Break Week 1

Here is a snapshot of what we've been doing during the first half of my dear Watson's break:

Tuesday (Aug 6)

My dear Watson finished up the semester and successfully passed all his classes. He did quite well in Anatomy even, and that was the most difficult class. He's sort of a natural when it comes to the body. That sounds weird. His classmates had a pool party that afternoon, so we went, and left before it got too crazy. "Why is all the rum gone?" (Pirates of the Caribbean quote)

Wednesday (Aug 7)

Laundry day! That means we stayed inside. I have to walk my laundry over to the neighbors, up the stairs, and according to her schedule: so it's sort of an all day thing.

Thursday (Aug 8)

We went to Guardians of the Galaxy. It wasn't a bad movie, but it doesn't even come close to the caliber of the other Marvels if you ask me. We also had fresh spring rolls for dinner at a friends house; full of shrimp and tofu. It was a new experience for us both, but actually tasted pretty good. I made pecan cupcakes with a delicious vanilla whipped frosting.

Friday (Aug 9)
We went to Sebago Lake. It was a dream. Perfect weather, semi- warm water, and a lot of relaxing. I even got in...all the way, which tells you it was warm-ish. I've been to the beach a million times here and have never more than stepped in.

This is the lake. It was really cool for kids because the beach is only about 8 feet from the water so you can sit by your stuff and be close to your kids as they play in the water. We tried to put Redd in but he screamed. It was too cold for him I guess.

Saturday (Aug 10)

Stopped at the farmers market at Deering Oaks. I've never seen so much produce at a farmers market. The markets in Utah are more homemade craft stuff than actual produce. We ended up with some fresh green beans and corn on the cob which I whipped up for dinner that night. We also walked around the mall and ate lunch at a Philly CheeseSteak place. It was delish.

Sunday (Aug 11)
 Church. My dear Watson gave a great talk about enduring to the end. Sunday evening we went to Bug Light Park to see a lighthouse and fly a kite. It's an itty bitty lighthouse which is why they call it bug light. The kites people were flying in the park were incredible. Like sky ballerinas floating gracefully in the wind. They were big, made of fabric, and went way high up. Our kite was stellar too. 1/2 off at Marden's so about a dollar, plastic, and reached close to 75 feet. At least we got it in the air.

That's our little kite at the top right, the yellow and purple things on bottom left are the other, bigger kites. Here's a video: 

There will be more later, but for now, here are some cute videos of our little guy.

This is him playing with his keys. 

This is him laughing with my dear Watson.

Lobstah Nightmare

Another eventful week. 

My dear Watson went to the Biddeford campus to study in the cadaver lab, and took us with him. Since we aren't interested in dissected dead human bodies, he dropped us off at the beach. This is called Hills Beach, and is so close to campus that we just walked back when we were done. It was the warmest water I've encountered so far at a beach in Maine. Redd got to wear his favorite hippo hat.

 A couple days later Redd and I spent a couple hours at the Eastern Promenade. It's a beautiful path along the ocean, and we found a bench right on the water to relax on.  

We watched 3 giant trucks and a Ford F150 play Tetris to fit on this small freight ferry. Every time a truck boarded I was sure there wasn't any more space, and then saw another big truck backing on. It was fun to watch

This beanie actually fits him now. As a newborn I had to roll it up. I just thought it was so adorable.

Our good friends the Woolley's came to visit and we showed them around our beautiful city. They fell in love with it, as most people do. Austin was Kam's friend all growing up and is in med school in Cleveland right now.

We took the Woolley's to Portland Lobster Company on Old Port because they wanted to eat Maine lobster. Lucky for us, there were two or three non- seafood things on the menu, so that's what we ordered. We watched the Woolley's crack into their lobsters, and as soon as I saw the green bile-looking stuff inside, I started to get queasy.  When Austin gave me a piece of claw meat to try I put it in my mouth like a boss. But when I bit down and my teeth bounced back instead of biting through, I spit that nasty creature back onto my plate. I had an upset stomach for an hour and I didn't even swallow anything. Turns out, I may never try lobster and I'll definitely have lobster nightmares. 

The picture above is the buzzer that tells us when the food is ready. I thought its lobster shape was super cool.

This past Saturday a man was baptized into our ward. I attended a couple of his lessons and My dear Watson reached out to him when he came to church. To our surprise, he asked my dear Watson to baptize him. It was such an honor.

