Basketball

Simon has started loving to shoot hoops. One morning I caught him shooting from the stairs. He has even started doing a backwards shot. He always wants me to watch him shoot. It goes something like this, "Mom watch. First you bounce the ball, then you shoot it in the hoop." It is fun to watch him learn new skills. I love that he is so happy when he makes a shot.

Pregnancy Update

If you haven't noticed the majority of my blogging lately has been a huge amount of catch-up. Between moving and pregnancy I just didn't have the energy and I ended up a couple of months behind.

Now that I have caught up to current time I want to do some updating on the family... for the sake of journaling. The first update is a pregnancy update. I will start where I left off on my last pregnancy post. First here are more lovely mirror selfies. Ya know, trying to keep track of the pregnancy in style.

25 weeks

26 weeks

 27 weeks

29 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

34 weeks

I feel like I can't complain too much with how this pregnancy is going. I am feeling a bit older this time around which mostly means I run out of steam pretty quickly. My afternoons are spent on the couch with Miriam watching a movie or show. When I have energy to do something I have to make myself do it right away so I don't waste an opportunity to make dinner or clean toilets.

Once again I am measuring really big with this baby. I have been about 2-3 weeks ahead most of the pregnancy. I have had to have a lot of extra ultrasounds and appointments the past few weeks. At around 30 weeks baby boy was already 4 pounds. At around 33 weeks the baby was measured in the 95% for weight (although I wish he would have told me how many pounds). It looks like I will be induced around 39 weeks again with another big baby boy. We are getting so excited to meet him!!

Update on Simon

Simon is such a fun little boy. I can't believe I was worried about raising a boy. Sure he keeps me on my toes, but he is so full of love and cuddles for his momma. He is very opinionated and stubborn, but also really worried about others feelings and happiness. Simon is a huge momma's boy. Any help from Michael is off limits. It is funny how he likes a lot of the same things as last year, but is almost a year older. He doesn't seem much like a baby anymore.

Simon is really curious about smells. He wants to smell everything when we are cooking. He also asks what it smells like everywhere we go. He will let you know if he thinks something stinks. Simon talks a lot for his age. (I think it might have to do with keeping up with Miriam.) He amazes me with some of the things he says. He expresses himself well for an almost 3 year old. Simon does not like change. We have been living in our new house for 3 1/2 months and he still asks about our old house. He takes a long time to adjust to anything new and once we have a routine in place we are in trouble if we break it.

Simon still loves to watch Blue's Clues. He loves the episodes about animals and holidays. He always tells me details about the shows he watches. He notices so much. Simon loves his stuffed cow and blanket more than ever. He now has me swaddle the cow daily... who am I kidding I fix his cow so many times a day. Cow has to be "tight" so he can squeeze him better. Simon loves fruit and drinks. He would have chocolate milk and strawberries for every meal if we let him. Simon has started loving shooting hoops. He likes to get all his balls out and see which ones fit in the hoop. He also saw someone on a show doing tricks with a soccer ball and has been trying to balance a ball on his foot ever since. Simon loves animals. He watches animal videos on the iPad and asks to go the zoo daily.

^^Simon loves to read books by himself. I often find him behind the couch "reading" books^^

^^Simon likes to be surrounded by things when he watches TV.^^

He cannot watch an episode of Blue's Clues without having his Blue's Clues book in his hands.

I cannot remember when I started keeping track of funny things Simon has said. So a lot of these might have been from months ago before he started talking so much more.

"Look"
"Mom watch"
"Never mind"
Probably

"I need to get dressed. I can't wear my pajamas to play hullabaloo. That would be weird."

I just sat down and said "okay people". Simon said "I'm not people, you're people".

"I'm having a hard time"

"That's silly"

Loves singing in the car as long as you don't watch him.

Kids=kids
People=adults

Mom: Simon are you excited to see your new room? It's mint.
S: yes, that's greenish

Simon just said "mom I have a special secret". He then showed me all the snacks he hid behind the couch while I was in the bathroom.

Simon has a thing for villains. Among his favorites are the Grinch, Cruella deVil, and Ursula.

"You can't sit there. That chair is for Cruella deVil."

"You happy Mom?" - Simon is concerned about others feelings.

Update on Miriam

Miriam is creative. She loves to craft. Some of her favorite things to create are lists of things to do, snowflakes, small pieces of paper to glue to other pieces of paper, and pictures for everyone. If you give her paper and scissors she will be busy for hours creating all kinds of art. She also loves to paint with watercolors.

Miriam is a collector. She hates to throw anything away. She has piles of pictures she has made and a lot of little places where she keeps her small special treasures. It will probably be even more important to her with another little brother around. She is going to guard her special stuff even more. When it is time to clean up she has to decide what is to keep and what is trash... She wants to keep everything and I have to talk her into only keeping what is special.

