Better Than SeaWorld

Layla learned how to shake her head "no." Actually, she doesn't equate shaking her head with the word "no"- she just loves to shake her head.

It reminds me of the adorable seals at SeaWorld. You can watch them mimic their trainers as they clap and shake their heads back and forth. Now that's what I think of when Layla shakes her head and claps.

Only she's way cuter than a seal.

The little Bug desperately needs to learn to walk or at least crawl. She gets so very bored and frustrated that she can't move around. It's exhausting to try and entertain her all day. And she is still spitting out the meat chunks from her food. I cannot figure out how she manages to sort the meat out from the peas, carrots, and noodles. She has a gift. An annoying gift, but a gift nonetheless.

We're hoping she'll learn to walk or crawl or something really soon. And learn to like meat.

But in the mean time, the head shaking and clapping kinda makes up for it.

Proud to be an American

I recorded the State of the Union Address last night so I could watch it in peace after Bug went to bed and make sure I didn't miss a word.

I was very moved by everything our President said. I even cried and I'm not a crier.

You can watch the video at the bottom of this post. Or you can read the Address here.

Here are a few of the things that brought tears to my eyes, the words of President Obama:

"It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair."

I couldn't agree more.

"Let’s also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child’s success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In South Korea, teachers are known as “nation builders.” Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones."

We really do need to respect the good teachers more ... and fire the bad teachers for Pete's sake!

"Now, I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law. (Laughter.) So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you ... What I’m not willing to do -- what I’m not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition."

I have a good friend who's beautiful daughter was born deaf. I am so pleased that she will not be denied coverage. Having worked in the insurance industry, I have seen too many children be denied health insurance due to blindness, deafness, etc. I am so happy that's changed.

"We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficit –- none of this will be easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because we will argue about everything. The costs. The details. The letter of every law. Of course, some countries don’t have this problem. If the central government wants a railroad, they build a railroad, no matter how many homes get bulldozed. If they don’t want a bad story in the newspaper, it doesn’t get written. And yet, as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth."

Amen! I am proud to be an American!

Jealous

My parents are on a cruise ship right now. Their third cruise, to be exact. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous. They're going snorkeling in the Bahamas. They rented a two man sailboat. They can eat all they want 24 hours a day. It's warm and sunny where they are. What's not to be jealous of? I hope they're having fun this week while we enjoy our 30 degree weather and inversion back home!

9 Months

The Bug turned 9 months old a couple of weeks ago. We had her 9 month check up today.

She is off the chart for height! Literally. She measured 30 inches long, which puts her off the chart. The doctor said, "She's going to be a volleyball player!" Apparently he doesn't know about her parents' lack of coordination genes. Ha, ha. But you never know, right? Maybe two negative genes equal one positive and she'll be very coordinated.

Speaking of genes, she might look just like Mitch, but she got my family's tall gene. (I know, I know, I'm short, but apparently I can pass the gene on. My immediate and extended family [on both sides] are very tall.)

Layla weighed in at 16.8 lbs, which puts her in the 15th percentile. Up until now she was always in the 50th percentile for weight. The doctor said it's common for babies to drop down in percentile at her age (she didn't lose weight, just dropped in percentile) and he's not worried about it, so neither am I. The girl eats a lot! Cottage cheese is her favorite thing right now and she can eat a ton of it!

I also asked about her not even attempting to crawl. He said she probably won't, she'll just go straight to cruising and walking and not to worry about it. I love our pediatrician cuz he calms me down.

Just two days ago she started pulling up from sitting to standing using her dresser drawer. Then she pulls all her pants out of the drawer. But I let her because it's good practice for her to stand and cruise. (Even though it drives me nuts when the drawer is unorganized, but I'm learning to let it go.) So, I do think she'll walk and never crawl, and I'm okay with that. After all, she skipped the bottle and went straight to the sippy cup. She's an overachiever like her dad, what can I say? Ha, ha.

