Monday, July 7, 2008

Happy 4th of July

The closest temple to Lawrence Kansas is three and a half hours away at Winter Quarters (now known as Omaha) Nebraska. We don’t have a babysitter. A session takes two hours including changing time. Feeding Bella takes a minimum of half an hour, and she likes to eat every 2 ½ hours. All of these factors combined add up to a twelve hour temple trip. I guess that’s better than those who have to travel two weeks in a rusty bus through uncivilized terrain to get to the temple. At least we had a car and a paved road.

Bella wanted to commemorate our first trip to the temple since moving to Kansas. She saved up for three days, and then let her surprise out ten minutes before Ryan was supposed to go to his session. It oozed out of her diaper onto her outfit, and her blankets before we could wrestle her free from the car seat. We underestimated how many wet wipes we should keep in the diaper bag.

Isabella now weighs in at 8 pounds 1 ounce, maintaining her place in the 1st percentile for weight among girls her age. At ten weeks she is fitting into her newborn clothes with room to spare, but she is growing fine, according to the doctor. In fact, the doctor was impressed with her ability to squirm around in circles. The doctor also said Bella has graduated from car seat sleeping, and needs to be in a crib now. A baby needs room to squirm in her sleep. Bella disagrees.

At the end of the appointment the nurse traumatized Cecilia by making her hold Bella down while she gave her THREE vaccinations. Isabella’s cooing and smiles changed to wide eyed terror and screams as the nurse drove three inch needles (I swear!) all the way through her tiny legs. She was still moaning fifteen minutes later as she ate her second lunch.

Isabella’s shiny new crib now stands in the corner of our front room. Although it’s been up for several days it’s still as good as new. Isabella won’t sleep in it. She screams with surprising enthusiasm until we put her in the car seat. In there, she will sleep for up to ten hours. Celia isn’t sure she is ready to give up the car seat either.

On Tuesday July 2nd Ryan turned 23 years old. His wife made lasagna from the Wal-Mart frozen foods section, and gave him a personally handcrafted birthday card. Bella wore an “I love Daddy” onesie.

The 4th of July is a serious affair here in Lawrence. Most stores close for the holiday. The campus is closed all weekend. The closure of KU frustrated Ryan’s last minute homework habit. A few hours before the midnight deadline, he realized he didn’t have any way to e-mail his paper to his professor. Ryan did what any aspiring city manager would do. He committed a federal crime on the 4th of July by slipping it into his professor’s home mailbox. Don’t tell the post master.

We don’t have to go far to find the luxury of a sauna. Our apartment is the local hotspot. Cooking a casserole and mashed potatoes on the hottest day of the year is not advisable. Cecilia may have dripped an extra ingredient into the dinner, but since it was her first time making a casserole we aren’t sure if it altered the flavor. Ryan liked it anyway. At least that’s what he said.

Casseroles aren’t the only menu items recently added to Celia’s cooking repertoire. This week she also grilled marinated steak for the first time (Happy 4th of July), and made meatloaf (No grubs were harmed in the making). For the first time since we’ve been married, leftovers are accumulating faster than we can eat them.

Celia has also discovered a new store. A store that holds a quarter as collateral in order to use their shopping carts is pretty intimidating. I needed a guided tour by a friend with experience shopping there before getting started. They don’t provide bags for your purchases, but the savings are oh, so worth it.

After several weeks of being 1 of 4 families with a child at the university ward, we decided we should act our age and go to the family ward. We went to the 1st ward for one week. The bishop informed us that we are supposed to go to the 2nd ward, but not before we had already signed up to clean the building and feed the missionaries. In our new ward Ryan has to be on his best behavior. The director of his program and one of his professors are there.

She finally went to sleep in her Crib!

2 comments:

Milly said...

She is beautiful, and you are stinking funny! I love reading your blog. It really cracks me up. I am glad to hear that you are doing so well, and that life is great for you all. Sorry about all the heat, but look on the bright side, the more you sweat, the more weight you loose! There you go.

April said...

Oh my heck, Darley! You're a mommy! Congratulations! You know what... today I was remembering that time in the MTC when you started laughing uncontrollably while we were singing our morning hymn, and afterward you told me it was because my breath smelled like M&M's. I always remember that when I think of you! I seriously cannot believe it's been more than 3 years since then and you're married with a baby! Wow! Anyway, I love you!