Utah Trip Highlights: part 1—the airport.

A month ago we went for a trip to Utah to finally see our family after 15 months of not going "home". That's just 3 months shy of the length of my entire mission to Argentina. That adds up to 2 Thanksgivings, 2 Christmases, and just about 2 of everything else without a trip back west. We LOVE the west. We also love the east, which is probably part of what has kept us from a westward trip for so long, because we've been using so many days off to take road trips all over this coast (I miss road trips...).

After spending a perfect Christmas holiday here at "home," we were excited to still have something to look forward to come January while everyone else had to be settling back into normal post-holiday life. It's definitely the way to go if you get the January blues. :) Van caught RSV over New Years, which was probably the saddest thing I'd ever seen in my life, a little 2 month old that couldn't breathe or blow his nose or cough up nastiness on his own to get better. I was so scared he wouldn't be better before our trip--and who knows how that would go over on a plane--but thankfully, he was fully recovered just days before we left.

So, the airport. Exactly what I had been dreading for months. My biggest fear of taking Van in public anywhere, being a new mom and all, was that he would go absolutely ballistic and I would have no idea how to calm him down, while everyone watches from the sidelines shaking their heads..."That poor new mom has no clue what she's doing..." And they would be right. This fear magnifies when thinking of being stuck on a plane with no escape route. Blowout diapers, endless screaming, violent flailing, purple-faced, angry raisin...every imaginable reason for any nearby passenger to hate me and tell any person they come in contact with about the worst plane flight they ever had to tolerate. Please don't be me. Please sleep, Van, please do nothing but hibernate peacefully for 4 straight hours. That's possible, right?

Van was okay. On his first flight anyway. On flight 1, DCA to DEN, he screamed for takeoff, slept for 2.5 hours, then screamed for most of the landing. Luckily the flight wasn't packed so the person next to us had moved. Jon and I were a little embarrassed, but at least it was over. We had a 3 hour layover, which didn't go over so well with the dude, leading to his grand finale on our DEN to SLC flight, where Van pretty much hated every minute. And so did we. I could not wait to get off of the plane, and Van couldn't wait to be anywhere but sitting in the same place for another second. He gets bored quickly, so you can imagine our futile attempts to entertain him constantly in a 2-square-feet radius. There was fussing, there were tears (Van's, not mine), and in the end, nothing but relief to get off.

I'm happy to report that heading back to DC was much better, despite our second flight being delayed. Jon entertained Van on the moving walkways for at least 30 mins during our layover, and we were just happy he wasn't all tears. On the plane Van slept, ate, played, laid awake staring at the overhead lights for an hour, and slept again, just like a little angel baby. Granted, he did have a blowout diaper on the last flight that I had to go change in the tiny bathroom. (By the way, I NEVER use airplane bathrooms. Ask Jon. I'll hold it for hours before I go in there because they totally freak me out. It all goes back to some X-Files I saw when I was 12 or something about some creature coming out of the airplane lavatory...no creatures for me! No thanks!) Imagine me trying to roll up his messy onesie and wipe Van's entire body without letting him go rolling off the changing table, and while I'm doing this the seat belt light comes on and the pilot announces to prepare for landing, followed immediately by the plane getting jumpy and jolty, and I'm just trying not to get poopy. So fun. Anyway, we survived. We even had some passengers tell us what a good baby he was. BIG sigh of relief. I mean, we knew that, but to hear someone say it made me feel a little more like maybe I can do this parent thing in public after all.

Side note. While at the airport, we realized how living in a basement apartment in the winter might take a serious toll on our son's exposure to sunlight. He has none. We noticed this when he seemed so in awe by it at our first layover. Thus the many cute photos. We were in awe by it too. Maybe someday we could live somewhere where we can bask in our own natural light, if we're really lucky.

What? No more bonding parties at 3 am?

Well, at least we can hope that's what it means. I have no doubt that there will be relapses, and this could even just be a very temporary lucky streak, but after looking at my eyes yesterday morning and realizing for the first time in a long time the whites were actually white instead of red, no lubricant drops needed, I was pleased to remember for a moment what it's like to get a full night's sleep.

