Have to Do It

Alright, I had to do it. Given the matching blessing outfits, I had to pick some to show of Ryan and of Brennan. Here we go...

Smiley Babies

Content Babies

Upset Babies

What do you think?

Brennan's Baby Blessing

We were able to have a lot of family in town to bless Brennan on his two-month birthday. He wore the same blessing outfit Ryan wore almost 29-1/2 years ago, which I thought was super cool.

From my family, we had my mom and dad (St Louis), my Aunt Geri (Kansas), and my sister Kim (Springville, UT) with her daughter Janice (4-1/2 years) and daughter Brianna (2 months). They came Saturday night and left Sunday night.

Brianna was born just 8 days before my little Brennan, so I figure they are practically twins. Unfortunately, two thousand miles usually separates them. They liked each other right away, despite their terrific size difference. You'd hardly believe they weighed the same at birth!

From Ryan's family, we had his mom and dad (Portland, OR). They were able to stay Friday through Monday.

We had a great time. Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate with us!

Yuki Eyes

Collin has a name for each store we visit. As we pull in each parking lot, he begins to tell me where we are. Now that I know most of the nicknames, I try to prepare him for what we'll be doing each day by using his names. Here are a few of his favorites...

- Barnes & Noble: Choo-choo story time

They have a Thomas the Train table in their children's department that he plays with every Monday before or after their story time.

- Target: Big Ball store Our Target has giant, red concrete balls out front so people don't drive up on the curb.

- Borders: Egg story time Each week as part of their Tuesday story time, they pass out plastic eggs with popcorn kernals inside for the kids to shake along with a song.

- Walmart: It varies. For example, in October, they had pumpkins on shelves in front of their store. Since Collin called all pumpkins "boos" last Fall (see The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams), Walmart was the Boo store.

- Dunlap Library: Pig story time
Our library, who has a story time every Wednesday, has a giant, paper-mache pig on top of one of the shelves in the kid's department.

- Sam's Club: Pizza store We get pizza in their little cafe just about every time we stop in.

- McDonald's: Eat Lunch Dad We pick up Ryan from work almost every Thursday and go to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and playing on their indoor playland. Oh, and by the way, every McDonald's in the world is called "Eat lunch dad" too. (Side note: I'm a little concerned that when spring comes and we start doing pb&j in the park again that he'll be disappointed...)

Anyway, do you get the idea? He named each place on his own, and the names have stuck.

Alright, there's your background information. So yesterday we were running errands, and in an effort to teach him the REAL name of a store, I actually told him as we pulled in the parking lot, "This store is called Kohl's."

He quickly replied, "Yuki eyes."

I pondered for several seconds what we had most recently purchased at Kohl's that could resemble a snowman or its eyes.

And then it hit me...

Coal.

Yuki eyes.

I love my two-year old.

My "New" Elliptical

Any of you who know Ryan and me or who have followed our blog for a while know what cheap-skates we are. I prefer to say we are industrious and frugal, but you would probably just call us cheap-skates.

Last June Ryan saw an elliptical listed on the Caterpillar classifieds for $100. The batteries were dead on the control panel and the resistance wasn't working quite right, but it was in great shape. (The cheapest new models are currently being sold for $500.) We jumped at the opportunity. I have a particular affection for ellipticals, since I lost a miraculous amount of weight after I had Collin using an old, junky one we bought for $50. It only had manual resistance adjustments and was super noisy. I leaped at the chance to use one like I had always coveted at hotels.

Unfortunately last June when we purchased it, I was ridiculously pukey and sick with this pregnancy, and I didn't touch the thing. Of course, we knew I wouldn't use it until after I had Brennan, so we put in the basement in the "exercise room" and let it collect dust.

Fast forward six months...
In January, shortly after I had Brennan, Ryan decided to try it out one morning he didn't feel like using the treadmill or bike trainer. He changed out the batteries and was devastated to discover that the resistance didn't start working with the new batteries too. He looked online for the cost of a new circuit board - $220. Yep, our $100 purchase just got pricey.

