The Us Files

favorite friends

2011-08-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

our favorite friends from shanghai, the breinholts were also in utah for a bit.

where to start with the breinholts?

these are quality people. this will just tell you what kind of people they are: clarke and ken were in the accounting program together at byu. when we were thinking about doing an MBA at CEIBS clarke thought he remembered hearing that ken was in shanghai and looked him up. we skyped with them once or twice before we moved, and then they offered to let us stay in their apartment when we first arrived in shanghai. they were in the states, so they left their key with another friend. we stayed there for about 10 days while we got over jet lag and looked for an apartment. it was seriously such a blessing to stay in their place. instead of being in a cramped apartment, with no room and no toys, etc., worrying about how much money it was costing to stay in a hotel, we got to stay in a fully stocked apartment for free. like i said, these are seriously quality people. i mean, at the they hardly knew us, and yet offered their home like they were old friends.

in the last year we have become great friends. honestly, they are like family, in fact, the other day oliver said that nathan was his cousin. he practically could be. they are only two months apart in age and are best little buddies. and oliver loves ashley, kaylee, and emma like sisters. they lived in the next building over from us in yanlord town, or i guess i should say that we lived in the next building over from them, since they are the ones that first introduced us to yanlord.

we were over at their house all the time this year, playdates, dinner dates, moaning-about-life-dates, i-need-a-break-from-the-kids-dates, date nights. allison is a saint. she had to listen to me complain all year about my life as an mba wife in shanghai. she was always a listening ear and that meant so much to me. and she has great taste in music (we both love musicals, and would sometimes listen to them while cooking dinner together).

they would give us rides all the time (thank you MC!), coming from a lady who has to use taxis or a scooter, this is a SERIOUS kindness. the list could go on and on, but let's just say this, we LOVE the breinholts and were so happy to have a little get together in orem. especially since they moved to an awesome new home (yeah! not just an apartment!) two days before they left for the states. i am happy for them, but sad for us. their new place is quite a ways for a lady with no driver, so we won't be getting as much quality breinholt time in the next year as we would like :(

funny thing is, for all the things we did with the breinholts in this last year, we didn't really have many pictures together, so we were glad for the excuse to take a picture together.

such beautimous hats!

hooray for the B's!

animal farm

2011-08-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

we went with whit's kids and kelb and liam to the thanksgiving point animal farm. it was a great day, not crowded, and not hot. the kids had a great time feeding animals, riding a pony, milking a cow, and just being together.

oli wasn't too keen on the cow actually getting close to the food in his hand


it was funny to see the difference in all of the kids as they fed the animals. liam was not afraid at all.


oli tried to milk the cow, but shockingly he wasn't too keen once he got close.

terrible criminals!


yeah for sissies!

stuff we've been doing

2011-08-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

here is a smattering of fun things we have been up to since we got here.

kelby, jesse and liam were at mom and dad's for the first month that we were here. this made for some fun and crazy times. the kids sort of have a love/hate relationship. they love each other, but they are both 2. that should pretty much say it all. liam is 9 months younger than oli, he will be two in september, and oli will be three in november. their ages and age difference makes them need CONSTANT adult supervision because even if they are playing well together it can turn in to a whack, a bite, or a shove at any moment. but they clearly love each other since each time they woke up from their naps they came looking for each other. inspite of the insanity, we had lots of fun with them.

we went to the scera pool a couple of times. the kids LOVE this. i have a love/hate relationship with it. i love watching oli enjoy the water (he is quite the water bug), but i hate how cold i get as soon as i am out of the water! clearly i am doing the single mom thing because i have no pictures of us actually in the water, too busy running around after him.

We have been enjoying plenty of cousin time on both sides of the family. Obviously mine more since we have been staying with my family, but this week Clarke's family comes in to town for a huge shebang.

In typical Oliver style, we have been doing a lot of "dumping" or jumping as it were. Oliver taught Liam the jump-off-the-chair-in-the-front-room game. Liam needs a little assist on the dismount, but is hilarious in his fearlessness more like falling off the chair. And of course, also in typical Oliver style, we have to jump in our undies. Mind you, compared to at home, he has been clothed much more of the time here :)

We have enjoyed hanging out on the front porch a lot, mornings, afternoons, and evenings depending. One morning Oli and Nonni did sidewalk chalk out front. Oli thought it was groovy to have his whole body traced. He was very good at laying still, and had Nonni do this 3 or 4 times.

love that smile!

love that little laugh!

original oli art.

a true ar-teest at work.

mango smiles

2011-08-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

this is actually from june, but as i am posting all of these other things i keep seeing pictures from our china-life and want to remember them too. i could probably blog straight until i leave back for china and not get everything done that i want to. so i will keep interspersing some china-life with our american vacation from our life in china :)

for a month or more before we left we were in mango heaven. oliver LOVES mangoes, especially sucking the seed practically dry (just like his daddy). i got these great shots of him eating the seed one day. oli isn't great at smiling for pictures in general, and he is a very contrary boy when he wants to be, so i used it against him. to get him to smile like this i would say, "oli, don't you smile at me. don't you dare look at the camera and smile!" and what do you know? mr. au contraire figured out how to give me these FABULOUS smiles! too bad he figured out my trick and now won't really smile when i do that :(

Let Freedom Ring, and Run, and Fall Asleep

2011-08-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

First Sunday we were here was mellow. Oli had been up Saturday night from around 10:30 pm to 1:00 am. When he woke up at 10:00ish he seriously did not seem tired at all, so I figured rather than get frustrated trying to get him back to sleep I would just let him stay up for a bit. Thankfully he slept in on Sunday morning until around 10:00 am to make up for it.

The jet lag wasn't ideal, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It took us just under a week to finally feel more back to normal and be on a totally regular sleeping pattern again.

Sunday was actually the 4th, but being here in Utah they have the magic power to switch it to Monday. Somehow I allowed my sisters to convince me to run the 5k Freedom Run in Provo. They were smart and trained for it. I did nothing of the sort (don't let my racing jersey fool you. it came with the registration). The idea of running in China is pretty disgusting to me. I just feel like I will be taking in even more of that awful air than I should. Thankfully Dad decided to run it too. So we just puttered at our own pace with a combo of walking and running. I think we did it something like 29 mins. Not to shabby for an old dude and a lady who couldn't care less about running :)

Also, let's just think about my trip planning again. Having to wake up at 6:00 am two of the first three days of jet lag is just really not a great idea.

We had originally planned on going to the parade, but then decided that no one wanted to camp out for a good spot, so we decided to bag it, and then after the race we just couldn't help ourselves so we went home and got the kids and headed back. We found a great place at the very end of the parade route just past where my old school (Waterford/Meridian) used to be (it seems they are building new chapels on the site). We even had a good amount of shade. We didn't have any traffic or trouble finding a place to park. It was a brilliant idea.

