My Baby Came Back

I understand that God knows more than I do and I also believe that He knows what is best. Despite my faith in His omnipotence, there are still some things I just don't understand. For example, why did He make it so painful for babies to grow new teeth? Ollie has had a rough time with every tooth. I can handle the runny nose and high fever, but there is nothing worse than a continually grouchy toddler. We have been fighting some new teeth on and off for about three weeks now. Just when I was ready to stop blaming the teeth and accept the fact that perhaps the terrible two's had settled upon us a few months early, those darn teeth finally popped through and Oliver snapped out of it.

It was like having a new toddler overnight. Literally. I remembered that I love being a mom and that my son is an absolute joy. It is like spring in the middle of January. To celebrate my baby's return, Oliver and I met up with some friends at the local gymnastics center. They have a huge room set up with gymnastics equipment for toddlers and children and have open play-time once a day. Oliver loved running, jumping and climbing and trying to do everything that the bigger kids were doing. It was great to find another fun and cheap winter activity.

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So, in case you weren't one to count up the weeks on your fingers, let me just tell you that I am only eight weeks pregnant. I had no intention of making an announcement so soon, however my burgeoning belly left me little choice. I can't believe how quickly my belly popped out this time. I had a pooch before I even realized I might be pregnant. Did anyone else experience this with their second?

I came to the conclusion, after my pregnancy with Oliver, that I am predisposed to prenatal obesity. Seriously, I get huge. I was probably only six months along when all of the bellyward comments I received changed from "what a cute bump" to "wow, you look ready to pop." I have been trying to mentally prepare myself to once again look like an elephant, but so soon? This is just ridiculous. To make matters worse I absolutely loathe all of my maternity clothes. The thought of breaking out that box leaves me sick with nausea. I never thought I could hate any clothes more than I hated the tattered and threadbare skirts and shirts I wore home from my mission, but I do. To make matters worse, I just can't aford to buy any new ones right now.

Luckily, I have found a solution to my belly bump battle. It is called a bella band. If you are pregnant or thinking about becoming so, this is a must have. It is just a strechy tube of fabric that you wear around your waist, over your unbuttened pre-pregnancy pants. The band holds them in place and even flattens out the bumps and wrinkles that come with leaving them unbuttoned. Now I can put off digging out my maternity clothes for at least a few more months. Yahoo. I'm not usually one to get so excited over something like this, but really, who wants to wear maternity clothes when they don't have to? Hopefully this post will save someone else out there from the horrors of the belly bulge.

It's a bird . . . it's a plane . . . it's a BABY!

Peay baby number two is on its way with an expected date of arrival on 09/09/09.

A Brief Reprieve

This week we have been enjoying temperatures in the 60-70's. It has been absolutely incredible and Ollie and I have been gobbling up every minute of outdoor weather before Denver remembers that it is January and the cold wind returns with a fury. All the nice weather has made us antsy to be outside all day long. Last night we decided to take a drive up Look-out mountain to Buffalo Bill's grave site and museum. The museum and gift shop were already closed, but the view of Golden (and Denver) was spectacular.

On the way home we stopped at Quiznos for some sandwiches. It was so funny to watch Ollie arrange his drink, chips and sandwich exactly the way his daddy did. My favorite was when he saw Sam wipe his face with a napkin, then crumple it up and throw it on the table. Of course Oliver insisted on doing the exact same thing and requested a new napkin after every bite. We went through a lot of napkins, but it was worth it to watch him and see his little personality. He surprises me everyday. I love it!

Where did Kramer hide the muffin bottoms?

Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode where Kramer has the ingenious idea to sell only muffin tops, because that is the only part that people like to eat anyway? The episode ends with him driving around Manhattan with a bus full of muffin bottoms desperately trying to find a way to dispose of them. Well, we are experiencing a similar dilemma around our house this week. Only on a much smaller scale. Our local grocery store had a sale on miniature snack crackers, i.e. oreos, nutter butters and ritz crackers with cheese. I stocked up thinking that Oliver would like them as snacks. It turned out I was right, sort-of. Ollie likes to pull them apart and will only eat the side with the cream or cheese, the other half gets discarded. I don't want to just throw them away so I am collecting baggies and baggies of "other-halves." I don't have enough to fill up a Manhattan bus so I suppose I will just have to dispose of them the same way that I get rid of all the other food that I don't want to eat - pack it in Sam's lunch. Sorry honey.

On a happier note, I am very excited to report that Oliver went to nursery by himself for the very first time today. He is not officially eighteen months until February, but we started "practicing" last week. Meaning, we took him in there and stayed with him the entire time. This week when we took him there he ran right in and couldn't have cared less if we were around or not, so we left. He is not old enough yet, but they already had his name up on the board and that was good enough for us. I was pretty fidgety by the end of church. Not becuase I was worried about Ollie, but because I haven't actually sat down consecutively for that amount of time in at least ten or eleven months. It will take some getting used to.

Oliver also went in for his shots and check-up this week. The doctor placed him once again in the 50th percentile for both his height and weight. Which greatly confuses me because he isn't average, he is much taller than the other kids his age. It makes me wonder if the way they rank them has anything to do with where they started from, i.e. their birth weight. If there is anyone out there who is more knowledgeable about this than I am I would love an explanation.

