Saturday, August 19, 2017

Right Now: August Edition

Reading: We are STILL reading the Big Book of Big Dinosaurs every. single. night. We always let the each of the kids pick a book to read before bed. Ayden has picked this same book, every night since Easter. My knowledge of dinosaurs is ridiculous. Did you know that a Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth were 14 inches long? The Diplodocus was the longest dinosaur and the Sauroposeidon was the tallest.

Watching: We recently started a 30 day free trial of Hulu, just so we could watch This is Us. I watched the show when it was on before, but Tony decided he wanted to watch it too. Season 1 is just as good the second time around. I can't wait for the show to start up again this fall.

I'm also watching America's Got Talent. Have you seen the 12 year old ventriloquist, Darci Lynne? If you haven't, you NEED TO! Just click on her name (that I just typed) and it will take you to a video of her first audition. Incredible!

Listening: We've been listening to We Are The Dinosaurs (surprised? lol), by the Laurie Berkner Band. The kids both love this song! If you have a little one that is really into dinosaurs, find this song for him/her. Just do it. And then you can blame me for it being stuck in your head.

Drinking: Always water, but not near as much as I should be drinking it lately. Also, Minute Maid Light Lemonade, and Diet Pepsi. I don't usually drink a lot of pop, but we had company last weekend and there was a few cans left that hadn't been opened, so I treated myself.

Eating: Lately I've been stuck on Pirate Booty. The kids love it for a snack, and so do I. Too much actually. It's addicting.

Wearing: A softball senior all star shirt from back in my coaching days when I helped coach the senior all star games. It's dated 2009. It's just a few years old! haha! I'm also wearing a pair of softball pajama shorts.

Loving: When my kids happily play together. Listening to them giggling and having fun together is everything. They fight a lot over toys, who gets to go potty first, who sits in what chair... It's exhausting. But usually at least once/day, they play nicely together. Those moments make the screaming matches a tiny bit more tolerable.



Anticipating: Being reunited with my sisters again tomorrow! Last summer, Sis and I traveled to Montana to meet our baby sister, who we hadn't seen in 30 years up till that point. This year, Baby Sis is traveling here to Oregon with her family! We'll all be under one roof for an entire week and I can't wait!

The 3 of us from last summer: Baby Sis, Sis, and me.

Hoping: That the eclipse traffic won't be as bad as anticipated. We have 100% totality here, which is awesome, but also means chaos. Oregon is expected to have a million extra visitors for this once in a lifetime event. I'm hoping it doesn't interfere with our plans for the week, with Baby Sis here.

Following: The news regarding the eclipse. I've read a few articles about eye safety. We have glasses for watching it, but I am nervous for the kids, as they just won't understand that they need to keep the glasses on and not look at the sun. I've also been following the traffic news. So far, it doesn't seem as bad as anticipated, but it's not over yet, so we will see.

Wondering: If I will ever get motivated enough to actually make exercise and eating healthier a priority. I'm seriously not happy with my body. Yet, I can't seem to make that leap into making healthier choices. I just need to do it. Ugh. I'm embarrassed that I used to be a personal trainer. My life is so far from that now.

Trying: To work on my patience. It's a challenge. Three year old whining, crying, and fighting about everything grates on my nerves to no end.

Worrying: About Ayden's stutter. I've been meaning to write a blog post about this topic specifically, but I just haven't been able to sit down and put my thoughts into words yet. The short version is that Ayden started stuttering on the 4th of July. It progressively got worse for 3 weeks, to the point that he could barely talk. It's gotten a million times better since then, but is still a pretty serious issue. I'm worried that this will be a permanent thing. I'm worried about how it will effect him in school and with his peers.

Planning: To celebrate our anniversary! The in-laws will be watching the kids for a weekend. This will be our first weekend away from them ever! We've done a few overnight trips, but never more than one night. I am so looking forward to having two days to focus on us. It is much needed. Now we just have to decide what we want to do.

Contemplating: Going to bed. I really, really need to go to bed now.



5 comments:

  1. I LOVE this kind of post!!! I am soooo SORRY about the dinosaur book! Wealth of info BUT seriously how many times does one want to read it!!! Thank goodness the day will come soon that he can read that to himself!!!! LOVE THIS IS US and waiting anxiously for it to start as well! DARCI LYNNE is WONDERFUL and I anticipate her to be performing with Terry Fator and for her to WIN!!! Voted for her Monday and she is my #1 pick to win the whole thing!!! I have shirts (and I do mean plural shirts) way older than 2009 that I still wear daily!!! Anticipating throwing a couple out when I clean out my closet!! I hope that Naomi and family have arrived, hoping for lots of fun for all of you and anxiously waiting myself for the eclipse tomorrow and for watching the coverage on TV!! I hope that you made it to bed after posting this as you have a long, active, loving, exhausting, noisy week ahead!!! ENJOY!!! Love and hugs, Auntie

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  2. Google eclipse glasses for kids & paper plates. I guess it helps keep the glasses on b/c the glasses are not made for kids.

    Izzy had a period of stuttering. It never got bad, but it was because she had all of these things to say and couldn't get all of them out. Maybe talk to your ped about it? Otherwise I would just remind him to take a deep breath and think about what he wants to say before saying it. There is no rush.

    Have fun with your sisters and I'm so glad that you are Tony will be getting away for the weekend!

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  3. Re: stutter. Both of my twins have stuttered for weeks at a time (often to the point of not being able to speak at all) over the past 2 years, and we spoke to several specialists about it. The advice we got was to not make a big deal about it (no coaching, no trying to speak for them w/o giving them a good long chance to get out the word), and if it didn't mostly go away in 6-12 months, then consult again with a speech language pathologist, with the understanding that she'd probably tell us that it was normal and to wait longer. When the children would get frustrated (one day my daughter got out, so sadly, "I can't talk anymore!", we'd explain to them that their brains were growing so fast that they were getting confused, and that eventually they would sort themselves out. (Which, apparently, is semi-accurate: the theory is that at this age they're learning so much, and their brains are re-wiring so rapidly, that wires are getting crossed, more or less. And for most kids (though not all), as long as you don't stress them out about it, they'll work it out on their own.) So far it's worked for us. (Also--a SLP told me something like ~40% of kids stutter at one time or another. So quite normal.)

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  4. A weekend away!!!!!! How was the eclipse chaos? I've been watching AGT off and on and loved the little ventriloquist girl!

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    1. We stayed home and didn't venture into the eclipse chaos. Fortunately, it didn't effect our trip to the coast at all on the Wednesday after. We were lucky we could see the full eclipse right from my sister's backyard!

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