February

Sawyer

During this month, Sawyer decided to shove a Nerd's candy up his nose. Just, why? I tried to have him blow it out, but it was not coming. And then he kept sniffing which just made it worse. I finally had to use a trick that I discovered on the internet. It's not the most pleasant, but it saved us from an expensive trip to the doctor. In the video I found on the internet some time ago, the lady explains that she just pinched the clear nostril shut and then blew really hard on her kid's mouth. The obstruction came right out of the other nostril. Sounds lovely, right? But it did the job.

He's really progressing with imaginative play and it's so fun to watch (until he wants me to talk to his puppets, I suck at imaginative play but thankfully Dillon rocks at it so Sawyer can at least have a good time with his dad). Lately he likes to use his hands as little puppets and has them talk to each other. Those conversations are the best to listen to. He also calls everything his son when he's playing with his toys. Lots of, "My son! I need to save him!" goes on during play time. 

We had his parent teacher conference and his teacher and head TA said that he has progressed so much since the beginning of the year in a lot of areas. He's good to stay with the group, is learning better hand control with coloring and writing, is getting good at writing his name, and so many other things. It was so great to hear! They said that his anxiety has calmed down even since we met in December for his IEP (individualized education plan). They did say that they've noticed his stutter more and that it really comes out when he's nervous but that was nothing new on our end. I think he's finally comfortable enough at school that he talks more, which means that they are likely to hear his stutter more. But they said when it happens, they as the teachers simply slow down their own speech for him rather than telling him to slow down (Which I recently read is the perfect thing to do, telling them to slow down just makes them more self-conscious and more likely to stutter. So glad he's got teachers who are on top of it). I can tell Sawyer really enjoys school and he's gotten so good at being able to actually tell me some highlights of his day when he comes home. So much progress!  

After we told the boys that they were going to have a baby sister (which they were so excited about!) Sawyer said, "Let's go. Dad's coming in the van too?" And at first we were like, "Wait, what?" But after getting a little more out of him, we figured out that Sawyer thought we were going to be able to pick up his sister right then and he was so excited to go get her. We had to re-explain that she's growing still in my tummy and will be for awhile but when she was ready to come out, he could see her. He seemed alright with that answer and now asks me every day about his baby sister in my belly.

Dawson

Dawson gets to come with me to my prenatal appointments and he does such a good job while we're there. Both the boys came to our first ultrasound so they got to see the baby on the screen and Dawson really took note of everything. The second appointment the doctor walked in and Dawson piped up, "Mommy's belly doctor? Look in yours belly?" which gave everyone a good chuckle. And then once the doctor had found the heartbeat he talked to Daws, "Hear that? That's the baby!" To which Dawson grinned and nodded. The next appointment Dawson brought his wubbanub monkey and made sure to tell the nurse that it doesn't have a binky on it anymore (which happened a good four months ago but just lately he talks about his binky a lot). And he made sure the doctor acknowledged his monkey too. He's such a funny, social little two-year-old.

He likes to sit by Dillon or I and pet our face with back of his hand while saying, "Aww. Good boy." in his high pitched little croon. I sometimes do that to him when he's struggling at bedtime so it's funny that he's transferring that to us. His favorite colors currently are yellow and white. I think it's so funny that white stands out for him. He picks it or yellow over the other colors every time. In fact, my mom had some Valentine's M&Ms at her house and he only wanted to eat the white ones. He recently asked for Harry Potter as his movie to be watched and that let me know I'm doing something right in parenting. We've watched the first and second movies with both boys and Dawson loves the part with the chocolate frog that jumps out of the window. If we watch that movie, he wants to see the frog part on repeat at least seven times before we move on.

Dawson recently informed me that "yours bum too big for toilet". So, ya know, really dealing out the compliments over here. And he's as independent as ever but his stubborn phrase has now morphed into, "I do it mine oowwwn!"  

Dillon

Dillon got to go snowboarding for the first time in a couple of years this month. He went with a couple of his old college buddies that he used to go with pretty frequently. He was so excited and definitely had a good time. Before he left, I told him to try not to break any bones but if he was going to get crazy, might as well do it this year since we'll be hitting our deductible ha. He thankfully came back in one piece. He would definitely go more often but doesn't really have anyone to go with. I just don't love it. I went once with him when we were newly engaged and I had to still present my best self (right? right) so I had to pretend I was loving it more than I was. But it's not my jam. Hopefully one or both of the boys love it so Dillon can start taking them with him relatively soon.

