Family Home Evening

We had a nice family home evening last night. A good lesson from The Friend, ice cream, reading scriptures together, and of course a fun game, chosen by Lacy. Who always chooses hide and seek.

Rose was hiding. She thought she was doing a pretty good job of it too.

Here's where we found her.

It's amazing anyone could find her at all.

My Kind is in Kindergarten

Today was the first day of Kindergarten! Lacy was so excited! She could hardly sleep last night because of all the excitement, and then she woke up at 7 on the dot this morning. Which means she fell asleep before 8 o'clock tonight.

Getting ready to go!
She found her seat in her classroom. She is excited to sit at the yellow table, because the yellow table has purple handled scissors.
But Rose was pretty upset to have her sister gone
Really, really upset. She cried all the way home. OK, actually she cried until Dave gave her some M&Ms (which she calls yum yums)
But she was excited to come pick her up at the end of her first day of kindergarten!
Lacy emerging triumphantly from her first day of kindergarten!
She had such a good time! She can't wait to go again tomorrow! Tomorrow she's riding the bus! I will be driving to the school and meeting her there to make sure she knows where to go, and on Wednesday, she'll go it alone! I'm a little bit nervous about that, actually. But I know she'll do great!

Lacy Won!

Tonight was our school's open house. School starts tomorrow, except for kindergarten, which starts on Monday. But we wanted to take a look around the school and see Lacy's classroom, meet some of the other teachers, and see the other kids. We had a lot of fun!

One of the events was going into the gym, visiting all the booths and getting a stamp from each of them, and entering a drawing for 8 passes plus pizza and drinks from Charlie's Safari, a locally owned fun center for kids that is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese, only way cooler because it has a giant playland (like McDonald's but much larger), bounce houses, and laser tag. I forgot to grab the entry form, so we had to go back through all the booths again so we could enter. But I'm glad I did, because Lacy won!!! She is so excited to get to go to Charlie's Safari and have a little party there with her sister and 6 other people. I'm so surprised that she won! It's such a huge blessing to our family, since there's no way we could afford going there without free tickets.

(Almost) Halfway There!

On Thursday I will be 20 weeks. So halfway there! Today I went to the midwife and we had a great appointment. I may have to give up my dream of having a birth center birth in my city, because it looks like there's a big possibility of it not being completed in time. I called the birth center farther north and will schedule myself there, but if it's snowy, I'll probably end up having a homebirth because I'd be much more comfortable there than, you know, giving birth on the side of the road (which is entirely possible, since my first labor was quite short, and if we're held up because of bad weather, which is entirely possible based on the weather we experienced last year...). Plus I've already had a homebirth, so it's not like it's an idea I'm not at all comfortable with anyway.

So, the appointment went really well, and Constance (the midwife) was able to hear the heartbeat with the fetoscope, which was great considering I'm not yet 20 weeks. My blood pressure was extremely low- something like 80/46. I was impressed with how low it was. So far, I've gained 7 pounds, and my fundal height was 22 cm (so, a little bigger than average, but I'm a 3rd time mom and I have bigger than average babies anyway). I'm feeling pretty good other than a ton of braxton hicks contractions that I'm getting several times an hour. Constance said if they got to be too many, just lie down for a while on my left side, and I really only need to call if they feel labor-y. That's kind of what I figured anyway.

The girls really enjoyed going to the midwife with me, and were excited about telling her that the new baby is a boy. They got to listen through the fetoscope, too, which they enjoyed. It's a lot different than listening to the doppler, but it's more fun, too, since you have to put on your ears.

Baby #3 on HIS way!

Today we got to get a sneak peek into the womb, and discovered that we are going to have a boy! The ultrasound technician said she doesn't give absolutes because nothing is certain until the baby is born, and the highest she gives is 90%... she gave us a 90% chance that this little one is a boy. And looking at my pictures, I believe it!

So here he is... your first look at our first little guy!


It's a boy!

Weaned.

I'm an extended breastfeeder. I decided when I read my first breastfeeding book when I was pregnant, I would breastfeed my babies until at least age 2, per the World Health Organization's recommendation. Well, the second birthday came and went for both my girls, and I knew they weren't ready yet, so I continued on. Lacy weaned at 39 months, a little less than 2 years ago.

