Smiley

Wyatt has started smiling more--usually right after he gets done eating. I've been trying to snap some pictures of him smiling but darn it if my camera doesn't just miss it. But here are some that get close:







Still not quite getting the full on smile, though! Here's another cute one of Wyatt all bundled up after a bath.



Now that he's hit the six week mark, he's broken out in his little baby pimples. All of my kids hit six weeks and like clockwork, out comes the acne. I think they time it for the baby blessing. He's also been going crosseyed a lot . . . so what with the pimples and the crazy eyes, sometimes he looks a little wiggidy. I tell him not to worry, though--that it's just an awkward phase and he's going to grow out of it by April. :-) And even when he's wiggidy, he's still cute.

Besides Wyatt's blessing on Sunday, I have a few other events coming up that are forcing me back into regular life living. One of them is the Relief Society Birthday Dinner that I'm (supposedly) in charge of . . . but I've been letting the Enrichment committee do more of the work this time since I've been in la la land for the last six weeks. And they're a good bunch, they understand. I'm doing decorations, though, so I need to head out to the Pary Depot or some such place and get some bright ideas. I was just talking to my Mom today and she mentioned that she was going to be making origami bumblebees for her ward's RS birthday party and it made me feel like perhaps I should do something more creative than pay somebody at the grocery store to inflate some multicolored balloons and plop them on the tables. Especially since the food that the committee chose to serve (Hawaiian haystacks--a Mormon favorite, but not the most glamorous of food, but hearty and filling nonetheless) was recently coopted by the Scouts. I went to Ethan's Blue and Gold banquet yesterday and the minute they asked me to bring three cans of pineapple chunks I KNEW they were serving haystacks! And alas, I was right! So the 10 women who were at the banquet yesterday will have to grin and bear it when we serve them more Hawaiin Haystacks next week. But even if I do just end up putting balloons on the table and serving Scout food . . . it's still okay, right??? Homemade pasta alfredo (last year's dinner) and oragami bumblebees notwithstanding???

I also have Elise's birthday coming up on Saturday (the 17th). We only do parties every other year and Elise was due to have one last year, but last year we were at Disneyland over her birthday, and she knew so few people since we'd just moved that we didn't have one. So this year she gets a GOOD one. I had been looking for someplace to have it because I'm too tired to contemplate doing an entire party at the house right now, but everything we found was so expensive, even just to rent out the space. (For example, the LIfetime Fitness was $150, just for a party room, access to the pool, and a cheese pizza. And the kids in this neigborhood don't get too excited about swimming anyway since there's a pool across the street.) So, long story short, we decided to minimize the number of guests and go to Build a Bear Workshop. Elise is thrilled and so are the kids she's invited, so it should be fun. AND I don't have to do a lot of decorating and come up with creative games. So we're all happy.

Now it's 10:20 and I should really go to bed. Forrest is at a ward basketball game . . . I'm kinda waiting for him to get home . . . but sleep is precious. (Wyatt did sleep from 9:30 to 2:00 last night! But then he was naughty from 2:00 to 4:00. So he gets a B. Law of averages.)

Oh! And one final thought. Have still been laying off the chocolate but find that I still need some treats. (Don't we all?? And Andi, you'd better not say that not only do you do Plan of Salvation Scavenger Hunts when your kids are sick on Sunday, but you've also stopped eating all sugar and don't even miss it! Teasing. You know I love you even though you do everything right. :-) So I bought some Brach's Chicks and Rabbits, which are exactly like those marshmallowy circus peanuts but shaped like (you guessed it) chicks and rabbits. Bad, bad idea. Those things are like heroin. Or what I would imagine heroin to be like. And the funny thing is lots of people can't STAND them. When I bought them at Target Jonas made me open the bag (okay, so I kinda wanted to open it too) while we were driving home so he could have one, and he popped it in his mouth and thought it was so gross he couldn't swallow it, but he also couldn't spit it out, so he sat there with his mouth full of Blue Rabbit until we made it home and he could spit it in the toilet. But I love em. Can't buy them ANYMORE!

NOW I'm going to bed.

Transfers

Today I sang at the funeral of the mother of a friend of my mom's, Debbie Solberg. It was fun to sing with a couple of talented singers and the funeral was very nice. (I only stayed until after I got done singing, though, since I had both Wyatt and Jonas with me.) When Debbie was speaking, she mentioned how her son, who is on a mission, sent an email titled "Transfers?", talking about his own transfer in the mission field and his grandmother's "transfer" to another phase of life.

It got me thinking as I drove home about the phases of our life--the stages we find ourselves, and how often we end up wishing our way forward or backward, either to an idealized (and not often accurately remembered) past or to a future that most certainly contains all the elements we will need in order to be happy. Especially in young adulthood I remember spending a lot of time waiting for the future that would make me completely fulfilled and content: college graduation, marriage, a home, a career, children, etc. etc. It was a shock when, once I had all of those things (at the age of 24) I still found myself happy enough, but a part of me was restlessly looking forward to a future in which I could REALLY be happy: when the kids are in school; when we have more money; when we move back to Utah; when I finish my degree; when I get to start teaching again; when I lose 20 pounds; when I get released as Primary President; when Forrest stops traveling so much; when I have another baby . . . and on and on and on.

I know that "living in the present" is a very Oprah-esque, self-helpy kind of word (and, speaking of words, are "Oprah-esque" and "self-helpy" good ones?), but I've been trying particularly hard to apply it to my own life since Wyatt was born. Although I love having a new baby most of the time, it's very easy to wish a way a baby's little-babyhood, particularly when said baby is a bit fussy and when you're not getting enough sleep. There's even a part of me that, although I don't regret having another baby one iota and wouldn't change it for the word, looks backward a tad longingly at the relatively "easy" life I've had for the last few years and wonders if I really knew what I was getting myself into starting over again. But then I have to remind myself how fast this time goes and to savor it and not wish it away; to enjoy all the little details that come with being a mom to a newborn. Like Wyatt's warm, round head tucked up under my chin while he's asleep on my chest. Or the dimple in his cheek when he gives me a little half-smile. Or the uncomplicated, one-purpose life that I truly enjoy: being able to focus on this baby and this baby alone for a few hours each day, keeping my life free all the other distractions I so easily find myself chasing.

So that's my philosophizing for the day. Wyatt's waking up, gotta go feed him--and I look forward to having an excuse to sit in my big green chair and rock him for a half an hour, flipping through the channels, kissing his cute little noggin.

Quick Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ethan has decided to start blogging again, after a long absence. So if you'd like to read his latest entry, click on the link to the left.

Things are good here . . . not a lot of time . . . will blog more later!

More Pictures . . . and a helpful hint

Hey guys. Right after I posted my last blog post, my mom came over (she'd taken a half day off) to come see Wyatt for a few minutes. She's always had this desire to take a picture of him in a onesie laying on my arm, so we did it, and the result was really cute. There was also a cute shot of me holding him. Here they are:





Does his hair look red to you? And I'm pretty sure those eyes are staying blue . . . especially if you compare them to mine. And he always looks a bit more piggynosed in pictures than he does in person. Don't know why that is. I think I looked piggynosed in my baby pictures, too. Luckily, I'm piggynosed no longer. Although I do have an aforementioned nose bump. And a really oily forehead, apparently! Sheesh! Don't click on that picture of me to magnify it. (Now all of you will, of course.)

Also, if you want to see the Kiddie Kandids shots, it seems you need a username and password. Because you are all such trusted friends, I'll share it with you: It's ahallstrom, password ethan1.

Shh . . . don't tell anyone! :-)

Plus Three Pictures

I thought I'd throw a few pictures on the blog, too (even though they're not very good!).

