A couple weeks ago I bought the "13 going on 30" soundtrack. I thought it was a fun mix of 80's songs that I liked and didn't have. We got a few other cd's at the same time, so I dumped them all into a playlist, hit the shuffle button and burned a cd. The cd was for the car so I wasn't really paying attention to what songs ended up on there. Tuesday evening we had to run some errands and ended up in the car for about 40 minutes each way. The cd was in and Little Man was happily strapped in his seat asking for music. I turned it on and a few minutes later I was joking with Wil about some of the cheesy songs that ended up on there... yesterday Zizi caught on video the end result of what Little Man had heard: (sorry I can't figure out how to turn it)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
What happened to Naptime?
In the last two weeks Little Man has decided that he no longer wants to take a nap. This concerns me for a few reasons. 1. He NEEDS the nap. The evenings when he doesn't take a nap are horrid. Temper tantrums, fits, attitude and talking back like only a 2 year old can do. 2. I need the break so I don't kill the poor child. Plus being 35 weeks pregnant that was my nap time too. Or at least the time when I could slowly get something accomplished.
He isn't being bad. He stays in his crib for 2-3 hours and plays or sings. Right now it's "know-a AB, AB, ABC's". It's the after effects of the lack of sleep that really make it stressful. And there's no rhyme or reason to why he isn't going to sleep. It doesn't matter if we've been home all day, out running errands, or playing with friends. Believe me, I've thought of that. Any suggestions or ideas to get over this? The idea of a newborn and Little Man not taking a nap is just too much.
He isn't being bad. He stays in his crib for 2-3 hours and plays or sings. Right now it's "know-a AB, AB, ABC's". It's the after effects of the lack of sleep that really make it stressful. And there's no rhyme or reason to why he isn't going to sleep. It doesn't matter if we've been home all day, out running errands, or playing with friends. Believe me, I've thought of that. Any suggestions or ideas to get over this? The idea of a newborn and Little Man not taking a nap is just too much.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monkey Dancing
I heard Adam in the future laundry room, I grabbed the camera and this is what I found.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Losing a Friend
I found out about President Hinckley's death sometime in the middle of the night when Wil noticed the flashing text messages on his phone. I was very surprised and tried to get my sleepy mind to wrap around what I was hearing. One of my first thought's was for President Monson. My heart goes out to him for losing a friend and knowing of the responsibilities to come, wondering too what that would be like. I thought of the joy President Hinckley must have felt at seeing his wife again and how his family must already miss him.
At some point I fell back asleep and woke to find I was running late for my first Relief Society presidency meeting, since I was called yesterday to be the RS secretary. (I thought I would feel overwhelmed by this, but surprisingly I'm not. It's nice to have work to do without feeling the responsibility of making decisions. Plus the ladies I'm working with are amazing.) It was a great way to start a Monday morning. One of the sister's read President Hinckley's testimony as our spiritual thought... it was perfect. Then coming home and reading the thoughts of my friends and family was again uplifting in the the face of loss. Tonight I tried to explain to Little Man about President Hinckley. At first it was hard to find words I thought he would understand and then I realized that it really was very easy... President Hinckley was a great man who taught us how to be more like Jesus.
At some point I fell back asleep and woke to find I was running late for my first Relief Society presidency meeting, since I was called yesterday to be the RS secretary. (I thought I would feel overwhelmed by this, but surprisingly I'm not. It's nice to have work to do without feeling the responsibility of making decisions. Plus the ladies I'm working with are amazing.) It was a great way to start a Monday morning. One of the sister's read President Hinckley's testimony as our spiritual thought... it was perfect. Then coming home and reading the thoughts of my friends and family was again uplifting in the the face of loss. Tonight I tried to explain to Little Man about President Hinckley. At first it was hard to find words I thought he would understand and then I realized that it really was very easy... President Hinckley was a great man who taught us how to be more like Jesus.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
It's good that my husband loves me...
We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store after a few hours at IKEA today. I was waiting to check out when this caught my eye:
Not only was I tempted to buy the magazine, but now there's no way I'm going to miss this movie. Harrison Ford definitely looks his age, but he still pulls off the India Jones look. And Shia LaBeouf up there with him... my 18 year-old self has a huge crush.
Not only was I tempted to buy the magazine, but now there's no way I'm going to miss this movie. Harrison Ford definitely looks his age, but he still pulls off the India Jones look. And Shia LaBeouf up there with him... my 18 year-old self has a huge crush.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Little Man's Baby
When Little Man started noticing babies and we were thinking about having another, I decided to get him a babydoll. It's a BOY babydoll... all blue. Little Man has gone through different phases of interest in his baby. First he only liked the pacifier, I would have to put it in the baby's mouth so he could pull it out. Then, while we were in Utah, he made a friend and a few days after our return the babydoll had a name. 
