FINALLY I found socks that stay on!

This definitely deserves a post, because today after 5 1/2 months of searching for some sort of footwear that my nursling would not kick off, I found socks that are "kick-proof". And who'd a thunk they'd be the cheap-o Faded Glory ankle socks from Wal-Mart? I've tried EVERY other type of sock and shoe and Asher has kicked it off within 5 min, but these ones have been staying on! Yipee! The only other socks that I've found that work are the super tight Jymboree socks, but they cost about $8 a pair (no joke! For socks... blah!). So I thought I'd never say this, but I finally found something that Wal-Mart is good for.

Snail Memories

This morning I went for a walk in the rain with Asher. I am taking care of a dog, a cat, and a WHOLE lot of fish, for the the lady I visit teach, and her house is just down the street. It was such a beautiful morning and the smell of the rain was amazing. I was pushing Asher down the sidewalk and saw two huge snails right in the middle of the sidewalk.

Seeing them gave me a sense of nostalgia, and I remembered that when I was younger I use to LOVE snails. We lived in a little townhouse in Murray and I was about 6 years old. I would spend hours searching our backyard and the yards of our neighbors for snails that I put in a big peanut butter jar. I had a big collection and I loved to watch them and poke their little antennae so they would shrivel up. I even tried to make a business out of my snail obsession. The little old lady down the street, who had a beautiful garden, paid me 1 penny for each snail I escorted off her premise in my peanut butter jar. I became the host and announcer for "snail racing", in which my brother and I (and other neighborhood children) would set our snails against each other and make bets on whose snail would cross the chalk line first. I have lots of memories of squatting on the porch for a long time, urging stray snails to go in straight lines. I don't ever remember seeing our snails finish a race.

These memories flashed through my mind this morning when I stumbled across the snails. For just a moment I remembered what it felt like to be a little girl. I remembered the unbound wonder that I felt at the simplest things, and the great joy that a peanut butter can full of snails can bring. I remembered what it felt like to discover something new, and I remembered that the world is remarkably simple. There is beauty, joy and miracles all around me, sometimes it just takes opening my eyes at little bit wider, slowing down a little bit more, and paying attention to the small things in this world. Thank you snails.

Two REALLY Funny Videos-- I Promise

How Aware Are You?



Warning: This is Infectious!

A Solid Experience

We gave Asher solid food for the first time this week. After this whole biting thing (which he has pretty much stopped doing- whew) I decided that he was probably ready for something a little more substantial. We tried giving him some avocado when we went out to eat for Anna's graduation but he didn't really like it. I think that there were two problems 1) we didn't mash it up enough and he kept trying to gag it out of his mouth and 2) we were trying to use a HUGE metal spoon and I think it was too much for him to handle.
On Saturday we gave him some rice cereal and he LOVED it! He kept trying to attack the spoon and wanted to grab it and feed himself. I think he is going to have that "Mom, I can do it myself" type personality! It was really funny to watch him eat, more of it got on his bib than in his mouth and his face kept getting lower and closer to his tray when he ate. It is really a whole lot of fun to feed him "real" food. Today I think I am going to try giving him some bananas.

I've Been Bitten!

Help all you experienced moms out there! I don't know what to do! This past week my adorable nursling has turned into a biter. Lately almost every time I nurse him he eats for awhile and then stops, clamps his gums down (which luckily do not have teeth in them yet) and pulls! Ouch! It hurts and I don't know how to get him to stop. I didn't think I'd have to worry about this till he got teeth. The hardest part is that he thinks it is really funny and when ever I howl he just smiles at me and goes "ha" (imagine a very breathy short laugh). HELP!!!!!!!!!

Tiny Tonka Truck

Jon and I saw this Semi-Truck on the freeway a few days ago. He wasn't carrying anything but he had this strapped onto his flatbed. It really made us laugh hard!