Like I said before, I haven't been home for the 4th in 6 years and I just love the 4th in Utah Valley. Parades are so funny and so festive. Oli thought it was pretty cool, but he was also in his "My body had no clue what time it is" phase. Poor kid, once again looked sooooooo tired. His favorite things were the policemen on motorcycles and the huge group of Star Wars people (still have no clue what this was about).

Oliver was hilarious. He held this flag up in the air like this for quite a few minutes. Just standing there, looking so tired and stoic.

Yup, human lovey.... again. Notice the hair twiddling.

I love this picture of Oli. Popcicle on his face, so tired and so sweet.

Oli just had this concerned look most of the parade. I love the furrowed brows and the way he sucks on his lip.

Ah ha! A moment of animation!

After the parade we headed up the BYU Creamery. I am not the biggest ice cream fan in the world (too cold!), but man alive, the Creamery ice cream is DELICIOUS! I think my favorite flavor is Earnestly Chocolate. This is somehow Oliver's "I'm excited to eat ice cream face."

I am pretty sure he approved. He scarfed his and half of mine.

I honestly have no clue what we did the rest of the day. In the evening instead of putting him to bed early like I should have we went down to "Cul de Sac of Fire" in my parent's neighborhood. It has had a great reputation in the past, but the original organizers were out of town this year, so other neighbors did it and it was terrible. They had this huge gathering of kids, and the had some comedy troupe from UVU as the entertainment. Not only was all of their material geared towards 20-somethings going to UVU, they went on for WAY too long. Finally after saying the third or fourth questionable word (at least for an audience of 2-15 year olds gathered at their feet) someone finally went to the MC and said, "Enough! Where are the fireworks." We watched a few and went to bed.

First Day in Utah Continued

2011-07-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Whit's Family originally was just coming down for Saturday Balloons, but we conned them in to staying the weekend. This was a kind sacrifice on Whit's part, since the crazies were crazy, but we all had a lot of fun, especially the cousins.

Saturday after the balloons we went to Mikey Dee's. We used to do that as kids, and for some bizarre reason wanted to continue the tradition. That food is seriously so amazingly fake! And I just could not get over how huge people are here in the States. No offense America, but you are FAT! After living in China for a year, where the people are on a whole very petite, the obesity in America is all too obvious. I had to stop myself from thinking, "You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't be eating that!" But hey, I guess if I was eating there too I didn't quiet have too high a pedestal to stand on.

After McDonalds, or "Uncle Donalds" as Oliver calls it, we went to the Park by my old high school. The kids had fun playing, but poor Oliver, still just looked like such a tired little soul.

Yup, still looking like he wants to be asleep. Too bad it was only something like 8:30 am at this point!

Love this shot of Tisse-bug. She is such a sweet girl, very generous and kind, and has the giggle of a fairy.

After picking up the Bountiful Baskets with Kelbs, Jess, and Liam, we went home for some sprinkler fun. My Mom bought a little blow up pool that you hook the hose up to and it makes little fountains everywhere and the kids had fun in the freezing cold water.

I just love this lunch set up, it just feels so American to me. No eggs and tomatoes, nothing sauteed (which I actually love about China), no strange rice and pumpkin soup (my Ayi told me it was best eaten in the hot weather), just plain old sandwich, on AMAZING whole wheat bread (oh how I have missed delicious whole grain bread!), homemade raspberry jam made from home-grown raspberries, blueberries by the handful (thanks Costco for that GINORMOUS BOX for something like $5. in China I splurge on blueberries every once and a while, and for that tiny little carton it is something like $3).

Papa read some stories, here is a family favorite for sure, "Where the Wild Things Are." I think they are doing some sort of "terrible" action right here. On a side note, no thanks to the movie version of that book. It made me sad that I had watched it. This book held a great place in my heart from my childhood, my parents read it to us often, and they used it in teaching, and it really brought out the "magic" of childhood and imagination. It made me sad to see it done with such a grown up view point.

After naps and/or quiet time we celebrated a late Father's Day. The Peeps were kind enough to wait for me to celebrate. We bought Dad a nifty automatic coin sorter from The Red Envelope. Dad has always been good at amassing his loose change into rather large amounts. He has a huge glass jar of chain downstairs that I am sure adds up to a significant amount. He loved it, and the grandkids loved it too.

Avery made this awesome homemade flag to decorate the cake. Watch for it to reappear in a future post.

We had delicious Italian Creme Cake a 'la chef Whit. I loved watching Oliver eat the frosting off. What is more kid-like than to lick to frosting off and leave the cake?

I love how I have done three blog posts and have seriously only covered my journey and my first day in America! Oh well, that is me, either totally a non-blogger, or gung ho. Mind you, it is a million times more convenient to blog here in the States, and we have been doing things that I want to document, and I just really realized that I like being able to look back at my life and see what we have done. I really regret being such a lazy bum our last year in Florida, now those were experiences to blog about, come on, the beach is always bloggable material! And now I can't really blog about them in retrospect, because it will probably just make me sad :( RIP my life in Florida.

Happy 4th Jetlag Style

2011-07-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

I randomly chose July 1st as my fly back date, but in retrospect that wasn't really the best choice. Having death jet lag while trying to be festive and patriotic just wasn't really ideal :)

I hadn't been home for the 4th of July since the summer before we moved to China the first time, 6 years ago, and I LOVE the 4th in Provo. I REALLY, REALLYwanted to go to the hot air balloons. This is seriously how dedicated I was to going: I went to bed at 12:00 am on Friday night after a 30 hour journey from China, and woke up at 6:15 am on Saturday to go to the balloons! Seriously insane, but I am so happy that I did. There is just something magical about them. Oli liked them but the poor kid was so stinking tired and his body was telling him that it was night time, so he looked a little stoned most of the time.

Let's just start with a picture of what for sure looks like home, Timpanogos! Love the mountains and the BLUE sky (fyi, China, this is what sky is supposed to look like).

And this should have been in the last post, but I hadn't imported it yet. Reuniting with Nonni and Papa was so fabulous. I love my family.

The Balloons:

Reuniting with the nieces and nephews at the balloons.

They were so excited to see Oli. And Oli, is LOVING his cousins. The other night when they were leaving he cried and wanted to go with them and said, "I yuv my cousins!"

Poor Oli, he did A LOT of yawning that morning and the next few days.

I am pretty sure this face says, "I would rather be asleep."

Oli thought this Darth Vader balloon was the cats meow. I guess being a boy he somehow just knows he should know about these things. He has never seen Star Wars, but he knows about Darth Vader and Storm Troopers, and he thinks they are pretty cool.

Oli pointing at Darth.

Me trying to get Oli to smile about Darth. Not happening.

We loved seeing the sun come up over the mountains.

Proof I was actually there!

There was this whole crew of Storm Troopers and even Darth himself there. I am not totally sure what they were doing, they were part of the parade on the 4th too. I thought Oli would think they were groovy, but he was terrified! He did not want to get close to them.

Cousin Love! I love that the only good shot we got with all of them is in front of the port-a-potties. Awesome.

Even though it was death to wake up that early in the morning after only sleeping 6 hours I was so glad that we did. We used to go to the balloons nearly every year when I was little, and I loved taking my own child to make the same memories.

