1/16/21

Camille got super upset multiple times in a row today and went storming off to her room. She was arguing with Jack, bugging him on purpose, asking thin air for some food and water (I continually tell her she needs to make sure I can hear her before getting all upset that I don't do what she asks), etc. One time while she was up in her room, she drew a picture of how she doesn't fit in with the family. It was so sad and so hilarious all at once. And she sulked for a while after bringing it to me. Brooke was cute, trying to get her to cheer up, though, and Camille would have none of it. 

Jack put a kiwi in his underwear this afternoon. 🤣🤷🏽‍♀️ Now no one will eat it. He also put it in the bath with him. 

Brooke was so sweet and made us all breakfast this morning. Chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and grape juice. Sweet little thing. 

This afternoon, we told Camille that she's going to have to take growth hormone shots every day. Daniel did most of the talking. But she handled it much better than I thought she would. She cried and jumped to the worst conclusion, as is her way ("Am I going to have to get shots every day for the rest of my life?!?" Asked with many tears and a horrified look on her face). But we explained that it's only until she's a teenager, that she'll get used to it, and that the needle isn't big and it won't hurt that much. She asked some more questions, and Daniel showed her some videos of kids doing the shots themselves, and I think she felt a lot better after that. 

Camille also lost her first tooth today! Her 2 middle bottom teeth have been loose for a number of weeks already, but she's been so nervous about losing them that she hasn't wiggled them at all. Today, she was absent-mindedly wiggling one of them and it came out in her hand. It was a very exciting moment. She drew a cute little card for the tooth fairy to put under pillow. I just die from cuteness!!

Tonight we went on a double date with mom and dad Holbrook. We had the babysitter come a little early so we could run some errands and shop without the kids, and then we meet mom and dad at red fuego (Peruvian restaurant) for dinner. It was so nice. 

Thankful today for a camera that lets me spy on my baby when he's sleeping (or at least when he should be sleeping).

1/17/21

Daniel and I gave talks in church today about the importance of individual, couple, and family scripture study and prayer. I think it went well. Jack had a bit of a fit towards the end of Daniel's talk and I had to leave the kids to take him out. So it goes. 

We met with the stake president today. Daniel is being called to be the Elder's Quorum President in our ward. Last night, when we got the text about meeting with the SP today, we both of us put out reasons why the new calling was for the other person. I won. 🤣😉 

Sawyer took a 3 hour nap this afternoon, and woke up much happier than he's been lately. Poor little man has had a runny nose the past couple of days, so we think he might not be feeling good. 

He started scooting around this week! Not really crawling or even army crawling. Mainly he shifts his little body around a bunch and pulls with his arms to move himself forward and wherever he wants to go. I love it! And also it makes me sad. He's getting older. 

He also really seems to like food. I've tried baby food with him and he doesn't really love it. He seems to actually really hate it. But he LOVES normal food. I just give him the soft things of whatever I make for dinner, and he gobbles it up. And he never seems to be done. If I keep giving him food, he'll keep taking bites of it. I usually take him to bed before it seems like he's really done eating. 

He has been taking less in his bottles, too. And nursing for less time. We may be done nursing sooner than I want. 😭

Today I'm thankful that Jack had NO ACCIDENTS -- neither wet nor poopy. And he went poop in the toilet without me having to prompt him! Also. No accidents yesterday either. 🙌🏼🙌🏼 It's going much better than I thought it would.

 A few moments from today: 

Jack has preschool this morning to make up for preschool being canceled on Wednesday, and Melissa (who was hosting today) said that he did so well and participated -- not his usual thing. 

This evening, I put our family dance playlist on while I made dinner. The song "what makes you beautiful" came on, and after a minute of it playing, Camille ran over to me in the kitchen and started singing it to me. 😍 "you don't know you're beautiful, that's what makes you beautiful!" (In contrast to Jack telling me earlier this week that he doesn't like my face. 🤣) She loves that song, and asked Alexa to play it a couple of times in a row. 

Looking over at my kids tonight, while I was busy making dinner -- Brooke and Camille drawing at the table, Camille dancing to music, Sawyer in his high chair making cute baby babbling noises, and Jack dancing and playing with his trucks -- I legitimately started crying because I was so happy. I'm so happy to be a mom, and to have such wonderful, cute little kids. It's a good, happy life I lead. 

No poop accidents today. Just wet ones. 

