March 2019- Bring me to the Sun

It is very difficult for an extrovert to stay inside all the time, but it also takes a lot of energy and mental fortitude to get 3 kids (two of them infants) outside the house by myself. I heard about Dr. Seuss Day at the Gateway museum in SLC and we decided to dress up and go. We were the only family there in character, go figure!
Otto got himself stuck climbing up the bee hive playground and wasn't sure how to get down. He was too afraid to climb backwards down the platforms and I could hear him crying from down below. I was stuck, too, as I am too big to climb up there and get him and I had two babies waiting in the stroller at the bottom. So, I had to talk him down one step at a time with much cheerleading and encouragement. We kept repeating "We can do hard things!" all the way down. This was extremely helpful because later we got lost in the parking garage trying to find our car and instead of breaking into tears (what I really wanted to do), I used it as a lesson in being stuck in a hard situation and not giving up.

The rest of our visit was a grand time and Thing One and Thing Two had a great time watching the waterworks display and the dancing scarves in the wind tunnel.
 We eventually found the car and even left the parking garage without an accident or going the wrong way on a one way street! These are my biggest fears.

When a Mom has a birthday, sometimes all she wants is to have a day to be selfish. I took Otto and the little guys to the toy store and told myself I could get anything I wanted. Otto tried hard to persuade me to the dinosaur section, but I reminded him that this toy was just for me. I absolutely LOVE PlayMobile toys so I picked out my favorite set to bring home.



Matt brought me some treats and a whole bunch of helium balloons. The rest of the month was hilarious fun watching the babies interact with the balloons. Vincent's favorite thing was to grab the balloon string just to throw it and hear the balloon go "bonk bonk bonk" on the ceiling.

We spend dark evenings playing family games before bed and hope that each morning is greeted with another snow storm. Taking the kids out anywhere in the Winter is hard when I have to get the stroller out in the cold mush and wade through wet and cold to go in and out of stores. Atticus always voices his displeasure and discomfort at the slightest breeze. We walked around Walmart as our tires on the van were getting checked out. This is one of the biggest outings of the month!

Otto played the class leprechaun a few days before St. Patrick's Day and brought coins to his class.
Shortly after this, he got a haircut to prepare for our trip to warmer weather.














My way of keeping sane in the cold was to dream of our trip to Arizona and be welcomed by warm sunshine. It is my goal to visit our old home with friends and family once a year. We didn't make it there at all last year, but no one could blame me for being pregnant and hospitalized and caring for newborns. Thank goodness my Mom could come this time so I didn't have to drive and do it all alone! We made arrangements to stay with Rhonda and Sonny and a few days with Rusty and Stephanie (Otto's cousins). It is important to me that Otto gets a chance to go visit his birth-family whenever possible to keep a relationship with them as he grows.

On the way to Phoenix, we stayed an extra day in Las Vegas to relax at the condo and see some sights. We took the babies around Caesar's Palace and Otto got to see the Atlantis show.

 We wanted to see the volcano, but it only erupts at night. By the time we had walked around, the rain had started to fall and Otto didn't get a chance to see the Belagio fountains either. I know the babies enjoyed our walk around inside. Atticus couldn't stop screaming in delight at the beautiful ceiling sculptures and the flowers in the atrium.



While staying with Rhonda, we had a All Aboard reunion with some of my very favorite people that I miss terribly. They are my Arizona family and I was so excited they got to see the babies for the first time. While we played in and around the pool, Vincent started babbling his first words! The warmth brings out the best in him, I guess. He said, "Mama, Baba" and made noises he had never attempted before.




I took Otto to the Thunderbird park for a special play date with First-Daddy Trace (his birth father). This was so much fun because Trace has another son adopted and a younger son that is Otto's biological half-sibling. So, they got to play together in the sand and take a walk to look for ducks. They got along so well that Otto even got his little bro into dinosaurs by the end of the morning! We really love the chance we get to have for Otto to connect with his biological family.

We said goodbye to Rhonda and our friends with a lunch at Postinos (my absolute favorite eatery on the planet).
Delicious food, good friends, my loving family, and beautiful atmosphere. This is my heaven. All that was missing was Matt.

We traveled further South to Chandler to spend time with Uncle James, Aunt LaRee, Uncle Joe, Aunt Tiffany, and ALL the cousins. Rusty and Stephanie were wonderful hosts for a dinner gathering and their spare beds to us. We spent countless hours chatting and catching up and Otto was in heaven playing with all of his cousins. I think he particularly liked playing with Sawyer, although she is older than him.

We met up with cousins and Joe and Tiffany again for a playdate at the mall. My cousin, Drey and her husband and baby girl met us there too for a quick visit. We successfully wore out Otto and the babies with all the outings, although I was careful only to plan one thing per day.


It wasn't until the drive home that all the stress and activity caught up to me and I felt completely drained from all the vacation fun. I loved wearing less clothing, seeing sunshine, feeling warm, and visiting with all my favorite people. Three days after coming home, I crashed and didn't want to move.
 It was worth it. I hope we get to go again next year!





During our 9 day vacation, Matt was busy at home with some projects he could easily do without us distracting him. He played Words With Friends on his phone, planted some seedlings to start our garden, some household repairs, and worked on his garage projects. He has been rebuilding some quads and a three-wheeler. He was happy to have some time to himself, but we missed him terribly.

Since the babies turned 6 months, I have not seen much progress or growth in their large motor developments. At the end of March, they turned 9 months and I was definitely starting to worry that they weren't sitting up on their own without support. They seem more like tiny newborns lying on blankets or in car seats than growing babies that would be getting close to crawling. When I took them for their 9 month appointment, Atticus was Anemic and both had dropped or stayed the same in weight. They were each just over 12 lbs. The doctor was worried about Atticus since he seemed smaller and wasn't standing up on his legs yet. She sent me to get labs and chest x-rays done at Primary Children's Hospital so we could get some more answers. I was feeling defeated and scared but resolved to do more to help them both gain weight in the next month. They had only been eating solids once or twice a day and still exclusively breastfeeding, so I knew there was more we could do. We were relieved to find that the blood work and chest x-rays came back normal and he started on daily iron supplements. We also got in contact with the Early Intervention program through the school district to schedule an assessment for their development and possibly receive services with an occupational therapist.