Thursday was a remarkable day. I think it easily lines up with Alexander’s Terrible Horrible, No-good, Very Bad Day, except that it was so ridiculous that I had to laugh even as it was all happening.
I was expecting my friend Christy to come over with her two little girls (ages 2 and 1) to use my scanner for some old family slides. While we were waiting for her to arrive, David asked to play with his beans. He has a Rubbermaid bin that I dumped a #10 can of dried pinto beans into, and he likes to stir and shovel them and dump them into funnels and containers. I put Daniel down for his morning nap, but he was having a hard time settling down. Meanwhile, another friend called, and we chatted while David played away. After a bit, David came in and said, “Mommy, stop talking to her; I have a bean up my nose!” Surprised, I looked up his nose but didn’t see anything. I guess I thought he was just being funny and didn’t think much of it. I walked into the other room, still talking on the phone, when I heard him sniffing air out of his nose, and decided he really did have something up there and needed to take a second look. I ended my phone conversation and called him over. Looking harder, and in different light, I could see that sure enough, there was a pinto bean up his nose! I plugged his other nostril and told him to farmer blow. Out launched the bean. Catastrophe averted; on with the day.
David has his very first dentist appointment scheduled for the late morning. He has been excited about getting “bugs” off his teeth and was eager to experience that. We talked about different kind of bugs: ants, ladybugs, grasshoppers, butterflies... I took a moment to have the usual conversation with him about making sure he listened to the dentist and did as he was asked. He was very compliant. Then I forewarned him that he would need to sit still for a while so they could get the bugs off his teeth. I should have kept that part to myself, because he suddenly protested, “I don’t want to go to the dentist!” I tried to reassure him that the dentist would be fun, hoping they had, at the very least, toys in the waiting room.
Christy and the girls arrived, and I visited with Christy while she scanned and the kids “played” in the other room. David was not particularly willing to share that day, and he and Ella, the 2-year-old, were having it out. I hauled him upstairs to have a conversation about sharing and being nice to friends. In the middle of that I got another dental protest. Daniel was still complaining in his crib after an hour of non-nap (you keep thinking they’ll settle down in a couple minutes….), so I brought him down.
Pretty soon it was time to go to the dentist, so I packed up my boys and left Christy to keep scanning. The dentist appointment actually went very well (yay!), but there were no toys in the waiting room (boooo!), which David was very quick to point out to me. At least we didn’t have to wait long.
When I came home, first off I was greeted by the oh-so-lovely smell of the dead squirrel in our chimney. Then I made my way into the house and found that all the toy bins had been discovered and dumped out in a pile. Not a big deal; toys are made to be played with, but it was a really big pile! I put our stuff down and went in the dining room to tell Christy about how David’s first appointment went. Kids and toys migrated to our vicinity.
Pretty soon Daniel started crying, and it took a second to register what was wrong. Christy said, “Looks like his face is wet,” and then I realized that I’d heard David climb on top of the washing machine, and he’d gotten the stain remover spray and sprayed it in Daniel’s face! I jumped up and grabbed Daniel and ran his face and eyes under the kitchen faucet for as long as I could. Daniel was fit to be tied, and very wet by the time I got finished. Christy grabbed paper towels and started wiping up spray, but then her kids started fussing. After I thought Daniel would herniate, I toweled him off a bit and then sat David down to talk about what had just happened. (I don’t think he meant to get Daniel; his mischief just covered a broad surface area and Daniel was in the middle of it). Daniel rubbed his eyes a couple times and I decided he probably needed them flushed again. This time Christy helped me, and it went much better. Then we remembered that there was still spray all over the walls and floor, and started mopping that up. We had all the kids milling around in the middle of the mess, and I (nicely) banished everyone under the age of 5 into the family room with the toys so we could get things cleaned up.
Just as we finished, David and Ella started having it out again. Ella knocked over a TV tray/side table, and the ensuing vibrations knocked down several buildings from my wooden village on top of the doorframe. One building, the biggest of the collection, fell down and the corner hit David square on the head (Nathan called it karma for the Daniel-eye incident). So I’m sitting on the floor with a crying child in each arm; one with red eyes and the other with a goose egg. And all I could do was laugh. It was barely lunch time; how could so many things go wrong in such a short period of time?!
