Random Thoughts

7:00 am - I fed Scout and took him outside to do his business. (It's one of those not-for-profit businesses.) There was just a hint of warmth in the air. I thought, "Maybe I'll take Rachel and go to the zoo today. It is such a nice day."

7:30 am - I took the contents of Rachel diaper pail outside to the dumpster. It was sprinkling. It is amazing how just a little rain makes it feel so much colder. I thought, "Maybe we won't go to the zoo."

8:00 am - Jeff and I were just sitting down for breakfast (Honey Nut Cheerios and Orange Juice). Rachel was still asleep. All of the sudden there was a long rumble of thunder, then hail was falling from the sky. I thought, "Cool. Where's the camera?"

So here is a photo of the hail falling in our back yard.


Rachel is kind of an active sleeper

Rachel likes to roam around a lot in her sleep. I always put her down to sleep following the long axis of the crib (the 12:00 position of the clock). When I get her out of bed she is always rotated as far as possible. If the crib were wider she could probably make it all the way around in a 360 degree circle. As it is, she is just too tall, so she gets stuck at about 2:00 position. Very rarely she sleeps so completely soundly that she is in the same position when I get her up that she was in when I put her down. Typically, though, she looks like this in the morning (notice her arm is even poked through the rails of the crib):

Basketball

Jeff's dad called the other day and invited him to go to the U of L/Notre Dame basketball game which was last night. Then, yesterday afternoon he called me to say he had one more ticket available, and did I want to go too (with Rachel). So we got to go to the game. It was a great game. It started with U of L very much in control. They had a fantastic 1st half. The 2nd half was going pretty well until the end when Notre Dame started hitting all kinds of threes that they hadn't been hitting the whole time. U of L struggled at the free throw line. It was getting kind of dicey with just a few minutes to play. U of L had a few break away dunks, and they held on for a 90 - 85 victory. It was a lot of fun.

Rachel slept through the entire 1st half, but saw the 2nd half. I'm pretty sure she is going to be a great ball player pretty soon.

Working Out

Back around Thanksgiving I started attending a yoga class. We had to miss several weeks in a row due to bad weather and illness, but last Wednesday we got together again after missing about a month. During that month I started thinking that I need to get more serious about getting exercise, so I decided to attend my Tae Kwon Do class again. (I used to practice TKD quite a lot, but my schedule got to be too demanding after I got married, so my attendance became erratic at best.) So the same Wednesday that I went to yoga after missing a month, I returned to TKD after missing a few years. May I just say that I am SORE! I feel muscles on my ribcage that I didn't know I had.

Please link to Jeff's blog

So Jeff has started his own blog. I think he has been overwhelmed with guilt for hijacking mine. He just added a post and would like your feedback and input. (It's about buying a new car.) Please click here to read his blog and give him all your great ideas. Thanks.

Another tag

A - Attached or single: Attached
B - Best Friend: in elementary school it was a girl named Mouse, in high school it was Anne, in college it was Lynne, now it is my hubby Jeff
C - Cake or Pie: Apple Pie
D - Day of Choice: Friday (it's a special day – it's the day I get ready for Saturday!)
E - Essential Item(s): diaper bag and baby carrier!
F - Favorite Color: Red
G - Gummi Bears or Worms: hmm, they are both so good. I'll go with worms.
H - Hometown: Born in the hospital in Ithaca, NY, but lived for my 1^st 3 years in Trumansburg, NY, spent my childhood in Lansing, NY, spent my adolescence in Aurora, NY. (These places are all very close to each other, so I guess I'll just say upstate New York).
I - Indulgence(s): candy
J - January or July: July
K - Kids: 1 daughter, 5 month old Rachel.
L - Life Wouldn't Be Complete Without: Music

