Nosedive

Right when I thought I had things all figured out....

...I landed myself in the ER with an I-V for dehydration and anti-barf drugs! Now that you know what this story is going to be about, I bet you're glad this is the only picture on this post.

STORY TIME:

Tuesday of last week, Jay and I drove up to visit my family. Based on the last time I was pregnant, I thought I still had a good 10 days till the real nausea/vomiting started up. So I had a doctor appointment all lined up for July 1st. Last time the "morning" sickness came on gradually, but last Friday, I suddenly found myself in 100% misery: puking or heaving 10+ times a day. Jeff kindly came to my parents' house to help me. Thank goodness for my husband! The plan was to call the doctor and get my appointment moved up to Monday.

Well, by Sunday I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since Thursday, and I was fading fast. Blech. The memory is disgusting. I had a priesthood blessing and then it was off to the ER. They stuck an I-V in my arm and gave me 2 bags of fluids plus some medicine. It all took about 3 hours. Now I have the magic anti-barf medicine and I'm slowly sort of recovering a little. My next dilemma: What should I eat now?

Blueberry

Guess what, people?? I have a little blueberry-sized baby in my tummy right now! I’m 7 weeks along, and the due date is February 6th, 2011! I wasn’t going to say anything for a few more weeks because then it would be  a pain to say bad news if anything went wrong. But yesterday, morning sickness kicked in, and I was desperate for some sympathy so I wrote on my Facebook status “I’m trying not to puke but just want to get it over with at the same time.” Can you believe that 4 people have already asked me if I’m prego yet just because of that? and I thought a generic nausea comment would go unnoticed. Oh well!  I’m one of those people that can’t really hide it very long anyways because I do get all barfy and pathetic forEVER. It’s a relief to just SAY it: I’m pregnant!

 
This is what my stomach already looks like, at only 7 weeks! AHH I’m going to get huge! Good ole babycenter.com claims that right now the little embryo is the size of a blueberry. I’d say it looks more like I’m harboring an apple or something!

If you’re interested in details, here’s THE STORY:
A few days before we moved, I randomly decided to take a pregnancy test. My reason is silly but valid: If I was pregnant, I wanted to find out BEFORE we moved in with my in-laws. At first I thought the test was negative, but then the faintest little second pink line seemed to appear:
Can you see it? I couldn’t trust my eyes, so I woke up Jeff and he said he saw it too!!  It still didn’t seem real, especially because the line was so faint. So, I went in to get an “official” proof of pregnancy (for insurance, etc.) the next day. The lady came out and said that the test was negative! I was kind of bummed and confused, (why would my cheap-o dollar store test show something and not the “official” test?) so I stopped and got myself a super-sensitive test on the way home.

When I walked in the door at home, Jeff was BEAMING. I thought, “oh great, now I have to tell him…” but he informed me jubilantly that the lady from the office called and said that after I left, she saw the test in better light, and it was positive after all! Whew!  That was an unnecessary emotional rollercoaster. So yes I’m pregnant. Jay will be about 21 months older than his sibling. How exciting!!!

 
We got Jay a booster seat last week. He seems so grown-up when he sits at the table without his high chair. I think he looks old enough to be a big brother!

Week

1. Happy Father’s Day!! I made Jeff a breakfasty dinner (fluffy biscuits and a thing called “Eggs Days Ahead”—just like last year). We’re both still full.
2. Jay loves having stairs to play on: he finally learned how to go down stairs yesterday, but he still has issues remembering to slither down backwards, but we’re getting there.
3. Jay loves climbing and whapping, and plucking the 2 dogs here, Zeke and Toby. Zeke hides from Jay, but Toby soaks up the love and attention. The only thing I don’t like about it is when I pick up Jay, he gets dog hair on me!
4. I miss Walla Walla/College Place! It’s only 90 minutes from here, but it feels farther!
5. Jeff should have his teaching certificate in the next week or so!! He has already applied to every school district within 20 miles of here. Bring on the jobs!
6. Jay got diaper rash and now my hands smell like Desitin.
7. Jeff’s parents have a small collection of Berenstein Bears books, and he loves reading them to Jay. He uses the goofiest voices for each character, and it cracks me up—I think I enjoy it more than Jay!
8. Speaking of reading, in the last week I have plowed straight through the first 3 Twilight books. There’s nothing like reading all about an insane head-case teenage girl’s heartaches to put things into perspective!

9. Jeff pooled his birthday and graduation gift $$ to buy his dream camera. It’s called a Pentax K-X and I think it’s #3 on his list of favorites…Jay and I are just barely above the camera on that list, probably because he needs subjects for his pictures…

 
10. It is really quite hard to baby-proof someone else’s house. Jeff’s parents are being good sports for all of the inconveniences posed by having Jay here.

