Poop Disaster!

I know every mom has similar stories but as I'm sitting here at 4:00 in the morning I can't help think to myself that I have to add mine to the shared list.

3:00 am: It all starts like any other night. Baby is starting to fuss on the baby monitor so I drag myself out of bed. As I enter the nursery I vividly remember that last night I only got an hour and a half of sleep and I wonder how tonight will play out.

Parker is red with frustration as I look in on him and I hear that musical sound that inevitably means that I have a diaper to change before feeding. I lay him on the changing table and he begins to get more and more flustered as he realizes that he is going to have to wait longer for the meal he is expecting. I get his diaper off and he lets out one of his pterodactyl like screams. ok, I think, I'll make this really fast. As I grab the clean diaper I hear another musical sound come from my beautiful baby boy's behind. Dry, thankfully. The next three, however, I was not so lucky.

I never knew poop could fly so far! The first is just on the changing table and runs onto his jammies, but as I'm cleaning his bum bum from that, the next two shoot all the way to the wall and in the changing table drawer and on the floor.

Finally, between the ongoing screams of hunger I manage to get a diaper on the little pooper. I bring him to my chest to try to calm down the situation. After a little snack I try to get him into new jammies. Half way on, I give up and just decide to feed him. As I try to rock him and sooth him to go back to sleep all I can think about is the poo that is oh so smelly, right beside me and dripping even more onto the floor. Every second I know it will be harder and harder to clean up. I then decide to try the super mom thing and continue to feed while I clean up. No such luck but at least I stopped the dripping on the floor and got some stain remover on the carpet.

Well, eventually I think I have things under control and Parker has finally settled enough for me to button up his clean jammies and start to swaddle him when all of the sudden, the precious milk I had just fed him comes right back up! Now, onto of the poop I have puke all over the clean jammies and blanket and baby's face and hair! Oh, and my screaming baby pterodactyl has returned.

Have no fear, like all mom's, I was able to survive this crisis. Parker is finally asleep in my arms.He has had a bath and I some how got him into clean jammies. The laundry is in the hamper, I still have to scrub the floor and the changing table drawer but with any luck I may get another half an hour of sleep too! :)

Oh, the joys of being a mom. I have to admit, I used to hear these stories and think there is no way I want to be doing that! Well, here I am and with my little snuggle bug feeling better and asleep in my arms it makes it all worth it!

Parker Ryan Salisbury

For all those who follow our blog but do not have Facebook (Ashley), here are some pictures of our new addition. Parker Ryan Salisbury was born on November 18th at 2:16 in the morning. He shocked everyone when he came out weighing 8 lbs and 20 1/4 inches long. Sean and I are both so in love with our little Parker and love being his mom and dad:)

Habits

Before baby comes I have started to become very aware of certain habits that we may need to change. Here are some examples...

Habits to Stop:
1. Calling Bella "bumbum" or "stinker bum" as terms of endearment. I can just picture baby's first word being "bumbum" or him starting school some day and calling kids "stinker bum" and thinking it is an ok thing to call people.
2. Leaving the door open when using the bathroom. No one needs to be scared by their parents that much.


Habits to Start:
1. Eating dinner at the table.
2. Making sure the floor is clean. I'm afraid I am guilty of letting our floors get pretty dirty. Especially with a dog who thinks it is the best thing in the world to bring in pieces of bark from the yard to show us, or even just gets leaves, twigs, burs and other random objects stuck in her sweeper feet. It seems impossible to keep up with. Vacuuming and washing the kitchen floor I think will have to be daily habits for me. Is this a normal thing for moms?

Ok, I've been thinking of a lot of other things but now these are the only ones that come to my mind. I guess it's a good thing to write them down right? So there is the start of my list. To be continued...

I'm an Author!

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law called me with exciting news. The article that I had sent in over a year ago to the New Era had been published! I was so excited! I almost feel like a professional author. I even got paid for it! I feel like I now want to start writing more. I have not seen the magazine yet but from what I heard it's a 3 page long articles with illustrations. Apparently the girl doesn't look very much like me and the truck was really blue, not red.

I used this story in a talk in our ward in Eugene. Afterwords a friend encouraged me to send it into the Ensign. The Ensign sent me back a letter saying that they had forwarded it to the New Era because they felt like it was more applicable for a younger audience. I never imagined that it would actually get published so I don't feel like it is written very well but hopefully the spirit of the story gets through :) If you would like to read it click here.

A Day at Monterey

Yesterday we decided to go to drive 2 hours south to the tourist destination of Monterey. I knew this was going to be a great trip when all I could think about on the drive down was where can we go tonight so I can have fries and gravy? and then when we went for lunch, due to Subway not having a bathroom, we had to go to KFC. Wouldn't you know it, KFC has fries and you can order a side of gravy! What a great start to our trip!

When we were all full of poutine (minus the cheese curds), we went to our main destination of the day, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Although pretty pricey, it was definitely worth it! Here is a picture of us on the outlook patio.

