Mommy initiation

How many times does your kid have to be sick on you before you are officially "nurse mommy"? Last night Collin laid his head in my lap and got sick. Then every hour until 4 in the morning. Then again at 10:00.

But at 11:00 am he snuggled up with me and we took a long nap on the bed. Then he was happy until this evening.

I've learned over the past week that I am going to have a hard time telling Collin no as he gets older. I think all the stuff we went through when he was a baby made it so that he will always be "my baby". When he wants a puppy, or to sleep in our bed, or a pony, Chase will have to be the one to tell him no.

His two new words are Oscar (the name of the dog we dog-sat for two days) and juice. This morning when he woke up after being sick all night he nicely asked for a "ba ba" or "juice". It was very sweet, so we gave him grape juice, which he then stained the carpet with after he got sick again. Oh well :)

Flies and dogs

On Monday night Collin was following a fly around our front room trying to catch it. I tried to take a video but I didn't have the camara. It was quite funny. Chase and I felt bad so we got him a dog.



Just kidding. Yesterday morning my brother called my mom- they are dog sitting and his whole family got sick so he asked if he could bring it over until tomorrow morning. Its been fun for Collin, and enough for me to know I won't want a dog for a while, if ever.



Here's a video of Collin playing with the dog yesterday morning:

What's up?

I have been out of it the last week with both Collin and I getting sick. Thursday I came down with a bug that had me sick all day. I couldn't keep anything down, and was so thankful for Chase and my mom for taking care of Collin.

Then on Wednesday or Thursday Collin became really fussy. He stopped taking a bottle and his plug and would just scream when he woke up from his naps. I was so frustrated because I had no idea what was going on. We just had his check up a few weeks ago and he was good. So I finally took him to the doctor on Saturday and found out that he had a sore throat. We gave him meds and lots of juice, and now he's back to being happy and taking a bottle, but has the worst diaper rash (a normal thing around here. As my sister-in-law says "if he touches a spoon wrong he'll brake out in a rash").

Chase has been trying to get ready to head out for 4 days next week to a conference for his major. Almost 3 years into our marriage, this will be the first time since we got married that we will be apart at night. For 3 nights. He gets home on Halloween in the afternoon, so hopefully he'll be able to be a part of some stuff.

So thats us! I'll post something more interesting soon. We find out on November 5th if its a boy or a girl.

Curse you Martha Stewart!!

I saw Martha Stewart make these lollipops and they looked so easy. So I tried. They're kind of sad. I made 4 flavors and forgot to label them, so its a guess as to what flavor you're actually going to get. I was making them to send to Chase's family for Halloween. Don't worry, I won't send them. I would be totally embarrassed for any of Chase's sisters (or brother for that matter, I'm sure Jared would have done a way better job) or Joanna to see these. So for now they sit in a box. At least the kids are eating the candy off of them. Yes, even the sugar-loving kids in the house won't eat the suckers, just the candy. Oh well... until next time. And I promise I won't try any more Martha Stewart ideas.

Teddy and 16 months update

So right now I'm sitting upstairs watching Collin on our little TV monitor I bought a few months after he was born. At first I was a little unsure about a monitor, we lived in such a small apartment and we'd mostly be using it on trips. Its actually been one of my favorite things I've bought. The sound isn't great, its mostly loud static, but as Collin has gotten older it has been great watching him fall asleep. Getting to see things that otherwise I wouldn't see because I can't be in the room. Usually he rolls around and pats his teddy, or brushes his hand with his teddy's hand. The little camera that goes in his room has a small green light on it when its on, and last night he thought that was interesting. He was able to grab the cord and pull it down, and then we got some great close up shots of him. I wish it actually recorded some of this stuff.

He is such a funny kid. He loves his cousins Katrina's shoes, but only the pink and shiny ones. I bought him some shoes that light up when he walks, so now he will actually wear his shoes. He talks all the time, and even though he is very independent, he loves to be held if you are walking around. He's gotten back in the habit of stroking my hair, which I love much more then him pulling it. He has a bad habit of hitting things, especially when he plays, so his cousin Aiden gets hit quite a bit. I have to keep a close eye when they are playing. He's into 18 month clothes even though he's only in the 20% for everything. Doing better with eating stuff other then chocolate chips.

Dan Brown

So I finished The Lost Symbols, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

If someone were to ask me to describe it in one sentence I would say, "It is not a relaxing read." Just as in The Da Vince Code and Angles and Demons it has the "are they going to live in the next cheaper" feel to it. I enjoyed that part of the book. He goes into a lot of symbols about Washington DC, which for the most part I found interesting. He also talks a lot about the power of thought, and the science behind that, as well as the Bible. I felt like it was a long book, and mostly good. It will be a while before I read it again though. To be totally honest, I felt lost in some parts. Maybe I was trying to read it too fast since I would only have 15 minutes here or an hour there to read and I wanted to get in as much as I could, but I found myself skipping parts because I didn't really know what they were talking about.

I would recommend this to people who have liked Dan Browns books in the past, but if you haven't read any of his books, I'd start with some of his other books.

