Merry Christmas

Christmas was so great this year! Busy, but fun. My entire family was in town, so my mom had a very full house. This is the first year where the cousins have all been together and been old enough to actually enjoy playing with each other. The girls, especially "lil sis" really liked looking at "the baby". It was very cute.

I was very pleased to have a white Christmas this year. I was getting a bit nervous, but our weather pulled through and we got dumped on pretty much the whole week before. For me, it's just not Christmas without snow.



The highlight of my gifts from Jay was an MC Escher calendar. "A measly calendar?" you ask? This is no ordinary calendar. Jay shrunk down pictures of our family and cut them out and glued them in about 2/3 the dates, and the other dates have lovey quotations hand-written in.

I'm a sucker for homemade presents :)


The Frog also gave me the best possible present... he slept in! I couldn't believe it! It was the first time that I got to wake up naturally since he was born. Yes folks, I slept in until 10:20. I thank my family for wearing him out :D

Finally, we cheated and waited to buy a fake tree until the day after Christmas (50% off!) and put it up then. We don't have a ton of ornaments, but I think it's pretty cute anyway :D

Merry Smithmas!

Well, the Christmas Chaos is in full throttle- the whole fam is in town, cookies are in the oven, snow is falling, and the presents are mostly all wrapped. (Oh, I take that back. Snow was falling) I just love any excuse that gets the whole Janet-clan together :) And if that's not good enough, we get to have Jay's family in town this weekend, so we're surely busy.

We couldn't wait to give the Frog his Christmas present, so we already opened it for him. It's the famous Bumbo! Sadly, they only had 2 left at Baby's R Us, and they were both pink, so our little man will have to prove his feminine security by using a pink seat. I think it will be good practice for later.

The Frog has been mighty busy at other things as well. Nanny gave us some wrist rattles that I never really used much because he didn't really get that all his flailing was making that rattley noise, so I figured, what's the point? However, I discovered that if we strap them to his hands instead of his wrists, he enjoys sucking on their faces (one's a monkey, the other an elephant) without having to constantly hold on to them. (i.e. without me having to constantly stick them back in his hands) so that's been pretty fun for him.


Probably the most exciting thing, though, is today he finally pushed up on his hands!! I think it may have been a fluke, though, because we tried to get him to do it again, with my camera hovering, and he never did it again. Got close though... You can see him last week in his red sweatshirt, and then today in white. Maybe he's saving it for a Christmas present :)

PS Happy Birthday Joseph Smith!

The Tiny Tie

Sunday was quite an eventful day for the Frog. He wore a collared shirt and tie for the first time-- thanks Eva for sending it to us! He looked sooooo handsome. (Yes, I took this shot during church. I was going to wait to get a daddy-son shot, but the Jay pointed out that he might spit up on it by the time we get a chance, so I did it right then. Notice the typical Mormon pew in the background :D) It's still a bit big on him, hence the rolling back of the sleeve, but I just couldn't wait any longer for him to try it on.

I love how he looks like he's being reverent in this shot. ;)

Eva found this little number at H&M--ohhh how I wish we had them in Utah or could at least order things online. I haven't seen any ties for such a little guy anywhere else and I am inspired to try to make my own. We'll see...


The other big event on Sunday was that the Frog got to spend time (awake!) with his best friend Caleb. (even though he doesn't know it's his best friend yet...) They were born a day apart and have similar tastes in clothing-- they were both wearing Tigger outfits! The Frog swears they didn't even call ahead to check with each other, and I believe him. (Mostly because he hasn't quite learned to master the telephone yet.) The two boys are unaware that they spend over an hour together almost every day while their moms walk together, usually one or the other is asleep. Yesterday, though, they spent a whole evening together while their parents made/ate pizza and played Arkham Horror. (or Arkham "harrer" if Jay is saying it :p) We had a great time!

You Stocking Me?

The stockings are done! Not sure if they'll be our permanent family stockings, but they'll be great for a few years at least. I'm amazed at how quickly they worked up!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

My my, time flies...

