The Three K's

These are all the babies that were born within one year of each other in the Jenks Family. Kutter (middle) is the oldest, then Krew, then Kate. Katie Bug loves both of her cousins and I love to see them all together creating fun memories.


My baby girls and I -- Some proof that I was actually around when were celebrating the holidays. For some reason, the Mom rarely ends up in the pictures.

Easter Pictures

I received the Easter pictures my niece sent me -- yay!! They are posted.


We had a fun Mother's Day as my brother and sister-in-law had their first baby girl (this is their fifth child) and we got to go meet sweet Elizabeth Bell Jenks. Being in Samaritan made me sick to my stomach as it rekindled my own memories of labor, but the baby was sweet, tiny, and so beautiful.

Launa's latest funny comment: She wanted to call my sister-in-law at college to talk to her. Kylee didn't answer so Launa left a message. A day later, Launa said "Kylee said on her message that she would call me right back. Kylee lied!" I never thought of it like that before. Things work differently in a child's mind.

Kate has picked up the habit of eating dirt. I've never seen anything like it. She literally hides from me so that she can suck on rocks and spit them out. I've considered asking her pediatrician if I should be giving her worm pills. Yuck!! She is so loveable but so rough. She is always filthy and I have a sneaky suspicion she will probably be my little tom boy.

Questions About the Easter Bunny

After about 100 questions about the Easter Bunny and me not knowing the answers, I almost just spilled the beans but had enough self control to endure the questioning. Then, when it was all almost over, my niece spilled the beans instead.

Does the Easter Bunny come through the door? Does he have long, fuzzy ears? Where does he live? How does he know where I live? The Easter Bunny shops at Walmart? Why does the Easter Bunny hide Kate's basket so hard, doesn't he know that she's just a baby? How does the Easter Bunny get behind the chair? How come the Easter Bunny only gets me and Kate stuff, not Mommy and Daddy? Etc, etc, etc.

Launa was creeped out by the idea of anyone sneaking around our house and going through our stuff and was also demanding to know how he got in if I locked the door? She slept in our bed (which is not that unusual),but woke up excited to hunt down her stuff. It took her like five seconds to find her basket. She was somewhat excited but couldn't stop ask questions long enough to enjoy anything until I left the room. Kate just wanted to steal everything in Launa's basket.

My brother and his family were in town, and Launa couldn't get enough of her cousin "Laurlyn". She wanted to spend every waking minute with them. We did an Easter egg hunt, played outside, attended a ball game, and had fun, family dinners. Kate got after it in the Easter egg hunt and loved it. I think it was the first time I felt like my kids actually enjoyed the event. Launa would like to do it all the time!

We spent Easter Sunday going to church and then at Mark's house. It was a nice relaxing day (for me anyway, he pretty much spent the entire weekend working). The kids played with their cousins and we all have eaten WAY too much candy, or is there such a thing?

My niece, Hunter, is my photographer so when she emails me the pictures I'll put them up. :)

A Day In the Life

Let me give you a little insight into let's say the typical day at my house, we'll use today for example...

Launa left early to go the primary temple trip with her Grandma & Grandpa and it was the cutest thing ever watching her holding her Grandpa's hand on the way out to the car, so excited. I got a little teary-eyed. She seems so grown up.

I thought having two kids would be harder than just one, but believe it or not, when Launa leaves, Kate kicks into overdrive!! It's like she doesn't have enough stimulation. Here's the day breakdown:

8:30 AM -- I schedule to do the girl's pictures with my sister-in-law Jen later that day.

9:00 AM -- I call to cancel the picture taking. Kate fell off the bed (she was evidently climbing on) and cut up her chin. She is following me around climbing all over me, jumping off everything, wanting me to catch her. In the meantime, I am trying to do laundry, sweep, etc. She follows me around trying to eat anything worth eating in the pile.

11:00 AM -- Kate sees "Sheetos" in the top of the pantry. Truthfully, I am window shopping online so I give them to her. About 15 minutes later, I find them crushed all over upstairs. There is a trail from the stairs through the entire room. Also, there are a few hand prints on the couch. Good thing it's just a slipcover. You'd think I'd learn my lesson and quit giving them chips. I just get too tempted by the idea of 20 minutes of peace.


2:00 PM -- The neighbor kid,Braden, who is Kate's age, comes over. He's an angel. The kid will sit on my lap and snuggle and watch TV, it's amazing. I can't imagine my children being like that. Launa also arrives home at this time. Launa evidently climbs up the steps to get the chips out of the pantry and gives Braden some. She is attempting to be helfpul.

2:30 PM -- Chips all over the halls. I try to read Kate a book. She gets frustrated the pages aren't turning fast enough and accidentally clocks me in the eye ball with the corner of the book. Momentary rage and then I realize she's 18 months and it's just an accident.