Rose is just under 39 months. And she hasn't nursed in three days. I gave her the choice last night and the night before. Tonight I didn't even offer. I did ask her vaguely if there was anything else that she needed before she went to bed. All she wanted was to read Wolf's Coming and get a drink of water. I tucked her into bed. Ten minutes later, she was asleep. I'm not going to offer to nurse her again. If she asks, I'm going to tell her that they're for the new baby. She'll probably have mostly forgotten about nursing by the time the baby comes in January, anyway. Sure, she'll always know what it is, but by January, with a new baby cousin coming a few months before, she'll associate it with babies, not with herself. Which is fine by me. I was ready to be done nursing her. I think that's the beauty of extended breastfeeding. When it's time to end the relationship, everybody's ready, which makes it easier to deal with. Plus, the gradual weaning means less engorgement (unless, like me, you're either nursing a younger sibling or pregnant again with a diminished milk supply).

I'm not sad about weaning her, but I am a little sad about the end of an era. How did my little Roo Roo go from this:


To this:


But soon, another little nursling will be added to our family, and a new era will begin.

WARNING!!! Disturbing and/or Creepy Photos in the Following Blog Post!

There's a new doll in town. OK, maybe not in OUR town exactly, but it's available in Spain. It's a breastfeeding doll. You put the little halter top with flower "nipples" on the child, and put the baby up to the "breast" and it makes little nursing noises.

While I personally wouldn't buy a doll such as this for my child, I understand the appeal of it to parents wishing to encourage little children to think of breastfeeding as the normal way of feeding a child. That's not my beef. My beef is with other people's reactions to this doll.

Here's a quote from one article I read: "Although many health care providers promote the benefits of breast-feeding, parents around the world have criticized Berjuan, saying the idea of breast-feeding is too grown-up for young children -- and may even promote early pregnancy."

Um... no. Because we've been promoting bottle feeding of babies for years and years. If you were to use that argument, you'd have to use all types of care taking of baby dolls as promoting early pregnancy. Breastfeeding is just another way to FEED a BABY. That argument really just doesn't make any sense, unless you are promoting the idea of taking away all baby dolls completely. Then children would go back to using corncob dolls like Laura Ingalls and nursing those instead of baby dolls! I personally breastfed all of my baby dolls and I gave birth for the first time at age 26 after nearly 4 years of marriage. Perhaps in some cultuers that is an early pregnancy, but I was one of the later ones in my group of friends to begin having children, so I don't think so!

Another quote from the same article:

Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FOXNews.com, said although he supports the idea of breast-feeding, he sees how his own daughter plays with dolls and wonders if Bebe Gloton might speed up maternal urges in the little girls who play it.

“Pregnancy has to entail maturity and understanding,” Alvarez said. “It’s like introducing sex education in first grade instead of seventh or eighth grade. Or, it could inadvertently lead little girls to become traumatized. You never know the effects this could have until she’s older.”

Seriously, I just want to knock some sense into this guy right about now. Honestly. Traumatized? By mimicking how a baby is fed? I really don't know how pregnancy comes to play in this argument. Many little girls pretend to be mothers, and are pretending to be their biological mothers. They'll stuff dolls down their shirts and "give birth" to them on their beds. So somehow, breastfeeding a doll will speed up maternal urges more than pretending to be a doll's biological mother? How, exactly, will it do that?

But seriously. Traumatized? By pretending to breastfeed their doll? Really?

“What’s next?” wrote Eric Ruhalter, a parenting columnist for New Jersey’s Star Ledger. “Bebe Sot — the doll who has a problem with a different kind of bottle, and loses his family, job and feelings of self-worth? Bebe Limp — the male doll who experiences erectile dysfunction? Bebe Cell Mate — a weak, unimposing doll that experiences all the indignation and humiliation of life in prison?

"Toy themes should be age appropriate. I think so anyway.”

Oh, for heaven's sake. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Little girls like baby dolls. What's wrong with having a nursing baby doll? I've often wished for a baby doll to come with a little pretend breastpump instead of a bottle so my girls could pretend to pump like mommy does sometimes. Because it is something that some little girls are interested in playing with, and would like to pretend to be a real mommy. How is a breastfeeding doll not age appropriate? Little girls see their mothers, aunts and other females in their lives breastfeeding their babies. They want to be just like them. Therefore, a doll company is filling a niche.

But the worst of all is comments from people who think that little girls breastfeeding their dolls are disturbing or inappropriate.

Comments from an online publication asking for opinions about this doll:

"This is sick!!! Why not go ahead and show young children how to use a condom. I have 4 children of my own, aren't we supposed to protect our children from knowing things like this? Wait until they are old enough, then let them in on things. This doll is taking it way too far!"

"...However, if my sweet, innocent daughter came to me and wanted this doll; I would be mortified. Why don't I just tell her about sex and how babies are created why I am @ it? There are just some things that need to be learned later in life. Breastfeeding is something she will learn about in Sex Ed."

"Yes this Breast Feeding doll is going to far, I can't believe someone would come up with this!!!!! Whoever thought up something sucking on little girls non grown boobs yet is sick and you need help."

Seriously, my head is going to explode any second now. And this is just scratching the surface of what I've heard about this doll. People calling the sight of seeing a little child pretending to breastfeed a doll "disturbing," or "creepy." Seriously, people! It's a CHILD mimicing a loving act between a mother and a baby! All children should know about breastfeeding, and how it is the NORMAL way for a child to eat, and doesn't need to be hidden from view. It is not a shameful act. Why are we treating it as such? If more people saw breastfeeding on a regular basis, it wouldn't be such a big deal, and we wouldn't freak out about a silly little doll that breastfeeds. And, we'd probably have higher breastfeeding rates, too. Which isn't a bad thing! In fact, breastfeeding rates are abysmally low in our country, so anything to help little girls start thinking of breastfeeding as the normal way to feed a baby will be beneficial in the long run.

With no further adieu, the disturbing and/or creepy photos I took of my daughter tandem nursing her "twin" babies the other day.

Isn't that disturbing? She's pretending to be a mommy! Of twins! That's just WROOOONG!

Update on Dave

This morning, Dave wasn't any better than he was Saturday or Sunday (although, he was quite a bit more hydrated thanks to the 2000ml of IV fluid he got in the ER). None of the medications he got were working, and his joints were very painful and he could hardly stand to be touched. We knew he needed an evaluation by our family doctor.

Dave went in for an appointment this morning just before noon. He got a diagnosis (which I'm not going to name on my public blog because it's his illness and since we're talking GI tract illness, I'm leaving it up to him), an antibiotic, a non-narcotic but strong pain medication, plus he was instructed to double up on another medication he was prescribed. Considering how poorly he was feeling this morning, the turnaround he's had this evening is simply miraculous. He has truly turned the corner, and I think he's going to be better in time for our hot date on Wednesday (our 9th anniversary!).

I have a lot to be thankful for tonight.

Listening to Promptings

Dave got sick on Friday. Really sick. He tried to get a hold of our home teacher to give him a blessing of healing, but wasn't able to get through to him. About 10 o'clock on Friday night, we get a knock on our door. It's our home teacher, bringing us a bag of clothing from his sister-in-law. He felt a very strong prompting that he needed to bring the clothes over then. He was able to give Dave a blessing at that time, which was a huge comfort to us.

Dave knew, however, that his illness was more than just a run-of-the-mill virus. We lost our insurance in July, but thankfully Dave had enough hours banked to have insurance in August. So Saturday, August 1, we ended up taking him into the ER so he could get some fluids into his body- he was pretty dehydrated, despite his best efforts to hydrate his body. He just was unable to absorb any liquids at all. He ended up receiving two liters of fluid via IV, and then a couple 'scripts, and then we left for home. He still feels poorly. But the doctor said all tests came back negative, so it is probably just a GI tract virus, which should last about 72 hours. If Dave still feels this badly tomorrow, we will have him visit the family doctor in the morning. Hopefully his meds will start working and he can get feeling back to normal quickly.

The Best Time to Wean

Yes, Rose is still nursing. She's 3 year old, just turned in May. But the time has come (for me, not for her) that the nursing relationship needs to come to an end. Mainly because I'm too hot to nurse her anymore. Which is why July is the ideal time to wean- incentive to keep plugging along until the task is done! I still give her five minutes before bed, then I lie down with her for a few minutes. Usually Dave will lie down with her until she's asleep, but tonight 1) Dave's not home and 2) It's so hot she's having trouble settling down anyway. So she's in the bedroom crying and whining. I'm doing what I can to console her, but I can't lie down with her the entire time. I would like to have her in her own bed before another little munchkin joins our crew, and that's happening in the not-too-distant future!

But we'll keep plugging away. It will only get hotter, so my distaste for being touched will only increase. The next step (after she's mastered lying down in bed and falling asleep sans mama) will be to nurse before spiritual time, then brush teeth and stories, then bed. Then, cut it out altogether.

I weaned Lacy right around this age, too. It's funny that she seemed so much older and more mature than Rose seems.

Camping

We went camping the first weekend in June. Yeah, I'm a little behind! Like I said before, June is my worst month, and after this weekend campout, my allergies acted up like never before (since last year anyway) and I started getting the morning sickness. That combination wasn't pretty!

Here's where we stayed... beautiful Wynoochee Dam


But it was a little cold. The past few days had been in the 80s and 90s, so silly me only packed one pair of pants and one sweatshirt for each girl. And no jackets. Of course, Rose, who hasn't had an accident in months, had an accident within a couple of hours of arriving at the campground. Nice.

