Thanks for Giving Me Food!

There is not much better than a large family gathering, but I think we were able to add to the beauty and excitement of the occasion by letting Baby participate! Really, there is something magical about a chubby little cherub sitting right next to you as you eat your Turkey! And this cherub took his cherub duties seriously, he even let me strip him down to his diaper (he thought it was for fun, I knew it was for ease of cleanup afterwards).Baby got to feed himself, he was given mashed up sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and some pieces of homemade roll. As you see, he wasn't quite sure if he liked it.

One thing was sure, he enjoys squishing food with his tiny little fingers.

This was Grandpa Turners view of Baby, he claimed it was the best view of all and I am tempted to agree.

This was Lucy the dogs view of the Baby, She thinks it was the best view with the best benefits, I was glad for the help with the cleanup.

We knew that Baby wasn't getting a ton of food in his mouth, but what we didn't know was that he has already learned the fine art of hiding his food.

So we had a wonderful day. We arrived home just after bedtime and Baby slept through the night without even a peep. Ken left at 5:40 or so to go shopping this morning and Baby started talking to himself around 6:30. As babies wake up time is not until 7:30 and as he wasn't crying, I let him talk to himself while I read. At 7 I took pity on him, entering his room in the dark (just in case he was just stuck somewhere in his crib that he didn't want to be and would easily go back to sleep after being repositioned) and I had a hard time believing what my eyes were telling me. The Babies head was hovering a few inches above his crib. I turned the light on, and sure enough, the babies head WAS hovering a few inches above his crib.

This is a picture of the first time he stood up in his crib. He was stuck, and he was proud!

Celebrate Good Times

I slept ALL NIGHT last night! Why is this something to Celebrate? Because it means that Baby slept all night last night too! For the past 5 days or more Ken and I have been awakened several times a night and we have sometimes spent several hours a night comforting our uncomfortable baby.

So today we are Celebrating Thanksgiving early- I am thankful for Antibiotics, Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen, and Yes, cuddle time with my sweet baby. I am also thankful for Ken and his patience with me and our baby- for example two nights ago, at about 1 AM, Ken made a Crib, for baby and me, in our front room by pushing our two couches together. Why did he make a crib for us, well all I could do for baby was hold him, he was calm if I held him, but I was afraid that I would fall asleep and lose my grip on baby and so Ken made a soft place for us to cuddle, and sleep without fear of falling onto the hard floor. Don't worry, I didn't drop him.

Our Crib has been pushed apart and we have two couches again, this is what the sweet little baby looked like this morning as he made his daily appraisal of his Kingdom. "It's good to be King!" he says.

Something else to Celebrate is the possible end to the sleep deprivation that I have been suffering from this past week. Yesterday seemed to be the worst, brain function was at its lowest in months. As an example- I was responding to an email my brother in law sent to us, he told us about an accident that his fiance had been in, and how she had lost her grandmother. I asked him to "send" our love etc to her, but then after spell checking my email I decided to change "send" to "express". I didn't spell check again, after all I know how to spell express. Well turns out I didn't quite delete "send" completely, so I sent an email to my engaged brother in law, asking him to "sexpress to her, our love, our regards, our condolences, and our excitement over what is going to happen in 6 or 7 weeks"- it takes on a whole new meaning. Yesterday I was horrified. Today I think it is kind of funny.

So after sending my emails in the morning, I decided the best thing to do would be to lay on the couch all day. I was able to take a nap, which was nice, and baby showed me his newest talent. He would crawl over to me on the couch, put his hands up onto it and then, very slowly, stand up. 90% of the time his feet were actually about 18 inches away from the couch and so instead of standing he was actually doing an elevated push up, but it was still cute. As this picture below proves.
I don't expect the "Cruising" to begin for a few more weeks, he isn't very stable once he gets up, but it sure is sweet to see him crawl toward me and then do everything in his power to get to where I am.

Hero Worship

I don't know why this never posted- it is from back in November and I think that it is pretty funny, and quite typical of my little family.

After breakfast this morning Baby was given free reign of the front room, he went to the toys (which can be seen to his left in this picture) but then the video tapes started calling him and the toys were quickly forgotten. As you can see, a greater source of power was found. That is right, the TV, apparently, was in need of worship.

Oh, Sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you! And it only took 8 Months.

The little worshiper was quickly taken from his false god and the path to said Idol was blocked by the toy basket, and this time for the first time, the leg straitening muscles were deployed in an attempt to climb over an obstacle. I predict I will have a cruiser in a matter of weeks.

Double the Ear Infection, Double the Fun!

Our Sweet Baby has had a runny nose since Monday, but on Thursday there was a very evident change. My sweet independent boy suddenly was very very needy and pretty much wanted to be held constantly, then at night every few hours he would have a scream fest. Thursday night I took his temperature before he went to bed and it was 101.4, this has never happened before and it scared me a little. We gave him some Motrin and proceeded with the regular bedtime routine. I decided that if he still had a fever in the morning I would take him to the doctor. At 11 pm, I was awakened by the pain cry, and so baby and I cried together, I, because I had no Idea what was wrong with my baby, and he, because he was trying to tell me something that I just didn’t understand. Well, Friday morning the fever was 100.2, and so he was given some Tylenol and taken to the doctor.

After a thorough inspection the baby was pronounced Sick! Both ears are infected, one much worse than the other. So the pain cry was caused by actual pain, I suddenly understood why the pain cry went away when I held him, i.e. his head was elevated. So now along with Cherry or Orange flavored painkillers, baby gets to have two servings of Tropical Fruit flavored antibiotics per day. The Doctor said we will probably have a clingy baby for another day or so but he should be back to his independent little self very soon. I am glad that I listened to the little voice inside my head that said “Take him to the Doctor”

Katie Says Relax!

At 11am today I started thinking about all I had accomplished this morning. After all, I was showered and dressed and thinking about doing the dishes and it was only 11am! Oh Yeah, I had also done one load of laundry too. But I was pretty proud of myself, why? Because I have a silly little baby who decided that he wanted to wake up at 5am. It took an hour or so to convince him that it was not “Morning Time” yet, after which, he and I both went back to bed. I woke up a little more than an hour later after having had one of those horrible dreams where you wake up and cannot move or yell, mine usually starts with the front door opening and I am not able to find out who is in my house. Today’s dream included the baby. I heard him giggle and then heard the door close, thus in my mind I knew that my baby had just been kidnapped and I could do nothing about it because I couldn’t move or scream for help. Arghhhh, needless to say, I did not wake up rested this morning. Luckily for me the baby made up for his hour of missed sleep, plus some, finally waking at 8:45!

What did I do during that extra alone time? I relaxed. I ate breakfast and checked out other people’s blogs. I watched the morning news and rescheduled our daily walk until later in the day. I took phone calls from friends and family and discussed insurance options with my husband by email. I did start the laundry but it was quickly forgotten, after all, I was relaxing. It was fun.

So there I was at 11, walked, clean, dressed and doing dishes, I had the TV on, as I often do. As I was happily going about my domestic duties I started to think about a conversation that Ken and I had with our Sister in Law out in Colorado. She asked what we do in the evening and Ken told her that we usually watch TV or movies together. This amazed her because after all, that would be something like 3 hours a night! “AMAZING! ...Really?” we heard those words several times, and as we went to bed that night we wondered, Is this really such a bad habit? I haven’t thought about it much since, but today as I was doing the dishes I heard the TV, it was on Studio 5 a local public interest show, nothing too horrible, but I started to really think about my TV habits.

Here is what I decided. Yes the TV in our house is on quite a bit, for many different reasons.

I like to watch the news; I like to know what is going on in the world, and so in the morning and then again in the evening I watch the news. Not a bad thing to do.

During the day I keep the TV on, but I don’t necessarily pay attention to it, it is background noise. If I knew where my Ipod was, or if we had a stereo on the main level of our home I would listen to music, but I currently do not have that capability and so the TV fills the void. What is the Void? I thought about that for quite awhile today. I have heard several times that you should be at peace with yourself in the silence and I don’t mind silence, but I am very much accustomed to noise. I grew up in a house with 5 sisters, not the quietest place in the world. Before having the baby I worked for a decade in loud places, Fred Meyer- Constant Music, IHC Hospitals and Clinics, Constant Chatter (I worked in offices full of Women) as well as several different radios on several different desks all tuned to several different stations. Silence has never been an every day part of my life. I am OK with that.

Then comes the evening, and my 3 hours or so of TV time with Ken. Ken and I both enjoy Movies and now that we have the Tivo, we have plenty of movies to watch, we also have several shows that we enjoy. Before we were married Ken had me read about the 5 Love Languages and take a test to see what mine were, my two top languages were physical touch and quality time. So by spending 3 hours with me on the couch, letting me put my legs over his lap, (or quite often letting me fall asleep with my head on his lap,) fulfills my 2 top love needs, thus Ken can keep his wife happy and be very well entertained in the process. As I thought about this today I recognized that this is true, I really do feel quite loved by the time we go to bed. By the time we go to bed, I am relaxed! I don’t think that I could manage without my Ken/TV downtime each evening. Thanks Ken!
So I don’t feel any inclination to change, at least not right now. Right now, Katie says Relax.

Catching My Breath

The past two weeks feel like they have flown by, in my previous post I told you what happened in the middle, but it seems like a lot more has happened in the past two weeks than our trip to Colorado. One of the biggest being that the Baby has truly come into his own, crawling wise. The smiles on his face, because of his new freedom, are amazing!

