Beta Baby

Gretchen is seriously the best baby every. She rarely cries, and she is VERY easy to get smiling. She's an okay sleeper... I've compounded the problem by rocking her to sleep every time she naps. She has a hard time getting to sleep by herself, but at night she will go 5-7 hours. She's definitely a second child, because I've lost all the papers that tell you what percentile she is in.... Nice. I do remember though, that she was in the 92 percentile for height and somewhere around 50 for weight.

Wilson is still adjusting. For the most part he acts as though she's not there. He doesn't play with her or touch her, but once in a while he will ask to hold her. I tried to get some pictures of the both of them, but he wouldn't sit next to her for more than a second.

A conversation with Ryan

We got crazy tonight after finishing Harry Potter an the Deathly Hallows part one at ten-thirty.... Crazy by starting part two that late. I normally don't stay up later than 11, because I'm getting old. (it's true, my knees crackle and everything). But I haven't seen it so I was just too tempted.

Me: "I'm probably going to fall asleep in the middle."

Ryan "That's okay, that will give me a chance to act it out tomorrow for you with socks."

Socks huh? I sure do love my nerd.

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My Day

I learned a few lessons today. Thought I'd share my newfound wisdom.

1) Wilson is hard. (I really already knew that) He is as stubborn as his parents. And he can go from happy to sad just like that. (picture me snapping) Here is a picture on the way too (sad and crying) and coming home (happy and adorable) from Costco today.

2) Don't put your keys on the front seat while strapping your baby in the car. I did that last night... And then shut the door... Which means I locked Gretchen in the car... In the Target parking lot.... Right when it started to snow... And I was wearing Toms so my feet were very cold and wet... It was actually quite funny in a sad way. Gretchen was crying the whole time as I walked around and around the car waiting for my AMAZING friend to bring me my spare key. Another AMAZING friend came down too, so I had a warm car to sit while waiting for the keys. All in all it took about 20 minutes, but I felt really bad for Beta.

3) Check the weather before you leave the house (see above story). Who knew Toms actually get SMALLER when wet...

4) I really enjoy driving in the snow. I like to pretend I'm flying the Millennium Falcon into *light speed.

*I had originally put 'warp' speed there, but then asked Ryan to proof read my post. He informed me that Warp speed is a Star Trek term and Light speed is what the Millennium Falcon did. He said, and I quote, "you sound like a doofus"... 

Anger Management

My house looked like this...




After frantically looking for this...




To stop this...




The Soothie pacifiers are my favorite because they don't have any seams to collect junk in, and they supposedly help with nipple confusion.

However: they are the WORST because they have no hole to put a bink clip through, and when they fall they tend to bounce and roll away at the most inconvenient times.

So I modified it with some scissors...




Now I'm betting she gets some chafing on her chin from the ribbon. Oh well. I'm willing to risk it.

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Oh the Humanity!

Three weeks later is a good time to blog about the birth of Gretchen, right? Long enough that I look back at it with fondness rather than terror? Ummmm, no. But I should tell the story anyway. For my posterity. Sorry Gretchen, it wasn't "the most precious moment in my life."

I started having contractions around 10 at night on September fifth. That's a week past her due date. Yup... So anyway, I was having contractions... They weren't too bad and I was handling them. I thought I should probably get some sleep because I knew I'd be exhausted if I was doing this for two days like with Wilson. Only problem was, I was too anxious to sleep knowing that we would have a baby soon-ish. So I got up and walked around the house and FINALLY packed a bag. By that time the contractions were getting a little closer so I REALLY thought I should get some sleep.... But unfortunately they were also stronger and there was no way I was sleeping through them.

We left for the hospital around one or two in the morning, when we got there I was having contractions less than 5 minutes apart. The nurse looked at me skeptically when we checked in because my water hadn't broke, but I knew being a week overdue they'd admit me regardless.

