Thursday, January 29, 2009

Childhood vs Adulthood

Evan and I have been having some big drama in our lives this week as we get ready to bless our baby, Kyle. It has really thrown me for a horrifying loop and involved hours of crying and hard realizations. I've thought long and hard about what I would like to write here about it--mostly as an outlet for me.

As with every morning, while Kyle takes his sweet time alternating between bites of food and sucking his thumb, I pulled up my blog and read the latest from my friends. Frances, as she does, wrote an amazing blog last night which partly sums up my feelings. I too, as a child, thought being an adult would be great---oh, the decisions I could make. But alas, these days I watch Kyle being carried around in his car seat, sleeping through church, being looked after, and wonder, "how can I become a baby?" Yesterday morning was probably the worst morning I've had for years. I'm good at putting out fires, but there was what felt to be a forest fire yesterday morning.

For example....Tuesday morning while talking to Evan and trying to eat my cereal because Kyle was occupied, I dropped my phone in a few inches of milk at the bottom of my cereal bowl (twice). Evan has dropped his iPhone in the toilet and Zoie has washed her iPod, so I know what dangers liquid has on those sorts of things. It still worked, hallelujah. The speaker was really quiet but righted itself after some hours of drying out. That night, the battery ran out. I came home to plug it and and the problems began. It wouldn't stay on. It got increasingly worse yesterday morning. It would only stay on if I was on the phone. problem. Evan couldn't get a hold of me to schedule things and I was trying to put out fires with dumb banks and collection agencies. I was so frustrated. Evan fixed it by donating his old phone to my cause until we can get the broken one fixed. Although I miss my phone, at least I have one that works now. And I know, I'm an idiot.

Most of these other fires were dealt with and Evan and I ended up having a pleasant evening at his parents while I finished our laundry. It did mean that I had to cancel on Frances and Joelle and a baby date, which makes me sad. But all things can be rescheduled. It will be my first play date and Kyle's and I'm excited. It will be the first time interacting with a child his own age. Also, Frances has promised to provide some baby love potion. Look for the exciting details next week after the event.

However, I've come to realize that I don't want to make decisions and that I'm bad at it. Evan has taking over ordering for me because I'm no good at it. I don't want to plan our evenings, just participate. I hate having to drive, run errands, do laundry, pay bills, plan our financial lives, decide where to move to, or do any of those things I thought would be great about being an adult. Even when I carefully analyze and make decisions, someone is not happy. I also think that I lack the fundamental understanding of human interaction and motivation.

Someday maybe people will understand that Evan and I are trying to do the best for our family and this little guy that we can.


Although I am not loved or respected by my family, this is my family now and I owe them my love, trust, consideration and all the best parts of myself. I've been blessed and entrusted to do my best for both Evan and Kyle--no matter what anyone has to say, I'm doing that.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Birthday Eve, Birthday, Birthday Party Day...

Evan's 27! His birthday was on Friday, but we had many days of festivities. If there was anything that Evan did not want to do or did want to do he used the excuse: "But it's my birthday week...birthday eve....birthday....birthday party day....birthday family party day...." whatever fit the occasion.

He was able to take off work on Friday and Saturday. It was such a nice relaxing weekend. We did some productive things--fixing the headlight---and a lot of fun things---shopping, eating, sleeping, playing with Kyle----

The highlight of his birthday was the 14 person par-tay that we had at Samurai Sushi. Sushi is a birthday tradition for Evan and I and we lived it up this time. We were there for several hours and enjoyed ruckus laughter and such wonderful sushi. They don't have a big restaurant and it was perfect because the chefs would make one roll at a time for our table, so it was a fairly long and drawn out meal. It was nice because it kept you from eating too fast and allowed you to really enjoy the conversation and company.



The gang: Hailey is taking the picture but the left side of the table from forefront to background goes--Laura, Jake, Elliott, Evan, me, Angie, Aliah, and Jeff. The right side from forefront to background goes Ryan, Frances, Amy, Ekitzel, and Maren. One man brought us all together.


Amy and Frances...such beautiful company...


Hailey, Ryan, Elliott, and the side of Evan's face...


Angie, Aliah, and Jeff....more beautiful company....


Evan enjoying miso soup...


Frances acting very dignified with Amy looking on in glee....


Ekitzel getting excited to pick out her karaoke song--you read right---good ol' fashion Asian karaoke....


Evan seranaded us with Ace of Base's "I Saw the Sign," he was the only one to get 100%....the best part was the random Korean music videos that always involved a love story, fighting, and injury...


Angie gave a great rendition of TLC's "Creep," her closing line was...."I creep.....I think we all get that by now...."


This is a video of Ekitzel singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" and being accompanied by others at the table. Amy especially got a kick out of her dance moves...



This was a group act to perform Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"


During the after party at Elliott and Ryan's house, we were joined by Kyle. We ate delicious mud pie, which is a mixture of chocolate pudding, gummi worms, and crushed oreo's.


Evan showed off his new trick of balancing a sitting Kyle....who was very tired at this point....


And although I didn't get any pictures we had a great family birthday party at the parent's house on Sunday. Evan requested biscuits and gravy. Mom and Dad even gave him a gift of nacho cheese sauce---I refused that birthday gift request. It was wonderful. Ami Frost was even able to join us and gave a picture of Evan on his ninth birthday.


We all had a good time and I can't express how blessed I am to have my wonderful, handsome, charming, charismatic, talented, funny, quirky, patient, smooth talking, hard working, diligent, fabulous husband or how much I love him. Here's to you, Evan!

P.S. Frances has also posted about the sushi night. She is by far a better story teller than I. So you can see her post here.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Conversation with Daddy

So yesterday morning, Evan was getting Kyle ready for the day. In front of the mirror as he was brushing Kyle's hair, I overheard this conversation.

Daddy: We have to brush your hair in case their are little baby girls there. (we were going to Dairy Queen for Evan's birthday)
We call them femmes.....

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hard Day--4 Months

Kyle turned four months old on the 12th of January. We went to the doctor that same day for his checkup and immunizations. He weighs 10.1 lbs. That is not on the percentile chart. He is steadily growing and is very healthy--just small. The percentile chart kind of curves up and he is growing linearly right below the curve. He would need to weigh at least 11 lbs to be in the 3rd percentile. We are very happy with our little dude though. He started to teeth, enter stranger anxiety phase, and eat solid foods and is progressing just like he should. His pediatrician, Evan, and I are very happy with him.

This is Kyle's rigorous schedule of daily living.

9:00 am....eating breakfast of solid baby foods (this is the first time he ate pears)



usually it includes lots of chewing on his hands or sucking his thumb......


After breakfast, he plays in his excersaucer or his bouncer....his feet are on my abnormal psychology book (if you can't tell)



It usually digresses to chewing on something....


Then we play together.....


Kyle makes funny faces.....


Chews on his rings.....(Frances is actually holding him in Bri's sling)**


10:30 am....Kyle takes his two hour morning nap (in his crib)


12:30 pm...he eats, then plays in his bouncer.....usually chewing on his rings or hands.....



Then we sit on the couch and play...which usually includes sucking his thumb.....


2:00 pm....Kyle naps for two hours in the afternoon (in his crib)......


4:00 pm...he eats, then plays on his mat......


Then he swings while I cook dinner....most of the time this results in a short 20 minute nap.....


Daddy comes home....Kyle gives lots of kisses....


He sits at the table with Evan and I during dinner....and sometimes during my other activities....


After dinner, Kyle eats and sometimes we have family time.....


But often we go out...this is Kyle traveling and chewing on his burp cloth......


We see friends like Ekitzel....


or Frances and Elliott....


9:30 pm....Kyle eats rice cereal and gets topped off.....


Takes a bath and plays with Daddy......


10: 15pm...Says family prayers and goes to bed......


During the night there is a feeding at 1am, 4am, and 7am. These are recent developments because he used to sleep through the night. I don't know why and the doctor says sometimes that happens. I wish they would stop. Luckily Kyle's night feedings are about 10 minutes long, voracious, and he goes right back to sleep. I have the bestest baby in the whole world.

**This picture is courtesy of Laron Wilson. It is gorgeous and way beyond my capabilities. He took all sorts of pictures from a friendinner we had and you can see Frances' post about it here. It was a ton of fun and hopefully will be repeated soon.

If you couldn't tell Kyle's favorite activity is to chew right now--it definitely makes it easy to occupy him as anything will do to chew on. Kyle, Evan and I live a very charmed life. I hope you've enjoyed your peak into it.

Friday, January 9, 2009

MIA

So Evan has been at work for twelve hours today and he will be working that much tomorrow. I know that I have an extremely good baby boy, but today has been a little harder than usually and I am missing my husband. So this post is in honor of him.


I love my husband because of how much he loves our son--although he loves certain things like playing with him more than feeding him....


I love my husband because he always looks out for me. He is willing to wake up and bring Kyle to me in the middle of the night, lets me eat off his plate, brings me any food or drinks I want, spoils me, and is always willing to let me take up more of the couch.


I love my husband because although I know how to take care of my car like change the oil and I know how to hang pictures or put up lights or fix things, I don't have to anymore.



I love my husband because he always asks for my opinion whether it be about how to bath Kyle or how to talk to his employees or how to cook an egg.



I love my husband because he is a good man, with a kind heart, a strong intellect, an unwaivering moral compass, an unending curious mind, and a love for his family and humankind.




