Kid Update

What have I been up to lately? Why, taking care of kids, of course!

Abbie is the sweetest baby ever, and is at the best stage of babyhood. She's the sunshine of my day! She's very ticklish, so she smiles and giggles nonstop. She loves to laugh, can interact with us and play with toys, but she can't go anywhere! She's also still small enough to hold and snuggle. She had her 4 month check up earlier this week. Since she was so sick when she was two months old, she lost a lot of weight, and now weighs one ounce less than when she was two months old!! My doctor looked at me really disapprovingly, like I wasn't feeding her or something, until I reminded him that Abbie had been sick. Abbie's only in the 50th percentile for weight now, when she was in the 98th at two months! So now the mission is to fatten her up again!

She has been a stinker about sleeping at night lately. The past couple of nights, she's woken up 2-3 times a night and won't go back to sleep until I feed her. The doctor had me all worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat, so I keep feeding her every time she wakes up, thinking that she's hungry. Now I've probably created a bad habit. Let me know if you have any suggestions. . .

And Dallin. What to say about Dallin? He's at a VERY challenging stage right now. He's still cute as ever, and says the most entertaining things. Just yesterday I found him in my bathroom with the soap dispenser in the sink and the sink full of bubbles. He was putting the bubbles in his hair, and when I asked him why, he said, "so I can be handsome!" But he tries my patience EVERY DAY. And most days, Dallin wins the battle and I lose my temper. He's demanding, whiny, stubborn, defiant, and can throw tantrums that literally last more than half an hour. Because he's my first, it's totally trial-and-error figuring out how to discipline him. Time-out hasn't really been very effective, and I always feel bad after I have to spank him. Right now I'm trying rewards instead of punishments- "get dressed first and then you can watch a show" rather than "get dressed right now or I'm turning off your show." It's worked two days in a row so far!

On a lighter note, last weekend I took the kids to Flaming Gorge with my family. Jake couldn't go because he'd just gotten back from China and needed to catch up on work here. At first I was worried about taking the kids boating and camping without Jake around to help, but we had a blast! My family helped out a ton, and just loved having Dallin around to entertain them and Abbie around to gush over. Boating was the perfect vacation for the kids- Abbie's car seat fit under the dashboard so she was out of the sun and could nap, and Dallin was contained and entertained the whole time! He wore his lifejacket all the time without complaining. And he jumped in the lake by himself, loved throwing rocks into the water on the shore. His ultimate favorite thing was the tube! He rode for over an hour the first day! He even took a turn on a tube by himself! He also loved to watch everyone else water-ski and wake-board. He was constantly saying, "can I try that?" My favorite part of the trip, of course, was skiing on the smooth water. I love that feeling!