I really wanted to go natural with this baby. I really, truly did... I read the book about Hypnobirthing and "practiced" the techniques. I did the breathing, I tried to relax my body... but little known fact about me (sarcasm).... I have a hard time relaxing. I knew it would be a problem, but I just hoped I could work through it. I couldn't. At all. I tried the breathing, I tried the different positions, I tried to relax my body during the horrific contractions but I definitely couldn't do that either. They were coming around 2-3 minutes apart, they felt like they were ripping my insides, and I was shaking ridiculously bad when I wasn't having contractions. When the nurse checked me again around 5 in the morning I was still only dilated to a 5. Yeah... that was when I told Ryan I NEED the epidural. He was really hesitant at first because I had made such a big deal about him being supportive about no drugs. But I knew I could never relax my body enough to let it naturally dilate any more. I was pretty much hysterical, no lie. So Ryan wanted to film me saying I wouldn't be mad at him for letting me get the epidural.... but then a contraction came and I told him I would kill him if he filmed me during one. I was getting mean. Hysterical and mean. The anesthesiologist came in... tried to get me to stay still so he could juice me. but I was shaking so bad and FREAKING out (I'm not kidding, I'm sure the people in the room thought I was going overboard... I don't have a history of that or anything...) that he was getting mad at me. He even decided to give me a spinal block because I was so out of control.

After the drugs I immediately calmed down and was pretty embarrassed about my behavior. I tried to apologize but the anesthesiologist wouldn't even respond. Oh well, I'll never see him again... After that I finally got some sleep. It was wonderful. I still hated the feeling of being drugged, but at least I could relax and I had stopped shaking. After the epidural, the nurse went to go find someone to break my water but that took two hours for some reason. Around seven they did that... a little over an hour they checked me again and I was finally at a ten. The nurse assured me that because this was my second it wouldn't take as long to push as it did with Wilson (2 hours), but she was WRONG. Why? Because Gretchen was one Big Baby. All I remember the doctor and nurse saying while pushing was that she was going to be a big one.

And at 10:12 am on September 6th, my nameless baby was born. It took us until the day we left the hospital to finally decide on Gretchen. She was 8 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't just 2 ounces more so I could brag about birthing my nine pounder. 

Bare Knuckled

Ryan thought he would death march the baby out of me by making me go to the zoo in the 95° heat. It didn't work. But with Wilson being incredibly whiny these days I thought it would be a good outing for him.




Hogle Zoo has a special "exhibit" that has dinosaurs placed throughout the park that move and make noise. Wilson did not like them. He would cling to Ryan for dear life any time we got close to one.

He liked the orangutans. We got the added show of one throwing up and eating it. Twice. We even splurged and rode the the little train around the park, hence Wilson's adorable happy face right before it started.



So I'm still pregnant and I never thought I'd still be. I'm getting anxious. Get her the heck out of me!




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Countdown

Little Beta* will be coming in about four weeks.... How exciting. I really can't wait for her to get here, and when I see other babies I get a little giddy. This pregnancy has been pretty uneventful. I never got sick, I just want to sleep all the time. It's definitely gone by much faster than the first pregnancy, probably because I have Wilson here to occupy my time. (man that kid is cute)

Beta moves around a LOT. I'm not positive if it's more than Wilson did, but it sure seems like it. I'm getting so anxious to see her little face and cuddle with her, touch her tiny hands and feet, sleep with her on me, and wear her around everywhere. I sure hope wilson is nice to her.

And now I think I'll share a pregnancy photo with you.



Hot, huh?

* Beta is just a nickname we gave her before we knew what we were having. We have not decided on a real name yet.

Our life through Instagram

More pictures of Wilson. Because he's all our life is about right now... 5ish more weeks until our life is all about another little girl. 

 Wilson really likes carrying around Courtney's purse. It's the only one he goes after, I don't know why it's special. So that paired with his girly stroller leads to a good picture!

 Ryan taught him to drink the milk out of his cereal bowl in the mornings...

 The Bountiful Parade... he was very skeptical. He mostly enjoyed the marching bands.

 Wilson enjoying a snack with his hipster uncle Mason. (I promise those aren't really dog treats.)

 He didn't take to miniature golfing like we thought he would. He got frustrated and started using his hand.

Ryan spent a good amount of time trying to win the iPad in this machine... he didn't succeed.

