Oranges and the ER

Last night while I was in the kitchen peeling me an orange I heard an ear piercing scream come from the bathroom where Maria was bathing Davis. I threw the orange aside and ran towards the bathroom where the screams and cries kept coming. I had no idea what to think had happened, I just knew it was something horrible.

As I rounded the corner I could see Maria on the floor and Davis under her. Maria had slipped and fallen and dropped Davis. I grabbed Davis and sat on the ground next to Maria. Davis appeared to be fine and only cried a little bit. Maria was hysterical and kept saying "sorry boy, I am so sorry boy." She sat up and I handed Davis to her and she just hugged and kissed him. She moved her hand and I saw a huge bruise on Davis' leg. I pointed it out to Maria and she began to bawl. It was so sad the see her and Davis hurt and upset.

I had Maria lay down in bed and I gave Davis his bath. Maria came out and we sat in the front room for a while. Maria said her stomach was really sore and she was worried she had fallen on her stomach, it happened so fast she was not sure. We decided to play it safe and take her to the hospital and figured since we were there we would get Davis checked out too.

I took Davis to the ER and the doctors there said he looked great and did not think we needed to do any x-rays or other exams on him. They told us to keep a close eye on him. I went to see Maria on the other side of the hospital and they had her hooked up to a monitor and said the baby seemed to be doing fine.

We got home about 11pm and all seemed to be well, we stood in the kitchen after putting Davis to bed and finished my orange.

Here are some of Davis' battle wounds:

That is not a tear drop tat coming from his eye, it is a little bruise from where he hit the door on his way to the ground.

The bruise from his leg is either from the fall or from where Maria tried to hold on to him on their way down. It looks worse than it is, Davis does not even realize it is there.

More videos of Davis Walking

I hope these videos are a bit clearer (no promises, they are from the cell phone too).

Declaration of War

I think the previous owner may have had some cats that they left behind because there are two strays that hang around all the time. They can be found by the front or back doors or under our vehicles. One time while working on my car I found one of them up in the engine - starting the car and honking the horn got it out of there quick! I think they have now declared war and I am ready to go to battle. This morning Maria, Davis and I headed to the store and found this 'fuzzy churro' on the roof of our car. You want war - you've got it!!

No Brain - No Pain

Those words were spoken to me many times by my dad as I grew up. I find myself saying/thinking the same thing as I am a father myself. Davis has learned to pull himself up on the couches and has not learned how to get back down very gracefully. I will leave the room for a second and hear the thump... cry. Every time Davis has not hurt himself badly and I have pillows on the ground so his falls are usually pretty soft, I think it scares him more than anything and makes him mad that he is back on the floor instead of on the couch.

Yesterday he went over the arm of the couch for the first time into a pile of toys. That one scared me but he cried for a moment and climbed back up. I am now not allowing him on the couches at all and that does not make him very happy.

Dear Jake,

Thank you for making me so happy I cried this morning. You are always trying to make my life better and I love you so much!

Yours,

Maria

P.S. The lunch and note inside is awesome!

Get off our back HOA!

Maria and I have not had much luck with HOAs in the last couple of days but I won't get into a lot of those details. I will though let you know that they have gotten on us about our tree and a dead bush in our front yard (sorry Jen, your plant just did not make it!). I trimmed the tree and hauled the clippings to the dump but we don't have another plant to plant in place of the dead one so I came up with a great idea... Spray Paint. We had a ton left over from Davis' room so I thought I would put it to good use.



Check out the before and afters:



Brought new life into this plant and hopefully will get the HOA off our backs for a little while.

Jayd n

Maria and I went to looking for yard sale deals yesterday and came a pair of cribs. We bought both of them, one for our little girl and one that we were not sure what to do with. We had our car and so I went and asked Quentin, who lived just around the corner from the yard sale, if we could use his truck. He came along for the ride and he asked what we needed two cribs for. I said that we could give one away when it hit me - Quentin and Felicia need a crib!

It would be nice if it just ended there but it didn't. Quentin said he was going to clean out his room to make room for the crib. I said since you are cleaning out the room we should go a head and throw some paint up. He said he did not have any money to buy paint and I told him I had some left over gray from our front room. My parents had all the painting supplies and we went to Home Depot to buy an accent color and above is the result.

Additional Commentary:

They were all out of E's at Hobby Lobby.

My mom just about had a heart attack when I sent her the above picture of Quentin painting the pink stripe and asked her "What do you think of your new living room?" (Quentin is living at her house her in STV)

The lady at Home Depot's face was priceless when she opened the paint can and saw the color that us two guys were buying. She was lying when she said - "that's a nice color."

Quentin started to have an anxiety attack when we first started putting the pink on the walls. The pictures do not do the pink justice.

The lady who sold us the cribs lost the hardware and we did not realize til we got home with the now useless pieces of wood. Hope we can find something at the hardware store.

