The house is in disarray right now. Our plan was to clean today but I can't believe how hard it is to get anything done having a baby around. Tony tackled the kitchen this morning so at least that's done and I'm supposed to be cleaning the bathroom right now but since this is the first free time I've had in a week I'm taking a moment to do a little blogging. Which is weird because when I had the time I thought of blogging as kind of a chore. But now that I have no time I am enjoying this moment while Lane sleeps and Tony folds laundry and I'm free!

I was originally just going to email this photo to Shelly because I just got this outfit and I think she might think it's as cute as I do. However, it's a tad bit too small. It's size 3-6 months. Apparently the person who designs these clothes has very skinny babies because you might notice Lane is bustin out of it. I still love it though.

This photo is from Thanksgiving. We had lots of kids around. Travis sat down planning to enjoy his stuffing, but these two sniffed him out and threatened to upturn his bowl if he didn't share. He backed down.

I had planned on letting relatives watch the kid while I caught up on some sleep. Didn't happen, but it was still a lot of fun. Maybe Christmas will work out a little better.

I was considering writing my labor story but it just seems so whiny to me. Now that I've been through it I can't believe how mild everyone elses stories are. To me pregnancy, labor, and actually taking care of a baby are way harder than I ever imagined. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not very tough (which I'm not) or if everyone else is just superwoman. Luckily it's rewarding and I'm glad we did it now that it's all over with (except for the taking care of the baby part). Now I'm trying to figure out how to have another kid without having it hurt. So far I got nothin.

An introduction to Lane

Lane is now 2 1/2 weeks old. We're exhausted. Yesterday Lane weighed 9 lbs 10 oz and he's gained almost an inch in length. He's really good at growing. This is one of his favorite sleeping positions.

It still doesn't seem real that I'm a mom, but it's slowly sinking in.
His eyeballs like to move out of sync with each other.I love his cross eyed face.

This morning Tony and I named the sound that Lane makes all the time. It sounds like a cross between a goat and a dolphin, hence the term golphin grunt. Also, when he stretches he makes a face like a turtle. Sorry, I haven't caught that one on camera yet. Here's a video we took a few days ago. I wanted to make it a little shorter but I don't know how. Feel free to stop watching at any time. I won't be offended. But Lane may not be your friend

Lane

He came six days early. He weighed 8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches long.

Unemployed (by choice)

I quit working two weeks ago. Sometimes it's hard to stay busy, but I'm enjoying not having to drive so much and taking naps whenever I want to. We've pretty much got everything we need for the baby and now all that's left to do is put together the nursery. Because right now it looks a little....messy.

Yesterday instead of working on that mess, I spent a few hours at the mall doing some shopping for Tony. He needed "business casual" outfits for his trip to Texas coming up. So I wrote down all his measurements and went to work. It was a lot of fun. I spent a lot of money.

I was nervous he wouldn't like anything I picked out because he never does, but I discovered the trick is to pick out what he would like, not what I would like him to wear. Go figure. Anyways, he kept about half of it and I could not be more excited about that. I also discovered my dream job...personal shopper. Anyone need my services? I work for free.

And here's a picture of me being large. I've grown a bit since my 15 week photo. This is me at 30 weeks, which was about three weeks ago and I've grown even more since then. A comment I hear sometimes when I tell people how far along I am is, "I thought you were a lot farther along than that." I have a feeling he's going to be ginormous.

Resurfacing

It's been four months since our last post, but not much has happened since then. But here are a few things that happened...
We found out we are pregnant. This is me at 15 weeks.










We went to the Wildlife Safari with Karsten and Taegan.

The monkies were the coolest.

Tony graduated and got a job in Hillsboro working for Turner construction.

We found out we are having a boy.

We went on vacation to the coast with my family. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop Tony from riding the waves.

Then we packed up and moved to Beaverton.

