Being April

DJ has been sick for about a week now. It started out as just a bit of a cold, but on Tuesday he was being really fussy and would hardly eat anything. Thursday he had a fever. His fever has been coming and going, with Tylenol ever since. He's been really tired, but sleeping fitfully. He would fall asleep in my arms, which is something that he hasn't done in months. He even fell asleep lying on the living room floor once. We bought a thermometer on Friday so that we would know how bad his fever actually was, and I've been taking his temperature every couple of hours since then. When he's on Tylenol it has been about 99 degrees, but between the times when his Tylenol wore off, and when I could give him more his fever got up to about 102 to 103. This afternoon it was up just above 104, and at that point I called his doctor. He told me to take him to the ER, so that's where we spent the afternoon. After waiting around for ages in the waiting ...

Just wanted to announce to everyone, that we are going to have a BOY! I wish I could put ultrasound pictures on here, but I don't have a scanner or anything. He is a very active baby, but during the ultrasound he was curled up in a tight ball with his face hidden as well as he possibly could, so we didn't get a good look at it. I'm just so happy that I can refer to my son for what he is instead of an it. And I'm already getting used to the idea of having two little boys running around. I rather like the idea. I was really expecting a girl, but I am thrilled with a boy! I was kinda looking forward to buying some girl clothes for a girl, but DJ had some really cute clothes that I was sad to pack away that I'll be glad to pull out again. I'm really happy. :)

Our Halloween festivities began last Monday when we carved our pumpkin. It was nothing impressive, but it was kinda fun. We didn't take any pictures though. Yesterday was the trunk-or-treat. We all dressed up in our costumes and headed off to the church. At the church there was a horse drawn hayride, cookie decorating, and some other games. We didn't get to go on the hayride because DJ didn't want to stay in my arms, and I didn't want him crawling around on the ground eating rocks and leaves. I had the hardest time trying to keep in in arms the entire evening. DJ finally decided that he was ready to walk, so he did, all evening, and he didn't want to be held at all. That kinda ruined the costume idea though. I dressed up as a tree, so he was supposed to be a monkey in a tree, but that monkey just wouldn't stay in the tree. Dean was Darth Vader, but he wasn't allowed to wear his mask, so the effect was kinda lost. It was a lot of fun, excep...

DJ is everywhere these days. He used to cling to me and have to be with me constantly, but now I'm having a hard time keeping tabs on him. I look away for 30 seconds and the next thing I know he's in the bathroom trying to climb into the toilet. I try to keep the bathroom door closed, but somehow it always seems to be left open, and he always wants to play in there. We'll be playing in his room, and I'll be folding his laundry or something, he'll crawl out of the room and go around the corner. I always expect him to come back to find me like he used to, but now I'll have to go looking for him and find him sitting in a pot in the kitchen cupboard with a colander on his head. He's got a thing for hats and sunglasses. I've never known another baby to actually want to wear sunglasses. The other day he insisted on putting on his hat and his sunglasses and then we went on a walk. He wore them the entire time and got lots of oohs and ahs from passe...

This morning DJ got me up at 5:30. That's not altogether too uncommon, but often he'll go back to sleep. This morning he didn't. Dean had to be to work by 6 this morning so he left shortly after I got up. He came home to shower, change, and eat breakfast, then he had to run out the door again. I made breakfast while Dean was in the shower, simultaneously feeding DJ his breakfast. DJ was being kinda picky. He would only eat anything if I put it on a spoon and stuck it in his mouth. He wouldn't touch anything that I put on his tray. So I had to spoon feed him while cooking eggs and toast for Dean and myself. Dean rushed off to go to work, and I was left with DJ and a very messy apartment. I was hoping that DJ would take an early nap because he had woken up so early, but for some reason, it doesn't seem to matter what time he gets up, he takes his nap between 8:30 and 9 every day. Determined to get stuff done this morning to earn myself a nap later I sta...

