Saturday, May 26, 2012

Preschool Mothers' Day Celebration



The Tuesday after Mothers' Day, Henry's preschool did a Mothers' Day Celebration. Miss Nancy read a story while all the moms got there and then the kids did their songs. I was shocked that Henry actually sang and was good for the whole thing-woot! We can never get him to sing and usually only hear him if he is in his room and thinks no one is listening so it was really fun for me to hear his little voice! After that the moms and kids got to have a little brunch. ANNND Henry downed his broccoli which elicited a few, "how do you get him to eat that?!" by other moms. Yup, gotta soak these moments up because Heaven knows they are and will be few and far between. =) 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mothers Day

I can't help it. I'm not a fan of Mothers Day. There. I said it. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is always sandwiched somewhere in between Henry's birthday, our anniversary and what seems to be our yearly panic time of not knowing where we are going.
It's not that I don't love my mom or am not grateful for mothers, or my blessing to be a mom, I just get celebration burn out and wish 'they' whoever they are, would move it to August. Is that so much to ask?

Oh and the guilt, there's always the guilt. I especially feel bad for husbands because they have to make sure to do something wonderful for not just their mom but also their wife, because, why exactly? I suppose it's because I am the mother of our children, but really it kind of stinks with the double duty for them, I think.

Anyway, because I may some day change my mind and because Johann feels like he is a stinky husband if he doesn't, we do a little something. Snap a picture, and Henry and Johann make me breakfast either in the morning or for dinner depending on our ward's meeting time. This year we did it for dinner.

 So here I am with the little guy who made me a mama. I can't believe how big he is just compared to a year ago. 
 And here we are with Henry making the best face ever while touching my ginorm 31 week 2 day baby belly. She is definitely growing...yeah and I am too. 

Then brinner. Someone got a little wild with the syrup there, but other than that-delicious.

Despite my less than enthusiastic attitude about the holiday, I am very, very grateful to get to be a mom. More importantly, I am ever thankful for my mom who is always a support and who, as I get further into this parenting thing, I realize did so many things right and taught me about what is really important. 
Happy Mothers Day

Henry the 4 year old

It has finally happened. Henry is officially a 'kid.' We gave him the choice between presents or a party this year and he picked a party, "but my friends will bring presents, right?" he made sure to clarify before settling on a party. 

Originally he said he wanted a Mario party and I was all over it and had it planned 2 months ahead of time pretty much. Then he changed his mind to pirate. Since there was more stuff I wouldn't have to make with pirates, I went with it. Then he tried a week or so before his party to change it to a 'Brobee' party. Nope. So we stuck with pirates and he even managed to be excited and happy about it. 

He was however sad that mommy said no preschool friends at the party. Between them and the kids in the ward, it would just be too much, no way they could all fit. So we compromised and I took cupcakes to preschool on Thursday and let him invite his favorite preschool friend on the sly. Henry kind of has a thing about hating the birthday song, he gets mad almost every time its sung so we had an extensive talk about not getting mad when the kids sing and our talk ended with me asking, "so what are you going to do when they start singing?" "I am going to say thank you and enjoy it." haha. 
While he didn't appear to enjoy it much, he did listen and say thank at the end. Progress, right? 

                                     

So then Friday we had Henry's pirate party. We managed to cram 10 kids and 6 adults into our little place. It was fast and furious but all the kids seemed to have a good time and there were no disasters or problems. It was crazy but went well and quickly. 


The birthday boy or captain Henry

Bandanas, blowers and pirate ship & buried treasure cupcakes 

Table centerpiece

 The calm before the storm. Very happy to have had the grandparents here to help. 10 kids was a lot easier divided amongst all of us than just Johann and I 

With his Abuela and Grammy 

 Some of the crew

We played pin the treasure on the X

 The results from the kids who played

 This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. Sweet little Marley just couldn't bring herself to thwack the pinata...haha

Henry, however, not an issue

Grandpa lending a hand to get that candy out 

Henry's friends/family and their parents were spot on with the stuff they got him and very generous-thank you! 

 After singing Happy Birthday-cupcake time

Henry had fun and is, of course, still talking about his party and having fun with all his new toys. We were all pooped afterwards but I'm glad he was able to have such a fun party. 

 He continued to be spoiled when on Sunday his sunbeam teachers brought him a hotwheels car for his bday. He was so excited they remembered his birthday. We love his teachers. 

Then Monday, his actual birthday, came. I had bought most of Henry's summer clothes at a big end of summer online clearance from Old Navy last year and had pulled stuff out as needed but managed to keep a couple shirts, a pair of short and some shoes to give to him on his birthday morning.

He was pretty darn excited about this green lantern shirt. 

When Papa got home from work we headed to Red Robin per Henry's dinner request. The best part-thanks to our little reward card, Johann's meal was free so it was a rather cheap birthday dinner-woot.


 And of course they brought him a special little ice cream treat. 

Afterwards we went to the park to launch the rockets he got from Karen and Shannon. He loved it! So did Johann and I. We had lots of fun launching them and trying to be the first one to the rocket or to catch it. They glow in the dark too, so hopefully over summer at Grammy's we can do a night time launch. 

I feel safe in saying that Henry had a pretty darn good 4th birthday. I hope he enjoyed it, but after the past 4 years I think I have decided that with every other kid we won't do a party except at 1 and then starting at 5 they can choose to have a party or presents; 2-4 we can have a little family celebration with cake. We'll see if I stick to it.

