A day on the farm

Today was the big day--we made good on our promise to take Andrew to the farm at Thanksgiving Point to see the animals. In retrospect, it was much better that we waited--the weather was milder today, and, more to the point, the crowds were much smaller too. The farm country at Thanksgiving Point is nicely geared towards small children, with just enough to see for them to stay interested without being overwhelming. And since, in the natural course of things, springtime tends to be when many animal babies are born, there were lots of babies on the farm: calves, kids, lambs, possibly a bunny (I couldn't tell if the two smallest ones were babies or just miniatures), and some chicks.

Andrew's favorite of the baby animals was this darling little black kid. I don't know what kind of perspective you get from these photoes, but the kid couldn't have been more than a foot or so high.

Of course, the trip wouldn't have been complete without a little mutton busting--luckily, this sheep was quite, quite stationary.

Jacob and Emi were particularly entranced by the little reconstruction of a small town jail, complete with iron bars and everything. I'm not sure Andrew knew exactly what it was, but he thought it was fun because his cousins did.

The highlight of the visit was, of course, the pony rides. Jacob, who you see beaming in this photo, flatly refused to ride a pony the first time, so it was left to Emi and Andrew to do the trailblazing. Jeni finally convinced him to try it by reminding him that knights ride horses, and Jacob reluctantly agreed to at least sit on the horse. And he loved it. Andrew did too--he wanted to ride again every time the ride was over. All told, he had three different rides on three different ponies. The last time he told me to leave him alone (I'd been putting my hand on the small of his back because I wasn't entirely convinced of his ability to sit still enough to stay on a moving animal), so I stepped to the side and just walked beside him. Andrew turned to me with a glowing smile and announced, "I'm riding a whole big pony all by myself--just like Jacob!" He was rather proud of himself (even if said pony never went above 3 miles an hour).

The only one who didn't enjoy the pony rides was Enoch, who rather loudly protested being left alone in the stroller while mom walked with Emi and grandma took pictures. Jeni finally ended up carrying him around next to Emi. Poor Enoch had a rather rough time of it all around--while we were looking at the sheep and lambs, a particularly large and ugly looking sheep with a particularly vacant expression, came right up to the fence and baaed loudly in Enoch's face. Since everyone else was standing further down the fence looking at the animals, he was also quite alone at this point, and the lack of friendly faces combined with the extraordinary noise just undid him.

We finished off our festivities with lunch at McDonalds (which Andrew persists in calling "Old MacDonalds"--possibly some sort of association with the farm?). The lunch was remarkable mostly for a) the fact that all three kids managed to spill their milk, although Andrew did so most spectacularly, by spilling most of a full carton (which with a typical lack of justice got Jeni wet instead of him); and b) the intentness with which the three children devoured their respective mothers' milkshakes.

This last picture I included mostly because I liked it--Dan and Andrew engaging in Andrew's favorite activity: reading books.

The spirit of the "Y"

On our drive to pick up Dan from BYU on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we can see the "Y" emblazoned on Y mountain quite clearly. The first time Andrew noticed it, he asked me what that was up in the sky. It took me a while that what he called "sky" was actually mountain, but after we got that sorted out I explained what it was. Now, almost every time we drive that direction, Andrew asks me about it. I guess he likes having things he knows reexplained to him. Today, however, when he asked me what it was, I asked him to tell me instead. He said, "That's a 'Y.' It stands for 'yak' and 'BYU.'" We're glad to know that he has his alphabetic priorities in order!

Spring flings

(only not exactly of the romantic sort . . .)


It's starting to become clear to me that perhaps I ought to post more frequently--particularly the later I get in my pregnancy and the more my already weak memory seems to abandon me. By the time Sunday rolls around, the beginning of the week is shrouded in a dim mystery from which I doubt it will soon be uncovered. Suffice it to say I can't remember anything at all about Monday, except that we got through it and we had family home evening on some topic or another.