So, today we were going to spend the day up at MaeLyn's house. We were nearly there when the car in front of us suddenly slowed down, and so Dean had to slam on his brakes. The car fishtailed and then spun out. We ended up facing south on the northbound freeway, inches away from the median barrier. We weren't hurt, the car wasn't hurt, no one else was hurt. It was just terrifying. We had to wait for a bit while we waited for someone to come to stop traffic for us so we could turn back around safely. After about ten minutes a firetruck showed up, the people got out of it to make sure everything was okay, then they stopped the traffic and we carried on merrily on our way. I was torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry. I was quite shaken up for a while even after we got to MaeLyn's house. I'm just grateful that nothing more serious happened. That really could have been disastrous.

Dean and I got to speak in church today. I was really nervous for some reason. The last talk I gave only had to be a couple of minutes long because I was still a youth speaker back then. Dean had never given a talk before. This time I was asked to fill 15 minutes. 15 minutes seems like such a long time when you sit down in front of a blank page and begin to prepare a talk. Dean was really worried that I would only talk for about 5 minutes leaving him with 25 minutes to talk. Well, I prepared to the best of my ability, and then today I got up to speak... I talked... and I talked... and I talked... and I looked at my watch... I had already been speaking for well over my 15 minutes... in fact there were only 5 minutes left in the meeting. Surprisingly though they went ahead and sang all four verses of the rest hymn and then Dean got up to speak. Before he started I guess the bishop told him that he was allowed to go over, so he talked for a little less than 10 minutes. I di...

A couple of days ago I tried to vacuum my living room floor with DJ around. I normally wait until Dean gets home from work so he can take him outside while I vacuum. But after not having vacuumed for quite some time because in the evenings, vacuuming always seems to get forgotten, I decided that I was just going to vacuum anyways and see how DJ did with it. He was doing so well that day. He wasn't being as clingy as he has been for the last couple of weeks. He was playing on the other side of the room while I was cleaning up the kitchen and dining area. It felt good to actually be able to be getting something done for a change. I was on a roll, so I decided to vacuum right then. Unfortunately the moment I turned on the vacuum I heard a blood curdling scream from the other side of the room. DJ was clearly terrified. So I turned off the vacuum went and got DJ and reassured him (he was still crying), but I still wanted to get the vacuuming done so I held him and proceeded...

I suppose since the Utah half of the family knows, I really ought to tell the rest of you. I'm pregnant again. I'm due March 18th. DJ and the new little one will be 16 months apart... really close, but we wanted them to be close. DJ has been so clingy lately, he only wants his mom and he has to be with me constantly. He better have grown out of that by March, or I think I'm going to go crazy. He's getting really close to walking, and I think that might help. He doesn't want me to hold him, he wants me to hold his hands so that he can get around up on his feet. I think once he really starts walking he'll be a little more independent. This last weekend we drove up to Wyoming to visit Dean's Dad and go to the Rendezvous. The rendezvous was really cool. Tons of people all dressed up in 19th century clothing were all gathered and were selling stuff. Some of them were selling actual antiques from the era, some hand made similar things, such as rugs, ...

DJ loves his baths. He gets a bath most every night. When he was little I used to hold him down in the water on his back and he would flail his arms and legs and splash around and squeal in excitement. When he got a bit bigger I sat him up and he splashed around then too. I had to be sure to hold him up because he kept falling over in excitement. When he got better at sitting I didn't have to have a constant hand on him anymore, and I could just sit back and relax and watch him having a lot of fun in his bath, occasionally I would have to hand him a toy that floated out of his reach. Eventually he learned to scoot along on his bum and he could travel from one end of the bathtub to another. Then he learned to pull himself into a standing position. He kept trying to pull himself up to play with the faucet and the knobs, or reach up for his shampoo, or just the side of the tub. It was pretty easy to keep him down though because it was still difficult for him to get ...