We had a fun, but small Thanksgiving up at my mom's this year. Realizing that I have never made a turkey on my own before, and commenting to Jay that I would be very nervous to attempt my first one under the pressures of the holiday, he suggested we buy one and try to cook it on a normal day- sans pressure. So we did.

I had full intentions of making it, but as it turns out, Jay pretty much did the whole thing.  (to the surprise of his mom ;) Jack needed to go to sleep right when I needed to be prepping it and putting it in the oven, so Jay took out the neck (we couldn't find the giblets until after it was cooked. oops), rinsed it, patted it dry, and stuffed it. The frog was finally asleep in my Moby Wrap Baby Carrier (I love this thing BTW) so I had a free hand to brush the turkey with olive oil and then Jay put it in our oven bag and put it in the oven.  

So turns out that it's not all that involved to make a turkey, but I guess I can't technically say because I didn't really make it.  I think it turned out really well!

Jay carved it and we ended up with 3 plates piled high with turkey (the 18 pounder was the smallest one I could find) and we each had about one slice.  Needless to say, I froze 5 quart size bags of cooked turkey and am probably going to end up making turkey enchiladas, soup, curry, etc until it's all gone.  Suggestions welcome!

Other than that, we've been pretty busy with the Frog's "schedule"- meaning as soon as I feel like I'm understanding his sleep patterns, he does something really unpredictable and gets it off kilter.  *sigh*  At least he regularly has a 7 hour time stretch between feedings... now if I could just get that stretch to be while I'm sleeping, we'd really be doing something great!

I've put up Christmas lights all around the house and on the front of our yard, and gave in and bought some decorations before the post-Christmas sale, though we may not buy a fake tree until after Christmas to get a good bargain.  Kind of sad, but Jay and decided not to do presents this year anyway, on behalf of saving for a new washer and drier, so it would be depressingly empty underneath anyway.  We are going to fill each others' stockings though- which means we need to own stockings.  I've picked and cut out fabric and some decor for our stockings and I'll hopefully get those made up by the end of the week.  Pictures to follow :)

Cutenesses

I'm amazed by my frequency of posts as of late, but I can't help it... I keep getting cute pics I want to share.

The Frog's latest developments:

reading Pooh

spit bubbles

Newborn No More

Our little Frog is getting bigger! I still remember gazing longingly at the 3 month old clothing, hanging in his closet, and now I find myself lamenting at the loss of his new born clothes. Our little two month old has finally moved on to bigger onesies and I'm starting to feel like it's happened too fast. Here are two outfits I will dearly miss:

The fuzzy, green, giraffe PJ's were my first love. I would often put him in them long before bedtime and delay dressing him in "real" clothes as long as possible, just so I could adore the Frog in fuzzy form.



This cute little number was a recent shower gift from Rem. I love the asymmetric snaps and cute wintery pattern. Sadly, the Frog never wore it for a full day, for it seems it had some kind of intestinal effect on him and he would poop on it soon after being dressed in its cuteness. Luckily, it remains unstained and will be used on future Frog-like presences.

Even More Awkward than "Awkward"

Isn't the word "awkward" so aptly spelled? I can't think of a more awkward looking word. (I'm willing to be proved wrong) The only thing more awkward than "awkward" was last Sunday.

Jay and I teach Sunday school to the 11/12/13 year olds, which means that ever since The Frog arrived, Jay teaches and I just try to encourage participation. This past Sunday, the lesson was on "Moral Cleanliness"- i.e. sexual purity. If that's not awkward enough, after being in class about 5 minutes, Jay turns to me (I wasn't paying attention because The Frog was being fussy) and says, "Libby, can you take over for me for a minute?" And starts leaving the room. (Turns out the Thai food we had on Saturday night might have caused him some gastrointestinal troubles.)

So there I was. In a room with four 11/12/13-year old boys, and one fussy baby, and no preparation, and expected to talk about sexual purity.

right.

