Little February Moments

Letter from the Heart

Andrew's mom was so sweet to come to Denver and watched our kids for a few days while we were away in Las Vegas. The day after she left, it was obvious that Taylor felt her absence as he mentioned how he missed her several times. My favorite 'I miss you' moment:

Taylor picked up a pen and some scratch paper and started scribbling. I thought that he was drawing a picture, but when he started talking to himself amidst the scribbles, I realized that he was actually writing a note. He said:

"Dear Gwand-muver. I wuv, wuv, wuv you. So much. Thank you for coming."

Melt!

Growing Baby

I always thought that when I stopped nursing my baby, I would be the one to make that decision. Last week, Russell proved to me that he, too has a say.

When he woke up one morning, he refused to drink breast milk for breakfast. I tried again a few hours later and got the same reaction. This happened again-and-again over the course of days, sigh--and I'm sure you get the picture.

I'm surprised at how disappointed I am that Russell won't nurse any more. My body has felt simply crazy ever since having him, and so I figured that I'd be celebrating when I got an opportunity for my hormones to balance-out a little more!

Weird, but it's my reality now. And hey, looking on the brighter side--I managed to slowly stash quite the collection of free formula over time. With only three months left until Baby's first birthday, I may not need to feel the sting of buying a can!

He Likes Math (I think)

If he does, he certainly didn't get it from me. Taylor has taken to counting for weeks now. He counts everything from kitchen utensils, to computer icons, food items, books, and so on.

When at a friend's house this week, he played with an old school shape sorter toy for the first time and couldn't put it down. Geometry has always had near zero appeal to me--but this kid seems to like working with shapes and numbers. Could I have a future doctor, chemist, or engineer in my midst?

"The One About the Car"

Taylor has a new fav song to add to his playlist. This song became cool while listening to me shuffle through stations on our car radio. After hearing just a small clip of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" as I skipped on to a new station, Taylor objected and said: "Mom! That was a good one!" I laughed, and back-tracked to listen to his song of choice.

When we got home, Taylor asked me if we had that song on our computer. "I'm sure it's on YouTube," I said, and turned it on for him as soon as we got inside (do not try this at home!). It didn't take much viewing of the official Katy Perry video for me to conclude that it was not fit for my 2 year-old's eyes, to say the least, and soon approved the only slightly risque "Glee" version to feed his song viewing/dancing hunger. :)

Much to my embarassment though, Taylor did see enough of the official music video for him to clearly remember images of people driving cars to the rhythm of the music. This is the reason Taylor now refers to the "Teenage Dream" song as "The One About the Car." Ha ha ha--help.

Lucky #27

I had another birthday this week...this makes 27 for me!

And yes, for the first year ever, I feel old. I can see the dreaded number 30 at the end of the 20's tunnel clearer than ever before! When I complain about aging with my 25 year-old little brother, he loves to tease and laugh with me in his "Larzpañol" saying:

"Veinte-seite?! Ay, que ni!!"

Ha ha. My feelings exactly. :)

As it has in some years past, this year my birthday fell on Presidents' Day. For Andrew, who anticipated enjoying a fun day off with me, instead was summoned to an all-day team building retreat with the Haselden NREL crew. Gotta love it.

Being the super thoughtful and considerate husband that he is, Andrew decided to make up for his absence on Monday by thoroughly spoiling me for the duration of Presidents' Day weekend, both while he was there and while he wasn't.

On Saturday, he suprised me by inviting some good friends over for a fiesta--complete with fun games, decorations and costumes (thank you, Mom!), and great food: tacos, 7-layer dip and chips, horchata, and an amazingly gorgeous chocolate cake. We almost never try to juggle late gaming and parenting responsibilities with our friends because we assume they'll never go for the idea--it does have its risks. But turns out there are other party animals out there who are willing to let their kids watch "Dora the Explorer" until 9:30 at night for the sake of adult interaction. :) I had the time of my life that night! Anyone up for round two?

Taylor with his buddy, Jonathan at the party. "CHEEEEEEEESE!"

