Sundays

I thought that we were getting better with making Sunday mornings less stressful, but then today came along. It started last night with getting to bed way too late, and then wanting to sleep in a little bit this morning. Jared was not feeling well (perhaps because we got to bed too late? Hmmm...) So, I fed and dressed the kids by myself. We got to church on time, miraculously, and Jared started feeling worse. So, instead of having him drive himself home and then come back to get us an hour and a half later, I suggested he wait until after Primary opening exercises so I could drive him. Unbeknownst to us at the time, neither the primary secretary (who is in charge of the schedule) nor the primary chorister (who does all the children’s music) had informed anyone that they would not be at church today. AND, on top of all that, it was ward conference, so all of the people from the stake were there to watch us. So while I’m holding my one-year-old baby on my hip, the poor president and I are try to figure out how to substitute all the missing people, Jared’s sitting in the back dying, and I’m putting on a happy face and saying “Welcome to Primary today!” Opening Exercises took a lot longer than it usually does, and after a while Jared left, so I had to go find him before I could drive him home.

On days like today, I miss the carefree Sundays of my singlehood. I went to church. I felt the Spirit. I felt edified and fed. After church, I fed myself, and then either wandered campus to have a good think while I walked, or went to my favorite place in Rock Canyon to be alone and meditate. When I wanted to, I came back to my apartment and hung out with friends or called my family. So nice. So truly a day of rest.

I expect that someday Sunday will once again be a peaceful day of rest, but I don’t expect that to be for a very long time. However, it would be nice to feel the Spirit again at church. I did cry at church today, alone in a corner playing with my baby. But they were tears of stress, not of joy or an overflowing of love.

I don’t want to go back to the Sundays when I was single. I just want to find some way to make my Sundays now a day to look forward to instead of a day to dread.

Acid Reflux

In between Christmas and New Year's we decided to schedule a doctor's appointment for Brittany. We went in the hopes that the doctor would let us try some medication for acid reflux. She had been up for 3 hours the night before crying inconsolably, and we couldn't take it anymore. Unfortunately, the inconsolable crying for two to four hours a might was not an uncommon thing. We usually got about one uninterrupted night of sleep a week, the other six we could depend on a screaming baby.

We went to our appointment, described the symptoms, and got a prescription for medication! This came as a big surprise because we had thought that Brit had acid reflux when she was a month old, but at that time when I asked the doctor, he wanted to do several tests before trying medication. This is all well and good; I think that overmedicating of children is a problem, and if there are other treatments available for my children I am very willing to give them an honest try. However, the first test he wanted to try was a lactose-intolerance test which involved bottle feeding her a lactose-free formula for at least one week. She was only four weeks old and we were actually doing great with nursing, so I was worried. The bottle feeding went fine, but when I tried to rent a decent pump to keep up my milk supply, I found that they were about $100 a week. Very discouraging. So I decided to give up nursing.

In the end she was not lactose intolerant, so we were back to square one and I was now buying formula. Those of you who have not had the experience of having a very fussy, irritable, five-week-old baby, having to give up breast feeding against your will, being sleep deprived, and having an 18-month-old little boy who also needs a good deal of attention may not understand the amount of frustration and annoyance I felt toward our pediatrician. There were three or four more tests he wanted to try before medication for acid reflux, all of which I understood would take several days to a week to complete. In my frustrated state, I felt he wasn't listening to me and he didn't care that my baby cried constantly and I was ready to pull my hair out. So, instead of dealing with all of that, I decided that she had colic and she would get better at around three months. I must be wasting my time with more doctor's visits. (In my doctor's defense, medicating a one month old baby for acid reflux can mask symptoms of more serious digestive disorders. He may or may not have explained this to me at the time, I do not remember.)

Finally, Brittany turned three months old. The "colic" did not disappear. In a phone conversation with my mom, she told me that when my brother Justin was a baby he had colic. Her doctor at the time informed her that a small, "lucky" percentage of babies with colic had it for four months instead of three. So maybe Brittany was one of those lucky ones! At her 6 month checkup we saw a different doctor, and after explaining her symptoms, I was told that some babies just cry, and if it's at night I should just leave her alone for longer and longer amounts of time until she learned to put herself to sleep. I guess he hadn't understood when I told him that she usually screamed for 2-4 hours at night until she was finally so exhausted she fell to sleep. Jared and I had actually put her playpen in the finished part of the basement where we couldn't hear her as well so we could get a little sleep.

Around December Brittany started spitting up again, and I remembered that I once thought she might have acid reflux... And, that brings us back to the beginning of the post. Since she's been on the meds, she's been a different little girl! She's happy, charming, and likes to giggle, sing, and crawl around the house chasing Sam or Wally. Best of all, everyone in the house is getting SLEEP! We're all much happier. Sam as well has turned back into a happy, cute little boy.

Thank goodness for modern medicine!

On the Move

Sam and Britt are definitely one the move. Here are a few of their favorite modes of locomotion:

First, Britt likes to crawl. This girl can go anywhere, and she loves it! She crawls after Sam, to find mom or dad, and especially after the dog. Two of her favorite things to do are splash in Wally's water dish or eat the dog food if she gets the chance. I don't understand what it is with kids and dog food. Sam loved it, too.

Next, Sam loves the princess cart Brittany got for Christmas. He rides around on it every chance he gets. He loves to put his feet up on it and have me push him around. Brittany also got a singing rocking horse pony for Christmas, and Sam loves to have it and the princess cart sing at the same time. Thank goodness for the OFF switch on all the noisemakers!

