The Kimballs

ARG!!!!

2012-02-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

So, early early on Monday morning, Matt took Nicole to the dentist to get her tooth fixed. Matt said the hardest part of the whole thing was getting her to drink the oral anesthetic. She took one taste and did not want to drink that bitter drink. So, they put it in a syringe and squirted it in her mouth. Then, once the medicine kicked in, it only took like 20 minutes to fix up that front tooth. The dentist also did the cavity in the back of her mouth too. They had to numb her for that.

Nicole came home all loopy and unable to stand, but the tooth was fixed! Huzzah!

Nicole was super loopy on Monday. I took the day off of work to stay home with Dan while she got the procedure and then to stay home with the kids while Matt went to school. Nicole kept trying to get up and walk places, but she was not in control of her body quite yet, so she kept falling down. It was a little funny to see. Also, she was super thirsty, which also meant she had to pee like 15 times that day and I had to carry her to the bathroom because she wasn't walking so well. It took hours for this stuff to wear off.

Also, half of her face was numb, so every expression she made looked really funny. This picture doesn't do it justice, but she was trying to smile in this pic.

I was very pleased with the service of the dental office and how well they handled our Nicole. Nicole did not remember anything about the procedure. I asked her what she did at the dentist and she said she drank medicine. That was all she remembered.

And then, two days after the procedure... the stupid filling fell right off! We have been so careful not to let Nicole chew on metal or hard things because front tooth fillings tend not to stay and it just fell off. We don't know when it happened, Matt just noticed it on Wednesday. I'm so mad! We payed a LOT of money to get the tooth fixed, I took a whole day off of work to stay with Nicole and now, just two days later, the stupid filling on the tooth fell off. It looks even worse than before. The chip is much bigger. I didn't snap a pic of it, but once I do, I'll post it up.

I called the dentist and asked "What the heck?" and they said I needed to come back in for another consult. But, these pediatric dentists are booked out every week, so we aren't going in until next week and then it will probably be another week after that until they are actually able to fix the tooth again and so help me if I have to pay my money all over again to get this tooth fixed!

ARG!!! It is frustrating.

Stupid Silver Dollar

2012-02-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Many times I am sitting at work, minding my own business, writing intensely and working hard, when suddenly my sweet tooth starts to talk to me.

"Becky, hey! You know what sounds good? One of those delicious pink cookies out of the vending machine. Or, maybe one of those pack of donuts? Come on, I want something!"

I try to ignore this voice and continue my work until it annoys me so much that I rip open my desk drawer and start looking through my change. I find a quarter, rush over to the vending machine, contemplate and make my selection, put my quarter in the slot and stop. My quarter doesn't fit. I shove and twist and push and inspect the coin slot and the coin still doesn't fit.

I finally look at my coin and it is a stupid Susan B Anthony silver dollar! Frustrated and craving sweet even more, I go back to my desk, check my coin purse and there are no other quarters. I am left frustrated with my sweet tooth yelling at me, so I put my dollar back in my wallet and go back to work, craving!

A few days go by and I once again feel the craving hit. I have forgotten all about my last debacle and I go to my wallet, pull out a quarter only to discover, once again that it is that stupid silver dollar! I just keep pulling it out of my wallet thinking it is a quarter and it isn't. I have got to get rid of this thing! But, the change machine doesn't take it and I just don't know how to get rid of this thing. Throwing it away seems like a waste, but all I want is four quarters in exchange for this useless coin.

Right now it is sitting on my desk as a reminder that it isn't a quarter and will not fulfill my cookie cravings. Curse you silver dollar who is not a quarter!

Busy Busy Busy

2012-02-07T07:29:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a busy one. Busy because I am cleaning and prepping and shopping and cooking and testing for a certain awesome party that is to happen next weekend. I must be prepared!

We went shopping Friday night for a bunch of Walmart stuff that we needed and spent way more at Walmart than we usually do. But, that is what we get for putting off a Walmart trip for a month. We drove all the way out to the Lindon Walmart, even though the Orem Walmart is just 7 minutes from our house because the Orem Walmart is kinda lame. It has a weird smell, it is always dirty, it is always crowded and it seems to never have the items stocked that we are shopping for. Whoever is in charge of inventory and stocking should be fired because they suck at it. So, whenever we have the time, we go the 15 minutes out to Lindon to shop at their superior Walmart. They had Gaterade blue in the powder and I was so excited that we bought two. I love that stuff.

Shopping took up almost all of our Friday night and Matt did homework the rest of the night like the good student that he is. He is so diligent about his homework. I don't remember working as hard as he does when I was in college. This is perhaps because I was single and carefree and thought college was lame but necessary. Except when I went to college in Hawaii. That was a lot less lame.

On Saturday, I did a lot of cleaning and made Matt do chores too. I can't wait for the kids to grow up so that I can make them do chores as well. Then I can be the chores enforcer. Saturday night, we had DJ and his girl over and I tested out my recipe that I am going to use for the Iron Chef party this week. I'm not going to tell what I made, but the test run was a good idea. Now I can tweek and refine and make it even better. I may not win, I never have before, but I love to try and win! Someday I may be an pretend Iron Chef, you don't know!

Sunday was our veg day. I was extremely tired, Matt was extremely tired (from a little boy who woke up crying 5 times in the night because his poor little mouth hurt). So, we went to church and then we were the laziest parents that you ever did saw. We vegged out downstairs, turned on Toy Story 3 and let the kids watch and play and go wild while we attempted to nap. Then, I realized that I had to actually be a parent and cook dinner and I so wished that I didn't have to! It was one of those days where I wish we had dinner plans just so I didn't have to cook. But, I was a good mom and made spaghetti (perhaps the easiest dinner ever) and fed my hungry family.

And that was our busy weekend. Sure it doesn't sound all that busy, but it surely felt busy. I feel exhausted after such a weekend. Definitely not rested like a should be feeling. But that is perhaps because I took the day off of work yesterday to take care of my kids and taking care of kids is exhausting. It is way more work than going to work. But, I will report on yesterdays events tomorrow... hopefully. If I actually upload the pics from my camera, then I will report on Nicole's newest dentist adventure.

Dan Dan He's My Man

2012-02-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dan has me totally enthralled. I love my Dan so much. When I knew that I was having a boy I worried that I wouldn't bond to him like I did to Nicole because Nicole is my little girl, it was so easy for us to bond. But, a little boy? What do I have in common with a little boy? I don't even like other people's little boys. They are rowdy and loud and messy and like bugs. Yuck!

But, then I had Dan and he was perfect. He looks at me with his amazing blue eyes and smiles at me with those dimples and I melt because he is my little baby boy.

I love his little personality. He will snuggle me one second and the next second be giving me pats. Patting is how Dan shows affection because Matt always pats Dan's back when he holds him. He loves to point out my nose and give big open mouth kisses on my cheek.

Dan is so adventurous, which at times drives me mad because he climbs up on things, falls, and bonks his head. He is fearless and uncoordinated, which results in a lot of bonks. I suppose this is what it is to have a little boy. Nicole was not very adventurous and she didn't get into nearly as many things as Dan does, but Dan is not the little drama queen that Nicole was/is.

They are so very different, but I love them both so much. Two very different personalities, two very different little people, but I love them both for their uniqueness.

Dan has started clapping and saying, "Yay!" And it makes me smile every time. Such a simple thing, clapping hands, but it brings me such joy to see him do it.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T09:10:00.001-07:00

Newer Tooth Update

2012-02-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

I took Andrea's advice (thanks Andrea!) and I called Children's Corner. They got us in yesterday afternoon for a consult on Nicole's teeth. Can I just say that I love them already. The staff, the dentists and the atmosphere is totally geared toward kids and Nicole was a lot more comfortable there than she was at the previous place we went.

The dentist looked at her and was able to get xrays of her back teeth (something the other dentist wasn't able to do). We are going to try oral sedation for Nicole and hopefully that works for her. But, if she needs the IV sedation it is about $4700 cheaper to do it at this office than to go somewhere where we have to take her to a surgical center to put her out. But, we are hoping the oral sedation works.

Nicole is scheduled to get her tooth fixed on Monday morning at 7am (wow that is early!). I think that I will stay home with Dan while Matt takes Nicole in to get it done. Matt is really good at keeping a cool head in situations whereas I'm more of a worrier. Plus, Nicole is such a Daddy's girl, she will be calmer with him there.

So, until the tooth is fixed, it is plastic forks and softer food. She won't take bites of things right now because the tooth hurts her, so we just make sure everything is cut up small. I can't wait until this is all over. I hate to see my kid in pain.

Tooth Update

2012-01-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

Nicole went in to the dentist this morning, all drugged up and was given the NOS and it did not stop the wiggles. She wiggled and got very silly and did NOT like the drill or the dentist in her mouth and the dentist was unable to fix the cavities or the front tooth.

I wasn't actually there, but Matt said that it was ridiculous. So, 100 dollars later, we were told that we would have to go to a REAL pediatric dentist. The dentist we went to said they did pediatric dentistry, but they also do family dentistry, so they are apparently ill equipped to sedate young children. Ugh! Why did they even say they could treat Nicole if they obviously couldn't?

So, I called an ACTUAL pediatric dentist and made sure that they could sedate a two year old in order to fill a cavity and fix a chipped tooth. Nicole goes into tomorrow for a consult and then we will make ANOTHER appointment to actually work on the teeth. This is turning out to be an expensive and time consuming process.

If she still can't sit still with an oral sedation that the pediatric dentist does, then we have to take her to a medical center where they can actually put her under to fix her tooth. We definitely don't want to do that because it is very very expensive. So, here is hoping that the oral sedation works.

Snow Day

2012-01-31T07:47:00.001-07:00

Last week we had like one day where it snowed and we took advantage of the snow and went into the backyard to play. Nicole LOVES the snow and everytime it snows she gets really excited and asks to go sledding. We didn't go sledding on this day, but we did venture into the backyard. The snow was kinda frozen on top, but Nicole still enjoyed it.

Dan came out in the snow too, but he mostly sat in the stroller and watched Nicole romp around. But, after a little while he started fussing because he was cold, so I got to snuggle him close to keep him warm. I love baby snuggles.

Nicole thought that a fun snow game would be to put snow in the sled. But, with her mittens on, it was a slow going process.

It was just so fun to watch her play in the snow with her Daddy. Matt thought it would be a good idea to start a snow ball fight with Nicole. But, once Nicole started playing this game, she didn't want to stop throwing snow on Daddy.

Chipped Tooth

2012-01-30T07:45:00.002-07:00

Friday, on my way home from work, Matt calls me to tell me that Nicole has chipped her front tooth. Ugh! Apparently, Nicole was chewing on a fork, like she often does, though we are constantly telling her not to, and she tried to shove the fork between her two front teeth and she chipped off a bit of her front tooth.

It bled for a little bit and she wailed, but then the bleeding and the wailing stopped and she was doing okay. I called around to dentists Friday at 4pm, but I guess a lot of dentists get out early on Fridays because... they can. And, a lot of dentists won't even work on a 2 year old, so I was specifically limited to pediatric dentists. In the end, I was unable to get Nicole into a dentist on Friday. She will go into the dentist this morning.

I was able to talk directly with a dentist though (one who would not work on her because of her age) who said that most likely they will either file the tooth to even out the break or fill it, but there is a chance that the filling will fall out if she continues to chew on hard things (which it seems likely she will do).

All weekend long, she kept trying to chew on things. Toys, more forks (we had to switch her back to plastic baby forks), books, just whatever. What is the deal? Why do kids want to put things in their mouth? It is gross! Not to mention painful if you chip a tooth because of it. Also, I fight her to eat the yummy meals that I prepare for her, but she is more than willing to taste a library book.

UPDATE: Went to the dentist and Nicole had a cavity in her front tooth that caused decay and weakened the tooth. So, when she put the pressure of the fork on the tooth, it was very easy for it to break.

While at the dentist, we thought he should probably look at her other teeth and sure enough, Nicole has two cavities in her back bottom molars. Yes, Nicole has her Daddy's teeth. I have had exactly one cavity ever and it was on a baby tooth that fell out. Since then, I have been cavity free. Matt on the other hand... he went to the dentist last week and it was the first time... ever that he didn't have a cavity in one of his teeth. Bad enamel.

So, Nicole needs fillings on her back teeth and they will fill her front tooth. But, we couldn't do it today because Nicole just couldn't sit still in the chair. She was nervous and didn't like sitting in the chair and really didn't want to lay down in the chair, so the dentist prescribed her some Valium and she will go back in tomorrow morning all doped up to get her fillings. It will be a far less traumatic experience if she is calm. But, the dentist said that 20% of kids are still very wiggly even with the medication and the NOS, so we shall see how she does.

Nicole did get her very first cleaning today and though she was very wiggly and very nervous, I thought she did very well. No tears! Which is a win in my book.

More updates tomorrow and pictures with her new fixed teeth.

Letters to Mommy 9 Months

2012-01-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Mommy,

I am 9 months old now! I am a big boy! I'm ready to run and jump and climb all the furniture in the house! Except that my body just doesn't do what I want it to do, so I will have to be content with crawling around and trying to climb on things only to fall down and bonk my head.

I have conquered the stairs! Well, I've conquered going up the stairs, but I can't figure out the going down the stairs part. I keep trying to superman head first down the stairs, but it just isn't working out for me. You and Dad keep catching me before I make it all the way down the stairs. You are totally stunting my fun.

Nicole is my favorite person in the whole world. I love to follow her around and go for whatever toy she is playing with. She tells me "No" a lot, but I don't care because she is just the funnest and coolest sister ever. But, for some reason, she doesn't like it when I follow her around the house. She keeps yelling, "Mommy, Dan is following me!" Of course I'm following her, she knows all the cool places in the house to play.

Mom, why do you keep feeding me those greenbeans and carrots? You know that my favorite foods are bananas and yogurt. Can't I have it for every meal with a lot of bottles in between? Also, I love those snack cups that are full of Kix and Cheerios. The snack cups are a little tricky though. I stuff my chubby hand in there and then I have trouble getting my fist full of snacks out. I would rather that you put my snacks in a bowl so that I can throw them every where at my own whims.

You keep calling me a "Fatty Lumpkins" mom, but when we went to the doctor, the doctor said I was only 20lbs and in the 50%. I'm a normal size, not a fatty fatikins. And, contrary to popular belief, my head is not a big baby block head, it is in the 50% too.

I didn't care for the doctor though. She made me lay on my back and that is my least favorite position. It always makes me cry. That is also why I hate it when you change my diaper, because you make me lay on my back and stay in one place when all I want to do is crawl around and play and attack your face.

I love you Mommy because you are good at snuggling me and rocking me and helping me fall asleep. I love Daddy because he plays with me all the time. He is always making funny faces and tickling me and letting me climb all over him. Daddy is the best play friend.

9 months is an awesome age Mommy! So many new things to learn and do.

1st Tooth... or Teeth

2012-01-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, while I was gone visiting Sarah, Dan got his first tooth. In fact, he got his first two teeth. His first two teeth are the bottom center teeth, which is a lot more normal than Nicole who got the top right front tooth for her first tooth and it looked super weird.

I couldn't snag a picture of the teeth because he keeps them nice and hidden. I can barely see them myself. Every time I put my finger on his bottom lip to see the tooth, he sticks out his tongue to lick my finger.

I'm sad that I missed his first tooth. I feel like I miss a lot of stuff because I work and then I missed this because I took a trip. That's it, no more trips. I'm staying with my kids to maximum amount of time that I can.

Also, I love Dan in these pajamas because his big belly sticks out and he looks so stinking cute.