We talked it over and decided that if Ryan couldn't find a way to fix it for free, then I would just find a resistance I preferred, and Ryan would manually set it for me permanently. So much for the fancy new elliptical...

(Are you feeling an "I Love My Engineer" post in the works?)

So Ryan took apart the circuit board, and everything seemed to look good to him. There was one small spot of rust on one small part, but everything else looked great. Doubtfully, he ordered the part ($1.03 plus $9 shipping = $10.03 total) online, and it arrived on Thursday.

A little bit of soldering and a whole lot of faith and... Yep, you guessed it: ten bucks and my elliptical is as good as new. Adjustable resistance at the touch of a button!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: I love my engineer! Thanks, Babe.

Now I just need my doctor clearance... My skinny jeans are calling.

Six Weeks

Brennan is now six weeks old, and though I could post about his milestones (he smiles at us now), about Collin (who now knows all this colors, most of his shapes, and counts to ten easily and to twenty with help), or about Ryan (who is on a scout camp-out tonight and tomorrow), instead I am going to selfishly post about me.

1 - My Body:
My body has aged at least a decade with this pregnancy and delivery. My back, arms and neck hurt all the time. (And it didn't help that I fell down the stairs this week.) My stitches have healed funny, and I am still rather uncomfortable "down there." The midwife cauterized some areas today, which hurt like holy heck for about an hour and feels almost like heaven since. My hemorrhoids are in full force, so though I've stopped bleeding from the delivery, I gush like no other each time I deliver daily on the toilet. I'm nursing (of which I am a huge advocate - don't hear me wrong), which means none of my tops fit correctly or comfortably. And none of my bottoms (except my one pair of fat-girl khakis) button, since I still have at least 15 pounds I need to lose (to hit my first pre-pregnancy weight), and hopefully more like 30 pounds to drop (to hit this pre-pregnancy weight). My hair is in a pony-tail at least half of the time, and my little Brennan still manages to twist his fingers into the little baby hairs on my neck. I have had an on-again-off-again headache since the day I delivered Baby #2 which usually centralizes behind my eye balls. And the midwife explained today that the stinging sensation I've been feeling above my belly button is indeed a separation of my stomache muscles that may or may not heal itself in the next 3 months. Do I feel good? Not a bit.

So the six-weeks-post-partum visit that should mean a return to exercise - and a beginning to the weight loss and an ending to my achy body? Not for me. All I was cleared for today was for walking. Yep, with another visit in 10 days. Here's to some miraculous healing...

2 - My Mind:
Mush. That's what my mind seems to be now. Yes, I have most of the picture books in our home memorized and I have recently polished up on the difference between a rhombus and a parallelogram, but last night as I lay in bed singing in my mind "Mr Golden Sun" for the millionth time, I realized that my mind was far from my scholarship days of college or even my days as valedictorian of high school.

Do I regret being a stay-at-home mom? Not for a second. (Well maybe when they both are crying and I have to change back-to-back poopy diapers...) But I wouldn't trade the hours I spend with them for a paycheck any day, and I couldn't be happier to spend each and every day with my two boys at home.

But am I stretching my mind and learning a new fact each day? No. Do I bend over backwards to watch Jeopardy each day? Yep. Pathetic? Probably. Do I have the time or energy to engage in mind-stretching exercises? Nope. Will there be another time in my life for such things before I lose my brain for good? I hope so...

3 - My Spirit:
When I feel strapped for time and short on sleep, the first thing I cut is always my scripture study. I have done it again and again in my life with the same results - stress and frustration. You'd think I'd learn. In my usual form, Brennan's birth and its life adjustments caused me to curb my usual daily reading.

Now that I am returning to teaching my Primary class (I took a short break), I just prepared my lesson for Sunday. Aww, forced scripture study is the best medicine when you've been negligent. Our lesson on Sunday is about when Christ called his apostles in the first church. It reminded me of how grateful I am for living prophets, especially when they are called on by the Lord to speak out against the evils of the world. I admire their courage when Hollywood and the media mocks them, and I am saddened when those (especially of my own faith) forget their divine call and divine message and join the ranks to desparage their remarks. I am even more discouraged when I hear those of my faith disregard the apostles' words and say they were "only speaking their own opinion."

