When You Have a Christmas Baby

When you have a Christmas baby . . .

1. She stands by the Christmas tree all day long saying, "Prehy Chismas twee, mama? So prehy! So fun! Wow!" etc.
2. After you put the star on the tree she tells you, "Where angel?" Apparently, she wants an angel topper, not a star.
3. Later she looks at the lighted (but otherwise naked) tree and says, "Oh no! Need decorations." (Yes, she used the word "decoration.")
4. She has been wishing random people merry Christmas periodically since October.
5. She pretends to fall asleep on the couch and then wakes up and asks, "Christmas here now? Santa come?" for 10 minutes straight.

The craziest part is that Christmas babies, well, they just know. Nobody teaches them these things. They just seem to figure Christmas out all on their own. It must be running through their veins. But regardless of how my little Christmas angel knows, I am just glad she knows. We are having the best holiday season ever because she is enthralled with everything about Christmas. And frankly, so am I.

Picture taken by Robin Lee http://portraitsbyrobinlee.blogspot.com/

Toddler Manipulation

We are slowly (VERY slowly) getting settled. We are starting to feel more at home too. Well, I am. Ryan and Angela adjusted weeks ago, so it's just slow-to-adapt me left.

Since the day she was born, Angela knew what she wanted and has done a fairly good job of telling me what that is. She can be pretty smart (=sneaky) about it too. For several months now she has been telling me things like, "Mommy? TV? TV? Okay! TV!" or "Outside? Okay? Okay! Outside!"

I guess that is supposed to settle it. I should add that I take no part in the conversation until after she has settled the matter. Telling her no after that never goes well. I mean, hey, didn't we already decide?

This week she added another element. "Do you want cupcake? Okay! Cupcake!" or "You want upstairs? Upstairs? Okay!" I'm left confused how I could have both asked about and agreed to her having a cupcake without uttering a word.

Little Lady Bug

The house is filled with boxes! My head is filled with frazzled lists. Moving day approaches. I get so sad when I think of leaving our first house. I asked Ryan if it's sad at all to him to come home to increasing bare walls and shelves. "No." Well. I'll be sad enough for the both of us then. Anyway, I thought I'd take a break from business and give an update. Which means me telling everyone that I'm doing a lot of packing and talking about Angela. Because that's pretty much what's going on.

At 18 months children are old enough to go to the church nursery. Angela peaked a-practically-out-of-nowhere case of separation anxiety right about that time. I was so stressed and taken by surprise, since she has always LOVED other kids. It worked out that a sub was needed, so I went with her to class for a few weeks. When a permanent teacher was found, I knew it was time.

Today was her third week without me and she is going great! I credit her fabulous teachers for helping her feel loved and excited about being there even without her mama. I do have to say though, Angela was made for nursery. Snacks and singing time are two of her favorite things in this world. I wish I could record her during the singing time. She is a riot. Every time we pass a chapel she shouts, "Chuch! Chuch!" Anyway, it's been a huge relief to me, and I really do appreciate her teachers. I am pretty nervous about the move, but hopefully she'll do fine.

Little chatty Cathy says says some pretty hilarious things. Today she called me Christie (now she knows both Ryan and Christie). A few days ago she was asking for something I know for a fact she doesn't like. I told her she wouldn't like it. "I like it! I like it!" she yelled. Oh, and I think she is finally saying "I love you." Sorta. Twice she has said something that sounds like "I leaf you." Even though I don't think she knows what she's saying, and it does sound like leaf, it still melts my heart!

Oh, and one last thing. Angela totally stole an apple at the market when I had my back turned. Since she'd licked it, I thought we should hold on to it. When we got to the checkout counter, the lady wouldn't let me take it away from Angela, so she insisted we just keep it. I'm sure it was just because Angela was looking especially cute that day, even for her. Here she is eating her stolen loot.

Another Comparison

That nutty baby found her old playmat. She was thrilled. She kept chanting, "Amals! Amals!" (animals--it's jungle themed). I pulled it out to indulge her. I don't think it was as fun as she expected, but she did enjoy finding then identifying all of the animals. A year ago she couldn't even sit up on it, and now she doesn't fit. Goodness.

By the way, I came across this one while looking for a flashback picture. It makes me giggle. Angela figured out how to collapse the whole playmat. She would just lay there for a few minutes before fussing. I laughed every time she did it.

