Two Little QT's

Is this just the cutest kid ever or am I just biased cuz I'm his Mom?! We are loving our little J. This has got to be my favorite age. The only downside is at 32 weeks pregnant I can't fully enjoy it the way I'd love to! But, he's so easy going he doesn't even seem to notice the difference. He is so sweet natured and mild mannered. It helps that B is nice to him and usually as long as she asks instead of takes he love to share with her. His verbal skills are still somewhat limited. He seems to leave off the first syllable of every word he knows. For example, his favorite word is 'ock', which means anything from clock to stick to bike, etc.; and 'wolf' is 'olf'. I think he's just teasing us and I'm in no way worried at this point. Perhaps if not much improved by age 2 but he understands so much that I know at least it doesn't appear to be a hearing problem. He still has the cutest little dimples and smiles that killer smile. He rarely gets in trouble and when he does he has a most distraught look on his face. He has a zest for life, a love of nature and a great temperment--what more could you ask for?!!


We still get quite the kick out of our little B! She had her first haircut since birth a couple weeks ago to revive her beautiful hair and as it only is with B she took it in stride, not much caring. She continues to say the funniest things sometimes and it can take a little questioning and proding to figure out those turning gears in her exloratative mind. The other day out of nowhere she told big J and I that she couldn't be nice to little J anymore (she's quite nice to her little bro I must say!). We found this interesting and surprising and asked her why not. She told us that she could "only take care of one baby at a time". So, since the new baby was coming she has been told several times that she'll be a good helper by various people, etc. In her mind, she took that as 'I have to help my new sister, so I can't help little J anymore'. I love to see how little minds work! Today she wondered why the girl I visit teach is a girl. More discussion led to me understanding that most of the families we know the man is going to school so she wondered why this girl was in school if she was a girl. Ahhh, the joys of motherhood. Unfortunately I always feel the calm before the storm, so I better gear up! Bri is still also at her best pushing the limits, especially as summer is coming and she always wants to be out when her friends are out, even if it's on Sunday or during dinner. She is excited about prospects of summer with swim lessons, the park every day, visits with family and just having fun. Wouldn't it be nice if it was summer all year long?!

Fun in 'Paradise'

My oh my has it been busy busy! I think Big J is really going quietly insane with all he has to accomplish in the next 6 weeks before he leaves for his Eastern Europe trip. But, I did get him away from it all to head to Washington, D.C. for a couple days. We invited another family and all headed down last Th. during spring break. The trip was fairly uneventful except for a delay at the pharmacy where we had to pick up some Benadryl. Little J had the unfortunate accident of receiving some of B's peanut butter and sandwich rather than his all jelly sandwich and his lip began to swell to at least double it's normal size. He is fine, but obviously P.B. is definitely off-limits for him as we suspected until at least 3-years old. Once in D.C. we took care of our friends' kids while they did a temple session, then we went to the hotel checked in, went to dinner and left the kids to be put to bed by our friends while we went to do a temple session, which of course was fabulous. We got home to a quiet hotel room and decided not to even disturb the kiddos and went and watched NCAA tournament games in the lobby with a baby monitor. Next day was sightseeing and lots of walking. We saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial from afar, the White House--as close as we could get without the guys on top of the W.H. opening fire--the Capitol building, the National Air and Space Museum and a little of the National Natural History Museum--which included the famous and very sparkly Hope Diamond on display.

Us at the White House

We got back late Fr. night, woke up and worked all morning to clean and get ready for B's princess and knight party that afternoon. I tried to avoid the 'princess' theme, but from what I hear every little girl wants one at some point. The party ended up being a royal success and the kids had a blast. B had several of her friends here and I must say the knights definitely outshone the princesses in costume design. I was impressed! Everyone left happy and B had fun the rest of the evening playing with her new things. Now we are looking forward to Big J's parents coming out for Easter!

Our newly 4-yr. old B with new bike, at the capitol building and with her princess cake!

