California 3/10

The week before Easter, we took a trip out to visit Marshall's family in northern California. We had finally made the transition this last winter to only visiting one family a Christmas holiday, so that our trips aren't such hurried whirlwinds of driving, packing, driving and packing. So this last Christmas, we only visited my family. It was time for another trip to Marsh's home town.

We arrived in time for a few family events, including a funeral and a baby shower. Unfortunately we missed the biggest event of all- Kalen's first birthday. But we had a nice time anyway.

We got to visit Kiernan's new Rocklin apartment. Love it! It has a fantastic backyard. I am now super jealous and even more committed to moving somewhere with a fenced, private yard.

Carly, Marshall, cousin Rachel holding Wes, 2nd cousins Brianna and Bladen.

This trip was also Wes' debut meeting just about all of Marshall's family. He got to meet just about all of Marsh's aunts and uncles, and many of his cousins. He was a big hit. How can he not be? Have you seen how cute this kid is?

He really doesn't like grass.

With Kalen.

With Great-Grammie.

We took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at Marsh's home ward. Carly, ever the shark, was pretty dominant and focused in getting those eggs. One egg had a ticket to pick out a big "prize" at the prize table. We went over and looked at the sunglasses, and large chocolate rabbits and other toys. But Carly would not be convinced to pick anything other than a little marshmallow rabbit. The smallest, lamest prize there. Really? A peep? Up against a chocolate rabbit??!! You're not my daughter.

Look at that stash.

Kalen was not a fan of E. Bunny.

We also took the kids to magic mountain. I didn't think there would be a lot for kids to do at magic mountain, but boy, was I wrong! It was like a zoo, only with rides! We saw the killer whale show, the tiger show, the dolphin show, the exotic bird show. After the killer whales, nothing else was very impressive to Carly. We were watching the exotic birds, and I asked her "aren't those cool?" and she said "No. I wanna go see the big fishy again." Tough audience.

Halfway through magic mountain, I was feeling pretty poorly. So I had to go home and try to not throw up. I was bummed to miss out on the rest of the day's activities. But it ended up being good, I think, because this provided Wes with his first opportunity to have the Andrews Grandparents' undivided attention. Carly got a lot of one on one time as a baby. And Kalen gets her grandparents all the time. But Wes had never been around Grandpa and Grandma without the girls around. So it was good that while I slept off whatever I had caught, Grandma and Grandpa A got a chance to learn all of Wes' little cues.

While I was home sick, Marshall and Kiernan took the girls to Seder Dinner at their cousins' home. I was really looking forward to Seder. I actually invited myself. lol. So I was seriously bummed I had to miss it. But Marshall and Kier had a great time and took lots of pictures. The coolest part was the square hard-boiled eggs. Such a mystery! Also, this picture of Marshall with the bitter herb up his nose. Not really. lol. I hope we can go out and take part in passover some other time.

Marshall, Uncle Michael (and the bitter herb).

Kiernan, the girls, cousin Joel.

Square eggs!

The plagues, in very cute plush form. Check out the boil.

It was a great few days, and reminded me how lucky I am to have such a great family in-law.

The Redneck Convention

A few Saturdays ago, we decided to attend the International Sportsmen's Exposition for our Super Tuesday family activity.

Why you ask?

Well, because since we have been married I have repeatedly asked Marshall to take me fishing. Numerous times every summer I ask him to take me. I suggest we camp and fish. I WANT TO GO FISHING!

And it has never happened.

Well, I was watching the news and they were talking about this expo, and all I noticed was that there was a large pool full of fish and people could FISH right there in the expo. I didn't care what the admission price was, we were going.

The next day we jumped on the internet to learn a bit more about it before heading over, and noticed that this expo had a whole lot to do with hunting. We needed to fit in.

Wes wore his camo shorts. He's the only one in our family with camouflage. Marshall and Carly wore bandannas. We felt like we fit the part. Carly even had a complimentary black eye from when she fell off the couch the week before.