Miriam's favorite way to play is through role play. She loves to recreate any part of our lives in her own way. Some of her favorites are cooking, primary, library, and cashier. After watching Food Network she will go into her kitchen and pretend she is on a cooking show. As soon as we get home from church she wants to give us a primary lesson. Miriam loves when we go through the self-checkout line at a store. When we get home from the store she wants to pretend to re-buy everything with her cash register.

Miriam loves to learn. When we go to the library she heads straight for the non-fiction section to pick up "learning books". She especially loves sharks (water animals), seasons, weather, and flowers. Miriam has a growing interest in telling time. She wants to learn to tell time on a non-digital clock. She almost knows what all the main numbers mean (1 means 5 minutes, 2 means 10 minutes, etc). Miriam is also excited to learn how to read. I started to notice her interest in spelling words and decided to sit down and see if she could read some words to me. Now she loves reading in the Book of Mormon each night. She is excited to start school in the fall.

At five years old Miriam is 45 inches tall and weighs 45 pounds.

 

Last but not least, here are some funny things Miriam has said over the past few months:

"Mom watch, my hands look like an artichoke"

Miriam just told Simon: be careful or you will crack your chin open and see all your bones

"Mom I can see really well in the dark. I am basically an owl. Isn't that crazy that we have an owl in our family?"

I could reach it if only I had long octopus arms

Mom, it smells like Balsamic in here

Mom, you smell like acorns.

After I gave Miriam a kiss goodnight she says "that's the spirit".

Mom: what's for dinner tonight?
Miriam: I know! Applesauce with mustard and soy sauce!

"Mom, Simon is being serious"

"I know that for a fact"

"My hot chocolate is blazing hot"

"Mom if you won't do what I say I am going to throw everything that is not breakable at you"

Holding her play phone: "why won't this boy stop sending me messages"

Prima Ballerina

Last fall we found a great deal on a 12 week dance class for Miriam. It included ballet, jazz, and tap. Miriam had a lot of fun and loved dancing every week. I wasn't sure at first how much I was going to like the class. In the end Miriam had fun so that is all that matters. They did ballet at the beginning of each class. This is where they learned the most technique. Then they learned a little jazz routine in the middle. At the end of each class they did a little bit of tap technique and then put on a show with costumes. Miriam loved dressing up as different princesses each week.

I guess I was lazy because I never took our "real" camera to her class, but I did capture a bunch of pictures on my iPhone. The pictures aren't the best quality, but still cute. These are all the pictures in order from her first class to her last.

I was able to take some videos on my iPhone. I broke it up into two parts because some of them are so long. The first video is the first two months and the second video is from the last month of class, including a bunch from her last class. On the last day of class they did a little performance of all the things they learned. Miriam did such a great job. A lot of the times she was the only one paying attention. We are excited to get her started in another dance class this coming year.

Valentine's Day

Little holidays are so much fun with kids. Miriam and Simon were excited for Valentine's day this year. Miriam spent the week before making Valentine's and love notes for her family and friends. We made a couple of cute heart banners to hang up. Miriam chose her outfit for the day with as many hearts as possible. We left a little gift on the table for the kids to open when they woke up. At the end of the day Simon was so sad that the day was over. He kept asking if it was Valentine's day again tomorrow... I will take that as a sign that the kids had a good day.

Snow Adventures

Our first snow adventure was at the end of January. Michael had been out of town all week and was hoping there was still snow when he got home. He wanted to take the kids sledding on the hills behind our house. (Maybe someday I will share my opinion on sledding and the fact that I didn't want Michael to take the kids.) After a failed attempt at sledding, the kids just wanted to play in the snow with Michael. Simon just kept asking to throw snow. It was a really cold day so they only played for about 15 minutes but they had fun throwing snowballs.

The next snow adventure was an actual snow day for Michael. Right before Valentine's Day weather forecasters were predicting about a foot of snow, so Michael decided the night before not to go into work the next day. It was a good idea because we ended up getting about 18 inches of snow. After a couple of hours of working at home in the morning Michael decided to tackle the shoveling.

^^outside our front door^^

^^Michael's car was really snowed in after the snowplow came through^^

^^I am so thankful Michael was home to dig us out^^

After Simon took a nap Michael wanted to take the kids out back to build a snowman. It was really cold and windy so they built and rolled as fast as they could. I stayed inside and took pictures... I am a wimp. They decided on a carrot for the nose and chocolate chips for the eyes and buttons because I couldn't find much else. The kids thought it was great, even though he fell over that night because of the wind.

Our snow adventures have been fun. Even in 15-20 minutes increments the kids have enjoyed playing in the snow.