One of our favorite exhibits was the Kelp Forest. I almost got sea sick standing in front of the giant aquarium watching the kelp and the fish sway back and forth with the flow of the water. It was the strangest feeling but was an amazing perspective. We spent hours staring through the windows of aquariums like this and spotting all the different types of fish, especially taking not of the ones we ate the night before when we went out for sushi ( don't worry it was all cooked stuff).

Here is me making a fish face in front of the Kelp Forest. Notice the shark to my right? The biggest mystery to me was how the stopped the sharks from eating the fish they shared the aquarium with. My only explanation is that they watched Finding Nemo and took the pledge that "Fish are Friends. Not Food."

Another highlight of the aquarium was the jellyfish. I never knew jellyfish came in so many colors and some even have flashing lights throughout them. They are pretty cool.

This is my jellyfish face. Similar to a fish face but more of an "O" formation :)
The next exhibit we went to was the sea horse exhibit. Sea horses are actually pretty neat too. Each aquarium was like an I-spy game. In this picture there are 3 sea horses. Can you find them all?

Part of the sea horse exhibit were the sea dragons. We never knew that these creatures even existed! They are the coolest looking things ever!

These may look like plants floating in the water but really they are leaf sea dragons!

After spending hours of enjoyment at the aquarium we walked down Cannery row.

To make our wonderful day even more wonderful it just so happened that there was a Ghirardelli on Cannery Row! My favorite dessert/treat ever is at Ghirardelli. Sean was even willing to go without his salt water taffy so that we could get these wonderful chocolate creations. My favorite is called the Nob Hill Chill. It is like a cross between a chocolate milkshake and a chocolate sunday. It is pretty much amazing.

Sean's chocolate Sunday was pretty good too.


After our afternoon snack we went on the famous "17 mile drive" around Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach is a private residence area with a bunch of golf courses, multi-million dollar homes and beautiful beaches and wildlife. It was a pretty foggy day and I'm sure it would also be beautiful with sunshine and blue sky but it was still nice. Here are our pictures from the drive.



Bird Rock

You may not be able to tell if you don't look closely, but there were a bunch of seals on this beach. Apparently they come here to have their pups. A lot of them were still pretty young and playing around. It was fun to watch them.

The Lone Tree. This is supposedly a famous icon. The tree is 250 years old and represents resilience. I guess it is one rugged tree.

The End. That was our trip! Hope you all enjoyed the update of our weekend.

Don't worry, I know I need to post tummy pictures so everyone can see how big the baby is getting now that I am approaching the half way mark. You can expect those to be coming soon :)

Hair Cut!

I got my hairs cut today! All of them! I took a before picture in the car so here it is.

And here are the after pictures...

It's so short!

This one is my trying to show off my very small baby bump too. Can you tell? :)

Baby Update

I have not been shy on hiding the fact I have not been feeling too hot these last couple months. I officially reached my 12 week mark last Saturday so I thought that would be the start to everything feeling better. Maybe not... Starting on Friday, I took a turn for the worse. I had 4 straight days of nausea, feeling like I was in a cloud, body aches, and feeling like I was not sure if I was going to puke or if it was going to come out the other end. If I didn't know any better, I would have said I had the flu. It hit an all time low on Monday when I suddenly started having episodes of loosing my hearing followed by extreme dizziness. That finally pushed me over into calling the Dr. They had me come in that day to make sure everything was ok. Long story short, it is. I am on a few different medications which really seem to be helping, which is nice.
The fun part about this story is that we got a peak at our little peanut. They tried to find the heart beat first, which they couldn't. That made us a little nervous. But then they pulled out the ultrasound so we actually got to see him/her! We could not believe how active this little thing is! It is 2 1/2 inches big but was kicking and swinging it's arms like it was no one's business. I guess being so sick is ok if it means Jr is growing healthy and strong in there. Sean was shocked that I could not feel it kicking or moving. I told him that that is probably what is making me so nauseous all the time and to think that that is what we'll be chasing around in a few months :) They gave us another picture which is not so good because the baby was moving so much but its still fun.

Yeah for healthy baby!

Bull Fight

I'm taking over with another post. I know that my last post was horrible, but I need to blow of some steam by doing something creative. I've been spending 80+ hours a week for the last month studying for finals, and I'm almost at the burn-out point!

Amy came up earlier today and showed me the journal that I kept during our time backpacking through Europe two years ago. I found a great entry on our visit to Sevilla, Spain, where we saw a bull fight.

April 26, 2009:

"The first few moments when the bull enters the stadium can best describe the emotional experiences involved with a bull fight. It's over powering to see a massive animal such as the bull run into the stadium. With its silky black coat, at least it looks silky to someone seated at the top of the stadium, and the sun reflecting the lines and contours of every muscle on the beast's body.

"After the bull enters the stadium, and it notices the crowd, which is silently watching, it looks around confused. It tries to figure out what is going on. The two thick horns, following the bull's gaze, scan the stadium looking for any movement. These horns are raised six feet in the air by the bull's massive stature.

