Maybe You Know What To Do?

Aftyn has been blessed with incredibly thick, long eyelashes all thanks to Reed.



Good job Reed.



Only problem is in the very corner of her left eye on the outside, (with her eyelashes being so thick), some of her eyelashes grow the wrong way and have always seemed to grow into her eye.



Sometimes her eyelid on that eye gets a little puffy, almost like it has some kind of infection because of these eyelashes.



I've talked to her doctor. She doesn't seem concerned, she just suggests wiping the eye with a warm wet cloth if we see any kind of infection or excess discharge.



I feel bad because when the puffy eyelid shows itself, Aftyn looks weird.



Anyone else ever have this kind of problem with their kids?

Using your imaginary video camera . . .

Some scenes you might be watching on your imaginary camera from our house the last few weeks:

Aftyn crawling around !! . . . finding the dishwasher while I tried to load it. She was laughing and smiling all the while she tried to pull things out of the bottom rack. Little stinker.

Tonight, Aftyn in a skirt, trying to manuever the kitchen floor and not crawl on her knees, but instead using her feet and doing a "bear crawl". Wish I had the video camera for that! Maybe I'll have to re-create it for posterity.

Aftyn's funny excited noises she makes.

Aftyn's 2 bottom teeth. And not the 2 in the middle. The one in the middle, bottom right, and the one to the right of that one. Odd, huh?

Aftyn and I playing our nose game

Tonight, Aftyn letting me use her hands to "play" in her hair, and the giggles and laughs when I let her play with her hands in my hair. She is such a funny, happy little girl! (When she wants to be.)

Aftyn's latest food passion: pretzels

We certainly love our Aftyn, and are grateful for the 9 months today that we've had her in our family! 9 month pictures coming sometime in the next few weeks hopefully!!

Random Funny Photos

She was so excited when I let her hold it. She loves bananas!

Anybody else see Reed's chin here?

Blessings In My Life

Well, the gray days of February seem to be catching up to me. It feels like winter will never end. So, I have been trying to think of something positive to reflect on instead of moping about, wishing for sunshine. I have been thinking about an experience that happened about a year ago that was inspiring and awesome. At the time, it was one of those no good, awful, very bad days.

It started out as most days did a year ago, me driving Reed to work out in Caldwell, and then swinging back around taking myself to work back in Meridian. We were in our usual rush, cereal bowls in hand, arms full of sweatshirts, purses, lunches, etc.

We piled in the car, trying to hurry so we could miss school traffic. No such luck. We waited behind what seemed like a half mile worth of cars just to make it to the 4 way stop and on down the road toward the freeway. Inside the car, Reed and I talked and munched our way down the road, fretting about the work day ahead of us.

While pulling onto the freeway, Reed looked over, (he was driving), to see someone in a car next to us pointing at our car, and trying to mouth something to him. He pulled over, walked around the car, checked the tired, with nothing amiss. We proceeded clear out to Caldwell and pulled into his work.

Getting out, Reed couldn't find his wallet. We hurriedly looked in all the nooks and crannies of the car, only to find nothing. I asked Reed if he might have put it on the roof as I had seen him do before. He said yes. I asked him if he had picked it up off of the roof. He said he didn't think he had. So, somewhere along all the roads and freeway we had driven, Reed's wallet and his German book had taken a little tumble to the ground. We were freaking out a lot at this point. And yet, I had to turn around and drive hurriedly on to my job.

Driving back on the freeway, I was looking left to right and right to left, trying to safely look for some sign of something. 10 minutes into the drive, and after a few prayers as well, Reed called me to tell me someone had just called his mom saying they had found his wallet. 10 minutes! That has to be some kind of record.

On my lunch hour, I drove to meet the kind and honest man who had found Reed's wallet during his morning commute. I'm sure he had no idea what kind of predicament we were in - we were expecting a baby in a few months, we had had some layoffs at my work and I was freaked out about losing my job which provided our insurance, we had one car to share because our other car had needed to be fixed, and Reed was working a job that was merely a way to make some money.

