Daniel - 40 Weeks

I am a sucker for a boy in overalls!

Wednesday Whiffs

*The other night, both Jay and I accidentally left our garage doors open and the next morning, we discovered our trashcan out in the driveway with trash spewed as far as 100 yards away.  Right next to the sticky mess were bear paw prints.  We had noticed some rather large prints down at the bottom of our driveway a week earlier and thought they were probably bear tracks but knowing a bear was IN MY GARAGE kind of freaks me out.  Every morning, I walk Henry and Sam down the lane to the road where the bus picks them up and I've noticed two other sets of bear tracks.  I've still never seen the bear but my guess is he lives somewhere in the trees nearby.

*In a previous post, I mentioned some trouble I've been having with my right front tooth.  I call it my Zombie tooth because I've had a root canal in it but every once in a while, I feel a dull, throbbing pain in it that seems to come and go with no explanation.  My dentist referred me to the local endodontist (we only have one) to make sure I don't need a new root canal and to put a post inside my tooth to stabilize it and I went and had a consult and exam with him yesterday.  He is quite the piece of work.  He seemed nice enough at first although I was a bit disturbed by some odd facial pulls he used in an apparent attempt to entertain me (He came in with his hands on his hips, eyebrows raised, lips in a pout and face tilted downward.  I asked what was wrong and he chuckled and said, "Oh, nothing!"  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.).  Then, as he examined my tooth, he told me that I have a lot of plaque along my gumline and began to scrape it off.  O.K.  Kind of embarrassing but I think all professionals have a tendency to let you know how badly you need their services.  Like the pedicurists who are always telling me about my horrible heel cracks.  Or the car detailer who said if I ever needed my year supply of food (he was LDS) then I could just go scout out the crevices in the back of my van.  I just smile and nod, people.   Anywho...this endodontist then proceeded to hold up the metal tool with the hook that now contains a tiny blob of tooth plaque and said, "Do you want to lick this off?"  What do you say to that?  Um...no?  Do I have to?  After a too long and uncomfortable 10 seconds, he chuckled again and said "Kidding!  But it's gross, right?  You need to brush better!" and proceeded to wipe it on my chest napkin.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

*Sam and Henry have been treated by a pediatric opthamologist in Salt Lake City for the past five years.  Jay and I both felt that the continuity of care in their cases was very important and as we travel there pretty frequently and they only needed to be seen once a year, it wasn't a big deal.  This spring, we got a letter from the eye center informing us that this doctor had left their practice to pursue a new opportunity and Iowa and gave us a list of other doctors to choose from.  Because we were starting with someone new anyway, we decided to switch care to an opthamologist closer to us up in Grand Junction (only a 3 1/2 hour drive versus 6 or 7).  The three of us headed up there after church on Sunday for their Monday morning appointments and I have to say that I had forgotten how easy it is to travel without a baby.  I kept thinking I had forgotten something because we only had one small suitcase.  No diaper bag.  No crib.  No stroller.  No crying baby wanting out of his carseat.  We made it up there in no time and had a good night's sleep in a hotel we got at half price on hotwire.com.   The doctor was very happy with Henry's progress and vision and isn't even changing his prescription.  Sam, on the other hand, she is worried about.  I have always noticed that he tends to cheat with his bifocals.  he sits really close to the television to see and reads his piano music with his neck bent backward so he can read the music with the more magnified lens.  I guess all that cheating hasn't helped his cause and during his vision testing, he showed crossing with his lenses at both long distance and close up.  She is changing him to a single lens but wants to see him again in a month and probably again in a month after that.  If she isn't seeing the eyes working with the lenses better, she mentioned a possible surgery in the future.  I guess it's a good thing that she is only 3 1/2 hours away instead of 6 or 7.  Sigh.  And poor Sam.  I just want the boy to be able to see!

We do get to drive over the scary but amazing Red Mountain Pass when we go.  The drive could not be more beautiful than it was this past weekend.




A beautiful tunnel.



Coming back down into Silverton on the way home.



