little victories

Today after I finished my breakfast I decided to put K on his tummy while I read my scriptures beside him. Immediately after I set him down, he lifted his head up really high, turned sideways, and then rested his head on his arm. He then started wiggling his legs and body a little bit, as if he wanted to roll the rest of the way. I thought, "Wow, he's so close! I wonder how much longer it will be before he can roll over." He rested for a little while on his arm, and then he rolled the rest of the way as if it was no big deal. It took me a second to realize he had just rolled over because he did it so easily. Then I got really excited. I wonder if he'll keep doing it.

This is one of the things I am really enjoying about motherhood. I get to see all these small yet significant victories that K makes and enjoy them with him. I love to see the determined look he gets on his face when he's going to try to do something, and then the smiles and excitement he has when he does it. I know that he must have been looking forward to the chance to have a body for a long time before he was born, and it's fun to see him trying to figure out how this whole using-a-body thing works. I am amazed at the developments he has made and the way he has figured out how to do certain things on purpose.

One thing I have noticed about him is that when he decides to do something, he will do it--if he doesn't want to, he won't. If the pacifier isn't what he wants, there's no way we can get him to take it--but if he wants it, he will take it for a long time without any coaxing. For the first month of his life, he refused to sleep on his back in the bassinet at night, no matter what we tried. Then one night I put him in there, and he wasn't even close to being asleep, and he slept--and I've never had a problem since (at night). One day he decided he was going to sleep through the night, and he has done it almost every night since then (thank you, thank you, thank you, K!). And the same thing happened today--I think he thought, "I'm going to roll over," and then he just did it. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone besides me--it's kind of hard to explain what I mean in writing, especially since other people don't know him as well as I do.

Two minutes after K's superhuman performance, he was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. He looked so sweet that I just had to get a picture.

Wow! It's been 2 months!

Yesterday K was two months old. He had his two month checkup yesterday: He is 24 inches long and weighs 13 lb. 2.5 oz (my guess was 13 lbs.--pretty good, huh?). No way would he fit inside me now. The nurses and the doctor all said he is so cute and admired his eyes. I am fascinated with his eyes--every day they look a little different, and they are so beautiful and striking. He also had his first shots today and handled them pretty well. I didn't really like to see him cry when they did it, but he calmed down after not too long--and I'm ready with the baby Tylenol in case he is in any more pain. It's worth a couple of stings if it keeps him from getting really sick. I'm grateful that he is healthy and hasn't had to be poked and prodded much since he was born. K smiles and kicks a lot and reaches for my face and his makeshift mobile (depicted below). He is constantly making facial expressions that remind me of my little sisters and brother.


In this picture I think he kind of looks like Harold, from Harold and the Purple Crayon. There are a lot of books about Harold that are really cute--he is a little boy who has lots of adventures by drawing scenes and objects with his little purple crayon (always wearing his blue footed pajamas). K looks so thoughtful and imaginative, as if he's just had an interesting thought.

Some exciting events

K is sleeping much better at night. In the past week and a half, I think there have only been two nights when he didn't sleep for six to seven hours in a row, and on those nights I only had to get up to take care of him once. I didn't even have to rock him to sleep and carefully put him in the bassinet--I just wrapped him in a blanket and put him in while he was awake. I've really appreciated the uninterrupted sleep. It seems like he's starting to realize that when it's dark, it's time to sleep. I don't know if this will last, but I figure I will enjoy it while it does. I think overall he is feeling better because he's getting that quality sleep.

We taped some toys to a plastic hanger and hung them on the shade of the bassinet so that he would have something to look at. One of the toys had three keys on it, and we taped it so that one key was taped to the hanger and the other two hung down. This morning he was lying in the bassinet and reached up and tapped the keys--and then he tried a couple more times and managed to do it again and again. We were very excited, and I think he was too. It's so interesting to watch him moving his hands and figuring out how to get them to do what he wants. Sometimes he concentrates very hard on it and gets a very cute, determined look on his face.

The other event is that I received the decision about my residency--NCSU has given me in-state tuition status. I'm so glad because out-of-state tuition is incredibly expensive, which is why I only took eleven credits last year. Now that I can pay in-state tuition we will actually be able to afford my education. This is a really nice blessing. I was really upset last year that I wasn't going to be able to go to school full-time because I really wanted to get a lot of school out of the way, but I have a feeling that this past year has been a different kind of school for me and that I was supposed to learn other things that just can't be taught in a classroom. So even though I still have a ton of school left, I can look back on this year and feel that it wasn't wasted. I need to add how much I appreciate RT being supportive and comforting when I was so discouraged about it--he really helped me to see things with the proper perspective.

K is bored

K is getting wiggly and starting to look around at things. We have a couple of toys that I like to hold up above him for him to watch, and the swing has some little animals that hang over his head and can go in a circle, and he seems to like that. I'm thinking of getting or making something that I can put above him while he's lying on the floor or in his crib so that he can look at it (and maybe also kick or reach for it), because sometimes he just seems bored. I have a few ideas, but I thought I'd ask: What have you used and liked?

This is what I do all day.

I watch K being cute. Like in this video: Please ignore my voice--I hate how I sound in recordings (although I guess so does everyone else).

