I'm planning on making a trip to Dollar Tree today. The odds of me actually being pregnant are pretty slim, but Sunday I was peeing a lot and started feeling nauseous. Every day since I've struggled with feeling yucky. Aaron has been feeling yucky too over the last couple of weeks so there is a chance it is just a bug going around, but I also feel crampy. General Conference weekend Aaron colored a "family" picture from his packet that had four children in it. He said the youngest was a baby sister. When questioned, he said it was "if" but he's been pretty right on with the last couple of pregnancies so we'll see.

Peter is growing and developing like crazy. He is so much fun and so cute!! He's speaking in sentences though we can't tell what all the words are. Ball, water, more, mama, dada, Jared and Aaron are all words we here often.

If I'm going to DT  guess I better get going. I only have a little bit of time before school is out.

Peter is almost completely walking. The last two days he's claimed a pair of too big shoes for him to use as well. He was almost as excited about wearing shoes as Aaron was. His mouth is almost completely full of teeth. He has one molar and possibly three more front teeth coming through. The morning after coming back from Vegas, he was so excited to see Aaron. He was rubbing his back and hair and saying "Nanan." I think it was pretty clear the distinction between Aaron and Jared now. It was sweet.

Peter is officially a toddler. Today he is 13 months and he's been toddling around for two weeks. He's also grown two more teeth: the fourth front bottom and one on the opposite side in the back. Isn't it too early for molars?!

Sunday seemed like a light switch went off and all of a sudden he was communicating more clearly and just seemed more with it in general. He signed and said, 'done' for the first time and was saying, "dad, dad" and reaching for Matthew. I've come to understand that his sign for 'water' is more of a universal sign for wanting food or drink. He'll stand in the fridge now and choose items out. He'll shake his head 'no' when he really doesn't want something. He'll wave and say, 'bye-bye'. The other morning he woke up and was upset when I wanted to get him dressed and change his diaper right away. He fought me and pointed out of the room and made some sounds that made me think he wanted to go see the boys. Sure enough, that was what he wanted. I took him to see Jared and Aaron and then he was fine and cooperated. He has a word for both of them, but I can't ever tell which one it is because they sound very similar.

Jared introduced him to "the Doodle" as we call it. It's that magnetic board you can draw on. He loves it. He can spend quite a bit of time with it just doodling. He holds the pen like he knows what he's doing and is quite intense. It'll be interesting to watch this develop.

I am not doing well at keeping up with my blog :P Hard to believe last year I was writing almost daily. Life with a baby certainly has changed things around here. Everything seems to take so much more effort :P But I wouldn't change it for anything. There's a lot of love and enjoyment centered around that little boy.

Summer is here, and it looks very different from last year. For one, the pool by our apartment was plowed under and a dog park is replacing it. Poo. Literally....  At the moment there is only one pool open and it is up by the leasing office. It takes so much more effort to get there than it did when we could just step out our side yard and be there. Carting a baby around and all his trappings make it that much more of an ordeal. I did finally get to do free time in the pool the other day b/c he was still asleep in the car seat when we got there. I was honestly a bit grouchy with the boys in an effort to get them to move quicker so I could actually get some swim time. I got a few laps in before Peter started complaining enough I had to get out.

I've been taking a tot and me swim class the last two weeks. Peter loves the water. He has no fear. The class has been good though that little guy is showing his strong will already.  We have a basic routine that is being added to with each class. Last week the child was to sit on the edge of the pool and wait while the parent is a few steps away counting to five. After the five counts, we approach the child, say their name, and tell them it is ok to get in the water. Well, Mr. 11 months old was having a hard time with that concept (of course. ) But he is a smart one and quickly realized that if I wasn't going to let him in the water, he'd just take off the other way. Pretty soon he was crawling away from the pool and giggling the whole way!! I've been trying to apply the principle in other areas too - namely being on the bed. I think (hope) it is starting to work b/c twice now while I've been in the shower he's cried and complained like normal, but then by the time I get out he's just laying on the edge of the bed waiting patiently. This first time he did it I was quite surprised and pleased. Progress, I hope.