We couldn't believe how much camo there was! And these people weren't joking. I mean, head to toe camo along with the orange vest thingy to keep other hunters from shooting you. I wanted to say "hey, buddy, no one is going to really be shooting in here."

But it was So. Much. Fun.

And I got to fish. Didn't catch a thing, and they only gave us 1 pole and 10 minutes. But it was awesome!

Afterwards we headed to Russ and Star's to watch BYU lose in the second round, and while we were there, we tortured the cat.

And Carly, once she fell asleep.

It was a fun Super-Tuesday Saturday.

Easter 2010

This year, my mom was visiting for Easter, which was awesome. Especially since Marshall worked the night before and the night of. So he missed the fun Easter-eve activities, and slept most of the day. But my mom and I had a blast, and I think Marshall had fun for the parts he was there for.

The night before, we hard boiled and dyed 2 dozen eggs. Carly was a big helper and we all managed to dye our fingers. Then we put them in the fridge and told Carly the Easter Bunny would hide them the next morning.

This year, Easter Sunday happened to fall on General Conference Sunday. This is one of 2 Sundays a year where every member of our church listens to the same service, which is led by our church leadership. We mostly watch from home in our pajamas on TV or the internet live stream. This year was no different (notice in the pics that the Easter daddy/bunny is wearing pajamas...at 2pm).

We got the kids up and let them destroy their Easter baskets. Carly really got into the holiday this year and understood that the Easter Bunny had snuck into the house to drop off her basket. She really liked the basket, but wasn't so sure about the bunny. The night before, when we were talking about the Easter Bunny, she announced that she didn't like him, and didn't want him to see her while she was sleeping. I think that is a reasonable concern.

After opening Easter Baskets, we enjoyed a breakfast of chopped fruit salad and yogurt while listening to the beautiful music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and hearing the words of our Prophet. It was a great morning!

That afternoon, we woke Marshall up so that he could go play bunny and hide the eggs. It had snowed that morning, so it was COLD outside. But the snow had melted off, and we had to do the egg hunt. Marshall grumbled about it, but I think he always has a really great time hiding eggs, despite the temperature. Then we took Carly and Wes out and let them hunt.

Carly did a great job. She is really quick, and pretty competitive. It's a race in our house, a real sporting event. The previous week we took her to a community egg hunt, and she did the best of the 18 month- 3 year category. By best I mean she picked up the most eggs. We all know it's not really a competition. ;)

My mom makes Carly a cute Easter outfit every year, and this year it was this adorable little skirt. She also brought Carly these "princess gloves" which she refused to take off the rest of the day.

Wes. Well, Wes has an aversion to grass. He won't crawl on it. If we put him down on the grass on all fours, he'll do his best to balance on 3 limbs while holding one hand as far from the grass as possible. So he didn't do much egg hunting this year. Look out for him next year though!


I gotta say, Carly was pretty disappointed once she realized the eggs really only were eggs. As she was gathering them she was gloating aloud about how much candy she was going to find inside. Poor kid. But mommy and grandma sure were happy with all the deviled eggs and egg salad. mm mm mmm!

Locks of Love...

...Now has my hair! I cut off 10 inches (minimum donation length), and after it was cut, the stylist stepped back and asked "do you need to cry?" But I like it! It's a good change. A little short for me, but I'm glad I did it. One more goal down. I think I donated more hair than I have left on my head.

Spiritual applications by Carly

Today Carly and I were looking at this picture:


I asked Carly who she thought was in the picture, and she immediately identified Jesus.
I asked her who Jesus was talking to, and she pointed to the man under the rag tent.
I explained that the man was sick and that Jesus was going to make him feel better.
I asked Carly how she thought Jesus was going to make the man feel better.

Carly thought for a second, and then said confidently that Jesus was going to put the man to bed and turn on the wind (humidifier).

Delight

Carly got a big treat today. Mommy let her dump out the cumbs and remnants at the bottom of the animal cookie bag, and lick them all up!

Can you imagine how exciting that is??