When I was pregnant with Andrew, Dan and I faithfully captured my growing belly on camera on a month-by-month basis (mostly at the request of family members who weren't around to see things developing). Anyway, with this pregnancy we've quite neglected anything of the sort, but, for those who haven't seen us recently, here's a shot of me at 7 1/2 months.





On Tuesday, which dawned cold and cloudy, I had the brilliant idea of trying to while away some time with Andrew using an idea borrowed from a magazine: use marshmallows and straight pretzels as a kind of edible tinker toy to build things. Of course, Andrew's idea of "building" generally consisted of making a kind of marshmallow barbell, biting the pretzel out of the middle (with two miniscule bites off each marshmallow) and then reaching for new supplies, leaving the sticky remnants of his previous construction on the table. I helped him build the two shapes you see below (a process that took all of five minutes, if that), and then we were pretty much done. As far as an entertaining process, the construction thing wasn't a very big hit. On the other hand, Andrew spent most of the rest of the afternoon eating marshmallows and pretzels and occasionally condescending to share with others (like his grandpa).






Tuesday evening I managed to complete another of my pre-delivery goals: I submitted a chapter of my dissertation to an academic journal. Of course, there's no guarantee that anything will happen after this point, but since the process of turning the chapter (some 50+ pages) into a document under 10,000 words (including works cited) took me several weeks, I thought it merited mention. Besides, I blame this on the shopping spree I indulged in Wednesday night: in a celebratory mood, I convinced my mom to go with me to Gymboree, which was holding their annual spring sale. By so doing, I not only doubled my mom's weekly spendings at Gymboree (she'd spent Tuesday in Park City at the outlet mall, which includes a Gymboree outlet), but I also, apparently, ditched my conscientious visiting teachers who showed up some 20 minutes after we'd left the house. In my defense (if any is possible), I honestly did not remember anything about the appointment. As it stands, I have only a vague recollection of talking about an appointment . . .


Wednesday was a little nicer weather-wise than Tuesday, so I packed Andrew into the car and drove to Jeni's house, where we followed them to a nearby park. The kids enjoyed running around for about half an hour, before our visit met an untimely end when Emi announced that she had to go potty. Since there was no bathroom on the premises (presumably that was going to occupy the concrete building currently under construction), this meant loading all the kids back in the car and returning post-haste to Jeni's house. No one really seemed to mind, though, especially since the older kids retreated to wreck havoc on the basement while Jeni and I made lunch for them.


Thursday afternoon, my mom's sister Myra came into town for a brief visit. Of course, this meant that all of my mom's sisters descended on our house for dinner that evening. I personally enjoyed listening to them exchanging stories, but I think Dan was secretly a little glad for the excuse of Andrew's bath to retreat into the basement. Of course, when they started exchanging war stories about their respective foot surgeries and comparing foot structures, I had to relinquish the field as well! Still, it was nice to see everyone.


Not much happened on Friday. Andrew and I hung around the house in the morning (I think Andrew may have watched Cinderella, which is his newest Disney discovery--although she can't touch Belle in his affections), and then I took him with me while I did my visiting teaching. At the first home my companion and I visited, the almost-two-year old daughter greeted us at the door sans clothing. Andrew seems to have been much taken with this, since for the past two days he keeps repeating at random moments that "Abby was naked." (Incidentally, we were quite amused to see this same little girl this morning, determinedly walking to church in Belle princess shoes that were about three times the length of her tiny feet). But the visit wasn't without other distractions: this family also has a pet bunny, which was a big hit with both Andrew and my companion's three-year-old son. Friday afternoon I took Andrew to see the doctor--he'd been coughing a bit the last few days and was pretty congested and we thought it might be allergies. The doctor confirmed as much, but also said Andrew had an ear infection, so it was just as well that we took him in. I'm hoping that the ear infections were the explanation behind his 5:40 a.m. wake-ups this week, rather than a new trend.

