Progress

Felix isn't quite crawling, but he is scooting all over the place. Backwards.

He's not quite ready for lots of baby food, but he studies us intently when we eat and he wants to try everything. He loves mushed carrots and sweet potatoes, but he's not so fond of peas.

He's not quite pushing himself up to a sitting position, but he tries and he will sit now unassisted without falling over too often.

He doesn't quite understand the wire plaything with the moveable beads, but he does sit and play with it anyway. Mostly he'll try to put the beads in his mouth.

He doesn't quite feed himself yet completely, but he will grab his bottle and steer it into his mouth and feed himself if we'll coach him. He's at the point of putting everything in his mouth to try out the texture, but if it's small enough he will choke on it. He doesn't seem to mind even then.

He doesn't quite communicate with us about anything, but this morning for the first time he very clearly made the sign for milk and smiled when I asked him if he wanted milk and made the sign to him. Yay! My 7-month-old baby is starting to communicate!!!

One Good Thing

I have discovered over the years that if one thing in my life is going exceptionally well, I then feel much more willing and able to deal with all the things that are going badly.

I don't want to get into a pity party or anything, but I'm having a hard time lately with a bunch of things that seem to be weighing me down.

In contrast, I got partially moved to a new team at work, which means that I have a relatively full plate at work. That also means that I can start counting on having a pretty good paycheck again.

Although it's hard to get used to going back to work (not really since I've been working the whole time, just much less), it's nice to know that I am both needed and greatly appreciated at work. Makes me feel all sorts of warm and fuzzy inside.

With that warmth and fuzziness, I again have the motivation to deal with medical issues, car crap, health disappointments, dirty house, etc. It also helps that I have a fantastic support base of friends and family to add to that warm and fuzzy feeling.

That's all I've got. Just a thanks to family, friends, and work, for the support and patience in a relatively frustrating time. It really means a lot to me.

Do Not Buy This Car...

It's a long story that just makes me sad, but suffice it to say that I will never ever recommend a VW to anyone. It's been a long week already. Sigh.

Making New Friends

A couple of days ago I had a discussion with my sister Anne about the fact that we had moved a lot as children. She felt that it had a very negative effect on her ability to make friends and kind of bemoaned the childhood lack of stability and her continued discomfort in talking to people.


Over the years I've thought a lot about my friend-making abilities. For me, moving was really helpful. I wanted to be social but I was terribly shy. In the end, my desire won over my comfort zone and I forced myself to go out and make friends.


After talking to Anne for a bit, however, I realized that my ability to make friends is really often limited to making pretty superficial friends. I'm absolutely fascinated by people and really truly want to be friends with everyone, but I find myself holding back because of fear of rejection. I will easily talk to people and even make a pretty quick connection with them, but making deep friends is still very difficult.


Growing up in multiple states, I now lay claim to friends all over the US. There are different levels of friendship that I enjoy with these people, but I've discovered that when I make an effort, more often than not, people are welcoming of that effort and I make new friends (or create better friendships from those already existing).


Yesterday, Brent and I went to a baby shower. Brent is best friends with Ian, who he bonded with in high school. Ian and his wife Amy have welcomed me into the little group, and they are just days away from welcoming their first child into their home.


So Brent went to the shower with me so he could play with Ian (they are both fans of video games) and so he could drive since I'm still on crutches. After a couple of hours of hanging out at this shower, knowing (and really only superficially) Amy, we ended up as a group of 3. Amy - the pregnant one, Janis - the hostess of the party, and me. And the 3 husbands were downstairs.


We talked pretty comfortably and decided after a while to go check out a sale at Lane Bryant. Turns out their clearance section was pretty well stocked and we each spent about $30 on 4 or 5 items. The funny part was this ragtag group of women. Me - the gimp, Amy - the pregnant one, and Janis - toting along her almost 2 year old daughter.


But we bonded. We ended up being there for about 8 hours yesterday (the boys just didn't want to call it a night). It was really circumstance that threw us together, but we enjoyed ourselves. We are nothing alike really, except that all three of us have husbands who really love comic books and video games. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to enjoying their company again.


So, here's to friends. To making friends. To deepening friendships that are superficial. To going out of our comfort zones and being enriched.


