Confession

I have an embarrassing confession to make. I am so totally and completely terrified of showers. I can't handle showering. I don't do it very often at all. I'm a bath kind of girl, which I know alot of people think is gross, but I'd rather be gross than terrified and shifty. Whenever I shower I get this huge knot in my chest, I find it impossible to relax and I spend the entire time on guard looking around.
There is no concrete experience I have had that makes me terrified of showers (although I did fall in one when I was pregnant-ouch!). Do you know what it is that makes me so scared? Its stinkin' movies and TV and etc. EVERY somewhat scary movie seems to have a shower scene where something horrific and terrifying happens in a shower. I think probaly because the shower provides a perfect scene for partial nudity, but still EVERY one. Arachnaphopia scares me the most, but also the Grudge and many others.

UCK! I hate showers. I don't think I'll ever take one again!

30 Rock

My current favourite Tv show of all time is 30 Rock. I seriously adore this show and don't think there is anything more hilarious on TV. I love Tina Fey, she is seriously my female crush and if I could be anyone it would be her. She is hot stuff, hilarious and just awesome in general.

I am always shocked when I hear of people who do not watch this show. Seriously do you not know what you are missing out on? Alec Baldwin is amazing, Tina Fey even better and Tracy Jordan, man just hilarious! Today I am seriously encouraging you all to watch this show. Mainly because I am always paranoid of shows I love getting cancelled because of lack of viewership so anything I can do to help I will. But seriously, I promise you if you watch this show you WILL love it, you will laugh until you cry, you will quote it every day, it will make your life better!


So go, schedule your day or set your PVR and this Thursday at 9:30 on NBC and WATCH!

Jack's Nine Month Doctors Appointment

Yesturday was Jack's Nine Month Doctors appointment. Just the usual check up garbage.
His height is now 28 inches, right in the 50th percentile which he always has been in height and weight. His head size also 50th percentile (which is good because it always was, then randomlly last apointment was 90th, apparently his head just grew before his body). Then his weight was so weird. He's always been right in the middle, like I said 50th percentile, but not so much this visit. He's in the 10th percentile in weight, which is a huge drop and the doctor was rather concerned. He weighs 18 pounds 5 ounces and has put on less than a pound in the last 3 months.

I had to spend forever telling her all about his eating habits, sleeping habits, activity habits etc. so she could figure out why he is all of a sudden so skinny. Which is so weird, I thought he was a little chunker, but apparently not! Anyways he eats really well and alot, the doctor observed him playing for a bit and after talking to me decided there were two reasons he was so underweight.

One, because he still sleeps like turd. We did the whole cry it out thing and it worked to a certain extent. He went from 6 to 8 wake ups a night to 3 to 4, but thats still terrible for a baby his age. She says with waking up that much he's not spending enough time in REM sleep and its in REM sleep they grow and gain fatness so he's just not getting that chance. Add to that he decided lately naps are for losers and we really have to work on his sleep. So she gave us some tips and we have to be even more diligent with crying it out because the kid just needs to learn to sleep so he can grow properly. seriously though my kid is a lemon in the sleep department apparently.

The second reason he's so skinny is because he's so active. those of you who know Jack know he never stops moving. Even lying down he is always rolling his ankles and wrists, its the weirdest and cutest thing ever to watch. But he is always on the move and since he sleeps less, he moves more and ya. So, we have to start giving him really high fat foods. Most of what he eats now is fruits and vegetables, but now the doctor says we have to add in alot of egg yolks, yogurt, cheese and more calorie dense foods. She also said to use major butter in whatever I cook for him.

So Operation Make Jack gain weight begins, wish me luck and if anyone has any advice let me know!

