Somebody watching you?

On our trip to Utah, we stopped by Wendy’s and got Christian a kid’s meal.  The prize inside was a “karaoke” CD that you can mess with the balance and you can’t hear the lyrics so that your family can play karaoke in the car.  The one we got was the ‘80’s mix.  Jared was thrilled!  (Have I ever mentioned he has an obsession with 80’s music?  It comes from having older sisters that grew up in that decade I’m guessing…).  So Jared had all of the lyrics memorized already and he and Christian played the CD over and over again (there are only 4 songs on it so I was losing my mind after a while). 

After a while of insanity on my part I asked if we could just let the CD rest (it was really me).  Christian said sure and started singing all of the songs without the music.  When he was singing the song “Somebody’s Watching Me” he stopped dead sentence and said,

“You know, someone is always watching you, Heavenly Father, your parents and you know who else?…

*dramatic pause*

“Santa Claus!!!”

We all bust up laughing…I love this kid!

Beauties of Arizona…

Just to warn you, I went a little crazy with this post…

The first time Jared and I went to Arizona was November 2008 for a conference with training that they company Jared was interning for at the time paid his way to get.  When we left Utah it had been a blizzard and my mom had dropped us off with Christian in the car seat in the back of the car…I was afraid they wouldn’t get back to my mom’s house because of the awful weather.

When we arrived in Phoenix Airport, we walked outside to warm air and the sight of palm trees glowing and green in the street lamps…what a contrast!  Then throughout the next days I was amazed by the cleanliness of the roads, and the dryness of my skin (My skin was literally falling off…I spent $5 at the gift shop at our hotel on lotion because the “designer” stuff offered in our room, though full of scent, just was not doing the job.) the high volume of people and the spottiness of bad vs. good areas frightened me (what am I saying?  It still frightens me).  The weather was sure nice, as we were able to eat the most lavish meal I’ve ever experienced outside under the palm trees downtown (though the Arizonians had the heat lamps turned on…it was only 65 degrees).  When Jared applied for an internship here, I was pretty distressed inwardly because I knew he’d get it and that we may have to move to Arizona.

In March of 2009 when we drove down to Phoenix to check out areas/apartments I was thinking the whole time “What is wrong with these people?  Who would live here on purpose??”  “What is beautiful about this place anyway?”  “Yuck, all I see is dirt!” 

I know, pretty negative huh?

I still thought all of these things for months as we moved down here and started to live here.  It wasn’t until we were coming back after a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving that I realized something…Arizona can be beautiful!  I was so shocked that the scenery looked beautiful to me that Jared and I sat and discussed why it actually seemed so beautiful that day.  What did we figure out was the reason why?  It was the sky.  All of the other times we had driven around the sky had been hot, almost colorless and cloudless. 

On that particular November day, there had been a storm system moving through and there were clouds and various shades of blue.  The light reflected off of a cool blue sky cast warm shadows on the “dirt” and cliffs making them become mysterious and majestic.

It’s amazing what the lighting can do!

The funny thing is that now that we’ve been back an forth since that time, I have found beauty in different parts of the ride that I never noticed before. 

This last drive we took, we decided to take a different route up to Knabe and this is what we were greeted with about a mile off of the turn-off in the other direction….  A Rainbow!

Honestly, I haven’t seen a rainbow in years.  Christian and I have had the worse luck in seeing rainbows.  He had never seen one before.  I made Jared pull right over and I got out of the car to take a picture.

Just look at those colors!  Aren’t they amazing?  This is what I had expected to see in Arizona but it took a while for the light to be right so that I could really see the possibilities.

               Here is a picture of Christian and Jared under the rainbow.  Christian was very excited to see one too!

  Here is a picture of the sun that was making the rainbow…such a beautiful sky!  It takes your breath away…

  Here is Vivian being held up with that blue behind her gorgeous blue eyes (she gets the gorgeous color from her daddy).

Okay so after that, I kind of went crazy with the camera.  Here are some more that I took out the window of the car while Jared was driving…

        

When we came to this area with a lot of huge boulders scattered everywhere, I said to Jared “Do you know what this reminds me of?”  and then Christian yelled really loud “Giant pieces of poop!”  Wonderful *cough* and then I totally forgot what they had reminded me of in the first place…  This one reminds me of a dinosaur head…can you see it?  This cavernous looking mountain really opens the imagination about ancient inhabitants…       The sky was just so perfect that day!        Are we in Arizona?  It looks so green in this light!   My favorite view of the direction we had come from, as we climbed up the mountains

        Obviously, there was a forest fire here recently…               I am so sad that I couldn’t capture the sky here the way I really saw it…it was so red at the line of the tree tops!       Some deer along the way.         

The fiery sun behind the burnt trees.

I really enjoyed this day of traveling which is saying a lot coming from someone who absolutely hates car rides.