Hilary's Graduation

Sorry that I haven't posted for awhile but I've been in Idaho with my family. For Memorial Day we went up to our cabin to eat WAY too much junk food and to play some INTENSE ( and I really do mean INTENSE) games of Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Rook. I think we scared my brother's fiance is a little bit with our crazy competitiveness about board games! Jon went back to SLC after Memorial Day but I stuck around a couple of days to see my little sister's graduation from High School. I can't believe how grown up she is! I am WAY proud of her-- she is an AMAZING woman and is so smart, strong, kind and basically drop dead beautiful! I am really excited for her to go to BYU next year. She'll be living in the same dorm that I was-- yeah Taylor Hall!



Asher handled the graduation really well. He was totally obsessed with trying to eat the program, it kept us all really entertained. Then by some miracle he happened to fall sound asleep amidst wild cheering, cow bells, fog horns and the band playing "Pomp and Circumstance". Sometimes I really envy him.



Funny note: After the graduation the little nursling needed a diaper change so I started to head towards the girls bathroom so I could use the diaper changing table. About half way there I remembered that there wasn't a changing table and was a little upset-- I HATE it when bathrooms don't have changing tables. I was just about to complain when it donned on me that I was in a HIGH SCHOOL and that it would be rather sad and embarrassing if the girl's bathroom did have a baby changing table!

This Family Is Gowing Up

In the last couple of days the Heathon family has done quite a bit of growing up....

Jon:



This handsome man is now an OFFICIAL graduate student at Utah State University in Environmental Engineering! I am SO proud of him, and am really excited to be moving to Logan.

Heather:

This beautiful lady OFFICIALLY has a "mom" hair cut! After spending a month untangling little baby hands out of her long hair, and getting tired of finding clumps of it lying around, she now realizes why moms cut their hair short. She realizes that long hair is prettier-- but sometimes sacrifices must be made!

Asher:



This enchanting nursling can OFFICIALLY drink out of a sippy cup and sit up by himself. He isn't terrific at either one yet-- he gets more water down the front of him than in his mouth, and his sitting up often ends up tipping over or forwards. As one of my friends described it on her blog-- it is a "tripod" position. It amazes me at how strong he is and how fast he learns. It seems like one day he can't do something and the next day he can do it!



This picture has nothing to do with the post, but I thought it was funny. He was totally relaxing in his stroller the other day and put his foot up there all by himself!

Lessons I've Learned the Hard Way this Week

A few weeks ago I planted a garden, with peas, spinach, lettuce, carrots and broccoli, and they were doing SO good. In fact, the spinach probably would have been ready to eat next week. Would have.... except that a few days ago I noticed that there were swarms of ants building cities in between my lettuce and broccoli. They had eaten holes in almost all of the lettuce leaves and were swarming all over the broccoli plants. I looked on-line about how to get rid of them and one lady suggested that you spray a mixture of vegetable oil and dish soap on the leaves, to kill the aphids and get rid of the ants. Another suggested to sprinkle baking powder and corn meal on the ground and that would keep the ants away. Excited to be rid of the city of ant on my beautiful lettuce I went out and sprayed ALL the plants (except the carrots and the peas) with the vegetable oil and dish soap stuff and sprinkled baking powder and corn meal all over.

The next morning I went out and I found a MESS! My lettuce had turned brown and all but shriveled up, the leaves on the broccoli had turned yellow and crispy and the spinach had weird white blots all over it! And there were still about a THOUSAND ants happily building away! AGGG! I wanted to cry. My garden was just about ruined, and I'd worked so hard on it!Either there must have been something else hazardous in the bottle I sprayed with, or the people on-line gave me REALLY bad advice.

So here are the lessons I've learned the hard way this week:
1) if you are going to spray something on your plants, test it out on a small part first before you spray the entire garden
2) don't use bottles that you don't know what they had inside of them before
3) ants have a right to live too, and sometimes it might just be better to live with them than try to live without them

Drew and Brittany Sitting in a Tree...

My baby brother is going to get married! On Friday he asked Miss Brittany Marie Tippets of Idaho Falls, Idaho to marry him and she said YES! I am really excited for both of them and am really proud that they have decided to make such a big commitment. I'm proud that Drew asked her so romantically-- a girl always needs a good engagement story to tell! So here it is: Drew took her on a picnic to watch the sunset and made her a nice leather bound book of all the e-mails they had sent each other (which since they've had a long distance relationship is quite a lot) and then read her a poem. I was really impressed with the poem (Drew read it to me later) and I think that he should turn it into a song for her. Anyway, they are thinking of getting married around the 15th of August! Congrats you two! I love you both.

PS. Look how little Asher looks in this picture! I forget how small he was.

Bouncy Lip Sucker

Asher has discovered his bottom lip and LOVES to suck on it. It is so funny to watch, he looks like an old grandpa who lost his dentures. Here is a video I got of him doing it. I apologize first for how bouncy this is, he was in his jumperoo, and also that I forgot that video cameras don't work like normal cameras and that you can't turn them sideways! Oops.

And if you haven't got enough of him yet, here is another video in which he talks, or to be more accurate... squeals

PS. Just to update you-- we didn't counteroffer on that house in Logan. They seller was kind of a pain to work with and didn't go down in the price at all, he actually raised the price! Can you believe it, and with a hot pink toilet at that! We aren't too sad though, we are sure that there is another place that God wants us to be. We will just have to wait and see.

My First Doula Job

I attended by first birth as a doula (a professional birth coach) yesterday. One of my best friends from High School had a beautiful baby boy! Her brother called me yesterday morning at about 8:30AM and some what flustered told me that she had gone into labor early (again) but that this time they couldn't stop it and the baby was coming! I was totally unprepared, the baby wasn't suppose to come for another month. Anyway, in a whirlwind I got dressed, threw my hair up (later I would realize I forgot my make-up and that my hair looked strange, but oh well...), packed Asher up to go to my mother-in-laws, called the neighbor to re-schedule babysitting, called Jon to tell him I was going (and to get some moral support) and drove to Logan faster than I thought was humanely possible!

She did SO wonderful. Her sister and I were there to support her because her husband was in Houston, Texas. Needless to say he jumped on the first available flight and the nurses felt certain he would get there in time. But the baby decided to go fast! When I got there at 10:30 AM she was dilated to a 2 and was just getting into the jacuzzi tub at the hospital. In an hour and a half she went from a 2 to a 6! She did a GREAT job of breathing and relaxing through the contractions, but decided she wanted an epidural because she was SO exhausted (she'd been up since 4AM). After the epidural she went from a 6 to 10 centimeters in two hours. At about 2 PM she was ready to push and little Odin was born at 2:59 PM! Right when Odin was born her husband was getting on to his transfer flight in Las Vegas. He turned his phone onto speaker phone so the whole plane could hear his new baby boy. There were lots of cheers and the stewardess even gave him a bottle of champagne:). He finally got there at about 6:30PM, and he looked like he'd had a hard day too.

It was an AMAZING experience and I am so honored that she let me support her during birth! She was so capable and strong! It was the first time I've seen a baby being born, because I have to admit that during my own birth I was much to focused and preoccupied with getting him out rather than watching. It was everything I thought it would be and more. There is nothing so beautiful in this world than seeing a new human being take his first breath and snuggle into his mother's arms. It makes you realize what a miracle life is and what a privilege it is to create, nurture, and bear God's children. Women have the MOST amazing bodies!

Another Week of Firsts

First First: JALEEN GOT HER MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday night we all went up to the Farrell's to watch JaLeen open her mission call (I was surprised how fast it came!). We all took turns guessing where she was going to go, and Grandma Bay totally got it right! She is going to the SOUTH AFRICA, JOHANNESBURG MISSION, English speaking (but we have heard that usually they have to learn some African dialects once they are in the field). She leaves the first week of September and flies right to the South African Missionary Training Center. We are so excited for her. I know that calls are truely inspired of God and that she is going where the Lord needs her to be. I am so proud of you JaLeen! You will do great!

Second First: WE PUT AN OFFER IN ON A HOUSE!

