DJ Ludlow Land

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

Our Halloween festivities began on Friday night with the brilliant idea to have a "family date night" carving a pumpkin. Caleb's interest lasted approximately 2 minutes after which time he decided the pumpkin guts were, "yucky!" and he refused to touch the pumpkin at all. He did, however, realize that when mommy and daddy's hands were covered in pumpkin guts, that was a great time to destroy everything within reach. Oh, well, better luck next year.
Unlike previous Halloweens (can that be plural???) I was not feeling up for putting together a family ensemble. As such, Caleb was the only one who had the privilege of dressing up. For the church party he was a doctor complete with scrubs (thanks, Aunt Tiffany!), a surgical mask, and the following accessories which he refused to wear: surgical hat, stethoscope, rubber gloves. Here he is before the party:
I captured the 2.5 seconds where he did wear the hat:
I took this video right before the church party:

On the day of Halloween, Caleb wore this Winnie the Pooh/bee costume that we borrowed from a neighbor and absolutely LOVED it.
Here he is next to the finished pumpkin which he had no interest in carving:

Here are the cute neighbor kids who let us borrow the costume (Caleb loves them):

Those Sour Patch Kids really make you pucker:Getting ready to ring doorbells:

Our little busy bee:

Here is Pooh with the fruits of his labor. He caught on to the concept of walking from house to house and saying "tic teet" to get candy, but also thought you had to walk inside each house. David spent the better part of the evening wrangling Pooh out of the neighbors' houses:The boys in their Halloween PJs (thanks, Grandma Ludlow):
Here's a better look at Levi's monster PJs...very fitting:)

Lev's birth story

2010-10-07T03:02:00.000-07:00

In an effort to be more punctual with Levi's birth story than I was with Caleb's (which took me a year to post) I will now share the story of how Levi made his earthly debut.

10/5/2010 (Tuesday) Despite feeling great with child...

...I decided to tackle the "nesting" project of setting up the bassinet in my closet (don't judge wrongfully, it's a rather large closet:) Caleb assisted me by testing out the stability of the finished product and gave it his stamp of approval. Other nesting projects included packing a bag for Caleb and creating a detailed spreadsheet of his eating and napping needs/preferences in the off-chance that I were to go into labor before my mom could be there. At this point I was 3 weeks away from my due date so all of this seemed a bit premature. BOY am I glad I did them, though, because....

10/6/2010 (Wednesday)
12:30am-I woke up after one hour of sleep to find that my water had broken (a conclusion I came to only after ruling out the possibility of having wet the bed, phew!). I then paced back and forth in the bathroom for 15 minutes talking to myself. The dialogue went something like, "Did my water really just break? It sure did! That's impossible, I'm three weeks away from my due date. Well, maybe I should start packing a bag for the hospital (a "nesting" task that had not been completed). Now where did I put that nipple cream?"

This self-talk continued until another gush of fluid came at which point I realized it was time to wake my sleeping husband. "David, David," I whispered. "Huh?" came his drowsy reply. "My water broke and we need to go to the hospital," I said. "WHAT??? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???"

Out of bed he leaped and the next 30 minutes are a bit of a blur. I do recall that we were both running around the house like crazy people. David was on car seat duty (Caleb's out of the car, baby's in the car). I was still looking for the nipple cream and packing my bag. While putting the infant seat in the car I heard David yell, "We don't even have a name for this baby yet!" So he grabbed the baby names book for us to discuss this most relevant issue on our drive to the hospital.

I called our friend Talana (who drove me to the hospital when my water broke with Caleb) and she willingly agreed to sleep at the house until Caleb woke up, a HUGE help!

1:30am-Talana arrived at our house, I debriefed her on Caleb's needs and gave her my intricately designed spreadsheet. We got in the car and headed to the luxurious state-funded LSU hospital while talking about what to name our second-born son. Here we are just before leaving the house.
2:00am-We were settled in the labor and delivery triage room and the 2nd year resident came in to do an exam. In the midst of it he said, "You seem tense." To which I replied, "Well, it's not exactly comfortable." He responded, "Yeah, I'm grateful everyday that I don't have a vagina." The he looked at David (WHILE doing the exam, mind you) and said, "High 5 for no vagina!" His attempt at humor was extremely ill-timed and poorly received so I made it very clear that his hands would be nowhere near my body EVER again.

3:00am-I was hooked up to the monitors, but still hadn't had any contractions so was feeling pretty good. Dilated 1cm.

3:15am-With my water broken and the clock ticking, they needed to induce labor so in went the catheter and contractions started immediately. I told the nurse that I ABSOLUTELY wanted an epidural and did NOT want to feel contractions for hours like I had with Caleb. She put the IV in and had the anesthesiologist alerted. During the next hour I endured severe discomfort as the contractions intensified but kept telling myself, "Soon, I will have the epidural and can take a nap like I did before Caleb was born." The hope of impending relief was enough to get me through. Dilated 3 cm.

4:30am-The epidural was positioned and my feet went numb, but nothing else. "Um, this isn't really helping," I said to the anesthesiologist. He suggested I lay flat on my back to see if the numbing effect will reach the desired area. That lasted for 1/2 of a contraction and then I yelled, "I CAN'T lay flat on my back when I'm in this much pain!!!" Now I was starting to get concerned that the much-anticipated relief and nap were slipping through my fingers. Speaking of fingers, I just about crushed David's as each contraction reached its peak. At one point he said, "I do need to be able to operate with these hands, you know." I think my response was something like, "Well, cry me a river, buddy!" Bad timing!

5:00-7:00am-Despite trying to lay in different positions and being given repeated boluses of medication, my feet and lower legs were the only parts of my body NOT in extreme pain. The emesis bag became my best friend and I had really lost my aloha spirit.
David provided encouraging words, "You can do this!" and I yelled, "I don't WANT to do this. Make it stop hurting!"

7:15am-David insisted the anesthesiologist reposition the epidural and I reached my low-point (hunched forward and having to hold completely still while the needle was placed 2 vertebrae higher all the while vomiting, having intense contractions, and feeling completely exhausted).

7:30am-I was FINALLY starting to feel some relief from the pain when it occurred to us that no one had checked me for about 4 hours. When the resident came in, she said, "Oh, boy, you're completely dilated and ready to deliver."

7:45am-My doctor arrived and had me moved into the delivery room. The pain was completely gone (as well as ALL sensation and motor control...a small price to pay), so it was all about getting our beautiful baby boy in our arms.

8:13am-Levi Costley Ludlow was born after just a few pushes.
Here's the obligatory paternal cord-cutting: With our newest addition:Little 6 pound, 2 ounce Levi:
Levi and I got a visit from several of the ENT residents later that afternoon. What a treat!We did some rearranging of beds in our recovery room for a bit more togetherness:Getting ready to head home:Levi's first car ride. Off to pick up big brother Caleb and then Grandma Costley at the airport, Yipee!:
Here is Caleb with our good friends the Richardsons. Meagan picked Caleb up the morning of Levi's delivery and took such great care of him for the two days we were in the hospital. We'll never be able to thank them enough!
And that's the story of how our family of three became a family of four.

