I cannot believe it

I cannot believe it. My little girl is eating solid foods. I gave her some rice cereal tonight for the first time. I was expecting to see a "what is this" face or something, but she loved it. She would fuss in between bites and try to shove the spoon in her mouth. I'm super glad she likes it, but it makes me just a little sad that she's getting so big. It was about this time last year that I found out I was pregnant with her. It goes too fast. Although one benefit of her getting bigger is hearing her laugh. She has sort of been laughing for over a month, but today she was letting out squeals while I kissed her cheeks. I love it! I love her!


I also had to include the pictures of Tyler getting his potty training certificate. Tyler has totally embraced the 'big potty'. Again, I can't believe he is so big and independent. He has quite the imagination these days. He is obsessed with Toy Story 2 right now. He says he is Buzz, dad is Woody and who am I? Bullseye the horse. Why couldn't I be Jesse or Bo Peep? Oh, well.


Just a side note, I also cannot believe that I finally fit into my skinniest pair of jeans today. It has been way too long.

BIG week

This past week has been pretty eventful for the Pulley house. The biggest and best news is...Tyler is potty trained. My cousin recommended the book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day." I was very skeptical. I've heard people say it takes weeks to train. It took about 10 hours for Tyler. We even went up to Salt Lake and back for a lunch on day three without any accidents. He wakes up dry from every nap and each morning. He choose to call Buzz Lightyear (aka Daddy) to tell him the good news, and picked out a Buzz toy as his reward. While on the phone with Buzz, Tyler exclaimed "I'm proud of myself!" I'm proud of him too.

Also big this week was Hannah finding her feet. It didn't take her long to want to put them in her mouth (like everything else she grabs). She has also been rolling from side to side and reaching for toys that are next to her. She had her 4 month appointment this morning. She is 14 lbs 7 oz (70%) and is 27 inches long (99.3%). She is a pretty calm baby and super smiley. I love my little loves! Although with Tyler being such a big boy now, I should say I love my big and little love.

The many faces of Tyler

Tyler has been very animated lately. It seems like every day he is able to come up with some new facial expression, comeback, or question as to why. I must have heard "but why?" at least a dozen times today. He knows he's not supposed to call names or say "mean" words, so he has been looking at me (after I've disciplined him) and angrily saying "you student!" Now I am trying to teach him what the word 'intonation' means. Never a dull moment around here. Within a given day, I will see any of the following.


When all is said and done, I sure love this big guy. He doesn't want me to say he's little!

Great Expectations

This Sunday morning started out like any other. Tyler and I watched Music and the Spoken Word or "the choir show" as Tyler calls it. I got all of us dressed and ready to go to church early. Hannah was even wearing her cutest dress that Kristin made for her.


Since the morning had gone relatively smooth, I was expecting church to be nice and relaxing. Wrong. Tyler was, well, let's just say "energetic" and yet really tired. Sacrament meeting was a challenge. I was sweating after wrangling Tyler by myself since Steve is on the stand with the bishopric.

We got home from church, and I set to making a delicious dinner. I was given a scrumptious recipe for homemade meatballs from my sister. Swedish meatballs and roasted red potatoes! A true IKEA meal.

I had everything ready to go and was organized. After forming 28 perfectly shaped meatballs and cooking them, disaster struck.

I had turned on the burner for the pasta water to boil and was transferring the cooked meatballs onto a paper towel-lined plate. Then, the plate exploded. Yes exploded. I let out a scream, then the paper towels caught on fire. Now you might think that I handled the situation with poise, but you'd be wrong. I sat there yelling "Steve what do I do?" while blowing on the fire. Steve casually turns off the burner and grabs a lid to cover the flames. Within about ten seconds the fire was out. Come to find out I turned on the wrong burner. I turned on the burner that the paper towel-lined plate was on. Smart.

In those ten short seconds the damage was done. I lost 7 precious meatballs, made all the smoke detectors in the house go off, made Hannah (who had a poopy diaper) cry and be scared beyond consolation, and lost a new plate (the set of which was given to me for Christmas).

In the end, I guess my expectations for today were met. We had a truly tasty meatball dinner and a fun Sunday evening with my Mom (who was kind enough to walk right in and change Hannah's diaper while I was cleaning up exploded plates and meatballs). And just for the record, for FHE tomorrow Steve says we will be doing fire drills and what to do in case of emergencies. I guess I could use a little practice.

It makes me think

Within the past three months, two of our extended families have lost children. I guess children are so close to me right now that I can't help but ponder over this. I cannot imagine losing a child. My heart just aches for these families right now. My mind keeps repeating all the times in the past day I've lost my temper with Tyler. Thinking of these families losing their children makes me want to truly love every moment with my little loves. They aren't going to stay little for much longer, and I want to love the good and even the frustrating moments.

Not to get too 'preachy' or anything, but I've really been pondering on the birth and sacrifice of our Savior. Seeing these families lose a child, I cannot help but reflect on our Heavenly Father sacrificing his Son. As a parent that is beyond my comprehension. During the Christmas season and with the passing of these two family members, my heart is just full of love and appreciation for the Christ child and my own two children.