"On your markets..."

Just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean things haven't been going on around here. I am SO happy to be out of the dregs of morning sickness and enjoying living life like a normal person. Well, I guess I am living as normally as I can with a basketball-sized bump under my shirt. (And yes, I am really only 24 weeks along.)

This strange (but welcome!) mild winter weather has us jumping on the tramp (not me, sillies) and playing at the park. It being so nice, I do wish I could be out there with all the runners I see. (I never really get to run through a pregnancy because I am sick at the beginning then don't feel like it would be good to start back up after 4 months off and that far along. Blah.) But you all have fun without me! Just don't brag too much about the races you are beginning to train for. I guess my upcoming labor could count as my half marathon this summer. Yeah, that will have to do. (I am, however, enjoying doing a daily Pilates workout from a great Prenatal Pilates DVD I bought. And I do a Yoga DVD once a week. It feels so good to be moving and stretching every morning. It can just be difficult to hold myself in down dog and focus on "the union of body and breath" while my kids are yelling at me from the basement. I do what I can.)

The kids are keeping me moving, sighing, cleaning, praying (for patience - yikes), and laughing. As usual they love to read so we often cuddle up with a stack of books. (Last night Gabe insisted we each take a turn reading the classic: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. Julia has had that one memorized for a while but I was surprised to hear Gabe recite it nearly word for word. I remember that book being one of the first I could "read" on my own too.) Some new favorite movies are The Wizard of Oz and Shirley Temple's Heidi. (Watched that one Sunday on Netflix. I can't believe they sit through the entire black-and-white movie. They just love "The Grandfather!")

They often break out into the Flight of the Concords song, "Brown Paper, White Paper" at the dinner table. Gabe loves "the sticky stuff" part. And after dinner nearly every day Jonny and the kids play and wrestle like lions - Scar, Simba, and Nala. (Someone always ends up crying from an accidental bump. So went the days of dog-piling on my dad too.) They have been playing a lot with Jonny's sister Rudi who is staying with us for a little while. They are always looking out the window in the morning to see if her car is parked in the front of if she has already left for work. "Rudi's car is here!" is often exclaimed.

I might as well share some of the funny ways the kids are saying things. Julia (who will be five in June and is too excited for kindergarten) says "usually" for "actually"- and that can come out pretty funny sometimes. ("Mom, I usually forgot my socks at Amber's house" or "I usually went potty before we left.") A paper cut is a "short cut." And when they are racing she says, "On your markets...set...go!" Then during the race, "I'm gonna beat you up." Lastly, she is really looking forward to "Ballenstime Day."

 Here she is looking a lot like Aunt Rudi:

Gabe (who will be 3 in May) loves to get "ta-yo-yo juice" (tomato juice) and "pink-a-butter" (peanut butter) out of the "fridger" (fridge, or refrigerator, I guess.)  He is crazy about the dinosaurs Santa gave him and the giant 24-piece ABC puzzle that he independently puts together every single day at least 3 times. He usually sings the Leapfrog ABC song or "Never Smile at a Crocodile" while puzzling. Last week he nonchalantly reported to Aunt Amber that "Scar is at work" (referring to Daddy, as mentioned earlier). He wants to learn to ride a "bike-cycle" and suddenly loves to sit on my lap - which isn't easy or comfortable for all three of us involved.

Other than that, Jonny is working hard and we are excited that his company just moved from their Orem building to a new one at Thanksgiving Point. I was released from being the Young Women President after three years, after which Jonny was immediately put to work with the Young Men! Julia and I are loving my two-day-a-week preschool class, through which Gabe still naps most days. And we are all really looking forward to meeting our baby girl in a few more months. Perhaps potty-training is in our near future. But we will wait a little longer to see just how ready Gabe and I am for that.

We love you, Daddio

Jonny's Dad, Jeffrey Rejholec, passed away on New Year's Eve. It was quite a shock and Jonny left for Durango as soon as we heard the news. It seems that Dad died in his sleep, probably from a heart attack. Alone in bed that night, thinking about Dad and Jonny and hearing all the fireworks outside, I couldn't sleep. So I wrote this post.

Julia adores her Grandpa. She loves that he calls her "Sweet Pea" and thinks it is so special that she has a nick-name. We recently spent Thanksgiving with Dad. Julia and Gabe climbed all over him - playing with him and giving him countless hugs and kisses. Gabe has been talking about "Urango!" and "Gampa's house!" since.

I'm not sure how to tell Julia.* But she will wonder why Jonny is gone tomorrow morning and why Grandpa and Rudi aren't coming as planned so I think I'd better let her know. This will be her first time dealing with death. How thankful I am she already has a basic understanding of the Plan of Salvation. She prayed on Christmas Eve about Jesus being born on Christmas and resurrected on Easter. And she's been asking me a lot of questions about what it means to die and what it meant when Jesus came alive again. She was crying a few weeks ago because she wanted to see Jesus. Her understanding is limited, but she knows we have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior. So is mine, and so do I.