Dan is a pretty fussy face because teeth make babies all dramatic. But, he really is handling it a lot better than Nicole ever did. Dan is still a happy boy even though he is teething. He just doesn't want to eat and drools and has a runny nose. I love my baby boy!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm Back

2012-01-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

I hope you have all excused my slight absence from my blog. I flew down to Albequerque, New Mexico to see my sister Sarah and her new baby Jack. I wish I had pictures of my stay, but I realized once I got there that I had remembered the camera, but forgot the battery that was charging in the wall at home. So, I am pictureless.

I spent four days cooking for Sarah and Mark and squishing Jack's baby cheeks. He is a cutey and I like to squish his cheeks. He didn't like it so much though, strange. We spent a lot of time (or all of the time) just lazing around their apartment and watching tv and sleeping. Well, Sarah did a lot of sleeping and so did Jack. I spent a lot of my time reading books. I read three books while I was there.

Mark and Sarah also taught me a new game, Bohnanza. It is a card game that involves beans, it was quite fun.

As nice as it was to spend time with my sister and see her be a mommy, I am very happy to be home with my kids and husband again. Nothing beats spending time with my own kids. They actually love it when I pinch their cheeks.

Bones

2012-01-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night, Nicole asked me if her teeth were bones. I told her that they were. Then, she asked me if she had other bones.

I don't know many of the names of bones because I never did take anatomy, so I told her some of the bones that I knew (skull, ribs, femur, ect...) Nicole was very interested. She repeated all of the names of the bones, even the ones that are hard to say (metatarsels).

Then, Nicole asked me, "Mommy, does sheep have bones?" Referring to her stuffed sheep who we usually call Lambikins. I told her that if Lambikins was real, she would have bones too. Then she asked with sadness in her voice, "Lambikins isn't real?" Which I had to back pedal quickly and respond, "Lambikins is real, she is just is stuffed and doesn't have bones."

I put Nicole to bed and a little while later, Nicole came out with her Minnie Mouse and asked, "Does Minnie have bones too?" This smart girl just kept thinking about our bone conversation and had to know which of her toys had bones and which didn't. So stinkin smart!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

Crawling Crawler

2012-01-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Dan started doing this...

And I knew that this was a precursor to crawling. Sure enough, the next day, he was doing this...

And he has also been pulling himself up on EVERYTHING. Which is driving me crazy because he keeps falling off of everything and bonking his head. He is fearless and just sees all objects as a challenge to conquer by climbing.

Dan loves to pull himself up on the piano so that he can press the keys.

So, I have to start baby proofing again. He is getting into everything and trying to lick the sockets and it is exhausting. I was kinda hoping that it would take him longer to learn to crawl, but he is determined to adventure. And, to keep up with his sister.

Nicole is not exactly excited about Dan crawling. Dan chases her and she hates it. "Dan is getting me Mama!" Is what she tells me all the time.

And now, some pictures of Dan chasing me and the camera.

"Sledding"

2012-01-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Nicole was so excited when we woke up on Saturday morning and she realized that there was snow on the ground. The first thing she asked me was, "Can I go sledding now?" I told her that we could go sledding later in the day.

Unfortunately, the snow melted as the day progressed and by noon, almost all of it was melted. But, not to be deterred, Matt wanted to pull her around in the backyard so that she could have a little sledding and not be disappointed.

I couldn't find her gloves and it was windy and cold, so she didn't much like it. So, it was a little bit of a bummer, but at least we tried to give her a little fun. Matt and I have been sick for days, so it has been a lot of staying home and watching tv. Kids need a little fun that doesn't involve tv sometimes.

Sick, Sick, Sick

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Being sick with a cold for a week is awful. But, having a sick husband and a sick baby on top of that is the worst. Matt and I were both feeling sick yesterday, but the kids were kind enough to fall asleep in their room together before 10pm! It was very much a success. Usually, we put Nicole to bed in her room and we put Dan in the playpen in our room and when they are both asleep, we transfer Dan over to his crib in their room.

Alas that both Matt and I were feeling all sick, so it was difficult to fall asleep last night. Then, at 3am, Dan woke up because he is all stuffy and having trouble breathing. It breaks my heart when my kids are sick and there just isn't much that I can do for them. So, we let Dan roll around on our bed making growly sounds while we watched tv. Dan knows how to make me laugh even when I'm sick and I'm tired. We were all up together until about 4:30am when Matt was the wonderful husband and took Dan downstairs so that I could go back to sleep. When Matt does things like that it makes me want to marry him all over again.

I'm pretty sure that Dan was up until 5am and Matt was up even later than that because it is just hard to sleep when you can't breathe. My alarm went off at 6:45am this morning and I immediately disabled it because I was not feeling inclined to drag myself out of bed just yet. I was very tired and stuffy and grumpy.

But, fifteen minutes later I heard Nicole shouting about something in her room and I knew that if I wanted to shower, I ought to get up out of my bed and quit being so lazy. I begrudgingly got out of bed and got in the shower and before I was finished showering, I heard Nicole opening the door and asking me, "What are you doing?" Which is one of her favorite questions.

Once I was all out of the shower and clean, I found that Dan was awake too. To which I thought, "Figures" because Nicole always wakes Dan up in the morning.

Matt never did come back to bed, so I knew he must have passed out on the couch downstairs, so I did the morning routine with the kids: diaper change, toilet visit, breakfast, and cartoons. Matt slept through all of this even though we were in the dining room eating breakfast and Dan kept shouting at me for more yogurt. I wish I could sleep like that! But, even when I'm all drugged up on cold medicine, I wake up whenever I hear one of the kids make a sound. Dumb mommy instincts that keep me up at night.

So, I was a little late to work this morning because I was caring for the kids while Matt got 30 more minutes of sleep. Which is nothing compared to how much Matt lets me sleep when he gets up with the kids at night. He is obviously winning the best spouse competition. I will just have to work extra hard this weekend to try and catch up.

Slumber Party

2012-01-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Momma Kimball called us last night and told us that sewage was backing up into her laundry room in her house. This is not the first time that this has happened and it is super gross. But, the city and the plumber could not come out to fix it until the morning since it was happening at 6pm in the evening.

So, Matt went and got Mom and brought her (and Sheena) back to our house for the night. No one wants to sleep in a house that smells like sewage. Nicole was very excited that Grandma and Sheena were sleeping over. She went a little maniac and started chasing the dog around the house and squealing with joy. Getting her to calm down enough to go to bed was challenging.

I'm still fighting a cold and so I was a little drugged with cold medicine and just went to bed early. I'm glad that we have a hide-a-bed that guests can stay on when we do have guests. Hopefully, Momma Kimball's house will get cleaned out today so that she doesn't have sewage house.

And, hopefully, they fix whatever plumbing problem is causing sewage to come up through the floor drain.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T07:53:00.003-07:00

2011 Recap

2012-01-03T08:28:00.001-07:00

So, I don't really write a Christmas letter every year. It just isn't my thing, but I thought that I might recap the last year for those of you who weren't reading the whole year. (So, for like 6 of my twelve readers.)

The year started out with me 4 months in to returning to work and missing my Coley so much. Matt was starting his second semester back at school. Oh, and I was great with child. Winter semester was really hard. Matt was taking 15 credits and the classes were really tough. I left for work at 6:30am and got home at 4pm just as Matt left for school. I put Nicole to bed at 8pm and Matt would get home at 9pm. It was a really sucky semester.

But, last April, our wonderful baby boy, Daniel Alan Kimball was born after just 8 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing and one week later, Matt finished his semester of school. And the hardest part of the year was over.

We got six weeks together as our new little family while I was on maternity leave and Matt was in between semesters. Matt took a couple of math classes on the block over the summer, but it really wasn't that bad. Then, last June, I went back to work and had to leave my baby at home... again.

I went back to work to find that all of the people that I used to work with have transferred or quit, so I had to become adjusted to a whole new team of writers. The summer was slow for work, which only made me antsy to get home to my kids, but at least I had a lot more time with Matt. No vacations for us this summer with Matt in school and me just coming off of 6 weeks of leave.

Fall semester came and Matt had decided to tackle 17 credits for school. Because he is either crazy or... nope, just crazy. It felt like winter semester all over again where we tag teamed back and forth between taking care of the kids. I missed my husband and I missed being together as a family.

But, because Matt is amazing, he finished the semester the second week in December with 4 As and 2 Bs. All the hard work and sacrifice paid off because he was able to fit in a lot of the prerequisites that he needed to take classes in 2012.

Then, we had the last two weeks of December school free! Alas that we spent most of it being sick. I still love my job even though I have been moved from my cushy office to a cubicle. This is actually a vast improvement since my office-mate was a smoker and a smelly cat.

In the last year, Nicole has grown up so much! She completed her first year of nursery, she is now potty trained, she will eat more meals than just macaroni and cheese, and she is really doing well at being a big sister. Her vocabulary is huge! I can't count the number of words that she knows and she is really good at speaking in complete sentences. Nicole can count to 20, can recognize all the letters of the alphabet (lower and upper case) and knows the sounds that they make. She has learned how to use my new tablet (much to our dismay) and can now successfully drink from a cup (she has been on sippys for ever).

In the last year, Dan has gone from being a fetus, to a newborn, to my little baby boy. He can get to sitting position from his belly, he bounces on his knees but is not yet crawling, and he can pull himself up on things. His favorite food is mangos and he loves Pops cereal. He is a lot louder than our Nicole was at his age and he says Mama, Dada, and Baba. He also says, "Bob" a lot, but we aren't sure who this "Bob" is. My little baby has grown so much in a year and I fear that he won't stay a baby forever.

2011 wasn't an easy year, there was a lot of sacrifice by both Matt and I to make our way toward the life that we want for ourselves. 2012 will also include a lot of school for Matt and a lot of work for me. But, in 2013 we hope to have Matt graduated and in a job of his very own. So, one year down and one year left to go. I didn't spend the year doing what I wanted to do, which was stay home with my new baby and my little girl and squish their cheeks nine times a day, but I think what we are working toward right now will allow for greater happiness in the years to come.

A Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy Baby

2011-12-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Dan LOVES his exersaucer. Dan LOVES to bounce. Anything that he can hold on to and bounce up and down makes him very happy.

Double Whammy!

2011-12-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

And the day after we recover from the stomach flu, we are smacked down with coughs and colds. Poor little Nicole's sweet high voice is all low, froggy, and raspy. She coughs herself awake in the night and we are miserable again. We haven't gone anywhere since Christmas because, well, we've been sick and haven't left the house. I don't know where we picked up this second sickness.

I'm telling you, if someone is sick around us, we WILL catch their sickness. It is inevitable. My family has the worst immune systems ever. Sick people just need to stay in their homes and quarantine themselves and stop passing on their diseases! I'm obviously mad about getting sick one day after getting better.

So... This is Christmas?

2011-12-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve we packed up our kids, our pies, our fondue, and our jello salad and went to our first event, early christmas dinner with the Derington's at my brother Jake's house. My brother Jake hosts this event every year and we were extra lucky to have it there this year since Jake was out of town up until the even this year.

It is always a fun time that includes food, gifts, and just spending time together. I was really proud of Nicole this year. Nicole has a lot of social anxiety, especially in a crowd, but this year she actually played with the other kids and had a fun time. She really likes her cousin Keira who is close to her age. I saw them walking around holding hands and it was just so stinking cute!

I tried to get a picture of the girls together, but they were so busy looking at each other that they wouldn't look at me.

Little did we know that this party would get us all sick. Not just my family, but also my parents and my sister Marie's family. I don't know where it all orginated, but 9 of the 16 guests got the stomach flu within 48 hours of this party. Oh yeah, it was definitely a Becky holiday (I notoriously get sick on holidays and during travel).

After my family party, we headed to Momma Kimball's house. We did a white elephant gift exchange with Matt's family and we all stayed the night at Momma Kimball's house.

Nicole actually did really well with this too. On the fourth of July, we tried staying over night at Momma Kimball's and it was awful because Nicole just wouldn't sleep, but she did really well and slept in until 7am. Dan on the other hand, woke up many times in the night. We all survived though.

My little family was of course the first ones awake and we woke everyone in the house up because we were staying downstairs and had to walk all the way upstairs and past everyone to use the bathroom in the morning. And Nicole likes to ask a lot of questions and doesn't know how to do it quietly.
"Are we going to the bathroom?"
"Is it dark?"
"Is there a bear in there?" (Uncle Carlos is a loud snorer)

So, since everyone was awake, we started with stockings. Momma Kimball made a stocking for all the grandkids and put a bunch of toys inside, so Dan and Nicole got a lot of stuff between their grandma stocking and their "Santa" stocking. And, they got so wrapped up in stocking stuff that they got all side tracked from the real presents.

Nicole is wearing her Christmas pajamas in these pics, but Dan is not because he peed on them before I was able to get a picture of them. I had all these plans to have the kids in cute pajamas on Christmas, oh well.

After stockings, we ate a yummy breakfast of sticky rolls and quiche. Then, we opened presents. The kids got a LOT of toys. Like more toys than I would have liked, but I packed up a BUNCH of their old toys when we got home so there would be room for their new toys.

Nicole's big toy of the year was a treehouse for her Little Petshop animals.

Dan's big toy was a spinning car track... thing.

I only got a pic of Nicole's toy.

Nicole loved her gifts and it was a fun Christmas morning... until church. We went to church with Momma Kimball and Nicole was a terror! I guess the excitement of Christmas was a little too much because she could not sit still or be quiet and we ended up leaving early.

We spent the rest of the day at Momma Kimball's because the Kimball's had a big Christmas dinner. The dinner was great (until I was throwing it up later). Nicole had a hard time though because we had opened some of her new toys for her to play with and her cousins also wanted to play with her new toys. Nicole is not very good at sharing new toys (but what child is really?). Her cousins had gotten new toys too, but their parents had taken them away right after they got them, so the only new toys out were Nicole's and it was a fight to play with them. Now we know, if other parents take away the new toys, we must too.

We headed home in the evening and it was a relief to finally be home in our own house. I put away the toys, unpacked our stuff and we went to bed. And then woke up a couple hours later to my sweet baby boy throwing up. And an hour after that, Matt was throwing up, and an hour after that, I was throwing up. We spent the next 12 hours trading turns in the bathroom and holding Daniel over the sink to throw up. There is nothing worse than watching your baby dry heave.

Nicole, luckily, did not wake up throwing up. She woke up with a fever and didn't throw up until later in the day on Monday. It was a horrible, violent, awful stomach flu that took about 30 hours to pass. On Tuesday morning, we were all done throwing up, but still retained our fevers. I spent most of Tuesday washing vomit laundry and trying to recover and clean up from the stomach flu.

So, two days of my holiday were spent sick and it was awful, but I am glad that I was with my family and that I was able to be there to take care of my kids while they were sick since I rarely get to do that. I like to be the mommy and take care of my kids. Matt, of course, deals with sickness a lot better than I do and was a lot better at taking care of everyone than I was. Matt's a super daddy/husband.

So, the holiday was good... and bad, and over. I'm excited to be well and finally get to play with my kids and their new toys... and my new toys (Just Dance 3 and Metroid oh yeah!)

Lights at Temple Square

2011-12-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had time to do whatever we wanted because Matt is done with school for the semester and that means that Saturdays are no longer filled with massive amounts of homework. Also, it is winter, so Matt doesn't have to do yard work on Saturday. This is definitely the best time of year. I love having so much time together as a family.

We decided to make the long trip up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. Nicole LOVES Christmas lights. Every time we get into the car, she asks if we can see the Christmas lights, even when it is day time. We have to tell her it is day and the lights aren't on yet and then her heart is broken and she breaks out in tears. So, we thought it would be fun to go up to see the lights at Temple Square.

