Dates

Last Saturday Paul and I went out for my birthday (although my birthday was 2 months ago, due to a combination of laziness and babysitter difficulties). We went to Chili’s and then went and walked by the seawall. Good eats at Chili's--especially the molten lava chocolate cake! And it was great to talk and walk by the ocean.

Then the following Friday we went out with our friends, Ron and Carolyn Gibb, to a Thai restaurant. The owner is Thai but was raised in Canada and speaks English with a perfect accent, and he greeted Ron and Carolyn by name when we all walked in! They go there pretty often. And wow, it was really good food! I had coconut milk soup and some fried noodle stuff with peanut sauce. YUM. Then we went to Yogurtland for frozen yogurt. They have lots of flavors to choose from (you Utahns, think Maverick, only bigger, and cuter) and lots of toppings. Then you pay by the weight. It was good. Then we walked over to Chula-U, a spa where they have a foot bath outside, and we soaked our feet and talked. It was a good time, and we came home to find that our babysitter had cleaned up the living room with the kids. Very nice! We saved the pink and green plastic spoons for the kids. Sounds silly, but they were excited about them in the morning and wanted to use them right away for breakfast.

New Baby Campbell

A new baby Campbell is coming to our family around September 28, 2010. Today I am 12 weeks along and the pregnancy is going well--least amount of sickness I've ever had in my first trimester. Yesterday during an ultrasound I got a pretty good look at the cute little guy/gal, who was very active. It's so amazing to see such a complete little body in such a small size. The image was a little too fuzzy to be sure of the baby's sex, so hopefully next ultrasound we'll be able to tell. We'll keep you posted.

My doctor, (the same one who delivered Brandon, Nathan, and Jacob), said our summer travel plans should be unaffected by the pregnancy. I can travel up until the end of August, he said. We usually return to Okinawa at the beginning of August.

Yesterday the kids got the news. Nathan and Jacob came along with me to my doctor's appointment, so I told Nathan what was going on. He took it in stride. Interestingly, he had already guessed one day when he was next to me on the couch and he used my belly as leverage to boost himself up higher. Noticing the difference, he exclaimed, "There's a baby in your tummy!" I told him, "Not yet..." It wasn't time to tell him. Yesterday was. Now he likes to come up with names for the new baby. His favorite sounds something like, "Ooowitt" with a silly growl in his voice. (And when he says it, Jacob makes a cute little baby growl noise. Love it.)

Soon after the other kids got off the school bus, Nathan said to Brandon, "Mom has a baby in her tummy!" Brandon asked me if I really did, and I said yes, and he grinned--BIG! I was going to wait until Paul got home to tell Emily and Brandon so he could see their reactions, but since Nathan was blabbing, I figured Emily would rather hear it from me than the others, so I told her. It took a little time for her to adjust to the news. She felt uneasy about it and I think she was trying to put her finger on why. She said she was worried she'd have to share her room (which is pretty impossible, at least while we're here, seeing as her room is TI-NY!), and she said Jacob was too young to have a little brother or sister. Anyway, after a few hours of processing it, she felt better.

Paul and I are excited to welcome another little one into our family. Life isn't going to get any easier anytime soon, but as I remember reading from Elder Robert D. Hales (and I hope I'm remembering the source correctly): "I wasn't looking for easy." (Those who know me know that that's not always true about me, but I'm working on it.)

Emily got glasses

Emily's vision screening at school showed that she needed glasses. She's nearsighted. She picked out some light pink glasses. While we shopped, she admired the fancy glasses cases at a couple of the stores, but it turned out that she got a free (and pretty plain) plastic case with her glasses, which was a little disappointing. So I bought her some jewel stickers to dress up her case.

We don't see her glasses on her much, because the optometrist told her she didn't have to wear them all the time--just for school. She can take them off for reading, recess, P.E., and home.

Happy 8th Birthday, Emily

Jacob's 1st birthday

Cake with a "J"

Yummy stuff!



Plush dog from Paul's mom. She even did surgery to remove its bark!


Dinosaur bath toys from my mom.

Jacob with all his opened presents.

I'll post videos soon!

