Christmas and the New Year

We spent Christmas in Littleton this year with my whole side of the family.  That's a lot of cool people in one place at one time.  It was especially fun to see Aaron, Harry, and Liam together since they are only months apart.  Of course I failed at taking pictures of Liam with all his cousins, but at least I got a few.

                                               

Hannah's birthday gifts to Liam.

Liam abiding in his field keeping watch over his flock by night.

Liam and Lucy.

                                          Harrison taking his Baby Jesus role very seriously.

Harrison peeking around Liam who stole Maddy's gift.

                                                             The boys with Grandpa.

                                                                     Cutie pie, Harrison.

Lucy and Liam playin' some Christmas tunes. 

Liam opening his presents at home before we left.

It's strange/exciting/lovely to see my family explode in number and noise.  I sure love and miss you guys!

Fostering an Environment of Learning in the Home

I was feeling guilty about boring Liam with the same old toys and the same old schedule, so I decided to surprise him with a couple ingenious ideas I found on Pinterest.  The blog I got the ideas from (http://www.imperfecthomemaker.com/?s=toddler) is adorable and I was excited to give them a shot.  Here are the two I tried:

And here were the results:

 Pulling the tube off the wall to chew on.

Bypassing the Sock Tunnel Cave of Wonders for the electrical outlet (don't worry, they're child-proof)

Finding more important things to do.

Terrorizing his parents.

Sorry Liam, but I am never taking you to Disneyland.

Baby Sign Language

Experts say babies can communicate well before they can verbalize.  As such, parents who teach their babies sign language can actually communicate with their little wordless wonders.  I think I have an advanced child, because I've never taught him sign language and yet he signs to me all the time!  Just watch.

Liam can say "All done!"

Liam can say "All you do is talk." Rude, I know.

Liam can say "Want some?"

and Liam can say "More."

I always knew I had a gifted child.

Parental Supervision Required

Well, I've been a stay at home mom for a good 1,680 hours and 43 min. now, so I guess that makes me an expert.  I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  A lot of time.  Mostly, I read articles like, "How to be a More Productive Stay at Home Mom".

Mixing work and pleasure can be difficult, so I've gradually limited the "work" portion of my day by eliminating one chore for each idealistic notion I once had of housewifery.  As of now I feed Liam, play with Liam, change Liam, put Liam down for a nap, change Liam, feed Liam, play with Liam, cook dinner, put Liam to bed.  Sometimes I want to call a babysitter so I can get my stay at home mom jobs done.

Over the hours, I've experienced much that leads me to my sage advice:

• Don't close the bathroom door when you're in there and don't leave it open when you're not.  I turn my back for one minute (yeah, I sooo get that phrase now) and Liam's chewing on a ufo--unidentified floor object.  I once pulled four little wads of toilet paper out of his tiny mouth.  I shouldn't have told you that.  
• Set aside a good day/day and a half to get ready to leave the house.  
• Dress your baby head to toe.  Hats, sweaters, pants, socks, shoes.  Otherwise, old people talk to you passive-aggressively about your child freezing to death out there.
• "Browsing" the Internet is the new "Cleaning"
• Pacifiers are more elusive than the Fountain of Youth and twice as miraculous.
• Don't think about the fact that diapers cost about 25 cents each.  It'll just make you long for gumballs.  Lots and lots of gumballs.  
• Most importantly, tending babies takes a lot of watching.  I've already finished watching all the episodes of Nanny 911, Animal Hoarding, and Who the Bleep Did I Marry?! that Netflix has to offer.  

Every day I find myself loving my mom a little more.

Teen Trends

As a high school teacher, I like to pretend I'm in the know with everything popular right now.  BTW, saying "in the know", so not popular right now.  Here are my observations for anyone who wants to stay awesome.

Things trending right now:

1.  The term "trending"
2.  Using the word "epic" as a synonym for "awesome".  So much so that I finally made my students read The Odyssey, so they'd stop thinking epic meant awesome.  I, however, think The Odyssey is quite epic.
3.  Mustaches.  Even for girls.  Why have I been waxing mine all these years?
4.  "Like a boss."  I'm glad bosses are finally getting the credit they deserve.
5.  Energy drinks.  Especially during my class.  Hmm...
6.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  They were before my time, but not before 90s kids' time.
7.  The Zombie Apocalypse.  For some, more pressing than a high school diploma.  I guess small brains would have the advantage, though.
8.  Tattoos
9.  Procrastination as endearing.
10.  Ninjas
11.  Chuck Norris.  Although, he knew he was trending even before hipsters knew he was trending.

And, that's all you need to know to have a conversation with a teenager, like a boss.