Pic #1: As close a shot as we've gotten to Wyatt smiling. His fist is in the way, though, and it's not really a true smile. But you can see his dimples!

Pic #2: Brothers! Cuties.

Pic #3: Jonas took this picture of Wyatt and Mommy. Just like the Kiddie Kandids lady, though, he waited too long and missed the happy shot and ended up taking a fussy shot. Doesn't Wyatt look determined?

Cheetos anyone?

Wyatt has been a very good boy of late. I've also gone SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT CHOCOLATE!! I hate to say that there's a connection between his gassines/fussiness and my eating chocolate, but I'm to afraid to test it out to try, especially now that Forrest is going to be gone for a little stretch. (He left for LA today, gets home Friday night, then Saturday he's skiing with the kids all day, then Sunday is Stake Conference and he has to be there at 7:00 a.m., then he's out of town Monday and Tuesday--so I have a long stretch of alone Mommy time! Luckily he doesn't have any more trips for the next little while.) I'm also nervous about vegetables, dairy, beans and orange juice. Needless to say, I've had fewer dietary choices! I've never considered myself a chocoholic, but it's an eye opener to realize how many little "treats" have chocolate in them and how often you can have just a nibble. So I've had to turn to other types of junk food like peach rings (love em) and Cheetos. So unless I'm banned from eating orange foods, I'm good to go there. How much they interfere with losing my final 10 pounds (and the 10 pounds on top of that I'd like to loose, too) I'm too tired to think about right now. Nursing mothers get an extra 300 calories, right? :-)

This weekend the kids had their first skiing lesson. Jonas and Ethan did pretty well, but Elise struggled some. She has such long skinney legs it's hard to balance on those skis. I think it's almost better to start at Jonas's age because the center of gravity is so much lower and they get to use those little skis. But--good news!--Forrest took Elise up yesterday to have a one on one lesson, and she got the hang of it!! She was so proud of herself, and I was glad, too. I don't have any need for the kids to be awesome skiiers or anything--I mean, I'm not--but just to have the ability so you can go and shush down the hill with the rest of the family is all I care about. I'm sure I'll always be the one bringing up the rear.

While the kids were skiing, I went to lunch with my Mom. Wyatt was nice enough to stay asleep throughout, so we got to eat and chat, which was great. Then we went to Kiddie Kandids and got Wyatt's 1 month picture taken. It's always an "experience" getting a baby's picture taken. One thing that is INFURIATING is when they get the baby all posed, the baby is calm, and you know you have a window of about 7 seconds to take the picture before they start to cry. But instead of taking it they hem and haw and keep fussing over the baby--argghh! Our photographer missed a good three or four shots doing that and it irritated my Mom so much she had to walk away :-). Luckily we did get two semi-good shots, which is all you can ask for with a one month old being scruched up on a scratchy carpet with his fists placed forcefully under his chin. Here's the shots at Kiddie Kandids online:

http://mystudio.kiddiekandids.com/home.asp?page=1

He's looking grumpy in the first shot, but he's looking pretty good in the next two, I think.

I've also gotten a few smiles from Wyatt here and there, but nothing predictable enough to get a picture. But soon!

Well, that's about it. Other than a few quick pop culture observations:

1. I'm glad the boys did better on AI last night. Still nobody I LOVE but at least they're doing better.

2. I'm getting tired of all the torture on 24. When they did the promo for next week's episode and Jack threatened to cut off a Russian dignitary's fingers one at a time, Forrest and I both laughed out loud because it's getting ridiculous. Come on, writers! Think of something else!

3. I did watch the Oscars. Genuinely pained over the weird metallic jacket worn by Jennifer Hudson on the red carpet, but luckily she took it off once she went inside. Also wasn't so sure about Nicole Kidman's red dress with the ginormous bow at the neck--but at least it was memorable! Thought Ellen did okay. Thought the ceremony was mostly boring. Liked the weird acrobat people who formed shadow images with their bodies, though. And the Jack Black/Will Ferrel musical number.

4. It turns out the Britney Spears shaved her head in order to avoid having her hair tested for drugs in a custody battle with K. Fed. And that she was going to kill herself with family sized Tylenol. Normally I don't really care much about Britney Spears, but for some reason I feel so sorry for her.

5. I think Anna Nicole Smith's mother is horrible. Just let your daughter be buried already!

6. I'm glad that Oprah built that school in Africa for all those darling girls, but I still think she's overly self involved. They kept playing the clip for the ABC Special on the show and when Oprah said, "Welcome to the best day of MY life," it bugged a little. But it's okay, I suppose. She's doing a lot of good.

7. Not pop cutural but political: I'm hoping that Mitt Romney can figure out a way to seem more genuine. Not only is his hair stiff, but his answers to questions already seem overly rehearsed and the election is eons away. And I'm uncomfortable with his hard right turn in order to gain sway among primary voters. I suppose that it is possible to have a change of opinion so late in life and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but joining the NRA? C'mon, dude. Not necessary. Just be yourself. And I'm a firm moderate anyway, so if he starts getting too hardcore conservative his going to bug himself right out of my good graces.

Now Wyatt's waking up. Sorry not a lot of pictures!

Also: Everyone in Utah, Wyatt is going to be blessed on March 11th (we have stake conf. on the first Sunday) and you're all invited. We have 1:00 church but our sacrament meeting is last, so be there about 2:45! We'll have dinner at our place afterwards.

The Sale is Off!

Yesterday I was just about ready to sell Wyatt to the Indians. (Yes, I know this sounds racist but it's a family saying that probably goes back many generations--so do I get a pass? Not sure how it started. Can't imagine there are a lot of Indians, American OR Asian, in the baby buying market anyway.) He'd been quite fussy on Wednesday, causing Mom and Dad do do a lot of bouncing and "sh sh sh"ing and making Mom panic that she's going to find herself with a full blown colicky baby. Then Thurs. night he slept his usual--through to 1:00 in his crib--but he was up just about every hour after that and would not be put back down to sleep, and Dad had to leave at 5:45 a.m. to catch a plane to Seattle (his first business trip since the baby--aack!) so when Mom did sleep, it was all crinked up on the couch, patting Wyatt's gassy little bum and humming desperate lullabies. As I was getting the three older kids out the door to catch the bus, Wyatt was screaming in his swing since I needed my hands free to zip zippers and whatnot and Ethan said, "Mom, it seems kind of miserable to be stuck here all alone all day with that baby." Ha.

So yesterday morning I was grumpy. Quite.

But things steadily improved as the day went on. Wyatt decided to NOT scream all day and instead invested some energy in napping and lying on his blanket on the floor looking at sunbeams, which made me inclined to forgive him. He relapsed a little when I had to take the boys to karate and decdided to take Wyatt and Elise to the grocery store during lessons. Wyatt is not a big fan of riding in the car (dang!), and although I've taken him to Target with few problems, he has also decided that he's not a big fan of Harmon's, either. I was irritated to find that his car seat didn't fit in the top part of the cart (what's up with that?) so I tried putting him and his car seat in the shopping basket, leaving precious little space for actual groceries. But he wouldn't stop crying, so I picked him up and had Elise push the cart around and fill up his car seat with bananas and Caffeine Free Diet Coke and hot dogs. Older kids are helpful in such situations.

In order to help remedy Wyatt's gassy problem, I've had to start eliminating things from my diet (hence the Caffeine Free). I think it's a sick joke and rather cruel that one of the things they say can cause a gassy baby is chocolate. A part of me believe that some sadistic pediatrican (probably male! or female and bitter!) made it up just to torture women a little bit more. But I haven't had chocolate or caffeine since Tuesday . . . and (dang it!) I think Wyatt's feeling better.

