Independence and Persuasion

Independence and persuasion. Sounds like a novel, right?

Well this has been what has been going on with Kenny lately. It seems like the last two months or so he has really kicked it into high gear with wanting to be independent and doing things his way, which leads me to the persuasion portion of the title. I feel like my persuasion skills have had to be kicked up a notch as well. (Oh, let’s go look over here by the exit! Oh no, you will love it! There is a dragon we can look at . . . Come on. No seriously, come on.)

• He has gotten out of his crib once. That was about 3 weeks ago, and it hasn’t happened since (knock on wood), so I’m hoping we can postpone this for as long as possible. He laughed and was proud of himself when he realized he managed to get out of his crib (even though he really fell out of it and was crying at first).
• Since our trip to Charleston with my mom, that’s all Kenny talks about. He calls here “Nanny”, and he will randomly insist to call her on my phone throughout the day.
• His favorite shirt is a stripped Ralph Lauren shirt because it has a “neigh” on it (the polo logo). He loves his horsey shirt and wants to wear it every day.

• He loves to help unload/load the dishwasher. If he sees me starting to do this chore, he will run and get his stool so he can help out.
• Last week he said his first formal prayer. He has started saying who he would like to say the prayer, so he said he wanted to say it, and then he mumbled some words, looked at me, and then we said amen together.
• He thinks if you say something is hot, that means you should say a prayer. I think it is because his food is typically hot and then we say a prayer on his food, so that’s why he’s made that connection. So if we get in the car and it is hot, he will want to say a prayer.
• He loves to play hide-n-seek and still loves to scare people and to be scared. He has started saying “shh” when he is sneaking up behind you to scare you.
• He loves when the songs “Happy”, “Rude”, or “Shake It Off” come on the radio. He tries to sing along.
• Still loves sticks and rocks like it is his job. He knows (and understands) the rule that they aren’t suppose to come in the house, but he still tries to sneak them in. I find them all over the house in random spots. (And don’t get me started on the forest of sticks and rocks that are in my car.)

• He loves to watch Sesame Street and a show he calls “Choo Choo.” It’s really called Dinosaur Train. Whenever he sees a dinosaur he will call it “choo choo.” The other day he decided to change “choo choo’s” diaper.
• He gets upset if you ask “do you want to have lunch?” I think it’s because often we will have to stop doing something fun because we need to go have lunch. So if I ask him if he wants food and he says yes, that’s fine, but if I say okay let’s go get lunch, he will get upset.
• He has been speaking a lot more lately and has started to put words together. He said his first sentence back when my family was down here after the Charleston vacation. He said “Where’d neigh go?”
• I’ve noticed that in big crowds or loud situations he becomes a lot more reserved and a bit bashful. The other day he came with me to a Relief Society activity that was a book gift exchange. The gifts were in the center of the circle, and I asked him if he wanted to go get one because it was our turn. He started to walk towards the center but then everyone said “oh Kenny! you are so cute! good job!” and he started crying, ran back to me, and hid his head in my legs.

• For a while, he was especially attached to me. He would only let me put him down for bed and naps. Within the last week or so, he has really started becoming more clingy towards Ken. He will say “dada” straight for 30+ minutes leading up to Ken coming home if I let it slip that he will be home soon. (Seriously. Not an exaggeration. I just put him out on the porch so I don’t have to listen to it.)
• My favorite word that he says is “ahmie” which is his way to say snowman. I have no idea why he calls them “ahmies” but if he sees anything that resembles a snowman (Pillsbury doughboy, Michelin man, etc.) he gets super excited and starts screaming “ahmie!”

^^^Helping himself to “some” oatmeal squares. (The other day when we were in the store getting oatmeal squares, he got so super excited that we put them in the cart. The lady next to me said “I am glad to see that out of all the cereal he is getting excited over oatmeal squares.”)

^^^Getting his summer reading prize from the library. (He knows the street we turn on to when we are going to the library so he gets really excited and starts yelling “bibrary!”)

^^^Showing off the stickers Nanny got him. And yes, he is smiling. (We’ve been trying to work on his smile, and he now looks at the camera instead of up at the ceiling, but is this grimace any better? Ha.)

We love this little guy and his fun personality. He definitely keeps it interesting around here and keeps us on our toes. He really is such a sweet boy.

Oh and coincidentally, happy 20 months, Kenny!

Never Forget

13 years ago today, I was sitting in my 6th grade math class in my usual seat working on a worksheet. I remember that around 9:30 an administrator came over the intercom and said we would be going on lock-down. I didn’t think much of it. We had lock-down drills frequently. A little while later (20 min?) the intercom came on again and said the lock-down would remain for the rest of the day. I thought that was a little different. I knew that lock-downs were to keep “bad guys” out, and I remember wondering if the lock-down was real. I was too young to really understand the whole purpose and significance of lock-downs, though.

