Odds and Ends

Last night started out a good night, even though Marc was at his *cross your fingers* last football game of the season. I tucked Christian into bed, the boys and I played a game of cootie and ordered pizza, and while they were tucked into their sleeping bags watching Astroboy, I sat on my bed folding the last bits of Tuesday's clean laundry. *I hope someone else does that too--fold the remaining clean laundry in the baskets right before it's time to do more laundry!* The peaceful quiet of satisfied children was disturbed by crashing glass. I raced downstairs, the boys had jumped up from their sleeping bags while I *sadly* accused them of having done something but once I was fully downstairs I could clearly see that they hadn't been messing with anything. I assessed all of our *pathetically out of date* chandeliers to find they were all intact. Then I saw shards of glass littered across the front of my living room and as I walked closer, I found a rock laying on the floor. Someone threw a rock through our window and then disappeared into the night. Thank you, stranger for disturbing my weekend. Why couldn't it have been one of my *pathetically out of date* chandeliers?

The window is patched for now and we'll get a replacement pane in a few days, just in time for snow.

Oh and on his mad rush home from the football game, Marc got pulled over by the police. Thankfully I had called 911 so the policeman checked his radio to find Marc's story true and sent him on his way with a warning to just get home safe.

. . .
Yesterday Christian had his 6 month check up with Goulda our fabulous physicians assistant. Christian has all but stopped growing. He grew one inch (normal) and only gained 12 ounces (not normal). I hear him gulping milk each time I feed him. He's a happy baby and sleeps well--signs he is not malnourished or starving. But we're going to take measures to try to fatten him up--sippy train him with formula, as he won't take a bottle, add formula to his cereal with mixed fruit or veggies etc. etc.

I'm sad. I feel solely responsible for his skinny-ness. My other two babies were FAT. They were the size Christian is now when they were 6-8 WEEKS. And not only am I nursing the babe, I make his baby food, too (it's remarkably satisfying to make your own baby food. I recommend it) so I'm doubly responsible. This does not help my feelings of inadequacy as a mother, which grow by the day but maybe I'll get into that in another post.

. . .
Christian got his first tooth on his 6 month birthday. Happy birthday sweet baby.

. . .
Carter discovered he has a loose tooth a week ago. He was sitting next to Grandma Phillips in sacrament meeting last week and whispered to her, I wish I had a loose tooth. She told him to check to see if he did. So he stuck his fingers in his mouth and started wiggling his teeth. All of a sudden his eyes got really wide and a big grin spread across his face. So I've been feeding him apples all week in hopes to loosen that sucker up and make him a happy boy with a hole in his grin. Thankfully, we just got our family pictures taken so we've avoided at least one more year with hole-y grins.

. . .
I have really thin, really fine hair. A few months ago, I decided I should no longer splurge on my big can of Big Sexy Hair Root Pump Plus and go for something cheaper. I went with the Garnier brand which did a fine job, but when I ran out on Thursday, I decided to splurge again. Oh Boy! When I did my hair this morning I realized no more skimping for that product. It's only BSH Root Pump Plus for me.

. . .
I planted my spring bulbs. For the first time. Last spring, Marc and his dad did a little shrink job on our flower bed in front of our house because it was gigantic and overwhelmed our small front yard. I was excited to figure out what I wanted to do with it so last weekend while my in laws visited, my MIL and I went shopping for bulbs. I bought and planted A LOT of them. And today Marc and I went and found a Dwarf Alberta Spruce to put in the bed, too. I'm excited to see how it looks in the spring time.

. . .
'Tis the season for pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I bought some from Great Harvest yesterday and have single handedly finished off almost all of it in the last 24 hours.

. . .
I have felt deeply grateful for my sweet boys and husband in the past few weeks. I love that my husband is *mostly* patient and *mostly* willing to do anything I need him to do. And I love watching my boys grow and learn. They are such sweet things.

. . .
Lakers season has started. That's probably all I need to say about that.

. . .
And finally, next weekend is going to be great. Amidst much sadness on their part, yet much anticipation on mine, my sister and her family (of 4 boys) are moving 40 minutes from us. They move in next weekend and I couldn't be more excited. Really. Right after she had her first baby and when I was pregnant with mine, they moved from Provo where we both lived to Texas. I visited once. Then right as we had our first baby and moved to California, they moved to Chicago and had their second baby soon afterwards. I visited twice. And I think she visited me twice. Then we moved to Colorado and they moved to Utah and we visited a few times. But now, now we can get the cousins together as often as our busy schedules will allow and believe me, they l-o-v-e each other. After all, they are 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and two of them are 6 months. I hope this lasts forever.