Oh Bother?

Most people who know Ryan from high school know him as the kid who wore the Winnie the Pooh shirts... It's one of those embarrassing pasts that you can't avoid, but really only for me. Ryan seems to be proud of it.

Not having grown up with anything Winnie the Pooh related myself, (my family was just not that into it) I've been resistant to Wilson having anything Pooh related since he was born. But friends have certainly threatened... Oh they most certainly have.

Well, Ryan and his family wanted to go see the new Pooh movie today with Wilson. Which is totally fine, he's only been to the theater once before to see Despicable Me when he was six months and he did great then. Plus this movie was only an hour long and had lots of songs in it to keep Wilson engaged. I didn't know anything about the characters before so realizing that Pooh was a bumbling idiot was a surprise. It was funny though, and he loved it. He might have loved the popcorn more.... And he enjoyed turning around and saying hi to the kids behind him.


Here is a picture of most of the movie going clan. Grandma was the only other person he allowed to hold him besides his dad.

Unwelcome Comparisons

My summer fun came to a crashing end yesterday when my little family went out to dinner in Layton. I get a lot of comments about Wilson's hair being awesome, which I already knew. But when a woman (I use the term loosely) who looks a lot like this.....


.... Says "Hey! He could be my kid with that hair!!" and proceeds to grab on to her pulled back ponytail and wave exuberantly. I knew it was time. So we immediately went home and shaved the kids hair.



Goodbye awesome Mohawk. Perhaps you'll be back next summer. I miss you already.

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Regression

I'm on my first vacation at the moment without the Boy. Some girls from work and I decided to come down to St. George for a nice "relaxing" weekend that included my first massage ever. More on that later.

While out getting ice cream, Maria and I started reminiscing about the game MASH that we used to play in Jr. High. Amy had no idea what we were talking about so naturally we HAD to show her.

Well, in MASH world Amy has it pretty good. She lives in an apartment with 6 kids, but it's with Brad Pitt. She sells used cars, but makes an amazing living with 6 million a year. Plus she drives a Range Rover and has a Koala bear as a pet (not the giraffe that we picked).

Maria? Well she lives with Robert Downey Jr. in a mansion as a garbage picker.

And you can just call me Lacee Hamm, an my husband John an I live in Boston with our six kids and wood paneled station wagon. That is the life.



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I Wasn't Lying

The minute I found out we were having a boy in August of 2009, I knew that one day I would shave a mohawk into his hair. Then Wilson was born and it was blonde. The vision I had in my head didn't include blonde hair.... Ryan and I both have dark hair, how did this happen? Anyway, with Wilson's hair being light I didn't give the haircut much more thought... until I got bored this last week and decided it was time. 

Man I have one cool lookin' kid. He's getting a lot of stares and a lot of compliments. He sure does look like an adorable punk. I can't wait for him to be older and be get mad at me for using him as my human doll. I originally thought I would only keep it a couple of days, maybe a week... but this might be his new summer look. 

Year and a Half

Wilson turned 18 months yesterday. He's an alright kinda kid. He's funny, energetic, and LOVES his dad.He can talk a little, but won't say mom or dad. His words include "hi" "bye" "cheese" "fishes" and I think he says "what's that?".He loves to dance, play with any ball he sees, and watches basketball and golf on TV with dad. He'll even say "whoaaaaa!" for a long drive (golf) or a slam dunk.

We went to the doctor today. He's a tall, skinny kid with a big head.

Weight: 22.9 lbs. 13%

Height: 32.5 in. 57%

Head: 19.1 in. 71%

Lately he's been really clingy around strangers. Apparently letting nurses measure your head is torture, and sitting on the scale is terrifying.  He's pretty cute, so I guess we'll keep him for a while.

Pops Comes Home!

My dad and Nancy have been in Hong Kong for the last 18(ish) months on a mission and they came home today. They had a short layover in Salt Lake before going home to Arizona so I coordinated it so they could finally meet Wilson. Wilson was born just a month after they left, so they have only seen him through Skype.