I wondered aloud if I should call poison control, even though Daniel didn't ingest anything. Christy said the back of the stain-remover bottle instructed to flush eyes for 15 minutes (how on earth do you subject a 13-month-old to that?) and consult a doctor. I decided it would be prudent to give Daniel one more round of rinsing, and then called the nurse hotline. Naturally, it was their lunch hour, so I had to wait over an hour before they called back. They said to call poison control to get the product-specific instructions (gee, thanks). After telling the poison control person what happened, she said if he wasn’t rubbing his eyes anymore and could tolerate bright light then I got it rinsed well enough. Both held true, so we got very, very lucky.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I put the boys in bed and headed out for some big-girl time. But I'm still laughing!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Unwelcome Tenant
Nathan often tells me I have the nose of a bloodhound. All I can say is that I'm sensitive about how things smell. Unfortunately, our family room is rather malodorous at the moment. If any of you come to my house, I promise that I change poopy diapers, bathe my children, empty the garbage, and run my in-sink-erator. The problem is an unwelcome tenant in our chimney.
So, last Wednesday as I was getting David ready for his first day of preschool, we suddenly heard some noise in the fireplace. I'm thinking to myself, "Great. A squirrel in the chimney and I have to leave in 5 minutes to take David to school." Daniel clung to me as the rattling continued, and David begged me for a flashlight so he could check it out. What a goof. As you may recall, I have my fireplace covered with insulating foam to prevent drafts. I pulled the insulation away to make sure the squirrel was not actually in the fireplace (true), and then put everything back in place, let the cat in the house, and left for the morning, hoping everything worked out in some way or another without having a carcass on my beige area rug when I got home.
When I returned in the afternoon, our tenant was still rattling away above the fireplace. I blocked off exits with baby gates, secured the kids out of the room, brought the cat into the room, opened the back door (cat promptly exited when she heard him rattle), and opened the flue, ready for a frantic squirrel to burst into my family room. Nothing. I think there's a grate or mesh or something to prevent critters from entering the fireplace through the chimney. How considerate, until I need to get one out!
I next did an internet search on how to get squirrels out of chimneys. The solution is actually pretty simple: lower a rope down the chimney so the squirrel could climb out. We had just two problems--no ladder to get up there, and no rope even if we did have a ladder. Going out and buying those things for a squirrel really was not a financial option this month. We called Pest Control to see if they could retrieve the squirrel. Yes they could, for a modest fee of $230, plus an additional $140 for this that and the other. Definitely not a fiscal option for a squirrel! After hearing that price tag, Nathan said the squirrel could stay there and enjoy his Darwin award for falling down the chimney in the first place.
And he did.
The rattling stopped during the night.
It was 90 degrees outside the past three days.
And he smells.
I caught my first whiffs of him this afternoon. I moved my ionic breeze air purifier over by the fireplace, sprayed air freshener in the room, burned a cinnamon spice candle, and incense to give my sensitive nostrils something else to think about. I hope he stops being noticeable soon!
So, last Wednesday as I was getting David ready for his first day of preschool, we suddenly heard some noise in the fireplace. I'm thinking to myself, "Great. A squirrel in the chimney and I have to leave in 5 minutes to take David to school." Daniel clung to me as the rattling continued, and David begged me for a flashlight so he could check it out. What a goof. As you may recall, I have my fireplace covered with insulating foam to prevent drafts. I pulled the insulation away to make sure the squirrel was not actually in the fireplace (true), and then put everything back in place, let the cat in the house, and left for the morning, hoping everything worked out in some way or another without having a carcass on my beige area rug when I got home.
When I returned in the afternoon, our tenant was still rattling away above the fireplace. I blocked off exits with baby gates, secured the kids out of the room, brought the cat into the room, opened the back door (cat promptly exited when she heard him rattle), and opened the flue, ready for a frantic squirrel to burst into my family room. Nothing. I think there's a grate or mesh or something to prevent critters from entering the fireplace through the chimney. How considerate, until I need to get one out!
I next did an internet search on how to get squirrels out of chimneys. The solution is actually pretty simple: lower a rope down the chimney so the squirrel could climb out. We had just two problems--no ladder to get up there, and no rope even if we did have a ladder. Going out and buying those things for a squirrel really was not a financial option this month. We called Pest Control to see if they could retrieve the squirrel. Yes they could, for a modest fee of $230, plus an additional $140 for this that and the other. Definitely not a fiscal option for a squirrel! After hearing that price tag, Nathan said the squirrel could stay there and enjoy his Darwin award for falling down the chimney in the first place.
