Conversations with Craig

Whenever we talk to Craig, we always end up laughing so hard over the funny phrases and things that he says, usually when he doesn't even mean to be funny.  He's pure entertainment.  Like at Christmas when he was eating a bowl of ice cream and after taking what he thought was a scoop of ice cream but realized nothing was on the spoon, started looking around and so casually asked, "hey- did anyone see a really big chunk of ice cream fly across the room?"  Or the time when Ryan and I had a long texting conversation with him solely using lines from Justin Bieber songs.  I think I'm a few years late on this, but I could do a whole segment on our conversations with Craig.  Since I can't quite remember the past ones, I'll just start with the funny one that happened a few days ago.

(Side note: these are probably only funny just because we were there.  But at least we will understand how funny they were in the moment and laugh when we go back and read it someday).

*As we were watching a singer on tv...

Me: Wow, he's actually a really good singer.  You know how some famous singers are good when they're recorded and fixed up, but not that great singing live?
Craig: Oh! Yeah!  Hannah Montana is the perfect example of this.  Have you ever heard her live?  She's terrible.

(Craig and I both started cracking up right after the words came out of this mouth.  When I told the story to Ryan a few minutes later, he asked why this was so funny.  I explained that it was a) because he chose Hannah Montana out of the TONS of examples he could have used, and b) because he called her Hannah Montana and not Miley Cyrus. haha.)

Sometimes we bring Craig on vacation with us for this kind of entertainment.  And also to carry all of our heavy bags so we only have to take one trip from the car to the hotel room.

Actually, I told Ryan and Craig that we should just take two trips so that they didn't have to carry so much (you have to take a LOT of stuff with a baby) but they refused.  I told him and Ryan that they looked ridiculous and Craig's response was, "If by ridiculous you mean really strong, then yeah, I totally agree."  So, one trip it was...

Half of a year

I can hardly believe that Lucy is 6 months old already!  Time flies when you're having fun and these days we're having fun.  I've come to terms with the fact that "content, easy-going, and calm" are not words that I will be using to describe Lucy any time soon, but as long as we are moving from one thing to the next every 5 or 10 minutes she's a fairly happy camper.  She's just a little high maintenance, but that's what makes Lucy "Lucy" so I'll take it and love it.  Here are a few things about Lucy at six months:

• Height: 26 inches (75th%);  Weight: 15 pounds (25th %); Head circumference: 25th %
• Sleeping through the night.  She goes to sleep at 7:30pm and sleeps for 10 hours until about 5:30am.  Unfortunately I do not go to bed at 7:30... or 8:30.... or 9:30.... or....
• When she wakes up from a nap crying and I have to go in her room, as soon as I stick her pacifier in she will immediately close her eyes, turn her head to the left, and grab the corner of her blanket right next to her face.
• Lucy has had a jumperoo for a few months and liked to play with a few of the fun toy things around it, but just within the last week she figured out how to actually jump in it and now she goes crazy jumping away!
• She is no longer loving her little floor mat thing as much.  She mostly just grabs the things hanging above her, tries to pull herself up, and gets really mad when she's stuck halfway sitting up while hanging on to the toy.  This is unfortunate because it's the only way I got to eat breakfast- while she would lay and play.
• Speaking of food, she wants to eat EVERYTHING (food or not).  Anytime Ryan and I are eating something, she will stop whatever she was doing and stare directly at the food and start smacking her lips and drooling like crazy.  She will reach as far as she can to get her hands on any kind of food.  While I let her have little licks of things here and there that I'm eating, she really just has baby food.  She loves carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes, but hates peas, peaches, and apples.  She also loves drinking water out of our cups and does a really good job at it, too.
• She really wants to sit up these days but struggles.  She mostly just falls to the side or forward so her face hits her feet. 
• Lucy is now bottle-fed.  We quit nursing about a week ago.  The weaning started after my MRI when I couldn't nurse her for a while and kept giving her bottles.  Both nursing and bottle feeding have their pros and cons, but had I known the actual monetary cost of being full-time formula, I would have stuck with nursing a lot longer.
• She will no longer sit and let me read her a book.  Her main goal is to figure out how to get the book into her mouth as quickly as possible... which actually seems to be her main goal with everything.
• Lucy sticks out her tongue when she's happy.  
• She gets super excited when Ryan gets home from work.  As soon as I hear the garage opening I say to Lucy, "Guess who's home?" and she gets a big smile and looks towards the door where Ryan comes in.
• My cell phone, the tv remote, and the crinkly bag of baby wipes are about as cool as any toy gets.  Forget about her actual toys...
• Lucy loves being outside.  Any time she starts to get too fussy, I take her outside for a walk (either in the jogging stroller or just around our sidewalk in my arms) and she's content again.

Amazing

There are two reasons why today is amazing.  Here they are:

First and most important: Lucy has now slept through the night the last two nights.  Like, completely slept through the night.  Slept through the night as in 7:45 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. without so much as a peep- I'll do the math for you... that's 10.5 straight hours (okay last night was actually only 9.5, but still)... we're breaking records here, people.  Slept through the night as is no middle-of-the-night feeding.  Slept through the night.  I can't say that phrase enough because I'm still in shock.  I hope it's here to stay... but I'm certainly not getting my hopes up.

Second: 87 degrees and sunny.  Need I say more?  Okay, I will.  Lucy and I took full advantage and went for a long walk outside in our new jogging stroller and by the end, I was sweating like crazy and Lucy was in a deep sleep.  That's what I call a successful walk.

