full-time

My supervisor has been out of town for a week so I've been working full-time to cover. It's been interesting and exhausting. And I'm glad he's back in the office tomorrow because I really want to sleep in.

Too bad I can't sleep in tomorrow though. Not really too bad because I'm going to have a tour of the birthing center. And I should be able to have an ultrasound in about 2 weeks. Pretty cool, eh?

A Brand New Album for 1990...

How did we go from bright and beautiful: to torrential downpour: in a few short hours?

We were watching a movie (Music & Lyrics, brilliant 80's rock band spoof) and I heard water. I assumed that it was sprinklers till I heard beeping coming from my kitchen. It was our wonderful little Leak Frog announcing a flood. Yep, giant rain storm and water pouring in my kitchen floor. Mom even called a concrete guy today about the crack in the foundation, but it looks like she should have called a little earlier.

I'm sure I've seen rain that hard in Utah, but it's been a really long time. Before I put towels down in the kitchen. The water got about 2 inches deep. Good thing the closest we come to perishables on the floor are old cardboard boxes that haven't been recycled yet, eh?
The ceiling of our bedroom has a problem when it rains this hard too. And I'll be sleeping in a small puddle tonight.
We used every towel we could find. I think after the picture I even found a couple more and put them all down too. I would say "no permanent damage" but our kitchen walls won't recover from all the flooding this year.

It has been an interesting day, that's for sure. :)

Baby reality

Lying on the bed this morning on my back, I asked Brent if I looked pregnant yet. I know I'm only 3 1/2 months pregnant, but I'm actually hopeful because I haven't felt very pregnant. Not much in the way of nausea, but way more emotional than normal and I have to go to the bathroom a lot.

Brent said no. No worries, it'll come soon enough. I would rather look pregnant than fat though.

As I felt my belly (in between Felix crawling all over me), I could feel a pretty obvious hardening of my lower belly. That's apparently where the uterus is located. So, through the fat, it is hard underneath. Brent has the same thing, but he calls his "stealth abs". Mine would very happily be baby. I would someday like to have abs again, but this is good.

Floor soup

First, I emptied the can into the huge soup mug.

Then I set it on the counter, pushed back so it wasn't on the edge, and I went to get water to thin the soup.

I heard noises while I was gone and figured Felix was playing in the plastic-ware on the bottom shelf.

This is what I found instead:



When I yelled down the hall for Brent to bring me my phone (camera), Felix freaked out and ran from the room crying. I thought it was funny. He ate most of it, which was also okay because I was making it for him.

Sigh. I need a real kitchen. What a little punk. :)

Two

Two names you go by:
1. Heather
2. Sister Webster.

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Blue t-shirt
2. jeans

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. be with friends
2. talk to my husband when neither of us has somewhere else to be

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. go to bed (yep, before 9 pm)
2. for money troubles to magically resolve themselves

Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1. Lady the ferret
2. fish - any of them

Two people who will send this back completed:
1. Nobody. I cheated and just put it on my blog instead. :)

Two things you did last night:
1. ate yummy brownies courtesy of my wonderful hubby
2. slept fitfully

Two things you ate today:
1. ribs
2. steamed broccoli

Two people you last talked to:
1. Sylwia (sis-in-law)
2. my friend Wendy by text

Two things you plan on doing tomorrow:
1. working
2. finally making an appt for my pregnancy

Two longest trips taken in the last five years:
1. moving back to Utah from Alaska - ferry and driving
2. trip to Seattle to play with friends

Two favorite holidays:
1. Halloween - a perfect excuse to look different
2. Christmas - a perfect excuse to see loved ones

Two favorite beverages:
1. root beer
2. water

"Wanna see a magic trick?"

If you've seen the movie, you know that line in the title is actually very menacing. Or rather, it's what comes afterward that is so menacing. I think the whole movie theater jumped in shock.

Brent and I, along with about 6 friends, went to go see The Dark Knight tonight. It was in honor of Brent's birthday earlier this week and it seemed fitting that for my movie/comic book geek husband's celebration, we go see this movie.