We also gave her some Gerber spaghettios with meat chunks and chicken noodle soup. I don't know how, but she managed to separate the meat, swallow everything else, then spit the meat out at the end. What?!? I refuse to let her be a vegetarian (because I want her to have protein and meat is an easy way to get it besides going to some crazy health food store and spending a ton on inconvenient/weird/time consuming food). I told her she must eat meat sparingly. And if she chooses to be a vegetarian after she moves out and cooks her own meals, then she can deal with the annoyances of a vegan diet. But as long as I'm making dinner, she'll eat meat. Sound mean? Maybe, but that's the rule because I said so and I'm the mom. (I've always wanted to say that.)

But I digress. So the second time she had the meals she ate the meat and liked it. Yes! She's a good little eater.

She is still talking up a storm. She is a constant stream of dada's, baba's, lala's, raspberries, flipping her lip with her finger, squeals, and giggles. She's hilarious. She makes me laugh everyday. She is starting to imitate a lot now. If Mitch or I make a sound, she'll try to make the same sound. It's ridiculously cute. She also plays a mean game of peek-a-boo. She does all the work; she covers her face with the blanket, laughs, then pulls the blanket off with a huge smile on her face. It's so so so funny. We sure love her! She is such a fun, little bundle of energy.

Siblings

I babysat my friend's two kids today for one hour. Layla was in heaven. If it were up to her, she'd have half a dozen siblings running around to entertain her night and day.

But it's not up to her. Ha, ha. Much to her dismay (and our parents'), she'll have to wait quite a while longer before any siblings grace her presence.

I don't have a lot to blog about lately. Both of my grandparents are doing awesome after their surgeries.

Mitch's work is still going great and keeping him busy.

I started running again and am feeling the burn after already knocking 2.5 minutes of my mile. Wahoo! (I was really slow after Layla was born- but I'm coming back, baby!)

Layla is super happy, talking up a storm, and waving at everyone (and everything). She's STILL not even attempting to crawl. It seems like she just doesn't care to crawl. I put a toy out of reach to encourage her to move towards it and she just finds another way to entertain herself. Oh well, she'll get there someday right?

I need to make a point to take more pictures. My next post will include pics.

Ciao!

Kinda Freakin' Out

It's been intense at our house the last few days. Long story short, in the past three days my grandpa Kermit had bypass surgery and my grandma Ruth had a pacemaker put in.

How can I say this the quickest way possible?

I'm freaking out because my grandpa is the healthiest person I know and two days ago he had SIX grafts done on his heart. Seriously, I have never met anyone who eats healthier than he does or who exercises more than he does.

But his dad had bypass surgery. Which proves how strong genetics are.

And that's why I'm freaking out. I have two great grandparents who had heart problems and three grandparents who had/have heart problems. That means that both of my parents could have heart problems in the future.

I've got it coming at me from both sides.

I have no choice but to eat healthier, exercise more, and hope that the heart problem genes from my parents are recessive. So here's to healthier living!!!

Now that the initial shock is over, I am grateful that everything has gone so well. My poor mom had a lot on her plate: my grandpa (her dad) told her on Friday night that he was having bypass surgery on Monday morning. My grandma (her mom) said she'd go with my mom and I to St. George to be with my grandpa during the surgery. (My grandparents are divorced, but they're good friends.) However, the day we were supposed to leave to St. George, my grandma called and said she was having trouble breathing. She went to the ER and found out she had heart problems too! My mom didn't know if she should stay with her mom or go and be with her dad in St. George. Seriously, can it get more stressful than that?

Well, in the end, we went to St. George. Grandpa's surgery went well; the doctor said he should be back to his 20 mile bike rides in no time. He's in a lot of pain right now and I feel so bad for him, but I'm glad that he got this fixed before he had a heart attack.

I will feel all the way better once my grandma's surgery is done today and she's home and feeling better.

So, this is a huge eye opener to me that I need to be healthier. Hopefully my healthy habits will outweigh my genes!

Earthquake Test

I went to bed early last night because I was extra tired and trying to sleep off a cold. I was sleeping soundly when I was suddenly awoken by Mitch shaking me at 2:30 a.m. I sat up in bed, panicked that something was wrong with Layla and Mitch was waking me up to tell me. I looked over at him and he said,

"Earthquake test."

