little dude

Here's my baby boy.He likes his bubbly, peaceful glowing seahorse. I often find it singing next to him while he's sleeping. Cumorah likes to turn it on and set it beside him.


He's smiling at me even though his binky is strapped into his mouth. He smiles a lot at his sisters and his Daddy, too. Cumorah loves it when he smiles at her.


Rivers gives Sidon LOTS of kisses. She gave him a kiss and said, 'He needs a tissue.' What really happened was, Rivers needed a tissue and smeared her snot on Sidon's cheek, felt it when she kissed him and thought it must be him. She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and smeared her snotty nose up to her eye. Nice. No wonder Sidon has a cold.


Can you find his serious face? I love that look. He has been intently staring at us since his first week. I used to think that he was going to be a very serious little boy, and be like his Great Grandpa Hulbert. I've heard that his mother said he was born an adult. But now Sidon smiles a lot (after he eats and gets a diaper change). But then again, Grandpa smiles a lot, too.



Sidon's many names:

'Hey dude.'
'Hi buddy!'
'What's going on little guy?'

My favorite is when Rivers refers to him as 'dude'. So adorable.

now I know

what projectile vomiting looks like.

I smell like sour milk. Again.


And apparently Rivers does know where she put the only binky Sidon has when you give her the right look that puts her in fear of her life and say, "I know you had the binky. I want that binky, and I want it NOW."

the ultimate multi-tasker

The four actions that define a newborn baby's existence:

eat
sleep
poop
cry




My son can do three of the four amazingly well, all at once: eat, sleep, and poop


Genius.


And Brian, the profoundly proud papa, joyously declares, "My son toots like a MAN."

As for myself, the mother, I must admit (though decidedly not as enthusiastically) that he is quite impressive.


I'm not sure if it's possible for an infant to do all four at once. The crying at the same time as eating and sleeping is the tricky part. Maybe my children are just not quite as gifted as others. Sidon is, however, very adept at crying in general. Especially between the hours of 8pm and 10pm. Yes, very good at crying.

He's also good at banging his face on my shoulder. And snorting.

Oh, the satisfaction of being the mother of such a talented son.

the men

'No Girls Allowed' says Brian as Cumorah tries to get in his picture.




She is extremely offended, but you have to give Brian a little allowance for such things as he is just super excited to have another male in the house. Let him revel in the manliness of having a man-child. Besides, Cumorah and Rivers definitely get PLENTY of Daddy attention... especially since Brian is still a Maryann-it's-broken-come-take-this-thing-I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-it-etc.-etc. kind of Father to crying newborns. Even the third time around.




I love my Daddy.

As long as I'm not hungry...




Yesterday was Sidon's first day to church. Doesn't he look so handsome in his Sunday clothes?

modern nativity

Cumorah was playing 'Mary' on the couch. She had her pink blanket on her head and her naked baby doll was playing 'baby Jesus' wrapped in a cloth diaper. I peeked around the corner once from the kitchen and saw her sitting there. Suddenly she whipped out her pink Disney princess cell phone and opened it up.

"Hi. This is Mary...and Joseph. Where are you shepherds? We're waiting for you."

lullaby

Almost every night I sing to the girls last thing before they go to sleep. After family prayer and scriptures and Daddy story time, Brian takes Cumorah and Rivers to their room and helps them say their prayers. Yes, 'personal prayers' we call them. And if you were there listening in you would just die from the cuteness. Though in truth, it can be rather frustrating for Brian at times. Cumorah is getting pretty good at it, but often she has a hard time kneeling and being reverent and lately I heard a rumor that she was saying silly things like she was grateful that Rivers could be in the gorilla family. (The gorilla family is a common subject at our house.) Rivers' prayers are exceedingly adorable. Being the verbose child that she is, at home at least, she has been saying her prayers since she was 15 months. She doesn't generate her own things to say a whole lot, but she sure does enjoy Brian's help. They sound something like this...

" Ahh Fodder, dank you famimimilee. Ahhh Fodder, please bless sister. Ahhh Fodder, dank you Sidon. Ahhh Fodder, sleep. Ahh Fodder, teeth feel better. Christ Amen"

I'm not sure why she says 'Ahhh Fodder' before every sentence, and while she mostly talks in complete sentences to us, when she repeats Brian's promptings it is often just one or two key words. So cute, I'm really glad Brian takes the time and has the patience to help them with that every night. Anyway, I digress. I usually do.

My part is to go and sing them lullaby after prayers. Rivers picks a song first and then Cumorah. Top choices right now are 'Little Stream' and 'Little One' respectively. But sometimes it's 'Child God' or 'Famimimilies Gether Ever' and, as of late, 'A Manger'. So last night I had a disgruntled son and I heard Brian taking over lullaby duties. Usually, if I am unable to come sing right away he gets away with simply winding up their music box that lights up and projects animals on the wall, affectionately called 'Moon'. But for whatever reason he actually did singing that night. I do like to hear him sing a song his mother sang to him when he was little, it's very sweet. Last night he sang 'I Am A Child of God', I'm assuming for Rivers. Then I heard Cumorah ask ever so (not) politely, "I want Little One!" (We're working on that polite thing.) Brian replied that he did not know it, but she insisted. So he put on his best high girlie voice and went at it.

'Little one, little one...you're so little, you better be careful or you'll be stepped on. Little one, little one....you're just so short...and little...'

Yep. It was definitely quality singing. The girls were giggling and saying, "Nooooooo."

It's good to have a dad around. You should hear Brian's versions of 'The Velveteen Rabbit". We have a copy with really nice illustrations. Brian doesn't want to read the whole story as it is kind of lengthy, so he just makes it up. Problem is, I'm not sure he really knows the story. I've heard versions with everything from aliens to houses burning down because people weren't careful with the candles to the boy getting sick from turtles with salmonella.