Siblings

I put a Utah State onesie on P2 today. After putting it on, I looked at her, and said "Why hello P1!" She looks soooo much like her brother when he was a baby, especially when wearing the same clothes!

 Putting a bow on P2 helped me to feel like I hadn't traveled back in time:

Experience For Yourself

If you stop and think about it, so much of what we "know", we really don't know by our own experience. When it comes down to it, we are really just believing and trusting in what someone else says. Anything we have read in textbooks, in a study, in the news, or on the internet, is really just trusting in another person's knowledge and experience. And as long as we make sure we check our sources, it is usually okay to do that. Since we don't have the money, time, equipment, training/expertise, to experience everything firsthand, we trust and build on each other's knowledge and experience. That's how we have been able to progress so quickly in so many fields.

But there is one area of life that each and every one of us can experience firsthand. We don't have to take someone else's word for it. No matter your age, education, profession, IQ level, each of us can experience this for ourselves if we choose to. And the beautiful thing is, that this is the most important knowledge available to mankind, and we can each experience it for ourselves.

The most important knowledge is that God lives, that He is our Father, that He has a plan for us, and that He sent His Son to be our Savior as part of that plan. And you don't have to take my word for it. You can experience it for yourself. It really is a beautiful thing.

It's simple and beautiful. All we have to do is ask God, and experiment upon His word. And then we can know for ourselves, not because someone told us, but because we have experienced it firsthand. But because of how simple this seems, there are many that will not do it.

It reminds me of Moses and the brass serpent. The Lord sent fiery serpents to chasten the children of Israel. Many died, and Moses was instructed to raise a brass serpent on a pole, and that whoever would look upon the brass serpent would live (Numbers 21:6-9). Well, because of the simpleness of the task, there were many who would not do it and perished (1 Nephi 17:41). Now why wouldn't you look? They had nothing to lose by looking, but everything to gain. But because they did not believe that such a simple thing would work, they refused to look and they died (Alma 33:19-21). I think it came down to pride for them. They didn't want to try it, because they thought it would make them look foolish. But all they had to do was to try it, and then they would have known whether or not it worked.

In the Old Testament, the Lord asks us to test out the law of tithing. He says "Prove me now herewith...if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Mal. 3:10) I can tell you that paying my tithing has greatly blessed my life. That the Lord has always provided for my family when we have paid our tithing. But you don't have to take my word for it, you can test it for yourself!

I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, and contains the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this, not because my parents told me so, but because I have read it for myself. And at the end of the book it reads "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." I tested it out, I asked, and now I know for myself.

Alma 32 is a great discourse on how we can experiment upon the word of God. Alma compares the word to a seed, and if we will try planting the seed in our heart, we will be able to see if it is a good seed by whether or not it grows and bears fruit. This is the same way the Scientific Method method works. Scientific studies are based on experiments, and interpreting the results of the experiments. And while most of us don't have the equipment to replicate most scientific experiments, we all have the ability to try out the word of God for ourselves.

Christ said "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." All we have to do is try it. You don't have to take my word for it, you don't even have to take Christ's word. You just have to test it for yourselves.

The restored gospel of Jesus Christ has brought incredible peace, joy, and happiness in my life. It has carried me through difficult times, and gives me strength beyond my own. Everything that is good in my life, I have observed to be the fruit of hearkening to the word of God.

But you don't have to take my word for it. You can know for yourself, all you have to do is try it out!

Colors

P1's new favorite past-time is coloring. He's always asking for his "colors". He enjoys coloring in his "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" coloring books. He can tell you who all the characters are. and if you ask him what Captain Hook says, he'll say "Argh!". I think Cubby is his favorite, because he goes around the house saying "Cubby" all day. But to be fair, his "Cubby" and his "Come, please" sound very similar.

Completely out of the blue, P1 developed an Elmo fixation one day. He had never really watched Sesame Street, but he had Elmo on his diapers, in a couple of books, and on a pair of shoes. He went around finding all the Elmos in the house and saying "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo..." We started teaching him who all the characters were, and he knows Oscar, Big Bird, Grover, Cookie, Bert, Ernie, and of course, Elmo. He learned his colors pretty quickly too. He can pick out different colors when you ask him to find red, green, blue, yellow, purple, black, brown. And he knows that Elmo is red, Cookie is blue, Ernie is orange, and Grover's nose is purple.

I learned how to quickly sketch the characters, so I'll draw their faces and P1 will color them. And he'll point to blank spots and demand certain characters. Oscar is one of his favorites, and I love how he says Oscar. It's more of an "Os..sir" with a pause in the middle.

Oh, and his favorite color is orange. He almost always picks the orange crayon. And whenever he brings a drawing home from nursery, it is always in orange!

2 Months

Our little girl had her 2 month check-up. She is healthy and well and did great for the doctor. She wasn't too happy about her shots though. She cried for a little bit when she got them, and then a few hours after her appointment, she started screaming. Nothing seemed to help, so we finally gave her some pain medicine. She finally calmed down and just wanted to snuggle on my shoulder the rest of the night. (I should have picked another night to take my friend, who just had a baby, dinner).

Here are her stats:

Height: 23.25" (83rd percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs 11 oz (74th percentile)

P2 will now smile and coo for us. She is happy to see me in the mornings, and it makes getting up a little easier. She is getting pretty consistent with her sleeping schedule. She'll go to sleep around 9 or 10 pm and wake up around 3 or 4 am. I'll feed her and she will go back to sleep pretty quickly. Then she'll get up around 6 or 7 am. If it's 6 am, then I'll just nurse her in bed and we'll both sleep a little longer. We still have her in our room in a bassinet since P1 is still using the crib. She'll take lots of little naps during the day, and usually 1 long nap in the afternoon when her brother is also napping. And nap time is heavenly!

Pulling faces:

 Put 'em up!

A Birth Story

Well, it's almost been 2 months, maybe I should write down P2's birth story.

At my 39 week appointment, my midwife stripped my membranes. She wasn't sure if it would get me into labor or not, and she was going to be out of town on the weekend. So we were both hoping this would work. It did start contractions, but I have had a lot of contractions this pregnancy, so I just kept waiting for them to get consistent. About 4 or 5 pm, the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes. I continued fixing dinner: sweet and sour chicken. About 6 pm, I called PE to make sure he was coming home from work. He said he was just finishing up, so I told him to hurry home so he could eat dinner because we may be going to the hospital tonight. The contractions continued to be pretty regular, and we decided to drop P1 off at Grandma's house so he could just go to bed there instead of us having to wake him in the middle of the night.

Well, we ended up just heading to the hospital after dropping P1 off. I wasn't really sure if we should go in though, so we walked around the hospital. Finally, I decided to just go in and see what they say. It was 7:52 pm when we entered the hospital.

I was at a 4 (improvement from a 3 at my check-up) when they checked me, and they decided to let me stay. The contractions were still coming, but they weren't really intense, so we spent a bit of time walking the halls trying to help it along. It was really nice this time to not be hooked up to fluids, pitocin, and oxygen! Around 10:30 - 11 pm, I had my midwife break my water. That immediately made a difference, and my contractions started coming hard and fast. My midwife stayed with us from that point on, and was really great with helping me cope with the pain. I used the birthing ball for a little bit, and PE and my midwife would push on my hips during contractions to help with the pressure. My midwife gave me 4 shots of saline in my back to help with the back labor (but I don't think it really helped, and the shots were kind of painful). They checked me around midnight, and I was only at a 6. I was frustrated, but knew that it could still be over soon because I went from a 6 to a 10 really fast with P1.

My hands fell asleep sometime around then, so a nurse and PE were rubbing my hands. And I remember my legs just shaking like crazy. I started to feel a lot of pressure, so they checked me again and I was at an 8. They asked if I wanted to use the tub or birthing ball, but I didn't think I could move. Suddenly I felt a lot of pressuse, and said so, but my midwife said "Don't push!" because she didn't think I was ready yet. But turns out I was ready, and there wasn't really a whole lot I could do to stop it. I think my midwife only had time to get her gloves on. Baby's head was 3 inches out almost immediately, my midwife told me to slow down, and somehow I was able to hold back for a minute, and then she told me to push. I pushed, and out came a tiny baby at 12:36 AM. I heard crying, and suddenly a little baby was on my chest. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so they let us look for ourselves, and we saw that we had a baby girl!

The nurse said I went from a 6 to complete in 20 minutes, and I only pushed for 2 contractions. It happened so fast that they didn't even give me the pitocin to help stop the bleeding (even though they had stuck an IV in me so that it would be ready to go). But they did give me a painful shot in my thigh to help stop the bleeding.

I did the whole thing without an epidural, and honestly, it was incredibly hard and intense. I'm glad I was able to do it, but now that I've done it both ways, I don't know which way I prefer. Recovery was 100 times better this time, but I think that had more to do with the fact that I didn't tear at all.

She surprised us with her dark hair. We thought it might be red like her brother, or blond like her parents, but as of right now, she is a brunette.

Our sweet baby girl weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, and was 21 inches long. She had a little bruise on the corner of her mouth. It has faded a lot, but hasn't gone away, so I think it is a birthmark not a bruise. She has done great with nursing, and is a very healthy baby. P1 wasn't too sure about her at first, but he warmed up to her really quickly and has been a great big brother. We are so blessed to have them in our family.

P1 enjoyed the many snacks he could get at the hospital:

Beautiful flowers my mom brought to the hospital:

Dressed and ready to go home!

P2's Blessing

P2 was given a name and a blessing by her father at our ward before we moved. She was blessed in the same dress that I was blessed in, and that my mother was blessed in. I crocheted the white baby blanket specifically for her blessing. I finished it 3 days before she was born (1st and possibly last time I crochet a blanket!). My dad and grandpa were able to be in the circle for her blessing, and the bishop and one of his counselors joined them in the circle. It was a short and sweet blessing, and a sister in our ward was thoughtful enough to record the blessing for us.

A Little Boy

Enjoying all the "new" toys we pulled out when packing up to move:

Playing with a Lego sword he made all by himself:

 Showing off our empty apartment:

Helping Dad make breakfast at our new place:

Eating breakfast with Winnie the Pooh:

Playing the piano, using  a children's book as his sheet music:

Being the sweetest big brother ever: