Fortress of Solitude

To some degree I had anticipated that things would be busier with the addition of another child, but I failed to anticipate that this increased busyness would also require increased mental and emotional capacities, of which I fear I am in short supply. I go about my day being pulled in multiple directions and trying to decide which of the many demands is currently the most important and trying to combine as many as possible into a single moment. For someone who is terrible at multi-tasking this is exhausting. However, I am proud to announce that the other day I was simultaneously feeding both of my children and myself, watching Bambi, sorting the mail, and texting my mom. So, I am getting used to the new found chaos, however, a quiet moment is still a much needed necessity. I figure if Superman (a man who can fly, move at the speed of light, shoot lasers out of his eyes, and look stunning in tights - any of which I would find extremely useful) needs a break, then I don't feel to bad about taking one myself. But with time alone in short supply, and lacking the ability to fly to the north pole at a moments notice, I have had to settle for my Shower. It must be timed while this

is occurring, but then for 10 sometimes 15 minutes I am granted a brief reprise. I haven't heard any spooky voices giving me advice yet, but it still seems to do the trick. I leave feeling refreshed and ready to jump back into the fray. Sweet momentary solitude paired perfectly with my Blessed Chaos.

Angels

Angel #1

My anesthesiologist. My previous experience in this area was a complete disaster and resulted in my almost coming out of anesthesia on the operating table. Unpleasant. It had been done by a resident and both Lance and I vowed never to let that happen again. Needless to say I was a bit apprehensive going in to the procedure for the second time, so when the anesthesiologist said he was a resident we truly intended to politely decline and ask for the attending, but to our mutual amazement we both hesitated. Maybe it was his calming Southern drawl or the way he held his clipboard, but he put off a good vibe. I told him as much and though still terrified I agreed to let him do the procedure. With the knowledge of my history and one look at the fear in my eyes he promised me a pain free spinal block with the added bonus of not being paralyzed afterward. He even went to bat for us with the attending to make sure that Lance could be present while they put in the block, which I guess is not normally done. (And might I add, why the blankety blank not?!!! When they are going to be inserting a needle into your SPINE a pillow is of little comfort when compared to a husband!)

Long story short, he delivered. Well not the baby, but the promise he made. I didn't feel a thing while they put in the spinal block (the words "I'm done" were like a warm ray of sunshine), I was numb within minutes (which he made sure to check before I was sliced open this time), and stayed that way through the surgery (Pleasant). He even laughed at my nervous lame jokes about eating Crown Burger later and making sure they put everything back where it belonged (okay maybe the jokes were hilarious). He really did a phenomenal job and provided a calm and controlled atmosphere in which all other doctors and nurses were able to work and which allowed me to be able to enjoy the arrival of my baby girl, for which I can not be more grateful. To all other residents, may I say, confidence restored.

Angel #2

My mom. The wonder woman who comes bearing food, toys, and hand sanitizer to make the transition from one baby girl to two as easy as possible. Here is to my mom who did my dishes, washed my laundry, cleaned my bathrooms, and spoiled my Alex so that I could recover and focus on my new little one. What would we do without moms!!!

Angel #3

All those who came to my rescue on a particularly scary evening. We had a health scare with Nora one evening around 9 o'clock. All our research had said this was a fairly common occurrence, but we called our pediatrician's office just to make sure and instead of being reassurred we were told to go immediately to Primary Children's hospital. They didn't even want to see us in their office first, saying they were not equipped to handle this kind of problem. Obviously now panicked but not knowing what to believe, and wanting to spare Nora a midnight trip to the hospital where she might be exposed to something worse than what she already had, we started calling everyone we knew in the medical profession to try to get a second opinion. We were told over and over again that this was normal and not to worry and that no trip to Primary Children's was necessary and that our pediatrician's office was probably busy and just trying to cover their bases since she was so young. So we decided to wait and watch, and sure enough her two week appointment confirmed that this was a common and normal occurrence and was nothing to worry about.

Special thanks to Dr. Darren, my aunt Karen, her daughter JaNae, and my awesome cousin Brianne who is one of those fantastic nurses who work in the nursery and take care of your baby while you're in the hospital. She truly talked me off the ledge and even went through her old nursing books and found the exact name and description of what was happening. For going above and beyond the call of duty, Brianne you rock!!! It goes without saying, but thank you also to a wonderful husband who can keep a level head, find the logical solution, and comfort and reassure an emotional and panicked wife.

