The Day to Day Stuff
I was uploading a picture and realized that there are quite a few things that I didn't document this month. So, I might as well go down the list.
1. Easter
We were in Vegas until the eve of Easter so we told the boys that we wrote a letter to the bunny and asked him to come the next week. They were ok with that. It turned out to be a great Easter. On the actual day of Easter we had my brother Dave here and that was really nice--it's been since the funeral that I've seen him. I did feel bad for his wife and little girls though that he was gone on Easter. We were able to focus more on the real meaning of Easter though without all the commercial stuff. I, of course, thought about Laila the entire day (and my friend who's son died last Easter). While it's a bittersweet day for me (thankful for the resurrection but would rather just have her here) I thought about how it's probably just one huge party in the afterlife that day. I know that if I were a spirit, I'd be celebrating the resurrection. I wonder what celebrations look like for spirits...
Anyway, the next week was General Conference and the Easter Bunny did in fact come visit. The Easter Bunny likes to leave money for the kids instead of just candy. I like that. There was plenty of candy so they boys weren't disappointed. Half of their eggs contain coins and the other half candy. The other great thing is that all the candy was discounted since it was a week later. Such a smart bunny!
I'm glad Eli has had a chance to do this co-op. He really has proven to be a leader and such a good friend. I wish there were more boys in the co-op but he likes the girls too.
3. Piper is getting much more mobile lately. She doesn't particularly enjoy the bouncy seat anymore unless she can grab the toys with her hands (or eat them). She purposely scoots herself to the bottom until her head is right at the bottom. And then I find her laying on the ground all happy that she got herself off the seat. We don't put her in the seat very often anymore because she doesn't like to be strapped in and I'm worried one of her attempts will lead to a banged head on the floor.
4. Cheese
Mike is still making cheese. This month has been a particularly busy month with General Conference, Eli's birthday, a temple trip, Will's baptism, etc, so he hasn't had a chance to make it more than once this month. This past weekend I was able to go to the temple to support my friend and her family while they did the temple work for their son that died last Easter. It was such a special day. Piper has no interest in a bottle so I worried about leaving her with a babysitter for that long so Mike was so nice to come up to the temple with me and play with Piper during the session. He and Piper went for a walk and went to a cheese shop where he spent a bunch of money on interesting cheeses. Thankfully, we have friends that humor us and like cheese too so they came over last minute to try all the cool cheeses Mike has purchased (and made) lately. It was a fun cheese tasting party.
5. Work
Work is going well for Mike lately. They asked him to be the MC for dining out. Like I said earlier, Piper isn't taking a bottle and the dinner was going to be late so I chose not to go. I took the boys to the gym and let them swim and then we had some errands to run and it was already pretty late so I bought them a pizza and let them watch a movie. Meanwhile, Mike was at the dinning out making everyone laugh. They asked him to be the MC because apparently he is funnier than the other officers. He said it went really well. And he looked hot, no!? He is leaving in a month. I'm having some anxiety about it but don't particularly want to focus on that right now.
6. Piper
Piper has a few nicknames...did I already mention them? We call her Piper Poops-a-lot and Piper Pipes-a-lot. She has an ear infection and is on an antibiotic that makes her poop like crazy. Her poor little bum is raw. I've also decided to try the difficult task of teaching her to sleep on her own. I really hate this. With Will I was at my mother-in-law's house when I taught him. He was about five months and we got him to take a pacifier (which he only took for a few months) and then let him cry it out for an hour each nap time. It took him about two weeks but then he was an awesome napper. The other two boys took much, much longer. They refused a pacifier and just couldn't soothe themselves. It took months, partly I'm sure because the crying was so hard for me to listen to and while I tried to be consistent I probably wasn't as consistent as I needed to be. By nine months they got it and then they were both awesome nappers too. Now we have Piper and she is following in her brother's (and Laila's) footsteps. It is tough. She is way better than her brothers were but Mike is leaving soon and I need to have some thing in our home steady and certain when he leaves. I just feel like she is old enough to start figuring it out on her own and I could really use the break once he leaves. Most days she does just fine napping but I have to nurse her to sleep and if I don't then she won't nap on her own. Those days are miserable for me and her. I am sure that with time she will figure it out on her own but I feel like I need her to figure it out sooner than later so I'm attempting the difficult task of training her. I hope I can be strong and consistent and I hope she gets it quickly. It makes me so sad to hear her cry. I tried the cry it out method with the boys and with Piper I'm trying to follow the pickup/put down technique from the babywise book. So far picking her up DOES NOT calm her down. It just makes her angry. But, I know if I'm consistent that she can learn and that she can be a great napper just like her brothers eventually were. Once they figured it out it was so wonderful for them and for me. So I have high hopes for Piper. It's just rough in the meantime with a lot of tears from her and a few from me too.
