Our Beginning Writer

Yesterday after preschool (she is in a co-op with four other kids), Kylene brought a piece of paper to me and told me she had written, "I like to ride my bike."

Can you see it? I was so excited because this is a new developmental stage for her in her writing! She is understanding that all words have a beginning sound and she can recognize and write those letters. Today she wrote two more pages for me: "I like to play with dad," and "I like to play with mom." For these ones, as you can see, she spelled out mom and dad!

Maybe it's because I taught Kindergarten and First Grade (so I know this is an important step developmentally), but this was a proud mommy moment for me. It's fun to see my own child going through this natural growth and learning for the first time! It's amazing how natural it really is; kids are naturally curious and will take baby steps in learning to read and write as they are ready.

Peter, Jane, and John

I know I've done a lot of "typing only" posts lately, and pictures are way more fun, but I just had to record this cute story.

Yesterday after church, Kylene was all excited because they had watched a video in Primary. She told me it was about Joseph Smith and then went on to tell me about how an angel had appeared to Joseph Smith, then he got baptized, then "Peter, Jane, and John" appeared to him and gave him a blessing. I asked her, "Peter, JANE, and John?" She said, "Yeah, they gave him a blessing." I went on to ask her if it was John the Baptist that first appeared to him before he got baptized and she said it was, and then we talked about how Peter, JAMES, and John gave him the priesthood. But, still when you ask her who appeared to Joseph Smith, she'll tell you it was Peter, Jane, and John! Kyle and I (unfortunately) couldn't hold back the laughter as she was telling us about it, it was just so darn cute to hear her say Jane instead of James! Thank goodness those men and Heavenly Father are understanding. Once again, through a child's eyes...

Okay, here's a picture of Kylene and Spencer playing with the pots and pans, just to make the post more exciting. :)

Five Pounds and Growing

I had a doctor's appointment this week and was still measuring small, so the doctor decided to do an ultrasound to check on the baby's size. He said they wanted to make sure he was the right size for this stage and that there is enough amniotic fluid. Well, at 35 weeks, they are estimating our little boy #2 at 5.4 pounds! Remember that the last few weeks of gestation, babies can gain 1/2 to 1 pound a week! I certainly don't want a 10 pound baby! No, the doctor said everything looked good and that he thought he would be about 7 1/2 pounds, the same as Spencer. I'll be happy if we stay under eight pounds (PLEASE! Does begging help here?!). :) The doctor also said the baby is really low already and is sitting off to the right side of my body. I think the latter is because I carry Spencer all the time on my left hip; the baby is just trying to stay out of the way!

Anyway, it was fun to see the baby again this late in the pregnancy. (This baby has been well photographed even before birth: this was about his fifth ultrasound.) It's amazing how sweet they look even on the small, grainy monitors. The sonographer reaffirmed that he is definitely a boy, too! So, no surprises in that regard at the delivery, I guess. It's hard to believe we are now looking at less than five weeks. This is getting serious, folks.

Tumble Bugs

Last month Kylene started attending a tumbling class ("Tumble Bugs") every Monday morning at the gym near our house. She looks forward to going each week and loves showing off the things she has learned at home. At the end of each class, they put their hands in the circle and yell, "Gymnastics!" That has become her new favorite word! She was so proud to be able to show daddy all her moves this last week when he came to watch.

Warming up...


Working on her backward roll...

Showing off her balance beam skills...

Crawling through the tunnel...

Doing Better

Another quick update to say that after a very rough week, we are all doing better. Spencer's rash is pretty well gone now, but he still has itching bouts where he can't stop scratching. He also has scratch marks all over his belly and neck that need to heal (even though we've kept him in a onsie 24/7 to keep him from scratching, we couldn't stop him from putting his hands DOWN his shirt during the night.) The wierdest thing is how sensitive his skin still is; if he itches it or is bumped, or even when I pull a shirt over his head, that spot breaks out bright red and sometimes even has a raised section like his hives. I just hope it will all be gone soon. He had a really rough week with sleeping and now seems to have developed the habit of waking up at 3:45 a.m. every morning and not wanting to go back to sleep, so needless to say, he is very sleep deprived. But, overall, we are doing much better than we were last week.

Kylene had her tumbling class this morning and Kyle came to watch her so I got to shoot some pictures that I'll post as soon as I have a chance. She has been so patient as I wait on Spencer, hold Spencer, get Spencer medicine, etc., and as we all have to listen to Spencer screaming (let's just say the steroid the doctor gave him at one of our four visits last week created a Spencer I hope never returns...). The cute part is when she tells him he better stop waking her up. I wish I could just TELL him to stop waking me up, too! Oh well, at least I get to sleep until 3:45.