On the Verge...

Just wanted to share here that I think I may be addicted to sugar.  And I think I may need to do something about it.  But right now the conviction is not stronger than my desire is for ice cream every time I spend more than five minutes out in the Texas summer heat.  But there is some conviction and I'm hoping that it may be enough to at least help me reduce  my daily sugar intake.  I'm thinking that it is going to have to start at the grocery store.  I am writing this here so that you can maybe help hold me to it: I will not buy ice cream, cookies, or chocolate things from the store any more.  I know there are other realms of sugar, but I think if I start there, I will be making some steps toward progress in weaning myself. The sweetness of my two adorable children is a little too much to handle sometimes, as well.  I find myself wanting to just squish them they are so cute.  One time, my friend Hollie said I was so cute that she wanted to...

That may be an exaggeration for many of you.  Depending on how much time you spend seeking out funny videos on youtube/facebook and such, it may just be the funniest thing you see today.  Or this hour.  Or maybe you have a very different sense of humor and we can't be friends any more.  Just kidding. I know that this was pretty much the only thing that kept me from melting down yesterday after the hardest moment I've had in my two child experience thus far.  There was a starving newborn, a hurt toddler, and a very overwhelmed mommy involved.  I'll leave it at that. Then I started playing around with our new computer and the webcam program and this is what ended up happening: I showed this to Quinn when he got home and he laughed as hard as I did.  I think I've only see him laugh that hard once in the whole time I've known him.  I think there's something about seeing your own small child with a mustache that would make most parents wet t...

I am doing an experiment. Selah has been a really amiable baby so far. Really, she has just been sleeping and eating.  A few times she has done some very sad crying during her few awake moments.  The fact that the vigorous pumping of her legs combined with incessant pacifier sucking has produced some very lovely little farts in those moments, I have figured out that there is something happening with her eating that is sometimes making her gassy.  Hence the experiment.  I can't hold all variables constant (as I learned was necessary in 10th grade Chemistry), but I am trying.  So I eliminated what I thought might be the culprits: broccoli, tomatoes, and eggs.  Those might not be the problems, but it's my best guess and so I'm starting there.  I took them all out.  She was fine for a few days.  Then I added eggs back in; and she had a hard day.  So I'm pretty sure eggs are at least one of the problems.  The fact that they may be makin...

 Quinn is not feeling well.  We are on the verge of more Quillness in this house.  Pretty much every time we get sick here, it starts with Quinn or Abram.  Right now he has a sore-ish throat, a 100 degree temperature, and body aches.  This means that he will sleep in the guest room tonight, I will have no help with the baby (pouty face), we will wash our hands a lot, and we will see what tomorrow brings.  I am just now realizing that it might be/probably is what Abram just had.  He had a fever for about four days and refused to eat much (because of a sore throat, maybe?) and then it went away, so the doctor thought it was just a viral infection.  If it was, it is definitely possible that Quinn has it now.  But hopefully his adult immune system can fight it off better than Abram's baby one. Some day... Some day we will all be well for longer than a month... :( Today, even with Quinn feeling a little yucky, we went to a super cool new p...

Apparently all you need to do to have a photogenic baby is have an amazing photographer friend named April Morales! She came to take some pictures of our new little fam when Selah was just a few days old and she just gave them to me.  I am so excited about them (especially after sharing some not so amazing pictures of this lady) that I thought I would share them with you immediately.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.     Again, these were taken by the uber-excellent - or I guess I should say "uber-ausgeseichnet" - April Morales.  If you are in Austin and you are having a baby and you want the nicest, most wonderful person to beautifully capture your newborn, let me know and I'll send you her way.   We just sent out Selah's birth announcement today, so it should hit mailboxes very soon.  But I'll go ahead and share it here.  I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted it to look lik...

I guess most newborn babies aren't photogenic in the typical understanding of the word.  I mean, they don't even smile yet - unless they have gas. Tangent: So, very early, unprompted smiles are thought to be caused by gas, right?  That's why they are called "gas smiles".  This confuses me since gas also causes an absurd amount of crying in children the same age.  I know my child gave me the most adorable, sleepy, long "gas" smile yesterday and followed it by an incredible yelp of pain.  What the what? Anyway, Selah is no exception to the not-incredibly-photogenic newborn phenomena.  You know, where you are staring at your baby thinking how utterly adorable they are and decide that their cuteness needs photographic documentation, only to take a picture and think "that doesn't look like the cuteness I'm staring at with my eyes right now".  Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that my baby's good looks come across much better in ...

  This week has been much harder for me that last week.  There are a few reasons for this: 1) Abram has been sick this week.  Starting on Sunday he was running a fever that was topping out at night at around 104.  This is really high for him, since his and my normal body temps are around 96.8.  It was traumatic for all of us.  Fevers are usually worse/higher at night (I hear) and so Sunday night and Monday night were pretty hard.  He was crying a ton and shaking and was overall uncomfortable when his fever was high, so until the medicine would kick in and bring it down, Quinn would lay with him on the couch in his room.  I've mentioned this before, but really the only time that we get Abram to snuggle with us is when he is sick.  So even though it's sad that he doesn't feel well, we kind of relish the stillness and snuggliness of our little man.  I tried to get some picture of those moments, but I didn't want to wake anyone up. ...