The Rest of Thanksgiving

After Dad and Emily got home on Friday, Jake and I headed out to stop at a hardware store and Radio Shack (for Jake) and we were going to the movies to see Breaking Dawn.  I was really excited to go to the movies since it's been so long.  But when we were at Radio Shack, I got a text from Derek Thompson asking if we were still good to babysit Brig that night so they could go on a date (for our babysitting swap).  I'd forgotten that we were going to do that!  D'oh!  I called Emily and asked if she'd be okay watching Brig too, and she was snippy and said, "No! I don't want to watch another person's kid."  Talked to Dad for a bit and he hesitantly said yes, but then I felt bad about the whole thing, so we ended up going home to watch both kids.  I was pretty mad at the way Emily acted... bothers me that that's her attitude about helping us and our friends out (she knows the Thompsons).  Jake and I grabbed a quick bite at Taco Bell before heading home and I vented about the whole thing.  Dad and Em were surprised when we got home and Emily said, "I said it was okay!" but blah blah blah.  Anyway, it was an okay night.  Just played with the kids.

The next morning, Dad went shopping and shortly after he left, Jake, Lila and I went out shopping too.  We went to Kohl's and spent just over $100 on Christmas presents and two zip-up cardigans for Jake (he sure loves his zip-up cardigans.  At the register, we learned we were only a few dollars short of the $100 (which we wanted to get to because we'd get $15 more Kohl's cash), so Lila got lucky and got to take home a stuffed animal (a dolphin that she calls Big Fishy) that she'd been carrying around the store.  She also had a huge, nasty poop at the store, and to our chagrin, we learned that we didn't have any diapers in her diaper bag!  Woops!  So Jake went to the Harding's next door and bought some.

After Lila went down for her nap, Jake and I went to the movies. :)  It was a lot of fun.  Can't believe it's almost been 2 years since we last went together, time sure flies.  We saw Breaking Dawn, the fourth Twilight movie.  We like seeing the Twilight movies because they're so funny... the acting is pretty terrible.  So we cracked jokes and laughed through most of the movie.  Lots of fun, and something nice to do before we have another little one to take care of.

Ordered pizza for dinner that night and played with Lila.  Got things ready for church.  Mike stopped by for a few minutes.  Did I write that the Ironwood Thanksgiving didn't go as planned?  Mike and Cassandra were going to drive up on Wednesday night, but she ended up deciding to stay in Kalamazoo to work on her wedding dress (her and her sisters are making it).  Actually, Mike didn't even have a car to take.  He had asked us to take the Camry, but we didn't feel comfortable with it... if something happened to it, it would be really bad for both parties.  But, he ended up having to take the Greyhound up there anyway, so that he could drive Lori's VW back.  So now he has that.  And Melissa's family was going to spend Thanksgiving in Ironwood, but they only made it to Wyoming and then turned around because of blizzards and bad roads.  So, we didn't miss out on a lot after all.  And, Melissa found out on Saturday that she's pregnant with #6!  Very exciting.  Jake and I think that it might be a boy.... but is probably a girl. :)  It'd be fun for Jared to have a boy cousin, though.

Dad left early Sunday morning, at 4:45 or so.  We made it to church in time for opening song, which is rare. :)  Primary went well.  It was our first time to our ward in like a month, I think, with Lila being sick and then Stake Conference.  I stayed busy passing out assignments and chasing after Lila.  She's still not a huge fan of nursery, but did enjoy snack time and lasted for a half hour after that before she was crying for Mom again.  Oh well.

She look a longer than normal nap (2.5 hours), which allowed both Jake and I to get good naps in.  We had planned on going to the Whitaker's that night, but that didn't happen.  So we spent the evening together.  I started making lists of all the things I'd still like to do before the baby comes (in less than a month, eek!).

It was a busy and productive day.  Made two loaves of banana bread this morning, did a bunch of laundry, meal planned, went to Sam's Club after Lila's nap.  I'm freaking Super Woman.  Hauled two 25-bags of sugar and flour around the store, lots of canned foods, and Lila, who is so clingy lately.  Jess called as I was getting home and it was fun catching up with her.  She's heading to Hawaii for 12 weeks after Christmas... she is flying alone with Audrey.  Yikes.  She's still trying to convince me (us) to come visit her, but I just don't think it's going to happen.  We are planning on flying to Utah though before Lila turns 2 to visit Melissa.  Jake has enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket.  Came home, started making shepherd's pie with 5 lbs of beef and 10 lbs of potatoes.  We went to the Whitaker's for a bit so that Jake could figure out how much insulation is needed up there--I think he's going to do that for them.  Kate and I got to visit, Georgie is sick.

By the way, Jake is amazing.  He's been helping out so many people lately with computer problems, car problems, winterizing Terie's stuff, helping Frank out with the insulation.  I can't imagine knowing as much as Jake knows... I'd probably be able to help out a lot more people if I did.

After that, Preston and Annette came over with baby Ruby.  He's one of our home teachers and she is my visiting teacher.  They're usually late for everything, so we were surprised when they showed up a bit early.  We hadn't had a chance to clean and our place is messy right now.  It's fine though.  Meghan Decker, my VT companion, said that she used to clean before her VTers came over, but then she decided to stop because it was like she was living a lie. :)  So the Shumways helped us finish the shepherd's pie.  They were very impressed with my freezer meal efforts.  They're hilarious.

Lila's been pretty clingy the past few days and hasn't been eating well.  She has a stuffy/runny nose... I wonder if she's teething.

Anyway, things are going well.  I just can't believe that this baby is coming so soon. He's moving a lot still, kept me up a few times last night, kicking me in the ribs.  Lila woke up in the middle of the night last night and I rocked her for a while, she is just so sweet.  I love having her little blonde head on my shoulder.  She sure loves me and loves hugs and kisses from me.  Meghan Decker was saying that it's probably one of the best things she did as a mom... giving regular physical affection to her daughters (she has 5)... head rubs and foot rubs.  I try to do that a lot with Lila.  We do lotion massages before getting dressed if we have time, and lots and lots of cuddles, hugs, and kisses throughout the day.  Lila craves it, it seems like.  Brenda Sesto said (during our last visit with her, which is when we were talking about this) that she's heard that it's so important that kids get that from their parents, because it makes it less likely that they'll go out searching for physical affection elsewhere, because we all need physical touch and affection.  I said a long, quiet prayer while I was rocking Lila for our family... for her as she transitions to being an older sister and not an only child, for baby Jared, that he'll be a good baby and a good eater and sleeper, and that I will be able to make it through the sleep deprivation and the craziness.  Prayer will sustain me, I just need to remember that.  To call on Heavenly Father for help.

It's late and I should get to bed.

"Happy Thanksgeebing Back."

The day after Thanksgiving! Black Friday! Jake and my dad are out braving the crowds.  They only left about 15-20 minutes ago, so that's not terrible.  But Jake is going to buy a piano keyboard from Guitar Center (he's been wanting to buy one for a few years now) and they have a 15% coupon today.  He's also going to see if they have any more Christmas trees at Home Depot, they were $100 off.  Probably sold out.  Jake got up at 7 to go, woke my dad up, and they woke Emily up because Emily's been saying how she wants to go shopping today, and she growled and whined at them. :) hahaha... Oh, I'm so excited for her to become a mom.

This week has been really nice so far.  On Monday night, we home taught the Tensmeyers.  Jake's companion was sick and couldn't go, so we took Lila.  Lila and Ella had fun playing together, they're pretty funny to watch, two little blondies running around.  Ella was at the tail end of croup, so she was coughing a lot.  Their little baby Rosalie (love that name) is almost a month old now, and so sweet.  Holly is doing great, she looks really good.  Dan's mom was there for the holidays and was a nice lady too.  We only intended on a short visit, but we were there for almost 3 hours I think.  Dan's mom asked what Jake did, and then Dan asked, "So, you're pretty good with computers?"  And then Jake helped him fix his iPhone, which wouldn't allow him to connect to his iTunes account.  The little girls got suckers and cookies and played with the iPad--what a life!  It was nice visiting with Holly.  I'm going to take Lila over there this week to keep her company and to let the girls play together.  I'm glad Jake was able to help... it's nice to actually be able to do something for the people you home/visit teach (especially when it's easy!) instead of just saying, "Let us know if there's anything we can do for you."

Tuesday was like a Friday, because Jake took Wednesday off of work.  When he came home from work on Tuesday, we told Lila it was the weekend, and she waved her arms around a little and said, "Weekend, party!" :)  We went to Sam's Club to get some things for Thanksgiving and stopped at Meijer for some produce and to get a Blu-ray from Red Box.  One of our goals for the long weekend was to watch a movie together, something we haven't done since August.

Wednesday was a busy day and went by really fast.  We had a quick BPP (biophysical profile) ultrasound to check on Baby Jared.  (This is cute, instead of calling him Brother Jared, like Jake and I usually do when we're talking to her, Lila calls him Jared Brother.)  It was really only 5 minutes or less.  He's looking good though, practicing breathing this time.  I think they're probably a little too zealous in their monitoring of him, but I guess that's okay.  Just want to make sure he's doing okay in there.

After that we went to our insurance people to get our applications for life insurance.  It's been on our to do list all year, since we bought our house, and just haven't gotten around to it.  Made me a little nervous when Jake did his traveling this month, that we didn't have anything set up.  So now we have to fill those out and get little physicals done.

We watched the first half of Captain America during Lila's nap, and she watched the second half with us.  Good movie, and it was fun to just relax on the couch and watch a movie together again.  It's the little things :)

Lila had an appointment for immunizations at 3:15 and we didn't get out of there till after 4.  There was some confusion about what dose of Hep B she was supposed to get, so it took a while for them to check.  She did considerably well waiting in the exam room and actually getting her shots.  Didn't put up a fight and only cried for less than a minute.  I think the Skittles I gave her afterwards helped.

From there, went to Meijer to finish up our Thanksgiving shopping.  Emily was there when we got home.  Got dinner.  Dad arrived an hour later, it's nice that he could come.  Lila was happy to see him, of course.  Jake and I drove around for almost an hour trying to find a newspaper with all the Black Friday ads, but all 10 places we checked had sold out.