I may be speaking somewhat in code here, but I am so grateful for prophets and apostles who stand for what is right in the face of critical mobs. I am grateful for a church which teaches that revelation can (and does) come from both the priesthood line and the personal line. I am grateful for the opportunity I have each day to feel the Spirit as I study ancient (Bible & Book of Mormon) and modern scripture (Doctrine and Covenants & Ensign) - even when I don't always take the opportunity to do so.

Is this post a mess of things that are whirling around in my mind? Yep - blame it on the mush. Do you have any thoughts about your body, mind and spirit?

One Month

Brennan is one month old today. As cliche as it is to say, I can't believe he's been with us so long. On the other hand, I can't remember him not being part of our home.

Collin
Collin has become a great big brother. He loves to give Brennan kisses. Unfortunately, he gets very upset when I ask him to refrain from showing his love when he is running a fever or has a runny nose. He is very gentle, and oftentimes will ask to give Brennan his binky. When Brennan is crying, he'll say, "Uh oh baby. Baby binkie." He also knows that the baby will always be happier with some of "mama milk," and he is becoming more willing to share Mom when it means the baby will stop crying.

Brennan
Brennan is still a miracle sleeper. He is in a great routine now too. During the day, he eats every three hours. His feedings are also on hours which are multiples of three, which makes the teacher/planner in me so happy! After eating, he will stay awake for 30-60 minutes, and then nap until it is time to eat again. He only cries when he is hungry - at the 3 hour mark - and when he has gas (more on this to follow). At night, he nurses at 9pm and again around 3am. Yep, six hours of sleep for me! Instead of staying awake to play, he goes right back to sleep until 6am, and then we are up for the day. It is amazing. Of course, I am still napping each afternoon when both boys are sleeping, so that is keeping me far more sane then when Collin was a newborn.

Alright, now for more on this gas... My children seem to struggle with gas. Collin had problems burping, and he would fuss and fuss uncomfortably. Brennan struggles with the other end. In an attempt to approach this delicately, I'll say that he could definitely out "toot" any grown man, and he has some seriously explosive bowel movements.

I am certainly struggling with taking pictures of him. I took hundreds of pictures of Collin when he was a baby, but in typical mother-of-more mode, I have neglected the camera almost completely. I'm guessing that he is weighing in around 9 pounds, and he is losing all his black hair on the top of his head. Picture male-pattern baldness. He no longer fits in any of his newborn-sized clothes, which was a sad day to pack them all up. He still has his one elf ear and a seriously upturned nose. His eyes are more open and aware now, but they are still shaped like Ryan's.

And Me
My adjustment to having two kids has gone FAR more smoothly than I had planned. Of course, I had prepared for the absolute worst, so I guess that's not saying much. My mom did stay for a full two weeks though, so I was spoiled with lots of help for quite some time. By the time she left, I was getting a decent amount of sleep each night and had Brennan on a loose schedule. Now, two more weeks later, I'd say things are going rather smoothly. I wouldn't say we don't have hiccups, and I absolutely detest bed-time without help, but we are doing well.

Thanks for all your well-wishes. Happy Valentine's Day!

Blizzard 2011

I'd be remiss if I didn't record about Blizzard 2011...

Background

Before Brennan was born, Ryan asked if he could attend a recruiting career fair at Wisconsin on February 2nd. I wasn't a big fan, but he doesn't ask for much so I consented. Since my mom was arriving on the 27th, I figured she'd be here to help too. When he'd done these in the past, he left at 4am and returned around midnight. I knew it would be a long day for us both, but I figured we'd survive.

As the actual event arrived, things changed. Since Brennan was born early, my mom changed her flight and came early. She'd been here for two weeks and was more than ready to return to her own life, and therefore left on Saturday the 29th. That made Monday the 31st my first day alone with two kids.

