Donut falls

I'm not sure if you noticed or not, but it wasn't exactly "camping with an infant" weather this weekend. Sometimes we like to pretend we're responsible parents.

Combine that with Josh working Saturday and tonight and we stayed home all weekend.

So this morning we decided we'd at least go on a hike! 

We called Ashley and Junior and dragged them up the canyon to Donut falls. Apparently it was a good idea because all of the people who didn't go to St. George went to Donut falls instead. Holy CROWDED!

Turns out there is still a lot of snow in the canyon. The trail was slippery and wet and muddy and BEAUTIFUL.

All of us in the snow on the way up. 

Maybe I forgot to put socks on Tommy....so maybe Dad held his feet the whole way up to keep them warm.

This is donut falls. There are two section of waterfall. 

About halfway up the picture you see the lower half of the falls. And in the top right 1/3 of the picture, you see the top half. 

Between the two you see 2 crazies who have scaled the glacier to get a better look at the waterfall. 

What you don't see is the crazy I married who scaled ALL of the glacier and took pictures for us because we were too sissy to climb. You don't see him because he's back behind the trees at the very top. 

And the crazy I married got this close up of the top half of the fall, and the reason it's called donut falls. See how the water made a donut hole in the rock? Sweet huh? 

While we were waiting for Josh to COME BACK DOWN FROM THERE! Tommy had a minor meltdown. Since we can't blame PMS we figured he needed a diaper change and headed out to where it was less populated. He screamed and screamed and screamed. We whipped out the changing pad (yes on the trail) and changed him and he screamed some more. We fed him while we walked back down and he whimpered. 

Tommy's was getting sunburned (even though I applied sunscreen TWICE) and he was a grouch, so we figured if we put a jacket over his head it would block the sun and he'd go to sleep. You know....like a parrot.   He's in there, and there's plenty of air, and he was happy, sleeping AND quiet. Don't judge me.

We had a great time.

One thing I love about my balcony

One thing I love about my balcony, is these lovely flowers.

Just one question

How do you get your kid to sleep at church?

We always look forward to 5th Sundays because Josh and I are in the same class for all 3 hours of church, and that's a beautiful thing. Makes for a good discussion when we get home.

But today Josh was in Sacrament Meeting while Thomas and I were in the hall. Working on our "sleeping on mom's shoulder" skills.

Then Josh was in Sunday School while Thomas and I were in the hall. Working on our "whining because we're tired" skills.

Then I was in our combined Relief Society/Preisthood meeting while Josh and Tommy were in the hall. Working on their "avoiding meetings at all costs" skills.

5 minutes before we were supposed to leave Thomas finally gave up and fell asleep on Josh's shoulder. Just in time for us to put him the car seat.

Which, of course, wakes him up.

I have a feeling this was the first of many difficult Sundays.

And so I ask again, how do you get your kids to sleep at church? And if they don't, what do you do with an overtired, extra sleepy, inconsolable 8 month old?

Knowing My Place

This could be a post about patience, faith, or perspective. But that wasn't the lesson I was learning, so apply your own object lesson if you want one of those..

San Francisco happens to be very near a large body of water.

And as you fly into the airport, if you're on the wrong side of plane (and I am) all you see is water.

And as you descend from 35,000 feet, when you're just a few hundred feet in the air, you feel a little like you could just reach out the window and pick a flower. Except that flowers don't grow in large bodies of water.

And if you're a know-it-all (like me) as you watch the plane come dangerously close to the water, you feel the need to let somebody know. Because CLEARLY they are not seeing what I'm seeing. (Insert "perspective" lesson here.)

And when you realize that the man flying the plane went through training and really does know better than you do, (insert "faith" lesson here) you start to feel a little silly for thinking that he needed you to help him do his job.

And then (because of the faith and perspective) as you stare out the window knowing that you'll see land soon, you just plain wait. (Insert patience lesson here.)

But in the end, really, you just remembered that you don't really know it all, and that as a passenger is it not your place to fly the plane.