No fair! Although a non-gassy, happy baby is worth giving up chocolate for. But why couldn't it be, say, eggs that caused problems??? They also say that dairy can be an issue, but I'm not ready to go down that road yet. But last evening he was a pretty good boy--no more extended screaming sessions after the Harmon's debacle--and last night he SLEPT IN HIS CRIB!!! He did his regular 10-1 sleep, then I very gingerly, and with a prayer in my heart, put him back in the crib after his 1:00 feeding and he slept till 4!!! After that feeding he only slept in his crib until 5:45 and we ended up on the couch together until the kids woke up for school, but I'll take it. And this morning has been great. He sat in his bouncy seat and batted around at the toys during my whole shower and even let me get dressed and put on makeup with out crying to be picked up. So he gets a gold star. Right now he's taking a good nap, too, so I've decided to call of the sale. We'll keep Wyatt Dean.

Here's another good reason to keep him. Cuteness:



There's some spit up on his shirt, but he's still cute. Oh, and here's a hilarious picture of Grandma Sweat doing "hairdryer therapy" on Wyatt. When he's crying the hairdryer will always make him stop and go into a kind of stunned trance. It's Grandma's favorite trick.



In his little baby brain, Wyatt's thinking, "So this is what goes on on Earth? Huh!"

Oh, and I have to give a shout out to Grandma who came over Wednesday night and let Forrest and I go out to dinner. It was great. We also stopped by the Sports Authority and got the kids some gear for their ski lessons on Saturday. Jonas has a half-day class and Ethan and Elise have full day (9:30-3:30) classes for the next five weeks. So Mom and Wyatt will be home alone on Saturdays for the next little bit! I think Dad's excited, too, because he gets to snowboard while they ski for the next five weeks and doesn't have to feel guilty about it.

Here's the kids and their gear. We'll let you know how the lessons go!

First Day at Church

Yesterday was Wyatt's first church outing and he did great. He needed to go in an eat immediately after we got there (isn't it hard to get the timing thing down?), but after he ate he was awake and happy for a bit and then fell asleep for the rest of the meeting. So other than ending up with a really sore left arm from holding him, I'd say the day was a success. (Although nursing in the mother's room w/ the other mothers reminded me so well of doing the same thing w/ Jonas and lamenting that I'll never be one of those super-discreet, nurse-anywhere types. I get too self-conscious, and I'm just not that slick at it. I can never figure out how people get their baby's latched on under a blanket without being able to see what they're doing. I always have to put my head under the blanket, too, so I can see, and then end up feeling like a nursing dork.)

To make up for the decidedly unflattering shot of Wyatt screaming in the last post, here's a cute one:



Here's a shot of Jonas, too, hanging out during his last basketball game. I think he had a pretty good time playing this year, and ended up making some baskets along the way, which was cool. For Jonas, though, the most important thing was getting his TROPHY!



Now I'm going to engage in some stream-of-consciousness, blogging minutae. Feel free to respond to any, or none, of the topics below.

-I think it's because I'm a tad post-pardum, but I feel a little bit of empathy for Britney Spears. Poor Brit and her sad little shaved head. I think her mom needs to take her to Montana or somewhere without a lot of paparazzi and make her stay in bed while she brings her hot chocolate and soup. I just think about how tired I am right now (and I am tired--bone tired--more tired than I remember being with the others--tired enough that I'm suprised to be this tired) and I think of Britney with the two babies in two years, barely a year apart, and it's no wonder she's gone off the deep end. Talk about hormones out of whack and a body that's no longer your own, etc. etc., and a part of me can see why she might shave her own head in a bit of misguided rebellion. It just makes me feel bad that people are laughing at her and making fun of her since it's pretty clear she's undergoing some kind of a breakdown. The kid needs some alone time.

-The Amazing Race: All-Stars started last night. Yessss! And we get to have Rob and Amber! I am not ashamed to say that it makes me happy that the two of them are still together and, yes, I'm rooting for them. For those of you who DON'T watch Survivor or the Amazing Race, you will not care about this one whit. But Andi . . . are you for Rob and Amber or against them? I know a lot of people thought they were too ruthless last time, but I can't help liking them for some reason. And it's great to have Charla and Mirna back again. Even though one of them is a midget, I think the non-midget (can't remember which one that is) is the more compeling of the two. She's so . . . well, strange. That Spanish accent that comes and goes. The weird flirting with non-receptive guys. She's great.

-I do not care about the Academy Awards much this year, which makes me sad because I love movies and usually love the Academy Awards. But I have seen so few of the movies this time that it's hard to get excited. I've seen Dreamgirls (liked it fine, didn't love it, but was happy to see Jennifer Hudson do such a good job); The Queen (really a very good movie, but Helen Mirren isn't as fun to watch at the Oscars as, say, Julia Roberts. Or even Renee Zellwegger or Reese Witherspoon). So I say "eh" to the Oscars this year. Too bad.

-What do we think about the Priesthood/Relief Society manuals? They can be very effective in the right hands, but oooohh, when people just read through the quotes one after another it's torture. No?

-On the way to church yesterday, Ethan said that he's been troubled by the idea that even though we "believe in God really hard" (his words), don't other people in other religions believe in their idea of God just as much as we do? So how can we say that they're wrong and we're right? He's had the same deep thoughts about Sadaam Hussein ("we think he's going to hell because he killed a lot of people, but I bet that people in Iraq think that George Bush is going to hell because he's killed a bunch of people, too. So who does God agree with, us or them?") It's wonderful to have a child who can think so deeply and broadly, but it also lets me know that we'll most definitely be having some interesting philosophical discussions with this one as he grows up.

-All Moms of diapered children: The newest version of Pampers are TERRIBLE. They have this awful weave-like material that sticks to Wyatt's behind and gives him diaper rash. Makes me want to write Pampers a disgruntled email. And I bought a big case of them before I knew!

-All Moms, period: Were you as tired as me when you're babies were little?

So that's it for now. The kids are outside sledding since we got a nice dumping of new snow this morning. And last night we made brownies, so I think I'm going to go cut myself a sliver and eat it and enjoy it before Wyatt wakes up from his nap!

Buckets of Fuss

Wyatt is generally a good boy . . . the key word being "generally." I have decided, officially, that he's a little high maintenaince. It's hard to know their true personality until they're at least a couple of weeks old, and although he does have his moments of "quiet alert" time (meaning he's awake, looking around calmly, not grunting or wriggling or crying), these moments generally don't last very long. One of the pamphlets that I came home with from the hospital is called the "Purple Period of Crying" and Elise wanted to know if and when Wyatt would literally turn purple. Well here's a shot I took this morning that he comes pretty close :-).



This shot is what we affectionatly call a "fuss bucket" shot.

He's not like this all the time, though. Sometimes he's nice and quiet, like this shot I took this morning after Forrest had him from 6:00-7:30 and got him all calmed down by lying him on his tummy in front of the fire and rubbing his back:



And this shot, content after finishing a feeding:



Wyatt is ALWAYS happy if he's eating, though. I try not to resort to feeding him all the time, of course--but at least there's one sure fire thing that makes him happy. He also likes to be rocked, which is great since I hate having to "walk" a baby around the room. He'll snuggle right into the crook of my arm and suck vigorously on his binki and be content as can be, as well. The key is that he is being held. I think I've held him, ohh, 92% of the day so far. Craziness! He's finally deep asleep enough that he's snoozing away in his swing and I can get some things done. (So what do I do? Blog! Although I was able to get some other chores done, like cleaning up the kitchen--big accomplishment for the day!!--with him in his baby Bjorn, and I addressed some thank you cards with him in the crook of my leg, but that only lasted about 6 minutes until he was done and wanted my ARMS, thank you very much.) As you can see, blogging only occurs when he's deeply asleep, as both arms are not only helpful, but necessary.