And that's about it, at least a very condensed version of our recent lives. Now we live in a small duplex and we love it because it has a yard and garage. We bought a washer and dryer and now I love doing laundry because it's so much easier. Yesterday we bought a lawn mower and I loved watching Tony mow the lawn because it makes it feel like we live in a real home now. I had to take a picture.

Now that we're living in Beaverton I am commuting to Corvallis for my job about an hour and twenty minutes each way. I am struggling with how long to keep working. I feel good enough to keep working but the drive is making me want to quit. However, I hear that the last trimester can drag on without work to distract from the wait for labor to come. So I am not sure what to do. We also can't seem to come up with a name that we love. Any suggestions are welcome.

The things people say

So the other night I got up at about 3 am to use the bathroom and when I was climbing back into bed I heard Tony say with his eyes still closed:
"I could be."
Me: "Could be what?"
Tony: "A professional"
Me: "A professional what?"
Tony: "I don't know"
And that was all he said.
The next morning he said he was being questioned at his job as to whether he was truly a professional. Tony talks in his sleep a lot and because I'm awake a lot I get to hear many funny comments from him. Sometimes he just mumbles but quite often he speaks very clearly and uses hand gestures. I'm tempted to set up a camera to capture and share all the funny things he does. It's really too bad that I'm the only one that gets to hear all the bizarre things he says. Some of my favorites are "big ol' driveway" with the tips of his fingers pressed together and "Oh that's how you do it? Just pull out the knife like that?" I can't even imagine what that dream was about.

Another funny comment came from a random person yesterday. We stopped at 7/11 to pick up some snacks and when I turned around after picking out a large bottle of strawberry milk the woman standing behind me said, "Oh yeahhhh". Which made me laugh because I had a liter size bottle of strawberry milk and a bag of peach-o's in my hand and she realized what an awesome combination a snacks I had made. I guess my healthy food cravings are gone.

And on an unrelated note, yesterday I went to the dentist and they put some goopy stuff all over my teeth and said that I shouldn't eat anything hot or crunchy and I shouldn't brush my teeth until tomorrow. So I tried to eat a luke-warm corn dog when I got home and it tasted like I was dipping my corn dog in toothpaste. It was gross. So I brushed my teeth and enjoyed the rest of my meal. But for the rest of the night I was picking the stuff out of my teeth and eating what I couldn't' get out.

This made me think about how I never question what the dentist wants to do. If I had been given the option to put some gross goopy stuff on my teeth which is supposed to be really good for them, but it would make food taste bad and you will want to take it off as soon as you get home, I would have opted out. Even the hygienist thought it was dumb because when she was all done she said she would just brush her teeth as soon as she got home. Silly dentist people and silly me.

My final comment is that it is four in the morning and I cannot sleep and that is probably why I am rambling on so much. I have nothing else to do. I am not awake because I can't sleep but because I went to bed at 8 pm. So I have received a full 8 hours of sleep and I am up and wide awake before most of the world. This drives Tony crazy because he thinks we are still young and need to enjoy late nights. Hopefully I'll be able to break this habit to make Tony happy and hopefully if Tony is ever asked if he is a professional at his job his response is more professional than "I could be."

My Job

This month is my two year anniversary working at a dental lab. I tell a lot of people where I work and what I do, but I alway find it difficult to explain without showing it. So I took a few pics while at work this week. I had to use the camera on my phone and I did not get very clear photos, but you can kind of get the idea of what I do.

I build the crown on the model of the mouth out of wet porcelain.


I use a small paint brush to pick up the different shades of porcelain off of my tray shown here. However the difference in shades only show up after they have been baked. They are all pink and blue before that.

Then I put the crown in an oven and it comes out looking like a real tooth! I still thinks it's crazy that something that looks like it was made out of play dough can turn into this after ten minutes in an oven.


I really enjoy my job and it has taken a long time for me to get skilled enough where I would want to show it off. I still can't do veneers or antieror bridges, but maybe someday....