Box Babies

This week has been a fairly eventful week as far as our weeks usually go. The weekend started off with Daniel's parents coming up to visit. It was wonderful having them here. They were able to see our apartment all put together (they were here last when we were moving in). We went out for some yummy barbeque and played a little speed scrabble (sadly, Daniel still reigns as champion). We had fun that morning visiting and playing with Ellie. Of course, there was the wasp incident that Daniel described, but Ellie faired very well. I think I made things a little more dramatic because I was scared she would be allergic and also I just didn't really know what to do. However, she is practically recovered. She has a couple of dots on her but that is all. She cried for about 15 minutes after the stings but that is it. I felt worse for Brent who had been stung many times!!

After the grandparents left, we headed up to Dallas to visit my sister Kim, Ryan and Kyra. Ellie was really good in the car. She slept for about an hour and was happy the rest of the time. I had to make a little potty stop (darn pregnancy!) so she got a drink for the road (which ended up all over her of course). Anything to keep a baby happy in the car. We took a wrong turn somewhere so we ended up taking an extra hour to get there. Ugh. But we got there eventually!!

The weekend went well. We spent most of Saturday doing family pictures. It was very interesting taking pictures with 8 adults and 2 babies. Ellie was, of course, not really cooperative, so we have no smiling pictures of her. Go figure. However, we finally have a picture of our little family (Dan, Ellie and I) so we are happy about that. Kyra and Ellie got along great. Kyra can walk now so the two of them were pretty cute together. They ran all over the house together.

Since getting back to Austin we have mostly been watching our 4th season of 24. Daniel has also tried to register for his classes 3 times now but the lady that can do it has been wrong about the time each time Daniel has gone down there. It has been stressful for him but I am confident that he will get signed up tomorrow.

This afternoon we are going to go take a tour of the hospital where Owen will be born. It is a pretty nice hospital so I am anxious to hear about their amenities.

We are mostly just happy to be back home and to be here for awhile and back into our routine. Hope everyone is well.

It's the queen of something!

This past weekend Elise had a run in with some angry wasps that had made their home on our balcony. You can see the softball sized nest to the left. She was out there blowing bubbles with her Grandparents Weber, and when they moved the little table, the wasps got angry and started stinging. Dad got stung five times and Elise was stung at least twice (we found some marks on her head later that suggest she was stung a couple more times up there). Mom somehow escaped unscathed (for some reason she feels bad that she didn't take a few stings as well - though I don't get it; I sure don't feel bad I didn't get stung).

Erin was able to summon up some super-human Mom strength and quickly grabbed Ellie and brought her inside. I've rarely seen her move so quickly - especially six months pregnant. In fact the only other time I can remember was when we were in that car accident shortly after Ellie was born. I don't think the car had stopped moving and Erin was already out the door and into the back seat screaming "My baby!"

Erin's first instinct was to get Ells out of her clothes. This was smart because a wasp had climbed under her shirt and left two stings (you can see them after the swelling had gone down on the right).

Erin insisted on taking her to the pediatrician, though by the time we were in the car it was obvious that Ellie would survive. The swelling had already gone down quite a bit and Ellie was laughing and singing like nothing had happened. Later we realized that the first stings are freebies - even if you're allergic, you won't go into anaphylactic shock during the first incident. The doctor told us to give her some Benadryl (I had suggested we do this right after she was stung - that First Aid merit badge wasn't for naught) to reduce the swelling.

The thing about wasps is that they don't die after they sting you like bees do. They live to sting again. Dad was able to get revenge on the wasp that crawled up Ellie's shirt, as it was inside the apartment. Later that day, I got in my wasp suit and sprayed the nest with some wasp killer. I think I took down about 15 or 20 of them in one fell swoop. Let this be a lesson to wasps everywhere - if you come after my family, I will hunt you down and kill you. I wanted to pin the wasp carcasses to the porch wall as a warning, but Erin nixed that idea - too gross, she said.

Ellie has fully recovered and I think Erin will eventually realize that she's a good Mom and it's not her fault. I actually feel pretty good about the whole experience. We knew what to do in an emergency situation and our instincts were right. Maybe we're not terrible parents after all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get Ellie off the kitchen table.

A little Daddy attachment?

Since we have been back in Austin, Daniel and Elise have been quite the pair. I think because Daniel was gone a lot this summer and Ellie is realizing he is here for awhile, she thinks she should be with him constantly. She has always loved books, but she is obsessed with them right now and wants them to be read to her constantly. AND not by just anyone, mostly just dad. She will go in her book basket where we keep her books, grab a book, run over to the chair in her room and whine until her dad comes into the bedroom and sees what she wants. It is kinda cute. This picture was yesterday when they disappeared for like an hour and I hunted them down and found them reading books together.


