The "geezer" at the gym

I was dripping sweat.

 Feeling pumped and invincible after my cardio workout, I waited in the hall of the gym for the "core strength and stretch" class. I felt especially spry as I watched a scruffy, old, man hobble slowly down the hall with a dirty backpack swung over his tired shoulder. I almost pitied him, thinking he must be at the gym for recovery or therapy purposes. Imagine my shock when I saw him take his place at the front of the room to teach the class!

A mother and her teenage son were the only others to take the class with me. I overheard the woman telling a passing friend, (to her son's obvious embarrassment,) that he needed the stretching in this class to help with his recurring "groin injuries". Ah, mothers and their talkative ways.

We three spectators watched the knobby-kneed fellow waddle to get a mat, lay it down and, with effort, place his rump precariously down upon it, only to mutter gruffly to himself, "towels... everyone will need a towel.... I'll get some towels". Slowly he heaved himself off the floor again and practically limped across the room to accomplish his said task. Every step and gesture was as rusty and deliberate as those of elderly women who take up an entire aisle at the grocery store, and, with squinting eyes, carefully inspect every single orange to find the perfect produce.

We laid out our mats, doubtful that this geezer could give us a workout worth paying for. Little did our abdominal muscles know, just how traumatic the next hour of their lives would be. This class was being taught, not by a cripple, not by an old man, and not even by a normal human being; this class was being instructed by a machine.

Just to give you an idea of the kind of torturous monotony we endured for an hour, I'll explain one exercise set we actually did. I should say, "what he actually did and we attempted". Laying on our backs, we extended our legs out straight, barely hovering above the floor. (That alone is pain. Just try it!) From this position he did fifty leg lifts with the right leg, followed by fifty on the left, followed by fifty with both, followed by that entire pattern in reverse (legs starting up in the air and lowering them to the hover position.)...!!!

Being the ex-dancer I am, I started the series with confidence and perfect, straight-legged form, but by the third set, the burning muscles in my legs and stomach were screaming "if you don't stop this nonsense, we're going to blow up!" so I continued with weaker and increasingly pathetic form as I simply struggled to survive. The woman next to me took many breaks to rest her legs and by the end of the series, her breaks were twice as long as her spurts of exertion. The boy gave up completely on the first set.

Meanwhile, the machine plugged along just as in the beginning, without a hobble or a hiccup.  There was even a moment in the class where he did a headstand and expected us to follow along as if it were a clap of the hands. All the while, he mumbled seemingly senseless, out-of-order, numbers, which made the experience all the more troubling. Even when I discovered that he did have a pattern with his counts, one couldn't always distinguish his husky "five" from his mumbled "nine", or his whispered "three" from his rattled "fifteen". I once found myself wondering in desperation, "Are we in the fifties or the twenties? What are you saying mister?! My limbs and sanity depend on it!!"

Like all trying events in life, the torture session eventually came to an end. The clock actually had been moving the entire time, incredibly, and the hostages, though greatly maimed and debilitated, were set free at last. What did the captives do with their first few minutes of freedom? We laid face-down on the mat to recover from whatever it was that just happened to us! That's what!

We watched the "geezer" get up, roll up his mat and put his things away with the same slow but able movements as in the beginning of class. I'm sure my fellow pupils felt just as much respect for the old gentleman as I did,  for now we were the teetering, grunting invalids, and he the spry body of strength.

Another set of humbled whippersnappers exited the gym.

Whooping Cough

Coughing, hacking, choking, wheezing, gasping, and "whooping".


When Paul was still a newborn I listened to a disturbing audio clip online of a baby with Pertussis, or the "whooping cough". I imagined the baby's face turning purple from the violent coughing fits, hardly having a chance to breath. I remember thinking, "what could be more frightening than watching your infant suffer through Pertussis?".

These are the awful sounds my five-month old has been making for more than a month. What started as a mild cough, slowly turned into the frightening sound I heard in that audio clip.

The first few weeks he started making that awful "whooping" sound were the scariest. During his coughing fits, which were more frequent at night, I'd ask myself, "Can he breath? Will he damage something in his delicate little body?" I felt so helpless as I held his convulsing body face-forward in case he brought up mucous or vomited, as often happened during a fit. His face would turn bright red, his eyes would bulge as his tongue protruded from his gaping mouth. Every string of coughs seemed too long for his lungs to handle, and every high-pitched gasp for breath cut my own breath short. All I could do was hold him and wait for it to pass.

Once I started to suspect Pertussis, I tried to keep him indoors and away from people more diligently. If not for others' health, than for my own dignity. There were many times when I frantically tried to cover Paul's hideous, spewing outbursts while in public, only to find every set of concerned eyes on us.

