Little Snippets

A friend of mine gave us some free passes to the zoo so we went last week. Did I remember my camera? No!!! I was annoyed about that. It's been since last year since we've gone so I thought Preston would like it more than before. It was a beautiful day and with sunny, blue skies so it was a perfect day for an outing. The zoo wasn't that busy and we saw almost everything. We took along a friend of Kate's and they had fun running around. The kids liked the giraffes, monkeys, penguins, the indoor play area and the elephants. The elephants were playing with a ball even. Usually we catch them getting a bath so it was fun to see them out and about. All the kids ate their lunch good and Preston didn't have any melt downs so it was considered a good outing. ha ha.

Other things we have been up to...Preston had his first real visit with the speech language pathologist (SLP) last week and it was okay. She kept testing his limits and so he was getting frustrated and then sometimes he would try to escape upstairs. This process will be interesting. :) I only worked 2 days last week, but this week I am working 3 days so that will keep me busy. We had our ward activity last Saturday (just call Kyle and I event coordinators!) and we did a Game Show Night. We did snippets from Let's Make a Deal, The Price is Right and Family Feud. It was fun, but not very many people came which was a bummer. The people who did come made it fun and got into it so that was good. For dessert after the games, we had ice cream with oreos, butterfinger, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, peanuts and whipping cream. It was delicious. I have been playing church basketball. Our ward has had a couple games (after the first game I didn't want to play anymore b/c it was SO frustrating with bad refs and too high of expectations) and then every Saturday anyone from the Stake comes and plays together or does drills and I've gone to that once. I almost had to ref a game (yikes), but then no one was there to do the clock and score board so I quickly volunteered for that. We find out next week what we are having and I think I'll bring the kids along. Kate will like seeing pictures of the baby. She's still holding out for a girl so we'll see. I can't believe it's already time to find out!

"I want milk"

Preston is just over 2 years old, but we have noticed he's not talking as much as other kids his age and definitely not as much as Kate was when she was his age and I know boys are different than girls, but this concerned us. Since he doesn't communicate that well he will either whine or help himself to what he wants, if he can reach it, or say simple words. One of the phrases he does know is "I want milk"- when we make him say it- because he LOVES his milk. Along with his speech he has little idiosyncrasies or quirks that are concerning so he will be evaluated in a few months at the UW developmental center. It's good that we live over here so he can get help if he needs any.

The other day, we had a speech therapist come to our house and evaluate him. She agreed he needed extra help so now she will be coming to visit Preston at our house to help him with his speech. We are excited for this because hopefully he can learn to talk better and not get so frustrated and be less whiny. :) We want him to be happy and not being able to communicate is probably frustrating for him. So we will see how the speech therapy goes and hopefully it helps.

Bikes and Bunk Beds

We have been enjoying the mild winter and getting outside more. Last year, we had tons of snow and this year we have had only one time of any snow that we could actually play in. In a way, it's kind of nice, but then it doesn't feel like winter either.

Kate likes riding her bike at the "bike park". That's what she calls this park we go to that has a path around a baseball field and BMX track. Kyle and I pushed Preston in a stroller while Kate rode, but now that she is riding a bigger bike she goes faster so we had to keep having her stop so we could catch up. It's by a park and ride so there can be some shady people around and we wanted to see her at all times. :)

This should be a picture from fall, but it's really winter! They had fun running around. There is also a small playground so we went over there and let them play until Preston started crying because his hands and nose were bright red and cold.

Preston on his new big boy bed

We finally got our bunk beds put together. We ordered one a while ago and it said it was white. Well, we put it up against Kate's bedding and it was off-white and you could tell. So I knew that would bug me. So we kept that one (in case I liked it better than the other one) and ordered a different type of bunk bed and waited for that to come. We ordered them from Walmart so they ship free to the store- fabulous. Well, it came and it was definitely white so we returned the first one. We were nervous how Preston would do in a bed and so far so good. He goes down fine at night and for naps. So far he doesn't get out of it in the morning, he usually waits until we come in there, then he gets up. I don't know how long that will last. I'm sure he'll figure out he can get up and start playing with his toys soon enough.

Kate posing on her new bed. She was being silly.

We bought a new mattress from Costco for Kate's bed and gave Kate's old mattress to Preston. It's a joke because the old mattress is awful. It's hard and not comfortable. Several of our family members have slept on it and we regret not spending more money on a nicer one. When we bought it we were trying to be cheap and figured Kate wouldn't care. Well, she didn't, but our visitors did! They were good sports about it, but now we can honestly say that Kate's bed is very comfortable! It makes me want a new bed even more since ours is 10yrs old. I think we'll eventually put the beds together to make it a bunk bed once the baby comes. Kate is SO excited to sleep on the top bunk. We will find out in a few weeks what we are having so once we know then we can plan out the bedroom situation.

I have been feeling good except yesterday at work I threw up- not pregnancy related either! I started shaking while cleaning my patient's teeth and I knew I was about to throw up. I just excused myself and said I'd be right back. Afterwards, I just went back to my patient and started where I left off. I didn't tell her where I was either! I felt better after that though and stayed and finished out the day. I was so wanting to take a nap during lunch time. After work, I went home and relaxed and didn't eat anything. I finally started eating today, but even then nothing sounded good. Kate threw up Monday night as well. I was with some friends over the weekend and one of them got sick so I'm thinking I got it from her, not sure, but I'm hoping Preston or Kyle don't get it. At least, the sickness didn't last long and it went away fast. It makes me even more grateful that I don't get morning sickness during pregnancy where I throw up b/c that would get hard working on patients and having to run to the bathroom all the time. Yuck.