That's right, after more than 3 months of Van wondering who the zombie was that came in to feed him during all inhumane hours of the night, it seems he'd rather go without waking the mom-zombie from her sleep. Tuesday night he slept 9 hours straight, then Wednesday night was 11 hours, and last night was 10.5, so I'm hoping this is a new habit. Believe me, this wasn't easy to get him to do and it's taken serious dedication to a schedule (while still maintaining some flexibility for sanity's sake), patience, and not giving up, but I know many moms who have it much harder when it comes to getting their little ones to sleep through the night, and my props go to them. It's tough, that's as given. So so so worth it, but definitely pushing yourself to the limits (that's a good thing, right?) Every kid is so different, I'm definitely learning that.

So mostly I'd like to give a shout out to Van today for letting me get the whites of my eyes back. What's not to smile about? Even if it only lasts a couple days. Thanks Van man! But if you decide to take this crazy whole-night-sleeping thing and run with it for the long haul, then that's perfectly okay with me, little man. Go right ahead.

The boy's got skills

Since it's taking me forever to get our photos up from our recent Utah trip (which was also the reason we were MIA in the blog world the last few weeks), I wanted to at least jump in and give an update on Van. He just turned 3 months this week, and it's so fun to see all the new things he's learning. Among the obvious (eating, sleeping, growing like a weed), he's been up to a lot of fun new things that show us small glimpses of his personality.

I can tell you one thing...when this kid figures out how to plant his feet on the floor and hold his body up without looking like his trying to win a hula contest, we are in some serious trouble. I'm pretty sure he's going to take off running and promptly take over every touchable thing in the house, thus throwing our sanity out the back door. He's active, he needs entertained 24/7 and is easily bored, he moves nonstop, loves to stand, hates to be cradled, wants serious attention, and he's already holding his head straight up and rolling over all the time. Thankfully, it also seems like he likes to make us smile, and he has the cutest smile in response, so in the future, I'm sure his little boy smiles will make the inevitable insanity worth it.

Here's what the Van man's been up to...

A Natural at the Bottle

I waited a while to start Van on any bottles, mostly because it was unnecessary, but then Jon and I thought it might be a good idea to get him used to them in case of an emergency (or if we ever actually wanted to do something alone, someday...) so we gave it a try 3 days after Christmas, just before Van hit 8 weeks old. I'd heard or read somewhere that if you don't start your baby on a bottle within the first 4 weeks or so after birth, that chances are the baby might not every take a bottle. Because of that, I was a little nervous that he might not even give it a chance.

We had to try 2 different kinds of bottles, but he was sold on the second one, and for the first time ever, Van got to be fed by his dad. We were so excited, he was pro. I loved watching his little hands try to hold his bottle, it was the cutest thing. And we think he liked it because the view was a lot better than normal--he couldn't stop looking around at everything around the room while he was eating (including right at me). We sure have one curious little kid!

Lessons in Life Sciences: Reproduction Chapter

So, remember that real Christmas tree of ours I was so crazy about? So crazy about it that I said we might leave it up all the month of January? Well, it turned out we had a little Charlotte's web issue, and some mother spider decided to plant all her posterity there. After discovering 43 tiny baby spiders on our living room walls, ceiling, and floor in 10 minutes, Jon and I accused the tree as the culprit, and on the very first weekend after Christmas, our tree was ejected from the house as fast as we could strip it of its homemade garlands, unscrew it out of its tipsy treestand ($4, goodwill), and send it out the back door in all its glory to bond with mother nature. We dumped the popcorn and cranberry garlands, vacuumed twice, and sprayed a solid round of Raid to allow any remaining arachnids to soak up the rays.

I realize this is a very late post, but it had to be posted. I'm happy to report that the tree definitely must have been the baby spider home, and with the tree gone, we've been baby spider free. I've never seen a Christmas tree go down so fast all my life, and I'm so glad. Grossest thing ever.

Christmas 2008, The DC Smiths, Party of 3

Christmas is better with carpet and babies.

