Bubbles

It was a beautiful day and I was so sad that Mister is still a little sicky.  He is not throwing up, but he is just ornery.  This is the cry he does all day when he doesn't feel well:  Ehheh ehheh ehheh.... over and over again.  Good thing he is cute or else....

Actually he was doing well enough this afternoon that we went to the park to blow bubbles.  I bought this Bubble Gun for $1.50 at the grocery store and inserted a battery.  Heavenly choirs singing above.  It is the coolest invention EVER!!!

I love this boy.  I love this boy so much.

Sick Baby, Sick Car

My baby is sick.  Breanna and I were at the mall buying new shoes for her (when did the canvas shoes get stylish again?  They are cute and Breanna looks cute in them).  Breanna paid for her shoes while I ran from the store with a gagging baby.  He was gracious enough to wait to actually upchuck until we were clear of the carpet and in the hallway.  Then came the barrage of pureed mangoes, digested soy formula, and rice down my shirt, in his blanket, down his shirt, and in my purse.  Luckily, none of the vomit made it into the garbage can for which we were aiming.

Breanna grabbed an extra bag from the cashier for the defiled blanket and took off to JCPenney to find another outfit to buy for Aiden.  I did my best to keep the vomit contained until she came back.  She took him and I headed for Lane Bryant to buy a new shirt for me which the cashier there was nice enough to let me change into before I left the store.

Then, we went to retrieve my sick car from the fix-it shop.  A serpentine belt, another adjuster thingy, and $200 later, I drove out of the shop only to have it smell like burning oil.  We will see if Uncle Chris spraying the engine down will fix the smell.

Another projectile vomiting of soy formula and a fever later, Mister is officially sick.  GREAT!  But I love to snuggle him, so the upcoming weekend will be very fulfilling for me.

Breanna and Shiree joined us for dinner and started the weekend off with watching my all-time favorite comedy-  Oscar.  If you have not seen it, I strongly encourage it.

Who could have thought that $200 of car repairs and vomiting baby could mean an overall good day.

The Challenge

COOLEST website time waster ever!!!!!

I love it and it makes the most beautiful pictures ever.  I was challenged by a friend to make a couple of pictures that represent my life.  I really never had thought about art representing my life and I found that it was much harder than I thought.  I am not an artist, but this was fun and thought-provoking.

http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/index.html#top

1.  Create an abstract to represent your family. 

The red represents me.  The blue is Aiden.  The green is Roman (the dog).

We are all individuals with a common family.  The family part is the lightest and I figure we are the happiest when we are together and functioning as a family.  So... that is so Confusious of me.

2.  Create a piece of art that represents your feeling on life, love and the future. This is a little less philosophical.  Green is optimism.  Blue is spirituality.  Red is love and passion.  The leftover white is the future.  I think there is so much left to experience.

That's all I have in me.  No more insights into my soul.  

Just a super cool website that allows you to have a fun time.

...a few ramblings...

I have had many experiences over the last 48 hours that have had me thinking of the many different facets in life that the whole experience.  I am grateful for all of them, even when - or maybe especially because - they are hard.  Someone in my family told me once that her greatest trial in life is having to watch the people she loves go through trials and feel so helpless.  Once, I thought "great.  Try going through one or two doozies.  Then get back with me."  But then I realized that she has been through as much as I have and that, yes, it is harder to watch helplessly than to have to go through the trials.  At least when you are going through it, you can take step after step even if it puts you in a wrong direction.  You can choose where you go and how you react - you have some control over the situation.

I have been grateful for the people who have been placed in my life that influence - for better or worse.
I have friends who will not let me disappear.  They keep hold of me and make sure I know they love me.
I hope that I have found ways in my life to do the same for friends I need to keep in my life.
I have the one or two people in my life that can tell me like it is.  Hurtful or not.  And I hope that the people in my life that I can do that for are not offended.

I am excited for what the future holds for my little family and have a hard time just taking a jump into the unknown, but I know that as long as we are trying, we are not failing.

Hiiiiiiii!!!

