Jo and Alex

Updates and Pictures

2011-06-07T00:26:00.006-06:00

Hey, remember how we had those two cute little boys? Turns out they're still roaming around.

Aaron has been talking a lot more; some of his latest catch phrases include "Whoa, Baby Sean, Whoa!" and "No no kitty." He is also becoming a great big brother; he likes to give Sean hugs and kisses and soft pats (that is, when he's not trying to kick him or steal his toys).

Sean is crawling and pulling up on everything. He also loves to climb; sometimes he makes it half way up the stairs before we can catch him (or at least get over to him to make sure he doesn't fall). He also loves to bang his head on the floor and on doors...

And that concludes the update portion of tonight's post. Now on to the pictures!

Aaron and Sean playing "Hats."

(I know it's sideways, but I was too lazy to rotate it. Just turn your head. Or pretend like it's artistic or something.)

Sean "helping" with the dishes.

(Sean was not helping with the dishes.)

The Mark of Sean

New sunglasses! Thanks Grandma Elaine!

Playing outside in the grass, sampling delicious dirt clods from when the lawn was aerated.

Long Time No See

2011-01-18T19:40:00.007-07:00

Here are some pictures and videos to placate anxious grandmas until we ever actually blog again.

Aaron's secret hiding place

(He likes to sit in the fridge. Sometimes he pulls the hamper over to make a fridge fort. And yes, those are Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Pavlov's Dog magnets. We also have Albert Einstein, Schroedinger's Cat, and Aaron's favorite, Marie Curie. Because we're awesome like that.)

At the pumpkin patch.

Lounging on Daddy.

Big Boy Bed!

Snow! All that snow fell in 2 days.

Sean can sit up (for a little while, anyway).

Aaron's Christmas Story. He looks ill at the beginning because, well, he was.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

2010-07-13T10:53:00.004-06:00

Sunday was Aaron's 2nd birthday!

He got lots of fun new toys. I think his favorite present, though, was having everyone's undivided attention while Sean slept in the other room.

Now if you ask him how old he is, he'll sometimes say "Ooo" and try holding up two fingers (he ends up just crossing his pinky and ring fingers; it's really cute).

Birthday! With swollen-face Mommy!

The first of many years of two birthday cakes

Tricycle!

Broom!

Baby Sean!

2010-07-13T10:15:00.003-06:00

Alex already posted the stats on little Sean, so here are some more pictures and a little more about the birth.

First of all, this labor was WAY easier and shorter than Aaron's 27 hour labor. Here's a timeline:

8:00 pm: Had first contraction. They came about every 10 minutes or so if I was walking around, less frequently if I was sitting down.

10:30 pm: Watched some TV with Alex. Only had one contraction the whole time.

11:00 pm: Tried to get some sleep. Darn contractions kept me up though; roughly every 10 minutes or so.

12:00 am: Suddenly they're about 5 minutes apart, soon even less.

1:00 am: Called the nurse midwife. I didn't feel like anything was imminent, but I was ready for some pain relief (on a side note, I had no pain at all in between contractions, which was totally different than the first time, when I was in constant pain). She said I sounded admitable, and that they'd watch me for about an hour to make sure I was in active labor. Meanwhile, I was getting shaky and crying, and somewhere in the back of my mind thinking, Isn't this what happens during transition? But there's no way I'm in transition... So we left for the hospital.

2:00 am: Checked in to the hospital. Contractions were coming fast now. They took me to the triage room and checked me, and the nurse just said, "Quick, let's get her back in the wheel chair!" So I asked her how dilated I was. 9 cm. What?? How did that happen?? I mean, it was painful, sure, but I thought there was no way I was at 9 cm already! I wasn't even in as much pain as I had been with Aaron at like 5 cm.

So they raced me to the Labor and Delivery room, got an IV in me (it was rushed, so the nurse kind of made a mess of my arm...), and barely had time for a spinal block (it was too late for an epidural). A few minutes of pushing later and...

2:35 am: Sean is born!

Yes, 30 minutes from hospital check-in to baby. I still can't believe it. I'm just glad we got there in time for the spinal; pushing a 10 pounder out without it wouldn't have been very fun!

So far Sean is a great baby. He loves to nurse and he loves to cuddle.

Mommy, Sean, and Aaron (Daddy is behind the camera)

Just chillin' in the swing at home

Aaron is adjusting slowly but surely. When we first brought Sean home he was a little panicked, but I think he's realizing that Sean is part of the family now and that Mommy and Daddy still have plenty of love and time to play and cuddle with Aaron too. He's still pretty freaked out by the nursing though; I hope he'll get used to it soon.

Aaron brought a teddy bear for Sean in the hospital; here he is giving him kisses with the bear.

Sean

2010-07-09T22:34:00.003-06:00

We have a new baby!! His name is Sean Sorensen Hart. He was born at 2:35 am on 7-9-10. He weighes 10 pounds and 5 ounces and is 21 inches long. He's a big boy.

More to come later.

