Bean Museum

This weekend we took a trip to the Bean Museum at BYU. I have never been down there, so when the opportunity came to spend some time there with the John and Tiff Wheeler family, I took it!

Once inside J discovered the joy of running around inside a museum, he also discovered that he can control elevators. At one point while enjoying the basement of the museum he learned that they actually have LIVE animals there. We got to see an Iguana take a bath!

"I just don't understand why this Moose keeps following me around..........and why does he keeps asking me for a muffin?"
What a nice lion we found, he was so kind and gentle, until he tried to eat my baby!
I think that J's favorite animal is a Lion, so even though this one tried to eat Baby B, we let J meet him and take a picture with him too. J didn't understand that the ropes around the animals meant "Don't go inside or touch the animals" We had the privilege of grabbing him, as he tried to get a little to close, several times.
J also put on his own little show during the reptile show that we watched while we were there. He is a big boy now and big boys don't sit on Mom's lap- without screaming- so he used his freedom to wander up the the front of the show and touch all the props while the presenter was looking the other way. He has no fear.

All in all it was a pretty fun trip to the Museum.

You've had a Birthday!

So J had a Birthday, and if you've known us for a while, you know that Ken and I have birthdays too- and they just happen to surround J's! So here is some information about the other little birthday boy and girl.

Ken!

Favorite Food- Pizza

Favorite Shape- Pizza

Favorite Color- Yellow Pizza Cake

Okay, Okay, so I don't really know what Ken's favorite color and shape are. I guess I need to talk to Ken more. I do know that I love Ken, that he is an amazing Father and Wonderful Husband. I do know that he works hard to support us and he wants us all to be happy. Ken Loves Movies, Enjoys relaxing while watching TV. He got a wonderful present from the Giants this last year, as they rewarded his decades of support with a world series win. He has two adorable and adoring sons. Ken has been on our Stake High Council for 4 1/2 years and he really enjoys serving our stake and even part of our region in many different capacities. He is also loved by the people he serves with, when I meet people who know Ken from his church service they always tell me how much they appreciate all that he does and what a great guy they think he is. I always respond with a "WHAT? Ken? Really?" Just kidding. I thank them for their kind words and I thank God for giving me such a wonderful man to love.

For his birthday Ken got Croc's!

Kate!

Favorite Food- Too Many to Mention.

We will say, Chocolate with a close 2nd of Roasted Vegetables.

Favorite Shape- Hearts, maybe Flowers too.

Favorite Color- Right now, Pink.

I, Kate, really enjoy my life. I love being Mommy, I love being me. I am getting healthier and I am really learning to like exercise. I also like to read, and I especially like to read while sitting in a nice hot bath. I love my boys, they are 90% Angel. I love my Ken too. I had special visitors on my birthday, Jeff and Gina! (I also, apparently, need to take classes on how not to make funny faces while smiling in pictures)

For my Birthday/Anniversary this year Ken got me a Laptop (he got an AMAZING deal on it from the company he works for) and my Sisters got me a running watch- it too is AMAZING! It tells me how fast I am running, which is super fast!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Apples to Oranges

I just read something that annoyed me, I am going to tell you about it because I don't think J would understand. What has riled me up? A comment on Facebook, a comment about babies from someone who I don't even know and shall never know. Someone took their 1 year old into the doctor and while there their child was weighed and measured- this happens all the time. This child weighed 20 pounds at a year and the mother was told that her child was in the 15th percentile. The Mother questioned this on Facebook- is 20 pounds really the 15th percentile? Most of her friends told her that her child was similar to their children, but one person said this "Most of those babies are obese. Your baby is just perfect. Had obesity not taken over America your little guy would be average." I don't agree. I think this person wanted to be a good friend, she wanted to make her friend feel better- but are all of those babies above the 15th Percentile OBESE? NO! I am trying not to be offended. Here are my thoughts.

Babies are all different- there is a reason why they weigh and measure babies every few months, it is so that we can see if they are growing at a good constant rate. If your baby is in the 85th percentile when they are 4 months old and then the 15th when they are 6 months old that is a good sign to a doctor that there might be a problem. If your baby grows at a consistent rate, no mater how big or small they are, that is a good sign that everything is working well. There is NO PERFECT weight for a baby.