I have to give a shout out to my Jonas, too. Today he came home from Kindergarten at 11:30--and I felt like he's been gone, oh, 25 minutes, that's how fast the morning seems to go and how little I seem to get accomplished . . . I managed to change out of my robe after showering two hours previously 5 minutes before he walked in the door! But when Jonas came home, Wyatt was sleeping for a bit so I could make Jonas his lunch, talk to him about his day, etc., for a bit before Wyatt woke up. But once Wyatt woke up Jonas was on his own. Well his Grandma Hallstrom sent the kids a Valentine's package and Jonas's present was a Lego kit. Jonas Leo sat on the floor in the family room working on his Lego car, piece after painstaking piece, for TWO HOURS. No kidding. This instruction booklet was 30 pages long, and he did the entire thing himself. Every once in a while I would ask if he needed help and he woud say, "No, no, I can get this, Mom." He was so patient and focused, I couldn't believe it. He's definitely the most likely of all the kids to pick a project like this and stick with it for that long without getting frustrated. Here's a shot of the final product:



One final thought. During my many hours in the green rocking chair today, I watched CNN for a bit where Wolf Blitzer was discussing Mitt Romney's announcement of his presidential candidacy. They started talking about the "Mormon Question," and interviewed a rep from North Carolina (this is your dude, Andrew and Andi! Don't know his name, though) who called himself an Evangelical Christian and responded to Romney's Mormonism thusly: "The fact that he's a Mormon gives me pause. As a Christian, I'm concerned about the history of Mormonism and the theology of Mormonism. But what concerns me most is the practices of Mormonism." Cut to Wolf nodding his head sympathetically. The "practices" of Mormonism? What the heck? I could give it to him on the theology part, what with the men becoming Gods, God with a body living on a planet, modern day prophecy, baptisms for the dead,etc. etc. I can see how mainstream Christains would find those things strange. But practices? What practices, praytell, do modern day Mormons engage in that concern him so much? The high levels of tension at ward basketball games? The prevalence of scrapbooking among the women? LDS Miss America contestants who insist upon wearing modest, but unattractive, swimsuits, thereby dooming their chances to win the competition? Come ON! I was surprised that it actually hurt my feelings a bit. Imagine if the candidate was Jewish, or even Muslim, and this dude said the same thing? I felt like, okay, guy, go ahead and raise your eyebrows at my belief system--you can believe what you want (e.g. "check this box on the pamphlet I left under your windshield wiper and congratulations, you're saved!") and you let me believe what I want--but why start casting aspersions on the way we live our lives? I think it just reinforces sterotypes that we have all sorts of weird, secret shenanigans going on that the wider world just hasn't found out about yet. Kind of sad. But I guess we'll have to be ready for it as the presidential campaign continues.

So that's it from here. I've probably used up all my availible two-hand-time for the rest of the day--but what the heck! Who needs a made bed, right? :-)

Newsy

I have been watching altogether too much television, and most of that television has been news. (It's amazing how little there is on television that's watchable, really). So I can tell you all about Anna Nicole's shocking death (and that Stern attorney/Machiavelli is highly suspicious to me); the awful natural gas house explosion in Saratoga Springs; the runaway pregnant teenagers who assaulted their live-in caseworker with a frying pan; Real Salt Lake, Dave Checketts, the mayor of Salt Lake County, Governor Hunstman and the stadium in Sandy; every single person who might be contemplating a run for the White House in 2008, including your more under-the-radar candidates like Chuck Hegel; the national study on skyrocketing Autism rates; and, finally, the wacky diaper-wearing Astronaut stalker lady. I could totally anchor a news show right now.

Last night my mom came and helped us out at night again, which was so nice and which allowed me to get a little bit more sleep. I feel really good today, as a matter of fact. I think that Wyatt has a bit of a cold--he's been sneezing and has some congestion--but nothing too bad (yet! cross fingers and toes!). Today is also the last day of "off track" for the kids. It's been nice not to have to get them out the door at 7:30--as a matter of fact, I'm a bit worried about doing that next week since I'm typically at my most hammered right around then. I'll just have to power through. But it will also be nice to have some peace and quiet, too, and not have to worry about entertaning the kids. I must say that they've been very good since the baby's been born. Not a lot of fighting, and they've all been incredibly helpful with the baby, fetching me things and quieting down when I ask them to. They're good kids. I have had five kids instead of four lately, though, because Ethan's friend Cameron (son of the Salt Lake District Attorney, previously mentioned in this blog :-) has basically been living here all week. He showed up this morning at EIGHT O'OCLOCK!! Luckly Ethan was up and I made him answer the door and politely tell Cameron it was (ahem) a bit early for playing and that he could come back later. I've fed him lunch almost every day this week (turkey with lettuce--he's very specific--yesterday after he finished his first sandwich he asked for another but I told him no--is that mean?) and about 30 minutes ago he came up from downstairs while I was feeding the baby, opened the fridge, poured himself a glass of milk, grabbed some Oreos and started heading back downstairs before I said, "Hey, Cameron? Maybe next time you could ask before you get food?" and he said, "Oh! Sorry! I asked Ethan, though, and he said yes." SIgh. He's actually a very nice kid in a lot of ways, just not a lot of adult supervision. He has a live-in nanny, but she's not the most attentive nanny on the block. Elise has been playing a lot at her friend's house, though--so I'm sure they're starting to feel like she's living *there*. I am at least grateful that all the kids have other kids to play with and aren't lonely.

So here are some more pictures. One is the possible announcement picture that my Mom referred to in the last post, the other is just a cute one of Wyatt, and then there's a shot of Ethan getting his Webelos badge. I felt bad because I didn't go, so he didn't get to give me the little pin! I think I'm going to start venturing out soon, though. Which brings me to this question: Wyatt will be three weeks old on Sunday. Do you think he's old enough to go to church, or should I still keep him home, considering it's sick season? Some people in my ward keep their baby's home for three months (which I WON'T be doing) . . . and I am starting to get antsy to get outdoors again. What do you guys think?

Vote on Birth Announcement Photos

Wyatt and I had a little photo shoot this morning and I want your input about which pic would be best for a birth announcement. Some are in black and white and some are in color--and I'm still not sure what I like best. So let me know.

Today it's WARM in Utah. The kids have been outside playing, which is nice. I can use the quiet! The night before last Wyatt slept pretty well, but last night was a little bit rougher. What made things harder was that Forrest had to go to LA for a day trip today (left at 5:45, gets home tonight), so I didn't get my two hours in the morning, gear up for the day sleep. Wyatt woke up at about 5:30, but was fitful until about 7:30. When I finally got him tired enough to be able to lay down with him and sleep on the couch, I could already hear the kids upstairs and knew they'd come down and wake me up asking for breakfast--but I was so tired that just 10 minutes was precious. Well, to my surprise when I opened my eyes it was 9:30 . . . and the kids were still upstairs!!! Turns out that Elise came down about 8:00, saw that I was asleep, and told the boys they couldn't come down until I woke up because I needed my rest. Is that a good girl or what?? I was so grateful. Now I can function the rest of the day.