The kids don't travel well, so we don't often take long car rides with them. Nicole has some sort of triggered response to be hungry when she gets in the car. It is weird. The second I strap her in, she is saying she is hungry, even if she just ate. So, we brought my new tablet (more on that in a separate post) for her to watch a movie while we were in the car. There were still some meltdowns in the car about the tablet, but at least she wasn't asking for food every three seconds.

We got up to Salt Lake around 6pm and it was packed! We thought that we would park at the conference center, but the parking lot was reserved for an event (most likely that Christmas play they do). So, we drove around for a while looking for parking and ended up parking at City Creek mall. We bundled up the kids and ourselves, got out our amazing stroller and headed over to Temple Square.

The crowds were out of control! There was just a throng of people mulling around the square. We got into the heard and moved with the people, but really weren't able to pause to observe the lights because if we stopped, we would ebb the flow of traffic behind us. So, we just moved like a herd of people.

Nicole was one unhappy passenger in this stroller ride. We don't have gloves for her this year and her hands were getting to cold. So we told her to put her hands in her pockets, but then she started crying that her face was cold. She was wearing her hood from her coat, but refused to wear her owl hat, so her face was getting cold. It was seriously cold out. We had piles of blankets on Daniel and had his heavy carseat cover on and we didn't even open it to check on him. We figured if he wasn't crying, he must have been happy.

Anyway, we finally made it away from the temple and went to the north part of the square where they have a lot of different nativities and the crowds were a lot less and we were finally able to get a few pictures. The pictures are really bad of course because Nicole could not get over her cold face and was throwing fits.

Look up Nicole! "No, my face is cold!"

Okay, she kind of looked up for this one, but not at the camera. And yes, she is wearing snow pants when there is no snow.

Here's a peek at Dan in his car seat all bundled up and drinking his warm milk.

Here is an unfortunate picture of me

Nicole was not posing for any more pictures.

So, after being there for about 40 minutes, we headed over to Deseret Book to use the bathroom before going home. That is one thing I have had to train myself to do with a newly potty trained kid. I always have to remind myself that we have to find a bathroom before we go anywhere. Otherwise, inevitably, Nicole will say she has to go right when we start driving somewhere.

Even with all the tears and the cold, Matt and I enjoyed our jaunt at Temple Square. It is fun to get out and try new things, even though it is challenging with two small kids. If we were always afraid to go somewhere because it would be challenging with the kids, then we wouldn't go anywhere at all.

Camera Time!

2011-12-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Every time we get out the camera, Dan gets really excited and starts yelling. I don't know why he does this, but it is really funny and usually results in a good picture.

Nicole is the complete opposite. She is the worst picture taker. I delete more than half of the pictures that I take of her because they are so bad. Here are some examples:

Drunk on Milk Nicole

Nicole thinks opening her mouth is smiling. But she just can't keep those big eyes all the way open.

Just waking up Nicole?

Cough cough!

I guess Nicole will just have to practice how to take a good picture just like her daddy had to do.

Who Likes Oranges?

2011-12-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

Dan likes oranges.

It was an orange massacre. Also, he cried when we took the oranges away. And then he needed a bath. But he loved those oranges!

Car Troubles

2011-12-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, the brakes on my car were making weird sounds and seeming not to work as well, so my savvy husband changed the break pads on the brakes. After he changed the break pads, the breaks definitely worked better, though they started emitting a loud squeally noise.

Then, earlier this year, my car didn't pass inspection because the stupid e-brake light stays on all the time regardless of whether the e-brake is on. So, my husband once again used his mad skills and replaced the back breaks.

After this, the front breaks started to make this horrible grinding sound. I was afraid every time I drove my car because this grinding sound made me wonder if I would get in my car one day and the breaks would stop working. But, my husband found himself very busy this semester (17 credits and full time dad) so he promised to fix the breaks when the semester was over.

Two days ago, I got in my car to leave work, put my car into drive, heard a weird clunk, put my foot on the break pedal only to find no resistance on the pedal. So, I coasted over to a parking spot and slammed that break pedal down. The car stopped... too soon. I wasn't quite in the parking spot. So, I tapped the gas pedal and... nothing happened. The car would not move forward. I pressed harder, but the car would not move. So, I pressed even harder and I inched forward into the spot. I called it, my car wasn't going anywhere.

I called my wonderful husband who had thankfully finished his semester the day before and therefore was not in classes like he normally would be and he came to pick me up. He tried the car and as he tried to move the car, I saw smoke coming out from the drivers side front wheel and then I saw something fall off the car. It was the break pad. It had literally melted and broken off the car. That probably would have been bad if that had happened while I was driving on the freeway home from work. So, I'm counting my blessings there.

Matt diagnosed the problem as the brakes and came back the next day to replace the brakes. I got to try and entertain the kids at my desk while he was out working on the car. Dan apparently loves to sit under my desk and laugh at the cords to my computer.

After an hour of trying to fix the brakes, Matt declared that it was the caliper (whatever that is). So, he went and got the part and fixed that too, because he is amazing. So now, I have brakes that work, a car that works and I am a happy girl. I no longer need to be afraid while driving my car. And thank goodness I have a husband that can fix something for 100 dollars that could have cost 500 dollars.

Preggo Comparison 2

2011-12-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Sarah 38 weeks

Marie 38 weeks

Becky 38 weeks with Daniel

One of these things is not like the others.

Mother's Intuition

2011-12-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dan was sitting on the couch next to me. Then, Anne said something about Olivia being really tired. I look over at Dan and he looks really tired too. I say, "Dan is really tired too, he is falling asleep right now."

And then, right as I said that, his head fell and he fell asleep. He, of course, jerked up his head in reaction to falling asleep while sitting up. It was like I had magical mommy knowledge because he fell asleep right as I said he was falling asleep!

Being a good mommy, I picked him up and let him rest his head so that he could actually sleep without his head dropping. I must have mother's intuition right? I'm amazing! I wish we had had a camera rolling while this happened though because it was really funny.

Full of Excuses

2011-12-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

Nicole is the queen of excuses to not fall asleep. Every night we play the game of putting her to bed, her coming out with some excuse and then putting her back to bed. We put her back to bed about 5 times a night. Here are a few of the excuses that Nicole has come up with for getting out of bed.

I need a drink. (We keep a sippy next to her bed to remedy this one)
I need to throw up. (We keep a throw up bowl next to her bed for this one. Only once has she actually needed this one.)
I need to go potty. (This one is totally legit and we let her go as many times as she wants. Don't want accidents in the bed!)
I miss you. (Hard to resist this one!)
I need a song.
I need a book.
I need a show.
I'm hungry. (To which we always respond that she should have eaten more at dinner.)
I'm scared. (She has two night lights and a stuffed seahorse that lights up AND she had Dan's mobile in her room now.)
I love you!
I need to sleep on your floor. (We let her sleep on the floor of our bedroom when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She thinks she should sleep there all the time.)
I need to say prayers.
I need to brush my teeth.
I need to brush my hair.
I need a clip (in her hair).
I need my pacifier. (Yes, she is still using a pacifier at night. She usually hides it and then comes crying that she has lost it, even though she knows exactly where it is.)
I need my kitty/ducky/hippo/rhino/bear/Kailan.
I need Dan.
I have itchies.
My legs hurt.
My bum hurts.

And, last night, I guess she had run out of excuses because she came into our room and I said, "What do you need?" and she said, "I need something." And then, she ran back to her room crying.

8 Months

2011-12-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

I totally missed my 7 month post for Daniel, but that's okay, he didn't really accomplish much at 7 months.

Dan is still our super smiley and happy little man. He loves to play with Nicole and watch Nicole play.
Dan has started getting particular about toys. He knows what he wants and when Nicole takes a toy away from him, he screams like a little girl and then cries. It is really loud. We are working on not stealing toys.

Dan's favorite thing ever is eating! I make his baby food and he loves to eat solids! His favorite foods are mangos, avacado, pears, and apples. He also really loves cherios. He can grab his own snacks and shove them into his mouth in handfulls. Dan eats three solid meals a day and 4 bottles a day. He is a good fatty baby. I don't mind feeding him so often, but I do not like changing 5 poopy diapers a day. When Nicole was Dan's age, she really didn't eat that much, she was mostly a nursing baby and only had one poopy diaper a day. Those were good times. But, of course, Matt does the majority of the diaper changes. He's a good sport about it.

We gave Dan a haircut this weekend and it ended up WAY too short in my opinion. Matt used the clippers to sides of his head and now he looks like a little blond baldie. I'm a little sad about it and I hope his hair grows out again soon. But, if it grows at the speed it has been growing, it will be another month. Darn baby hair growing so slow!

Dan can sit up all on his own and he loves tummy time now. He puts himself in tummy time and likes to roll all over the floor. The days of leaving him on the bed are over because he is just too rolly polly. He is not crawling, and does not seem like he is anywhere near it, but that is fine with me. Once they are mobile, I have to start baby proofing again. We have been lax since Nicole is all older and less likely to lick a socket.

Dan can finally hold his own bottle! It makes all the difference since he still wakes up in the night for a feeding and I can just hand him his bottle rather than hold it for him. It makes for much easier feedings.

Here are a few of Dan's other accomplishments:

Dan can give five.
Dan can say: Ma ma, Da Da, Ba ba, and Hi
Dan can wriggle out of his bouncer and bumbo, so we don't use them much anymore.
Dan loves to watch tv with his sister. He loves Blues Clues and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Also, I caught him doing this in his playpen.

Toilet Confessionals

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about the toilet, but it makes Nicole very honest. She starts to confess things while she is sitting on the toilet. So, don't tell Nicole any of your secrets because she will spill the beans during her toilet time.

Nicole on the toilet with Mommy helping her.

Nicole: Mommy, me and Daddy built you a new purse.
Me: What?
Nicole: Daddy and me. We made you a new purse. It is brown.
Me: Hmmm....

Outside the bathroom, I relay to Matt the conversation that Nicole and I just had.

Matt: What?!? Nicole! That was suppose to be a surprise for Christmas. We don't tell Mommy secrets.
Nicole: Yeah, don't tell Mommy surprises.

On a different day while Matt is in the bathroom with Nicole.

Nicole: Daddy, Mommy and me found your watch!
Matt: You found my watch?
Nicole: Yeah, we found your new watch.

Matt comes out triumphant because he too now knows his Christmas gift.

Moral of the story. Don't go shopping with Nicole if you don't want her to tell what gift you are giving.

One Year Ago Today

2011-12-08T11:53:00.002-07:00

We lost Dad Kimball a year ago today. We miss him very much. Today is a sad day for us as we remember him and miss him.

Nicole, Mom, and Dad Kimball

The things I remember most about Dad Kimball, in the short time that I knew him is that he was quiet, but funny. I only knew him while he was sick and I wish I had known him when he was healthy because the way the Kimballs tell it, he was always full of energy and life. He was happy and loved his kids and his grandkids very much.

We are all so grateful to get the time with him that we did get. I am especially grateful that he was here for our first child and got to know her and love her. We try and remind Nicole about her grandpa often. Although Nicole called him "paquwa."

We know that Dad Kimball is no longer in pain, no longer fighting the cancer and is happy though he is not here with us. We miss him.

Word/Link Wednesday?

2011-12-07T13:07:00.001-07:00

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/ztw0zWhqm6KcFtfSn7q6

Riverwoods

2011-12-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we took the kids to the Riverwoods to see the Christmas lights. Nicole is obsessed with Christmas lights. Every time we get in the car, she asks to see the Christmas lights. We drove by some lights up behind Nielson Park and she said, "Wow! These lights are amazing!" Silly girl.

So, we went to the Riverwoods and Nicole was very excited.

We had to bundle up really warm because it was cold outside!

We walked around for a while and looked at the lights. There was a live singer and we gave Nicole a dollar to drop in her guitar case. But, when Nicole got up to the case, she tried to grab the money that was inside. I stopped her and tried to get her to drop the dollar in, but she did not want to let go of that money. I had to pry it from her hand.

They also have Santa at the Riverwoods and the line was super short, so we took Nicole to see Santa for the first time ever. We haven't taken her before because the Mall Santa's cost money to get a picture, but this Santa had no such requirements.

Nicole did great! She wasn't afraid and asked Santa for a Snowman for Christmas. Funny girl.

We headed over the the Blickenstaff's toy store and Nicole had a lot of fun in there. But, it was packed! Filled with kids and parents. A very popular place to visit.

Nicole sat on this little bike that you move the wheel back and forth and the bike moves forward. She figured out how the bike works right away. Matt and I were both surprised because she still hasn't figured out the pedals on her bike. It is fun to watch her learn new things.

After the toy store we headed over to Provo Beach Resort to watch the surfers. Nicoley tried some surfing herself.

Nicole was mildly interested in the surfing. After letting her watch for a while, she asked us, "Can I give it a try?" and then we laughed because she says funny things and told her no.

It was a fun night at the Riverwoods. We didn't purchase anything, but just got to walk around and enjoy ourselves for free! Great family night.

Yes or No?

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

Situation 1

Me: Nicole, will you take this bite (of delicious dinner that I made).
Nicole: No
Me: Nicole, can you stop saying, "No"? I like it when you say, "Yes," it makes me happy.
Nicole: Yes?
Me: Yes.
Nicole: Yes! *takes bite*

Situation 2

Nicole: Mommy, can I have a sucker?
Me: No.
Nicole: Mommy, stop saying, "No," you need to say, "Yes."
Me: *sigh* Yes.

Situation 3

Nicole: Mommy, can I feed Dan?
Me: No.
Nicole: You said, "No"? *cries and throws fit* Daddy, mommy said, "No!"
Matt: Yep, she did.
Me: Nicole, the answer is no, you can't feed Dan, he's just a baby, he can't eat that.
*continued crying*
Me: Time out.

Situation 4

Nicole: Mommy, can I have a graham cracker?
Me: Yes.
Nicole: The answer is yes?
Me: Yes.
Nicole: Get it for me!

Situation 5

Nicole: I went potty, do I get a candy?
Me: Yes, but we have to wash hands first.
Nicole: I don't get a candy? *cries*
Me: Yes, you do, but you need to wash hands.
Nicole: I don't need to wash hands.
Me: Yes you do.
Nicole: The answer is No?
Me: The answer is Yes!
*finally washes hands, followed by candy*

Situation 6

Nicole: Mommy, I da da watch the food cook.
Me: No, Nicole, it is too hot at the stove.
Nicole: Mommy said, "NO!" *cries*
Nicole: Daddy, I da da watch the food cook.
Matt: No, it is too hot at the stove, you will get burned.
Nicole: Daddy said, "NO!" *cries harder*

I'm starting to hate the word "No."

Sleepy Boy

2011-12-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

Who says that you have to stop playing to take a nap?

Monster Hat

2011-11-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

So, I decided that I could probably take the concept of owl hats and start making other kinds of hats for kids. My nephew Carlitos is really into dragons, so I thought I would try making a dragon hat. But, the hat ended up looking like a monster, not a dragon. Oh well, he still loved it.

front of the hat

back of the hat

Hat on my hand

Nicole modeling the hat while rolling on the ground

I gave him the hat for his birthday and the first thing he did was stick his fingers in the nostrils. Then, all the kids wanted to stick their fingers in the nostrils. Who knew that that would be the big hit. But, of course, since he is a little boy and really rough, within the first few minutes of obtaining the hat, he had pulled on the horns and stretched them all out and strings that were hidden started to come loose. I just do not know how to keep those strings in. I tie them off on the inside of the hat, but children seem to find ways to pry them all loose.

I neglected to get pics of him with the hat, but I think I will do a Kimball niece and nephew hat post sometime because I've almost made a hat for all of them. I only have to make a cat hat for Lucy and then I've gotten them all.

What the Heck!

2011-11-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

So, after having the stomach flu go through everyone in the house a week ago, I thought we were in the clear for a little while. Obviously, I was mistaken because I woke up at 5am to the sound of Dan retching in his bed. My poor little man is sick again!

