No Need to Stress

We took a quick trip with Josh's brother Jared, and his wife Amy this weekend to Texas. As many of you know, I am a pretty high-stress person, and that only intensifies when it comes to Meili. So as the trip got closer and closer I found more and more reasons to stress.

1) The flight: I was so worried about how Meili would handle the air pressure change, being held for like 5 hours straight, and the fact that it was interrupting her nap schedule. Plus, I've heard horror stories about children on flights and I didn't want everyone to hate us. The result: We took lots of snacks, treats, and toys, and it wasn't a problem at all. Plus, she ended up sleeping about the half the time. (And I think she loved taking naps in her daddy's arms, so she was fine.)

2) Sleeping at night: Meili has always been so good about sleeping through the night, but I didn't know how she would do sleeping in a strange place, and with other people getting up at night or moving around, etc. etc. Plus, I didn't want her to keep everyone else up if she did end up crying herself to sleep, or coughing at night. The result: She was awesome. As soon as the lights were out, she found a comfortable spot, and zonked out. She never really woke up crying, and she didn't cough at all at night-the first time in weeks! She slept on an air mattress with either Josh or I and I think that was actually pretty fun for her, because she never sleeps with us.

3) Naps: I have worked 10 long months to get her naps to where they are now, and she is a different child when she hasn't had her naps. The result: We ended up driving and flying at pretty much the perfect times, so she stayed on almost her same napping routine.

4) Driving: We had to drive for about 4 hours and we've never gone that long with her. In case you don't know, Meili is pretty active and likes to just crawl around and get in to things. The result: We broke the drive up, and she still did awesome. She slept for about 2 hours, and we kept her entertained for about an hour.

5) The ball games: We went to 3 ball games in 3 days, which means lots of loud noise, being held yet again, and messing up her nap routine again. The result: Meili was totally fine. She even took a little bit of a nap in each game (even in a stadium with 100,000 people) There are only a few people that I know that could do that! And she learned how to clap! Yea!

Moral of the story: Meili is awesome and I never should have doubted!! (And Josh was SO helpful-which I also shouldn't have doubted!)

Here's Meili on her first flight. We flew out on Saturday morning.

We quickly stopped in Dallas at the JFK memorial.

Pretty much where my head is, is the mark on the street where JFK was shot.

I don't know why or how this tradition started, but people were taking turns taking their picture on the X-which is where JFK was fatally wounded.

The grassy knoll, where they suspect another shooter was hiding. This was just a short detour on our trip, but I thought it was very interesting, and there were a lot of well-deserved memorials for such a loved president.

We went to a Texas Rangers baseball game on Saturday afternoon. The sad part is that when we originally planned the trip, the game was scheduled for 7:00. Well, they changed the time, and we had no idea. So when we stopped to get lunch, the game-that we were supposed to go to was currently being played. So we were only able to go to a couple innings. I think Meili was fine with that. :)

It was still a beautiful stadium though- and it's a good thing that the Rangers won. We didn't have such good luck the rest of the trip :(

The Dallas Cowboys stadium is across the street. So we got this shot when it wasn't busy.

Our family, outside home plate.

The next day, we went to a Houston Astros game. Jared lived in Houston for a year, and that's his team. Sadly, they are the worst team in the league right now. But that meant we were able to get really good seats, pretty cheap, and the game wasn't crowded at all.

The final score of the game... 19-3. Ah, nuts!

I thought this was a cute picture. (If you notice the bruise on her face...First daycare battle wound. Ugh! I was mad!)

See...proof of how much Meili loved the game!

Then on Monday, we went to the Dallas Cowboys game. (Or, more importantly, the Washington Redskins game-because we all refused to cheer for the Cowboys!)

How could something so cute have caused me such stress?

Daddy and baby getting all pumped up before the game.

The stadium was huge, it was so crazy!

Then we had to test out the sports mode, and zoom on the camera. Because, trust me, we were in the nose bleeds!

Again, sadly, the Redskins lost with a last minute fumble. But we all still had fun!

We found the secret weapon for flying... Ring pops!

All in all, I'd call it a success.

First Football Game

Meili went to her first Aggie football game on Saturday. She's good luck for the Aggies! When I was pregnant last year, we beat BYU, and on Saturday, we beat (okay, dominated... for the second half) Weber State.

We had just gotten back from camping, so she was pretty tired. But she was a good sport.

Go Aggies! Let's keep it up!

