Day of Anxiety

Okay so in about 4 minutes I am having 11 friends over for BUNKO! This has been a long time waiting...I made Will paint the entire house and take the kids off my hands for the evening. He has been a total gem. He even bailed me out when I burned my rolls this afternoon. Thanks Will and wish me luck! Hosting things and feeding a lot of people can truly wear one out.

All By Myself

Cora's First PB & J. Ila's first wall art...good thing for paint.

Before After








So I had my first too.... accept mine was a horrible accident

PS It is never a good idea to lean over the trash can when cutting hair.

Big Mistake equals....makeover for Mom.

Thanks to my photographer, Cora.

Ila Going Down the Big Slide.

Deer Creek

This was our last big family gathering before my Brother moves back to North Carolina. We are so happy they came for the summer. Cora is really going to miss her cousin. They have been side by side all summer.

Our Hail Storm

A Hike with Daddy and the Girls

Cora in the "Icy" water. Ila eating at the falls.

While I was at home taking care of Jonas, Will took the girls on a hike up Pleasant Grove Canyon. It looks like they had a great time.

From Will-This is Battle Creek. It was a 1.2 mile round trip, easy hike. Cora was so excited and Ila a little weary of the backpack. She did good after we got up a little into the thick trees and shade. On the way up we saw the bees gettting drinks at the first pool. At the falls Cora would hardly hold still because the wind from the falls and the spray and a steepish slope made her nervous. I loved helping her through the picture. It is so fun when she "did it".

We ate just down from the fall in the shade by a pool. After we ate we all played in the water. Cora was so brave. She played in it until it hurt and then beyond numbness and started smiling and splashing. It was frigid and icy but felt good in the heat. At on point we all had our feet in the water.

On the way down we saw "snap grasshoppers". They were loud and clicking their wings. We saew tons of butterflies of many different colors. They just kept flying around our heads. At the rock by Cora above (arms spread out) we (I) saw a snake on the way down. She just heard it slither under the rock. It would not come out. It was long and reddish and fast. It was a fun day.

The Tonsilectomy

Jonas had his tonsils out at the end of July. I thought this had to be the worst week of summer. I never thought he was going to recover and I am still behind on sleep, but I am glad he is back to himself and he seems a little happier. Maybe it is due to his new deeper sleep. His tonsils were huge. (Yes the Dr. Showed them to us post op.) The first picture is before he went in to surgery, he was not excited. Will made him the glove buddy and it seemed to cheer him up. The cup is humidifier which helped keep his throat moist.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Study: Problematic behavior becomes evident in infancy
July 21st, 2008 @ 6:58am
By Paul Nelson

How can parents tell if they have a problem child on their hands? A new study say problematic behavior can be spotted during infancy.

All right parents, when did you first feel you could see your baby's personality? One Salt Lake County mom says she could see her child's temperament almost right away.
She said, "She always had a great heart and a great spirit, and she was always so generous and sweet with everyone, and that's how she is now."

But is there such a thing as a baby who is downright nasty? Another Salt Lake County mother said, "I don't think I would call any baby a jerk, all babies are beautiful, right? But, yeah, some babies really have a lot more colic or they're just really hard to comfort."

For the parents of difficult babies, there is a bit of bad news. A new study from the University of Chicago says a baby's temperament is a strong predictor of behavior problems later. Fussy children, or babies with unpredictable behavior, were more prone to problems like bullying and cheating at school.

University of Utah Medical Center Pediatrics Chief Chuck Norlin said, "Certainly over the first few months, some (behavior) styles usually become somewhat apparent."
The other predictor is parental interaction, and the amount of intellectual stimulation parents gave their children. Norlin says parental styles need to match up with the personality of the child.

"For example, parents who like to have a very rigid schedule, if they have a kid who likes to have a very rigid schedule, that works really well."
Norlin says bad baby behavior isn't always caused by a mean temperament. He says there are things that could produce behaviors that are hard to distinguish from temperament.

"Some kids will have something called Gastro Esophageal Reflux where they get what we would otherwise call heartburn, which then could cause them to have pain," he said.
But Norlin says cases like that are rare. He says there are things parents can do to calm a kid with a bad temperament down.

"Define things that help them be more comfortable and support them in figuring out how to satisfy their own needs," he said.

But this is harder to do in the child's younger years.