Also, my bones are too old for this baby business. My left heel hurts from propping up my leg on the ottoman while I feed him, my left knee hurts because that's the leg I put my crossed right leg on while I nurse him and when I (accidentally) fall asleep while nursing my leg stays like that for waaay to long, both of my wrists hurt from curling my hands around his body while he's sleeping on me, and my left arm constantly aches because that's the arm I use to hold him. I know for sure that I didn't have all these aches and pains when I was a 24 year old mom.

So here's the pictures--let me know what you think!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Oh, hallelujah, I'm feeling a little bit better. Yesterday was a really hard day. Forrest had been planning to go on this snowmobiling trip with the Wilkey family for months and we'd lined up my Mom to stay with me the night he was gone. If I hadn't have been sick, it would not have been such a big deal. I even thought I was better by Wednesday evening. But Wed night was a hard one and I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. I think the lack of sleep thrust me back into the clutches of sickness because the coughing came back with a vengance. Forrest left early that morning without really knowing that I was getting sick again. So yesterday I was sick, feverish, and operating on 3 1/2 hours of sleep--and due to Wyatt waking up or the phone ringing or the kids' friends coming over or the kids basically running crazily throughout the house, I was never able to take a nap. I just kind of moaned and shuffled around. Finally my mom heard the sound of my voice on the phone and decided to leave work early to come and rescue me (bless her). So my mom came and my dad took the kids to karate lessons and I crashed from about 5-7 p.m. and woke up feeling 10 times better. Then my mom took Wyatt until about 1:00 a.m. and let me sleep even more--and even after 1:00 a.m., Wyatt ate and fell right back asleep and I got a couple more good chunks of rest. Now my mom and dad have the three older kids and are taking them on a little adventure today: they're riding the Trax downtown to go to the cool public library. So I just got Wyatt down for a nap, the house is nice and quiet, I'm not coughing much anymore, and I think I just might make it.

When Forrest called yesterday he felt terrible and told me that I get all the sleeping and footrubs and special food I want all weekend. So hopefuly the good times will keep rolling :-).

Here are some more pictures. Babies change so much, so fast, in the first few weeks. I already feel like Wyatt is bigger, although chances are good that he's still just right around his birthweight. We'll see at his 2 week appointment on Monday.

This first picture is of Jonas and Ethan. In the course of 24 hours they both received fat lips (see why I can't nap?). Ethan was responsible for both fat lips, giving Jonas his with a rogue karate move and getting his while flinging himself over something in the basement (I'm still not entirely sure of the whole story):



And of course, here's some more cute ones of Wyatt. The first one is a sweet picture of him sleeping that I fiddled with a bit on my photo software.



"Hey, Mom! Stop taking my picture at 2:00 in the morning!"



And I think he looks like such a big boy in this shot. He's been spending a lot more time just looking around and even engaging with us. It's fun to look into his eyes and see somebody in there!

Mental Powers Not As Powerful

You know how I was relying on my positive mental energy to remain healthy in the midst of all this sickness? Didn't work. Sick. Now I have one of those lovely deep chest coughs and I feel terrible having to turn my head and hack whenever I'm feeding Wyatt. I also feel totally drained, much more drained than I did after having him. I'm also entirely sick of television and Wyatt's sleeping and I tried for 30 minutes to take a nap and it didn't work so now I'm posting on the blog. The other three are at friends' houses so the house is nice and quiet. So maybe you all can send me some of YOUR more effective postive mental energy that I recover quickly and that poor Wyatt doesn't get sick. The threat of RSV doesn't go over too well when you're prone to the post-pardum anxiety like I am (see, I'm the woman who got all worked up a week after Ethan was born because I thought his soft spot was too small).

Hey! Now Wyatt's awake. Luckily Forrest came upstairs from where he was working downstairs and he's changing his diaper while I finish this and before I start feeding him. Nice to have a husband working from home, for sure.

Okay, so more like 5,000

So Forrest has said that 10,000 weeks is something like 200 years, so even though I guess there will be a lot of medical advances in the 21st century . . . hopefully we won't live THAT long. So I'll downgrade it to 5,000. Strange to think that if Wyatt lives to be 100, he'll be alive for almost all of the 2000s and into the 22nd century!! Wow.

One week down, 10,000 to go

Ahhh, motherhood. Wyatt is a good boy. He's happy and content just as long as two conditions are met: 1. I am holding him and 2. he is eating. Actually, right now he is asleep in his swing, instead of in my arms, which has freed said arms up for other activities, such as typing. It took about 11 tries to get him to stay asleep in his swing . . . but he's so dang cute I forgive him. He's not a terrible crier (in that he can always be consoled if I nurse him :-), but he definitely hates having his diaper changed. It's also been fun to see his gassy little smiles and catch the dimples peeking out.

So I'm going to post some pictures, but first I'll give you a few highlights of the last week. First of all, Wyatt has successfully fought off the sickness that seems to be ravaging all of Salt Lake City (not only have Elise and Jonas been sick in the last week, but so have Aunt Mindy, cousins Bella and Ayva, Uncle Tony, cousins Reagan and Eli, and Grandma Sweat.) I'm feeling a foreboding tickle in my own throat, despite the twice hourly application of Purell (but not to my throat, of course), but I'm hoping my mental willpower can chase any illness away.

We've received dinners every day since I came home, which is so nice. Our ward is really great about bringing in dinners and it's been wonderful to see all the love and support from our family and neighbors. Wyatt has had his share of visitors, with the dinner makers as well as lots of family (including some great help from Grandma Sweat), and even some friends of ours from Minnesota who were in Park City skiing with friends and dropped by yesterday. He's also been spending more time awake and looking around, which is fun. You feel like you're starting to connect with that little person inside there as you mutually try to figure each other out.

Myself, I feel a little more worn out today than I did last week. I think the second week can actually be harder than the first: all the endorphins and other "let's climb Mount Everest" hormones that the body releases are starting to wane and the sleep depravation begins to take it's toll. Even though Wyatt hasn't done much inconsolable screaming in the night, and he seems to like to sleep in a good long chunk from 12:00 to 4:00 or thereabouts, he really only does it if I'm holding him--so we've been doing a lot of couch sleeping, the two of us. I know that it would be better if I didn't let him do that and got him used to his cradle, but you know how it is at 1:00 in the morning. You'll do anything to go back to sleep--so, so far, my longest stretches of sleep have occurred either on the couch in the family room or leaned back in the green La-Z-Boy we brought up from the basement. Forrest usually takes him until about midnight so I can sleep in the bed then again at about 6:00 so I can sleep in the bed, which helps. It feels so good to get under those sheets and stretch out my legs, I can't even tell you.

Having Wyatt has also reminded me how much T.V. is watched during a baby's first month or so. I swear, if I see the "2.99" Wendy's commercial where one guy has a teeny tiny combo meal and the other guy has a Wendy's combo meal, I'm going to scream. I also think that it should be illegal to run the "Girls Gone Wild" infomercial late at night on regular cable. Makes me mad every time I flip past it, even if things are blurred out. It is an interesting peek into humanity to scroll through the channels at 3:00 in the morning, though. I usually find myself watching either TLC or Discovery or the Home channel (what is that one? HDTV or something like that??) There was this really great reality show about cake decorators on the other night that I was mad at myself for falling asleep in the chair because I wanted to see the end and how they ended up making the dog cake.

So that's it for now. I am grateful every morning that the kids are off track so I can sleep until 8:30 or so and don't have to get them out the door; I am grateful to not be pregnant anymore so I can roll around in the bed (whenever I'm in it, that is); and I'm grateful for my papasan baby swing, as it's the only place we've found any success in putting Wyatt to sleep. And I'm grateful for Wyatt. And the other three kids. And Forrest. And you guys.

