Matthias

Is my crazy boy! He is so silly and energetic and happy. He pops right out of bed at 5am and doesn't stop until 7 pm (except for the small nap time respite). He's always going full speed ahead and keeping us all on our toes.

This morning he said the morning prayer...

"Bless us safe from the crocodile in the river. Biting our heads off. Dinosaur."

Riiight.

We've been on our jungle/rain forest kick lately. Reading the jungle book with Matthias is tons of fun because he never believes what I tell him. Such as this is a toucan:


No, parrot. No, it's a toucan. No.

Or look a black-and-white colobus. No, monkey. Well yes, but its name is black-and-white colobus. No, monkey.

Cool, it's an Indian pangolin. No, dragon.

Why don't you just read the book to me?

He is our big ham and always into mischief. Although he will follow James anywhere and believe everything he says. My favorite is when he says something and James tells him "No, it's..." and Matthias says, "Oh."


Lately he has decided to change his own diaper when he is poopy if we aren't quick enough. One morning he came in to tell me he was poopy. I said I would be right down. A few minutes later he told me again. "I'm getting up. I'll be right there." Next time I open my eyes he's standing next to my bed holding his poopy diaper in his hands. A nice wet, gooey one. Carried all the way from down stairs up to my room. Yuck!

Matthias loves being a big brother and mostly thinks it is quite hilarious. He is constantly 'showering' Hannah with toys or covering her with blankets. And then laughing hysterically. So I always know when he's being naughty. But he is a great helper always fetching diapers and sometimes helping to feed if we get desperate!



Matthias could color for hours, and sometimes does. It's basically the only way to get him to hold still. He loves coloring and frequently comes home from nursery with several handouts. They make extra copies just for him! His fine motor skills have always been phenomenal. (see!)

He also is very good at puzzles and I Spy books. Something in his brain just connects so well with these activities and he really enjoys them. We have several 24 piece puzzles that he loves to do.


He takes so much energy and patience, but man is he cute! We love this little man to pieces! Everyday he is so sweet and fun and happy. He makes me laugh and shows me how to love life!

Preschool was about Rain Forests today...

Attempting to convince Taylor to take me here.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

James Speak & Matthias Chatter

James: Drive fast. As fast as you can so the polices don't get you. Drive medium. (meaning drive as fast as it's legal, not as fast as possible to get away...)


Me: Next week is the last week of your dinosaur class. Then you start swim lessons and then we go to Utah. A few weeks after we get home you'll start preschool.
James: And then Kindergarten.
(whoa, let's not get too ahead of ourselves)


Me: I can't do it with one hand (I was feeding Hannah)
Matthias: Three hands.
Wouldn't that be nice sometimes?

Henry's Courage

Our friends have a pretty hilarious 3 year old. Here is his new version of "Nephi's Courage". Keep in mind Ellis is his baby brother. For more by Henry go to the home page of their blog. Enjoy your weekend!

Argh!

Guess what will be really frustrating? In 12 years when I have to drag Matt out of bed for early morning seminary.

Hannah Banana

disclaimer: This post expresses my personal thoughts, I am not judging any decision you have made. It has no effect on my opinion of you. Please don't be offended or think I am having a 'better than thou' moment.

So I've alway maintained the opinion that my daughter(s) will never wear sleeveless clothing. At all. Obviously as long as I am making the choice...ie when I am dressing her and even when I am still buying her clothes. Hopefully after that point she will decide on her own to be modest. Do I think there is anything wrong with a 2 year old wearing a tank top? No. A 16 year old. Yes. So when does that change take place? 4? 8? The vague onset of puberty?

Now I finally have my girl. And I was looking at summer outfits. And a lot of them don't have sleeves. I always buy the ones with sleeves. Until a couple weeks ago I bought one without. And figured I would just sew sleeves on. Until I realized, Hello. Hannah doesn't wear pants. Which is more cause for concern...bare shoulders or completely, 100% bare thighs?

So my new conclusion: Hannah can wear sleeveless (meaning no sleeves, but not spagetti straps) until it is no longer kosher for her to go sans pants. Which for me is about when my kids start walking. And then they just look weird with no pants on. So 9 or 10 months if trends hold.

Logical conclusion or poor justification?