Saturdays, of course, are always our busy days. This week was no exception. Dahnelle (my mom's next oldest sister) had invited everyone to her home for brunch. She just moved into a beautiful home on the side of the mountain in Draper (south Salt Lake) with a spectacular view of the entire Salt Lake Valley. Jared came with Joshua and Brielle, and Jeni brought her kids, so it was a fun cousins reunion for the kids. And I suppose I got to see a few of my cousins as well . . . Dan commented afterward on how taken my aunts all seemed to be with the children, but I figure it wasn't so surprising since, with the exception of my mom, none of the sisters in her family have grandchildren and they'd clearly all like some! Emi seems to have adopted my aunt Tera--she nearly wouldn't let go of her when it came time to leave. This was amusing to me, since I remember a time, some 25 years ago, when her mom was just as attached to Tera. My aunt Myra gave Jacob permission to blow milk bubbles in his cup, and, as you can see, he was pretty elated--and pretty proud of how high he could make the bubbles go. (Andrew and Emi both insisted on trying, with much less successful results).

Neither Brielle nor Enoch were very conciliatory towards strangers--both were pretty much attached to their parents for the duration of their visit. Still, they were pretty cute (even if Enoch does look a little dazed in this second picture here).

Jeni and I had planned on taking the kids to Thanksgiving Point after the brunch for a Baby Animal Birthday celebration. We even talked Jared into bringing his kids with us. (Well, actually I think Joshua did the persuading, since he didn't want to be separated from Jacob). However, this proved to be a singularly unfortunate outing. We didn't leave the brunch until later than we'd planned, arriving at Thanksgiving Point just after noon. Dan and I got a little lost trying to find the barn, and Jared, who was following us and assumed we knew where we were going, got lost with us. Luckily, we got reoriented pretty quickly, but this didn't improve tempers (in our car at least) any. We finally found the right location, parked, unloaded all the kids and found Jeni (who hadn't gotten lost, but who was last in our little entourage and so none of us noticed her taking the right turn-off) only to discover that a) there was a huge line to get into the farm country and b) it was really cold and windy at the point. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided it would be better to come back next week when not everyone else in Utah County would have the same idea. Unfortunately, this decision did not sit at all well with Andrew, who was devastated. He had his little heart set on seeing some baby animals in the barn. As we drove away from Thanksgiving Point, he sobbed, "But I weelly want to stay and see the animals!" I was all for turning around then and taking him back, but, luckily, saner heads (i.e., Dan's) prevailed. After crying desperately out for some ten or fifteen minutes (not all our promises of returning next week could soothe him), he finally quieted and then fell asleep before we reached home. Dan had tried to tell me that about 90% of Andrew's tears were born of exhaustion, but I was having a hard time resisting the appeal in his tragic face--I don't think I've ever seen him quite so disappointed. Hopefully we'll have a more successful report from next week!

After Andrew woke up from his nap, we tried to distract his mind from his animal woes by taking him to a local park. The park had a lavish spread of tulips in full bloom, so we had to take a few pictures for Bubby. I have to say, these were much more impressive than what I saw at the tulip festival last week--and much, much cheaper!

Andrew was particularly excited by some swings we discovered at the far side of the park, a neat little contraption with three extra long swings attached to a circular frame that moves in the wind. The chains on the swings were long enough that Dan could easily give Andrew an "underdog," and Andrew squealed delightedly the entire time. I wish I could have caught a better picture of his face, but this is the best I could do.
We also took Andrew to the pet store to satiate his quest for animal life. However, we did have to do some explaining: we wouldn't be seeing any cows or sheep at the pet store. (We didn't realize Andrew was confused about this until, on our way to the store, Andrew asked suddenly: "What is Daddy going to sit on?"--meaning, what kind of animal is Daddy going to ride?). We were particularly amused by Andrew's reaction to a black lab we saw with its owner in the checkout lab: "I love baby doggies. They're SOOO cute!"

Our other favorite Andrew anecdote from this week: my dad asked Andrew what was on Dan's face. Dan explained that they were whiskers (he hadn't shaved for a couple of days). Andrew said, "They're fake fur!"