Yesterday, I heard, for the first time, Aiden absolutely say his first word.  To me.  (I think...)  :)  I was picking him up from the karate studio where Kari was keeping him while her kids were karateing (is that a word?  What is the correct verb there?)

Aiden peeked his head around the corner and said, no joke... "Hiiiiiiii!!"  It was said with exactly the same inflection that I, along with many others, say it to him.  It was perfect.  It was brilliant.  It was so delightful to hear.

I am so blessed to have him in my life and have him a happy kiddo.

On another note.... it is great to have Chris home.  He was in Florida during our most recent snow storm.  Boooo  Hissssss....  But he brought me back Key Lime Jelly Beans and sustained a sunburn, so all is not unjust in the world.

Taken while Chris was on the beach.  

And yesterday we celebrated my puppy's birthday by going to MacCools for delicious Irish fare.  The puppy was not invited.

Happy Easter

I loved, loved, LOVED General Conference.  It means so much more to me now that I am a parent.  Everything that was said was just directed to me.  I have a lot of big life decisions that I need to make and the conference talks pushed me and gave me the courage to do them.

I loved that a large majority of the talks were directed toward parenting the upcoming children of the church.  I know there are many years that are focused around this particular theme, but I had no children then. It was amazing that Conference landed on Easter this year.  I have always thought of Easter as a 98% purely spiritual holiday.  I am glad that I was raised to love and appreciate the real meaning of Easter.  I know that I don't understand even a small part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, but I am trying every day to learn more and understand more.

I don't make this blog religious because my beliefs are very personal to me, but this is a perfect time to say my spiritual views:

I am so grateful for my Savior and for the sacrifice he made for me.  As a parent, I know I would never have the courage to send my son to face all that was faced by Jesus Christ.  I know that Christ lived, then died.  I know that he rose again and was resurrected for me.  For my son.  For my family.  For everyone.  I know that because of this, I know that the people who I love and miss who have gone before will be there waiting for me in the life to come.  I believe that Christ is the Redeemer of this world and is my Savior and Friend.




So, our Easter was wonderful!!  Aid-o slept in (yay!) until 7:15 this morning and had a great morning.  We opened Easter baskets.  The eggs were filled with rice poofs and yogurt melts.  And I am not sure why I included the purple hippo, but he loves it.  We were able to watch all of conference and really listen.  Even Aiden was very quiet and even watched it all.

For dinner, we went to Smedleys and Aunt Kari made an amazing dinner!!!

His froggy basket

There were eggs, 2 new bottles, and some bubbles for Easter.

Fun Easter!

Decorating Eggs

One family member of mine was disgusted that I let a nine-month old decorate eggs for Easter.  I say - he had fun.  We all had fun.  The Smedley girls and Aunt Kari were on hand to decorate eggs and make fresh salsa.  I loved it and so did Aiden.

Cousin Shiree helped Aiden paint his egg. 

Stink eye given when Shiree tried to take away the paint roller.

So yummy.  (Don't worry - it was all non-toxic....)

Check out the hands....

THEN!!!  We tried to bathe Aiden.  This was the funniest part of the day.  We ran water in the kitchen sink and gave him bubbles and toys.  Shiree was talking to him when he got very quiet.  We looked into the water and... Aiden had pooped.  Two great big poops.  Well, that is not a very sanitary bath, so we cleaned out the sink, drained the water, 409ed the heck out of it, ran water and were going to plunk him in.  Shiree was holding him wrapped in a towel to wait for the new water.  Suddenly, she felt something very warm in the towel.  Apparently Aiden was not finished.  So, we cleaned him up and got him bathed.  But the towel just went out to the garbage.

Aiden's finished egg.  It was nicknamed Humpty Dumpty.  It was tossed on the ground several times.

It was a fun day.  As I was growing up, we did very little for Easter (no Easter Bunny) because my mother really liked to have it be a spiritual holiday - which is a tradition that I would like to keep.  But while we were growing up, we did fun things like decorating eggs on other days besides Easter Sunday.  Usually the day before.  (We did to Easter baskets, but knew they came from Mommy.)

So, I think we will keep the tradition of Easter this way.