When we got back, Jake set up Jared's crib.  Yay!  And we put drawer liners in his dresser and I filled it up with a ton of clothes.  This kid has more clothes than Lila did as a baby, for sure... and almost all of them so far we've gotten for free. 

Lila slept terrrrrrribly that night.  Was up at 3, fell asleep for a bit, and then was up crying till like 7 or something.  YIKES.  Jake and I were both up with her, and then my dad took her for a while so we could go back to bed.  It was pretty awful, we just wanted to sleep.  And then it dawned on me that, duh, she'd just gotten shots that day so we gave her some Advil and she went back to bed shortly after that.  Duh.  She slept in till 11.

Thanksgiving morning was busy, getting food ready, getting showered and ready, etc.  We made mashed potatoes and sweet potato bake (with lots of brown sugar and pecans).  We got to the Burnhams at 2:00 and got to watch the second half of the Packers/Lions game (Packers won).  It was an awesome way to do Thanksgiving--I'm so glad we arranged it that way.  Terra was in charge of the turkey, and every other family brought one or two sides.  It was perfect.  The Thompsons, Gochnours, Melissa/Mark Christensen, and the Hunts were there.  The Gochnours and Christensens are new to the area--they are new medical residents here in Kalamazoo, as is Nick Burnham. 

Came home, tried to take a quick nap.  Lila fell asleep on the way to the Hunts for dessert at 6:00 or so.  We split up dinner and dessert, which was also an awesome idea.  We had a really, really fun time there.  Dad didn't go, he stayed home and slept, but Emily came.  The same group of people were there and it was nice getting to know some of the new people.  We had yummy dessert and then played Catch Phrase and one of my old favorites, Mafia.  Lots of laughs.  Especially when Terra was a police for an entire game and didn't know it.  We're lucky to have such awesome friends here.  Lila was pretty tired and clingy, but she did alright.

We got home at around 10pm.  Lila stayed up for another hour.  We played in the guest room with Dad and Emily and Lila was just so happy, we were all laughing at how cute she is.  We sure love that little girl.  I was really, really, really hoping that Lila would have a good night because I just needed to get some sleep.  So I cuddled in her bed with her, and she fell asleep cuddled up against me, and oh my, it was so sweet.  And she did sleep through the night, hallelujah!!

Jake stayed up late researching Black Friday sales.  Now it's 10am and he's back with the keyboard, Dad and Emily are going shopping, and Jake is outside with Lila and the Caldwell boys winterizing our tractors.

The Little Things

Jake does this thing where he likes to tease me.  For example, yesterday we drove past a restaurant on Westnedge that I had never seen before called Old Chicago.  I said, "Have you ever seen that restaurant before?  Old Chicago.  I wonder if it's new."  And Jake said, "No, it's Old."  As in, Old Chicago.  He does that a lot and I always roll my eyes, and I'll say, "Jake, why can't you just be nice to me?"

I've gotten to do that to him three times within the past few days, though I can't remember what the first two were.  But after the first time, Jake realized how annoying it was and said, "Really?  I don't even do that to you anymore!"  But, yes, he does, because he did it to me yesterday.

The last one I can remember saying to him was last night.  This morning (Thanksgiving) a bunch of guys from church are playing football at the Texas Drive Park.  Last night he read the email with the info and asked me, "Where is Texas Drive Park?"  And I smiled gleefully and said, "Texas Drive!"

It's the little things in the life :)

Perspective

Just spent some time reading my journal entries from the beginning of the year, when we were buying the house, moving in, finding out we were pregnant, Lila was teething and crazy, and I was so exhausted.  What a crazy time in our lives.  I think everything going on at the beginning of my pregnancy kind of gave me a sour taste about the whole thing.  But now, with more experience, time, and a different perspective, I'm feeling a lot better about everything.  I'm getting used to having a toddler with mood swings, realize that tantrums are necessary, Lila is more independent than she was at the beginning, and I'm more comfortable being a mom and am a little more relaxed than I used to be.  I had so many worries, and now I see that those worries were silly... and that means that most of the worries I have right now about what it will be like having 2 kids are silly.  We push through the hard times and they get better.  Most of the time, things are great.  But I will surely have a few rough and awful months when the baby comes... especially when Lila's getting her last set of molars (she's an awful teether, it drags on for a month), but we'll get through it alive and life will be good again. :)  It's been good for me to see how much we've changed and accomplished just since moving into the house.  And I realized how much work having this house has actually been!  It's been totally worth it, but we've poured so much work, energy, time, and money into making it our home.  It does feel like ours, and there's still a lot we'd like to do, but we've been able to accomplish a lot since moving in.  We need to give ourselves credit for that and enjoy the work we've done.  Because now, for a season, we'll have to put a lot (most) of our projects on the back burner and focus on our little ones.  And that's perfectly fine.

So yes, I'm starting to feel a lot better, calmer, and more confident about having another child.  I'm just accepting that life will be kind of crazy, but we'll get through it and have a lot of fun in the meantime.  Hard work and trials are blessings from Heavenly Father, opportunities to grow into better people.

I gave the VT message this month to the sisters on our route, and I chose to speak on the talk by Elder Carl B. Cook.  This is my favorite quote from his talk --

Experience has taught me that if we...  exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy. We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. But we must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction.

I like that: "most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance--and if it is, the Lord will help us."  He'll even help us with the things that aren't exactly of eternal significance.  Just don't need to worry.

Even More...

Lila keeps doing these cute things that I want to remember.

We have a Little Mermaid doll that my mom saved from when I was little.  It has a removable bikini top type thing, and underneath is a Barbie-like chest.  Oh, first of all, there's a little cord on the back that you can pull and she'll talk.  Jake was making the Little Mermaid talk the other night and Lila didn't "yike" it, of course.  So now she furrows her eyebrows, shakes her head, and says, "I don't yike mermaid talk."  Very funny.  Anyway, She realized yesterday that the bikini top came off, so she was taking it off, saw the boobs, paused, and said, "Milk?"  lol.  A week or so ago, Jake had his shirt off and she saw his chest and said, "Daddy milk?" lol.  So we had to explain to her that Daddy doesn't have milk, but mommy has milk.  And yesterday I explained that mermaid doesn't have milk either.  So now from time to time, she'll say to me while shaking her head --

Lila: Mermaid milk.
Me: No, the mermaid doesn't have milk.
Lila: Daddy milk.
Me: No, Daddy doesn't have milk.
Lila: (Nodding her head) Mommy milk.
Me: Yes, Mommy has milk.


Last week, we had her friend Lucas over and he slipped and fell on the tile by our front door.  Lila did that a few times when we first moved here, and if she's running through, she'll slow down and walk across the tile and start running again when she hits the carpet.  Anyway, Lucas started crying, so Ann (his mom) hugged and comforted him.  Then Lila walked over to the tile, sat down, said, "Ohh, fall down."  So I asked if she wanted a hug, and she makes a hurt face, nods her head, comes to me for a hug, and then goes back to the tile and "falls", etc etc.  That's a game she likes to play now.

More Lila @ 20 months

As Lila was trying to put on our underwear and kind of got them on.  
Me: You did it, sweetie!
Lila: I did it, sweetie!

She loves listening to Primary music.  I have a CD of songs that we listen to in the car.  She knows the order.  After the first song ended, she said, "Temple!" which is the next song.  And after the temple song ended, she said "Heavenly Father!" (A Child's Prayer) and that is the next song.  Twice recently I've seen her holding a hymn book or the program for Stake Conference that had music in it, and she sang "Teach me walk in da light."  She likes that song too now, apparently.  I am so impressed with her.

A few weeks ago we were teaching her the shape triangle, and she said the word once or twice, but we haven't revisited that at all.  Tonight when we were home teaching the Tensmeyers, she was playing a game on their iPad and saw a triangle and said "triangle!" 

Whenever we turn onto our street, I'll tell her, "Lila, we're on our street!"  And so now whenever we turn onto it, she knows and tells me we're on our street.  A lot of times when we leave our house, she'll say, "Bye bye, house."

One of her very favorite things to do is put her blanket over her head or our head, or her feet or our feet, and say, "Where'd Mommy go?" or "Where'd Yiya go?" or "Where toe go?" or "Where'd hand go?"  She loves playing this game.

We have a CD of my dad's band, The Cadillacs.  They do a lot of Beach Boys.  The song Barbara Ann is on the CD, and it's Lila's favorite.  She'll sing, "Bop bop bop Barbara Ann."  So cute.

Megan Schmidt engaged!

Oh, I don't think I've written that Megan Schmidt is ENGAGED!  Sometimes I wondered if I'd ever see the day. :)  I don't know many details, mostly just from Facebook and her blog.  I did get a text from her about a month ago saying that she was engaged and that they're getting married on December 16th in the Spokane temple.  From what I've gathered (Facebook stalking!) he's Emily's age, which is kind of funny and weird, and looks a lot like Megan's brothers.  But he's cute and they look really happy together.  I'm so happy for my dear friend.  Her parents moved to Montana, so they don't live in Esky anymore and I think it'll be quite a while until I see her again.  This is from her blog--so funny to hear her talking this way... she's one of my last LDS friends to get married:

Adam and I are getting married in the Spokane temple on December 16th 2011!  I know it's fast, I know it's soon, but I also know that it's right.

    His proposal was so adorable.  I got off work at 7 on Saturday morning.  We always had this little joke that some day he'd be waiting at my house for me to come home from work so I could sleep in his arms, of course that never happened.  Who wakes up before 7 on a Saturday? But secretly I always hoped he would someday.  As I drove up to my house everything was normal, but then I saw his car in my driveway. It was pretty well hidden by my neighbor's bushes.  Then I looked up over our hedges at our front door and there he was sitting on the front step.  (he had been waiting out in the cold for over 20 minutes just in case I came home early!) As I approached him he told me to take off my gloves, got down on one knee, told me how much he loved me, and pulled out the box with the ring.  It was wonderful.  Then we went inside.....he had snuck into my house (both my roommates were out of town) and made us breakfast!  What a wonderful surprise on a most wonderful morning!  I can't wait for us to start our life together!