On Sunday night, my hubby stayed up late making strawberry-lemonade cupcakes--a new favorite of mine--so that my grandparents and Jeff and Donna's family could come visit the following evening to enjoy cake and ice cream.

*If you're interested (or if your name happens to be MariLouise), the recipe for those delicious cupcakes can be found here: http://annies-eats.net/2009/02/24/strawberry-lemonade-cupcakes/

On Monday, that happened--in addition to my thoughtful grandma gathering me and the Mercer crowd together at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner beforehand.

I love that Taylor couldn't resist blowing out the candle before I did!

Throughout the week I was also showered with thoughful visits, phone calls, emails, FB greetings, and gifts from friends and family. I can't say enough about the thoughtfulness of everyone on my behalf. Thank you, thank you, over-and-over!

Put on the Meat Ponchos

I can't stop laughing. This never gets old!

Enlarged Photos!!

HOORAY!

After much trial and error, much frustration, and many pixelated blog posts, I finally found a great way to enlarge photos on my blog! Has anyone else out there been searching for an answer to this problem too? Here it is:

http://www.blueorchidblog.com/2007/10/how-to-have-large-photos-on-your-blog.html

Las Vegas, Baby!

Oh, my, goodness. Las Vegas is such a fun place! Thanks to Andrew's job at Haselden Construction, we got to have a blast of a long weekend in Sin City (for we sinners, you know. :) ). We did so much; I don't know where to begin!

Andrew's mom flew from Birmingham last Tuesday to spend some time with us and to watch Taylor and Russell while we went away.

We were overwhelmed with her generosity in coming, as it was a sacrifice for her in many ways--most notably, having to cope with extreme pain in her neck and shoulder (it hasn't gone away since she was in a car accident months ago). And as you can see, life is always an adventure at our house, too! Somehow through it all, this amazing veteran mother of eight managed to keep a smile on her face amidst pain and fatigue and win the hearts of our kids over-and-over again while we were gone. I think they had just as much of a vacation as we did.

On Thursday afternoon, Andrew and I caught a plane to Las Vegas, along with ten other Haselden employees and their vacation buddies of choice (mostly spouses).

Upon arrival, our dashing chauffeur from Bell Transportation was at the LAS baggage claim waiting to take us to our hotel on the Vegas strip. :)

Destination...the Luxor Hotel!

That evening, we met-up with my old room mate and dear friend from my freshman year at BYU-I--Maria Grover, and her hillarious husband Tim at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a perfect beginning to our vacation. After having had a really emotionally tough month in January, these two helped lift my spirits in ways that I desperately needed. I laughed longer and harder than I had since spending time with family for the holidays! Good friends and good laughter truly are some of the best medicine.

On Friday evening, we met with the Haselden clan for dinner at Margaritaville in the Flamingo Hotel. I enjoyed getting to know Andrew's co-workers and their spouses--such nice, down-to-earth people. (And the endless Pina Coladas were pretty good too!)

These two couples in particular were especially inspiring to me. They are such great people--who are now fun friends.

After dinner with our Haselden friends, Andrew and I went exploring together and became mesmerized by the breathtaking fountain shows outside the Bellagio Hotel. We stood outside in the chilly weather and watched show-after-show-after-show (displayed every 15 minutes). It was so soothing and so great to be with just my sweet heart and-- for the moment, without a care in the world.

When we brought ourselves back to reality, we hunted down my uncle John, who lives just outside Las Vegas with his family and who also manages one of the live theaters at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. He showed us behind the scenes of some of the big productions currently showing there and brought us up-to-speed on what's happening with his family. I don't get to see John, Naomi and their family nearly enough. It was really nice to see him.

On Saturday night we went to a Cirque Du Soleil show at the Mirage that I've been itchin' to see for years now: "Beatles: LOVE!" It was as cool as I had been told it was, and better. Ever since, I've been constantly singing Beatles music in the shower, listening to our newly downloaded Beatles LOVE album, even dreaming about The Beatles. I'm sure I must be the newest big Beatles fan. I think I get why they were the cat's pajamas back in the day! (BTW, if you haven't personally seen this show, put it on your bucket list. It's really a must see.)