Vivian is 6 Months (plus)…

As Vivian turned 6 months, we went to her well-check and then right back in the car that day to head out of town for her 6th (!) trip out of state.  This child has traveled a lot in her young life.   At her doctor’s appointment we found that she is still in the 90% for height at 26 3/4 inches tall and 75% for weight at 16  lbs 10 oz.  We went to a different pediatrician in the office this time, because our other doctor was out.  She was so cute with the children that I’m honestly /  tempted to switch over to her.

      Vivian,on her half-Birthday on our drive up to Utah

I can’t believe that Vivian is already 6 months old!  It doesn’t seem possible that so much time has gone by….I may just be getting old since she has been alive a shorter percentile of my life at this point than Christian had at the same age…. maybe it’s just a learning curve thing.

Development

6 Months old in the guest bedroom at Grandma’s house

This month Vivian scared me one morning as she discovered that she could get where she wanted to go.  I was in the study and had left her playing in the front room on her play mat and came back to….no baby!   It turned out that she was under the coffee table.  I was glad to discover her rolling capabilities at a time when she was on the floor…

She also started being able to sit pretty well supported and as we spent her first week of being 6 months in Utah she started getting the hang of sitting up by herself.  Now she is sitting! and playing with toys!  I LOVE this stage!  So much fun…until Christian decides to show her how to “really” play with a toy and she freaks out at him…yes this girl does have a healthy temper (she gets it from her mother).

A funny thing about her is that she has a thing for towels.  Whenever she sees a towel, she’ll lounge for it and start chewing on it carnivorously.  It reminds me of Snoopy in “Your a Good Man Charlie Brown” when he says “I feel every now and than that I’ve got to bite someone”.  Maybe she’s just teething, but it’s humorous when I’ve got a towel wrapped around my head and she dives for it with her mouth gapping open and then won’t let go of it without a fight and angry protests.

Eating

Ready to eat, in the garden at grandma’s house

Vivian loves her baby food!  She will eat the whole serving of the 2nd’s foods without stopping.  Her favorite is squash.  The first time I gave her squash she was making Christian and I laugh and laugh as she squealed for each bite and then licked anything that got any of the orange goop on it….when I feed her squash there is a lot less mess than usual.

Sleeping

Napping in Uncle Michael’s arms…

She is now taking 2-3 naps a day.  She really should take her 3rd more consistently, but she’s a little distracted once her daddy gets home from work and has a difficult time staying asleep if she does go down then.  At night she will go down and sleep about 10 hours.  I’m wishing she’d go to bed a little sooner though as 11 O’clock is not my favorite bedtime and what she thinks is the time to go down.  I really think it’s due to that miserable excuse for a 3rd nap and that she’s wired and over-tired and won’t go down until she’s a zombie.  My goal for this month is to work out that little problem.

Language/Babbling

She is still quite verbal and likes to squawk and join the conversation.  It’s very cute.  Christian and I have been trying to teach Vivian baby sign. It’s been about two months since we started, but she is now signing “milk” whenever she having a bottle.

Vivian has also started to make the “Ma-ma” sound…but only when she’s distressed.  I don’t know if she really associates that sound with me, but whenever she does it, Christian and Jared both refuse to help her because they say she wants me….

Christian and Vivian

Hanging out on our first day home…in pj’s!

Vivian really loves that brother of hers and he loves her too.  If she hears his voice she is instantly distracted and wants to know what he’s up to right now.  He is showing so much patience in the way plays with her--it really warms my heart.  She is pretty much always happy if he’s around and paying attention to her.

Daddy

Making daddy be a pack-animal

Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, but little girls really bring out a protective streak in daddies.  Let me tell you… I’ve never seen Jared get so uptight before as when Christian is teasing Vivian with something.  Vivian really has Jared wrapped around her finger.  Her favorite daddy activity is to  watch him shave…while he’s holding her.  I really think it might have more to do with mirror time, but anytime he’s shaving and not holding her she’ll start acting upset until he notices and picks her up.

Vivian and Me

Relaxing with mommy after she finished frosting a cake

I am loving this little girl.  She is pretty independent though ever since she started rolling places she is much more attached to me.  Honestly, I love it.  I want my baby to want me.  I am her mommy.  She’s not too cuddly still, unless it’s dark.  I still can’t cuddle her like Christian liked to--she likes a little more space.

Having a blast with all of mommy’s nail polish colors! (aren’t her eyes the most beautiful color of blue?)

New Computer!

After a lot of tearing my hair out in frustration, we got a new computer to replace our 7-year-old one.  It had dementia.  No short-term memory though a lot of long term.  We’re keeping it around until it dies but it’s going to have a much easier life from now on with less demands on it.  Poor thing. 

I am soooo glad to have a faster machine!!!! I will (hopefully) be catching up soon on our adventures of the month.