Picture updates!

After trick-or-treating, it's never a good thing to hear your two-year-old announce, "M-M, nose." Sure enough, it was exactly what I thought it was. Of course, rather than let him fish it out, I held his hand while I grabbed my camera. He was thriled, obviously. :) Don't worry, though, when he did retrieve it, he didn't let it go to waste.

Our first deep snow of the season... Adam wasn't a fan. He thought he would stand on top of it...

My two cute clowns! (Pre-M&M incident)

A little too much Christmas cheer. Like any good mother, I wouldn't let anyone rescue him before I got a good picture.

"Here, kitty, kitty!" For all of the naysayers saying there aren't mountain lions around here, please tell me what cat leaves paw prints this big in the snow!

A silly boy finding new uses for his mittens!

So – I see that I have a LOT of catching up to do on this blog! Now that I’m a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom), my intention is to keep this thing up-to-date on a weekly basis! Life just changes for us far too quickly these days not to!

So – what’s happened since last time I wrote? TONS! I’ll just post the Halloween pics at the bottom of this post for your entertainment…

But in November, we found out that we are expecting a girl this time around! I know that some of you did not know that yet. It wasn’t for a lack of trying to let you know… I had tried to post the video that the clinic gave us at the 20-week ultrasound that showed the information (the sonographer typed it out on the image – you weren’t expected to be able to read it yourself…), but after trying to load it for about 8 hours on several different occasions onto the blog, I gave up entirely. If you have access to my facebook profile, it was posted there.

We’re pretty excited, though. I mostly felt vindicated because, while I didn’t care what gender the baby was (I’ve discovered boys are pretty great critters, too), my intuition kept telling me it was a girl. I didn’t have much more to go on than that – but I had a lot of naysayers telling me that intuition really didn’t count for much. Well, after a lifetime of listening to it, I’ve learned to believe my own. And it was right again!

No – we don’t have a name picked out, yet. Unfortunately for subsequent children, I find myself far less uptight about the whole thing. With Adam it was about 30 seconds after I found out I was pregnant that I worried about picking out the RIGHT name for him – even before I knew for sure it was a “him.” This time around, I admit that even at 7 months along, I still feel like I have all of the time in the world before having to worry about that.

As for Adam, he’s beginning to suspect things. Occasionally he’ll pat my tummy and say “nice tummy” or just take general notice of the fact that it is there at all. He was laying his head on my tummy last week when all of a sudden his little sister kicked the spot his head was on. It was enough to get his attention and he sat up and asked me, “What was that, mommy?” I just told him it was his baby sister kicking him in the head for the first of probably many times. J

He really has gone through a language explosion. It’s probably about 50% still garbled, but 50% completely understandable. And he repeats EVERYTHING he hears. Having had some language development classes, I recognize this “parrot” stage as his attempt to un-garble his speech, and it must be working. He comes up with the most interesting stuff.

Two weeks ago at church, Mom, Karla and I were hanging out with Adam in the nursery because his nursery teacher didn’t show up to church. (And, yes, it does take all three of us to watch one toddler at play…) J While we were in there, he began doing his fake sneezes (something that he picked up on when watching one of his favorite TV shows – “Jungle Junction”). Anyway, he would start each one with “ah, ah CHOO!” and we would all respond with a “bless you.” After a few of these in quick succession, he began, “ah, ah, ah…” then as we were all poised and ready to offer a “bless you”, he said, “maybe not!” We all about died laughing!

Then, after sacrament meeting, mom and dad were talking to a woman investigating the church and as she left, said to Adam, “bye-bye, baby.” I prompted him to say goodbye to her, too, to which he said “bye-bye…… sweetie.” I guess it was the best he could come up with when he realized that he didn’t know her.

