No more binkies!

Yesterday Matt and I made Jocelyn put her all her binkies in a bag, give them a hug and throw them away. She was not "ready" and was not happy at all. She was on a mood roller coaster all day, alternating from bragging to people about not having binkies anymore to crying her eyes out.

Nap time was a sad occasion, she cried quietly while alternately sucking on each finger and parts of her arm trying to find a replacement. Bedtime was heartbreaking with hysterical crying and attempts at bargaining. She finally went to sleep and thankfully only woke up once crying for her binky.

Jocelyn also has a lovey, Hop Hop, that she has carried around forever. For some reason she has connected the two in her mind and so she has gotten rid of him too. Every time I tried to pass her Hop Hop for comfort she tossed him aside and said he had to go too.

Today we have not had any tears (although it is not nap time yet). Hopefully it will be a better day since I went to bed last night questioning our decision and definitely not feeling like parent of the year.

We did let Jocelyn pick out a big prize for getting rid of the binky, at first we thought we would be going hamster shopping today but thankfully she decided this was what she wanted...

Easter

Jocelyn loves all holidays but especially Easter. We have been having Easter Egg hunts around our house for months (ever since the decorations started coming out), she loves hiding them as well as finding the ones that Matt and I hide for her. She doesn't understand completely why we celebrate Easter but she loves all aspects of it, coloring eggs, the Easter bunny, candy, the hunt, dressing up for church, the egg tree she got to set up in her room and seeing the family at Grandma's Easter party.

Spring Break Trip

Great grand kids with Nano

Grand kids with Nano

Maddy and Joss holding their noses

At the city museum in St. Louis

City museum

5 generations

Making cake pops

Playing out front with Grandma Great

Sitting on a tank at the park

Part of a playground we found while stopped in Lymon Co.

Our trip out to St. Louis took 27 horrible hours. We drove through all kinds of weather, hail, snow fog, snow, rain - miserable. The return trip from Kansas was a much more humane 21 hours :). The kids were really good in the car, I think they handled it better than I did.

We had a good time visiting family in St. Louis, IL and Oswego, KS. It was wonderful to see everyone and the kids had a great time with their cousins.

Swimming, Jumping, Dancing

Jocelyn is still in dance class although it is coming to an end. She will have her end of the year performance the 3rd week in May. We are so excited to see her on stage :). She has decided that she wants to take Gymnastics next just like her cousin Ellie so we will be trying that this summer.

We love exploring the different bouncing places around town. The first picture is of Joss and her friend Annie at Jump around Utah, a new bounce house place that is perfect for toddlers/small children!

The second picture is of Matt, Cayden and Joss at a trampoline place called Airborn, the walls trampolines, they have foam pits and even a dodge ball court.

Jocelyn started swimming lessons again with a new teacher, Miss Jamie and it has been wonderful!

She has learned so much in just three weeks! She can now jump off the side, swim underwater for a few seconds and then roll onto her back and float. We see progress every week and she is so excited to be learning to swim by herself!

Joss' 3 year old stats

Shaving like Daddy, thanks SpongeBob

I finally remembered to take Jocelyn in for her 3 year old well child check.

She is 3' 4" tall and 40.4 pounds, 99th percentile for height and 98th percentile for weight. We have a BIG girl! :)

Baby Brin

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and scheduled a C-section for June 6. I was hoping to have Brinley the old fashioned way but after talking to several people who have done both and discussing it with my doctor decided that a second C-section was the easiest route. My only concern with it is not being able to pick up Jocelyn for at least 2 weeks, I guess we'll find a way! I was hoping we could schedule Brinley's arrival for June 1 but my doctor said they are not legally allowed to schedule it more than a week early unless there is a medical reason. Unfortunately being miserable is not a valid reason :). I am still surprised that this pregnancy is so different from the first. Jocelyn was so easy, I almost couldn't tell that I was pregnant except for the weight gain. With Brin I have experienced every symptom in the book, am still getting sick at night and still having terrible hip pain. I just keep telling myself it is almost over. I am so lucky to have Matt who helps out a ton and picks up the slack for me.

Destinee

A couple weeks ago I got an unexpected phone call from Destinee's (our very first foster baby) Mom. She was graduating from rehab and her and Destinee were doing great! They got their own apartment, she is going to school and Destinee turns a year old this month. I am so grateful that she called and gave us an update. She also said she wanted to keep us a part of her lives which is wonderful!



This last weekend we were able to take Destinee and keep her overnight. It was a wonderful visit, Destinee and Jocelyn had the best time playing and Joss was SO happy to see her again. She is already asking when she is coming over again so this is something that will have to be repeated often! Destinee is a smiling, happy baby (who sleeps through the night unlike my own :)) and I think she actually remembered us on some level which left all of us with warm fuzzies.



Since we are expecting Brinley we don't have the bedrooms to continue fostering until we are able to finish our basement. We are going to keep our license current so that as soon as that happens we can welcome another child. Until then we are in the process of becoming mentors for those foster kids who age out of the system and find themselves all alone with no support. We are looking forward to our future experiences especially since I think this is a part of the system that gets overlooked often.