We took Josh and Hannah to see the circus.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Family time - May 2013
Caleb moments - May 2013 (14 - 15 months)
Caleb loves stamping in the puddles at the park! I had to get
him some boots very quickly to make sure he didn't end up with wet socks all
the time!
Such a happy boy!
He says lots of things that sound like trying to say real
words, like “Up”, “Ga ga” for grandpa, and “Na na” for Hannah, and “Da” for
Josh
Because he’s so heavy I have to feed him lying down and he
spends quite a bit of time playing with my hands, tummy, clothes, blanket etc.
Then he’ll cuddle afterwards for a while, or using me as a jungle gym.
Caleb just LOVES Uncle Andrew! When he comes in the morning Caleb's face just lights up. But he also wants to get in on the action with his tablet!
He said something that sounded like: “Where's Hannah? I
don't know. Under the table”
He imitates lots of things that we do, like picking up the
landline or cell phone and talking.
He often just about jumps into my arms and lifts up his
legs to try and put them around me when I’m going to pick him up in the
afternoon.
He loves reading, and he'll often fetch a book for one of us to read for him.
He loves handing out the toothbrushes. He won't take his
own until he's given out the others and he knows which is which.
He practically runs everywhere instead of walking, but its
a fast waddle more than a run really. So cute to watch J
When Hannah was crying he came and spontaneously gave her
a big hug. The kids are all so sweet towards each other!
Such a mess!
When I go fetch him in the afternoon he'll be all playful,
coming towards me and then running away again, sometimes a number of times.
He is getting so big. He’s started walking in to Aunty
Wendy, and pressing the button. And he just wants to be climbing stairs and doing everything the big people do!
He has started folding his hands when he wants us to pray,
and then he'll try and say amen at the end, as well as mumbling a bit during
the prayer.
Hannah moments - May 2013 (3 years)
My trendy Hannah
Hannah is such a sweet girl! One time she asked “Should I
say a prayer for Caleb to stop crying?” Then she said a beautiful prayer for
exactly that!
One day I hear “I love you so much mommy”. Music to my
ears!
She is so expressive, and often does funny things as well
with her face and her body in general. One thing she did quite often was nodding
her head vigorously, half chuckling and saying “chi ja!” (ie Yes) in response
to a question.
When Josh was a bit upset she went looking for his “ugly
angry” drum. It wasn't in their room, which upset her but she went and got a
different container and his spoon to let him bang out ugly angry.
If she's hungry she might get out 3 bowls and dishes up
for all 3 of the kids.
She comes up with very good solutions to things sometimes,
like leaning back against a wall to put on her panties and pants because she
wanted to do it while standing.
If I'm sad she fills up my water bottle and brings it to
me to help me feel better – such a sweet girl!
She often wants to pick up Caleb to take him places, but
he's the same weight as her, so that doesn’t work out too well…
She brought me her birthday Hello Kitty body wash and
sponge for me to use in the shower. She is generally very kind and generous.
Looking after her baby.
Hannah is often a peace maker. If she can do something to
make Josh or Caleb happy she will try to do it, even if she does up giving up
something herself.
When both kids want something I'll often count to 5 or 10
for the current one to end their turn. Hannah will often give the thing to Josh
before I finish counting out the end of her turn.
Joshua moments - May 2013
After the battles we've been having with Josh, and his
being very shy, he actually asked his teacher to have a chance to do something
in class in the middle of the whole class! I was SO happy to hear it! After
being very anxious about school a month ago, his teaches says there has been a
complete turn-around in his behaviour. He wants to take his turn during morning
ring and half the boys are saying they want to come play at his house!
I’m sure this isn't the first time ever, but he came out
with “We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Saturday Saints” J
One afternoon he closed all 3 kids in the car, put on Barney
music really loud and then they were all jumping around having a party inside the car!
He’s getting so big he typed on his own 1 to 20, and with
help he typed all the way to 49 before he got distracted.
Josh found some creature or other that he wanted to look after nicely...