These pictures were actually from yesterday when it wasn't as hot on our walk.  I wouldn't make her wear pants and close-toed shoes in today's heat.

The secret to our happy marriage

Back when we first got married, we had a disagreement about something and both were convinced that we were right and the other person was wrong.  And there was no budging.  I don't even remember what it was about now, which just goes to show that it usually doesn't matter in the long run.  So right then and there we decided to take turns being "right."  Ryan kindly let me have 2009.  So come May 2, 2010, it was his year to be "right" and we've traded each year since.  It obviously started as a joke but has worked great several times in the last three years in keeping disagreements from becoming heated, simply because we have to let the other person be right sometimes and we end up laughing over our silly rule.  So, Ryan, since I had 2011, I now give you your turn of always being the "right" one in 2012.  

But since I have one more day of being "right" (I'm actually writing this on May 1st), I would like to mention a few things that actually, no matter the year, I am always right about: 

• Ryan is amazingly patient and kind.
• Ryan works SO hard for our family.
• Ryan will drop almost anything (I say almost because I don't know about a BYU football game- and I don't dare try) to help me when I ask for help, and often even when I don't ask for help.
• Ryan is the best husband (for me) and father (for Lucy).
• I am one lucky girl.

It's been a great three years and I love that each year just gets better!  Happy Anniversary, Ry!  Thanks for marrying me. :)

More from April

So I titled this post before I actually wrote it, and it should really just read, "mostly another Lucy update."  So here you have it... mostly another Lucy update. :)

I had to make a "fun" dessert for a church activity, and since I have no ounce of craftiness in me, which especially applies to baking and cake-making, I found the easiest fun-looking dessert I could find online and copied it.  I figured it would be hard to really mess up basic cupcakes.

I had to get an MRI and found out when I got there that I couldn't nurse Lucy for 24-48 hours afterwards due to a dye injection that they had to give me.  I had been trying to get her to take a bottle for over a month with no success.  I had no other option but to go cold turkey on nursing for the day, and it worked!  She refused to eat for 5 hours straight and then she sucked dry every other bottle after that.  It was weird pumping out very blue milk for the next 24 hours!  I am happy to say that, even a week later, she will now do both- nurse and take a bottle.  Just what I've been wanting!  It's such a relief.  And I can wear a dress to church now, which pretty much doubles my outfit choices.  Might I also mention that towards the beginning of those 24 hours that I couldn't nurse Lucy, I made sure to pound down all of the food I can't normally eat while nursing her, such as pizza and ice cream. Ha!  Oh, and my mom even got her to hold her own bottle!

Just the other day Lucy was pretty hungry and as I was about to feed her, I thought, why not try some of the baby food I got her? She refused it a week or two earlier, but this time she gobbled up the whole thing, and washed it all down with a full bottle, too!  In these pictures it was squash, but she's had carrots as well.  This baby food stuff though is messy business... by the time we were done, there was squash everywhere (hair, clothes, hands, face... on both Lucy AND me!).

Lucy was so tired the other day but she was only about an hour away from bedtime so I put her in her swing for a little bit with a doll.  She sat there zoned out in her own little world like this until Ryan came home from work.  It was cute.

I think Lucy went through a big growth spurt.  For a few days she was pretty grouchy and fussy and was tired after being awake for only 30 minutes at a time.  After those few days she was all of a sudden super duper happy and not as fussy as usual, and she had gained a pound, too (that's a lot considering she gains weight at a snail's pace).  Anyway, this video is just a little glimpse of our happy Lucy!

Five months

Lucy is 5 months!  I can't believe she has been here for almost half of a year.  She is SO much fun these days.  Seriously, there's lot's of smiles and giggles around here.  I am three days late on this post, but here's the latest and greatest of Lucy at 5 months:

•  Let's start with sleep.  She sleeps!!  Yes, she sleeps.  Thank you so so much to everyone for their tips, encouragement, etc.  On a typical night now, she will sleep from about 8pm until 7am, waking up once at about 4am to eat.  Although, she has always woken up crying one other time before her middle of the night feeding and I haven't quite figured that out yet, but she goes back to sleep quickly and hopefully she's done with that for a while.  Anyway, Ryan and I feel so much more rested already.  It's amazing the difference it makes in your day when you get a few more consecutive hours of sleep.
• She found her feet and is constantly grabbing them, playing with them, and trying to suck them. 
• She watches our every move at dinner.  She will follow our fork from the plate to our mouth while drooling and smacking her lips.  haha.  
• She struggled with eating and gaining weight yet again (can this cycle please stop?) and I had to take her to the doctor.  Turned out she was constipated, which apparently makes little babies feel full, thus making her not want to eat.  Some milk of magnesia has been helping remedy that situation.
• Lucy loves going on walks outside (as long as we are holding her.  She continues to dislike her car seat).
• Every evening when Ryan gets home he says how much bigger she looks. 
• She always crosses her ankles.  Every time I put her on the floor her little legs go straight out and she crosses her feet.
• Still refuses to take a bottle.
• Does a really good job at paying attention while we read her books.
• She sucks on her fingers like crazy and has been pulling her fingers against her bottom gums until they snap away from her face.  She likes doing that for some reason.

Happy Birthday!

We miss our little Aaron buddy!  Today would be his first birthday and I'm thinking about him like crazy. We miss him a ton.  Happy Birthday, Aaron!