"He is much taller and more powerful than the first matador, who steps out of a gate on the other side the ring, waving a colored cape, pink, and calling the for the bull's attention.

"Sadly, the bull has no idea that slowly, an army of toreros, including banderillos, picadores and matadores, will bleed it to death. And ultimately, when the matador pierces his heart with the thrust of a sword, will the bull lay down to rest."

Bonus Points

I just want to point out that I should get bonus points for our Easter Dinner this year. I was SO sick on Sunday. I think it had to be one of my worst sick days yet, but I was determined that I was going to make Sean a nice Easter dinner. I feel like I haven't really made dinner for two months (poor Sean) so this was it. Well, I think it turned out pretty well. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and rolls. I was not able to eat a lot, or even a little, maybe like two bites, but I still think it was good and I should get props for making it :)

It's True!

Ok, no more April Fools jokes. This time it is for real. I am pregnant! Only with one though and here's the proof. The ultrasound even has my name on it. Sean and I went in for our first ultrasound on Thursday and we saw the little heart beat. It is so crazy! It is reassuring to know that I have been so sick for a reason though. Can you believe that a little baby at 6cm big has 2 little legs, 2 little arm buds and a heart beat that you can see?! Crazy! The Dr. said that everything is looking good and that at this point I have less then 1% chance of miscarriage so I guess we can start making the official announcements now. My due date is November 19th so maybe we'll have a Thanksgiving baby! :)

Hawaii Spring Break

Ok, time to put all this April Fools day madness behind us and update everyone on our trip to Hawaii. This was my first time to the island of Oahu. It was great! Our hotel was awesome. Here is the view from our room in the day.

And here is the view during sunset.

It was so pretty!
One thing about Oahu is that there was SO much to do. Here is me trying to do a quick recap of all the fun things we did...
Sean and I joined his parent on a time share sales pitch so we could go on a free whale watching cruise. You should all be very impressed the both Sean's mom and I did not get sea sick at all and we even saw whales!
The beautiful Oahu coast from our boat.
We had all enjoyed a wonderful boat ride and had basically given up on the whole whale thing. We had turned around and were almost back at port when all of the sudden... THERE SHE BLOWS!!!
Me: I DON'T SEE IT!!!
I STILL DON'T SEE IT!!!
OHhhh! I SEE IT!
Actually, I think there were three, but we all saw them! Yeah!


On another event filled day we were able to see the Laie temple.

From the temple it was a few blocks down to drive through the BYU Hawaii Campus and to the Polynesian Cultural Center. On a personal note... Some of you may know that I always thought that I would go to BYU Hawaii. In fact, I got in 3 times! They rejected me the 4th time, probably because they knew by then that I wasn't really going to go. Well, visiting the campus for the first time I was so grateful that I didn't go there. I know that sounds weird because it was beautiful and fun and all but I feel like I had so many opportunities in Utah that I never would have had there. Most importantly I met Sean! If nothing else I ended up with the best man possible. I know that we aren't supposed to say that there is just one person out there for you but I just couldn't imagine any any one better for me then Sean. We just work together! On top of that I have great friends that I never would have met, I never would have majored in Athletic Training or worked at the MTC or gone to New Zealand... How different my life would be! Anyways, there is my little self realization for you. On with our trip...
Here we are getting into the mood for the Polynesian Cultural Center.
We made it just in time for the Parade of Nations. Very cool!
Here is me trying to relive my New Zealand days. :)


While in Oahu we were also able to spend a day at Pearl Harbor. It is very moving to be at the place where so many people lost their lives so unexpectedly. It is crazy that the events of one day changed the course of a nation as the US joined the War. The USS Arizona is a large battle ship that was sunk that day and was allowed to lie where it was as a memorial for the soldiers who went down with their ship and lie there still.

They say that the oil that slowly leaks from the wreckage represents the tears of the men and women who died that day.
From the USS Arizona we were then able to go to the USS Missouri where the treaty was signed with Japan which ended the War in the Pacific.


After a history filled day we then had a beach day which included snorkeling and searching out the wild life of Hawaii. Here is Turtle Bay where we went snorkeling. We did not see any turtles there though.
Unless you count me that is. My goal in Hawaii was not to get burned. I have finally given into the fact that I am too white to tan.

On the other side of the bay we found this guy.
Don't worry, even though it might not look like it, he IS alive.
We were all were a little disappointed not to see turtles so before we called it a day we tracked them down. Success!

One more cool boat I have to blog about. There was a marina across the road from our resort and we noticed a cool looking old boat docked there when we first arrived but didn't think much more about it. Come to find out the cool old boat is the Black Pearl! That's right, the real one from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies! How cool is that!
Who knew that boat was so crazy with detail!

Well, I think that brings us to the end of our trip. Fun times were had by all. Tune in next year to see what adventures we find next spring break.