Now presenting . . .

2010-10-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

the newest addition to our family. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for.....LEVI!

This 6 pound 2 ounce, 18 inch bundle of joy decided to go from his comfy womb residence here...

To the great big world here...

a few weeks earlier than anticipated. But all are doing well thanks to amazing friends who answered their phones @ 1am. More details are to come, but for now just know that we love this little boy as much as we love his older brother, and that's saying a LOT:)

Take me out to the ball game!

2010-09-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

We ventured to Dallas a couple weekends ago to meet up with my brother Cory's family and my dad. Grandpa had the great idea to go to a Texas Rangers baseball game and the kids were in heaven!

Here's grandpa with 4 of his grandkids plus my cousin's little cutie, Brock.
Our latest family portrait: (if you enlarge this photo you'll see that Caleb has a fist-full of m&ms and chocolate smeared all over his lips)
My conservative estimate is that Caleb consumed in excess of 200 m&ms during the game. Every time we turned around he had another cup of those things.
Occasionally, he would take a break from m&ms and munch on some very nutritious oreos. At least he was willing to share those.
By the end of the night he had food coloring all over his shirt and was soaking wet from Ginger Ale (hence the bare chest). And yet, the m&m consumption continued...who are his parents, anyway???Daddy and Caleb outside Rangers stadium:
It was a great weekend in Dallas. We sure love our Costley cousins!

A fun, hot summer!

2010-09-07T06:15:00.000-07:00

What a summer it's been! Caleb and I fled west for a month trying to escape the sweltering heat and humidity that abounds in Louisiana this time of year. We spent the first couple of weeks taking care of 2 of Caleb's cousins while their mom (my sister) was on a trip. Thanks to aunts Caitlyn and Ali we all had a blast and enjoyed our quality time together.

Here's my little posse:
Highlights included:

*a trip to the trout farm with Grandpa Costley where Caleb caught his first fish (despite the seeming lack of interest conveyed by the sucking of his thumb he was actually quite the fisherman:)
*a quick trip to Palo Alto to see friends which included a visit with Clarence, Jim and their adorable puppy, Friday
*some time at Bear Lake to play in the sand and splash in the water and best of all, ride in the truck with Grandma Costley
*lots of cuddle time with Grandpa Costley
*getting makeovers from aunt Caitlyn
*Lots of cousin bonding

Unfortunately, when we arrived back in Shreveport, the heat had not subsided one bit so we've taken to afternoons lounging in our very spacious backyard pool.

No heat could make life too miserable when I get to see this face everyday, though:)

I love my mail man

2010-06-15T16:46:00.001-07:00

As the temperature climbs steadily here in good ol' Louisiana (and the size of my belly increases) Caleb and I make fewer and fewer trips outside of our air conditioned home. One outing we strive to preserve, however, is to the mailbox each day (which is only at the end of our driveway but it's about as far as I'm willing to go before a glass of ice-water and elevated foot position is required). He likes to gear up with his sunglasses and then push his mail car down the driveway.
Once the mail is retrieved, he climbs in the car and "drives" back to the garage.

Who wouldn't love to have their mail delivered by this handsome guy?

On occasion, after the mail is unloaded he zips back down the driveway for a stroll. He might be small, but he can get his legs a movin'. Here is Speedy Gonzales in action.

Another birthday, a new decade of life

2010-06-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

My 30th birthday started off with a surprise message from the birthday fairy spelled out in peanut butter M&Ms, which are, in Caleb's words, "nummy!"
Then it was off to the blueberry patch. We wised up from last year and went early in the morning so as not to completely overheat. Caleb did a little bit of picking, but his skill set is more conducive to eating blueberries and whacking the trees with large branches.
I, too, ate my fair share of berries while David did most of the picking. Fortunately, the farm has these great bucket harnesses that position the bucket perfectly in case one's water was to break while picking berries:)
Here's farmer Dave and his trusty side kick
This sign at the berry sorting station said, "Any unattended children will be served an espresso and given a free puppy!" Fortunately, we made it out of there without either of those things.
After a relaxing afternoon, David and I went out on a nice date consisting of dinner and a movie. These flowers were actually from a friend, but David wasn't opposed to making it look like he gave them to me.
Now it's time to tackle a brand new decade!

Ludlow Landscaping & Concrete, LLC

2010-06-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

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Don't be alarmed when we pull up to your work site in a Ford Focus sedan. We specialize in fitting large objects into very small spaces as illustrated by these photos of a lawn roller and wheelbarrow snugly positioned in the backseat.
Disclaimer: Our employees include one pregnant woman who frequently disappears without warning into any available air conditioned space when she senses her core temperature reaching dangerous levels

and one worker under 2 feet tall who is powered by continuous consumption of slurpees, requires frequent swinging breaks, and constant access to a spray bottle.
However, our third employee works non-stop until the job is done without complaint which makes up for the lack of productivity from the other two employees.

Call today for a free quote:)

Catching up...again

2010-05-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are still alive, and yes, life is still full of adventures. So many, in fact, that I find it nearly impossible to post on our blog nowadays:) Since our last post announcing our pregnancy, junior has been reminding me constantly of this pregnancy by making sure my stomach is never quite settled. Despite my less-than-desirable condition, we've been having fun and here are a few highlights.
*Caleb and I took a trip to UT in March to see my family. Caleb's adventures included:
-cuddling with grandpa for bottle time

-splashing in grandma's sink

-dress-up time with aunt Ali
-scooter time with aunt Caitlyn
-horsie time with Ali and Caitlyn
THEN...
*last weekend we drove to Dallas to meet my brother's new little baby, Graf, and Caleb had a blast with his cousins at the park and on the trampoline: -Lorin "babysat" Caleb by tying a rope to his wrist so he couldn't fall down the stairs:) Surprisingly, he tolerated it for quite some time.
Having a baby around gave us a chance to see how Caleb might react once he's not the only child in our family. When mommy held the baby: no problemo! When daddy held the baby: BIG PROBLEMO!!! This picture is after Caleb stopped screaming and clawing at David's legs. Check out the glare he's giving Graf. I can almost read his mind..."Don't try any funny stuff, small fry or you're goin' down!"
If there was any doubt before, it's now confirmed that Caleb is a daddy's boy! This is one of their favorite father-son activities. Don't be deceived by Caleb's face, he actually really likes it:)

Well, maybe our next one will be a mama's boy...that's right, we're having another BOY!:)

Video skills:)

2010-03-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

I made my first video with pictures the other day. What do you think???

Who dat, Mardi Gras, and SNOW...yes, snow!

2010-02-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

What a February it's been! The good people of Louisiana have been partying to the extreme ever since the Saints won the super bowl. Chants of "who dat?" could be heard from every news broadcaster, street-side shirt vendor, and raucous neighbor for days. And why stop partying when Mardi Gras is upon us? The businesses that are closed today do NOT have signs saying, "closed in observance of President's Day." Instead, they say, "closed for Mardi Gras." It's nice to know we all have our priorities straight!

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't exactly been worthy of celebration. Shreveport rarely gets snow, but this week was an exception to that. Here's the view we saw on Friday morning:
The consequences of the snowfall: no power from 2am to 10am.
The consequences of no power from 2am to 10am: a freezing cold and VERY dark house, needing to crank our wind-up flashlight every 30 seconds to restore our sole light-source, having to warm Caleb's milk in a pot on the stove by positioning the wind-up flashlight precisely so I could actually see the stove top and then lighting the gas range with a match while attempting to keep my eyebrows and flesh intact. Mission accomplished!

As an update, here are a few of Caleb's likes and dislikes now that he's a big 1 year old:

LIKES:

*making this face and saying "ooooo" every time he finds something interesting
*Studying the anatomy of the skull with daddy

*Raiding the cereal cupboard when mommy's not watching and stuffing his face full of mini-wheats:

*Pretending that daddy's Avatar 3D glasses are sunglasses:

*Setting up camp in the laundry basket

*Climbing the ladder just like daddy

DISLIKES:

*Wearing a size 2T snow jacket and having to stand in the snow to pose for a picture

*Wearing a neck tie to church for the first time

*Being forced to pose for a picture while mommy wears a freaky Mardi Gras mask

Thankfully, his LIKES far outweigh his DISLIKES.

Stepping in to 2010

2010-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

Two days before Caleb's first birthday he took his first steps. I was at the computer and Caleb was standing by the bookshelf a few feet from me. I held out my arms as I'd done many times before but this time instead of falling to his knees and crawling to me, he curled up his chubby little toes and then took one, two, three steps right into my arms. We danced and laughed and celebrated and kept practicing until daddy got home that night. By then he could do this:

And now he can do this:

Look out, world. Here he comes!

Merry Christmas 2009

2010-01-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas was full of wonderful things which included a trip to Reno. Here are some highlights:

*feeding Buddy the dog goodies from the high chair:

*Opening a few presents on Christmas morning like these board books from daddy:

*Being mostly interested in everyone else's wrapping paper and ribbons and watching them open their presents with this blank stare: *Getting lessons from Grandma Ludlow on how to climb DOWN stairs:

*Being twins with cousin Trystan in cute matching snow hats (thanks Pete and Toni!):

*Getting to see some of the Costleys during layovers at the Salt Lake airport:
*Filling up on cookies and Ginger Ale before getting back on the airplane:

Ho, Ho, Ho!

We hope your Christmas was full of wonderful things, too!

Happy Birthday to Caleb

2009-12-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

We had occasion to celebrate Caleb's first birthday twice. The first celebration included his homies from church: 6 little boys all born within 2 1/2 weeks of each other. We got together for a group shindig and it was a riot.

Here are all da boys:
And here are all da mamas with da boys:

We played a trivia game where each big-headed baby earned stickers for various things (e.g. heaviest at birth, first to start crawling, etc.). Caleb won the prize for most exercised vocal cords in the first 7 weeks of life.
Each of the boys also made his own hand-print Christmas ornament (the casualties resulting from mom's in white shirts and 12 month old boys' hands covered in paint were nothing that a good bottle of bleach couldn't remedy)
Then each boy got his own cupcake to demolish. Caleb, however, was more interested in watching the other boys, so daddy had to eat his cupcake, what a sacrifice!
You'd think we were torturing the child by offering him a cupcake!
There was great food and great fun as the boys battled it out over toys:
My big boy: A week after the group party, it was time for our family celebration. The day was full of Caleb's favorite things: flipping all of the light switches in the house, playing with the dishes in the dishwasher, and hanging upside down:

We also took him to see Santa for the first time. No tears, but this look says it all:
Carrot cake was a MUCH bigger hit than the cupcake (thanks, Crystal):

I promise, he DID like it, he just sports his poker face in pictures:)

Then it was time to open his present. My skillful wrapping job made it virtually impossible to tell what it could be. Here's Mr. Poker Face again. I promise, he LOVED itHappy birthday to our little man!

Presenting: Caleb's birth story!!!

2009-12-10T06:22:00.001-08:00

In honor of Caleb's 1 year birthday this week, I am FINALLY posting about his birth. So, ready or not, here it comes!
Here I am the night before I was scheduled to be induced feeling like the bun was definitely done cooking in the oven:

12/10/08 (Wednesday)

5am-David is off to work at the hospital. Here is our whiteboard interchange that day (some days this is the only type of communication we have)

10pm-David is on call at the hospital. I'm scheduled for induction at midnight, so I'm busy packing my hospital bag and getting ready to drive myself to the hospital

10:30pm-my water breaks during my hospital packing, "Oh, shoot," I think. "Now what do I do?"

10:32pm-I call David, "You'll never believe this, but my water just broke. Don't worry, I think I can still drive myself to the hospital in 10 minutes after I take a shower and shave my legs." He wisely tells me that's crazy, instructs me NOT to get in the shower, and calls a friend to arrange a ride.

10:33pm-I get in the shower anyway and set a world-record for fastest leg shave, getting dried off and dressed before my ride gets to the house.

10:36pm-I'm out of the shower and having my first contraction, "Ooo, that's uncomfortable," I think.

10:39pm-another contraction. "Um, that seems really close to the last one."

10:40pm-Our good friend Talana arrives and loads me and my well-packed suitcase into her van.

10:42pm-another contraction. Talana does a great job making conversation and trying to keep my mind off of my mounting discomfort level as she drives in the pouring rain at this late hour. David is calling me every 2 minutes to see where we are. He assures me he will be waiting at the hospital entrance when we arrive. Contractions are coming every 3 minutes with each one getting more painful.

10:55pm-We pull in to the hospital and see David standing there in his white coat waiting with an LSU double-wide wheelchair (apparently, the only kind they have). He helps me in to the wheelchair and I quickly realize that someone for whom the chair's width was designed must've used it and caused the seat to angle precariously downward. As an added bonus, the foot rests were broken (did I mention that I delivered in the ghetto?) so it was a fun ride to the labor and delivery unit as I tried to use my contracting abdominal muscles to elevate my feet off the floor while firmly gripping the armrests to keep from sliding out of the chair and onto the floor. This picture really doesn't do the wheelchair justice!

11:05pm-safely in my hospital bed and in a SIGNIFICANT amount of pain. I decide that delivering naturally is NOT my preferred method and ask the nurse how quickly I can get an epidural. She breaks the bad news that hospital protocol requires I go through 2 IV bags of fluid before I can get one. "Well, what the heck are you waiting for???" I ask, at which point she sticks me and hooks me up to the IV.

