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?

Easter

Southern Belle Rule #167 - Easter is always celebrated with a new dress.

 

My mom has been buying me Easter dresses since I was born. 

This year didn't change that.

She still got me a new dress to wear to church on Easter.

I was all excited about buying Baby a new dress, too.

I found such a cute one and was so excited to continue this tradition with my baby.

But then I forgot to grab it, before we left for my parents house.

I was so upset, but when we got to my parents' house,

my mom reminded me that she has years of my Easter dresses down in the basement.

I picked out Mollie's first Easter dress for her to wear.

I think it looks pretty, and Madeleine apparently thinks its the best thing ever to stick in her mouth.

She's been chewing on that lace all day.

 

We found this tradition on Pinterest, and we are excited for it.

"Easter tradition...your kids plant jelly beans, and when they wake up in the morning, lollipops have "grown" where the jelly beans were planted. Such a cute idea!"

 What traditions are you excited to share/shared with your kid?

Do you have any Easter traditions?

(Matt and I had a very long discussion about Easter traditions the other night.

We didn't really come up with any other than a new dress and egg hunting when they are older.)

Mugs and mercies

So once upon a time, I got married and moved into a scary new ward. It was a weird ward, where everyone was a couple. It was called the married student ward. I was not use to anything like this, and I was still getting used to my other half (we had only been married for 2 weeks at this point). Making friends was pretty difficult, because everyone already had a best friend...their one true love. Now if you learned anything from the Princess Bride, you know, that separating true love is a very difficult task.  They traveled in packs of two. Always together and happy, which is really great, just not so easy to make friends.

Married Ward in a nutshell

I was intimidated and worried I never find a friend. But then one day at church, I saw this girl. She was wearing mismatched socks even though she was wearing a very pretty dress. Hey I could be friends with her! It should have been easy from there...But I didn't say hi for awhile. I was scared to. Then one day, Matt got sick of me talking about how I could probably be friends with her, and how I wasn't expecting a bosom friend or anything, and made me commit to finding out her name. Ugh. I was terrified, but then I sat next to her at church. She was nice! She liked princesses! And Matt even thought her hubby was cool!!! Ding ding ding!! I went home found her on facebook, and even more importantly her blog. I found this blog post. It was everything I was thinking and feeling! After that I knew we would be good friends.

And we did. We bonded over cooking, chocolate, princesses, tea parties, fish heads, etc.

Then she moved away.

That was sad.

But never fear, we kept in touch. Mostly through our blogs. 

Yesterday though fate took action. I had a busy day full of being slightly sick with a sick offspring (so not very fun). I had a whole bunch of errands to run so I wasn't near my computer all day. Matt and I had a dinner date at 7, but I was so distracted buying stuff for baby's Easter basket that I was running late. I got home at 6 and noticed that Natashya wrote a new blog post. I looked at the time (it was now 6:50) and debated for a second, before deciding to read her post before leaving. (That isn't super normal for me, I hate being late.) It was about how she has been sick for a while. It made me sad reading it, because even though I had suspected something was up, I didn't like reading about my friend being sick. I kind of felt like moping a bit but I was late. So I grabbed baby and ran to the car and pulled out (it was like 7 sharp). When I pulled out of the parking garage. 

I stopped (you are supposed to but that wasn't the only reason that I stopped). 

There literally across the street was an Andy, and not just any Andy, but Natashya's husband Andy! He stared and me and I stared at him (I was still sick and tired. I knew there was a chance I was hallucinating)  before smiling. :) I parked my car diagonal across the street and said hi! We started talking quickly, before I remembered that I had something for her (oh and parking diagonal across a street isn't the smartest thing)! 

It had been sitting on my table for like 3 weeks. I read this post of hers about a sad day for flower mugs a long time ago, and since then I had been looking for a mug for her. And I found one not too long ago. Matt wasn't convinced I had the right address so he didn't want me to send it. (I didn't want to ask her for it again, because that ruins the surprise) But we needed it to go somewhere since we are moving in exactly 1 month. Andy seemed heaven sent. Not only could he take the mug that I so desperately wanted to give to her, but also seeing him made me feel better about her being sick and being so far away. It was a sweet tender mercy that God sent me in the middle of 3 really really crazy weeks. 

Little moments like that let me know that God loves me and that I matter to him. It was a great little message and reminder to have right before Easter. 

Southern Belles - Rule #91

Sissy wasn't really beautiful, but men never noticed. With her deep, green eyes, her shoulder-length auburn hair that swung when she moved, and the way she moved as if she enjoyed just being inside her body, men had always paid her lots of attention....[Sissy's] mother and grandmother had wanted her to grow up a gracious southern lady. Her grandmother just didn't want those men to grind her down. Sissy had added to it over the years, until the Southern Belle's Handbook became her personal credo. She it in her head, assigning numbers at random, but then Sissy always did had a random relationship with numbers.

