Second Best

(I checked the baby blog... and it was at a GENIUS LEVEL -Our kid's going to be Einstein)

Important Answers

Here's my take on the important questions...

What is your position on:
1. Child's voice on the answering machine? Depends how it's done. For the most part, I think it's cute to have these types of messages once in a while. Kids have a blast with it...but I do think that messages should be changed once in a while, so there's no harm in having a kid on there for a couple years.

2. People touching your belly (without asking)? Hey didn't Will Farrell say "Lookin's for free but touchin's gonna cost ya"? Go right ahead if you think a plump white stomach is fun to touch. Oh, and if it's Melanie you are thinking of touching I say DON'T DO IT. She's not fond of a lot of physical contact as it is.

3. You having others touch your belly (without them asking)? I rarely make anyone touch my belly, but I guess I can see myself putting someone else's hands on Melanie's when it gets to be really cool.

4. Eating food that was previously in your child's mouth? Is this different than putting something in my mouth and then in the child's? My grandma did this when I was a baby and lost of people do it now, so what's the difference? Plus I think Gerber food is tasty (i.e. bananas).

5. Lifting your child up to smell its butt in public? ummm, I have never heard this one...if you need to lift it up to smell it then you probably already know that something has happened.

6. Your child running around the room in sacrament? Oh yeah, let em loose. Some of our neighbors have children and one of them insists on sitting with what they now call her "church family". I think it's perfectly appropriate to get a break. "It takes a villiage to raise a child" - right?

7. Diapers as the only clothing in public? Well the G Diapers are pretty stylish.

8. The gateway as a recurring water park retreat? LOL - only if we change our ways and get some lawn chairs and coolers to sit on the sidelines.

9. Using the term "Sorry...I'm pregnant."? Well, if I said that I would be lying, but I do say Sorry...my wife is pregnant, and at least all of the men I've said it to have instantly understood and nodded with a smile.

Fun fun!

Important Questions

Okay... my friend Bryon posted a comment over on the baby blog and I thought it was best answered here -since they are very important questions and I may need the help of family and friends to ensure that I follow through on my answers.

This isn't about your post; but I need to know a few things about you (as our friendship contract is about to renew):
Things I need to know about you and your baby (this goes for you too Justin):
What is your position on:
1. Child's voice on the answering machine? As I have never had an answering machine, this seems like an easy one. However, I imagine in the next couple of years Justin and I will break down and get a home phone and then we will have a machine. I'm going to still say no. I actually don't mind when I hear kids on the machine, but you definitely can't understand what's being said. But... if you actually NEED to understand what's being said on the machine, you're pretty dense -you just start talking at the beep.

2. People touching your belly (without asking)? No. Please no. I've heard about and even seen this happening. Just because you're pregnant does NOT mean your belly is no longer personal property. If you're within the viewing distance of this blog, please don't ask to touch my belly. I'm too nice to say no, but I promise, unless we've lived with each other at some point of our lives, I don't want you to.

3. You having others touch your belly (without them asking)? I think I was pretty clear with the previous question. I'm not going to grab your hand and have you feel my belly -even if it's kicking or something. The only exception to that rule is probably Justin.

4. Eating food that was previously in your child's mouth? Yuck. I'll be honest, I may steal of few things of kids plates that they're eating, but nothing that's been in their mouth. Seriously, maybe it's the morning sickness, but I feel like I'm going to throw up just thinking about it.

5. Lifting your child up to smell its butt in public? I'm going to say no. I don't understand that aspect of parenting. I can promise it won't happen in 'public' -but something tells me that I'm going to check, I think it's just something that you have to do and you don't even realize you've started doing it. I'll try to be careful though.

6. Your child running around the room in sacrament? No, no, and no. Coming from a rather large and noisy ward, I can safely say that I will not allow that. Same goes with screaming kids as well. TAKE THEM OUT -you know you'd like the break as well!

7. Diapers as the only clothing in public? No.

8. The gateway as a recurring water park retreat? Again, no.

9. Using the term "Sorry...I'm pregnant."? Okay... this one is kind of fun. And, I know for a fact that Justin has used the term "Sorry, my wife's pregnant" a little too much already at this stage of the game. I'll try to not use that exact term, and replace it with "Sorry, I can't lift heavy things", or "Sorry, I just don't feel very good", or my personal favorite, "Sorry that interferes with my nap" instead of just saying "Sorry, I'm pregnant."

I wanted to add one more as a rebuttal for something that my sister said. Guess what Jodi, I will be using a baby sling. Which means, as you put it, I will be wearing my child. I won't go into all of the reasons why, but I am. So you'll just have to deal with it!

When in doubt... throw it out!

I'm amazed that ANYONE survives with even the slightest degree of good health anymore.

