Sundance Opening Night

So, last night was the official opening of the Sundance Film Festival 2009. Thursday's screenings were two showings of Mary & Max. We attended the second one, along with exactly zero celebrities. We did have the privilege of hearing from the Director of the Festival, the Mayor of Park City, and both the Writer/Director of the film and the film's producer before the screening.
The film was shown in Eccles Theatre, the largest venue of the festival. It holds 1,300 people and every seat was full, plus there were all the ushers there. The sad thing about this venue is that it is a high school auditorium. Yes, you read me right, a high school auditorium. We used high school bathrooms, sat in front of a not huge screen and watched the second showing of a world premier, opening night choice, at a high school. Weird. We also were supposed to abide by the school's policy of no eating in the auditorium. Sadly, all of the movies I have tickets for are showing there. Next year I'll be sure to see films showing at other locations as well. We had seats front and center and were surrounded by eager film enthusiasts from around the country.

The movie itself was incredible. Filmed entirely in stop-motion claymation, it took over a year to film and they shot an average of five seconds of reel a day. Nothing was computer-generated, meaning everything in the movie could be held in your hand. The story and visuals were absolutely unique and stunning. Wonderful writing and characters; semi-autobiographical story. I found a great article on the film here.
Check out the characters at: http://www.maryandmax.com/

Even When He's Bad...

...he's really still pretty good.
Jonah that is.
Yesterday I told him I needed to give Elora her "boo boo" milk and lay her down to sleep. He said, "hush", walked out of the room, said, "bye, bye", and shut the bedroom door. This is a huge improvement from the past several weeks/months of listening to him scream outside of the door for two minutes while I nurse before he decides to find something better to do.


It got a little too quiet out there and I was pretty sure I knew exactly what he was doing. When I emerged nine minutes later I found him standing proudly in the dining room holding out a cookie to show me and saying, "coo-kee".
I remembered him noticing and pointing out a bag of homemade cookies on the counter earlier. Instead of hiding them in the pantry right then like I should have, I continued chopping onions.
The funny/great part is that Jonah apparently dragged a chair into the kitchen, climbed up, reached up on the counter, opened the bag of cookies, took only one out, and then put the chair away before enjoying his cookie, which he had just begun licking when I came out of Elora's room.

These pictures are actually from about a month ago when Jonah took a single chocolate candy off the counter while I was away feeding the baby.

Copy Cat

In case you thought Elora's mohawk in my last post was adorable, check this out:



A couple weeks ago Jonah started sucking on his fingers. All his teeth are in so it couldn't be that. What's the deal? Then we realized something...
Anyone who spends any time with Elora comments on her finger sucking. She used to just do it when she was hungry or tired, now it's anytime she isn't doing something else with her hands. She sucks on the pinky, ring, and middle fingers all at once. Jonah mimicks her now, I'm not sure if it's for attention or what but it's pretty funny. He usually sucks on all four fingers, but sometimes the thumb too. It could be because lots of people say how cute it is when Elora does it or it could be for comfort or just to copy but I thought I'd better share.

Crawly Doll

Elora figured out clapping today (not pictured). It is silent, but she's got the movement down.

Food

Here is Elora enjoying some peas for lunch today while saying "fuh, fuh, fuh, fuh."

She must be going thru a growth spurt the past couple days because I feel like she wants to eat nonstop. I introduced solids at lunchtime instead of just at dinner as of yesterday.
Elora never did very well with the Gerber (white) rice cereal. I think it may have been the soy oil lecithin in it. Anyway, now introducing her to one food at a time for four days each, she is developing a nice repertoire of foodstuffs.

Her diet currently includes:
breastmilk
occasional Similac Organic infant formula (thank you Stephanie C. for telling people on her blog not to feel guilty for supplementing, it helped me immensely)
Happy Bellies organic brown rice cereal (DHA + probiotic immunity support)
sweet potatoes
peas
turkey
Beech Nut Oatmeal cereal for babies
And any crumbs she can get her hands on.

She was quite pleased with herself the other day when she managed to swallow a large crumb from one of Jonah's cheese rice cakes before I could get it out of her mouth. This morning I came out of the bedroom to find her foraging underneath Jonah's highchair while Brandon merely shrugged his shoulders.

Speaking of food, I am looking for good breadmaker recipes. If you have some you could share, please email me!

