I had a great birthday yesterday! First of all, Adam was off work. Then, his mom watched Erick for us while we went to the temple. Then, we went to E-Ka Japanese Cuisine and enjoyed a great and expensive dinner. Then, Dylan and Lisa and Michael came over to watch a movie. They brought "Stardust". It was awesome. The whole day was awesome. Yay!
Get a two year old to massage your face. It feels really good, and Erick likes to keep doing it because I make funny faces and noises to keep him interested. The cost? Well, it's that brief moment of pain when his fun/innocence turns into evil/maliciousness, and his razor-sharp fingernails that I haven't cut yet try to give you a micro-dermabrasion treatment. Just remember to not close your eyes, remain eye contact through entire massage, and you'll notice the change in their eyes before any damage can occur.
So here is what Tripp looked like a couple months ago. I didn't get many pictures of him, only these two. She said she almost didn't get all the measurements that she needed, because he wouldn't move, and he was being rather modest. But she got a good shot of his "boyhood" and a somewhat profile, use your imagination on that one folks. His nose is white. So whatever angle he was in made it reflect white, but that's just to give you a hint in case you are like Rachel on friends and can't read an ultrasound, like most people.
What is it about purses, handbags, and diaper bags that intrigue children to pull everything out of them? I have to admit I get pretty defensive about my bags, and I don't like little hands going through them and switching things up. I mean, I am totally organized as it is, and I don't need any rearranging. So here we are, I'm at the computer and Erick is bringing me all the contents of my diaper bag. I have children's Tylenol, orajel, his sippy cup, wipes, my antacid tablets, and an eyeglass case all displayed before me, so far. Why have I not gotten up to stop him you say? Well, I probably need to clean it out anyway. The rest of the bag's contents are on the floor at his feet and I think he has found what looks like a necklace to play with, it's not mine so I'm stumped there.
I realized that I have not thought about my sister Sarah this week, yet Tuesday was the 3rd year anniversary of her death. I haven't had time to feel sad, mainly because I have been feeling sad over our car situation, and the money that we're going to have to spend on them to pass emissions. I do miss her though. I wish that she had met Adam before she died, and that she was there to give me advice when I was totally engorged with a pair of beach balls and a hungry newborn, and I needed some help. It would be nice to hear her leave messages about Mrs. Swan's Chinese salads and used tampons, without laughing! She had some talent there, among others. There are so many things that I would like to tell her and talk to her about, but I have a weird feeling that she already knows. And maybe the cool ideas that I come up with and I want to share with her, she already knows about. I think that no matter what we do in this life, the Ultimate Judge is Christ. I can't say, well, she never went to church, or she didn't get sealed in the temple, and I can think of a ton of other "judgments" that would keep us from returning to Heavenly Father, BUT only Christ knows for sure what each's judgment will be. That's kind of relieving when I think about it, because I don't have to worry about things that are out of my control, which I tend to do often. I know we're given commandments to help us live this life in a less complicated way, and through this obedience we can gain a love for Heavenly Father and Jesus, because we grow spiritually closer to them and an understanding of the plan with the help of the Holy Ghost. And sometimes we mess up, and sometimes we no longer have time on this earth to fix what we've done, maybe to even consider "fixing" anything. But I just can't believe that my sister missed her chance. I have to have faith in the atonement for her, and to not pass judgment on her or any part of her life. It just makes me feel even more love from the Savior, and the love that he has for everyone. I don't think that that gives me reason to not be obedient, but it makes me feel at peace to know that we're not alone. I hope that whoever reads this does not freak out on my perceptions, because maybe my understanding differs from yours, but it doesn't mean that someone has to be right or wrong, not in this. We don't have to make that call.
I am watching my sister Rachel's little girl today. Erick gets along with her, most of the time. They get cabin fever I'm sure, but my pregnant belly keeps making me lazy, plus it's cold outside. Sarah can talk really well. In fact, her favorite thing to do is to narrate everything she's doing, or everything your doing, and point out objects in the room and tell you to whom they belong, even if it's yours and it has been in your possession before she was ever born. She knows all her colors, letters, and shapes. She even knows phrases that you don't think she could know, being only 2. Erick on the other hand is like a little caveman. He speaks with some sign language that I taught him-- the basics you know: eat, more, please. He also has noises associated with these signs that I understand, but the most important part of his communication is the inflection. For example, "water". "Wa'-wa-wa" means, "I need water", whether he is thinking about drinking it or his cup is just empty. "Wa-wa'-wa" means, "Could you give me some water?" And "Wa-wa-wa'" means, "Where is my water?" I have no problem knowing exactly what is going on with his water from another room, while laughing at another person who is trying to figure out what wa-wa-wa means in general, and then what to do about it. Somethings he says pretty clearly, like "bye-bye, thank you, and no", but other things he signs better than he says. Like "please", it comes out as a bbbbbbb, when your blowing air out of your mouth and letting your lips flop up and down. But I know why he does that also, because he used to only eat one thing- boo boo. He would make the sign for please and say "boo boo" by making the bbbbbb noise. Now bbbbb has become his word for please. Isn't that weird?
