My Confession & 5 Months!

My confession is that I'm in love with Parker's dimple chin. And, speaking of that...did you know you can change your genetics? It's true. I did it. Here's the other part of my confession. Now, this is exciting because until Parker was born I had not told a single soul about this! Only my mom knew about this from observation. Here it goes...getting my weird quirks off my chest. When I was younger there was a guy in our ward at church, Brother Palmer, who was awesome! And he was always fun with the kids and did the best Donald Duck impressions. And you know what else? He had a huge dimple chin. And I loved him. I think it's because of him that I wanted a dimple chin, too. So every day on the way to ballet class I would sit in the front seat, looking out into the side view mirror and pinch my chin together to force a dimple. Well, I must say that over all those years something actually did happen. My chin isn't flat. There's a bit of a separation of chin fat between the left and right sides. Not exactly a dimple but I'll take it. Never in a million years did I think that I could have changed my genetics, however, to get myself a real, bonafide dimple chinned baby! Boy was I ever thrilled to see Parker with that chin! Just one more reason to love this guy. So, there you have it. I was a strange teenager...

And speaking of that Parker guy...he just hit his 5-month mark. I can't believe it! Seriously...didn't he just leave my body? Seems like it should be so but, in reality, it feels like he's always been here. We all love, love, love this baby boy! He is sweet and funny and cute as a button. Evan loves having time to "babysit" him when I take a shower or something. He'll hold him and let Parker watch the Christmas lights and then lay him down on his play mat and then pick him up to move him. Yikes! Scary, I know, but he's been so super amazing with him. The comment I hear most about Parker from strangers is, "He's so alert! Look at those eyes." Yes, yes. That has been said about all of our babies. I think they look so alert because those eyes are just huge, wide open. And his eyelashes go on forever! I still stare at them whenever I have the chance. Parker absolutely loves it when Evan dances around crazy. He laughs and pumps his legs and arms and rocks back and forth. It's dangerous, I tell you. I'm liable to lose my grip and drop the guy. Ha! And the last thing about him is that he's dying to eat solid food. Holy cow...he just wants our food SO bad. And our water, too. Every time I have a cup and take a drink, he makes begging noises. When I started to "pass" it to him, he grabs both sides of the cup and brings it to his mouth. Goodness, son. So we got some baby cereal, sippy cups, spoons, etc. for him for Christmas. He will be exactly 5 1/2 months on Christmas day so we thought it would be fun to start then. I think it will actually be tomorrow because we can't hold him off any longer. Good. Maybe that means he'll sleep through the night. :-)

I love my boys!

GWL

Yahoo! Just got an email with additional Great Wolf Lodge pictures. Here, in random order...

On day 2 Maren completely crashed for a 2-hour nap on the lounge chairs.

Looking at this picture makes me so sad. On day 2 he was such a pill and I kept getting frustrated with him. He wasn't having fun and neither was I when I was with him. In this picture he's about to fall asleep. Come to find out, when we got home at 1 a.m., he had a fever and the start of his [supposed] swine flu. Poor guy. He was sick and miserable all day. Next time we've got to remember to schedule our Great Wolf Lodge trip around everyone being sick!

We like to end our little vacation with a trip to the sweet shop. Yeah, it's about 9:30 p.m. at this time and we didn't get out of there until 11 p.m. Should've just stayed another night! Parker, are you asleep, buddy?

4 Months!

Our sweet Parker is 4 months old already! Boy how time flies with #3. We had his appointment last week and he was all over the chart. 30th percentile for weight (13 lbs. 5 oz.) but 90th percentile for length (WHAT? For a Bybee baby?). Head was 50th percentile. I guess over everything he evens out to about average. He has been adding some chub lately around his wrists and calves and cheeks. He is delicious to kiss.

Parker, just like Evan and Maren, you add a great deal of love to our family. It seems like none of the rest of us can get enough of you. You are starting to do what Evan calls talking now. I call it spitting or doing raspberries. I think you're quite pleased with yourself and the other day I was wondering how babies figure out how to do that anyway. I love hearing it! It means you're happy. The other way we know you're happy...those kicking legs. The faster and harder the kicks, the more excited you are. You've had really strong legs since you were born. Speaking of that, you really love to be standing on them and you're so steady when we stand you up. I don't remember standing starting so soon with the other two but, then again, I have nursing brain. I can't remember much nowadays. You rolled over, front to back, about two weeks ago and surprised and excited everyone. Now you seem to be done with it and haven't done it for about a week. Ha! Big stuff is coming up and it's so exciting! You are big on smiling (not that you'd know by these posts...we have got to get a picture of this guy smiling!) but we've got to work pretty hard for a laugh. I can usually get one if I'm changing your diaper and give you a tickle and Evan is good at getting them out of you if he's just being silly. You sure love that brother who takes ownership of you! :-) Your hair is totally ready for another haircut! Seriously...two haircuts in the first four months of life...that's crazy! But so is that hair. It's going to take some serious gel to tame when you get older. For now, we just love looking at its craziness and feeling it. Although you went for two weeks about a month ago sleeping from about 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., you gave that up as quickly as it came. Boy, that was such a sweet dream! Now you're waking up around 4 a.m. We're going to have to work on cutting that back out so I can start working out at 5:30 again! You are usually a very happy boy. You put yourself to sleep and are happy to be carried around in stores for a long time in the Baby Bjorn. Our family wouldn't be complete without you and we're grateful each day to have you. Love you, Parker!

Fruity Fall

Like father like son. Remember this post about Michael climbing the tree to get cherries? Well, here's his little protege up in our Asian pear tree. He really loves to climb trees but his Crocs are not the greatest shoes for that! Being in jammies helps, it appears. Like the plastic bag hanging down around his neck? Yeah, we remedied that pretty quickly.

Uh, yeah, that's Evan's watermelon that he grew. The face...that's all Evan's doing, too. We could not get him to put on a normal face. I'd call that typical 4-year-old behavior. We felt pretty amazing that we got a watermelon to grow, considering that our friend who has a jungle for a garden won't even attempt them. Then I was talking to another friend about our one amazing watermelon and she let me down gently when she told me they had four, about twice the size of ours. Ha! Wasn't a very tasty little thing, but it was fun to watch it grow!

End of Summer

To finish off summer this year, we took two trips to the beach...on back-to-back weekends. It was cold and windy but everyone had a great time. The first week we took Michael's 32-year-old cousin who had never been to the beach before. It was fun watching him for the first time at the beach. Here...my three favorite pictures. None of Parker since he was in the Baby Bjorn the whole time!

This girl knows how to relax...and look cute doing it!

He had no desire to be anywhere near the water but LOVES playing in the sand.

Hello, my cute husband! I just love this picture of him. Enjoying a little kite flying.

Pizazz

Evan: "Maren, you have such pizazz!"

Emma: "Maren, you're such a sassy girl!"

Cousins

Mine and my sister's kids are all close in age. It's fun now and I'm assuming it will only get more and more so as the years pass.

A year and a month apart


8 weeks apart

7 weeks apart...with my mom! (Please ignore the disastrous desk!)

Water, Water Everywhere!

This post is seriously lacking in good pictures and pictures with removed red eye (note to self: must load Photo Shop onto the computer again!) but I'm getting it on here anyway and I'll fix it up later.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge again last weekend and had a blast, despite some illness. Maren had gotten the [supposed] swine flu on Halloween and she was still coughing when we went to GWL. Evan got sick the day we left. Even with those things and a 3-month-old in tow, we were able to enjoy lots of things there. Evan was tall enough to go on the big tube slides this time and LOVED them. After Michael finally got him to go on one (took about 20 minutes of talking at the top of the slide!), Evan wanted to go down with me. He wanted to go down the fast one. I was nervous. I screamed just about all the way down and Evan was laughing and squealing. He just loved the fact that I was freaked out. Maren went on the "purple slide" probably 100 times...down the slide, walk back around to the stairs, up the stairs, down the slide... Parker was a champ, being happy when he was awake, nursing well in the 84 degree environment with only a swim diaper on, and sleeping in people's arms. And I went on the craziest water slide there probably is anywhere! It's like a roller coaster, only on a tube in the water. Crazy fun! Here are totally random pictures from our trip...

This is how we spent some of our evening in the hotel room...nebulizing poor swine flu-coughing Maren. She was such a sport! To cut through the boredom...Pixar shorts on the iPod. Looks like even Parker is getting into it!

