Feeling good

Grandma and Grandpa left for their mission! They were called last year, but weren't able to leave to go to Florida until they'd gotten vaccines. But they did and now they're in Florida serving for the next 16 months.

Before they left, they went and visited each one of their children's families. Nicole, then Cindy, then Steve, then Heather. They arrived here 3 weeks ago tomorrow and stayed until Thursday morning. I didn't know they were coming until Saturday night when I texted Wilda about something. Steve had talked to them and forgot to mention it. So Sunday as we were pondering their visit, we realized that we still needed to do Harrison's baby blessing and that we didn't have to do it in church like we would have pre-Covid. So we talked to my family and to the Bishopric and were able to coordinate having his blessing at our house on Tuesday night. Luckily, my parents, who had gone to visit Megan in Colorado, were arriving home Monday night and would be there as well!

Grandma loved snuggling the little man.

And when she found out that we didn't have a blessing outfit, she ran out and got one for us. Doesn't he look dapper? 😍

Both of our families were able to participate via zoom or in person. And Heather's son (our nephew) Xander and his fiance joined us as well. They're going to BYU currently. This is everyone who participated in the blessing: Xander, Nick, Steve, Ron, James, Bishop Cheney. My mom, Wilda, Alison, Audra, and our other kids were also in the room.

You can see the shoes better in this picture. And no, Steve isn't choking him. This is how he burps Harrison.

On Wednesday, we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium. Most of us hadn't been there in like 8 years and we thought Jules would LOVE it. And she did. Mostly.

At one point, there was a tank you could walk up to, and as soon as a large fish approached her she froze, started bawling, and begged to be moved. She didn't like any of the large aquariums after that. 

We saw a bunch of awesome creatures, including this fish that looked like someone frankensteined it together,

these jellyfish that sit upside-down on the floor of the aquarium,

this enormous lobster (it was like three or four feet long),

manta rays that were wider than Cecily is tall,

snuggling toads,

brightly-colored poisonous hoppers,

an asian leopard (she actually prowled around her cage quite a bit--it was awesome to watch),

and penguins who said high and then posed for us. For some reason Jules was not afraid of them coming close to her.

We built another castle after Grandma and Grandpa left.

And Jules wanted me to take a picture of her "arctic cod."

The trees were blooming the next week and they were gorgeous. I found this little friend when I was cutting some of the blooms to bring inside. 

I think I said in a previous recent post that Jules has this thing with sippies where she leaves them all over the house and I can never find any when I need them. One day a couple weeks ago, I found all these sippies and it just illustrated the point so perfectly. I laughed, took pictures of all of them and then put them all in the sink.

livingroom floor:

Cecily's bedroom floor:

Her crib:

My bathroom floor:

The kitchen table:

I wanted to document how small he was compared to me at 2 months.

I was going to give him a bath one night before bed and got him undressed before going to run the bath water. I found him like this less than five minutes later.

After the bath, Daddy "put Harrison to sleep."

For May the 4th (Star Wars day), we all wore Star Wars shirts, Mira sprayed her hair green to match her baby Yoda shirt, and Cecily had me do Princess Leia buns. I forgot to get pictures before school and by the time school got out, they'd both taken their hair out. 

On the 5th, Steve started with the city pickleball league. He plays every Wednesday for six weeks for an hour and a half. I think he's enjoying it so far.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, of course. Cecily was the sweetest. The week before, she started planning what she wanted to make me for breakfast. She coordinated with Steve to make sure we had all the ingredients and then woke up early Sunday morning to make it. It ended up being applesauce gluten free muffins and they were so tasty, they were gone before I had a chance to take a picture.

She also made me three cards and some fake flowers. My other kids made me cards as well. All three of them thanked me for giving birth to them (they used this term), so I think I might have traumatized them with my "real talk" about the birthing process.

Mira decided to coordinate her entire outfit one day this last week. That's panda shoes, panda socks, a panda shirt, and a panda sweater. She is such a cute fashionista. I won't be surprised if she grows up to be a fashion designer.

