Laundry

Truck came over last night to do his laundry. It was nice to see him. He and Tae had a grand old time listening to his ipod. I'm sure we wouldn't have approved of the music.
Speaking of laundry, Tae loves the washing machine. There have been nights when we have gone in to watch the washing machine for 20 minutes. Boring, I know, but when it is the only thing you can find that keeps your baby from crying, you'd do just about anything!

Time to baby-proof

We have been putting Tae on the floor in her room with a bunch of toys to entertain her. It has worked quite well. Now we have reached the point where she gets bored and comes looking for us. Once in a while she makes it to the kitchen...but she usually gets sidetracked by the knickknacks on the bookshelf. Her favorite was the slinky. We need to get her her own plastic one. No, we don't leave her unsupervised with this one.

Taelyn's First Haircut

The baby-mullet is gone. No, I didn't actually take pictures during the procedure. Getting a semi decent cut on baby hair is hard enough, but the baby didn't help any. Jon was supposed to help immobilize her. He failed miserably. Honestly, I don't know what I expected him to do. You can't really put her in a choke hold or anything.

Pay It Forward

{The Rules}

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER...Pay it forward!

Stemming from Chelsey's Post

Chelsey posted on the joys of sharing a bathroom. As I was reading, I kept thinking that it isn't that difficult. That is when I realized that I only feel that way because Jon and I don't have to get ready at the same time. He has to be to work an hour before I do. That makes getting ready during the week nice.

What about weekends? Rarely are we trying to get out the door at the same time. Oh, except for the last few weeks. When Jon was in the Bishopric, he had to be at meetings at 7, so it was much like week days. I was left with getting myself and Tae ready, but I didn't have to work around anyone.

At this point in my thought process, I started thinking about the last month. Since Jon got released, we have had the joys of trying to share the bathroom. It hasn't gone well. In fact...we have been late every Sunday. The worst part? We are late even though church now starts 2 hours later!!

Taelyn's First Sucker

I know, I know. I shouldn't be giving her so much sugar... but doesn't she look happy!






No, she didn't actually finish it. After she had slobbered off 1/4 of it, Riley caught her trying to stick it down her throat. Thanks for coming to the rescue, Riley!

Lest you think...

that we only feed our child sugar, I'll post these pics too. Oh, and ignore the remains of her graham cracker...

She didn't care for the green pepper, not that I blame her. She did, however, love the red pepper. She ate almost all of it. [Thanks, Kirk, for turning us onto eating red peppers as a snack!]

"The Lord takes many away, even in infancy..."

Our hearts go out to my cousin, Bobby, and his dear wife, Charmayne. Today is the funeral for their beautiful infant daughter, Kristen. We are unable to make the trip home for the funeral, but want them to know they are in our thoughts and prayers.

“… The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again. … The only difference between the old and young dying is, one lives longer in heaven and eternal light and glory than the other, and is freed a little sooner from this miserable, wicked world. Notwithstanding all this glory, we for a moment lose sight of it, and mourn the loss, but we do not mourn as those without hope.”
-Joseph Smith, Jr.

[History of the Church, 4:553–54; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Mar. 20, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois, as taken from Chapter 14 of "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith".]

Oh Poo!

Last Sunday, during Sacrament Meeting, Tae got fussy and refused to go to sleep. I decided to take her out. Now keep in mind that she wasn't screaming or anything. I'm just still in that super paranoid phase, where I get anxious when my child makes any noise at all during Sacrament Meeting. Anyway, we went into the quiet room. She enjoyed setting on the bench, so I let her set there alone. Next thing I know huge amounts of spit-up are coming out around her pacifier...all over her beautiful Christmas dress (from Grandma and Grandpa). Of course, I was worried about noise when we left the chapel, so I left the diaper bag with Jon. I flagged him out from the door, but had to send him back when he had only brought 2 wipes with him. Well, we got that fixed. Catastrophe averted, and we were once again listening to the new Bishopric speak.

Next thing I know she makes 'the noise'. You know, the one where you know that she is going to attempt to unload every ounce of anything in her body into her diaper. Then she did. Jon and I quietly took her out, and went down to the family bathroom (oh so handy for those 2 person diaper changing jobs!). We got that taken care of, and (whew!) another catastrophe averted.

After the opening song in Primary, I was able to join Jon and Tae in Sunday School. Tae was playing on the floor with Joshua (who is 5 weeks younger than her). Ella had fun coming over and stealing their toys. Ella is 1 and has been walking for 3+ months. She totally had the advantage, as the other 2 are scooting, but not yet crawling. Anyway, they are setting there and I get a whiff of something. I let Jon know that I think she has another dirty diaper. He shrugs, as if to say there is no way she had enough left in her to cause a problem, and we could change the diaper in 15 minutes when the block ended. They play a little bit more. Tae grabs my hands and pulls herself up...and there...on the blanket...is the puddle of poo.

