saron: seventeen months

Saron with a "Pretty" in the bath.

Saron is becoming such a girly girl. She always has to have a "Pretty" on at all times. A Pretty can be a necklace, a bracelet, a hair bow, sunglasses, a tutu... pretty much anything that is frilly or girly. I found some pink Converse hi-tops at a thrift store for her and she went nuts over them calling them pretty. Too bad for her daddy, who loves to buy her shoes in the boys section haha. It's kinda hard to see in the photo above, but she got a black eye this week and scraped up her face pretty bad, too. She is super active, always climbing, jumping and running everywhere and she has a lot of falls. Poor thing.

She has started this mommy phase this month where she doesn't want anyone but me. It used to be that I was chopped liver as soon as daddy came home from school, but lately I have to be in her sight at all times. I'm in Primary at church and Tyler has been trying to get her adjusted to nursery and all she does is sit on his lap and cry for mommy the whole time. I have no idea where this has come from because her whole entire life she has always been crazy friendly and would always let anyone hold her. She loved saying hi and talking to random strangers everywhere we went, but now everything is all about mommy. At first it was flattering and cute because she has never been this way before and it was nice to finally be recognized for everything I do for her. Let's face it, it was a little discouraging at times when I had been changing diapers, cooking meals and cleaning up after her all day but when she would see daddy she wouldn't even look at me anymore. But now I would gladly trade back! It's tough being the only one she wants because lately she can be a little unreasonable. Dramatic little tantrums and fake tears are regular occurrences around here now. But I must say that I do love those sneaky snuggles that I squeeze in every now and then when she is sad. She still smells so good and I love her warmth in my arms. So I guess I don't want the mommy phase to completely end... :)

My sister Mara hasn't been feeling well lately so she has been coming over a lot to hang out and have some company. Saron loves this because it means that her cousins are over all day. She absolutely adores Mara's kids and can say all of their names She calls Luke "Guke" and Annie is "Nannie" and Mabel is "MayMay." It is so adorable how excited she gets when they walk through the door. And when they leave she talks about them all night and will say "Bye bye Guke, bye bye Nannie, bye bye MayMay" over and over. I love it! She and Mabel are funny together. Whatever one has, the other has to have and they fight over toys a lot. And yet... they love to be together. Funny how that is.

She is also really into babies these days. She has a baby Lucy doll from Pottery Barn Kids that she sleeps with and she loves to hold her and rock her and sing songs to her. Sooooo freaking adorable. And when she sees a baby at church or the store she goes crazy! It's hilarious sometimes though because she will often call someone a baby who is older than her, and sometimes the kid gets offended... "Mommy, she is calling me a baby and I'm not a baby!!" That has happened to us a few times haha.

She also has a ridiculous sense of humor. The other day my mom and I were watching something on TV in the kitchen and Saron was playing with toys in there by herself. All the sudden she started shouting and we looked over and she was walking like Frankenstein with straight legs with a box over her head and shouting into the box to make it echo around her. We were dying laughing at how random it was and how much she loved it. Then once she saw how much it made us laugh she kept doing it and peeking out from under the box at us to make sure we were watching her and still laughing. She loves to be funny and make people laugh!

Lately she is trying so hard to be a big kid and it's pretty cute. But she is still a baby in lots of ways, as evident by the mommy phase. And I think it's hard for her to be stuck in the middle, which is probably why she is having some emotional breakdowns lately haha. But aside from those little issues, she is so much fun and so funny and lots of fun to be around. She is definitely my little sunshine!

saron: sixteen months

Saron and her cousin Bronwyn, playing in my mom's kitchen

I am a terrible blogger. I wish it was because I was too busy to spend any time on the internet, but if you follow me on Pinterest, you know that is totally not true. The truth is, I hate uploading pictures because our camera is too fancy and i have to edit the pictures and make them all fancy and it is a day-long project that I never feel like doing. And a blog post without pictures is just lame.

These days Saron is a riot. Sometimes literally. She can tear up an un-baby-proofed room like a full on riot. And she can dish up riotous fits of giggles at a moments notice. She has a very strong personality, which is fun but hard sometimes. She is stubborn and fierce and funny and silly. She RUNS everywhere she goes. Seriously, always. She still loves playing peekaboo, but not the baby kind anymore. She will really try to surprise/scare you, and I do it back to her and she loves it. Sometimes I get her so good that she actually gets really startled and screams and then we both roll on the ground laughing. It's one of my favorite things these days! And lately she has gotten all girly on us, to Tyler's great dismay haha. She loves purses, hair bows, tutus and necklaces. She is always wearing a necklace and has this tiny little pink purse that she inherited from an older cousin and she loves to put things in it and carry it around on her arm. Pretty! Pretty! Pretty! She loves that word. We read a lot of books these days and she loves to turn the pages and pretend to read back to me. She loves animals (especially ones that make noises, like farm animals) and will go absolutely NUTS if she sees a dog. She loves dogs! And babies. She says about 15 or so words I think (maybe more, now that I am counting in my head...) but a lot of them are unintelligible to anyone but me and a lot of them sound the same, but mean different things. For instance, Boppers (the name the grandkids call my dad) and diaper are basically the same word for her, which is sometimes funny. She loves to wrestle on the ground with her daddy and loves to be chased. She is also starting to really understand right from wrong, but still does the wrong things (making sure that I see her do it) just to get a reaction from me. Boy am I learning patience these days. I swear half the stuff she does is to get a reaction from me, and sometimes it works, but I am learning to control myself and guide her softly and consistently. And then there are days that when Tyler gets home from school I have to shut myself in my room because I am so aggravated and frustrated. But I guess that's just part of being a mom, right? Every day I learn and grow along with Saron.

I love this stage because:

• she can actually communicate lots of things with me instead of just screaming in frustration
• her personality is really developed and I can really see who she is and see her humor
• she is independent in a lot of ways. She can feed herself, climb up and down the stairs, etc
• she is a total sponge and is absorbing so much information and saying new words all the time

Things I will miss:

• She has made this little "goya-goya-goya" noise when she sucks her thumb and is super tired since she was tiny, but she hardly ever does it anymore. It is the cutest little noise and I am really sad to see it go! My baby is a big girl now...
• She is all done with bottles and I actually really miss that quiet time before bed when we could just snuggle. She never ever ever snuggles with me anymore.

halloween 2011

This year was a fun Halloween. My parents' neighborhood has a really fun tradition where several houses sign up for special events at their house the night of Halloween. One house makes hundreds of caramel apples only for the parents of the trick-or-treaters, one house shows a movie projected on the wall of their garage (Hocus Pocus this year), one house does a big haunted house, there are donuts on a string, bobbing for apples and several other typical fall activities at other houses, too. It's really fun because you go to a few houses and trick-or-treat, then you stop and do a fun activity, then trick-or-treat some more. We went around with my sister Karyn and her three kids, so it was a lot of fun to see their reaction to everything. Here are a few of pictures of Saron and I. She was a lion and I was a lion tamer! Our costumes were really cute and all from thrift stores or borrowed. Now that's my kind of Halloween.

saron: eleven months

Saron walks like a pro now. She does this little laugh when she gets excited where she wrinkles up her nose and breathes in and out of it super fast and it is ridiculously adorable. She is learning how to be mischievous and opening drawers, cabinets and trash can lids. Now that she is so good on her feet she can also stand on her tip toes and reach on top of tables. Sheesh we have had to hide everything haha. She has ten teeth, and two of her molars just popped through.

Saron loves:

