Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hosea – it ain’t so

I can’t believe Hosea won Top Chef…what a bummer

Carla and Stephan were clearly better chefs. Plus Hosea cheated on his girlfriend with that skanky chef Leah. The judges should have taken away points for that.

If I didn’t like this show so much I would quit watching it. It is a good thing it is the end of the season – I think we both need a cooling off period. We are officially on a break (until the recap show next week…)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Why I love my husband…let me count the ways

The list is too long to count, but here is a start:
  1. He buys me flowers every February 19th to remind me of the day he proposed.
  2. He lets me sleep in on the weekends and sometimes he surprises me with breakfast in bed. (Sometimes the breakfast isn’t for me, it’s for Natalie, but it is still breakfast in bed.)

  3. He takes out the trash, vacuums the house, and shovels the driveway.

  4. He buys me nice things and tries not to complain when I buy things for myself or Natalie.

  5. He loves me unconditionally.
  6. When I called to tell him I was in a car accident on the way to work, he first asks how I’m doing before asking how his truck is doing…
**As you can see from the photo the only damage was a bump to the fender. A big “morning rush hour drive” thank you to the driver on I-80 who slammed on their breaks just as I was checking my blind spot. I felt like an idiot, I’m a good driver and this is my first accident…I think the bruise to my ego is bigger than the bruise to his truck. At least I wasn’t driving the MDX.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Will you be my Valentine?

For Valentine’s Day, Phil gave Natalie her first valentine. She was so happy her dad wanted to be her first valentine; she decided to give Phil a valentine too.

And prodigy that she is, she insisted on writing her own name.


I’ve read that breastfeeding leads to a higher I.Q.

Maybe refusing the bottle is a good thing?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Poli-ouch!

Natalie had her 3 month check up on Friday – I can hardly believe she is already 3 months old! She received her Polio shot and took it like a champ – only cried for a split second.
She weighed in at 11 pounds 9 ounces and is almost 25 inches long! She is a little string bean. She is long enough for her six month clothes but not big enough to fill them out. Case in point, her new jeans and corduroy pants are long enough, but they almost fall off if you pick her up! Now I’ll be searching for baby belts to buy.
I still come home from work every day to a grumpy girl because she isn’t taking a bottle. We picked up a few new bottles and nipples over the weekend and the sitter just sent me a text to let me know that Natalie (although not happy about it) actually took six swallows from one bottle – with a bunch of prodding…but it happened! I think we are on the right track; soon we will have to take the bottle away.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Water with hops is always better

While I’m trying to drink and ocean of water a day so I don’t feel dehydrated, Phil often says, “I like my water with hops”. Truly, who needs water when you have beer? When I ask if he wants salad with dinner, he promptly answers “NO”. As I’m sweating away on the treadmill Phil is happy to play his X-Box and drink a beer. And who can fault him, he doesn’t gain any weight and really, the only reason I drink water and get on the treadmill is to prevent weight gain!

Well, things they are a changin’.

About a year before I got pregnant I started taking a folic acid & DHA vitamin so that I would be “extra” healthy when we decided to get pregnant. When I actually got pregnant, that one vitamin changed into many – a prenatal, a folic acid, a separate DHA, a vitamin D, an iron supplement and a calcium pill. Phil took notice and eventually decided to start taking a multi-vitamin. He said “if you can take all those pills, I guess I can take one”. Well it has now spilled over into other areas. For the past two nights Phil has come home and jumped on the treadmill. He even set it up so it records how many miles he accrues (I haven’t even done that). Well, being that I am one competitive person, I’ve decided to turn this change of events into a challenge. Last night after Phil got off the treadmill I decided to jump on (Yep, I broke away from Natalie long enough to exercise). I made sure to go just a little farter than Phil – he isn’t beating me!

Oh, and one more surprising thing…Phil actually drank water after he got off the treadmill – water without hops!

Wish me luck in this competition

Thursday, February 12, 2009

First Date

It is happening too fast...Natalie is dating. Fortunately for us, her "date" slept through most of their first meeting.
Anthony and his cute mom, Miranda, met Natalie and me for a cup of coffee at their cute coffee shop, Highland Perk. They are currently in the process of building on to the existing building so their pizzeria can join the coffee shop in pure coffee-pizza bliss.

Oh, and the best part about this relationship (not counting the coffee and pizza) is Miranda was born in Price, Utah; which means, Anthony is part-Priceonian. My mom was born in Price, which makes me part-Priceonian and Natalie a quarter-Priceonian. My mom always says "Only nice people come out of Price", so I guess this is a step in the right direction.

