winter newsletter

Richard & Janelle Stacey’s Family Newsletter, winter edition, February 2009
*note - our pics haven't been tranferring well. sorry if they don't turn out well right now. I may have to post them separately.

Our family, well, at least Richard and I, are excited to meet our daughter this April. However, if you ask Cliffton if he’s excited to be a big brother, or even just ask him if he’s going to be a big brother, period, he always says “No.” Yup, that’s my boy. Any questions directed to him regarding this little girl on the way result in a negative answer, every time. Oh well, he’s cute. He’s really started saying more words lately. His favorite three seem to be on, off and no. But he also says, bottle (ba-ba), some version of “phone”, burp, up, T.V., button, chocolate, mama, back, “oh no!,” honey, bath, stuck, and every once in a while he’ll say milk, wait, and apple. I love it when he says honey…its way cute! He usually says it to me! Apparently Richard has said “honey” enough that Cliffton picked it up and will sometimes call me honey instead of Mama. He did call his Grandma Stacey honey once too. He also says Mama in what I’d call a French accent because he stresses the second syllable instead of the first. However, he mainly does this when he wants me to pick him up so he can play with something up high. Yeah, we’re all just tools to him. Sigh.

Cliffton is able to let me know when he has a messy diaper (but he usually chooses not to tell me). Its kinda funny to see his face scrunch up a little as he pulls at his diaper and says something like poop. His favorite things to play with are light switches and buttons, particularly those on microwaves. Yeah, I let him play with the microwave - what a good Mom! He also likes to color, for short periods, and then he loves to turn on his Baby Einstein or Miss Spider DVD’s. He knows which button on the TV set is “play.” That’s my little man! When I took him with me to visit my friend Bryana, he had a great time turning on her TV, VCR, the power strip, opening and closing her dishwasher, and trying to open every door in her apartment. I love watching him open things. These lil’ kids are just so curious, you know? He isn’t around kids much other than in nursery. He has such a fit when we first get to nursery so I stay for the first 15 minutes or so and then he seems fine. He’s one of the smaller kids in there. I think there are just 2, maybe 3 other kids close to his age and size. Oh, he learned how to scratch his Daddy’s back! Richard was scratching Cliffton’s back and then he did it to Richard and this went back and forth. I thought it was way cute!

Richard and I spoke in church a few weeks ago and it seemed to go well. We each chose a talk from the October General Conference. I chose Elder Nelson’s talk on Celestial Marriage, and Richard chose President Monson’s talk on learning, doing and being (I don’t remember the exact title). Mine was a bit short, I think, and Richard has some humor in his, and we were both glad to have this opportunity. I get so nervous though. I felt like passing out a minute before I was to speak – not cool. But, no fainting for Janelle! And the next day, when I had an OB appointment, they had to draw blood to test for gestational diabetes and I DIDN’T pass out then either! Yeah, I’m getting tougher!!! At the appt., my weight, blood pressure, etc. were all good as was our little “Violet’s” heartbeat. My tummy measurement was small. I measured about 24cm when I was @ 28 weeks so Dr. Young ordered an ultrasound for Feb. 12 to check on her growth. I think she’s probably just fine. My tummy was “small” almost the entire last trimester when I was pregnant with Cliffton. (I never felt like my tummy was small, of course.)

We spent Christmas in Florida with my family. Oh how they love playing with their little nephew! My twin sister got married in the Orlando, FL LDS Temple on December 20th to Oliver Nina. They are so cute! That was a fun time. I really enjoyed being around my siblings and we got to play at Disney for a day. Now there’s just one unmarried sister (Danielle) left but at almost 14, she’s still got, what, at least 5 years? She said something really awesome a few days ago. She and our mom had gone to McDonald’s and they got a drink. The cup said something like, “Caution, I’m hot, handle with care.” Danielle then says, “I want a shirt that says that.” Go Danielle!!
Cliffton got to meet his first cousin, Ella, after Christmas and he was mildly interested in her. But if I held her, all h--- broke loose. He would yell and he hit me a time or two, the little baby brat! I think he hit her feet once, too. I’m a bit worried about him with his future little sister.

It’s been getting hard for me to do much, to be active. I feel like I need to be off my feet more and more. I’ve had a “straining” feeling since about new year’s that makes it hard to do things like some of my exercises, and getting my shoes on. Oh joy. And its just going to get better for the next 11 weeks. I can see Violet move around a lot more. Its fascinating to see my tummy change shape several times when she’s really active. She weighs approx. 2.5 - 3 lbs right now so she should triple her weight or so by the time she’s born (she better not quadruple it!). I could gain approx. 10-20 more lbs. over the next 10 weeks. More “oh joy!”

So far, this pregnancy has gone well other than some strain. It feels harder this time around. I hope labor, delivery and recovery is better. I don’t plan on being induced this time. Even though labor was so long and I felt numb, I think overall the induction was a good choice because it was a difficult delivery (thank you modern medicine – it would have been so stressful otherwise) and I had my doctor there for it all. He was leaving the next day on a vacation. I would like to be at home for most of the labor this time. We’ll see. You gotta be flexible, right? A big congratulations to my sister Jessica and her husband, Rhett, on Jessica’s pregnancy! Jessica is due around October 1st and we are all excited for Cliffton to have a cousin on my side of the family. I kinda hope they have a boy.

I’d love to hear a couple of everyone’s favorite names. We aren’t set on a first and middle name, although we call her Violet. Its fun to hear names you’ve never heard before and just to sound out different names and combinations. Feel free to email some to me! Janellestacey@gmail.com

Richard is applying to several law schools and we have no idea where we’ll end up! So, he’s working at the Zermatt Resort at night and applying to schools. I’m taking care of Cliffton and the house (and the tummy). Our Christmas decorations are almost all put away. Kinda sad. Cliffton and I like to take walks outside although the ice makes the little hill right next to our home a bit of a challenge. Back on Jan. 29th I took some some cute pictures of an “expedition” of mine and Cliffers. We typically get out on a walk (when its not snowing) everyother day. There aren’t any playplaces for kids in the Midway/Heber City area which is a bit of bummer. No Chuck E Cheese’s or indoor fast food playplaces. I miss taking Cliffton to the park. There’s just too much snow. I did take him to Chuck E Cheese’s for the first time a few weeks ago. We went after his dentist appointment down in Orem and the whole ordeal was pretty awful for him. He didn’t have problems that needed to be fixed, but, I watched as two assistant tried to get him still for the x-rays and then one of them helped me hold him down for the dentist. That was, well, an interesting experience. I think his face was purple from crying so hard!

That’s it for our Winter Newsletter. The next one will probably be around the time Violet makes her debut. (She may not end up being “Violet”, but for now, we love it).
Love to you all, Richard, Janelle, Cliffton and “Violet”