Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Hello, from the reluctant writer!
It has been such a long time since I last wrote, I fear this will end up a saga. Whatever the case, read if you like, or don't if I drone on...
I found out just before school finished in May that we are expecting a baby. We love all our children, and it has been especially fun to have a baby now that the other kids are old enough to help. They have been the best siblings to Katelyn – it is truly delightful to see the way they take care of and adore each other. With this pregnancy, I have some concerns about a repeat placental abruption since I have all the risk factors (previous abruption, high blood pressure, and many pregnancies) and I admit that I'm tired of the nausea, fatigue, and pains that come with pregnancy, but I would love to have a baby and I hope and pray this pregnancy ends with a healthy baby (and mom!) I have been so grateful to have gone through the worst of the nausea during the summer when we have a relatively relaxed schedule and I could sleep in and not be running from one thing to the next all day. This has certainly not been my most efficient summer, but hopefully the kids have enjoyed my not pushing them as hard as usual. At nearly 19 weeks into this pregnancy, I am still nauseated (especially in the evenings) but better than I was the first 6-8 weeks, when the nausea was so severe it would wake me during the night. We all look forward to the upcoming ultrasound tomorrow, September 1st.
I am settling into my role and responsibilities as Relief Society president (the women's organization of our local church congregation.) I should and would like to get out to visit the sisters more. Hugh probably thinks I'm silly to stress about the once-every-month-or-two lessons I have to prepare when he has to teach Sunday School every other week, but at least I am becoming more comfortable with conducting meetings and teaching the lessons, as well as with being more outgoing. I am very grateful for this calling because it has pushed me out of my comfort zone; I am also grateful for willing, reliable counselors who do so well what I ask them to do.
We enjoyed the Dosdall Family reunion in early July at Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone was beautiful, but probably not the best pick for young kids since it requires a lot of driving to get from one attraction to the next. Everyone's favorite part was being together. We realize everyone made sacrifices to be here, and that means a lot to us. It was fun to have at least some of the group come back to Utah to visit more after the weekend at Yellowstone.
We also had a great time with the Wilkins Family at Palisade Lake (about 1 ½ hours drive southeast of Spanish Fork) later in July. We ended up driving down just for the day so that Hugh and some of the kids could attend a concert on Temple Square the evening before. (And neither Hugh nor I was crushed about missing out on the packing, unpacking, and sleeping in a tent...)
The kids have kept busy enough. Steven turned “Sweet (Sassy? - what do you say for boys?) Sixteen” on May 18th. He was in no rush to get his license until about a month prior when he realized how much more free and easy his social life would be if he had that kind of flexibility. After many stressful drives accompanied by critiquing (critical?) parents, Steven has finally earned enough our trust (or worn us out enough) that he drives himself to some friends' homes and to run local errands for us. He also drives his siblings to school much of the time, which is helpful and scary and strange all at the same time. I'm still somewhat nervous about his driving because I think he's over-confident. He is suddenly a favorite of his younger siblings (who call him “Steve”, which he never would have allowed when he was younger) due to his generally pleasant and often helpful disposition. He likes to listen to all kinds of music, solve crossword and logic puzzles, and read occasionally. Above all else, he loves to spend time being with and talking to his friends on the phone, and I can always tell the gender of the friend by the length of the conversation. Steven did very well on the ACT test he took in June, though I'm still hoping to persuade him to study and retake it since doing well would increase his chances for scholarships, especially since he is not participating in leadership and extra-curricular activities which might otherwise make him an attractive scholarship recipient.
Daniel has spent the summer doing puzzles, playing “Brain Age” on his GameBoy, watching movies, reading books, and learning basic computer programming using Adobe Flash animating software. After having observed his interaction and responsibility with Katelyn since she was born, I finally consented to let Daniel get a dog, which we did on the last day of school (May 26th.) The dog is a mild-tempered four year-old miniature schnauzer named Jacques. Feeding, bathing, walking, cleaning up after – is all Daniel's responsibility. He has done fairly well, though I think it hasn't been as fun as he had imagined all these years that it would be (and just as bad in many ways as I had imagined.) Daniel and Steven both participated in a Youth Trek with our church ward (re-enacting a pioneer journey,) EFY (a week-long inspirational youth day camp,) and a three-day backpacking trip with the Scout troop/Young Men to Boulder Mountain here in Utah. Daniel also attended a fun team-building leadership camp with the rest of the student government. He was recruited to play on a newly-formed club soccer team, and has been practicing once or twice a week for much of the summer. We expect him to earn the money to pay half the fees required to participate, and the coach assured us that he will have plenty of parent help getting the boys to their games (which may be played as far south as Santaquin and as far north as Logan) since we explained that we will have at least four other kids playing community soccer at the same time.