Jules is too cute. Whenever she doesn't get her way, she breaks into sobs. If the crying gets her anything she wants (even if it's not the original thing), she immediately stops crying and wipes away her alligator tears. With my other kids, I would have thought she was faking to get her way (because they were), but with Jules, I think I have genuinely broken her heart, and she just easy to be entreated. She wants to be happy, so she doesn't let herself be sad any longer than necessary.

I could be wrong. She is totally smart enough to be playing me. But I choose to think she's a tenderhearted, easily appeased kiddo.

This week, I had four covers to finish, had to teach Sunday School, and had a virtual conference for both Friday and Saturday, Steve was gone Wednesday night for his pickleball league, I had a dinner with my writing group Thursday night, and no one could watch the kids on Friday. It was a lot. But I made it through and it was actually a really good week except for possibly Friday night. 

The writing conference was both virtual and in-person. I didn't go in-person because when I registered, I didn't know if I'd be able to leave Harrison, and I couldn't take him with me. So I attended virtually. The rest of my writing group went in-person, so they were all in town and we met up for dinner the night before the conference started. This is all but one of us. The one in Texas couldn't make it out this year.

I ate some dairy last night and today Harrison has a rash and has been pretty cranky. He's now crying again, so I'll have to go get him out. Have a great week!

random pictures

This post actually covers the last two weeks because I didn't include two weeks ago in last weeks post (mostly because it was a boring week).

Mira took this selfie. Isn't she gorgeous? :)

Last Saturday, Mira, Cecily and Jules piled on the bed with me while I fed Harrison. I hadn't opened the blinds yet, so it was kinda dark.

Last Sunday, I made the kids help me make dinner. Mira and Emilia chopped vegetables without chopping off a finger! That info will come in handy in the future. :) Mira took this picture because she thought her arrangement of the vegetables was pretty.

I bought this puzzle at DI for a couple of dollars and me and Mira and Cecily put it together one weekday.

I discovered a park this week that's near our house and has a bunch of fun slides for little little people. We went there 3 times this last week because Jules needs to not watch more TV and it's finally getting nice out.

Harrison's feet and legs just looked so squishy and cute in this outfit, I had to take a picture.

I thought of some more Jules-isms, which is the main reason I was motivated to make this post. First off, this picture is typical of Jules. Steve and I often find her toys in our shoes.

Also, this is a common sight these days. I walk into the bathroom to find that Jules has been "cleaning" our toilet. At least she stopped trying to use it to clean the carpet.

One Jules-ism that I can't believe I forgot last week is her use of "I can't." She is in the stage of terrible twos where if it's not her idea it's a bad idea. I could ask her if she wants chocolate and she would say no just because I had the gaul to suggest it. But the way she tells us no is hilarious. She says, "I can't like it!" instead of "I don't like it." 

So, I'll say, "Jules, do you want a banana?" and she'll respond on the verge of tears, "I can't like it!"
"But you like bananas," I'll respond.
Now she'll have big alligator tears. "NO! I can't like it!"
Sometimes she'll concede the point that at one point, she did like it by adding "anymore" at the end. "I can't like it anymore!"

Haha. She continues to be such a character.

The other one I remembered is "noise-sound." Instead of saying, "What's that noise?" she'll say, "What that noise sound, Mom?" And she'll say it all the time. When a loud car drives by our house, when the dogs next door bark, when a plane flies overhead, when the dishwasher starts rinsing, when a big construction truck drives by our van on the highway. She's a very curious kid.

She needed some attention one day this week, so I got out the duplos and we built together. Cecily and Mira were very impressed with the castle I made when they got home from school, so a picture was taken before we tore it apart.

