Incident free for 5 days

The bean.

Much like any toddler, Theo is gradually becoming aware of boundaries and danger. Very gradually. He regularly walks into corners, tables, and walls. He has bruises all over his legs, hits his head when he's mad, bites his fingers when frustrated. I like to pinch myself really hard when I'm in pain, so I guess he takes after his mother. A week ago he jumped into a laundry basket, shearing the skin off the back of two of his toes (those holes are razor sharp!). It looked as gross as that sentence just sounded. Give me my mom badge, because Jon could not even look at it. I was a bit confused, seeing as he (as a doctor, technically) had just talked to me about his love of slicing open pus-filled gums...but "This wasn't teeth!" he exclaimed. Ok. So I took my political science degree, assessed the damage, and bandaged his toes up. (Tip: If you have a toddler, have non-sticking bandages and pads on hand, you'll use them one day.) He spent the rest of the night walking gingerly on his heel. It was the most heart-breaking thing I've ever seen.

A few days later, we had just returned from town after library story time. Theo and I shared a bagel and a cookie afterwards--it was a magical morning. After we got home, he was looking forward to his new Clifford book, I was looking forward to his nap. I was changing his diaper when he grabbed a dried pinto bean on his bed from his sensory bin.  Then he said, "Where'd the bean go?" It had, indeed, disappeared. After a few seconds of searching, I spotted it in his nose, and decided to mildly panic. After a few minutes with some tweezers and the flashlight on my phone, it was still in there. Every time I asked him to breathe out, he sniffed--so don't ever do that if you find yourself in a similar situation. I called Jon, more panicked, and called our doctor and headed to the office. Midway through googling "bean in nose," I headed back to town. There the doctor offered up an option where she would plug the side of the nose without the bean while I gave a strong CPR-style breath in his mouth. Next thing I knew, the bean shot out and hit the wall, and Theo had a slightly dazed look on his face. Crisis averted! For now...

Mustache-o-ween

This Halloween was the first holiday in my attempt to decorate for all holidays. Made some bats, a few fell down, as you can see.

I have to say, it felt wonderful to let him eat a bunch of candy, cupcakes, get a glowstick and run around a patch of grass with other kids. He was having the time of his life.

(Here's more phone photos--as I went to take pictures with my camera that night the battery was dead of course.)

The past four Hall Halloweens have had a common overarching theme--facial hair. Theo's never had a costume without some, and I didn't think this was the year to stop. I saw a strongman costume on the blog Oh Happy Day, lest you think I am creative and thought of this idea myself. I was stumped for ideas, saw the strongman and that it fit the ever so important theme, and decided it was the one. Plus we had a large cardboard tube at the ready. Theo really got into it, and we loved buying a plastic pumpkin and practicing "trick or treat!" I wanted Margot's costume to be related, so she went as the bearded lady (actually my idea). The beard was leftover from Theo's gnome costume and colored with washable marker (which wasn't a good idea, it rubs off.) The yarn wig was leftover from our Hulk Hogan costumes of 2009, so Margot was a hodge-podge of several great Halloweens in one. I think all her future costumes will have yarn wigs, because they look so ridiculous.

Our branch had a trunk or treat and a total of 6 cars showed up, so I had a lot of Reese's Lover's Mix to eat for a few weeks afterwards (I could eat my weight in Reese's Pieces. Truly.). Theo never asked about his candy again. I don't know why kids do that, but it's amazing.

Fall on the mesa

Just another Sunday at the Truth or Consequences LDS branch, blue dogs and all.

I am becoming more adept at toddler crafts.

Theo experiments in cross dressing, decides it's not for him.

The fair smelled like poop. There, I said it.

At Sparky's in Hatch, our go-to when we are on the road to the big city, Las Cruces. (or Cruces, as the locals call it)

Pumpkin patch in Cruces, the highlight of October for all of us.

Right before the cavity, don't worry, I wasn't smiling for long. And do worry, cause yes I am cutting my own bangs.

The first day I got to wear a sweater. I was so happy.

I have been very busy for the past few weeks knitting on a deadline. I like knitting, you can do it anywhere--in the car, sitting in the playroom, watching tv. Turns out one thing you can't do while knitting is blogging. Which is too bad, cause believe it or not, things are happening in this family! We are starting to hit more of a stride here in New Mexico. It still has its hard days where I'm feeling lonely and nostalgic for, well, a lot. I must admit some of the time I feel like a bit of a square peg fitting into a round hole. I may never be a mom acquainted with 4-H, but I am on the lookout for a killer bolo tie. We have met some really interesting people, and have probably scared some people.  Jon and I were talking with a member of the branch, telling him we came from Portland. His first (serious) question was, "Do they have good chile there?" After cooking with the chiles here a while, I understand the seriousness. I may love living somewhere with a good pizza place, but the people here would relocate for the chiles. My white bean chile has hit a new level of awesome.

Jon has been busy too--he is loving his job. He's spoken Spanish maybe once? but he interacts with most of the town on a daily basis. I even got into the office for a check up. While I was pregnant with Margot, flossing became painful and I stopped, which resulted in my first ever cavity. I guess I thought I was immune at this point, but I'm never dropping the floss again. The enthusiasm Jon had for filling this cavity was bordering on inappropriate. He only regrets that it was a perfect filling for the board exam, but I was pregnant then anyway. I have to say, his work was great except the shot huuuuurrrt. Like I went into shutdown mode like I'm having a labor contraction and start rocking side to side. But Dr. Hall does good work, I recommend him.

This past month we also got to attend the Sierra County Fair, which is a real live fair. No rides, no corn dogs, no carnies. Just blue ribbon pigs, jars of jam and quilts. And the like. I entered two things I had made, and it turns out 99% of categories go uncontested, so I won me some fair ribbons! I lost in the hand quilting division to some lady who made this thing that looked like a placemat in a bat shape. Can't win them all, I guess.

Our house has been nice, the view is beyond description--I am just still figuring out how to keep something clean that is not 700 square feet and three rooms. I mean, we jumped from one to three toilets! And I have a dining room table. It's way more work, and Theo doesn't help much. But these desert vistas, they are amazing!  Aside from the occasional missile/bomb testing, it's very peaceful out here. (Don't forget, this is New Mexico. Land of a million uses by the government.) Families of raccoons peep in through our back door and families of deer almost run into our car, but it's finally cool enough that I feel like the rattlesnakes are gone for a while. I have waited long for this day.

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.

So, we moved. (aka most massive post of all time)

Last time berry picking

Early birthday dinner for Jon at Le Pigeon

Right before we drove away. Puffy eyes!

Margot and Arlo meet! Technically half-siblings.

With Mesa cousins Paige and Hollyn

We did so much driving. Thank goodness for iPads.

Theo ate a lot of ice cream.

Margot got her first mini sunburn in Newport.

I proudly boogie boarded in water that was very cold. With a random 8-year-old kid.

A haircut happened.

Truth or Consequences--our backyard.

Margot somehow aged dramatically over the month (here at 11 weeks)

Our front yard.

Labor day in Mesa--fearless swimmer.

Tarantula. Like it really needed a caption.

New home.

We have officially lived in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico for over a month. Moving away from Portland was probably one of the hardest things I have done (and I have delivered two babies without pain meds) and I would gladly deliver about 10 more babies before going through moving again. Moving is stressful. However, like childbirth, there is a gene that makes you forget about the pain of moving and you will inevitably do it again.

