July

How is it possible that July is almost over? Baffling. Here's what's been happening at our house.

Josh's activity mat has been sitting unused for several months, but Josh found it a while ago so we pulled it out. Just like old times. These two sure do have fun together. And you get a really good shot of the awkward haircut I gave Josh. His hair on the left side goes straight forward instead of down. Weird.

Greg brought his gas mask home for a good cleaning, so Macy had to try it on. She didn't like it.

This girl is developing her own sense of style. After I got her dressed the other day she needed her "coak" (coat), then my purse, then her hat.

Oh, and her purse too.

Sometimes I'm brave enough to bathe these two together. Like I said, they have so much fun together. And bedhead suits them, don't you think?

Macy still loves it when I put her hair up in "two."

I found this lovely monster the other day when I was taking out the recycling. If you look really close you can see tiny legs sticking out from under her belly. When Greg tried to kill her tons of tiny baby spiders came scuttling out. After which her belly was one third of this size. We tried to take a picture with a penny for scale but it was really fuzzy. And we weren't keen on getting too close.

Here's a much cuter picture. I'm having a hard time getting good photos of Josh lately because as soon as he sees the camera he crawls towards me with his mouth wide open (and he's getting fast).

It's also still hard to get good pictures of Macy because she hides from me. In this case I was trying to get a picture of her dressed all in pink, which is by far her favorite color. She ran behind her toy kitchen and wouldn't come out. At least she smiled.

In other news, I finished a huge and fun editing project recently. It was awesome, but I don't think I could do regular freelance work. Our house was a disaster the whole time.

El fin.

There and Back Again

Greg's parents are leaving on a mission soon, so we went down to Georgia last week to spend some time with the family and hear them speak in church.

It seems like every time we go somewhere that pictures would be a great idea, we don't take any. (Disneyland was the exception because we had four people doing a constant photo rotation.) We have more but don't have copies yet. So here's what we do have.

What is it with babies and eyes? Here's Macy with her cousin Carter.

Greg's brother just put a pool in, so we spent a lot of our time there. Macy loves to swim.

Macy, Camden

Uncle Nathan, Macy

Group shot.

Grammy, Bethany, Sharron

And home again. This picture was actually taken before we left. Note that Macy really likes to dress herself. (Jacket, beanie.) There is nothing Macy hates more than Josh climbing on her chairs. She isn't doing it to be mean, but she pulls or pushes his hands off and makes him fall down. Sometimes painfully.

Today I pulled out the pack-n-play and let Josh play for a while. (Something I've actually never done before, including with Macy.) He is just too busy for his own good. (As evidenced by his bruised eye.) He is getting much better at falling gracefully though. He loves to walk holding our hands or pushing things around and can stand alone for a second before he plops on the ground or grabs hold of something.

Before I pulled out the camera he walked all the way across the room. Of course by the time I starting recording him he decided to be sad. Isn't he cute though?

And on a random note, I'm going to start Macy in dance classes next week. I'm very excited. I'm also very busy suddenly. I've gone pretty much since I had Macy with basically nothing to do but be a mom (which is plenty), but now I have an editing project, I'm building a website, and I'm going to start a military spouses group. Wish me luck.

Misplaced Modifier

I know I already clarified Greg's age in a comment on the last post, but I was just re-reading what I wrote and realized that it is definitely confusing. I'll hand in my editing badge. For those of you who were also confused but didn't read my comment, Greg is 26, not 23. His birthday was on August 23rd.

Developments

Well, I got to enjoy my extended internship for a whole week and a half. Due to increasing blood pressure and ankles that looked like water wings my doctor ran some tests and found that I have mild pre-eclampsia. I was put on bed rest and had to quit working (and doing pretty much anything else that doesn't include me lying down with my feet up) and I didn't get to go to New York.

