Haverings

So, this one time...

Two months ago...

We moved.

Into a HOUSE!!!!!1!one!!

Our very own. And we are so excited!

We have a big Christmas tree now, and lights on our house, and EVERYTHING!!! (which, by everything, I do not mean we own all the furniture we need. We are a little shy on living room furniture, for example...negative on couches in there).

We bought this house (as you know) on July 1st, with plans to move end of August/early September. At last, on Halloween, we got to move in! So we've been pretty busy since then. Today, we finally unpacked the last box that was in our living space (and are trying to ignore the ones sitting in my CRAFT ROOM. I have a CRAFT ROOM!!!)

I've been having fun with furniture (more on that to follow. My dresser gets its own post. I love it THAT MUCH) and with paint (okay, so I've only painted one room, but I lay awake at night and think about colors for the rest) and with organizing (I actually really LIKE organizing. I just struggle with maintenance. Stop laughing.) and with decorating (okay, so, most of my decor is stuck in those boxes in the CRAFT ROOM. Oh my gosh, I have a CRAFT ROOM!!!!!!!one!111!!!) and cooking (in my own kitchen) and cleaning (no, I really do this...sometimes) and living IN OUR VERY OWN HOUSE!!!!

So, come and play, because I like you, and because I have my own house now so you can.

As my mind slid back into consciousness, I felt something cool pressed to my lips. "Eat," said a familiar voice. I obligingly smacked my lips together a couple of times and said "yum" even though there wasn't anything inside of the green plastic Easter egg. It seemed to satisfy my caretaker though, and he moved away to get more, painstakingly baking these delicacies over his nightlight.

Well, Mommy kept saying and saying how she wanted to write a blog, but that caring for Gregory and me was taking up all of her time and energy. I solved the problem--I told her I, Isaac Hyrum Richardson, would write the blog for her.

And so here I am. And I am so glad to meet you.


Dang, I look good! ;P If you would like to see more adorable pictures of yours truly (and Gregory), you can visit Aunt Lauren's blog: http://davisonphotography.wordpress.com . She is, of course, the professional that took my newborn headshots.

This life thing is pretty okay, I suppose. I'm not a big fan of gas...and when Mommy puts salt drops in my nose--that's really annoying. But I'm starting to get everything figured out okay. The computer is super easy, so no worries there. My biggest complaint, I suppose, is that Mommy never feeds me enough. She tells me she doesn't like having rivers of spit-up flow from my mouth after every feeding...that's weird. I think it's fun to eat so much I spit half of it up again...huh. No accounting for taste.

Well, I'm sure Mommy will get the swing of caring for TWO little people very soon. She'll have lots of things to write about since I'm such a marvelous creature, (not to mention my brother Gregory--he's teaching me all about the GOOD things in life).

Toodles!

-Isaac

He's here! Born at 11:20 A.M. He is 8 pounds 1 oz. and 19 inches long. Everything went very well. Mommy and baby are doing great!

So this one time Dr. Jones messed up and scheduled Adriane (this is Mike) to be induced today instead of yesterday. Needless to say we were both quite annoyed. Anywho, just wanted to let all you eager people out there know that we didn't forget about you. It will most likely be quite a few more hours before the baby is born. Wish us luck!

Still preggo. Still contracting in the mornings and then stopping. My shoulder really hurts all of a sudden so I can't breathe very well...or sleep, but I gave up sleep a long time ago ;)

Gregory is still basically the cutest ever. Which you would know if I ever put pictures up...But that would mean I would have to
1) Find the camera
2) Charge the camera
3) Find the cord that connects the camera to the computer
4) Decide which pictures to put up
5) Probably tweak them in Photoshop and
6) Upload them to my blog.

That's a lot of steps. It's like making a full meal complete with vegetables (I struggle with vegetables. Not eating them. Remembering them) versus whipping up some frozen burritos. But I promise to work on it. After I post I will go find the camera and plug it in. I will need it tomorrow at the hospital anyways. (!!!)

