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Conversations with a toddler, V (New Baby Edition)

January 25th, 2009 · bridget, random, spencer

A collection of conversations we’ve had with Bridget relating to Spencer.
Warning: There is all manner of body part talk and bodily function talk here. Read at your own risk. 🙂

You have a boob?
B: Dad, Spencer is crying.
D: He’s hungry. I’ll feed him.
B: (eyes wide, and sincere as ever) Daddy, you have a boob?
D: (shoving his hand up his shirt) Yep, I do. See.
B: You have a hand in your boob?
D: That’s not my hand, its just my boob.
B: No.
D: Yes.
B: Let me see.
D: No.
B: (shoving her hand up her shirt) Look. I have a boob too.

My boobs are stuck in
Bridget showed up in my room with a doll several days ago while I was nursing Spencer…
T: Hi. What are you doing?
B: Nothing. Just sitting here.
T: Oh. Are you going to feed your baby too?
B: (shaking her head no, and looking a little scared at the idea)
T: Why not?
B: I can’t.
T: Why can’t you?
B: I can’t because my boobs are stuck in.
T: Oh. We’ll you could just pretend if you want.
B: (proceeding with uncertainty) Um.
She lifted up her shirt and tried to get her doll lined up just right.
B: Mom, I can’t see. Is Emma eating my boob?
T: Yes, you’re doing it just right
5 seconds later she was done nursing and she ran out of the room with her doll. She hasn’t tried again since.

He loves you
B: He loves you mom. (It should be noted that neither Dave nor Spencer were in viewing distance)
T: Who does?
B: Spencer.
T: Oh. Well, he loves you too.
B: Yay, he does
T: And he loves daddy too.
B: And daddy?
T: Yes. And daddy.
B: He loves all of us?? Oh my gosh!

My boobs are leaking
Bridget ran in while I was doing laundry and stole one of my nursing pads
T: Excuse me, what are you doing?
B: I need this.
T: Why?
B: Because, my boobs are leaking.
T: (laughing silently) Ok. Bring it back when you’re finished.
She brought it back a few minutes later.

He still has an owie
The first time Bridget saw me change Spencer it was shortly after he was circumcised. There was a piece of gauze attached at the point of incision… that was to fall off itself as it healed.
B: What’s that?
T: It’s a little bit of gauze. Kind of like a band aid.
B: Why?
T: Because Spencer has an owie. It will fall off when it gets better.
B: What kind of owie?
T: He got a little cut when he was at the hospital.
B: Oh. Ouch… poor little boy.
About a week later, after the gauze had fallen off…
B: Oh no, he still has an owie.
T: No, its better now.
B: Yes he does. (making ouching sounds, and pointing). See?
T: Oh, that’s his penis. Its were the pee comes out when he goes potty. Only boys have them. Its not an owie.
B: I have a penis. That’s where my pee comes out too.
T: No, you don’t. You’re a girl.
B: My pee-pee comes out of my butt, just like my poop does.
T: Not exactly.
I proceeded to try and explain things a little bit. But that’s about where the funny part ends… and I really don’t think she gets it. But that’s okay.

A minute ago
B: He was in your tummy a minute ago, huh?
T: Yep. A few weeks ago.
B: And then he came out.
T: Yes, he did.
B: He was really dirty. Are you so glad he came out?
T: I am glad. I like having him out.
B: So you can hold him. And change his bum.
T: I do like to hold him.
B: He didn’t have any clothes when he was in your tummy. Not any diaper either. That was so nice that you bought him some clothes.
T: Yep.
B: He was in your tummy a minute ago, but then they just cut him out.
T: Yes they did.

I want to be your son
B: You have a daughter?
T: Yes. You are my daughter.
B: No. I’m your child. Spencer is your daughter.
T: Spencer is my son. You are my daughter. Both of you are my children. Girls are daughters and boys are sons.
B: But I want to be your son.
T: You do?
B: Yea, I’ll be your son. And Spencer can be your child.
T: Whatever. Silly.

Like you did a minute ago
B: Mom! Aunt Holly has a baby in her tummy. Its a boy baby.
T: I know. Do you know what his name is?
B: …to Holly: What’s your baby’s name?
H: Isaac.
B: His name is Isaac.
T: Oh, that’s a good name. I like Isaac.
B: She just has a baby in her tummy like you did a minute ago.
B: …to Holly: You have a baby in your tummy! Did uncle Donny put him in there?
H: (laughing) Yes.
B: Why?
H: You’ll have to ask him that.

