Pretty Pretty Princess

During the unpacking (how is it possible I'm not done yet?!) Phoebe found a towel wrap a friend of mine made for her. It was a gift at Phoebe's baby shower and was much too big at the time we received it. But now? It fits just like it was meant to. She added it to her stash of dress-up clothes.

One day I walked into the front room and discovered that Phoebe was wearing her towel over her clothes. She grinned up at me and announced, "Mommy, I'm a princess!"

I adore having a girl. She is a lovely gift after two bounce-off-the-wall-boys. But I have never called her a princess. Beautiful girl? Yes. Sweet girl? Daily. Good girl? Yup. Princess? I can't. It smacks of entitlement. Yes, I recognize my issues. Sometimes I bend a bit too much toward my feminist (stay-at-home-mom feminist, but that's a topic for another post) leanings. And I've wondered if I'm depriving her of something that other little girls get.

So I have not taught her about princesses. She has seen Disney movies though. And honestly, that was the only kind of princess I ever wanted to be. I was nine when The Little Mermaid came out and I decided then that I wanted to be the voice of a Disney princess. I've made other choices (to not pursue acting professionally, to be a mom), but there is a little part of me that still dreams of voicing whatever princess Disney hasn't already brought to life. I know I'm a touch too old, but maybe they're working on a thirty-something princess story and just haven't found the right voice yet. Everyone needs a daydream, eh?

Back to Miss Phoebe. Without being taught directly about princesses, she knew. And when she claimed her title I was curious. What did that mean to her? So I asked. "Phoebe, what does a princess do?"

I watched her ruminate. She looked at her towel-dress, then she grabbed the hem and swished it a bit. The light of a two-year-old's epiphany spread across her face and she said enthusiastically, "Dance!"

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The night before her birthday I asked Phoebe a few questions. She answered some of them, and then got sidetracked talking about riding a donkey. Oh, there's a part when I can't understand what her favorite food is. I realized later that it's candy. Apparently candy and donkey sound similar in Phoebe speak.

Tickled Pink

Miss Phoebe (as we often call her) hit a big milestone recently. She turned the big 0-2. And while I remember the boys opening gifts and being willing to eat cake when they turned two, I don't think they really had a grasp of what the day was. Phoebe, on the other hand, knew.

Her birthday was all about her.

And it was all pink.

Yes, Phoebe loves anything and everything pink. And she wanted a pink birthday. Given my tenuous relationship with the color pink, this was not easy. But I did it. And I think that shows that at least I'm trying to be a good mom.

She started the day by eating pink cereal.

She does have a spoon, she's just not using it. And that's surprising because she's usually my neatest eater.

She wore pink.

Those two-year-olds are hard to pin down for a picture.

She used pink dishes at lunch.

Notice the decorative ribbon? Yeah, I got crazy.

Her presents were wrapped in all the pink bags we had in our stash.

Why yes, we are still moving in, why do you ask?

Her gifts were pink.

These were free to us. I got them in April and tucked them away for her birthday.

Cooper picked the color book and the Minnie Mouse book from the cheap bins at Target. The Pride and Prejudice book was my Amazon splurge. It's delightful.

I had to go to a handful of stores to find this. Apparently there's been a run on baby doll strollers in the last month. Who knew?

And so was her cake.

She requested a pink princess cake. This is how I obliged. No, cake decorating is not one of my talents.

She loved her birthday. Let me more accurately represent that. She LOVED her birthday!

On the Way Home, part 2

I opted to travel back from Wisconsin a different way than we had come. Instead of going through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming, we returned via Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. I had never been in either Minnesota or South Dakota, so I happily added them to my list of states I've visited. And South Dakota had a pretty awesome bonus feature.

No one in our little traveling party had ever been to Mount Rushmore before. It was worth the extra hour that it tacked on to our trip.

 This is the entrance to the monument. It's also the best picture I got of my Dad and the kids that day.

Proof that Peter was there.

 Proof that I was there. Also proof that the camera on the front of my phone is not nearly as awesome as the camera on the back of my phone.

And this is the best picture I got of my Dad and the kids in front of the monument itself. No really, Mount Rushmore is there. See Roosevelt and Lincoln peaking from the top of the picture?

Chi-Town

During one of our last weekends in the Midwest we took a jaunt down to the Windy City. Bryan had to do some work in Chicago so we tagged along. We had a little excitement on the drive down. A rock hit our windshield and cracked it. The crack is visible in one of the pictures below. Peter was adamant that we turn around and go back to Wisconsin so we could have it repaired, but we kept going.