Unfortunately, I was a half hour later from when I thought their plane landed and the flight actually landed a half hour early. By the time got to the baggage claim, there wasn't enough time for them both to come out with their luggage.  So only Pops got to come out and meet little man.

Wilson was being shy so he wouldn't let Pops hold him, but he sat on my lap and.... wouldn't look at him either. Oh dear. But once my dad pushed him around in the stroller he.... still wouldn't let him hold him. But my dad did get to kiss him on the forehead a couple of times. Finally Pops just took him so I could get a picture and this was the result. Hopefully when we see you in a month he'll warm up a little quicker.

Sick Little Man

Wilson guy is sick for the first time. I mean really sick. He's had the occasional cold and runny nose, but this morning I walked in his room overwhelmed by the smell of vomit. I feel horrible because I don't know when it happened. We don't turn the monitor on anymore at night, and ever since we rearranged our room I can't here him crying across the hall at all.

So this is the first time I've ever had to deal with vomit other than my own. Let me tell ya, I don't do so well. I'm like my mom that way. I remember one time she threw my 5 month old niece in front of her to shield another grandchild from throwing up on her. Hilarious. I've draped myself with blankets and towels so I'm good. I've even got a bucket to throw him over if he starts gagging.

Poor kid has no idea what's going in with him. I just feel so bad. Oh, and totally unprepared.

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Gross City

Many of you know we have two dogs... Many of you know I'm not very fond of these two dogs. They shed everywhere and I can't seem to get rid of their hair no matter how often I clean. My mom used to say she would never eat food from other peoples houses that had animals because there was inevitably hair in it. I am that house. Gross. But this story has nothing to do with food. Luckily.

So guess what. I came home today to Ryan.... Washing the dogs.... WITH Wilson. Uhhhhhh...

1. The smell was horrendous.  Wet dog is possibly the worst smell in the world. 

2. The dogs were FILTHY.

3. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't come home during this atrocious act. 

This picture is after the water had drained from the tub. Notice the DIRT and HAIR everywhere? I'm gagging thinking about it. So I made Ryan clean and sanitize the the tub before bathing Wilson for real. Lets just hope he hasn't ever done this before when I haven't caught him in the act.

Insane Ramblings

I have an irrational fear of lightning and thunder. I blame it on watching the movie Poltergeist as a kid. You know the part where her dad (er mom, it's been a long time) tells her how far away the lightning is from them by counting the seconds between the flash and the thunder? And then as she sits in her bed curled up in a ball terrified, she counts and it gets closer and closer... and THEN the tree comes in through the window and grabs her. TERRIFIES me. I also attribute my fear to two wonderful Aunts that are irrational themselves. As a kid we would spend our summers in Mexico where my mom grew up, and there were fantastic lightning storms there. My aunts would huddle everyone in the center of the house and freak out if someone had a tin can or metal earrings near them. We had laughed at them then, but I've somehow turned into that person. Especially since having a kid.

So there was a huge thunderstorm here last night (as most of you know) that woke me up at three in the morning. I did my counting thing and quickly found out that it was close. Real close. I couldn't go back to sleep. I just coward in my bed... counting. Freaking out. Finally it woke Ryan up and he got up to close the window... I sheepishly asked if he knew of my irrational fear. In his drugged haze he said he did... and then he held my hand until I finally fell asleep. Oh, after I had to cover my eyes with a pillow so I couldn't see the flashing lightning through my closed eyes. Puh-thetic.

Trips

At the beginning of March I flew with Wilson down to Arizona to hang out with my family. It was then I vowed I would never take another trip without Ryan. Flying with a toddler is a whole new animal that almost broke me. Not that Wilson is a particularly hard child, just that he did not want to just sit on my lap and be still. I think the best part was when he decided sitting on the strangers lap next to us was a better option than his own mother. So he took his blanket, books and snacks, put them in the ladies lap and stuck his arms out to her. Nice.

But I digress.

We did a family trip to Arizona this last week that was sooooo much better. Having Ryan there makes all the difference. We stayed in a hotel for most of the trip. Ryan got to go golfing twice, Wilson got to play with his cousins, and I got to go to Neds Krazy Sub. It was everything I wanted.