The first day of summer I did my walk as usual while the boys rode their bikes. I'm not sure what happened, but it wore me out! Seems every effort I make to exercise this summer has given me the same result. So, I haven't done my routine walk since. We hiked Neff's Canyon Trail with one of Matthew's college room mates a week ago. It was just about the right climb for me, but it wiped me out for days and my calves were so sore!! It was a beautiful place though. I had to descend early to find some facilities, but while I was gone Aaron had a run-in with a coiled snake. Thankfully he was
safe. He'd said that it hissed at him, but my guess is that it was a rattle he heard.

Matthew signed himself and the boys up for a triathlon to be completed this coming weekend. This month has zoomed by, but when he registered them it seemed so far away. And now here we are, the week of the competition. The boys have worked hard running, biking, and some swimming. Aaron really has no swimming skills, so Matthew spent some time teaching him how to float and do the frog stroke. Hopefully that will help some. Thankfully I was able to register them for swim lessons starting this week too. I hope he can make some good progress between now and Friday. Jared is mostly concerned about the run, but everytime they've done a run, he's walked. So, he should be worried. He'll be awesome on the bike though. Aaron gives his whole heart to the process.

Last year for my birthday I was obsessed with getting a bike and that was to be my present. I never really found one. Well, I did this year - at Good Will for $20. I found a bike for Aaron too so everyone would have one for the Triathlon. Aaron's needed a few tweaks, but for $6 it was worth it. Well, Jared took my bike for a ride, played with all the gears and has basically claimed it as his own. It was so funny when he got back on his previously preferred red bike. He claimed someone shrank it. We've been trying to tell him he was getting to big for it, but it wasn't until he rode a bigger bike that he believed us. So, now I am once again without a bike. Oh well. It is a pretty sweet bike.

My birthday also brought dairy back into my life. So far Peter seems to be handling it well. I need to do better about exercising control, but it is good and weird to be free to eat cheese again. I have done pretty well to maintain my weight since the end of the contest. Since my birthday I've fluctuated a few pounds but still done pretty well to maintain - not bad for three months of staying the same.

Our lease was up in April and we debated what to do. Months before that when we were trying to figure things out, the answer I received was "stay." Ultimately that it was we did despite an apartment opening up (right across from THE pool) that we really liked and wanted. At this point I am grateful because we will only need to move once this year now (which was part of the reasoning for not moving). Matthew had applied for the AGR program (full time military position) earlier in the year. He was told that if he could get unflagged for his PT, they would have a position for him. In the meantime, he got hired on as a civilian for a local unit. He was able to pass his PT test recently and his flag was removed, enabling him to be hired on as AGR.  We knew it was coming but had no idea when. We hoped the timing would work out that his year of probation in his civilian job would end before he was given an AGR assignment. We've had these balls in the air wondering when they would land and what the plan would be, but it was all speculation. The balls finally began landing over the last few weeks. At the end of May he found out his civilian position was being dissolved. Boo. However, he was being transferred back to the unit he left, just not as a paralegal. The change is good because he is no longer doing the work of five people, but the work of one. He only has to wear the UA hat. yay! It also helps that he knows all the office staff and they know him. He started his new position on Monday.

Ironically, the Wed before that he got the AGR call. The offer is in Las Vegas and not as a paralegal. He accepted the assignment and the ball has not only landed but is rolling steadily that direction. They have told him that he can expect orders about July 10th with a tentative start date of July 31st. So, the rest of this summer is a balance of enjoying the last bits of UT and preparing for our next adventure.

Peter is pulling up and starting to experiment with cruising. This last weekend or so Matthew said Peter was starting to bend his knees and kind of attempt to take steps while being held. Well, today I was supporting Peter (he refused to sit down on the floor) a few (my) steps away from the piano bench. I could tell that's where he wanted to go and just to see what he'd do I encouraged him to go there while I held him up. He took several steps there and even managed to pivot his legs to turn away from the bench. It's crazy how fast he's moving (literally too!)

A couple of days ago Matthew said Peter was pulling up (or attempting to) on the rocking ottoman. He was successful on the side that didn't rock, but when he tried on the side that rocked it kept knocking him down. Matthew said he was yelling at the ottoman. It was kind of funny. Well, I began to notice him practicing on all the sides of the ottoman now. His determination has kicked in and he's mastered pulling up despite the rocking motion.