My mom and I decided to go hang at the library, she wanting to get a book for the book club, and I just like the library. Erick loves it too. He runs around and is really loud. He gets up at a computer at the media station and looks like he knows what he's doing, but he uses his left hand to operate the mouse, and so he isn't doing anything to the computer in front of him, ha ha. My little pleasures. Anyway, Mom and I took turns hunting for books, and when it was my turn, I was rummaging through the biographies and I heard what sounded like a marathon runner. It was quiet at first, gradually getting louder, and I also heard a few giggles from a librarian that I saw in an aisle. I went to look for him, and I couldn't find him. The acoustics in the library are pretty good, because when I thought he was coming one way, he was really going the other. After he finished his literary excitement, we went back to the children section to get some audio books for him... and me. The librarian there directed me to some DVDs. One of the DVDs was about potty training.
Now, I'm not getting any false hope about him getting out of diapers or anything, I just thought it would be a funny and entertaining movie...for him. As it turns out, it was very good at describing the process of potty usage and even came with "The Potty Song", which does get stuck in one's head. So I thought, if Erick could get so excited for Joshua, the little boy in the story, and clap for him when he triumphed in his potty, I would get Erick his own potty. I brought it home, and suggested very nonchalantly about what a great potty it was and that maybe he should sit on it, but he didn't want to. So a little later, we played the DVD and I sat him on the potty, but I think it was cold or something, cause he didn't like it. So we finished the DVD and cheered for Joshua, and that was that. BUT, later on, we watched the DVD when Daddy was home, and he sat on his potty when Joshua did! It was SO cute. And he even clapped for Joshua all on his own without me prompting him to clap. Oh, the milestones!! It was wonderful. Then, when Nana got home, he acted like the potty was a bottomless pit that he would never sit upon. That's okay though, because tomorrow is a new day... a new potty.
If you give an Erick a cookie...
Last night was the ward Halloween party. It was a lot of hard work setting up, but totally worth it. I decorated the parking lot with ghosts, trash bags and newspapers, and had the task of judging the adult male and female costumes. I really wish I had taken some pictures, because there were some outrageous costumes. Wendi and Justin Hill won the "best couple" prize for their 80's Prom night garb. She totally looked like Reba MacIntire. Plus, there was Ben Ledford dressed up as a clown, which reminded me of Stephen King's Pennywise from "It", and scared a lot of children. We had a great chili cook-off and decorated trunks that added a lot of spice and entertainment to the evening. Erick was Captain Jack Sparrow, complete with dread locks, eye makeup, and authentically drawn pirate gun. He won my first prize.
Yesterday was Hoshizaki's company picnic at Six Flags. They gave us free tickets to get in and a free meal ticket and everything. The only thing I wasn't too happy about was the fact that I couldn't ride anything. I wouldn't trade the baby for all the free roller coaster rides in the world, but Six Flags isn't that affordable anymore, and they don't have anything for pregnant women to do, except to spend more money. I did ride the choo-choo train though.
Erick and Adam rode a ride together, but all of the other rides required Erick to ride by himself and to be a little taller, and Erick doesn't even like to swing in a swing by himself. I got some candid shots of his mirth:
Funny, huh?! But he brightened up by lunch time, but only after Daddy won him a basketball.
We had a great time being together as a family, and I can finally put faces to the names that Adam talks about from work. I hope to go next year too, minus a couple of babies and plus a ton more roller coaster rides.
Well, it always amazes me how much food Erick can consume. Maybe not exactly in quantity, but how many times he wants to eat. It's awesome that Erick thinks that I can do anything, anytime, at anyplace, BUT when it comes to breakfast, he wants it as soon as the word eat crosses his mind. Oh, to have the powers of Samantha on "Bewitched" and all I have to do is wiggle my nose, and breakfast is served- not too hot and not too cold. Maybe I should give him a frozen waffle to try, because he is way too impatient for the toaster to pop out a warm one. So this morning, after I made some grits, yes grits... with cheese and butter yum, and blew every single bite until it was gone, I had but a thirty minute enterval before Erick was announcing a new wave of hunger. What? More? That was a lot of grits! What was the fastest thing I could come up with? ->Noodles in a cup--I was out of frozen waffles. He really likes noodles anyway. What he doesn't like is to wait for the 3 min. it takes for the hot water to rehydrate the noodles. And when I come out of the kitchen empty-handed, he's devastated. Some day we'll come to an understanding. Oh yeah, lunch and dinner are still to come.
