Merciful Heavens!

The "artist" strikes again!

This time.... it was purple pen on the yellow walls in the play room. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but the pen marks are actually really pronounced. AND the drawing isn't limited to this small space, it was on several walls. At this point, what can I say? Does anyone have a bloodhound I can borrow, to come sniff out all of the markers, pens, pencils, etc... that Reagan has hidden around the house?

Another day this week while I was changing Elsa's diaper; I heard Reagan repeating something that I interpreted as, "Helper". I thought maybe she wanted to help me with the diaper change. Nope.

She was saying, "hammer". This could have been a disaster. I know that her head is partially cut off in the picture, but I didn't have time to focus, pose, etc... the perfect picture. I pretty much picked up the camera, clicked the button, and put the camera down; so that I could take the hammer away from my little mischief maker.

This is Reagan's idea of holding the baby. Any time Elsa is accessible to Reagan; be it in her baby swing, or car seat... Reagan will SMOTHER her with affection (literally, and figuratively).

Below are some of my attempts to get a picture of Elsa smiling. Not what I was hoping for, but cute nonetheless.

When I was on the phone with Heather the other day, I was hesitant to tell her about the fact that Elsa has consistently been sleeping 8-9 hours through the night. #1- because I don't want to curse myself and have Elsa's demeanor change just because I am gushing about her, and #2- because I didn't want to make Heather feel bad (since Grant can still give her a hard time about sleeping through the night and he is over a year old). But Heather told me that if she had a baby as wonderful as Elsa she would brag about it!

So I will.

I thought I HATED newborns. In the back of my mind I was thinking that I probably wouldn't start to enjoy Elsa until she was around 9 months old. I am so glad to be proved wrong. Sure, Elsa can have some fussy time. But for the most part she is an absolute angel!

For that reason I felt that much WORSE about the fact that I had been feeding her beetle parts/larvae. Yes, the formula I had been giving Elsa was part of the Similac formula recall! I felt awful. That feeling was compounded by the fact that it took me FOREVER to get in touch with Similac to even find out which cans of my formula were part of the recall.

I have been buying formula on every shopping trip, since I found out I was pregnant with Elsa. By the time she was born I calculated that I probably had enough formula in the pantry to last a year.

This is no longer the case.

I tried for an hour to get on to the Similac webpage to input the numbers on the bottom of my cans to find out if they were bad. The webpage was overloaded.

The first FEW times I called the 800 number listed I received a message that told me to go to the website and then hung up on me.

FINALLY, I got through and was on hold for another 30 minutes before I got a live person. I made the gal at Similac stay on the phone with me while I went through every single can I owned.

In the end, 11 cans of Similac in my pantry were part of the recall. Including the can I had been feeding Elsa from! Gross.

I was able to take 8 of the cans back to Smith's for a credit of over $175. The remaining cans I have to mail back to Similac.

I hope that 15 years down the road if Elsa reads this she doesn't resent me. But Elsa, sweetie, I didn't feed you disgusting formula on purpose! If I had known this would happen I probably would have breastfed. Too late now. Sorry.

A lot of little bits.

This past week:

• Nick and I took Elsa out to Grantsville to meet my Grandma Imlay. I wish I would have snapped some pictures!
  
• After two years of living without cable television I ended the drought and had it installed. Originally, I called comcast because my internet bill had increased by $5 a month. I was told it was because they were increasing rates "across the board". When I hinted that I might cancel my service; the Rep. told me that he could offer me a promotion that was $5 LESS than what I had been paying each month, and in addition to the internet, it also included basic cable (and there was no installation fee). It was a 12 month promotion. Who am I to question good fortune, even it if makes no sense? I signed up, and we'll have cable for the next 12 months. Just in time for Duke Basketball season to start. Nick is pleased. I'm glad to have HGTV back :)
  
• After purging the house of markers, or at least thinking I had, after the "blue sharpie marker incident"... Reagan somehow found a red marker! AND used it to color on the walls. While I was using a magic eraser to clean the walls, Reagan went upstairs and continued the mischief by unravelling several rolls of toilet paper, and some tissues in to the toilet; and then flushing it. That lead to a clog that I had to deal with. At least it wasn't nasty. Then (oh yes, it gets "better"...) Reagan kept telling me that she wanted to wear her Elmo panties. I still needed to do my hair, so I figured I'd let Reagan go without a diaper, and I'd just keep her in the bathroom with me. That way, we'd be close to the potty, if she needed to use it. Well, she did start to tinkle; but when I tried to put her on the throne she threw a fit and fought me tooth and nail! This resulted in pee getting everywhere in the bathroom, but in the toilet bowl. That was fun to clean up. And since potty training hasn't even officially begun yet, I am sure I will be doing a lot more of it. Finally (because the day just couldn't end fast enough), Reagan pooped in the tub. This is the first time she has ever done this. I guess I ought to consider myself lucky that I have only had to deal with it one time, thus far in her life. But what can ever be lucky about having to clean poop out of a tub? I called Nick at work and told him I was putting in my resignation. Of course, I didn't mean it; but it really had been an overwhelming day. Nick brought home raspberry-filled powdered donuts for me. He is so thoughtful. But even my favorite junk food can't do anything to change my opinion about the fact that having two kids in diapers is the pits.


• Nick had to work this weekend. So, my friend Emily, and her son, Connor came with Reagan, Elsa, and Me to Liberty park.

The water feature was turned off, which was disappointing. But there were a few inches of rainwater that had collected in the main pool. We didn't see anything growing in the water and it was free of garbage so we figured "what they hey?!", and we let Connor and Reagan play in the shallow pool of water. They thought it was great!