And that’s more or less what’s been going around here at the White house this week!

We Moved!

It happened. Jeff finished his M.A.T. at Walla Walla University. Since he is no longer a student, we had to leave our student housing apartment. Needless to say, it has been quite the busy, exhausting week! I’m going to miss good ole Walla Walla.

We were planning to move on Saturday, but our borrowed pick-up truck plans fell through. So we decided to just get going. Over the past 2 weeks, I had been collecting a mountain of boxes from the produce section at Super 1 Foods so we were prepared (I’m good friends with the produce guys there now). Fresh Express Salad boxes are the best!

We took apart bookshelves, chairs, tables, stools, and any other non-square items and put everything in boxes so Jeff could load the tiny storage unit to maximum capacity (I still don’t know how he squeezed it all in there—it is only a 5’x7’ unit with a 10 foot ceiling). Helping Jeff with our couch just about killed me! I am NOT made for heavy lifting! Luckily Jeff did most of it, because as much as I like to gloat over my mom-muscles, they aren’t very useful for anything above 20 lbs!

To keep Jay out of the way while we were packing, I put him on the couch. He loves playing on the couch for some reason, so he was happy for nearly a whole hour up there! [see picture above]

We rented a small U-Haul truck so we could bring our bed, Jay’s crib, our sweet purple desk, and a few other things with us.  Now we’re in Grandview, WA staying with Jeff’s parents until that glorious (hopefully soon) day when Jeff finds a REAL job!!! I am very grateful to have a place to stay during this icky time of transition, but I will still be very glad to have my own little place again sometime soon! 

If you survived that long monolog, you deserve something sweet:

 
Toss the baby! GramaDear (Jeff’s mom wants Jay to call her that…but we’re still working on Mama, so it may be a while…) got a family swim pass for the summer! So we all went swimming last night. It was Jay’s first time in a pool, and he loved it! The water was cool and refreshing. I realized I hadn’t even been in swimming pool in 2 years!!

Jay liked kicking and hitting the water, too

 
Jay got cold and his chin started shaking, so Grampa helped him warm up. Swimming is hard work. Tired cheeks!

I’m going to miss these kids

Today was our last Sunday here in the wonderful Walla Walla Second Ward, and my last day teaching my dear Primary class of 7 yr olds. They are an energetic, enthusiastic, loving bunch. I love them. They love me. Since 4 of them all want to sit on my lap during singing/sharing time in Primary, I started doing 10 minute rotations so they could each have a turn.…I think I might sometimes be more fun than what’s going on up front…not sure that’s the best example…

When Jeff and Jay came in to take our class picture today, it was Jay’s first visit to my class. He was a tad overwhelmed (it was nap time).

Some of my favorite quotes from my class:

“I’m getting my muscles out” --Brennan, while rolling up his sleeves

“Teacher, he stuck his TONGUE out at me!” –Crystal

“Teacher! Teacher! Guess what!!!!  …..umm I forgot.” –Addison

“Please help Sister White and Jay and Brother White to drive safely when they move.” –Brennan, while saying the closing prayer today. I almost cried. Why are we leaving again?

Our Recent Discoveries:

Jay can climb onto this box by the window! He is also pretty good at falling off of it.

This dresser was just sitting out by the dumpster, so we snagged it! Of course, right when we are about to put all of our stuff in a teeny tiny storage unit for the summer, we decide to start a furniture collection…

Isn’t this desk SWEET?? I was out running one day and I saw this partially purple pupitre on the curb about 8 blocks from our home. I stopped to examine its structural integrity, and then went home for Jeff. It didn’t exactly fit in the trunk of our Honda Civic, so Jeff wedged a corner of the desk into the trunk and then trotted behind the car carrying the other corner while I drove very slowly home. Yep, we’re crazy scavengers. Who now own a purple desk. [para los non-españoles, pupitre=desk in Spanish]

And now on to the not-exactly-free stuff: We got a new laptop a while ago (mine is ancient) so Jeff could take it to school. It’s a tiny little netbook and it’s a good one! And yes, after 3 1/2 years without a cell phone, we finally got one of those too, since we won’t have a permanent residence this summer. We got a sweet T-mobile no-contract plan with unlimited anytime minutes! And that last little black speck up there is the newest electronic addition: an MP3 player! We only have CDs but no way to play them, so we figured a refurbished MP3 player was a good idea. Jeff used his birthday $$ for it! It’s no iPod, but it was about $150 cheaper than those guys.

