Year 3(ish), Day 5

Guys, I can't keep using some stupid counter on my computer to figure out what day it is. I'm doing this year by year. Executive decision executed with perfection.

That being said, guess what?! CHRISTMAS HAPPENED!!! Bet you didn't see this post coming. OH WAIT. YOU DIDN'T. Because I'm not even going to post about Christmas. Mainly because you better believe that I didn't take a single picture of my son's first Christmas. (this is the part where you all praise me for being such an awesome family historian) I would like to point out the less-obvious-but-only-because-you-didn't-think-of-it-first point that David was also NOT taking pictures. AND PDD didn't actually care all that much. I have determined that if I put a picture up of PDD in his Christmas pjs, you will promptly forget that pictures of the actual Christmas celebrations are missing.

I mean, seriously. Could this guy be any cuter? I think not. If in doubt, check out the belly.

Some important parts of Christmas included: snow on Christmas day, crazy Christmas Eve complete with Ninja nativity (something I never, ever, ever, want to forget. Brooks, age 4, swapping his shepherd gear for 'ninja' gear and then karate chopping Liz in the back during the reading of Luke 2), Eric and Rebecca getting engaged, and... that about covers it.

What you REALLY want to hear about is PDD's birthday celebration...which also didn't happen. Actually, I recant that statement. It kind of happened. When happened means that several days after his birthday we let him eat an ice cream cone in honor of his birthday. I would tell you that PDD didn't really care, but that would be a lie. He LOVED the ice cream cone. He cried when it was over.

In my defense, I did have minor plans for his first birthday. Imagine something awesome. Now decrease that awesomeness by about 75% 90% and you should have a general idea of our birthday plans. Those were completely blown by a fever averaging 102 and misery. Poor guy had to go to urgent care ON HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY. Since he won't remember that day, I still think my 23rd birthday (the one when I peed my pants) is worse. Not that I'm competing with my 1-year-old son.... I do have pictures of PDD on his birthday in the urgent care. Maybe not our finest hour, but certainly a sadness worth documenting.

Although the sickness was awful (cold, flu, and ear infections in both ears PLUS the strong possibility that he is getting more teeth. UGH), I must admit there was a part of me that loved having PDD sleeping in our bed and cuddling with me 24/7. He is so busy and it is really difficult to find moments like that anymore. Now that he is almost back to normal, we can't keep him from doing everything himself and running away whenever the opportunity presents itself. At least the kisses (which I was beginning to worry were in extremely short supply) have returned.

The sickness basically ruined PDDs birthday and New Year's Eve, and working ruined our anniversary, so our holidays finished with a strong stink bomb instead of a solid bang, but whatevs. You get what you pay for.  I'm still determining life currency and how that all works, so if you have any insight, just let me know.  Something tells me I could be paying for more.... KIDDING! kind of.

I'm focusing on the fact that we survived the last year.  P-Dizzle reached his first birthday and I am going to take a little bit of credit for that since he is still on the helpless end of the spectrum. Also, this has been the hardest year of my life, so helping a little one survive that year is certainly going on my list of accomplishments.  I AM LIVING LARGE, GUYS! I don't have a photograph-worthy nursery (really, I don't think PDDs room even qualifies as a nursery), we haven't had any formal (or non-formal) family pictures taken, I didn't send out baby announcements or holiday cards, we skipped our son's first birthday and left his first Christmas undocumented, BUT THERE IS STILL REASON TO CELEBRATE! And if you disagree, then this is a party you obviously can't understand and no one is forcing you to be here.




PS--in the middle of this post, I had to reboot my internet (because our internet service is the absolute worst) so, naturally, I got a bowl of ice cream. This got me thinking that I should share with all of you this fabulous diet I am on to maintain weight--it involves eating a strictly healthy diet during the day and then at least one bowl of ice cream at 2 in the morning. Seriously AMAZING. I haven't shed a pound in weeks.

PPS- I really loved getting all of my friends' holiday cards, so I may do some "post-new-year's cards" just because. This is a very strong maybe.

Day 469: Deep in the Heart of Texas

Well, we made it. We are finally in Texas. It was a long road. 4 full days, to be exact. 

It began when David rented a Budget truck that was about 3 feet too small... and we had to unload everything to reassess what was going to be left behind. (at 1 am. Did I mention that?) Fortunately, David's coworker is a saint and came to our rescue with one of his roommates at 1:30 am and helped us until 3. Two extra men=much less work for us. But we were still up until 5 the morning before we left.

