Ward Campout

August 14, 2009

No, we didn't camp out. We're not that cruel. We wanted the people in our ward to still like us, and they definitely wouldn't have after listening to Seth not sleep all night.

But we did go up to roast some hot dogs and mooch some smores off of Lenae. I was a bit worried when we got to the (very) "rustic" campsite and saw that it was basically overgrown with poison ivy. But Seth was very good and stayed put--mostly because he's not tall enough to get out of his camping chair. I did slap some socks on him to prevent bites and rashes, which made him look like an adorable German boy.
It was approaching 8pm, which meant bedtime for Seth. We hopped into the car, Jon turned the key, and...click, click, click. Nothing. Our first guess was the battery had died. But then the headlights worked, so that didn't make sense. Casey Uhlig tried jumping it, then tried lots of other things (none of which worked). So at 10:30pm, we hitched a ride home with sweet Bente. And no, Seth didn't sleep a wink on the 40 minute drive home.

The next morning (after a 5:30 am run to the airport to drop of the Atkinsons), Jon drove up to the campsite to direct the towtruck. $150 later, the car was at the shop. Unfortunately, they didn't open until Monday. Which meant I was totally carless, since Jon was leaving for his class Sunday night. Marley was so sweet and let us borrow Carlos' car for a few days (which was a very good thing, otherwise the Atkinson's cat would have starved to death since I was supposed to be feeding her).

Turns out it was the battery. Jon was very unhappy--we could have saved a couple hundred dollars by just fixing it ourselves. Lesson learned: always test the battery before you assume it's something else.

Big News!

Admit it, you thought I was going to announce an upcoming baby.

Sorry to disappoint, but there are no babies happening here for a while. However, our BIG NEWS does make it more likely that there will actually BE another baby one day. Ready?

Here it is:
At just over 12 months old, Seth FINALLY starting sleeping ALL THE WAY through the night. I'm talking 8pm to 7:30am. I never thought it would happen. And I am a much happier person now.He's also suddenly decided that going to sleep is nothing to cry about (Scott and Mary will never believe this). We feed him, then lay him in his crib. Usually he rolls right over and goes to play with the stuffed animals at the end of his bed, but then he'll just lay down and go to sleep. Amazing.
In other news, Seth has decided that whatever I'm eating is also what he's having. Cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, bagel, rice, potatoes--we now share all meals.

He's also fallen down the stairs for the first time (only 3 or 4 of them, but he was not a happy boy).
Another big milestone--he officially recognizes Jon as "Dad" now. When Jon comes home from work, he'll chant "Dad, dada, Dad" and follow him up the stairs.

Lucky me, he also has a name for me now! My name? "Dad". That's right. We are, collectively, "Dad".He's getting really good at standing without support. He's even taken a few steps to get to something. Once he realizes he's doing it, he panics and drops to a crawl. He'll be walking soon, which is crazy to think about.

In non-Seth related news, Jon ditched me and headed to a 3 week class in Virginia. Luckily he'll be able to come home on weekends. Seth & I thought we were going to join him for the next two weeks, but the place he's staying doesn't allow children. So we're keeping ourselves very busy and thanking heaven for our community pool.
I'm currently trying to decide if taking on 14 piano students (8 full time, 6 part) makes me officially insane. Don't even bother trying to call me between the hours of 4 and 6pm until next summer. Which means I have to get all my projects done before September 8th. Good thing I'm a single mom for 3 weeks...

And in case you haven't noticed, this post also doubled as the official unveiling of Seth's one-year-old photos. These are just a few of my favorites--they all turned out SO well. Krystal, you're amazing. And you can never move more than a few hours away.

Seth was making this face ALL day. I hate this face.

Nanny Marah goes home

I was incredibly lucky the past few months--my sister Marah came to live with us while BYU was out for the summer. The plan was to find a job, but thanks to a rotten economy there were no jobs to find. So she became Nanny Marah.

Goodbye kisses for Aunt Marah

I don't know who appreciated her more: Seth, for taking him on the swings when he was fussy; me, for taking Seth on the swings when I was ready to scream; or Jon, for playing Doom with him when I wouldn't.

Showing off her handiwork (the frames aren't done yet)

There's no way I would have been able to accomplish everything this summer without her help. She did way more than her fair share of cupboard stripping, not to mention all the times I'd wake her up by handing her Seth and saying, "I have to go. I don't know when I'll be back" (how I love visiting teaching sometimes). I even conned her into watching the 3 year old I was supposed to be watching AND Seth while I went to the doctor. I don't know if she'll ever have kids after that day.

Marah, I hope you had a good time with us (and not just because of our proximity to Elder Kevinface). We're really going to miss you, Seth especially. Now he has no one to jump on in the morning when he has a poopy diaper, and no BatPhone to chew on or laptop to pound on. And I don't know WHO he's going to flirt with now, since he never uses his charms on me. Thanks for teaching him to smack his lips and bat his eyes, and for changing those two poopy diapers (wuss).

