Forever

We went over to a Dan & Mindy's yesterday night and were trying to put Alice down for a nap (it was around 10:00 pm and we were still playing games).

Alice has been going through a pretty clingy phase lately as far as sleeping. She always wants to cuddle (and she says, "Mommy cuddle you" which I can't resist) and she likes laying in bed with us which she hasn't done for about 6 months.

So being in a strange place, she was having a hard time falling asleep and wanted me to cuddle her and hold her. I did, but also wanted to get back to the game, so I offered a stuffed dog. "Do you want to cuddle the doggy?" she said, "No, cuddle Mommy". So I cuddled some more and then started singing to her. I asked her what song she wanted to sing, and then I'd sing that one. Then I sang her "I love to see the temple" and when I asked what song she wanted to sing next, it was "see temple" so we sang it again.

I asked her then if she wanted to sing "Families can be together forever" and she smiled and said "Foreber" and cuddled into my arm closer. It was so sweet. I love my baby Alice.

What in the world?

A useless Muppet Video

Watching this video, Alice kept saying "Cute!" and "Silly!" and then at the end, she said "I like it, I like it, frog!" Otherwise, the video was kind of dumb, but she liked it. :)

As Promised

Here is my post about Disney World. I know it was a couple months ago now. I guess I have been hesitant to update thinking that at any time, erik's server will be deactivated and anything I add will just be deleted anyway. Really, he hasn't been working there for a couple months so I'm not sure why they have not deleted stuff off of his server but whatever. I believe we have a back up copy of everything up to his last day on our computer...

So Disney world was very fun, but also very different with a toddler. If she didn't eat, then she would be VERY cranky, and it was hard to get her to get enough food and sleep well because she was so distracted and excited. Some of the time while we were there, I felt like we were wasting time because she was taking a nap or we weren't able to move as fast or what not, but overall, it was good. I can't expect her to go at the same speeds as we normally would anyway.

She LOVED the characters. We had to hold her back until it was her turn to give them a hug. Here's a little montage of her running to see them:



She came to love her stroller too, because it meant that we were going bye bye. By the last day we were there, she went over to the door and got in her stroller and said, "Bye Bye?" which made me a little sad.

Just over a month later, Alice and I went back to Florida for my parents' time share on cocoa beach. It was awesome. I felt a little silly going back to FL so soon after i had already been, but it was nice and warm and the beach was fun and we got to go to the Disney parks about every other day. We almost got to see a launch at the Kennedy space center, but it got postponed to the day after we left Cocoa (you can see the space center from the condo).

Alice had a hard time sleeping in the condo, so she developed her own routine. First she would bring a bunch of toys into the bathroom and throw them in the tub and say, "I'm ready. Bath" Then she realized that it was fun to have grandma push her up and down the walkway while holding "cookie man" (a gingerbread cookie stuffed animal that we picked up for her b/c I had neglected to bring anything cuddly for her) and drinking chocolate milk. We left the stroller in the car one night when we got back and as she was getting ready to go on her walk up and down the walkway, she said, "where stroller go?"

She also bonded with her "friends" which is a set of bath toys we got for her on the first trip. There are Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Dopey, Hercules, and Pinnochio (who she calls Dokie Doo)

The ocean was interesting because she was really loving the water until a wave came up a little too high and got her in the face. Then the water was "scary" not fun. Just like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Norway ride. If you asked her if it was fun or scary, she'd say "scary".

I also met up with an old friend from freshman year while i was over there, which was awesome. I haven't seen her for years and we just had fun talking and listening to a HORRIBLE cover artist at the bar that you can hear from our balcony and deciding to go for a walk on the beach in the middle of the night where no one could hear you scream, then seeing a guy sit up and then stand up and look like he was going to follow us as we were running away... yeah worst idea we've ever had...

Thanks to Mom and Dad for making our second trip possible. :)

A little update

I know it's been a long time, but here is a little update. I still have a ton of pictures to post from Disneyworld and video too... but I'll have to save that for another time seeing as how Sarah is coming to pick me up in about 6 hours to go paint her new house. Yikes!

But this was too cute not to post...

The shock

So this is a couple days old, but I wanted to share it with all of you before I forget and then randomly think of it and think that no way it really could have happened because I already feel like no way it could have happened, but i have a witness! so it did happen.

I took Erik to class last Thursday cuz I needed the car. Since Shawna happened to be at our house, I asked if she'd mind watching Alice for a few minutes so I didn't have to hassle with dragging a baby along (side note, I never understood before why my mom said it was quicker to run errands without us... now i do). Anyway, Alice was not too incredibly happy that I was leaving her, but I told her I'd be back soon and set her on the couch and all seemed fairly ok so I left.

When I got back home, I walked in the door and Alice looked up at me and said, "Mommy! I thought you were gone! Where'd you go? Where go?" I answered her, "I went to take daddy to class" and then it registered that she had said a couple of full sentences. It was totally bizarre.

Since then, she has gone back to her normal talking. "iwan chocolate milk" and "bite cereal" and "Don't like it" (which really sounds more like "no rocket") are the most complete sentences that she's said lately. Much more normal.

Hi, Teacher!

So we have this "Biscuit Goes to School" lift a flap book that Alice was looking at today. On the first page, one of the flaps is a door and behind the door is the teacher. She lifted the flap and said, "Hi!" so I told her, "That's the teacher". She then said, "Hi, Teacher. How doing? Bye!" and closed the door.

She's been speaking a lot more in almost sentences lately. She'll say "all done milk" or "david, more this?" and point to the window when she wants it rolled down instead of just saying "more" like she has been. She'll also request that her diaper be changed by saying "diapers" and sometimes will tell me that she's pooped or answer yes when I ask (although sometimes she answers yes regardless).

She's also been starting to throw more fits lately, which has been getting frustrating. She has been hitting and getting mad and wanting things her way. Most of the time, it's easy enough to make things work out for her in a way that works for both of us, but when it doesn't, she just screams and cries which can get frustrating. I'm trying to be patient. She's a very good baby overall though and her fits are pretty mild compared to others that I've seen.

Here are some pictures from the trip to CO. I have been meaning to get these up for a while now. We had so much fun and Alice loved seeing cousin Aidan and Grandma and Bridget and Audrey. The rest of you she loved too of course, but those were the names that stuck out. I'm glad that she's finally warming up to Michael (I swear it was the facial hair. She's really doing much better with men with facial hair overall) and Grandpa.

[caption id="attachment_402" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Her first time getting her own seat on the Airplane"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_403" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Watching Handy Manny on Grandma\'s Bed"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_404" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Alice & Aidan\'s hats"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_405" align="alignnone" width="271" caption="He\'s too cute!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_406" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Baby Sister Bridget"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Backin\' up!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_408" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Alice loves Grandma!"][/caption]

Every time I go back for a visit, it makes me want to move back there. Erik only has 3 years left of school. He was going to be doing the Information systems major which is through the business school and is an intensive 2 year full time program once you're in it (on top of the generals, that is) which means that on top of working full time, he would never see us. he decided that after not seeing us for 2 weeks, he didn't like that idea and decided to explore other major options. after looking for a while, he decided on philosophy. With that major, he will still graduate in 3 years but will never have to take more than 9 credits.

