The Last of Niran's Gummy Smile

Enjoy that sweet, gummy smile for soon it shall have a single tooth added to it. Niran has been very fussy the past couple of days and Dad asked if I'd checked his gums recently. I did yesterday but didn't notice anything. After tonight, I'm very unsure how I didn't notice anything. Tonight's check showed a tooth just about to break through. It also helped to understand my frustration with him drooling the past couple of weeks, his rufusal to eat and fussing the last couple of days as well as the chewing on his hand and binky every chance he got. I still can't believe it, at three months he's going to have his first tooth. It seems so unreal, I'm going to miss that gummy smile.

*Update: Niran actually has two teeth coming in. He's doing good as long there's lots of cuddle time and between Dad, Aunt Brandi and me, he's getting plenty!

Christmas and New Year's Rolled into One

I never filled anyone in on the happenings of Christmas and New Year's since we were sick and just too busy. Christmas came and went with all of us not feeling so hot. Dad had the worst of it, which I'm glad it wasn't Niran or me. Selfish, I know, but Niran being sick would just be rough and trying to feed Niran during the night when I wasn't feeling so hot was rough enough for me.

At least while Dad was sick I simply had to care for two crying boys.

We celebrated our Christmas early since we headed up to Globe Christmas Eve.

Niran got a new frog that he loves holding and chewing. Nana and Grandpa Ron made a great choice. Grandma Jane got him a soft book and two jars to hold that first missing tooth and his first curl. Pretty could ideas. Grandma Kim made Niran and quilt, it's had plenty of use already by all three of us!

In Globe, Niran was able to meet some new family members and shocked others at how much he has grown. He was a great baby until later in the evening when Aunt Brandi was the only who could get the tears to stop. As soon as we got home around 8, he was his happy little self again. I think he just wanted to be back in his home. It was just too cold in Globe for him.

New Year's Eve was enjoyable as well. Our friends came out to our house so that we could put Niran to bed on time. The boys played Risk and they fit two games in between 8 and midnight! And no it is not impossible. Our friend brought over his new edition of Risk which does have a shorter version. If I remember correctly they said they beat their first game in 30-45 minutes. At midnight we had a sparkling peach toast and then the boys came up with the brilliant idea of setting off firecrackers in the backyard. Actually, the brilliant idea was Dusty setting them off. He started out with a couple of loud quick ones and I have no idea what they are called and then after the neighbors finish setting off their firecrackers Dusty set off a full string of blackcats. The video is below. I will tell you it was loud and bright, with plenty of debris hitting at least Ryan and I while Dusty hid behind us laughing like a goofball. Yes, I was a human shield for him. No wonder he wants to marry me! What was left was a good laugh and a lot of paper to clean up the next morning. As for the sleeping baby who was in the room only about 10-15 feet away...he slept through it all. All the noise he endured while I was pregnant and since we brought him home has paid off.

Well, that about finishes off 2008 for us. We hope 2009 starts off with the same bang our's did!

Happy New Year!

The Happy Family

We got the family pictures:
My nose is scrunched and Dusty doesn't seem to like it either

We love the boy

My hair is messed up, but that shows I make sure Niran looks better than me...always.

Sweet Baby Photos

While we were in Reno my friend Emily took some photos of Niran and some family shots. Here are some of my favorites. We still have other shots coming. For those in Reno, you can check out her other work http://www.emilyloftus.com/.

He's such a happy baby!

Sweet, naked baby

I love my boys!

Baby kisses

Sleeping Angel

I Love the 80's

Dusty, Niran and I headed over to Brandi and McKay's house for an 80's-themed Christmas Party. As soon as Dusty read the invitation and that we were deck ourselves in 80's attire, Dusty was extremely ancy to get to the nearest goodwill and begin putting his costume together. Going in, he had 2-3 different ideas for his costume, but he came out with one AMAZING costume.

I had some ideas for what I would like to wear, but I didn't go in looking for anything specific. Dusty and I did immediately grab a huge sweater for me and Dusty did find the sweet stir-up pants.

I spent an hour on my hair before getting irritated at how long it was taking to get it stand at attention. I eventually gave up and really didn't do anything with the back. I then had to spend another 30 minutes putting make-up on. A lot of make-up and I can't stand wearing very much make-up at all. The fun part was after I got home from the party and put Niran to bed, I went in and took a shower. A long shower at that. As soon as the steam from the shower hit my hair I could smell the hair spray. And it took two washings since the first one left my hair standing in the original position. How did girls do this on a daily basis? I do not understand why!

Dusty invited his best buddy, Ryan and his girlfriend to the party as well. He's the four of us looking awesome!