The rides at Liberty Park were up and running that day, so we bought tickets and let the kids ride on the airplane ride.

• It's been another good week with my little Elsa. This week she has started "social smiling" ie- returning my smiles, when she is awake. She is still sleeping well (fingers crossed that it isn't some sort of fluke). I haven't been able to capture one of her awake smiles on camera yet. I took this one with my iPhone, while we were at Liberty Park. What a good day (heaven knows, I needed one after the OTHER day I had this week!).

Resemblence

On the bright side of things.... Reagan's Flu was only the 24 hour kind. That's about where the bright side ends. One day after the flu Reagan woke up from her nap screaming bloody murder! I managed to get the last available appointment of the day at the pediatrician's office. Reagan had a double-ear infection. The next morning, I was on the phone again; snatching up the first available appointment at the pediatrician's office for Elsa. Elsa had contracted Reagan's flu. It was sad and scary at the same time. The pediatrician told me that if Elsa couldn't keep any liquid down by the afternoon I needed to take her to the hospital for an IV. Fortunately, she did start taking some pedialyte. And Elsa, being the wonderful baby that she is, hardly cried; even though she was sick.

I am hoping we are done with sickness at our house (knock on wood), at least for a little while. I am SO not looking forward to the winter weather, and the colds/flu that it brings. Nick already had his flu shot. I am going to try to get mine this week, and as soon as the pediatrician's office gets their supply I'll have Reagan in there as well. My only lamentation is that they haven't found a vaccination for colds.

On a totally different note:
I am ALWAYS being told that Reagan looks like her Daddy. I kind of thought so for a while, but then when my parents moved my Mom gave me my baby books and I have to say that I am thinking Reagan actually looks like her Mommy. My picture is on the left, and a recent one of Reagan is on the right. Hmmmmm?

Recent Recap

One of Reagan's current favorite activities:

Because, my two-year-old can't be content doing something that isn't naughty. In addition to hanging from the cabinet drawers, she also likes to climb on the table in the dining room and hang from the light fixture (literally, she is swinging from the chandelier). I've had to move the chairs away from table to put an end to this. The rug under the table usually stops her from being able to move the chairs back to the table.

And then, there's the good time she has getting the meat tenderizer/mallet out of the cupboard and using it to hammer on my kitchen tile. I actually don't mind this. Truth be told, I'd love it if she shattered some of the tile, so that I could replace it with something less abhorrent. But that hasn't happened. Why do the ugly things in your house have to be the most durable?

We went to the Davis County Fair.

It was a free event, so I can't really "knock" it too hard. It was pretty lame, but Reagan enjoyed it because of the animals, and the fact that she got to eat a corn dog on the way home (surprise, surprise. What else would she eat? :) .

Cousin Emree came over for a visit.

Emree is a little over a month older than Elsa, but they are pretty close in size. It looks like we have another tall girl on our hands.

Reagan never liked the baby: swing, bouncer, bassinet, car-seat/carrier when she was an infant. But these days she loves them, and wants to be sitting in them all of the time.

I am just hoping she doesn't break one of them.

We took Elsa with us to the BYU football game.

She was as good as gold. I think she liked the half-time show as much as I did! They brought back all of the All-American quarterbacks that played for the Y under Lavell Edwards tenure. I made the comment to Heather that the half-time presentation was almost more of a "spiritual experience" for me than church worship service sometimes is (I can just imagine Haley's face as she reads this part. But I'm sure that we both do our own fair share of respective eye-rolling when we read excerpts from each others blogs. ha ha). Anyway, if I were an emotional person I probably would have cried. It was that awesome.

After the football game Nick came down with a cold. He was pretty miserable. And then, Sunday night Reagan started throwing up. I swear, her middle name should be "Barfy". Any time she is sick she pukes. Even if she only has a cold. Nick counted 14 instances of her vomiting in a 10 hour period. Of course, I was concerned and it made me want to cry, right along with her, to see her in pain. She had a fever too. Poor kid.

Poor Mom and Dad too. We were functioning on next-to-no sleep. I had to clean up Reagan's barf in 4-5 different rooms of the house, because it comes on without warning.

Fortunately, it appears to be a 24 hour thing.

Another fortunate thing is that I appear to have won "the baby lottery".

I haven't wanted to issue an opinion, one way, or another; about Elsa's disposition- until she was 6-7 weeks old and was past the fussy-phase.

But up to this point, all I can do is rave about my angel baby.

She is a month old today. There appears to be no "day/night" confusion. My blonde-haired sleeping beauty takes 4-6 oz. of formula at each feeding, and sleeps for 4-6 hours between eating. At night she has been waking up once to eat, but she goes back to sleep immediately. She has a little fussy time in the evening, but it isn't bad at all.

Every day I am falling more in love with this little girl. And I count myself very blessed to be spared the sleep-deprivation I experienced with Reagan.

We are also blessed to have such amazing family and neighbors. I am so appreciative of the help we have been given. "It takes a village", right?! Thank goodness we have such a wonderful, giving "village" around us.

A House Divided

This morning I woke up and found that I had a baby cougar, and a little husky:

Needless to say we are all excited that college football season is upon us. We are even more excited that BYU has made the decision to go independent!

Nick and I will be attending the BYU vs. UW football game this afternoon. Nick will probably be showing allegiance to his alma mater, and I will be supporting my team.

But as of tomorrow, everyone in our house will be bleeding BYU blue.