11:10pm-1am on 12/11/08 (Thursday)-I watch each drip from the IV bag with concerted effort as I empty the contents of my stomach and pray for fast-acting drugs. David is technically on call until 6am and his pager is going off every few minutes. He is running in and out of the room answering calls until I scream for him to get in the room so my fingernails can dig in to his supple flesh. He takes it like a man for each 60 second contraction then runs back out to take another call. He sees his co-resident, Jeff, in the hall and after hearing about the madness Jeff insists that David relinquish the pager to him, a HUGE favor!!! Here I am between contractions:

1:45am-I see the final drop from IV bag #2 and plead with the nurse to get the anesthesiologist. He arrives, and within minutes I am a different woman. Dilated 4cm at this point and they estimate another 12 hours before delivery.

2-6am-Heavenly bliss as I continue to dilate while NAPPING! Hooray for drugs! Before napping, however, I feel a sense of urgency to call my sister Tiffany who is 2 weeks away from her due date and planning a medication-free delivery. It is 12am Malibu time (2am Shreveport time) when I wake her up from a sound sleep and plead, "Tiff, DON'T do it, DON'T do it! It hurts SOOOOOOO bad!!!" She ignored my admonition and fared beautifully well...what a woman!

6:45am-The nurse comes in to check me and after lifting the sheet says with great urgency, "Um, whatever you do, DON'T push." As she hurries out of the room, I hear her say, "He's got a full head of hair." Dilated 10cm and he was ready to come. Our hands are showing "10" (just to clarify since it looks like we're doing spirit fingers):

6:52am-They transfer me to the delivery room, I push through 1-1/2 contractions.

6:59am-We hear the voice of our perfect little miracle for the first time (and then KEPT hearing it non-stop for the next 7 weeks, but that's a WHOLE separate story!)

Here's David cutting the umbilical cord:

Our little family (and David's stylish hat):

Sporting some nice Donald Trump hair:

Here we are a day after delivery feeling blessed to have Caleb in our life

Some of the residents stopped by to see the newest member of the ENT department.

Back in the double-wide before driving home:

The drive home from the hospital:

Showing Caleb his house for the first time:

And that's the story of how our family of two became three...one year ago.

A November to Remember!

2009-11-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

November week 1: Caleb and mommy escaped the unbearable arctic temperatures of Louisiana and spent a week basking in the UT sun. Caleb got to spend countless hours playing in Grandma Costley's kitchen sink and pointing Grandpa Costley in the right direction while they were out walking.

The reunion with cousins was the perfect opportunity for a nakie baby photo shoot and here are some of the resultant gems. Featured in these pictures are Caleb and Luke (2 weeks apart) and Donovan (6 months younger).

Week 1 also included a visit with the Draper Ludlows where puppy Lewis gave Caleb a crash course in how to not get your nose chewed off by a puppy. Fortunately, he passed!

November week 2: Caleb continued to inch ever-so-close to the milestone of taking his first un-aided steps (which is no small feat for a baby with a body in the 5th percentile, and a head circumference in the 75th percentile). In the meantime, he practiced with his baby walker.

November week 3: the first mommy/baby overnight separation when I headed to New Orleans for a conference leaving Caleb in the capable hands of Grandma Ludlow and his daddy. So while I was off strolling through the trees at Oak Valley Plantation and dining at 2 out of 3 of Emeril's N'Awlins restaurants....

Caleb was in Grandma heaven

November week 4: brought Thanksgiving and the perfect excuse to make another pilgrimage to Dallas to spend the holiday with my brother, Cory, and his family where there's never a shortage of laughs, love, and WRESTLE mania!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T19:20:00.001-08:00

The idea for this year's Halloween costumes began as a tiny seed exactly one year ago and has been sprouting ever so slowly for 364 days in the fertile soil of my brain. Not everything went exactly according to plan. For example, I envisioned David being "bald" and found what looked to be the perfect product:

But then David put it on and exclaimed, "I don't look bald AT ALL!!!" Talk about false advertising:

So we abandoned that detail, but managed to pull off the rest including forearms bulging with "muscle," a can of spinach, and a pipe (aka scoop from baby formula):

So thanks to my mom's willingness to give me telephone tutorials on how to make ruffles and operate my sewing machine, and an extremely indulgent husband, I present to you Popeye...

...Olive Oyl...

and the ever so sweet Sweet Pea.....

A Popeye family portrait:

After a great night of trunk-or-treating at the church, Sweet Pea was all tuckered out!

But David managed to stay in character all the way home:

With so much effort devoted to our church activity the night before Halloween (which won us the1st place prize for Most Creative, I'll have you know!) by Halloween night neither David nor I had the gumption to dress up again. However, we didn't want to rob Caleb of the chance to go door to door (translation: we wanted candy) so we borrowed a costume from a friend (thanks Katie!) and headed out for Halloween pillaging.

Here's our little guy BEFORE the pillaging (not too thrilled about being dressed up in a ridiculous, movement hindering costume):

But here he is AFTER the pillaging (starting to realize the benefits of wearing a ridiculous, movement hindering costume):

Mamma's little Tigger!

Now...what to be next year..........?????

Getting back on the horse

2009-10-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

As my astute older sister declared in a recent phone conversation, "Girl, you've fallen off the blogging horse!" Fallen I have, but I am attempting to remount the horse and hope I don't end up with saddle sores!

Our baby boy is becoming more of a man every day even if the pediatrician's growth charts don't show it. His new-found hobbies include:

***looking out the window to
a)watch the incessant rain drops
b)scare the deer that roam our backyard forest so they don't poop all over the grass
c)wave to cars that drive by our house and then not take it personally when they don't wave back.

***taking notes as we watch General Conference

***pushing buttons which includes remote controls, cell phones, TVs and best of all...DVD players. It took about 2 minutes of exploring the player to figure out which button gave him the most bang for his buck.

***"Reading" copious amounts of books.

At least once during the day he crawls over to his book box and spends in excess of 20 minutes looking at his favorite books. It's the best. A few minutes into this morning's reading session, he crawled over to where I was working on the computer and I saw this:

As we all know, when there's curdled milk on a baby's chin, there's a big mess somewhere else. But where could it be? Tile floor...clear, computer keyboard...clear, Gossie & Gertie book...NOT clear.

Poor Gossie got totally slimed by puke. Thank goodness for board books which can be easily cleaned with Clorox wipes!

Maybe I haven't forgotten how to ride this horse.

Where to begin???

2009-09-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, out there to all those who have not yet deleted me from your Google Reader accounts!!! It's been so long I'm not even sure where to begin playing catch-up. How about with a recap of our adventures during July/August?

Caleb and I were quite the traveling duo driving to Dallas then flying to California, Nevada and Utah. Before sharing the highlights from each of those trips, I must first say thank you to the person who made this whole trip possible: the inventor of the bungee cord! Because of you, bungee cord inventor person, I was able to single-handedly trek through six different airports with the following gear in tow: 1 pack-n-play, one gigantic 49.9 pound suitcase, 1 infant car seat, 1 jogging stroller, 1 diaper bag, 1 adorable 8 month-old. And it was all made possible by you, bungee cord inventor person!

OK, now on to the highlights...

CALIFORNIA
We had an awesome visit with friends from our Stanford days including Howard and Helen...

...Clarence...

