Snuggle Baby

I love to snuggle Leroy.  He is quite fun to nap with.  Even his grandma was seduced by his adorable cuddliness to nap with him.

Halloween Costumes

So my sister-in-law Carol is an expert costume schemer (Neoma wrote about this more in-depth on her blog).  Carol suggested to us that we would make the perfect Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Sweet Pea.  And she was right, so I just had to make the costumes.

(I'm not sure right now where a better quality photo is.)

I think I did a good great job.  Hollis makes a cute Popeye.  Leroy was the cutest little sleepy Sweet Pea you ever saw.  And Benji is pretty cute too.

 

I couldn't justify spending the money to buy fabric to make Leroy's costume unless I could make it function later.  I decided that I would make it in the style of a sleep sack so that he could use it for the rest of the winter.  When I went to the store to buy fleece, they were having their annual fleece sale! So I bought enough to make 4 sleep sacks.  I have finished three of them (see below) and am debating what to put on the last one before I finish it.

  

And Neoma is supermom - she made matching costumes for her whole family in just a few days!

These costumes later served as the inspiration for a movie that they made as a Christmas present for another sibling.  The video - "The Super Goulds" - is embedded below so you can watch it if you want.

The Amazing Spotbot!

My mom got a new "toy" - the Spotbot.  You just put it over the dirty carpet spot and hit "run" and it scrubs the carpet clean!

This is an oil stain in the carpet of our new (to us) minivan.

 

 

And the Spotbot next to it...

And poof! Clean!

First two months

I have loved getting to know the tiny being that came into my life two months ago.  It surprises me how he already has a tiny personality.  He can't do much, but there are some things that he does that are uniquely Leroy.

When he sleeps, he puts his little arms up in the air.  It cracks me up every time I see his tiny little arms sticking straight up.  When he fully relaxes, the arms are usually stretched out above his head.

He reached out and grabbed his diaper bag the other day! It was so excited to me to see him grab something and wave it around.  He was enthralled by it as well.

 

Leroy can track movement with his eyes! I set the iPod to the front camera so Leroy could see himself.  I can't believe how fast he is developing.

Leroy has the best smiles.  And he smiles a lot.  He loves it when people are looking at him.  I can already tell that he loves people.

He also LOVES to laugh.  Especially when we sing and poke his face.

He is also a little goofball.  I know he doesn't know that sticking his tongue out makes a silly face, but I feel like he is doing it on purpose anyway.

 

Football

Leroy is learning young what teams are the "right" teams to cheer for - BYU and UW.  He is too little to actually watch the games (I'm trying to not let him have any "screen time" until he is at least one), but he can listen to them.  I think he enjoys it.

Sometimes my cheering is disturbing to him.  He had quite the funny face after I woke him up with my excitement following a UW touchdown.

 

My mom got Leroy a mobile similar to one I enjoyed as a baby.  I forgot to update it until now, so I got to see how excited Leroy was to see the new pictures with COLOR!

Then, because it's good for him, I made Leroy have some tummy time.

He's so cute and squeaky!

Science Center - old

A couple of years ago we went to the science center with the Strangs. They had a special exhibit about fear. Hollis took this video of me trying to put my hand into a tank that "contained" bugs like tarantulas and cockroaches. I knew that the place I was putting my hand didn't connect to the bug tank, but I couldn't get myself to put my hand in there. This is a video of my attempt.

1 month old!

I stay awake long enough to be cute. I only wake up for food at midnight, 1, 3, and 5 or 6, then 9. I am 22" long and weigh about 9 lbs.

Video Clips, 1 month

I caught a giggle on video!  He is quite adorable.

Also, he can hold his head up! And he is cute and chubby.

Leroy's impressions

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

And a little Shawn impression from Psych...

Who has a savings account?

This guy.

Thanks, Grandma Great!

Baby Leroy

Now that we've had some time to recover and settle into a semi-schedule, I thought I'd post some of my favorite pictures from the first three weeks.

This is the first day we came home. Look, his eyes are open!

Because he was still a little jaundiced, we went out into the shade to get some indirect UV rays.  He's so adorable and tiny!

This little orange jacket is so cute!  And pretty much new because it only fits babies for a short period of time.

Though he spends most of his time asleep, sometimes he wakes up and looks around.

And a happy face:

His Auntie Nat gave him this onesie.  Trying to butter him up already, I guess.

His auntie Neoma gave him a little pompadour like his daddy's.

And sometimes he just likes to kick back and relax.

Apparently his first finger is delicious.

My working husband

Hollis got his work shirts in!  He looks so good in them.

And his name is embroidered on all of them!

Going Home!

We got to go home on Friday! We put Leroy in his carseat for the first time.  He is so little!

It was quite funny - he was disgruntled to be put in a car seat.

We had a baby!

So last Saturday Hollis and I had our Labor and Delivery prep class.  During the class, at the beginning of the section about pre-term labor, I started to feel very uncomfortable and kept getting up to try to alleviate my pain.  It was a few more hours before I started to consider that I was actually in labor (only after my sister-in-laws informed me that I was).  I called my OB and we met at the hospital.  Yep.  In labor, having contractions every 2 minutes.  And only 35 weeks along.

