Halloween

Are you sick of reading about everyone's Halloween yet? Here's a quick recap of ours:

We carved pumpkins...

We had a Sumo Wrestler...

...a Hannah Montana...

...a Cinderella...

...and a pumpkin.

We had trick-or-treating in the pouring rain (hail at times), enjoyed a fabulous chili dinner at Jeff's sister's, complete with our homemade root beer, and more candy than any family needs.

Jeff and I were both feeling sick on Sunday morning, so we told Damon to watch the kids so we could sleep in a little longer. We woke up to find that they had fed themselves breakfast: root beer and candy. Ah to be young and have no parental supervision...

Shocker?

You came here expecting Halloween pictures, right? Well, I'll get to that. But I'm finally ready to write another post.

After I had Carter, Jeff told me he was ready to be done having kids. He said four kids was more than enough for him, and he didn't feel the need to have any more. For the first time, I thought and prayed long and hard about whether or not our family was complete, and I just wasn't convinced. Even when bribed with things like a boob job and a new car if I wouldn't have any more kids (he was kidding. I think.), I just felt like there was one more waiting to come to our family. But not any time soon.

Here are some of the reasons why I felt like we should have one more kid:
1. I have always wanted a little blondie, and our kids seem to get lighter and lighter each time. Maybe #5 would be a towhead.
2. Carter needs a buddy. While Kyla loves and adores him to the point of smothering, she will always want to be doing what Allie is doing. And brother or sister, I would love Carter to have a friend close in age.
3. While I have had my fair share of experiences with pregnancy, I'm sure there are a few things I haven't yet to experience. I would like to give myself every opportunity available to me. Perhaps a C-section would be fun.
4. We have 7 seats in the van. Someone needs to fill that last seat.
5. With two boys and two girls (on earth, that is), we need someone to break the tie, thus giving either Jeff or I the majority when votes are cast.

With the exception of #2, this list is a complete joke, and my decision that I wanted one more baby was in no way based on any of these factors. It was just a general feeling that our family wasn't yet complete.

Jeff wasn't too hard to convince. He just wanted to do it sooner rather than later. He has always had the number 35 in his head as the age HE wanted to be done having kids. And he just turned 34. So his biological clock was apparently ticking.

And so I agreed to go off birth control, just to let my body adjust and get regular again. I was confident that it would be at least six months before we were able to get pregnant (based on past experience--after Chance and after my ectopic pregnancy it took at least 6 months of trying to get pregnant again. My body typically needs a little bit of time to recover).

I'm sure you know what's coming next. But I was shocked to find out that the very first month of FAILING TO PREVENT (not TRYING), I got pregnant. And began the difficult task of living in denial while wanting to puke my guts out all the live long day.

I don't know why, but I didn't want anyone to know (other than my brother and my next door neighbor--a girl needs a few confidants when scheduling doctor's appointments). And so we didn't tell anyone. I thought maybe after the first trimester, I would feel like it. But I really didn't. And so we didn't. It wasn't until a few weeks ago, when it became much harder to conceal physically, did I break the news to my family. But not to my friends via the Blogger world. I did write a couple of posts that I saved as drafts, just for my own record, which I will now publish. If you care to, you can read them HERE and HERE.

Today, though, I decided (as did my sister, who is also a private blogger) it was time to share. I had my 20 week ultrasound today. And it's a little hard to live in denial when you actually see what has been causing the nausea, the weight gain, the heartburn (already?) and the physical pain for the last 4 months. And now that I have passed from denial to acceptance, I can tell you that I'm equal parts excited and terrified.

But ready or not, by March 23rd we are going to be a family of 7 (plus one angel). The big question, is it a boy or girl, will be answered then. Because I was strong and brave and didn't look when I had the choice to find out today.

Oh, and I am definitely feeling like this is it for us. Everyone told me I would just know when it was time. And I think this is it. Maybe that's why I didn't want everyone to know just yet. I wanted to keep it to myself, selfishly, for just a little while.

Damon Jeffrey

This morning I was lying in bed in the darkness, listening to Damon breathe rather loudly. He was "doing time" in a dark corner of our bedroom for locking the girls in their room. (As a side note, I have had to switch some door handles around so that 1) I can lock Kyla in her room at night, and 2) I can lock the pantry and keep the kids from constantly snacking). For some reason, this morning I just started thinking about my oldest son and was just filled with an overwhelming love for him. I always thought I wanted a girl first, so she could help take care of the rest of the kids, but I am confident that we couldn't have a better first child than Damon.