...and the Dements who were SO hospitable...THANK YOU!!!

NEVADA

Next, it was on to Reno for the Ludlow family reunion where Caleb touched sand for the first time...

...was stroller buddies with his cousin Trystan...

...chilled on the beach at Tahoe with his cousin Ellie...

...used Uncle Dan as a substitute for daddy...

...and had his first taste of black licorice from Grandpa Ludlow!

UTAH

Highlights in UT included a visit with great-grandma Costley (here's our 4 generation photo)...

...being reunited with David for a few days (pictured here with Uncle Joey and cousin Luke, with a guest appearance by cousin Ryan)

...being mascot for the "red" team at the Lynch family reunion

...convincing cousin Donovan that he should be Caleb's body guard once he can hold his head up and control his limbs (he's 6 months younger, but longer and nearly as heavy as Caleb)

...getting "kissy sandwiches" from mommy and Aunt Ali.

DALLAS

We finished off our travels with a few days taking care of the Costley cousins in Dallas where Caleb was showered with attention (and given an infinite number of rides in the pink and purple Jeep)

If those travel details weren't sufficient, Caleb will enumerate our adventures in his own words in the following video clip:

Red, White, and Blue

2009-07-12T18:51:00.001-07:00

The first week of July offered new experiences with the red, white, and blue...

RED:

the color of my face after running my first post-pregnancy 5K. Turns out July is NOT the best month to run a race in downtown Shreveport...who knew??? I ran with friends from our ward and we were quite the site with three adults pushing three kids in three strollers. I felt like Andre the Giant in Princess Bride: Evwybody MOVE!!!

Judd & Brooke, Me & Caleb, Amy & Rylan

WHITE:

The color of David's official 2nd year doctor's coat complete with personalized embroidery. When you're a first year, they don't waste money having your name embroidered on your coat since the mortality rate is so high. Now I guess he's worth the extra $2:)

BLUE:

The color of the berries we picked in the mid-day sun from Shuqualak Farms (pronounced "sugar lock").

I had never picked blueberries before and learned a couple valuable lessons after our first time:

1)a fancy holster on which to clip your bucket works better than orange twine wrapped around your waist (that's what we used when picking raspberries in the summer as kids). As the orchard owner said in reference to the holster, "That there'll turn you right inta a TWO handed picka!" And that it DID.

2)at mid-day in Louisiana in July it's near impossible to keep yourself from overheating while picking blueberries and 7 month old babies don't appreciate being dragged along for the adventure...until they get their first taste of a blueberry popsicle which makes everything better.

Our attempt to cool Caleb off (note the battery-operated fan attached to the stroller canopy...also note the great scarecrow in the background:)

On a more serious note, we have made friends with many people who are stationed at the air force base here and our appreciation for all those who sacrifice for our freedom has increased tremendously. Thank you for protecting our red, white, and blue!

If you can't take the heat...

2009-07-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

...you shouldn't have moved to Louisiana! That's what I tell myself each day I hear the weather man tell me that the 7-day forecast consists of heat, more heat, and the worst possible heat with a high probability of heat stroke and 100% chance of increasing your electric bill by 200%. On the plus side: at least this summer I'm not pregnant:)

We took Caleb for his first dip in the pool and he was brimming with enthusiasm (you just have to know how to interpret his poker face:)

Then we found this awesome blow-up pool for the backyard and David got creative with our balloon pump.

I think the ability for boys to imagine anything can be a gun must be innate because I certainly didn't teach my boy how to lock and load.

A dry run with the pool (pun intended)

Then it was out in the heat.

not so sure

not so bad

ooo, so nice!

Other ways to beat the heat include bumping our morning jog up from 9am (when it's 95 degrees) to 7am (when it's a mere 90 degrees)

and having the Dallas cousins push you around their nicely air-conditioned house in a walker that suspends your feet several inches above the ground. Thanks, girls!

That's it for now, gotta go have a popsicle!

Keys to success

2009-06-09T20:44:00.001-07:00

Caleb has developed an affinity for typing, most likely triggered by sitting on my lap while I work on the computer. Since his spontaneous lunging for the keys has increased in frequency, I took a trip to the Goodwill and bought him his very own keyboard and presented it to him only after compulsively wiping it down with countless alcohol wipes. It's his newest favorite toy.

The piano is a close second, but that's NOT from Goodwill so we're limiting his musical development at this point.

Mudbug Madness

2009-06-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

Louisiana may be accused of many things (e.g. occupying some of the most natural-disaster-prone land in the U.S., operating under a set of laws unique to the state, promoting the culinary art of frying anything and everything). However if there is one thing Louisiana will never be accused of it's a lack of festivals. The most recent one was the Mudbug Madness Festival and boy was it mad...and HOT!

Caleb wasn't quite sure what to make of the mudbugs (a.k.a crawfish, or if you live in Nevada, crawdads)

He had his eyes on the prize: mommy's funnel cake. He's ready for solids, right?

Here's Caleb swapping spit (literally) with his friend Jaelynn who was also at the festival. He has a thing for older women.

Our little mudbug: Joe Cypress

Vacation...Part 3

2009-05-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Before heading home we drove east for a quick stint in Little Rock where we stopped by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library which is a complete misnomer since it's a museum and not a library at all. We opted not to pay the $7 admission fee to see a replica of the Oval Office and took a few pictures outside instead. Fortunately, putting Caleb in the fountain was free:)

Our last stop in Little Rock was to see one of the largest pedestrian bridges which happens to be built near a dam which lends itself to myriad opportunities for "legal" swearing (e.g. that's a big dam bridge, where's the dam parking lot?, we need some dam directions). Here are some dam pictures of the Big Dam Bridge (yes, that's actually what it's called and I took a picture to prove it).

The dam sign is more impressive than the dam bridge.

And that concludes our dam fine vacation!

Vacation...Part 2

2009-05-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

Perhaps our most memorable adventure took place on lake Ouachita (wa-chi-ta) where we had the brilliant idea to rent a paddle boat.

Problem #1: 5-month-old babies do not like wearing life jackets that are intended for 12-month-old babies.

Problem #2: 5-month-old babies cannot sit by themselves in a paddle boat and must be held while on said boat.

Problem #3: A person cannot hold a 5-month-old baby on his/her lap and peddle a paddle boat at the same time.

Problem #4: If only one person peddles a paddle boat, you don't go in circles (contrary to popular belief) but you also don't get very far before the solo peddler's leg muscles seize up in spasms.

Problem #5: if you rent a paddle boat for 1/2 hour, but your legs seize up because there is only one person peddling, and then the wind picks up so on the way back you are peddling into the wind and against the current, you end up keeping the paddle boat for 1 1/2 hours (fortunately, David was peddling on the return:).

Ours was the sparkly red one and we quickly discovered that the sparkle finish retained heat from the blazing sun well enough to scorch your buns if you weren't careful:

Oops, I guess these pictures expose us as having removed the life jacket at one point to give our boy some fresh air.