So, pictureless Gregory update:

He can count! I know, be impressed. It goes like this: "Toooo, (you have to imagine the downward-then-upward swoop of his voice), toooo, toooo, tooooo.... all while pointing at the various things he is counting. For the life of us, we can't get a one or a three out of him--but he's actually really good at four and five if you prompt him :P

Still OBSESSED with volleyball (and any other kind of ball will do in a pinch). If I counted all of his phrases throughout the day, #1 would be "where'd the volleyball go?" One of his favorite activities is to watch Zach, Kirby, Julia, and Daddy bump the volleyball to each other, and occasionally throw it "high" himself. Not to mention bumping and setting himself, which he gets better at every day. We try not to laugh when he says "shet" because really, he doesn't MEAN to sound like he's swearing...

Uncle Zach introduced him to Jar Jar Binks. Now instead of Winnie the Pooh, he begs for "jarjar." Thanks Uncle Zach. He also likes to watch "football" which is code for Remember the Titans. Somehow, that is much more appealing to me than StarWars Episode One. Call me crazy...

Pretty sure he has NO idea what's about to hit him though--he knows there's a baby in mommy's tummy, and he'll even give him a kiss some days. But he answers no to any question like, "are you going to get a baby brother soon?" Pretty sure it's gonna be tough for a little while, but he's a sweetie--he'll get used to it. Luckily Daddy will be home for a while to give him lots of extra attention. Paternity leave is the BEST invention I've ever heard of.

I'm still with child, waiting ever so patiently. Not even when my adorable son begged (in a voice strangely like his mother's) "please Dr. Jones, can't we induce my mommy early so I can see my brother?" did the doctor relent. No, I basically figure we're in it for the long haul. 4 more days. So close, and yet so far away...

Well, at least in my tummy. There's isn't room for two and ONE of us needs to get out!!! Oh, I'm in the home stretch. Keep telling me that I can do ANYTHING for six more days. I can, right? ?!?

So, funny story...sometimes I have pregnant moments. They are like pregnant pauses, except more one sided. They happen when I completely miss part of a situation until looking back--such as at my doctor's office last week. The nurse came in, did her thing, and left, saying the doctor would be there soon. It wasn't soon, however, so I finally laid back on the examining table...gotta grab the sleep when I can, since it isn't coming at night time. I didn't really fall asleep before the doc showed up, but I'm not sure if I was fully conscious. When he proclaimed that I had made no progress in dilation that week, I was crushed. BUT--

"Isn't this your last appointment?"

"Well, I sure hope so, but I'm not due for another two weeks--I could need one next week."

"But aren't we inducing you?"

"You said you would induce me on my due date." Insert still completely crushed face.

"Hmm." Doc looks at calendar on wall, pulls out his PDA and takes a look. This is actually what he did when he told me he would induce me on June 1st, several months back.

*PREGNANT PAUSE* I'm just trying to stay awake and not look completely crushed.

"Well, if you haven't had your baby yet, can you come back on Wednesday?"

*Laugh that borders on insane giggle* "OH yeah. I can do that."
What I'm thinking and SHOULD have said, "TO be induced? I can have my baby? On WEDNESDAY?!?" Alas, I was still recovering from previous pause, and have always been bad at communication anyways...'specially when I'm tired.

So then I walked out to the receptionists and told them I was supposed to come back.

"Well, Dr. Jones won't be back until Wednesday, does that work for you?"

WEDNESDAY? Is that what he meant by Wednesday? Wednesday for an appointment, not Wednesday for having a baby?

"We have a spot at 9am--that's the only time he won't be double-booked so far."

BUSY Wednesday? That probably means no time for "having a baby Wednesday"...he must have just meant an appointment. Try not to look double crushed and get yourself home.

It was actually several days before I told anyone about these conversations--it was a tough day and I'm kinda working on surviving. Plus remember said communication problems. As I discussed these things with someone...I think it was my mom? I started to think more and more that he might've meant "have a baby Wednesday." Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but hope was returning. After all, he had behaved exactly the way he did when he said he'd induce me on the 1st. Unfortunately, the office was closed, the doc was out of town for the holliday weekend, and I was stuck not knowing.

But it was all going to be okay--I was going to have the baby before then anyways.

Only now, that Wednesday is tomorrow. I have an appt. for 9am, but I'm not sure if tomorrow is have-a-baby day or not...I tried calling the office, but it turns out they have no idea (I was afraid of that) and I need to call Labor and Delivery at the hospital. And they will. not. answer. their. phone.

