Wednesday, February 28

First timers


At lunch I used my musical phone rings to distract Mia into eating this blended peas and grain mixture I made. She wasn’t too excited to eat it. Half way through the bowl she started looking at the phone and asking “Daddy?” It was the end of the hour, so I thought he might have a break between classes (he's a guitar teacher) and called him. Usually, Mia hears him on the other end and pushes the phone away whining, but today she actually listened and grunted in response to his comments. To see if she was really listening, he asked her to recite the animal sounds she knew. I sat and watched her moo, meow, bark, and say, “beeaw!” (bear) Her first phone conversation! Zach and I were both enthralled the whole time.
I just can’t see everything being so amazing when the twins do things for the first time. I guess because that was also Zach’s first phone “conversation” with his own kid. All the firsts get used up on the first kid! I don’t expect to experience the twins’ lives with the same sense of ignorant awe. Maybe it will be more fun that way, because the time spent figuring basic things out can be spent enjoying them.

Sunday, February 25

Priorities


Mia is officially addicted to Elmo. Other than "Mama and Dada," his was the first name she could say a few months ago. On a more appropriate note, the second name she said, for the first time today, was Jesus.

Thursday, February 15

Big people celebrate, too

Valentine’s Day was fun. Zach got us a little gift basket from BYU with Martinelli’s, goblets and chocolate scented candles with a big bouquet of red roses. My mom came to watch Mia, and we headed up to Olive Garden to put our names on an 80-minute waiting list. After going to Reams and Kid-to-Kid, I couldn’t walk anymore, so we headed back to the restaurant where a gracious woman around Zach’s age let me sit in her husband’s empty seat.
We ate way too much, and headed over to BYU for a Valentine’s Day concert. It was ok- they served Milano’s and Martinelli’s, and there were little battery-operated tea-lite candles to play with. The music was written by students who had joined this BYU club with apparently lax admission requirements, and after we figured we had heard our yearly quota of cliché love song lyrics and amateur accompaniment, we decided to head home and let my mom off the hook.

Tuesday, February 13

The joy of motherhood

Valentine’s Day can come and go unnoticed, for all I care. I am so sick of being in pain, and tired, and huge and ugly. I try and be positive, but I suck at it.

Thursday, February 8

Serendipity?

Monday I saw an important ad in the online classifieds. I’ve been checking the baby section every day looking for good deals. Someone put an ad in for an apartment lease. I read it for no reason, other than it was funny that someone put it in "baby items" and it hadn’t been reported and moved yet. 4 bedroom, free internet, a pool and gym, granite countertops and tile floors: $610 a month.
When I realized what an incredible deal it was I started thinking how nice it would be to move there instead of my parents’ house. (We have to sell our current home, and I'm too pregnant to keep it clean while we're showing it.) The amazing thing about it- the lease ends in July and you can’t renew the contract, I found out later it is because the complex is really student housing, and when it was first built, they opened it temporarily to families at that great rate. The catch was- they got kicked out after two years. So this family found a house and it closed really fast. They have to move at the end of this month.
Just for the fun of it, I calculated the difference we would pay, once we got rid of our internet. $100 a month. Hmm. Just for a little more fun, I called the gal who placed the ad. She said all the offers she got wanted to renew the lease past July- which they couldn’t do. I called Zach, who surprised me by sounding optimistic. I looked for the ad an hour later, and it had been deleted. If I hadn't called her, I wouldn't have her number. We went and looked at the apartment that night, applied for it the next day, and today, Thursday, we signed the lease! Crazy!

Friday, February 2

Lookin' goooooood


Well, I think people will finally stop saying that I don’t look pregnant. I have definitely gotten bigger the last couple of weeks. My body is so messed up.