a ding-ding??

Wow... tonight I feel like a terrible mother! It really is nothing big, but I have to share it because I keep having this image in my head of my little sweetheart, and I can't get it out... so here I am sharing it, hoping to get a new thought in there.

This weekend, on our way to Anaheim, CA, we stopped at a Target to get a replacement sip-cup for Mont because he chewed a gaping hole in the one he drinks milk from. Thinking they had the same colored one, I was disappointed as I looked through the rows, finding a slightly different combination (the lids are different colors from the main body). I grabbed the yellow one, thinking it would be fine.

Today proved that it was not going to be fine.

In an effort to get him to just drink from it already, I offered him a 'ding-ding' (which means 'special chocolate' in Mont language, as the 'special chocolate' resides in a tin trolley that his sweet aunt gave him for his birthday filled with 'special chocolate'; we've just kept it going), but told him that he first had to drink the milk.

When that ended with crying and screaming, I offered him to just drink milk from a cup. Still no go. By this time, we were both frustrated. He was really rearing now, getting mad and throwing himself on the floor. I didn't think my request was unreasonable, so I asked him, "do you want to go in a room by yourself?" This has worked on getting him to do as we ask on other occasions, wether it be pick up his toys, stop throwing his toys, or to be nicer. He continued with the tantrum, so I walked him to the bathroom, clicked on the light, and shut the door behind him.

Talking to him through the door, I still didn't get a "yes" when I asked him if he'd drink his milk, so I opened the door.

This is where I just felt my heart break in half.

He was standing there so small and sad; tears were streaming from his eyes down his red cheeks, and his nose was watering as well, all the while asking in his raspy, sad little voice, "ding-ding?? a ding-ding?" It was so pitiful and sweet and sad all at once. I grabbed a tissue, and got down on his level, hugging him  and retelling him that he had to first drink his milk.

I wanted to give him a special chocolate, I did! And I told him so... then I thought, I might as well tell him, so I spoke my next thought out loud: "I want to Mont, but then you will have won... and I can't let you win this one, or you'll win the next one, and the next one." Yes, I felt dumb, but I felt mean even more.

It calmed down after a few more minutes of pleas and crying, telling him that he will get a ding-ding tomorrow, and that we were going to go upstairs (nearly had to pull him, even still) to brush his teeth and go to sleep. Which he did quite quickly; he was pretty dog-gone tired.

Well would ya look at that, it did work. I do feel a bit better having typed it out, but I'm still sad I couldn't just give him a piece. I almost did; more than once, even. But I did it. I pulled through as the tough one. He almost broke down my fortress of fortitude with that one sweetly sad look.

He's probably dreaming of ding-dings this very moment.

While this is a picture from last month, it reminded me of how he was standing when I opened the door. 

Just picture a much, much sadder face. He just looked this teeny tiny standing there. My little sweetheart.

cooling off

Mont found the perfect place to cooling down Saturday evening at the Security Forces building...

This picture makes me laugh:

Hopefully it was potable water.. right? 

iphone pics

Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey

The circus came to town!! We heard about it Thursday, Friday Mark got tickets, and Saturday we headed to the Pavilion that's home to the Sacramento Kings (Jimmer!).

We couldn't miss the opportunity for a big top, even if it's not a tent.. I think the kids loved it! But probably not as much as I did.

The elephants were probably my favorite, but I did love the tigers. They were huge, probably over fed tigers, but they looked soo so soft. I would have given one a pat if I could have. ... maybe. Here are the elephants walking out and around to their spots. Doesn't this remind you of Dumbo? I love how they hold on to the tail of the one in front of them.

Before the circus started, we were able to go down to the floor and get get up close to the clowns, the jugglers, and even an elephant! It was amazing being so close to one. Granted, it's no ride on an elephant (Mark.), or even like hugging an adorable baby elephant (Mark again!), but I loved it!!

In this picture you can see the tight rope (right above the pink-lit half circle), and the bikes that they rode on it with, and the 'whisker' things to help them keep their balance. I'm not sure what they're called. But wow that was high! Doing flips and jumps, and all sorts of tricks on it was a little risky.

