Collage of our week

The Nielsen household has been very busy.

We are moving to Logan in 8 days and Princeton in 2 months!!!

It's kind of crazy packing, because somethings we'll need in Logan, but a lot of it we won't need until we move to Princeton. Also, there is a long list of things we had/have to do before we move...like lots of doctor appointments, finals, graduating, dentist, getting my hair cut, packing etc., so hence the lack of blog post in the last week.

So instead, here is a collage stuff from the last week.

Highlight: As we (our friends Janelle and Josie came with us) were walking there, some runner asked what the baby contest was for.

We looked at her really confused.

She said there was a really long line of babies over there (right in front of this market)

I told her that I was pretty sure there was no baby contest, just a lot of Provo moms with nothing else to do.

This is from Sammy's. It is a cupcake milkshake. They grind up cupcakes and put them in!

These are like the perfect dessert for indecisive people. 

No longer do I have to choose between a cupcake or a milkshake!

I can just have both!

(Notice on the wall behind it, it says "Michelle 'Meesh'" 

I thought that was funny since my sister calls me "Meesh")

Madeleine thinks she's allergic to the sun. She pulled her burp cloth over her face to shield her from the evil sun.

Baby spent a lot of time exercising (aka tummy time) this week,

so I could pack. 

 And sleeping...

And when that got old, she talked to her new friend.

Matt and I finished off our first 50lb bag of bread flour too.

Which might now be her first food. 

(Does flour count as food?)

We also went to Baby Story time again at the library.

And stopped in for the first few minutes of Spanish story time,

so that she could play with the maracas.

Finally, I got my haircut on Friday by my friend Caitlyn at Relik Salon in American Fork.

Matt's asleep so I don't have a picture of it, 

but Baby looked pretty snazzy.

As you noticed, we found a solution to our sun problem. 

(And yes, the glasses have a clear glittery crown on top.)

When I got home, I realized my hair kind of resembled this celebrity.

I'll put a picture up soon! :)

A Post about a Happier Day

Today we didn't do anything exciting. I was glued to the internet waiting for updates about what happened in Boston. Poor baby was a bit confused why we stayed indoors all day, but when Matt came home, he took her on a walk. (We are trying to get her used to the sun.) So life returned to normal for our tiny human, but all the same, today was not good for blogging.

But we had few great days last week that definitively deserve a blog post.

One was last Thursday. To help Baby get on a "normal" sleep scheduled, the internet suggested taking her on a walk right after she woke up. That way she can see the sun and think "Hey! It's daytime!" (It seems to be working by the way.)

I had mentioned this advice to Matt the night before, but when we woke up, the sun was not out. It was really gloomy day and had rained the night before. We were still determined to take her out. So we grabbed a towel and headed over to Wyview, where I lived my freshman year at BYU.

Baby was still pretty sleepy-looking when we arrived.

First, Matt helped her up the rock thingies.

where we found a cryptic message at the top.

We then wrapped her all up in a towel before putting her down the slide.

But then Matt walked all over the slide...

So then I went down the slide with her.

Keeping her jeans clean>keeping my jeans clean apparently. 

Right before we left, we tried to take a family photo...

I think we need a bit more work on taking these.

It was a lot of fun family event and was a nostalgic place for me.

It was neat playing with my baby just days before I graduate at BYU at the same place where I played as a new Freshman at BYU.  

Pets n things

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled* as it came!

Michele and I were discussing possible pets that we might allow our children to own. (Personally, I wouldn't mind avoiding the whole pet thing altogether, we already have a pet named Madeleine, a person-pet. But after three and a half months, I guess the novelty's worn off.)

Michele really wants a dog. I don't. I like animals that stay in cages. I don't like animals that desecrate both hearth and home. Michele's parents have a very special dog named Jasper. He can only turn left. Michele's parents make a special effort to clean him every time we visit, otherwise Michele's eyes turn an angry red and she can't breathe. Jasper loves human food, especially cheese, but he has also has quite a tooth for products from Victoria's Secret (and used baby diapers... ughhh!) Michele finally found the perfect dog last spring in Tennessee, a cute little Yorkie... that ate our camera charger! Since Michele wants a beautiful home full of nice furniture and undevoured undergarments, that means no dogs.

When I was a kid, I had a hamster. Hamsters are great! They are fuzzy and adorable. You can spend egregious amounts of money on elaborate hamster tunnels and habitats and then watch the creature run to and fro. Who needs a McDonald's playplace? (Although hamsters seem to chew holes in the tunnels a lot faster than toddlers do.) Michele hates hamsters. They are rodents. They have itchy-scritchy toe-nails and an uncanny ability to find themselves under your shirt. And worst of all, their average lifespan is two years. Michele hates death. Personally, I think two years is about right. I was so excited to get a hamster when I was 10, but at age 13, I had already grown out of it and moved on to skateboarding and drums. My poor sister decided she wanted birds instead, and the darned things haunted her through middle school and the rest of high school. I think they're still alive now. She couldn't do homework in her room because any time the light was on, the birds tweeted like they were brokers on Wall Street. Pets dying is actually a blessing in disguise. Kids get what they want. Then when kids lose interest, the parents aren't stuck taking care of the darned things for the next twenty years.