Skate Night

After school today I took the kids to "Skate Night" at the elementary school. Kids could bring skates, bikes, scooters, etc. and ride around the loop between parking lots. It was a good idea. They advertised that they would be selling hot dogs and popcorn, among other things. Emily was the only one of my kids who wanted a hot dog. I was counting on the popcorn for the other kids, but they didn't have it as they'd advertised. That was disappointing. It would've been their after-school snack, and plus, popcorn makes them so happy, and I like to have happy kids! Then Emily dropped her hot dog off her plate before she even got one bite. She ran up to me and was so upset that she hit my arm with her plate (face down), getting ketchup all over my arm. I got upset with her and told her she was the one who dropped the hot dog, so she is the one that needs to pick it up and either eat it or ask for another one--and told her to get me a napkin for my arm! She did ask for another hot dog, and they were nice and gave it to her for free. I got rid of her plate so she'd have to hold onto her hot dog instead of balance it on the plate. Then someone bumped into her and she dropped her second hot dog! Another burst of tears. Again I presented her options. She asked for another hot dog. The hot dog seller gave ME the hot dog and said maybe I'd better hold it for her! Of course I had to hand it over so she could eat it.

The hot dog came with a drink and chips. I said Brandon and Nathan would get most of the chips since there wasn't any popcorn, and they didn't want a hot dog. Emily accepted that, and it went all right until Brandon took the bag out of Nathan's hands so he could get some. Nathan is so little that he feels like they're totally being taken away from him when that happens. Outburst from Nathan. So I put some chips on a plate just for him. Then the kids sort of settled down to eat. Nathan whined that he wanted to go sit inside the school, but that wasn't an option. (He likes to eat at a table.) We sat on the curb watching the skaters glide ride by.

After their food was gone, Emily wanted my help putting on our roller blades (a wonderful hand-me-down from some friends). They're really hard to put on and she seemed to think she depended on me to put them on her, although it was nearly impossible for me to shove them onto her feet. She needed to push her feet down herself. At one point she got frustrated and threw the skate toward me and it hit my ankle. Sheesh! Yes, I let her know I didn't appreciate that (and said I was done helping her). She pouted, but finally she got the skates on and I helped her skate. We recently got these roller blades and she had only skated on the carpet, so she was pretty teetery. I held her hand and she went a little ways and then plopped herself down on the curb in discouragement. I asked if she wanted to skate or if I should go back to where Jacob and Nathan were, and she said I could go back. I did. I could still see her, and she sat there and pouted or cried (I couldn't tell which). Then a friend of hers came along and helped teach her to skate. That worked out better. Sometimes someone other than me is best for helping Emily with frustrating things. Kind of like how my mom initially tried to teach me piano herself. With her, I didn't restrain myself enough when I got frustrated. My situation with Emily is extremely similar. She was proud of herself for skating and I was, too.

The rest of Skate Night went all right. Brandon was nice to share his scooter with Emily and Nathan. We also have some "heelies" that Nathan put on. He really likes those. He took one off so he could be steady on at least one foot. He likes that better. Cute Nathan. And then while Emily was riding the scooter and after Nathan got tired of the heely, Brandon and Nathan just ran around the loop. They enjoyed that. Nathan, especially, loves running. He sometimes says, "I'n a runner!"

When it was time to go home, Nathan had been the last one to take a turn on the scooter, and Emily wanted to ride it back to the car. I told her she could ask him, but if he said no, not to take it from him. Well, he said no. She tried to take it from him and I stopped her, so she plopped herself on the ground and refused to come to the car with us. We walked ahead and I silently prayed for help to know what to do. (Seems I do a lot of such pleading lately!) I called back to her that if she didn't come with us, (in other words, if I had to come back for her), she'd have to go to her room when we got home. She came.

We got home and hurried and had some dinner before bedtime. Fortunately I had lots of spaghetti leftover from Nathan's preschool picnic today. (It's nice when you bring something to a potluck that people like and eat up, but in this case, it worked out well that they didn't! Especially for Brandon, who recently discovered that he LOVES spaghetti and meatballs.)

Still infected

I took Jacob to the doctor today. She said he obviously is still infected with MRSA, a strong bacterial infection he was diagnosed with at 2 mos. It tends to live on the skin once you've got it. I got some more strong antibacterial soap and was also instructed to treat any bumps with the Bactroban and give him a bath in bleach solution.

Bumpy boy

Jacob always has some red bumps on him. They aren't simple baby zits because he's too old to have lots of those, they last too long to be those, and are too scabby to be those.

Two months ago he got four mosquito bites. At least I'm 99% sure they were moquito bites because I saw some mosquitos right where we had been. Well, they got to be horrible looking!
Here's a picture of two of the mosquito bites a few days after he got them. They improved over time and are all but gone now, but it's been 2 months and there is still a remnant. I think that's an extreme reaction to a mosquito bite.

