The Other Gourlie Guy

I try not to have absolutely everything be about the baby, so here's an ode to the king of our castle with a few of my favorite recent Russell incidents.

A) We were at the grocery store on Saturday and I saw some off-brand home run pies (my fam knows what I'm talking about). I was all excited and explained to Russell how my dad used to get a bunch in different flavors and we would have them for FHE/special treats and it was awesome. The most important part of the story was that I told him all about "pick-a-number" which is a little game that my dad would do so that we would get a randomly selected treat. We applied pick-a-number to all kinds of things, not just home run pies. Anyway, I was all excited about these pies because it made me think of fun family memories. Russell generically replied with, "Cool" in a very "I didn't hear a word you just said" type of way. BUT sometimes Russell will remind me of something that I said earlier. Pretty much, I think he only listens to what I don't remember saying. :)

B) Russell's a good cook. Promise. Since he always has tons of homework/studying to do, I've been manning the meal-making, but on Sunday night we were watching a movie together (Surf's Up, which is pretty funny) and Russell graciously offered to make popcorn. Let's recall back a few months when Carolyn was about 3 months pregnant and Russell offered to make popcorn. As I was getting ready for bed, instead of freshly-popped microwave kettle corn, I smelled smoke. Because he read the directions on the package, Russell put the popcorn in for 5 minutes and went back to the couch. This resulted in smoke detectors going off at 10:30 p.m., windows opened in the middle of winter, a microwave permanently burned on the inside, and a smell that lasted for days. Fast forward back to Sunday, and you can see why I was a little hesitant to say, "Yes, please pop us some corn." This time I offered to be Russell's coach. He put the bag in (unwrapped) facing the correct way, and Coach CJ encouraged him to push the "Popcorn" button this time. He did and then went back to the couch. After a couple of minutes:
C: "Do you hear that?"
R: "What?"
C: "The microwave..."
R: "No, it stopped already. So?"
C: "Did you listen for the 3-second pop stop?"
R: "Uhh...no."
So, as Russell brought the full bag of popcorn over upside-down, disregarding the 3 arrows that say "this way up," I realized we're making progress, but we've still got some learning to do. Like I said earlier, he is usually a good cook.

C) When discussing what we were going to have for dinner, I listed the things I didn't want to eat. Russell said, "You sound like that girl on 'Say Yes to the Dress' that couldn't pick a dress, but listed everything she didn't like about them." Thank you, Russell, for quoting the manliest show on Netflix.

D) It's really fun to watch Russell and Ty together. They're gonna be good buds. :) ...And here are some pictures of Ty.

(Studying together...so productive, I'm sure)


I'm lucky that Russell wants to be my husband still. We have lots of fun together and laugh and joke lots. My family has said that Russell is the only one who will laugh at my jokes...probably because I get all my good ones from him. He's the bomb. Love him.

Is this for real?

I suppose I should be napping because Ty's asleep, but I'm not really tired right now. Why? Well, last night Ty fell asleep and I put him down at 10:00 p.m. He woke up at (drum roll, please) 6:45 a.m.! I didn't go to bed until about 10:30, but that's crazy--8 hours?! He slept for 8 hours the night before, too. When he did wake up this morning he was smiling and happy through his diaper change...then he remembered he was hungry and started crying. If this is going to be consistent, that's fine with me. I'll happily take the wee morning hours back and admit that my teeny tiny baby is just a little baby now. A few other things have made me realize this kid is growing up:

-He doesn't fit the things he used to. This should be a "duh," but look at how he lost his limbs in the extra folds of fabric as a 5-day old guy and now, as a 7-week-old, he can't straighten his legs!

-Clothes in the closet that I think "oh, I'll just see how big this is on him" fit perfectly. If I'm not careful, he'll outgrow some outfits before he even wears them! Exhibit A:

-He looks at and talks to toys. Last night after I put him down and as I was getting ready for bed, Ty was talking to the little elephant toy things above his head. :)
-He also kicks excitedly when playing with toys. We have some plastic keys hanging close to him from the shelf above the changing table and he swats at them while he's getting his diaper change, which makes for a good distraction, but not for trying to clean him up/get a diaper on! He sometimes gets a little mad when I hold his legs because he can't kick them all over.

-Ty's a lot less floppy, especially in the neck region. It's been nice when he's over my shoulder or in his car seat.
-He just about fills up the boppy pillow and will push with his legs and start to go over the edge. I don't think we have a short kid here.
-He smiles lots and seems a whole lot more on purpose. Love this. His smiles are better to record on video than to photograph, because they grow and move all over. Here's the progression of a Ty smile:-He's finding his hands, and apparently, his thumb.
-He really doesn't mind a bath so long as I keep a warm washcloth on his tummy and we move quickly to the towel.

Anyway, we like this kid. Keep up the good sleeping/growing, Ty-Dye!

KA-BOOM!!!

(This entry not for the weak of stomach.)

Typical Tuesday morning: 7-week-old Ty woke up happy, ate, had a bath, and fell asleep, which gave me time to eat and shower and get dressed--hair and makeup, too--and chat with sister Leslie on the phone. Interrupting our conversation was a humongous splat the aftermath of which you will see below. Needless to say, I excused myself from the conversation and snapped a few pictures before going into bio-hazard cleanup mode.

