Felix and the blowfish

Ever since I can remember, I've known the secret of the blowfish. I make a seal with my lips on a window and blow. The cheeks get all big with the air and if done right, it also makes a great sound. When you do this on a person, it's often called a zebert. When I was a nanny in Spain I taught the kids how to do the blowfish. I was so proud.

The first time I saw Felix blow on a window I was stunned. I can't imagine my parents teaching that to him and I'm pretty sure Brent and I didn't do it. Felix thought it was hilarious (as did we, of course).

One day not too long ago, however, after Brent and Felix came in the room to wake me up, I was sitting on the bed and Felix came over and blew on my arm. It made a good sound, I laughed, and Felix giggled. He has done it since and I'm convinced that Grandpa Hardman would have been extremely proud.

Side note: I think baby giggle is the most beautiful sound in the universe. Felix loves to play with Brent, and there's a lot of giggling going on. And Felix is very ticklish. It makes my heart happy to hear that much laughter.

The best was just a day or two ago, when Felix started blowing on my face. I couldn't take it anymore when he got to my neck. Apparently I am still ticklish - at least to zeberts.

I will always insist that I didn't teach him this trick. He must have some Hardman in him. I can imagine some of my favorite cousins secretly teaching him how to blow right in the crook of someone's neck for greatest effect. Shauna - did you do it?!

Canning and movie review

On Tuesday I became a canner. Of course, me canning might be along the lines of Bob Wiley sailing, since I had lots of good help. Linda did a bunch of peaches while I prepared my veggies, and then Anne and Mom helped me put all my giardiniera together. It's basically marinated (not quite pickled, but along those lines) garden veggies. At 12:15 am, we packed up the car and headed home, leaving all the super hot cans at Anne's house. Linda and Mom had taken their leave earlier.

I ended up with 12 pint jars and about 20 quart jars of giardiniera. I think they might be hot, but I haven't tried any yet. I'm nervous.

Tonight Brent and I left Felix with Anne so we could sneak out to a movie. We saw Ghost Town. I would say it's highly likely that none of you have ever heard of it. The lead is Ricky Gervais (best known for being the boss in Britain's The Office, but he was also the head of the museum in Night at the Museum), seconded by Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni.

Brent and I both laughed a lot. It wasn't quite as silly as Get Smart, but Ricky really has a gift for understated humor. Honestly it was hilarious.

But the movie wasn't all about the laughs. It was quite thought-provoking as well, and I ended up crying quite a bit. I would blame it all on the pregnancy hormones, but Brent assured me he was pretty close to crying a few times too.

It was a really good blend of funny and serious, and we decided we would group that movie with a few other favorites: Stranger than Fiction (very funny drama) and Dan in Real Life (also drama that is quite funny) specifically. Ghost Town is funnier than those two, but it's also really a drama.

It is rated PG-13. There are two F-bombs and some other mild swearing. There is also a conversation about a mummy's body part that isn't really for young ears. Otherwise, the movie is perfect. I would guess the producers added the swearing just so it would get the PG-13 and be taken more seriously as a drama. How many potential viewers would be unconsciously turned off by it being rated PG? I probably would have been.

Anyway, it is worth seeing. I really really enjoyed it. I think I'd even have to put it in my top 5 favorite movies of the year.

Girls Night and stuff

At 1 pm on Saturday I showed up at Lis's house with Kristin and a bunch of goodies.

By 2 pm we started the extended version of Lord of the Rings. We did take a few breaks along the way, we chatted while we were watching, and we generally really enjoyed each others' company. There were 6 of us and we really had fun. I got home at 4 am. Yeah, we watched all three, all extended. When I told my boss at work he high fived me. Apparently he approved that we watched it as part of a girls night.

Good times, even if I didn't get nearly enough sleep.

This morning we took the car to the shop. The check engine light is off - hopefully for good. And the blinker socket is fixed. Apparently the connection was bad. All that good helped get over a scary bit on the way to the shop... when I was pulled over for having an expired registration. The cop let me off with a warning, thank goodness, and Brent got the car registered online while I was at work.

We're in the clear for now, but that's a bunch of unexpected expenses we didn't want right now. Do we ever want them? Of course not.

On my way home from the office and the mechanic, I passed two boys holding hands. I would guess they were about 17 years old, and they were very obviously boys and very obviously holding hands.

I don't have huge complexes about gay people in Utah. But it was still quite unsettling. You know?

My world is changing. My world. I can deal with changes in other places. But here?

In other news, baby is still kicking up a storm. She's always very active and I guess that's a good thing. I feel like she's healthy.