Piggy jammies and the offending little piggies

At bedtime, mommy let Carly pick out her own pajamas. Carly had a very specific request: her piggy jammies. Unfortunately she outgrew her piggy jammies last year. But Carly insisted, and mommy dug them out.

Once Carly got them on, she discovered that the piggy jammies hurt her toes. Mommy had a great idea that she had heard from her veteran mommy friends. So she got out a pair of scizzors, and did some jammie surgery.

Carly was devastated!

She kept screaming and crying that she wanted her jammies all fixed. Mommy kept explaining that the piggy jammies were now permanently toe-less. Carly decided in a fit that the only solution was to take the offending toe-less jammies off. Now! Mommy probably wasn't very helpful with all the picture taking of the melt down in progress. The camera went away at this point.

Once the jammies were off, and thrown in the trash, Carly and mommy started from square one picking out new jammies. But at the mention of new jammies, Carly broke down again, deciding that she really did want the piggy jammies. No others would do.

Piggy jammies came out of the trash and back onto her little body. The moment they were all the way on, she looked down and remembered their utter toe-less-ness, and the tantrum ensued once more. Mommy offered to throw them away again, but Carly insisted instead that we needed bandaids, and lots of them. She cried, "Mommy, you fix them? You put on bandaids?" over and over and over again. But me writing this sentence doesn't convey the absolute pathetic tone with which she just sobbed this plea. Mommy assured her that bandaids would not fix the scizzor inflicted wounds. She reminded the hysterical toddler that the toes of the jammies were hurting her own little piggies.

Carly melted into a sobbing heap on the floor. "I don't want to see my toes!" she sobbed.

Solution? Carly went to bed wearing toe-less, 2-size-too-small, piggy jammies with SOCKS over the offending holes.

This had to be one of the most hysterical exchanges I have had to date with my child. It was really hard to be comforting or compassionate to my exhausted baby because I was just laughing way too hard.

That said, I am NOT looking forward to bedtime tomorrow. Those jammies are going to make a quick exit in the morning.

Madness of March

That's right, it's that time again.

The time of year when husbands face off against wives.
When those who could care less about basketball actually check the score.
When non-sport-fans vaguely recognize names like 'Marquette' and 'Butler' from last year, though they don't even have a clue where in the country the campus is located.

It's time for March Madness!

The tradition of competition in our home dates back to that first March of 2004, when Marshall and I were just engaged. Marshall's roommates had a competition, and all who entered their abode were invited to fill out a bracket and tape it to the wall by the front door. Score was kept meticulously by Russ. Rules were interpreted and enforced by Dan. Marsh carefully highlighted winning and losing picks using the trusty green and pink highlighters. Ryan was good enough to play along (I think Maranda did too?).

I spent an hour or so one evening procrastinating homework in order to fill out a bracket. I even researched each match-up to see the strengths versus weaknesses of the opposing teams. I had no clue what a seed was, no idea who was in which conference, and didn't recognize any of the school's names. In fact, I hadn't really been to many college basketball games. But I was a good fiance, and played along to pacify my future husband.

I knew I would lose. I didn't mind that I would lose. I made jokes about how badly I would lose.


I won.

The whole competition.


Yes, and so began the ruthless competition in our home.
2004 - Me
2005 - Me
2006 - Marshall
2007 - Me
2008 - Marshall
2009 - Marshall

2010 - ?
Disclaimer: I didn't win the whole competition each of those years- I was just keeping track between myself and Marshall.

And so here we are, at another year. My bracket is filled out. No longer is it hanging on a wall in VP. We have now all dispersed and need fancier technology to compare scores. Plus it would kinda be awkward if we were still living in VP. So we have an ESPN group where we can all gather and talk trash.

It is the same cast though, plus a few additions from over the years. This year is the biggest group yet!

Would you care to join us? It is always fun to add new blood, and we need more non-sports-fans so that those who pick based on uniform color or cuteness of mascot will not feel left behind. You can join by visiting the "Andrews and Friends" ESPN group. You'll have to create a quick account using your email, and then you can make your picks using whatever strategy you'd like. You have until tip-off Thursday morning to get your bracket submitted. If you want to receive Marshall's round by round analysis of our competition, also get us your email address. You can email me, or leave it in a comment.

