The Perilous Peanut Predicament

"You stuck what up where??" My frantic response when Anna came to me informing me, somewhat nonchalantly with a little grin on her face, that something was "Skuck, Mommy!" Apparantly the peanuts we gave Daddy for Christmas were being shared without enough supervision while Dan was playing the Wii. Anna decided that it was the perfect time to discover more than I ever wanted her to know about her nose. More to the point, to learn that her 2 nostrils are the perfect size to fit peanuts.
Anna had put a peanut in each nostril, who knows why, and came to show off her handiwork. They were both still visible, so I quickly was able to fish out one of them without too much difficulty. However, in that minute, Anna decided she didn't like her nose being messed with and she started struggling and pulling away before I could get the other one. In the midst of her little struggle, she sniffed hard and I watched as the peanut disappeared from view! Starting to panic, I called Dan to come and assist and pulled out the tweezers to try and dig out the intruding nut. Of course, Dan's first response was to laugh at the whole situation, which of course set me off in a series of guffaws mixed with concern over how to remedy this problem. The last thing I wanted was to walk into an instacare (why do all health-related concerns happen over the weekend?) and have to explain that our daughter had a peanut up her nose. So we stifled the giggles lest Anna think this was an ok, fun new game, and we went to work again on our plight. All we succeeded in was upsetting Anna more, to the point where she was crying, wouldn't blow her nose for us, or anything we could think of to remove it. So Dan came up with the genius plan of trying to flood the thing out by suctioning water up her nose--much to Anna's distress! That didn't appear to work, so I let Anna go for a second and she pulled away to get away from her crazy parents. In her little fit of anger, luckily, she huffed and blew hard out her nose and out popped the peanut! Crisis averted.

Most people who are worried about peanuts worry because of allergens and reactions. Well, not us. We now worry about peanuts because Anna might stick them up her nose. Hmm, maybe not anymore, though, as that might have been a little too traumatizing for her to do again. Hopefully. We'll see what next adventure is in store... But please tell me I'm not alone with a child who sticks things up her nose!

One month old

I can't believe how fast a month can go! Amazing, considering that the month BEFORE he was born took about 10 times as long for me. Funny how that works, huh?

David is growing and doing well. He's already getting too big for some of the smaller 0-3 month sleepers we have for him. I guess that's a positive for the feeding front! After having a lot of heartache and disappointment when I wasn't able to nurse Anna, I am very thrilled that everything seems to be working out this time around. I am so glad that David got to "bake" a little longer so he was a little more ready than Anna was when she was born 3 weeks early.

I am in love with David's sweet brown hair, which hopefully he'll keep, and his deep blue eyes. Oh, and of course his long monkey arms. David is really just a long baby overall, at least in comparison to how Anna was. I'm especially loving those long fingers--good piano playing fingers. He's starting to make eye contact with us more and more and it's really fun to look into those pretty eyes--when he is actually awake. He's still quite the little sleeper, for which I am grateful because it allows me more time to devote to Anna and also squeeze in a nap for me occasionally.

And for fun, mostly for me as a doting mother, here's some more pictures over the last month.

Mom came for a week after David was born to help. Thanks Mom! I don't know what I would have done that first week at home without you there to help me and my sanity. I think Anna's sanity, too, because all that extra attention from Grandma sure helped an awful lot.




Anna loving to hold her baby brother still...


He really loves bathtime, just getting into the warm water relaxes him so much. One of our favorite times.

Just my little cutie



David on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas day at home in Houston this year. We decided to play it all low-key and just enjoy our time with a newborn at home. And we had to prove that Santa would indeed find us in Houston! This was our first time flying completely solo for the holiday and while very quiet, it was nice. We have missed our family a lot, and we've been talking on the phone and over the webcam--thank goodness for technology!--to help bridge the miles. A Houston Christmas is definitely an interesting thing too with 75 degree weather! Apparantly we missed an awesome doozy-of-a white Christmas in Utah this year with everyone snowed in. I find myself longing for the snow. Kind of. For a week maybe. Then I remember that we get an early spring. And life is still good. :) Actually, I really do love the snow and am pining away for the cold, brisk air. I revel in the days that we actually need to wear our shoes and socks instead of sandals, and bundle up in our jackets when we go outside. Anywho, back on topic...

We weren't alone the whole day. Our friends from the ward invited us over along with several other couples in the ward for a fun Christmas dinner and get-together/visit/game night. While we live far from our families, it's very nice to know that we have our ward family and friends here to spend time with and share the holiday. Anna had a lot of fun dancing and running around from person to person lapping up all the attention she could, while hyped up on sugar cookies. All in all, a very satisfying holiday!

So even though I'm a day late, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Here's some pictures of our holiday fun!
Making sugar cookies on Christmas Eve




Our tree, complete with the one small section of lights that stopped working that Dan needs to fix. Shoot, I didn't get a picture of the tree before the lights shorted out. Time for some testing of the lightbulbs. But we still love our tree! Anna especially adores it, and I just love to see her lit-up wide eyes when we plug in the lights everyday.


What Santa left when he came. Oops, looks like we missed the picture of the big family gift he left. Santa was very good to us and brought us a Wii this year! I must say, it's mighty fun to play, and I really loved whipping Dan in tennis. :)


Anna couldn't wait to dig into all the fun new toys lying out for her, although I still think she doesn't quite grasp the whole Santa concept. I'm thinking next year she'll understand a lot better.


What a haul!

David gave me the best Christmas present and slept for 4 and a half hours the night before Christmas, and then he slept for a 6-hour stretch last night too! I almost feel human again after getting to sleep more than 4 hours in a row! He woke up early Christmas morning to eat, but zonked out again right away of course, right in time for a quick family picture.

Sweetie-boy

After hearing me call David this, Anna has taken to calling him "Sweetie" all the time. It's the cutest thing to hear her say things like, "It's ok, Sweetie, don't cry!" or "Hi, Sweetie-boy!" when she comes into the room.

There is definitely some jealousy she is feeling for attention going on, more tantrums, and overall terrible-2 behaviors in excessive amounts since David came home, but it's kind of nice to see the cute moments where Anna really loves (at least seems to) her new baby brother and calls him "Sweetie". :) Hopefully the loving moments stick around and the terrible-2 actions dissipate quickly.