Things I Never Thought I'd Say

We really like living in Washington. We had a lot of fun hiking and exploring. It is just really hard to move to a new state where you don't know how to recreate there (backpacking, fishing, etc.). And it makes me miss Utah, especially Logan where we were five minutes away from our favorite outdoor activities.

But because of this, I've said a few things I never thought I would say, and all are related to the old place or the new place.

• "I'm watching a Bigfoot show and it makes me happy and sad."

A few weeks ago, I watched a Bigfoot TV show on youtube because they were in Cache Valley. They kept saying, "Wow, these mountains are amazing!" That was usually followed by, "This is prime Bigfoot territory." But, I kept saying back to my computer, "Yes those mountains ARE amazing!" Oh, how I miss them. Maybe we'll go for a hike at next summer's visit.

• "Look Rachel, the grass is getting green because it's winter."

What? In Utah, winter means dead and yellow grass. But here where many places don't water the grass in the summer, the winter means rain and therefore the grass perks up and turns green.

• "I think I would like to live in Canada."

They have a lot of winter and thus a lot of time for winter sports. Like snowshoeing or ice fishing or skiing. Things which I have not yet figured out how to do here in Washington. I guess to snowshoe or ice fish, we have to go to Eastern Washington where it gets cold. There are ski resorts here. Some Washingtonians said I should check them out. Then someone from Idaho said, "No, you're from Utah. You'd better go to Whistler in BC." And I read a blog about hiking with your kid, and this lady is Albertan, and I just love her adventures. It is so beautiful. And there is plenty of snow there.

And something that didn't surprise me that I said...

• "I'm wearing flip flops and no jacket and it is December."

This does not surprise me because it is 40 degrees here and that is definitely flip flop weather. And in high school I scraped snow and ice off my car each morning in flip flops and no jacket. The only problem with flip flops in Washington is that my feet get really wet.

Getting used to a new place is weird. We'll figure it out.

Pobrecita

So, having a baby is exhausting. And I mean to blog a lot more than I do.

Even more exhausting than having a baby is having a sick baby. No fun.


Crying on one of the earliest of her sick days. She says, "I need my grandpa!!"

Pobrecita.

For about a week, little Rachel got more and more fussy and unhappy. This was both an individual day thing (she'd be happy in the morning and crying constantly in the evening) and over time (each day was worse than the day before). It was pretty bad.

We just thought she had gas--because she sure had a lot of it.

Finally, after a day where she only slept for a half hour at a time, I told Andrew we had to call the doctor.

I was bracing myself to stop drinking milk. If you know me, you know that is one of the biggest sacrifices for me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE milk. But I guess I could live with soy milk... if Rachel were back to her happy self.

The day I called the pediatrician was horrible. The nurse wasn't in yet, so I didn't make an appointment. Two hours later, Rachel was screaming the worst, painful scream I had heard. I called the doctor and got an appointment an hour later. And she snuggled and whimpered for that hour. It was so so sad. I would have gladly taken her pain on myself (FYI--being a mother is super insightful into the love of Christ and Heavenly Father for all of us).

Pobrecita.

They weighed her and measured her (7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches woot woot! What a chunker.). And then they needed to take her temperature. The nurses thought it was an ear infection. And I thought, "Duh, why didn't I think of that?" So the temperature. Rachel is too small for an ear thermometer, so the lucky girl got to have her temperature taken rectally. As I said before, pobrecita. But she is tough and didn't mind it too much and didn't even poop all over everything.

A few minutes later she started screaming and I couldn't console her so I fed her. And she was happy.

Then the doctor came in and looked in her ears. Perfect ears.

He then looked in her mouth. "Ah ha," he said in his Hoboken, New Jersey, accent, "It's thrush."

Thrush is a yeast infection in the mouth. There was white stuff all over her mouth. It can be quite painful.

So then I went to get an antibiotic for her. She has to have 1 mL in the morning and 1 mL at night. (Sidenote: Andrew has a cold and he took 30 mL of the cold medicine. Not only are parents like 20 times the size of their babies, they also take 30 times the amount of medicine.)

