MamaBlogga

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Our next treat is a local one for Utahns. The Heber Valley Railroad runs a special Christmas ride in December called the North Pole Express—and you can ride for $5 off each ticket (and kids under 3 are free. If you want to skip hearing about our trip, here’s how to get the discount)!

We got to ride the train last night (for free, thank you, HVRR) and we had a great time!

Hayden’s excited

And Rebecca’s willingly smiling!

The interior of the train was decorated for Christmas with garlands, lights and ornaments. It was still a little light when we left, but we still got to enjoy some Christmas lights on houses on the trip.

And the HVRR worked hard to make the trip fun! In addition to Christmas jokes and songs, they provided jingle bells, which I didn’t find nearly as annoying as I thought I would. Then they brought around cookies and (VERY) hot cocoa. I was sharing a seat with Rebecca, and she managed to drop her cookie, her bell, my bell and her cocoa (and that one got in my lap, too ).

We also had some special visitors: Mrs. Claus came in on the way there, and the conductor came in on the way back. But most importantly, when we reached our destination, we picked up some bearded homeless man Santa Claus! (Who did not at all look homeless, I’m just being a goof.)

Hayden meeting Santa. At my suggestion, he asked for a bike

Rebecca meeting Santa. He’s giving her a wooden top.

The ride is almost 45 minutes each way, plus some time to move the engine from one end of the train to the other. (And you don’t get out while they’re doing this; you’re in the train the whole time.)

I was surprised at 1.) how fun this really was, and 2.) how well it went for my kids (I thought they’d get bored or scared of the train or Santa). I think Rebecca’s favorite part was getting her “sea legs” by walking between our seats.

Sitting right behind us was a person that looked really familiar—in fact, she looked like someone I tweeted with a lot when we were working on NaNoWriMo. So I just asked her—and it was Debbie of Cranberry Fries (She has lots more pictures of the train here, too.)

If you want to go
Get a discount! For $5 off coach tickets on December 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16, call the train directly at 435-654-5601 and ask for the “Utah Blogger” discount. Be prepared to tell the train of the name the blog that referred you—it’s MamaBlogga .

And if you want more information about the train, the North Pole Express site is here.

(And by popular, I mean three out of three of my sisters demand more pictures of) My children:

Hayden was beating something imaginary and wanted me to take a picture.

I set up my old computer and Hayden was SOOO happy. (Then the power supply started having a problem due to Hayden’s obsession with using as many extension cords/”wight fings” (power strips) as possible, so it’s currently not hooked up.)

Still lovin Pinky

Trying on Rachel’s clothes

She really wanted to check out this book from the library. It was a few days before I figured out why she called it “Wobby hoot”:

Peek!

Making her preferences known. (She was fascinated with his shirt and kept pawing it.)

Tummy time!

I think (and I know many of you agree, based on your comments) that motherhood is difficult because it’s worth it. The more hard-won the victory, the more we appreciate it.

Of course, the “victory” doesn’t feel complete while you’re still in the trenches—and even after your children are productive adults, I doubt you sit around (on your laurels) thinking about that.

But there are the little moments along the way that reminds us that it’s worth it now, too:

Okay, three reasons:

What little moments make you feel like it’s worth it?

Rebecca was playing with one of our old cell phones and held it to her ear. “Hey-o?”

I used my “finger phone.” “Hi, Rebecca. How are you?”

“Gud.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nuffing. Watcha TV. Fee Ferm.” [Phineas & Ferb]

Rebecca really looked forward to her birthday this year (probably mostly because Hayden thought it was exciting). I kept having to tell her that it wasn’t her birthday yet. Finally, she got the message—whenever the subject came up, she’d say, “Becca birt-day! Nek week. Mon-ay.” [Next week. Monday.]

After her birthday, we (again, mostly Hayden) taught Rebecca her age. “How old are you?” we’d ask.

“Two!” she’d proclaim for the first week, and hold up her fingers:

After the first week, the answer changed. “How old are you?” we ask.

She’s still just as proud to proclaim her new answer: “Becca!”

Sometimes, Rebecca has rough naps. It takes her over an hour to fall asleep (though she seldom cries, so that’s good). One day, she’d been in bed for 90 minutes and started bawling. I came in to get her.

“Becca ‘wake,” she told me piteously.

“I can hear that.”

“Becca ky.” [cry]

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Uh huh.” She holds up her fingers the same as above. “One minnut.” (She also likes to tell me “one minnut” when she wants me to wait for her.)

Last week, Rebecca got sent to her room for the first time. She and Hayden had been fighting, so they both got sent to their room. Rebecca submitted peacefully, allowing me to lead her to her room, and sitting quietly in the arm chair there. She insisted I close the door. (This was probably because Hayden threw his usual screaming fit at the mere mention of being sent to his room, and as always, I had to physically drag him there. Maturity FTW.)

After Rebecca’s two minutes were up, I opened the door and invited her to come out. (Hayden was still screaming at this point, laying over the threshold to his room.) Rebecca preferred to stay in her room. Can’t say I blame her.

Later that day, something happened to upset her while she was in another room. “I go my woom!” she announced to her father amid her tears.

I found her there, laying on the arm chair, crying, a few minutes later. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I sad.” [Biggest frown in the world]

“Can I hold you to help you feel better?”

“No. Me’cine [medicine] help me feel better.”

Edited to add: whenever she thinks I’m upset, she uses her cutest, most innocent tone: “Sumping wong, Mommy? Needa Pinky?”

What are your favorite kid moments recently? Or what are your favorite toddler moments?

Saturday night I was putting Rebecca in the tub when she announced, “Poopy commy!” [coming]. We still have out little training potty in the bathroom, so I set her on that, confident that poopy was not commy, and went to tell Ryan.

A minute or two later, I could hear Rebecca crying. I headed for the bathroom and met her running down the hall. We went to check the potty.

Rebecca had peed in the potty! (I think it must have scared her and she thought she wasn’t supposed to pee there.)

(Story of the picture: Rebecca picked up a clean onesie on the couch. “Wait-dow [Rachel] jammas!” Next thing I knew, she’d put them on.)

Ryan and I praised her highly (and cleaned her up), and then put Rebecca in the tub. She said she had to go again, so I put her back, and she did.

After her bath, she insisted once again that she needed to use the potty, so I put her on once again. This time, however, she didn’t have as much luck. After a few minutes of waiting, she stood up and stuck her face into the potty chair.

“Poopy, come ON!”

What milestones are you celebrating these days?