Bathtub Then and Now

We borrowed an infant bathtub from a friend, and I finally returned it this weekend. Angela was super excited when I pulled it out of the closet. She thought it was a car and kept saying, "Beep! beep!" while pushing on the foam cushion. It really hit me what a big girl she is getting to be. The last time she took a bath in it, she was seven months old--so just over a year ago. I promise she's just as loud as she was then, although she does use words now. :)

Pirate Baby

Over the years Ryan has accumulated several books about pirates. Angela loves them. They aren't baby books and some aren't even children's books. But she loves to sit on the floor "reading" the pictures for hours (okay 5 minutes--she is a toddler) at a time. Yesterday I was fanning her with a little black instruction manual. Angela grabbed it away, covered her right eye with it, and shouted a very-hearty-for-such-a-tiny-peanut "Aaaaarggg!!!" Then followed up with a deep little, "Ho, ho, ho!" (=yo, ho, ho). Some people have princess daughters. Ours is apparently a pirate.

Starting Again

I'm not going to lie. Life revolves around this little one. So blogging will too. Sorry. But let's be honest, she's the prettiest part of my life anyway. I'm not going to rehash the year (+) I was away from blogging. If I did I'd never start again. Instead I'm just going to pick up where we are now.

This little munchkin is full of words. She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night just to practice the words she knows. Some of her recent ones include hat, Angela (said A-la-la, which I love), swirrel=squirrel, heady=hedgehog, and dillo=armadillo. Uncle B gave her a wooden woodland creatures set, hence some of the non-farm animal creatures. Another funny little thing she's doing is calling Ryan by other names. Dada was one of her first words, so maybe she is tired of the same old word. She sometimes calls him Wynie because she's heard me call him Ryan. Ha!! I didn't think that would start for a few more years. But lately she stated calling him Waggy. We have NO IDEA where this came from! It is hilarious.

In other news, we are going to be moving. Angela loves to go to the new house and run around like crazy. Nothing like going wild in a construction site. We have several "wocks" that Angela's collected from the backyard. I've already started packing (the close date isn't for two more months) and am trying not to be a ball of stress. Ryan would tell you that I'm not doing a very good job. But we are excited for a new adventure!

Anybody Still Here?

Just wondering if anybody is still here. I have grand aspirations of blogging again. :)

Four Months?

Angela is actually 4 1/2 months now. I tell her she is such a grown up baby! She is quite the chatty one some days and loves to make the oddest sounds and coos. She loves to play with her toys (like her playmat or her exersaucer) but she also loves Mommy and Daddy attention. I finally found her ticklish spot, and she makes the funnest giggles! Walks are her very favorite thing, and I am so sad it's getting too hot. Even at 7am, it's 80 degrees. Yuck. We started baby cereal, and she loves that too. What she doesn't love is naps. While she has been sleeping well at night for some time now, she still fights her naps. Three times a day. Every day.

Ryan finished graduate school. Hooray! He has been spending much more time with us both. Angela loves spending time with her daddy, and I love watching them play.

Even though Daddy went to ASU, Angela is a true blue Cougar.

7 Weeks and 7 Things about Angela

Angela is now seven weeks old. Today, in fact. She isn't doing too many "tricks" besides looking cute/beautiful or sad/pathetic to suit the situation. Instead of her achievements I thought I'd share some of my favorite things about her in general as well as some of my favorite pictures.

1. I love her hair. When it's wet and uncombed, it goes super curly! When combed, it's just wavy but oh so soft. I love to rub my cheek against the top of her head when she's lying on my shoulder.

2. She has several adorable gowns, and they're my favorite for night time. When I feed her, often her little feeties stick out of the bottom. Precious.

Look at those little feeties!

3. Angela came to this world alert and wanting to learn. She loves to stare and look around her, taking it all in. At least once a day she makes good eye contact with me and I try to have a long conversation with her. She sits and listens very well, although I have to infer a bit from her responses.

This is her at less than one week old! She's already staring intently.

4. When Angela's not alert and learning, she's eating or sleeping or crying. Being so busy makes her a serious baby. But we do get the occasional smile and it just melts our hearts!

5. She has lots of pretty faces, but she also has some pretty funny ones too. She makes a face like a pirate when she's being burped and makes a little turtle-like face when stretching. But the best one is when she's doing her "business." I laugh basically every time she poops.

See those curls! This isn't one of her better faces though.

6. Her cheeks are really filling out and I noticed her thighs are too. She may or may not be growing an extra chin.

7. I love to give her kisses. I kiss her nakey tummy, I kiss her chubby cheeks, I kiss her little hands, and I cannot resist kissing her sweet, sweet head (I sniff in the sweet baby smell while I'm at it).

Our Christmas Angel

The blog has taken a back-burner to the baby. When I went to put on my shoes to go home from the hospital, they broke. Into the trash they went. I can't help but think that was symbolic of ending a stage of life. Anyway, I know she's six weeks old now, but I better start at the beginning.

While some of you love the gory details of child birthing but I know some of you don't. So I'll try to keep it clean!

