What the...?

Has it been since May that I've posted? Wow.

I've been busy.

I just wanted to share this video with you. I really hope it works so you can see one tiny little glimpse of our time with Danny and Laura.

I'll start catching up soon!

The Fruits of my Labor

I'm sitting here eating breakfast. Toast with cherry jam I made last summer. I'd never made cherry jam. Heck. I've never eaten cherry jam. But oh boy. This stuff is good!

My plan for this summer as far as "jamming" is to pick blueberries in mid June. I'll probably freeze most of them whole and make syrup with the rest. Blueberry jelly isn't something I've tried before, so I think I'll stick to what I know there. Then after we get back from our trip to GA and NC, I'll put up blackberry and cherry jam.

And if I can find a good source for green beans, I'll can green beans, too.

Yummy. I love summer!

Dancing With Daddy

Mike is listening to some funky music that he got from my dad. (Imagine that: my dad likes funky music!)

So a song got into Mike's soul, I suppose, and he got up to start dancing (I call it flailing.)

And when he did, he happened to step on a pile of coins that Kira had piled on the floor and they made a nice clinking noise that she really liked. After a few minutes of watching Mike and sort of dancing, she got up, walked over to the pile of coins and starting dancing like crazy. :) It is just too cute to watch her mimicking Mike's movement: jumping, swinging her arms, bobbing her head. It's really cute. Who knew adding clinking coins would encourage a baby to dance? :)

I'll just have to make sure these dance lessons don't go on for too long. Her chances of normalcy are decreased if she thinks flailing is a proper form of dancing...

Just look at her dad.

Hurt Me, Rhonda

Last week I went to our local massage school for a massage. I have been having a lot of back/shoulder/neck pain recently that I know has been caused by large knots in my muscles.

The massage school has interns ($30/hr), advanced students ($40/hr), and instructors ($50/hr). I got an intern. A few times during her massage, it almost tickled. I will admit that she did relax me, but it did NOTHING for my back issues. So as I was leaving, I said to the woman who runs the school (and works the front desk), "Yeah, that was okay, but I need someone who will dig into my back." She said, "Come see Gabrielle next week." So yesterday I saw Gabrielle. She's also an intern, but oh my. She put a world of hurt on me. And those knots in my back/neck/shoulders? They are huge and plentiful. And extremely painful. The biggest ones are under my shoulder blades right in the middle.

I actually was brought to tears during the massage. It hurt so bad. But I knew it needed to.

I'm going back next week, too. These knots are going to take a while to work out. I hate spending the money on it, but it's at the point where it's causing me not to sleep well and I'm uncomfortable most days. And a few days ago I had pain shooting down my right arm. I wasn't sure what that was from, but during the massage, she hit a spot on my largest knot (which is at the right shoulder blade) and a huge shot of pain ran down my right arm. So at least I know it's all related.

I'm going to ask her to take it just a tad bit easier on me next week. I'm so sore from the massage that I can hardly sit here and type. My head has been pounding since the massage, too. And my nose is running. They say toxins from your muscles get released during a massage and I now believe that fully. I feel like crap.

But it's a good thing.

Burning Up the Highway

Last month I traveled to Vicksburg, MS with Reid, Zach, and Kira to meet my mom. She drove in from Georgia and we stayed in the Quality Inn. It was a great weekend. We shopped at the outlet mall, drove all around Vicksburg, visited the downtown Coca Cola museum, and hung out at the hotel. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

The drive there was a little tough. Kira melted down about 30 minutes before we got there and we just had to power through it. She just wanted to stop and be held by her mother. The drive home was significantly better. She slept for a good ways and then was happy the rest of the way, so I never stopped. The boys weren't too thrilled about that, but I know I made the best decision. If Kira's happy, we're all happy. :)

Mom and I plan to do these meetings twice a year. We'll meet again in Vicksburg in the fall and then we'll start looking into other places to meet after that. Maybe along I-40 or in a more rural setting...

And then last week I flew up to Las Vegas and was picked up by John and Judy and they drove me up to their house in Cedar City. The airport in Las Vegas shouldn't have surprised me, but it seems a bit silly that there were slot machines right outside all of the gates. I mean, just because you *can*, doesn't mean you *should*. Kira did really great on the flight. She was happy and quiet for most of it. Then she started getting fussy when we were landing in Las Vegas. She fell asleep while we were taxing to the gate after we landed. That was probably the most inconvenient time she could have fallen asleep... she could have slept during the flight, or during the drive, but no... she wanted to sleep for 20 minutes and then wake up. But actually she did sleep for about an hour of the two and a half hour drive up to Cedar City.

I really enjoyed the scenery. I've never been to Arizona, Nevada, or southern Utah, so it was nice for me to admire the mountains and countryside. I even learned why Andy's wallpaper in Toy Story is blue sky with puffy clouds. I never knew that was a "western sky" until the drive back down to Las Vegas when John pointed it out to me.

Kira and I really enjoyed our visit. It was just the right length, I think. Long enough to really feel like you're part of that world, but not so long that you feel homesick. Just right.