DJ is nine months old now. He is learning new things all the time. Most of which are better ways to get into everything. He now climbs on things, pulls things off of shelves, opens cupboards, pulls himself up on everything and cruises around. It kind of reminds me of when we were little and we used to play don't touch the ground, how we would jump from furniture to furniture. He pulls himself up on one thing, walks the length of it, then precariously transfers himself to the next available piece of furniture, walks along that, then moves on to the next piece of furniture. He can get clear across the living room like that. He does however need a hand getting from the coffee table over to the TV stand, and that's literally all he needs. I offer him one hand which he uses to stabilize himself as he takes the two steps it takes to get across, then he lets go and continues on his way. He likes to chase things around on the ground. He'll push a ball, or one of his p...

The evening was going just like any other. Dean made dinner, we threw some of it in the food processor for DJ (removing the peas because DJ apparently has an allergy to them) we ate and then put DJ in the bathtub. He played in the bathtub for a while (one of his favorite things to do) and then I nursed him and we put him to bed. He didn't go to sleep as easily as he usually does. In fact he cried for so long that I gave up and got him back up again. I attributed it to the late nap that he took. We played for a while hoping to tire him out, and he responded by throwing up all over me. I was completely drenched as was DJ. We cleaned him up and changed his clothes, I changed my clothes, we cleaned up the couch and then attempted to put him to bed again. 20 minutes later he threw up on me again. This time he got it all over my arm and then rested his head on it matting it in his hair. Dean gave him a bath and changed his clothes again while I took a quick shower to rinse ...

So... a very long time ago I had a dream about hamburger smoothies. I dreamed that I was running a smoothie shop and I was making all sorts of weird flavored smoothies. Well, the last week or so, that dream is in part coming true. Tonight I made a hamburger smoothie, a couple of days ago I made a taco salad smoothie, I've made a shepherd's pie smoothie, and lots of others. What is the purpose of these? To feed to DJ. He still doesn't have any teeth, but he loves food. So every time that we have a meal that has a lot of ingredients that he is allowed to have I just throw it in our food processor, or baby food grinder and presto, he eats just what we eat. He seems to like it better than the old plain mixes I used to give him, and it's easier on me because I don't have to prepare anything special for him anymore. Although usually I'll still mix in some squash or carrots or some other vegetable to whatever I'm giving him. It is so exciting watchin...

Dean is back! I would say that life is going back to normal, but it is no normal that I have experienced before. We're pretty much moved into our now apartment. We're getting used to being a family unit, and it's rather nice. DJ has suddenly been learning all sorts of new things. He can finally roll both ways proficiently. He started out rolling front to back, but when he learned how to roll back to front he forgot how to roll the other way, so he would get stuck on his belly and get very upset especially when he's trying to go to sleep because he wouldn't sleep on his stomach. Now he can roll both ways, and he travels all over the place. He also started sleeping on his belly rather suddenly. He can sit like a pro, and he regularly does little crunches attempting to get up into a sitting position. Now that he can roll to get places he decided that it isn't enough and is trying to crawl, but so far with little success. He loves eating solid food, and...

My life for the past year has been a little crazy. Well, more than just the past year. It started in January of last year I suppose. Dean had to go do training in Louisiana for a month, so I went and stayed with Kristy in Michigan during that time. Then in June I moved in with Heather when Dean left for Afghanistan. In July I went to visit Mom and Dad. Daniel and Joey were living there too, so I got to see them. I spent some time at Lindy's house and I spent some time at Lia's house, and I saw Amber fairly often. Then I went back to Heathers house for the rest of the year, but I visited MaeLyn frequently, spending a day here, and a weekend there. In December, I went back to Utah got to see all of those from Utah again, then I went and lived with Heidi in Idaho for three months, making frequent visits to Utah to see Amber and Lia and Lindy and Daniel and Mom and Dad. The only one that I hadn't spent much time with at that point was Jarom. So DJ and I flew...