"What?!" I asked.

"Earthquake test."

"It's 2:30 in the morning. Why would you do that?" I demanded.

To which he gave the typical male response: "I don't know."

Then he turned over and went right back to sleep. I tried not to be mad as I laid there for the next hour, trying to fall back to sleep. (That's the thing about me, if I wake up in the night, I have a really hard time falling back to sleep. Unlike my counterpart.) I knew I shouldn't be mad; I figured Mitch was asleep during the "earthquake test" and wouldn't remember it in the morning.

Sure enough, he doesn't remember a thing. He did laugh really hard when I told him what happened though. I won't think it's funny until after I take a nap.

2011

New year = new goals, right? I was supposed to read War and Peace in 2010, but I definitely only made it to page 54 (of 1010 pages). In my defense, I have been super busy this year! I do think goals are a good thing- like my daily goal of making Layla laugh. Usually, I can pull a face, say something silly, or tickle her to make her giggle. She also thinks it's funny to be startled, so I scare her quite often because I also think it's hilarious to see her jump. That sounds mean, doesn't it? Don't worry, I promise she really laughs when I scare her. I love hearing her laugh, it makes my day.

Tonight she thought it was hilarious every time Mitch talked on his cell phone. Completely random, I know. Last night she thought it was hilarious when Mitch fake laughed at her. I hid and got it on video. Keep watching it, I promise she laughs.

I am keeping my goals simple this year so that I can actually achieve them:

1. Make Layla laugh every day.

2. Read War and Peace. I'm already on page 150. It's much easier to read it on my Kindle than to carry around a 5 pound book!

3. Start running more. I am signed up for the Ogden Relay and Ragnar, so I better get training!

I don't have time for many more goals. My life is pretty much consumed with wifely and motherly duties, which I wouldn't trade for the world!

**Side note for record keeping sake: Layla has learned how to move her fingers up and down over her lips while talking to make sounds. She thinks she's pretty cool. We think it's adorable.**

Sunny St. George

We spent a few days in St. George after Christmas to visit my grandpa. He was so generous and paid for us to spend a night in a cabin in Zion National Park. It was awesome! We were there during a freak snow storm, which made the park even more beautiful.

Grandpa also took us to the Johnson Family Dinosaur Museum (I think that's what it's called), which was super cool. Mitch was really into dinosaurs as a kid so I'm pretty sure he thought it was awesome to see tracks that were discovered within the last ten years. It blows my mind to see something that is 70 million years old. My little human brain can't fathom something being so old.

Layla is a great traveler! She was happy and hyper most of the time. I was surprised at how well she did. She had a fun time taking a bath in Great Grandpa's kitchen sink.

We had a great time. St. George is such a lovely place. It has grown so much and everything is so new and nice. I can't wait to go back this summer and hike the Narrows. Mitch wants to do Angel's Landing. I am definitely WAY too scared of heights to do that one.

Thanks, Grandpa! You are so generous and we had a blast!

Go Jazz!

Okay, I just wanna put a few ideas out there. Mitch and I attended another Jazz game last night. (We won! Go Jazz!!) Whenever we go, I always want a few things to happen:

1. I want the Jazz to win. But I want it to be a nailbiter. I want the entire audience to be on their feet, yelling and cheering. That's how last night's game was and it was awesome. It should be that exciting every time.

2. I want to see Jerry Sloan get kicked out. It totally cracks me up how mad he gets. Seriously, chill out dude!

3. When Paul Millsap makes a basket, I want to hear the announcer say, "You got Millslapped!" Ha, ha that would be so funny.

4. When Earl Watson makes a basket, I want to hear the announcer make a remark from Sherlock Holmes, like, "Elementary, my dear Watson!" That would be awesome. And very appropriate.

5. I want either Mitch or I to catch a free shirt or whatever it is that Jazz Bear happens to be shooting into the stands that night.

Too much to ask? Maybe. But we do pay plenty for season tickets!

Go Jazz!!!