I look forward to beating you all!!

Two peas

Marshall and Carly are like this (if you were sitting here in my living room, you would see that I was crossing my fingers). They are that tight.

Carly loves her daddy. They are so much alike. I think it is sometimes hard to see your own personality's effect on your child, but I can see Marshall written all over her. The way he interacts with her has really shaped who she is. She is goofy, and carefree, attention seeking, sharp, and kind of a rough and tumble kind of girl. I bet she gets her attitude and bossiness from me. But that's beside the point. She probably also gets her active imagination from me. Also besides the point.

Carly and Marshall are both kinda neurotic. Marshall has always had a touch of OCD. He is generally disorganized (at least by my standards), but there is an apparent method to his madness. He is very specific about where his mess goes. He also has funny little habits, like putting the TV on a certain channel and volume every night before bed. Or lining things up a certain order. Or eating candy or cereal by color. Or eating his hamburger in a circle, every time.

Carly is the same. She loves to organize her alphabet letters by color and letter and in a straight line. If in the process she runs out of fridge, she has a melt down. She lines up her blocks down the hallway, and if I put one out of line, it is the end of the world. Her blankets have to be arranged on her bed in a specific order at bedtime. She has to be holding a certain stuffed animal during a certain movie. She has very specific ideas of where things go, and will tell me if its wrong.

Probably the biggest way Marshall has rubbed off on Carly is they way they rough house. Carly has been raised with daddy tossing her around and smashing her on the floor. She can't get enough. Shrieks and squeals and laughter are the background noise in our home when daddy is home, along with daddy's explosion sound effects. One of their favorite games when Carly was just starting to walk was "Super Bully." This is a game where Marshall would wag his fingers in his ears, while crouching down, and chanting "super bully! super bully!" And then Carly would scream and tackle him. Hours. On. End. And Marshall never misses a chance to practice his wresting moves on her, or piledrive her into the couch.

Now that Carly is verbal and so good at telling us exactly what she wants, conversations about rough housing are some of my greatest entertainment. Tonight before Marshall left for work she was asking him, "You pick me up and hang me upside down?" And "You pick me up and throw me on the bed?" Of course Marshall happily obliged.

And once he had left, it was apparent just how much this is all a reflection of Marshall, and how little of it has anything to do with me. She brought me a chip clip and said, "Here. You chase me and pinch me with this clip?"

Me? Not going to chase my toddler and pinch her. We put away the clip and she helped me make dinner.
Marshall? Totally would have.

And I love that that's their thing. That Marshall is able to shape her and give her qualities that I totally would not. I love watching those two become best friends.

8 months

Wes turned 8 months old on the 8th.

We don't see the pediatrician again until his 9 month appointment, so no stats this month. However, we did take him in to the doctor a week and a half ago to check for RSV, and at that time he was 18 lbs!! What a big guy!

- Wes is now crawling! He started 2 weeks ago, and is getting really good at being mobile. He follows me around the house like a puppy. If I walk into another room, I can hear his little pug-like grunting as he hurries to follow me down the hallway. One downside though...he now finds new and inventive ways to bonk his face on things. So the era of bruising begins.



- Wes clicks constantly. He is very talented at this. I don't know how he gets such a clear sound. Maybe it has something to do with not having any teeth, so he can click his tongue really far forward in his mouth. You can tell I have sat around trying to replicate. I have actually spent a lot of time trying to figure out his secret.

- Wes was starting to "mamama" for a while. For a couple days he was mama-ing more than dada. But then Marshall got wind of the new development, worked his voodoo, and once again we are a "dada" only home.

- Wes likes Carly. At least for now. But he really puts up with all of her abuse very well. We had our first instance of Carly trying to carry Wes this month. She just picked him up under his armpits and lugged him across the living room. Freaked. Me. Out. I'm sure there is more of that to come.

