When it rains, it pours...

My mom flew to Texas today because my Tio Blas is in ICU. He has cancer and it is fairly certain that he won't be with us much longer. This compounded by the fact that my Tio Felix is also on the cusp of death and could pass away at anytime. My grandma Juarez was in the hospital last week and then today, my cousin Roger had a heart attack. My mom is worried that my Tios passing on will mean that my grandma won't be able to take it. She has already lost 2 sons and her husband. My cousin has stabilized a bit, but he is fairly young (about 33) and the fact that he had a heart attack at this age means trouble. All in all, my mom's family is in for a rough month. Our prayers are with you. We love you very much!

Conversation:

Joseph (talking to a senior at Walden and holding up 4 fingers): "I am 4 years old."
Senior: "I am 18."
Joseph: "Wow."
Senior: "Can you do 18 on your hand?"
Joseph: "I have 10 fingers."
Senior: "How many years difference are we?"
Mommy: "Joseph. He is 18 and you are 4, how much is 18 minus 4?"
Joseph (thinking for a few seconds): "14."

I don't know if it was a fluke, but I would like to think he figured this out and didn't say a random number. He has always struggled with 14 when counting.

Grandma Rankin

Samuel took right to his Grandma Rankin again. It is like he remembered her from when she was here back at the time he was a few weeks old. He also liked the stegosaurus a lot.


On Saturday morning, Grandma Rankin was able to come to Joseph's soccer game. It is the second to the last of the season. His coach had him do a couple of kick-offs and goal kicks. He even blocked the ball a couple of times. Slowly he is getting more involved in the game. :)


Grandma with her 2 Utah grandsons. I couldn't get Samuel to look at the camera, but he did enjoy looking at his big brother and smiling at him.


Not only was Joseph excited to see his Grandma, he was even more excited that she brought him presents. She came with dinosaurs galore and Joseph loved, loved, loved them. He slept with a number of them in his bed that night.


Joseph at a different soccer game. He enjoyed being "chased by a dragon" and he loved that they were running around. Joseph wants to be sure that we are watching him, so he looks over at us quite often during game play. He always has a huge smile on his face. The game after this one, during practice, Joseph kicked the ball into the goal box and his cleat got caught in the net. Daddy had to help him get it out. :)

Conversation

Joseph: "Mommy, the sun and the moon are fighting."
Mommy: "Why are they fighting?"
Joseph: "Because the sun wants it to be light and the moon wants it to be dark."

Mommy: "I am so hungry, I could eat the United States."
Joseph: "I am so hungry I could eat Mississippi, and New York, and Pennsylvania, and North Dakota, and Texas, and all of the United States."

What to blog about?

Joe was commenting that I haven't updated our blog in a couple of days. Joseph had his second soccer game and had a lot of fun. He is on Edgemont Team 5 and they are the lions (not cougars like one woman told me). Joseph worked on kicking the balls and even took a goal kick for his team. He even did one throw in. He had fun running around a lot and on some rare occasions, getting a foot on the ball. :)

Samuel and mommy have had bad allergies. Tonight his little eyes were so red. It could also be because he was tired. It was one of those days that he didn't want me out of his sight and much less out of my lap or arms. I subbed in a history class and it made it hard to write on the board with him wanting me to hold him.

We are still looking at houses. Wish us luck on getting the right house at the right price.

Friday we went to the Bean Museum with some friends. Joseph was happy to see his friends Bryan and Matthew. Samuel enjoyed crawling around outside but was mad at mommy for putting him in his seat when we needed to leave.

It feels like I have been working full time. I go to work from 8:30 in the morning till 11:15 a.m. and then come home for lunch. I feed the boys and then get ready to go back to work at 1:40. Now they want me to tutor a girl for about 30 minutes a day in pre-cal. Yikes. My part time job has become more than what I originally intended. I can honestly say that I am ready for the summer. Hopefully we will be in a new house and I will be able to fully focus on being home again. Maybe?

Joe's mom gets into town tomorrow night. Joseph is very excited and Samuel doesn't know that he is about to re-meet his grandma. She hasn't seen him since he was 3 weeks old. He has grown a little since then. ;)

Catching the stomach bug

Last night I bought some cheap butterfly nets for a preschool lesson. After preschool, I went to Walden to meet with some students (who didn't come). Joseph brought down the net and this is what he said, "Bring down the net so we can catch that stomach bug that made us all sick." Let's hope that we don't catch it again. ;)

Pics of my boys

The boys playing in their "house." It is so much fun to watch them play together. Of course they do fight some. Joseph will hide things that Samuel enjoys playing with and Samuel will try and pull toys away from Joseph.




On a Sunday walk. It was nice out and we got to walk around. Samuel enjoyed being out of a stroller. Joseph ran around "taking" pictures. He has a camera with a flash and uses it to snap photos.


Samuel likes to climb under this end table and hang out underneath. He is so cute!