Even if you know enough about this plane to know it doesn't land on water.
Even if you know you're surrounded by water (because you can SEE IT RIGHT THERE).
Even if the plane is clearly landing, when you are surrounded by water, and it does not land on water.
Even if you know you will die because this idiot pilot thinks he's the bear from Tailspin. 

It still isn't my place to tell the man how to fly. So I just sat there and bit my tongue. Not because of patience, faith or perspective, but because I know my place. And (fortunately) it is not in the cockpit.

Did you know?

Did you know that goldfinches (the Washington state bird) eat upsidedown? Here's a video to prove it.



Did you know that Thomas still has no teeth? I swear if they don't come out soon I'm going in after them.

Did you know that I'm still waiting to recover from the lack of sleep from my Washington trip? Somehow it seems like you're not really allowed to sleep in 4 days later and claim it's because you're so tired from being up (and traveling) for 20 out of 24 hours.

Did you know that I'm terribly afraid of heights? And by "heights" I mean "being higher off the ground than I can naturally jump". Josh likes to tease me because if I get more than 2 rungs up on a ladder I think I'm going to die.

Did you know that today we have no obligations? It's Memorial Day and everybody is out of town, it's 5th Sunday and there is no Relief Society which means no meetings, no preparation for Sunday (only a little....) and no meetings afterward. Hooray for me!

Did you know that I have a new nephew? He's hardly new anymore, but lookit how cute he is!

Did you know that Hotprints lets you have one free photo book every month? Awesome.

Did you know that we painted a week ago and still haven't hung stuff on our walls? *sigh* we'll get there.

If I were rich and famous....

Well, yesterday I was rich and famous. You can tell because I left the state just for a (super-fantastic) lunch date.

Here's what happened:

Josh took a bump on a flight a year and a half ago, and he can't stand to see free stuff go to waste. (There are a number of funny stories I could summarize here, but all of them make my husband look bad (which is why they're funny) and he rearranged my food storage yesterday, so to repay him I'm not gonna tell them.) And since the free flight voucher was about to expire and we had no money and no time off and no ability to use the ticket, he decided that in order to stop my whining make me happy, I should go visit my long lost best friend of all time, Jamie.

Since it was free it wasn't even stupid to just go there and back in one day. It sorta felt like I just went down to Lindon for lunch with my family.

Except that the flight was with United, and they don't fly straight to Washington, they fly to San Fransisco and THEN to Washington.

And that means more than 7 hours in airports, 6 hours in the air and 2 hours in the car for 5 hours in Washington.

I was originally going to take Tommy with me (because it seems unreasonable that SUCH a good friend has never even met my child....) and then I realized that it meant more than 7 hours in airports, 6 hours in the air and 2 hours in the car, by myself with a baby, his carseat, stroller, diaper bag, snacks, and voice box and I told Josh that if he wouldn't stay home, I'd just cancel that trip.

And since that man just can't stand to see free stuff going to waste...(insert another "funny at Josh's expense" story here) he decided to stay home with my baby, and I was going all alone on this adventure.

You can also tell I'm rich and famous because when we landed in Washington instead of pulling up to the building, they put down a ramp and we walked down out of the plane right onto the ground. Like a famous person does.

If only someone had chased me down as I was leaving, running after the plane on the runway because they couldn't stand to see me go because of their undying love for me, while my tears streaked down my face as I soberly stared out the window not realizing the love of my life was coming for me.....

Whoa. Yeah. My life is not a chick flick.

The whole thing was beautiful. Simply beautiful. It rained while we were there, we made cookies, Evie (their 2 year old daughter) said "Thank you zaymie" to me when I handed her a book about a farm. I think that means she loves me. We talked and laughed and ate at Olive Garden. It was just like nothing had ever changed.

Oh how I love good friends with the capability to pick up exactly where we left off.

This is where I should say something about how my life is so filled with goodness and joy that I'm rich. And since Evie knows my name (sortof) I'm famous. But I'm not feeling extraordinarily corny at the moment, so instead I'll just say it was a lovely day. And it was fun to be rich and famous even if it was just for a little while.

