Pumpkin Patch 2009

I LOVE our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It gives me the opportunity to do my favorite "photo shoot" of the year. I plan outfits, hair, time of day we go. It's quite the production, and I get my favorite photos of the year. The trip is honestly more about the photos than any of the attractions.

Well this year our trip was an epic fail. We went and bought sweaters, picked a clear day, and drove to our local patch. Unfortunately it was cold. Not October cold- it was dead of winter cold. Shockingly cold. Immediate face numbing cold. We stepped out of the car in the parking lot and had to stiffle choice words, the shock was so immediate and surprising. And windy. Which made it colder. I strongly considered getting right back into the car and driving home, but Marshall knew how important those pictures were, and he knew what stress I had put the family through today in preparation, so we decided to at least try.

We found one location, took pictures of two poses, and then both kids fell completely apart.

Suprisingly, we actually got a few good pictures out of the 3 minutes worth of shooting.

When we finally made it back to the car and let our faces defrost, this was how Wes expressed his feelings about the torture we just put him through...

I'm excited for next year. Hopefully we don't wait until after snow has already fallen on the pumpkins.

Potty training

**Disclaimer: this post is about peepee and poopoo**

Yesterday we decided to take a different approach to potty training.

So far I have done a few different approaches, and none that worked. Mostly what I have tried has been Carly staying in her pull-ups, and then I ask her every 15 minutes if she'd like to use the potty, and actually make her sit and try every half hour. No success. Okay, very little success. I'll occasionally catch a peepee, but mostly she sits for the obligatory 5 minutes or so, then puts her diaper back on and promptly fills it.
We tried panties... same story.
I tried letting her lead (laying off).
Taking her in the bathroom when we use it.
Making her stay on the potty until she made peepees.
Potty in her room.
Potty in the living room.

It has all been horribly frustrating and really fruitless. She totally understand what we would like her to do. She has EVERY SINGLE readiness sign. She has potty books that she loves to read. She knows she gets candy if she makes potty. She makes her dolls and toys potty on their own make-shift potties. She doesn't like being dirty and will take her own diaper off (has been for months and months) and tell us she needs a new one.

She gets it. She is really stubborn.

Or maybe I have been trying the wrong approach...

Yesterday I tried the very last resort in potty training...the thing I have been avoiding out of sheer terror for the horrible mess it would involve: Bare Butt Potty Training. This is a method that many of the ladies in my ward use that they all swear by. You basically strip your child down and let them run naked for a few days. And there will be accidents, but you can try to direct your kiddo to the potty as soon as you see them start. And not having the feel of a diaper or of panties is supposed to help them know that they aren't meant to 'go' in them.
I have been hesitant because we are in a small, enclosed apartment. And getting a carpet cleaner up 3 flights of stairs is daunting.

Plus, lets just be honest: I don't do well with poop. I lose it when it comes to human defecation. Cannot handle it. Biggest trial as a mother, hands down, is the poop. Some people gag when other people throw up near them. I have that retching reaction when it comes to poop. Dis-gus-ting!

Yesterday morning I got Carly out of her room, and stripped her down. I put her potty chair in the middle of the living room. I got out the bribe candy. And I waited.

It went well!

She peepeed in the potty like 9 times between 9am and 2pm, and even did a big poopoo! I didn't have to direct her to the potty much at all. She just kept walking over, doing her business, and demanding her candy reward (1 smartie for peepee, 1 large candy of her choice for poopoo). We did have one little peepee accident in the kitchen, but it was when I was running water, so I can't really blame her.

This morning I got her out of her room and made a big deal of the potty again. I stripped her down and got the bribe candy out. Potty chair in the middle of the room. I was jazzed and ready. Ready to take this on again. Ready to be done with diapers. Ready to have a potty trained 2 year old.

Carly was not ready.

I asked her if she wanted to try the potty. "No," she said, "I want my diaper." I showed her the bribe candy. Talked about big girls. Put her on the potty. "I want my DIAPER! I NOT want candy!" She ran to her room, got a diaper and handed it to me.

We'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

She is really stubborn.

The art of sleeping

My kids have it mastered.

Making the "police beat"

I can now say I have been featured in BYU's police beat.

Another lifetime goal reached!

http://universe.byu.edu/node/2984
(2nd item down under "Disorderly Conduct")

Little punks got what they deserved.

Because we were all wondering...

3 months

Wes is now 3 months old.

In the last month, Wes took his first trip to the pool. He went to Las Vegas for the first time and enjoyed the Bellagio water show amongst other fun activities.And really developed his love of watching BYU football...just like Daddy!He is getting better at tummy time all the time! And has started grabbing at his toys as they dangle.

He's even rolling over now! He started rolling back-to-front on October 15th.

He has even started to giggle, but I haven't been able to catch it on video yet...it's difficult to tickle under the chin while still holding the camera steady.

He's just gotten so BIG and so fun!

See you again at 4 months! There are bound to be some halloween photos!

Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day

October 15th is National Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day. A day to remember the babies we never got to hold.

On October 15th, a wave of light travels the world in honor of our lost babies. At 7pm in your time zone, you are invited to light a candle in honor of each of your lost pregnancies, or in honor of the loss of a friend. Keep your candles lit for one hour, until the next time zone lights their candles.

To learn more visit http://www.october15th.com/

I will be lighting a candle. For myself, for dear friends, and for many of my clients.

Sabotage

We were eating at Rainforest Cafe, and they brought us 2 kids' menus and sets of crayons because our 3 month old obviously wanted to color too. Well, Marshall and I decided to have a little contest and see who could color the best curious george using only the provided green and red crayons.

Carly was the judge. She had good taste and chose me as the winner, obviously.

Marshall good offended and took matters into his own hands.

Sabotage!

Carly was very disappointed with daddy's poor sportsmanship.

Carly vs. the hotel

Have you ever taken a 2 year old to a hotel? It can be interesting.

First, when we got there, the elevator doors tried to eat Carly. Literally. A guy was holding the door, and I jumped on, overriding the closing mechanism. Then we overrode the doors closing again loading some bags on. I had my foot in the door and the elevator started beeping at me. And the doors started closing despite my efforts to pull them open again. Apparently you can only override the doors' desire to close so many times. Carly, who was outside the doors, got very upset that the doors were closing me in and her out, so she decided to make a break for it and run through the doors. With the doors rapidly closing and a small 10 inch gap becoming smaller, she tried to shoulder her way in. I saw her life flash before my eyes as I tried to yank the doors open. Marshall (outside) dropped the bag he was slinging and grabbed her out of the way of certain death. Wes and I had to ride the elevator up to our floor, and Marshall and Carly shortly followed. When she reached me, she was still sobbing and very visibly shaken and upset. Poor kid spent the rest of the trip gingerly jumping through the elevator doors as quickly as possible lest she be eaten once again.

In our room we had pack-n-play style cribs for each kid to sleep in. The problem with this is that Carly is old enough to climb in and out at will. This led to a very sleepless first night in Las Vegas, as Carly thought it was a party and the whole room was her playground. We were exhausted and spent a number of hours drowsily commanding her to stay in her bed before falling asleep. We were awoken at 5 am by the sound of running water. Carly's bed was empty except for her pajamas and diaper. We found her in the bathroom happily giving herself a bath.

We spent one afternoon by the pool eating lunch. I sat with Wes on a lounge chair and Marshall and Carly were swimming. I was having a chicken caesar salad. Carly loves salad. Soon Carly, too, was having chicken caesar salad. By the handful. While walking back and forth to the hot tub to visit daddy. Eventually the pool was having chicken caesar salad too. What can I say, we're bad guests and lazy parents. Or, we were on vacation and didn't want to fight with her, so sure, bring handfuls of croutons into the hot tub. Why not.

One day, Carly had a meltdown in the lobby. She was laying on the ground having her tantrum and I very calmly told her that she could cry all she wanted, but that I wouldn't recommend laying on the ground because the ground was where people's dirty shoes went and the ground was icky. The next day we were walking through the lobby again when Marshall and I noticed we were minus one in our party. We looked back and Carly was standing at the border between the tile and carpet yelling at us. "I NOT walk on carpet. It icky. You carry me! It ICKY! I NOT walk!" We couldn't convince her that the carpet wasn't icky. We had to go back and pick her up and carry her highness across the lobby.

Like I said, 2 year olds and hotels. Interesting.

6 years later

6 years ago a group from the BYU 177th ward took a trip down to Las Vegas for the BYU - UNLV football game. A guy named Marshall and a girl named Lauren went with their roommates and returned to Provo a couple.

Married 6 months later, this couple has returned to Las Vegas for every BYU football game since.

Glad to say what happened in Vegas didn't just stay in Vegas.

Killjoy

Note:

If I am walking across campus in 40 degree weather at 11 oclock at night carrying my baby after the BYU game and you decide to throw a water balloon at me, I will call campus police and you will be charged with a misdemeanor. You little punk.

Hitting a lady with a small baby with a water balloon = Not Cool

Concert

Carly's little mini concert. Enjoy. especially the nose picking

Decisions, decisions

The best show in the world
Or the cutest baby in the world

So torn! Don't know where to look!

Wes is going to make watching SYTYCD difficult this season. Thank goodness for DVR!

Soup

The other night we ate tomato soup for dinner.

Carly mostly just wore it.

I think it had something to do with her not finding need for the spoon.

Strep throat, UVU, and BM explosion

The BM explosion got you to read this didn't it?

You sicko, you.

Well sorry to disappoint, but in my world BM stands for Birth Mother. These last 2 weeks or so, I have had almost as many birth mothers assigned to my caseload as I have had the whole rest of the year. All the other caseworkers are swamped too. It's crazy! And a bunch of my couples are getting some action too (meaning their files are being pulled and looked at, or they are being emailed by birth parents who are looking to find adoptive families). Over half of my approved couples have something going on right now with their files. For sure most of these little "leads" don't pan out. But it keeps me incredibly busy in the meantime with that many anxious couples all needing support all at once/ that many face to faces to arrange/ that many out of state caseworkers to contact to confirm the actual existence of a promising birth parent. It's good to be busy...it has felt like a slow year. And I can feel the excitement emanating off of my couples, and even while I try to prepare them for probable disappointment, it's hard not to really get excited about the "what ifs" right along with them. Like "what if 8 of my couples went on firm hold all at the same time?"

I'll tell you what if: That would be awesome.

Anyway, I was inspired by one of my fellow coworkers to put my clients' profiles linked to my blog. Why not advocate for them in one more way if I can? So please, check out my newest feature. And if you see a couple you feel would be a good fit for a birth mother in your life, please show her the profile. Not all of my couples are up currently. A good number are on hold, so I couldn't link them currently. But as they return into the pool, or as new couples are approved, I'll add the link to their IAL profiles right there on the right of the page.

Also this week, I got my husband his college degree. How? you ask? Well, by looking at his credit earned vs. credits needed and recognizing that he had finished his degree. And then calling around to the various counselors/professors needed to approve the needed substitutions and petitions. We had thought that after taking a year off to focus on work, that this would be a good time to go back to finish that whole fire science degree. Little did we know until this last week that he had actually been done since January of 2008. (insert grimace....) So Marshall is a happy man that his degree will come in the mail in January (though 2 years late) without having to step foot in a classroom again.

This is one of those times that I think he should kiss the ground I walk on.

And now for the strep throat:

I had strep throat. It almost killed me. I felt so horrible I thought I was going to die. Horrible. 103+ temperature for over 24 hours straight with no relief. Tylenol couldn't touch it.

Come to find out, 3 days into my antibiotic treatment, that I was given a half dose size of the pills. I had been taking "one pill in the morning and one at night," as per the doctor's orders, while I should have been taking 2. And in the midst of my fevered delirium on Friday, I had even called to double check why I wasn't getting better. They said a nurse would call me to determine if I should come back in, and then no one ever called. When I called today, they told me there was no record of my phone call on Friday. I may have been fevered delirious, but I don't think I was that delirious to imagine a phone call.

Don't worry, I feel much better now!

So that was us this week in a nutshell.

2 month stats

We went to Wes' 2 month check up on Friday. This is the first I have been able to post because while we were at the appointment, I got my hand smashed in a door and have had it in a splint. More on that in a sec.