We enjoyed a visit from Mike's brother, Joe, and his family. Their two boys (5 1/2 and 3) were really nice to Kira. She was so happy to get to play with them. It was really cute. And it was really nice to see them. They are some of my favorite people in the whole world and it's always nice to catch up in person.

One goal I had for when we were visiting was to help Kira learn to go to sleep on her own. I took my Dr. Ferber book and had my timer and was ready to be consistent. The first night I put her to bed after a bath and stories and she cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep. Most of the other nights, she went to sleep without crying. She usually cried for about 10 minutes for naps. The middle of the night was a little rougher. The best night she had was 25 minutes. One night it was an hour. It was nice to know that I didn't have so many demands on my time and energy and so I didn't get so stressed out about her crying and keeping me awake.

So overall I was really pleased with how that worked. She's been doing great since we got home. She had some trouble last night, but we're just taking it one day at a time. It's a totally different lifestyle when you can just lay your baby down for a nap or bed. No more trying to get them to go to sleep and feeling frustrated when they won't even though you know they're exhausted. I think she's happier for it.

So besides the great cousin visit, we drove around Cedar City a good bit. John and Judy showed me all the sights. (Okay, there aren't many, but it's a nice little city.) I really, really liked the old church building and some of the older homes closer in downtown. The mountains are beautiful. I remember that from my trip to Joe's three years ago. The vast contrast between the flat plains and the towering mountains. I'm used to rolling hill/mountain country. But this is quite beautiful.

Kira had lots of great grandparent interaction. She'd hardly let them sit for long. She was always grabbing their fingers taking them to the room where the toys were. I'm sure she wore them out, but it sure was cute. She's had to adjust a bit to more normal levels of adult interaction since she's been home. Poor thing.

On the last full day we were there, I cut Judy's hair. She's been wanting to have it be shorter for quite a while, so I cut it to her shoulders. It's been about 40 years, I think, since she has had her hair this short. I was (and still am) nervous about the cut. I think I did a pretty decent job, but I still fret over it a bit. It was a big move for her. But it will be so much easier to manage and I know she'll enjoy that. I wouldn't grow my hair as long anymore except that I like to donate it. That shoulder length is just perfect to me. Long enough to pull back and tuck behind your ears, but not so long that caring for it is a pain.

Then the night before we were going to leave, it snowed about an inch or so. It was so fun to wake up to snow. And it was well behaved snow, because the roads were clear by the time we left to drive to the airport.

The trip home was long, but good. Kira did great and slept for 11 hours straight that night after we got home. She was as exhausted as I was!

Now I am getting ready for John and Judy to come here to visit John's family and us. Then in early June I'll head out to California to visit Mike's sister, Ann, and her family with Cole and Kira. And then at the end of June all of us will make a trip out to Georgia and North Carolina.

I think this will go down as "the year of travels".

My Baby

Okay... this picture doesn't have anything to do with my post, but it sure is cute!!!

Welp. Kira is weaned. I honestly wasn't sure if I could do it. If she would let me. But a few days ago, I just knew it needed to stop. And she went the whole day without asking for it, or trying to pull my shirt up, so I figured the planets were aligned and I better jump on the opportunity. I nursed her about an hour before bed that day and then a couple of days later in the middle of the day when I was in pain, but that's been it. I think it's been about three days now that I haven't nursed her at all. She has asked a couple of times each day, but seems to be coping well.

So...

YEA!!!

I'm a tad bit sad that she's growing up and moving on, but not really. Mostly, I'm giddy at the mere fact that I don't have to be with her pretty much all the time.

Now off to pack for our trip to visit her Grandma and Grandpa South.

Another YEA!!!

Easter Bunnies

Last night was perfect temperature wise. So after dinner we all went out in the back yard. We came in after a while and I guess the cat stayed outside. Then we heard a squeaking/screeching kind of noise and Cole said he thought the cat had caught a bat. Mike went out to check and said that he thought it was a newborn bunny. So I went out and found that indeed, Kory had a newborn bunny. It was uninjured except for having pooed itself. :( So I picked it up trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do with it!

Thoughts were running through my head, "Can I care for a newborn bunny?" "Would it drink milk from a medicine dropper?" "Ugh. Why me?"

Then I realized that the cat was sniffing vigorously in a spot a few feet away. I walked over and there was another newborn bunny. I put it's sibling down by it to comfort them both and looked around with the flashlight when I found their mother's den. Then I see all the stuffing that the cat must have pulled out when he was searching for the bunnies. So I put the two bunnies back in with as much of the stuffing as I could and just hoped for the best. We all turned around and started going back in the house when I decided to look around some more. And what did I find?

Another baby bunny.

Only this one is injured. He's bleeding and not moving much. Breathing hard. Mike and I decided that nature would have to take it's course with that one. So we all went back inside. This morning Zach reminded me to go out and look to see what was up with the bunnies. The injured one is gone. Maybe his mom brought him back or maybe something else carried him away.

And the rest of the stuffing is back in the bunny hole. Hopefully that means mom came home to find two of her babies okay.

We'll keep the cat out of the back yard for a while.

Then in a few weeks when bunnies are eating my vegetable garden, I'll probably let him back out again.

What?

Everybody loves a newborn.

But not everyone loves kids.

Right?