Joseph's first soccer game

Late this afternoon, Joseph had his first ever official soccer game. He was extremely excited to get out there and play. He loves how hard his shin guards are and had fun running around.


Now Joseph has a pretty good leg on his little body. He can kick fairly well...that is until there are lots of other kids running after the ball, in which case he tends to chase the herd of children around the field and not get close to the ball. He seems a bit hesitant to run and get the ball from others. He did get a couple of almost kicks to the ball. :)



What a handsome little soccer player!

Root feet

I asked Joseph what he learned about at school. At first he said he forgot, so I started to ask if he had learned about random things like zebra mountains, purple hippopotamus, pink elephants, and so forth. Joseph started to laugh and said, "No. We learned about roots!" I asked him what roots did and he answered that they got water for the plant. I asked how we got water and he said that we drink it. He then said, "If we had roots, they would be our feet. Then we wouldn't be able to move anywhere. That would be silly. Then we would have green arms and flowers for our heads. Then we wouldn't be able to see anything because flowers don't have eyes." He really thought this through and was very logical in his thinking. :)

Joseph quotes

"You have on your wedding ring? Good, I don't want anyone else to marry you."

"I have on a ring, but I am not married yet. I am just a kid."

Daddy: "Why is it called a desert?"
Joseph: "Because it doesn't have a lot of water."
Daddy: "What animals live in the desert?"
Joseph: "Animals like camels."
Daddy: "Camels are goofy looking. What makes them look goofy?"
Joseph: "They have crazy humps. Your face is goofy looking."
Daddy: "Are you saying I look goofy?"
Joseph: "Yes."

This is the conversation that I heard. Joe argues that Joseph said that camels have a goofy face. Only Joseph can resolve this, so I will ask him in the morning. ;)

Samuel sounds like he is saying "good" and he signs all done and more. He got a kick out of a song I made up using the signs for more, eat, drink, water, juice and milk. He sat in his carseat and waved his hands around wanting me to sing it over and over again. When I stopped singing and signing, he danced in his seat and had me start all over again. He is so dang cute!

Samuel the terrible sleeper

Lately Samuel has turned into a horrid sleeper. He is a light sleeper as it is, but things have only been worse. Tonight he screamed and screamed. He worked himself up into a frenzy. Joe went in to comfort and carry him. He was relentless. I tried my hand. I gave him a sippy cup with water and held him. He seemed to calm down. Then he started to scream even more. Unfortunately for us, that meant my mom had to come to the door. She wouldn't leave till she took him upstairs.

Anyways. I don't know what is wrong. I don't know if he is hurting, which some of the cries sound like he is. I don't know if he is being a stinker, which sometimes I think he is. He has his 15 month check-up in a few weeks, but I don't know if I can take much more of this every night. This morning he woke up at 5 crying. He was still sleepy and wasn't really hungry. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the renal pelvic dilation before he was born, but I am not sure. I need to talk to the doctor this week if things don't improve. :P

Just another day with my boys

Can I say I love my boys? Well, I love them so much. They make my heart so happy. Joseph has some funny sayings that I don't quite know why he chooses to say them. For instance, when I am sitting him on the toilet, he usually says, "It has to be a comfortable age." He then waits till he is comfortable before he lets me let him go. The water also needs to be "the right age" when he is taking a bath. I think that he is referring to the depth, but I can't really be sure.



Joseph and Samuel have a lot of fun interacting with each other. Often, when I carry Samuel around, he will whip his little head around looking for his big brother and then laugh uncontrollably when he sees him. Joseph loves to stomp around, make funny faces, and make his little brother laugh. On this particular day, I had just changed Samuel and was washing my hands. I walked into the bedroom and found that Samuel had pushed his diaper box against the bed and was using it to climb on and off. He finally learned that if he goes down backwards, he can get off without hurting himself.



Samuel loves pasta. When he feeds himself, he usually misses a lot. It is funny to watch him stuff his face and miss. He does like to try the open palm method, which allows a lot of his food to fall out of his hand before it reaches his mouth. I sweep after every meal because he is a messy eater. Tonight I left him too close to the table and he threw his plate on the floor, scattering corn and pasta everywhere.



Working on his fine motor skills. He loves peas because he can grab them easily, squeeze them and eat them...plus they are just tasty. I love those cute chubby hands. He has also learned to slide puzzle pieces on his chunky knob puzzle into the right place.



This is the house that mom built in the toy room for Joseph. He has gone "shopping" and the house is full of books, toys, movies and other random things that he feels are necessary for his home. I guess it is ready for when he marries Nahli, who today asked him if it was okay for them to get married. She is just following up to be sure he doesn't get cold feet. :) Of course, now Joseph begs for me to build this house everyday so he can play in it. Each time I build it, I need to tear it down at nap time and at bed time.

Happy birthday to Joe!!!

