Not Getting Any Better

I keep trying to convince myself that Nick is getting better as he is getting older, but I think I'm kidding myself. Here's a conversation I had with Ryan yesterday as we were in the backyard sitting on the swing and enjoying a little bit of sunshine:

Mom: "Ryan, what is that in your ear?"

Ryan: "What?"

Mom: "What is that in your ear?"

Ryan: "What? I don't know!"

Mom: "Come over here and let me see what is in your ear."

Ryan: "Okay"

Mom: "Is that........Is that GUM in your ear???"

Ryan: "Well, I didn't want to hear Nick crying anymore."

From there, before I thought to reach for my camera, I pulled the wadded up gum out in long strings and then spent 20 minutes with a q-tip and baby oil getting the remnants out of his ear canal.
And that is why I think I'm kidding myself that Nick is getting better...he still cries a lot and NEVER sleeps, day or night!

Always Good For a Laugh

It's always fun to have a good laugh at someone else's expense. So, here goes:

The other night Jeff took the kids out to dinner and to play arcade games so that I could go see my grandma in ICU. Before he left with the kids, he took the stroller out of my car and put it in the truck (it doesn't fit in there with all the kids). I took Nick to my mother-in-law's house in Lindon and upon arriving there found the tailgate of the truck down. Initially, I thought that was weird, but then it dawned on me that the stroller had been in the back of the truck and now was no longer there! A series of feelings went through my head as I headed to the hospital:

1) what if I caused a wreck? I was ready to call the Highway Patrol and fess up so that I didn't see some news segment on the 10 o'clock news about how the driver never stopped when she caused a giant wreck on the freeway because the stroller fell out of the back of her car.

2) what an idiot that I didn't notice the tailgate falling down as I was driving!

3) pissed off about my brand-new $200 stroller that I am now going to need to replace.

I called my neighbor and had her go check my driveway and the street, but the stroller wasn't there. So, I stewed over it, went to the hospital, picked Nick back up, and headed home. I watched for the stroller the whole way home, but didn't find it. My other neighbor called (word gets around in a small town like this) to say that he had seen it not far from the house near the highway, but someone had picked it up and taken it. I have to admit that even though I'm made about being so stupid, I'm so glad to know that I didn't cause a wreck.

Now, the real question is...which stroller do I buy to replace it? It took me months of looking to decide on the one that I liked, but they don't sell it just as the stroller and I don't need another carseat and base. The one that I lost was the Eddie Bauer Adventurer and I liked it because it protected Nick from the weather, it folded so that the stroller didn't end up on the ground, and it was a neutral color (I just can't do the babyish stuff).

So for those of you who have a stroller you love, let me know what it is. I've been out twice to get a new one, but I don't like any of them. I spend an hour at Baby's R Us on Saturday folding and unfolding strollers and left without one. I know a lot of you are going to say the Mcclarren is awesome, but I just don't think they are protective enough for when I'm outside.

Please, Please, Please...any advice is greatly appreciated.

And...if you're the one who picked up my brand new stroller, I hope you enjoy it!

Welcome Back Coco

Coco has finally moved back to Utah. He's been up in Washington getting a new Mastercraft dealership going there since last June. Now that things are up and runnig fairly smoothly, he's moved back. We're so happy to have him back closer to us. He's got a home in Cedar Hills near the American Fork Canyon, but that's only 45 minutes or so away from us. Today was his first day home and we met him for lunch at his favorite burger joint (greasy, greasy!) called Apollo Burger (Craig, don't be jealous). It was great to see him again and he was pretty happy to see his two favorite nephews as well. I know this picture is charming, but I couldn't get any of these guys to smile for the camera, so they are all purposely looking away. Now that Cory is back, we've just got to find a woman for him...any suggestions?

Meeting The Great-Grandma's

Great-Grandma Day---Great-Grandma Illa---Great Nanny Patty

It is sad to admit, but Nick didn't meet his great-grandmothers until he was three months old. If he would just travel a little bit better life would be so much easier. We're going to attempt to go to St. George for Easter in a few weeks. I hope the trip goes well, unlike our 1 hour trip to Delta yesterday in which Nick screamed the entire way home without stopping. When we called Uncle Cory to let him hear the fun, he asked if Nick didn't eventually wear himself out and go to sleep. My reply was that he does go to sleep....after we get him out of his carseat. Any tips out there for me on making the car rides more pleasant?

