Mr. Bubbers

People frequently ask me how things are going with the new baby.

My Answer?

Parents would be more likely to bring more babies into this world if they were all as wonderful as Grant. (Followed by a mumbling side note that they would be less likely if they had 3-year-old like Emma.) :)

I mean, COME ON. Just look at that happy, adorable, content little face. I just want to eat him up all day long.

Grant is almost 5 months old. Where in the world has the time gone?

I am REALLY going to miss this little guy as a baby. All I wanted was for Emma to grow up and now all I want is Grant to stay little.

I am not delusional. This kid has got to be one of the most charming and pleasing babies around. He sleeps like a champ and when he wakes up he eats like a champ and then smiles, laughs and coos at his family for the rest of his awake time.

He hangs out in his bumbo chair a lot and also enjoys his activity mat, where he is learning to grab at some of the animals that hang over his head. He started staring at his moving fingers a few days ago and has also found the sensation of his tongue outside of his mouth is quite exciting. So for days straight it appeared that Grant was sticking his tongue out at our family, all day long.

He has recently started snorting when he is hungry and makes this hysterical face...

(in a side note, this photo reminds me of "Mega Mind" - see the resemblance? - that is one huge cranium!)

He is consistently sleeping 11 hours every night. Generally goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up at 6am for a feeding. Then he'll go right back to bed until about 8am. Have I mentioned how much I ADORE this baby??

He is still swaddled (thank you Miracle Swaddle). But, if he is not in the mood to sleep, this little wiggle worm can grunt and groan his way right out of the straight jacket. Emma was in the swaddle for 8 months and could NEVER get herself out. If you knew how these blankets were contrived, you would certainly be impressed at his David Copperfield moves to free himself of the captivity.

We call him Mr. Bubbers around here. Emma also enjoys "lil bro". We frequently sing "Hey Mr. Nickerbocker boppity bop" and Emma LOVES playing patty cake with him, wherein the cake goes into the oven for Grant and Emma and Mom and Dad.

Grant LOVES his big sister. Anytime he hears her voice his sweet little face lights up with a HUGE smile. She can always make him laugh. That is one of the sweetest moments for me as a parent, while watching the two interact in such a darling manner. I know someday they will literally pull each other's hair out - so I'm capturing the peaceful, happy moments now. :)

Grant brings such a peaceful, happy countenance into our home for which we are VERY grateful.

We love our Mr. Bubbers.

Update on Emma - 3 years and 4 months

Our Emma. Our independent, ever-sassy, fun-filled Emma.

She is growing up so quickly. It's hard to believe she will start preschool in 2 months. And FREAK. Once she starts preschool, I might as well start her BYU application process.

She can be so frustrating at times. But, gratefully, most of the time she is wonderful to have around. But wait. Did I mention she was really REALLY frustrating at times?? Just wanted to clarify.

Below are a few pictures, followed by our recent stories of little Miss.

Almost ready for church.

Watching a movie in the park with her future husband Alex. (She tells everyone she is going to marry him in the AZ Temple.)

At the zoo with friends. Enjoying one last gorgeous day before summer confines us to our air conditioned home.

One morning she was eating breakfast and insisted on me taking a picture of her. In another note - if you are what you eat - Emma will eventually turn into a Honey Nut Cheerio. Her FAVORITE breakfast cereal and what she eats 99% of the time. Luckily she will also gulp down spinach fruit smoothies to help with additional nutrients.

