Dancing Queen

I shot this awesome video yesterday. I was laughing so hard. Enjoy!

Weekly Quote 6/30/08

"Summertime and the living is easy. . ."

Wendy got it right - Porgy and Bess. Although, I'm not convinced that the Gershwins got it right - Summertime is NOT EASY LIVING for me. Well, on second thought, maybe it is, because I don't actually do anything because it's too dang hot. All errands must be run in the morning. If it's not done by noon, it doesn't happen. When I went for my walk this morning at 7am, it was noticeably hotter outside than in. But that's not the point of this post, so I'll stop whining.

New quote up!

Sleeping

This was right before I took that video. She's wrapped up all snug. Kind of looks like a straight jacket, if you ask me. So peaceful!

Waking Up

Here is the Video of the Week. Julia was just waking up when I turned on the camera. I just think it's cute when she stretches. Enjoy!

Good Eats

I'm really growing up.

Yesterday we had something very special for dinner. We modeled it after something my friend Holly made for us once. Here are the ingredients: chicken, pasta, zucchini, yellow summer squash, alfredo sauce (we used a packet because I like it better than jarred), bacon bits, parmesan cheese.

What on earth makes this special, you ask? It has zucchini and summer squash in it.

What's so special about that, you ask? I was EXCITED to eat the zucchini and summer squash.

Yes, that's right. I was thrilled about cooking and eating my veggies. It was just so tasty when Holly made it, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I kept meaning to get the recipe from her, and I kept forgetting. But then I decided that I could probably figure it out. I found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com, and I felt pretty confident we could make this meal. Oh, I wish you could all have been there for this conversation:

Clark: "What's for dinner?"

Shannon: "Oh, you remember that one time we went to the Charlesworths for dinner and had that squash, pasta, alfredo sauce stuff? That."

Clark: "Oh, did you get the recipe?"

Shannon: "No."

Clark: "You mean we don't have a recipe??"

Shannon: "No, I think we can figure it out."

It was a classic Clark face, full of shock that I was planning on cooking our dinner without any instructions.

In any event, we did figure it out, and it turned out pretty good. Next time we won't add quite as much pasta, and we'll probably add more chicken, but it was still good. And it made me realize how very easy it is to saute some zucchini, so I think I'll be doing that more often this summer. I KNOW, you'd think I was an adult or something.

And because everyone loves pictures of the baby:


Sitting up so big! (with a little [or maybe a lot] of help from mom)

Weekly Quote 6/23/08

"Muggin on your sister, smart as Bobby Fischer!" From the song "Extra Ordinary" by Better Than Ezra. New quote up!

Summer

Friday was the First Day of Summer. It was 106° here. On the first day of summer. No good. I'm going to go sit under the A/C vent now.

Video of the Week

I've discovered that I really suck at taking video. I'm all bouncy, and I sound like a complete idiot. Oh well. It's hard to get her to look at me and smile when I've got the camera right there, she gets very distracted. But she's still cute!

As far as "What Julia Does," she has been trying so hard to get her whole fist into her mouth this past week. We've been having "conversations" lately - she coos, I coo back, etc. And she loves it when I read to her, especially rhyming books. Oh, and the night before last, she slept from 10-7 - woo hoo! Last night was more like 9-5, which is still great, I'll take it! We really lucked out with this baby - she sleeps well, she eats well, and she's always so happy!

2 Months!

Yesterday Julia had her 2 month check-up. 2 months! I don't know how I feel - it feels like she's been here forever, but at the same time, I can't believe how much she's grown up already. It goes by so fast. Anyway, everyone is interested in the stats, so here are her percentiles: 81% for weight, 82% for length, and 64% for head circumference. Yes, we have a chubby little baby, and I love it! Clark and I aren't sure, but she might be the biggest Blockburger grandbaby. . . well, we know she's bigger than Lauren was, I guess we should ask Melissa. Hey, Melissa, were any of your kids that big? In any event, everything is great, normal, no ear infections. We can take her swimming but she shouldn't be in the sun very much, so basically, if she sticks with me, we'll be ok :). I even asked about torticollis, because I seem to know a lot of kids who've had that, and she does look to her left an awful lot. The doctor noticed that she likes to look to the left, but she said we're not to the point yet where there is a problem. Her head is round, and her neck isn't stiff. So I'm going to try and turn her head to the right more often, and give her interesting things to look at to her right side. All is well.