One year ago, Jon and I spent our first married Christmas together alone here in Virginia. It was super simple, you may remember we came up with the brilliant idea of wrapping things that we needed to buy anyway (toothpaste, toilet paper, ziploc bags) and putting them under the tree so we would feel like there were lots of gifts. We had a humble 14" tall tree. We gave each other few, but very thoughtful, gifts. And it was perfect. Quiet, simple, and so fitting for us at the time. We loved it. The only part that seemed kind of strange was the afternoon. After unwrapping our gifts while sitting on the only 10-square-foot open spot of the worn hardwood floor in our tiny apartment, we were all content and happy...but what do you do after that? Far from family and not in the type of living quarters known for coziness, we had two options...should we go sit on the bed? Or hang out on the barstools? Again, it really was perfect and fitting for us at the time. And we really did love it. But thanks to a new apartment and a new little dude, we managed to kick it up a notch this year.

This year we had a real tree, fewer presents (no really, I spent nothing making some framed leaves from Logan {the city we both love} and Arlington {the city we both found our love} for Jon, and Jon spent $9 on a book {the beginning of a new Christmas tradition for us!} for me. The rest were from our cute families), no dinner plans, and no big traditions. But I'll tell you what we did have. Carpet. And I'll bet you can guess what we got to sit on while opening small gifts. To top it off, we had a blazing fire in the fireplace, and best of all, a little person to remind us what brings us real joy in this life (he too appreciates the carpet to roll his little body around on). And he was so cute in his little Christmas suit we dressed him in that we were sucked into taking way too many pictures of him, the very abridged version of which I'm posting here.

One of our gifts from parents was a webcam, and we got to spend a good portion of the rest of the day talking to family over the internet and letting them get a good view of Van on Christmas. Van is fascinated by the moving people on the computer, so he was very happy to appease the crowds and show his little face up close and personal over the web. Jon and I gave Van a set of Dr. Seuss books, which we ordered long ago because it was a cheap offer, but since they showed up right before Christmas, we gave them to him for his present. He will one day be very grateful for his cheap parents. :) But as for now, we don't really think he knows the difference.

Well this of course ended up being a much longer post than I had intended, but it was Van's first after all, and cheap or not, it should be documented. :) (Speaking of cheap, or not, the day after Christmas we decided to hit up the sales, which warranted our super super inexpensive gifts for each other Christmas Day, and anway, we should probably never do that again. Apparently we're suckers for sales and ended up with way more than we'd intended, but it was fun!!)

Look at these faces of joy...

DC Temple, Festival of Lights, Take II

The night before Christmas Eve, we wanted to go to the Festival of Lights again to hear the violin performance of Jenny Oaks Baker, so we bundled the dude in his white snowsuit, braved the cold, and joined the masses at the Visitor's Center that night. The concert was amazing (well, at least the 1.5 songs I was in there for, instead of out in the hall consoling Van, were amazing. Looks like our days Mr. sleep-through-everything are officially over. And we never even took advantage of it to go to a movie with him!) and the turnout was impressive--she agreed to do a 3rd concert that night just to satisfy the lines.

Afterward we walked around outside for maybe 10 minutes max--that's all we could stand in the cold, especially with little Van--to check out the lights and take some pics. Jon sure knows how to rock depth of field with the Canon! And our little baby was so fascinated with the lights that even in freezing temperatures, he still wanted to lift his cute little polar bear head and stare at every glowing orb in sight. It made his poor little eyes water to stare at them in the cold though, so we bailed quick to keep all our suffering to a minimum. And plus there was hot chocolate back home calling our names...

Van's vigorous workout routine begins to pay off

These were taken over 2 weeks ago, when Van was 7 weeks old and was beginning to show off his rolling over skills during tummy time. Jon and I are pretty tough coaches when it comes to neck muscle drills and other such serious maneuvers, so we were proud to see all his practice pay off in several moments of glory, and a celebratory smile to top it off. After a typical hard day's work, he got all tuckered out on top of his dad. Or was it his dad that got all tuckered out? It's tough to call who beats who to sleep in this house...

Van started smiling probably about a month ago, but it's become frequent and very responsive to our smiling at him now, and we loooove it. He has the biggest, happiest smiles, and it's getting really easy to pull one out of him. The photo here was the first smile captured on camera, but of course I'm behind, and there are much bigger smiles yet to post. Big muscles and a cute smile...this one could be a womanizer.

Van meets Santa in all his $30,000 salary glory

A group of moms in our ward were going to Tysons Mall to take their kids to meet Santa Claus there, and apparently "Everybody's always known that the best Santa is at Tysons," at least that's what it says in the news. This is a topic worth divulging.