In the end it turned out really well and I think Felicia and Jayden are all going to love it.

On the Move

This video is about as poor of quality as you can get. It was taken on my little bro's cell phone in a poorly lit room. I think though that it is good enough for posting for the time being until I get a better video of the boy walking. It was weird to see him crawling at five months, he just seemed too small to do it and now it is even stranger to see him walking at nine months!



Here is a video I just took, again with a cell phone so it is not great. Davis walks to me and then gets distracted with the phone charger. I recomend keeping your PC on mute so you don't have to hear me...

Cast Iron Skillets Part II

In one of my rants I spoke of my cast iron skillet envy of a good friend of mine. I hoped that before leaving for Indiana said friend would read my blog, discover my envy, and leave his cast iron skillet (and any other camp gear) with me here in AZ. This did not work and even worse I helped this friend drive his cast iron cookware to his new home in Indiana.

Jennifer, Maria's cousin, without having ever read the above mentioned blog post went to Wal-Mart in search of the perfect gift for a perfect cousin-in-law. She made her way to the camping section knowing that I liked to camp and debated between cookware and a cook stove (both would have been great!). She grabbed the skillet/dutch oven, wrapped it up, and gave it to me and said it was a flat of black olives (I hate black olives!). I almost did not even want to open the gift and when I did I could not have been happier (except had she bought the stove too!).

Thanks JenJen!

Best Birthday Ever!

"Best Birthday Ever" were the words spoken by my five year old neice at her birthday party just a few weeks ago and I think I know what she meant. I had such a great birthweekend. Saturday Maria and I got to spend the day together at home and shopping and Sunday Jen came with one of the best gifts ever (will blog about that later - I promised her her own post!).

Monday almost didn't happen when Maria got sick at work but after a couple hours in bed she mustered up the energy to go to a 5 o'clock showing of UP (great movie!). She kept the rest of the evening a surprise. After the movie she pulled into Organ Stop Pizza and dropped me off while she went to get a cake. I walked in and found some of my best friends and family. Katy & Lyle, Carrie Winn, Daniel & Christi Martinez, Matt and Kristen Wilde, Quentin, Lara and Todd, Karen, Maria, Davis, and I. It was a ton of fun! Thanks to everyone who came and for those who didn't, I will have another birthday in a year or so.

-Jake

Happy 25th Birthday Jake!

Dear Jake,

I know this picture that is a blast from the past but this is during that time I fell in love with you, Brigham Young Beard and all. You are my everything. You are the best Husband, Father, and Friend. You are so creative. You are the most thoughtful person. You make me laugh. You are always happy. You are sarcastic and witty. You love you Davis and you love me. I can't wait to spend 75 more Birthdays with you!

Love,
Maria

A day in the life of... (2nd ed.)

I know it has only been a few weeks since I last posted pics from my cellphone but I already have taken many more and here they are:

This picture makes me laugh. It was actually taken just yesterday before church. Davis is wrapped up in a blanket that was given to him by his Great Grandma Davis and looks like an angel - so peaceful and calm - when in reality he is a wild, crazy, little monster most of the time :) !

Davis playing in his first cardboard box! It is amazing the simple things that keep kids amused. Davis liked crawling through the box, standing and hitting the top and ultimately collapsing it and sitting on it (hence the past tense used "liked crawling through..."). Yerbua came over last night and liked playing with the box too although one time she attempted to crawl through and Davis starting banging on the top of it and she rocketed out of it with a look of panic and fear that made us all laugh.

Our boy is growing so fast!

Maria hates this picture. Davis fell asleep on the floor after drinking a bottle so I grabbed the closest thing to him to use as a blanket which turned out to be Maria's pajama pants. I chuckled to myself and then took a pic to send to Maria - she says it looks "creepy."

The pioneer days in SJ was such an adventure for us all. This picture was taken at the campfire circle. During the short drive from the Wilhelm's to the airport Davis fell asleep. I left him in his car seat and put him in Grandpa Wilhelm's old pick-up where he was close to the action but far enough away to get some Z's.

Many would argue that I am lazy but I like to think of myself as resourceful. My seventh grade teacher, R.K. Udall, on many occasions stressed the need to "work smarter - not harder" (said in the iconic deep, powerful voice that is R.K.). I am glad to see that this quality has been passed down to my son. It is hard to make drinking a bottle any easier but he found a way.

I sleep in that same position.

While on our way into town to meet mommy Davis fell asleep and I forgot the sun visor for his car seat so a dirty plate from the floor boards of the truck had to work. (Stop criticizing me - you would have hated me for letting his head get burned too - I think the saying goes "danged if you do, danged if you don't")

This is one of my favorite pics of Davis! I think it captures who he is and why he makes Maria and I so happy. He is wonderful little boy and the best son any parents could ask for (although my parents might argue otherwise).