Adios, August

August was long. And suddenly September is here! Why is time like that during pregnancy? It slogs along like a snail and then one day you look back and realize that a whole month has passed. Or it seems to fly past but when you pause to check the calendar, it’s only Tuesday when you were sure it had to be Friday. The pregnancy time warp kind of makes sense: when I’m normal, time acts normal. When I’m blah and moving in slow-mo, time does the same thing. I could go on, but I’d better just leave time here before I get too…philosophical.

Jeff went back to work on Monday (one week of in-service, then classes start up after Labor Day). We all miss having him around all day. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to his schoolteacher 10 months on, 2 months off schedule—right when I’m used to having him home all day, school starts again. Rose adores her Daddy. After naps when she’s still trying to wake all the way up, she likes to snuggle (see picture). I was nervous about not having Jeff at home to serve my every need, but his sweet sister Steph saved the day on Monday. It was her birthday and she’s 6 months pregnant, but she took care of Jay and Rose and drove me to and from the hospital. Later that day, she came over with Jasen and vacuumed, did our laundry, AND finished painting our kitchen!!! I had to do my best not to think too much about HOW sweet and awesome all that service was because it made me want to cry (ok, ok, most things make me want to cry these days—I even teared up when Luke Skywalker got his medal in Episode IV yesterday—but all this selfless service is at the top of the list).

I never had Jeff take a good picture of the finished paint job so here’s another recliner-view. Jasen also hung our above-the-counter lights for us. Now all we need is some sort of light fixture over the dining table!

Steph, plus only one hospital visit plus one Mom-visit made this week a pretty good one around the White house. My Mom stayed from Tuesday-Thursday. She is a genius at feeding and encouraging pathetic pregnant people. She showed up with a couple grocery bags full of mystery food and kept bringing me new little snacks that I didn’t have time to think myself out of. By Wednesday, my hitherto concave stomach had unstuck itself from my backbone, and now I have a soft, smooshy little pooch again. Hopefully I can keep it up and regain some weight before I have my next doctor visit in 2 weeks. No 6 foot tall pregnant lady should weigh this much under 140 lbs.

Jay and Rose loved having Grama Meri spend two nights at our house! She got her fill of peew-ing from Jay, and her fill of sweet smiles from Rose. When it was time for her to leave, Jay’s chin started to quiver and big fat tears rolled down his face while he said “you’re leaving?” in a high, shaky voice. It was tragic. I almost cried. My Mom stayed a little longer and gave him dinner. Jay thought Grama Meri had moved in with us—he called the bedroom she slept in Grama’s room and everything. We hope she can come back and visit again soon!

The dear Relief Society from church also stepped in this week to help. We had 3 hot dinners delivered to our door. So many of my sweet friends from our ward have been calling and setting up days to take Jay and Rose for a few hours. My loving mother in law Leslie visits me every day after school (she’s a teacher). There are so many people taking care of us! I started a list so I don’t forget to say thank you when I’m better, and it already has a dozen names on it. SNIFF. sniff. SNIFF.

First popsicles of the summer on August 31st. Next summer we’ll do better! Jay and Rose didn’t really seem to like their popsicles much, oddly enough. Or maybe this is just the first food that was too cold for them to swallow in one bite like they do with everything else.

Yesterday, Jeff, Steph, and Rose went Labor Day sales shopping while Jay and I stayed home and watched Star Wars together. Something seemed rather backwards about that to me. But Jeff found some very handsome new work clothes for himself, and he even came back with this sweet $3 hat (coupons plus discounts made it only cost $3!). All he needs now is a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, a shiny-topped cane, and an old-fashioned stopwatch. And I actually paid attention in Star Wars Episode IV for the first time in my life—I read all the words at the beginning (usually I stop after “a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.”) and what do you know, the movie makes a whole lot more sense when you’ve read the prologue and listen to the dialog! It’s pretty good.

Star Wars makes me think of Jay. How about a paragraph for him? Jay is still fluctuating between terror and angel. He’s mostly super sweet, but if I ask him the wrong way for something, he can be impossible! It seems like he’s just testing his powers and trying out his independence. It’s hardest at night when we ask him to put his PJ’s on or say his prayers. He doesn’t have temper tantrums, he just decides not to listen to a word we say if he doesn’t want to do it. When we get a reply out of him, he has started saying the infuriating “I don’t know how.” Lots of nights I just don’t have the energy to discuss these things with him, even from my recliner, and Jeff just manhandles him into his jammies. Prayers are trickier because you can’t force someone to pray. When Jay finally decides to pray, he often uses a silly voice or gets up and leaves or slugs Rose during the prayer. So far the only thing that works on Jay is if I hold him and have a very serious talk about how important it is to be reverent in prayers. The other night I told him it made Heavenly Father very sad when he was rude in prayers. Then I helped him say a good prayer and say sorry for being irreverent to Heavenly Father. When he was done, he looked at me and asked, “is Heavenly Father happy now?”

And now for a few (and by a few, I mean a lot) ULTRACUTE pictures. Rose got some new pretties this week, so she got to wear pigtails with matching bows to church today. I played around with my fun camera settings and took these from my recliner (as usual) while Rose read her dictionary and bounced around in the chair next door.

(it’s called the Vivid setting…I can see why)

And as usual, I got sort of stuck on Sepia…

Stick out your tongue!

Winner. The very last picture I took turned out to be my favorite. Few things are as photo-worthy as a happy one-point-five year old. Few things make me as happy either.

(Rose likes to play this little piggy went to market)