Here's some pics:




Notice the red on his chin? I'm thinking it's from breastfeeding and his binki--like he's sucking so vigorously he's rubbing it a little raw. What do you think? I started putting some of the Lasinoh ointment (for nursing mothers, if you know what I mean) on his chin to see if that will help heal it up.



Gotta love the papsan swing.



Looking like a big boy in his bouncy seat. He already like's to look at the little toys hanging down from the bar. (Probably a genuis, no?) :-)

Wyatt Dean Hallstrom is Here!

For the first time in (what seems like!) 24 hours, we've been able to put Wyatt down in his swing instead of holding him in our arms and/or nursing him (which, of course, only applies to me), so I might have a bit of time to post some pictures and tell you a bit about Wyatt.

I went into labor on Sunday morning, about 3:00 a.m. All three of my previous births were induced, so I've never gone into labor on my own . . . and was pretty much convinced I never would. So imagine my surprise when I noticed contractions that were close enough together to warrant going to the hospital and they kept me! We got to the hospital at about 7:00 a.m., they broke my water around noon, and by 2:30 I was ready to push. It only took two pushes and Wyatt arrived. It was an amazingly easy and stress-free birth. The epidural was wonderful--powerful enough to take the edge off, but not so powerful that I felt completely numb and helpless--and Wyatt's heartrate was good and strong throughout.

As soon as he was born, I thought he looked like Ethan as an infant. Here's a picture and you can see for yourself:



Here's another hilarious picture of Wyatt fighting mad (he came out swinging):



It took us a while to decide on a name, as most of you already know, but after thinking about it for a day and spending a good long time checking him out, we decided that he was definitely a Wyatt. We'll have to get back to you in a couple years and let you know if we were right.

We're home now and Wyatt is spending a LOT of time eating, a reasonable amount of time sleeping (although I was begging to differ last night between midnight and 4:00 a.m.) and more and more time looking around and checking out just exactly what he's gotten himself into. The kids are thrilled to have him in the house . . . but the biggest wrinkle now is that both Elise and Jonas are sick. I can't believe it. They've been healthy all winter long, but on Friday Jonas threw up. I just thought it was a 24 hour thing and that he was over it, but yesterday he started up with a nasty cough, as did Elise. So this morning as I was stumbling blearily into the family room, Ethan informed me that Jonas was covered with a rash. Yep, wouldn't you know it, Jonas woke up covered in hives. So I had Forrest take Jonas to the instacare to make sure he didn't have the Ebola virus--and while Forrest and Jo were at the Dr., Elise came downstairs, sat on the couch, told me her stomach hurt, and promptly threw up. So I put Wyatt down--screaming--and tried to help Elise without getting any germs on myself and remembered that this parenthood thing is definitely not easy. Luckly the Dr. said that Jonas just has a run of the mill virus and the rash was hives, but I'm supposed to keep Jonas and Elise away from Wyatt for 5 days. It's so hard, not only because I'm worried about Wyatt getting sick, but because I feel so bad that I come home from the hospital with this new baby and have to tell my other kids to keep their distance. Luckily they are old enough to understand why . . . but it just broke my heart after Elise finished throwing up and she said "I'm really sorry, Mom." Uggh. So pray for a speedy recovery for Jo and Elise and that no one else gets sick.

So here are some other pictures of Wyatt you might like:







And last but not least, Wyatt has dimples. Two of em'!



We think he's pretty cute, and plan to keep him even if he forgets to sleep from midnight to four. :-)

More Listiness

So I haven't had a baby yet. Sigh. I went to the dr. on Tuesday and had my membranes stripped (although she ended up delivering TWO BABIES while I was waiting, sitting on the examining table with a sheet over my lower half for two hours--every twenty minutes the nurse would pop her head in and say, "She should be here in 10 minutes!" Read two entire People magazines.) Now I'm a "good 4 plus," says the doctor . . . but the membrane stripping was a no go and here I sit. I'll have to do a running tally of how many people ask "Are you still here??" at church on Sunday.

Since the only two things I have left to do are 1. housework and 2. waiting to go in to labor, I figure I'll avoid #1 and distract myself from thinking about #2 by adding to my list. I'll pick 'er up at #31.

31. I developed a mysterious bump on my nose about 5 years ago. I went to a dermatologist to have it removed (and they had to give me a shot--on the tip of my nose!) but it grew right back. Jonas calls it a "witch bump."

32. I also developed a mysterious keloid (is that how you spell it?? it's bumpy scar tissue) on my upper left arm a few years ago, too. The reason it's mysterious is that I don't recall ever cutting or injuring myself there, which is how keloids come about. It freaked me out so the same dermatologist who tried to fix my nose bump did a biopsy on it--but it's just a keloid. Weird.

33. When I was a teenager, I had a sneaking suspicion that some of my friends liked my mom better than they liked me. Some of them even wrote her notes when I was in Jr. High.

34. My first college major was history, but after taking my first history class I decided that what I really loved was my high school history teacher, Mr. Jones, and not history itself, and switched to English. It really makes no difference to me whether stories are true or false, and when you major in English there's not nearly as much memorizing.

35. The worst grade I ever received was a D in "Philosophy of Logic" that I took to fill my math requirement at BYU. Long story, but I thought I could game the system by taking the introductory course to Philosophy of Logic independet study, getting the textbook, then dropping the course and getting my tuition money back and reading the book on my own to prepare. Like that would actually happen. Plus I always liked philosophy (Plato and Descaretes and all that). Little did I know that the Philosophy of Logic was actually an entirely new language, this weird math/philosophy hybrid, and on the first day of class I felt like I'd stepped into Mandarain Chinese 301. The professor told us that this was one of the most often failed classes on campus and that we could drop out as soon as we had enough points for the grade we felt comfortable with. I felt comfortable with my D and happily dropped out after 3 weeks of torture.

36. My favorite class at BYU was a Contemporary Lit class taught by Darrel Spencer, an amazingly smart and thrillingly left-of-center-for-BYU fiction writer. He would type up page long, single spaced commentary on everything we wrote. When he told me I was "bright" it literally made my year and reminds me to this day how much a few encouraging words from a teacher can mean.

37. When I started student teaching, my supervising teacher came in for a surprise visit and I was sitting cross-legged on a book cart in front of the class whilst talking about To Kill a Mockingbird. Apparently sitting crosslegged on a bookcart is bad teacher protocol, because some of the folks I knew in classes she taught afterword said she used me as an example of "how to remember that in order for the students to think you are older than them . . . . don't do THIS."

38. I hate going to the dentist.

39. The older I get, the more irrationally afraid of heights I become. It's gotten so bad that I can't even walk out on hotel balconies and if I'm in a mall on a high level and the railing is that see-through plexiglass stuff, have to stay a few feet away from it. What is that?

40. When I got married at the age of 20 (and I'd been 20 for two whole weeks) it never crossed my mind once that I might be a little young.

41. I love watching reruns of "100,000 Pyramid" and think that Dick Clark is by far the best game show host ever.

42. I love playing board games, particularly word games, but Forrest usually beats me at Scrabble. I, however, usually beat him at Boggle.

43. I like wearing slightly high heeled shoes, but it makes me feel guilty and self-conscious, too, like people will think I'm being inappropriate and overly flashy.

44. Same thing with big earrings.

45. I prefer my six-year old, slightly-musty-smelling, denty van to our new Tahoe.

46. My back actually hurts less when I'm pregnant that when I'm not.

47. I rarely feel guilty about reading too much.

48. My three culinary specialties are salads, cheesecake, and chocolate chip cookies. Everything else I leave to Forrest.