Weekend Fun

Josh and I got a slow start to our summer fun, but we've tried to make the most of it the last month or so. So this last weekend, we went camping with our friends Hope and Dustin. We decided to go to Tony Grove, and I'm sad to say that in the last 8 years that I've lived in Cache Valley, I haven't gone to Tony Grove. Look at how beautiful!!! We definitely won't wait another 8 years!

And we have lots of pictures of the kiddos-cause they're so cute!!! Josh took the day off, so we were able to get up there by mid-afternoon, and get all set up.

Our cute family

And Hope and Dustin's cute family

Meili found what she was looking for!-stairs

I asked Macie to find a rock and we would take her picture. (I meant a rock to stand on.) She found this little pebble. Ha Ha! What a cute girl!

We were really worried that Meili was going to be cold. But this little outfit kept her plenty warm. In fact, I think TOO warm. She didn't have the best night's sleep and I think she was a little restricted. But still so cute!
On Saturday morning, we went fishing. Noah and Macie had their very own fishing poles. So here I am helping Meili and Noah.

A face only a mother could love! (Yeah right, you all know you love it too)

Hope said that I got the award for the biggest catch of the day... Myself. Oh goodness!

What a cute picture! So photogenic!

Ditto

My fishing lesson from Josh. I don't see why I needed it. I caught 4 fish last week...

at the fish hatchery...

They look like they could be siblings.

Yes, we had so much fun! Thanks Hope and Dustin for the good times. I think this should definitely be a tradition!

Man vs. Mud

Yeah, I signed up for a mud run. You may think I'm crazy, but I thought it was pretty fun and would totally do it again!

Here's our team, Knee Deep, looking all nice and clean!

And our names on the backs of our shirts

The first and last obstacle was a slippery slide. And there were a couple more in between. This first one, I almost flipped all the way around, the next one I didn't get a running start so I was SUPER slow, the next one, I went head first and got a mouthful of mud (yuck!) and the last one-well you'll see the result...later :)

These were like balloon punching bags.

And, yeah... all muddy going over the haystacks. There were a few of those, and they're a lot harder with 10 lbs of mud in your shoes!

Jumping into a whole bunch of mud. You may think, "That looks like water." Nope. Mud. I was mad because the balloons that we're swimming by are like the Big Balls on Wipeout, and I was really looking forward to trying that, but they were broken :(

Nope, we're not done yet! Just waiting in line because someone broke their leg on the last slip-n-slide.

And the firefighters thought it was funny to spray us with freezing cold water while we waited. I DID NOT THINK IT WAS FUNNY!

See! Don't mess with me when I'm freezing, muddy, and tired!

The last slip-n-slide. Take particular notice of the mud pool at the end. That was the killer.

Now I'm done.

The man at the top gave me a final warning to close my eyes and mouth before I hit the mud. Do you think it helped?

Me with my cousins Mandi, and Jessica. Thanks for the invite guys! It was a blast! Also, thanks to mom and dad for coming up, supporting, and watching Meili!

10 Months or Should I Just Say "Old"?

From now on, when people ask me how old Meili is, I will say, "I stopped keeping track at double digits. She's just old now." That's how I feel. She's giant! But I will say, that every month I think she is my favorite so far, and it was no different this month. Even though sometimes I want to rip my hair out because she is all over the place all the time, it is so fun to see all the new things she has learned.We went to the Box Elder and Cache County Fairs this month, and this was the only picture we got. I liked the fairs more this year than I have in the past because it was fun to show Meili all the animals. Yet, still nothing compares with how excited she gets when she sees dogs.
Meili loves the stairs! She would be perfectly content climbing up them all day, and she has a new, very distinct cry for when we put a gate at the bottom of the stairs. She learned how to climb the stairs while I was running my relay, and now Josh is banned from being alone with her without me because he teaches her new things and she's getting too big too fast!

Just had to add this. Look at those beautiful eyes and eye lashes!

We've been trying to get a picture of her bear crawl, cause it's so funny, but this is the best we've got.

August was a good month for us. When we went to Meili's 9 month dr's appointment, I talked to the doctor about Meili's napping routine. I said, "Right now, to get her to take a nap, I have to swaddle her, and rock her to sleep." And I told him how we've tried crying it out, and other things, and it just wasn't working. The doctor looked at me and said, "Yeah, but can you imagine swaddling and rocking an eighteen month old?" I know, exactly what I was worried about. So the doctor said that we had to let her cry it out. He said, "Pick the 2 hours that she is going to take a nap, and make sure she's showing signs that she's tired. Then read to her or listen to music, to settle her down, and then let her cry. And if she cries for 2 hours, that's her choice." Ugh. I felt awful, and I definitely hoped that she would not choose to cry for 2 hours. But I was determined, and set out again to fix her napping routine. I have been really consistent. The first nap, she cried for like 45 minutes, but ever since then, it is usually less than 15 minutes. (Even though she still does cry, and it still breaks my heart everytime.) But it has made life in our house much happier. Even the babysitter said how much she loves it.

