8-30-11 Mr. Kindergartener

Yesterday was Easton’s first day of kindergarten. He was a little bit nervous, but he’s been excited for weeks for this day to come so I think the excitement drowned out the nervousness. Oh my, he was just the most darling little thing on that playground with his batman backpack, stylish clothes, and cool new kicks. I could have smothered him with proud mama kisses. Jacob and I took him in the morning and showed him where to go and waited with him until the bell rang. He’s one of the tallest kids in the class, but he’s kind of a big kid. At his well check a month ago he was in the 75th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight. He’s a stocky kid. After school was over, I asked him how the day went and he said, “Great! I loved it. Do I get to go back tomorrow?” I was so happy he loved it.

I didn’t cry when I dropped him off, and I think it’s because of my years of working at an elementary school and just loving the whole environment that the little ones get to enjoy in kindergarten. It’s such a fun time in his life, so I’m just happy for him. When I saw the kids getting on the bus from Early Childhood I felt a tad bit sad that I wasn’t working as an assistant anymore with Miss Charlotte. That was such an awesome job, and I’m sure it’s because I was the assistant to a teacher that I absolutely loved. Such good memories from that time in my life. 

Easton had just as much fun at school today. He got to go to art class, and that was pretty awesome to him. He’s such a big boy and so ready to learn and have fun without mom, and I’m happy about that. I want him to be able to be independent and know who he is when he’s not with me, and he does such a good job of that. He’s always so well-behaved and kind that I am just so happy that I get to say he’s mine.

Teagan has been just fine so far without him. He was a bit sad yesterday when he saw the bus at the school, and he couldn’t get on it and ride it. And today he had to have a backpack to take with him to pretend he was going to school too. It will be nice to have some alone time with Teags each day before another baby arrives.

I’ve been up and down with sickness lately. Still having a hard time finding things to eat because nothing ever sounds good to me. I’ve been very tired and kind of cranky. I’ve also lost interest in photography completely, and that tends to happen in my first trimester. I just quit caring about things that seemed like they were so important to me. Maybe it’s because when I’m sick I don’t feel like taking pictures or editing, and having to do them makes me feel resentful. Not sure, but I’ll be glad when this first trimester is over and I feel well and interested in things again.

8-20-11 Night Out

I think Easton was more excited for Jacob’s birthday than Jacob was. That is something that I love about children – their excitement for the things that we don’t realize are so exciting. He made Jacob a card and taped smarties to it and just happened to think that nobody had ever had a better idea. He kept saying, “I can’t wait for dad to get home! He’s going to freak out!” He helped me decorate a birthday banner and hang a few streamers so that Jacob could walk in and feel special. And when he prayed for dinner he prayed that Jacob would have a good birthday and not get too old and that none of us would die but that we could all live “some more longer” and that Jacob would feel special inside on his birthday.  I tell ya, that kids prayers are the most genuine communication with God I have ever heard. He breaks out into prayer whenever he feels it appropriate, and sometimes it’s at random moments throughout the day or standing in the ocean or driving in the car. I’ll turn my head to say something to him and his arms are folded and his eyes are closed while his little mouth whispers a prayer that he has so much faith will be answered. It’s quite precious, really. I’m glad to see that he has so much faith in prayer.

Anyway, after I fed the boys, Jacob and I took them to spend the night at my parents’ house. Then we went to his friend’s graduation party, to dinner at Olive Garden, and finally to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was nice to get out for his birthday and be able to go on a date just the two of us. I bought him season 7 of The Office, although Easton said we should have bought him an i-pad. I concur. Next time, maybe.

Here are a few pics of us at my mom’s house in her backyard. Her flowers are so pretty right now!

I have been really struggling to eat protein lately. It reminds me of how much I don’t want anything to do with most food while I’m pregnant. Luckily, Jacob and I both happened to be craving Olive Garden yesterday, so my 4-day craving was finally satisfied.

Jacob said that he had a great birthday, and I hope he did. He’s a sweet man who does so much to make this family happy, so I think he deserves at least one day to feel really special inside. Tomorrow my mom is making him his requested dinner and double layer chocolate cake. I’ll be sure to take pictures.

8-19-11 Happy Birthday, Jacob

Today is Jacob’s 27th birthday. I don’t think he’s feeling very well, poor guy, and he didn’t sleep at all last night. I think we will celebrate tomorrow. He’s funny, he doesn’t really want to make a big deal of his birthday. But I’m sure I can come up with something to make his day special.

I woke up at 2:30 am last night (or this morning) and threw up my dinner. My sickness pretty much started yesterday, but thankfully I was able to avoid it at the beach. We had a lot of fun on our vacation. We drove up Friday to Huntington Beach and spent Saturday hanging out at the beach with Becca, Jud, Sadie, and Joseph. They headed home late Saturday night, and we headed to San Diego Sunday after going to church and visiting the temple in Newport.  We Spent Sunday through Wednesday hanging out at the beach and the bay. The best part of all of it was watching the boys, particularly Easton, have so much fun playing in the ocean. Everything is just more fun when you’re watching your children have fun.