The kids in their big beds. Go to Great Wolf Lodge on a weekday in November! There was hardly anyone there and we got upgraded from the cheap room to a two-room suite with a fireplace and two bathrooms that sleeps up to eight! Too bad we didn't know that was going to happen sooner and we could've invited another family along!

And the only picture from the waterpark...me and Parker...since we spent so much time together. Yeah, who cares about me here, but Parker. Now that kid is a cutie! Couldn't pass up this picture!

Half a Decade!

We've reached a big milestone...we have a child who's half a decade old! Michael and I were kind of in shock all day about it and would stare at each other in utter disbelief when we thought about it. Ha! I remember when I turned five (I really do) thinking what big stuff I was because I was halfway to ten. Boy, five sure is little now. And yet getting "big". It's exciting and frightening at the same time. Since we were going to Great Wolf Lodge just two days after his birthday, we didn't do a big deal. Just had family over for cake, ice cream, and the pinata that he'd been asking for for 364 days. Three pictures. That's what I've got for such a big occasion...

This is the first time I've ever attempted a "real cake"...something shaped like something other than a rectangle and even out of the pan! Ha! Definitely not my forte...clearly. Because this was supposed to be a crocodile. Looks more like a sea monster but oh well. Evan liked it. That's all that matters.

And this picture is included because this is classic Evan! These are the eyebrows he does when he's really mad at you. Here everyone was singing Happy Birthday but Anton, our neighbor, was doing that cha-cha-cha thing, I think. And Evan didn't like it...obviously. Michael and I are quite excited to show him this picture because every time he does this we just laugh because he looks like such a goof. And we tell him enough with the eyebrows. Now he'll be able to see what we're seeing. Think it will change anything? Yeah, me either. That attitude is probably only going to get worse, right? Lucky us.

And, well, this is the random motorcycle pinata he picked out. This was two days after Daylight Savings Time ended and it was 8:00 p.m. Yeah, it was pitch dark. The things we do!

Evan, oh how we love our big boy! We never fail to remind you how we didn't think you would live when you were born because you weren't breathing and six nurses came in and took a minute to revive you. We remind you of how lucky and blessed we are to have you and how much we appreciate having you in our family. Hope you never get tired of hearing that story. You are definitely strong-willed. That's the difficult part. The easy, wonderful part of having you around is that you are a big love. With all of us, but especially with Parker. Has there ever been a baby so loved by a sibling? I think not. You also usually play really well with Maren and are nice to share your things with her. You have started getting helpful in big ways like helping to empty the dishwasher or take out the recycling and I love that! Sometimes you do, too, but usually it takes some coaxing on my part. You like to watch shows and play games on the computer and I'm sure you feel completely deprived because you get such limited time to do those things, but hopefully one day you'll thank me. :-) Your favorite activity is playing with Play-Doh. It will hold your attention for a long time! The bad thing is the mess. But as many times as I swear off that stuff, I keep going back to the store and getting you more when it all dries up. I can't keep it from you because you love it so much. You used to be a pretty good eater but you're reining in your adventurous spirit when it comes to food. Now you're swearing you don't like things that you haven't even tried. Typical, huh? And once you psyched yourself out while you were eating the tuna casserole and you threw up (side note: Today Evan gave Parker a kiss on the mouth and said, "Parker, your spit tastes like tuna casserole."). You like to retell that story. Sometimes you are so timid and cautious and then there are other times when you do things completely out of your box (think Great Wolf Lodge slides!) and you amaze me. You are so smart and I don't know where you learn 75% of the things you know. I know Dad teaches you a lot and I teach you a little but I think you just sponge information up. You are also really funny and an amazing jumper (you should see his split jump...seriously!). For all these things and thousands more, Evan, we love you so, so much. We could not feel more blessed to have you in our family. Happy 5th Birthday!

Birthday & Halloween

Doesn't it look like Captain Michael Sparrow has pillaged a village, stolen a baby and left destruction in his wake? :-)

Padowan Bybee

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I've posted. Life has been seriously chaotic! Goodness. I have at least six posts here that I want to do but I'm going to start with my birthday one. Well, let's not kid ourselves. I don't really get birthdays anymore since I have kids and I share my birthday with Halloween! It's all about kids, dressing up and candy, isn't it? Lately I've just been wanting to freeze my kids in time. The things they say and the way they talk (particularly Maren still)...I just love it! So I decided to give myself a birthday present and record an interview with each of them. We don't have a digital video camera so I just did it on our camera. Boy, do those kids fidgit around! I don't know what the heck was going on with Maren and her tongue this day. And what was I thinking putting them in a rocking chair? It may be that no one else is interested in watching these but I will forever treasure these. I am particularly fond of Maren's response to, "What job does Daddy do?". It gave me happy birthday moments to do these!