We had a family movie night tonight and watched the new Pete's Dragon. Jack and Camille were only semi-interested in it. Their attention to the movie went in and out. But towards the end of the movie, they both just started playing and pretending they were dragons. Jack came up to me saying he was my dragon, and he went over and told Daniel that he was my dragon. 🥰 During the end credit song, the kids got up and danced and ran around pretending they were flying, and I could not get enough of Jack's little strutting and dancing. I was dying from his cuteness. 

 This morning -- slept in (because Sawyer woke up at 6am; I fed him and put him back in bed); fed Sawyer and got the girls off to school; read scriptures/did preliminary preparation for a talk; tidied my room and made my bed and brushed my teeth and got dressed; put away laundry; stripped beds and washed sheets and put on clean sheets; cleaned the kids bathroom upstairs; tidied the upstairs; tried a couple times to get Sawyer to take a nap (was unsuccessful); made myself a smoothie and bottle fed Sawyer; played downstairs with the boys and wrote in my journal before having to go get Camille from the bus stop; bus was early, so friend walked her halfway home and she was irritated they wouldn't let her go on her own; got the kids lunch; read while they ate; put a spaghetti squash in the oven for dinner. 

All before 1pm.

Just to note how busy I am these days, how much I'm trying to get done all the time. I hate the phrase "I'm busy" or "too busy". It feels like you're putting some kind of badge of honor a trophy on yourself. And I've never been busy before, as a stay at home mom. I mean, sure, I've had busy moments, busy weeks, newborn busy times. But since having Sawyer, I am BUSY all the time. It's rare that I have a moment when I say to myself, "huh. I don't have anything I'd planned to be doing right now... what could I do with this time?" Normally it's a list a mile long -- this, then this, then that, and then that -- in my head that I work towards getting done. It's exhausting. 

Camille and I played games and drank hot chocolate in the basement for mommy time today. And Brooke and I danced in the dining room to lively music. It was fun to hang out with my girls. 

Camille has been doing so well with family economy this week! We switched zone chores in Saturday, and she's doing basement, and she's done it almost every day this week. I'm very proud of her. Brooke's done very well this week, too. But she's always been more consistent. 

Jack earned BOTH of his cars today! ... by pooping in he toilet twice (with much encouragement from Camille... I think she wanted him to earn them so they could play with them together). But that didn't stop him from soiling (read: pooping little skids that require wiping) 3 pairs of underwear. 🙄 

I was cracking up tonight at bath time. I wanted to get all the kids bathed at the same time. So the girls went to the kids bathroom shower together and I took the boys to my bathroom tub. I basically just cleaned them up, without them playing much. But Jack wanted to play more, so I let the tub run while I got Sawyer taken care of. And all of a sudden he starts screaming because it's too cold. All the warm water ran out! So I told him to just get out and dry off. I finished up with Sawyer and went to get the girls out. 

They were both standing in the shower, wet, soapy and shivering without the water on because it was cold. I told them either way, cold water or hot, they had to get cleaned up and rinsed off. 

Brooke went first, washing up and I pulled down the shower sprayer to rinse her off. She screamed and cried and exclaimed about how cold it was. And I was barely able to keep from laughing. I was chuckling to myself, quiet enough that she couldn't hear. She hated every second of that cold shower, poor thing. And there I was, laughing. Mom of the year award over here, please! And cute Camille was trying to help Brooke feel better: "Brooke, pretend you're a dolphin! Dolphins swim in cold water!"

Camille went next and she took it like a tough girl. She was much less noisy compared to Brooke. She just kind of shivered and groaned to herself and complained about how cold it was. And again, I could barely contain my laughter. 🤣 I was absolutely dying about it. The water was really cold, so I felt bad. They were miserable. But it was so funny! 

They both complained about being freezing after that shower. They wanted big towels to dry off, and they both requested hot chocolate for dinner, which I gladly did for them. 

Sawyer was cracking me up too. After I got him out of the bath, I sat him on his towel and wrapped him up before going to get the bath going for Jack again. Daniel called me right then, so I answered and chatted with him for a minute. I heard Sawyer screaming in the background, and when I turned around to look, this is what I saw: 

He'd rolled over, but his head got stuck in the hood of the towel! 🤣🤣 Poor thing! And I laughed and snapped a few pictures before I helped him out of that. He was NOT happy. 