• Emma lives in her imaginary world about 75% of her life. She is CONSTANTLY playing with, talking to, singing to, and interacting with her imaginary friends. She is really darling with it - and Greg and I think she may have a future in literature with her active imagination. She is able to discern between "pretend" and "real" - on which we continue to focus. I'd worry about her mental state - but all the articles I've read say that it is developmentally appropriate - so I'm going to trust them.
• Greg did catch Emma yelling at her imaginary "Belle" and had to remind her that we needed to use nice words even with our pretend friends. She has also been seen pushing her pretend dog away because it was jumping on her. And then later that same day, her dog suspiciously died. Don't mess little doggie. You jump on Emma, she'll make you pay.
• She has fallen madly in love with Clemetine oranges. She calls them "baby oranges", is thrilled that they are just her size, and LOVES to peel them and eat them like candy. She has at least 2 a day.
• Emma finally noticed that Greg has different "body parts" that she does, in nether regions. That was an interesting discussion. Thankfully, she hasn't talked much about it since the initial day of discovery.
• Emma loves to mimic her parents. Some of the especially funny comments coming out of a 3-year-old mouth while disciplining her parents or imaginary friends are: "Do you understand me?", "When I say come here, you need to come here." and "Look at my eyes". And when she is on her pretend phone, she frequently looks at me and says "Just a minute".
• While singing with the Primary children for Mother's Day she knew the song quite well, but spent the entire time chomping on a new piece of gum her silly Mom forgot to take out of her mouth. Oh well. She just loved standing up in front of people. As half of the Sunbeams were too timid to sing with the Primary, Emma was shoving her way to the front of the group. So strange. We have no idea where she would have inherited that trait?
• When Aunt Laura was babysitting her, Laura had to resort to bribery to encourage Emma to stay in her bedroom for bed time. Laura told her that she had 5 doughnuts to eat the next morning for breakfast. But warned her that for every time she got out of her room, she would lose a doughnut. About 10 minutes after the bedtime tactic, Emma came marching down the stairs, told Laura, "I still have 4 doughnuts" and proceeded to beg for more water/food and a bathroom break. She had calculated her losses and evidently decided that 4 was plenty. Good math, eh?
• Emma LOVES the new ipad2. There are so many fantastic apps for small children - most of them educational. Though fearing addiction to technology Greg and I spent a lot of time configuring the best tactic for her usage. We decided on an "earning" approach so that she doesn't feel she is entitled to it whenever she wants. She can earn 30 minutes of ipad time every day if (and only if) she does school time with Mommy. She is now suspiciously VERY anxious to complete school time every day. :) But as a result, she can now write almost all of the upper case alphabet letters. And continues to do well in lots of other academic areas.
• Emma definitely tries our patience with her strong-willed personality. I'm desperately clinging to "love and logic" ideas and recommendations. It has been making a positive difference. But there are plenty of times that I'm still at a loss. She's now been kicked out of Primary and Nursery at separate times - guess the next step is prison. She started pulling hair a few weeks ago, but when I told her that the consequence to hair pulling was having her beautiful hair cut short, she was MORTIFIED and the behavior has not happened again. I'm trying to make sure that I am patient with her, because coincidentally (ha ha) she has worse days when I am short with her at home. We have had to leave gym class and play group early because of bad behavior. But, upon returning to both activities in subsequent weeks, she was sure to behave well so that she could stay the whole time.
• A few weeks ago, Emma was ADAMANT that I not turn right on a red light. I tried to explain to her that it was OK to turn right on red, as long as I stop to check for oncoming traffic. She quickly retorted that "Daddy doesn't do that". And when we were next in the car together I gratefully hit a green light for a right turn to which she VERY excitedly said, "GOOD job Mommy! You turned right on GREEN! See I told you!".
• And her stubborn nature that is sure to get worse as she gets older (right Mom?). She sings the ABC song by saying "H, I, K, J...". When I tried to correct her, she boldly told me that I was wrong and she KNEW how to sing the ABC's. In a moment of parenting weakness, I boldly replied that I went to school for 18 years and was positive that I was smarter and knew my ABC's better than she did. Without blinking, she said, "No Mom. I know them better." End of discussion. First the ABC's --- what's next?
• We have been having BIG TIME trouble with bed time. It was taking us about 1-2 hours AFTER initially putting her into bed dealing with water/bathroom requests and sneaking down the stairs. SOOOOOOOOOOO - with MUCH dismay I am here to regretfully report that I think she may be growing out of afternoon naps. I have tested her this week by skipping afternoon naps and she has absolutely CRASHED at 7:30pm for bed. No sneaking, no peeps from her. NOTHING. She is literally asleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow. But DANG. What am I supposed to do to entertain her an extra 2-3 hours during the day? It's been an adjustment for me, but I think we'll get into a good groove soon. And boy do Greg and I enjoy our peaceful evenings together!!
• Emma has recently become OBSESSED with what days her Dad has to work. Every single morning she excitedly asks Greg if he gets to stay home with her. When he tells her no, she mopes around for a few minutes. When he tells her yes, she runs around in pure GLEE. What a lucky girl to have a Dad as great as Greg. And what a lucky Dad to have a daughter that idolizes him.
• Emma missed the cut off to "graduate" from Nursery by 11 days. She is therefore in Nursery with kids that are 1-2 years younger than her (most of them). We got a report for her Nursery leader today that she gathered all the younger children (and leaders) around and "read" books to them all. HA! She probably thinks she is the teacher.
• When something really exciting happens in her little life she likes to exuberantly declare, "I am really freaking out!"
• She picked out some blank spiral notebooks at the dollar store. The other day she asked me to read them to her. I told her that I couldn't read them because they were just blank pages and there were no words. She looked at my quizzically and said "yes, there are words right here" and then proceeded to read to me for 15 minutes from the blank pages. All kinds of interesting stories! Who knew blank pages could be that fascinating??
• We are going to a friend's home tonight. She she approached Emma and said, "I'm so happy that you are coming to my home tonight!" - Emma said "YOU ARE!"
• For all the frustrating moments, our precious Emma is happy and sweet most of the time. She is constantly telling Greg and I how much she loves us. She is always singing and chatting happily. She loves to cuddle up next to her as we read her books. She loves her Daddy singing her to sleep as he rocks with her in the rocking chair. Nothing makes her happier than spending time with our "whole family". She loves to list off everyone in our "whole family" to make sure that we are not forgetting anyone. She is definitely a ray of sunshine.

