Rhyming schemes and other things
Sometimes Bryce and I are weird. The should come as no surprise to anyone who knows us well enough, but as one example of many, we often accidentally get into rhyming conversations and then run with it (making it less of a "run with it" and more of a runaway train situation). Tonight we somehow got into a conversation about a head and continued far longer than we should until this little beauty popped into the conversation.
Bryce: “We should’ve busted out a sled.”
Me: “But then we may have bled.”
Bryce: “Red…red…red.”
There wasn't much more to add after that.
Also... on a side note, Christmas is over. I have mixed feelings about this. But on the upside... we rearranged our entire house and instead of feeling like a storage shed, it feels like a mansion (Barbie's play mansion, but that is still a significant improvement).
Christmas Joy and Joyness
Merry Christmas! Seriously! I love this season so so much. There really aren't words. Christmas has always been a favorite time of year, but this year it seems to be a hundred times what it has been in past years. I don't know if it is the excitement of sharing it with Little, or starting new family traditions, or just that it is a much needed break from all the craziness of life, but this Christmas feels different. I've been looking forward to it for longer than I care to admit and now that it is in full swing I can't even contain myself sometimes. Christmas lights everywhere, bursting out into song constantly, an entirely unhealthy diet of eggnog and chocolate covered macadamia nuts... I even broke out my Christmas socks early this year. I'm not sure that this is even healthy, but man alive! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!
Since this is probably as close as we're going to get to a Christmas card this year I suppose I should do a bit of a recap. Looking back, we've had quite an eventful year this year. We had a baby, moved across the country, Bryce started law school, we were driven from our home by squirrels, learned that Wahoos and Hokies are not a Dr. Suess story... all sorts of new adventures. All-in-all it's been a good year; challenging and crazy at times, but exciting nonetheless. We are finally settled in here and getting the hang of this school thing. Bryce survived his first set of finals with his brain mostly intact, so I guess we're looking good. I've set all sorts of goals and done well with some, but have a lot to work on still. I haven't gotten much writing done in all the hullabaloo, but hopefully when the new year comes around I'll be able to focus on that more as well.
We've decided to start a family tradition this year wherein each Christmas we take a little box and at the beginning of the Christmas season write down one "gift" that we can give to the Savior throughout the coming year so that we can place it in the box and make that the focus of our Christmas season as well as life in general for the next year. It has been fun to really start combining family traditions as well as start our own traditions this year. It's amazing how much having a little one adds to Christmas, and holidays in general. 
We've decided to start a family tradition this year wherein each Christmas we take a little box and at the beginning of the Christmas season write down one "gift" that we can give to the Savior throughout the coming year so that we can place it in the box and make that the focus of our Christmas season as well as life in general for the next year. It has been fun to really start combining family traditions as well as start our own traditions this year. It's amazing how much having a little one adds to Christmas, and holidays in general. This winter has been a blast so far. Little got to play in the snow for the first time, and by "play" I really mean be completely unimpressed and a little bothered that he had to be wearing a big marshmallow suit. From the moment we put him in his snow suit to the moment we took him out he stayed in pretty much the same position: splayed on the ground with a look of complete indifference.
Bryce even made a little snow angel around him and he didn't move a muscle. We eventually got him to crawl around a bit, but he found the whole experience more of an ordeal to wait out than an adventure to be enjoyed.
In honor of Bryce finishing finals and the dread of grades to come, we threw a pity party--literally. We wrote our own epitaphs (the best of which being: Here lies Bryce - who left the world he only saw the left of). And we of course wrote some angsty poetry (with titles like: Snow in the Black Black Cold Cruel Unfeeling Treacherous World). And drank our sorrows away (with sparkling cider of course). I made shark attack cupcakes (because really, what worse thing could happen?) and I intended to make a pinata to beat after the festivities were over, but that got a bit too complicated. Maybe next time. Either way... we pitied ourselves away and came out feeling surprisingly refreshed. Little even got in on some of the action (not the drinking of course, but he did write some very nice poetry).
We just recently discovered that though we may be lacking crows that curse our apartment and squirrels that invade it, we have other avian visitors that frequent our new place. We have two cardinals, a few bluejays and mocking jays, a hawk, and uncountable other little birds who sing and play all day long. Who knew winter would bring them all out? We're definitely asking Santa for a bird feeder and a new bird book for Christmas.
In conclusion, life is good, we're excited to have Bryce back from the jaws of law school for a month, and we are very blessed and grateful for this season and the chance to celebrate all the Savior has done for us. Merry Christmas all!
While we were standing in line at the store yesterday, there was a pile of those "Snuggie" things that are everywhere these days and Bryce says, "I don't understand why those sell. Why don't people just put their bathrobe on backwards." Note that Bryce is probably the world's warmest human and thus doesn't fully understand the appeal of being wrapped in any blanket, much less one that wraps so wonderfully around you, but he has a very valid point none the less.
