by popular demand

and against my will, i will tell you what we've been up to lately. ben has been studying for the GMAT (graduate management admissions test) like crazy. it seems like any spare minutes he has, he's either studying or working on his calling (ward mission leader). he's a good example for us all and very dedicated. and it's paying off, as far as ward mission work goes. i think it will pay off for the GMAT as well.

i have been trying to stay sane, and succeeding only marginally. i think adele's main goal in life at this point is to push my buttons. this involves taking off all her clothes at random intervals and with no predictability, dashing outside and demanding to ride her bike whenever the door opens (sometimes she likes to combine the first example with this one, which i tell her is illegal, but she doesn't seem to care), opening the fridge and munching whatever she likes (thank goodness all we really have in there are apples and carrots), refusing to eat whatever we put in front of her, "helping" with the dishes, laundry, diaper-changing, "helping" to punish alex whenever she thinks he's out of line (most of the time), refusing to wear shoes, to get back in the stroller, to get her hair done, to sit in her booster chair, to go to sleep on time, to sleep all night, and to stay in her bedroom during sleeping hours. basically, i think we're in a war, and i'm pretty sure i'm losing. other than that she's perfectly submissive and wonderful. i'd like to think that i'm a good and patient mom, but most days i don't feel like it. i'm not telling you this so you'll give me sympathy. i'm telling you this so that you have fair warning before your kid(s) turn 2.

other than that, i do a lot of housework (at least it feels that way, but i'm pretty sure that most days ben gets home and wonders what in the world i've been doing all day...perhaps a better question is what time of the day did i actually lose control of the house?), a little bit of family history, a little bit of phone talking, a lot of food preparation (making our own bread and shopping organic these days), a little bit of quilting (alex's birthday is coming up, so i'm making him a quilt), a little bit of running, and just enough reading to keep that little bit of sanity intact. take away my books, and you'll take away my delicate equilibrium. i'm also a ward missionary and the ward music chairman.

alex is good-natured. he usually submits to all of adele's tricks without too much of a hitch. he is very sweet. he crawls and pulls up on things, and imitates single-syllable words like "woof," "poop," "da(d)" and "ah dah" for all done, and "ada" for adele. he doesn't say "mom" or anything similar. that shows you how secure we are in our relationship--we're so close he doesn't even need a word for me; i'm just always there.

that's it for our update. hopefully ben will be back up and posting soon. signing off, abc