Our Boys...

The other day Evan said to me, "Mom, you know why we got Parker, right?" Well, yeah, Evan, I'm thinking, I can think of quite a few reasons why we got Parker. A few of them I'm not going to discuss with you. But I humor him and ask why. "Because I prayed for him. Remember, Mom?" "Oh, yeah," I say. Then Evan says, "Well, what do you say, Mom?" "Um, thank you?" That was the right response because he then proceeds to say, "You're welcome." What a funny guy! And dead serious about it, too. He seriously wants all the credit. Ha!

Then there's our Parker, who is just getting so big. We had his 2 month appointment a little over a week ago and he weighed 11 lbs. 7 oz. Yahoo! What a big boy. He was in the 50th percentile for head and weight. But his height! He was 24", in the 85th percentile! Where did you come from, tall boy? He may end up towering over the rest of his family.

Well, Michael's been making comments here and there about needing to cut Parker's hair and it finally happened tonight. Michael got out the 3/4" clippers and went for it. Happily, Parker didn't mind too, too much. When Michael was done, Parker still had 3/4" of hair on his head and there was about an inch cut off! Holy cow, that was some long hair! Who gets their first haircut at 2 months old?!?! Funny. So here's his before shot (what a cute profile, eh?)... You can't even see the tips of his hair in this shot. That hair goes forever!

And his during shot... Yeah, retarded about the cord being right there but you get the shots you can get in this kind of situation.

And the after shot. It's a terrible picture of Parker and doesn't even really look at him, but you can tell how short his hair is. He looks like he's enlisted in the military. Still a cute boy but it's going to take some time to get used to. We love our sweet boys!

"I'll Never..."

Yeah, famous last words. Did you have anything you said, "I'll never" about your kids? And then you have kids and they go right out the window. Here's two of mine. First, I'll never send my kids to preschool. Why would I? I didn't go to preschool. Did they even have preschool back then? AND I started kindergarten when I was four, was near the top of the class, won Spelling Bees, was in the pentathlon and generally did a pretty good job in school. Who the heck needs preschool? Well, then I met my friend Christina, an early childhood educator. She loves teaching preschool and, seriously, who wouldn't want to spend lots of time with her? She's just fun and has a genuine love for kids. She told me years ago (because I'm such a planner when it comes to these poor kids...always thinking years ahead of where they're actually at!) that Evan would probably enjoy preschool for the social aspects, not so much academically. And now Evan has grown up and I realized you know what? Evan would enjoy preschool. They do lots of cool stuff and he could have some time with friends and why the heck not?!?! If you've ever had a conversation with me about preschool, you're probably laughing right now because I was so passionate on this subject. But, yes, Evan started preschool this week. And, of course, he loves it. And, yes, Christina is his teacher. And, no, I don't have any first day of preschool pictures because, well, no new clothes, no backpack...looks like the same old Evan from any other day.

The second I'll never thing was sending Maren into a ballet class. Now, this was not so much mine, but more Michael's. You see, I spent most of my life after school at the studio, learning to dance. And my sisters spent that time at home observing my mom cooking and doing motherly things, learning how to take care of a home and family. And now that we all realize that I missed out because I don't have amazing cooking skills like my sisters and my mother, Michael kind of resents ballet a tad. Well, a lot, unless he's joking around with me a little. I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to tell how serious he is about the matter. And sometimes I think about the things I missed out on in life like getting together with friends, dances and other stuff like that. Side note: In fact, my junior prom was the same night as a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. My boyfriend at the time, who I would've gone to the prom with, of course, bought a suit and came to the performance instead. I thought that was awfully nice. Anyway, I wouldn't change all that ballet stuff for anything. Being a ballet dancer is just part of who I am and it's a part that I really, really love. And I have amazing memories of ballet and...well, I just wouldn't change it.

