Last October I began an MCAT preparation course along side my normal semester classes. It is still going on and I will be studying all the way up until I take the MCAT on May 22. It takes up all of my spare time and I miss being with Cambria and Lynlee. On Monday and Wednesday nights I have that class till late and by the time I get home, Lynlee is already asleep. On other nights I stay up at the school to get caught up on other class work. I get to see Lynlee most mornings and quite often get to get her up and ready for the day when Cambria is still at work. Usually Cambria comes home with enough time for us to see each other for a few minutes and say morning prayers with Lynlee before I take off to school.
I will graduate in a few weeks. After 5 and a half years, it's about time. I never knew the pre-med undergraduate route would be so long. I feel like I have accomplished something great in my life and am grateful for all the things that I've learned. I will still need to take the MCAT and apply to med school. The strangest thing for me to think about at this point is that I am graduating with a bachelors degree. I could technically begin my career and support my family and live comfortably. But I know it would not be enough. I wouldn't feel like I achieved what I knew I should. It was a clear answer to prayer that I should go to medical school, so that is what I know I need to do. I also really want to do it. I want to be a doctor and be able to care for others in that way. It is just strange to think that I am where I could begin a career and yet I am not going to for another 8 years after med school and residency are over. I have learned to enjoy the journey and especially look forward to moving away with my little family and growing together on our own.
Lynlee has grown so much, where to begin? She is now over 2 years old and is talking like crazy! She is such a cute little sweetheart. At times when we are playing, she will stop and hug me and say "I love you daddy." It comes out of nowhere and has a way of melting a father's heart. She loves to sing songs with us in the car as we drive. The other day we sang everything from twinkle twinkle little star and the itsy bitsy spider, to rain rain go away and jingle bells. Yes, she loves singing jingle bells even in May. At church, she is doing a really good job at going into the nursery. When the closing prayer starts during sacrament, she gets all excited to go to nursery and begins cleaning up her stuff. She is praying so well. She says very short prayers all on her own, including blessing mommy to be safe because that's what her and I pray for when Cambria is at work at night. She will say quite long prayers though when she is repeating what we say. She loves to read books and will grab a book and run to almost any family member who is visiting and want to climb up on their lap to read. She isn't as obsessed with Elmo any more and she went through a good long period of loving Mickey Mouse. A few weeks ago she and Cambria saw a short clip of Disney's Frozen at the store and Cambria bought it. We are going to save it for her Easter basket but she was so excited to have bought it. The next day I asked her what her and mommy bought. She proudly and excitedly said, "we buy Frozen, I watch it?" There is something new she does every day that is cuter than the day before. There are also things she does every day that are more mischievous than the day before. She is learning to listen better and to pay attention to what we say. She is just so excited to learn and play that she doesn't want to stop sometimes. When she gets in trouble and goes to time out she cries for a minute then quietly says "I talk now" and we have a talk. She has to give us loves (hugs) and say sorry, then she can go back to playing. Sometimes she simply wants to sit in time out and pout for minutes on end before finally deciding its time to leave timeout.
It is the next morning after having written up to this point. I picked up Lynlee in the kitchen and threw her up so she was laying in my arms. She imediately put her hand lightly against the side of my face and said, "I love you daddy." Life is wonderful. I'm trying to think of other things that have happened with Lynlee in the last year. I'm sure there are hundrends of things to write about but it all seems like one big fun experience of her growing up. Just yesterday Cambria and Lynlee were up here in Ogden and were in a drivethrough getting ice cream cones to come and surprise me with. Well, Lynlee has had a cough and she was coughing so much in the car that she threw up. So they came up to the school and I got to see them. Lynlee was stripped down to just her undies and was running around on the grass and eating her ice cream cone. When I left to go back into school, she ran away from Cambria and followed me all the way down the stairs so I came back to give her a hug. 5 minutes later, after getting dressed in new clothes, she ran away from Cambria again to come see me, so Cambria brought her into the computer lab. I had my back to the door but all of a sudden I heard her call "daddy!" and run up next to me. I got a hug and a kiss from her and a kiss from Cambria before they left. All the other students laughed and I got some comments later from them about her being so cute.
Lynlee has been loving to go outside more often now that it is getting warm again. She has so much fun chasing bubbles in the backyard. On sunday she wanted to go outside and swing on the tire swing so we spent some time as a family walking around and playing. She likes the front porch and has become supprisingly cuddly, especially if there is a sunset and she can wrap up in a warm blanket with one of us.
I guess I could talk about her 2nd birthday. Cambria wanted to do a jungle theme so we gathered up all of the stuffed jungle animals we could and borrowed some from family and neighbors. I helped Cambria make palm trees out of brown paper and green streamers. She had treats that correlated to different animals, like bananas for monkeys. She put out the large water serving bowls with a sign that said wattering hole. It was done really well and we all had a fun time.
Cambria is pregnant again and we are expecting the baby in October! So, durring Lynlee's birthday party, we had Lynlee dressed in a shirt that says big sister. She wore a shirt over it all night but we had everyone gather in the dining room to do the cake and candles. I brought Lynlee in after having taken off the overshirt, and we continued with the song. While singing happy birthday, one by one people began to notice the shirt. Our friends Caleb and Dani noticed first along with Nathan and Sharlyn, then Caleb had my parents move a little to be able to see the shirt better. It took them a minute to realize but they were very excited. We wished that Monty and Linda could have been there but we got them on a video call later that evening and had Lynlee talk to them with her shirt on. All in all we are very excited and are hoping for a boy. Cambria is going to a doctor's appointment today. She said that sometimes they are able to tell the gender at 14 weeks, so if they can they are going to write it on a paper and put it in an envelope. When I graduate, we would take the envelope to a bakery and have them make a cake correlating to the color (blue or pink) of the gender of the baby, and will open the cake box together. Or we would have them do a filling in some cupcakes with that color. Whether we get to know now or have to wait till 20 weeks, we want to do that. It will be fun. We are so blessed in life in all ways. Things can get difficult at times but we are happily moving forward and enjoying the small joys that come our way.
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