That's the intro to one of many of my favorite Southern Belle books (after all, Southern belles are just modern day princesses). I started brushing up on the rules to get ready for our move (not to the South), but then I realized that Baby doesn't know them yet. So we are going to take a rule a day to focus on to teach her. (When I get the book of Fran Fine quotes, those will be mingled in here too.)

Southern Belle Secret #91 - Act helpless and confused when it's to your advantage; never let them know just how clever and capable you are.

I know this one sounds so condescending but it hands down fits today. And I know this one well. I was raised on it. My mother calls this the "dumb blonde act." One of my mom's best friends is really pretty and blonde, and people sometimes talk condescendingly to her. She, like a southern belle, does not let this mess up her day. She simply starts looking confused and helpless, while carefully putting together questions that make the person realize they are an being idiot. She sweetly helps guide themselves to realizing they are wrong, and in the process, gets her way.

It might sound degrading, but sometimes you really just run into those people who will not listen. They are so mean and prideful. They don't care if you have read up all week on the topic, or even if you have it in writing right in front of them. They are right and you are wrong in their eyes and nothing will change it. You gnash your teeth and glare, but you know that one way or another that you have to figure out how to have them see your way. That's when you pull out this card, and if you do it right, you'll get your way. It really is quite an art.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with insurance people today. They weren't listening, but in the end, by asking tons of questions and "acting" confused (I was actually confused...they were making no sense what-so-ever), I got my way. :)

 Baby is better at this one than me. She has it down pretty good. She knows how to look confused and helpless

so that her minions people around her will do whatever she wants them to do.

For any of my blogger friends, you should join us. It will be fun. :) 

3 months!

Madeleine is...

23.2 inches long

11lb and 14 oz

She's 3 whole months, which is a 1/4 of a year.

After all, 3 months is half of a half birthday,

which of course calls for celebration.

We celebrated with an Easter cupcake.

I ate it. 

After all, everything I eats turns into food for her, right? ;)

She still likes to sleep a lot.

She got her first ear infection this month.

Everything goes in her mouth now.

Fingers, Daddy's fingers, blankets, Jose her doll, paper.

It all gets chewed on. 

Her favorite is her fist.

She can sit up pretty well now with a little bit of help.

She also rolled from her tummy to her back 4 times last weekend,

but she hasn't done it since.

She got her first pair of shoes yesterday.

They have dinosaurs on them.

We really love them, but tying her shoes is really hard.

She only sits still when she's asleep.

The best part is, they are hand-me-downs from a sweet little boy.

He grew out of them...and he's 2 months younger than her!

She just has very dainty feet.

She still cuddles with us a lot.

And is in general a really happy little human.

We love her more and more every day.

All smiles here!

 This is the 1940s hat we got baby at the vintage flee markey. 

We think she looks like a baby version of the Greek God, Hermes.

Since Baby can sit up pretty well, Matt decided to put her up on his sholders.

They were having a swell time until Baby got so excited that she goo-ed all over him.

Baby in the process of gooing

All smiles here!

When we were getting discharged from the hospital, one of the other moms asked how we would know if our babies were okay. The nurse told us that babies make plenty of noises in their sleep. 

Madeleine is an especially squeaky one. Here is just 30 sec of her sleeping.
I'm not sure just how normal that is for a 11 week baby, but Matt and I really like this feature of hers.

Family Day Out

Matt was gone to Northwestern the last few days, but he changed his flight and came home at noon today. I had not been planning on him coming home that early, so we had an impromptu family day.

We fueled up at In 'n' Out, before heading over to our destination, Vintage White Flee Market up in Salt Lake. 

We were a little bummed that we had to pay for parking, but Madeleine got us out of paying for Matt. Matt asked the lady if he was just there as the official babysitter if he had to pay. She thought Madeleine was cute, and let him come in free. Yay for cute offspring!

Utah is kind of funny about deals. Some things are awesome prices, while other...are basically full price.

We found some awesome things though. We got a stool so I can actually reach stuff in the kitchen, a 1940s baby hat for Madeleine, and some children's books. I wanted to get her a frilly headband, but no one there sold any. There were some real jems though.

We visited a few friends in Salt Lake and on the way to Nina's bridal shower in Lehi, we stopped by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Matt and I hadn't been there since the day we got married. It was just as windy and beautiful as the day we got married. It was pretty neat thinking that a year and half ago we started off as newlyweds. I don't think we quite knew just how wonderful the next year and half would be.

 We spent the whole day together as a family, which honestly I don't think we have had enough of lately. Later this week we get to go to Boston. I might be just more than a little excited.