How to Write a Novel: Acquire a Toddler

Let me tell you about my daughter. You all know that Katie is a very intelligent, creative kid. Well, her imagination is one to rival the best. So, if you were ever planning to write a novel, here are a few ideas.

*Handing me an outlet cover* "Here Mom, I found the jewel of candor."

*From under an empty plastic bin* "Mom! Mom! Mom! We've been trapped by the Man of Cotasta!"

"Mom. You need to come with me. We need to save the cup of Weselton!"

So, the other day, the lever on the downstairs toilet broke, and we had to replace it. Since I also had a couple of empty pots I wanted to find plants for, we made a family trip to Lowe's. Let me tell you right now, this is officially now our go-to hardware store.

Tell me this isn't the coolest shopping cart you've ever seen. I dare you.

Well, after we got home, Mike went in to replace the lever, and let Katie come in to watch, since she loves learning about anything and everything. And, fortunately, they were successful.

A couple of hours later, after Katie used the aforementioned newly-repaired toilet, she came out of the bathroom bouncing up and down and exclaimed, "Dad! When I pushed the button, it made a noise, and you're a genius!" Katie is so good for our self-esteem.

Other than that, we've had a pretty good week. Most of all, however, it was MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Yeah, it was pretty chill. We wanted to go out and do something, but not anything too stressful, so we grabbed some snacks and went back to the zoo. Because, let's face it, the zoo is the coolest place any of us has ever heard of.

And now you also know how to find clean water!

I saw some other lady ride the lion with her kids and it just looked awkward.

After the zoo and some sleeping in the car (I plead the 5th) Katie finally let me open my presents. They had all been sitting on the kitchen table for a few days, and I teased her quite a bit about pretending to open them early. She was not happy with me when I did that. I made out like a bandit. Pizza paddles! Bluetooth! More external storage for pictures! A YELLOW BELT! 

You know you're jealous.

And last but not least, Katie and Mike had picked out a rather amazing mousse-filled cake for me from Costco.

Can you tell who really made the decision of which cake to get?

I was not the only one who enjoyed the birthday cake.

Nor was Josh.

Yes, it was a good birthday. I even got free points on my healthy living chart. More on that later.

On . . . one of the other days last week . . . we went to the park! Okay, so that's not very different from normal. But because we live in the windy city, we brought along a kite!

I don't think we have any pictures where she was actually in the frame with the kite.

Peter was probably the best at it. Josh just wanted to throw the spool.

I think the one who had the most fun, though, was Mike. Even after the kids decided they'd rather play on the playground or dig in the dirt, he was trying to get the kite to stay above the trees. It was pretty cute.

Besides that, we've just been kind of being on summer vacation. Mike doesn't go back to school until August 4, so we've got Daddy available for whatever we want to do. Therefore, the kids have been climbing all over him quite a bit. In fact, there has been a significant amount of shenaniganizing going on. Here's some evidence.

I put them in their Boston jumpers at the same time, but they wouldn't  hold still together. In fact, this is the clearest picture of Peter I got that day. Sorry, Abuelo.

Josh had to be tickled to hold even this still.

Katie and Mike went on a Popsicle date to the balcony.

Katie insisted on Daddy showing her what all the pieces of the body were and where they were supposed to go.

New church clothes. Can you say extremely, ridiculously cute?

  

They both have a strange obsession with getting into buckets. They've even gotten stuck before.

This is what having a brother really looks like. I just wish I were fast enough to get pictures when they're sitting on each other's faces.

Don't you just wish you could be here to hold them off of each other and clean up their messes for me? Oh, I do.

Now lastly, I feel obligated to explain the note above about the health challenge. See, Mike and I both want to get into better shape. And, you know, be healthier in general. So we made a health challenge for ourselves, based kind of on a points challenge I did with my sisters-in-law (Hi, Amy and Kliss!) a couple of years ago. Basically, we get points for exercising, eating servings of vegetables, drinking water, and reading our scriptures. And if we eat more than one dessert per day, we lose our veggie points. It's brutal.

BUT. Besides the birthday, which was kind of a binge day for me, I've been really good. I've been doing so much Zumba I don't know how to walk normally anymore, and Mike and I are almost getting competitive about how many servings of fruits or vegetables we get every day. I'm not posting the "before" picture on here, because then I would just get all sad. But if everything goes according to plan, then by Halloween (when the challenge ends) I should be significantly more awesome. And then I'll maybe post the "before and after" pictures. If you're lucky. We'll see.

But if Zumba and my kids don't get me into shape, I have no idea what will.