Catch up

Today we finished a 2 1/2 week stint of house/babysitting. I actually called it substitute parenting. We watched 2 girls - 11 and 7. We drove them to lessons, helped them do homework and piano practicing, worked on Articles of Faith, did bedtime and getting up routines (pretty much pulling teeth). We even had time for some great activities. Chuck E. Cheese. Spiderwick. (I only saw the first half because the sudden loud noises scared Amy.) Swimming at the BYU pool. (Again, my participation was limited as swim diapers seem to be banned all over the place. Still I had a great time playing with Amy, watching Matt and the girls do tricks off the diving board, and reading a book (Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale - It's great.)) Wow. I just did parentheses inside of parentheses.

All in all it was a good experience, and we are happy to be back in our home. We learned a lot about child raising, and I learned a lot about my husband. Namely, he's my superhero. I have known men to be totally aloof around other people's kids. Not Matt. He considered taking care of the girls his responsibility as much as mine. Including doing all the work our second full day there because I was throwing up. I had no idea what an excellent choice I was making when I decided to marry him. Ok, now that you are all sick of me bragging about my husband.

St. Patrick's day was pretty uneventful - we all wore green. And it was the beginning of Spirit Week at the girls' school.

Easter weekend the girls' aunt came to town, and they hung out with her and their grandma. We went to our house Friday night and spent the weekend doing our own thing. Saturday we took a picnic to the park so Matt and Amy could play together. My mom watched Amy while we went to a movie. We played with my parents some that night.

Sunday Matt spoke in church (and did a great job), and we substituted in primary so we were plenty busy. Then it was back to substitute parenting. We played Monopolyand ate a frozen pizza for dinner. The most Eastery thing we did was the playgroup Easter egg hunt and the one Rozlyn (7) hosted for us. Maybe next year.

It's probably a good thing we finished taking care of the girls today since Amy has been so sad. She and I have snuggled a lot, and I'm glad I had the time to do so.

6 months old - just kidding, almost 7 months

Even though Amy will be 7 months old on Monday, she had her 6 month check up today. We had to reschedule so this is what we got.

Stats:
27 in. - 74%
head - 41.6 - 11%
14 lbs 14 oz. - 14%

I just realized that's a lot of 14's.

And she's healthy! Yay! That's my favorite part. She has had a hacking cough for 3 or 4 weeks now. It makes us sad. The doctor said it's probably one respiratory virus after another. Nothing to worry about.

Amy's never had any lasting effects from shots until today. She has been screaming a lot. I'm sad for her. Poor girl.

Kudos

I just wanted to take a quick sec to say Kudos to Bont. I just noticed that in these first three months of 2008 we have now posted more on this blog than the entire year of 2007 - and it's obviously not my fault. =) Good job Bont! ILU!

Our Weekend

On Saturday Matt, Amy, and I went to the park by Orem library and had a picnic. Yippee! It was very fun. Also, my parents came to town. Yay!!! My mom watched Amy while Matt and I went to the movies and my dad went to the temple. They went to the Latin festival that evening with my brother, Scott. Then they came back to our house. My dad and I played San Juan while Matt and my mom played with some home designing software that he got her for Christmas. Matt and my mom think it's really fun to play with designing your own home. My dad and I think that sounds boring and would rather play cards. Amy woke up again soon after they came and would not calm down. Finally I gave in and fed her then let her stay up and play. We were playing anyway, and I was happy her grandparents got a little more time with her. What a fun day!

Sunday was great too! Matt spoke in Sacrament meeting, and we substituted a very rowdy class in primary. After church we played Monopoly. I was one turn of landing on the yellows away from bankruptcy (does that word look really wierd to anyone besides me?) when I started having this awesome comeback. We finally called it a tie and cleaned up because Matt was really tired. I was disappoimted; I still wanted to finish coming back and winning. It's a good thing though because Amy woke us up 3 times during the night. She slept in our room because the batteries for the monitor died. At our own house that's no big deal, but we were staying in a house that's bigger than our house where we wouldn't hear Amy when she needed us. So we didn't get tons of sleep. But Amy and Jack are sleeping right now so I better get busy with things I need to do. Or I could read until I fall asleep. Let's see, what to do?

Here is one more video from that fun day at the park with Stephanie and Joseph. Just for fun.

This trick charms me

So now you know Amy's latest trick. She waves!!! (Kind of.) It's adorable to me. When I got out of the shower yesterday Amy and I made eye contact in the mirror, and she waved. Her arm was raised, and it looked like she was really waving right to me. What a charmer!

P.S. I hope you all enjoyed Matt in the background practicing Man From Snowy River

Amy and Jack

My posts are out of order because I just uploaded a lot from the camera today. The next few posts I put up are fun videos. Coming soon ... Amy's adorable new trick. I think she does it a little in this first video and then some more in the videos I will include in the next post.

