My Child Slave :)

What can I say...I start 'em early. :)

The Bug loves it when I vacuum. Isn't that weird? Aren't most kids afraid of the vacuum? Nope...not mine. He follows me all over trying to get a hold of the vacuum. So, when I get done, I pull off the end and let him "vacuum". It's too funny.

Hopefully, he'll continue to like this game when he's old enough to actually vacuum.

p.s. Are you wondering how I vacuumed around all those toys? Yeah...I didn't. I vacuumed the stairs and then the upstairs. So no mom...I didn't just vacuum around the toys. Sound familiar Maysi?! :)

You Know You're Tired When...

...the bleacher at a basketball game looks comfortable.

This was after the long week of diarrhea. Shayne's boys had a game in Homer on Saturday, January 23rd. I was tired of being stuck at home, The Bug's diarrhea was under control, so I decided to drive down and surprise Shayne. It was nice to get out of the house. It was a beautiful drive to Homer too.

Anyway...The Bug was such a good boy for the games...we sat through three of them. He was pretty darn tired by the last game though. I looked down and saw him just laying his head down on the bleacher...he was nearly asleep...then mom with her dumb camera woke him up! :)

It was so cute while it lasted though. :)

Papa Pond Hat

Grandpa Pond sent The Bug two hats for Christmas. The first was a cap with the Pond Concrete log on it...and I've already posted pics of that. The other is of this black beanie with a bill. It's so funny when he puts it on...it' s like a grown up hat on a little munchkin of a kid. Anyway...when he finds it in the house, he likes me to put it on him. So, this is him with his black beanie and his pj's.

Unfortunately, it's kinda hard to see the bill on the beanie. I'll have to get another pic of him while outside with the snow as a background. Then you can really see how cute he is in this hat. :)

It is seriously too cute!

Crappy Week...

Literally.

On Sunday January 18th, The Bug had some "iffy" diapers. We didn't think anything of it until Monday. Monday after eating all of his breakfast, he threw it all up...all of it. Then about 2 hours later he threw up again. So, I stopped feeding him, and only gave him a little bit of very diluted juice. I thought we were doing pretty well when he hadn't thrown up for about 9-10 hours. So, I fed him a little supper and we were headed to bed. While going through our bedtime routine he threw up ...and then again about 30 minutes later. After cleaning everything up (thankfully we have no carpet in our house, so cleanup was a breeze...especially when you have two dogs...hey, you do what you gotta do!), I was able to get him to bed. He did fine all night, so I thought we were past it.

He was miserable though on Tuesday. He just did not feel good, and spent most of the day sitting in my lap. He didn't eat much, so I started him on some pedialyte. Other than a little bread and cheerios he wasn't interested in food, and I didn't force it. He started feeling better by Tuesday evening...and I seriously thought that he would be good to go on Wednesday. I was wrong.

Wednesday morning he did great. Acted much better, but still didn't eat a whole lot. But...by about 4:oo that afternoon, things got bad. He started in on the diarrhea. He'd had a little earlier, but nothing like this. By 6:00 it was straight water...literally. I was changing his diaper, and his clothes every 30-45 minutes. His diaper was completely saturated, so much so, it was running out the top and bottom and soaking his shirt, pants AND socks. I changed 13 diapers in 8 hours.

Thankfully, he kept drinking. He was constantly drinking. He drank more than 2 liters of pedialyte, from 3pm to midnight(when he finally went to bed). Shayne had to work that night, but it was a good thing, b/c he talked to the ER doc and asked him what we needed to do. He said that there were no medications they could give a 15 month old. The only thing they could do was put an I.V. in him and give him fluids. So, if he continued to drink and act fine, to not come in. And he did drink...which I'm so grateful for.

I was seriously worried. If he hadn't stayed in such a good mood, and kept playing like he did, I probably would have taken him in. I've never seen that much fluid come out of a person. I've talked to a couple of mom's since and none of them have dealt with diarrhea like this before. It's kinda gross, but the best way I can describe it is this: Have you every played with those bath toys that suck up water, then you squirt them out? Well, that sound they make when you squirt the water out?...that's what it sounded like when The Bug had a bout of diarrhea. Not kidding. It didn't help he hadn't eaten anything substantial in 3 days, so it literally was just water coming out.

I ended up lining his bed with receiving blankets to help soak up anything through out the night. I put him down at midnight and at 2, when I finally went to bed, I checked on him and he was still dry. I checked on him again around 7 am and he still felt dry, but when he got up at 8:30, he had been wet, but dried out. Poor kid.

However, he did much better on Thursday. No real bad diarrhea, and for the first time in almost four days he wanted to eat. Yeah!! So, Thursday was a good day.

