Branden and Robin

Information about us, idea stolen from a friend.

How did we meet? We met at Erin Puddicombe's going away party when we were like 16 or something like that. Clearly we didn't start dating right away, but were friends for a long time before we actually realized we enjoyed eachother like that.

Where did you go on your first date? Branden's house. His family was out of town so he invited me over, we played monopoly, cards, laughed and joked and talked like mad and watched part of ice age. It was a great first, first date.

How long have you been together? Umm that would depend what you count as the start date, from our first, first date Almost 6 years. From when we got back together after his mission 4.5 years.

Who said I love you first? Him, he said it WAY first and I responded with a rousing 10 minute chorus of "are you sure's?" Then told him I loved him like a month later. 

Who is taller? Definately Branden.

Who sings better? Definately Branden, I sound terrible and he's really good. Even though he hasn't sang in like forever because I made fun of him for singing at his farewell (I'm such a bad wife)

Who does the laundry? I do, Branden will change a load now and then for me, but he doens't b elieve in separating colours so if he does it our clothes get dingey. he also doesn't believe in folding so obviously its my job.

Who does the dishes? I do, its the one chair Branden hates most (as much as I hate ironing) he's maybe done them 3 or 4 times our whole marriage (including when we had a dishwasher and you just had to load and unload it!) I don't mind dishes though so its fine and besides when he does them they never get put away in the right place. Sometimes I secretly think Branden does chores poorly so I'll just stop asking him to help.. hahah.. and its not an unfounded thought because he's said its true!

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do now, Used to be the other way around but the right side of the bed is closer to Jack's room and since I wake up with him I have to be there so not to trip and make quite a racket getting around the bed to Jack.

Who pays the bills? I do, but Branden is aware of what they all are.

Who mows the lawn? We dont' have one currently, but when we do Branden will. that horticulture degree has to come in handy somehow.

Who cooks dinner? I do. Branden will occasionally,but then its like chicken nuggets and fries or delissio pizza. I like cooking though.

Who drives when you are together? Until like 4 days ago Branden always did, now me because we took him off insurance to save some money. 

Who is more stubborn? I'd go with Branden, although I definately have my stubborn moments too.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first. I was not the experienced kisser so there is no way I'd venture that. He did it in front of my sister too when we dropped him off at his parents house one night. so smooth. It took me like a month to initiate a kiss in our relationship and when I did I totally forgot to tuck my hair behind my ear so it was just a big gross hair sandwich. I was such a newb. 

Who is more sensitive? I don't know, I'll ask Branden.....he says he doesn't know either. No answer here.

Who proposed? Branden and he did it really cutely too. First he was going to propose on my birthday, but chickened out and just gave me the ring as a "promise ring".  Then he did for real a few months later at a YSA dance he took me upstairs and did this game show thing.. it was pretty cute. I about ruined it though because after I won the game show as my prize he took me blindfolded into a room (and hte room was all decorated with twinkly lights and cuteness) but when I was still blindfolded I felt one of the light cords and thought he was putting a snake on me and freaked out... sooooooo not romantic Robin!

Who has more siblings? Branden does. I have a brother and a sister, he has 2 brothers and a sister.

Who wears the pants? Both of us I would say. We come to pretty much all decisions together and both of us HATE it if the other tries to tell us what to do, so that never happens successfully.

Weekend Update

We had a very busy, very fun weekend. I think Jack is definately ready to just crash today, but unfortunately me and him get to go spend 3 hours at the hematologist's office. FUN!

Anyways Friday night we went to our friends Elaine and John's house for a games night.  Unfortunately it didn't get off to a great start because Elaine was at emergency with her oldest son who had a pencil eraser stuck in his ear. They came home not too long later though because there was an enormous wait so they just went to the clinic the next morning. We played with Jack and their kids and then their kids went off to bed but Jack decided sleep was for hosers (usually he sleeps so well at their house, but not that night) and stayed up as we played banagrams until we left around 11ish. It was a good night though and Jack fortunately slept in until atleast 8:30 saturday morning which was enjoyable for both of us.

Saturday we hung around the house all day trying to get Jack to nap lots and catch up on  his sleep so he would not be a grouchy baby when we went to a Halloween party that night at our friends the Neebs. Jack borrowed Ben's costume from last year and was a hotdog, Branden and I did not participate in the dressing up.

My lonely little hotdog with the group.

Me and my hotdog!

