Snapshot of a Two Year Old

Today Arden was screaming at me because she wanted something and I said, "Arden, would you please just be patient?"

She replied, "No! I not be patient! I just fussy girl!"

Oh the joys of having a two year old.

The Night We Almost Went to the Rodeo

So...we almost went to the rodeo tonight. But here's what happened instead.

The day started out normal for me, but trouble was already brewing with Clarke's parents, who were going to come with us (along with his sister and her husband).

Clarke's dad left their house at 4:30 this morning to go to Denton for a photography job. His mom discovered while she was getting ready for work that all of the water had stopped working at their house. Then, on her way to work, she got a flat tire.

I took the kids to my Bible study today and had a normal morning and afternoon, except for the fact that Arden didn't take a nap. I knew she was going to be so tired and cranky, but there was nothing I could do.

We were supposed to all meet at a restaurant at 5:30, and as I was getting the kids ready to leave, I decided it would be a good idea to have Huston wear his cowboy hat for a picture.

He hates pictures and hats. I don't know why I though I could reason with him. There was much screaming and crying that could have been avoided if I hadn't insisted on a picture.

(This was his best attempt at a smile)

I was all worked up by the time I left the house with the kids at 5 (mostly mad at myself for the picture taking fiasco). Then I ran into bad rush hour traffic, which got much, much worse when I got to this dumb construction zone on a bridge that is the bane of my existence. After waiting for forever, I had to turn around and go another way, and what should have been a 20 minute trip ended up taking an hour. While we're in traffic, Arden is crying in the back, "I'm tired! I'm not tired!" She finally fell asleep for the last ten minutes. I called Clarke to say I was running late, and he was also running late, as was his mom (from the same traffic). To top it off, his dad was still in Denton on his job, and he had our tickets to the rodeo with him.

We finally all got to the restaurant at 6 (minus his dad), managed to find a table and eat, and then we left to go to the stock show and see the animals while we waited for his dad who thought he'd be able to make it in time for the rodeo at 7:30. On our way over to the stock show, Melinda got a call on her cell phone that her dear friend's granddaughter has RSV.

We got to the entrance, and I handed the guy the voucher I printed off online, which, in conjunction with our museum membership card, was supposed to get us into the stock show for free. The guy starts giving me a hard time because the back of my membership card shows an expiration date of 12/31/11, even though my parents got us a renewal for Christmas, and I renewed it at the museum and they told me I would maybe get a new card in the mail, but I could just keep using my old card because they put it in the computer. He doesn't seem to believe me, and I'm about to lose my temper because I cannot believe all the things that have gone wrong.

That's when Arden starts throwing up.

And I catch it in my hand.

And then she throws up some more in the grass.

And we decide we're not going to stay for the rodeo, and when Huston hears this he starts to fall to pieces.

Thankfully, he is appeased when we tell him he can play Halo with Daddy when he gets home (that is a story for another day).

Now Arden is resting and seems okay, and Huston and Clarke have played Halo and Clarke is getting Huston ready for bed (which, for some reason, always involves lots of tickling and giggling and takes far longer than when I do it, but sounds like much more fun for Huston).

And that...is why we didn't make it to the rodeo.

There's always next year.

Dinah the Dinosaur

Allow me to introduce you to Dinah, the Dinosaur.

Dinah has been an important part of our lives for the last two months or so. It started when two random events serendipitously collided. The first was that I was packing up some boxes for Operation Christmas Child and including a rubber dinosaur I got on clearance at Target in each one. There was one dinosaur left over that just laid around in our room for awhile because I'm lazy like that. Around this same time, Huston watched an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with a triceratops named Dinah. After watching the episode and seeing the rubber dinosaur in our room (who also happened to be a triceratops) he quickly adopted her as his own.

(This is Dinah doing tricks for the camera - like standing on her back and on her tail).
A few things you should know about Dinah:

Dinah has also been called "Baby Dinosaur" and "Baby Squishy Dinosaur."

Dinah shows her various emotions - she wags her tail when she's happy and her horns droop down when she's sad.