And then she had her immunizations. I was pretty nervous about how that would go, I've heard so many of my friends say they needed to bring their husbands in because it was so traumatic. The shots themselves weren't too bad. OK, lies, I felt really bad when they poked her, and she was NOT A HAPPY CAMPER, but she calmed down in only a few minutes, and I was able to go home with a peaceful baby. And then, once we'd been home for a few hours, we entered into what I call Major Meltdown Mode. Wow wow wow wow. It was AWFUL. She was screaming and screaming and screaming, and I could not for the life of me get her to calm down. Not even to eat! She loves eating! It's what she does best! Nope, she wouldn't even eat, she was so upset. I love how after the fact, quite a few people asked me if I'd given her Tylenol before going in. Yeah, obviously the thought never crossed my mind. And, in fact, we didn't even have any baby Tylenol in the house. How we managed to go through checklist after checklist of what we'll need for when the baby comes and never even thought to pick up some Tylenol, I'll never know. So, at one point I just put Julia down and went in the other room, because we were both crying, and I knew I was starting to lose it. Apparently she is the type of person who doesn't want attention when she's sick, because she somehow managed to calm herself down and fall asleep, although it did take a while. Clark picked up some Tylenol on his way home from work, and that helped oodles. I was exhausted, though. To all you people who have had colicky babies: I am so so so so SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for you! How have you not killed yourselves? I was dying after 1 afternoon, how could you do this for months? By far the worst experience in parenthood thus far.

Today I have my happy, smiling baby back. I have never been so happy to see her.

As a side note, we used the valet parking at the doctor's office (because the office is in the hospital, and the valet parking is FREE!). I thought it would be such a time saver, because you don't have to find a parking spot, and then haul the child and all her stuff into the building. And it does save you time when you arrive, which can be a major bonus if you are running slightly late and your doctor's office has a 10-minutes-late-you-reschedule policy. But after your appointment is over, you'd better not be in a rush. I got back out to find no one manning the valet station. And when he finally came out, he didn't see me (even though I was standing right in front of his booth), and was dinking around with a wheelchair for a while. When he finally did see me (only because I walked right up to him and said, "Um, I need my car, or at least the keys to my car, because I need to go"), he asked if I still had the ticket, so I started digging around in my diaper bag, at which point he says, "Well, it's ok, what's your last name?" So I stop looking in the diaper bag and tell him and he starts looking around in his key locker, and after a minute he looks up and says, "Did you find it yet?" Um, hello, you said we could just use my last name, what exactly were you doing in there? I know there aren't any other Blockburgers in there, amid all 5 sets of keys. But then I remembered where I'd put the ticket, so I pulled it out, and we got the right keys. So then he goes to get the car, which takes quite a while, but at least I don't have to trek across the parking lot in the hot sun with a baby, right? Oh wait! We live in St George! It's still sweltering hot in the shade! The shade that I've been standing in for 15 minutes because Mr. Valet is so slow! I was only slightly frustrated. In case you couldn't tell. But at least Julia wasn't in Major Meltdown Mode yet, now that would have been a nightmare.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SUZANNE yesterday. Sorry we didn't call. We're jerks. But hopefully you got something in the mail!

Sweet Papa Clark

Yesterday I kept thinking I should post something about Father's Day, but it just never happened. I was having too much fun spending time with my family (just the 3 of us)! My favorite part of yesterday was a conversation I overheard between Clark and Julia while I was in the kitchen: "Hey Julia, today is Father's Day. Let me explain to you what that means. It means that today you do whatever I want." Oh, that Clarky! Of course, what he wanted was to cuddle with her, how sweet is that? She had some less than willing moments, but he still got some cuddle time in. There is nothing like fathers and daughters. Thanks, Clark, for being an awesome dad!
(Sorry the first photo is a little fuzzy,it's hard to get a good shot between my dislike of the flash [Julia looks like some other kid in pictures taken with a flash], a wiggly baby, and a dad trying to keep the wiggly baby calm. I personally think we need a better camera, but I'm not sure Clark is convinced of that yet.)

Weekly Quote 6/16/08

"I want my two dollars!"

Ah, I love Better Off Dead. One of these days I'll need to purchase that movie, because it is so excellent. New quote up!

Julia 6/12/08

Here is another video for your enjoyment. You can hear Clark learned to play a new song on the guitar in the background. . . see if you can guess what it is! We've all been a little under the weather here the past week or so. I was hoping that Julia wouldn't catch it, but no such luck. I took her in to the doctor on Tuesday, and all is well. Just a little cold. But she is still a happy baby, even with a stuffed up nose! She has her 2 month appointment next week. I'm a little nervous about all the shots, but it's a necessary thing, so we'll tough it out.

Shaefer Weekend!

Carrie, Clint, and Lauren made the insanely long drive out here to visit Baby Julia this past weekend. We were so very glad that they made the trek out - it was wonderful to see them. As usual, I wish I had taken more pictures. But not as usual, I actually took some pictures! YES! I'm improving! Most of these pictures are from our visit to Zion National Park. It had been a while since Clark and I had been out there (due to being very pregnant, and then having a baby), so we were quite excited to get out hiking. We purchased a carrier last week (Infantino Front 2 Back Carrier) for the occasion, and I think it worked out pretty well. We're excited that this carrier holds a baby up to 32 lbs, and it can convert to a backpack. And Clark didn't complain about it being uncomfortable, so I guess it worked out.