What a circus!

iphone pics

zoo gone wild

This week, Mark was loosely scheduled with the flight desk, so he and I took the kids Tuesday morning out to San Francisco again. We love that city; it's architecture, history, culture, access to the arts and other museums, etc. It's all around, unique. We decided to go to the zoo this time, and see what Mont's tell tale reactions would be to the animals. First up, were the giraffes, zebras, and ostriches. He chomped his mouth in response to "What's a giraffe say?" Clever, eh?

Next were the gorillas.. It's not every day you get stared down by the silverback, and certainly not every day you see a silverback walk right up to a female and start mating. Ooooh my goodness. What an animal! They are so eerily human like; I promise there's like an electric charge when he made eye contact with us, it was so ... unexplainable. Very cool animal.

There were all sorts of monkeys, but I don't believe I've ever seen this kind in real life, and now I cannot remember it's name (edited: I thought at first it was a baboon, too.. but it is a Mandrill! who knew..?). It looked like it wanted to rip my face off:

Next was the hippopotamus. Or "Eppoh" as Mont kept saying. What a show this guy put on for us! Ryan (the hippo's name) would linger near the water's edge, then slowly splash his way down the steps, then submerge completely and glide under the surface, then rise with the bubbles up to break through the water. With a huge stretch of his mouth, he'd force water up with his jaw, nearly splashing all his admirers, then force water to splash again with his jaw coming back down to smack the water. Those teeth!! Wow, those teeth. No wonder why they're so dangerous, but what a strange animal. After lumbering his squatty self over to the dry area, it backed up to a rock, then relieved himself (both at once), while swishing his tail back and forth at such a speed, that it went absolutely everywhere. It was both disgusting and hilarious. Another that deserves the "What an animal!"

here's the closest pic of the splash we could get:

Other animals included:
- black swans (the female on the nest, the male in the water. His tail feathers were so lovely - each with separate waves. I can't quite explain it.)
- stork (named Walter)
- grey seals
- polar bears
- grizzly bears (from Montana - they were a lot smaller than AK brown bears.)
- tarantulas (I had no idea they spun webs; just like something you'd see in movies. ewww!)
- anaconda
- parrots, owls, peacocks, hawks, lovebirds, and all sorts of others
- rabbits and guinea pigs (hilarious little things)
- anteaters
- lion (it was male, but it was sleeping, with it's skinny bum in our direction. It's mane looked so feathery soft.)
- snow leopard
- tigers (The same enclosure where two guys were mauled when they stayed after hours, taunting the tiger and it jumped out over the wall and got 'em! There were signs up with so many warnings, and even reinforced caging.)
- horse, sheep, goats (Didn't want him to touch them though.. recently he's been copying Emmy in putting his hands in his mouth. It's really proving to be a hard habit for us to break him of, dang it!)

Mont and Mark rode the little steam engine train while Emmy and I just watched and waved. His joy was beyond measure, laughing, waving, and squealing nearly the entire time. He was a good sport about riding it only once, even though he kept asking "again? again?" because he would get excited again whenever it would race passed us around the zoo.

We were so impressed with this zoo! We went at a perfect time; a weekday, during the school year, and supremely cool weather, we could stay forever because it was not melt-into-the-concrete-hot. The visibility to the animals was wonderful. The glass on the big cats was a little foggy, so I would hold my camera up to the rope fence and just shoot through there, but all the other animals were within a clear view of maybe 10 to 15 feet. If you ever have the chance, you have our endorsement! ... just be sure to have a fully charged camera.. mine died half way through.

balancing act

This week Mark has begun his online Master's program, and I have to sit on the sidelines, while he does all the fun school work. ha! I know he wishes he had my love for school. But really, I only crave school when I'm not in it. I bet there's a few of you who know what that's like? You love school until you have to do it, then you wish you could play all day instead? Maybe he could just dictate something to me so I can feel all scholarly..  

let the games begin!

sun dappled orchards

I took a wrong turn about a month ago while trying to get to the city's airport, leading me to these ancient walnut orchards. In addition to being old, they simply dwarfed everything else I had seen so far in California.  Just look at these beasts. It looks like another very old tree had been there once before, with these newer grafted trees on top.

In a small bit of research, it seems that walnut trees do not take well to being transplanted from a planter where it grew from seed, to an open orchard; something having to do with a deep taproot. It's so amazing that something so young and small, can be added to something so old, established, and deep. It certainly works wonders, though.

