Birthdays and Babies

So our little Jace is 3! I can't believe how fast it went. I am looking forward to the end of his terrible 2s (and probably 3s) but I'm doing my best to try to enjoy it while I can. He is such a charming little man, even with all the attitude. He can't seem to part with his cowboy hat lately--but that's fine with me, its cute and someday it will be too small.We had some cake and ice cream and some gifts for Jace on Saturday before his birthday. Chris' mom and dad drove over from Forest Grove and spent the night on Saturday. He must have blown out his "fire" at least a dozen times, then he bent over and took a big lick out of the icing on one side.
He got some fun gifts and immediately wanted to open them.

And Dallon was a big help when Jace wasn't staying on task with the unwrapping! They both had fun playing with new toys.

Dallon has suddenly become obsessed with Transformers. I'm not sure why. When I went to the store to get Jace's bday present, I saw a transformers jacket and pants on clearance in a size Dallon could wear. He wore it everyday for the next 4 days! I guess we'll have to get some more transformers things.

I am now over 30 weeks along, and on Monday I had an ultrasound to check for fluid levels (because I had a strange loss of fluids several weeks ago) and to check the size of the very large Conner growing inside me. Fluid levels were good, and Conner is in the 85th percentile for his gestational age. If I go all the way to 40 weeks with him, he will be well over 9lbs!!!! I have had lots of contractions already--all day every day regardless of what my activities are--so I'm hoping that means he'll be coming early and not so large! Jace was 16 days early and weighed 7lbs 10oz, Conner is measuring bigger than Jace did. I'm trying not to stress too much about it. The great news is that Conner is very active and healthy and I am feeling ok with only minor discomforts like heartburn, soreness, and sleeplessness. My blood pressure is low (sometimes a little too low), my blood sugar is great, I'm not gaining too much or too little weight, and generally my prenatal visits are boring--which is a good thing. I took a few pictures of my big belly, I realized I didn't have any from the last 2.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Chris is working today, so we are going to have lunch with him at work. I'm picking up Subway because it was the first meal we shared together when we started dating more than 11 years ago!

Dallon had a pajama party on Thursday at school for Valentine's Day. I took Bianca for the last 45 minutes or so. He loves having her there, and gets really excited to tell her what is going on in circle time. She is doing great at school. (The blue strap on her face is her "gentle leader." It works like blinders for a horse--it just keeps her focused when she's working in a new place with a lot of distractions. We'll only be using it until we're confident she won't need it anymore.)

We went outside with the class for the first time on Thursday too. Typically Dallon's class is the only one out there, but because of class parties and a change in schedule for the day there were 3 classes out there! It was a little overwhelming for me, but Bianca did great. She calmly just let the kids pet her and poke at her. Dallon kept an eye on us, but went off to play most of the time. He loves to pet her ears (as you can see from the picture above). I'm excited to see how she changes things for him at school.

Jace is giving me that mischevious look of his in this picture (first thing in the morning). Its such a typical look for him I had to post it. I took him up to the ESD on Monday for some evaluations, and I am having his hearing checked in a couple of weeks. His speech is still a little unclear, and although he is increasing his vocabulary daily, he is still behind. So he will start going to school the same time as Dallon. It will be a nice break for me, but it seems strange to send him to school--he's still a baby to me. They will re-evaluate him on a regular basis and graduate him as soon as he doesn't need additional services like speech therapy anymore.

Bianca has become very comfortable at home. She's found a new place to hang out at home. The window seat in the boys' room is the perfect perch to watch people, animals, and cars go by. It is also a nice napping place apparently. The boys really love her, and Dallon asks for her to sleep with him every night now.

Bianca goes to school

We had our first meeting with representatives from Dallon's preschool, the bus company, and the school district for Bianca. It went very well. We did a general presentation on how we plan to transition Bianca into the classroom, and what kinds of accomodations she'll need in the classroom. We showed them what she can do to help Dallon with behavior/emotional problems and her tracking. Everyone seems very excited to have her there. We've been really lucky to have such a supportive group of educators here. Then yesterday Chris took Bianca to the last 15-20 minutes of class and introduced her to the kids and teachers. She was a big hit, and was very well behaved.

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We plan to gradually increase the amount of time she spends in the classroom, and during that time demonstrate to his teachers how to handle her on their own. It will be very gradual this year, mostly because we've never done this before and don't want to rush into it and make too many mistakes right off the bat. We're hoping that by the end of this school year she will be transitioned into the classroom without us having to be there for her at all. We'll see how it goes!

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All seems to be going generally well around here now that we've settled in with Bianca and recovered from the holidays. My sister Kaylee has announced that she is engaged and is planning her wedding for June 20th in the Salt Lake City Temple. We are very excited for her, and are already making our plans to attend. Thank goodness gas prices are down!

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Jace is talking more clearly each day it seems. I think he's had a lot more to say before now--I just couldn't really understand it. I am taking him in for a general speech evaluation and hearing test in a couple of weeks just to see if he needs (or could use) a little extra help in that area and to rule out any hearing problems. Now that we are understanding him more, his physical behaviors are subsiding little by little. Hopefully he'll be ready when the new baby comes!

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We've apparently decided on a name for the new baby. His name will most likely be Conner--and since Chris has been teaching the boys how to say it, I'm guessing we won't be changing our minds unless something major happens. I explained to Dallon that there is a baby in my tummy. He seemed really confused, but he talks about it now. Today he said his tummy hurt because there was a baby in it. Apparently there's still some confusion we need to work through in the next 4 months.

Baby Boy Arvidson #3 Due the end of May

Dallon back to school

So Dallon was dying to get back to school. He had only been for 1 day in 6 weeks! So on Monday he was very excited, and woke up saying, "its time to get ready for school!" When he came home on Monday, he brought home a big poster board with his name on it, and a letter explaining that he has been chosen as the "superstar of the month." So we are supposed to decorate his poster with things that make him special, and he can take things to school to share during circle time. I'm still brainstorming things he can take (that aren't too tempting to play with!) and we'll definitely use this opportunity to introduce Bianca to his class.

He also resumes speech therapy on Friday. He really needs all of these additional sources of stimulation (mostly because they require going somewhere other than here!). He's been pretty angry and frustrated over the last week or so before he went back to school. He still seems a little out of sorts, but hopefully he'll get back into the swing of things quickly.

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Jace and I are doing some "preschool" at home on the days that Dallon is gone to school. Just puzzles, books, and songs for now. He doesn't seem to enjoy doing craft/art projects--only occassional coloring pages. He likes the busy activities that he can "experiment" with, so I'm digging up all of my best stuff for him. Hopefully the additional structure and stimulation will take some of his attention off of tormenting Bianca, and give us some time to spend one on one.

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Chris is doing his last night shift tonight before his next 4 days off. This weekend it will be the first time we've had a chance to go to church all together since before we went to Ohio. When his day shifts fall on Sundays it gets a little hard for me, but its only 2 weeks in a row before he's back.

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I am starting a program called FlyLady (flylady.net). It is a program to help organize the "chaos" in your home. Basically they start with little things you add to a daily routine, gradually building on it. The nicest thing about it for me is that they tell me what to do every day--so I don't have to plan out when to do things like clean out the closets or declutter my kitchen. Its going well so far!

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Hope you are all starting out 2009 with great anticipation as we are!