Miscellaneous Pics

Aren't they the cutest?

Cutesome and I.

My only blue-eyed baby! I have always LOVED brown eyes, but something about having blue on my beautiful baby makes me love blue eyes as well!

Everyone should have a big sister that adores them like Confidence does Cutesome.

Why would you use 2 bowls when 1 giant one works just fine?

While cousin Kenlee was staying with us last weekend we did "Satin Hands, Satin Lips, Facials and Manicures. Clockwise from boy: Dynamite, Emma (cousin), Confidence, Kenlee, Vivacious.

Cutesome learning how to use his walker.

Boy do I love having kids that love to cook! Note to self: continue teaching kids how to do stuff I don't like do.

Few Things Are Cuter Than a Baby In the Bath

Isn't he adorable??? (There's only a short amount of time that one can take pictures of n@ked babies and post them online without getting into trouble!)

I guess he's ready to get out now.

Some Videos to Enjoy

Vivacious reciting "The Man That Wants A Garden Fair", with an intro by Dynamite!

Cutesome learning to eat (crackers) and trying to do "raspberries".


Confidence's backstroke. I made her repeat level 4 from last year to perfect her strokes before moving on to level 5. She hopes to join the rec center swim team this year.

Dynamite rock climbing at the rec center.

Help! Something Must Be Done!

I have been having pain my right arm for about 6 weeks. After about a month I went to a family practice doctor, who diagnosed it as Tennis Elbow, a form of Tendinitis. He said I should continue to wear the brace I had bought a couple days before and use an anti-inflammatory every morning and night. Within 2 to 3 weeks the pain should go away or we could do cortisone injections. I wore my brace, even though it was really ugly. It did seem to help that particular part of my arm feel better, but higher up on my arm started hurting instead. When I stopped wearing the brace it seemed to be improving, so I didn't put it back on after a week and a half of wearing it.

Now, however, my shoulder (same arm) is in considerable pain most of the time, especially when I use it (even just picking up the diaper bag or brushing my hair is painful) and when I lay on my side to sleep. In addition, I have been having sporadic pain in my elbow and lower forearm as well. The pain I had that the doctor said was Tennis Elbow is almost completely gone. And here's the weirdest part - my other shoulder has been hurting now too. Explain that!

I think not using it would help, but that really isn't an option. I have a 9-month old baby and a bunch of other responsibilities and can't seem to stop myself from using it to clean my house. I need to see a doctor again, but having the kids all home for summer break makes it even harder to do stuff like that. Any ideas for home remedies? Do you know of any doctor that might be particularly good at figuring out what I should do? I'm open to suggestions.

More (can you believe it) Baseball Pictures!

The rain poured during Vivacious' final baseball game. Although the game was tied twice, making it extra extra long, she endured to the end and played her little heart out. The season has been long and she is ready for it to be over, but she enjoyed the attention she got at her last game. Her fan club at her final game included mom, dad, brothers and sister, both grandpas, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Fred and 3 cousins. Her fans all endured to the end despite being rain-drenched.
The kids huddling under Vivacious' umbrella in the dugout.

Soaking wet and chilled to the bone. When we left home for the ball park the sun was shining and we didn't think to bring so much as a long-sleeved shirt for her. Poor girl!

After much carrying and jiggling through Dynamite's game at 5:30 and Vivacious' game at 7:00, Cutesome finally gave in and fell asleep around 8:00. My sister held him under a tree for cover from the rain. He couldn't stay asleep until the game ended at nearly 9:00, though, so he cried for the last 10 or 15 minutes and she drove him around in the van to help calm him down. I couldn't have made it through 3 1/2 hours of baseball with that fussy baby without her help!

Dreamer helps out when they need an extra dad.

There was half an hour between when Dynamite's game ended and Vivacious' game began. Dynamite and I gathered all our stuff (huge blanket, the girls' library books, the diaper bag, the baby, his bat and glove and treats from his game) and headed to the opposite end of the field to catch a portion of my nephew's baseball game. The girls headed over there earlier and didn't take their things and Dreamer wasn't back from work yet, so he wasn't around to help. (Have I mentioned that I am having severe arm pain and using my right arm in any way hurts terribly?) I just want you to get a picture in your head of how pathetic I must have looked and how desperate I felt.

Somewhere between the two baseball diamonds I lost my car keys. After retracing my steps and calling my sister to see if she would stop at home on the way and pick up the spare key (just in case), we checked the snack bar, where someone had turned them in! Whew! Before then, however, I was comforted by the sight of my dad walking up because I knew that if anyone could find something little that was lost in the grass in a giant park it would be my dad. Luckily for all of us we didn't have to comb the park. Anyway, it was a long, long night, especially for Cutesome and I.

