Dear Fry’s Checker

This week’s blog is just to let those checkers at the grocery store know I’m really not as stressed out as they think I am. It’s just that Jane’s attention span is not as long as my grocery list. This week’s trip to the store was pretty representative of my usual experience, so I thought I'd share. Here goes:

We get to the store and have to park a mile away from the doors. I throw the diaper bag over my shoulder, carry Audrey’s giant carseat in one hand, and try to coax Jane into holding my other hand without making a fuss, because she wants to walk “Jane’s self” even though we’re in the parking lot and she’s not allowed to walk in a parking lot without holding a hand. Then her shoe falls off and even though we’re only like twenty feet from the cart, her sock is black before we get there. The carts at Fry’s are a blessing and a burden, because they have little cars in the front for the kiddos to sit in and pretend to drive, but that makes them 10 feet long – wider than the aisles and therefore impossible to turn around. So once Jane has chosen the exact color of car that she wants and I figure out how to fit Audrey’s carseat into the basket (because of course it doesn’t fit where it’s supposed to hook on), I turn to find that Jane has fallen out onto the ground and the nice old man who was trying to help her up has scared her and is feeling bad about making her cry.

 

Now that we’ve been at the store for 5 minutes, we are finally all loaded up and ready to begin shopping, with Jane excited to drive but asking for her shoe back on. I will skip a recount of trying to maneuver through the produce section with the giant cart, because, honestly, who wants to relive that? We get everything on the list (and I don’t have to turn around this time to get something I passed by or forgot like I usually do). Jane’s fairly content until we get to the cheese section, at which point she gets out of her car while I’m too busy agonizing over whether to get mild or medium cheddar to notice. Then I have to carry her or let her walk, because she’s determined, “Jane walk!”

Okay, so now here’s the fun part – the checkout line. I’ve convinced Jane to get back into the car for just a few more minutes, and I’m frantically trying to load groceries onto the conveyor belt. It’s kind of difficult because I’ve cleverly stashed all the food around Audrey to get it to fit in the cart, but now that I’m in the line, I can’t walk around the cart to reach all the goods anymore because the aisle is too narrow. I warn the checker that I’ve got five WIC checks to use (glad to have them but hate to use them). Jane has decided she’s done with the car and wants to go pull candy off the rack while I run back and forth between signing WIC checks and loading more food onto the belt before the person behind me starts loading their food on. And of course the person behind me is that nice lady who made a comment about how cute my kids were when I saw her earlier in the trip, and I have to debate whether it’s too late to warn her to get in a different line because it’s going to take about 15 minutes for me to check out since I have to make six transactions (of course I don’t tell her – she’s already loading her food onto the conveyor). The bagger is asking me where I want her to put the groceries, because of course they don’t fit in the cart once they’re bagged – Audrey’s in there.

By the fourth check, Audrey has decided that something is upsetting her and is intermittently crying, Jane is determined to get the pen away from me every time I try to sign a check because she wants to color, and I avoid looking at the lady behind me because if she’s starting to hate my guts, I’d rather be oblivious.

I gather all my receipts, lists, folder, wallet, etc. and I’m headed out the door, carrying Jane with one arm and pushing the 10-foot cart with the other. I take a deep breath and think to myself, “Good thing this trip went smoothly!”

P.S. – If you made it to the end, congrats! That was a lot longer than I thought it would be!

My Girls

So I know most people who will read this blog really just want to hear about the two cutest girls in the world (cutest at least in my opinion, but Adam agrees with me). So that’s what this blog is all about. We’ll start with Audrey:

Jane doesn't like wearing the stethoscope, so she put it on Audrey

Audrey is 6 months old and has been described by people unrelated to me as a Gerber baby. That might be a nice way of saying that she’s got a chunky face, but I think it’s because of her beautiful deep blue eyes. She is officially a sitter, though she can only stay up for about 5 minutes before she tucks herself in and falls in whatever direction gravity takes her. She also loves to stand more than Jane did and for that reason loves standing in her exersaucer. 

Sitting like a champ

She has just started eating solids and has discovered the letter “d.” Audrey is infatuated with her dad’s voice. When she’s eating and Adam starts talking, she stops eating and crane’s her neck so she can look at him. And when he’s putting her to sleep at night she only calms down if he’s singing to her. The minute he stops, she gets fussy. Audrey is super smiley, but not quite as bubbly as Jane was. She’s also much more patient with herself than Jane.

The closest thing to a smile that I can get on camera

Speaking of Jane, she gets frustrated very quickly when she can’t do something she’s trying to do. This has been evident since she was learning to grab a rattle. She would try to grab it like twice and then start crying. She still gets the same way, especially with her stool that she carries around the apartment. Whenever it gets stuck she starts crying. Her vocabulary and sentence complexity is constantly improving and surprising me. She loves to watch Elmo’s World and walks around the apartment singing “na-na-na-na, Elmo’s World.” Her second favorite song is the ABC Song, which she’s pretty good at. 

Sorry about the exposed belly. I guess that shirt's too small.

One of Jane’s favorite activities is to “cook, cook” with Mommy (or Daddy if he happens to be cooking). She also loves princesses and coloring – the perfect combination since her grandma Maggie came to visit last month and brought her a coloring book of Disney princesses. Her dad showed her how to color in the lips, and now she goes through the entire book coloring only the princesses’ lips.

So there you go, a little bit about these baby girls.

My Favorite Gadget in the World

My favorite gadget is my Garmin Forerunner. This thing is awesome. It looks like an over sized wristwatch but it is actually a gps that tracks my pace, distance, time, and even my route when I go running or biking. My brother, Karl, gave it to me for my birthday at my sister’s suggestion (thanks guys!), and though I never in a million years would have bought it for myself (I am not a runner or a biker), I have absolutely loved it. I have been using it to track my training for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay coming up in June.

My history with running…

Though I considered myself a great sprinter in elementary school, my love for running evaporated in fifth grade when we had our first timed mile run. It was four laps around this giant field and I could not believe that a mile was really that far. I think it took me like 20 minutes to complete the mile and I never wanted to run again in my life. In high school I took a fitness for life class that required us to run 30 minutes without walking, and in college I signed up for a free 5K with some friends who were runners. They promised me they’d stick with me and go slow, but about a mile in I finally convinced them to go ahead, and I walked most of the rest of the way.

When I started training for the Ragnar in September, I was supposed to run for 15 minutes, but I found that I could only run for about 5 before I had to take a little breather. With the help of my garmin, I worked up to 15 minutes and then 20 minutes, and now I’m proud to announce that Saturday I ran for 50 minutes straight. Last week it was 45 minutes and the first time in my life that I ran over 4 miles at once. There’s still five months to go before the race, and I’m excited to see how much more I can improve. I love you, Garmin.

Happy Holidays

I contemplated a Christmas card this year, but I decided that it would be better to finally get around to starting that blog I've been meaning to start since before Jane was born. So here's what we've been up to this year:

Adam finished his second year of medical school and rocked his first round of boards. We moved to Prescott to start his rotations.

I finished a giant quilt and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl two days after my birthday.

Jane is 18 months old and loves talking, playing with other kids, slides, her green bear Jonas, Sas (her pacifier), and smiling. Some people say they've never seen her without a smile on her face (but believe me, she's not always happy).

Audrey Mae is four months old. She seems to be just as smiley as Jane and doesn't mind as much as I do when her sister sits on her head. She's pretty determined and refuses to take a pacifier no matter how hard her parents and sister try to give it to her.

Hope you've enjoyed a happy holiday season and we wish you a wonderful 2011.

Check back soon for more blogs!