The joy of movement

John is loving rolling over, kicking, blowing spit bubbles, eating his hands, splashing in the bath, and anything that involves movement. I just love seeing his personality come out more! Here are some of his latest favorites:

Jumping in his Jumperoo (most amazing toy ever for energetic babies!)

Sleeping however he wants (he favors his stomach lately, and no matter how I lay him down in the crib, he'll end up in a different position within minutes)

Trying to crawl (he can army crawl one foot in about 10 minutes)

Blowing spit bubbles!

And humoring his mom and dad as we dressed him up for our ward's Trunk 'r Treat! He's a very soft, plump dinosaur!

This age is so fun! He turns four months on the 23rd, in 3 days. I love how he's still so cuddly and small, but the social and motor development is so amazing to watch! Love you, little man.

Expanded tutoring business!

I've been working hard recruiting top quality tutors from various backgrounds, changing all documents, and updating my website. Now I'm able to push the second launch of my tutoring business!

We now offer school subject support (math, science, history) and study skills coaching (organizing assignments, test anxiety strategies, reading comprehension skills). We still offer the explicit writing instruction, which is a flexible but step-by-step curriculum about writing effectively. We anticipate this writing instruction will be more in demand during summers, so we're focusing on the subject and study skills support for now.

Check out our updated website: http://www.celebrationstutoring.com. The “Program Information” page provides further details about tutoring options. Also, if you know any highly qualified teachers that may be interested in becoming a tutor, please encourage them to view the “Job Information” link.

Please reach out if you have any questions, and I greatly appreciate assistance in spreading the word about our tutoring program! On Facebook, you can help me out in one of two ways. If you look on my profile, my recent status is about this expansion. The bottom, right blue button "Share" allows you to post a promotion on your own profile (and you can write your own "Check this out!" post). OR, you can look up "Celebrations Tutoring" on Facebook. The recent status there is also about this expansion. The bottom, right blue button "Promote" allows you to post a comment and link to that page on your own profile. Please take the time to either share or promote! I really appreciate your support and help publicize!!

Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way! It has been exciting to continually develop, improve, and expand this business!

A pout, a powersuit, and a bumper

A pout: Here is one of my favorite (?) faces. John's upside-down U of a pout is so stinkin' cute. It's very short, preceding an outburst of crying, and of course my objective is to keep him from crying, so this face is not easy to document. I was determined to catch at least one shot of it, and here it is:

A powersuit: We had a very fun weekend with the Jensen/Colton cousins. Aunt Julie's parents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary, so all the Jensen kids and my cousins Jenna and Mauri (who is pregnant! playmate for John!) came into town to celebrate. Jenna and her cute family stayed with us, so John was able to get to know his cousins Jacob and Abby. I miss Abby's soft voice "Ohh, Baby John," and Jacob's emphatic "I LOVE this jam!" and "I LOVE this show!". We had a great time seeing and meeting family. Clair and Colleen's anniversary party was beautiful and fun. I loved all the blown-up black and white pictures from their courtship and wedding. Aunt Julie, Sarah, and Lizzy sang a few barbershop classics (like Mr. Sandman); Lizzy sang the high part to perfection, she sang so beautifully! We're all excited for her as she's about to leave for a LDS mission in Chile. Also at the party, Senator Harry Reid! He really reaches out to show his support for educators, as he attributes much of his success to his school teachers. I approached him to thank him for this supportive effort, and Senator Reid admired John and rubbed his back for awhile. Later I realized that John's outfit was a gift from Senator Gordon Smith (Oregon), great friends from my ward growing up. So, John was wearing a suit from a Senator when he had his back rubbed by another Senator. Funny coincidence, but we have decided to deem that outfit his "powersuit"!

Here's a picture of Colleen, who has been so kind and inclusive of Matt and I while we're in Vegas:

Also, last weekend my Uncle Steve visited! One unanticipated perk of living in Vegas is we frequently benefit from visitors who come to Vegas for business meetings. Uncle Steve was able to spend most of Friday with us; we talked, we ate, and the main attraction was watching John splash an amazing amount of water out of the bathtub!

A bumper: We are thoroughly enjoying John's motor and cognitive development. He is a champ at independently rolling clockwise. Unfortunately, his crib doesn't facilitate endless clockwise rotations, so he is often frustrated! We set up a bumper to keep his limbs contained; he used to wake up multiple times each night in frustration at a limb getting stuck in between slats. The bumper has made his crib much more enjoyable, but there's not much I can do about the clockwise rotation problem except wait for him to like turning counterclockwise :)

Finally, I've been working hard to revamp my tutoring business to accommodate school subject support during the school year. Our second big push will be coming soon!

My new favorite time of day...