I am starting to think that I am cursing myself by writing these blogs about each of my kids. The day I wrote about Jacob it seemed he was out to get me. Today, the day I planned on writing about  Elizza, she turned into my little monster. All day it went from crying and fighting with her brother to fecal art on the wall. I am hoping the day I write about Marriah will be better.

One day old and as big as Pooh.

Wigs for babies at Build-a-bear workshop.

Elizza has a way of lighting up a room with her laughter. My sister once asked me, “does she ever stop smiling because every time I see her she has a smile on her face” And yeah, for the most part she is always smiling. The thing I love most about Lizza-bean ( her nickname) is her love for life, she teaches me everyday the importance of laughing at yourself and not taking things so seriously. Whenever I am apart form her even for a little, when we reunite its like she hasn’t seen me for years and runs to me excitedly yelling “Mommy!” You have no idea how much I look forward to that. She is my little helper, at one year she started helping me with the dishes by taking the silverware out of the dishwasher and handing them to me to put away. It was awesome!  Jake never helped me this much, ever and he was three and a half at this point. Now at almost two years, she actually puts the silverware away as well as the other dishes, dusts, cleans up spills, finds her sisters binky and blankets for me and helps clean the toilets ( which sometimes is a bigger mess for me in the end but oh well at least she likes doing it). Since she has started helping and getting praise from mom for it Jake has suddenly started to help more. She has been so good for Jacob. He goes out to play a lot more than he used to  and gets involved in other things more as well. She has a way of bringing the good out in people.

What me?

You know how the scriptures talks about being like a little child, when I think of that scripture I think of Elizza. She is thoughtful and loving, easy going and carefree but most importantly very forgiving. One second I will be getting on her case about something and the next second she is wanting me to comfort her.  It sure softens my heart from being so mad at her because I realize she is sorry and she forgives me for being so angry at her. It is cute to watch her play with her sister. From day one she has loved and adored her, now if I can just get Marriah to feel the same way about Elizza instead of being scared of her. I guess that comes from being mauled and drug around like a little rag doll by her older, but well intending sister. I know she will make an excellent mother one day because she gives love so freely.

Heeeheee

One day I watched Lizza put away the stools and not only did she put them under the bar where they go, but exactly where I like them and kept moving them around until it was just right. From that moment on I watched her a little more closely and realized she very attentive to detail. She is a very determined, independent girl who knows what she wants and tries everything to get it. Someone once told me the thing you try to suppress or change in your child is the thing they will need to make them the person they are when they are older. So I guess I will try not to suppress that as much since I know that is a good thing to be motivated to get what you want, I just hope that  what she will want will be a good wholesome things.  Elizza is a good singer and does a butt-wiggle dance that you can’t help but laugh at. She is very playful and because of that, she  is my little stress reliever.  I call her my little rainbow because after our miscarriage, things seemed so dark and dreary and then when we found out she was joining our family it was like a rainbow after a storm and she has been that for me ever since. I am so blessed to be her mother and hope I can be a good example of motherhood and womanhood for her. I love you Elizza.

In my last blog I gave a heads up that this was coming so I better follow through with it. There are three reasons now for writing this 1) for posterity purposes 2) to help you know my kids and 3) the final reason is for me. Jake’s preschool teacher asked the parents to write a note about what their child was good at, and sadly enough I actually had to sit and think about this. I am so caught up in what he is doing wrong all the time and getting on his case that I forget to look at the great and wonderful qualities he does have, needless to say it was a very humbling and wonderful experience and I am glad she gave us this assignment. Today, of all days, is probably the day I needed to write about his good qualities the most since he has hit my last nerve.

I guess I should start out by saying why we named him Jacob Tyler. His middle name was given to him for obvious reasons but Jacob was a name Tyler knew he wanted to name his oldest son since his mission. I, on the other hand, had to be convinced. I hated the name Jacob because I knew a kid named Jacob (we called Jake the Flake because it fit) and this guy was the biggest geek ever, so the name Jacob was not my favorite by far. One day, Tyler told me the story of Jacob Ashcraft, the first person to join the church in the Ashcraft family and so I, being a sucker for a good conversion story, would have agreed to any name at that point. I have since gotten used to the name and feel it fits him perfectly (not the flake part though).

Well I am officially 30 as of Saturday and it really is all its cracked up to be. I don’t know too many people that welcome 30 with open arms and there is reason behind that which I will illustrate with a story that I will call My First Day in my 30s ( true story).

My last day at 29 was awesome Tyler took me ( and Marriah) out to eat and to the movie Errand of Angels ( which I absolutely loved) it was so nice just the two of us ( I say just the two of us because Marriah was asleep most of the time so she was low maintenance). It never happens that Ty and I go on a date without the kids- I know it is lame but its easier- so being just he and I there was no breaking up fights, no shushing kids to quiet them down, no “I gotta go to the bathroom” nothing but a quite evening with my sweetheart. Just as I was about to think turning 30 isn’t so bad the storm came. Just after 12:00 am on my birthday Tyler started getting kind of restless and had a hard time falling asleep so he went in the living room to watch TV so I could go to sleep and he could tire himself out then try laying down again. Well about 1:30 Tyler comes in and wakes me and says he isn’t feeling well so as not to wake Marriah who still sleeps in our room occasionally I went out and sat with him. It was scary he was white as a sheet going from hot and sweaty to cold and clammy in a matter of seconds but the scariest part was he couldn’t breathe very well. I stayed up with him repeating ” calm down and take slow even breaths” and then just as I thought he was asleep he makes a run for the bathroom exploding from both ends. Finally at 4:00 he was able to fall asleep so I went back to our room leaving him to sleep on the couch propped up in time to discover Marriah awake for her mid night meal. So I had to tend to her, Finally at 4:30 I was able to get some sleep only to be woke up at 7 am by the kids. Well birthday day came and i found myself stuck in my regular everyday routine of cleaning house, doing dishes and making breakfast and feeling completely sorry for myself that no one not even Ty or the kids had acknowledge my birthday. Ty then comes to me and says “I think you need to take me into the doctor I feel like I am going to die.” So I say, “let me at least feed the kids since the food was already right in front of them and then we can go.” Well, not wanting to wait, Tyler headed straight out to the car ( i don’t blame him if i felt like i was going to die i wouldn’t care if the kids were fed either). I quickly put the food away and grabbed some diapers and ran out to the car. We dropped off the older two kids at my parent’s house and headed for Community Care where Dr. Thompson who had seen Tyler already twice in two weeks for various other issues was there telling us that we needed to go to the ER to get tests and an IV in Tyler. So off the the Emergency Room we went only to sit there for 5 hours. They never gave him any fluids although they put in an IV port but instead they only took fluids to run blood tests and stool and urine samples. In fact they were talking about taking his appendix out which most of you may remember he hasn’t had since he was 13. So needless to say we left there feeling $1000 poorer and more confused than when we went in. They pumped him full of drugs that left him still nauseated and extremely groggy and lethargic and said he must have a virus. He slept through the night but again I was up only this time with a crying, stubborn two year old that thinks she needs a certain “bottle” to go to sleep. So my birthday ended where it began wide awake in the dark of night trying to calm someone else down and wishing 30 could have proven me wrong. Is it no wonder my Mom has been 22 for so long? I think 22 is looking pretty good to me too.
For more details about Tyler’s health and results of his ER experience go to :
http://www.blogger.com/www.14ty.blogspot.com