Silly enough, we are about to be transplanted again as Mark wraps up his training on his new aircraft. Just a few more weeks and I will say adieu to this lovely homegrown place in Wheatland, CA. The fruit stands here are to die for.  And these black walnut orchards will soon be memories.

up with the sunrise

I read somewhere once that being able to witness the sunrise, being outside in that pure, early sunlight will bring enhancement to your day. Today I felt it, that energy and excitement of the day ahead. Nothing out of the ordinary was planned, and really, it was going to be a long day of work for Mark, which meant a long day of work for me with the kids; but I didn't mind. 

After dropping Mark off at class, and mailing off a letter at the Post Office, the three of us came home, threw open the kitchen window and made pancakes. Successfully this time. 

Before I knew it, we were dressed with minty fresh breath and headed for the park. The rest of the day has continued to go quickly, as I have had sufficient energy to keep up with it. I must credit the early morning sunshine; getting up and outdoors early really does have a nice affect on me. 

It's no wonder why my parents have always been early risers. I used to be... until I hit my teenage years, when the pillow held more allure for me than eggos with my dad. Why do teenagers have to be so impertinent? (I'm really just talking about myself) As a girl I used to love getting up early with my dad, waiting for him to get done getting ready after his swimming, then we'd sit at the kitchen table together. He'd cut up my eggos into small squares, and I would watch him read the newspaper. Those were the days... 

Now pancakes are a bit different than Eggos, yes, but I hope Mont and Emmy will look fondly back on these early mornings with their mom. 

road trip galore

Mark's training schedule has left some big open holes in his weeks, so we have been taking full advantage of this by going on spontaneous road trips. I never thought I'd be able to with kids, but it's proving quite doable; though, when they start their synchronized crying, I feel the regret start to bubble up inside me... but then they calm down and it always ends well with no regret in sight. After packing up the beef jerky and water bottles, here's where we've road tripped:

Muir Woods 

San Francisco (2)

Berkeley (3)

Lake Tahoe

Nevada City

Road trips right around the corner:

San Francisco 

Santa Cruz

Yosemite National Park

Disneyland (? - 8 hours away)

When we get 'home' and the kids fall asleep all I want to do is watch movies and eat m&ms. Oh, the memories..

What are your favorite road trips ever? Are they spontaneous? Do you plan them out months ahead of time? Maybe, both? What are your favorite snacks? Favorite road tunes? Favorite people to road trip with? Do you play any games in the car? Ever meet any really interesting people? See any funny animals?

ps - cool photo, eh? internet can take credit. 

he's two!

His favorite present? his new sprinkler.. it even has wheels.

Missing from this picture: matchbox car (Bentley) and wooden passenger train

Mont turned 2 this last Saturday! I can hardly believe it has already come and gone.  He is learning, doing, and saying new things every day. Every time we stop the car and put it in Park he says, "here we are!" Here's what we did on his birthday:

woke up before 7 and headed downstairs for presents

toast for breakfast

playing with balloons and new toys

watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the car

stopped at Distribution to pick up Primary Songs on CD

visited the Sacramento temple - beautiful! 

stopped at a fruit vendor for some red red strawberries

rode the carousel - a horse and an ostrich 

ate peanut butter and jelly with french fries for lunch

played in the little pool

ate the homemade ice cream/lemonade cake - best ever!

photo gram

This is one of those updates you leave in your google reader feed to read later because you just don't have the time. Well.. I'll try to make it more interesting with a little less talkin' and a little more picture action (remind anyone of an Elvis song?.. Mark?).  ha - Here we go! It's an update for the last 3 months via my Insta.gram iphone photos. ... a bit more visually interesting than my typical iphone photos.

driving down through California's farmland, FFA's farmers feed America signs were aplenty. (mom this is what I was trying to find to show you) 

Mont loves to "sweeeeeeeeeEEEENE?" (has since been able to swing on the big-kid one!)

