update on the kiddos

Lincoln is almost 22 months. At this point, it's easier to quit counting months and just say, "he's almost two." I know that for sure because he is definitely doing the "terrible two" thing a little bit early. Not that he's terrible, just that he is a little extra saucy and opinionated about e v e r y t h i n g.  He is back on his paci. And, it's worse than before... now he likes to have two to change out when he feels like he needs a fresh one. I keep saying okay NEXT WEEK I'm going to be done with the paci and then I put it off because its going to be three days of horror which, may I remind you, I already did once.

Lincoln is talking more, he says new words all the time. His favorite word ever is BOAT. Ever since Disneyland, he thinks any ride is a boat. He has to go check on Grandpa's boat when we go over there. The Yo Ho Pirate's Life song comes on and he yells BOAT. BOATBOATBOAT. His favorite. He loves to visit my parents. When we reach the intersection by my house- we either go straight through to our house or turn left to my parents'.... and when we don't turn he says No. Nooooooo No! And throws his arms out left like that will help turn the car towards his favorite play place. He still waves with his arm upsidown like he is serving drinks. He loves going to nursery at church.

Linc loves cars and trucks- he likes to line them all up on one surface then move them somewhere else. I find them in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in my closet... every where. He loves to be outside. Out! Out! Then he finds his shoes and brings them me. Sometimes they aren't his- he doesn't care, he just wants shoes to go OUT. His favorite foods are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, meatballs, chicken nuggets, mandarin oranges, toast, his gummy vitamins, and really any type of fruit. Noodles still aren't his thing.

Lincoln is still my baby. He is so, so soft. He still cuddles with me and says 'mamaaaa' with a little smirk on his face like I'm in trouble or something. He is an excellent sleeper, please and thank you amen for that! Takes naps about 1 pm everyday after lunch. (with his two paci's.) He has a mind of his own and takes off without checking to see if anyone is following him. When Isabelle was this age- she and I would shop or go to get groceries and she would follow me like a loyal puppy dog. As soon as I set Lincoln down, its like his mission is to hide/run/disappear as fast as possible. I literally held him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes last week at the MAC counter for a "quick makeup run." Now I  know, stroller is necessary. For the most part, he is so happy and fun- he and Isabelle play well together until Lincoln steals something of hers.


And Isabelle. My sweet four year old. HOW DO I HAVE A FOUR YEAR OLD. Vivacious is the best word to describe her. She is so full of life and has the most hilarious things to say. She loves to do "frafts" (crafts) and is always asking to color/paint/cut something up. She says stuff like, "You know what?" and "I dreamed about..." and "hold on" and "I have a great idea!" Her sentences are so cute and well thought out....she is like a compete little person already. There are so many things I want to remember, it's hard to keep track.

Izzie is loving preschool two days a week. She always comes home and zips open her pack to show me what she made or drew or colored. She loves having the social time when her friends and usually when I go to pick her up she says "awwww man, what a bummer." She loves her cousins. She asked me the other day if I could move our house over by Madilyn and Kira's house so we lived closer.

Izzie is fully into Barbies now, and I'm sure I've vacuumed up at least twelve tiny barbie shoes in the process. She loves puzzles, and games- we've been playing Old Maid lately and she loves when I get stuck with the "stinky old maid." She always wants to help me do things- she is especially helpful with Lincoln, grabbing his shoes or finding his favorite car. I can't ever go get him from his crib without her- she has to lead the way. She can open the car door, get in, and buckle her three point harness all by herself. I pledge allegiance to my van forever and ever amen.

I just asked Isabelle these questions and these were her answers."
     What is your favorite food ? "Burrito Bandito. And I like my food at Grandma's house."
     What is your favorite color? "Red, Purple, Pink and Red.
     What is your favorite show? "Doc McStuffins."
     What is your favorite thing to do? "Color."
     Where is your favorite place to go? "Grammas and Aunt JaNae's house."
     What is your favorite song? "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree."
     What is your favorite drink? "Juice, pink kind."
     What is your favorite toy? "HOLD ON. I am playing. Remember."

I think she's done with questions.

 

hungry/ ready for dinner outside 

 

birthday girl/chillaxing at the table

 

iz and linc as babies. kill me.

 

grandpa john visited!/ day date at the temple

 

too tired to move/perfect pumpkin

 

lincoln is that teeny speck in the distance/ finally feeling like fall

Yesterday was Isabelle's primary program at church. She had one little line to say and knew most of the songs. Best part of my life, right there.

PS remind me to tell you about our family pictures next time.

and baby makes five

Baby #3! Let's discuss.