It has also been difficult moving in our stuff because Daniel would have to leave to go downstairs for a new load and Ellie would say "bye bye" and then cry when the door shut. After awhile I think she figured out he was going to keep coming back.

Today Ellie and I went to Radijazz. Yeah, I had never heard of it either but it is this place in Austin where there are a bunch of little play areas for kids to run around and everything is soft. It is more targeted to toddlers which was perfect for Ells. Yeah, Ellie is still pretty terrified of Pump it Up so this is a nice alternative. We are thinking we might take her again next week. In fact, she is finally laying down for a decent nap after running around there, so I am pretty certain we will take her again!!!

SURVIVING another year

Well, we are back in Austin now. It was quite a bit of work to move us from Houston to Austin. For some reason, I am sure Daniel is to blame, we have accumulated quite a bit more stuff. Go figure.

Today is Daniel's and my 3rd anniversary. We didn't do much to celebrate. We got a video camera for my birthday that counted for our anniversary too. It was expensive. So far, the only thing we have done for our anniversaries is move. It will be nice not to do that one year. We figure we will have a big "to do" every 5 years. It was still fun to reminisce about what we did on our wedding day and how things have been this year and how this next year will be. We went out to dinner tonight and while out I asked Daniel what he wanted, what goals he had for the upcoming year of our marriage. He answered, "TO SURVIVE!". I hope he was referring to the busy year in school and a new baby coming this year. At least, he better be.

We played a little cribbage tonight and I really got whooped. I got skunked twice and almost got double skunked the second time. I am sure I will massacre him in the rematch though. I just offered to play a game of speed scrabble, but Daniel must be afraid since he denied me a game. Elise spent game time coloring in her coloring book. She has gotten much better about not eating the crayons but we still have to watch her. She did take a big chunk out of purple to which we let her know that coloring time was over.

We've been working doubly hard on getting a good sleeping routine for Ellie. She sleeps wonderfully at night... THANK GOODNESS... It took long enough. And she also takes a descent nap but lately she has been taking a 30 minute nap in the morning and then nothing the rest of the day. She is just dying to sleep by 5:30, but by that time it is too late and we have to struggle keeping her up. I think we are making progress though, she took her nap at 11:00 this morning. Ideally, we would like her nap to be right after lunch. We'll get there.

I think that Thursday we will be going to a play group while Daniel is doing some school business. I am kind of excited for that because Ellie has missed her friends here.

Most of this week will be spent just doing errands. We have a lot of things that need to be done before Daniel starts school. I have been a little melancholy this week since this is the week we were supposed to go on our cruise, but the doctor told me I would be too pregnant. It was a bummer. However, thinking about it it would have been a nightmare with Ellie at this age. She just wants to run everywhere. Still, it would have been fun.

Owen is doing well. We went to the doctor's office yesterday and he sounded and measured perfectly so all is well. At my ultrasound he was moving so much that they weren't able to get a really good look at the spine so my doctor offered us to get another ultrasound to ease our minds. Seeing as ultrasounds are expensive and that nothing could really be done if they found something wrong, we declined. We will love this babe no matter what. There is another test that they do early on in the pregnancy that tests whether or not the baby is down syndrome. It is kind of a sensitive test and has a lot of false positives in which a lot of women have to go through amniocentesis to check for sure and nothing ends up being wrong and the mom is freaking out the whole time thinking something is wrong with her baby. However, even if something is wrong with the baby, there is nothing that can be done. I think those tests are just to make moms freak out about not having a normal child.

Well, I am already tired (it is 7 o'clock) and I need to spend some time with my groom on our anniversary. Hope everyone is well... we are!

S-M-R-T

To start off, I still reign supreme as Speed Scrabble champion.

I managed to survive my last week of work, presentations and all. I did the whole exit interview and my boss (really my boss's boss) said they were impressed with everything I did and that they would find something for me to do if I wanted to come back next summer. Afterwards, I had to give him a demonstration of my superior intelligence by repeatedly trying to pull a labeled push door as I was leaving. I wonder if they still want me back. To cap the whole experience I was "red-lighted" as I was leaving (when you get red-lighted, you have to pull over and have your car searched to ensure that you're not leaving the plant with proprietary material -- "Security is EVERYBODY'S problem" at ExxonMobil, literally).