He retched and retched, but there was nothing in his stomach that early, so it was just dry heaves. Then, we gave him a little pedialite, which we had on hand from the last week. He fell back asleep and then woke up at 6am to throw up the pedialite. My poor Dan was so pale. But, he is in good spirits, so that is good at least.

I feel like we just can't catch a break. I do everything I can to keep my kids healthy, but they keep catching stuff. Arg! Matt has a final project presentation today, so he can't miss school and I have no days off left, so I can't miss work and we can't send a sick baby to a sitter... it is so frustrating. I wish that I were a stay at home mom so I could just be home with my kids when they are sick and we wouldn't have all these crazy complications every time the kids are sick, which seems to be often.

Anyway, we will do the BRAT diet for Dan right now and see how that turns out. He was just barely getting his appetite back from the last time that he was sick. Now we have to go through it all over again. Curse you stomach flu! *shakes fist*

Preggo Comparison

2011-11-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Marie at 36 weeks

Matt and I at 36 weeks with Nicole

Sarah at 36 weeks

I think it is possible that my sisters are the tiniest pregnant women. Sarah looks less pregnant than Matt. If Sarah does a 38 week pic, you are in for a treat in that comparison.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

We had Thanksgiving with the Kimball's this year. We were going to have Thanksgiving with my family this year as it was their turn (we rotate holidays every year) because we had Thanksgiving with the Kimball's last year (at my house). But, my parents went out to Pennsylvania to have Thanksgiving with my step-brothers, so it was dinner with the Kimball's again this year.

This year, thankfully, it was at Momma Kimball's house. We hosted last year because Mom and Dad Kimball were in a rental and there wasn't a lot of space. We showed up earlyish on Thanksgiving day and I helped by peeling ten pounds of potatoes. Some may say that is too many potatoes. Momma Kimball says it is not enough and Matt peeled five more pounds for her.

The food was great, but apparently, the Kimball's are very big on dessert. The dessert spread was something like this: apple crisp, apple pie, apple cake, 3 pumpkin pies, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, banana cream pie, 2 hershey bar pies and ice cream. It was insanity. There were only 10 adults and 4 children there. Way too much dessert. But, they all felt like it was regular.

Mamma Kimball wanted pictures of the grandkids in their Christmas outfits that she bought them because she is one of those Christmas card people (I'm not). So, after dinner, we attempted to get a picture of all the grandkids together. These were the best shots (and none of them are good).

We got all the kids sitting together (not an easy feat) and started taking pictures and trying to get them to smile and then we broke and let the kids go wild again. But, then Momma Kimball asked who was taking pictures with her camera. We all responded that we were using our own cameras and thought SHE was taking pics with her camera. But, she wasn't.

So, we attempted to set up all the kids again for another round of pics WITH Momma Kimball's camera actually taking photos. But, the kids had had it and did not want to sit for more pics. Dan started crying, the kids were making funny faces, it was not fun.

Getting six kids under the age of 5 to all sit together and smile is impossible unless you are a photographer who is used to doing this. I don't know if anyone else taking photos got a better picture, but all of mine were kinda crappy.

After really crappy pictures, we played minute to win it games that Momma Kimball and Anne had set up. The little kids loved it! I thought it was fun to watch, but not the funnest to do. Probably because I'm not very good at shaking ping pong ball out of kleenex box that is strapped to my back.

Then, everyone started watching movies and eating the massive amounts of dessert. It was a good day full of family fun. I really enjoyed myself, but I missed my family and missed my own family traditions.

We spent Christmas with my family last year, so we are doing Christmas with Matt's family this year. It is good to give the Kimball's Christmas, especially since my sister Sarah won't be here for Christmas, but I feel like I'm missing out on my family's holidays this year. Hopefully, next year, Sarah will be able to come out here for Christmas with her baby all big and grown. Her baby is due a few days after Christmas, so there will definitely be no travelling for her this year. I miss her!

I'm a Mommy!

2011-11-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Nicole came to me last night and said, "I'm a mommy."

Me: "Oh yeah? You're a mommy?"

Nicole: "Yup. Where are my brets?"

Me: "Where are your whats? Your barrets?"

Nicole: "No, my brests? I forgot them."

Me: "Your wrists? Your breath?"

Nicole (getting upset): "No, my brests!"

Me (still not getting it): "Okay, I don't know where they are, where are they?"

Nicole: "Upstairs in your closet."

Me: "Okay, lets go and find them."

(upstairs in my closet)

Me: "Okay, where are they?"

Nicole (pointing to one of my shirts): "Right there, my brests. I'm a mommy."

Finally, I realize that she has been saying "breasts" this whole time and she thinks that being a mommy means having breasts and that breasts are in my shirt. So, if she puts on my shirt, she will have breasts.

Me: "Oh, sweetheart, you're a little girl, you don't have breasts yet."

Nicole bursts into tears.

Nicole: "I need my brests!"

Me: "Nicoley, you are just a little girl, but someday you will have breasts and someday you will be a mommy."

This did not seem to console her. So, I held her and sang songs to her while she cried about not having breasts.

Sick Weekend

2011-11-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Nothing is worse than having a sick baby. My normally happy, smiley, little man was sick with the stomach flu over the weekend. He started with the diarrhea on Thursday. Over the weekend, Dan, sadly, went through 45 poopy diapers. My poor little baby has a very sore bum!

Dan was really whiny and sad on Saturday and started throwing up that night. It is very sad to watch your little baby throw up... a lot. I remember doing this with Nicole when she was about 9 months old, but she was still nursing at the time, so she was getting food that is softer on a little tummy. Dan stopped nursing like 2 months ago.

Luckily, we had some of my milk frozen in the freezer. So, we thawed out the milk and Dan got mama's milk for a day. He went through it in no time though and then it was all gone. But, he didn't throw it up, so it was a success. But, once we were out of it and tried to give him the formula again, he was pretty mad. That is what he gets for giving up nursing. I wanted to keep going, but my little man was done a while ago.

So, Saturday, we pulled out the bed downstairs and camped out all day Sunday.

We stayed in our pajamas and were very lazy. Nicole loves it when we pull out the bed. She thinks it means that she can sleep downstairs (which we do not allow). But, it does mean that we can all snuggle together and watch tv. Normally, I would snuggle with my kids on my bed, but after Dan threw up on my bed, I was done with that. I would much rather that he threw up on the pull out bed (though he didn't, my bed is the lucky one).

Oh, and did I mention that I started feeling nauseated just after Dan threw up the first time? I didn't ever throw up, but I did feel sick to my stomach all day on Sunday. It hit Matt Sunday night. Luckily, it happened on a weekend and we were able to trade responsibilities with the kids depending on who felt better.

Dan is down to just 4 poopy diapers a day, so hopefully the worst is passed and his bum will heal. And, hopefully Matt and I will feel better soon too. I'm at work today either way.

Not Feeling It

2011-11-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm super busy lately and I'm just not feeling the blogging right now. All is well in Kimball land and I will post something relevant soon, just not feeling it today.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Returned!!!

2011-11-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back! And now I shall update you on my less than exciting business trip.

I flew into Oakland on Wednesday morning. The travel was early and uneventful except for the ever exciting BART ride. I was taking public transport while traveling and I traveled the BART (subway) from Oakland to SanFran. BART shouldn't be that confusing, but because I don't know stuff, I did accidentally get on the wrong BART once. But, I just got off at the next stop and hopped on a BART going the other direction and I was fine. BART is not as scary as I thought it would be, but I definitely would not use it alone at night (which was my original travel plan).

I got into the city, walked half a mile to my hotel, dropped off my bags (without seeing my room) and then headed to the office. I had to walk .7 miles to my office, but luckily it was down hill. There are a whole lot of hills in San Fran and I had to do a whole lot of walking. Walking isn't entirely my thing. Especially when I am lugging around a laptop bag.

San Francisco is a whole lot more city than I am used to. There are buildings and streets and nothing in between. Buildings are just smacked right up against each other and all the buildings are enormously tall. But, there are places to eat like every 30 feet or so. It was all a little intimidating because I'm a Utah girl. But, the walk to my work was uneventful, so I guess the city can be safe even when it is intimidating.

I got into the office, which is a mighty tall building with a lot of security. And, I worked, which is not entertaining at all. Unless you find research entertaining. Everyone there was very nice and very helpful and I was able to get the stuff done that I needed to do. And we will leave it at that.

By about 5pm (pacific) I was exhausted! Probably because I had been going since 5am (mountain). So, I trecked up the hill to my hotel and missed my babies and cried and watched tv and fell asleep. I get emotional when I'm super tired.

The next day I woke up (at 4am) feeling less than good. I woke up a LOT during the night because I'm used to getting up 2 or 3 times a night with Daniel (I really need to sleep train that boy). And, then I just woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe I had pushed myself a little too hard the day before with the long day and the travel and the excessive walking. But, I went into work, did my thing, and cut out early. Even though I was only in the office for two days, I still cut out early because I'm awesome and had gotten everything that I needed in a short amount of time. That is just how awesome I am.

I went back to my hotel (another .7 miles when not feeling good) and took a little nap. Then, I headed down to the lobby to meet my brother David. David took me to Castro for dinner with his husband Eric. Luckily, I was feeling a little less exhausted by this time because I had gotten my awesome nap.

We ate at this comfort food sort of restaurant and it was really yummy. I tried Okra for the first time (and didn't care for it) and I tried Gumbo for the fist time (and didn't care for it). But, Eric was kind enough to swap his pot roast for my gumbo and the pot roast was super yummy! It was so fun to catch up and spend time with David and Eric, who I rarely see. This was definitely the highlight of my trip. And, it got my mind off of missing my babies so much. Even though I talked about them an awful lot during dinner.

David and Eric drove me back to my hotel (yay, no walking!) and I crashed not long after getting there. I woke up at 5am the next morning and retraced my steps back to Oakland airport (walking, bart, shuttle, walking). I got home around 3pm and spent the rest of the night kissing my kids cheeks. I missed those kids so much! I would rather be home with them than anywhere else, but I survived the trip, they survived the trip and, most importantly, Matt survived three days alone with them (which is not an easy task).

Many of you mommies out there have husbands who travel and you know that it is not easy watching the kids alone, with no break, for many days. But, Matt was a champ and took good care of those kiddos. Special thanks to my Mom and Momma Kimball who helped with the kids while Matt was in class. Grandmas are awesome.

Intense Potty Training

2011-11-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Before I leave, I wanted to do a quick post on Nicole's potty training status. On Friday, I was reading one of the mommy blogs that I always read and I saw this. Her post on potty training her son inspired me. I decided to steal some of her ideas and do an intense potty training with Nicole over the weekend.

Here is the plan that I devised:

Saturday morning, when Nicole woke up, I switched out all her diapers for size 2 diapers. When, I went to put the diaper on her, and couldn't get it on, I told her that she was too big, that her diapers didn't fit anymore. Then, I told her that she would have to wear her big girl underwear instead.
She, of course, was too smart for my trick and said, "Those aren't my diapers Mommy, those are Dan's!" I need to learn how to do potty training for too intelligent children.
I convinced her to wear the underwear any way in spite of her inability to be tricked.
Then, once she was all dressed, I told her that we were going to have a potty party and that she could eat all the chips she wanted and drink all the pop she wanted. (Chips to make her thirsty, pop to make her pee!)
She was very excited about this and said, "Yeah! A potty party with cake and balloons!"
Because, apparently, party, to Nicole, means cake and balloons.
So, she ate all the chips and pop and juice that she wanted too and we didn't worry about her snacking too much or her finishing her meals. We let down on the rules A LOT!
Then, every 10 minutes, I asked her if she felt the pees coming out. We discovered a while ago that this was the way to talk to Nicole about using the toilet. Asking, "Do you have to go potty?" did not make sense to her. We took many trips to the toilet and she successfully peed many times. She was rewarded with 3 M&Ms every time she peed.
If she pooed on the toilet, she got 5 M&Ms. Which did not happen on the first or second day of training, but that was the deal.

She did really well the first day! We had one poop in the underwear incident on the first day and one accident at the table while she was eating, but other than that, she made it to the toilet every time. Matt and I even went on a date on Saturday night and she went to Marie's in a pull-up and even peed on the toilet for Marie. Marie has aided in potty training multiple children now, so I bet she will be a pro when it comes time for Damon to train.

Nicole was really excited about the whole things and was such a happy girl the whole day. Probably because we were letting her eat whatever she wanted and letting her eat candy and pop all day long. Plus, she got one on one attention from Mommy for most of the day.

On Sunday, we did the same thing, except that we put pull-ups on her because we were going to church. We said we were having another potty party and she was very excited. She did awesome! No wet accidents! Though she did poop in the pull-up every time.

On Monday, Matt was totally in charge since I was at work, but I was optimistic because she had done so well over the weekend with me. After the first poop in the pull-up, Matt switched back to underwear because he felt that she would be less likely to poop in the underwear because she has a fear of being dirty. And, he was right, it worked! She had zero accidents once she was in the underwear, pooping in the toilet and everything.

We are so excited! Hopefully, this trend will continue and she will be potty trained for day time completely in a week. Then, maybe in two weeks after that, she can use the toilet by herself without help from Mom and Dad.

For night time, we are still doing diapers. We bought a brand new pack of diapers and told her that they were made especially for sleeping at night because she can't quite wake herself up to pee yet. She did wake up at 5am this morning to pee, but she had already wet her diaper, but it is progress I suppose. Night-time will be our next mile stone once we get day time down.

The MOST important thing in this process was ME! The reason that we hadn't intensely potty trained in the past was because I was afraid. I was afraid of accidents. I didn't want her to pee on my floor or my furniture. I was unwilling to dedicate my time to taking her to the toilet 20 times a day, to drop everything that I was doing to help her on the potty. To get up from a nap to take her to the toilet. I was LAZY! I think that she has been ready for a while, but I was not ready.

I knew that to really potty train, I had to dedicate at least three days and I had to put her in underwear, which meant that she would pee on the floor most likely. I just was not prepared.

So, after reading that post mentioned above and reading the post that my aunt Deanne wrote about potty training her youngest, I decided to change my attitude. I had to ACCEPT that there would be accidents and be okay with it. I had to be positive about the experience and not resent Nicole from taking me away from whatever I'm doing to go to the potty nine times in an hour. I had to be excited for her! I had to be happy, no matter what so that Nicole would view this as a good experience. That was not an easy thing to do.

And, when Nicole pooped in her underwear the first time I just said, "Okay sweetheart, lets go and get cleaned up." Then, after she was clean, I talked to her about using the toilet in the happiest way that I could without any anger about the accident. Because I knew that if I were upset about accidents, she would have anxiety about having accidents and it would hinder the whole potty training process.

And, I was overly worried for no reason because it has been so simple the last few days. Extremely time consuming and sleep depriving, but easy other than that. Nicole has caught on so quick and can tell when she needs to use the toilet when she isn't distracted. I haven't even needed to clean pee out of the carpet yet (though I know I will need to at some point. No kid is perfect).

If I had just chilled out and changed my attitude sooner, perhaps I could have saved a lot of money on diapers, but I'm catching on now! I hope her progress with the potty continues.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2011-11-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

I am going on my very first business trip this week. My company is sending me to our San Francisco office for a few days. I work with them over the phone and via email a lot, but the higher ups feel that I need to fly out to get hands on experience with what they are working on.

I am travelling alone which is a little intimidating, but I've done it before, I can do it again. All will be well. I'm just going to miss my kiddos so much. I'm trying to pinch their cheeks an extra amount so that they will know that I love them.

So, you won't be hearing much from me this week. Enjoy the break from my blog!

