Yay me!

Yes, I am fully aware that this is bragging and it has absolutely nothing to do with darling little E, but dang it, I want to show off!
For baby sister C's birthday, I decided to get all crafty. I had been working on this hat last October and never got around to making a flower for it until Sunday night (birthday today....yeah....it got there in time!!). Since I've been crocheting all year, this wasn't a huge accomplishment, but the princess skirt...

This I was proud of since I am still just learning the ropes of sewing. Hopefully little bro T will also enjoy his present, which I kindly bought off amazon instead of making myself. Now birthdays are done for a bit, back to making diapers!

Words We've Learned

Brian and I have always made up our own words....ah, the English language, how I love thee!...but since having a baby, there have been so many new words and phrases, I thought it only proper to document them in some way. What better way than a dictionary of my very own!

arf (ärf) v. to eat voraciously. [Everett completely arfed that bottle!]
bonk-a-babe (bŏngk-ŭ-bāb) n. A phrase used only by mother when plopping baby down onto changing table, bed, playmat, bouncer, or any other surface. [Bonk-a-babe!]
Ever-dance (ĕv'ər-dăns) n. What Brian and Everett do during the 30 Rock theme song. [It's time for the Ever-dance!]
Ever-fusser (ĕv'ər-fŭss'ər) n. A fussy baby named Everett. [Hello Ever-fusser!]
Ever-watcher (ĕv'ər-wŏch'ər) n. The name of our band on Rock Band 2, and any sitter of Everett. [We need to find an Ever-watcher for Thursday morning.]
Fuss-a-babe (fŭss-ŭ-bāb) n. A fussy baby. [Ever, don't be a fuss-a-babe!]
kicker (kĭk'ər) n. One who kicks violently in the tub. Also, Ever-kicker (ĕv'ər-kĭk'ər) specifies a kicker named Everett. [Look at this crazy kicker! Great...now my pants are wet...] (Okay, so we didn't make that one up but we use it a lot!)
moop (mōōp) n. One who is being pesky or mopey [Oh quit being such a moop!], excl. complaint. [Moop, moop, moop!]
nuk (nŏŏk) v. to plug up the baby with a pacifier/give pacifier to baby. [Would you please go nuk the baby?]
poosplosion (pōō-splō'zhən) n. a blow-out mess of baby poop, particularly the breastfed variety. [Holy cow! What a giant poosplosion!] poosplode v., poosploder n.
root (rōōt) v. Reflex baby has, turning head when hungry; What Brian does inthe kitchen, when hungry. [Are you rooting again!?]
roto-rooter (rō'tō-rōōt'ər) n. A VERY hungry baby who roots on anything and everything. [Oh boy, we have a roto-rooter on our hands!]
rouw (rou) n. A cat, especially those named Olivia and Mabel. Var. Liv-rouw and Mabel-rouw. [Would you please feed the rouws?]
wiggle fusser (wĭg'əl-fŭss'ər) n. An upset and kicking baby. Without the upset factor, it would just be wiggler (wĭg'lər). [Oh my wiggle fusser!]
zonk-a-babe (zôngk-ŭ-bāb) n. A baby who is sound asleep. [Ever is a zonk-a-babe right now.]

From this, you may gather that we call our babe "Ever" a lot. That wasn't the anticipated nickname, but hey!

A Moment of Thankfulness

I love finding new blogs. If I find a new blog in a blog I already read, I immediately open a new window to see what it is like. This sometimes leads to bad situations, like me crying at work because I followed a link to a blog about a baby who recently died. Since I'm at work (I know, I know, I'm a terrible worker!), I only skimmed the last few entries of the blog for a dear little girl named Gracie, but that was enough to make me wipe away tears and hope no one came into my little office area. Seriously, such a sad story - do not read it if you don't feel like crying. Why do I subject myself to such sad stories, you might ask. Besides keeping me human, these blogs and stories remind me to be grateful for what I have. As horrible as it is to admit, we do get frustrated with Ev sometimes. Example - someone spit out their nuk last night and fussed, only to kick and smile as soon as someone entered his room, resulting in me hearing Brian over the monitor, exasperated and somewhat scolding, "Baby! Go to sleep!" While it can be difficult to be happy and grateful in those moments, I am. Besides being eternally grateful for his health, I love who Ever is. I love that he is so pleasant that he immediately smiles just because someone comes into his room. This morning he decided to be awake for a while during our breakfast instead of his normal routine of eating and then going back to sleep. It was so fun to have him jabbering and cooing at me while I ate instead of sitting alone in the dark with an english muffin (yesterday was a rough morning...). He is just the happiest baby I've ever met and his demeanor makes me a happier person (no matter how much Brian will insist that I'm the angriest person alive). Interesting linguistic post to come soon.

They shouldn't be allowed to choke.

Babies, that is. It is just wrong that they can choke and scare the living daylights out of their mommies. Ugh! Ever woke up at around 3am for his feeding this morning, and when I got into his room, he was fussing and sucking on his fists. I picked him up and walked over to our la-z-boy, and he started choking (presumably on drool from sucking on his hands). So, I put him over my shoulder and pat his back to help him out. Well, he keeps choking! So then, of course, I go into panic mode, flip him onto my lap and whack his back (probably pretty hard...can't really remember anything but the panic) repeatedly until he finally takes a deep breath. When I sat him back up, I had drool all down my left arm. Seriously. I guess I'm glad I've taken infant CPR 3-4 times because instead of screaming for Brian, I managed to help him out myself, but geesh! It's always the same feeling when a baby is choking - utter panic. I remember my brother choking once (I think I was babysitting, don't kill me mom!) and the same feeling taking over. When they finally take a nice deep breath, you realize how fast you were breathing and nearly cry. Yuck. He had better not do that again for a very very long time!
Moving on now. I finished my first full week of half-days at work today. Result? I'm pooped! It's great though. Instead of sitting around in yoga pants all day, I get a shower, get dressed, get stuff done (and make a tiny bit of money!), then come home and still have some motivation to make lunch, sew, pick up the house, play rock band, etc. Ev's been sleepy today, but I figure he's making up for yesterday when he decided he didn't want anything to do with napping after about noon. His bedtime was later last night because I took him to something at church, so he was quite pleasant for Brian this morning. He got up at 8ish and played, then went back down till about 10, had a bottle and played until I came home and put him back down for a nap. Now he's still sleeping! (Don't worry, I keep checking to make sure he's okay!) We're thinking of going down to Indy this weekend to check out a museum or something because we haven't made weekend plans in....since....umm.....right. Well, that's about all for now. Have a nice weekend y'all!

New pictures

I realized it's been a while since I posted any good pictures. Check out Mr. Cheeks here!

And here are the two of us. Notice the difference in eye color...I've given up!
We've been busy lately. I am now back to work (part time) from 7:30-11:45 M-F and then Brian goes in to the lab around 12:30 until he's done (anywhere between 4:30 and 7). It's been interesting and I'm exhausted, but it's good for everyone. We're thinking about dropping my insurance though, since it will now likely use up my entire paycheck. Anyway! No news about jobs yet, I'll let you know when there is.

This one might need some explanation. We have been getting 30 Rock in our netflix and Brian and Ev have come up with a dance to the theme music. It cracks me up every time and they have fun too. Here's a brief example (he was tired, not as much fun) of the 30 Rock dance:


And here's some "talking":