Petersons Never Give Up: updates

Sean:

Sean has been woking on the Family Medicine Service again this month. That means in addition to his half days of clinic, he is responsible for the care of all the patients on their team. He works with a Podiatry resident and a senior resident. Its demanding and time consuming, but he seems to really enjoy inpatient medicine. He has been working like crazy and then running home to try and keep me sane. He plays lots of games with the kids and takes shifts at night feeding the Lizzie girl. He has also delivered 2 more babies this month. One of them was on the Saturday before he started service, which was a bummer because it was his last Saturday completely off for awhile! The other one was on Tuesday this week. Both went great, and I think he really enjoyed getting to be a part of such a special moment for these families.

Jennie:

I am trying to stay sane! Sean, my mom, and my dad are to thank for the current functional state of our family! I have had a really hard time adjusting to 3 kids, mostly because of Brett (see below). This week has been like a breath of fresh air though and life is starting to feel more fun and less circus-like. I found a town house for us to live in last week and we will be moving in the beginning of June. I’ve been enjoying getting outside more and more, and shopping for all the furniture we need for our new place.

Brett:

Brett has a really hard time with change. He has always struggled when things aren’t going according to his rigid schedule. Throwing a brand new baby into our family has really messed with the feelings of structure and normalcy, which has been so hard on him. He has responded with major fits of anger, yelling, screaming, crying, selfishness, and grumps. Its been a really rough 4 weeks for him. I have just been so grateful for a wonderful preschool teacher that makes him feel special, wonderful helpful patient grandparents, thoughtful neighbors, good friends, prosac, and prayer! He really does seem to be doing better this week at handling his emotions, right in time to move to a new place (another huge change!) Poor guy! Brett is still as obsessed as ever with Star Wars. He also loves Zootopia and the Try Everything song. He loves to play outside, play on the wii, eat monkey bread, snuggle, and read books. He adores his sisters and lives for Saturday time with Daddy.

Alana:

Alana is 2! She is such a fun girl and is really loving exploring her independence and her volume level =) She is very interested in using the potty and we’ve had a lot of success with “panty time” but she gets tired of it and wants her diaper back after about 2 hours. I actually don’t want to potty train her right now, she just keeps asking for it. She LOVES to be outside and LOVES to swing. She plays super well with Brettster as she likes to call him. She recently moved to a toddler bed and is very very excited about the bunk bed that we recently purchased for our new place. She can’t wait to be in the cave part. She always asks me if she can “see her” when referring to Lizzie. Seeing her does not just involve looking but climbing on top of and smothering with kisses. She loves to bring me diapers and blankets and bottles. Alana adores Lizzie! This week I have started making her have quiet timing he afternoons because she is just so so tired all the time, she’s had 2 naps already this week! I took Alana to get her first haircut yesterday too, and it was so much fun! Her hair is getting so long and pretty and she is so proud of how grown up she is feeling. She does get jealous of the baby and wants to snuggle a lot, but mostly she just loves Lizzie and wants to hold her all day =) She calls the dogs frisbee a crispy.

Lizzie:

Lizzie is growing! She is such a soft, beautiful, sweet baby. She sleeps two four- six hour stretches at night, wears size 0- month cloths, and size 1 diapers. She loves this little glowworm toy my friend Whitney gave her and loves to be held upright. She doesn’t like gas, poopy diapers, and being cold. She still has most of her hair which is a golden blonde color and I think her eyes are pretty blue, although a much darker blue than mine and Alana’s. Lizzie likes to cry at night after the other kids go to bed. She mostly just wants my undivided attention, which is only fair considering she has to share all day long. She also likes to stay up really late like most newborns do. I think she likes to be outside, and she gets annoyed when I leave her in her carseat for too long. She LOVES formula (ok maybe I just love it) Its been such a perfect fit for our family this time around and I am grateful for it!

Alana let me do Rey hair one day:

This is a Judy Hopps stuffed animal from zootopia and it has become Brett’s comfort object lately. It has helped him get through some rough days. Here she is helping us made play dough:

Judy likes to sleep with Brett:

Blurry but shows how the older kids are always begging to be with Lizzie:

Mother’s Day craft:

Brett’s preschool hosted a mothers day picnic. My mom had a dentist appointment and I wanted it to just be the two of us so I asked my friend Lisa to watch the girls while I went over to his school for a half hour. He made me a turkey and cheese sandwich, a strawberry banana smoothie, and a chocolate chip cookie. He was so excited to sit on our blanket and sing me a song they had learned about loving mommy sung to the tune of you are my sunshine!

He made me this little hand. I love the chocolate smudges on his actual hand! He drew a heart in the middle because he loves me =) He told me its to set my rings in at night =) I Love it!

Blurry, but wanted to record how Alana sometimes makes me carry her doll in the car seat too =)

Lizzie gave her first smile (while awake) on May 1. She was so happy and got to wear her first 0-3 month outfit (a Christmas gift from Eric and Natzz)

Alana and I painted nails and toenails one morning while Brett was at school.

Sean has to work late nights a lot when he is on service and it has been such a blessing to be with my parents. Lizzie loves to snuggle to her grandparents while I tackle the other kids into bed.

Alana got her first haircut this week. I just thought it would be nice to even out the ends. She was very serious about it, but also very excited!

She chose to sit in a pink car and to watch Daniel Tiger. She also wanted to hold my hand.

I know she is picking her nose in this picture, but the twists and glitter were so cute! I hope I can recreate them!

There was a slide, games, balloons, and suckers. What a fun haircut!

Brett learned how to use my camera and thought it was hilarious to take pictures the other day.

My mom bought these fun chairs for outside and the kids just love them. They travel all over the house!

Pretty baby in a peaceful moment on a day when my bed actually got made =)

Sean and I snuck away for a few hours after he rounded at the hospital on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary. We wen to the Temple to do Sealings. What a wonderful reminder of our own wedding, I love kneeling across the alter with Sean. We then sat in the Celestial room for awhile and I thought about who wonderful it is to be there with Sean and what a wonderful 7 years we have had together.