I'm going to start off with a gross story that happened a few weeks ago. It was the first week of September, and I decided I would take the kids to the splash pad for maybe the last time this summer. The happy pictures above are not from that day. We had been there for about ten minutes when Quinn came up to me and told me she had to go poop. Now, probably 80% of the time we are at the splash pad she tells me she has to poop. I don't know if it's the cold water that just sends her digestive system into overdrive or what. But I hate when she has to poop because one, the bathroom is kind of far away. Two, I have to carry Jameson the whole way and he is heavy. Three, she is wearing a wet swimsuit, which I will have to pull down and everyone who has ever worn a wet swimsuit knows this is difficult. Then I will have to wipe her wet butt, and then try to pull her wet swimsuit back up.
Ok, so she comes and tells me she needs to go and I ask her if she's sure, because I often suspect that she maybe just likes trekking all the way to the far off bathroom. She says yes, and I tell her to get her shoes on, I pick up the heavy baby, and off we go. The grass had just been mowed and it was sticking all over her legs. I kept looking back to make sure she was following me and she was, and I noticed that her legs were kind of yellow colored. I told myself it was from the freshly cut grass. Then we made it to the bathroom and she walked in front of me and that's when I saw it. The poop colored stain on her butt. No. Why did she have to poop in a wet swimsuit? I was already in a bad mood because I don't know why, I just was. I definitely should have been nicer because I know she didn't poop on purpose. It was just so gross. I set Jameson on the floor and he just stood there and watched everything. I pulled her wet, diarrhea swimsuit off of her and set her on the toilet so she could finish. The poop streaked down her legs from pulling her swimsuit off and it was all over the seat of the toilet, which is when she noticed it and started crying. I told her to just finish going and I took her swimsuit over to the sink to rinse it out. The sink had one of those drains that has a bunch of little holes in it like a strainer. Just think about that. Also, there is no soap in this bathroom. So I rinse out her swimsuit the best I can, and then I go back to the stall to try and clean her up. I didn't have wipes with me, all there was in that bathroom was cheap, public bathroom toilet paper. So I use that and just clean off the toilet as best as I can, wipe her legs off, and try to get her as clean as possible before I have to put her watery poop swimsuit back on her. I did not want to put it back on her, but I did not have our towels with us, they were back at the splash pad a million miles away. And I couldn't have her walk back to the car naked. When we got our stuff, I wrapped her in a towel and put her in the carseat, and we went home. That night she peed on the bathroom floor. I really don't know what was wrong that day, she's been potty trained for over a year. I texted Kelly and told him that I was not making dinner and I ordered pizza delivery. I hope one day Quinn does not kill me for posting this story on the internet.
Isn't he cute? Probably the most exciting thing that has happened in the last month is the discovery that Jameson sleeps so much better in a pack n play compared to his crib. I wish I would have known this a year ago, I would have less eye wrinkles.
We have stayed at my mom's house a few times this summer, and every time Jameson would sleep through the night. I thought maybe it was because he shared a room with Quinn so I put the pack n play in her room. They liked it at first, but then they also couldn't settle down when it was time to sleep so I put it in his room. And it's the pack n play. He has only slept through the night like 4 times since we've done this, but before we moved him out of his crib he never slept through the night. He still sleeps through the night at my mom's house, we were just there last weekend. I told her I was moving there.
You'll notice that there are blood stains on his sheet. This was the saddest day. Jameson had a bit of a lip tie when he was born. It never caused any issues so we weren't worried about it. One day, Kelly was playing with the kids in the living room while I got lunch ready. Jameson tripped with a binki in his mouth and it somehow got tucked under his lip as he fell on his face. It tore his skin up where his lip meets his gums. He started screaming immediately and we took him to the kitchen to try and stop the bleeding. It bled so much and we had to hold him down, it took probably ten minutes for the bleeding to stop. He screamed the whole time, it was terrible. Later that day we noticed some broken blood vessels around his neck from screaming so hard. Just typing about this makes my heart hurt. His lip was really swollen, we have a video of this but no pictures. That day and night during his nap he would drool and there was a little blood mixed in. My poor baby. He acted very normal by the next day even though his lip was still a little swollen. It re-tore a little bit a few days later, I'm not sure how because I didn't see it happen but he bled just a little. That must have hurt so bad, I hate when my babies are in pain and I just wish that I could take it away.
That is some waffle sitting on a lawn chair on our balcony. The day before I took this picture, Kelly was sitting with Quinn in the living room and she came in eating something. No one was in the kitchen and I hadn't given her anything. He asked her what she was eating and she told him it was waffle that she had gotten from outside. We were both concerned and confused. The next morning I went outside and I saw this. Mystery solved. She must have taken her breakfast out there the day before and left it out there, and then gone back to eat some of it that night. Kids are strange.