On to the pictures:

Lauren and Carrie, waiting for the bus. Lauren loved the bus. Well, at least at the beginning she loved the bus.

Clark and Clint, checking out The Narrows. We did the Riverside Walk, and Lauren walked most of the way. What a good little hiker!
The Shaefer Family (in the dark [hey, I didn't say they were good pictures]).

Lauren by the river.

Julia on her first hiking adventure. It's amazing how many people thought we were so incredibly brave to bring our not-yet-2-month-old baby out hiking. But really, we're not brave, we're lucky. Julia is such a good baby, I can't say that enough. Oh, and notice that she is well clothed. I was too chicken to call the pediatrician and ask if you can use baby sunscreen on children less than 6 months old. I'll ask about it at her 2 month check-up.

Clark, gazing upon the river. I think he looks kind of mountain man-ish in this photo. Except for the baby strapped to his chest.

Some pretty flowers. I loved that these guys were everywhere, growing out of the sides of the canyon.

We also hiked up to Weeping Rock, and Lauren splashed in all the puddles. I guess a lot of other tourists were taking pictures of her, because she's so dang cute. It would appear that I didn't get a single shot. Oops. Oh, and we ate lunch on the grass in front of Zion Lodge.

And here are the 2 little girls. Yay for cousins!

Sunday we went on a tour of Clark's work, and then to the park next to the library, where Lauren had a blast playing in the fountain. Oh, and we had Frito Taco Salad, a Blockburger classic! We had such a great time with them, and can't wait to see them again in July - along with the rest of the Blockburger clan - in Colorado!

Weekly Quote 6/9/08

"They say when you marry in June you're a bride all your life."

7 Brides for 7 Brothers. Mostly I put it up because it's June. Ack! Where is the time going? But I will be SO GLAD when summer is over, so I guess I should be grateful to have time fly. New quote up!

Video of the Week

As it turns out, Julia loves to have her diaper changed! OK, that's not entirely true. She loves to be on her changing pad. Here's why:

Blind as a. . .

I went to the opthamologist this morning. As you may have noticed, I've been wearing my glasses since my pregnancy began. My contacts just haven't worked as well as they used to. But I hate my glasses. I feel like Pam in a recent episode of The Office:

Michael Scott: Pam. Those make you look so ugly. Uhh, Pam in order to get hotter you take the glasses off. You're moving in the wrong direction.

Pam Beasley: I don't have my contacts--

Michael Scott: Dah, dah, dah. I can't even hear you. It's just noise coming out of an ugly scientist.

Needless to say, I've been very much looking forward to the return of the contacts.

Here is my big problem with the eye doctor: I feel like a failure. They administer the one test that I will never be able to pass, no matter how hard I try. So I went in, and they put all the letters up on the wall, asked me to read the lowest row I could. Much to my embarrassment, I had to say, "I can't even read the top row." This is with my glasses on, folks. So he put some bigger ones up, and I could read the bottom row on that. The 20/40 row. It's so sad to know that my vision with correction is just barely good enough to pass the driving test. Does that make you nervous to have me on the road?

Then they did some more testing ("One or two? Two or three? Two or four?"), and decided that yes, I am quite near-sighted, and no, they can't get me any better than 20/40. Checked the pressure, all is well. Then doctor man came in (it was his assistant up until now) and shined (shone?) a lot of bright lights into my eyes. And then they did some laser thing to check out the inside of my eyes, I'd never done that before. And in the end doctor man decided that most likely the reason I can't wear my contacts is my eyes are dry, probably due to all the hormones. So he gave me some drops and sent me on my way. I've been wearing the contacts for a couple of hours now, and I think the left one is great, the drops helped a lot, but the right one still seems kind of fuzzy. I'll give it a few days, maybe it'll pan out by then. Heck, maybe it'll improve by this afternoon, when my eyes aren't dilated anymore. Good thing it's summer and I sit in my house with the blinds drawn all day. No, I'm not a vampire.

Frogs Galore

Yesterday was Frog Day for Julia! Not that there was a reason for it, I just felt like dressing her up in her frog stuff. Really, these pictures are for Whitney, who bought her the socks and the mittens. Eventually the socks fell off, and the mittens went flying across the room, so I was glad I took the picture early in the day. And check out those chunky legs - I love chubby babies!

Weekly Quote 6/2/08

"They're fluffity, they're puffity, 1-2-3-4-5."

That was Marshie - Capital M, then -arshie. Courtesy of Homestar Runner, www.homestarrunner.com. I'll admit, I haven't been there in quite a while, but that stuff always makes me laugh. New quote up!