Chapstick and Productivity

January 19-25, 2014

Leila loves to read Go Dog, Go! and can say most of the opposite words (up, down, in, out) but her real favorite book is The Little Engine that Could: The Big Chase. I hid it for a couple of days because I was sick of reading it.

After we finish reading, she usually likes to sit on the floor and hold the book and flip through to talk about different pages of the book. "Uh-oh, they're going to run over the bird!" "Riding a bike" 

She still loves to imitate Caleb and also torment him, most recently by stealing whatever train he has been playing with. He cannot get enough of his trains. He sure missed them while we were in Utah and has been making up for lost time! Instead of almost everything else, he just wants to play with trains.
Both kids are overly obsessed with chapstick. They are frequently found holding one or two, rubbing them repeatedly over their lips. Leila knows she is only supposed to put it on lips so she tries to get away with putting it on the trains' and planes' lips. Or she rubs her finger on it and then puts it on her face and hair. She only tried eating it once before realizing it was waxy and gross to eat.

Monday was fun to have Allen home for MLK Jr Day. He took Caleb for a run, then Leila and I met him at the park and then we all went to Costco together. Allen got started on installing our garage door opener.

Costco lunch

Allen and I haven't really talked about a baby name other than the occasional, "Hey, what do you think of ____?" "I like it." But Caleb has been trying to help me think of names for the new baby. Tuesday the name of choice was Zoey.

Tuesday and Friday I watched my friend's daughters (Kynlee, 6 months and Baylee, almost 2 years-old) for a couple of hours. Tuesday was gorgeous after naps I took the kids to the park. The rest of the week was really rainy. With all of the rain, we played lots of trains. Caleb has his trains run away from Leila's trains and calls them the monster trains. She's just excited he likes to play with her and growls/roars as she chases his trains around the track.

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Wednesday I woke up really emotional for no particular reason. I cried a lot in the morning, which is very unlike me. To remedy my sadness, we invited a bunch of friends over to play. That got me to stop thinking about myself, my kids (especially Caleb) had fun with friends over and it passed the time quickly. Thursday I was back to my normal self. Although I disliked very much how I felt on Wednesday, it was good reminder for me to realize how great I have it emotionally and mentally. I am so grateful to not have to deal with depression and wish I knew how to truly lift those who suffer from it regularly.

Friday, my friend's doctor's appointment went long so I ended up with her girls for about an hour and a half longer than expected. Since it was rainy and I didn't have anything I needed to go do outside of the house, it wasn't a big deal and passed the day quickly. By the time the kids woke up from their naps, Allen was home! He came home early (4:30 pm) because of the timing of his client meeting. We got to play and watched a movie as a family.



Pregnancy update (30 weeks):
I don't think I've written anything about this pregnancy so far, in my journal or on the blog so I better write something before I forget. The first trimester I was exhausted and had a lot of nausea and really bad heartburn. I slept sitting up, which did wonders for my neck. ;) The medicine for the nausea helped a lot but made me constipated and I decided wasn't worth the trade-off. I ate frequently the first trimester to try to counter the nausea. Salty foods were what sounded best. I had a lot of omelets, crackers, chips and toast. I was still able to exercise and did a triathlon. I even did better than my triathlon four months previous that I had trained hard for. I had some insomnia but dealt with it much better than before by not getting frustrated that I was lying in bed awake. I wasn't asleep but I let myself rest with my eyes closed, thinking, "At least I'm not awake having to take care of anyone else right now."

Second trimester came with more energy, less insomnia, nausea and heartburn! Unfortunately, it also brought the usual (for me) contractions with exercise. Leading up to the Ten for Texas, I knew I needed to be done with exercise. Each time Allen and I would try to run, I'd end up frustrated and have to walk. I still did the Ten for Texas but literally walked for more than half of it and haven't exercised since. Salty foods are still what I crave the most. I have eaten way less sweet stuff this pregnancy than I usually do. I have hardly even touched ice cream!

As I've entered the third trimester, I have heartburn again. Not sure why it's called heartburn still... for me it mostly consists of food and acid entering my mouth any time I lay down. I don't have insomnia but wake frequently as I have entered the uncomfortable stage where I wake up to roll to my other side, have to get up to go to the bathroom, have nasal congestion and wake myself up any time I snore. I am bigger this pregnancy than I was with the other two and find it difficult to not compare myself to the tiny women I'm friends with who are due around the same time as me!