I don't always give him the credit he deserves. As the oldest, I expect a lot of out of him, and I feel like I am always reminding him of the things he needs to do (make his bed, practice his piano, do his homework, brush his teeth, etc) instead of focusing on all the things he does that make my life easier. The perfect example was Sunday morning. Jeff is gone Sunday mornings to meetings at 7:30, so he isn't around to help us get ready for 9:00 church. And it's usually a struggle to get everyone looking good and out of the house by 8:55. Carter has been especially needy and wants to be held. But because I can't hold him, he sits on the floor and cries his big alligator tears while I hastily curl the girls' hair or brush my own teeth. Damon has always been really good about getting himself ready in the morning, and this week he was ready to go at 8:30. That's when I put him to work. He spent the next 20-25 minutes tending Carter, getting anything and everything I asked, and overall making sure we made it to church on time. I was sitting in sacrament meeting and I realized how we wouldn't have made it without him. He was exactly what I needed. And I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated all his help.

Those same feelings I had on Sunday came back this morning as I was listening to him sit in the darkness, taking his punishment without complaint. While there are things he does that drive me absolutely crazy, Damon is really good about doing what he is supposed to do. He rarely complains when I remind him about his homework or his piano, but just does what I ask. There may be times when he wants to discuss WHY he has to do something, but never over the things he knows are expected of him.

This year he is in a tough class at school. He got into an accelerated program, and it's been very demanding. Every week he has to learn 20 spelling words, and every Monday he knows maybe 5 of them. Yet by the end of the week, he almost always knows them all (here are some of his words this week, as an example: cooperation, defensive, century...hard words like that). He has to memorize a poem every month and pass it off for his teacher. He has math homework every night, and he has to explain HOW he came up with the answers. Yet with all that is expected of him, I have never heard him complain about how hard it is. He just accepts it and does his best. I know it doesn't always come easy to him (especially when it comes to writing), but he works hard. And I'm so proud of his positive attitude. I know that bodes well for his future success.

And it seems like he is growing up so fast. In some ways he is still that little, sweet boy he has always been. But in other ways, he is changing so fast. He started Cub Scouts and he thinks it is the greatest thing in the world. If I tell him at 4:30 that he has pack meeting at 6:30, he will immediately change into his uniform and talk excitedly about it for the rest of the afternoon.

He has a funny habit of running his hand through his hair (he has always loved hair), and so his hair is always sticking up in the front. It makes me laugh.

Last night we were carving pumpkins and Damon disappeared for a while. He came running down the stairs, a little out of breath, and said, "I did something bad and I'm going to be in big trouble!" After a bit of coaxing, he admitted that he was trying to light a candle to put in his pumpkin and had accidentally burned his thumb. Oh, and he hid the used matches under his dresser. Of course we had quite the talk about playing with matches and how lucky he was that something worse didn't happen, but I couldn't help but applaud his courage to tell the truth. It was evident (by the hidden matches) that he thought about not telling us what happened. But in the end, he did what he knew was right.

And I hope that he will always do what is right. And always work hard. And always help me get to church on time.

A couple weeks worth

My pictures loaded in reverse order, so I guess that is how I will recap the last couple weeks. While I was on my girls' get-away, Jeff had a birthday. And as much as he tried to tell me he didn't care if we ignored it completely, I still felt bad. So while he was on his little boys' get-away, the kids and I did a little something for his birthday. It really wasn't much, but the kids had a great time decorating and I made him a peach pie, which turned out pretty well. I'm not up to my mom's standards when it comes to pie making, but who is, really?

Damon did all this decorating himself. I thought it was great. Jeff wasn't thrilled with his interior decorating skills.

This one is a little blurry, and I'm not sure why.

Kyla pulling a little attitude and refusing to turn around for this picture. Notice Carter's new trick of pulling himself up on the stairs. And the fact that he has a pen and pencil in his mouth. I'm still counting on the fact that he needs his hands to balance and won't be able to get them close to his mouth (or eyes or ears for that matter) while he is perched on the stairs.