Charlie Horse - 34w 4 d

Pregnancy going well.  This boy is kicking and moving a lot.  Not always in frequency, but the strength of his movements are pretty crazy sometimes, and I don't remember Lila being quite that strong.  I definitely feel his bum most of the time, and am starting to feel a lot more of his other body parts like feet and elbows and knees, and I mean feeling them from the outside with my hands.  Still can't tell where his heels are, and I remember very clearly being able to feel Lila's heels.  But he's head down, which is wonderful.

Before bed, my nightly "ritual" involves peeing 4-5 times, but each time only peeing like a few drops. (TMI?)  With Lila, I would have to get up to pee every hour or two and that was annoying, but with this kid, I've been able to sleep 3-6 hours stretches still.  But, before bed, I always have to go, and it's always nearly impossible to get anything out, maybe because of how he's positioned.  It's very annoying. 

I feel huge, but someone told me today that I still look "tiny" and don't look like I'm due in a month.  I find that hard to believe.  I'll have to take some pictures soon, I've been bad about that.  I really need to get some pictures of me and Lila too... I don't have very many!  I feel bad about that. 

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with a charlie horse in my calf.  It was so confusing at first and then just really painful.  I woke up Jake after a little while (I wasn't thinking very clearly, I was tired) and he woke up startled and confused, and I told him to start massaging my leg, and he massaged the wrong leg, but it went away right after that.  Yikes, though.  My leg was even sore when I woke up this morning.  Never had that happen during pregnancy before.

A Date, Stake Conference, Busy Morning

By the time Friday evening came around, Jake and I were both pretty darn tired.  But we'd been planning on going out on a date all week, and we were both looking forward to it.  Friday morning I thought it would be a lot of fun to go to the movies together, because I haven't been to the movies since Avatar came out nearly 2 years ago, and probably won't be going for a long time after the baby is born either.  We've been talking about renting a movie lately too, but haven't been impressed with the movie selection, and don't really have the time either.  But as the day went on, we were both tired, and realized that by the time he got home (he had to wake up at 5am to go to Lansing that day), it'd be kind of late, and he hadn't seen Lila all week.  So we decided to just do dinner instead, which was fine.  We went to Cracker Barrel again because it's right by Alicia's apartment.  I got a delicious BLT salad, it would be so easy to make at home and was so yummy.  And we just talked.  For the first half of the date, we were both hungry and tired, so we didn't say much, lol, and probably looked like we were both going to fall asleep at the table.  But after we got some food in our bellies, the conversation got going and it was a lot of fun.  We both love to spend time together and it's so nice to just talk and catch up when we're both awake!

Saturday was busy.  Jake spent time in the morning working outside.  He has so many things he's working on right now... working on the generator, his snow blower, having to winterize the lawn mower.  Oh, he also mowed the lawn and picked up the rest of the leaves.  Then we ran some errands.  Lila found a pink and white candy cane at Lowe's and happily carried that around the whole store.  Lila took a long nap that afternoon (3 hours) and I think Jake and I might've fallen asleep too.  He had to leave at 3:30 to get to the Priesthood Leadership session of Stake Conference.  Lila didn't wake up till 4:30 and we had to be at church at 6 for dinner.  We spent the adult session in the RS room with the Thompsons, Annette/Ruby Shumway, and the Mills so that our kids could run around.  We've noticed that the Thompsons are pretty strict with Brig... they would like hold him down a lot or discipline him for really little things that Jake and I are totally lax about.  Different parenting styles, I guess.  It's funny though, we gave Brig a hymn book when we were singing a hymn, and he took it and threw it on the grown and started stepping on it.  We gave Lila a hymn book, and she climbed into a chair, opened it, and started singing.  Boys and girls.

Stayed and talked with people for a while.  Mike and Cassandra were there and Mike was all over her, lol.  They told us that Jason (her brother) and Megan eloped last week and that it was still a secret, but he's moved up to Grand Rapids with her.  That night at the Lillroses, Jason found out that Mike told us, and all hell broke lose.  I guess Jake and I aren't very popular with the Lillroses, or at least Jake isn't.  Jason insulted Jake in front of Mike and Cassandra and other members of her family, which I think it totally rude and inappropriate.  It'd be different if he talked to just Mike or just Mike and Cassandra about it, but to do it in front of everyone makes it so awkward for both M & C.  Jason is pretty much paranoid about anyone in our ward (he's in our ward) finding out because then they'll ask if it was in the temple, and it wasn't.  So he's not going to tell anyone!  He's just going to disappear.  Super weird.  He was mad too because Jake is the Stake Clerk and would know if Jason had met with President Witt for a live ordinance recommend (which isn't true, by the way).  Um, if you feel so guilty about not getting married in the temple, you probably shouldn't have done it!  Anyway, just dumb.  Cassandra's family is crazy and they made her feel really bad about it too.  It will be so good for them to get married and start their own lives.  Caught up with Desiree too, a little bit.  Things with them are about the same.  Tyler's not in school, just works and plays video games.  Desiree stresses out about most things (they've already taken Jarom to the ER 2-3 times for nothing).  Kari told me today that they're pretty inactive and often find excuses not to go to church, which is sad.  Desiree was venting to me about Tyler, and then apologized for always unloading on me.  Said she feels bad that it's always her unloading on me and that she never listens, but that I never complain anyway because of my "perfect life."  I don't have a perfect life, but I at least have a husband who does what he's supposed to and is supportive of me and our family.  And that makes most other things wonderful.


Sunday was a long day.  We had to be in Battle Creek at 9 for Stake Conference.  Lila did pretty well, but I sat out in the foyer with her for probably half the session.  It was more comfortable for me anyway, as it gets pretty painful to sit for long periods.  Talked more with Mike and Cassandra afterwards.  They've been getting a lot of congratulations from friends in the Stake.  I left my blood glucose meter there!! and was calling around about it this morning.  And then miraculously, Becca Burkhead called to tell me that someone else had found it underneath my chair, and had seen me sitting there, and gave it to her to give to me.  Really, a miracle.  I would've hated to have to replace it.  Lila slept on the way home and it was her only nap of the day (only 40 minutes).  Jake took her home teaching with him so that I could rest (so nice) and then we went to the Hendrix's for dinner.  Charles Hendrix is in our ward, but his wife and 5 daughters (the oldest is 11, the youngest is 2) are Catholic.  Jake is their home teacher, and last month, got a bunch of guys from church together to finish building a playhouse in their backyard for their girls.  This summer, Charles was back there working on it, and broke his back falling off a ladder.  Michelle, who usually doesn't like having home teachers visit, was so grateful and warmed up to Jake because of it.  Jake asked Derek (EQ President) if Jake and I could be their home teachers (allowable in the church handbook), and that was approved, so we went over there for dinner and stayed for over 2 hours.  Lila had a blast playing with their girls.  They are a really sweet family.  I think they have a very small income, but they live in such a small and sweet home, there's a sweet spirit there. 

Last night Jake and I had a good laugh... I told him that he couldn't wear his favorite pair of church shoes to church anymore because they're really old and scuffed up (he got them right before we got married 6 years ago), but he wouldn't let me throw them away.  I told him that he has other church shoes to wear to church, a black pair and a brownish red pair.  Back when we moved in, we "argued" about whether or not I could get rid of the brown pair, because he never ever wore them.  We agreed that if he wore them one or twice (or a certain amount of times, can't remember) in the next 6 months (maybe it was less than that, can't remember), he could keep them, but if he didn't we could get rid of them.  So, he asked me, "Do we still have the brown pair of shoes?"  And I said, "Hmm... you would know if we had them or not if you ever wore them."  And then he started cracking up, which I rarely am able to make him do.  And we laughed and laughed about it.  We can't remember the agreement we had, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't worn them since we moved into the house.  They're still sitting in the closet.  Pretty funny.

This morning she was up crying from 6-7ish.  Jake gave up trying to fall back asleep and got up at 6:30.  Lila fell back asleep after 7 and slept till 9.  We visit taught Brenda Sesto at 9:30, and it was a nice visit.  I really like my new companion and route.  Lila was ready to go after almost an hour, and put her jacket and shoes on and brought me my jacket and shoes, pretty funny.  After that we headed to Kari's for a playdate.  Came home, had lunch, and she went down for a late-ish nap at around 2.  I'm really looking forward to Wednesday.  Jake is taking it off and we have a few doctor appointments.  Things are going well.  Busy, but trying to rest a lot too.  Planning on taking Lila outside after she gets up because it's so nice out, sunny and 47 degrees... funny that that's considered "warm" now.

Lila @ 20 months

Tomorrow Lila is 20 months old, which is awesome, but also scary because I know that my kids will be 21 months apart.  Which means we have one month to go until Lila's no longer an only child!  Our lives will change so much!!  People tell me that kids usually do a lot better than we think they will, adjusting to a new sibling, but I still really think that Lila is going to have a hard time with it.  I'm anticipating a lot of crying and tantrums.  But, hopefully it will go better than that.  She is SO used to and loves being the center of attention.  Especially my attention.  She's very much a mommy's girl, but this will get her spending more time with daddy.  I mean, she does great with Jake and loves him a lot, and sometimes does request "Holdy Daddy," but a lot of the time, for comfort and soothing, it's mommy.  Which is fine, and how I think it probably should be, but there's only one of me.  Oh well.  I'll just have to get used to letting her cry more... because right now she doesn't have to do a whole lot of crying because I can usually pretty easily make her happy.

Anyway.  She's growing so much.  She's looking a lot older to me these days.  She's getting taller and skinnier and her face is slimming down, and she's looking more like a little girl. 