Because I never want to forget these precious moments.....

surrendering my weapons and other airport stories

After spending 5 hours in airports so far today (with a few more to go), I headed through security at the Pasco airport. In case you didn't know, Pasco houses the teeniest tiniest airport there is. Period. End of discussion.

I was one of 25 people in the airport when I landed, and 3 of them were working security, 2 at the rental car counter and 1 in the gift shop. They didn't need anybody to man the vending machines. Nobody was checking in. Only the people on my flight were leaving. And I've seen Elementary School parking lots with more complex pickup systems.

So on the way back, I wasn't in any hurry to get to the airport and I certainly didn't need to give myself an hour to get through security.

Or so I thought.

I arrived at the airport at 4:35 and my flight left at 5:00. Plenty of time to get through all 100 square feet of the airport.

Or so I thought.

They were positively swamped. After watching all 35 people ahead of me go through the metal detector I was anxiously waiting my turn.

Can you believe that guy in front me who didn't take his keys out of his pocket before walking through the metal detector?

And that lady actually thought her kid could take a Nalgene bottle FULL of water on the plane?

Helloooo don't they know that's how people die?

After they put my purse through the x-ray machine for the 3rd time, I started to review it's contents in my head. Homemade cookies? Check. Keys? Check. Wallet? Check. I had already dutifully removed my tiny deadly lotion and hand sanitizer because I am a pro at airport security. Were they scanning it over and over because they wanted to see how cute my bookmark was? Were they trying to figure out why one person needed so many feminine supplies? Was he giggling over my change of clothes? Or was there an actual problem? Did they realize that with 1 pair of glasses and the power of the sun I could melt the entire aircraft?

Finally at MY suggestion they dug through my purse to find the offending item. The Nazi in Laytex Gloves (NLG) cleverly disguised as a Nice Mom Lady yanked my keys out of my purse and thrust them in the air victoriously. "Aha!" she said abandoning her Nice Mom Lady voice in favor of her Robot Nazi voice.

There on my key ring, where it always is, was the pocket knife keychain my boss gave me for Christmas 2 years ago. Dang it.

NLG: "What would you like to do about this weapon." She asked me with a scowl on her face.
Me: "Ummm.....weapon?" Note to self. Do not sass Airport People. They're a jumpy breed.
NLG: Silence while giving the stink eye.
Me: "What are my choices?"
NLG: "Well. You could check your bag."
Me: Bag? That is a PURSE. It's not even in LARGE purse! You should see the purse my sister in law carries! That is a BAG.  
NLG: "But each bag checked costs $35."
Me: "Mmmhmmm.... do you have any ideas that are free?"
NLG: "You could return it to the party who dropped you off at the airport."
Me: "Oh, you mean the party that left me here with you psychos to fend for myself? The party who is already at home in her living room eating fresh homemade cookies with her beautiful daughter? The party who didn't have to stand in your 35 person line for 20 minutes? That party?" Oh wait. That was actually in my head. The words in my mouth were: "Oh, she's long gone."
NLG: "You could go to the post office and mail it home."
Me: "Can I just throw it away?"
NLG: Marching over to the x-ray man. "This woman would like to surrender her weapon."
Me: Surrender my weapon? Are you serious? That weapon has a blade that isn't sharp enough to open a bag of ritz crackers and a nail file. Do I look like a person who could take down a plane with that kind of a "weapon"? Really?
NLG: "I'll have to take samples of the interior of the bag for analysis before I can let you go."
Me: "OK."
NLG: Suddenly lost the robot voice and has donned her clever Nice Mom Lady disguise (including the voice) again. "This is a great bag."
Me: "Um...thanks."

*******************************************************

I will do anything to avoid an airplane lavatory. ANYTHING. Of course that requires great planning and the phrase "are you SURE you don't have to go?" running through my head roughly 10 million times during the 30 minutes immediately preceding boarding.

I'll tell you this about the San Fransisco airport. Their toilet paper is worse than cruise ship toilet paper. Now you know.

