Homey say what?

Becca found a small measuring tape in the closet and told me, "I have to measure your elbow to see if you win a prize." She measured it, and found it pleasing, for I was then congratulated on winning a toy bus for my exceptional elbow size.

While playing the alphabet puzzle together today, Rebecca and I were taking turns putting the letters in and saying what words they were in. "V for violin. J is for jam." Rebecca chose 'I' and said, "I is for ice cream." Wanting to see if she could come up with a word that begins with the short 'I' sound, I asked, "What else is I for?"

"Insockulation," she replied.

Morning Surprise

At one week past 6 months old, I found Rachel's first tooth through this morning! All our other kids have been 7-8 months old and incredibly grouchy with a runny nose or cold symptoms for a few weeks beforehand, so having a little tooth poke through out of nowhere with no warning was a pleasant surprise.

Rachel is getting bigger - she's gained another pound, and she gives wet, slobbery, open mouth kisses when I ask her too. It's kind of a waste to lay her down on a blanket to play, because she rolls over and over to get to where she can see the flashing lights of the television or get to an out of reach toy. I still at least try to keep her in the blanket's vicinity though, because now that she is eating solid food, it's not as quick to wipe up orange urp. :-) Last night I even saw her up on her elbows trying to push herself off with her knees; but since she's not strong enough to lift her stomach off the ground, we've still got a good month or so before she can truly crawl.

I love this age for a baby. This is when it starts to get good.

Overheard

If you had ears that work at all, you would have heard Rebecca announce to me during the first speaker in Sacrament Meeting, "Mom, I'm not going to toot on your lap."

Well, thanks.

There's no way around that smell

So I realized yesterday that the makers of Febreze have a fundamental problem that has nothing to do with their product's quality. It has to do with human psychology.

Febreze is marketed as an odor neutralizer, meant to rid your home of bad smells and replace them with its own Light Fresh Scent. But in the manner of Pavlov's dog, every time I smell Febreze, I think of vomit. It's not Febreze's fault. Febreze smells fine. But every time I have to clean up barf, I break out the Febreze. So in my mind Vomit + Carpet = Febreze = grossIhatethatsmell. When I see a bottle of Febreze my insides curl up a little and I cringe inside. Not because I don't like it, but because I don't like having to use it. Sorry Febreze, but to me you'll always be a Necessary Evil.

For once!

Honesty is one of those things that people say is its own reward. You do it "for the good feeling inside." But for once, just once, don't you wish you could have a tangible outcome for telling the truth/being honest/doing the right thing? Not to knock the warm fuzzies, but I've often thought that if what goes around comes around, sometimes I should get some good stuff comin' round, if you know what I mean.

A few weeks ago I bought a dress for my brother-in-law's wedding at Ross Dress for Less. Yeah, I'll say it, I'm a Ross shopper. I'm not above a good bargain. It was a little slinkier than I usually wear, and had a very low-cut sequined bodice and spaghetti straps, but it was the right color - which in wedding party dress shopping is half the battle. I purchased it with the intent of finding a blouse to go under it or a shrug to go over it. Fast forward two weeks, and I decided that even though it was only $25, I'd rather have a more versatile dress that I could wear more than once at a wedding. My mom and I went to the mall, and after a grueling evening, found something for twice the price, but suitable.

Back to Ross! - but wait. I got out my receipt, and the dress wasn't on there! They had taken the ink security tag off, but forgotten to scan the tag before putting it into my sack. Well, of course I didn't feel right about keeping it, so this morning I took it back, handed it to the cashier, and said, "I bought this dress a few weeks ago, but found out that it was left off the original receipt. I didn't end up needing it, but it wasn't rightfully mine to begin with...so....here's your dress back that I got for free."

I needed some new sandals for summer, so I went back to the shoe tsunami that is the the Ross footwear department, and lo and behold I found TWO pairs of sandals right off! I was beyond pleased, because as a non-flip-flopper (they make my feet hurt because I always feel like they're going to fall off, so I curl my toes under and arch my feet while I walk) I have a harder time finding sandals I like. One pair was a nice brand for $20 and another was a random brand for $13. I ended up with the same cashier who took back my free dress, and I joked as I handed her the shoes, "Now, you'll make sure and charge me for these, right?" She responded, "Yes. But I am going to give you a 10% discount for being so honest." SWEET!

Now a 10% discount on sandals at Ross amounted to less than $4.00, but I don't care because----------

What goes around came around today!

Spring Break in Moab, Day 2

We took it easy on the kids (and ourselves) in the morning because we knew we had a big hike coming up in the afternoon. The Windows Arches, Turret Arch, and Double Arch all are listed as Easy in the trail guide (unlike the day before, when the entire 9.2 miles that we hiked were Strenuous! Lucky we all have awesome hikers.)

Levi, Braden, Abby, and Cassidy in what is probably Turret Arch.

This is what Nathan did the entire trip. Sometimes it pays to have a kid in the 12th percentile on the growth charts. Just this once, I think he was glad she's a lightweight!

Braden and friends Levi & Joseph. We probably let them climb higher than we should have.

Cassidy and her friend Abby are not related, but look kind of alike. On this day they decided they wanted to be twins so they doing their best to talk and even walk the same.