New York

I'm finally getting around to writing about New York. I'm totally slow since we've been home almost a week, but such is life.
We left early Friday morning for the long, long, long drive to Long Island. Jack was pretty good all things considered. We had to make more stops than we would have had we gone sans-Jack but he didn't do too much freaking out until the last hour. He was decent right up until we hit New York City. We were going through the city, the Bronx to be exact at rush hour and it was INSANE and Jack did alot of crying while we were trying to direct ourselves and it was just not fun. Then as we headed along long island, the closer we got to the Hughes, the louder he screamed. He was beyond being beside himself by the time we got there and we were all pooped from the drive. I've never been more relieved then when we saw their cozy little house!

Since we had left rather early, we got there at a decent time around 7:30 or so. It was great to see Mark, Kim and Henry. We had missed them all and Jack was super happy to be able to move and crawl a little bit before he settled down to bed.

WE stayed up that night just catching up and watching some TV relaxing and were very happy when we went to sleep!

Saturday we got everyone ready and went to some pretty awesome outlet malls by their house. I got some super cute clothes for Jack and a few things for Branden and I too. It was valentines day and I guess you can say the boys gift to us was the 4 of them putting up with us shopping for a good 4 hours. By the end of shopping we were all so pooped so we spent the night just chilling.

Sunday was church at their ward which was embarrassing to say the least. They have the weirdest building EVER! Most buildings have doors on both sides of the chapel going into the hall, but apparently not theres. I assumed that the doors on both sides of the building would go to separate hallways so when Jack started crying I went to the closest door to take him in the hall only to be surprised by the door I opened heading directly outside. it made such a loud noise and there was a teeny tiny wind gush. It as so humiliating I quickly and sheepishly ran out the other door as soon as I realized my mistake. Their ward was fun though, lots of babies around Jack's age for him to have fun with. Sunday afternoon was nap time and some more hanging out.

Monday morning we woke up bright and early and headed into the city. It was pretty cool to see New York City, but I have to say when I go again (which I desperately want to) I will go without a baby. NYC is not designed for babies or strollers. I would have to say the worst part of the day was lugging the strollers up and down the bajillion flights of stairs in and out of the strollers. My legs were going to die! I swear more of those subway stations need to get elevators!

Cool Pictures Branden took while we were waiting for our subway.
Jack Snoozing above and Me with Kim and Mark below.

When we were in the city the first place we hit was the Rockafeller Centre (30 rock I love it!). Branden and I went to the Top of the Rock while Mark and Kim kindly watched Jack for us. It was amazing, you get such an awesome view of the city and we just loved it and got some really awesome pictures.

Us in front of 30 Rock

Us at "The Top of The Rock"

After the top of the rock we ate and went to the museum of natural history. There was alot of cool stuff to see. I loved the dinosaurs. We didn't stay super long though. It was a holiday (Presidents Day) and so the place was just flooded with people. It was just too busy!

Me and Jack with a meteorite

After the museum we walked around Central Park for a bit, then hit Times Square. We were going to go in the giant toys r' us there, I really wanted to. But again, being a holiday it was beyond busy. So we just took in the sights at Times Square. After that we went by Bryant Park where they were setting up for Fashion Week. It was cool because there was major papparazzi there. We were hoping to catch someone famous (apparently Justin Timberlake was in one of the tents) but the babies (jack particularily) was too cold for much of a wait.

Branden and Jack in Times Square

And that was pretty much our day. We went back to the station to catch our train home and ate a tgifridays while there. My only real regret of stuff I missed was not eating at any cool restaurants. There's lots more I want to see and do there, but we will definately visit again!

We left New York bright and early the next morning (at 3:30) which made us extremely tired, but the drive so much easier on Jack.

We really had a great time on our mini-vacation. It was great to get away and I loved just being able to spend time with Branden and Jack with no distractions. It was great seeing Mark and Kim, we really miss them! Thank you so much guys for being the best hosts ever and taking care of us while we visited you!