We're back in Austin, and I managed to get all of our stuff up to our third floor apartment without giving myself a heart attack, though just barely. While our apartment is still here, a lot has changed, including the locks on our storage closet and mailbox.

I still haven't registered for classes, but I know what I'm taking. Three courses: Multivariable control, large scale systems optimization, and reservoir engineering. Hopefully I won't burn out, but as long as I can manage to open the doors the right way, I'll consider it a victory.

Kwyjibo on the loose!

Last Wednesday, we had dinner with the Hedengrens (two social events in less than a week - probably a record for us introverts). John graduated from BYU a several years before I did and earned his Ph.D. under Dr. Edgar at UT. So we have a lot in common.

While we were there we played "Speed Scrabble," a version where each player creates words from their own tiles. Erin and I were probably too humble when describing our Scrabble skills, as the Hedengrens seemed pretty surprised when we massacred them. I did feel a little bad, as they were the ones who suggested and taught us the game. They didn't know what they were getting into. We're just too competitive - when we smell blood, we can't help but go for the kill.

So we've been playing Speed Scrabble all weekend, and I'd like to say it while it's still true - I am currently the undefeated champion of Speed Scrabble. There have been a couple of close calls, but so far nobody has been able to get to 500 points faster than I have. I'm sure this will have changed by this time next week, so I'm getting my gloating in now, before it's too late.

I have one more week of work (the presentations start Wednesday) and then it's back to school. I'm anxious to get back to Austin, but I know I'm going to be much busier this semester. I'll talk more about my upcoming schedule next post, and we'll see if I can survive another weekend of intense Speed Scrabble action.

Boy oh Boy

Last night I was laying down in bed staring at my stomach and it was moving all over the place! It looked like it looked when I was eight months pregnant with Ellie! This little Owen is a mover and a shaker that is for sure. He never seems to perform when his dad has his hands on to feel but just about every other time he is MOVING. Just the other day I felt like all of my insides were bruised because he was just moving constantly. It is just so crazy how different my two children have been inside the womb. Just goes to show that they already have little personalities.

So, I have four other friends who are expecting boys within a month of ours. It is pretty crazy. Must be the year of the boy or something. I don't know anyone having a girl.

The other night was spaghetti night. Need I say more?

Ellie Lou has gotten pretty accustomed to "feeding the animals" here at the McPherson zoo. Toby is getting fat I think. We have had to go back to basics and just feed her by spoon ourselves (obviously spaghetti night she was on her own... otherwise, we have bad aim!). It will be good to get back home and back to reality where there is no one to eat her droppings off of the floor-- just mom to clean them up-- which reminds me that we should really get something plastic to go under her high chair for a bit.

This next picture is typical Ells this summer. We have been putting a ladder on the stairs to keep her from going up them constantly and so when she hears someone upstairs she just hangs on the ladder calling their name or yelling something or another. The funniest thing is that I am always yelling up the stairs to my mom, "MOOOOOOM!" and so Ellie has picked up on that and yells (in kind of a loud annoying voice- obviously not mimicking that from me), "MMMMAAAAA!". So we are working on her saying "Grandma". She did say "ga-ma" one time but no grandmothers were around to witness, so I have been told it doesn't count.

Ellie has learned lots and lots of words. Hi, Bye-Bye, shoes, car, ball, papa, mama, dada, juice, no, cheese, thank you (sorta, comes out more like "tantu"), nigh-night --- that is all I can think of at this moment, but she is always talking these days whether or not it makes sense is something else. She has been really good about going and getting things and putting them away. I tell her to go get a diaper or go get her shoes or go get her milk etc. and she will scurry off to go get it. She also points at the things she wants. When I can't decide whether or not to give her juice or milk she comes to the fridge and points to which one she wants. She also knows when she wants to go to sleep. Just the other day she was so cute because she was so tired that she went and got her cup of milk and then went over to the quilt rack, grabbed a blanket and dragged it over to me (we were sitting at the table playing a game at the time). SOOO CUTE. Of course she knows who people are now. For example, I say "where's Uncle Evan?" and she goes and finds him or points to him or looks right at him. She does that with pretty much everyone she knows.

Ok, that is enough from me for now. I just can't help but brag about my little babe. She is getting so old now! 15 months on the 21st! Sheesh.

Star Wipes

The weekend goes by much too fast. On Friday, we went over to Brandon and Elena's for dinner. Brandon is an old friend from high school. They have a daughter who is about nine months older than Ellie, and a brand new son. So Erin was pumping them for information about what it's like having two kids, what's different, what's hard, easy, etc. I think she's a little anxious about our new addition, who is currently bouncing around her insides like a pinball. Apparently Owen has been a lot more active than Ellie. I'll be happy as long as he sleeps through the night. I got off easy with Ells. She only wanted Mom at night, so even when I did get up with her, I didn't do much. I have a sinking feeling that's not going to fly with this next one. So I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be a good sleeper.

I'm still enjoying work, even though it has slowed down some now that we're nearing the end. I've spent the past several work days honing my PowerPoint skills in preparation for my final presentation (what does it look like if I have each letter drop in separately?). There's still some things to do to finish up the actual project, but I've stalled out because I don't have the necessary computer privileges. In both of my internships that has been the largest obstacle keeping me from getting things done. I don't know if it works the same way outside of ExxonMobil, but it is a Pain (with a capital P) not only to get things set up, but to get them set up right. I could have finished this project in half the time if I had the right resources available from the start. I think some of this was due to key people taking their vacation around the time I showed up (another big problem with summer internships).

I have to give this presentation three times to three very different groups of people. I present to the HR people who basically rubber-stamp approved my hiring, then a group of upper-level management, and finally to a mixed group of engineers from the plant and the research facility (the people who actually care about the stuff I'm doing). I asked if I should prepare three different presentations and was told to just give the same presentation to everybody. I think I'm going to get a lot of blank stares. Basically the only people who understand what an applications engineer does are other applications engineers (which is good for job security, but bad if you're ever trying to get a point across). I just hope I can convince people I actually did something of value this summer. Now, should I star wipe to the next slide or have it spin in like a pinwheel?

Birthday weekend and MORE!

This picture is kind of funny. We took Ellie to Rainforest Cafe a few weeks ago (you know the place that has all the animals that come to life and the thunderstorm every 20 minutes) and this is her yelling at something. It might have been when the Elephants went off or something. It is pretty funny though.


Here is our beautious Elise Louise goofing off. She found this basket that she could get into but then couldn't get out of so she freaked out because she wanted to do it on her own but she couldn't. She looked pretty cute in there so I took this picture.

Well, last weekend was my birthday weekend. It was really fun! Daniel and I started out the morning bageling with my family (a Saturday tradition), then we left to go shopping. We were specifically looking for a pregnancy wedding ring for me. My hands and feet swell up big time during pregnancy so we were on the hunt of a Walmart ring. However, we came up empty handed because they didn't have my size... my fingers were too fat for Walmart I guess.

After that we went to see a movie, "Lady in the Water". It was good I guess. A little different, but all of M. Night's movies are. I am not sure if Daniel liked it, he kept saying that he had to pay close attention because the whole story was just told verbally for the most part. After the movie, we did a little house hunting and looked at model homes. It wasn't very successful because we were looking at the North side of I-10 which is generally a little cheaper and it was really hard to find one stories that were big enough (we want 4 bedrooms and an open floor plan). Moving into a house is still some time off but it was fun to look and perhaps we will look again SOON! After house hunting, we went out to lunch. We were going to go someplace fancy but I wasn't hungry enough for it so we just went to Bennigan's. It was still scrumptious and enjoyable.

After lunch, we checked into the Omni hotel. I like that hotel. I thought it was pretty and the bed was SUPER comfy. I took a nice little nap and Daniel caught up on Sports Center or movies or something (I wasn't conscious). We thought about going to an Astros game but it was sold out so we went to another movie (Evan gets free tickets for us so it was a nice cheap date). We saw "You, Me and Dupree". It was funny. Before the movie we got milkshakes--- YUMMY!

That was pretty much our day. About the time of the second movie I really started missing Ellie. I knew she was probably fine, but I had never been away from her so long and was really missing her something terrible. So the rest of the evening and morning all I could think about was Ellie. Daniel too.

The next morning we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then headed back home. Elise seemed unphased by our absence and seemed to take much more of a liking to my parents than us. Go figure. It was fun but hard for me to do, but definitely something we needed to do. We had never been away from her overnight and needed to do it because we would be away from her quite a bit when Owen is born. Plus, we just needed some alone time since Daniel has been away most of the summer and we hadn't really had alone time since Ellie was born. We mostly bring Ellie on our dates with us!:)

Well, that was the birthday weekend. As far as presents go... I got a gift card to Kohls (already spent), my Henckels Santoku knife which I had been dying for, a shirt, a head massager (long story on that one) and a video camera so we can start taking some video of the kiddies.