After a miserable two weeks of varying degrees of sickness for everyone in our home, we are finally all well again! Just in time for spring break. It's been a loooot of time away from school for Jack. And for me. The word I would use to describe the last few weeks is "defeated." I was already feeling the strain with Alice giving up her nap, and me not getting that built-in break each day to rest or accomplish some of the many things that need to get done. Then early last week, the other provider who works with Jared was let go and all his patients went to Jared. So Jared's workload has pretty much doubled, and as if he wasn't already getting home late before, now he is realllllly not getting home until late. Like, after rush hour has ended for the day late. After Alice is fully asleep for the night. After dinner has been long cleaned up. After Jack's extracurriculars and evening wind down. They are long days for both of us. Throw in a few sick kids, and I truly have just felt so defeated and drained. It's already tough to accomplish anything beyond the daily essentials when parenting young children. These days I feel like I can't even get to the bare minimum. Even throwing a crock-pot meal in the slow cooker for dinner has been beyond my capacity many days in the past two weeks.
I have never been so grateful for a holiday weekend, and for my foresight to ask if Jared could take the kids to the cabin so I could stay home and catch a break (big-time parenting burnout for me lately), and tackle some more unpacking and to-do list items. He was only able to go for two days, but I have never needed the break more and am so grateful for it. They should be back home in a few hours, and I made a big dent in our terrifying pile of miscellaneous boxes left in the garage. Also happening right now--a big tractor is in our backyard as I type this, leveling things out and getting our yard ready for retaining walls to be added. Our backyard is underway! By the end of the month it should be leveled, sodded, patio'd, and fenced. It's a good month.
My grandmother is quite sick. I have been to visit her a few times this week. I'm so grateful for her--for her love and how she raised her family, for all I have learned from her about hosting and how it should feel low-key, and not a big to-do. For her example of faith, and strength. For how she carries herself in the world and interacts with others. For how she has encouraged me to keep this family blog all these years. I am grateful to be be able to visit her during this hard time. I have a feeling she may be too sick and not reading blog posts anymore, but just in case she's reading this, I love you so much grandma. Always. For your Christmas present this year, I'm committing to another year of weekly blog posts in 2027. Thank you for being a wonderful example to me❤️
And now, for some pictures from our week:
We're crawling our way out of this last week. Jack picked up an awful virus at awful timing. We had a trip planned to drive to Boise over the weekend to visit family and see his favorite cousin get baptized. Jack had been looking forward to it all year, really. So when he started coming down with this virus the day before we planned to go, I could see the writing on the wall and knew we weren't going to be able to go. That night he woke up with a fever and nausea, and he has been absolutely miserable ever since. He sobbed when he found out we wouldn't be visiting Idaho after all. He sobbed some more when he realized his perfect attendance record for the school year wouldn't be continuing. Then since we had to stay home, he cried because he knew he was also missing his first flag football game of the season. I cried a lot on his behalf too. It's one thing to see your child sick and miserable. It's another thing when they have to miss out on multiple things they were really excited about because of it.
The same day of the missed Idaho trip, my Dad had a stroke. We are so grateful it was relatively mild and only affected some of his peripheral vision, but it's still scary and sad. I'm sad that I couldn't visit him in the hospital because of the possibility I might be carrying this virus. I also would have loved to visit my sick grandmother this weekend, but again, I won't risk carrying this miserable virus to where she lives. I know there's no convenient time for someone to get sick, but the timing on this one felt especially awful. It hurts to know exactly who passed this virus to us, and to know they absolutely could have chosen not to bring it to our home, but they did anyway. I know I need to get over it, but it will take some time. It's been a painful week.
Not much else to report, and not many pictures from this week, but here are the ones I have:
Happy Monday! We found out that our backyard should be going in sometime in April. Hooray! The weather is so nice that we're just really excited to be able to spend our evenings on a back patio with the kids and dog running around on some grass.
I was able to visit my grandmother last night, which was a highlight of my week. She isn't feeling well lately. I'm grateful we made it to Utah so I can spend time with loved ones and see my grandma more often.
Here are some funny things Alice has said this week:
+ (Alice trying to get off a tricky piece of playground equipment and ending up in a headstand before her feet fell to the ground) Alice: "Well that was different."
+ (Alice dropping her food on the ground) Alice: "So, that happened."
+ Alice when I tried to make her take a rest one afternoon, in her sternest voice: "Mom. Lambert. Jenelle. We are NOT taking a nap today."