The other REALLY, extra good news...We scheduled an appointment with an eye doctor to look at Meili's tear duct. Our pediatrician explained that they would probably put a little balloon at the bottom of her duct, and then just inflate it a little, and normally that fixes the problem. He said some people have to get tubes put in. So at the beginning of August, we scheduled the appt. for August 31st. Then she never had a problem with her tear duct. So we cancelled the appt. I hope that it's fixed itself, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

One last tid bit of information, not related to Meili. We also had a family reunion this month with my mom's family in Oxford, Idaho. It was really fun to be all together again, and see how everyone's family has changed (because we don't see each other as often as we used to.) I didn't take any pictures, but I wanted to at least remember that it happened.

Get Up On Again It!!!...Again! Would 'Ya?

Yeah, don't ask me about that title. That was something that someone on my team came up with and thought it should be our slogan. But not a single one of us could get it right, and it just kept getting longer as we went.

Mel, Skyler, Annie, Marcos, Adam, Ike, Jenna, Colleen, Jaci, Kira, and ME

On August 12th and 13th, I did the Epic Cache-Teton Relay, which is very similar to the Ragnar except we ran from Smithfield to Jackson instead of Logan to Park City.
What can I say? I just love Relays! I said after this one that if this was the only reason I ran, it would be worth it.

This picture is our whole team in Preston. Half the team had already finished their first legs, and our van was getting ready to go. (Yeah, I look super ready to run, right?)

Yeah, after 2 days of consistent sweat, Annie didn't know quite what to do with her hair.

Yea! for the only picture I have of Ike!

Somehow we convinced Skyler to wear my pink shorts because he had the last leg of our team into the finish line. I think he might love them, wouldn't you say?

We realized we hadn't taken any pictures, so we made up for it in a matter of about 5 minutes.

Annie and I

Annie and Skyler

Skyler and Mel

Here are a few of the funny moments that happened probably as a result of no sleep, dehydration, and inadequate nutrition...

-After the first time we tried to sleep, we were all comparing notes on how many hours (or minutes) of sleep we were able to get, Annie said, "My zipping bag wouldn't sleep up!" And when we all questioned her about it, she looked at us totally seriously as if to say, "Yeah, it wouldn't!" She didn't even realize what she had said.

-Skyler pretty much got the raw end of the deal in our van. He was the last runner, so by the time it came his turn, we were all tired, and ready to sleep or eat. He was always very nice to us, and brought us water during our legs, he offered to run miles for us, etc. etc. So we were talking about how nice he was and that he was like the team cheerleader/mascot. He said, "Yeah, I'm here for you guys. I'll do whatever I can to support you. Even you Ike." (It was just funny that he felt like he needed to clarify that.

-On that same note, we were joking about how sad it was that he was always so helpful, and there were times that we were asleep in the car when he ran by, and we never had his water ready etc. So we were totally kidding, and said that it would be funny if rather than get out of the car to give him water, if we just ran by and threw his water at him. Well, we took it a little too far. As we were driving past him, Ike slowed down, we rolled down the window, I yelled, "We're supporting you!" and Annie chucked a water bottle at him. The poor kid was so happy to finally get water that he went chasing it down the road. We decided to be nicer from then on. :)

-There were so many funny moments. It felt like we were laughing the whole time. But that's all I remember a month later.

So this is where I ramble on about details of the race that nobody but me cares about. So feel free to skip ahead.

My first leg was 4.7 miles-sounds simple enough? Uh...no. I ran at about 2:00 in the afternoon in August, on a highway in-I don't know where Idaho, straight uphill for about 3 miles straight, where the only scenery was sage brush and the I could feel the sun beating down on my back. That was tough, but at least I got it out of the way. (That's why I say Ike was our MVP, he ran 12 miles in the exact same conditions, and he killed it!) I think our van was done with all our legs at like 7 or 8 or 9... who knows. We stopped and got Subway, and tried to get a little sleep under the stars in a random parking lot-also in I don't know Idaho. Actually, come to think of it, the Subway may have been in Soda Springs. Shout out to Hope!! :)