Bouncin' Babies

Our little woman got her second tooth yesterday. She is very beautiful. She is crawling all over the place like a pro now. She bonks her head on various things several times a day, usually while kneeling or trying to get into or out of a standing position.


Jonah's new favorite thing in the world is "bed." Multiple times a day he wants to get into Elora's bed and play, mostly jumping. He wants the baby in with him. She thinks she can jump now too. She surely bounces while standing well.

Holiday Synopsis

Here is cousin Alisha with Elora and her daughter Scarlet that are only 5 days apart.

Okay, so tons has been happening. I basically haven't been keeping my blogger friends up to date since September and who knows if I'll ever catch up. But I do have a few moments while Jonah colors and Elora crawls around to do a holiday debriefing.

Dec. 22- Brandon's mom & step dad arrive at our house late in the evening, have dinner with us, chat, watch Elf, and spend the night.

Dec. 23- B's mom & I drive down to Provo with Elora to meet two of her sisters and several other R. family gals for lunch. Shop at Target. Head home with MIL and two teenage SILs.

Dec. 24- Elora gets her first tooth.
B goes snowmobiling in the morning with his dad.
We all head up to the cabin after Jonah's nap.
Andy, Coach, and Katie meet us up there too. Alan & Linda are already there.
Have an incredible dinner of beef tenderloin, balsamic roasted onions, etc.
Boys karaoke. Some people hot tub, some play craps, some wrap gifts...

Dec. 25- Jonah loves unwrapping gift after gift. He likes the unwrapping more than the gifts at first.
Jonah's best gifts: a fancy mini kitchen, two slides, tee pee fort, pull toy train, books, doll w/ stroller.
Elora's favorite gift: Elmo Live Doll (robot)
Brandon's favorite gift: having both of his parents with him for Christmas for the first time since he was eight and having all four of his sisters there too.
My favorite gifts: breadmaker, boots, bookshelf, Last Word game, etc., etc., etc!...
It snowed hard all day and the B's mom's family got snowed in with us and got to stay an extra night at the cabin.
It was the greatest day ever for me. I was showered with wonderful gifts, I got to go sledding, I got to hot tub, and got to take a nap all in one day!

Dec. 26 - hung out at the cabin. I went down to SLC alone late in the afternoon, grabbed a smothered burrito, exchanged gifts with Jen, and shopped the Christmas clearance at Target scoring a tree topper and a few ornaments.

Dec. 27 - hung at the cabin. Elora and I headed home to try to get her back on her normal sleep schedule while Jonah & Brandon spent one more night at the cabin with Alan & Linda. Brandon's 19-year-old sister Katie shocks everyone by getting engaged.

Dec. 28 - a whole lot of nothing if I remember correctly

Dec. 29 - more of the same, I think. B's mom, stepdad, and three sisters and Oakley (Andy & Coach's boxer dog) came over to do family pictures here and then we all made dinner and hung out for the M. family's last night in town.

Dec. 30 - Elora learned to pull herself up to a standing position in her crib.
Tried to get my house back in order.

Dec. 31 - took Jo to the library, grocery shopped. Jamon & Alisha & their two little girls arrived to spend two nights at our place. Brandon made us all layered bean dip and tacos for dinner.
Derek (B's second cousin?, Jamon's nephew) & his bride Tianna & their two dogs came over to ring in the new year with us. We were pretty boring. They slept over on our couches.

Jan. 1 - breakfast all together. B & Jamon go snowmobiling. Derek & Tiana go home. Alisha & I spend the day together with our four kids and even have all four asleep at the same time for a whole half an hour of quiet bliss. The adults play True Colors & Mario Kart after the kids are in bed.

Jan. 2 - today Brandon goes into work and Jamon & family head home to Denver.
Life resumes normalcy?

Matchy Matchy

Santa

At our ward breakfast last Saturday, Santa came to see the kids. Elora loved the beard, Jonah loved all the people watching him and taking his picture.


Even though this one is blurry, I had to include it so you could see Elora's initial glee.

Our Christmas Tree

We cut down our own tree again this year. Just our little family went out on Dec. 7th, drove up a canyon, up a steep dirt road, then hiked around a little bit, and while I put the kids back in the car, Brandon sawed the thing down. It is more full than last year's tree, which couldn't support our heavier ornaments. And this year our whole house smelled of pine for about three days, which was wonderful.