SOOOO, long story short, thanks to a pregnant brain, tomorrow promises to be very interesting. I could have a baby. I could be triple-crushed. Cross your fingers!

Well, HELLO there!

I just wanted to pop in and tell you what is going on in my life. Seeing as I am 38 weeks pregnant, that is pretty much what I am focused on. Come on, baby, come! I just went to the doctor today, and I am dilated the same amount as I was last week--a 3. Pretty disappointing to be exactly the same (I was hoping for, "HEY! You're a 6! Let's walk on over to the hospital and get 'er done!") but at least I'm not tight like unto a dish still.

Speaking of scriptures, Matthew 11:28 is becoming more important to me every hour. :P

So there's other stuff going on too...like how we're going to buy a house. Did I say GOING TO BUY A HOUSE?!?!? Yeah...as in, the biggest purchase we'll ever make in our LIVES. Tee hee hee. I'm so excited. And if you want to see REALLY excited, you've got to see Mike (he doesn't have a child kicking at his ribs and distracting from the monument of the occasion). He's PSYCHED.

Where is this house, you ask? Hunh. Yeah, that's prolly about the coolest part. If I step out of the house I am living in now (aka, my parental's), make 2.5 turns while walking approximately 50 steps (lol, now I need to actually count my steps out of sheer curiousity), I would be there. And so would you. The current owners have been in my ward off and on since I was a wee young lass--She was my young women's leader for a long time, and he was my bishop for a while there. I helped her run her dance concerts, and some of YOU probably helped them fix their waterfall last year (yeah, you heard right, WATERFALL!!!!!). Most of you, of course, won't know them, but for those of you who do, we are buying the Hunsaker's house, and did I mention we are excited?!? I'll give you more exciting details later.

Gregory's latest, by the way, is saying "yeah." He started on Sunday and it's adorable. And soooo much better than "no," which he had been using as an answer to EVERY question. I think HE thinks he's allowed to be two already. NOT. ALLOWED. But try telling him that! He is still obsessed with Volleyballs and Footballs and can kick, bump, set and spike. Hmmm...he doesn't get that from his mother. The other day he pulled this sentence out of the air: "All done sit on chair?" Where has my baby gone? He loves to go on walks and point out all the "tweet tweets" (birds) "woofs" (dogs), water, rocks, and cars. Today he started a new one: trees.

Anyhow, pip pip, cheerio and all that--I'm off to take a nap because I can and I need to :P Hopefully I'll get another blog in before the baby comes. Actually, I take that back, since I'm hoping he will come tonight, and that might be a little much. MWAAAAAAAH!!!

All I'm saying is that someone I know can get through closed doors now. As of Wednesday March 4. This scares me not a little.



And in answer to all of you:
Thank you for your wonderful comments.
I am doing well.
I am quite proud that I posted.
Have no fear, that was only part one. Stay tuned for the rest of his vocabulary.
I was in the HBLL yesterday. Remember that one time that I almost graduated? I'm striving to remove the almost.
I want to hang out with all of you! I just need y'all to do the planning and remind me to come. As in, call me half an hour before. Pregnancy the second time around has been doubly worse on my memory and my energy...

....where was I again?

and HA!!!! I POSTED TWICE IN TWO DAYS! so there.

As my child's translator, I feel it my duty to record his phenomenal verbal skills--before tomorrow, when I expect he'll be speaking on a fifth-grade level. I will do my best to begin at the beginning.

"Bah:" used in reference to anything circular, Gregory loves to play with balls. We often spend most of our day looking for/playing with the many balls around our house. A related term, "ehdeh bah?" of course means, "where is the ball?" This is often used to try to distract Mom or Dad from any pending undesirable task (such as bedtime) or something naughty. This phrase probably originates from Mom and Dad's attempts at distraction.

"Baaaah-bbles": this nearly two-word phrase is one of Gregory's favorites, and is one of his very first. He can be distracted from just about anything (including chocolate cake) by asking, "Gregory, would you like to take a bath?" He then drops everything (even balls) to run towards the bathroom, exclaiming BUBBLES!!! the poor child nearly had a stroke when we introduced bubble bath. His newest bubble tradition is to watch over the shower door and tell Daddy when to put bubbles in his (Daddy's) hair, and when to wash them out. He employs one of his first non-verbal communication devices along with the bubbles for this--the finger point. I should mention that his finger is very double jointed, making it all the more commanding and impressive.

