Thursday, June 30

i know i say this all the time, but ...


it doesn't get much better than this. 


baby and doggy, keeping watch for daddy out the window. 
it's especially good when that baby keeps saying "dada! dada! dadadadada!"

even better when she sees him pull in the driveway and then starts crying because he is taking too long to get inside. 
and even better when he finally comes in and she squeals and shrieks with excitement and starts running in circles.
and, yes, even better when he brings home an elmo toy that makes kissy noises and she proceeds to make elmo kiss everyone and everything and she even blows a kiss on her own for the first time.

sigh. 

oh, and we have a few pregnancy names for our little #2. i think ellie wanted in on the action, because she brought me three foam letters yesterday that said "boo." last night i dreamed about the baby and i can't remember anything except that we were calling her "baby boo."

so what do you think of baby boo? 

bean and boo. kind of has a ring to it.


Friday, June 24

representin'.



this time of year i miss my home state.
well, really, i miss it all summer.
strawberry days. sleeping in backyards. setting chairs out for parades. rodeos and rodeo food. the fourth of july. several big fireworks shows going at the same time. walking all over at night when it is cool. 24-hour del taco. carnivals. small town festivals every weekend. walking to get snacks and drinks. daytrips. drives around the alpine loop and the nebo loop. moonlight lift rides. hikes to a letter on the mountain. bonfires in the canyon.
oh, i could go on and on. i could also go on and on about the reasons why i couldn't ever do some of those things here. (for example, i would not walk almost anywhere around our house at night for fear of being hit by a car, robbed or murdered. in fact, i probably wouldn't walk anywhere here during the day for several of the same reasons.)
the internet really makes it worse, since i constantly get to see pictures and hear stories about all the fun everyone is having.

not to say that nothing fun happens around here. it's just that most of the big community events mostly involve more alcohol than family fun. i guess that's what we get for living ten minutes from a party school and two minutes from a local brewery.

the closest i can get to home is filling up my giant hart's mug at the few good soda fountain gas stations, which are almost thirty minutes away. sigh.

(oh, and that's right, i brought home a giant hart's mug in my suitcase last time i visited.)


maybe next year we'll try and make a visit during june/july, the very best time of year to be in the beehive state.

Thursday, June 23

last year's model.



i keep telling ellie that she doesn't have to go into storage when the new baby comes. 
not sure if she believes me, because i keep finding in her closet with her toys. 

she's going to love being a sister. 


Tuesday, June 21

don't mess with a good thing.




it seems that we're doing so well with our little girl ... 

that we're having another! 


she was not half as willing as eleanor to show off her little parts, though. she even did an entire flip while we were looking at her. she started head down and ended up breach. hopefully that was because of the coke i had with lunch, because i'm not sure if i can handle two super wiggly worms. 

she also spent most of the time trying to grab her toes. maybe she's telling me i need to get going with that prenatal yoga. 


isn't she a sweet little alien? 



ellie liked looking at the pictures but she sure did not like watching them do whatever they were doing to me. as soon as she saw a stranger about to put some weird tool on my naked belly she started screaming. she also cried and cried when i was throwing up last week (p.s. - i'm all better). she's such a tender little girl. she's going to make an excellent big sister. 



we do not have a name yet but we're working on a little something for the interim. husband likes "princess peepee" but i'm not sure that she'll appreciate that later on in life. we'll let you know soon.


