Literary Snob

Adam is at a stage where he is doing new things all the time. Scott and I are constantly looking at each other and asking, "Where'd he learn that?" He loves being read to and has specific books that he prefers. The problem is that he literally "can't judge a book by it's cover". He will bring a book over and as you start to read it he will either get really happy and listen intently or close the book to go get another one. He'll do this until he happens upon one of his favorites.


His current favorites are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb", "The Foot Book" or any of the "David" books. He is not so fond of "Five Little Ducks" and will close "Goodnight Moon" after he hears the first line.


Once he's found a book that he likes he will require you to read it at least five times, if not more. He lets you know he wants it read again by shoving it in your face in this manner:

After the fifth or sixth reading I have tried to subtly put the book behind my back and distract him with a new book. He's no dummy. He will reach around me, grab the book and shove it in my face. I should be glad he likes books. I will be really happy when he begins to be interested in books with an actual story. After five readings of "Brown Bear" I'm practically catatonic.

It's Not Much But We'll Take It!

We are so excited that Adam has enough hair that it needs to be combed after a bath. We got a little carried away on Sunday. Notice the part? That's right, I can officially part his hair now. I'm totally buying some baby mousse. Mohawk, here we come!

Trying to Prevent Serious Injury

Adam thinks he walks really well. He does, just not in a slippery tub. He refuses to stay seated in the tub despite numerous injuries, the worst of which is below. Notice the cut eye and the giant goose egg?


In an attempt to keep him safe we decided to move his bath to the sink where it is a little harder for him to stand and we have the "higher ground" advantage. His first reaction wasn't promising.


Then he started to warm to the idea. He especially liked the sprayer.


Turned out to be a winner after all!


How long do you think this'll work?

It's a Good Thing He's Cute...

and that his Grandma loves him so much, because his latest pastime is to leave a path of destruction in his wake. He just loves to pull all of the books and magazines off of her shelves.
Just look at that self-satisfied smile. What a rascal.
Scott loves that "The Book of Virtues" is lying on top.

Tagged Again!

I know you're all just dying to know more about us and my friend Anna tagged me so, here goes.

How long have you been together? We'll celebrate our 10 year anniversary in May, we only dated for about 6 weeks before we got married.

How long did you date? See above. To quote my friend Anna, we were "so Utah".

How old is he? 34

Who eats more? He usually eats a little bit more than me, but not much. It also depends on the meal.

Who said "I love you" first? Scott, he thought I had fallen asleep. I was faking.

Who is taller? Me! This is one of the things that first struck me when Scott and I dated. He wasn't intimidated by my height; he loved it! Compare this to ALL previous boyfriends who insisted that I not wear heels so as not to threaten their masculinity by towering over them. In the picture below I am wearing 2 1/2 inch heels.

Who sings better? Neither of us are very talented singers, but Scott is currently touring on Rock Band and has completed several songs on "Expert". Does that count?

Who is smarter? Um, yeah, that would be Scott. The man can finish a Rubik's Cube in under a minute and also occasionally corrects my grammar so he's a well rounded kind of genius.

Who does the laundry? Me, he will help if asked but I am very specific about how I like the laundry done, so I usually do it myself.

Who does the dishes? This is about 70% me and 30% him.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? This question always confuses me. The right side if I'm looking at the bed or if I'm in the bed? If I'm looking at the bed it's Scott, if I'm in the bed, it's me.

Who pays the bills? Scott, he is very good with money. He is definitely the frugal one in the family , so the job of paying bills kind of naturally fell to him.

Who mows the lawn? Noah Pulley, we both hate mowing the lawn so we've outsourced that one.

Who cooks dinner? I do. Scott's cooking consists of opening packages and heating things. He does many things well but cooking isn't one of them.

Who is more stubborn? I think this one's a draw.

Who kissed who first? I honestly can't remember, though I think it was probably Scott.

Who asked who out? Our first "date" wasn't really a "date". Then we went from "hanging out" to basically being engaged and married. So, I don't remember there ever being a formal invitation.

Who proposed? Scott.

Who is more sensitive? Me, but Scott is more sensitive than you'd think.

Who has more friends? I think we're pretty equal.

Who has more siblings? Me. Lots, lots more.

Who are you tagging? Well now I have to think of people who haven't already been tagged. Let's see, Stephanie, Holly, Heidi and Laurie. No obligation here gals, I won't be offended if you don't want to spill your guts.

Toga! Toga!

As promised, the pictures from our last night of the cruise or, Toga Night. When I first read on the schedule that the last night was Toga Night I thought it was silly. I still think it was completely silly. But, it was also a lot of fun. Our room steward informed us that he would leave sheets and crowns in the room for us. I asked if they had anything for kids, he told me that they usually didn't but he would leave me a pillowcase for Adam. This is the result:


Everywhere we went people would ask if they could take a picture of him or with him. There were a few other kids in togas, but he was definitely the cutest, if I do say so myself.


He pulled it off so well because he doesn't have to worry about modesty. We all looked a little less "authentic" with our shirts on under our togas. Not Adam, he has no issue with showing off his ample bosom.


That's it. After this I will resume posting about everyday life and not the fantasy world we lived in over Christmas where someone else cooked our meals made our beds. Back to the grind.

The Boat

In continuing the report on our cruise over the holidays I thought I would do a little review of our ship. Maybe this will be helpful to others as I had a hard time finding reviews when I was booking the cruise.