We were a little too close in the theater, but tickets were selling out fast early in the week and we didn't have much choice. Because of the huge amount of action, I would have preferred sitting back about 10 more rows. Besides that, my only beef with the entire movie was that Christian Bale's voice when he was Batman got kind of goofy towards the end of the movie. It was breathy and hard to understand and sounded like he was really forcing it (yeah, he did that for this entire movie and for the last one, but this time it got weird).

Do NOT take kids to this movie. It is dark and actually kind of scary, but not in any kind of a horror movie type of way. The lines between good and evil become blurred. The Joker is menacing, not because he is mean, but because he is interested in suffering. And he is absolutely insane.

The buzz about Heath Ledger's performance and how it might even be Oscar-worthy is not at all because he's dead. It is because he so completely disappears into the role that it's hard to imagine the same guy could also be a gay cowboy and a rogue jouster and a vaguely Shakespearean high schooler. No exaggeration. He is simply brilliant and looking back at Jack Nicholson's Joker is almost painful. And of course, Christian Bale is still great as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Goofy voice at times, but otherwise the entire movie is magnificent.

Of course, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were perfect. I thought Aaron Eckhart was perfect for Harvey Dent, and Maggie Gyllanhaal was an awesome replacement for completely unbelievable Katie Holmes.

Now for the technical stuff...

The movie is dark in that the colors are dark but also that the whole feel of the movie is dark. The effects are spot on, the makeup is perfect (I'm talking about the Joker, his henchmen, and Harvey Dent/Two-Face), the timing is superb - no slow parts, etc. Yeah, my absolute only complaint about anything in the movie is with the Batman voice.

That doesn't mean I want to see it again right away. In fact, it's pretty darn intense and dark and I will probably be content to see it next when it's out on video. I'm not sure why. Maybe "crazy" hits a little too close to home.

I LOVED this movie. I would give it 4 and 4/5 out of 5 stars. It would have gotten 5/5 if only the Batman voice weren't so goofy.

Just because

Felix was blowing raspberries on the ball. When he noticed us laughing, he grinned and went right back to it. What a goofball!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Different directors have different strengths and weaknesses. Some directors are experts at assembling and shooting compelling and elaborate action set pieces. Others are great at using just the right camera angle to make you feel the awe of a giant robot or an alien invasion. Others know just how to get the most emotionally charged performances from their actors. There are some that are not good at anything at all, but that's another story.

Gillermo del Toro's particular genius is in presenting us with bizarre and imaginative creatures, one after another. Whether that makes for a great movie or not, I'm convinced, depends mostly on whoever the writers are, because del Toro is not one who excels at saving a weak script. If you wish to see evidence of this, watch Blade 2 (if you dare).

This brings me to Hellboy II: The Golden Army. As the title would suggest, this is a sequel. The first film suffered from a near incomprehensible ending (again, del Toro's inability - or perhaps unwillingness - to save a flawed script). This second film does not have the same problem. The events may be unbelievable, but they are never unclear.

For those who don't know, Hellboy is the creation of comic book writer/artist Mike Mignola. The movie looks astoundingly like Mignola's art, and Ron Perlman in the title role is an inspired choice.

Visually, the film is stunning. Every scene, no, every frame is lush and colorful with interesting things to gawk at. It's a sumptuous feast for the eyes.

But will you like it? That depends. Does the idea of a sardonic, cigar-smoking demon, raised by humans, who now fights for good but is ultimately destined to destroy the world pique your interest? How about if he has a tumultuous romantic relationship with a girl who bursts into flame? What if his best friend is a fishy, erudite amphibian who is vaguely reminiscent of C-3PO? Would you like to see creatures bizarre enough to make the ones in the cantina in Star Wars seem almost commonplace?

If your answer is yes, this is the movie for you. It won't disappoint. It's made with enough competence and internal consistency that you'll likely love it. If this sort of thing is not your cup of tea, you'll probably not enjoy yourself.

