First Christmas Dress

I love watching my adorable baby girl, especially this Christmas season. I can't believe it's been a year since we found out about her. After we told Mom, she ran out and bought some Christmas clothes in the post-holiday sale, before we knew whether V was a boy or girl.

 

Meeting the Hoopers

In October we drove V to Utah to meet more of her relatives and to celebrate birthdays from the last six months or so. My brothers came with us to conclude their visit, and found almost all of us using different listening devices to fit our tastes when I wasn't trying to get a conversation going. Our first stop was to my cousin's house to see her wonderful family and pick up some toddler clothes she had in storage. Her kids are growing so fast. We have pictures of them on our fridge from...ok, so probably last year, but her daughter didn't have much hair then, and now she's got a ringlet! Her son is getting so tall, and told us about his Halloween plans and school. What cuties.

We drove to my aunt's house for the Hooper birthday party and to celebrate my other cousin's new baby boy. He was still only a couple weeks old, so we didn't get to see them, but we had fun watching family hold V and seeing our other relatives. I'm one of the older cousins, so hearing about the younger ones' college experiences is a little surreal. I have enjoyed watching them hold V for the first time, and seeing her second cousins grow and explore.

Life and Pride

One of my childhood friends, Elise, brought my brothers to us. She introduced me to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and then we all played electronic Life, also known as The Game of Life Twists & Turns. That's one of our favorites. Elise and I actually bought out the store (three items) a few Christmases ago when we heard they would no longer be available. While we played, Aaron and Ammon created their own game, which involved seeing whose game card V would hold longer between her toes. She's got great toe-grip.

My First Cavity

My tooth genetics have made it so I've lasted over a quarter of a century without a cavity. My streak has officially ended. Admittedly, I haven't been great about flossing, so I know it's my fault. It was quite an experience. I had two cavities between two of upper teeth. First they put a tube with a nose cover onto my face with a flow of happy gas. Breathing deeply, I was grateful to already be flat on the chair, because a vague sense of floating and a slow room spin began. After a few minutes my mind adjusted. One of the lovely dental assistants put a numbing agent on a long cotton-ended stick to place in the right spot. The dentist followed up with a couple of shots directly into the nerves above the teeth. He explained that for bottom teeth to be numb it's just one nerve in the back, but on top each tooth has its own. I found out that the happy/laughing gas isn't supposed to reduce pain, just relax the recipient. They had a plastic wedge on the opposite side of my mouth holding it open so I could rest. He drilled into each of the numbed teeth. I garbled out questions throughout the experience, and amazingly the dentist understood each one. I asked what they would use as a filling, so he showed me a whitish gooey blob. 

"No' 'e'al?"

"Nope. We haven't used metal for four years now."

They just had to keep the area dry and set it with heat (I think) for a few seconds, and then it was good to go. They even smoothed it out to be congruous with my teeth, and made sure I had a space so I could start flossing again. When I widened my mouth to show Zak before going home, he could tell it was a slightly different color from my teeth, but it wasn't obvious, especially in its location. It's pretty amazing what has changed at a dental appointment even in the last few years. This time they painted on my fluoride.

The bottom-right part of my face stayed numb for about five hours. I had fun looking in the mirror and covering half of my face at a time. My right nostril wouldn't even flare. This was much more pleasant than my wisdom teeth removal recovery. I hope I've smartened up enough to not require this again, though.

Mom's good example started from the beginning.

Growing up Mom always gave us half of a fluoride tablet after we brushed our teeth. Each night she'd encourage us in our brushing by singing a song to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

"Brush, brush, brush your teeth,

Get 'em nice and clean,

So when you have to go to the dentist

You won't have any cavities."

I hope to be a better example in the future, especially now that I know my teeth aren't invincible. Now is the time that I need to step up and to be the one from whom my daughter learns.

