Spencer's Birthday Spotlight and Tag

This is one of my very favorite photos of Spencer. He's posing with his best buddy Lydia, who sadly, is moving to Maryland this week.

Spencer was recently tagged by his cousin Bentley so I thought I would combine the tag entry with his birthday spotlight into one post in order to avoid repeating a lot of the same information.

Spencer Nolan Oswald was born July 30, 2005. He is named after his grandpa Nolan Potter. He is celebrating his 3rd birhtday and is so excited about it. Apparently at the age of 3 he graduates from toddlerhood and becomes a "real" boy. He has also told us that at the age of 3 he will start using the potty. We'll see if he sticks to that one... He is a joy and a delight to have in our family. He is just so sweet and cuddly and makes us laugh constantly. He has a great sense of humor and he especially loves slapstick--one of his favorite shows is AFV which he calls the "funny show". We love the way that Spencer talks and expresses things. For example, he'll say: "I'm found mine ball!" or "Mommy, I want a snack about a cracker." He can sometimes be a bit bossy and demanding and wants things right now or else. We've been seeing an interesting side of him lately with his little temper flaring every so often and usually without warning. But then almost as soon as a tantrum comes, it's gone and he's just the happiest little person again. Spencer has been one of our most challenging children because of the severe food allergies and asthma that he suffers. We have to make sure that he doesn't ever eat any eggs, milk, wheat, or nuts. Did you know that eggs, milk, wheat, or nuts is in just about everything? It has been very difficult to find foods that are okay for him to eat, but we finally feel like we have things under control now and we are just really hopeful that someday he'll outgrow at least a couple of these allergies. He's such a good sport about it though. He recognizes foods that he can and can't have so he's good at letting people know if he can have a food when they offer him somthing. If we're eating something that he isn't sure if he can have, he'll ask us and if we tell him that it isn't for him, he usually just says okay and asks for something that he can have. But he gets SO excited if we tell him about a new food that he can have and he'll say over and over as he's eating: "It's okay! I'm can eat this!" We just really love him and are so happy he's in our family. That was a fast 3 years!

Tag:

Things he's good at:

1. running

2. getting what he wants

3. singing

Things he likes to do:

1. play outside

2. puzzles

3. play with moon sand (he can't do playdough because it has wheat in it, but this is a fun alternative that we discovered.)

Things he likes to eat:

1. rice cakes

2. fruit snacks

3. hot dogs

Things he doesn't like to eat: (this was a hard one because there are a lot of things he can't eat but of the things that he can, he LOVES just about anything)

1. bananas

2. mustard

3. cooked green beans (but he loves them fresh from the garden)

What he wants to be when he grows up: I asked him and he said "a hider hider" which I thought meant a fire fighter since he can't say his F's, so I tried to clarify if that's what he meant but he said "no, a hider hider so I can play hide and seek a lot!"

Favorite sports team: U.S. men's soccer team, Utah Jazz, Detroit Tigers

Favorite color: he said "red and yellow and orange and green"

Favorite songs:

1. Follow the Prophet

2. Down by the banks of the hanky panky

3. Beethoven's 5th

Favorite singers:

1. Laurie Berkner

2. The Backyardigan's

3. Fleetwood Mac

Favorite Nicknames:

1. Spence

2. Spencito

3. Spencerooni

4. Bubby

Spencer now tags Lilly, DJ, and Seth Alan

A Visit from the Oswald's

We spent a lovely day at Lake Michigan. This was right before going home and everyone was pretty tired. Spencer didn't even make it out of the parking lot before he zonked out!
The two grandmas and Kaya (in the bundle on my mom's lap). My mom was able to join us at the lake and later for some other activities. This was really the first time that she and my in-laws had spent time together, so I was really glad that she was able to get to know them better.

We recently had a super fun visit with some of the Oswald side of the family. We've been trying to get them out to Michigan for years now, and finally we were able to get a few. Kalen's Mom Trenna, his sister Susan and two of her kids Kelsey and Randall, his sister Sherrie and two of her kids Amber (this was actually her graduation trip) and Krystle, and his brother Eric were all able to come. We really wished that Kalen's other brother Todd had been able to come too, then all of the siblings would have been reunited for the first time in a very long time. Oh well. We'll just have to do it again soon!

