July 2005 Archives

07-03-05

Greetings again, of course several months have passed and I am just barely getting around to writing this. The big news for this installment is that (for those of you who don't know) we are expecting another baby. The due date is January 16th and hopefully we'll be able to find out if it's a boy or a girl at the end of August. This pregnancy has been quite a bit rougher for me. I have been really tired and I was nauseated all day long for the first 10 weeks, it wasn't too bad, just annoying to feel gross all the time. I know a lot of women have it much worse so I tried not to complain too much. We are excited to be welcoming this new addition to our family. I think Seth is going to have a hard time sharing Mommy with the new one, but it will be very good for him to have a sibling.

We also spent 5 days in California over Memorial Day weekend. It was a very relaxed trip. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Seth went wild about the fishies. He used to watch Nemo quite a bit and was excited to see real fish that looked just like the fish in the movie. The biggest hit of the Aquarium was the Splash Zone play area. I think Seth would have spent the entire time there if we would have let him. James and I really liked the new shark exhibit, it was very interesting to see all of the different species of shark. For lunch that day we went to a middle eastern restaurant that John recommended. The food was delicious. Seth was really tired and got to lounge in a little alcove filled with cushions and pillows. He thought it was great. We also went to the Dennis the Menace Park and watched Seth motor around there. His favorite part was the really long slide and the swings. He says swinging like "weeyou". So now whenever we go to a park he makes a beeline for the "weeyous". That evening we visited Uncle Scott in his studio and then went to Lover's Point. Seth got to touch the Ocean for the first time and John stuck his head all the way into the freezing water. We had a good time running around the point and being silly. We also went to Fisherman's warf, while browsing the shops Seth dropped his lion. I didn't notice until we were halfway down the warf that it was missing. James and I began frantically back-tracking our steps and finally to our great relief we found Lion in the first store we had gone to. Some wonderful person had picked it up and given it to the cashier. I have to tell you that losing Lion was almost as bad as losing Seth would be. My heart was pounding and I was sick to my stomach with fear that Lion might be gone. Seth is still very attached to Lion and takes him everywhere. I keep telling myself that we need to get a leash for lion and attach him to the stroller or the shopping cart or to Seth himself so that we don't lose him again.

The rest of the vacation was spent with family and friends and enjoying the nice weather and long weekend. Seth has gotten very shy and wouldn't let great grandma or grandpa hold him very much. I think they were a little disappointed by that. Hopefully, he will chill out soon and let more people play with him.

James was offered and accepted a new job in June. He started on June 20th. The job is with a company called United Online. They are based in California, but have an office in Orem. We were sad to leave his old job because he could work from home and the owners were great people and good bosses. James was really excited to get this position though, he is working with several of his friends and the job is stable and with a big company that has really good benefits. The extra money he will be bringing in is a nice bonus too. We feel blessed to have this opportunity and hope that it will be a job that James will be comfortable with for at least a few years.

This last week we were excited to have Joseph here for his last day as a pre-missionary. I went and picked him up at the This is the Place Monument as he and the Lance clan finished their tour of the Church history sites. That evening Jenni came over and we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Seth had a good time getting sweet and sour sauce all over himself. I thought his clothes would never come clean. Then James and Joe spent the evening playing computer games. The next morning Joseph packed up his bags, played with Seth, did some last minute errands and then he and James took off. They went to James' work until it was time to head to the MTC. I was so impressed at the difference in Joseph. He was so happy and excited. I could tell that the spirit was with him. We are excited to hear how his mission is going.

On a sad note, my cousin Matthew was found dead at his mom's house this Friday. We still don't know many details about what happened, but it was quite a shock. My Aunt Wendy was out of town at the time and it was his brother Pieter who found him. The funeral is set for this Thursday. I still don't really know how to react. I guess it just doesn't seem very real to me yet. We are praying for Wendy and her family and hope that the spirit will comfort them.

Now for Seth's update. He is a very, very busy boy. He likes to help us whenever he can. If we are cooking anything he will ask us to get a chair for him to stand on so that he can see what's going on. He helped us make pizza a few weeks ago and I think it made a big impression on him. Whenever he visits my sister's house he always plays with their toy oven and makes us delicious treats to eat. He has also discovered that he loves to swim. I bought a life vest for him and a little inflatable inner-tube. With those two things on, he is pretty mobile and independent in the pool. He asks me every day if we can go swimming. We took him to Liberty Park where they have a little water feature that the kids can play in. He thought it was totally great and played in it for quite a while. His word for swinging and swimming is the same so sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what he wants to do. Another thing that he is obssesed with right now is all things transportation related, especially helicopters. If he hears an airplane or a helicopter while we are playing outside he will immediately stop what he is doing, point up to the sky and say "copter". I'm thinking of doing some sort of helicopter cake for his birthday this year, but I don't have my sister Amy here to help me with it so it might not be very good. He also likes to point out all the trucks and buses he sees while we are driving. It keeps him entertained. He's starting to form long, but mostly incoherent sentences, usually with one or two understandable words mixed in with a string of jibberish. Luckily, I've become pretty fluent in Sethease and can understand him most of the time. We love helping him learn and grow.

Love James, Miekka and Seth