  

mid-unloading. 

Thankfully, Tori and Eric saved us by bringing over an air mattress and a few blankets so no one had to sleep directly on the floor for the few hours that we did sleep. So when we woke up at 7:30am with PDD, we were better rested for it. We finished the last details of our move (AKA threw away trash) and said goodbye to our little apartment. As we were closing up shop, David noted that Apartment 32 was all Pearson had ever known and suddenly, I felt even more sad and nostalgic about leaving.

 

 our door--and the loudest doorbell ever. I hated that thing and finally dismantled it.

Then we began the roadtrip by stopping at Target for some snacking necessities and In-N-Out for Burgers, Fries, and Milkshakes. Did I mention that Michael joined us for this roadtrip? He did because he is the best brother ever. He also really enjoyed finishing three books in four days while I drove all but 2 hours and David drove a crappy truck all the hours.

  

I think this is book one.

 

 We found some friendly shower-cleaning employees...but no bathroom-cleaning employees, which made me really concerned.

 

 And we faced P-Dizzle forward (which I'm pretty positive is against the law in maybe all of the states we drove through, but made this even remotely possible, although still traumatic.)

We stopped at the Grand Canyon. It was dark, but we had already cut Big Sur out of our initial trip plans (thanks a lot, Budget truck), so we decided to just go for it. Although I wish we had also been there in the day and we definitely did not get ANY good pictures, it was MAJESTIC. And Pearson loved being awake and out of the car. 

 Oh, you couldn't tell they are standing in front of the Grand Canyon? Are you blind?

 Just PDD being his cute self, like always.

and practicing walking with dad to blow off some steam before we got BACK in the car, which was a huge battle by this day of our trip. (end of day 2, of course.)

The third day I finally stopped at a target in the morning and bought a "Best of Sesame Street" DVD. Since PDD has never really watched TV, I didn't think it would be all that successful, but BOY WAS I WRONG! Especially since most of the "Best of" consisted of songs and he is obsessed with music. He also seemed extremely fond of Anderson Cooper's moment with Oscar the grouch, but we haven't revisited it, so I can't be sure. Also, I realized I hadn't been distracting him with much in the way of toys when I noticed him going to town on his toes... never fear that two top teeth appeared about a week after this picture was taken. 

 Our final day! At this point, it felt SO CLOSE.

 and book 3 on the home stretch!

 Poor Michael was, I think, a little tired of hearing PDD complain by the time we went to Texas and immediately sought some quiet solace when we arrived at my parent's house. 

After a little apartment drama (seriously, moving in two weeks made me such a stress case), we finally decided to stay somewhere for a few months and look for a house! We haven't started looking yet, but in the mean time, I am really enjoying our new apartment. It is almost twice as big as our last apartment, and feels new, and WE LEFT THE DENIM SOFA BEHIND! Which means I got a new sofa and suddenly the sun is shining brighter than before! haha. But I still have this aching hole in my heart that misses Palo Alto and all of our friends there. I miss the outdoors more than I can say, and Pearson misses it too. Every time the door to our apartment opens he seems desperate to escape, and I don't blame him. BUT we are still enjoying ourselves in a big way. Here are some of the highlights of our new life: 

 Stairs at grandma's house! He didn't even have to think about how to get up them. 

 A big bath tub. I mean, seriously, it's like a swimming pool for him. Especially compared to the pink tub at our last apartment as illustrated in the pictures below: 

 

eating apples. New favorite. 

 playing cars with Uncle Michael. Also favorite. Uncle Michael. and cars. Sometimes he will only go to Michael.

cousin Calvin! built in friend and soon to be best bud. 

 

 getting accustomed to our new ward...by sitting/crawling/screaming/shouting/gabbing in the foyer during at least one, possibly two, and sometimes all three hours of church.

 emptying the shelves of DVDS...

 ...to find Despicable Me. No joke, he will find the case and bring it to us to put it in. Then, he will watch a lot of minutes at a time. Enthralled. As demonstrated by this photo. And did we cover the fact that he is walking? He started walking about a week after week arrived--10 months. Now we are at 11 months and the slow and steady walking has turned into running (as of two days ago.) Before yesterday, it was hard to keep walking when he could drop to his knees and crawl like lightning.