Hooray for the Balloons!

Cue Neil.......

2011-07-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

Our last few days in Shanghai were spent shopping at the fake markets, NOT teaching dance or yoga (wahoo, it was so nice to just BE with Oliver those last few days), and singing quite a bit of the classic Neil Diamond song, "Coming to America." I had it all planned out to listen to on our descent in to LA, but with a very tired Oliver on my lap, and not wanting him to remember that we owned an iPad (i.e. he can't see it without playing with it), I sadly just had to sing it in my head.

Clarke and I had the fun and yet annoying chance of shopping at the ginormous underground market in Pudong the last few days before I left. I seriously had not done any real shopping there in the year that we have been there. It is in the subway station closest to our house, so we passed through for a few small things here and there, but never really went to bargain and see what they had there. It was fun, but also highly annoying. When we lived in Nanjing and Shanghai in 2005-2006 it was much easier, more like a playful banter between shop keeper and shopper. But in the 5 years since, China has hosted the Olympics and most recently in Shanghai, the World Expo (ahh, miss those blue skies Expo), and I think the influx of foreigners has really taken bargaining to a whole new level. Some shop keepers the angry at you when you bargain, and some shops now even outright refuse to bargain. And you used to be able to pretty much start Hence, the not so much fun anymore. But we did get some fun things for our families. Fake Toms shoes, fun purses, fake Crocs, and even remote control cars.

The both of us on our scooters, riding home in the pouring rain, with huge black backs full of stuff from the market was quite a sight to see. One foreigner on a scooter is enough to gawk at, but two in the rain, looking like they are carrying everything the own made for some double takes.

Here we are on our way to the airport. Our awesome friends the Breinholts were kind enough to lend us their driver to get to the airport. Yes, they have a driver. Many foreigners that we know here have a driver. Obviously as students, we don't, hence the scooters.

Notice the lack of a car seat. All American mothers looking at this are probably horrified. But to us, unfortunately, this is our way of life in Shanghai. We become human seat belts. The Breinholts of course have car seats in their car for their children, but they were already on their way to the States and took them with them.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time so Oli and Clarke had some time to run and skip around together. We flew Asiana airlines and so glad we did. Mothers with children can walk up to the business class check in and fly past the hoards of people in the coach check in. Brilliant!

Somehow Clarke managed to click on a business class seat for us when he was checking us in the night before. I'm not really sure how this worked, but the computer seemed to be OK with it. I think the stewardesses were confused as to how we got up there, but didn't say anything, and neither did we! Too bad this was our 1.5 hour flight to Korea and not our 12 hour flight to LA! It was kind of cool and horrible to see how the other half lives. The extra space was brilliant, and our seats reclined quite a bit, but since neither of us were sleeping (even though this was technically Oliver's nap time) it didn't really do us a lot of good.

It was especially harsh getting off de-planing in Korea, going through security again, and then getting right back on the same plane, just in the coach section. We were the first row of coach seats, and we could see right in to our old seats, and there were open seats around them. I just wanted so badly for a stewardess to say, "Oh you poor lady. Traveling alone with a child, let's just move you up here where you have more room." Too bad, so sad. We were stuck back with all the other cattle, "Moo!"

Oliver was actually a trooper on the plane. We spent the first few hours playing and reading. The playdough proved to be a brilliant last minute addition to my stash of "let's keep Oliver entertained and Mommy from going CRAZY!" things. He played with it for probably an hour. He kept making "snowmen," this is one of the many snowmen he made. I would make the balls and he would stack them, which turned in to smashing them together. I will never fly without playdough again!

I finally looked out the window after a while and was happy to see this. Having lived in a place where you don't really see the sunset because the sun is hiding behind the pollution and many large buildings, this was a treat. I took a lot of pictures of the setting sun as we flew away from it.

I let Oliver finally have the iPad after dinner (honestly, I was amazed and happy that he didn't beg for it sooner). I let him watch Despicable Me, or "Aspicable Me" as he calls it. It was nearly 11 pm to his body's time when it was done, and he did not nap at all during the day. So I was super happy when I stuck the Bink in (yes, it is horrible that I still use it, but that thing is like MAGIC, and I knew I would need it for these plane rides. we are planning on de-binking when we get over jet-lag in Shanghai), and he pretty much went straight to sleep in my arms.

The next 5-6 hours were filled with trying to keep him asleep. I held him for the first 2 hours. Then I finally moved him to my lap, and as the night, or whatever that was, moved on, I moved progressively more to the corner of my seat, as Oliver moved more and more into mine. By the time they made us open the windows (Ahhh, I hate that. And note to self, they do that a full TWO HOURS before you land!) I was just standing next to my seat, holding a blanket over his head trying to keep it a little dark. But considering what a light sleeper Oliver can be he was AMAZING. He slept the whole last 5ish hours of the flight. Too bad I didn't, but a sleeping child is worth it!

Oliver even slept through breakfast. And this is what he looked like as we were landing in LA. I was getting excited and wanted that Neil song blaring in my ears, but alas, Oliver "needed" to twiddle my hair. I am a human lovey to that kid. He has loved my hair since he was nursing (he used to rub my eyebrows!) and you will often find him draping on my, twiddling my hair. If he is really tired or sad he will say, "Mom, I wanna touch youw haywer."

Hooray AMERICA! Even though they have smog in L.A. they still have blue skies above them! Seriously, the pollution has been one of the hardest parts of living in Shanghai for me.

By the time we got through customs, and walked from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 and got checked in to our flight to SLC, we had about 3 hours left to blow. Thankfully we have friends that live literally a 10-15 minute drive from the airport and they were kind enough to come and get us. Oliver loved playing with toys and eating homemade popsicles, and I loved the warm sun, the beautiful ocean air, speaking English, and having a shower!

We stayed at the Gray's house until the last minute possible and then pretty much just zipped to the airport and practically on to the plane. We both reached a point of critical exhaustion on the ride from L.A to Salt Lake. Oliver slept almost the whole hour and a half, and I even conked out on top of him for probably 20-30 minutes.

It took us a while to get off the plane and go potty etc. It was such a great feeling to see my Mom waiting for us! We hugged and cried. In that sea of strangers it was such a wonderful feeling to see the face of someone that loves you.

It was 10:30 pm by the time we got to Mom and Dad's, and Oliver was super excited to be there. He looked all around the house, and wanted a snack. I stayed up way too late. By the time we went to bed it was almost 12:00 pm in Utah, and I had been up for over 30 hours.

More to come soon...... 4th of July in Utah.

shanghai summer

2011-07-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

well, i can't really post about the summer before we came to the USA because most of those pictures are back on our computer IN shanghai. so this will have to do.

we had some fun before we left, taking advantage of the not too terrible temps. we went to the bird and insect market. that was a great day. a great spot in shanghai if you are ever there. i have loads of pictures to post from there, but that will have to wait until after august 22nd. which is really too bad, since it is ten million times easier to post in the states than behind the great firewall of china :(

we spent our last few days packing for our sojourn to the States. oliver tried to be helpful, but ended up really playing with most of the stuff. he loved "packing" the many pirated dvds that we brought back for people, most especially Harry Potter, for "Unka Kelby."

clarke's schedule calmed down a little bit right before we left, so oliver was actually awake some nights when clarke came home. oli would like to go down the elevator and meet daddy at the entrance to our building. we would wait and wait, and then see daddy zipping down the walkway on his scooter. then daddy would take oli on a ride around the complex for a bit. he LOVES this. on this particular day, clarke was actually letting oliver pull the throttle back! oli felt very powerful. i felt very nervous :)

variation on a theme

2011-06-27T05:21:00.000-07:00

jumps continue around the house, and now he has taken them on the road, well, at least a 2 minute walk down the path. we have a fabulous kiddie pool in our complex, is less than a meter high (i know, don't i sound high fallooting using the metric system? seriously usa? what is wrong with us? most people BUT us use the metric system. i need to get my head around it because it is so much more useful here than what i grew up with!), it goes up to around my knees, so it is perfect for the wee ones. there is a little slide too. it just opened about a week and a half ago. it has been a bit rainy since it opened, so we have not been as frequently as we would like, but when the weather allows we pretty much go every day.

oli began this jumping all on his own. parents keep asking me if i taught it to him, or if i am trying to teach him how to swim. nope. this is all oliver. he tells me to back up (oops, i will show my true lack of metric system knowledge here) about 5 or 6 feet and then does an amazing bend of the knees launch prep, usually there is some instinctive animalistic yelling somewhere in here, and then a ginormous flying horizontal jump in to the air, pretty much parallel to the water, and then splash me in the face as he glides through the water, holding his breath, reaches for my hands and then stands up.

he is the wonder of the pool when he jumps. all the people around are watching him (and they have ample time to watch because the first time he did it he did it for probably 30 or 40 minutes straight). from the moms in the pool, to the old chinese grandpas on the side, to the grandma's guilting their grandchildren for not being as brave as oliver, people watch this kid in action. it really is amazing for his age (2.5). he has no fear, and he loves the water. i guess it is to be expected from a kid born less than 5 miles from the beach :)

but seriously, i think my favorite was the grandma. two days in a row, she is yelling for her maybe 8 year old grandkids to come over and watch him (all in chinese of course). she will say, "hey! come over here. watch this foreign kid. look what he is doing. he is so brave. you should do this too." cracks me up.

what also cracks me up is what he started saying before each jump. he would say with such enthusiasm and huge arm gestures, "mom! dis is going to be the biggest jump you have ever seen!" where does he get this stuff?

thankfully my friend brittny was there at the same time as us, and i conned her into taking a few pictures (and thankfully she is a photographer, so she got some great ones even though the light was fading). i wish i could go with clarke so that he could take some more, but that man is busy (even as i type this at 8:30pm he is not home and won't be for some time).

anyway, the jumping continues around our house. maybe this is why oliver has "papa pat calves," they are pretty cut for a chubby little dude you know.

jump!

2011-06-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

this kid LOVES to jump. he also loves to be naked or just in his undies. so what could be better than jumping in your undies? the two together are endless joy for this kid. i could watch him all day. he is so exuberant, so invested, so full of life and energy. stuff like this is why i love being a mom.

make sure you click on the picture to see him up close. his faces are hilarious.

Es-ca-peh

2011-05-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Anyone with little kids that love Disney movies might recognize the title is in reference to one of Oli's favorite movies, "Finding Nemo." Funny Dory reading the sign while trying to escape from Bruce the Shark thinks it is "es-ca-peh" instead of escape. Anyway, I got to es-ca-peh from the Mainland, and from life and responsibilities at home for a few days in March and it was a delightful experience.

I guess from observing my friends, what you do in Hong Kong is SHOP. And shop for thing that I would never dream of shopping for, like diamonds. Crazy stuff. I am not a jewelry person, never have been, never will be. In fact, if you look at me you will notice not even one ounce of jewelry, not eve my wedding ring anymore! Jewelry just drives me nuts. I find myself playing with it, taking it on and off. When we got engaged I had to train myself to keep my ring on. The last time I really wore earrings was in high school and at that I only wore the same pair of silver hoops all the time. I took them out for a dance concert junior year and outside of my sisters wedding I haven’t worn earrings since! I took my ring off at the end of my pregnancy with Oliver because it was getting tighter than I like (I bought my ring super loose so it wouldn’t bug me when my hands get hot or swollen), and I haven’t been able to make myself wear it since. I have tried a few times, but it always starts to bug me, I start playing with it, and then I am afraid I will lose it. So it sits in a box.

Anyway, all that to say, diamond shopping was not quite my thing. I like jewelry on other people, but not me. It was fascinating watching my friends though, and the other patrons in the shop. It was like observing some exotic animals in their native habitat. I had never considering trying on tennis bracelets that cost a few thousand dollars, and to be honest, I didn’t know other people considered it either, let alone buying them! But it was serious business to these ladies.

Now the real money was going down with the rich patrons from Mainland (see above). This guy and his wife came in and they had on some serious bling. The shop owner told us that HIS diamond-encrusted watch was worth $1.5 million USD! The wife already had on some gorgeous rings and earrings, all diamonds, and was shopping for more. After they left we asked how much her earrings and ring cost and they said, $50,000 USD. I cannot imagine that kind of wealth, that dropping that kind of money on adornments doesn’t bankrupt you. Anyway, like I said, interesting to observe for a bit, but not my thing.

The conference was nice, some of it, not totally my thing, but nice overall. I got to see some people from the old BYU days. There are actually two other dance majors in my Branch (crazy, I know) so we went to Saralee Gibb’s presentation (she used to teach in the Dance Department). Then I tagged along with someone that I didn’t dance with directly, but knew of at BYU, and that was great.

Friday night was awesome. Everyone else was going to a temple session, but I went wandering and found yoga by myself. I took the subway, found a yummy Japanese burger place that had an awesome tofu burger (I pretty much don’t eat meat anymore).

I tried to find the Toys R’ Us, we have one here in Shanghai, but the quality is not the same as the US, and the prices are crazy high. I was not successful with that, they had some crazy elevator system there, only certain elevators went to certain floors and I could not for the life of me find the one that went to 7f! I felt too stupid to ask anyone how to use the elevators, so I bagged the idea.

Off I went to yoga at mYoga. It was rather pricey, ($30 USD for one class!) but worth it, and they let me stay for a second class for no charge. Yoga studios in Asia are so different from the West. They feel more like high end spas, or even the one we go to in Shanghai that is on the shabby end still has so many amenities that are never included in a regular yoga studio. This one was on the classy end of the spectrum. Two levels, three studios, towel desk, huge locker room with showers that include soap and shampoo, steam rooms, blow dryers, and even q-tips for use after your shower!