The backyard in our first TLF, I love shade from trees. 

his gentle-with-the-baby stage (he's relearning this): 

babies love to sleep!

and sleep...

and sleep...

and play in sprinklers on the way to the park:

doesn't she look thrilled to be in a dress? ready for our first Sunday at our new ward/church: 

now in the new (our 2nd) TLF, and here is eating nachos for lunch. This was one of those moments as a mother where you just love to watch your child, your creation! meticulously learning what is what, and how to do something new, and just be his own little person... what a little ball of fun kids are:

A very happy and cuddly nap on Father's Day while visiting Mo and Tory and Max (all those knee scratches! my goodness, this rambunctious boy...):

Oh, how I love Emmy in her little sun hat! This was one morning at the park with Mont and Mark, us girls were just watching:

Another one from us just watching, a couple days later while the boys played in the water out back:

Oops: added late: all from the same day. The three wiggly ones are from the morning of:

Wild turkeys on base... Mark took Mont to chase these down! Mont had the time of his life:

Still waiting to fit back into my 4.5 sized wedding ring. I know - why didn't I just get a size 5 when I had the chance!? I retired the 'okay' substitute and got all glitzy with this $28 substitute from Nordstrom's. Nice jewelry, nice price:

Mont is a huge new fan of carousel rides. I was the first to take him, and I LOVED hearing his exhilarated laugh. It was pure, terrifying delight as he clung for dear life onto the shiny gold bar of his pony. Mark took him next and mounted him on a more manly dragon! 

Viewer discretion is advised... this poor face took a beating this day. Early in the morning he clothes-lined himself under the playground bridge, then he fell off concrete stairs in the backyard, landing first on his already fresh bruise (this was about 4 weeks ago and I can still see a bit) and added some nasty scratches. After I took this top portion of the picture, he gave me a goofy face for the next picture.. but it just looks odd having a goofy face with such a terrible looking bruise, so I paired it with the calm-down picture... it was so sad!

here's a sight for your sore eyes! sorry about the last one.. this should make up for it:

Trip 1 to San Francisco:

On the phone, Mark heard "meet us at Blue Bean" - boy were we off! This was way better than blue beans!

Got this looker for a steal! I love bargain shopping:

In our bathroom one night I noticed a light coming out, so I went in to find that you can nearly see, and easily hear what is going on next door! Builders have some explaining to do.... good thing we're only 'renters.' Helloooooo, neighbor.

See what I mean when I said he's graduated to the big-kid swing? He fell off once while pointing to a huge truck, but he got right back on that swingin' horse!

Remnants of the face scratches, but he's still out enjoying himself:

lifeguard on duty. nice cool day I was able to leave the door open with just the screen shut:

this is what she was watching: 

scenes from Wheatland, just outside of the gate ('just' meaning the closest thing, meaning 8 mi. away):

Scenes from Wheatland:

Scenes from Wheatland:

thrills and frills.. something so nice about finding a new piece of jewelry:

First toilet success.. still hasn't 'succeeded' since - what have I done!

meet Midge, Emmy's doll:

No, I was no cheerleader, but I do like to high-kick.. even though my form is still terrrrrrible! I still got it!

love those baby soft rolls and hand on the knee while sitting outside with Mont in the pool: 

same place as the high-kick pic. huge oak tree:

this is a catch and release only pond:

We love this boat, even if it does sink; only makes it more realistic, right?.. here it is beached:

Mont just found the buttons on the safe we aren't using for anything. beep beep!

What?! Mont is eating something healthy-ish? He loves the watermelon here:

more please:

This is about when I ran out of space on my phone so I had to cheat and take pictures only through insta.gram. This meant I only had one shot at a moment... so before this, you would have seen Mont dunking his pb&j in the pool and eating it like it was the best thing on earth. Finally, he was disgusted and handed it to me to deal with... this is when the picture took:

and sleep... {almost}

San Francisco trip #2 this past weekend. We got to stay in a hotel right off of Powell St., listening to the trolleys 'ding ding!' into the late night. Mont must have thought it was a business trip, he had to stay on top of things back at the office, you know:

Powell St., San Francisco:

and sleep... 

(this was a nap at 7 pm before heading to an restaurant in Oakland with the Reeder clan)

Sunday service in Berkeley where Max was blessed. Mark's dad is holding Emmy in her new dress.. her little flower headband didn't make it in time from England, but she was still a little doll.

This kiddo's birthday is on Saturday; he'll be two! Here he is playing with his early birthday present from Mark's parents. He brings it over, sets it down and just starts messing with it. He loves it:

Also from the weekend in Berkeley: Max naps with Gramps:

all squeaky clean: 

congrats on making it to the end! stay tuned for next time..