When I went for my last appointment, my doctor said progress was pretty minimal (as in half a centimeter minimal). We had an induction scheduled for the following week and he and I both expected I'd be keeping that appointment. I'd been having contractions at 20 minutes apart all week, but they obviously weren't doing much for me. Nonetheless, my mom was just waiting for the phone call to jump in the car and drive here from NM. We were worried that the crazy, unusually severe weather would keep her from coming. But things let up Christmas Eve, and her and my brother drove here in between blizzards.

We had dinner at Cafe Rio (note: everything I ate was mild thanks to heart burn, so this did NOT make me go into labor) and came home to watch our traditional Christmas movies. At 9pm (during Garfield's Christmas) I felt really sick. Contractions starting coming 10 and then 5 minutes apart. After an hour and a half I knew it was the real deal. My family, however, was skeptical. I insisted we go to the hospital and the on-call OB recommended it. My poor Mom and brother grabbed their unpacked bags (they'd only been here six hours) and followed us to the hospital. We got there at 11:30ish and I was admitted an hour later.

Yes, I had an epidural, and I am not ashamed. Once the real contractions had started, they were HARSH! I was very glad to have the shot. So I labored through the night in peace. The next morning we went to work on the pushing (most pain of my life--the only part that brought me to tears). That went on for about two hours. Then the on-call doctor came in, immediately did an episiotomy(which then proceeded to tear). And when I really thought I couldn't take it any longer out came my squirmy-wormy miracle, screaming like a banshee.

Then I really started crying. She was perfect and worth every ounce of physical pain and emotional heartache I'd felt. And it may sound cheesy, but I absolutely knew she was sent from Heaven specifically to me.

Christmas at Lawry's

Ryan and I had a nice dinner out last night. I was thinking it could be our last one for awhile! I was also thinking about a family tradition we had growing up.

Every year at Christmas time we had dinner at Lawry's. For the holidays, the restaurant hired "carolers" to sing to the patrons during their meals. The carolers dressed in Charles Dickens-like attire and were always very talented. We usually spent the first part of dinner trying to decide what requests we would make when they got to our table and almost never settled on just one. Luckily they indulged us and usually sang an extra song or two. My dad always tried to force them to take a tip (the gratuity kind, not the advice kind) even though they always ardently refused. It was against policy. But that didn't ever phase my dad!

For some reason, those are my best holiday memories of our family together, even more so than any of Christmas day. One year in particular we must've been having a good time. After dinner our server told us that our dessert was covered. Apparently the couple a few tables away thought we looked so fun that they wanted to buy us dessert. If you know our family, you'll know that was a GREAT way to get to our hearts. It was delicious. But more than that it's proof that we were so happy in that moment even somebody else noticed it. I will hold on to those memories forever.

Gratitude

A year ago yesterday I was intently scanning the ultrasound screen hoping futilely that three little heartbeats would suddenly appear somewhere.

A year ago today Ryan and I were in the OR waiting for the anesthesiologist so that they could do a D&C.

This morning I woke up feeling a little sad but mostly so grateful. I'm grateful for the growth we've had in the last year and especially grateful to have a little one (and yes, grateful she is just one) still trying to do somersaults inside a tummy she's quickly outgrowing. More grateful than I can really put into words.

On a lighter note, I've been thinking about the importance of saying "thank you." Ryan is so good about thanking me. He thanks me for dinner. He thanks me for cleaning. He thanks me for doing the dishes. When I worked, he thanked me for helping him provide for our family. I'm not saying he literally thanks me for every single thing I do every single time I do it, but he is good about saying it more than often enough. I would do all of it anyway, but it sure is easier to do knowing he appreciates it. Hopefully he knows he much I appreciate what he does too. He works so hard at his job and then has to put in all the extra hours of class time and homework. Then he still manages to find time to listen to me blabber on and on about my unexciting day when he really feels like this:



Anyway, enough with the mushy stuff. Let me just say that I'm glad it's Thanksgiving and hope that you all have a very happy one!

Winnie the Pooh and a Dirty Mirror

If I post another picture, do you promise to ignore my dirty mirror? I didn't realize how dirty it was until looking at the picture (which could be because I need to change the light bulbs in the bathroom). Well, I feel large but I still get plenty of comments about how small I am. In fact a waitress asked if I'd like a drink last Friday. On the other hand, a friend at the storehouse was laughing at me yesterday. I asked her why and she told me that I looked like Winnie the Pooh toddling around. Nice. Another lady at church told me I'm starting to waddle. She also giggled at me. I'll have to let you be the judge:

Nursery and Other Matters

The nursery is done! If Angela came tomorrow (which, we hope she doesn't for her own little sake) then we would at least have a room for her. I feel really fortunate not to have too many complaints. Obviously bending over is getting harder as is sitting for long periods, but for the most part I'm comfortable and we both seem to be healthy. Just don't ask about the heartburn.