I took Hot 26, and Hot Spine. The teacher was good, and it just felt so good to move my body. Yoga is really what my body and spirit needs. I don’t get to be on the student end of the spectrum as much as I would like, so it was so luxurious to go to not only one, but two classes in a row, and not have to worry about being away from Oli or getting back quickly. It felt indulgent and amazing to say the least.

I think my favorite thing about the classes besides the actual practicing was some of the funnies the teacher said. He did most of the class in Cantonese, but would add in a fair amount of English for me (I was the only foreigner in a class of almost 30 people. 30 people on a Friday night! Hello, ). His English was actually quite good, as with most Hong Kongers that I have met, but he used two words in ways that made me giggle. He would say “Put your chest on your fries.” And “Lift your fries up.” Fries meaning thighs! And then he would say “Stretch your cough muscles.” Cough meaning calf! It made me smile everytime. After a leisurely shower and finding my way back to my hotel I turned on the TV to find the sad news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The devastation was certainly sobering.

Saturday morning was spent at the conference and trying to connect with a friend from my Waterford/Meridian days who lives in Hong Kong. Don’t you love Facebook? I hadn’t seen Richard in years, we went to school through 8^th grade together, and I’m sure we saw each other once or twice on campus at BYU, but I just Facebook him out of the blue and ask to sleep on his couch and he says yes. He and his lovely family were kind enough to let me invade their weekend. They were so much fun, and their kids just adorable. We had a great time catching up and playing the “What happened to so-and-so” game. We went up to Victoria Peak to check out the view, and then back to their apartment. They were off early in the morning for church and I was off for home.

Unfortunately 10 minutes after they boarded the plane they told us it would be delayed for an hour and a half, and then later they came on again to say there would be more delay. Thankfully I had splurged on a way expensive ($10!) yoga magazine in the airport, so I poured over that, sat there with my eyes closed for a while, and amazingly I ran in to one of my yoga students in the security check, so I went up and chatted with her and husband, and all of that made the nearly 3 hour wait on the plane bearable. It was hilarious though, the guy would come on over the intercom and say something in Chinese first, the whole plane would erupt in groans and moans while they repeated it in English, so I could never hear what they were saying, but I always new it wasn’t good!

Coming back home to my boys was great. I had a wonderful time being away though. It was strange; I have only been away from Oliver twice. Once when I went up to defend my thesis last March (hoorah for me!), and one overnighter in May when we came up for my graduation (hooray for me!) and Clarke and I flew over to Denver to the Snatam Kaur concert (hooray for both of us, that was AWESOME). Both times though I was with other people, and or, in familiar places. When I defended my thesis I was with my family, so I was still, daughter to my Mom, sister to my sisters, etc. In Denver I was with Clarke so I was still wife to Clarke, but Hong Kong was the first time since adding all of these extra roles to my list of things that define me, that I was just ME. It was actually a little strange to just be ME, and only attend to ME, and what I wanted to do. It was lovely to remember that I am still a person independent of all those other things that seem to swallow me (in a good way) when I am at home. It was a nice break, but I was certainly glad to come back home.

p.s. I have no clue how to blog, I know this looks skeewompus in many places, but I am too retarded to fix it. Maybe one day I will learn.

For your reading pleasure

2011-04-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Chinglish. Got to love it. I don't run in to it as much here in Pudong as I did as much as I did when we were living in Nanjing 6 years ago. So when I find it, I try to document. These were billboards honestly out in the middle of nowhere. We were trying to find a place to pick strawberries and had to stop for directions, so I hopped out and snapped these.

Lucky Me

2011-04-25T23:29:00.001-07:00

Incredible. I just had one of those experiences that I hope I remember for my lifetime. I am not terribly mushy about mothering, I LOVE Oliver with an intensity that sometimes even surprises me, but I don’t ever see myself making blogposts about how I just love mothering and all that it entails. BUT, I just had such a powerful experience that brought me to tears. Oli and I were doing our normal bedtime routine, bath playtime, lotion, pj’s, and books. Oliver loves books and reading, sometimes he will sit for 30 mins or more reading books. That is a lot for a not quite 2.5 year old. But some nights we just don’t get much reading in because we spent too much time playing or battling about putting on clothes or watching one of his many favorite movies (right now Tangled and Veggie Tales Jonah are on the top of the list). Even on a bad night we usually read at least 2 books, and they are usually of his choosing. He is VERY particular about what books we read, and usually vetos any of my suggestions just on principle, even if they were his favorite books last week. So I usually just ask him to pick the books, but tonight I picked a few of my favorites that we have not read with as much frequency in the last few weeks.

I picked, The Bear Snores On, Little Bird Biddle Bird, and Little Boat, and he picked Buzz to the Rescue. Oliver has a great memory, even way back in the fall when he was only 20 or so months, he could pipe in the last word of every sentence in the Buzz book. I paused one night and he just inserted the correct word, so I kept trying it, and he kept knowing the next one. Now he can do most of the full sentences, mind you they are simple three word sentences, but still, he is just over 2! So I wasn’t surprised when he did the Buzz one. I didn’t even try with the Bear Snores On, but I did on Little Bird and Little Boat and I was bowled over! Especially Little Bird Biddle bird, I would say we have not even read it in the last 3 weeks and he remembered full sentences in some parts and the last few words of at least every single sentence. I mean I could kind of see if we read it EVERY SINGLE DAY, and multiple times a day, if he would remember some things, but we have not read it in WEEKS.

Then came the real thing that honestly brought me to tears. Little Boat. This is a book we have only had since December, and we read it regularly, but not more than a few times a week at most, and sometimes we go a week without reading it at all. I had never tried to test his memory with it and I almost died when he literally read THE ENTIRE BOOK FROM MEMORY!!!! I started the first page by leaving out just the last two words, but on the second page, he told me the last two words of the first half of the sentence plus added on the remainder, so we just kept going. Let’s just get some perspective on this here are the words:

The ocean is a big place, and I am just a little boat

But I chart my own course and I drop my own anchor.

The sea is always changing and full of dangers, but I sail on…

Through terrible storms…

Up and down rolling waves…

Past giant sea monsters…

And around treacherous rocks, in search of…

My friends!

Together, we dive down to the bottom…

And climb up to the top.

We go round and round in circles…

And never want to stop.

Full steam ahead to the edge of the world…

And still I sail on…

Because now no ocean it too big…

For a little boat like me.