We rolled in around dinnertime, so we made our first stop at a place that came highly recommended: Giordano's. It was amazing. (Excellent suggestion, Beth!) I've now had New York style pizza in Manhattan and Chicago deep dish pizza in Chicago.

Chicago wins.

The next morning we went to see the Chicago Temple.

Afterward we tried to see downtown Chicago. All day we had watched as massive gray clouds inched toward us. As we drove up to Navy Pier, they caught us. I've never been in a storm like this one. It felt apocalyptic. Lake Michigan was churning and crashing. The rain was so thick we could barely see the front of our car. The sky looked like it was eight at night rather than three in the afternoon. Peter spent our entire time in the city in hysterics. He is not a fan of storms.

We had to be back in Appleton that night, so I'm afraid we only saw downtown Chicago from inside our car. During the storm we tried to make our way out of the city. When the rain let up we stopped at a McDonald's for a bathroom break. Bryan asked us to wait in the car while he looked inside. He came back out quickly and announced that no one else would be getting out of the car. Turns out the employees were all encased in bullet-proof glass. Awesome. We didn't get out of the car until we were back up near the Temple.

While I'm sad we didn't get to explore more of Chicago, I did enjoy what we saw.

On the Way Home, part 1

About a week into our Wisconsin adventure I got online and looked up the school schedule for Peter's upcoming year. I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner, maybe the packing/cleaning/moving across the country thing distracted me. When I looked at the starting date I was surprised: Peter needed to start school in Utah before Bryan was done with his internship in Wisconsin.

We talked about our options: we could just bring Peter a week late and stay with Bryan while he finished up, or the kids and I could drive back without Bryan, move into a new house, and get Peter started while Bryan did the rest of his internship and joined us almost two weeks later.

We chose option B.

Peter doesn't deal very well with change, and I was afraid that moving into a new house and starting at a new school, a few days after everyone else for that matter, would be too much for him. And I thought I should give his teacher a heads-up before Peter wandered into her classroom. I hoped that maybe having a few days to get used to a new home, then starting at the same time as everyone else would be the best plan for Peter.

When we told our parents that I would be driving almost fifteen hundred miles with the children (and without Bryan) I think they went into panic mode. Both sets offered to help me drive out and plans went into motion. In the end, my Dad flew from San Diego out to Appleton, Wisconsin so that I wouldn't have to make the trip alone.

And I'm so thankful he did.

Even with his help, it was a rough trip. I can't imagine how insane it would have been on my own. Just getting the kids from the car into the hotel room each night was a two person job. And Phoebe decided somewhere along the way that she was ready to potty-train. How on earth would I have done bathroom breaks with all three of them? I know other moms do this all the time, but Peter has recently taken to climbing on toilet paper dispensers or toilet seats and looking into other stalls whilst in public restrooms, so just taking him is fairly all-consuming.

But I didn't have to. And that was a lovely thing.

First of the First

I finally can connect to the internet! And it's even kind of a secure connection.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Don't worry, I'm not going to subject you to an epic post. Instead, I'll subject you to several small posts over the next few weeks.

For now, I will share with you Peter's big accomplishment: he's a first grader.

First day of first grade

His jungle-themed classroom

He likes his teacher and LOVES that they're learning about space. He came home one day this week and told me all about the Mars Rover (and he was shocked that I knew it was called Curiosity) and then he built one of his own out of Legos. He spent a large part of the afternoon driving it around his Mars themed Lego mat. That was a good day.

Destination Achieved

We're here, and we've been here for a week. Unfortunately I'm having computer issues and can't get on a secure internet connection. So, I'm risking my online security just long enough to get up a post this week.

We're glad to be back.

On the Road Again

Guess who's on their way back to Provo?

We Believe

On Sunday, after the lesson was over in Young Women, we had a testimony meeting. This one was a little different than others I've been to. It was unspoken. The Young Women President played church music and she instructed us that we were to take turns, each writing one thing on the board that we were thankful for. After everyone had had a turn, then we could go up for seconds, thirds, fourths, etc.

I scoffed internally at first. After all, a testimony is not what you are thankful for, it is what you believe or know to be true. But as the meeting went on, it occurred to me that for these Young Women, their beliefs and testimonies begin with the things that are important to them, the things they are thankful for. So while these were more "thankamonies", the Spirit was strong. And not having anyone talk added to it. It was a lovely meeting.