 

We are also into kissing really hard. Not always, but sometimes. I love being the recipient of these kisses. A lot of intensity. And these kisses don't happen for everyone. But Chandler and Corinne have both been beneficiaries of Tiny Dancer's uncontrollable love. 

 we also enjoy being goofy

 and lately, we really hate sleeping. Actually, I've always really hated sleeping, its just the babe who is finally catching on.

other things PDD likes to do:

-throw balls

-dance (which actually means bounce) in almost perfect rhythm (sometimes his body can't keep up with the beat and remain balanced since he is usually doing this standing up)

-chase after the dogs and point out all of the "dahs" we see or hear

-try to whistle (which means that he puts his lips in an "o" shape and then sings really high)

-click his tongue until you copy him

-open up all of the cupboards and empty them all as fast as possible

-throw food on the floor (especially at grandma's when it brings the dogs running. This is usually accompanied by giggles)

-throw tantrums when tired

-avoid naps (especially in the afternoon)

- try to stay up until Dad gets home, when he will then cooperate and go to bed fairly well. Stinker.

-cry when Dad leaves for work

other things I do:

-get ready to go back to school in January

-work at Anthropologie

-read books I check out from the library or borrow from my sisters. (They basically have an amazing YA library of their own.)

-watch Next Iron Chef: Redemption with my mom and sisters

-take trips to the QT

-fill up my car for less than $3/gallon (on a good day)

-see my family whenever I want

-see the Dance family whenever we want

-watch the girls dance

-take piano and voice lessons

-be a cool mom (obviously)

and believe it or not, David actually made it here with us! He is...

-loving his new job. Seriously. All he does is talk about it. Fortunately for him, I find it interesting, so I like to listen. :)

-training for the Iron Man Houston in May

-wearing jeans and a t-shirt to work everyday (perks of only two people in the office)

-loving learning about Terreno (the farm business his Dad owns. I would say empire, but maybe that's just me exaggerating...)

And after all of that, here are a few pictures of P just being adorable because everyone loves pictures of a cute baby.

he just gets really excited about shaking things...

Edit: Day #32 and the other days I missed before that

So, I admittedly got carried away in my thoughts re: boars vs. wild hogs. Anyone who really knows me will not be surprised by this. But just in case you actually care what I'm doing with my life and in the event that I determine this blog is a good way to document my life--similar to a journal--and print it out for my posterity, I will actually talk about the past few days of my life.

There are two things that happened.

1. I went to the doctor.  This is a regular occurrence these days. I don't love going to the doctor. Especially since when you are pregnant, it is just so they can make sure everything is alright--even when you already have a pretty good idea that it is. I got away with skipping a month due to my horrible insurance woes and, yes, I was a bit worried. So I went. Unwarranted advice: NEVER SKIP GOING TO THE DOCTOR WHEN YOU ARE PREGNANT! EVER! Because even when you skip the doctor's visit, they still make you get on a scale, and you may have gained 17 pounds in two months. I don't care how much you have resigned yourself to being pregnant, that will make a mark. Its even worse when you rarely consume sugar, don't eat for two as is so commonly mistaken for appropriate, and exercise almost every day. In better news: I don't think I look fat.

2. I started cross-stitching stockings for Christmas! If you think this sounds super nerdy and old-lady, you would be correct. BUT, it sure makes pretty stockings...and my mom made one for each of our family.  What I have forgotten in the years that I haven't touched cross-stitching is how long it takes to make something look decent. Even after a couple of hours, you have never accomplished what you would have hoped. What seems like it should take only a few hours to complete actually takes way more hours than that. Which is super vague, but true. When I have more than a few xs on a white piece of fabric, I'll put a picture up.

Other than that... I can't think of anything awesome to report. I still think the boars vs. hogs post was better, but I suppose this one was more informative.

In book news: I read Evermore. It was not awesome. Started off okay, got worse in the end. I also began reading All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner for book club. Which is on Tuesday. I don't know if I will finish it. Wallace is quite florid in his language and rather depressing and I'd rather keep reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.  Okay, that's all. xx

Day 27 & 28

Day 27:
SATURDAY! Saturday is my favorite day of the week because it is the day when Boyf is home and we have no obligations. Well, this Saturday I had the obligation of Charlie Brown, but that aside... SO, we decided to go on a hike. Not a horribly strenuous hike, but this particular hike called "The Dish".  It is over by Stanford campus and the entire thing is paved, so it really shouldn't have been such a big deal.