And he did.
The rattling stopped during the night.
It was 90 degrees outside the past three days.
And he smells.
I caught my first whiffs of him this afternoon. I moved my ionic breeze air purifier over by the fireplace, sprayed air freshener in the room, burned a cinnamon spice candle, and incense to give my sensitive nostrils something else to think about. I hope he stops being noticeable soon!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Preschool, Hanna, and Birthdays
Our latest news all happened within four days. Can you believe that? Preschool, Hanna, and birthdays.
After some deliberation, Nathan and I decided to start David at preschool this year instead of doing Little Gym. He started on Sept 3, and was very excited to go to school. He has not been disappointed, and is beaming every time I pick him up.
Nathan was very disappointed in Hanna. He loves big storms and had been excitedly anticipating hurricane season, hoping to really get some action. We got a lot of rain from Hanna, but that was it. He said we’ve had thunderstorms more exciting that that. Poor guy, but I must say I’m relieved to still be on the map.
Saturday was Nathan and David’s birthday. David was really excited for his birthday this year. Nathan was less than thrilled to bid his twenties farewell (yep, the big 3-0) and so gladly gave David the limelight. Two weeks before their birthday, when I told David he would be four soon, I started hearing him sing “Happy Birthday” to himself while he was playing. It was super cute. We tried getting video of it, but he heard us turn on the camera and stopped singing to investigate. He also kept asking me if Grandma Taylor was coming and bringing him Happy Birthday cake. He was very excited.
So, after Hanna blew through, my parents drove up to do birthday with us. I made a train cake for David since he’s really been interested in Thomas the Tank Engine lately. We ate cake and ice cream sandwiches—another recent favorite item—while David opened one present, played with it for a little while, then opened another present and played with it…really drawing out the party process.
David has really enjoyed the cat this past month. The other day he picked her up and gave her a big hug and a kiss and said, “I love you Alea.” Daniel has started clucking his tongue at her like he’s heard us do when we’re calling her. He’s also started imitating David, which is quite amusing. He’ll shake his head and act silly, or do monkey jumps around the living room floor. Yesterday he repeated “Oh Wow” after David. Gotta love it.
Daniel is still not quite ready to walk full-time. He prefers to take up to 5 steps and then just crawl wherever it is he wants to go. However, he loves playing with David’s cars and trains and scoots them along the floor like every natural boy. They must come pre-programmed.
The only medical trauma to report (this one’s for you, Nerissa), is that Daniel has had an occasional, inexplicable rash on his face and hands. The first time was shortly after we came home from a walk. He started rubbing his face a lot and soon his face got all red. He was eating at the time the rash emerged, but he wasn’t eating anything new, so I don’t think it was a food allergy. I hurried and washed his hands with soap, rinsed his face off, and gave him benadryl. Things cleared up within a few minutes after I washed him off. I chalked it up to “odd things of note” and carried on.
Yesterday however, again while he was eating, he started to break out into a rash again. This time it was redness and little bumps. We caught it pretty quickly and hurried and washed his hands and face. His hands cleared up, but although his face rash didn’t spread, it still hasn’t gone away. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on what he’s been doing and eating when the rash emerges. Neither of us or David has allergies; this is a whole new field for us.
I’m finally seeing the end of the photo scanning project. There will still be some work to get all the pictures dated, but WA-HOO! I’ve really enjoyed seeing my family’s history through these photos. As the youngest of 8 kids, there was a lot happening long before I was even a twinkle in my mom’s eye. As fun as it has been, I’m glad to be almost finished so I can move on to other projects waiting in the wings.
Well, the calm the boys afforded me will probably be over in a few minutes, so I’d better wrap things up. We love and miss you all!
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, Daniel
After some deliberation, Nathan and I decided to start David at preschool this year instead of doing Little Gym. He started on Sept 3, and was very excited to go to school. He has not been disappointed, and is beaming every time I pick him up.
My big boy ready for his first day of Preschool, and one excited Momma!
David ushered into the school by the Preschool Director. He went so willingly!
Nathan was very disappointed in Hanna. He loves big storms and had been excitedly anticipating hurricane season, hoping to really get some action. We got a lot of rain from Hanna, but that was it. He said we’ve had thunderstorms more exciting that that. Poor guy, but I must say I’m relieved to still be on the map.
