Bike Parade

My friend plans a bike parade every year for the kiddos in our ward, and E finally had a bike this year to decorate and participate with.  He was SO excited, especially when I pulled out the red, yellow, and black ribbon to match his "Lightning McQueen bike" as he calls it.

Right when we got to the park he went zooming down a monstrous hill, well...monstrous to him anyway and promptly crashed into a big rock, bonking is helmeted noggin and destroying his little bell that he is so proud of.  That then caused the chain to come off his bike so we got off to a rough start.

He saw the gaggle of big kids behind him and insisted on "just walking my bike" for the first little while off to the side until the big kids got up ahead.  After that he decided he could climb on and pedal as long as I was walking right beside him.

We ended the parade with otter pops and then both my kids started crying and it was time to go!  I think they inherited my intolerance for heat and humidity because there were SERIOUS freak-outs that came out of nowhere.  But it was fun for awhile. :)

Just a side note, I love the age of 3 for a lot of reasons, but I'm having a hard time with the question "Why?" that he has just discovered.  I decided that if I could eliminate one word from his vocabulary right now, it would be the word "why".

However, he does say lots of cute things and comes up with funny scenarios.  Here are a few:

He got up one morning and saw my exercise video paused and said "Mommy, were you exercising?  How wonderful!"  (Can you tell how often I actually exercise?)

He was going potty one morning and brought Bear in with him and then decided it wasn't a good idea.  He explained "I might go wet on him and then he wouldn't be all fluffy anymore."

We had some medical school friends over this weekend to celebrate the end of 3rd year (Hip, Hip, Hooray!) and one of the med students' wives is a dental student and she was wearing her scrubs after a long day at school.  E was being kind of crabby about going to bed so I told him he could brush his teeth really well so he could show Hannah because she is a dentist.  He got a shy little smile and scrambled upstairs to do a good job.  He showed off his teeth to her and she was so cute to praise his shiny teeth.  The next day, he said "Mommy, what was that gril's name?"  (He really says girl like gril) 
So I named all his friends that are girls.
"No, the blue gril."
"Huh?  The blue girl?"
"The dentist."
"Oh!  Hannah?"
"Yes, Hannah.  Is she still at my house?"
Just a cute example of how good he is at remembering details about things and I love that he does a pretty good job of explaining them to me.

11 Months

Sammi is 11 months old today!  I have no idea what her stats are, but we sure are getting a good idea of what her silly little personality is.

-Little Silly has 7 teeth and she wields them with authority.
-She loves to read books even though she likes to make it difficult by closing the cover.  She will sit very still on your lap while you are reading.
-She loves cheese and is happy as a clam when we cut some up on her highchair tray for her.
-She is crawling like a maniac and threatening to walk.
-She will put up with just about anything.  She seriously hardly ever gets crabby.
-She loves loves loves to splash in the bath and cries when she is taken out.
-She's been kind of a stinker about her naps.  I think she'll be transitioning to one soon because she has a hard time doing 2 1/2 hours for both of her naps like she used to.  Plus, let's face it, she's the second child so it's a little harder to make life revolve around the morning nap, but I do try.  This messed up sleep resulted in this the other day at dinnertime:

-She does this silly little trick on one knee and loves to show it off to new people.  One day she'll surprise everyone, including herself, when she pops up onto her feet and is standing.

-She discovered how to do this when she was "helping" me exercise with my exercise video.  I seriously love watching my kids try to do the exercises.  One of the funniest/cutest things ever.  They probably think the same thing about me.

-She has stranger anxiety right now which we didn't discover until we were in Utah two weeks ago.  She is so good to smile at people from my arms.
-She absolutely loves balls.  She loves to suck on them and then she loved trying to roll the ball to Mom yesterday.  She exploded in a fit of giggles when I rolled it back.
-She is very content to sit on my lap.  I'm sure this will change, but she loves it much more than her brother did at the same age.
-She is scared/intrigued by the vacuum.
-She has discovered how to toss things off her tray and this also translates to tossing things over her shoulder that she doesn't want.
-She currently hates her crib and prefers the pack 'n' play...not sure why.  I think it may have something to do with her standing up in her crib and having a hard time sitting down.  Maybe the netting on the pack 'n' play makes for a softer backward landing?  I don't know.
-She will immediately start clapping if you say "yay!" or "good job!" to anyone in the room.

Anyway, we love her if you couldn't tell. :)

Utar

We had what felt like a whirlwind trip to Utah to see Ben's sister Jenny get married.  But before all that...