My New Shades

I ordered new glasses. I was down to one pair which always makes me nervous. My family will understand that as we are not so good to our glasses. And I splurged and got perscription sunglasses. I love the idea of having them. I like sunglasses in sunny weather, but normally I can't wear them because I don't like wearing contacts leaving me desperate to use my normal glasses. My siblings wanted to see pictures of the glasses so here they are:

Amy at the Park

Sicky head

The following is brought to you by Amy:
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"and that's the rest of the story."

Bonnie woke up sicky this morning so I'm home from work to hopefully allow her to sleep as much as possible. We don't know what she has, she's just been throwing up quite a bit, poor girl! It's hard to watch your wife be sick - obviously - it's hard to watch anyone you love be sick, but wife and kids especially I think.
Amy is getting better and better with her toys. She's fun to watch. She's starting to bang things and is much better at grabbing at things. My favorite is that she likes to scratch everything! When she gets her diaper changed she'll often just scratch at the sides of her changing pad. This morning when she was getting ready for her morning nap she was all but asleep, but her hand was still scratching away on my pants. It' s quite cute to be honest.
Aaaand I think Amy's done being on my lap so I"ll conclude now. =)

This looked fun. Right up Emily Roundy's ally.

Take the Quiz here!

Thanks Tamsin!

Oh how Amy loves her daddy!

Playing with Heather and Hannah

Our friends, Heather and Hannah came over to play for a while. It was fun for me to have an adult to talk to and a two-year-old to enjoy all our toys. I think Amy liked it too because when I am talking to people I hold her for a lot longer than if she and I are just here by ourselves (a.k.a. when I am trying to get a few things done.) Hannah was being really funny enjoying Amy's bigger toys. She really liked Amy's new ducky bathtub. And once she went into my bedroom and returned with my slippers on. Heather and I got quite a kick out of it. When I started taking pictures, Hannah got really excited and wanted me to take more. So we had a mini photo shoot. I love digital cameras so that that is possible without using up lots of precious film. Not to mention, they just left a few minutes ago, and I can already put all those great pictures up here. So without further ado...

I love this hat!

Random cute pictures again

Here a a few more random cute shots. (I upload pictures all at once and then pick a few that seem blog-worthy to me.)

Amy and I fell asleep. Sorry it's so dark. We were asleep so who wants light on.
















Amy with her uncle Scott. We were with friends the other night, and one of them was so surprised and amused to see all the funny things Amy was doing with her tongue. While her antics are still adorable to us, nothing she does with her tongue surprises us anymore. She's been doing funny things since the day she was born. Literally.

Sporadic Blogging Disorder

I hereby diagnose myself with Sporadic Blogging Disorder (SBD). As you can tell, I sometime go for a few weeks without posting on the blog. When this happens, I feel way behind. I randomly realize moments in everyday living that are blog worthy. When I don't take the chance to blog about them right away, it seems that the moments are piling up. Suddenly, I have tons of things to blog about. That makes me wait even longer because I know it will be more of a time commitment when I finally do blog. Suddenly it's a burden on my todo list instead of the fun quick pastime that it should be.

Then I have days like today when I get excited about catching up on the blog. All of a sudden there are 10 new posts on my blog in one day! Crazy! The trend usually continues with a while of me adding posts here and there, one at least every few days. Then another dry spell hits.

It's a lot more fun when I just blog every day or few days. I think the main thing that slows me down is uploading pictures. I know this isn't hard, but sometimes I don't feel like doing it. But there are some posts that can't be posted without pictures, particularly the ones that are inspired by a great picture. So the cycle repeats. Yikes!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy catching up on our life through the next 10 posts.

Yay for Girl Time!

Twice last week I went out by myself to enjoy time with other women. It was very fun for me! Wednesday I went to book club. I love book club soooo much! I think the only thing I am more faithful in attendance is church. Thursday there was a stake fireside for Relief Society and Young Womens. Chieko Okazaki spoke. She's delightful! I enjoyed getting out and getting to talk to friends as well as be nourished and entertained!

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Speaking of rolling, Amy has still only rolled from her tummy to her back a handful of times that we have caught. She does it most often when she is wrapped up in her swaddle blanket. She tries to get around in other ways like planting her feet and sticking her bum in the air. She can move quite a bit scooting backwards on her tummy.

One Crazy Morning

And some cute video footage just for fun.



