January 2007 archive

It's Already January 21st?

It seems like we just barely got back from our trip to Kennewick for Christmas, but it’s already near the end of January. Maybe time has flown by because I haven’t kept up with posting pictures. Well, I posted a bunch of pictures today, go check 'em out. Here’s the summary of the past month or so.

We drove to Kennewick for Christmas. It was great to visit and very relaxing for me to get away. We drove home soon after to have tubes put in Reece’s ears. Overall he’s been much happier since having that done, but he’s also had a cold and gotten about four more teeth since then, so some grumpiness has still been manifest.

My parents came over here on President’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Weekend and we celebrated Micah’s birthday. He’s three now. We opened some presents while they were here, and then on his actual birthday he got to open a few more from Isaac, Ily, and I. For each one he excitedly exclaimed, “I wuv it!” For the puzzle he even said, “I wuv it, it’s so sweet.” He’s a funny kid.

I took Isaac on another ski trip to Cooper Spur on President’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It was cold and clear and the snow was great. I convinced Isaac to try the chair lift this time and he really liked it. We skied until they wouldn’t let us on the lift any more. Isaac is doing very well.

The other big news this month is that it snowed! It’s a rare thing here, but we got about 4 inches. It actually snowed once on January 10th in the evening and school was canceled the next day. Then Tuesday morning we woke up to more snow. It didn’t start melting until Thursday afternoon. So, there was no school Monday for presidents Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, then school was canceled for snow Tuesday through Thursday. Isaac only went to school on Friday. Ily and the boys went to the neighborhood park and went sledding (along with every kid in the neighborhood) most of those days. It was great. They also had a big moms-versus-kids snowball fight one day. They tell me it was very fun. I was hopeful, but HP didn’t close for any of the snow days.

UPDATE: Corrected the name of the holiday weekend mentioned above.

Posted by Bryan on January 21, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

"9 A.M. church better than 1 P.M. church," Considered an Understament

There was a time in my life when I really liked being able to sleep in on Sunday mornings before lazily getting ready for afternoon church. Last year was not that time. We did have the one o’clock schedule, but there was no sleeping in or lazily getting ready involved. Oh sure, Isaac, always our best sleeper, could sleep in, and if he did happen to wake up early he didn’t wake us up. Reece and Micah knew no such behavior. Worse than a forced early start on the day by far though, was the interrupted nap time. Micah never did get the hang of nursery instead of napping. Reece was no better. I think holding one, or sometimes both, of them for the last two hours of church every Sunday for the past year is what really caused me to have to lay down with a sore neck for 5 of the 11 days of holiday vacation I had this December. One o’clock church with little kids has been a sore trial.

But today, today was so good. Today we started the 9 o’clock schedule. When the alarm went off early this morning I jumped out of bed with excitement. For once it was my turn to bound into the boys’ bedroom early on a Sunday and see them all bleary eyed. Micah had a bit of a crying fit, but otherwise we made it to church on time and had a nice Sacrament Meeting. By the time nursery started Micah was fully awake and he walked right in, under his own free will, without looking back. Ily isn’t teaching primary for the first time in three years so she even held Reece and I enjoyed the next two hours of Sunday School and Priesthood unburdened. It has been a long time since I’ve had that pleasure. But it didn’t stop there. When I got home from processing donations after church, the quiet of peaceful napping pervaded the house; it nearly brought a tear to my eye. Aside from a small snooze, I was also able to spend some time reading, pondering, preparing a Family Home Evening lesson for tomorrow, and writing this therapeutic journal entry. As I just remarked to Ily, this is the most peaceful and productive Sunday I’ve had in probably a year. Life is good.

Posted by Bryan on January 8, 2007 | Filed under: Family News Religion | 2 comments

Hurray!

Ok, so it has been a little over a week since Reece got tubes surgically put in his ears. He is a happy kid, but there have been some drastic changes in him that have occurred this week.

• Change #1

He actually naps now! Not just catnapping as we go places. He really takes 2 or even 3 really great naps and wakes up really, really, really happy from them. This limits where I can go during the day now, but I think the trade off is worth it.

• Change #2

He is even happier than he was before. Whoa, how can that be? How can a happy calm kid (except when his ears hurt) become even happier? My guess is he feels good and wants the rest of the world to know about it by being the happiest, cutest little guy ever.

• Change #3

He has slept thru the night more this week than in the last four months combined. This makes for a very happy Mom!

• Change #4

OK, so this has no relation to the tubes I am sure, but he has become a very voracious eater now. We started with bananas and applesauce and rice cereal just before Thanksgiving to help him not suffer from antibiotic induced diarrhea (remember 6 ear infections in 4 months means 6 rounds of antibiotics which means…well, diarrhea). He took to the food quickly, and now he wants everything. He loves it all. Even textured food. We went out to dinner at Izzy’s pizza (pizza buffet place with salad and soup too) and he could hardly get enough of their chicken and dumpling soup. He was downing the tapioca pudding, the soups, the Jello, the crackers… And he eats there for free, which equates to awesome for us. We can try all sorts of foods on him there and find out what he likes and doesn’t like with very little cooking on my part, and for very cheap, and the best part is, they clean up the dinner plates too! This kid pounds down the food and I wonder where he puts it all. I predict he will have a growth spurt here soon and get even longer than he already is!

Posted by Ily on January 7, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Reece update

So the tubes are in Reece’s ears and we know, absolutely know, he doesn’t have ear problems. So why does he persist in being grumpy and not sleeping? It turns out that he has 4 little top teeth coming in. I forgot how miserable teething was and now that I am going through it again, I am realizing why I hate baby teeth! He still has happy times in the day, but oh how he has a hard time sleeping! The poor little guy will be so tired that his eyes are red and puffy and he can hardly keep them open, but as soon as you lay him down he hollers at you to say “NO, it is not OK to lay me down!” For the past few days, I have only gotten him to nap while I have been holding him.

I think he is finally starting to feel better now though because for the first time in a long while, he slept through the night last night (Hallelujah!). I hope some more of the teeth broke through. One is out, once they all are out he will hopefully be back to his perfectly happy self.

Posted by ily on January 3, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

A little bit of info about oil slicks

Well, I told someone my story about the oil slick a while back and they told me a great way to clean it up and I figured I need to document it for future reference. If you have a cat, then get out your cat litter (the fresh, clean stuff) and pour it over the spill. It sucks up the oil and makes it much easier to clean up. These people who shared this trick with me run a restaurant and so I am sure they have experienced a few oil slicks in their time. Along the same lines, someone told me that oatmeal works in a similar way and if you don’t have a cat, then that might be a bit more practical to have around the house. Now I have a good use for all the oatmeal in my food storage!

Posted by Ily on January 3, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments