Blonde

I bet you think Evan is bald.

Actually he has about an inch of hair on his head (in most places).

But you don't notice it because it is see through.

Nostalgic

Yesterday we got out a puzzle.

Whoa. Talk about feeling nostalgic. It took me back to my childhood...listening to Chicago or Air Supply, out of school for Christmas break, my mom cooking in the kitchen.

(Actually a lot of my memories involve my mom banging around in the kitchen. And News Channel 8, Tad Dunbar, her coming in the living room wiping her hands on her apron when the weather comes on...)

Some of the rules of puzzle doing:

you have to find all four corners before you start working on the edge,

once the edge is done you work on words and people,

Robbie always does the flag and moon/sun,

he also always ends up doing the sky (boring). I think we tricked him into thinking the sky was fun.

Charles Wysocki is the puzzle master. 

My brother Robbie is way color blind. We never really discussed it back then, but did that affect your puzzling Robbie? Or maybe that is why you just stuck to the sky.

Avery kept feeding Evan puzzle pieces.

I am not a very good mom when a puzzle is out. I get addicted and tend to ignore crying/whining children.

Jimi was sitting at the table on the computer, and I asked him,

"have you ever done a puzzle?"

"uhhh....yeah...that's why you married me."

I totally forgot. Senior year he lived alone, so to stave off boredom he had a puzzle out in his living room.

The first time I went to his apartment I was so impressed/excited that he was a puzzler. Match made in heaven.

p.s. a favorite toy of Avery's these days is carrying around "white ball" in a cup. Any cup will do. Sometimes she takes "ball and cup" to bed with her.

(raise your hand if you know where that ball is from)

Bath Time

Never a moment's respite for this poor boy.

Two years ago on this date I published a naked picture of Avery in honor of Nettie's birthday.

So now here are both kids in their birthday suit.

Evan is in size four diapers now. I went searching through the archives to find when Avery moved to a four. She was five and a half months old then. Evan is sevan and a half.

Avery calls apples "appfees". That's cute.

A Plan

I am going to buy tons of toy cars and have them lying around the house so that my kids will drive them on my arms, legs, and back.

Avery was "driving" on my back today at church and I near fell off the pew.

Mt. Charleston

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

My cousin just started a community craft blog. Anyone can join and publish their projects.

Cool idea, eh?

So I joined. Click here to check it, check it ouuuuut.

And heck, if you want to join too and show off your stuffs...let me know!

While Scrubbing the Bathroom Today...

Jake, Jimi, Chad

I just remembered something while I was scrubbing my bathtub today (I get a lot of thinking done while cleaning bathrooms. It's kind of annoying).

The only other girlfriend Jimi's ever had looked exactly like me. She and I were on the soccer team together my first year at SUU, and even our coach couldn't tell us apart. He (the coach) would yell "Heather!" at me all the time.

Jimi and his roommates always came and scrimmaged with us during practice (yeah, our coach ran a real tight ship). The house they lived in was called "The Barn", I guess because it looked like a barn. But anyway some of the girls were talking about going to The Barn after practice, and I asked, "can anyone go to The Barn?" I thought it was some kind of a club house or something.

Years later when Jimi and I started dateing we totally cracked up that I asked if anyone could go to The Barn like it was an elite place to be or something.

That was what I thought of today. But for memory's sake, I will include a few other encounters we had at SUU. So if you don't care, stop reading now.

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ok then,

Sophomore year, my friends and his friends went snowboarding at Elk Meadows. We still didn't know each other hardly.

Later that night I got a phone call from someone asking if I wanted to hang out. I totally didn't know who it was, and there was all this laughing and yelling in the background, so I thought it was a joke. Plus I had to write a paper or something like that, so I said I was busy.

Turns out it was Jimi. And it turns out he NEVER asked girls out, so all the yelling in the background was his roommates totally excited and surprised. And it also turns out I turned down a date from my future husband.

Dana, Kelli, Chantel

Junior year our roommates dated each other, so we hung out a little more. While me and my roommates were making this seriously sweet igloo (that took close to 8 hours), Jimi brought us hot chocolate.

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I went with Chantel to a flag football game because Jake was playing. Jimi was on the team too. I mostly just watched him. I actually ditched a class (Shakespeare) that day because I was hoping to talk to him when the game was over. 

It's what Shakespeare would have done, am I right?

Kelli, Chantel, Dana

And may I also insert this picture while I am at it? We covered our walls with pictures from National Geographic. This project took days. Days I tell you.

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One time Chantel, Jimi, Jake, and I went to a Tim Reynolds concert. I spent a lot of time getting ready so that Jimi would think I was cute and maybe flirt with me.