Aaron's Top Ten Favorite Things

2010-03-20T16:55:00.005-06:00

(in no particular order)

1. Snow (but not his snow suit)

This is the one and only time we actually got him in his snow suit. He liked playing in the snow, but it certainly wasn't worth the tears, screaming, and fighting to get him into it. Not again, anyway.

The snowsuit notwithstanding, Aaron still loved to pat the snow and stomp around in it with his boots on while I held his hands.

2. Bottles and Jugs

Pretty much his favorite toys ever.

3. The Play Corner

We set up this play area a couple months ago so that he'd have a nice place to practice standing up (we put his toys on the shelves), and so we'd have a place to put all his toys. As you can see, he was very excited about the mat. He now likes to take off the purple borders, pull out the letters and numbers, and chomp on the little inside pieces. Apparently the mat has a delicious texture no baby can resist--every baby and toddler that has been here has chomped on that mat. Ha ha.

4. Kitties

He loves to meow at them. And grab at them. And he especially likes these kitty videos.

5. Mommy and Daddy

6. Cookies

7. His red and blue hat

It's now been put away since it isn't that cold anymore, but he loved wearing his hat, inside, outside, wherever. Sometimes that's all he wore!

8. Pushing his toy shopping cart

We call it "doing his laps" because he goes in a big circle around the house.

9. Whining

10. Bath time!

Aaron Catch-Up

2009-12-13T19:58:00.005-07:00

Aaron has been busy the last two months! He:

Chased kitties (this is Black Kitty at Grandpa Cliff's; he also loves to chase our kitty Leia),

Played with cousins,

Said goodbye to Great Grandpa Shaw,

Started pulling up and cruising around the furniture,

Helped wash dishes (he loves to hand you the silverware to put away),

Dressed up as a monkey and went trick-or-treating with Vampire Mommy,

Played in the leaves,

And made a big tissue mess (we were sitting on the couch and didn't notice that he had discovered the box of tissues until it was too late...).

He's also learned lots of new tricks, like fist-bumping Mommy, pointing to body parts (hair, nose, mouth, eyes, belly), making animal sounds (meow, arf arf, buzz, moo), and saying words (hi, ball, bear, plop, apple). And, of course, he still excels at being so cute.

Monster Mash!

2009-10-07T20:53:00.000-06:00

Hee hee.

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Aaron Loves Music

2009-09-16T22:23:00.003-06:00

The title says it all. Aaron loves music. In the family room there is a CD player and he is always in a happier mood when its playing. Sometimes we use it to our advantage and turn it on when he is being cranky. The music we play varies a bit, from classical to jazz and more recently the Beatles.

There are, of course, more photos and videos to share. The photo is a nice cheesy grin with some headphones on (no music is playing).

And the video is of Aaron reading his peek-a-boo book with his glow worm playing a song in the background. Turn up the volume and watch Aaron turn the music back on when it stops.

He is such a precious boy.

Aaron's New Game

2009-08-24T23:23:00.006-06:00

Recently Aaron has become much more mobile. He's begun crawling up on his hands (or, more often, forearms) and knees, and is really getting quick.

He has his rounds he likes to make around the living room; he starts over by the computers, where we plop him down. He heads over to the cedar chest to play with the drawer and pull out all of its contents; then it's off to the scratching post to, well, scratch at it and play with the little springy ball on top. Then he heads down to the air vent, sometimes squealing if the air happens to be going. Then he hits the CDs. That's his new favorite place to play.

For a while, he would just pull every single CD he could reach off the shelf and drop it on the floor, then get frustrated that he was sitting in a pile of CDs and start kicking his legs.

So I taught him a new, much tidier trick--pull the CDs out just a little, then push them back in. He loves doing that now, and is very proud of himself each time he does it (though he'll occasionally pull one all the way out and drop it on the floor to get my attention).

Ahh, much better. Now to teach him to put is laundry away...

1st Birthday

2009-07-14T22:41:00.004-06:00

Aaron had his first birthday on the 11th. It's been a long year but it's hard to believe that Aaron is already 1 year old. He's grown and changed a lot.

Anyway, I just wanted to share two cute videos of Aaron.

You might need to turn up the volume but Aaron is saying his Mum mum ma's.

Today, Aaron caught hold of a kitchen stool and had a blast. We didn't get the camera out in time to catch him laughing but you can tell he's having fun.

Our new prediction for Aaron's favorite sport: rowing.

The Fourth

2009-07-07T22:43:00.006-06:00

This weekend we went up to see my grandparents. It was nice to be there and spent some time with them. It was the first time that they had seen Aaron and they seemed pretty pleased to meet him and play. We took a picture with four generations of Hart boys: My son, me, my father and my grandfather.

My folks were also up here for the weekend. They came to help my sister with wedding plans and play with Aaron. Grandma was playing peek-a-boo with Aaron and got him to play along:

Then this last video was actually taken about a month ago. It was just some fun time with Aaron while his is playing with his magazine.

As you can see, we are already subjecting him the pressures and expectations of popular, materialistic society... or he likes to rip paper and old magazines are good ripping toys. Either way, he's still pretty funny.

Speaking of Weddings...