Finding Mr. Ray

Yey! Finally it's been warmer and drier! My spirits are looking up! Now, don't start thinking yet that there's no mud, I think there will be.....until some new grass grows in the spring. Big J has been schooling like crazy lately, which is ok because it'll hopefully land him a job later. But, that means I'm going a little crazy at home alone more. As long as I get some 'me' time I'm ok. B has reinstituted 'quiet time', which I am shocked and grateful for. A half-hour during the day where I don't have someone blowing his nose on his hand or be needing to wipe a bum or be pretending I can still do it all while pregnant with #3. Yippeee! I rejoice!

B with fish tank J with Mr. Ray

We visited the New Jersery Aquarium with some friends yesterday. They have a family pass and we rode the free wave. It was a nice aquarium, though I'm glad we didn't pay through the roof for 5 hours of fun. Little J got such a kick out of the fishies swimming right past him. And B and Friend set up a number of other play dates, so they hit it off quite well for such a long time together.

B on Hummer after aquarium

B has been excited for her birthday since the day we turned the calendar over. We have been planning it for months and will have to fill everyone in once the date has passed. Little J has started voicing his distaste to me for taking away DVD's, CD's (computer and music), reading books with B, and is basically trying to instill chaos in the house. But yet, many times I can still find him quietly in his room reading or cleaning up his toys or quietly unrolling the T.P., hmmm....can you tell today was mostly a chaos day?? I need a vacation. I'm trying to talk big J into a two-day vacation next week to relax from writing papers and reading. I have, once again, been feeling like a emotional roller coaster, ready to crash and burn at any moment only to head upwards again. Seems that's how pregnancies are for me. That would be the one deterrant to less kids--not so much the labor and delivery, but the pre-partum wackiness. Just ask big J. But, we have such cute kiddos that it's worth it!

"D--- Yankee Land"

Christmas in NJ and Central Park in New York City!

Life in the East. I know many of you are familiar with the East, but seeing as I feel it is a foreign land I've decided to start this blog up. If no one responds then so be it. One of my friends, you know who you are, put me up to it so I thought I'd give it a try. I've come to terms with living in New Jersey means you are sick all the time. Be it allergies or other illnesses because everyone lives close and no one cares not to share germs. I have a great excuse being pregnant, but what's that got to do with the hubby and kiddos sick all the time. Poor little B has been sick with something or other the most I think. This is all very odd to me because she was ultra-healthy in Utah. I have heard from many others that we are not an uncommon case. Why oh why do people live here forever??!! I for one can't wait to get out. That being said I do have a few good things to say about NJ. Ok, so nevermind. The only one I can think of is that the school system is good here. Sure there's great people here, but there are great people everywhere. I have to remind myself all the time that pretty much the one blarring reason we moved here rather than lovely, sunny CA is that we were told to. An answer from heart-felt prayer is nothing to argue against. Now that I am sounding very pessimistic, I will focus on family. They are my one saving grace. B is so cute and everyday asks me what we can clean during little J's nap. Her favorites to clean are the toilet (blah!), T.V. and sweeping and mopping the floor. I found her in the kitchen one day with the broom singing "Sweeping the floor is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do!" Amazing. And one day while I was finishing lunch I had her prepare the bathroom floors to be swept. She came telling me she was done and I went to find the bath mats, her stool and the trash can all quite neatly set outside the door stacked up. It was one of the most adorable things I had every seen. She is quite the helper. Speaking of adorable, little J had his shining moment the other day. We'd gone out for Applebee's for big J's bday and the kids each got a balloon, which they both played with exuberantly in the car on the way home. Well, within 5 mintues of walking in the door with them still excited about their new toys, B pops hers and begins to wail. Little J, seeing her predicament with her balloon popped, still hanging onto the string and crying walks over to her and hands her his balloon and doesn't think another thing about it. Amazing. He seems far beyond his age to me in his level of understanding and thoughtfulness. He's quite the crack-up too. I get such a kick out of that little kid! And big J, super busy as he his, still finds time to be a husband and Daddy. I never thought I'd be going through this school thing again for so long. It's definitely a different life. I see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Many gross monsters along the way, but we'll get there. We'll pop out in 5 years and hopefully see the sunshine of the West telling us to come back to a normal way of life with mountains and Macey's grocery store and butterscotch pudding--see I told you it was foreign out here--and B's favorite, Otter Pops!