One time, while I was trying to put Paul in his car seat, a man walked around to the back of my car to tell me I was in his way and could I "please hurry it up?".  (Or so I assumed by his brisk, determined stride.) However, when he heard the rattling, gasping explosions and saw the violent ejection of vomit all over the parking lot, the man stopped dead in his tracks and watched the entire display with horror. After wiping up the resulting residue with the swiftness of recurring experience, I turned to him and said, "excuse us". The man took a step backward  and quickly replied, "oh no! don't worry about it" before rushing to the safety of his car and escaping for his life, I'm sure.

Paul acts almost normally during the day between coughing fits and, of course, he wouldn't cough in front of his doctor. That meant I had to awkwardly describe what his cough sounded like. His doctor said that Pertussis was a possibility, but that he thought it might be something else. (I've since concluded that this added remark was to temper my motherly wail of worry.) However, he didn't give me any reasons why it wasn't the whooping cough. Instead, he prescribed an antibiotic that fights certain bacteria including Pertussis "just in case". Hmm...

Those antibiotics didn't make a bit of difference... at first.

A few days ago, we started to notice an increase in Paul's energy and a decrease in the frequency of his coughs. He also slept through the night for the first time since being sick. His cough still isn't completely gone and he is still waking himself (and us) through the night, but he's not as ill as he was a week or two ago. He is still sick, however, and that makes almost two months (or two-fifths of his life) of coughing! I'm so ready for this to be over!

In conclusion, we're all managing much better than I thought we might with something this serious. It really isn't that bad now that I see he's getting better. I don't think Paul's any worse for it, in fact, Blair and I think it's made him stronger. Plus, his pediatrician said he shouldn't be contagious anymore. I certainly hope not, since we'll be seeing our families with their new babies during Christmas break. We'll keep our distance "just in case", and keep our dignity intact. ;)

Sitting up.

Paul can sit up! On Sunday, the 20th, I just sat him on the floor and let go to see how long it would take him to fall over, but he didn't! He just kind of wobbled a bit as he found his balance. Once he realized he was doing it on his own, he looked at Blair and me and started smiling and bouncing his upper body as if he were experienced enough to show off some extra stunts already!  


I grab his arm just as I say he can do it on his own. I need to learn not to talk during these videos...

The missing ingredient!

We finally have a baby picture of Blair! Special thanks goes to his sister, Laura, for finding this in her stash and e-mailing it to me. What do you think? Have we found the missing link (chubby cheeks) to Paul's genetic make up?


Let's put my baby picture and his together and see what we get.
Here's me again...


Mix them together, add a little Pauleewog juice, and voila! You get our cute little Paul!
 

Pretty neat, huh?

The pumpkin patch

On Saturday (the 29th), Laura Green, along with Tyler and little 19-month-old Ben, invited us to go to Baggensto's Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. It was an awesome place for little families! There was a hay maze for the little ones, a corn maze for us big ones, pumpkin bowling, kettle corn eating, fresh produce selling, you name it! And we enjoyed the most heavenly Autumn weather the whole time.

First we were privileged to behold the pumpkin bowling master at work. Ben knew just what to do. Can you see us in back there standing in awe?


Next, we got up the courage to explore the corn maze and hoped to make it out alive. Paul was barely awake enough for this picture before taking a snooze for the rest of the trip.


In this next picture, I'm demonstrating our lost and confused state while in the maze. Blair stands and watches my acting skills in adoring envy.


To Ben's delight, we rode the tractor to the "pumpkin patch", which was actually a bunch of pre-picked pumpkins somebody rolled out onto a field. It was great for little Ben to run around in, since there were no pumpkin vines to trip on.

Laura was so funny. We get out of the tractor and Laura says in an excited/surprised/singsong voice, "Ben! It's a land of pumpkins!" And he takes off in the reckless glee that only a little boy can exhibit.

They're such a cute family. :)

Yeah, we are so cool with our sunglasses. Paul had to shield his eyes in the Ergo strap, but someday, he'll grow up to be just as cool as his parents and he can wear sunglasses too.


We did end up picking the two, most perfect pumpkins (out of all the other perfect, pre-picked pumpkins), and here we are showing them off with pride.

Laura and I go way back, she and I. We're like this. (Imagine me doing crossed fingers.) Yeah, you should be jealous. She is such a wonderful person, and I'm so lucky to have her as a friend!

Baby Laughs!

Remember I said I would try to post some more laughs from Paul? Well here's a video I took of him laughing for no reason. He's such great company!

Does he look like me?

Here are some pictures or Paul that reminded me of a picture of me. I included the picture of me at the bottom. I would include a picture of Blair, but he doesn't have any baby pictures of himself. Can you believe that? It's a crying shame!













Besides the fact that my cheeks weren't quite as voluptuous, my eyes were darker,  I wasn't as manly of a baby, and I had a heavenly glow around me, do you see a resemblance?

Baby skills!

