NO MICROBURSTS, PLENTY OF OUTBURSTS

All of our hard work is paying off...Gage is finally staying in his bed ALL NIGHT and he hasn't been wetting the bed either. It's so nice to not have to do that laundry! He is very proud of himself too, so hopefully that will help it continue. Today, he put his Spiderman bag on his shoulder and said, "Bye, Mama! I'm going on a mission!" I asked him where he was going on his mission and he said "India!" I asked him what he was going to do in India and he answered "I'm going to India to help people build houses." So cute! He also said today that he wants another baby, but it HAS to be a boy so he can have a brother and he wants to name him Gage.

Bella's outbursts continue but I am confident that I finally know why. A lot of people have asked me how she's dealing with the new baby and I have always said that she's doing great, loves Paisley and is so sweet and gentle with her, that she doesn't seem phased at all. But I believe I was wrong. She is very sweet and gentle with her, but I think she is having a hard time. She is SO extremely attached to me. Even when I'm in the same room with her at home, she has to be touching me, or holding onto my leg. When I feed Paisley, she comes and sits right next to me and kisses Paisley's head. When Gage sits next to me or hugs me she gets really upset, hits him, and pushes him away from me and then climbs on my lap and cuddles. She cries excessively at any little hurt or fall that she used to smile and clap her hands about just to get attention. She does this a little bit to Rob, but mostly to me. I am going to make a special effort to spend more one-on-one time with her to help her through this "middle-child" syndrome. On the bright side, she is making leaps and bounds with her talking. She still LOVES books and she will identify lots of different things and animals. Her latest big achievement is "octopus". She will point to it and say, "Boc-ba-pus". I look forward to her being able to communicate her frustrations better. Gage was saying full sentences at this age which made it a lot easier to deal with his tantrums! Bella loves Daddy so much and he gets her to say and do the funniest things. In this picture he's teaching her to say, "West Side..." Those of you who know Rob will understand.

Paisley is still such a happy, content baby. She is consistently sleeping from 7pm until 6:30am and taking 3 to 3 1/2 hour naps. Sadly, though, we think she is losing her blue eyes. They now look more grayish and could still turn brown. Not that there's anything wrong with that!! Look at the chubbiness in the bath picture....love it!

We had a nice visit from Uncle Mike and Grandpa Powers on Saturday. Aunt Lora had to work, unfortunately. They brought us In 'n Out Burger and stayed a while. Bella wanted Grandpa to pick her up, but she is way too big for his back. I love it though because it gives him such a charge. He held Paisley for a while and said that Grandma would have eaten her up. I took a few pictures of them so that she will be able to see how much he loves her when she gets older. Uncle Mike reminded him of all the reasons he should stick around. Aaron was here too, and Rob asked his Dad how old he thought Aaron was. He guessed 26!! That was a nice compliment to Aaron and Grandpa couldn't believe it when we told him he was 40. I said, "Doesn't he look good?" And he gave one of his little phrases he uses: "I hope to tell ya.." He then asked Aaron how old HE looked and Aaron graciously replied "65." Grandpa got a pretty big kick out of that!

Courtney came up Saturday too because she won tickets to the Diamondbacks game that night and invited me to go along. Rob was so great to take on all three kids and let me go have a nice, relaxing dinner and then to the game. We had AWESOME seats...right behind the Diamondbacks dugout so we were eye level with the field and very close. I wish I had brought my camera. We had to pay extra attention when the left-handed batters got up (and there were tons) to watch for foul balls. There was one line-drive foul that we had to lean and duck to avoid. It bounced around our area and then a little boy picked it up. He was so excited. I thought about how much Gage would enjoy the game and decided I would look into getting tickets for us to go. It was nice to hang out with Courtney and we had a great time.

We have been enjoying the blogs from Mom and Dad. They finally made it to Hyderabad, India, and their stories are exciting and crazy! We look forward to hearing more from them and can't wait to see them on Skype. If anyone's interested, their blog address is: http://www.ladukeoldies.blogspot.com/.

We keep seeing on the news all of the damage the monsoon storms are causing throughout the valley, but we've hardly seen a drop. We get the big, gray stormclouds and the high humidity, but NO RAIN here in Gilbert. We are hoping to get some this week, minus the damage.

"....A FEW SPECIAL YEARS"

We had a really nice visit today with Addie, Cameron, Callie, and Avery. Cameron had a meeting in Phoenix and they came over and hung out for a while. We talked, laughed, and reminisced some and Gage and Callie played. Bella was very clingy and wouldn't go play with the kids easily as she used to. She is really going through some stuff right now that I hope is just a phase. But she is also so sweet, friendly, funny, and very entertaining as she learns more and more words. She is saying a lot of words and even more that we can't understand yet. She will look you in the eye and say something so pointedly that we can't decipher and she must feel so confused about why we aren't responding correctly. She had her first day in Nursery on Sunday and it was....interesting. She was very nervous at first and I had to sit in one of the tiny chairs right next to her. Then, when I thought she was into what she was doing, I got up to check on Paisley and Bella freaked out. It's not enough that I was in the same room as her - I had to be sitting right next to her! But she did really enjoy herself; puzzles, snacks, music, singing, dancing, toys - what's not to like? It's a kid's paradise in there. And she was very sweet to the teachers and the kids, so that was refreshing. It'll get better......?? It's a good thing that Paisley is such a good baby. I don't know how I would handle it all if she wasn't. She never cries. She is so happy and content as long as she is fed. And as you can see from the pictures, she is very well-fed. She gives us the biggest smiles all the time that just melt your heart. Occasionally, she gets slightly fussy if she's tired, but if you just give her a pacifier she'll go to sleep. And for three nights in a row now she has gone to sleep at 7pm and slept all the way through to 6:30am!!! I have been reading this book called The Baby Whisperer and it is awesome! The toughest part about it is finding the time to read it!