Brittany likes to stand and wander around supported on anything stationary. She'll use whatever's around - the bathroom stool, couches, mom's legs, the dog, etc. She still won't walk with us when we hold her hands, but we think she'll probably figure out how to do it all on her own.

Last, we bought a new to us double jogging stroller last week, and I really like it. I don't have any pictures, but it's great to use, and we love to wander around in it for out daily outings. I love it because it helps all of us to get up and go!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was a lot of fun at our house! For the first time the kids got pretty excited about things, and it made it very fun for Jared and me.

Our little Christmas spread may not look like much, but we knew it would be more than made up for by visits to the grandparents. Brittany and Sam each made quite the haul! Sammy got a pillow pet, a Thomas the Train track set with all kinds of engines and buildings and some awesome Lightning McQueen pajamas. Brittany got a singing Pretty Pony rocking horse, a Pretty Princess scooter cart (which Sam loves!) a baby doll, and new coat and a tea set. Sam also got several new cars. They both got several Dr. Seuss books to share.

For Christmas, I got a cold. It was mild Christmas day and then turned quite ugly the day after. Instead of Christmas carols being sung by a roaring fire, my racking cough can be heard throughout the house as I huddle in blankets before the TV. Poor Jared has the week off, and it's been a week of taking care of me and the kids. We're very grateful, Jared! I've been on antibiotics since Wednesday, so hopefully I'll get over this soon and have a healthy New Year!

Getting ready for the Holidays

Getting ready for the holidays has been so much fun this year! It's always fun, but now we have two little kids who are excited about everything that's happening and it makes it even more fun.

To kick off our holiday celebrations, Jared and I went to his annual Christmas work party. This year it was held at the Canyons Grand hotel. It was great! We've been to two other Christmas parties for Jared's work, and they've been wonderful, but this is the first year that I wasn't sick, and it made a big difference. The hotel was fabulous. We went swimming in their newly renovated pool - it had only been open for two days. Even the pool deck was heated. Our room had a fire place and a jacuzzi tub, and after our swim Jared and I relaxed in the sauna for a bit. Dinner was fun, too. Jared played his trumpet for the talent show and did a fantastic job - of course. Most of the "talents" that people perform at these even

ts are either silly or funny (there is a LOT of cross dressing) so it's funny to watch people's reactions when Jared shows off an actual talent. They don't really know what to do.

Jared's wonderful parents took our kids for the night. To thank them, we took them out to eat at an Eavenson family favorite, La Puente. They serve great mexican food, and they just put one in in Layton, so our little family will probably eat there on a regular basis.

Next on the holiday docket, we trimmed the tree, and some other areas of the house. Our tree this year was quite cute, despite missing a star for the top. Brittany and Sam love playing with the ornaments on the tree, and the location and distribution of ornaments changes every day. We also love getting Christmas cards, and most of them are displayed on our piano.

The kids and I went to see Great-Grandma and Grandpa Harris. It was a great visit. Grandpa has been feeli

ng a lot better lately due to his heart monitor. It was good to see him looking so healthy. Janette and Grandma seem to be doing quite well also. Sam and Janette's little white dog ran around and around and around the kitchen and wore each other out. This is how tired Sam was when

we got home:

Brittany started crawling about 2 weeks ago and is now enjoying the wonder or mobility! She loves to crawl around after Wally and Sam, and She crawls to the TV and the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a fun, relaxed Thanksgiving holiday this year. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Eavenson's for dinner. Jared's grandma was there, and that was a lot of fun because we hadn't seen her in quite a while. It was especially fun because she's been sick a lot lately and she was finally feeling good enough to be out for a while.

The kids had a blast. Sam had his own little table so all his cars could eat with him. He only wanted to eat olives, rolls and beets - for some reason he loves beets. We couldn't even get him to try the yams (which were yummy!) when we told him they tasted like candy. Oh well, he had a good time anyway, and he did agree to have some eggnog later on in the day.

Brittany, on the other hand, was willing to try everything we gave her. She loves yams. and potatoes, and pumpkin pie, bread, and pretty much everything that's soft enough for her to chew.

She loved all the attention and had a great time.

The next day we relaxed and Saturday we went to visit grandma and grandpa Henrie because my brother and his family were in town from California. Their poor little guy who is a little younger than Sam got pneumonia on their trip so he wasn't feeling the best, but it was a fun visit all the same. Two of the cousins have birthdays a few weeks apart, so we had an early birthday party for them. It was a very princessy party, with a purple coconut cake and lots of balloons. It's always insanity at my mom and dad's house when everybody is there, and it wears my kids right out, but they love it.

Brittany has been teething for the last few weeks, but this morning she woke up smiling and laughing!!! We can see her little teeth right under her gums, so they must be close enough that they don't hurt her anymore. She also started crawling this week and is getting good at it really fast. Hooray for Brittany!!!

Fall is here!

We love having fall finally here! Except for the fact that Brittany is sick and we've each taken our turns being sick as well, it's been a lot of fun. Even though she's sick, she's been a super cute girl lately. She has gotten over her colicky, crying all of the time - whichhas been a problem for quite a while. One day she woke up and decided to be darling!

We had our primary program last Sunday, and I had her with me through the rest of church while I did sharing time. She hadn't had a nap that morning, which is usually a recipe for disaster, but she was a little doll the entire time!

For my birthday (which was a while ago) We got to help Jared go hunting for part of it. I had just gotten my new camera and I had a lot of fun trying it out.

Sam was so excited to help daddy "Catch" a deer. too bad we didn't see anything. But we did have a lot of fun!

Sam loves these pictures, and always likes to see the picture of Sammy in the flowers (leaves).