Jack, Sawyer and I went shopping while the girls were in gymnastics this afternoon. We had to be real quick, because they're only there for an hour. And we were real quick! We got done with 15 minutes to spare! I bought a couple of vehicle toys for Jack as incentive (read: bribery) for going poop in the toilet. It's been difficult to train him to poop in the toilet. A story for another day. 

I wish I could remember the other funny and heart warming things that happened today. But by the end of the day, after taking care of kids and household, shopping and running the kids places, I'm so tired and out of energy that I can barely think anymore. Someday, when I have a perfect resurrected body and mind, I'll be able to remember these things. For now, maybe it's enough to know that they happened. 

 The last few days:

• Jack has been doing well with his potty training; he's only had a few accidents (most of them today). But ... he hasn't pooped since Wednesday. 😬
• I filmed and edited a video for primary singing time, and it was very painful. Not because the process itself was difficult. Buuuuut editing the video and having to watch myself over and over and over again ... that was the painful part. And the video ended up so much more boring than I was hoping. I'm going to have to up my video making game for March. Toree Douglas has singing time for next month -- we are just doing one video a month for primary this year. For the foreseeable future. I had Camille be my little helper in the video, and she was for sure the best part. She was adorable, and so excited and willing to help me with it. The little cutie.
• Daniel worked crazy hours this week, and often came home after I was already asleep. We barely saw each other this week, mainly just in passing, like in the morning, when I'm taking care of the kids and trying to get the girls off to school and he was getting ready and going to work. It was sad.
• Since I've been flying solo with everything this week, I've been getting to bed way later than I'd wanted to. I would love to try and be in bed by 10:30 or earlier every night. But by the time I get the kids in bed, and then have to clean up the house -- by the time all that's done, I want to relax and do something else, and then I'm going to bed too late. Well, this is a new week. I'll try again.
• Daniel and I went on a date Friday night. Like, a real date! We went to dinner at Zupa's and saw a movie. In the movie theater! Can't remember the last time we had a real date like that, with dinner and an activity of sorts. We saw Wonder Woman, and it was a fine movie. But it was more the act of getting out and doing something together. We went to bed way too late that night, staying up and talking. And it was perfect.
• I changed up kid chores at our family meeting on Saturday. We'll see how it goes, but Camille's zone is now basement, and Brooke is doing the downstairs bathroom. Also, I changed dinner-time chores. We're going to start clearing our own places, so that Camille is in charge of clearing and wiping down the table, and Brooke is going to put dishes in the dishwasher. It was time to mix things up. The girls were starting to get tired of their assigned chores. 
• Jack drew his first real piece of art this week. Actually, 2 drawings! Little potato people! My favorite! One was a picture of him and me and the toilet (potty training, you know). I can't remember off the top of my head the other picture, but you know I'm going to keep both of them forever and ever.
  

 

 Yesterday:

• We went to Denise's house for Cap's birthday party, just a little dance party with cake. He loves to dance and he was so cute to watch dancing with all his cousins. Camille was so concerned about not having a present for him that she made him a couple of cute paper bag puppets. She's been on quite a paper bag puppet kick, making some almost every day this week. 💕
• Potty training went really well!... except for the one time Jack pooped... in his underwear. 😖 Overall, though, I'm impressed and surprised at how well he's doing. He'll even take himself to the bathroom without me prompting him. I understand that there's usually some regression at some point. But I'm pleased so far. It hasn't been as bad as I anticipated. 
• Today I'm grateful for the perspective that books give us. The girls and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books, and we've been absolutely loving them! I think I may have read one of them as a kid. But with the girls, we are on the 5th book, and we love them. We've gotten to know Laura and her family, and it's so interesting reading about their lives and how different they are from ours. The girls and I have had very meaningful discussions based on what we read, and it's given us some perspective about trials and hardships, about work and joy and all kinds of things. The girls are full of questions because of these books, about how people used to do things, how they lived and how things are different for us. I love books, and how much we learn from them!
  

 Today: 

• Brooke gave Jack a little drawing lesson, teaching him how to draw a snowman and a Christmas tree. It was adorable. 
• Jack drew me a picture of me and him and the toilet. He started drawing potato people just this week. I've been waiting for it; he seems to be a little late than the girls were. I love it so much. 

