2.1.10: Blug

Conversation with Emma on Saturday:

H: I took a 3 hour nap on Friday and then fell asleep at 10:30 and slept in until 9. I think I have mono. You really should stop making out with me.

E: I am lonely.

And so that's my January. Blug.

I just feel gross and lazy. Not that I've been particularly lazy. I've been keeping up with my school work; the house is clean; I painted my bedroom last week; and even now I just finished folding 4 loads of laundry. And still I sit around looking out at the beautiful blue sky, which Rex frequently reminds me of (he says blue (bue) and purple (poorple) now), and think ugg.

After all the excitement of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, January is hard to take, and we've even had fairly pleasant weather. I ask Rex if he wants to go outside and ride his tricycle and he just says no. And so we wait for even more pleasant weather and for a month with a better holiday than President's Day.

And that is why I have written nothing this month. Blug.

1.13.11: Trampolines

I'm in a hurry posting this because I have homework to do (yeah, something to do!), but I promised Reagan's mom I'd post this tonight.

We had the best time today. Greg and I have been debating for a while whether or not Rex could handle Jump On It--a trampoline gym. Well, Greg's mom is in town so I thought, why not give it a try. So we did. And here are the videos to prove it.

*Also note, Rex was too excited to stand still so I couldn't get a picture of him. He was running all over the place.

Reagan got tired.

Despite what it looks like, nobody actually got hurt. Everyone was laughing, except the 3rd kid who came down because he got in trouble because he ran over the little kids (Rex and Reagan).

1.12.11: All growd up

Rex has grown 6.5 inches in the last year (I know the wall says 12/09 to 1/11 but I marked his height on New Year's Eve one year and then New Years day the next, so it sounds like it's farther apart than it really is). That's a lot of growing. If I grew that much in a year, I'd be over 6 feet tall. If I grew that much proportionally in a year, well, I'm too lazy to figure the math out, but I'd be really tall.

Aside from grow up (literally a lot), Rex has grown up figuratively too. He's learned how to walk, run, clean the toilet, drink from a cup, say several words, identify all his important body parts (although he still confuses belly button with peepee [I'm not teaching him penis because I think it's weird when little kids run around the store yelling, "Mommy, my penis hurts"--and you know at some point Rex will hurt himself in a store]). He can "read", fold his arms, follow directions, take his diaper to the trash, do simple puzzles, roll his arms wheels-on-the-bus style, throw a ball, swing on big-kid swings, pick out his own clothes.

That's a lot to learn in a year. If I learned that much in a year...it's no wonder he takes such long naps.

But the weird thing is, I don't remember him growing up or being little. When I look at him, it's like he's always been 22 months. That kid that was in the NICU 22 months ago, that was another baby, not my Rex. Rex has always been 22 months, and before that he was always 21 months, and before that 20 months.

I remember my mom saying that the one thing she thought she did right as a mother was to not wish a phase of childhood would pass. She enjoyed every phase. I've tried, not always succeeded--I was really glad to be done with the whole nursing thing--but I've tried. So why do I not remember my Rex being younger than 22 months? I guess he's just growing up so fast, my brain can't handle it.

1.8.10: Ice Skating

As part of our New Year's Eve celebrations we got free skate rentals from Seven Peaks Ice Arena for the first week of January, which we tried to use on New Year's Day, but, as mentioned, the rink wasn't open on New Year's because it's a holiday. Whatever. Today we finally got a chance to go.

Greg and I were both a little nervous about taking Rex. Not just because he could seriously injured, but because what if he didn't like it? We made sure to get there early to get a skate aid (pictured above). Our first surprise of the evening was that Rex allowed us to put his shooos (ice skates) on him. And then he skated. When we first put him on the ice, I thought he was crying, but no, he was laughing. We even made it around the rink once. And then twice. The second time we went around he stopped laughing. He took stock of the other skaters, pulled in his lower lip, set his eyes, and was off. He was skating almost with just him and the skate aid--almost, which we thought was pretty impressive considering he's not even 2 yet. After round 2, Rex needed a snack, so we waited in line FOREVER and didn't even get what we wanted (a pretzel). We ended up with a $1 bag of fruit snacks (honestly people). Rex ate that; we did one more lap, and then Rex wanted to watch the skaters from the balcony so we put our shoes on and did just that.

And now we are home. I am doing this; Greg is playing Rock Band Beatles with his sister and her friends; and Rex is double-pjed in his bed.

1.4.11: Am I going to hell?

I spend a good part of every evening reading blogs. And, as of late, most of them have been about new years resolutions/goals, which got me to think about mine and my life in general.

I'm having a bit of cognitive dissonance (if that's the right word to use; it's been a long time since I've taken high school psychology) about my life right now. On the one hand, I am very happy and not stressed at all. I spend pretty much all day, every day doing things I love, one of which happens to be the feeling of my eyelids on my eyeballs. I go to bed satisfied but not particularly tired every night and wake up when I feel like it--I'm not sure when Rex wakes up, I find him playing quietly in his crib most mornings. I feel like I get most of the most important things done--I play with Rex and I spend time with Greg.