I almost missed my flight going out to Utah because my ride forgot to pick me up! But thanks to my good friend who came to the rescue we made it to the airport 20 minutes before takeoff and still made the flight!  Stressful, I tell you!

We had quite the adventure getting home too.  Almost missed THAT flight too and sat next to a crazy Japanese lady who only spoke enough English to scold all three of us for doing things that displeased her and tried to feed me and my daughter mysterious Japanese food.  I discovered the barfy morsel she offered me was actually codfish jerky and promptly hid it in my napkin.  Luckily I avoided what appeared to be jellied chicken livers.  She was out of her mind and so was I by the end of that flight.  The kids were wonderful on the plane, but boy were we glad to get to our own little house!  But first...

There was a graduation of this uncle (my brother Brad):  (Sammi had a bit of stranger anxiety when we were in Utah so that's why she's bursting into tears.)

While he was taking pictures with friends n' stuff, we hung out on the grass and passed the time by taking pictures of this cutie:

 And this guy ran up and down the hill:

Then we met up with our cousins at Wheeler Farm and tried to feed the horses before the dust storm caused us to flee.

I also got to be there when my brother Brad received his endowment at the Draper temple.  Awesome.

We had a sibling sleepover in the front room and E came upstairs the next morning for a snuggle with Uncle B.

 We had lots of wedding-related events which included staying up until 2:00 a.m. several nights designing and putting together the fabric flowers and hairbows for the niece bridesmaids, going to dinner with my sisters-in-law to celebrate the bride-to-be, attending the wedding dinner in Midway, and the actual big day!  We were glad Ben was able to come out for just over 2 days for the weddin'.
So happy to see this cute couple get married:

 Mr. and Mrs. Troy and Jenny Kohler

These three cousins were born in July, September, and October.  It was fun watching them try to claw out each other's eyes and crawl over each other.

 Tanner, Sammi, Carson

 E just couldn't resist tackling her.  I know exactly how she feels since I have a big brother too. :)

 I also had just enough time to hang out with my friend McCall, go to my cousin's daughter's 1st birthday party, go to Ben's family's cabin, and see my family off on their graduation cruise (jealous).  It was quite the jam-packed busy trip, so we were glad to be there, but also glad to get home.  Thanks family for watching my kids so much so I could go to all the different events, and thanks Christensens for flying us out!

10 Months

I have this girl, and she is 10 months.  I keep telling her to stop growing, but she refuses.

I have no stats for her this month.  She's still just perfect in every way to us.  Except with the whiny-ness and crying that comes from being sick.  Mysteriously this is the first time she's been sick without an ear infection.  I kept waiting for her ears to drain, but alas, they never did.  Go figure.

Anywho.

Sammi is still our little sweetie and is getting better and better at doing all the things she does best.  She keeps us constantly smiling and now very busy.  She's a very fast crawler and she just decided to learn how to pull herself up to things today.  She still makes a beeline for the bathroom whenever she hears anyone in there, and she is very patient with her older brother.  He torments her, more out of curiosity than anything, and she puts up with it because he is the coolest person ever.

She really likes big people food.  Or bigger people food, I should say.  She's not doing real table food yet, but she does enjoy yogurt, cheese, cheerios, bread, green beans, peas (kind of), crackers, and her regular old baby food and cereal.  It is a challenge to get her to drink her bottle because she is so set on being up and around watching everything.  She thinks she is big stuff when I give her drinks of water out of a cup.

She loves to be outside, loves to be held so she can be involved in everything, and loves to be wherever Emerson is.  Also, the bathroom.

She is a big helper, especially when Mommy tries to exercise.  She likes to put her arms up above her head (snicker...or by her ears because she has short baby arms) when the people on the exercise video do.

She is silly... 

Busy...

And glamorous.

That pretty much sums up our little sweetie.

Round and Healthy

We have this sad stinky little well-loved Pooh Bear at our house.  And while he looks real pathetic, I can't imagine life without him.  He got a teeny weeny hole in his nose this week and stuffing started to leak out, so I had a mini panic attack and thought about what life would be like without this member of our family.  I mean, he is Emerson's best friend and he can't go to sleep without stroking his nose on his cheek while sucking his thumb.  The poor guy's been washed many times and seems to lose mass each time.  I  think we lost him under a blanket lying flat on the floor one time, he's so wispy now.  E loves his nose.  In fact, he thanks Heavenly Father for his nose in his bedtime prayers.  I knew I had to do something.