And if we truly were just dismissed by our pediatrician's office because of the lateness or busyness of the hour I say Grrrrrrrrrr to that individual. Primary Children's is not like Denny's where it's fun to go in the middle of the night.

I know this isn't everyone. There have been so many who have helped us, including all our wonderful neighbors in our adequately named ward. So, in short, thank you to all the Angels who have helped us welcome our newest one.

A L E X

Sisters side by side

Special Delivery

My wonderfully talented photographer friend, "Auntie Tone", took some amazing images for us. More to come.

Baby Nora has arrived!

This is Lance posting so don't expect a long or well written post. I know all you people want is the pictures anyway so here they are. We love this new little one. (Well she ain't that little)

Nora Beth Harris

9lbs 12.5 oz

22 inches

oh I guess a few more details are in order. Lindsay is doing really well. Nora was breach, so it was a scheduled c-section. She was most nervous about the spinal block but it just all went swimmingly this time. Alex was glad to get a new baby doll this morning and upon meeting Nora declared that "They're both the same!"

Happiness

Happiness is being 9 months pregnant, putting on your husbands shirt because nothing else fits and having it be too big.

Happiness is knowing I have recently made progress with my food storage now that my year's supply of water is stored securely in my feet.

Happiness is a birthday where your friends and family remember, the evening is spent shoe shopping (even though my feet are too fat to actually fit into any of them) and a husband who bathes and puts the baby to bed.

Happiness is Hot Dog Factory's "Cheese on a Stick".

Happiness is a nightly foot rub

Happiness is having a sciatic nerve spasm and having a daughter who kisses my leg to make it feel better.

Happiness is needing to go to the store and then hearing your husband say, "Well, I can get all that stuff on my way home from work if you want."

Happiness is having a husband who says those kinds of things a lot

And finally . . .

Happiness is getting to meet my new baby Nora TOMORROW!!!!!!!!

Perfection

That's how I roll.

Pretty in Pink

In preparation for the new baby, Alex got a new room, complete with big girl bed. Now affectionately known as the "Pink Room", it seems to have met the approval of my 2 year old. The first few nights were a bit hairy, but she very quickly got the idea that falling out of bed is not fun and getting up to play with toys at 2:30 in the morning simply because she can is discouraged.

The furniture is especially nostalgic for me as it used to belong to my grandmother, and my sister and I spent many happy hours in front of the vanity putting on giant costume jewelry and pretending we were much fancier than we actually were. I love that they now live here and hope my girls will enjoy them too.

Alex has included her artistic touch to the room as well.

CSI

It was a lazy Sunday morning. Uneventful up to this point, I had started making Jell-O, my assigned task for Family dinner. A mixture of Strawberry and Raspberry seemed a delicious combination, and they were all set to chill in the Refrigerator. My brand new refrigerator, which any bowl of Jell-O would be privileged to gel in, sat gleaming in it's innocence and perfection. The only obstacle left in the Jell-O's completion was transportation from the counter to the fridge, myself, and gravity. My mistake, overestimating myself and underestimating gravity.

The transportation of the first 13x9 dish was a success. The second was a bit sloshier with the absence of fruit in the mix, and a tiny drop slipped over the edge of the dish and onto the top shelf of the fridge. "Wouldn't it be a disaster if I spilled any more of this red liquid death," I thought cockily to myself as I continued to slide the dish into security. But certainly nothing that awful happens in real life to real people with real brand new refrigerators.

And then the dish fell. I had removed my hand from the bottom to slide it the rest of the way into the fridge before there was enough leverage already in place to hold it securely and back out of the fridge it came. I vaguely remember someone screaming "Nooooooooo", later realizing it was me as I stood there watching the carnage unfold. Like a red tidal wave, it covered and destroyed everything in its path, and my outstretched arms and protruding belly were no exception. As much the victim as the perpetrator, I could merely stand there trying to grasp the severity of what had really just happened. Lance raced downstairs to see what had caused the commotion, took one look at me with my arms, feet, and entire front covered in an otherwise lovely shade of red, smiled and said, "This looks like a crime scene."

