Happy Easter!

(okay, I'm a little late--it's been a busy week!)

Easter weekend was fantastic, starting with an early morning egg hunt at the church. Mabes cleverly discovered that not all of the eggs had candy in it, so she'd pick up an egg, shake it, and if there was no rattling, she'd drop it and move on to the next. All about efficiency.

We then colored Easter eggs. As evidenced in the picture, Mabes approached this with typical ennui.
Saturday night, we went to Chili's (Grandma Jackie sent some money for Mabes to take us to dinner), where Mabes devoured a plate of macaroni & cheese. That night, she told us it was her best Easter day.

On Easter Sunday, Mabes got all dressed up in her new dress and was thrilled that she got more candy at church. We had dinner with friends, and by Sunday night Mabes was all wound up, but we had a lot of fun.

And I uploaded some other pictures to post before I left, but somehow I deleted them so I'll have to have Dave email them to me. Mabes and I are in Colorado now and having a blast--pictures and a Captain's Log coming soon...

Babysitting Mr. Chicken

Sunday was General Conference, which meant our tradition of homemade cinnamon rolls and watching church in pajamas. My mom's cinnamon roll recipe is fantastic but makes way more than we can eat (wimps!), so we decided to share with some neighbors and our friend Angela. When we took the rolls to her house, she let Mabes ransack her room, and Mabes discovered Mr. Chicken. As we were about to leave, Angela asked Mabes if she wanted to take Mr. Chicken home, take care of him, and show him a good time until Monday night, when Angela comes over to watch 24. (Kind of like our own 24, but instead of nonstop edge-of-your-seat terrorist-killing Jack Bauer action, it's just Mabes and a giant stuffed chicken hanging out. So really, nothing like 24.) Mabes promised she'd take good care of Mr. Chicken, and would report the next day.

We brought Mr. Chicken home, and of course, Mabes decided he wanted to play dress ups. I asked if perhaps Mr. Chicken was actually a girl, and Mabes said "no, even boys like to be pretty."

She checks his crown and compliments him on his dress, and then they play trains.

And then they dance.

Bedtime! By this time, Mr. Chicken and Rocket had become acquainted and were getting along swimmingly.

The next morning, Mabes informed me that Mr. Chicken was, in fact, a girl. It must have come up in their late night heart-to-heart. We had some errands to run, so Miss Chicken came along for the ride.

Mabes decided that Miss Chicken wanted to go for a walk. Sadly, she didn't fit well in the stroller and it didn't come with a lap extension belt. I improvised.

Mabes stopped to pick up a "magic leaf" to show Miss Chicken. Again, I don't know how she decides which things on the ground are magic, but at least this magic item didn't end up in her nose.

And then Mabes decided Miss Chicken would prefer a faster pace. I can only imagine what passers-by must have thought of seeing a three-year-old trying to maneuver a giant stuffed chicken in a stroller.

And since it was a nice day (right before the stupid-freezing-weather-in-April blew in), Mabes and Miss Chicken enjoyed a picnic lunch on the balcony.

They played the rest of the afternoon, and we had chicken for dinner. Mabes didn't seem to notice, but Miss Chicken seemed a little concerned. When Angela came, she told Mabes that since Miss Chicken was having so much fun with her, she could keep her a little longer. So now, when people at the grocery store ask Mabes her name or how old she is, Mabes launches into stories about Miss Chicken. It's a nice change of pace from the Rocket stories.

Oh, and my mom has a blog now, proving that she is the cutest moomy ever. Yay, moom! I'm thinking it will be nice to have 3 blogs to document the madness that will be next week at Sarah's. Mabes and I were talking about how crazy fun it was going to be, and Dave just shook his head and muttered, "poor Joel." Good times!

Bowling with Mabes

It's been too long since I've updated, and that's due in part to the sheet of pollen on my car each morning and the havoc it is wreaking in my sinuses. But yay that the trees aren't bare any more! Plus, I just haven't had anything to say. I think I may have to take Laura's advice and just post a random picture of Mabes when I don't feel like blogging--just giving the heads up now.

Anyway, a couple of rainy Saturdays ago, we took Mabes mini-bowling. She loved it. A summary in pictures:

First, Mabes gets her ball. She hugs it. She tells it he's her best friend.


Then the wind-up, as she prepares to hurl her best friend towards a bunch of pins.