Anyway, I know that was a terribly long post. I didn't even get into the funeral or anything about my Grandma dying or the road trip back in the middle of my vacation, but maybe I'll cover that another time. :D

Silly Puppies

I've got some real updating to do, too, but that'll wait for a couple hours. Just online randomly in the middle of the night (aka early morning) and thought I'd post this adorable video Erik showed me a couple nights ago.

Fun new site

This is a fun site that I discovered, thanks to cakewrecks:

http://wwww.thereifixedit.com/

Check it out when you get a spare moment. It's pretty funny!

Say Cheese

Welcome to the new layout, hope you all like it. I had to change it when I combined the blogs :)

All of my old posts (yes, all five of them) are now part of the archives here. I imagine Carolyn will still be doing most of the posting but I'll make an occasional guest appearance.

Happy anniversary Carolyn!

P.S. Here's a picture of a nosy squirrel:

Uncle Daybid and Aunt Darah

Alice has the best aunt and uncle in the world. I've been getting a lot of migraines and David & Sarah have been coming around to take Alice and help me get prescriptions and bring medicine and just be great support. The other day, they showed up while we were sitting outside taking video of Alice anyway, so we were able to get her reaction to the surprise visitors:

Then yesterday, we were outside playing down the street when David and Sarah got here to take me to pick up some prescriptions, so David called me to let me know they were there. I asked Alice, "Do you want to go get uncle David?" And she got excited and said, "yeah!" and got up right away to go home. While we were walking home, she was saying "Darah, Darah!" and then "Daybid!". She just loves them so much!

Today is Erik and my 4th anniversary, so Alice gets to stay with David and Sarah all day. I hope that she's good and has fun! I also hope that the surprise plans that Erik has for me work out and that I don't have too terrible of a migraine. Bleh...

no more Dr. Pepper, baby...

So, Alice had some Diet Dr. pepper yesterday... not an obscene amount, but apparently enough to affect her sleep somewhat. She went to bed at a normal time, but was fussing and not really staying asleep very well. At about 3 am, She started crying so I finally went in to her room and laid down with her on her bed and dozed off. She, however, didn't... She was playing with me (unresponsive as I was). I vaguely remember her ramming her head into my stomach and saying "Bonk!" several times, and then making her way to the foot of the bed and saying "Feet! Feet!" at which point, I sat up and told her, "It's still night time, you have to go back to sleep". She laid down by my feet and said, "Ni night..." Then pretended to snore, started giggling, then got back up and started saying, "Daddy?". I took her into the bedroom and showed her that Daddy was asleep, then tried to wake him up so he could keep her company (it was his Dr. Pepper, after all...) But he was totally out (which is strange... the one night he actually goes to bed before 3 is the night that she is awake at 3... does that seem fair?)

So Alice went into the bathroom and said, "Draw?" and picked up her tub crayon and started doodling on the bath tub. That's when I realized that I was still really tired and decided to take her and put her back in her crib. She laid down and wasn't too happy about it, but she wasn't screaming, so I left and went back to sleep. She must have fallen asleep at some point b/c she woke up at a normal time this morning and came downstairs to watch Curious George.

Moral of the Story: follow Sarah's advice and don't drink Dr. Pepper ever, especially if you're a baby.

Me? Of course!

So... Alice was sitting on the floor playing the other day, and she kept saying over and over, "Me? Of course!" and I have NO idea where she heard it or what she thinks it means. It was hilarious, though! I tried to catch it on video, but of course as soon as I started recording it, she stopped (typical) but you can at least see the idea of it:

We got that picture from our Pediatrician. He gave us a bunch of inspirational little posters like that with a story about some kids who had a picture of a sailboat in their room and they all grew up to be sailors, saying that we should fill our homes with inspirational art and music. It was really cute, but the art itself... not my favorite. Alice decided that she loves that one though and apparently thinks it's a picture of her, so I let her play with it.

Zombies

So I'm not really in with all the zombie hype, but Erik and I got together with Sukie, Wudan, and Striker (or as he is also known, the Scarlet D) for a game of "Zombies" yesterday, and it was pretty fun. The pictures on the cards are really gruesome and yucky, but the actual game play is interesting. My biggest complaint is the length of time that one game takes... I think we were playing for 4 hours. All in all, though, i'd play again, but I wouldn't buy it. There are apparently a bunch of expansions that would be fun to try.

In other news, I don't think I've mentioned here that I've decided to go back to work. The company Erik works for is hiring again, so I put in my resume and had an interview (I used to work for them) The interview was funny. We were pretty much just sitting around, chatting. I'm supposed to be a shoe in for the position so we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I'm off to the gym. I love my gym time. There's free daycare and Alice likes playing with all they toys so I get a break for just me time, and she's having fun, and I'm doing something good. It's a win win win situation!

Mom & Daddy

So in our house, when I'm talking to Erik, I'll either call him by his name or if Alice is around, I'll often call him Daddy. The first time I called him Daddy, it made me feel old, like a real mom who calls her husband not by his name, but by the title that her kids would call him by.

Naturally, when Erik is talking to me, I'll either be called "Mommy" or "Carolyn". However, Alice for whatever reason refuses to call me mommy. She always says "Mom". It's funny now that she's realized that if she says my name, I'll look at her or respond to her in some way. She'll be in the back seat and decide to tell me something or ask for something and she always says, "Mom!" first and waits for me to respond. I like being able to communicate with her :) Of course, there are times when she still asks for something and just says "this?" and I have no idea what it is, but it's a work in progress I suppose.

She's been singing along to songs lately, too, and has actually been getting a lot of the words right. Especially if it's the theme song to word world. She LOVES that show. :D Good thing I like it, too.

Nonut's Ark

So we have a little board book with flaps that is about Noah and the ark. We were reading it to alice and asking her, "what's that" pointing at the different animals and things. When we pointed to noah, who is an old grey haired looking guy, she said, "MamPah!" (grandpa) Which i thought was adorable.

Well the next night when I was reading it to her, I told her that it was noah, and she said it, but it sounds like "No Nut". For the past week, that's how she's been saying Noah. I guess Noah must be totally sane. He's no nut, that's for sure.

My stupid voip phone

So I'm getting so frustrated... we have a voip through tmobile. Our internet connection is supposed to be 15mpbs down, 5 up. Whenever I test it, it's around 10 down and 3 or 4 up, but my phone is always getting that annoying voice distortion thing that voip phones do if the connection is bad....

A ping shows 2% packet loss if I let it run for a couple minutes and less if I just let it run for 10-15 seconds. However, the site that tmobile tech support has me testing my connection at shows that my quality of connection is under 50% (sometimes as low as 20%) which is not high enough to have a good VoIP experience... so they tell me to contact my internet provider... which I've done, and since my speed and packet loss are fine, they don't see a problem...

What's going on?? HELP! I'm getting so frustrated....