Last, but not least, we've included a little video of Andrew "singing." He's started this new thing where he makes up songs to accompany what he's doing. In this one, you can't hear much except a kind of moaning for the first little bit, then, if you listen, you can hear him say/sing "take a picture of me singing my song" and then he starts listing off all his animals.

A week of riotous living

After Monday's beautiful temperatures, it was a bit of a shock to wake up Tuesday to a cold, blustery spring day. I had made plans with two old friends (Karin Holmes Bean and Sally Schneider Pead) to meet up at a nearby park with our respective children. Unfortunately, the day was so unpleasant that we only lasted about half an hour at the park before retiring to our house for the remainder of our play date. We did, however, have enough time at the park for Andrew and Karin's son Ezra to demonstrate their respective temperaments--Andrew was off and running as soon as he got to the playground, but Ezra, a staid 8 months older than Andrew, operated on some kind of homing device centered around his mother and never went more than twenty or so feet from her (lucky mom!). Of course, Karin said she'd rather he was a little *less* mommy-dependent sometimes. The grass is always greener, I suppose. Before leaving the park we had to stop and feed the ducks--Andrew and I had brought some day old bread just for that purpose. However, some industrious group seems to have been there just before us with the same idea--the ducks could not have been less interested in our bread (maybe they just knew it was old).

I can't remember Wednesday at all. I'm sure we must have done something, but whatever it was is now lost.

On Thursday, I determined to try taking Andrew to the library's story hour again. I had given up on doing so sometime last fall when it became clear that Andrew was constitutionally of sitting down for more than a minute at a time and I spent most of the story time chasing him around the children's section of the library. However, in the last couple of months he's become enamored of being read to (often insisting on reiterations of a single book as many times in a row as his beleaguered parents can tolerate. There are a few books Dan and I would both like to hide), and he loves singing time in nursery, so I thought we might try again. This time, Andrew managed to sit through at least the first half of the twenty-minute presentation, so we might actually try it again sometime. (The only other noteworthy thing about our trip was that there was a man there with his wife and little girl who could have been a doppelganger for the actor Eric Stoltz. It was a little bizarre how much he looked like him.)

Afterward, I met up with Jeni and her kids for a brief shopping run to TJ Maxx. I was on the hunt for some reasonably-priced children's books. Jeni, apparently, was on the hunt for beautiful summer hats better suited to the Ascot races than to Utah summers. But she had fun trying on hats anyway. For once, Andrew was actually pretty reasonably behaved, and it was Jacob who took home the honors of most-trying-child-in-a-shopping-store. (Which is why Jacob was confined to the stroller while Emi and Andrew got to walk around a bit.) I know that wasn't pleasant for Jeni, but it was a nice change for me! We didn't find the kinds of books I wanted, but we did find some nice 16-piece foam puzzles for Andrew and Emi (princess-themed, but who's keeping track?) that Andrew has since done about a bazillion times. He's actually getting to be a pretty good little puzzler. He must get that from his dad.

Friday morning I had a conference call with some colleagues at Penn State--we were workshopping an article (condensed from a dissertation chapter) that I hope to submit for publication before I have the baby (my last remaining academic goal for the foreseeable future). Normally, my mom would be able to watch Andrew, but she was literally run off her feet last week with the end of classes and the visit of a producer she's working with on some kind of online stats project. So, I did what any good mother would do--I turned on the TV and left Andrew to it. Unfortunately, I was sitting at the computer during the call and had my back to Andrew, so it wasn't until after I got off the phone that I noticed the following:


Andrew had pulled out all the contents of two drawers (Dan's t-shirt drawer and my sock and nylon drawer) and strewn them across the floor. And if you look closely at the picture, you'll notice some suspicious red marks around Andrew's mouth. As near as I can tell (from an intensive question-and-answer session with Andrew), these marks are where Andrew colored on his face with a red crayon. Clearly, he was busy while I was distracted!