So obviously, we have had some difficulty finding common ground. So far, we have only found two possible candidates:

1) Lizards

When Michele lived in Florida, the girl next door found a five-foot lizard and decided to keep it. Somehow, she coaxed the creature into the bathtub where she fed it and kept it moist. Unfortunately, she forgot to tell her mother who decided to take a shower. Later on, they managed to sell the lizard for around $600. Heck, if my kids can turn it into a business, I'll be pretty pleased!

2) Hedgehogs

Aw... c'mon!

Anyways, we have decided that the pet will be named Jabberwocky. Hopefully it is a Boy, since Jabberwocky is not a very good name for a Girl.

Speaking of the Jabberwocky, today we went to the BYU Bookstore (a horrid place that charges through the roof and preys on unsuspecting alumni and visitors) and bought something (you think we'd know better.) Actually, we only spent seven cents. I somehow wound up with a $10 BYU gift card. The bookstore also had a promotion: if you could recite a poem from memory, then you could get 30% off of a children's book. I memorized The Jabberwocky for the occasion, one of the greatest works of literature the world has ever seen. I'm pretty sure that it pokes fun mercilessly at Beowulf, but I could be wrong. Anyways, my recitation went fairly well. I think I forgot a few words, but since most of them are made up anyways, I didn't feel guilty inserting a few of my own. Anyways, we got the discount. Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! We chortled with joy! *(I'm not sure what "burbled" means, but I'm pretty sure baby does it, whatever it is.) Anyways, after eliminating Tuesday, Shark vs. Train, Pingo, and some book about a ballerina mouse, we ended of getting Tea Rex, a practical guide on etiquette when inviting large extinct reptiles to tea parties. Apparently it was released on April 9th, so we are pretty up-to-date on current literature.

Friday night we celebrated Jake's birthday. Jake is Michele's favorite brother who isn't currently serving a mission. Since it was his 18th birthday, naturally we took him bowling at Fat Cats. It was really fun! About halfway through, they dimmed the lights, turned on a bunch of crazy lasers and UV lamps, and blasted really loud music. And best of all....

Yep! That's right. Baby Madeleine weighs MORE than the bowling ball. Way to go, Madeleine!!!

Modern Nursery Rhymes

Matt asked me tonight to grab a book for him to read to Baby.

I had just gone to the library today and have a small stack of new books to read.

I grabbed him one of 3 nursery rhyme books for him. 

I had heard small creatures like things that rhyme,

and I had thought classic Mother goose was a good place to start.

Anyway, a few minutes after he started reading to her,

he called me back into our room.

"Do you know what these are?"

"uh...nursery rhymes?"

"They make no sense!

And half of them are just gruesome, and why are so many of them British??!"

(I just want to point out up to this point, we had no problems with British lit. in our household.)

After a few more minutes he just gave up reading to her.

(How can someone hate nursery rhymes??? 

Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, I can sort of understand...

But really?Nursery Rhymes?)

So onto google I went

to find better, more interesting, non-British rhymes

Here are some I found...

Jack and Jill went to town

To fetch some chips and sweeties

He can't keep his heart rate down

And now has diabetes 

HACKER BOY HACKER BOY 

 Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, where have you been?

 I sat in my bedroom and stared at a screen. 

Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, what did you see? 

I built a new virus upon my PC. 

Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, where is it now? 

It is shutting the lights off in Rome and Macao. 

Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, what did you do? 

I proved that I'm better than anyone knew. 

Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, why do you smile? 

My virus has wormed through a Pentagon file. 

Hacker-boy, hacker-boy, why are you sad? 

They've put me in prison for being so bad. 

Twinkle Twinkle L-E-D [This poem is about data centers]

Twinkle, Twinkle L-E-D, how I wonder what you be?

Up above, the access floors – under which your cabling lies.

When the sun is gone, the L-E-D shines on.

Flickering, flickering, flickering lights, twinkle, twinkle, all day and all night.

Mary had a little iPhone its case was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went, the iPhone was sure to go.
It followed her to school each day, which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play, when seeing the Angry Birds.
And so the teacher turned the iPhone off, but still it lingered near,
And waited patiently did Mary – for the class to clear.
“Why does Mary love her iPhone so?” the angry teacher cried;
“Because she’s a snobby little gen-Y” the classroom mockingly replied.

