video: toddler walking with a shopping cart

Today's goal is to put away lots of clean laundry. Believe it or not, I do have stuff I want to blog about. For now, enjoy this video I made last week. Everyone in the store thought C was so cute. She totally is.

September {2012}

Like the posts I created about June/July and August, this shows only some, not all, of our photos and activities for the month.

For us the most significant event in September was the beginning of our first child's public education. Kindergarten! She enjoyed the testing they did with her in August, and the kindergarten open house, and she was so excited to start. She had to wait longer than a lot of kids, since her birthday is November. Except for falling down and hurting her forehead on the first day of gym, she loves school. She loves to tell me about what they do and which girls are her favorite. We have this conversation while we walk home after her three-hour school day (it's two hours on short day). I've noticed -- maybe it changed as the newness of school wore off -- that she only tells me a few of the things they did. I often have to ask if I want to know. It's been good to make sure I read with her and her sisters for twenty minutes each day. Sadly, we hadn't been spending that much time on books. But I'm impressed by the words she knew how to read even before school began, and I'm impressed by her speed when she does it. My husband had the idea recently to have her read the first verse of our nightly Book of Mormon reading, after she watches one of us read it.

watching the other students

one of her fancy hairstyles for school

I participated in birth junkie stuff two days in a row. First, an Improving Birth National Rally for Change, with took place on Labor Day (get it?). One of my friends who was there was born on Labor Day, too.

 

The purpose of this annual event is to encourage all maternal health care providers to practice evidence-based care. You can click on Improving Birth's web site for more information, and also watch this 3-minute video I got from there. Did you know that in the United States the maternal mortality rate (number of women per 1000 who die of causes related to childbirth) has increased in the last twenty years or so?


Second was an ICAN meeting (two of my ICAN friends had also been at the rally). We decided to include our families this time, not just the ladies. We ended up not talking much about what we usually talk about, but it was fun being at the park and meeting the husbands and kids.

 

my birthday. My sister and I and our kids played in the water at a park. I had invited a few friends but they weren't able to make it. Then my husband and I had a date (no photos): window shopping at a mall and laughing at silly gifts for sale, then eating dinner at Zupa's. He, my little sister, my visiting teacher and another friend in our ward gave me presents, and my parents gave me money.

 

 

 

 

fall leaves. We don't hike often enough, I decided. (I did narrow down the number of photos . . . lots of good ones!)

 

 

 

 

 

 
other September stuff:

 

 

 

 

Our new friend Lisa E. gave us this double stroller. Our kids are in the same school class, but the first words we spoke were when we passed at the entrance to our apartments. She said, "I have a double stroller we're not using. Do you want it?" It's great to have one again because baby C was sometimes sweaty in the carrier during our walk to/from the school. I like this seating better than the side-by-side double stroller we got rid of.

 

It was Family Day at my husband's unit. Since we weren't at a park this time, he actually got to teach the girls about what he does :) He showed us the equipment and trucks, and let the the kids take turns sitting in the driver's seat.

videos: slow hugs and fast hugs, 2-year-old eating at Subway

My husband started this thing with the kids called "S l o w hug, fast hug." When one of them hugs him slowly she also has to say it slowly.

One day last week our little family ate lunch at Subway. I am thrilled that I got this of 2-year-old L chewing her sandwich.

videos: our families learn about our baby #3

Because I'm a little paranoid, I'm only posting the videos (4 out of 8) that do not contain either of our daughters' names. {I'm not the only one who does this sort of thing.} 

My mom, who you don't see in this post, had the best reaction: 

"It must mean Manda's pregnant again." 

"Yep." 

"No. . . " 

"Yep." 

"Really?!" :-O  

My dad and my husband's step-mom (and the 8-year-old) seemed to take a while to figure it out. Our older girl never wore the "big sister" shirt because I made it for the toddler (in fact, I finished it after noon, right before we went over to my parents' houses.) But let's get to the videos, shall we? 

My true love -- the day I had the positive pregnancy test (skip the first 27 seconds)

My younger sister

 

My mother-in-law (I don't know why this one got cut short)

 

My father-in-law (we told him to go look at the shirt)

our family videos: best of 2010

Shboogoo loves making up songs (this day was about two months after her third birthday).

 Happy L at 8 and half months old.

 Shboogoo and I walking to her friend's house.

When L was crawling everywhere (the one you hear is Shboogoo).

Ten-month-old L partially opening her sleepy eyes a bunch of times.

Short video of L about 16 months old, helping me sweep.

 This is my favorite one of Shboogoo; I recommend watching all of it. She thought our boxes of Christmas lights looked like a podium, and she taught a pretend Primary lesson, basically about some of the bad guys in Jesus' life. Her voice and her wording are adorable as she acts like she's an adult teaching children.

our family videos: best of 2009

I think I started this post a week ago; it was a busy week. . . . I want to share some posts containing videos. I may print my blog, and by having posts that are videos only, I can exclude them from the blog books without having to also exclude photos and writing. It had been way too long since I watched some of the videos I made in 2009. A lot of them my husband had never seen (even though I often intended to upload them for him, because I had Shboogoo and other people saying hello to him -- via the camera -- while he was deployed). I chose several of the best ones. Enjoy!

Shboogoo's first haircut, March 2009 (she was tired, but maybe that helped her sit so still!) (it's probably too boring to watch the whole thing).

With each of my pregnancies I felt the baby hiccuping. I know this doesn't happen to every mom, but I knew they were hiccups! The video shows my belly moving as L hiccuped about a month before she was born (this is my most popular video on youtube).

 

Shboogoo holding her sister (who someone swaddled in a weird way . . . you mostly see her legs and not her face) for the very first time!

This is one of the sweetest and saddest things ever, because it was a Monday or Tuesday night and D left for Afghanistan on Wednesday morning.

Shboogoo's pronunciation and imagination were funny, and I captured how she sang like Ariel.

"How you doin'?" (L about two months old)