Why Colds Can Be Cool

You know how certain smells bring back memories?  I think the lack of smell can do the same.

I'm here to tell you that having a cold makes me feel more organized and puts me in a good mood.  Maybe during the peak of a cold this isn't true, but as it starts to taper off, I find that life is quite lovely.

As a child, my allergies were so bad that I basically had a constant cold or sinus infection.  I had to learn to function while sick and it just became a part of life.  I vividly remember a spring night when I walked outside to get something from our barn -- I breathed in the night air, and in that moment, my nose was clear enough that I could actually smell the air.  I hopped and jumped, it was so delightful to smell.  Most of the time, though, I had to take a "blowing my nose" break and just blow and blow until I could take in a few whiffs (pitiful and gross... sorry).  But this made smells that much more delightful, and the lack of smells that much more memorable.  Congestion slows you down -- it can make you think a little slower.  And somehow I function better when my brain isn't moving 100 miles an hour.  

I'm not the sick kid I once was, and colds have, thankfully, become a rarity.  But when one comes around and I have housework to do, dinner to make, and a baby to take care of, I somehow know exactly how to order my day.  Very little is stressful, and I move at my own pace.  And, to make it even better, a host of childhood memories floods my mind as I go about my daily tasks... my older sister suddenly becoming possessed, and running into our room to throw hangers at me for no reason; filling our tin bucket with water and lugging it to our play cabin; the feel of Skulpy clay as we form cinnamon rolls for our American girl dolls; baby Ethan staying the week with us, and having the time of my life; filling up my Baby Loves to Talk's empty battery box with rocks from our gravel road (so she could feel heavy and real, you know); the feel of my sister's and my matching flannel nightgowns; my pencil against loose leaf, lined paper and staring at a terrible math book; playing the Beauty and the Beast tape on repeat so my sister's and I could perfect our performance for my parents.  Jenny was Belle.  Sally was Gaston.  I was everyone else.  

So, here's to having a cold!  I might hold off on the vitamin C a few days.  

To Grandparents' House We Go

We're at NeNe and Papa Jack's house!  Little Pickle is fast asleep in her Pack n' Play, and Daddy is off to bed early with a bad cough. :(  So, I'm here in the living room with my parents who are playing "words with friends" on their respective mac devices.  You know.

At dusk, the little nieces went out to swing while Aunt Sally pushed.  They love their swings.

Ghost children in motion

In the wagon: supplies (AKA boots and baby doll)

Aunt Sally, entertaining the childrens

Poor Alice is too little to play outside with the big kids!  But since she's a sweetheart, she's more than content to sit in her Bumbo seat and play with her hands and/or burp-cloth.

It's hard to believe that just next year, Alice will be toddling right behind her cousins, trying to keep up.  But she's Baby Alice, and babies don't grow.  So, she'll be my baby forever.  Mm-hm.

See you tomorrow!  I plan to talk about my cold and why having a cold makes me feel nostalgic.  You wouldn't want to miss out on THAT.

Exciting Times

We're slowly on the mend over here... meanwhile, Alice has been enjoying her dose of Little House on the Prairie.  There's nothing that can cheer you up like a sweet baby on your lap.

The hardest part about being sick is constantly thinking about everything I could be doing.  Our house is in the state of the 7 Dwarves' house without Snow White.  But Snow White is sick.  Poor Snow White.  At least I don't look like Snow White... that would just be depressing.

...so strange.

Tomorrow, we go to my parents' to spend some time with them and my sister, brother, sister-in-law, and our sweet nieces (assuming we live until then).  Little Pickle can't wait.

Sick Skillz

While sitting here in Sickly Land, I've been spending time in Blogly Land -- perhaps too much time.  But while I had this time, I thought that pulling up Microsoft Paint and painting a picture of myself would be a good idea.  I think I was subconsciously inspired by hyperboleandahalf.  Here's what I came up with.

Let's talk about this.
This is me (obviously) doing what I've been doing all day: sitting on our ugly-cute couch, leaning on a pillow (yes, that's a pillow), on my giant, 2006 laptop that makes my lap feel like a furnace.  On our window are my white, paper mistletoe decorations.  Outside the window is one of those flying-saucer cars (you've heard of them), and I guess my arm lost all feeling.  It might have lost some bones.  Oh, and our yard is sprinkled with fairydust.  We DO have neighbors who live in houses, but who has the patience to draw houses?  I don't know how Ms. Hyperbole does it.  The only thing missing from this picture is a bunch of used Kleenexes scattered around (however, I did use the spray paint tool to spray my nose pinky-red, which is realistic).

That's what I spent a large amount of my time doing today.

In other news: My brother preached at church today and did a beautiful job.  Caleb and I are kind of starving and I wish I had it in me to cook something decent.  Alice is on top of the world!  And why shouldn't she be?

New Year's Eve at the Roberts'

It's party town over here!  Caleb and I both have colds and it's kind of the pits.  Thankfully, Little Pickle hasn't caught it, and is foot-loose and fancy-free.  See?

Don't you wish you could lounge in a buzzing bed with toys hanging overhead?  I do.  I like to think Alice just knows she is livin' the life.

After the many Christmas festivities (and I do mean "many" -- over 5 days solely dedicated to Christmas partying), I guess life said, "Hey, Caleb and Julie.  You can't handle this.  Here's a cold to prove it."  Before the cold fully struck Caleb, he was able to go to the grocery store and kindly buy many medicinal supplies for his sickly wife.  So, in effort to make sickness somewhat interesting (and perhaps cute), I made a get-well-soon station that looks like this:

The bottle is for nasal-rinsing (gross, but effective), the vitamin C is to swallow and swallow and swallow and come as close to overdosing without actually overdosing as you can, and the lemons, raw honey, cayenne, ginger, and garlic (not pictured) are for a tasty medicinal tea that I like to call "Thai Tea" because, well, it tastes Thai-ish.  Not only does it boost your immune system, it feels amazing. You know what else is amazing?  Instant, nature-made popsicles on a sore throat.

Pop some grapes in the freezer and you have the most deliciously soothing sick-treat there is.  Grapes aren't the healthiest fruit but, hey, it feels wonderful.

By now you've probably put together that our New Year's Eve is festive and cheery.  Caleb can't contain himself.

Sorry for the bad lighting. Sickly settings just aren't bright places.

On the bright side, I've got old faithful to amuse me.  Lotion kleenexes and Little House on the Prairie.

I grew up watching this sappy show and you know what?  I love it.  Sue me for my nostalgia-kick.

Quote of the night:
Caleb: Honey, it's New Year's Eve.
Me:  Oh, YEAH!

P.S.  Notice the increase in pictures?  I became Blackberry-phone-savvy (sort of).  So maybe my blog will never be the same... for the better.  Hooray!

People are real and so are labor pains.

This seems like it's coming out of nowhere, but do I care?  Nah.

1.  Giving birth to a human being opened my eyes.  I began to look at the people around me -- at the grocery store, at church, in stand-still traffic -- and I realized that the earth is swarming with people.  Each of these people were brought into the world by a mom who felt contractions, experienced the most pain a human could experience, and in the end -- by some miracle -- out came that person.

2.  Seriously.

3.  This brings me to my main point.  Not until I had a child did I realize the complete sacrifice it is.  And, yes, they certainly consume your life once their sweet selves are actually in the world, but when they're sealed inside your body, that's an entirely different story.  A life is inside of you, and you are nourishing this life, carrying it, feeling it, constantly living with it.  It effects all of you: your sleep, your eating habits, your puking habits, your body, your mind, your emotions, your wardrobe.  Then the scariest, most exciting day comes: labor.  The center of your body is tightening and releasing -- you feel it in every nerve.  The contractions start small and slowly grow and grow until you are so concentrated on what used to be the natural, thoughtless movements of your body -- you think through every breath, measuring it.  You think through the lean of your body, trying to bend to the most tolerable position.  You think through each step, each pause, every slight movement, and you feel every part of your body.  "Pain" becomes a feeling and an emotion and it's all that consumes you -- that and the thought of the sweet baby that will soon be in your arms.  It builds and builds and when you think it can't get worse, it does.  Yet somehow you pull through it until a little, crying bundle is placed in your arms and it needs you more than it needs anyone in the world.