As mentioned above, I got to go on a little get-away with my mom and sister last week. It was originally going to be a larger group of 6 of us, but at the last minute, it ended up just being the 3 of us. We went to Boston. Everyone asked why Boston and we didn't have a great reason. We just wanted to go there, and it was convenient when flying JetBlue (which we were doing--my sister and I on buddy passes and my mom for free since my brother works for them). Plus who doesn't love Boston? It is such an awesome city.

I didn't take a lot of pictures and will have to steal more from my mom and sis, but here is a quick rundown of what we did while there:

We took a tour of Harvard, given by some students. Highly entertaining and beautiful campus. I had no idea it was so small (only 6,000 undergrads and 12,000 graduates). Truly elite.

The John Harvard statue, which is not John Harvard. It also says he was the founder, which isn't true, he was a benefactor. And the date on the statue is off by two years. Hence, it is called the Statue of Three Lies. Also, we chose not to rub the toe of the statue (you can see his left toe is a little more gold then the rest) after the tour guides told us that some of the students like to use "the John" in this location. Hahaha, very funny. But disgusting.

One of the gorgeous buildings on campus. The freshman eat here.

We ate at the BEST seafood restaurant near Harvard called Legal Sea Foods. It is a chain started in New England, and we had heard nothing but good things about it. It may have been the highlight of the trip, it was that good. The Clam Chowder, Lobster Bisque, Mushroom Ravioli, and especially the Boston Creme Pies. Everything was fantastic, and we even got to order off the lunch menu, even though it was after 4:00, when lunch had supposedly ended. Someone has pictures of the food. I must see them again. I am tempted to order a couple creme pies online. Maybe for Christmas...

Day two we spent on the Freedom Trail. I don't have many pics from this day, but it was a lot of fun. We walked about 3 miles seeing sights and enjoying the crisp fall weather. We ended at the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides." It was a ship in the war of 1812 that never lost a battle. Now it is a tourist location with awesome views of the city.

Here are my sister and I aboard the ship.

And here we are at some cool place along the way. This would be a fun place to do a photo shoot, no?

Then we rented a car and gave ourselves a "Fall Foliage" tour along Route 20 to Sudsbury. It was beautiful and so fun to get out of the city for a few hours.

We made it back to Belmont (a suburb) in time for dinner and the last temple session of the evening. It was a really fun day and so nice to be in the temple with these two.

I took a couple pics on the subway for fun. My mom would get out her crochet every time she had a few moments. I thought it was funny. Is the man next to her watching what she's doing?

And this one was outside the last car we rode on Day 2. My favorite part is the man in the leather jacket smiling for the pic. Nicely done, local Boston man.

I had a bit of trouble getting on my flight the next morning, as flying standby is not always what it is cracked up to be. And instead of taking the night flight to Vegas and taking shuttles home, I ended up buying a seat on US Airways right into SLC. It may have cost $40-$50 more, but at that point, we were all ready to be done with the stress of standby (Heather and my mom made their flights fine, but Heather had to spend the night in the airport).

Overall, it was a great trip. We didn't get to sleep in nearly as much as I would like, considering the time change and the lack of sleep flying all night to get there, but it was awesome. I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again. Just not flying standby.

Here are a couple more pics I got off the camera today. My freshman roomie, Tiffanie, came to visit for FHE and we decorated cookies. I only took pictures of the kids, though. That was dumb. But they had a good time.

Whirlwind summary, it deserves so much more. But at least it's documented. Perhaps I'll write more when I get more pics from the other two.

Eight Months and After Shots

Carter is now eight months old, and it seems like he is experiencing a burst of development. Besides the new trick of learning to crawl, he also impressed us last week by showing us that he is not only good at tapping, but also at clapping. We all think it's the cutest thing in the world.

At eight months, Carter still refuses to hold his bottle. He will hold it for a minute or two, but always drops it and rolls over (or sits up) and then starts crying. He really wants to be babied. Every day I make him try, and he is getting a little better, but every day I end up holding it for him so he'll eat. He would much rather eat anything rather than drink a bottle (including paper, toys, any sort of food or dirt), and I have to force him to get his ounces in every day. Strange, because he's such a big boy, you'd think he'd want all those calories, but he doesn't particularly care about them.

He is in 12-18 month clothes. The pants are a little long, but not horrible.

He also thinks it's funny when I wipe his behind (or maybe it's ticklish). I have never had a baby giggle when I wipe them, so it always makes me giggle, too, but I love it.

He started babbling this month, mostly favoring the "dada" sounds, but occasionally throwing out a "baba" or a "mama" when he's tired. He also learned to make a clicking sound, which he prefers over all other sounds. Future horse trainer, perhaps?

He got sick last week, with a fever for a few days, and had decreased appetite, increased sleepiness and overall more irritability. After the fever was gone, he got a rash on his chest and back that lasted for a day. He seems to be feeling better now, although he still is a little sleepier than normal (which means 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon) and generally he is grouchier than before. What is your diagnosis? I'll post what I think it was at the bottom.

Carter loves his binky, but I usually only give it to him when he's going to bed. This week has been different, though, because he's been so sad. I have let him have it a lot more. He likes to chew on it (teething probably, since he has no teeth still--well, one of his top teeth is exposed, but that is due to gum recession), and has no problem getting it in and out.

He also loves when I put my hand over his mouth and help him create the "babababa" sound. He has started doing it himself with his own hand, but usually ends up tapping his cheek or his ear, and it doesn't quite work out like he plans.

We are all still crazy about this boy, high maintenance though he may be. And as long as we can keep Kyla happy, and not hitting him with a broom, life is good.

Finally, here are the "After" shots of Kyla. About half-way through her haircut, she got really sad, and said, "I don't like haircuts." I think the reality was finally sinking in, and she won't be having a ponytail anytime soon. I think she looks cute, though. Once those bangs (the ones she cut herself) are long enough to stay out of her face, that is.

And here's my shot. Try to look at the hair and not the crazy face. I'm not a big fan (of the face--the hair is fine).

It's just a phase, right?

This little love of mine (Kyla) used to be my favorite. She used to be so sweet and happy and fun. I used to feel guilty that I liked her more than the other kids. But times have changed. Kyla has changed. And I am praying it is just a phase that she will grow out of soon!

While she still has moments of sweetness and times of happiness that remind me of the way things were, they are becoming fewer and farther between. This independent three year old has become so sassy and manipulative, it makes me crazy.

For example: If she asks me to do something (say, make her a piece of toast 30 minutes after breakfast has ended), and I refuse, she responds by throwing out as many verbal threats as her little mind can come up with. "If you don't make me some toast, I'm not going to eat today." "Make me some toast now, or I will throw a library book in the trash." "If you don't do it, I'm going to kick you in the face." These types of threats will continue until she finds something that reaches its mark. Usually it will be something like, "If you don't do it, I'm going to hurt Carter." She knows that will draw a reaction from me (because as evidenced by the time last week she hit him with a broom, she isn't joking).

If her threats fall on deaf ears, she will go into Jeff's office and get a push pin from the desk. Then she will come out and offer up physical threats. "If you don't make me toast, I will poke you with this pin." Then she will stab me with it until I take it away, haul her uncooperative behind to timeout, and cry for the next 3 minutes about how she doesn't like me anymore and she doesn't want to be my best friend. Oh, and that she wants her daddy.

She also can't seem to learn from her mistakes. The one she is consistently making right now is coloring and drawing on things that are not paper. Jeff and I decided a while back that we weren't going to spank the kids anymore. Not that it happened all that often, but occasionally we felt we needed to. The one exception is for repeat bad behavior. Kyla knows that if she draws on the couch, or the wall, or her sheets, or her shorts, she is going to get a spanking. And every time, I explain to her that we don't want to spank her. We don't like it. But we hope that she will remember the next time she feels like drawing to get a piece of paper and to show a little bit of restraint when it comes to everything else. So far, the message isn't getting through. Yesterday, she drew on the tv with crayon. Which scratched the tv. Again. Jeff wasn't happy. When informed that she was going to be spanked yet again, she begged for some "vigganer" instead (her punishment when she talks about killing with a sharp knife), but didn't get her wish. She also is grounded from any writing instrument until further notice, but since when has that stopped her?