He didn't flirt.

But now when we talk about it, he remembers exactly what I wore, and he thought I was totally cute. Yesssss.

Kelli, Jimi, Dana, Chantel

Then senior year we finally got our act together and confessed our crushes.

Mondays we would go on a 6 mile run up Cedar Canyon. Then we would go pick up my brother and his dorm rat buddies and go to all you can eat Godfather's Pizza.

So, yeah.

7 Months!

7 months with boy noise drool all down the onsie

6 months cozy

5 months fierce

4 months bear on the lap

3 months cute mouth

2 months look at mommy

1 month it's bright out there

0 months my little baby

Things I Don't Want to Forget

In the hospital, nobody ever gets any sleep. There is always personnel coming in to do something, and if they do happen to leave you alone, the baby is crying, in need of something.

By the third day, we were burnt crispy. Evan was hungry for something substantial, which I couldn't yet provide. He was fussy and sad. Also, I had the worst air bubble/gas pain from surgery. When the nurse came in and told me that my baby was down to 5 pounds and change, I started crying. Have you ever tried crying while having huge air bubbles in your system? You can't take big gasps of breath without your lungs feeling like they are resting on spikes from an ancient Chinese torture chamber.

Walking around helps the bubbles to get moving, so I shuffled down to the nurse's station, crying and trying to keep my lungs off the spikes, to get some Enfamil.

The nurses were surprised to see the mess of a patient mumble at them, "can I get some supplement?"

"you could have pushed the call button! you didn't need to walk down here!"

"I have...gas bubbles...I need to...walk around..." (shallow breathing, shallow breathing)

I shuffled back to my room with a six pack of milk and fed Evan a bottle. Then I swaddled him up good, lay him in the spot next to my hip, and we all drifted to sleep.

Here is the beautiful part of this story: we slept for three hours strait. No interruptions, no crying Evan.

Three hours of syrupy, smooth, buttery sleep. That's equivalent to 12 hours in the real world.

My First Child

Someone please explain to me why, out of the clear blue sky, has Avery become a bad sleeper?

She used to sleep 12 hours a night. Bedtime was pleasant. She would wake up and play around in her crib until I felt like coming and getting her.

Now bedtime is a total production. Turn on the butterflies, read a book. Read another book, say a prayer. Cry. Mommy goes in, reads a book, says another prayer, hugs. Cry a little more.

The worst part is that now she wakes up in the middle of the night...between Evan's night feedings. Or sometimes they wake each other up.

I wouldn't be so perplexed if this was her usual routine. But this has only been going on since we got back from Heber. She is just more scared of things now too. Is this normal? What the heck?

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I think it's cute she calls milk "nilp".

My Second Child

1. He giggles a lot more than Avery did. If you tickle him, or make boy noises at him, or change his clothes, he gives the best laugh.

2. He also cries a lot more, and his feelings get hurt super easy. When he first wakes up from a nap, it takes a good long cuddle session before he is ready for you leave his line of vision. He's really sensitive.

3. He sleeps in my closet. No cute bedding or room decor for him. Just a bunch of hanging clothes and a pile of old cleats.

4. He gets a lot of improvised "hats". Buckets, sieves, balls. He also gets steamrolled, pushed, and kicked. And hugged. Lots and lots of smother-hugs (all described in #4 are done by Avery. Jimi and I don't kick him).

5. He doesn't get to ride in the front part of the shopping cart very often. The other day just me and him went to Joanne's, so he got to sit up right and look around. He was in awe.

6. He doesn't get rocked to sleep. I just lay him in his bed at nap time. Every once in a while, like at church, I will hold him until he falls asleep. It's sweet and I kind of miss it.

7. The other day he and Avery were in the bathtub together splashing and playing. I had a realization that he will only know life as being a little brother. He has a big sister. I have two kids that play and fight together. I am yelling at Avery to leave him alone as I type this.

Fight the Pasi

Avery no longer goes to nursery happily and willingly.

One time I sent her in with a bag of dried blueberries, and that seemed to comfort her. Later that evening her diaper dam broke. Dried blueberries are forceful.

A few weeks ago I tried sending her in with pasi to see if that would help the

screaming-at-the-door-for-mommy situation.

It didn't.

And she was the only child in there with a pasi.

The other day, playdate at the splash park, she was the only child with a pasi. I finally realized it may be time to put pasi to work for me. All this time it has been kicking around the place without paying rent.

So now she only gets pasi when it's nap time or bed time.

You should see the hair-twirling zombie she becomes when I give it to her. Duh. I should have limited its powers long ago.

Anyway. She probably won't go to nursery on Sunday again. Pasi or no.