family pics

Just two quick pictures!

First off is our last family picture, taken kindly by Carl's parents:



Left to right: Isabel, Mom, Carl, Sam, me, Baby D, Dad. James is the one in the hospital bed, obviously.

Despite the abundance of Christmas trees in this picture, it was taken in August. August 7, even, as it shows up on the picture itself. That was Nathaniel's blessing day.

Here's Nathaniel again, in his little church clothes. Aw!

why I'm back on Twitter

I really dislike Twitter, but Project Runway got me into it again. My old BFF from college, Joshua C, is a contestant on the show, and this season the Fan Favorite will win $10000. They get to be the Fan Favorite if they get the most tweets with their particular hashtag. In Josh's case, that's #PR9joshuac.

So I've been tweeting again. I always feel ridiculous when I tweet. I think it's because I really don't care what everyone else is tweeting about, and I don't care what I'm tweeting about, and I have a hard time imagining anyone caring about any of my tweets. But I'm committing to doing my best to get over that if I can boost my friend's chances of winning.

If you'd like to help, that would be awesome! What I decided is to just get active on Twitter again and throw his hashtag on my tweets.

Oh, there's a rule that only one tweet will count per person per five minutes. Check out the rules here.

Anyway. Josh and I haven't spoken in something like half a decade, but I still adore him. Carl and I literally jumped off our couch and cheered when he stayed on in Episode 1, and when he came back on Episode.. 4? 5? whatever, we were so thrilled. I'm really proud of him for coming so far with his design. The last time he and I really spoke he was banking, and I know he didn't love it. I'm glad he's doing things that he loves.

So. Help a sista out and tweet for Josh, please! #PR9joshuac

what we do

A friend emailed me with these questions today:

How is Nathaniel doing? I knw you like to keep busy--how do you spend the day usually? Is Carl still liking work? What's next for you guys? Or is there a "purposeful" next?

Good questions! Sorry, friend, for answering on my blog instead of in a legit email! But I figure at least someone else I'm related to who reads this might wonder the same things.

Nathaniel is doing well. He's been wiggling and smiling and sticking his tongue out and cooing like a champion. His hair is something like 3 inches long now. It curls when it's wet. He is super cuddly and would probably be happy to be in my lap all day long. And all night. Forever.

Typically we spend the days just chilling together. I usually spend most of the day reading and writing, and then doing chores or cooking dinner. Baby D spends most of his time on my lap, and I read aloud to him and sing him songs as I write. We nurse a lot, still, but he spends more and more time awake and not eating, so that's exciting.

I keep some easy food in my bedroom, so I can eat while I nurse him and not have to leave the room. But usually this means that I spend the whole day in that one room, eating essentially chips and Goldfish crackers and nothing else until Carl gets home and we have dinner together. I don't mind it, but it's not very healthy and I know it.

Carl, as far as I know, still likes his job. At least he likes it enough to keep going to it every day!

And as far as what's up next... who knows. It is cheaper for me to stay home with my baby than it would be for me to go back to work, at least at what I was making before. So right now I don't have to feel too guilty about being home with this baby. Eventually I'll have to figure out another way to generate income, probably. I'll start teaching piano again soon, though, and I wonder if Deseret Book would buy some of my original hymn arrangements or something. It's worth looking into.

But right now, what's up in my immediate future is just taking care of this little boy. I think it's a "purposeful" next.

in love

I actually sat down here because I had to tell the world that I'm in love. My little baby is the most heartbreakingly beautiful thing in the world and I can barely stand it. He's asleep on my bed right now, his long hair all sticking out because he was sweating, and then I turned on the fan and his hair dried all crazy. I'm so glad he has so much hair. It goes down past his ears now. He's not even 7 weeks old.

He coos conversationally now. If you talk to him, he'll offer up a little "goo!" or "urgle!" or "uuuuuh." Doesn't sound too impressive, I know, but it is just excessively darling. I can hardly stand passing him off to anyone else, because I just want to hold him myself all the time.

He is getting so long, some of his 3-month clothes are too short on him. They have trouble snapping on him.

He's been so good at moving his giant head around (did I mention that when he was born, his head circumference was over 2 inches larger than average? This kid's head is HUGE!!). He's been spending less time nursing and more time just looking around and cooing.

He practices sticking out his tongue, and shaping his mouth into an O. If you sit him down in front of you and stick your tongue out at him, he'll try and do it back. If you make an O face at him, he'll try and do it back. If you coo at him, he'll try and make the same sound back. It is way too cute. I love it because when he practices moving his tongue and lips, it looks so purposeful. He uses all sorts of muscles I can't even figure out how to use on my own face, to copy him. He'll try and make an O face and only lift up one quarter of his upper lip, or he'll twist and turn his tongue this way and that in an attempt to stick it out. He's getting better. I just love to watch him try.