Don't worry, he didn't go down any hills in his "That'sabowl Toboggan", I just wanted a picture of him in the snow in it. Especially as so many people felt that it was an inappropriate snow vehicle- we agree, as soon as he was on the snow, he fell over.

I have been making Amish Friendship bread for a few months now. Ken really enjoys giving it out to neighbors. Two weeks ago I made one batch of Chocolate and one batch of Vanilla and cut it up and put pieces of each onto paper plates. I put plastic wrap around the plates and the combination of cheap paper plates and strong plastic wrap turned the treats into little paper plate taco's. Well I didn't really think the Taco's were that cute, but then I remembered that it is "Turkey Time", with the help of some construction paper, a glue stick and some tape, our Taco's turned into really cute Turkeys, with snoods and all! (I just learned what a snood was this week too, it is that red thing that hangs over the turkeys beak.) The Turkeys looked so good sitting on peoples porches that we might dress up our friendship bread that way until the end of the month.

So then we took our trip. I am learning quickly that Baby likes his bed, naps on our trip were not the best and so we let him sleep whenever he wanted. I must admit, I enjoyed holding my sleeping angel, I don't get to do this much anymore. We are still recovering and trying to reprogram the babies sleep habits from both our vacation and the time changed that happened a week before our trip.

So the crawling only got better and better while we were gone, I blame it on the open floor plan of T & L's house. When we got home our front room was not enough space for Baby. He has now discovered our kitchen and he wants to continue to discover more of the house every day. We do not have a baby gate. The only way I could get any cleaning done was to corral Baby. He has never been corralled and as such he didn't like it at first. I am currently in the process of trying to find a baby gate that will fit our house, unfortunately our smallest opening that I want to gate is 45 inches........no cheap gates seem to go past 41 inches. (Cheap being under $20).

Finally- I won this cake! And then I ate half of it! So much for losing weight this week. There are somethings that are very much worth it. Suffice it to say, I have not yet learned how to have my cake and eat less of it too. I froze a few pieces for later. Mmmmmm Rocky Road.
I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past two weeks, about politics and the future our nation and the world. I don't know if I will share many of those thought any time soon, but I will say that I feel pretty comfortable with the state of the world. It is not perfect, there are a lot of people out there who don't like my religion much, but I know what I believe and I have peace.

I should be cleaning....

But I would rather tell you about our Trip.

We went to Fort Collins, Colorado and spent time with Family and Friends. Here are some Pictures.

I had a hard morning on Friday, I had planned to pack, pack the car and then get as much cleaning done around the house as I could before leaving on the trip. Well, I packed and barely got the car packed, no cleaning was done and I didn't eat lunch. So I convinced Ken that we should stop and get some Hamburgers at McDonald's. I had no Idea that people in Wyoming didn't know how to sit on Chairs. Apparently it is stand and eat or saddle up and eat. Baby chose to saddle up.

Once again, Other Peoples toys are the best! Baby is getting really good at sitting up on these push toys, he can not go forward but on Saturday he did push himself backwards once, it scared him.

Music to my ears! OK, so his music is not very harmonious, but he has fun with these piano toys (Anyone want to give him one for Christmas?)

Baby was able to finish up his Christmas shopping at Kohl's, for Dad a 300 piece "24" Puzzle on sale for $2.99, and for Mom a cute Shirt/Dress for $4.00. It took so much effort that soon after finding the last item baby fell fast asleep.

Well, the camera battery just died so I can not upload anymore pictures today, but do not fear, more cuteness will be coming your way soon.

Driving 6-7 hours is not my favorite thing to do, but it was well worth it to spend time with Ken's Brother T and his family, plus visiting with other good friends who have all found there way out to Fort Collins.

Fort Collins is a great place, every time we visit, I tell Ken that if we had to move I would be OK if we moved to Fort Collins. The past two times we have been out there we went to dinner at a restaurant called "Hu Hot" it is basically just a Mongolian Grill, you take a bowl and pick your meat, noodles, Vegetables or Fruit and your sauce or combination of sauces, then you take it to the "450 degree circle" and they cook it for you. YUM YUM YUM! We have got to find somewhere like that around here! This year we went down to the Outlets that are just outside of town. Our new favorite store? The Carters Outlet. Luckily they have just opened one in West Jordan.

And as we left Colorado, we filled up the car with gas for $1.99! It has been years since we filled up for less than $2 per gallon. I was going to say- na na na na naaaa na we got gas for $1.99, but then on the news this afternoon they said that gas in Utah has hit $1.99 so I guess I can't be too snooty about it. But really, it is a magical feeling, I can not wait to see how cheap it gets!

Wild, Wild West!