DaNae

I decided to try to embrace some positive reinforcement with boys. I started feeling like our days were constantly filled with threats  and negativity when I tried to get the them to do things. So we created a warm fuzzy jar that the boys can fill up to get a reward. They get little pom-poms (fuzzies) for all sorts of things. Recently Sawyer was being really argumentative and obnoxious about brushing his teeth so we used warm fuzzies for that and he's really improved. And they can earn them by helping to clean, putting their stuff away, getting themselves dressed (mostly Sawyer, Dawson still needs help obviously), being nice to each other which mainly includes sharing and not throwing fits etc. Our days aren't without some negativity but our warm fuzzy jar has helped so much! It's been a nice change.

I mentioned in my January post that I discovered (thanks to a friend) the comefollowmefhe.com blog and it has been the best thing to help us implement the new church curriculum in our home. For the first time probably ever, we've been successfully and consistently doing FHE with the boys with the stuff this lady creates. She's been using her awesome talents to create material that works for primary aged kids based on the Come Follow Me curriculum. She creates and outlines lesson plans with activities that are hands on and engaging and she shares them for free! I'm so grateful that someone has those talents and is willing to share because it's definitely not my strong suit. So if you're looking for something to help you and your family out, definitely look into her stuff. I love it. 

My terrible pregnancy sickness seems to have peaked at about 14 weeks. Each week after that, I felt some improvement. Minor at first but by 18 weeks I felt almost human. I typically only throw up a couple of times a week now and nausea mildly shows up in the evenings. So much better than those first few months! Heartburn is here in full force but medication thankfully tampers that for the most part. I'm mostly experiencing growing pains now as my body changes to adapt to this growing babe. And now that I am beyond simply tolerating food I can say that this baby seriously LOVES meat. I would say that that is the only thing I consistently crave. It's not just a matter of getting protein in any form like it was at the beginning, she's all about the meat. 

We had our big ultrasound this month and it was so fun! We found out baby is a girl and I felt her move for the first time during our ultrasound. The technician was pushing pretty good on my uterus with the ultrasound wand and I don't think baby girl appreciated it because she punched/kicked pretty hard right at the spot the wand was pushing. She was much more wiggly than either of the boys and we watched her do some fun things. Rolling and wiggling and opening her mouth to stick her tongue out. Everything they check during that ultrasound looked good which is always a big relief.  

The day after we found out baby is a girl I texted Dillon, "Well, I just spent $40 on bows." And then I ordered some cute girl clothes from Target that same day ha. And within 48 hrs of finding out we were having a girl, my mom had ordered about 20 outfits and 5 blankets for this baby. She's definitely excited and it's the sweetest. The next day she had me come to her office to pick out more bows from a variety that her coworker's daughter had made. And then my dad, feeling left out, ordered some onesies for baby girl that all reference Grandpa. Safe to say this little lady will be well dressed (And doing girl shopping is a pretty good time. I love boy shopping too actually. I just like to shop for my kids. Tiny clothes are more fun than my adult size clothes). 

Visited the park for the one day of February that wasn't bitter and miserable.

The sunshine was so good for all of us.

Just being cute.

He found this vest at Ross and declared himself the King because it was clearly King's clothing.

Dawson's turn.

Being Mr. Incredible.

"I'm the Indominus Rex!"

Watching a movie, both decided Grandpa's lap was the place to be.

Dawson: "Make me a bo-eet-oh?!" Sawyer: "Me too! Me too!"

Gotta stay warm with these frigid temps.

One of our FHE activities included making slime and the boys loved it!

Making play-doh letters with key phrases from the FHE lesson.

"Look! My monkey!"

Valentine's Day!

The boys filled their warm fuzzy jar all the way up and the reward that they had chosen was to go their favorite dinosaur park in St. George.

This was the first time the train was running while we were there so we decided to take a ride. Definitely worth it.

"I'm just going to take a rest right here. Okay, Mom?"

Dawson reading. I never catch the stuff I'm trying to but this is still cute. And I always want to capture their little voices at this stage.

Helping mom make a rainbow chip cake.

Gender Reveal! Dillon's "Ooooh" in the background is some inside joke for him from some sports guy something or other. He really is excited. But I edited that out for social media ha. 

This little guy has said he wanted a baby sister each and every time we asked him so he was definitely excited that that's what he's getting.

Me: "Sawyer just smile normal!" Sawyer: "I aaaam!"

23 attempts later. Got it.