And this is why the peanut butter ends up in the fridge.

So here I am, minding my own business, letting Mitchell throw diapers everywhere (he wanted to be in the box, some battles are just not worth fighting) and Mitch climbs on the couch. Which is a relatively new skill. I was excited. He just climbs right up, and my arms get a little break (he's 30 pounds already!) But today, he climbed on the couch, unlocked the front door, climbed off the couch, opened the door and...... I think I killed his dreams. As Mike said, my days just got 1000 times harder. So thankfully, while the handle doorknobs were a stupid idea, the chain lock is just right, though when Mike gets home, he won't be able to get in without me. Which feels so powerful.

But the good news, this week, is that Mitchell ate rice. Which is great. I wish he'd eat other things, preferably green. Meal time is such a pain. He's not keen into trying new things-at all. Actually, by this point green beans and zucchini do not qualify as a "new thing." But this rice thing has given me considerably more hope.

Church is aways something greatly planned for over here, because Mitchell doesn't usually sit quietly very long during sacrament, and knows very well that when he screams loud enough and long enough, I pick him up and take him out. And I think I'm doing this right, no toys, no running, he sits on my lap in the foyer. And he likes it. I cannot for the life of me understand, why a screaming energetic toddler would prefer sitting on mom's lap to reading books, the quiet book, toys, snacks, dad, a little more freedom. I mean really.

So after intense brainstorming with Mikey, we realize there are pictures of Christ in the foyer, which he'll look at, almost exclusively, point to and say "tada!" which is a generic word for "that" I think, since he'll point to anything living or not and say it. Or it's lazy for "what's that" but then occasionally I hear that too. Christmas time it sounded like "santa" but he couldn't possibly think everything in the world is santa....right? Plus, the nursery manual has a few pictures of Christ, and Mitchell LOVES them.

So me being the genius that I am, decided to convince Mike to go to the distribution center/deseret book and find pictures of the savior to put in some kind of book. That'll keep him quiet. And Mike's plan B was to suffer through one (hopefully) meeting and just let him scream. Which would probably work, but .... I don't think our wards wants to suffer along with us. And Mitchell is the only kid ever, EVER, screaming. And that's with 7 nursery aged kids, 8 almost nursery kids, and 12 three year olds.

Anyway, I thought, of course, that either of these places would have the pictures I wanted, in 8.5 X 11, so I could slip them in sheet protectors and a binder.

But no! The distribution center has humongous pictures, or pictures (8.5X11) for primary, so you get some good ones, and a lot of random families doing...family things. Next door is deseret book, they only had tiny pictures, and their 5X7's were 2 bucks a piece. (I would have compromised for a photo album. But not for 30 bucks. Plus, they were all greg olsen, which he's great, but I like the older ones too, if not more) So, no thank you.

So we walk back over to the distribution center, and they have a new gospel art book. With every picture you could ever imagine, spiral bound, for 3 dollars and 50 cents. Sweet. All the pictures to go along with the old testament, new testament, book of mormon, and doctrine and covenants. And all latter-day prophets, with some random pictures of families praying, paying tithing, etc. Double points for Family Night pictures for the rest of our lives. And out we go, thinking we're the smartest people ever.

Sunday? no. nope. did not work whatsoever. In fact, I think it made it worse. I am at a loss.