It is insane how far laptops have come since I got mine back in 2004!

Jeff woke up on June 1st and discovered that he had turned 28 over night. Happy Birthday, husband! This is what the birthday dinner looked like: he requested homemade pizza, as usual. We had mushroom herb white pizza and bacon apple pizza, our own tasty invention. I made him a birthday treasure hunt leading to his present (a nice, big messenger bag). The clues were all lines from Disney songs. My favorite was: “Think of instead, a girl worth fighting for” –answer: Shaina’s back pocket. hee hee hee

You’ve heard me say how perfect the weather always is here in Walla Walla. Maybe that’s why we’ve had SO much rain lately! We discovered that Jay really hates rain. He’s only ever seen it a few times in his whole life, I guess. Plus he loves going outside. He spent TONS of time at the window whimpering on all of the many rainy days we have had recently.

Why do pictures of my child in distress make me laugh so much??

Jay still knows where his “bee-bo” is, and he likes to show it off. He can usually find his toes for us too, and we’ve been working on “head.” (I think that one is harder because he can’t see it).

I love the small glimpses we get out our front window of the glorious sunsets here. Alas, the sun is setting on our time here in Walla Walla. Jeff officially graduates on Sunday June 13th, but he elected to “graduate in absentee” or whatever it’s called, so we can move on Saturday the 12th. We are putting our STUFF in storage like I said, and we will stay with Jeff’s parents in Grandview for the summer during Jeff’s joyful job hunting. If no full time job pans out, then we plan to find some place around Grandview to rent and Jeff will substitute teach and work part-time. We’re hoping and praying that soon we can add “Jeff’s New Job” to this list of Our Recent Discoveries!

Blanket Boy

 
In the past few weeks, Jay has really started loving his blankets. He usually sleeps with these two, but he prefers to sleep on TOP of them with the blankets all scrunched up underneath his chest. He also likes to bite his blankets. Thankfully he doesn’t seem to be too particular about which blanket he sleeps with!

 
Jeff finished up his student teaching this week! YAY! Now he’s home all day again, and now every day feels like Saturday! Jay loves riding on Daddy’s shoulders to go get the mail.

 
Jay also likes couch climbing

 
Playing in the fort Daddy made for him

Bare Bum

Nearly two hours after Jay went to bed the other night, Jeff went in to his room and discovered that Jay had removed his diaper!! I would have taken a picture of him sleeping with his bum bare, but when I saw his little bare booty just laying there, I burst into laughter, and of course that woke him up. He picked up his discarded diaper and started waving it triumphantly. From now on I think I’ll put pants on this boy before bed!

 
…and no, amazingly, he did not pee anywhere!

Battle Wounds

Today was Jay’s 12 month doctor visit. Babystats: Jay weighs 20.1 lbs, and he’s 30 inches tall. He’s in the 60th percentile for height and the 13th percentile for weight. Long and lean! He’s STILL in size 2 Huggies. Jay was kind of suspicious of the doctor—when he started poking him and looking in his ears, he actually hugged me and laid his head on my shoulder. He hardly ever does that. It made me think: at least he still loves me, even though I brought him to this awful place full of needles! Poor Jay got 3 shots plus they drew some blood. Booooo hoooo!!! I hate being the one who holds him down when they stab him! But it’s better than having him get those awful sicknesses. It makes me feel old (and hard core) when I notice that the chicken pox vaccine is now standard fare for kids. I HAD the chicken pox when I was little!

 
The bandaged boy. It’s hard to see the 4th one—it’s the tan band below his elbow.

 
Jay was very happy to come home, take a nap, and get back to playing with his sweet new wheeled contraption that Grandparents White gave him for his birthday. Turning one definitely has its ups and downs!

 
See, I told you he still loves me….

 
….for some reason!

Happy Birthday, Jay!

 
Friday, May 21st: Jay turned ONE YEAR OLD!!! First thing in the morning, we let him open his present from us. Yes, I wrapped it in Christmas paper. Jay loves his new ABC blocks!

Special things we did: played with blocks, read new stories from Grama Meri, made cupcakes, and had Grama and Grampa White over for the birthday dinner! They brought a cooooool walk and ride toy for Jay. He has already figured out how to push it all around the apartment.

The birthday dinner I just know Jay would have chosen if he could talk: macaroni and cheese (homemade of course), watermelon, and raw broccoli. Jay adores watermelon. He takes huge bites and the red juice gushes down his chest into his diaper.

 
mmmmmmmmMacNCheeeeeeeeeeese. It turned out quite scrumptiously, if I must say so myself. Notice the 2 sippy cups? Jay seems pretty particular about his beverage, and I never know whether he’ll crave milk or water, so I usually have one of each nearby.

 
cheesy watermelon macaroni face!

