Eloise Jayden's Arrival

(to see more pictures of just Eloise, I put them up on my photo blog)

Eloise made her arrival 2 minutes after midnight on November 02, 2011. After three straight days of labor, an almost c-section scare, being sent home from triage once (almost twice), being pumped full of pitocin, and little Eloise's heart rate making everyone nervous, I was more than ready to push that baby out. She came out head-up, which explained all my back labor and why pushing ended up being so difficult. There are tons of details to share, but that can wait. For now, pictures! Keep in mind that Dylan and I had been awake for too many days straight at this point, in less-than-comfortable circumstances, so we were EXHAUSTED. Thank goodness for epidurals.

Right before they came in to announce "It's baby time!"

So happy to be holding my little girl. And her little hand was in the same position here as in her 20-week ultrasound - that little hand that had me so anxious to see her

Proudly wearing his 'new dad' t-shirt

My mom was in town, and came to see Eloise and Dylan and I during the day

Family of three!

The hospital room

I was so happy to finally be able to receive this balloon!

1st day of life

Watching sports with Daddy...I have a feeling I'll see a lot of this in our house

At home, snuggled up with mommy.

She had hours of awake time two of the mornings she's been home, which has been fun - just content and taking everything in

Daddy time after church

I birthed a...football?

Another common occurrence - napping on Daddy's chest. Oh, and brainwashing at a young age for BYU

I love her LONG feet. I mean, these things really are super long, and skinny, so wearing socks has been a bit of a challenge

Three generation of women. Grandma, Mom, Daughter

First bath (at home)!

She wasn't quite sure about it. Baths since have been a little less cry-inducing

Our little duckie

Patiently Waiting...

Ok, so we're not being very patient, at all. We're being very impatient, actually. Julie's Mom came in last night and Eloise's due date was today. But, Julie's zero dilated as of this morning. We've tried everything. We tried bribing her ("Eloise, if you come now, we'll make it worth your while!")  We tried scaring her ("Eloise, if you don't come now, it's going to get colder and colder out here." -Julie. "Eloise, if you don't come now, I will stay my hand and let Mommy dress you in anything she wants." -Me). We tried praying for an earlier birth. We tried reverse psychology ("Fine, Eloise, don't come now. See what we care."). We tried making Julie's uterus a hostile environment with poking and prodding and a doctor stripping Julie's membranes. Still, no sign of the little squirt.

So, now we're resigned to sitting here on a Thursday night with nowhere to go and nothing to do waiting for the stubborn little girl to come. I don't know where she got this stubbornness from; must be from Julie.

Dylan at ECU

Last Saturday, I had my buddy take some photos of me at ECU campus so that I could send them home to my Granny (who is 90 and may or may not ever get to see me out here). He has a brand new camera and is really interested in becoming a photographer. I asked Julie to do this for me...but there was a mix-up and she thought that I just wanted her to take photos of the campus (which she found boring to do). So, I got Stephen to do it. Got to say, the pictures turned out nice but it was really weird. The fact that he wore a bright pink shirt and I wore a purple collared shirt (ECU's color) probably didn't help that uncomfortableness much. Oh, well. He did a great job and now I've got some good photos to send home to Granny and kin.

This structure is pretty much the symbol of the campus. It's called the cupola and it's never looked this good.

Again, the legend...and the cupola.

These were kind of awkward photos. I really didn't know what the heck to do with this guy. I'm definitely not a male model.

Where I'll be spending most of next year.

Arggghh!!! That's the symbol that we're supposed to make at football games after first downs. What's with Southerners (particularly Texas) and their need to make stupid hand signals for their school? 

 

 

 

Overall, it was fun. But, I never want to do it again. EVER. Sorry, Flight of the Conchords, but I will keep my normal job and not even do this part-time.

What I've Cooked Recently

For about a year, now, I have tried to cook three times a week. Julie is still by far the better cook of the two of us but I am getting a little bit better. I got out of the habit of cooking for about the first month we were here, but I am back on track, now. In church on Sunday, I gave a talk about my role as a father. I mentioned how there is no male work or female work only work. Now, everybody in the ward is going to hold me accountable for those comments even more than I already do. So, here's a run down of my best meals since we've moved to Greenville.

1- Bacon and chicken penne. I was really proud of this meal. It was delicious, took quite a few ingredients and took a long time. So long, in fact, we didn't eat until 8:30 that night.
2- Puffed French Toast. This meal was absolutely delicious. It was french toast with an interesting twist. I made the batter, dipped the Texas toast in it and then fried it on the stove. After I fried it for 5 minutes on each side, I rolled it in cinnamon sugar. We added bacon to our meal just to make it a little more healthy.
3- Crock pot Mac and Cheese. Julie and I had never heard of the idea of making crock pot Mac and Cheese. It called for the use of eggs and other ingredients I had never thought of to put into Mac and Cheese. Letting it heat up in the crock pot made the cheese nicely melt and come together.

These are the top three meals I enjoyed making and eating in the last few months. With Julie being unable to cook for some weeks, soon, I'm going to ge the opportunity to make even more delicious meals. 

I Hate Mice

Think he's cute? Well, I don't and you're wrong if you do.

I was going to try to think of something more creative to name this post, but I couldn't. And Julie would be upset if I named this post something more harsh than "I Hate Mice." But, last week, we discovered mouse droppings in our home and heard scurrying in the walls. Now, I am not a violent man but I definitely do not want a mouse pooping all over my stuff. So, I tried to think of non-lethal ways to get rid of it...but, non-lethal mouse traps are expensive and I didn't know how I'd make one myself. Finally, on Saturday night (when I snuck out of my room to watch the rest of the BYU game) I flicked on the light to the kitchen and saw it quickly dash behind the oven. When I pulled out the oven, I found a little hole that I felt it was sneaking into the walls through. So, I thought, here is my chance; I'll just board up this hole and it will presumably just leave (or die without me feeling like there's blood on my hands. Ignorance is bliss).

I thought that was the end of it...until a few days later I found poops in another spot in our house. I had the thought (more like deep wish) that maybe those had been there before and I just hadn't realized it. That thought quickly became even more of a pipe dream that night when I saw it running across my bedroom floor in the corner of my eye. Mustering all the courage I could, I chased after it. That was dumb. It ran right out under the door and hid in another hole in the kitchen I must have missed in my otherwise thorough investigation. So, Jules and I taped the hole shut and put a large barrier in the way of the hole.

Again, I thought that was the end of it. We heard him in the wall throughout the rest of the day and again figured we were done with him. The next day, we found more mouse poops. To this, I told Julie, "He's made it personal. I'm in a Master's Program and this stupid thing keeps outsmarting me." So, what did I do? I finally called for an appointment to Pest Control (who is coming Monday if I don't get to the little devil first). I will tell them to try to not kill it. However, Mouse, I gave you your chance to leave us alone and live in peace out in the fields. Now you have to deal with the wrath of a being with superior intelligence; or at least a being who has a cellphone.