Luckily Jay had already opened his scriptures to the story where Joseph runs away from Potiphar's wife (Genesis) who tries to seduce him- which means I basically made them read the whole chapter. And then I also made one of the boys read the entire section in the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet. And then I started getting really desperate and I'm not even sure what I was talking about (hopefully they weren't listening) when Jay came back and saved me.

Don't worry, the Frog was crying the whole time.

Did I mention I had to tell these kids to not have sex before marriage?

Did I mention that all of them seemed like they never even thought about touching girls?

Did I mention that it was really awkward?

And just so as not to disappoint, here's the Frog :)

Sleeping Record!

The Frog slept for 6 HOURS STRAIGHT last night. SIX!!! And it was all while I was asleep: 10-4.

This is cause for celebration

and a cute picture of him sleeping :)

The Blue Mallow

I've finally decided I need to do something a bit physical, just because I love it so much and I need to get out of the house more, so I've decided to start walking. It's been really fun to walk around my neighborhood and finally start recognizing where I am, or discovering two streets that connect. My Peg Perego Pliko P3 Classico Stroller is awesome too. (Thanks Nanny!)

But, I think my favorite part is how cute The Frog looks all bundled up.

Chocolate Success

You long-time readers (do I have any?) may remember this post about the delicious chocolate cake I had. Well, I FINALLY got around to making it. (8 months... not so bad) A girl/woman/lady (I don't know why, but I feel weird calling people who I consider to be my friends a woman. I still feel like a girl. Girls need a "guy" equivalent that is not "gal". I dislike gal. Not sure why.) in my ward had a baby shower and I was asked to bring a dessert. YAY! A great excuse! I used my silicone bundt pan- SO AWESOME.

It tasted as good as it looks :)

Nursery Additions

The Frog's Nanny bought him a cute little froggy mobile, but we couldn't attach it to our crib, (too complicated to explain why) so I've been on the lookout for a different one. My oldest bro and sister-in-law suggested the Infant Stim-Mobile and so I bought it on amazon (Thanks Laura for the gift card!) and it came on Tuesday.

The Frog LOVES it! More than once I've put him under it while fussy and he'll immediately stop fussing and just stare at it, mesmerized. He even smiles! (notice the pic) It keeps him entertained for his whole awake time, and it doesn't even move or have music! My favorite part about it is that it comes with many pictures, so you can switch it up and give him something else to look at. I also like that you can change its height, so that new babies are able to focus on it really close to their face, and when they get old enough to reach for it, you can raise it up higher. So smart!

While I'm discussing nursery additions, I've been meaning to find some kind of wall hanging that would be good for a nursery, but also functional and bright- something interesting for him to look at as well. I found the PERFECT thing at TJMaxx Home Goods for a very reasonable price.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for numbers :)

My Boys

Aren't they the cutest?

Happy Halloween!

Last night, my brother had a really fun Halloween party complete with costumes, decorations, and even The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We got to debut our costumes- Jay and I went as Mexicans (can you see the stache? It's real.) and The Frog was a burrito. My parents showed up as Beethoven and Mozart's wife (none of us are sure that Beethoven ever got married...)- so fun! I don't think I've ever seen them dress up before :) John was headless, and I sadly didn't get any shots of Audra- a very cute ninja turtle. My nephew was a little studly fire fighter, and his little brother was an adorable bee (I forgot to get his picture after he woke up and got out of his carseat). Look at the veggie plate my mom brought. Believe it or not, that funky looking center piece is a deformed carrot from their garden. All in all, it was way fun :) Hopefully this will be an annual event.

Yesterday was also a big day for the Frog. I'm convinced that he is capable of smiling on purpose now, and he's figured out how to suck on his fist! He is so talented :)

Mac-ing It Up

I'm typing this post from a Mac! Not sure how I feel about it yet... I have always been a PC user, though I appreciated being able to check email or print on a Mac in college, since those were the computers that were always empty in the computer labs. I've always been quite proud of my PCness, in fact. However, living with a Mac-er, a very enthusiastic, avid Mac-er, has perhaps helped me have a change of heart. I admit that I am seduced by the sleekness, the lighted keyboard, and clever use of obvious names like "numbers" all exhibited by the Mac. But I have been using Windows for quite sometime and it will be an adjustment.