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

While searching for a picture of my Texas bathroom I came across this post. And realized number one why I love blogging. I NEVER would have remembered that moment without typing it down. And number two Matthias has had this 5:30 problem for quite some time.

We've tried many things (later bed time, seperate rooms, confinement to bedroom in moring, etc). But I think we have finally given up. Honestly 5:30am I can handle. It's 4am that is really not okay with me. Because that's what was happening since Hannah would wake up about 4:15 to eat and by the time she was fed and back to bed it was nearly 5. Meaning I had about 20 minutes to fall back asleep before I heard the stomp, stomp of boots across the wood floor. Have I mentioned I very much dislike cowboy boots at 5 in the morning? Very much.

Side note: One really disturbing fact about Colorado is at 4:40 am, yes AM people, while I am awake feeding Hannah, the sunlight begins streaming through our bedroom window. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. It is a true fact. And it is scary.

Fortunately for us Hannah has started sleeping until about 5 or 5:30. Yeah!! So we have been too, dispite the audacious sun. And since we now go to bed at 9 pm (9:30 if we're really crazy) we are actually slowing adjusting to the early wake up time. Slowly. However when you have exercised, breakfasted, read scriptures, thrown dinner in the crock pot, and showered by 7:30 am you're really feeling good. And the wondering what on earth to do for the next 12 hours until bed time...

I will admit we bought blackout shades for $12 at Wal-mart. I didn't really expect that to help, but I did hold out a small hope they might buy me until 6 am. Or at least 5:45. No such luck. It's pitch black in the boys' room right now. Mid day, pitch black. No help for the early riser. So enjoy your children who sleep until 6:30. Rejoice in their sleepiness. And be glad your sun doesn't rise until after 5.

Again Mom, again!

Obviously my boys are obsessed with this...

Taylor Update

Brief history for those not aware...Taylor has a history of lung collapses. The first was about nine years ago while he was serving a mission in Portland, OR. It was the worse and was on the left side. Since then he has only had collapses on the right side, maybe 6 or 7? Apparently it's not too common to have collapses on both sides.

His collapses (otherwise known as spontaneous pneumothorax) are caused by blebs on the top of the lung that pop letting air out of the lung and into the chest cavity. The blebs then seal back over and the lung stops letting out air, but cannot expand because of the air in the chest cavity. In Taylor's case he has always just waited for the lung to reabsorb the air and has never gotten a chest tube. He largest collapse has been a 25%. After the first two we have not gone to a doctor as Taylor can feel when they collapse and if you don't get a chest tube then all you can do is wait for it to fix itself.

Taylor had no collapses for the 2.5 years we were in Houston. He had 2 within the six months after moving to Denver. The last stuck around for several days so he finally went to a doctor to get a chest x-ray. At the time of the x-ray he was at a 25% collapse. Long story associated with this, but he still just let it absorb by itself.

After the last collapse we opted to finally get the surgery (blebectomy and pleurodesis). At the time of his first collapse the surgery still involved cracking the chest cavity so you can see why we have avoided it. Now they do it with scope.

He went in Wednesday morning and the surgery went really well. The doctor cut off the top portion of the lung (blebectomy) and did find a bleb. The performed the pleurodesis and all went great. Taylor was then on a chest tube for 72 hours. They do this to make sure all the air gets out of the chest cavity, etc. He had a small leak in his lung for the first day, but it resolved itself quickly. The doctor kept him on the tube because recently he had a patient where they removed the chest tube too early and his lung collapsed, etc. So for 72 hours Taylor was hooked to a small box which was hooked to the wall to continue suctioning his chest cavity. He had about 8 feet of tube...just enough to get from his bed to the bathroom.

We also found out right after surgery that he is allergic to morphine. It gives him hives. He found out about his other drug allergy (sulfa) with his first collapse...it also gives him hives.

He is now home, but still feeling sore and weird and drugged although he hasn't taken any vicatin for over 24 hours. Can't lift more than 10 lbs, but he is cheating with Hannah (she's about 13 or 14). We were very blessed to have Taylor's mom out to help this past week tending kids, cooking, visiting Taylor, etc. The 35 minute drive to the hospital got pretty old quick. And I had to leave Hannah a lot. Something I had not yet done (except a little bit here and there with Taylor).