I loved Daddio. It felt easy to call him that after Jonny and I were married. He loved his kids. He was always talking about his kids to me. He worried about them and wanted the best for them. He told me stories of their childhoods and his. After Thanksgiving he and Rudi came up for a weekend so Rudi could interview for a job in Provo. He and I talked in the kitchen for a few hours while Gabe slept and Rudi played with Julia. He talked of a trip out East he was planning to take in the Spring. He was really looking forward to visiting his siblings and seeing his childhood home - Nayak, New York. He told me how different a world it was back then. You knew all your neighbors and they knew you. The world was small. He missed it.

And we will miss Dad. We'll miss his big hugs and his old jokes. We'll miss his Czech expressions. We'll miss his stories of being a cop. We'll miss seeing the renovations he'd been doing on the 100-year-old house. We'll miss his teasing that I call his son "Jonny" instead of "a good, strong name: Jon." We'll miss his sporadic singing and Donald Duck voice.We'll miss his phone calls and Christmas cards. And every Thanksgiving we'll still have a bowl of Sauerkraut on the table to go with the potato dumplings - even if I am the only one that eats it now that Dad is gone. (He was proud that I knew what was good. You better believe it.)

Goodbye, Daddio. We love you and know we will see you again before too long. Instead of driving through those nostalgic neighborhoods as planned, you're now being embraced by your mom and dad. I'd say that's a better deal anyway. Tell them we say hi. Can't wait to be with you all again soon.

  

  

 

 

*Julia took the news much better than I had expected (or feared). She doesn't understand that he is really gone yet, and that may hit a little harder when we go to his house and the funeral this weekend. But she has been very sweet to pray about Grandpa in her prayers and draw pictures of him. It will be a sad thing for her to grow up only having known her Grandpa for a few years. But those have been happy years for her. We will try to keep his memory alive for Julia and all of our kids in pictures and stories. Thankfully we have plenty of those.

"Naomi's Dance Class"

Julia loves her little ballet class. When we heard that her friend Naomi was in a darling dance class a few blocks away, we signed Julia right up. For the longest time she called it "Naomi's dance class." After a month or two of attending, she came to me and said, "Mom, now I can call it my dance class!" She looks forward to Tuesday mornings like mad.

 

I love the class because it reminds me of the one my mom taught in our home when I was Julia's age. I think the teacher even uses some of the same warm-up songs from my beginning ballet days.

my baby no more

Not only is Gabe my baby no longer because, well, he's a humongous 2.5 year old - but also because we will have a little one joining us at the end of May! We really are thrilled and just can't wait to see what another little personality will add to our family. In preparation, we just up-sized to a minivan (a "Swagger Wagon," if you will) to accommodate another small person and the gear that comes along with him/her. I can't get over the power sliding doors - magical!

May seems a long way off here in the dead of winter, but surely Julia and Gabe will keep us busy in the mean time. We thought about not finding out the gender until birth, but are thinking again on that. Julia has informed me that "girl babies are the only best ones in the world." So if this one is a boy, she may need some months of  convincing that boy babies are alright too. That, and the fact that I just don't think I will be able to wait until May to know what is growing inside of me!

This news may explain why I have been somewhat non-existent in the world lately - especially in the afternoons and evenings. These months of nausea are just miserable. At least I am able to keep everything down. And most foods aren't completely grossing me out anymore. I am 15 weeks along now and will probably not be myself again until 20 weeks or so, judging by my last two pregnancies. So, yes, if you call after 8:00 pm, I probably will be asleep!

P.S. Just so you don't assume Gabe's sweet countenance in the top picture is characteristic of our wild man, here are some more photos to assure you that he is just as silly as ever.

Thanksgiving in Colorado

This is what went down in Durango and Salida last week...

Riding the Polar Express with Grandma

Chilling with Grandpa 

 Revisiting childhood playgrounds 

(more specifically: Jonny re-enacting how he would climb to the top of the rocket thing and sing, "Stop in the name of love..." to his latest crush.)

 Gabe playing for hours with the maroushka dolls

 Aunt Emma and Julia drawing classic hand turkeys

Pre-Feast Yoga

 Daddio joining in on the yoga

Jonny digging up some sweet high school basketball warm-ups from before even his time

Welcoming Rudi home from serving a mission in Guatemala

 Driving through beautiful Wolf Creek Pass from Durango to Salida

 Visiting Great Grandpa Gene

 Getting all bundled up to see the small-town Salida Santa Parade and Tree Lighting with Grandpa and Jenny

 And enjoying the fact that Jonny and his Dad prepared every bit of the Thanksgiving meal. Okay, I helped a little with the potatoes and made the cranberry sauce. (Selfishly, really, I may have been the only one that ate it. Wait, Julia loved it too. That's my girl.)