I enjoyed it. Also, there's a scene in the middle of the movie that made me laugh a lot. That scores a lot of points with me.

I'd give it 3 1/2 out of five stars.

Felix vs. the dogspit covered softball

For the first few minutes after he got beaned by his cousin Gracie (she's only about 6 months older than him), there was a big red spot on his forehead that was completely broken out in hives. Then the hives started to spread.

This pic was taken only about 10 minutes after he got hit. I think there's a good chance he might be allergic to dogs...

Update (Sunday, 6 pm): Felix's eye is still red and you can still see the hives. It's much better than it was yesterday, but still. Also, I was giving him Benedryl while I took the picture, and although it helped, it didn't clear it up completely. So a day and a full (toddler) dose of Benedryl later, and the dogspit still has a hold on him. He still doesn't seem to mind, although he has been scratching his head and face quite a bit and rubbing his eye. Yup, definitely allergic to dogs.

Felix's first car wash

Journey to the Center of the Earth (in 3D)

My niece earned a movie by watching Felix for us a while back and she decided she wanted to watch the new Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser. We went tonight because it was finally out. Now let me say that a movie with Brendan Fraser can hardly be taken seriously. I mean, he was George of the Jungle, for heaven's sake!

But, the preview made it look fun, and we decided to go all out and even see it in 3D.

The story is a bit juvenile. This guy and his nephew head to Iceland because they're sure that there is new data proving the existence of volcanic tubes that lead down to the center of the earth. Or something like that. They hook up with a hot Icelandic mountain guide and together embark on a fantastic adventure.

The movie isn't very long, but it also goes really fast. My niece wanted more, but I thought it was about right. It's totally unbelievable (follows Jules Vern's story of the same name as if it were a real story and not fiction) and silly (dinosaurs and man-eating plants and loch ness monsters and the like), but it's fun.

So, it's a perfect movie for little kids. My niece and I (she's 12) loved it. On the way home we stopped at Wendy's, where they happened to have toys from the movie in their kids' meals. My niece got a viewfinder-type thing shaped like a t-rex skull and I got a glow-in-the-dark finger puppet bird.

It was a good night. I might even consider doing it again with different nieces and nephews. The movie was fun enough that it wouldn't offend me to see it twice. :)

Day off

I got a little pool from someone this weekend and we set it up yesterday.
I didn't get much sleep last night and anticipating a bad headache I asked for the day off. [I am very happy to work part time for Western Wats. They are incredibly accommodating of my schedule and there are some amazingly fun and friendly people to work with. Not only that, but I like the work.]

Anyway, I got the day to hang out and relax, and found out that my parents had planned to have a whole bunch of kids over. No problem, because Felix loves having lots of kids around.

Besides the new (to us) little round pool, we set up my other little pool and the kids had a ball playing all over the back yard. My parents even set up a slide into one of the pools.

When the kids were all done playing in the pools, they spent some time picking cherries and eating them. Some kids even took their bucket of cherries back to the pool. Felix and I had fun in the pools and at the cherry tree, and we even talked Brent into coming out for a bit.

Although it was a busy day with about 10 little kids running around, it was also very fun. That is my idea of a day off.

Allergies

Felix had his first round of allergy tests today. I thought it would be more comprehensive, but they only tested about 10 allergens. They did one for histamine as a control, and I remember eggs (yolk and whites), soybeans, corn, wheat, peanuts, and milk. Felix is allergic to peanuts and eggs - both yolk and whites.
[edit (thanks to Paige for the question): Brent is allergic to many things, but mildly, because he had desensitizing shots as a kid. What still gets him is peanuts, green beans (one of the things we have identified for Felix), soybeans, raw tomatoes, grasses like alfalfa (no sprouts, can't lay in the grass or mow the lawn), and he is very very allergic to rabbits. He does still have a mild allergy to cats as well. The reason I'm adding this is because we already know that Felix gets it from both sides of the family (most of my family has allergies, but I only have a very few).