Let's talk about my boys. J is in the 80th Percentile for both height and weight- he has had consistent growth for the past 3 years. It makes perfect sense to me that, being taller than 80 out of 100 other 3 year olds, he would also weigh more than 80 out of 100 other 3 year olds. B is almost 8 months old, last week he weighed 23 pounds and is probably 29 inches long. At 6 months old he was around the 95th percentile for height and weight, and looking at the charts he is still right around the 95th percentile. So he is taller and heavier than 95 out of 100 other 8 month olds. Does that make him Obese? No! It means that he is right in line with his family- He comes from a family of TALL people. He is pretty much an exact clone of his Grandpa Turner and his cousin T too. I am not going to sit him down on the floor next to babies, who come from families filled with people who never got taller than 5'5" and never weighed more than 115 pounds, and proclaim that my baby is normal and their baby must be a midget and I wouldn't assume that my baby had a glandular problem and was going to become a giant. They are different, but they are normal, they are both perfect.

Now lets talk about people who are older than 3 years old. I agree that America has a weight problem, I think part of that problem is that we don't want to believe that we are overweight, if we look like most everyone else around us then we must be normal right and normal is okay. I convinced myself that I was normal, then one day I looked at a BMI sheet, I knew I was overweight but what I didn't know is that I was just a few pounds away from being Obese. I was right on the line that separated "Normal" Overweight and Obese. That scared me but it wasn't enough to make me really change my habits. It took gestational diabetes and more than a couple medical professional telling me that if I didn't change I would have type 2 diabetes within 5 years. 5 YEARS! That gave me enough fear, or shame or whatever it was, it gave me enough of a reason to start tipping the scale the other way. Now I am am teetering on the line between Overweight and Average and I plan to get far enough away from that line that I will never have to worry about it again.

What amazes me now is how much push back I get from people. I have had several experiences where I tell someone my goal weight and they tell me that I will be "Too Skinny" and when I say that my goal is actually pretty close to the middle of Average they don't believe me. I even had one person ask me to prove it, so I showed them a weight chart, and they saw that they, like me at the time, were pretty close to obese and they got really quiet. I whole heartedly agree that America has a problem, we need to change, we need to be healthier. I'm trying to be healthier. I am doing it too.

I have learned that it is very important for me to compare myself to others who are similar to me. So yes, If we went around my neighborhood and put us all into percentiles I would probably be an 80th or 90th percentile person too, because I am 5'9" and I am taller than 80 or 90 out of 100 other women in the neighborhood. But that alone does not make me fat, that alone does not make me obese. Lets compare Apples to Apples, not Apples to Oranges. We put kids into percentiles so that we can compare their current stats to their previous stats, so we can compare our Apple to our Apple.

Okay, I've vented. I feel much better now. Thanks for the chat. Talk to you later.

3 Years Old!

Here it is, the Yellow Lion Cake! It was much anticipated. We saw an amazingly cute lion cake that a very talented friend made for her little boy a couple of weeks ago, and since then J has been talking about his Yellow Lion Cake. At least once a day he would remind me that I needed to make a Yellow Lion Cake and then with great joy he would add "I help You!" and run into the kitchen. Well, On Sunday, he finally got his wish.

And this is what he looked like when he first saw it. See how happy he is! As I type he is sitting on my lap, and he is asking me to make a yellow lion cake. Considering that he only ate the frosting, I really could frost a plate for him and he would be happy, maybe I will make him another yellow lion cake, who knows?
The moment came, we sang Happy Birthday and J blew out his candle ( I was too lazy to put on more and I really didn't know where to stick them, one of my nieces told me that she was confused by the single candle, she thought J was 3 but now she realized that he was only 1)

Today we went to see the doctor, J is in the 82nd percentile for weight @ 35 pounds and the 81st for height at 38.75 inches tall. He is pretty much your average little boy. He talks all the time, I told the doctor that I felt like I only understood about 50% of what J says, he told me two things- 1- I am probably underestimating that percentage and as the day has progressed and I have paid VERY close attention to my little conversations with J I think I did underestimate it. The 2nd thing the doctor told me was that I should consider having J tested by the school district, even if am understanding 75% or more of what he says (75% is the goal for 3 years old) If they think he could use some extra help they might be willing to subsidize some preschool- and hey, can't beat that. So we will check into that.

Here are some of J's favorite things.

