Home School

The new thing at our house is school. A lot of our friends have kids starting or going back to school, so I decided to do a little something for Gracie. We made her a chart and on the first day I told her that when Kemp went to sleep, we would do her school time. Kemp went down for his nap and then Gracie said, "Let's go see Grammy!" I was a little confused so she explained, "You say I go to Grammy's school!" Sean's mom teaches elementary school and Gracie has been to her classroom before. I felt so bad that she had misunderstood and she was kind of upset too when she realized that we weren't going to see Grammy.

But now, we have done her "school" for two weeks and she really likes it. I try to rotate through the chart once a week (three days) or more if things work out. It doesn't last very long, only 15-30 minutes, but I feel good about having guaranteed Mommy-Gracie time.

Art day usually means painting or crafts. On learning days we practice letters or counting while we color, play with play doe, or play in shaving cream. Maybe I will do some science lessons about the sun or plants or something. On play day we play board games, bubbles, or something else fun.

So that Kemp isn't left out I'm trying to do a little extra for him by reading him more books at nap time (if he will sit still).

THE CHART

Painting

Letters in Shaving Cream

Growing Boy

(Kemp does have more shirts than this one. It just seems this is the one he always has on when the camera comes out!)

This last week I felt like I somehow missed the first eight months of Kemp's life and now he isn't a baby anymore! The first two months having a newborn are like a faded memory and then the six months after that were so busy. The time was filled with house hunting, moving, and adjusting to residency. And now here we are. He is so big and I don't know when it happened. Sad.


Here are some of Kemps recent developments-


*He is scooting on his stomach (army crawling) all over the place. He has given himself little blisters on his big toes from pushing off the carpet all of the time


*He is finally eating solid foods! It was a rough start back around 4 months. Then we tried again at 6 months and he would only eat table food. Now that he trusts us not to give him gross baby food, he will eat almost anything we give him. He especially loves grapes and pasta. He will eat rice cereal if I mix it with sweet baby food like pears.


*In the last two weeks he has become much more social. He waves "hi" (this started around 7 months), and wants to always be in the same room as Mom or Dad. Before he was content to chill on the floor if he had toys. He still loves to play but wants to be near us.


*Kemp loves to give growly kisses. These are more like biting but it is so cute. He actually growls all the time. If he is playing he will chase us or run while he says "ARGGGHHHH!". If he wants another bite during meals he grunts through his nose with his mouth closed. He also loves to say "BLAH!!!!!" and hang out his tongue. Very funny.


*His favorite snack is lint or paper scraps left on the floor. YUM.

And pennies-like the one I found in his poopy diaper this morning. Who knew? We somehow avoided a disaster there.

Water Fun

What's more fun than playing in the hose? And that is just what we did yesterday. I know there are no pictures of me, but believe me, I got wet too-thanks so Gracie and SEAN. As you can see Kemp was not into it because he had just woke up from his nap. Gracie's favorite part was filling up Sean's pockets which he then slapped to make a big splash.

Whats On My Mind

I have several little things swirling through my head, so I will put them all in one disjointed post.

#1 Gracie likes the coolest foods. Does your kid love-

Tomatos

Sour Cream (plain or on food)

Banana Peppers

Green Chile Casserole

Green Olives

Hot Cheetos?

She Does!

(oh, and the other day she told us she "eats bugs" and would like to "eat a kitty for dinner")

#2 Gracie and Kemp are so different-

Gracie- Girl.......................Kemp-Boy (did I really need to point that one out?)

G- Loves to cuddle..........K-Would much rather play on the floor any day

G- For first year of her life in 70 percentile or so

in size (now in 50%).........K-25 percentile

G- Brown hair, Brown eyes, more

olive compextion..............K- We like to call him clear.(blonde hair, blue eyes, very fair)

G-Likes to watch TV........K-Could care less

(even when she was under a year)

I love it!

#3 We went to the Utah county fair. Very cool because it was FREE. Although I was surprised at how small the attendance was and the fair itself was also smaller. We saw pigs, sheep, cows, big veggies, neat paintings, and some bull roping.

#4 We went to the Hoogle Zoo. Good selection of animals, and the animals were actually visable. The very cutest was the baby giraffe. It was less than 2 months old and about Sean's size. My kids don't believe in taking good pictures so here they are.

Springville Fire Station

Yes-we went to the fire station. Yes-I forgot my camera! I arranged for the wives and kids of all the residents to visit the fire station. Here is a picture that a friend was kind enough to take and email to me. We had a lot of fun touring the Springville Fire Department. Fireman Duke (seen in the background-the only guy) showed us all of the fireman gear including air mask, coat, helmet, pick, hose, and more. The kids also got to climb in a fire truck and see an ambulance. Finally, we went inside to look at this cool fire truck from the 1930's. Gracie liked the whole experience but only from a distance. All of the big, heavy equipment was intimidating for her. She declined climbing in the fire truck and stayed glued to my side the whole time. But, she was excited to tell her dad what we had done that day, so she did think it was neat. I think that most fire stations are open for public tours if you call and ask. And they even slip in some fire safety information for bonus. Try it out!

Doctor Sean

Everyone is always asking how residency is going for Sean, so here it is.

For the first four weeks Sean did family medicine inpatient. It is usually the most busy rotation so we were a little concerned about him starting there. But, now I am so glad he did. Sean jumped right in and started practicing everything he learned in the past four years. He is doing a really great job. He gets along great with the other doctors and residents. His attendings have complimented him several times on his work. Several patients have also asked where is office is because they would like to switch to his practice! Taking the doctor road is long and hard but Sean really enjoys it. He is also really good at it!

Now Sean is on his surgery rotation. The surgery branch of medicine is not "his thing" for several different reasons so he likes to spend most of his time in the surgery clinic doing consultations. He figures he will able to use some of that experience in the future- unlike the actual operating room (he doesn't plan to do many operations in his office). Several times a week he still goes to the family practice clinic to see patients there, as well.

He works tons of hours during the week. Especially because being on call and staying the night in the hospital adds 30 hrs alone to his schedule. On weeks where he takes call twice, he may work 80 hours or more. We are surviving though. Time is flying by and I have lots to keep me busy here at home. The intern year of residency can be really hard, but so far we are doing really well.

Before I Die..

Sometimes I have a hard time being patient with my life. I have recently realized that staying home with our kids doesn't mean I can't do other things I have dreamed about in the future. So here is my list of things that I would like to do before I die. I started with a healthy 10 items (plus three) and will add on. Don't laugh. I know they are not that ambitious, but I figure I will start small to make sure they are things I can actually do and cross off. I mean, who wants to be a failure when it comes to something like this? That would be depressing. So all of you out there with blogs- I dare you to make a list and post it, too. Here they are in no particular order.


1. Write a childrens book

2. Serve a mission

3. Change someone's life

4. Go on a cruise

5. Write a hymn

6. Take painting or drawing classes

7. Get a masters degree in something

8. Get an associates degree in business management

9. Coach a youth sports team

10. Work for a charity. Or maybe start my own!

11. Teach elementary school

12. Take ballroom dance classes with Sean for fun.

13. Learn to play the violin