Sesame Street and Laundry Mats

So... when I first found out I was pregnant I was very excited, surprised but excited. But I forgot about the whole first trimester thing where I am completely exhausted regardless of how much sleep I get the night before. With my first pregnancy it was bearable (somewhat) because I was either too busy to think about it or I could take a nap whenever I had the time. This time however....

I have a toddler. What the heck are you supposed to do with a toddler when you are too tired to get up and move in the morning? During that "too-tired-to-get-up-and-do-much-of-anything" period I discovered the greatest thing. Sesame Street. I had totally forgot morning children's tv existed. That wonderful morning I turned it on and Levi fell in love with it as I laid down on the couch. Now, we watch it together most mornings. I know it's not the greatest thing for little kids but it is the ONLY time he is still during the day and I just like to cuddle up with him under a big blanket and watch it with him.

Anyways. Today as we were watching we found out the word of the day was LAUNDRY MAT. As mismatch socks sang and danced around in a laundry mat I was taken back in time.

When Jason and I first got married we lived in a couple 'choice' basement apartments in Provo, Utah while we were both in school. And unless you had amazing connections or enough to shell out for a 'real' apartment, you were usually stuck in one of those houses divided up into 4 apartments or more. This also meant you didn't have a washer and dryer forcing you to go to that wonderful place we call the laundry mat.



I suppose it wasn't all that bad. Lots of times we would rent a movie on a Friday night and take our laptop as we washed, dried and folded our clothes. The place was fairly deserted (because who really goes and does laundry on a Friday night?). It was usually a pretty fun, cheap and productive date.

As I watched I debated weather I like only having to do laundry once a week with two people taking it on or having the steady flow of clothing being either gathered, washed, folded, put away, with no end in sight......maybe we should have stuck with the laundry mat.

Today's blog entry was brought to you by the letter K and the number 5.

What a bum

While my brother Gabe, his wife Kara and son Eli came for a visit, we rented a house on the beach. It was a lot of fun. And for the first time ever Levi got to REALLY see and explore the beach. We've taken him but he has never gone and played.
Once he got toward the wet sand his hands immediately went down and started to touch and feel and pick up the sand. He was extremely excited about the whole thing.

When we first walked onto the sand Levi found a big stick that he immediately picked up (he loves things like that, brooms, golf clubs......) and carrying it around.He soon found out that, unlike at home when he dragged around the broom, here it would leave a mark. Every once and a while he would look behind and see what he had 'drawn' in the sand, and be quite proud of himself. He took it all the way to the water, where he quickly forgot about it when he found out how much fun the water and waves were.
This is what I call his Moses pose. Doesn't he look like he's ready to lead? Maybe some day he will part the sea.
Dad made an island for Levi. We really wanted to get a picture of him on it surrounded by water, but he freaked out. I would too. This was the best we got.

We had fun but we discovered that we probably should have brought a towel with us or at least not have him get so wet. Levi got quite wet and cold by the time he was done. But he sure did have a blast.

Better Late

I love how I just realized I never put up any pictures of Christmas. So for all you Grandmas and Grandpas (which there are now almost 7), here it is. I didn't take as many pics as I usually do, it was all too exciting to remember to take pictures.
This is what our family called the "Levi Spot", right between the love seat and the christmas tree. Levi had a couple pillows, a blanket, toys and whatever else he wanted to stash back there. He loved it. It's funny, but I think I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid.
The first gift of the morning, a chain saw!!!! He loved the noises it made.

A fun piano from Grandma and Grandpa Starr. Levi LOVES music.
It took a little bit to catch on the the whole 'opening presents' thing, but he really got into it and even helped others when it looked like they were in need of his present unwrapping skills.
That big toy?? One John Deere Dump Truck, and a Tractor, which he promptly got on and started riding. Overall, Levi made out like a bandit! Tons of fun toys.




Since it was Christmas and Levi had two grandmas, one grandpa, two uncles and an aunt present, he got a lot more sweets and attention than usual. He loved it. By the time he was ready for bed he was a little wound up from all the excitement and sugar. It was hilarious. He did this for a good ten plus minutes while we watched and laughed.

It was a GREAT, relaxed Christmas. We had a lot of fun, thanks everyone for coming....see you next year!

Crabby Dreams

So this year for Christmas Jason got the first three seasons of The Deadliest Catch from my older brother. For those of you who don't know what "The Deadliest Catch" is, I'll explain. Basically it documents the events aboard fishing boats in the Bearing Sea during the Alaskan king crab and Opilio crab fishing season. How interesting could a bunch of guys fishing for crab be? That's what I though. But Christmas afternoon we pulled them out and absolutely loved it. Watch several episodes in fact.

Since then my family have been watching it off and on. Last night, for all of you who follow, we just finished the King Crab's third season. It was a great, family bonding sort of thing.

Then I had it. I had the crabbing dream. Various members of my family have told me they've had some sort of crabbing related dream since we have started watching the show.

In my dream we were crabbing but in no way like they do on the show. We did it sort of like you do with fish, with a fishing pole, but with no hook. And you were trying to get them to attach themselves on the line and then you pull them up (which makes absolutely no sense). The crabs were a LOT smaller in my dream. Numbers were down and all had given up hope of catching any crab. All that is but me, I kept going and found the "sweet spot" with tons and tons of these tiny crabs and we were all finally able to meet our quota.

What a night. What a wierd, wierd night.