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! 

Temple Square

A bit of advertising before I get on to my post...We love love love our Chicco 360 High Chairs!  We bought one for Isaiah when he was about 6 months old, and borrowed a second one from my sister for Eliza to use.  Here's our smiley Eliza with her cousin Jocelyn attached to the island at Grandma Atkinson's house.  The chairs swivel in a full circle so that you can either have the kids facing the table to eat, or facing another direction to watch the action.  So fun!  Though I do have to note that Zay got lazy about using his high chair in Utah (Grandma has tiny kids' chairs for the kids that are much more fun) that when we got home he refused to go back in it, so now he's in a booster instead.

It seems like if you're LDS, have kids, and visit Utah you are under some kind of religious obligation to visit Temple Square, so we did.  This isn't a fabulous picture or anything, but it shows how much Zay loves to follow around after the big kids.  Here he is chasing after Isaac and Zachary.  There are always plenty of cousins around so the older boys don't mind and are really good about including "baby Isaiah."

This is what Eliza did for just about the entire Temple Square day--just relaxed happily in the back seat of the stroller.  She is such a calm, easy-going baby so it's never any trouble at all to take her places.  Well, not never, she's had a fit or two at the grocery store, but that's only because it's hard to sleep when you're strapped into a shopping cart.  If you feed her, change her diaper occasionally, and provide a semi-flat surface for her to fall asleep on, she's good to go.

We went up in the Church Office Building to see the view.  Here's my best shot of Zay gazing at the temple....I know, he's not gazing at all, and not even looking at it, but a good longing gaze at the temple was what I was going for.  As it turns out I have a bit of a weird photography philosophy:  I would rather have my children enjoy the moment and have memories of the event than have a perfect photo that took so long to pose that all my kids remember is that time when Mom made them stand still and smile for yet another picture.  So sometimes I don't get great shots, but I sacrifice them for the sake of my children having great memories and being able to enjoy being where they are.  When I was in college I used to scrapbook and I got so into it that after a couple of years I realized I would attend activities not because I enjoyed them but because I could visualize what a great scrapbook page I could make about it.  So I (mostly) quit scrapbooking and starting attending activities because I wanted to.  I guess I feel a bit that way about photography sometimes--its' easy to get caught up in capturing that perfect moment, but sometimes the capturing becomes the moment and the original experience is lost. I'm not explaining this very well.  I asked my photographer friend and former college roommate, Sarah, what she thought and she said "A couple weeks ago I was at the coast watching the sunset and a flock of herons flew over. It was beautiful, what with the lighting and how silent they fly. So beautiful that I put my camera down and just watched. I think it's important to just enjoy some moments and not try to capture them." 

Anyway, that is all completely off topic, but it does make a lovely excuse for why my photos aren't that great!  I did love how all the kids lined up together at the viewpoint.  Zay loved seeing all the tiny cars down below.  

The not-any-more-terrible-than-almost-two Twos

 I'm way behind on my blog, so here's my first attempt at updating.  We spent our annual summer week in Utah the first week of July.  On Independence Day we celebrated Zay's birthday.  The whole (Atkinson side of the) family came to Karee & Dave's for dinner, Zay's party, and fireworks.  Jerel picked this dinosaur cake for Isaiah.  He did better this year and actually attempted to blow out the candles.  It was cute though because he wouldn't lean towards the candles, he just sat straight back in his chair and did little puffs of air from there.  Afterwards he licked all the frosting off of his cupcake and then asked for more--he gets that from his mom!

I'm enjoying him being two.  It was getting annoying at the grocery store when people would ask how old my kids were.  I'd have to say "6 months, and almost 2" and that made it obvious that they are practically the same age.  Now I can say "8 months and two" and that allows people to think Zay could be almost 3, and thus there is a reasonable age difference between the two of them.  Should I stop worrying about this?  Yes.  Will I?  Maybe.

After the cake we went outside to watch fireworks.  Isaiah was completely uninterested but luckily found something else to entertain him...Just before leaving for Utah, we put our house up for sale.  So for the entire month of June all Isaiah saw me do was clean house for Vickie (our realtor).  Anytime I picked something up he'd say "Vickie coming?" and he always wants to help.  So he found this broom out on the patio and got back to his usual game of cleaning up.  (In the background you can see the normal kids watching fireworks while Zayderella does all the work!)

I asked Zay to make a mad face and this is what I got.  He was trying really hard, and he has a really good mad face--his eyebrows go down so far you can hardly see his eyes glaring up at you--but he knew he was being funny so his little smile is creeping in.  I love the way his eyebrows are fighting to push his eyes down but his smiling cheeks are fighting to push them up!

And finally, here's our manly-man riding a pink bike.  When Isaiah was born, I had wanted a little girl so badly that I think Jerel was genuinely concerned I would put him in dresses and make him play with Barbies.  Luckily I don't believe in cross-dressing, and I definitely don't believe in letting children of any gender play with Barbies, so Zay has been able to grow up boyish after all.  (Unless you count the fact that after cupcakes, his shirt was so dirty that I grabbed one of his cousin's shirts for him to borrow.  He closest-in-size cousin happens to be a girl and when he came out everyone laughed at the ruffled shirt he was wearing.  I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but in defense of his masculinity I changed him into his boy cousin's t-shirt.  I'm happy to report that he doesn't seem to have any long-term damage stemming from this brief episode of cross-dressing.  Wait, didn't I just say I don't believe in cross dressing?  I don't.  But in a pinch you just do what you have to do.)  As it turns out Isaiah, of his own free will and choice, happens to like pink.  If I let him pick the color of something at a store he frequently picks pink and I say "For Eliza?"  "No, me."