Los Valles

We took a fun day on Friday after Omar finished his Senior Project and Isaiah got his shots. First we had a picnic at Bidwell with Michael, Tara, and Ava, and then we went to play baseball and run around. We shopped a little, and just hung out together. It was nice to have a calm day with Omar around.

If you click on these pictures, you can see more fun facts about the day.

Isaiah celebrated Cinco de Mayo by moving forward for the first time. (He has scooted backwards for a while.) This video was the next day at the park, taken by Aunt Tara. I think his buns in the air maneuvers are hilarious.

He’s still not very good at it, and he gets really frustrated. Today he got up on his knees and did the rocking action. I’m a little nervous, Helaman never crawled so this will be a new parenting adventure for me. I guess I’ll have to vacuum more.

Just a note to myself, these are the things I’ve learned lately about doing my job better:

• Stop comparing myself. When Stephanie was here on Thursday I kept lamenting about all the wonderful things I saw other mothers doing. She helped me see there is a balance, and we all mother in our own way.
• Enjoy it more. I loved watching my friend Emily and her kids. They really enjoy each other and are very positive and upbeat. I want to make our home feel like a happier place to be all of the time. More play and less stress.
• Roll with it. Amanda’s job sure seems harder than mine in lots of ways, more kids, more trials. But she never complains and always seems to have such a positive attitude. Do I really need to freak out that I didn’t get the floor vacuumed today? Really?
• Notice all the little moments more. I enjoyed watching Nikki watch her daughter. It made me realize how much of my boys I am missing in all my stress and worry.
• Focus on them more. Lena’s focus always seems to be on her kids (or whatever kids are in the room). We’re all happier when I focus on everyone else. It’s so easy to get caught up in the worldly idea of meeting my own “needs.” And it never makes me happy. That’s when mean mommy comes out.

It was great hanging out with these women Friday night. I appreciated learning from them and having fun with them. It was just what I needed.

It was a crazy weekend, and I haven’t quite recovered yet. It’s 11:15p.m. on Monday, and we are just now getting wound down from the day. I always have great plans for routines and getting to bed early. But you know what they say about intentions… they are a great starting point, right?

Friday was the Father & Son camp out for our ward. Helaman and Omar were supposed to go, but by the time Friday afternoon came around Helaman only wanted to camp in the yard, not far away. So, they had a private camp out here.

My friend Amanda was awesome enough to host a gathering for the girls while the boys were all gone.
It was nice to just be girly for a while. I stayed there way too late, but it was lots of fun. I really enjoy being around all those sweet mothers and learning how to do a better job myself.

Saturday morning, the birds woke Helaman up at 5:00a.m., and he never made it back to sleep. It was a tough day trying to keep that tired boy from breaking down. We tried several times to get him to nap, but he has an amazing ability to keep himself awake, even lying in the dark, exhausted, for long periods of time.

By Sunday, poor tired boy was sick of course. He woke up at 5 again, this time with a high fever. Isaiah is teething and not feeling great anyway, and none of us made it to church. Our friend Stephanie had a concert with the Yuba Sutter Orchestra that afternoon. Helaman was feeling better, so we planned to go, but as I was getting him ready his fever came back. He was broken hearted about not going, so we went anyway. He says he enjoyed it, but he just laid on my lap for the whole thing.

Omar came home early from work today, worried about his sick kids, who, ironically, both woke up fine and have been happy as clams all day.

We had lunch with Tara and her nephews, and then went to Marysville to smog Fernando’s truck. That took a lot longer than it was supposed to, so we had lots of time to play in the park. Then we went to Jesse & Sandra’s house where Sandra fed us a delicious dinner and Omar tried to rid the computer of some awful malware.

And then home, late. Hopefully Helaman will get enough sleep to be happy at preschool tomorrow. I sure could use a good nights sleep, too. We’ll see. Maybe I should go to bed earlier.

Mom and Dad watched the boys for an hour last night while I went to get my haircut and Omar was at school. Helaman was being so funny. He said he was a monkey and kept climbing all over everything. But the funniest thing was, he thought carrots were the best toy in the world last night.

As we were leaving, he had a little tiny baby carrot in his hand, that he insisted needed to come with us. He dropped it on the way out the door, and Omar told him it was dirty now, so he couldn’t eat it, and we needed to throw it away.

“I am just going to put it in my ear, dad! I am not going to eat it.”

What?

Later he told us he was pretending it was an earplug. (Like the one my dad uses to take naps, they are little orange things.) He’s so funny.

As for teeth, Isaiah’s first tooth finally broke all the way through yesterday. It’s still little tiny, but you can feel it and see it. It’s on the bottom middle left. I don’t think he was having much fun with it, but it’s an exciting milestone. I still can’t believe he’s already this big!