We are happy to have him back home and doing good! He requested no photos.

James Speak

Me: Hopefully our daddy will be home tomorrow. We don't want to wait until Sunday.
James: Yeah, because our dad is the strongest and the bravest.


James: What do 6 and 3 make. (holding cups with 6 birds and 3 flowers)
Me: Count and see.
James: (after counting starting with the 6 cup) Nine! pause What if you do 3 first?
Me: Count again.
James: Nine!

He's already a little math whiz!

Cameron & Lesley

Taylor's younger brother and his wife came out to visit this weekend. They actually don't leave until tomorrow, but Taylor's lung surgery is Wednesday so I might not get a whole lot of posting done after that. So I thought I would post today.

Friday we picked them up from the airport and headed straight to Rocky Mountain National Park. It has been in the 70s so we packed sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, etc. I guess we spent too long in Houston because we got to the mountains and realized there was still about 2-3 feet of snow on the higher elevation hikes. Whoops. Luckily we have jackets in the car at all times for the boys. And since we had come straight from the airport Cam and Lesley had extra jackets in their luggage. So after driving back down to a lower elevation we enjoyed a fun hike around a lake and tromped through a field to find a beaver pond. The boys loved that and got tossed back and forth from river bank to river bank.







Saturday was a relax day. And thanks to a family friend we got to enjoy the Denver Chop House that night for dinner. Leaving the boys home with a babysitter. Hannah slept through all of dinner and I got surf and turf. So really it was quite a good time! Also it was prom night so I got to spend half of dinner socially analyzing the table next to us. It was fascinating, but also kind of sad to see all those girls in such scandoulus outfits. The best part however was that they spilled water three times. Three! The waiters kept having the change their table cloth. Very hilarious.

Sunday was a great Mother's Day. I got flowers from the boys and a pink jump drive from Taylor. Having graduated college still using a 3.5 floppy I was pretty excited to get my first jump drive. Now I feel up to date with technology. If only I can think of what I need to save on it and transfer somewhere...

Today we met Taylor downtown for lunch, are heading to the park after nap time...unfortunately that doesn't include me, but everyone besides me and James is napping. Then tonight for Family Home Evening we are going to drive out to the Denver Temple.

James found a butterfly while we were eating lunch. Right after these pictures he kissed it and it flew away.



Tomorrow should be fairly chill and then I drop Cameron and Lesley off and pick up Taylor's mom...to help with the boys while Taylor is in the hospital.

We're so glad Cameron and Lesley could come visit us and we have had a great time. Although staying up until 11 playing games every night is really starting to hit us with the 5:30 wake up time of the boys. Not to mention Hannah eating at 3 or so.

Blog of the Day

My new favorite blog.

Lovelylisting.com

This post and this one won me over.

Kim!

Kim came to visit last weekend and I was so happy! We had a great time. I forgot how much I love hanging out with her! She is so easy and fun to talk with and we just chatted all weekend. It flew by so quickly.

We spent most our time talking, but we did get in a couple games of Trivial Pursuit...finally someone beat Taylor. I can never do it. We went to the zoo on Saturday despite the freezing temps. It was 75 the day before Kim came and has been 70 or over since the day after she left. But all weekend it was around 50. We also ate out and made homemade lava cakes. (so easy, and SO yummy.)

Our girls were totally meant to be best friends. They compliment each other in every way and are nothing alike...




Thanks so much to Bryan and Taylor for the fun weekend. You guys were great sports!

Felt Food

Loving this! Made a donut today and ready for fruit as soon as I can run to JoAnns...which is no small feat.

SD card not reading as usual. I so do not get along with computers. Imagine a really cute felt donut.

PS. Finally updated Preschool Party. Should receive updates once a week now. I think we're back up to speed.

Natural Childbirth

Would I choose to do natural childbirth again?

Yes.