Dan the Man

2011-11-04T08:46:00.000-06:00

How cute is this little man? I love to pinch his super cute cheeks! Unfortunately, he stopped gaining weight since he stopped nursing. So, he is all the time becoming less of my fatty lumpkins. Darn you formula for not being as fatty as my milk.

Wordy Wednesday

2011-11-02T07:47:00.002-06:00

My little ones watching tv together in the early morning. Yes, Dan loves tv already. Two little duplicate me's.

Painting Pumpkins

2011-11-01T07:51:00.000-06:00

We bought pumpkins while we were at Pumpkinland this year, so Nicoley and I painted our pumpkins one night while Matt was at school.

Nicole was really into it. She was very serious about her pumpkin painting. And, she didn't want to ever stop, but we had to when she started melting down about getting paint on her hand. I tried to tell her that when you paint it is okay to get paint on you, but she wasn't having any of that.

My pumpkin. He is very happy.

Nicoley's final pumpkin

I think we will paint pumpkins every year until she is old enough to carve a pumpkin.

New Office

2011-10-31T11:58:00.000-06:00

Last week I moved into a new office. It is a bigger office, still has a window, but I am still sharing. But, I don't mind sharing, I have a good office-mate right now. My new office comes complete with two full walls of white board. So, in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to do a little decorating on the white boards. Here are my results.

Also, if you don't watch Phineas and Ferb, this won't make a lot of sense to you.

There is an office decorating contest going on and I hope to win. I've never won before even though I often went to elaborate measures when I was working at Dentrix.

Also, I'm a Ute fan for Halloween.

Halloween Costumes!

2011-10-28T07:58:00.000-06:00

We went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday, so I got the kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and took pictures of them. The party was a lot of fun! Every year they do a soup potluck (yum!) and this year they had the young men and young women set up games for the kids.

There was fishing, bowling, duck toss, golf, web maze, and balloon room maddness. Nicole had a LOT of fun! I like the ward Halloween parties alot more since my kid is finally old enough to enjoy it for herself. Here are pics of the kids in their costumes.

Daniel as a pumpkin at 6.5 months

Nicole as the same pumkin at 7 months

Nicole now with her goofy smile.

Missing Sarah

2011-10-27T07:44:00.000-06:00

Sarah moved to the far off land of Albuquerque, NM. I miss her already. Why!?! Curse you New Mexico!
We had a goodbye dinner for her on Sunday. These are our farewell pics.

I am missing her already.

Wordy Wednesday

2011-10-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

Nicole is an excellent little helper. She loves to help me load the dishwasher, cook, throw things away, and do laundry.

She has actually gotten really good at folding laundry. I let her fold the burp cloths and kitchen towels all by herself because she is so good at it. If I am slow at folding the laundry, I will find piles like this next to the basket of laundry.

She digs through the basket, finds the things she wants to fold and then folds them. It is times like that that I know she is my child.

Many Owls!

2011-10-25T07:37:00.000-06:00

I made owl hats for my nephews. We tried to get some photos of all the boy cousins together... but I didn't get one where they all looked good. So do a mental cut and paste and pretend they are all looking at the camera at one time or another.

Pumpkinland!

2011-10-24T07:59:00.001-06:00

Last week I took a long lunch and met Matt and the kids at Pumpkinland. Vineyard Gardens on Geneva Road does this feature every year for Halloween and it is so much fun. There is a corn maze, a bunch of animals, fun Halloween themed structures like a castle and a hay house and a giant pumpkin. And, they have bounce houses, a playground, a pumpkin pyramid, and a Halloween house of lights. We went last year and it was a lot of fun, so we decided to go again this year.

Anthon and Marie came with their kids, but we didn't really get to spend time together. They went into the corn maze and we went around the corn maze and we never saw them again. They probably made it out of the corn maze, but not before we had already moved on. When Nicole is a little older, we will try the corn maze, but it is just a little too much for her right now.

I had Matt put the kids in their costumes because it makes pumpkinland a lot more fun. Dan came as a pumpkin and Nicole as a fairy/butterfly. Really she is a fairy, but she thinks she is a butterfly. I let her go on thinking that. I also let her think that a giraffe says "Moo" last year. Whatchaya gonna do?!?

Nicole was feeling a little off this day. She was lethargic and grumpy. Really, she was just really tired. We ended up leaving before we got to see everything because she just couldn't handle it. We got all the way to the bounce houses, she took one look at them, probably had nightmarish flashbacks from my company party when she got trampled and cried until we left.

But, at first she did okay even though she was tired. We walked around the corn maze.

This year

Last year (look how much she has grown!)

And stuck our heads in funny things. (or tried to at least)

Then we looked at the animals. Nicole still talks about the chickens eating pumpkins. She thought it was so funny.

You can tell from the pics that she was not her happy self. She was just kinda going through the motions. We checked out the giant pumpkin.

And then she had a meltdown, so we walked out through the house of lights, picked a pumpkin and went home. Well, the kids went home for a nap and I went back to work. I wish she would have been feeling better that day so that she could have enjoyed it more, but kids are very unpredictable. I never know if it is going to be a good day or a bad one.

Dan slept through most of it in the stroller, so he missed it too. We will try again next year when Dan is hopefully walking and both kids can enjoy it.

6 Months!

2011-10-20T07:54:00.000-06:00

Dan is now 6 months old! He is half a year. It does not feel like it has been that long. It is bitter sweet. He is getting older, which is great, but at the same time, everytime he gets one month older, he is one month farther away from being my little baby boy. I like babies.

I took Dan for his check up and I only remember his weight, which is 18 pounds! Yay Fatty lumpkins!

Dan's favorite things include:

Peek-a-boo
Solid foods (apples are his favorite). He likes solid foods better than bottles. He yells at us between each bite because we can't get the food into his mouth quick enough.
He also likes to eat his little gerber snack puffs. Unfortunately, Nicoley likes them too. Everytime I give Dan a bunch on his tray, Nicoley says, "We are going to eat them together." Then she feed him one and then herself one. I let her do it because then I don't have to constantly be putting snacks in his mouth, she does it for me.
Sitting up on his very own. He's a pretty good sitter. He loves to sit and play with his toys. Nicoley loves to push him over when he is sitting and playing with his toys. I tell her not to and she tells me that he wants to lay down.

Tummy time is NOT Dan's favorite, but we force him to do it every day. He still won't roll over, but I'm thinking it is possibly by choice. He does not wish to roll over. He has rolled over before, but he just doesn't do it any more. Maybe he has forgotten how. I figure he will catch on eventually when he is ready to start getting places.

Dan loves playing with toys. He can grab them and get them too his mouth. Which is funny because he still won't hold his own bottle to his mouth. Nicoley loves to steal whatever toy that Dan has. As soon as it is in Dan's hand, she says she needs it. Technically, all the toys used to be hers, so she still thinks they are. Luckily, she will get Dan a new toy before stealing the toy he is holding.

Spitting. He loves to spit and blow spit bubbles. This is funny, but loud and a little gross.

Dan got his shots on Tuesday and my poor little man has had a fever and has been grumpy since he got his shots. I know that immunizations are important, but I always feel so bad after they get their shots. I love my little Dan the man. He is so funny and happy. I want to squish his cheeks nine times a day.

Mommy Guilt

2011-10-17T07:55:00.000-06:00

So, I took the advice of Moms who read my blog and I got the safety handles for Nicole's room so that when we put her in her room, she stays in her room. Bedtimes last week were just awful because I would spend an hour just repeatedly putting her back in her room. So, we got the handles on Saturday and it worked beautifully!

We gave her three warnings to stay in her room before we shut the door and then she threw a big fit and fell asleep. Awesome. Last night, we went through the same thing. Three warnings, then we shut the door. But, the third time that she came out of her room, she asked for her throw-up bowl. She does this a lot! Every night she comes up with new excuses to try and get our attention and get us to come into her room. Most of the time, she lies to us about poopy diapers that do not exist.

But, we always listen to her and check for poos when she says she has them and give her a flashlight when she insists that her room is scary (she already has two night lights). So, last night, Matt got her throw-up bowl and put it next to her bed. But, that was her third time out of her room, so we shut the door. She threw a fit, like she had the night before and then she fell asleep.

Matt went into check on her after she fell asleep and left her door open after he checked (like we always do). I like her door to be open during the night so that if she needs me, she can get to me. This morning, after feeding the baby and then showering, I was getting dressed when I heard Nicole start crying. I went into her room to calm her and I immediately smelled vomit. Great.

I asked Nicole if she threw up and she said yes. The bed smelled like vomit, she smelled like vomit, but I couldn't find the vomit. I know she told me she had, but sometimes Nicole just answers yes to questions because we tell her not to say, "no" to mommy (because she tells me no all the time when I ask her to eat her food or lay down for a diaper change).

I took her to my room and laid her on a pillow on the floor. Then I stripped the bed, searching for the vomit. I put the bedding in the washer, then returned to her room, determined to find the vomit so that I could believe that I am not just a crazy person who smells vomit everywhere. Finally, I check the throw up bowl (you'd think I would have looked there first right? No!) and there it was. My big girl was telling the truth last night, she really was sick to her stomach and she responsibly asked for a throw up bowl and then threw up in the bowl like a big girl!

I immediately had Mommy guilt. She was telling me the truth and I didn't believe her because she has lied about throwing up so many times before! I should have believed her! I locked her in her room when she was sick and she really needed me. I didn't check on her in the night to make sure she was okay, my Mommy senses weren't working and I didn't know that she was really sick. Guilt!

Matt swears that when he checked on her after she fell asleep that he didn't smell any vomit, so it must have happened in the middle of the night. I'm impressed that she actually made it into the bowl. She has never done that on her own before. Usually she just vomits wherever she is. Then, she was apologizing to me this morning when I was stripping her bed, "I'm sorry Mommy." Break my heart! More guilt.

She is doing okay. Matt got her into the bath this morning as I was leaving for work and she was in good spirits, but I wish I were there to take care of her. Matt will take awesome care of her, he is a good Daddy and loves that little girl so much, but I wish that I could be a good Mommy and redeem myself for leaving her alone last night by caring for her every need today.

Darn you Mommy guilt!

Missing My Kids

2011-10-14T07:32:00.001-06:00

I see my kids every day. I get to see them from 4:30pm until 9pm everyday. I get to see them even more on the weekends, but I still find myself missing my kids. Even when Nicole is driving me crazy because she won't stop taking the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher, I still love her to death and would rather be with her than anywhere else. I seriously love my two kids. So, everyday, when I have to go to work, I find myself missing them very much.

Before I had kids, I didn't even really like kids. They are annoying and sticky and loud and messy. But, then I had my beautiful Nicole and I fell in love with her big brown eyes and her sweet little voice. And then I had Dan and I fell in love with his baby comb over and his chubby knees. I didn't know I could love two kids so much. I love them so much that I sacrifice everything for them. All my actions are, in some way, to serve them.

I go to work everyday so that they can have a house to live in and food to eat and clothes to wear. I go home everyday and spend my time feeding them, bathing them, playing with them. And then I do it all over again the next day. And I would do it forever because I love my kids that much. But, I miss them. I want to squish their little cheeks and see them grow and learn, but I'm a working Mom, so I miss a lot.

I didn't realize how fast kids grow until I started working and the time seemed to fly by. I swear that I was just barely pregnant with Dan, and now he is six months old (today). So, I shall savor my time with them. Stare into their cute chubby faces and treasure my moments with them. And kiss them nine times so that they know how much their mommy loves them.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T07:20:00.000-06:00

Why Do You Hate Your Parents?

2011-10-11T08:27:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to think that my children hate us. The past two nights have been awful! Two nights ago, Daniel woke up crying 30 minutes after we put him to bed. He cried for what seemed like forever with no reason that I could see. Matt shielded me from this and he took care of the baby so that I could sleep so that I could work.

Nicole, two nights ago, would not stay in her bedroom at bed time. She repeatedly came out of bed and into our room and we just kept putting her back every time and explained to her that it was bedtime and time to stay in her room. She wouldn't stop and we eventually had to lock our door so that she would stop coming into our room. We can't really lock her in her own room because the lock is on the inside and then she would be locked in there forever. And that would be bad.

Last night, we had the same Nicole situation and had to lock her out again. She has no interest in wandering the house or anything like that, she just wants to be in our room at bedtime. Perhaps this is because Dan sleeps in our room and she does not. But, when we attempted to have Dan sleep in her room, it was a disaster. They would not stop playing at it was 10:30pm before we finally separated them and got some sleep.

So, Dan and Nicole were both really naughty last night. Matt let me go to bed at 10:30pm, but he stayed up putting Nicole back into her room until 2am! At which time, Dan also woke up and started crying. Kids! They think day is sleeping time and night is awake time. I chipped in and helped at 2am so that Matt could sleep. I finally got both kids back asleep at 3:30am. Then, I went back to bed.

Dan woke up at 6:30am. Nicole woke at 6:45am. Just awesome... I bet they are going to take a long nap today. Maybe I just need to put them both in the same room and try it again and bear through a few nights of staying up late until the novelty wears off and then they learn to go to sleep together easily.

Happy Birthday Matt

2011-10-10T07:33:00.000-06:00

This weekend was Matt's Birthday. He turned thirty something. Matt is not into Birthdays and usually likes it really low key, so that is what we did.
Saturday morning, I made him pancakes for breakfast. Then, I took the kids out of the house and he had the house all to himself to do his massive amounts of homework. In the evening, my Mom came to babysit and Matt and I went out to Goodwood for dinner and then we went window shopping at Best Buy. We never get to shop for leisure any more because shopping is a battle when you have children.

On Sunday, Mama Kimball had us all over to dinner to celebrate Matt and Omar's Birthdays. We ate, walloped DJ and Jenny in Dominion and there was much merriment. Not a partying Birthday for Matt, but hopefully a pleasant Birthday.

Hoot!

2011-10-07T08:22:00.001-06:00

Because I love my kids and because I think this is just too cute, I made some little owl hats for my littluns.

I found a free pattern for this hat here. And I thought it would look awesome on my Dan (which it does).

I made Dan's first and I made a few adjustments to the pattern. Like I added a colored iris to the eye. And, I neglected to do a single crochet around the whole hat on Dan's cuz I'm the worst. Dan's really was a trial run. But, it didn't turn out too bad. It took me about 4 hours to make his.

Then, when Nicole saw Dan's hat, she wanted one. But, because the pattern is for baby heads, I had to try and figure out how to make that hat bigger for Nicole on the fly. I made one hat and it was WAY too big for her. It fit me, that is how I know. So, I tried again and made another hat and it was a little small, but I said, "Oh well." And forced it on her head.

Nicole's hat turned out a lot better because I learned from my mistakes with the first hat. And, it would look even better if it was just slightly bigger. I think maybe she will just stretch it out. This hat also went faster because I didn't have to look at my pattern as much because I had done it once before. This hat took 3 hours to make.

After I had already given the hats to the kids and taken pictures of the kids in the hats, I went and bought buttons for the eyes. I've never bought buttons before and I didn't realize how darn expensive they are! I paid 30 cents a button! I'm thinking I need to raid my mother's button tin for the next owl hat I make because that is just a lot of money for a bitty bitty button.

So, anyway, I sewed on the buttons this morning before I came to work and here are the hats with their eyes.

Yes, that is a camera strap in this pic. I'm the worst photographer.

I think that they look much better and less alien with their little eyes. So, now I'm on a kick and I want to make more owl hats and do different kinds and color combinations. I think I might have an obsession. It is like the year that I crocheted scarves for everyone because I liked making scarves.