Maybe Matt will like those a little more...
If not here is a link that can tell him why the British ones are so gruesome.
Does any one else have problems with nursery rhymes or is this just a Matt thing?
And if you have anymore modern rhymes to add, let me know!

http://diaryofasoontobeyummymummy.blogspot.com/2013/01/alternative-nursery-rhymes.html

http://ninefold.com/blog/innovation/nursery-rhymes-for-kids-in-the-21st-century/

How I did not fail as a mom

Baby is not the worst sleeper, but she isn't the best either.

When she sleeps with us...we get 9 + hours. Easily. 

She cuddles right in between us so cutely with her loud baby snores.

Whenever she whimpers, one of us just has to put our arm around her.

And she's back happily snoring away.

When she sleeps in her crib...we get usually 7 hours of sleep.

The only problem is she won't get to bed until midnight.

A little late for a tiny, wee one.

I was letting it slide.

"She's tiny. It can't matter too much." 

At least, that's what I kept telling myself

But the more reading I did, the less rationalization I could muster.

  

Tonight though, we started her bedtime routine at 8.

We kissed her goodnight and said "I love you".

Right before I shut the door,

she gave me this big smile and coo, 

which made me feel like the worst mother ever. 

(btw, we tried this last night, and we both caved. She just looked to cute.)

I sat outside our bedroom door.

The whimpering started, and then a cry.

(I'm allergic to her cries. After about 2 minutes of her crying, I'm on the verge of crying too.)

I ran in, patted her on the back, and gave her baby dino.

Then waited again.

This time no sound came from her.

I thought I killed her.

Turns out though, she was just curled up next to her baby dino.

Sound asleep just two minutes after I checked on her.

I didn't fail her, and neither did her dino.

I'm doubting she'll sleep for the night.

But hey, at least she was asleep at 9. 

Southern Belle Rule #101 - A smart girl sleeps all her troubles away.

TRADITIONS!!! (for conference)

This year my goal was to start traditions. With tiny offspring now in existence, I figured we needed to actually start getting our traditions started. We tackled Valentine's Day and Easter, and this week we started a few conference traditions.

We started the weekend with Matt's mission reunion. Matt had been avoiding going since we got married, but since it was at his mission president's home, we decided to go.

After that, we dropped Baby off at my parents' home, so Matt and I could go on a date. We grabbed some food and talked about all the events coming up in our lives. On the drive home, we discussed what questions we wanted to ask God. According to our prophet, if you have questions in your heart, they will be answered during conference. It has worked so far for us, so I told Matt mine and he told me his, so we could help listen for possible answers for each other. 

Then we got home we googled "conference traditions". Matt and I needed some. While we are really good about having conference on for all 4 sessions, I think we have slept through at least half of conference since we've been dating.

So we picked out an easy but awesome breakfast.

eggs cooked in ham in a cupcake pan. 

so easy, but really yummy (even when the ham burns a little, apparently was Matt's favorite part)

We also had snack jars. Every time one of the words on the jar were said we got to eat on of whatever is in the jar. Matt's favorite was "sin/temptation" which are flaming hot cheetos. I thought it was even more appropriate since it makes our fingers "like scarlet". 

It worked like a gem. Matt and I stayed awake and alert the whole time. 

A small miracle after how much sleep I got last night.

(and we are totally going to have to pick less frequent words when our kid can eat solid foods)

And now in between conference sessions, we finally took our naps (as you can tell, tiny creature isn't so good at this tradition yet.) 

Do you have any conference tricks of staying awake? How about traditions? 

A Princess and her Dino

As you can tell the pacifier really works.

An interview with a princess!

And if you are wondering what we did after this? 

We danced to Abba.

Being a mom rocks.

Emo Rubber Ducky

Does anyone know how to fix a suicidal rubber ducky?

Every time we stick it in the water, it goes belly up.

We were hoping for a happier duck for baby's first bath companion.

I couldn't find a Southern belle rule to go with this...
but here is one anyways
Whatever happens, they always blame the girl
Sissy LeBlanc's Southern Belle Rule #6

I'm not sure who "they" are, but maybe "they" are the reason our duck is suicidal.

Taco Bell and Nutella Caramel

 

Matt and I walked by our Taco Bell on the way home from the grocery store.

I saw this poster and a myriad of questions popped into my mind.

First, is it really a collection if there are only 2 items in the collection?

"All two"? There is this great word in English - "both".

And lastly, how to do you collect tacos?

"Dude, look at my taco collection that I'm about to eat!"

(Matt says since they are from Taco Bell, they might actually be perfectly preserve.)

The above is my last cooking disaster. 

I made yummy yellow cake the other day 

and was planning on making nutella whipped cream to go on top.

I found a recipe and thought I was ready to go. 

I started making it, but quickly noticed that the frozen cream I used

was not going to work.

It was such a mess. 

It looked like cottage cheese in chocolate milk.

I showed Matt when he got home,

and since he is a guy and really hates things going to waste, 

he decided to fix it.

He heated it.

He add things to it.

And by the end of it...

we had nutella caramel.

We have no clue what to do with it.

So any ideas?