Baby #1 (Felix) went to the doc last week for shots and a well-child checkup. He now is in the 75th percentile for weight. What gets me is that he's in the 95th percentile for height, and the 98th percentile for head circumference. You mean that 25% of kids his age are heavier?! Really? We did know he had a huge noggin though. :)

Alien Dreams

Anyone remember this post from last year: Strange Dreams?

Well, I'm finally starting to write the story. I have an email chain somewhere will all of the dreams. There ended up being like 7 or 8 of them.

Since I thrive on feedback, I would love it if any of you want to read as I write. I haven't decided on the age group to write this for, but since it's my first effort, it might very well come out simply. Or teenage-like.

I have this as a google document (I LOVE Google Docs!!!!), and I can share it with anyone who sends me an email address. So if you're interested, let me know.

Busy Busy Busy, Sick Sick Sick

Friday I picked up three kids from my sister's house and made them clean my living room. I actually paid them quite a bit of money to do it, so it's not like I was being a slave-master. I just don't have the energy to do lots of bending and lifting and stairs as we try to clean out the rooms one-by-one so we can deep clean and maybe do some renovations. Thank goodness for willing and able kids! (this pic was from Friday. When Felix first saw the helmet and heard the voice he got freaked out and cried and ran to me, but within a few minutes, my bro-in-law had convinced him to put it on. He makes a cute Vader, don't you think?)

Saturday morning I got up to go to the stake preparedness fair to help out in the nursery. There were 3 different nurseries, and each of them had an over-abundance of adults. Mine had like 7 adults and about as many kids, so they let me leave early.

I took advantage and went straight up to Salt Lake for a reception. Well, I did stop at Sonic to get a cherry limeade cream slush (I can't go to Sonic unless I get one). I waited for a long time in the drive through, although I'm not quite sure why. It was 10:30 in the morning and maybe there was only one girl working. Anyway, I took the opportunity to pluck. It had been a long time - apparently I don't look at myself closely in the mirror very often because I was hideously hirsute! - and I got it all done. I finished the last eyebrow hair just as the girl was bringing me the credit card back.

The reception was for my dear friend Kristina, who was my roommate in Alaska for a few short months when I first got up there. She didn't last very long because it ended up being a tough experience for her, but we bonded anyway. Such a cutie.

On my way back down south, I stopped in Sandy to drop off a pair of maternity jeans for my cousin. I had volunteered my mom to hem them for her.

Back in Orem, I picked up Brent and Felix and we ran to Costco to pick up a present for Brent's best friend Ian's daughter's birthday - a really cute touch and feel book. We would have gotten two but they only had one of our favorite. After Costco we ran to a park in Lehi for a cute birthday party. Felix even took a turn at the pinata - not that he knew why people were wacking the shiny pink thing up in the tree.

On the way home from the park, Felix fell asleep so we figured we could fit in a movie. So we went to Movies 8 and caught a late-afternoon showing of Kung Fu Panda. It was actually quite fun, even though Felix woke up at the beginning.

Back at home, I gathered things and took Felix over to my sister's house to hang out with the kids. My sis and her husband had gone on a date and the kids didn't want to be alone. I made them watch Rocky IV, even though none of them wanted to. Only Rachel was still mad by the end (she wanted to watch X-Men III even though she had seen it the day before). The rest of the kids LOVED it. Of course. That's an awesome movie.

Sunday morning I woke up reluctantly. Totally sick. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Completely congested, big bad sore throat, sneezing, coughing. Blech. Brent and my dad were also sick, and this morning my mom finally got it. We've finally started feeling better today, but I've tried to keep my germs to myself. It's been nice to rest, but I know that I'll be completely exhausted tomorrow, when I go back on schedule. I just hope three days of rest is enough.

I'm ready for another weekend. And the rest of this week is going to be super busy with scout stuff and more cleaning (I'll hire those kids as much as they're willing for the next couple of weeks - I want all those corners clean - no more spiders!). But at least I have an amazing set of friends who all want to get together on Saturday. And at least I have an amazingly understanding husband who will let me be gone most of Saturday to mentally recoup. I can do this. I just need to breathe deeply and take one step at a time. Right?

Today as I was sitting at my computer and Heather was napping, little Felix picked up the container of wipes, opened the closet where the diapers are, grabbed one, and brought the diaper and wipes to me. He did need to be changed, so I did that. Then I handed him the box of wipes and said to him, "Go put them back."

He did.

Awesome.

Only in Utah

No seriously. Check this out... I never would have accurately labeled this car, but it was parked so I saw that it was a Lotus. HOT FREAKING CAR! Right?

