Erin--she has wanted to cut bangs for a long time now, which I kept trying to discourage based on my own experience and her curly hair. Luckily, she decided she wanted long bangs that she could still tuck behind her ear. She is so happy with them, as long as they aren't curly. Her curls are her worst curse in life. If anyone says they like them she will glare at them like they are the cruelest being on earth, so don't try it. She has been having me blow dry her hair straight most of the time, which I am getting better at, so as long as I can keep it up, nobody will ever know about the "you-know-what's".
She has started piano and is doing well at it. I finally got the kids to practice in the morning before school and before Connor wakes up to mess them up while they're playing. Then they have time for homework and playing with friends after school. It has worked out so far. She would love to be in gymnastics but I still have to find a place. Since the Olympics she has been doing cartwheels and fancy gymnist hand movements, so I hope she will enjoy it once she starts.
Alex--I feel like he has grown up so much in the last year. He gave his first talk in primary recently. He gave me some ideas of what he wanted to say about the topic and I wrote it up for him. Then, the morning he was supposed to give it he didn't want to practice it. I finally made him read through it, but he would only do it once, no more. I wasn't sure what would happen at church. When it was his turn he took the sheet up there and read it all without any help at all. I was so proud of him. He reminded me about the last time he was supposed to do something (a scripture) in primary in Florida. He would not even repeat it! From that to reading his talk on his own is a huge progression.
We signed him up for Jr. Jazz basketball starting in October with his friend next door. Now, every night he wants to go out and practice. We have a b-ball court in our community, but it would also be nice to have one at our house. Maybe for his birthday. It's so cool to see him get excited about sports and play with his friends on the basketball court. He wants to do all the sports one by one. But... he does not want to do ballet because he doesn't want to have to lift girls. He is liking piano as well. He has a lot of boys his age around here and does well being friends with most of them. He is pretty laid back and mellow, so things just roll off of him, which is great because we don't need any more girl drama around here. Oh, and how could I forget... he lost his first tooth a few days before school started (and thanks to Erin, he now knows that we are the tooth fairy... and Santa... and the Easter Bunny). He has one more that is loose as well.
Marissa--she just started her dance class (ballet/jazz) this week and could not be happier about it. She looks forward to things with so much excitement and asks about them all the time. She tried so hard to do all the steps right and has a couple of girls from our ward in the same class. More friends! She definitely needed something extra (I needed something extra for her to do).
Connor--he is finally going back to nursery. We switched his class and I subbed in there for a couple of weeks to get him used to it again, and now he loves it. Thank goodness. He loves to color when the other kids do and keeps coming to me asking to draw obscure, not so easy things, like zebras and car seats (I'm better at stuff like circles, fyi). When Marissa does her workbook, he asks to do a Jesus book. We have tons of he coloring books from the living scriptures that he uses. He loves me to read to him while we snuggle. He usually picks out 10 or 15 books every day and piles them on me.
If you tell him he's cute he yells, "No, I Connor!" When we were having macaroni the other day I asked if it was delicious and he yelled, "No! Not 'elicious. It's Macamoni!" Water is still a "dink of la-la". He's been asking to call grandma and Max a lot lately. Oh, and he calls my dad Max. Funny. He loves to mop and wipe the chairs, which I happily let him do. He finally started wearing sandals--his blue shoes--after the whole summer of insisting on socks and shoes (and now it's getting to be fall, go figure). This child could not for the life of him figure out how to drink out of a straw. He would watch everyone else do it and try, but he would always get mad and say it wasn't working. I don't know how he skipped over that skill, but he did. Finally the other day, Jared got him to do it. Very exciting day!
These outfits were Alex's idea,
but Connor was so excited to match Alex.
Jared--he's been working at home this week due to getting over being sick as well as my condition at the moment. I'm sure it's hard to work when there is so much going on around him. And he is actually very busy right now at work. It is a good job for him and he does enjoy it. This has been a great change for him.
He's also been in a racquetball tournament this week. The first night he was so close to winning, but lost all strength in the tie break due to not being able to eat much for the previous three days. The next night he won and now he has a bunch of other games tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, I am too caught up in counting kicks and washing baby clothes to pay much attention to his racquetball this week.
Me--I went in for my appointment on Tuesday and was still measuring really small, so they did an ultrasound to check things out. The baby was measuring fine, but they said my fluid levels were really low. I found I was dilated to a 3 as well. The midwife asked how I felt about being induced... like that day. A sense of sheer panic shot through me because I felt completely unprepared. I had just bought a whole bunch of meat the day before that I intended to make meals out of and freeze, and my parents had just given me a big box of peaches I needed to do something with, and I had a bunch of fabric I was going to make stuff out of, and where were the baby clothes anyway? I also had not talked to anyone about watching my other kids. Since all my kids have gone past their due date I had to tell myself this whole time that she would also come late. Therefore, there was no need to get things ready yet. I felt so consumed with getting the kids in school that I couldn't even think about the baby. They determined that they would just watch things and then induce at 39 weeks if the fluid was still low (so next Friday). I went home and got out the clothes only to realize that there were no pajamas or socks or blankets in the box, most of the stuff was 4 to 8 years old, and it was almost entirely clothes for Florida--little short sleeve dresses, etc--not stuff for winter. I don't even know how to dress a baby for cold weather. More panic. I was just not at all ready.
Since Tuesday, I have taken care of all the meat in the fridge, blanched, peeled, cut up and froze all the peaches (with the help of my mom), washed and folded almost all of the baby clothes, sewed two big receiving blankets, almost finished the canvas bins and liners for the changing table, bought diapers, pj's and some other baby stuff, and finally packed a bag for the hospital. I feel much more prepared now than I did three days ago. Phew. I was having some good, regular contractions Wednesday, but things have not progressed much since then. Now, since I told people about that, I feel like there is all this pressure to have the baby. They keep calling and asking, but I just feel like I'm failing, when really I have no control over what my body wants to do. Such is life at this stage of pregnancy.
Now on to finishing those boxes... (or laying on the couch. I haven't decided yet.)
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