Sorry, Robyn!

I'm not sure why, but Robyn's blog was not updating on my list. So every time I checked my blog, I'd think, "That Robyn sure is not keeping up on her blog." So today when it finally updated there was quite a bit to read...and she had tagged me twice. So, here you go.

Five things about Nathan that you don't know:

1. He is awake in his crib even though there is 45 minutes left of naptime.
2. He's started giving "kisses" lately. Sometimes when he sees me, he'll get really excited, open his mouth, and breathe loudly. Then when I pick him up he'll grab around my neck, usually getting two fistfuls of hair (or just a handful of skin). Then he'll bite my jaw. How sweet. Good thing he doesn't have teeth yet.
   
3. He doesn't like green beans. So far, all other foods have been delicious. But green beans are not delicious.
4. When you put him in his crib, he has to have his binky. Then you have to give him an afghan to snuggle against his face. He'll turn onto his side, arch his neck back, and go to sleep. It doesn't look comfortable.
5. He is kind of a showoff baby. Last night he was super ornery. But, when we had to go to a song practice at a neighbor's house, he was sooo good. Did not make a peep. Everyone in our ward thinks he is a superhero, and his superhero power is to be the best-behaved baby in the WORLD. They don't believe us that he really is a normal baby. But I guess that's a pretty good problem to have.

We tag...Super D (who has a superhero baby name. He must have some superhero baby powers, right?)

And here's the Three Things tag.

3 Joys

1. family
2. my testimony
3. being able to be a stay-at-home mom
   

3 Fears

1. spiders
2. taking Nathan on a long plane ride
3. the phone. It's not that I don't like talking to people, I just don't like to call them. So don't be offended if I never call you.
   

3 Current Obsessions/Collections

1. Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount Jr.
   
2. poking people on Facebook
3. hearing about good deals from my sister and sister-in-law. They're so nice to pass the word along (see here).
   

3 Surprising Facts

1. I've never been to a game at Yankee Stadium, but I did get to use the bathroom there once.
2. I once considered being a nurse. For about five seconds.
3. Nathan is up (early) from his nap and is trying to type.
   

From a couple of hoo-hoos

Excerpt from Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount, Jr.

"Back in the early eighties I was to make a speech in some out-of-the-way place in Pennsylvania. A driver picked me up and the Pittsburgh airport. He was an affable sort, but he kept saying things that seemed oddly off, somehow. We were going to pass by Gettysburg, he said. That didn't seem right, especially when he said, 'That was where they spent the winter, you know, without any shoes. Feet wrapped in rags, if they even had that. And we think we have it hard.'

"Oh, I thought, he means Valley Forge.

"I asked him about a sign in front of a private home we passed: BARB'S BIG PIES!

"'Oh yeah,' he said. 'That lady bakes famous lemon pies. They're real big. Like a chef's hat. The meringue part alone is this thick!'

"He held his fingers about an inch apart, which didn't seem particularly thick for meringue, especially on a pie comparable to a toque.

"Then he started talking about his wife. 'I made her a Valentine for her birthday. Out of Styrofoam and copper wire? The heart went right through the middle of the arrow.'

"Well, you could, after all, look at the depiction of a pierced heart that way, but I was still trying to sort out what seemed askew about the image--in fact, I was beginning to wonder about being way out in the middle of nowhere with this man when he said, 'She's smart, you know. We grew up together. I wasn't good in school, at all. She was. Oh yeah. She was a hoo-h0o.'

"'I'm sorry?' I said.

"'A hoo-hoo. You know. Hoo-hoos Among American High School Students.'

We got where we were supposed to. He was good at what he did. But I hadn't realized that anybody's dyslexia extended as far as pie.

But back in the day when New York cabdrivers were much more likely to chat nonstop in English with their passengers than in some exotic native tongue over their ear-clip phones, I did have a cabbie who, after nearly running over an elderly lady, said in a reassuring tone, 'Nah, you don't wanna hit a pedestrian. 'Cause you have to fill out a form. And if you don't dot all your t's and cross your i's...'"

...You get utter hilariousness. Who says a book needs a plot to be entertaining? Good old Roy loves language just as much as I do. He may just become one of my new favorite authors. Along with the author of Ella Minnow Pea, of course.

Hoo-hoo. It kills me every time. My poor husband thought I was nuts because I was cracking up as I was typing this for you all. He's used to it, though. I keep interrupting him to tell him the etymology of a particular word, like grisly (comes from the same root as the words Christ and cream, of all things). He just says "wow" and then is free to continue his pursuits until I interrupt him again. He's pretty nice about it.

It's not what you think.

We have paid our heating bill.


But isn't it nice to know, if the situation were to arise, that your son is outfitted for an Arctic expedition?


What happens when mom leaves for the afternoon?


Food everywhere! To be fair, Nathan was going through the stage where food came out of his mouth just as fast as it went in. He's a much cleaner eater now. So his face, clothes, even his hair, were caked. Dad cleaned him up pretty good, but...when I came home I found food in his eyelashes.

On another note, I just wanted to share with you all what our relief society lesson was about yesterday. This life is hard. Hard with about seven capital H's. The world is a scary place, and it's not getting any easier. But our teacher testified pretty powerfully that Heavenly Father knows each of us, knows what we face every day, and blesses us with the capacity to handle it all. And he'll send the people and the circumstances that will help us out. I know we all hear this a lot, but it never gets old. The world is a pretty scary place most days, and it's nice to know we live the way we do for a reason. And that we never have to do it alone.