He’s also picking up on songs pretty well and always is surprising me by singing something I didn’t know that he knew. For example, after only hearing “Jingle Bells” a couple of times over Christmas, began to sing it one morning to himself to entertain himself in his crib. A couple of days ago, I told him that he’d get to see Grandma Bryan “tomorrow” and he began to sing the song from the movie, Annie! We have only watched that movie one time and that was at least 6 months ago! But he rang out with “tomorrow, tomorrow, I wuv you, tomorrow…” and continued that way every time I reminded him that we’d see Grandma Bryan the next day.

As for our children’s parents (let’s be honest – our blogs are all about showcasing our cute munchkins, right?) we’re doing well, too. We’re settling into our new schedules pretty well. As I mentioned, I quit my job at UNMC on Dec 21. While my house isn’t quite as well put-together as I had intentioned after the first month of being home, it’s greatly improved and I LOVE it! I’m busy organizing my food storage and learning to make more nutritious and filling meals, as well. Not to mention getting ready for the new baby.

David loves his new job. It keeps him unbelievably busy, but we know it’s a sacrifice that is necessary for now, but not forever and that it is helping us meet our personal and family goals – not the least of which was getting me out of the workforce and home. I love the confidence that this job is giving him, and love the fact that I have amazed myself by loving all of the things that go along with being home – including the cooking and cleaning part. Something that 7 years ago I never saw myself doing, let alone actually LIKING.

I particularly love the opportunity to develop greater relationships with our neighbors (who are faithful women of God and who stay home with their kids) as well as hopefully complete the books that I have begun writing. After giving it much prayer, I felt that the book I should focus on for this year is one that may become a series of books highlighting the lessons women can learn from the examples of the faithful women in the scriptures. Each morning, after David leaves for work (around 6:30) and before Adam gets up (usually around 8:30), I am able to spend about an hour or so reading scriptures and then writing my reflections on the lessons there. I realize that this schedule may get put on hold once the baby comes, but for now, I’m really loving this and the lessons I’m learning, right now.

Well, this is long enough – enjoy the series of pictures from the last few months!

Oh deer!

I'm officially a "Bryan," now. It took me five years - but I've had my official christening on my way to work yesterday. I hit a deer.

Let me tell you that when you pray for something, the Lord really does hear and help! My daily prayer is to have "peace and safety" for each member of my family - wherever our day takes us - and once, again, the Lord has shown me that He really does take that plea seriously. Not even so much as the dirt on my car got smeared from the encounter with Bambi-ette even though a chunk of her leg went flying into the air upon impact. It didn't seem to do any permanent damage to her as she got up right away and ran off into the hills, but I was SHOCKED that my rubbermaid bumper withstood it so well! Of course, I'm EXTREMELY grateful as I've witnessed first-hand from many folks around here just what a deer hit can mean to a car (it's unfortunately pretty common - especially this time of year).

Remembering the funny... I promised in my last post that I would tell you the funny thing Adam did when I remembered it. I finally did!

On the way home from Stake Conference a couple of weeks ago, he was all chats and smiles until we suddenly heard a really fake, and really dramatic baby-type cry. I turned around and perplexed and amused asked him what that was. He replied in his most normal, nonchalant voice, "I'm crying. I'm REALLY sad." I had the hardest time stifling my laughter, but offered the most compassionate response possible. Where does he get this stuff?

Happy Halloween!

Today was the day that the residents bring their kids to work for trick-or-treating over the lunch hour. I was the designated candy-hander-outer for our department. I had fun!
I included a sign that said,
"A witch put a curse on me and I can't sleep until the Huskers win, again..."

AMEN!

Yesterday was Stake Conference, so like all good little Mormons, we went! It was relatively uneventful except for one little munchkin who, after the opening prayer, practically screamed "AMEN!" That threw everyone in our row and around us into "hidden" laughter - but it was so unexpected - what could you do? Unfortunately, the first part of the meeting was largely short talks and testimonies, so there were lots of "Amens" to be said - thankfully not quite as exuberantly as the first - but enough so that when I had the opportunity and knew an "Amen" was coming - I quickly grabbed him and put my hand over his mouth. After a moment or two after the muffled sounds quit, I removed my hand only to have him make up for lost "Amens." Oi! At least he knows to even say "Amen," right?

