he's a thumb-sucking maniac

he's started sucking his thumb all the time. he'll be sucking on his binky, then he'll spit it out and find his hands. before i know it, he's sucking his thumb.

it's cute now, but kindergarten is going to be rough, little buddy. let me tell you. i've been there. i know.

happy 8 weeks!

he is officially out of his newborn clothes, and into his 3-6 month wardrobe. what a chunk!

so long, old pal

i'm currently filling out the online form to donate my old friend to the kidney foundation. no, i'm not talking about my kidney. i'm talking about my chevy.

and i kid you not, i'm crying.

that car has been there for me for all sorts of events in my life.

i've literally had people stop me in parking lots to talk about what a beauty she is. she's a conversation piece; an ice-breaker. even my patients knew my car, and would frequently ask about her. mechanics always talked about how "they just don't make cars like that anymore." they loved working on her. even when she broke down, she'd make it to a spot where i'd be out of danger. like the time she started making that horrible sound on the freeway, and i thought to myself, "man, am i glad i'm in this trusty car, and not that horrid 2007 lexus next to me that is making that awful sound." and then the horrid lexus drove off and the sound stayed. and with the engine smoking, she coasted to a stop at the end of the exit ramp at 11:45pm. but i was safe. or the time i was driving my brother to the airport, and it was snowing pretty heavily, and even though she really wanted to just let those windshield wipers die, she kept my windshield clean until i got to the airport. they died there, but it was okay because i could sit in the parking garage and safely wait for jonathan to pick me up. true, it meant i was stranded at the airport for six hours, but i was safe, dagnabbit.

she could take a mountain, no problem. so much power. my title says it's a V8 engine. (we're not sure if that's true, but i looked it up, and apparently it's possible.) you could fit everything you owned - and then some - in her. (we've kept our food storage in the trunk the past few months.) she has taken me home several times, driven me up provo and american fork canyons countless times, and provided a much needed escape from less-than-desirable dating situations.

what do you say about a car like that? sometimes words aren't enough.

so long, old pal. i miss you already.

strange

we have a moving date! the mover's come on the 29th, and we'll be gone just as soon as we get our apartment cleaned.

it's really happening.

pools and drains

we spent this past weekend up in park city. it was kinda a combination of a happy-one-year-anniversary and we-will-be-apart-an-awful-lot-this-summer kind of trip.

i rather enjoyed it. the best part (besides family togetherness, of course) was the pool. it looked something like this:


except that it was a bit smaller...and retangular...with no palm trees...or ocean nearby...and no slim and trim women wearing bikinis floating on air mattresses (thank goodness). no, only slightly overweight grandparents in this pool. but for me, it may as well have been that pool next to the beach with palm trees overhead. it was so perfect - the smell of chlorine, the hot sun beating down on me...ahhh. summer.

the downside was dallin. well, let me be specific. first, dallin is really too little to enjoy a pool. second, apparently utah laws declare that all persons without control of their bowels must have a swim diaper AND a waterproof swimsuit covering it. well, we knew about the first one. oh well. i suppose it's probably better that way anyway, seeing as he's still pretty little.

speaking of little, he's not really little. he officially weighed in at 14lbs 14oz yesterday, and has gained the nickname "chub-a-lub." for his sake, i hope it doesn't stick. but so far it really seems to suit him, and i can't seem to stop myself.

anyway, back to the pool. i loved it. thank you, jonathan for finding me a place with a pool. i can't wait to get to wal-mart and buy a baby pool. i'll tell people it's for dallin, but you better believe it's for me.

when we got back home, we just kinda puttered around for a bit. eventually i got some dishes done and threw out old leftovers, etc. then i turned my attention to dallin (chub-a-lub). he had some serious eye boogers, so i went to the bathroom to get a clean washcloth out.

that's when i saw it.

our shower was filled with 3-4 inches of black(ish) water. i fully expected an anaconda (or one of it's relatives) to jump out at me. fortunately, no such thing happened.

so i went and awoke jonathan with the news every husband loves to hear upon waking up:

uh, babe? we have a problem....there's black water in the shower. and it smells something awful.

i opted to leave the anaconda part out just in case it was my imagination getting the best of me.

jonathan called the landlord, and tried plunging the drain. it worked.

what was left behind was something you never really expect to see on your shower floor: rice. there was a huge mound of jumbalaya -the very same jumbalaya i had sent down the disposal an hour earlier - mixed with the black gunk that builds up over time in drains. let me tell you, decaying gunk and cajun spices do NOT make a pleasant scent.

my angel husband cleaned it all up, and ensured that the house was aired out.

i wish i could say i learned something from this. but i really haven't. i just wanted to tell someone about it.

that's all.

my six week-old baby...

...is wearing size 2 diapers. and starting to wear his 3-6 month wardrobe. what a chunk!



AND he slept for SEVEN HOURS straight last night!!!

i love this kid.

grapefruit and lettuce

so, after my last post, i realized i should probably point out that i had A LOT of amniotic fluid. enough for four women. plus, dallin is huge. so i can't really take any credit for weight loss.

but i also decided to get really excited about working out or whatever. those of you who really know me are probably laughing really hard by now. laugh it up, chuckles.

here's the run-down (ha - get it? "run" down? how do i do it?):

day one: i decided that since my sister and i hadn't confirmed our plan to go "running" in the morning, that we weren't going. so i slept in.

day two: my sister called me at 7am to see if i was in. i was not. and i slept some more. after lunch i got out and went on a leisurely walk with dallin, and sat in a park under a blossoming tree and read. and wished i had a picture of my picture-perfect moment, smiling to myself because i wasn't running.

day three: i didn't go with melinda at seven, but i DID get up and go later. i put on some sneakers and wore stretchy pants and one of jonathan's shirts and loaded dallin up in the stroller and headed on out. it was 1:38pm. by 1:40pm, i wanted to go back home and crawl back into bed. fortunately, at 1:42pm i saw one of my favorite elderly couples from my ward out working in their yard. that was enough to give me a new burst of energy, and i lasted a whole half hour.

okay. so it was only a half hour, and i wasn't even running. but it did involve going up some hills. yes, i did the "mom" walk.

hey - you've gotta start somewhere, right?

never mind that yesterday i ate a bag of popcorn and a box of milk duds, and that tonight i'm sitting at home thinking about how jonathan's gone, the baby is asleep, and there's a half-gallon of chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream in the freezer and a pan of brownies on the stove. no one would even know.

or maybe i'll stick to my tall, cool glass of grapefruit juice.