So, if you have a baby coming or a baby already here, you just may be getting an owl hat from me. I do take requests if you are someone that I like and/or are related to. For the low/low price of the cost of yarn and expensive buttons, you to can make your baby an owl. If you are not someone I like or are related to... then you can have a handmade owl hat for $22. What a steal!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T09:08:00.003-06:00

Nicoleyisms

2011-10-04T11:12:00.000-06:00

Funny things by Nicole.

Nicole: Mama you are fat!
Me: That's not very nice sweetheart.
Nicole thinks...
Nicole: Mama, you are a good runner!
(The second best compliment she could think of.)

I start feeding Dan a bottle. Nicole runs upstairs.
Nicole comes back downstairs holding a baby doll and my hooter hider.
Nicole: Baby is hungry.
Me: Okay sweetheart, are you going to feed baby?
Nicole: Uh huh.
Nicole puts on hooter hider around her neck, puts baby doll under the hider, lifts up her shirt and puts baby doll to her belly button.
(everyone else in the room is laughing at her at this point and I have to be straight faced Mommy because she knows when we are laughing at her and she is very sensitive and will start to cry)
Me: Good job sweetheart, you are feeding baby!
Nicole: Baby is done.
Takes baby out and takes off hooter hider. Then, she grabs a burp cloth, puts it on her shoulder and burps her baby.
It was so very funny, but I could not laugh at her for fear that she would cry.

Riding in the car on the way home one night.
Me: Nicoley, look at the moon!
Nicole: I see it, it is white!
Me: Yes, it is white.
A mile later.
Nicole: Mama, the moon is following me.

Sleepover

2011-10-03T07:31:00.000-06:00

The other day, Nicole decided that it was time for a sleepover with all her friends. So, she did this.

But, then, there was not any more room on the pillow for the other "friends." So, she asked me for more pillows. I gave her two off of my bed and she did this.

I guess bunny and herself didn't make the cut to actually lay on the bed. Nicole has been doing this a lot lately. Putting her animals to bed. I don't get why it is so fun. Perhaps because she gets to be the Mommy? It is cute either way.

Kid Update

2011-09-29T08:45:00.003-06:00

It is time for a kid update, so we will start with...

Daniel

Dan the Man is 5.5 month now. "What?" you say. "You didn't do a 5 month post?!?" I know, I'm the worst, lets move on.

Dan is my funny happy boy, he is always smiling and being my happy little man. His favorite things right now are:

Jumping in the exersaucer.
Watching Nicole play.
Eating solid foods.
Punching Daddy in the face. (every time Dan is on the bed with us, he punches Matt in the face, don't know why.)
Thumbing things (this is when he sticks out his thumb and sticks it on any surface and then rocks his hand back and forth. I don't really understand this action, but he does it to everything.)
Sucking on his hands, his pacifier, his burp cloth, his bib, his clothes, his toys, pretty much anything thing he can get a hold of (so different from Nicole who did not like to put foreign objects in her mouth.
Touching Daddy's fuzzy face.

Dan is now 17.5 pounds (same size as his 1-year-old cousin Olivia) and I don't know how tall, but short enough to still fit in his baby car seat.

Dan is now wearing 9 month clothes even though he is not even 6 months and he has almost grown out of the 9 month clothes that he is in right now. Not because he has long legs, but because he has a long and fatty torso. The onsies are getting harder and harder to button. He doesn't have any sleepers that fit him because I couldn't get the buttons to snap around his rolly polly belly.

Dan was/is borrowing clothes from his cousin Damon, but it seems that Dan has caught up to him. I need to go shopping for more clothes.

Nicole

Nicole is so smart. She gets smarter all the time and I am proud but then I also fear because the smarter she gets the sooner that she will be able to out-smart me. Here are Nicole's recent "smart" enhancements:

Coloring objects on a page. Nicole doesn't just scribble across the page any more, but she deliberately colors objects on a page and tries her best to stay in the lines. We aren't there yet, but she loves to color and does it better than any one else in her nursery class (not that it is a competition, just something that her teachers tell me.) We are still working on how to hold a crayon. Right now it is in a fist.
Nicole can identify all the letters and 3 of the numbers (1,2, and 3). We are now working on sounds that letters make. She remembers a few of the sounds, but we still have a lot of work to do. We want her reading before kindergarten, so we are starting with letters now. Once she learns how to hold a pencil, we will work on writing the letters.
Singing songs. Nicole LOVES to sing. She is the only child in her nursery who joins in and sings songs during singing time. She knows all the little kid primary songs. She also loves to make up her own songs and it makes my heart happy.
She is starting to identify flavors by herself. Last night I made Key Lime cupcakes. Nicole tasted hers and said, "Mommy, is it lemons?" I said that it was kinda like lemons. She thought about it and said, "Is it limes?" So smart! Then she told me it was a little spicy. She was trying to say it was a little sour, but just didn't know the word.

Nicole also just does and says the funniest things. I can't get enough of this funny kid.

A couple days ago, we were at Marie's house and Damon was going to bed. Nicole announced that she needed to go to bed too. So, she went up to the kids bedroom and climbed into bed, then she said to me, "I'm going to sleep Mama, leave me alone." Hilarious! What 2 year old says that?

Yesterday, she showed me a big zebra toy and a little zebra toy and she said, "A baby zebra and his daddy." I thought this was funny because she related the big zebra to daddy and not mommy because she is with her daddy all day long. So, of course the big zebra would be a daddy.

Matt likes to ask Nicole, "Nicole are cows yummy?" Nicole responds with, "No, they are cows."

When Dan starts to fuss, Nicole goes to him and says, "It's all right little man, I'm here. I'm here." Probably because this is what I say to Dan to try and calm him. It doesn't really work for him whether it is me or Nicole.

Last night I gave Nicole a choice to watch her cartoons or to watch Wipe Out. She chose Wipe Out.

This morning she woke up before I went to work. I told her I had to go to work and she said, "I love you mama." I said, "I love you too Nicoley. I've got to go." Then she ran after me and said, "But, I love you!" Apparently, love should be enough to make me stay home from work. If only.

There are a ton of funny things that she does, but I forget to write them down, and then I forget them. But I love this little girl so much! I love her even more when she isn't crying at my face. Which is her favorite past time.

Ugly Bear

2011-09-28T07:48:00.000-06:00

So awhile ago I decided to try my hand at Amigurumi. What is that you say? It is crocheting or knitting stuffed animals. I decided to do something simple and start with a bear. I used pink yarn because that is what I already had and I have a little girl who loves pink.

Constructing the bear was not challenging, stuffing the bear was not challenging, but sewing it all together WAS challenging. It took several attempts to get the limbs and the head on, but I finally did it! Unfortunately, it ended up being a seriously ugly bear. Here is the end result.

I also had to embroider on a face. But, I quickly figured out that I am bad at sewing on a face to the bear. So, I ended up with only a nose and eyes. I did not put on a mouth because I couldn't figure out what a bear mouth looks like.

Nicole keeps saying, "Bear is hungry."
Then I say, "Feed Bear."
And she says, "Bear has no mouth."

Maybe I will have to figure out how to sew a mouth.

You'll notice the many threads coming off of Bear's limbs. This is because I can't figure out how to hide the ends. What I usually do for afghans does not work because Nicole plays with bear and the strings keep coming out. The arm has fallen off once, both ears have fallen off and the left leg is close. I cannot figure out how to keep the limbs on. This results in the ugliest bear ever.

But, Nicole LOVES this bear. She could barely wait for me to finish sewing it all together. She sleeps with it, she carries it everywhere with her. When a piece falls off, she cries until I sew it back on. So, even though I think the bear is a complete failure, Nicole loves the bear more than any of her other toys.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-09-27T08:29:00.002-06:00

Yay! I am finally doing another Mommy Tip Tuesday! Today I am talking baby food. I like to make my own baby food when baby is first starting eating. I like to do it for the following reasons:

It is cheaper than buying jar baby food.
I know exactly what is in the food, no preservatives.
It is easy.
When I run out of baby food, I can just make more. No need to rush to the store.
It tastes so much better than baby food from the jar. If it tastes better to me, it should taste better to baby.

So, I make a bunch of different kinds of baby food and I do them all pretty much the same way. Here is how I made applesauce and sweet potatoes last night.

3 Apples

1/2 t of Cinnamon

2 Sweet Potatoes

2 T Brown Sugar

Water (amount unknown)

Peel and cut apple and sweet potato into 1/2 inch chunks.

Put two inches of water in a sauce pan and put on high heat. Put a steaming pot on top of the boiling water. Put the apple chunks or sweet potato (one at a time) into the steamer. Put lid on pot. Steam until the food slides right off the fork when stabbed.

Put the food into a blender. Add water from the sauce pan to the blender. How much you ask? Enough to be able to blend the food. More if you want a thinner food. I do a lot of water when baby is first starting to eat because baby has a hard time getting down thick food.

In the Apple blender, add half a teaspoon of cinnamon for flavor. It will make it taste more like applesauce you find at the store.

In the Sweet Potato blender, add 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar. This will sweeten the sweet potatoes and make them more yummy.

Taste all the food you make. If you don't like it, baby certainly isn't going to like it.

For first time food eaters, blend to death. For babies who have been eating a while blend to a slightly chunky consistency. Each baby is different as to what they can handle.

Then, pour the blended food into ice cube trays. I have regular ice cube trays, but I also got a silicone bottom tray from the dollar section at Target. Which works great for getting the food out once it is frozen. I need to buy some more of those.

You can also put your baby food in jars and store it in the fridge. I usually put a little into a tupper to give to feed to baby right away.

Freeze the ice cube trays until baby food is a nice solid block of ice. I usually stick them in the deep freeze to get them super solid. Then, pop the baby food out of the trays, put the cubes in a labeled freezer bag and pop it back in the freezer. Be careful when you are popping the cubes out of the trays, you may just snap your tray in half if it is too frozen... like what happened to Matt the other day.

Then, when it is time for a meal, take out a cube or two, stick it in the microwave for twenty seconds and you have fresh baby food. Tadah!

Dan was trying apples and sweet potatoes for the first time yesterday. He loved the apples, and felt unsure about the sweet potatoes.

I also found this website complete with baby food recipes. Which I have not tried, but I plan on it. They do it a little different. They use a frying pan and saute the food rather than steam. It takes a little longer than just steaming them, but maybe it is yummier, I don't know.

Bloody Nose

2011-09-26T08:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Matt was letting me take a nap while he played with Nicole. I awoke to Matt exclaiming, "There's blood all over you!" I jumped out of bed and was on my way downstairs when he called out, "It is okay, it is just a bloody nose."

I grabbed a ton of toilet paper and raced downstairs. Nicole was sitting on the stairs to the downstairs with her face turned away from me. Matt prepared me with, "It's okay, it is just a bloody nose."

Nicole turned her face and it was like a horror film! Her face was covered in blood. Not just below her nose, but all over her cheeks and chin and on her eyes and in her hair and down the front of her. I quickly covered it up with my handful of toilet paper because my heart was racing and I was starting to panic. I don't care who you are, if you see your child covered in their own blood, even if you know that it is a nose bleed, you freak out a little.

Matt got her up to the bath while I caught my breath and then I started cleaning blood out of her clothes and her blanket and her ugly bear (a post on the bear another time). She was fine and bleeding stopped after a few minutes but man was my heart a racing.

Apparently, she was just sitting quietly on the stairs while her nose bled and she tried to wipe the blood on things like her face and her blanket and her dress. And, once Matt had noticed, it had gotten a little out of hand. She didn't say anything, she was completely silent about it. Probably because she didn't know what was going on.

This whole ordeal reminded me of when I was watching Norm and Rand's kids at my house. I saw Tommy rubbing his face on the carpet and I thought, "Why is he doing that?" Then, he looked up at me and he was covered in blood. He had gotten a bloody nose and was trying to wipe off the blood and thought the carpet was the perfect place to do that. Silly kids. Don't worry, the blood came out of the carpet.

Well, it was Nicole's first bloody nose and we suspected it was because it is starting to get really dry right now and she cannot keep her fingers out of her nose. So, we turned on the humidifier in her room last night to prevent further bloody noses. This was a bad idea.

Any time we change something in her room (like get her a new night light) she has trouble sleeping. She does not like change and this was a loud, wind blowing humidifier. She woke up four times between 9pm and 1am. Then, at 1:30am, I figured out that she was afraid of the humidifier, so I turned it off. But, the damage was done and she was still very scared. She was awake until 3am, when I finally turned on a movie in her room because she just couldn't sleep and I felt bad for her. I realized how scared she was when I turned on her dvd player and the internal fan turned on and she freaked out, "Oh no, oh no! The fan is on again Mommy!" In her high-pitched, freaked-out voice.

I went back to bed at this point. at 4:30am, when the movie finished, she came into my room to tell me that it was over. I walked her back to her room, turned off the dvd player and put her back to bed. I sat with her for a little while and she finally went to sleep around 5am. Ugh! She is most likely sleeping in right now.

But, because I have two children, a mommy's work is never done. Though I went back to bed, Daniel woke up at 6:30am for his feeding. But, I had to get up anyway to get to work.

Needless to say, I am tired. And, we need a quieter humidifier.

No Birthday for You!

2011-09-20T07:36:00.000-06:00

Nicole, Daniel and I were suppose to go to Matt's niece Olivia's birthday party yesterday. Nicole was acting whiny, as usual and I didn't think much of it. Then she started rolling around on the ground and I thought she was just being weird. Then, when we were getting ready to leave, I was putting her shoes on and she said, "Mommy, I don't want to go, I don't feel good."

This was definitely unusual for her. So, I pulled out the thermometer and took her temperature. Sure enough, 101.1. Dan was at 99.2. So, I took shoes off and put her in her bed with some gaterade and a movie. We missed the birthday party, unfortunately, but I don't take my sick kids places. This is probably something that she caught in nursery. Parents are nice enough to send their sick children to nursery to spread the disease around. When my kid is sick, Matt or I stay home with the sick child while the other parent goes to church. It is not the worst thing in the world to miss church to care for a sick kid.

Even though I was kicking myself for not seeing the signs of her being sick, I am so grateful that she can finally tell me when she is not feeling good. She still can't tell me why she isn't feeling good or where it hurts, but she can recognize and communicate that something is wrong. It is just such a relief.

Cole's fever broke around 10pm last night, but she was still very whiny and say she couldn't sleep, even when Matt and I were very ready to go to bed. She tried laying on the floor of our room to sleep, but she just couldn't stay quiet enough (don't want to wake the baby) so she ended up in her own bed eventually.

I don't know what kind of sickness she has because the fever is the only thing presenting other then the lathargia and whiny crying. So, we will keep her home for another day and see how she is tomorrow. I'm taking a half day at work today so that I can go and take care of the kids while Matt goes to school.

Ah the life of the Mommy.

Go Utes!

2011-09-19T07:37:00.000-06:00

We had Matt's family over for the game on Saturday. They are BYU fans, we are Utah fans. But, by the 3rd quarter, things were starting to get just a little sad... for BYU. Even though it was nice that Utah won, it was not a fun game to watch because BYU was decimated. I prefer watching the close games where both teams are rocking it.

So, I say Go Utes! But, I say it sadly because they won just a little to easily.

Where Have You Been?

2011-09-16T07:34:00.000-06:00

I've been in training all week for work, so I haven't been posting. But, here I am now, posting!
I got to watch Marie's little buddy boy last night for a little over an hour and it was a lot of fun. Damon has a little man's voice. His voice is so much deeper than either of my kids that it is shocking when he is over because he likes to make sounds a lot.

While Damon was over, I had to go and put Daniel down for the night and when I went back downstairs, Damon was sitting on the floor in front of the fridge. He had pulled down all of the alphabet letters and was trying to put them back on the fridge. Unfortunately, he kept putting them on the fridge magnet side out, so it would just slide off. Then, he would yell at it and try again. I helped him put all the letters back on the fridge, but my putting them back on the fridge only seemed to upset him. Funny boy.