Well, look a little closer at the passenger seat... I didn't want to get all stalker-ish for a better picture. Can you see it? The thing on the passenger seat that makes it look more bulky? Yeah, that's the part that makes this view appropriate for: Only in Utah. It's a toddler car seat. Seriously awesome. I love American Fork.

a little update

So sometimes I go a week or two and then try to catch up all at once. You have a problem with that? No? Good, we can proceed. ;)

Last week I started working at my job in the mornings so I could take Felix in the afternoons over to my brother and sis-in-law's house to help out. Their nanny gave her 2-weeks notice but then never showed up again.

I've been tag-teaming it with Linda (sis-in-law) so everything can get done. It really is quite necessary to have two adults around at all times.

There are appointments and sports (soccer for all! Well, 4 of the kids have soccer twice a week - different days and different times and different places - makes things interesting), chores and homework assignments, trying to keep sanity and make lots of snacks for lots of kids without losing any cool.

I guess it's a really good thing to find out I'm not cut out to have a large family before I actually have one, right?

I'm feeling a bit frazzled lately. What with two part-time jobs, trying to clear out the downstairs so we can make some much-needed updates (deep cleaning combined with mold removal and a few other fixes), extra calling stuff (still doing scouts and nursery, meetings and extra nursery duties), and a generally busy fall (I really thought there would be more socializing in the summer...), I almost wish I could get put on bed rest so I could take some time off it all.

I keep thinking, "there's no rest for the wicked," all the time trying to stop at just: "there's no rest." It's not really working, dang it.

The baby in my belly

She's dancing. Maybe doing karate. Or gymnastics. I'm certain it's something that will get her into the Olympics in about 16 1/2 years.

Today at the midwife appointment, everything went well. I still have a UTI and my midwife said I really need to take acidopholus and fish oil, and I need to drink a minimum of 2 litres of water a day (holy peeing all the time, batman! - she said that once the UTI is gone I will actually pee less often, hooray!).

Anyway, the baby in my tummy has been super duper active. I started really feeling her as early as 16 weeks and she's very regularly kicking my guts to expand her space.

So today at the appointment I told Becky (midwife extraordinaire) about all the movement. She said one of her daughters kicked her appendix so much that she had to have it removed - during the pregnancy.

When Becky put the thinghy on my belly to get the heart rate, baby kicked the machine. It took Becky a good 10 minutes to get a total of about 4 seconds of heart beat. Kid was everywhere!

I know they say you feel your second baby more because you recognize it better, but I swear Felix was a lump on a log in comparison. Little bundle of Olympic potential.

Weekend fun

Try as I might, I don't remember Saturday. Must have been boring. Oh well.

Sunday was pretty normal too.

Yesterday, however, that was the biggie.

My wonderfully generous work offered to send all interested employees and spouses to Lagoon for free. And they offered to let us bring guests for just $15 per person. I had 20 guests. :)

On Sunday evening we had some serious rain and we heard that the weather was going to cool down quite a bit. I have to say I was slightly worried, mostly that my guests (older sis and her whole family, cousin Rob and his whole family, youngest brother Than and his wife, cousin Robyn and her boyfriend, and a random nephew and two nieces) would wuss out and I'd be stuck with a bunch of extra tickets.

On Monday morning we packed up early and headed north. We made pretty good time till we hit Salt Lake and the rain was so hard we slowed to 40 mph. The hail on the freeway was so thick and wet that it looked like heavy slush and when cars passed by too closely it was freaky because we couldn't see anything at all.

We got to Lagoon about 10 and the guy asked us if we really wanted to enter since they were probably going to close about 11 or 12. We turned around and drove to the nearest Wal-Mart to buy a stroller and a sweatshirt. (Felix was the only kid on the ride but he liked it just fine - it was still raining here)

By noon the rain had all but stopped, and by 1 there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Good thing, because we were COLD and WET and we needed to dry out and be in the sunshine. (so we could get cold and wet all over again - that's Brent in the blue)

As you can tell by the pics, we had some serious fun. I didn't win any prizes at the company lunch (they paid for lunch for the employees and all guests too), and by the end of the day I just ached everywhere. Apparently, pregnancy and walking all day are a bad combo. :)
(Felix LOVES Dip'n Dots apparently - his shirt says "if I don't match, it's because daddy dressed me")

The nicest part (besides the cheap as free tickets, of course) was that the rain and the coolness kept out the majority of the people, and there wasn't a single line that was more than 5 minutes long. (he may look stoic, but he actually loved this ride - he smiled and even waved a couple of times)

All in all, it was a perfect day. Lots of family, perfect weather (once it dried out, of course), and very few extra people to get in the way. :)