I know a few of you talked to me the day after and I told you how crazy I was and to never, ever under any circumstances to go natural. The memory has faded. =]

Having a natural childbirth really was an amazing experience and I feel if we had been better prepared everything would have gone a lot smoother. Up until the last about 90 minutes everything was going fine. It was hurting, but I was in control and SO, SO happy to not be immobile. What I hate about medicated childbirth is the fact that you cannot get out of the bed. Even at the beginning if you don't have an epidural yet you are generally hooked up to an IV, monitors, etc. All of which I very much dislike. By simply stating you don't want these items everything is so much more comfortable. But you have to be prepared!

I highly suggest actually doing some research. So you say you don't like reading non fiction or those books are just boring. Well, I don't really love reading car reports or searching for every opinion I can before buying a computer. But you do. So you'll get the best outcome. I would say the birth of you baby is a lot bigger deal than any of these "major" purchase. You might not choose to go natural, but you should still educate yourself on your options.

Get educated and make a good decision for you, your baby, and your family.

When we have our next child Taylor and I have already decided we will spend a lot more time getting prepared. We decided on natural childbirth at about 2 months along or maybe earlier. But we didn't pick a method until about 5 to 6 months along. And it was simply not enough time to prepare. Giving birth naturally it not just something you can do on a whim. (if you can, you're amazing). It takes a lot of preparation physically, mentally, and emotionally. You really have to get yourself ready for the experience and know what you will do. Next time Taylor and I will start practicing our relaxation at 3 months or so. And we are planning to take the actual Bradley Childbirth class. This time around being the arrogant people we are, we figured if we just read the book we would be fine. Next time we'll take the class. Being fully prepared is the best way to go. Then you can shorten the "I'll never make it, I'm going to die" time to only 20 or 30 minutes. =] But know that it will come. Because when you hit that last stage no matter what you've done, you will lose it. But it's okay.

My biggest regret was that immediately after birth I was not feeling up to holding and bonding with my baby. I was exhausted physically and mentally. I couldn't take any more. And I was really looking forward to that perfect time right after birth. I really think by preparing better we can capture those precious moments next time. That and making sure they have 18 heater blankets ready. Birth makes me SO cold. Like so cold I can't think rationally. That cold. Brrr.

Now to my analogy of natural birth and running. Because I know most of you out there say "WHY?" What would ever posses you to want to go unmedicated? Well, I read about it and felt it would be best for us. I knew it would be hard, I knew it would take a lot of work. But in the end it was totally worth it for us. Hannah and I were healthy and happy. She had no jaundice, I recovered quickly. I could walk and move. I was able to get in whatever position I chose. I didn't have to have a big needle in my back...hate that. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and empowerment. Huge. I prepared and worked hard and I did it. And it was worth it.

I cannot understand why anyone would ever, ever want to run 26 miles. I do not get it. Why would you ever choose to put yourself through that? It sounds exhausting, painful and really just plain stupid to me. Who needs to run for 26 miles straight? We have cars. You can drive. WHY? I do not get it. I would never willingly do that. And yet I have many friends and famliy members who spend lots of time preparing to do just that. They train and work hard. They run and they are exhausted and they hurt. And yet they feel a great sense of accomplishment. They fill strong and empowered and amazed that they were able to train their bodies to accomplish such an amazing feat. And they don't even get a beautiful, precious baby at the end. And yet they still feel satisfied. Don't get it. But respect it. And am amazed by it.

Natural Childbirth is a healthy choice for mothers and babies. I reconize it is not for everyone. Each person and family should make their own decision. But it really is worth the effort. Birth is a wonderful process. We were meant to have babies and the 'pain' associated with that is not bad or something wrong. We don't have to fix it or make it go away. It is a natural process and it's beautiful. I plan to give birth naturally again. Just don't ask me about it the day after. =]

Sitting Pretty

Hannah is getting so big! I just think she is adorable! So she already has been loving the Bumbo. I think she started it around 7 weeks old. I tend to do everything earlier than most I've noticed, but we just love to get them independent and moving. So much more fun for the babies and exciting for us. She already loves her Exersaucer (we call it a Play Station and in the future will refer to it as thus). I think in about two weeks she'll be ready to sit at the table in her high chair. Only 7 more weeks until she gets rice cereal!! Can't wait.

Mormon Ad

I tried to find out if this is a legit Mormon Ad, but I couldn't. It's fun none the less. Enjoy.


(Coming this week...my thoughts on natural childbirth. I'm not kidding, it's coming.)