Julia is still a very petite, now 13 year-old (as of July 16th) girl. She loves to organize big projects, like the preschool she ran for part of the summer for her younger siblings Matthew and Emily. I really appreciate everything she did to ensure that they were learning and accomplishing something, especially as I was nauseated and tired constantly the majority of the summer. She also organized a “themed restaurant” with her younger sisters and cousin, Josie. They made a variety of foods with names based on the theme – Fantasyland Foods (fairy tales) the first time, and Willie Wonka's Breakfast Factory the second. They made menus and dressed in costume while they served their “customers” (siblings, parent, grandparents, and cousins.) They spent the couple days beforehand baking muffins and breakfast cookies and mixing up multigrain pancakes and waffles. Julia took arts and crafts and photography classes through the community during the early part of the summer. She enjoyed the week of Girls' Camp up at the Church's Heber Valley facility mid-July. She was very conscientious about trying to acclimate herself to the school schedule the last couple weeks of the summer, trying to get to bed early and waking early and getting herself showered and ready before what would be school-time (while I, on the other hand, slept in until the very last day...)
Michael stayed up late every night of the summer. His favorite way to spend time is playing with friends or playing electronic games of one sort or another. He also enjoys his baby sister, Katelyn, and I have been delighted to see the new tenderness she has brought out in him. The last month or so, Michael has become something of an origami and card trick master. Nearly every time I forget to lock the computer, I find him there either playing a game or looking up how many different kinds of face cards he can buy from online merchants. Michael somehow persuaded me to not cut his hair this summer, and while I threatened and planned to cut it the day before school started last week, I ran out of time and he sported very long hair for the first week of school. As a 7th grader and in the Jr. High, Michael seems to enjoy the variety of having five different classes and teachers every day.
Alyssa's favorite thing to do right now is hair. She will see a hairstyle on someone else or in a picture and can, without instruction, duplicate it on herself or on one of her sisters. Finally, my girls can have cute hair despite their mom's lack of ability! At her request, we signed Alyssa up for a gymnastics class near the end of the school year, and even though she has lots of natural ability, her interest fizzled out after just a few weeks. She is loving the new (used) 10-foot tall, metal swingset (with a stationary acrobatic bar) which Hugh, Steven, and my dad installed last weekend. Alyssa likes to color and make things. She took an arts and crafts class during the summer with Julia and really enjoyed that. Alyssa likes to dance and freestyle play the piano (not at the same time, thank goodness – I don't think that would work out so well.) She resists structured piano practice, though since she and Natalie finished the three-year “Let's Play Music” course in May, we did start them both on piano lessons. Alyssa's reluctance puzzles me, since she really seems to understand and have a natural ear for music; in fact, her composition was one of six chosen from hundreds participating in the program to win a prize. Alyssa is a favorite of her younger siblings, often their champion and defender against more easily irritated older siblings. She doesn't love to read, but is usually willing to read to the little kids.
We all have enjoyed Natalie's more easy-going temperament this summer. The kids were all excited when we told them we are going to have another baby, but it is Natalie who has offered several times to help ease my burden. She loves to read, and devours books without my prodding. She and Alyssa and their cousin Josie played together a lot throughout the summer. Natalie likes roller skating/blading and taking the dog for short walks. Natalie likes to be “Steve's” little buddy, and she says Steven drives at least as well as I do. Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, and Matthew all took swimming lessons during the summer.
Matthew just started kindergarten this week at the local elementary school. He seems to like it so far, except that he seems a little tired and grumpy from having to wake up early to be ready to leave by 8:15. He learned to ride a bike this summer. He enjoys playing electronic games, building things with Legos and blocks, and playing with friends. He is the king of drama at our house, very fond of exaggerating his reactions. He often pretends to have heard things incorrectly and responds with melodrama, like when I tell him he has to sit in the bathroom for ten minutes, he will exclaim, “Ten hours?! I'm going to starve to death in there!” He has a lot of energy and has resisted my efforts to sit down to read with him or work on teaching him to read, so I haven't pushed it too hard, though he is able to sound out simple words. Matthew loves to play card games – and especially for a five year-old, he can give me a good run for my money. He is usually much more willing to sit down and play a card game with Hugh or me than he is to read a book with us.