Good times.

Cuz I'm a gimp, ya ya ya!

Over the last couple of days as I've had to rely on Brent for the simplest of needs, I've come to realize just how amazing he is. It's not like it's really new information because I've understood from the beginning that he's a great person. But this really is the extra mile.

Not only does he basically take care of Felix probably 95% right now, but he makes all the food (including the dinner I promised to my visiting teachee who just had a baby), does laundry, and bring me everything I ask. And he does it all without any hint of a complaint.

So I'm pretty much out of commission what with the being on crutches and all, but Felix has had a hard week too. He started peeling a couple of days ago and we could tell that although his sunburn may not be painful anymore it's still uncomfortable. He's got a large sore on his left temple where the skin split somehow and a couple of scabs on his nose where I think he scratched the skin off too soon. Poor kid. But he is doing better.

Brent made some yummy stroganoff last night so we had that left-over for lunch today. Felix is starting to realize the connection between taste and putting things in mouths and he watches us closely when we eat. So we got out the peas. I know it's kind of cruel to be eating something so wonderful as this slightly spicy yumminess and then be sticking him with the blah-ness of mushed canned peas (which is exactly what it smells like). So I would take his little spoon and get a tiny bit of the sauce from my stroganoff and then get some peas. And he seemed to really like it.

I wonder if my love of spicy and extremely flavorful foods will be passed on to Felix...

So, apparently my camera didn't survive the weekend and I'll have to send it in to be repaired before I can take any new pictures. I'm really sad about that, but thankfully, I have lots of good friends and relatives with cameras. Until I can take more of my own, I'll be relying on their pictures.

Speaking of which, here's a pic of Felix that my new friend Kim took at that same picnic as our family pic. Enjoy!

Camping - part 2

It's never as simple as you think it's going to be, is it?

We got to Moab about 9:15 pm and set up camp. Felix didn't sleep very well and was quite fussy on Saturday morning so Brent went with the group to see a bunch of arches while I stayed with Felix. In the afternoon Brent and I traded places.

We took a guided tour of the Feiry Furnace (named for the view at sunset), but after about 30 minutes I realized that my ankles were not up for the challenge and I was not used to any kind of hiking (meaning I was gasping for breath every couple of minutes), so my friend Erin generously offered to hike back to the beginning with me.

Saturday evening we all went out to eat and then went home and went to bed.

Sunday we took our time getting up. Most of the group went in to town to shower and go to church. Brent and Felix and I stayed, watched a couple of conference talks on his laptop, went down to the river to cool off, and just hung out. When people got back from church we just relaxed the rest of the day. We realized that somewhere along the day poor Felix had gotten sunburned and as the day progressed it looked worse and worse.

This morning we were thinking of going to Delicate Arch, which is the most famous of the arches - the one that appears on the Utah license plate, but when it came down to it we decided to just come home. We finally left the campsite and all our new friends about 9 this morning.

We got to Erin's house about 1 and I took Felix in the house to cool off while Brent loaded our car. We said goodbye to Erin and as I was walking around the car to put Felix in, I stepped off the driveway onto the grass. Unfortunately, the grass there is deceptive and covers a hole. My ankle twisted all over the place as I fell and I dropped the carseat (only about 6 inches, thankfully).

I had to writhe around on the ground for a few minutes and just sob in pain before I could finally crawl to the car and get in. I cried all the way home, where my dad offered to drive me to the hospital. So I crawled to his car and he took me to the emergency room.

Turns out I actually chipped a bone in my ankle this time. It's by far the worst sprain I've ever had, and this was on an already weak ankle. I'm not happy, but as long as I'm not moving it's bearable.

I feel like a horrible mother - letting my infant burn because it's his first real sun exposure, and now I can't even do much with him because I can't move.

Brent is such a fantastic husband and father. Seriously, it's times of injury that it's the most obvious, but he's awesome.

Here are some pics from the trip. You can tell that Felix's face has started to swell...

New pictures of Felix

The happiest baby in the world...for the moment.









Even his pout is achingly cute!









This can't be the most comfortable position in which to sleep.









We really didn't get him drunk, we swear!









The little guy was really tired.