This September

We made lots of fun things with zucchini and squash, including boats to float in the bathtub.

Jason, Noah, and Kyle had fun on a Father's and Son's campout (although Noah seemed to forget everything related to potty-training).

Levi enjoyed being 5 months old and getting to know his cousin, Gabriel.

Jason worked on swimming lessons.

9/18/15

Hi Megan,

Jason had school off today. He and Noah are playing in the backyard with a friend, and Levi is snoozing. 

I took the boys to the Classic Fun Center in Sandy for a couple hours this morning. They had fun, mingled with some tears. Noah got to the top of a bouncy slide and started crying because he was too scared to come down, even with Jason's help. I had to hand Levi to a lady while I climbed up and slid down with him. He was laughing doing it with me, but he stayed away from the big slides after that. Jason cried when he dropped the candy cane he earned with tickets. It broke into pieces, but was still contained within the wrapper. Other than that, we had a great time. Levi is content to hang out in the Baby Bjorn, watching everything around him. I am content because he is content.

Kyle is probably going to start remodeling our master bathroom this weekend. I hope we don't end up too miserable during the process... We plan to tile the floor, paint the walls, vanity, and medicine cabinet, and replace a few fixtures. 

Potty Training is still a work in progress. I felt ready to throw in the towel a couple days ago, but I took Noah to the store and let him pick out his own toy to earn (I had picked out all the previous prizes). He chose a Pokemon figure. (Pokemon is popular again.) The good/bad news is that we can collect a whole bunch of them, so it will hopefully keep him motivated to earn a bunch of them, but we will spend a lot of money :). Potty training can be quite expensive! With Jason, he collected most of his "Cars" cars while he was potty training.

Levi just woke up.

I am glad you had some good friends to take care of you on your birthday.

I love you!

love,

Louie

Not So Fun Weekends

Hi Megan,

We've had some not-so-fun weekends, but all in the pursuit of happiness. That is to say, last weekend we decided we needed to take away the pacifier from Levi. He was used to falling asleep with it, but as he got older, it became a problem because it would fall out and he wouldn't go to sleep. Levi ended up being our hardest to sleep train. We had to endure a lot of crying. For several naps he cried for an hour before we rescued him. The first night he cried off and on for three hours before I gave up and rescued him. I thought I was a hardened mother, but I was a bit of a wreck. I lost my appetite, but kept eating to keep up my milk supply. I couldn't sleep well. My stomach was in knots. But after 24 hrs, something clicked! He's doing great now and falls asleep with a couple minutes or less of crying. 

This weekend we've moved on to potty-training Noah. It seems to be going fairly well. I think this time we'll stick with it (we had to abandon our first potty training attempt back in February). He's pretty motivated by all the treats and prizes and stickers we have going this time around. Another motivator is going to preschool in the fall. Still, it's been crazy, and we're stuck at home. I will be glad when we're a couple weeks down the road.

Jason is doing great in school. He has been a great helper in potty training Noah because he gets a share in the treats and prizes. We're probably spending double the money on it all, but it is worth it because Noah will sometimes listen to Jason better than me.

I loved your shower story. Quite funny. I'm hope you got to share that with your writing group.

love,

Louie

First Day of First Grade

So far Jason is loving first grade. He told Kyle, "First grade is so much better than kindergarten." I'm not sure why he things that, but I'm glad he does. Kyle takes Jason to school in the mornings, and so he did the drop-off on the first day of school. Kyle was a good dad and remembered to take a picture and text it to me. Seeing the picture made me a little misty eyed, and I told that to Jason when he got home. That of course put a big smile on Jason's face, knowing he was missed, and he asked if Noah cried too. No, he did not, but the boys sure jump into playing together as soon as Jason gets home. And fighting together too.

Levi 4 Months Old

Weight: 16 lbs (67 percentile)

Length: 24 in (13 percentile)

Milestone: rolls from tummy to back

Family Pictures 2015

We had Jen Gray come take professional pictures at the family reunion. We were commemorating having everyone together at the reunion and my mom's 60th birthday.

8/16/15

Jason starts school on Wednesday. I went to the grocery store yesterday, and I spent a boat-load of money buying a bunch of individually packaged snacks for his lunches. I won't always buy those pre-packaged snacks, but I need something easy to jump-start us into the school year. It made me sad thinking about Jason being gone all day. I'm sure we'll adjust quickly, but it will be weird at first. As part of all the snacks, I also bought a can of Pringles. While I was upstairs with Levi, Noah came into the kitchen and spied the Pringles still in the grocery bag. I heard, "Pringles! Yay! Pringles! I love Pringles!" and on and on he went. It was sure worth the $1.50 on the can to hear such joy.

We went to Lagoon on Friday with Kyle's family. It was really hot (96 degrees), but we still managed to have a good time, especially since Lagoon has so many large trees. Kyle and I had not been to Lagoon since senior year of high-school, so they had many new rides, but I didn't get to ride any of them since I ended up holding Levi most of the time. I did ride 5 rides, but none were the newer roller coasters. Jason had a blast. Noah had a cold, and so he was not so fun through parts of the day. I brought along my camping chair and set it up in the handicap bathroom stall each time I needed to feed Levi. Although it sounds weird, it was the best solution I had because the bathrooms were air-conditioned, and I did not want to have sweat dripping down my back while I tried to nurse with a cover on a public bench