Everyone made such a big deal of how hard it would be to be parents. All the time during my pregnancy, I just remembered how I spent my whole life caring for my older brother, and I thought to myself--seriously? These people really think a BABY could be harder than that??? But in the back of my mind, I wondered if they were actually right. If parenthood were really that difficult to adjust to.

But I think it's just like the marriage thing. Everyone said that it was soooo haaard to get used to being married to someone. But Carl and I said our vows, moved in together, and realized that being married is basically just pure awesome. All we had to adjust to was how fantastic it was.

Same thing with this sweet baby boy. People were right when they said parenthood would be an adjustment--but when they spent all their time complaining about pathetically tiny diapers and so on, they should have been talking about how wonderful it all is. We have been mostly struggling with the adjustment of how great it is to be Baby D's parents. We are pretty blessed.

messing with my friends

Okay. So one of my friends just told me about a guy who messed with her. No details about that, but here's a detail for ya:

You mess with my friends, and I will be ticked off at you.

Forever.

Oh, I've gotten over the people who've messed with me. More or less. At this point in my life, everyone who's tried to do me wrong has actually ended up helping me out accidentally, so I've been pretty thrilled about that. Nothing pleases me more than seeing the plans of haters backfire in my favor. Ah, it thrills me.

But, oh. Oh. You mess with my friends... oh.

Let's just say, there are several boys out there who should be SO. GLAD. I am a Christian woman and won't personally show up on their doorstep to beat the living daylight out of them.

X.x;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

storm preparations, plus ear!

We're due for a hurricane! So Carl and I are hunkering down with this little baby. I've been working hard to clear our freezer of all the Italian ice that will melt if the power goes out. It would be a travesty to waste it all.

I have flashlights here, batteries, candles, and chips. And goldfish crackers. And a three or four day supply of water. I did a bunch of laundry yesterday. Do I need additional stuff? ??

My ear is back to normal size, and I can hear again (hooray!!). In the meantime, the infection has moved to my throat so I sound pretty awful and I have a bad cough. Baby D is fine.

Oh, also it's my birthday. Doesn't feel too birthdayish. I was hoping we could go to RennFest today, but that seems like a very bad idea given the weather.

We got the car back yesterday. $2221.00 later, it runs like a dream.

medical updates, plus earthquake

Since my last post, we have been to the midwife, the pediatrician, and the otolaryngologist. In chronological order:

1. Otolaryngologist... and EARTHQUAKE!!!

I'm combining them because they happened at the same time for me! I was on my way to the otolayngologist when the earthquake struck. Of course, because my ear is so screwed up, my balance is off--I couldn't hear the earth shake or anything, I just tripped a little. I thought I was losing my balance because of my ear.

Of course, then everyone around me pulled out their cell phones. I had a moment of confusion--are they seriously texting about how I tripped??--and then just shook it off and kept going. When I got to the doctor, everyone was crowded under the doorframe. One guy asked, "Did you feel that?"

"What?" I asked, because I couldn't hear.

"Did you feel that?"

"What?"

"Did you feel that?!?" And that time I could hear it, but I still didn't know what he was talking about. So he had me touch a metal rail that was still rattling.

So that is how I basically missed out on the earthquake. Anyway, my family's fine. Worst damage done was that a door broke at my mom's work. Outside the family, of course, the Washington Monument cracked and the DC temple lost some siding and the tips of the spires. :^(

Anyway. Then I had my appointment. Since our car (and stroller) are in the shop, I had to walk Baby D over there in his sling. At first he was good, while the doctor just felt my face and neck, but the second he had me say "ah" and shone that light in my mouth, Baby D FREAKED. Like it was the worst thing ever. I thought it was so funny, because as soon as the doctor stopped having me do that, Baby D was fine. But after that the doc had me hand the baby to the receptionists (they were so, sooooo sad about that.... not really).

Well. My freaky dumb ear is swollen too shut to see into. He inserted a wick and I have special drops for it until Friday, at which point he will be removing the wick. In the meantime, I have lost my voice and am still in total pain. He didn't want to give me any heavy-duty painkillers because I'm breastfeeding. So that's that.

2. Pediatrician

Baby D is now 23 inches long, 10 lbs 5 oz, with a head circumference of like 38 cm or something (she didn't tell me, I just snuck a quicko peek at the chart). Even though he's not back up to birth weight yet, the doc says that's fine. Right now he's at the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference, and the 75th percentile for length. The doc says he's probably one of those babies that grows long before he grows fat.

3. Midwife
I can start exercising again. YAY!! Except for the next three weeks I'm just supposed to do these weird crunches where I use my hands and arms to physically hold my guts together, because I guess my muscles are still not too close together. So weird.

Anyway, things are good (minus my ear, nose, throat, and associated pain etc). The end!