Here are my shorts, which are not waterproof, so my unmentionables were considerably soiled, as well:

Here are the casualties minus the diaper. (The Boppy pillow is dark, so you can't really see the stuff on it, but it's there--believe me.):


Who is responsible for all of this? Raise your hand and confess.

And, sir, how do you feel about all this?


Happy? Awesome. Just keep playing with your toy. Good thing I love this kid...

Pretty Princess Pedicure Time!

Last night as I lay half-awake, I created about 3 blog entries in my head. I don't remember what they were about entirely, but I do remember thinking, "I wish I was awake enough to write these, I'm pretty funny right now." There was probably some good stuff in there! Anyway, I'm awake now (and was from 4-5 a.m.--what the heck?!) so I'll enter a bit.

Despite my weird dream [see last post] I did go get a long-awaited and needed pedicure yesterday with Heidi, my "roommate"/gracious host. We went into the fancy Wal-mart salon and walked right in. Since I'm a little pregnant, I didn't get the massage-y stuff turned on in my massage chair, so I had two things poking the same spot in my back the whole time while my feet were soaking...whatev.

Anyway, my nail technician (formal title, anyone?) did a decent job, but lacked a bit of "I'm happy to be doing this for you"-ness. I get it, lady: you scrape and paint people's feet for a living amidst a bajillion awful fumes and intoxicating smells. Plus, I dislike feet, so I try not to be too picky with anyone who has to mess with mine. (Oh, and for part of it she lotioned up my legs to my calves; pretty sure she commented to her co-worker about how un-shaven they were. He he. I have since remedied that issue.) So, I'm not really watching her work--I have better things to look at than my feet--and she's putting on the top coat and points out that the nail on my big toe is crooked/chipped because I have "weak nails." She also kind of said it like I should be ashamed; like unto a cavity at the dentist. And I'm thinking, "Well, duh. It's a wonder I can even SEE my toes. Do you really think I'm bending over long enough to do something about fixing them? Why do you think I'm here?" Since it was top coat time, she didn't file it out. Why? I don't know and at this point, I don't care.

In the end, I ended up with labor and delivery-worthy feet with little BLUE flowers on them because I'm having a boy. :) And if you made it this far reading my lame-o post about a pedicure, good for you. I'll reward you will some future posts of a cute baby. :)

Strange Dream...

I had a dream last night that I was in some kind of performing camp and at the last meeting before we all left and went home, I was standing up and all of a sudden there was a pair of legs--my baby's legs--coming out of my side. The feet were kind of cold, too, so I thought that I should warm them up and then got the idea to paint the baby's toes. Somebody had already beat me to the punch; his toes were sparkly brown. Then I woke up.

What does this all mean? It probably means that I'm jealous that the baby had a pedicure before I did.

P.S. I'll try to come up with something unrelated to babies to post sometime. It could be a refreshing change...

On second thought, it'll probably be a whole lot more exciting to post pictures and such about the baby instead of just pregnancy, so things might still be very baby-related.

Eviction Notice

No, we haven't been kicked out of our residence, which would be really hard for me to do since I don't really have a permanent home at the time, anyway. (Big fat thank you, Higley fam!) I had another appointment with the doc today. Minor weight gain, normal blood pressure, yada yada. Basically, things are looking fine...if by fine we mean no noticeable progress toward labor. Whatever--I'm not worried because your official last day has been set, baby! If dude doesn't come out on his own by July 23rd, we're going in to get him. (And of course by "going in to get him" I mean that we are going to coax him out ever so carefully and hopefully cooperation will be had by all.) This makes Russell and me very happy because we can purchase a flight for Russell to come up a little sooner than absolute last minute, and at this point I feel I can definitely last until then. Secretly, I hope I go into labor on my own as soon as I get into the hospital to be induced--that'd be awesome--but I'm a wee bit too nervous to hope for things to be early, not to mention that I still have my (s)crapbook to work on and catch up. So, come July 23rd (or 24th if he's slow...my child? slow? yeah, probably) be prepared. I'll work on that, too.

Our last TRUE Independence Day...

Happy 4th of July! I am super lucky that I have a husband who is nice enough to drive all the way up boring Nevada...the drive is relatively boring (relative to everything), not necessarily the state. Anyway, I loved being able to just kick it with Russell and do what we wanted to do, which amounted to not much except for hanging around and having fun. Our independence as a couple (oxymoron?) is ending soon, so one last "hurrah" was perfect.

Anyway, here are 3 reasons that I'm happy to end this child-less independence:

Funny stuff, like wearing a viking helmet and pajamas

Sweet little sleeping

General Cuteness

Here are 3 reasons NOT to be incredibly excited:

Messes
Crying

Mischief...seriously, this is Carl here. I'm pretty sure 2 minutes after this picture was taken he was all up in some bushes in the neighbor's yard...

I'm grateful to have fun little nephews who are all very different, but make me excited to add another boy to the bunch! So, happy Independence Day, everyone. Go celebrate something.