Do you love peaches?

On Erik and my first shopping trip together as a married couple, we were browsing through the produce when he turned to me and very matter of factly asked, "Do you love peaches?" It cracked me up that he would use the word "love" instead of "like" when asking about produce, so it has become a running joke to ask in our family.

I gave Alice a piece of my peach today, and while she was eating it, she turned to me and I could just see in a little thought bubble above her head, "Do you love peaches?" Here she is:





She's also invented a new game that I call "aaaAAaa, Bonk". She'll stand at the top of the stairs and throw a stuffed animal down. The whole time it's falling, she'll scream "AAaAAAHAA!" and then when it hits the ground, she'll say "bonk!" It's adorable. :)

Food pick up day!

It's pick up day for the co-op! I always get so excited for pick up day. Here's what we're getting this month:

• 1 lb. lean ground beef


• 2 lbs. chicken thighs


• 4 6oz. boneless center cut pork chops


• 1 lb top sirloin fajita strips


• 6 peaches


• 7 plums


• 6 oranges


• 2 avocados


• 1 bunch broccoli


• 1 romaine lettuce


• 3 bell peppers


• 1 bag carrots (2 lbs.)


• Stone Ground's Artisan Wheat Loaf


• 16 oz. red beans

All for $23 that was paid at the beginning of the month. The best thing is that by this time in the month, all of our money is spent, so it's especially exciting to be getting so much produce. :D

If you're interested, check out http://foodco-op.net/

Babysitting & Big Fat Losers

For the past couple days, I have been watching Suzie's little girl, Elliot for about 3 hours a day. This is going to be a semi permanent gig while Suzie is going back to grad school. I was worried that I wouldn't bond to her because even though I love her and think she's cute, I have heard that it's hard to do in home daycare when you have your own kids. I hear that you don't love the kids and you come to resent them for taking time away from your own kids or from your family or housework or whatever.

Well, Monday was rough. Elliot cried quite a bit and I tried holding her and bouncing her and rocking her, and she would fall asleep but then wake up immediately any time Alice got right up in her face and very excitedly jabbered or said, "BABY!!" to her. Go figure.

Tuesday was better. Elliot had a bottle although not much of it, and Alice went down for a nap about an hour before Suzie came to pick Elliot up, so we had some time to ourselves. I also wore Elliot in the baby carrier that day which really helped me to bond to her because I got to feel her so close and any time she would wiggle, it reminds me of how you can feel the baby move when you're pregnant.

Today, I decided that Alice would be taking a nap at 2:00 every day. That gives Elliot and I about 2 hours of time when we don't have to worry about toddlers being "helpful" and shoving pacifiers into baby mouths or patting baby on the head a bit too roughly. Don't get me wrong--it is adorable. I have a very willing assistant who is unfortunately not as skilled as she thinks she is.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be good, too. :) She's such a cute little thing! Here she is *almost* laughing at a little vibrating toy that she loves:



Tonight, I made spaghetti for dinner and sat Alice down in her chair with a bowl of chopped up noodles and her spoon. She started eating and immediately said, "mmm... mmMMmmm...MMmmm" over and over until I acknowledged her and said, "is it yummy?" Later in the meal, she informed me "I toot" and when I didn't say anything, she proceeded to tell me 2 or 3 more times until I realized what she was saying and asked, "Did you toot?" She said yeah and gave a little grin and I said, "Oh, excuse you!"

She's starting to put words together into sentences. Yesterday, Sarah and David were babysitting, and Alice grabbed Sarah's hand and brought her over to the stairs, said, "I get you!" and then started running up the stairs, hoping Sarah would follow. It was so funny because we have played like that with her, but always say "I'm gonna get you" or something like that, so her saying "I get you" is really amazing to me because it means she's putting the words together on her own, and knows at least somewhat of what they mean.



I've joined a biggest loser friends edition blog with Amy and Brad and Sam. All of you friends should come and join us! The rules are that you weigh in once a week (wednesdays), you have to post at least once a week, and that whoever loses the highest percentage of weight by December 24 (Christmas Eve) is the winner! If you join, then you will have rights to contribute to the blog. So far, even though it's only been 1 day, it's fun to be contributing to a group blog. COME AND PLAY! Even if you only have 5 lbs to lose, we'll help eachother stay motivated. :)

Picture Puzzle

So every day Squirt will do something that I'm either proud of, impressed, or amazed by. Today we were watching Mickey Mouse Club House, and there's a segment called Picture Puzzle, which is just a picture (in this case, a tent) that has been divided into 4 pieces and then shuffled around. There's a little song and then the pieces settle, and Mickey asks, "Does this look right?" At which point, Squirt said, "no". The puzzle started moving around again to the music, and it stopped in the right position. Mickey asked, "how about this?" Squirt said, "yeah".

If she watched this show every day and I sat there answering Mickey with her all the time, then that would be one thing, but she doesn't usually like this show so we don't watch it more than once in a while (every other week, maybe?) so the fact that she got the puzzle right is even more surprising to me. She's getting so big and growing up so much. <3

I think she's teething again. A few weeks ago her top 2 molars cut through so we went through the snotting and drooling like a water fountain, along with the extra crankiness. On Saturday, the face dripping started up again so I am hoping that these teeth will cut through quickly!

I'm realizing that our trip to Disney World is coming up closer and closer, which means that (since we are planning our family around a vacation) the day that we start trying to have a baby is getting closer and closer. I'm starting to get a little anxious about it. I'm remembering all of the hard parts about being pregnant and thinking about how much I love spending time with Squirt and how I don't want any of my time with her to go away, and the selfish part of me doesn't want to spread out my love at all, but to concentrate it on her. On the other hand, I'm excited to get pregnant on purpose and to have a new little tiny baby and have a sibling for Squirt and to feel a baby  move insie of me again, but it's almost like now that I have my baby on the outside, all of the magical parts of pregnancy don't seem as magical anymore... the baby getting hiccups and kicking and the ultrasound and all are being overshadowed by counting carbs and getting fat and feeling sick all the time... *sigh*

I almost wish though that we could just get surprised again because we probably would have put off getting pregnant longer and longer and we might still not have Squirt at this point in our lives if we had actually been able to plan for her. I can't imagine not having her yet though and how bored and selfish Frik and I would be if we didn't have Squirt to keep us serving and working. So I'm trying to not be selfish now and think forward to the fact that I am going to love a new baby. Maybe the horrors that come along with pregnancy will mean something more to me when I am purposefully putting myself through it.

Anyway, that's my rambling thought for the day :) I recently posted a bunch of pictures on facebook, so you should take a look at them :)

Looking through old stuff only causes trouble...

I've been looking through some old documents I have saved and came across some that were funny and some that were embarassing... the one that follows is both of those. I wrote it shortly before I met Frik about my first "make out" experience. It was a class assignment to write about an event that changed my life or something like that, and this had just happened days before the assignment was given. Much to Frik's dismay, my feelings about kissing are still pretty much the same.

