I’m still here

I’m still here. We’ve been so busy this summer, and I’ve surprised myself how little I’ve blogged about it. I think I’m at the point where I’m so overwhelmed with all the photos I have to go through, I can’t even think of where to start.

Annie--

Loves to sing. She can carry a tune better than Jackson.  Knows the words (as well as a 2 year old can) to happy birthday, “sunbeam”, “twinkle twinkle”, “twinkle bells”, “doggie in the window”, and probably others.

She’s talking more and more in complete sentences. She has a huge vocabulary right now. Doesn’t know her colors correctly yet. When she counts, she says “3, 4, 7” ever single time. Occasionally you’ll hear her say “1, 2, 3, blast off!” She gets most of her words and phrases from Jackson. Heard her saying “kill it! kill it! kill it!”—she scared of flies and bugs.

Put her on the potty more and more recently hoping she’ll be an early potty trainer. We’ve had zero successes.

She’s very good at praying (repeating what we tell her to say) and throws fits at dinner if she doesn’t get to say the prayer so we’ve had two prayers at dinner many times. She likes to wait a moment before saying amen, sort of liking building up suspense and then she throws her arms up and yells amen.  She thinks all bearded people are Jesus.

She’s starting to improve a little on listening and not throwing as many fits. I’m starting to be able to reason with her. She’s still a grumpy and sweet little monster creature.

Jackson--

Growing more and more independent and self assured. It’s a pity he’s not starting kindergarten because he is ready now. He’s been making his own PB & J’s and frozen Burritos. He does it completely by himself and knows how many times to press the button on the microwave for the burritos. He’s stopped sleeping with his security blanket which was a big surprise to me.

 

He’s figured out how to use the laptop mouse pad and we’ve caught him doing google searches with his limited reading skills and spelling skills. He’s usually trying to get to PBS kids. I shouldn’t say limited reading skills because I’ve been very amazed at his reading skills. His biggest obstacle in reading is laziness--he doesn’t want to work to sound out the hard words, but if he’s motivated he does quite well.

One of my biggest fears as a mom is that my kids will be socially awkward or not have friends. So it’s a big relief that he seems to be doing fine in that area without any of my mom-meddling at all. As he walks down the halls at church, there are several kids that shout out “hey Jackson!” He has some good buddies in his ctr-4 class and I feel bad for his teachers because I know for a fact they are rowdy.

The kids are the best of buddies and play together all day. Jackson is a great and loving big brother and is really good at watching out for Annie. Annie idolizes Jackson and is a little parrot copying what he says and does a lot. Well probably be moving them into the same room sometime soon. It might fail like the last time we did it.

Colin--

Colin is liking his new job at PB. It’s challenging him in new ways and it’s been a blessing that he isn’t still at Terracon where he’d be doing field work and out in this 100 degree heat. He’s been doing lots of biking this summer and wakes up very early, to the tune of 5:00AM, so he can ride before I go running. I marvel at his ability to get up that early every single day. He’s still the 11 year old scout leader, but there is only one scout right now.

Me--

I feel like I’m in limbo right now. I’m waiting for what’s going to come next. I got released as camp director. I asked to be released because they can’t count on me being in the ward next summer because we fully intend to buy a house in the next few months. (I sure hope this isn’t the last time I get to have that calling.)Everyone in the ward keeps telling us about the houses for sale in the ward to get us to stay. We need to move further north because right now, on a normal day, Colin’s commute home is 45 minutes. It takes him 30 minutes to get to his office (less traffic at 7:15 in the morning). That’s a total of 6 hours and 15 minutes in a car every week if traffic is good. There’s lots of unknowns and I’ve been spoiled to not have any unknowns for several years. I hope this doesn’t sound winy—hit me if it does. We have so much to be grateful for and so many things to be excited about and look forward to. I’m running a half marathon in Sept with my sister. I’m trying to get baby hungry—honestly, I don’t really feel baby hungry at all. I have probably enjoyed not having a baby and not being pregnant this last year a little too much. I feel normal, I’m at my wedding weight, I’m running like I used to, I get a full night of sleep every night…why, oh why would I want to ruin all that….