Here in Steamboat Jasmine is doing some of the same things Kadin used to do when we first brought him up here, three years ago. Today Jasmine took the toy bag and sat in it and played with her toys. Also, Jasmine decided to take all the pillows off the couch and stacked them and laid on them. Silly siblings.

Jason and I are going to team-up to try to keep our family blog/journaling site up to date. The content may be a little different then before, because we would like it to not only be a blog for our family to read but a journal for our kids to have one day.

Jason, Jasmine, and I are in Steamboat Springs for Jason’s locum stint at the hospital. Kadin had to stay with Grandma Marla due to school. It doesn’t feel quite right without him - no arguing over who gets to watch what or how long we are going to stay at the park. JJ It has been tough on me because I feel that I want to be in Greeley with him, helping with school and watching soccer, but I also love spending this time with Jason in Steamboat. Here we are actually forced to sit around and do nothing, go out to eat, go for walks or play at the park. It’s so different from Greeley in that he is home 99% of the time and gone the 1%.

We figured out in the last few days Jasmine has hit her terrible twos!! She says “no” to everything. And she has started to hit when frustrated or upset. The good news however, is that she responds well to sitting on “the bench". The last six months when Kadin would get in trouble and have to sit on “the bench” (the bench is actually a little bench seat that was given to Kadin by his great grandma his first Christmas, it actually says time out on it) Jasmine would go sit next to him. We think she learned what it means by sitting with him because when we started telling her, a few months ago, that she needed to go sit because she was in trouble, she would just do it. We are even able to ask her if she is going to be a good girl and she will say “good girl” and get up off her bench.

I had Kadin’s first Parent-Teacher Conference today. It went well. Kadin’s teacher, Mrs. Buxman, says she is “really enjoying Kadin and he is a fabulous kid". Kadin is really good at math and phonics. He is in the most advanced reading group, but is having a little trouble with sight words. Jason and I have flash cards with the site words and we work with him each night. Out of his class of 21, there are only him and three other children who are in this “reader” reading group. Mrs. Buxman also said he is a kind child, respectful to her and other children, and is always the first to help out if someone is hurt or having troubles.

Kadin started Greeley Recreation Basketball today. He is very excited and seems to be interested in learning to play the game. I am really excited that he has two coaches (plus a helper dad) that seem really into helping the kids. Jason and I are trying to help Kadin understand that he doesn’t always have to be the one to pass the ball, he can also be the one to shoot the ball and score. We have noticed a pattern the last couple of months in soccer and now basketball where he will be involved in the sport but does not try to score. We asked him about it and he said “what happens if I miss.”

Today was such a fun day. Jasmine, Kadin, Jason, my mom, and I went to Fritzler’s Farm. We jumped on a huge inflated blanket, raced pedal go-karts, walked through a corn maze, looked at 3D scary paintings, and played in a huge corn sandbox! Kadin almost refused to go inside the 3D building. But he was happy he did, he got to see silly looking monsters with big greens eyes that looked like their were coming towards you. Jasmine loved jumping with mommy on the huge blanket. She would get launched into the air and jump laugh. She also liked the barrel train ride and would say “weee” when going over bumps that made me catch my breath (she is going to be our little dare devil).