Emily turned four years old on July 26th. She will be starting pre-school next week, two days each week. She switches back and forth between loving “all things princess” when she plays with her sisters, and then trucks and action figures when she plays with her most frequent playmate, Matthew. Emily especially looked forward to all the festivities of the summer – the fireworks, hot air balloons, and“perwade” (parade.) She is my little hot chocolate addict, wanting at least a cup or two every day, even through the summer. She likes to watch shows on PBS or Qubo or play games on PBSkids.org when she can get away with it.
Katelyn is now 22 months old, though she often already acts the part of “Terrible Two”. She is adorable and opinionated; she loves to be read to and to “read” books out loud to herself. She is talking and communicating much more now, though she recently discovered whining. She torments Jacques, our dog, incessantly, but she is also the first one to sit outside in the summer heat with him when he is banished to the backyard for getting into her stinky diapers. Much to our relief, Katelyn is finally willing to attend the Nursery at church so Hugh and I can attend our own classes without her distracting presence. Katelyn is always trying to escape to the outdoors, and unfortunately does not feel limited by the bounds of our property or by dangerous cars in the street. She looks deceptively innocent; no one would guess she was the one who emptied the entire box of cereal on the floor, or took one bite out of every plum in the bowl, or squeezed out most of the contents of the toothpaste tube on the carpet, or raided the chore candy jar when it was left on the counter. Despite her mischief, we all adore her and enjoy watching her learn new things and become her own unique little person.
Hugh stays steadily busy at work with various projects and deadlines, at church with his Sunday School teaching, organ-playing, and a new auditing calling, and of course, at home. He and his BYU sports buddies kids look forward to the football season about to start, when they will attend as many home games as possible.
I will post another update after the ultrasound tomorrow!
It has been such a long time since I last wrote, I fear this will end up a saga. Whatever the case, read if you like, or don't if I drone on...
I found out just before school finished in May that we are expecting a baby. We love all our children, and it has been especially fun to have a baby now that the other kids are old enough to help. They have been the best siblings to Katelyn – it is truly delightful to see the way they take care of and adore each other. With this pregnancy, I have some concerns about a repeat placental abruption since I have all the risk factors (previous abruption, high blood pressure, and many pregnancies) and I admit that I'm tired of the nausea, fatigue, and pains that come with pregnancy, but I would love to have a baby and I hope and pray this pregnancy ends with a healthy baby (and mom!) I have been so grateful to have gone through the worst of the nausea during the summer when we have a relatively relaxed schedule and I could sleep in and not be running from one thing to the next all day. This has certainly not been my most efficient summer, but hopefully the kids have enjoyed my not pushing them as hard as usual. At nearly 19 weeks into this pregnancy, I am still nauseated (especially in the evenings) but better than I was the first 6-8 weeks, when the nausea was so severe it would wake me during the night. We all look forward to the upcoming ultrasound tomorrow, September 1st.
I am settling into my role and responsibilities as Relief Society president (the women's organization of our local church congregation.) I should and would like to get out to visit the sisters more. Hugh probably thinks I'm silly to stress about the once-every-month-or-two lessons I have to prepare when he has to teach Sunday School every other week, but at least I am becoming more comfortable with conducting meetings and teaching the lessons, as well as with being more outgoing. I am very grateful for this calling because it has pushed me out of my comfort zone; I am also grateful for willing, reliable counselors who do so well what I ask them to do.
We enjoyed the Dosdall Family reunion in early July at Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone was beautiful, but probably not the best pick for young kids since it requires a lot of driving to get from one attraction to the next. Everyone's favorite part was being together. We realize everyone made sacrifices to be here, and that means a lot to us. It was fun to have at least some of the group come back to Utah to visit more after the weekend at Yellowstone.
