Random Dax-ness and Arden-ness

Daxton is growing up so fast, and he is at the age where he definitely has his own ideas about what he likes, what he doesn't like, and when he wants things to happen (NOW!). Here he is with two of his current favorite things in the world, "Meow" (his cat) and "Bay-uh" (the movie Brother Bear, which has surpassed even Shaun the Sheep as his favorite show):I think of Dax as such a big boy since Corbie is always around for me to compare him to. But he still has a lot to learn about the world around him, and makes me laugh SO hard sometimes with the thoughts that go through his little head. The other day the sun was shining through the windows and reflecting off of my watch. A round reflection from my watch was on the ceiling, and Dax saw it and got all excited. He pointed up at it and yelled "MOON!" with a big smile on his face. He was so excited that the moon was inside of his house! I kept making the reflection move back and forth across the ceiling, and he would chase it around yelling "MOON! MOON!" Hilarious! Here is a picture:

Notice the artwork on the wall behind him? That is just a small part of "Arden's art gallery." She creates at least 2 drawings at preschool each time she goes, and usually another picture at Sunbeams each week, not to mention the countless drawings she does at home. She cannot bear to part with ANY of these beautiful pieces of art. However, my fridge can only hold so many! If she catches me trying to throw any of her drawings away by finding them in the garbage, she is NOT happy with mom. We gave her a bulletin board for her room, and it quickly filled up. So, she took matters into her own hands and started hanging up her favorite art pieces all in a row on the wall in our family room. She has completely filled up the wall now, and I am wondering what she will do next.

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The other night she fell asleep with her light on and just looked so beautiful and peaceful that I had to sneak a picture:

The words from a song kept running through my mind: "Watching as you softly sleep; What I'd give if I could keep; Just this moment; If only time stood still."

If only.

Mmmmmm....Oatmeal.

Corbie loves oatmeal. Oatmeal loves Corbie. When they get together, it is hard to get themapart again. Oatmeal loves Corbie's fingers, Corbie's clothes, Corbie's face, Corbie's hair, and the inside of Corbie's ears and nose (look closely at the picture and you will see what I mean). The Oatmeal even loves the surfaces Corbie is near, particularly the crevices of her highchair, and allllll around the floor. Have you ever noticed that oatmeal turns to cement within about 15 minutes? Seriously, sometimes I feel like I need a jackhammer or a chisel to get it off the floor.

I am starting to think maybe oatmeal hates me. And I might be starting to hate it back.

Whatever Gets You Through the Night

I am sitting on the couch watching the Olympics (on DVR of course...I am a day or two behind already), and listening to my poor Daxton whining in his sleep over the baby monitor. Yesterday he was perfectly fine. But in the middle of the night last night, he got sick. Very sick. Very VERY sick. All over the place. Multiple times. He has been doing better this evening, but I still think he doesn't feel very good. Here is how I can tell: the comfort items. The worse Dax feels, the more things he thinks he needs to feel better. The current contents of Daxton's bed include:

• His binkie (a must), and a backup in case he loses the first one during the night.
• BOTH of his "blankies." He has two identical blankets. He loves them equally. We have two so that if I need to (heaven forbid) WASH one of them, he can still have the other one to hold. Tonight he HAD to have both, even though I was trying hard to only give him one of them in case we have any more....let's call them "incidents" tonight.
• His "Meow" - his Fur Real cat he got for Christmas. You would not BELIEVE how different this poor cat looks already. It has only been a month and a half since the cat came out of its package, and the poor thing is definitely the worse for wear. It is a calico, and the patches of fur that used to be white are now a dingy brownish-grey. Its fur is not so soft, and kind of stringy. But Dax only seems to love it more. To show his love, he dips the cat's face, feet, tail in his cereal, yogurt, macaroni and cheese, whatever. I guess he is sharing his food? He also had it in the car a couple of weeks ago and dropped it in a muddy gutter while getting out. And then last night...well, you get the idea. Since the cat is electronic (it meows, purrs, and moves its paws), I can't submerge it in water. I can't do anything but try to wipe the outside off as best I can with a little soap and a damp washcloth. I hear that thing meowing right now. If anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to clean it, please let me know!!
• His Shaun the Sheep doll ("Baa").
• A HUGE stuffed panda. This is actually Arden's, but Dax has somehow claimed it as his own. He calls it "Nanda" or something close to that. It is bigger than he is, but he screamed when I tried to take it out of his crib so he could have more room.
• A sippy cup of water.
• And finally, a plastic bowl. You know, just in case. Actually, this is a comfort item for ME. It will probably serve no purpose no matter what the night brings. Dax does not aim. But somehow I feel better knowing it is there.

I was thinking of trying to sneak upstairs and take a picture of poor little Dax wedged in amongst all of his comfort items, but he is actually quiet now, so I better not risk it. Wish us luck tonight!

Since I don't have a picture of Dax, here are some pictures of Arden in an outfit that her Grandma Zaugg brought back from India for her:

I was trying to get her to strike a pose like a Bollywood dancer, but she wasn't quite getting it. :) Cute anyway.

New and Improved Toe!

Sorry I am slow, but here is the moment you have allll been waiting for! (drumroll, please!) Introducing....the new and improved Corbietoe!!

(Applause, please...)

Sorry I don't have a better picture...I took about seven pictures after her bath yesteray, and this is the ONLY one that wasn't blurry. Corbie NEVER holds her feet still. Ever. Especially if I want her to. Cutting her toenails is nerve-wracking. Anyway, I will try to do better later.