• Emptying drawers and boxes. She loves to pull things out one at a time, look at it, taste it, throw it on the floor and grab the next thing.
• Trashing toilet paper rolls. She also loves getting in my tampon boxes and carrying them around with her. The bathroom is off-limits and she knows it. Whenever she sees that the door has feel left open, she runs over screaming with delight!
• Rough play on the floor, tickling, wrestling, etc. She loves getting tossed and thrown around.
• Trying new food. She'll eat anything! If she likes it she will scream for more. If she hates it she will put her hands in front of her face to hide. It's really cute.
• Boppers! That's what the grandkids call my dad. She is OBSESSED with him and thinks that everything he does is hilarious. In fact, he was out of town for a little bit and while I was upstairs doing something she wandered off. It got quiet so I was wondering what she was doing and I found her in my parents' closet snuggling up to one of my dad's shirts and sucking her thumb! The poor girl just really missed her Boppers!
• Naps. She is a great nap taker (finally). She goes down really easily and always sleeps well.
• Dogs. She plays with my grandma's dog and it is so hilarious! She tries to take his toys and they have serious tug-of-war fights. She also loves chasing him around wherever he goes. My parents' dog Merlin is too old to run around but she loves climbing all over him. He's such a good sport about it and totally lets her!
• Playing peek-a-boo and chase. Sometimes I can hardly feed her a meal because she is always playing peek-a-boo in between every single bite. And she loves to be chased now that she is faster and more steady on her feet. I crawl around on the ground and she runs away screaming and laughing.
• Taking food out of the pantry. She knows what the Cheerio's box looks like, so when she wants a snack, she just gets in the pantry, opens the box and takes a handful! It's pretty funny.

Saron hates:

• When she is getting into something bad and I take it away, like garbage, the crate of onions in the pantry or any other thing that she can destroy
• Being physically restrained in any way. She hates when I hold her hands to wash them, when I try to hold her still in church and when I wipe her face

saron: ten months

Saron is so fun right now! She is walking, talking and making her opinions known lots these days. She walks everywhere all the time. She always tries walking first before crawling somewhere and it's paid off! She takes lots of steps and is improving so much every day. The most I've counted is eight in a row, but she is so determined to walk that I think it'll happen really fast from here. She has some words now, too. She says mama, dada, dog, all done, hi, and bye bye. And she has the cutest little wave in the whole world! She LOVES to wave all the time. And I mean all the time. I will leave the room for thirty seconds and when I come back she always greets me with a huge grin and a huge wave. It's adorable. Tyler is gone a lot at school and work, so she loves the time that she gets to see him in the evenings and wants nothing to do with me anymore, which is fine by me haha.

Saron loves:

• Sweets. Just yesterday my mom was making cookies and gave her a little lick of the dough and as soon as she finished it she started yelling for more. She gets insane when you give her chocolate or anything sweet! It is hilarious. She definitely gets it from her dad, he is a serious sugar fiend!
• Sucking her thumb. When she is really hungry and I make her a bottle, at the first sight of the bottle her thumb goes instantly in her mouth. Also, whenever she touches anything silky because she sleeps with a little silky blanket at night. The other day she wandered off and I found her in my parents' closet snuggling with one of my dad's soft shirts and sucking her thumb. So cute, huh? :)
• Cheerios. The cereal boxes are kept low in the pantry and today she figured out how to open the cereal box and just helped herself to the Cheerios. She was pretty darn proud of herself.
• Begging for food. Anytime I am eating anything (and I mean anything!) she always wants to try a bite of what I am eating. She even likes spicy salsas and onions and tomatoes. She'll eat anything.

Saron hates:

• The baby gate. Sometimes while I am cleaning I will put a baby gate up in her doorway so I can see her while she plays in her room but she can't get into the cleaning stuff. The problem is that once I put the gate up she doesn't want to play anymore! She just stands at the gate and yells at me until I pay her some attention. Even if I sneak in and do it, the second she notices that gate up she gets so offended haha.
• Shoes. She refuses to walk or crawl when she is wearing shoes. It's like kryptonite for her! Her ankles roll and she can't walk flat when she has shoes on. Any suggestions?
• Her carseat. She just wants to run around and the carseat is a major hindrance to her activities!
• Getting her face and nose wiped. She will scream like she is being tortured to death when I try to clean her nose! Tyler refuses to do it because he wants to be the favorite parent. I, on the other hand, can't stand it when her nose is plugged up with green boogers, so I will take the wrath!

saron: nine months

Saron is crawling up on her hands and knees now and she's fast! She stands up on absolutely everything and even tries climbing things. She loves to be standing and moving and is never ever still. She has such a silly personality and loves to laugh and play. She is such a flirt and always gives a smile to anyone in her line of vision, whether it's someone she knows or a random stranger at the store.