But, he threw up again while eating breakfast on Friday, and had some diarrhea. Seriously?! That's when I started sanitizing EVERYTHING!! I boiled his binkies, washed ALL his bedding and clothes in hot water, and then used disinfecting wipes all over my house. I gave him some food about 6 hours later, and he was fine. He had a good night with no incidents either.

Saturday was good too. In fact, it was so good I ended up driving to Homer to watch Shayne's boys play basketball. I had to get out...I was tired of all the "crap" I had been dealing with. :) I packed about 3 changes of clothes and 20 diapers, just in case, but didn't need them! It was the best day we'd had in almost a week.

So...when I say it was a "crappy" week...I mean it!


Sorry if this post was just too gross...but I'm sharing this story for journaling purposes. While I should want to forget this...I also want to remember it...because who has such memorable weeks like this?! :)

January Snow Days

These are just some pics outside. Nothing too exciting. We do live in Alaska. There is snow. We do go outside at times to enjoy it.

I do spend a lot of time picking The Bug back up where he has fallen on the snow, b/c his snow boots are just a little too much while navigating the "potholes" in the snow. But it's all good...b/c he's so dang cute in those little snow pants and snow boots.

Notice Dezi...gloves!

Baby Siging Time = Crack for Babies

Not kidding! Kaye let me borrow the first two of the "Baby Signing Time" series DVD's. She told me Malia loved them, but I didn't realized what she meant by "loved." I now know.

It's crack...for my baby. He cannot get enough of them. CANNOT. My only consolation when he has turned on the tv, is looking for the remote, and is desperately signing "baby" for "Baby Signing Time", is that at least he's learning something. And he is learning stuff.

Here's a quick list of words he's learned to sign...and uses on a daily basis:

Please, Thank you, Eat, Milk, Book, Cracker, Dog, Cat, Horse, Bird, Coat, Hat, Milk, More, Water*, All Done, Mom, Dad, Shoes, Socks, Train, Boat*, Airplane, Car, Drink*, Fish, Brush Teeth, Sleep, Banana, Ball, Doll*, Hurt*, Wash Hands*, and I'm sure I've missed some.

The * means it's a sign he's just picked up, so is still learning where and when to use it. Other than "please" and "thank you", he's learned all of these from the video. It helps I use them as well so he sees them all day. But...I've seen him mimic the signs while watching the video.

He will sit and watch it all the way through before getting up. They are only 30 minutes long, but still...a long time for my kid. And...he begs for it EVERY DAY!! I try and only put it on in the evenings when he's starting to get tired and a little fussy, but some days he wins the battle and I watch it most of the afternoon. It's a good thing it repeats by itself, so I don't have to keep pushing play. :)

He loves them so much, and has learned so many words, I ended up going on ebay and buying the entire 4 set series with the songs on cd as well. I attempted to go to the library and find something else for him to watch, so I got an Elmo video, but he cried when it started. He knew immediately it wasn't "Baby Signing Time". Seriously, just dropped his head and cried until I put in his movie.

Crack, I tell you...it's crack!!

But...It's pretty amazing how much his language has exploded. Not only with his signing, he's also starting to say some new words too. Like:

Cracker, Fish(he loves to say this while signing it...and b/c of all the fish pics we have he says it A LOT!), Shoes, Owl, and Jesus (that's a story for another post.) I think he's also saying "truck", but I'm not sure just yet. He does make car sounds whenever he sees a truck or car. It's so dang cute.

I'm amazed EVERY DAY how smart he is, and how much he can learn in one day! We LOVE having a toddler in our home. We love having The Bug in our home.

December Catch Up...

As promised, here are my posts for December...and a little January. Sorry they are so late, but better late than never. And...who will ever know when I get my blog book? I love the "Post Options" option. :)

Malia & The Bug
To Infinity and Beyond
Ward Christmas Party
Yeah for Presents
Christmas @ Senior Center
Bethlehem Revisited
Basketball Junkie
Post Christmas Games
Tyler Siaki Tuia
Love Alaska
New Year's Eve
Reflections

Just Like My Daddy...

Papa Pond sent The Bug a little Christmas package. It included two hats. One was a "Pond Concrete Construction" cap with a trout. The other was a black beanie with a bill...I have pics of that for later.

On Sunday morning the 17th, Shayne put the cap on The Bug to get ready to go to church. Surprisingly, he actually liked it. He's been into his dad's caps lately, finding them around the house and bringing them to dad so dad can put them on. So, when we got this one adjusted and put it on, he thought he was pretty cool. It probably helps he's got a slightly larger-than-normal head, so the cap actually fit. (Ok...he's got a huge noggin', it just means he's really smart!!)

I love how he looks like a little cowboy in these pics. It gives me some hope. ;)

Anyway...I had to get a pic of The Bug and his dad with their caps on, b/c it was way too cute. If you didn't know The Bug looks just like his dad before now...there's pretty much no question after looking at the pic of them together with their caps on. Spittin' images...I swear!