Little Fatty

My question to Eric? "Uh...did you know having a baby was going to be this hard?" His answer, "Yeah (obviously)." Well, thanks for the warning, world! I never had to live with a baby before! I AM the baby! My realizations?

-Sure, you can sleep while your baby sleeps. Oh, and babies sleep all the time. That is, when they are in your arms or at 10:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night.

-If you don't formula feed, you are the bottle. That means they are crying for you and while hitting dad at 4:00 AM seems satisfying, it won't do anything.

-Little teeny tiny clothes can actually overflow a laundry room within hours.

-Babies have the midas touch, if you replace gold with spit up and other pleasantries.

-I think I have what you call an "easy baby," which frightens me.

-The strangest realization is that the very things that make babies hard make them the most endearing, adorable, lovable creatures on earth. Motherhood has been the best part of life so far besides wife-hood. I highly encourage baby hunger.

In fact, my more viable realizations have been:

-If Liam's arguments are half as charming as his smile, I'm in some trouble.

-Babies can even make toots seem cute.

-The biggest reason why I don't get sleep is because I want to take in every moment of that little guy.

I recently went back to work. I had forgotten how much I loved being in the classroom, so it was fun to reenter the working world, but leaving Lamb-ee has been really hard. I managed to convince some students that I just left Liam home alone with some bottles in the fridge during the week. I can't decide if I should be offended by how easily they believed me. Luckily, we have an excellent babysitter who lives just around the corner. While I'll miss teaching, I am counting down the days to when I can just be Liam's mom. It's too hard to balance both!

My fatigue shows at school and home. More and more often, a student will wave at me to break my wide-eyed sleepy trance while I'm watching them complete assignments. At home, I can't stay awake past 8:30 and have finally come to value sleep over food... unbelievable.

I'm lucky that Liam makes everything worthwhile. Just look at him! (Disclaimer: I realize that this video clip is probably not as entertaining to you as it is to me. But, as a mom, I receive the right of passage to show long, boring videos of my baby that only I could watch over and over)

A Christmas Story

Our little dumpling came just in time for Christmas and exactly one month early. Not yet too comfortable with life outside the confines of the womb, he struggles to see the practicality of clothing. Every non-nightgown outfit we try on him results in a survival-mode starfish position. He looks just like the famous snowsuit boy on A Christmas Story.

Ya see?

Even in Grandma's arms.

Dear Blank Please Blank

One day my students showed me a witty website called dearblankpleaseblank.com. While some of the entries are inappropriate and just plain dumb, many are comical and eye-opening. Eric and I decided to submit some of our own:

Dear NBA,

Please whine more about your "lousy" compensation.

Sincerely,

Your teacher

Dear Marijuana Vendors,

Tylenol cures headaches too.

Sincerely,

I still have my limbic system

Dear Students,

Do you not see the irony of replacing your Fahrenheit 451 reading assignment with Spark Notes?

Sincerely,

Bradbury saw this coming, dummy.

We think we're so funny.

The Loony Bin

Do you feel like you're losing touch with those around you? Do you often forget words in the middle of a... um... you know... that thing with words in it? Do you find it hard to follow casual conversation, movies, books, thoughts, or commercials? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be getting old. If you answered yes to all of these questions, you must be pregnant.

I used to tease my mom about getting old, then I stopped cuz I uh...hold on... I used to tease her but then I, oh I'll think of it later.

Turns out absentmindedness is a legitimate pregnancy symptom. It also turns out that I have a severe case of it. The other day I drove to Mountain View (10 min. away) to pick up a pizza. I got there and realized I didn't have my wallet. So, I drove all the way home in a huff, ran into the house, and still couldn't find it. In frustration I shoved my hand in my jacket pocket and voila. I had had my wallet all along in the hidden vault of my front pocket. No wonder I couldn't find it.

My form of communication has flipped from intelligible speech, to general pantomimes. Who knew Eric was a... what's that one game where you act things out? Charades. Who knew Eric was such a charades wizard?

Most of my stories go like this: "The other day I was looking at funny baby shirts. Like uh, Eric, what was that one? No... the other one. Oh, forget it. They were funny though." It really takes the dramatic effect and the downright purpose out of anything I try to communicate.

I even had a nightmare that I had forgotten I had a baby. Then I woke up and for a moment couldn't remember where I'd put the baby until I found it in my womb.

I've realized that I'm going to be either pregnant or getting old for the rest of my life now. This is only the beginning of my mental decline. Goodbye brain, hello sticky notes.

Happy Birthday, Sugar!

We just celebrated Eric's 27th birthday in Park City. I married an old, old man. I sure love that wrinkly little devil. Happy birthday, Puddin'.

Ultrasound

When we found out we were having a boy, we got the cutest ultrasound! Of course, we may be a little biased, but our little skeletor baby makes the cutest startled face in it. I've only watched it about 500 times and thought I'd share it. We also got some footage of his manhood, but I'll protect his modesty, although he felt NO inclination to do so.

We also...

Here's some pictures of us at the Denver Art Museum, more appropriately named the DAM. We usually go to liberally make DAM jokes, but also enjoy the artwork.

Shadow Art

Trying our hands at the potter's wheel.

Our New Place

My mom graciously came over to help us paint our family room and kitchen. We were finally able to hang up some pictures and get settled in to our new house. Being pregnant when we moved and painted was the best work avoidance strategy I've ever had. THANK YOU MOM!

Family Room

Kitchen Close Up

Kitchen

Hall

Master Bathroom (still choosing paint colors)

Finally Some Pictures

I finally found proof on my camera that we do things. Here are some of the few fun activities we actually documented this summer.

High School Graduation- Graduating Class of 63 Students

Eric and student at graduation.

Sirius. We thought he was a goner after he ran off. Turns out a high school girl found him, took him to the fair, and won blue ribbons! Although not dead, he has definitely gone to a better place.

Anderson Boys playing a gig in Idaho Falls

Eric and his sister Caroline

This is a video of Eric and Bean (Will and Jamie's cute daughter) dancing while the Anderson boys perform.

Rachel's beautiful wedding and reception in Salt Lake. Doree came clear from Massachusetts.

World Traveling Unborn Baby!

It seems callous to say that the best part of teaching is summer vacation, but what's not to like? So far Eric and I have had a wild one. Despite going to prenatal appointments and closing on a house, we've managed to spend our vacation completely outside of Lyman. Unfortunately, while we continually pack our camera, it doesn't seem to follow us around taking pictures like it should. Our schedule o' fun has included:

1. Anderson Family Reunion at Bear Lake

2. Anderson Adventures in Iona, ID

3. Rachel's wedding in Salt Lake

4. *Kansas City for Skills USA Nationals (Pregnant on a short school bus for 18 hrs. each way. Yeehaw.)

5. Liggett 4th of July in Worland, WY

6. Littleton, CO

7. Liggett Reunion Leadville, CO

8. Dallas, TX

*Please Note: I would have written a whole blog post on this Kansas City experience would it not contain an inappropriate amount of expletives.

In other news:

-We celebrated our one-year anniversary, so now we know everything about marital success ;)

-August 2nd, baby willing, we will find out the gender of this little tot.

-I hit a new record of five days without my head in the toilet (just can't seem to control that bad habit)

-Though subtle and unimpressive so much that I mentally lash out (if it's mentally would it be lash in?) at lucky large pregnant ladies, I am getting a baby bump!

-I think I feel that cutie bumbling around. Or gas. It's hard to tell but, for everyone's sake, I am just gonna go with the former. (Side note: Joking around with Eric before we wanted a baby, I said, "Eric, either I've got a baby in here, or gas" to which he responded, "Please be a baby, please be a baby".)

We can't wait for our lives to turn upside down with this new baby and, who knows? Maybe we'll actually start taking pictures.

Paper Clip Pupils

Recently, Eric used his ingenuity to solve a pesky problem that caused a snowball fad. Here's what happened.

Annoyed by his pant hem coming undone at work, Eric grabbed a paper clip, fastened it to the end of his pants, and carried on.

Later, a curious student noticed the paper clip and asked Eric's intent.

Eric said simply it was cool to wear a paper clip on your pant hem.

The next day, students everywhere showed up with paper-clipped pant legs.

At graduation, most of the seniors wore paper clips on their robes and, when accepting their diplomas, removed the paper clip and discreetly handed it to our principal in a handshake.

Eric shook his head and said, "I just wanted to keep my hem up."

Baby, We're Gonna Have One

We saw our little bean kicking back in our first ultrasound last week. If you don't know already, I really mean a bean baby. Not a beanie baby or a spawn of a bean, but a real baby the size of a bean. Eric and I found out we were pregnant at the end of April and have been excited, well more tired, but super happy ever since!

My senior English students made me swear I wouldn't get pregnant as each of their English teachers in high school had been. They thought pregnant ladies were moody. Can you imagine? I only cry at commercials and threaten Eric when he wins at Scrabble. Luckily, they are now graduated and thanked me for keeping their pregnant English teacher spree going.

To announce the pregnancy, I put the following sentence on a vocabulary quiz. Students have to decide if the word in italics is used correctly:

The students gaped when Mrs. Anderson told them she was pregnant on a vocabulary quiz.