I just found out about a week ago, so I have one week down and at least four to go. I'm at 34 weeks and my doctor is hoping to get me to 38 or 39, at which point she will induce me (because unfortunately birth is the only cure for pre-eclampsia). I have SO many doctor appointments, which is good in some ways because I know exactly how my baby is doing, so I don't have to worry about that. Plus, having 3+ appointments per week gives me much-needed respite from sitting in the house all day. I even get to drive there and back again. Kind of like Bilbo. Except he walked. And he went to confront a dragon, not an ultrasound technician.

On to happier news--as I mentioned, the baby really is doing great. Based on ultrasound measurements she weighs 4 lbs 7 oz, which is in the 25th percentile for how far along I am (but hey, Greg and I aren't the largest creatures on the planet). We got to see some great images of her on Friday, including the bottom of her foot and her five little toes (we counted carefully and they're all there), a great profile, creepy alien-looking eyes (the eyes are just big black spots and the image is kind of distorted, so they look funny), hands curled up next to her face, and confirmation that we are, in fact, having a girl. So we won't need to change her name to Mason.


Anyway, I'm doing great. I've finished the first two seasons of Gilmore Girls in under a week, Logan lent me tons of musicals and other old movies, Sense & Sensibility is a few more viewings closer to being totally worn out, and the couch is starting to get a little more comfortable (it's been slow to cooperate in getting broken in, so now I get to speed the process along). I'm pretty sure bed rest gives me a good idea of what life will be like for my newborn. I eat, sleep, drool a little (kidding), and can't wait for Greg to come home every day and relieve me from the crazy lady I spend all my time with.

Truthfully, though, it's really not as bad as I thought it would be. And my ankles are back to their normal size (or at least close). Who could ask for more?

Life Status Update

Well, the most exciting and unexpected thing that has happened in the last two months is that my internship was extended. A series of strange events combined to create more work for me to do, so I'll be sticking with the Ensign until Macy is born. Cool, eh?

Greg started school on Tuesday and it makes me jealous. I want to be in school, I want to have to buy textbooks, and I want homework.

I'm going to New York next week and I'm WAY excited. I'm going with my mom, grandma, and sister (and two of my mom's cousins) and we will be spending ridiculous amounts of money but hopefully having a lot of fun in the process. It's my way of getting back at Greg for being in school without me.

Pregnancy is beginning to get a bit uncomfortable again. I never knew heartburn could be a constant condition like this. I also never knew it was possible to get charley horses in both calves on an almost nightly basis.

We got our crib and our changing table/dresser combo about a week ago. We assembled the changing table but realized that the crib won't fit through doors and since we'll possibly be moving out of the apartment before she moves out of our bedroom it was silly to put the thing together, take it apart, put it together again, take it apart, etc. So now we're buying a bassinet. Here's a picture of the changing table. Imagine it bigger with vertical slats and you'll get a pretty good idea of what the crib will look like when assembled. Or just look at our baby registry (babiesrus.com).

The "baby closet" is slowly filling up (a little too slowly for me) but we still have boatloads to buy before we'll be ready for this extremely expensive baby. We're way excited and so ready for her to be here.

Internship

My internship is just about half over. I'm looking forward to not commuting to Salt Lake every day, but it'll be sad when it's over.

I'm the editorial intern at the Ensign Magazine, which means among other things that I've already read October's issue and that I'm working on articles that won't be published for at least another year. If you want to read about the publication process, check out the July issue of the magazine. There's an article called Making Church Magazines that describes it better than I could (view it as a .pdf if you can).

It's a super cool internship because I'm not just "the intern." Sure, I get odd jobs, but so does everybody else. I really feel like part of the staff, which is amazing and (from what I hear) unusual. I do article editing, get author approval, participate in title and pagination discussions, give my input on the article designs, and do a little of the final proofreading.

One of the coolest aspects of my internship is that I get to feel like I'm contributing to something important. I don't think there are many jobs (at least not right-out-of-college jobs) where what you do has a direct (and international) impact for good. It's also cool to work with a group that has such a clear and unified purpose.

That's about all I've got to say about that.