Chasing A Box

I think I'm the only person in the world who prefers humid heat over dry heat. Sure, it's hot, even in the shade, but I still think there are more benefits to humidity. Great skin and big hair are among them.

We've been having fun in usual fashion around these parts.

Redd And I went to Smiling Hill Farm this last week. It's basically a petting zoo. It was fun to go into the same stall as the sheep and goats and feed them. The goats were a little greedy though. These are a couple of donkeys....haha, which ones?

Sheep!

BYU Football is hiding a fan box in every state as part of a 50 day countdown to the first game. They hide the box, take a picture and post it to Facebook. First person there wins the box. It's full of BYU swag.  The Maine box happened to be hidden in our city, so we BYU'd up and raced to the box. Unfortunately we were literally 30 seconds late! But at least a sweet 10 year old boy got it... But my dear Watson wanted it reeeeaaaalll bad.

They are going to send us a free t- shirt for trying. Our neighbors came too, just a little behind us. 

This is the Holy Donut, wherein contains the most delectable donuts we've ever had. We're already trying to plan our next outing for another donut. 

Redd and I went to the outlets in Freeport last week with a friend of ours. Freeport is LL Bean headquarters, and this is a giant boot outside their store.

 All dressed up in his Sunday best!

This kid is so much fun. 

Back

 I took a two and a half week hiatus from blogging and hung out in Utah.

The Utah trip was extraordinary. I got to hangout with my favorite people in the world: my family. We did some crazy fun things and I especially loved not being alone all day. 

Of particular interest to me was the fact that this was the first time the siblings have been around and I didn't have to work. I could do anything and everything. It was a dream come true. I feel like Redd learned a ton since he had so many cousins to look after him, and somehow he didn't get sick!

Now we are back home in Maine; the laundry and grocery shopping are done, and we are all three together again. Just the way it should be. 

Redd's 2 month dr. appointment was successful. The kid is now in the 50th percentile for height and weight. That's a big jump up from 10th percentile. The Doc told me to start forcibly stretching the length in between feedings. I feel like that has been a dream come true. Currently he eats every 3 hours instead of every 2. Yeah, I needed that.

Doc also told me since he has reflux and doesn't sleep on his back very well, that I should sleep him on his own on his tummy. It does increase the risk of SIDS, but only minutely. He says it's safer than having him sleep on his tummy on me. So I've been working myself up to it. It means he has to sleep in his own room, in his pack n play. I've always had him in my room and have had a hard time transitioning. 

I'm happy to report that last night he slept in his own bed all night long. Only woke up once to eat, And then I put him right back in his bed. I slept in a different room and didn't check on him more than twice. It means I actually slept for the first time in 10 weeks.  I'm proud of us. The next step is to get me to sleep in my room instead of on the couch. I hear him better from the living room. Baby steps, people, baby steps.

He's totally learning to suck his thumb. And there's nothing I can do to stop it, so I'm helping him learn :), much to my dear Watson's chagrin.

We recently ferried over to one of the nearby islands. It was so quaint and beautiful. This is a yellow house. It has a name, like all the houses on the island, but I can't remember what it is.

 A view from the island.

No, this isn't a smile. This is a poop face. We spend a lot of time trying to help this kid get his gas out, and when we get this face along with a grunt, we know he is finally pooping. It's hilarious.

Beautiful Things

We had a great weekend.  On Thursday we went to The Flatbread Co with some friends from my dear Watson's program.  It's a pizza place...kind of a weird pizza place. Your only options are 5 different sauceless pizzas (who wants a sauceless pizza?) or like 3 different one topping pizzas. But don't worry, they have nitrate-free pepperoni. (What the heck is nitrate?)

Friday night we watched the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was a good movie. Definitely a little weird, but overall one of my favorite Ben Stiller roles.  

Saturday we went to the Eastern Promenade. It's about 10 minutes from our house - just a paved walkway along the ocean. There were a lot of sail boats out that day.

What's the Polar Express doing here?

Arghhhh a pirate ship!  It looked like it was about to tip over, but there were people on it like they were getting ready to sail.

A few cool looking sail boats.

Ew.

Sunday after dinner we went to Kettle Cove with our next door neighbors (who are also our 3rd cousins). Kettle Cove is a little beach area, and parking is free. Most beaches charge for parking and/or entrance fees. Lame. Anyway, the neighbors have a one year old little boy and he loved splashing around in the water.  It was fun to watch and crazy to think that someday Redd will be splashing around in the water too.