Saturday was Nathan and David’s birthday. David was really excited for his birthday this year. Nathan was less than thrilled to bid his twenties farewell (yep, the big 3-0) and so gladly gave David the limelight. Two weeks before their birthday, when I told David he would be four soon, I started hearing him sing “Happy Birthday” to himself while he was playing. It was super cute. We tried getting video of it, but he heard us turn on the camera and stopped singing to investigate. He also kept asking me if Grandma Taylor was coming and bringing him Happy Birthday cake. He was very excited.
So, after Hanna blew through, my parents drove up to do birthday with us. I made a train cake for David since he’s really been interested in Thomas the Tank Engine lately. We ate cake and ice cream sandwiches—another recent favorite item—while David opened one present, played with it for a little while, then opened another present and played with it…really drawing out the party process.
David has really enjoyed the cat this past month. The other day he picked her up and gave her a big hug and a kiss and said, “I love you Alea.” Daniel has started clucking his tongue at her like he’s heard us do when we’re calling her. He’s also started imitating David, which is quite amusing. He’ll shake his head and act silly, or do monkey jumps around the living room floor. Yesterday he repeated “Oh Wow” after David. Gotta love it.
Daniel is still not quite ready to walk full-time. He prefers to take up to 5 steps and then just crawl wherever it is he wants to go. However, he loves playing with David’s cars and trains and scoots them along the floor like every natural boy. They must come pre-programmed.
The only medical trauma to report (this one’s for you, Nerissa), is that Daniel has had an occasional, inexplicable rash on his face and hands. The first time was shortly after we came home from a walk. He started rubbing his face a lot and soon his face got all red. He was eating at the time the rash emerged, but he wasn’t eating anything new, so I don’t think it was a food allergy. I hurried and washed his hands with soap, rinsed his face off, and gave him benadryl. Things cleared up within a few minutes after I washed him off. I chalked it up to “odd things of note” and carried on.
Daniel's first rash. Weird, Weird, Weird.
Yesterday however, again while he was eating, he started to break out into a rash again. This time it was redness and little bumps. We caught it pretty quickly and hurried and washed his hands and face. His hands cleared up, but although his face rash didn’t spread, it still hasn’t gone away. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I guess we’ll just have to keep an eye on what he’s been doing and eating when the rash emerges. Neither of us or David has allergies; this is a whole new field for us.I’m finally seeing the end of the photo scanning project. There will still be some work to get all the pictures dated, but WA-HOO! I’ve really enjoyed seeing my family’s history through these photos. As the youngest of 8 kids, there was a lot happening long before I was even a twinkle in my mom’s eye. As fun as it has been, I’m glad to be almost finished so I can move on to other projects waiting in the wings.
Well, the calm the boys afforded me will probably be over in a few minutes, so I’d better wrap things up. We love and miss you all!
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, Daniel
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
"Remember Me" Video
This was forwarded on to me by a good friend. With a brother in the Navy who recently returned from Iraq, it really hit home for me. Please support our troops!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Step by Step
Daniel took his first steps today!!
At first he was trying to walk along the couch where I was sitting. He tried to go around me,
tripped over my foot, and totally face-planted. (oops) Then he pulled himself up on the hope chest/coffee table, grinned from ear to ear, and walked back over to me! I'm so excited I got to see this one. My back was turned for David's first few independent ventures--I didn't believe people when they told me he'd just walked.
Speaking of David and exciting news, we decided to enroll him in preschool this year. Hooray!
At first he was trying to walk along the couch where I was sitting. He tried to go around me,
tripped over my foot, and totally face-planted. (oops) Then he pulled himself up on the hope chest/coffee table, grinned from ear to ear, and walked back over to me! I'm so excited I got to see this one. My back was turned for David's first few independent ventures--I didn't believe people when they told me he'd just walked.
Speaking of David and exciting news, we decided to enroll him in preschool this year. Hooray!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Look-Alikes
On my recent trip out West, there was lots of conversation about whom Daniel resembles. Although everyone agrees that he and David look very much alike, in Nathan's family Marianne thinks he looks a lot like the Taylors, but Sarah thinks he looks a lot like Nathan did. My family all think the boys have a strong Nash stamp.
Going through the family pictures, I've found some surprising resemblances. Just for fun, I've posted them here. I'd love to hear your verdicts.
Daniel, 1 year
My sister's son, Preston Arnold (on shoulders), around 1-ish I think.
Hey look, there's and 11-year-old me on the right...
This one made me do a double-take. This is my brother Nate, at 6 months.
Here's Daniel again so you don't have to scroll so much...
And here are pictures of Nathan:
So what's your opinion? More Nash, or more Taylor? Let the voting begin!
Long Overdue and Over-duly Long
I realize I have been remiss in keeping everyone updated on our doings. Truth be told, life has just been happening fast and I haven’t had much chance to pause and document it.
So I last left off in May, I guess. That seems so very long ago! When I got home from my grandfather’s funeral in Utah, we followed up on an offer to adopt a dog from a family moving to Australia, and they couldn’t take the dog with them. We agreed to take her, but after some nipping episodes and a long conversation with my mother-in-law about my reservations and concerns, we (I) decided we weren’t ready for that and graciously backed out before the arranged hand-over. That was probably the main thing beyond normal life that happened in May.
May 29-June 6: My mother-in-law, Marianne, came to visit. David had lots of fun playing with her (and vise versa). While she was here we shopped for a playset to put in our back yard. It got installed the day after Marianne left. It’s nice to have something out there for him to play on when I turn him out to burn off some energy. The biggest drawback is the mosquitos. He must have some sweet blood, because he always comes in with mosquito bites. We’re still trying to figure out a good way to deter them besides drenching him in deet.
June 14-June 21: My sister-in-law Jenny and her 13-month-old daughter Anne Elyse came down from Connecticut to visit. We enjoyed taking the kids swimming, going for walks, and visiting various parks, as well as the Marbles Kids Museum. My parents came up to visit the weekend she was leaving so they could visit her, as well. Jenny’s primary reason for coming down was to help with a big project that has consumed much of my time this year, especially during and since her visit. Inspired by the scanner I received for my birthday last year, I had an idea at the beginning of the year to digitize all of my family photos—over 40 years’ worth—that were sitting loose in boxes in my parents’ attic as a Christmas present for my parents. Per my request, Mom and Dad brought up 12 boxes of loose photos when they came up to see Jenny. I had already acquired four boxes from previous visits and had slowly been working my way through them up until this point. Even though I was hoping to surprise my parents, they kind of had an idea of what I was doing, so Jenny and I decided it would be easier if we just told them outright what the plan was (which is why I am just now mentioning this extra activity). After I saw how many boxes there were, I really hunkered down to scanning so that I had a prayer’s chance of getting it all done by Christmas. I got the contents of the two “Pictures to Sort” boxes appropriately distributed, and finished scanning the contents of two boxes. With the box of my own pictures already scanned plus sending Sean's box home with Jenny, that made six boxes down, four to go by Christmas (five if I'm lucky), and three or four to wait for another year.
July 4-5: Nathan and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe we’re here already. Time has flown so fast. We also got the air ducts cleaned in the house. It ended up costing waaay more than we initially thought, but considering that the ducts had never been cleaned since the house was built 18 years ago, I thought it was well worth it.
July 7-14: Utah. I flew out with the boys to Salt Lake City for a Nash family reunion. I met Marianne and Bethany at the airport, and since we weren’t checking into the reunion until the evening of the 8th, we stayed at a hotel that night and in the morning took the boys to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. David loved it! He’s been much more interested in dino things since that excursion. While we were eating lunch at the café there, I looked up and saw friends from South Carolina, of all places! It was fun to visit with them briefly and introduce them to my boys.
The Nash Reunion was fun. We gathered at BYU’s Spring Haven Lodge in Hobble Creek Canyon. Such an amazing lodge! It was a perfect setup for little kids with an indoor treehouse, playland, and sport court, plus pool tables and air hockey. David practically lived in the “Tree Room” where all that stuff was set up, earning the Reunion Award “King of the Playground”. He would play in there with his cousin Sophia, and they ran around holding hands. It was so cute. Daniel had his own bit of fun. The hallways had floors sloped like footbridges, and Daniel loved crawling up and over the “bridges” back and forth, over and over. He looked so proud of himself each time he crossed, and would pause and clap for a moment before crossing again.
A Nash Reunion Tradition is for each family to write a limerick about their doings since the previous reunion (2 years apart). Here is my limerick:
In the North of the South, we put things in our mouth:
Binkies and fingers and boogers and toys—oh, just for the record, that’s ONLY the boys.
Nathan and Natalie prefer finer things, like Bojangles’, brocc’li, and mac-n-cheese.
We come and we go and we watch our boys grow.
They dance, count, and sing, and they climb everything.
We love our new house so our smiles no rains douse,
But we miss proxim’ty to our “tight” Nash fam’ly!
The reunion adjourned on the 11th and I took advantage of being out West to visit my family. We had an unofficial family reunion among my siblings. DeeAnn and Nate live in the area, I was out for the Nash reunion, my sister Lisle (NV) was in town while her son went to BYU Soccer Camp, my brother Sean (CT) was passing through for a quick hello on his way to WA for Jenny’s brother’s wedding, and my sister Minda (also NV) decided to come since so many of us were gathered anyway. We were only missing my two brothers that live in SC. That Monday we all gathered at a pool in Spanish Fork to go swimming together. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. David especially enjoyed going down the big slide. We also went to Nate’s farm and David got to pet the goats, chase bunnies and chickens into their coops, water the ducks, and ride one of the horses. He found that very memorable.
July 15-28: Washington. Since I was that far out West anyway, I continued my trip up to Washington to enjoy some more family time.
Daniel was exceptionally fussy on the drive from the airport to Anacortes, and a family friend/physician confirmed our suspicions of yet another ear infection. Ugh! David played hard at his grandma’s house and thoroughly enjoyed going to the parks and playing in her playroom. At one of the parks I stepped in a divot in the ground and turned my ankle pretty hard. Still recovering from that. Almost a week into my stay, and shortly after Sarah arrived with her two girls, David started running a fever and throwing up. Poor little guy would just lie on the couch and watch the same three movies over and over and over. He was so inanimate, but he wanted me to sit by him. I took advantage of that time to satisfy my curiosity about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I got through all three books before we left, just in time to wait impatiently with the rest of the country for the fourth and final book to be released Aug 2. (I just finished reading that one last night. Great series.)
Nathan flew out to WA on July 22 to go deep-sea fishing with his Dad off of Vancouver Island, BC. When they got home we ate some of the chilled-but-never-frozen salmon they’d caught the day before. YUM. I don’t think you can get fish much fresher! Then we packed up and headed back home.
Aug 4-8: Marianne visited with us again while Bethany was at EFY in New Hampshire (and then flew up to NH to tour the area with her). While she was here, Daniel underwent the long-awaited myringotomy (tubes in his ears). Everything went smoothly there.
I had to have him at the hospital at 5:45 AM, so between that and the general anesthesia he was pretty sleepy that day, but was happy and bouncy the next day. We decided to do his birthday party a little early so we could celebrate with Marianne. I also finished scanning another box of pictures.
Aug 9-12: I went down to Aiken to visit the SC branch of family. My brother Preston, who was stationed at the Navy Weapons Station in Charleston, is moving to California for his next tour of duty: grad school at Stanford University. He and his family stopped in Aiken for the weekend on their way out, so I went down to say goodbye. It’s a five-hour drive, and as we were approaching Aiken, David said, “Mom, [Grand]Ma’s house is really far away.” That is the first time he’s expressed a sense of time or distance, and I found it a humorously appropriate time to start.
We had another birthday party Monday night to celebrate six cousin birthdays: Brenden’s oldest two daughters (15 and 13), Preston’s youngest two daughters (5 and 3), and my boys (4 and 1). Sorry, I forgot my camera for this trip. We had one cake with a cluster of candles for each cousin, and lit each cluster and sang Happy Birthday individually. It was fun, and, remarkably, didn’t take eons. David had a ball playing with all the toys I played with as a child, and had lots of good cousin time. It was hard to pry him away when it was time to go.
We came home from Aiken with an addition to our family: Preston’s cat, Alea. They couldn’t find pet-friendly housing at Stanford, so Alea is hanging out with us for 10 months while they’re in CA. David is very excited to have a kitty and keeps close tabs on her whereabouts and activities. Daniel likes to transfer her kibble into her water bowl and make big splashes.
Daniel is very close to walking. I keep thinking it will happen any day. He’s also bringing in tooth #7, so I’m mopping up lots of drool and a very goopy nose.
In addition to still being a ward missionary, I have been put in charge of the Crafty Sisters Enrichment group at church, plus I’m kind of in charge of playgroup and am trying to start a baby-sitting co-op. Nathan is still up to the same-old same-old: Work, Mission Leader, Work, Mission Leader, with the occasional video game thrown in. So there’s our very thorough update. I’ve really enjoyed being able to visit all our family this summer!