After I got the debris from "Hurricane Andrew" (incidentally, while I was in New Orleans, a friend suggested that we should name the new baby Katrina--but I'm not sure I want to tempt fate that way) cleaned up, I took Andrew up to campus where Dan met us at the bookstore. The bookstore was having its usual end of semester 20% off sale, so I picked up the children's books I hadn't found the day before (for a friend's bridal shower--her suggestion) while Dan and Andrew roamed the stacks of books. We've become big fans of children's books--current favorite authors are Don and Audrey Wood, David Shannon, Rosemary Wells (the Max books are a big hit with Andrew), and the Numeroff/Bond duo (If you give a mouse a cookie, etc.). Andrew also has some inexplicable fascination with _The Giving Tree_. One memorable afternoon he made me read it to him three times in a row; I only cried the first two times (maybe that's why he kept asking me to read it).

Saturday seems to have been our day for socializing. In the morning, I went to a bridal shower for my friend Bonnie Ashby, whom I've known since we took a C.S. Lewis class at BYU together. I think I was one of two non-family members at the shower, but it was wonderful to see her again.

Apparently, Andrew and Dan spent the morning outside with my mom in the garden. My mom was planting peas, which required that each pea be planted individually, but Andrew was much more prone to trying to strew handfuls across the ground, a process that required his dad's frequent intervention. (I'm sure Dan was thrilled). Like a typical two-year-old, there are few things that make Andrew more excited than getting dirty.

I returned home to find that Dan had put Andrew down for an early nap, prior to our attendance at Dylan Eves' fourth birthday party (spider-man themed, as perhaps you can tell from the table covering below). Unfortunately, although the day was relatively fine, the party-planners clearly had not counted on the strength of the wind--food was continually blowing off the table, as were presents. You can tell some of the wind strength from the angle of the balloons below--about a minute after I took the picture the balloons actually blew away from their moorings and ended up in some nearby trees.

Still, I think most of the guests had fun. Andrew spent the first half hour in heaven chasing after Katie (I'm not sure if she enjoyed this as much as he did).

Dylan opening presents. I always find it funny to watch little kids open presents, because inevitably all the other little kids (except Andrew) crowd around to watch (and help) with the proceedings. I think my favorite reaction was Jasper's reaction to the little live turtle his grandmother (Melissa's mom) gave him--Dylan broke into a big grin, but Jasper, when he saw it, jumped up and down and shouted "I love the turtle! I love the turtle!" Much, I'm sure, to his mother's chagrin.


Lydia was perhaps the only one who wasn't enjoying herself. She wasn't feeling well and spent the entire time wrapped up in a blanket on her mother's lap. A sure sign of ill health--she didn't want to run around at all. She sure looked sweet, though.



Andrew, making short work of his spiderman cupcake (well, at least of the frosting). Below, Andrew and Jasper as partners in crime.

My mom presented Andrew with his own T-ball set this weekend (she's calling it an early birthday present, but I'm willing to bet that by the time his birthday rolls around in December she will have forgotten that she already gave him something . . .). Anyway, whatever the occasion, Andrew loves it. It was just a little too windy on Saturday afternoon for us to spend a long time outside, but Andrew has definitely mastered the art of whacking. He also picked up the funny notion (I think from Dan) that he has to use his new baseball mitt to pick up the ball and return it to the T-ball stand. . . . He's certainly a funny little boy. I love the look of his chubby little legs under his shorts.

Saturday night, after Andrew was in bed and after my mom and I returned from a shopping expedition to fabric stores and the grocery store, Dan and I finished watching the recent Masterpiece Classics version of Northanger Abbey (courtesy of NetFlix), which I hugely enjoyed. (I'm not so sure about Dan--I think he tolerates Jane Austen for my sake). It's nice to finally see a decent film version of the book--I can't think of a worse Austen adaptation than the previous version, which can't ever make up its mind whether or not to take the gothic part of Northanger Abbey seriously or not, and so vacillates absurdly between trying to spoof gothic conventions and eating them up whole-heartedly. My favorite line from the old version comes when the hero find the heroine at the end of the movie and tells her (as everything goes soft focus): "Since you went away, the white rose-bush has died of grief." Suitably gothic, maybe, but not anything Austen would ever admit to writing! Anyway, I'd recommend anyone looking for a good Austen movie to check the newer version out.

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

For those of you who aren't aware (and possibly don't care), this week finds us firmly in the midst of Thanksgiving Point's annual Tulip Festival. Lured by visions of thousands of colorful tulips in full bloom (and, I admit, thoughts of Bubby and her tulip fetish), Jeni and I decided to take advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather and take the kids. The entrance fee was a little pricey, but, we reasoned, it was worth it to enjoy such lovely spring weather and the doubtless entrancing sights that awaited us. I hope I don't sound too bitter--there were some things we enjoyed about the morning, but there were also some definite disappointments.

I suppose I should have suspected something was up when we arrived at the park in time for Andrew to announce that he was peeing (something he frequently does, incidentally, so I didn't take much notice of this as he was in diapers). But, of course, he was referring to the fact that he was leaking out of his diaper, and, of course, I didn't think to bring spare clothes. So my darling little boy got to spend the morning with hundreds of other people wearing a pair of Emi's capris (with pink embroidered roses around the hem).

Once we got inside the park, we were able to enjoy some nice views of the gardens and the truly exquisite day (sunny, not too hot, breezy). Andrew was even content to stay in his stroller for a little while. Unfortunately, although we saw lots of daffodils in bloom, we didn't see many tulips--apparently, many of them were not quite in bloom yet (although, from the number of planted tulip beds we saw, I'm not sure that even in full bloom the gardens would match the promise of the brochures). I managed to get a couple of photographs of tulip beds near the entrance--clearly where they've planted the early bloomers to lure in unsuspecting guests. (At any rate, Trisha doesn't need to feel bad about not being able to come up for the show--she's not missing a whole lot.)



We took the kids up the top of a small rise (replete with pillars) where it turns out a young lady was having bridal photographs taken (the kids all wanted to know what she was doing). Jeni let Emi out of the stroller to run down the spiral walkway leading up to the hill, and of course, Andrew insisted on doing the same. Which would have been fine, had he stopped, like Emi did, at the bottom of the hill. But Andrew, having had his taste of freedom, would not be bound, and, with a thoroughly mischevious look back at me, proceeded to flee fleet-foot across the grass to dodge behind a small guided tour. At times like this, I realize the disadvantages of not appearing seven-months pregnant--the people who saw me desperately chasing Andrew (he's faster than I am, at this point) were more inclined to smile at Andrew than offer to help me. I did finally catch him and, much chastened, secured him in his stroller again (needless to say, he wasn't very happy about this arrangement).



Jeni and I decided that the park was much larger than we'd initially realized--although at least we got our exercise for the day--and that gravel paths are not very conducive to pushing strollers (especially not the double stroller Jeni was wielding). We finally stopped for lunch in the children's gardens, which Emi and Andrew enjoyed exploring. (Jacob, who was worn out from having walked the first mile or so of the park trail, was happy to just stay in the stroller). I managed to get this picture of Andrew seconds before he walked out of my screen. He and Emi were particularly taken with a series of small bronze statues of a duck and her ducklings--you can see Andrew trying to sit on one of the unfortunate ducklings.

After briefly exploring the children's gardens, Jeni and I decided it was time to head home--even if the kids weren't done, we were (well, to be technically accurate, I was). Andrew, of course, refused to get back in the stroller and tried again to run away from me. The second time was much less amusing than the first and I finally had to literally collar him. He was only placated by his sight of the manmade waterfalls, which were possibly the best part of the gardens. The kids especially liked being able to walk behind one of the waterfalls and put their hands through slits in the rocks to touch the falling water. (Unfortunately, in the two pictures I took of the waterfalls, Andrew is either turned away from the camera or looks developmentally challenged, so I'm not going to post them).

We finally managed to get all the kids loaded in the car and were headed back to Provo when Jeni's minivan started making strange noises. She pulled off in American Fork, intending to ask Samuel (who's office is near downtown AF) what was going on, when something popped, followed by a distinctly skunky smell, and the loss of her power steering. We pulled into a parking spot off Main Street and had to call Samuel and my mom to come rescue us (as we couldn't fit all four car seats in either of their cars). At all events, our rescuers arrived and Samuel was able to find a nearby mechanic (apparently the carburetor belt broke), so that worked out okay. Still, it was a rather adventurous end to our adventurous morning.

