Closing Your Eyes Is Hard To Do

But oh so funny to watch. Here is a fantastic sequence of Boston trying to close his eyes to say prayers.

First use your fingers to manually shut eyes.

Then start to fold your arms, but check with one hand to make sure they are closed.

Once closed stick out lips to hold them shut. (He always has to stick out the lips and hold them there to close his eyes.)

Now fold your arms.

And finally we have success!

Now for some Silly Faces:

He then sticks his tongue and says ahhhhh

Scinch face (and yes that is a word)

and finally, a hilarious picture from Christmas morning.

Smile!

ElsieBaby smiled yesterday. A real responsive smile. Three times in a row. I was playing with her and blew a raspberry at her. Her eyes scrunched up and she smiled. I started crying like a sap and did it again and she smiled again. So then of course I did it about a thousand more times but she only smiled once more before she was ready to take a nap.

Ever since it has been Operation Make Elsie Smile. Andy did everything he could think of to get her to smile at him that night and was also successful.

Poor baby is going to be totally overstimulated from all of our efforts. Next step, catch it on camera.

Shake It

Boston just asked to sing a song.
I asked him what song he wanted to sing.
He said Love Shack.
Then he told me to shake it while he started dancing.

~Christmas Eve~

Christmas Best

Little Stud

Nothing says Christmas like tiny patent leather shoes

Pretty girl.

Smile?

Mommy's Sweatheart

Christmas Joy

Huh????

Kisses

Hugs

More Bostonisms

Boston continues to amaze us with his ever growing vocabulary. He is adding more verbs and pronouns everyday. We have to be careful what we say around him. He has perfect pronunciation of Holy Crap thanks to me. I was on the phone with a friend and he repeated everything I said. When I told her he was a parrot, he immediately said parrot.

He likes to tell everything bye bye. When the water drains out of the tub, bye bye water. When we drive past the church, bye bye church. When he points out a plane, bye bye plane. When leaves the room he tells me, "bye bye have fun."

He also calls me honey all the time. When we bought his Christmas jammies he picked them up and said "I like it". Then yesterday we got stuck in traffic, out of nowhere we hear this little voice, "come on lets go". We laughed our heads off. When we ask if he wants something he says, "where is it? Find it."

Boston loves this monkey. One night it didn't make it to his room when we put him to bed and he cried until we brought it in.

Cheeser

love the hair

Silly face

Even with a dirty face he is cute

Updated Elsie

ElsieBaby is growing like a weed already. She is totally out of the newborn stage and it breaks my heart. She will be 1 month this Tuesday. She is sleeping through the night really well, last night she had an 8 hour stretch. She is very content and happy all the time. On the rare occasion she does cry, she is easily comforted. She doesn't need to be rocked to sleep, which great when I need to chase Boston. I have never had to spend hours trying to soothe her. She is a snuggle bunny and although she is very content on her own, there is about a 2 hour space at night when she loves to be held. And we are most happy to oblige.
And so, we get to the good stuff. More pictures.

This is my new favorite. She is so alert. I am amazed how well she holds herself up already. She totally locks eyes with us (especially Andy, already a Daddy's girl) and will respond to us.

More push-ups

Looks like her mommy

totally passed out

My girlie girl

Perspective- Or Lack There Of

I just read yet another article about perspective in trials. And it was total junk.

The gist of the article was; Don't worry about your trials so much, some one else always has it worse. Why is it a competition? How do you really know if anyone has it worse? If we went through every persons trial in the whole world and lined them up with who has it worse than you, someone would have to be at the end of the line.

What do you tell that guy?

Sorry buddy, you really do have it the worst. No perspective left for you. Good luck with having it the worst.

And how would you decide the degree of trial? Would it be a scale of 1-10? Would it be categories? You have suffered a 4 in grief, a 2 in heartache and a 9 in frustration so you've got it worse than her. Would there be categories for degree of difficulty? Originality?

Trials are individual. What is hard to me, might not be hard to someone else. Trial usually works on the weak parts of you, causing you to strive to overcome them and become stronger. My weaknesses are other people strengths. My trial is no trial to them at all. So how can we really compare at all?

