odds 'n ends

Over the past few days I've had thoughts that I wanted to blog about but they're just snippets really and not big enough to dedicate a whole post to so I'm going to throw them all together.  Yes, this is like a ring-side seat to whit's stream of consciousness (scary I know.)

So the other day code and I were driving out of our apartment complex and there's this landscaped median near our gate separating where the cars come in/go out etc.  So we're pulling up closer to the gate and we see this lil boy-prolly 6 or 7- walk/running across the opposite side to the median.  Naturally I slow down waiting to see if he's going to keep on coming.  He stops at the median and seems to be waiting...so I continue to inch forward and then code says: aaaand.....run....now! sure enough just as we're pulling up to right where he is the kid darts out into the road and continues to run/walk/gallop across our side.  He actually waited til we were closer to run out infront of us.....I'm not even sure if he was ever aware of the HUGE metal object that was a few feet from him.  I mean  I know our car isn't a clunker so it drives relatively quietly but it's not silent!  I should have honked a bunch of times and scared him.  What an idiot.  Why are kids so brain dead sometimes??? They're like deer-they wait til you're closer and then dart out infront of you and freeze in the headlights....seriously how are they still surviving-it disproves natural selection cause animals that dumb should have been wiped out long ago....the deer....not our children......though if I ever catch my kids being that dumb they are going to get it.

What else what else...oh yes, I feel like I joined the wussy side...I got a flu shot today. sigh.  No offense to you proactive cautious people that get flu shots regularly.  I just never saw the need and really don't get sick that often, but with Jake in our lives now I figured it'll strengthen his immune system which is never a bad thing.  I also got a pertusis (Dtap) vaccination to avoid unknowingly giving jake whooping cough (he got the infant version last week in his shots).  Apparently lots of kids get it and it's no bueno.  It's hard enough to watch him gasp for air if he forgets to breathe while nursing so I can't imagine watching him cough/gag/and gasp for air on a regular basis.  no fun.  Though I will say the needle was so tiny and sharp that I really didn't feel anything after the initial prick which is always a nice surprise.  Though needles never really bothered me that much, just as long as I don't look at it.  And we didn't have to pay a dime-gotta luv exxon's health insurance.

Got panda for lunch today...love me some cream cheese rangoons-if you've never tried them before please do and get the sweet and sour sauce with them...so good.

Code survived his campout with the teachers and the deacons....barely...haha the teachers were fine but apparently the deacons were...well...what you'd expect from a bunch of 11-12 year old boys.  I won't go into too much detail but let's just say: water fight using all 36 water bottles that code bought for everyone at 1 am.....in the middle of a rainstorm....I guess the rain wasn't getting them wet enough soon enough?
Code texted me this message last night around ten: "there is a special place in heaven reserved for scout leaders" haha I asked what about their wives? he said I could come too :)
What is it with 11-13 year old boys tho....it's like all the sudden they get hit over the head with the stupid stick and it takes awhile to wear off.  I'm sure there's 1 in 50 who are half way decent and manage to stay semi-reasonable and normal but man....for jake's sake I hope he's one of the few.  I don't have a lot of patience with people who refuse to use their brains.

Life is Crazy

It's amazing how quickly life can accelerate and just take off on you.  For example, here's a typical week's schedule in the Nolden household:
(I'm just talking evenings cause our days are pretty much the same-code work and whit-jacob)
Mon: Family Night
Tues: all three of us go to the bear creek building to teach stake mission prep (you know, all those young men in suits and ties knocking on your doors asking if they can talk to you about the mormon church? well we help them prepare for the training center they go to before they knock on your doors)
Wed: Code is at mutual (youth activity at our church)
Thurs: apparently this night, what used to be one of our few free nights, is possibly going to be taken up by calls to the far east for code's job-some weekly meeting for a project etc. and has to be in the evenings cause of the time difference. joy.
Fri: if we're lucky date night with lil jaker breaker tagging along
but the past few weekends have been taken up with fishing/camping trips that code has to go on for scouts (he's the teacher adviser).

