September 6, 2009

September 6, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

We are back in Virginia, but we didn’t start the week that way. Monday we were all in Fairfield still visiting with M’s family. We had a very low key day; we visited the Jelly Belly factory, and played tag outside with B-man. That night for FHE we played a few rounds of “Personal Preference.”

Tuesday M spent the morning packing up. We took him to the airport late in the morning, and sent him back to Virginia. On the way home we went to Costco and a few other quick errands. It was a super hot day, and so we took B-man to some water fountains that were in front of the courthouse. We all enjoyed the water and getting wet. B-man got super wet, but had a blast.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing laundry, packing, and doing things around the house. E helped me alter some pants that I had purchased at a garage sale. Julie also helped consult on them. I think they turned out great, especially for only spending fifty cents on them. (Although E’s time was invested too…) We also went to the fire station by their house. Once again the fireman that gave us a tour was so nice and accommodating. They never act as if we are any sort of a bother at all. He let B-man turn on the lights and the engine to one of the trucks, and let B-man and I put the earphone radios on and talk to one another. It was a great afternoon and B-man was so thrilled at all the fun things he got to see and try. We made a visit to a park near the house, and B-man followed the older boys around more than anything else. He even played a little soccer with them. The other activity for those days was looking for dresses for E and the upcoming wedding. The boys were very patient with all the dress shopping, and we even found at least one good option. That night M (in Virginia) went to “Back to School Night.” He said it made him feel old to have a child in school. I would have to agree.

The other big event of the week was that with Grandma E’s help we started training J to fall asleep on his own. His sleeping was getting ridiculous, and since we didn’t have as many people to worry about disturbing we were able to start letting him figure it out. He made a lot of progress and usually would fall asleep in five minutes or less of crying. It feels so good to know what to do with him, and he has been much happier because of it. (And I have been sleeping more because of it.) I feel bad for everyone at Yosemite that heard him crying so much!

Thursday night late we drove to San Francisco for our flight back to VA. Grandma E drove us to the airport, and everything went very smoothly. The only problem came in that there were zero extra seats. So I had to check the car seat and hold J for the entire flight. I did remember to bring the front pack which made it a lot easier. The red-eye flight was aptly named. When we landed I was not a pretty picture, but since B-man slept the entire way, and J slept almost the entire way, I think it was worth the sleepless night. M picked us up from the airport and then we dropped him off before heading for home.

Once we were home all I wanted to do was find a bed, but instead we had to get going immediately. We quickly ate breakfast and then changed clothes before heading to a Kindergarten Open House for B-man. The Open house was pretty chaotic with all the kids and all the parents crammed into the room together. B-man stuck close to me at first, but when we looked at the computers, and then he ran around outside with the other kids he started to loosen up. The teacher sang a few songs with the kids, explained what would happen in the morning on the first day, and then all the kids went for a bus ride to practice the bus riding skills. B-man was thrilled! Although he did report to us today that he was a little nervous that there were no buckles in school buses. Somehow J managed to sleep through all of this. I had last fed him somewhere in the middle of the flight and through all of this drama and driving he stayed asleep. It was such a blessing since there was no comfortable way to feed a child with all those people around and no comfortable quiet seat.

M got off early that day because of the holiday weekend, and after a quick lunch we headed out to the farm to get our boxes. We first picked edamame beans and then while M and B-man did a few fun things I fed J. When we got home the boys went swimming while I cleaned up a bit. That evening we went to the airport and picked up B-man’s booster seat. In my sleep deprived state I forgot to get it that morning (it’s a good thing the airport is so close). We then headed over and helped pack up the moving truck of some friends. B-man loved playing with the other kids, and the night was very pleasant even with the moving and the bugs. The couple moving then treated us and another couple that helped to dinner before heading back home. We were all exhausted. B-man had only about five hours of sleep, and I had about thirty minutes of sleep from the previous night. B-man went straight to bed, and then we all went to bed early that night.

By some miracle J slept until five in the morning. It was amazing! Never before in my life has a child actually slept longer when I wanted them to most. All that sleep training really paid off. I ended up getting almost twelve hours of sleep once I really got up thanks to M entertaining B-man for a while. That morning B-man and M walked to the bank, and then to see if our friends needed help unloading the truck. They both went swimming in the pool in the afternoon and we ran a few errands together. I worked in the yard while they were at the pool. There were some very tall, very large weeds. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but some of them were so large I couldn’t pull them out, I just broke them off. I’ll need some serious work in there once the garden stops producing. B-man went to bed early again and then M went to watch the BYU football game at a friend’s house with some other guys.

Today has been a great day. It was great to be back in our ward, and see what has changed. B-man was so excited to be the spotlight child. He has wanted to be that since we started doing it over a year ago! The Primary also sang to him for his birthday coming up.

We love you all. We feel so blessed to have been able to see so many of our family members this past month. We wish we could see you more!

R, M, B-man, and J

P.S. These pictures are not from this week; I hope you don’t mind.