Where does he come up with this stuff?
I find myself echoing my sister-in-law with her kids - Where in the world does he come up with this stuff?

A few weeks ago, during David's final piano lesson of the day, Adam began walking back-and-forth along the railing above the stairs to the piano studio yelling, "Daddy - oh DAD-dy!"

Yesterday he did something on the way home from church that had David and I bemusedly wondering about our kid - - And I'm trying to wrack my brain about what that was (I really need to carry a notebook around with me all of the time!)

But the one that about killed me - - last Saturday evening, I was changing a stinky diaper. While I had him in the most "proper" position for cleaning off the "ickies," he lifted his head up to observe what was going on. While I was still cleaning him off, out of the corner of my eye I could see him point and heard him say "pumpkin." Wondering if I was seeing things right, I looked up and asked him where the pumpkin was. Again, he pointed where I thought he pointed and proudly proclaimed "pumpkin."

Where does he get this stuff from?!?

All Boy

I'd like to believe that I'll be better about the updates when I've quit (less that 50 days from now!), but we'll see...

Last Saturday was the final farmer's market of the season! Yippee! Ironically, that night we got a hard frost that killed everything left in the garden. Ahhh! Let the winter season begin (and get our indoor habitation back in order)!

My little boy is all boy. He is happiest playing outside, in the dirt, and occasionally eating the dirt. I'm pretty sure he's tasted every spot in the yard. One of these days I'm going to have to ask which spot is the tastiest. He doesn't like baths unless it's a bubble bath and he's NEVER liked having his hair washed. Several weeks ago, though, I insisted on washing his hair since he'd splashed some water into his hair and a stream of mud came out. (Sadly, I couldn't tell - - I guess he really does have "dirty blond" hair...)

In addition to his passion for all things dirty, he loves reptiles. At first, he was inseparable from the rubber snake that David bought him. That was until the day Daddy brought home a "sizard" - a rubber lizard. From that moment on, Adam is inseparable from it except on the rare occasion I can reason with him that it will get dirty if he eats with it, or get lost if we take it out of the house. Otherwise, he takes it everywhere, including to bed, and most mornings I wake him up and find it STILL clutched in his tiny fist!

Last week was the Fort Calhoun Homecoming activities. On the Friday of homecoming weekend, the school and town put on a rather large parade (especially considering it's only a town of 800 or so...). Anyone not marching in the parade goes to cheer it on. David took Adam to the parade and let Adam bring his precious "sizard."

First of all, the perils of having a cute kid? Everyone in the parade kept coming up to Adam to give him candy that they were otherwise flinging at the crowd from the comfort of their float. Hence, we have an 18-cup bowl FULL of candy that my candy addict with a candy radar can find no matter where I try to hide it.

Secondly, when David took Adam to the parade, they were in one spot until my mother-in-law spotted them and invited them to join her where she was. When they moved, David realized that the "sizard" was missing and after the parade went back to find it at the original spot, but it was nowhere to be found. Of course, he felt like the worst dirtbag ever for letting him bring it in the first place, but we naively hoped that bedtime would be relatively calm since Adam still had two snakes to keep him company.

No such luck. Although most of the evening passed fairly uneventfully with few mentions of the "sizard," when it was bedtime, no amount of explanation would quiet Adam's screams for "SIZARD!" After a while, we stopped trying to explain or distract and just shut his door hoping that eventually he'd get tired and go to sleep. After another 15 minutes of shouts of sizard with no parental reaction, he switched to "mah-ney cup!" So, I got out of bed, got a sippy cup of water and took it into him. I tried to hand him the cup, but he made his true intent known: he hit the cup out of my hand with an emphatic, "No - sizard!"

Oh my. I explained one more time that the lizard was gone and that it was time for night-night. That seemed to do it. He broke down in the saddest sobbing I'd ever heard from any two year old, but was finally asleep about two minutes later.

Thankfully David returned home the next day with a replacement lizard. We're watching it like hawks to make sure it doesn't get away!