Wednesday, June 15

400?!



wait, this can't be my 400th post! why not? 

because all i can do is just sit, sit, sit, sit. 
and i do not like it, not one little bit.

i've been sick since friday. it started out with a queasy tummy. i didn't eat anything friday evening. saturday morning it felt like my morning sickness had returned very suddenly. i tried to fight through it, thinking it was my body making a very silly mistake. we went to a birthday party that afternoon and i felt just a little terrible but we made it home before i started throwing up the delicious (and i mean delicious) cake. by saturday night i wasn't even keeping water down. since then i have had a couple of pieces of toast, a handful of crackers, some jello and lots of gatorade and ginger ale. blech. 

i have also been the most totally boring wife and mother on the planet. i can't be vertical too long without getting the yucks, so netflix has been running constantly and i am taking lots of naps. 

i know i don't have a lot to complain about, since this is still a relatively easy pregnancy compared to most. i am starting to feel better, but i'm not sure if that is because i haven't attempted to eat much of anything or if i'm really on the mend. i'm a little bummed because i'm starting to think the culprit was the tub of hummus that i got on friday. i ate some with chips and cucumbers and it was all downhill from there (but it tasted so good!). also, i went grocery shopping thursday and i'm afraid that, yet again, most of the food will go bad before i can eat it. i thought i was finally past the part of pregnancy where i was wasting all my groceries!

hopefully, in the next couple of days (at least by the weekend) i'll be good as new and we'll be able to have as much fun as we had previously been having. we'll get back to swimming, playing, shopping, cuddling, relaxing - you know, living the life. we'll clean the house sometime, too.



in the meantime, i have a lovely little companion who makes me laugh and keeps me going. i found her like this the other day, wrapped in blankets and reading stories in her room. 
yep: heart officially melted.

(p.s. - there's a video of her reading to me, but after trying for almost 12 hours to get it to load ... i give up for now. maybe later.)




maybe we'll celebrate more at ... #402?

Monday, June 6

good mom/bad mom + an ellie update.


good mom: 

ellie eating an apple for a snack. 


bad mom:
(or good mom? depends on who you ask. i think ellie would say "good mom.")

ellie's first hamburger happy meal, complete with silly kung fu panda toy. 
she ate most of the burger by herself. the fries she didn't finish, but that's okay. more for me ... uh, i mean, daddy.


it's time for an ellie update! we had our (late) 15 month appointment last week. ellie gained 3 pounds in three months! she is now at 22 pounds and change and is right at average for her age. she's average height, as well, at 30 inches and her head is still in the 75th percentile. she has been growing by leaps and bounds, physically and mentally. she's getting to be so smart and coordinated and hilarious!

she still doesn't say a whole lot of words, but she has been babbling a lot more. her most commonly used real words are "yeah," "dada" and "uh-oh!" (her most commonly used made-up words are "shee-shee," "nominominomi" and "yawa-eeee." yeah, i think she speaks ewok.) she pretty much says "uh-oh" all the time. she threw her food on the floor because i didn't notice she was finished? "uh-oh." i get a text and my phone beeps? "uh-oh." a garbage truck is backing up outside? "uh-oh." did she go potty in her diaper? "uh-oh." even though she doesn't talk much she still communicates pretty well. she follows directions and understands when i ask her questions.

she likes to be independent and gets frustrated when she needs help. i try to get her to use her words, but usually she just makes a lot of baby cuss noises until she is able to fix her problem or i fix it for her (and her problem is usually that her baby doll stroller won't go over a bump or something like that). she's a little high-strung and dramatic about things, but usually calms down easily. she just has to make sure we all know the gravity of the situation first.

we hit a huge milestone last week: we got rid of the paci. it started by accident, but i don't even know where it is now and she hasn't used it in a week. i was really nervous about getting shots without her favorite comfort item, but she was fine! of course, she screamed but as soon as i started getting her clothes back on she calmed right down and was ready to march on out of there. the only real downside is that her sleep schedule went out the window. we had finally established a regular naptime and bedtime and it is totally kaput. hopefully it won't take long to get it back again.

her favorite foods right now are watermelon, chips with dip and yogurt. she has gotten really good at dipping her chips and actually picking food up. i'm tempted to let her use chips as utensils at every meal. she likes mexican food and, of course, loves any sort of dessert item. her favorite activities lately include: trying to put her own pants on, walking around the house shutting all the doors, climbing up and grabbing fruit out of the bowl, hiding behind her favorite chair and making trouble, eating (she could spend all day eating and be happy), sharing her food while saying "yum," giggling and drinking from straws.

i think that is long enough for now. just know that we have a beautiful little creature with a ton of personality and we're very happy.

i think she's pretty happy, too.