We also had a great time with the Wilkins Family at Palisade Lake (about 1 ½ hours drive southeast of Spanish Fork) later in July. We ended up driving down just for the day so that Hugh and some of the kids could attend a concert on Temple Square the evening before. (And neither Hugh nor I was crushed about missing out on the packing, unpacking, and sleeping in a tent...)
The kids have kept busy enough. Steven turned “Sweet (Sassy? - what do you say for boys?) Sixteen” on May 18th. He was in no rush to get his license until about a month prior when he realized how much more free and easy his social life would be if he had that kind of flexibility. After many stressful drives accompanied by critiquing (critical?) parents, Steven has finally earned enough our trust (or worn us out enough) that he drives himself to some friends' homes and to run local errands for us. He also drives his siblings to school much of the time, which is helpful and scary and strange all at the same time. I'm still somewhat nervous about his driving because I think he's over-confident. He is suddenly a favorite of his younger siblings (who call him “Steve”, which he never would have allowed when he was younger) due to his generally pleasant and often helpful disposition. He likes to listen to all kinds of music, solve crossword and logic puzzles, and read occasionally. Above all else, he loves to spend time being with and talking to his friends on the phone, and I can always tell the gender of the friend by the length of the conversation. Steven did very well on the ACT test he took in June, though I'm still hoping to persuade him to study and retake it since doing well would increase his chances for scholarships, especially since he is not participating in leadership and extra-curricular activities which might otherwise make him an attractive scholarship recipient.
Daniel has spent the summer doing puzzles, playing “Brain Age” on his GameBoy, watching movies, reading books, and learning basic computer programming using Adobe Flash animating software. After having observed his interaction and responsibility with Katelyn since she was born, I finally consented to let Daniel get a dog, which we did on the last day of school (May 26th.) The dog is a mild-tempered four year-old miniature schnauzer named Jacques. Feeding, bathing, walking, cleaning up after – is all Daniel's responsibility. He has done fairly well, though I think it hasn't been as fun as he had imagined all these years that it would be (and just as bad in many ways as I had imagined.) Daniel and Steven both participated in a Youth Trek with our church ward (re-enacting a pioneer journey,) EFY (a week-long inspirational youth day camp,) and a three-day backpacking trip with the Scout troop/Young Men to Boulder Mountain here in Utah. Daniel also attended a fun team-building leadership camp with the rest of the student government. He was recruited to play on a newly-formed club soccer team, and has been practicing once or twice a week for much of the summer. We expect him to earn the money to pay half the fees required to participate, and the coach assured us that he will have plenty of parent help getting the boys to their games (which may be played as far south as Santaquin and as far north as Logan) since we explained that we will have at least four other kids playing community soccer at the same time.
Julia is still a very petite, now 13 year-old (as of July 16th) girl. She loves to organize big projects, like the preschool she ran for part of the summer for her younger siblings Matthew and Emily. I really appreciate everything she did to ensure that they were learning and accomplishing something, especially as I was nauseated and tired constantly the majority of the summer. She also organized a “themed restaurant” with her younger sisters and cousin, Josie. They made a variety of foods with names based on the theme – Fantasyland Foods (fairy tales) the first time, and Willie Wonka's Breakfast Factory the second. They made menus and dressed in costume while they served their “customers” (siblings, parent, grandparents, and cousins.) They spent the couple days beforehand baking muffins and breakfast cookies and mixing up multigrain pancakes and waffles. Julia took arts and crafts and photography classes through the community during the early part of the summer. She enjoyed the week of Girls' Camp up at the Church's Heber Valley facility mid-July. She was very conscientious about trying to acclimate herself to the school schedule the last couple weeks of the summer, trying to get to bed early and waking early and getting herself showered and ready before what would be school-time (while I, on the other hand, slept in until the very last day...)
Michael stayed up late every night of the summer. His favorite way to spend time is playing with friends or playing electronic games of one sort or another. He also enjoys his baby sister, Katelyn, and I have been delighted to see the new tenderness she has brought out in him. The last month or so, Michael has become something of an origami and card trick master. Nearly every time I forget to lock the computer, I find him there either playing a game or looking up how many different kinds of face cards he can buy from online merchants. Michael somehow persuaded me to not cut his hair this summer, and while I threatened and planned to cut it the day before school started last week, I ran out of time and he sported very long hair for the first week of school. As a 7th grader and in the Jr. High, Michael seems to enjoy the variety of having five different classes and teachers every day.