• Camille didn't get ready for school this morning, so she missed the bus and I had to take her to school. I was very much ticked off. But then after school we had mommy time, we made cupcake paper bag puppets, they were adorable and we had fun. She then proceeded to complete half of her homework packet (they have a whole month to finish it) and do her reading. Without me having to nag her. I only reminded her once. 
• I started potty training Jack today and it went really well! He had one accident in the morning, we changed his underwear and he was good the rest of the day. I took him to the bathroom every half hour or so, but he went without me telling him to a couple of times. And towards the end of the day, I stopped reminding him and he was fine. Good first day! We'll see how the rest of the week goes. 😬
• I had a piano lesson with Brooke today, and she's doing really well! She was excited about piano today, which doesn't always happen when she's frustrated. 
• Today I'm grateful for the availability of fresh produce in the dead of winter.

• We took the kids sledding on Saturday. They've been asking to go quite a bit this last month since it started snowing more, and Daniel got a new saucer sled for Christmas for them. There's a place up the mountains called Tibble Fork reservoir; it's a small lake with big slopes going down into it. During the winter the lake obviously freezes over and you can sled down the banks of the lake out onto the frozen lake. There were hundreds of people there on Saturday, apparently it's a very popular sledding spot. The kids didn't last too long out there. It was cold, and Camille and Jack were too nervous about sledding, and too little to go by themselves. Sawyer was the first one done, though. I think he was tired and cold; he doesn't have any winter gear. But Jack and Camille weren't far behind him. Brooke had the best time, I think. She's at that age where she's finally old and big enough to do things on her own, and she really had a good time. I went down 3 times -- once with each of the kids (not Sawyer obviously), and then I took Sawyer to the car to calm him down and get him warm. But it was a fun afternoon! We want to take the kids again on a weekday when it's not so busy. And we'd like to go with a group of people. 

• I started what I hope is a new family tradition: family powwows on Saturday mornings. I've heard of families doing something like this, using a family meeting as a time to teach character-building principles, to teach good behavior and values, and to talk about what's going on in each other's lives. And I've wanted to implement it in our family for a while, but timing. Lately, though, I've been feeling more of a push for it. I'm hoping that it gives me a frequent opportunity to discuss behaviors I want to improve upon so that I feel like I can let little things go in the moment, instead of getting all blustery and irritated when the kids do something I don't like. I'm working on developing more patience and kindness and compassion with them. I also want to be more deliberate in teaching them values, and I'm hoping it'll give us a chance to bond. 
• Brooke is getting to be such a big independent girl. It's both a joy and a sadness to watch her grow up. Last night, she made popcorn all by herself for our Sunday game night. She does her chores, reading and homework without me nagging her all the time. She makes her own lunch in the morning. She's quick to obey and help (for the most part). Tonight I noticed that she was making a real effort to be kind to her sister, to compliment her artwork and to be supportive. It warmed my heart to see! She's been loving playing games with us, and she's pretty fun to play with. She's positive and enthusiastic and energetic and responsible and helpful. She's just getting to be such a delightful person to be with. I really love the person she's becoming. 
• I'm grateful for beautiful winter mornings. It was absolutely wonderful this morning. There was frost on every surface, and clinging to every tree branch. The trees were absolutely beautiful! They were all white with frost, and the sun came out to make everything sparkle. It was amazing! I should've snapped a picture of them. 

Other Goals

 Here are the serious goals I've made for this year, one for every category from the children and youth program for the church: 

I also made this other list of less serious goals. I'm not going to work as hard on these goals, but they're things I want to have in the back of my mind to work on or introduce into our family culture at some point: 

2020 & 2021

Well, 2020 was quite an interesting year for everyone. We definitely had it better than some people. We didn't deal with loss of business or income; loss of loved one due to covid; fear because of the riots; destruction of property, or anything else that a lot of people have struggled with this past year. We were and are very blessed. 

All we really dealt with was Brooke having school from home after the schools closed and Daniel having to work from home for a few months. But that was kind of a blessing, really. I loved having her and Daniel home during the day; and doing school at home was not that stressful because she was self motivated most of the time. It was so nice being altogether all the time! I think Daniel struggled working from home... it's not his favorite. But the kids and I loved having him here full time. 

It was a little hard not being able to go anywhere for those few months. But we spent time at home together: Marco polo-ing family and friends, going on walks together, doing crafts, reading, watching movies, playing outside, doing church at home together. Looking back, it was stressful at times. But it was special. 

In addition to covid things, there was all the national stress and debate and argument and rudeness connected with the presidential election. And I felt very compelled this year to do my own digging and search my own feelings about voting and where I stand, because I didn't like either of the candidate options. I needed to come to my own conclusions and be able to back up my voting decisions. I started following news and politics, and had to slog through some hard ideals and thoughts to find where I stand. It was an interesting process (still happening), and one that I felt needed to happen. 

2020 also brought us Sawyer. ❤ He's such a little sweetheart. He has been a pretty chill baby, despite the usual eating and sleeping issues that my babies always have (I'm starting to think it's us... not the babies). But for whatever reason, I had a harder time bonding with him and enjoying him than any of my other kids. Maybe it was the craziness in the 2020 world. Maybe I was randomly experiencing a bit of post partum depression, where I never have before. Maybe it was something about Sawyer's little person. I don't know. But I felt much anxiety surrounding him. For many months. I feel like it's just barely starting to ease a little. (I'm sure the lack of sleep didn't help this any.)

If I learned anything from 2020, it's that life is unpredictable. Oh, I always KNEW that life is not predictable. People say it, you see other people experience it. But I'd never felt it on a personal level until this year. We came into 2020 expecting things to go a certain way. The world at large was planning great things for 2020. I mean, with a year hunger number like that, anything is possible, right? People talked about 20 goals for 2020. But once this shut down, it became more about emotional and financial and mental survival for most people than about achieving great things. 

I didn't even accomplish most of my 2020 goals. I ran a 5k. I started plant based eating again. But my service goal and my reading goal just never happened. New baby and other crazy things became my focus and preoccupation. 

I also found that I have become pretty negative and easily rattled and I just overreact sometimes. All made worse last year. 

So. This year I'm focusing on the good. Bad can be found everywhere. Bad is in the news, online, on social media. I'm looking for the good. No one needs to look for the negative, it's what our brains tend to focus on in the first place. I'm going to be positive. There is ugliness in words, in deeds, in intentions. I'm going to seek after beauty. This is the year that I'm going to actively look for and seek the good, the positive, the beautiful, the joy, the laughter, the adventure. I think with all going on in the world, Satan is pleased to make us fearful and unhappy. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. I'm going to live in joy and love and faith. It's my one overarching goal this year and my theme: 

Look for the good

Look for the good in my children

Look for the good in my husband

Look for the good in my friends and family

Look for the good in my home

Look for the good in the world

Look for the good in my life

Look for the good in myself

❤❤❤

New Year

Last night, for new years eve, we didn't do anything fun. We never make plans for new years eve because a) we have small children that usually go to bed early, and b) we're often traveling on new years eve or new years day. We just did our normal routine with the kids and put them to bed, hung out, got ready for bed, kissed at midnight, and went to bed.

I've been battling a bad cough for 2 and 1/2 weeks, and last night I woke up with coughing fits a few times that prevented me from sleeping that much. When I was awake, I wasn't coughing. But when I laid down to sleep, my coughing attacks would start up. It was very frustrating. 

As a result, I got up with the kids long enough to put Sawyer down for his morning nap. Then Daniel held down the fort, and I went to sleep for 3 hours. It was just enough sleep to get me going and not feel like I was going to fall over all day. It's not exactly the way you want to start a new year. Which was actually quite disappointing for me. Kind of silly to be disappointed. That's just how life goes sometimes. 

I spent the afternoon with the girls, eating lunch and putting Christmas away while they watched TV and Daniel took Jack on a little date. Sawyer took a nice long afternoon nap. What a good baby! I got the downstairs storage all tidied up while I put Christmas away. 

We had an early dinner at the Smiths house, and then all came back to our house for a movie night. Harvey has been wanting to watch the new Mary Poppins movie with the girls for months, so that's what we watched together. We made popcorn and Gina brought over ice creams and it was a really fun evening with them. 

Sunday, December 27th

• Today, the girls and Daniel and I played a fun game that Brian gave me for Christmas, called wink. It's all about discretely signaling to other players without getting caught and it was hilarious to play with the girls. They don't have much of a poker face, either of them. They'd always get this guilty, surprised look on their faces if they thought we saw something, and then they'd break out into giggles. It was so cute and funny, we were all cracking up laughing playing this game. It was a good parenting moment, filled with laughter and fun. 
• I'm grateful today for technology that allows us to attend church meetings with our ward members through the internet. And also that we are able to have the sacrament in our home on the Sundays we can't meet in the building.
• Today's thought: I had a moment of clarity while playing a game of skipbo with Daniel (weird moment for an epiphany 😂) that this life is for us to experience all kinds of things, good and bad, and for us to get better -- to improve continually. I need to be moving more quickly and diligently towards that goal. Instead of coasting or looking out for only what makes me happy or satisfies me, I need to seek out more opportunities for improvement. 
• My kids are getting bigger and older. This year I'm realizing how quickly it's happening, especially with Brooke. She's maturing, her sense of humor is getting better, she's understanding more. It's all good things, but it also makes me a little sad. 