Homemade Bread Recipe

Okay, so I'm now addicted to making homemade bread. I don't know if I will ever want to buy store-bought again (I might out of necessity, though). This recipe makes 4 loaves of bread, but you can make part of the recipe into loaves and the other part into just about whatever you want: Breadsticks, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, scones, tortillas, butterflake rolls, soup bowls, french bread...use your imagination. This recipe is fool-proof, if I can make it so can you.

Homemade Bread Recipe
10 1/2 cups flour**
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
3 rounded tablespoons Saf-Instant Yeast (Macey's or Harmons)
3 tablespoons* liquid lecithin (health-food store)
4 cups hot tap water

Mix dry ingredients into mixer (Bosch works really well!) and mix for 1 minute. Check for consistency and add more water or flour if needed. Mix for 5 more minutes. Dump onto counter & shape 4 loaves. Spray pan and place loaves in pan. Let rise for 25 minutes & then bake for 25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

*Squeeze or pour out about 3 quarter-size amounts from bottle instead of measuring because lecithin is SO thick.

**For whole wheat bread, used only 3 cups of hot tap water and 1 cup applesauce. Mix for 10 minutes instead of 5.

Thumb Sucker?

Are we going to have a thumb sucker in our family? Nick's been trying to find his thumb for weeks now, but the last few days he's been fairly successful. In a way I'd almost like it if Nick would find his thumb so that he would have something to appease himself with. On the flip-side, I don't really want the battle of getting him the quit sucking his thumb in a year from now. With a pacifier, you can just take it away (if I was only lucky enough that he would take a paci), but a thumb is always there. Still, Nick does like to try and find it during every waking minute of the day. So the question for all you moms of thumb-suckers...Should I try to discourage him from the thumb by moving it away when he's trying to get it into his mouth?

Weekly Happenings!

Uncle Craig & One Of His Favorite Nephews!

Craig's girlfriend, Britta, and I both recently got new cameras. We had photography 101 on Sunday afternoon taught by Grandpa George (my Dad). We learned a whole lot more about shutter speed & letting more & less light into the camera than I thought we would, but now we have a better comprehension of how the process works. My favorite is the setting that blurs the background or foreground so that the picture looks more professional! Hopefully as I play around with it I will get good enough to abandon having to pay for my kids' pictures to be taken by other people.
Hooray for the Sweet Peace Baby Soother!

Cabin Fever! Seems like all we get is snow, snow, & more snow these days. We got about 15-20" on Valentine's Day in that big storm that I'm sure most of you heard about on the news. Those poor kids that had to spend the night at school...wait, I mean those poor teachers. Love you guys that are still teaching, I only miss it a little. I'm getting restless for spring & planting season!

What a great guy I'm married to! Our neighbors, the Bertagnini's, across the street retired here from California & I'm not sure that they anticipated the amount of snow we get in this area. We always have a good chuckle when it snows because John will be out trying to plow his driveway with a large push squeegy! Good thing Jeff usually has the time in the mornings to go over and dig them out of the giant snow that piles up frequently.

Immunizations

What Was I Thinking???

Last month I called to make Nick's two month check-up and decided I'd better do Ryan's 5 year (a little late since he turned 5 Nov. 21) at the same time. Boy was that a mistake. I've always considered Ryan to be a fairly mellow and very well-mannered boy, so you can imagine my surprise when we had a total freak out at the doctor's office. Nick went first (my mistake) and Ryan got scared becuase Nick got 5 shots. Ryan sort of just cried through the first on in his arm, but it was all over from there. He first tried to run out of the room, then started screaming that he "hates shots," then he said he didn't want to go to kindergarted if he had to get shots. I calmed him down a little, but the second shot in the other arm started the screaming right back up. The doctor came it to see what the problem was and Ryan just started screaming "I HATE YOU, I HATE SHOTS, I HATE YOU!" and I'm not sure that Dr. Miller even knew what to think. At last, while pinned down by three people, Ryan just cried and screamed "I want my Dad, I want my Dad" until the other two shots in the leg were done. If it wasn't so sad, it would've been funny. All in all, a very traumatic experience, but now we're all immunized. Both Ryan and Nick are somewhere in the 50% for weight, but they are both in the 97% for height. The doctor says that he likes to see his patients tall and skinny, better than short and fat!