Oh yeah, and on top of all that there's the whole being newly parents to a 2 month old so any time we're not doing the above we're spending with lil jake which is great but i'm slowly coming to the realization that I can't count "quality time with code" as alone time with code....cause there won't be any.  We only have one kid and we're still young and we're this busy/apart?  They say life only gets crazier and more complicated-then I'll enjoy what I have now I guess and hope the saying isn't too true in our case.

Complaining isn't always a bad thing...

I'm sure many of you can relate to the following:
When I was a teenager and shopping with my mom, I would always be so embarrassed if my mom questioned the price of things and challenged the cashier as we were checking out.  There would inevitably be a long line of people waiting impatiently behind us and my mom would be arguing the proper use of a coupon.  Granted, she wasn't one of those intense couponers that run around now a days with books holding all of their coupons so I guess it could have been worse, but I was always so self-conscious and would try to encourage my mom that it didn't matter and "let's just go" as i'd try to avoid eye-contact with the rest of the line as the cashier would call for a price check etc.  A typical response from a socially awkward and easily embarrassed teenager.  I guess that's how I know I've grown up a bit....or at least gained a little confidence.  I'll question the cashier if something doesn't seem to be ringing-up right.  Granted, if they give me an explanation I don't push further but at least I spoke up.  It's funny cause as we're brought up we're constantly discouraged to complain but instead, to be agreeable and go with the flow.  I guess I've figured out that complaining isn't necessarily a negative thing as long as it's constructive/for a specific purpose.

For example, I took advantage of a deal on facebook for this cute bubble necklace for only 10$.  I guess a lot of other people did too cause it was taking forever, and of course this site didn't offer tracking so there was no way to know if it was on its way or if they had forgotten about you.  So I sent an email asking about the status of my order.  They promptly informed me that due to the bulk of orders they had received they were trying their best to keep up etc and that they were planning to ship it the next week.  Well once they charged my credit card, the next week passed, and I still wasn't seeing it in the mail I felt I had a little more room to speak up.  So I emailed the site again pointing out that they really needed a better way to show their customers the status/location of their orders and that I'd like my necklace now that they had taken my money etc.  (I wasn't quite so brazen with it but you get the idea). So they promptly reply again (gotta give them kuddos), and apologized for the delay and said that they had mailed it the day before and to encourage me to use their site again in the future they had included a mini bubble necklace free of charge....complaining is AWESOME!  Oh all right you can throw free stuff at me and buy my affections-I'm not above being bribed :)

So here's the original one I ordered and LOVE (I figured I needed more pop in my accessories- bright happy colors)

and here's the mini free necklace:

In other news we survived the night.  Around 9:30 we could tell that jake was just not his usual happy chipper self-so lethargic like he had been hit by a truck and super crabby.  We took his temp and he had a temp of 100 so we decided to go ahead and get him some tylenol hoping it would make it easier for him to sleep.  (approved by our pediatrician btw-I know some people tell you you can't give babies tylenol under 6 months) 15 min later he was on his way back to his old self and much happier.  He slept 5 to 6 hours straight last night so he's feeling much better today :)

speaking of tylenol I found a really helpful article/chart on the subject-I googled about it as I was looking over the different OTC choices at walmart cause I was concerned with so many people saying you shouldn't give kids tylenol, but knowing my dr said it was ok, was curious why it was discouraged etc.  apparently it's not b/c it's bad but b/c it's really easy to give the wrong dosage:

how to dose acetaminophen

I think I'm going to print out the chart in this link and tape it in our medicine cabinet, it's good info.

2 Months!

I can't believe it-Jake is 2 months old!! Of course it feels like he's much older than that cause time has flown by so it seems like it has to have been more than 2 months.  It's so much fun to see him develop and grow into his own little person with a definite personality.  So here's what we've learned and the few tricks he can do now:
Overall Jake is a very chill kid unless he feels strongly about something in which case he will def share his opinions and make himself heard.  A lot of the time he is content to lay in his crib/sit in his bouncy chair or swing on his own, but if he ever gets fussy he's instantly happy again if held.
-He's super good at tracking things with his eyes now.  My favorite is standing above his crib and making sure his eyes are locked on me and then walking past him and watching him follow me with his eyes and not only that but tilt his head as far back as he can to keep following me-it's so cute.
-He's definitely socially smiling back at us now.  His smile when fully unleashed is ridiculously cute.  I like to think that I can be a firm parent when need be but if he hits me with that I'm not so sure anymore...
-he's cooing and making fun lil vocal noises that are so adorable-mostly vowels, but last night he totally said: "oguh" our first consonant, pretty cool :)
-He's been holding his head up really good for a long time now while we hold him without supporting him etc and turns his head back and forth looking around.  He's getting better at tummy time but still doesn't like it for longer than 15 min or so
-He started sucking his hands a lot lately and most recently his thumb-it was so cute to see him actually sucking his thumb like a big kid (I was a thumb sucker) tho we'll prolly introduce the pacifier now...as they say "it's easier to ween a kid off of a pacifier than a thumb" plus our pediatrician said he prefers pacifiers to letting kids suck fingers-messes with their teeth less in the future.  I've been putting it off since I was trying to get jacob and breast feeding figured out but he's been good for a month now so I figure he'll be fine.
-He sleeps pretty good-hasnt' slept straight through yet, but sleeps a 4 hour stint, then a 3, then a 2 and by then it's 7/8 am haha.

------Ok the dreaded dr appointment:----------
so Jacob is 23 1/4 in (grew 3 in since birth) and is in the 63% in height, 10 lbs 14 oz (the dr said if he had had a BM/wet diaper before coming (which he did) then he's prolly more around 11 lbs haha) and is in the 30%.  I was slightly concerned by this but Dr K didn't seem phased in the least so I guess he's just small yet healthy :) and his head is in the 50%.  Jacob was so cute and cooed and smiled at the dr etc.

Then the nurse came in...Jacob got three shots in his cute chubby thighs and it was so sad watching the pain register on his face-his eyes got all big and then his face went red and then the screaming started.  I felt sooo bad.  He sort of calmed down after I held him for a few minutes and once we got rolling in the stroller out to the car he calmed down completely.  He's been crabby this evening but nothing that has driven us to tylenol-our dr said we could give him 1/2 a tsp if we need to.  We'll see how he does...code and I are both really tired tho so we may not have tons of patience for crabbiness later in the night so we may just turn to the tylenol if he keeps it up.

I just have to say it sucks watching your cute baby who is so content and trusting looking at you with the saddest face...I felt so guilty, it made me want to cry but I stayed strong.

Happy 2 months jaker breaker-don't be too mad at us!

He was moving around so much he eventually touched and smudged the picture on the ipad haha

You can see two of his three bandaids above :(

the blur!

cheese!

camera shy

smile jacob from Whitney Nolden on Vimeo.

So this video is totally messed up cause I filmed vertically with my phone and wasn't thinking but it's still pretty cute so just deal with it, and I'll film horizontally from now on :)

more of jacob

hot buttons

Here's the 411 people.  Here are things to avoid if you want to keep Whitney happy and not send her blood pressure through the roof.  In short, here are my hot buttons-there aren't that many but the few I do have well...let's just say "hot" isn't really accurate....more like "molten lava" buttons.  There's no stopping the wrath.  All I can do is clench my teeth shut and wait for it to pass and hope that it doesn't turn into a pounding headache or that I won't blow up at poor code while he tries to fix it.  They are as follows:

1. Technology not being able to perform simple tasks that it's usually supposed to.  

*For example: the videos of jake that will hopefully be below by the time you read this- took upwards to an hour to upload....for ONE VIDEO.  Now, if it were just a matter of slow uploading, fine I could deal, but no-most of that time was trying to actually get the video from my phone into blogger.  Apple is full of clearly smart people.  They invented the icloud and photo stream.  How hard would it have been to include a VIDEO OPTION for streaming?!  It's the SAME CONCEPT!!! but no, it's only photos so I have to import them into iphotos by using the stupid chord. fine.  I do that.  Then I try to upload the videos from iphoto into blogger but that wouldn't work for some reason.  So then we export the videos onto my desktop and THEN upload them into blogger.  I'll let you know if it worked if it EVER GETS DONE UPLOADING! and let me remind you- all I wanted was to PUT A VIDEO ON MY BLOG. GASP-how high tech of me...it's 2012 people! this should not be this hard!  All that's not to mention the stupid google+ apps I put on my phone and laptop cause it said I could upload straight from my phone to blogger.....of course once I got the app it did diddly-squat from what I could tell and is NOT intuitive at all...sure I could upload photos etc to google+ but why would I do that?  that's not blogger, if I'm going to upload my photos to a middle program before getting it into blogger I might as well just upload them to iphoto....that is if it would work...

moving on!

2. Traffic.  duh 'nuf said.

That's pretty much it....BYU losing used to be one-just ask code.  If BYU lost I was not a fun person to be around for the rest of the night.  Somehow I got over that one-learned how to detach myself...prolly out of self preservation-cause I will be watching BYU sports for the rest of my life and fall is too great of a season to ruin with being mad every other weekend.  (though that having been said, come on mendenhall-really?  If nelson isn't healthy (which he CLEARLY isn't) don't punish the rest of the team by saying: but he's such a good guy-take him out! last time I checked "being a good guy" is not part of the requirements for a good quarterback that wins games-being able to complete a dang pass and not throw a bagillion interceptions are.  Don't get me wrong, he seems great- and I'm sorry that he's hurting right now but it's not fair to the rest of the team/fans to keep putting him in.  ok, rant done.

Enjoy the many different faces/personalities of our lil man:

sorry, would be more videos but nothing works.  I even tried vimeo-after 30 min it's only 30% done uploading a 1 min video.....yeah....

I'm in love....

with this dress!

Oh man do I love that dress...it was actually hard to go to sleep last night after I found it while feeding jake I was so excited! It would be so cute with some sort of mustard yellow strappy heel I'm thinking....anyone have a good store/site for shoes that they love?

If you've been stung by a jelly fish....

Then you should come over to our apartment and change Jacob's diaper-I could promise instant healing...well according to friends....

jellyfish episode

I went to change jacob this morning and got peed on 3 times. As a new parent you start to gain this sixth sense of when it's going to happen. Usually I'm starting to open his diaper and I have the thought..."huh...he hasn't peed on me in awhile..." and then I pause after opening the diaper almost waiting for said thing to happen and just as I go "phew" and reach for the new diaper it happens. Of course if I'm quick enough I either throw the old diaper over it or if that's not an option I lift his legs so it goes all over him and not me.... What? It's much easier to wipe off a baby with a few wipes than have to change my outfit for the upteenth time....yeah that's about when he starts to get mad...but I figure, if he doesn't like it he'll learn not to do it right? haha
Anywho, the spray clears/stops and I move the old diaper and it does it again. The process then repeated itself a third time. Normally if it's THAT (3X) bad and code is home that's about the time I walk away and say, your turn, but sadly code was already gone this morning so I had to swallow my frustration and clean/change the lil potlicker... (I don't know, I picked it up from code so you'll have to ask him).

Other than the moments when my little boy imitates a sprinkler system, it's been pretty fun to have him around. Though I miss being able to sit and ponder and put a lot of thought into blogging/journaling etc (as we speak I'm typing as fast as I can to get done before he wakes up) it's still one of the most rewarding things I've done in life-being his mom. Looking back at the first few weeks of life and how scared-out-of-my-mind I was, and feeling so overwhelmed with all of the new responsibility-especially with breastfeeding...knowing that it was all on me, that code couldn't help bare the burden of making sure he was getting enough etc. It's hard to believe that I ever felt that way now. Even though it def puts a cramp in my ability to be spontaneous/ gone from him for long periods of time, now I look forward to our feedings. A few weeks ago I was just watching him during one of his feedings and was struck by how little and perfect he was. All the sudden it was like the image of looking down at his lil chubby cheeks working away, and all the feelings of love that I have for him created this mental picture that I know I'll always be able to recall...like a mental carbon copy. I'll have to go to that happy place in the future when he's trying my patience as a teenager and remember that there's still that sweet little boy in there somewhere :)