Just a cute picture of the little man in jeans. He's been a fussy guy since birth, but we're finally figuring out most of the things that upset his tummy in my breast milk. Right now, we're at wheat, dairy, chocolate, fresh garlic, beans, broccoli, and cauliflower. Pretty much anything that gives me gas, gives him gas, too. It's getting ridiculous. I will probably stop breastfeeding soon just because I can't cook any meals that I can eat and he seems to do well on colic-sensitive formula. It's been good that I've been able to breast feed though because I think going to formula exclusively earlier would have plugged him up good. He would go three to five days without pooping for about the first month, and it would be worse when we had to supplement formula more. But he's progressively getting more regular, so I'm more confident he'll be able to handle moving to just formula.

I don't know if y'all remember my saga a few years back about losing a lot of hair. I went to regular doctors, a dermatologist, and an expensive naturopath to find out nobody had any idea why I was losing my hair. It fell out for almost 2 years after having Jules and I think the only reason it stopped was because I got pregnant with Harrison. But it fell out even while I was pregnant until the 3rd trimester.

About a month ago, I bought some expensive supplements that were supposed to increase milk supply and quality that I wasn't sure I should purchase because I wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to breast feed. But I prayed about it and felt like they would be beneficial enough to be worth the investment. Well, if I stop breastfeeding, I won't use them all up. The hidden benefit I've found, though, is that they've made my hair stop falling out! They are worth the money just for that!

Jules is still fascinated with glasses. She found an old pair I still haven't taken to someplace that takes them (because I don't know where one of those places is).

And a picture proving that Steve changes poopy diapers, even in his church clothes. :D

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

Easter, Spring Break, Jules-isms, and newborn photos

Oy. It's been like a month since I did a post. I guess having a newborn is time-consuming. :) I was going to post last week, but decided I should process the newborn photos of Harrison that I took weeks ago and that took up all of my free time.

I really doubt I'm going to remember many details from 4 weeks ago. So I'll just explain the pictures this week. :)

Megan and her family came the week after Harrison was born. They came here for a couple of the days and went to my mom's for a couple of the days. We hosted the Sunday family dinner so we wouldn't have to haul all the stuff somewhere else. Babies require a lot of baggage!

Ben and Haylee's baby, Owen is about 6 months old and a bit of a chubby guy. It was funny to see him and Harrison next to each other.

We got a cousins picture since we hadn't gotten one in a couple of years. The oldest is holding the youngest here. Fourteen in total.

I took this picture to show my writing group how little Harrison was. He's grown a ton since then. From his 2 week appointment to when I took him in for the doctor to look at a rash 2 weeks later, he gained over 2 pounds.

I think part of the rapid weight gain was due to his tummy troubles. He would just fuss and fuss and fuss all day, sleeping only 30 minutes every couple of hours. He was gassy and spitting up and gagging and wheezing and arching his back every time he ate. But he wanted to eat every 1-2 hours, I think because it temporarily made his stomach feel better. It was exhausting. He also got a rash and all the hair on the top of his head fell out. Hence the trip to the doctor's office--which was totally unhelpful. They said it was cradle cap and baby acne. Since when does baby acne travel down the torso and onto the arm, legs, hands and feet? *sigh*

I stopped eating milk and chocolate and completely cut out wheat (I was already mostly gluten-free, but would cheat once a week or so). We also put him on a different, anti-colic formula. His rash is getting better and he's sleeping a lot more. But his hair is only barely starting to grow back. You can see how much he lost in this picture. *sad face*

Harrison's Nana and aunts and cousins were only too happy to help him sleep.

My mom helped the girls make sock bunnies. They all turned out cute and it was so interesting to see how they each put their own flair on the idea.

This was Mira's birthday list she made for her Nana. I thought it was cute. (Sorry it's upside down).

Jules found the dress up necklaces and decided to put them all on at once the other day. When she tried to take them off, she was pulling different necklaces in opposite directions, so of course they wouldn't go over her head. With a very concerned voice/face, she exclaimed, "Oh dear! I stuck!"

Not as skinny as when he was first born.

She likes crawling into our collapsible laundry baskets.

One Saturday morning, Mira buried Cecily in the sand box in our yard that hasn't been used since we moved in. Except maybe by the cat. So gross. They got showers as soon as they came inside.

I thought it was funny that he fell asleep like this. Sitting up in my lap with his elbow up by his ear.

One day it was ridiculously windy--like 25 mile-an-hour winds. The line of houses across the street to the north backs up to open fields and our house backs up to the community greenway. Since the mountains around here are covered in sage, it dries up, rolls into the fields, and on this particular day, got blown through the houses across the street and through the greenway in our back yard. It was like a tumbleweed stampede. But there was one house that the winds kind of whipped around instead of whipping through. It took the tumble weeds and piled them up on their front porch. They were like six feet high all along the front of their house. Steve and Mira and Emilia were good neighbors and went to help them unbury themselves.

I caught a rare picture of the solitary creature called Emilia. She's reading and petting her cat.

This was from the doctor's office. Cecily and Jules and now Harrison all made/make this face when attempting to poop. We call it the "poop face" and it cracks me up.

The kids had Spring Break two weeks ago and we decided to spend the first part of it in St. George with Grandma and Grandpa. Cindy and Joe and their kids decided to join us and we all slept in the same house! It was quite a party.

General Conference was that weekend, so we watched that on Saturday and the kids swam during the second session. That night Wilda sponsored an Easter egg hunt for the kids, since the next day was also Easter. Emilia and Haley decided to opt out of hunting and instead hid the eggs. There was only one that was never found. :) Jules thought it was all great fun and there was LOTS of candy eaten by all.

Sunday we watched Conference again. The Coombs' went to the other side of the family's Easter festivities, and swimming was not allowed, so it was a much quieter day. Cecily got Grandpa to play a ton of games with her and she was in heaven.

I had to laugh. Grandpa taught Cecily how to play foosball because he has a table in his family room. She played one game with him and "won." She then asked her daddy if he would come play. Steve said, "Oh, you want me to come be on your team?" and she replied, "No, Grandpa needs you on his team." Haha. I love kids.

Wilda went all out and made homemade spaghetti noodles for our dinner one night. We even got gluten free ones to work.

It was a wonderful weekend all around. I'm glad we got to go, because the next week, they found out that they officially get to go to their mission at the beginning of May. (They had been serving their mission as best they could remotely until they were able to get vaccines.) Jules skipped her nap on Tuesday to get a little more swimming in and I had to make a head sling for her out of one of her blankies on our drive home so she didn't have a 3-hour crick in her neck.

I wanted to record some Jules-isms before I forget them as well.

She is just as stubborn as always. Now she's taken to saying, "No, GO WAY!" and then running the other direction when she doesn't want to listen to us. It's not always the logical response either which makes it funnier. For example, she may say it after we say, "It's time to shut off your show now." But she's also just as likely to say it when we ask, "Do you want grapes or a banana with your lunch?"

She tells people regularly that it was "20 minutes ago." Like she'll ask to call Nana and as soon as Nana answers, Jules will say, "Nana! Twenty minutes ago!" She can never tell us what happened 20 minutes ago though. She just likes saying it.

She says "mine" instead of "my." So, "That's mine blankie." Or, "Mom, look at mine hat!" She says it so often that we often respond with "yourn" because our brains have started translating it as normal speech. "It is yourn hat!"

She makes this noise whenever she exerts any minimal amount of physical effort. Like when she jumps or climbs onto a chair or puts something on the table. So like 100 times a day. It sounds kind of like, "Huh!" if you're saying it with a karate chop.

Harrison is "Baby Bruddah." She thinks he's great, which I'm surprised about. She tries to take care of him and shares her blankie with him when he's crying. If he's sleeping in the other room and then starts crying, she often jumps up from what she's doing and cries, "Oh no! Baby bruddah!" and runs to give him his binkie (which she calls a pinkie).

That's all I can think of for now.

I will leave you with a link to the newborn photos of Harrison. Grandmas, they should be high quality enough to print if you want to download any of them. For the record, my favorite are teh squishy-faced ones. He makes that face a lot. :)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17ywloCUJknzNFHi33uKH1iU7kMV5nh4D