Chewing on Aunt Marah's Iphone (aka The Batphone)

I'm expecting you out here in two years, regardless of whether or not you've Dear Johned the boy. Maybe by then we'll even have a bedframe for you.

We love you, Marah Fish. Thanks for everything!

Seth was NOT happy to see his Aunt Marah leave!

Caitlin, you're going to kill me...

Saturday, August 8th

(Caitlin, I swear our plans weren't official until the night before we left. We would have loved to bring you along!).

Since it was Marah's last weekend with us, we decided to do something fun--go to the beach! We took Caitlin's advice and headed to the Delaware Beachfront State Park instead of Rehoboth. Definitely a good move. Much less crowded, plus showers and bathrooms. The waves were better at Rehoboth, but for Seth's sake they were much better. He never got bowled over by an unexpected wave, which was his least favorite part of the beach.
Marley's husband, Carlos, was in Mexico with his family, so we took her along, too. (She didn't know it, but we really brought her along to entertain Seth in the backseat of the car. She's SO much more patient than any of the rest of us were). It was a long drive, especially since Seth refused to nap. Of course. We thought he would be a holy terror at the beach since he was sleep deprived, but he was so good.

He loved crawling along the cooler sand near the water. He entertained all the families sitting around us as he crawled amidst their beach towels and toys. I tried building him a sandcastle and letting him put shells on it, but he was much more interested in destroying it. Such a boy.
Oh, and he loved sticking his face in the sand. Explain that one to me.

We did have a little excitement this trip--unexpected injuries. Jon, Marley & I all got stung by a jellyfish at least once (Marley had it the worst) and Marah ticked off some crabs that kept grabbing her toes. Seth was the only one who survived unscathed. I must say, it wasn't nearly as painful as I expected--it stung a bit and itched like crazy, but was totally gone before we left (except Marley--she had two welts and they hurt for a long time).
The drive home was a blast. Seth spent most of the time screaming and/or whining profusely. Marley will never have children after that performance. We got home, cleaned ourselves up, put Seth to bed, and then played games. A nice way to end the day.

(And let me just add that I was the only one who didn't get sunburned. I would pat myself on the back, but I was still in trouble because I was the one who put sunscreen on Seth and Marley. Oops...)

So I lied.

Obviously there hasn't been a deluge of posts. I got sidetracked by a much more daunting project which I'm hoping to have finished tomorrow to surprise Jon. Don't worry--I'll let you in on the secret once Jon gets to see it.

I do, however, have to relate the following Seth story: He's very, very good at going up stairs. He can go down, but only if you first place him so he's in correct descent position (tummy to stairs, standing up). Otherwise he'll just sit at the top and yelp until I go get him.

Today when he woke up from his nap (or, more accurately, when I finally gave up and fetched him out of his crib where he was NOT napping) he didn't want to go downstairs. I tried to coax him down, but finally gave up and left him, knowing he'd start whining when he wanted to come down.

It had been about ten minutes and I was hearing lots of giggles from upstairs. I decided I needed to go check on him in case he was having too much fun with something in my bathroom. I walked into the living room and there was Seth, sitting at the bottom of the stairs smiling up at me. Not only had he finally figured out how to start descending properly, he also managed to navigate the two landings that usually throw him off. All without a single whine or injury. I was very impressed. He was, too--he sat at the foot of the stairs and clapped for himself for a long time. Next step will be walking. I can't believe it...

Seth's cheeseball grin. I love it.

(A sneak peek of Seth's one-year-old pictures, taken once again by the talented Krystal. More to come!)

Summer Vacation!

July 28-August 2nd

We took our first official summer vacation this year! Where, you ask? To see the family, of course! We're not doing any cool adventurous things until Seth's either old enough to appreciate it or old enough to pawn off on a Grandma.

Because our either (or both) of our cars could die at any given moment, we decided to be merciful to them and drive a rental car instead.

Oh, how I miss the days when Seth would just fall asleep whenever we put him in the carseat. Those days are past. He was decent, but not great. There was definitely some screaming and not nearly as much sleeping as we hoped for. We're praying that by Christmas he'll be more interested in watching things on his portable DVD player. Right now he just wants to push the buttons and throw it on the floor...

We had a great time visiting the Bloods. We kicked poor Joanna out of her room, and Seth kicked Timmy out of his (we all sleep much better if we sleep in different rooms). Seth had all the entertainment a kid could ever hope for and a fabulous set of stairs to practice crawling up and down. And I had all the tomatoes I could eat. So, so good.