Well, I guess I forgot that I'm 6 months pregnant. Even though I've been exercising, I haven't been tromping 5 miles on paved hillsides, and let's be honest: I'm not quite as pleasant when I am uncomfortable these days. Let's also be honest: baby does not like 5 mile hikes. It felt great, don't get me wrong. I was glad we went. But at the end, I definitely felt like I was going to herniate if I didn't sit down. David was all about going to the gym after the hike, but I was DONE. So we went to Costco instead. In hindsight, I should have gotten a slice of cheese pizza at Costco....

The rest of the day was cleaning, resting my body from the hike, and reading. I know, I should have taken pictures while we were hiking the dish, but I was too busy complaining in my head to remember. Actually, I lie. I remembered once when we saw a couple taking pictures.  You see, The Dish is so named for the large Satellite Dish that sits on top of the hill. The paved path sort of makes this big oval around this hilly area, and at the highlight of it is a Satellite Dish. There was a couple taking pictures there. With the Satellite Dish in the background. I remembered at that point that I was going to take a couple of pictures of our nature walk, but after seeing that couple wanted to forget the pictures as soon as possible. David and I were laughing to ourselves and he commented that "they must be engineers."  I guess we aren't really the picture hoarding types...

Day 28:
SUNDAY. We have a lot more in the way of obligations on Sunday. Church, lunch at the Taylor's house, Charlie Brown, being sick.

The Taylors are an older couple in our ward and they had a few younger couples over for lunch yesterday. They have 9 kids who are all grown and they are quite social, so I would not be surprised if they do this frequently.  One of the couples who was there had a baby only a week-and-half old. They started talking about all of these horror stories having to do with labor and delivery... I think that's the worst part of being pregnant. Everyone wants to give you advice (fine) but they also want to tell you the worst stories they've ever heard about women giving birth and then say "but there's no way that will happen to you, so don't stress!"  I have always had a fear about giving birth. I'm not afraid to hold a baby or take care of them--I actually think I know enough to not have to call someone every day and ask questions or be too paranoid--but physically giving birth? NO THANK YOU. I would happily bypass that step. Since I got pregnant as a complete surprise to all parties involved, I have decided to just forget the birthing process entirely.  That way, I don't have to freak myself out about it beforehand and when its happening, there's nothing I can do about it so I won't freak out. This may not sound logical to you, but I know myself. This will work. So having to confront horror stories is mildly terrifying. When they also say the token "hope I haven't freaked you out too much!" I always say "no more than I already was" and everyone laughs. Next time I'm going to say what I am really thinking: "Of COURSE you freaked me out! I've NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE. And I HATE NEEDLES."

Dear Anonymous

Since you still won't stop giving me a hard time on every social network about my lack of pregnancy photographs, I have taken a few choice photos with photobooth of me in my ugly pajamas to hold you over until I can hire a photographer and take maternity photos. Who am I kidding? There is no way I am going to do that. But maybe I'll remember to have David take a picture of me when I'm looking cute and we are somewhere cool. Maybe. For now, this will have to suffice.

Hope you like the nod to the Mavs in my pajamas (the only shirts large enough besides my free SkyTeam shirt from Delta that Boyf likes to remind me wasn't free--it was paid for in pain and suffering). And the Sumo face. That's how I feel most of the time. Like a sumo wrestler. Really, it is empowering.

Day #25

Well, Days 23 and 24 I was "under the weather". And now that I have just written that phrase, I would appreciate it if someone could tell me the origin since I have no idea and am not sure why we even say that.

Today, Day 25 was much better. The evenings of days 23 and 24, I was still obligated to go to Charlie Brown, and let's face it, that was awful. and I played poorly. But tonight was stellar. I felt great about it and besides the wind blowing my pages a few times, it went pretty smoothly.

In other news, I also got a great little gift in the mail today. Well, the gift is technically for tiny, but I am going to pretend that it is for me since I will be paying for tiny's life and the less I have to pay for, the more for me... thus it is also a gift to me. It is this BEAUTIFUL moses basket from Restoration Hardware (which I love).

Yes, I took it out of its box and put it together, then pretended baby is already here and decided baby would like to nap/lay down by the bookcase where he could see all of the colors and learn that books are important. GET HERE ALREADY.

One of my favorite things these days is when Boyf says that he wants baby to get here.  He is getting anxious to play with tiny, and who can blame him? I'm getting anxious for tiny to stop messing with my body.  The other day I was having a very strange sharp pain in my backside and wondered if I would have some sort of reverse alien thing where baby busts out of my back. We all know that it won't happen, but I thought it.

