The News on the Homefront

Welcome to this morning's news! Baby goo (aka "Ana") has the latest on our monkey house. She is reporting today from her rather colorful news desk located in the heart of monkey hollow.

So what's new, Ana?

Drooooooooooool . . . . . 

(Ahem, Ana?)

Uuuu, oh yeah. Yes, I'm sorry. Just collecting my thoughts.

Ok.

Let's start with the latest on Mommy.

So Mommy broke Daddy's car. I was sitting safely in my car seat watching the driveway go by, pondering the meaning of life and of babas, when all of a sudden Daddy started squeaking. Yes, squeaking I tell you! Mommy stopped the car and lo and behold Daddy's car mirror was broken. Mommy feared the worst, that perhaps she had broken his entire car. But alast, Papa brought the duck tape and it was as good as new.

Then we took the car to the automechanic's and they made it better than new.

Mommy got a new calling in Church. After just over a year of being the Primary music leader, she is now a Primary teacher. Now I have at least three little Primary girls doting on me every Sunday. I like to stare into their eyes and drooooooool. I also like to stand up on Mommy's lap and stare at whoever is teaching sharing time and drooooool.

Daddy also has a new calling but since it's not official yet, I'd better not share the details. Let's just say he's being upgraded from ward cashier to ward registrar.

Yeah, Mommy told me to say that. 

She thinks she's so clever.

Poor Daddy sure has life rough. He goes to work everyday and gets yelled at by clients and then comes home to get swarmed by needy girls.

For some reason, he's very much afraid of cottage cheese. Word on the street is that there is a lot of cottage cheese around here: on the floor, on people's clothes, on my chin, on my clothes. Don't ask me where it all comes from!

We successfully fit all three of our beautiful faces into one selfie without using a selfie stick.

Awww, now look how adorable that is!

Drooooooool.

And now for the latest on sister.

Sister is a stubborn one lately.

She's been persuaded, begged, and bribed to use the potty and still refuses to sit on it. She's perfectly capable of eliminating on the potty because she actually did it once. She also knows that every time she sits on the potty, she gets to watch fun YouTube videos and afterward receives an M&M. We don't really eat M&Ms at the monkey house so this is a very special treat. 

But at the end of the day, sister would rather go without an M&M than sit on the potty.

Oddly enough, she's become very good coordinating everyone else's bodily functions. She is quick to scream "cottage cheese!" or "baby farted!" Sister also has asked Daddy very seriously on several occasions if he needs to go poopie. 

Luckily this has not happened in public yet.

Now that the weather has finally warmed up a bit, sister likes to play out on the deck.

 Another favorite activity of hers is painting.

Sister's favorite thing to say is "Oooooh man! Okaaay" while she flops her head and drops both arms. She is very imaginative and goes on adventures with Minnie Mouse, Doc McStuffins, and Ana and Elsa. Oftentimes, she keeps me perfectly entertained while Mommy makes dinner.
Isn't that what older sisters are for?
Entertainment.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

As for myself, Mommy says I'm still a cute, shy little sweetie pie. But I'm actually not that little anymore because I am already so much bigger than sister was at my age. At 4 months, I am over 15 lbs and 25.5 inches long. Sister was always at the bottom of the growth charts but I'm in the 77th percentile.

Teething has made life rough lately, but I still do this on occasion--just not for long.

I'm finally old enough to enjoy walks in the stroller. 

And I always enjoy my baths. I usually just sit there and coo and grin at Mommy while she washes me down.
I also love diaper changes. As soon as the diaper is off, I'm wiggling across the floor on my back and can sometimes do a complete 360 degree turn on the floor before Mommy gets a fresh diaper back on me.

One afternoon, I started experimenting with my lips and found out I could smack them together and blow bubbles.

But then I became a little distracted by the other cute baby in Mommy's phone who was doing the exact same thing.

As I look into my plastic ball, I predict a future full of giggles and cuddles.  

And that's all we have on the monkey house today!

Back to you, Mommy.

My Mom

We talk ever week but she never seems to hear me.

We see each other every year or so but we don't really visit.

She asks me probing questions but I don't really answer.

She worries over horrible things in our past but I've moved on.

She's poor as can be and yet offers to send me money for the smallest things.

She sends me daily emails full of scripture references and quotes from General Conference.

If I don't call her on the same day every week, she becomes convinced that something horrible has happened to me.

Constance has seen her Obaasan a handful of times but doesn't really know her more than a voice on the phone.

She suffers from a sad mix of paranoia and depression and anxiety.

She's my mom.

She's hurt me.

She's hurt others.

She's hurt herself.

I love her.

(before my mission)

(from 2013)

 (from 2014)

It's Off!

On Tuesday, the doctor took Constance's cast off. 

We took one last picture with it on before we left for her appointment. 

When I talked to her about getting her cast off, Constance seemed a little puzzled about why the doctor would want to take it off and why she would want to have it off. I guess I'm the only one who was bothered by her inability to "wash" dishes, play with her buckets of water out on the deck, enter a bathtub without a plastic bag over one arm, or color with her right hand.

She was perfectly fine while they were sawing the cast off with a scary looking vacuum saw but immediately started crying once it was off.  

She just laid there and cried and cried until the radiologist came in to take her away to do some X-rays.

Once the X-rays were done, Constance got some Frozen stickers which helped improve her level of happiness.

 The doctor told us the bones were all healed and we didn't need to come back anymore. He did warn me, however, that it will be about 3 weeks until she is back to normal, and her discomfort will peak around day 4.

Constance and I were starving, so we went and celebrated the occasion at iTopit.

 Why use a spoon when you can use your fingers?

 Later, I filled the sink with water and bubbles and took Constance's plastic containers out so she could do what was formerly her favorite activity: pour water in and out of various vials. Sadly, she wasn't as fascinated as she used to be 4 weeks ago and decided to still not use her right arm for much of anything. It was probably a good thing not to overdo it.

Constance woke up from her afternoon nap telling me that she now wants a yellow cast.
I think that secretly she misses having a readily available weapon against Mommy and Daddy and Grandma's faces

Personally, I'd prefer that we don't have anymore broken bones anytime soon.