Now, here I am, on my very own Apple MacBook Pro. (And no, it's not one of the awesome new ones...) Given my inherent cheapness, you would be accurate to guess that I would probably never purchase a Mac, since they are more expensive for a comparable PC machine... but I inherited this from my man who did get a new MacBook. I admit, the apple key will take some getting used to, and I still go to the top of the screen when I want to scroll up, even though Apple ingeniously put both arrows next to each other for convenience purposes. I fear that all the clever features that make Macs so great, will be ill taken advantage of, since I have been using a PC for so long.

I really miss my right-click.

We'll see how it goes.

100th post!

Knowing this post would be my 100th, the pressure was extreme to make it a memorable one. However, I lack the desire (and ability) to list 100 fun things about me or events that happened in the last year and lack the resources to give away 100 ferraris. I'm at a loss for ideas and it's just been much too long since I've posted, so you'll all (and I will) have to be satisfied with mere recognition of this fact.

Mostly I'm just proud that I've kept it up long enough to hit 100 :)

Frog update:
I've started putting him in pajamas at bedtime, instead of just letting him sleep in whatever he wore all day. Doesn't he look adorable in his fuzzy green giraffe pjs?

He went to church for the first (and second) time: pretty uneventful exCEPT he also had his first injury.

So I'm sitting in Sunday School and The Frog makes his usual loud presentation of filling his diaper. We promptly sneak out and head to the ladies' room. Luckily, my building is equipped with a "mother's room" off of the bathroom, containing multiple comfy-cushy rocking chairs for nursing and a plastic fold-down changing table. There's even a special diaper garbage can! But anyway, I put the frog down on the changing table and proceed as usual. Now, for those of you who haven't met the little guy, he make a frequent habit of flailing his arms in unpredictable ways, and during diaper changes is no exception. This time, however, he flailed his little hand right into a conveniently placed slot in the plastic part that attaches to the wall, and got his hand stuck. He immediately let me know he was hurting and I remedied the problem quickly. Wanting to pick him up, but realizing this would be poor judgement without replacing his diaper, I hurried to finish the process when the Frog flails again and gets his little hand caught again in the same plastic slot! Who designed that changing table anyway? Are they not aware of little flailing fingers in the vicinity? Anyway, by the second incident, his diaper was on and he was quickly placated. Don't worry, he still has all 10 fingers and they seem to be working fine. (I could tell you were worried)

We gave in and have embraced the pacifier... So has The Frog.

Now, this one might be wishful thinking, but I thought he smiled yesterday. It was brief, but he was awake. Now, I initially dismissed it as gas pains, because that's what everyone says for the first few times, but I'm pretty sure he smiled twice today, so it could be for real. Pictures to come once they are more predictable.

The frog has also been spotted flexing his guns while wearing his future college sweatshirt :)

The Frog turned 6 weeks old yesterday. We celebrated by me going to the doctor and getting the a-okay to resume all pre-pregnancy activities AND to find out that I am back to pre-pregnancy weight. :) (A big surprise seeing as how my only physical activity as of late involves soothing The Frog in some way. Go breast feeding!) This is a good segue into a

Me update:

I've managed to take a shower every day :)

On Sunday, I finally cooked dinner for the first time since The Frog has arrived. I can't believe we've been able to hold out for so long! Between my awesome neighbors, my fantastic mom, and frozen pizzas, we've done well.

I've decided to stay away from dairy for awhile. I briefly mentioned an extreme diet, awhile ago, which involved avoiding dairy, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. I did that for about a week and then decided to try eating dairy again (which is the hardest to avoid) but The Frog got gas starting the next day, so I think this could be the problem. I'm going to stay off it for awhile and try adding back the other things (not that I eat them as regularly anyway.) Wish me luck. (Cheese, I miss you!)