M - Marriage Date: June 26, 2004
N - Number of Siblings: 12 (3 brothers and 9 sisters) + me = 13 total
O - Oranges or Apples: Love both, but for the sake of making a decision I'll say oranges
P - Phobias or Fears: I can't think of any, but I must say I'm looking forward to being dead.
Q - Quote(s): “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to criticize the rest of us.” or how about this one: “If a job is once begun, never leave it 'til it's done. If that job is great or small, do it well or not at all.” or maybe this: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!” Okay, that's enough
R - Reason To Smile: Rachel
S - Season: late Spring early Summer
T - Tag Six: Andrea, Jeff, Marlene, Suz, Holly, Amy
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I'm pretty much an open book. Did you know I played the bagpipe and the accordion?
V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I am a proud oppressor of animals. Yummy!
W - Worst Habit: There are so many, I hardly know where to begin. How about I watch too much TV
X - X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I don't know what this means, but I've had both. Which do I like better? Which do I hate worse?
Y - Your Favorite Food: Spaghetti
Z - Zodiac: Capricorn

Lunar Eclipse revisited

Here is the video of the lunar eclipse that I promised. I know you were all holding your breath!



Much more impressive than that terrible still picture!

Another hijack

Hey, it's Jeff again. I'm hijacking Noelle's page again. Don't worry Noelle, this is not going to become a habit. I'll just post stuff to my own blog from now on. (see http://machtyn.blogspot.com)

Anyway, for quick distribution of this video, here is our talents from the talent show last night.

Five Months Old

It is amazing how quickly time flies! It just seems like a few days ago that I posted on Rachel's four month birthday, but today she is five months old. I can't believe it.

I took Rachel to the doctor yesterday. It wasn't her regular check-up, but she had a little problem that I wanted the doctor's opinion about. Everything is fine, but I do need to treat a little personal issue she has. This is hardly the place to discuss it in detail! I bring up the doctor's appointment because they weighed her. We didn't take off her diaper or her onesie, so we need to take that into account, but the diaper was clean (I had just changed the biggest poopie in the history of the planet!). She weighed 20 lbs even. Un-believable. I have asked her I don't know how many times to STOP GROWING! But she just goes on growing like my request means nothing. She is so cute, though, don't you think?

Tagged again.

So I was tagged by Marla. Here are the instructions:

• Find the book closest to you with at least 123 pages.
• Turn to page 123.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the next 3 sentences.
• Tag 5 people.

There are three books piled on top of each other on my computer desk. They are:
1. Are Mormons Christians? by Stephen E. Robinson. Technically there are over 123 pages, but from page 115 to 133 there are only footnotes and the index, so I guess this book is excluded. I will say that it is a very informative book. Many LDS people are perplexed by the question posed by the title, but in the book the author explains where the question comes from, then proceeds to logically explain to people of other faiths why the accusation of Mormons not being Christians is flawed. Good book.
2. Hymnbook. I could go to hymn number 123 (I don't think it is technically on page 123, but whatever), and find the 5 sentence, but there are no sentences after that (and besides, I don't really feel like it).
3. What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee Hathaway, B.S.N. - so here it is.
The hunger cry is often preceded by hunger cues, such as lip smacking, rooting, or finger sucking. Catch on to the clues, and you can often avoid the tears.
"I'm in pain." This cry begins suddenly (usually in response to a stimulus - for instance, the jab of a needle at shot time) and is loud (as in ear-piercing), panicked, and long (with each wail lasting as long as a few seconds), leaving the baby breathless. It's followed by a long pause (that's baby catching his or her breath, saving up for another chorus) and then repeated, long, high-pitched shrieks.
"I'm bored."

That is pretty exciting stuff! I should have pretended I didn't see the tag, judiciously place intellectually stimulating or exciting books close by, then read Marla's blog again. Sorry!

I tag Meredyth, Marlene, Karen, Shanda, and Malauna. If you've already been tagged, sorry.

Addendum: Okay, I don't follow directions so well. I was reading someone else's blog who had been tagged in a similar manner, and I noticed that the instruction was to write the next three sentences. I wrote the next five. Sorry. But don't you feel now that you have a better understanding of baby crying?