Shots

V got a shot at the hospital when she was born. We recently went to our new doctor's office, where the nurses kept saying, "Look at all of that hair!"and the doctor insisted, "I could just take you home!" She measured a healthy size and weight, after changing her wet diaper. I had her wrapped in a blanket after stripping her down, but took it off when immunization time came. She did quite well drinking the rotavirus vaccine, didn't spit up a single bit. The shots were somewhat less enjoyable. With a nurse putting pressure on each leg, they timed the first shots to go at the same time. She had one more on her right leg, and then with her pink character bandages applied, I scooped her into my arms. She cried for about a minute, but by the time we got to the car, she was smiling and laughing in her adorable cough-like way again. She's my little warrior. One nurse pointed out that as they get a little older and more aware, infants and toddlers dread the office and shots more and more. Fortunately, V's not to that point yet, but I think next time I'll try to be more gentle, using oil or something, when ripping off her bandages.

Zak and I reminisced about our kindergarten shots experiences. I remember dragging my leg around at the baby shower Mom was given while pregnant with my first brother, and being in a lot of pain. Zak apparently built a make-shift crutch and woefully revealed to his Mom, "I have a bone in my leg."

Nicole and sister, Cassie

Zak

Boo at the Zoo

Courtesy of Steffani

For Halloween I wanted to have a family theme, so I convinced Zak to dress as Zorro, while I went as a flamenco dancer and V as my little piñata. The combination came about when I searched for costumes I could incorporate while wearing V in her baby carrier. I didn't see anything except popcorn for that, so I looked at baby and toddler costumes, and found an adorable little kid dressed as a piñata made from fleece. Realizing I had tissue paper in several colors from the baby showers, I grabbed a cardboard box and started gluing strips of it on there. I made sure the cardboard folded to fit around her, and stapled the bottom with my tiny stapler. After that I just cut slits across each strip of paper and stapled on a ribbon to hold it around my neck. I thought about making a donkey hat for V, but I didn't think it would stay on her very long, and she'd be facing me, so no one would see it anyway. I made a make-shift donkey head with leftover cardboard and a section of an egg carton. I think it turned out fairly well for a costume made entirely from items I had at home already.

We toured Zak's work during family
Halloween day, impressed with the themed decorations in each department. Those are dedicated employees, staying hours after work to create a video game/arcade theme, haunted black light hallway with shots of air at your neck, silent picture/roaring 20s theme, and full room of mustaches. That's the first time I've been allowed to tour (almost) the entire building.

For our church congregation's neighborhood trunk-or-treat and youth-led carnival, Zak and the 16-18 year-old boys filled the soda bottles we'd been storing with water, and set up glow-in-the-dark ring toss using glow sticks in the water and as rings to toss. My girls spearheaded the face painting and fish pond. I love seeing everyone's clever costumes as the neighborhood gathers. Unfortunately, I left my camera's memory card at home; we did, however, still have fun with the glow sticks and camera at home.

Courtesy of Steffani

Some friends invited us to the local zoo to see animals and get candy for our little one (who is too young to eat candy...so candy for us, really). In order to let her actually see the animals, I decided to push her in the stroller, which meant she could wear the adorable butterfly costume Grandma Hooper found for her. I didn't use it in the baby carrier, because the wings and big fluffy belly wouldn't fit. It worked really well, keeping her ears, feet, and little body warm with some pajamas underneath. Some of the animals were hidden away for the winter, but we got to see camels' flopping humps, vibrant zebras, and large cats. V was tired, and kind of fussy until she did fall asleep, so I don't think she soaked up much of the animal atmosphere, but I'm glad we went. I miss Cache Valley's pumpkin walk, but the Boo at the Zoo was great fun.

Our women's Halloween craft

Pepperidge and Pigtails

Mom drove up recently, and unfortunately for her but fortunately for us, left Dad's camera at our house, so she made a return visit. On the second go she stopped at the Pepperidge Farm factory and brought a large bag of broken mint Milanos and of goldfish crackers. We split them to share with siblings, but our portions didn't last three days. Thanks, Mom, or Grandma Hooper, as I'm now getting used to calling her instead of Dad's late delightful mom.