Happy Birthday Henry Dean! We love you and love seeing you grow and change each and every year!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Decisions and Deadlines

In 9 weeks we get to meet our little girl! However, where we will do that and who will help us do that is still pretty unsure. Initially we figured that even with moving to California over the summer, we could just drive back here to deliver. Then we found out it would be possible to deliver in Apple Valley as well, where you know, the hospital is five minutes away from my mom's house. Anyway, not to get too bogged down in details, all we know for sure is that come June 8th Johann is done with his internship, come June 30th our lease is up and come July 6th we will be having a baby added to our family (unless I magically go into labor before then, that is the normal time to schedule a c-section, at 39 weeks).

We still don't know what day Johann will be able to defend, right now things have taken a hopeful turn and 2 of the 3 committee members are doing what they can to help get this process finished. He may defend June 1st or 11th at this point it looks like. But I have come to realize there is nothing set in the nightmare that is his thesis. Either way, at some point, it's likely, we will have to take a trip to Utah in June as well.

Since I don't have tons of control over the whole thesis business, or if/where Johann will end up getting a job, I would like to at least be able to make up my mind about where and with whom to deliver. Maybe I have to wait on those things first but there is no guarantee about when we'll know about a job and I feel like I can't count on the thesis date either. Johann is pretty much the same as I am when it comes to this question-at a loss. Of course, the most logical thing to do is blog about it, right? If I was even more logical, I'd take a poll on facebook. ;-)

Here is a list of pros and cons for each situation so everyone can tell us what the heck to do:
*something to keep in mind: our car is fading fast. It routinely makes weird noises, has a hard time going uphill and a hard time in the heat*

Delivering in Las Vegas:

Pros:

  • I LOVE my doctor. The office staff too. I saw 5 different doctors on a rotation with Henry and never really got to know any of them well, which was fine, but the delivery was like any old operation it seemed. I've seen Dr. Ibay at every visit and he is really, really calm and I just overall like him as a doctor/person. He is also smaller than me and that increases my chances of winning any fights, yeah?
  • The hospital is much bigger and better equipped than St. Mary's 
  • I get my own room for recovery, which is kind of a big deal because I will have to stay at least 2-3 days for c-section and people can then visit whenever and Johann can stay with me. 
Cons
  • I would have to drive back for the delivery, that's a 3 plus hour drive while being 39 weeks pregnant in the middle of the summer. 
  • While Johann would be able to stay with me, we would either have to leave Henry with someone in Apple Valley or my mom would have to drive back and forth with him or she would have to get a hotel and have Henry there. Same with Johann's parents. Oh and did I mention family from Uruguay is also coming the same week I deliver? haha!
  • We would have to drive 3 hours back to Apple Valley with a post-csection me and a brand new baby. 
  • We would probably just need to stay in our place in Las Vegas until our lease is up for the doctors appointments and that would truncate the moving and then delivering dates. 
Delivering in Apple Valley:

Pros
  • The hospital is 5 minutes away. Quick drive there to deliver, quick drive back.
  • Henry can stay at my mom's and there are additional friends and family(read YOU, Aaron Goodwin) to help with him over the days I am in the hospital with the baby.
  • Johann's parents and the fam from Uruguay would have a much easier time getting to come visit and see the baby.
  • We could move as soon as we were ready (after thesis defense and packing) and have some down time between moving and then delivery (again this isn't for sure if the thesis is pushed back to the end of June).
  • I could have some time to get Henry settled and to get us settled into the new room and have the babies stuff all set to go. (Though if we visited AV before the delivery I could do it then too, the baby stuff at least)
Cons:
  • I will hardly know the doc. I will have had 4 appointments with him max (2 if I can get him to push back when he'll let me start coming to him). 
  • The last few delivery stories I've heard of taking place at St. Mary's were not good-bad anesthesiologist, bad nurses etc. I'm mildly terrified that since I get cut into they are going to botch it and I'll feel it or I'll get an infection OR DIE etc... 
  • Every interaction I've had with the doctor's office and the hospital personnel has either involved dealing with someone who seemed like they had a giant question mark hovering above their head (office) or someone who was completely, completely rude (hospital). 
  • I will have to drive out for anywhere between 1-3 appointments, that's anywhere from 6 to 18 hours of driving in this hot whether, by myself for some of them, with Henry and probably needing to stay over in AV away from Johann (unless I only have to go to one at 36 weeks). I'm pregnant, therefore emotional, give me a break. 

Well, those are the main ones I can think of. If you have any others to add, please do so and if you have any ideas or helpful hints, we'll take it. Life, it's been messy and I suppose always will be. Just seems like it's extra messy right about now. Help!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Pee-Wee Sports

This past Monday concluded Henry's peewee sports class through the rec center. I'm a little sad to see the end of it, I think Henry will be asking why we aren't going anymore soon, but at least he has swimming for another week to keep him busy. 
The class was 4 sessions, an hour each: they did track & field, tennis, soccer and basketball. Henry said his favorite was tennis. Probably because they got to hold a racquet methinks. 

First class: Track & Field 

 They aren't doing anything in this pic, I just have it as a point of comparison-Henry was about a head shorter than the next smallest kid. I know some of them were older but still, poor guy. He'll probably be  the small fry for a while. Johann said he was until the end of middle school and my genes aren't helping him go vertical either. 
 Jumping the hurdle

Second class: Tennis
 Learning to balance the ball while walking

Third class: Soccer
 I kind of wish they had had smaller balls for the kids to dribble and kick. They had fun none the less. 

Fourth class: Basketball
 I was actually surprised at how good Henry did with dribbling, considering we've never really played basketball with him. I think having size appropriate balls helped big time too. 


And on the last day they gave them little medals. Oh, Henry, cheesy face boy. 

The coaches were really good and I appreciated how they wanted to have fun with the kids but also actually teach them some skills too. If we end up staying here, I think it's a class I wouldn't mind letting him do again. 
Yay for rec center classes! 
Next--well, Henry keeps asking for a dance class. We'll see if there is one before summer. =)