2009-05-30T22:52:00.005-06:00

My mom recently cleaned out her freezer and found our wedding cake! I knew it was in there somewhere! Most couples will try their frozen wedding cake on their first anniversary, but most couples are WIMPS! We instead tried ours on our (nearly) fifth anniversary. Because we're awesome.

Wedding cake then...

...wedding cake now.

Cutting the cake then...

...cutting the cake now.

Slice of cake then...

...slice of cake now.

Eating the cake then...

...eating the cake now.

If you're curious about what it tasted like, imagine tasting a five-year-old piece of cake. Yup, that's pretty much it.

California!

2009-05-30T22:27:00.004-06:00

Last week we went to California for Alex's brother Curtis' wedding (which, by the way, was absolutely beautiful). It was a fun trip, though a bit busy and tiring. Here are some of the hi-lights:

Aaron went swimming for the first time. He loved it! He wasn't sure about it at first, but once we started going he was laughing and having a great time--until he swallowed some of the water, which was really nasty. Then he was done.

Swimming, woohoo!

For the wedding, we found a little tuxedo for Aaron. It was the most adorable thing in the world. We even got little black shoes for him, which lasted about ten minutes. Ha.

At the church, before the wedding started.

At the hotel, sans shoes.

Matching Best Man and Best Baby.

Aaron dancing with Mommy at the reception.

At the reception, all the groomsmen "Night at the Roxbury"-ed Curtis. As you can see, it was pretty silly.

Alex's face is priceless.

So there you have it. We're so glad we could go. And of course....congratulations Curtis and Christine!!

9 Month Update

2009-04-21T23:36:00.006-06:00

It's been a while (again) and Aaron just passed the nine month mark. This last week has been pretty good. It's always a struggle to get him to eat and sleep enough but the passed few days have been really nice.

We have some cute Easter pictures we'd like to share.

While on his belly, Aaron will often lift up his arms and legs (you can kind of see it here) and just rest only on his tummy for a few seconds. It is usually accompanied by kicking and some silly sounds.

Here is the whole family on Easter.

This is a video from today. He was just sitting there playing with his kitty book.

I almost forgot to add this video. Aaron was kinda tired and Jo was opening the mail. He got a kick out of the envelope being opened and then ripped.

Kitty Drama

2009-03-21T20:42:00.004-06:00

We've been adopted by a new kitty. Gray Kitty showed up sometime around Christmas and hasn't left. At least not for more than a day or two. As stray kitties go he's actually pretty nice. He comes, eats Leia's food, lounges in Leia's spots, and generally acts like he lives here. He even tries to be friends with Leia.

Leia, however, has no desire for kitty friends. She seems to tolerate Gray Kitty, unless he gets too close to her (although I did catch them bumping noses once, without any hissing from Leia).

The development of their relationship has been funny to watch. At first Leia would stay as far away as possible from Gray Kitty. And Gray Kitty would keep trying to get closer to Leia. Sometimes we'd hear Gray Kitty meowing (he has a very distinct meow) on the back porch. We'd look out the window and see him meowing at Leia, who was warily huddled in a corner. We'd open the door and Leia would come running in. A couple seconds later we'd hear Gray Kitty meowing again, only now he's sniffing around the spot where Leia was, then meowing at the door.

We usually put Leia in the garage at night, and one or twice we've accidently locked her in there with Gray Kitty all night. We'd go out in the morning and find Gray Kitty nonchalantly lying in one of Leia's usual spots and Leia scrunched up as close to the door as possible meowing like crazy.

Now they frequently nap in parallel on the back porch. This is a huge social step for Leia, who usually runs away from any strange animal. This may be the closest she'll ever get to being friends with another kitty.

It seems like every day there is a new chapter in the kitty drama. And we laugh and laugh.

The Latest Goings On

2009-03-21T20:01:00.004-06:00

First of all...spring is finally here! These are the first daffodils that have blossomed in the yard:

Aaron has been loving the nice weather. We go outside and play on a blanket in the shade almost every day now. He likes it, and I think it helps him sleep better. Woohoo! Here he is on St. Patrick's Day

When he's not playing outside these days, he likes to play in his jumeroo

or veg in front of the TV with Mommy and Daddy.

Ah, our little couch potato-in-training. We're teaching him well.

More Aaron

2009-03-04T23:57:00.006-07:00

So, it's been another while since we have posted about Aaron. He is getting so big. I'll skip the small talk since it's late and just post some pictures and videos.

These are his crazy and tired wiggles. He starts forcing the laughing when he is tired. Don't worry, a nap soon followed this video.

Here he is just before bed with Jo. My two cute babies.

This is the same night as the picture above. He had a haircut the day before.

Potty Boy

2009-02-23T10:16:00.002-07:00

We've started potty "training" Aaron. I say "training" because he already knows how to do it--we just sit him on the potty and he does his thing. He really seems to like it; he sits there and unrolls the toilet paper (or he did until we moved it...), looks at himself in the mirror, talks to me, blows raspberries, and whatever else suits his fancy. He seems to understand what it's for too. He will usually wait to go until I put him on the potty, unless it's been too long. We certainly don't catch everything, but there have been far fewer poopy and wet diapers to change lately, which is awesome. I figured he probably won't be totally potty trained for a while, but at least he will be used to the toilet and understand what it's for.

And since all the grandmas will want a picture, here's a recent unrelated one:

Yeah, it's still cold here, but that day it was a little warmer and I just couldn't resist seeing those little chubber legs and feet (I changed him into long pants and socks just after taking this).

One Night of Sleep

2009-02-02T08:42:00.005-07:00

We finally enjoyed another night of sleep. It's amazing how much better everyone feels and acts.

Lately, Aaron hasn't been sleeping very well. For more than a few nights, he woke up whining or crying every hour or two all night.

Last night he slept for about 9 hours straight, which is almost unheard of for him. He didn't eat so much yesterday so I fed him earlier than normal today at about 5:15 am. After eating and a diaper change, he went back to sleep until 7:45am. All said, he got about 12 hours of sleep last night. I don't remember the last time he got 12 hours of sleep with only waking up twice.

I'm not sure if our new-ish schedule or sleep routine are starting to work, if he was finally so exhausted from his crazy sleeping that he just shutdown for 12 hours, or if it was a lucky fluke night. In any case, it was a good start to the week.

Here are some pictures of our well rested 6.75 month old boy-- baby.

Smiles are always cute

He's so big!

We're Back, By Popular Demand!

2009-01-17T09:22:00.005-07:00

Happy 6-month Birthday to Aaron!

All right, so it was actually on the 11th, but when am I ever on time with birthdays?

I have to say, so far I don't like 6 months. Aaron hasn't been sleeping too well; there have been several nights--actually, it was almost every night--the last two weeks that he woke up every single hour. That is noooo good. I think it's been due to some kind of stomach virus and then later from the vaccinations he got. And now from...who knows.

But on to what we've all been waiting for: the stats.

Height: 28 1/2 inches; 96 percentile

Weight: 17 1/2 pounds; 50 percentile

Head: 17.4 inches; 61 percentile

Aaron isn't really a big eater, and his weight percentile has actually been going down a little. So basically all his food is going into height and head.

He's kind of starting to sit up, but not very well:

As for crawling, well, it could be a while. For a while every time I tried to get his knees under him during tummy time he'd just face plant and laugh. He's doing a little better now; he doesn't stay in "crawling position," but he doesn't laugh anymore. And if I lift him up a little he goes on his hands and knees, but not supporting any weight. In other words, if we lived in zero gravity, he'd totally be...almost crawling.

I was going to put up some recent pictures of The Boy, but Blogger is being stupid. So here's a little video. Aaron got some blocks from Grandma Hart for Christmas, and he loves to chomp on them. He really goes to town; afterwards there are puddles of slobber on the block and Aaron's shirt is completely soaked. It also makes a funny little squeaky sound, which you may or may not be able to hear. (Please ignore my voice...I have the absolute worst baby talk voice.)

Skiing and Bear Attacks

2008-12-19T22:18:00.005-07:00

I've been trying to convince Alex to go skiing with me ever since we started dating. Finally last year, he said he'd go. Unfortunately, I was pregnant at the time, and skiing wouldn't have been the best idea. So I've been looking forward to it for an entire year. Yesterday, we finally went; my mom has been in town for the week and tended The Boy for us, and we went to Alta for a day of skiing. This is the longest we've ever left Aaron; second was when we went to see The Dark Knight about a week after he was born. Looking back, that seems crazy.

There was a huge storm yesterday. The roads were awful and it took us about two hours to drive there (normally it only takes about one). It was sooo worth it though. Because of the storm there was lots of fresh powder (and it was nice and dry, not all sticky and wet), and since it was Thursday there were hardly any people there at all. I started skiing 22 years ago (holy cow!) and this was the best snow I can remember skiing on. The snow kept falling for the first part of the afternoon, but after a while it cleared up and ended up being a gorgeous day. Freezing cold, but beautiful.

This was the first time Alex had been skiing, and he did awesome. I don't know that powder is necessarily the best snow to learn on, but Alex said it was great because it really cushioned his falls...

Alex

Just to demonstrate how good the snow was: this was one of the runs. In the middle--not on the side. You may now turn green with envy.

The sun did this cool halo thing; it looked like there were two suns.

Sunset as we were getting ready to leave.

In other news, there have been reports of adorable fuzzy blue bear attacks in Provo today. The bear allegedly mauled it's victims with snuggles and grabby hands. Here is a recent picture of the bear:

5 Months

2008-12-11T03:27:00.006-07:00

Today is Aaron's five month day. He's been here for five months. Looking back, I can't believe that it has been only five months. It seems like longer. I feel like so much has happened.

I've come to except the fact that baby time is not the same as normal time. It's like cat or dog years. One year for me is like 10 for Aaron. Five months ago I was pretty much exactly the same. He's totally different after 5 months. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Just barely home from the hospital

Taken yesterday just before bed time

Look at the difference! In just 5 months he goes from being just a little tiny head baby to big monster baby (a very cute monster baby) (these parentheses are for Jo). Also, notice his hair color. It's a lot lighter than it was in the beginning.

