Good Friends

Easton went to his first friend birthday party. It was Jones Martindale. We met Jones and Errin (mom) through my other friend Shauna who happens to be her SIL.

This party was so much fun. Her mother is a party planner and did the two of them present quite a party for this 3 year old. Color coordinated, cotton candy, snow cone, sawdust dinosaur dig, and the best part was Oreo cupcakes! (I need that recipe) Wow so much fun and Easton had a ball. Thanks Errin and Brent!

Errin and Shauna are fun to hang with and we have some good times. They have only lived here in California for a short time and have both have showed me places that I hadn't been too and I have lived here for almost 10 years! Even a tour of Trader Joe's! Man I need to get out more.

Queen Califica





One of our adventures was to Queen Califica (sp?) an art structure in Kit Carson Park. What a hit for the kids! They had so much fun climbing these very interesting pieces of art and it was very colorful and engaging. Thank goodness for Shauna's camera and her talent and that she takes pictures of my kids. The first 3 are of my Iphone which you can tell and the last on of Easton is from her camera. Then the two top ones of Easton at the party are her's as well.

I really want to use my nice camera too. I just don't want to lug it around. Any suggestions to get me motivated to use it and to lug it around? Maybe I need a new handbag that will hold it?

My first 911 phone call

This evening was pretty eventful for our little family. This morning Easton had woken up with a fever and has had congestion for a few days but I just took no serious thought to it. He would be off and running around and then the next minute just want to hold me and snuggle with me. It was on and off all day long.

After dinner I noticed that Easton went and put himself on to the couch to lie down and that he didn't finish his dinner so I just assumed he was ready for bed. During that same time we had planned on having a few people come over to start a scripture study group and the missionaries were invited to come over as well. It ended up only being the missionaries who came so at the end of their time with us Trent asked them to help give Easton a blessing.

About 10 minutes after they had left Easton was lying on Trent's stomach and all of the sudden picked up his head and started to look at Trent really funny and just became limp. Trent was talking to him and trying to figure out why he was acting that way and then I noticed that his face became white and his lips were turning purple.

My immediate thought was call 911 because I didn't know CPR. But just a few days ago we had an Emergency Preparedness class at church and talked about the emergencies that we may have in our homes in regards to certain household things and was brought up about CPR and I remember specifically on that one turning to my friend April and saying, "I need to learn how to do that properly."

Trent got up with him and walked back and forth from the door and he was just a noodle and not aware of what was going on. His eyes were dilated and it was just a very scary 3 minutes until the Paramedics arrived.

911 kept me on the phone asking me questions for about 2 minutes and once I hung up I took a look at the girls and they were just wondering what was happening. I reassured them that help was coming for Easton and that we needed to pray for peace and comfort because we were all scared.

They arrived and Easton started to notice who we were and was looking around the room and you could tell that he had some sort of seizure but he didn't do the convolutions or shake or fall over because I think he was in Trent's arms the whole time. The paramedics concluded that it was indeed a febrile seizure and that they needed to take him over to the hospital to run a few tests.

So Trent and Easton were off in the ambulance for a nice ride. ($$$$) That's going to be a fun mail piece. But at this point I myself started to have some peace and reassurance that Easton was going to be just fine.

Poor Reeghan started to cry when she saw him take him away to the hospital and was trying my best to console her and then I broke down so I am sure that didn't help. I just felt alot of guilt on my part as a mother for not doing the simple things to take care of my son that day that is why I was crying. I looked over at Paetan and she was all confused and couldn't decided if she should be crying or consoling both of us. It was a tender moment for all 3 of us.

It was a great teaching moment as well for me to tell the girls whenever an emergency happens and when we feel scared that we need to turn to the Lord for help and immediately get down on our knees and pray. Then the girls started asking questions and running through scenarios when they should themselves call 911 and why that number is so important and when and when not to use it.

A sister from my ward came over until Tyler and Lauren got to my house to be with the girls while I headed off to the hospital to be with them. I made sure I packed something for us to do because our ER trip last time with Easton here we were there for 5 hours! So I came prepared and sure enough I am thankful that I did.