Levi and Braden have a love-hate relationship. Sometimes they get along, and sometimes they bug each other. This day they spent a lot of time on the hiking trail together, but at the end of the day when I mentioned that Braden seemed to have a lot of fun with Levi, he replied, "Not really." Kids are weird.

Our faces are shadowed, but this is all three Moms being cool, tough, and awesome to climb up into Double Arch for an Old Lady Photo-Op.

We signed up for a ranger-guided hike of the Fiery Furnace, which we had never done before because it costs extra money. It was way cool, and different than the rest of the park. It was worth the $$$, and we'd like to do it again.

We hiked through quite a few narrow spots. This was actually one of the widest ones. Most of them were just barely as wide as we were and you had to kind of scale your way through them. A few were so tight that we had to take off the baby backpacks and hand them through ahead of us.

We hiked through a lot of spots like this where you have to hug one side of the rock because of a steep drop-off on the other side. We were lucky to all be traveling together, because it took some teamwork to get all the kids maneuvered on the trail safely.

Braden spent a lot of time doing this in the Fiery Furnace. The ranger guided tour was cool because she would describe the different rock features and their geologic causes, but she kept us going at a pretty good clip, so as soon as we stopped we had to hurry and drink really fast before she started the group going again. We'd actually like to do the trail again with a different ranger, because we didn't feel like we got to stop and take as many pictures in the Fiery Furnace as we would have liked - maybe it would be just a touch slower pace with another guide.

We've heard that sometimes when friends travel together they sometimes come back in a fight...but we knew it was a success when by the end of the week we had already started working out details of another camping trip down to Bryce Canyon later in the summer. But next time we'll bring more hot chocolate to accommodate Nathan and Brian's habit!

Spring Break in Moab, Day 1

We went camping in Moab for Spring Break with our friends Liz and Steve and Jenny and Brian and their kids. The weather was cool (we slept in two layers of pajamas with blankets inside the sleeping bags!) but that made it nice for hiking during the day. Rachel was wonderfully well-behaved for a baby.

She really did act like this most of the time!

We hiked to Delicate Arch the first day. Rebecca only needed to be carried for the last quarter mile of the 3 mile round trip hike.

We're smiling even though it was WINDY!

This is all 18 of us in our group. It's not a great picture, but it proves we were all there!

This was after lunch on the first day. We began the Devil's Garden trail, not sure how far we would make it because our kids had already done 3 miles in the morning up to Delicate. This is Landscape Arch, the first one on the Devil's Garden loop. We thought we might turn back, but then Braden and Becca got a second wind, so we kept on...

This is halfway to the endpoint of the Devil's Garden. There were beautiful views along the way to Double O Arch which is at the end, but those fins in the background aren't off to the side of the trail, they ARE THE TRAIL! My mom could never have hiked this part.

We hiked on top of one of those fins to get out to the Double O Arch. It is beautiful, but very high up, and both Cassie, her friend Abby, and I got a little vertigo on the way. I tried not to let the mom inside get the best of me, but hiking this part made me nervous and I held Becca's hand pretty tight.

Double O Arch, at the end of the hike across the rock fins. At this point we realized kids don't get Third Winds, but it was too late, because we had 3 miles to get back home...

Liz and Steve carried ALL their kids the whole way. This is after they convinced Zack to get back in the hiking pack. He had a 15 minute freak-out moment in the parking lot, but luckily his parents brought him on the hike instead of tossing him in the garbage can at the head of the trail. :-)

We can't figure out why all three of these people who didn't take a step all day look so tired...

Becca was a brick on this trip! She needed lots of encouragement and a few fireman's carries here and there, but for hiking 9.2 miles in one day as a family, she was a ROCK!

Maternal Drought

The proverbial well has run dry.

But seeing as how the quality of said well's offerings has been under suspicion recently, and given Rachel's progress when seeking libation elsewhere, I am doubtful it will be much of a tragedy that she will now on be receiving sustenance solely from this other source:

Plus she can now hold it on her own, which is a huge Bonus, although I do miss holding her as often. Here's hoping that a shift to 'artificial nutrition' nabs her a weight gain of a couple more pounds in the next month, and gets us back to mixing regular concentration formula sometime soon. Thank goodness for Costco, but it's still going to be pricey. Because of her high calorie weight-gain formula plan, we'll use the equivalent of 12 regular cans of formula a month!

Weight Check

The high octane formula is a success! Four weeks after the last doctor's appointment we went in for a Weight Check. At four and half months Rachel weighed 11 lb 14 oz, and at 5 1/2 months old today's weight was:

13 lb 3 oz!!!

That's a gain of 1 pound and 5 ounces in one month, compared to the paltry 10 ounces over two months from before. She has rocketed from the 9th percentile to around the 13th percentile for weight. We've still got a ways to go since she should be somewhere approaching 16 pounds now, but I'm encouraged.

And apparently, metal spoons hurt her feelings, because I switched to the rubber coated variety that I don't love because they don't scrape off cereal-face as effectively. However, she now eats her cereal like gangbusters, so I guess I can deal with a little mushface for the time being.