Take me out to the ball game . . .

After a week of relatively cold and windy days, we celebrated the return of spring by going to a Bees baseball game in Salt Lake with Dan's sister and two of his cousins and their respective families (Mike, Melissa, Dylan, Bella, and Audrey; Jason, Liza, Jasper and Ted). Andrew was so excited about going to his first baseball game--although I'm sure he had only a hazy idea what it entailed, but he knew it involved his cousins--that he fell asleep in the car on the way up. Unfortunately, that short-lived nap proved to be the only nap he was destined to take that day.

We got up to Salt Lake early enough in the day to hang out with Sarah and Aaron and the kids for a while; we took the kids to a nearby bakery and got mini cupcakes for the younger kids (Jake, demonstrating his more grown-up tastes, opted for a brownie) and assorted treats for the grown-ups. They had to wait until after lunch to sample their wares, but they seemed to enjoy them--the frosting, that is. I think Andrew was the only one of the three little kids to actually eat any of the cupcake, and even he didn't eat much of it. He also had a wonderful time tagging around after Katie and playing whatever Katie was playing . . . including Princess Dress-Up. (Lest Justin think his girls are the only one's bitten by the princess bug, we offer the following exhibit.)
We tried to persuade Andrew to take a nap while Lydia napped, prior to the game's 2 p.m. starting time, but, despite laying down for nearly an hour, he staunchly refused to be persuaded. (Apparently, although I study rhetoric, I don't do so well in the practice of it!). Some of that may have been my fault--I told him we'd go to the game after his nap, so he then persisted on and off to insist that he was awake (i.e., he'd done sleeping) and was ready to go . . . At any rate, the only immediate ill effect of his napless state was an even higher-than-usual level of energy. I tried to get shots of most of the Eves' clan in attendance, but apparently I missed a few (Mike, Dylan, and Bella being the most noticeable. I'm sure Mike was off somewhere buying more food, as he certainly seemed to consume a fair amount . . .).

Mike brought back too many hotdogs, so he generously gave one to Aaron and Dan to split. Apparently it was a pretty big hit.


The Eves' brought little miss Audrey to the game. Although she was born some seven or eight weeks ago, she's only just past her due date (I think Melissa said she was due on the 6th or the 8th). At any rate, she's still pretty tiny--only about six pounds. Quite the contrast to her cousin Ted (born the same day), who's a fat, happy little boy who outweighs her by several pounds.

Andrew, enjoying the remains of a churro with his dad.

Miss Katie and the Ly were quite stylish in their matching outfits and curly-ribbon hairbows (made by Sarah, of course). If you'll notice Andrew running around in the background of Katie's shot, you'll have a pretty good sense of what watching the game proved to be like for Dan and I. It's amazing to me what one child can accomplish--it took our combined energies to keep tabs on the child. The baseball stadium we were in had a wonderful grassy patch outside the perimeter fence where families could sit down and watch the game. It was great for the kids because they weren't stuck in the bleachers, but it was much less ideal for those of us who were parents of small children who couldn't seem to stay put . . . I think our combined game watching time was approximately 5 minutes (and that's a generous estimate). Most of the time one or the other of us was chasing Andrew as he a) ran alongside the fence b) ran back up the hill behind us c) ran anywhere else. I was reminded of the fact that I'm not the runner I used to be . . . at this point, Andrew can pretty much outrun me if he puts his mind to it. The only time Andrew stayed close to us was when he was eating something, so, as you can imagine, he spent quite a bit of the game eating . . . pretzels, animal crackers, ice cream, churros . . .