Cloning

Cloning has recently been a very controversial issue.

Sorry.

We don't mean to create problems.

But we seem to have just one genetic code that works.

GRANT: May 2011 EMMA: May 2008

When good ideas go bad.

Ever have an idea that seems super fantastic?

Until the idea ensues and all goes sour?

Twas our evening on Saturday.

Greg and I decided that paddle boating on Kiwanis Lake sounded like a GREAT idea. Emma has seen the boats a thousand times while at the park and has been begging to go.

So we got to the lake, purchased our boat, strapped the kids in their life preservers, and hopped aboard.

The weather was warm, but tolerable on the water, Emma was thrilled and I said, "I can't believe we haven't done this sooner, it is so fun"!

Then things went south. QUICKLY.

Our typically happy and content baby started SCREAMING. I mean REALLY. REALLY. SCREAMING. The last time I heard him scream this loud and this long was after his circumcision. So, to our poor little baby, circumcision=paddle boating. YIKES.

The sun was in his eyes, the sun was burning his forehead (because his Mom forgot his hat), the sun block was lathered all over his face and head and bothering him, he was hungry, he was tired, and he did NOT enjoy being crammed into a life jacket. Not at all.

In addition, it was really difficult to use the pedals and steer the boat with a screaming infant on your lap. So, I handed Grant to Greg (luckily had brought a bottle along) and Greg draped the two of them in the blanket and fed him.

This pacified Grant a bit, but once the bottle was gone he continued screaming his miserable scream and Greg ordered us back to the dock (35 minutes early) to put poor Grant out of his misery.

Don't worry about Emma. Didn't seem to phase her one bit.

She was just chillaxin' in her seat, enjoying life on a boat. A screaming baby certainly isn't any of HER concern.