It is now the month of April, and things are drawing to an end. My semester is over on Friday, I only have one class left, and then the final. I think I'm going to make it. In the meantime I am... or rather, should be... packing and cleaning, getting ready to move out of my apartment on Saturday. It's going to be a challenge getting everything into the car considering it was packed full when I came, and since then I have acquired a few things including a playpen. I might have to end up shipping it to myself. Conference this past weekend was good... what we saw anyways. We watched the sessions on Saturday, but then on Sunday, due to technical difficulties we weren't able to watch much of conference on Sunday. I guess we'll just have to read it later. We didn't really think much about Easter until the evening when we decided that we should do something to commemorate the occasion, so Heidi and I read the Easter story and sang some Hymns, and that was our...

Last night I put DJ to bed around 7 as usual, and as usual he was up at 10 wanting to eat. He used to go a solid 6 hours when I first put him down, but now he will hardly go more than 2. So I fed him at 10, and I decided then that I would not feed him again until after 1. That was only 3 hours, and at 4 months old he should definitely be able to go that long, especially since he has gone much longer in the past. So when he woke up at 12:20-ish I just left him. He cried... and cried... and cried... I would periodically return his pacifier to him hoping that it would comfort him and help him go back to sleep, but he continued to cry and cry and cry... three minutes to 1, he finally stopped crying, just when I was about to feed him. He slept until 2, when I got up and fed him promptly. He got up again at 5, and then at 7. Did I do the right thing? What if he really was hungry and I was just starving the poor kid. I know that every baby is different. Some are sleeping through ...

So... pretty much every day is the same for me, so I never feel like I have much going on, but all of my days are pretty full. Being a mom is a full time job and I am loving it. Still struggling in the sleep department, but things are getting better. We all had a bout of illness last week, but it is coming to a close. I started DJ on his first solids a bit ago, he has fun with it, but I don't know how much of it actually makes it to his stomach. Still working with DJ on rolling over. He's done it a couple of times without help, but usually he just has no interest. I think he may be teething, but his gums look completely normal. He just drools a lot and chews on everything, and has been really irritable. He went almost a week smiling very infrequently except when he was in the bathtub, I always get lots of smiles during his baths. Yesterday I got my happy baby back though, it was wonderful. I've all but given up on my class, I'm not really get...

Last night, DJ woke up 4 times other then time to eat, and instead of going back to sleep, like I've been trying to get him to do, he worked his arms out of his blanket, and then couldn't get back to sleep until I reswaddled him. And of course the process of reswaddling him woke him up even more than he was before, so it took ages for him to get back to sleep. He has also been needing me to return his pacifier to him way more often than I like. He will not go to sleep without it. He will cry and cry and cry, but won't go to sleep unless I give him his pacifier. Usually after a good cry session he will go to sleep the second that I do give him his pacifier, but it really is a pain to have to do. So I'm considering not swaddling him so that he can have access to hands to suck on, hopefully that would solve the pacifier issue. He already sucks on his hands while he's awake enough that I think I'm stuck with a thumb sucker already, and I do...

Okay, so my goal over the past couple of weeks has been to get DJ to sleep better. I got a book recommended by Kristy, and I read it, and I began to implement those ideas, which were basically to let him cry. Prior to this, I hadn't been allowing him for even up to a minute. After thirty seconds or so I would give up and rush to his aid. This book suggested that I just let him cry until he falls asleep and don't go to him for up to an hour at nap times and allow him to cry indefinitely at bed time. Well, I couldn't do that, but I did let him cry longer. The first day I tried doing this he cried for about 20 minutes. I went in every 5 minutes or so to return his pacifier to his mouth in hopes that he would just relax and go to sleep. It seems that He will never go to sleep after just crying, but after crying for a little while and then having the pacifier stuck in his mouth, he will go right to sleep. I just have a hard time knowing exactly how long...