This is little man enjoying the weather.

Wilson enjoys rolling around on the floor growling. It's fairly entertaining.

And Wilson wearing his fabulous new shirt from H&M. I can't believe it took this long for them to finally come to Utah. Downside: everyone in Utah will be wearing the same thing. All in all, he's a good kid, and I like him A LOT.

How Sad

Good Story:

So a couple of years ago  (or more) Ryan was cleaning out some of his stuff from his parents storage room. He found all his missionary journals and brought them back to the house. Being the nosey noser-son I am, I asked him if I could read them.... (for some reason I felt justified at the time. I swear a general conference talk said that husbands should share journals with wives...) He was adamant that I didn't read them, which made me even more curious, so he hid them.

Fast Forward to today. the past couple of days it's been hard for me fall asleep because I can't stop thinking about how dirty my house is. So this morning I concocted a plan to get started on de-grossing everything. One of those plans involved re-arranging our room because I couldn't take it anymore, and moving a dresser out of our room. So I enlisted Ryan to help me move everything around, but before he could he had to take the journals he had hid UNDER the dresser and find a new hiding spot.

How sad (and gross) is it that Ryan hid something under a dresser KNOWING that I would never move it to clean behind or underneath. I'm a failure as a housekeeper.

And just so you know, it was GROSS behind there. Dust City.

Ambrosia

We went to The Capital today because I hate just sitting around in my house all day. I didn't expect it to be as cold as it was. But I let Wilson run around on the paths and he had fun at least. I thought he was going to eat it a couple of times on the gravel because of how fast he was going downhill.... narrowly escaped that one.

Pure Joy

Hey! You Should probably know....

I'm pregnant. Yup, 19 weeks pregnant. Which means.... I just had the mother of all ultrasounds. And I know what I'm having. Do you want to know?

I bet.

Sorry Brit, we're having ourselves a little baby Millie*. I had a feeling it was a girl a month ago, but I didn't want to tell people that and then be wrong so I only told Ryan. He didn't take me seriously.

So I'm due the end of August. I will be miserably pregnant the whole summer. Which is why I'm keeping the short hair.

I'm super excited to go to Bijou Market tomorrow and pick some cute crap out for the thing. And Target has some adorable dresses right now. Freaking adorable.

*we're not 100% set on naming her Millie. I tend to change my mind a lot.

I'm Brave

I cut my hair. Really short. Like boy short. I absolutely love it, but Ryan... not so much. He's going to have to deal with it though because I'm for sure keeping it through the summer. I've gotten tons of compliments on it, but mostly from girls. Good thing I'm already married and Ryan can't divorce me over a haircut. Because that would make him shallow. 

Sooooo, here's a picture of it (sort of). I feel awkward taking pictures of myself so I had to add Wilson in too. he's not so good at the myspace self portrait taking....

Thanks Little Man

Wilson is increasingly all over the place. He used to just not be interested in certain rooms, but now he shows to prejudice. I was trying to finish my hair in my bathroom (yeah, my awesome faux hawk) and I noticed a string of toilet paper behind me. Wilson had made it from the guest bathroom to the kitchen. And because I'm super cheap... I rolled it back up to be used later.

OH!! And an update... I'm drinking Coke again. No judgment.

Death Row

I promised a friend that if she ever stopped drinking coffee that I would stop drinking caffeine. Stupid me. She finally decided that tomorrow is the day she is done. Forever. And she announced it today. A days notice is all she gave me! I was hoping she wouldn't remember the deal we had made (because she's old), but she did. What have I done? I'm so sad. So I'm sitting here on my couch drinking the last bottle I will ever have. I'm going to have a debilitating headache tomorrow and Wednesday, then I'll be fine. But I'll still miss the taste and burn every day. There is nothing better than a Coke from McDonalds and the burn as it goes down. Ahhhhh.  This is a cheap excuse... but coke kind of reminds me of my mom. That's one reason I have such a high regard for it.

 But really it's an addiction. 

Jerk.

Goodbye old friend. 

