The Dentist & Eden's Camera

Monday the girls had a check up with the dentist. Hope was a champ this time around. As soon as we went back the assistant took Hope for x-rays. Usually Hope freaks out and screams and cries and it's a terrible ordeal. This time she was having a nice conversation with the lady the whole time. I could tell she was a little nervous by the sound of her voice (I wasn't allowed in), but she was brave. Next the assistant cleaned Hope's teeth and then Dr. Gifford looked around in her mouth. Hope has had a few cavities that we've been keeping an eye on for a while and I am relieved to report that they aren't getting any worse. So, as long as we take care of her teeth properly we can wait until it is absolutely necessary or she is old enough to have them fixed in the office instead of the hospital.

Next the dentist looked in Eden's mouth. She was not pleased with this. Thank goodness he was quick. No cavities and no weakening. *Phew* She likes brushing her own teeth, but when it's mommy's turn I have to hold her down on the bed and endure kicks and slaps. Worth it though for healthy teeth. Last the girls got to choose a prize from the treasure box. It is full of little nickel toys and this is always Hope's favorite part. Hope picked out a little plastic lizard that she named Echo. He will be a nice fit to her collection of lizards from previous dentist appointments. Eden got a little plastic camera. I showed her how it worked once and she was a natural tourist, taking pictures of everything. The dental assistant positioned the girls to take their picture for the "no cavity wall" and Eden was trying to take a picture of the lady taking a picture. It gave everyone in the office a good laugh.

Since Eden has carried the camera lots of places saying, "Click!" and "Picture." One night she took it to the store with us and while we were driving I looked back to see her acting as if she were taking pictures out the window. Ask her take a picture of someone or something and she does. It's very cute.

Love & Cupcakes

Noah came home!!! Noah came home!!! Fridays are so exciting when we get to go get Noah. Sometimes Eden walks around the house before we leave saying "Noah, where are you?" And Hope will ask me incessantly if she and Noah can play games when he gets home. When they play pretend she calls this a game. They play great together and Noah has taught her a lot about imaginary play. When the weekend is over I will catch her playing some game that they had been playing earlier in the weekend and it's as if he's with her. She love him a lot.

 He loves her a lot too. When they see each other on Fridays he gives her a great big hug and tells her he missed her. I'm always proud to see that he isn't embarrassed to hug any of us in front of his friends.

This weekend I heard him tell Hope and Eden several times that he loved them and he told me a couple of times that he loved being a big brother to them. That boy makes my heart happy. :) These pictures were taken just before his dad picked him up. Hope kept telling him that she wanted him to stay. As he was walking out the door she yelled to him, "Bye Noah! I will be missing you!" And he yelled back, "I'll miss you too!" *Sigh* A dream come true.

I mean they do have moments, just as all siblings do, but they are affectionate with each other, not too proud to express it in public and the good moments far exceed the not so great ones. One of my biggest desires for my children is for them to love and cherish one another. Not just that, but to be friends that enjoy each other's company. So far they are off to an awesome start.

This year has brought new plans to the Maxwell house for healthier living. However, we do allow ourselves a treat or two on the weekends. The past few weekends have been a little out of control for Ben and I, but we've done well during the week and I am confident that soon we will gain control of the weekends too. Anyway, Saturday we had cupcakes! Hope just ate the frosting off her cupcake, as usual, and Eden only took a nibble of the piece I gave her, but Noah ate all his "funfetti" cupcake and even shared some with his turtle friend.

He is growing up so fast.

I love this picture of Eden. It looks like she is super excited about the cupcake, but she really didn't want to have much to do with it. That is just fine with me. One less sugar addict in the house. :)

Grrr...

Today I made popcorn for the girls' snack. Eden swiped the bowl and headed for Hope's room. Then this happened.

Luckily the bowl wasn't full when she decided to grab and go. I told her to smile in the bottom picture and she showed me her chewed up popcorn instead. The sign of a true rebel.

Not long after, this happened...

Yes. The latch for the fridge broke a day or so ago. To be honest I am surprised it took this long. To her credit though, after doing her egg toss game she came to get me and told me she'd made a mess. :) I love that she is proudly pointing to the eggs in the bottom picture. *sigh*

P.S. I forgot to add that after I took these pictures Hope came over to see what happened. She knelt down and said, "I'm not so happy about this."



Sunday Best

This year our ward meets at 11 a.m. I am relieved because it is just easier to get everyone ready and there nearly on time without waking up earlier than usual. Unfortunately, it is during lunch and nap time for Eden, but I'll take it.

I was very pleased Sunday morning when Hope allowed me to put sponge curlers in her hair. Usually it takes some pleading for her to even let me comb it. Hope's hair is naturally curly right now and immediately following a wash and air dry her curls are perfect. However, she has her baths at night and when she wakes in the morning she has bed head just like everyone else and wacky wisps of hair have replaced the curls. I've been really frustrated lately with her hair and her lack of desire to do anything with it. So I was excited which in turn made her excited, especially when i told her I was going to make my hair curly too.

Here is Hope with the curlers.

 I know a lot of people sleep in these...but this is Hope we are talking about. I knew that would never happen so I settled for about 15 minutes in the morning. Turns out that isn't quite enough time. After a few minutes of having curler free hair, the curls went a limp and her unruly hair was back. She wouldn't let me take a picture while the curls were in tact. So here's hoping for next Sunday!!!

Eden is always a busy body at church. Sunday before last she made 'friends' with a little boy about her age that was sitting behind us and he shoved a fruit loop in her mouth. After a few minutes Eden went back for more. The little boy had a fruit loop for himself in one hand and offered the bag to Eden so she could get one for herself (a suggestion made to him by his mother). Eden looked at the bag and the fruit loop in the boy's hand and ate the fruit loop right from his fingers. Little silly.

I always pack a purse with books, snacks, and toys that I think might distract kids from naughtiness. As of late, few of these work for Eden. She did share her Mickey Mouse toys with a super cute little girl about her age though. Anyway, during the passing of the Sacrament, when the chapel as quiet as it will ever get with the amount of kids in our ward, Eden likes to go exploring. She stood right in front of and stared at the man sitting a few seats down from us while he took his bread. Then off she went...yelling all the way. I immediately got up since I was closest to the end of the aisle, swooped her up and took her in the hall for a few minutes. She kept say "uh Daddy....uh Daddy". (She makes that sound before most of her words, which is both weird and cute.) Thinking she has settled down a little I went back into the gym which was opened up to make more room in the chapel. She was some what decent for a few minutes and then she was off again. This time Ben got up for her. She ran to the far side of the gym while Ben took long strides to try to keep up with her. Usually she doesn't go to far before she stops and comes back. Not this time. While Ben was still on the side of the gym I saw a flash of color running in front where the gym meets the chapel. She was on her way somewhere and fast. Ben's pace quickens as the reality of what is happening sets in and I start to feel the dread I know he is feeling. Ben is not one for attention and he was about to get a lot of it. Eden comes to a fork in the aisles. She can go up to the front of the chapel, where the first speaker is in the middle of their talk or she can go out of the chapel into the lobby, which would not have made this a big deal. Of course she chose to run towards the front, I'm sure to make her way to the pulpit where she would inevitably scream into the microphone if she could reach it. Ben starts to run after her but she has a good lead on him as she caught him off-guard with her new found bravery for exploring the chapel. He is basically jogging down the aisle now with benches packed of people turning to see the commotion. I am laughing so hard that my eyes begin to water, still feeling so sorry for Ben. The man that Eden stared down earlier begins to chuckle and says something to me about Eden...not sure what he said, but my eyes were watering so that I just nodded my head and said, "I know." Ben finally grabs Eden right before she gets to the stairs that lead to the stage where the bishopric is intently watching, obviously entertained. He swiftly heads back the direction he came and turns at the fork in the aisle for the lobby.