***********************************************************

I think that guy who invented the Dyson airblade hand dryers did not realize that people would probably put tiny bits of food and dirty and sticky things on their hands just to see if the air would blow it off. And it does. And then it sits in the bottom of the dryer thing until someone presumably comes to clean it. Gross.

Also I think that guy took the idea from airplanes. Because when you fly in the rain, the windows stay dry because the air is moving so fast.

If only that guy could figure out how to get a pocketknife through security.

***********************************************************

There is a round restaurant called "Just Desserts" in the middle of the food court at the airport. They have some lovely desserts on display around the outside of it.

They also have a section of food. Salads, sandwiches, soups, and snacks.

I want to burn the dude who thought of the name of the restaurant.

Also their cheesecake was really really not great.

**********************************************************

If you have a kid, and you're in the airport, the stupid stuff at gift shops looks less stupid.

However, if you have a kid and you're in the airport, you're still dead broke so it doesn't matter how cool that stuff looks.

Backwards

Thomas likes to stand up while I hold one of his hands. Then he likes to grab my other hand and start walking backwards. 


He does not like to walk forwards. In fact I think he's scared of it. 


Utah and I are usually good friends (hand holding, skipping down the street together kinds of friends). Spring snowstorms happen to be one of my favorite things. But even I can admit that snow the week of memorial day is backwards. 


Since apparently holding hands with me makes you backwards, Utah and I will now break up and stop holding hands for the sake of everybody else in the state who is ready for summer. 


But don't you come whining to me when it's 90 degrees tomorrow, your power bills comes (and you have to get a second mortgage) and the pool still isn't open OK? You wanted summer, and I have a sneaking suspicion you're gonna get summer. 


(ew....)

clapping and banging...it's really all the same

I've been excited for Thomas to learn how to clap. So for months I'll put two toys in his hands and try to get him to bang them together. He doesn't do it.

But last week he started banging on the couch, which is now our new favorite trick.

He will roll from anywhere in the room over to the edge of the couch so he's in perfect banging position.

Then he smacks the end of the couch with his full arm over and over and over again. He squeals with delight each time his hand meets the couch.

So far it's the only thing that will distract him from the apparent excruciating pain he must be in (based on all the screaming).

Just me?

Have you ever had plans and you got all excited to go, then bailed at the last possible second because your kid spent 2.5 of the last 3 hours screaming at the top of his lungs?

Heaven help us if this is not teething and it actually gets worse.

Some MORE photos

Remember back in March when we stayed up until 4am playing games with our friends? Well, that next morning, Junior did an impromptu photo shoot and these are the results.

What can I say, the kid loves his toes.

Stella and Thomas think we're soooo funny. 

No wonder we hang out with them.

And They're actually good at sharing.

This one might be my favorite. Love it.

There may or may not be one of Thomas is Stella's rock-star-diamond-studded-hot-pink sunglasses. Poor baby. :D

Did you know?

Did you know that I stole my baby's breakfast? Pancakes and mango puree are just too good to pass up.

Did you know that I tried to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom just to find out that there really is only one way it goes?

Did you know that Thomas had an entire pancake, a bottle and half a mango for breakfast. Maybe he was still hungry after all that so we snacked together on cheerios.

Did you know that I ran a race with a chip on my shoe? The most stressful part of the race was because the guy told us about 10 different times "make sure the shoe with the chip touches the start mat." and I was quite sure mine wouldn't (you know...because of my extraordinarily long stride....psshhhh) I'm pretty sure I took 4 steps on the mat naturally. I didn't need to stress over that.

Did you know that since I couldn't rearrange my bedroom furniture I made Josh paint our living room? It's still drying, I'll let you know if I like it later. *It's later. I love it. LOVE IT! It was totally worth the 3 year wait.

Did you know I also got a steal of a deal on flowers for my balcony? Farewell strawberries, hello pretty!

Did you know that the average lifespan of a major league baseball is only 7 pitches? I can't think of anything that gets gone faster. Not anything. (That's a lie....one time there was a package of oreos.......I can think of that.)