Clothes are kind of a big deal to her.  She enjoys getting dressed and wearing clothes with butterflies, flowers, and hearts.  She likes putting socks and shoes on, and putting her jacket on and hat.  As soon as we walk into the house, she wants to take her jacket and shoes off and wants us to take ours off too.  She'll say, "Yoffie shoes off!" or "Yoffie jacket!"  She really doesn't like it when I wear a zip up sweatshirt.  She thinks they are jackets and wants me to take them off.  She sometimes gets upset about clothes though too... several of her tantrums have been about clothes or getting dressed.

I really love that she talks and understands so much.  I think a lot of frustration is avoided because she can usually communicate what she wants and I can usually explain things to her.  It's a constant flow of chatter from her, and I love it.  People tell me all the time how surprised they are at how well she can talk for her age.  I think she probably talks as well as a lot of kids who are a year older than her.

She's not a breakfast person.  She'll drink one or two Danimals and eat maybe half a poptart or piece of toast, and then I'll give her a few snacks throughout the morning.  She almost never turns string cheese down.  She loves fruit snacks and says "fwoot 'nocks" now.  She still loves noodles ("noo noos") and soups.  Not a sandwich person though, unless it's a grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup. 

Seems like her favorite color is pink.  Whenever you ask her what color something is, she says, "Pink!"  For example, there are three tissue paper pom-poms hanging above her bed.  Before bed, we'll often ask her what colors the flowers are (they are pink, purple, and yellow).  So it'll go something like this, "Lila, what color are those flowers?"  "Pink!"  "And?"  "Pink!"  "What else?"  "Pink!"  And then we'll ask how many there are, and she'll say, "Five, Sick, Seben!"

She's gotten a lot more into books this month.  There have been a few times where I don't know where she is, and I'll find her sitting on her little step stool (she even calls it a step stool, so cute) looking at a book.  She likes to sit in my lap and cuddle and "read" with me.  She'll say, "Bock! Wead it!" We'll get through a few pages of a book, and then she'll hop out of my lap and get a different one, and we'll go through a dozen books this way.  Her favorite is still Lila Pirate, and she even can repeat some lines and phrases.

One of her favorite things to point out is when it's dark outside, and she loves pointing out when it's "dark outside" in books too.  "It'sh dock out!" or "It'sh dock outshidey!" 

She also loves to point out the what is a rocking chair and what isn't.  In our living room we have two arm chairs and a little rocking chair for her.  She'll climb into a regular chair, and say, "Rocking chair" while shaking her head... and then I'll say, "That's not a rocking chair."  And then she'll point over to her rocking chair and nod and say, "Rocking chair!"  And I'll say, "That's a rocking chair!"  And OH it is so cute how she says the word chair.  It's more like "cheh."

She loves looking at pictures and videos of herself.  Most kids probably do.  My mom said I used to love it sit and look at our photo albums when I was little.  Well, Lila is of a different generation, so she looks at pictures on my iPhone and on my Facebook.  Whenever my Facebook page is open, she demands over and over, "Want pitchee Yiya! Want pitchee Yiya!"  She usually wants me to flip through them rapidly.

Oh, she repeats herself a lot, when she wants something.  I hear this allll the time: "I want Mommy, I want Mommy!  Holdy Mommy, Holdy Mommy!"  She doesn't call me "Mama" anymore (it's been a while since she's called me that), just Mommy.  And Jake is Daddy. 

Still asks, if Jake and I leave, "Where'd Mommy go?  Mommy coming?"  Another common phrase, because I'm pregnant and am always going potty, is "Mommy go potty."

She's really well-behaved with me on shopping trips.  She doesn't last very long in the cart anymore, and likes to walk around with me.  Is pretty good at following me and staying focused.

She has gotten a lot more "hyper" this past month, and her "hyper" isn't even very hyper at all.  She just hops around cutely (more like a little gallop), saying, "Hop, hop, hop!" and she likes to jump and land on her butt, and she'll say, "Woah! Fall down!"  She loves being chased, especially around the little loop from our living room to the hallway by our bedrooms.  She'll say, "Mommy getch you!" or whoever she wants to chase her.  She just laughs and laughs and runs.  She loves going upside down.

She loves singing with me, twinkle twinkle, row your boat, it's raining it's pouring, itsy bitsy spider, and a lot of Primary songs.  She'll actually try to sing some of the words that she knows.  It is extremely adorable. 

She's gearing up for Christmas.  Loves looking at Christmas decorations at stores and Christmas trees "Kissmas Tees."  Likes Santa Claus and knows that he says, "ho, ho, ho!"  She still talks about Halloween though.  Usually in the same sentence as Christmas.  "Hawwoween, Kissmas!"

She's not really into toys.  She likes toy pianos and things that are musical, but not really interested in toys I guess. 

Still loves the Birdie Show.  She now knows them by name, Tasha, Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, and Austin.  Very cute.  Not really into Blue's Clues anymore.  We flipped through a bunch of different cartoons on Netflix the other day and she said she didn't like most of them.  We did get through a bit of Angelina Ballerina, but a lot of times she says, "Don't yike ballerina."

Oh, a phrase we hear all the time is, "I don't yike it." lol.  It's awesome and classic Lila.  And so now whenever we say it to each other in regular conversation, we say, "I don't yike it."

So,  I've found that if I can keep her up past 10:00, she'll usually sleep a long stretch, 7-8 hours before waking up for a bit and then sleeping for another 2.  It's a whole lot better, but it makes for a long evening of entertaining her sometimes, but usually it's fun to play as a family and we're still able to get things done.  And it gives her more time with Jake.  And we can run errands in the evenings again.  She still takes naps that are usually 1 1/2 hours long, but the other day she slept for 3 hours, which was amazing.

She loves playing with other kids but still doesn't like nursery very much.

Sometimes she'll tell me that it's snack time.

When she's tired, she'll tell us that she wants a nap.  "Want gee (with a hard 'g') nap."  She loves her blankie (brown and fuzzy on one side, soft and pink with circles on the other).  We take it some places with us now, on longer car rides and if we're dropping her off somewhere.  She sure loves it.  Before she takes a nap or goes to sleep, she'll say, "Tuck you in!" because I tuck her in.  And then I'll ask her if it's comfortable, and she says, "I comfatle."  And lately, I don't know why she does this, she'll then say, "Yiya smile." and then smile at me, lol.  Love it.

Is getting better at coloring.  She can draw circles, which are pretty bad circles, but they're still circles.  Has very good control over the crayon and holds it like an adult would.  When she wants to color, she says, "Paypee (paper) cowor." 

She is pretty attached to our iPhones.  "Mommy Phoney" and "Daddy Phoney."  And the "Hi Pat" which is the iPad.  She knows exactly how to use iPhones too and it's so funny to see her tapping the screen with her little fingers or swiping it.  Really cute.  She mostly likes to watch videos of herself, but has some apps that she likes.  She really likes this Primary music app that I have... play some Primary songs and has pictures that go along with them.  She'll listen to that a lot. 

Loves Uncle Mike, Cassandra, and my sister Emily.  Would prefer them to play with her and carry her around than Mom and Dad when we're around.  Which is great, because that's what aunts and uncles are for, right?  (At least the ones without young children.)

She's starting to say prayers!  It's adorable!  One time lately, she said, "Heavenly Father.  Mommy, Daddy, fam-a-wee (family), Yiya. Go outside. Walk."  lol

I love this kid so much.  She is my world.  I love all her little sounds, the sounds she makes when she chews, the way she breathes.  Jake thinks this is funny because I don't like the way he chews at all.  But she's just so cute.  I love kissing her cheeks, and she kisses me back too now.  Today she licked me a little bit and said, "I eat Mommy!"  LOL.  She lets me hug and kiss her a lot, and I love that.  I really don't know what I'd do without her and can't imagine not having her in my life.  She is my little blondie girl and I'm blown away sometimes by how beautiful she is.  She is gorgeous.  I think her little face is so perfect and can't believe I had anything to do with creating her.  God is so good to me.  Overall, this is a really fun age and I love that she is more interactive and independent.  She is starting cry more over not getting her way, but she's usually a really good kid.  I feel blessed.

Ultrasound - 34 weeks

I was supposed to go in for an ultrasound at 3:00, but Lila didn't go down for a nap till 1:30, so I called to reschedule the ultrasound for 3:30.  It worked out well, Lila woke up right before we had to leave at 3:00.  I had thought about dropping her off at Kate's, but decided to take her with us, and I'm glad we did, because she woke up just wanting Mommy.  Nothing a good car ride with some licorice couldn't fix, though.

Emily came along.  It was a growth scan and a BPP.  At the beginning of the ultrasound I asked if we would get any pictures, because Jake wanted them of course, and she said she would try to get some for us.  The only ultrasounds I've ever gotten were when I was 6 weeks along with Lila and then the 20 week scans for both kids, so I've never seen a bigger baby on an ultrasound before.  And truthfully, there wasn't that much to see, because he's so much bigger and he's running out of room in there.  He's head down and the placenta is on my left side still.  He's still measuring a week or so behind, which is still in the normal range, but maybe he really will be a smaller baby than Lila.  Sounds like it.  He's estimated to weigh 4 lbs 2 oz right now.  We saw his boy parts again--he is definitely a boy :)  He was moving around like crazy during the ultrasound.  It was almost a little painful.  The tech had to chase him around to get the measurements she needed.  We got a decent look at his face, and to my delight, she got a few 3D images of him.  His face was mostly snuggled into the placenta (the closest thing to a baby blanket he has right now?) but we got to see his eyes and nose at least, and he has the same little nose as Lila does!!  It's amazing!  I think he'll probably look a lot like her.  His arm was in front of his lips, so we didn't get a good look at his mouth.  I'm so excited to see what he looks like.  Too bad Jake couldn't be there.

34 weeks

Yesterday I got a phone call from Maternal Fetal medicine.  They want me to start taking a pill to help regulate my blood glucose levels.  Right now I'm just taking half a dose an hour before breakfast.  My levels have been off lately, so maybe this will help.  So last night Lila and I picked up my Rx at Sam's Club for $4. 

