Joy in Moments

I have to admit that as parent I am struggling a little bit.  The 1.5-2.5 age span is not my favorite and Abby has just started a new stage of sass talk and out-right defiance. She's had a really good year of being simply awesome so I can't complain too much.  One of my favorite General Conference quotes regarding mothering is: There are moments of great joy and incredible fulfillment, but there are also moments of a sense of inadequacy, monotony, and frustration. It seems as though the good moments are pretty far-and-between this week. I know it will get better, but I am very, VERY much looking forward to the Jeremy-and-Denise only cruise we're leaving on next week. Sometimes you just need a few days (or 14 of them!) away from the ones you love to remember why you wanted an eternal family to begin with. 

I love this picture so much. Ollie is doing the two things he loves best: screaming and pointing. Ollie doesn't speak, but he is very opinionated. If I can't figure out his myriad of frantic screams and hissing fast enough he will LOSE it. And I mean LOSE it. There is no distracting this kid or redirecting his focus. He wants what he wants and he is going to ruin your hearing until he gets it. I am sure his first word will probably be one that puts in him in time out.

One of my biggest struggles is getting Ollie to eat. He has serious texture issues and won't eat ANYTHING that is not baby food. He eats five jars a day. I've been offering him real food for 1.5 years now but he wants nothing to do with it. He won't even put it in his mouth. He also won't eat finger food but is okay feeding himself yogurt. He'll also eat the German version of animal crackers. It's incredibly annoying to have to carry huge amounts of glass baby food jars all over town. And it's a serious time waster having to hand-feed him at every meal. Plus, baby food is DANG expensive over here and I'm too busy hand feeding my 2 year old to make my own. He went through a short phase where he ate puffs and one day he ate 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich but he's not taken a second look back. The doctor says just to keep feeding him baby food and offering him other choices. Here is an example of how that turned out:

On a good side, he is such a charmer and you can easily forgive his crazy antics and hilarious mean expressions. People just can't enough of him and are always asking to babysit him and play with him. Yup, I'm okay with that :)

Abby loves anything with a "twirly" skirt.

Here are Abby's school photos this year:

I'm too lazy to write anymore. The End.