The Wearing of the Green {Beans}

After a month of failed attempts, Owen started eating rice cereal two weeks ago. He has become a champion eater so I decided to move him along to veggies. Last week (when this title was still relevant) Owen got his first taste of green beans. To say he disliked them would be an understatement. I could only get him to take a few bites and he definitely wasn't as voracious as he usually is, but we'll keep trying. James and I had our traditional St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. We loved every bite!

Take 1 happy boy in a high chair

Add anything but rice cereal

Yield: This Face

Update - after a few days Owen got the hang of green beans, though he still makes this face with every bite he takes.

Santa Baby

Twilight Movie Update: A few of us will be getting together to see the movie tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9 pm at the new theater in Orem. Anyone is welcome to join us. Now on with the post.

What is the deal with Santa? Zoe is scared out of her wits at just the sight of the bearded man. Always has been. Am I ruining Christmas for my kids by not playing up Santa? I don't really remember my parents pushing him on me when I was growing up and I definitely don't remember a time when I ever believed in him. So here is my question for you - What role does Santa play in your holidays? How did that role come about? Was it a natural process or did you put effort into cultivating a tradition/belief? I'm just curious about your households because I have absolutely no inclination to make Santa a figurehead in our home. I don't think less of anyone who does and I'm not trying to force my disbelief on anyone, I just wonder what the motivation is for incorporating Santa into Christmas. And what is the process for introducing him to children - especially when so many little ones seem terrified of him.

In the meantime, as long as we have nothing better to do on a Friday night in December in Payson, we will probably be found doing this:

On the Origin of Nuggle

Wow, I haven't posted for a while. Mostly because our life has been downright boring lately. Which is fine by me. It's nice that February is starting out relatively calm because pretty soon it is going to get rip-roaring crazy. You'll see. I guess the only thing to update everyone on is that I was released from my calling. I have been the first counselor in the Relief Society for almost exactly a year and a half (which is a long time for our ward) and I got to serve under two fantastic presidents. I'm pretty sure my freedom won't last long. The Young Women's president tracked me down to let me know she was "excited" that I was released. Which is right up my alley. I'd still be going to Young Women's if I had any say-so in the matter.

Other than that, Zoe isn't feeling so great and has a pretty yucky cough. I'm just hoping it blows over. If that wasn't enough, I finally got to the exciting part of Jane Eyre, where things actually start to happen so for the last two and a half days I've really been no good to anyone. Just ask James.

To make up to our families, specifically the grandmas, for excluding Zoe's little nuggle face from so many (6 straight) recent posts, I present the following:

On the Origin of Nuggle

Some of you may have noticed (and some of you have commented) about the usage of the term "Nuggle." Today I intend to address the origins and proper usage of the term.

James and I do not belong to the school of thought that says you should wait to choose your child's name until after they are born (for me this is one of those no-brainers right up there with finding out the sex at 20 weeks, no offense to anyone not of my opinion, but really you are crazy and wrong). When they come out they are swollen, red, and covered in goo. And I am in a drug/labor of love-induced stupor. No condition for making far-reaching decisions in my child's life. So before we even got married we knew what names we wanted to use for our children.

One thing we couldn't predict was the role of nicknames. During the pregnancy we went through various ones, including Zowen before we knew the gender (Zoe + Owen). Then Zoe came into the world and every nickname we ever called her went out the window. After months of toying around with new nicknames, we realized that the only word/name that fit her was "Nuggle." It started out as us just saying snuggle, then we dropped the "s" and it became a noun. Other incarnations we use include: Nuggles, Nuggle Bear, Nuggles T. Bear, Nuggle-Faced Bear, Nugglesome Bear, and Nuggly B (used exclusively by James). Sometimes she is a Nuggle, sometimes she is The Nuggle (a la The Cheat) but she is always nuggly.

How long will she be a Nuggle? Who knows. We will probably embarrass her in front of her friends in high school.

So maybe it's a half-made up word that means nothing to anybody else. To us it sums up everything about this wonderful little girl we get to hang out with every day.

Now aren't you all glad we didn't name her when we saw her?

All the snow pictures/footage is from one miraculous outing where Zoe decided it was about time to actually touch the snow she talks about endlessly. She went all along one side of the walkway sticking her right foot into the snow. I guess this is what you would call a step in the right direction? The video gets a little bit of it. Something must have gone terribly wrong the last time she stuck her foot in because she a had a total meltdown.

Sewing Group

I went to sewing group at our chapel this morning but it turns out the only stitching that would get done was on Zoe's head. Just as we were leaving I heard her fall down and start crying. I thought she ran into or fell into the window in the foyer and wasn't too disturbed (or in a hurry to help her). When I finally got there she had blood all down her face. I guess she hit her head on the metal casing around the window and had a pretty gnarly laceration. It just wouldn't stop bleeding and I could tell it was fairly deep. I ran her home, grabbed Tigger, the pacifier, our insurance card, and the camera (of course) and headed to the ER.



Three hours and 2 stitches later we are home and safe. The doctor kept us waiting so long that all of the nurses and technicians were apologizing to us for how long we had to wait. If an ER nurse is apologizing, you know it is above the normal waiting time. Zoe was fine and kept quiet and busy until the actual stitching process had to occur. The doctor didn't want to sedate her so he numbed up the area and then the nurses wrapped her up in a blanket so we could hold her down. This she did not like so much. If you didn't know, Zoe is a screamer. She has a really high-pitched, loud scream. The doctor was actually complaining to everyone about it. I was so mad I nearly slapped him. Here we are waiting for hours with a toddler who has behaved herself magnificently the whole time (despite having a head wound that would not stop bleeding and being past her lunch and nap time) and yet, when we pin her down and ram a threaded needle through her skin, she screams and HE has the nerve to complain. Naturally I held my composure and he did compliment me for that (am I the only mom who doesn't cry when their kid gets shots, stitches, etc?). I think he was going to use regular stitches, but he didn't want to have to repeat the screaming process to take them out in a week so he put in the kind that dissolve.

Two Tiny Stitches

What an ordeal. James was supposed to be coming home early to help me out - I am just a little too stressed out, Zoe won't take a nap, and Garth is here as icing on the cake - but he just called and his car won't start. And I still have our laundry (some of it bloody) and dinner calling my name. Can I get a do-over for today?

I do have to add, that at the hospital I ran into a guy I knew in high school and hadn't seen for years. He works there and is pre-med at BYU. Small world. Maybe we should have to rush Zoe to the hospital more often!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas I Posted on My Blog

Five Frantic Faces

On Saturday we went and saw Santa. Last year Zoe was 5 months old and she didn't do so well and we figured this year would be the same. It was. But RC Willey does free pictures and there were free hot dogs too, so we went. We showed Zoe pictures and got her to say "tanta" in hopes that she wouldn't freak out. I thought it might have worked when we got there and she stared at the bearded man in awe. Then it was her turn. If we had had more time to go slowly, I think she might have been fine. But the second Santa reached for her, things started going down hill. And then he rang his bell. Blast that infernal bell. He meant it as a friendly gesture, but it scared Zoe to death. As soon as the encounter ended Zoe was fine and went back to staring intently. At least we got a free frame. And 5 shots of Zoe wigging out with Santa (the last one is the official picture that the store took and printed out for us). Sorry Santa, maybe next year!