Tuesday

With the blizzard forecast for Tuesday the 1st and Wednesday the 2nd, Ryan decided to pickup his rental car a day early and leave around noon on Tuesday. He thought the storm was supposed to hit late Tuesday afternoon. Knowing I was going to be alone and locked inside for the coming days, I took the boys to McDonald's for breakfast. Brennan was fussing when we pulled in the lot, so I went through the drive-thru and sat in the backseat with Collin while we ate our hashbrowns and burritos. Good times.

The snow and wind started at about noon. Ryan sped through the house throwing clothes in a bag, and as he kissed us goodbye, I started crying as the wind howled and the fireplace whistled. I vividly remember saying, "For the millionth time, I really don't think you should go."

While Ryan drove to Wisconsin, everyone's husbands returned home early from work and enjoyed a spontaneous vacation. I fumed.

By 5pm on Tuesday, Ryan had called and he had safely arrived at his hotel. The evening news in Madison was reporting that the governor had declared a state of emergency and that driving was discouraged. The university had also canceled all evening classes and activities, but the career services were still certain the Fair would take place the next morning. I voiced my doubt.

Wednesday

When Wednesday morning arrived, and the university officially closed and canceled all classes. Career Services was forced to cancel the career fair, and Ryan and his co-worker were stranded at the hotel. Ryan had packed hurriedly and didn't throw in swim or exercise stuff, so he really had nothing to do. Poor soul. The snow and wind continued, and he was bored. The freeway between Madison and Peoria had been officially closed, so there was no way for him to get home either. I was feeling no pity.

By afternoon, Career Services announced they had rescheduled the fair for Thursday, and Ryan decided to stay. Why waste the trip by trying to come home?

Back at home, I was furious. Collin was restless, the snow was piling up, and I was going crazy trying to think of things to keep everyone happy. After my pleading, Ryan called our neighbor with a snowblower and let him know he was gone. He came over and spent at least an hour working on our driveway.

By noon, after 24 hours of storm, we'd accumulated 15 inches of snow with drifts up to three feet. They had predicted ice too, but thankfully it missed us. No one was going anywhere.

Here's Collin - note the pjs, crazy hair and window marker decor - with our 4-foot back porch drift.

Back in Madison, Ryan tackled the local streets and went to an old friends' house for chatting and dinner. Rough huh?

Meanwhile at home, a neighbor had brought us dinner. She had a baby in December, but ventured down the street, walking in a lone set of tire tracks, to deliver a casserole and chocolate chip cookies. The wife of the snowblower owner came over and played blocks with Collin while I showered. Then she held Brennan so I could eat dinner. She ended up staying for THREE hours. I couldn't have special-ordered better neighbors.

Thursday

In Madison, the career fair started at 11am but went slow. It picked up around 4pm, but Ryan decided to take off to try to get home. The freeway was now open, and he was able to travel at normal speeds for most of the trip. Despite almost running out of gas, he made it home at 7pm.

Back here, first thing in the morning I called the girl across the street - who has two girls exactly 6 months older than my two boys - who came over and played. The snow plow finally made it to our street at 10am, and all the husbands exited the neighborhood for work at once. Their two-day vacation had come to an end.

By dinnertime, I was done parenting. As soon as we were done eating, I started the bedtime routine with a shrieking Brennan on one knee and a whiny Collin on the other. So much for a peaceful story time. As I left Collin's room, I heard the door bell. It was one of the neighbors with "new" toys for Collin to play with. Not 30 seconds later, I heard the garage door, and Ryan was home!

Conclusion

Our neighbors are saints. I never could have survived without their help. It was my second, third and fourth days alone with two kids, and I did them as a single mother. I'd say I feel like I can tackle just about anything now!

And if you are wondering, Ryan did admit I was right - He never should have gone. He tried to redeem himself by building this sweet fort for Collin.

Due Date #2

Seeing as today is my due date, I thought I should do a post about Brennan's first week of life. I remember writing a post on my due date with Collin, and then this post a year later. I guess I place more value on the doctor's pregnancy-expiration-date than my children do.