The anxiousness to get things ready for the baby hasn't gone away yet and most days, instead of trying to nap with my kids, I am busy trying to organize my house. Organize may not be the right word... purge may be more correct.

I got rid of a bunch of my clothes, some of Allen's clothes, medicine cabinet, linen closets and going through things to weed out what we don't need or I don't want to store. I am re-going through boxes of stuff from China, all of my craft stuff, etc to minimize what we do have. The back of our van is full of stuff for Goodwill! Allen is nesting too or I'm wearing off on him because he put in a garage door opener on Monday and Saturday we bought stuff to put shelving in the garage and closets in our house. After the kids were in bed Saturday night, he put up shelving in the garage while I dejunked and organized.

We had beautiful weather on Saturday so we got to play outside between Home Depot and naps.

Fixing the engine of the car.

Yay for shelving in the garage!

This morning I couldn't fall back asleep when Allen got up with Caleb because I was thinking of which things were going to go in which boxes and where they are going to be stored in our house. I'm a dork. :)

We cut the boys' hair before church and Caleb didn't cry once! Our new clippers are great! I subbed in Leila's nursery, which was fun but tiring. Caleb listens well in his small primary class and loved telling us the story of Daniel and the lion's den. He is a little confused about the transition from big primary class to small primary class and why we don't pick him up in between.

Reading with Leila before bed on Sunday night.

Reading with Caleb before bed on Sunday night.

Caleb has really been working on pronouncing things correctly and will practice saying the right consonant over and over, for example, if we don't understand when he says Blade (helicopter from Planes: Fire and Rescue) he will say, "B-b-b-b-blade." (Sounds more like B-b-b-b-bway) On Sunday he kept trying to say Music and the Spoken Word correctly and he got close but it made me laugh because he kept saying, "I want to watch Music and the Smokin' Word."

Playing with Blade while watching Music and the Smokin Word after church.

Leila has caught on to Caleb's why phase, even though I don't think she has any clue what why means. Her response to half of what I say to her is, "Why mama?" Her other most common phrases are, "Yes I do Mom," and "take a bath." I'm amazed at how well she speaks and how large her vocabulary is! She also can use please, thank you and excuse me correctly without prompting.

 Her other favorite thing is to sit on our laps to eat our meals. She will say she's all done eating, we get her out of her high chair and she immediately asks to sit on one of our laps and then eats a ton more.

Reading Go Dog, Go! before her nap. 

He is really good at puzzles. 

We went down for naps later than usual a lot this week so I had to go in to wake him up so he wouldn't stay up too late at night.

Caleb had more potty and sleeping success this week. He started going to bed a little later, thanks to later church and a late Sunday nap. He has been sleeping in until about 6:10 pretty regularly! He also has been dry in his underwear three or four nights in a row. Thursday morning he even pooped (in a diaper) while sitting on the toilet. No luck with that the next couple of days though and then on Sunday Allen tried to make him poop sitting on the toilet with a hole cut in his diaper... it didn't go over so well. He'll eventually decide it's not a big deal to poop on the toilet but for now, we'll just be excited that he is completely potty-trained otherwise.

On the Road Again . . . Can't Wait to Get on the Road Again.

January 12-18, 2015

Sunday afternoon we left Utah to head home about 3:45 pm. Our time in Utah flew by and although we got to see lots of family, we didn't see any (non-family) friends. We were there for a long time though and we were ready to come home. Caleb woke up around 5 on Saturday morning and was just crying, asking when we could go back to our home.

During our drive I frequently climbed from the front seat to the back of the van and from the back to the front. If the DVD screen was down, I usually managed to bump into it. Caleb ever so kindly reminded me, "Don't bump it again with your big bum." We had snow, ice and wind during my stretch from 7 pm-midnight but pretty clear roads other than that. I also got the fun stretch of two-lane highway from 5 am-9 am.

We got home Monday around 4:30 pm; it took just under 24 hours. Cathryn Parker had put beef stew in our crockpot, so we came home to a delicious dinner. Leila was looking for Grammy the minute we walked in our door. Our kids excitedly played with all of their toys and just ran around from toy to toy while we unloaded the van. After getting them to bed (they were also so excited to be sleeping in their own beds!) Allen and I watched the Football National Championship game while taking down our Christmas tree and decorations. Had I just sat on the couch, I would have fallen asleep within minutes.