I was honestly speechless. He honestly recited that entire thing to me from memory. Of course he left out a few words here and there, and I sometimes gave him the first word of the sentence to get him going, but still! I got teary eyed, which seemed to scare Oliver a little bit, but I just had this moment of, “Who are you little amazing creature? And why on earth was I so lucky to be entrusted with you?” I have no clue why he can do this. It is certainly not something I pushed, just something I noticed that he can do, but even I was shocked at the level of memorization he demonstrated tonight. I mean, come on… treacherous! What 2 year old knows the word treacherous! Now comes the cheesy part, but seriously, what a blessing to be a part of this human being, this divine being’s journey here on this planet. It was so amazing to witness something so innate in him, I feel like so often I am trying to get him to do something or act someway, there is so much of me in the process of him, that I guess I sometimes don’t see what an independent creature he is. He is on his own journey here, I just get to be a part of it. I need to remember this more often. My heart just swelled with love and appreciation for this wonderful kid. This kid that had to be cut from my stomach, this kid that turned my world upside down, that challenged my very sense of self and adequacy, this kid that I feel like even as a tiny baby was giving me a run for my money! This kid IS such a gift in my life. I think for at least the first year of his life I had to keep convincing myself of that. That may sound strange, but motherhood came awkwardly to me, I think part of that is just me, and part of that was that he was such a fiery baby, he just wanted so much, and wanted it always before he could have it. Honestly as a baby he scared me. Some women really enjoy the baby phase of life. I am not one of them, in fact the thought of having another child gives me the heeby jeebies because I know I have to go through all of babyhood again (but that is an entry for another day!). I feel like I have finally settled into motherhood and this moment of insight just solidifies this.

So to you, my little Oliver. Thank you for the journey so far. Thank you for changing my life and my priorities, and my desires, my being, and even my body forever. Thank you for making me smile and roll my eyes every day. Thank you for giving me moments of insight. Thank you for being you; your fiery “my-spirit-is-too-big-for-my-body” you. Your Mama loves you, every bit of you, from the parts that are so easy to love like the way you give kisses away like they are going out of style, and the way you are always saying things that I think , “I have to write that down! That is hilarious!,” to the parts that challenge me like your stubbornness and ability to flail and whack about. I love ALL of you.

Long time............

2011-03-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Hmm, what do I say here? Long time no see? That would be quite the understatement. Just three months shy of two years since the last time I posted. But even saying long time no see seems strange to me.

I think blogs are so curious. I think I never post on mine partly because it feels strange to be posting about my daily life to the world, to who knows whom, but I think mostly I think, “Who cares? No one cares about what I am doing!” Or sometimes when I am not too keen on what is going on in my life I think “Gosh, I don’t want to blab to the world that my life sucks.” Or I see blogs as this place where people go to glamorize their lives, they create a snapshot of their lives that people will admire or envy. They are crafty or love to cook, or are good at photography, or they are just so blissed out, or trying to convince themselves they are blissed out mothering. I feel like none of those apply to me. So somewhere in between apathy and embarrassment, oh and don’t forget laziness (I hate to admit it, but I am lazy), oh and also recently, business (I know, sounds contradictory to laziness right?), I have failed to blog. I have certainly started plenty of posts, or gathered pictures for posts, but as with many things in my life (such as our family newsletter, which I have written nearly every year but never sent out!) I don’t quite follow through. But since a blog doesn’t seem like an essential part of life, I figured it didn’t matter.

But…. I think I have had a change of heart. Not because I really want anyone to see what I am doing with my life, because come on, who really cares? But after going back and looking at the few old posts of my sad little blog I realized that I cared! It was so fun to see what life was like for us at that moment in time and I felt sad that I haven’t recorded all the bits in between June 2009 and March 2011. So, I know myself too well to think that I will become a diligent blogger at this point in time, but I at least want to do a better job of recording the doings of our lives so that we have the option to look back on them when we want.

Now a big question I wonder about, is do I try and go back, and post some of the old events, or do I just move on from here? We have had a lot of major life altering events since I last posted, well I guess one that everything else hinges on, we moved from the sunny, warm, lovely suburbia of South Florida to the fascinating, yet entirely challenging mega-city of Shanghai, China. Life literally could not be more different for us than it was a year ago today. This move has been very difficult on me in many ways and I plan to write about that soon, not to complain, but because it has had a great impact on my life. There are also some great things about living here too, most notably, the wonderful friends we have that come from all over the world.

So hopefully I will be looking back on this post next year at this time and be glad that it was the start of something good. In the mean time here are some wonderful Oli’isms that I want to record. Oli has an incredible facility with language; I really think he speaks at the level of a gifted three year old, even strangers that overhear him speak will comment on how well he speaks (and so cool, he is really getting the hang of Chinese too! It is so adorable to listen to him speak.). Some words he has his own way of saying, my favorites as of late are:

Sippy cup = sicky cup

Ice cream = icing keem

Whipping cream = wucking keem

Breakfast = becksast

Smoothie = sue-me (used to be suzie)

Chocolate = chock-it

Captain Hook = Haptain Cook

I know these will self correct soon enough (Batman used to be Bat-nan), so in the meantime I just smile every time he uses them because I think they are so cute.

flying baby

2009-06-30T09:58:00.001-07:00

oliver loves being tossed in the air. here are a few of the many pics from pool tossing last week.

orange is the color of the day

2009-06-28T17:57:00.001-07:00

i love that my baby has red hair. i sure hope it stays red. i think it is kind of funny that we call it red hair, because it really is orange. but wouldn't it sound so strange to say, "i love that my baby has orange hair?" i wish we did as the brits do and call it ginger. anyhoo, anyway you call it, it is cute, and even cuter when he is wearing orange on his body and his face :)

yumm

2009-06-05T18:44:00.001-07:00

so... we joined an organic buying club a few weeks ago. we thought we would just try it out and see if we liked it and, hoo-hoo, boy do we like it. genius idea really: you pay $45 for a full share and you get a random assortment of fresh, mostly local, organic fruits and vegetables. a full share is mucho fruita and uber gemüse. it opens the creative eater and creative cheffy in you too, gotta admit i wouldn't normally buy cauliflower or bok choy, but the wisconson calliflower soup and stir fry we made with those were great, better than what we usually would do. getting a different assortment each week kind of puts in a Iron-Chef quality into cooking that spices things up (pun intended... you gotta a problem with that?). Anyhoo, consider this a commercial for the organic buying club, support your local farmer, and down with canned/processed/high fructuose corn syrupeey/fat-o/killer food! I am talkin' to you Frito-lay!!! (except for flamin' hot cheetos... so good.

Here's a link to the club for any florida-folk: http://www.anniesbuyingclub.com/

my 12 hour man

2009-06-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

so, i never realized before having oliver how much sleeping and eating would dominate my world. i mean, i didn't think that having a baby would be a walk in the park, or wouldn't change my life, but i was pretty surprised at how these two events could take over my life.

sleep, the elusive treasure of all new moms, especially nursing moms. the beginning is just a marathon of days and nights that blur from one to the next. i honestly felt like i was running on adrenaline or something like unto it. it is exhausting, but i felt so much purpose in nursing him and helping his little body grow. as the weeks and months wore on he started sleeping more, and therefore so did i. even at 2.5 months or so he started doing some pretty long stretches at night. i think at around 3 months he was even close to sleeping through the night, one night sleeping 10 hours. this was encouraging and exciting, but then the dreaded teething came. and with it all hope of sleeping through the night anytime soon.

i have plenty of friends that swear by the "cry it out" method, and plenty of people told me that he "shouldn't" be waking up to nurse in the night. but i just couldn't bring myself to do it. plus i knew we would be going to utah in may and didn't want to try and then have it be messed up by traveling and the time change. so, i decided that after we got back from utah we at least needed to try something, or i would go nuts!