Early

It is ironic to me that I wanted my first to be early (to avoid the Christmas craziness) and he came late, and I wanted my second to come late (so my mom could be here) and he came early. Oh, these boys are already giving me a run for my money!

My sister welcomed sweet little Brianna into her home on January 5th, so my mom headed to Utah to help her. To my great surprise, just hours after my call to them announcing Brennan's early arrival, my mom called to say she had changed her flight and would be at my house before Ryan needed to return to work. I protested, but she'd already made the changes.

And of course it goes without saying that I am so glad she has been here this week. The switch from one to two is going well, but the restricted driving and lifting is so much easier with a helper. Not to mention, Grandma makes a great partner for Collin to play blocks, chauffeur us all around, rock the baby and cook us delicious meals! Thanks for coming Mom, and thanks for sparing her Kim!

Labor/Delivery (with my apologies to my dad and brothers)

I never blogged about my delivery of Collin, but Brennan's is so bizarre I feel the need to share. Feel free to skip this section if you don't care or may get squeamish.

I was feeling a little "funny" when Ryan left for Scouts last Wednesday evening around 6:15. I mentioned it to him, but he doesn't even remember. Then I started having strange lower back pain when I was putting Collin to bed around 7pm. It seemed to come and go, and I noticed it was happening every 20-25 minutes or so. When Ryan got home around 8pm, I got in the shower to see if the back pain would subside. At 9pm, we decided to try to get some rest in case we ended up being up all night. But by 9:15, I was in the bathroom sick with back pain every 10 minutes or so. I woke up Ryan at 10pm and told him I thought we should go to the hospital. As Ryan finished packing a bag for Collin and I topped my bag off with toiletries, I was having strong I-can't-talk-through-this contractions every 10-15 minutes, and ouch-this-hurts back pain every 2-5 minutes. A little before 11pm, I put on my shoes and Ryan and I sat at the kitchen table trying to decide if we should call the neighbor to come and sleep at our place with Collin. We re-read the paper from the doctor's office at least 5 times (recommending going to the hospital when the wow-this-hurts-I'm gonna-die contractions are 4-5 minutes apart) and finally decided at 11:15 that even though my contractions were too far apart that the baby was probably coming at some point in the night, and we might as well get our friend over and get my epidural. Laura came right over and shoo-ed us out the door.

The contractions continued with light lower back pain every 2-4 minutes, and strong abdomen contractions every 7-10 minutes. At the hospital, they hooked the monitors around my waist and started monitoring me and the baby at 11:58pm. I was dilated to a 5. This was the same point I was at when I was admitted with Collin, so we started calculating when I'd deliver and if we needed to call someone to snag Collin when he woke up. Boy were we wrong!

The story gets blurry for me around here. I know they called the doctor when we first arrived, but he knew he had plenty of time. I remember "wetting myself" (my water broke) and the nurse checking me and saying I was a 7. I know then she called the doctor again and told him to hurry. I also remember repeatedly asking when I was going to get my epidural. I know she told me at some point that I probably wasn't going to get one. I also remember saying, "Uh, aren't I supposed to tell you when I feel the urge to push?" And her reply was, "Wait, no! Don't push! I haven't delivered a baby in a long time!"

Somewhere in the midst of this, the anesthesiologist arrived, and they rolled me on my side. Unfortunately no matter how many times you tell a woman in natural labor "not to push," push she does. I had two contractions on my side (with my legs being squeezed together by the nurse, ladies!) with Brennan's head crowning each time. You can only imagine. I remember begging to roll onto my back and push him out. And that I did.

Brennan was born at 12:48am -- 50 minutes after I was hooked up to the belly monitors, and 5 hours after a very generous use of the word "contractions" began. Yes, our little BMW entered the world fast!

The doctor, who claims he was probably in the elevator when I delivered, arrived in time to delivered the placenta. Likewise, my epidural kicked in for the after-birth and stitch-up. Brennan's hand was up next to his face when he "slid out" thus the stitching. The doctor said it was a good thing he didn't get a shoulder stuck. That would have been fun for the nurse!

Brennan's eyes were swollen all three days in the hospital, but he started opening them more and more by Sunday. Apparently quick labors are rough on the baby too!I know you are probably wondering why I still got an epidural. 1 - I was in no condition to make the decision. 2 - No one seemed to realize he was coming so fast. 3 - The nurse was inexperienced, and my doctor was MIA.

Honestly, hindsight is 20/20, and we all now know I would have been far more comfortable without it. And now I can say I know what a natural birth feels like, though I have no desire to repeat it!

Sleep
Brennan is a sleeper. He sleeps... all the time. The first 5 days I woke him every 1-1/2 hours during the daytime and every 3 hours during the night to nurse him. I had to use all sorts of strategies to try to wake him and then keep him awake. As of Tuesday's doctor's appointment (where he was almost back to birth-weight), I was cleared to no longer wake him to feed him, but he is waking on his own every 3 hours or so. He still falls asleep as soon as he starts to eat though. I change his diaper between sides and that wakes him up again. It is blissful to have such a content and sleepy baby. Jaundice
I was super panicked about jaundice (remember?), so I had the nurses scanning his forehead more often than usual. He tested in the low-intermediate range and had one heel prick before we were discharged. He had two more forehead scans Monday and Tuesday (thank goodness my mom was here to drive us all to the doctor's office), and he was officially cleared Tuesday. He still looks a little orange but nothing his little body can't handle. Whew.

Collin

Collin hates doctors' offices and hospitals. He was begging Ryan to take him home each day as they pulled into the parking lot to visit us, and the one hour we got him to stay was a struggle.

Each time Ryan brought Collin to the hospital he'd take him to see the birds and fish. Apparently on the same floor as Mother & Baby there was an aviary and aquarium of some sort. I'll never know since I never visited it... One time they came we decided I would take Collin to see the birds and fish, and Ryan would stay in the room with Brennan. As Collin and I headed out of the wing holding hands, a nurse came running up behind us, pointing at me and telling me to come back. I guess I had to be in a wheelchair. As I told Collin we needed to turn around, he got all sad (do you blame him?). I tried tugging on his hand to get him back in the wing, but he wouldn't budge. Of course, I then bent over to pick him up and was immediately reprimanded by said nurse. I turned to the nurse and said, "I'm not going to be able to get him back inside. You'll have to pick him up." She took one step toward him, and Collin really lost it - screaming and tears and everything. So the nurse headed back to her station and called my room. Ryan put the baby in the baby bed and headed down the hall to get Collin, and I headed to the room. We were all of three doors apart, and another nurse said, "Where's your baby!?" I said, "He's in the room." In astonishment, she replied, "You can't leave him in the room alone!!!" Yeah, it was a comedy of errors. I felt like begging to just go home...

In general, Collin has been completely disinterested in Brennan, hardly even acknowledging him and openly refusing to kiss or hug him. Then today... My mom and Ryan overheard him say as he walked by the bouncy chair, "Hi Brennan." And when asked, he gave Brennan a kiss on the cheek. We're making progress. Unfortunately, he also started pushing the bouncy chair just before bed tonight and almost spilled him out onto the floor. I knew it was better if he just ignored him...

Conclusion
Alright. I'm tired. My blog will surely be neglected in the coming weeks or even months. Sorry guys - sleep takes priority. Enjoy winter, and we'll talk in the spring.

Announcing Brennan Michael...

Our little Brennan Michael decided to begin life by living up to his initials.

Our BMW came fast! In fact, he joined us an entire week before his due date,

and he beat the doctor to the delivery! (50 minutes after we checked in at the hospital, and just less than 5 hours after the first possible contraction.)

He weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces, and he was 19 inches long. He's perfect. More details (and pictures) to come...

Gratitude Thought

President Thomas S. Monson at General Conference...

"This is a wonderful time to be on the earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways."