Since Ben is on his surgery rotation this month, I decided I should get in on the action.  If he can do it, I can do it.  So I decided to operate on Beah.  I told E we were going to fix him and he said "Oh, should I get my screwdriver and hammer and shiny things?"  I had to explain that Mommy has a different way of fixing things than Daddy, and it is no less valuable. :)  I started by sewing Bear's nose and he was just thrilled.  He was in total disbelief that Mommy, Mommy knows how to fix things too.

Then we made a trip to the store to pick up some new stuffing and matching thread.  E kept saying that we were going to make him "all healthy and round again".  I unpicked the seam along Bear's throat (yikes, so grotesque) and pulled out all the ratty icky stuffing inside.  It made my belly feel good to get that nastiness out.  Then I stuffed him as plump as I could and panic set in when I started sewing up the neck seam.  It didn't help that literally every 3 seconds E would ask, "Mom, is he all fixed yet?"  I finished my hidden stitches and the moment of truth was upon me.  You see, E is so good at maneuvering Bear by the nape of his saggy neck that I didn't know if he would be mad or excited that there was no longer a nape to grip as well as a flaccid little nose to stroke upon his cheek.

The verdict was...

 Happy.   In this picture he was saying "Mommy, he's big!  He's big!"

Testing out the new nose on his chin.

Still testing the nose.

And...once more from a different angle testing the nose.

Satisfied enough to get cozy. :)

Before

After

Before

After

I like that his lovable grotesqueness is still there with his misshapen head and smile that goes to the side.  But he's feeling much better after his reverse lypo.  E couldn't be more pleased, and I, well I am just relieved that I didn't accidentally put an end to this guy.  Now I know why doctors aren't supposed to treat family members.

Rain and Shine

It's been crazy weather around here.  Last week we were all wearing summer clothes, enjoying the 80-degree weather.  We had bike rides, walks, playtime at the park, had fun splashing in our kiddie pool, and we ate popsicles.  Also, Emerson played choo-choo with Sammi when he figured out how to wind a string around the handle of the laundry basket so he could pull her around.

She's such a good sport.

Then cold, rainy weather decided to rear its ugly head and we've been stuck inside all day.  That made me decide to break out the igloo tent so we all didn't go crazy.  (You should hear E say "igloo" with no L.  It's quite hilarious.)  I don't mind being home, but the kids are itching to do something and Sammi is getting two new teeth so she's been super fussy and unhappy.  The tent did cheer them both up some though.

When E lets her in, anyway.

Their favorite game is to have Sammi scratch the outside of the tent while E scratches from the inside of the tent and then they collapse in a fit of giggles until they're ready to do it again.  It's all fun and games until E decides he needs to bop the "monster" on the head.

She is quite ferocious.  And fast.  See how she's zoom-crawling?

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom and my mother-in-law.

I wish we lived closer so I could leave a love note on your pillow like I used to do all the time growing up, but this is the best I can do. :)

 I love you and think you are the best mom in the world.  Thanks for talking to me every day for a long time (except for Thursdays when you work) and for giving me so much love and support while I am so far away.  Thanks for letting me vent to you, for not judging me, encouraging me when I feel like I'm not doing well at things, and for teaching me so many things so I can try to be the best mom I can.  Thanks for instilling a love of reading in me, a strong sense of fairness (hee hee), a sense of responsibility, and for teaching me to work hard because being a mom is a lot of hard work.  As I get older I'm starting to understand and appreciate you and everything you do more and more.  You are precious!

Love you!

Nin

Cincinnati Again

 Our friends, the Despains, invited us to go to Cincinnati last weekend with them to EnterTRAINment Junction.  Since there was a Reds game Friday night, we decided to make a weekend out of it and find a hotel room on hotwire.com.  We headed out as soon as Ben was done with his test and the kiddos were up from their naps.

Here's E and his friend William.  E refers to him as "my best friend William".

I exist! (Thanks Aunt Nat for the cute princess hoodie!)

This was before Emerson toppled under the railing and fell down the stadium stairs...(don't worry, he was ok)

 Our fam at the game.  The first one we went to was SUPER hot and humid, and Sammi was only 3 weeks old.  WHAT WERE WE THINKING!?  I guess I just really needed to get out?  Well anyway, the weather was perfect this time.

Staying in a hotel is so much fun!  Even if Dad is supposed to be watching the baby and she falls off the bed when the hotel worker knocks on the door to bring the crib and Mom is in the bathroom...

The best part about hotel-staying is swimumum in the pool.  Especially if you have a Thomas swimsuit.

Or just a hot bod to show off in your tankini. (I love to squish those thighs!)

Here was the whole reason for the trip!  EnterTRAINment Junction.  It was awesome again, and the little boys loved it.  I would recommend it even if you or your kids aren't crazy about trains.  It's pretty amazing.  After we were all trained-out, we had lunch and browsed through the Thomas train store.