Our 5th Anniversary... a little early...

A lot has happened in the month since I last blogged! I really need to stay on top of it!

First of all - thank you for the many, many prayers said in our behalf! It really paid off last week when David got the job he's been interviewing and preparing intensely for! He begins two weeks of training in Des Moines on Oct 5, and then he'll be off and running. Prayers for his success would be appreciated, as well, as I have put in my resignation at work and will be happily jobless as of Dec 21!

Last night, David surprised me with giving me my anniversary present a little early: a diamond band to accompany my wedding ring! I was stunned and thrilled, of course. When we got engaged, I had intentionally picked out a ring that functioned both as engagement and wedding ring, but over the years kind of missed having a more "complete" set of an engagement band and wedding band. I had mentioned this to him some time ago, and as a 5th anniversary gift, he got me an accompanying wedding band!

Adam keeps learning and growing at an alarming rate (alarming for his mommy, anyway!). His biggest new favorite is to say the prayer. He LOVES saying prayers and really warms your heart with it. It's stinkin' cute.

He also surprised me last Sunday when, while eating fruit loops for breakfast, started identifying each "loop" by color and shape. He'd hold them up for me and announce "geen circle" and sure enough, it was a green fruit loop! Purple and orange occasionally elude him, but otherwise, he's pretty much right on the rest of them! Where did he learn that?!?

His vocabulary is getting more and more extensive everyday - to the point that he'll mimic a word I say or that he hears on TV. It's made us more conscientious, of course! The funny thing, is, I refer to him as my little "rain man" because when he locks onto a word/phrase/or concept, he'll repeat it over and over to complete exhaustion (me). For example, the highlight of his week last week was taking a 2 block bus ride on Grandma Bryan's schoolbus last week. For the next 48 hours all we heard was "grandma bus" or "yellow bus" or "big bus." It really made an impression!

And - baby bean keeps growing well, too! at 146 beats per minute, it seems I have another kid completely non-commital to any old wives tales about the heartrate/gender connection. Oh well, we may find out in 8 weeks, though I haven't committed myself to finding out at the ultrasound, yet. We'll see...

Announcing Baby Bean

Since my mother-in-law "outed" me in Relief Society yesterday, you all might as well know: it appears we'll be getting a visit from the stork sometime around April 7, 2010! We're quite excited! Why "Baby Bean?" Well, partly because our little baby is about the size and shape of a kidney bean right now, and once I called it that, it just sort of stuck. We'll probably come up with a better name for him or her once he or she is arrived!

I took a pregnancy test and passed about two weeks ago. I was SURE I was about 10 weeks along when I went in for the appt with the midwife this last Thursday. Ummm... no. Unfortunately for my poor impatient soul, I'm only 6 weeks. But - the bottom line is that we could calculate a healthy, steady heartbeat of 111 beats per minute!

I'd attach the ultrasound picture, but because I'm so early, you can't even hardly make out anything at all. Lucky for me, I work in Family Medicine and can just sneak up to the clinic anytime and play with the ultrasound machine there - so I probably will in a few weeks when things are a little more visible!

Pathetically Overdue Blog Post!

Where to begin? I suppose in order!

What does 32 candles look like?

My Birthday!
I had another birthday come and go - but it was a delightful 32nd! (Of course, 32 sounds so ridiculously mature... I definitely don't act my age!) David threw a surprised me by inviting our friends over for a fully-planned menu. He made (with their assistance) the most AWESOME Thai Spring rolls. As it turned out, fate gave me a present, too. David intended to fry them not knowing that I prefer them steamed. As it turned out, no matter how he tried, everytime he put a roll in the fryer, it exploded, finally inducing him to "give up" and steam them in the microwave! They were so delicious - but so "work-y" that I doubt I'll be getting them again before my 33rd birthday... He also delighted us with a gluten-free chocolate cake and homemade blackberry ice cream.

What was left after the delicious spring rolls!