The news and our conversations are full of all that is wrong on the world. Indeed, we are truly surrounded with evil and wickedness, but to forget the love and service that also surrounds us is to forget the Savior's love.

President Monson continues,

"...those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us."

With Christmas and its purchases in our recent memories, we must remember that life is really about what money can't buy. Time with family is definitely sacred to me. I hope we each remember to look for the good around us, and be grateful for all those many gifts we receive for which money could never provide.

A Review of Christmas Past

2003
Ryan and I were married two days after Christmas. It was a busy, overshadowed Christmas. Who cares about Christmas when there's a wedding to finalize?

2004
Upon arrival at the Columbus airport on December 23rd, we learned the power was out at my parents' house. It came back on 4 days later. It was a cold, hungry Christmas.

2005
We drove from Provo to Boise to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. It was my first Christmas away from home, and despite everyone's valiant efforts to make me feel at home, loved, welcomed and comfortable, I spent most of Christmas Eve and Day crying.

2006
My dad got a new job December 15th in St Louis, so we returned to Columbus for our last Christmas "at home." Each child was assigned to go through all their childhood belongings and clean out. Anything we wanted, we took with us. Everything else went to Goodwill. It was a sad farewell to the only house I ever remembered living in.

2007
We booked a flight to Portland for Christmas Day - in September - and received an automated voicemail on Christmas Eve informing us that our flight had been canceled and we'd been automatically rebooked for the 26th. Ryan spent 24 hours on the phone with non-English speaking customer service reps (think "Outsourced") striving to rebook us.

2008
Collin was admitted (at 4 days old) to the hospital pediatric unit for 25 hours of blue-light incubating. The staff was awful, the nurses were worse, and the doctors... you can't imagine.

2009
We had just finished remodeling our dining room, and our entire house was caked in an inch of dust. I finally put up our Christmas tree on the 23rd, but we left town on the 24th to head to my parents' place. Ryan had a little stomach bug too, but it wasn't too bad. This was our best Christmas by far.

2010
See "Billiards & Barfing" post. 'Nuf said.

Better luck next year?

Billiards & Barfing

(title courtesy of my brothers)

Barfing
Unfortunately, our Christmas story this year would be incomplete without a little recap of our stomache bug. Collin got real sick Wednesday morning (luckily not on his birthday), and after four hours of cleaning up puke, I was exhausted. But he took a good nap and seemed to be better, so we headed to St Louis on Thursday morning. I can't remember the details, but he threw up several more times while we were there, including once after a 48-hour respite at the dinner table with everyone present.

To make matters worse, Ryan and I both woke up ill on Christmas morning. Ryan seemed to get a milder form and rebounded rather quickly, but 36-week-pregnant me is still feeling ill effects almost a week later. I am so glad my mom was around to help with everything; I know I couldn't have taken care of Ryan, Collin and myself. It was awful, to say the least. I think this picture of Collin says it all. He spent the better part of a week in his pajamas. When both pairs were in the washer, he was in his swishy running pants. We spent a lot of time just laying around with bowls nearby. We were one tired, sick bunch. Luckily, it looks like we managed to keep the germs to our little family, and hopefully no one else will find whatever horrible thing Collin brought home.

Christmas
Christmas Eve was pretty mellow. Our family tradition is to listen to "The Tape" - now on CD - which tells "The True Story of Christmas." We turn off all the lights, light a fire, and sit around the Christmas tree and listen to the biblical account of Jesus' birth. I remember doing this each year for as long as I can remember.

Here are Collin and I listening. Can you tell I still felt well? After putting Collin to bed, we had appetizers, another family tradition. Little did we know it'd be our "last meal."

Despite the germs, Santa still braved the storm to visit us Christmas Eve. Collin received a tool bench and tools from Santa, a matchbox car parking garage set from Ryan and I, lots of fun stuff including a car beanbag chair from his 'Nello grandparents, and MegaBloks with a Caterpillar dump truck from his Nana & Papa Williams. It was quite the haul. Sadly, Collin was only awake 5 hours all of Christmas Day (Grandma woke him at 11am, napped him at 1:30, and put him to bed at 6pm), and I was far from interested in snapping photos of him playing. Hence, this blog has a vast shortage of photos. Sorry. He really did like his gifts, and he's still enjoying his "new toys" here at home.