I often think this when I hear people talk about the pioneers. I amazed at what the pioneers did. They had great strength in the face of adversity. They are an inspiration to us all. But I just shake me head when I hear people say, when I look at the pioneers my troubles just don't seem so bad. Again, how can we compare? They had terrible trials facing cold and starvation and persecution. Today we deal with horrible crime, war, drugs, violence, child predators facilitated by the Internet, economic struggle and the list goes on. Every day we fight against these things and become stronger and overcome them. Our trials aren't devalued by the trials of others. We should learn from them and use what they teach in our own battles.

I think the true perspective we should have has nothing to do with what others are doing, but the eternal perspective. We would be much better off remembering how short this life is, and how great the reward in the end. Remembering that we were given trials to become stronger. And that we do have the strength and ability to over come them.

The knowledge that I have the ability to overcome anything handed to me, makes me feel a lot better than knowing how bad so and so's got it.

Global Warming = Big Fat Lie

I live in the Valley of the Sun, home of the Sundevils, also known as the DESERT, and I'm FREEZING. I'm wearing a sweater and jeans, and I just turned on the furnace. Who turns on the furnace in the desert? Isn't this why I moved away from Wisconsin?...so I wouldn't ever be cold again? Melting ice caps or not, I could go for some global warming right now.

All I Want For Christmas

So my friend Shannon just posted her grown-up Christmas list. It had some pretty cool things on it. It also made me realize I haven't thought about a "list" in years. I started to wonder what I would put on a list (putting aside all previous Christmas rants for the moment).
So here it is, my grown-up Christmas list.
The cozy coupe.

The all time classic Radio Flyer wagon

A bigger outdoor slide

A must with two babies.

And finally, something I have wanted for years and years. Anyone got an extra $500 lying around for the entire series of Star Trek The Next Generation? *sigh* My secrets out, I'm a trekky.

In Which I Remember Why I Don't Like Christmas

I am not a fan of Christmas. I think it is far to commercial. It is supposed to be a season of joy and goodwill, and in my opinion people just get grumpier during the holiday season. Everyone is stressed about money, and shopping.

Every year I seem to forget the previous year and become more optimistic. I don't know if this is because I really am optimistic, or just forgetful, or if I am just trying to do it for Andy because I know how very much he loves Christmas and the magic of it and I hate to be a downer for him.

This year we had planned for Christmas to be very small, we lost everything and then some when we sold our house in Wisconsin and then took pay cuts to come back to Arizona. We had decided not to get anything for ElsieBaby, cause really, what's the point. For Boston we have 3 very inexpensive toys and that's it, figuring with all that the grandparents are going to do he would have far more than enough. For us we talked about doing nothing, but Andy had already thrown that out the window and got me a couple of things. Then yesterday we found out we were getting a bonus we hadn't planned on. So today I headed to the store to buy exactly one gift for Andy.

Stupid.

I went to the mall and was almost hit by two other drivers and cut off by one that didn't have the right of way. I watched three other people try to get themselves into accidents while driving recklessly for a parking spot. I then got honked at for waiting to turn left. Then I got trapped on four different aisles waiting for parking schmucks. I finally parked at the end of the lot. I went inside and had doors shut in my face, people run to cut in front of me in line and waited in a huge line. Then as I was running to get the heck out of there, Boston was happily singing and talking to himself and made a very loud but happy noise. A woman got all mad and disgusted and scolded Boston and shushed him. I opened my mouth to tell her off, but I'm happy to report I just shut it and took off. I had bought the one thing I was after in the first store I had gone in and it had still taken me almost two hours. I then had to rush to go home and feed ElsieBaby. I got everything loaded in the car, pulled out only to get stuck behind several more parking schmucks. Again, happy to report I didn't honk at any of them, but I really wanted to and cursed them out under my breath.

All the way home I thought about Christmas and how irritated I was. Christmas is supposed to about Christ. Every year I wish for a Christmas with out presents, not because we can't afford it but because we choose not to. I wonder if it will ever happen. As much as it annoys me and as sad as it makes me that it isn't more Christ centered, it also makes me feel bad that I can't do more for my babies. Then I wonder what we would do Christmas morning if we didn't have any gifts.