49. Donald Trump makes my skin crawl.

50. Even though I think that Rosie O'Donnell has gone sligtly cuckoo in the last 5 years, I still have soft spot for her, probably stemming from my early days as a stay-at-home Mom watching the Rosie O'Donnell show (back when she was nicer).

51. I love going to church on Sunday now that I'm no longer the Primary president.

52. I really don't think I like to snow ski. I'm going to give it another whril after I have the baby . . . but I really don't think I'm going to like it. Sorry, hon.

53. I do like waterskiing, though.

54. The only excercise routine that I've found that I enjoy (after attempting jogging at home, treadmill at home, treadmill at gym, weights at gym, aerobics tapes at home, and elliptical machine at gym) is group aerobics classes. But only if they're really full and I can stand at the back.

55. I'm convinced that my body wants to weigh what it wants to weigh, pretty much no matter what I do. I know this sounds like a cop out. But it's true, I swear!!!

56. Although I do love Oprah most of the time, sometimes I wonder if she realizes how self-involved she is.

57. I love watching Meet The Press on Sunday mornings and would talk about politics more if it didn't bug or bore almost every single person I know.

58. When I wake up in the morning, the thought of a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats makes me really, really happy.

59. I still make my kids get in bed by 8:30 every night and wonder how much longer I can keep this going until Ethan figures out that 8:30's a bit on the early side.

60. I can't not answer the phone when it's ringing and let it go to voice mail.

61. I love Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

62. The three male celebrities I find most attractive: John Cusak (smart, soulful, funny, not so physically attractive as to be intimidating); Kurt Cobain (Kurt! The pain in your eyes! The artistic angst! Let me save you!); L.L. Cool J. (I know. He represents a side of me that I rarely acknowledge). So I know my Grandpa reads this blog, but I'm leaving this anyway.

63. The female celebrites I like best are: Meryl Streep (so talented, and so fun to listen to in interviews); Julia Roberts (such a happy smile, and I like her even more now that she's married to the camera man and has babies); and anyone who has recently been given newfound fame and is grateful for it and not jaded (like Jennifer Hudson at the Golden Globes).

64. Angelina Jolie scares me. She looks like she's made of wax.

65. Although I love reading stuff by Sheri Dew, she kind of scares me when I look at her, too. (Hey, that rhymes).

66. Even when I shave my legs in the morning, they are as stubbly as sandpaper by the end of the day.

67. I love anything marshmallow. Peeps, circus peanuts, just plain marshmallows from the bag. Back in the "low fat" days this was an eating bonanza, but now that carbs are the enemy I can't feel so guiltless about it.

68. I have to read at least some of the newspaper every day.

69. I like to turn on lots of lights in the house. Whenever I go to someone's house who doesn't turn on lights, it's all I can do to restrain myself from standing up and flicking them on.

70. After living in Minnesota for 7 years, I can't wear shoes in the house.

Okay! So that's enough! Now you all should know everything about me.

I am not blogging again until this baby is born. So there. Induction, Tues. morning 7:30 a.m. Or sooner?!?!?!

My List

Both my sister (Valinor blog on sidebar) and sister-in-law (Sweat Family Adventures on sidebar) have written a list of things folks may or may not know about them, so I thought I'd chime in with my own. Don't know how far I'll get . . . so we'll see!

1. My first vivid memory is of picking up a rock by my friend's swingset and seeing a bunch of earwigs wriggling underneath it. I think I was about 2.

2. I used to wish that Laura Ingalls Wilder could be zapped to the future to become my friend and I could show her all the cool things about the late 20th century, like slurpees and television and airplanes.

3. Once I was old enough to notice them, I hate, hate, hated my freckles. I used to say that if a genie would give me three wishes, one of them would be to take away my freckles. Luckily they don't bother me anymore. (Freckles--not genies.)

4. I had a longstanding fantasy that a director of Broadway plays would come to my elementary school, see me on the playground, and just KNOW that I was the little girl he'd been scouring the country for and whisk me away to play Annie.

5. I started reading Stephen King books when I was about 10 years old. Stole them from my Dad's stash. They never really scared me, either.

6. The first boy I ever had a crush on was named Mark Rydalch and he gave me a wooden apple pencil holder in the 4th grade.

7. I was a messy child. I would leave congealing bowls of ice cream on my nighstand for weeks on end, and in the 6th grade my teacher Miss Anderson gave me the "Messiest Desk Award," which was highly humiliating since the next boy I had a crush on, Keith Evans, was in my class and I was convinced he'd never like me after that.

8. Also in the sixth grade, I hid in the p.e. equipment closet in order to avoid getting my eyes checked because I knew they would tell me I needed glasses. I successfully fooled everyone until the 8th grade when my Dad noticed I was squinting when I played basketball with the Young Women. It wasn't until then that I realized trees had individual leaves.

9. I am a terrible athlete. My dad thinks it's just because I didn't care enough about it and that if he would have been able to work with me, I would have been like the rest of my siblings and lettered in things in high school. But no, really . . . I'm just a terrible athlete.

10. I started writing stories and poems when I was a little kid and kept many of them in a journal my primary teacher gave to me because she wanted to encourage me. My first really good story was about a girl who desperately wanted to play Annie, but she botched her audition and ended up in the chorus instead. It won the district reflections contest. Interestingly, I never ever dreamed of being a writer--just an actress-until I was about 18 years old.

11. I really hated it when people would say that my hair was "dishwater blonde."

12. I've twisted my right ankle quite badly two times: once when I was racing my brothers up in the mountains at our annual "Mirror Lake" family photo shoot and I was wearing some kickin' (but impractical) white boots and stepped in a pothole; the other when I was in the 9th grade in student government class and I jumped up to show my enthusiasm for the perm I'd be getting that afternoon and landed on my (already damaged) ankle wrong. Both times, the pain was so intense I fainted. Those are the only times I've ever fainted, too.

13. From the age of 14 to the age of 16, I kissed eight different guys. But of course, I didn't date until I was sixteen.

14. Soon after we met, I was pretty certain that I was going to marry Forrest someday. Of course, I was also pretty certain that I was going to marry four of the other seven guys I had previosuly kissed as well. But this time, I was more mature and knew what I REALLY wanted. :-) Luckily, in retrospect, the only person out of those eight who would have been at all right for me was Forrest, and he's still the most right for me guy I've ever known.

15. When I was in the 9th grade, I wouldn't tell any of my friends my standardized test scores because I thought they wouldn't like me anymore if my scores were higher than theirs.

16. The only time I remember flat out lying to my parents was when I was 15, working at Hardees, and this cowboy guy named Kurt wanted to take me to the "Boot Boogie" on a Friday night and I knew my parents wouldn't let me. Although I hated country music, Kurt was apparently "cool" so I told my parents I was going out with my friends and went with him instead. We promptly went to his brother's house where he drank a beer, offered me one (I indignantly refused), then he drove me to the Boot Boogie (and all the while I was terrified he would get in a wreck because he was "driving drunk") and I was so mad I wouldn't dance with him--and I didn't know any of the dumb line dances anyway. We both had a terrible time. I decided it was God's way of punishing me for lying to my parents, and I never lied so blatantly again.

17. In high school, I had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and a Dr. Pepper for lunch almost every day.

18. I used to be able to do the splits.

19. My Grandma Ranquist bought all my school clothes every year until I graduated from high school. We'd go on these fantastic shopping trips every August and eat lunch in ZCMI's Tiffin Room. One of the highlights of my year. (I think I was the only member of my family she did this for. Should I feel guilty about this? She also bought me a complete set of bedroom furniture--white Victorian with a canopy bed.)