Saron loves:

• Chocolate
• Snuggling in the morning after she wakes up
• Her daddy. She is still a big time daddy's girl

Saron hates:

• Getting her nose and face wiped
• Being left alone too long. She follows me everywhere!

saron; eight months

Saron just got her 7th and 8th teeth this week. I feel like teething has been my excuse for everything for, oh, about four months now. But I imagine it really does hurt like crazy for so many teeth to cut through within such a short time! She's still army crawling on her belly but has also figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees now, too. She pulls herself up to standing on everything now all the time. She's crazy ticklish, loves toys that make noise, and is generally very happy and friendly. She is such a little joy and I love the stage that she is at right now.

Saron loves:

• Eating. She'll eat just about anything and especially loves Cheerio's and Gerber puff snacks.
• Watching tv. No matter what is on or what room she is in. If she hears the tv, she will book it over to where she can see it
• Standing and climbing on everything. People's legs, her crib, tables, couches the bathtub, you name it
• Taking baths. She could play in the water for hours if I would let her
• Taking toys from other babies. She is totally that baby! If she sees someone with a toy (any toy) she will drop whatever she's doing to take it away from them. It drives me crazy!
• Blowing bubbles, spitting with her tongue out, babbling (gagagaga)
• Sucking her thumb
• Trying to eat grass whenever we go outside

Saron hates:

• Laying on her back and holding still to get her diaper and clothes changed
• Napping. Life is just way too exciting to be all alone in her crib
• Getting surprised. Sometimes if I walk into the room too suddenly she gets startled and cries!
• Being alone. Now that she can crawl, she follows me everywhere!

saron: seven months

Saron is seven months as of yesterday, can you believe it?! I sure can't! She is so much fun right now. Super ticklish and giggly, very playful and mostly super happy, except the occasional grumpiness from teething. She's super close to crawling; she kind of drags herself around on her belly. She absolutely adores her dad, and sometimes she just bursts out laughing when he walks into the room, it's so cute! And one thing that I love is that she loves to snuggle. It's the best! She truly is the light of my life and I can't imagine ever being without her.

Saron loves:

• Playing with toys on the floor
• Dragging herself around like an army crawl
• Playing and splashing in the big tub instead of her infant tub
• Food! She will eat just about anything and she eats a ton. Her favorites are oatmeal, bananas, squash and carrots
• Cheerios
• Watching tv. I know it's terrible, but she would watch tv all day if we would let her!

Saron hates:

• Being on her back. It is seriously IMPOSSIBLE to change her diaper or get her dressed because she is constantly trying to fight you to roll over and get on her tummy
• Getting her face and nose wiped
• Her sippy cup. She will not drink from it!

new tooth!

Saron's got a new tooth! Her top right canine popped through a little bit ago and I actually got a picture of it! Tyler thinks it makes her look like a hillbilly, but I think it's freakin' cute.

g'morning

 

Just hanging out here. Lately Saron loves chewing and sucking on my glasses and rips them off my face whenever she can. She thinks it's pretty funny.

grumpy teeth

We're still in our jammies here, at 6:00pm. In fact, Tyler is even sleeping right now. You see, he has been working around the clock to perfect his portfolio for his portfolio review on Thursday. Also, he has been working on his final projects for his design classes. So basically he hasn't gotten more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep in a couple of weeks. Thus, the late evening nap. And little miss Saron has the grumpiest teeth ever. Her top teeth have been trying to surface for about a month now and sheesh is she ever mad about it. Chewing on everything and fussing up a storm. It's a good thing she's so cute, or else I'd be tempted to leave her on someone's doorstep. Any takers?

saron: five months

Geeze, I feel like I can't ever get caught up on this darn blog. Life is just happening way too fast these days! Saron is five months now, and I can't believe another month has flown by so fast.

We've had a busy, but good month. Saron got her first tooth in on St. Patrick's Day (those silly leprechauns!) and got her second just a few days later. She has hardly been fussy at all, but has definitely been drooling and chewing on everything like crazy! And I love to see those tiny little teeth every time she smiles.

Also this month she has finally found her thumb. She used to suck her pointer finger which was really funny, but she has now found her thumb and is constantly sucking it all day. She is still sweet as ever, even with her teeth coming in. She always returns everyone's smiles and loves to talk to whoever will talk to her - strangers at the grocery store, family, nieces and nephews, people at church. She is just constantly smiling. She loves watching kids and giggling at everything they do. She is so wiggly now, so I only get snuggles when she is really sleepy and boy, do I miss it! I love every stage that she has gone through, but as each one passes it makes me a little sad to see it go.