Teagan has been doing really well with his potty training. He’s been in undies the last 2 days, and he’s done really well at running to the potty whenever he has to go. He was so cute as we were driving to the beach. I’d ask him, “Teags, are you excited to go to the ocean?” And he’d say, “Sharks gon eat me. I’m gon die.” He said that the whole way up whenever we mentioned the ocean. Funny kid.

I have pictures that need to get developed, and then I’ll add them to this post. I didn’t take out my digital camera at all, so hopefully I’ll have some pictures to show for our vacation.

I feel pretty nauseous right now, and I had a really hard time eating yesterday. Everything sounded gross except for Olive Garden salad. I just want to lay down and sleep the yuckiness away but I have two boys who were neglected yesterday because their mom did just that. So much to do, laundry to put away from our vacation, and a mom who doesn’t feel well enough to do any of it. Hopefully this doesn’t last long, but throwing up in the middle of the night doesn’t reassure me. I’ve never done that before in my pregnancies.

Easton starts school a week from Monday. My very own kindergartner. I think he’s ready and I know he’s excited. I hope he loves it, and I hope he’s smarter than all the other children. Is it bad that I want that? I wanted to have him reading better before he started. I’ve been doing a reading book with him, Learning to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and I really like it so far. It amazes me how much he can read already. Words like eat, seed, read, and short words using m, a, s, t, r, d , e, and i. Just by sounding them out, not by memorization.  I just want him to feel like he knows what he’s doing, and I don’t him to be behind.

I better go and try to get done all the things that I need to today. And hopefully this sickness goes away so I have the motivation to get it all done.

8-9-11

Today I stepped on the scale and was down 3 more pounds. Which is terrific, because I coulda sworn I was the fattest I’ve ever been in my life. That loss puts me at 20 lbs less than I was last beach trip. So that’s good news. And almost 6 weeks pregnant to boot.

We are leaving this weekend to head to the beach, and what’s really exciting is that Bec and Jud are going to go with us for Friday and Saturday. Jacob’s family will head up Sunday, and we’ll head back to Vegas Wednesday night so Jacob can work Thursday. It will be a blast. The boys and I could stay until Sunday with Patti and Mark if I want to, but I’m not sure if I’ll want to be away from Jacob for those 3 days. That would be a 9 day vacation which sounds fun, but I’m worried I’ll just be done with the beach and want to go home by Thursday.

Easton is starting kindergarten in a couple weeks. I’m kind of looking forward to him being gone for a few hours so that at least for a few hours Teagan won’t be able to fight with him. All those two do is fight ALL DAY LONG, and it wears on a mom to listen to screaming all day. I’ll admit that Teags is kind of a terd and  is really fussy and grumpy most of his life, so a lot of their fighting is his fault. Teagan can be quite the handful, not even kidding or exaggerating. Potty-training has not been going that well unless he’s naked, but as soon as something touches his skin he pees in it. I just hope he’s potty-trained before another baby gets here. Teags is adorable, and we absolutely love him, but he makes motherhood a whole lot of work.

8-3-11

Our Mission Beach trip has been booked! We’re staying one house away from the beach, courtesy of Jacob’s parents, and I am soooooo stoked! It was such a terrific trip last year, and this year our place is much bigger and way nicer. We’re heading there in a couple weeks. I was supposed to be thin this beach trip. Hmmm. Oh well.

I know I’m only 5 weeks on Friday, but I swear I went hippo status over night. I get so fat pregnant, and I’m trying hard to eat healthy and exercise, but I feel helpless to the inevitable balooning that is soon to happen to my body.  It’s just what I do. We’ll see if eating healthy and exercising help me this time around.

My first appointment is on the 25th of August with a nurse midwife. I’m pretty sure I’ll go that route this time. When I told my dad I was pregnant last Friday (we went out to the river with him and some of the rest of my family), he started jumping up and down like a little child, clapping his hands as if there had never been a more exciting day in his life. Then he grabbed Jacob and planted a big wet one on his face. He was THAT excited. He’s been bugging me and Becca to get pregnant, asking our husbands, “Why haven’t you knocked my daughter up yet?” He’s not your run-of-the-mill dad, I suppose. Most dads don’t say things like that, but I assure you that mine does.

Here are a few pics from our evening at the river with my Pops.

Well I gotta get these boys in bed so I can head to the gym.  I was looking at my blog book from last year, remembering that I need to be better about journaling so that I’ll have enough pages to fill my book.  So that’s my point in this meaningless little post of mine – journaling purposes.