So I just love the fall season, and I like Halloween. And even though this was Erick's costume last year:
This year he is going to be Captain Jack Sparrow. I'm way excited and I've already made his "wig" out of yarn wrapped up into dreadlocks, with braids and beads. It's gonna win the costume contest at the ward activity for sure.
I work part-time as a babysitter and as a picture framer. The babysitting job will soon end, which will be good considering I am five months pregnant, and the picture framing job is awesome, considering I get to frame my pictures for free and hang them on my bare walls. Yesterday I had the ultrasound, and we found out that we will be having another baby boy! We already have a name picked out. We have decided to call him Tripp Nathaniel, but as of this morning, the name Seth Michael popped into my head and I'm gonna run it by Adam. (I'll put pics of the ultrasound as soon as I scan them.)
Okay, it has been a while, but much has happened in the life of a housewife.
I'll start with how things finished up in the month of September. Erick is growing so fast. Since we've moved into the new house, he has grown an average of an inch a month, so about 3" so far. Something must be in the water. I took him to Wal-Mart to get his first studio pictures. They had a 30 picture portrait sale for $5.99, so I thought I would take him and no matter what they tried to talk me into buying, I would just get the deal and get out of there. And to make it work, I took the only cash I had, which was about 18 dollars. Boy, it was rough. Erick was so photogenic, I would have bought the whole set of photos if I could have. I wound up giving in and spending 17 something, all of what was in my pocket, but I got a great deal. What do you think?
We also had a Housewarming Party this month. My friend Renee did an awesome job of planning and providing food, but a lot of those that RSVP'd didn't show up, and I felt so bad that she had gone to so much trouble for me- she's a great friend.
I also taught a morning watercolor painting class for an Enrichment activity that was so much fun, so we have a night-time class scheduled for October. Awesome!
We were so excited to finally go on vacation this year, even though it was only for a three-day weekend, but you gotta take a vacation when you can, right? Adam hasn't worked a year yet for his job, so when they gave him the weekend off, I jumped at the chance for a camping trip. We got a tent for a wedding present two years ago, and we have never used it. We also had other camping gear that had never been used, so why not? We decided to go to Helen, Ga, because I always go camping there and that's where we had our honeymoon (we got a cabin). So we stayed at Sleepy Hollow Campground, which I had also never camped at. It was awesome! There was a creek that Erick played in, a nice tent-site that was almost completely poison ivy-free, and a headless horseman that ran through camp, cackling all night long. Just kidding, but that was my first impression of the name, spooky huh? The first night we got there was just that, night. We set up our tent in the dark, while Erick was playing with everything we were trying to do. I imagine it was like this: "Wow, I'm finally outside, but I can't see anything. Oh wow! A big blue crinkly thing that I can run and roll around on (the tarp). Hey, what are you guys covering it up for? Hey... those long sticks look like fun, and this other crinkly thing (the tent) is cool to run on too." And on and on... I'm guessing this is how Erick saw everything that night. Eventually we got everything together, it being the first time we ever set up this tent, and Adam said, "I'm hungry." OK, no problem. We'll just try to figure out the brand-new propane stove that we've never used before, and try not to blow anything up in the process of making soup-in-a-cup. It worked out though, and we ate and went to bed. We had a great time tubing down the Chattahoochee, Erick fell asleep through most of it, walking around the cute little "German" town of Helen, hiking up to see Anna Ruby Falls, and playing put-put golf. It was so much fun, even with rowdy drunk neighbors that fed Erick a ton of chocolate cookies. Erick liked them a lot. In fact, when we were packing everything up, he was over at their campsite, terrorizing their breakfast... it was nice, we got everything done fast. The only unfortunate thing was that we forgot our cameras, the digital and the video. Erick's first camping trip, and we don't have any pictures. So, I decided to draw one for you.
We bought a house!! Okay, the debt hasn't sunk in yet, but it's great not to have to worry about being too noisy for your neighbors downstairs, or hearing noisy neighbors upstairs. We're enjoying it and Erick loves having his own room and his own bed. Maybe not as much as I love it, but it's working. We're making room for the new baby, which is due in March. Yeah!!
Cleaning and babysitting. Seems like an endless task. Only now it's harder, cause Erick seems to put a new twist into everything. What wasn't a problem a few weeks ago, is now a major health hazzard. Wall sockets, pieces of fuzz, and cats are particularly treacherous. And even now as we speak, hanging blinds in front of glass doors are being whipped around by a chubby little hand. Should I just watch, or intervene at that crucial moment before giggling bliss becomes a crying-fest? The job is never done, but I wouldn't have it any other way. His smiles make it all worth while, and when he says "Mama," well you could imagine. And the other highlight to my day, besides being with Erick and talking to my husband, is playing "Guitar Hero". Rock on!!