Monday,  December 28th

• Sawyer took 2 solid naps today, which has not been his usual thing. His naps have been inconsistent, sometimes he doesn't even take a nap. It's hard to get this baby on a nap schedule when he doesn't even take a nap sometimes. So today was good. He actually took decent naps. He did take 45 minutes each time to fall asleep, but I'll take what I can get. 
• It snowed today, and it was so beautiful. At first, the snow was so little that it wouldn't stick. But eventually the flakes got big and fluffy and started sticking to the ground. It was a beautiful, snowy, gray day. The kids played in it for a while this afternoon with Harvey. 
• Jack put himself down for a nap today. He looked so tired, and maybe like he's getting sick. He even told me he was tired. So sometime in the afternoon, I noticed it was really quiet. The girls were playing with Harvey outside, and Sawyer was napping, but I couldn't hear Jack playing anywhere. I looked all over the house for him, and finally found him in his bed with his blanket covering him, sound asleep. Sweet little boy. By far our best sleeper. 
• Today I'm grateful for my kids' art. They are always drawing me pictures and writing little notes on them. Camille is the sweetest -- now that she is learning to read and write, she writes things like, "I luv you, mom." The other day she wrote me a note that said, "I donut no wut I wud do withawt you." It tears me up a little bit when I have to throw some of their art and notes away. I didn't know how much I would love them before I became a mom. And my girls love to draw, they do it all the time. I love it so much. Brooke drew me a little dragon today. 🥰💕

Tuesday,  December 29th

• Camille had an appointment with Dr Swinyard this afternoon to talk about her growth hormone deficiency. Daniel took her because I'm still coughing a lot. But he called and put me on speaker phone so I could hear what he said. He gave us a lot of info and answered our questions. And basically, Camille's body isn't making enough growth hormone for whatever reason. So he wants to start her on growth hormone therapy so that she can grow to a normal height... normal for our short family, that is. It involves giving Camille injections every day, which is a real bummer. She's going to hate that. And she'll be on growth hormone basically until she's done growing, so the rest of her childhood. I'm a little sad for her about it; but I think it'll all work out just fine. Of course, we do have the option to not do it. And I guess we'll see if we end up deciding that. 
• This morning, while I was in a dozy haze trying to wake up, I heard Jack at the door saying, "I'm gonna check on mom." Daniel told him not to disturb me, and Jack said, "but I wanna check on mom." But he went downstairs with Daniel. He's the cutest little boy. 
• I sat down at the table and drew with the kids this morning while Sawyer was napping. And I made dinner early, because Sawyer is always a holy terror when I'm making dinner. I was trying to beat his grumpiness, and it mostly worked, except I had to prepare toppings. 😒

Wednesday,  December 30th

• I was a complete sloth this morning, just dragging and having a hard time waking up. I'm not getting enough sleep, especially with this blasted cold. It's lingering, and the cough is awful. So I kind of dozed in Sawyer's room after nursing him this morning, while Camille and Jack and he played around me. 
• I got after my kids this evening for not cleaning up a play dough mess they'd make. It wasn't a terrible getting-after. But I'm also not pleased with myself. However, I was able to dispel the mood at dinner. Brooke has taken to feeling badly when I get after her, it tends to make her sad and grumpy with me. But I pulled out a bit of silliness, and had the kids in stitches, and she came around. 
• Jack and the girls each got a little beanie boo in their stockings for Christmas. The girls love them. But Jack doesn't seem to care. In fact, now that I think about it, Jack doesn't really love stuffed animals like the girls do. He loves his blankie to pieces and drags that thing everywhere. He loves his green Dino and Mickey mouse stuffed animals that he's slept with since he was a baby. But he's not all that interested in new stuffed animals. 
• Today I'm thankful that I was able to get the basement cleaned up and the toys successfully dejunked. It feels wonderful! I always love a good dejunking. 😊 I'm also grateful Sawyer took a really good nap this afternoon and that he was happy at dinner time after I'd feed him a lot.