Passive Aggressive

When Wil and I get mad - which to be honest, isn't all that often - we tend to be a bit passive aggressive. For instance there is a guy who lives down the block and around the corner. On a regular basis, he parks his car in front of our house and walks home. First of all, WHY?!? Second of all, that's SO annoying. When it reaches the point that we are super bugged, we park one of our cars in front of our house so he can't park there. We feel somehow vindicated and the guy that lives down the street doesn't know any better.

Saturday, Waldo came over to help Wil fix the brakes on the Honda. Waldo was parked in front of our house, and they needed space to work on the car, so they parked my car in front of the house across the street. To be honest, we then promptly forgot about it until Sunday when we were leaving for church. As we drove off, I mused at how much it bugs us when the neighbors park in front of our house and that we should be sure to move my car when we got home. Wil agreed, we wouldn't want to be hypocrites, after all. Wil dropped me off after church, went home teaching, and then moved my car back into our driveway.

This morning, when I went out to my car, I found this note - Wil hadn't paid any attention to it when he moved the car yesterday.

Seriously?!? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? You're going to call the police and tell them what - a car has been parked on the PUBLIC street in front of my house for not even 24 hours?? SERIOUSLY?!?!

I should note that up until this point, I was excited that we finally had friendly, nice neighbors living in the house across the street. I'm SO bugged, I can't even tell you how bugged I am!

Wil's solution was a text message to Waldo:

"Next time you come over could you please park across the street? We're having a little friendly neighborly dispute. In fact, come over tomorrow."

We'll see your nasty note and raise it one passive aggressive parking battle!!!

My Train

The summer after my junior year of college, I eagerly began an internship with a Phoenix-area advertising and public relations agency. I loved it, and luckily, they loved me. I was offered a job when I graduated from college and worked at E.B. Lane for four years.

I say worked in the past tense, because as of 1 1/2 weeks ago, I am officially a stay at home mom!

When I was in college, I dreamed of using my major to change the world. I imagined waking up each day with a joyous spring in my step at the thought of going to work. I looked forward to the privilege of getting to go home each night and leave work behind me - no homework (yeah right!)!

Then I woke up from my dream and real life began. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from President Hinckley:

"Anyone who imagines bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise...

"Life is like an old-time rail journey -- delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

My thoughts of changing the world quickly changed into thoughts of how to help a retail behemoth sell more widgets (sidetracks), how to respond to a reporter who accused my client of having two loving parents arrested for taking bath time photos of their children (smoke, dust and cinders), and how to stay one step ahead of an overzealous client who wanted to know what reporters I had talked to that day when I'd spent 4 1/2 hours (of the five hours I'd been at work) in meetings, or commuting to and from meetings, with her and the other 1/2 hour eating lunch while catching up on email (delays).

I soon realized that even enjoying your job does not mean that you would rather be there than at home, spending time with friends and family or on a beautiful vacation. But one day I looked out the window of my metaphoric train to realize I had climbed a great mountain without even knowing it - I had learned to work hard, to live up to my responsibilities, to give recommendations - but ultimately follow through on someone else's decision, and to fake it until I knew what I was doing.

And, in an unexpected way, I got to help change the world. I doubt I will ever have the means many of my clients did. I was able to help with donations to countless organizations that totaled millions of dollars. I spoke with doctors who would not be able to do specific procedures and patients who would not be alive were it not for money I helped my clients raise. I worked with teachers, homeless shelters, programs designed to help underprivileged teenagers attend college, after school programs, mobile asthma clinics, Alzheimer's awareness groups, food banks, the Special Olympics, a police K9 unit, and the list goes on and on and on! I learned so much, from so many people and was able to see firsthand how many good people are working hard to lift each others burdens and make life better for their neighbor - those were my beautiful vistas.

My thrilling bursts of speed came in the form of hot laps with a retired professional race car driver, tickets to an NBA All Star Game, floor seats at a Suns game, going with professional sports players to visit the pediatric unit at a local hospital, and I'm sure there are more, I just can't remember them all right now.

It was a great ride, and I am grateful for four years of working with an organization that taught me so much. The time has come to board a new train - one that includes diapers and giggles and wiping tears. One small box of luggage made the journey with me. It includes photos, inside jokes and special mementos from my first job out of college train. Four years boiled down to one small box, countless memories and innumerable growth opportunities.

Seeing Red

We interrupt the all baby all the time programming to bring you news of other events taking place in our household.

I'm not sure if you remember or not, but we have a dog. I understand if you forgot; we don't talk about him nearly as much as we did before we had a baby. In case you forgot - he looks like this.

I should preface this story by saying that last Thursday Wil cut himself and had to get a few stitches. Friday, I was sitting on the couch and noticed red spots on the wall. They looked like blood. Gross! I thought Wil must have come to sit down on the couch after he cut himself and before we left for urgent care and unknowingly gotten blood on the wall.

As I was cleaning the little red spots, I noticed a bunch on the floor...and the mirror...and the door. Seriously! How did he manage to get blood ALL over the house??? It wasn't bleeding that much, and he was using a towel to keep pressure on it and stop the bleeding.

I cleaned and disinfected everywhere I saw blood. Wednesday morning, I went to let Elvis in the house and noticed the little red spots were back all over the floor...and there were more on the wall...and on Adelyn's play mat...and on her Bumbo seat. Okay - this is seriously gross! It could NOT have been Wil this time - what is going on??? Do we have some sort of infestation of invisible bugs that spit red spots on everything? Or is something wrong with the dog? Elvis seemed like the more likely explanation, so I sent Wil a message asking him to check the dog when he got home.

Wil took Elvis to the vet yesterday and he came home looking like this.

Is that the look of a dog that hates his life or what???

It turns out Elvis has a major ear infection, which caused him to shake his head a lot. The vet thinks this led to him hitting the outside of his ear on something, creating a sore. (In our defense, we did notice the sore. We cleaned it a few times and were hoping it would get better - we didn't realize it was bleeding). His continual head shaking made the sore on his ear worse, causing the blood - now he has to wear this lovely bandage to keep his ears from flinging about when he shakes his head. His head shaking also caused said blood to fling across the house. I'm still cleaning and disinfecting, finding blood on another wall and cleaning and disinfecting some more. EWWW!!!

Moo

I've always planned to breastfeed, always. There are so many benefits including that it's healthier and free! For Christmas, my aunt gave me a book about breastfeeding so I would be ready. I read the book with rapt attention, listened closely during the breastfeeding portion of our baby class and was as ready as I could be when the big day arrived.

The scene is now March 28. We've been at the hospital about 24 hours and the baby has just been given to me. I'm remembering everything from my book and class and we are going to rock at breastfeeding, right? Not so much. She couldn't figure out the concept of sucking. I read the book - NO bottles until after she's figured out how to breastfeed (for weeks). Fast forward a few hours...she still hasn't eaten, several nurses have tried to help, the lactation specialist doesn't come in until morning, shortly after she was born we were told not to be disappointed if the pediatrician wanted us to supplement her feedings with formula because she was high risk for jaundice, it's almost midnight, I'm EXHAUSTED, they've poked my baby's foot twice to make sure her blood sugar wasn't too low, and now the nurse is asking if we can feed her with a bottle because she HAS to eat.

What did my book say about this??? I don't remember, something about spoon feeding??? The nurse says sometimes a bottle the first night is okay, it helps the baby learn to suck and mom sleep (yes, I like that part about mom sleeping!) and then breastfeeding will be easier in the morning. Done - bring on the bottle.

Except my stubborn little girl would cry and cry while I tried to breastfeed until I finally gave in and gave her a bottle. The lactation specialist tried to help - she got her to latch on, but not to suck...and then we went home. I asked if I needed to pump so my milk would come in, but she said the stimulation from having the baby latch on should be enough.

Two days later picture me in tears all day long because I just had a baby, am highly emotional and my baby won't breastfeed. This is the way nature intended...WHY won't she do it??? I went back to my handy dandy book trying to find a solution. Searching, searching - I KNOW all the reasons why breastfeeding is great, that's why I'm trying so hard. Reading more about them is making me cry harder. There's nothing in there about what to do. It says, "don't introduce the bottle until breastfeeding is well established." Yes, I know, but it's TOO LATE for that...what do I do?

My grandma recommended trying my pump to make sure milk was coming out. So I went in the baby's room, sat in the rocking chair and tried pumping. I think I got maybe three drops. At which point my tears became sobs because no wonder my baby wouldn't breastfeed there was no food for her! I must be defective!!!

A few hours later, after a good nap, I decided that my milk just hadn't come in yet. Obviously since my child wouldn't suck there was no reason for milk to be there. So I decided to try pumping to get my milk to come in. For a couple weeks I would try feeding her first and then pumping. Then I would add whatever I pumped to her bottle. I bought bottle nipples that were more realistic so she would have to work harder to get the milk out. She sucked once for about five or ten minutes on one side and never did again. It was torture!

I finally told Wil I was giving up if she hadn't caught on by the end of the week. He recommended I give up trying to get her to breastfeed but that I keep pumping so we could give her the milk. Alright, I guess I can try that. I found a paragraph in my what to expect the first year book about how to increase your milk supply if you had started out on a bottle and decided to switch to breastfeeding. For the first time, I felt some hope. I searched online and found several websites about exclusively pumping. These women all fed their children by pumping and had enough to store in the freezer - I felt more hope (I was getting just a few ounces a day at that point).

I just finished pumping this morning, and this is my current supply. It used to take me all day to fill one of those little bottles!

It took a few months, but we haven't had to supplement with formula in weeks! I still don't have enough to freeze, but I do have enough that we shouldn't have to supplement with formula when I go back to work Monday, and that makes me extremely happy!

The Best Part of My Day

Going to get Adelyn from her crib after she wakes up in the morning is by far the best part of my day! She wakes up so happy and greets me with a huge smile and happy, kicking feet.

LOL

Adelyn laughed out loud for the first time Monday night! We've been eagerly anticipating the day she would start laughing! She laughed a few times Monday night (it was almost bedtime - I think she thought if she laughed enough we wouldn't put her to bed).

Wil was so excited, he hugged her!

Blessing Day

Adelyn's baby blessing was last Sunday, June 5.

After the blessing, we invited everyone to dinner at our house. The menu included bbq pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, green salad, watermelon, chips, salsa and cake.

I'm pretty proud of the cake, so we should take a closer look. All together: "OOH, AAH, PRETTY!"

We had fun spending time with family, and I am super impressed that we were able to fit so many people in our house - we had to move the furniture around a bit, but we all fit!

I never realized how excited I would be to throw a party for my little girl! I'm already getting excited for her first birthday party!

My Grandma's friend's friend made the dress and Elsa made a slip to go underneath it. We are so lucky to know such talented people!