Anyway, we had a great visit with everyone. And contrary to what they kept saying about how glad I'd be to be rid of them and get back to normal, I'd have loved for them to stay even longer! They cooked, cleaned, did dishes...who wants to send that away? Plus, it was SO much fun to visit with them all. I am so terrible at keeping in touch with them, but when we're together I absolutely love to visit with them. I had to keep doing a double take when I'd look at Amber and think that she's graduated from high school. I still remember when I first met her when she was just a tiny little thing, not quite 4 years old yet. And the other kids have grown so fast too and it was great to get reaquainted with them again. Especially for our kids to get to know some of the Oswald cousins better. Spencer was just talking about them today and he said that "cousins are people that you love."

We went on a few excursions with everyone: the Whitehouse Nature Center, Victory Park where we watched Kalen and Eric play soccer and then again later for a community band concert, Lake Michigan where we all got sunburned in spite of using a gallon of sunblock, Turkeyville where we got to go on a mini-train ride which was really fun, Kid's 'n'Stuff museum, the Albion College campus where we were able to see the sharks and check out the greenhouse at the science complex, and apparently a visit to Michigan is not complete without a few Walmart runs! We also had lots of fun reminiscing, playing games, roasting marshmallows over the campfire, and adding "Down by the Banks" to the end of our family prayers which Susan taught us and which has now become our new tradition as well.

We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did having them here. Hopefully now we've gotten them hooked on Michigan and we'll be able to have them come to visit more often!

Walk Down Memory Lane

Here are the instructions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. (It can be Amy, Kalen or both). It doesn't matter if you knew me/us a little or a lot; anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructioms on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Taylor Leon Oswald

I thought it would be a fun thing to start doing a little spotlight on each of the kids when it's their birthday each year. Already I'm a bit late for Taylor's since his actual birthday was on June 26th, but oh well. The following is a list that the Primary did for his birthday spotlight on his very last day in Primary.

Full Name: Taylor Leon Oswald (we have a tradition of giving our kids middle names after a family member. Taylor is named after his Grandpa Leon Oswald)

Age: 12 Birthdate/Place: June 26, 1996 in Tucson, Arizona

School: Washington Gardner Middle School

Grade: Going in to 7th grade this fall.

Favorite Things:

Color: Yellow

Food: Cheese, donuts, chocolate moose tracks ice cream, milk.

TV Show: mostly anything on Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

Movie: Indiana Jones (all of them but he likes Raiders of the Lost Ark the best)

Activities: reading, drawing, camping, soccer, playing the cornet, web surfing,

watching movies, playing with friends.

I just can't believe that my first baby is already 12 years old. I was looking at this picture of Taylor and Kaya, my oldest and youngest and thinking how unbelievably fast time is going. I just wish I could stop it somehow for even just a little while. I remember Taylor as a newborn like it just happened! As I mentioned earlier, Taylor had his last day in Primary last week and then yesterday went to priesthood for the first time. (He'll be getting ordained a couple of Sunday's from now when some of the Oswald side of the family will be here visiting). Taylor is a great kid. Sometimes life tends to be hard for him with some of the sensory processing issues he's had, so when I see him hitting some of these big milestones, I really appreciate what it is taking for him to make these transitions. For example, when I'd drop him off at middle school last year and watch him make his way through the crowd of alarmingly large and intimidating 8th graders, I'd just want to cheer for him. When he got up in front of everyone and gave a talk in Sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago, I also wanted to give him a standing ovation because I knew how terrified he was to do it. Anyway, we just really love him and all that he teaches us. He is incredibly brilliant. He especially loves scientific subjects but he's also something of a history nut as well. When he grows up he wants to be either a volcanologist or a paleontologist. He had a good season in soccer this past year. He absolutely hated playing when he was little but he always asked to sign up again every year, and it seems that he is finally getting enjoyment out of it. He has become really quite good at his position and is nearly always the fastest one on the field. Taylor is a good big brother, especially to the littlest ones and he is an enormous help to us. I was just feeling guilty yesterday after church because Kaya was needing to eat RIGHT NOW but it was lunch time for everyone else too and Kalen wasn't back yet, so I fed the baby and Taylor made lunch for the rest of the kids without complaining a bit. I keep thinking I just need to let him be a kid and not depend on him so much, but the truth is, I am just so grateful for all that he does to help us. He's just an amazing kid. We think we'll keep him--at least for a few more years when he thinks he's going to go to college or some crazy notion like that!

Kaya Nicole Oswald

Big brother's Taylor and Spencer

Lynnsey and Kendall can't hold her enough.

Going home from the hospital.