Along with just dressing up there was a costume contest. Dusty went in with the goal of winning. After looking at his costume and realize what little inhibition he has, I think Brandi make the correct decision in choosing him as the winner. Dusty says I should be happy I met him since I would not have experienced such behavior with anyone else. I am still trying to decided if this has made me a better person or not and if I truly could not have lived with out this wonderful, yet hilarious sight.

Turkey Week in Reno

So no pictures from my mom's retirement party. I still haven't asked my sister-in-law to forward them, a little on the busy side. I will however go over Turkey Week Festivities!


To start off with, I picked up my nephew, Nathan from school and brought him over to my mom's for an afternoon of Guitar Hero on the XBOX 360 and pizza. He has it for his Nintendo DS, but I thought he'd enjoy the actual guitar. He did and he found it much more difficult(top left). It was very serious business. Uncle Dusty even tried his hand at the Guitar Hero for the DS, of course he was a natural at it. When my brother, Paul came back to pick Nathan up, he played (top right) some songs on the 360 while my niece, Maddelyn danced (bottom). It was a very enjoyable afternoon.




We did go over to Uncle Paul's and Aunt Ellen's for dinner for one evening. That's when everyone got some actual quality time and pictures with Niran. Niran enjoyed his evening, he slept and laughed. Paul and Ellen couldn't believe how easy going he was. The first picture is with my niece, Lauryn followed by Nathan, Ellen and Paul.





The day before Thanksgiving my mom taught me how to make homemade pies...yum! I made a apple and spiked pecan. They both were a hit for desert, but I still like Grandma Patsy pecan pie better.




We spent Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's brother, Carl's house. Did you get that? Have a headache now? It was fun. Ellen's family is like family to me. I've known them my whole life. I could believe how much his kids have grown up. It's amazing!


Dusty and I decided to leave Sunday to head back to Phoenix. BIG MISTAKE! BIG... I had originally thought about leaving Saturday, but didn't want to deal with heavy traffic. Then I thought maybe Monday, but I didn't want to take a chance on missing Niran's doctor's appointment since I had already pushed it back when we decided to head to Reno. So I settled on Sunday.
Niran was sound asleep as soon as we hit the road.

Now I was thinking heavy traffic was going to be driving 50 mph passed a semi down I-5 in California. It turns out heavy traffic is averaging 40 miles an hour for 12 hours and getting just over half way home during a 14 hour trip. Yup, it was horrible. Dusty did some math in his head, my head hurt from staring at so many cars that I couldn't do it, but he figured we say at least 500,000 cars and double the people.

I took this where I-580 dumps (literally on this day) into the I-5. This is where we thought there was an accident. An hour later we knew it was going to be a long, long day. All the way down I-5 we had light fog. That is not cloud covering, it's fog. Later in the evening the fog started getting thicker and the we had to deal with stupid drivers who slammed on their breaks 1/4 mile up in the other lane with no other cars between them. It was fun!
This was just before SR 99 met up with I-5. After that it was slow moving the rest of the way in. We decided we couldn't make it home on Sunday. Well we could have, but we probably would have been driving until 5 in the morning. So we decided to stop on the north side of LA about 8:30 and get a hotel, some dinner and good night's rest. That's when we were driving 70, except we did meet up with SR 99 and the creeped the rest of the way. We got to the hotel just after 10...that was our 12 hour mark of driving.

Monday's roadways were very nice. We were able to push through stopping only once to feed Niran before we got home. Then we went over to Brandi and McKay's to rescue the dogs from them and to show them how big Niran has gotten!

That seems like a pretty busy trip and I didn't even include half of it. I kept the not-so-exciting details to myself.

We're home and Niran has grown!

We got back into Phoenix Monday evening after visiting with my family up in Reno. After we unpacked the very full car we headed over to Brandi and McKay's to pick up the puppies. Our main goal was to show Aunt Brandi and Uncle Mckay how much Niran had grown in the last two weeks. We estimated Niran's weight to be around 12 pounds. Well, we found out at his doctor's appointment the exact weight. Drum roll please.........14 pounds and 24 inches long at 2 months. Yup, you read that correctly, our little boy is eating very well! He also got his first set of shots today. He handled it very well, until we were almost home and that's when the tears started. So far during the majority of the day, he hasn't been crying when he was sleeping. We borrowed Tropic Thunder from Mckay and Brandi and he woke up 10 minutes into the movie screaming. After a quick bite to eat he calmed down and started watching the movie with us. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight...for mommy's sake

I need to get some pictures from my sister-in-law and then I'll do a recap of our visit to Reno. I couldn't post pictures while I was there since my mom has a very basic computer and I didn't have the extra cables for our camera. Overall, the trip went well. It was a nice visit. I'll give more details later. For now I am going to go do the dishes.