Brandon unpacked, unwrapped, and reminiced with each ornament and then handed them to Jonah and I to hang while Elora supervised from her saucer.

My Career

It's 9:15 am, I've changed five diapers today. Have you?
Brandon often says that my job title should be "Professional Butt Wiper." Some days that feels all too true. Fortunately my job description also includes:
reading stories
singing
dancing
playing blocks
wrestling
kissing
hugging
watching kids shows
cooking
playing piggyback
coloring
snuggling
tickling
bathing
dressing
shopping
cleaning (not so fortunate)
library trips
walks
sledding
4-wheeling
boating

Overall, it's a pretty great job.

Didn't Make The Cut

This is the picture that was not included on our Christmas card. A few of you may find even more cuteness of this kind in your mailbox soon.

Coloring

Jonah's favorite activities lately are climbing (which also involves getting into things he shouldn't, eating anything he can get his hands on, and breaking things) and drawing. He calls all writing utensils, "color".
For the past several days he has been favoring pens as he can do tiny detailed swirls with them the easiest. He also loves his magna doodle with a new fervent passion. I have a feeling he's going to be an early, talented artist, much like his cousin Tucker.

Poor Elora

Sunday Elora threw up everything she ate at every feeding. Fortunately it was all milk since we obviously decided to forgo her cereal that evening. In the evening and night after talking to two doctors I limited her feedings to no more than two ounces at a time, which means she was up four times in the night instead of once, but that was okay. She did so well that on her last feeding around 5 am I let her eat more like 4 oz. She threw it all up at 6am. She hasn't thrown up since but was still a little sickly all day yesterday, though she behaved beautifully sitting in the car for over an hour with Jonah (who by some miracle, or a magna doodle, also stayed in the car and happy the whole time) while we went with our realtor house-hunting.
By yesterday evening Elora was feeling much stronger, as she demonstrates here:

Jonah and Elora are alone playing in her room this morning while I am doing the last of my Christmas shopping online. I go in to check on them after, I kid you not, no more than four minutes.
When I find Jonah making mischief (his favorite thing to do this week) this what I do:
I laughed, stifled it, told Jonah "No, no! We do not rub stuff in the baby's hair!", took the jar away, wiped his gooey hands off with a baby wipe, asked where the lid was, received no response, ran to get my phone (camera is still MIA), set the jar back in his lap and snapped this picture.



Then I tried to give Elora an Elvis 'do.


Then I washed her hair, which seemed not to do much so she had to sport a mohawk for the morning.

She is also eating her first "biter biscuit" here. The only solid food she has tried previously has been her daily rice cereal for about the past week but I didn't seem to have much milk this morning and I think she wanted a snack. She loved it! We try oatmeal cereal tonight.

After a bath (due to a pooplosion, which is a term I think I took from my cousin Abbie in a blog I cannot locate) and a second hair washing (with my shampoo this time), her hair is still waxy and looking like this:

Anyone have any tips on removing Vaseline petroleum jelly from hair?!!

BookclubS

I have been a member of what I call Leah's bookclub for probably six months now. Last month we read a hysterical and great book by A.J. Jacob's called The Year of Living Biblically, which I highly recommend to anyone. We usually have small groups and good discussions. There are a few kindred spirits in the group. Several of the women in the group go to my church. I have hung out with one gal from bookclub a couple times socially as well. I love my bookclub. Leah finalized the bookclub's list of books for 2009 already and I am looking forward to our reads. Three of the books were suggestions I made and two more were ones I was wanting to read anyway. The other five (we don't meet in July or Dec.) are books I know nothing about and only one is by a author I've heard of. I am very excited to expand my horizons in the coming year. Leah is hoping to move out-of-state this year and we will all be really sad to see her go, but unlike Kristy's bookclub in Oklahoma, the club will not dissolve without her. We will continue to meet at various houses or our diner to eat dessert and discuss literature.

There is another bookclub in town (there are probably several actually) that I had seen advertised in our town's weekly paper and thru the city's library for probably a year now. I have always meant to go check it out but never had until last night. It meets at the only bookstore in the valley and last night's meeting consisted of 10 women, mostly teachers, and mostly women older than my mom. I was kind of hoping there would be some men in the group, but there do seem to be a couple kindred spirits for me in this group too. The discussion on Griffin's Black Like Me was fantastic (I also highly recommend that book to anybody). I suspect very few, if any, of these women share my religion and only one was close to my age but I love the group. I will not be able to go to this bookclub as often because of the day and time it meets, plus I can't commit to reading two books a month not of my own choosing. But I am very excited to go when I can and make new friends and be intellectually stimulated. Plus, they picked two of my book suggestions (the same two as the other group!) to read in the next six months.