Fortunately, I did bring footie jamies. Which are actually difficult when you're camping and there are no working bathrooms, just outhouses. Bummer.

Lacy loved playing on this old tree stump. It was her platform where she would perform, do tricks, jump, climb, and just chill out. It was right by papa's campground, where everyone hung out most of the time.

This next one looks like we've been walking for hours. But really, we just walked down to the lake and back. I have no idea where my girls get their drama queen attitudes from. Really, none.

With Aunt Julie. Notice Rose polishing off a can of peanuts! That girl was so hungry all of the time this campout! And no wonder-- she just got weighed a couple weeks ago and she was right at 30 pounds! The little stinker gained 4 pounds on me!

The real reason we went to Wynoochee was because of the fishing. The fishing used to be good, but this year, only one fish was caught. And it wasn't even a steelhead, which is what we were after. Fortunately one of the kids caught it, so that was nice. Rose here is showing you the kind of bait you have to use to fish for steelhead. Just need a little cocktail sauce and we'll be set...

I love these girls! Is there anything cuter than three grubby little girls having the time of their lives camping?

I'm still working on getting out some of those stains in those shirts.

We had a little birthday celebration for Rose while we were there, and also for Justin, who had a birthday around the same time as Rose. They had cupcakes, and Rose got to open a present.

She got a stuffed pony, which she absolutely adores! She loves horses.



On the last day, we went for a nice long hike. Most everyone was already gone, so it was just a few of us there who hiked. The hike was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous, and the kids were such troopers during the whole thing. Lacy marched right along and had a great time! Rose mostly rode on people's shoulders.


Pretty soon it was time to say goodbye. We had such a great time, and look forward to our next camping trip!

Poetry Slam!

OK, not really a slam per se... My mother asked us to all memorize a poem for her birthday, in lieu of getting her a gift. She enjoys poetry, and we don't have any money anyway, so this was a good fit for everyone!

Lacy's poem: "Rain, Rain
Went away
Sun came out
With pipe of clay
Blew a bubble
Whole world wide
Stuck a rainbow
On one side"

Lacy's had this poem memorized and ready to go basically since we picked it out a few months ago.

Rose's poem:

"The secret of the polar bear
Is that he wears long underwear."

Except she didn't really have it memorized (not for lack of trying!) and "underwear" comes out something like "unnywayr." She doesn't have her sister's gift of gab, but she does try!

Cooper enjoyed everyone's performances!
Leslie and I forgot to memorize poems ourselves! I recited the first paragraph of the Proclamation to the Family, and Leslie recited the second paragraph. Thank goodness we had something memorized, even if it wasn't a poem!

Dale recited a very animated poem that was a lot of fun (Dale: what poem did you memorize? It was a lot of fun!)

I didn't get a picture of Mark reciting his poem, but it was another long, dramatic poem. Very different style than Dale's poem.

I think Kurt recited Bob Marley lyrics. That was fun! But of course, could we expect Kurt to love another poet as much as Marley?

Dave recited a poem he memorized on his mission, and Dixon recited a poem he wrote as a child.

Regan recited a poem about hippopotamuses (is that how you make it plural? I have no idea.), and I can't remember what poems the rest of the kids recited! It was so fun, though. The kids were all so cute.

Then Regan had to sing "So Long, Farewell," with her mom. At least the first part where they cuckoo.
Lacy was attached to her Grandma

And the little kids rolled around and had fun playing.
Until Rose got so tired she couldn't take it anymore!

Then it was time to go to bed. We had a great time doing this, and hopefully we can have another poetry night again next year! Hopefully Rose can memorize something this time!

Glasses!

This one's all fluff, no substance. So we went to get Dave some new glasses because one of the eyeglass shops has a buy one-get one free deal going on. We had no idea that the "buy one" would cost $400! So we didn't get any glasses. But when we were still considering buying them, Dave tried some glasses on. Since he couldn't see himself in them, I took pictures of him wearing them. The girls wanted in on the action, too. Since they're much cuter than Dave, I will spare you the pictures of him :)



I'm actually going to get Lacy's eyes checked before she starts Kindergarten, and I have a feeling that she may need some glasses, so this may actually be an accurate picture of her in a couple months!

Kiss That Fish!

Yesterday we went to Fawn Lake with the girls, and Lacy reeled in a fish. We told Lacy she had to kiss the fish since she caught it. She obliged!