Picture of the day: believe it or not, that’s only ONE cupcake. I’m kind of sad that we didn’t get a picture of Jay before the candle was blown out. It’s just on video. Oh well! It’s a cute video (too long to post though). I didn’t let Jay touch the candle. He looked so self-conscious when we were all singing Happy Birthday to him!

I made Jay a birthday hat! He hated it, and the rubber band fell off, and it took us a million tries to get this picture before Jay crumpled the hat. So much for my vision of a perfect birthday picture of a smiling boy wearing a birthday hat with a cupcake and lit candle in front of him. Yet another Shaina-ideal trampled! oh well!

My sweet little 20 pound chocolate string bean! He looks so long in this picture. Can you see the watermelon juice soaking the top of his diaper? Jay’s bath was cloudy with cupcake crumb-silt. It was intense.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAY! WE LOVE OUR BOY!

Sometimes I amaze myself…

The best way to stay sane when you have a job-hunting-transitional-uncertainty is to stay busy and learn new things!

What I’m working on:

• Juggling—I wonder if I’m ready to move up to 4 bean bags?
• Sewing—I am working on a dress… the only things left to do are the zipper, the buttons, and the hem, but they seem rather daunting so I’ve been putting it off. When I finish the dress, it may take some courage to post a picture of it because it’s pretty frumpy and I doubt I’ll ever wear it except maybe on Halloween!
• French—The French workbook I ordered just came in the mail, so I’ll be starting ce jour
• Bread—I make all of our bread, buns, rolls, tortillas, etc.
• Cooking—I try to attempt at least one new recipe per week. So far, my favorite sources of inspiration are: www.allrecipes.com and http://simplysogood.blogspot.com
• Running—That road race I ran 2 weeks ago somehow tempted me into training for a sub-20 minute 5k. Jeff helped me plan out a training regime for the summer so I can make an attempt at that elusive time on Labor Day. (running a legitimate sub 20 minute 5k is one of my life goals) We’ll see how it goes!
• Music—I decided to pick up my dear ole violin a few months ago. Boy am I rusty! I’ve been practicing 4-5 days a week and it is slo-o-owly coming back to me. I play fun fiddle tunes, hymns, and I’m also working on a Handel Sonata (it’s tricky!) Thankfully Jay is not opposed to my playing, even if he does hate blenders and other unpleasant sounds. Maybe that means I don’t sound quite so bad? I’m too scared to ask our neighbors what they think, though, and I always practice when Jeff is NOT home.
• Pedestrian—Jay and I enjoy walking around here because of the gorgeous weather. I do 80% of my errands on foot. It’s great!
• Housekeeping—I only pick up Jay’s toys after he goes to bed each night (what’s the point of doing it over and over?). But I am getting pretty disciplined about keeping the dishes washed (some day we will have a dishwasher…or some day Jay will be big enough to do it…). Having a clean kitchen really reduces my stress SO MUCH!
• Memorizing—Although I’ve slacked off lately, I have a goal to memorize all of my favorite scriptures. I have a little Book of Mormon that I ONLY highlight scriptures that I’ve memorized. It’s a good spiritual and brain exercise.
• Reading—We may not have access to a library (stupid city limits—don’t get me started), but I still enjoy good books! I borrow them when I can or mooch off of other peoples’ library cards. My latest joy is Anne of Green Gables, as you know. I’m on book#2 now.
• Netflix—We love our $10/month Netflix subscription!! Lately, we have been watching the Star Trek Next Generation seasons 1 DVD at a time. A classic. Sorry, Captain Kirk.
• Mommying-And of course, I play with my cute little boy all the time too! (ummm...he's at my knee crying right now...)

So there you have it! I usually post about Jay or specific events, so I thought I’d change it up and do a 100% self-centered post. I love my life. It's good. Don’t you feel like you know me so much better now?

bee bo!

"This tiny hippopotamus has something small to say, and if we're very quite now, she'll say it right away.
“Listen!
“bee bo!
“You might not know what bee bo means, or maybe you've forgotten, it's just the tiny hippo way of saying BELLY BUTTON!" [from Sandra Boynton's Belly Button Book]

Jay got this awesome book for Christmas, and since we have no library access and we own a limited number of baby board books, I have read this to him plenty of times. Every time it says “belly button” or “bee bo,” I usually poke his cute little tummy. Yesterday I randomly asked him where his belly button was, and HE KNEW!

Proof:

How is it that Jay can walk and find his belly button but still doesn’t identify his own PARENTS? I am still waiting for a “Mama!”