Happy 29th to my handsome husband! He didn't want a cake, but we wanted to sing to him. I figured this was a good alternative. :)



For dinner, we went to Goodwood BBQ. Joseph was very excited all day because he knew it was daddy's birthday. Before he left for work, we sang to him and brought him one of his presents (Raspberry Ice). While at the restaurant (warning: gross bathroom talk about to occur), Joseph had an accident while in the bathroom and he got me as well (number 1 if you must know). Luckily, I had his school backpack in the car and they have us keep a change of pants and underwear in there in case something happens while he is in class. I felt bad for the lady in the next stall, because she was tooting a lot, and Joseph looked at me and said loudly, "Mommy, what is that noise?" I was so embarrassed for the lady. Afterwards, Joseph struck up a conversation with her and luckily did not bring up anything about the noise.

Prior to dinner, we went to look at a couple of houses. It looks like we are staying in Utah for the short term.

Haircuts

Samuel before his haircut.



Samuel after his haircut. His hair is so thin and light, it almost looks like he is bald. It is especially blond looking when it is short, except in the front and in the very back.



Daddy giving Joseph a haircut. He has done so much better since he realized the clippers don't cut your skin and only cut hair.



Joseph on his first day to a new school. Notice how long his hair is in this picture. On a side note, the teacher thinks he is pretty advanced for his age. I just want him to do well.

Easter morning

The Easter bunny dropped off a couple of baskets for the boys. Joseph took this picture of them. His basket is dominating the picture. There were dinosaurs transformers in his basket. They are cheap and will only last a few times of play, but Joseph loved them. I think next year the Easter bunny will get something different. :)



Joseph with the chocolate bunny that the Easter bunny left him. He only gnawed at the ears a few times before saying, "I don't want to eat to much candy because it will make my tummy sick." I was impressed with his self control.



Our boys with their Easter baskets. I couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time and I couldn't get Samuel to sit down for the picture. They are cute. They entertain each other a lot.



Our car looked nice and clean after the snow melted. It was all gone by the afternoon. A few days before, it was very windy and rainy. That left our car splotchy and dirty. This snow helped clean it. Of course, yesterday it was windy and rainy and got our car dirty again.



When I looked out the window on Easter morning, this is what I saw. Very beautiful, but very cold. General conference weekends are generally wet and rainy and a little cold here, but this surprised me.

Sweet! 16 that is...

Joe got invited by his company to go to Syracuse vs. Butler and Xavier vs. Kansas State sweet 16 games in SLC. Wells Fargo, the bank that does business with Joe's company, had 2 tickets along with a VIP package for SirsiDynix. Joe got invited and he had a blast. They were about 20 rows up and the games were exciting. The double overtime assured that Joe didn't get home till well after 11 p.m. All in all, it was fun and exciting, and a definite perk for Joe.

Sick

The past few days seem so long. Yesterday was a fairly normal day to begin with and around 10 a.m., Samuel started to get fussy. He seemed tired and I just thought it was because he wanted a nap. We were at Joseph's school and I was in the director's office. She and her financial person were out because they had been sick. Well, Samuel soon followed suit. He puked all over me multiple times. I was grossed out, but didn't vomit as well. I had to strip him down and try and clean him, then find a way to clean the room. I took Joseph out of class and we went home.

All day, for the next 12 hours, he vomited repeatedly. At its worse, he vomited every 10 to 15 minutes. Not a fun day. I put him to sleep on some blankets in the living room and "slept" on the couch. He puked one last time at around 11 p.m. and then he fell asleep till 2:30 in the morning. He was really thirsty. I gave him a little bit and then tried to get some rest. Unfortunately for me, I didn't sleep too well because I was feeling kind of sick. Yeah...I vomited at about 6 in the morning. I had a fever most of today. I kept Joseph home from school because he ate some yogurt and said his tummy hurt. Sad really because today was going to be his first soccer game. Last night he slept in his cleats, shin guards, and shorts, with the ball next to his bed.

At about 1 this afternoon, Joseph started to vomit as well. Apparently there is a nasty bug going around and lots of people are sick. Edward was sick, Esteban is not feeling well. I just hope Joe doesn't get sick also. Samuel was much better today. I felt bad because I felt so sick I couldn't really hold him. Samuel was happy to eat real food and I know Joseph is ready to eat also. I know I am. Tonight Joseph also started to describe his vomit to daddy. He had a lot of orange gatorade to drink, plus the yogurt (I will leave the rest to your imagination).

A few things Joseph said:
"Virus...stop making me sick."
"I feel a little bit sick and a LOT better."
"There is only 1 virus left in my tummy."
"I will be the best soccer player. I have the best shoes."

Tonight I took Joseph to meet his soccer coach. They were having team pictures. Joseph was able to be in it. It was freezing outside. My ears were hurting and Joseph was ready to put his coat back on during their team pictures. We stayed to watch for a few minutes. He is sooooo excited to play.