From the Mind of Tommy

Tommy's teeth aren't coming out - so he has decided to go in after them. 

Poor kid. He's positively miserable.

Playing Hooky

One time (Wednesday) Josh and I finally went down to the Carl Bloch exhibit.

It was awesome. But Tommy wasn't all for the "sit in front of the large painting and soak it all in." fest, so we sped through just a little bit.

Incredible. You only have one more week, but go.

Also, there's a giant stacka books at the end...so you should probably check that out too.

 But the best part of playing hooky is when you go to your mother's place of work, convince her to play hooky then together go kidnap your nieces to play hooky too.

Ryann is awesome at jumping on the tramp.

Lucy is awesome at swingin'.

Seriously, best. day. ever.

Midnight Bonding

You know how you sometimes fall asleep on the couch and then move to bed at 1am? How sometimes it feels like you've been asleep since 8 (which is when you fell asleep) and other times it feels like you've been asleep since 1 (which is when you moved to bed) and other times it feels like you just closed your eyes for a second and never actually slept?

That was last night.

Tommy was up all night (still working on the same molars he's been working on for MONTHS - plural. months.) and my dreams were full of religious stress and relationship drama. A relief society VT conference in my bed? Sure! Climb in ladies, bring your kids! Let's talk about the issues we're having while snuggling under my covers Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style.

And when Josh was experiencing some sweet - and FRIGID - moments with Tommy in the middle of the night in the rocking chair, I was experiencing some un-sweet and sweaty moments hunched over my garbage can willing everything I've ever eaten to come out of me from as deep as my toes.

This morning when Tommy woke at 5:30, I simply couldn't believe he was finished sleeping. So I whispered to him from my room to "go back to bed baby sweetheart....please go back to bed." Which he did for nearly 30 minutes.

Is it irreverent to pray for a 2-nap day?

This Stinks

This post was written on March 28, 2011..... 

It's 12 in the afternoon and miraculously I have somewhere to be tonight. So today it is mandatory that I get ready.

The problem is that I can't stand to be in my bathroom because I can smell the water in there. All of it. (Do you know how much water is in the bathroom? A lot.) I haven't cleaned it in 2 weeks and the smell of 2-week-water suffocates me when I go in there. So I stink, because the bathroom stinks.

But I can't clean the bathroom because the smell of the cleaner makes me gag (just today - not always). And when I gag it doesn't help the smell problem.

So I stink, because the bathroom stinks, because the cleaner stinks. So it isn't my fault - OK?

.....as of this moment in real time (April 27), only the water stinks.

Sunday Duds

Tommy got Sunday duds for Easter.

See how handsome he is?

I might be biased, but I think I have the 2 handsomest boys this Easter.

Of course in the other 25 pictures I took while trying to get Tommy's attention, Josh is making this face, which must be the "I just snitched a jelly bean and can't get it out of my teeth" face.

I was there too. Although slightly less handsome.....

We look nice when we're all fulla sugar and haven't napped all day - huh?

Don't worry, I also let him run around naked and gave him a slinky. It wasn't an entirely formal Easter.

These also happen to be Tommy's "I went to Nursery for the first time" pictures. We were in my parent's ward, so we REALLY weren't sure how he'd do, but he only had a few meltdowns and they were all simply solved by a story or bubbles (or so the nice nursery leaders say....) in all, I'm calling this Easter wildly successful.

Gleeking

Remember when I was in Jr. High and it was cool for one disgusting teenage boy to "gleek" at another disgusting teenage boy clear down the hallway?

Remember? They'd open their big fat mouths wide like Steven Tyler (Steven? Steve? Steve-o?) and lift up their tongues and watch the spit strike out from under their tongues like a squirt gun. Boys were gross back in Jr. High.

Tommy doesn't know it, but he has the gift of gleek. He gleeks at me almost every time he opens his mouth.

So I have to wonder....can he also flick a penny at me hard enough to leave a welt?

Why I Don't Need to Get Drunk

Because I'm pregnant. 

And pregnant ladies can't walk normal. 

And pregnant ladies laugh-cry hysterically.

And pregnant ladies can't see straight (what with all the crying...).

And pregnant ladies puke in the bushes.

So really it's no different.

Do you think I could get arrested for Driving Under the Fetus?

Easter: Part 1 (more photos than words)

Josh's grandma (Grandma B.) boils a dozen eggs for every grandkid to dye at the Easter party. This has been the tradition since before Josh can even remember, and now that she has great grandkids, they each get a dozen too.

Tommy loved dropping the eggs in the dye.

But he especially loved the "yay Tommy!" part that came right after.

One of the egg kits had tattoos in it, so of course I had to give Josh a tattoo. He was all smiles

Until I unveiled my work of art and he realized I tainted his manly bicep with a butterfly tat.

Since it was freezing cold (even though Easter was almost a month late this year), we held all the festivities in Uncle Kyle's basement - which is totally awesome because while someone else distracted Tommy.....

....Josh and I rocked the dartboard.

But it WAS Easter, so we HAD to go outside at some point. A face which simply tore Tommy apart.

He could hardly wait to find those eggs.

Josh was happy to help.

Until he realized that the eggs were full of cheerios and goldfish, then he lost interest and let Tommy devour the loot.

We blew enormous bubbles (a beautiful day for that!)

and checked out the livestock out back 

World's ugliest turkey - and Josh making a turkey noise.

before taking our final pictures and wishing everyone a Happy Easter.

Us and Grandma B.

Happy Easter!

Loves

Tommy's new favorite thing is gathering a pile of stuffed animals and wrestling with them until he laughs so hard he can't breath. 

Fortunately Bubbah's Grandmother has provided him with enough stuffed animals for wrestle-mania in every corner of every room of the house. Tommy loves it.

But my favorite part is when he tries to pick them all up at once.

Because he's just so proud of himself when he does.

Thanksgiving 2011

I gotta say - having friends worth making up pretend holidays for is one of life's great pleasures. 

We came, we smiled, we ate. 

L-R: Josh, Ashley, Junior, Greg, Scott & Eva

Dinner was positively delicious, with everything homemade and mouth watering.

And it was oh so good. That night the only evidence of our party later that night wasn't pretty though.

I think that Thanksgiving in the Springtime is a really great idea, especially when it involves the best friends and food there are. It was totally worth the extra wait and all the anticipation.

It's too bad Tommy chased everyone away just after pie with his extraordinary barfing skills. We wouldda had a killer game of hand and foot.

Are You In There?

There is nothing worse than lying on the table at Dr. Man's and having him say "I can't find it."

That happened when Tommy was supposedly 8 weeks grown but was really only 2 weeks grown. And my womb was empty. Remember that?

Well this time when we saw Dr. Man the first time NBE was right on schedule and "with a heartbeat that strong the chance of miscarriage is less than 1%".

So this morning I headed up to Dr. Man's ready to hear NBE's heartbeat since we only got to see it last time.

Dr. Man held that radio thing up to his ear and shook and moved the thing around on my "tummy" and played with the tuner to make sure it was working and moved and moved and angled and we heard nothing but fuzz. Although Dr. Man is an expert and certainly knows how his equipment works, I wanted to tell him to push harder. That I knew that baby was in there and that he simply needed to make contact with my spine in order to hear the heartbeat. I kept my ideas to myself.

After a few minutes of listening to my fuzzy insides with no fwapfwapfwap of NBE's heart, Dr. Man said "Well let's move you to the ultrasound room and see if that baby's still in there."

I took a deep breathe and cried a little inside and looked at my watch when he said "it'll be about 5 minutes because I've got someone else in there. I'll be back for you soon."

I stared at my watch for the first 2 minutes counting down the seconds. I stopped counting to say a silent prayer, then got out my book to try to distract myself. I read the same page 4 times before I figured out that I hadn't turned the page when I was through. I was busy thinking of all the things that had happened in the past 4 weeks. Wouldn't I have noticed if NBE had left? Fell out? Disappeared?

Finally Dr. Man came back and we did an ultrasound. Turns out NBE is sitting significantly higher than he Dr. Man expected, but everything is OK.

Good heartbeat - nice face holes (I think they don't usually do ultrasounds at this point because the alien-skull look is at it's peak) and happy to swim around and wave at us.

NBE may or may not have been just looking for a photo-opportunity. I have yet to hear the heartbeat but am far from disappointed.  NBE is "still in there" and lookin' good albeit squished up high.

Mostly I'm just relieved. Relieved like a relieved Jen Ford. And oh so glad I didn't have to wait a month (or more) to find out that everything is fine.

Keeping Him Drunk (and other made up words)

Tommy hasn't been feeling well for the last couple of days - after a midnight bath and sheet-changing Tommy woke up appropriately thirsty.

That's why Josh reminded me today that my goal should be to not let him get dehydrated - you know....keep him.....drunk.

We make up words on a regular basis in our house, like the time we were driving from one place to the next and I told Josh I thought we should have "real conversations" on a more regular basis. He turned to me without missing a beat and said "What? We conversate. We're conversating right now, right?" After teasing him for an appropriate amount of time (at least 2 years) I might be willing to let it go.

Of course he isn't the only one who does it - I have my fair share of stupid words which aren't, but it's more fun to make fun of my boys than it is to admit my own stupidity. So this post ends here.

The End.

Anticipation

You know how sometimes the anticipation and waiting for an event is the best part of it? Like Christmas. And not like pregnancy.

Well, I think that Thanksgiving in April is one of those things like Christmas.

Around actual Thanksgiving I bought a turkey because the boyscouts asked me to. And then I asked Ashley if she had room for it in for it in her fancy-pants grown up freezer. She did. I didn't. Then I promptly forgot about it.

Until I remembered while we were out shopping one day. "oh my gosh you have my turkey!" I gasped.
"I know." She hadn't forgotten.
"I totally forgot about that, I'm so sorry!" I babbled. Because I babble when I'm stupid.
"I know." She doesn't babble. Probably because she's not stupid.
"So...wanna come to our house for Thanksgiving in the Spring and we'll eat it?"
"Sure." Seriously, she doesn't babble.

Well that was like a month ago - back when it was spring before snow. We set a date (yesterday) for our Thanksgiving Day feast and got to planning.

But then Saturday night Tommy thought barfing was what the cool kids were doing (and we all know he's cool) and then Sunday morning Josh thought Tommy was right. And the two of them were downright disgusting.

So we cancelled Thanksgiving. Really we just postponed it because a thawed turkey will only last so long..... And in doing so, we remembered some other stuff we forgot (ice cream! decorations!) and the Thanksgiving feast just keeps getting better and better.

I can't wait for tomorrow night.

Zoo People

I figured that since we've been to the zoo more times this year than in all my previous 25 years of life, we were becoming Zoo People.

See?

Zoo People

 But after our quick trip on Saturday, I sincerely hope that is not the case. Instead, I hope that Zoo People continue to make us do this:

Because Zoo People are yucky.
And they smell like animals.
And they stand too close together.
And they make animal sounds (guilty).
And they lick things (ice cream...but whatever - I saw way too much tongue).
And they touch each other.
And the young (teenage) zoo people are particularly disgusting and naked and all over each other.

So while I love the Zoo, and I love Tommy's face when he's watching the animals; I love it best when it's March and it's overcast and there are only 2 other families there.

I do not love it when it's Saturday and the first day of sunshine in months and the crazies come out in droves.

I'm hoping for many quiet mornings at the zoo this summer. Before the sun turns normal people into Zoo People.

Seeing NBE

Written March 23, 2011:


Today we saw New Baby Egbert. They sucked my blood and tested all my insides, then did an ultrasound. NBE is measuring almost exactly on his due date (Nov. 4th) and has a very strong heartbeat.

It's funny for this to be a big secret. With Tommy we saw the heartbeat and immediately called everyone we knew to let them know he was OK. Seeing that heartbeat was a long time in the making and our friends and family were anxiously waiting to hear if he was OK or not. With NBE I cried quietly on the table while Josh squinted at the tv and asked Dr. Man if we could see the umbilical cord yet.

I think I feel more connected to NBE because he's all mine for now. He is not everybody's baby, he's just mine, for me to love and to want and worry about.

Secret-keeping is not my forte, and I'm not a very subtle pregnant person, so I am excited to tell everyone (and I know it won't be secret for long), but for now, the quiet is a little nice.

Bubbah Learns to Slide

This morning Tommy and I headed for the park at the crack of dawn - er....8:30. That's sortof like the crack of dawn right? It felt like it.

Since I'm too lazy to stand at the slide and help Tommy down it a million times in a row, he learned how to do it himself today.

Need a play-by-play?

First we walk over to the stairs of death where somebody crushed a few Dorito's into the bark.

Then we scale the stairs like a master - because climbing up onto surfaces as high as our chests is easy-peasy.

Mom says we have to go shoes first. So we maneuver a bit.

Check the booty? Check. Is anyone paying attention? Check.

And then he was so proud, he made his cheeser-face:

It was a lovely morning at the park - we're looking forward to more like this over the summer. And who knows, maybe by the end of the summer, he'll stop making this face on the crazy slide and just do the fun slide instead because the crazy-slide is a little bit lame. Maybe if we added a hose at the top and a pool at the bottom it would be cooler?

And as your gift for watching such an exciting moment in Tommy-history, I give to you, a Shades Shot because they're my favorite.

You're welcome.

What To Do

I remember when Tommy was just a few weeks old and a friend of mine (Hi Eva!) asked if I wanted to borrow her bouncer. I (being the cheapskate that I am) said of course! (and thank you!) and she let me know she'd bring it over to me.

It was probably 10:30 in the morning, and Tommy wasn't that old and I simply didn't know what I was supposed to do with him during the day. I knew when to feed him and when to hold him, but there were all of these hours where he was just a baby-blob. So, I usually wore him in the wrap and did house-stuff. But I still didn't really know if I was missing something.

She brought the bouncer, we tried it out and she sat with me for like an hour while we watched him lay in the bouncer. We made faces at him (to which he had no response), we tickled his tiny and adorable toes, we chatted about adjusting to motherhood. And after she left a light bulb came on over my head. I consciously thought "THAT is what you're supposed to do with a baby!" and it changed the way I was Tommy's mommy.

Yesterday my sisters brought lunch to my house and we ate in my living room (heaven). Sarah also brought Logan (her 2.5 year old) and a pile of blocks. So after lunch when Tommy woke up, we all sat on the floor and built towers for the boys to knock over. After they left a light bulb came on over my head. I consciously thought "THAT is what you're supposed to do with a Bubbah!" and it totally changed our afternoon.

Every now and again I think I just need to have an experienced mom come to my house and show me how to be a mom; because although many things come naturally, I simply need to be trained in others.

Nesting: Why I Didn't Need To

Josh has this strange knack for doing things that don't need to be done. Or that should be done but that I refuse to do because it's the kind of gross you can't see.

Ordinarily it drives me crazy because it almost always comes at an inopportune moment. Also because I'm tightly wound. Whatever. Like when we're late for church and he finds this the best moment to vacuum out the lint trap in the dryer. Or when we should've left for the shrink's office 10 minutes ago and he just wants to "hurry and change the air filter for the furnace".

But every now and then it pays off. Because sometimes someone (the Kirby vacuum guy) mentions to him that mattresses are disgusting (which is why civilized humans use sheets) and then he decides to spend an hour vacuuming the mattress and box-springs before changing the sheets.

He is a good man.

Typical Night

Written March 17th:

Josh and I are curled up on the couch watching 24 and it's a bit intense....you know, like 24, Give me a name!!! I'm running out of time! when I can suddenly taste my teeth.
And it's not good.
I've been eating all day (roughly 7 full-blown meals) so I'm not surprised my teeth aren't squeaky clean, but they're seriously grossing me out. In the middle of a fairly intense questioning, I pause the show and get up to brush my teeth.

Josh asks where I'm going and why and I tell him I need to brush my teeth.
"In the middle of an episode?" he throws up his hands in disgust and follows me to the bathroom.
I brush.
He brushes.
While spitting and rinsing I whiff the sink and immediately go for the cleaning solution.

Josh looks at me and chuckles heartily.
I look at me and sigh.

"I think I'm pregnant" I say.
"I don't think much else would make tooth-brushing and sink-scrubbing more important than saving the world right now." He reasons.

After a thorough scrubbing of all sinks and counters in the house, we return to watching the nuke destroy the Mojave Desert while Jack miraculously gets away (again).

Have I said it lately? Pregnancy changes everything.

Boys

Neither one of my boys is ever as beautiful as when they've put each other to sleep and are snuggling in my glider long past bedtime.

[Insert beautiful picture of both boys here. Use your imagination, it was dark.]