Wow – I can hardly believe we are already more than halfway through the summer! I have enjoyed the more relaxed schedule of the summer – sleeping in, not having to take kids to and from school, not having sports or events scheduled every night of the week. We had a great time visiting with my brother, Derek, and his wife, Alyson and kids in early June. The kids all got along so well – we hope they can end up here in Utah within the next couple of years at least.
Since my last two pregnancies were so hard, when I found out I was pregnant, I dropped our tentative plans for a trip to Mt. Rushmore this summer (which would have required a lot of driving and walking around.) Fortunately, this pregnancy has not been as bad as the last two, though I still have times of nausea every day and I am starting to feel and move like an old woman! Lest the kids remember this as the summer we did nothing, I will name some of the things we have already done: Jumpin’ Jacks (a place with giant trampoline-type inflatables), Discovery Park (a big playground structure in Pleasant Grove), fishing with Uncle James (Kristen’s husband), swimming lessons, Veterans Pool, “camping” in the back yard, Lehi Pool, Freedom Festival Hot Air Balloons, 4th of July Fireworks, mini-golfing, BYU Planetarium, Walter Wickes’ “I Spy” Exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art, and visiting the huge Spanish Fork windmills. We also plan to go to Seven Peaks Waterpark, Clark Planetarium, a petting farm, and camping with the extended Wilkins Family before I go back to Michigan in August for a “Sisters’ Weekend”.
I have realized this week just how spoiled I have been this summer since Steven and Daniel are gone at Scout Camp. Up to this week, I have been able to leave at least some of the younger kids at home with Steven and Daniel in charge when I go run errands – it makes me appreciate them as well as how much harder things will be when school starts again, and then when the new baby comes! We had to promise bribes of dinner or breakfast at their choice of restaurants in order to talk Steven and Daniel into going to Scout Camp and actually earning the merit badges for which they signed up. Until very recently, I have struggled to understand why I should force our boys to participate in the Scouting Program other than that our Church endorses the program. I am just beginning to understand that the program was developed in order to help boys learn how to become men. They learn life skills and how to be responsible citizens, as well as having the opportunity to interact with lots of good male role models. Since I haven’t always had this attitude, the boys have been resistant to suddenly embrace all the added work and meetings involved. Hopefully they won’t resent me at the end of all this! Steven, Daniel, and Michael have spent a lot of time this summer doing extra chores and piano practice in order to earn extra electronics time. It has been really nice for me to have chores done that normally just nag at me because I don’t have the time to get to them! Steven attended his first Youth Conference (a several-day retreat for the 14-18 year-old church youth) and he enjoyed it. He has also spent a fair amount of time emailing/instant messaging a girl friend (notice that is two separate words!) from school. I’m pretty sure they are just friends (which is all they should be since they are both only fourteen years old) but this relationship has introduced us to new territory in the parenting department. Steven has been to Taieno’s house for a pool party, and we have had her here to hang out and play games with the family. She is one of eight children, she seems very nice and down-to-earth - she was even comfortable with the craziness and antics of our household and with talking to me. Steven will be starting 9th grade (high school!) next month and all this makes me feel very unprepared and like I must be getting old!
Daniel has enjoyed making a series of “Bumble Rumble” movies with Windows Movie Maker (which he has posted on YouTube, in case you are interested…) He has an interesting sense of humor, and I’m glad he has found a good way to keep busy and use his creative brain during the long days of summer. Daniel really has his heart set on getting a dog, and he has put a lot of time into researching breeds and was even going to take care of the Wrights dog for 10 days while they were on vacation. I nixed that after one trial night when she whined and kept me (and, I fear, the neighbors) awake nearly the entire night. The kids loved having her here, but it would definitely have been a lot of work to keep the younger kids inside the house (out of her territory and messes.) I feel bad for Daniel, but while we still have small children and until I know the not-so-fun aspects of having a pet would not become my responsibility, I am just not willing to take it on.
Julia is so excited to be celebrating her 11th birthday on July 16th. We won’t be having a friend birthday party (I decided a couple years ago we would do those only for even birthdays,) but hopefully we can do some other things to warrant her excitement and make her feel special. She is excited that she will legally be old enough to babysit younger children, as up to this point I have not left her alone in charge of younger kids. Sometimes she can be very responsible and motivated: she can bake just about anything without my help, she has changed Emily’s diaper on occasion, and she plays well with most younger children. But then other times she is very petty and easily bothered (especially by Matthew) and doesn’t handle it very maturely. She always finds things to do (lots of reading, this summer) and has enjoyed getting together with school friends more.
Michael has played lots of electronics this summer – it seems to be the only thing he wants to do! On the upside, that means he has also done lots of extra chores and practiced the piano a lot. I should also acknowledge that he is much more pleasant to be around and has made a lot of progress in controlling his temper.
Alyssa’s favorite activity this summer has been catching butterflies. She has a generous sprinkling of freckles and pink skin across her nose and cheeks due to her daily hunts. We bought a little butterfly house and have ordered butterfly larvae. She especially is excited for them to arrive in the mail so that we can watch them turn into butterflies. The headaches and stomachaches which plagued Alyssa so severely this spring seemed to subside for most of a month after school let out for the summer. She has started complaining again a couple times a week, but it usually seems to coincide with her desire to sleep in our bedroom or upstairs on the couch. I really need to be better about journaling her activities and diet and symptoms so that we’ll have some baseline for comparison if this gets worse when school starts.
Natalie is generally a cheerful, pleasant person to have around. She occasionally becomes pouty and walks around with a grumpy face to show me her displeasure, but it doesn’t usually last very long. She loves to play with her Julia and Alyssa, and on the rare occasion that they are both gone, she frets, “What will I do while they’re gone?!” She is reading simple chapter books, but doesn’t do it unless I make her (like during our mandatory reading time every day.) She is very sweet about thinking to thank me for things like dinner or taking her somewhere. She split her chin open after slipping off a stool while sitting at the counter and was a trooper about getting the five stitches to close it up again. Natalie will be starting kindergarten in just a little over a month.
Lucky for him, Matthew is a cute boy. He has such an expressive face and such energy…that’s the good side. The bad side is that he can be so impatient and demanding, and he angers quickly when he doesn’t get his way. He has further torn up the wall in the bathroom during his frequent incarcerations there. I’m trying to teach him how to appropriately interact with other people even when they do things he doesn’t like, and that his actions have consequences. We have made very little progress on the potty front, which distresses me as we have just over a month left before school starts. I’m not sure how to get him to want to do it, but I think I at least need to be more consistent in making him try several times a day, or I will be very sorry when this baby comes if I have three kids in diapers again. We had three baby birds which hatched in a nest in one of the trees in our yard. After having found two of the birds dead within a couple days, we were happy to find the third bird alive but weak on the grass beneath the tree. All that first day the kids were so attentive, feeding it moistened bread and giving it shade. They were careful not to touch it, but loved to go and watch it. Matthew asked, “Is that baby bird part of our family now?” We were all so sad the next morning to find it sprawled out on the grass, dead, away from the safety of the box we had prepared and placed it in to keep it dry and warm while the sprinklers were set to go off during the night. When we watched the ultrasound of our baby, Matthew kept saying things like “That baby is awesome!” or “She’s so cute!” We are struggling with figuring out a name for this baby, but I will probably ignore Matthew’s suggestions of “Cougar” and “Lightning McQueen.”
Emily will be turning two years old on July 26th. We so enjoy her spunk and charm. She greets her siblings with such enthusiasm and warmth that they all adore her, even when she gets into their things. She will carry on simple conversations by reminding me of things - like the pig-shaped hot air balloon we saw a couple weeks ago, or the baby bird – “Baby bird died. Sad.” Any time someone comes to the door or calls on the phone, she has to know immediately afterward, “Who was that, Mom?” She and Matthew have a sort of love-hate relationship. Many times a day and during her sleep she will say, “Maffew be mean. Maffew hurt me.” But they share a room, and each wants the other in the room at night and they greet each other happily in the morning. Matthew will search for the many stuffed animals Emily likes to carry around the house with her. Emily says the cutest things, like when I was finishing giving Matthew a haircut, “Maffew beautiful!” Speaking of hair – hers is getting long, and she still won’t let me pull it back, so she looks pretty shaggy most of the time (but we still think she’s cute!) Getting Emily to bed has become a struggle since she climbs out of her crib and cries as soon as I put her there unless I have taken the time to cuddle her to sleep beforehand. I enjoy the cuddle time, but sometimes it’s very inconvenient to have to lie down with her when I have other things I need to do and I know I’m going to fall asleep if I stop moving for that long.
I am now about 25 weeks into this pregnancy (15 more to go!) I can feel the baby move quite a bit now, and this is most fun part of the pregnancy for me and the kids as well, as they all want to sit next to me to feel the baby move. We are all excited for her to come, and I am thankful that I am not as nauseated as I was earlier in the pregnancy.
Everything is good – we always seem to keep busy. Hugh is always tired from his early morning commute – but we appreciate how well he takes care of us. We hope all is well with you.