Alyssa's favorite thing to do right now is hair. She will see a hairstyle on someone else or in a picture and can, without instruction, duplicate it on herself or on one of her sisters. Finally, my girls can have cute hair despite their mom's lack of ability! At her request, we signed Alyssa up for a gymnastics class near the end of the school year, and even though she has lots of natural ability, her interest fizzled out after just a few weeks. She is loving the new (used) 10-foot tall, metal swingset (with a stationary acrobatic bar) which Hugh, Steven, and my dad installed last weekend. Alyssa likes to color and make things. She took an arts and crafts class during the summer with Julia and really enjoyed that. Alyssa likes to dance and freestyle play the piano (not at the same time, thank goodness – I don't think that would work out so well.) She resists structured piano practice, though since she and Natalie finished the three-year “Let's Play Music” course in May, we did start them both on piano lessons. Alyssa's reluctance puzzles me, since she really seems to understand and have a natural ear for music; in fact, her composition was one of six chosen from hundreds participating in the program to win a prize. Alyssa is a favorite of her younger siblings, often their champion and defender against more easily irritated older siblings. She doesn't love to read, but is usually willing to read to the little kids.
We all have enjoyed Natalie's more easy-going temperament this summer. The kids were all excited when we told them we are going to have another baby, but it is Natalie who has offered several times to help ease my burden. She loves to read, and devours books without my prodding. She and Alyssa and their cousin Josie played together a lot throughout the summer. Natalie likes roller skating/blading and taking the dog for short walks. Natalie likes to be “Steve's” little buddy, and she says Steven drives at least as well as I do. Michael, Alyssa, Natalie, and Matthew all took swimming lessons during the summer.
Matthew just started kindergarten this week at the local elementary school. He seems to like it so far, except that he seems a little tired and grumpy from having to wake up early to be ready to leave by 8:15. He learned to ride a bike this summer. He enjoys playing electronic games, building things with Legos and blocks, and playing with friends. He is the king of drama at our house, very fond of exaggerating his reactions. He often pretends to have heard things incorrectly and responds with melodrama, like when I tell him he has to sit in the bathroom for ten minutes, he will exclaim, “Ten hours?! I'm going to starve to death in there!” He has a lot of energy and has resisted my efforts to sit down to read with him or work on teaching him to read, so I haven't pushed it too hard, though he is able to sound out simple words. Matthew loves to play card games – and especially for a five year-old, he can give me a good run for my money. He is usually much more willing to sit down and play a card game with Hugh or me than he is to read a book with us.
Emily turned four years old on July 26th. She will be starting pre-school next week, two days each week. She switches back and forth between loving “all things princess” when she plays with her sisters, and then trucks and action figures when she plays with her most frequent playmate, Matthew. Emily especially looked forward to all the festivities of the summer – the fireworks, hot air balloons, and“perwade” (parade.) She is my little hot chocolate addict, wanting at least a cup or two every day, even through the summer. She likes to watch shows on PBS or Qubo or play games on PBSkids.org when she can get away with it.
Katelyn is now 22 months old, though she often already acts the part of “Terrible Two”. She is adorable and opinionated; she loves to be read to and to “read” books out loud to herself. She is talking and communicating much more now, though she recently discovered whining. She torments Jacques, our dog, incessantly, but she is also the first one to sit outside in the summer heat with him when he is banished to the backyard for getting into her stinky diapers. Much to our relief, Katelyn is finally willing to attend the Nursery at church so Hugh and I can attend our own classes without her distracting presence. Katelyn is always trying to escape to the outdoors, and unfortunately does not feel limited by the bounds of our property or by dangerous cars in the street. She looks deceptively innocent; no one would guess she was the one who emptied the entire box of cereal on the floor, or took one bite out of every plum in the bowl, or squeezed out most of the contents of the toothpaste tube on the carpet, or raided the chore candy jar when it was left on the counter. Despite her mischief, we all adore her and enjoy watching her learn new things and become her own unique little person.
Hugh stays steadily busy at work with various projects and deadlines, at church with his Sunday School teaching, organ-playing, and a new auditing calling, and of course, at home. He and his BYU sports buddies kids look forward to the football season about to start, when they will attend as many home games as possible.
I will post another update after the ultrasound tomorrow!
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