I've left our most thrilling activities of that weekend for last:

On Saturday morning, the whole Haselden group went to the Las Vegas racetrack and got to drive exotic cars! This has been a dream of Andrew's for a while so he especially was practically drooling on the scene. Andrew drove a brand spankin' new Farrari 458 Italia and I drove a new Lamborghini Gallago. It was super thrilling!

Finally, on Friday morning...we went SKY DIVING!! Just me and Andrew. It was absolutely the most intense adrenaline rush I have ever had. Hands down.

We were shuttled to Boulder City, a 20 minute drive outside of Las Vegas, where we then strapped ourselves to professional sky divers, took a little airplane 15,000 feet into the air, and jumped. Yes, I felt like I was falling! Incredibly quickly too--I'm told we were falling at about 120 mph for the 1 minute before our parachutes were released (did I mention that this was intense?!). After we landed back on solid ground, it took both Andrew and I over an hour just to calm down from the experience. Whew!

That said, it was so much fun. Can I say that again? SO MUCH FUN!! And so beautiful up there. From 15,000 feet, we could see the LV strip, Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, the California border, and a whole lotta desert. Pretty cool. I've gotta do it again sometime--after our bank account recovers. :)

:

Thank you, pro divers Kelly and Len!

Again, for those of you with adventurous spirits, this is a definite must for the bucket list.

After an incredible get away, I'm now suffering from post-vacation disorder! I can't wait 'til we can do a trip like this again.

Sweet Moments Over the Last 2 Weeks

Good Bye

One evening this week, Andrew took Taylor on some errands with him to give me a break. On their way out the door, Andrew asked Taylor to say goodbye:

Andrew: "Taylor, say 'bye, Mom! I love you!'"

Taylor's response: "Bye, Mom! You wuv me!"

Library

It's been a while since I've taken Taylor to the library. It's a cryin' shame too, because he loves books! I knew I needed to repent last week. When we walked into the children's section of our local library, it was obvious that he didn't remember the place. He excitedly said: "Mom! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! There's SO MANY!" Talk about tearing at my heart strings!

Heart

Taylor was quietly playing with a favorite sticker book on Friday while I was beside him, organizing the kids' bedroom closet. I heard Taylor mutter to himself: "My heart..." I looked up, to see him sticking a new-found heart sticker right where he knows it belongs:

Book of Mormon

After visiting Alabama in November and rummaging through some of Andrew's old belongings, he found an old fogotten copy of the Book of Mormon. Nothing fancy, just one of those small paperback copies, about the size of the my hand. We decided to give it to Taylor, who now is extremely possessive of his new prized posession.

He recently

couldn't find it. While he searched for the book, Andrew and I quietly chuckled to ourselves as we listened to him say:

"Where's my Book O' Mornin'?"

Terrible Twos

Taylor was having an absolutely crazy tantrum before going to bed for the night two weeks ago. At the time, he also had an extremely stinky diaper. While Andrew tried to pin him down and change him, Taylor showed his protest by arching his back, rolling around on the floor, kicking and screaming (through his red face, tears, and snot coming out his nose):

"I'm TOO GRUMPY for this!"

You got that right, Bud.

Do You See What He Sees?

Out of the blue on Wednesday morning, Taylor looked up and exclaimed, "Look, Mommy! It's the blue chicken!"

"Blue chicken?" I responded, puzzled. Taylor smiled and nodded.

"Where is it?" I asked.

Taylor ran up to the TV and pointed to this:

The blue chicken. :)

Happy Baby

My notoriously happy made me smile over-and-over this week with so many cute moments: when he giggled when I'd bring him near a toy that he loved (stroller, bouncer, hand-held bells, his dad :)...), his furious rocking back-and-forth in a baby dance when music was playing (SO cute), s

pontaneously smiling at us when we'd look in his direction,

or him laughing for minutes at a time when I gave him play time in his bouncer (also SO cute, and almost unbelievable that he would laugh that much at a time). With Russell in my life, I don't know how I'd function without him now. When the going gets tough, he reminds me that it's easy to look at the brighter side, too!

