Little tidbits.

Today Rachel crawled into the bathroom and started drinking from the little cup that rests in Lily's potty - luckily there was nothing in it. Yum. She also has learned the art of tugging at my pants when she wants to be held. When my next door neighbor Malauna and I were canning peaches a couple of weeks ago (gosh, has it really been that long?) her son Hyrum was doing that to her for much of the morning and I remember thinking, "I am SO glad that my baby is so content to play by herself in the family room while I completely ignore her." I'm being punished for my thoughts.

Lily is an absolute riot. This week in the car she up and decided that she was going to start saying her "L"'s. She has now graduated from saying "pwease", "Wiwy", and "cwean" to "please", "Lily" and "clean". I guess we can start working on her "R"s now. Except that it's so darn cute. She's also regressed in potty training. Once we stopped rewarding her with stickers and jellybeans, she decided that she was, as she put it, "never going to go pee-pee again!" Yikes. I don't be around when she figures out the truth about that one.

Anna got really upset at the Primary activity yesterday. First, she made a wrong turn down the hall and became frantic when she discovered her class was nowhere to be seen. She tends to be like men when it comes to asking for directions so she just stood in the hall crying until Melissa from our Primary Presidency put her arm around her and showed her the way. Thank heaven for caring church leaders. Then, when the activity was over, a bunch of the kids were running wild, as kids often do and ran into her. I found Anna standing there, looking as if the world was crumbling around her, trying to stifle the tears and was reminded of the tenderness of this, my oldest, and in many ways, my most difficult child. She looked so vulnerable. She was shocked that someone would hurt her (albeit accidentally) and "not even say they were sorry". I joked later that I need to rough her up a little more so that she can just roll with the punches a little better instead of being so sensitive. But inside I was glad that she has spent most of her life in places that are safe, where she is treated fairly and with kindness. Thanks to all of you who have been so kind to my Anna, who is not always the easiest to love.

September has turned out to be a busy month for our family. I thought that after I had taught Joy School early in the month that I would be home-free. Whoa, was I wrong. Tim has spent a lot of time over at our rental house fixing an attic vent that blew off in a windstorm, replacing a less-than-stable ceiling fan, digging enormous holes for 3 large trees, and fertilizing. He has come home each time on Cloud Nine. At first, I couldn't help but wonder why he was so happy at having spent hours away from his family on a Saturday. Then I realized that he was just experiencing the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a project, particularly one that he has never encountered before. He was feeling like he was the man. Now, if only I can convince him that cleaning up poop is as rewarding... I suppose that's why I'm the mom.

I'll post some pictures soon. Something is up with the software that we use to download pictures from our camera. I've got some good ones. Stay tuned...