However...in some of these pics, he actually looks A LOT like some of my nephews...A LOT! So, maybe there is a little bit of me in there too.

On Sunday's Shayne usually walks in the door after church, takes off his tie, throws it on the couch and proceeds to see what sporting event in being televised. If I don't take the tie upstairs, it will stay on the couch all week. This was the case here. The Bug finally got a hold of dad's tie on a Thursday. He thought the tie was pretty cool. He's very into putting things behind his head and walking around with them draped around his neck. It's pretty funny.

Diaper Dance

So for our 5th year anniversary Shayne was actually in Anchorage for a basketball tournament...shocker. So, The Bug and I drove up that night and we got a hotel and stayed there for a night. I made sure to get one with a pool, b/c I knew it would be fun to take The Bug the next morning...and it was.

He was LOVING the swim diaper I put on him in our room. It was too funny. He had recently discovered his belly button and was too excited to point it out...and run around with his Buddha belly sticking out. He would slap his belly and just laugh b/c of the sound it makes. I love little toddlers running around naked (or near naked)...it is the cutest!

He wasn't a big fan of the pool at first, but after watching some other little girls, about 6-7 years old, he decided it wasn't too bad. He actually like just floating in the water with me holding him, sans the floaty. He even got brave enough to try and put his face in the water like the other girls...he now knows what it feels like to get water up your nose. :) He also let me lie him on his back and hold him while he floated there.

We had a good time. Shayne was exhausted b/c he worked all night Wednesday night, rode up to Anchorage Thursday morning, had games all day, and watched a movie with me that night. So, he took a nap in our room while we went swimming.


By the way...we went and watched "Avatar" for our anniversary. We saw it in 3D...it was phenomenal! The story line was ok, but the graphics and other "stuff" were amazing! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

5 Years!!

5 years ago today, I married my best friend in the Idaho Falls Temple. We were married after only physcially being around eachother for 21 days, but I knew him better than anyone else, and he knew everything about me. We were also married amidst one of the worst snow storms in years! (I'll share our story in another post...because it deserves it's own post.)
However, 5 years later, Shayne is still my best friend. I love him more now than I did then. We've been through a lot of rough times in our short 5 years, but have survived and our relationship is stronger because of it.
There is no one else I would rather spend my time with. There is no one else I would rather talk to. There is no one else.

I love you babe! And, I'll love you forever...and a week!!!

Shayne and Lachlan bringing me flowers, on Father's Day...how sweet is that?!

Oh....

...So this is why I have a basketball junkie for a child.






This is Cameron, one of Shayne's boys from the basketball team. He loves to come out and play with The Bug while I have him in the commons during half-time of the games. Obviously, this wasn't during Cameron's game. :) Cameron finally got The Bug to sit on the ground and just roll the ball back and forth. Normally, he takes the ball and runs with it.

The Bug absolutely LOVES it when one of the boys gives him a basketball to play with...and Cameron is always carrying around a ball, so they are buds. All the boys love The Bug. It's pretty fun to see the way these teenage boys interact with a toddler. Pretty dang cute!

Notice his little outfit? I got this at "Ross Dress for Less" last year when I was in Idaho. It's a purple/white/black "Jordan" short outfit with a little short sleeve jacket to match. It is perfect for Skyview! He's now known as the little mascot or booster for Skyview. People (mostly teenage girls) comment every time he wears it, how cute he is in the little outfit. It's now standard attire for the home games.

I'm not gonna lie...he's pretty dang cute in his little purple shorts! :)

Climbing

On January 5th, I discovered The Bug had figured out how to climb up on a tote to get to the wooden train set we had on the bed. He got the train set from Nana and Papa Price for Christmas. Because it has some smaller pieces, we decided to put it away until he's a little older to enjoy it.

Well...we discovered "on the guest bed" wasn't truly "away". He sat and played with it there on that tote for quite awhile. When he was finally done making all his little train noises and driving them around on the bed, I put them "away" again...just a little further up than on the guest bed. :)

Good to know he'll love the train-set when we finally get it down for him. It will be like Christmas all over again! :)


p.s. I promise when we have visitors, they get clean sheets and a cleaner room than this. :) This is the after-Christmas madness.

What am I kidding?! This room is the catch all when I don't feel like putting things back where they belong. It's a good thing we get regular guests, b/c this room would never be clean otherwise. :)

Catch Up

So...have I mentioned I've been a bit depressed? Well, I have been. But...I think the excess hormones have finally worked themselves out of my body because I'm feeling much better. The Christmas season helped a bit too...I love Christmas time.