When I'm Not Around

Taylor loves to sing when he's alone, and I love to eve's drop. So far, he only sings favorite phrases from songs. Here's a sample of some of the popular ones: "AM-MUL crackers in my soup!" (Shirley Temple), "Yellow Sub-mreen!" (Beatles), "Hewp me find da way..." (I Am a Child of God). So cute;

it melts my heart!

Milestones

With help from books from the library: Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and Donald Crews's "Freight Train" (I'm in-love with that one!) Taylor has grasped the concept of colors! He can accurately name so many now, including his "fav-wit cu-yer in da whole woah-d:" orange. :)

Russell (sigh, finally) rolls over both ways and can sit up on his own! It took him a little longer than I imagined it would, but he's doing it. I love that baby.

Guess I Signed Up For This...

Deep breath. Inhale, exhale.

That's what I'm telling myself over-and-over after this living through this long insane week! And now that it's almost over, after all the mini melt-downs and sweat and headaches (and yes, a few flustered tears!), it's hard not to giggle at the thought of everything that managed to happen in only five days! I'll let the week's stats tell the story. There were:

-5 nights that the baby didn't sleep through the night (by the way, anyone out there have any suggestions on how to get the little one to sleep through? I feel like I've tried every trick in the book, multiple times! "Crying it out," gradually phasing out night time feedings, waking the baby up after a couple of hours to "top him off..." I mean, holy cow!)

-3 nights that my toddler slept in my room because his baby brother was busy "crying it out"

-4 days that I woke up at 5:30 am for the day (not my cup of tea)

-2 days that the kids' books were thrown off their shelves

-2 days that my toddler didn't take a nap

-1 day that my baby didn't get a nap

-1 day that the cashier at the shopping warehouse turned me away because I had my husband's membership card (dumb, I know...but I was at the near the breaking point by then)

-1 day that I missed my appointment with the optometrist

-1 day that my toddler spread a new bottle of baby powder and baby lotion all over the de-shelved books, carpet and furniture

-1 day that I had to completely rearrange the kids' bedroom furniture to prevent future mishaps

-1 night/day that my hubby went to Keystone for a scout overnighter (of course, it was right after the book/baby powder/lotion thing happened) :)

Wow, right?

In my early moments of shock and frustration after Taylor completely trashed his bedroom, I called my mom to commiserate. She reminded me that she too had been there before, when my brother Larz and I were little. She said that we managed to trash our room even more artistically though--complete, not only with books off the shelves, baby powder, and lotion every where (in her case, the ever more destructive Desitin cream was the culprit)--but with crayon markings adorning the walls, curtains torn down, a mattress out of place, all the toys dumped out of their bins, and to top it all off...a little Larry wedged motionless high on a closet shelf.

Well Mom, I guess I'm getting what was coming to me! Why oh why wasn't I a sweeter child?...

Special Moments 1/17/2011

Prayer time

After I concluded a family prayer one morning, Taylor got up from perfect head bowing, eye closing, arm folding action and said: "Mom, that was a GOOD prayer!" Then under his breath he added, "I'm SO proud."

Upside down

My little Russell is such a naturally happy baby--I don't know how he manages it. And somehow, being upside down makes him even happier! Take a look at a game that he invented last week:

(If it had a name, I'm sure it'd be something like, "How to Make Dad Look Even Funnier at Dinner Time")

Special Moments in the Week of 1/10/2011

The Nutcracker

I was watching Disney's "Fantasia" with Taylor and he asked me about the music he was hearing. I told him that it came from a ballet called "The Nutcracker" and then proceeded to try and explain what a ballet was.

To give him a better idea of the concept, I turned to YouTube and found a clip of a Russian dance company, dressed in belly dancing-esque attire, performing the "Arabian Dance" movement of The Nutcracker. Hoping for awe and enjoyment from my son's uncultured eyes, he instead chuckled a response that a typical little boy would give: "Ha! BELLIES!! That's silly."

I suppose I'm glad that dancing and bellies aren't his thing.