The previous post mentioned the last crazy sick month we've just had. For an update on that, Aaron and Jo are doing much better. I got lucky enough to escape with only a hoarse voice and mild sore throat (so far(more parentheses, can you handle this!?!)).

To any readers, forgive the silly parenthetical statements, they are for Jo. If you want to know more, see her blog.

Belated Updates

2008-12-07T20:27:00.004-07:00

Whew, it's been a while since we updated this thing. I guess I'll do this in chronological order.

We spent Thanksgiving with my mom, stepfather, and my brothers and their families. It was great to see everyone. All of the kids had changed a lot since the last time I had seen them. We had Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before the real Thanksgiving at my mom's house in Statesboro, GA. Then we stayed the rest of the week in some condos at Hilton Head Island, SC. It was beautiful. We were right by the beach. The trip wasn't exactly relaxing (Aaron was a little crazy; turns out he was getting sick and developing an ear infection at the same time...), but it was nice to be somewhere new and see my family.

One of the highlights of the trip was Bartender Joe. We went to a place called "The Earl of Sandwich Pub" for lunch one day. The waiter/bartender was a guy named Joe. He was bald, had a goatee, lots of tatoos, and lots of piercings. Despite his downright scary appearance, he was very friendly. Aaron started fussing a little bit while we were eating, so Joe came up and started talking to him and playing with him, and made him smile. He even held him for a few minutes (he really wanted to); he said that although he doesn't look like it, he loves babies and wants to "eat up their little cheeks" (or something like that). It was so funny. I only wish we had gotten a picture.

Aaron at the airport in Savannah, looking pretty tired.

The view from the balcony at Hilton Head. The ocean was just beyond the trees.

Alex chilling with our nephew Todd.

Grandma Elaine with cute babies Derek and Aaron; Derek is only a month younger than Aaron.

When we got home, we took Aaron to the doctor. He said he had a sore throat, but that there wasn't anything we could do except give him Tylenol. Two days later he was getting worse--coughing, throwing up, sounding really congested, not eating--so we took him again. Again, the doctor said we'd just have to let the cold take it's course, but now he also had a full blown ear infection. Personally, I suspect he had been developing the ear infection for a while; he's been acting extra fussy since about a month ago, and at his four month check up the doctor said he had some fluid in his ear but he didn't think it needed to be treated. Bah! Next time I'm just going to insist on antibiotics at the first sign of redness in his ears.

Aaron, the day we took him to the doctor, in a crazy outfit.

Anyway, we were also told not to give Aaron any more Tylenol for a few days, since he had been on it for a week already. Poor little guy. On top of everything, I got sick too. This is really the worst cold I've had in a very long time. And the only thing worse than taking care of a sick baby is taking care of a sick baby with an ear infection who can't have Tylenol while you're sick. Alex has been the best though; he spent his whole day off the Monday after we got back, and the next Friday, AND all weekend taking care of Aaron so I could rest most of the day. I don't know how I got so lucky. I hope I feel better tomorrow, though, because it's back to the grind. But I'm optimistic; Aaron seems to be doing better and I'm entering the having-to-blow-your-nose-every-five-seconds stage of the cold, which usually means that the end is in sight.

We also got visits from my dad and Alex's mom last week. That was fun. Alex's mom was only here for a few minutes, though, but it was still nice to see her.

Aaron with Grandpa Sorensen

Playing with Grandpa.

In other Aaron news, he has recently discovered his feet and how delicious they are. I'm not exaggerating when I say we have been looking forward to him eating his feet for a year!

Mmmm, feet...

And finally, there's the business of NaNoWriMo. Yeah, about that. We did it the first two days, but that's when Aaron's mysterious (ear-achey) fussiness began. We could've done it if we had more waking hours, but we decided that 20 was enough...

Solid (Well, Sort Of) Food

2008-11-18T18:43:00.003-07:00

Tonight Aaron ate his first solid (if you can call extremely runny rice cereal solid) food. It was quite exciting. He actually did pretty well with it--a lot better than I was expecting. He didn't seem to mind the taste too much; it was mostly the spoon he didn't seem to like. I have no idea if I was doing it right, though. I just kinda stuck the spoon a little bit in his mouth and half-let him suck on it and half-poured the cereal into his mouth. And of course it got all over him. But isn't that the point of feeding babies anything besides milk?

Mmmmm, single-grain rice cereal from a spoon...

The rice cereal aftermath

He has become quite the renaissance baby. He's eaten breast milk, a variety of baby formulas, diluted apple juice, and rice cereal; and he's eaten from a breast, a bottle, a little tube on a finger, and now, a spoon.

Halloween

2008-11-02T19:48:00.004-07:00

On Halloween, I made Dinner In a Pumpkin. This has long been a tradition in my family. However, up until just a couple years ago, my mom always used a recipe that was, well, gross. Luckily, she recently tried some different recipes that gave new life to Dinner In a Pumpkin and saved the tradition from certain doom. Last year I made it myself for the first time from a recipe I found on the internet. It was pretty yummy, so I made it again this year from the same recipe (I omitted the mushrooms though):

Dinner In a Pumpkin

1 med. size pumpkin, topped and cleaned out
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 pkg. UNCLE BEN'S® long and wild rice, fixed according to directions
1 can mushrooms or 1 c. fresh mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Combine ingredients and put in pumpkin. Put top on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on cookie sheet in oven preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for 2 hours.

