Good parenting

My mom emailed me an article from the Harvard University Gazette that I found quite interesting. You can read it here. Taylor loves to be held, sung to, talked to, and loves, loves, LOVES to sleep with us. In fact, I was worried that we were spoiling her by not letting her cry for very long and by letting her sleep in our bed but according to this study it's good to make your baby feel secure and like his or her needs are met. I like articles like this that make me feel like I am doing OK as a mommy! :)

10 weeks old

My baby girl is going to be 10 weeks old tomorrow. I took a few pictures of her today in this cute little outfit I got when we were in Vermont at Old Navy on clearance. It's 0-3 month size and still a little big on her.... hopefully she will get to wear it a few more times before the weather gets cold!

What was I thinking?

I feel like ever since being pregnant my hair looks dull and ugly and like dirty dishwater partially due to the fact that I couldn't color it at all while pregnant. I decided that I liked my hair color in the picture I posted of me with my friends Hilary and Jan and SO I had the bright idea to go and get a highlighting kit and highlight my hair myself. I have highlighted it myself before because there have been times where I just can't bring myself to fork over $80-$100 to have someone highlight my hair for me when I can do it myself with a $10 kit from Herbal Essences. Joel and Taylor and I were at Wal-Mart on Tuesday night doing some shopping but they didn't have the kit I have used in the past so I got this one that looked like it would do the trick. Boy, was I ever WRONG. Rule #1 in home coloring- make sure you leave the bleach or color on long enough. Joel has to get up at 3:00 am for work so normally he watches Taylor while I get ready for bed so that he can go to bed at around 8:30-9:00. Well, I decided I HAD to color my hair THAT night. It said to leave the bleach on for 40-60 minutes. Around 8:40 Joel started getting antsy wanting to get to bed so I jumped in the shower to wash it out. When I got out I looked in the mirror and almost cried. I looked like a cheap hooker. My hair was YELLOW. I thought I had ruined my hair. It looked OK on the bottom but the top of my head was all one ugly yellow brassy color. I met some of my friends for work for lunch yesterday because it was my friend Lori's birthday and I wore a hat to cover the ugliness. I was almost too embarrassed to show them all the mess I had created when they inquired as to why I was wearing a hat but finally I showed them. They are nice so they didn't gasp in horror and say, "Annie, your one beauty is gone!" or anything like that. My friend Julie F. put it best when she said, "The bottom half of your hair looks great!" SO, I had to fix it. I thought, "I will try to dye it back to my normal color and if that doesn't work I will suck it up and pay a professional to get it back to normal- or as back to normal as she can get it." So, another hair dye kit, a burned scalp, and 2 days later I think my hair is looking semi-normal again. So, I guess it's back to the ugly dirty dishwater for a few more months until my hair is healthy enough again for me to have a PROFESSIONAL highlight it for me! Another life lesson learned I guess...

My Friends

One of the things in my life that I am most thankful for is my friends. I love all of my friends- my old friends and my new friends and friends who I haven't seen in ages and friends who I see every day. I think I have some of the best and most loyal friends in the whole world. Some of my friends flew across the country to come to my wedding- Lisa, Candice, Jan, Heide! Some of my friends made huge sacrifices to be with me right after my baby was born- Hilary and Jan! Hilary flew from Vermont just to be with me and help me take care of Taylor. When I was 39 weeks pregnant and found out that Taylor was breech and that I might have to have a C-section before my mom was scheduled to fly out my friend Candice- who is pregnant herself- offered to leave her 2 young girls, drive from Utah and stay with me. (Side note- I didn't have to have a C-section- Taylor turned on her own before I went into labor.) My friend Amy offered to drive from Utah and come stay with me to help me with Taylor too. Friends from church brought me meals and showed such kindness to me after Taylor was born. I love all of you!

I was just looking through some pictures of me and my 2 oldest and best friends, Hilary and Jan. We have known each other since the 7th grade and they were my 2 bride's maids at my wedding. This picture is of Jan, Hilary and me in February of last year when Hilary flew to Colorado from Vermont to visit me and Jan. Whenever we are together, it's like we have never been apart. After high school Jan and I lost contact for about 5 years. When I moved to Colorado for my job, Jan had been living in Denver for 4 years and Hilary said, "You guys need to get back in touch!" Finally we did, and we both wondered how we had ever lived without each other! I never laugh as hard as I do when I am with these 2 girls. We are just silly and weird and we love it. We do the stupidest things when we're together and we are amused. For example, at my work Christmas party the supervisors gave all of us pee-ons these really HIDEOUS mugs filled with candy. The mugs looked like they came from the dollar store. They were really, really, UGLY. When Hilary was visiting, she and I decided that the mug had to be destroyed as nothing so ugly should ever be kept. Jan's apartment in Denver was on the 3rd floor, so we decided to drop the mug from her balcony to watch it smash. I know to anyone but us this seems so infantile and strange. We wrapped the mug up in a Whole Foods bag and dropped it. We even recorded the whole incident. Well, when the mug dropped, it didn't just smash, it exploded right through the bag. We were all laughing so hard, I thought I was going to pee my pants. We amuse ourselves just sitting around talking. I think the three of us could talk for 3 days straight and never tire of each other's company. We would probably be exhausted from laughing so hard though! In high school, we didn't do the things that most of the kids in our class did like drink and smoke and party. Instead, we pranked our teachers and drove up to gas stations and asked for 25 cents worth of gas among other silly things.

