1. We went to visit the Paulsons in New Jersey. February was really getting to me, as you might have noticed on the blog. In some ways it's worse than January, and I'm pretty sure President Packer has some quote to seminary teachers about "beware of February" that I cannot find anywhere but will quote anyway. "Beware of February," President Packer said, and he was right. It's when everyone is sick and people have babies and snowstorms shut cities and churches down and you go crazy because everything is canceled and then you cry about lots of things (mostly Cub Scouts related).
So, it was wonderful to go see family for a few days (minus me having a bout of morning sickness that lasted the whole weekend). We decorated cookies, saw Lego Batman, visited parks, walked around Morristown, ate ice cream, and partied it up at the Paulsons' stake dance.
2. At the end of February, I finally snapped out of my sad spell, just in time for Kevin's conferences! He had one in Long Island, one in New York City, one in New Orleans, and one in Chicago, all over the course of two weeks. Whew! Luckily, he was able to be home on the weekends, and luckily he lived even after he went on a few sketchy streets in Chicago (his phone didn't tell him to walk on the upper level, which is a lot safer than the lower level of the city. so weird). And the kids were pretty good, except that Matthew was teething again so he didn't eat or sleep or handle things well, but it was all fine. Kaylie came and spent a day with us, and that definitely helped.
3. Matthew spent a few days here and there not teething, because he finally has all his molars and a canine or two, and he was back to normal! Hooray! Right now I don't know if he's teething or what but he has boycotted all fruit for the past few days. But he will at least try celery, carrots, and broccoli. Honestly, I kind of prefer vegetables too.
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| He would prefer, of course, to subsist on crackers. |
4. Most of March was cold, and that was especially true during the middle of March. So we found things to celebrate. For Pi Day we walked in an ice storm over to our friends' house to bake some pies with them. For the Ides of March the boys wore togas for about a minute and we looked at Facebook albums of cool people who've been to Italy. For Square Root of Ten Day I made German Pancakes in an 8x8 glass dish and talked about math with Joseph. For St. Patrick's Day we talked about Ireland, but I can't remember any foods we ate that day. I don't even think we used green food coloring. Oh well.
5. We were finally able to take Kevin with us to the Natural History Museum. Sometime it'd be nice to go alone with him since there is nothing in the world more boring than diamonds and sapphires and crystals according to Joseph, so I never get to spend as much time there as we want. Then, we walked over to a creperie. It's been funny seeing so many articles lately about restaurants where kids are banned because ours were not super great there. Then again, it's pretty hard to wait upwards of a half hour for a crepe when you know you could make your own at home in less time (albeit without all the fancy ingredients). After a few trips out of the restaurant Matthew finally calmed down enough to even try his. So, definitely not bringing him to the next restaurant we patronize.
6. Kevin finally got his big cool paper up, which has been really exciting. Of course, he's just as busy as ever because he's had a backlog of other stuff to catch up on. He spends much of his evenings coding, chatting about figures, and asking me which scatterplot looks better (I pick the one that looks most like a bird). He is also good at dashing the dreams of young men who want to be in the NBA when they grow up.
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| Not this young man. He has a few football dreams here and there but we think he will lose those naturally. |
7. Joseph discovered the DVD section of the library. Since we can only check out DVDs for one week with no renewals (oh how I miss thee, Ann Arbor District Library and the 36 weeks you let us keep Alpha Oops) he tries to watch them as many times as he can in the week. It ends up being a bit less than once a day. One time I asked him what his favorite thing to do is and he said "watch stuff." Not play with friends or build with Legos or read books (sometimes by himself!!!) or color or ride his bike or go to the playground, which are all things he does a lot more. It reminded me of this depressing commercial.
But then again, did those grandparents and parents have Super Why or Paw Patrol to watch instead of planting blueberries? I didn't think so.
8. Matthew also loves to watch whatever Joseph's watching, and he has also picked up his habit of eating baby carrots while watching. Although, I don't even have to have anything playing for him to eat the carrots -- he just needs to be sitting there in front of the laptop.
When Joseph sings, "Paw patrol, paw patrol, be there on the double," Matthew echoes "Paw Troll Paw Troll W. W. W." If I ask him to count to 10 he usually gets stuck on W. I don't know what comes next either, baby. When we go to the library he makes a beeline for the puzzles, and usually doesn't leave without some flailing, kicking, and screaming.
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| Oh he loves his puzzles. |
He still likes to scowl at people, except for men we see when we go on walks (he calls them all Grandpa). So I try to document his smiles as much as possible, since they are usually plentiful.
He always wants to "see it? see it?" when I take pictures or make movies, but this selfie movie turned out okay.
9. Oh, and speaking of kicking . . . this little baby in me loves to kick! I can even see him move now, which is always so fun. My ultrasound was in the middle of all of Kevin's conferences, but luckily Kevin was able to make it back to see it. Just like we had been expecting, it's another boy!!!!!!!!! So fun! It'll be so fun to have another boy to read Little House and Betsy Tacy books to, at least when we're not reading more superhero books.
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| Joseph took this after my 20 week appointment. 4 weeks later, I am quite a bit bigger. I guess my tummy knows that it's supposed to be big now! |
10. And that's what we've been up to! Throw in a few play dates, sunny days at playgrounds, rainy days inside, snowstorms, Google docs for Primary everything, mice that hang out next to traps but don't go in them (at least that's what we've heard the past few nights), temple trips, last-minute organ playing, family walks, family movies, games, songs, and chores, and that's life!
We like it pretty well. We are still eager for real spring though.
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| Obviously. |
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| Okay, these pictures are two weeks old, so there's no snow on the ground now. But we're ready for blossoms and leaves! |
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