Our cruise line was Costa, their subtitle is, "Cruising Italian Style". This cruise line definitely caters to European customers. I would guess that about 25% of the guests were American. The others were Italian, Dutch and French with a few Spanish speakers. It was definitely an experience in being a minority. Most of the announcements on the boat were made in four languages. Occasionally, however, they would make an announcement in only one or two of the languages. What was so important that the Dutch know, but not important enough to tell the Americans, I don't know.

The food was also very European. We could usually find things we liked but sometimes didn't recognize 30-40% of the things on the buffet. Scott teased me because toward the end of the cruise I had a major craving for chicken fingers and was going to order off of the children's menu so I could get some. The children's menu didn't have chicken fingers. That should tell you just how un-American the food was.



This was our first cruise so I don't know how other boats stack up. This is going to sound a little ridiculous but I was constantly amazed at how clean everything was! They were constantly cleaning the decks and wiping windows (we joked that they probably had someone assigned to follow Adam around and wipe his drool/snot/fingerprints off of everything).

This story illustrates my point. We were getting on the elevator and a staff member started running toward the elevator, so I held the door thinking he wanted to get on. No, he just wiped the fingerprints off of the inside of the door (the part you don't even see except when the doors are open), waved and moved on.


My biggest fear about taking Adam on a cruise is that he would fall off the boat(completely rational, right?). I asked several people who had been on cruises if the walls of each deck were solid or just railing. Well, our boat had both. This deck was just railing so, when we took Adam out, we held him the whole time. Even when we took the above pictures Dorothy was telling us, "Hold him tight!"


The pools on the ship left a lot to be desired. There were three pools and a "baby pool". The three regular pools were literally 10'x15' rectangles with the same depth, of about 3.5 feet, the whole length. There was a waterslide but it was only open at certain times. The "baby pool" was pretty lame, as evidenced by a dearth of other babies every time we went. Adam and Scott played a lot in the regular pools, that is, until we were asked to leave by a security guard. Apparently, they didn't want babies in diapers in the regular pools. I tried to explain that he was wearing a swim diaper and that it was no different than the other kids who were peeing in the pool. He wasn't swayed.


We spent a lot of time out on the decks just relaxing and enjoying the warm, moist air. I know I mentioned it before, but I have to comment on how fabulous my hair was while on the cruise. I didn't use an ounce of product and turned on my blow dryer one time. All I had to do was wash my hair and let it air dry and I was blessed with soft, bouncy ringlets.

All in all we liked the ship. Next time we would probably choose a cruise line that caters more to children and families. Stay tuned for my next post which will be titled "Toga, Toga!"

Tortola

The cruise that we went on this Christmas had four stops; Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Tortola and Grand Turk. Puerto Rico was lovely and we took some great pictures. Unfortunately we (I) left our camera on a bench, so I don't have any pictures to show you. Our next stop, St. Martin, had a duty free shop where we bought a new camera (we were in the market for a new one anyway, our first one was about six years old). Unfortunately, the battery wasn't charged when we bought it so we didn't get any pictures of St. Martin either. Which brings me to Tortola. Ah, lovely Tortola. Of all the islands, we loved Tortola best so I'm glad our new camera was charged and ready to go when we docked.

Here are Scott, Adam and me standing on the dock near our boat. The sling Dorothy made for me at the Relief Society Super Saturday was priceless.


This is the view from one of the tall peaks of Tortola. Isn't it beautiful? When we came back to Rochester, it wasn't the cold that struck me, it was the lack of color this time of year.


Here we are at the top of a peak in Tortola. Our guide took the picture for us. He was great.


I don't think this one needs an introduction, it speaks for itself.

This is Dorothy at the top. She also loved Tortola best of all the islands.



I will post more pictures over the next few days. I may dedicate an entire post to how great my hair looked in the warm, humid weather of the Caribbean.

New Year Resolutions

I know that I should be posting pictures from our vacation but I'm sitting at the computer and that would require me to get up, get the camera and upload the pictures. So I'll do that tomorrow; sorry Deborah. I was inspired by Miss Nemisis to post my resolutions for the new year. Nothing earth shattering here, I just felt that if I put it out there for the world to see I would be a little more likely to adhere to said resolutions. So here they are, in no particular order:

1. I will make a meal menu for every month and abide by it, especially when grocery shopping.
2. I will not nap during the day unless I had fewer than 7 hours of sleep the night before. Unless I'm sick. Or pregnant. I'm not pregnant, I'm just saying if I were pregnant then I would be free to nap at my leisure.
3. I will be nice to my husband and not use what he calls my "mean voice". Which, if you're wondering, isn't yelling but is more of a snotty condescending tone I use when I am annoyed, or tired, because I haven't napped.
4. I will read my scriptures everyday while Adam naps ('cause I won't be napping).
5. I will pray every night before bed.
6. I will choose three productive things to do everyday to improve myself, my home or my family.
7. I will be supportive in helping Scott remember to have family prayers and family home evening (should that be capitalized?).

I think that's all the improvement I can stand for one year. When I told Amy that I wanted to do three productive things per day she asked if showering counted. Of course it does Amy. Silly, silly girl.

Dick Clark's Got Nothing on Us!

Our flight from Florida arrived at about 4 p.m. and we had some friends over at 7 p.m. for a "Rockin'" new year party. Anna posted about it here. We had a lot of fun and it was great to see our friends after having been away for a while. It made us realize how much we love them! Thanks for a great time everyone (and for bringing the food since our fridge was still empty!).