A little update

Jonathan is turning 11 months at the end of the week!  I'm so close to having a 1-year old!  He has being learning like crazy lately.  A week after posting about army crawling, he started crawling for real.   The big news now, as of YESTERDAY,  is....He's taking steps!  Several at a time.  Stephen and I sit about five feet apart and he walks the distance between the two of us.  We weren't sure if we could call it "walking", but last night some friends stopped by and witnessed him in action and they thought it counted for sure.   He has a long ways to go before he will be walking around by himself without needing us to be around to catch him when he falls, but so far so good!

Last week, his top two teeth cut through.  They were bulging underneath the skin for over a month -- FINALLY they made their appearance. 

A few things Jonathan loves:

- bath time

- reading books (we spend a good 20-30 minutes at a time reading together before he gets tired of it)

- crawling around with Mommy and Daddy

- walking.  He HATED being on his belly and learning to crawl, but he's always loved to be on his feet and practice walking.  That's probably one reason why he learned to crawl so late, but is walking earlier.

- being outside.  From the time he was a newborn, the outdoors would always calm him down when he was fussy.  He's still the same way.  He loves to take walks outside.  Unfortunately, it's been so cold lately that we don't spend as much time outdoors as we would like to.  We're anxious for spring to come!

- Spending time with Daddy. Whenever Stephen comes home from school Jonathan gets SO excited.  They love spending time together.  

- Spend time jumping, but mostly SPINNING actually, in his Johnny Jump-up

- This next one's maybe his FAVORITE thing to do: Play with electronics - our cell phones, ipod speaker set, TV, but most especially our computers.  Unfortunately, he messes the keys up on our computers and drools on it, so we don't let him touch the computers anymore.  He goes CRAZY whenever he sees one open and moves faster than he ever does to get to it before we can close it.  And then when we do, he gets SO angry and throws tantrums (I had no idea that babies under 1 threw tantrums, but he totally does).  So now we only use our computers in rooms where is ISN'T.  It saves all of us a lot of grief.  

Jonathan's at such a fun age.  It's hard to imagine it getting any better than this.  We have so much fun playing around with him and laughing with him and watching him learn and grow.   

Here are a few pics we took of him last week:

Enough about Jonathan.  Let's talk about me :)

I'm 23 weeks on Thursday.   I feel like I've been showing for weeks now.  But no one else thought I was till the last week or so.  I think my belly's grown a lot recently.  Here's a pic:

This first pregnant shot was a mistake.  I didn't know Stephen was taking it - he was just checking lighting and stuff.  But I thought it was kinda cool how my face was out of focus so it focused on my belly.  So I posted it even though it's kinda funky.

This next one is the more typical, smiling-at-camera pregnancy pic.  These were both taken at 22 weeks 4 days.

At this point in my pregnancy last time, I weighed 20 pounds more than I weigh now!  Hopefully I'll be able to keep my weight gain to 25-30 pounds this time.  Last time it was more like 50!  But if I eat as much and as badly as I was eating last week I will catch up to that 50 pounds for sure.  I've vowed to be better this week.

I've been running this pregnancy and I think that's helping a lot.  I'm gaining weight more slowly and I'm just feeling better in general.  I run 5 or 6 times a week.  Last week I ran 17.2 miles, divided between 5 days of running.  I'm curious to see how long I can keep it up.  

I'm running a cheater 5k (it's actually only 2.8 miles) this weekend with some friends.  My time will probably be embarrassing, but I'm looking forward to it!

Update on Stephen- he has been super busy lately with concerts.  He's had to have 5 different concert/recital programs ready within just 3 weeks.  That's HOURS worth of music.  He's been traveling a lot.  We miss him so much when he's gone!  Sometimes I do ok, but other times I end up eating too much and feeling lonely.  But this last week he had a recital in the Berkshires which is up by Boston and we got to go with him since it was so close :)

Boy #2!!!!

Here's the story:  So three weeks ago we had an an ultrasound.  There were two technicians there (one was in training) and they both thought it was a girl.  But they were only "80 % sure" they said.  Apparently "her" legs were crossed and she had her hand over her jewels.

Stephen and I had been thinking all along it was probably a girl so this confirmed what we'd been thinking and we've been certain in the meantime that it really was a girl.

Well, we went in today for an ultrasound again.  The first one was a little early for them to get a good look at the heart.  We were hoping this time we'd get a confirmation of what we already knew -- that it was indeed a girl.  

When the technician announced it was a boy and gave ample proof of the same, we were absolutely FLOORED.  I asked her three times I think, "Are you SURE?"  She was.  And the evidence was unmistakable this time.

Oh my gosh.

We're SO excited to welcome another little boy into our family. :)

JONATHAN IS MOBILE!!!!

Jonathan has finally decided that he wants to be mobile :)  At ten months and 2 days, he started to army crawl.  I used my computer as bait because he wants to play on it SO badly and it gets him going really fast when he sees it out.  Don't worry; I don't let him bang around on my computer.  Right after we turned the camera off, I shut the computer and he started SCREAMING.  I know it's cruel of me to use the computer for bait and then after all his hard work shut it as soon as he gets to it, but I've had to go to extreme measures to get this kid MOVING.