I had my 34 week appointment this morning.  I weigh 136.  I told my midwife that they just started me on meds, and she said, "Oh! Well, I was just about to say that if you're able to manage it just with your diet, we wouldn't have to do any extra monitoring."  But I do need extra monitoring now.  She scheduled a growth scan for today at 3pm.  And every week until the baby is born I'll either have two non-stress tests or a Biophysical Profile (an ultrasound) done.  Next week I'll have the ultrasound, because it's Thanksgiving week and it would've been harder to fit in two NSTs.  Jake can't come today, which is a bummer, but he should be able to come next Wednesday.  And, she said that because I'm on meds, they prefer to induce between 38-39 weeks.  We'll find out more about that probably at my next midwife appointment on December 2nd.  At that appointment I'll have my Group B Strep test done and have my cervix checked.  I'll have another growth scan done at 38 weeks to check on his size and to see if he'll be able to be induced.  Crazy stuff!

Staycation, Jake in NJ and NY

Saturday morning Lila slept in till 11 or something crazy like that, because she was up in the middle of the night crying for a while, and didn't get to bed till after 11.  I slept in till 9:30.  Woke up and finished the second coat of edging and then Jake did one coat with the roller.  Lori and Dan left in the morning sometime, shortly after they bought the Rav4 (they paid for it with actual cash, which is pretty funny and a very Betzold thing to do... over $20k in cash).  Jake and his dad worked on installing the generator, but had to run to Menards for a while to get materials.  Jake took Lila and while they were gone, I finished painting Jared's room! :)  It was a very proud, I-am-woman-hear-me-roar moment when I finished.  Both of the kids' rooms are painted!  This is a huge victory for the Betzold family! :)

After that, Jake and his dad worked on the generator.  We were planning on heading over to the hotel at 3, when check-in started, but I don't think we got there till 4:30 or 5.  They had to finish up what they were doing, and Lila took a late nap.  Next time we do this (if we ever do it again), we'll definitely try to get there sooner so that we have more time to relax.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, which is literally less than 10 minutes from our house and across the street from Jake's work. :)  We jumped on the bed for a bit (well, Jake and Lila did) and then went swimming.  Lila loved it and called the pool a "cool."  I got to use my maternity swimsuit for the first time (the one I got on clearance for $12).  It was my first time swimming as a very pregnant woman, and I was amazed at how weightless I felt, and how absolutely heavy I felt as soon as I stepped out of the pool.  We had fun swimming together.  I love my little family.  Lila had a blast.

We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel.  It was my first time there and I enjoyed it.  We split a dessert of apple pie a la mode.  Yum.  Then headed back to the hotel and got in the jacuzzi.  I poured a LOT of bubble bath in there, and it was almost overflowing with bubbles.  Pretty funny and it scared Lila at first.  Then Jake went to buy some snacks for us and we watched TV for a little while.  Then Lila cried herself to sleep.  We went to bed shortly after that.  We had a little rollaway bed for her, right up next to our bed.  We stacked some pillows next to her so that she wouldn't fall off the bed, but unfortunately, she fell off the bed anyway at 3:40am.  And was up for the next 3 hours.  ARGGHHH!  She cried most of that time, and Jake had to take her out in the hall for walks a few times.  I was really impatient with her and was kind of a mean mom, but I was so exhausted and just wanted to sleep.  I felt bad when she finally started to calm down and fell asleep again.  Sigh.  Jake and I slept in till 9:30 and Lila slept in until almost 11 again, I think.  Jake and I had breakfast together while Lila slept in the room, and after she woke up, we all went swimming again just so that we could end the vacation on a good note.

Went to sacrament meeting at the 2nd ward.  After church, Lila took a nap and Jake and I fell asleep on the couch.  Emily made dinner.  We were going to set up the crib, but couldn't find two parts to it.  Bummer.  And then Jake packed for New Jersey.

Jake's business trip and mine and Lila's stint without him went well.  Lila and I stayed busy running errands, shopping, playing, bringing food to Holly, visiting teaching.  I have a new VT companion, Meghan Decker, which is awesome!  I haven't had a VT companion for most of this year.  Meghan is President Decker's wife (he's the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency).  A really great lady.  We VT Terra Burnham, Mary Gleason (old lady), and Brenda Sesto (a recent divorcee, now inactive, who used to be in the Stake RS Presidency), and another lady who is inactive.  Jake spent one night in New Jersey and one night in NYC, which is pretty cool, but had a long day.  He got back to Kalamazoo yesterday at around 2:30 and was able to come home for 15 minutes before needing to head back to work.  We're happy to have him home.  So now I guess we're used to not having Jake around, which is fine, because he's got his church meeting tonight too.  But we sure like having him around.

I have about half of my Christmas shopping done, which is good!  Melissa, ever prepared and on top of things, already mailed Lila and Jared's presents to us. 

And some awesome news we received yesterday: AnnaMarie is having twin boys!  Woohoo!  So exciting.

Another Email

Sent Tuesday, November 15, 2011 @ 6:41 pm

 Hi Rudi,

Another long day here.  It's not even 6 but it feels really late.  We are on our way to the airport to drop off the car, and then we'll cab to the hotel, then get dinner, then go to bed, then get up early to cab to the airport, then fly home.  It would make more sense to simply stay at a hotel near the airport, but it turns out that would be quite a bit more expensive!  Those rooms go for a premium.

We started the day waking up at the Crowne Plaza, had some breakfast, which wasn't great...the best part was the oatmeal, and it was a little watery.  But, still healthyish and filling. 

We then had a good meeting at Janssen where we met about the project we are currently doing and how we will be expanding the project.  The currently $51k project will probably turn into $150k+.  

Next, we drove 2 hours to Synthes, stopping for lunch at a Cheesecake Factory (I had the Thai lettuce wraps but none of us had time to get cheesecake).  

Our meeting at Synthes was ok.  Jen and Phil felt that it was horrible.  Basically, the people we met with are at the bottom of the totem pole, and can't really get us the business.  But, we'll work our way slowly in and probably eventually get hooked up with the right people to make our way into that company.  

Being out here with these two on this sales call has helped me realize just how awesome Maestro is and how easy it is to sell what we do.  Don't get me wrong, Phil and Jen are really good, but we have some awesome stuff to sell with.  I think if we had a larger dedicated sales force, we would get so much business that we couldn't handle it all.  

Last night I was talking with Jen, and she says the next big thing she wants to do is build up a strong sales force and marketing team.  It would be pretty cool if Tagg works out and if he's the right fit at this time for us.  Anyway, I'm glad that we haven't blown up our sales force yet, because I am really learning how to grow our internal team.  I think we'll meet up at about the right time.  It will be somewhat of a struggle, and it has been since I started in this role (to have enough people but not too many to do all of the work we have) but I think we'll en up ok.  

David Cook met with Norm today and had a good interview.  We want to hire him fast, but need to meet once more, so tomorrow at 6pm, I'll be meeting him with Jen for about a half hour to final interview and if Jen feels good about him, make him an offer.  So, I will be home late.  Sorry about that, but it was literally the only time that we and he could meet up this week yet.  

Anyway, sounds like you had a little bit of a crazy night/morning with Lila.  I sure miss the two of you a lot.  I am really excited to be home with you tomorrow night.  Do we have any plans for Friday?

I hope you had a good day today and your night isn't too crazy.  I'll have my own room tonight so when I finally get in, which will probably be after 10, we can chat, if you're up.  

Love you lots sweetheart, and I miss you a lot!  Please give Lila some kisses for me,

Jake

A talk with Jake

Before bed last night (Tuesday), Jake and I talked on the phone for really the first time since he's been gone.  Which had only been a day, but it felt like a lot longer.  He said that he'd done a lot of thinking about me and my role as a mother.  He remembered the time, early on in our dating, when we were talking about our patriarchal blessings.  I remember this too.  We were sitting in the Astro Van (classy!) in my high school parking lot at night, it was winter.  Around 7 years ago.  In my blessing, it says that I will marry an honorable priesthood holder in the temple, and that out of our marriage we will have a fine family, be able to raise them in a household of faith and in the context of gospel principles, and that I will be able to provide them with all that they need to be happy and healthy.  He remembers thinking that that was exactly what he wanted for his family and his children, and that the Spirit confirmed to him that I would be a good mother.  He said that that spiritual confirmation he received then carried him through the times when I was pretty crazy during our engagement :)

Anyway.  He just told me that he really appreciates the hard work I do.  And that he thinks it is so important and so wonderful that I can be there with our children all day, teaching them and loving them.  He said he thinks I'm a very pure and righteous woman, and that will rub off on our children.  He was thinking about how the thing about parenting is... we take what our parents did with us and refine their methods.  We take what worked and what was good, and we try to change what wasn't.  His parents are a refined version of their parents, he is a refined version of them, and our kids will be a refined version of us.  It just sounded like he realized how much of an influence that we have on our children, and especially me, because I will spend so much time with them.

I told him about a game Lila and I play... usually when she wakes up from her naps, we'll lay in bed for a while and play peek-a-boo with the pillows and her blankie, and I'll throw pillows at her and we'll tickle each other.  So yesterday while I was tickling her (it always amazes me that kids love to be tickled so much and adults hate it), she wanted me to sing a song (currently her faves are Twinkle Twinkle and Row, Row, Row Your Boat).  I think it was a way to distract me from tickling her, lol.  but after every line of the song, I would tickle her, and she'd laugh and laugh.  It was a lot of fun.  Jake said that he loved hearing that, and that those little moments like that are what builds the strong, eternal bond between me and Lila.  I believe that too.

Anyway, I then told him that I appreciate his love and support.  He was being very sincere, and it was nice to hear... because a lot of times, he just doesn't seem to "get" things :)  I also told him that I think it's funny he thinks I'm so pure and righteous, because I don't feel like I'm like that.  There are a lot of moments, and I probably have at least one every day, where I feel bored or feel maybe a little jealous of him getting to go to work, and miss him, and not exactly enjoy being a stay-at-home-mom.  But I do it anyway, out of love, and because I know it's the right thing for me to do, and I love our children.  He pointed out that I do it out of duty, and sometimes that's true, and that's fine.  He said that that's something important we need to teach our kids... to do certain things out of duty, even when it's not the most exciting thing we could be doing.  It seems like there are some women, like Melissa, who absolutely love being a mom and a homemaker and running a household... and I love being a mom, but it's hard work and it doesn't always come naturally to me.  (The loving Lila part comes naturally, but all the other stuff doesn't.)

He thinks that it's simply who I am as a person that will bless our children and family so much.  That means a lot to me.  I told him that I don't think I'm extraordinary, but that I have been blessed to have been taught a lot of really great skills about parenting and communication that will help me be successful and raise happy and healthy children.  I feel very confident in my ability to do those things and to raise them to be successful and happy.  He thinks that I will teach them how to be happy and healthy by the way that I live my life.  I also feel blessed to not feel drawn outside the home.  I know a lot of people and women feel the need to be involved in outside activities to feel happy and fulfilled, and that's great.  I do need a break once in a while, but for the most part, what brings me the most joy is my family and being with them.  The thing that makes me the happiest is having Jake home with us :)  I think that's a real blessing from Heavenly Father... and that I have the instinct to know how to prioritize things within my family and to be able to say no to things that aren't essential to our eternal happiness and success.  I'm not perfect at it, I know, but I think that's something that I do well and that will serve us well.

Anyway.  It was a good conversation, and it was nice to connect like that even when we weren't together.  I feel so blessed to be his wife and to be the mother to such a wonderful little girl.  We're so excited to meet our little boy.  I'm starting to get more excited all the time.  Up to this point, I've mostly been nervous, but I'm starting to feel reassured that everything will be ok and work itself out.  I don't need to worry.  Heavenly Father will help me and will help our family.  It's just so amazing and hard-to-believe that I will love this child as much as I love Lila.  That he will be just as much a part of our family as Lila and that we'll love him so much.  Jake said he's so excited to just hold him and to fall asleep with him on his chest in the recliner.  He said he remembers doing that with Lila, and he misses it a lot, because Lila doesn't usually like to snuggle with him.  He said that it went by so fast, and it did. He's really excited to have a son.  I'm just so blessed to have my family.

New News

Another busy, busy weekend!  Life is pretty crazy right now.  I'm so tired.

Friday after Lila's naps I decided to run some errands.  I went to Kohl's to get more clothes for Lila and two king sized pillows--I had a 30% coupon.  I'm going back today to do more Christmas shopping.  Then I stopped at Lowe's to buy the paint for Jared's room.  Alicia offered to watch Lila that evening so that Jake and I could paint, so she was there from 5-7:30 or so.  We got one coat of edging done and then called it a night because Jake's family was going to arrive soon.  So Jake picked Lila up.  And then his parents, Dan, Jim/Angela/Emily came over.  It was fun visiting together again and we were up late.  Lila loved playing with her cousin and her uncles.  She loves Grandpa and had to get used to Grandma.  But it was good to see everyone.

SO.  This just in: Mike and Cassandra are getting married at 3pm in Nauvoo on December 30th.  I'm just going to assume that Jake and I aren't going, as our baby will only be a week old and I will still be very much recovering from all that fun stuff.  Lori is planning on coming down the week before Christmas.  I'm guessing that everyone who is going will head to Nauvoo the day before, the 29th.  Jim, Angela, and Emily will be leaving for Columbia for 3 weeks on December 26th, so they won't be going either.  Is it just me or is it weird that they're planning their wedding for a time when two of Mike's siblings can't be there?  (And two that could actually see the sealing.)  Anyway.  Mike said that Melissa and Anna will be flying out for it, so we'll at least get to see them and they'll get to meet the baby, which is really cool.  They're planning on having a reception in Kalamazoo the next day, New Years Eve, so we'll at least be able to go to that for a little bit.  Me in all my postpartum glory.  Yikes.

So, I'm thinking this will be a very crazy few weeks for Jake and I and our little family.  Lots of commotion and stimulation for Lila... all happening at the same time, with all the visitors in our home.  Jim and Lori I think will be very helpful, Dan keeps to himself.  Don't know if Sam will be coming.  Melissa and Anna will be helpful too... Anna and Lila can play together kind of, and Melissa's just awesome anyway.  I just think a house full of people when we have a new baby will probably be a little stressful for me, so I don't know what to do about that.  Not much we can do.  But, it'll be nice to have lots of extra hands to help out and to make us food and watch Lila so that we can get some rest.

Emails

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 -- 12:32 am

Hi Rudi,

We got to the hotel tonight at about 10:45pm, then ordered dinner in the bar/grill. I split the pita/veggie plate and a mushroom/swiss burger with Jen. The pita plate was really good with hummus, and the burger was really good too. I wouldn't usually get mushroom/swiss anything, but it turned out to be very tasty....so, if Mushrooms are healthy for you, then I wouldn't mind having them on a burger.

The plane ride had a lot of turbulence, but the plane was nicer than the one we flew on last time. there was a little more legroom this time. Also, Jen, Phil and I all sat right next to each other in the same row. We talked a lot of work stuff on the way over. Since we used my rental credit, we got to pick our car. We were going to get a Dodge Journey, but someone had stolen the keys to a bunch of vehicles earlier that day and that was one of them. We ended up between a Ford Expedition and a GMC Yukon. We took the Expedition. It's HUGE. And, Jen described the inside as Old-Manish. But, it was fine, and just a little big for riding around in in NYC. However, it wasn't long before we were on the freeway. Altogether though, not a great car. Kind of wish we tried the Yukon....wonder if it would've been any better. I'll try again next time.

Anyway, dinner was nice (and late), but good to finally get some food. At Ohare, we sat at the Chili's and just had chips/salsa while we waited for the flight since we got there so early.

Tomorrow we'll meet with Janssen and Synthes and be back in NYC probably for dinner. I'm glad this is a quick trip.

Well, just wanted to shoot you an email and tell you what I've done today, and how much I love and appreciate you. I think you're doing a great job as a mother and wife, and pregnant too! Keep up the good work, it will be well worth the effort.

Know that I am thinking of you always in my heart. Love always,

Jake


My response at 1:00 am

Hey babe. I see you sent this not long ago. Ive been up for over an hour. Fell asleep for a few hours at 9 or 9:30 but woke up and haven't been able to fall back asleep. Feeling uncomfortable. And the baby was kicking a LOT and keeping me up. Kicking me in the ribs. Nice to know he's in there and wants to make his presence known. :) I've never been kept up by a kicking baby before, Lila was never like that.

It was great to hear what you did all day. Thanks so much for taking the time to do that. Reminds me of the good old days of dating and being engaged, writing emails to each other.

Our evening went well. Dropped off the dinner at holly's. Her baby is so sweet and big like Lila was. She said things are going very well and that she's an easy baby. I sure hope Jared is a good baby. Holly looked SO GOOD. She was so skinny, wearing skinny jeans and didn't look at all like she just had an 8.5 lb baby. Lucky. Didn't stay long at all. I was so tired. Got lost on the way home :) thank goodness for the iPhone!

I was expecting Lila to be up till 10 or 11 as usual. But she watched an episode of the birdie show, we Skyped with my parents for a bit. Lila was really hyper and playful for a bit, running and hopping around, playing peek a boo with her blanket. It was very cute. And then she snapped and needed to get to bed immediately, this was a little after 8pm. "I want beddy! I want go nap!" it was hard getting her in her jammies. But she fell asleep around8:45 and is still sleeping. Hopefully my morning doesn't begin too early. At least i was able to get some sleep earlier, i was so exhausted and had a headache. Ann Walls (Pineda) and Lucas are coming over at 9:30 to get the pictures and Emily is coming over after school and spending the night, so at least I won't be alone.

So things are going well here. Hope your meetings go well tomorrow. I'll be thinking of you. I love you so much and sincerely appreciate the hard work you do for our family. It's so nice to know that even when we're not together, we're working together for the good of our family. I'm so glad you're my partner in all of this.

Love you so much,
The wife of your bosom.

44 inches (33w 1d)

If I'm induced at 39 weeks, that means I have just 6 to go!

I'm getting really big, and so is the baby.  My tummy is often lopsided because his little bum is poking out on one side or the other.  His kicks are strong and so are his stretches.  He moves a LOT at night.  It's pretty painful when I sit on the floor, my hips hurt a lot and it's hard to get up.  And it's hard to avoid sitting on the floor when you have a toddler.  I have to avoid spicy foods as it gives me heartburn and tummy aches.  I'm not swollen, which is great, but I do feel like my face is chubby.  I'm at that point where I just feel unattractive.  My hair is awful... haven't been doing it lately.  Before I have the baby I'd like to get a pedicure, a hair cut, and my eyebrows waxed.

When we were working on the curtains last night, I measured my waist and I'm 44" around.  Which is funny, considering I'm not quite 60" tall.  Jake thinks I'm really big and wonders if I was this big last time.    I do think Jared will be a big baby too.

I'm starting to lose energy.  When I was pregnant with Lila, I think I really enjoyed it.  But this time around I'm definitely ready to not be pregnant again.  I try to enjoy it, and I try not to complain (I'm pretty good at that), because I really don't have it that bad.  I'm excited to be able to eat what I want, when I want and to not have to poke myself 4 times a day, but things are going well.  I'm sleeping well, which is great.  Just need to be more patient with Lila, which has been hard this week because I've been sick too.

I'm still nervous about having another baby, but I'm guessing that the transition won't be quite as horrible as I'm anticipating.  I think it'll be exhausting and difficult, but we'll adjust and make it through.  It hit me the other day that wow... I'm going to love this baby just as much as I love Lila.  My heart will grow and I will love him too.  Becoming a mom was such a huge emotional experience for me.  Bonding with my baby Lila was incredible and I loved it.  I hope it's the same with Jared.  I hope that I will find myself learning and growing a lot again and feeling so close to God.  I hope that this is a beautiful experience too.