Favorite Color- Yeyo! (although, just now he said Lion Cake was his favorite color)

Favorite Shape- Ocagon! (don't ask where he learned about Octagons, I still have no idea, he does know they have 8 sides though- Super Smart!)

Favorite Animal- Baby Doggie (his My Pal Scout toy)

Favorite Song- Happy Know (if your happy and you know it), Lead me Guide me (I am a child of God) is a close second

Favorite Thing to Say- "I help You!"

Favorite Movie- Buzz! you may know it as "Toy Story"

J is an Amazing Boy, I love him so much, it is really really hard for me to believe that my little baby has grown up so much. He is such a good boy, he has his moments, but all in all he is an amazingly sweet and loving son and brother. I am so glad he is mine.

Baby B Vs. the ENT

Today J got to go play with my Aunt Deb and my Grandma while Baby B and I went to visit the ENT.

Now, I have to take you back in time, just a couple of days. We have been blessed to have some guests in town, we are sharing them with other people who love them, and on Wednesday night we provided what we hope was a restful night in our guest room. Baby B likes to think the guest room is his room and as such his little portable crib had to be relocated- to the Mom and Dads room. For all we knew Baby B was an okay sleeper. We don't go to him when he cries at night anymore, and truthfully I don't really hear him cry much anymore either, so Ken and I were kind of surprised when B seemed to be waking up much more than we had expected. Were we really loud sleepers, were we waking him up? He seemed really congested to me, it seemed hard for him to breath, so I tried to suction his nose out. Nothing really came out. Eventually he fell back asleep and for the rest of the day he was my happy little baby, this guy here- you've seen him before! Happy Baby B!

So I worried that B had a cold and that he would get an ear infection and make our visit to the ENT today not such a great visit. Well I was wrong. The ENT was nice, he looked in our little guys ears and told me that there was fluid but no active infection. He explained that he could, if we wanted, put tubes in B's ears which would allow for the fluid to drain. He continued to tell me that B the fluid buildup was most likely chronic and so if we didn't do tubes he would continue to get ear infections easily. I already knew we wanted to take the tubes option. But then the Dr continued to explain what he thought we might need to do, above and beyond tubes. (Now, this next part is pretty much what the conversation with the ENT went like- the words may not be exact- I didn't have a digital recorder with me or anything)

"Is this little guy a mouth breather?"

"Well.....yeah, why?"

"Well, He has not even tried to breath through his nose the entire time I've been examining him."

"I think that is probably because he has some nasal congestion"

"Actually his nasal passages were clear"

"Oh......" Major look of confusion

The Doctor then talked to me about Adenoids. It seems that enlarged adenoids push up into the nose making it hard to breath and they push up the ear canal as well making a perfect place for fluid to get trapped. If tubes alone don't seem to help kids with enlarged adenoids the Doctors tend to go back in and do tubes AND and adenoidectomy. The doctor said he actually would skip the tubes alone and go straight to the tubes and adenoidectomy...............insert stunned Kate hear. Maybe I shouldn't have told Ken that it was just a consult with a surgeon and that he didn't need to be there. UGH. I wish I could go back in time. ("for reals this time!") ;)

So the Doctor told me what to look for when Baby B sleeps and lucky for us we have guests in the guest room again tonight, so Baby B will be in our room- Ripe for the Watching! If Ken and I decide that we see what the doctor believes we will see- basically baby sleep apnea- we can call and add an adenoidectomy to the surgery that I scheduled today. Then we get to scramble and get B tested for Von Willebrands a little earlier than I had expected too.

So, if you wouldn't mind, keep us in your prayers tonight. I just want to make sure we make the right choice. I don't want to let someone cut my baby if I don't need to, but I also don't want to make my baby suffer and struggle to breath any longer than I absolutely have to. I will definitely be asking God for guidance tonight, He understands how I feel.

Stretched

My boys suffer from what I like to call "Turner Short Leg Syndrome" They will be tall men, but they will have short legs and super long torsos. This is not bad, I hear it is great for swimming and I think swimming would be a great sport for my boys as they are much less likely to get tackled and bleed internally while swimming....I think....but that is another story. So, anyway, My boys have short legs and it has been very easy for me to let them wear pants that are technically one size too small, because their little legs fit those pants. I have been dreading the day when these cute little overalls would have to go into the bin of small clothes, I was prepared for the day that Baby B's torso would grow out of them. But to my surprise, when I put them on this morning, it wasn't the baby's torso that had stretched......