Anyway, this morning after he woke up he had an ugly-looking blister on his foot! Later in the day it popped. Any idea what in the world is going on? Here's a picture of his foot today, after the blister popped:
I am treating it with Bactroban (prescription-strength antibiotic ointment) to prevent infection since it's such an open sore, and I'm sure it will be okay, but the cause is what is mysterious to me. He had chicken pox in June and they were big and weird-looking as well, although sparse, and they healed up like normal chicken pox. Anyway, the reason I'm posting this is to see if anyone has had experience with something like this.

Update: Oct. 27: He was diagnosed with MRSA, a strong bacteria.

Day off

Don't faint because I'm writing this less than three months after my last entry!

Today is a day off school for the kids (It's Educator's Day, when the teachers to go workshops) and has been really fun for me. Not only did I get to avoid bus stop deadlines, but I got to relax and soak in the fun of having such cute kids. And I went to bed early last night. Otherwise I wouldn't be feeling so great.

First, Brandon was so kind and thoughtful during breakfast. Emily started out the day not feeling too hot because, she said, she was up beginning at 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep due to a lot of "hullabaloo" regarding her nose. As a result, she's been pretty cranky today, so when Brandon poured a little pink lemonade for himself and for Nathan at breakfast and Emily saw very little left in the pitcher, she slammed the pitcher down on the table (splashing some onto the floor) and threw a fit. I decided to mostly ignore her behavior for the moment (and she sort of "cleaned it up"). She calmed down and asked Brandon nicely if she could have a little of his lemonade. He kindly gave her ALL of his lemonade. Classic tender, generous Brandon. Later in the day when I sent Emily up to her room for "rest time" when she was again being difficult, Brandon hopped up and gave her one of her "American Girl" books to take upstairs to read. She had already read it and said so. Well, if not Emily, at least I acknowledged Brandon's nice gesture!

Anyway, I don't mean to give Emily a bad rap. We'll cut her some slack since she's a little sick!

So for the day off today, after Jacob's nap we went to the post office, the bank, the library, and the park by the library. It was just a nice time, and the kids were good and happy. It's blustery today (typhoon passing near) and a couple pieces of mail blew away from my pile, and Emily and Brandon chased them down . It was a remarkable moment to me because it reminded me that I've finally passed the point where I have to do all the work all the time! I just waited with Jacob and Nathan while the others ran down the sidewalk after it!

Brandon brought along a picture he had brought home from school the other day and colored with colored pencils. It looked so nice that he was really proud of it, so he showed the bank teller, post office clerk, and librarian. The bank teller didn't notice it right away, so he said, "Look, Miss." I loved that!

At the park there's a set of four swings--two baby swings and two big-kid swings, and I enjoyed seeing all four of my happy kids lined up on them (all wearing shades of red). I should've brought my camera!

Cute things Nathan said today: When he was crying, he said, "I need some milk to feel me better." Later he made an announcement for me: "Mom Gentlemen, come here" (in the tone of "Ladies and Gentlemen"). Then he whispered it, and I thought he was so cute that I asked him to do it again so I could take a video:

This past Sunday in Relief Society we discussed the CES Fireside talk by Elder Bednar called "Things as they Really Are" and someone made the comment that some people's blogs make their lives sound too rosey. I don't mean to make my life appear better than it is. A friend of Paul's who reads our blog told me this summer that it seems like I'm a really calm person, from what I write in the blog. My response was that I just don't write in the blog when I'm flustered! I do often feel like writing in here to complain, but I never do because I think I would probably regret it later. Anyway, today is one of the good days of really appreciating my kids. Now to come up with something to make for dinner that might not result in kid-whining. (Very hard to do.)

AH! Update--Paul just called and said he got a free cheese pizza that he's going to bring home for dinner. Wow, the great day continues!

Fun kid stuff

Nathan really wanted to make his own PB&J sandwich for lunch (like Emily and Brandon often do for their lunchboxes), so I let him. Here he is with his creation. He only ate the middle part since that's the only part with any peanut butter and jelly! He asked to make his sandwich the next couple of days as well, so I let him, but helped with the edges this time. (By the way, I've been enjoying focusing on Nathan more than before, now that Brandon's in school.)

"Want that ball...want that ball..."

"Yay!"


They made a throne and said Jacob was the king.


Emily's assignment was to paste a photo or draw a picture of something in each box that was important to her in each year of her life.



Jacob loves the remote.



Nathan made a big mess of Cheerios so I had him vacuum them up as a consequence. He had so much fun doing it that I'm not sure it was much of a punishment!

Brandon and Jacob get along well. They even share a room now! (But this took place in the living room.)

Emily came home one day and said, "I know how to jump rope!"After all these years of wanting to do it, she finally arrived! (Play video.)