In the vocal department, he uses the 'm' sound when he wants me and just in the last couple of days started using 'dadada' around Matthew. Over the last couple weeks he's added 'p' sounds as well. I'll usually mimicking him when he starts up and say, "p,p, Peter". He'll smile and sometimes keep doing his 'p's and sometimes stopping. Tonight he was laying flat on the ground like in sit-up position and started reaching for my fitbit clip. I told him, "up". He smiled and recognized the command from Matthew having him do 'sit-ups'. Just to see what he'd do, I then told him "down." Sure enough he flopped down just as we have him do for sit-ups. We did this exercise a few times and then he started saying 'p' after we'd say 'up'. We think he got the vocal connection!

Today he moved the treasure box (whether on purpose or by accident I don't know) to under the piano. He was trying to get on top it while looking at the piano keyboard. I recognized him wanting to play the piano, so I moved to the piano bench and set him on my lap so he could play. He was quite happy with getting what he wanted :)

He also recognizes his food jars now. He was in the kitchen while I was gathering my lunch. I showed him his jar and asked him if he wanted to eat. He got a great big smile on his face and came out from under the table. When I fed him again later I started signing water, food, and more. We'll see how quickly he picks them up.

Peter is such a smart little boy! He amazes me with his intelligence and determination.

Oh yes, just another milestone tidbit - his second front bottom tooth has come in. It looks like one of his top canine teeth is working its way out now.

I'm having a bout of insomnia. I woke up at 3 to go potty and haven't been able to sleep since though I feel really tired. The bed is getting too small for three people, or rather the third person is getting big and needs transitioned back to his own space. Since cutting dairy his sleep has improved greatly though whether it is due to the lack of dairy or just a result of where he is developmentally, I don't know.

Yesterday Mike and Tran watched the boys so we could go on a date. I wasn't sure how it would go for Peter. Usually he sleeps from around 9 to anywhere from 10:30 - 11:30 and we dropped them off about 8:45. Matthew and I hoped to make it to the 9 am session at the temple but we missed it by five minutes. We decided to do sealings instead though it turns out we could have done the 9:30 session (it is the only session on the half hour). Oh well. It was a wonderful experience anyway and we spent some time in the Celestial room afterwards. We were done by 10:30 which left some time to do something else (thinking we had until noonish).

I finally got to go to Ikea. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I liked it. Matthew and I were pleasantly surprised at how cheap everything seemed to be. He is on the hunt now for loft beds for the boys. It was busy in the store! We'd originally planned to take the boys back there after picking them up but nixed it by the time we were ready to leave. There is a restaurant in the store we were going to eat lunch at, but the line was long so we left instead.

At this point it was pretty close to noon so I texted Tran to find out how things were going. She said the boys had been fighting and Peter wouldn't sleep :/ I felt really bad. We were starving though so we stopped to get food. By the time we ordered and got everything together (another 30 minutes or so) she texted again and told me that Peter finally ate some food and fell asleep. We took a deep breath and enjoyed our meal in the car before heading back to pick them up. Just as we pulled into the driveway she said the boys were eating lunch and all was well again and enjoy the time. I - we- are really grateful for the time together, but I figured she deserved her quiet house again :)

Peter slept for a long time (and no wonder since he'd been up since 7:30).  He acted/seemed kind of off the rest of the day. Normally he is really chatty and happy. He seemed more quiet and reserved. I don't know if it was just because he was really tired and off or if he was taking in our absence. Or maybe it was because he slept so long and after eating and playing for a little bit he ended up hanging out with Matthew in the bedroom for a long time while I helped Jared organize his papers. Peter took another long nap about 5:30 or 6. I thought for sure he wouldn't be ready to go back to sleep at 9:30 when we went to bed, but he did.

He is growing so much. We noticed he spent more time creeping then crawling yesterday. He's been experimenting with it the last few weeks but not making it more than a step or two before giving up and going back to his stomach to push off with his feet to move faster. It is so cute to watch him to try to coordinate moving his arms and knees. He's getting more adept. It won't be long before that is his preferred mode of transportation. Jared said he spent a lot of time in the walker and Mike and Tran's yesterday. At one point when Matthew had him he came out with Peter 'walking'. Normally Matthew has Peter's feet on his or pushes Peter's feet to have him 'walk' but he said this time Peter was bending his knees and moving two or three steps on his own. We were talking the other night that Peter will probably take his first steps by nine months but we can't put a timeline on actual walking. He has also been mastering the art of pulling up though he is not quite there yet. It is time to lower the co-sleeper. I think our house is not set up to enable a cruiser so that may slow him down a little in the walking department.

Jared has been keeping all of his math handouts and occasionally digs through them all to find the help for a math problem. He's needed a way to organize them and I promised him a few weeks ago that we'd put them in sheet protectors to make it easier. With Peter's long nap I was finally able to do that. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and Aaron was happy to help too. I couldn't believe how happy it made Jared to have it done. We got them put in a binder and he carried that thing around! He even brought it to the table for dinner. It's always the little things that make such a huge difference!! He'd been struggling to get his math homework done this weekend but he worked on it while I worked on the papers. I think the scenario helped motivate him. It put him in a good enough mood that he even practiced the trumpet without any reminders. And even more amazing to me was after we sang and prayed he wanted to play even more (though he didn't get to). I am curious what time he actually went to sleep and what condition he is in b/c when we went to bed I don't think his bed was even made and he certainly wasn't in his pjs. I was too tired to wait for him though.

*******

We have been trying to figure out what to do about our lease expiring at the end of April. It is really bad timing for a move but we are starting to really feel the cut in pay form Matthew's new job and could use some give in our expenses. I recognized a couple of weeks ago that my spiritual habits were severally lacking and causing the Spirit to be lacking in my life as well. I have made strides with the boys' help to get everything back in order and it has helped tremendously. In fact, the other day I was praying about our housing situation and the answer came to stay. It is amazing the mind shift that happens when the Spirit speaks and an answer is received. Peace.

After some conversations with Matthew regarding his job and finances, I kind of feel like we are in for another change in October. Staying in our apartment would make it easier to allow those changes to work. I think Matthew feels the change coming as well. Several times today he's made comments to the effect that he doesn't like change whenever the word would come up in a conversation. He asked me if I could choose to live anywhere in the country, where would I choose? Would I choose to go back to the East coast? I told him I liked it there and would be fine going back but I am ok here too. I am not unhappy here and don't mind staying. I forget that it takes a year to feel settled in a place.

Well, it is a little after 5:15. I feel really awake at this point though I should probably see if I can get a little bit more sleep. Or get lunches ready or something in case I sleep in.

Peter's bottom front tooth has finally broken skin. I think he has handled the process rather well.

I was eating a sweet potato tonight. I have tried once or twice to give him some in the past but he didn't seem to care for it. Tonight he grabbed the spoon and tried to feed himself. He still didn't seem sure about it but he certainly knew what to do with the utensils.

Peter is crawling. All over. Yesterday he broke the LR barrier and made it the kitchen, then after being put back in the LR he headed down the hall to the bedrooms. He is getting quite fast.

As of this weekend we are dairy free. Within 24 hours I was already noticing a difference. We'll see what effect it will have long term though.

Scouts started up this week and the boys have quite the gang of friends right now. I feel so blessed.

Happy New Year! To ring in the new year we had a Star Wars marathon. We started episode 4 about 4:30ish and finally stopped at Episode 2 at 5:30 am. Considering how little sleep we got, yesterday was a fun day.

In honor of Peter's 6 month birthday, he decided it was time to work on crawling. Over the last month he's been rolling everywhere and it is slowly morphing into a scoot. Since Tues (6 mo exactly) he starting getting up on his knees and hands and doing kind of a reach crawl roll thing by pushing off his feet. He usually ends up reaching with his right hand then rolling to his left because he hasn't quite gotten his left hand to get out from underneath his body. He's also sitting up for longer periods of time when we set him up. He hasn't managed to sit completely up on his own. He'll lay on his side with his shoulders and head up though. Daddy's phone is a major motivator.

Matthew has been tested whether Peter responds to his own name or voice. It is definitely his name. This one is a smart one. He understands a lot.

This morning Jared is playing PVC pipes like a trumpet. Peter was watching him and is doing the same. It is really cute. The love these boys have for each other is amazing :)

We went sledding for the first time last night. So much fun!

Christmas was simple due to a pay check error, but luckily I had done some shopping previously. Aaron said it was the best Christmas! Both boys got roller skates, knee pads, and journals. They loved it. I am getting my Christmas present today - a new Bosch system. What started as just wanting a food processor turned into a quest for a Bosch. I just hope that it ends up filling my needs ;P