General Conference: fun for everyone

  

Luke's pretty good at Shiatsu massage, if you'd like to contact me for his office hours and rates...

Luke is RAD!

Mister Luke had his 30 month (2 1/2 year) checkup on Wednesday! Here are his stats:

Weight: 26 lbs. 14 oz. (17th percentile)
Height: 35 3/4 inches (48th percentile)

The doc likes to extrapolate how tall someone will become by doubling their height at two years old, so Luke might end up being around 5' 10 or 5'11. Mark's actually lucky to have reached 6'0. He's the tallest in his family, I'm pretty sure. Those Chinese just don't get very big!

 

 Messing around in daddy's office at the clinic (bad cell phone pics, sorry)

Luke's doing very well with all his milestones--in fact I can't think of any other kid his age who can recite the alphabet and say the phonics of all the letters, ("A makes the aaah sound..."). He also knows all his body parts, colors, shapes, animal sounds, can count to ten and can practically work a computer. Smart boy! Although when I asked him what sound a goose makes the other day, he said, "WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU!!!" and made drum sounds. (???)

In his defense, that is an awesome song (it's his and Madelyn's favorite). They are both desperate to have some real drums. Heaven help me.

He's still up to his usual shenanigans--spraying the furniture and electronics with my squirt bottle...

...pouring water and/or bubble solution into his trike cubby...

...pretending to be a dog...

 

 ...playing dress up with his sister...

Madelyn and her new friend Emma were playing bride

 "Ooo, a chiffon veil...how fabulous!"

  

yoink...

"Look how pretty I am, dad."

He's going to be well rounded, that kid.

 We finally broke down and got him a new stroller--the one we had for him was handed down to us, and of course there was also Madelyn's old stroller we were still using, which I ran over with my car and then we patched back together a few years ago... We are going to California next week (and Disneyland!!) and we needed a lightweight, compact stroller that had more storage than the basic umbrella one we had. 

 We ended up with The First Years Jet stroller in black and green from Amazon.com for $39.99 (the price varies according to which color you choose). It seems to be a great stroller for the price--with tall handles, hallelujah! Most others this style cost twice as much. Luke is super excited about it.

 He was actually extremely sick that day, poor kid.

So of course Luke is rad in a literal sense (children of the 80's, unite!), but RAD is something that Dr. Dowse diagnosed him with during his checkup on Wednesday. It stands for Reactive Airway Disease. It is asthma-like syndrome that is triggered by specific things--in Luke's case viral infections. He got RSV when he was only two months old, and ever since then when he gets colds his body overreacts and he has a lot of difficulty breathing. He wheezes heavily, has retractions, and even with an inhaler, nebulizer treatments with albuterol and oral steroids he can still barely breathe. It's something that he might (hopefully, maybe...) grow out of by the time he's an adult, or it could translate into regular asthma. But the good news is that Dr. Dowse put him on a daily dose of Singulair, which should help prevent these severe symptoms in the future. I'm so grateful for modern medicine!!

 I love that little boy to the moon.

31

Okayyyy. So I have been super busy. Swamped, I tell you! Monday was my birthday, and now that I am old I prefer to celebrate my birthday all month. As in, I go to the store, see all the cute new springy clothes and such while I'm getting groceries, and say, "Hey! It's my birthday this month!" (deposit into cart) or "I feel like eating out!" or "These things have been sitting in my Amazon cart for 3 months--I'd better order them!" etc. (Does anybody else do this??)

So I made sure to get myself some cute things. Such as:

 

I won this tote bag on eBay for $10. It came from an actual Angels and Airwaves concert. Squeee! I do love me a rock n' roll tote bag. (I haul around a Beatles one nearly every day.)

I love the Berry Kiss products from Victoria's Secret, but they discontinued that scent after only about six months! Luckily lots of people hoarded it to resell online, so I found the lotion on Amazon. It smells so divine.

 

A brand new Old Navy was just built in St. George. (!!♥!!) I hadn't been yet, so I talked Mark into watching the kids for me while I drove down to check it out. I told my shopping buddies Monica (there she is walking across the street in the pic) and Maria to meet me there, because hello. It's like Mecca and we needed to make a pilgrimage. 

 Holllllllllyyyy Moses that place is HUGE! The only other Old Navy that I've been to like it is in a fancy shopping center in Las Vegas. I hardly knew where to begin. It was pretty dang awesome. I think their official grand opening is this weekend, with a lot of fun things going on. I wish I could go! Here's some of the things I found there:

By the time March rolls around, I am so sick of wearing long sleeves and pants and jackets that anything bright or summery is a must have. Striped Sundress, Cross Yoke Dress, Control Max Halter Swimsuit and Striped Canvas Tote.

 My friend Annie took me out for lunch at The Pizza Factory at Ancestor Square, also in St. George. It's such a pretty spot--Mark and I had our first date at The Pasta Factory there. We also checked out this cute little candy/ice cream shop called Springdale Candy Company (on the right). The small rock building in the center is the pioneer jail that's been there for I dunno, 150 years...most of the buildings on the square date from the 1860s.

My actual birthday was a lot more low-key...both the kids had come down with colds and Luke had thrashed around in our bed all the night before. So I got to wipe snotty noses, do laundry and clean the house for most of the day (and was tired and cranky...). Madelyn was so sweet and helped with the laundry and dishes!

 

 Mark got me these awesome flowers--I love yellow this time of year. So springy!

 For dinner, we tried out a newish Mexican restaurant here in Cedar called Mi Pueblo. It was really good and authentic. We felt like we were back in New Mexico.

 I got the tacos al pastor, Mark got the chicken mole and Madelyn got cheese enchiladas. The beans and rice and chips and salsa were yummy. And the corn tortillas!!! THE CORN TORTILLAS! Sigh!...

 

(blurry pic by Madelyn) I also made a ginorm homemade cheesecake with raspberry mousse. I think I'll post the recipe again. It is super delish. I think I'm going to have to freeze half of it for later.

  

The kids wanted their turns blowing out the candles. I think Luke did it five times. It was actually his half birthday the day before! More on that in my next post.

A big thank you to everyone who sent me cards or birthday messages. It's great to have friends like you! :)