20. I used to hope that the second coming wouldn't happen until after I was married and less inclined to be sinful.

21. Of all the things I did in high school, Madrigals was the most fun.

22. Of all the things I did in high school, being a Student Body Officer my senior year was the least fun. Mostly a lot of work, and I was in charge of assemblies and got in big trouble for one where I'd asked Lucius Matalii to be the emcee (he was our version of Arsinio Hall) and for some reason, he started throwing out condoms to the assembled students during his opening monologue. How this was my fault I wasn't sure, but I did get in trouble.

23. Cheerleading was fun, but I wasn't a very good cheerleader. It always amazed me how quickly my cheerleader friends would catch on to routines. Also, being a base in cheerleader pyramids runied my back, and when I look at my old J.V. cheerleader uniform it amazes me how small my waist used to be. I also vividly remember a fight that the J.V. cheerleaders were having with the Varsity cheerleaders and when we met to talk it out I told the Varsity cheerleaders to stop "patronizing us" and they got even madder at me for using arrogant vocabulary words.

24. I finally got to play the lead in a musical my senior year of high school (Cinderella), which ended up being the last time I ever performed in a play despite all my childhood dreams of Broadway fame.

25. A ginormous publicity photo of me as Cinderella is still hanging in the halls of Cyprus High School (so I'm told).

26. I've never liked my hands.

27. I've always liked my feet.

28. I don't recall ever really fighting with my siblings.

29. Every year a company called Union Carbide selected a student from Cyprus High to send to Washington D.C. and my junior year they selected me. I went to D.C. with students selected from each state in the country and apparently learned a lot about our government, but mostly remember having a ton of fun with these strange kids from places like New Hamshire who drank COFFEE in the morning.

30. Our high school graduation was held outside, and somehow the sound system picked up a Latino radio station and Mexican pop songs played over all of our commencement speeches.

Okay, that's it for now. And I just got through high school! We'll see if I have the wherewithall to add more another time. As you can see, I'm a bit more longwinded than Andi or Amy. Sorry. But there are so many details that must be explained!!

Good News

Okay, so some good news to share:

1. First, baby news: I went to the doctor on Friday and found I was dialated to (almost) a three and 70% effaced. Even though I'm ALWAYS right around a three at 37 weeks, it was still good to hear. Also, the Dr. decided that if I haven't had the baby by Tues., January 23rd, she'll go ahead and induce. (She says it's because of the borderline Gestational Diabetes and not wanting to go overdue, but I'm sure it's also for her convenience--and mine :-). I always say that I want to be a trooper and wait until I go into labor, an experience I have yet to enjoy having been induced w/ the other three, but once I get to this point it's too hard to wait. I just want to get the baby out and meet him!

2. Jonas had a basketball game on Saturday and scored THREE baskets! One of the best things about watching Jonas play sports is that he doesn't get all angst filled and worried whenever things don't go his way. He'll shoot, miss, smile, shrug, and run down the court happy as all get out. So it makes it even MORE fun when he actually scores! I was excited about the one basket . . . but three? Pretty cool. I think it's because Grandpa Sweat was there, the biggest basketball fan I know (and I know a lot of them). When the game was over, Forrest went over to congratulate Jonas and Jo said, "Yeah, Dad. Where's Grandpa?" Although Grandpa does think that Jonas's super-short John Stockton shorts and light up shoes communicate a less-than-incredibly-serious stance regarding Jonas's basketball career. (Yeah, he was kidding--but it was funny to see some of these little kids in their stylin basketball clothes and expensive Nikes, and Jonas in his light-up Target tennies and size 4T shorts I pulled out of the summer clothes bin.)

3. Irreantum came in the mail today! Okay, so there were a few glitches with the shipping of the magazine, because it seems that nothing can go absolutely smoothly (the printer delivered it to the wrong place and it, well, sat there over the holidays) but it has arrived safe and sound and looks great. I did catch a period at the end of a line in a poem that I should have caught . . . sigh . . . but I knew that would happen. Can't catch everything. A member of the Irreantum staff had a connection with a circular put out by the Salt Lake Tribune that did a review of the magazine, as well. I was a little worried when I was asked to send the reviewer a PDF copy of the magazine (i could see the headline, "Interim Editor Stumbles Badly" or something equally scathing), but the review was actually very favorable. Here's a link, if you'd like to read it:

http://www.inthisweek.com/article.asp?id=848

4. Discovered a way to help Elise with her times tables. They do timed tests in the 3rd grade (and it's made very obvious who has passed their 2s or 3s or 4s and so on), so for kids like Elise who don't, ummmm, techincally "enjoy" math can get pretty stressed out about it. I'm conflicted over the methodology, frankly, because although I understand that it's important to get kids to learn their times tables, the shaming element of it really rubs me the wrong way. (And I also think, why oh why don't they make the kids stand up and do oral or timed spelling tests? Elise ROCKS on those, and, of course, those scores are completely private.) Anyway, Elise is on her threes and has been under a considerable amount of stress regarding her timed tests. She can do it if she has enough time, no problem, but she has to do 20 questions in 2 minutes, and she would invariably take too long. Last night, Forrest and I sat at the kitchen table with her for almost an hour thorugh much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth on her part, and we were pretty much stumped as to what to do. (And, I must admit, the looming prospect of having a newborn and getting from the 4s all the way through the 12s wasn't very thrilling.) So we decided to give her a break and let her go watch "Full House" and chill out, and in the mean time I found this website that had mnemonic devices for memorizing times tables. For example, for the threes, there are a bunch of stories about "trees." For three times four, there was a story about a "tree" and "door" and an "elf" that eventually wound up to be three plus four equals twelve. (Tree plus door equals elf. Get it?) It sounds like it makes memorizing even more complicated--but I called Elise down and lo and behold--she could finally memorize the hard ones!!!! (4,6,7,8, and 9). I can't even explain the relief that both she and I enjoyed that we found this method. I even get why it works--I can see an elf walking through a door on a tree much better than I can memorize anything mathematical. So she had her test today--and didn't quite pass--but she got 17/20, which was MUCH better than the 9/20 she got on Friday. So we're going to drill again for the Wednesday test and keep our fingers crossed. Mostly she feels much better about the whole process, which is the most important part.

So that's it from here for now. Is it too much wishful thinking to hope that the next time I post, I'll have pictures of a new baby to share???

Whew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but a fun couple of weeks, too. Christmas was great, the kids had a good time, and we were able to enjoy spending time with lots of family members. Hauling this baby around has taken its toll, though--today I'm beat, and I still haven't taken down the decorations (tomorrow?). So here are some pictures from the holidays:



Elise and her cousin Lauren dressed up as angels for the Nativity at Grandma and Grandpa Sweat's on Christmas Eve.



Yessss!



Mounds of Christmas everywhere.



The kids and their cousins banging pots and pans on the front porch on New Year's Eve. This was the first year that we've let the kids stay up until midnight. The grownups stayed up until 2:30 playing "Singing Star" on the PlayStation--although I finally gave in and curled up on the loveseat at about 1:45. When Andi and Tony started in on (what seemed like!) their 45th rendition of Sweet Home Alabama (see photo below), I think I started moaning in my sleep. We had a great time that night, though. One of the best New Year's Eves in recent memory. Made me feel like I was 24 and not 34, which would make it 1997. 1997 seems much more reasonable to me than 2007. Who woulda thought time would go this fast??? When Forrest reminds me that this baby is going to be graduating high school in 2025, it does give me pause.



Hope you all had a great holiday week and are ready to take on the new year. I have the baby's room *almost* ready, Jonas is moved into Ethan's room, I've washed all the baby clothes and sterilized the binkis, so I think I'm good to go. C'mon baby! We're ready now!