I arrived at the ER and Easton recognized who I was and was so happy to see me for a few seconds and then it was back to Dad. He is such a daddy's boy! We waited to see the doctor and when he came he told us about this type of seizure and then wanted to run like 5 different tests on him to just be sure that's all it was.

We had blood work and the guy couldn't find the right vein to get blood and I about passed out because he was fishing around with the needle, a chest x-ray, urine sample for a 2 yr old (that one didn't happen he didn't get a chance to pee in the bag), nasal drainage where they clean out his nasal passage and check for infection, and then it was concluded after all that that he has RSV!

Poor guy would fall asleep because he got to the hospital at 8:30 and he was just tuckered out with all that had happened to him and then nurses had to keep waking him up to do tests and he decided after the 2nd time to just stay awake so we watched Thomas the Train and Caliou on my phone. These are the times I really appreciate technology for my children when they have to sit through something so traumatic and long.

We were able to check out at midnight and headed home and thought for sure he would sleep for hours and hours but no he kept waking up and crying and just hurt and couldn't fall asleep till about 2am. It was a long night I guess its just prepping me for what is about to come with this baby.

What I learned from this experience is that Easton adores his dad and I have such an amazing sweet husband that takes care of us as a family and can bless his family with his priesthood.

I learned that I need to learn CPR and be prepared to help my children in emergencies and to stay calm not only for me but for the other children who are not involved.

I learned that the power of prayer once again does work and especially when your whole family is praying for your little family. Work got out fast with text messaging another great reason technology is a great tool.

The Power of Prayer

On Monday night we went to Temple Square with Sarah's parents and a few of her siblings and nephews/nieces. We wanted to see all the Christmas lights and walk around the visitor's center.

At the top floor of the visitor's center, there is a large statue of Jesus and they have benches for you to sit while they play a brief audio clip about Jesus and his atonement. As we were waiting for the audio to start, the kids were wandering around the statue and Sarah took Easton around to look at some pictures in a little hallway on the same floor. When they came back into the large room with the rest of us, Easton walked over to where the other kids were and Sarah started talking with her sisters.

After only a minute or so, Sarah glanced around to check on the kids and noticed that Easton wasn't with them. She walked across the room to where I was sitting and asked if I had seen Easton. We both started to search for him assuming he had just wandered down the ramp where the other kids had been playing earlier. After about 30 seconds we started to get very worried since none of the kids or the adults in our group had seen where he went. They all began to search for him while I ran down the ramp to the main floor and checked the escalator that went to the floor below that as Easton and I had gone down there a few minutes earlier.

I called Sarah on the phone, hoping that they had already found him, only to hear her voice more frantic and worried. I assumed the worst and decided I had better check all the exits and ran around temple square to the South exit as my mother in law checked the North exit. During that time, one of my sister's in law told the staff at the visitor's center that Easton was missing and they made an announcement on their PA and described him and what he was wearing.

As I ran around the block, my deepest fear set in, that I might not see my little boy again. I began to become very emotional and I began to pray with so much desire to find Easton as strong a desire as I have ever had for anything. In that instance, I felt a glimpse of the pain of what it would be like to lose a child and not be get to see them again in this life. I don't ever want to feel that again and I feel so much more sympathy and understand for those who have lost a child.

When I came back into Temple Square, I felt sure that Easton was still in the visitor's center and I ran back inside to continue searching with everyone else.

The problem with being frantic is that your mind is not clear and you are not receptive to promptings. I went back to the same stair well on the East side of the building which I had previously searched, but this time, I started going into roped off areas and closed doors, knowing that Easton wouldn't care that an area was closed to the public. My mother in law must have had the same idea come to her as she searched the roped off hallway just to the West of where we were when Easton was lost. She walked past the area that was closed to the public and went down some stairs. About 3 floors down, she could hear whimpering and when she reached the bottom floor, she could hear Easton crying. She went through a set of swinging double doors and then through another door into a dark room where Easton was crying.