Billiards
My parents have grown concerned that their house will become boring to visit, so this Christmas Santa brought them a new pool table. Until recently, they've had the missionaries living in their basement, so this area has never really been used. Now we can have hours of fun down there! Don't let my mom fool you; she creamed them all in a game the first night we were there. It was sweet. The table also came with a table tennis cover, so we can play ping-pong too. Ryan was in heaven.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Enjoy the new year!

Two Years

Well, it has come - Collin's 2nd birthday. I can't hardly believe it. He is definitely acting more and more like a preschooler though, so I guess I can't say it has come as a complete surprise.

Doesn't he look all ready to head to school? One hand in his pocket and the other on the lunch box. Sweet.

Last Sunday he wanted Ryan to pull a chair over to the counter for him to see, like he does when I cook. He said, "I want watch Dada cut apples." Yeah, I'd call that one good sentence. He starts lots of sentences with "I want," "I like," "I watch," etc. It is so nice for him to actually be able to tell me what he wants instead of whining (though we do still get a lot of that) or grunting (a little bit of that sneaks its way in when he's tired too). Everywhere we go complete strangers comment on how chatty he is. My favorite was the saleslady at the JC Penney in Seattle, "Wow, he talks a lot. Does he say anything?" So I guess his pronounciation could use some work, but I understand most everything.

He loves all forms of transportation (hence his room decor): trains, cars, trucks, buses, bulldozers, diggers, "dump cars," etc. I thought this would be a good place to insert a picture of the collage Ryan made for his room. It's opposite the road wall we painted. Cool huh?

He also likes anything his mom or dad has - mechanic/woodworking tools and kitchen gadgets. I guess that should give you some hints about his Christmas and birthday gifts...

We had a little get-together at our house on Saturday night. He was sooo excited. He kept saying, "Collin, birthday, cupcake" all day. I rented two movies from the library - Thomas the Train and Elmo birthday movies. He quickly learned about blowing out candles. But I guess I forgot to tell him to wait to blow until after the song is finished.


(Pardon the sideways video; I don't know how to flip it.) After Ryan relit them twice during the song, the other kids were so cute to help him out, "NOW you blow out the candles."

I think the opening of presents was good practice for Saturday.
I think it may quite possibly take all day to get everything open on Christmas though. But he'll be the only child there, so I guess we'll have nothing better to do. He was so excited to play with everything... except for the dinosaurs that were in this box - he climbed into my lap cuddling, and said, "All done dinosaurs." Yep, still a bit of a wuss. (Though today it was the first toy he wanted to show to his friends who came over to play, so I guess he's over the initial shock.)

Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We love you.

Yuki

Collin loves snow, particularly snowmen. Here he is not particularly well-clad during our snow-in in Seattle.

Since Collin was quite young, he and Ryan have looked at pictures in a Japanese cartoon book and learned new words.

- "go" is the number five

- "ame" is rain

- "neko" is cat

- "inu" is dog

- "waki" is armpit

- "ashi" is foot

- "naka" is belly

But his all-time favorite Japanese word is yuki. Apparently yuki means snow, but Collin also uses it for snowmen.

He loves snowmen books.

He loves to build snowmen. (Yes, our decor needs some work.)

He loves snowmen images on the computer - where he readily points out the yuki's carrot nose, coal eyes, and color of "necklace."

He loves snowmen tearing and pasting from the ads we get in the mail.

He loves his "yuki bus" full of snowmen Christmas decorations.

He loves his snowmen stuffed animals - who must need a snack occasionally.Collin loves to color yuki.

And he loves to "push yuki" with Dad too.

We got a good amount last weekend, and he's been in heaven since! If only I enjoyed it as much as he does...