When I think about what I want Christmas to be, I think about the Christmas program in sacrament from my home ward two years ago. It was mostly the fantastic choir with just a few parts read between the songs. I was totally overcome by the spirit. I cried the whole time. I was pregnant with Boston and ready to pop any minute. When they sang about Mary and her baby I totally fell apart. As they sang I thought about having my own baby boy and how Mary must have felt. This is what I want to feel every year. I want that to be what Christmas morning is about. The Savior and family and love.

So here's to ending angry crowds, dangerous parking lots, debt inducing shopping, trampled store employees, and commercialism. And finding joy and satisfaction in family, time together and remember the true reason for the season.

Sing, Sing A Song

Ever wonder what it sounds like when you sing in a bucket? Boston has, and now he knows.
We had been listening to Boston sing for awhile today so Andy went to get him up. About 30 seconds later, Andy comes running to get me laughing his head off. He opened the door and he couldn't see Boston. Boston was standing behind the blinds, he LOVES to look out the window. Boston didn't hear Andy come in and just kept singing. When Andy peeked around the blinds this is what he found. Boston just kept singing. He was still standing there singing when I got there. Arms straight down at his sides, facing out the window singing his head off. Andy and I were both trying to be silent so we wouldn't interrupt him but we were laughing so hard I wet myself. I ran to get the camera, still laughing I ran smack into the wall. I wonder if anyone saw him from the street.

Bostonisms

Today we had just got up and I was feeding Little Miss when the doorbell rang. Not expecting anyone, I was just going to ignore it. But, remembering we just had a new baby and it might be a friend, I went to peek through the peep hole. Boston walked over with me, watched me for a minute then pressed his eye up to the door under the handle.

Boston loves to sing songs with us. I often catch him "singing" to himself now. Here are the few words he sings. Good luck with guessing what they are.

rosey rosey ashes rosey ring ashes down down down!

(clap clap clap) O! (clap clap clap) O! (clap clap clap) O!

sing song piano sing piano sing sing piano song man. La la la la (just a hint, this is classic rock, raising the kid right!)

up above so high, twinkle star are high

head shoulders head shoulders

He also sings along to the radio in the car no matter what song is on, it is a lot of la lalalala's and oooo's going very high then very low.

And one last random thing, we have done airplane to feed Boston. Now he will ask you to do it before he will eat what you are giving him. Or, if he is feeding himself then he will do the airplane to himself.

I Thought She Was Dead

Last night I put down Little Miss about midnight. She has started going about 4 hours between some feedings, especially at night. (When she is really asleep, I can NOT wake her up.) I was expecting her to wake me up anywhere between about 2 and 4 in the morning. Then I crawled into bed and crashed.

Then suddenly I woke with a start (I keep wanting to do this post to The Night Before Christmas for some reason...) I had that panic feeling when you oversleep, I knew it was much later than it should have been, that I had been sleeping far to long. I jumped from the bed headed for the light, when I saw the clock. It was after 5 in the morning.

My heart sank as I went for the light. I was sure that I had lost her in the night. (Stupid I know, but remember this is my 4th pregnancy. I am always afraid.) I flipped on the light and touched her, expecting her to be cold. But instead she wrapped her warm little hand around my finger.

I was so relieved. I reached to wake her so I could feed her, but stopped. 5 hours is a long time to go when you are trying to get a nursing rhythm down. I was on the verge of a total explosion. I went and pumped first and she was still asleep when I came back (really it was less than 5 minutes, I kid you not when I say I was gonna blow). I wonder how long she would have slept had I not woke her up.

It is nice to get some sleep, and I am so grateful for such a content baby, but it still scared the living crap out of me. What baby sleeps 5 hours + at one week?

My Week In Pictures....a LOT of Pictures

First shot, same face as Boston

Weighing in at the same weight as Boston as well.

So glad to be holding her instead of gestating her!

First Family Picture

Introducing Boston to his new baby sister

First entire family picture

Boston cheesing it up for the camera

Coming home from the hospital

A close-up

Snoozing on Mama

First bath

Little piggies

Fantastic sleeper

Looking around

A rare site, she only cries when she gets her diaper changed

Click this one to enlarge and check out her finger nails.

Thumbs up to sisters

Boston seems like a monster in comparison

Looking adorable