Weekly Quote 8/31/10

"It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw,
I've gone to look for America."

I recently learned where Saginaw is (Michigan), which is why this song was in my head (which is not a bad thing, because Simon and Garfunkel are pretty great). Is it bad that I never knew that before?

New quote up!

Dancing Queen Part 4: The Muppet

Remember The Dancing Queen? Well, she's at it again. (Uh, this is kind of a long video. And not terribly exciting for most of it. Though it does have The Beatles in the background, and who doesn't love The Beatles? The best part is "The Muppet," which is at about the 1 minute mark. Feel free to skip to that point.)

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Unfortunately, I couldn't record more because I was laughing too hard. In fact, I was crying. Would you like to see?

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And now, I'm old.

Oh hey, it's August. And so, I had a birthday! What fun! My parents came down for the occasion, which was delightful because it allowed Clark and I to go on a much needed date. It is embarrassing how long it had been. We didn't go out much when I was pregnant because I was too dang tired, and having a newborn is not conducive to slipping away for a few hours. I had honestly forgotten how rejuvenating it is to get out of the house with no kids. So a BIG thanks to Grammie and Opa for watching the kids while we went to the St George Art Museum.

Did you know St George had an art museum? I've read about it in the paper from time to time, but I never had a real desire to go. But I thought it would be the perfect date, seeing as we needed something relatively inexpensive, and relatively short (Ella requires food every 2 hours. On the DOT.) They had 3 exhibits, one featuring botanical drawings, one featuring photographs of the natural beauties of Southern Utah, and one featuring photographs of abandoned places. I liked the photography much better than the drawings of plants. And let me just take a moment to say that the red rock here is awe inspiring. Especially when you've got yellow leaves against it. And waterfalls. So, basically Zion in the fall is amazing. And September is nigh upon us. I'm just a little bit excited. Anyway, the museum was lovely, and I would say worth the $3 per person. Plus, then you get to feel cultured because you went to a museum on a date.

Also for my birthday we got to eat Cafe Rio, enjoy good company, and I had someone to sit with me while Clark played the organ in Stake Conference. It really was delightful. Oh, and I got some great presents, including a new hairdryer (mine broke like 6 months ago, and instead of buying a new one, I just gave up on doing my hair), The Importance of Being Earnest (a must see, really), a budget for some new clothes (as soon as I burn the rest of the baby fat [which isn't that much, we're doing good]), and this most awesome lampshade for our entryway chandelier:

I am in love with this. I've been wanting it for many months. And then I discovered that they are like $5 at IKEA, which is wonderful! But we don't have an IKEA. But my parents do! Yet another bonus of their birthday visit.

All in all, it was a great birthday. And now I've got less than year before I'm 30. Blergh. I've started a bucket list of things I want to do before that blessed event. They include: finish the Old Testament (We're in Zechariah. We'd better finish by next year.), read Anna Karenina (a book that I've been trying to read since I was 16), learn to play The William Tell Overture on the piano, make matching dresses for my girls, and actually use my passport. I'm mostly worried about that last one. Now would be the time to contribute to the "Get Shannon Out of the Country" fund.

Julia, 8/9/2010

I didn't want to make Julia jealous of Ella, so I took a video of just her the same day. So I'm posting it. Because I can.

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Ella, 4 Weeks

So, we're only a little behind on this one (Ella is now 7 weeks old) (good grief), but I thought I'd post it anyway. Because I can.

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"Ah, there you are Pooter. Still alive, I see."

Oh, this poor blog. It's been sadly neglected. When I have a spare moment, I find that I'd rather be eating or sleeping than blogging. (Especially the eating. I love nursing.) But you are in luck! I'm finally taking some pictures (and videos) off my camera and putting them on the computer. Which means, more posts will be forthcoming! And for now, let's have a picture dump, shall we?

Ah, the sisters. Julia really does love Ella. You might not think it when all she seems to do is cover Ella's face with a blanket or burp cloth, or roll her onto her stomach and leave her there, but she does. She is especially excited for the day when they can take a bath together. "We get to splash, Ella! And play with our toys!"

This picture proves that Julia still has creative energy, still loves Hello Kitty, and still enjoys wearing her wings from last Halloween. Albeit upside down. Speaking of Halloween, lately Julia has been asking me, "Do you know about Halloween?" To which I respond yes, I do know about it.

Ella does a lot of this. During the day, and at night. We put her down around 9, and then I usually get up at 1-2ish, and then again at 4-5ish. And she usually goes right back to sleep after she eats, which is great. Except for Saturday morning, when she stayed up for an hour and a half. But let's not think about that, let's just look at the happy baby sleeping and sigh contentedly.

Julia decided she wanted in on the swaddling action. So I obliged. It was fun. My goodness, she's getting big.

Weekly Quote 8/10/10

Weekly quote. HA! More like Monthly Quote.

"January! February! Tuesday!"

This quote is what Julia says when she attempts to recite the months of the year. I finally decided to update it because, well, it has been a long time, and this song has been in my head the past couple of days. So, new quote up!

Ella Goes to the Doctor

Ella had her "2 week" doctor's appointment yesterday, since the doctor was out of town last week. Here are the stats:

Weight: 8 lbs, 13.5 oz, 52%
Length: 21 3/4 in, 86%
Head Circumference: 14 1/4 in, 38%

It was nice for me to dump out all my concerns (is she eating enough? is this medication safe for me to take? does she poop enough?), and basically get the, "She's fine," on all of them. I thought I was a worrywort before I was a parent, good gracious, I'm practically destined for an ulcer now. Or a nervous breakdown. Or both.

I think having a little sister has done wonders to clear up Julia's fear of the doctor's office. I told her we were going there yesterday and she brightened right up, said, "They have fish there! And toys!" and ran to get her shoes on. Hopefully this stays true next time the appointment is for her.

In other Ella news, I think she has mostly figured out that night is for sleeping longer chunks of time (4-6 hours), and day is for eating every 2 hours. Which I am quite happy about. She loves to be held, and hates the carseat (we just pray she falls asleep fast when she's in it, which she usually does). She's not been a big fan of our walks, I think because she has to be in the carseat and it's hot, which keeps her awake. Her hair is pretty blonde, though sometimes I fool myself into thinking (hoping?) there is a hint of red to it. And other than that it's pretty much eat, sleep, cry, and (occasionally) poop.