- Wes still sleeps well. He can now just be put down in his crib with a blanket, and knows what to do. I'm really lucky here.

- He is still eating more and more babyfood purees. He is learning he can let me know he is done by spitting it back at me. So much fun. Might be time to start baby signing. Less messy.

- Wes got a tooth!! Just one so far, on the bottom left. But the next door neighbor is bulging, so I'm sure it will be here in the next week or two. He cut his tooth last Saturday. He was not very willing to play along with mom trying to get a picture. Luckily, I'm bigger and stronger.

- Wes is really, really good natured. Kiernan and I have a theory that he got all his madness out in his first 2 months of life. He is such a sweet, laid back kid. Especially compared with the grumpy little ball of screaming that he started as. Thank goodness.

Fair weather

Carly has lately begun to understand the concept of "friends." Actually, I believe she has understood about friends for a while. I guess what has really happened is that Carly is becoming a master manipulator.

"You're my Best Friend" is a common accolade in our home when the present adult is giving our little angel what she wants. I think this phrase has replaced "I love you" to express her approval of whatever it is we are allowing her to do.

I read a book with her, I'm her best friend.

I give her chocolate, I'm her best friend.

I turn on 'Little Einsteins,' I'm her best friend.

I play 'ponies' with her, I'm her best friend.

She is fairly easy to please.

The other time we hear that we are her 'Best Friend' is when it is whined as a plea to avoid doing something. Normally this is when she is being put in time out, or in bed. When told to do something that she does not want to do, she will yell "but your my best friend!" As if best friends would certainly never send one another to the time out spot.

Ultimately, her pleading does not work. She is still sent to bed at the normal time, regardless of friend status for the evening. This leads to her 3rd use of 'best friend':

The "You are NOT my best friend!"

This is the threat. We hear it a lot. We go from best friends, to not, to back again many times in a day. Once in a while she can hold a grudge and pick one parent as a best friend and disown the other for a while. Usually at bedtimes when Marshall is at work. She will tell me that "you are NOT my best friend! Daddy is my best friend now!"

I know she uses this to try to manipulate my conscience to give in to her wishes. I know she really believes there are power in these words. I think that the decision to offer and withdraw friendliness is the definition of fair weather friending. And so it is our duty, as parents, to not encourage it, as cute as it is sometimes. I mean, if we reward this attempt at manipulation, will she forever scheme and connive and use other people's friendships to get what she wants?

So here I am, stuck balancing friend and parent. About 10 years earlier than I anticipated this becoming an issue. :::sigh:::

Only the worst Bachelor finale ever

I can't believe Jake chose Vienna!! :::::whiiiines and moans:::::

Anyway, please enjoy the talents of this lovely lady.

I will link 2 videos from her blog, where she does impressions of the top two. Wish I could embed the video, but I don't think she allows that. Either that, or I just can't figure it out without the video offering directly to let me embed at the end.

Vienna This is SPOT ON! I saw this 2 weeks ago, and I gotta say it made watching her on TV even harder.

Tenley

I hope this brightens your day after such a horrid evening!

Like Mother....

When I was a little kid (3? 4?) I put a rock up my nose. I told my parents that I had a rock up my nose, but they didn't really believe me. They had me blow my nose and nothing came out. But still, I insisted I had a rock up my nose. All through dinner, all through my evening bath. I don't remember what the catalyst was for them to finally believe me, perhaps a bunch of crying, but my parents finally took me to the ER where low and behold- there was a rock up my nose. In the sinus cavity. They had to use suction to get it out, and now it is glued inside my baby book.

Carly is sick right now. Lots and lots of snot. So blowing our noses has been a pretty regular occurrence in our house this week. Imagine my surprise when I asked her to blow, and then inspected the tissue for productivity, and found a popcorn kernel. Yep, at some point today she shoved a popcorn kernel up her nose. And she never mentioned it. And she looked at it, shrugged, and went on with her day as if that was entirely normal.

The difference between Carly and me is that she is apparently not bothered by foreign objects up the nose.