(Notice E trying to watch the wheels)

The kids had some good naps in the car all the way home after such a fun trip.  Thanks for inviting us!

9 Months

 Weight: 17 lbs. 6 oz. (22%)

Height: 27.5" (45%)

Head Circumference: 17.25" (43%)

Miss Sammi decided to turn 9 months on us!  She is at such a fun/hard age.  I feel like her personality is starting to show through even more, and she is such a funny little thing.  The hard part is that she's super wiggly and enjoys listening to her own voice when it's completely quiet (like in Relief Society).  She is such a sweetie pie, even when her brother likes to experiment by bopping her on the head with things.  Usually I just get mad at him out of principle, since Sammi isn't usually bothered by it.

Sammi, at 9 months you:

-Have had lots of ear infections

-Are content to play with your toys on the floor

-Take 2 21/2-3 hour naps per day, usually at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

-You take 4 6-oz. bottles of formula per day along with your rice cereal and fruits and vegetables.

-You just started having chunks of green beans, banana, bread, and had your first taste of yogurt and ice cream (big yum!)

-You still spit up periodically and Mom can't wait until you're done so we can get the carpets cleaned

-You think it's hilarious to try to tackle your brother, and we think it's hilarious when you succeed and he's so surprised that he can't cry or complain, especially when you are laughing maniacally.

-You like playing with tags on your toys.  When we hand you your Minnie doll to go to sleep with, somehow you always find the fabric tag on her bottom and play with it with your chubby fingers.

-The bathroom fascinates you, usually because your brother hangs out in there all the time (or so it seems).

-You hate having your nose or face wiped

-You always cry when we put you in your highchair until you realize there are puffs and/or cheerios to pick up and eat.

-You still roll your ankles when you are pleased with something.

-Your new favorite game is peekaboo and you can do it around the corner or by holding up a blanket or burp cloth to your face.

-You can clap your chubby little hands and wave.

-You have four teeth- 2 on top, 2 on the bottom.

-You hate having your diaper changed.

-You love the bath because you're really good at splashing with both legs and arms at the same time and it's something you get to do with your big brother.

-You like to tease your brother by trying to get his trains and pull apart his train tracks and you don't put up much of a fight when he takes those things away from you.  That's how I know that you know you're guilty.

-You are the cutest girl in the whole world.

The kiddos got their pictures taken together when I took E for his 3-year-old pictures.  I think they're pretty cute.

Tubes

Our sweet little Sammi had tubes put in her ears this morning.  All went smoothly, and she'll hopefully be back to her normal happy self by the end of the day.  We thought she was most likely the cutest patient they've ever had...especially in that tiny hospital gown!

 It wasn't very fun to try to keep her happy when she was starving.  They don't let them have anything to eat for 3-4 hours before surgery for a baby her age.  Her surgery was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and we had to be there at 6:30 a.m.  They said she could have juice no later than 5:30, so I decided to wake her up just before then to give her a little something so she wasn't hysterical the whole time we were waiting.

She was very solemn the whole time we were waiting and wouldn't crack a smile until just before they were going to take her in to surgery.  I'm pretty sure she knew something was going down, and she wouldn't like it.  On the up side, she did get to smell bubble gum scent as they put her to sleep.  I thought it was a little funny when they asked me whether she wanted strawberry, grape, fruit punch, bubble gum, or root beer since she has no idea what any of those things are.  But I thought bubble gum sounded happy. 

 I like that she looks like a little caged animal with her chew toy.

I'll admit, I got a little teary handing her over to the nurse.  I wanted to tell them to be sure to do a good job or something, but I figured they knew I wanted that. :)

 
After the surgeon, Dr. Wiet, reported on how everything went, we were told to go to the recovery room to meet Sammi.  Down the hall, we heard a screaming hysterical baby and my heart went out to the mother of that child, and then I realized when we turned the corner that it was MY baby screaming like that with the nurse holding her.  It broke my heart to see her so disoriented and uncomfortable.  She was happiest in Daddy's arms and settled down when she got some of that yummy apple juice again (which was only the second time she'd ever had it...the first time being at 5:25 that morning.)  She cried a lot, which they said was normal, and that I should expect her to be irritable because kids usually have little twinges of ear pain after they get tubes.  I hope she'll feel better overall though, because they drained some fluid when they placed the tubes, and now we're supposed to follow up with antibiotic drops to put in her ears.

Poor little sweetie

I'm just looking forward to taking it easy today and getting in some good snuggles.