Today after a brunch sort of meal at ten consisting of pancakes, Cam brought Chelane upstairs and put her on our bed. She was just laying there wide awake and as content as can be. I leaned over her and started talking and smiling and, could it be? She was smiling back at me? Yes those were smiles, big, wide-open mouth smiles and cute closed mouth happy lips, and she kept them going while I was talking to her. I yelled for Cam to come in the room and look at this amazing feat. She of course stopped by the time he got in there but Cam confirmed that she had been giving him big smiles a few moments ago when he extracted her from the baby swing downstairs ...
So could it be my little baby is smiling socially already? She is barely 6 weeks old?! I don't remember the particulars of Dallas starting to socially smile but I DO know that the first time I caught a picture of it was March 9th and I vaguely remember him starting the social smiling just a few days, week tops, before then... December 21st to March 9th would be more like 10 weeks... this just seems early for smiles. She seems to be growing up so much faster than Dallas was. I can't believe we have passed 6 weeks already.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Beauty Marks
Monday afternoon I fell asleep in bed while holding Chelane. Dallas was watching a movie so I think I subconsciously thought that he would be fine. Well he got a hold of a big, fat, permanent, sharpie marker and drew all over the TV stand. Luckily through some rubbing alcohol and very fine sandpaper you can't even tell anymore (just some gray discoloration in the wood grain once and a while). Obviously I didn't learn my lesson. Yesterday Dallas got ahold of the same sharpie marker (that I conviently put back right in the same place he nicked it from in the first place) and this time decided to improve his face...
A few hours later while changing his diaper I noticed some other work...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame, on me. So the marker now resides on the top shelf of our hall closet. I am just very happy he didn't take the marker to the walls or doors or computer or TV screen or... You get the picture.
Also I have been doing a tiny bit of packing in preparation of the move coming up. (I have applied with the Kent School District to be a part-time literacy para-educator at Sunrise Elementary, keep your fingers crossed for me). I repacked some baby clothes into smaller boxes to keep them separated by size, and therefore had a large empty box that Dallas decided to take up residency in.
He fits quite comfortably in there. Anyone want a Dallas for Christmas? Just pay shipping.
Chelane is getting very large. She doesn't fit into newborn size anymore. I am up a diaper size as well and she will coo at me if I talk to her. I can't believe she is getting close to 2 months already (she hit 6 weeks yesterday). Man how time flies.
I am not sure when these pictures were taken (my camera wants to date them at Sept 22 and Oct 5... hmmm something about that doesn't seem right). After looking at the date it gave for the other pictures of Dallas, I surmised that it is a month behind.
A few hours later while changing his diaper I noticed some other work...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame, on me. So the marker now resides on the top shelf of our hall closet. I am just very happy he didn't take the marker to the walls or doors or computer or TV screen or... You get the picture.
Also I have been doing a tiny bit of packing in preparation of the move coming up. (I have applied with the Kent School District to be a part-time literacy para-educator at Sunrise Elementary, keep your fingers crossed for me). I repacked some baby clothes into smaller boxes to keep them separated by size, and therefore had a large empty box that Dallas decided to take up residency in.
He fits quite comfortably in there. Anyone want a Dallas for Christmas? Just pay shipping.
Chelane is getting very large. She doesn't fit into newborn size anymore. I am up a diaper size as well and she will coo at me if I talk to her. I can't believe she is getting close to 2 months already (she hit 6 weeks yesterday). Man how time flies.
I am not sure when these pictures were taken (my camera wants to date them at Sept 22 and Oct 5... hmmm something about that doesn't seem right). After looking at the date it gave for the other pictures of Dallas, I surmised that it is a month behind.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Downpour
I have decided that Dallas will fit in fine in Washington.
On Sunday I picked him up from the church nursery after my class got out. Usually Cam is waiting there with me too (since we come from different classes) but this time he was no where to be seen. The three of us (since, of course I had Chelane with me in my class) walked to the coat rack where Cam had stowed the car seat. I buckled Chelane in while trying to convince Dallas that standing under the coat rack with me would be more fun than potentially getting himself lost in the sea of people currently inhabiting the hallway. Then trying to finangle the car seat and Dallas we took a lap around the church trying to figure out where Cam was (it was about this time that I realized I had NO idea where his class was...). I decided the car was the best place to wait for him. As I walked outside I realized why the hallways were staying so packed, it was DOWNPOURING.
Utah doesn't get too much rain, and when it does it doesn't tend to pour like this. This was Washington worthy pouring. This was you-are-soaked-completely-through-after-standing-in-it-for-five-minutes pouring. Of course living in Utah for five years (ok one of those years I was in Washington for the summer) I had stopped carrying a coat around with me or putting on layers; the weather isn't unpredictable (or bipolar) in Utah.
Luckily baby seats come with covers. I walked out the door and stood under the eve making sure I knew where the car was. Dallas decided to walk out from under the eve. I was expecting him to run back under after he got sprayed but he didn't. The kid sat in the rain and turned back to face me smiling and saying, "whoa." Well I took his hand and he made for the car. Once we got there I realized the car was locked and as I fished for my keys two young boys (5-10ish?) ran by. Of course running looked like much more fun than standing still by the car, so Dallas took off after them. I ignored the fact that Dallas left me (great mom I am) the parking lot was pretty empty and there were no cars moving around so I felt like he was safe, plus I was more worried about getting Chelane out of the rain; those car seat covers only cover so much of the car seat. Gratefully the mom of those two boys took Dallas' hand and walked him back towards me. By the time Dallas and I got into the car I was wet through and Dallas was slightly damp (this is where I dislike the difference between boy church clothes and girl church clothes).
Again this morning it started to sprinkle while Dallas was eating and looking out the window in his booster seat. Again there was pointing and "whoa." I think the kid will love Washington, he is definitely my child.
On Sunday I picked him up from the church nursery after my class got out. Usually Cam is waiting there with me too (since we come from different classes) but this time he was no where to be seen. The three of us (since, of course I had Chelane with me in my class) walked to the coat rack where Cam had stowed the car seat. I buckled Chelane in while trying to convince Dallas that standing under the coat rack with me would be more fun than potentially getting himself lost in the sea of people currently inhabiting the hallway. Then trying to finangle the car seat and Dallas we took a lap around the church trying to figure out where Cam was (it was about this time that I realized I had NO idea where his class was...). I decided the car was the best place to wait for him. As I walked outside I realized why the hallways were staying so packed, it was DOWNPOURING.
Utah doesn't get too much rain, and when it does it doesn't tend to pour like this. This was Washington worthy pouring. This was you-are-soaked-completely-through-after-standing-in-it-for-five-minutes pouring. Of course living in Utah for five years (ok one of those years I was in Washington for the summer) I had stopped carrying a coat around with me or putting on layers; the weather isn't unpredictable (or bipolar) in Utah.
Luckily baby seats come with covers. I walked out the door and stood under the eve making sure I knew where the car was. Dallas decided to walk out from under the eve. I was expecting him to run back under after he got sprayed but he didn't. The kid sat in the rain and turned back to face me smiling and saying, "whoa." Well I took his hand and he made for the car. Once we got there I realized the car was locked and as I fished for my keys two young boys (5-10ish?) ran by. Of course running looked like much more fun than standing still by the car, so Dallas took off after them. I ignored the fact that Dallas left me (great mom I am) the parking lot was pretty empty and there were no cars moving around so I felt like he was safe, plus I was more worried about getting Chelane out of the rain; those car seat covers only cover so much of the car seat. Gratefully the mom of those two boys took Dallas' hand and walked him back towards me. By the time Dallas and I got into the car I was wet through and Dallas was slightly damp (this is where I dislike the difference between boy church clothes and girl church clothes).
Again this morning it started to sprinkle while Dallas was eating and looking out the window in his booster seat. Again there was pointing and "whoa." I think the kid will love Washington, he is definitely my child.
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Christmas Debate
When should you start Christmas preliminaries? After Halloween or after Thanksgiving? I can see both sides of the fence in this one.
Growing up we were not allowed to play Christmas music or put up any decorations before the Friday following Thanksgiving. Of course on that Friday all Christmas-ness broke loose as we climb up to the loft in the top of my parent's garage to fish out all thing Christmas. My sister would make sure that Christmas music was playing bright and earl. We put up our fake tree, decorated the downstairs with my mom's collection of Nativities, and (sometimes) put the lights up outside.