Where does his pee come out
During bath time…
B: Where does Spencer’s pee come out of?
T: Right there (pointing)
B: Out of that little cut? Ouch-y
T: Well, its not exactly a little cut.
B: And when is pee comes out it just squirts me
T: Sometimes. He did pee on you last time, didn’t he?
B: Yea, he did. Silly little boy.

Did you get them at the store?
B: Why do you have pads?
T: So my boobs don’t leak all over my shirt.
B: Did you get them at the store?
T: Yes.
B: You did!? You got your boobs at the store? What?
T: No. I thought you meant the pads. I got them at the store.
B: Which store?
T: The one that sells mommy things.
B: Oh.

Oh, the things she comes up with. She really loves her little brother though, and that’s great. She loves to hold him when he’s “awake and happy,” and she is always readily available to shove the pacifier in his mouth or turn on the music to his mobile. She can’t quite pronounce ‘hand sanitizer’ but she knows that she needs to put some on before touching him. I think she heard me say something similar once, because she is constantly saying “He’s just not sure” whenever he is awake, looking around, or making a weird face. She cracks me up!

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Indiana Jones and the land of the 3-year old

January 23rd, 2009 · bridget

We played with the little legos the other day. The ones we got with our Brickmaster subscription.

Usually Bridget asks me to build things, or she just stacks all of the same sized bricks together. But this time she went wild. I was pretty impressed with what she came up with. And so was she. It actually sat built on our table for 2 days, because she couldn’t bear to take it apart to put it away.

Check it out!

This is how it started…

And this is how it turned out. What’s up with all those rings on her fingers anyway. Two CTR rings, and a giant “Mr. T.” looking ring. lol!

Don’t you love it?

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Honeymoon Bliss

January 22nd, 2009 · food

Fattening. And Fabulous.

I don’t have a picture because I don’t think I could take one that would do this treat justice. Imagine a cookie-like layer on the bottom, and a sweet chewy topping filled with pecans and coconut. And sprinkled with powdered sugar.

I don’t care if you don’t like coconut, or if you’re not a big fan of nuts… you’ll like this. Its seriously divine. And its really not that hard to make either.

My mom brought be some when I was in the hospital with Spencer. I’ve been craving it ever since. So I finally called her and asked for the recipe. I doubled it. And I’m embarrassed to say that we’ve consumed an entire 9×13 sized pan worth since Sunday… the majority headed straight for MY hips. So much for post-pregnancy weight loss, right. Ha.

Anyway, I’ll stop talking now. Here’s the recipe. Its originally from my grandma. Let me know what you think.

Honeymoon Bliss

1 stick (1/2 c.) margarine
1 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar

Cream together the above ingredients. Press into a 9″ square baking pan.
Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

In a saucepan combine the following:

2 eggs
1 c. sugar
3 tsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat slightly. Do not boil.
Once warm and well mixed remove from heat.

Add:

1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped pecans

Stir together and spread on the pre-baked bottom layer.
Bake an additional 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

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Playdoh bonding time

January 19th, 2009 · bridget, family

My parents came up to visit a couple of weeks ago, on New Year’s day. While they were here Bridget and Grandma got in some serious bonding time. I think they both had a great time!

Thanks Grandma! Bridget had a ball!

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Ketchup

January 15th, 2009 · a day in the life, bridget, dave, family, random, the hottest girls at USU, tina

With the craziness that is life I managed to neglect this blog a bit over the past several months… at least as compared to my once daily posting regime. As such, many events and life happenings manged to go undocumented. Rather than pretend that I could really catch up and write a post for each of these things, I’ve decided to write one catch up (or “ketchup”) post to briefly touch on some of the bigger or more significant things. I thought about doing a nice “10,000 words” post, but I didn’t want to limit myself to 10 images on 10 topics with nothing more than little captions. I wanted to be able to post multiple pictures for any given subject, or video if I feel so motivated, and I wanted to be able to write paragraphs dang it!

So, I’m sorry if this post is too long or overly boring. This is for me, really it is. But if you are interested in a slew of random Ernstrom family happenings, please, keep reading.

Beckie’s birthday party – 8/28/08
We drove down to Dave’s brother’s house to celebrate his mom’s birthday. We had a barbecue and visited for several hours. It was tons of fun. Bridget loved playing with her cousins, and it was nice to have everyone together to celebrate. Dave’s sister even flew in from Phoenix.

IKEA/Friend’s birthday party – 9/27/08
Bridget and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake to look at a low loft bed at IKEA (this prior to choosing the bed she got), and to visit some good friends that moved away. Their little boy is good friends with Bridget so made sure to schedule the trip when we could also join them in Birthday celebration. Check out the cool cake his mom made!