Driving into Ouray




Gorgeous trees changing color



The 14ers. Uncompaghre, perhaps?

*I am a definite PSETDIer.  Oh...not familiar with that acronym?  It's main rival, DIY, is much better known, thanks to big stores like Home Depot and Lowes but I am still a firm believer in Paying Someone Else To Do It, if at all possible.  I developed the phrase when our basement flooded last summer and our neighbors, who happen to be plumbers and handy and have big trucks and equipment for all sorts of various activities, suggested we just....fix it ourselves.  Rip the carpet up and pad up, get some big fans and dry it out.  Get the young adults and youth to come and help.  That sort of thing.  I didn't want to.  We hired ServePro.  Not just because I don't want to be a burden on other people and I never know what the heck I'm doing (and I don't...ever) but because I believe that by using other's talents, and paying them for their expertise , I am helping this great world spin.  Economically and spiritually.  Service is great but people also need to work and earn money!  I also have no desire to figure out how to do most things.  Still, sometimes, this core belief of mine doesn't work out so well.  Take, for instance, the great hot tub debacle of 2012.  I have been working with a local repair shop since APRIL and it still isn't working.  What is more frustrating than the ridiculous amount of time that has lapse since I first hired them to fix it is their assumption that I have any idea, at all, what is wrong with it.  The questions they ask about relay circuits, filters and pumps all go right over my head.  I feel like yelling over the phone (I did say it sternly once but I'm not a public yeller), "I don't know anything about hot tubs.  That is why I hired you!"  The guy we pay to fix the well pump that regularly goes out is also frustrating.  He doesn't know exactly why it doesn't work as well as it should but still manages to fix it...over...and over again.  I just want it fixed!  The PSETDI philosophy isn't always frustrating, though.  I had a totally efficient and competent company come and fix a propane leak in less than 20 minutes.  That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about!  That's way better than the tire people who put on my new tires last week but inadvertently ripped the beading (all new words I'm learning!), causing a flat two days later.  Every once in a while, I even get a nice surprise by Jay who has the skills to be a DYIer but not the time.  After Seth noticed the ceiling dropping water in the basement, we figured something was wrong with the main floor toilet because the ceiling leaked every time the toilet was flushed.  After talking to our neighbor plumber, Jay changed the wax seal underneath and, voila, problem solved.  He saved us at least $80.  But, I'm still not in the mood to learn how to fix toilets.




He needs to show some more skin to be a real plumber:)


Daniel just cut 3 teeth at the same time.  Like, the same day.  He's been miserable since Friday and I felt bad leaving him with Jay when he was so down but Jay sent me pictures throughout the day to let me know how he was feeling.  Thankfully, he is back to his happy baby self and now has eight sharp little teeth.  He also happens to be weaned.  The two occurrences might have something to do with each other.

Miserable baby in the morning

Getting into trouble with the toilet paper.

He loves toilets and toilet paper!

So, Jay put him to work. He was in heaven.

Still crying for me yesterday but feeling better today!

Daniel - 39 Weeks - 9 Months!

The band-aid on your toe is from a toe prick the nurse took to measure the amount of lead in your blood and your hemoglobin.  You are fine on both counts.  You also got the flu vaccine today.

At nine months old you are this big:

Height:  29.8 in (90%)
Weight:  21 lb 14 oz (71%)
Head Circumference 47 cm (90%)

Daniel - 38 Weeks

Book Review #22 - The House at Tyneford

I have been on a chick-lit reading extravaganza!  This was a wander-through-and-pick-up-at-the-library choice made solely on the aesthetics of the cover and the words, "Fans of Downton Abbey will absolutely adore The House at Tyneford!"  Sold!

Although there is the expected romance and descriptions of how the wealthy live, this is a much grittier novel than I expected.  It is mostly set in pre-war Europe during Hitler's rise to power, when Jews were losing more and more of their rights and the question of their safety was becoming a major concern.  Jews who could afford the exit taxes got visas to leave their homes and countries and some sent their  daughters to work in various jobs in a friendlier England.  In this novel by Natasha Solomons, Elise Landau, an 18 year-old girl born to a famous opera singer and a successful author, who grew up attending fancy parties and servants of her own, leaves her comfortable life to work as a house maid at a large English estate.  Not only does she lack the skills and experience to do well at her new job, but the pride in serving a noble family, not to mention the required humility, are absent too.