He’s got a new game he likes playing: He closes the
kitchen gate and then asks us what's your order? Then he’ll get our bowl or
plate of food, and make up some random number. “Order number 821 is ready!” I
don’t know where he came across that, but he does it very well J
On the way to church one Sunday we were listening to
Praise to the Man, and for the last chorus I heard him quietly saying the words
with.
One of his other favourite games is acting out Night at
the Museum. He gets his dinosaurs, especially his favourite dinosaur skeleton,
and some other animals, and then he’ll have a man and his friends see that
they’re all asleep, and then one stays behind and gets surprised when they come
alive at night. He really enjoys these kind of fantasy play games!
Look at this dinosaur that Josh made!
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Letter to Richard - 26 May 2013
Dear Richard
I can finally start with something
other than saying that the week was hectically busy! It was busy, but I feel
like I can catch my breath for the first time in months!
I finished setting my test
that the students will write this week coming, and I finally got to start on
the chapters I need to revise for the next edition of our textbook. And I also
got to do some personal things, like catching up on our budget, which I hadn’t
looked at in over 2 months, and also quite a bit of blogging. I’m sure you
noticed a surge of them in the one week. I also did a fair amount of procrastinating,
but I think that was my body’s natural response to not having an immediate
deadline for the first time in ages. I had gotten to the point where I was sometime
literally 20 minutes ahead of where I had to be almost all of the time L But
now I can breathe!
Andrew and I went to Colleen
and Rohan’s place for a really nice supper on Friday. Kind of to celebrate
Colleen’s birthday, but she said she’d been wanting to do something like that
for ages, and it just happened to be the day after her birthday in the end.
Carina and Ryan were also there, and although it could have been a very quiet
evening, with 3 of the quietest men around making up 50% of the party, but it
was actually really pleasant!
So you remember that we were
having such problems with Joshua, and his anxiety around school, and I spoke to
the teachers etc. Well I spoke to his teacher on Thursday, to see how things
were going. I had the sense that things were improving, but she said it has
been a complete turnaround for Josh. He is now completely happy to take his
turn doing things in front of the other kids, and half of the boys are saying
that they want to come to play at his house. So he’s gone from being victimised,
to being one of the popular kids! Amazing! And such a relief for us!
Josh has also decided that he
wants to start riding his bicycle without the training wheels on anymore. So we
took them off yesterday, and then again today. And Andrew yesterday, and me
today, were running next to him holding the saddle… My thighs were killing me
after a while! For the most part he seems to be balancing pretty well, but it
will be a while before we let go when he’s riding. But the next step.
Our Sunday School and Relief
Society lessons today were quite interestingly linked. SS was about the law of
tithing and the fast, but Bro Terry started by asking us to rate our faith in
Jesus Christ on a scale of 1 to 10. After a fair amount of discussion we ended
up concluding that most of us have complete faith in Jesus Christ, as in we know
he lives and he’s our saviour. But we don’t tend to live 100% the way we
should, so we’re lacking in our works. RS was then based on Elder Holland’s
talk “Lord, I believe” where he spoke about having integrity to the faith that
we do have. And I realised at some stage through all of this a bit of how my
faith and doubt is playing out. Like, when we’re praying for Mom to be healed.
I have complete faith that the Lord CAN heal Mom, but I tend to then not be
sure if it is His will to heal her, and so then I doubt. And I think that now
that I’ve thought this through a bit it’s not as bad as I was feeling it was.
So I felt like I didn’t have proper faith because I was doubting if Mom would
be healed. But I do have faith that she CAN be healed, and we need to carry on
asking. But then the other part is accepting His will if He chooses not to. But
we don’t know if it is His will or not, so we need to carry on asking in faith,
and trusting that because He can do it, if it doesn’t happen it’s because it
wasn’t the right thing. That may sound not that different, but in my mind it’s
been just that slight shift that has put things in perspective (and I might
have also explained it really badly, but hopefully you’ll kind of get it J)
And then the other thing was
in SS talking about tithing and fasting, and I was able to link those two
together, and actually any commandment that we’re obedient to, with that
insight I had when I was fasting a few weeks ago. So I came to realise that
when we are sacrificing, in that case it was fasting, but it applied equally to
tithing, or sacrificing to obey any commandment, then we can stand before the
Lord with confidence, and say, I have made this sacrifice, so please honour
that sacrifice and grant me this help or answer or whatever it is. So another
way that obedience and sacrifice is a blessing – giving us confidence that we
can ask. And then when we ask in faith, and we’ve been obedient so we can
qualify for the blessings, “it will be given”.