Some New Pictures

Dynamite and the bird feeder he made with Grandma J.

Isn't this so cute? I was trying to keep him happy outside long enough to get a little bit of yard work done.

Fun at T-Ball

Couch Potato in Training

This morning when I was feeding Cutesome he was watching the news with me. He wouldn't take his eyes off of the TV, so I changed the channel to Sesame Street. He watched it for about 10 or 15 minutes! When he was done eating, I sat him in my chair and he just kept watching the show. I am surprised that it could captivate him for so long since he is only 8 1/2 months old!

The Mother's Lounge

Here's my adorable boy right in the middle of Sunday School. We were in the mother's lounge at church after leaving Sunday School twice trying to calm him down. Of course, I got to climb over people each time with my baby in my arms and the diaper bag over my shoulder. The picture below shows how Cutesome holds his blanket up to his cheek when he's eating and trying to fall asleep.
I am so not impressed with the mother's lounge in our church. Here are the ways it is deficient:

1. Uncomfortable chairs. Only one of the three chairs rocks. One doesn't even have "arms" - very uncomfortable when holding a baby.
2. Nothing on the walls to look at. You're there, killing time until the baby might want to be pleasant, in a tiny little room with not a single thing on the wall. Good thing my baby is so cute.
   
3. There are speakers that allow you to hear whatever is going on in the chapel. This was a good idea, but during the second hour there is nothing in the chapel and during the third hour it's the High Priest's group, which is less than interesting. It would be so nice to have the option of hearing the Relief Society lesson. Unfortunately, the men that design the buildings don't ask the women what they think (an assumption, but I'd be willing to bet on it).
4. The lighting is super bright. A dimmer switch would be helpful when calming fussy babies!
5. No tables. Just a small side table by the chairs would be great because it would give you a place to put the bottle, burp cloth, binky, or anything else you may need close at hand while feeding your baby.
6. You have to go through the bathroom to get to the mother's lounge. The door between the two has a vent in it that makes it so you can hear everything that goes on in the bathroom. Yep, everything.
   

What I'm doing to improve our mother's lounge:

1. I'm trying to convince Rob to donate his favorite chair that is sitting in our garage because there isn't a place for it in the house. It's not ideal, but it rocks and has an ottoman. Of course, I'd need him to deliver and haul away the terrible faux-leather armless chair because there isn't room for four.
   
2. I made a collage of "mother" pictures - mostly pictures from church magazines and calendars that depict Jesus and his mother, Mary, or other mothers with babies on a bulletin board. It's terrible as far as interior design goes, but it has tons of pictures that are thought-provoking, especially to new mothers.
   
3. I'm going to find a little lamp to donate that will allow for softer lighting.
   
4. I gathered a basket of supplies to keep there in case anyone forgets anything. It includes diapers (all sizes), burp clothes, blankets, diaper rash ointment, hand sanitizer, lotion, air freshener, wipes and baby powder. My hope is that when people use something they will replace it when they can.
5. I'm going to take a little side table to go by the chairs. The one I have in mind has a space at the bottom that could hold church magazines or a set of scriptures and other things to read when the High Priest's lesson is boring.

These are simple things I can do that I believe will help our mother's lounge be a little more comfortable for the future mothers enduring 3 hours at church caring for fussy babies while wearing pantyhose and a dress. When I pass other mothers in the hallways or see them in the mother's lounge we often comment that it seems pointless to come to church when our babies don't allow us to stay in our meetings. Bits and pieces of talks and lessons are better than none at all, though, so we continue to go week after week.
I've heard older people comment that it bothers them when mothers don't take their babies out of meetings promptly when they start to fuss. There are a couple of things they may not have considered or may not remember:

1. Young mothers are frequently sleep-deprived, adult-conversation-deprived and in need of spiritual fulfillment and camaraderie. Often new mothers have missed several months of church upon the birth of their babies and are really needing to be spiritually uplifted. To attempt to calm the baby so they don't have to miss out on the lesson or talk seems reasonable to me. Of course the baby should be taken out if it cannot be calmed.
   
2. If a mother takes her toddler out of a meeting at the first noise he/she makes, how will he/she learn to behave and stay in the meeting? It doesn't take long for toddlers to learn that they can have more fun out in the hall if they just make a bit of noise.

(Not at all on the topic of this posting, but...Cutesome's little hand clutching his blanket.)

Baby, Baby!