For all of you who don't know, we are planning on moving to Logan, Utah this Fall so Jon can do a Masters in Environmental Engineering. We've been looking at houses for a few months and went down this weekend to see the one we liked for the second time. We felt really good about it and put an offer in on Friday night. It is an older house, built 1916, right by the mouth of Logan Canyon. It is really close to Utah State and it has a big yard where we can have a garden and chickens (yippee!). It does need quite a bit of updating. Actually right now it is downright HIDEOUS! It has tacky, cheap motel-ish shag and flowered carpet, peppermint green cupboards (which Randall would probably like:) and a purple bathtub and sink and a toilet that is half purple and half hot pink! We are hoping to get it for a low enough price that we will have the money to fix it up a bit! Here is a picture of the bathroom and the kitchen! UGG!

We should hear back sometime today if the seller accepts the offer or if he counters. We will keep you posted.

Third First: ASHER ROLLED OVER FROM HIS BACK TO HIS TUMMY!

To qualify for the First Time Home Buyer programs in Logan we had to take and ALL day home buyer class on Saturday. It was SO long! But right in the middle of one of the presentations I looked down at Asher, who was lying on the floor, and he was ROLLING OVER from his back to his tummy. It was the first time, and needless to say Jon and I didn't pay much attention to the speaker. He has been trying to do it quite a bit since then and sometimes he gets it and other times he doesn't.

History Repeats Itself

1870- Black men get the right to vote. Granted not many did because they feared for their lives, but they got the right to vote with very little effort on their part.

1920- FIFTY years later! Women earn the right to vote, after a long and hard struggle.

It seems that this year in the Democratic primary election history is repeating itself.

My unofficial official prediction is that Obama will win the primary (which after the results of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries yesterday is looking much more likely) not because he is the "best" candidate for president, but because the US will elect a black man as president first before they will ever elect a woman to be president.

It kind of ruffles my feathers and fluffs my muffins that the presidential race is more of a competition between race and gender, than it is over policies and issues.

I have to admit that if Clinton drops out I will be sad, not because I necessarily want her to be president, but because it means that we might just have to wait fifty more years till some qualified and hard working woman gets her chance. While I don't agree with all of Hillary Clinton's policies, I do respect her fighting spirit. I hope she fights it out to the end because I think the US needs a woman president. It probably will not be Hillary Clinton, but somewhere there is a little 10 year-old girl who fifty years from now might finish what she began.

It is ALIVE......dun dun dun!

Jon's creation MOVED ... by its own free will and choice...for the first time 0n Saturday! We bought this 1996 VW Golf from a friend who was in a car accident back in October. She didn't have a car insurance and needed money to settle the case, so we bought the wrecked car from her. The motor wasn't hurt, just the back door and quarterpanel. For the last few months Jon has been going up to Bountiful to his parents house to work on it. He had to replace the whole backside of the car-- and it looks fabulous now! It just needs paint and it will be as good as new.

Here are some pictures of it before

Some of him working on it

( I like what Jaleen put as a caption for this picture of Facebook- " The story of his life... the story of our garage". I think is family was a little less worried about him this time around than when he was working on the Mustang in High School because now he has a wife and a baby and would actually come in to eat!)

Here is a video of it finally taking off for the first time


All I can say is Woah Baby I am so proud of his work and am SO grateful to have a husband who knows how to fix cars!

Jell-O Yum Yum Yum

Okay, so I got WAY too excited about this! On Tuesday night we had the sister missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints over to our house for dinner. They are really nice, one from Dallas and the other from Washington. For dessert I made Jell-O Jigglers, which I hadn't made since I was 10 years old, and we cut them out with cookie cutters! I discovered two things, 1) That we need more cookie cutters (all we had were Valentines Day ones) and 2) that it does my heart and soul good to act like a little kid sometimes! It really is the small happy things that make life rich and rewarding!

My...not so quite... Dream Man

When I was in High School I wrote in my journal that my dream man would be a mix between Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird,

Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice,

and a character name Ari Ben Canaan from Exodus.