"Oh???": this near squeak is to be heard whenever Gregory gets near a telephone, or anything "like" a telephone (such as an ipod, or a stapler). He has now progressed to using the full word, "hello," though most of his time is still spent on the second syllable.

"Gih JAH": "Good job!" Gregory is not above congratulating himself when he deems it necessary.

"Deekuhl deekuhl": "Tickle tickle!" One of Gregory's favorite games to play. We are currently working on not hitting--only tickling. My favorite is when he reaches out wheile we are eating lunch (think really sticky fingers) and tickles me to get my attention.

"Dadden!": used several times an hour to discover the whereabouts of Gregory's father. This phrase has progressed from the primitive "Dah" of earlier months. This is often his first word when I get him up in the morning, and is heard consistently throughout the day. The joy enfusing this word when Daddy actually comes home is heartwarming.

"Mah MAH?": deceptively used to mean, "Grown-up that is currently paying attention to me, I WANT whatever I am pointing at right NOW!" My sister Julia had a rolicking time with this one when she took Gregory to the store by herself. Tee hee hee. Gregory now usually only uses this to get his actual Mother's attention, although it occasionally is used for Grandma as well.

"Za-CH": also nearly two words, with the "CH" added on as an emphatic afterthought, this is Gregory's term for Uncle Zach. We aren't sure how he knows that Zach spells his name with a CH, since it isn't pronounced that way. This is used to point out Zach's presence, get his attention, or check up on where he is right now (Gregory goes through the list: Daddy, Grandpa, and Zach and makes me tell him where each of them are--over and over and over).

"Jah-SH": Another one of Gregory's uncles. We walked into Mike's family's house for dinner one Sunday, and Gregory's face lit up. "Josh," he called, and then proceeded to go and find said uncle.

"Jooooo-ihss?": anything that is drinkable but not water is dubbed "juice."

"Shah-cks": Gregory loves loves LOVES his socks.

"Shooo-is": almost as much as he loves loves LOVES his shoes.

"CAH!": the picture of our family at Mike and Lauren's graduation is not actually a picture of Gregory's dear loved ones. No, the first thing he exclaims when looking at it is, "CAR!" while he points to the tip of the red VW Bug barely apparent behind Mike's back. Cars are just that important. He was pretty excited about his Christmas present this year: a Gregory-sized couch decorated with Pixar's Cars characters.

"Jihsis": out of the blue one Sunday, when Gregory was NOT behaving in sacrament meeting and therefore sitting out in the hall, he pointed to a picture of Jesus on the wall, and said, "Jesus!" 'Bout surprised his mother out of her skin. Later at Christmas time, we received a beautifully framed copy of The Living Christ from Julia. She had carefully placed pictures of Christ all around the edge as a border. That in and of itself was enough to make my eyes misty, but imagine what my eyes did when Gregory walked up to the frame and began kissing the glass on top of every Jesus he saw. On a less sappy note, on this very day while sitting in the HBLL, Gregory pulled a Barnes and Noble giftcard out of my wallet (which he had in order to keep him occupied and QUIET!!!! oh, I mean quiet), and pointed at the picture of Shakespeare. "Jesus!" he loudly proclaimed. Must've been the beard. I can't wait for him to do that to real life people.

So I've heard when it rains it pours. I don't feel exactly soggy, but I do feel like every time the sun is about to come out from behind a cloud a new one rolls in and drizzles a bit. But in telling you this, I also get to tell you something exciting, so bear with me.

Coxsackievirus A16
It's the most common cause of HMFD (Hand, Mouth, and Foot Disease). I always looked forward to the time when I could send my child off to the nursery. I didn't realize the delightful range of illnesses that could be shared through that avenue.