I'm due end of April, so I'm about 13 1/2 weeks right now. 

My most nauseous pregnancy yet. 

I feel 100% that this is a girl and if it is not I will be totally shocked.  I feel similar to how I did when I was pregnant with Isabelle- I crave warm homey foods. With Lincoln I could not eat anything sweet... that doesn't seem to be a problem this time around. (though that might be more helpful.) We toyed with the idea of not finding out the gender- we have one of each, I'm not creating another nursery, it may make having major abdominal surgery slightly more fun, etc. Jazz doesn't want to wait, and I only sort of do, and will probably cave to peer pressure and take a peek. Waiting is hard. (Morgan if you say I told you so I will slice you.)

Isabelle is excited. She really keeps asking if we know if it's a girl yet.. A baby sister...she understands it this time around. Lincoln however, does not. And I'm a little worried about having a newborn with him around. He is sort of a mamas boy... and very opinionated... and sort of rambunctious? He still seems like such a baby to me, so soft and cuddly. But then I saw him next to Quinn at Disneyland and he looked like baby shrek.

Going from 1 kid to 2 kids was a big transition but not like CRAZY impossible. Don't get me wrong it was a lot of work and I was tired a lot BUT here's why. Jazz was a ton of help. And also, Isabelle was a tricky baby but a very good toddler. Lincoln was an easy peasy great baby but has been a more difficult toddler. So, when I sat down to feed Lincoln, Isabelle would just play and hang out. I'm worried that when I sit down to feed this new baby, Lincoln will grab the car keys and run to 7/11 for a slurpee, you know? 

And suddenly we will be outnumbered, man to man defense won't work and we will be forced to go to zone. What have we done.

I've had a lot of questions from my friends about the delivery of this baby. As soon as I had Lincoln, I started researching VBA2Cs to see if there was anywhere I could have another trial of labor... just to even see if it was an option.

There are some problems, however, and I think it warrants a totally different blog post. But, if I have a repeat c-section, my OB will want to do it at 39 weeks, which of course I protest and will want to go 40 weeks. My babies cook extra late and I'm afraid if we evict them that early there will be breathing problems and nicu situation and that is just not fun for anyone. C-section babies tend to have breathing problems anyway. Let's avoid all that. 

Anyway, whatever way this baby arrives- we are excited and looking forward to a froggy newborn come April. I may not be textbook great at delivering babies but I am DAMN GOOD at growing them. We had an ultrasound last week and saw tiny toes, little fingers and ribs, spine, heartbeat... the baby flipped over and got comfortable and crossed his/her legs. The third time around is still just as amazing as the first.

the other half of that.

could this picture be any more fun.

I love this picture. This was first thing in the morning, and they gave each other hugs then chit chatted about their outfits. 

Okay so Sunday was deemed "princess day" for the kids- they all wanted to bring their princess dresses to meet the REAL princesses in so of course we did. You have to go to this early in the morning to avoid a long wait time- they just opened up this adorable new area just for the princesses kind of by the castle. So we got bedazzled and had to wait just a few minutes before going in to meet Cinderella and Ariel, but we didn't know the who the third princess was. You get escorted in, take some pictures, talk to the girl, then move to the next princess. How many times can I type princess in this paragraph.  Anyway, the girls were SO excited. 

(Pretty sure Disney purposefully made the lighting in there horrible so that you want to buy their professional photos taken by the cast member. I mean, it was baaaad.)

Telling Cinderella "how many" she just turned.

doing a group twirl, Madilyn was ALL OVER that

And then we came around the corner to see who the third princess was and it was SLEEPING BEAUTY and I SWEAR I gasped and got a tiny tear in my eye like ohhhh this is so perfect and Isabelle was trying to tell her about her costume and her big birthday party and my heart was exploding THIS IS TOTALLY WORTH IT. 

blowing kisses to ariel

It was a big highlight of the trip for everyone, the kids loved it and they were so adorable and wore their dresses probably half of the day.

Small world. And izzie's glasses? Sheesh.

this cracked me up.. she wanted this map the whole trip like a little navigator.

Getting sleepy!

is this the cutest or WHAT. 

Of course, they all had to match. Kira is not terribly pleased to be in the picture.

Mater ride, one more time...

In line for Lincoln's favorite ride- Heimlich's chew chew. He was obsessed.

Scott ate his ice cream like a scene from West Side Story.

Another disney trip done! This maybe was the trickiest trip to date- just with Lincoln wanting to run amok, me being pregnant and sort of nauseous and then being hit with insane crazy allergies. Saturday, Jazz spent most of the day at the hotel after a weird 24 flu type thing? He swears it was food related but we all ate the same thing. (oh maybe it was the SLURPEE you ate while you were sick.) Wasn't the first time Jazz ralphed on a disney trip. Poor guy. 

Interestingly this trip I felt less tired than most other trips- I think it was because we all went to bed early. Basically the kids were out by 8 and we were out by 9 or 10- kids get up at 6:30 no matter what so you may as well be ready. Usually we let them sleep in the stroller at night and stay late at the park- but the kids outnumber the adults now so it wasn't worth it to stay and ride rides when we needed a half dozen people to baby sit the strollers. Plus, I can't ride the big rides so I was like yeahhhhh ummmm I'm gonna head back. 12 hours at the park is nothing to be ashamed of! We did stay to see the fireworks on Saturday which is my favorite part- Lincoln giggled his head off and Isabelle loved watching Tink fly. 

By far the best part of this vacation was seeing our family. Our kids played and held hands and shared food and the grown ups caught up as best we could between rides and lines and pushing strollers. Sean came from Texas, Sabrina from Utah, Mo from Arizona, and the rest of us from Redding... a great place to meet for a big group. Thinking this could be an annual tradition! Maybe meet again for Isabelle's fifth birthday? What do you say guys, you in?

Disney rundown.

We've returned again from the land of Disney. Well it's been like a week but I haven't had a time to blog about it, so just pretend we just barely got home. k thanks.

This trip was epic for two reasons.

1. Isabelle turned four, at the park.
2. Most of our Sumsion family was able to party together. All my siblings and most of their spouses (school is such a bummer, JR.) and all nine grandchildren. NINE. Plus my Aunt and Uncle, their three children, and two grandchildren. Basically we took over Disneyland, no big deal.

We left Thursday, at three in the morning. The rest of the family flying out of Sac stayed overnight Wednesday, but with our track record (fail, faily fail fail failerton) we just set our alarms extra early for the 7:40 flight. I assumed gently transferring the kids to the car at 4 am would be simple and they would fall right back asleep. HA oh I am so dumb.

Traveling was medium okay. Isabelle = Easy. Lincoln = trained by travel demons. No. not really he is a good kid he just wants to run free and that's hard when you are in a confined space. He was great on the airplane most of the time. By the time we got our bags, waited for everyone,  took the shuttle to the hotel (mind you it was only 10 AM so OF COURSE straight to the park we go) and loaded the stroller I was about thisclose to quitting the trip. Tired, hungry (and pregnant!) and trying to deal with fussface kids..my allergies were being crazy and I couldn't take any good medicine... I actually said to Jazz WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN IT IS FAR TOO MUCH WORK. And I cried just for a minute. With my sunglasses on so it was sneaky. Hormones, ya know?

Then we got to the park, someone fed me and hydrated me and I was like OH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH LET'S COME BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

We spent five days at the park. I do mean five whole days, we got home to our house Monday night just after midnight. So fun- so great to see everyone and let the kids play together and do all of our favorite rides. Izzie was tall enough for some new rides and she loved them. Lincoln was old enough to enjoy the rides and he looooved Carsland. He mostly loved the boat rides (Jungle cruise, Small World etc) and soon called every ride a "BOAT." Close enough.

I was going to squish this all into one post but alas, earwax. Impossible.

Stroller brigade, go big or go home.
Bennett, Allison, Jake, Kira, Madilyn, Izzie and Linc, Baby Quinn, Margo. 

our first ride.

 

quinn is crazy cute. And we support the churro stands.

tiny scotty clone, complete with dimples

There is this tiny fake river in one of the play areas at California Adventure. Lincoln assumed it was for him to swim in. Soaking wet in ten seconds, he actually laid in it and rolled around. Kicked and splashed and jumped around. That's my kid. And that's why I pack extra clothes.

Mo got the memo to wear bright yellow top with grey pants.

So Friday was Isabelle's 4th Birthday- she got a special pin with her name on it and everyone kept wishing her a happy birthday. It was adorable. There is not a better place to celebrate a birthday than Disneyland!

family picture = impossible. Also, lincoln's back on his paci. Fell off the wagon. 

Cousins

This was Isabelle's favorite ride this trip. The carousel was out of comish so we rode dumbo instead. 

Parade time!

Isabelle calls her "mardoh"

Is she adorable or what! So much hair! Allison just turned one and she walked all over that park like she owned it.

Happy Birthday Iz! 

Okay this is a good place to put a bookmark. Later- face painting and princess meet and greet! And someone barfs, you get to guess who.