Anyway...in my depressed state I fell way behind in my blogging. So...I'm trying desperately to catch up. In the past two days I've posted 12 times...just for our November happenings. I've post-dated them so they will be in chronological order, b/c this is my journal.

I'm listing/linking the posts so if you'd like you can read them without having to search for them.

I know this won't be of interest to everyone, but for my family I hope it will be.

Here's a list/link of the posts as of today...I will have more for December in the next couple of days.

Cut Lip
Funny Boy
Playing Outside
First Snow
Big Boy Carseat
Grammy Jo comes to visit
If A Tree Falls
Good Doggie
Winter Flowers
New Moon
Thanksgiving
Oh Tannebaum
Big Snow

Sorry if they seem dry...or just blah. Creativity begins to wan after about 4 posts. :)

Enjoy!!

Reflections...

Of the past year.

What a fun year with a baby growing into a toddler right before my eyes. I have never been so amazed with all the "things" The Bug did this past year. He went from a three month old just starting to giggle and hold up his head, to a 6 month old who started sitting up and eating solid food. At 9 months he decided to roll to his belly which meant that shortly thereafter he started crawling. At 11 months he was already walking and jabbering with his "Oh wow, wow, wow". By 15 months he was using sign language to tell me when he wanted milk, or to say please, or to point out the dogs.

We were able to visit family in good times when my brother went on his mission. And in hard times when Shayne's brother-in-law decided life was too hard and chose to end his own. These experiences have taught us that each moment is extremely precious and we never take them for granted. We have learned how important it is to express our love to each other and to our son every single day. We've also learned how grateful we are to have been sealed forever as a family in the temple.

We were able to experience and view some of our Heavenly Father's most beautiful creations. We saw some of them in new places in Alaska while on our trip to the Interior, and in Hawaii while there with my parents. But, we were lucky enough to see some of those incredible things right here in our own little town with Mt. Redoubt erupting. Shayne & I are in constant awe of the beauty the Lord has created for us to enjoy, especially here in Alaska.

We also experienced together some heartbreak as we were unable to bring another special spirit into our family as soon as we would have hoped. But...this has taught us that everything is in the Lord's time. He does love us. He has comforted us. He has strengthened our relationship and made us more grateful for the love we have for each other.

2009 has definitely been a memorable year. We are blessed in that we have many more positive memories of this past year, than negative ones. And for that we are extremely grateful.

We only hope and truly pray 2010 will bring more happy and positive memories for our little family...and for yours as well.

New Year's Eve

First picture of our family in 2010.

So, what do you do for entertainment on New Year's Eve? You put a torn stretchy sticky ball thing on your kids head of course! I have to admit, I stole this idea from my brother Kade. He did this exact thing when I was in Idaho visiting last year...only he put it on his own head. Ya...he's weird. :)

I must say I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time as when we put this on The Bug's head. I was not the only one crying from laughter. Everyone in the front room was dying of laughter. Can you see how it's pulling his eyes back?! Oh my gosh! I seriously laughed so hard, my cheeks were aching. He didn't seem to mind too much, but after it came off, he wasn't for putting it back on. :)

We had this New Year's Eve party at the Swanson's home. It's their new lake home, and it large and beautiful. It was perfect for a New Year's Eve party. The Hansen's, Williams' and McCormick's were all there as well. We had 2 6' subs and more appetizers than we could eat in a single night. So, we decided to just extend the party for the next two days. :)

We all managed to stay up until midnight, but left shortly thereafter. We were a pretty boring bunch. We kept asking what the time was, hoping we would be closer to midnight than we actually were.

We went back over to the Swanson's again the next day to play some more pond hockey in much much colder weather than on Christmas. It was just wives against husbands' with a couple kids helping the wives. Aaron put water on the pond the day before, so it was considerably more slick than on Christmas. Actually, it was fairly insane.

The husband's had much more of an advantage as far as hockey and athletic experience, so the wives (ok, maybe just Becky and I), had to even the field. Yes...I have to admit I resorted to body checking, beating with my hockey stick, tripping, and after falling on the ice grabbing legs, feet, or hockey sticks. But...don't worry, Shayne deserved some of it though. He "accidentally" slid into me faster than he thought and checked me onto the hard snow...I couldn't breath for a second. :) Miles and Aaron deserved what they had coming too...they knocked my stick out of my hand and kicked it away from me so many times, I almost decided to play without it...not like it was doing me much good anyway.

Overall, I'm pretty sure the husband's kicked the wives trash...but we cheated enough to keep the score fairly even. It's a good thing our husband's love us so much. But...we love them just as much...right Becky, Becky, and Darcy?

I'm glad we have such a good group of friends here in Alaska. Life up here could be a lot more difficult that's for sure.

So...here's to the New Year and a new decade!

Yeah for 2010!!!