Serve dinner in pumpkin. May use pumpkin as vegetable and serve with butter and brown sugar or honey. Do not open pumpkin while baking or it will expand and top will not fit on pumpkin again.

The night before, we carved pumpkins. Here's a picture of our masterpieces:

After putting Aaron to bed (he wore his costume for about half an hour), we had dinner, handed out candy, and finished out the evening eating Muddy Buddies and watching Simpson's Treehouse of Horror.

Baby Bond Movies

2008-10-29T22:17:00.003-06:00

(Read this post after the one below it, I know poor planning on our part.)

So, once we figured out that Aaron's costume was going to be more bond than vamp, I started thinking of bond movie names that could be modified with the word 'baby'. For example, the upcoming bond movie would be Quantum of Baby, instead of Quantum of Solace.

Here are the rest for your viewing pleasure. Be warned though, some aren't that great:
Dr. Baby
From Russia with Baby
Babyfinger
Thunderbaby
On Her Baby's Secret Service
Babies Are Forever
Live and Let Baby
The Baby with the Golden Pacifier
The Baby Who Loved Me
For Baby Eyes Only
Octobaby
A View to a Baby
The Living Babylights
License to Baby
BabyEye
Baby Never Dies
The Baby is Not Enough
Baby Another Day
Baby Royale

Quantum of Baby

2008-10-29T21:23:00.005-06:00

Last year at Halloween, we looked around at the costumes at the Halloween store at the mall. There were so many cute little baby costumes. Of course this year, now that we actually have a baby, they didn't seem as cute.

I decided since there weren't any cute pre-made costumes, I would make Aaron's costume. I figured a little vampire would be cute; I just had to find a black onesie and sew on some white fabric for a shirt and make a little cape. Then we'd slick his hair back, draw on a little widow's peak, and voila! Vampire baby. To make it even better, Alex and I would paint little bite marks on our necks and be the vampire baby's victims.

Imagine my excitement when, as I was shopping for footie pajamas (3 months old and needs 9 month pajamas??? But that's a post for another day...), I came across a little tuxedo sleeper thingamabob. It didn't look like the cutest thing in the world, but it would be a whole lot easier than making something similar from scratch. Now all I would have to do is make a little cape and we'd be set.

Unfortunately, the cape never got made. I didn't make it to the fabric store and the Halloween party we were going to started in half an hour. We figured the little suit would still be ok just by itself.

However, once we got it on him, it was waaay cuter than it looked on the hanger, and we knew he wasn't a vampire baby. He was Bond. Baby Bond. And he put Daniel Craig to shame.

The ladies just can't stay away from Baby Bond

In the clutches of his arch nemesis, Daddy No

Heading to the poker table

"Milk Martini. Shaken, not stirred."

In the BMW stroller

A little hung over after a night of partying and womanizing

This one was just too funny not to include

NaNoWriMo

2008-10-26T22:27:00.003-06:00

Question: What do Jo and Alex do for fun when they have very little free time?

Answer: Write novels, of course!

November is National Novel Writing Month, and we've decided to join the ranks of the lunatics who attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. It's going to be crazy. And awesome. And everyone that reads this should do it with us.

If, at the end of all this, you are interested in reading our masterpieces, just check us out on the New York Time's Bestseller list sometime next year.

Speaking of pictures...

2008-10-24T01:22:00.003-06:00

Here's a cute one of Aaron in the bath.

That is all.

The Daily Jo

2008-10-24T01:09:00.002-06:00

Despite the fact that this is called the "Jo and Alex" blog, we all know it's really the "Aaron and Sometimes His Parents" blog. So, to save any grandparents/interested parties from having to read spiels about Max Payne or the like when really all they want to see is pictures of the baby, I've created my own separate blog. Originally the idea was to post something every day (thus the title) just to get me writing every day, but I don't know that I'm actually going to have time to do daily posts. But, too bad, the title stands.

Night Of The Living Baby

2008-10-07T18:04:00.008-06:00

Aaron and I have been having some breastfeeding issues. To make a long story short, after weeks of fussing and refusal on his part and lots of pain and frustration on my part, we finally visited a lactation consultant (twice in one week, actually, but that's beside the point). Among other things, the consultant suspected that we might be having a yeast problem. To effectively treat this kind of yeast infection, both mother and baby must be treated, as it can go back and forth between them. She recommended using something called Gentian Violet for four to seven days; all that is required is to paint the baby's mouth with it then nurse, then voila, pain gone! Sounded simple enough.

So Saturday night, after Aaron's bath, we give it a try. I dip a Q-tip into the Gentian Violet and swab Aaron's mouth with it, letting him suck on it for a few seconds, just like the instructions the lactation person gave me said to do. Aaron's tongue starts going crazy--in Alex's words, "like a dog with peanut butter in his mouth"--and he starts gagging a little, presumably because the Gentian Violet tastes nasty. I look at the bottle and see a funny little note: "Keep out of the reach of children. If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away."

