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.
^^Gingham dresses for Easter this year. This might be the first year ever that I have succeeded in getting Easter dresses for both of us with time to spare. Now I just need to find a nice short-sleeve blouse to go under mine, which is Pinafore style. I love a pinafore dress, but do find them tricky to style. Alice is VERY excited about this matching moment. She's a good time.
^^Jack made a leprechaun trap for St. Patrick's Day. I did not sign up for St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, but I find myself here anyway every year when I remember Jack is excited about "the leprechaun." I believe this started as an activity he did in preschool when he was 4? He always makes a different rendition on this same "trap" to try and catch a leprechaun and be led to its pot of gold. Every year he is foiled, but he gets a tiny note from the leprechaun (this year's said "Better luck next time"), a few chocolate gold coins, and usually "the leprechaun" turns our milk green just in time for us to have Lucky Charms for breakfast. Normally this is all a fairly low parenting lift for a holiday, but this year Jack woke up fully awake and excited to see if he caught anything at 4:00 a.m. Luckily he was satisfied with what he found and I was able to get him back to bed for a few more hours. Those nights make me so grateful I'm not in the up-every-two-hours-every-night-for-a-year stage of newborn parenting.
^^St. Patrick's Day park date with cousins. Pretty much everyone was wearing green. I think that of all the places we've lived, Utah wins for highest participation in wearing St. Patrick's Day greens.
^^On Jared's half day, he accompanied me to my cardiology appointment, which required TWO HOURS of waiting before we saw the doctor for my 15-minute appointment. Jared was aghast. I was like, ya this is pretty much what going to the doctor is like. He was unimpressed. The appointment was to go over my bloodwork and tilt test results. It's an official POTS diagnosis (of course), and we'll add a few vitamins to my current regimen of supplements. We're also going to trial a new medicine for a month to see if we can get my energy levels and mental clarity back to full capacity. Just have to jump through some insurance hoops first. Fun.
^^Jack started football practice this week. It is fun to have practices held at our neighborhood park, and for Jack to be old enough to just run down to practice, stay afterward to play with all the neighborhood kids at the park, and then run back home when the sun starts to dip down. It's a new era of parenting. He was "so tired" after playing hard one evening that he "fell asleep" relaxing on our bed and "needed" to be carried up to his bed. He was totally faking and Jack would never feel so tired that he would fall asleep anywhere but his bed, but this is a cute childhood rite of passage to pretend to fall asleep so your dad can carry you to bed.
^^I was finally able to check out Treasures Antique Mall in Springville. I'm glad I went--they had a lot of fun stuff. I ended up coming home with a beautiful etched cake stand, and this fun old oil painting entitled "Gossiping Men." The hands are a little weird, but it's our first non-landscape original and will be a fun addition to our art wall. Jared loves it (he is the original art lover between us, and converted me a couple years ago).