Since moving back in with my parents, we've started singing a song after family prayers. It seems to help calm Little Man down. Tonight after I was done, he started to hum a song for me. He ended it with his "big finish", a "yeah" at the end of the song. (The big finish is usually accompanied by putting his hands in the air and giving a big cheesy grin, just like Zizi taught him.) Then he started his next song. It went something like this (imagine any random tune), "Baby B, Baby B, Baby B, Baby B, Baby B. Vrooom Vroom B, Vroom vroom B...." You get the idea. It was of course, totally cute and I'm wondering if we need to pick a new name for our baby... one that Little Man obviously knows and loves.
Since moving back in with my parents, we've started singing a song after family prayers. It seems to help calm Little Man down. Tonight after I was done, he started to hum a song for me. He ended it with his "big finish", a "yeah" at the end of the song. (The big finish is usually accompanied by putting his hands in the air and giving a big cheesy grin, just like Zizi taught him.) Then he started his next song. It went something like this (imagine any random tune), "Baby B, Baby B, Baby B, Baby B, Baby B. Vrooom Vroom B, Vroom vroom B...." You get the idea. It was of course, totally cute and I'm wondering if we need to pick a new name for our baby... one that Little Man obviously knows and loves.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Getting a complex
Zizi and I headed to Prince Frederick together this afternoon to run some errands. During the three hours we were out and about, the following comments were heard from complete strangers:
* Wow, she's good and pregnant!
* Are you sure you still have 6 weeks?
* Is it twins?
I know I feel huge right now. J 2.0 feels like a big baby already. He loves to sit up high and will then suddenly stretch, hitting my sciatic nerve or settling in my hip socket. At my last check up the doctor even asked if I was able to sleep, because she had to "chase" him with the monitor to get a heart beat. But even with all of that, having random strangers comment on the size of my belly is a bit unnerving.
* Wow, she's good and pregnant!
* Are you sure you still have 6 weeks?
* Is it twins?
I know I feel huge right now. J 2.0 feels like a big baby already. He loves to sit up high and will then suddenly stretch, hitting my sciatic nerve or settling in my hip socket. At my last check up the doctor even asked if I was able to sleep, because she had to "chase" him with the monitor to get a heart beat. But even with all of that, having random strangers comment on the size of my belly is a bit unnerving.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Our trip to the Farm
The picture below was taken at our wedding reception. Grandmother was having a "good day" and it's now one of my favorite pictures of her. She looks happy and healthy, which unfortunately doesn't happen very often anymore. The trip was fun and Susie and I enjoyed having time to talk while in the car. There was even a serious bout with the giggles, when Gram once went from snoring to making sure we were aware that there are plastic containers in the car in case anyone gets carsick. The food was pretty good, but we could have gotten something similar a lot closer to home. The time though was priceless. For more fun details check out Susie's blog.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Grandmother
I love her and she's CRAZY!
For the last 2 years she has been determined to take us to her "favorite" restaurant, Hickory Bridge Farm. I enjoy going out to dinner with my grandparents and we try to do so as often as we can. But we have quickly learned that you have to be VERY careful in what you agree to. Gram and Grandad tend to leave out pertinent details about the restaurants they want to go to, things like it's TWO HOURS AWAY!
So this afternoon, my parents have agreed to watch Little Man while we spend 6 hours roundtrip in the car with my grandparents. I think Mom & Dad were happy to agree to babysitting because it got them out of going to dinner. Somehow though Zizi wasn't so fortunate, she'll be making the trip with us. At least it will give me some extra nap time.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Count your blessings
We got a call last night that a friend of ours is in the hospital and needed a blessing. Most of the other men in the ward were at a Stake training and Wil had been feeling guilty for not going. Thank goodness he was home to get the call.
Ann is 29 weeks pregnant and has a herniated disk in her back. The pregnancy was already high risk before her back problems started. Now the doctors are trying to figure out how to control her pain and keep the baby from coming before 34-36 weeks. We were able to get to the hospital quickly and spent an hour getting caught up on what they needed and how we could help.
While headed up to Baltimore, I was feeling very ungrateful and whiny. I'm blessed to have my family close and that they are willing to watch Little Man at a moments notice. As difficult as pregnancy might seem st times, I really do have it pretty easy. J 2.0 is healthy and so am I. Little Man is a happy boy. Wil is a fabulous, supportive husband. And I have friends and family that I can rely on when things are difficult. Too often I focus on what's stressful and forget to see all that I've been blessed with.
Ann is 29 weeks pregnant and has a herniated disk in her back. The pregnancy was already high risk before her back problems started. Now the doctors are trying to figure out how to control her pain and keep the baby from coming before 34-36 weeks. We were able to get to the hospital quickly and spent an hour getting caught up on what they needed and how we could help.
