Large Bruises and Head-Diapers

On Saturday, it was super hot in our apartment. So, Grig, Kevin, and I decided to go and wade down the river nearby our home.

We had a great time. There are a few really deep bends in the river where the water is over my head, so we could walk and carry Kevin through the shallows and then take turns watching him and swimming in the deeper water. He really enjoyed himself. He loves water, and his favorite game right now is to throw rocks in and watch them splash. He's pretty careful about the water's edge, and he doesn't really like being in the cold water too long, but we still watch him very carefully. All it takes is a moment.

At one point, Grig was swimming in a deeper pool and Kevin and I were playing a game. Kevin would stand on a rock (holding my hand) and then jump off it into the water. It was only waist-deep on him. At first, he would wait until I had put him back on the rock, but by the end he was walking against the current to get back on the rock himself.

As I was just thinking about that, I thought that was pretty applicable to life. At first, we generally can't handle the force of the river (or our trials) on our own, but as we grow stronger and more used to the current, we find that we can struggle and succeed even against the most powerful of forces. Eventually, we can even try to stand on our own. By the end, Kevin was able to stand on the rock and jump into my arms. He loved that.

After that, he started splashing me, which he thought was hilarious. We sat there and laughed for quite a while. I love my little boy's laugh. There's nothing quite like it.

We made it all the way down the river and made a few new friends along the way. A lot of other people had decided to go inner tubing that day as well, and we enjoyed watching them pass us. Sometimes they'd stop and join us in swimming in the deeper water too. A couple of young men in particular started jumping off the shore line with Grig into a deeper pool. They had a good time.

When we got home, I was surprised to find that my calf kind of hurt. The next day, this beauty showed up:

Beautiful colors, no?

Isn't it pretty?

Who knows when I got that. That happens a lot, actually. I don't always notice pain until much later. It must take a long time to travel to my brain. Either that, or my legs were numb from the cold. 

It's probably one of those two.

Yesterday, Kevin came running out of his room with a diaper on his head. I'm not really sure why, maybe he was worried about his head leaking. 

Here's a bit of Kevin-cuteness for you.

Our camera is officially not working. Luckily, Grig has an older camera from before we were married, and we've been able to use that. I'm pretty sad though, I loved my camera. We're planning on saving up for a really nice one. Canon or Nikon? What's your opinion on that?

And finally, for those of you who are wondering, Kevin slept much better last night. Grig got him to go to sleep about 9:30 p.m., but when I went to move him to his bed, he woke up. So, I got him back to sleep (without nursing!) and he slept pretty good until much later in the night. I had been praying that when he came in, I would be awake enough to take him back to his room, and my prayers were answered. It was still tough to want to get out of bed, but I was able to do it. He's still asleep in his room!

Pretty exciting. Hopefully this is where it starts getting easier.

I Am a Dream Blood Draw

I realized I didn't blog yesterday.

To be frank, a lot happened, and the day kind of went crazy.

Tuesday we had a few doctor's appointments. We had a general checkup, but I hadn't fasted for long enough and so they couldn't do a blood draw. They scheduled another appointment for this morning and then we left the doctor's.

A couple hours later, I went and had a few cavities filled at the dentist's. I had an extra couple of bucks in my purse, so I picked up some snow cones for us.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. My aunt and uncle were kind enough to watch Kevin for a few hours while Grig and I went floating down the river. It was so much fun! We borrowed an inner tube from my grandparents. We actually borrowed two, but we only had a tiny little pump, and we weren't able to fill both of them. After we had filled one up, we walked down to the river and jumped in.

We had the greatest time. The river would alternatively be very shallow and very deep, and sometimes we had to walk the inner tube over the rocks. We had a couple of really cool moments. At one point, we were swimming in a deeper pool, and a hawk landed right on the bank in front of us. That was intense. Small birds began to mob it, and it chased them down the river. I happened to catch it on camera, but after that the camera got wet and we haven't been able to turn it on since. Hopefully it's not broken irreparably.

Luckily, I was able to save all the pictures that were on it, including the video of the hawk. To our disappointment however, the video was pretty pixelated. This is about as good a view as you're probably going to get of the hawk.