My parents showed up a couple of weeks before my birthday with herbs for my developing herb garden and willing manpower to get them planted. They then followed that up with an Amazon gift certificate that allowed me to acquire seeds to add to my herb garden. Among my favorites are the indoor fruit producing plants: a dwarf Banana, Chinese Pistachio, and bay laurel seeds! I know - I'm a nerd. To add to my nerdiness, I also picked up a couple of books including "The Real George Washington." I'm LOVING it!

Adam's Birthday!
Adam's 2nd birthday was a couple of days later. We threw him a Mickey Mouse fiesta (his hero) with "just family" which still means we had a HOUSEFULL. David slaved over homemade tamales (I think we'll buy them next time...) and delicious salsa, chips, etc.

As expected, Adam totally made out like a bandit, but getting him to open his gifts was a little tedious. After the festivities, we asked him what he wanted to do, and he went downstairs and pointed to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series we've been watching. What mother in her right mind lets her 2 year old watch Buffy? Okay, me. So, even though it was past his bedtime, we let him watch an episode with us before bed. (He really likes the opening credits music.)


Quick Trip to Wyoming to visit the Fam!

I'm pretty sure I'm related to the "6 sore heads."

That weekend, Adam, Karla, my friend Tabby, and I headed to Wyoming where we met my sister, Rachel, coming home from school at BYU-I. It was a great little trip of R&R. The highlight of the trip was the travel home when Tabby and I "bumped" into the Ghost Hunters guys as they traveled West.

I'm not feeling very secure about this Tornado Shelter.

Adam funny:
So, the day before my birthday, I had a HUGE wedding cake job (15 2-layer cakes in all...). As I was finishing up, I gave Adam a cupcake I had made out of leftover cake batter. I was in a hurry and didn't peel the paper off of it, but just gave it to him. After a few minutes, he politely asked "more please!" So, being the conscientious mother (not!), I decided to give him a second one (after all, they weren't frosted!). But when I went to hand it to him, I saw that the paper wasn't on his tray. I asked him:

"Where's the cupcake paper?"

"Yum!"

"Adam, did you eat the paper?"

"Yep!"

What?!? I proceeded to look everywhere for it, but it was nowhere to be found. I could only conclude that he really did eat the paper and peeled the second one for him...

Hope your 4th is a BLAST!

Father of the Year...

David took Adam swimming during his family's Independence Day celebration (on June 27 this year)... In spite of Adam's love of dirt, his second favorite is going swimming (yes - we watch him like a HAWK around pools and emphasize over and over to him that you CAN NOT get in the pool without a swim suit on...) Anyway, David's Father of the Year nomination quickly came into jeopardy...

Floating along in the kiddie cabana...

Daddy gives Adam a little push... We've done this lots of times... it's fun!
Uh oh...

Oops!
"Steady...Steady!" The look that says it all: "How COULD you?!?"
"Maybe we won't play with this right now..."

Uh...oops!

Because David is the Elders Quorum president at church and has meetings before church, I let him get ready for church while I enjoy a few extra moments of sleep before getting Adam and myself ready.

Yesterday morning I slowly came out of dreamland, awakened by a need to use the restroom. However, I could hear that David had just gone into the bathroom - presumably to take a shower. So, I ignored the urge and tried to eke out a few more moments of sleep. Sure enough, a few moments later, I heard the shower running.

As I lay there trying to ignore an ever-increasingly uncomfortable state, I started to get a little irritated. What is taking him so long?!? After all - he took a shower last night - what does he need with another one this morning, anyway?

Then, JUST when I think he MIGHT be coming out of the bathroom (and wondering what's taking so long to towel off) he starts shaving! Good grief! Of course, all the while, it's now getting PAINFUL waiting for him to emerge.

I'm taking deep breaths, trying to ignore how uncomfortable I've become and am just positively irate as I realize that he's now stopped shaving and begun brushing his teeth! Are you KIDDING me?!?

Very indignantly, I march into the bathroom while trying not to exxacerbate my nearly-bursting bladder.