And Greg and I comforted ourselves by grabbing dinner at Serrano's afterward. Nothing some homemade tortillas and salsa can't solve. (Thank you IPAD for bringing restaurant dining back into our lives - while you generously entertain our daughter.)

So the next time you consider paddle boating with an infant...

Think circumcision.

My Perfect Mother's Day

I enjoyed a perfect Mother's Day.

Because of this:

Complete with Emma's FIRST signature (been trying to get the stinker to write it for MONTHS)

And a beautiful portrait of our family by Emma...

And these.

(one from Emma and one from Grant)

And being able to honor my INCREDIBLE Mother.

Some day I'll be half as incredible.

Some day.

(yes, those are my chubby thighs pouring out of the diaper and yes, my thighs are still that chubby.)

Being a Mother is the most exhausting and most joyous careers around. I'm glad it's mine.

A special thanks to sweet Greg for making me feel extra love and appreciation.

Our totally rockin' week!

Our week was pretty AWESOME.

All FOUR of us had something to CHEER about.

GREG: Pumped to FINALLY receive our IPAD 2 in the mail. This little gadget ROCKS!!
(ok, really the whole fam was pretty pumped... as this pricey purchase culminates the celebration of the next 6 holidays in our home!)

TAM: Super excited to FINALLY have my car windows tinted. If you don't live in Arizona, you don't understand the NECESSITY of window tinting. Not a want, a need. My car is old, but I expect to drive it for another 5 years (at the least). The sun in the kids eyes was enough to seal the deal. Emma was SO thrilled to have tinted windows. She now points out every vehicle on the road with tint (which is most of them) and speaks VERY condescendingly about Greg's car which is pathetic and not blessed with the super-cool tint.

EMMA: Found two new best friends in the form of pinatas purchased for the ward Taco Fiesta. When stuffing them with candy, she quickly formed her relationship, named them Lorea and Chlorea and played with them all day. The picture below had to be taken TWICE because she insisted that Lorea was not smiling. Obvious.

Evidently the relationship was short lived and relatively violent, because the next night she was MORE than happy to take a bat to Chlorea in an effort to break her into pieces and collect her candy insides.

GRANT: Found his toes to play with. What a thrill!

And there is our week of events in the Adams home.

Kicked off our May with a BANG!!

And a Happy Arbor Day to you!

I'm sure you all had the Arbor Day fairy visit your home on Friday. And fixed the kids pancakes in the shape of trees. And made a wreath of leaves for your door.

What? You didn't even realize it was Arbor Day?

Shame on you.

OK. OK. Well actually, I didn't even know Arbor Day was in April until I decided to sign up for an Arbor Day 5K benefiting the City of Tempe. For every 2 participants, Tempe City planted a new tree. I thought it sounded like a nice idea to beautify our surroundings.

Greg and I were supposed to run the whole thing and use it as a motivation to start running again - but we had an interesting month and decided to walk it as a family.

PS - Still not a fan of running. Really enjoy lots of other forms of exercise. Actually, really enjoy any type of exercise that does not involve running. But, I know that it is good for me and a quick way to get great cardio. So, running I will go. (UGH.)

Greg pushed the kids in the stroller (easily an extra 50 pounds) and I could still BARELY keep up with his "Speedy Gonzales" walking. He's like a walking maniac on crack. I think he's been getting up in the middle of the night and practicing his speed walking. I literally had to do a slow jog to keep up. Way to keep up the pace honey!

Emma ran for about 5 minutes at the beginning and about 2 minutes across the finish line. She was SO proud of herself. She told us that she sometimes gets "really sweaty" when she runs. After the race, she requested that we call all of her grandparents to tell them about her race. Of course, she also got oranges, bananas and chocolate milk after the race - which was also a definite perk.


So a rousing HAPPY ARBOR DAY to you and yours.

Go hug a tree and appreciate all that free oxygen they provide.