I went to the ward sewing group last week. It was fun, considering I was the only one there under 65. It was neat to hear the women talk about buying their house for a few thousand dollars, and what the neighborhood used to be like. Funny, but most of the women there weren't even sewing. Most of them just sit around and talk. The Frog was a big hit with them too, as you can imagine. I got to get a bit of work done on some applique I had planned to finish before the Frog arrived on a receiving blanket. Still not finished...

My wonderful friends threw me a super-fun shower, complete with the nasty baby-food taste testing, and "guess the melted candy bar in the diaper" games. Classics. The food was great, the decor very cute, and the company so fun. I think people should make up more excuses to throw showers more often.

Finally, a very unexpected surprise... any of you remember my tomato paste rant? Well, a dear friend found tubed tomato paste at a European market in Palo Alto and sent me one!!! Thanks Laura, you're the best :)

Pumpkin Picking

About a month ago, Jay went off to play D&D one Saturday evening, and I found myself at home feeling extremely lonely and dejected. I hadn't noticed how exclusively my social life had been revolving around him. When he got home for the evening, and announced their next meeting, I vowed to take matters into my own hands so as not to relive that oh-sooooo-boring night without him. The result? Best Saturday Evar!

Mel and I decided to scope out a pumpkin patch in Santaquin, UT and carve pumpkins! (Fulfulling #6 of her funtastic fall activities) It was sooo much fun, even though it was unexpectedly cold. Next time I'll take gloves and a hat- really windy- but luckily I had my own personal heater strapped to my tummy. :) (The Frog was good and slept the whole time.)

Here are the winning pumpkins:

We decided we wanted to go to a Thai restaurant we visited with friends awhile back, but couldn't remember it's name or location- only that it was in an old house.  I emailed Tay the night before to find out what it was, but he didn't get back to me before we left. LUCKILY, he texted me right as we were doing google searches on my iPhone trying to find just any old Thai place, and we ended up back at Thai Village, in American Fork- two thumbs up from this girl!  The pad thai and masman curry were both delish!

So, after getting it to go and scarfing to our little hearts' content, we began the carving and the hot chocolate  (pumpkin carving calls for hot chocolate, no?).  I decided to make my family in pumpkins, and Mel helped me so she could save her pumpkin to do fun learning activities with her 2nd grade class.  By the time Mel finished carving a Jaykin and I finished my self pumptrait (haha, go me) we decided to save our Frog carving for another night to be enjoyed by the happy couple.  (that's Jay and I)  

Here's our Pumily so far:

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a little apple pie made by my could-make-a-tasty-pie-out-of-an-old-boot-mother-in-law who so lovingly made them for us during her visit, and watched Stardust.  What an awesome evening.

Sleeping Smiles

So when The Frog was first born, he pretty much slept the whole time we were in the hospital. It was quite awhile before I got to see what his eyes looked like- probably over 12 hours. (but I didn't keep track, sorry) Something particularly interesting to me is that babies spend a lot more of their sleeping time in REM sleep than we (adults) do.  Now, not much is known about what REM sleep actually does for our bodies/brains, but we do know that this is when people dream.

Which leads me to my first question:  What on Earth could a brand new baby possibly be dreaming about?  Since my dreams seem to stem from things I've lived or read about or seen (except usually with some really bazaar twist) the only thing I can think of is life in the womb- darkness and lots of loud heartbeats, breathing and the occasional gastrointestinal noise.  And I thought my dreams were weird...

And now, that he's been alive awhile, he doesn't sleep as much as he used to, but he still sleeps a whole lot.  As far as I know, he still can only really focus on objects about a foot away from his face, and even then it's not entirely a consistent thing.  (give him a break, he's still perfecting it)  So what are his dreams like now?  Lots of blurry movements?  Eating? (since that's basically what he does when he's awake) And we all know where he gets his food from...  And then how's his memory doing?  Does he still remember the womb to have dreams about that?  I wish he could talk.  (but that's a whole other post)

My last thought about The Frog's REM sleep is that it's so funny to watch him (besides the occasional, freaky, eyes-opening-and-rolling-around) because he sometimes exhibits a bunch of facial expressions that I don't usually get to see when he's awake.  For example, he has not yet learned to smile on command (you know, to show emotion), but I've seen him do it in his sleep a number of times and let me tell you- if you thought he was cute while looking dazed and confused, that is nothin' compared to when he flashes his gummy reds.  I simply can't wait!