And now Rachel is so happy. The night I first gave her the antibiotic, I could notice a different. Maybe that is the placebo effect, but I think it dulled her pain or something. She's even smiling.


Ahh, drugs. This is after her first dose. So peaceful.


Loving the Sunday nap. Now she can actually nap again.


Tummy time on mom is super boring. Now she will do tummy time and not freak out like I'm killing her.


Mom, that flash on your phone is absurdly bright.


Did you ever see such a cute baby? No. You have not and never will. See, now she smiles!

And that is the story of my pobrecita. I have since sanitized all her binkies, bottle nipples, and medicine syringes. I may even have melted a few.

The moral of the story is that a not sick baby is a happy baby and means a happy mom who actually likes being a mom.

The Only Pictures on My Phone

Pretty much the only pictures on my phone are of Rachel. How can I help it when she is so darn cute?


Wearing her cute gingerbread outfit from Grandpa.


On a walk with mom and she is actually awake! It didn't last too much longer. Usually she zonks right out when I put her in the Ergo Baby (which we love). Also, I look like a dork and have my eyes closed.


"I'm awake!" Even in the car. Such pretty, big, blue eyes.


First trip to Cabela's and trying out fishing poles with dad. She is wearing her little elf outfit from Oma.


I accidentally captured one of her first conscious smiles!


A beautiful girl who is finally happy again. Hooray for modern medicine! (more on this later)


The tail end of a smile. She is so cute. Her mohawk and mullet are both getting longer.

And, because all the other pictures on my phone are of him that Melanie sent to me, here is my adorable nephew, Nigel.

He also has big, blue eyes. I'm so excited for them to "meet" (Nigel whacking Rachel in the face) at Christmas time.

So many baby pictures. Being a mom is interesting, to say the least.

Have you realized that parents are like 20 times the size of their babies?

Blessings

What a great, blessing-filled Thanksgiving weekend!

Here are some of my blessings in life.

A loving family (both sides!) who drove up from Utah to spend the holiday with us.


A hardworking brother on a mission.

A delicious feast.

Rocking normal jeans and being pleasantly surprised by the size.

Our new smartphones so I can read scriptures while nursing Rachel.


A beautiful baby girl.


A husband who is great and a also worthy priesthood holder.


Once again, family. :)

Make Way for Ducklings: Flaunting My Fella

A blogger I read challenged her readers to "flaunt" our spouses in response to an online forum that made fun of husbands. I love my Andrew and I want to flaunt him and the delightful person he is.

We were returning from the grocery store and passing the duck pond. Andrew made a few duck calls. And some ducks started to follow us.



Andrew continued to call the ducks and more came out of the water and started to follow us. It was almost terrifying. There were about 30 ducks following us.



A few more duck calls and the ducks still in the water swam alongside him.



These ducks would have followed Andrew (their king, apparently) home and into a cooking pot. Good thing he doesn't really like duck. And good thing that they got confused when we passed an old man smoking and his grandson so the ducks stopped following us.

My fella is great because he carries the baby, the groceries, isn't afraid to be himself by calling ducks in as if he were hunting when we live in a place where people love their pets and animals more than other people, and making us all laugh.

A Clear Day

A clear day in Washington is usually dominated by this beautiful and famous volcano, Mt. Rainier. (depending on the direction you are looking--you may see Mt. Baker to the north)

It really is amazing.

Grandmothers

Lucky Rachel got two weeks of Grandmother Love, and she was smothered in it.


Meeting Grandma! Here she is two days old and we just picked up my mom from the airport. They even coordinated their outfits!


Snuggling with Grandma and wearing awesome bell bottoms.


Grandma, Mom, and Baby


Meeting Oma! This is right after we picked up Andrew's mom from the airport.


And Oma promptly snuggled with Rachel until they both fell asleep. Both were too spoiled.

Even though we live far away from family, I'm really grateful that our moms could come visit and help us out. It made me sad that we live so far away. At the same time, it is great that we can do Skype so Rachel can see her grandparents, and so that they can see her.