If you read my blog via email, click here to watch it, because I don't think you can see it in the email.

The past week or so has been fun because K is starting to smile and make cute noises. He has also become much more wiggly and interactive. We can tell that he is starting to recognize our faces.

I also watch RT being cute:


He spends a lot of time holding him like that--I really appreciate it. I love them both so much.

On Sunday we fed the missionaries waffles and peaches on our new (for us) table that has six matching chairs (the food was on plates, not the table). The missionaries were very nice, and they were our first dinner guests. K slept until it was time for them to share their nice message about prayer, at which point he cried or sucked on my finger. Now that we have a nice table I guess I need to start inviting people over for dessert. Shyness is now my only excuse (and even though I think it's a good excuse, it actually isn't).

my first day back in school

Wednesday was my first day back in school. I am only taking two classes this semester, and one is online, but even that seems like a ton of work when I have a month-old baby who likes to be held all the time. I have often considered dropping out or at least waiting a year, but every time I think about it I immediately have a strong feeling that I have to keep plowing through. Graduating from college didn't seem like much of a challenge when I was a freshman at BYU, but now that I have a baby to take care of and I still have about 70 credits to finish, I think when I graduate I will consider it a great accomplishment. Maybe I will appreciate my college education a little more. RT has been so supportive and is taking care of K while I am in class.

It was a really hot day. I rode the campus shuttle to a bus stop by the hospitals, where I would catch another bus that would take me halfway to Raleigh, where I would then catch another bus that would take me to NCSU. It's a long process, but it's worth it to save the gas money (NCSU students ride for free), and I can also study during my commute, which I couldn't do if I was driving. Fortunately I can ride the express bus to get back home, which is much nicer.

After arriving at NCSU, I had to do a couple of things before going to class, so I took care of those things and then went to my class. It took a little longer than I expected, and then I couldn't figure out where my class was because the building had a somewhat-odd numbering system, so I walked into my class late. I was dripping in sweat (should I say perspiration instead?) and breathing hard because I was so hot, and my hair was frizzy because of the humidity. I was pretty embarrassed because I was late and I knew I looked like a mess. I looked around, and it seemed like 3/4 of the class was composed of beautiful girls with perfect hair. I had to wonder if I'm the only person who perspires in this state. RT says it's because I grew up in Idaho, and Idaho is never humid and doesn't get this hot as often. It will probably affect my ability to adjust to climates for the rest of my life.

The teacher discussed a couplet from a poem and also the prologue to the Canterbury Tales. He had some interesting insights. I thought about my AP English class and decided I was gypped (by the way, I just barely found out that that word isn't spelled "jipped"--I had no idea!). Not that this was a surprise--I was already pretty sure that we hadn't been taught very much about literature in that class. For one thing, we only spent one day talking about poetry--I've always wished that I knew more about how to read and appreciate poetry. I have a feeling that there aren't very many good English teachers anymore. I hope I will learn a lot from this teacher and get a better idea of what I can do to continue learning how to appreciate literature better. I guess that is probably an ability that comes with practice and careful thought.

This wasn't the first time I had been away from K, but I was away for quite a while, and I really missed him. As much as I like school, I kept wishing I was at home with him. Even though it seems like all I do with him right now is feed and hold him and change his diaper, being a mom is so much more meaningful than what I do in school. I'm trying to remember how much we have been told recently by leaders of the church that it is important for women to get an education. I know that it will help me develop skills that will help me be a better parent and also that it's a very good idea to be prepared in case I ever need to go to work.

K seems to be sleeping a little better at night. In the beginning it was very hard to get him to sleep in the bassinet because he would startle awake. Sometimes he slept okay if we put him on his side (held in place by some lovely wedges), but it was still hard. We finally started putting him in an infant seat or the swing, and he seemed to sleep better there, although he still would often cry until we held him. But the last few days he has slept exclusively in the bassinet at night and has done just fine, and he has generally only awakened to eat every three hours. He is even learning to soothe himself back to sleep, which he never would do before--if he started to cry he would not stop unless we took care of him. It must be hard to get used to having a body--I'm glad that he's starting to get the hang of some things.

He's also grown a lot in the last week and a half. One day I tried on some of his three-month size clothes, and they were still way too big, and it seemed like it was only a few days later when they fit him perfectly. At his doctor appointment on Tuesday he weighed 11 lbs and was 22 inches long--he went from being in the 50th percentile to the 75th percentile in two weeks. I'm amazed at how big he has gotten. It's also been amazing to see how much he has changed and watch him develop a personality. His neck and legs are very strong, and he's starting to smile a little bit at us and often focuses his gaze on our faces or other objects.

We can't figure out what color K's eyes are. I don't think there's a color that describes it. They're kind of purplish-greenish-greyish-blackish-brownish-blueish, and very, very dark.

one month old

Hi. Tomorrow I will be one month old. I like to eat, sleep, and kick. That's about it. My parents think I'm exceptionally cute and beautiful. I don't have much interest in the mirror, so I wouldn't know.

Here are some videos of me.




I have sharp fingernails and I keep scratching my face, so they put socks on my hands. I think the socks are interesting.




I used to have a lot of hair on top of my head, but it fell out. Mom was sad. Dad and I didn't care too much. I'm still cute.