5:30 PM -- Launa was in my bed watching her "own" shows. I walk in just as Kate has climbed on my bed, stolen Launa's bag of chips she had snuck in and dumped them all over the bed. We vaccuum and sweep yet again while I ban chips from the house.

6:00 PM -- I start dinner and run into the laundry room to change up the laundry. I come back and Kate has climbed the refrigerator to reach the eggs and crushed them all over the wood floors and is playing in them.

PRESENT TIME -- I am trying to update the blog. I have moved three times with the laptop because Kate has been climbing over my shoulders to try to close the laptop, press the buttons, and pretty much step or kick anything she can. I finally moved too high so she is now sliding Launa's barstool around so that Launa can't sit down and laughing about it while Launa screams and cries.


Did I mention that Mark is itching for another baby? This is the busy season for his work so he isn't hear much and just hears bits and pieces. I lost my mind a long time ago, maybe he is following in my footsteps.

Kate's First Almost Stiches

Last week, Kate tried to climb up my Mom's ladder in the playroom and did a header off and evidently hit a drawer and put her teeth through her lip. Needless to say, it's a good thing my Mom was there because the rest of us were not "calm" per say. There was A LOT of blood. I thought her teeth were knocked out all over in her mouth, but it was just all the skin that she had bit out of her lip. We placed a phone call to my sister, Jodi, who is an ER nurse (she gets a lot of these types of phone calls from me) and she pretty much told us that we would be hard pressed to get a doctor to do stitches in the mouth of a baby that young. So, I gave her some medicine and took her home and slept by her all night because I was so nervous she might have a concussion. She was unfazed. Had a sippy cup the night it happened and I caught her with Doritos the next morning. Yeah, I know -- Ouch. But, the next morning her mouth looked like complete hamburger and she resembled BuBu from Forest Gump. I hauled her in and they said they wouldn't want to do anything about it but giver her antibiotics. It's been a week and a half and it is coming down but is still nasty. Mark's Mom cried the first time she saw it. So... I have spent the last week trying to protect her from any further injury which is like a full-time job. The child is an animal. On Wednesday, she tried climbing the same ladder. Maybe she's not a fast learner. :)

The picture is a few days post fall, and yes, this is what she normally looks like. She is a Cheeto and Dorito hound and refuses to leave anything in her hair. Lovely, isn't it?

I hope this isn't the first of many blogs chronicling Kate's reckless injuries over time, but she is wild so who knows?

Curiosity

My latest conversation with Launa is as follows:

Launa: Mom, Did you know that babies come out of your private spot? And then they ruin it.

(Getting my composure together)
Me: Really? Who told you that?

Launa: Alexa (my 4-year old niece). So, you said they come out your belly button. Why do you have a belly button if babies don't come out of there?

Me: Um... yeah, Alexa's right. They come out your private spot.

Launa: That's kind-of yucky don't you think? How do you get it out?

Me: Well, you go see the Doctor and you have to push really hard.

Launa: Don't they get stuck in your pants?

Me: Uh, you have to take your pants off.

Launa: And your pannies?!!!

Me: Yeah.

Launa: Oh man, I'm never having a baby.

My sister said maybe this curiosity will pay off and she will be a doctor some day? Last week we had a conversation about why boys can pee outside and girls can't (she tried and ended up with pee all over). She wanted to know what the boy private spots are called? She didn't like the technical term and said she would just use her own made up name. Fine by me. Her questions are forcing me to be more mature than I think I'm ready to be.

She's not just curious about anatomy, she is curious about EVERYTHING!! She basically follows me around and asks me why I do everything the way I do. She asked me how many days all the other people who have died have to wait before they be resurrected. She asks how far up in the sky heaven is and if Jesus sleeps?

More Launa Comments...

Just today, Launa said so many things that made me laugh. The neighbor kids, Hunter and Kyla came to play and when I asked her if she had fun she told me "No. They were ganging up on me! And they were being greedy." She has a funny vocabulary.

I saw the orange cat run by while I was in the office and Launa came in behind me to let me know that she was "just going to let the cat peruse the house for a minute and then I'll take it out".

Mark passed a little gas and she informed him that he needed to excuse me and that he was a real "Farter". Amen to that. :)

Two days ago Mark told Kate to sit down. She gave him a stink face and called him a "meany". It was classic. She is starting to jibber jabber all the time. A small list of words she says: Mommy, Daddy, Launa, chips, baba, eyes, bye-bye, owie, hi, hot, Kyla, Ky, Ty, Grandma, Grandpa, Kitty, Puppy, Pretty, mine, and of course, meany.