Preschool workbook

We got a little preschool workbook for Morgan recently. I started doing it with him every day last Monday. He LOVES it. He asks all the time if he can do it, and it's turned into a good motivator to clean up his toys. I limit him to five pages a day.

So far we've been doing two letter pages a day. He's still working on his fine motor skills.

Then we go on to a couple pages of things like, circle the two that match, or, circle what is different, or circle what goes together.

Then he's been doing a coloring page.

Those are done now, so we'll move onto other preschool basics, like numbers.

Every completed page gets a sticker, and when he finishes, he gets a sticker for himself.

A lot of the work is stuff he already knows. He's known his letters and sounds for a year now, I think. He can usually figure out what letter a word starts with. He knows shapes, colors, numbers, all the easy stuff.
Oh, a funny. He's recently figured out rhyming. Yesterday in church a lady was speaking in sacrament meeting and said something like, "and he lay down...lay? Lay?" She wasn't sure if lay was the right word or something, so repeated it a couple times. Then Morgan proved that he does listen a little bit when he hopped up and loudly said, "Bay!" The woman sitting in front of us told him what a great rhymer he was.
I'm so glad my little boy is so excited about learning! He's so smart.

Aaron turns 32!

Aaron's birthday was on Thursday.
We didn't do anything fancy to celebrate. We just stayed home with just the three of us. I made him one of his favorite dinners, and after we'd had time to digest, we had cake and icecream. Aaron's cake does look juvenile, yes. Morgan saw the little candy letters in the store and insisted that Daddy's cake needed them. Then he helped me decorate the cake. Morgan also insisted we use the "3" candle. So we did.

Aaron only had one present to unwrap due to online shopping and slower shipping times than anticipated. The present was from my folks. We like the fun, strategic, European games.

While I was writing this the mail came. In the mail were the presents that I got him. Yay! So now his birthday is more complete.

Morgan also made him a card with a picture of Aaron in it.
Happy birthday Aaron/Daddy, we love you!

Almost...

The countdown has reached the single digits.
That is all.

Giveaway Winner

I just noticed that the winner for my latest book giveaway was announced, and I know the winner! This isn't incredibly surprising since only THREE people entered and I knew two of them. The impression I got was that there would probably be up to 100 entries, but oh well.
I'm glad that Amber won! I won mascara from her blog once, so this seems fair.
I hope you like it, Amber!

Pregnancy Update

Well, I went in for an Dr. appointment yesterday. Morgan came with because there wasn't an alternative that was any easier, and he cracked up the Dr. the whole time. But we had another little ultrasound to see if baby girl had turned yet. And...she had! Yay!

Two weeks left today. I am so ready. Well, I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore, so if this little one decided to come a little early, I would be thrilled! We're all excited to meet her.

I'm totally not sleeping well at all. In fact, I honestly think that I will start sleeping better when the baby is here and only waking me up 3-4 times a night. As it is now, I have to get out of bed all groggy and with the sore muscles and tired eyes that indicate a lack of sleep. At least with a baby, the hours that she's not awake, my sleep may actually be unbroken. Complain, complain, complain.

Yesterday I had Aaron take a picture of me because I was wearing a the same shirt that I wore with my 8-9 month shot when I was pregnant with Morgan. I look horrible in both pictures, but here is a comparison.

The angle is slightly different, but oh well. This is yesterday.
This is with Morgan.
I am carrying this baby higher, though it might not be too obvious in the photos. I also think my face isn't as chubby, which also isn't clear from the pictures. But yesterday the picture was taken from low, so of course you are going to see extra double chin!

Morgan is very affectionate with my belly. He's always giving "the baby" hugs and kisses and he talks to her, tells her he loves her, that she is just so cute, etc. I have a hard time keeping my belly covered when I'm sitting down because Morgan always has to come up and lift my shirt to talk to his sister. He's a sweetheart.


Because Morgan got a picture with Mommy, he insisted on being fair and getting one with daddy too. :)

Wedding Day

This past week we had my sister and her two kids stay with us. I vowed that I would remember to take pictures of the kids playing together, since I never do. But guess what? I didn't. However, my dad got some good shots of them when we were all at my cousin's wedding.

See my pretty cousin Heather, and her new hubby? Awww.

I was really excited to go to the wedding, but realized I didn't have my temple recommend when we got there! GRRRRR! Oh well.
When we were waiting for the bride and groom to emerge from the temple, Morgan and his cousin Matthias played around.


e
h


Morgan sure looks cute, but boy was he a PAIN this whole day!

The reception was held later that day at Thanksgiving Point. I was helping set things up and kept losing Morgan. One moment he was there, the next, nowhere. Once though, he was with Grandpa, so that wasn't a big deal, once I figured it out. However, he came back soaking wet. Why? Oh, he found something to entertain himself with.








Hanging out with my mom and boy at the reception.