As my Dad put it, I was a "hopeful" romantic to the point of being absurd. When we were dating I told Jon about my "dream man" and consequently he watched all the videos (the books were too long :) to "study" up on gentlemanly attributes! He must have studied hard because he passed my test.

Well last night I was telling Jon that I took this quiz on Facebook to find out what Jane Austen character I am most like and that I am Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. He responded most enthusiastically with... "That's great because I'm Mr. Darcy,


Atticus Finch



and... um.. what's his name... Osama Bin Laden?"



Aggg! No way!
Sorry Jon but that's not quite my dream man.

A Week Of Firsts

1) Asher slept through the night for the first time! The crying thing worked. The first night he cried for 40 min, the second night only about 20 min and then the next night he only woke up once at 5:30 AM! Yippee!

2) Anna ran her first marathon! It was the SLC marathon, they started at the Gateway and ran up to the U of U and all the way down to 6200 South! She is crazy, but then again I HATE to run (unless I am angry). She took first place in her age group for girls and second in her age group for both boys and girls! She was way too peppy at the end for a girl who just ran 26 miles! We are proud of you Anna!

3) Asher got his first hair cut! His hair was getting so long and he was starting to get a mullet in the back so we decided to give it a trim. We just used the hair clippers, but it is hard to cut a baby's hair. First of all they won't sit still and second we didn't quite know what size of clipper to use. It didn't turn out too bad, but I'm sure we'll get better at it. And as my friend told me on Sunday "The difference between a bad hair cut and a good hair cut is two weeks" and at the rate his hair grows I am sure I'll get lots of practice!

Before

After

4) At his four month apt. last week Asher weighed 15lbs 10 oz and is 27.5 inches long! He is in the 98th percentile for height! The pediatrician told us we should start investing in a basketball hoop!

The Top Ten things I Couldn't Live Without

I have several friends who are going to be first time moms in the next few months and so I thought I'd make a list of the top 10 things I've found that I couldn't live without as a mother. (#1 is the least essential most essential thing, and #10 is the most essential essential thing)

1) Boppy Pillow

This was a life saver for the first few months of breastfeeding. It is hard enough to try to figure out how to hold the baby and get then trying to everything adjusted is impossible. This pillow REALLY helped. I would say that any mother planning to breastfeed should get one of these, especially if it is your first time.

2) Crib Mobile

Asher's Grandma Farrell gave this to him for Christmas and he loves it! I was really skeptical about mobiles. I thought they were just to make the crib look cute and for parents to look at. I was so surprised that he likes it so much. He gets really excited when I turn it on and flaps his arms and smiles. It will entertain him just long enough for me to get a load of laundry in or to go to the bathroom-- oh the joys of motherhood!


3) Shout Spray and Wash

When I was single I NEVER had to use this stuff. But now with two boys in the house I think I am going to have to start buying cases of it at COSCO! Between Jon's greasy messes (from working on cars, bikes, in the chemistry lab, and who knows what else) and Asher's poopy messes I've been very grateful for it. I hate washing out poopy clothes and usually just wait to treat it with this stuff and wash it two or three times if I have to (not very environmentally friendly- I know).

4) Medela Hand-held Breast Pump

This is great and very handy. What more can I say. I'm sure electric ones are nice too but I didn't have the money for one. This works really well and only takes about 10 min to do both sides. So if you are looking for a less expensive pump I recommend this one.

5) This crazy rattle

I got this at a baby shower and can't remember who gave it to me (so thank you who ever you are). I thought it looked weird and didn't really like it, but it is Asher's FAVORITE! Whoever designed it knew what babies like-- it has a big ball for easy sucking, different rings of texture to chew and slobber on and rings to shake to make noise. It is great!

6) Pacifier

I am SO grateful that Asher will still take his pacifier (even though sometimes we have to trick him and dip it in water to get him to suck on it). It is the only way he will fall asleep (okay not the ONLY way, but the easiest and least noisy way. I know that some people don't like pacifiers and that sometimes they can teach baby bad sucking patterns, but it has been a life saver for me. We really like the MAM brand.