Saron loves:
Chewing on everything like a puppy
Drooling all over everything!
Getting fistfuls of my hair and stuffing it in her mouth
Playing with toys
Wiggling, wiggling, wiggling!
Sucking her thumb
Smiling at everyone, even strangers
Giggling at herself in the mirror
Being outside

Saron hates:
Sitting still to eat
Being in her car seat too long
Orajel teething medicine on her gums. She makes the most hilarious faces when we put it on her

We are very excited to go to Florida with my parents this weekend. We leave Saturday and come bck next Friday. Here is a picture that we took on Tyler's phone of Saron in her new swimsuit and sun hat, getting ready for the beach!

st. patrick's day

Growing up, my mother made a big deal out of little holidays. She'd go all out for holidays like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Memorial Day and it was so much fun for us kids. I definitely want to keep that tradition alive in my family as well.. but we are a little bit ghetto around here still. Someday I'll have pretty table cloths and decorations, but for now, vinyl and plastic will just have to do. We had green eggs, green waffles and green whipped cream. And it was delicious!

And we have some big news... Saron's first tooth popped out this morning! It's actually a pretty funny story. I've been noticing the little white bumps of her teeth under her gums for a little while now. Yesterday at my mom's I mentioned that I think her bottom teeth will be up soon and showed her the little bumps. Her response was that you can see those little bumps for months before they actually cut through, so she still probably won't get them for a while. But what do you know, the very next morning the first one had popped through! My mom and I had a pretty good laugh about that. One things for sure, you can never predict anything when it comes to a baby! They do things their own way, no matter what! Of course, she wouldn't let me get a shot of the little teeny tooth showing through, but here are some pictures of her this morning anyway.

happy sunday!

Saron fell asleep on the 2-minute car ride home from church. So freaking cute.

what saron missed out on...

So Krys still occasionally works at night to help bring in some extra cash for the family, and tonight she's doing just that. So I took the liberty of helping my child relive something she missed out on since she was born in 2010 rather than 1983 like her old man. The classic floating face picture commonly found in my era. Who even thought this was a good idea in the first place? Anyway, now my daughter hasn't missed out.

With Love, 

 Tyler Winn

the croup monster

We've been sick for a while over here. Saron hasn't sleept for three days. She wakes up every hour and a half at night and won't nap for more than 15 minutes at a time. She's totally miserable and it's so sad to see her like this! Look at her tired, sick eyes!

We finally figured out that it's croup that Saron has. She got some medicine, but kept throwing it up, so she had to get a shot. Luckily I wasn't there for the shot. Tyler said the nurse just stabbed her with it and Saron was screaming for 10 minutes straight afterward. Poor Saron. At least she'll get better faster now, hopefully.

saron: four months

Saron is so much fun right now, it's ridiculous! I want her to stay right here at this stage forever! She smiles, giggles, and coos at everything and everyone. She is such a happy baby. I feed her rice cereal, oatmeal, barley and bananas and she is getting to be pretty good at eating off a spoon, but it still takes a long time. Each bite has to be fed to her three times because she only swallows half the bite every time and spits the other half out. I love seeing her face, though. She gets so excited over every bite and it cracks me up!

She loves music, Baby Einstein movies, batting at toys on her play mat, and being bounced on my knees. She can roll over both ways, but she still doesn't do it often and gets a little frightened sometimes when she does it on accident. It's hilarious. And she is a total daddy's girl. She just stares at Tyler with the most adoring eyes and always loves to be in his lap while he works. She really loves her bath these days, too, and is learning that it can be fun to splash and kick around. She's starting to get a little nervous of strangers and definitely prefers her parents, but if we are holding her she is always eager to smile and talk to anyone who gets near her. I think she's going to be quite the chatterbox when she finally learns to talk.