Also, when we were in Costa Rica, I forgot that my sister-in-law Andrea became a professional photographer. She specializes in Unicorning, a process by which a normal person's dreams are fulfilled and they can visualize themselves as a unicorn by  means of a photograph. She unicorned David, and it was pretty glamorous. Luckily, I have the picture.

In case you wondered why I married him before, now you know the truth. It's because he is quite fetching as a unicorn.

now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go use the countless over-ripe bananas sitting on my refridgerator to make several batches of banana bread while watching "Pride and Prejudice".  Or maybe "Despicable Me"....

Day #6: I Can't Grocery Shop.

Day #6. Saturday. A day of togetherness. Today I have been singing a song I learned in church as a child all day.  The lyrics are as follows:

Saturday is a special day, its the day we get ready for Sunday!

We wash our hair and we iron our clothes and we don't work again until Monday...

Well, I don't want to be a killer of the faith, but I do wash my hair and iron my clothes on Sunday. I actually had never thought about it before now... The point WAS, that we have been running errands almost all day. I say we because Boyf is finally home with me for a full day! I love that. UNFORTUNATELY, Boyf had to come with me all over town for groceries. We are having one of his co-workers over for dinner tomorrow night, and I am determined to cook her something delicious, PLUS, I thought I would be a brilliant domestic by planning meals for the week and buying the ingredients today. Only things here are not so simple. So far, I've been to the grocery store on 4 different occasions and each time, I have had to go to at least 3 places. 

You see, neither Wal Mart nor Target have received "Super" status, so I can't get groceries there. I avoid Safeway at all costs because if I go there, I will pay ALL COSTS, and my favorite place to shop is an open air market where I can only get produce and overpriced cheese. Then there is Trader Joe's, which I also love, but let's face it people: Trader Joe's is for people who want to PRETEND to cook.  If you want to buy a great pre-made sauce, or a frozen dinner that tastes homemade, Trader Joe's is THE place to go. They will never let you down! But what if I want to buy chili paste? or what if I want (heaven forbid) Crisco? what if I want vegetable oil? Or even French's mustard? There is no way I will find it at Trader Joe's. And Whole Foods--well, anyone who is a sucker for packaging (self-professed here) will tell you they want to shop there.  But anyone who's paid attention to the price realizes it doesn't even make sense.

So today shopping started off on a great foot at The Milk Pail, where I bought a weeks worth of produce (including obscure fresh herbs and veggies) for $23.15! that would have cost me at least $80 anywhere else, but started going downhill once we went to Wal Mart and found out they didn't have better prices than Whole Foods on milk and eggs (WHAT?!) and they had NO chocolate chips.  Boyf was done. He just walked the cart to the checkout counter and I knew that I had to follow.  Only I also knew we would have to go back out again later because we didn't even have any meat.  SOOO a few hours later, we headed to Costco and then gave in to the pull of Safeway. Safeway, I hate you. I really do. How can I buy 4 things from you and still spend the same that I did for three bags full of fruit and vegetables at The Milk Pail? You're an extortionist, that's how. 

BUT, I made my Nutella ice cream! It was a recipe that didn't require an ice cream maker--and since the movers bent the arm on my Kitchen Aid and I don't have a way to replace it yet, I was more than excited to try it out. Now that I've actually mixed it and put it in the freezer overnight, I'm fairly certain it will taste like Nutella flavored Cool-Whip, but I guess there is always a chance that could change. I found the recipe on foodgawker, which you should check out if you like food at all.  It is brilliant.

In other news, right before I started this post, tiny dancer was kicking! Not any of those little kicks either. I'm talking big enough you could feel it if you were putting your hand on my stomach. I felt a twinge of sadness when I ran into the bedroom to tell Boyf that Tiny was dancing and found Boyf passed out.  He made a valiant effort, rolled over and put his hand on my belly, but it was too late. Tiny was done.  He has been pretty quiet during the days lately and acts up at night, which gives me great hope that Tiny will be a night owl like his mother before him and his grandmother before that.  Actually, maybe I want the owl-like tendencies to conceal themselves for a few years...

Okay. After midnight. It's time to go to sleep  read in bed.  I'm a little nervous because I had a plan in my head to do wash on Monday while I was stuck at home with the piano tuner, but now I'm not sure if I will have any clean underwear for church tomorrow... Boyf says I could just be like the Russians and wear my underwear until Monday, but I think I'll pass. Oh, the worries of a housewife! (well, one with poor planning skills at least)