Without further ado, here it is:

My First Kiss
I made it all the way to 19.  Not intentionally, not accidentally, I just made it there without being kissed.  Lots of girls I knew had never been kissed—virgin lips.    They were waiting around, wondering what it felt like and hoping it would happen to them.  That’s what made me different from them.  I never cared.  I enjoyed holding hands, walking together, or cuddling during movies, but I seldom daydreamed or hoped or even thought about whether or not he would kiss me.  At the end of the night, we would say goodbye without anticipation.  That “perfect moment” never came, but I went back to my room and fell asleep just as content as ever.  My only thoughts about the future kiss I yearned for so little: whenever it came, it would come—probably with some guy who I had dated for a while, someone with as little experience as I had.  I never expected a perfect, romantic moment, but I thought I would tolerate it.  That’s all I thought about it.
Then one night I sat on the couch reading magazines in German with some guy named Nate…or Craig.  I could barely remember.  I had only met him 3 hours ago.  He didn’t speak German, so he really just followed along while I read, pretending he knew what the articles said.  At curfew, I walked him out the door.  We hugged and then it happened: the moment I had never sat around waiting for.
He turned his head towards mine a few times and looked at me with his eyes half shut like he wanted to eat me.  I resisted, but he finally came at me with his mouth hanging open like a trout right after you take the hook out.  He put his tongue on top of my lips that I kept pursed together.  I didn’t know how to react.  Not only had this never happened to me before, but I didn’t like him or even know him well enough to like him.  I tried to avoid drinking his saliva, which felt surprisingly thicker than mine with a slightly syrupy consistency, similar to the texture and thickness you get from sucking on a cough drop, but without the flavor or the menthol cooling action.  For the most part, I succeeded in my endeavors to avoid fluid exchange, but in the process, his spit spread all over my face, coating the skin between my nose and the cleft in my chin.  He rubbed his rough yet squishy tongue over my lips, trying to shove it between and into my mouth.  He finally stopped, and I put my head down on his shoulder and tried to stifle a chuckle that had built up.  I thought it was over.  I thought I was safe and free, when he apparently realized that he had failed in his attempt to woo me by licking, so he tried again.  This time I just stood still.  When he finished, I wiped my face off on his bristled jawbone and retreated to my apartment, laughing.
My roommates, who watched us through the peephole, tell me that kissing feels good when you actually like the guy and that I should look forward to the next time. I don’t think so.  In fact, any physical contact between a male and female causes a gagging reflex in my throat—Even contact that I used to appreciate or enjoy.  The next day, Nate/Craig came over and tried to snuggle with me on the couch.  Besides my fear the entire time that he wanted to assault me again with body fluid, I got the chills every time he ran his hand up my back or rested it on my shoulder—not good chills.  Bad chills.  Your mother just fell and broke her back chills.  That’s when we talked and decided to end our one and a half day attempt at a relationship.
I can’t even watch movies anymore where people kiss.  I felt especially nauseous while watching the scene in “Spiderman” where Mary Jane kisses her super-hero stalker while he hangs upside-down in the pouring rain.  Wet bodies touching seemed less romantic than ever.  That will never happen to me again.  No, I have vowed never to kiss again.

Can't sleep...

Isn't it just wonderful that as soon as my baby is really sleeping through the night, I fall into a bout of insomnia? Doesn't seem fair... I woke up yesterday at 5:00, worried because i didn't think Frik had made it home, but he was here. I couldn't fall back asleep after that. boo... That was also the first night that Squirt slept completely from 8:30 until 7:00 without waking up and needing me to go comfort her back to sleep. She is growing up so much! a couple of my favorite things she does lately:

She says a new word at least every day, and I'm not talking about mimicking when I say "Say apple" and she'll say apple, but more like she was playing with a friend's scooter, just looking at it, and she said, "bike" or she came up to erik and said, "muhnana" and so he asked "do you want a banana?" and she said "yes" and nodded her whole cute little body.

She has been listening to instructions I give her and then acknowledging me by saying "k". For example, I'll tell her, "Lets pick up your blocks and then we'll eat some lunch" and she'll look at me and say, "k".  Or when I dropped her off at the daycare at the gym, I set her down with some baby dolls and told her I loved her and I'd be back soon, and she said "k" and gave me a kiss.

She has also been so good about going to bed. As i left the room a couple nights ago, she said, "ni-night" to me on the way out.

When she is done eating, she will say "all done" now instead of "da done".

She started saying Momma more intentionally instead of calling me daddy all the time :)

Yesterday morning, when i brought her downstairs, she looked around the corner of the house and said, "Daddy? Duke?" It was adorable and when she says Duke it's the cutest little thing ever.

Some of her words now are book, banana, Ellie (the neighbor's daughter), Belly, eye, nose, mouth, cheek, teeth, ear, cute, pretty, bird, good girl (about a baby at church), blue (actually referring to the color when someone asked what color it was!), phone, and 'one, two, three, wheee!'(which really sounds like two two three whee, but it's still pretty good!)

Anyway, there's my middle of the night update. I'm gonna clean up the front room and maybe get tired enough to fall asleep. hopefully. :(

3 VERY lucky people...

The first three people to leave a comment on this post will receive something made by me. However, there are some limitations:

1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it is going to be - cards, bows, a bag, frame or a little invention of my own. I may bake something and mail it to you . Who knows? Not you that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. It may blow your mind!

Here's the catch, if you choose to do this. You must post this on your blog and be ready to make something for three people too. This will be fun! When you receive the fabulous item I make you, you must post a picture of it on your blog. Now time to comment and start thinking about what you will be making for someone else! ;)

A couple new tricks...

One of Squirts favorite things to say lately is, "Duke, NO". Of course, it's usually as she's shoving some piece of food in his mouth, but sometiems she just walks around the house saying it. He looks so sad when he hears it so I try to tell him he's a good boy. She also has another new favorite word: poke. She LOVES poking people, including herself, and poking bubbles and poking anything. She'll poke on command, too. If I say, poke shawna, she'll walk over and poke her. It's funny. I don't even know where she learned the word from, but it's cute.

Frik and I have been going to the gym together and leaving her in the free (thanks to my VIP membership) daycare. It's been good for us to be able to do something togther, but she hasn't been enjoying the daycare very much. They actually had to page me back to pick her up today b/c she was so sad. When I got there, I asked her if she was hungry and she said, "mMMmm" so we got her some food and she was much happier. She's been doing really well with communicating lately. She told me that her shoe was falling off by saying "shoes stuck" while we were walking into Costco the other day, and when she's hungry or wants something, she will say no when I offer everything until I get to what it is that she wants. It's fun, but it'll also be nice when she knows a couple of other words so she can tell me straight out what she wants instead of playing the guessing game. :)

She's also realized that it's funny to lie. I asked her if she pooped and she said yes, so I went to change her diaper and there was no poop, which she thought was hillarious. silly girl.