Paul has been busy learning about the world around him. Ever since that day he discovered he has hands - September 16th to be exact - he has been mastering the art of touching, rubbing, scratching, and whacking all the different textures around him. Below is a picture of him scratching the chair pillow.




Paul's becoming much more aware of his surroundings. He has a love/hate relationship with Mr. Green elephant. He's always straining his neck to get a good look at him. Sometimes it scares him and he whimpers. I'll physically turn Paul's head away from the elephant, but he just turns it right back. Mr. Blue elephant doesn't get any attention. It's just that sneaky Mr. Green he has to keep an eye on. You never know what that creepy creature might do when your back is turned... (Please ignore Paul's spit-up stained, out-of-season shirt. It's is a lounging outfit.)


Paul has been learning the skill of listening to bedtime stories. He was pretty fascinated by the colorful pages!


He's mastered the skill of letting mommy bundle him up for our cold morning walks.


He is now mature enough to take a bath without a fuss. In fact, he actually kind of enjoys baths now. What three-month-old wouldn't love splashing water with their legs?




And I saved the best for last. My very favorite thing Paul has learned to do is to laugh! He started laughing at about 2.5 months. Here's a video of some mild laughter - he's become much more fluent in giggles and guffaws since this video was taken. I'll have to capture some good ones for you.

Stay tuned!

Trip to General Conference

We drove for twelve hours straight to Utah with a three-month-old baby! Okay, Blair drove for twelve hours straight, while I entertained the three-month-old baby.

It was amazingly wonderful to actually leave early in the morning! We were able to leave at 5:00am on Thursday and arrived in Salt Lake City at about 6:00pm Utah time. (As a kid, leaving for Utah before noon was as unlikely in my family as going an entire day without laughing. It was impossible!) And Paul was a great little traveler. Yeah, he got a little fussy and would start to complain about being in the same seat forever, but a large majority of the time he was either sleeping, eating, laughing and babbling, or studying his fists contentedly. Before we knew it, we were being given a tour of Reana's three-bedroom apartment in Salt Lake City, and were given the empty room to sprawl all our clothes and baby gear for the weekend. It was great!

The next two days were filled with yummy food, touring Temple Square, playing the game Scottland Yard with Railee, and watching the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

On Sunday morning, Reana's boyfriend, Sean, gave Reana, Blair and I a ride to General Conference. Yes, we went to the conference center to actually see and hear the Prophet speak! We weren't that special, though, - there were so many people there. But that's kind of what made it a neat experience too. I don't know if I've ever been with that many LDS families in the same place before. The talks were wonderful and the Spirit was so strong. It was definitely an experience I'll remember forever. I have to admit, though, I was constantly thinking about Paul and my phone was anxiously perched on my lap through the entire session.

Railee sweetly volunteered to babysit Paul while we were gone. I told him to be extra cute so she would be willing to babysit in the future. Railee said he was good, but who knows what he was really like for her? Railee did say that when President Monson was speaking, Paul was staring, open-mouthed at the screen and nodding his head. I hope he'll always be that interested in the Prophet's words!

We stopped by my uncle Matt and aunt Nicia's house that afternoon and had a fun time chatting with them as well as my cousins Kelsey and Sophie. When we got back to Reana's place, she had a delicious Indian meal all prepared and we feasted on spiced couscous and chicken! Yum!

The plan was to go to bed extra early that night for our all-day Monday drive. At the last minute, though, we decided to leave right then and drive through the night! I left the decision mostly up to Blair since he would be doing most, if not all, of the driving.

Paul and I slept most of the way home, but Blair said it was a really long night as he fought the urge to sleep. I tried a couple of times to take the wheel, but I never lasted very long. I think it's safe to say it was a miracle we made it home safely!

It was a good trip. I even got a free haircut out of the experience! (Thanks Reana!)

Clever me!

I'm proud of my creative cleverness.

Now that we're a real family, with a dad, a mom, and a baby, I really wanted to own a framed copy of the The Family - A Proclamation To The World.  That's not a problem for someone living right next to Deseret Book. (It's literally a block from our front door.) So I walked over there one day to buy one. I was too cheap to pay for the framed version, so I bought the naked paper version and we ordered a frame for it from Amazon. That's not the clever part yet.

We waited and waited for that frame to arrive, and when it finally did, we were disappointed to discover the frame was about 2 inches too wide all the way around! We thought of returning it for a smaller frame, but I was too impatient and decided to surround the border of the paper with pictures of our family.

I meant to print the pictures in sepia, but oh well. Black and white works too. I think it turned out rather nicely, don't you?

Two years!

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but oh well.

I've been married to my best friend for two years! That's as long as a young man's full-time mission. And let me tell you, I have the best companion ever! So here are some pictures to commemorate the occasion.

This was taken at an air show in August 2008. We had been dating for about three months.


Almost a year later, this happened:


About a year after that...


And this year!