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight there was a lunar eclipse. It was really cool. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera is not exactly designed to take awesome pictures of celestial bodies. So I took some pictures, but they are terrible, and I doubt you could even tell what you were looking at. So instead I took the old fashioned video camera outside and shot a quick video of it. I'll try to post it in the next few days. (Jeff needs to take the camera and create a digital file of it.) In the meantime, here is a preview of the video. (I told you the pictures are really bad!)
In the mean time, here is a picture . . . This morning Rachel was sitting in her exersaucer. She spit up. Always on spit-up patrol, Scout dashed over to her, and Rachel immediately grabbed his ear. Scout just stood there saying, "okay, now how do I get out of this." Rachel has a pretty good grasp!
Here is a picture of Rachel sneezing. I thought it was kind of funny.

Rachel's got skilz

Hi. I are Rachel. This has been a awful exciting week for me. First we had lots and lots of snow. I didn't really play it it. Mommy says I too little. But Scout played in it, and he's the same size as me!

Then one of Daddy's friends at work sent me some really cool things. I got a hand-me-down new carseat. It's a good thing too, cuz I is almost too big for the one I got when I got borned. She also sent me some new toyz. One is a train with numbers. I don't really know my numbers yet, but Mommy said they're numbers. Another is a spiral thingy that makes noise. I like noise. A lot. And the last thing is a castle that I can put shapes and letters in. Apparently there are four shapes and four letters, cuz that's all the castle have. Cool, huh?
On Tuesday I ate cereal for the first time in my whole life. My first meal of cereal I ated in my carseat (you know the one, the one that's too little). Buy my mommy bought me a fun little high chair that you can strap to the regular kitchen chair. It will convert when I are bigger into a booster seat. It's wicked awesome. Mommy bought it from amazon. She ordered it on Wednesday, and it came Friday, so now I are in high chair heaven! I also learned how to hold my bottle all by my little lonesome. I think my milk tastes better when I holds it all by myself!

Thursday was Valentine's Day. Daddy stayed home from work that day because he was sick. Poor daddy. He is feeling better now.

On Saturday we went to a swim meet where my cousins Austin, Waveny and Grace were competing. It was really fun. I can't wait until this summer when mommy says we can go swimming.

On this week's episode of "The Rachel Show" we see Rachel trying solid food for the first time.

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it was dark and it was night anyway. Technically it wasn't stormy, but it was stormy the night before, and the week before, and the week before that and, well, you get the picture. Anyway, back to our story, Rachel was starting to show signs that she wanted a little more chow than the bottle alone could offer, so we got ready for delicious rice cereal.

Rachel: Ah, what a nice nap. Do you know what would be nice right now? A nice delicious bottle of formula.

Mommy (aka Noelle): Well good morning (actually evening) Rachel, are you hungry?

Rachel: What did I just finish saying? Why don't you ever listen to me? Of course I'm hungry!

Mommy: Okay, okay. Well, I have a special treat for you this evening for dinner.

Rachel: Oh yeah? What is it?

Mommy: Rice cereal.

Rachel: Never heard of it.

Mommy: Well, you are going to love it, (aside) I hope.

the audience laughs

Mommy: Everything's ready.

Rachel: Okay, let's give this a try.

The video is six minutes and 15 seconds long. There is not much of a plot - think Napoleon Dynomite - but it's still cute. The lighting is not very good (sorry - you know how these independent films can be) , but the acting is brilliant - the baby is especially believable!



I've heard rumors that solid food will make poopies more yucky (as if formula poopie isn't yucky enough). Say it ain't so!

You might have noticed the lack of a high chair. I don't have one yet, so I just used her car seat. It worked okay. I have ordered a high chair, though, which I will hopefully have by next week. So stay tuned for next week's episode of "The Rachel Show" where we will see our young heroine's solid-food-eating skills improve, (we've already seen that she has plenty of bottle-eating skills - and by that I mean eating from a bottle, not actually eating a bottle!) and the addition of a cute little high chair.