A coworker of mine alerted me to this the other day, and since then I've seen it on a few other websites, and did a bit of research on my own.

CHECK YOUR WATER BOTTLES!

Chances are... you'll be tossing more than a few. Those hard plastic bottles that everyone seems to be carrying around (myself included) could be 'leaching' chemicals in your body. I checked out a couple of sites like this here and here. If your bottles have the recycling symbol with the numbers 2, 4 or 5 -they're okay. Most of the one time use bottles are a #1, which is okay, but apparently you're not supposed to reuse them (which I do constantly). But our wonderful #7 bottles need to be thrown out! Which means, that someone (mom or Jodi) needs to tell my brothers, because they both use those Nalgene bottles all of the time.

Go over HERE and The Trenches did a better job of researching and found some fun and functional alternatives for carrying around your water, sans dangerous chemicals.

You can call me Jon.

Do you ever notice that things in your life can become quite relative pretty quickly.



Two months ago... a good night would mean sleeping at least 8 hours straight -and maybe even a little more. Maybe you got to bed a little early, and maybe you slept until 6 instead of 5, because you didn't have to to work until a little later and could wait to go to the gym a little late.

Today... a good night is only getting up once (instead of 2 or 3 times) to pee and when you get up to pee, you don't also feel like throwing up.

Two months ago no one really asked how I felt. I felt fine. Unless I had a cold or something, I felt fine. Maybe a little tired, because, well, let's be honest, who isn't a little tired.


Today... well, just ask Justin. The best he gets when he asks that question now, is, "Well... I don't feel like throwing up right now." That's as good as it gets. And to tell you the truth, the nausea is just held at bay -with my B6 vitamins and my oh-so-attractive motion sickness bands.

And lastly Two months ago I was tired. Like I said, everybody's tired. I went to the gym every morning and worked all day -you're just tired.

And today... I feel like I'm walking around with Mono. I crave sleep, but I don't sleep well, which is probably a big reason why I always feel tired. And you know what I just can't get over? It's never going to get better. I'm not oblivious to the fact that you mom's out there get less sleep than me. I may work full time, but sometimes I'm just going through the motions. If my body would let me sleep, I can. I don't have a baby, or a toddler, or even (gulp) multiple children running around.

Just for the record... I'm not complaining. I keep reminding myself that I signed up for this, and I'm still happy that we're expecting... but I'm tired of being tired, and I'm sick of being sick. And... when I read the Garfield minus Garfield today, I just felt like posting about it.

You can call me Jon.

(This is now Justin writing)

Luckily through all these trials she has an eternal companion like this to cheer her up!!!

Cakes, brakes, and boxes

I went to my 2nd cake decorating class last night. We had to take a cake that had been covered with icing and then we learned a few different things with some of our new tools. We were supposed to make a rainbow. Not for me... the Red Sox are currently in 1st place, so here's what I decided to do...

I realized last week that I should get my brakes checked. I felt like I needed new ones, and was going to take it over to Henstrom to see if they'd look at them, and I kept procrastinating. Then on Monday I was driving around and started hearing a grinding sound, that reminded me, not only do I need to get them checked, but I was probably doing more damage to my car. So, Justin took it in to a shop and they quoted us a price. Justin called his dad to make sure that was a fair price, and Scott said he wasn't doing anything at the shop that morning, and to bring the car in. So... he replaced my brakes for almost $300 less than we were going to pay. Yay for having our own auto shop and a father-in-law who can do that stuff for us.

Lastly, boxes. I hate them. I hate the empty ones -because it means I need to fill them. I hate the full ones, because no matter how many I fill, it doesn't seem to make a dent in the packing progress. When will it end?

Baby Lafeen

Officially we told our closest family members that we were pregnant on April 6th. Since it is slowly making the rounds worldwide by word-of-mouth (and by that I mean New Zealand, Brazil, Texas and Utah), it is probably appropriate to make it official to the blogosphere. :)

As mentioned, we chose April 6th to disclose the news. I have thought about the little one in detail over the past month, and cannot be more grateful for our life. Melanie has been the greatest blessing I have ever received and it's important that everyone knows that I feel that way. She's preordained to be the mother of very choice individuals, and she's known and prepared for that.

Naturally, expecting our first child has had its share of stresses - especially being the worry-prone parents we are. I've been preoccupied with what life without a second income entails, and Melanie has been trying her best to ride out the waves of pregnancy. Luckily we've been planning for this, so I think we've tried to manage the various risks that come with a downturn in the economy and so forth. It seems everything will come in packages for us - marriage and a new job one year, new house and a new soul in the next...

So there you have it. The family is growing. Due officially (but probably not exactly) on November 27th - Thanksgiving. Who knows maybe the 28th will look more attractive and I can have an unmatchable birthday present?