Mardson went to a few months of preschool last year, but it was too expensive for us at the time, so he didn’t get to go past November.

This year we’re going for real. I think he’ll enjoy it more and be more consistent about wanting to go (it was often a trial to get him excited last year, even though he enjoyed it once he was there) and many of his classmates live close by, so he’ll have friends to play with outside of school, too.

Another great thing is that several of the other kids will be going to the same kindergarten next year, so I’m hoping that will help him feel at ease when the time comes.

Here he is before class, getting ready to go; saying ‘preschool’ in front of his teacher’s door; saying it again and looking at the camera for me this time;

and then walking in the front door all by himself

I’m so excited for him!! Have fun, Handsome Boy!

So, our bedtime routine consists of several things: sippy cups of warm chocolate (soy) milk, one last short show while drinking the sippies, put on pj’s, brush teeth, read stories, sing songs, say prayers, say ‘good night’ to one and go sing songs and give soft tickles before a good night to the other.

I used to put my 4 year old down first because he was pretty chill about the whole thing, but then he felt like he was missing out, so now the little one gets the ‘night night’ first. Sometimes she lets me know just how unfair this is.

Last night, when we said good night to her and I closed her door, she shouted, “No!” I figured the next 20 min was going to be loud. And it was. . . sort of. She tried out a new tactic that made it really hard to focus on my singing and soft tickles for Mardson. I started singing and was interrupted with a very loud

“I wuv you, Momma!!”

How could I leave that unanswered? So I called back,

“I love you, too, Penny!”

In between the words of my song for Mardson. He didn’t seem to mind She kept this up the entire time I was with Mardson and for a few minutes after I left him. The amount of time between sweet yells grew longer and she eventually quieted down and got to sleep. I gotta say, I’m loving the new tactic

Just some cute pics of Penny and a fun hair do for which I managed to get her to hold still for once

I’m so sad this first one was out of focus. I sharpened it as much as I could so you could see how cute it would have been. When I asked him to do it again he toned it down a bit. Still super cute though

Daddy: “Hey kids, how old are you?”

Mardson: “4!”

Penny: “…”

Daddy: “Penny, are you 2?”

Penny: “No! 3!”

Later that day, visiting Grandpa and Grandma:

Me to my dad (Grandpa): “Penny has decided she’s 3.”

Grandpa: “Penny, how about 43?”

Penny: “Ya! I’m 43!”

She cracks me up

So, I know kids have great imaginations; I’m constantly amazed at how my kids are entertained with the simplest or most random items, be they toys or what have you.

Mardson can turn anything into a gun, or a sword, etc. And Penelope loves things like toothbrushes, or pairing a mini harlequin doll with a dinosaur for roll-play (but not as a harlequin or dinosaur).

But I gotta say that I was not prepared for our issues with a certain imaginary letter in the car yesterday afternoon. That’s right. This guy:

Or, to be more exact, this guy:

In the last several months my kids have learned about the alphabet and all the basic sounds that the letters each make respectively, so they (Penny especially) get really excited whenever we see a letter on a mountain. Great, right?

Our most common route takes us past Y Mountain quite regularly, as was the case yesterday. It’s always been great for keeping the kids entertained on the drive (“Kids, where’s the giant Y?”) and yesterday started as no exception.

Penny started saying she had a Mommy Y and a Daddy Y and she closed her hands as though she were holding them, then offered to share them with the rest of us and handed them out. We picked Daddy up from work and continued on our way. The kids and Daddy played pass-the-Y’s-around successfully for a few minutes before Mardson decided it would be more fun to steal Penny’s Y’s. Begin Operation Restore Peace.

We tried to giving her new Y’s, or tying them to her hands, or giving her sticky Y’s so he couldn’t easily whisk them away (remember this is all imaginary). But no matter what kind of Y we gave her, all Mardson had to do was swipe his hand in the air and declare, “I got it!” and Penny was distraught. We also tried explaining that Mardson couldn’t really take her Y’s because they were pretend, but she wasn’t convinced and burst into heart-broken tears. So I did what any responsible parent would do: I resorted to threats.

“Mardson, if you take her Y one more time you won’t get any warm chocolate milk tonight.”

For good or bad, my kids love their sippy-cups of warm (well, un-cold) chocolate milk, so that finally fixed it. Operation Restore Peace successful.

Seriously? Forced to threaten punishment over the theft of an imaginary letter?!? Well, I guess now I know.

My paternal grandfather passed away early last week and we attended his funeral this last weekend. He was the youngest in a large family and was the last surviving sibling. He was 83 and we will miss him like crazy!

Grandpa had a great sense of humor, a deep and gallant love for Grandma, and lived in a way that quietly demonstrated his understanding of and love for the gospel and his fellow-beings. We will continue to look to his example and look forward to seeing him again when our time comes to join him in the next step of this eternal round, made possible by Christ’s atonement and the Plan of Salvation.

My little family was able to road trip out to see him and the family out there just over a year ago and I’m so glad we made the time!

We love you, Grandpa!

I’m grateful for modern medicine. Near the beginning of this month, we had a bit of a scare with our littlest one. She couldn’t stop coughing and I took her to the doctor to see if there was anything more we could do for her allergies.

