Loving Grandma & Grandpa

We're lucky enough to live close to Brian's parents and even luckier that they want Bridget to hang out with them once a week for a few hours.  She rough houses with Grandpa, teasing him and insisting on shoulder rides around the house and walks to see the sheep and horses near their house.  She also loves to hear them arguing about whose "girl" she is. 

It's because of Brian's parents that Bridget knew that Grandma and Grandpa are people she can trust and that she can show unbridled affection for - and that carried over to her relationship with my parents.  We love watching her with our parents - her grandparents.  It's sweet to see that side of them.  They love their grandkids unconditionally.

Here she is saying goodbye to my parents after they spent the weekend with us:

The Reward

 I think I've mentioned in a previous post that we made a "sticker chart" for Bridget when she wasn't staying in her bed at night.  When she stayed in her bed all night (we allowed one potty trip each night), she got a princess sticker the next morning.  We were secretly planning a trip to Disneyland anyway, but her goal was to fill up the chart (about three months worth) and go to the "Princess Castle."

Well.  Recently dinner time has been a time for whining (instead of eating), complaining (instead of eating), crying (instead of eating), dramatic displays of dissatisfaction (instead of eating).  Booooo.  When Bridget stopped taking naps (more than a year ago, I think) she began getting very tired at about 5:00 pm.  By the time we eat (usually 6:00 pm) she is almost insane with the sleepiness.  This is no good for many reasons - the main one being that Bridget ends up not eating anything for dinner.  We made a new sticker chart, the title of which is "Bridget Eats Her Dinner and Doesn't Complain."  (She calls it "beplaining."  Sometimes she tells me that she didn't "beplain.")  The reward was a new princess dress of Bridget's choice.  She changed her mind several times a day on the dress she wanted, but that was all part of the anticipation.

The chart was finally full last week and we ordered a Tinkerbell costume.  I'm sooooooooooooo glad this kind of thing works for Bridget.  She has learned to control her tantrums (there were a few nights when she didn't get a sticker, but only a few) and she eats whatever we're having for dinner.  Sometimes that is fish.  COME ON!  A kid who eats fish?  Awesome. :) 

Daddy and Bridget

I know I said Brian would be doing some posts when I first started this blog. As you can see, I'm the talky one in the family and also the write-y one. I love writing stuff down. Brian is almost completely left-brained - he practically hyperventilated when I asked him if he liked a color combination I was working on for a quilt. Dude. Chill. :) Since he is so mum, I thought I'd explain his relationship with Bridget.

Almost since the first night Bridget slept in our house, Brian has been the one to wake up with her and take care of her. She is a very light sleeper - she'll get up for a drink, to go to the bathroom, because she's scared... Whether she's crying and in her bed or running into our room, Brian is the one that she goes to. Sometimes I wake up and I can hear them - Brian talks softly and reassuringly to her and she gives him pats on the shoulder and says, "love you." It is very very sweet. And I get to sleep even though Brian is the one who has to get up early and go to work.

At least once a month Brian and Bridget go on a "date." They usually go to Jump On It, which is Bridget's favorite place ever. If she had her way, all of our floors would be trampolines. Brian sits on the edge of the trampoline and intimidates bigger kids from running through Bridget's trampoline and hurting her (they are undeterred when I'm the one sitting there). I'm sure her face hurts from smiling after an hour of jumping. Brian watches all of her tricks - she never even has to ask him to "WATCH ME, DADDY!"

The only two people Bridget rough-houses with are Brian and his Dad. The moment Brian gets home from work and sits down, she starts climbing all over him and teasing him. (Sidebar, I'm fascinated that she can tell who to tease and who not to tease.) He will pretend (how sad that he's pretending) not to know the correct names of all the princesses and their respective princes. Bridget gets worked up as she explains who is who. ("Now Snow White married Prince Bob White, right?" "NO! SNOW WHITE DOESN'T MARRY BOB WHITE!") She knows he's teasing, so she laughs. She is also intent on making sure he gets all the stories straight.

It's become a tradition for the three of us to go to either lunch or dinner together on Fridays. Bridget loves to "eat at the place" and she's a good girl while we're at restaurants. We'll usually just get her a plate and share our food with her because she never eats even a quarter of what we order for her. Then we spend Saturday getting things done around the house, shopping, etc. and Sunday we're together most of the day, too. Every Monday morning Brian calls from work to say he misses us. Because he truly does.

Photo Album

When we moved into the house we live in now I decided to make our front room a photo album room. I had a small collection of old family portraits from Brian's mom and I added to it with photos from both sets of my grandparents.
I'm in this room a lot teaching piano lessons. I love looking up to see my grandparents cutting their wedding cake, Brian's great-grandparents looking debonair in their wedding photo, my great-great-grandma holding up her baby and smiling at the camera... Of course we've added our own family photos and a lot of photos of Bridget. In the corner we have two photos from right after our sealing to Bridget in the Salt Lake Temple.
It's fun to have our best memories in the same room with our ancestors.

Last year we went completely Crazytown buying Christmas presents for Bridget. She was only two, so we knew we weren't setting a precedent that she would remember. This year we had Santa bring her a microwave for her kitchen, a Mulan doll and a Shen doll. That's what she asked for (a few months ago) and that's what she got. (Shen promptly broke his leg Christmas morning. That guy cannot catch a break! Wait, yes he did.)

I found a sweet little music box at Disneyland (the kind with a dancer that pops up when the box is open - the dancer is a Disney princess) and a necklace with a crown charm. Since we had just been to Disneyland, I decided to save this gift for Bridget's Christmas present from me.

Since Bridget is so into tents right now - she uses all our throws and extra blankets and drapes them over the furniture - Brian bought her a princess tent. I was picturing a small pink tent with images of princesses on it. Here is what it looks like in real life:
Ah! It's HUGE! And so very very pink! Of course Bridget is inside, wearing her Halloween costume (a Cinderella dress). When I saw it set up it occurred to me that we may have crossed the line. There is too much princess stuff in the house.

I didn't put up a picture of Bridget in her Halloween costume?! That's not right.
I watched the fairy godmothers at Disneyland while they did Bridget's hair so that I could recreate it for Halloween. I love how she's holding her hands in this photo.

The day after Christmas I found a great deal on some princess Christmas tree ornaments. When they get here, we can open up our Disney Princess store. Sigh.

Something To Do While We Wait

Even when I was a teenager I found myself thinking about what I could do to prepare to be a really good mother. I looked at the women in my life and what I admired in them and tried to learn how to do the stuff I saw them doing. My Mom is a great cook. Actually, my Mom is great at a lot of things. She makes being a homemaker art. When you think about it, having an organized and beautiful home is art. It's not easy to do. Anyway, I learned how to cook, can fruit, play the piano, organize the house - all from my Mom.

My Mom can also sew. She makes clothes, curtains, pillows, etc. She doesn't quilt, but I still wanted to know how to make heirloom quilts because my Great Grandma Rhoda did. She did everything by hand and would have the quilt frames up in her living room for weeks while she worked on them. I've decided to take a modern approach because I am a chicken and I want to make a lot of quilts (one for every niece and nephew when they get married, for starters). I finished my first major quilt for Brian's parents' Christmas present. I was done early enough that I made a couple of table toppers with scraps. (I have a lot of scraps. Fabric collectors refer to that as their "stash." I make and sell car seat canopies, so I have a stash that is starting to get out of control.) I pieced these things together myself, but I send them to a long-arm quilter for the quilting portion. (My sewing machine can handle really small stuff - like oven mitts or place mats. Ha! Oven mitts - I should make some of those.)

Anyway! Heirloom quilting is something I learned how to do in 2009. It has helped me take my mind off waiting for another baby and given me something worthy and meditative to do during "down" times. We've informed Bridget that she will need to have a lot of kids because Brian and I are going to be AWESOME at the grandparenting stuff. :) Here are some of my Christmas projects:

A table runner for my sister, Allyn.

A table "topper" for my sister-in-law, Diana. (There is a drop of my blood on this one. Quilting is a lot more vicious than you would think.)

Another table "topper" (with a cake pedestal, which I didn't make) for my Mom. She's a piano teacher, too. Perfect for her recitals. :)

Last, but not least, a queen-size Double Wedding Ring Quilt for Brian's parents.

Snazziversary Number 13

{This was a post from our family blog. I'm putting it here because it's true and good.}


Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. On Friday we dropped Bridget off at Grandma's and went to our place for dinner. It's called The Other Place, but it's our place. We've been going there since we were engaged. We also went to a movie ("An Education") at the Broadway, which happens to be on the same street as The Other Place. It's the sort of date we used to go on every week before we had a child in our lives. Now it's a fancy night for us. Which is how we like it.

(The picture at the top is from 2004. I decided to put my favorite picture up after posting my least favorite picture on the last entry. Also, Bridget keeps laughing every time she sees that grade school photo of me. "That's so crazy! That makes me silly!" Yeah yeah.)

This year had all of it - better and worse, sickness and health. My Grandpa Curtis advised us when we got married that marriage is not a 50-50 proposition, it's 100-100. Husband and wife each giving 100% is what makes it work. (My brother-in-law Ben advised us, "Pants first, then your shoes.") He's right. Grandpa and Ben. I love that I'm still willing and eager to give 100% to Brian and I know I'm getting that in return.

Cheers to 13 joyful years!