The next hour was spent scrubbing every bottle, jug, piece of tupperware, nook and cranny, and my entire kitchen floor. Everywhere you looked there was more red. Lance was laughing. I was not. I must have been a site as my sweet daughter kept asking if I was "Okay". Many towels valiantly lost their lives that day, but I am happy to say that thanks to the quick action of the rescue team, the Fridge was saved and my kitchen restored. My pride in not being able to successfully make Jell-O, however, is still on the mends. I fear my family will soon start assigning me to bring the water to family dinners, but at least my hands and feet have returned to their normal shade of pink.

December 2010

December was filled with many activities that will turn into fond memories. Here are some of them.

The First Snow Storm

(Somehow what daddy did with the leaves the day before didn't quite translate to snow)

Cousin Birthdays (Happy Birthday Jonah and Christian too - sorry no pictures of the later)

General Merry Cousin silliness (I stole these pics Maren. Thanks)

Making messes with Cousins that were just funny enough to keep them out of serious trouble.

School Plays (One of these things is not like the others)

This is the Place Park.

The highlight of the evening, a mesmerizing train set. We really could have been done after this without ever having had to go out in the cold.

(blast that cumbersome nose - she could have been a full centimeter closer to the action without it)

Cottages full of activities.

Darling Live Puppet Show

Live Nativity. The poor little sheep was so cold he just stood there frozen, which was sad but also convenient for the little ones to get a chance to actually touch him.

Alex was a little nervous about the Santa who suggested that I sit on his lap with her. Bad move. He didn't know he was getting a pregnant lady with a wiggly child who doesn't fit on my lap anymore anyway. I fear we crushed him. Sorry Santa.

We did see one other Santa previous to this one. Alex wouldn't sit on his lap either so once again I got the pleasure. He was quite delightful and was even able to predict the gender and due date (within a few days) of our new addition. Impressive. It was only when he started rattling off our social security numbers, birthdays, and current mailing address that we got a little nervous and left. However, we did get a candy cane out of it.

The Christmas Eve Nativity.

Alex was a shepherd. She made her appearance choking on a wad of paper which she promptly threw up in the middle of the floor upon making her entrance. Unphased she continued on with her role, because the show must go on. She then began to improvise on the part of the "reverent" shepherd by jumping up and down on the couch, and ended the scene by receiving an accidental whack to the head from a neighboring shepherd followed by a few tears. Perfect. Fortunately with a little studio magic you end up with a bunch of perfect angels.

Christmas morning

Sporting the fancy new pajamas that Grandma made was only the beginning of the magic. With each present there was a cry of "What's this?!!!" And with the assortment of Cars, Toy Story, and Princess paraphernalia, she couldn't have been happier.

I got a surprise on Christmas as well. Lance got me a fridge!!!! Our old fridge had been leaking water since we moved into the house and recently the multiple strategically place drainage cups were not handling the load, and our fruits and vegetables would frequently end up swimming in pools of water. To present the gift, Lance built a life size replica of the fridge out of cardboard, complete with handles and working doors, which he wrapped up and placed in the living room when I left for a minute. Sneaky devil. I love it!! And so do my fruits and veggies.

Our first trip to the movie theatre.

The Feature Presentation was "Tangled", to which Alex went appropriately dressed as a princess and carrying two of the Princess figurines she got for Christmas.

And what trip to the movies would be complete without a trip to the video arcade. Weird, right? Why does a place whose sole purpose is entertainment need to feature another form of amusement. Do we really need to have back up entertainment in the event that we should have to wait for the other entertainment to start to entertain us so that we might be constantly entertained. Really? Nevertheless.

Alex's First Haircut.

Haircuts are awesome when you get to drive a pink car, wear a cheetah print aprin, and watch Rapunzel (cute pun) while eating a sucker. Who wouldn't hold still. I'm thinking of switching hairdressers.

The end result.

Princess Twirling

Alex likes to twirl. Pretty pink dress courtesy of Gma Beckstrand for Christmas. Preferred musical stylings consist of tracks from Shrek 2. We already have our tryout scheduled for "America's Got Talent".

New Year's Eve Gingerbread House Decorating.

Alex was much more interested in tasting rather than actually decorating, which is why you may notice that the majority of the candy that actually made it onto her house is slightly wet.

legal fireworks. . .

and not so legal fireworks

Yeah, we had fun in December. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!