We had an all you can eat sushi party on tuesday with Sukie, Wudan, Striker, and some of the fish friends. I was really looking forward to it and was very happy with the sushi, but I realized that all you can eat sushi isn't really that great of a discount because you only end up eating 2 or so rolls anyway, and that'd cost anywhere from 15-20, which is the price of the all you can eat... But you can get more variety with the all you can eat and not even feel guilty looking at the prices, so that's a bonus. I guess that we're going to make the sushi night a monthly tradition. mmm... looking forward to that. And Squirt loves the shrimp, so I know she'll enjoy it, too!

Brigham’s Young’s is a strange place

The new semester started today (yesterday actually, but for me it started today ;).

So on my way to class I parked the usual 15 minutes away from campus (if you've ever tried to park at BYU you know what I'm talking about) and just as I'm getting to the outer fringe of campus I walk past an empty, parked SUV with the keys in the ignition, engine running, doors unlocked, and windows down.... My first though was "weird" my second thought was "if I were a less-honest person I could hop in that car and drive off" and my final thought was "he's going to feel really stupid when he comes back and his car is gone."

So I went to class for 3 hours. (One class, 3 hours, but it was good. I think I am really going to enjoy this spring term.) Then, on my way back there it was: the same SUV in the same spot, keys in the ignition, engine running, doors unlocked, and windows down.... "weird!"

Happy Wedding!

For those of you who are living under a rock, David and Guildy got married. Congratulations!



the 2 groomsmen trying to smell their flowers



Dad & David



The groom trying to smell his flower...



Silly boys



Us!



Grandma & Squirt



David and Squirt after dinner.

I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of Guildy! Sheesh... I guess you'll have to look elsewhere to see how hot she looked ;)

correction- Frik didn't get a single picture of Guildy. He was the one with the camera, so he was the one to blame!

Playing Catch-up

It's been a while so here are some pictures from the past couple weeks:



She really liked the Easter Egg hunt with Lorna's ward, and figured it out pretty quickly.







She actually enjoyed easter egg dying, too, and put a couple of eggs into the dye all by herself.



Enjoying the post Easter snow



mmm



Today, trying to blow bubbles. Can you believe that this picture was taken only a couple of weeks after the others? The weather has been SO nice lately. Warm, but not hot, and sunny.



Just enjoying the Sun :)

Some of Squirt's favorite words to say lately: bubbles, cheese, shoes (sounds a lot like cheese), Day-bid, Duke, Ma, Daddy, ByeBye, Butt, Poop, Milk, Eye, mmm (in response to the question, "Are you hungry?") and of course, No. It seems that she's starting into the "terrible twos" where she is fighting me over whether or not to go to sleep or to eat or go outside or whatever it is that she does or does not want to do. It's frustrating, but hopefully won't last long.

Lately, when she wakes up, she doesn't cry for us but instead calls down, "Ma! Mama!?" One night she even called down for daddy. It's nice that she knows we'll come up there and doesn't get sad, just lets us know she's awake, however, she's been calling down to us within a couple of minutes of us laying her down for the past week or so, so we have to go up and tell her it's nime for ni-night.

She's so much fun, though, despite however difficult she is being lately. She still is my favorite little person (Frik is my favorite big person, haha) and I still can't wait to see her and cuddle her and love her. :)

:D

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViO6Gu7qHcE]

Who Knew Foosball Could Be So Much Fun?

I recently became a foosball addict. At work we have a real professional-type foosball table in the break room, and when I first started working there everyone who was anyone played it for almost every break they had. I played a couple of games back then just to fill-in when they were desperate for a 4th guy. I wouldn't necesarilly say I sucked; I played about as good as you would expect a normal person to play foosball, but these guys seemed to be playing another game entirely. It turns out there's a lot more to foosball than hitting the ball as hard as you can in the right direction. Anyway, most of the guys that were really serious about it have been gone for a long time now and the foosball table hasn't been maintained in a couple of years.

That was, until a few weeks ago. Some coworkers and I started playing and it spread like an infection. So yesterday we cleaned up the playing surface (it was disgusting), cleaned up the foosballs, cleaned up the players, and oiled the bars, etc. Playing a few games a day with the few good players that are still around has been a lot of fun. I'm at the point where I can more than hold my own and the competition is getting intense.

If you've never played a real competetive game of foosball you're missing out. I think it's the most fun I've ever had in an office setting (saying a lot, I know). It comes at a really good time though because things were starting to get a little tense at work with the lay-offs and everyone working so hard all the time trying not to get canned. Don't get me wrong, hard work is great, but you can only sprint for so long before you start to hate your job. So it's been nice to relax a little and really enjoy going to work again.

My Macbook is Cooler Than Your Macbook

Favorites

When I was in CO a few weeks ago, Mom and I stopped at a garage sale where they had a bunch of CDs for $1 each. Pretty typical garage sale CD prices, and I love getting them there because they're so cheap! Well one of the CDs that I picked up was Simon & Garfunkle's greatest hits. I know, totally lame, but also really cool. I was mostly looking forward to "Mrs. Robinson" and "The Sound of Silence" since they were the only 2 that I knew I knew. Well I listened to it once in CO and found that I liked quite a few of the songs on the CD. I brought it back and played it for Erik in spite of his dislike for them because of a crazy hippie elementary school teacher who was in love with them.

Well, within just a few listenings, Squirt had fallen in love. She was dancing and kicking and bobbing her cute little head to "The Boxer" all with a huge smile on her face. Then when "The Sound of Silence" came on, she was really liking it, and when the song ended, she started yelling and crying until we started it over again. Silly girl, loves Simon & Garfunkle. (Her other favorite group is ABBA).

Another favorite of hers is Cheese. While we were at Sarah's for "fakesgiving," Squirt had decided that it was time to go home and was banging on the door saying "bye bye! bye bye!" In order to keep her occupied for another couple of rounds of the great Dalmuti, I asked Sarah if she had any cheese. Alice immediately stopped and said, "Cheese?" and went over to the fridge.

One other favorite of hers is her favorite TV show: Handy Manny. Today, I was trying to make dinner but she was getting all in my way, so I said, "Do you want to watch Handy Manny while I make dinner?" She nodded and headed in to the front room and I put it on for her. I have, in the past, asked her if she wanted to watch Handy Manny, but then put on Little Einsteins or Mickey Mouse Club House, and she has brought me the remote and insisted that I change it. I love how she has connected that the remote is what makes it so that I can make her tv shows come on, and if she wants to watch tv, she'll bring it over to me. So cute!

The really interesting thing to me is how much Squirt's favorites become my favorites. I would never have picked McDonalds over ANY other kind of food before, but now that I can see her playing on the toys and enjoying her hamburger, I love it. And Simon and Garfunkle are quickly becoming favorites of mine, as well.  Don't hate. :D

"no"

So my sweet baby has learned how to use a new word. David and Sarah had come over to pick up some wedding cards that were sent here, and Squirt was just waking up from a nap. When I brought her down, she was still a little cranky and clingy, but overall happy because she saw that David and Sarah were here. Uncle David asked her "Do you want to come see me?" and she shook her head and said in a very sweet little voice "no". It was so cute. They kept asking her if she wanted to come see them just to see/hear her say no in such a cute little way.

She's been struggling for the past couple weeks with an abscess on her neck. It started right as we got to Colorado for our visit and then just got worse, until we finally took her to the dr when we got home a week later. at that point they told us what it was (we were thinking swollen lymph nodes) and gave her some antibiotics which were supposed to either make it go away, or make it come to a head. For those of you who don't know what an abscess is, it's like a boil, but bigger. Similar to the problem I had while I was pregnant.

Well by friday last week, it had come to a head so we took her in and then drained it, which was super disgusting and sad and traumatizing at the same time. They had her strapped down to this board and had a nurse holding her head down while the dr worked and then packed the empty cavity with this really skinny tape like gauze.

The worst part for me is that every day I change her dressing and then have to pull out 2 inches of the gauze and cut it off. Yuk. Pulling stuff out of my baby's neck like it was a floss dispenser is really disturbing, and I swear Frik almost pukes every time he thinks about it.

The whole ordeal has made me fall even more in love with our pediatricians office, though. They drove me home on the day of the draining because frik had to get to class. They've been calling and having us come in after hours no charge to get the dressing changed or to take a look at her to make sure it's ok... and the dr called a couple times over the weekend just to check and see how we're doing and left us with his cell phone number. It was really nice to have someone care about us so much!

I've also realized that Squirt doesn't like older men. We saw a younger dr when we went in the first time (around 30 or so) and then our regular dr came in (in his late 50s I'd guess) and although squirt was fine with the first dr, she was scared and cried for the second one. So Wizard, don't take it personally! You're just too old ;)When I thought about it a bit, I realized that it's probably because Squirt never really associates with any older men since my dad isn't here all the time and Frik's dad is gone, so she has no problems with grandmas and mommy and daddy age people, but grandpas are a foreign concept to her. We've gotta find a surrogate grandpa around here...

BIG doggy

We went for a walk the other day around the block, and the people who live behind us have horses, so I asked if we could go back and see them. As soon as squirt saw them she started saying "Doodun" which doesn't sound like duke or dog really, but it's the word that she says whenever she sees duke, so i think it's just her way of saying it. The horse startled her when he brought his head towards her, but after a few minutes and after seeing me pet the horse, she reached out to pet him. It was a very nice horse and when we started leaving, it trotted along the side of his pen to follow us. It was very cute.

she has another tooth now, so that makes 7. :D I had my first day of nursery yesterday at church (in this ward anyway) and I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to being in the nursery when they called me, but as soon as one of the little girls reached up to hold my hand, I changed my mind.  I really have it easy. I'm not even in the nursery with the kids having to play with them and keep them entertained, I just take them to go get their parents when they have to go potty or change a diaper, and help shuffle them from room to room. I'm in charge of the older half of the nursery along with one other girl who is my neighbor, and there are 3 groups in that older half that get moved around between 2 rooms the whole time. It's pretty crazy. Then the younger half has another 3 groups and will need a 4th one by the end of the year. TONS of kids. I love this ward!

Speak softly...

Squirt went outside to play today and found a big stick on the ground probably about 4 feet long and decided she had to have it:



She carried it around with her for the next 5 minutes or so until I made her come inside. It sucks because it's not quite warm enough for her to play outside for very long, but she really loves going "bye bye" and will stand banging on the door crying "bye bye! bye bye!" if she doesn't get to go out.

I have been amazed lately by how much she has learned. I told her the other day "let's change your diaper" and she walked over and grabbed a diaper and handed it to me. If I say "let's go upstairs" she heads over to the stairs. I can ask her to get me her shoes and she brings them to me. It's crazy for me to think of how much I say that she really understands now, and it's funny when she hears me say a word she knows how to say so she'll repeat it back to me. Today while I was changing her diaper, I said, "you have a cute butt" (something I thought was so weird until I was a mom... thinking a butt is cute? seriously?) And she looked back at me and said "butt butt butt". She can also say poop (hahaha) and cheese and duke and daddy and bye bye of course, and the cutest thing is that she'll say "david" when she's looking at him and guildy's engagement picture... of course, she also says david now when she looks at her growth chart and points to the picture of mickey mouse...

She is just growing so much and it's really amazing to me to be able to see it!

Oh and for those of you who may be wondering about the 90% of humanity being scum bags, I think you can blame the most recent episode of House for Frik's overreaction... I'm sorry, honey! I love you! <3

Revision

So I guess I have to post again after last night's post. I didn't expect that anyone would actually read it until maybe another week or so had passed and somebody accidentally hit my blog. Sadly, I didn't account for those pesky RSS feeds.

Last night's blog post was the product of taking in months worth of noxious back-biting in single evening, letting it fester for a couple hours, and finally needing a place to unload it. I must have drafted at least 10 emails and another 5 blog posts before I was finally able to write something coherent. In short, something had to give, and it did.

In hindsight, I've been reminded once again of why I try to avoid this kind of toxic discourse we so affectionately call social drama, as nothing truly good ever came of it.

Finally, I have to revise my numbers a bit. 100% of the human population has a festering cesspool of disgust and hate buried somewhere deep inside their persona. You just don't get to see it very often because it stays hidden behind a generally decent exterior. I apologize to those people I offended.

I’m so full of hurt and anger right now…

and yet have very little to say.

I used to truly believe that, deep down (further down for some than others) 90% of the human population were good people. I'm now convinced it's more like 10% of people are good inside, and 90% are a festering cespool of disgust and hate. (Some hide it better than others, so my numbers could still be off a bit)

So, what would happen if we all dispensed with the niceties, the falsehoods, the decency, and the platitudes? I can't begin to imagine, but I got a taste of it today and I am still at a loss to describe how it made me feel.

Carolyn Needs...

Here's what you do: Google your name with the word 'needs' after it. Put it all in quotes like this: "Harvey needs" or "Darren needs" Make a list of the first 10 things that make sense that Google spits out.

1. Carolyn needs a spanking =)

2. Carolyn needs good food, good shelter

3. Carolyn needs to take long hot baths and add some herbs.

4. Carolyn needs to cut back on stress and find emotional satisfaction.

5. Carolyn needs us guys.

6. CAROLYN NEEDS TO KNOW.

7. Carolyn needs urgent sponsorship.

8. Carolyn needs someone to cut her food and stay close by in case she chokes.

9. Carolyn needs to turn 15 more or gain 365 more Zombe points to reach the next level.

10. Carolyn needs phone #'s because her mom accidentally washed her phone.

Scavenger Hunt

Lately, I've been finding items in interesting places: tomato sauce on the book shelf, magenets in the lazy susan cabinet, princess dolls in my spaghetti pan to name a few. It seems that Squirt is going through a phase where she's liking to put things "away" just not in the right places. It's funny, I've seen her move a bag of rice from one cabinet to another, as if she just thought that it was better suited to the other cabinet.

She has this set of princess dolls though that she got for Christmas. She LOVES them and carries them around with her everywhere, so when it comes time to put them away, it's like playing hide and seek.

