I Feel A Cold Coming On...

This week has been rough because Micah was sick and is getting four new premolars. Two have come out, two I can feel are almost there. So he has been grumpy during the day and grumpy at night, which for me means not much time to get things done during the day and not much sleep at night. And now, of course, I feel like I'm getting sick now too because I have caught every cold the kids have gotten during this pregnancy. I miss my old immune system!

But despite the rough week there is no denying I am nesting and have this urge to be getting things done around the house. I bought newborn diapers this week and started upping our baby proofing since Micah is getting into everything and I won't have as much time to clean up after him soon. For example, Micah loves to take the remotes from the T.V. stand and leave them all over the place, so yesterday I velcroed a container onto the back of the T.V. where we can store our remotes out of Micah's reach.

I also made Thank You baggies for the nurses in the hospital.

And have been slowly turning our guest room/office into Julia's room. She's been sleeping in there for the past five months or so but it's been a slow transition to turn it into a little girls room. Last week when Robert's brother, Kevin, and Dad were out here they moved the dresser into her room so now she finally has her own clothes in her room and it's starting to feel more like her room. Or for me, like my room when I was little since she has my dresser, my dolls, and my bookshelf from when I was a little girl.

Now I've moved all Micah's clothes into Julia's previous small dresser, and next week I'll hopefully be getting newborn clothes out to move into Micah's old dresser.

Her bows, which used to be kept in a basket, were getting out of control so I made a little shelf/bow holder to have them neatly organized.

Random Julia story: Three teachers from primary have come up to me and told me how cute Julia was in primary a couple weeks ago. They asked if anyone knew the second article of faith, no one got it. So they gave the kids a hint by saying it has the word transgression in it. Julia's hand shot up and she got up and recited the whole thing for everyone. They were all very impressed. I bet Julia was just happy to be called up. She tells me every week that she raised her hand to go share her story in sharing time about how the Holy Ghost has helped her, but she just "couldn't raise it high enough." (I tried to explain to her they probably won't call on her if she isn't being reverent). The story she wants to tell is that one time she was at the ranch and there was thunder and lightening and she was scared, but then the Holy Ghost helped her not to be scared anymore.

A few random pictures of the last couple weeks:

 Micah throws a tantrum on the floor of the ob/gyn's office. Pretty typical behavior for this week.

Kevin helped us wash the car. Julia and Micah loved it.

Julia was so intent on her coloring at the Kids Club event at the mall that she was one of the last three to leave. The table used to be packed with kids all coloring.

 Her coloring.

 We had our last movies in the park night for the summer. Micah thought it was a perfect time to wrestle with Julia. What a boy.

He also learned to open these kinds of doors. More baby proofing needed here since this is the kind of handle on the bathroom door and Micah loves go in and to flush the toilet and get into all the drawers. So we usually just keep the door to the bathroom closed...

Memorial Day

The weekend after the Wheat Family Reunion we went to the Sandberg Ranch and spent some time with some of my family. We left the day before Memorial Day to beat the traffic heading home, but we stopped at the Spry Cemetery outside of Panguitch where my grandparents and many of my Dad's mother's ancestors are buried.

Julia with her namesake, Julia A. Orton Lefevre.

My grandparents. You may not be able to tell, but I was trying to keep them both from climbing up on the tombstone here.

It may be a small, isolated cemetery, but it sure has a view. It's so isolated in fact that we almost couldn't find it because there are no signs off the main road to guide you on which random dirt road to take. We turned up the wrong road once, then I took out my phone and squinted at a map of the area on google satellite view  for something that might look like a cemetery. I found something that looked like it had rows of tiny tombstones, and it was!

Zion: Wheat Family Olympics

Somehow we managed to do the entire Wheat Family Olympics at the Wheat Family Reunion without taking any pictures, at least on my part. I blame it on the fact that I put together all the events so I was too busy explaining each event to think about taking pictures. But, happy day, we did get some video!

Before the reunion Julia and Robert helped me make Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals (made out of salt dough) for our events, and Julia is here modeling some before we left.

We did five events that were mostly all based off Minute To Win It type games and just did them all one right after another on Monday morning. I think I remember who won each event, but if I got it wrong I apologize: Paper Airplane Flying Contest (Jess), Three-Legged Race (Rob/Mel), Dutch Oven Stew (Kevin), Face the Cookie (Ellen), and This Blows (Kevin).

Here is some of the video we captured from the Three Legged Race and This Blows:

Three Legged Race: The Couples


Three Legged Race: Grandkids and Grandparents


This Blows

We counted up scores for Bronze, Silver, and Gold for each event and awarded an Overall Winning Couple, who got the lucky prize of knock off Hostess fruit pies because that's what snack I happened to have. The winners were...Kevin and Ellen! By a long shot! Here are the back of their medals with what events they won.

Micah 15.6 Months Stats

Micah at just past 15 months, 15.6 to be exact:

Height: 30 in., 8th percentile
Weight: 20.12 lbs, 12th percentile

Head Circ.: 18.25, 33rd percentile

Micah is now known as Micah the Destroyer around here. He loves to get into everything around the house. It's a little hard for friends to believe because when he's out of his comfort zone he tends to just sit quietly on my lap, but at home it is a whole different story. Some messes he loves to get into are pulling books off shelves, pulling things out of the cupboard, breaking sunglasses, and coloring on anything from books to toys to the wall if he happens to find a stray crayon laying around. Also, he is very in his comfort zone at the grocery store as long as no one is talking directly to him because he won't sit in the cart and if I put him down he immediately starts pulling anything he can get his hands on off the shelves. Let's just call him a very busy boy.

He can also be very sweet and smart. Today he spit up on the couch while I was in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch, so he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a hand towel and went to clean it up by himself. What sixteen month old does that?? He is learning to follow directions, wave goodbye, and give kisses (to me mostly). He can say Uh-oh (his favorite word, he says it anytime something falls on the floor), done, and Dada. Just this week he said Mama a couple times after I was helping Julia sound out how to spell mommy. We were saying it slowly over and over again and Micah was listening and started repeating along with us. He is also learning how to use a spoon and loves it. I've seen a lot of improvement in his coordination with it since he started and he is always excited when I give him something that requires using a spoon (most often yogurt or cottage cheese)

He got a little shiner on his eye last week after he stood up on Julia's toddler bed, then fell over and hit the headboard. Kind of looked like he was wearing purple eye shadow. 

Really just a happy little man at this stage (don't let this picture fool you, he was happy, just focused on watching the crowd at Movies in the Park Night.) and best described again as busy.

 

This.

Me to Julia: Julia, A couple more minutes and then I'm going to take Micah for his bath, and after his bath it's your turn.

Julia: You can't take him! I'm playing with him! I'm going to dress him up like a girl!

At least they're playing nicely together?

San Diego: Mormon Battalion and Padres Game

Last month Robert's cousin Woody got married in San Diego, so we went down the afternoon before the wedding and spent some time with family who were in town.

First we went to the Mormon Battalion Site and met up with some of Robert's siblings and his parents.

 Some of the kids had a little too much fun with all the water...

These are all the grandkids on the Wheat side.

I like how Robert is the only one really smiling. It could almost be an old time photo.

Later that evening we left Micah with Aunt Lauren and Robert, Julia, Robert's parents and I went to a Padres game to check off another stadium for Robert's goal to visit every MLB stadium. It was just perfect that the Dodgers were the away team playing that night. Julia wore her Dodgers hat, but she cheered for both teams. It was our first baseball game in over a year so everything was new to her again. 

Eating hot dogs for dinner.

Every time there is a home run flames shoot out over a display beyond center field, which was pretty close to where we were sitting. So the first time there was a home run the crowd went wild and then flames shot up and Julia was a little stunned by it all. A second later she was cheering and clapping right along.

Singing "Take Me Out To the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch.

 Just a random picture of Micah with Grandpa Wheat back at the hotel eating grapes. It is where Micah was during the game, but Grandpa came with us so the picture was taken earlier in the day.

Our Week

This week was a typical summer week, full of fun, but still with lots of down time to do whatever we want. Just the kind if week I've been meaning to have but have been so busy up until now to actually do anything but try to catch up around the house between trips. Now that we've been home a while I have actually caught up on housework and have been even able to start on some projects I wanted to get done before the baby comes, like turning our old guest room into Julia's room. (October 9th is the baby's due date in case you need reminding. Now that I'm in the third trimester and getting big I get asked almost daily when I'm due. Alas, still more than two more months away!)

Our week starting from last Saturday. Robert had to drive into work to bring in Costco packs of snacks, goodies, and drinks for his team to get them through the summer busy season (through September 15). PwC moved office buildings earlier this year and the kids and I had never been to the new office, so we decided to join Robert to check out the office. It's amazing how much fun an almost deserted office building can be on a Saturday night, the kids loved it.