I grab the kid, wrap her in the other blanket so I don't get poo all over me, and rush for the door. Jon follows me to the family bathroom. It was bad. Real bad. We ended up holding her dress up over her arms and head, and washing her in the sink. Anyone in the hall would have thought we were abusing the child from the fight she put up and the screams that ensued.

The worst part? I didn't want to have to grab the poo blanket, so I wadded up the poo part and left it on the floor in the class room. When we got back, it appeared someone had been double checking for toys in the blanket, because the poo spot was no longer wadded. Ugh! To add to it, I had insisted that we walk that morning. The poo incident used up both of Taelyn's blankets that we had used to bundle her. We had to wrap her in Jon's suit coat to get her home.

Tagged by Shay

And since she is my favorite SIL on my side, how can I not follow through?

5 things Jon loves:
1. His girls
2. Gourney's Catalog (and dreaming about what he is going to plant this spring)
3. Smelling flowers
4. National Geographic
5. Visiting with his family

5 things on his to-do list
1. Build a green house
2. Get his degree in Horticulture
3. Terrace the hill at the Haven
4. Move home to the Basin
5. Visit Ireland

5 Snacks he loves:
1. a ripe, cold crenshaw
2. Nuts (cashews, pistachios, almonds)
3. Almond Roca
4. Ice cream (rocky road, carmel cashew, neapolitan, strawberry)
5. Gingersnaps

5 places he's lived:
1. Ioka
2. Mapleton
3. Alabama/Tennessee/Mississippi
4. Bennett (which he claims is different and better than Ballard)
5. Farmington and SLC

5 things you may not know about him:
1. He complains about how much time I put into my callings, but he is always there to help me when I bite off more than I can chew. From making 30 Christmas 'baskets' by myself, to making bowling pins for singing time and putting together project boards for the bells (at 11:00 the night before I need them). He never lets me stress over a project alone.
2. He loves to cook--and is good at it. I did most of the cooking until I got pregnant. I promised I would pick it up after the baby was born. He still does 65% of it. I make myself feel better by claiming it is because he gets off of work at 3:30 and I don't get off until 5.
3. This is related to quirk #4 below. If there is a TV on in the room, he can't pay attention to anything that is going on around him. When we were engaged, I was helping him fill out his tax form online. We were at a computer lab at the U and there was a TV. After asking him the same question 3 times, he finally told me that if I wanted any help from him, we needed to move so that he couldn't see the TV. At least he knows it it a vice of his and is willing to take action (the reason we don't do TV at our house).
4. He has a unibrow. Or had, anyway. When we were engaged, I told him that it was the only thing I would change about him. He has shaved it ever since.
5. This one is going to get me in trouble. At least it did when I told Paul while we were at the hospital and Jon was clipping Paul's toe nails. Jon gives great pedicures! He also shaved my legs for me when when I was pregnant and my belly got too big for me to do it on my own.

5 quirky things about him:
1. He dances around the house...a lot. Tae prefers his can-can. It makes her laugh.
2. He loves the Leatherman he got for Christmas. He wears it to work every day. He goes out of his way looking for reasons to use it. It's bad enough that his coworkers tease him about it!
3. He loves to make people laugh. The quirkiest thing my family has seen him do is when he took one of our house flies for a 'walk'...or would it be a fly? Picture a house fly with a thin string tied around its head and Jon holding on to the other end. I have seen him do quirkier things to make me laugh-but if I shared them, I really would be in trouble!
4. He likes anything that flashes or moves. When we first got married, I waited for over a half an hour for him to come to bed. When he didn't come, I had to go looking. I found him in front of the lava lamp. He had been there THE WHOLE TIME!
5. He thinks it is better to set the alarm earlier than he wants to get up, then hit snooze 5-7 times. He claims that it helps him ease into being awake. I HATE IT! I'd rather have the extra 45 minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

I'm gonna tag anyone that thinks they are up to the challenge. I really struggled to come up with 5 answers to each category. What is the difference between something that someone may not know and a quirk anyway?

Comments

So I was wondering why we hadn't had any comments since we moved the blog. I had decided that either no one loved us anymore or people were mad that we moved the blog. I hoped it was the second, because no one likes being unloved. Turns out I have the moderate comments option turned on. Huh.