Summer End Library Party

The library summer reading program ended last week. Monday was the closing party at the pool. There was a game or two, then awards. We tracked all the minutes that we read, (we tried, anyway. That was hard.) and then based on the child's age, they got prizes for their minutes. And it was a contest with the other kids in their group.
Here is Morgan collecting his prize. In a pink bag. He got a book, some pencils and gluesticks.


We had 1,015 minutes of reading recorded. But that was just from when an adult read to him. I didn't count the hours of Morgan browsing his books by himself during nap time, etc.

Morgan loves being silly. Here is an example of how he does it sometimes.


In other news, Morgan had his cousins here for a couple days. Anna and Mattie. They introduced him into the world of knock-knock jokes. The first one he told was this:
Morgan: Knock-knock.
Me: Who's there?
Morgan: Me, Morgan Wendell Nelson!
Me: Me, Morgan Wendell Nelson, who?
Morgan: Choo-choo!

Book Giveaway

My book is being reviewed and given away again! This time it's from the blog Savvy Moms Save. If you are interested in owning a copy of Future Glimpse, (I hear it's really good!) then go and enter to win! Your chances are really good because the giveaway has been up for ten hours and NOBODY has entered to win it yet. :(

Breach!

I went to the doctor a couple days ago for my normal check-up. However, this time my doc did a little ultra-sound to determine the position of the wee one. It turns out that it isn't a foot that keeps finding a little niche behind my right ribs, causing me discomfort, but a head! That's not good. I still have four weeks to go, (at least) so she has time to turn, but not much! In two weeks they will check again to see if she has turned and if not they will try to turn her manually by manipulating her externally. I hear it's very painful and not always successful. I want to avoid this. Oh, and if they try and fail, I will be expected to schedule a c-section, something else I would like to avoid at all costs.
So, I will be doing little extra things that are supposed to help. My doctor suggested being on my hands and knees, well, elbows and knees, for ten minutes at a time, three times a day. I've tried this. It makes my already aching pelvis even worse. But I will keep doing it.
I looked up other methods to turn a baby naturally. I found a website that has the best 17 ways to do so. I will share with you some that made me laugh the most, or seemed most ridiculous.

3. Headstand - with assistance and in a pool frequently as possible.

5. CD/iPod headphones - place them inside mom's pants toward her pubic bone and play classical music for 10 minutes 6-8 times a day.

8. Clothespin - place on the small toe of each foot at the outside corner of the toenail; sideways so that the toenail and toepad are stimulated for 30 minutes per day, this is an acupressure point that is a "moving down" point. You can also do this with just finger pressure as you remember to do it.

Who knows? Perhaps I will get desperate enough to walk around with clothes pins on my pinky toes.

Nelson Reunion

This past weekend was a Nelson family reunion. It was from Aaron's great-grandparents on down, so there were lots of people there, most of whom we didn't know. However, most of Aaron's aunts, uncles, and cousins were there, so that was fun.
We arrived at the site Friday evening. It was just a little ways up Spanish Fork canyon. The site had a covered pavillion, a playground, a river, a volleyball court, and a very busy train-track near by.
We camped there for two nights. Morgan had fun running around with all the other little kids, particularly Aaron's nine year old cousin, Grace. She took Morgan around and watched him and played with him for most of the time. It was wonderful! He loves her.
There were some crafts and games Saturday. Morgan colored his paddle ball. At first he was being very careful and coloring in the lines, etc. Then he got bored.

Oh, and he has decided that pink is his favorite color. Usually his favorite changes on a daily basis, but he has stuck with pink for a long time now.

Morgan also made a patriotic necklace. He put all the beads on by himself, I just gave them to him one at a time so they would be in the right order. However, I was very surprised that all the lettered beads ended up right-side-up.



The adults played a game. You fill a brown paper bag with water and toss it backward over your head. The trick is not letting it soak too long, otherwise the water soaks through and rips the bag. After your toss, you have to stand on your bag and hope that you don't get pummeled by the next toss. It was a great reunion game.
Aaron cheated. He turned around and did a side arm toss. See? His bag was one of the farthest though.

It rained a lot on Saturday, but that didn't stop Morgan from wanting to play. Here he is playing on a tractor in the rain.

Lets do a flashback. This is from the reunion two years ago.


The main event of the reunion was the auction, which is actually a raffle. With Jana's help, Morgan and I did exceptionally well. Morgan won a bug net, a wooden rubberband gun, and a water cannon. I got FOUR baby blankets. Two receiving ones, and two crocheted ones. Now I am all set on the blanket front. I also got three girly burp rags. Then I won some precious gems. Seriously. A real ruby, emerald and tanzanite.
The second night, even though I was 8 months pregnant, sleeping on an air mattress, with trains going through regularly and blaring their whistles, and hearing our tent neighbors snore, I slept very well. Exhaustion will do that.
A fun time.