As I came face to face with Darren, the wallet finder, I could tell this was the kind of thing he would do on a daily basis. I can appreciate people like him, with whom honesty is not even a second thought.

On that day, he was an answer to prayers. He brought peace so quickly to a situation that could have been so much worse. And for that reason, Darren is my happy thought for today.


( He had looked in the wallet to find the drivers license only, and had even been kind enough to count all the credit cards, assess if there was any cash, and when I picked it up he reported exactly what he had found in the wallet, which was exactly the way Reed had left it.)

*In case you were wondering, Reed's German book met its sad demise on the freeway. It had survived a 12 minute drive with lots of turns, only to be torn apart by the fast speeds on the freeway on the top of our car. I found its contents later in the day, torn apart and gracing the right shoulder of the freeway. There was too much to pick up! It has gone the way of the earth by now, I'm sure. *

Our BIG little Girl

It's the beginning of a new era and the ending of an old. The above picture shows what I saw when I went to get Aftyn out of bed this morning.

I knew it was coming. Aftyn standing up in bed.

It's time to drop her mattress a little lower so she doesn't take a head dive out of her crib.

Our little girl is growing up. And now she's clapping about it. :)

Ah, Saturdays

If you close one eye, and tilt your head to the right, you won't notice how blurry and grainy this picture is. I'm just trying to share Aftyn's head of curls - right out of the tub with her oil lotion in her hair, her curls look all cute and perky! After a few hours, the perk goes right out of them. But they are certainly cute while they last!

Reed and I have been dealing with an inevitability lately - our bathroom sink has become slower and slower to drain. Reed, having had no prior unclogging history, seemed a bit daunted by the task.

This morning he came home from the store, Draino in hand. Not wanting to waste money, I immediately popped on the internet, typed up how to unclog a drain, found a video on YouTube, watched the whole 2 minute video, and went and grabbed Reed by the hand.

We both went into our bathroom, where I did everything the video said to do, with the help of Reed. We had that drain clean and clear in 5 minutes flat! I was so proud of us!! And now we both know how to do it, so there's no need to wait until the sink is unusable to fix it. I love a quick and easy fix!

Also, wanted to share that Aftyn is already able to identify her nose thanks to a little game she and I like to play where we bump noses, poke noses and generally have fun identifying our noses. Odd, but very cute. I'll try and get it on video so we can share.

A Little Funny

I went into my bathroom this morning, only to find, while looking at the shower, that my can of shave gel had decided to empty all of its contents down the shower wall.

Wondering what could have happened, I played through many scenarios in my mind that involved Reed having a lot of fun spraying it out during his morning shower.

After looking at the can, I decided there must have been some defect in its make-up, but soon saw it was meant to be.

The scent: melon burst :)

Losing My Senses

This week has been more exciting than most. Not exciting in a good way, exciting in a "I've just learned more about myself" way.

I have been suffering from some incredible sinus pressure this week, due to a cold that Aftyn shared with me. I know, we've all been there.

With this sinus pressure, I have experienced a decrease in my sense of hearing. As in, everything has been muffled. INCREDIBLY annoying. Luckily, a few homeopathic eardrops, a few naps, and my ears felt SO much better. And my regular sense of hearing was regained. But then my sense of taste seemed to disappear.

I can't remember the last time I lost my sense of taste. I'm not sure if I ever have lost it. This week, I've learned my life is not worth living without the sense of taste. Without taste, any craving you have is worthless.

Chocolate has no taste, and therefore no pleasure can be derived from it.

You might say, "great way to lose weight!" Let me tell you, SO NOT TRUE!

I kept imagining that my nose was feeling better, and so to test my tastebuds would shove some tasty morsel in my mouth, only to be bitterly disappointed with no taste emanating at all. Rather, I could only sense saltiness and spices. Jalapenos only created heat emanating from the large muscle taking up room in my mouth, otherwise known as a tongue.

Let me sum up: Losing a few of my senses has helped me to further appreciate something we all take for granted. Next time you taste something fabulous, or hear something beautiful to your ears please remember my tale and be grateful. Someday you may not hear or taste such beauty.

Have you lost any of your senses lately?

A Little Video To Share