Croup and Double Ear Infection

Well, Tae has her first ear infection. Unfortunately, it is bilateral and accompanied by croup. It started on Sunday, and got bad enough today that we took her into see the pediatrician.

EDITED ON JANUARY 26, 2009:

Apparently many people are finding our blog by searching croup + double ear infection. My previous post gave no valuable information. This post is to remedy that problem. Here is a site that has some good info. Below is our experience and information from our pediatrician.

Because I am paranoid, I called the pediatrician and talked to the nurse. I was supposed to call and get my 8 month-old in to see the pediatrician if:
Fever lasting more than 3 days.
Labored Breathing.
Coughing induced vomiting.

We didn't have any of those, and I did not realize that Tae had croup. She wasn't having problems breathing. She was not wheezy, nor did she sound like 'a dog'. Here is what we did have:
Tugging on ears--our child has always tugged on her ears. I had had them checked for an ear infection before, but she never had one. She was tugging on her ears more than normal.
Elevated temperature that lasted for 3 days--she never went above 101, but it lasted for a prolonged period.
Cough--the pediatrician said to bring her in if she had coughing induced vomiting. We never hit this point, but she was coughing up a mouthful of gunk occasionally when she coughed.
A muted cry--if you didn't look at her, you wouldn't know that she was crying. No volume came out while she was crying.

When we met with our pediatrician, she first noticed the bilateral ear infection. It was severe in one ear and moderate in the other. Because it was Tae's first ear infection, they prescribed amoxicillin.

That was all the pediatrician was going to do, but then Taelyn started to cry. The doctor asked if she always sounded like that when she cried. She also asked if she had any problems breathing. Even though she hadn't had problems breathing, we were told she had croup. We were given a very small pill, an oral steroid, and told to take it home, crush it up, and feed it to her in something sweet. Apparently it has a very bitter taste. We put it in OJ. The oral steroid was to help open up her air passage. We were also told to take her outside if she had any coughing fits; the cold would also help her airway to open. We never did have to do that, but I no longer stressed over covering her head when we took her out (she was bundled). It seemed to help.

Additionally, we got some infant vapor rub that we put on her chest and sholders at night, and added some vapor stuff to the humidifier. After the steroid and 10+ days of ammoxicillin, she was doing much better. It has now been 2 1/2 weeks. She is doing great. Hope this helps, if even just a little.

Filled Quota

So I have filled my blogging quota for the month...in one day. I want to end with this one. Taelyn had non-stop attention this weekend. She loved it...but it sure tuckered her out, too.

My Fam & Neckties

Since the day Jon met my brothers, he has harassed them for not tying their own ties. I kid you not, Mom has always tied their ties for them. I think Colton actually did learn when he went on his mission...but not until then.

I just want to post this pic. Any guesses as to why my brothers have never learned to tie their own ties? (I actually think this pic is very cute. Dad is obviously not amused by me!)

2 Things

From this next set of pictures, I have been able to deduce 2 things:

1-Taelyn LOVES yogurt

2-It has been a very long time since Grandma fed a baby!

Only a Few Pics

I didn't take enough pictures over our Christmas break. I will blame part of it on the whirlwind nature of our Christmas. We worked on Christmas Eve, left for home at 4ish, and were back to work on the morning of the 26th. The drive back was nasty. Our usual 2 1/2 hour trip took us 4 1/2. At Daniel's Summit there was 6-8 inches of unplowed snow.

Anyway, here are a few of the pics I did take. Truck and Taryn were sure determined to get Taelyn to play the guitar. You can tell from the first pic how interested she was in that.

Colton and Shay

This post is for Colton and Shay, who have complained that there isn't a picture of them and Tae to be found on our blog. They came and stayed with us a few days before Christmas. It was wonderful to see them. They hadn't seen Taelyn since Red Fleet (my dad's fam's reunion in July). Imagine their shock at how much she had grown. No, Shay isn't a jail bird. She had just finished reffing a Boys Varsity B-ball game in Hurricane. Tae sure wanted her whistle! Hope to see you guys again soon (soon being a relative term meaning in less than 5 months, which is the length of time between this trip and the last time we saw you!).

Christmas Candy Tradition

Jon and I have made it one of our traditions to make candy for Christmas. This year we went a little overboard. We bought everything we needed to make: truffles, peanut butter fudge, fudge, caramels, honey candy, almond joys and mint, rum, orange and almond chocolate dipped cremes. The month was far to busy for us to be that ambitious. We never did get to the honey candy and almond joys. Oh, and we still have to dip some of the cremes. Taelyn spent most of the time on the table. Between the window and the silky, she was a gem and kept herself mostly entertained!