Having three girls in a row, Grandma is used to playing with hair, and gave V adorable pigtails, which only slightly look like tiny horns. V's hair curls when wet, but as soon as it dries, goes straight as a stick. Hopefully she'll become accustomed to people doing her hair without causing tears.

V's first ponytail

Pigtails with Grandma Hooper. There V goes, sucking her tiny thumb.

Jackson Hole

We've lived in Idaho over a year-and-a-half, and haven't done much exploring. Last year we didn't go anywhere, foremost because we're homebodies, but secondly because we were still paying off our debts. This year we are still theoretically saving our six month emergency fund, which I haven't been great about doing, but we have a little more to use for trips and activities. I love visiting family, so I think, If we drive any reasonable distance, we may as well visit family instead of going other places. This has made for some very enjoyable visits, but at some point it's worth exploring the area around us. Zak suggested driving to Jackson Hole when we discussed activities for our third anniversary. We've had a wonderful month so far, with lots of activities, so the day trip moved to the end of the month. Fortunately, it landed on a perfectly warm Saturday. V travels fairly well, especially when we're prepared. She did fight sleep in tears after we detoured to see a waterfall, but drifted to sleep after a brief rest stop. Driving around mountains and canyons reminded me of when Zak and I dated, and is a nice break from everyday life in our basement apartment. I even tried to utilize skills from my rock climbing class in college at one of the local parks. I'm glad Husband enjoys spending time as a family, and holding our baby girl. He's such a good dad. Also, I'm glad he likes to drive.

Baby's First Cabin Visit

Just as she always does, Baby V dazzled everyone when we drove to the family cabin for General Conference weekend. Our first overnighter with her involved the Beefy SUV full of our bags and lots of baby stuff we thought we might need. We ended up using most of it, although I probably over-packed the clothing bag a bit. Her grandparents and Aunt Niki surprised us after changing V's diaper with an adorable Halloween outfit, complete with onesie, pants, personalized Halloween socks, and a festive headband with ribbon flower fashioned by the lovely Niki. Zak nearly caught up on some sleep he'd been lacking the last several weeks, and we got to listen to President Monson, the Apostles, and other church leaders speak via the inter-web. One of my favorite talks was by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, entitled "The Moral Force of Women." Listening to his talk, I felt empowered, uplifted, and important. I want the Young Women in our congregation to recognize those feelings in themselves. Well, it looks like our little family's home evenings for the next several weeks will be easy to plan, just popping up one of the many amazing conference talks to watch and discuss.

During our weekend away we also saw my parents and all of my siblings. I love visiting family, even now that we're packing all sorts of baby items and trying to calm a child in the middle of the night. We had lots of fun and look forward to seeing everyone again.

Borrowing Grandpa's hat

After demolishing the previous targets, Cohen and Niki began weeding with bullets.

A Name and a Blessing

 

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we don't baptize infants, believing that until they reach the age of accountability, around eight years old, they are perfect through Christ. We do still give children blessings. This is done by members who hold the priesthood, who put their hand on the child's head, or hold up the babies. Babies are given a name by which they are known, recorded in the records of the church, and promised individual blessings from Heavenly Father. Zak holds the priesthood, and was able to give V her blessing. Beforehand he joked that he'd give her "Supafly" as a middle name. No. Fortunately I'm the one who filled out the social security application. 

Our parents, siblings, and a few other relatives joined us. Grandma Porter made V's blessing dress, much like a Christening gown. It's beautiful, and twice as long as V. Great-Grandma crocheted a blanket to wrap around her. Zak had slow cooked some sweet pulled pork that turned out great, so after the blessing we gathered at the park, since our apartment is too cramped with everyone, and enjoyed the food and company.