Nothing Worse
Raising a baby seems to have more “nothing worses” than I ever thought it could. The current nothing worse? Giving your baby the flu…on purpose. I mean, I am extremely grateful for modern medicine and that my child will no longer die of smallpox, or the bubonic plague, or any number of bizarre sounding infectious diseases, but that doesn’t make me loathe Little’s immunizations any less, or make me feel like any less of a traitor when he looks at me like, “Mom! How could you?!” despite the fact that I am indeed not the one stabbing a needle into his poor little leg. And why is it that the nurse always makes you hold him down? That is almost the cruelest part of the process. I prefer to be the one to save him after the assault is done. Not that I would want to avoid being there for him, but I just don’t want to restrain him.
However, even worse than the actual shot, is the ride home when he sits in the back whimpering almost inaudibly while I can’t reach him to comfort him. Then we get home and he tries to sleep it off for at least 3 days (if not more), but wakes up crying because his leg hurts, or his nose is clogged, or he has to cough, all while he is dealing with a raging fever.
And the worst of the worse? We walk into the doctor’s office willingly every two months with the complete knowledge of what will happen when we walk out.
There is nothing worse than immunizations.
'Twas the Night Before Finals...
Welcome to finals week! Where there is insanity and adventure for all!
Little has been teething (read: a grumpy, grumpy-but still cute-monster) and we've all been pretty sick, not to mention Bryce has finals for the next two weeks, thus we've been lacking sleep and have unfortunately dissolved into sheer lunacy. The result? Last night's exploits:
I have the usual dreams of little green men and missing socks.
Little man wakes up periodically either screaming because his poor teeth hurt and he has way too much gala-gala in his throat/nose, or laughing to himself because he's discovered yet another way to make a binky disappear.
After snoring to wake the dead, Bryce stops breathing several times and has to choke to get himself going again (welcome, sleep apnea).
He grinds his teeth until I start sleeping with a hand to his cheek because that seems to be the only thing that will save his molars from being nubs in the morning.
He leans over me and starts saying something that sounds like Russian meets Chinese-which come to find out may or may not have been a result of a dream about Harry Potter-until he comes to enough to announce, "What I just said makes no sense." and rolls over to go back to sleep while I laugh out loud.
And last, but not least, he jumps out of bed not one, but four times during the night, throwing the sheets aside, violently ripping the ear plugs, and rushing to get ready for the day until I literally pull him back into bed. Once, when actually conscious, he got up and went to the bathroom and I didn't notice until he hopped back into bed. I instinctively grabbed his arm and pulled, commanding him to get back in bed. He of course defended himself and I of course didn't believe him (thinking he was still asleep) until he could prove that he was in fact in possession of all his faculties. He doesn't remember most of this, but this morning he feels like he didn't sleep at all.
All together an eventful night.
Welcome, finals! Please be over soon.
Good Times
We've been in the new apartment for a month or so and we are loving it. Although there are no squirrels residing in the walls or ravens cursing us, there are still quite a few characters around. Namely: Adolf Von Fanschmier (the resident evil fan which makes hideous growling noises when turned off), Brutus (the spider who lives in the laundry room downstairs), Radar Bear (Bryce's old glue encrusted teddy bear which for some reason Everett has decided is the best thing to happen to humanity), Lenny (the squirrel who lives in the tree outside our window and apparently has some species confusion because he tweets like a bird), the list could go on... And yes, we do have a serious disorder involving nicknames. Anyway, the point is that we are a big fan of the new apartment, and ward, and all of the above.
The focus of late in our house has been dental hygiene. Mostly because Little has a new found love for brushing the four and a half teeth that he has. I used to just do a quick scrub before bed and he would open his mouth for maybe a split second (and even then I have a sneaking suspicion that it was only to get a taste of the fruity toothpaste) but I discovered that if I brush my teeth with him it is much easier. Instead of losing interest in a millisecond, he will brush as long as I do—providing that he has full control of the toothbrush of course. He actually does a surprisingly good job for someone who has just recently learned to use his motor skills and although it is usually a two handed operation, he definitely gets the job done. The only problem comes when he starts trying to lend a hand by brushing my teeth as well. That complicates things significantly.
He's growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. He pulls himself up on everything and I thought he had semi-stalled out as far a progress in that direction went, but after a fun Thanksgiving weekend with the my sister and watching their kids run around, he has decided that it is time to start learning to get around for real apparently because he spends all day testing his limits, attempting to stand without holding on to anything, and pushing from one object to another. Oddly enough, he still can't quite figure out how to sit back down after his escapades so he usually just stands there and cries until I come help him or crashes and then cries, but hopefully that will come with time. Either way, he's getting bigger, and stronger, and more opinionated by the second. Good thing he's also getting cuter and sweeter by the second.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
