As usual, Brice has a project going :) I believe this was prior to adding lights to the building and more cement.
In May Brice's family (the Simpson side) had a fun gathering. Great Grandpa had his lap full!
I'd hate for Will to be cooperative for a picture for once ;)
May 2014
It was a busy weekend while the Simpsons were home. It was also Gabbie's dance recital weekend. I was thinking she wasn't much interested for next year. However I have been told she wants to do "gymnastics only"
10:30 p.m. McDonalds after a weekend of family and dance recital makes for a cranky girl
After dance recital weekend we had Gabbie's field trip to the zoo and her last day of Begindergarten; on to Kindergarten next year! If she survives her shots that she needs to have in order to go :)
It was fun to compare this picture to the one from the first day of school in a previous post
Gabbie is kind of dominating this post so far! Here is little "Henni Penni" as Brice says. Sitting well in the Bumbo
Vacation Bible School program
He is changing sooo fast! He started eating cereal this month and likes to hear himself make noise! He also occasionally sleeps through the night
T-Ball time! She enjoys it more when they take the Tee away and pitch to the kids.
Gabbie is also staying busy this summer with the library program, which is focusing on science. Lots of fun projects~
No pictures of Will...I better work on that! Probably because he is going to be 3, which I find to be the most challenging age. Such a stubborn kiddo. He has no interest in toileting, although he seems to get the concept. He'll do well, then when we overload him with praise he just looks at us like "yeah, what's the big deal?" I'd love for him to do a couple mornings of preschool this fall. He can count to 12 and recognizes quite a few letters. But when given the choice of underwear or a diaper-he will almost always choose the diaper.
June has been busy, but such is summer. I've been disappointed to have so little time in the garden due to the rain. That's just how it goes I suppose! Last night we attended my 15 year class reunion. A conversation I had with a few former classmates has motivated me to finally write a paragraph about the last couple of months in our house...I hope in a couple more months to look back on this post and be glad its over, but we will see what time brings.
I had written previously about some of the minor complications after Henrik's birth. They seemed to linger for most of my maternity leave. Finally in my last couple weeks of being home Brice went with me to my physical which was supposed to take place at 6 weeks after birth. I think it was about 10 before I finally gave in to go. Brice doesn't typically go along to the doctor but he was sure I would not admit to anything on my own. The first question asked was how my mood had been; so Brice told him about my being depressed, sleepy, etc. I'd never had the 'post baby blues' before. I felt it was out of line to have them this time. We have 3 beautiful and healthy kids so what is there to feel depressed about? I disliked what I knew was coming, and it was the suggestion that I "take something". Well, no thanks. I'm already mad that I'm tired and can't lose weight, an anti-depressant would simply exacerbate both of those issues and I doubt that would help. I said I wanted to keep trying on my own but we'd call if it didn't get better. The doctor said to keep in mind "you have 3 kids, and of course hormones are not leveled out yet". I get that, just don't think it means I need to cry everytime I get in the car to go somewhere. Brice was persistent and asked that he check thyroid levels and hormone levels. Good that he was there, because I probably would have just left there more depressed that I couldn't handle 3 kids and wacky hormones. The doctor said "we can do that, but I really doubt anything will show up. I'm thinking just some relaxation time and getting back to adult interaction will help." So away we went, labs were done, and I figured they would he was right, they would all check out fine and I was just nuts and needed to work VERY hard to get back to normal. Fast forward a week; the labs did not come back normal. They thought it was the time of day, so I had to go in again another day first thing in the morning. Another week went by, and again the labs were not normal. Good thing each of those labs had to be sent to Mayo so cost $400 or so...ugh. So onto an endocrinologist we are supposed to go. Apparantly specialists are very busy as the first open appointment was a month away. But time does fly, and the appointment is this week finally. Of course while waiting for this appointment to be the 'magic fix', the month of June has been interesting in our house. I had trouble putting it into words until I talked to those classmates last night. One of them has become very successful at running and ran the Boston Marathon this past Spring. She has 3 kids and is a stay at home Mom with a husband who travels often for work. She said after her third "it wasn't like I wanted to drive in front of a semi truck; but it wasn't that I felt I had a purpose in this place either". She went on to say she had intense paranoia that her spouse was being unfaithful and would lose tons of sleep over it. I was floored; thanks to the social media times-mostly Facebook-everyone appears to have these beautiful families and everything put together so well, but its not always entirely true. My other friend said "first of all, I warned you that 3 was a game changer!" She's right, she did. She also stated her and her spouse struggled for a year. I loved this part-she said "the worst was I couldn't lose the last 10 pounds so my fingers were fat, and I'd get so mad I'd want to throw my wedding ring at him but I couldn't get it off!" We all agreed we never felt like hurting the kids (well...not as babies anyway ha ha). Just didn't feel like ourselves for various reasons. I felt so much better after that conversation. We all had doctors who had said the same thing "you're tired, 3 kids, blah blah" but a person knows how they should feel. I never understood depressed people before. I always thought a person should be able to 'snap out of it'. Its such an odd feeling to struggle to get enjoyment out of a good life; and I've learned its not a matter of snapping out of it.
So yeah, I guess that's that. I'm praying for some answers this week, and that my family can continue to tolerate me until things improve.
I do have to say it isn't all depressing. I get a good laugh when Will picks up his kid potty and throws it at me :) And I may be biased, but Henrik has been one of the absolutely best babies ever. He's smiley, content, and just plain good and even with the downs of the last couple months it has been a true blessing to have him join our family~