like i said, i just don't have the stomach for the "cry it out" method, so i decided to try an experiment. my pediatrician suggested trying a bottle of water in the night instead of nursing. but that just felt a little too harsh. so i decided to combine that with something i read in a book. we started by having clarke feed oliver a bottle of expressed milk, beginning with 4.5 ounces, and slowly decreasing by .5 ounces every night after that. when we got down to the smaller amounts like 2.0 and less we offered him a bottle of water after the milk. he wasn't a total fan, but there wasn't a ton of crying either. when he got down to 1.0 oz of milk he started batting the water away afterwards, basically letting us know that he wasn't fooled.

so monday night would have been the night that we offered him only water, no milk. i was rather dreading it because i figured that we would have many a nights of crying it out ahead. well, much to my surprise and delight the boy wonder did not wake up once, not even ONCE! he slept from 7 pm to 6:30 am! the Enigma, who woke up three times on sunday night slept all the way through the night the next. go figure.

i was worried it might be a fluke, but tuesday and wednesday were awesome too, in fact almost eerily so. tuesday night i kid you not, he slept from 6:54 pm to 6:54 am. wednesday night was another 12 hours. on top of that, he started taking at least one 2 hour nap each day.

i have to admit. i love it, but it kind of creeps me out. i have been so used to such an erratic schedule with him that it feels strange, almost indulgent to have him sleep so well. now we just have to work on me. although he is sleeping through the night, i am not. i still wake up out of habit at around 4:00 or 5:00. hopefully as if he keeps sleeping so well my internal clock will eventually give up and actually believe that i can sleep through the night as well!

p.s. this video is from a while ago, maybe a month or more. i just thought it was cute.

i'm a little inch worm

2009-06-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

so oliver has always been a very physical baby. from the beginning you could just feel the energy to move bubbling around in this kid. he held his head up very well starting at around 6 weeks. he flipped from back to belly at around 4 months and now at 6 months he is actually quite mobile.

he has started crawling, well at least his version of crawling. i think there is some dispute about what constitutes crawling. he doesn't crawl as in on hand and knees cross-lateral moving, but i think that whatever he does to get from one place to the next that isn't walking is crawling for now. or maybe motating is a better word, or inchworming, but what ever you call it, he is moving. the old changing pad is useless with this kid because he flips and moves all over the place. the floor and our bed have now become the changing grounds. he can pretty much get whatever he wants, it just takes him a little bit of time. i think the farthest i have seen him go so far is about 7 or 8 feet.

i honestly can barely keep this kid in my arms. i was on solo oliver duty during sacrament this week since clarke was sick. he literally climbed, jumped, lunged, bobbed, and moved the entire meeting. i kid you not, by the end of the meeting my upper arms were burning!

don't you wish you were me?

2009-06-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

so oliver has been a VERY spitty baby. i wouldn't go so far as to actually call it reflux (because i think those babies scream a lot more), but i am surprised that he is so chunky (16.5 lbs at 6 months) because he barfs up so much milk. it really is beyond me that he isn't a skinny fellow based on how frivolously he has wasted my hard earned liquid gold.

the barfing has slowly subsided over the last few months, but friday was just a major reminder that he still knows how to barf with the best of them.

so he woke up from his nap and we nursed. he is always very happy after nursing and he was happily jumping and babbling and lunging on my lap (it is really hard to keep this kid in my arms). i made the misake of raising this cute little stinker over my head, intending for a little giggle and a kiss and snuggle, but instead i got THE BIGGEST BARF i think he has ever done (besides the one he did at about 10 days old where i was petrified he had pyloric stenosis, paranoid new mom) right in between my eyes.

i could see it starting to come out of that adorable smile and there was no time to dodge the bullet. it went SPLAT on my eyes and then rolled all down my face and chest. i honestly had to wipe it out of my eyes so that i could see. my eyes were stinging with barf juice. i was shocked. i looked in the mirror and knew i had to get proof.

to top it all off, the doorbell rang right as i was taking the picture. a friend's husband was dropping off their little boy for me to watch for a bit. i had to answer the door looking like this.

first night out withOUT oliver

2009-05-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

so we figured that it was about time to venture out on a date sans the oli-man. well, more like way over due. we are starting to do a babysitting swap with another couple in the ward. so we should be getting out once a month now.

we had a great night (minus the pounding headache that afflicted poor clarkie). we swung by the cheesecake factory for Dutch Apple Caramel Streusel cheesecake and Chocolate Tuxedo Cream cheesecake. and then over to mac-and-schony grill for a Chef's Trio to go. then it was off to the beach for a little moon-light picnic.

we had a wonderful time enjoying the sound of the surf and the cool night air. we talked about the future and where we see ourselves in the next few years. it was lovely.

thank you laura for babysitting!

oliver eats!

2009-05-12T17:56:00.000-07:00

so we decided to venture in to the world of rice cereal. i was going to wait until 6 months, but he seemed ready on so many levels that i thought i would give it a go and see what he thought. obviously it was a big success. he shrieks all through the feeding. it is quite amusing. he actually keeps most of it in his mouth, biggest problem is not spitting it back out, but his hands flailing around spreading the goo everywhere.

woohoo! i am a big boy!

me thinks me likes it.

honing in on the target.

i love this little shot. i think he looks like gene kelly with his little sleeves rolled up. he just needs some little sailor pants and to do a little tap number.

those troublesome teeth

2009-05-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

so oliver got his first two teeth at 4.5 months (a month ago now), and we are now in to round two of teething. you can see the first two teeth in these pictures.

the next set are not poking out yet, but are clearly on their way. he has been insanely fussy, drooling up a storm, had a runny nose last week, is waking up more often in the night, and is generally darn right unpleasant sometimes! i am pretty sure that the top middle two (his gums look very swollen), and the bottom two next to the current teeth are on their way. teeth, please come soon so he can be back to is regular nutty self, not his uncomfortable nutty self!

random photos

2009-05-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

i like to call this one "reclining nude: not nude"

i love getting crazy shots like these. soon i will have to post the "drunk" oliver shots!

polo boys!

i'm a big boy going to church.

more of the beach

2009-05-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

i wanted to post these a while ago, even started to once, but never finished. here are more pictures from oliver's first time at the beach.

i know i am terribly proud, but i just think he is amazingly cute. i love the way he is so in to checking out the world. he is so attentive. the waves, the sand, birds, people, cars driving by, other babies and children, he is so interested in what is going on.

why did you do that daddy?

2009-05-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

so drama is the word of the day with this kid. sometimes he is so sensitive.

clarke was just kind of playing with him, talking and googling at him while they were looking in the mirror and oliver suddenly burst in to tears. such a hard life.

he used to cry almost every time clarke sneezed. he's kind of gotten over that, but he did it with me the other day. but hey, clarke's sneezes almost make me cry too, so loud and forceful. i can sympathize.

posin'! everybody pose!