Love to all,
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, & Daniel
So I last left off in May, I guess. That seems so very long ago! When I got home from my grandfather’s funeral in Utah, we followed up on an offer to adopt a dog from a family moving to Australia, and they couldn’t take the dog with them. We agreed to take her, but after some nipping episodes and a long conversation with my mother-in-law about my reservations and concerns, we (I) decided we weren’t ready for that and graciously backed out before the arranged hand-over. That was probably the main thing beyond normal life that happened in May.
If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box
May 29-June 6: My mother-in-law, Marianne, came to visit. David had lots of fun playing with her (and vise versa). While she was here we shopped for a playset to put in our back yard. It got installed the day after Marianne left. It’s nice to have something out there for him to play on when I turn him out to burn off some energy. The biggest drawback is the mosquitos. He must have some sweet blood, because he always comes in with mosquito bites. We’re still trying to figure out a good way to deter them besides drenching him in deet.
June 14-June 21: My sister-in-law Jenny and her 13-month-old daughter Anne Elyse came down from Connecticut to visit. We enjoyed taking the kids swimming, going for walks, and visiting various parks, as well as the Marbles Kids Museum. My parents came up to visit the weekend she was leaving so they could visit her, as well. Jenny’s primary reason for coming down was to help with a big project that has consumed much of my time this year, especially during and since her visit. Inspired by the scanner I received for my birthday last year, I had an idea at the beginning of the year to digitize all of my family photos—over 40 years’ worth—that were sitting loose in boxes in my parents’ attic as a Christmas present for my parents. Per my request, Mom and Dad brought up 12 boxes of loose photos when they came up to see Jenny. I had already acquired four boxes from previous visits and had slowly been working my way through them up until this point. Even though I was hoping to surprise my parents, they kind of had an idea of what I was doing, so Jenny and I decided it would be easier if we just told them outright what the plan was (which is why I am just now mentioning this extra activity). After I saw how many boxes there were, I really hunkered down to scanning so that I had a prayer’s chance of getting it all done by Christmas. I got the contents of the two “Pictures to Sort” boxes appropriately distributed, and finished scanning the contents of two boxes. With the box of my own pictures already scanned plus sending Sean's box home with Jenny, that made six boxes down, four to go by Christmas (five if I'm lucky), and three or four to wait for another year.
My scanning work station
My pile of boxes and albums for this project
My anniversary bouquet
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The Nash Reunion was fun. We gathered at BYU’s Spring Haven Lodge in Hobble Creek Canyon. Such an amazing lodge! It was a perfect setup for little kids with an indoor treehouse, playland, and sport court, plus pool tables and air hockey. David practically lived in the “Tree Room” where all that stuff was set up, earning the Reunion Award “King of the Playground”. He would play in there with his cousin Sophia, and they ran around holding hands. It was so cute. Daniel had his own bit of fun. The hallways had floors sloped like footbridges, and Daniel loved crawling up and over the “bridges” back and forth, over and over. He looked so proud of himself each time he crossed, and would pause and clap for a moment before crossing again.
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A Nash Reunion Tradition is for each family to write a limerick about their doings since the previous reunion (2 years apart). Here is my limerick:
In the North of the South, we put things in our mouth:
Binkies and fingers and boogers and toys—oh, just for the record, that’s ONLY the boys.
Nathan and Natalie prefer finer things, like Bojangles’, brocc’li, and mac-n-cheese.
We come and we go and we watch our boys grow.
They dance, count, and sing, and they climb everything.
We love our new house so our smiles no rains douse,
But we miss proxim’ty to our “tight” Nash fam’ly!
The reunion adjourned on the 11th and I took advantage of being out West to visit my family. We had an unofficial family reunion among my siblings. DeeAnn and Nate live in the area, I was out for the Nash reunion, my sister Lisle (NV) was in town while her son went to BYU Soccer Camp, my brother Sean (CT) was passing through for a quick hello on his way to WA for Jenny’s brother’s wedding, and my sister Minda (also NV) decided to come since so many of us were gathered anyway. We were only missing my two brothers that live in SC. That Monday we all gathered at a pool in Spanish Fork to go swimming together. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. David especially enjoyed going down the big slide. We also went to Nate’s farm and David got to pet the goats, chase bunnies and chickens into their coops, water the ducks, and ride one of the horses. He found that very memorable.
