Poo-splosion in Our Bed

The wonders of parenting have begun. A couple nights ago, I had just finished a 2:30 am feeding with our beautiful baby girl, Juliet, when I noticed her dirty diaper. No problem, I thought, the feeding had gone quickly and well. A dirty diaper was not going to stand in my way. As I was changing the diaper, I noticed a particularly dangerous expression on my dear daughter's lovely face: the poop face. It looks something like this:

I dove to cover her with one of the two diapers sitting there on the bed, but, alas, I was too late. Within seconds there was a foot-long stretch of projectile poo all over our bed. After washing the sheets in the bathroom sink (we don't have a washer, so we had to wait until morning for the laundromat), we were all able to get back to bed around 3:30.

I now use a GIANT changing pad when I change her diaper at night instead of assuming that the diaper underneath her bare tush will sufficiently catch any untimely secretions. Welcome to parenthood. Good thing we're fast learners.

Builder Bob

Daniel finally decided to buy some power tools of his very own: a drill, a skill saw, and a jig saw. Obviously, he's very excited and has been keeping himself busy. He's been fixing things and making things for the baby, which is totally fine by me. :-) He made a cute little name plate to hang in her room - it's pink and purple and has a bow on it...who'd have thought?

We also recently had to prepare our little apartment for an inspection from the Housing Authority. They told us that we couldn't have any chipping or cracked paint. Dan went at it with spackle for DAYS. I rather enjoyed the spackling process as it turned from a bright pink to white when it dried - our walls looked like they had chickenpox and were covered in calamine lotion.

Unfortunately, even with all the excitement of getting new tools, we have, of course, had a loss. Dan lost his beloved hammer. He is very upset as he and Tim bought matching hammers to work construction several years ago. And now his hammer is no more. Any ideas on the whereabouts of the poor boy's hammer?

Pizza Eating Contest

Last night, we went out to a pizza buffet with several of our friends. Dan, inevitably because it's a pizza buffet, got into a pizza eating contest with one of our friends. Dan won, don't worry. He ended up eating 16 pieces of assorted pizzas (2 full pizzas), some bread sticks, and an ice cream cone. Needless to say, he was a little uncomfortable for the rest of the night. However, he did decide that a pizza eating contest would be a wonderful Christmas activity for the brothers. So - Dan is proposing a change from the usual, healthy brotherly competition of running to the fatty brotherly competition of pizza eating. The gauntlet has been thrown.

Dan Makes Fun of Me Because I'm Round

Usually, if we get ice cream when we go to the grocery store, we get two containers: cookie dough for Daniel and moose tracks for me (and Daniel after he's finished off the cookie dough). Last time Dan went to the store, he only brought home the cookie dough. He said the moose tracks wasn't on sale. I told him that was okay - after all, it's not as if I don't enjoy a nice bowl of cookie dough once in a while. But I also made some comment about how it was inevitable that he would end up eating most, if not all, of it anyway (because someone has a real problem when it comes to eating sweets, and amazingly enough it's not me). Well, Daniel retorted with, "Hey. Who's the one with the big belly?" It didn't really seem to dawn on him what he had said because, as I reached out to smack his belly, he had a surprised look on his face. After a brief moment, however, the look changed to one that clearly said, "oh, I am so clever!" He let out a big belly laugh that not even my 8-month-pregnant belly can do and was immensely pleased with himself.

It's a.....

Peanut...?
After three months of waiting we finally got to have an ultrasound. It turns out that our baby is actually a peanut.

All Right, All Right, All Right, All Right, ALL RIGHT ALREADY!

So we've had some...stuff...going on. I have been bugged and bothered and bullied into updating folks on our trip to Europe, so OKAY ALREADY!

First, we went to Germany for Daniel's brother's wedding (Aaron for those of you who know, and for those of you who don't, kindly ignore the parenthetical remark). It's a little bit of a blur due to the whole jet-lag thing, but it was a whole lot of fun to be sure. Please note the picture of Daniel, Tim, and Aaron experiencing Germany together.



