Easton had wandered down the hall, down to the basement area and into a foyer and a dark room and could not get out. He must have been pretty scared during this 10 minutes that he was missing... but I don't think it was anything compared to the fear that Sarah and I felt. We had both become very emotional and very stressed after a couple minutes as our fear set in that we may not find him. We are so glad we had family with us to help us as they remained calm and were able to help find Easton.

As I had finished searching the East stairs and came out on the basement floor, I headed to the escalators again and just then, Shauna, my mother in law was running towards the escalator with Easton in her arms. I've never been so happy to see my mother in law ; ) ...the truth is she is an amazing woman and a great example. She has so many Christ-like qualities and I am grateful that she followed promptings to help us find Easton.

We learned a lot during this "extreme" family night lesson, but for me, the one thing that came to my mind as I was running around the outside of Temple Square was a thought, as if God was teaching me something, "Imagine how I feel when I lose my children to spiritual death when they chose to disobey".

I know that as bad as it felt when I thought we had lost Easton, it is much worse after this life when we chose to follow a Worldly path instead of seeking and doing God's will.

Love Languages

Susan did an absolutely great job presenting the "5 Love Languages" session. Right at the beginning she took us through the emotion of having our first child and the first few moments of the baby being placed into our arms. She delivered it with so much passion and conviction it was incredible. She was so concerned about it but she did wonderful.

I've read the book and have been aware of the love languages particularly the last 2 months but I still learned more about my own, Trent's and our childrens' love languages yesterday as she went into more detail and posed many different situations that I hadn't even thought of before.

It was another eye opening experience for me.

Sarah

Mine is definitely, without a doubt, Acts of Service! My secondary however is Quality Time and those two just go hand in hand in my opinion. I feel and show my love by doing kind deeds and acts of service to those I come in contact with. I tend to be the first one to volunteer myself for a lot of things, but I do it in moderation because I don't want to juggle too many projects.

I've concluded why I struggle so much to prepare meals and cook in the kitchen... I want to have someone right by my side with me helping me and serving right along with me! Is that funny or what!?!

I give and give, and love to fill my bucket, but its hard to see my children not understand my love language. I wish I could just tell them that cleaning their room all by themselves would show me that they love me but I've tried and it didn't work. I wonder what age that will happen?? When will they recognize that they need to be of service to me or others to show that love language to me?

Trent

Trent's love language is Physical Touch and his secondary is Quality Time. As his wife, in order for me to show him I love him I need to grab his hand when he least expects it, rub his back, etc. For both of us we really enjoy just being together and it doesn't matter what we are doing. That is why we travel a lot especially alone as a couple.

Reeghan and Paetan

My girls are both Quality Time and their secondary is Gifts. Reeghan always uses the line when every she gets frustrated with us that she wants to leave our family. I know its not a good line for her to use, but I finally figured out that she just needs me to spend "time" with her, which I have really neglected to do, especially the last few weeks. She's growing up so fast that I want to take this time to show her that I really do love her. Its also important to use eye contact while spending time with them as well.

Paetan, on the other hand, is only 5 and she can still change her love language(s). As Susan talked about her daughter Emma, who is a very well rounded person and responds well to all 5 of the love languages, I thought of Paetan. Paetan enjoys all of them and I've recognized that she feels love in all 5 of those areas, which is a good thing. At times I wish I really enjoyed Physical Touch or Gifts but those two are at the very bottom of my list.


How do you figure out what your child's language is?
First, ask yourself this question: What are they constantly asking for?
Next, ask your child:
How do you know Mommy and Daddy love you?
Or you can give them an actual 'love language test' as is found in the Love Languages books (In the kids edition of the book, there is a "kid friendly version" of the test)

As I push away the girls while I am working on 'busy work' or my own little projects, it tells them that I don't love them and I'm withholding something... am I conditionally loving them? A great idea, to overcome this, is to spend 30-40 minutes before you have to go tackle a "to do" and spend that time focused on them and what they want to do and need and then after a time limit is set then you can go do your "to do".

This not only fills us but more importantly it fills their love bucket as well.

It's a very interesting ideology and I am so fascinated by it and wonder what other people's love languages are so that I can use them to better show love towards them. So let me know, ok?