I think had this really been about the transition between her two very different lifestyles, I would have enjoyed it more.  Instead, in the name of romance, the author focused on her relationship with the rich heir to Tyneford, Kit. The relationship is not completely out of the question as she once was a part of the circle she now serves, but I did not believe it.  She is a jew.  She barely speaks English.  She describes herself as pudgy and plain (don't they all in these books?  And yet, men are always falling in love with them?  I think the rich and noble tend to get the thin and rich, don't you?) The author attempts to paint Elise as rebellious and headstrong and I suppose that could be part of her allure, but because so much of the story depends upon the authenticity of the relationship between her and Kit, the story starts to collapse from the added weight of the war.

Still, it is a book I think fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy.  I am a fan of the show and I liked it.  I could imagine very well the small attic room where she slept and the fussy butler not to mention all the rules about serving on the left while simultaneously appearing invisible.  I enjoyed the bit when Elise complains about the rule of never being seen cleaning.  She wonders if the masters of the house are supposed to imagine magic elves doing the work.

No ringing endorsements as its neither very fun, very romantic or very important, but it is an interesting look at a time of great change in all the classes of Europe.

Vanity

For the past few months, I've noticed my right front tooth getting darker and darker.  It happened a few years ago as well and it really affects my smile.  I immediately notice that most peoples' eyes are drawn to my mouth. Children, the most blunt and honest, say things like, "Why do you have a black tooth?" or "Your tooth is blue!" and I have to say, "Yes, it's dead.  It's my zombie tooth."

 For the past month or more, I have stifled any smile.  If you look at past posts, I'm often posing with this awful looking closed mouth smirk.  Not attractive at all.   It's such a thing.  I don't know why.  Vanity, I guess.  It really makes me feel for those sweet kids who have cleft palates and cheer for the doctors who help them get their smiles back.  Everybody should smile without thinking about what the smile looks like.  (I do know those surgeries fix more than their smiles.  I'm just saying it fixes their smiles as well).

I went to the dentist this week to see if he could fix me up and turns out, I forgot to follow up with the endodontist like I was supposed to three years ago.  Three years!  When he fixed my tooth then, he put a temporary filling inside as well as a tiny cotton plug (the endodontist was supposed to put a stabilzing post in) and the cotton plug had turned black.  Kind of gross, right?

I have a nice white smile now.

It is so nice to smile.  

Part Deux

Months ago, I think even before the scheduled family reunion in Montana, my siblings and our families decided to meet in Utah during labor day weekend for the BYU/Washington St. game. I felt like the least committed as I knew Jay wouldn't be able to go and school would have already started but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have my boys be at Lavell Edwards stadium with all their cousins on my side.

Then, the game was moved to a Thursday and I really started to hem and haw. Now, not only would I be driving up by myself for a quick weekend trip but my boys would have to miss at least a day of school and more like two if we were going to make it to the game on time. I waited until just after the family reunion and the committed and bought our football tickets because knew that I needed to see my besties again (how great is it that my siblings are my besties? I love that!) and that the drive and time and cost were all worth it to keep the bonds strong between our kids.

Thus, family reunion part deux occurred. Several of the families had been in Utah for most or part of the week before the game as their schools hadn't started for the year yet and so I didn't see them until we got inside the stadium. Jen and I were staying at the same hotel so we walked over together and I was immediately glad I came after watching all the boys strut together on our walk over to the game. They are all so cute! Especially in their BYU gear.