Great...

Alex and I start panicking. Alex runs to get his cell phone and the number for Poison Control. I think there might have been some profanity involved, but I don't really remember because I was a little preoccupied by my own profanity and the fact that I had just poisoned my child.

Alex comes back in with Poison Control on the line. Aaparently everything will be ok. Oral medications have strict standards, the Poison Control guy says, and whoever makes Gentian Violet just didn't want to adhere with them, ergo the warning. And Gentian Violet works great for yeast, he adds.

Needless to say, that was the end of the Gentian Violet experiment.

There was one side effect, however: apparently Gentian Violet turns babies into zombies. Luckily, after a day or two of Aaron having a purple mouth and exclaiming "BRAINS!" (I can only assume that's what his goos and gaas meant), the effects wore off. Now everything is back to normal, with the small exception of one pair of permanently purple footie pajamas.

Here are a few pictures of Zombie Aaron. These are actually from the morning after the craziness, so his mouth is actually quite a bit less purple than it was. Notice the purple jammies and the purple fists...

Aaron's Blessing, Take 2

2008-09-14T09:58:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago, on August 31, was Aaron's baby blessing. It was a great day; we had a wonderful time and were very happy that so many of our family and friends were able to come. Unfortunately, in all the hubbub of the day, we forgot to take pictures (d'oh!). I felt really sad about that (and I still do, a little). I mean, what kind of a mom forgets to take pictures on her baby's blessing day? Well, I've accepted that the kind of mom that forgets is the tired, distracted, hostess-bein' mom, so I guess I'm ok.

But I still wanted pictures. So this morning, two weeks later, we staged a few "blessing day" pictures. Aaron has been growing so fast, I could barely get his little outfit on. In fact, the neck of his shirt was a too small for his head; it scraped his face a little when I put it on, and he started crying. :-( He's ok though. It's a good thing we finally got around to taking those pictures though--a day later and I wouldn't have been able to get the clothes on at all!

So without further ado, here are some pictures of the little guy, mommy, and daddy:

And here's one of the back porch, still all set up for the party. Today, however, our only guest was Leia...

So there you have it. If anyone happens to have any pictures from the actual day, feel free to send them to us :-)

First Haircut

2008-09-13T15:52:00.010-06:00

Thursday was Aaron's two month birthday. To celebrate, we decided to give him a haircut. His first haircut ever. Who has ever heard of a two-month-old needing a haircut?

Here are some before pictures:

And after (not too bad for someone who has never cut anyone's hair before--especially not a wiggly baby's):

Two Months

2008-09-09T23:12:00.005-06:00

Aaron had his two month checkup today. At the baby checkups they do some measurements. I thought that I'd share them with you. He is 12 lbs 11 oz and 25.25 inches tall! I thought he'd weight a bit more than that but he is still in the 75% for his weight. But get this, his height.... 97% percentile!!!! What? Where'd that come from? I'm 5'7"... why didn't I get any 97% percentile height?

Another way to look at it: he has grown almost 5 inches in less than 2 months! (Redundancy incoming alert)...... WHAT? All I can say is that babies are crazy. Or at least my baby is crazy.

Another thing they did at this check up were his two month vaccinations. Boy, was that fun! He was so upset for hours, his legs (where the injections were administered) got a little red and puffy, needless to say it was a frightening day for under-warned, first time parents.

After some baby Tylenol, mommy cuddles, an exploding diaper, and finally some food he settled down and was pretty happy for the rest of the day. What a relief when he finally started being happy and smiling again.

Here are my two favorite pictures from today. He was showing off his new favorite activity.

Guilty Pleasures 2: The Fall of Ice Princess

2008-09-04T22:33:00.007-06:00

In light of the insight presented in Alex's comment, I am amending my previous post: instead of watching Ice Princess, I will be watching the Max Payne movie. I can't wait to see Marky Mark as the title character.

Now I must go and play Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne in preparation.

Guilty Pleasures

2008-09-04T21:38:00.007-06:00

I'm not particularly in touch with pop culture. I know about things like The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, and Oprah. Those, and whatever current fashion trends I glean (and sometimes laugh at) from my monthly fix of InStyle magazine. So it's not surprising that I didn't know about Twilight until the third installment was out; the hairdressers were talking about it while I was getting my hair dyed last year, in case you were wondering how it happened.

Now, I don't really consider myself a slave to fashion, but I must admit when millions of people are reading the same book, I get a little curious about it. So I read it. And scratched my head. And wondered why on earth this particular book was so popular. I mean, it was okay I guess, but I didn't understand why anyone who wasn't a thirteen-year-old girl would like it so much. It just didn't appeal to me, because not only am I not thirteen, I'm also not really what you'd call a romantic (and the book is basically Romance Novel Jr.).

That said, I am now for some reason intrigued by it again. Maybe it's because of the movie version that's coming out soon, or maybe because I recently discovered that an aunt of mine, who happens to be a remarkably intelligent and well read person, loves the series. So part of me wants to read the other books. Another part of me, however, doesn't want to get sucked in again only to be disappointed again. That part of me remembers the last time I read something--The DaVinci Code--just because it was popular only to discover how abysmal it was.

