Why is my kid crawling?

Scarlet was having a rough morning today. She cried and fussed every time I set her down. Of course, being the cruel, heartless mother that I am, I made her follow me to the kitchen as she cried all the way. That's when I noticed she was limping.

The entire side of her left foot was covered with big red welts! I am pretty sure they are bug bites. I just feel so bad for her. I feel itchy just looking at her foot. She has been crawling all day to stay off her feet.

Yeah, I'm feeling a little guilty for all the 'stop crying' comments this morning. Poor girl!

Love Being A Girl

I love seeing the things Scarlet seems to know without me ever teaching it to her. Like the first time I set Capn Crunch on her high chair tray and she ate out all the crunch berries and left the yellow pieces. I especially love watching her girl instincts come out. She already loves putting on "makeup" and uses my blush brush on her cheeks just like I do. She loves it when someone says she looks pretty. She carts around bags on her shoulder like a purse. And now, we have added the doll.


I think she looks like a celebrity mom in a magazine in this picture, hiding her face and kid from the paparazzi. My mom bought her this doll and she has been wheeling it around in its stroller and giving it cuddles ever since. Most of the kids her age in our area are boys and I'm not really sure she has ever seen a kid play with a doll. And yet there she is!

Jon and I really enjoy our ward. We have made such fun friends. Jon played babysitter the other day for my friend's two boys and Scarlet during our Primary Activity. They are the cutest kids.



I am so sad we didn't get a picture of it but when we got home Blaze (the younger one, about 3 days younger than Scarlet) was in Scarlet's jean frilly shorts and neon green shirt that reads 'little lady.' I guess the kids had some sprinkler time so Jon threw him in the first clothing he could find to get him dry. Too too cute.

Just made me smile

Scarlet has been able to crawl backwards downstairs for a long time now. But lately she likes to scream at the top of the staircase for me to help her walk down facing forward. The other day my hands were full and I was sick of the screaming anyway so I told her to get downstairs. She just stared at me. So I said, "Scarlet, you turn around right now and come downstairs."

Scarlet stared at me, turned around in a circle until she was facing me again and then looked at me like 'how was that supposed to help me get down the stairs?' At least she listened to most of what I said...

Back Home

I absolutely love summer. Even though I'm not in school anymore it still feels like it's my free vacation time. I find myself going from place to place almost nonstop. It is occasionally exhausting, especially with the added toddler and growing belly but I have gotten to do such fun things.

My summer officially started with Jon's parents, Bert and Charla coming for a visit. We were excited to show them our new house, and even more excited when they immediately got to work and helped us knock off several projects from our list. Charla and I hit the yard. I seriously know nothing about yard work and now I have all these plants to keep up. Now my roses are trimmed, the ivy is cut back, and most of the old roofing tile is off of my pretty flowers.

Bert and Jon finished our amazing bedroom. I can't wait to get pictures (we have some paint that needs to be touched up so I'm waiting for the finished product). We just painted our downstairs as well and it just looks so good. I really married a talented guy.

After working for three days straight we drove up to the extended Nielsen family reunion at Brian Head. We had a good time. Good food, fun hikes and activities, beautiful weather (it felt so good to be cold again!). The last night we split off into families and had an iron chef/dinner impossible cook off. Each family got secret ingredients and some cash and we had to make a few dishes. We got chicken, pineapple, and apple juice and my sis-in-law and Jon turned it into an amazing chicken dish with a fruit salsa and beverage. So then we all got together and sampled all the different dishes. That was such a fun meal.

We got back in town and my family was already in Vegas for the Nationals dance competition. They did such a good job! Scarlet and I spent the week watching hundreds of dances. Well, Scarlet spent most of her time making up her own moves to the dances. I even found one of the judges watching and laughing at her instead of watching the dancers... oops! They stayed in town and played for a couple of days and then headed back to Washington.

And then on Monday, Courtney, Scarlet, and I headed up to Utah to join my mom and Kylie. Kylie was in the Young Ambassadors camp at BYU and Courtney had some dance classes she could take at some good studios up there. It was basically a week of eating well, catching up on some television, and shopping. What more could anyone ask for!

We stayed at Cali's house and I absolutely loved being around her kids. Grace and Scarlet had a lot of fun together. I love watching kids that age play together. But at some point through all of this I definitely ran out of laundry which is usually a sign it's time to go home and get something done.

Oh, and Jon was just called as Young Men's president. Busy Sundays for us!

The official announcement

My in-laws just got in town this weekend and now that we have finally shared the news with them I can now officially post that I am pregnant! Nielsen child #2 will be here sometime in the end of September. And, to Jon's absolute delight, we are having a boy! I am feeling great, getting round, and now just looking forward to seeing whether I am having another mini Jon or if maybe some of my genes will sneak in this time!