One thing I love about my mother-in-law

One thing I love about my mother-in-law, is that she calls on the night before a race to say good luck.

That's because she's cool like that.

Lonely again

Remember when I freaked out because Josh was going back to work and I was going to be solely responsible for my child all day every day? All by myself?

And remember back when Josh was in school and I was terribly lonely and didn't know what to do with myself all night every night?

Well let's just combine those two levels of crazy and now you have....me!

Josh is in school again. Which freaks me out.

Right now it's just 1 night a week, but next month it will be 4 nights a week. I can deal with 1 night/week. But 4 makes me wanna cry.

Somehow no matter how bad the day is, knowing that Josh will come home in the evening and rescue me from everything and take care of Thomas until he goes to sleep means I can do it.

I once read a book called A Dance For Three and even the title has never left me. The title comes from a part in the book where Hannah (the main character who is in high school, pregnant, and the father has no interest in being involved) is near the end of her pregnancy and sees a mother and father with their small child. The child goes back and forth between the parents and each parent takes a turn in offering a cracker or holding a hand. She says it was like a dance, perfectly choreographed and she realizes that parenthood is a dance for three. Not a dance for two.

I've said a million times that I have no idea how single parents do it. It blows my mind that it's even possible.

I have it pretty easy, bedtime around here is no big deal. It's even fun. But the thought of doing everything all by myself, from the time Josh leaves for work, until long after Thomas is asleep totally scares me.

I'll even have plenty of time to myself, since Tommy sleeps at 7. But I'm still afraid.

I know it's just shifting my "If I can make it to _ o clock it'll all be OK." time back 2 hours. But it terrifies me.

Thomas is much more sweet than scary. But I'm not sure I can do it.

However, Josh has been in school before and we've both survived. Thomas has been all mine before and we've both survived. There are a lot of people who do a lot harder things, but this is hard for me anyway.

Here's to being lonely again.

Beautiful when wet

Yesterday Ashley and I got rained on while walking.

As we parted ways Ashley braved the raindrops and turned her face up to look at me. As soon as her eyes met mine she started laughing.

I'm just not one of those people who gets wet gracefully.

While her makeup was flawless, my mascara was running down my face.

While her hair was still in place, mine resembled that mangy cat on the side of the road that just got rained on. All matted and soggy.

I like to tell myself that when it starts to rain in movies and the lead actress still looks good, it's because they touch up her makeup every 2 seconds and she isn't actually getting wet. Apparently it's totally possible to look good in the rain, it's just not a gift I have.

I bet she doesn't get attacked by her hair when driving with the top down either.

So here's what I need to know, is it because she knows a secret? Is there some way you hold your head? Is there a magical body position or hair product that makes you beautiful when wet? Are these things they should start teaching in the maturation program in Elementary School? (Because they certainly aren't teaching anything of value now....) Is it possible that I could be one of those people and I just haven't learned it yet?  Or is it all natural? And some people are just pretty in the rain, and some are drowned rats?

If it's a skill, I'd take that class, because long walks in the rain are one of my favorite things, but I'm afraid nobody want to join the dripping psycho for a long walk in the rain.

Did you know?

Did you know that at Walmart $3.49 can buy you 80 ounces of pickles or a measly 16 ounces?

Did you know that I'm rich and famous? You can tell because I'm gonna fly to Washington to have lunch with a good good friend. Don't judge me. It's free.

Did you know that the first product to have a barcode was Wrigley's gum?

Did you know that even if you do dishes 5 times in one day you can still have a sink full at the end of the night?

Did you know that I miss being pregnant? That's a very strange feeling.

Did you know that the "need to eat ice" is a symptom of not having enough iron in your body? Call me crazy, but I suspect that slurpee and snow-cone cravings count as "need to eat ice".

Did you know that hating the heat is genetic? My grandma always used to say it was "hotter than H in here!" and when someone asked what 'H' was she told them "it stands for Hooper". I think I've referenced Hooper about 9,000 times in the past 48 hours. She also used to say that it was so hot it made you want to run naked down the street. That was the most irreverent thing I ever heard her say.