1. Easter
We were in Vegas until the eve of Easter so we told the boys that we wrote a letter to the bunny and asked him to come the next week. They were ok with that. It turned out to be a great Easter. On the actual day of Easter we had my brother Dave here and that was really nice--it's been since the funeral that I've seen him. I did feel bad for his wife and little girls though that he was gone on Easter. We were able to focus more on the real meaning of Easter though without all the commercial stuff. I, of course, thought about Laila the entire day (and my friend who's son died last Easter). While it's a bittersweet day for me (thankful for the resurrection but would rather just have her here) I thought about how it's probably just one huge party in the afterlife that day. I know that if I were a spirit, I'd be celebrating the resurrection. I wonder what celebrations look like for spirits...
Anyway, the next week was General Conference and the Easter Bunny did in fact come visit. The Easter Bunny likes to leave money for the kids instead of just candy. I like that. There was plenty of candy so they boys weren't disappointed. Half of their eggs contain coins and the other half candy. The other great thing is that all the candy was discounted since it was a week later. Such a smart bunny!
2. Preschool co-op:
Preschool has been going well. It's almost over and I'm sad about that. Preschool is so much more fun than kindergarten...just my personal opinion. Or maybe it's just at our school. I just remember all the fun art projects and cutting and pasting when I was in kindergarten and here it's all phonograms and Math. The last time I taught it was snowing...in April. The schools got canceled even though it wasn't that bad of a storm so I had Will and Isaac there as well. The letter was W so we learned about Weather. The first day we did Winter activities.
The next day I taught we continued our weather unit and learned about clouds and rain and seasons. The kids loved making rain (purple rain)
3. Piper is getting much more mobile lately. She doesn't particularly enjoy the bouncy seat anymore unless she can grab the toys with her hands (or eat them). She purposely scoots herself to the bottom until her head is right at the bottom. And then I find her laying on the ground all happy that she got herself off the seat. We don't put her in the seat very often anymore because she doesn't like to be strapped in and I'm worried one of her attempts will lead to a banged head on the floor.
umm, delicious.
Mike is still making cheese. This month has been a particularly busy month with General Conference, Eli's birthday, a temple trip, Will's baptism, etc, so he hasn't had a chance to make it more than once this month. This past weekend I was able to go to the temple to support my friend and her family while they did the temple work for their son that died last Easter. It was such a special day. Piper has no interest in a bottle so I worried about leaving her with a babysitter for that long so Mike was so nice to come up to the temple with me and play with Piper during the session. He and Piper went for a walk and went to a cheese shop where he spent a bunch of money on interesting cheeses. Thankfully, we have friends that humor us and like cheese too so they came over last minute to try all the cool cheeses Mike has purchased (and made) lately. It was a fun cheese tasting party.
Work is going well for Mike lately. They asked him to be the MC for dining out. Like I said earlier, Piper isn't taking a bottle and the dinner was going to be late so I chose not to go. I took the boys to the gym and let them swim and then we had some errands to run and it was already pretty late so I bought them a pizza and let them watch a movie. Meanwhile, Mike was at the dinning out making everyone laugh. They asked him to be the MC because apparently he is funnier than the other officers. He said it went really well. And he looked hot, no!? He is leaving in a month. I'm having some anxiety about it but don't particularly want to focus on that right now.
Piper has a few nicknames...did I already mention them? We call her Piper Poops-a-lot and Piper Pipes-a-lot. She has an ear infection and is on an antibiotic that makes her poop like crazy. Her poor little bum is raw. I've also decided to try the difficult task of teaching her to sleep on her own. I really hate this. With Will I was at my mother-in-law's house when I taught him. He was about five months and we got him to take a pacifier (which he only took for a few months) and then let him cry it out for an hour each nap time. It took him about two weeks but then he was an awesome napper. The other two boys took much, much longer. They refused a pacifier and just couldn't soothe themselves. It took months, partly I'm sure because the crying was so hard for me to listen to and while I tried to be consistent I probably wasn't as consistent as I needed to be. By nine months they got it and then they were both awesome nappers too. Now we have Piper and she is following in her brother's (and Laila's) footsteps. It is tough. She is way better than her brothers were but Mike is leaving soon and I need to have some thing in our home steady and certain when he leaves. I just feel like she is old enough to start figuring it out on her own and I could really use the break once he leaves. Most days she does just fine napping but I have to nurse her to sleep and if I don't then she won't nap on her own. Those days are miserable for me and her. I am sure that with time she will figure it out on her own but I feel like I need her to figure it out sooner than later so I'm attempting the difficult task of training her. I hope I can be strong and consistent and I hope she gets it quickly. It makes me so sad to hear her cry. I tried the cry it out method with the boys and with Piper I'm trying to follow the pickup/put down technique from the babywise book. So far picking her up DOES NOT calm her down. It just makes her angry. But, I know if I'm consistent that she can learn and that she can be a great napper just like her brothers eventually were. Once they figured it out it was so wonderful for them and for me. So I have high hopes for Piper. It's just rough in the meantime with a lot of tears from her and a few from me too.
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