Her toe still looks a little scary arount the stitches, but hopefully the scar won't be too bad. I am still trying to keep her from poking at it too much by making her wear multiple pairs of socks, but she is already bending it, and it doesn't seem to bother her too much (so far).

This week has been busy because Preston's parents came home from their mission on Wednesday! Hooray! We are so happy they are home, but they had to come home a little early because of some health issues, so we are hoping that everything works out with those. Welcome home, Grandma & Grandpa Zaugg!! (We spent last night and this afternoon with Preston's family, and being the dork that I am, I took absolutely no pictures. Sorry. I will do better.)

Crazy Week, Crazy Kids

Sorry I am slow on the update! It is still my goal to not let more than a week go by without posting SOMETHING on the blog, so I apologize. But it has been a crazier than usual week, but here is a quick recap of what everyone has been up to:

Preston has been out of town since early Monday morning. He is in Tampa, and I asked him yesterday if it was warm there. He said something like "It isn't warm, but it isn't cold." I said, "What do you mean it isn't warm? Do you mean it is only like, 70?" "Yeah, only around 70." I would seriously maim someone for 70 degrees right now.

Corbie has been doing great this week after her surgery. She has been such a little trooper with her cast, and hasn't let it slow her down much. I understand now why they had to put a cast over her toe. She would have completely destroyed any soft bandages, and she still makes me nervous shoving her fingers down inside of her cast to play with her toes. So far she hasn't caused any major damage to her stitches, and hopefully our luck will hold. The only problem with the cast is that everyone assumes she has a broken leg. NO her leg isn't broken, NO I didn't drop her! Sheesh. She is pretty much back to her happy self during the days now, but I think her toe and the cast still bothers her as evening closes in, and especially at night when she is trying to sleep. But hopefully she will get her cast off next Thursday and we can all get our first look at her new toe. She reverted to her army crawl for a few days, but today she decided that she is going to crawl with her tummy off the ground again. She is even starting to try and stand up again:I am really proud of Corbie. She has really been so sweet through this whole thing even though I am sure she has been in pain. She is learning new things every day, and is moving faster and farther almost by the hour. I wish that I could slow time down for a while, because I know that the next time I blink I will look around and she will be a toddler! Daxton is really turning into a little caveman. All day he is throwing balls, trying to wrestle with Arden, yelling REALLY loudly, and swinging, banging, hitting everything in sight with anything he can get his hands on. It has been hard to teach him the rules of throwing and banging (such as, it IS okay to throw balls at people from 10 feet away, but NOT okay to throw balls directly at people's heads from ONE foot away. And, it IS okay to hit balls with sticks, but NOT okay to hit people with sticks. Or stuffed animals. Or hangers. Or pretty much anything else). Arden had some of her friends over today for a playdate, and I caught Dax chasing one of her friends around the playroom trying to hit him with his little toy cat, of all things. What is the thought process behind that??? "I bet this kid will really like it if I hit him on the shoulder with my meow!" It is a mystery. He is also still completely against the idea of going to nursery without Arden. But we will figure it all out eventually.

Arden got moved up into a new gymnastics class this week, and was really excited to be with the "bigger kids". She is now in the advanced 4-5 year old class. She was MUCH more excited to get some "real" gymnastics clothes that her cousin Kinley has grown out of. She got three leotards, and this is how her day went yesterday, outfit-wise:

1. Wake up in the morning and immediately change out of jammies and put on purple gymnastics outfit. Fabulous! It is your favorite and your best! Wear it for 15 entire minutes.
2. Change into the pink leotard because that is really your favorite because it has hearts on it. Eat breakfast happily wearing it, and dance around doing cartwheels until bath time.
3. After bath time, decide that ONLY the blue gymnastics outfit will do. Wear it for only 2 minutes before deciding that it MUST be the purple outfit after all. Actually wear the purple outfit to gymnastics because mom REFUSES to help you in or out of any other gymnastics clothes. After gymnastics you want to play outside, but you have the meanest mom in the world and she thinks it is too cold to go outside in a leotard, EVEN with your coat on, so...
4. Grudgingly change into shirt, skirt, and tights. Play outside, eat lunch, go to "nap" (which is really just code for "stay in your room and play quietly while mom tries to get some work done").
5. During "naptime," change into black party dress for reasons you can't explain.
6. After nap time, you need to use the bathroom and decide to just change into a different dress while mom isn't watching. Again, for reasons you can't explain.
7. When Grandma and Grandpa come over for a visit, change back into purple gymnastics outfit to show them how sparkly and soft it is.
8. Sneakily change to pink gymnastics outfit during visit from Grandma and Grandpa, just in case they wanted to see it too. Be mad because mom tells you to stop changing your clothes.
9. FINALLY, put on your jammies to go to bed because your mean mean mom won't let you wear any of your gymnastics clothes to bed.
10. Leave ALL of the above clothes on your bedroom floor.

Here is a picture of her and Corbie in the playroom. She got this tea set last year, and my mom told her to hold up her pinkie while she drank her tea. This is what she does:

Yes, she is holding up the pinkie on the hand that is NOT holding the cup. I can't convince her that she is supposed to hold up the other pinkie. So silly.

Chrystie has just been trying to keep up with all of the kids and counting down the days and hours until Preston gets home. T minus 4-ish hours!