The difference between me and my mother is that I am not going to paste the kernel into Carly's baby book.

It's hard to find good help

Carly loves to tag along with me while I do chores. She just has to be in the middle of whatever I am doing. So I let her help me "fold" towels, and she gets to sort the clean silverware back into the drawer. When I vacuum, she runs away and screams, and later takes full credit for the job well done. She knows what pillows and 'gwankets' go on her bed. And she knows how to put a dirty diaper in the diaper genie. If left in her room and told she can't come out until it is clean, she will put all of the toys into the toy box.

The one chore I haven't let her do is to help me clean the bathroom. Too many chemicals. But last week, I made the mistake of letting her watch me while I scrubbed the toilet and scoured the floor. It was an immediate attraction. She HAD to help me. But I quickly locked up all of the bushes, bleaches, and chemicals and told her that she was too little.

Unfortunately she didn't get the memo, because all week she has had an unusual fascination with the bathroom. She is always in there. She and I have previously had disagreements over bathroom etiquette. I don't want the whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet. She does. She wants all of the towels to be on the ground. I don't. She wants to run the water and play with all of her toys in the sink. I don't think that's a good idea.

Well, now she 'cleans' the bathroom. With handsoap. Today I walked in and she had squirted half of the soap into the toilet and was elbows deep swirling the water. When she saw me in the doorway, she proudly told me that she had cleaned the potty. Yesterday it was the mirror, and then the floor.

I just hope she continues to enjoy cleaning the bathroom so much. I'll make sure she reads this post when she's 13 and no longer sees the joy in scrubbing the toilet.

Tender Mercies

2-year-olds are hard. Really hard. It definitely doesn't help that I completely lack patience.

What is trying about my 2-year-old? Well, let me tell you.

1)The word 'No.'

This drives me up the wall. Basically anything I ask gets this standard response. And it's not like a cute automatic response of a baby, barely learning to talk who picks a random word and sticks to it without grasping its meaning.

She has many ways of telling me no.

Q- "Carly, can you go put that in the trash?"

A- "No, you do it."

Q- "Carly, are you ready for bed?"

A- "Ummm, no. Not right now."

"Carly, go to bed!"

"No, I don't want to!"

Q- "Carly, can you please look at mommy when I talk to you?"

A- "No, you go away now."

Just charming, eh?

2) Willful disobedience

I can tell her 5,000 times a day to not do something...

don't sit on your brother

don't stand on the table

don't open the fridge

don't unravel all of the toilet paper into the toilet

don't drag your brother by his foot, or hand... or head

... and she'll still do it for the 5001st time. Gah!

And I really don't buy that she doesn't understand my expectations of her, or that she forgets 4999 times that it is wrong. She will run away and hide if I come up on her doing these things. She knows. She knows the consequence is timeout. She knows I'll tell her not to do it again. She just wants to do x, y, or z more than she cares that she is going to go sit in the corner after she does it.

3) Picky picky picky

My daughter is a picky eater. Not in the way that the pediatrician keeps assuming I mean. He keeps trying to give me tips and tricks to sneak veggies or protein into her diet. But it is not that she doesn't like those things. She does. She loves just about all vegetables, and even asks for them by name. In fact, there are not many foods Carly has met that she doesn't like.

So what's the problem right?

Well, she's strong willed and knows that meals are just one more arena where she can defeat me. No matter what I make, she doesn't want it. She can be begging me for "dinner" (her word for all meals), and I can ask her specifically what she wants to eat, and she can tell me exactly what she would like, and I can make the item to order, and she'll look at it and say "no, I don't want that anymore, now I want _____."

So let her go hungry right? Well, I've tried this. She loads up on water, and basically just doesn't eat. And then I'm talking to the pediatrician at the next well child check about how she only eats a real meal rarely, and we are back to his tips and tricks.

The other solution, which I usually resort to so I don't feel guilty for her losing 2 lbs when she only weighs 30, is to make multiple items a day and eventually we'll get to the random one she really wants.

