Anger Management

So, Karen's anger problems have gotten really bad, especially this morning. She's been really jealous of Rachel's glasses, no matter what I try to do to help. The last couple days she's just been really angry at everything. I know part of that's just being an almost-3-year-old, but it seems like more than that right now. Already in the last 2 hours she's hit Rachel at least 3 times, me once, and she was so angry she broke her crayons into little pieces. I don't really know what to do with her. Anyone have any suggestions for 3 year old anger management?

Easter and Glasses and Haircut

Happy Easter everyone! (Well, yesterday anyway). I hope y'all had a great day, as we did. Saturday we colored eggs, and Joe made it home to help us finish up. Karen loved it; we're going to have to up our egg count next year, 2 dozen wasn't enough for her. Rachel just wanted to eat the eggs and drink the 'juice'. It was nice to only have to be at church by 8:15, and Joe didn't even have meetings after church, so it was acutally a 'family' day.

The Easter bunny brought candy (a little less than last year, I'm trying to keep my sweet tooth under control) and some Little People in the baskets. They wore their new dresses that I made. Rachel picked the fabric and Karen picked the pattern, and they both loved the end product. Rachel would find them last week and start carrying them around with her 'showing off' walk. We had a somewhat-traditional dinner with ham, funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs. Doren and Steve also joined us and brought a yummy 'fish soup' that was really good. Rachel ate so much more candy than she was used to she got really 'hi' and then 'crashed', which was sad and funny at the same time. Karen ate more candy than Rachel, but thankfully tolerated it a bit better.

Today was supposed to be the first of several 'calmer' days this week. Ha! This morning the eye doctor called and said that Rachel's glasses were in. It was too late to go in the morning, so we had to go this afternoon. Thanks to Kitara for taking Karen this afternoon, because it was crazy. After dropping off Karen we drove and drove and drove (it is SO far down there). Rachel was getting more and more fussy, but there wasn't anything I could do at the moment so I tried to help her calm down. That effort totally failed and she instead gave back all of her lunch-in disgustingly recognizable pieces, we need to work on chewing our food better-all over her clothes and car seat!

If I was really a good mother I would have extra clothes for all my children packed away in the car for just such an eventuality, but alas I am not that mother. I used all my travel pack of wipes cleaning off her face, hands, and carseat enough that it would be 'okay' to take her home, and had to go into the doctor's office wearing only a diaper and socks. Needless to say, I received more glares in that 25 minutes of my life than practically any other time. How could I take my child out in public in only his (everyone assumed she was a boy) diaper? Well, we got the glasses and got out of there as fast as we possibly could. This was by far our shortest eye doctor trip on record. We left our apartment at 2:45, and even stopping at Kitara's to drop off and pick up Karen, we were still home by 5:30. Now all we have to do is keep Rachel from destroying her eye patches and glasses, and keep Karen from being insanely jealous and left out since she's the only one in the family without glasses. (I'm considering taking the lenses out of her sunglasses so she can wear them all the time, but haven't decided yet.)

Last item for the evening: Karen's first haircut. She had been bugging me for a couple of weeks to get her hair cut because her friend Hailey had recently gotten her's done. It was looking pretty gross at the ends, so I agreed. I bought a $10 pair of hair cutting scissors on Saturday morning, and that was it. I think it turned out okay for my first time ever, not perfect but not horrible either. It actually makes her hair look more full than it did before, and she likes it so I guess we're good on that count.

Well, that's it for us right now. If this post doesn't seem as upbeat as I'd like it to, I apologize. We really did have a great Easter this year, and we are glad that Rachel has her glasses. It's just that tonight at the end of it all I'm really tired, but I wanted to put this up now before I make more excuses not to do it and get farther behind... so here are the pics!

More Pictures!

In addition to these fun photos, I just put up a ton on Facebook. Also, a video from our ward party got put on You-Tube so, and Joe did a great job in it. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ttj5JuQho0