Second, we went to Greece to visit my long-lost family. They live in a tiny little town (I'm talking chickens and the occasional cow roaming the streets) that is three hours by bus through the mountains from Athens. My family is pretty awesome. They own a restaurant and live above it - they are straight from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We even got to go see the house my grandma grew up in (it got destroyed by an earthquake).




























Lastly, we went to Rome. I was astounded at how excited Daniel was about everything in Rome. He even got up really early one morning and went sight-seeing without me (I'd like to point out that I got up at 8:30 that morning...so it's not like I was being lazy). We saw the Sistine Chapel , the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica etc. I didn't know it was possible to see so much in just a couple of days! Daniel even managed to get an awesome picture of "God Creates Adam" before they yelled "No Pictures! No Talking!"















Since then we've been trying to catch up with school and whatnot, so we've been a little behind in the blogging aspect. We beg forgiveness from the blogging world. :)And don't worry, Daniel took about 600 pictures!

Dealing With Loss

They always say that the teacher ends up learning more than the student. Well, I work in the nursery at church, and I am here to tell you that I got a great idea from an 18-month old named Joshua (okay maybe it was more his parents, but still).

The first time Joshua came into nursery a couple of weeks ago, I kept noticing a little blue knot popping out from his pant leg. I was wrangling seven kids at the time, so I didn't pay too much attention to it. Eventually, I realized that Joshua's shoes - both of them - had fallen off. Both of the shoes were, however, still trailing behind him everywhere he went. His parents - rather ingeniously I think - had looped a string through each of his pant legs and knotted the ends onto his shoes so they wouldn't get lost. Pure genius!

I haven't quite figured out how to apply this to Daniel yet - there would be too many stings involved. Ideas welcome.

The Next 2 Installments of Daniel's Ridiculousness

Most people talk about the ridiculous things their children do...that's why I have Daniel. He always keep me thoroughly entertained. Here are a couple examples of why:
1) Last week it was incredibly snowy, so I woke up early to take Daniel to school (most days he still rides his bike in the snow). When I came home I poured some cereal, went to the fridge, and realized we were out of milk. I distinctly remember thinking, "This is ridiculous! We bought two gallons this week. We cannot be out of milk already." I thought I'd check in the trash for the empty milk jug to assuage my disbelief, and there it was. And it was full. Sitting under the sink next to the trash. Full. Not empty. Not in the trash. Beside the trash. When asked later if he was especially tired that morning, he replied, "No. Why?"
2) Monday night Daniel fell asleep on the couch while we had friends over. When they left, I tried to wake him up so we could have FHE (Family Home Evening - this is a term we use at least on a weekly basis...keep this in mind). Our conversation went like this:
"Wake up, Dan. We need to have FHE."
"Fishies? What fishies?
"F.H.E. Not fishies."
"Whose fishies?" (Here he started getting irritated)
"You're not awake are you?"
"Yes, I am."
"Okay, well we need to have FHE."
"FHE. What's F.H.E.?"
As I giggled, I repeated, "FHE. You know what that is."
"Oh, FHE," he replied and serenely smiled. "Fishies."
As I could no longer control my laughter, I suggested we go to bed and have FHE later.

He Loves Me, He Loves Dan Not

So last week, Daniel's brother and his wife came over with their one-year-old, Zach. I don't have to go too far out on a limb by saying that Zach and I got along really well. We seem to have an understanding. On the other hand, he avoided Daniel at all time by at least two feet. Zach came up to me at various times in the night and held his arms up. I'd pick him up and we'd have a good ol' time. Towards the end of the night, we were all gathered around our coffee table playing a game (Tim, Ange, and Zach on one couch and Dan and me on the other). All of a sudden, Zach walked over to Daniel and held his arms up. Daniel exclaimed, "It's like he's a whole new kid! He wants me to hold him!" Much to Daniel's dismay and much to the rest of our amusement, the moment Zach got on Dan's lap, he pushed away from him and so he could sit on my lap. He then commenced kicking Dan until he got far enough off the couch so that it was just Zach and me. While I was incredibly amused by the evening's events, I can't say that Daniel was after that. But what can you do? Them's the breaks.