My parents made the choice that they would do their best shielding me and my siblings from all the bad in the world. They tried not to watch the news around us, and they never discussed world events in front of us. I am grateful for that innocence they helped me maintain in such a (sometimes) scary world.

Because of this, I was very naive to what actually was happening on 9/11/2001.

I was 11 years old. The elementary school chose not to let the students know what was happening. We went on with our school day as normal. I don’t remember the teachers doing or acting differently than normal. (Again, thinking back on this, I am grateful for my wonderful elementary school teachers. They were all so kind, caring, and understanding. The next day we all talked in depth about what happened, and they tried to help us all sort out our feelings. They sincerely cared.)

At the end of the day, our teacher handed us a paper and told us to give it to our parents. It explained that we were not told about the attacks. I didn’t look at the paper but just put it in my backpack and ran outside with my two friends, Chelsea and Eli, to walk home like we usually did.

Surprisingly, both Chelsea and Eli’s moms was there. Eli’s mom asked if we wanted a ride home and we said no. Chelsea’s mom walked home with us. She explained that everyone was off work because there was a “terrorist attack”. I had no idea what a terrorist was. It was explained to me that these terrorists were from another country and they attacked two large buildings in our country and many people died.

I was so young that I thought terrorists were tourists. The words sounded so similar and it was explained to me that the terrorists were “from different countries”, so that is what I concluded. They were tourists.

I remember being scared and unsure. I remember thinking thousands and thousands of people were killed. I remember everyone saying that the passengers on the fourth airplane were heroes. I remember being extremely grateful for the people who were working so hard for our safety in America. I remember being proud I was an American.

I still have those feelings today. I am proud to be an American. I am grateful for all the men and women who sacrificed so much on that day 13 years ago, and those who do so everyday.

I want my children to know the account of that tragedy from a young 11-year-old girl. I was young enough that I did not understand it all, but I was still old enough to be grateful for all those who sacrificed their lives. I was still old enough to understand that America would fight back. I was still old enough to to be proud of my country.

I will never forget.

20 Weeks

So I was really good at taking pictures of my pregnant belly last time. This time, well, not the best. I’ve been meaning to take a picture for the last 20 weeks, so here it finally is-

^^^And yeah, I got a haircut. I got four inches off, which is funny because about this time last year I cut off a ton of my hair, too. It just gets so hot this time of year that I just can’t hack it. (Did you see what I did there? Hack. Like how I hacked all my hair off? Okay, I’ll stop.)

Anyway, this pregnancy:

• More heartburn. Kenny will go in get the Tums for me which is awesome. So helpful, that one.
• I love eating salty food! (Maybe a reason for the heartburn?) I’m not a big french fries eater, but I love them now! Smothered in ketchup! (Which is also kinda weird because I’m not a huge ketchup person.) Also, chips. Love eating chips.
• And I may or may not have a cup of hot chocolate every single night. Even though it is still 80+ degrees outside. (I so miss how in Utah the evenings cool off.)
• And though I have hot chocolate every night, I’m not a huge sweets person. I don’t uber crave sweets all the time like some pregnant ladies.
• I feel like I am waddling already. And my hips hurt, too. And I had my first leg pain today. I really hope that the leg pains don’t continue. That happened with Kenny, and it definitely was not fun, and I made sure Ken knew that it was not fun. I’m pretty sure Ken hopes it was just a one time thing too because he doesn’t want the complaining to start this early either. :)

Anyway, that’s all I can really think of to say for now. Maybe I’ll do another pregnancy picture update 20 weeks from now. (AKA going to the hospital!) (Ahh, am I actually halfway?) (So excited to have a newborn again!) (I should have written all these parentheticals in hashtags.) (#hashtag)

It’s a . . . It’s a . . .

Another BOY!

Yep, we will be adding another boy to our family! We are beyond excited. 

When I was pregnant with Kenny, I thought we would have 2 boys first, but then when I was pregnant this time around, I just wasn’t sure anymore. I kept on going back and forth whether I thought it was a boy or a girl. I never really had an “inkling” one way or the other. Right before the ultrasound technician told us, she asked us to make a guess. Both Ken and I randomly said girl. She then said “wrong”!

It’s fun to already see the difference between this baby and Kenny. When we had Kenny’s ultrasound, he was moving a lot. Kenny even punched his hand out one time because he didn’t like being poked so much. We weren’t able to get a profile shot of Kenny, and we weren’t able to do so with this baby either. But this baby seemed so much calmer than when Kenny had his ultrasound. (Will that translate to a low-key baby? please?) This sweet little boy hardly moved at all and seemed very unaware of all the poking and prodding. He just had his hand up by his face (with his thumb giving us the “thumbs up”) for most of the appointment. It was adorable. 

We love him already!