Kaya Nicole Oswald--about 2 hours old.

Well she's finally here! Kaya Nicole Oswald was born on Sunday, June 22nd at 11:20 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Everything went extremely well. Amazingly so, actually. I went into labor at about 4 a.m. and we headed to the hospital shortly after that. When I arrived I was dilated to a 6 so they admitted me and then not much happened. I was still having contractions but when they checked me again I still hadn't progressed much further. So I decided since it could be awhile and I was quite uncomfortable that I'd go ahead and get my epidural. Once they had that going and I still wasn't progressing, they gave me just a tiny bit of pitocin and that was all it took. Not much later I told the nurse that I was feeling that the baby was a lot lower so she checked me and said:"Oh my gosh! I can feel her ear!" So they whipped into action and called the doctor back in (he had gone home after hanging out for awhile thinking that I'd deliver sooner). So when he arrived and checked things he said: "Yeah, this is going to go quick." Sure enough. I pushed through two contractions and then while we were waiting for the next one, someone said something funny and I laughed and the baby just started sliding out. So the next contraction came and she was born without my doing anything. It was the craziest thing, I have to say. I LOVE epidurals!

Anyway, she is absolutely perfect and so beautiful (of course we aren't biased at all). The kids are all crazy about her so far. My brother Jonathan said we should have had quadruplets so they could each have a baby to hold. I prefer one at a time, thank you.

We brought her home on Tuesday afternoon and now are trying to adjust to all the craziness that a newborn brings. She's not sleeping much at night so far, so exhaustion is the biggest challenge right now. But I wouldn't change this for anything. We're just so happy to have her here and so thankful that everything went as well as it did. No sleep is a small price to pay.

Baby Update

No baby yet! I went to the doctor yesterday who told me once again that it could be any second now and then proceeded to tell me that it would be good if I could have the baby by Friday because she is going out of town all next week. Nice, huh? I actually really love my doctor and I really would like her to deliver this baby. She has been so wonderful with the births of Lynnsey and Spencer. So now I'm panicking a tiny bit about having another doctor deliver this baby. I like all of the other doctor's in the practice, I just hadn't considered that one of them would be THE doctor. So I guess I'm open to any advice on getting labor going by Friday (that's tomorrow, so I'm not holding out a ton of hope). I've actually been feeling like I could go any minute and I'm dilated to a 3 now so it could happen, but then as soon as the doctor said she wouldn't be there next week all of a sudden I feel completely normal and like this kid could stay in forever. I guess there is the chance that I could have her on the 30th at which point my doctor will be back, but that just seems like an impossibly long time to wait. I thought about pressuring her to induce me this Friday, but I knew she'd say no. I'm not sure if it's hospital policy or an office policy but they are not allowed to induce until a week before a due date unless it is deemed medically necessary. And since I'm healthy and the baby is healthy, "medically necessary" probably doesn't include doctor's schedules. Oh well. I guess I'll just hang in there and keep waiting and crossing my fingers...

2 Weeks and Counting

I am very hesitant to post this entry but I'm caving to some peer pressure to show a pregnant photo of myself. I'm typically very good at avoiding cameras usually by being the photographer, so it's just weird to post a picture of only myself--especially one where I am not at my usual glamorous self (ha!). Anyway, here I am. I now have 2 weeks and one day until my due date and I may actually make it that long this time. Lynnsey and Spencer were both induced a week early because of bad winter weather/history of rapid labor (Lynnsey) and group B strep/history of rapid labor (Spencer). Well this time it's summer so I don't have icy roads in my favor and I did not test positive for group B strep so I don't need to have antibiotics during the labor. Which means, even if I have a quick labor again, the doctor doesn't feel any urgency to induce me early. I'm a little conflicted about that. On the one hand, I can respect the doctor's reasoning, but on the other hand, it was SO nice to drive the speed limit to the hospital in relative comfort and be able to walk in and get settled before ever having to feel a contraction. Having an epidural was a wonderful luxury too. The last time I went into labor on my own was with Kendall and that was a scene straight out of a movie: speeding through red lights, lost registration papers, people yelling at me not to push yet, no pain medication etc. I'm a little nervous of having a repeat of that or worse, not making it to the hospital in time at all (Mom and Jenn, you are my heroes). Oh well. I guess unless things have changed at my next appointment, then I just have to take things a day at a time and hope that eventually this kid will show up--preferably a bit earlier than expected and not 4 days late like her oldest brother.