I had to add one more

Just one more post for tonight... Ada NEVER lets me do more that just comb her hair. Yesterday she let me put pigtales in... they didn't last more than a couple of minutes, but they were in and look at how cute she looked!

The last couple of days

So here are the exciting things that have been going on... Margaret had her baby today! YAY! Her name is Maisy. That means that all of the 5 cousins that were due this summer are here. Good luck Grandma keeping them all straight... and I guess good luck to the parents keeping them all out of trouble! Today was also James' birthday. We got to go bowling with them and hung out a little after... as well as celebrating Jay's birthday not too long ago. We also went to the Discovery park with John and Diane's family. That's the only one I have pictures for... so here are some cute kids running around like crazy.

Here's a group picture... hard to see everyone, but it's a fun idea anyway...

This one is of everyone playing tag... look at how close John and Jer were to catching them!

And there they go!

Diane entertaining Ada and Anya while taking care of Joseph.

I'm not a decorator...

I'm not a decorator, but I was pretty proud of this one... My sister made a set of letters spelling Ada's name when Ada was born... so I decided to do something for Samuel... the stuffed animals are the Classic Pooh ones that I've been collecting for a couple of years.

PCOS

It's official... I have PCOS. Don't worry, it's not a big deal... it's no different than someone having a predisposition for this that or the other... There are different levels of severity too, and mine is not very prominent... I probably would never have known about it if my sister hadn't had a more severe case. It is Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome. It is mostly a hormone imbalance and an insulin resistance. My sister has more of the hormone imbalance... and I have more of the insulin resistance. What that means for me is that I only ovulate every other month, I'm 45% more likely to miscarry, I have a larger possibility of having multiples, my body doesn't create milk for any kids that I have, I'm probably going to be diabetic later, and it's extremely hard to lose weight. Everyone that I've talked to has said that if I eat like a diabetic and exercise then it's less likely to affect me as much.

These are just some of the ways that it's affected me so far, none of them too weird but enough all together to make me notice...
(1) I weighed 200 lbs when I graduated high school... that is before women's bodies are finished forming, and that was despite the fact that at the time I was weight lifting 3 times a week, running 3 miles 5 times a week and biking anywhere from 12-45 miles a week. I went to the doctor to get checked for thyroid problems or anything else that would be keeping me from being able to lose weight.
(2) It took me 4 years to lose 20 lbs.
(3) Jer and I had a hard time getting pregnant for the first time... true that was not all the PCOS, but I bet it was a contributor. Jer had something going on that he had to have a surgery done for and we were pregnant 3 months later.
(4) I haven't been able to produce more than about 2 oz of breast milk at a time for either of my kids no matter what supplements I took and dried up completely within about a month both times.

I'm glad to finally understand what's going on in my body...

Two kids

Well, I think having two kids is definitely harder than one. I used to play with Ada in the morning, work while she napped and ran errands with her after work... then we'd hang out with Jer and family. Now it's... stay up at night with the baby, wake up with the baby, try to get Ada to play by herself while I get ready for the day... play with Ada, feed the hungry baby, load the dishwasher with one hand while Ada eats lunch... she takes a nap while I feed him again and try to get him to go to bed so that I can get some of my work done (I haven't gotten in trouble with my boss yet... thank goodness I work for my dad!), run errands just to get Ada and I out of the house, crash in front of the tv for a minute, feed a hungry baby, get Jer to help me clean up the messes that Ada made during the day before we put her to bed for the night, feed the baby and read with Jer before we go to bed. Somewhere in there we have to fit in changing 2 kids diapers a couple times a day, making dinner if I get around to it, trying to catch up on my piano students so I'm ready next time they come, do 3 callings for church, exercise, bathe the kids, finish all the projects I started a year ago, and sleep. Let's just say that I don't feel like the house has to be as clean as it once was or that I have as much time for friends. In fact the friends that I see the most are the ones that have kids Ada's age so that she can play with someone other than mom. Fun.

Vain Repetition

I usually like to write about my kids, but I just had a thought during our lesson at church about prayer. They were talking about avoiding vain repetition during prayers and they kept using examples of when you're tired or busy and say the same kind of unthinking prayer that you've said a million times... I think it could also mean those times when you pray and the answer is "no"... but you keep praying for it... I think that would also be a vain repetition.

It's just not fair...

It's Saturday and also the day that we try to get all the house work done. Our windows have been extremely filthy and I really haven't had time to do them... so I decided to make that my priority... take out all the screens and wash both them and the windows inside and out. And after all my hard work I woke up to find that I hadn't even started it yet! Dang it all!

Competition

I need to just say that I hate competition period... It doesn't matter what it's in, I think that just the principle of it is against the plan of salvation. It also promotes those people that participate in them to only really respect those that are top ranked... even if they continue to give praise to those that are not, they don't really respect or love those that are not. For example... the commentator at the last marathon that I went to... All of the top ranked people that came in, he made sure that the crowd cheered for them a ton and the last of the 1/2 marathoners coming he would say things like "You made it, that's the important thing." I think I'd rather come in to no comment than to something like that. It also causes the people that participate in it to only talk about it rather than life. I think I'd rather talk about life.

Now I used to fence and I loved it! I didn't do it to compete... I did it because I enjoyed it... there were no commentators, and no one looking down on me. I even qualified third in the region which ranked me for the Junior Olympics... That is where I felt the other competitors were jerks and judged you by how you performed. I didn't care if I came in last, I just wanted to fence... and there aren't many fencers in Utah County... or at least there weren't when I was fencing.

Nap time

I left Ada with Jer while I went to my follow up doctors appointment... She usually eats lunch at noon and then takes a nap... at 11:30 he calls me to tell me that she'd wondered off somewhere and he had to spend forever looking for her... when he found her she had gone into her bedroom, closed the door, and fallen asleep on her bed. She really must have needed a nap because it was more than twice as long as it usually is!

And on a side note, we got a new nephew today. James Rockwell was 7 lbs 11 ozs and is a healthy boy that I hope we get to meet tomorrow.

Baby smiles

I have to say that I absolutely love when babies start smiling. Sammy will just sit and watch you, then you say hi to him and he just grins! I don't have a picture but here are two from yesterday...

Thank goodness for being old enough to understand!

So... this is kind of ironic... it happened because she's so little and doesn't always listen to what you tell her, but because she's old enough to understand what you tell her we were able to get her out of it.

Ada and her friend Lizzie were playing in our downstairs bathroom. They like to hide in the shower curtain and say boo whenever people come by... Lizzie came out and was playing with her mom when we heard a big crash and Ada start crying. Ada had somehow knocked over the ironing board that we were storing in there and it had wedged itself across the room and against the door. The hinges were on her side of the door and the window is one of those tiny bathroom ones that are only meant for ventilating the room. Mary and I could only get the door to open a couple of inches by both of us pushing on it... but that got it to the point that Ada could reach the legs of the ironing board and lift them. If she hadn't have done that when she was told, I don't know how else we could have gotten her out without actually cutting a hole in the door.