Generally we just relaxed at home (where Joanna repeatedly trashed me at various Wii sports), but we did manage to make it to the wave pool the day before we left.We weren't sure how Seth would like it--the waves at the beach were a little much for him. He loved the water...until the waves started. Then he clung to Jon with his sharp little claws. Luckily we soon realized that as long as he was on the inner tube when the waves hit, he was happy. We all took turns alternating floating with Seth and going down the slides. So much fun!
I would just like to say that Timmy is a big wuss who won't dive into the deep end. And he definitely did not fool me into jumping into the water with a phony "let's see who can jump the farthest" contest.

Friday morning we loaded poor Seth back into his carseat and headed to Charlotte to see the Bears (Jon's sister Mary, plus Scott, and Rebekah, who we hadn't met yet). Seth still wasn't a great traveler, but the trip was only 4 hours this time.Rebekah is not only adorable, but possibly the quietest, happiest baby I've ever met. So, of course, Seth had to try to convince Scott and Mary that he was the world's most terrible baby. He had slept like a dream at the Bloods--he was a NIGHTMARE at the Bears. He screamed EVERY TIME we put him down: naps, bedtime, whatever. It didn't matter how tired he was, he would scream until he fell asleep and then wake up screaming. And just to top it off, he would usually degenate into screams when he got tired. Plus he knocked his teeth on their stairs and split his lip open. I spent the whole weekend saying "I swear he's usually a really good baby!" No way they actually believed me.We had a lot of fun with Scott and Mary. We spent the evenings playing games and talking, and we got to eat amazing food every day (Scott, you're my hero). On Saturday Mary took us on a tour of downtown Charlotte so we could see where she works. I have never seen a cleaner, nicer looking city. It was kind of surreal--like they'd cleaned it up for a movie set or something. I would definitely not mind living there.

Monday we took a short, one-hour flight back to Baltimore where Marah (who had been home all alone while we were gone) picked us up. And Seth has been an angel ever since we got home. I'm totally not making that up, Scott & Mary.

Thanks so much Bloods and Bears! We'll definitely be making this trip again sometime.

My Apologies to the Blogging World

I've been intentionally slacking off. Jon officially left me tonight for a week in Fort Belvoir, which means I now have time to blog (now that Seth is asleep, of course). So be prepared--there are LOTS of posts coming your way.

Seth goes to Girls' Camp

July 21-23, 2009

I'm 2nd Counselor in our ward's Young Women Presidency, which means I get to help out with the 12 & 13 year old girls. Which just happens the be the awesomest group of girls. I have 14 girls and we see 13 of them if not all the time, most of the time. So, of course, I was so excited to go up to Camp with them.
I didn't spend the night up there primarily because of Seth, but once I saw the cabin I realized there wouldn't have been room for me anyway! So instead I drove up and back every day. Jon & Marah were kind enough to watch Seth on the 21st so I could go up without having to worry about him.

The next day was a bit more complicated. I was helping Catherine with the First Years' dinner (tin foil dinners), and Jon was home sick. Which meant Seth & Marah got to come with me! Of course, he didn't sleep on the drive up like he was supposed to, so he was ridiculous. Luckily Marah was kind enough to push him in the stroller until he napped. It still wasn't a fun day for the little man--it was humid, raining, and he was tired. But our food was delicious, even if it did take a horribly long time to cook, thanks to the rain.
Day #3 started out terribly. I had a semi-emergency visiting teaching responsibility that ended up taking about an hour longer than I planned. Then I got home and Seth refused to nap. While I was downstairs listening to him scream, my computer froze up. Combine all that with the stress of needing to be up at camp? Yep, I had a mini-meltdown. Jon was very sweet--he came home from work even though he'd only been there a few hours (he'd taken the morning off because he wasn't feeling 100% yet). Which meant I got to spend all afternoon and evening with the girls.

I really had a good time. We played a LOT of volleyball (okay, we played with a plastic kid's ball and had no rules, but whatever) and enjoyed a delicious dinner that included potstickers. I was in heaven. I'm so glad I was able to go up and spend some time with them--the girls in our ward are amazing!

Favorite moment: While playing volleyball, the girls were invoking their "inner men" in order to perform the necessary grunts as they hit the ball. Cristin was having a hard time getting the ball to go over the net, so she made the following declaration:

"My inner man is a pansy."

Dear Mary & Elizabeth,

I was supposed to put this up about a week ago. Sorry, Mom Blood!

Here's the newly-refinished Blood living room:Another view:And here's Joanna in the living room:

Timmy says we need to buy her new curtains for Christmas so she'll feel like she has to put the new ones up. But she's pretty proud of her old ones, so it will be a tough battle.

New Phone Numbers

Jon has finally parted with his ancient T-mobile phone and has joined the modern world. Which means we have a new phone number. If you want it, email me at calabasa@gmail.com. And if the phone number you have for me doesn't start with 520-260, then let me know and I'll send you mine, too.

Oh, and we have unlimited texting, if you care...