I guess i need to retract my previous diaper commercial... This is the worst and most recent in a line of diaper explosions. It seems lately, that he builds up his poop for days and then lets it all go all at once.. making a mess out of everything and ruining the cutest of his clothes. I've tried hard to salvage the clothes but some of the stains come out better than others. How long does this last where he is blowing out every couple of days? These are pretty good diapers, so would switching brands help at all? or would I just be spending more for comparable quality. Anyways. DJ has been sleeping way better these last couple of days. Two days in a row six hours straight. It's exciting and it's a great relief after a while of getting just two or three hours of sleep per night. I don't know what I'm doing any differently, he seems to be making this change mostly on his own. I ordered a book that Kristy recommended, but i...

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to show their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The Gravesite was piled high with flours. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business. But his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little bit flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions. Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Ja...

I just finished changing the nastiest diaper I have seen in my entire life. I opened up the diaper expecting to see a fairly full wet diaper, but instead I saw a solid mass of yellow. All over the front, all over the back, the diaper was covered completely as was my son underneath. The surprising part was that there was not one leak, didn't shoot out the back, or leak out the legs at all. The last diapers that I had would have completely blown out with a minuscule fraction of the amount in that diaper. These were Costco, Kirkland brand diapers. I wasn't expecting much from them, but they definitely passed the test. I've liked Swaddlers diapers in the past, but they cost twice as much as these Costco ones do. Swaddlers diapers never got tested in that manner, so I really don't know which ones are better, but given the cost, I think I'll be buying Costco diapers from now on... unfortunately there isn't a Costco here, so now I have to dec...

This week has been a tough one. After doing so well for a couple of weeks DJ has been very difficult. At night he has been sleeping only for very short periods of time, and his sleep has been punctuated by cries, and then he goes back to sleep. At night lately he has been wanting to eat every hour and a half to two hours instead of three to four and occasionally five hours like he had been doing. I used to be able to wake up in the night, feed him really quickly and then go right back to sleep, so I would get a good eight hours of sleep. Now I feed him, he fights me all the way, he falls back asleep while I'm feeding him, I can't get him to eat a good amount, and when I put him back down he wakes up instantly screaming again. Even when he has gotten enough to eat he will wake up every time I put him down. I used to be able to lay him down for 15 or 20 minutes and he would talk to himself and look around and once he even rolled over. Now I put him d...

I don't really know when most babies roll over, but mine did at 7 weeks. He has been rolling up onto his side for weeks now, but everyone kept saying that it takes quite a bit of effort for him to make it over that last bit from his side onto his belly. Well, Heidi and I were watching him on Monday, and he was up on his side, we were talking about when he would probably roll over, and we were saying it would probably be a month or more, and then, as we were watching... over he went. That has probably been the most exciting moment of his life... for me at least. This morning he was playing on the play mat thingy that Dean bought for him and was so excited for him to use. The last time that we put him on that, he wasn't old enough to even look at it or enjoy it in the least. But this morning I put him on it, and he was making all kinds of cooing noises, and kicking his arms and legs excitedly. Then he accidentally bumped one of the toys hanging from i...

I loved hearing your decade reviews... and I considered adding my own, but after thinking about this past decade for only a moment I rejected the idea. Ten years ago I was ten years old and halfway through fifth grade. Over the next several years, I finished elementary school, I started and finished Jr. High, I started High School, moved to Utah, finished High school, then went to BYU-I in 2007. From that point my life has gotten a little more interesting. In 2008 I went to Colorado for the summer and Never came back. I met and married Dean that summer. I got pregnant at the beginning of 2009, Dean left for Afghanistan in June, and he came back for the birth of our son in November. So that was my decade. This next decade should be much more eventful. I am now back in Rexburg, about to attend my last semester here at BYU-I. I wish I could have finished with a bachelors degree, but I guess I'll have to get that a bit later. I am one class short of my asso...