Life has definitely been crazy here since the last time I posted. February literally flew by. The beginning of February I took 11 students up the mountain to a very warm winter camp (it was in the 60's and no snow was to be found. Since then it has snowed almost 3 feet up in the mountains. Not fair.). The day I got back from that we threw Aaron a birthday party/Superbowl party to celebrate (boo) the Packers making it to the Superbowl. I was way out of it and barely remember any of it because I was incredibly tired from camp and was also unpacking, doing laundry and repacking to catch a 7:00am flight the next day to Indiana to be with family as my grandfather had passed away the week before.
I managed to fly out to Indiana right as snow was starting to hit, so I got to drive about 2 hours in snow to be with my family. Even though I missed the funeral by mere hours (along with some beloved cousins who I only see when someone dies), it was nice to be with my mom and siblings and aunts and sit with my grandmother. It was super hard to be there though because I kept expecting my grandfather to be there, either sitting in his chair watching t.v. or puttering around in the kitchen. He wasn't one to simply sit still and since he hadn't really been sick up until right before Christmas, it was super hard for me to not expect to see him.
I flew back to California on a Thursday night and Sam turned around and left at 4:30 the next morning to fly to Washington for a conference. Then he came back on Saturday but was gone for drill all weekend as well. That next Friday I went up to the mountains again with the high school group to help out a bit. And now February is over.
Whew. I'm glad it's all behind us now, although with the close of February bring March and planning for summer stuff and the looming birth of baby boy #3 (no name yet). It's all slightly overwhelming!
But, on the kiddo front, everything is going fairly well. Nathaniel is taking violin lessons and is doing quite well when he actually practices (it's hard for him to practice when I'm not around because Sam doesn't know anything about violin and doesn't sit in on the lessons). He got good sound out of his violin today, which made me happy. We are still working on his attitude. He is quite whiny at times, and I'm sure that he's just super tired, but he won't nap. He goes many days in a row without t.v. because that is his big consequence for not listening. He reads really well now, but when he's put on the spot, he freezes and won't do it. He is a super timid kid and adults intimidate him, so when a teacher asks him a question, or he has a question for the teacher he freezes up and immediately says, "I don't know." We're working on it. I know he can read because he corrects me when I'm reading by pointing to a word I skip and telling me I skipped it. Also, he can spell because yesterday I spelled ice cream to Sam and a minute later Nathaniel said, "I want ice cream!" after working out the letters in his head. With kindergarten testing coming up this month I am a bit worried. It's all unfounded because even if he knew nothing, he would be fine in kindergarten because they teach all of the stuff. It's just me being paranoid I suppose.
We register him for kindergarten next month. He will be attending Bethany Christian Academy, which is the school that is on the campus of the church I work at. It's such a blessing to get the private school education at the discount we get it at. I get to know that my kid is getting good quality education and he's right there where I'm working. It makes me happy to know that he won't fall into the cracks in a huge class of 36 kids with a teacher who is really a glorified babysitter because she/he can't control the large classroom and is also dealing with a high percentage of children who do not speak English. We don't live in a great school district, so I'm glad for this opportunity for our kids.
Have I mentioned I can't believe that Nathaniel is starting kindergarten? It is so crazy!
Aaron is a little cutie-pie trouble maker. He is a stinker, but he does it with this "I know I'm cute" look on his face, which makes it doubly hard to come down on him. But, he does get his fair share of time outs and spanks for not listening or punching his brother (mostly punching his brother...). At his 2 year check up the pediatrician mentioned that he should be speaking two word phrases by now and seemed concerned that he wasn't (as was I). But then, after interacting with him told me that I don't need to worry, that he just needs to be given the space to talk. He is super sharp and follows directions and knows stuff, he just has a chatty older brother who speaks for him. All the time. So, after a week of giving him more talking space (asking a question and waiting until he answers, encouraging him to speak, etc.) and telling Nathaniel to cool it and let him talk, he is speaking really well. And, he is a stinker about it. When I give him warnings when he's in trouble he jumps ahead to the counting and then spanks himself and giggles. *sigh*
He's working on the potty training really well. When I put him in underwear he will go into the bathroom before he pees himself and when he's in a diaper he goes to the toilet right after he poops. It really is just going to take me spending the day with him working on it. I've spent a couple of days, but haven't had the time to be super consistent. Small goals here.
Aaron starts preschool in May. He is going to go where Nathaniel goes, which is also attached to the church and is super discounted for us as well. It will be nice to have him settled in a new place before the baby is born. Then, for the summer, if I can't handle having all three kids home or they need to get out, I can drop them off at school (which is also daycare) for the morning to play and I can get a bit of a break.
The pregnancy is going well. February was super stressful so I had a lot of braxton hicks contractions. It was more of a nuisance than anything. But, I am almost 30 weeks, which means 10 more. As of now the baby is head up, so if nothing changes I will have a c-section. It's not ideal, but I'm not stressing about it right now.
As for our family? Sam and I are often two ships passing in the night with the busyness of Sam's day job and his night job teaching online and my own work with the youth plus parenting. But, I'm so blessed with a husband who isn't afraid to put all of the work on hold so he can spend some time with the family. He was awesome to hold down the fort most of this month even in his busyness so I could do what I needed to do. He even put together Aaron's party, including ordering a bounce house, making all of the food (no store bought dips for Sam, it was all homemade guacamole, hummus, salsa and other yummy stuff) and getting decorations. He's a keeper. :)
We're trying our hand at being a bit more "granola". We are getting a box of organic fruits and veggies once a week from a local farm through a fundraiser at Nathaniel's preschool. It's so yummy and we are eating a lot healthier now with fresh veggies and fruit. We also are trying our hand at cloth diapering for this new baby. We'll see how it goes.
That's it here. I am hoping to get this thing updated a bit more. Life continues to march on and this is actually a good way to keep track of what is happening with the family as I go back and re-read older posts.
Blessings to all!
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