Abi Has Glasses!

She wasn't in the best of moods in these pictures, but she's still cute.

Working Out

This week I am on my recovery week for P90X, which means I kinda get a little break from resistance training and ab work and do more entire body stuff this week, which is mostly core and yoga with a little cardio. I haven't lost much of the baby weight yet. Full disclosure:

On my last weigh in at the doctors office I was 177 lbs.
The day I got home with Lilian - 175 lbs.
6 week appointment - 166 lbs.
This past Sunday I broke 160 at 159.8! Yeah!

With P90X I can feel a difference in my body even though the weight is about the same. That's what happens when you build muscle, which weighs more than fat. Which is why the scale is not your friend, which is why I'm trying to stay away from it, but I'm always curious as to what progress it will show that I've made, which sometimes has the potential to put me in a bad mood when it shows that there's no change.

Even though I wasn't feeling as sleek and slim as I'd like, we were way overdue for a family picture, so we got them taken at Kiddie Kandids yesterday. We were able to get some good family shots, but when we tried to get a photo of just the kids, Abi went ballistic, so we got a funny picture of them, which I think is a more accurate representation of what life at our house is like. You can see those pictures on their website HERE. If that link doesn't work and you really want to see our pics, try entering in our sitting number: 005260360.

One last thing about working out - HERE is a great workout video for busy moms from Holly Rigsby. I think she's got great videos and tips.

My Version of a Baby Wrap

My pet head. Looks like some
kind of growth coming out of my chest?

For those mothers out there, perhaps you've heard of the Moby Wrap. My sister in law Nancy introduce me to it. I just looked at it online, looked like a good idea, but I thought I could save a little $$ if I did it on my own, so here it is and here's how you do it~

PART 1 - Make your baby wrap:

Go buy 5 yards of a cotton jersey knit (the store I went to didn't have any cotton jersey, so I bought a poly-cotton jersey knit - seems to work just fine, although I don't have a cotton jersey to compare it to, but I say poly-cotton works just dandy)

Bring it home and cut it into 20 inch strips.

THE END of Part 1

(No sewing necessary - the material doesn't fray. But you can sew or serge the edges if you want. I didn't cause I wasn't sure it was going to work or not. It does work, but I've never gotten around to sewing it, but don't really need to. Sometime I'm also going to taper the ends of the wrap.)



PART 2 - Wrapping the Wrap

I watched THIS DEMO on YouTube and this is the way I've been wrapping it most of the time, although I've also done THIS "hands free nursing" way twice, once during a morning walk. Kinda funny.

I even got Lili wrapped on Mel a few weeks ago, but I haven't done this with the kids much because their torsos are so small, it makes it a little tight. But while Lili is little we can get away with it.

What a Funny Kid

When we were up at Park City at the end of July, the kids did a lot of swimming. Here is a picture of Hyrum in his full swimming glory. I made him stay in his outfit while I ran to the room to get my camera - he looked so funny walking out of the pool. Other guest at the hotel were all looking at him and laughing. He was staggered slowly through the gate, dragging his flippers and letting them slap the cement. His arms dangled at his side with the drooping towel hanging over them. With the snorkel still in his mouth but goggles pushed up on his forhead, his little crossed eyes gave fellow passer-bys an exhausted glance that made them laugh. Hyrum's such a funny awkward kid sometimes, and he doesn't mind at all. We love him.

Eye Exam and Immunizations

Guess who is the next Wride kid to get glasses? And the winner is...

ABIGAIL!!

Yes, Abigail! You are the lucky winner of a new pair of glasses! I'm going to miss seeing her pretty eyes without them. They should be here in a few more days. She tolerated the vision test last week very well. She got a little restless waiting for her eyes to dilate, but so was I - and hour and a half in the waiting room. But still, she did very well, as did Lili who is my 24 hour side kick.

Later that afternoon, however, we went on another trip to a doctor - both Abi and Lily went to get some immunization shots - Abi her 2 year, Lily her 2 month. It was a long wait there too, cause it was the 2nd to last day before school starts. After an hour and a half wait there, Abi went first (I knew she would not be a willing participant if Lily went first and she saw what was coming.) So first Abi, then Lily, and as I was checking out and paying, Abi passed out. I was holding Lily and handed her over to Melodie who came along and was about to cry from seeing Abi turn white and blue and fall over. I didn't know what was happening - I thought it was a deathly reaction to one of the shots and that she was dying. (Small fear that always comes into my head when the kids get their immunization shots...) But the nurses came over and seemed calm like she wasn't on her death bed. They got a little stool and put her feet up and let her lay there until she came to. Abi stayed laying down for a bit and drank a little juice. They were surprised it was such a delayed reaction. I think she must not have eaten much lunch. Anyway, it was a little scary, but she's doing fine now. She must have my shot fainting genes. Back two years ago in a post about Brazil, I told how I had gone to a clinic there in Campinas and was on the run so I hadn't eaten. After they drew my blood for some pregnancy lab work, I passed out. I ate some cookies in the car after to give myself some food cause I was going to the temple. I guess I ate too much, cause in the temple I threw everything up on the ordinance worker, which luckily was a sweet lady that I knew from our ward there. Anyway, yes, I have a history of fainting at doctors offices and of fainting from lack of food in my body. If you combine both together, you are guaranteed to pass out.

Best $50 Bucks We've Ever Spent

I bought this trampoline off of Craigslist last summer, and I must say that we have definitely gotten the best bang for our buck with it. They asked for $75 but took $50. It has a few small holes and this summer we replaced about 20 of the springs, but still, it's been a great deal plus we've gotten hours of kid entertainment and exercise time = parent free time. ...More free time for me than for Corey - they love for him to jump on the tram with them.

It makes for a crowded play space, but the kids don't seem to mind. Although Corey gets a little squished. :)

Creative Kids

I love it when my kids play dress-up. They are so creative! So here are Hyrum and Wesley - the mask Wesley is wearing is actually from a Zorro costume. They find what they need and make it work. Melodie is especially creative, at dress up and at using anything she can get her hands on - with a little help from scissors and tape...

Here she is in a car she made from a box we came home from Costco with.

And here is her cardboard version of WALL-E.

Snot Nosed Kid

Corey loves Abi. Abi loves Corey. She even sweetly and willingly shared her candy sucker with him! Although I don't know that I'd want to share a sucker with a snot-nosed kid... But you're cute Abi. And you can see it a little in this picture here... I have been watching her carefully lately, and several times I've noticed that her right eye wanders in and she crosses her eyes. Looks like we might have another kid in glasses soon. I'll keep watching it, and will probably take her in to see the eye doctor if it continues. We'll see if anything comes of it. She'd look cute in glasses though! I remember when Hyrum got glasses when he was a year old. Way cute. With toddlers the trick is teaching them to keep the glasses on. I think Abi would do good though.

Bye Little Bird

I'm catching up on some journal writing here, so this is a long post, but I had to document the story of the little quail bird.

Corey and I had a friend come visit us on Thursday (July2) afternoon. He went to his car to get something, and as he came back he said there was a dead bird in the street. Thinking it was a good opportunity to teach them something (I didn't know what specifically) I went out to get the dead bird out of the street. I saw that it was just a baby, it didn't look bloody or gross, so I decided I'd just pick it up and bring it to the front porch for our lesson. As I picked it up, it opened it eyes and turned it's head to look at me. It didn't have any problems that I could see, but obviously something was wrong cause it was left there in the street. It was a little baby quail. I looked around and didn't see the family anywhere. I called the kids to come out and see the little bird, and then I spent the rest of the evening stressing out about what to do about this little quail.

At first I thought it would die quickly, so I told the kids we should just hold it and give it some love as it waited to pass away. But Ethan decided to say prayers that it would stay alive and that we'd find it's family. I let the kids take over the situation and I went inside to clean/nurse/etc. An hour later, it was starting to rain a little bit and Ethan was in the driveway with the bird down on the sidewalk. I told him to pick it up and hold it while it waited to die - it can't walk. But he told me to come see that it was walking - it was chirping too - he said with a tear running down his cheek "He's trying to find his family..." It couldn't walk very well, but I picked it up while Ethan went to get a jacket and shoes on and we walked around the bushes near our home and the neighbor's houses looking and listening for any quail. No luck.

The kids kept tending the bird, we tried to give it water, and the kids kept praying for it's family to come. I decided it would be good for it to be outside, so we put it in a little tupperware container and carried it into the backyard, and lo and behold, there was an adult quail on the fence. It flew away as I came out, so I followed it through the gate, across the street, and into the neighbors yard. As I got close enough to almost be able to set the bird down, it flew away from me again, this time back into our back yard. I came back, carefully, and put the chick on the ground on one side of the deck, with the adult quail under our deck on the other side. I went inside and we all watched from the window as the baby went under the deck. I went out to peek, and it was slowly following the mom/dad quail and they cooed back and forth. I was quite pleased that the bird was back with an adult and it didn't seem to be my problem anymore. But then the adult headed across the grass and the chick didn't keep up with it, and started slowly walking in the opposite direction. I went to help again - put the chick in the container, carried it to the bushes where the adult was, and went inside. After a while I went to go check the status. The chick was out of the container but I couldn't see where, and the adult was up on the brick wall. Still, the bird was in charge of the chick now.

Checking the baby bird's status once again (oh don't I have enough other things to do?!?) I went outside - the adult was still there, no chick in the tupperware, I'll just let them handle it... I turned to go inside and barely notice that there's the chick in the grass - very camouflaged. It wasn't in the bushes trying to follow the adult like I thought - it was laying there sprawled on the grass again, much like it looked in the street, unable to walk and seeming to be waiting to die. But gosh I hardly even noticed it on the grass, you little bird! What are you doing? and I wished I knew what was wrong. With the adult bird not cooperating, the kids decided they wanted to keep it as a pet, I did some quick internet research about what to feed baby quail, I debated about whether I should run out to the IFA store for some poultry feed, what to do what to do, should I call a wildlife rehabilitator like one internet site suggested (here's a link on what do do it you find a baby bird. Good advice, but I didn't know if I should bother them over a little hurt quail baby that would probably die before they got here anyway...) Lily finally woke up to nurse which I appreciated as it distracted me from the baby bird situation that had now lasted much longer than I had planned...

So we brought the chick inside, wrapped it in a little wash rag since it was a little wet and seemed cold from the sprinkling rain. Corey had ordered a movie from Netflix that he wanted to watch, so the kids followed him downstairs to watch Ghandi and I took the bird outside again in the tupperware container. I put him close to the bushes, but at an angle so he could get out. I went down to watch the movie with the kids. After an hour I went to check on the bird. He wasn't in the container. I walked very carefully on the grass this time, since last time when he was in the grass I hardly noticed him. He wasn't on the grass, he wasn't in the container, I checked the bushes and the ground covered with ivy but couldn't see him anywhere. I listened to hear him chirping, nothing. There wasn't an adult quail anywhere, I didn't think he'd be able to get very far in the ivy so I kept looking in a larger area trying to see him. After 10 minutes I gave up. I told myself "He's lost or dead I guess... I tried my best to help the little guy, he's in the Lord's hands. Poor cute little bird" and as I walked away, I noticed that under my foot was a cluster of leaves covering a little dead bird that had obviously been stepped on... Oh no... I squished him!!!! I felt rotten and started to cry. Poor little bird. I am positive I killed him, cause his little guts had squished out of it's bottom, so I'm sure it died of being squished, not of something else, although something else (starvation) would have killed it eventually, but still, oh poor little bird I squished you! And I had tried to be so careful on the grass. I was crying, and I put it in the flower pot where the other dead birds are (we had a bluebird's nest in our back bushes, and I didn't check on them very often, so a week ago I thought I'd go see if they'd all flown off, and found a pile of three rain drenched and dried hard baby bird bodies in the nest - I don't know what happened to them that they all died - too much rain? the mom got hurt and didn't come back? They saw me snooping by the nest a few times and decided to abandon the whole offspring idea, too risky to get caught by humans? Sad sad, not a good year for birds in our yard...) so I dropped the baby quail in the bushes by the dead birds in the nest. I went inside, and Ethan was coming upstairs to see how the baby bird was. I told him the bird was dead. Then I told him the bird was dead cause I squished it, and I explained how it happened. He was sad, we both cried, he tried to let me know I wasn't bad and it wasn't my fault, I didn't mean to kill it, and then we had a memorial service for the bird and said a prayer and we buried it by the deck where earlier it had tried to follow the adult quail before it got left behind. So the baby bird is dead. He didn't even get to live for very long - he must have only been 1 or 2 weeks old. "How come babies die" Ethan questioned. I guess his work was done. "Do animals get resurrected?" I told him they do. And we're looking forward to meeting that cute little quail in heaven.

After we told the other kids that the bird was dead, they wanted to see it, so we went and dug it up and then buried it again. Is that okay to dig up a dead body after you've said a prayer for it's burial? The kids all put lily flowers on the spot where we buried it, and we also found a rock that was perfectly shaped like an egg and also half of an easter egg that we put on as a gravemarker. So that's my long rambling story about the baby quail bird and how I spent 6 hours stressing about it only to kill it by squishing it. Bye cute little birdy. (And sorry again).

Tiny Fingers, Tiny Toes - with polish!

On my first day home from the hospital, Lili and I were smothered with attention from Melodie and Abi. My bags of clothes and makeup were still on the floor, and Abi found the fingernail polish I had taken to the hospital. Since they wouldn't leave the room, and since I was stuck on the couch with a baby attached, I had no good excuse to not paint their nails when Mel asked and Abi grunted as she waved her fingers front of my face. Painting fingernail and putting on makeup is not something I do much - I have to proactively try to be feminine - to brush out my hair or try to smell sweet. Maybe since the numbers of girls in our home has increased, it will help me to be more girly. So we painted fingernails on Mel and Abi while I nursed, and since Lili's little toes and fingers were there, we decided to do her too! So fun. Maybe I could get into this prissy stuff. :)

Wes and Lily

Wesley likes Lily, but has also just let his life continue as normal since her birth. He plays with his toys and in his imaginary world just as before - he hasn't come knocking on the door when I'm nursing to ask to see the baby. So today when he happened to be walking by as I nursed, I asked him if he'd like to hold Lily when I was done. He said he just wanted to give her a kiss, which he did, but still took Lily when I offered again. I got distracted cleaning and making a snack for the other kids, when I paused and thought "Where's Lily?" I went to where I had left her, with Wesley on the couch, and this was the precious scene before me. I called Corey in to see. I thought it was priceless. So I took some photos, and then took Lily before she rolled off his lap as they slumbered. :)



Don't you love Wes' rainboots?

Little Lilian

She has a name now - presenting.... Lilian Bell Wride. Corey chose Lilian, and I was glad he found something he liked. Bell is after Bell Canyon, which is a beautiful canyon here by our home - I would go on morning walks during the pregnancy to the Bell Canyon trail head. So, here she is! She is my precious little doll!