Gideon Ned Armstrong

Gideon was born into our family on June 18th at 1:38 pm.  7 lbs 7 oz.  19 inches?  Maybe 18.5.  It really depends on if you ask the hospital that said they barely stretched him to 19 or the nurse who said he was 18.5 a week later.  (I didn't get percentiles from the hospital, but at his one week, I think his height was 2%, his weight was 16%, and his head was 66%.  Not so proportioned)  He was kind of tiny.  (Everyone, including the nurse, was surprised that he was as small as he was.  They were all sure he was going to be huge.)  His labor and delivery (and even pregnancy really) seemed pretty quick, but to us it seemed like we had waited FOREVER to meet him.  Ryan and I talked about this briefly the night before he was born.  We spent a lot of time praying and fasting and really hoping that we would have a baby #2 in our family.  We did a lot of things that we felt we had to do before we'd really be blessed with more people in our family.  We've talked a lot about some of those things too.  Most of them seemed (and still seem) completely unrelated to having children, but we don't claim to understand all the ways that inspiration and revelation work, we only claim to do our best to act in accordance with said inspiration and revelation.

That being said, I don't know if I can adequately explain the joy that Gideon has already brought into our lives.  My experience with him is way different than having Vidalia (although trust me I wanted both of them very much).  When Vidalia was born, it was just strange.  This little person that to me looked like herself and no one I really knew.  I didn't know her and yet she was my child.  It was a strange feeling that quickly gave way to adoration and abundant love.

Pretty much my whole pregnancy with Gideon I tried to convince myself that he was real and that he would be born alive.  When he was actually born he was super purple and didn't cry and I super panicked and asked a billion times if he was actually breathing (he was).  I loved him from the moment I saw him.  Maybe because I'm more experienced;  Maybe because I spent nine months psyching myself out;  I don't really know.

Now I've officially announced that he was born on our blog in probably way too many words.  I'll save more thoughts and more information on our family for future posts.

Embarrassing Moment and Funny Doings

First, the embarrassing moment (why does embarrassing need two Rs and two Ss? What a high maintenance, particular word!):
            Anyway, I was leading the Social Skills group with patients at the Utah State Hospital. We were simulating planning a road trip to practice various social skills that would be required. So I found a site that searches out hotels and such-the group wanted a package that included 9 rooms in a 5-star hotel with a conference room setup for 12 hours every day for the whole 5 days.
           I entered all this info in to the site thinking it would generate an estimate of how much that would cost and which hotels have that capability... what actually happened is the website assigned us a travel agent with a promise that she would be contacting us soon to discuss our options! whoops! So, I here publicly apologize to chubbman69@yahoo.com and to whoever has the phone number 555-555-5555.


Second, the doings that amused me today.
              We have a splash pad at the park near our house. The fountains that shoot up out of it are on a varied schedule; occasionally all the fountains will shut off at the same time for a short period of time. Every time that happened, all the kids at the splash pad let out a collective, very disappointed "Ahhhh, No..". Then, about 10 seconds later they would all shriek with alarm/delight when the water came back on. :)  Also, we met up there with our friends Melissa and Rei (Rei is 5 years old). Rei took Vidalia into the water several times, usually for about 3 minutes before they would both walk back to us and announce "We had so much fun in there! It was so fun!". Or as Vidalia would say it "We ha soma fuh! We ha soma fuh Mommy, inair!"

Some Things Vidalia did/said recently

Vidalia hitting my tummy: Gideon!  Wake up wake up!

And then scratching like crazy at my stomach: Come out!  Come out!

(I still don’t think she gets it, but maybe she does.)

Vidalia was in the kitchen (I was not) talking and asking questions like crazy.

Me: Who are you talking to?

V: Vidalia.  Vidalia, please aheh!  (Over and over as she shoved her mouth full of cheese.)

Earlier today she kept putting a bottle of baby powder and a bottle of petroleum jelly in timeout, which means she held them quietly in her arms and then talked to them and then told them they were not in timeout anymore because that’s how I do it.  That was a new.

Now she is wearing a pair of tights and two pairs of pants.  She just left so I’m betting she’s coming back with more pants to put on.

In other baby related news

I have an induction scheduled for June 18th (3 weeks from today).  That's when I anticipate meeting our little boy.  So excited!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day we really didn't do anything appropriate to the holiday, but we did do a lot of fun things related to Ryan not working.  First we spent forever getting up and getting ready in the morning.  Then we went back to Seven Peaks for about three hours.  Then we came home and a few hours later went to Utah Lake with some friends from the ward for dinner and smores.  Those same friends met up with us at Seven Peaks.  We all have two year olds and we're all expecting baby boys.

Back: Jared, Jessica, Emmy, Kara, Tim, Melissa, Ryan

Front: Alba, Zoe, Vidalia

Seven Peaks

Seven Peaks opened on Saturday, so after our nerdy group date, we couldn't help but spend an hour or so at seven peaks.  We all love it.  So glad we live close.  We've already been there twice (Saturday and Monday).  So far it's been open twice, since it was closed today.  I think we're going to have a super fun summer.  Please call us if you're ever going.  It will probably take us half a second to say we'd like to meet up with you there.

Discovery Space Center

We went on a date with Armstrongs to the Discovery Space Center on Saturday.  We were assigned to be the crew of the UCS Challenger for 2.5 hours.  It was a lot fun.  They gave us a mission and we pretended we were in Star Trek.  It was a lot of fun.  I vote we do it again sometime and next time let's take a picture before we all take the uniforms off.

P.S. I’m super baffled that I don’t think I look pregnant in this picture.  I’m pretty sure I look pregnant now.

We went to the zoo.

Last week we went to the zoo with our friends Allie, Savannah, and Lily and Allie's sister Jessie.  It was a little hotter than I thought it would be, but we had a lot of fun and were glad they were able to join us.

Link to a video (that won't upload to blogger) from the zoo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwmTzQvEJ5U&feature=youtu.be