My Thoughts and Recent Happenings

We are really excited to be having a boy! As I thought about the blog, I thought about documenting on here may become less and less...depending on how much I write in my journal vs. blogging, I guess.  So here are some things on my mind right now:

Curtis:

Quit T-mobile. Started 2 new very time-consuming (for now) jobs/ partnerships, which we are really excited about. Both dealing with Marketing and Sales. One is Sales for an online marketing and SEO company, and the other is Sales and Support Manager for an International Medical Diagnostic Device Manufacturer . Quite the challenge. Managing his parents properties.

Shauna:

Adjusting and trying to put my house things away in the in-laws house. Managing our own rental property. Budgeting and also doing some secretarial things for Curtis with the SEO job.  Having fun and learning times for the girls. I am already nervous for Elise to start school this next fall. All I hope for is that she will have a positive experience from the start. Not being in a mommy preschool program this year with friends, I want to soon start a preschool program with her so we can gain better letter and number recognition and maybe some sight words down. Something to keep her mind growing! Ayla will join in the fun and I want to also work on her shapes and colors too. About the pregnancy, it has been completely different! Hardly any morning sickness. It's been wonderful! With both girls the placenta has been in the front, and this one is in the back, so I will see if that makes any difference at all.

Elise:

Loves projects, art, drawing, animals (we've adopted 2 neighbor dogs while here...they will come and play almost every time we are outside), favorite color is purple for now, being active outside, swinging, riding. She loves books and puzzles. She likes to dance and loves me to sing her songs. She gets excited to write words. She is thoughtful, happy, aware, smart, inquisitive, playful, social, and athletic. Loves to help with household duties like cooking, baking, sweeping, mopping, laundry and folding. She is a good helper. She wants to be a bat for Halloween. She is a good listener. Cute thing she said the other day: After I had shown her a Daddy long leg spider, she later asked that day "What do Mommy spiders look like?" And those box elder bugs are everywhere and she will call them light-up bugs because when they fly and spread their wings, they have a red bum. And she's not afraid to pick them up and play with them. She is constantly catching them!

Ayla:

She has become so spunky. We would call her our little baby doll, cause she was just that and an angel baby. Both babies were good, but I think aside from being a second time mom, she was really, really good. Great sleeper, great mannerisms and didn't cry much, just easy going. Now her personality is coming out and she has spunk. She wants to be a pumpkin fairy for Halloween. She is talking more and more and she loves to talk to almost anyone around her. She has her own little social-ness about her as well as her big sister, just in different ways, but both love people. She is also a great helper. I know that she will be the one to gather the diaper supplies for when the baby comes, she loves to get the diaper and wipes for her cousin as well as throw away and will be so sad if she didn't "do" it. That will be nice! She has been wanting to do things on her own now, go on the toilet alone, wash her hands, get water (although I still want to help with that...she will play and play if I don't come stop it) She loves books, music, singing, playing the piano, leading, and dancing. She is beginning to enjoy coloring. They both have always loved markers and watercolor and painting, but for some reason coloring with a pencil or crayon was just not her thing for a long time, until recently. Which Elise didn't ever mind what medium she used to draw in a coloring book or piece of paper and be creative with, Ayla did not like crayons and pencils! Ayla is still ABSOLUTELY allergic to ALL milk & dairy products in ANYTHING as well as nuts. Soy and egg whites we use sparingly for now, and hope to be able to continue that instead of take them out completely. I think it's just weird that they all are protein foods.

One last thought that I think is interesting about music. Elise loved it as a newborn, loved being sung to and would calm her down. The one song that would ALWAYS make her happy was Love One Another. She does like music and loves to listen to it and dance. As a toddler she rarely would sing and would be hard for her to match the tune, now at 4, she enjoys trying to sing along and starting to have better pitch. And it warms my heart when she wants to sing along with me. Right now she loves all songs especially  the soft calm songs in primary and others and right now she asks for I Love To See The Temple every night.

Ayla on the other hand as a newborn did NOT like to be sung to. She found a beat in anything as a baby...once I though there was something wrong when she started rocking back and forth when I was  stirring in a pan, she would stop every time I would stop stirring. She already has good pitch and likes to sing herself. BUT she still only has specific songs she wants me to sting to her, and sometimes I try something new and she has a fit! Different than her sister, she likes the upbeat, quick songs. She too likes to dance and listen to music. Right now her songs are wheels on the bus and The Wise and Foolish Man (building a house song) song.

Probably not interesting to you, but being their Mother, it's quite interesting to me. So I wanted to document that to see if anything changes as they grow musically!