We met Uncle Chris and Aunt Kelly at the lake, who brought Allison, who is just a few months younger than Rose. They are good friends and love each other. I had to snap this picture when Rose grabbed onto Allison's hand as they walked down toward the lake together.
Lacy, Rose and Allison all played pretend for the rest of the trip, since the fishing wasn't that good and the fish weren't biting very well.
Today would have been a much better day to take the kids fishing-- they brought back an entire cooler filled with fish! Yesterday, we only brought home that one fish Lacy kissed. There were only a few other fish caught yesterday, none of which were keepers. Lacy's fish was a keeper based on the fact that it swallowed the hook!

Happy Fourth

Tonight on the drive home from my parent's house (oh yeah, my parents got home from their mission to Germany on Wednesday, so we've been over there every day since then), the Star Spangled Banner came on the radio. Rose yelled to us, "It's my FAVWIT!" (favorite) which was our cue to turn up the volume. She listened happily to the whole song.

The Booger Dilemma

A few nights ago, Lacy and Dave were home on their own, so at bedtime, Lacy snuggled down with her daddy in our big bed. She picked her nose and had a big booger on it, then asked Dave, "Daddy, what do I do? I've already brushed my teeth!"

Um...

The Big Question

Lacy asked me yesterday how the baby got into mommy's tummy. I knew that question would come someday, but honestly, it threw me for a loop! I told her something along the lines of, Daddy has a seed that goes to mommy's egg, and then that is a baby, and it grows and grows and grows.

June is my worst month.

That's why you're getting my first blog post today. And it's not even a good one. Just an explanation, and a promise of some good blog posts coming soon!

June has always been a bad month for me. My allergies kick into high gear somewhere around the last week of May and the first week of June, and they stick around until the first week of July. My allergies are pretty debilitating for me at times. Some days are worse than others. The bad days are the days that my eyes swell shut and my eyeballs are actually puffy. My nose runs like a faucet, the roof of my mouth itches, and I can't stop sneezing. Prescriptions don't do any good, either. Claritin is a joke. Zyrtec puts me to sleep, and it doesn't do a darned thing. I thought my saving grace was Xyzal, but when I take it, I am so exhausted, even when I take it the night before.

On top of that, I am in my first trimester, the tired trimester. I have had days where I stayed in bed until 11 or so. Lacy gets breakfast for herself and for Rose. She's such a good helper. Then I put in a musical (the current favorite is Annie, but Sound of Music is always appreciated, too) and let the kids watch it until I feel good enough to empty the dishwasher and lie down again.

Fortunately, I don't really get too sick on top of the exhaustion. I guess I lucked out in that regard. But I do occasionally feel nauseated, and once got really sick. But I'm not complaining about that at all!

I didn't mean to turn this into a whine fest, but I guess that's kind of what this became. Sorry. I'm starting to feel much, much better (THANK YOU, June rain!) and am ready to download pictures and start blogging about some topics that I'm really passionate about (since I'm pregnant, pregnancy and birth are on my mind, and it's a topic I love reading about and studying. If I were a nicer person, I'd be a midwife or a doula for sure).

I guess I'll end by saying that other than not getting Rose to sleep until 11 tonight, today was a great day! My friend Diane offered to watch my kids so I could go to the temple this morning. I returned home and watched a musical with my husband and kids (Annie, of course!), had tacos (YUM!), and had a very productive Young Women planning meeting, while also baking bread (YUM!). To add to the joy of today, Dave worked four hours, and is working three days in a row 12 hour shifts, most or all of which will be overtime pay (Union rules and all!). He's starting another project on Monday that may last several days. Hopefully there's more coming! I'm so happy that Dave is working! He's so much happier when he has a job.

Telling Lacy

It was really fun to let Lacy know that I was pregnant. I really wanted to tell my sister first (after Dave, obviously), so it was fun that we had her in our car driving up to Zion's camp a week ago. They had too many passengers in their car, so Les was the one voted off the Suburban and sat between two carseats in our van. Leslie got in, and I said, "So, I have a special secret to share. Do you want to guess what it is?" Leslie's eyes got big immediately and knew exactly what I was talking about. Since we weren't exactly trying, this was unexpected news, for sure! It took a little while for Lacy to figure it out. OK, we told her. But she didn't get it.

Finally, after about a half an hour or so, I said something about how "the egg hatched" and finally it clicked. MOMMY IS PREGNANT!!! Suddenly she couldn't stop talking about how excited she was! "I'm super very very very very very very ONE HUNDRED excited!!!" When we got to the camp site, within about 5 minutes everyone in our group knew we were expecting. The next day, when other people began arriving, they all knew within minutes of arriving as well.

The only reason she didn't end up telling every living soul at church the Sunday after we went camping was because it was Rose's birthday, and she told everyone that news instead! But she's starting to spread the news to her teachers in Primary now that Rose's birthday is over.

Like my new widget?

;)------->