Did you know...

Today is my 35th Birthday!! I can't believe I'm only 5 years away from 40. I remember when that seemed so old. Now, I can't believe that's almost me. I'm too young! I thought it would be fun to remember a little bit about me at this time of my life. So I wrote down 35 things you may not know about me.

1. I wish I was a nurse.
2. I have a crush on David Cook. If I had a woman-cave, I would hang up a big picture of him.
3. One item on my "bucket list" (that I doubt will ever come true) is that I could have Chef Gordon Ramsey cook with me.
4. I would LOVE to go to culinary school just for myself. Not to have a career in cooking but just to learn some really cool skills and become better.
5. Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version) is my all time favorite movie.
6. My feet are not ticklish. If you touch them, you must massage them. Ask Brian.
7. My eyes change from blue to green, depending on what I'm wearing.
8. There are three places I hope I get to see before I die: New York City, Boston and Paris, France.
9. If I had my single years to do over again, I would move to Europe and travel everywhere and see everything.
10. I really wish I dressed cute. But I don't. And I really don't know how with this body of mine.
11. My parents were going to name me Sally Sue but then the nurse mention I could have a lisp. So I was named Sally Ann. But I LOVE being called Sally Sue.
12. My future home will have a library. Seriously. An entire room with floor to ceiling bookshelves, comfy places to sit and a million books I can hold in my hands and smell while I read them.
13. Halloween is my favorite time of the year.
14. I really hope my next baby is a good sleeper.
15. Giraffes are my favorite animal.
16. I've always wanted red hair.
17. It's absolutely impossible for me to pick a favorite book. I just love to read, read, read.
18. The coolest date I've ever been on was when a guy took me up in a little cesna plane. He flew us to Bear Lake where we sat on the wing of the plane and ate sandwiches. Every other date I've been on has always been movies, dinner, stuff like that.
19. I LOVE to organize and be organized and reorganize. Oh! I just love it.
20. My dream home would be on an acreage (or more) with fruit trees, a huge garden, raspberry bushes, etc. - where I could garden and live off the land almost.
21. I love to play games and learn new ones.
22. I hate sharing a bed. I've hated it my entire life. It's so hard to sleep with someone else moving around, pulling the covers, making noises. I hated it before I was married. In fact, I had to take sleeping pills for the first few months of marriage so I could sleep.
23. I'm cloth diapering Gideon and really enjoying it. We haven't had to spend one single penny on disposable diapers.
24. I wish I had a best friend. I have tons of friends. But not a bestie.
25. My favorite drink is water. And ever since pregnancy, Dr. Pepper is, unfortunately, a second runner up.
26. My favorite food is breakfast - french toast, waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon....yummy!
27. I love flannel sheets. I'm always so happy when the weather turns colder and I can pull them out.
28. I love music that shares real emotions. Typically it's music that's slower and tells of heartbreak.
29. I love roller coasters. Someday, I'm going to fulfill one of my dreams and I'm going to ride a roller coaster where my feet hang free. And the one at Lagoon doesn't count.
30. I hope I become a published author.
31. I love blackberry flavored treats. Like at Zupas, I fill my cup with 7up, then pour in some blackberry syrup - Heaven! I wish there was blackberry pop I could buy at the store. Wait, no I don't. Cause then I would buy it and drink it all.
32. I think text messaging serves a purpose but I also think it takes away from real communicating. Sometimes I'd rather just TALK to people. Sometimes getting only a text for something is a disappointment, like I'm not worth a phone call.
33. I love being a student. LOVE it! The assignments, deadlines, writing papers - I know I'm crazy. But I really love it. I would be a professional student if I could. And I really want to go back for my Master's someday, but I just have no idea what in. Too many choices.
34. I love scary movies. Not the horror, blood filled kind. The sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind. The kind that makes you think twice when you see a shadow, or something move, or hear a sound. Oh, yeah. I love that! I even watch them all by myself.
35. I love trying new recipes so much that we hardly ever eat the same meal around here. Some are so good (like lasagna soup) that Brian asks for a repeat. Some are not so good and we end up going out to eat. But it's really fun and I've gotten really good at spotting a good recipe.

So there is a little about me. I wonder if I'll laugh at some of these things in 30 years from now. Or if things will pretty much be the same.

Brian has joined my insanity...

and is trying to capture pictures of Gideon smiling. He actually caught some really good ones. Here are my favorites.

a little smile

little tongue sticking out

 huge smile for daddy!

another big one!

Two Months

My little man is already two months old! Crazy how time flies. I really wanted to take pictures of how much he grew during his first year, but all those weeks of him being so sick really threw me off all my plans. So I looked back at pictures to see if I could use something and found this crib shot of him the day we brought him home from the hospital. 

TWo dAYs oLd!

TWo mOnTHs oLd!

He now weighs 11 pounds, 15 ounces.
He is 23 inches long.
He LOVES to smile and be social. He is already a little flirt. He loves the ladies! He is so strong and has amazing head control. He hates tummy time but we make him do it anyway. He LOVES when you sing to him. Gideon was only moving his head to the right and could only bring it to the center. So we learned some exercises and now he moves his head all over the place. He prefers facing forward when being held. Gideon has the cutest giggle. He does it most often when he is sleeping, but has giggled while awake a few times. He sleeps great at night but rarely naps during the day. He can be fussy when he doesn't get enough sleep, but when he gets enough, he is one of the happiest kids ever. Gideon is cooing up a storm and loves to tell stories. He is an absolute joy and we LOVE having him in our family.

We "celebrated" his two months by taking all his 0-3 month clothes out of his drawers and replacing them with his 3-6 month clothes. So sad! He is growing too fast. The clothes still fit around him but he was too tall to wear them. The outfit in this picture I bought before Gideon was born. We randomly stopped by The Children's Place and I found it for $2.50!! The price made it even cuter. I remember coming home and holding the onesie against my belly, amazed at how big it seemed. Now he is wearing it and it fits! So surreal.

Big Blue Eyes

You can never post too many pictures of your child's face, can you?? Actually, I was meandering through my blog yesterday and realized that there are no pictures that show Gideon's real eye color. Now, I know they can still change, but you need to see what a beautiful blue they are. They are just like my sister, Stacey, and her three kiddos, eyes. A bright, beautiful blue. See for yourself. And enjoy his silly faces too.

A Wanna Be Birth Announcement

I'm not a photographer, but I think these pictures turned out pretty cute. I saw this idea for a birth announcement shirt on pinterest and I just HAD to do it. But with all the screaming that went on around here before, I never had the chance to make the shirt. But with the new, happy baby I have, I made the shirt and snapped a bunch of photos. I'd really like to send out a birth announcement but is it lame to do that when your baby is almost two months old?? I always dreamed of sending out a birth announcement. Maybe this blog post will just have to do. At least he is a cutie! Here are my favorite shots:

A little smile. My dang camera needs to take pictures quicker!

I Give and I Get

For a while now I knew something was wrong with Gideon. He was sick, but my pediatrician (that I only talked to over the phone about this) told me I was being an overprotective first time mom. But it kept nagging at me and so just over two weeks ago, I finally took Gideon to the InstaCare over the weekend.

First off, I absolutely LOVED the pediatrician that was there and wished he could be my pediatrician, but his practice is in Orem. Not worth a 45+ minute drive, one way, for a doctor. Also, he knew right away what was wrong with Gideon. He is not able to tolerate milk protein.

Now, back in the hospital, when I supplemented with formula for a couple of days, milk based formula made Gideon really sick. But this news still surprised me. After all, I'm breastfeeding him. How could he be getting sick?

Turns out, milk protein is absorbed by the blood. And breast milk is made from nutrients in your blood (disgusting and fascinating all at the same time.) So every time I ate any milk product, Gideon was also eating the milk protein in that food, making him sick, sick, sick. The doctor said I would notice a big difference between 1 1/2 and 2 weeks of being off milk, if it really was the milk. So no more milk for me. But now, I'm left with horrible cravings for this...

and this...

Now, craving ice cream doesn't surprise me because I have craved ice cream since college. But I had no idea how much I would miss chocolate. Chocolate withdraw for me is BAD. I have even been dreaming that I STEAL chocolate from people, that's how bad I want some. And milk is in EVERYTHING! I have no "emotional foods" left to eat. No chocolate, no ice cream, no cookies, no cupcakes, no brownies and the list goes on. So instead of eating emotional foods, I step on the scale and LOVE that the number keeps going down, down, down.

Meanwhile, I switched pediatricians. A friend recommended one to me but she wasn't available, so I saw someone else in that office. Turns out his first son had the same problem and he was able to answer all my questions. And he gave me some great advice. And he was really nice. And he told me I did a great job noticing something wasn't right because most people don't know until their child has blood in their stool. BLOOD! I seriously think I would freaked out and called 911 if that happened to Gideon. And he didn't make Gideon cry, like the other doctor. So consider us officially switched.

On the other hand, I have been dealing with a baby that NEVER sleeps during the day. Sometimes, he has been awake for as many as 15 hours straight. And because he is so tired, he spends a lot of time crying and screaming. (Which is even worse when you can't stuff your face with emotional foods.) I've tried everything, everything to get him to sleep with no luck. On days when he would sleep for 20 minutes I was so happy. But for the last four days, there has been a lot of this going on...

My baby finally sleeps. And he lets me know he is tired. And he falls right to sleep. And he is SO much happier. And I think I might actually be able to live without chocolate and ice cream and The Sweet Tooth Fairy for the next year. Maybe.

I'm so glad he is feeling better. I had no idea that me eating milk could make him so sick. I had no idea that being sick could make someone so little not sleep. I wish I had known sooner. And I really hope that telling the world about this doesn't jinx his sleeping. Seriously.

The strangest part of this whole thing to me is that during pregnancy I LOVED milk. For as long as I can remember in my life, I hated milk. The smell. The taste. The texture. For nine months, I LOVED the stuff. I drank it all the time. And when eggnog came out, I would actually wake up at night because I NEEDED some eggnog. I would actually have to get out of bed and drink some in order to fall back asleep. And now my baby can't handle it. So strange.

At least he is feeling better. And sleeping. And much happier. So here's to a year with no milk!

Grandma and Grandpa Morris Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Morris came to visit on the 14th and 15th. We basically visited at home and marveled at Gideon, who was taking naps, often. Brian and I kept expressing our disbelief and claiming this wasn't the typical, screaming Gideon we were used to. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. Anyways, we had a great visit, Gideon got lots of extra love and we only took a couple of pictures. Murphy's Law. It was a fun time. Thanks for coming!

One day after his bath...

Gideon was looking extra cute. So I snapped a few pictures.

He is figuring out how to suck on his fingers. He makes so much noise when he sucks. Totally funny!

His hair is getting a lot longer too. And lighter. You can't tell in any of these pictures, but originally you couldn't see his eyebrows (note the lack in these pictures) or his eyelashes. Now his eyelashes are close to the color of his hair and they are much easier to see. But you can only see his blonde, blonde eyebrows up close.

Cover Me Up!

Gideon loves to have his face covered when he goes to sleep. On this day, he was really hot so I didn't cover him up. I didn't realize how much he loved having his eyes covered until he figured out his own way to do it. Adorable!