It just gets better and better every year!

Paul's first crush.

I love hearing Paul's senseless babbling. It makes me feel so loved to see him focus his eyes on my face, then watch him break into big, smiley gurgles of happy noises. That must be how babies express their "love", right? Well, if that's the case, I'm starting to feel a little cheated.

Meet Aveeno. He's a bottle of lotion that sits on our bathroom counter (i.e. Paul's changing table). I started to get suspicious when Paul wasn't babbling to Blair and I quite as much as he used to. Then I started to really pay attention to Paul's eyes during diaper changes and I began to notice a pattern. Whenever he looked at Aveeno, he became extremely happy and started talking and talking. I was thinking that he has seen it so many times, it must be just as familiar to him as mommy and daddy's faces. 

We've even tested this theory. While I was changing his diaper at my parents' house, Blair found an identical Aveeno bottle and placed it on the counter next to Paul's head. Immediately, Paul went from being kind of fussy, to super happy and he let out an excited gurgle as if to say, "Oh, there you are! I've missed you!"

Yes, it's sad that I find myself feeling a little jealous of Aveeno, but it isn't all bad. In fact, Aveeno was the first object Paul felt motivated enough to reach out and touch with his hand. That led to his feeling the basket right next to it with his chubby little fingers. So I guess I have Aveeno to thank for Paul's new discovery: his hands.

If you've never heard Paul "talk", here's a little video of him babbling... until I ask him a question that renders him speechless. Maybe that's why he prefers talking to Aveeno. Aveeno is a an excellent listener and doesn't judge him at all. 

Spontaneous Summer Fun

It's labor day morning and we've just gotten out of bed.

Blair: "Let's go to the beach!"
Me: "Uh... okay!"
Blair: "Does Paul need to eat?"
Me: "I just fed him"
Blair: "Then let's go!"

These pictures were taken about two hours later. See! who said you can't be spontaneous with a small baby? Well, our baby isn't so small. (See Fat Baby) Maybe that has something to do with it...?

We went to Ecola State Park just North of Cannon beach. There's a special little trail you have to hike to get to a more private beach than the ones surrounding it. The weather was beautiful, as I'm sure all of you know, since 3/4ths of all Oregonians were at the beach on Labor day. But not on our special private beach!

Now those are some hansom faces!


I think he liked the little fifteen minute hike, which is good, 'cause we'd love to take him real hiking some time!


Proof that all three of us were at the beach together. (That round peach fuzz is Paul.)


Blair was brave and asked a stranger to take our picture. (I never do that.)


I found a whole sand dollar! A whole one!


But then I found a cleaner broken one and it made my sand dollar look dirty and not that special. I left them together like that on the beach.


We also ate at the Wayfarer, which has the most delicious food you'll find on the beach. (Moe's has nothing on this restaurant, trust me.)
 
Then we walked along the shops downtown in Cannon. (That's when we discovered 3/4ths of Oregon had the same idea as us.) The only place we actually stopped was a Chocolate shop. We munched on some melt-in-your-mouth, gourmet chocolate treats on the drive back home. The next time you're at Cannon, go to the Chocolate Cafe. Just do it.

 

These next two were random summer pictures that I wanted to share, but didn't want to make a separate blog post for.


One of my favorite things to eat in the summer is fresh fruit. One of my favorite things to eat all year round are cookies. Especially if they're giant enough to cut like a pizza! Put them together and you get the most delicious summer dessert of all time! Fruit pizza! Yes, I made that all by myself. Thank you, thank you.

Fat baby

When I think of large babies I think of the huge, curly-haired, one-toothed baby I once babysat. She was screaming and arching her back the entire time. Her red face was a mystery of shiny mucous, with a wide mouth, eyelashes glued in lumps and body ridged. The only way I could console her was by holding her a very particular way and bouncing her in a clockwise circle. (Reversing the circle, or even slowing the rhythm would start the screaming again.) My poor arms endured that  for almost an hour until she fell asleep, leaving me feeling permanently lopsided and sore. I vowed then and there that I would never have big babies. (Like I had a choice.)

Fast forward about ten years and I give birth to my eight pounds, one ounce baby boy. I think to myself,  wonderful! that's a healthy size without being considered "large". Fast forward another two months and that little baby has ballooned to sixteen pounds! He's in the ninety-ninth percentile for his weight! People don't believe me when I tell them he's only two months old. The pediatrician had told us you cannot over feed your baby with breast milk. Really? Okay! I guess we're going with it!


Now you may be wondering how I've been taking all this, knowing my original feelings about fat babies. I'll tell you. I love it! He only gets cuter with each added roll and dimple! Obviously, he's my baby and he's a happy baby, so I think that helps. However, he's also way cuter, for sure. :)









The other great part? The extra weight doesn't stop him from flying around our apartment on a regular basis. See for yourself.