Andrew was quite taken with baseball gloves (I don't think he's seen one before). He desperately wanted Jasper's, but Jasper (not surprisingly) was reluctant to part with it. Aaron generously let Andrew try out his glove (you can't see it very well in this picture, but that's what's on his other hand). I think he had some confused idea that the glove was what you used to hit the ball, because he kept swinging his arm and saying "hit the ball!"

Dan and I ended up retreating from the game early (sometime in the sixth inning, I think) because neither of us was up to chasing Andrew any longer. I think we also cherished some vague hope that Andrew would fall asleep in the car ride back to Sarah's and we could get a respite. Instead, our hyper-active child (perhaps sensing our conspiracy) chattered pretty much non-stop all the way to Sarah's house, and then despite my rather transparent plea ("Andrew, won't you lay down with mommy? She's tired and needs a rest") still refused to sleep, although he did lay down for a little bit. When the game was over, the rest of the crew showed up at Sarah's house where Sarah and Aaron put on a barbeque. Andrew almost made it through the evening without falling apart. Almost, but not quite. He had quite the meltdown when Dan put him in time out (for running into the street), crying until he threw up. At that point, we opted to bathe him, borrow pajamas from Sarah, and take him home as soon as possible. As you can see from the picture below, we didn't make it very far before Andrew--finally, blessedly--succumbed to sleep. (Incidentally, I love watching children when they're sleeping--especially Andrew. They always look so deceptively innocent.)

The rest of our week was pretty unremarkable. We didn't do much the first few days because I managed to catch a cold after returning from Louisiana. On Wednesday, I had another doctor's appointment. The doctor confirmed that the baby seemed to be doing well and told me that they will probably schedule me for an induction sometime during my 39th week (I'm now 31.5 weeks, if anyone's counting). I have mixed feelings about this--I don't want to be induced, but on the other hand I'm happy about the fact that I won't be late . . . and Poppy can rest assured that there is no way he will have to share his birthday (June 12), at least not with this baby.

Thursday night I went to enrichment (possibly the first time I've gone in months!)--the sisters were working on a humanitarian service project. To preface the service projects, they'd invited in a young woman (sister to one of the women in the ward) who'd recently returned from serving a mission in Africa. The stories she told about the poverty of the people there were rather heartbreaking--particularly the story of a three-year-old little boy crying desperately into his mother's lap because he hadn't had anything to eat that day. "It's okay," the mother assured this young woman, "he'll get some food tomorrow." It was a good reminder for me to take a few less things for granted in my life, although I wish I had a better idea of what I could do to help situations like this, besides helping stitch the odd quilt or wall hanging at a Relief Society event.

Friday night I went with my parents to the BYU Ballroom Dance program. They are, of course, quite good, and I enjoyed the program, but I was glad Dan wasn't there, as he most likely would *not* have enjoyed it . . . I have to admit that I'm a sucker for the more traditional numbers, like the waltz, where the women wear long, flowy dresses and the men look so elegant and austere. (And the pregnancy hormones clearly don't help--I actually found myself tearing up at some of the numbers. Ugh.)

Today was a rather nice day--Andrew was more or less behaved during sacrament meeting (aside from some rather audible renditions of "one, two, buckle my shoe" and his usual refrain of "Hey guys, bring us some bread. We want some bread"). One of the nursery leaders brought him into Relief Society, where he stood in the aisle and announced (into one of those silences that let nearly everyone in the room hear him): "I'm poopy Mommy!"

In the evening, we took advantage of the mild weather to go outside and blow bubbles, always a favorite past time for Andrew.

And now, my dear readers, I'm afraid we must leave you--I've recently become attached to PBS's Masterpiece theater, which over the last several weeks has been broadcasting new BBC productions of Jane Austen (the last two weeks we saw a great production of Sense and Sensibility that rivals Emma Thompson's 1995 version). And tonight they're putting on Room with a View--not the Merchant Ivory number (which I love), but a new BBC adaptation with a screenplay by Andrew Davies (of Pride and Prejudice Fame). And since Room with a View is one of my favorite novels, I'm afraid I have to go . . .

But before I go, here's a brief video of Andrew and one of his latest accomplishments: jumping with both feet at once.