Alice has started recognizing and writing the letter "A" this week. She is very precocious and very comedic and VERY three. She has fully transitioned out of her naps now. I need to pull her bedtime up by about an hour to try and fight off some of the grumpiness she has during the last half of every day now that she isn't napping. I've been dragging my feet on the early bedtime because it is going to mean that I get her to bed most nights right before or right as Jared is getting home. Essentially, Jared won't be seeing Alice at all during workdays and I will be pulling the heavy end of the Alice load during this difficult toddler season. But without the early bedtime she's just impossible. I've got this.
We had a blessedly slower week. Jack is getting ready to start football season, so we took advantage of one of our last free Saturdays and headed to the Little Sahara sand dunes. Alice has officially given up her nap. This is a net negative for my productivity, but at least we can go on day adventures without having to plan around naps now.
I am blessed to have parents who remember our important dates for us when we forget. Saturday was the anniversary of me and Jared getting engaged (pi day). My parents offered to babysit while we went on a date. We ended up at Olive Garden and actually had such a great time! It's been a while since we've had a good official date. For the past year we've eeked by on our makeshift Wednesday afternoon dates--Jared has a half day on Wednesday so our strategy has been to put Alice down for her nap when he gets home and then order in some lunch or play a game at our house. Now that Alice has given up her nap, this isn't a possibility anymore. We're lucky if we can steal half an hour while Alice takes a quiet time, but it isn't quite the same with her yelling requests down the stairs at us the whole time haha. But all that to say, we really enjoyed our anniversary restaurant date. I was laughing so hard at the message Jared left for Olive Garden on their little table devices before we left: "Our experience was magical. We had the most amazing dining experience of our life. Thanks Olive Garden! I love you."
I'll get right to the pictures, and then post the photos form Jack's baptism that I didn't share last week:
Jared's parents came to town last Monday, so in the race to get our house ready I forgot about a blog post. Sorry! This week I'll pull double duty to report on Jack's birthday and baptism.
Jack turned 8! I can't believe it. We officially have a big kid on our hands. I'm sure every child is different, but around age 8 I have felt the shift from little kid to big kid. First grade and the beginning of second grade for Jack still felt quite sweet, innocent, and playful. At the end of second grade we have a big boy who is starting to outgrow playing with toys, would sometimes rather hide in his hoodie at a playground instead of playing, and is more aware of the ups and downs of life. If I were to interrupt him playing with friends out in the neighborhood, I think that would be received with embarrassment instead of joy haha. As a bigger kid I find Jack is picking up a more sophisticated sense of humor, can help with more jobs, and last night (daylight savings following a week of sugar highs and late nights with grandparents), he had a rough time staying asleep all night. The first time he woke up he came down to me so I could comfort him and get him back up to bed. The next time he woke up I heard him come down, get himself a cup of water, and take himself back to bed. This is a groundbreaking milestone.
We love Jack. He is kind, fun, smart, assertive, and resolute. This kid will do anything he sets his mind to in life. Jack has never been afraid to ask for what he wants, even from adults in his life like coaches or bus drivers. He doesn't get upset if the answer is "no" (well, unless the "no" is from his parents) but he will always ask. I am a more assertive person because of the time I have spent with Jack Lambert.
For Jack's birthday this year he asked to get a ride to school early so he could enjoy school breakfast. Jared had a half day so he took cupcakes to Jack's class in the afternoon. And then after school we met with cousins at an arcade and introduced Jack to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner. I have never seen Jack eat so much--he was in heaven. When we got home we enjoyed an Oreo birthday cake and he opened presents: a new book series for our voracious bedtime reader, Zelda from grandparents, a laser tag set (big hit) and a basic electric scooter (another big hit). I do feel bad that a proper birthday party sort of got swept under the rug amidst the chaos of in-laws coming to stay for a week, and organizing Jack's baptism. But he's been a good sport about it.
Jack was baptized over the weekend. We had a sweet program, with a special musical number from my parents and Jack's cousins, and talks by Jared's mom and my brother Tim. I was especially touched that my Grandma Roper was able to give the opening prayer. After the baptism we went back to our home to host a little gathering of brunch finger foods for everyone who attended. It was wonderful to host so much family in our home who haven't been able to see it yet. Jared and I were thrilled at how well our home accommodated a large group of people mingling, with kids on all levels and playing outside. We are hoping to get a backyard put in next month, which will make entertaining even better.
I hear the kids waking up, but we had a truly wonderful week. Now for some pictures:
