Lauren&Hyrum

(Whispering) My babies (looking over my shoulder) are both asleep. Ah-- right on cue.  Russ is awake :) Russ is wonderful.  He hasn't been a terrific sleeper but, not a terrible one either.  Growth spurts and congestion have each kept him up at night at their respective times, but he slept from 11-4:30 this morning, and then went back to sleep until 9.  Of course, Georgia woke up at 5:30, but whose keeping track? Used to fit Georgia has a shape sorting toy that I've mentioned before, that is in the shape of a turtle.  The shell part comes off, and was Georgia's first "hat".  She knew what hats were from Baby Signing Time, but never said or signed it until she had a hat to talk about.  Then one day I came into the family room and the shell was resting perfectly on the back part of her head, where rodeo girls wore their cowboy hats in the mid 90's.  It was adorable.  So was Georgia.  (har har har) That toy went into the t...

Here we go.  :) Its surreal to write about the birth of my second child.  I don't feel like someone who has children . But I've never felt happier in all my life as when I think about my little family, and hold my babies, and smile for pictures with my amazing husband and our kids.   I spent a significant portion of my third trimester hobbling around like an old woman due to sciatic nerve pain down my right leg, back pain, and pain in my pelvis so sharp... I can't even describe... and near constant braxton-hix contractions.  I was really really tired and wasn't drinking enough water, which contributed to my discomfort.  Feeling awful all of the time led me to hope-- and then believe-- that I was going to have Russell early.  Well about the second week of August, I started feeling great.  I had all kinds of energy, my back pain was gone, I could breathe easily for the first time in what felt like forEVER, and I could roll over in bed (200 ...

Watching videos with Dad. Today is one of those days when I'm tearing up over things that I normally would not.  A moment ago I was reading a blog post about a young mom's need to go to dinner with her husband and not her kids, and eat her own food while its hot and look into her husband's eyes and talk to him, and I teared up.  I really like restaurants. But thinking about my little girl and my last few days with just her is a little more justifiable, I think, in the "getting weepy" arena.  Now, we're having Russell very very much on purpose.  That purpose is him and Georgia.  She needed a sibling, and we wanted them to be close in age, and I am genuinely overjoyed to have him nigh at the doors, but these are my last days with my little girl as my little girl.  The reality that she's a big sister hasn't set in, and I haven't had to scold her for hitting the baby in the face, yet.  She's still just my little angel, and she gets all ...

Aaaaaah.... Nesting.  I'm a pretty useless person when it comes to projects and cleanliness and decorating, but when I've got a baby knocking at the door?  Well, I can't sit still-- AND I LOVE IT.  If only there were a drug for that.  Oh, there is, but it will ruin your life while its decorating your house and sending you into debt so... I have to maximize nesting. I'm tired from fattening up a full sized baby, but I can't sleep during the day.  I lay down to rest and my mind races all over all of the things I want to do.  Then, I get up and do them.  It is like I'm a different person.  It is wonderful to be a different person. This week I finished a list of projects that have been taking up the bottom-left corner of my white board in the kitchen since before Georgia was born.  They have been gathering dust all over the house!  I covered the couch cushions with a zebra print fabric I bought in an upholstery fabric sale.  The ...

Yay!  Oh the surreality of it all... I gave up on college graduation several years ago, so being the person in the mortarboard, and wearing the leis was really weird.  It did not feel real at all.  I was standing there with the tassel in my face and smiling for pictures thinking that when I looked at those pictures I'd really believe that it had happened. Speaking of leis, I was wearing the most leis of anybody at graduation!  I always thought it was so cool to see those people at graduations with such supportive and enthusiastic friends and family that they end up peaking out from behind a huge pile of flowers and candy and $1 bills.  So last year, when Hyrum got his masters, I made him a few big yellow carnation leis, and some candy leis, in an effort to make a bigger deal out of him than he wanted.  He's a humble fellow.  One side of his family is from Samoa, too, so I felt all the more justified.  The cool thing was that the leis made...