Tender Mercy

All my three sons were born with a bit of tongue tie. The older two boys had the quick "surgery" to fix it, no problem. The youngest was the least tongue tied, so the doctor said he wouldn't clip Zenock's tongue tie because it didn't interfere in his nursing. Poor Zenock couldn't stick out his tongue at all. He couldn't even lay his tongue on his lower lip. He could meet his lower lip with his tongue and that was it.

Well, last week on Wednesday I put Zenock down for his nap. When he woke up, the tongue tie was gone. I noticed because for the next couple hours sticking his tongue out was all he did, like it was his new toy! He didn't cry during his nap, showed no sign of pain or being upset. I'm not sure what happened or how, but I'm grateful for tender mercies from the Lord in my life.

Best Birthday Ever!!!

I am not one to call every Christmas "The Best Christmas Ever", and to proclaim every weekend "The BEST Weekend Ever" and to tote every second as "The Best Second Ever". However, this last weekend I had the "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!"

Now, my last birthday was actually a miraculously wonderful birthday. Let me set the scene for you. My feet are really killing me and I don't know why. I'm trying to get pregnant (and have been for months) and I'm not. I have a 4 year old and an 18 month old who keep me busy.  My birthday comes on a Saturday so we made plans to go out to eat.  Our kids weren't feeling super well so we were keeping it low key. These are the plans. Then Birthday Saturday comes.

Nothing went well. 18 month old threw up ALL OVER. 4 year old is also not feeling well. 4 year old who IS potty-trained has multiple accidents. Other things of this nature (that don't normally happen but occasionally happen to wreak complete havock on one's life) happen.

Here's the part that made that birthday one I remember...

It was on a Saturday. My beloved husband was home. And each and EVERY time one of these disasters happened, he'd look at me and say, "Don't move. It's your birthday. I'll take care of it!"

That's right.

I don't remember the physical present he gave me. I don't remember what kind of cake we had. But boy howdy, I remember that!  Literally lifting my burden and making it light.

That was a pretty good birthday.

So this year my birthday was on a Sunday. We decided that meant "Birthday Weekend". We would celebrate on Saturday by going out to lunch or dinner.

Friday morning, I got a text from one of my good friends.



Trevor "didn't know any details" so I had no idea what I was in for, but I was super excited. She picked me up with 3 other good friends and took me to ... an escape room! I'd never been to one before but it was super fun! 

Afterwards we headed to the Cheesecake Factory (I'd never been) and had appetizers and cheesecake. It was so fun to have girl time that had nothing to do with being a mom or kids or anything!

After they dropped me back off at home, I thought the night was over...but I thought wrong!  Surprise!  My Mom, Dad, and sister Linda had come up for a surprise visit for my birthday!  (They live 6 hours away). They could even stay an extra day because Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr Day. 

Saturday everyone just pampered me the whole day. I didn't have to do dishes or cooking or really much of anything. My Mom, Linda, and I went shopping for 4 hours by ourselves!  Even Wal-mart got in the spirit of things and had a TON of after Christmas Clearance that we had a heyday looking through. 

When we got home, my Mom made me a birthday cake (pineapple upside down cake!  Beware...no candles, the acidity of the cake dissolves them as we found out in a previous year) and we ordered pizza of my choice. We played games, visited, and basically had an awesome weekend the whole time they were here. Ahh, the memories!  Anyway, thank you, thank you friends and family for the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Here's a video of my Mom playing with Zenock (ignore the speed limit conversation going on in the background, lol).

Here's a video of the kids playing "Tickle Tiger" with Grandpa.

Hey, Friends

Hey, Friends. It's been a while. Sorry about that. I got so caught up online I realized I had to get offline to spend more time with my kids/doing things for my kids. So, to be honest, this post is mostly for me so I can remember the insanity of the last year or so later when it'll be easier to laugh about it.

So, May 2016 I got serious about diet and exercise and losing weight. I started an intense workout and exercised 4-5 days a week. I lost 20 lbs!  Unfortunately, I did it wearing cheap shoes and it DESTROYED my feet. By November 2016 my feet hurt continuously and by February 2017 I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, and "probably a couple other issues". I had physical therapy until about July, when I determined I couldn't walk more because I was super pregnant than because my feet were messed up. Zenock was born October 10, 2017 and now, 12 weeks+ later I'm FINALLY feeling like I can DO stuff again. It was a long time to be hurting, but now I appreciate being able to clean my house, take care of my kids and myself, etc.

In October-ish, 2015, HP (Trevor's employer) announced that they were separating the company into 2 companies: HP, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprises. In Feb 2016, Trevor got laid off. By the end of April, he was hired by a company called TSheets (they do software as a service building timesheets for small businesses). About a month ago, we found out TSheets was being acquired by Intuit. Yesterday was Day One of Trevor working for Intuit. It seems like a good change overall, fortunately.

I have three brothers. They all got married within an 18-month period (Feb 2016, Oct 2016, and July 2017). My father's mother (Grandma Edlund) was remarried July 2016. My Uncle Robert Edlund (my father's older brother) passed away unexpectedly July 2017.

As happens naturally over time, my little ones have grown up a bit since I last posted!

Gideon is 5 now. He had his birthday last month. We happened to be in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Edlund after Christmas, so we went to Kangaroo Zoo (an indoor active play place with a lot of inflatable bouncehouses). He had a great time. He is reading like a champ, can tell time on an analog clock, and has started learning the piano. He loves preschool and is enjoying having "Chacho Time" (one on one time with Mom during Toby's nap).

Tobias:
Toby's Favorite Phrases
-Hey, guys!  Watch this! (followed by "Did you see dat?!")
-Muzzer!  (Mother)
-Hey, guys! I'm tryin' to show you somethin'.
-Follow me, guys!
-So, so, so...(used both to start any sentence or story and to describe anything. So, so, so funny. So, so, so fast!)
-Whole enchilada! (for example, if we watched an entire movie, he'll tell Papa at dinner he saw the whole enchilada!)
-I dunno.
-I need help!

He loves looking for decorations when we're in the car. He loves keeping up with Gideon. He's an active, physical kid, more prone to just going for something rather than analyzing it or observing like Gideon would do.

Zenock
We were super fortunate that when we had Zenock, my Mom came to stay with us for 2 weeks, then Trevor's Mom came to stay with us for another week or two. It's been a rough recovery, taking much longer than I'd hoped, but I'm finally over the hump and feeling better again. He's a very good baby, sleeping through the night like a champ. Even in the first two weeks home from the hospital he slept through the night at least 4 times!  He's a happy baby, generally ok with not being held 100% of the time. He likes watching his brothers and will sit quietly, clasping his hands, and just stare around the room at anything and everything. His eyes are darker than the others and appear to be going brown. It's hard to believe he's already 3 months old!

"Balanced meals"
Around the holidays we had a whole counter full of treats. I told the kids if they wanted to earn any treats they had to eat a "balanced meal", and defined that as a carbohydrate, protein, vegetable, and fruit. This was surprisingly successful. They often forget to ask for the treat, but focus instead on their food groups (I need a vegetable, please!). This has also helped at dinner because if they won't eat something I offer to substitute something else from the food group ("Then you need a different vegetable. What vegetable would you like?). I feel like we're all eating healthier and more conscientiously!