Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Two cool facts to start:
Did you know cookie monster was born in october of 1969?
Secondly did you know that though he can't remember his name he thinks it might have been Sid?

Also I need to start by sticking my tongue out at Michelle. . . with all the love in my heart.

This week was a good one, it was also quite fast. I didn't work as many hours, but that's no big thing now because we can't get into a house before the deadline for the federal grant so we may as well take our time now :)
This means that I spent a lot more time with my 2 year old who is currently subconsciously blaming me for the upheaval of her life. She is great with everyone else I'm told but with me she is being extra obstinate and even mean at times. Guess that's what I get for being her rock. It's so interesting that when we need to lash out we often choose the ones we know will never turn away from us. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Also this week I had an eye exam. I go through the phases. I get glasses, spend the crap-load of money that it takes to do that and then use them for a few months before choosing to stop the addiction. A few years later I repeat the cycle. Since I spend most of my work hours reading small print from the IRS website I've started getting headaches so I figured it was time. The glasses I chose are really cute, and the whole experience was amazingly pleasant.
I came prepared with toys and books, but as every mother knows the kids will never actually play with them when you are out in public. We got to the mall a little after 1:30, my appointment was at 2 but I wasn't quite sure where it was so I decided to find it first. It took us about 15 minutes to walk the 50 feet to the elevator and press the button to go down. (Not because she was being a pill but because we had plenty of time so I try not to rush her or me if I don't have to. We're both much happier that way).
I filled out the paperwork while she pointed out the colors of the chairs and counted them (she still skips 5. She knows where it goes if you quiz her, but she won't say it in the line-up).
Then it appeared we would be waiting a few minutes so I decided to deflect the antsi-ness by distracting her with the line-up of kids glasses. She was delighted to try them on and we spent about 10 minutes doing this while we waited. Finally the lady came around the corner and i thought, "Oh good that was fast"
Ha!
Anyway I finished whatever it was she wanted from me and still no doctor appeared. By this time the antsiness had started to kick in and one of the ladies looked like she was going to be one of those people that every young mother fears, the ones that scolds your child while glaring at you as if you can't control your own kid.
So I took her out to look at the dresses for a bit (we were right next to the little girl's area). This was sufficient to cover the time needed but caused a bit of a fuss when it was time to go into the doctor's office.

As we walked into the office and they did the glaucoma tests and all of that fun stuff Alisabeth watched in fascination. She knew we were at the "doctor for mommy's eyes" so she wasn't at all nervous like she tends to get at her own doctor's appointments.
Soon enough her little hands began to creep out, but we were moved to another room before this could really take effect. This room was filled with even more expensive machinery and lots of things she shouldn't touch. (Can you tell I was a bit over-nervous about this trip?)
The doctor was an older man and when we first got in there he made some crack comment about her breaking something so my stress level shot up again thinking, "how am I going to control her and get an eye exam done?"
My fears were all excessive. She was fascinated again to watch the doctor doing all of his tests. At one point she climbed up on my lap trying to see exactly what the big machine on my face was for, and what the doctor had been flipping and turning. He obliged her by putting a picture strip into the reading chart and asking her what pictures she could see. She did a pretty good job. The only one she didn't recognize was a cake with 3 candles on it. She got well beyond the 20/20 line.
He also did a couple of tests where he drew a big E and then turned it in different directions and tried to get her to tell him which way the legs went. She didn't really grasp that one but he said it was a good one for me to do with her.
He also did some visual checks on her making sure her eyes were focusing/unfocusing correctly. He broke up each section of my eye exam by doing these things with her and in this way pretty much covered the whole session so that she didn't get curious enough to get into any of the equipment.
The next part I was dreading. We selected several frames while the lady who was helping me also picked out a few frames for Alisabeth to try and showed her the mirror. That went well, and as soon as we sat down, before I could even reach for the bag of goodies the woman pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen and had Alisabeth drawing. She drew the entire time we were working out the details. The lady even made comments on her "lion-kitty" and her "ocopus"
As we walked out of that store all I could think was "Thank you God for sending me to this store so that all of my fears would be unfounded."
After that we were able to go play at the food court and relax.

The rest of the week is a blur. Somewhere in there I had choir practise, but that's about it. I need to get in touch with the rest of my family, I'm sure they think I'm horrible. I've been here two weeks and haven't left the house once when I didn't have to. Well that's not true, I went up to Mesa to the temple this last weekend and had a great time. A couple from the church watches everyone's children while they go to the temple for the 2 hours. It was a great opportunity for me.
I feel so guilty about leaving alisabeth with other people. I know it has to be done but I don't think I could ever do it full-time. I'm greatful that my husband is willing to be the sole-breadwinner and make whatever sacrifices are needed in that area to make sure we have enough to survive because I want to be home with my kids! I can't stand to be gone for most of the week. (See if I still say that when I've done it for six months :p).
That's about it for this week. Not exciting sorry. Don't have an hobbies of projects, they're all packed and in Rexburg.