Birthday Chain Countdown – 9/24/08
For weeks Bridget had been asking me if it was her birthday yet. It was a daily question. Tired of the inquiry I decided to help her make a chain to count down the number of days until her birthday. This is that chain.

I also found it interesting to hear the list of things she wanted for her birthday change with every passing day. One day it was a “dark gun” (dart gun), because we gave one of those to her friend for his birthday. The next it was a scary mask, because she’d watched part of Batman with us. lol!

Pumpkin Walk – 10/24/08
Although Dave and I didn’t take her to the Pumpkin walk this year, she was still able to attend – thanks to some generous friends at a time when I was overwhelmed with Halloween costumes. Here are a couple of pictures of her waiting to be picked up and at the Pumpkin walk. Thanks again!

Jacqueline’s baby Shower – 11/6/08
One of my good friends and fellow Hottest Girl at USU recently had her first baby. A boy. We all got together to celebrate! It was so fun to see everyone, to visit and to catch up! Congrats, Jax, on your beautiful little boy!

Leaf Blowing – 11/7/08
We have two huge trees behind our house. Trees that any given Autumn easily drop 100+ 30-gallon bags worth of leaves. After 5 years of commissioning the service of others to mulch our leaves, we finally broke down and purchased our own leaf vacuum. The thing claims a 16:1 compression… meaning that the 14 bags we filled this year would have otherwise amounted to 224 bags of leaves. I’d say it was a worthwhile investment.

Fire Station – 11/11/08
One of the sisters in our ward arranged a trip to the Fire Station for a group of preschool aged kids. Bridget and I attended. She enjoyed seeing the big fire trucks and climbing in the ambulance. And I think she even learned a thing or two.

Disney On Ice – 11/15/08
We entered Bridget in a costume contest at Cache Valley Mall this year and she won 4 tickets to see Disney On Ice. So we invited a good friend to join us and we headed to SLC. We all had a great time, and have to say that the performance was excellent.

Thanksgiving Activity at the church – 11/18/08
Our ward’s Relief Society sponsored a Thanksgiving activity for the kids. It was a fun outing to take Bridget on. They showed the kids how to make these darling turkey cupcakes. Very creative, and tons of fun!!

Thanksgiving at the Ernstroms – 11/27/08
We went to Dave’s parents’ house this year for Thanksgiving. The feast was fabulous! And it was great to get together with everyone. The kids especially seemed to enjoy playing with each other.

P.S. I was going to title this post “Ketchup & Mustard” and then end with a nice picture of a blowout. haha. But I decided that I’d rather not subject my baby to infrequent diaper changes or sit around hoping for a yellow-colored explosion just so I could take a picture of it. So, I guess that means you are all spared.

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I’ve got no strings to hold me down.

January 13th, 2009 · bridget, family, spencer

Spencer is 1 month old today! Wow.

Just over a week ago we took Spencer off the oxygen, spent a couple of days testing his saturation levels, and finally last week we returned the oxygen tank and the monitor to Intermountain Home Care.

The day we took it off of him I just kept singing the words to “I’ve got no strings” from Pinocchio. He’s a real boy now! lol. Dave just laughed at me. Seriously though, it was almost like we were looking at a completely different little boy without the attached oxygen.

I’ve got no strings
To hold me down
To make me fret, or make me frown
I had strings
But now I’m free
There are no strings on me

Its nice to be free from the oxygen. And to have a healthy baby. And to feel like we can return to somewhat of a normal life. Thanks for all the well wishes.

Here are a few recent pictures of our little man.

Tummy Time!

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Vomit

January 11th, 2009 · a day in the life, bridget, family, random

Last night Bridget had an accident at a friends house.

When we got home (around 8:30) I made her go straight to bed. Not 20 minutes later she was complaining that her tummy hurt. She asked me to rub Vicks on her tummy – she was convinced it would work. A few minutes later she asked for a drink and a cracker…

I thought it was all an excuse to not be in bed. I told her no.

Another 20 minutes went by and she was still complaining. This time tossing and turning too. I traded her 2 polly pockets for 2 crackers… wanted to see just how sick she felt – just how badly she wanted those crackers. She gave up the polly pockets.

She was still complained that her tummy hurt. She told me that she was going to say a prayer to make it better. She did. When that didn’t immediately work she asked me to call daddy to give her a blessing. I did.

I was starting to wonder if maybe her tummy really did hurt. If it was more than an excuse.