The game was fun but hard for me. Daniel had lots of arms to hold him but I was tired from driving and it rained...HARD...right before the game started so I was distracted and damp for most of the game. Honestly, I think I watched about two plays. I like the new fancy TVs and lights. It makes the game very festive. But I thought, more than once, "I would rather be watching this on a comfy couch in my house." But, that was just me. The kids were loving every minute of it and sometimes or a lot of the times, a mom's job is to take one for the team. I took it. We almost got a chance to see Jay's sister, Peggy, and her family because they were only one section over and sitting in front of Seth and the big boy cousins but Henry, Daniel and I left the game a couple of minutes early once Daniel woke up from his 3rd/4th quarter approaching midnight nap and started freaking out about the noise and lights. Jen walked Seth and Sam back with her and her two oldest.




Daniel and I after the rain.  Wet.



Pictures stolen from Jon.  I almost never bring my nice camera with me anymore.  From holding Daniel to carrying a diaper bag, I just don't want any more weight in my arms or on my shoulders.  So, I love having these much clearer and prettier shots.



Love their excitement.



Almost worth it just to see this pack of boys together.



But, these other happy smiles make it even better.





He hung out with me most of the night but didn't need cousins to smile his best Henry smile.  Because he had pom poms.



They wanted a white-out, where all the fans wear white, and I think it looks pretty good.



Jon took a turn holding Daniel.  With my phone camera.



With his camera.



Who knew Emily had such a rah-rah in her?  Those girls are so cute.



The kids.  Minus Jen's missing two who didn't make the trip, Henry and Daniel, who had already left with me and adding in the big kid, Jon.



The white pom poms were put to good use by Ian and Sam.



This pictures makes me a little sad.  I seriously left with only 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter.  I didn't know there would be a matchy-matchy sibling pic afterward.  I would have stayed!

Friday was an interesting day. I woke up pretty grumpy and overwhelmed and wondered what I had done. I had to pack everything back up and get it into the van and my sister caught me at a bad time when I admitted that I wished we had stayed home. Thankfully, once everything was back in the van, my mood relented and I enjoyed the rest of the day. A part of me wanted to use the day to shop or get pictures of Daniel or even haircuts for my boys (Great Clips was offering free cuts to everyone who went to the game because some guy made a field goal kick) but my wiser self reminded me that we were there to bond and not to run errands.

We hit a trampoline place called Airborne that was a blast. The entire place is covered, almost wall to wall, with trampolines. Plus, they have pits to flip into, and underneath balance beams and zip lines so the likelihood of getting hurt goes way down. Add some plush couches for the non-bouncing adults and no way for Henry to get lost or in trouble and I was in relaxed heaven. We only paid for an hour and it was enough time for the kids who were sweaty and tired after jumping, continually, for the entire time, but I sort of wish we could have stayed longer. I definitely wish we had a place like that around here.




Henry attempts to find his inner Gabby Douglas.





Seth flips



Sam learned all sorts of new tricks.



A cute moment between the youngest and oldest cousin.

After that, we all went to lunch and then said good-bye to Jen. She has been going non-stop this whole summer and it was great for her to even come for the game. She needed to get home so the game was really the only time we were all together (minus the parents who originally thought about coming but decided not to, which was a good thing because of my mom's health scare).

We changed into church clothes and drove north to attend the Brigham City open house. Daniel was teething all weekend and had a really bad diaper rash that made him grumpy so Sarah offered to stay with him at the hotel so he could have a non-carseat nap.  I took the Seth, Sam and Henry through the Oquirrh Mountain open house four/five(?) years ago and while they had a fuzzy memory about some of the rooms, it was absolutely wonderful to see them witness the spirit and beauty inside a temple. It really is gorgeous. I rarely have the thought, "I'd like to decorate like this," when going through a temple but there were a couple of features and furniture that I really loved. The colors are calming. And the outside is so white. Really white, white.







Brigham City is close to Wellsville where my grandparents and uncle are buried, not to mention lots and lots of other relatives I never knew, so we drove there following the tour of the temple to share a bit of family history with the kids. The noticed the multitude of babies who had died and were simple "Baby" so and so. Some headstones were decorated with planes or tractors or temples and they wondered aloud about the possible stories of the deceased.




