Captain's Log Week 282

What the girls said this week

Ellie was yelling for me. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" Then, to Zelda she said: "There are four names. Mom, Mommy, Mama, and Jocelyn. And Jocelyn Thomas."

At night, Zelda will ask, "U-buy? U-buy?" for a lullaby, and then when we start singing, she'll specify, "Woody's song." So then we'll sing "You've Got a Friend in Me," and she gets this big smile on her face.

Zelda, walking around our house one morning: "Sydney? Sydney? Sydney, where are you? Sydney?"

Zelda has a couple words she says that sound strangely like each other: Octopus, Popsicle, Bicycle, Basketball. Each of these can be confused with any other in the list.

What we did this week

We decorated the house for fall:

We mashed up berries we found outside:

 Jason finished his OB/GYN rotation, and we all went on a morning bike ride:

 We played with praying mantises and a frog:

 Ellie, all by herself, drew this "elephant that was blowing balloons out of its nose":

 We went on a nature walk in Fuquay from South Park down through the Environmental Park:

 Zelda made her funny grumpy face:

And we went to stake conference down in Fayetteville (here is Zelda trying to carry all the toys out of the nursery after Jason told her she could bring one to the room we were watching conference in):

This week I also re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets, and sewed myself a sleeping gown out of several different pajama pants pairs and a night shirt I had. It looks like a cross between a hippy dress and a Halloween witch costume. But it's really comfortable. :)

Jason is now on his "Evidence Based Medicine" (EBM) rotation, which means he's be writing sort of a master's thesis in the next month.

Selling My Camera

Last week I sold my camera.

It's been a weirdly emotional thing. I've had this camera since the middle of my senior year in high school - more than eight years ago. It's documented my whole life since then. It's been by my side and through it have passed all the years and the images of my friends, my family, my husband, my children - my life.

Logically I know it's just a machine, and I know the images are no longer inside, but it feels like the memories still are.

Goodbye, old friend.

Captain's Log, Week 281

Okay, this week I basically have a load of cute pictures for you. We stayed at home and played outside a lot. That really sums up most of our week!

Ellie and Zelda playing hopscotch for the first time:

This picture of Zelda giving me the side-eye cracks me up:

 Here's Cat covered in wood chips and a tissue:

As I was looking at him, trying to figure out why he was covered in junk, Zelda came up and dumped another handful of woodchips on him. She then turned to me and told me, "He's hungry." Ah, got it.

We got a couple cheap lawn chairs from Walmart and the girls love them.

One time this week Ellie was sitting in that pink chair in the family room, with her feet up on the piano bench, playing with the ipad and petting her stuffed animal cat that she had propped up on the armrest. She reminded me strongly of the archvillian from Inspector Gadget.

Zelda watching a show (probably Tinkerbell and the Neverbeast. We've watched that another million times):

Ellie chasing Zelda, trying to give her a flower so that she (Ellie) could get a cottonball in the "nice" jar for doing something nice:

She did earn some ice cream:

Other things from this week:

Our ward (congregation) had their annual fish fry on Saturday. It was fun, and the fish was so yummy! The kids played Red Rover outside after we'd all eaten, but Ellie couldn't stand still long enough to play. She kept army crawling all over the lawn instead, and right through the middle of the game.

I injured both my hands on Saturday (in small ways). I mowed the lawn in the morning and got a blister on my right hand, right at the base of my thumb, where the skin immediately detached all around except one side. So that's been bandaged up all weekend. Then on the other hand (using that phrase in a literal sense makes me giggle), a couple hours later I accidentally cut through most of the skin on the top of my index finger using steak scissors. Sooo, that's been bandaged up too. (It happened in a grocery store - but they were my own scissors - actually on the way to the fish fry - I was cutting packing material - long story - but it was great because I had the bandaid on my right hand {from the blister} that I could use right there, immediately. I figured the severed finger was higher priority at that moment than the blister, lol. And it was a specialized finger bandaid too! So I just swapped it, and then got another bandaid for the blister when we got to the church. It was perfect!)

Zelda's potty training herself. She keeps telling us she needs to use the potty, and then actually uses it. Yesss!!!

And finally, yesterday Ellie was talking about her next birthday (which isn't until December), and told us that she didn't want balloons this time. When we asked her what kind of party she wanted, she thought for a minute and then told us, "A blanket party! And we'll all bring our blankets!"

Captain's Log, Week 280

Hola! This captain's log basically covers the last half of August. The biggest thing that's happened in the last couple weeks is that Jason's started his second year of PA school, which means he's started his clinical rotations. He is no longer in the classroom; he is now out practicing in medical offices.

His first rotation (the one he started three weeks ago, and will have for two more weeks) is OB/GYN. It's been kind of a crazy schedule; he often leaves very early in the morning (before 7 am) and gets back at 6 pm or later. He's done all sorts of stuff, and been able to assist in surgery and help deliver babies.

Meanwhile, the girls and I have watched "Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast" like fifteen times in the last two weeks. For me, the effect was kind of like Stockholm Syndrome. I was entirely opposed to it in the beginning, and now I like it. And now we've also watched "Tinkerbell," "The Secret of the Wings," "The Great Fairy Rescue," and "The Pirate Fairy." I may or may not be thinking of fairy costume ideas for the girls for Halloween.

Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks:

Our ward (congregation)'s primary had an end-of-summer water party. It was a lot of fun, and Ellie got to play with bubbles and splash in the little pools. She scraped her knee at one point, and wasn't satisfied until I'd put the biggest bandaid at the church on it. Then she sat on the sidewalk for an hour and ate like ten popsicles.

We stopped at the library afterwards to grab some books.

At church the next day (Zelda wearing her first ponytail!):

We've played with chalk a lot outside lately. Ellie drew this line of cars all by herself.

I drew the plan in the background. Ellie finished it off by grabbing the chalk from me and saying, "Mom, you forgot the propeller," and adding that.

One day the girls were painting with watercolors in the kitchen. I left for a while and came back to find this:

I also cleaned out the freezer. Zelda "helped" me.

Playing with their new sunglasses from Spain:

Us outside one day:

Zelda, unfortunately, has a new favorite place to hide. She discovered one day that she could climb into the dryer, and she thinks that is just super funny and will go climb in there and close the door.

Where's Zelda?

Here's the girls acting like monkeys:

In other news, they're building a new house on a lot close to us. Jason took the girls over there the other day so that they could play in the dirt piles:

And that's what we've been up to! I also repainted the girls' bedroom and our bedroom. Theirs I painted the same color as the rest of the house (kind of a yellow/beige) and ours I painted a light aqua. I rearranged our bedroom after I painted. I'll post a picture of our bedroom once we get the art back up on the walls. (And maybe after we find a new dresser, because we're looking for one on Craigslist. Ours is just too tall).

I hope you have a good Labor Day Weekend!