Sam took this picture of Ollie after Oliver swiped Sam's ice cream and then his sunglasses.

Purls are a girls best friend

I have recently been in search of a new creative outlet. Lets face it, some days building oddly shaped animals out of Duplo blocks and finding new ways to get Thomas the Train stuck underneath the couch just don't use up enough of my creative energy. I mentioned to my mom that I might enjoy some kind of craft project for a Christmas present. Her solution was a set of knitting needles and some yarn. I admit, the thought of knitting had never really crossed my mind but I figured I would give it a shot - seeing as she went to all the trouble and all.

Three weeks later, I just have to say I'm hooked. I believe I may have discovered the perfect mommy craft. Here's why:

1. It does not destroy my entire house, when I want to work on my knitting I get out my needles and yarn, that is it. No sewing machine, no paint, no sand paper, etc., etc.

2. Your mind does not have to be absolutely absorbed in what your hands are doing. I can knit, plan dinner and listen to a book on tape all at the same time. The multi-tasking possibilities are endless.

3. It is an easy stop and go craft, nothing is going to be hurt by my throwing down my knitting and chasing after Oliver as he scaled up the bookcase.

4. It is totally portable, easy to take along to the park or to play group.

5. It is a good stress reliever.

Best of all, I have discovered the joys of felting. If you are a beginner like me it is a great way to start out because absolutely none of your mistakes show up. Check out my first finished project:


Oliver is modeling the size of my tote bag while it is still on the needles.


Here it is after binding it off and shaping it into a tote bag. (The newspaper is for a size reference.)


And here is the bag after felting it, i.e. washing it the washing machine.


And here is the finished project after being shaped and dried. Pretty cool huh. After finishing I decided that I am really not a fan of the colors that I picked out. But I am pretty proud of the fact that it turned out looking like a bag. It is nice and stiff too and stands up all on its own. So, to all of you creatively deprived individuals out there, I have to say grab yourself a pair of needles and some yarn because purls really are a girls best friend!!

He's a big boy now

It always shocks me to see Oliver doing grown up things. I know that he is almost seventeen months old, but I still think of him as a baby. The other day at the breakfast table he proved to me once again that he is growing up (way too fast by the way). He sat down to breakfast with Sam and I and fed himself a bowl of cold cereal, quite adeptly I might add. He also refused to drink from a sippy cup and insisted that the cereal box be placed in front of him so that he could "read" it. The killer was when he finished his cereal and then lifted the bowl to his lips to drink all of the extra milk. Just like his daddy.

Growing up, my mom devised a dish-doing game to try and motivate us to do our dish jobs. The game was fittingly called catch-up-and-quit. The game entailed my mom scraping dishes while one of us kids loaded them into the dishwasher. The idea was that if we were able to catch up and load the dishes faster than mom could scrape them, she would finish both dish jobs and we were free to go. She let us win just often enough to keep the game motivational.

Wouldn't it be great if she were still around to finish off all the jobs that I don't want to do. Updating a much outdated blog for example. I guess that is just part of growing up, so here it goes. Sorry it is so long.



One of my goals this Christmas was to make a real gingerbread house (not the graham cracker imitation). My super-cool mother-in-law helped me out by making an extra batch of dough for me. We even got together to decorate them. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it until the holidays were long past and Oliver had attacked it several times. It was pretty cute at one time. Sam's step-dad even rigged up a light to make my sucker windows glow.


We spent Christmas (actually almost the entire month of December) at my parents home. It was wonderful. We did Christmas morning a day late to give my little sister time to fly home from Hawaii. One of the greatest things about Christmas day, in my opinion, is spending the entire day in your pajamas. Of course, the presents are nice too and Sam totally spoiled me this year. Oliver didn't make out so bad himself. Santa even knew to stuff his stocking with berries because they are his very favorite.


Here is Oliver with his new rocking horse.


Of course, the greatest gift came from Grandpa who bought Oliver a Thomas the Train set. He was ecstatic from the moment he opened it. There was nothing we could do get him to put down the train, he carried it around for days. He took his naps with it, it sat next to his plate while he ate, and we experienced a complete meltdown when we pried it out of his hands to give him a bath. I guess that means he liked it. Way to go grandpa.


We were lucky to make the drive across Wyoming when we did. As soon as we arrived in Utah the snow started to fall and it didn't let up for a good week. For Oliver that meant his very first sledding experience.


We didn't have any boots for him so we improvised with baggies.


We hooked a sled up to the four-wheeler, but Ollie preferred to be a driver rather than a passenger. He really didn't get into the whole snow thing until we taught him how to throw a snowball, something he just couldn't get enough of.


The biggest event of our Christmas vacation was my little brother's wedding. Donald and Caci got married on January 2nd at Millcreek Inn. It was beautiful and we are so happy to have Caci in the family, she fit in great. The picture above is my sister Whitney and I at the wedding. As you can see, we have similar taste in haircuts. However, since she lives in Hawaii and I live in Colorado we figured it wasn't too big of a deal.


Here we all are before the big "I do." Donald, Sarah, Whitney, Ashley and I. In case you couldn't tell, I am the oldest.

Oliver's favorite part of the wedding was the dessert bar, he almost finished off the fruit trays all by himself. Go Ollie!