Leila helping put away Christmas ornaments

Tuesday Allen took the day off to recover from our drive (and vacation). Caleb slept in until 6:30 and Leila until 7:30! He chose to come visiting teaching with me while Leila napped. We put up our new gallery wall, watched How to Train Your Dragon 2, napped and went to Costco. When Allen was chasing Leila, she would get going too fast and fall on her face. Once she managed to get her head to bounce off the couch and off the ottoman and hit the couch again, only to jump up and say, "Otay!" Whenever she coughs, sneezes or falls (if she isn't hurt), she immediately says, "Otay," to let us know that she's okay. I usually ask her if she's okay when she coughs or falls so now she just tells me before I ask.

It was hard to wake up from naps on Tuesday.

Wednesday the kids and I played Planes Fire and Rescue for at least two hours. I worked on unpacking and cleaning while the kids enjoyed playing with their toys that they had missed on vacation. We needed to get out of the house, so even though it was cold and sprinkling, we rode bikes outside for a while before naps. Leila was running to try to keep up with Caleb but she keeps tipping over like she's top-heavy and I thought she was going to face plant multiple times. She managed to catch herself before her face hit the cement but it hurt her hands more than usual since they were cold.

That night Allen and I moved the desk from the study down to our bedroom, in preparation to turn the study into Caleb's bedroom before the new baby comes.

Thursday morning Caleb wanted to help Leila with breakfast prayer. It was pretty cute to watch him try to get her to repeat after him! The kids came with me to my OB appointment. It was a pretty typical appointment for me: quick urine sample, weight check, blood pressure check. Wait for the doctor for a few minutes. He comes in, listens for the heartbeat and says, "Everything seems great, see you in four weeks. Any questions?" And then we leave. I'm grateful to have healthy pregnancies.

When we got back from the doctor, the weather was nice so we played outside. Caleb found a hill to be the North Mountain and Leila found some dirt to play in. Leila got promoted from Olaf to Anna because she started chasing him up the North Mountain while I was talking with our neighbor, Tracy.

Friday we went to Walmart to pick up some things for a baby shower I was hosting the next day. The kids love sitting in the back of the cart together and helping me choose produce and putting the items on the conveyer belt thing when we're checking out. It was gorgeous outside so we played on the North Mountain for a while and then met some friends at the park. That night I attended a Favorite Things party. It was fun!

Pretending to talk to Grammy on the phone

Playing with the arcade toys at Walmart - no one better tell them that you're supposed to put money in.

Saturday I hosted our new neighbor's baby shower. We spent the morning cleaning and were still working on it when friends showed up to start decorating. It went well although I may have gone a little overboard on the games... we did minute to win it and it may have been a little much for a baby shower. ;) The food was delicious though!

Getting ready for the relay

A few of the decorations and woman/baby of honor

Saturday afternoon we played outside and helped Dad take down Christmas lights and cut down tree limbs.

Dad's helper

While Allen was still taking down lights and cutting branches, we wandered down the street and drove our friend's car.

Leila's pouty face after dropping the last of her popsicle on the ground

Wanting Caleb's

Sunday we showed up for church at 9, only to remember our ward now meets at 11. We went home for some Ramen Noodles (per Leila's request), Leila napped and Caleb and I did an activity from The Friend.

I hated to wake her up for church!

When I asked Caleb how he could help Jesus, he said, "I help my sister not be sad."

When we returned to church at the right time, Allen played the organ in Sacrament meeting and was Scripture Man in primary. He wears a cape and sunglasses and has super powers that come from memorizing scriptures. He went in last week to help the kids memorize a scripture and Caleb thought it was awesome that Dad came in. My friend did the singing time in nursery, she said when the leaders told the kids it was time for singing time, Leila excitedly said, "Daddy!" She's isn't used to him not doing music anymore.

Caleb did great at his first week in sunbeams! He was the only one in his class to sit in his chair the whole time and he sang along too. We told Caleb that on Sundays he needs to call Ada's mom Sister Cheney since she's his sunbeam teacher. He then informed us that on Sundays we can call him Bono. Haha!!!

Other things of note:
Caleb realized that he can now hop on one foot (while holding onto the counter).
Leila likes to sit on the arm of the couch and fell off this week.
Leila loves to make people laugh.
She also loves to talk on the phone. She cried any time I talked on the phone this week and wouldn't let her hold it. When she did hold the phone, she would repeat everything I said into it.