Also, just an FYI, the first pic was taken about 30 seconds after the prick tests and you can already see the red spots forming. The second pic was taken only 2 or 3 minutes later and already the welts were obvious. I believe the top left welt was the histamine control.]
I was kind of hoping they would test for more things, since we have stayed away from peanuts (Brent is allergic) and we don't eat plain eggs very often (doc said eggs cooked into other things was probably okay, but no straight eggs) and he breaks out in hives at least once a month.

The doctor did say they could do more testing at about 2 years, so we're planning on going back in about 7 months. In the meantime, he said to just pay attention to the foods he eats and keep track of what causes hives and they'll add them to the list when we go back in.

Not as conclusive as I had hoped, but it's a start.

another update (man, is it a day for posts or what?)

Doc just gave the go ahead. As soon as all the paperwork is done we're heading home. Yay!

For fun

I haven't documented much fun lately, so I figured I would brag about my cute kid for a minute. He's been charming all the nurses in the hospital and being very active, all things considered.

Felix started walking for real at about 15 months, which means he's been walking for about a month and a half now. He is finally preferring that over crawling, but really all it took was showing him how much fun it could be (and getting over some serious ear infections that threw his balance out of whack). We made it a game for him to walk between people and he loved it.

When he was about 6 months old, we started making the sign for milk with him. He did it every once in a while, but when he was about a year old he started using it a lot. And it was as if he suddenly knew exactly what it meant and was concerned about us knowing too. We also started making the sign for more and he has finally picked that up. Just this past week he has been saying more words (for the longest time all he would say was "ite", always pointing to lights, but I think it really meant "look" more than anything), experimenting with sounds. Most of the time he will grunt and "talk" through his nose when trying to communicate, but when he's playing, he'll use all sorts of fun sounds.

This week especially he's been saying "momomom" and "dadadad" and we've gotten him to identify us using those sounds. It's really quite fun. We've also gotten him to use the Italian sign for "yummy" just in the past day or two (put a finger to your cheek and kind of twist your hand back and forth). So cute.

Felix likes all food, but we've figured out that he likes salty and spicy things more than sweets. He does still like sugar quite a bit, but it's not his favorite. His favorite thing to eat is actually ice. Here in the hospital they have some kind of little crushed ice and he LOVES sucking on the pieces. He would do it a lot more at home if the ice we had was smaller.

His favorite pastime is identifying borders so he can throw things. For example, if something is downstairs, he'll take it up. If something is upstairs, he'll throw it down. He loves throwing rocks or bark into the grass, and throwing grass or pine cones into the street. He loves playing in dirt and getting it everywhere (he's a boy, of course), and he loves putting anything into his mouth.

More than anything, he hates being still. He will occasionally concentrate on some toy (more often than not, he's putting small toys or pieces into a bottle or container of some sort), but most of the time he wants to be moving around. He's not shy at all so he also loves meeting new people and making new friends.

I sure love that little bugger of mine.

Update

Felix has responded really well to all the treatments so far. The nurse said he was wheezing a little bit this morning, but after his treatment he's doing much better. He's been off oxygen for over 24 hours and now the only thing he's hooked up to is the i.v., which is making sure he's getting enough fluids. I keep hoping they'll decide he's eating and drinking enough and then even if they keep him for observation it'll be easier not to have him attached to anything. We'll see what his doctor says when he gets here today. [update to the update: the nurse just came in an unhooked his i.v. He's still got the bandages and splint on his arm, but no cords! Yay!]

The doctor who saw him yesterday said he might be able to go home today. Cross your fingers with us!

Brent and I both are kind of stuffed up and sick now, so even if Felix were out of the hospital we'd be homebodies this weekend. Oh well. At least Felix would be able to explore.

My mom came and hung out with Felix for a couple hours last night so Brent and I could go see a movie. We saw Hancock. It was really interesting (fascinating premise actually) and kind of fun, and it had a twist that neither of us saw coming at all. It made me think and I did laugh. But mostly it made me think. And I like that in a movie.