She turns around for a chat, ignoring the ball and it's progress.


"Oh, yeah! I forgot about the ball--look, it knocked down some pins!"


"Yay for Mabes!" She jumps and does a victory dance.


Then she hugs. She loves hugs. I'm pretty sure she hugged after each bowl.

Repeat, over and over. Watch out, PBA.

We're such a questing team...

...None of us are slow pokes, and we tell the best jokes...

We went to visit Dave's mom last weekend, which means 8 hours in the car and lots of kids' music. I generally dislike kids' music, but the exception is, of course, Backyardigans. I'm not ashamed to admit it--I love the Backyardigans. Each episode has a certain style of music (zydeco one day, western swing the next, tarantella the next) with funny lyrics. So while I'd be very embarrased if I were, say, rockin' out to Wonderpets (add that to my list of things that annoy me), I'm not going to hide the Backyardigans file on my iPod--but it's for Mabes, of course.

...Because you can't go fast if you go too slow...

So we spent a good chunk of the car trip listening to music and playing the alphabet game, which only reiterates something I've known for a while: we're huge nerds. And I'm okay with that. But now I've had Backyardigans stuck in my head all day, and I'm thinking it's a bad thing when you don't realize that you're singing "Go, Go, Go!" at Costco until your 3-year-old asks "Mommy, will you please stop that?"

Woops.

But we had a great weekend; Mabes was excited to spend time with Grandma Jackie and is still talking about the chocolate chip cake Grandma let her eat. We went to church with Grandma, and Mabes was perfectly happy to go to a new primary. As we were heading home, we asked Mabes how she liked primary. "It was good--dey sang da 'hewwo' song to me!"

"Oh, that sounds like fun! Your first time as a visitor--did you like it?" I asked.

"Yes! And den dey sang to me again for da BIRFDAY SONG!" she yelled, arms spread out for effect.

"What? Oh, you mean they sang it to the other kids whose birthdays are this month?" I asked hopefully.

"No, dey sang it to me! Dey towd us 'If your birfday is coming up, come up front and we sing to you.' And MY birfday is coming up, so I went up and dey sang to me!"

Her birthday is coming up...in 5 months.

Birthday shout-out

It's birthday season amongst the Ostlers, which means there will be dozens of birthdays in the next three months. Mabes was very excited to call Dono last Friday and wish him a happy birthday, and has been asking multiple times a day whose birthday will be next. This morning, she asked me whose birthday was today. I told her we didn't have a family birthday today, but it was the birthday of my good friend Catherine. Her eyes got big and she said "I know! We need to go to Trader Joe's and get flowers and we will take dem to her and SING to Caffrin and she will be soooo happy!" When I explained that it wasn't that easy and that she lived in California ("hey! she lives in Canyifornia with Gramma and Grampa!") she first wanted to hop on a plane and visit everyone, but then settled for singing for the camera. ("and den you post it on your blog, mommy.")

The dress she's wearing is one that Catherine sent last year. It's a size 6, though, and last year Mabes' toddler potbelly made it impossible to button up the dress. I'm so excited that it fits this year, but the picture just doesn't do it justice.

I've known Catherine for about 24 years now. She is one of the sweetest and funniest people I know--just a great person to be around. She's the one to call if you need to do a fractals project for geometry, want a diamond studded bra, need a last minute SAT study session (thanks to her, I will forever associate the word "harbinger" with Harbin, China--random association, but it's an SAT word I still remember!) or just want someone to eat chocolate and laugh with. She flew across the country to wait outside the temple when I got married, a gesture that still means so much to me. When she found out that Laura was moving to New York, not only did she help her find a job (and an awesome one at that!), she took her to dinner and told Laura to call anytime, in case she needed a big sister in a new city. Catherine is incredibly supportive, giving, and just hilarious--if you don't know her, you're totally missing out. Happy birthday, Catherine!

I tell her to smile and look like a princess and this is what I get.

Random things

In the last 10 days, the weather has gone from freezing and snowy

Snowball fight--notice the trajectory of Mabes' snowball

to unseasonably warm:

Mabes, chillin' under the fan after a walk

and now back to cold and rainy. I knew the warm weather couldn't last, so I was determined to make the most of it. We pulled out the spring clothes, had the windows open, went for walks, played at the park, and enjoyed summer meals (yay taco salad!). And while I love variety, this is getting a little ridiculous--it's 40 degrees colder today than it was just 2 or 3 days ago. Oh, come on! (said in my best Gob voice) My body has responded to this weather nonsense with a lovely cold/sore throat combination.

