Whining

I've been a whiner lately.  I've been murmuring.  Mostly internally, sometimes externally. 

I have a hard time with my new work schedule.  I work every weekend now, and no longer have Saturdays where I'm off and we can go do things during the day as a family.  We said we'd do things in the evenings on weekdays, but it just doesn't really happen.  I get disappointed every time someone invites us to do something on the weekend and I can't go. 

However, Tuesday morning I was walking on the parkway at 9 am with Malcolm.  I was enjoying some sunshine and the old people passing by, and it hit me.  What the heck is my problem?  Yeah, I have to work weekends, but I get to do this!  It's 9 am and most people are just getting to work for their 9-5ers and I'm taking a walk in the sun with a happy little boy in my stroller.  I would hate a 9-5 M-F job.  I really would.  Even full time as an RN I didn't work every day.  Sure, other people don't have to work nights, weekends, and holidays, but I get 5 days off a week!  What am I whining about? 

Then this morning I was internally griping about having to get up at 7:30 and feed a baby, when I'd much rather sleep in.

Hello??? If I wasn't married and didn't have a baby I'd be at work right now! 

So I've started counting my blessings.  Because truely, I am blessed.  I get to raise my own son, and when I'm not taking care of him, FAMILY is.  I don't have to pay for day care.  We live tighter now that I'm part-time, but we still live a pretty cushy life and I only have to work two days a week.

Seriously, what am I whining about?  What kind of a wuss am I?  What an ungrateful little weenie I am. 

If you hear me whining about working weekends, just give me a swift kick in the pants and remind me how awesome my life is, okay? okay.

Memorial Day Weekend

I ended up having a much more fun Memorial Day weekend than I originally thought I would.  I was supposed to work Saturday day, but my manager called earlier in the week and asked me to switch to Friday night for staffing issues.  So I got to have half of Saturday at least!
After I got up on Saturday, we decided to go up to the Tanger outlets in Park City.  It was pouring rain most of the time, but it was okay.  We had originally planned to go on a hike, but had to find an indoor activity instead.  We were looking for shoes for Ryan's Father's day present, but Ryan didn't find any at a price he was willing to pay. (I keep telling him he can't get shoes for that cheap that are worth anything, but he won't believe me.)
We did find me some new clothes at discount prices though.  Woot! :)  So it was a successful trip for me!  I was actually really excited when I convinced Ryan we should shop.  I haven't gone shopping with the actual prospect of buying something in a long time.  Good 'ol retail therapy. 

Later that evening we went to McCool's in Layton for Mikey's birthday dinner.  His birthday almost always is on Memorial day weekend.  We used to always spend it camping, or on other trips.  McCool's is an Irish pub style restaurant and they have some mighty tasty Irish fare.  Reminds me of home... oh wait.  I'm not from Ireland.  I just eat their food cause my family it neat like that.

Brenna surprised Mike with a Kindle Fire.  He'd been wanting some sort of reading tablet for a while, and he was really excited.  Brenna was excited she'd pulled one over on Mike and he had no idea!

We went to Jordan and MiQuelle's to watch a movie, but we didn't last long.  Malcolm was doing awesome and then just hit his breaking point of how late he could stay up (9 pm... wow). It was fun while it lasted though.

Sunday was a usual Sunday, though we all went to dinner at my mom's house.  The weekend was very family thick.

Monday, I worked.  Ryan went up to Mike and Brenna's for a BBQ and whatever else they did.

I think next year we should plan on all going out of town for Memorial day.  I kept seeing everyone's facebook posts, etc. about their trips out of town and I miss doing that.  I miss camping.  But when I work every stinking weekend, what can you do?  Not camp. That's what.

The end!

10 Months!

Guess who's ten months old today? I know, hard guess right? Time is just flying! Here's all about Malcolm at ten months:

-He smiles CONSTANTLY.  He is the smiliest baby ever.  He even smiles at the passers by on the parkway.  There's always some other mom or old person on the parkway commenting on the fact that he smiles at them when they pass.  Though his squinting in the sun and whining face also appear very smiley.  :)

-He is such a charmer.  With his big blue eyes and long lashes and smile.  He slays the ladies.  The old ones anyway.

-Malcolm does have some stranger danger coming on though.  He takes longer to smile at strangers that talk to him at church or at the store, etc.

-Malcolm talks constantly.  That is he "talks".  He can usually be found sitting with some item in his hands observing and whacking it around and "talking" about it.  "ya ya ya, ppthhp, dat dat, pab bap, zzzzzah." He talks and talks and talks.  Though he still does not use any particular words with meaning.  Like saying "da da" and meaning Ryan--he doesn't do that yet.

-When Malcolm is on his tummy, he will prop himself up with his hands and stay there for a long time now.  He reaches for things from that position and will still scoot backwards, but not on purpose.  He is yet to crawl, but I don't mind.  He makes a mess from a sitting position enough as it is.

-Like most 10 month olds, he notices everything and wants to touch it.  He notices the buttons on my shirt and has to hold them.  He notices my ear rings and the tiny specks of whatever on the floor.  I see for-telling signs daily of the messes he is soon to make when he becomes mobile.  Thanks to the fact that he has to experiment with everything he sees.