For the most part, I am calm when she behaves this way. I understand that she is testing her limits and trying to figure out what is and isn't acceptable. But sometimes I lose it. Yesterday she was mad at me because I told her she couldn't take her fully assembled puzzle in the car to pick up the kids from school. She threw out a few verbal threats about how she didn't like me and wasn't going to come with me to get the kids. Then, she promptly marched upstairs to the room where Carter was sleeping, turned on the light, and locked the door behind her. We were already running late, and when she refused to open the door, I banged on it, yelling at her. I just snapped. And I may have given her a little swat once she opened the door and ran out. Dang it. There went my good intentions not to give her an emotional reaction to her behavior. I guess I'll have to try again.

It's just hard right now. And while I'm praying it's a phase she'll grow out of, I also look at it as an opportunity for me to grow. Because apparently I need some growth myself.

One more story about Kyla that really made me laugh. This one was on Facebook a couple days ago. Kyla was playing with a pirate and Cinderella, having them talk to one another. The pirate told Cinderella, "I'm going to kill you!" (I really don't know why she is so violent. It's a complete mystery to me). I told her that I didn't like her talking like that, so instead, she had the pirate say, "I'm going to make you dead." Hahaha. Maybe a little more gentle, but still completely beside the point.

cabin

A few weeks ago we went with our neighbors to their family cabin for the weekend. I took my camera with the intention to take a lot of great pictures, but we were having too much fun to remember and I only ended up with a few. We rode 4-wheelers, fished, ate, played games, fed local wildlife and enjoyed being away from home. My kids are asking when we can go back. We'd better be nice, and hope that we get invited back some day! Thanks Sumners!

I did find a picture of all the kiddies. Just no Jeff in these. I'm sure he's broken up. These are from our fishing experience. We told the kids that unless someone caught a fish, we weren't going to be eating dinner. Fortunately, we did have success and we could all breathe easily (and no, we didn't eat those tiny things. It was just part of the game).


And here's the other two riding the 4 wheelers. Man, Damon was in heaven.

Today

Here's the picture of the front of the house. It's hard to see all the landscaping, as this side of the house never sees the sun. But you can use your imagination and trust me when I say that it looks so much better than it did before.


Okay, quick recap of the day. Allie has had a herniated belly button since she was a baby, and we decided it was time to get it fixed. Partly because it was clear that it wasn't going to resolve on its own, and partly because I knew we had reached our deductible for the year, insurance-wise, and that it would cost us less this year than it may next year. So, today was the day.

Allie and I got to the hospital at 6:30 and were home by 10:00. Everything went smoothly, and despite the tough time she had waking up from anesthesia (typical Allie, she has never liked waking up), she has bounced back very quickly.

Here she is pre-surgery. She was actually quite excited.

And here's the belly shot. Stay tuned in a couple of weeks for the after pic. Hopefully there will be a slight change.


I guess Kyla must have felt left out today, although she got to lie around, watching movies and eating pudding with Allie all day. Tonight she found a pair of scissors....

...and tried to give herself a mullet.


It could have been so, so, SO much worse, but it looks like she is going to have to go short, and the ponytail she has been coveting will have to wait. And wait, and wait and wait, because her hair just doesn't grow very fast. She did cry when I informed her that her ponytail dreams were gone, so I'm hoping that is enough to keep her from doing it again (and a much more destructive job in the future).

Here is a quick video clip of Carter. He started crawling this week, which is so fun. I tried to film him crawling, but instead caught him doing something else that he loves to do: tapping. He MUST tap on every surface he comes in contact with. I'm not sure why, exactly, but he is always doing it. And I love how he has to use both hands on the vent, which he had never tapped before.



Okay, more to come. But enough for now.

Still Here

I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because we have been having some major computer issues and our PC won't even start unless it's in Safe Mode. We have also been extremely busy these last few days, picking out plants for our yard and then actually planting them. Jeff and I were the main laborers, but we also had a lot of help from my bro, Eric; Jeff's bro, Greg; and Jeff's dad. My right hand is so sore from gripping the shovels and digging through the hard, hard ground. But it looks awesome. I'll get some pics soon (the city is fixing the gutter in front of our house, so as soon as it gets poured on Monday, I'll get the camera out there).

I wanted to post a quick update, though, so that my few followers don't start to worry about me. We're still here and doing just fine. Kyla is still Kyla. When we were at the nursery picking out plants, we left Kyla and Allie in the golf cart while we were looking at trees. Suddenly, I hear Allie shrieking, "Kyla!" We looked over to see Kyla with her foot on the gas pedal, hand on the steering wheel, heading straight for the trees. Luckily, she ran the cart into a bank of sawdust, and we all got a good laugh out of that. I asked her how she knew which pedal to push, and she told me, "I just want to drive, I tried them both." Typical KyKy.