When Anthon came to pick up Damon, Damon was at the top of the stairs (cuz he was playing in Nicole's room, I don't just leave babies at the top of the stairs) with a big stuffed lamb. When Anthon came in the door, Damon freaked out, "Da da da da da..." And then he started bouncing on the lamb really fast. He was very excited to see Anthon. The bouncing on the lamb looked hilarious! It was like he was trying to dance with excitement or something. It is possible that you just had to be there.

Anyway, it was fun to play with Damon for a little while, I love that kid.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-09-13T10:10:00.000-06:00

Instead of giving a mommy tip, I'm asking for tips. We have been trying to get Nicole off of the pacifier, but the more Dan uses the pacifier, the more Nicole wants to. Whenever Dan has the pacifier in his mouth, Nicole wants one for her mouth. We are constantly taking it away from her, but she has a stash of them somewhere and keeps putting it in her mouth.

I considered saying "goodbye" to the pacifier and throwing them away, but we really wanted to reuse them for Dan since we already have them and they are easily washable. But, she just can't give it up. She cries and throws fits when we take them away, she will steal pacifiers right out of Dan's mouth, and she can't (or refuses to) sleep without it.

We try telling her they are just for bed time, but then she says she wants to go to bed all the time and will lay in her bed with the pacifier rather than come out and play and leave the pacifier behind. We almost had her off the pacifier until we had Dan and then everything changed.

So, what are your tips for getting off the pacifier?

Mommy, You're Fat

2011-09-12T07:38:00.000-06:00

The other day, Nicole was playing with her toys and she looked up at me and said in the sweetest voice ever, "Mommy, you're fat!"

Shocked, I said the only thing I could, "Thanks Nicole."

Yesterday, she was changing her clothes and she said to Matt, "I'm Fat!" And proudly smacked her tummy.

Then, I began to think... Why is my 2 year old talking about being fat?

And then I realized, we tell Dan, all the time, that he is fat.

"You're such a fatty!"
"You're so fat."
"My little fatty lumpkins."

Are just a few of the things that I will say to Dan.

Nicole often repeats what I say and I should have realized earlier that she would pick up on this because we all say it so often to Dan as a compliment. He IS a fatty baby and it is an indicator that he is healthy, so we say it to compliment him. So, logically, Nicole assumes that telling someone they are fat is a compliment.

I just hope she doesn't say it to someone who would take offense. We are considering changing what we say to Dan. Instead of fat, he shall be healthy.

Ugh!

2011-09-08T08:12:00.000-06:00

Things I hear myself say to Nicole... all the time.

Don't play with Mama's kitchen stuff.
Don't put your magnets in the butter tray.
No! No more "oh no-s."
Stop crying! There is nothing to cry about.
No more "I'm hungry." (she says this all the time, even when there is food in front of her face. Even when there is food in her mouth.)
Don't sit on Dan.
Don't kick your brother.
Don't go back there Nicole.
Don't stand on the tray.
Don't put Dan's pacifiers on your feet.

I would like to believe that most of what I say to Nicole is positive. But, some days, it is just feels like I am reining her in from injuring herself or Daniel or from driving me crazy. I tell her all the time that she is a good girl or a sweet girl or a big girl, but I hear myself saying the other things a lot and I remember it because my own voice annoys me when I say it.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T08:16:00.000-06:00

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-09-06T07:43:00.002-06:00

Frustrated Mommies, I am here to tell you what I do when I am at my wits-end with frustration. When everything my kids do starts to bug me and I have no patience left. This does not happen all that often to me because I am a working mom and do not get to spend all day, every day, with my kids, but during the long weekend, I discovered that I am not immune to mommy frustration.

So, what do I do when I just can't hear Nicole cry one more time?

Just Dance!

It is exercise, it is a game, Nicole likes to play it too, so I don't actually have to have someone take over watching the kids while I get my frustrations out, and it is awesome.

When I'm frustrated, I just dance it out. Just DANCE!

I used to do the dishes, but that really only makes me more frustrated because then Nicole tries to help and then she cries because the dishes are wet and then it just makes things worse. I would do regular exercise like using my eliptical, but Nicole likes it too much and thinks it is a toy and the frustration begins again. So, I shall dance if I want to, I will leave my cares behind.

For more Mommy Tips, see my sister's blog here.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T07:27:00.001-06:00

Sleepover in Coley's Room!

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-08-30T07:22:00.000-06:00

Cool new things that I found that I want. These are luxury items. Not must haves. I do not have these items, but I sure do want them.

http://www.booninc.com/products/Squirt
You load up your homemade baby food into this spoon, then squeeze the handle and baby food comes out onto the spoon. No jars necessary. Awesome.

http://www.diapers.com/p/Sunshine-Kids-Super-Mat-7884
I didn't even know that these seat covers existed! Our car seats get hashed with all the snacks and things that we give to Nicole in the back of the car. Once Daniel is old enough to feed himself too, it will ruin our backseat. Me wants!

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=14036262&findingMethod=rr
I wish I had had this when I first had Nicole. I was constantly trying to keep track of the last time that I changed her and the last time I fed her and the last time she slept and it was a lot of times to remember. Matt is even worse at this. I get home and ask when Daniel last ate (because I want to feed him) and he is always like "I don't know, like an hour ago?" Which is not a bad thing, I just like to know so that I can be prepared to take over his schedule when I get home. I want to be the mommy! Me wants retroactively!

Wipe Out!

2011-08-29T09:44:00.000-06:00

One of Nicoley's favorite shows is... Wipe Out.

Yes, I am talking about the show where people do ridiculous obstacle courses and hurt themselves and win a ton of money. Nicoley loves this show. Matt and I enjoy watching it and then Nicole started watching it with us. She gets very into the show and gets concerned when people get hurt or don't finish.

Nicole: "Oh no, oh no. She fell!"
After the person recovers and finishes the course.
Nicole: "Yay! He made it mama, he made it!"

She takes Wipe Out very seriously.

Here are some pics of my kids while Wipe Out is on in the background.

Mad Monkey Boy!

2011-08-26T07:34:00.001-06:00

This is what happens when you put a hat on a baby who has never worn a hat (because he has awesome hair, why would he need a hat?).

Monkey boy is so cute! I couldn't help it.

Letters to Mommy

2011-08-25T09:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Mommy,

I have decided to take after my sister and be very picky about my eating. I know that all I eat is milks, but I want to make things just a little more difficult for you and be very particular about how my milks are served to me.

If the sun is out, I want my milks in a bottle. Do not attempt to nurse me Mommy, because I will just arch my back and shout at you until you stop all attempts to nurse and stick a bottle in my mouth. I am not as particular about the temperature of my milks, but I prefer it warm rather than cold. Also, I'm going to need at least 6 oz every three hours. Maybe you should be writing this down Mommy.

When the sun goes down and it is dark, you may nurse me Mommy, but only with the following conditions:

We must be laying down on your bed. I will not eat if we are laying down anywhere else and I certainly won't eat if you try any of those other nursing holds.
Do not even attempt to take out that nursing cover because I hate it and I will thrash and flail until you get that thing off of me. Unless I am in a playful mood, then I will just grab it and stick it in my mouth to suck on.
I will only eat on your right side unless I am half asleep and you trick me into eating on your left. You are a sneaky Mommy.
No one else may be on the bed with us or I will not eat. I will just look at the person on the bed with us. Unless, of course, you trick me again and put my silky/soft blanket on my face so that I can't see the person on the bed with us.
If the person on the bed with us makes any noise at all, or if I see them, I will not nurse. This is my domain and it must go my way!

If you fulfill all of my eating requirements, I may just be a good boy and make goat noises for you. If not, I will scream a high pitched scream that seems like it should only come out of a girl.

Thank you Mommy!

Love,

Dan da Man

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-08-23T10:17:00.000-06:00

To go along with my Mommy Tip last week, I am going to talk about nursing accessories.

My absolute favorite nursing accessory, my uddercover.

When I had Nicole, I wanted a nursing cover, so I bought a generic one at Target and I hated it! It was thin at the top (just as wide as my neckline) and wide on the bottom. It was NOT wide enough to cover me and baby while nursing. I used it the whole time, but secretly wanted a better one.

When I was expecting Daniel, I was sent a code for a free nursing cover from uddercovers.com and I got it. I love it! It is wide at the top, has boning in the neckline and it is a thin fabric so baby doesn't get too hot when I'm nursing. You can find codes for these covers for free all the time, just ask around.

My second favorite nursing accessory is the Boppy.

I love this horseshoe pillow. It makes nursing a lot easier! I can be hands free feeding my baby, which allows me to hold a book and read or help Nicole with whatever she needs, ect. Daniel doesn't like laying on the boppy anymore (mostly because he doesn't want to nurse). But, with Nicole, I used it for her first year for nursing. I also used it when she was learning to sit up. I put her in the middle of it and it was enough to prop her up and if she fell over, it was onto soft pillow. This does not work with Daniel. When I sit him in the middle of it, he does stiff body and falls back immediately. This boy does not want to sit up.

So, those two items made nursing a lot easier for me.

4 Months!

2011-08-22T08:02:00.000-06:00

Dan the man is getting so big so fast! He is such a big boy and I'm not ready. Why can't he be a baby forever?

We brought Daniel to the doctor last week for his four month check up. He is a healthy baby boy! When the doctor was looking at Daniel, Nicole started to panic. She gets very protective of Daniel and kept asking, "What is she doing?" She was afraid the doctor was hurting Daniel.

Daniel got his shots while we were at the doctor and he was grumpy for the rest of the week last week. Shots sure do make for a grumpy baby. Hopefully, he will be a happier boy this week than he was last week.

Here are Daniel's stats... or what I remember of them.
Weight: 16lbs, 75%
Height: 75%
Head: 50%

Daniel's head keeps getting blockier, like Nicole's, so I thought he would have a higher percentage for head shape, but no, he is average. I just think that he has a big head.

I moved Daniel to size 6-9 month clothing this weekend because I was stretching his onsies to button them. I can't believe how fast they grow!

Here are some of Daniel's accomplishments.

Rolls over... sometimes. He is not very good at it yet, but he can do it sometimes. Mostly, he doesn't get the chance to try to do it because Nicole pushes him over. She desperately wants to help him.
Can grab things with his hands... most of the time. He is learning to use his hands and grab the things he wants. But, he doesn't always succeed. He likes to put his thumb in his pacifier and then chew on it.
He just noticed his feet yesterday. He likes to put his little legs up and just stare at his feet.
His favorite thing, that makes him laugh every time, is rubbing his hands in Matt's hair and Matt's beard face. He thinks it is hilarious.

I love my Dan the man. Stay a baby forever!

Friends Already

2011-08-19T09:16:00.000-06:00

Look at my beautiful children. They love laying together and watching tv. Until Nicole tries to sit on Daniel. Then he likes it less.

20 Week Sisters

2011-08-17T15:36:00.000-06:00

What the heck? Darn my short waist! Even though I am tall, my waist is really short. I'm all legs baby! Obviously, my sisters take after the Derington side, rather than the Moses side. I got the Moses waist, Moses hair, and the Moses nose. Okay, I don't mind the nose, but the other two! Oh, and I have the Moses flat head. Oh yeah, we have flat heads. It is like a board on the back of my head. My poor kids have flat heads too. Little block heads.

Hello Kitty

2011-08-17T09:38:00.001-06:00

A couple of days ago, a pretty kitty cat came to visit us in our backyard. The cat was so pretty and Nicole was so enamored with it that we gave it a can of tuna. It was such a nice kitty cat. It let Nicole pet it while it ate the tuna and then followed her around the back porch for a while until it was time for us to go in and eat dinner.

The next day, Nicole was playing downstairs and the cat came back to visit again. Probably because we fed it delicious tuna and it wanted more. We gave it some water and Nicole played with the cat through the sliding door for like an hour. Nothing keeps her entertained for that long, so we were surprised. Nicole loves cats because her aunt Mee Mee has cats, but Mee Mee's cats don't like Nicole and they hiss and bite her.

Nicole said to me the first time that she got to play with this little kitty...
"Mommy, is it Mee Mee's cat?" (because, apparently, all cats belong to Mee Mee)
"No, it isn't Mee Mee's cat," I said.
"Is it MY cat?" Nicole asked.
"NO, it is NOT your cat!" I told her.

Matt and I are allergic to cats, so we will NOT be adopting this kitty. Plus, I think it is our neighbor's cat who lives behind us. Plus, I was reminded of a story that my aunt Deanne put on her blog. Where they tried to adopt a kitty who kept visiting, only to find out (when they took it to the vet to be fixed) that the cat had been recently fixed. The kitty was just making families with anyone who would give it food.

Last night, Nicole and Matt went out to the garden to pick tomatoes. As soon as that cat heard them in the backyard, it jumped over our back fence and came up to our back porch. I let Nicole go outside and play with the kitty because she loves it so much. Again, she kept asking if it was "Our kitty." No, it is not our cat.

Here is a little video with Nicole and the visiting kitty.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-08-16T08:09:00.000-06:00

For my Mommy Tip today, I wanted to talk about my nursing struggles/successes.

When I had Nicole, I had no idea how to nurse because I had never done it before. We struggled together (Nicole and I) while we were in the hospital, trying to get her to latch on and eat. The nurses kept pushing me to make her eat, telling me that she needed food. So, I called in the lactation specialist and got a little help and she did finally latch.

Now, let me tell you something about newborns. They do not need a lot a food the first few days of their life. Mommy's milk usually doesn't even come in until a few days after you leave the hospital, so all you are producing is colostrum. When baby does eat, it is only one teaspoon, maybe two, because their stomachs are super small. So, do not let your nurses make you feel bad about not being able to nurse right away, it takes a while to get the hang of latching your baby.

Once Nicole was home from the hospital and we got the hang of it, she nursed like a champ. She loved nursing. So much so that she wouldn't even take a bottle. When we finally transitioned her to the bottle at 12 months, it was really difficult because she wanted to go on nursing forever. Plus, Nicole was allergic to cows milk, so we were transitioning her to soy milk and it was not easy. We ended up spiking her milk with ovaltine in order to transition her to bottles. It was not fun, but she had teeth and I was definitely done nursing.

With Daniel, I had a really really hard time nursing at first. He wouldn't latch or he would latch and then immediately fall off. So, we would prepare bottles of pumped milk and start him on the bottle and switch him over to the breast. This worked most of the time, but it was very frustrating for me that my baby couldn't eat directly from me. There were many many tears.

Daniel's tongue was too tight at birth and this made it very difficult for him to latch and get food. I had mentioned to Matt that I thought there was a problem with his tongue, but we waited until his two week appointment to bring it up with the doctor. We got his tongue clipped and he started nursing a LOT better.

With Daniel, we knew that I was going to be returning to work, so we did bottles and nursing both, from the very beginning. I didn't want to go through the nightmare that was weaning Nicole to a bottle with Daniel. This worked out really well. He liked bottles, he liked nursing and he grew fatter all the time.

I had pumped and frozen a lot of milk when I was out on maternity leave because I wanted to make sure that Daniel would never be without food when I went back to work. I really love nursing, I love that bonding time with my baby. Also, after being the food source and life source for my baby the whole time in the womb, it is nice to still feel that connection with my baby that I am still supporting their life and helping them grow.

So, when I went back to work, I chose to continue nursing. Matt feeds Daniel bottle of breast milk during the day and I pump while I'm at work. Then, at night, I nurse him exclusively. Well, after not to long being back at work, my milk supply started to go down during the day. Not being around the baby all day long just didn't inspire my body to make lots of milk. So, we started delving into our frozen milk supply for Daniel's bottles during the day.