- He just started this weird, and pretty annoying, thing lately.  He'll get really excited and clenches every muscle in his body like an Olympic weight lifter.  He's done it for a while. But it's turned into grabbing things and then clenching.  That is, grabbing my face and clenching it in his tiny fists and digging his fingernails into my cheeks.  Or pulling my hair excitedly.  Or grabbing the backs of my arms when I'm holding him.  It's adorable and painful and sometimes makes me really mad.  It's hard because I know he's doing it as a sort of happy thing.  He's just bursting with excess excited energy and can't do anything but well, freak out!  I just wish it didn't hurt so much.  He's so cute and smiles a huge open mouthed happy smile at me then his little hands are reaching towards my face... they clamp onto my cheeks or lips or whatever they reach first and then squeeeeeeeze.  Ouch!  I try to just pull his hands away and say, "that hurts mommy" or something and then re-direct his excitement somewhere else. Though sometimes the pain catches me by surprise and it's not such a nice rational reaction. (*sheepish bad mommy smile*) It's only showed up in the last week that he does this, but I'm ready for this phase to be over!

We really are loving Malcolm more and more every day.  He gets so much more interactive, yet still immobile.  Love him!

Meeting "Denali Mae"

 Last Thursday, we took dinner to the Titensor's and Ryan and Malcolm got to meet Denali.  Or "Denali Mae" as Ryan has decided she should be called.  Because it sounds good, or something.  The evening was pretty uneventful, we ate, we held the baby, we played some Just Dance.  So just enjoy the pictures or something...

Denali has the LONGEST hands and feet.  There's no photo shop here, those are her feet's real size!

Long fingers!  (Plus a little sad bruise from her IV in NICU.)

Already pondering life, the universe, and everything.

Stretching her alien long tentacles sweet little fingers

Tried to get a cousin picture, not as cute as the one Brenna got of Denali and Quinn.  Mine won't just lay there anymore.

He kept trying to grab onto her.

Pretty much we dance awesome.

Yay for new babies!  It's so fun to have our families growing!

Game Night at the VDB's

It had been a while, so two Sunday's ago, we had a game night at the VanDenBerg's.  It was smaller than the crowds have been in a while, but still fun.  It was also Kaley's last weekend in Utah--so it was really good to see her before she moved away to Indiana. 
We had hotdogs and played Seven on the Line and Ladder Ball.  It was the usual.  Which is awesome!

Leo and his hotdog.  Which I don't think he ever actually ate...

Malcolm watching Jackson play basketball

Aren't pictures of people eating, just neat?

Kaley, discussing the color of the seasoning on her chips.

Dunno if Jared was really interested in sharing, but Lazarus was.

Wizard Leo

Seven on the line

Malcolm lounging with his cookie during seven on the line.

Hands free for ladder ball!

As promised, a collage featuring fast-caption action of Vo's unique newly developed ladder ball technique. It worked as well as you think.

 

Aw, love birds.

Family photo.  Ryan was standing up extra straight and tall and a little uphill.  He was pretty proud of it and making jokes. 

See?

Then a random picture of all of us on the floor. It's almost a cousins picture except Vo and Jared are aunt and uncle...

Stuff We Like

(It's been probably a year since I've done a "Stuff We Like" post, and really, this is mostly a Stuff ASHLEY Likes post, but whatever.)

Classical Stretch.

It's a workout program that is on KBYU. It used to come on at 8 am, and that's when I found it.  I was sitting in our apartment near the first year we were married, and flipping channels. I just happened to stop on this program.  I sat and watched Miranda Esmond-White "stretching and strengthening" her butt off.  I always feel a little stiff in the morning, (like most people over age 20) and as I was watching a workout program while sitting on my couch, I thought to myself, "that looks like it would make my back feel awesome". So I got up, and participated for the last 10 minutes of the show. At the end, I felt spectacular. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, if you will.

From then on out I would catch it now and again, and every time it would make me feel just as awesome. 

I bought a short DVD that is part of their Essentrics series.  (They now call it Essentrics because Classical Stretch is too old people sounding.  The earlier series' did have Miranda clad in maroon and baby blue unitards.  Super awesome.)

Now, Classical Stretch comes on KBYU at 5 am every weekday.  I DVR it and do them later.  I've started doing them almost every day, and seriously, it's the bomb.  It's another thing I could totally get paid to promote because I lurve it.  I would like to be an Essentrics instructor.  Everyone should do it.  It makes you so flexible, improves your posture, strengthens your muscles in rarely worked ways, and makes every single range of motion on every joint work better and feel better.  It helped my plantar Fasciitis, it helps my back pain, has almost cured my IT band pain, and just makes it feel easier to move.  I feel younger and I'm not even old.

It was developed by Miranda Esmond-White, who is from Canada (has a seriously funny accent sometimes when she says words.  Like "Plantar Fash-ee-aw-taw" and "verte-brah" and "gastroc-no-mic-ee-ous") (your calf muscle, Gastrocnemius). She's a former ballerina who injured her foot and retired, then started her own fitness and dance studio where she developed classical stretch. It's like a mix of Tai-chi, Ballet, and Pilates.  I think it's a better alternative to yoga for a lot of people, and has some of the same benefits.  Miranda has trained professional and olympic athletes (mostly of the Canadian variety).  The DVD I own has actual canadian olympians in it.  A hockey player, speed skater, and figure skater. 

Seriously, try it out.  It's like Physical Therapy, only you don't have to pay for it. You can find some of the Essentrics videos on YouTube.  They usually star Sarha Esmond-White, who is obviously Miranda's daughter.

And now I should get a free DVD series, don't you think?

Epic Day!

Today:

I put on pants I could just squeeze into before getting pregnant with Malcolm.

They fit like a glove.

I weighed myself for the first time in a long time.

I'm back to my pre-pregnancy "skinny" weight.

Yesterday:

I ate a frosty shake at 10pm

Verdict:

Breast feeding rocks.

Anyone hiring wet nurses?  I don't think I'll ever want to quit nursing.

Denali Titensor 5/22/12 Happy Birthday!