Greatest Husband in the World

I have the greatest husband in the world, officially. Not once, but twice this week our afternoons went as thus, Jack went for a nap and for that 1.5 to 2.5 hours I tidied, watched tv, cooked, whatever I felt like. Then Jack woke up and Branden took the reigns and I walked down to the bedroom and napped, napped, napped, while Branden on his holiday week changed several poopy diapers, shovelled food in a screaming face, kept that screaming face from screaming too loudly as not to wake me up and bathed a dirty boy. It was wonderful, two magnificent afternoons of relaxation and napping. I adore my husband.

Latest, Cutest Things

Jack has been soo cute lately. I can't even handle it. He's doing so much more all the time and its so cute and I just want to remember it forever. So cute things from lately.

First when he's crawling and sees something he wants to play with instead of sitting down and playing with it, he balances on his knees and head and plays with it under his raised tummy. Its soo strange, yet adorable.

Second when I'm holding him on my hip and he wants to see what my face is doing if I'm not facing him he peers around my side and smiles to see me, so cute!

Third when he's going to do something he knows isn't cool (like play under Branden's desk) he looks back at us multiple times while slowly approaching, trying to make sure we don't catch him.

Fourth, he's working on pulling himself up on stuff, but he hasn't got the strength yet to go all the way from floor to feet so he gets up on his knees and just kneels clinging on to the couch top which is nearly out of his reach when on his knees. its adorable!

I have to try to catch a picture of all these things for you to view!

In other news this is my 100th post. yay! And we are back from New York and I'll write about that later when I have more time.

Memory Corner Comes Back

I'm sure you all thought I had forgotten about memory corner, but alas, I have not! I just wasn't so into it for awhile. But the other day Branden and i were chorkeling about a memory of ours so I thought I'd write it up for posterity.

When we found out we were pregnant with Jack we realized we would have to move to a new apartment. We were living in a really nice apartment, that was to small for babies and was going to be out of our soon to be reduced by maternity leave budget. So we began our search. Touring apartments is always an interesting venture and you meet the most interesting of landlords/slash/building managers. One Building Manager was particularily memorable to us. He was the funniest looking guy ever and he really thought he was smooth. This man wore the tightest pants ever (hence my above picture) and these insanely tight pants were tucked into cowboy boots. He had a grey mullet that was slicked back with about a pound of grease. We had to hold in the chorkle's just looking at him. And he fancied himself quite the ladies man, he was flirting with every tenant of the female persuasion we came across. He was truly ridiculous! Anyways he showed us the apartment and we were not impressed and had no desire for it. However, wanting to avoid an akward situation when he offered us an application we said we wanted one. He took us to his scary, dank office to get one. But couldn't find it. He spent 10 minutes with us akwardly waiting in his office looking for it to no avail. He eventually decided that he had copies in his apartment and headed upstairs to get them leaving us in his office. Well, since we had no desire for this apartment, were sick of waiting and were really only taking the application as a courtesy/slash/ to avoid akwardness for ourselves we decided to just leave. We were afraid he would come back and catch us though so we quickly ran out what appeared to be the closest exit. It was NOT an exit, and this building was an unknown labrynth. SERIOUSLY we got so lost there were so many corridors and underground parking and we couldn't get out. And we were TERRIFIED of getting caught by this guy. WE ran frantically around looking for an exit thinking we were hearing the clickity clackity of his cowboy boots coming to get us. We were laughing so hard and so terrified. WE finally got out of the building but were so far from where we had parked, so we ran (slipping on the ice multiple times) still terrified this guy was going to track us down ( I don't know what we were thinking). We were so scared and out of breath by the time we got to the car and peeled out as fast as possible! It was quite a hilarious experience for us.