As far as developments and new tricks go. He's definitely starting to socially smile back at us. I've tried to film it in vane but we'll get there I'm sure-he still gets distracted by the camera in his face. He was doing great at tummy time/lifting his head etc but then I got lazy and forgot to do it every day and in the mean time his head has gotten a lot bigger so now we've regressed a lil but I'm determined to give him tummy time 2-3 times a day. He can hold his head up on his own when we hold him and look around great/just doesn't like doing it from the tummy, so we're working on that :)


I can't wait for monday-his 2 month check up! Well, ok, let's be honest-I can't wait to see how much he's grown and what his percentiles are etc but I am NOT looking forward to the shots and the awful mood he's most likely going to be in afterwards. Any words of advice on dealing with that seasoned moms?

My men

Have you ever realized how little there is out there for guys to buy in the way of clothes?? I was at old navy today looking for pajamas for cody and they had all of three different kinds of pj pants....across the store in the women's section there is an entire SECTION of pajama bottoms of various colors and styles. This tells me that either men don't get options when it comes to clothes or....that society has realized how much we women love being in pj's....I mean at least once a month we are reaching for those comfy pj's or, in my case if you're a mom, you're lucky if you ever make it out of them.



Chalk this up to one of the perks of being a mom/wife that I never thought of before: I get to shop for my men when they don't want to/are too busy etc. Now, while I don't necessarily like shopping/going to malls that often, it's fun when I have a real practical reason for being there-not just window shopping and becoming depressed by the end of the day cause I see tons that I can't buy etc. Also, this way I don't have to worry about standing in line for dressing rooms or finding the cutest top only to find that it doesn't fit right/look right on me at all.



Why you ask? Because shopping for guys is sooo easy and fun! Guys magically know exactly what size they are and it really doesn't matter what you pick-as long as it's in their size it'll look the same/just fine, and these sizes are the same in every store! This makes me wonder if all men's clothes come from exactly the same place and mold....cause I will tell you right now that that is NOT the case for women. In one store you're a 2, in another you're a medium, in another you're an 8 etc etc etc. Oh and all those clothes that look so good on the mannequins- well just look behind them and you will find tons of clips/rubber bands etc holding that shirt in the perfect place....cause we walk out of the house like that. But guys? their clothes are all uniform when it comes to sizes-they know exactly what measurements they are for dress clothes so they have no need to actually try anything on. It's not fair...the only thing that balances it out is the fact that guys have 25% to choose from than girls do. Still...75% more clothes that don't fit right isn't that great of a deal when you think about it.



Anywho, this is all a long-winded attempt at saying: I enjoy shopping for my boys. They may not care what they wear in the end but I like picking out cute outfits-especially for jake. yeah...I need to stay away from clothing stores cause now I'm drawn to the baby section. I LOVE lil polo shirts and some cute mini corduroys. You can have all the cute baby looking onsies, but I love baby clothes that are just miniature versions of adult styles. I can't wait for jake to grow into the following:

















You may notice that I bought a coat-that would be because we're going to Utah for thanksgiving this year for my brother Eric's wedding-we're so excited for him and Sarah! Plus I'm excited to actually get to experience fall/winterish weather, visit family and show jake off, and we already have a list of restaurants that we have to visit. :)
SO Excited!!!
Can't wait to show this little man around BYU!