As a result, when I can see that he's moving through some faces, I can't help but take PeeWee Herman's advice to "take a picture, it will last longer."  Therefore, I often find myself hovering over his face with a camera, hoping to catch the cuteness more permanently.  It's quite tricky, though, as I usually only get a quick flash of a smile and my camera is slow.  Most of the ones I tried to get are either shots on the way into a smile or on the way out, but I still think this on is cute enough to show off anyway.

Anyway, I dedicate this post to cute pictures of a sleeping Frog.

White Shirts Don't Mesh With Huggies

I've been meaning to post, mostly because of the excitement last Friday, but we spent the weekend at grandma's for conference and then The Frog has been needing extra attention lately- even now, I'm typing this one-handed with The Frog asleep in the other.  Poor little guy has been super gassy, which means I'm gonna have to go on an extreme diet so I can figure out what it is I ate that did it to him.  

Other excitements?  We dressed The Frog in pants for the first time!

So.  Friday. 

Jay and I used to have lunch together every day before the arrival of our little Frog, but we haven't been able to pull it off much since. However, last Friday we did manage to make it there with plenty of time to eat and for Jay to make it to teach class. Everything was going swimmingly, we finished our food and were pleasantly chatting while Jay got to lovingly hold The Frog. 

All of a sudden Jay mentions a strange warm feeling on his arm and I simultaneously spot a growing patch of nasty on his white shirt. Yes, my friends, The Frog managed to defy Huggies and get his poop to run down Jay's arm onto his shirt and even drip a little on his pants. Need I remind you that Jay was to be teaching class in T-minus 30 minutes? I frantically changed The Frog's diaper and tried to baby-wipe the shirt as best I could (why did it have to be white?) and we decided our only option was to drive home and have Jay change his clothes.  (It even soaked through to his underwear!)

Luckily he made it back just in time for class and I was able to get the stains out. 

Oh man, I'm still laughing.

Moral of the story? Go with Pampers.

Weekend With Nanny!

We had a very special guest this past weekend! Jay's mom came all the way from Massachusetts to meet The Frog and help out around the house. We now have leftovers for the week and 3 of her amazing pies (two in the freezer) to show for her visit! She even toted Macintosh apples all the way from home to make sure we had her best pie. Thanks Nanny!

Other than that, we have had very little excitement around here.  Our neighbors are still stopping by with gifts and food and we just can't believe how thoughtful and generous our neighborhood is.  They are surely making our "baby adjustment" much easier.

Our garden is really flourishing now.  We have tons of tomatoes in several varieties and we have soooooo many pears we don't know what to do with them all!  So far we have 12 bottles of pears (and will do 12 more- thanks mom!), pear honey, apple-pear sauce (we have an apple tree as well) ad several large sheets of pear leather.  Perhaps I should look into getting a food dehydrator...  

Any pear recipes (especially ones that freeze well) that anyone would like to share would be fantastic right about now... OR feel free to stop by and take a few (or a lot) home with you. :)

The Frog is a greeaat sleeper during the day (notice the button impression on his cheek from leaning on me- this kid can fall asleep in almost any position, as long as he's being held.)  but hasn't been sleeping as well at night (and therefore neither have I) and so we finally decided to give in and let him sleep in the "big bed" with me.  Man, what an improvement!  I still feel like I could sleep at a moment's notice, but I don't feel grumpy today, and I can cover the huge bags under my eyes with makeup again!  I think The Frog slept much better too because he was awake for a four-hour stretch this morning!!  Perhaps it was to commemorate his third week of life and the last day of September.  Man, I can't believe how the time flies!