Kiersten’s Blog

We’re having a great time visiting family.  I found an amazing deal on some plane tickets and decided to load the kids up and take a last minute trip to visit my parents and brother and sister and families and my grandma.  My kids don’t get much cousin time normally, just because we live so far away from all their cousins.  (Luckily we live close to second cousins).  So this week, the cousins have been having fun playing together.  A couple of days ago we took the kids next door to visit my grandma.  We just stopped in to say hello but London and Preston started chasing each other around in circles.  Soon I didn’t see them.  I thought they were just playing hide and seek.  I knew they were in the kitchen so I sneaked in and tried to scare them.  Much to my surprise, I didn’t startle them as much as catch them in the act of being sneaky.  Both kids (4 years old) were standing in the corner against the counter.  I asked them what they were doing and I got a quick, “nothing.”  I then spied an open bag of chocolate chips (my visiting aunt is a choc-o-holic and always has an open bag of chocolate chips) and asked the kids what was in their mouth.  Again I got, “nothing.”  So I said, “Are you eating chocolate chips?”  I got another quick answer from both, “no.”  I wish I had a picture of the guilty looks on their faces which also included chocolate on their lips.  It was all I could do to keep from laughing.  Neither child ever confessed, but on the way back to my parents house with my mom, London said, “Grandma, I like candy.  I like chocolate chips.”  Little did my mother know that she had been sneaking them just that afternoon.  Sometimes I worry about how life will be when I have teenagers if they’re this sneaky at 4.

I hope all you women out there had as great of a mother’s day as I did!  I remember last year being overwhelmed by my new life with two kids, dealing with postpartum depression, trying to nurse, trying to keep my 3 year old from killing my baby, and having to speak in church about the joys of motherhood.  If I only knew what a difference a year would make.  It seems as though my kids get cuter and cuter every day now (except when the brattiness of London surfaces, which is way too often).  I still get overwhelmed, but I feel better about my role as a mother.  I’m finding more joy in motherhood, which is definitely a good thing.  For days previous to mother’s day, London was constantly telling me, “Happy mother’s day, Mom!” and telling me how much she loved me.  What a sweet little girl!  She constantly wants to give me kisses and get them in return.  Taylor also made my day extra special, by getting up early and making me two different kinds of fresh-squeezed juice.  He bathed the kids while I slept in.  He took care of the kids at church so I could enjoy church, which is no small task.  I had a nice relaxing day, thanks to my wonderful husband.

With summer fast approaching, I have decided to take it upon myself to give any of you who may be traveling to the beach, a few tips.  As a frequent beach-goer, I have seen some good ideas, and some bad ideas.  The purpose of today’s blog is to inform you of the things you should not do while attending the beach.

1. If you are pregnant, don’t wear a bikini.  I don’t care how beautiful your baby belly is to you, a bikini on a pregnant woman is just, well, not a good idea.

2. If you are comfortable enough in your own skin to wear a bikini, more power to you, but please don’t be showing cellulite or fat rolls.  It’s not flattering.

3. If you are a guy, don’t wear a speedo.  And don’t surf in a speedo.  I don’t care how many hail Marys you do and how many times you cross yourself, wearing a speedo at the beach is just not a good idea.

4. Don’t wear a thong.  I’m not talking about those sandals you wear on your feet, I’m talking about the other kind of thong.  And especially if you’re about 60 and have cellulite, a bright yellow thong is not going to detract from your slightly (or more than slightly) flawed body.

Today the primary will be singing in church.  I think that it’s a tradition for mother’s day in every ward.  I love it when the kids sing!  I took the liberty of recording London singing the song they will be singing today.  Check it out here and have a very happy mother’s day!

Remember when I told you about the couch to 10K program I was doing?  Well, I finished it with a bang today.  I ran the Aflac Iron Girl 10K.  The program promised that I would be able to run a 10K in 13 weeks and that I would be able to run the whole thing.  I was a little skeptical, but I did it!  And it wasn’t bad at all!

My goal was to run it in less than an hour and to not have to stop and walk.  I didn’t have to stop and walk (even on the hills) and I even sprinted the last 0.4 miles.  I clocked in at just over an hour.  My final time was 1:02:37.  I’m definitely happy with that result.  I’m more happy, though, that I got off my couch and got running.  Now I need motivation to keep going!

Taylor and the kids came along to cheer me on.  It was an early morning for all, but it was nice to have a support team.  London was excited to see me as I was crossing the finish line.  She has asked me many times since then if I won.  I just tell her, “yes.”  Of course I won!  I finished and I ran the whole thing!  That’s winning to me!

Every year we have a cleft palate team meeting with London’s doctors and every year they tell me how great she’s doing.  Today’s visit was no exception.  They told me that she doesn’t have to go back for 2 more years.  With her team visits, she sees a number of doctors: audiologist, ENT, pediatrician, dentist, speech pathologist, social worker, geneticist (which we didn’t see today), plastic surgeon, and probably more.

At audiology

They always tell me the same thing, that she’s doing great and that she’s just adorable.  Everybody loves her little voice, her big blue eyes, and her curly hair.  Of course, she still has a tube hanging out in her right ear (for almost 4 years now) which may or may not fall out any time soon.  She also still has a bit of nasality in her speech, but it’s hard to detect without the special “listening tube.”  It was amazing how much air I could hear escaping out her nose with the tube.  But she knows what to do to stop it and she does when she remembers.  So I just have to keep reminding her.  We’ll follow up with the speech pathologist in six months.  London does well with the small amounts of therapy she has had and we always get comments on how well she speaks.  According to the doctors today, it looks like she should be okay to never have a surgery again!  Yay!  One surgery at 10 months old was definitely enough for me!  We walked out the door of the hospital with smiles on our faces and covered in stickers, so tired that both kids promptly fell asleep in the car.

Ashton wanted in on the action while visiting with the ENT doctor

After both kids got their jammies on tonight, I realized that they were both wearing size 2T.  Same size, same brand.  They’re three and a half years apart.  Obviously it looks like it’s time to retire London’s, but not because they’re too small around.  They’re just too short.  And I was thinking that Ashton’s pants will be too tight pretty soon.  How did I get two kids who are so different?

No, I’m NOT pregnant.  I’m sure that’s what you were thinking.  London is in the tub, supposedly washing herself.  She’s been in there for quite a while, so when I heard her call me a minute ago, I thought it was because she was done.  Instead, I went into the bathroom and there she sat, with a washcloth over her chest and belly, sticking her belly out.  With a big smile on her face she said, “I’m pregnant!  Do I look like I have a big belly?”

Taylor had a long day yesterday.  Cuyamaca College had their 2nd annual Coyote Music Festival, which he helps head up.  It was a 5 hour even, but of course took much longer for him.  Needless to say, he was gone all day.  I took the kids for a bit.  We had a good time dancing on the lawn and listening to some good music.  Last year, London was the star of the show with her dancing.  This year didn’t prove to be much different, except Ashton joined her for part of the time.  He can’t hear music without throwing down some moves.  Even at church he’s a dancer.  London thought it was great to dance with her little brother, but he would much rather dance solo.

Before the music festival, I took the kids to the Family University that was put on by the adult school where I’m enrolled.  London’s preschool class is really a parent education class.  They had a big shindig going on yesterday with fun things for the kids to do, which included checking out a fire truck and a police car.

Ashton thought driving the fire truck was the coolest thing ever.  One of the dads of a boy in London’s class is a police officer so he was there with his car.  The kids all thought that was pretty cool too.  London and Ashton mostly wanted to play on the playground, though.  I sent Ashton down the slide on his own for the first time.  That’s where he wanted to stay all morning.  It’s fun to see how excited he gets about things as he gets older.

We rounded off the night with a visit from some old friends.  Long ago when we lived in Pomona and I had just had London, I had some great walking buddies.  Sarah was one of them.  Her son, Ian, and London were the best of friends.  It’s sad to not see them very often anymore, because the kids don’t remember each other.  But they came down last night.  I watched the two boys (they have 2 now) while Sarah and Tim went to a sealing in the San Diego temple.  They’re living up in Orange County now, so it’s hard to get together with them anymore.  The kids all had a good time playing together and it was so much fun to see old friends again.  I hope it’s not so long before we see them again.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m not going to church to get anything out of it.  I’m going to teach my children how to be reverent.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m failing at that attempt.  I’m counting down the weeks until I can send Ashton to nursery.  We have 22.  That sounds like a lot to me.  The biggest problem, though, is sacrament meeting.  I’m constantly feeding my children to shut them up.  Today was no exception.  But when the food was gone, London got whiny.  Okay, she was whiny before the food was gone.  Both of them were really on one today.  It came to a point, where London needed to be taken out.  Since the meeting was almost over and Taylor leads the music, I grabbed both kids (from the 2nd row) and dragged them out.  As I was escorting them out, London could be heard screaming, “I don’t want to leave!”  Here I am, dragging her by the arm, and trying to carry a 26 pound wiggly baby (because he still doesn’t walk).  Once we finally got out of the chapel, I let go of her arm long enough to adjust Ashton, and off she went running back to the pew.  At this point I was livid, but not able to chase her down and fully expecting Taylor to walk her back out, I let her sit through the closing hymn and prayer in the second row by herself (since Taylor was leading the music).  After the meeting was finally over, we went on a “happy” walk.  This was accompanied by many kicks and screams.  She was finally able to calm down enough to send to primary, at which point I was able to return to sunday school class that was already half over and chase around our other hellion.  Relief society was a little better, but I still can’t say I got much out of the lesson with a crazy kid trying to get out the door or climb up the stairs at the front of the chapel.  At least by this point I had sense enough to move to the back of the room where he could crawl freely.  Is all the craziness really worth it?  It better be!