Nutt House: Mundane Nutty Lives

Here at the Nutt House we engage in many activities to keep ourselves busy, some of them big and exciting while many others are our everyday mundane, routine type of activities. Recently I attended Time Out for Women. It was so very, very wonderful and I got so very much out of it; one thing in particular is that in the lives of our children it isn’t the big events children will remember the most it is the everyday, mundane tasks. So, I wanted to share some of the everyday activities that kept The Nutt House busy from the time of Kara’s birthday up to Halloween. (Can you tell I’m really working to get all caught up?!!?)

Family time – outside of the Gospel there is nothing more important to the Nutt House than family. Fortunately, we are a Nutty family that loves each other and enjoys spending time together. Recently we adventured out to the local Sea Life aquarium, a place we haven’t been to since we first moved to Phoenix. This time, we were lucky enough to have Brent’s dad and Kaden join us on our trip. We found that Kara was more active and enchanted with the fish this time around. She wasn’t the only one to have a good time though, Kaden would focus in on the bright colors of a tank, a fish, or at times, his own reflection and he would be mesmerized with what he would see and his eyes would become as big as big could be.

Best Friends

Mmmm fish

Kaden was more interested the shark behind him than smiling for the camera

What would life be without friends? To us at the Nutt House life wouldn't be life without friends. Brent and I are both lucky to have some of our best friends in our family members and it is our hope that the bond between Kara and Kaden continues throughout their life so that they maintain not only a sister-brother relationship but one of friendship as well. Since moving here we have each been developing other friendships as well. I’ve focused on developing friendships with other moms and ladies in our ward and for someone as shy as I am, I feel good about the friendships I am developing. Brent has reconnected with friends from his past and now enjoys a guy’s night out every other Saturday night. Watching Kara develop her friendships has become a joy to watch. She flocks to girls that are about 4 years old like they are Strawberry Shortcake in real life. She idolizes these girls, tries to scoot right up against them and put her arm around them. I am proud of her though that when they encourage her to do something she isn’t comfortable with (going down a slide at the park she doesn’t feel she is ready for, no major peer pressure issues yet!) she stands her ground with a firm no. When it comes to friends her age, now that is a different story all together. A shyness that I worry she has inherited from me comes out and she isn’t quite as outgoing as with the older girls. Once she feels comfortable though the shyness melts away and Kara is a giggly, energetic, happy little girl. One that I boastfully will say does a great job at sharing with her friends. On occasion she may need a reminder, but knock on wood we’ve yet to have a time out situation over not sharing with her friends.

Yay for play dates!!!

Thanks to Groupon we have purchased a membership to the local Botanical Gardens. But wait! It isn’t what you are thinking!!! This isn’t like most botanical gardens, full of different varieties of flowers and lush greenery. No, our botanical gardens are the Desert Botanical Gardens. That’s right, a garden full of dirt and cacti. While this can paint a grim picture, remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder and though I really enjoy the beautiful flower filled gardens. There is a unique beauty to the desert botanical gardens that I don’t believe I would find in a more traditional garden. One of our favorite parts of the garden is the butterfly exhibit. For this, you go into an enclosed area where the desert is transformed into a green filled with a koi pond, trees, and more butterflies than you could count. It is truly a breathtaking sight and one that Kara truly enjoys.

Butterfly watching

The best cheesy grin around!

We try to be a well-rounded Nutt House which translates into – me encouraging our participation in a variety of activities. One such activity is community classes for Kara. She has recently finished a movement class where she learned how to skip, hop, jump, go through an obstacle course, do summersaults, and backflips. We are still working on the summersaults and backflips, but Kara really enjoys the practice.

Taa Daa!! - A new favorite expression

We also try to attend story time at the library each week. Kara isn’t quite ready to venture onto the rug with the other kids by herself yet to hear the stories and participate in the activities and that’s okay with me. I’ll cherish this time she wants to stay close to me for as long as I can. I know that time won’t last forever, and where Kara jumps up once it is announced that story time is done and each of the children can head to the front to have their hands stamped I know she is too quickly on her way to independence.

Kara – of course with all of our activities and such we’ve made it a priority to keep some things a part of our daily life, such as reading. Now, I ask you, is there a better way for a young girl to go to sleep than surrounded by books? I do not think there is.

Please, do not be fooled. I speak highly of Kara, and it is because she is an amazing girl, a gift from God. This amazing girl though, is two and the Nutt House is just starting to discover what all that means. Kara loves art and we try to encourage that love. We provide several coloring books, pads of paper, a roll of paper in fact, and all sorts of utensils to utilize on all the paper we have; we have crayons, colored pencils, markers, etc. We realized a short while ago that we also provided reading books to color in, because either a) the art work in the books wasn’t good enough, b) Kara wanted to express herself, or c and my favorite) Kara wanted to see the reaction mom would have when discovering the books had all sorts of new pictures in them. After such an experience one would think that I’d learn to put the crayons out of reach. Apparently I did not learn that lesson well enough when a few weeks ago Kara decided to redecorate her beautiful white bed with crayons. Needless to say, the crayons are now located one shelf higher and we have stockpiled magic eraser. And before anyone thinks that Kara was yelled at for her redecorating activities I’d like to point out that there was no yelling or punishing that took place. When the world’s cutest two year old tilts her head down, shrugs her shoulders and says okaaay, as you try to explain that coloring on the bed is not something we want to have done and then follows up the okaaay with another shoulder shrug and a “sorry mom”. There is no punishment, only the realization that all of what was said really didn’t sink in and if all writing utensils are not permanently moved out of the house, this will happen again.

Showing off her art work

How could anyone with such a sense of style really ever get punished?

Kaden has not been left out of our adventures and activities. In fact during all this that we’ve had going on he’s been right there watching his sister. Taking mental notes I am sure and blessing each of us with his enchanting smile. Kaden has been discovering a world of his own. Kaden has started to enjoy playing with toys, his sister, his parents, and anyone else that will play with him. He frequently communicates in the delightful language of baby coos. Kaden has started to sit up on his own and has enjoyed his first tastes of rice cereal. Each time I look at Kaden and he smiles back at me he captures my heart all over again. I can tell already he will be a handful and I will have moments when I want to bonk his noggin. Until that happens I am going to enjoy every blessed second I can with this joyful little boy.