We started off April by gaining another niece! Jeff's sister, Michelle, had Evelyn Claire on April 1st. We got to see a photo or two, then saw her on skype on the Sunday prior to Easter. They ended up stopping in town the Saturday of Easter weekend so we got to meet her in person and see them before they headed back to OK City. Samara and Kalum were enamored and we spent most of the time trying to keep them out of her face! :) Jeff and I went on a date night with Nick and Laura since they were in town while Grandpa and Grandma watched all three kids. We went out for a nice dinner then to a movie, enjoying the recliner seats, since that was all that was available at the time we wanted to see the Marvel movie. For Easter, we celebrated officially with Derby's the weekend prior with dinner and and egg hunt, then saw them again the Saturday of Easter weekend. Easter Sunday we went to our church, then celebrated with Pennell's with an egg hunt, lunch and dessert. In the end we ended up with too much candy, but lots of family time and fun was had by all.
For work Jeff continued to pick up a couple Saturdays and work extra during the week, he's hoping that doesn't continue for too long, but he takes too much ownership in his work to let it get too behind. Construction is just busy no matter what! My job had a big weekend at the beginning with the Remodeled Home Tour, then I had to take a break on the hours I was working. I went back to just 20 hours per week for my sanity and family's benefit. I am in the process of organizing tasks so that hopefully it won't be so crazy in the months to come. I let them know recently that currently I am maxed out on the hours I am willing to work, so we must make some changes to organize and delegate differently. I am hopeful to find a happy-medium so that I can accomplish all the tasks for the chapter, as well as feel that I am giving enough focused attention to my family.
I got down to see my Mom's art show downtown the last week it was up. I enjoyed my personal tour by the talented artiste herself and was inspired to get working on my numerous started quilt projects. I know I won't get to it everyday or even every week, but it is a goal of mine for the summer. I just have to tackle that first one to get back in the quilting rhythm (if I ever had one) then I think I'll be off and running, or strolling at least.
At the end of the month I did accomplish two household goals! One- As you know, I got our site updated after allowing it to get WAY behind! Two- I finished the clean-out of all my clothes, which I have been meaning to do for a while. Now what I have actually fits in our closet, dresser and the tubs that I have for off-season clothes. It is a great feeling to get rid of stuff! At one of our MOPS meetings this year they talked about de-cluttering, as Stuff = Stress. I will be glad to have that extra stress out of our house as soon as Jeff finishes his honest assessment of the clothes in his side of the closet. Jeff has also just completed a redo of our pantry closet, so May will show how we got that all reorganized and the plan is to have nothing sitting on my kitchen counters soon - wish me luck! :) So, that is where May will start out - organization central. It may be a desperate attempt to feel "in control" after a few months of unwieldy schedules, but it will be beneficial in the end. Now if I can take some time to "be still" and know who is really in control, that will be the most beneficial of all!
Samara's April Moments:
- Early April - Maybe the end of the tantrum phase? A couple times missing out or realizing it wasn't going to work and those seem to be over (we say hopefully). Now we've been working on the attitude with her, since she seems to have started yelling and demanding things. She will now apologize immediately if she yells a response or is sassy, with just the raise of my eyebrow. That is headed in a much better direction!
- So, we had a Kung Fu Panda party for her 3rd birthday. She says this year will be Tigris (another character from that same movie). We'll see where we end up by July, I don't really want to do another party with the same theme, but we do have the decor! :)
- Boys vs. Girls - Daddy and Kalum are playing with trucks, vroom, vroom, etc. can be heard. Samara wants to play, so she gets a car. "Daddy, your truck has to ask my car why he's sad." Jeff- "no we're playing cars, stop being emotional and be a car." Samara makes the same request again. Jeff- "Kalum and I are over here and our trucks are talking about truck stuff you wouldn't understand because you're a car..." And it goes on and on back and forth with Samara making conversational comments for her car and Jeff making crashing, screeching tire noises.
- By April 7th she has another tantrum, so I guess she's not out of the "terrific three's" yet. She'll keep yelling and screaming that I need to be nice to her so she can stop crying. She is tired whenever these come on, so it's hard to know if it's a control ploy or if she is just legitimately upset. Eventually she took her bath and went to bed - good grief!
- She is SO friendly to anyone we meet, trying to balance her outgoing attitude with stranger danger discussions.
- April 15th - she learned to cross her eyes, and wants to show anyone who will look!
- Current songs: She sings "Old McDonalds had a farm..." Can you guess her favorite place to eat out? They sang "How Great Thou Art" at Sunday School, so now she goes around singing the parts she remembers repeatedly.
- First time dyeing Easter eggs this year, it was a hit as you can imagine!
- She LOVED finding worms while Daddy was doing some landscaping work. She took them to anyone near to show them off, whether they liked it or not.
- After planting seeds to start growing inside before planting in the garden, Samara is tasked with watering them each day. She is pretty faithful to the task. One day she had a cup of pretzels and she disappeared downstairs with them. I called down to ask what she was doing. She said she was chewing her pretzels by the plants. She thought the plants would like to hear her chewing them - how thoughtful, Samara.
Kalum's April Moments:
- Early April word update: If he hears a plane, he looks up and says "ky!" while pointing. Says "wawa" for water when he wants his cup filled from the fridge and for a fountain hear our neighborhood. Says "wo wo wo" while doing row, row, row your boat motions.
- Papa and Grandpa are still be far his favorite relatives!
- If Mommy puts him to bed, it's Daddy he wants. If Daddy enters the room first in the morning, it's Mommy he wants. They get so used to their routines!!
- Early April - If we are eating a meal requiring utensils, he typically demands the same. "Spoo! spoo!" for spoon and "Bo! bo!" for bowl. He is hit or miss with the spoon and often resorts to grabbing food with his fingers to get it into his mouth. Even yogurt...basically needs a bath after that!
- LOVES the park! Went on swings, slide-small one on his own and even big one on his tummy-feet first, many times. Super excited when people went by with their dogs. "da!" he yelled and pointed, practically dancing around.
- April 14th - Bye, Bye Bottle! He was down to just a bottle at bedtime. Our goal was to be bottle-free by 18 months, so tonight was a sippy cup at bedtime instead. He went down fine, but cried for a little bit, but slept all night! The first week overall had a couple rough nights where he didn't want the sippy cup while he got ready for bed, but he's adjusting. By the end of April he basically knows no bottle is coming and doesn't say "ba ba" anymore at all. Goal met - what a big boy!
- By mid-April he really started to repeat words - "hopper" for grasshopper, says "bye car" when pushing a toy around in a car. He knows what he wants for sure and can scream amazingly loud if it doesn't happen.
- April 25th - two more teeth coming in, one on top and one on bottom. Both are 3rd from the center. Could be why he's been a little cranky lately.
- An important first - First TAN LINE! - After being outside while Daddy did landscaping work, he had a tan line on his neck and his face was slightly darker shade that his chest/tummy. Now we'll see if the sun makes him turn into a blondie like Samara did!