You have to be careful around here, we see deer along the roadside quite often. But this week we found a sweet little dear in our house!
I couldn't shoo it away, especially when it looked at me with those doe eyes.Then we started to notice something odd about the dear, it was wearing Baseball Pajamas!

We chased that little dear around the front room until we had it cornered and then it raised its head high.

It was just the baby! He is going to be a Master of Disguise.

Other Peoples Toys

Me-"OK, Baby, Mom and Dad are going to be having dinner and talking a lot to the other mommies and daddies, so you can take some time to get to know little D."

Baby & little D- "Huh? We don't talk, how should be get to know each other?"

Me- "Well, you could play with some of little D's toys together"

Jared-"REALLY?!? I love other peoples toys!"

Little D- "I am not sure about this kid, he seems kind of shady."

Little D- " That is right Baby, just slam your hands down on the buttons"

Baby- "Hey, Check this out, No Hands!"

Sadly we had to go home and leave all of the great toys behind. Baby had to go back to making do with Tupperware for toys
Baby- "I love my Thatsabowl Toboggan! I can't wait until it snows!"

Voter Fraud?

Our Friend Christy said that this Babies bib shows proof of Voter Fraud! She said this with a wink and a smile. Baby did go voting today but I didn't let him touch the ballot, I was having too much fun using the electronic voting machine myself. This is the 4th Presidential Election that I have voted in and the first time using one of those machines, I must say I do kind of miss the little ballot poker and I did miss walking across the room with my ballot and dropping it into the box. But our voting machines do make a fun printing noise when you tell it to cast your ballot, the baby liked that. As we were leaving we turned in our little electronic voting card and I got a sticker. Baby was safely riding in the snugly and the poll worker could not resist giving him a sticker too.

So as far as voting went, I voted for at least one Republican and at least one Democrat. I did a lot of information gathering- read magazines, watched debates, searched the Internet, and talked to family members and friends. I made a choice but then still wondered, and then while watching the presidential candidates answer the same questions (separately) I made my final decision. While talking about how they would pick a new Supreme Court Judge one of the candidates spoke about how he would question Judges about how they view the Constitution- do they take it literally? He then spoke about how, in his opinion, the 2nd Amendment protected all Americans rights to marry whoever they want. My mind was made up at this point.

Speaking of Marriage, I want to express my support one more time for Proposition 8 in California, as well as several other similar ballot issues in other states. I have family members who do not support these Propositions and I have had plenty of time to think about why I do, and why I feel so strongly about it. It comes down to my own beliefs in God. I believe in God, that he has given us his laws and then has let us live and choose what we will do, follow his laws or not. I truly believe that we are Eternal Beings, we lived before, we were ourselves, Men and Women, and I believe we will continue to be ourselves after this life ends. This life is our chance to choose for ourselves, whether we will seek our Gods will and follow him or if we will go it alone and see how things work out. I have chosen to follow, as closely as I can, and that is why I support Prop 8, because I truly believe that it is right. Others may not feel the same way as I do, that is OK, we all have our own choice, our own will and it is our right and duty to express that choice and vote!

We live in a great land, people came to this land seeking religious freedom, it is my opinion that those people we lead to this land by a kind and loving God. They were lead by him, I choose to still follow him. I know many other wonderful God loving, fearing and following people, who have made different political choices than I did today. That is OK with me, that is what makes our country great, the chance to make our own personal voices heard.

A Boo-tiful Life

This little Dinosaur costume has been the first Halloween outfit for 4 out of my parents 5 grandsons (I think). Not to be outdone- the boy, Q, that was too small to wear it for his first Halloween- wore it several times this summer (he is 5, the bottom of the legs came to his knees, it was a very "Interesting" look- cute, but not quite as cute as a chubby baby wearing it).

Ken was overpowered by the Baby Dinosaurs cuteness.

Baby Dinosaur forced us to take him to the neighborhood trunk or treat, where we allowed him to have his first lollipop, after which, his cheeks were very sticky.

After the Trunk or Treat Baby Dinosaur found a new friend, She used the Care Bear Stare and he fell madly in love, lunged at her and tried to give her a kiss (or maybe just chew on her face) she was quickly saved by her father.

Nature Vs. German Engineering

This baby is a thing of science- Created by Volkswagen! What do you think? Cute? Slightly Scary? I decided to see what VW could do for my family after reading a post on a friends blog where she introduced the baby she had created by melding herself with her future husband, Orlando Bloom. After seeing their creation, she may be rethinking her undying love for Orlando.

I am here to say- Don't give up- Nature has Magic that the German Car Makers will never have. As proof I present a picture of my Natural Born Child- German Engineering had nothing to do with his creation!

Just Kidding! That is Peter, we are not sure who created Peter but we love him like a son. Now for our Real BABY!

Take that VW! Nature all the way!