My grandmother's house (without the grand trees in front and other changes like new siding).  I guess I was the last of our three cars to stop and take a picture of the house.  Thankfully, my brother was more friendly than me and explained the reason for our stop.

This would be a great time to write some of these family history stories down but this is already a really wordy post and it's getting late and I'm already experiencing low motivation to blog.  If I feel like I have to write every single thing I ever want to remember down, I'm never sitting down at this computer again!



Cute kids in front of their great-great-great grandparents grave.



Us, minus Tara, at my grandparent's grave. Notice Henry cooperating for this reverent picture.



My handsome boys.



This is an interesting story. I just love what you can do with a headstone.  i guess this ancestor (great-grandpa? Great-great?) felt like he had only been refined in the gospel the last 1/4 of his life and had lived rough the first 3/4ths.  If that is the story (parents...this is an excellent opportunity to leave a comment and fill me in) then I just think this headstone is poetic.

We drove to Layton, had dinner and then swam in the hotel pool until they kicked us out. All to get ready for the grand-finale the next day: Lagoon!

I have so many memories of Lagoon as a child. As a child of Montana where there isn't much in terms of glorified amusement, I thought the park was heaven. Surprisingly, I haven't been there in probably over a decade. We didn't even go the year we lived in Utah. We were poor and Henry was 18-30 months old and harder than hard to manage. Although there are several new rides and the trees are taller than I remember, the park is the same. And the day was so, so fun.

There was a bit of rain that dampened my spirits again. I hope I wouldn't be so bent out of shape if it was just me but I hate dealing with wet and cold kids and it's hard to protect a baby and their gear in the middle of a deluge with no cover. that was the only bad part of the day. No, not true. I lost Sam's glasses while holding them for him on Colossus. But, we got them back the next day so my mind has already lessened that annoyance and had I not just mentioned it, I probably would have forgotten about it altogether. Isn't that how bad memories go? They do for me. Those feelings just kind of fade into apathy, at worse, and are gone altogether at best and the good feelings...they just grow and grow and grow.




Henry rode the bumper cars for probably 2 hours of the day.  It was definitely something he would happily do over and over and over and over again.  When I was tired, I let him ride it 15 times in a row!



Sam lost his glasses and although he can't see very well, he nailed this midway game and knocked all the milk cans over.



He won a prize.



My first roller coaster.  I even got Henry to go on this with me.  It is so fun, unless you happen to lose a pair of glasses and then it is less fun.  But still pretty fun.  I did like Wicked, the new roller coaster, better.  Talk about an adrenaline rush.



Tara, Sam, Seth, Caleb, Alyssa and Natalie are all on this ride.  Can you spot them?



Even though Alyssa is almost 12, she can ride all the kiddie rides.  Her size works excellent for gymnastics and fitting on smaller rides!

Then, the first of three rain storms began.  After the third, we got tired of being wet and left but we made it until 7, which kind of surprised me.  Sarah did take Daniel home around 5 as he was wet and kind of done being pushed around in the stroller.  That Sarah.  She's a keeper.  She's kind of like my wife.  Hmmm....a sister wife?  Now, there's an idea:)




Heavy rain while waiting inside the bumper car ride.



Jon and I try to stay dry.



Us when we decided to go home.  We wanted to stay and play, we really did, but that rain!



Seth and Caleb showing off their shoes.



Everyone but me before the Emily and family and Sarah took off.  Notice who is cooperating in the front for the family photo again?  Henry!

On Sunday, I went to church with Jay's sister, Kelly, and her family. We got to see their new house and see her cute pregnant belly (only 2 more weeks until I find out if I have a new niece or nephew!). Her ward was great and so nice and welcoming to us and I was kind of surprised. I guess the church is true in Utah too! :)

We got home late that night due to the extra drive back to Lagoon to retrieve the found glasses, and went to the lake together as a family on Monday. Now, summer is really truly over and the only trips to look forward to are road trips for soccer or cross-country. I don't even know when I'll see my family again. That thought is a bit depressing so here's hoping that someone will get a facebook message going again. Who knows? Maybe we'll get a family reunion triology this year:)