So, anyway, Maren has had no egging on by me about dancing at all. As my mom says, 'it must be in the genes.' Because she LOVES to dance. Well, I've come to realize in the last little while what a drag it is to be the second child (never realized, of course, since I was the oldest). She's been dragged to Evan's swimming classes and she really wants to take swimming classes. She loves to swim. But she can't until she's three because otherwise I'd have to be in the water with her. Won't work with Parker. And now she's being dragged to Evan's soccer practices. And she'd love to play soccer or at least just kick the ball around. But I keep her off the field. Poor thing. So when she told me one day, "I just want, want, want to dance!", I couldn't resist. I found out that a girl in my stake teaches a dance class for preschool-age kids and would take Maren since she is potty-trained. We searched high and low for shoes small enough for her little feet and had everything ready for her first day. To say she loves it would be an understatement. She is by far the youngest one in there but she pays great attention, follows directions and does a generally good job of following along. On the way home after her first class she said, "Thank you, Mom, to taking me to dance class." She was so appreciative. I loved it! And I remembered about my sister, Danica, who would go with me and my mom to ballet class when she was two. I guess my mom couldn't keep her off the ballet floor, she wanted to dance with us so badly, and my teacher finally told her to let her dance. She danced in her little tennis shoes. I've got a picture. I'll have to scan it in and put it on here tomorrow or something.

So, have I learned my lesson about saying "I'll never" when it comes to stuff about my kids? Probably not. But I'll definitely be more careful about it. I now realize that I can't now determine things about my kids that are years off. Having kids is fun...it teaches you a lot.

Photo Overload

These past few weeks have been BUSY. I've been struggling with having a newborn, postpartum emotions, getting back to work, keeping the house clean (ha ha, funny joke) and getting everyone where they need to be. But we've also had some really great times and I've actually gotten some semi-decent photos of those times. Here, now, is the photo overload...

This was the last day of Evan's swimming class. They do a lot of different water safety things and this is one of them. They were all cracking up because their instructor, Joe, was swimming under the blue hippo. You can't see very well in the picture, but Evan has a HUGE smile and I loved it. In fact, pretty much the whole time he's in swimming class, he's smiling.

Maren came into the bathroom while I was showering to show me her new glasses. Ha! I didn't think it was a good idea for her to wear them...longer than me taking the picture. I thought she was too cute not to take a picture of. No doubt she'll need glasses at some point and now she'll look just as cute as ever with glasses, too. Too bad these ones are crooked on her fact, too!

After my shower, while I was getting dressed, I guess the kids decided to take pictures of each other. The second and third ones here are of them being monsters or something. I thought it was pretty cute that they would do this but I was pretty distraught that pictures taken by a 4 and 2-year-old turned our clearer and better than mine do!

Evan started soccer just a couple of weeks ago and seems to be really enjoying it. Here he is on his first game day. He surprised me by getting semi-aggressive. His lack of aggression at times when he should have aggression is what I was really worried about. But he did a great job! This first picture Michael got cracks me up. It looks like he's a statue rather than running.

Contemplating the big game...

Lastly, the many faces of Parker Bybee...

"What are you talking about, Mom? No more milk?!?!"

"Well, I guess I am feeling rather full."

"My fauxhawk is the envy of all the cool dudes."

"Ah, that's better. Stop laughing, Dad. Mom's a total mess right now!"

Garden Joy

We had a pretty great garden this year...thanks to Michael. All I did was water. That's my kind of garden! Now if only there was anything else in the world Michael could think about...and if only he didn't suffer from such garden envy when seeing other's gardens. Evan was ecstatic to pull some of "his" carrots yesterday and wanted all his friends to see. So, here you go, friends.

And Michael made the yummiest salad last night, all with stuff from the garden...romaine, cucumber, lemon cucumber, lots of tomatoes and the yummiest red pepper I've ever eaten. Thanks for your hard work, Babe!

Ballerina Girl

Try as I might, it seems as if I can not deter Maren from the barre. Ha! She loves everything about ballet, although I haven't really introduced her to much myself. I do think that she could watch any of my ballet videos for hours on end and she's got a pretty mean arabesque. We'll see what the future holds...

If this gets serious, we'll have to work on that supporting leg turn-out...and leaning on the barre.

It sure makes her happy, though!