While headed up to Baltimore, I was feeling very ungrateful and whiny. I'm blessed to have my family close and that they are willing to watch Little Man at a moments notice. As difficult as pregnancy might seem st times, I really do have it pretty easy. J 2.0 is healthy and so am I. Little Man is a happy boy. Wil is a fabulous, supportive husband. And I have friends and family that I can rely on when things are difficult. Too often I focus on what's stressful and forget to see all that I've been blessed with.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Bye, Bye Binkie
I've been struggling for months on how to separate Little Man from his pacifier, which he loving calls his "nunie". With all of the chaos, there just hasn't been a time where I felt like I could add that stress to his life. Sometime this fall he realized that when I gave him the pacifier in the car, he would fall asleep. Since he hates going to sleep, he would throw the pacifier and tell me, "NO, nunie". About a week after we moved back into my parents house he started throwing it out of his crib at naptime, then at bedtime and now he won't take it at all. He's gotten rid of the pacifier all by himself, thanks to his stubborn, independent streak. (No need to comment on where that comes from.) I was so happy that this has gone fairly smoothly, but now I'm noticing the downside to the transition.
1. Volume Control - This is really only a problem at church, where the pacifier helped to keep the volume down while he's playing with his trains or cars. If he does take it at church now, he sticks it in the side of his mouth and talks around it.
2. Self-soothing - When Little Man would wake up in the middle of the night he would find his nunie and go back to sleep. If not, it was easy for me to go in, give him his nunie and tell him that it was still sleepy time. Most of the time that did the trick. Now the only way to get him back to sleep is to bring him into bed with us, something I HATE to do because then he's the only one who sleeps. Part of this could be our living situation as well. It stresses me out to know that he's waking up my mom when she gets up at 4am for work. But weeks of waking up at 3am and only sleeping off and on after that are starting to take their toll on all of us.
3. Fingers - He is now addicted to his fingers and they often in his mouth and ALWAYS chapped, no matter how much carmex or lansinoh I put on them. He doesn't show a preference as to any one finger or hand, sometimes getting four in there at a time. Sometimes a few fingers from either hand.
Any suggestions or helpful hints would be great.... Maybe I was more attached to that pacifier than he was.
1. Volume Control - This is really only a problem at church, where the pacifier helped to keep the volume down while he's playing with his trains or cars. If he does take it at church now, he sticks it in the side of his mouth and talks around it.
2. Self-soothing - When Little Man would wake up in the middle of the night he would find his nunie and go back to sleep. If not, it was easy for me to go in, give him his nunie and tell him that it was still sleepy time. Most of the time that did the trick. Now the only way to get him back to sleep is to bring him into bed with us, something I HATE to do because then he's the only one who sleeps. Part of this could be our living situation as well. It stresses me out to know that he's waking up my mom when she gets up at 4am for work. But weeks of waking up at 3am and only sleeping off and on after that are starting to take their toll on all of us.
3. Fingers - He is now addicted to his fingers and they often in his mouth and ALWAYS chapped, no matter how much carmex or lansinoh I put on them. He doesn't show a preference as to any one finger or hand, sometimes getting four in there at a time. Sometimes a few fingers from either hand.
Any suggestions or helpful hints would be great.... Maybe I was more attached to that pacifier than he was.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Shiner, Part Two
Little Man has great aim! He was mad at me this morning and managed to again connect his very hard head with my eyebrow. It's tender and a little bruised, but didn't swell nearly as much this time. Hopefully, the ice helped and the colors will be minimal.
As for Little Man, he spent some time in his crib until my head stopped spinning. I sure do hope this won't become a 6 month trend.
As for Little Man, he spent some time in his crib until my head stopped spinning. I sure do hope this won't become a 6 month trend.
Monday, January 7, 2008
How old are you?
We celebrated Little Man's second birthday yesterday with a "small" family party. I say small because once you get our growing family into what used to seem like a huge space... it doesn't seem so huge anymore. I tried to keep it easy, but that rarely ever works. We had mexican food for dinner and a train cake for dessert. Zizi took pictures of the cake, but I'm not sure she's going to post them. Thank goodness Little Man is only two because you had to use some imagination to see the train. I made extra loaf size cakes so each of the kids could decorate their own car of the train.
Little Man didn't care so much about decorating, not when there were real trains to play with.
But the most important part is that everyone had a good time. There were no tantrums or fights. Little Man was really good at sharing his toys and didn't really care if his cousin was opening his presents. 