Indecisive? Maybe
Evil Mastermind? More likely

So after a week like I've had, you know you are due for a tender mercy. I am a big believer that when we do our best, despite trying circumstances, and endure said trial well, we are due for a small miracle. I basically count on it, and so far I haven't been disappointed.

Well, last night I was in bed asleep. It was about 2am, and I woke up randomly. I was just turning over to get back to sleep, when something told me

Go tuck Carly in.

Whatever still, small voice! I have to get up in 4 hours!

Go tuck in Carly

So I pull off the covers and tiptoe down the hall. Carly was lying in her bed with no blankets. They were all on the floor. I picked them, cover her with them and start to head back to my bed. I make it to the doorway when I hear a small voice

'mommy'

'yes baby'

'thank you mommy'

'you're welcome sweetie, goodnight'

'I love you mommy'

She's back asleep, probably was never really awake. But I've received my tender mercy. And it's all worth it.

Little sickies

My kids are whiney, sad little puddles of snot today. And I missed most of it.

I worked today, and when I got home, it was a sad, sad sight. Marshall hurried out the door to go to his work. And I was left with these pitiful monsters.

When I woke up this morning, my throat was a little rough. So I knew it was possible we'd be dealing with sick kids. When I got home, both were faucets of snot, and warm to the touch. Both were hungry, but not wanting to swallow anything. Both were exausted, but wanted to just cry and cry.

So liquid dinner, tylenol, and 1 hour later, my house is quiet. I put my kids to bed at 6:30pm. Never done that before. Almost feel like a mean mom, but they both went so willingly, they must have needed it. So I have a whole evening to myself! Wowwy!

But all I can do is think how cute my kids are and how much I miss the cute, non-sobbing monsters they normally are.

Here are some pictures from yesterday (before the sickly transformation):
I'll just look at pictures of my happy kids until they are returned to me!

Love is...

...Waking up this morning to scrambled eggs and sweet words.

He said, "I've been in a 'make-scrambled-eggs-for-you' kinda mood all week."

If that's not love, I don't know what is!
He even scrubbed out the pan afterward.

Hope everyone's Valentine's Day was full of love.

Conversations with Carly

- Watching a recent snow storm from the window, Carly called for me to watch with her. "It's beautiful! It's incredible! Mommy, come look. It's amazing!"

- Laying in bed with daddy the other day, she suddenly yelled "oh! Let's go in our cave!" She pulled the covers over her head and then whispered "there's a dragon flying around up there."
Marshall: "Up where?"
Carly: "Up in the sky!" She pulled the covers down an inch, shrieked, and pulled them back up. "He's still there!"
Marshall: "Oh no, what are we going to do?"
Carly: thought for a second and then announced "we have to catch him." She pulled the covers down, and waved her hands around in the air. Suddenly she grabbed onto the imaginary dragon. "I caught him!" she announced.
Marshall asked if she was going to keep him as her pet.
Carly: "Oh no! He got away!" while flinging her hands apart.
Marshall: "Uh oh, where did he go?"
Carly: "I don't know; he's all gone."
Life continues as normal until a few seconds later Carly announced ":::gasp::: The dragons back! We have to hide in our cave!" and pulled the covers up.

She could play all day like this. What an imagination!

- Yesterday, while reading a book about a kitten who gets stuck in the tree, Carly went to her window and looked out at the tree outside her bedroom. "Mommy, the kitten's stuck in my tree! It's terrible! We have to save him!"
Me: "How are you going to save him?"
Carly: "I'm going to fly." She paused, "But I don't have any wings!"
Me: "Oh no! Where are you going to get wings?"
Carly: "I'll get some!" She ran to her bookshelf, pulled off two books, and started flapping them behind her like wings. "Now I'll save the kitten!"

What a cute, creative little genius we have!

7 months

So Wes is now 7 months old. Such a big guy!

- Still no teeth (where are they?) But he does have some bumps on the bottom front, so I think they should be making an appearance soon.

- We are weaned. Too soon, but the milk is gone. At least I made it 2 months longer than I did with Carly.