Dinah's emotions often line up with Huston's emotions. For example, this morning Huston was grouchy and told me, "Mommy, Dinah's mad at you."

Dinah makes a unique sound, difficult to transcribe, but which goes something like, "Buut-aah," though not exactly. I could not figure out where this sound came from, until I saw the Mickey episode again and realized the dinosaur on the show makes that exact sound.

Dinah likes to be silly. She likes you to ask her to say "Buut-aah," and sometimes she'll say it, sometimes she'll be silent, sometimes she'll squeak, and sometimes she'll say ribbit. You never know what mood she's going to be in.

My boy and his dinosaur - may you have many adventures together.

Arden: 25 months

Arden's overdue for a little blog update, so here's one to start the new year. The picture below is from a sweet princess party I took Arden to this weekend. She wore a "Belle" costume that our neighbors gave us and the party favor was the little pink princess cape that the mom sewed for all the girls at the party. (Pretty sure this will be her Halloween costume since we already have it and it was free!)

I have to say that after all of Huston's drama about birthday parties over the years, it was so fun to take Arden by herself to a party. It was always so difficult to get Huston to just be normal at a party (forget about participating in anything) but Arden wanted to put on her princess dress, wear her cape, decorate her picture frame, listen to stories, play with the other girls, and basically do everything! She had so much fun.

Okay, so on to the actual Arden update. When I took her for her two year check up at the beginning of December, she was in the 90th percentile for height at 36 and 1/4 inches. You can get a rough estimate of full grown height by doubling their height at two years, which would put Arden at 6 feet! Obviously this is just an estimate, but it seems she'll be tall!

She still loves her Lambie and her "lil blankie" as she calls it. She can often be heard saying, "I want my lil blankie." She sleeps with both of those, as well as her "big blankie," but the little one really seems to be key to helping her fall asleep. She likes to rub it between her fingers and just kind of play with it until she drifts off.

Her favorite activity by far is reading or being read to. I don't know that I can accurately convey how much she loves to read (and always has). One of her favorite things at Christmas was reading the Lego instruction manual from one of Huston's toys. She will read anything, but her current favorite is an anthology of Curious George stories she got for Christmas. She'll ask, "Where my Keeeris George?" and then she'll plop down with it and read for a good 15 to 20 minutes.

Arden is such an early little riser lately, waking up between 6:15 and 6:45. She has also been extremely cling and attached to mommy. So attached that if I'm out of her sight for a second, she's crying, "Moooommmy, where are you? I tan't find youuu." Or crying if I suggest that Daddy give her a bath or change her diaper. She insists upon accompanying me to the bathroom or to check the mail or anywhere else where I might be out of sight. She's also within the past two weeks or so started crying when she goes down for a nap or bedtime. She used to go down so easily but now there's always weeping and wailing. One day she even cried so hard that she made herself throw up. This little throw up trick (that she's pulled a handful of times now) really works in her favor, as it makes me nervous to let her cry for too long.

She is so expressive and talkative. I wish I could accurately capture everything she says, because it's so adorable and distinct. Here's a small sampling:

The other day she was looking for Huston and said, "Huston....where are ya pal?"

She has such a southern twang. She says, "I need hey-elp" and "It's mines" pretty frequently.

One morning we were reading a Bible story (about Moses) and she asked, "What eeees that?"

I said, "That's the Red Sea."

After thinking a moment, she said, "Noooo, that not red sea! It's blue sea."

I love to ask her, "Are you my princess?" because she always responds, "No, I just my baby!"

I'll leave you with this snippet of Arden and Huston on the way home from church yesterday.

Arden said, "I want that fingy have da light." (That "thingy" was our Magna Doodle.)

Huston said, "Why did she say that?" and I said that I guessed it was because she didn't know it was called a Magna Doodle.

He proceeded to look at her, and tell her in a bossy voice, "Arden, it's called a Magna-doo-nel."

She said, "No! That fingy have da light!"

And Huston said, "NO! It's a Magna-nooool."

Then they both just started screaming at each other. It was pretty much the funniest fight ever.