So I like it when I start
seeing this clearer, and I’ve been blessed to have a day of it today J
So, keep on with that exact
obedience (but remember not to be hard on people who are trying their best, but
for whatever reason can’t do the same) so that you can carry on asking with
confidence!
Have a good week J
Shelly
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Letter to Richard - birthdays and miracles
Dear Richard
I think I can finally say
that I’m catching my breath! So this past week has been intense, but I can see
a slight glimmer at light at the end of the tunnel at least, now J
The semester finished on Thursday,
so I’m finished teaching until July, which is a huge relief. Not that I don’t
have plenty else to do… My students are writing their test in 9 days, and I don’t
have the test set yet, let alone checked by the people who need to check it and
then printed. And then there are all the other things I need to be doing as
well, but this is a whole lot better than how I felt last week!
Mom came home on Tuesday, and
there is a definite improvement from what she was like. And you should see how
good her tremor is looking! Her head is still shaking a bit, but her hands are
SO much steadier!
It was Hannah’s birthday on
Friday, so a lot of this week has been focused around getting things ready for
her party, shopping for things, baking cupcakes for school on Friday, and then
all the preparation for her party yesterday. But it all went really well, and I
think she really enjoyed her birthday! Her party yesterday was also really nice
because the people who came were all really nice – nice kids and parents.
Then of course you know about
Cindy and the cyst she had to have removed yesterday… I had to leave work early
on Friday to go and be with her at the hospital to relieve Mom. It was an
interesting role to play… J
But she’s getting better now, and at least the thing is gone!
And we also went to Amy’s
birthday party yesterday, which was very nice. At least a lot more calm than
our party yesterday afternoon J
And then our miracle for the
week… On Thursday morning we were just about to leave for school when we
realised that my keys were gone. We searched all over (thankfully we were
actually early for a change, and this searching didn’t make up late) but there
was NO sign of them. That evening we ended up getting to bed really late,
because there was NO sign of them anywhere in the house. We kept on searching,
and praying about it, and I felt that they would turn up, but we really had
exhausted all our possibilities… The keys were my car keys, which has a key for
both my and Andrew’s car, plus a gate remote, so it’s a serious bunch to lose,
in terms of replacement cost, and the risk of someone getting into our property…
But also, because it was my car and gate keys, it would have made sense that
they must be somewhere at home, because I managed to get home…
Anyway, we just kept on
searching and praying to find them. Then on Saturday as we were driving to Amy’s
party Andrew saw a sign stuck on the fence of a house around the corner from
us, 2 houses from the swimming teacher “Lost keys found in driveway”. There was
no one at home, but we phoned the number and the lady said she’d bring them
around to us to see if they were ours. And then when we were at Colleen’s house
Dad phoned me, and the lady was outside our gate, and was wanting to see if
they were our keys, which they were! What a blessing! But also just things like
Dad happened to be at home then, instead of at the hospital with Cindy or at
the party, he was outside, but came in just at that time to check something,
and saw her standing outside our house, and then just this really kind lady
finding the keys, who made an effort to find their owner. I can Definitely see
Heavenly Father’s hand in all of this, and we are SO grateful to have the keys
back, and to have had the whole experience! I dropped off a thank you card on
the way home from church today, and I also put in a pass-along card. It is the
best thing we could give as a thank you, after all J
And the kids were Amazing at
church today! Really good during sacrament, and then no arguments about eating
their lunch after church, either! We are busy doing a reward chart to try and
get Josh and Hannah to be more reverent during prayers and scripture reading,
and yesterday they only got half a smiley face sticker because they didn’t do
well for something. But I told them they could have yesterday’s second half
today if they were reverent in sacrament. So I don’t know how much of a role
that played, but they were really good! It might have at least helped Josh, and
then if he is calm, it makes a huge difference to the others… But hopefully the
start of good things to come!
Love you lots
Shelly
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