Ryan is still working away. He was on "break" for two weeks but that turned out to be a joke. His professors decided to give him homework as well as a project. At least he was at home and not in class until 10pm. He also took his first ever business trip, and it did not leave him with a good impression. The important thing is that he survived and of course hopes he doesn't have to do it again any time soon.

I'm getting my to-do list done little by little and am still volunteering at the storehouse. My mission technically ended (although that reminds me that I never was released either . . . ) but I will keep going as a volunteer as long as I'm feeling up to it. They know not to expect me back after Christmas though! Even though everyone jokes that I will just bring baby girl with me and let all the "grandma's" take care of her while I work. We'll see. I told them I'm not making any promises about that.

So here are the pictures! For some reason it seems like LOTS of yellow in the first picture, but it's just the angle inside the crib, I think. It's not really a yellow nursery except for the bed spread.

I Give Up

Enough people have been bugging me that I'm finally giving in and posting a baby bump picture. I apologize that all my blogging revolves around being pregnant. I'm sure there are funny/interesting things happening, but I don't remember them. I don't remember a lot of things these days. Sorry.

Oh, and I am officially in the third trimester. The first went so painfully slow, but the second was super fast. Baby girl will be here before we know it! I just hope the fall weather gets here before she does. We're sick of 100 degree weather over here.

The Good with the Bad

Do you remember our little sicky Henri? Well, he fell ill again and this time he didn't make it. Henri is the only pet I've really had (I don't count the five consecutive red fighting fish I had--which I named them all Reddy, so clever). I was surprised how much I miss his sweet, stinky face and soft poodle fur. It was really sad to visit my mom last week and not have him there to greet me, lick my hand, and snuggle next to me.

My poor mama has had an even harder time. He was her little companion for so many years. I know she misses him terribly.

Then we had another loss in our grammie. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had a long, painful road ahead of her. We miss her but feel relieved that she was spared the drawn out suffering. Grammie lived a full life of travel, learning/reading, volunteer work, painting, bicycling, holding tight to her faith, raising two boys, and loving five grandchildren. My mom pointed out that in all of the photographs of her, she is the one who stands out. She really did have a glow and warmth about her. She should have no regrets for the good life she lived and we know she is at peace.

Amidst the sadness Ryan and I are doing well. Angela is growing well and kicks like crazy. Ryan enjoyed his short break and is in class again. He's very excited because he got us ASU season tickets. He just loves football any way that he can see it. For his birthday last spring he got DVR and HD as his present. This is the time of year he can really use it. All I can say is that I hope Angela likes football.

People Are Noticing

Today was a milestone day. So far only friends and family have been brave enough to comment on the baby bump. At the store this afternoon the sales clerk asked when I'm due. I'm officially pregnant-looking not just pudgy!

What We've Been Making

First, in case you haven't heard . . . we are having a baby girl! Angela (Rose?) is growing and developing nicely and we are relieved. Ryan isn't into the baby planning so much, but he does talk to my stomach sometimes. Granted he's usually plotting with Angela against me.

Also, my appetite is back with a vengeance. It's SO NICE to enjoy food again. I can't get enough and read cookbooks and watch cooking shows on TV. Because I've had extreme heartburn I can't eat too much at one time, so it leaves me hungry a lot of the time. Maybe that's the problem. At any rate, Ryan is on break following his first semester (hooray! one down, five more to go), so I decided to celebrate with a really complicated, rich, dark chocolate cake:

Seriously the most chocolatey cake I've ever eaten in my life. It wasn't that sweet, just rich and creamy. The filling is basically a pudding. Ryan had one small slice and stopped because it was that overwhelming. It's a Cooks Illustrated recipe, so you need a subscription for the recipe. However, Baking Obsession posted the recipe here and the directions are slightly easier to understand. (NOTE: we used a cup of water in place of the brewed coffee)

In other news, Ryan tells me that BYU's first football practice of the season was today. It's probably for the best that we're having a girl because I think Ryan would be teaching plays to my tummy if we were having a boy.

Dear Walmart Patron

Dear Walmart Patron,

I did not have a camera ready when you crossed the street, else I would be sending it to that people of Walmart website. Lucky you. I can only assume that you realized you were wearing a white shirt without a bra. Maybe if I was that busty I would be more eager to show it off too. But what I'd really like to know is why your father (who was accompanying you) let you out of the house wearing a see-through shirt. Or was that older gentleman not your father? You know, I'm not sure I want the answer. Forget I even brought it up.

From,
A Concerned Citizen