Our little water baby:

After a good night's rest we headed to a beautiful botanical garden in Hot Springs. This picture does no justice to how strenuous it was pushing the stroller up the hills keeping in mind the fact that my legs were laden with lactic acid built up from the previous day's paddle boat adventure.

Just moments after this picture was taken,

Caleb had the mother of all blow-outs and I quickly discovered that I only had a cold-weather spare outfit with me. So we put it on him and then rolled and unsnapped wherever possible to keep him from overheating. Dipping him in the water helped, too:)

From water baby to mountain man!

A little more to come...

Vacation...Part 1

2009-05-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

David was on vacation last week and the fun started right away with a trip to the largest rose garden in America which is just one of the many gems Shreveport has to offer. Unfortunately, there weren't very many roses in bloom so we were somewhat underwhelmed but had fun nevertheless.

A great reminder:

Here's daddy-of-the-year using my nursing cover to try and block the sun's harmful UV rays from damaging his son's skin.

We're still checking Caleb's feet daily to see if there is any residual fungus from dangling his feet in this stagnant water.

Next, we headed off on a road trip to Arkansas to see some spectacular southern sights (how's that for alliteration?).With our only car that has power locks, power windows, cruise control, car seat base and a legitimate back-seat baby mirror in the shop, we were forced to be adaptive. Here is daddy MacGyver rigging up a mirror contraption with some rope, a hand-held mirror and a large car washing sponge.

Our destination was Hot Springs, Arkansas so named for its...hot springs. Here is one of many fountains around town where you can drink the hot spring water...after it's cooled, of course.

Having a bout of amnesia regarding our location, I was surprised when I put my hand in this water and it was quite HOT!

There are several bathhouses downtown where you can pay exorbitant amounts of money to bath in the magical waters of the hot springs. We settled for a tour of one of the oldest bathhouses which featured a needle shower...

....a gymnasium...

...and beautiful locker rooms which were the perfect place to...(where's Waldo?)

...nurse...

...and change a poopy diaper.

And we didn't even get busted by the museum police!

Caleb spent his first two nights in a hotel which was an adventure for all of us! Good thing he's so darn cute.

More to come...

Knuckle Sandwiches and Rice Cereal

2009-05-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick update on Caleb's latest tricks:

Eating knuckle sandwiches

Interlocking his toes when he's concentrating

Adjusting the position of his bottle using his feet

Reading books

Telling stories (check out his tongue dexterity, too:)

Rejecting rice cereal

Supervising me while I do chores

Yielding to the Earth's gravitational pull

Splashing his daddy in the bathtub

Sticking out his tongue for minutes at a time

So maybe it was misleading to introduce this post as a "quick" update...oops:)

April showers bring...

2009-04-18T08:22:00.000-07:00

*a flooded backyard. The realtor forgot to mention we were purchasing swamp-front property. It turns out the forest behind us (despite being totally creepy) serves a few great purposes:

1- no need to install and maintain a backyard pool which will come in really handy this summer.

2-no need to rent National Geographic videos about the perpetuation of mosquito colonies as we will have a front-row seat to witness this phenomenon in our very own backyard.

April showers ALSO bring...
*motivation to finish projects dreamed up months ago for Caleb's room such as...

-framing and hanging these super cute prints from Falldowntree (thanks, Kerri):

-designing, constructing and painting the components of this wall art project (thanks, Heather):

April showers ALSO bring...

*the Easter holiday which included:

1-waking up to find a trail of colored rabbit turds (a.k.a jelly beans) leading me to a message left by the Easter bunny himself.

2-making homemade rolls by myself for the first time ever---a smashing success I must say (thanks to my mom being available to answer my questions every 10 minutes).

3-being introduced to authentic Louisiana crawfish which was served at an Easter party (who needs ham and potatoes when you can have a big ol' cooler of crawfish?)

Don't worry, it's dead:

I wasn't overly enthused with the critters myself, but they sent us home with a tub-full which provided quite the aroma in our spacious 4-door-sedan and right on into the house. What a relief because I've been looking for crawfish-scented Glade plug-ins all over the place and kept coming up short!

What better way to receive inspiration for a Gospel Doctrine lesson than chowing on crawfish?

April showers ALSO bring...

*an adorable four-month-old boy named Caleb who still wears pjs most of the time

There were three in the bed and the little one said...

2009-04-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

ROLL OVER, ROLL OVER!!! Which is exactly what Caleb can now do. After graduating from grandma bootcamp which consisted of early-morning calisthenics with Grandma Costley, Caleb now knows how to weasel his way out of the dreaded Tummy Time (which he has always disliked, hence the out of control bald zone--I mean, bald spot on the back of his head).

So far he's limited to rolling from tummy to back in one direction, but with a bit more practice we're confident he will master all methods of Tummy Time escape.

Here is some footage of his amazing new trick:

Giving daddy some "knucks" to celebrate his victory:

Here is a close up of the aforementioned "bald zone." Despite the kind words of consolation from many well-intentioned individuals, I have been paying close attention to the back of babies' heads lately and what Caleb has going on is NOT a "normal" bald spot. PS-this picture was taken pre-hair cut and now I can see why my mom was so adamant about buzzing him. Thanks, mom:)

In case you're wondering, here's a small snip-it of grandma bootcamp: the perfect mix of strenuous exercise followed by luxurious massage (butt rubs are his favorite).

Check out the video clip from Caleb's hair cut below...

Grandpa's charm

2009-04-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

I had to post this video clip of Caleb's first hair cut. My dad was instrumental in completing the task without too much trauma. When I was little he was constantly making up songs and rhymes to make us laugh and his charm continues with the grandkids. Thanks to Tiff for capturing the moment on video!

Here are the "lyrics" to his tune in case the clapping makes it hard to understand:

Ha ga hee ga naga who noo noo
I don’t know why these women make you cry
This is something, all they got to do is say, “hi”
You don’t like to cry
You don’t like to moan
I don’t know why the women make you make the sounds alone.
Oh, ho, hee, they make you feel alone
Oh, ho, hee, we’re bros you and me!
…
Hee haw hee. Are they about done?
I think the end is about to be called
‘Cause in a minute you will be bald!

As a side note, the little boy who you see toward the end of the video is my sister's 2-yr-old who snuck into my parents' shower while Caleb's hair cut was in full swing and smeared body wash all over his head. Hence the reference to having "product" in his hair. He was the next client in grandma's salon.

This is a picture of the hair that was in the sink after Caleb's hair cut. How many three-month-olds have that much hair to spare???

Firsts

2009-04-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

We've had an exciting three weeks full of firsts for Caleb:

First airplane ride

First time meeting his grandpas...

...and cousins...(Joey, Luke, Jacob, Tiff, Caleb, David; Izzy, Caleb, Lolo, & Ryan; Luke & Caleb)

...and aunts and uncles...(Aunt Ali; Aunt Jess)

...and friends! (MariLouise, Caleb & Jonathan; Melanie & Caleb; Afton, Collan, me & Caleb; Andrea, Caleb & Savannah; Lindsay, me & Caleb)

First (and only) baby blessing

The Ludlow men

First hair cut-My mom was feeling brave during our visit to UT and took on the difficult task of cutting the hair of an active 3-month-old. Thank goodness for grandpa's ability to distract and soothe and grandma's ability to buzz a moving target!