Did you know that grilling season has finally arrived? (See above references to the heat and the dishes.)

Did you know that I'm not pregnant? Even though I referenced pickles, slurpees, pregnancy and the-no-good-very-bad-heat in one post, it's not because I'm pregnant.

Kryptonite

Snot, boogers, nose-juice, call it what you like but I can't handle it.

It will be the death of me.

Thanksgiving Point

For the past couple of weeks the ladies in my family had been throwing around the idea of a lovely Mother's Day brunch on Saturday. We thought it would be nice to sit around and enjoy some peace and quiet and chat. Plus they do it in the movies so it was clearly a good idea. We'd leave all the kids at home with the husbands and enjoy a lovely morning together.

At one point we discussed going to Thanksgiving Point and we'd all wander through the gardens listlessly looking at flowers and saying things like "Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower." Because that's in a movie too.

So on Saturday morning we all went.

Nobody commented on daisies. And we didn't enjoy a lovely brunch outdoors.

BUT we did play in the water

And look at the monster goldfish (that is an average sized duck.....)

And we took 3-baby pictures. And you all know how I love a good 3-baby picture.

And of course looked at the flowers.

Crazy upside-down tulips.

Some as big as your head!

 And we all had a really great time.

If you give a mom a free sitting

She'll wind up spending almost $200 on prints of her adorable child.

Nice marketing. I'm willing to bet it works every time.

7 month photos

Well, rolling is old news now. He's practically a professional.

You can tell by how he gets half of his body rolled but not the other half leaving him in an incredibly uncomfortable twisted state while he screams for me to un-pretzel him with my super-human skills.

But then this morning he rolled over and over and over. Not back and forth and back and forth like he used to (back in the old days....like yesterday). Bottom line? He can get off the blanket I plant him on.

Eh well, at least he's fantastically adorable.

worm guts

That's what it smells like outside.

And that's why I'm not closing my windows. I know it sounds gross but it smells OH SO GOOD. 

The bad news is that flip flops + rain = Amy's inability to walk. Slipping and sliding across the Walmart, Target AND Smith's parking lots.

I'm the only one I EVER see slipping in the rain, is it just me or does everybody else just recover more gracefully than I do?

Mother's Day

If you wanna know how great the mothers in my life are, go here then go here.

Now multiply that love, admiration and respect by the "I have a baby now" factor and you MIGHT have a teeny tiny clue about how much I love and appreciate my moms.

7 Months

Thomas turned 7 months old yesterday. And here's the deal:


He eats. A lot. As much as we'll give him any time day or night. Also he's been holding his own bottle for quite a while, but his latest trick is to refuse to even TOUCH the bottle so I'll stay there and feed him instead of abandoning him in favor of working, changing laundry, and butt-sitting.


He grows. A lot. I'm pretty sure this has been his most productive month growth-wise. Based on my estimates while carrying him in his carseat, I'm gonna say he weighs roughly 100 pounds by now. Also he way too long for any kind of footie jammies, they don't stay over his shoulders. But his feet are still the same size they were when he was born. For real.


He laughs. Mostly at dad, but once a day he'll have a laugh-moment with me.


He plays. With all kinds of cool toys. Like my glasses, my earrings, my hair, my lips, my face, his toes. Also sometimes he plays with actual toys.


He sleeps. A lot. 3 naps every day. 12 hours most nights. I remember thinking that would never EVER happen. It did.


He talks. And by "talks" I mean "screeches". And by "screeches" I mean "creates a sound only dogs can hear". Also he babbles. 


And this morning he rolled back to front for the first time ever. Then he scooched from one end of the blanket to the other grunted the whole way. We're dangerously close to mobile. 


Somehow with all of the photo-taking joy of the weekend, I didn't get out my camera even one time yesterday. So just review "some pictures" here because that's still what he looks like.


Remember back when he was brand new? And floppy and skinny and shriveled?

Now he's old. And stable and chunky and stretched out.

Best 7 months of all time.

Did you know?