4.  Okay, that's impressive.  Way to go, all moms across the universe.

5.  And maybe THIS is my main point.  Because of my eye-opening experience and my understanding of what it means to bodily-house and bear a child, the 2 following things just make my neck twitch a little, my lip curl a little, and my left-over baby belly bounce a little (<-- gross, funny, and only half-true):
Hearing, "Oh, my sister is pregnant.  They find out the sex of the baby in a couple months.  Pretty cool."  Pretty cool?!  Your sister is a super-hero, okay.  You should be passed out on the floor by how  impressed you are that the life inside of her is actually a boy or a girl.  You should be in awe that your sister is WITH CHILD.
And, secondly, the Facebook status.  An aunt or uncle or friend or acquaintance has every right to be excited about their friend/relative going into labor -- by all means, make a status.  But when the status is something like, "The baby will be here in a few hours!! Hooray!!"  I can't help but think, "IS THE MOTHER ALIVE?!?!"  Where are the updates about the mom?  Your sister-in-law feels like she's riding the wings of death, and all you can think about is the awesome, adorable baby that she and her husband and all those doctors are working so hard to bring into the world.  Have some respect for the almost-dead.


And I think that just about covers it.

Life Lately

(New 1-month- AND 2-month-old pictures coming soon!)

Alice is smiling at us!  It breaks my little mommy heart every time she looks at me and smiles.  What could be better than that little bean who grew inside you for 9 months, takes your sleep for 2 months, and requires your every moment, finally "seeing" you for the first time?  It's not uncommon for my eyes to water with happy almost-tears when we're smiling at each other. Yesterday, as Caleb and I were standing over her, smiling like giddy fools, she let out a happy squeal!  Ah, the cuteness could kill.

So we've reached the responsive smiling milestone, and I have to be honest, I'm impatient for more milestones to start popping up.  I can't count how many times moms have said, "Oh, this is the best age," "I love this age," "I wish they could stay this age forever."  Of course I love tiny 2-month Alice, but really?  She can't sleep through the night, she likes to eat every 3 hours, when she cries we play guessing games to see what's wrong, and her new little digestive system makes her gassy and angry.  Call me a bad mom, but I am looking forward to her being just a few months older -- then maybe the guessing games won't be as common and she'll be just a little less needy.  There's nothing better than being needed, but it makes sense to me that a mom with more sleep and a baby whose digestive system is more mature would make life a little more stable. 

But Alice has been a trooper this past week or so.  About a week ago, my sister got married (hooray!), and with all of the wedding events/family in town, we had somewhere to go almost everyday.  Alice rocked those first few days, but as it got later in the week, she made it very clear to us that she was confused and very unhappy with how unpredictable life had become.  She chose the rehearsal dinner to introduce us to her loudest screams and longest cries... poor baby.  We learned our lesson, and brought her entire nursery with us to the wedding the next day!  Her bouncer, sound machine, monitor, pacie, and a dark room had her set for success (and her grandma to take care of her, of course).  She made it through the wedding like a champ.  I never thought that events could be such a big deal... infants are kind of a big deal and they're very good at carrying that "big deal" into every situation of life.  It's a good thing you're cute, kid!  But I guess it's worth it. :)

That's as exciting of an update there is right now.  Alice is the best little girl -- she tolerates long outtings, is patient in practicing nursing (yes, I'm pumping less and less! AMAZING), and is sleeping longer and longer through the night.  Oh, and let's not forget that she loves smiling so much that she'll sometimes stop mid-feeding just to smile for a few minutes.  And for me, the days are running together and getting out of the house couldn't be more glorious. 

Caleb and I are dreaming of a date night.  This dream might become reality very soon... Alice can live without me for a few hours, right?  Maybe.