I actually wish I could spend more time just sitting and holding Paisley. With Gage, that's all I did. I remember having feelings of guilt if I put him down and I shared those feelings with my mom. She wisely advised me that I would need to get over that. It would be nice if someone could take care of all my responsibilities and I could just play and cuddle with them all day and use their nap time to read or blog or do fun activities that I want to do. As Addie and I discussed today, you can't be selfish and be a mother. It makes you a better person. I often wonder what I did with all my free time before I had kids. I cherish my role as a mother and everyday I wish I could freeze time so that they don't grow up. They are just so precious at these ages. One of my favorite movies is Hook, a modern remake of Peter Pan, and there is a great moment where Moira (the mom who is married to a grown-up, work-obsessed, stuffy, uptight, Peter Panning who doesn't remember he is Peter Pan) is pleading with her husband and father to her two young children: "Your children love you, they want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? Soon Jack might not even want you to come to his games. We have a few special years with our children, when they're the ones that want us around. After that you're going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It's so fast Peter. Just a few years, and it's over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it." That just says it all to me and it is one of my favorite all-time quotes. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it.

Gage continues to entertain us. I bought him these bedtime training pants online that promised to feel and look just like underwear, but hold in moisture. Well, we tried them on him and they did NOT look or feel like underwear. Just look at the picture!! They are ridiculous! We were all cracking up about those. We just decided to go cold turkey and have him wear underwear at night and he's doing pretty well! We just have to make sure he doesn't drink anything for at least an hour before he goes to bed. He is such a good brother and loves his sisters so. He is so concerned for them and worries if they cry or get hurt. That's not to say that he doesn't provoke the hurting or crying at times like every big brother should. And he is a wonderful help to me, running little errands around the house for me and doing his chores.

Paisley Stats:

At her two-month checkup she weighed....are you ready.....14lbs 2oz!!! And she is 23 1/4". She is (obviously) in the 95th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. On June 18th, just shy of two months, she rolled from her tummy to her back twice in a row. She has continued to do that frequently, though not every time. I'm amazed she can roll that chubby body!

BITTERSWEET

The last couple of weeks have been packed with LaDuke family activities in preparation for the farewell of Mom and Dad. We started with almost all of us going to Snowflake on June 21st to hear them speak in their ward. Both of their talks were so good - it left me wanting to hear more. It was a packed house with all of us there and all the little cousins. Two of the families (including us) got hotel rooms because of the lack of space at Mom's and Dad's. We had a lot of fun being together and enjoying the cooler weather. I took Gage and Maya on a hornytoad hunt to no avail. Then a little while later, Daddy came in to get Gage and show him the local hornytoad that hangs out at the end of their sidewalk. He was so cute (if you can even use that word for hornytoads), but too spiky for us to pick up. The kids watched this terrified little creature for a long time until we convinced them to give him a little break.

Mom and Dad came down on Wednesday, July 2nd to spend more time with all of us and prepare to report to the MTC on July 7th. Our good friend, Shelley Frost, came over on Thursday (my 34th birthday) to babysit so we could have a peaceful, quiet lunch with them. Then Rob did Daddy duty with ALL three kids so I could go shopping with Mom and Alyssa. It was a lot of fun, but SO FREAKING HOT!! Then Mom and Dad babysat so Rob and I could go to dinner. It was a really nice day and I felt very spoiled.

The next day was Gage's 4th Birthday and 4th of July! I have always loved 4th of July and even more so since Gage was born. It's fun to pretend that the fireworks are all for him! I made him a Spiderman cake and he got a ton of presents from his friends Lincoln, Jake & Megan Schmitt, Quentin Ferrier, The Frosts, and all his cousins. They played, swam, and made a huge mess! Thankfully, Gage wanted pizza for his birthday dinner, so that made it REALLY easy for me. We then went to the Johnsons to watch fireworks from their driveway. All the family came except for Bella, who was sleeping, and Papa, who was babysitting (ha! ha!) They didn't start the fireworks until 10pm because of the wind so the kids (and adults) were getting anxious. But as usual, they were worth the wait.

Saturday, the 5th, we all went to Nathan and Mary Kay's house for some delicious food and fun visiting. As each day passed so quickly with all the fun, I continued to dread the inevitable departure of Mom and Dad. I took a lot of pictures and some video and thought all the while how much all these little ones will change in 18 months. We may even have some new little ones by then. Gage will be 5 1/2, Bella will be 3, and Paisley will be almost 2.

Bella went to bed early as usual without a clue and Gage actually came to tell me he was tired and it was time for him to go to bed. Do you believe it?? I explained to him again that he wouldn't see Grandma and Papa for a while and to give them big hugs and kisses. He got emotional which made us all emotional. I tucked him in and was still teary and he was comforting me saying, "It's ok Mama, I'll help you feel better." Precious, precious. I stayed up talking with Mom and Dad for a long time until Dad went to bed. Then Mom and I stayed up until 1:15am talking. I knew she had to get up at 3:30am to get ready for their flight, but I had a hard time bringing myself to end this tradition for a while. Once again, Shelley, saved the day by sitting at the house while the kids slept so we could take them to the airport. Alyssa, Trevor, Rob, Paisley and I helped them check in and walked them to security where Mom said she wasn't going to cry. (She had already had several tearful goodbyes with the other kids the night before.) No such luck - Alyssa, Mom, and I were sad and Dad kept saying, "Oh, come on....it's gonna be ok." We know he's right, but it's still hard. We mill miss them so much, but we know they are doing a wonderful thing. Bella woke up asking for Papa like she always does when they come, but she soon forgot. I'm glad she isn't old enough to be as dramatic as Gage yet!!