Did you know that the blinds have been open in both of bathrooms since the week we moved in? 3 years ago. Much to Junior's dismay....apparently it freaks men out when they're staring out the window which is right above the toilet while doing their buisness and realize they're staring directly into the neighbor's bathroom window. I don't have this problem.

Did you know that Junior taught my baby how to spit? So I'm leaving the bathroom blinds UP. That'll teach him.

Did you know that I'm not part of Generation X? I totally thought I was....but apparently I'm not. Technically speaking I'm Generation Y - which isn't really even a real thing as far as I can tell. Doesn't even have it's own radio station.

Did you know that teeth float? A lady in my ward told me that when babies are getting their teeth they come right up to the surface, then sink back down and float up again for months. MONTHS. I've been telling Josh that I swear I see white right under Tommy's gums then we look and his gums are just plain old boring red. Now I win. I probably did see the floating teeth and then they sunk again. Ha!

Did you know that today Thomas is 7 months old? Wow.

Did you know that we spent the weekend in Lindon? The whole weekend. It was lovely. Hotel Fugal is a beautiful place to be.

Did you know that if the Library didn't e-mail me to tell me my books were due, we'd probably owe them more than we owe on our house?

Some photos

Gina pointed out that I went EIGHT whole posts with no pictures of that kid who lives here. Granted on MY blog that's only like 24 hours.....but still....

How is that possible?

I'll tell you how. I stare at him all day every day. And sometimes I forget that most of you do not have that distinct pleasure.

So, with no real rhyme or reason....I give you.....That Kid Who Lives Here:

I took this photo as evidence. He has the rubber-band wrist, so the next time Dr. Lady (or anyone else) calls my kid a lightweight, you can bet I'm whipping this sucker out. I'll hear no comments about how MY wrists look identical to those in this photo...

Grandma Egbert went flitting off to Hawaii and brought back this shirt. 

This is his "I'm dancing the dance like the guy on the shirt" pose. Nice eh?

Every day we have laugh-fest. You know how some people's spouses promise they'll make them laugh every day? Well, Thomas and I have about 5 minutes of every day where he busts a gut and I giggle like a school-girl. I think I never knew how to laugh until he came along and taught me. I was an awkward silent-shaker before him.

Then he makes faces at me while he tries to contain his drool (which is clearly impossible) by closing his lips tight enough to bite through them. If he had teeth - which he doesn't.

I call this "good morning baby".

He needs a haircut right? Josh thinks it's stupid that I want to cut his hair,
but lookit the nastiness over his ears. Back me up here?
Also, this is standard camera-face......wait for it, wait for it......

......And he busts into smiles! He never smiles AT the camera.....he's shy. And I think it's adorable.

This is one of my new favorite pictures.

Except for this one. Because how much more chill can you get? 

mesmerized by the laundry

I came home from Zumba last night and instead of seeing my husband asleep on the couch at the incredibly late hour of 9:30 (as he usually is), I saw him wrapped up in a blanket staring at our shiny new washer and dryer while it tumbled our clothes clean.

True story.

In other news, our shiny new washer and dryer have released a laundry fiend in my husband. I've never seen him do so many loads in a row.

My baby looks out the window

Every morning I go in and pick up my child from his crib.

He puts one arm around my shoulder and the other around my neck.

Once holding on securely he leans back and cranes his neck around to watch the blind-opener-stick-twister-thing and waits for me to open the blinds while I say "oh my goodness! there's......a........day out there!" (You should know I'm not a morning person. It takes all I have to be this positive this early in the morning.)

He's more beautiful in those 10 seconds every morning than any other time of day.

And with a kid this cute, that's sayin' something.

If you're lucky I'll remember to take a camera in and capture it.

pancakes are better

Josh was craving pancakes this morning.

And being the guilt-ridden incredibly kind-hearted wife that I am, I made them for him.

Thomas was craving whatever was in front of Josh for breakfast. (Is it still a craving if you want it 24/7?)

And being the irresponsible easy-going mother I am, I told Josh to break some up for him.

And he loved them.