Come home soon, honey, we both miss you.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Rice Cereal and Other Milestones

I have a wonderful baby who is on a good schedule. Or at least he was for several months. Then around Christmas he started to wake up at 2:00am to be fed. I was not a happy camper about what I thought was a regression. I was talking to my mother and she suggested that we start him on rice cereal before bed. We did......This is the munchin all covered in rice cereal the first night we started it.




This is the video Evan took--don't worry we got baby spoons shortly thereafter. But if you listen closely you can hear him talking through the whole thing. He loves it. He also has gone back to sleeping through the night (well until at least 4 or 5).



Also, recently, he has started to grab the toys on his bouncy. He grabs the bird and then opens his mouth as if he is trying to get it there. However, it is attached to the bouncy. But, he was still just seeming to do that as his hands touched them. But just two days ago, I got the brilliant idea to put two of his attachment rings together. We have rattles, but they are a bit heavy and cumbersome for my little guy. If you hold the rings in front of him flat on your palm, you can see him look at them and try to coordinate his hand movements to get them. He often does although it is not a smooth process yet. Then he'll take them to his mouth. He has totally given up his pacifier and he is teething now. So he tries to stick both of his fists or all his fingers in his mouth to chew on. It is cute. My baby is getting big and making many wonderful developments. I am excited for our four month check-up on Monday....then I'll know how big he is and all my questions will be answered.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Family and Friends During the Holiday

Evan and I have so many people in our lives that we love. I take a lot of pictures lately and I just want to share them.

This is from when we had our friends over and saw the lights on Temple Square...from left to right....Halle, Chris (Evan's best friend who he grew up with in Oklahoma), Teresa, Joel, Dane (but you can barely see him), Ami (another Oklahoma friend, Evan, and Kyle (he's under my shirt, under two layers of fleece in a snuggli), and me.


The fam....

This is on trax on the way back to our house. It is Chris, Ami, and Joel. They were watching Dane and Halle who were hamming it up for a bunch of teenage girls. Those girls were eating out of their hand. Halle loves to be the center of attention too.

These are the kids walking around by the teenagers. It's hard to take pictures of children from a weird position on a moving train....try it!


Dane loves the feeling of falling. So Joel helped him get on the bar and then he would let go and catch Dane as he fell. It was the funniest, cutest thing ever. I've never seen Dane grin so big. He's also strong and could hang there probably longer than I could.


At the house, we got all the kids together for some pictures. This is kind of how it went to get a good picture. I just took picture after picture until we got a good one. I like how Halle is trying to interact with Kyle. Kyle obviously needs a little support on his sitting up too....usually we put him in the corner of the couch.







This is Teresa making my little guy smile.


We had Evan's family over for Sunday dinner a few days before Mom's fiftieth birthday. They have never been over to dinner at our apartment before and now that we have a couch it is pleasant for them to come. We had a really good time with fajitas and conversation. This is Mom and Zoie messing around with Kyle.


This is on Mom's fiftieth birthday. We came by and had some sandwiches, watched a movie, gave her her gift (it was a pretty box filled with letters from all of her children and grandchildren (we put Kyle's footprint on a piece of paper that said, "I love Mammy.") Avery doesn't get to see a lot of Kyle because she goes to school in Logan. But they are certainly good friends when she is here. Zoie is of course just goofing around for a picture.

This is Ekitzel and I at a rad dance party on New Year's Eve. Kyle was over at the grandparents safely sleeping upstairs in Avery's room. (Evan was there--he just took the picture).



Because Ekitzel lives about an hour from us, she just stayed the night on our beautiful couch (thanks Amy). So New Year's Day she was able to hang out with us and Kyle.


New Year's Day we went down to Provo and hung out with some old college friends that we hadn't seen in awhile. This is Kyle with Shelly--who could pop any moment.



This is Kyle with Klarissa, who had a son due on the first of September of 2008, where Kyle wasn't due until October 10th. However, Zac came on the 19th of September and Kyle came on the 12th of September. Due later, arrived earlier. But Zac is about 5 lbs and 4 inches longer than Kyle---he is solid like a tank.

This is one of our favorite people--her house has become our favorite hang out (probably because she makes awesome treats)--Bri. Bri's roommate is Frances. Frances loves Kyle, but sadly my picture of the two of them is trapped on the Mac. Frances wrote a love note to Kyle and you can see it here you can also see a picture of him with her (scroll to the bottom to see) and she chose Kyle's future wife on this blog post. But here and now you will just have to adore Kyle with the beautiful and talented Bri.


This is the same night at Bri's with Evan and Kyle having what was sure to be a esoteric conversation with the smartest, Zen-iest scientist I know, Elliott. He always amazes me over how amazed he is at Kyle being a fully functioning little person just like us big people--Kyle rocks his world...


So that is some of our family and friends that we hung out with over the holidays. We love them. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I like blog postings with lots of pictures, so get used to it.