I am already looking forward to the next date, tasty coffee and eventually tasty pizza to go with it!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Auntie Ashley

Auntie Ashley was in town for work the first week of February. It was so good to see her and Natalie enjoyed playing with her too!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The bottle battle wages on…

As some of you know our little girl won’t take a bottle. It is very distressing, especially now because I’m back at work so she doesn’t eat anything from 7:00am to 5:30 pm. She just tries to sleep most of the day so she can avoid being hungry. When we first brought her home we had been scared into submission by all the people who advised against giving her a bottle. Everyone we talked to, the lactation consultant, the nurses, La Leche League members and the internet, said the only way to avoid nipple confusion was to avoid bottles and pacifiers all together, so we did.

Breastfeeding was so hard in the beginning, I remember sitting with her at 2:00 in the morning and thinking, “ouch…ouch…just go get a bottle”, but I didn’t, I stuck it out so we could avoid nipple confusion. Eventually, feeding got easier and easier and soon we both knew what we were doing. When she was almost a month old, Phil and I decided to go to his work holiday party, which meant leaving Natalie at home with a bottle as her only source of food. I was confident she would take it – it was breast milk, and the internet said babies love bottles!

We left her home with her grandparents, Auntie Laura and Uncle Phil and a bottle… We arrived home to hear that she had taken the bottle and was a happy camper and to our surprise, no nipple confusion – I fed her and she slept through the night for the first time! We had done it, avoided nipple confusion and got our baby to take the breast and the bottle. Or so we thought…
The next night I had a meeting to go to, so I left Phil home with another bottle of breast milk and wished him well. About three hours after leaving I received a call from Phil saying Natalie wasn’t happy and was refusing the bottle. “Refusing the bottle?!?” I thought babies loved bottles and you wanted to avoid them because they wouldn’t go back to mom after having a bottle. How could she refuse a bottle? By hour four she was so hungry that her dad finally got her to eat about an ounce. Then she ate like a mad woman when I got home.

Phil and I often look at each other and think, “What did we do wrong? Why doesn’t she take a bottle?” She is very stubborn, and has already figured out that when the bottle is coming at her face that she should start throwing her arms up and swatting at it – that way it won’t go in her mouth. Phil has tried feeding her using the breastfeeding pillow, in her bouncer seat, in the swing, laying on a pillow, watching TV, in a quiet room, and while wearing my shirt. Nothing works! Auntie Ashley and Grandma have also tried – the girl just won’t eat.

I hope she figures out that she needs to take the bottle. We have already spent a small fortune on bottles, nipples, bottle warmers, and breast milk storage bags. I’m not sure there is a bottle or nipple out there we haven’t tried.
And I have enough frozen breast milk to keep the octuplets in milk for a month. (Maybe a slight exaggeration…but there is a lot of milk in my new freezer!)
Lesson learned – don’t avoid the bottle, babies are smart and this whole nipple confusion story was clearly made up by crazy anti-bottle people! Our next baby will be on the breast and bottle right out of the womb!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Vegas Vacation - Pack n Play

Last weekend we decided to take a trip to St. George and Vegas. Uncle Philip was playing with Rattle and Hum at the Santa Fe Station Casino and Natalie had never been to Vegas, so why wouldn’t we go?

We packed up the car on Thursday morning and Grandpa, Grandma, Daddy, Mommy and Natalie set off for St. George. Natalie slept most of the way, until we decided to wake her up in Beaver for lunch. She was more interested in looking around and stretching than eating. So we packed her back in her car seat and set off for St. George. We stopped to say hello to some family friends and then traveled to the hotel for the night. We went to dinner and then went to sleep. Natalie slept like a champ – 8 hours in the pack ‘n play, but mom wasn’t so lucky.


We woke up Friday, drove the boys to the golf course and then left for some shopping. We picked up the boys and made a mad dash for Vegas. Natalie ate about an hour before we left and wasn’t happy that we took so long to get to the hotel to feed her. She doesn’t understand why she has to stay in her car seat while we are driving. She cried for about the last 10 minutes and then was very happy to eat once we got there.

That night, after dinner, we went to the Chrome showroom to see Rattle and Hum perform. Because there was loud music and smoking, Natalie stayed in the room. Grandpa took the first babysitting slot, grandma joined him about 20 minutes later and I left the concert around midnight to pick up Natalie and put her to bed. Phil joined us about 4:30 in the morning after hanging with the band and playing cards. Natalie woke up about 6:30 for food and then went back to sleep until 8:30.

We left Saturday morning, stopped in Mesquite and then drove home. It was a long drive, but Natalie was a champ!

What a great vacation the week before I have to go back to work.

Heading for home..