Master of Disguise

Yep, that's him.
Mild-mannered baby by day, international master of disguise by night.


Dragon/Dinosaur


Ballot-wielding adult


Baby with teeth

We had a good time with Halloween this year. We celebrated by walking to the library and voting. We figured we'd save a lot of time and hassle by voting early. Too bad about a bijillion other people also decided to save time and hassle. The line snaked through the stacks, with bored waiters snagging books as they spotted an interesting one. Luckily I had a couple books on hold so that I didn't have to search for something to read. I perpetually have books on hold at the library; it's kind of getting out of control. I hear about a book I'd like to read, and request it. Then all the books I've requested become available at the same time, and it's a mad rush to get them all read in time. It's not an option to just return a book unread.

Anyway, back to voting. We voted. We are responsible citizens. And I am so excited for this election season to be over. The end.

I know you've been thinking it. You didn't want to say anything; it would be impolite. And you didn't have to. We know that boy of ours sure is getting shaggy.

Well, no longer. We figured six months was old enough for his first haircut. He didn't like the clippers very much, so we ended up with me holding him while dear father wielded the clippers. We all got hairy.


But what cute hair it is. I wasn't at all sentimental about the first haircut until it was over. Then, "What have I done? My little boy looks so BIG!"


And he also looks clean cut. No more wisps sticking out all directions, up, out, over his ears. And if you'd like to, you may join me in bidding a fond farewell to the ever-famous baby mullet.

And if you someday find yourself missing the baby mullet to the point where you can no longer cope, just come on over. You can sigh over times gone by with the plastic sandwich bag that is the mullet's final resting place.

We just couldn't throw cute hair like that away.

Baby, it snowed outside.

Oh, buddy, did it snow. I was expecting a little sprinkling when I got up Sunday morning, but there was already a few inches. There were a few more inches by the time we got out of church. And it just kept on snowing. We watched the neighbors shovel their (north-facing) driveway, and the neighbor kids had a snowball fight. Luckily, we knew our (south-facing) driveway would melt the next day, so we could be lazy and avoid shoveling.

This wasn't Nathan's first snow, but he wasn't really into snow the day we brought him home from the hospital. He was busy sleeping, or something. Lazy kid.

So, what else could we do but initiate him into the world of winter wonderland, through that time-honored tradition, the Polar Bear Challenge?



No. We. Didn't.

We're not bad parents. We bundled him up carefully, wearing all manner of warm clothing.



He seemed to be mildly interested by the snow. He looked, and touched, and looked, and touched. Then he started to complain. Thought it was cold or naptime or something. I told you, he's kind of a lazy kid. Always taking naps and stuff.



So we brought him inside and further exploited him by dressing him up and taking cute pictures.

The snow made it seem like Christmas. We bundled up, ate soup, and did all sorts of wintery things. In fact, it seemed so much like winter that...

(Being married to a man who would listen to Christmas music ALL YEAR long, I usually try to hold off the holiday-themed entertainment. Moderation in all things, you know. It's for his own protection, really. If I had to listen to "Jingle Bells" all year long, I can't vouch for what I would do.)

So, with that explanation, you will understand the extreme winter-ness of the day knocked my good sense out of whack so much that I actually suggested we watch Elf.

And that husband of mine was delighted, and so we did. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies. I did clearly state, however, that this did not give him free rein for all Christmas, all the time. We have to give fall its due, you know. If only the weather would cooperate.

Welcoming Autumn

Warning: this blog contains no gossip. So don't look for any. (Just to let Michael know we're taking his advice to heart.)

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. It's not hot, and so you get to unpack all those sweaters, fuzzy socks, and flannel sheets. Last night it got so (unseasonably) cold in our house we had to turn on the heater, and I got a little giddy. I never realized before how much I love the smell of warm air coming out of the vents. I didn't even remember that warm air coming out of the vents had a smell. I am such a cold weather nerd. Anyway, it was wonderful.

Last Friday (the day before the torrential rain) we went hiking up Taylor's Canyon (see slideshow below). It was beautiful and crisp. We almost turned back when it started to sprinkle, but luckily we held out, and it stopped after a few minutes. So we kept going. And going. And then the ridge looked so deceptively close that we kept going some more. We kept going so high and so long that before we knew it, Nathan was hungry. Oh, dear. Luckily we were so far up the trail that no one saw us as I fed him while sitting on a rock.

By then it was getting dark so we had to turn back. The ridge that had looked so close got farther away the closer we got (does that even make sense?). So we left our dreams of hiking up and over to Snowbasin for another day. We'll make it sometime.

It was almost dark by the time we made it back to the car. But Nathan was a trooper through it all. He loves being outside, so even though we interrupted his nap, he was happy. He looked and looked and grabbed at whatever he could. I don't know how, but he got hold of a leaf and played with it for a long time, until he finally fell asleep. We're training him up to be another hiking, mountains, outdoors-in-general enthusiast.

I love hiking in the mountains, especially in the fall. It makes my soul feel clean and alive. We'll have to do it more often. Too bad it's SNOWING in the mountains this weekend. Darn winter storm warning.