He was a very hungry caterpillar baby. He had his regular bottle, berries, rice cereal AND an entire pancake.

I'm relatively certain Josh will be slipping him bite-sized pieces of everything from now until Thomas figures out he doesn't have to wait for Josh to give him food.

Heaven help the grocery budget.

not that hard

Sometimes my life just is not that hard.

Sure I've had times in my life that I think I just cannot do it one more day. I've had days when I just think that I cannot do it one more hour.

But today, my life just isn't that hard.

The alarm went off at 5 and rolled over and turned it off. It wasn't that hard.

Josh lifted his arm so I could snuggle into his chest and I burrowed in the warm of the blankets and the husband. It took about 2 seconds to get warm again. It wan't that hard.

Thomas woke up at 7 and smiled at me when I went to get him out of bed. His diaper wasn't even poopy and changing a wet diaper just wasn't that hard.

Thomas has been asleep since about 9:30 and I've caught up on watching The Biggest Loser and work. It's not that hard.

There are days that motherhood is overwhelming. Days that I know if Josh doesn't come home before bedtime I will lose it. Days that the work is piled up higher than I can see and all of it requires real work instead of mindless keystrokes.

This is not one of those days. This is one of those days that is not necessarily blissfully happy, not full of the knowledge that my life is the best it can possibly be, just a day that is not that hard.

Dear Karma,

Dear Karma,

Bite me.

Love,
Amy

PS I forgive you since we are now the proud owners of a pretty new washer and dryer. But it was a low blow to wait until I had a pretty little list of "stuff I'd buy" to kill my dryer. Low.

evidence I've "become"

I have become a wife.

I'm still not sure exactly which items causes the "becoming" but there is significant evidence that I have become a wife. I am not longer "married to Josh" I am "Josh's wife".

I know because I remembered his shirt size (16.5 x 34) without calling and asking.

Did you know?

Did you know that yesterday Josh and I both went to get a massage yesterday (for free)? That's because Grandma Egbert was kind enough to take Thomas for the day since we had a very important temple date in Logan.

Did you know that when just 2 adults are getting ready, they can wake up at the same time they always wake up but add in a trip downtown and massages and still be ready earlier than they normally are? Turns out that the getting ready of the babe really does take that long.

Did you know that when they say "adult session" of Stake Conference they mean "leave your rotten kids at home because you'll feel like and idiot coming in and out of this meeting 5 times during the first two speakers"? Lesson learned. No more babies at the adult session.

Did you know that yesterday I got my wedding ring back? I needed to size it down and we guessed it was about 1/2 size too big. They shrunk it, but it's still too big - we should've dropped it a full size - but since I hadn't had it for a week, I didn't want them to keep it longer. I missed it.

Did you know that it's possible for a person to sneeze with their eyes open? It doesn't usually happen because your nose and eyes are linked by a cranial nerve. The sneeze goes up to the brain and then back down the "blink" nerve which usually makes you blink. But technically it is possible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Did you know that rearranging the furniture in my living room has me on a "get rid of all the crap we never use" spree? Anybody want a Nintendo 64? (By "crap we never use" I clearly means "Josh's stuff that's buggin' me.")

Did you know that I watched Avatar this weekend? It was sortof against my will....I was given the choice of Avatar with popcorn and other delicious treats or a 2 hour Celine Dion concert with no treats...... Even I will choose blue aliens if it means I don't have to watch her.  I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. At least for the first half. The 2nd half was just like every other sci-fi/superhero war scene I've ever watched. For an hour and a half. So it was fine. I just wouldn't say "pleasantly surprising". Also it's a LOOOONG flick. But totally cool.

my heart runneth over

Sometimes I just look around at my life and realize I have the very best of the best, and that's a good feeling.

Then something amazing happens and I realize that the people I love so dearly also have the best of the best, and that's an even better feeling.

And a world surrounded by the best of the best of the best for you and those you love, is a pretty dang good world. And my heart overflows with gratitude (which comes out in the form of tears) because not everybody has all that.

Nate & Wendy I couldn't be happier for you.