SO, my reading list for the next few months is:
Jan.
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (my suggestion, suggested to me by a friend from my Oklahoma bookclub and is being read by my primary bookclub in Aug.)
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Feb.
Kabul Beauty School - Deborah Rodriguez (my suggestion, suggested to me by one of my very best friends)
March
The Ladies Auxilary - Tova Mirvis

April
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver (my suggestions that both book clubs are reading in the same month! But was suggested to me by Leah in the first place.)
May
The Guernsay Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - MaryAnn Shaffer
June
My Life in France - Julia Child

My MIL2, Linda, meets monthly with a bookclub where the hostess (who picked the book) both leads the discussion and prepares a nice dinner for the group. Although that is a lot of work, I've always liked that idea. But my friend Megan is now part of a dinner club where two women a month cook a phenomenal dinner with incredible presentation for the other women in the group. THAT sounds like an even better idea. My bookclub lets Leah finalize the book choices, and anyone who wants to gets a turn to host the party at their home and make refreshments. Nobody leads the discussions. My new bookclub meets at a bookstore after-hours, they take turns leading the discussion, and others take turns bringing treats.

If I'd Been Really Good This Year

I would have asked Santa for:
a house
a newer car
a housekeeper
motivation for the things I need to do
framed artwork for all the empty walls in our house
monthly massages
a huge remnant carpet rug for the front room for Elora to crawl on
a beautiful complexion
a comfortable queen size bed for the spare room
a free weekly babysitter for date night with Brandon
a black bookshelf for my bedroom

a new wardrobe
a deep bookshelf for the spare bedroom
a dresser for Jonah
a dresser for Brandon & me
new comforter, euro pillows, shams, sheets for our bed

(I think I'd acutally like red & black stuff with a Nepal theme since our four-poster bed is silver-ish, our bedside tables are black and our pictures are Nepali, but this picture is the right feel.)

But as I wasn't that good this year, I'll just hope for some dvds, some kitchen stuff, some clothes, snow boots, earrings, a comforter, a toaster, pjs, and slippers.

Updates

First, Elora is officially crawling! It's so cute. It's really more of a scooch but she is at least heading forward now. She is mobile in other ways too, rolling, etc. She is also up on her knees rocking all the time, trying to get this whole crawling thing down properly. She's probably a bit of a perfectionist;) It won't be long until she's crawling like a big girl. She is also sitting on her own and not having issues with eating solids anymore.




Second, Jonah has taken to saying "kitty" and "puppy" instead of "cat" and "dog", which I find extremely amusing. Also, the past two nights at storytime before bed he will not sit on my lap on the rocking chair and let me read to him. Rather he sits on the floor across the room from me and "reads" his book to me. Before storytime he gets into his pjs, fights over the toothbrush, finally lets me brush his teeth, turns the bathroom fan on, smirks, and then turns it and the bathroom light off (though truthfully most nights it is Brandon who gets him ready for bed). He loves music in church and he loves Vivian and the excitement of all the people at church in general. I think he feels it his duty to entertain the masses when church seems too dull.

Jonah is really into sitting up to the adult table on his booster seat now too. He is a very grown-up boy these days. He also is into climbing! He pushes chairs, toys, everything around to climb up towards mischief these days, mostly just to light switches actually, so we've been safe from any major mishaps so far.

Oh, and we finally figured out what kind of music Elora likes. She likes crooners (Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, etc.). Who knew?! With Jonah it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers that always stopped him from crying in the car. Brandon says it's a sign that Lor will be a hopeless romantic.

Lastly, anyone who has been reading the comments section of my last blog should know that Colee and I have exchanged several private emails on the subjects discussed and her last email to me contained possibly the best compliment I've ever received. It said (and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing), "I can definitely see that you have an open mind, and still chose to stand by your convictions, which I totally respect." Thanks.

Elora Mae

Apparently I've lost my camera (I'm sure it will turn up). Fortunately, I got pictures back from Elora's 6 mos. photo shoot. Unfortunately we couldn't get her to smile that day. Here are some of my favorites. Click to enlarge.

Droll