Wes is now:

23 inches long = 49th percentile

10lbs 9ozs = 21st percentile

15.3in head circumference = 20th percentile

Diapers = size 1

Clothes = 0-3 months (the newborns finally stopped fitting this last week)

He got a bunch of shots and did great. Screamed like the dickens at first, but got over it pretty quickly.

Wes now smiles and coos a ton. He really loves talking to mommy and daddy. He really responds to people talking to him, and is pretty friendly. He can go from 0-60 when he gets hungry though- like this last week during Relief Society. Calm, happy baby capturing the hearts of the masses one second, the next he was screaming like someone was killing him. I think he decided like mid-smile that he hadn't eaten recently, and that was the end of showing off until he belly was refilled! Although he hasn't outright giggled yet, he is close. He gives a pronounced "huh!" when excited/amused, like when mommy plays peek-a-boo with him.

He's not the hugest fan of tummy-time, but it's also not the end of the world to put him there. He tends to spit up and then face-plant in it, so I have to watch and clean it up before it gets into his eyes. And he isn't rolling or crawling or anything miraculous yet. He's just right on target with learning to hold his head and chest up.

As you can see, he's still fairly bald, but I'm sure right around a year those curls will start to come in like they did on Carly.

He likes his bumbo, swing, and playmat alright. But he is not nearly as independent as Carly was at this age. He would much rather be held and making eye contact all the time than looking at his various toys. I feel like last time I had all the free time in the world, and now I have two attention-hungry energy-leeches attached to me. It can be exhausting.

But he is getting much better at sleeping through the night. His schedule is getting more and more regulated. But lately I can count on 2 basic schedules: him going down between 11-midnight and waking up once about 5am and going back down from 5:30am until 10am; or going down between 11-midnight and sleeping straight through to 7am. It varies, but either way I am getting much better sleep.

And the colic! It's gone! Praise the Lord! We can't decide if it was the abrupt end to my love affair with dairy, or if it was the reflux medication. But we'll take it however we can get it. And I've learned that, really, RiceDream is pretty good!

We are still breastfeeding, and he is a little champ at that. He goes easily back and forth between the breast and bottle. I am really blessed to not have to deal with any major latch issues with either of my kids. It has always come super easily and naturally. And my milk is holding up so far. Hopefully I'll be able to exclusively breast feed much longer this time than I did with Carly (with her, I lost my milk dramatically at 5 months or so).

All in all, he's a great kid and is getting to be so much fun!

Okay, so back to my hand. We went to Wes' appointment as a family, and while we were there decided to get flu shots for the rest of us ( -Marshall, who has weird personal vendetta against flu vaccines). I had to step into the hallway to sign some forms to add Carly and I as patients for that visit so we could get shots, and while in the hallway, I was an idiot and leaned up against the hinge side of the doorframe of the opened door. Carly made a break for it, and Marshall quickly kicked the door shut....on my hand. Ouch! I couldn't move it, and the immediate swelling and bruising had us all thinking it was broken. I had to cancel all of my appointments for the day and head over to instacare for x-rays. Luckily, no breaks. But I got all splinted up and instructed not to use it for a week. After 2 days, the improvement was remarkable, so I think I am safe to type at this point! Funny enough, tonight while making dinner I was trying to one-hand a pot of boiling water to ease the stress on the hurt hand, and managed to poor the boiling water all over my good hand! Eeek! Good thing both wounds will heal, and in the mean time, I can still use both hands at 75% capacity.

Big Sister

My beautiful big girl is such and joy and a light! She had a little bit of a shock when we introduced her to her new brother. In fact, she didn't really like the idea of holding him, or of mommy holding him, or the suggestion of bringing him home that first day. But now she loves to hold Wes, and bring him his binkies. She is such a sweet big sister, and loves to tell mommy all about how 'Wes is sleeping' or 'Wes is waking' or 'Wes is cwying' or 'Wes poopy!' She's pretty observant and seems to have the pattern of his day down pretty well. And once the dust settled, she seems pretty unfazed by the new little screamer in our home. She is still as lively and joyful as ever. (if only potty training were done!)

First 9 photos by KristenSpencerPhotography