We saw tiny little crabs like this:

And TONS of hermit crabs of all sizes, like this:

I discovered that I'm not really that thrilled about touching things like crabs and hermit crabs.  So I didn't.  Maybe someday I won't mind. I'm getting used to poop and pee, so I might get used to shelled creatures.

Redd is doing well.  He's the best. We're still in shock that he's ours.  He eats every 2 hours while he's awake, but every 3-4 during the night. It's amazing how good it feels to get 3 straight hours of sleep.

side note:  The Walmart here is HUGE. 3 entrances!

We're loving it here, and as the weather improves, it just gets better and better. As we walked around the beach Sunday evening and the sun began to set I was reminded of many an evening/morning spent at the beach in New Zealand.  Something about that scene speaks to my soul. I love to be next to the ocean with wind blowing my hair and watching the sun set or rise. Breathing in that ocean air takes me to a happy place.  Thanks to God for creating such beautiful things. 

Kettle Cove

When it Rains

Last week my plans to go on a walk everyday were fuddled by the rain.  Finally by mid-week I just had to get out of the house, so Redd and I went on a walk anyways.  I decided if it's going to rain everyday, we've just got to get used to doing stuff in the rain.  We explored Back Cove - a 3.63 mile loop around a cove  (I didn't do all 3.63 miles this time). The tide wasn't in, so there wasn't any water, but it was still cool.  I can't wait to go back.

On the other hand, when it doesn't rain, you can do all kinds of stuff like eat lunch on the deck at Silly's, walk around Old Port for the festival, and go to a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game. There is always something going on in this city, I love it.

Here are some pictures:

Back Cove

The trail takes you to the bridge you see in the distance.

The trail is a sandy dirt/gravel - good for the knees.

That's downtown Portland on the other side of the cove.

Silly's

The food wasn't that great, but it was a fun experience. I guess if you name your place Silly's, you can do whatever you want.  The waiters all looked like they just rolled out of bed, and everything was so colorful. The menu, napkins and salt and pepper were in this little pink lunch box on our  table. The water cups were as big as the play kitchen cups.  When our waiter brought our check it had a rock paperweight on it that said You Rock, and here's a picture of the pens they give you to sign the receipt.  So silly.

There's a bike in that tree.

Ew. Random guy photo-bombed us.

Tiny cups!

Old Port

Old Port is downtown Portland. There are lots of shops and restaurants and it's right up against the ocean.  It was 81 degrees and humid this day, so we were kind of sweatin'.

Portland Sea Dogs
I really enjoy the atmosphere of baseball games.  We met some of my dear Watson's classmates at the game and really enjoyed getting to know them.

The mascot is a Sea Dog...so a dog with flippers for feet, I guess?

 Redd is one month old now!  He's growing up so much.

A smile!!

My good from Lauren from high school made and sent us this quilt. It is sooo cute, and he looks good in it, huh?

Every Day a New Day

Remember last post when I made this comment:

"He eats and then sleeps or sometimes he likes to be awake looking around, but I don't have to always hold him in order for him to be happy."

It's like he knew I posted that and wanted to prove me wrong. I have a strong-willed son, that's for sure.  He may have his daddy's looks, but he's got my temperament.  Today I pretty much had to hold him all day long.  He's so gassy...it seems really painful. Every time I put him down he wakes up and cries.  I feel bad for him because I'm sure it's really uncomfortable. I had bad gas issues all throughout my pregnancy, so I'm not surprised he's got them too. Gas isn't fun, so I feel like he needs his momma to comfort him.

But, it sure does make it hard to accomplish anything. And, it makes it hard to be sane.  I cried some tears right along with him today.  On another note, he did really well last night. Woke up only twice and slept soundly between feedings. I even got to sleep in my bed most of the night instead of on the couch like usual. I usually take him out of our room for feedings and stuff so I don't wake my dear Watson. He's got enough on his plate with school stuff.

Speaking of school stuff, my dear Watson has been gone all day today and won't be home until late tonight.  It's his one day a week of going to the other campus for Anatomy, and he's staying after to study in the cadaver lab.  Sad day.

Well something I'm learning is that with a new baby, each day is a new day.  Just because he was good yesterday doesn't mean he'll be good today, and just because he was bad today doesn't mean he'll be bad tomorrow.  It's kind of the only thing that gives me relief during these rough hours.  Tomorrow might be different.

And, that fact that he's so cute.

His cute little hand!

I thought this outfit was adorable.  It didn't take long for him to get poop all over it and my outfit though :).