What have we been up to?

This post was started forever ago so I'm just going to finish it and then move onto the more recent past. I must be the worst blogger ever lately.

It has been forever since I have even looked at anyone's blog, much less had anything to write about. So I was trying to think of what we have done over the last month and all I can come up with is cleaning. It seems like a futile attempt to keep this house clean but I feel like cleaning is all I do from morning until night. And we aren't having any showings so it seems completely pointless. Maybe one day it will all be worth it if we can just get it sold. But we have already come to terms with possibility of renting it out if need be. (Update: House is under contract and we should close June 9th if all goes well. We only had about 6 showings so we feel very blessed that it sold relatively quickly)

I guess we have done a few other things in the last month but in my attempts to keep the house clean I seem to never have a camera when I need it. Work has finally slowed down significantly so we have had lots of togetherness. I'm still trying to decide if that is a good thing or not. Taylor and Ethan are still terribly amuzing and frustrating all at the same time.

So here is my Ethan update.... He continues to be much older than 4. He is obsessed with talking to people anywhere we go and it is pretty funny to see how people react to him. We were in a bike shop today and the salesperson comes over and asks me if I needed any help. I said we were just browsing and didn't need anything. Ethan follows him saying "excuse me, excuse me. Can you tell me how much this costs?" The guy looked completely confused and paused for a good 5 seconds before he answers Ethan that the bike costs $150. I love his willingness to ask questions without concern but it can be a little frustrating too. The other day I was at a fast food restaurant and he asked to order his lunch. He knew he was suppose to order a 4 piece chicken nugget and he looks at me with his mischievious look and then tells the lady he wants a 10 piece chicken nugget and we have a fun little battle as the clerk seems to be confused by which one of us she should listen too. Why she wouldn't just ring up the 4 pieces so we could move on I don't know.

I have recently been reminded that I need to watch what I say in front of him because it will be repeated... word for word. I was somewhat frustrated with someone (who will remain nameless) because of something said person had fed Ethan that had sugar in it. I was ranting to my mom and I said something like "why in the world would you feed him popcorn with sugar on it?" I was over it by the next time we saw this person but Ethan marches right up to the person (I was around the corner and could only hear the conversation) and says "why in the world would you feed me popcorn with sugar on it?" She politely responded "Well it said it had sucralose. I thought you could have that." To which Ethan replies, "No I can't have sucralose" with complete conviction. (No he doesn't know that he can't have sucralose but he's pretty good at just going with the conversation). So she replies "well I'm sorry. I will check with you next time." I guess that satisfied Ethan cause he finally let it drop. Later on when he was repeating some other comment I had made he looked over at me and says "You really need to watch what you say in front of me." Oh I love hearing myself coming out of that little mouth.

We attempted to watch conference last weekend even though it appeared that no one was getting anything out of it because of all the chaos. At one point in time Ethan was playing on the floor, paying no attention to what was going on, and Taylor was throwing a fit about wanting something. So I was a little short with her and Ethan looks up from his playing and says "Did you just hear the prophet say that you need to be kind to little children?" Ouch, how can you argue with that. Funny how that is the only thing he got out of conference and will often use it against me now.

We have decided that Ethan will most likely grow up to be a used car salesman. The other day we were playing pet shop and I was suppose to buy some of their stuff animals. I selected the ladybug and told him that I wanted to buy it. He says "well somebody else was just about to buy it but I'll sell it to you for $2." The beginning of his used car career.

I guess I should say that it he makes it to adulthood he will probably be a used car salesman. We have our doubts these days with the lack of fear that child has. We went to a pond in town the other weekend and we were walking over the stepping stones that go across the lake. The water is only about 2 or 3 inches deep where the stepping stones are on the spillway but on either side of the stones it gets much deeper. Ethan thought he was all big and bad and was jumping across the stones by himself and it was driving me crazy. I tried to convince him that it was a bad idea but I hate always being the voice of reason so I let him continue. He decided to walk along the cement divides of the spillway and somehow got the bright idea to jump from the divides to the stones which was a further distance. So when he jumped he lost his balance and tumbled right into the deep part of the pond head first. Oh it was so awful to watch it all in slow motion but be too far away to do anything. Abe grabbed him out of the water before he even took a breath of air but he was so upset. We took off his shirt and gave him my sweatshirt to keep him warm as we walked back to the car. (I thought I had made my point that maybe he should listen to mom next time she warns him about something. That lasted for a couple of hours but by dinner time he said "Boy that was pretty cool".) So we get back to the car and strip him down the rest of the way and just have him in my sweatshirt that went down to his knees. He was VERY concerned that someone in another car might see him and know that he didn't have any underwear on. He talked about it the whole way home and once we pulled in front of the house he realized that people on the street might see him and his lack of underwear. So I told him that I would just carry him in and he said "but then Will (the neighbor) will see my bottom". I was out of patience so I just told him to cover it with his hands. Then he said "but then Will will see my penis." So I again told him to just cover it with his hands. In total frustration he says "but my hands aren't big enough to cover it." I'm sure his concern was that I expected him to cover everything at once with his little hands but it sure made us laugh.

Taylor is getting bigger and more amusing each day also. She is such a girlie girl. She loves to wear a tutu and do "ballerina dances" for us. She has been known to put on 3 pairs of pants while she is suppose to be taking a nap and is constantly making request to wear dresses all the time. She isn't all sweetness. She can have it out with Ethan and she can be pretty violent when she wants to be. But even Ethan can't stay mad at her for long when her eyes fill up with alligator tears when she gets in timeout for putting him in a choke hold. I'm always impressed with Ethan for his ability to not strike back at her (even though he will get right in her face and growl at her when he gets really mad which only makes Taylor more likely to punch him). Taylor is all about compromises lately although she really doesn't understand the term. At dinner Ethan was trying to negotiate dessert or no bath or something he wanted and Abe joking said "Here's compromise, do what your told or get a spanking". Taylor quickly chimes in, with her hand in a fist, "how 'bout I spank you daddy? that be a compromise" with such a sassy tone.

Poor Taylor has so many cute things she says and does but they are usually quick, one liners or things that just don't come across being written. Hopefully she won't feel bad down the road when we don't have great records of all the adorable things she did when she was 2. She is so different than Ethan in some ways and I'm not sure if its boy vs. girl differences or just personality. She gets so frustrated with Ethan's constant chatter and noise, we both would like it a little quieter from time to time. Ethan's pictures have always been full of scribble and cover the whole page. Taylor does neat little pages full of small, delicate circles, usually the same size all over the page. She may be my little perfectionist.

I better finish this post before I head off for vacations. I promise more updates to come when I get back. After a trip to San Antonio and Easter I finally have things to blog about.