When I say rough morning for Jack, here's the story:
Amy and Jack woke up from naps at the same time. They both wanted to eat right away. So I nursed Amy and gave Jack a bottle at the same time. Not too bad. Jack just lied on the bed next to me. The only rough spots were when Amy needed to switch sides or Jack needed a refill on the bottle. Then they would have to take a break which neither of them likes to do. So Amy finished eating first. I put her down on the bed to play and picked up Jack to finish feeding him. He ate for a while and then spit up probably an ounce of milk. It hadn't even digested at all, just came right up. There was puddle on my pants. I'm not kidding. And it got the sheets and bedspread all dirty. So I had to change my clothes and get the bedding in the washer. It was suddenly laundry day even though most of the laundry had just been done. Jack was upset after that too. It took a while to get cleaned up and get Jack calmed down. And I was exhausted.

Amy's sickness

A week ago Amy got a cold. She was sneezy with a runny nose. And her eye had this yucky discharge stuff. She was coughing randomly. The coughing got worse yesterday. It's not that she coughs all that much. It just sounds terrible when she does. It breaks our heart. The nurse said to watch for a fever and that the coughing gets worse before it gets better. So she should get better before long. I don't think she is still actually sick, just still coughing. I hope the cough gets better soon. It sounds painful. She's been more lethargic than normal today too. That could partly be explained by the fact that we didn't get home very early last night so she stayed up way too late.

Random cute pictures

Amy and Jack. I was impressed with Jack holding up his head.














This was the first day Amy played in her little walker. I know they say not to use walkers anymore. We don't have stairs so I don't worry about it. We also have great laminate floor that she can roll around on. Matt got this great picture. I was so impressed! What a smile!















Sometimes Matt and I talk on chat while he is at work. I like to update him on what Amy is doing especially when she is sleeping in cute positions (which is all the time). So one day I got home from Walmart, and Amy was asleep in her car seat. She looked cute so I took pictures and sent that to Matt right away. He got to see what she was doing right when she was doing it. I love when Amy gets her hand through the links in this toy.

Valentine's Day

So I'm way behind. I know. Here are a few pictures from Valentine's Day. Matt asked me out a month beforehand. So it was a surprise. All he told me was to be ready at 6:30 in formal attire. And I didn't have to cook. That's my favorite part, of course. Matt suggested I go and get my hair done and get a manicure and pedicure. So Emily and I went and had a girly day. Nancy and Andrew watched Amy (Thanks again!), and out we went. We went to Center Street Musical Theater (which we discovered last year.) I love it there. They had a dinner dance for Valentines. It was so much fun! And Matt had one more surprise up his sleeve. Our friends, the Harpers came as well. What a fun night!

Who needs real toys?

Really, who needs toys? Maybe older kids, but not Amy. As we see in this picture, one of Amy's favorites of late is her diaper. I just hand it to her and then get the wipes. As I am typing this, Amy is having a great time playing with my toys. She's so funny! She's just trying to prove my point. And we are watching Princess Bride. She can't decide which thing she is more interested in, toes or movie. I love this baby!

Yay for Cousins!

Yesterday my brother, Andy and his family were at my parents' house. So we went too. I have a hard time resisting spending time with Andy's family. His son, Finn is 7 weeks younger than Amy (and the same height and way fatter). Finn was lying on his back on a blanket by Papa when we got there. My dad told me to bring Amy upstairs so he could be with both babies. I sat Amy down near Finn where she could see him but not gouge his eyes out. She was soooo interested in him. She giggled at Finn for like 10 minutes almost nonstop. It was one of those times that you really regretted forgetting the camera. It was so cute! I don't know what it was about Finn that made Amy so excited. Finn kicked his legs a lot too. He was enjoying himself.

Finn's brother, James had a few things to say about Amy. (He's 2 1/2.) When she was sleeping he really wanted to give her a mooch (kiss). I tried to convince him to wait til Amy woke up. He didn't want to. Oh well, I think Amy was waking up anyway. He just loves her. Later I asked if he liked Amy. He said, "Her sweetie." Translation: She is a sweetie. James says her when he should say she. He said "Her sweetie" about his mom too. So cute!

Hi Amy - I mean, Bonnie

Do any of you mothers of girls (or fathers of boys for that matter) ever get called by your child's name. This happens to me sometimes - yesterday was the most recent occurence. This may sound strange, but I like it. For one thing, I like the name Amy. Otherwise we wouldn't have named our daughter that. For another, I like when people know Amy's name. Abby (Jack's mom) and I have discussed how we love it when other people pay attention to/love our babies. I'd rather people forget my name in favor of Amy's than never know hers. Third, I am obsessed with Amy. I like being around her more than being around myself sometimes. So I am happy to have little extra reminders of my little angel. My favorite is when someone who knew me before I was even pregnant (and definately didn't call me Amy then) gets mixed up. What power these little ones have!