There's a song by Dar Williams called "My Friends" and I think she sums up my feelings about my friends pretty well when she said, "I have a friend in a bright and distant town- she's found a common balance where you do your work, and you do your love and they pay you, and praise your many talents. Well I'm passing through, and we know we won't sleep. She laughs, puts up the tea, she says, "You know I think you remember every part of me."And the water starts to boil, and if I had a camera showing all the light we give and showing where the light extends I'd give it to my friends."

A few cute pictures from the last 3 days...

"Ever since the baby, no one's looking at me..."

This is our cat, Scratchy. He is feeling quite lonely lately because ever since we brought Taylor home he hasn't quite gotten the amount of attention that he used to get, and like a spoiled child, he has been acting out. He has been tearing up our carpet and he even PEED on one of our couches. EW! Poor Scractchy. We still love him, of course, but it's kind of hard to play with him when a lot of my day is consumed by taking care of my daughter. I am sure when Taylor gets a little older he will get more attention again. I had to take some pictures of him today so he didn't feel left out. Before Taylor was born I took a TON of pictures of him but since she was born I haven't taken any. I think he liked it- he was acting like quite the ham!

Perpetual Motion

When Taylor is awake (and even sometimes in her sleep) she is in perpetual motion. I knew before she was born that she was an active baby. I felt her move when I was only 15 weeks pregnant and when I had my first ultrasound at 20 weeks the ultrasound technician was like, "Whoa, this baby just keeps moving. I can't get any clear shots!" She had to take pictures of the same areas several times to try to get clear images of her vital organs because she just kept moving. She wouldn't even TRY to guess Taylor's sex because she was moving way too much to even get a glimpse of her private area. The motion continues. Right now she is laying on the futon in my study room just kicking, kicking, kicking while I type. A lot of my friends say they get things done during nap time... well, Taylor isn't much of a napper. Once in a while she will take a good long nap, but so far today she has only napped about a half an hour- enough time for me to shower and get dressed. My mom told me that my brother Bryan was like that as a baby and his kids were all like that as babies too. Joel's mom told me that Joel was a really active baby too and that he started walking at 9 months! Whoa! It kind of makes me wonder what we have in store with Taylor! I am sure she will keep us running!

Nose smashing

This is me and my nephew Keith "nose smashing." Keith is now almost 7, so this picture is a few years old, but nose smashing is a tradition among me and my nephews and niece. It started when my nephew Brendan (who is now 11) was 3. We smash our noses together and yell, "NOSE SMASH!" and then we smash our cheeks together and yell, "CHEEK SMASH!" and then one of us smashes our nose into the other person's cheek and yell, "NOSE AND CHEEK SMASH!" I know, it's kind of weird but it's still fun. Joel and Taylor and I just traveled back to Vermont to give Taylor her baby blessing. One of my favorite parts about being home is being able to spend time with my family at my parent's house. My parents have a beautiful house on 10 acres of lakefront property. It's so peaceful and serene. Anyway, my sister Marisa and her husband Nathan were there visiting from Utah at the same time that we were there and my brother Bryan and his wife Michelle and their 3 boys live in Vermont. I have carried on the nose smashing tradition Brendan and their other 2 boys, Cade and Keegan. Keegan decided to add a few new smashes to the tradition. He added, nose and finger smash, foot and toe smash and ear and ear smash (ouch!). I tried to nose smash with Taylor but I think she's a little too small for that yet. There are some things I can't wait to do with her but I don't want to wish away her infancy. I am discovering all too quickly that "babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow." So, maybe in a few more years I will teach my own daughter to nose smash but for now I will let her be a baby.

Taylor Maya

The following pictures are Taylor at 4 days old... 1 week old... 3 weeks old..... 4 weeks old... 5 weeks old... 8 weeks old...

"I wouldn't know love if it weren't for the likes of you."

My life changed forever on June 23, 2007 when my baby girl Taylor Maya was born. Being pregnant I loved her. I loved feeling her move inside of me- her little kicks and punches reassured me that she was still alive and well. I loved going to each prenatal appointment and hearing her little heart beating. I cried the first time I heard her heart beat. I mean, I felt sick and I knew I was pregnant, but it made it so much more real to hear an actual heart beat. Knowing that I was growing a human inside of me was amazing. But nothing could prepare me for how I would feel the moment I met her. My love for her is unlike anything I have ever known before and I look forward to every moment I spend with her.