He tried so hard to blow out his own candle, but could only get it to flicker. After a few attempts, the video we finally got shows me actually blowing out the candle. After the party, Little Man talked to his cousins, Mimi and Papa, all on Skype. He loves being able to see them on the computer. For the first night in a while he went to bed without any fussing. He was happy and wiped out. This morning he had fun discovering his new toys and spent time playing with each one and reading his new books.
He is growing up so fast and seems to have gotten so big lately. His vocabulary is growing everyday. He's great at playing by himself and is learning how to share. He loves to sing songs and has a great imagination, as the songs are usually made up on the spot. He likes Elmo, Cars and Thomas but isn't attached to one specific brand or character (yet). I think I'm going to miss our time one on one more than I expect. Happy Birthday, Little Man!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
A few of my favorite things
I know I need to blog about our holidays. I've been waiting until I could add the pictures, but since we still haven't located our camera it looks like it's going to take me a bit to get them downloaded.
In the meantime, I was so excited today to use 2 of my Christmas presents. I couldn't wait to tell you about it. My mom and sister seriously surprised me with the ice cream maker attachment to my KitchenAid mixer and the Ben & Jerry's cookbook! The surprise might now seem like a big deal, but the three of us do the bulk of our Christmas shopping together and usually know a lot of our presents. But they really got me this year. So today we had some strawberries that needed to be used and I was craving something sweet. Out came the mixer, ice cream maker and cookbook... and it was a serious success! Once you have the bowl frozen, it's super easy to do. Little Man and Uncle Matt helped put it together. Little Man chopped strawberries with his IKEA knife. (I think they all ended up getting eaten) and poked the egg yolks. Uncle Matt helped ensure the bowl of cream didn't end up on the floor while Little Man was helping.
Now I'm just waiting for Little Man to go to bed so I can have a nice bowl of homemade ice cream. Yum!
In the meantime, I was so excited today to use 2 of my Christmas presents. I couldn't wait to tell you about it. My mom and sister seriously surprised me with the ice cream maker attachment to my KitchenAid mixer and the Ben & Jerry's cookbook! The surprise might now seem like a big deal, but the three of us do the bulk of our Christmas shopping together and usually know a lot of our presents. But they really got me this year. So today we had some strawberries that needed to be used and I was craving something sweet. Out came the mixer, ice cream maker and cookbook... and it was a serious success! Once you have the bowl frozen, it's super easy to do. Little Man and Uncle Matt helped put it together. Little Man chopped strawberries with his IKEA knife. (I think they all ended up getting eaten) and poked the egg yolks. Uncle Matt helped ensure the bowl of cream didn't end up on the floor while Little Man was helping.
Now I'm just waiting for Little Man to go to bed so I can have a nice bowl of homemade ice cream. Yum!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Thank you Stan and Jan
In August, we took a trip up to PA to visit Wil's family. While up there his aunt gave us a box of children's books. I had no idea what a treasure this was. A few months later, between booster shots and flu shots Little Man developed a fear of the Doctor's Office. He didn't mind the waiting room, thanks to the huge fish tank, but would cry as soon as the nurse called us back. I was at a complete loss as to how to help him. Then we found our lifesaver in the big box of books... "The Berenstain Bears Go To The Doctor". 
Stan and Jan detail Sister's trip to the doctor for her annual checkup. Sister is scared and worried about whether or not it will hurt. It shows everything the doctor checks and the tools he will use. We've been reading it off an on over the last month and reviewing with him what the doctor does... "where does the stethoscope go?". Today was the big test. We had a last minute appointment with the doctor to see if Little Man has bronchitis and we took the "Doctor" book with us. It worked wonders! The fish kept him entertained while we were in the waiting room, but then he got nervous in the exam room. I was worried about his reaction to the doctor and the tantrum that would follow. Until the doctor came in. Little Man looked at him and said, "Hi, Doctor!". When the doc was ready to listen to his chest, Little Man pulled up his shirt. He opened his mouth wide, when the doc wanted to see his throat. It was great! I will be forever grateful to Stan and Jan.
Stan and Jan detail Sister's trip to the doctor for her annual checkup. Sister is scared and worried about whether or not it will hurt. It shows everything the doctor checks and the tools he will use. We've been reading it off an on over the last month and reviewing with him what the doctor does... "where does the stethoscope go?". Today was the big test. We had a last minute appointment with the doctor to see if Little Man has bronchitis and we took the "Doctor" book with us. It worked wonders! The fish kept him entertained while we were in the waiting room, but then he got nervous in the exam room. I was worried about his reaction to the doctor and the tantrum that would follow. Until the doctor came in. Little Man looked at him and said, "Hi, Doctor!". When the doc was ready to listen to his chest, Little Man pulled up his shirt. He opened his mouth wide, when the doc wanted to see his throat. It was great! I will be forever grateful to Stan and Jan.
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