The Rest of February

The rest of our chilly/rainy February included the following:

• Pass of All Passes ... finally started to use it.  We went to a gymnastics meet this month, and with the crazy weather we have been thoroughly enjoying the bowling alley included on our pass.

•  Hogle Zoo put on a free-entrance day ... which was awesome!  Except for the fact that the rest of the state of Utah agreed.  The place was wall-to-wall people.  I saw several people from my hometown, which was fantastic ... but all in all, I felt like we were back at Disneyland on a Utah-Spring-Break day.  (We learned quickly that if there is ANY kind of kids-get-out-of-school holiday going on in Utah, STEER CLEAR of Disneyland.)  But the kids loved the animals.  I'm still debating whether or not I should get a season pass.

•  We said goodbye to our beloved Pujols Fish this month too.  Mark discovered him on the counter on evening, and immediately flopped the poor little guy back in his water.  We had no idea how long he had been lying out there, but he did seem to swim around a bit .... but by the following morning, it was certain.  Pujols had moved on.  I told Mac, who was quite solemn but very curious about the whole thing.  I asked if I could flush Pujols down the toilet, to which Mac replied, "But Jesus will never find him in there!"  We decided to bury him outside, and Mac picked out Pujols's burial ground.  He was fine until we started to shovel dirt on top of him ... then he burst into tears.  "I just miss him too much, Mom." he said.  I held him and pointed out all the ducks wandering out of the water - probably to see if we had any bread - and Mac said, "Oh look, Mom, they miss Pujols too!  The duckies want to come say goodbye."  I agreed.

The following morning, Mac jumped out of bed and said, "Mom!  Let's see if Jesus took Pujols yet!"  I told him it wasn't very polite to dig up dead things ... how do you explain THAT to a kid? 

•  Mac gave his first talk in Primary.  It was about the Savior's Atonement.  The whole thing was about how Jesus made it so we could live with him and all our friends and family again.  I ended up whispering most of it to Mac, but we had specifically worked on a couple parts that he could just talk about himself.  But when we got to them, he said, "Mom, I think you'd better just tell me."  So I did.  He finished, patted me on the back, and returned to his seat.  So proud of that guy.

•  And Miss Belle has started experimenting with potty training ... it's been a bit of a process, but she's slowly improving.  So crazy to think my house might be diaper free pretty soon ...

•  And finally, we had our first incident with using-mom's-makeup-without-her.  Thankfully it was just red lipstick (which I never use) and not eyeliner or mascara ... but it was quite messy.  Two months later, I'm still finding random red fingerprints on the walls.