They got to play in the conference room.

Watch a Dodgers game.

And best of all, write on the walls! A lot of the walls in the office are painted with whiteboard paint so you can write right on the wall. Julia loved it. Here she is with her masterpiece of everything she saw out the window: an airplane, a helicopter, "daddy doing the taxes" at a desk, the office building with Mommy and Julia inside looking out the window, the black fountain at the front of the building, a blue crane, Mommy and Daddy hugging, a firetruck,and a fire station with two flags on it and a couple people inside (which it turns out is actually a restaurant that is in an old fire station. That was my bad, I thought it was a real fire station when I pointed it out to her). Then she signed her named at the top.

The rest of the week Robert was pretty busy (busy season...) so we didn't see him much. But the kids and I had plenty to do. On Monday and Tuesday we went swimming and tried to practice getting Julia over her fear of floating on her back, getting water on her face, and jumping into the water. She took swimming lessons for one week and literally kicked and screamed when asked to do these things. They had a one week break from lessons because the other family she is taking them with is on vacation, so we were trying our hardest to work on her phobias. They start up again tomorrow and I have high hopes that she will cooperate better now. I think by the end of last week she was completely over her fear of floating on her back (still with someone holding her, but at least she's still and not thrashing around) and is greatly improved in her fear of jumping into the water and getting water on her face. 

Tuesday night we saw Wreck it Ralph as part of Claremont's summer movies in the park. I told Julia we could only go if she took a nap, and since we had gone swimming, she did! So she stayed up for the whole movie and was very into it. Micah was excited to be outside with lots of people and also stayed up the whole time. He was impressed with the giant movie screen for five minutes and then spent the rest of the time eating snacks, running around the blanket, and climbing on top of me. 

Wednesday we went to a program at the library as part of their summer reading series. It was a presentation of  "Old Mcdonald" with live animals. Each time we sang the song they would bring out a different animal and tell the kids a little about the animal. They brought out a chicken, ducks, a tortoise, a guinea pig, a rabbit and five bunnies (or kits we found out). Afterwards they had a little petting area outside with some bigger animals like goats, sheep, and an alpaca they could pet. Micah started out the show on my lap on a chair next to all the kids, but he let me know he wanted to be like one of the big kids and went and sat down with Julia. At the petting area he really liked to stand right next to the animals, but not touch them. Julia was running around touching all of them.

Thursday Julia had her first gymnastics class. She was jumping around on the mats before class even started so I took that as a good sign that she was going to like it. And she did. Everything was right up her alley and she is looking forward to the rest of her classes. Micah sat with me and drew, and then jumped around on the mats as well when the kids moved to a new area.

Friday we went to Costco and while we waiting in line for returns I took my phone out to show Julia she had a nasty scab on her lip (not pictured), but Micah saw me taking a picture of Julia and made this cheesy smile too.

Friday night we went to Robert's work and charmed met some of his coworkers. Then we went to a Dodgers game, Micah's first at Dodgers Stadium and our first since we've been back in L.A. We were camping over the Fourth of July weekend so we didn't see any fireworks, and Julia has been asking me all month when we are going to see fireworks because it's July. So, since the Dodgers do fireworks after the game every Friday night and Robert has been wanting to go to a game, it only made sense to go and appease both Robert and Julia.

Micah did good considering we got there at his bedtime. He stayed up the whole time and was kind of cooky/crazy loving the crowd.

I told Julia that afternoon she should take a nap because we would be up late, but she did not. So she started melting down a little by the end. Dodgers won 2-1 and after the game we got to go down to center field to watch the fireworks. We had brought a blanket to sit on, but forgot it in the car. Turns out, the grass in center field is so nice you really don't need a blanket anyway. 

Julia wanted to do a handstand.

Then on Saturday we had some family over, Daniel, Amanda, and baby Hannah. The baby swing is always set up in our kitchen and the kids love to push it, empty or with a doll in it. They were thrilled to have a real baby to push in it.

Then Steve and Wendy stopped by. Micah really liked sitting on Steve's lap and "reading" the book.

After lunch we went swimming. Julia loves the water more than Micah, so Amanda kept her entertained in the water after Micah (and baby Hannah) had enough.

And Sunday after FHE Robert did Micah and Julia bench presses, a favorite around here.