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July 15-28: Washington. Since I was that far out West anyway, I continued my trip up to Washington to enjoy some more family time.
Mount Rainier from the airplane. Just for some perspective on how huge it is, those "foothills" at the base are full-size mountains, probably as big or bigger than the Rockies.
Daniel was exceptionally fussy on the drive from the airport to Anacortes, and a family friend/physician confirmed our suspicions of yet another ear infection. Ugh! David played hard at his grandma’s house and thoroughly enjoyed going to the parks and playing in her playroom. At one of the parks I stepped in a divot in the ground and turned my ankle pretty hard. Still recovering from that. Almost a week into my stay, and shortly after Sarah arrived with her two girls, David started running a fever and throwing up. Poor little guy would just lie on the couch and watch the same three movies over and over and over. He was so inanimate, but he wanted me to sit by him. I took advantage of that time to satisfy my curiosity about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I got through all three books before we left, just in time to wait impatiently with the rest of the country for the fourth and final book to be released Aug 2. (I just finished reading that one last night. Great series.)
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Nathan flew out to WA on July 22 to go deep-sea fishing with his Dad off of Vancouver Island, BC. When they got home we ate some of the chilled-but-never-frozen salmon they’d caught the day before. YUM. I don’t think you can get fish much fresher! Then we packed up and headed back home.
Nathan showcasing a ginormous leaf
I had to have him at the hospital at 5:45 AM, so between that and the general anesthesia he was pretty sleepy that day, but was happy and bouncy the next day. We decided to do his birthday party a little early so we could celebrate with Marianne. I also finished scanning another box of pictures.If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box
Aug 9-12: I went down to Aiken to visit the SC branch of family. My brother Preston, who was stationed at the Navy Weapons Station in Charleston, is moving to California for his next tour of duty: grad school at Stanford University. He and his family stopped in Aiken for the weekend on their way out, so I went down to say goodbye. It’s a five-hour drive, and as we were approaching Aiken, David said, “Mom, [Grand]Ma’s house is really far away.” That is the first time he’s expressed a sense of time or distance, and I found it a humorously appropriate time to start.
We had another birthday party Monday night to celebrate six cousin birthdays: Brenden’s oldest two daughters (15 and 13), Preston’s youngest two daughters (5 and 3), and my boys (4 and 1). Sorry, I forgot my camera for this trip. We had one cake with a cluster of candles for each cousin, and lit each cluster and sang Happy Birthday individually. It was fun, and, remarkably, didn’t take eons. David had a ball playing with all the toys I played with as a child, and had lots of good cousin time. It was hard to pry him away when it was time to go.
We came home from Aiken with an addition to our family: Preston’s cat, Alea. They couldn’t find pet-friendly housing at Stanford, so Alea is hanging out with us for 10 months while they’re in CA. David is very excited to have a kitty and keeps close tabs on her whereabouts and activities. Daniel likes to transfer her kibble into her water bowl and make big splashes.
Daniel is very close to walking. I keep thinking it will happen any day. He’s also bringing in tooth #7, so I’m mopping up lots of drool and a very goopy nose.
In addition to still being a ward missionary, I have been put in charge of the Crafty Sisters Enrichment group at church, plus I’m kind of in charge of playgroup and am trying to start a baby-sitting co-op. Nathan is still up to the same-old same-old: Work, Mission Leader, Work, Mission Leader, with the occasional video game thrown in. So there’s our very thorough update. I’ve really enjoyed being able to visit all our family this summer!
Love to all,
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, & Daniel
Friday, August 1, 2008
Boy? Or Girl? (not what you may think)
Sometime during this calendar year I started helping David differentiate between boys and girls. Not that we were giving anatomy lessons or anything. Just helping him learn that he was a boy, and pointing out various kids in books or at playgrounds and asking if they were a boy or a girl. Seemed like a basic something he should be able to identify.
Today as I was walking by him, David declared to me that he is a boy. Then he pointed to the movie he was watching (Matilda) and said, "She's a girl." Next he informed me that Daniel's a boy. "What am I?" I quizzed him. He looked at me for a while, his eyes scanned me head to toe, and I could see he was obviously thinking hard about this one. I tried to help him out. "Is Daddy a boy or a girl?" He replied with considerably less contemplation that Daddy is a boy. "What is Mommy?" Again he looked at me long and hard, up and down, and finally, but less certainly, said "girl." Glad that's been established!
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