It was his legs. He was wearing Capri's. I hear Men wear Capri's now, totally normal, right?.
So some how, when I wasn't looking, my baby stretched. I moved my little 7 month old into 12 month tops and outfits about a month ago, but I held onto some of my favorite 9 month pants. Luckily there are boys born every day, one of them will enjoy those pants too.

Bountifully Blessed

I have been participating with the Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op since just before Baby B was born. A friend of mine told me about it and said that she was able to cut 50% off her food budget one month because of all the food she was getting from Bountiful Baskets. I was curious, so I tried it and sure enough, you do get LOTS of produce a very small cost. It is $15.00 per basket, there is a $1.5 charge per order- so if you get one basket it is $16.50 total but if you get 4 baskets it is $61.50. I was very, very, very lucky to be asked to be a Volunteer Site Coordinator for a Bountiful Basket Site in our town, (and because of that- and the 3+ hours that I put in "Coordinating"), I get a free basket. Blessing! Here is what my basket looked like today.

For Fruit, 2 Pineapples, 1 pound Strawberries, 1 container of Blackberries, 7 Bananas, 6 Apples and a Cantaloupe. For Veggies Asparagus, Green Leaf Lettuce, 6 Roma Tomatoes, Neon Green Cauliflower, Garlic and about a pound of Green Beans.

I am thinking of making some Fruit Salsa! YUM!

If you are interested in knowing more or if you would like to see if there is a Bountiful Baskets location near you, here is their website- bountifulbaskets.org . Happy Eating!

Moments in Bad Motherhood

It has been getting warmer and J has been enjoying some freedom in our back yard. He has figured out how to get out there all on his own, it is a relatively safe place so I have not been stopping him from making frequent and sometimes lengthy trips out there. He hasn't yet figured out how to let himself back in the house and so I try to listen for a little knock, or a muffled "Mama". Yesterday I heard a pretty loud cry and so I hurried to the back door......and this is what I found.

Can you blame me that I didn't let him in right away. But rather that I ran as fast as I could and got my camera. I think most mothers would have taken several pictures, wouldn't they? Yes, this was one of my moments of bad motherhood. I love my son, I do, but I think that moments like these need to be remembered. I look forward to the day when I can show his new wife just how curious he was. When you are a curious little (almost)3 year old, you can get yourself into some interesting positions. In this case, he got himself stuck inside a tomato cage. After I finished taking pictures, I freed him from his cage. It took 3 or 4 minutes to do, he had wormed his way in there and was wedged pretty tightly. I understood exactly why he was near tears.

The pictures still make me laugh. I think I should make a book about these moments. Someday I will present it to his little boys........oh the fun they will have, emulating their father.

Tuesday, As much fun as any other day......

So, we have been having a pretty good day around here. I can't stop taking pictures, so I figured I would share them with you. Here is J eating part of his breakfast. He calls it Honeydew, but he calls all melons honeydew. I had a cup of cantaloupe with my breakfast.......

....J had the rest of the the melon. Notice the baby in this picture. I think he is thinking about how someday, he will get to eat copious amounts of melon too.
After breakfast J played some sesame street, I did the dishes and baby B had some tummy time. He is actually starting to like tummy time. He rolls from back to belly, and then from belly to back when he wants. He plays with toys and he also practices proper sky diving body positioning. It's pretty cute, he pulls his legs off the ground and lifts his hands up off the ground and titters happily on his belly. He also smiles a lot if you lay down on the floor and play with him.
The Babies morning nap was long enough for me to run 3 miles! It was very nice. I didn't get to stretch until after nap time though, which wasn't too horrible because it meant that I had this sweet little face to stare at as I stretched.
If I turned the other way I could look at this guy.
Then after I was all done stretching J and his friend "Baby Doggy" showed me how downward facing dog is really done.
So that has been our morning. It has been pretty great. Now everyone has been fed lunch, Baby B is down for his second nap, J is in the tub (he asked to take a bath and since my plan is to take one myself when he goes down for his nap in 30 min, I couldn't deny him), and I am thinking I just might be able to finish cleaning the house before Ken gets home. Yeah, It's been a pretty great day.