Crap

I thought that Sam was done with food allergies.  I guess not.  He hasn't had any reactions to anything for about 3 years.  His eczema gets worse if he eats lots of treats, but other than that he's been fine.  Today at Costco, he was trying all the samples and either the pomegranate or the mango sample made him break out it hives and choke.  I still keep Benadryll in my bag from all those times that he's had a reaction in the past... it's about 3 years old at this point, but luckily it still works.  He came home, napped and now is using my sympathy as a chance to play video games on a non video game day.  Adventure never stops.

Bit the bullet

We bit the bullet.  I was just going to teach our kids the piano, and so far it's worked out well with Sam and only so-so with Ada.  But our neighbor, who majored in piano performance at BYU and whom Ada loves because she's the Primary chorister in our Ward started teaching piano lessons again last year.  I'm super excited because Ada tends to commit herself more thoroughly to excelling in something if it's taught by someone that she loves.  If I tell her to practice, she does it without enthusiasm.  If her teacher sends her home from a piano lesson with a list of things to practice and check mark... she's immediately on the piano trying to figure it all out for her.

Our kids don't have to be great pianists.  That's not my dream, though I would love to hear them play and enjoy it.  Jer's and my goal is that they can read music well and use it if they want to.  Love it.

Staying home with baby

I stayed home with baby from church this week... we're just going to try to get better before we really go anywhere.  Jer took the rest of the family, Ada was very grown up and reverent, and Evelyn gave me her pictures from Nursery saying that she got them because she was being so good.  Sam and Ada both have new Primary teachers and they both seem to be doing really well with them.  Ada was telling me about, "A creepy place where there are dead people and statues."  I think she means the cemetery, but it does make me wonder what led to that conversation.

 

After church hang out.

Sammy's fingers

While talking to my mom and dad, Sam held up his fingers and in ASL showed Grandpa the sign for 'I love you'.  He said, "Grandpa!  This means I love you!" Then turning to my mom, puts up his middle finger, flipping her off, and says, "But you shouldn't use this finger because it means bad things."

Sammy's first day

 

Sam was soooooo impatient to start Kindergarten and was disappointed to have to wait 4 days after Ada started school before he could start.  My mom made it easier by taking Sam on a pre-start of school date.  She took him to Walmart and bought him some school pants, out to eat at Subway (Sammy's choice), and to my mom's house to watch the Croods.  He had so much fun and loved when my mom told other people that they were on a date.

 

He woke up early to get ready for school and was ready ages before Ada. I was able to go to Ada's first day and drop her off at class, but with me and baby sick, we couldn't make it this time.  Ada stepped up to the plate and volunteered to get Sam to his line in the gym that goes to his class.  And she did.  Sam loves his teacher, loves being able to learn new things.  He doesn't like having to deal with other kids misbehaving though.  He got back from school and told me that he wasn't going to tell me anything about his day... but after a few questions, I found out that there were 3 other kids in red shirts like him... that he sat at the green chaired table, that one of the kids pushed him while they were learning to line up in the hall and that Sam got in trouble for talking when he told the kid not to push him.  My mother in law wanted to pick up Sam from school for the first week and a half while I've been sick.  It's been nice that I don't have to try to be somewhere on time right now.  I do miss seeing the happy face smiles when they see they're getting picked up... and Sam told me that Grandma loves to pick him up so he likes it. Cute.

 

Both the kids were thrilled when they found out that they shared Friday recesses.  My two little buddies hung out and played together all recess.  I'm so glad that they get along!

Ada's first day of school

 

This girl LOVES school.  She went to her first full day of school on Monday of last week.  While she was tired when she got home, she came home talking about all the things that she was excited about.  New friends, recess, lunch at school, classroom jobs, and surprise... Math.  She was so excited that she could finish her Math assignment before anyone else was even close to being done.  She was a little sad that her 4-5 "best friends" from her kindergarten class weren't in her class this year, but it only took her a day to befriend a new girl named Cora and a couple more kids in the class.

Seth's first week

So Seth had a roughish first week.  There have been worse, but it wasn't without incident.  His bilirubin was rising each day, but it wasn't high enough for them to order a bili-bed or bili-blanket yet.  Just go in everyday and get more blood tests done.  Because of his bilirubin, he had to have extra feedings to try to kick his liver into working faster... which means more bottles, which is hard when you're trying to teach him to latch and nurse when you don't have an overabundance of milk in the first place.  Which means pumping for me to try to keep my milk supply up.  We also figured out that he has acid reflux.  Thank you Becca for having told me all about it with Rocky... I was able to figure it out and get him some medicine.  Luckily, by the end of the week his bili tests were going down instead of up.  Unfortunately, he and I caught colds and I got double mastitis.... lovely.

 

Seth and his mini-Seth.  They have the same toes, hair color, and hair line...

Ada ballet recital

I have LOVED the rec center ballet classes.  Not always easy for me and the kids to sit in the hall while Ada's dancing, but here are some reasons that I've liked it:

-Ada ALWAYS comes out with a bright beautiful smile after dancing
-Ada's teacher loves to dance and shows the girls that... that's important to me because she's not the "ballet type" body... she just loves to dance.  And that's Ada.  She's never going to be the short and tiny ballet body, but she can love it.
-I want Ada to know that she can do anything that she loves to do, even if it's just for fun.  That's why I started fencing and I LOVED it... even if I was "too big" for it. 
-Ada actually has a very good head for remembering steps and a good sense of timing
-It was only $70 for 3 months of dance classes... no breaking the bank here... yay!
-Ada's teacher said that she should definitely move on to the Ballet 2 class and that she would be excellent in a contemporary class because of the moves that Ada makes up during their free dance time
-The only other thing that Ada's been this excited to do was Swimming classes (liked fencing for the first two years... getting tired of it, didn't like T-ball except to be the one batting... picks up piano fairly easily but gets tired of practicing easily... etc...)

Last week was her recital.  The baby was only 4 days old, so I wasn't sure I was going to make it... but I'm sure glad that I did.  She had quite the audience, and she'd told me not to watch most of her practices so that she could surprise me at the recital with her dance.  EVERY time she saw me while walking on stage or after a dance she'd wave and smile.  And I'd feel like crying to see my baby up there looking so confident, grown up, and that she was actually pretty good at it. I actually did have a few tears on their first song.

Afterwards, my Dad took us out to eat at Pizza Pie Café... our kids love that place.  I loved watching my mom and dad cuddling their new grandbaby.  Seth just cuddled right into my dad like he was meant to be in his arms.

Favorite Evelyn conversation

While mopping the floor today, Evelyn followed me back and forth in the kitchen... I asked her, "Evelyn, look should we make the floor shiny and clean?"  She says, "And WET!"  Yep, that too.

Look mom, I found my hand

Seth newborn photo shoot

Since I have Jer home for the week, I decided to have him help me with the newborn photoshoot.  He set up the backdrop and washed the baby... then he had to take Ada to dance, but I really appreciated not having to set everything up.  All I had to do was turn on my camera and hold my baby.  I haven't had a chance to photoshop any of these yet for lighting or the bruise on his forehead, but he's just too cute and I had to share.  I wish I'd gotten a cute one of the back of his thick head of hair.  Maybe I'll do that tomorrow if I get a chance.

 

Oh my goodness, I have 4... I don't think it's really hit me yet.

Brothers

He kept petting the fur with his hand.  Too cute.