Batman Obsession

If you'll recall back to Halloween, Claire was Batman.  She LOVED the costume and thought it was great to be a super-hero.

Little did we know that Batman would become her constant companion and obsession.  She wants to wear her costume non-stop, she runs around "flying" with Batman and trapping bad people.  After she uses the potty she says, "Okay, Batman, your turn" and stands there for a couple minutes waiting before she flushes the toilet and washes her hands.  If I sit on the couch she says, "Hey, don't sit on Batman!  Can you sit on your chair please so you don't sit on Batman?"  And most recently she has taken to calling her bed her "Bat-Cave".

So what is a girl supposed to do when she has an accident resulting in her costume being dirty?

Wear all the accessories instead.  And yes...that is her "scary Batman face" that she uses all day.  It's great fun...particularly when she does it to people at the store.

The obsession went one step further during Claire's prayer the other night: 

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day....(slight pause)....thank you for Batman."

Yep, she was more thankful for Batman than she was for her own flesh and blood!

She knows what she likes I guess.  And at least now we know where we stand on her list of priorities.

Oh, and did you know that Batman lives in Moab and drives a scary Jeep? 

Well, now you do.

What a difference...

What a difference 8 weeks makes!

Addison coming home from the hospital 8 weeks ago.

8 weeks old - coming home from an appointment with mommy.

Addison is a happy little baby.  She is smiling much more and starting to coo here and there. 

We all love her to pieces and can't wait to see how her personality emerges.

Saying Yes a little more often

Let's just get the ugly truth out of the way real quick now, shall we?  I'm in a major rut. 

I feel run down, beat up, stressed out, frazzled and any other assortment of adjectives that would basically describe motherhood at times.  I feel like the daily "to-do's" are growing out of control and I have no idea how to keep up with it all.  My house is a mess - except for the 1 time a week when we invite someone over to play.  My dirty and clean clothes are all in baskets laying on the floor because I can't seem to get around to folding the clean or putting the dirty in the washing machine.  But the most tragic consequence of the way I have been feeling is that I am taking it out on my sweet little girls.  They are getting much more "No", "Don't do that!", "Don't touch that!", "Go play in the other room.", "Why are you making such a mess?!", "PLEASE just be quiet!" and they are getting almost ZERO "Yes's". 

Then I came across this post and it got me thinking.  What if I said yes to one small thing instead of grumbling and being annoyed by requests and demands?  How would the mood of the house change, how would MY mood change?

So I began the experiment yesterday morning.  The first request was from Claire while Brielle was at preschool.  "Mommy, will you play the hippo game with me?"  I really didn't want to at the time.  I hate the little marbles and how loud the game gets.  But I said, "Yes, I will."  Claire was THRILLED that I sat on the floor and played Hungry Hungry Hippo's with her - even though she only wanted to play for 10 minutes.  She had my attention and I noticed an immediate improvement in her attitude.

The next request was from Brielle.  I asked the girls to go outside and bring their bikes in off the grass.  She said she wanted to play out there, which I was totally for.  She then paused and said, "Mommy, will you come out and play with us?"  Frankly I was surprised she even asked because I normally send them out there to play while I fold laundry, catch up on blogs or any number of other things.  My initial reaction was to say no and tell her to go play with Claire.  But the baby was asleep and I had nothing urgent to take care of.  So I said, "Yes, I will."  She LIT up and was beside herself with excitement.  I spent the next 45 minutes running around playing soccer, "I Spy with My Little Eye", pushing Claire around on her bike so she could go "super fast" and laughing with them. 

I would say my experiment was a HUGE success.  The whole mood of the house improved.  I felt happier, I had more patience, and the girls weren't fighting - as much - which helped me feel more relaxed. 

I would be EXTREMELY embarrassed if someone were to come over and see the state of my house - because I have not touched a thing.  There are wrappers, clothes, toys, books, crackers, pillows, blankets, game pieces, shoes etc. laying all over the place.  But the day seemed to go more smoothly. 

All because of a simple YES.

I will be trying to say yes more often...even when it seems a little tiresome.

The Majestic Wichita Mountains...kind of.

This Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day...just in case you missed it.  Lucky for me this meant that Marty had the day off from his regular Army duties.

Growing up we - as a family - were always busy with projects, day trips or camping on weekends.  I loved it!  The problem now is that I don't know how to just chillax on the weekends and if we sit around all day I find myself slowly slipping in to the depths of insanity...known as boredom.  I can sit around and do nothing with the best of them all week long...but come the weekend and my mind and body ache for something to do, something adventurous, dirty (like playing in the mud people...come on now) or fun. 

This has been a bit of an obstacle in our marriage as Marty wants to use his weekends to catch up on all the sitting around that he is deprived of throughout the week.  And I want to use the weekend to get away from all the sitting around and being stuck in the house that I have been subject to all week.

So I let him have his Saturday and Sunday this weekend but put down my foot come Monday morning.  Yeah, I realize that was a ridiculously long amount of build up to get to what we did to celebrate MLK Jr. day, so sue me.

I had overheard (or secretly read on a blog) someone talk about going to the "Wichita Mountains" nearby and thought maybe that would be a fun adventure. Silly me, I thought that seeing as the name of the mountains is the same as the city we live in, they would be close.  Nope, they are about an hour and a half away in a different city.  Actually, in a different state altogether.  But hey, whatever.  I looked them up online and they looked great.  So I kindly asked my husband (with a little begging, whining and possibly with tears in my eyes) if we could PLEASE go do something - and by something I meant could we venture off to these majestic mountains, known as Wichita??

He agreed.  We went.  We saw buffalo, long horns, prairie dogs, lakes, rivers, the "Holy City" (which was a bit odd)...and a "mountain".  It was actually very pretty.  My visiting teachers were over today and when I told them where we went, one said "Oh, the hill?" and laughed.  I guess that about sums it up.  When compared with Utah's mountains, it really was just a hill. But when compared with the flat nothingness surrounding us here, it was HUGE.

The girls had a great time, I didn't go crazy and we were able to get a TINY little taste of Utah.  Me and Marty were both so glad that we went, it was a great family activity.  A place we actually plan on visiting again because it was fun and most importantly FREE! (Minus the half a tank of gas it took to get there and back).  So here are a few pictures of our adventure. 

This is the only picture of Addison "enjoying" the view (from inside her covered car seat...I'm sure she felt the change in elevation though.)

The "Holy City".  It is some sort of outdoor set for a production of the life of Christ (we think).  It was neat...but felt a little odd at the same time with all the buildings being labeled things from Christ's life (i.e. Gethsemane, Resurrection Tomb, Road to Jerusalem etc.).

The girls LOVED climbing to the top of all the "castles" (as they referred to them) and looking out over the side.

Inside the "Resurrection Tomb"...it got a little uncomfortable as Claire went running towards it shouting "It's my batman cave!  My friend batman lives in there!"

Back in the visitors center Marty couldn't help but take this photo op.  He also had Claire stand in front of it and yell, "Swiper, no swiping!" 

It was a fun little outing...one I'm SURE you all would LOVE to enjoy as well.  So, come on down and visit us and we'll be sure to take you to the Wichita Mountains.  Please.  Anybody??