Most of you know that we are planning a trip to disney world. The original plan was for late 2009, then it got pushed to early 2010, and now it's back to late 2009 just because that way we won't have to buy Squirt a plane ticket. I get excited every time I think about it and start planning it at all... needless to say I'm really looking forward to it :)

For those of you who don't know, Frik has a habit of seeing products that are on sale for really cheap and then buying them to resell them. It's something that is kind of crazy, but also an easy profit (if he ever gets around to listing them on ebay or craigslist). Currently for sale, we have 3 pink graphing calculators (ti-84 plus) so if any of you are interested, let me know!

C is for...

Rules: erase my answers, enter yours,  and tag 10 people.  Use the 1st letter of  your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names, and things.  You can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

 1. What is your name: Carolyn

2. 4 letter word: Camp

3. A Boy’s Name:  Charles

4. A Girl’s Name:  Cindy

5. An Occupation: Customer Service Rep

6. A Color: Cerulean

7. Something you wear: Cap

8. A Beverage:  Carrot Juice

9. A Food: Candy

10. Something found in the bathroom: Conditioner

11. A place: Carport

12. A Reason for being late:  Can't find my keys

13. Something you shout: Come here now!

Jaw Dropping Excitement

A couple of months ago, Frik and I bought Squirt some bangles to play with because she had taken to wearing the roll of packing tape around her wrist all over the place. She loved them, but they've been sitting in a tin in the bottom of her toy box for over a month now, so she forgot that she even had them.

Today, she wanted to play with Daddy's sunglasses, so instead I pulled out that tin because it had a pair of little kid sunglasses in it. When I opened the box, her jaw dropped as she looked inside and saw all the pretty things. It was adorable.

Yesterday was a rough day at church. She was very tired and cranky, so I was trying to put her down for a nap. She was of course screaming and crying, but in the middle of her crying she still managed to find it in her heart to give me a kiss. Maybe she was trying to bribe me... "If I kiss you, will you let me go play?" She has been doing a lot of kisses lately. We were walking around walgreens and pretty much anything I handed her that had a face, she would kiss. She loves to kiss herself in the mirror, too.

Her walking has improved quite a bit, too. She is nowhere near Jack Jack's level of expertise of course, but she is walking around unassisted all the time now.

Grandpa came to visit for the weekend and got to spend a lot of time with us. Squirt was holding out on him for pretty much the whole trip. She's got a cold and isn't feeling to great so it was hard for her to open up, but she did give him a couple of cuddles when he was reading to her:



Also exciting is the new addition to our family, Frik's new girlfriend:



He actually compared the laptop to a perfect wife...

Alice and Duke in the tent (duke LOVES the tent...):



And here's one of Alice saying "Daddy"

DVR

First of all, I want to say that I very strongly dislike my DVR. Before we moved in here, we had DISH and i loved their DVR and remote and everything about it... When we moved in here, we switched to Comcast because basic cable was included with our HOA fees. After about a year, we decided we really missed our DVR and decided to upgrade through comcast for an extra $15ish/mo...

Well... I really really don't like it. The quality of HD programming is lower than SD programming was on the basic cable. It's yucky. It freezes up often... it's not intutive and unpredictable.

That said, It's better than no DVR and cheaper than DISH or DirecTV or anything else since we will be paying the HOA regardless. I have really liked being able to keep a couple of kids shows on hand for Squirt (Little Einsteins is one of her favorites) and play them at any time.

So I'm wondering... What are your top DVR/Tivo'd shows? For me, it's probably Friends, Scrubs, and Jon & Kate plus 8. These are shows I wouldn't watch otherwise because they're either on at stupid times or I don't want to wait through commercials or both. There are also, of course, the shows that I would watch even without the DVR: House, Lost, Life on Mars, The Office... Almost a new show for every day of the week! So exciting :D

You may all have seen this already...

but I thought that it was interesting:

 http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=6854285&page=1

Sukie accused me of having a "mommy blog". I have to admit that it is totally true! I can't help it. Since I had Squirt, my life revolves around her. I was even watching friends recently and thought that it was so stupid and unrealistic that after Ross and Rachael have their baby, nothing changes. There are a couple episodes that have Emma in them, but for the most part, nothing is different. Even in the series finale, Rachael is going off to Paris or wherever and Ross comes to the Airport and tells her he loves her blah blah blah... but there is no Emma anywhere around. Weird... I guess sitcoms don't typically aim for complete realism.

Anyway, back to the link... I know a lot of people aim for 1 year for breast feeding their baby and that is considered a long time. I've heard people who only want to for 6 weeks or 6 months or until the baby has teeth, etc... And then some people don't breast feed their babies at all. I'm of the opinion that whatever you choose to do with your baby is fine as long as he or she is healthy. I chose to breast feed Squirt to at least a year and in my mind have always thought that it would probably be more like 2 years, which is practically unheard of  in our society, but it's the decision that I feel is right for me and my baby.

There is, of course, the extreme:



Breastfeeding a child to 8 years old is definitely not something I would do... Even the 5 year old is much too old for me. They seem like an interesting family anyway. Doesn't seem like their kids ever have any candy or anything if you listen to how the older child describes the taste of breastmilk... However, she's not abusing the kids and so if she wants to do it... whatever. I'll try my best not to judge her. ;)

Just wanted to share...

You know how in some kids shows, the characters talk to the kids (think blues clues or mickey mouse club house) Well the other day, I noticed that when the characters are obviously talking to the audience, Squirt responds with little questiony sounding comments. It is SO cute. :)

3D Fun

Berserk & Val came into town this weekend for Theorb's wedding. Although they didn't make it down to Provo (next time you guys will have to come down here!) we did have fun hanging out with them at the planetarium and later at Theorb's wedding. We saw "fly me to the moon" (the 3d Imax version) and it was kind of cute but mostly annoying. It was Squirt's first 3D movie, though, and she did really well until the last couple minutes. When she'd actually keep the little glasses on and look at the screen at the same time, she was intrigued and would reach out in front of her to try to grab the picture. It was adorable.



Playing in the gift shop at the planetarium



Us forcing Squirt to choose between her 2 least favorite  people. With Berserk, I think it's a matter of proximity and her never seeing him. With Striker.... well... She just doesn't like him. Sorry Striker! She was doing better this weekend, though...



All the kids. This is The Boy's contemplative face.

She's been teething some more lately and so has been harder than normal to deal with. Today, when I was changing her diaper, she decided that she just had to give me a kiss and pulled herself up by grabbing my neck as I leaned over to talk to her and then gave me a sweet little baby kiss. She will get that idea from time to time. The first time I saw her spontaneously kiss something with out being prompted, it was the dog. The second one was The Boy (that one I ALMOST caught on camera) and then this time, it was me. :)



Squirt's first kiss! (The Boy is her FAVORITE person. She just thinks he's so hilarious)



Squirt posing with the happy couple. The reception was beautiful. :)



The other happy couple



Pretty baby princess!