But let's start at the beginning. Luckily Jon's employer had a moving compensation package, so we were able to hire movers to pack our stuff, load it and unload it. While this did relieve a lot of stress of the move, we had our first unexpected moving moment. We were told it would take two days to pack and then load us, but on arrival the movers let us know that they would be done packing and loading everything early that afternoon. That left us with no where to sleep, so we were able to stay the night with our friends D and V, which was probably the best thing to happen to us in the end, as we were able to spend one last night talking and laughing until late in the night. The next day had some difficult goodbyes I don't like to think about, and then we were off to Boise. So many tears. In Boise Margot and my sister's new baby Arlo had a big debut party, and we got to spend time with family and cousins before we were off again to Mesa, Arizona. We took two days for the drive and got to stop by BYU for a quick kid's meal at the creamery. (Too short! I love BYU.)

After we made it to Arizona, I took a flight with Margot to Newport Beach, California to meet up with some dear friends for a quick beach trip. I never thought I would enjoy a trip without Jon and Theo so much--but I did. It was a really great catch up time and breather for me. (And a good time to forget I was moving.) Back in Arizona, the real trouble with our move started. We were supposed to hear about the arrival date (between August 1-9) and was not getting any word. Our move coordinator stalled on the phone and never got back to us. Things were getting dicey, especially when August 9th hit. Jon was starting his job on the 13th so we started to panic. However, we had been in Mesa for over two weeks, and in the mean time Theo was getting private swimming lessons every day with his grandma (and becoming a pro! for a two year old) and playing with his cousins. He was having the time of his life. I was starting to really get sick of living with one week's worth of clothes in a suitcase. Long story short, our move coordinator was fired, our stuff had never left Oregon, and they had to hire a third party to drive it to New Mexico right away with an arrival date of August 13th. Super.

Our move did not feel real until we drove up to the town we would call home--Truth or Consequences. Then we drove twenty minutes outside of town to our house perched on a mesa overlooking the lake. Anxiety started setting in, and the millions of dead moths and bugs all over the house did not help. I also neglected to think about the rattlesnakes that lived in the area. (The thought of a two year old living among rattlesnakes gave me frequent anxiety attacks for the first couple of weeks.) Finally our stuff arrived--9 hours later then they said it would--and there we were. The first week was amazingly difficult--I was very emotionally unprepared for the shock of the move while taking care of two kids. Theo survived by watching one episode of Curious George on the iPad over and over and over again. For a week. (He also started climbing out of his crib two days after moving in, to make things more difficult). Then my mom came, got us unpacked, and saved our lives.

After a month of settling in, eating good tacos, meeting nice people in the branch, and enjoying our beautiful view, I am feeling better. It is still a bit jolting, but the adventure side has come out. Our neighbor with a pool has been kind and generous to us, and I see our internet guy in the checkout line at Wal-Mart. Life in a small town is so amazingly different. I have to say Truth or Consequences is a pretty quirky place, filled with tie dye, thrift shops, weird galleries, hippies and a lot of green chiles. We have quickly loved the green chiles. I like its distinct characteristics, and I think living here will be pretty adventurous and yield some good stories. I have also learned that I can feel at home anywhere just being in a house with Jon, Theo and Margot, enjoying each other and following our routine. And that's all I really need.

But really, a Target would be wonderful.

And my friends.  

And a Whole Foods....

Did you read this whole thing? Good for you.

2!

About two months ago, Theodore turned two. Unfortunately his birthday got a little squished by things like new little sisters, graduation, and moving across the country. We celebrated by going to Jamison Park downtown and most importantly, getting french fries for dinner. Theo has become such an active, engaging, adorable toddler. (and maybe a bit unadorable at times, as he is a toddler after all--we love him all the same.)

Things he loves right now are Thomas the Train, Shaun the Sheep, car keys, sitting in the driver's seat of any car (obsessed with this one), ice cream cones, french fries, smoothies, snuggles, climbing on anything, pointing at Margot's eyes, and repeating anything he hears. He has been such a loving big brother who loves to point out too loudly that "Margot's shleepin!" The prayers he says at night slay me with cuteness. It's hard not to give him anything he asks for, his little voice is so cute. Love you Theo, hope your second year is just as great as the first!