Two tiny Atkinsons

Once again when I was taking Eliza's monthly pictures, Isaiah insisted on getting in the action.  Lately he loves to show how he's bigger than her.  They often have crawling races and Zay gets so excited when he wins (which is every time because Eliza doesn't crawl yet).   He also will come running to me in the other room, breathing hard like he barely escaped, "Eliza try to get me, mommy!" 

The cool part in this picture is that you can see his front teeth are starting to come back down.  Phew!

Oh, and the reason for the post title is that when I mentioned to Zay the other day that his name was Isaiah Atkinson, he was very upset.  "Me not at-y-son.  Me Zay-a."  And again this morning when I called Eliza "Liza Mae" he said "Gaga not Mae.  Gaga Gaga."  Just wait until he finds out he has FOUR names!

Refashioning

So I went to a clothing swap a couple weeks ago.  It was mostly kids' clothing, but I found this cute cotton shirt for me.  I was disappointed when I got it home to see that it has a tear in it, so I couldn't wear it after all.

So I thought back to all those cute websites I see where moms who should be too busy to brush their hair somehow manage to "refashion" old things into new things and I decided to give it a go. And so, with no pattern in hand, I took a stab at turning my torn shirt into a cute little shirt for cute little Eliza.

As you can see, it did in fact turn out to be a pretty cute little shirt.  Sadly, it was a little too little for Eliza.  I made her tough it out for the evening so I could admire my handiwork, and then sent it along to our littler neighbor Rocky to enjoy.  (I am an, well, uh, whatever you call an Indian Giver these days now that I'm sure that term is politically incorrect.  I've successfully switched from telling kids to sit "Indian style" to "criss cross" or "cross-legged" but I haven't yet heard the new term for Indian Givers.  It seems Native American Givers would be just as bad.  Anyway, I am one of those, so I told Carolyn (Rocky's mom) that if I ever have another girl I want to borrow this shirt back when she's tiny so I can admire my work some more).

She's related to her photo-hating father.

Another cute shot of Liza.

Zay wanted to take a photo of me & Eliza, so I let him give it a try.  He got one and a half of us at least!

"Grrrr...I-ZAY-uuuuuuhhhh, what are you doing!?!" --Mom

"Me reading, Mommy."  --Isaiah

Our cute girl

No exciting post here, just a cute picture of our smiley girl!

Holey Bread

This is for those of you who read my previous post about how my loaves of bread never turn out quite right--I wanted to present photgraphic evidence lest you think I was just being humble (which I rarely am). 

The Beach

While my niece Elise was visiting we convinced Jerel to join us for a day trip to the beach.  Here he is heading down to the water with Isaiah and Eliza.  When mom's too tired to haul them around, dad always steps in to help them have fun.

Here's Eliza in her cute little sun tent.  You don't really need sun protection in rainy Oregon, but it's always windy at the coast and this works great to protect her a bit.  She is (usually) so content to sit and watch her brother play.

Isn't he cute?  I made him this sunhat last year and sadly for him it still fits.  I guess next year I ought to buy (or make) him one that's a bit more boyish.

My oldest niece Elise came and stayed with us for a week.  What a handy helper she was with the kids!  She even tolerated sharing a room with Eliza, who has a habit of not sleeping through the night.  It was fun to have her here!

A few random pictures

I decided to stop eating sugar for the month of August and that included cutting out as many white flour items as I could.  We have some whole wheat flour Jerel's dad ground for us so Zay and I have been making bread about once a week.  Zay loves to make his own tiny loaf, which he kneads, shapes, and places in the tiny bread pan.  My loaves keep falling and having other problems; Zay's always turn out perfectly!

Isaiah loves loves loves trains, so we took the light rail to the zoo last month.  He thought it was pretty fun riding a train--I think mostly because he could stand up rather than be strapped in a carseat.

Here's Zay with a giraffe.  Our friend Emma has a family zoo pass that allows one guest to come.  Since Zay & Emma & Eliza are all still free, we use the pass for me.  Heidi & I are in the primary presidency together so we always have lots to chat about.

 I know this isn't a fine example of my limited photography skills, but I really like this picture.  It captures one of the first times when Zay & Liza were actually "playing" together.  Zay likes to show Liza how to crawl and roll and such.  He also tattles on her already "GaGa not listening."  As if I don't already know that...He also growls at her if she doesn't cooperate with him, which I am ashamed to admit is something he learned from me.  I didn't want to be one of those moms who yells all the time.  Instead I'm a growler.  Not really any better.

And here's sweet Eliza.  She's getting so big lately!  I definitely prefer older babies to the newborn stage, so for me she's getting to be more and more fun.  She laughs & giggles, is super ticklish, and even likes to cuddle sometimes.

It really was a cute idea

I take the kids on lots of stroller rides (I have to be careful not to call them "walks" otherwise Zay thinks he gets to walk, which has a serious negative impact on our speed).  Anyway, it's summertime so I thought Eliza could use a sunhat.  And since she's a girl I thought it should be really ruffly.  It was much cuter in my head.

Don't worry, I threw it out, I'm not making her wear it.

Remember back when Zay had teeth?