This Girl Does Have Her Priorities Straight

After I fed Rachel today, she was so alert, so I talked to her about fun things we could do.

"In a few years, we will go to Disneyland," I said.

She looked at me with bright eyes. Very attentive. She looked excited for the happiest place on earth.

"We will go with Grandma and Grandpa, and probably with Oma and Opa."

More attentive eyes.

"We will go on the Carousel and you will get sick and throw up on Dad. And then we will go on Peter Pan."

This place just sounded better and better to her.

"And we will get a hotel with a pool," I concluded.

She blinked a few times and opened her mouth wide (in a yawn). But it totally looked like she was so excited about the hotel with the pool that she was shouting, "OH MY GOSH!!! YES!!!"

Kind of like that meme where Michael Phelps and the other guy are like, "MOM BROUGHT NUTELLA!"

So this girl knows that Disneyland and a hotel with a pool are in her future. What a lucky girl.

Welcome Baby!

We are so happy! Our little girl Rachel was born on October 30. She is a tiny tiny thing. She was 5 lbs. 14 oz. and 18 inches long. Enjoy some pictures to begin with.


Welcoming my little girl.


The proud papa.


Changing a poopy diaper.


Our happy family in the hospital.


She has great brown hair and is so precious.


Rachel is such a beautiful girl.


We are so excited to go home!


Rachel was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. Her costume is WAY too big--literally mini mouse!


Those mouse ears may be the death of her, so I sat next to her and made sure it didn't eat her head in the car.


Rachel and Mom


Dad just loves his little girl.


That's my pretty girl.

We are so happy and are really grateful that everything went smoothly with her birth. My mom is here now and it is so fun to have some Grandma time with her. Of course, there will be more soon!

Bear (Mace) Attack!

Most of our hikes take place in bear country. We like it that way. There are less people, which means more solitude.

We have really meant to buy some bear mace all summer. We really don't want to be eaten by a bear.

Washington has mostly black bears, but there are also some grizzly bears.

Grizzly bears live here:


From Wikipedia

And black bears live here:


From Wikipedia

So we hike often in bear ranges.

Finally, we bought some bear mace. I would recommend getting some if you are going to hike in areas with bears. This one was developed by someone who survived a grizzly bear attack and his companion had human pepper spray. Bear mace is a whole lot more potent than pepper spray. Andrew was really excited about our bear spray because it came in handy camo holsters. Classy classy. But also very useful.

From the pamphlet about the bear spray, we learned that the bear mace will dilate the bear's eyes to cause temporary blindness; will make the bear cough, choke, and feel nauseous; and will cause the mucus membranes to swell so the bear can only breathe to sustain life---basically he will pass out. It is powerful stuff.

Andrew enjoyed reading the reviews of the bear spray product. People wondered how strong it was and sprayed it in their homes and had to fumigate the place, or got it in their eyes, or (as the pamphlet told us not to) sprayed their tent or children as a bear repellent. We laughed. What idiots.

But then one day, a grizzly bear wandered into our apartment. We sprayed it. The end.


Source

Just kidding.

Andrew and I were showing his mom our new bear mace over Skype on Sunday. She was very worried about us encountering a bear, so we calmed her fears. Andrew then decided to practice taking off the safety cap.

And he dropped it.

And it sprayed on our carpet.

"It works," he said.

I would have said something quite different. Starting with "sh" and rhyming with "split".

But, Andrew is a good boy and generally doesn't sin on the Sabbath. I, however, am a different story. My roommates can testify that Sundays are the days when I said most of my inappropriate comments.

Back to the story.

We had sprayed bear mace in our apartment. I ran and opened all the windows (it was about 40F outside) and got a fan going. We started coughing like crazy. We needed to leave our apartment, but we were baking a delicious treat and couldn't leave it in the oven!

So we did what any sensible couple would do.



We wrapped our faces in scarves and Skyped my parents until our delicious treat got out of the oven.


Andrew tried his best to scrub the bear spray out of the carpet.