I'm just hoping that he can walk by the time Baby #2 comes.  He'll be almost 15 months by then.  But honestly, at the rate he's going I'm not holding my breath.

See, when I was a baby, I was WALKING at 9 months.  So where does he get this from?  I'm told that this slow development tendency is from the Beus side.  My mother-in-law said her first baby wasn't ROLLING OVER till he was 11 months, and she thought he was "retarded" (her words, not mine).  But then that same child went on to be a Harvard law school graduate. Another example: Stephen said he always got C's on his report cards all the way through 4th grade.  I didn't even know that it was POSSIBLE for a little 1st grader to get anything but an A; I thought they just gave good grades to everyone to make them feel good about themselves.  Apparently not.  Anyway, after 4th grade he started getting A's and that hasn't changed since.  And he turned out to be an absolute musical genius.  I could keep giving examples -- the number of languages his mother fluently speaks, the number of thick, dry history books his dad reads on a weekly basis, his uncle who writes college-level calculus textbooks and truly knows EVERYTHING there is to know about ANYTHING, etc....the list would be long.  My point is Stephen's side of the family brings some super smart genes into the gene pool -- they're just a little slow at getting going.

So I'm not concerned about Jonathan; I expected it.

The laughing Johnny jumper

I finally figured out how to post videos on here.  Here's one of Jonathan in his Johnny JumpUp for the first time.  He loves it.  It was a gift from his Grandma and Grandpa Beus.  

Here's a video demonstrating how lately Jonathan always starts laughing when we laugh.  Sometimes at not the best times...like yesterday in church...The high council speaker said that he had "thinked" about something.  Thinked.  For some reason it really tickled my funny bone.  I looked at Stephen and he was smiling but he was able to keep it in.  I, on the other hand, couldn't help myself from laughing, but quietly to myself (I do have SOME tact).  Jonathan looked up and saw me laughing, and then he started laughing REALLY loudly.  At this point we all were laughing.  Hope the speaker didn't notice...

Anyway, here's a video demonstrating the copycat laugher in action:

Bred to Cook

My family started a healthy recipes blog about a year ago.  When we try out a new healthy recipe that we love, we (if we get around to it) post it on the blog so that we all can give it a go.  I have LOVED this blog.  I get so many healthy ideas from my sisters and Mom that I would never had thought of or tried before.  It's nice too because I would say that half the new healthy recipes I find on my own don't turn out so well.  It can be tough to find really healthy recipes that also taste good, you know?  But these recipes have all been tried out and recommended by someone in my family so there's a better chance if I go through the trouble of making it, I'm going to like it too!

My point: Anyone is welcome to use the blog for healthy ideas.  Here's the link:  bredtocook.blogspot.com

I hope it's useful to you!

Getting back in the groove

I'm 18 weeks pregnant in 2 days, and I just finished running 3.2 miles!  I didn't stop to walk at all. I had gotten out of the habit of running over the holidays because it started getting so cold.  And I was in the my first trimester and running usually made me throw up.  Last fall, I was running anywhere from 3-5 miles about 5 days a week.  I've really missed it.  So I decided a few days ago that I am so sick of feeling like a lazy pig, and I'm going to start running even in freezing temperatures.  I ran 2 miles on Saturday and then 2 miles yesterday.  I was surprised when I felt good enough to run over 3 today.  I do get some dull achy pain in my lower abdomen and groin while I run, so I'm running quite a bit slower than normal.  My time today was 33 minutes.

I feel so good!

Charity

Once a year, my church holds a world-wide broadcasted meeting called Women's Conference.  Our prophet, Thomas Monson, spoke about something that's been on my mind since.  The title of the talk is Charity Never Faileth.  The problem is that my charity definitely faileth.  I guess that means it's not really charity.  I loved the ideals he talked about and I want so badly to be able to live that way.  It's just SO human nature to judge, criticize, and categorize others.  As King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon says, "The natural man is an enemy to God...and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord..."  


Below are a few of my favorite parts of the talk:  

Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who worked among the poor in India most of her life, spoke this profound truth: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” ⁵ The Savior has admonished, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” ⁶ I ask: can we love one another, as the Savior has commanded, if we judge each other? And I answer—with Mother Teresa: no, we cannot.

I consider charity—or “the pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging. In speaking of charity, I do not at this moment have in mind the relief of the suffering through the giving of our substance. That, of course, is necessary and proper. Tonight, however, I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.

Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited.

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.

Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life. May we recognize that each one is doing her best to deal with the challenges which come her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out.

It was actually really difficult for me to pick out the excerpts above because every part of the talk is quotable.  

 Here's a link to the article if you want to read the whole thing:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/charity-never-faileth?lang=eng

Just for a second, imagine what the world would be like if people lived this way.  Not only would we feel better inside because we would be full of love, not ugliness, toward each other, but we'd also not have to worry about what other people are thinking.  Isn't it awful to feel self-conscious around other people much of the time because we are worried about what judgments they're making about us?  I want to be the kind of person that people can feel comfortable around because they know that, like Mother Teresa suggested, I don't have time to judge them because I just love them!