What to do? Do I give in to my curiosity and read the other books, or do I spend my very precious and rare spare time reading something that I'm pretty sure is actually good (and that I already own)? Or do I just disregard others' guilty pleasure and indulge my own? Perhaps the last option is the way to go. Ice Princess, here I come.

Real Person Clothes, Rolling Over, and Other Milestones

2008-08-18T20:12:00.005-06:00

Today I took Aaron shopping for the first time by myself. Real shopping, at the mall and everything. I was worried about taking the stroller; I wasn't sure if it would fit in any dressing rooms (it's one of those gigantic travel system strollers) and I was afraid I might be the only one there with a big baby tank. Silly me, did I forget that I live in Provo? Of course there were thousands of people pushing strollers around the mall--half of them much larger than mine (to accommodate multiple stroller-aged children). And, with a little finagling, the stroller managed to fit in every dressing room I used.

Anyway, on to the point. I got real person clothes. That aren't maternity clothes. That actually fit. Including shirts. Granted, they're not exactly the same size as I wore pre-pregnancy, but they're real clothes. No elastic panels or bands in the pants, and the shirts are remarkably un-tent-like. I think they will do nicely while I work on getting back to my normal size.

After I got home, it was time for Aaron to have a little "belly time." He did his usual routine: lay there for a minute after I turned him onto his stomach, started wiggling and moving his head around while making little squeaks and grunts, then began getting upset and ready to cry by the end. I was about to turn him back over when he just turned himself over. He had been threatening to do it since we got him home from the hospital (he's pretty strong), but it still took me by surprise. It was quite exciting.

Sleepy Baby

2008-08-16T08:33:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was not a good day for sleeping for Aaron. He usually has three substantial naps during the day; yesterday he had one and a half. Needless to say, by the end of the day he was exhausted and fussy. After having some food, a bath, and lots of cuddling, he finally went to sleep at around 11.

And he slept the whole night.

And not for just the four or five hours that people call "sleeping through the night"; he slept for seven and a half hours. Whoa. Not only that, but after a diaper change and a feeding, he went BACK to sleep--before we could even get a burp out.

Now if only he'd sleep that much every night. For the rest of his life. That would be awesome

One Month

2008-08-11T17:28:00.004-06:00

Today, Aaron is one month old. I can't believe it's only been a month. I know babies go through big changes as they grow older, especially in the first few months / first year. But I was not expecting this. Here is a quick overview of his weight these past few weeks.

Day 1: 9 lbs 12 oz
Day 12: 9 lbs 2 oz
Day 31: 11 lbs 12 oz

Whoa! Two pounds in about two weeks. That is a > 20% increase in weight in just two and a half weeks. I wonder if you can feed newborns too much food. It's on my list of questions for the pediatrician next time we visit.

Anyway, here's the part you all wanna see. One month pictures:

A funny picture I caught

A smiley picture

Four Weeks

2008-08-08T09:12:00.004-06:00

Today marks the four week anniversary of Aaron's birth. We can't believe it's already been four weeks!

On the other hand...has it really only been four weeks? Time seems to move very differently when there's a baby around (for one thing, the day seems a lot longer when you get up at 6 am instead of 10 am, ha). It started even before he was born. While I was pregnant, the weeks seemed to fly by--until I was 37 weeks along. Then suddenly it screeched nearly to a halt. It was as if the universe were making up for the previous temporal celerity, smushing months worth of lost time into just a few weeks, making every day feel more like two or three.

After that eternally long three weeks and four days, when labor finally started, the progression of time only got stranger. Alex and I both agree that was the longest day of our lives; however, it passed differently for me than for him. I remember that the hours went by very quickly; several times I said something like, "wow, it's 10:00 already?" or "is it really 2:00?" Yet the labor seemed infinitely long. It was almost as if the hours were shorter than usual, but there were many, many more than in a normal day.

Then came the epidural. Once those wonderful drugs were in my system after 18 hours of painful labor, and about four hours of not-so-bad labor before that, things changed. For the first little while--and I really have no idea how long it actually was--I was in a state of endorphic euphoria where time didn't matter or even seem to exist (and Aaron was nearly named Rick after the anesthesiologist). Then when that had worn off, I was still comfortable and happy and suddenly I was pushing out an unexpectedly large and hairy baby.

I wonder if time will ever return to normal, although I'm beginning to suspect that there isn't really a "normal" anyway. Perhaps time isn't as absolute or constant as we think it is, or think it should be. I think it may be affected by our perception in a very real way, sort of the way sound frequencies can be precisely measured but in some ranges become warped as they are processed by our minds...

Anyway, in the interest of keeping the geekiness of this post to a minimum, I present: BABY PICTURES!

Second day home

Silly Face

Happy Face

Smiley Face (his first encounter with the mobile--he loved it!)

Now Blogging...

2008-08-08T09:09:00.001-06:00

Hurray for the first entry of our blog!