And then we went on a walk for an hour and half. When we got back, our apartment wasn't full of airborne bear mace. Thank goodness. Also, thank goodness there wasn't really a bear in our apartment, because then we would have bigger problems than a burned dessert. And thank goodness that the baby wasn't here yet because that would be horrible for the poor little thing.

Unfortunately, I did not go into labor from coughing and coughing.

Bear mace works. Do not try it at home.

Finishing Some Projects

Yesterday at breakfast, Andrew asked when I was going to finish writing the Thank You cards.

After he left, I made the ten more I needed, finished writing the notes, and did not address them. They were mostly for my extended family, and they are all cheap-os, so I will just mail them with the birth announcements because they will understand my cheapness. So that project is done.

It felt really good to finish up a project. So I decided to finish up another one.



Burp cloths! Who knew that something you made just for your baby to throw up in could be so cute? These were my only sewing project for Baby Girl. Which, I decided, was too bad, because I enjoy sewing straight lines. I should have made a quilt. But I need to finish a ladybug quilt for someone's big girl bed (GASP!! She's not even born and is growing up so fast!) before I start on any new ones. Anyway, I finished these burp cloths this morning and it was fun and easy.

My next project to finish before Baby Girl comes is her blessing dress. It is so beautiful and getting so close! I will try to finish it today. I am crocheting it and I feel like I have gotten better at all of my crochet skillz.

A few months ago, I finished an afghan I have been working on for about five years. It is a pink and purple afghan made up of granny squares and then I crocheted them together. That isn't how you are supposed to connect granny squares, but I just made it up. I was originally making it for my first niece, but, as you know, I have a nephew. Everyone said, "Oh, it will be for your daughter!" (They usually meant that I would have the first baby, which was not so.) But it is for my daughter. Here it is.



Maybe I am nesting. I really hope that I am truly nesting (and not just returning to my normal, super-productive self--although that would be nice, too) because then she will come out soon. On Tuesday I did wash the floorboards and I still need to mop the floors before she comes.

Anyway, some of my future projects will include the aforementioned ladybug quilt, embroidering some hand towels my grandma had me start when I was seriously nine years old, quilted Christmas stockings, crocheting baby girl beanies for my Baby Girl and my cousin's baby girl, and the never-ending scrapbooking projects. I feel like projects just keep on adding up. Finishing some of these ones that have been waiting for ridiculous amounts of time (cough cough, hand towels!) will be great because then I don't ever have to do that craft again (not much of an embroiderer).

What are your favorite crafts and projects?

One of the Last Hikes As a Childless Couple

I'm ready to get this baby out of me.

Baby Girl, we want to meet you! And I want your knees out of my internal organs.

Our friend Kaleb told us that he took his wife hiking and the next day they had a baby. It was worth a try.

We went to the Lime Kiln Trail in Granite Falls. It was relatively flat so we thought it would be a good one.

A highlight was peeing in the wild. Love it (I really do, call me weird). Squatting in a blackberry patch did not get the baby out though.

This is especially for my mother-in-law--I'm still wearing pre-pregnancy clothes! Well, at least my jackets.

We did not make it all the way to the Lime Kiln. We needed to go home and shower so we could make it to stake temple night. So we turned around. I think there was about a half-mile left to the Kiln.

I am trying to look especially pregnant in this picture. I am especially pregnant--I was 37.5 weeks along on this hike.

On the way back to the car, we imagined what we would do if I had the baby on our hike. Imagine...

Andrew: "Hello, uh, my wife just had a baby."

Operator: "OK, tell me your address."

Andrew: "Well, we are about two miles in on the Lime Kiln Trail in Granite Falls."

Operator: "Where in Granite Falls? I didn't catch it."

Andrew: "We are hiking. Should we hike back to our car and meet the ambulance there?"

Operator: "Wait, what?"

Andrew: "Don't worry, I wrapped the baby in my shirt and a solar blanket. My wife is fine but her pants are a mess. Should I cut the cord with my knife?"

Fortunately, we did not have to call 911 because I did not have the baby on the trail.

The verdicts:

I did not have the baby because of the hike.

I still have a baby inside of me.

We may have to go on a steeper hike on Saturday.

Now go hiking, everyone!