Friday, June 3

summertime and the livin's easy.


we have had "unseasonably" high temperatures for a little while now, so we've been living it up like it is full-blown summer already. after a couple of weekends filled with fun birthday parties for ellie's little peers, we celebrated memorial day weekend like crazy - relaxing, eating, playing.


it was so balmy out that my first few pictures looked like glam shots from the steam.   




a water park for under $10? you don't say!


ellie has a new crush on watermelon. also, did i mention that we got a dining room set for mother's day? we did. that means the patio set is actually out on the patio. hooray for eating dinner under an umbrella!



she loves the weather. i get the feeling she was made for the south. seeing as i haven't been wearing sunscreen at all and i'm only a little pink, maybe i was made for the south, too.


i'm serious about this heat. it is 92 degrees out as i write this at 8 pm. we bought a pass to the park five minutes away that has a lake with a man-made beach area. i may actually get a tan this summer (and if you know anything about my history with the sun, a tan would probably be a bonafide miracle).

Thursday, June 2

blogger and i = not friends.


i don't think i have truly forgiven blogger for being totally inaccessible that one time. 
well, i thought i had forgiven and forgotten, but then today i was working on a memorial day post and, although my pictures had been properly edited and rotated, blogger refused to post them correctly. 

long sigh. 
not to mention that ellie was pressing buttons on the keyboard, etc. so i'll be getting back to that a little later when i have more time and patience and for now i'm putting this post up.

i know, boring. totally boring. no cute babies. 

okay, one cute baby preview: 



three for thursday, via wonder woman.

1. three of my favorite pandora.com stations:

- my morning jacket.
- elton john.
- regina spektor.

2. three lessons learned since i graduated from high school:
(oh, p.s. - my sister is officially done with high school today! go tate!) 

- the same amount of work that gets you an "a" in school can easily go unnoticed in the real world.
- most adults don't really know what they are doing, either.
- summer, christmas break and all other "holidays" should never be taken for granted, because they may disappear without a trace (and you might find yourself working on those days and being busier than ever).

3. three people i was remembering on memorial day:

wait, just three? 
come on now. 

4. three bad habits:

- putting off phone calls.
- staying online too long. 
- not finishing the chores i started. 
(all of which i am doing right now.) 


5. three foods i will never put in my mouth:
 (wow, this list has really changed over the last few years. really, i'll try almost anything.)

- milk, plain. just a glass. 
- um, a scoop of mayo? i don't mind a little on salads, but i don't like it on sandwiches. 
- any sort of delicacy that involves an anus, i guess.

6. three things that sounded like a good idea at the time:
(recently?)

-  letting ellie climb on a chair to watch her dad out the window (she ended up with a cut lip).
-  giving ellie her mcdonald's drink, since she has mastered the straw (she dumped it all over herself). 
- eating a whole bunch of pineapple while my morning sickness was still bad (have you ever thrown up pineapple? it burns.).  

7. three plans for father’s day 2011:

- relax. eat. try to find a really great gift.   
- think of something good to do for sharing time - eek!
- dream about what kind of baby we will see the next day.

8. three things that make me a “mean mom":

- uhhhhhh. 
- i started doing tiny time outs when ellie does things like throw books across the room or spill my powdered make-up all over the floor.  
- considering that ellie and i have gone to play, shop and have eaten out for lunch almost every day this week ...  i am not good at being mean. 

9. three things i'm supposed to do today:

- make some phone calls (okay, okay, i'll go do it already!). 
- put together an over-the-toilet furniture thing.
- put away laundry.
- work on primary stuff.
- clean, clean, clean.
- think about making some kind of dinner that won't make us hotter than we already are (with 98 degrees for a high today).


yeah, that's a good place to end and remind myself that i'm actually busy. 
i'll try again with those cute pictures later.