New York

On Friday Branden and I leave to go and visit our friends in New York. We're really excited, its going to be a ton of fun and I can't wait until we get there. I am, however, terrified of the drive there. First of all a few months ago we took Branden off the insurance in an effort to save some money so I will be doing the full 10 hour drive myself. I have known this for sometime though and I've come to terms with it. I'm all prepared and so I hope it will be fine. My biggest fear about the drive I just realized this week. My dearest baby poops an average of 6 times a day. Seriously this kid has like an over active bowel or something. And every one of these poops is quite sizeable, a few a week even so sizeable they work there way on out of the diaper and own the leg AND the smell like death, literally like death. There is no way on earth we will be first be able to tolerate the smell of one of these diapers in the car for more than a few minutes and second the longer it sits the more likely it leaks and GROSS in my car. So what do we do, we will be stopping every hour on the hour I"m sure. And will we even be able to make it to the next rest stop. Is it acceptable to change a diaper at the side of the road.. ugh. I don't even want to think about it. It honestly stresses me out far more than it should.

Christmas Toy

Jack got a new toy for Christmas from my parents and finally we put it together this week ( he wasn't really ready for it until he started crawling). He loves it. Its a ride on/slash/walk behind toy. He's so cute because when he's riding on it he has no clue how to get off so he just bails to the side and the toy comes tumbling down on top of him. And when he's walking behind it (and trust me I use the term walking loosely) He doesn't know to actually walk. He just hangs on while it rolls forward and he bashes his face on the handle and falls.. its pretty funny. Poor kid. He does love it though and despite the numerous times it hurts him he's always eager to get back in there with it.

Another Failed Art Experiment

Look at that cute little smiley/slash/guilty face!

Yesturday I decided that I'd try art with Jack again (because last time went so well!) so I trekked out to Michaels with him and bought some crayons (as well as art supplies for a little project of my own I am working on). We got home and I put him in his high chair with paper and crayons and once again failure ensued. No matter what I did he would not colour he just ate the crayons. I got a video because he was so cute chewing on the wax crayons. Seriously would someone please tell me when kids are ACTUALLY ready for art? (oh and you totally want to avoid sound again, something is sooo wrong with my camera's microphone it just leaves us with alien like sounds!)

Cousin Love

Every Thursday Jacks cousin Thomas comes over for the evening while my sister goes to her class at U of W. We like to torture them for cute photo opportunities, so I thought I'd share the results of this weeks torture.

He Crawls.... FINALLY

Jack is finally crawling. He's not very good at it.. he kinda looks like a baby giraffe thats been shot in the butt. But he does it and its adorable! Its taken him forever to crawl. I'm pretty sure he just never saw the point, he rolls like crazy. Its been so cute to watch him figure out the million different little roll angles to get to anything he wants. But crawling is even more adorable. Here's some videos, but don't turn on your volume. HONESTLY don't, I'm way to close to the mike and it will be unintelligible and give you a headache!

Playgroup

Every Wednesday morning the ladies in my area get together at a different persons home for playgroup. Its alot of fun for kids and Mom's alike. Jack lately is really starting to enjoy it more and interact more with the other children (instead of just lying there, ha!). Its really great because there are several kids within a few months of Jack. This week I snapped a few really cute pictures of Jack playing with his friend Luke, who is about a month younger than him. They were so cute together! I loved it! And yes my apartment is hideously messy in the pictures, but in my defense there were half a dozen kids playing with all those toys at one point or another.

Maybe?

Maybe when my baby is sad and still slightly sick and therefore majorly whiney I let him play with all the computer cords he wants just to make him happy for a few minutes

Glasses

Yesturday was Jack's first eye exam. It was an interesting experience to say the least. He was thoroughly unimpressed with the covering and uncovering of his eyes. Didn't like the dark, but was DYING to grab the crazy giant glasses things off the optometrist's head. We have to go back in 6 months because he is slightly cross eyed and far sighted. Both are normal for his age, but because of my ridiculously bad vision and majorly crossed eyes from such a young age they want to make sure its gone in 6 months. Hopefully the next one involves less crying! As you can see I decided to see what he would look like with glasses on last night, but he kept taking them off before I could snap a picture.. so OBVIOUSLY I had to pin down his arms with my feet to take a picture with my spectacles on him. He clearly was not impressed.