Dear Dash: Twenty Months

Dear Dash,

What a month it has been! We moved across the country, and it was rough. You were the crankiest we've ever seen you this month, and we attribute it mostly to lack of sleep. Now that you are back on your regular schedule, though, things are better.

This month was filled with happy memories, like:

cousin hand holding at our last lunch together in UT

matching with daddy

meeting one of mommy's missionary companions

being served by gma

looking at family photos and church videos

exploring our new sandy backyard

reading all of the books we get from the library
(we go several times a week since it's right down the street)

baking

begging mom to come outside

playing in the torrential rain

reading family histories

chilling at the pool

We got to see a lot of our North Carolina relatives, too! Grandpa, Uncle Scott, and Aunt Emily came down for Labor Day weekend, and Grandma Hiatt babysat when we first were moving in. You've settled in well to our new home and you love being outside. You don't let the heat or your multiple mosquito bites get you down.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dear Dash: Eighteen Months

With all of the 4th of July excitement, I'm getting this post out a little late.

Your newest words are "eyebrow" and "eyelash" which you try to poke on other people.
Nursery adventures: you love the games and activities, but hate it when mom and dad leave. one week you snuck out and tried to find us, and our home teacher found you wandering the halls.

you're in the 25% for weight and 75% for height.
I have to get 2T shirts for you but you are still in 12 month shorts.

cuddling with raja the tiger at grandma and grandpa's

when we told you the sparkler was hot, you tried to blow it out

you can climb almost anywhere in the apartment now

I pulled out my childhood stuffed animals and nearly doubled your collection

to dig dig dig dig dig dig dig is what we like to do

why read on your own when you can sit on mom?

you love to see the temple

hey neils, check out this "beef" (leaf)

great-aunt amy has the best toys

you loooove your cousin "abba" (abby)

we have a nice shaded sitting area in our front yard that you enjoy exploring in.
so many ants and bugs and dirt to play with.

you love your blanket 

you love dada, and we had a great father's day with him

we went to olive garden for aunt jenny's birthday,
and all you wanted to eat was a bowl of olives

blueberries are a new favorite

we got to see so much family this month

you've never been this high!
mostly because you have parents under 6' and our apartment ceilings are 7' and under

we try to go to 7 peaks waterpark at least once a week

staying safe and cool

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Moving Plans FAQ's

For those of you who may not have seen the Facebook announcement, we are moving to South Carolina in August! Matt has accepted a job to work at Claflin University as an Assistant Professor of Psychology.

Question: When will you be moving?
Answer: Matt and my dad are driving across the country from August 10-13, and Dash and I will be flying to SC on the 13th.

Question: Where will you live?
Answer: We are looking in the Columbia area, but haven't found a place yet. We're currently debating between two different apartment complexes.

Question: Are you buying a home?
Answer: We'll rent for a year, and if everything works out we will buy one next year!

Question: Will Rebekah be working?
Answer: Not until she passes the SC bar...which she may have already passed. They have yet to release their passing score standard, so we are waiting to find out before making any plans.

Question: Will you be close to any family?
Answer: Yes! We will be within a few hours drive to Matt's sister, his grandparents, and his parents. Rebekah also has a cousin living in SC.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Memorial Day

We visited the Spanish Fork cemetery and they had flags and crosses out for everyone in the cemetery who had served in the military. Dash loves flags, but seeing so many in one spot was kind of overwhelming. 

We found Grandpa Slocum's cross and flag!

We visited Matt's Grandparent's grave. They have a temple etched in the middle, and since Dash loves temples, he couldn't help but point to it. 

Family Selfie! Apparently Dash was distracted by the dozens of flags and pinwheels.

We have Seven Peaks passes so we went for the first time today! Dash had a blast. We had our first swim lesson where we worked on kicking and teaching him to hold his breath if his face is covered by water. Dash has no concept of drowning, so we had to stop him several times from jumping, running, or crawling into water that was over his head. 

Surprisingly, he wore his sunglasses for the majority of the time!

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Family History Guess Who

My latest project has been creating a Guess Who game using my family members and ancestors. I hope as my family plays the game that we can be inspired to learn more about each person.

For those of you who would like to do something similar, I have the following suggestions:
-Get color photos of all of the family members you want to sketch (or you will spend most of your time waiting to find out the hair/eye color of family members for whom you only have black and white photos.)
-Figure out the dimensions of your guess who game before sketching (I didn't, so I had to scan and then re-size all of my sketches to fit.)
-Sketch in pre-drawn boxes (they they will be ready to cut right away!)
-Depending on your preference, you may want to copy your black and white sketches first and then manually add color (I colored mine before copying them, and the peach tone I used for everyone's skin didn't show up. However, I do think that the printed versions looked more professional than the colored pencil versions.)

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dear Dash: Twelve Months

Dear Dash,

We had a great celebration for your birthday! You loved all of the attention.

In honor of the Winston-Salem Dash, I did baseball themed cupcakes and a batter bowl smash cake. 

You ended up pushing the entire cake off of your tray, so we gave you a smaller piece to munch on instead. 

It's crazy to think how much you've grown over the past year!

I'm kind of glad this is the last time I'm doing monthly pictures because it's so hard to get you to stay still.

It's been a busy month for you! You celebrated your first Christmas, caught another cold, and took your first steps. You can climb our stairs in 30 seconds flat, and have started to figure out how to climb down them safely. You are a social laugher and social cougher. You play most with your musical toys, although you will push anything around on the floor (paper, boxes, cans, etc). You still think the vacuum is the coolest invention. You love to turn pages of books. You sneakily gnaw on the corners of our games or the corner of the bottom stair.  You will let us spoon feed you almost anything if you are distracted.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah