say this without being rude, but, well, she's a little slow. Mack is all business and hardly ever around. When I can catch him, I'm sure I'll have some relief, but sometimes it feels as if we don't speak the same language. No one will ever have a stronger hold on my memory than Lappy.

I'm sure Lappy has gone to a better place where she doesn't get dropped or jumped on by three-year-olds. I'm sure that wherever she is now, there are no one-year-olds who try to step on her to get up onto the couch. She won't overheat or get crumbs in her keys. I'm sure it is a better place where she has gone. Sleep well, dear Lappy.

If anyone would like to share a few words on Lappy's behalf, you are welcome to do so in the "shared thoughts" section below. Thank you for your friendship in this troubling time.

A Wise Older Sister

One evening this week, we had a financial planner come to our house to talk to us about retirement, insurance, etc. We were all gathered around the table to listen to what he had to say except for Phaedra, who was entertaining herself in the living room where we could see her.

Pretty soon, she noticed that Grant had set my cell phone on the arm of the couch where she could reach. We all knew when she noticed it because she calls the phone "Daddy" or "bye, bye," and as soon as she noticed it, she started chanting her names for it. She didn't go straight for it and grab it. She looked at us, nodded her head, took a step closer. . . Grant, who was closest to her, paused in his conversation with the financial planner to tell her a very nice "no, no." She continued to make sweet faces in our direction while slowly inching closer and closer to the phone. Each time, Grant would pause, turn to her and patiently say, "no, no, Phaedra."

Finally, Eleanor, who was on Grant's lap, had had enough. She told him, "Daddy, Phaedra won't listen if you tell her calmly." Grant had tuned Eleanor out and missed what she said, but I couldn't keep from laughing. I repeated it for Grant, and we all had a good laugh over the wisdom Eleanor has acquired in her experience.

~Finished Project: Another Baby Blanket~

I recently finished a blanket for a lady in my ward. She recently moved in, and I was assigned to be her visiting teacher. Her baby girl was born last Sunday, and it sounds like all are doing well. I thought it would be fun to give her a blanket. Here's how it turned out:

Hard Workers

Grant's dad was kind enough to pick up two loads of wood for us this week so we'll be stocked up and warm for the winter. (We can't thank him enough!) I'm assuming he did it out of the kindness of his heart and concern for our well-being and not just to keep us from moving in with them again ;)

He dropped off the first load Monday evening just before Grant was supposed to come home from work. We had just finished dinner, and the girls were so excited to see Grandpa. We went out and watched as Grandpa unloaded the truck in our driveway. Before he was even gone, Eleanor was stacking wood on the sidewalk leading to our door. My first thought was to let the wood wait until Grant could get around to putting it in the garage where it would stay dry. But as I watched my busy little worker bee in action, knowing she had no intentions of quitting what she was doing to go back inside, I decided we might as well make all her work productive. I cleared a little space in the garage and told her where to stack it. I alternated between working one-handed, holding a squirmy Phaedra and working while trying to watch/chase after Phaedra after I let her down. Eventually, I gave up and put Phaedra in the Baby Bjorn, which didn't make her very happy.

Grant was due home any minute, so I didn't figure we would work for very long before he got home and we started packing kids off to bed. It turned out that Grant ended up coming home later than usual, and by the time he was home, we almost had the whole load stacked. Eleanor loved every minute of it. She kept telling me proudly, "We are hard workers, huh?" Grant took Phaedra inside and ate dinner while Eleanor and I finished stacking the load of wood. Then, since it was already bedtime, I scrapped the FHE lesson I had planned and we talked briefly about service and how we had done Daddy a service.

The next evening was when Grant's dad droppped off the second load. We didn't put any of it away that night because it was raining and the kids needed dinner, so I just put a tarp over the wood. The next day, Eleanor was anxious to help me put away the wood. That day, it was like playing red light-green light. We would go out and start stacking just a few minutes before it would start to pour down rain. So we went in the house and watched the sky until we could go out again. We got about half of it stacked. Phaedra was better that time to play close to the wood and not get into too much trouble.

Eleanor loved "working hard" together, and asked me first thing the next morning if we could go "wooding" again. She kept wanting to wear gloves so she wouldn't get splinters, but the adult sized gloves are really hard for her to use. I had seen child sized gardening gloves in stores, but that was only in springtime. I went and got her some extra-small baseball gloves on sale that have leather on the palms and fingers. She just loved them. She kept begging me all that day to go wooding, but I was too busy with other things to go out and work with her. As soon as Grant got home, he asked her to go out and work with him. She was so happy. Phaedra joined them and had lots of fun doing what she had done the day before: playing with sharp sticks. They got it all stacked. As I watched them work, I got a big lump in my throat. I just love when something as mundane as stacking wood turns into a fun family experience.

The stack. This is mostly just the first load. Eleanor had to stand on a stool to reach the top.

Pausing for loves.

Playing with sticks.

Hard workers.

Showing off her new gloves.