Slowly, the milk supply in our freezer dwindled more and more and I had to accept that we would have to start mixing formula into Dan's milk to prepare him for the time that my milk would just stop coming. This was a difficult decision for me because I love nursing so much and I kinda felt like a failure when I realized he would need formula to keep him fat and happy. But, the health of my baby is more important than my sensitive Mama feelings and we started doing half formula, half milk bottles. (Daniel drinks a 4oz bottle every 3 hours.)

He has been on half and half bottles for about 2 weeks now and I have definitely seen a change in him. When I get home at the end of the day, he does not want to nurse. He will reject the breast and still cry for food because he wants a bottle. Bottle give food a lot faster than the breast and he can wiggle and see the world while eating. The only way he will let me nurse is if we are laying in my bed together, he will not eat in the football or cradle holds. Additionally, he has decided that he only wants milk from one side. He does not like my left side and will only drink from it when he wakes up in the middle of the night and is so sleepy that he doesn't know any better. This is very frustrating because the non-preferred side is starting to produce less and the other side is producing more to compensate. I'm sure you see the problem with this...

As much as it hurts my heart to say so, I think my little baby boy is transitioning out of nursing. He has chosen the bottle. It makes me sad. I wanted to nurse him to six months, but he is only four months and already rejecting nursing. But, I suppose, there comes a time when I have to accept that my baby wants to grow up, even though I wish he would stay a baby forever.

So, I assume that we will start weaning sometime this month and hopefully, it will not be as painful as it was with Nicole (like literally painful!). I know that many other women have a lot more problems with nursing than I have ever had. Many women don't produce enough milk for their babies from the very beginning. Other women develop breast infections or their babies never learn to latch. There are so many frustrations that come along with nursing. So, I am grateful for the time I have had with my precious boy thus far.

If you are having trouble nursing or are fearing nursing to come, I hope my experience gives you a little idea of what is to come or at least gives you some comfort that you are not alone. Nursing is difficult, but it is so very worth it!

Naughty Nicoley!

2011-08-15T08:01:00.000-06:00

We had many behavior problems with Nicole this weekend. She was disobedient for reasons unknown (other than her being two years old). I would send her to spanking land, but I don't actually spank, so I will have to be content with venting my frustrations on my blog.

Friday, we went to my brother Jake's house for the blessing of his baby. Nicole was fine at first, wanting to play with her cousins and being excited about being in a place she did not know. Then, it came time for the blessing. She sat next to me and folded her arms and was good for about 2 minutes and then her patience was up, the prayer was taking too long and she started to get restless. I leaned over to her and whispered that she should stay in her seat. Her response, "NO! I don't like the prayer!" Loudly, so that everyone could hear it in the middle of the blessing. I was so embarrassed.

Then, 10 minutes later, when it was time to bless the food, Nicole had had enough of prayers and when asked to be quiet during the blessing of the food, "No! I don't like the prayer. I not da da fold my arms!" Again, during the prayer because the prayer took more than the thirty seconds she was willing to wait for it.

I guess that I can kinda blame myself for this one. We keep our prayers short and sweet at home because I think that every prayer should have a purpose. When we bless the food, we bless the food, we don't go on about all the other things that we have been meaning to pray about. When we say prayers at bedtime, we pray with Nicole in mind, things she would want to pray about. Short and sweet. My personal prayers can get lengthy, but no need to subject others to all of my prayer thoughts, I save it for my own prayers.

Then, on Sunday, we were slightly late for church, so we sat in the foyer while the sacrament was going on. Nicole was out of control. It is like she had completely forgot what a whisper sounds like.

I whisper to Nicole, "Use your whisper voice."
Nicole in a loud voice, "LIKE THAT MAMA?"
Me, whispering again, "No, not like that, use your whisper voice."
Nicole in a high voice, "Like that Mama?"
Me, "No, just stop talking, play the quiet game."
Nicole in a monster voice, "Like that Mama?"
Me, "Arg!"

She just would NOT stop talking. Just asking me the same questions again and again and again.
"Like that Mama?"
"I hungry Mama!"
"I da da sit here Mama?"

Arg!

Then, she decided it would be a fun game to roll around the foyer. I was holding Daniel and so I asked her not to do it, then I told her not to do it, but she just ignored me, laughed and did it some more.

Then, she rolled over to the chapel door and I told her to get up and come to me. Instead, she laughed and started repeatedly kicking the chapel door! I was mortified! This, my child, is misbehaving so badly and I felt powerless to stop her. She would not listen!

Matt and I had had it at this point, so Matt took her to sit in the car. She came back a little ways into sacrament meeting, but she was not better. She wouldn't stay sitting, she wouldn't stop talking, she was just so disobedient. So, I took Daniel and her home. Church is a privilege and if she can't behave, she has to go home. She cried her little eyes out and she went straight to her room when we got home, but I just didn't know what else to do.

I've always been critical of people who can't make their children behave during church. Letting them run up and down the isles. Letting them run up onto the stand. Letting them be loud and rowdy. And then, I felt like that mother who wants to just give up because the child is behaving so badly. I don't know what brought about this change, Nicole used to be so good during church, but the last two weeks, she has been a terror.

Naughty Nicoley

Funny Nicoley

2011-08-11T11:22:00.000-06:00

Here are some funny things that Nicole has said recently.

Nicole was walking up a steap(ish) hill and she said while taking slow steps, "This hill is heavy. It is so heavy."
Hilarious! She was trying to describe that the hill was difficult to walk up.

While driving in the car in the evening the other day, Nicole began to cry and said, "Oh no! The sun is going away Mama! The sun is leaving." And then she started crying really loud.

While leaving the library yesterday she said, "No, I don't want to go." Then, as we went out the doors she said, "Oops, it is closed! The library is closed."

Nicole often likes to say one thing and then correct herself for us. She will often repeat things that we have said to her in the past to herself, rather than waiting for us to tell her. For instance, at dinner, she has to take a bite of her food before she can drink her juice (the juice is a reward for taking a bite). The other night at dinner she said...
"I want some juice."
And in response to herself, she said...
"Oops, you have to take a bite."
Then, she took a bite, and then got a drink of juice.

We were driving in the car the other day and we heard Nicole having a dialog with herself and high pitched Nicoley.

High pitched Nicoley: I don't like that song.
Regular Nicoely: Yes, you do like that song.
High pitched Nicoley: No, don't sing it!
Regular Nicoley: Yes, lets sing it!

What is really funny is that Matt and Nicole have had this conversation before. Nicole claims she doesn't like a song, Matt says she does... she is repeating exact conversations for her make believe playing.

My Day Yesterday

2011-08-11T10:44:00.000-06:00

6am: Feed baby, shower, eat.
7am: Go to work
8am: Freak out because I have tons of work to do and servers are down.
12pm: Quickly eat lunch while working.
4pm: Go home, relieved that I got all my work done.
4:30pm: Get home and feed baby. Then, pack a bag and get Nicole ready to go.
5pm: Go to the Library with both kids so that Matt could study for his final.
5:45pm: Leave library and put gas in the car.
6pm: Run to Macey's (with both kids still) and pick up grocery items so that I can make cookies and cake for family events on Friday.
6:30pm: Get home and start making dinner.
7pm: Serve dinner and feed baby. Then, I eat.
7:30pm: Dishes
8pm: Get kids in pajamas, get Nicole her nighttime milk cup, and feed baby.
8:15pm: Fold laundry.
8:30pm: Read Nicole and Daniel books we got from the library.
9pm: Put Nicole to bed and feed Daniel again.
9:30pm: My wonderful husband is finally finished studying and puts the sleeping Daniel in his bed. Then, I finally get to watch Big Brother.
10:30pm: Fall asleep while watching Shark Tank.

Long day, no break, tired today.

Tweeky Clothespin

2011-08-10T08:58:00.000-06:00

Ever do that thing where, when signing up for something at a store or online, you use a false name? Matt sure does and it ends up with hilarious results.

Apparently, Stevens Henager College will accept anyone. Even if you have a crazy name and never actually applied.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-08-09T08:34:00.001-06:00

Mommy Tip Tuesday! And today I am talking about my favorite stroller!

Philand Teds Explorer Double Stroller

This is my all time favorite stroller! I researched a lot of double strollers when we found out that we were having a second baby and they all seemed really big, bulky, heavy, and had bad maneuverability.

My sister-in-law has a Graco Duo Glider and I pushed it around the Discovery Museum one day and I hated it! It would not turn and I kept running into things! It shouldn't require that many muscles to push a stroller. I promised myself that I would never buy that stroller because it was awful to push.

Nicole in the stroller and Daniel patiently waiting to be put in.

After doing all my stroller research, I looked up the price of the Phil and Teds stroller and was shocked that it was $600 dollars! And, the second seat was another $99. And, if I wanted to customize it with things like the bar that allows the carseat to snap in and the parent organizer on the handle, it would cost even more. It was most definitely out of our budget.

So, what did I do? I lamented about in on my blog and posted a picture of the stroller that I felt was most definitely out of reach. And, to my surprise, I got a response to my post. My friend from college, Angela, had a Phil and Teds that she wanted to sell to me for the low low price of $100. I jumped on that offer!

Nicoley's fake smile

So, I purchased the stroller from Angela and then hopped on the Phil and Teds website to customize my stroller. I bought clips to put the second seat on the front of the stroller, the parent organizer for the handle, the carseat bar, axles for the wheels (because the axles were a bent and the wheels scraped the frame) and tire tubes (the wheels were flat and wouldn't inflate) and I only spent another $100 dollars. So, I got the exact stroller I wanted with all the extras for only $200 dollars! Awesome!

Nicole in the back seat and Daniel in the front.

I love this stroller because you can use it as a single or a double. The second seat snaps on and off the back of the stroller. Plus, you can use it with many different carseats (my carseat is Graco).

If you have sleeping baby, the seat has a full recline. You can also put kid number two on the front of the stroller rather than the back with sleeping baby in a full recline right underneath seat number two.

The stroller has great manuverability; it turns so easily. And, it is all terrain; it will run smooth on pavement, grass, woodchips, whatever!

The only draw back to this stroller is that when the second seat is on the back, you don’t have a basket because that is where kid number two’s feet go. But, you can always buy the storage bags that snap to the sides if you need more storage space. But, I have the parent organizer, so I haven't needed any more storage space.

I love this stroller! I can't say enough good things about this stroller. I love that I was able to buy it used and upgrade it. Most cheaper strollers do not have the option to replace parts, but apparently, when you buy an expensive stroller, they have that option.

There are other good strollers out there, and my Graco stroller worked great when I just had one kid, but this is my favorite double stroller.

Another reason why I love this stroller, it is tandem. The double strollers that are side by side are huge and there was no way we would be able to fit them in our little cars. This stroller fits easily into our trunk and actually has a smaller fold than my single Graco stroller.

So, if you have a ton of money, buy this glorious stroller when you have one kid and then purchase the doubles pack when you have a second coming. You can also find this stroller on KSL used sometimes for half the price you would pay for it new.

For more Mommy Tips, go to my sister's blog here.

Letters to Mommy

2011-08-04T08:09:00.001-06:00

Dear Mommy,

Mommy, I am getting bigger every day and I know that it sometimes makes you sad, but it makes me happy! I can't stay a little baby forever you know. I am already rolling over and I am super good at tummy time.

I loved it when you put me on my tummy last night right in front of Nicole's snack tray. I got a great view of Nicole stuffing her mouth with treats and I couldn't help but drool all over the floor. When will I get to put things in my mouth other than the milks Mommy?

You know that I love the milks, but I am so fascinated by all the other items that you put in your mouth. Sometimes I have to get angry when you are eating right in front of me and not letting me taste what you are eating. It makes me yell at you!

If I am to keep up my current weight gain, you know that you will need to supply me with more than just milks. A boy can't survive on milks alone you know. I am already becoming disinterested in nursing. I would much rather drink from a bottle that gives me the milks way faster.

I can't wait to grow up!

Family Pics Results

2011-08-02T15:07:00.000-06:00

We finally got the results from our family pictures. Some are good, some are great and others are bleh. Here is are some of the best pics.

I wish we had gotten one with all of us smiling, even Dan, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. We only got all of us in one position and I look taller than Matt, I'm not especially pleased.

Hailey and Nicole

I was really displeased with the ones of Matt and I. We were losing the light and were the last ones to go and I hate how I look in all of them.

I loved the ones of the kids, the photographer is great at taking pics of the kids, I just wish the ones of all of us were better.

I'm also sad that we didn't get one with Matt and Nicole. Nicole is such a Daddy's girl and I would have loved one of her and him. I'm considering getting just us a retake because I'm just disappointed by the pics of my family. The pics of all the family look great and I'm sure my Mom will love it since it was all done for her really.

Mommy Tip Tuesday

2011-08-02T07:59:00.001-06:00

Yay! It is Mommy Tip Tuesday! Today's tip is on things that I want that I do not have.

Joovy Room Playard

Also available in black and blue

This playpen looks awesome. I have a Graco playpen that I got for free using my credit card points back when Nicoley was on her way. I didn't really get to choose my playpen, there was really only one available with my points. But, had I been choosing, I would have chosen this little gem.

This playpen can be a bassinet or a playpen, and it comes with a changing table. Which really isn't my thing since I change the baby on the bed and have never used the changing table on my Graco, but that might be a cool feature for some people.

The parent organizer on the side of the pen is awesome! Never underestimate the usefulness of baby storage. You could store diapering materials, baby blankets, baby clothes, whatever you want.

But, the all time best part of this playpen is the entertainment part. You can hook up your MP3 player to the pen and there are speakers inside so that you can play your own music to baby. When we were shopping for a mobile, Matt insisted that we find one that had classical music in it. I found one that met that requirement (see my other mommy tip for this mobile), but he still complained that it sounded digital and not instrumental. He always said that we should be able to hook up our ipod to the crib or the swing so that we could play baby whatever music that we wanted. Well, Joovy must have stolen his idea because they did it! I wish I had this feature!

Additionally, the playpen comes with a night light! How cool is that? I had to buy a night light for my room so that I could check on the baby in the middle of the night, but this one has one already built in! Jealous....

The biggest downside to this playpen is the price, at 270 dollars, it is quite the pricey item. Pricer than I could pay. That is more than I paid for my super awesome stroller (stroller post is soon to come).

But, if you have oodles of money, or if you have a generous benefactor, I would definitely go for this playpen. If you want to see this thing in action, check out baby gizmo's review.

For more Mommy Tips, see my sister Marie's blog.

The Hunger Games

2011-08-01T08:59:00.000-06:00

I just finished my second reading of the Hunger Games trilogy. I decided to read them all again because Sarah was reading them, DJ had the books for me to borrow, and they recently cast the movie that is being made of these books.

Hunger Games is the story of 16 year old Katniss in a future world. The government has control of the 12 districts in the country and to show their power, every year, they select one boy and one girl to compete in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a futuristic Gladiator, fight to the death sort of competition. The story follows Katniss in her journey through the hunger games.

I like these books because they are very creative. The futuristic technology that the author comes up with is so interesting. I could not create the crazy stuff that she invents. The book moves really fast and is intriguing through the end. Also, there is a love triangle, and who doesn't love a good love triangle?

The only part of this book that I do not like is the main character Katniss. She is often emotionless and really hard to relate to. But, like Twilight, I can forgive that the main girl is a dud and enjoy the story for what it is.

The two other books in this series, Catching Fire and Mocking Jay follow Katniss after the Hunger Games (sorry to spoil it, but there are two other books, so she obviously survives the first one). The last two books are about Katniss's fight against the corrupt government. These books are intriguing and are a good read, but the first one in my favorite.

I would definitely recommend these books, they get 4.5 stars from me. I especially think that Marie should read them... if only I could convince her somehow....