Susan and I plan on presenting this in our workshops and retreats that we will be doing in the future but go ahead and go by the book. The book is written for adults, kids, teens, and even a Men's edition. Its written by Gary Chapman (same name, but no, the author is not my father-in-law)

The Day After Effect

Drive up to Costco parking lot and I jump out to get the cart to get my chore done of grocery shopping. My almost 2 year old refuses to get into the cart which happens to be one of the very few times that he has done this.

My 5 year old didn't bring her shoes so she has to get into the cart with her brother too. I get them all buckled after I think is 5 minutes but really was probably one minute.

I then turn to find my 7 year old is opening the back of the car to find her sister's shoes and balloons almost fall out of the car that belong to the 5 year old who starts screaming to shut the door so that they don't fly away.

By this time my 2 year old son has already been in standing position in the cart with the buckle at his ankles. I continue to put him into the cart once again and then my 5 year old thinks she needs to be a "big girl" and sit in the bigger section of the cart.

"Really! Is this what is happening to me?"

I try to keep my cool because others are walking too and from their cars and I really don't want to make a scene. I finally get the two back into the buckles and just start walking hopefully the 2 year old will be distracted by others and watching cars go by.

My vision didn't work out he continued to scream and climb out of the buckle once again and then my 7 year old pipes up that she is hungry and wanted to stop and get a Costco hot dog.

Then my 5 year old agrees and all 3 at this point are all just talking, asking and screaming! I didn't even get 5 car lengths away from my car and just threw in the towel and just gave up on my mission to get my chore of grocery shopping done and just turned around and walked back to the car.

How many of you have done that before?

Everyone is crying by this point and everyone refuses to get into their car seats. I already have a hard time putting my 2 year old in the car anyway so this didn't help out.

The parking spot next to us was open I love when this happens when I have to get my son into the carseat so I can climb in and put my body over the carseat to get him in. This time a car had to wait for me because I was just fuming at his point and I could tell that my face was getting red and his carseat buckle was having issues. So needless to say this car waited for about one minute until I got it figured out.

I tell you this story because I know some of you out there have related to this in some way or another. I just returned from the Power of Mom's retreat and this is why I called my story "The Day After Effect" because I'm sure its happened to alot of us. We go off to enjoy ourselves for a couple of days to come back to our children really missing us and just out of whack!

I was taught while I was away about perspective and I thought about this while on the drive home from Costco and decided that I just needed to do something fun.

I got out of the car and asked the girls to get ready for a bike ride and they were thrilled. I just needed to get fresh air as well as they did after all that had happened. I just knew that if I did this spontaneous activity with my children my perspective would be changed a little and really enjoy the moment.

Well it lasted for quite sometime and we were enjoying the weather and Easton and Paetan were sitting in the bike trailer so Easton had had enough and started to pull her hair.

Why do boys find this to be funny? Honestly he does it to get their attention and its his way of picking on them because they do it so much to him.

So needless to say we ended our bike trip early! But in the end they were just happy to be back with mom and gave me alot of loves!

Summer Bucket List

Summer goals for each family member:

Dad
* weekly interview with children
* lunch date with a child once a week
* turn off computer and limit phone use while at home

Mom
* print a blurb book of our family blog
* teach the girls how to make a meal (but I should learn how first, haha)
* focus on my weekly schedule and execute the planned activities
* schedule all retreats and workshops for the rest of the year and find locations
* read one book a week
* take 2 dance classes

Reeghan
* piano practice 3 times a week
* learn swim strokes and diving
* set up a tent

Paetan
* learn to ride a bike
* Finish 100 Easy Lessons of reading
* swim lessons
* swing on the monkey bars

Easton
* practice being soft and not hit
* learn 5 new words and speak them


List of activities to earn this summer are:

Camping trip
Legoland Waterpark
San Diego Fair
Sea World
San Diego Children's Museum


I really do enjoy the area that we live in. We have alot of activities for the children and of course we have alot of the amusement parks as well.