A little less wise... and toothy

So last year, when we were signing up for our flex spending account contributions, we put about 1000 onto the plan so it would cover the birth of our Squirt. It turned out, though, that even though she was born in the correct tax year, it was not the correct fiscal year, so we had to pay the $900 ish out of pocket and then were left with a ton of money in our flex spending account. We tried thinking of all the medical procedures we could have done, and finally settled on me getting my wisdom teeth out (something I should have had done already, and those of you who have read this who don't have kids yet, but still have teeth, get them taken out now. It's easier when you don't have to worry about taking care of someone else)

We kept pushing the date back because since I was going under general anesthesia, I wouldn't be allowed to breast feed squirt for 24 hours after the procedure. This was nerve racking because she still nurses at night and several times throughout the day, ususally when going down for naps. In addition, she likes to try to "help herself" by grabbing my shirt and pulling and saying, "eh?" like, "can I please have some?" Since I didn't want to have to tell her no and try to not be in pain myself, I thought it would be good if she wasn't around at all, so Sarah graciously decided she could take her for the day.

She did very well, and for more details on that excursion, see Guildy's blog. Once she got home that night, Guildy gave her a bath and put her in bed. She cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep which isn't too terrible, but it was hard for me to hear. She slept all the way from 8:30 until about 3, then woke up and Daddy tried to calm her down, even giving her a bottle of milk I had pumped a while back, which she was mad about at first, but then realized it was that or nothing and took it. He watched mickey mouse with her and she finally fell back asleep around 5. Then woke up at 7. I had a Dr. appointment at 8:40, so we went to that and She ate a lot of bananas... and then by 12:30 I was nursing her down for her nap, which was about 2 and a half hours.

Overall, it messed with her schedule a bit, but she is pretty much recovered form that now. She even slept so well last night. I put her down at 9:30 (because she had had a weird late nap, recovering from no sleep at all...) and she didn't wake up until about 5, when I went in and put her back down and she then woke up at 8:30, just like normal. I'm so proud of her! She slept in her own crib all night! (me being on narcotics didn't feel like it would be safe to bring her into bed with me...) And so i really feel like's she's growing up and becomeing more independent. :)

Now I'm just getting sick of the bloody taste in the back of my mouth... yuck.

Eye, Eye...

I was trying to put squirt down for a nap today and she rolled over on the bed and saw her stuffed sheep, and started saying "hi, hi, hi" to it. I thought it was so cute, but then I realized that she was pointing at the Eye and that she was saying "eye, eye, eye". That made it even cuter! She does like to play the game where she points at my nose and I say "nose" or she points at my mouth and I say "mouth," so she's just taken it to a new level. :) So cute!

Cutest Hide and Seek

Squirt was playing hide and seek with Frik yesterday. He used to play with Duke, where he would throw duke's ball downstairs then run into the other room and hide and wait for duke to come find him. As adorable as that was, it's so much cuter when squirt crawls in and sees him and then starts laughing and getting excited, then Frik will run into the other room and hide and Squirt will come crawling after him. It's so so cute.

Mom and Scooter came into town for the past weekend for Squirt's birthday party. Thanks again for all the help getting ready for the party! I think it went well. We had a ton of people here (around 25, and that's a lot for a house this size) and we made some really good green chili... mmm... and had cake and chips. Squirt was pretty cranky. She's been not feeling too great and has been very clingy for the past week or so, so I think that was the root of it. Plus there were a lot of people here and she needed a nap. She didn't even end up getting to have any cake because we had to put her down for a nap before we cut it.

Last night, Frik woke up to a thump coming from upstairs and then the baby crying (we had fallen asleep watching tv downstairs). So he ran upstairs and guess who was not in her crib anymore? That's right. She was on the floor, crying. Today I moved the mattress down to the lower level. Poor little Squirt. Too good of a climber for her own good.

2 more teeth!

My poor baby's next 2 teeth finally broke through. Her gums have been purple and swollen for the past couple days and she's even bit with her bottom teeth and drew blood up there, so I'm so happy for her that they finally cut through! The dr also mentioned yesterday that her teeth are very straight, so here's hoping that she will have straight teeth like her mom and not need braces! :D

Long Overdue Christmas and New Years Pictures

Here are a bunch of cute pictures from Christmas and New years:



Jack Jack discovered a new vessel to get milk from




Squirt loved the bubbles we got in our stocking!






She found the baby under the tree and fell in love






Such cute babies!




Playing with her new princess dolls




Jack Jack loves Tiger!




Silly boys




Silly Daddy, too.




On New Years Eve, her "bracelet"




Duke and his baby




Family picture




Playing "wanu"




Aww...




Sukie, since you refuse to smile for a picture, I'm going to post all the crappy pictures I get of you until I get a good one.




I can't quit you, Striker!


So the other day, we went to DI to browse around and I picked up a nutcracker and started making it talk to Squirt. I made it say, "hello" and she said back "hello". It was so cute! Now she'll say it once in a while and a lot of the time, she'll hold her hand up to her face like she's talking on the phone. It is adorable.

We had a dr appointment for her today. She got 4 shots and a toe stick. Everything is good, she's in the 80th percentile for height (29 1/2 in) and the 40th for weight (20 lb 12 oz) and her head is in the 75th. The Dr. told us something interesting, that there is a correlation between a baby having less than 6 teeth at 1 year old and them being tall as adults, so he thinks that given that Squirt has only 2 teeth (the top 2 are so so so close!) and that she's tall right now, that she's going to be, as he says "a barbie". She did so well with the toe stick, like she didn't even notice it, and then the shots were ok. She cried of course and broke our hearts, but then she calmed down very quickly and even gave the nurse a smile on the way out.

We drove scribbles up to idaho yesterday in a caravan style. The weather was not good at all, so what was supposed to take only 8 hours up and back took around 12, partially because of stops and partially because of bad weather and traffic. It was fun though, and Squirt did so well in the car. She either slept or watched Brother Bear the whole way. She slept a lot more today, so I'm thinking a growth spurt is coming.

When we got up to Scribbles' dorm, there were some baby toys in the main lobby because the hall advisor has a few kids. One of the toys was a doll house with a little family of dolls. Squirt went over to it and tried to climb in and was playing with the mommy and daddy and baby dolls. I swear she even had slightly different voices that she was giving to each of them. Then she put the baby doll in the crib. It was so adorable.

One last cute thing that she's been doing lately is when she sees us pull out specific foods (cheese, french fries, chocolate...) she'll say "mmmm" in anticipation. It's adorable. It's silly, but I"m proud of her for being able to associate the way those foods look with what they taste like, instead of just thinking everything is food and putting it all in her mouth like she was doing for those couple of months. No more eating leaves and card board! (hopefully)

For those of you that didn't see my blog post from new years day (there were 2) who are curious about what happened and what MJ is talking about, there was a second post where I talked about a scary incident that happend with Squirt. After posting it though, I felt like it was just too personal and that since I don't know who all could read my blog and honestly I was afraid of people's reactions, so I took it down. If any of you want to know what happened, though, email me and I'll let you know. If you don't have my email address or any other means by which to contact me, you are the people that I didn't want to share with. sorry :)