He only made one reference to Joseph Smith. He was talking about a lot of different religions, saying "Joseph Smith translating the records with special glasses" (or something like that) and that just because a lot of people believe something doesn't make it true.

Anyway, thats my thoughts!

Video

Here are a few of Collin's favorite words :)

Pictures (finally!)

Here are a few pictures of what we've been doing lately:

Hair cut! Still too long in the back, but I'm living with it for now :) I can do it two different ways, but I will usually do it curled under because its faster and I don't have to re-do it if I do something at the end of the day.
Also, (sorry for the goofy face...) I'm 13 weeks along, and some shirts show it better then others, but I will have to find a picture of me 7 months along with collin and compare the two. I'm pretty sure I'm the same size. The doctor told me I better be bigger when I go in October. I'm already eating all the time!

State fair with Grandma, Stu, and the kids. Collin LOVES petting the animals. I should have taken a video because he was just laughing and screaming the whole time.

I had to keep a close eye on Collin because he kept trying to lick the gate. Gross....

Rainy day

Playing with Grandma

Pretty much his favorite game ever. If you are laying on the floor he will run over and jump on your tummy and then give you hugs. Its really cute (and usually doesn't hurt :) )

And I think my sister Kim took this picture, so I thought I'd throw it on the end. I love these new pj's- they say "snoreasaurus" on the shirt and the pants are covered with dinosaurs. He likes to hold up his legs and poke them.

We've been having fun and trying to stay busy while dad is gone all day. Chase has worked out his schedule so he's home most nights, which is great.

Collin is getting his lower molars in, which is not great. He chews on his fingers and shirt all the time. He also isn't sleeping well at all because of it. So I'm usually really tired and grumpy as well. Oh well.

warning: hair cut coming

I'm getting my hair chopped tomorrow. Total A-line cut. Chase is sad. I'm tired of my hair, and tired of knowing that even if I cut it, it won't fix the problem. But at least its a change and I'll probably like it for a few days or (cross my fingers) weeks. I'll post pictures if Chase will take them. He might be too sad though :)

Heard the baby's heartbeat today. I said "Oh good, only one baby" Doctor- pause "well, we know your having at least one baby". SOOOO not funny. There is only one baby. And its a boy. I'm pretty sure.

Labor Day

The weather today was perfect!!

We put the sprinkler on in my mom's backyard and Collin and Chase ran around in it. Here's a few pictures:

From Chase to Collin

I've been meaning to put these overalls on Collin for several weeks now since I knew he was the right size for them and I was worried that he would get too big before I got a chance to have him wear them. These are some overalls that Chase's mom made for Chase, and now Collin is wearing them. Mom is trying to find a picture of Chase in them, so maybe I'll be able to post them side by side. I think they are very cute!

bath time

Collin has a peice of tubing that he likes to play with, so a few days ago I gave it to him in the tub. Within a few minutes he had figured out how to blow bubbles. It was really funny, as far as I know he hasn't ever blown bubbles before. Now thats all he does. Too cute.

Life at home

Things are going good. We moved into my mom's house starting Thursday and I had everything unpacked and put away by tonight. I hate having boxes everywhere, and I knew that this move was hard for Chase, so I was hoping that by having everything put away and finished it would make it easier for him.

My mom is also going though everything upstairs trying to get my dad's things in order. So the whole house has been a huge mess the last 4 days. Now that all our stuff is out of her way I can start helping her with her stuff.

I've gotten over my morning sickness, which is really nice. I'm just over 10 weeks and haven't fit into normal clothes for over 4 weeks. Pretty insane. One of my friends just had a baby and I was visiting her for a while last night. I remembered all the stuff the happens right after you have a baby (no sleep, crying for hours, the pains of feeding the baby), but as I talked with her and watched her, I just thought, I know it will get better for her, just like it did with me. And even though its SOOO hard sometimes, it is worth it. I've thought a lot about this baby lately, and how I am excited for this baby. When Collin was first born, for like 6 or 7 months I just thought "how do other people do this more then once!!???" But it just works out.

That is something I've told myself over and over with this move and the baby and my dad's death- it all works out. In the end, as long as I'm trying, everything will be ok. I worry about the fact that with one kid and everything else sometimes I struggle to remember to do important things- but I always have tomorrow to do better.

weeks of changes

Yesterday I was let go at work. By Friday we will have moved out of our apartment and into my mom's downstairs. Today has been spent finding boxes and filling them with everything.
I'm so grateful to my mom for opening her house and letting us come there- there was no way we would have been able to make it if we had to keep paying rent and have health insurance.

There isn't much else to say- I'm kind of in shock and just trying to get through this weekend. Chase starts school on Monday.

By the way, we're also having a new baby in March :) Another thing we're a little worried about as I'm not sure how were even going to fit Collin into our new apartment!!

Because of my sweet husband and my supportive family, I think we may actually be able to make this all work.

Newspaper

Here is a link to my dad's obituary in the Daily Herald:

http://ads.heraldextra.com/articles/2009/08/20/obituaries/347458.txt