Living with a Toddler

So here are some of Hadley's latest antics. Today, she was trying to put on Kate's pants all by herself. It was hilarious watching her grab her leg with her hand to try to get it into the pant hole. She would lift it so high and with her hand guide her leg into the hole. So cute! Yesterday, I found she had gotten into my nightstand drawer that I keep lotion in. Of course, I thought, "Oh dear, there is going to be lotion everywhere." When I found her, she was holding a bottle of lotion (fortunately it was pretty much empty), but she would put some on her finger, then eat it! I didn't know "Magnolia Blossom" tasted so good. I tried to show her how to put it on her hands and rub them together, she didn't care. Today when I found her doing it again, I took it away and threw it in the garbage. A few minutes later when I was sorting laundry and not keeping my eye on her, she took it out of the garbage and ate some more! (Luckily I had just thrown it away in the bathroom garbage and it was empty, so nothing gross got on it.) I finally had to throw it in the kitchen garbage which is much deeper so she can't retrieve it, or even see inside, and it can lock! She can be so funny!

She can also be rather infuriating. Like when I have the whole kitchen cleaned, I leave to go to another task, and when I come back five minutes later, she has pulled all of the bowls, cups, waterbottles, dishwashing detergent, towels, washclothes, tupperware, and lids out of the cupboards. Or one day, she got into a box of 100 sandwich bags and pulled all of them out of the box. Or she "helps" me sweep by eating from the piles I've swept up. I know it's gross, but she's too fast for me.

These have all just been in the last couple of weeks. Some of them (like getting all of the bowls and cups out) are daily occurences. Anyway, I know everyone with a toddler goes through this, and I've done it three times before, but it is really one of my least and most favorite stages.


In other news:

Anders and Fischer both got Superiors on their piano pieces at the Utah Music Teacher's Association Federation Festival which is where they play two pieces in front of three judges and get scores. Superior is the best they can get. I was so proud of both of them. Anders has gotten Superiors three years in a row now, so he gets a gold cup! He is very excited about it! I was kind of afraid Fischer wouldn't get a Superior because he is so laid back and non chalant about things, I thought he wouldn't care. In both cases they (which means I did a lot of nagging as well) worked very hard to get their pieces right. Even the judges made quite a few comments about how tricky the counting was on one of Anders' pieces, and we went through a lot of tears and fights about it for the last few months trying to get it right. Kudos to Monika for being such a great piano teacher too. I feel so lucky that my kids are able to take from her.

Sorry there haven't been any pictures lately, I just don't take very many pictures in February.