2009-05-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

this is from a few weeks ago. oliver was starting to sit up a bit more so i put him in a big chair and he was just a ham. he was squealing and smiling. it was quite delightful. a refreshing change from the screaming he had been doing earlier that afternoon.

the blimp

2009-05-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

so the other week ago oliver and i went outside to sit on a blanket and play. we were honestly only outside for about 10 minutes total, and right after we sat down i looked up in the sky and low and behold there is the goodyear blimp flying literally over our heads. i had to get a picture of the flying baby blimp with the goodyear blimp.

beauty and the beach

2009-04-20T09:10:00.001-07:00

we took oliver to the beach for the first time this weekend. seeing as how he was conceived in california and born in florida i guess he is destined to be a water baby. we have already taken him to the swimming pool a couple of times.

he loved the beach. he was so interested in everything, especially the water and the waves. here is a little clip of the beach boy. enjoy!

I want that monkey

2009-04-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, here is a little clip of what Oliver has been up to lately, namely, rolling. He can roll from his tummy to his back, and is working on back to tummy. Depending on his mood he will stay at it for a while, and other times he just moans and wails at the cruelty of it all. Oliver must be friends with the Wee Free Men because he is really good at Wailey, Wailey, Wailey!

In other Oliver news........ I have an explanation for some of his fussiness! A tooth! Can you believe it, only 4.5 months and his first little tooth is popping through. I was quite surprised last Thursday when he pulled my hand in to his mouth (yes, I am the human pacifier) and I felt a little sharp thing. Sure enough, his left bottom front tooth it cutting through. I think he is going to look a little goofy with a snaggle tooth!

He is also working on sitting up with much assistance from Mommy interspersed with a few moments on his own. He has perfected the art of giggling, especially after a diaper change or right before the bath. I shall have to post footage of it soon because it is just adorable.

Just in case you thought this blog was all about Oliver I will prove you wrong. We just seem so boring compared to major developmental milestones. Clarke finally filed the 10-K-Q-cutie-cute-something-whatever thingy with the SEC that he was working on like a slave for so long. We didn't see him much for a few weeks which was hard on all of us, but it is done, and we are glad. He was "allowed" a free day off after the filing and it felt like a little vacation (I say free because he literally worked a day, a night, and a day to get it done). Clarke was the Easter dinner master. He planned the whole dinner, and made most of it with some assistance from me. He went old school traditional, ham, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, and green beans. I was quite proud of his initiative and glad I didn't have to touch that nasty ham!

As for me, well, Oliver is pretty much my world, though last week I did venture a little back in to the world of "da yoga" (as my Indian teacher in China would call it). I have started a little yoga group in my Ward. We are meeting Thursday nights at a friend's house, she has a nice open front room, a perfect space for getting our Om on. I also went to the first REALLY good yoga class in a long time. Too bad she was a sub, and too bad she is moving to Canada in a few weeks :(. It felt so nice to be back on the mat and in that space. I rarely get a chance to do yoga, even at home by myself, so it was like a little taste of heaven for me. Teaching and doing yoga are so different, and even teaching yourself a class it so different than taking class. I must admit it boosted my spirits immensely to tune in with my body and myself again. I need it more often.

So, that is us for the moment. Keep checking back in for new pictures and videos (I take an excessive amount of both so be glad I am so lazy at updating this blog).

my boys

2009-03-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

this is one of the best sights in the world. my boys, hanging out together in the morning, reading books and enjoying the morning light.

mr. adorable.

2009-03-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

so, not that anyone is checking this boring blog, but we obviously suck at posting regularly. here is just a little peek at how adorable mr. oliver is these days. he is 4 months old this week. i can't believe how quickly they develop and change.

he is still good at getting fat, he now tops the scales at just over 15 pounds. he is filling out all of his 3-6 month clothes all too well. he is still a highly spirited child. intense is the word i would use to describe this kid. some days i can handle it, other days it's only that adorable smile that keeps me from throwing him out the window! everyone keeps telling me that he will grow out of this fussiness soon, and they had better be right. i told oliver the other day that he had better apologize to his would-have-been siblings because after dealing with him they aren't coming!

all kidding aside, even though he drives me nuts, i really love this kid. he is becoming so smiley and interactive. hooray for little stinkers.

A Ten Second Journey

2009-03-04T12:31:00.001-08:00

These pictures are a little old, I think he was about 8 weeks old (he is now 14 weeks old! ahhh!). This was while getting ready for the bath. I love the way babies just feel what they feel, no censoring or filtering like adults. From happy to sad to happy all in a few seconds! Love it, and love this kid.

You ready for some Deepness?

2009-01-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

So, it's been 8 weeks, and I think I am still liking this Dad thing.

My boy is growing like a weed, milkweed to be precise, asclepias syriaca to be even more precise.

Here is another video. This one showcases Oli's "circle arms", a talent he exhibited early in life and is a favorite of his mother's. It also has some deep thoughts, so beware if "the deepness" tends to overwhelm you or if the voice of James Earl Jones tends to over-soothe you, do not operate heavy machinery while watching this video.

I love making these things, and I hope the great wide unknown world out there enjoys them too.

Which Oli do you prefer: Jekyll or Hyde?

2009-01-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

I made another little ditty for your viewing enjoyment. This provides a peek at our little two-face punk-cheese McGee. He seems to only have two gears; and here they are set to a tune from Tarzan:

Look what we found under our Christmas tree

2008-12-25T12:01:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. This is what Santa brought us this year. Little Oli is four weeks old today. He is growing and changing every day. He is gaining weight like a champ. Last Friday he was up to 9 lbs 10 oz, almost up two pounds from his birth weight. He has his four week check up tomorrow, so we shall see how much more he has gained in a week. His double chin is now becoming a triple chin, and it is becoming a full time job to make sure that his neck folds stay clean. His little chubby cheeks are getting cheekier all the time.

He is starting to be a little more expressive and interactive. I swear he smiled at me the other day. He has also become quite the fussmuget (yes, my made up word). He seems to have inherited his father's digestive musicalities, which at times give him the fits, hence the fussmuget. He is a strong little guy, even the pediatrician said at his 4 day check up that he couldn't believe what a strong baby he was. This is frustrating at times to Mom because he seems to have a knack for goal shot kicks right to my incision site. Not fun.

He's was the greatest present this year, and that is saying a lot because Clarke surprised me with an original James Christensen painting staring none other than me!

The Inaugural Address

2008-12-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hello to all our peeps. We just had the best Thanksgiving of our lives.

Oliver Clarke Schaumann was born at 7:52pm on November 27, 2008 weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. When he arrived on Thanksgiving we started calling him Turk, a nickname that just might stick.

We've been a bit slow on the ball getting emails and pictures out. I put together a slideshow last night to introduce our little family and more importantly to introduce our wonderful son, Oliver.

I should admit I tear up just about everytime I watch it. We've been wanting this little guy to join our family for a while now, and it is so satisfyingly overwhelming to know he is here with us.

The slideshow is about 4 minutes long, I hope you enjoy it.