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

First time in his crib (he graduated from the bassinet when we arrived back in Shreveport)

What an exciting life!

Ups and Downs

2009-03-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

While every week has its ups and downs, this past week seemed to have a few more of those dreaded downs. On Wednesday our computer crashed which meant, no checking emails, blogs, or my GoogleAds account balance;). On Thursday, an oil-like substance started oozing from the clutch pedal on David's car. On Friday, while trying to remedy both of the above-mentioned issues, I managed to get a fresh shirt on only to have it covered in baby puke ("spit up" is far too delicate a name for it) just moments later. This is AFTER cleaning up the damage, and Caleb certainly wasn't too bothered by the situation.

I'm happy to report that all of those issues are now resolved (computer is working, clutch is fixed, shirt is laundered) and I can focus on the abundant 'ups' that being a parent brings. Here are a few:

*I'm not sure how he does it, but Caleb prefers to sleep with his hands suspended in mid-air. So if I peek in mid-nap, this is the site I frequently see:

*I tried sitting Caleb in his Bumbo for the first time the other day to see how he would like it. He was like a little old man kickin' it in his favorite chair. Please note that he is NOT wearing PJ's in one of these pictures:)

*Caleb and I were playing on the floor one evening waiting for David to get home from the hospital when I noticed the rays from the setting sun glistening majestically in his awesome hair. With 'ups' like these, it's tough to linger on the 'downs.'

PS-When our computer crashed, I lost all of my "favorites" so I don't have any links to private blogs anymore. If you have one and I'm still invited, will you please email me your links (ludlowjenny at gmail dot com) or leave them as a comment?

Who needs a stimulus package???

2009-02-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

Caleb and I have been visiting David at the hospital on nights when he has to sleep there. David meets us in the parking lot and escorts us in so we don't get mugged and then the three of us enjoy a luxurious dinner in the hospital cafeteria (that was where we ate on the eve of Valentine's, no joke). Anyway, the first time we went I noticed that after "checking out" the receipt showed a balance and it reminded me that we've been sitting on a gold mine.

Every month, the hospital deducts $20 from David's paycheck and he, in turn, gets $250 to spend in the cafeteria. Talk about a great return on an investment! Of course, that's only if you exclude the future medical expenses we are certain to incur as a result of our clogged arteries since the hospital only serves food that starts with "fried" (e.g. fried chicken, fried okra, fried frenchies...I mean, french fries).

So, David's assignment every month is to zero out his $250 balance by the last day of the month. This can be accomplished by bringing home any number of items: yogurt cups, Cobb salad, cookies, chips, or best of all, my favorite beverage: mini-cartons of chocolate milk.

So, with all this hoopla about how the country is spiraling into a financial black hole, it's nice to know we have one investment that yields an excellent return. Hey, maybe I can stop posting Google Ads on my blog now...nah:)

David bringing home his spoils on February 28

And here's what Caleb has to say a bout that:

(Yes, he is in PJ's...AGAIN)

"Eva since Katrina..."

2009-02-25T06:27:00.001-08:00

Let me preface my remarks by saying that I am aware Hurricane Katrina was a disastrous storm that affected many people's lives in a negative way and I have great sympathy for them. Having said that, I am amazed by how frequently Katrina is used to explain away/justify ineffective practices here in the great state of Louisiana.

The latest encounter was with the Records Department at the LSU hospital. After Caleb was born we were told it would be at least 6 months before we could get a social security number for him and 10 months before we could get a birth certificate! When I asked why it takes so long, the lady launched in to a lengthy explanation of how "Eva since Katrina, we caint git stuff done so quick," and proceeded to tell me that my son's paperwork would likely sit in a room where no one works for months before it was ever touched.

When I asked what we're supposed to do about filing taxes without his social security # I was told, "We been tellin' folks they gotta file an amendment once they get they numba." Great! I would like to think that Katrina threw a wrench in the well-oiled machine that is the Pelican state, but I have a hard time believing they were much better before the storm (despite the fact that Gov. Bobby Jindal painted a luxurious picture of the beloved state during the Republican response to the presidential address last night).

I called the Records office yesterday just to see if there was any way of getting the social security # before April and was given the Katrina speech yet again.

So, does this mean I'm at liberty to use the same excuse for my own ineptitudes?

"I'm sorry It took me three months to return your phone call, but ever since Hurricane Katrina, I find it difficult to return phone calls."

"I know our Christmas email was sent late, but ever since Hurricane Katrina, it's impossible to send emails on time."

"I would've posted Caleb's birth story by now, but ever since Hurricane Katrina, it's been hard to post birth stories."

I could get used to this.

Thumbs up

2009-02-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Thank you, dear readers, for your patience. Here is an update on our little squirt.

*At 6 weeks his social smile emerged, although he's being stingy with the laugh despite my best efforts at identifying his most ticklish spots. His best smiles are still when he's dozing off as depicted here:

*At 7 weeks he decided to sleep through the night, a feat for which I can take NO credit. I, of course, didn't sleep a wink because I was sure something was terribly wrong with him when he didn't wake up screaming 2 hours after falling asleep. Somehow he was undisturbed by my compulsive checking which consisted of opening the door in a most stealth-like manner, tiptoeing into the room and hovering over his bed trying to detect the rise and fall of his chest. As it turns out, it's hard to detect such minute motion when it's pitch black! Night vision goggles would've been useful. Needless to say, he woke up refreshed and rested the next morning...I was a wreck.

*At 8 weeks he discovered that his fingers are more fun to suck than some lousy pacifier. I know mom, I've been warned and your words, "it's a heck of a lot easier to take away a pacifier than an appendage" resonate in my head each time I hear him chomping away at his fingers. You have every right to say, "I told you so" when he's 16, still sucking his thumb, and nicknamed "buck" (and we're broke from the orthodontia expenses).

Here he is trying to figure things out:

Ah, the sweet taste of success:

*At 10 weeks, his parents made one final attempt at taming his luscious locks. As you can see from the following picture, our efforts were futile and will not be attempted again in the near future.

*Believe it or not, I have actually dressed him in something other than pj's once or twice in his two months of life. I just don't have any pictures to prove it.

"Good" mothers

2009-02-07T10:32:00.001-08:00

As a first-time mom, I don't have a point of comparison for many things related to mothering. Sure, I've read the books and been around a lot of babies and kids, but I've never been the one primarily responsible for taking care of the little tike. As such, all of our "firsts" feel really monumental and with each one I realize how much I still have to learn. Last Sunday I took Caleb to church for the first time (he was seven weeks old) and spent all week mentally preparing for the outing.

Our church boundary lines changed the week Caleb was born, so I've never been to church with this group of people. It turns out there were six baby boys born in this ward (our church group) in the month of December and they're all within a couple weeks of each other.