It's a good day

It's happened! It's finally happened! I am the proud owner of a mac. It's so weird cause I feel like I'm on Cody's laptop...I'm sure he's happy to have his computer back :) I can't get over how fast it is, how it doesn't force you to shut down or get updates every time I turn it on....oh yeah, and the retina screen isn't too shabby either. Well welcome to our new family blog-we've wanted to change blog hosts ever since twitter bought posterous. Today is a big day. Not only is it BYU vs Utah tonight, but I've managed to fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. check it.

something old and something new

Last night I was reading a blog-not of someone I know, which is not usual for me.  I don't typically follow blogs of people I don't know, but someone I did know put this blog out on facebook and encouraged others to read it and the title jumped out at me: diary of a wimpy mom.  It was 2 am and I was feeding Jake with nothing else to do-facebook gets really slow in those early hours which surprises me cause with how crazy-obsessed with facebook the world is I thought I could count on having something new to look at for those early feedings.  So there I was reading this random woman's blog-that makes her sound old, she's my age but anywho, and I couldn't help but love her overall writing style and personality.  It really came out in her posts.  It also helped that she's a mom and talks about mom related things so they were entertaining to me.  11 months ago they wouldn't have been.

It suddenly struck me at how: A. little I write in here anymore, and B. little I enjoy blogging in general.

If you've known me for five-ish or more years than you would know that this has not always been the case.  I was a copious blogger back in the day.  i had a blog before my mission and a new blog after my mission that I would write in every day and I enjoyed it.  When I'd notice things througout the day or random/weird/sad/funny stuff would happen I'd write about it and looked forward to writing about it.

So what happened?  When did I suddenly stop looking forward to blogging and see it as a chore?  Was it since we made this "family blog" so I feel like I can only write about countless updates and stats that our friends/fam want to be kept up on instead of what I'm actually thinking about?  Not that I don't love talking about our family and our goings-on but...it's no longer just my blog so maybe that's why I feel like I can't just use it as a mental dumping ground like I used to.  As I was reading this other blog though, it really lit a fire and reminded me at how fun blogging can be and how much I used to enjoy it, so i'm going to try to start again in earnest.  So this will be about our fam, of course, but I'll also use it as my personal blog too....most moms do this anyway with their fam blogs right? cool. so here we go:

 

Below is a picture that all parents know well:

The booger suction thingy.  Now I've learned many interesting new insights into myself since having our baby boy, one of which being that I HATE boogers and using the booger suction thingy.  If you want to gross me out the quickest way is through boogers.  Keep in mind I am not generally a wimp when it comes to bodily functions (after all I grew up with three brothers haha- j/k eric, mike, and steve....sort of).  In the past two months I have been peed on, pooped on (we're talking projectile poop that I sacrificed my hand for so it wouldn't spray the rest of me....I could have made a perfect orange poopy handprint if I wanted to....tmi?) spit up on, etc.  

Now while these things make me mad, I'm not fighting back the urge to dry heave, but the second I hear something rattling around in jacob's nose I hand him to Code (if he's home) to deal with it.  He likes the sunction thing-thinks it's cool.  The other day he wasn't home and I could tell that jake was stuffed up and my stomach dropped at that awful rattling sound.  I looked and sure enough I could see the booger.  GAG.  So I get that stupid lil suction thingy and after four or five trys the gooey gross booger is stuck right in the end of that lil instrument.  Even now I'm grossing myself out just thinking about it-shudder.  I fought back the urge to gag and washed it out as fast as possible the whole time yelling "EWW!"

Where does this deep-seated reflex come from?  Kindergarten.  At least I think it was kindergarten...maybe first grade? or preschool?  suffice it to say I was young.  I remember we were gathering for something and sitting on the floor etc and I looked over at a fellow classmate at the WRONG time.  I watched in horror as she picked her nose (ok that wasn't that bad we were 6 after all) and then proceeded to eat it (THAT'S THE BAD PART!).  I still remember the completely gut-wrenching grossed-out feeling I had even then and that's the feeling I get whenever I have to deal with or see boogers now.  *SHUDDER*

I'm sure I'll become more and more desensitized to it over the years...otherwise I have a lot of gagging reflexes to experience in my future :(