My next run was at about 3:00 in the morning and it was 7.5 miles. I had mixed feelings about running in the pitch dark. But, that was by far my favorite run, and went by the fastest even though it was the longest. But my mind was kind of playing tricks with me. I kept thinking that I heard something behind me but it was really the echo of my own feet. And I thought every single thing I saw was a bear. Whether it was a cow, or a bush, or a rock-to me, at 3:00 in the morning, it was a bear. I even thought to myself, "What would I do if I saw a bear? I obviously couldn't hide because my stink at this point would carry at least 20 miles. I can't run away, because I'm obviously exhausted. And no one would ever hear me scream, so I guess I'll just let him have his way." Luckily, my team was keeping a very close eye on me. In fact, they would pull off to the side of the road ahead of me, and then when they saw me coming, they would turn their head lights on-which also scared the you-know-what out of me! Luckily the last mile and a half or so of that run was downhill-and I have never loved a downhill so much in my life.

After our van's legs were done, we drove into Jackson and got breakfast at McDonald's. I just have to tell you a little story... My last leg was so cold, that for hours after I felt like I couldn't get warm. So I had black tights and a white turtle neck on for my run. Then I put purple capri sweats, and an orange t-shirt over that. I was still cold so I put on a white jacket and wrapped myself in a green blanket. I didn't understand why everyone at the McDonald's was steering clear of me until I went into the bathroom. Oh, how I wish I had a picture. I have worn some embarrassing things in my life but that may have been the worst, and add that to the fact that I had matted hair from my head lamp, and I stunk (for at least 20 miles.) I'm sure that even homeless people would not have taken me in!!! Ha Ha!

Then we found another parking lot that we tried to get a little more sleep. I was so tired that I didn't care that bugs were crawling on me and in my sleeping bag. It was all worth it for the hour of sleep that I got.

My last run was 2.9 miles. But I tried not to think of it that way, because I knew that I was going to overlook it. And I did. I was seriously tired by then. I ran at about 2:00 in the afternoon and it was pretty flat, and shaded, but it was still tough. BUT I MADE IT!!

We all ran in at the finish line, and it was great!

Skyler, who made up our "team motto" also, every once in awhile would just look out the window and say, "Guys, we're really doin it!" I loved that, because that's how I feel about running sometimes. I hate it in the moment, and I wonder why I do it to myself. But every once in awhile I have to remind myself where I came from and that this was a goal of mine for so long, and now "I'm really doin it!"

Oh My Oh My Oh NINE MONTHS OLD!

Nine months old seemed like another biggie to me. Every time Meili grows into new sets of clothes, I just can't believe that she's already so big. (Granted, she still fits in some of her 0-3 month stuff,) but she just seems like she's gotten so big overnight. It seems like she learns something new every week.

One week she started pulling herself from laying down to sitting, and then all of a sudden she was pulling herself up on everything. She also tries to climb on everything. Even if she is already at the top of the back of the couch, she is still determined to climb more.

She is now crawling for real. Luckily, she's still not super fast, and she takes a lot of breaks, so I can still keep an eye on her most of the time.

And we've started feeding her pretty much everything we eat (except the forbidden foods of course.)

So, onto the pictures... I'm sure someday Meili will meet a boy that she will fall desperately in love with, but for right now there is only one love in her life. And no other person or toy or food can get in the way of that love...

The computer. Every time either Josh or I try to get on the computer, Meili looks at us with a big smile on her face like, "Oh is that for me?" And then it's no holding her back after that. She is determined. This particular instance, Josh's face was the only obstacle in her way, and it didn't even slow her down. She has learned how to do some things that even Josh and I didn't know our computer did, and somehow she renamed our hard drive to "nn g fmmuim." I think it works!

Meili also went to her first parade. The Pioneer Day parade in Bountiful. Me, being the first time mother that I am, I was worried that she would be super tired, or the sirens would bother her, or she would get burned, or be super hot. But it went pretty well. There was so much to entertain her, that I didn't even really think about it. As you can see from the picture, she was super hot, but she didn't seem to mind.
As for stats for nine months:

She weighs 15.94 lbs. (How depressing...I thought for sure she would be 17 or 18, and even though she's basically 16 lbs, just hearing that 15 made me feel like a failure as a mother. And, don't you worry, Josh made sure to tell me that we're not feeding her enough.) She's in the 7th percentile for her weight, but the doctor said that he's not worried about it, because most kids slim down at this age, she's still really active, and she's sleeping through the night, so she's obviously getting enough nutrition.

And she is 28 1/2 inches tall which is the 80th percentile-so her height has slowed down a little.