On the other hand, I feel guilty at the amount of time I spend being idle, especially when considering the pioneers, farmers, other people I know, or Greg. Rex takes a 3 hour nap everyday, and what do I do during that time--read. Grant it, I try to read books on parenting or other matters that will advance me in my motherhood/wifehood career, but could I be doing something more productive? Rex goes to bed at 8, and what do I do after that? I went back to the track tonight (it was closed over the holiday), but now I'm doing this. How important is this? I consider it like journaling, but is it really? Is there something more important I could be doing?

I just don't want to get to the end of my life and say, "Wow, I wasted a lot of time. I should've done more with my life." But at the same time, I do want to be able to say, "I was a pretty good mom. I put all my effort into it. I was a pretty good wife. I put all my effort into that. And I had fun with my hubs and my kids [hopefully we'll have more than 1 by the time I die] and we have good relationships and we are all going to the Celestial Kingdom together." But will I get to the Celestial Kingdom if I stay this idle? Or, is every one else just over worked and I've found the perfect balance and everyone should be more like me? I just don't know.

Having said that, here are my goals for the year:

--Be better at grocery shopping. I don't need to save 70% on my groceries, but I'd like to spend about 10% less. I don't want shopping for food to be my life, but I'd like to spend less on it at the same time.

--Communicate better. I feel like either I get my way and offend a lot of people, or I don't get my way and don't offend people. I would like for everyone to be happy and unoffended.

--Save a bit from every pay check. This is a goal every year and for a while Greg and I were really good at it, but lately we've sucked. Saving is like tithing, do it first so it hurts less.

--Paint the kitchen and my bedroom. Greg and I painted our kitchen last year but just last week admitted to each other that neither one of us like the color but were too afraid of offended the other so we left it (see what I mean from #2 above).

--Make curtains for the living room and kitchen.

--Learn the stories of Jesus and tell them to Rex frequently.

And there you go. My list.

Greg would like to

--finish the undisclosed application he is currently working on--more details when he's done

--Become a Microsoft Certified Developer.

1.1.11: Happy (?) New Years

New Years is pretty low on my list of favorite holidays--hence the ? in the title--actually it might not even be on my list at all. It'd be fun if I was young, single, and drank. The drinking part is key, because even when I was young and single New Year's was not one of my favorite holidays. If I was lucky, I'd go to a stake dance, but most of the time I wasn't even allowed to do that because every one else was drinking and the parents (rightly so) didn't want me out on the road with them.

I expressed this to a friend of mine and she said her mom doesn't like it because it represents change and all the TV shows are about people who died the previous year. And then I liked the holiday even less.

And then I wanted to go ice skating on New Year's, but the rink was closed because it's a holiday, so I like it even less. I hardly think that New Year's counts as a holiday, let a lone a holiday that merits ice rink closure.

Nevertheless, I didn't want to spend New Year's Eve sitting around, because that's boring.

So we got a pizza for dinner and then went to the Provo mall for Provo City's celebration. We paid $10 to get in, but then got a free train ride, which would normally be $9 for our whole family to ride. We thought Rex would love it, but he did not. He was very concerned that he wasn't buckled and made me hold him very tightly. Then we watched some middle eastern dancers for a while. I don't mean the dancers were actually middle eastern, they were white (duh) but they were doing middle eastern dances. Rex enjoyed that and Greg tried to teach Rex how to cat call. Then we stood in line for (and received) a balloon sword, which Rex then fell on and popped. Greg then stood in line to get Rex's face painted while Rex and I rode the escalator up and down and few times before Greg came and found us because his line wasn't moving. So we got Rex some candy and left for Cold Stone, where Rex insisted on eating my ice cream and refused to touch his. He got chocolate with raspberries; I got dark chocolate with brownies. Then home again home again giggidy-gig. Greg and I tried to find a movie to watch and failed so we watched some Law and Order and set fireworks off on our porch at midnight. We also watched some from the Provo mall from our front window. Then to bed to bed said sleepy head, let's tarry a while said slow, put on the pan said hungry man, let's sup before we go.

See why New Year's is lame? I guess we did get a train ride and free admittance to the ice rink for our $10 cover price at the mall.

Here's Greg and his sparkler.

Last Week Sometime: Museum of Ancient Life

We've become a little addicted to doing evening "activities" since we did one every night in December. We've realized that doing something, anything, is better than doing nothing. So last week sometime (Tuesday I think), Greg had the day off work and I had $10 from Grandma Deon burning a hole in my pocket, and so we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. It was huge. The tour/gallerias took you through all the stages of ancient life, staring with the Big Bang, which Rex did not like--too dark, and up through the dinosaurs. Above you will see Rex with a T-Rex. There was tons to do including building a dam at the water table, dressing up like a dinosaur, playing with rubber dinosaurs, building your own horse-sized dinosaur, and going on an archeological dig. Greg and I enjoyed it. Rex just wanted his free ice cream--he did get bet up by a girl at the water table. We're thinking of taking him back when he's 3 or so and can/will enjoy it more.