Warm San Diego Sun

Last week, we got back from a trip to visit Mike's family in San Diego. Per usual, we had an amazing time. We went to the tide pools for the first time and Jude saw two starfish and held one. I held it too, and felt secretly thrilled in my heart to hold such a strange thing.

We met up with Mike's law school buds, Kristina and Andreas, and they went surfing.

I stayed on shore and kissed Bubbers and played with Jude. We collected all kinds of shells (broken or whole) and Jude tried to collect a bunch of seaweed and weird sea things as well. That didn't last.

We also touched sea anemones. They have sticky, purply-green tentacles. My brother, Britt, came to San Diego too and while he was at the tide pools, he accidentally dropped a sea snail into the clutches of the anemone, much to the horror of all bystanders. (He he he)

Jude ate sand. That didn't last long.

Mike surfed. This one is for me. You may also look at it if you can contain your swoons.

Bubbers smiled. And his blue eyes sparkled.

Anne came along and took pictures with her sweet camera and played with the boys. We miss having her living close to us.

Britt fulfilled a bucket list dream and learned to surf. He did amazingly. He got up several times and even rode an unbroken wave. Contain your swoons, ladies, contain those sighs.

Cutting through the blah

Some days I feel like a loser. I don't feel like cleaning (=most days), I don't feel like cooking, I don't feel like exercising. And during those few fleeting moments of nap time, should they actually exist, I just want to curl up and sleep (this may have something to do with being up all night with Gabe on any given night. How do you get babies to sleep? SERIOUSLY, people! (P.S. Can you use horse tranquillizers at 6 months or do you have to wait until a year?)). I've figured out that there are things that help me change my attitude, and things that entrench me more deeply in my grey cloud of blah. Two things that help me feel better and re-energized are playing with my kids and taking pictures of them. How could these two dudes not cheer a gal up?

Jude loves to hold Gabe on his lap. However, the inevitable happens:

Gabe knocks Jude over. And Jude, squeals out from beneath his brother: "Mommy, Gabe knock Jude over. Gabe squashing me." (said breathlessly and wheezing as if a two-ton tractor had fallen on him)

Another thing that cheers me up is having conversations with Jude. A few choice ones of late have included:

Jude was petting my hair the other day and told me: "Mommy, you hair soft like a bunny." I'm starting the training on similes and metaphors early, my friends.

Jude, Gabe and I were sitting on the couch waiting for Mike to get home from school on a Saturday afternoon. We had just changed a round of diapers and Jude remained in only a diaper. He came up to me and said, "Mommy, Jude going bye-bye downstairs." And then he climbed on my lap, took my two cheeks in his hands and looked into my eyes and solemnly said. "Be brave, Mommy." And then he kissed my cheek and blew a kiss as he headed down into the void of our basement. I think I saw him salute just before the first step into the dark.

I was putting make-up on recently and Jude was watching. He asked why I was wearing make-up. I told him that sometimes women wear make-up. He replied. "Mommy a girl. Mommy a woman. Mommy a womanite." I'm guessing these stems from our discussions about Lamanites and Nephites.

Jude and I were hiding from daddy in the closet the other day and I asked Jude from whom we were hiding. He replied. "We hiding from a BIIIIIGGG monkey, a daddy monkey...with one fur...from the ceiling." At that point I trembled in fear.

And then there is our little teddy bear who is the most content baby during the day but is a terror at night. Luckily, he's darling.

Chubbers

Gabe had his two month appointment this last week. And we were not shocked to hear that he is 14'9 pounds. Yes, our own chub-chub is in the 97th percentile for weight and the 94th for height. Jude was 16 lbs. at a year old, which explains why he constantly fell in about the .5th percentile. So, having a chubby baby is foreign to us. Albeit, delicious. I mean, look at those rolls! You could lose a newborn in those rolls!

My Boys

Mom and the boys. Notice how Gabe is spitting up all down his chin, my hand, and his belly and Jude is whacking me in the face. Seems like a typical moment to me.

Again with Gabe spitting up and Jude refusing to look at the camera.

Mike and Gabe. Look...Gabe is starting to respond and smile. We make absolute fools of ourselves trying to get that little guy to smile.

Jude and Tyler. Best buds.

We've decided that Gabe more or less looks like Jude, just much fatter. Mike calls him "fatso" and I cringe every time, convinced the kid will develop a complex. He is deliciously chubby, though. Today I put a 0-3 month onsie on him and he was bursting out of it. It looked like a skin-tight belly shirt. I couldn't fit it over his girth. It was awesome.

Yawning. Notice that tasty chin roll.

Mike and "Fatso". See, you can already see how grumpy he is with all the name calling.

A few tasty Jude moments.

Jude likes to run around our living room while holding his stuffed shark behind his back screaming at the top of his lungs that the shark is eating his back.

Jude likes to pick his nose. A lot. And then eat it. Two choice moments from this. One is that he ate such a big booger the other day that it got stuck in his tooth and I had to fish it out. Ah, motherhood. Then, when I was telling him how "yucky" it was to pick his nose and eat it, he looked up at me earnestly and said, "No. Boogers not yucky. Boogers YUMMY." Silly mom getting her "Y" words confused.

Jude was making this creepy hissing noise at breakfast the other day. I asked him what sound he was making and he said: "Spider laughing" As Satan's minions, that is probably what spiders' laughing sounds like. Observant boy.

Jude loves to have his puppy do everything with him. He changes the puppy's diaper. He feeds the puppy whatever he is eating. He wraps the puppy up in a blanket and puts him in the baby swing. He is very sweet to his puppy. I even saw him trying to nurse his puppy the other day (buddy, hate to break it to you, but that well is dry...). The other day we were eating a fruit snack on our front step and the puppy was sitting dutifully between us. Jude said, "Puppy hungry" and went to feed him some of the fruit snack and then laughed at himself, pulled the snack away quickly and gobbled the whole thing up. It was like "as if...there are just some thing a man doesn't share. fruit snacks is one of them."

Jude loves the Angel Moroni on top of the temple. He's obsessed. He says his name and that he is playing the trumpet way up high, at least 50 times a day. Tonight he made me sing him an "angel Moroni" song at bedtime. I can assure you that was one, made-up, tasty number.

The mischief is never ending with Jude.

Blessed

Gabriel Thomas Bunnell

Of course, when I went to take pictures of him in his outfit, my usually quiet little man screamed himself into a tizzy. Mom and I made this outfit during the many days we had before Gabe decided to show up.


We were so grateful for the friends and family who came to the blessing. We felt blessed. Truly. I loved watching Gabe encircled by his great-grandfathers, grandfathers, and his uncles as Mike pronounced a blessing on his sweet, bald head.

After church we had a little picnic in the park. I thought it would be unbearably hot, but the shade felt pleasant.
Grandpa Bunnell and Jude

Nate and his miracle baby Bella

One Sara Barclay and Gabe

Mike giving me the eye to stop taking pictures of him

Victoria, Bella, and Nate

Anne Bunnell II

Mama Jan

Pete and Meags

Grandma Karen and Gabe

Clark and Kelsie

Katie and Evan

Claire, Vern, and Meredith

Grandpa Steve

Clark and Jude the Dude

Tom and Ashlynn

Two weeks