It was about a year ago that I found out that I was pregnant. It always seemed so scary, having a baby. I was so nervous about everything -- how to hold her, how often to feed her, clipping her fingernails, how to bathe her, how to calm her when she cries, when to start feeding her solids, blah blah blah. There are so many things to think about when you are the one 100% in charge of someone so helpless! But I have been truly amazed at how easy and natural everything has been for me. I really do believe that women have powerful instincts that we are born with. I had no idea that I had those instincts within me until having a child of my own, and it's been such a great journey for me to discover the mother inside of me. Before having Saron, I always thought I would have three, maybe four kids. Now I feel like I can't wait to have another and I want five or six kids. It's funny, though, because most people kind of feel the opposite way. But I've realized that being a mom is the only thing that I want to do. And I've got to be honest, it feels good to be so loved and needed by such a cute little thing as Saron :)

she's a little teapot...

...short and stout!

Our sweet little Saron had her 4-month checkup last week. I can't believe it's been four months already. But at the same time... I can't believe it's only been four months!

At her appointment we learned that she is short and stout, literally. She's in the 67th percentile for weight, 64th percentile for head circumference, and the 20th percentile for length. She is getting the most delicious little rolls and I just love it! To document her four-month "birthday" we did a little photo shoot. I'm still learning how to use our fancy camera, but I was pretty happy with how the pictures turned out. I'm still editing them, though, so I'll just leave you with one of my favorites...

sacrifice and love

I've decided that being a mom boils down to two words:

sacrifice and love.

In the four months that I have been a mom, I am amazed at how much I have grown as an individual and how much Tyler and I have grown in our marriage. It is almost laughable to think about how lame our life was before Saron. When we had free time, we could do whatever we wanted. We could hop in the car and go to the store anytime we felt like it. I worked to have money to spend on clothes, shoes, and things that I really didn't need. Before being a mom, I was self-centered, shallow and kind of boring. Now my life is filled with adventure... messy adventures that involve my miniature partner in crime 24/7. Now all the money that I earn goes toward paying the bills or saving for our future home. And going to the store is an incredible task, so I limit what I buy and really make thoughtful grocery lists before I head out. Even little things, like wasting time on the internet, go away now that I have someone so desperately needy to take care of (which is why my blog posts are so sparse these days).

Motherhood is such an overwhelming leap into an entirely new life and even though I have only had this life for four months, I can hardly remember my life before. Saron sleeps for 8-12 hours a night now, which is so nice. There are still times, though, when she will wake up at 3am totally starving and I will have to get up and feed her. Sometimes I get annoyed if Ty and I have been up late, but  most of the time I love the still and quiet late-night time we get to spend together. It is almost sacred. She looks up into my eyes as she eats and I quietly sing to her until she drifts back to sleep. There is honestly nothing in the world more special than those moments that I get to spend with her alone. And the nights when she sleeps for 12 hours, it's all that I can do to hold myself back from waking her up because I just get so excited to see her again! I miss her all night long when she isn't in my arms.

So to all my married friends out there who don't have kids yet... please don't wait any longer. You have no idea what you are missing out on. There are a million excuses that you can give yourself for waiting, and believe me, I know them all. Money, school, time, work... money... money... I know, I know. But trust me when I say that every single sacrifice that you make for your children will bless your life 1,000 times over. Even little sacrifices have the most incredible rewards that you would have never anticipated. Saron is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me and Tyler and it has made our love for each other grow so much more than it ever could have grown without her. I have never loved my husband, myself, and my Savior more, and I attribute all of that to our sweet baby girl. And I think she knows it, too. When she looks into my eyes, I can almost feel her spirit speaking to me. Thanking me for my sacrifices.

genius!

We went to Sundance to hang out with our friends the Magleby's Sunday night. It was so much fun and Saron slept great. The next morning there was an avalanche that blocked the roads out, though, so we ended up staying later than we had planned, which was actually great because it was such a fun day!

So, Saron is really not a good napper... she will only sleep during the day if someone is holding and rocking her. If you put her down, she will always wake up within a few minutes. So basically, it's nearly impossible to get anything done. While at the cabin, though, Steve told us the most genius idea... put the baby in a laundry basket on top of the dryer while it's running! It kinda vibrates a little, is warm like a body, and makes gentle white noise. So there she slept while we played games and hung out until the dryer stopped... and then she woke up again haha. What a little stinker. Oh the things we will do to make children sleep!