7) Bouncy chair

This is another thing I was skeptical about getting - I thought it would just take up room in our house- but it has been a necessity! Asher thinks this chair is the greatest thing since getting his diaper changed. He learned at a really little age that if he kicks both his feet he can make it bouncy crazy hard. I usually put him in it while we eat breakfast or dinner and it is cute to watch him kick and kick to get himself going. (PS. Asher is wearing Jon's socks in this picture-- Asher's socks are always falling off so this was Jon's solution :)

8) Fleece swaddling blanket

Asher is a little Houdini baby. He can get his arms out of almost any swaddle that you put him in-- except in this blanket. This is just a piece of stretch fleece that someone surged the edge on. But the best part is that you can stretch it and make it super tight around him so that he can't get his arms up and punch himself in the face with them. We've found that if we swaddle him tight up in this blanket, put a pacifier in his mouth and then wrap a fuzzy blanket around his face to keep the pacifier from falling out he will fall asleep by himself. That is the BEST thing he has learned to do so far!

9) Moby wrap

When I was pregnant I saw a lady wearing one of these with her four-month-old at a BYU football game. I went up and asked her how it worked and where she got one. She had made it and told me it was really simple to make. It is! It is just one long piece of material (4 yards of stretchy cotton material that is 22 inches wide). Mine has a seam in the middle because 1) my material was only 2 yds long and I cut it in half 2) it makes it easier to find the center. This is the BEST sling! Especially for little babies. It keeps them snug and warm and they can fall asleep in it pretty easy. We've been putting Asher in it since he was a week old and he loves it. It is great for taking him to church in because he will fall asleep in it for about 2 hours. Here are instructions of how to put it on and ways to wear your baby in it.

10) Jon

Sorry ladies but I have to one and only, and he isn't for sale. This beautiful boy has been WONDERFUL with Asher and is enthusiastic about changing diapers, cleaning up spit up, doing laundry and getting up in the middle of the night (even when he has to be to work early). He is always wanting to hold, carry, play with and snuggle Asher. He especially loves carrying him around in the moby wrap- he says he likes the attention he gets and feels that it gives him more empathy for what it must feel like to be pregnant! Yep--basically I got the dream man.

What have you found is a MUST HAVE for new moms (or "old" moms)?

Can you guess who this baby is?

I'll give you a hint:

Germany

World War II

Yesterday was his birthday (I only know this because it is the same day as one of my good friends).

It is Adolf Hitler as a baby.

I was so taken back when I saw this picture-- because he looks SO cute. At this point in his life he could have been just like Asher. He was pure, innocent and had all the potential for good. You'd never guess by looking at this picture that this baby would turn out to me one of the most evil and twisted men in the 20th century.

I've been AMAZED that since I had my own baby, I have felt a huge amount of love for all babies and children. I feel like I have been given such a great gift of love for all of God's children. I find myself looking at adults I meet on the street and imagining them as babies. I imagine some woman holding and loving them, I imagine her looking down at them as they smile and laugh for the first time, I imagine her singing them lullabies, and I wonder if she would be proud of the adult they have grown to be.

This way of thinking has really changed my perspective on life. I realize, more than I ever have before, that each and everyone of us started out with the same goal. We left the presence of our Father in Heaven totally excited and ready for our mortal test-- with the goal to lead good lives, return to Him and become like Him. Yet SO many of us get lost and confused along the way. So many of us are NOT going to make it back.

That completely breaks my heart! I feel much like the Sons of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon of whom it was said:

"... they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endue endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. " (Mosiah 28:3)

It is almost more than I can bear when I think about a child being separated from his parents for eternity. About loosing any child.

I'm not trying to make any excuses for Hitler or to make him look any better than he was-- he was a evil evil man. Yet, seeing his picture this week just really made me reflect on the pain that our Father in Heaven feels when his children make wrong decisions. I remembered how much he loves each and every one of us, and that we ALL have the same potential to be like him. This knowledge has given me a greater resolve to help Him in his work, to make sure that not one human soul perishes.