"Can you please hurry up?!? What is taking so long? I'm dying out here because my bladder is about to explode while you've been in here all morning!"

"What are you talking about? I only just came in here a minute ago to brush my teeth..."

"Okay, okay - quit arguing - it really hurts!"

And as I sat there, I realized that the bathroom wasn't foggy from the shower he'd just taken and that his razor was sitting there bone-dry and untouched.

Apparently, I had dreamed everything except the need to use the restroom!

Adam - melts your heart, not your hand...

Last night I went through the usual bedtime routine with my little darling, but after about 5 minutes, I heard the saddest sobbing coming from his bedroom. After giving him a couple of minutes to calm himself down, I went in there to ask him what was wrong. He reached for me from his crib kind of anxiously. I told him that I would give him a kiss and hug if he wanted, but that it was bedtime and I was not going to pick him up. He seemed to understand and with his little lip quivering in the saddest little way (seriously, I'm about to cry just thinking about it!), he said simply, "yeah." As I reached him, he stretched his little lips up to me as tall as he could and as soon as I gave him a kiss, expressed his happiness and relief and immediately put himself to bed without another peep. Apparently, he thought that I'd forgotten his night-night kiss and just couldn't be happy without it!

Pics from Minnesota...

The cutest fisherman on the lake!

Learning the finer points of sand castle-making from his beloved Aunt "Mana"...

"You can add water to it?!? What a GREAT idea!"

Did I mention he LOVES playing in the dirt?

And his Aunt S'mana...

And SLIDES!

But is not a big fan of being in the boat...
Mommy's li'l landlubber!

Fake smiles...He's sick of the camera at this point. I don't know why - I only took about 400 pictures at this point...
"But I'm not tired!"

"And a child shall lead them..."

The other night, as is usual, it was time for family prayers before Adam went to bed. He is such a doll about saying prayers (well, not vocalizing, yet, but you get the idea). He knows that before we eat, before mommy goes to work in the morning and before bed that we always pray. And unless he's REALLY desperate for a drink or a bite of food, he sits patiently waiting to pray even if there's a plateful in front of him.

Well, the other night, we happened to be in the living room when the appointed time came. The living room has wood floors, so, David and I have gotten a little lax when it comes to kneeling if we're in that room. However, when we announced that it was time to say prayers, Adam kneeled down and folded his hands! It was so darling! And it pricked us right to our very souls. However, it was almost impossible for me to get up off of the floor afterwards, so I will make sure to grab one of the throw pillows from the couch next time!


Adam's first discernible sentance!
Last night, David, Adam and I went to the last choir concert of the year. This was an especially special occasion as the choir teacher who has been there for the last four years has taken a job much closer to home for her. As a surprise and gift to their beloved teacher, the students decided to sing her "For Good" from Wicked and asked that David accompany them. This was the first year in many years that David is not accompanying the choirs and so it was an especially big honor to him that they would ask him to do this.

Unfortunately, Adam and I missed this special performance because after about 40 minutes of being about as good as gold (he's never even that good for Sacrament meeting!), he had had about enough. So, he and I went and roamed the halls of the high school.

The janitor thought Adam was really cute and gave him a car to help aid in my attempt to occupy him for the last part of the concert (which ended up being about 50 minutes long because of awards and tears, etc!). Eventually we made our way over to a teacher's desk and we played a new game. Adam sat on the top of the desk and we rolled the car back and forth to each other, or rolled it like dice and "farkled" with it! After a while, Adam decided to launch it off of the table and play a new game where he carefully climbed down using the teacher's chair and retrieving the car, then climbing back up and starting all over again.

The first time he did this, though, he distinctly proclaimed, "I go get it!" I was shocked and thrilled all at once! When he'd climbed down and raced around the table to the side where the car was on the floor, he said his second exuberant sentance, "I get it!" *sniffle*

Just general cuteness...

And for those of you feeling Adam-deprived (Keely), here's just a backlog of Adam cuteness over the last month...