And since I have nothing to blog about, a few random things:


Mabes got this in the mail this week from Laura. I put it up on the fridge and every time I see it, it makes me laugh. This is why I love my family. Laura has already planned out her visit, and it sounds silly, but she pretty much outlined the perfect weekend. You know you want to join in on the strawberry pickin' cookie makin' hugfest.

Last night was the first night in a few nights that I didn't have to leave right after dinner. As I was cleaning up, Mabes asked, "Mommy, do you have meet-ning tonight?" I told her nope, I get to stay here with you. She looked skeptical, thought a minute, and said, "Mommy, I fink you have a meet-ning. Do you have to go to a meet-ning?" No, Mabes, I really don't have a meeting. "Then why are you wearing your pants?" Doh--how well she knows me. Once the ice was broken, Dave was able to ask, without sounding accusatory, why I was wearing jeans with nowhere to go. Because of the recent warm weather, I'd put my warmer comfy pants in the wash so only my cropped comfy pants were available. It was cold yesterday, so I had a choice between being comfy and cold or wear jeans and be warm. I chose the latter, and then did laundry.

And despite all her craziness, Mabes can briefly settle down and be really sweet and loving. She'll stop, put one arm around my neck, tilt her head to the side, do a slow, deliberate blink indicating her sincerity, and say very earnestly, "Mommy, I really love you." It makes the crazy worthwhile. Or at least bearable. So yesterday, when she got that look on her face, put her arm around me, "Mommy, I really--" my heart started to melt "--love Lumpy." What? I told her I thought she was going to say she loved mommy. "Well, yeah, but I reeeeeeeeeally love Lumpy." Thanks, Mabes.

Lumpy and Lumpy Junior. Kinda creepy, huh?

And since I can't end on that note, here's a picture of Mabes in one of her new dresses. Neither of my Costcos had the dress I wanted in her size, so I called my mom and had her look at her Costco. Hers didn't have it, either, but it had two other, cuter ones that mine didn't carry at all. She couldn't decide so she sent them both. Yaaaaaay, Grandma!

Imaginary friend?

I'll admit it: I was secretly looking forward to the imaginary friend stage. My mom's stories about Sarah and her friends Jack and Peehee are hilarious, so I was just waiting to see what sort of crazy army of friends Mabes would dream up. Sadly, it hasn't happened. So I'm thinking the closest thing to an imaginary friend Mabes will have is a personified stuffed rocket.

Mabes, Rocket, and her dolls in her laundry basket boat.

Last week, she was carrying Rocket around by the antenna. I told her she needed to stop or it would break off, and she, shockingly, didn't listen. So I told her that Rocket doesn't like it when she picks him up by the antenna. It hurt him and was like pulling his hair. She stuck out her lower lip, hung her head in shame, and went to her room. When she came out, she went to Rocket, hugged him, and whispered what I can only guess is some sort of apology. She hasn't carried him by the antenna since.

This one's for Becca

Other things about Rocket that I've learned recently, courtesy of Mabes: He's her best friend, he's her brother (funny, I don't remember giving birth to a rocket), they have the same birthday, he's also 3, he likes broccoli, hates avocado, loves snow, daffodils, and dancing; he dislikes dragons and big jet, and laughs at all her jokes. And he likes to cuddle and wishes he could join in family hugs.

And I knew it would happen: she is now a better artist than I am (damning with faint praise?). She wanted to draw Rocket a picture, so this is what she came up with:


If you or your child is into Little Einsteins, I'm sure you can guess what it's supposed to be. It was her attention to detail that impressed me: note June's headband and earrings, Annie's blue dress with green sleeves, and Rocket's intact antenna.


Oh, and a confession: Mabes came out of her room and caught me tossing an M&M speck-tacular egg (hurrah! I finally found them!) in my mouth. She suspected immediately. Eyebrows raised, sneaky smile, "Mommy...what are you eating?"

"Uhhhhh...avocado! Do you want some?"

She sighed, disappointed. "Nooooo fank you. I don't like avocado," and walked back to her room.