About 90% of the students in my first hour turned in their quizzes without a word. It concerns me as to how little they pay attention to test questions. Anyhow, a couple students got it and by 2 min. after first hour, the whole school knew and had offered to babysit. It was sweet how excited all the students were.

Anyways, the ultrasound went well and I'm due Jan. 5th. Half the time we think it's a girl and the other half we think it's a boy, so we're pretty sure it will be one of those. I wasn't quite prepared for:

1. Morning sickness, a misnomer, should be uhh... 1st trimester sickness

2. Feeling tired even after I wake up. Oddly, Eric feels it too.

3. Needing very specific foods about 30 times a day.

How do pregnant ladies do anything but eat and sleep? They amaze me more than ever.

Blood Loser

Drained of blood, lunch, energy, and most of all pride, I narrowly escaped the health fair Thursday. Our high school drafts all seniors to donate blood. If they can't for some reason, they must get a sub. Eric was a sub for a tattooed student, but, due to recent health problems, could not donate. Therefore, I became tattoo sub.

4:00 Arrival Time: They asked me all sorts of innocence stealing questions to which I just wanted to say, "Mormon. Does that cover it?"

4:15 Donation Time:

Nurse: "Betty, come look at these veins. I'm not comfortable with these. They look too small."

Betty: "Did you see this one? It's ideal."

Nurse: "Oh, no! I didn't even notice that one"

Me: Big smile. (On the inside) AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4:30 Done and feeling fine

4:31 Hmm... can't hear anything, sweaty, cold, no... hot?

The next hour and 29 minutes consisted of concentrating on not passing out while my students told me how horrible I looked.

6:00

Nurse: "Since you've been here so long, we have to take your blood pressure and fill out this form. Don't worry. This happens more than you'd think."

Me: "Okay, good. I'm sorry for all the trouble."

Nurse: "Betty! How do you fill out this sheet? I've never had to do one before."

6:05

My principal donates in the seat next to me while the other seats are filled with students. Luckily Eric had made it there by then.

6:10

Nurse: "She says she feels fine. Can we let her go? Oh. Never mind. She's puking."

6:30

Nurse: "Good to go. If you have any other complications... seek medical attention." AKA please leave before we get sued.

They had to get my blood pressure back up to within 30 digits of what it was before I came before they could let me go. Two and a half hours later, I was finally home. I hate to use "Ugh" (cuz who really says that and why the fancy "h" on the end?) but, UGH!

Silly Rabbit, Cauliflower is for Kids!

Anyone who has stepped into my childhood bedroom will understand my obsession with bunnies. It's so full of adorable bunny decorations that you start blinking bunnies upon exiting. I also have several experiences with the cuties. Most of them tragic.

In short, I've learned:

1. Rabbits are prey and foxes are predators.

2. Cauliflower also happens to be a predator.

3. Rabbits hate everything fun... including me.

My observations of rabbit behavior led me to the uncomfortable conclusion that I, in fact, am a rabbit.

Observation #1: Rabbits are weenies.

Example) I invented a ramp that would allow my bunny to run out of his cage to get some exercise. I left the door open, he tiptoed halfway down, froze, panicked, and sprinted back into his cage. I walked away. Four hours later, he was still in the corner of his cage.

Observation #2: Anna is a weenie.

Example) Recently at a teacher conference in Casper, I passed by a bowl of Reese's cups one, two, three times. Oh, I needed that cup. Alas, they lay on a demonstrator's table surrounded by free pens (also enticing), pamphlets, and a poster. I couldn't bear taking one without obligating myself to her spiel, so I walked on by. Eric's six pens sticking out from his back pocket, however, prove he's no sissy.

Observation #3: Rabbits are cute, soft, completely un-cuddly, smart alecs.

Example) My bunny supposedly has velvety fur. I wouldn't know, however, unless I killed it and sewed it into mittens. One pat on the head and you'd think he'd just been seen naked the way he bolts away. Then, the tireless taunting. "Ooh, I'm so soft and cute. Watch me bend my ear down. Bet you'd love to feel how soft my shiny fur is. Just a little closer... Jump, oh oops! Were you trying to pet me?"

Observation #4: Anna is cute, soft, completely un-cuddly, and a smart alec.

Example) Hugging students makes me uncomfortable. Teasing students sarcastically makes me too comfortable. Sitting around comfortably makes me soft.

Observation #5: Rabbits are easily entertained.

Example) Rabbit #1 (Bernerd) used to love to sit on the heater when the air came through.

Observation #6: Anna is easily entertained.

Example) I used to stop whatever I was doing to watch Bernerd sit on the heater when the air came through.

Although we rarely touch, rabbits and I share a profound bond.