That picture of Quinn on the pony kills me. Could she look any angrier? We went up to Quincy for Farmer Consumer Awareness Day (a local holiday). We took the kids to watch the parade in the morning. They loved it. Quinn refused to wave at anyone going by but she did learn to get aggressive when it came to going for candy. Jameson loved the animals in the parade and squealed and pointed whenever he saw any. I guess he didn't really know what to think about sitting on the horse.
I played in the Rally in the Valley 4 on 4 grass volleyball tournament. It was the first time in a few years that I had played volleyball, and I got real beat up... by the ground. Seriously I hit the ground hard, a lot. The others on my team all coach high school volleyball so they were in better shape for it than I was. My arms were killing me from passing the ball and I had bruises on them for a week. That night I felt like I had been ran over by a truck. My whole body hurt so badly. Our team placed 3rd out of six teams. We are pretty sure that all of the other teams were high school students. They all referred to our team as the "old people" team. Yeah. We had fun though, and if they'd had someone better than me on the team they probably would have placed first. But it was my idea, so they had to keep me.
This is just a cute picture of Kelly and Quinn at his mom's house. :)
He is wearing a diaper, two socks, and one shoe.
There is a show on Netflix called Little Baby Bum. Jameson LOVES it. These pictures are all taken while he is watching it.
Grandma Sandra bought him some Nikes and he is obsessed. For the first few days he wanted to wear them, always. He would bring them to me and squeal until I put them on him. And it was no longer acceptable for me to carry him out to the car, he had to walk. I don't know why that changed, he'd worn shoes before these ones.
So sweet, they were reading books together.
She loves baking cookies with dad. And eating them. Jameson only wanted to eat the chocolate part of the peanut butter blossoms. He quickly shoved as much of the cookie in his mouth as he could, then he scraped the cookie part off his tongue with his fingers. What a waste.
Sleeping babies melt my heart.
Sometimes, at the kids club they fill this little house with balls and Jameson loves it. He only looks like he's trying to get out because he saw me. He is always happy to see me and I love it. I hope that lasts forever.
Kelly took this last Sunday morning as I was making everyone breakfast. I love these pictures because of Quinn's hair, and the cute look on her face.
He was really excited that Quinn was sleeping and he was able to get into her precious Candy Land. He picked up the cards and moved the little guy around the board, it didn't matter that the board was still folded, he had a good time.
Classic.
Things are going really well for our family. Kelly likes his job. I am teaching 3-4 classes a week at the gym. The kids play together quite a bit now. Quinn is very protective of Jameson. Last week she told another kid to be nice to her brother. I love how only she can pick on him, that's how it's supposed to be, I guess. Quinn is always watching out for him on the stairway up to our apartment. I love that about her. We decided not to put her in preschool yet. She would have probably loved it but I want things to stay the way they are for another year. She still loves to dance, she loves princesses, singing songs, tickle fights, watching me make dinner, and she is determined to learn how to go across the monkey bars. She's not quite strong enough but we will keep practicing.
Jameson loves to be outside. He loves to throw a ball, or any object, really. If he walks up to you with his elbow cocked back, take cover, because he's got an arm. He likes to color with Quinn. He likes to build towers and push cars. When we go to the park he likes to just wander around and play with sticks, rocks, and dirt. He climbs up the stairs but never wants to go down the slide.
One more story about him that I want to remember. Two months ago, Kelly bought a 10 cent picture of Jesus at the bookstore and gave it to Quinn. We put it up in her room. Jameson saw it a little while later, and he immediately pointed to the picture with a big smile on his face. He kept babbling about it and so I took it down and let him hold it. He held it up with both hands and beamed at it. I told him that it was Jesus. Then he held it up to his ear, and talked like he was talking on the phone. A minute or so later he gave it back to me and I put it back on the wall, but every day he would come back in her room and point at the picture and say "Jesus" with a big smile on his face. It is as though Jameson remembers Him from before. I believe the veil closes slowly for our babies. Not long after this, Jameson noticed a picture of the Idaho Falls temple that has been hanging in his room since we moved here. He pointed to the temple (which is just the temple, nothing else), and said, "Jesus!" I told him that it's the temple and still, every day, he points to it and says "Jesus" and "temple."
I just want to learn as much as I can from my children. The scriptures tell us that we need to be "as a little child." Children are the most forgiving creatures on the planet. You could be the worst parent in the world and your little child would still love you. Children are teachable and kind to everyone. Their innocence as they learn about the world has taught me so much. I am so thankful every day that I am a mom and a wife. Nothing could be better.