We also found a neat area where there were a ton of HUGE fish. We're pretty sure they're carp, and we want to go back and go fishing there. We splashed and played and basically had a perfect date. Lately we've been feeling a sort of disconnect, and we realized it's because even though we've been living in the same house, we haven't been doing many things together. This date was the perfect solution.

Disconnect gone.

Dates are important.

Then, this morning, I went back to the doctor and the nurse drew some blood. Afterwards, she told me that I'm a dream draw. My veins are nice and large and squishy, and my blood just shoots out. I've never had anyone miss when they were trying to draw my blood.

That's probably why I enjoy giving blood. It's not very traumatic. 

Kevin is doing pretty well in his room, though we've had a few rough nights. It's bound to keep getting better.

A Late Night and Freezing Rivers

Grig doesn't have work this week (which isn't so good), but we decided not to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. So yesterday, we spent some time swimming in the cold Utah rivers.

Kevin didn't especially like the freezing water, but he would wade in it up to his knees.

It took a little while to get used to the temperature, but by the end I didn't want to get out of the water. Grig started getting cold, and so I finally climbed onto shore. I found, to my surprise, that my hands were numb with this cold.

Another strange side-effect was that it took me forever to get warm again. Usually the interior of our apartment makes me sweat, but last night I was freezing for the longest time.

Yesterday was also a day of landmarks.

Grig got Kevin to go to sleep last night, which has almost never happened before. It happened briefly on Sunday night. Kevin fell asleep on Grig's head while we were out walking on a trail along the river. Grig really liked that. Last night, he held and rocked Kevin until Kevin drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later, Kevin woke up and I decided that I didn't want to nurse him back to sleep. So, we did battle for about 2 1/2- 3 hours. It was a good night for it. I was full of patience. I didn't force him to lay down, I just laid next to him on his bed and kept him from leaving it. If he would let me, I would hug and kiss him and snuggle with him, but he didn't want me to touch him very often.

Finally, about 3:30 a.m. he gave up the fight. He settled on top of me and fell asleep. That was a nice moment. We're trying to teach him how to fall asleep on his own in his own room, and it has been quite the crazy last couple of weeks.

We're making progress and it's been nice to mostly have our bed back to ourselves.

Grig's going to try and put Kevin to bed again today. We'll see how it goes.

Walking to Church: The Big Adventure

Sunday we faced a dilemma.  Grig's brother needed to take our car to get to his single's ward from 9-12, and our church started at 11.  So, we decided to walk.  When we had first moved into our new apartment, the manager had told us that their was a shortcut to our building, which was good, because in order to get to it by road, you had to drive 5-6 blocks.  We could have walked that, but we preferred a straight shot of only two blocks.

We dressed up for church, settled Kevin on Grig's shoulders (his favorite position) and took off.  I had looked at a map before we left, so I was pretty sure I knew which direction to go, but we didn't actually know where the shortcut was.

As we walked down the street, I saw two young women sitting next to their car.  I worried that they were trying to replace their tire, so I asked them if they needed help.  Unfortunately, they weren't changing their tire, they were smoking.  At my question, they looked confused, as though they weren't sure how I could help them with that.  Quickly, I explained that I thought they were changing their tire and we continued on.  Being awkward is great!

We reached the end of the cul-de-sac and luckily (coincidence, I think not) some members of our congregation just happened to walk out of their home at that moment.  They showed us where the little path was. It skirted someone's fenced-in yard and edged around a drop off into the river.  It was a very narrow corner and we had to walk single-file and hug the fence so we didn't fall into the river.  It was pretty awesome.  Then, we just walked along a little worn path through a clearing to the church parking lot.

Kevin loves to be outside and on walks, so even though we were in our church clothes (and my shoes were killing my feet) he was having the time of his life.  We made it on time, and now we can walk to church in just 10 minutes.

It was really nice that our neighbors could show us the way.  Church was nice and we met some new people.  Moving to a new area always makes going to church a little scary because you have to meet new people, but our congregation seems really nice.  Afterward, we walked home.

Now we are pros.  We are probably going to walk every week...at least until winter hits.