- Wes LOVES solid food. LOVES it! He has tried the following: butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, green beans, carrots, bananas, plums, zucchini. He actually hates zucchini and green beans, and prefers bananas heavily over anything else. And his favorite veggie by far is carrots.

- He is still a very clean eater. It's a miracle after dealing with Carly as a baby. He keeps his hands out of his mouth. It's great! The exception is when he eats a food he doesn't like. Then he spits it out, and blows it out, and wipes it out with his hands. It's quite funny that he'd rather wear green beans than eat it. Any location is better than his mouth for those. But foods he loves, he won't spill a drop. Can't waste the good stuff.

- Wes has been sleeping wonderfully at night. Lucky, lucky me. Once we started solids, I wasn't being terribly consistent with them because I figured they were just for practice. And so a couple days I didn't give him any at all. Coincidentally, those were also a couple days he would not sleep. Awake for hours fighting it and fussing. So one night I decided at about midnight to feed him some solids to see if it would help. He ate 12 ounces that sitting! And then he slept 12 hours. So now I load him up with a bunch of veggies in the evening, and his evening bottle is only 4 ounces or so, and he's out like a light!

- Most days, when he naps he can just be put into the crib awake and he knows what to do. Nights aren't usually this easy- he fights it at night for some reason. But during the day, if I can tell he's getting tired, I just place him in his crib with a blanket and he'll usually fall asleep on his own.

- Growling. He loves to shriek and scream. You can hear his high pitched trills throughout the apartment (its helps that it is a small apartment). He also growls now. He makes this loud, low pitched grunting noise that a normal person might make when frustrated. But he primarily does it when super super excited and all screamed out. So he goes from talking, to yelling, to screaming, to growling as the excitement grows.

- Babbling. Wes is now doing the identifiable babbles: gagagaga, dadadada, babababa. Yet to be seen is mamama, but I'm working on it. Marshall is working hard on the dadada. Let the games begin!

- Crawling progress. He can't crawl yet. He is on his tummy 80 percent of the day. Okay, not really. He sleeps a lot too, and loves his bouncer. But he spends probably the majority of his awake time on the ground scooting around the living room. And he spends a lot of that time on hands and knees rocking. He is also moving his hands and knees forward, but not in a coordinated fashion I'd refer to as crawling. He also loves to do planks, where he is in a push-up pose on his hands and toes. He can hold it an amazingly long time. I am sure we'll see full fledged crawling this month. He is so. dang. close.

- Wes is great at maneuvering while on his tummy. He doesn't do the army crawl (too busy up on his hands and knees to want to be on his belly). But he can spin in any direction at lightening speeds. He can do the 180 on his tummy so fast it kinda defies logic. You'd think the kid would have rug burn on his tummy.

- Wes has started taking baths in the big kid tub. So far just solo, since he still can't defend himself from Carly. But I'll put an inch or two of water in there, and put him in on his belly, and he's in heaven. He kicks and squeals, eventually growls, and splashes. It's a blast!

- Wes can now sit unassisted for a pretty decent period. He gets too excited though, and jerks backward and falls over. But he can sit upright, and doesn't have to support himself with his hands.

- He can hold his own bottle. Except when sleepy. Because he has to sleep with his hands over his eyes. Just like Marshall. The genetics run strong on this one. When sleepy, those hands fly over his eyes, and it just isn't possible to hold a bottle and have your hands on your eyes.

- When just laying back and chillin', he has his hands behind his head. Lounging like a grown man. It's the cutest.

- He also likes to keep his feet together. When standing or jumping, or doing his baby push-ups, or just laying down, he often has his feet crossed or on top of one another. Doesn't make for the sturdiest base.

- He plays rough. In the last month he has gotten more bold in his interactions with others. He now loves to find opportunities to pull Carly's hair. And when being held, he loves to explore his handler's face. With great force. He loves to gouge eyes, scratch noses, and hit and slap. All in good fun- he is just very excited. But you have to be on your guard with this one!