Jack was highly unimpressed with his costume as it did not leave his feet the freedom to stand and walk and stomp as he pleased. So after just a few minutes he rebelled and screamed until I freed him from the costume. The party was lots of fun.We chatted, ate delicous food and played a rousing game of "Things". By the end of the night though all children were in melt down.  Not Jack though because he slept on the floor upstairs for a good hour mid party. I was proud considering his rejection of public sleep the night before. All in all it was a great night.

Sunday was church, a nice afternoon nap and then we went over to Elaine and John's house for dinner. I'm pretty sure they wanted Jack more than us as this was our invitation. 3 o'clock the phone rings. Elaine asks is Jack awake?? Branden says no. Elaine says call us and come over when Jack is awake.. hahaha. Oh well.. we had a delicious dinner. Then we went to Stake Christmas choir practice. Branden stayed the whole time but I didn't even make it into one song before Jack screamed for food and sleep so I took him home and put him to bed.

Swaddle

We never really swaddled Jack much, maybe for the first few days of his life and thats it. He just hated it, he woudl kick and scream and kick and scream until he worked his way out. He likes the freedom to move and thrash about. Add to that he's a sweaty beast of a kid who (in the summer when he was really little) hated having blankets on that just made him even sweatier and hotter.

BUT the other day Branden and I thought it would be funny to see what he would do if we swaddled him now that he's bigger. WE thought he'd scream and kick and just be entertaining in general, but he didn't. He thought being swaddled was the greatest thing since sliced bread, he smiled and laughed and cooed, then got frusterated until he got his thumb out, then sucked his thumb while he smiled laughed and cooed. He really thought the whole process was quite funny, until he became bored and screamed, but still it was mucho fun for us!

Sleep

So I've done a post like this before about Jack's many sleep positions, but seriously this kid never sleeps the same way. Lately he's been so cute in his sleep/slash/when he's waking up going to sleep. The other night Branden and I army crawled into his bedroom together just to peek up over his crib and stare at him and laugh as he thrashed about trying to fall asleep. Something is so cute about babies sleeping. Anyways recently he's just been sleeping so cute everytime I"ve gone in that I HAVE to snap a picture (and pray the flash doesn't wake him up). Some samples for you...

On his side

Hands under head

Rubbing his eyes in his sleep, the cutest BY FAR!

Wash Cloth Thief

Last week I was innocently giving Jack a bath, I was washing him everywhere and getting him all de-stinkified and clean when the child stole the wash cloth from me. He snatched it right out of my hand (where did this kind of finger/slash/hand dexterity come from). He then promptly shoved it in his mouth and ate it for a good 10 minutes while I stared on. It was so cute, but weird he's never been able to grab anything away from me before, but now its becoming a recurrent thing!

Thanksgiving.

Better late than never, over a week late here comes my Thanksgiving post.

Thanksgiving was pretty great. On Saturday Branden, Jack and I headed down to his parents house in Brampton for the day. We spent the day with his family, visited an apple farm, played scrabble and had a most delicious dinner. It was alot of fun. The only unfortunate part was that Jack and Branden both had major colds and Jack REFUSED to nap so it was major meltdown time earlier than we would have preferred.

Sunday we stayed home, went to church and  Jack and Branden slept and recovered.

Monday we woke up and Jack screamed for 3 hours straight, we thought it would be a terrible day, but packed up the car to go to Brantford to visit my family. He miraculously changed mood and was the best baby all day long. We met my family at the apple orchard and walked around picking apples (usually we all pile on the trunk and drive, but thats not so safe with a 5 month old so it was walking this year) It was alot of fun. Then we spent the afternoon playing board games /slash/ wii mario kart and had a delicious dinner where Jack had his first taste of mashed potatoes. He seemed to enjoy them quite a bit. It was a great holiday and we had so much fun with both of our families.

5 Months

Today Jack is 5 months old. I feel sad and excited! How is his life going by so fast, how can it be that in just 7 months he will be a year old and I will have to leave him and go back to work. UGH! But my baby is 5 months old and here are his 5 facts.

1.Jack doesn't sit yet. He refuses to sit ever, he will not practice so he will never learn. I secretly (or not so secretly now that I'm putting it out in blog land) fear that he will go on his first date and not be able to sit down for dinner. The kid will just NOT sit. As soon as we try and sit him he goes stiff as a board and you have to chop out his lower half to get him to sit. This makes getting in the bumbo, highchair, sitting on my lap all very difficult things.

