Funny Baby

Yesterday, Adie did a number of funny/cute things that I caught with the camera for your viewing pleasure.

When I get ready in the morning I usually sit Adie right next to the bathroom on the floor so she can be occupied but knows where I am. Also, she has four teeth now, so I have started brushing her teeth. I realized yesterday, after I had finished brushing her teeth, that her toothbrush would be the perfect thing for her to play with since she puts everything in her mouth anyway. She might as well learn early, so here is Adie brushing her teeth.





Adie also has these socks with beads on the top that her Aunt Carla made for her. She has been wearing them for a while now, but she has recently discovered the beads on them and how much fun they would be to play with. She managed to take her sock off yesterday and get it into her mouth before I noticed.








Finally, I gave her a bottle of water after her dinner, which she will sometimes drink, but not all the time. Last night she thought it was more fun to play with the bottle than drink it, so it somehow landed on her shoulder. She seemed somewhat confused as to what happened to her toy, aka bottle, and why there was something on her shoulder.



As a final note, this last weekend we shopping to stock up on some cold weather clothing for Adie. We decided we needed to buy at least 12 month and some 18 month clothing if we were going to make it through the winter without having to buy too much more (please note Adie is barely 8 months old). This morning I really wanted to put on some of the jeans and a onesie we had bought even though they were 18 months in size. Well, the onesie fits perfectly and the jeans are probably an inch too long. Yes, we have a very large baby, not that we expected less. Pretty much everyone we know with children aged 18 months or younger have children that are smaller than Adie. We hear she'll thin out when she starts crawling and walking. Hopefully, we won't have to go shopping again too soon.

It's about time

I have said I would put up pictures of Adie for a while now, so here I am, finally doing that. These are some fun photos from the last month.


Adie is attempting to eat my bouquet at Kim and Paul's lovely reception.


This one is just funny to me because I discovered Adie in her crib like this one day a few weeks ago. Somehow her bumper got loose and she thought it was a great toy. You can't see her face, but she was laughing about her new discovery. I had to find a more secure way to keep the bumper on.


I absolutely love this picture and probably would have posted it regardless, but it has special meaning at this particular time. This is Adie's great-grandfather (Brett's grandfather) who passed away yesterday. He and Adie got to meet a few times during their short time here together, and I am really glad we have these wonderful photos to capture those moments. I just love the way they are looking at one another.


And last, but certainly not least, here is Adie with Dad shortly after attending her first BYU football game. She didn't quite make it through the entire game, only the first and fourth quarters. The game started at 3:30 pm on the first day of September, which means it was hot and right in the middle of nap time. It's a good thing we live virtually across the street from the stadium. I just took her home for two quarters to nap and we were back at the end to enjoy the remainder of the game.

Help Dan Heal!

So, I know I promised pictures of Adie for my next post, but Brett is currently using the computer that has all the pictures saved on it and I really wanted to post about this to get the word out. My co-worker has a husband that has been severely disabled for over 21 years. His name is Dan Maughan. His wife, LaNae, is an amazing woman who has had a very difficult life, but you'd never know it if you met her. She is such a go-getter and has done such incredible things despite the fact that she has been the primary bread-winner and care-giver to her husband and four children for so long. I don't know how she does it. She is so positive and funny, a total inspiration.

Anyway, she and her family are working to get her husband to China this fall for stem cell treatment, which is an extremely expensive proposition. They are doing a 30 day blitz to raise as much money as possible. Their goal is 30k. I really want to help them, so I am getting the word out. If you even have $5 to spare and would like to help, I guarantee you this is a very worthy cause. Just go to this link: http://www.helpdanheal.com/. It has detailed information about his story and a place where you can buy cute t-shirts (LaNae wears them to work everyday) or just make a donation, and all the proceeds go to helping him get this treatment in China.

And, in case the stem cell thing is questionable in your mind (and the website explains this way better than I do), the treatment he is going to have only requires stem cells extracted from Dan's own bone marrow, so it's not one of the controversial type of treatments that this country is in a frenzy about.

If you are interested in helping, I encourage you to do so and to spread the word. I can't think of a much more deserving family.

Lots of Update

I shouldn't be posting. I should be working. I have another few hours to go before I'll get to go to bed. This does not make me happy. Work has been about the worst it can get. 12-13 hr days and feeling guilty and behind when I don't work on Saturday. Is there something wrong with this picture? Not to mention, when Brett and I decided to have me go back to work after Adie was born, a lot of that decision was made because I could work a lot from home. Well, ever since I got back, I have had to be in the office ever more frequently. I haven't been able to find a stable babysitter for all the days I need, and frankly, working that many hours in one day is just insanity anyway, especially when it's everyday. So, Monday we decided it's time for me to quit. It was honestly one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I have really enjoyed the financial security, the benefits and even the satisfaction (even though I mostly loathe my job) of a career. It also meant telling my manager that I was going to have to dump a couple of really large projects back on his lap in a time when life at Novell is increasingly hectic. My manager understood and even said they were probably going to change their working from home policy, so I would have probably quit in the near future anyway. It was a confirmation that we had made the right decision.

