4 Years Later

I'm not sure I'm equipped for pulling all-nighters anymore... I figured with sleeping in yesterday, getting a nap after church, daylight savings, and registration this morning, why not?? We will see how this day goes haha! Definitely napping with the kids today.

I did get all of the tedious homework for one of my classes done for the rest of the semester, though! And I'm about as caught up on all my other classes as I can be for now.

Levi asked me how many credits I plan on taking next semester. I told him 14. He thought I was crazy. I said, "12 just wasn't challenging enough this semester!" ;) Sad thing is I wasn't kidding. I registered for 11 this morning and am waiting to be added to 7 more for the rest of my medical assisting. No, I'm not going to take 18 credits! I just like to add a few more credits than needed and drop whatever doesn't work out with my schedule.

Last semester on campus... Levi is graduating, we are moving on. But to what?? Not sure yet. We'll figure it out, though. Life is coming at us so fast. These kids are growing up way too quickly. I have no idea where the time is going.

We started dating in Levi's first semester up here at BYU-I. That was over 4 years ago, but sometimes it barely seems like 4 months. We're now the "old couple" on campus and at church. *That* couple with the two kids ;) Oh, the loud child running around with a mouth full of food? Yep, he's mine. Oh, the woman chasing that loud child while holding another kid in her arms? Yep, that's me. Campus can be awkward now! Yes, I think it's time to move on to play dates at 11 am and online classes. I just didn't think we would be moving on this soon...

My House Is A Mess

Most of the time. And this is why...

But, yes. We don't stop him; we just take pictures :)

I will add to this post as he makes more messes! That little man is quick, I tell ya!...

Seriously, like 2 minutes is all it took him to pull the cupcakes off the counter and get into two of them.

He was covered in Red Velvet Cream Cheese cupcakes! Face, hands, legs...

And as I was cleaning up that mess, afterward I found him sitting in a bucket :)

I Said I Would Never...

... Be that mom whose kids are always sick and is always taking them to the doctor! I was the perfect parent before I had kids :) These kids have been sick for weeks now. I took Lucas in a few weeks ago for a 103 degree fever. I took Via in last week and it turned out she has RSV (or something like it). And even if I know what's wrong I will have to take them in for a prescription - like this morning for Via's pink eye. The funny thing, though, is this semester in my Medical Assisting Lab we have learned how to *correctly* use and care for a nebulizer, administer eye medication, and irrigate ears - I have done all three outside of class so far. Via has a nebulizer, with a cute little dinosaur mask, for bronchiolitis; Levi had me irrigate his ears, and I am now doing drops for pink eye. (When giving eye drops before, I had always had the person close their eyes and I put it in the corner by their nose and then blink. Well, if you do that, a bunch of the medication just drains down the nasolacrimal canal. Duh, Shaeli.)

I also said I would never co-sleep. Well, that worked with Lucas, but Princess Via falls asleep in our bed most nights. And she has to be held and snuggled up just right on her side with my arm around her and her head on my shoulder :) Silly girl!

I said I would never let my kids sleep on their tummies. Yeah. They don't sleep on their backs. I think they got so used to it and liked it so much in the NICU (where they slept on their tummies because they were hooked up to monitors), they just refuse to sleep much on their backs. Personally, I don't think tummy sleeping really does much to reduce the risk of SIDS, but that's another post in itself ;)

I said I would *try* to never let my kids frustrate me to the point of yelling... or swear in front of them. Ha! Let's just say that Levi asked me the other day what I'm gonna do when Lucas swears for the first time. Oops.

It is so very true how much you think you know about parenting until you become one! Even Levi gets comments from this guy at work about us maybe only having two kids. "What kind of a Mormon are you?" "Why don't you just adopt?" Really?? Do you have kids? No, you don't. Why don't you take mine for a few days AND keep up on homework and housework at the same time. Then you can make comments about our childrearing decisions. Okie dokie?

Alright, apparently I needed to vent :) Sorry. People are always surprised when they find out we have two kids already and are in school. But then they make some joke about poppin' out a basketball team and we reply, "No. I think we're actually done." Then they get all surprised that a Mormon family would dare think of only having two kids. Oh, brother. Such is life, I suppose...

A Bragging Moment ;)

Okay, I know it's not the best trait, but I am quite proud of the pictures I took of Via the other day! Levi is usually the photographer of the family.

I had put Lucas down for a nap and thought, "why don't I try to get some shots of V?" So I did :) I set her on our new couch - which I'm in l.o.v.e. with and have included a picture of for my mom - and her daddy made her smile for me haha!

And my Valentine's present from my sweetheart <3

(The couch, not the baby.)

Quiet Time

I love nap time! Whether I'm napping with the kids or just getting a bit of quiet while they sleep, it works so well to even it out with the screaming! Oh, my poor Lucas!...

He woke up the other night around 11 just screaming bloody murder! My cousin across the hall in the next apartment over could hear him! He was still sick with a fever and teething. He's getting molars in :/ Poor little man had a rough weekend. Anyway, this same cousin txt me the next day asking if the FBI had stopped by my house ha! I said, "No. Why? Did someone report a screaming child??" No. It had nothing to do with us. (They went to my cousin's and asked her some questions about something unrelated to both of us. She was just wondering if they had done the same to me.)

Levi and I were still up - of course - so it's not us I'm ever worried about; we live above, below, and next door to other couples! I feel so sorry for them! It will be nice to have our own house one day where I won't have to worry about him waking others up. I know our downstairs neighbors get up early and I just cringe every time that kid shrieks! Of course, I feel so sorry for him, too. There's not much we can do when he does this. He won't suck on a cold washcloth or chew on anything. He just screams and spits. We gave him some medicine and then finally just gave him some diphenhidramine to help him sleep. It worked :)

I do love these kids' laughs and even their normal cries. I love when Lucas just jabbers to us or even no one... but I do love this quiet time as well. All quiet except for the wind, which is howling, and little Via's breathing :) Today is a good day.

Oh, Colic

For a few weeks now Via has been colicky from about 8 pm to midnight. Yay. She won't sleep at all then unless she's being held, which just makes it hard to get homework done. 8 is when Lucas goes to bed (usually), and I (usually) do homework then :) But... I am very glad that she is healthy! I can't imagine what it would be like to have a sick child all the time.

Lucas woke up with a fever this morning. He seemed okay for the first part of the day, and his fever started to break, but it spiked again in the evening so I took him into the urgent care center. It's just so weird seeing him when he's not himself. He actually cuddles me, though, which is nice! He normally won't even sit on my lap for more than a few minutes.

Back to the colic... Via was being a bit more fussy than normal a few hours ago when I changed her and got her in her ladybug pajamas. I noticed The Grouchy Ladybug book on the floor next to her that Lucas has been "reading" for the past few days :) Nope, didn't plan it. I decided to take a picture...

It's a little after midnight now, so hopefully she will go to bed soon. She's swinging right now. We'll see how long that lasts.

An Awesome Big Brother and A Smiler

Well, whether Lucas is just annoyed when Via cries or if he is actually trying to comfort her, I don't care. It's cute, I think! He's always trying to give her a bottle or pacifier (whatever he can find) to try and keep her from crying!

He is also such a great helper (sometimes)! He likes to "help" Mommy by sitting on the bathroom counter while I put on make up! He likes to "help" Daddy fix things by handing him tools!

Via has also started smiling quite a bit now as long as it's not nighttime, which is when she's colicky... Here she is with Yama earlier today :) ("Yama" is Levi's nickname for my grandmother and combines the words "your" and "grandma" lol)