Clumsy Oaf
This one time, when I found out I was pregnant with Gregory, I excitedly shared the news with everyone in my office (some of you may remember). When one lady heard, her eyes got wide and she told me, "Go fall down the stairs." At the time, I was horrified. I did not, however, take her advice. Fast-forward two years, to me carrying a diaper pail down the stairs and losing my footing halfway down. Apart from straining my shoulder, back, and neck, and giving me a bruise to be proud of (Lauren and I like to compare battle wounds...), the incident worried me. I kept replaying the aforementioned lady's advice to me. I am, you see, pregnant once again (that's half of the exciting thing I had to tell you). LUCKILY, nothing seemed out of order (aside from that bruise I mentioned) so we moved on. Also, the blisters all over my hands, mouth, and feet had begun to disappear and stop itching. The sky was clearing.

Playing Mom
My mother is a wonder. Her back is also a wonder, as it curves in all the wrong places. This causes a lot of LOT OF pain for her, and so she decided to get it fixed. Fixing equals cutting the back open all the way down, straightening the vertebrae, fusing said vertebrae together (I didn't even have to look up how to spell that--I'm so proud!) with a mixture of bone scraped from mom's pelvis (OUCH!), cadaver bone and some sort of paste-ish substance, and then attaching stainless steel rods to each side of the spine, and sewing her back up again. It also equals traveling up to Boise, Idaho to visit the best back doctor in the land. So that meant that I would be playing mom to my little brother while she was gone (that's the easy part--oh, did I mention we're living with my parents until the housing market stabilizes? We are.) and then after while she recovers for several months. Some of you may remember my earlier post about role reversal and my feelings about it.

Pain
It's usually something one wants to avoid, and unexplained pain in the abdominal region is generally a bad sign for a pregnant person. The morning my Mom and Dad were leaving to get her back "fixed" (please refer to earlier definition), I awoke with just such pains. Such that I was very nervous, remembering earlier stair incident, and wondering if I had caused a miscarriage. My 20 week ultrasound was scheduled for three days following, so I begged them to let me come in and do it early. All news was good: the placenta was firmly attached, the cervix was closed and the baby seemed extremely healthy. He also appears to be extremely male (there's the second half). So that is a very happy ending to a scary day. We need help with names, so please leave suggestions.

AAAAAAACHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!
The common cold has been the icing on the cake (I just hope I don't find any candles). I'm just sick n' tired of being sick n' tired. But if the ultrasound hadn't turned out as happy as it did, I could be a lot sicker, a lot tireder, and a lot sadder (close your eyes English majors!). So I'm counting every sneezy blessing and curling up in bed as often as possible. Except for early this morning when I couldn't sleep because I'd been sleeping all day and neither could my husband so we got up and played World of Warcraft all morning long and even still couldn't fall asleep but we finally did at six o'clock. Don't tell my dad, he's under a lot of strain already.

Anyways
I figured you would all want the update, and since you love me, and you're still reading this, you must not mind too badly wading through the sadness to find the golden nuggets. So thank you. I will try to be a better blogger so SOME people will stop telling me how bad I am at it.

A Happier Note:
Baby G (as we call him fondly) is growing wildly. As in a wild weed growingness. He also talks CONSTANTLY and we're able to pick out more and more words that WE can understand. Bubbles is one of his favorites. He also enjoys ball, uh-oh (which generally means he wants you to turn on the lights, which are also refered to as ball...), woof woof (which I believe is a noun as well as a sound effect), duck, quack, and thank you. We are very hopeful that that last one means he will turn out all right after all. Someday I will figure out how to upload videos of him dancing so you can all be accosted with the baby-ness which has become my world (which I love).

Mike is still loving his job at Omniture, where it sounds like he plays all day with the guys (haha, yeah right honey). They really do have an abundance of work activities though. How often does the office pay for TUCANOS to welcome the newest member of a team? Basically, when I'm done with my first job (which I guess I never really will be done with, will I?) I want to work there for the food. And so that the office will give me money towards the new formal dress I'm expected to buy for the Black-tie Christmas Party. Did I mention they rented Mike a tux? And Meagan did my hair, and someday maybe I'll put pictures of that up too.

Someday I'll have a house too, and then I can get a new couch like someone I just saw at Costco and was jealous of. But Mike won't let my buy furniture until we have somewhere to put it. It's a double edged sword being married to such a wise, rational person.

KK, that's all I got...and isn't it a mouthful? I'll work on smaller, more regular doses for you so you don't get indigestion next time. Feel free to come to my house for Tums if you need. I also have plenty of cough drops!