Changes

He chose those pants.

I can't take credit for these--Theo took the above two pictures

And this is what happened when I took the camera away from him.

A drastic move is a time for rebirth. A time to tweak your personality a little bit. It's a time to try and present your new and improved self to the world, albeit in a small town. For Jon and me, these are conscious things we choose, like-
-get up at 6:30 am and exercise (the new treadmill is a life saver)
-read scriptures as a family and individually
-practice complicated braiding hairstyles (me)
-grow hair into a ponytail (jon)
-start making new recipes, almost everything from scratch
-find out the delights of Reese's Puffs, the most glorious and delicious late night cereal invented. (not breakfast, I don't know how you eat that stuff for breakfast.)

I'm liking the new us (we'll see how the ponytail turns out).  My dinners aren't always amazing, (baked falafel, yech) sometimes we sleep in, but I think we will stick with it. And the Malorie that loves to be in control of her little micro world enjoys being perched on a remote mesa with 15 other homes spread along four miles of desert. I might leave the house once a week and not even care.

Margot and Theodore are changing too--but their changes are mostly natural and unconsciously done. Theo has finally hit that stage where he says awesomely hilarious things. I think I have waited all my life for this moment, when knives are "narfs" and coins are "corns" and daddy goes to work to "play the piano." Now he says "brush teeth" which is less exciting. Last week Jon wrote the pilot of his upcoming sitcom by simultaneously cutting his thumb with a knife (narf) and starting an oven fire while I was feeding the baby.  After a few stressful seconds of clumsily blasting the oven with the extinguisher and dealing with the smoke and getting a band aid for the lacerated thumb, Theo was given a memory for life. He still won't stop talking about "fire," "fire trucks," "fire fighters," and "scary." Two of those things never showed up, don't worry. He also watched this super creepy episode of Gumby earlier that freaked him out but he wouldn't let us turn it off.

With all the cute moments of toddler life comes...those other ones. I haven't seen all twelve movie versions of The Hulk, but this little adorable child will suddenly turn into a screaming monster with incredible human strength when angered. And unlike the Hulk, his pants don't magically stay on when this happens. I'm left with an eyes bulging, hair pulling, million decibel-emitting, naked boy who just got a marker taken away. He's also been wandering out of bed for hours at night and denying me of nap time. Since this is the last time I can do so, I'm going to blame it (and all other ills that may befall him, me, or the world) on teething.

Margot, Margot. Sorry Theo, but this girl is easy peasy right now. She's doing wonderful things that mostly I care about, like giggling, grabbing toys, and keeping her head stable. I plop her down in her crib when she's tired and that's that. I know this will likely change sometime soon, so I am going to recognize and acknowledge this wonderful time in our lives. She is a darling beautiful baby child. She hates being held by anyone but me or her dad, and I kind of like that. Theo loves her, and I love our family--and luckily that will never change.