Can I be honest though? I am freaked out for September 21st to come. That's my last day. Then, all of the sudden I don't have a job and I am not even looking for another one! It kind of makes me feel weird inside. I mean, I am so excited to be able to give my undivided attention to Adie. I'll be able to actually clean my apartment, rather than just do the bare minimum to make it liveable. I'll be able to interact with other moms. I'll be able to practice the piano and actually have time to train for my marathon. I'll want to cook dinner again. I'll get some sleep. I can take a nap when Adie does if she wakes me up in the middle of the night. In short, there will be so many wonderful things I can do. However, how do I get over the guilt of having some free time here and there and knowing I could use that time to make some money? I am not sure I'll last very long. I have already considered many part time working options.

Anyway, that's probably the biggest news of the hour. My other news was from last weekend. Brett's sister, Diana, and I ran a half marathon in Logan. I won't post our time. It was slow, but we ran the entire way despite having not trained sufficiently beforehand. The longest we had run before that was an 8-miler a week before the race. However, we thought if we popped a few pain pills and carb-loaded the night before we'd be fine. We were fine. We made it and we accomplished our goal. We both wanted to puke afterward and were sore for a few days, but it was awesome to accomplish that.

In Adie news, she is still completely adorable. She rolls everywhere. I am not sure when she'll get the hang of crawling. I think she is a bit too chunky to lift herself up, but we'll be patient. In fact, it's a good thing. If she waits until I finish working I'll have a lot more time to baby-proof the apartment. She also has two bottom teeth and I think she is teething again, drooling all over the place. I promise my next post will contain pictures of Adie, since that's what you really want to see anyway.

Rock on!

In an effort to clear my mind before I dive into another couple of hours of work after an already difficult day, I have decided to think about something that makes me supremely happy - rock concerts. As many of you know, that was what the bulk of my income went to before I became a more responsible adult and starting thinking about things like insurance and down payments, and how we should use our money for those sorts of things instead of one night of fleeting entertainment. Ah, to be young again!

Anyway, to relive some of those treasured moments, I'm trying to remember all the rock concerts I have gone to in the past decade. I have seen a lot of my favorite bands, and some random ones that were either really cheap or free. However, there are still quite a few bands I have yet to see. If you have any suggestions of acts I need to see, please share. Brett and I will put them on our list and hopefully, get around to seeing one or two of them after we pay our insurance bill ;)

In no particular order:

Counting Crows (2 times)
U2 (2)
Dave Matthews Band (3)
Guster (5, soon to be 6 - Sept 19th!)
Radiohead (2)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Foo Fighters
Cold Play
Weezer
Everclear
Vertical Horizon
Nine Days
3rd Eye Blind
Eve 6
Semisonic
Lifehouse (2)
No Doubt
Goo Goo Dolls
Train
Moody Blues (they're old, so what, I love them!)
Barenaked Ladies
Peter Breinholt (lots of times if you include all those seminary devotionals, does he even count as rock though?)
Colors (well, if we're counting Peter B....)

Well, I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now, and of course there are a number of opening bands who I didn't even bother to remember.

A few acts I haven't seen but really need to:

Pearl Jam
Oasis
Travis
Jack Johnson
Ben Harper
Collective Soul
Jump Little Children (although they have some really weird songs that I don't want to hear at all live)
Snow Patrol (they came just after Adie was born, we almost went, but decided she was still a little young to leave for that long, next time I guess)
Keane
Death Cab for Cutie
Dashboard Confessional
Live (if they played all their old school hits from Throwing Copper)

K, guys, what am I missing?

Web Album

Here's our first attempt at a photo album on the web.

Finally!

Ok, so I've been saying for a while that I was going to move my blog from Yahoo! 360, which only a couple of people used (thanks, Spencer, Candi and Gina, for being my stalwarts on Yahoo!) to Blogger, and I've finally done it. I am hoping a change of scenery will inspire me to be a better blogger. I am not sure that it will, but it's not hard to beat my record of one post every 3 months or so. And, I am not sure why moving my blog will help either. I guess I am just a lemming and want to be where everyone else is.

In any case. if you are reading this, welcome. I am glad you are here to read my random ramblings. Technically, Brett is a contributor to this blog as well, so I guess I shouldn't talk in "I", but in "we". However, I am fairly certain I will be here writing a lot more often than he will (yes, honey, that is a challenge), so for now, it's just me. We'll see how this new blog goes.