2.Jack has more to say with every day that passes. He just makes noises all day long, I like to say he has a few words under his belt because his main sounds are "MOooooooom" and "Booooooooob" (I like to think he loves me extra special because he uses these words so frequently) But apparently they are just the easiest sounds for his little mouth to form because he is sooo not knowing what he's talking about, just rambling away.

3.Jack has started reaching for us and I/slash/we LOVE it.  Some days when he is feeling particularily clingy I take him in his bumbo into the bathroom with me and he sits in his bumbo while i shower. Well last week he spent the entire 15 minute shower making "moooom" and "booooob" sounds with a pathetic little sad face on reaching up to me in the shower. It was so cute I wanted to die!!

4.Jack thinks his Dad is the funniest person on earth. I mean he thinks I'm pretty funny and definately gives me and others my fair share of smiles and laughs, but NOONE and I mean NOONE can make him laugh like his Dad does. Perhaps it has something to do with all the silly voiced rhyming about his stinky poop, but he just laughs at his Dad all the time.

5.Jack's life is a song. Jack loves music/slash/singing so we sing to him all the time. We sing about his dookie diapers, about his baths, about each body part as we clean it (including his man bits), about his food and his toys and everything and he LOVES it (even though his mom has a vomity gross singing voice!)

General Conference

General Conference was an interesting experience for us this year. It was our first conference with a baby and it definately did not result in as much spiritual enlightenment as it normally does. First we didnt' make it to many sessions because since Jack has been the lack of sleep baby lately, we were busy napping! Sunday  morning though we woke up early with the best of intentions. We headed over to our friends Elaine and John's house and made their family a waffle breakfast and then we all headed to the church for conference together. Jack was remarkably well behaved (he is not too frequently well behaved at church, it falls right at his nap time and therefore equals him being a grouch) but he was so good. I fed him and then he fell asleep on John which was a miracle because he hates sleeping in public, but maybe the room being dark for conference helped or something. All was well until suddenly John felt his front getting a little too warm. Thats right my son had peed right through is very recently changed diaper all over himself and John. I ran off to the bathroom with Jack and his clothes were DRENCHED and this of course was the Sunday I had forgotten to bring an extra outfit (I usually have atleast an extra sleeper with me) so I get my baby out of his soaking wet clothes and into a new diaper and do the walk of shame back into the meeting with my ghetto diaper only baby to collect his stuff and father and take him home to get some clothes (it was freezing!). While i am doing this, John has had to go home and change his whole outfit, he was also soaked in pee. Man oh Man, what a Sunday.

When I got home I gave Jack a big lecture about peeing on people. We advised him that if he keeps on bodily functioning on our friends we will have none left. I hope he understood!

Hair Ball MacLean

So Jack's new favourite thing is eating my hair. He's been rather obsessed with pulling it out by the handfull for quite some time, but now he's taken to eating it. Its soo cute and funny, but also painful for me and the kid is going to get a hair ball.  We've been trying to get pictures of him doing it and finally succeeded.. he looks so devious like he knows what he's doing is wrong and then when he realizes his father has caught him in the act he throws away the hair with disdain!

My Baby loves his thumb a little TOO much!

Jack is obsessed with and addicted to his thumb. It is soo cute when he sucks his little thumb, I just love it! I know many people say thumb sucking is a bad thing (for future teeth issues etc.) BUT there is not much I can do to stop and almost 5 month old from sucking his thumb and I really don't want to. His thumb is his new best friend, his surrogate Mommy. We often hear Jack get a little upset during nap time or sleeping at night and automatically 5 seconds later we hear him sucking away on his thumb and we dont' have to wake up. Its delightful.

However, lately I think the thumb sucking has gotten a little bit out of control. He is so addicted to his thumb that he won't even let go to eat.  He doesn't suck his thumb when he is playing or yelling (which is most of the day) but when he is sitting, cuddling or being held in general he is all about that thumb and since he is ALWAYS doing one of those three when eating it causes issues. When we are trying to feed him rice cereal (a recent thing we are starting solids a bit early on the advice of our doctor) he will not let go of the thumb. We have to hold both his hands to get the spoon in and then he loves the food, but as soon as we let go of the hands to get another spoon full his thumb is right back into his mouth. This makes a MEGA mess since the food is not only all over his face, but also all over his hands and anything his hands touch. UCK! 

He does the same thing when I am breastfeeding him. He tries to eat and have his thumb in his mouth at the same time. Its soooo strange! I have to restrain his arms at the same time as feeding him, its quite a complicated process!

Do you think the church would let me sign him up for their addiction program??