Kids Say Things

So, I owe it to my loyal reader (i.e. Megan) to keep up the blogging this year, especially since I've gotten off to such a great start.  Now, granted, I missed last week because of that one reason and all, but I'm back to it this week.

As you know, Megan, Max wears glasses with a significant prescription.  This week, when you were looking at him you noticed that his glasses were covered with smudges, fingerprints, and other vision-obscuring dirtiness.  When you asked Max how it was humanly possible for him to see out of such dirt-covered lenses his response was: "Because I have really great eye sight."

Stock Photo: Max

When we were at Alison's basketball game last week (remember, Megan, you were there), I was trying to get Kaitlyn to cheer on her sister.  I showed her how you raise your fist by your ear in the cheerleading position while yelling out encouraging phrases at the players (or while disparaging the referees like I do).  She was finally pursuaded to give a try with a "Go Ali!  Woo!" which got progressively softer after she started.  Her reflection on how it went: "I kind of lost my confidence there at the end."



Stock Photo: Kaitlyn

Stock Photo: Alison

Avery is becoming obsessed with Just Dance 4, which, Megan, you will recall that Santa brought for Christmas, and now walks around the house singing "Here's my number, call me maybe."  Fortunately, she mixes it up occasionally with another number: "Ever ever ever ever ever ever ever, We-eee!"  Yep.  Just how Taylor Swift wrote it.

Stock Photo: Ava

Olivia doesn't say anything funny, but she now laughs when you tickle her!  (Less so when I do it.)

Why am I blogging again?  These are all stories that you told me.

Little Miss Olivia

For those of you who rely exclusively on our blog for information about our family, you'll be relieved to know that Megan is not currently 58 weeks pregnant.  Our sweet Olivia Jane was born 9/9/12 at 7:15 a.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 18.5 inches.

Since Olivia is the fifth child, we don't really have any pictures of her yet, so here is a months-old photo of Ava I was able to find--which is probably what Olivia will look like in a few years.

Kidding, of course. Mostly. Here's the real story:

I was watching some football or basketball game late on Saturday night, and had briefly fallen asleep on the couch. When I came to, I shuffled up the stairs to our bedroom and found that Megan was there pacing the room and had, on her nightstand, a notebook with two columns-- (a) times (such as 10:17 p.m., 10:25 p.m.) and (b) durations (such as 45 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.). Even though Olivia's actual due date was still a few days away (on 9/11), I vaguely understood what was happening--having gone through this experience only four times previously.

We texted a great friend from church, who was remarkably still awake at midnight, and she agreed to come over and sleep on our couch to be here with the other kids while we headed to the hospital, where we arrived a bit after 1 a.m. or so. I guess we must have been watching the BYU football game because it was only when we checked in at the front desk that I realized that both Megan and I were both wearing BYU Football t-shirts (from which the nurses on duty concluded that we must be a newly married couple, fresh out of undergrad, about to have our first baby...suckers!)

After getting checked in and confirming that Megan was, in fact, pregnant...I mean, in labor...we got settled into the room, and waited patiently for the drug dealer...I mean, anesthesiologist...to show up so that Megan could tell him that she loved him (I can't remember if that was before or after he stuck the massive needle in her back or not).

As the father-to-be, I was politely offered a recliner to sleep on which, based on how well I slept leads me to believe, must have been an airline seat in a former life. Have you ever tried to sleep well on one of those airline seats? I mean, they hardly recline, and then they aren't that comfortable to begin with, and then there's the incredibly loud noise from the engines, and...wait this isn't about me. Sorry, I got distracted.

Anyways, Megan did some stuff and then Olivia came flying out and into the world first thing in the morning.

About an hour or two after she was born, I quickly went home to pick up the kids to come meet their new baby sister who were all bouncing off the walls and excited to take turns holding her.

We're so glad Olivia has joined our family.  She's such a happy baby and truly is loved by every one of her siblings.

Here are some other early-life pics of Olivia Jane--since more recent ones will be forthcoming.

Triskaidekaphobia

Even though I absolutely demolished last year's goal of blogging by an astonishing 200%, I've still decided to raise the bar this year and try to blog more than the 3 times that I did all of last year--if I can remember how to do this.  (In fact, it's been so long since I've blogged, I'm sure my audience now consists only of people stumbling upon this blog while Googling "triskaidekaphobia" and "comings and goings" in the same search string, myself, and the one of my children who keeps insisting that I publish her PowerPoint presentations here.)

So, dear two non-me "Comings and Goings of Nathan and Megan" readers, what can you expect from me this year?

1. A Catch Up on Nathan + Megan Family Activities since March 2011.  Since that was the date of my last post, you're probably asking yourself what on earth has happened to us since that time with self-inquisitions like: 

• "It's only been 10 months, but have they moved?  Again?"  
• "Have they had the baby?  (If not, Megan would be a very unhappy camper at about 56 weeks pregnant now!)  What did they name it/her?"
• "Have they gone on any trips or had any Christmas's to Remember?"  
• "Have they written any witty end of 2012 letters worth posting here?"  

(As usual, though, I'm making no guarantees that these updates will be chrono-logical, eco-logical or just regular-old logical either.)

2. A Posting of Various PowerPoint Presentations.  This will probably be one or two from Kaitlyn's fine collection of decks on topics such as music, love or donuts, but I may throw in Ali's birthday plan (despite it's lack of financial analysis), or my own POV on the state of U.S. government spending.  (I know...they all sound riveting.)

3. Long and Pointless Rants Exceeding 140 characters. Unfortunately, all my short and to-the-point rants will be found on my Twitter feed with the hashtag: #allcomingsandgoingsofnathanandmeganatblogspotdotcomshortandtothepointrants.  And, all of my observations about the things I'm about to eat and times when I'm standing on an escalator will continue to be found on my Facebook page (once I find my password).  So, that just leaves this blog as my only forum for going on and on and on (perhaps giving new meanings to the "goings" of Nathan and Megan).

So, that's it.  Sit back and enjoy the wait for these and other wonderous topics this coming year from yours truly.