Caroland: November 2019

I’ve always (like, as long as I can remember) had really rough and bumpy skin on my arms. I finally went to the dermatologist a month or two ago (and sat in the waiting room next to a girl who was in our ward in Ogden when we were growing up- it’s kind of fun being back in Ogden and running into people every now and then). The dermatologist told me to use a very specific type of lotion ($19 for a medium sized bottle?!!!!!) and it would exfoliate the rough spots and make my skin smooth. So I started using that lotion, and lo and behold, for the first time in my life my arms are almost smooth. They’re not totally smooth yet, but within a couple weeks there was a very noticeable difference, to the point where I guess I’m now the kind of person who spends $19 on a medium sized bottle of lotion. What’s next? Quilted toilet paper? Haha, let’s not get crazy. ANYWAY, the point is, I have smooth arms and it’s very amazing to me. So much so, that one night during family prayer I must have been rubbing my arms. After the prayer, Hattie totally called me out. She said, “Mom”, and then showed me how she folds her arms. I said, “yeah, you folded your arms during prayer, good job.” She shook her head and said, “No, mom”, and then folded her arms again. I said, “yeah, I folded my arms too”. She shook her head and then rubbed her arms. Then I realized she was telling on me for not being perfectly reverent during prayer. Haha, great.

The Saturday before Halloween we went on a train ride. There’s a model train club in Ogden, and one of their big things is that they have a model train that is 1/8^th scale of real trains. It’s big enough to hold adults, but just barely. A few times a year, they have free train ride days, and for Halloween they have a special trick or treat train day. It’s at a park not far from our house. Turns out, the train club has a track permanently set up around the park- they leave it there all year and it doesn’t get damaged in the winter or by hooligans. We got to ride in the train around the park, and at one point we stopped and some people in costumes came and passed out candy to all the kids on the train. Afterwards, there were food trucks and the girls played on the playground and it was lots of fun. Hattie sat with me on the train. She sat very still between my legs and barely looked around. If I pointed something out, she’d nod, but not really risk moving. I think she was fairly nervous. Matt had Tille with him and he said she was oohing and aaahing and laughing the whole time.

For Halloween, Hattie was a panda bear and Tille was a lion. We just bought costumes that were basically warm coats. They were super cute. There was an article on KSL (or Deseret News?) a day or two before Halloween about how Halloween and trick or treating are so good for kids to experience some freedom and independence. I had never thought of it that way, but I totally saw it with Hattie and Tille. Normally they’re super duper shy. If somebody looks at them (even somebody they know, outside a selected 6-7 people they’ve accepted), they’ll hide their faces and refuse to acknowledge anybody’s existence. But when we took them trick or treating, they walked along, went up to people’s doors, knocked, held out their candy buckets, said thank you, smiled, and had fun the whole time. The setting of dressing up and trick or treating gave them an opportunity to not be shy and to interact with strangers. It was really fun to watch. There was one house where a kid answered the door wearing a hockey mask. Tille and Hattie had gone up boldly and were ready for candy, but when he opened the door, they both stepped back a little. You could see in their faces that they were trying to decide if this was ok. They knew he had candy, but he also didn’t look right. It was a major dilemma for them. Luckily, the candy won out and they were brave. By the end of trick or treating, the girls were exhausted. Tille was falling asleep on my shoulder and Hattie was doing her best to keep up next to Matt. And yet, when we got home, the first thing Tille did was run to the couch and start organizing her candy, laying it out in straight rows to see what she had. Haha, I thought it was so funny!

We’ve started getting toy catalogs in the mail. Target, Amazon, and I think a couple other mailers clearly targeted at kids. These have become Hattie and Tille’s favorite books. Every single toy, they point to the picture on the page, then pat their chest, then back and forth very excitedly, and we have to acknowledge that they like that toy, or they just get more and more excited. A few weeks ago, we were at Costco, and we walked past a big dollhouse on display. Matt and I have been talking about getting a dollhouse for Christmas, so as we walked past this one, Matt was just starting to ask what I thought of that one. But before he got a word out, Tille squealed louder and longer than we’ve ever heard about anything. She was so excited about that dollhouse! A few people around us chuckled a little, and now we know what Santa is bringing the girls for Christmas. Every now and then, we’ll go back to Costco and walk past that display, and they still love it. I can’t wait for them to see it set up in the living room on Christmas morning.

Here are just a couple quick tidbits. Hattie loves telling secrets. Every now and then while they’re playing, Hattie will stop what she’s doing and come over and whisper in Matt’s or my ear. And sometimes during dinner she’ll lean over and whisper to Tille. She doesn’t have words to whisper yet, but she definitely seems like she has something important to tell us.

My favorite word right now is still “moooeah”. In the morning, the girls usually wake up while I’m getting ready for work, so Matt sits with them on the couch. Then I have about 10 minutes to cuddle between getting ready and leaving. Some days, Tille will lay on my lap and demand back or tummy scratches. If I stop for a second, from deep within the blanket she’s cuddling under, I’ll hear a tiny “moooeah”. It’s so cute. Every night after the bath, we do rock-a-bye for the girls. We bundle them up in their towels and sing rock a bye baby while rocking them like tiny babies. They love it. It always calms them down and they stare into space or at our faces or hug us tight while we sing. And even before we finish the song, they start saying “moooeah, moooeah”. Seriously precious. The other night, we gave the girls ice cream after dinner. When Tille finished, she handed me her bowl and said, “moooeah”. I said no, it’s bath time, and she lost it. I realized later it was probably the first time she’s been told no about food while sitting at the table. Both girls are so tiny and not great eaters, so we never say no if they want to eat more. Tille was probably shocked that she didn’t get more of something she was willing to eat. Anyway, her little “moooeah”s are the best.