I was out in the garage putting some things away, Jerel was at the kitchen table feeding Eliza, and Zay walked up the steps from the garage into the kitchen.  Except he tripped and bounced his jaw on the top step.  I went and picked him up, then asked Jerel to bring a towel because he was bleeding.  Then I noticed he didn't have his two front teeth anymore...Zay was absolutely hysterical, Jerel said words that I'm hoping Zay didn't hear, and once it became apparent that he was in a serious amount of pain we headed for urgent care (it wasn't business hours for his doctor).  They said they didn't do head injuries so they sent us on to the ER.  Fortunately it wasn't very busy and we got in without too much of a wait.  Poor little Zay was trembling and crying, and poor little Jerel had blood all over his shirt.  They kindly took us back before they took the guy who came in ahead of us with a bloody hand, which he reported he had cut on a beer bottle...

Did you know they make baby vicodin? Yep, you can just drink it up. Or, like Zay, just vomit all over the nurse when she gives you a tiny bit of it...The doctor explained that he hadn't actually knocked his teeth out like we thought, he had hit so hard that he impacted them, which is a fancy way of saying he jammed them all the way back into his gums so far that you can't see them anymore. Like this: 


They sent us home with the vicodin and he took it for about a week.  He couldn't eat much, everything was "too crunchy" and now that he's not in pain anymore, he still says everything is too crunchy. 

It's been about a month now and his teeth are starting to come back down.  We originally took him to our family dentist, who told us they don't do anything unless an infection develops, and then they take them out.  So that seemed weird to just wait for an infection to develop rather close to a kid's brain.  So we took him to a pediatric dentist who gave us some more accurate information.  It turns out if you leave them and they don't come down, they can fuse to the jawbone, which would be messy and would affect his permanent teeth.  So now it's a waiting game. If his teeth keep coming down, we're probably okay.  If not, they will have to pull them.  And even if they do come all the way back down, they could turn purple/red/black/gray at any point.  Sounds pretty, huh?  Luckily he's the cutest kid on earth so it's not affecting him too much!



Big Boy Chair

As much as I love love love our Chicco 360 high chairs, Zay got away with sitting in regular chairs at Grandma's house in Utah and when we got back home he wanted nothing to do with the 360.  So I did a bunch of research on the best booster seats, and then got so confused that I just went to Target and bought whatever looked good.  (And then I was at WalMart later that day and they had it for 50 cents cheaper so I bought it there and then returned the Target one.  This probably cost me $8 in gas, but I still feel like I saved 50 cents).

It comes with a tray, but Zay likes to be right up the table since that's what he's used to from the 360, so we didn't bother with that.  He loves sitting in his big kid chair now.  Oh, and for some reason when I say "smile" he thinks I'm saying "stick out your tongue" so that's what he does.

P.S.  If you were wonding about me "love love love"-ing the other high chairs, I get that expression from Isaiah.  If something is quite large, he will say it's "big big big."  I think it's funny, so rather than teaching him how to use words like "really" or "very" or "extremely" I just let him keep on saying "big big big."  

Mandy Plus Eight

Scout camp came up this summer and we were having a hard time getting enough parents and other volunteers to go help the cubs.  I finally told our primary president, "Look, I could go to camp, but I really don't want to.  How about volunteering me to babysit children for other moms who are willing to go?"  And so she did, which was great because I'd much rather stay and play with the girls than go to camp and play with the boys.  It just so happened that I ended up babysitting all of them on the same day.  So I had one 8-month-old, four 2-year-olds, one 3, one 5, and one 10.  The 10 was a sister of two of the 2's and she was a HUGE help.  It was a pretty funny chaotic day of diapers and sippy cups and although by "funny chaotic day" I mean "I almost died it was so crazy" I still stick with my decision to stay home with the girls rather than venture into the unknown (and probably life threatening) world of Cub Camp!

Baby Loaf

This summer I thought it would be fun to have a weekly field trip for the kids.  I would pick somewhere fun to go, invite the stuck-at-home moms I know, and have a day tending children somewhere other than our boring old houses.  This trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory was actually the only field trip I planned.  So it was more like once per summer rather than once per week.  But still, it was fun.  A friend & her 3 kids came with us, proving that you can fit 5 car seats in the MDX--3 rear-facing and two forward facing.  Then a few other mom/kids groups met us there.  Zay loves to watch the cheese being made (well, not really made, more like packaged) and then we stand in line for samples and although we have to limit his cheese intake at home, he refuses to eat it there.  Most of the kids enjoyed some Tillamook ice cream, but Zay doesn't like ice cream so I got him a tiny Tillamook van (think Hot Wheels style) instead.  Anyway, we had a good time and I definitely should've planned a few more things, but life (namely prepping the house for the market) kept getting in the way.

Kennecott Copper Mine

While in Utah we visited the Kennecott Copper Mine.  It's something cool like the largest copper mine in the world or something like that.  Having lived in Utah myself for several years and never hearing about it, I have my doubts as to it's world-class famousness, but since Zay likes rocks & trucks and this place promised both we went up there.  It's sort of close to where Jerel grew up in Bingham, Utah.  Hmm, that doesn't sound right.  I don't think Bingham is where he lived, but I remember seeing a Bigham High yearbook in the garage, so somewhere near there.  (Yes, I am a fountain of inaccruate information).

An amazing fact about this place:  The trucks that haul the ore are larger than many houses and weigh more than a jumbo jet. They stand over 23 feet tall and can carry from 255 to 360 tons of rock.  So some big trucks, hence the big tire here. 

And another amazing fact: The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.  So a big mine, hence the big hole here.  We had a fun time.  Trudy came, as well as Jake (Jerel's brother) and his boys.  Well, and his girl too, but she and Eliza were more just along for the ride.  Grandma bought each of the kids a rock in the gift shop which Isaiah loves to carry around.  Eliza got one too, but I confiscated it since she's in the oral stage and I'd rather if she didn't choke to death!