Wet Hands

Late last week Taylor cleaned his plate before Andrew and I were finished with our meals. Stuffed and bored, he decided that putting his fingers into Andrew's drink would be a fun way to pass the time. His little passtime quickly became a game as he got a rise from Andrew's protests, such as:

"Hey!" "Stop that, please!" and "No, no!" After a minute or two of this, I looked Taylor in the eye and firmly said:

"Taylor, please keep your little fingers out of Daddy's drink. He doesn't like that." To which he replied,

"Only big ones?"

Boys' Club

While I was doing laundry this week, Taylor thought it would be fun to play in the nearby linen closet. He brought several of his favorite toys that could fit in the tiny space and closed the accordion door behind him. I chuckled to myself and let him do "his thing." Every few seconds of closet play time, he would slide the door open, poke his little head out, look in my direction and say: "Mom?"

"Yes?" I'd look in response.

"Only big boys."

He'd then disappear behind the closed door as quickly as he had appeared. His privacy was ensured!

"Baby Tonight"

While in Utah for Christmas, my mom was rifling through the family iTunes library and stumbled upon the one of the latest Usher hits, "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love." Taylor asked her what the song was and she replied something like, "I don't know; what is this song, Taylor?" To which he informed her that the song was called "Baby Tonight" (words he heard in the song's chorus).

I guess Nanny + recognized song lyrics is a pretty magical combination for a toddler, because after that, Taylor caught "Baby Tonight" fever! Now, no matter where we are (at home, in the car, shopping...), that's all he ever wants to hear. Needless to say, the music video is now part of our iTunes repertoire.

Think of our singing, jumping, dancing-in-circles Taylor as you view the video yourself:

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

There's something magical about Christmas.

It's a time when my idea of Heaven becomes reality: It's where I'm surrounded by family (whom I love so much, I feel my heart practically bursting out of my chest as I write this); watching my children laugh and play; with my wonderful husband with me, not having to think about work pressures looming overhead; where state borders don't divide us from our loved ones and I when I feel the Spirit of Christ is so near that you could almost cut it with a knife.

It is "the most wonderful time of the year."

It's crazy to think that this is how it began:

True!

My good friend, MariLouise and her little Jonathan drove to Utah with me for Christmas--lucky for me (not so lucky for them, after I assured them that I-80 would be a wiser travel choice than I-70)! This is much what I-80 in Wyoming looked like for most of our 13 hour drive to Provo.

Perhaps this was just one of life's firey furnaces? Or, freezing cold blizzards?! Yikes.

Once safely in Utah, the warm fuzzies came back as Andrew and I enjoyed the company of our beloved friends and extended family, most of whom we don't see so frequently anymore.

Our boys had a blast bonding with their Nanny and Papa.

So did I. My parents are such amazing examples of positive thinking, good humor, patience, and love. I learned so much during this trip to Utah about how to approach parenting and life in general through observing their examples. Sometimes I feel like I should pinch myself at the thought that I'm their daughter. I am so blessed.

We also loved spending time with my best friends: my brothers (the group isn't complete without Kyle--we're missing him in this pic). I think they make me laugh harder than anyone in the world. After spending several days with them, I'm probably cured of all potential depression for a year! We have so much fun together.

Here's Devin, talking to "Le-der" Kyle on Christmas morning. He's serving a mission for our church in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We all had a chance to talk with him a little that day; he sounded great.

It was so neat to watch the magic of Christmas come alive through the eyes of our little ones (or in this case, through the eyes of their new blue Mr. Potato Head glasses). I could have re-lived our Christmas moments with them over-and-over. They are so pure. Again, I'm pinching myself.

Of course, the very reason why we celebrate Christmas is the same reason why I risked traveling through a blizzard in the first place. Family coming together, opening gifts with the little ones, seeing old friends--we do it all because of one special little baby. Christ is the reason that Christmas, for me anyway, truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Having had such an uplifting stay in Utah last month recharged me and made me feel both eager and excited for a new start in 2011. This is a year that I hope to be one of my best yet. Cheers!