I asked my mom one year why we had to wait until after Thanksgiving and she gave me a very astute (as always) answer. It is to give Thanksgiving a fair shake (that is me paraphrasing). The more I think about it the more I agree that Thanksgiving does get swallowed up by Christmas too often. In stores the day after Halloween all the Christmas things get put out (if they weren't out already) and, in some cases, Christmas music goes on the radio. I can understand the stores' reasoning: unless you are a grocery store, you get more revenue from Halloween and Christmas than Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a very important holiday though. Even if you don't want to celebrate the Native-Americans-save-the-English-settlers bit just the idea of having a day of the year soley devoted to thinking about all your blessings and to be especially grateful towards you Heavenly Father is, I think, a very good thing.
One another side of the same coin, Christmas is also an extremely important holiday and should really get more than a month for celebrating the birth of our Savior, so is starting the day after Halloween such a bad thing? Honestly Christmas could just be thought of as an extension of Thanksgiving (actually that should be the other way around).
Like I said, I can see both sides; and now, being the mommy and needing to decide holiday traditions and everything that comes along with that, I still am far from making up my mind on this matter.
Of course this is all a moot point since we will be moving right before Christmas and be spending the actual holiday in Canada...
Growing up we were not allowed to play Christmas music or put up any decorations before the Friday following Thanksgiving. Of course on that Friday all Christmas-ness broke loose as we climb up to the loft in the top of my parent's garage to fish out all thing Christmas. My sister would make sure that Christmas music was playing bright and earl. We put up our fake tree, decorated the downstairs with my mom's collection of Nativities, and (sometimes) put the lights up outside.
I asked my mom one year why we had to wait until after Thanksgiving and she gave me a very astute (as always) answer. It is to give Thanksgiving a fair shake (that is me paraphrasing). The more I think about it the more I agree that Thanksgiving does get swallowed up by Christmas too often. In stores the day after Halloween all the Christmas things get put out (if they weren't out already) and, in some cases, Christmas music goes on the radio. I can understand the stores' reasoning: unless you are a grocery store, you get more revenue from Halloween and Christmas than Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a very important holiday though. Even if you don't want to celebrate the Native-Americans-save-the-English-settlers bit just the idea of having a day of the year soley devoted to thinking about all your blessings and to be especially grateful towards you Heavenly Father is, I think, a very good thing.
One another side of the same coin, Christmas is also an extremely important holiday and should really get more than a month for celebrating the birth of our Savior, so is starting the day after Halloween such a bad thing? Honestly Christmas could just be thought of as an extension of Thanksgiving (actually that should be the other way around).
Like I said, I can see both sides; and now, being the mommy and needing to decide holiday traditions and everything that comes along with that, I still am far from making up my mind on this matter.
Of course this is all a moot point since we will be moving right before Christmas and be spending the actual holiday in Canada...
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Our Halloween
Halloween this year was a little different than you would expect from a family with an almost-two-year- old and semi-new born.
First of all Cam took the day off to go in for some dentist work at 9 in the morning. He needed a bit of work done (why not take advantage of the dental insurance we may not have for a while, right?) and they estimated 4 hours. They gave him a pill to take an hour before he went in and would "administer more as needed." It is basically a sedative that would make him loopy enough to pass out during the work. Well, I went down to Provo to hang out with Karma for a while before she had class and when 1 o'clock rolled around I went to get Cam from the dentist.
The dentist work went fine but, oh boy, was Cam out of it. His speech was very slurred, he talked very quietly, his eyes were never more than half open, and he would take long pauses while talking to you or take a long while before answering any questions. He insisted that he could get himself in the house and upstairs by himself, that I should just take care of the kids (after I let him go by himself and read the post-operation stuff I found out I should always hold his arm while he walks and help him upstairs if stairs aren't completely avoidable... oops, I am glad he didn't hurt himself).
I let him sleep until about 6 then woke him up to eat something and see what he wanted me to make/get for him (he wanted a smoothie and me to make pudding) I also told him I was going out for a few hours, Dallas was getting ansy (I wouldn't let him in the room with Daddy while he was sleeping and that is where the TV is, so he was watching movies on the computer when he wanted too, and he just had too much energy for me to keep up with him). So I fed Chelane, left Cam (who was seeming a little less drugged), and navagated out of the neighborhood full of early trick-or-treaters to go to the nearest large store that had the best possibility of entertaining me for at least an hour and a half: Wal*mart.
