Kiersten’s Blog

of the gummy grins and the cheesy smiles and that adorable little face and snuggly little body of my little man.

RICHELLE!!! I actually almost forgot that I had to draw a name today so I got London to help me after she had gone to bed. Congratulations to Richelle and her new little guy. He’ll look adorable!

Can you guess why we don’t use markers without supervision anymore? While I was feeding Ashton one day, London “dressed up like a cat.” If you look closely, you can see her “whiskers”. She also marked up her nose, but it had worn off a bit by the time I got a picture. The orange marks on her forehead are her ears. What a funny girl.

I have discovered the greatest thing since I could eat dairy: chocolate shakes!  I bought some chocolate soy milk the other day and threw some bananas in the freezer.  Once they were all nice and frozen, I blended them up with a bunch of the chocolate soy milk and a scoop of peanut butter.  Yum!  I had one yesterday and another today.  It helps me not miss ice cream so much.  London didn’t like it.  That’s fine with me.  More for me!

I went to the dentist last week for a checkup.  I hadn’t been to the dentist in about five years so I expected cavities.  When the dentist told me that I had one cavity and another tooth with a filling that was leaking, I was shocked that those were the only problems.  I went back on Wednesday to have the two teeth filled.  As he was drilling for one of the fillings, they found another cavity in the tooth next door so we decided to just fill it.  I figured I was already numb, and they were already there, they might as well just do it.  Well, this happened THREE more times!  I came out of the dentist that day with FIVE fillings!  I asked if I could have a discount because I was already there.  They didn’t have to numb me again.  They just laughed at me, thinking I was joking.  I totally wasn’t.  I have to go back in a couple weeks to have another filling put in a different tooth.  They found that one on the other side of my mouth and I wasn’t willing to have anything else done that day.  I’m a little nervous about this one, though, because what they didn’t see is what I think is a cavity right at the gum line.  I’m sure when I go in to get the one filling that they found, they’ll find more.  It makes me wonder: is my dentist really that bad that he couldn’t find any of these cavities at my first checkup?  Maybe it’s time to find a new dentist.

This is my 200th blog posting!  In honor of that, I’m doing my very first giveaway!  I have been having fun with applique lately and want to show off my creations.  Yesterday I made a flag tee for Brittany’s birthday and five tie onesies.  I was really happy with they way they all turned out.  I especially love the onesies.  Because of my excitement over the onesies, I’m going to give one away!  You can enter by leaving a comment.  You have until Sunday to enter the giveaway.  Just comment and let me know the size you would like.  Oh, and if you don’t have a boy to dress in an adorable onesie, I’m sure we can come up with something really cute to put on a little girl onesie.

Can you tell she had fun?

Things have been so crazy around here for the last two weeks that I haven’t had time to do anything, let alone blog.  Yesterday we returned home from Platts Phlatts.  It’s a little place in Enterprise, Utah owned by Taylor’s grandma’s family.  Every year they have a family reunion there for all of the descendants of his great grandparents.  This last reunion was the third one I have attended.  Usually we camp but this year I was completely unwilling to go if I had to camp.  I wasn’t about to camp with a baby who doesn’t yet sleep through the night and who screams every time he eats.  Because of this, my mother-in-law generously got us a motel room.  Having a bed to sleep in and somewhere to shower definitely made life easier, but I can’t say that it was an enjoyable weekend.  We left early Friday morning and stopped in Hemet where we moved all of our stuff into my in-law’s van, fed Ashton and hit the road.  London was a great little traveler.  She had her movies and her magnet doodle.  Between those two things and an endless number of yummy snacks, she was one happy camper.  In fact, she had a great weekend.  She had lots of fun things to do, met lots of new friends and got to stay up late every night.  I, on the other hand, promised Taylor that next time he wanted to attend a reunion, he can go without me.  I will be more than happy to stay home.  I felt like I just hung around in the dirt, sometimes talking to people I don’t know, and nursing a screaming baby every three hours.  Not my idea of fun.  The worst part by far was the driving.  Ashton is not a good traveler.  He’s not a huge fan of his car seat in the first place.  Combine that with hunger and acid reflux and you don’t have a happy baby.  There was a lot of screaming involved.  We left Utah yesterday morning around 11 a.m. and didn’t make it home to our house until after 1:00 this morning.  I can’t believe we’re taking another trip to Utah in 2 weeks.  What was I thinking?  I did learn a few things this time around, though.  On our next trip, I’ll be taking my pump and pumping in the car so I can actually feed him in the car.  When the traffic is as bad as it was yesterday and you have to stop every 2 hours, you don’t make it very far between feedings.  What a nightmare!  This is definitely a trip I don’t want to repeat, ever.

Having said all that and also having felt like I never want to attend another Platts family reunion again, I learned a few things.  I realized that I like the fact that my husband’s family is so supportive of each other.  Family is an important thing to them.  I want to be a part of a family who loves and cares for each other.  I’m glad I am.  I complain a lot about having to go to the reunion, but I’m glad to be a part of such a close family.  I probably won’t keep my promise to never attend a Platts reunion again, but I think next year will definitely be too soon.

I can’t believe this adorable little guy has been part of our lives for two whole months already!  I took him to the doctor yesterday for a checkup and shots.  He was already having a hard day so adding shots to the mix wasn’t so much fun.  He’s been much better today.  As of yesterday, he weighs 9 pounds, 12 ounces and is 23.6 inches long.  The doctor was a little concerned with his lack of weight gain because he started out gaining really well (in the 50th percentile).  Now he’s dropped down to the 10th percentile.  I’m not too worried about it.  London always hovered around the 10th percentile.  Plus, Ashton was so mad yesterday morning that he didn’t eat very well before his appointment.  Maybe if he would have had a good breakfast, he would have weighed a little more.  Anyway, we have to take him back in a month for a weight check, just to make sure he’s not dropping.  He has been so fun to watch grow the last couple of months.  He smiles so much now and it makes me so happy every time he flashes me one of his gummy smiles.  He’s also enjoying his toys more.  He loves hanging out under his baby gym.  We sure love him and most of the time are really happy that he has come into our home.

We went to Kidsville today.  I had no idea how much London would love it there.  If I would have known, I would have tried it out long ago.  It’s in a warehouse and around the perimeter is set up a bunch of different rooms with different themes.  In the middle is an area with tables for parents to hang out.  One of  the themed rooms was a dress-up room.  That was definitely the room of choice for London.  The first thing she found was a Winnie the Pooh costume.  She wore that for the first hour we were there.  For the rest of the time, she wore a Tigger costume.  She enjoyed playing in all the other rooms, all the while wearing a costume.  Ever since I dragged her out of that place early this afternoon, she’s been begging to go back.  She can’t talk about anything else.  I asked her this evening if she likes Kidsville or Disneyland more.  “Kidsville” was the answer.  Fine with me.  It’s closer and much cheaper.  I told her we could go back when she poops in the potty.  Have I mentioned lately that she’s still not pooping in the potty?  It doesn’t look like we’ll be going back any time soon.

Who’s Hugh and why is he for sale?