Cranky Lila, Curtains

Wednesday we had Brig over all day.  It was a nice change and distraction, and the two kids play very well together.  Nap time got a little crazy, but I think both kids slept at the same time for a little while.  I looked up freezer meal recipes -- that'll be my project after the kids' rooms are done.  We're thinking about buying a chest freezer... for freezer meals, frozen fruit, freezer jams, smoothies, easy frozen food.  To make my life a little easier, especially with two kiddies keeping me busy.  Life's kind of crazy this week and next week, and the week after that is Thanksgiving, so hopefully in early December we can find something!

I was toast by the time Jake got home.  Lila's been really cranky, clingy, weepy this week and I'm getting more pregnant and tired every day.  Jake gave Lila a nice bath and I got to take a hot shower by myself.  Lila was really tired and in bed at 9... but... of course... she woke up shortly after and was up till 11 again.  That girl!  I was actually reading through my baby book (my mom gave it to me) a while ago, and she wrote over and over how I didn't go to bed till 11:00.  Funny.  Maybe it's genetic.  We had fun though watching clips from the Conan O'Brien show and laughing a lot.

Yesterday I was pretty tired again, and Lila was very cranky and weepy.  So, the morning was a little rough, but she perked up when Emily got here and took a nice 2+ hour nap.  She woke up happy.  We went to Joann Fabrics to buy fabric to make curtains for Lila's room.  Lila was cranky and wanted me to hold her the whole time, and then she pooped.  We managed to make it out of there in an hour... it stresses me out to make a commit to fabric, lol.  But Emily just made me decide, and I like what we got and think it will work well.  My taste is pretty predictable, but Emily's like, "Well, most normal people are predictable!"  We showed it to Cassandra later that night when Mike was over and they were video chatting; she said, "That reminds me of you, Rudi."

Rushed home to try to make dinner in time for Jake, but it wasn't ready, so he had leftover meat loaf.  We got to spend a little time together... as he was changing into his suit.  Lila was freaking out and crying, and so she nursed for a while, and would giggle while nursing (so funny) when Jake made funny faces at her. Jake is my hero.  We're going on a "staycation" tomorrow.  For a while, we've been talking about going to Detroit or Chicago for a night or two as a family, just to get away and relax and enjoy each other before our lives change dramatically again.  Well, we're just so busy that it'll be hard to get away in the next month... so Jake suggested we just rent a room at a hotel down the road.  So we're going to do it!  It's going to be awesome!  We'll play in the pool, we have a jacuzzi in the room, I get to lay in bed when I want, we'll watch TV and eat snacks, and just have fun together as a family.  I'm pretty excited.  He said that we could save the $100+ and stay at home and try to commit to not do anything (chores, etc), but we both decided that would be really hard.  And I know we won't regret it.  Jake was really soothing, for the 10 minutes that I got to see him.  Love that guy.  I was crying to him about everything and he's just awesome.

It was a long evening.  Lila was up till 10:45.  But we had Auntie Nemmy and Uncle Mike both here for a while, and she loved that.  We Skyped with both my mom and Cassandra.  Emily and I worked on the curtains.  We just used hem tape, so it was easy.  (I don't have a sewing machine.)  Today I'm going to buy a rod and some rings to hang them up this weekend.  I'm excited to do curtains for Jared's room and a crib skirt too--should be pretty easy.  Going to try to wait for more coupons from Joann's though.  I also want to replace the wood blinds in their rooms (and I guess all the blinds in our house) with white ones.  

Mike is doing ok.  Still no wedding date nailed down, still haven't heard back from the First Presidency.

So, Lori and Dan are driving down today.  Lori is buying a 2009 Rav4 from Kalamazoo and is coming to pick it up.  I don't get her sometimes.  She took the day off of work, and I think is planning on driving up to Ironwood again tomorrow.  I don't get how she can make a quick trip for a car, but not to see her kids or grandkids (like when she didn't come to Emily's birthday a few weeks ago).  I just think it's strange... we don't hear very much at all from her.  I would think that when my kids are older and have children of their own, I'll still be involved in their lives (not over-involved).  

Jake got home right as Lila was going to bed, and we stayed up till almost 1am I think, just chatting.  I really love him and miss him.  He's a good guy.  

Lila slept through the night again, hooray!  We had an okay morning.  She's still cranky, so we have to go from thing to thing to keep her happy.  Takes a while to get chores done, she requires a lot of attention right now.  But that's okay.  She's my sweetie.  

Painting Lila's Room

Tuesday during the day we didn't do much.  Lila was sick and I wasn't feel well either.  Around the time I started working on dinner, I turned the radio on and was surprised to hear Christmas music!  Lila liked listening and dancing to it, but I think it's too early!  Lila understands some things about Christmas... she says "Christmas" whenever we see decorations at stores, and she says "Santa Claus" and knows that he says "Ho ho ho!"  She had fun, anyway.

The Christmas music kind of reminded me that it's coming!  Jared's official theme song is "All I Want For Christmas is You."  He's my baby, and all I want is him.  And we still have so much to do.  We bought Lila's paint on Friday night, and it wasn't looking like we would be able to drop Lila off anywhere soon... but I asked Jake if he'd be willing to help me that night, and he said yes.  I said even if we could get just one wall of edging done, I'd be happy to at least be doing something.  Well, we got the whole room painted!  It took 4-5 hours, but it didn't feel like that long.  Mike came over to help watch Lila; they video chatted with Cassandra a lot.  That was very helpful and I really appreciate it.  I do like the color we chose a lot (Golden Waffle by Benjamin Moore) and glad we went with that instead of gray.  It's warm and happy and soft.  Lila had to sleep the whole night in our room because we weren't finished with her room when she went to bed, and we wouldn't want her in there while it was drying anyway.  Jake didn't get to bed till almost 1am because he was drilling new holes in Lila's headboard, and he ended up sleeping in the guest room because Lila was hogging the bed.

Feels so good to have that done!  Next is Jared's room, and once his room is done, I will feel REALLY good.  We'll drop Lila off at Alicia's sometime soon.

On Parenthood

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/on-parenthood.html

"There's no better way to understand just how amazing humans are than the front row seat a child gives you to observe it all unfold from scratch each and every day, from literal square zero. Children give the first four years of your life back to you."

To Do Before Jared is Born (updated 11/10)

1. Sell e-bay and Craigslist items (stereo, stove hood, leaf blower) We're going to put these in a garage sale in the spring instead.
2. Set up basement office, unpack drums, set up bookshelves
3. Buy bed and frame from Jen Jake doesn't like the bed after all, so we're not going to buy it.
4. Buy end tables for master bedroom
5. Paint guest bathroom
6. Paint master bathroom
7. Paint master bedroom
8. Buy dresser for master bedroom
9. Buy headboard for guest room
10. Buy a generator Jake's parents are giving us their old one!  Woohoo!
11. Complete 3 month food storage
12. Make freezer meals
13. Set up carseats
14. Put away Lila's outgrown clothes
15. Organize Jared's clothes
16. Finish Jared's baby blanket The pattern is no longer available for free online. Not going to make one after all.
17. Make (or buy) curtains and pillows for living room
18. Make Lila's baby book: letters and pictures
19. Put pedals on lawn mower (Jake)  He's decided to do this after Jared's born, next spring.
20. Make crib skirt
21. Paint Lila's room
22. Paint Jared's room
23. Thank you notes from baby shower
1. Judy Fowler
2. Alicia
3. Kasey
4. Jen Randall
24. Buy diapers and wipes
25. Pack hospital bag
26. Make sure fridge and pantry are stocked with good foods/snacks for our homecoming
27. Decorate for Christmas (keep simple)
28. Make sure I have recovery items ready for homecoming (pain killers, medicine, etc)
29. Put together games/crafts for Lila to do over the winter
30. Trip to Sam's Club

Lila's 19-month check-up, New Dresser, Jake

Lila woke up an hour after she went to bed on Sunday night coughing and crying.  Sounded painful.  So she stayed up with us till 11 and then slept all through the night, which was great.  Mike dropped off our Camry during that time; he sold his VW and hasn't gotten a replacement yet, so he took our car to Canada to visit Cassandra.  They still don't have a wedding date.  They need to wait until they hear back from the First Presidency anyway, but they're still not sure.  Mike wants to get married ASAP, of course, but especially in 2011 so they can get the tax break... but Cassandra wants to wait till January so she can get a dress custom made or something.  It's kind of complicated, like most things in their relationship.  I'm voting for January so that we can go :)

Monday morning at 8:30, Lila had her 18-month appointment.  Even though she's over 19 months old.  (Our schedule got off when Jake started working at Maestro in January, because our new insurance didn't kick in until mid-February.)  We saw a Nurse Practitioner named Michelle Jepsen; I like her a lot and plan on going to her in the future.  She's who we saw at Lila's one-year appointment and she referred us to the OT.  She's very warm and friendly and good at explaining things.  She determined that Lila has croup.  Poor girl.  But since it's a viral infection, there's not much that can be done except wait.  So hopefully Lila will be feeling better by the end of the week.  Symptoms of croup: a "barky" cough, stridor, gets worse at night, fever.  So we didn't do her immunizations that day, we scheduled an appointment for a few weeks so she'll be better.  But she did get weighed and measured.  She weighs 27 lbs 6 oz (81%) and is 33 1/2 (84%) inches tall.  Her growth is starting to slow down!  She's been in the 97th percentile up until now.  She weighs the same as she did at 11 months old but is over 2 inches taller.

Took her to the grocery store after that.  She likes to walk instead of sit in the cart now, but she did last in the cart for the first half.  (Right now Lila is sitting in her little rocking chair in the living room talking about Brig.  She's saying, "Give Briggy a hug.  Briggy guitar shirt.  Cute."  Because on Saturday Brig had a guitar shirt on.  I'm surprised that she remembers that!)  She's actually pretty good at staying right by me and following me around, so that's good.  It sure is a work out, that grocery shopping.

After we got home, Tracy and Emma Boggs came by for a bit.  They brought us Panera for lunch :)  They were in town with Rich, who was at a conference here.  It was nice visiting with them; she's Lori's best friend.  Talked mostly about labor and delivery and how cute Lila is.

Lila took a 2 1/2 hour nap, which was great.  She woke up coughing once, but thankfully fell back asleep.

