Baby Friday - look at what I can do

We are close to the end of our ear infection fight and almost finished with the antibiotics that have messy, squishy, yet odorless side effects. The teeth have all broken through and the 4th molar seems to have made a slight appearance as well. This week, Elliott has added the sound of snake to his growing animal sound menagerie as well as a super cheesy smile whenever he really likes something. I even got him to walk holding only one of my fingers yesterday from the mailbox to the house! Yes!!

Most importantly however, he's learned to get off of the super tall squishy bed. It's taken him a bit of practice and boy oh boy does he get some momentum going on the way down, but he can get himself off the bed all on his lonesome.

However, he still needs to be caught because the landing is a little rough.

Being Unforgettable

I've been in a rut. An emotional, physical, mental, creative rut. I get this way sometimes and rather than try and fix the rut, I just get a little bit mean and a tad bit nasty and become rather unpleasant all together. And, It's come to my realization lately...well tonight, right now, that I've been in the rut because there is a little too much "I" - meaning me, in my life right now. I, I, I....it seems that the little world that consumes my existence is all about me. I'm mad, I'm bugged...yada, yada, yada.

This isn't what I want. Though work is the #1 item on the evening's agenda right now(waiting for a download so there's time to kill), it was a tad bit more important to seek out a bit of inspiration so a website hopping I went and came across this. I found a great article on Real Simples website titled, How to Make Yourself Unforgettable. The article is good. The author writes about her dad and how he was so unforgettable. I want to be like that. There is no I in team, right?

Dad’s 4 Steps to Being Unforgettable — and “Heavy” (not my dad, the author of the articles dad - but my dad might think these things to be true as well.)

1. Make it fun: Walk into any room or meeting or onto any stage with energy and optimism. Anticipate a positive response.

2. Remember — it’s not about you. Shift your attention from yourself to your audience. Don’t ask yourself, Do they like me? How do I look? but rather, What do they need? What can I give them?

3. Love your audience — however big or small — and they’ll love you right back. Let them know you’ll do absolutely anything to get your message across, to give them exactly what they need.

4. Show them your passion. Charisma is passion demonstrated. Don’t hold back. People need to feel your conviction, then they’ll believe in you.

So, I'm going to try. Better listener? That's me! What does the audience need? I'm all over it.

Please, help me stick to it. Living in mopey self absorbed land just isn't that much fun.

13 months

Well kiddo, you've managed to survive your first month of being a one year old and it sure didn't come easily. Three ear infections, two colds, three molars, 2 tumbles down the stairs, and a bloody lip later, you made it. This past week has been a tough one for the both of us (both ears infected and three teeth), but we luckily and gratefully made it through. As you slept peacefully in the back seat of the car while I just drove around aimlessly, the lack of look in your face said it all. The two of us were just plum tuckered out.

As with every other month of your life, it's been full of achievements and amazing feats of soon to be "toddler-ness".

• You tried learning to go down the stairs, but you were completely unsuccessful. No bother though, throwing everything in the house down the stairs is just as fun and a little bit safer than hurdling yourself down the stairs. Besides, throwing yourself off the bed doesn't hurt as much - you haven't as far to fall.
  
• You are starting to talk a little bit more and are learning some animal sounds. You can do a fish, a puppy, a sheep and an elephant. Yes, your elephant is silent, but you sure do a mean trunk impression.
• You can take your shoes and socks off, turn the bathtub water on, flush the toilet and unwind an entire role of toilet paper.

You have taken a keen interest in feeding yourself with utensils in the last little bit. Sometimes you are pretty successful and sometimes you just paint the kitchen with yogurt. Either way, it's more proof that you are my kid because you can't stand to be dirty and want your hands washed immediately.




We are starting to have fun together, you and I. You laugh when I tickle you in just the right spot, you have conversations with me even though I don't know what you are saying and just this week, when you give me hugs, you've started patting me on the back. Oh, it just melts my heart every time.

You like to drink coke from a straw and I've finally broken down and put Hershey's syrup on your ice cream when we have special afternoon treats. Oh how you love chocolate and sweets. You are a junk food kid...it must be genetic.



Lucky for me though, you share and are so good at sharing your food with me. Even if it was in your mouth first.

I can't wait for you to walk, because carrying you and the key to the mailbox every day and everywhere else is getting a bit tiresome. Come on kid - use those legs! You, my son, are getting braver by the day and one day you'll walk, and I will probably cry because I will be so happy and sad at the same time. Happy to see you moving on and knowing that I don't have to lug your almost 27 pounds around and sad for the same reason.

Yes my son, you are growing up and growing up fast. Next thing I know I'll turn around and rather than seeing you peering from the kitchen stool, I'll be looking up towards the heaven's just to see your eyes at the top of your 7 foot frame.

Organization, please

Ross and I try hard to be clean and neat and tidy. The main level of our home, except for the kitchen table is generally clean, vacuumed, and orderly. Our office is a disaster with a mind of it's own, but the rest of the house seems to do okay.

I've been meaning for some time to work on our closet. It was a disaster, see.

Clothes every where, shoes everywhere, overflowing hampers galore! It was time for a change. Do you ever get a bit clostrophobic when things like this are out of order? I do. There was only one thing to do in a situation like this - head to IKEA.

I had a little drawing and a vision of how to clean up the closet and yesterday was the perfect day to tackle this project because Ross had the day off and was willing to paint. You see, that was another problem - we had primed the closet but never really painted it properly.

By the end of a long day (projects, messes, teething grumpy snotty baby, etc.) we got things back in order and have a finished product that looks like this:

I am so proud. We have matching hampers, organized and color coded clothes and shoes, and room to spare. It was easily determined last night that Ross has WAY more clothes than me and he was a brave, big boy and finally parted ways with some items I have never seen him wear in the 6 years we've been hanging out.

This feeling of "clean house" is infectious. I wonder what room I'll hit up next? Maybe, I can come to your house and throw some of your junk away?

Nostalgia

I've been attending University of Utah Runnin' Ute basketball games since I was a baby. That's 29 years of basketball. 29 years of living and dying by the Utes. I don't think that my sister and I really ever paid much attention to the games for a really long time, but now, looking back, I've had more fun at the Huntsman Center than I've had in most other places. I remember when my grandparents and great grandparents had season tickets with us and we'd go visit them in the lower bowl at half time. I remember keeping score and doing my own stats to keep my attention and waiting to see if my score and stats matched up to the real score at the end of the game.

Yesterday at the Utah game, the all century team was honored. It was awesome to see all the old time players and guys that I grew up watching in once place. There were over 100 Utah players in attendance and some of my personal favorites like Josh Grant, Walter Watts, Brandon Sluga, Keith Van Horn, Andrew Bogut and Michael Doleac.
Oh, Dork-attack, how I still have a soft spot in my heart for you. Remember those times I intentionally parked at the Huntsman Center every morning even though none of my classes were any where near the Huntsman Center hoping, just hoping that I might see you (I did quite a bit), bump into you, and have you ask me to marry you? Oh yeah, you didn't know about that. It's okay. I'm happy now and I hope you are too.

The air in the arena yesterday was reminiscent of years when the Utes were awesome, I lost my voice at ball games and the fans came out in throngs. It was a great day.

Go Utes!