Summer

I live for these three warm months. They are what get me through the six months of cold weather here in Utah. We have been making the most of them with splash pads, seven peaks, weddings (3 in one week), fireworks, vacations and just a chill day to day existence. I never thought I was an uptight person until I had children. I love summer for the very reason that I am more relaxed. We had a big move in April and moved a whole six doors down from our last house! But I LOVE having a park and third car garage. My teenager self would have never wished for more garage space. We just got back from our stay in Hawaii and the kids were so easy. I kept seeing Robert and Tawni with a newborn and was grateful my kids were at good ages to travel. (Just in time to start trying for a third, right?) The flight was surprisingly not as bad as I was expecting which was a huge bonus, aside from the peeved passenger sitting in front of Noah who kept looking back with a bugged expression but not saying anything. I just ignored her and continued to play with my kids as if I wasn't seeing her out of the corner of my eye again peering around the seat again and again. I guess it's peoples passive/aggressive approach of telling you your kid is annoying me. As far as baby milestones, Isabella is probably one of the funnier kids I've been around. She is a big fit thrower. She will look behind herself and make sure nothing is behind her then throw herself onto the ground and look at me like "Did you see that big one?" I've learned to ignore it. She does naughty things deliberately. If there's one thing having multiple children has taught me it's that you do so much to "parent" your first kid that's so unnecessary and I'm already conceding on a lot of things I used to care so much about. I don't think kids get easier but you just get better. Better at ignoring more and letting more slide and that is what has to happen if you are going to be around kids for 20 years straight. I'm glad Isabel wasn't my first or I would have gone nuts trying to address every single thing she does and in the end she came so different than Noah I just have to think that she is who she is and I'm not changing it that much. She lives life to the very fullest and never stops playing games, or getting into things, or exploring or getting hurt. (She had her first set of stitches in February because she pinched her finger in a chair at Scott's work-probably won't be the only set she has to get) She is her own worst enemy and in a way it makes it so fun to be her Mom and watch the predicaments she gets herself into. Never a dull moment. She has a lot of love to give and is very social and talkative. She laughs and smiles half of the day. My next door neighbor asked me if she ever cries because he's never seen her unhappy. She definitely cries way more than Noah but she also laughs more as well. Noah and her are finally getting to the point where the same thing is fun for both of them. For a while I was having to divide myself between two levels of play. Which usually meant cars with Noah and baby games with Bella. Now they are starting to both like swinging or swimming or hide and seek or coloring. As soon as I had Isabel I looked forward to this stage where they would be buddies. And majority of the time they are best friends. As soon as Isabel wakes up she points out the door, runs into Noah's room and wakes him up by doing this growl thing they do together. That in turn wakes Noah up, he growls in return and then they both run off together. It's cute. Noah is a gentle older brother most of the time and I'm happy he is the older one or he might get bossed around by Isabel. Noah is still just a sweet, obedient child. He doesn't require much of me and is very content. I love that about him. I could have ten of him around and it wouldn't seem hectic or crazy at all. He is still in love with Cars. Going on a good two years of that obsession. He is also getting into sports-especially soccer. He loves his Dad and anything Scott does Noah does. I have loved his little spirit in our home. He is still trying to sleep with us every night. He always sneaks in at night and climbs in bed. I always tell him that it's dark and time for bed so once it's light outside we can go play again. Yesterday I rolled over at about 6 am and I see Noah in my bed with big eyes and smile and he says "It's another sunny day!!!" I was sure I had earned a few more hours because we were up until 11 the night before watching our neighbors firework show he puts on for Pioneer day. What can I say? He's always hated going to sleep. Not much has changed. Any excuse to get out of going to bed he'll take. Bella is a way better sleeper and she is the kind of kid that needs her sleep. Noah could make it without naps, Isabel has melt downs if she doesn't get her naps. I like it because she is still taking two naps a day which gives me a lot of time to get things done. As far as Scott is concerned, he is still a grown up kid. He has more hobbies than time. His latest is paragliding which I'm not too thrilled with. I don't think it's safe and so we kind have just agreed to disagree. On the other hand he is very entertaining to be married to and is always up for fun. I realize I'm the boring spouse. We both are turning thirty in a couple months and I was joking with Scott that I feel like it's easily been 10 years since I was 20. After having Bella I felt like I aged a lot. I knew I was severely anemic and lost a lot of blood after delivery so they were giving me shots to stop the bleeding and my doctor is always suggesting I get blood transfusions to get my iron up. I went home and just sort of attributed my fatigue to the fact that I had a baby and was tired and figured I'd bounce back. Well it kind of had all caught up to me and when Bella was about a year I started to worry that something was wrong because by this time with Noah I felt lots better. I started to just black out constantly and could barely run up stairs without breathing hard, feeling dizzy and needing to lay down. The worst task for me was going up and down stairs putting away laundry so it usually just sits on my couch now in folded piles until Scott can help put it away. Anyway, I went in to the doctor and it turns out I have an auto-immune disorder where my stomach attacks itself and that's why no matter how much iron I was taking it wasn't absorbing and my levels just go down every kid I have. He said in rare occasions your bone marrow isn't functioning properly but I did not want to do that test so I'm trying to take some medicine and manage with shots and see how it goes. So far I feel a little better but not 100%. Also, he said along with my disorder I have bradycardia (a fancy word for slow heart rate) It was 40 bpm which he said is very slow and contributing, along with the anemia, to me fainting. It was nice to hear that there was a reason I wasn't feeling well and it's not life threatening and I won't get any permanent nerve damage as long as I stay ahead of it. I'm hoping my next round of tests have signs of improvement. It would definitely be nice to feel back to myself and have more energy again. Luckily it is something I just manage for the rest of my life and can go on with a normal day to day life. Other than all that fun stuff, I have been looking at my life and just feeling beyond grateful for my awesome family. A couple of my siblings have hit some rough patches in their lives and I'm just glad I can rely on Scott to be a good person. He's a rock and I couldn't have asked for a better person to raise kids with. Anyway, a post is only as good as it's photos so here's a couple pictures to help sum up the last six months.