Help Me Justify This:

I want these shoes for Wilson. Really bad. 

I just feel like $32 for a kid shoe is pretty steep. I love them though. LOVE THEM. I figure each kid can wear them and they can just get passed on down, even if I have a girl. I would totally make my little girl wear them, after-all I dressed Wilson in a pink Polo shirt. So gender boundaries don't mean much to me. However: how dirty would an 18 month get these shoes? Would Wilson trash them within the 5 months that he's able to wear them? I need answers.

Oh yeah, and Christmas happened.

Oh dear, look at that hair... He really looks like a different person. 

looking at stuffs from his stocking...

He played with the slinky for .2 seconds before breaking it. But those were some glorious .2 seconds.

Yes... I forgot all the details about Christmas. But he's got cute green PJ's and he's too young to remember it anyways. This was my lame attempt. 

Jazz-ity Game

We went to the Jazz game tonight and decided to take Wilson with us this time. He has come with Ryan to watch me play soccer before and has been really good about just sitting and watching so we thought we'd try it out. They played the Houston Rockets. The first half was swell. Wilson just sat on dad's lap and ate a hot dog with him. 

(this picture was before the game waiting at the train depot for some friends)

Ryan wanted to take him out and walk with him a little bit during half time so I watched the awful choreographed martial arts kids 'dance' to Bon Jovi and not break their boards.... When Ryan finally came back Wilson was wearing this...

Now I'll admit, he looks adorable in the jersey. But I couldn't believe he paid the amount he did for a Jersey that Wilson can wear for another couple of months. Lets just hope I have a family of boys that we can pass this on to. 

In the end the Jazz lost because Al Jefferson fouled a Rocket player with 6 seconds left which allowed them to pull ahead by one. Stupid foul too, if you're going to foul someone they better NOT make the shot. But alas, it was a total let down. Because the game was so close it got really loud and I was worried for poor Wilson's ears. I hope I didn't cause any permanent damage. 

And this is just because he's cute.

What Have I Done?

Look at that fantastic hair. It was long, in his eyes, mullet-y, and adorable. I loved it and I said I would never cut it...

And then I got peer pressured by my husband to buzz it. Sad day. My Bunco group told me that it would grow in thicker if I buzzed it, Ryan honed in on that info and MADE be buzz it. I tried to leave it long on the top with a mohawk, but he wouldn't let me. He's mean. Now I just have to wait until it grows back and I'm NEVER cutting it again. EVER. 

 Most people says he looks older... I just cry when I look at him. I don't really, but I was REALLY sad for those first couple of days. (and Wilson, I'm sorry if you read this in the future and you feel bad about yourself... I still love you)

Oh Wait, he had a Birthday!

Way back last year this guy turned ONE!! I wanted to do a Mr. Man party because if you remember I think mustaches are hilarious on babies. So I put together a small little party for the guy that included mustache cupcakes, ties, and mustache party favors. Simple, but fun.

The guy didn't really 'dive' into his cake. He just kind of poked at it. I had to cut in open and shove it in his mouth to get him to start eating it. Even then, he just ate the chocolate mustache decorations. I won't show you a picture of the cake because it was embarrassing. I had grand plans for a mustache cake, but I didn't fully think it through. I didn't realize that mustaches don't have a whole lot of detail to them. So once I cut out the basic shape I realized I had nothing else to really do. But I pushed on and decided to ask Ryan's opinion on the color of the mustache and he suggested red. Well, red turned out to be a pukey salmon color and looked more like lips. So to fix it I decided to go brown... which turned a dark green... making the cake look like a pine tree. Lame. So I threw some extra chocolate mustaches (which also looked like ornaments) and we went on our way. Cake story: done. 

 This is the cupcake stand. It's hard to see how awesome they are, but trust me. Also, notice the tie under the stand. 

And this is my friends baby that is just 2.5 months younger than Wilson. He's a big guy and even out weighs Wilson by a couple of pounds. I can't wait until they can really interact and start to be friends, because at this point really all they did was sit and stare. And look at what a hipster my kid is in that shirt.... SWEET.