It turned out that her oxygen saturation was too low and the doctor was afraid she might have pneumonia and her systems might crash when she went to sleep that night, so he sent us to spend the night in the hospital. They put her on steroids and regular nebulizer treatments throughout the night. They also took blood samples and kept a very close watch on her heart rate and oxygen levels.

That's the nebulizer on the left, our wonderful nurses, and me holding Penny while Papa talked to the nurses about what was going on.

It was a bit of a shock to suddenly be at the hospital with my little one attached to monitors and having to be poked and prodded. It had been a long night or two before this because of her cough, and my lack of sleep combined with being pregnant and the shock of everything put me constantly on the edge of tears.

I knew, intellectually, that what we were doing gave us the greatest chance for a happy outcome and that things were probably going to be fine, but my emotions wouldn’t listen. I tried my best to be calm and it was a while before I felt steady enough to even text my family about what was going on.

My parents were so kind and helpful! They dropped everything and came straight down with snacks and projects to help us be as comfortable as possible.

Penny was happier with her grandparents there.

They helped entertain Mardson and keep him happy.

Grandpa helped out and made the calls I was too shaky to attempt to the rest of the family.

Penny liked the wagon because it meant she got to go out of the room. The blue bandage held on the monitor for her oxygen levels, and the white one was her sleeve to help keep the IV in place and help stabilize her wrist. She wasn’t very happy with either addition. But all night long, her oxygen levels stayed in a good range, even between treatments, and by morning, she was ready to get out of there.

Of course, we had to wait for the doctor to see her and give her the all clear first. Also, the nurses were waiting for a test result that would tell them Penny wouldn’t be contagious to the rest of the floor, so in the beginning, she couldn’t even leave the room to walk around. But it didn’t take long for them to find that she was doing well and in desperate need of a change of scenery, so they let her go out in the wagon, and soon after, they opened the toy room for us and detached her from the IV, so she could play.

Papa and Mardson came back in the morning to play with us.

She was definitely feeling better

Eventually she got bored with the toys, too, so we just started doing laps around the secure floor. I think we lapped the doctor 3 or 4 times by the time he was ready to see her.

Penny’s energy definitely contributed to the doctor’s willingness to let us go so soon. We were out of there by early afternoon,

and only had 3 days of an irregular medicinal routine before her checkup the following Monday when they gave her the all clear (no pneumonia or chronic asthma, etc. They think it was just an asthmatic reaction to an allergy), and we’ve gone back to normal life. Whew! Thank goodness for modern medicine!

So I know it’s been another 2 weeks+ since I posted about her birthday, but I’m finally getting the party pictures up

Uncle Bryan, Titia (pronounced chee-chee-a), and Papa

BG and Aunt Leki being their silly-selves

Uncle Bryan and Penny playing ‘chase the ball’

Cousins Tabby and Darron with Mardson (They’re daddy came too,but we didn’t get a picture of him: whoops!)

Our honorary Grandma Linda and Papa Lyle even came!

Playing catch with Darron

It was hot that day! BG helped her get a drink

Uncle Bryan and Grandpa Stott hanging out

Time to sing the Birthday Song!

Blow out the candles!! With a little help from big brother

Mmm…yummy frostine

Licking the fingers clean

Presents!

Big brother helped again

Daddy, breaking in the grill

Mardson and his amazing hot dog accordion-bun

I see you!

We started the party in Penny’s pretty pink princess dress, but changed her into play clothes so she could get down to business

Playing with Daddy after the party

She loves her Papa!

Thanks to everyone who came!! We had so much fun

This post is extremely overdue and contains several pictures, so be prepared: you’ve been warned.

How did my baby girl . . .

turn into this little princess . . .

so quickly???

It seems like I just barely brought her home!! The time has flown by so fast, I hardly know how to keep up with my growing little ones; especially with another one on the way. Please tell me it’s not true what people say about #3 being the most difficult transition because you suddenly have more children than arms! But I digress . . .

Let’s take a moment to look at a few pictures of her journey from infant to two year old:

Her birth announcement picture

A few sweet pictures from her blessing day.

October 2008, learning to sit up.

December 2008

Loves to run in circles in the walker, February 2009.

March 2009 and she can crawl…backwards.

She’s mastered crawling forward and steering, April 2009.

One year old in June 2009 and not afraid of the stairs. She loved the new kitty, Bowser, and to this day they play cute games together!

September 2009, finally walking for a month or two and happy to be helping Aunt Leki wash her car.

18 months old in December of 2009

Getting so big in March 2010

On the slide at McDonalds 2010

Looking like her mom.

Back to 2 years old and playing with her loving big brother!

I love her!!

There was lots of birthday fun had by all who came. I’ll put lots of the birthday pictures in my next post. It’s getting late and I’m tired! But I really wanted to get the “She’s Two!!” post done before her birthday month expired

Papa is far away and needs to see his big boy in his new shirt. Mardson, our Happy Camper, wants to go camping with Papa!

(I can’t believe how big he looks with his new haircut!!)

The other day I was trying to get the kids to eat lunch. I finally had Penny settled in, but Mardson was not cooperating. Plus, I was trying to talk to my sister on the phone. I ended up taking so long trying to convince Mardson to eat, that I took a second to apologize to my sister:

“Sorry, Mardson’s being a pickle.”

To which Mardson loudly protested,

“No, I’m not a pickle!”

Then he amended,

“I’m a grumpy pickle!!”

Well, I couldn’t argue with that. And I couldn’t stop laughing