I am a little nervous about having another, as most of you are aware newborns aren't exactly easy. And to do that all over again with my crazy 18 month old running around...

but then I look at old pictures of Scarlet like this one and I remember that it was TOTALLY worth it.

Catch Up

My camera is finally back so here are a few snippets from our life in the past month.

JON'S BIRTHDAY

Jon turned 29 a few weeks ago. We celebrated with some friends by pretending we liked to eat Korean food. Well we only had to pretend to like some of it, some was actually decent.

Always ready when a camera is around, Scarlet pulled out some nice poses for the camera.

I've already mentioned several times Scarlet's amazing eating abilities. But sometimes she shocks even me. She LOVED Korean food. Everything from the kimchi to the squid she ate and asked for more. She is so much like her dad.

And then afterwards, they brought Jon out some celebratory birthday watermelon.

POOL TIME

I have finally pulled out the kiddie pool with the hope that Scarlet would just think it was the greatest thing in the whole world. I was imagining my hours lying on the hammock with a book while my self-amused child splashed around. Yeah... not so much.

Jon tried the pool out first while I was at dance. You'll see it in later pictures but its a big frog mouth with a little stream of water that shoots out the front. As you can see, Jon decided the effort of finding swim gear was very overrated. His official comment was, "I didn't know she owned a swimsuit."

It started well... until the water got in her face.

But she did enjoy a little nude sunbathing with Aunt Kristy.

We tried again a week later when her friend Jane was over. As you can see, yes she does own a swimsuit. Jane didn't bring hers along though.

This was about as close as she got to the water.

Oh well, I got her in a full sized pool the other day and she had an absolute blast. Maybe there's hope yet!

And before I wrap up, I have a little dilemma I would love to have solved. Lately Scarlet has been waking up at night, a major rarity thank goodness, and when I check on her I find she has thrown her leg over her mesh bumper and has stuck it through the slats. Then, when she tries to roll over in her sleep and she can't, she wakes up and cries. Why the heck does she stick her legs through there? I checked on her last night to find her sound asleep on her back with her leg up to her knee sticking out of the crib. It's a tall bumper so she is definitely kicking her leg up there on purpose. Any ideas on how to stop her?

Big Sigh

It feels so good to just sit down, catch up on blogs, and talk about life for a minute. I have been low on these kinds of minutes lately. I really have grown to appreciate those moments when life slows down a little... emphasis on the 'a little'.

My final performance for my theater dance team was last weekend. I was so sad I wasn't able to make it up to Moses Lake for my Aunt Tami's funeral. I have so many wonderful memories of her, she is just one of those women you can't think about without smiling.

My dance teaching job has been fun this semester. I usually put in about 15-20 hours a month, no big deal. In May, I put in 55 hours and I put in 20 in the first week of June alone. With extra rehearsals, dress rehearsals, tech rehearsals and the final performances I've practically lived at the studio. Thankfully Jon and my friend Mindy took on some extra Scarlet time. It was definitely a relief to have it all over with.

Well, I actually only have a few weeks off before summer workshops start. (p.s. if you live in Vegas and have a kid old enough, the workshops are going to be a blast, http://www.hollywoodkidsacademy.com/) Oh, speaking of workshops, here's a little So You Think You Can Dance trivia for ya. On the second season during the Vegas auditions, there was a guy known as 'bad pants nic'. He was one of the last to be cut when making the top twenty but he was known for his hideous pants, so bad the judges asked him to change. Anyway, that guy is teaching dance and theater workshops with me this summer. Crazy huh?

Jon flew up to Moses Lake for the weekend without me to tape my mom's dance recital. Seriously what kind of awesome husband flies up to your hometown to tape not one but three dance shows in a day. He is on the Young Men's kayaking high adventure trip this weekend, hopefully that will balance out last weekend!

So between working on our house (which is really coming out nicely, I will have pictures soon), making the DVD for my mom's show, and my new calling as Primary President, my minutes are filling up quickly. Yes, you heard me right, Primary president.

People in the ward keep asking me how I feel about it. Even though I am a little overwhelmed and have this fear that I'm going to ruin these poor children, on my list of callings that scare me Primary president is still below Cub Scout Master. So I guess they came in a good order for me!

Pictures soon to come!

By the way, on a SYTYCD front, I must say I LOVED Katee & Joshua's hip hop performance. Obviously Joshua did well but Katee totally nailed it. I was way impressed. I though the judges were way too nice to Comfort & her partner. That was the worst! And I thought Kourtni and the tall guys were totally underrated. I really like Mandi Moore's choreography. I love that show...