Next thing I know, she needed to go potty… Diarrhea. So then I felt bad getting after her for having an accident. And for making her trade toys for food. *Sigh*

She came to lay on my bed and I rubbed her back while we waited for daddy to come home and give her that blessing. Just as we heard daddy open the door she began to vomit. Lots. And it was all over OUR bed. I was holding Spencer… I jumped up. Yelled for Dave to hurry. But it was all too late to save our sheets. There was evidence of peanut butter sandwiches, and sliced peaches all over the place. It was not fun. We laid the baby down and I tackled the cleaning of Bridget and Dave got sheet duty.

Its now about 11:00 p.m.

Dave turned on the fan and opened the window in our room to get rid of the smell.

Bridget still wanted a blessing, so we took her out to the hall and had her sit on a chair. Half way through she began vomiting again. All over her clean jammies and her clean body. And all over the carpet. Back to the tub she went, and out came the carpet shampooer.

A little bread and Sprite later she said she was feeling better and we sent her to bed.

No more vomit in the night, thank goodness. Though we did send her to bed with a plastic bowl, just in case.

Between her and Spencer taking turns waking in the night, none of us got any real sleep. She woke up with a fever around 6:00 this morning. But she’s acted fine since. No church for any of us though. She’s napping now… thankfully.

I hope its over. I hope she feels better. I hope Spencer doesn’t get it. I hope none of us do. Wish us luck!

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Christmastime

January 10th, 2009 · a day in the life, bridget, dave, family, spencer, tina

Our Christmas was a little bit hectic this year, but it was great! We found the time to do some fun Christmastime activities together, indulge in some Christmas goodies, and spend time together. We saw Santa, made gingerbread houses, and decorated. And even though gift purchasing was still in full swing on Christmas Eve, we managed to get everything we needed to get (and get it wrapped) before heading to bed that night. We enjoyed our gifts this year, but the best part was having our little boy home from the hospital and having our little family all together.On Christmas Eve we shared the story of Jesus’ birth with Bridget, and let her watch a little video on it. We were impressed at the details she remembered from the story. It was the first year that we didn’t just read Luke 2… we did our best to tell the story in a way a toddler would understand. That night we each opened one gift from under the tree. A sudoku book for me. Pajamas for Dave. And “The Grinch who Stole Christmas” (classic version) for Bridget and Spencer. Afterwards we dined on chocolate and watched the kids’ new movie. Then off to bed!

That night Santa made an awful ruckus downstairs… but thankfully both little ones stayed sleeping.

Christmas morning was very relaxed. We started the morning slow, all cuddled in our bed, having Bridget tell us what she remembered about the story of Jesus’ birth. When it was time to go down and see what Santa brought, Dave headed down first ‘oohing and awing’ at what he saw. Then the rest of us came to see what Santa brought. That’s when it got funny… Bridget had asked Santa for a doll stroller and pink sunglasses – both of which he brought. But when she saw other things, things that she didn’t ask for, she looked at them and simply said, “What? I didn’t ask Santa for this!” She was more concerned about what Santa wasn’t supposed to bring that with what he did actually bring. LOL! Though when we asked her if she wanted us to return the gifts she decided that it would be okay to keep them.

Later that day Dave’s parents came up to visit. We had hot chocolate and bread with them, visited, and opened more gifts. It was great to spend some time with family and to be able to relax at home.

Here are a few pictures of our Christmastime activities.

Testing lights. Lots and lots of lights…

Admiring the tree…

Playing in the snow…

Our stylish gram cracker gingerbread houses…

Christmas Eve…

Christmas morning. Bridget and her stocking…

Spencer and his stocking…

Bridget and her gift to Daddy…

A much needed suit…

Wahoo! Now I can grind my own wheat…

Playing dress-up in her new princess dress…

Grandma and Grandpa are here…

Grandma & Bridget…

Grandma & Spencer…

We sure had a great Christmas break! In fact, now that we are back to real life, we’d like to petition to bring back Christmas vacation! All in favor…

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Holiday Portraits

January 5th, 2009 · bridget, dave, family, spencer, tina

We decided to take some pictures of the kids on Christmas day for our holiday cards – and then I had my dad take a few of our whole family on New Years Day. Aside from a random picture of all of us sitting on an unmade bed with mismatched pj’s and mangled hair… this is our first family portrait with Spencer. Thanks for taking it for us dad. 🙂

Aren’t we cute? I sure love my family!!

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Our Little Ham!

January 3rd, 2009 · bridget, random

The other night, after taking out her curly hairdo, we sent Bridget to get ready for bed.

She was taking a bit longer than usual, so we thought something was up. A few minutes later she walked into our room asking, “So, how do I look?” She had taken all manner of random hair clips and done her own hair. It was adorable! Dave grabbed the camera to take a picture of her masterpiece hair style, and she immediately started hamming it up. The following series of pictures ensued…

We sure love you Bridget!!

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