I thought for sure he would've just headed out to the van and to take her home, but a few minutes later the gym doors open and in comes Ben holding Eden tightly in his arms. I give him a knowing smile and he jokingly frowns as he sits down. We have a good quiet laugh and he says, "I don't know if you're supposed to run in church or not, but I didn't know what she was going to do when she got up there."

Can you believe this precious angel is actually a little devil in disguise?

Maybe this gives it away just a TAD more. She is trying to repel off my bed. :)

Destruct-OR Strikes Again

My lack of posts about it doesn't mean that Eden has been causing any less trouble as before. She has her daily routine of spitting juice into various objects. Such as measuring cups, any toy that has some kind of hole in it and just onto the floor. Sometimes she does let it just stream out of her mouth down her chin and then soaking her shirt. Lately though she has preferred to allow her juice to catch some air before it hits the floor, which also allows it to spray near by objects including moms and/or sisters. If there is a colored pencil, crayon, pen, pencil ANYWHERE she can reach she finds it and scribbles on the walls. Toys are thrown about just for the sake of messiness and food is regularly thrown/spit on the floor. All those are daily happenings and I have come to expect to encounter this type of behavior from her daily. Every once in a while though she will do something that really makes my stomach jump into my throat. Today was once such day.

I was researching Valentine's on the computer in the front room when I heard the fridge open. I thought it was just my imagination since we had just installed one of these...

...we did this because Eden has recently gained super human strength :) and had been including fridge exploration to her daily regimen. A few time she got a couple of eggs out of their carton which we were lucky enough to get away from her before damage was done. But after finding the fridge door left open several times we decided one of these were in order. Problem solved. At least when you remember to latch it...

A few seconds after thinking that my imagination concocted the sound of the fridge opening I decided I'd better check anyway. I stroll into the kitchen to find the fridge door closed. I breathed a sigh of relief until the sight of Eden holding two eggs standing a few feet away caused the breath to plummet into my stomach which then lurched into my throat. It only took a split second to realize that the eggs were real and not the pretend eggs that accompanied her play kitchen. Unfortunately, a split second was all it took for Eden to decide she didn't want the stolen eggs anymore and as she tossed them onto the floor I gasped and reflexively covered my open mouth with my hand. She looked up at me and mimicked my gesture, holding her hand over her mouth. It was then that I decided that my first instinct, to yell EDEN!, would not do and I went for the camera. But not before removing Destruct-OR from the crime scene. Little miss wanted to play in the gooey mess she'd made.

She stood by as I snapped the photos and then with a lot of nerve said, "See, See". She wanted to see the picture of her handiwork on the camera. What a little monkey. I realize that this is not as big a deal as I've made it out to be, but I am feel a little dramatic with my writing today. :)

P.S. I love how Mickey is unknowingly lying in the corner. They could've landed him and that would've landed him in the washing machine. I wonder if he knows the incident that barely missed him.

Hope's Self Portrait

Hope has been very into drawing lately. Today she drew a self portrait and after I acted so excited about it she seemed pretty pleased with herself.

She may be a little artist afterall.



Christmas

This is going to be a short post because I feel like I highlighted most of it in the previous posts. This year Ben made the girls an awesome little kitchen. The girls love it and it is Hope's favorite color: purple! Great Gma Jones and Hammond gave them some play food and pots and pans and so did mom and dad. Add that to the tea set that Hope already has and you've got a working kitchen. We open presents one at a time in our house; something I did as a child. I like this way because everyone gets to see what everyone else got and you are able to experience each child's reaction to each present. It is kind of long and drawn out, but I like that my kids have learned patience with it.

Noah got a Razor scooter and some computer games and some other little things. I think he was a little disappointed but he is now at the age that his "toys" are more expensive so they are fewer than the cheap stuff the girls get. On Christmas Day we opened up a Wii from grandma Nikki! So that evened out his disappointment. We had a great Christmas!