a girl after my own heart

we are reconsidering our current practice of limiting lainey's reading strictly to while she is awake. she clearly enjoys her books just as much while she is sleeping. see how she turns pages even in her sleep? she frequently sneaks out of bed after we tuck her in at night and brings over piles of books to her bed. my sister frequently comments on how flexible laine's sense of reality is, and this is a perfect example. "Laine, how did all of these books get into your bed?" "I don't know!" "Lainey, come on..." "Mommy, I think they just FLEW!"


speaking of Laine's sense of reality, she watched the movie "Matilda" today while she was feeling a little sick, and afterward tried to use her mind powers to make an elastic fly up into the air. After trying and concentrating really hard for a few minutes, she started to laugh, and looked at me and said, "it's not really working!" but then, almost immediately, figured out how to really harness those powers (namely by using her other hand to manipulate the rubber band while using her first hand to direct) and felt really satisfied with herself.

I can walk!!

Well, the doctor gave me the green light on Monday to start walking without my crutches. Hallelujah! This means that my foot has progressed from the very clear black line of fracture to a more fuzzy space, which apparently means that it's healing on its own. So, no surgery for me!

After eight weeks of walking on crutches, though, it was surprisingly hard to give them up! I know that may sound counter-intuitive, but I actually walked back to my car from the appointment and then into my house using crutches. It's a strange thing to build up trust again with an out-of-use appendage. besides that all the muscle in my foot and calf have completely atrophied, it's a little bit of a mental hurdle to tell myself I can walk again after not having walked for two months.

In memoriam, here is a picture of my nasty broken foot back at the beginning. The swelling is kind of out of control, you'll notice my ankle is gone and my toes look like sausages. You don't really get a good feel for the lovely bruising, so just imagine.

My kids noticed immediately when I stopped walking around with crutches. Romney kept looking at me quizzically and saying, "Mommy crutches? Mommy crutches?" and Lainey said, "MOM! Where are your crutches??" and when I explained that the doctor had told me I didn't need to use them anymore, her eyes got really wide and she kind of whispered, "does that mean you don't have to do surgery?" and then cheered.

Here's the post-crutch breakdown: I get to the phone slower hobbling in the boot than on crutches. And the door. I can't chase my kids as fast, either. BUT once I catch them, I can actually hold on to them now that I don't have crutches! AND they don't run away as often, since I can hold on to them in the first place! Big bonus. I feel like I'm walking like Grandpa Curtis (who had polio) now, especially when I don't have a shoe on my non-booted foot, which makes me smile. I can now carry my own drink of water all the way across the kitchen, without having to set it down in between steps. I don't have to balance on one foot in the shower anymore. And probably the best thing so far: I get to hold hands with my kids again! I can hold Romney's hand while he's going down steps and help him get straight to the car without being sidetracked by our neighbor's giant dirt pile. And I got to hold Lainey's hand on the way to preschool for the first time yesterday, which was very fun. (you moms who don't have crutches - don't take this little thing for granted! it's too good to not really appreciate.) I didn't realize it at first, and then all of a sudden, it dawned on me that it's been such a long time since I've been able to hold her hand! Anyway, it was one of those great "I really love my kids" moments, and she looked up and smiled at me, unknowingly buying herself a little more patience the next time she is completely out of control and making me crazy.

quirky side note of the day: I like blogging because I can start as many sentences as I want with words that I never could when I was writing papers in college (and, but, so, well...) and by the way, I don't really know about that pink headband on Romney's head. Laine's subliminal efforts towards procuring a baby sister for herself? all I'm saying is that it wasn't me. Jim?

Happy Birthday Rom-dizz!

worth noting today a happy birthday to Romney! Romney turned two today. There was very little celebration today, just a little mini cake after dinner that read Happy Birthday Rom-dizz! The girl in our ward that christened Rom with the name Rom-dizzle also happens to work at granite bakery so thus the cake had the personal touch.
Romney is exhibiting more and more the behaviors of the dreaded two year old. There will need to be more discussion of that later. For now here are some pictures of the joy of frosting.

Laine the Hurricane

Here are a few highlights from the last week...courtesy of the hurricane.

Marie and Laine went to the circus this week. The greatest show on earth lived up to its name and as they were leaving and sucking down frozen horse brains Lainey inquired, "when can we come to the circus again mommy?"

"maybe next year Lainey, they have to move around so other people can see it too."

"they move it around?!?" "yes - they go to visit other cities"

At this point Lainey turned around and looked at the delta center building as they walked towards the street and said, "wow, it looks kind of heavy."


Just today Lainey was coming home from pre-school she was complaining that her shoes were hurting her feet. Marie asked where the socks were that she was wearing when she left for school. At this point Lainey said "oh, I'll get them." She then proceed to reach way down into her sweatpants, searching one leg, and then the other. Finally she said, "oh no mom, they aren't here anymore!"

Marie also asked Lainey to help her today. Laine said no.
"please Lainey will you help me?"
"no mommy"
"Lainey, why won't you help me?"
Lainey replied, a little skeptically, "well, I DO love you a lot." And then chose not to help.

and my personal favorite of the week.......
"Mom, Dad, Come see this really cool picture of uncle Ben that I glued to the wall in my room!"