Music Together

Since I'm on topic of Music. It all started with Music Together when Reeghan was 1.5 years old and I was introduced to Val Beh. She has a gift of music and loves to share her joy with children and loves to interact with them. I've been so blessed to have known her and have learned a great deal not only about music but parenting as well. All my children have participated and we continue too with Easton. We have all the collections and love everyone of them!

Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture, provided that their early environment supports such learning. By emphasizing actual music experiences rather than concepts about music, Music Together introduces children to the pleasures of making music instead of passively receiving it from CDs or TV.

Your Baby Can Read

I came across this company when Easton was about 8 months old and I had heard it from some of my family members which they saw on an infomercial on the TV. I was sold and bought it and started to use it regularly with him. Then when Easton was about 14 months old I stopped doing it consistently because I wasn't seeing fast results of which I thought that he should be doing.

Much to my suprise I came across a seminar that Dr. Titzer was going to present here in Carlsbad because his company is located here. I asked Dianna Barton to come along with me because she had been talking about using it as well. I went away with a greater desire to try once again. I wanted the quick fast route but it takes time and I just had to be patient.

Some notes that I took while he was talking:

*You will need to have more interaction with your baby while they are awake.
*They should be a priority because 90% of the brain mass and development are created by age 5.
*Give your child choices of fruits and vegetables.
*Create the bond early.
*1-2 years old is the peak period.
*Still read to them even if they know how.
*how many words that your child hears by age 3 will greatly impact them.
*longate the vowel sound and make a higher pitch sound.

Receptive Learning:
*Give them the gift of vocabulary.
*Fast mapping; learn words after hearing them once or twice.
*uses 100's of words.

Expressive:
*1st sounds
*encourage visualization
*play games in mirror
*limit use of pacifier
*watch your baby's mouth
*blow and make sounds early

The learning patterns of language:
Toddlers learn to add an 'ed' on to words to make them past tense or an 's' on to make plural or 'ing' on words at appropriate times.

The written language:
* learning one aspect of language generally help other aspects of language
* begin as soon as you can around 3 months
* start as soon as they get visual tracking
* 1st 50 words take the longest to learn
* once they know the 50 words they generally begin to learn them much faster
* once children know around 100 words they actually begin to figure out the phonetic patterns
to test: try time reading - better comprehension when reading first
double copies game - who can read it faster?

*Go checkout hundreds of books each week at the libraries and even if you have to go to 3 libraries to do it the more books they can get their hands on the better.
*You read the books to them and set up a library reading area in your home.

Easton's forehead injury

The injury happened in my car with Gracie and Paetan while Reeghan and I were in her music class. I guess he was playing around and we have a power invertor in our car and its got a few knobs on it and he tripped on it and his forehead landed on it and cute his head open.

I just remember the door knock and Gracie panting from running so fast from the car. All she said was that Easton was bleeding and his head was cracked open. I have never ran so fast in my life! I couldn't even think straight either. I just remember saying a prayer in my heart that I would know what to do.

I drove back over to the house and got Reeghan and off we went straight to San Marcos to Kelly's house. I knew she had been through this before and knew what to do. I was not going to go to the ER because he was acting fine and he wasn't vomitting. Once we got there Hope was there too and she helped Kelly put super glue on it and use a butterly bandage for it. That's all it took and he was good to go!

I guess things like this happen quite frequently with boys because my girls are so cautious and careful but Easton is just care free and busy. Welcome to my new world of boys! I've learned to not react to frantically about it and to just remain calm and say a prayer to help me.

UPDATE: He has been doing good and has quite the scar. Since then its amazing how much he bumps that same spot! Really, poor guy! I'm nervous to see what the scar will do this next summer.

Birth Announcement

Easton's Blessing Day

We did the blessing day over Labor Day weekend so that my parents and my sister Leslie and her son Conner could come. We had a great turnout. I invited all the family as well as a few friends from my old ward. I also had 3 great non member friends join us at church. It was a very special day for this little guy and that night my SIL Susan finished up her photo shoot of him in his outfit. Couldn't have asked for a much better day!

Easton's Videos

Trent put together two videos and posted them on You Tube. Check them out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwlH1AVzt2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57uoGVu_Tm4

Easton Michael Chapman