Also, a story from the "Daughter of a Dentist" file. I was brushing Allie's hair before school one day, and I was using the "soft brush," or the one that doesn't hurt (it also doesn't do much for tangles, either). I had to switch to a harder brush, one that would actually get the tangles out, and Allie asked me if I would go back to the soft brush. I told her that the soft brush wasn't working anymore, and that I needed a brush with some teeth to get the tangles out. She thought about this for a minute, and then asked, "Does the soft brush just have gums?" Apparently she is her father's daughter.

More to come. Hopefully from the PC, but I promise that I'll get back on the laptop if I have to.

Carter

Carter still has never had a professional take his pictures. Poor, neglected fourth child. One day, he and I were sitting on the trampoline while the kids were terrorizing the next door neighbors, and I decided to grab Jeff's camera and take some pictures of my own. I am no professional, but I did get a couple shots that I think are pretty cute. And maybe Carter won't feel quite so neglected when he gets older and his scrapbook is a fourth the size of Damon's (that is, if he even gets a scrapbook. Something else I need to get working on!).

I love the profile shot. Those chubby cheeks and tiny lips! Cute only on a baby!

The only one I could get of him smiling. In the future, I definitely need an assistant (meaning: one of the children) to get him to smile for me. He has a great smile and a cute little dimple, but you can't really see it here.

I think this is my favorite one of all. So serious. Yet I just want to eat him for dinner.

Labor Day + Domesticity

I know I'm behind. I just haven't felt very "bloggy" lately. That needs to change.

On Labor Day we took the kids on a short hike to Escalante's Cross up Spanish Fork Canyon. This cross marks the spot (the supposed spot) that Father Escalante stood at and surveyed the valley in 1776. Look closely, you can see Carter "waving."

Carter spent most of the hike riding in comfort. Here he is nearly asleep.

Also, people have been telling me lately that my hair is getting really long. I thought we'd use a comparison here. This was last June:

And this was recently. It's a little hard to see, but you can tell it's pretty far down my back. I may have 8 inches to cut off. We'll see how I feel about that...

With Allie in school in the afternoons, and Carter sleeping, Kyla is trying to figure out what to do with herself every day. We alternate between playing Starfall, watching kid shows, playing together and reading books. Today, after we watched Pinky Dinky Doo, I asked her to tell me a story. She told me three. They were all about someone going to the store to buy candy. Or gum. And sharing with everyone. Except for "the chubby bubby, because he would choke," as she put it. It made me laugh. Two Wednesdays a month I am going to help in Allie's class and she gets to come with me. Tomorrow is our first time. I know she thinks she should be in kindergarten, so we'll see how she does as a "helper."

Also, a word about Bountiful Baskets. I have been doing it for a while now, and I must say, it has changed the way we eat (in a good way). Because we get so much produce, we have to eat some every day so it doesn't go bad, and I am forced to figure out how to cook things we haven't ever eaten before. Today I made some Sweet Potato Muffins because we got sweet potatoes two weeks in a row. Tonight we're going to have Butternut squash with our meal, and I have to work in several other fruits and veggies the rest of the week. Jeff brought home some blackberries from work (someone brought them in) and so I need to make him a Blackberry Cobbler tonight.

AND, someone left a bushel of peaches on our driveway and so I spent yesterday making freezer jam. I have 12 small jars and 2 big jars of peach jam. Hopefully enough to last us until next year, and tasty enough to give the neighbors for Christmas. The goal is to can the rest of the peaches, but I need help with that, so we'll see if that gets done. Aren't I all domestic? Maybe I will make a good Mormon woman after all. Time will tell.

First day and Seven Months

Damon started school last week, his first day of third grade. He has a thing for the color yellow, so of course he chose this shirt to wear. Truth be told, he wore it again on Monday and tried to wear it again today, but I convinced him it needed to be washed.

He is loving third grade and has already started learning times tables. I remember third grade very well, so it's crazy to me that I have a third grader. Weird. Damon has several girls who like him, and he pretends that he doesn't care, but I know the truth. He loves the attention.

Allie didn't start Kindergarten until Wednesday, a full week after Damon started. She was so excited. And she has loved it. I knew she would. Allie has really amazed me this year, and is going to be great in school. She reads better than Damon did when he started Kindergarten, which really surprised me. She has picked it up so easily.

Kyla is the one who is left out this year. Poor girl, as soon as Allie leaves in the afternoon, she has to entertain herself. I made some play dough for her on Wednesday and the mess that followed the next two days have convinced me that we won't be doing that again for a while. Kyla needs a lot of work on her own academic skills, so I am planning on using a day or two a week to focus on "preschool" needs of her own. I just couldn't justify sending her to preschool this year. We'll worry about that next year.

Carter celebrated his seven month birthday by getting his six month shots. Boo. I hate shots, and Carter did too. He didn't smile for over 24 hours and slept a lot. Slowly, he's coming back to himself. I missed him. At his appointment, he weighed 21 lbs 4 oz, so slightly less than Damon at the same age. Still, 90th percentile. 27 1/2 in long (65th) and 44.2 cm for head (50th).

Carter has really enjoyed eating solid food. In fact, that is all he wants. The doctor told me he should be drinking 28-30 oz of formula a day, and it has been hard to get him to take 24. So, he is taking a break from solid foods, and only gets them as a reward for drinking all his bottle. Sheesh! Who would have thought that green beans or oatmeal would be a reward for drinking your milk?

Some of his favorites are things I put in his "net," like mangos, plums and bananas. But I think the very best thing I have ever offered him was a graham cracker. That kept him quiet for 5 minutes, and he devoured it. Yum!


I trimmed his hair after this picture, as it was getting a little long on top. He cried when he heard the clippers coming near his head. Yep, he's still a sissy.



He sits up great now, never falls over, and is getting closer to crawling. I set him up by Jeff's lizards this morning, and he really enjoyed his "Baby TV" time. He sleeps through the night pretty consistently, from around 8:00-7:30 or so. It didn't take long of him crying it out to figure it out. Occasionally he will wake up, but he'll cry for a bit and then fall back asleep. He takes 3 naps a day, one around 1 1/2 hours, one a long one, at least 2-3 hours, and then another short one in the evening. Boy likes to sleep. Just not at church (he'll fall asleep, but never sleep longer than 20-30 minutes. After he wakes up, he'll be happy for 20-30 minutes and then be ready for another nap. It's tiring for us all).

For comparison, I took a picture of Carter in the same position as Damon at seven months. One of these babies was breast fed, the other bottle fed. See any differences?

#2 saved

Dear Tiny Baby,

I made it to 11 weeks. I had my true "first" appointment on Monday, where we got another peek at you on the ultrasound. Your heart was beating at 171 beats a minute, and I have to admit, I was a little surprised that this past month wasn't actually an incredibly nauseating dream. You're measuring with a due date of March 23rd, so that's what we're going with.

We still haven't told anyone you're coming (other than Eric and the Sumners), and I don't feel any rush to announce it yet. I don't know why. Things look completely fine with you. I just want to keep it to myself for a little longer.

The nausea has been worse, but still mostly manageable. It's like having a headache--most of the time you notice it's there, and it's mildly uncomfortable, but it doesn't really interfere with your daily life. Occasionally, though (typically after 4:00 pm), it gets more and more noticeable and does interfere with life. I have probably only thrown up 10 times, but that is 10 times too many in my opinion! Again, the sickness is by far worst at night, although it can happen anytime. The best thing I can do for the nausea is suck on hard candy, most specifically, lemon heads. The sour usually takes the edge off, and I don't feel like I need to throw up anymore. Smells are still hard, though, and anything the least bit strong is offensive.

I am extremely tired during the day. I don't know if it's the unisom I take at night, or just the pregnancy, but I usually fall asleep during the afternoon. And sometimes I go back to bed in the morning if I am really dragging. The kids are good to put up with me. And good to play by themselves for a little while.

Although no one has said anything, my body is already changing. My tummy pokes out a little, and I am always trying to suck it in. One night Allie patted me on the tummy and said, "you look like you're pregnant again!" Ha! Observant little thing. I weigh 6 pounds more than the first appointment I had with Carter last year. Dang it for not getting rid of those last few pounds! They are going to come back to haunt me, I can feel it!