So I got a shot of tributylene and a pill of nifedipine to try and halt the labor.  While my contractions lessened in intensity, I kept having them.  My OB went back and looked at my first ultrasound information and decided my due date could be adjusted from September 1 to August 24.  So like magic I was 36 weeks along.  But full term isn't until 37 weeks so we were still trying to stop the labor.  I got booked into the hospital on Saturday (July 28).  I was at 3.5 cm and 100% effaced, but I stopped progressing on Saturday night.  I never stopped having contractions, but I didn't progress after Saturday, so I was released on Tuesday on bed rest.  I had to keep taking the nifedipine and stay in bed as much as possible until the following Monday.  Our baby had other plans.

I had been home about 24 hours when my water broke (about 2:15 PM).  Naturally, the bag of waters broke 15 minutes after I had taken a nifedipine (a contraction blocking pill).  So I assumed that it would be a while before my contractions got painful again (instead of uncomfortable and somewhat painful that they had been since Saturday).  I called Hollis and Carol (my sister-in-law/doula) and Liz drove me to the hospital.  When I got to the hospital I was at 5 cm.

As soon as everyone got there, my labor really kicked in.  I was planning on using the jacuzzi tub in my room to alleviate pain while I was laboring, but I actually never had time.  The contractions came closer and closer - I was getting a 2 minute break in between each one, max.  Then I felt like I wasn't really getting any break.  The main thought I remember having was "they lied to me!" because I had been told about how labor is long and how you get time between contractions to rest.  And I wasn't getting any break!  But it was okay and at 6:58 PM our little bundle of baby was born.

The tired mama:

Excited and hungry papa:

And our ecstatic doula and baby's aunt:

32 Weeks

We visited my parents and I stayed for a week while Hollis went back to Seattle to start work.  My mom took me to the store and bought me some NEW MATERNITY CLOTHES! I've been wearing the same five outfits for months.  And I am SO EXCITED to have new clothes.  Especially these stylish dresses.  (By the way, Ross is the best store for maternity clothes!)

 

And this is a shot of my belly in another new dress.  Oh cute baby bump!  I love it now that I have such cute clothes!

Demolition Derby

Every year on Independence Day, there is a Demolition Derby in Waterville, about 40 minutes from Wenatchee. Brian and I went this year and it was awesome!

Look, we are having so much fun!!!

They had lap races with some heavy bumping, followed by some figure eight races with heavy hitting. It all ended up with the actual demolition derby with some serious smashing. It was most excellent. There was almost a roll over, but before the one smashing into him could flip the car, he broke his flag (signifying he was out of the competition). My favorite car was a ghostbuster style station wagon decked out in Spam decor.

New car, new job

Hollis and I found our new car the day after we arrived back in the US. It was just a touch higher than our goal spending, but it was also a touch better than we anticipated.

Meet our new Toyota Corolla:

We promptly detailed the car inside and out. The above picture shows one head light cleaned up and the other still foggy. We like this car a lot. It also happens to look nearly identical to our brother-in-law's car.

Also, the day after purchasing our car, Hollis landed a job! It's at Rodda Paint. He got the job the same day he interviewed for it. So awesome! Things are falling into place quickly for us. I thank our Heavenly Father for the blessing of Hollis finding work so quickly. Hooray!

Soul Patch

Before my job interview, I decided that I should probably shave off my epic mustache and goatee. Given this unique opportunity, I decided to see what I would look like with a soul patch. When I was little, I thougth that it looked soooooo cool. I unfortunately don't think I look soooooo cool.

Saga of the swollen feet

Traveling while pregnant can be difficult. I read that it was important to stay hydrated and be active on the plane so you don't swell as much.  I knew that a 10 hour flight would be hard, so I had a plan.  I would drink water as much as possible and then I would get a walk in every time I had to use the bathroom.  Since I had to go about once an hour anyway.  Good plan, huh?  But I just retained all the water that I drank and didn't need to relieve myself at all.  And I swelled up to my mid calf.  And here are photos of my saga.

These were my feet and ankles that were a bit puffy after walking around the night before we left Spain:

This is what they normally look like:

And these are my feet on the plane.  So puffy!

The swelling was amazing.  But happily it all went away by the next morning.  These are my normal legs and ankles.

 

And here are my ankles later that day after re-swelling.  Just around the ankle because apparently my socks were too tight.

 

Farewell, Spain

We left our apartment for the last time.

Bye bye!  I will miss our front door.  And our 5th story walk-up apartment. And our street.  And the crazy kids who think 2 am is a fine time to sing happy birthday while walking down the street.

It's been great.  And it's a bit weird to be leaving it all.  I feel like it's just a vacation and we'll come back home to Spain.  But we won't.  At least not anytime soon.

Last night in Spain

We still had some fireworks from Valencia, and since we couldn't carry them in our luggage across the ocean, we went to an empty field by the river and blew up all 100+ firecrackers that we had.  It takes a long time to blow up firecrackers if you are lighting them one at a time, so we made large piles to blow up as many as we could at a time.

This is the video of the action:

It was so much fun!

Last visit to Madrid

We went into Madrid and ate at a Moroccan restaurant (one of my favorite types of food).  It was very delicious.  We then decided to go get ice cream.  I had plotted out the best ice cream shop to go to so that I would have to walk the least amount.  (Walking is hard when you are bigger.)  The ice cream was super yummy.  And I had totally forgotten that it was in the homosexual district of Madrid.  I don't know why, but this bar sign cracked me up.

 

The barriers are there because there was going to be a concert that night, I think.

We also stopped by McDonald's so I could get a yogurt for a snack earlier in the day.  They have these new order kiosks!  You place your order and pay, and then just wait for them to call out your number.  It was way WAY faster than waiting in the super long line to order.  I don't know why more people didn't use them.  I think they are genius.