If anyone is wondering the best time of the year to go to Wal*mart, it is Halloween night. The parking lot (which I haven't seen less than half empty before no matter when I come) was only about 10 cars deep, they didn't have many registers open but I still only waited for 2 minutes to get to the front of a line. We did a little shopping, purused the DVD's, called Karma to see if she wanted to come up and hang out with me (I needed non-drugged adult contact) and people watched. Like I said, there weren't many people at Wal*mart, but almost all the people that were there (including employees) were dressed up in honor of the holiday. I came across one person dressed up (well make-up'd) like the Joker in "Dark Knight" and the resembalance was pretty scary. I actually tracked him down after I passed him and asked if I could take a picture, unfortunatly the camera on my phone isn't very good and the lens is dirty so all my pictures come out grainy and unclear, but here is the picture anyway (I sorta think the bad-ness of the camera adds to the affect (or is that effect?)).
When I got home around 8 Cam was asleep again and I woke him up to administer the smoothie (I had gotten a smoothie too which Dallas took the lid off while I was tending to Cam and knocked on the floor... so I ended up with half a smoothie). Then Karma called me and told me her tentative Halloween plans had fallen through and to come get her for the weekend (yippee!).
I left the house close to 9 to go get her and navigated through the mostly deserted neighborhood (I guess when you have small kids the night ends early) to kidnap Karma from Provo. And by the time we got back Cam was almost completly normal... Happy Halloween!
First of all Cam took the day off to go in for some dentist work at 9 in the morning. He needed a bit of work done (why not take advantage of the dental insurance we may not have for a while, right?) and they estimated 4 hours. They gave him a pill to take an hour before he went in and would "administer more as needed." It is basically a sedative that would make him loopy enough to pass out during the work. Well, I went down to Provo to hang out with Karma for a while before she had class and when 1 o'clock rolled around I went to get Cam from the dentist.
The dentist work went fine but, oh boy, was Cam out of it. His speech was very slurred, he talked very quietly, his eyes were never more than half open, and he would take long pauses while talking to you or take a long while before answering any questions. He insisted that he could get himself in the house and upstairs by himself, that I should just take care of the kids (after I let him go by himself and read the post-operation stuff I found out I should always hold his arm while he walks and help him upstairs if stairs aren't completely avoidable... oops, I am glad he didn't hurt himself).
I let him sleep until about 6 then woke him up to eat something and see what he wanted me to make/get for him (he wanted a smoothie and me to make pudding) I also told him I was going out for a few hours, Dallas was getting ansy (I wouldn't let him in the room with Daddy while he was sleeping and that is where the TV is, so he was watching movies on the computer when he wanted too, and he just had too much energy for me to keep up with him). So I fed Chelane, left Cam (who was seeming a little less drugged), and navagated out of the neighborhood full of early trick-or-treaters to go to the nearest large store that had the best possibility of entertaining me for at least an hour and a half: Wal*mart.
If anyone is wondering the best time of the year to go to Wal*mart, it is Halloween night. The parking lot (which I haven't seen less than half empty before no matter when I come) was only about 10 cars deep, they didn't have many registers open but I still only waited for 2 minutes to get to the front of a line. We did a little shopping, purused the DVD's, called Karma to see if she wanted to come up and hang out with me (I needed non-drugged adult contact) and people watched. Like I said, there weren't many people at Wal*mart, but almost all the people that were there (including employees) were dressed up in honor of the holiday. I came across one person dressed up (well make-up'd) like the Joker in "Dark Knight" and the resembalance was pretty scary. I actually tracked him down after I passed him and asked if I could take a picture, unfortunatly the camera on my phone isn't very good and the lens is dirty so all my pictures come out grainy and unclear, but here is the picture anyway (I sorta think the bad-ness of the camera adds to the affect (or is that effect?)).
When I got home around 8 Cam was asleep again and I woke him up to administer the smoothie (I had gotten a smoothie too which Dallas took the lid off while I was tending to Cam and knocked on the floor... so I ended up with half a smoothie). Then Karma called me and told me her tentative Halloween plans had fallen through and to come get her for the weekend (yippee!).
I left the house close to 9 to go get her and navigated through the mostly deserted neighborhood (I guess when you have small kids the night ends early) to kidnap Karma from Provo. And by the time we got back Cam was almost completly normal... Happy Halloween!
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