After dinner, we picked up a dresser I found on Craigslist.  Wasn't even really looking for anything specific, but it's a really great dresser, good/fashionable design, solid wood.  $75.  We'll put it in Jared's room--which is nice because he wasn't going to have a dresser, just a closet.  It has 9 drawers so I can put things like burp cloths and blankets in them, even.  Yay.  And then we went to Sam's Club.

Came home, and Jake got Lila all hyper playing with her and giving her a bath.  So she wasn't in bed till 10 again. Oy.  But, she slept for 10 hours straight, which is a record for her... at least in her toddlerhood.  Jake and I stayed up too late watching Once Upon a Time on Hulu.  Past midnight.  I'm tired today.

Jake's been doing well.  He's such a good dad and husband.  Last night after Lila was in bed--after we'd been chasing her around and had gone grocery shopping--this was the gist of our conversation:

Jake: Wow. I'm worn out.
Rudi: Yeah. That's what I do all day.
Jake: Well, I work all day too you know.
Rudi: Yeah, but that's not physical work.
Jake: But my work is very stressful.
Rudi: Well, you don't tell me that so I don't know that.  You always say work is fine.
Jake: In the future, when I say that work is fine, it means that it's very stressful.
Rudi: Uh, no!  If work is very stressful, you need to say that it's very stressful, Mr. Words Mean Things.
Jake: Uh...
Rudi: What message is that sending to our kids?  That when we say fine we mean that we're really stressed--
Jake: Ok! You're right! I get it!

Just teasing Jake a little bit.  He's always saying that we need to mean what we say because Words Mean Things! :)

Another conversation we've had recently -- Jake heard a story/study on the radio about how children are most impressionable when they're Jr. High age.  That's when they really don't have strong opinions about anything and are most teachable.  I thought that's interesting.  We talked about that time in our lives.  Jr. High was pretty hard for me... it was just a very intense time period for me.  Trying to fit in, because in elementary school I had been bullied... so I just wanted to fit in and be popular... trying to navigate my way through what seemed to be a very complex social structure.  And I don't think it would've been so difficult if I'd had more guidance from my parents.  They would tell me who they thought I shouldn't be friends with... like they thought some people were a bad influence... but I don't remember them really explaining why.  I don't remember them explaining a lot of things, even in high school.  I really hope that I'm able to provide my children the guidance they need to feel confident. 

Jake also was telling me how grateful he was for our marriage and how he thinks it's really solid.  It means a lot to me to hear things like that from him.  I really am so thankful that he is a partner that I can rely on, that we're in this together, that we're a team.  I can't imagining trying to raise our family without him.  I love him.

Babysitting Brig, Sick Lila

After my midwife appointment, I took Lila to the Oshtemo library.  We happened to drop in while they were having story time, so we did that and then Lila got to pick out some books and play with the toys there.  She liked sitting at the little kid tables too.

After her nap, we sat in the living room for a few hours.  She played on her own (mostly with my iPhone, which is her new favorite toy--she calls it "Mommy Phoney") while I read blogs.  For dinner we went to Panera.  I had a lame salad and she had mac & cheese.  It's fun eating out just the two of us, except for when she climbs all over the place and wants to run around.  We then went to the mall.  I had a $10 off coupon for JC Penney (I bought her holiday dress that I may end up returning) and a $15 off coupon for Express (I bought Emily a t-shirt for $5 for Christmas).  Lila got to walk around, which she loves.  She also pooped twice, of course.  The last time we right before we were going to leave, and it leaked through the diaper onto her pants.  Yum.

Came home, got in our jammies, half-watched The Office while we Skyped with Jake.  Jake was out walking the strip with Jen; they stopped at a magic store to buy presents for her sons.  After Lila went to bed, I stayed up for an hour and talked to Jake a bit more.  I started crying because I missed him, was really tired, and was jealous that he got to be out "partying" late in a new city while I had to stay at home. Poor me, I know.  I love being a mom, but sometimes I get jealous of Jake's freedom.

Friday we laid low.  In the afternoon Lila and I got some paint samples--one for her room and one for Jared's.  Up until this week, I was planning on putting Lila in what used to be the office and putting Jared in her room, just so that he would be closer.  But Lila has adjusted to her room and likes it there, so now I think we're going to keep her in there.  It's not like Jared's room will be much longer of a walk... it's like 5 feet further down the hall.  And then we went to Target, where she did not poop for once.  :) I was proud.    I bought a Halloween costume for her for next year on clearance (a little Eskimo girl... like her mother).

She fell asleep on the way home, which was good because she had only napped for a half hour that day.  Jake got home shortly after that, and we were so happy to see him. :)  Lila was pretty hyper for the rest of the evening, planing with Daddy.  We had a quick dinner and then went back to Lowe's to buy a gallon of paint for her room.  We planned on painting her room on Saturday.... but that didn't happen because we ended up watching Brig all day.

Kasey Hunt dropped him off at 8am and off we went.  Lila woke up with a fever; she'd caught Brig's cold earlier in the week.  Bummer!  Brig has had a cold for some time and has a cough still.  But she had a lot of fun playing with Brig.  Jake took them outside for a while to enjoy the nice fall weather we had this weekend.  Aunt Gina came by for a while and so did her cousin's wife Linda.  Linda is married to Greg Krause, son of Auntie Sis (my grandma's sister, so my mom's aunt) and Uncle Floyd.  Uncle Floyd just passed away a few weeks ago, he was 91 years old.  Greg lives in Mattawan, not too far from us.  He's best friends with our realtor, Rich Kurth.  Small world.  Anyway, Linda wanted a copy of the Trotter Family Cook Book because the Krauses wanted to do something similar.  So we visited for a while and it was nice.

Lila took a 3 hour nap that afternoon, which is almost unheard of 'round these parts.  I'm so glad she was able to get good sleep.  Brig took a good nap too.  Jake got his hair cut.  When the kids got up, we picked up a trailer from Brother Austed and headed to Battle Creek to buy a snow blower from an old man in the Battle Creek ward.  That took a little while to sort out and the kids had fun running around in the yard.  They were really good in the car for us.  We had dinner at Culver's before Derek came to pick Brig up.  Brig is the easiest kid in the world to watch.  He has absolutely zero separation anxiety issues, and the only time he cried was when he and Lila fell off a cardboard box they were climbing on.  He's very sweet and listens for the most part.  Easy, easy.  He's 3 months older than Lila, though, and doesn't really talk.  So it was interesting trying to manage/"parent" a toddler who doesn't talk.  Lila's a blabbermouth and gives a running commentary on just about everything we do.

So, we didn't get to paint Lila's room and I'm pretty bummed about that.  In the next few weeks, we'll have to drop Lila off at Alicia's one evening or one Saturday so that we can do it.  It should only take a few hours.  We have to paint Jared's room too.  We also wanted to go to Meijer and Sam's on Saturday, but didn't get to do those things either.

Lila slept pretty poorly last night.  Woke up with a fever and coughing.  The cold is in her chest, she has a tight/unproductive cough right now.  Poor girl.  She was in bed at 9:30 and up at 6:30 or so, but because of the time change it was 5:30.  Jake stayed up with her for an hour and a half, and then he went back to bed till 10:00 while I played with her.  I never understand how he's the one that gets to sleep in all the time! And how he gets all the back rubs around here.  And how he usually manages to fall asleep laying on the living room floor while we're playing as a family.  :)  That guy.

It was a long day.  We didn't go to church because of our sickie.  She took a regular 90 minute nap.  Acted pretty normal, for the most part, but was pretty cranky/sick after her nap.  We took another long car ride to return the trailer and then buy a saw from Craigslist.  Lila did great in the car again.  Played with my iPhone for the last part of the ride, but then told us she was tired and wanted me to hold the phone.  I told her to close her eyes and take a nap, so she closed her eyes but never actually fell asleep.  It's funny; sometimes it's like she needs to be given permission to take a nap in the car.

Came home and by 4:30 it seemed like she was ready for bed.  Darn time change.  But after dinner she got a second wind and stayed up till 9.  The time change is pretty great though, because she had been going to bed at 10 or sometimes later.  9:00 is more manageable for sure!

I'm happy to have Jake home.  So happy.  I just don't like being without him.  It was a long week and I was pretty lonely, even though I made sure to see people and get out every day.  Makes me grateful for all that he does for us when he's home with us.

I adore Lila.  She is so sweet and so good.  I've really enjoyed spending time with her lately.  She's growing up.  She's become a little more active these past few weeks... likes to run and gallop and hop around the house and to play games.  Her favorite is playing "where'd Lila go?" as she hides in the closet and then peeks out over and over... or "where'd hand go?" or "where'd shoes go?" or "where'd mama go?" as she covers them/me with a blanket.  She calls herself Yaya or Yiya.  She's pretty sick tonight, losing her voice, but still as chatty as ever.  I wish I could just videotape everything she does and says.  She is so smart.  Obsessed with computers and iPhones.  "I want Daddy com-pooh-ter."  "I want yopen it."  One of my favorite things she says is "don-d'oh" for downstairs.  She has a huge sweet tooth and likes to ask for "canny" (candy).  When it's time for me to test my blood sugar, she says, "Mommy poke ee-self."  Because I tell her that I have to poke myself.  She scrunches up her face and says, "Owie.  Bwood."  And her newest thing is to make a big deal about stinky diapers.  Every diaper change, not just poopy ones, she'll go on and on about her "stinky diaper" and she'll say things like blech, P.U., stinky!, plecha.  She now throws diapers and wrappers and trash in the garbage can when I ask her to, and sometimes knows to do it on her own.  When she's done eating something with a wrapper, she'll say, "I throw it away."  She's just learning and growing so much every day.  Getting taller and skinnier (still has a little baby chub though).  Looking more and more like a little girl and less like a baby. She sure loves me, that kid.  "I want Mommy.  Where'd Mommy go?  Mommy holdy!  Mommy coming?"  She says "I yuv ooh Mommy."  She loves Daddy too though.  They have so much fun playing together.