A little background. This guy gets paid $175 an hour to have kids sit on his lap, maybe say what they want for Christmas, scream, get a token photo with the big bearded man, and take off. For his 5 week contract, that comes to a total of $30,000. In 5 weeks! To be Santa!! You've got to be kidding me. The mall tried to end his contract this year (see this article), so he sued them of course (welcome to DC, right?) followed by launching a massive campaign to get his contract back. Apparently he had quite the fanbase, compiled from thousands of people bringing their kids for the last 18 years to see this guy, traveling from as far as California to provide consistency for their kids (....really??). But go ahead and take a deep breath, you can all relax now and know that he has "been saved by thousands of fans who phoned, e-mailed, petitioned and threatened a boycott until the mall reversed its plan to boot him," (see this article), and this celebrity Santa is back in business. BIG sigh of relief.

So of course in the line for seeing Mr. Famous Santa, right before you take your tike up to the scary man in the red suit, the happy child-prepping men come to inform you of the fine print.

Elf man: This is a little one! So precious and small! Ma'am, I just need to make sure you know that there is a one-purchase minimum of a photo package in order to see Santa. {p.s. the cheapest package is $20}

Me: Oh, there is? Ummm...but can we take our own pictures with a personal camera?

Elf man: Well, I'm not going to yell and you and chase you away if you do.

Me: Oh good! But there is a one purchase minimum? Enforced?

Elf man: Uh, I mean, it's recommended.

Me: Ohhhhh, it's recommended. Gotcha. {permission granted :) }

Being somewhat skilled at reading between the lines, after I handed off the little man to a bunch of strangers, I busted out the point-and-shoot, took some terrible pictures in attempt to be quick and not make a scene while trying to keep Van's hat down so he didn't look like a Canadian stepping off the set of Strange Brew, and talked my way out of making a purchase by explaining to the nice lady behind the counter that my husband had no idea I was there (true), and that he wouldn't be impressed if I came home announcing that I'd spent so much money on a photo for our clueless baby with Santa (doubly true). No hard feelings, she let me off the hook. As you can see from my own photo, Van's blank stare and Santa's awkwardness holding him would hardly validate any one-purchase minimum. Next year I call we're dressing Jon up and taking some freebie photos without the guilt trip.

Maybe I should feel guilty, but I don't. He just sued so he could get his $175/hr contract back, he's not hurting. Although maybe the mall is...

We're going to miss you, Croshaw Family!

A couple weeks ago we went to visit some of our favorite friends from our old ward, the cute little Croshaws. They hadn't met Van yet, and we had just found out that they would be moving Christmas morning to go back to Utah, so we wanted to make sure we got to see them before they started off on their new adventure.

They all loved holding Van and each of them kept asking over and over if it was their turn to hold him. Little miss Faith was definitely a natural and is already the cutest little future mommy, but Grant, Clark, and even little Johnny weren't far behind in their baby-holding skills. They were wonderful and they will all have so much fun with their new little brother that gets here in less than a month!

The Croshaws were instantly inviting when we moved into our new ward right after getting married, and ironically, I was immediately called to serve with Vanessa, while Jon was immediately called to serve with Andrew. We got to babysit their kids several times and we had so much fun every time; we had stories to tell about them for weeks after each babysitting experience. :) We have learned so much from them and their wonderful family--everything from missionary work and optimism to raising a family and serving others. Thank you so much for your friendship and examples Vanessa and Andrew! We hope your move was a safe one, and we miss your cute kids already, and good luck with the little one that will be joining your family so soon! We can't wait until our paths cross again!

'Lest it be said that the Smiths aren't festive....

Since we live in a basement apartment, that doesn't leave much room for bright-lit festivities on the outside, so just so you know that we're cozy and un-scroogey on the inside, here's some of our humble Christmas get-up, including our very own first real tree, its ornament-less yet shameless manner of sporting popcorn and cranberry garlands, (homemade mostly by Jon, he did an awesome job), Christmas goodies, presents and tiny stocking for our little one, and our bitty little nativity scene from Argentina, reminding us of the real reason for the season. It really all comes and goes too quickly––I think our tree might hang out with us for a couple more weeks just to hold onto the season for a little longer. And to avoid the work of taking everything down when it seems like we just got it up. Plus the lights on the tree work as an amazing distraction for Van for hours. :)