My Little Artist

Last week I was reading my bookclub book when Ally came up and showed me her dirty hands. I hoped that Matt had given her some pudding, but I smelt it and it was NOT pudding. I led her into the kitchen to wash her hands and noticed that she had been finger painting on dishwasher. How do kids not know how gross that is?

Celebrations

This afternoon I had a doctor's appointment, and I had actually lost weight since last visit! It was only 4 pounds but I celebrated by having French Fries and a banana nut muffin for dinner.

Matt had a doctor's appointment last week, too. He found out he is allergic to pretty much everything:



Here's the mask he wears at home now:

Progress

My stomach isn't the only thing progressing around here...



...our nice, BIG new shower...



...the beginnings of Matt's masterpiece...



...and a beautiful new tile floor (much better than the gold linoleum you may recall from previous photos...

Accident Prone

A few weeks ago, while dropped Ally off at my friend's house, I lost my footing and fell down her front porch stairs. The truly embarrassing part was that it happened not once, but twice. Her stairs are split level and I fell down the first set of stairs, but was able to catch myself on the landing. Embarrassed, I then turned around and fell down the rest of the stairs, this time spraining my ankle and landing completely on the ground. Abrey was nice enough not to laugh.
Last night I was doing laundry and some of the liquid detergent splashed up into my eye. Come to find out that concentrated soap in your eye is truly a painful experience. I spent the next ten minutes washing my eye out in the sink and wondering, who else but me gets injured while doing laundry?

And so it begins...

We've decided to redo the bathrooms in our house. So far, Matt has installed a new shower (which required that a wall be knocked down to get it to fit in). I am excited for the finished product, but having a hole in the side of your house can be a little stressful. Here's Ally helping:


For Memorial Day, we got to go visit my brother and his wife in Iowa. It was relaxing to get away, even if it was only to Iowa:


And finally, Ally's new do. I decided to even it out a bit and took off more than I meant to. She looks pretty cute in a bob, though.

Wonderful

"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will. We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming."
--Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "The Great Commandment", October 2007 General Conference

The truth about being pregnant

Being pregnant is probably the least enjoyable event a woman gets to experience. Here are my reasons why:

1. FAT. FAT. FAT. I'm not one of those obnoxiously cute pregnant women who only gain weight in their belly. No, my butt, thighs, love handles, arms, and face are all fat, fat, fat.

2. Back pain. Begins about 5-6 months and continues to labor. If you're really lucky, you get back labor (which an epidural doesn't help with) and you get to deal with it all through labor.

3. As my friend JR said, "you get stitches on your who-ha and you'll poop." Fortunately with the C-Section neither of these happened, but I'm not looking forward to it this time around.

4. Boobs. For 20+ years they served one purpose: decoration. You could even spruce them up with fancy bras from Victoria's Secret. (Victoria's Secret doesn't make maternity bras).
When your milk does come in, the first thing you get is a yellow puss-like substance oozing from them (gross) and then your milk comes in. When my milk came in with Ally, it was like someone had inserted cantaloupes in my shirt. And painful. Not to mention the fact that anytime you roll over or even hear a baby cry, suddenly you have milked yourself, as if life isn't embarrassing enough.

5. Nursing. When/how/where is this appropriate? Liberal moms will say "Anytime, anywhere." Well, my mom taught me to hide certain parts of my body at all costs and now suddenly it's ok to whip out a boob out in public. Even in my own home, I go hide in my bedroom when it's time to nurse.

I would make apologies for the graphic nature of the blog, but it's the truth. I'm wondering if we made the right decision to have another. I'm also wishing I could fast-forward about 12 months and all this would be over.

Things no one told me:
1. Rough up your nipples before nursing. Supposedly it helps with the pain of nursing (and yes it's painful and involves skill...who knew? And why didn't anyone tell me before hand?)
2. You may not love your baby right away. Well, you'll love your baby, but you may not fall in love with your baby right away.


Any other truths you wished you knew before having babies? Or am I just crazy?