Anyway, we're still in the hospital, still without a definite time for leaving. But we're doing better.

Hospitalization #3

On Tuesday morning Felix woke up with a really runny nose. He started coughing throughout the day and was coughing so hard it would make him throw up. He was pretty unhappy about it, as you may imagine.

Last night he started wheezing, but since we had a follow-up with the doctor today for his latest ear infections, I didn't bother calling the doctor.

He struggled all night (miserable and making mom and dad miserable in the process) and by this morning he was really having a hard time breathing and he had stopped eating.

When the doctor finally saw him (we waited for over 40 minutes because the doc was behind and they didn't realize he was having breathing issues), he diagnosed respiratory distress and sent us to the hospital.

So here we are again. Chest x-rays are harder to read than I would have thought (is it pneumonia or is it just asthma? different opinions apparently - we've been told both but haven't heard from the doc yet), but Felix is definitely still very unhappy.

I'm exhausted and frustrated and disappointed (no big family party tomorrow, no visiting families over the weekend). Sigh. The doctor promised me we'd actually fix this. That was the first time I had heard any promising prognoses since this all started.

Thank goodness (again!) for Medicaid.


Update: Doc said the chest x-rays were inconclusive for pneumonia so they're treating him with heavy-duty antibiotics anyway. Doc also said they're going to try to get him released Monday in time for his allergy appointment. 4 days in the hospital. Minimum. Anyone want to visit they are absolutely welcome. And of course, prayers are appreciated.

Any guesses?

(hint: you shake it on your food to make it saltier, and you mix it in water to make a drink that rhymes with "rang" - in the pic he's sitting on a whole pile of this new mixture)

I just...

broke a tooth. First time ever. I was flossing and a chunk popped out. I haven't even eaten anything really hard recently.

I've actually had trouble with this tooth for the past couple of years, but it's not like I thought it would break. I got a cavity filled when I lived in Oregon and ever since then I get things caught between that tooth and the one next to it. Never did before. It doesn't hurt thankfully, but I need to make an appointment soon.

Happily, Medicaid covers dental for pregnant women.

All About Saturday

This last weekend was extremely pleasant.

Although it was very short, first we ran over to the Llama household to say happy birthday to Porter. Next week we'll attend his baptism. It was pretty hot and it was mainly a bunch of little kids, but we wanted to support Jason and Char more than anything.

I organized a reunion get-together in the park for as many members of my old singles ward as I could find (I contacted over 40 people). There were even a few people who came that I hadn't contacted. Basically we just sat in the shade and caught up and chatted while the various kids played. I still don't have my camera cord yet, so I'll have to gather pictures from Andrea or someone else that took pics.

After the reunion, we ran to a park in American Fork (my new favorite park - this place is awesome and I'll only divulge its location to people I really like, and only if they ask really nicely) where my family had a big picnic. My sis-in-law Sylwia was there with her 4 kids (they're here from Georgia for a month while my bro is busy with doctor stuff - Sylwia also came to the ward reunion because that's where we first met and essentially where she met Josh), Dan and Linda with their 7 kids, Anne and Denny were both working (Anne at the hospital and Denny on projects) so mom and dad brought their 5 kids to the park.

There's a wading stream through the park that's about 4 inches deep and maybe 4 feet across. The kids had a lot of fun getting wet. There was lots of shade so it didn't seem too hot (plus the water was super cold so it was easy to cool off). Felix played in the dirt the whole time and threw everything he could find in the water (including Grace's shoes).
It was so nice there at the park. I'm seriously in love with it. If I had more than my cell phone to take pics with, I'd have done a photo piece and you'd see for yourself.

I think it was Friday that dad set up one of my little kid wading pools in the backyard. We took Felix out on Sunday as soon as it was in the shade (which meant the water had warmed up nicely during the day) and he LOVED it. We took him out again yesterday. He had so much fun. You can tell he's just in heaven...