While in the mother's lounge, which is actually a classroom with a big window in the door (referenced later), I learned several valuable lessons about what "good" mothers do...well, maybe it's not so much a "good/bad" thing as an "experienced/inexperienced" thing so here goes.

An "experienced" mom:

brings her baby to church before he's 7 weeks old thus avoiding the numerous greetings accompanied by the word "finally" (e.g. It's nice to FINALLY see you here; So glad you FINALLY decided to join us).
knows to be early to all of the meetings so she can sit somewhere with immediate access to an exit and not end up sandwiched in between poor, unsuspecting bystanders with the infant carrier wedged half-way under her chair making it very difficult to get her baby out of the carrier when he starts screaming a few minutes into the lesson.
knows to check the before-you-leave-the-house diaper to make sure it's secured snugly around her baby's legs thus avoiding leakage of the bowel movement occurring in the first ten minutes of church resulting in mustard-colored poop seeping all down his legs and soaking through his onesie and outfit.
knows to pack a spare outfit in her diaper bag (which I actually did), but also knows that the spare outfit will most likely be NEEDED so she doesn't pack the ugliest, thread-bare, hand-me-down outfit as the spare so her child actually looks presentable after the wardrobe change (which I DIDN'T do).
notices that there is a large trash can filled with poopy diapers just to the side of the changing station and knows better than to position the wipes container at her baby's feet thus avoiding having her baby kick the wipes container into the trashcan mid-diaper change and having to dig through the trash can to find the container while keeping one hand on her squirming baby to make sure he doesn't roll off the changing station onto the floor, or worse yet, into the trash can himself!
knows how to nurse discreetly even when sitting in a small room with a large window in the door thereby preventing indecent exposure to every man, woman, and child who happens to walk past the door.
combs her baby's hair before leaving the house.

So, I've chalked the drama of last Sunday up to inexperience and am looking forward to the many experiences which await me in this adventure we call motherhood.

Super Powers

2009-01-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Looks peaceful, right?...WRONG!

Am I being ridiculous by suggesting that our beloved first-born son has super powers? His powers enable him to detect each time his mother's eyelids make contact for more than a nano-second (blinking duration) at which point he commences to announce his wakeful presence to the world.

I swear, he'll be in a deep sleep, I'll put him in his bed and then occupy myself with very productive household tasks (e.g. pumping while watching DIY Network or Oprah) for at least 15 minutes to make sure he's really asleep and then just when it seems like the coast is clear, I'll shut my eyes to rest and within seconds that oh-so-pleasant sound of baby crying fills the air. Here's to Joe Super Baby Cypress!

"Don't shoot, officer. I surrender!"

PS-Thanks for the awesome socks, Rosa:)

Nicknames

2009-01-23T02:54:00.000-08:00

Our little guy is six weeks old now and has acquired several nicknames. Other than the obvious Joe Cypress, here are a few of them:

*SQUEAKS

*SPIKE

I have tried combing his hair down after we bathe him, but those strands have a mind of their own. Perhaps some product would do the trick!

*SQUIRT

This one is not accompanied by a multimedia display and if you use your imagination I'm sure you can figure out why. Let's just say the breast milk is doing its work keeping him regular...a bit OVERLY regular:)

*CHUBBA BUBBA/THUNDER THIGHS

David's mom was visiting last week and after assessing the circumference of Caleb's thighs commented, "You're going to have to be on baby Biggest Loser!" Check out those fat rolls...Fear not, no camera lenses were ruined by urine during the taking of this picture (thanks to the pee-pee teepee which has been a LIFE SAVER).

Caleb eats really well when offered "food" but seems to think he must attempt to extract additional sustenance from all other possible sources as depicted in the following two video clips.

*MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY
(one of the professionals on Dancing With the Stars)

David discovered one of the ONLY ways to calm Caleb down which is waltzing while music plays in the background. He's still acquiring a taste for Cha-Cha and Foxtrot, but definitely prefers the Waltz.

*MR. SMILEY

*ADORABLE

Now this is livin'

2009-01-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have every intention of posting Caleb's "birth story" but since it's now been one month and I've been holding off on other posts so as to keep things in chronological order, I think I'll skip ahead a bit and post the story whenever I get to it.

Caleb has been a riot to have around and I enjoy him pretty much all of the time (minus when he wakes me up every hour in the middle of the night thinking he needs to eat). He has a great personality and is starting to become more alert and aware.

When he was two weeks old he decided he was done having an umbilical cord stump so he ripped it off while we were changing his clothes...seriously! He was really agitated and brought both arms down to his stump, initiated his vice grip and yanked both arms up abruptly. I was shocked and a bit disgusted since there was blood coming out of his belly button. Fortunately, it all healed within a week which meant we were free to try bath time.

Our first attempt was in the actual bath tub and Caleb wasn't such a fan of that. As you will see in this clip, David climbed in the tub to try and calm him down (don't worry, he's fully clothed), but even that wasn't enough to convince him that bath time is fun:

The next day I tried it in the bathroom sink instead and things went MUCH more smoothly. Here is our little man feeling pretty good about life. Note the strategic placement of the loin cloths in both video clips. Some day he'll thank me for that!

I also had to include this picture which David took right after an evening feeding. Nothing quite like some sound sleep after a nice drink of warm milk:) Now that's livin'!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T20:12:00.001-08:00

Instead of mailing Christmas cards this year, I emailed the following to pretty much everyone in my gmail address book. If you did not receive an email, I don't have your address. This is actually the edited version which does not include our new contact information, but I would happily send you the complete email version (which has much better resolution) if you would kindly leave me your email as a comment or send it to me at: ludlowjenny at gmail dot com. Of course, that's assuming I know who you are:) Here is the edited version of our Christmas letter as well as our annual photo montage:

2008 Highlights

Jenny
Finished her clinical fellowship and earned a few more letters behind her name (CCC-SLP).
Focused her speech-pathology skills on trying to master the Louisiana dialect.
Joined the fabulous world of bloggers (see below for our blog address).
Got pregnant, survived the first trimester, loved the second, enjoyed the third.
Devoted many days to “nesting” projects (e.g. painting furniture, organizing the house compulsively, etc.).
Became a mommy.

David
Graduated from medical school and is now officially “Dr. Ludlow.”
Wrote his first prescription.
Shopped for, selected, bought, and single-handedly moved in to our new home in Louisiana before Jenny had ever even seen the place.
Started five- year residency program in Otolaryngology (a.k.a. Earn, Nose, and Throat) at Louisiana State University.
Was introduced to his new best friend…the dreaded pager!
Rode his first mechanical bull at the Louisiana State Fair without breaking any bones.
Became a daddy.

Caleb
Was born

Family
Sold our first home in Reno (a miracle to say the least).
Took an awesome pre-residency vacation to Mexico.
Moved to Louisiana and were introduced to many southern delicacies including, but not limited to, the following: fried pickles, fried oreos, fried snickers, fried alligator on a stick, fried Thanksgiving turkey (notice a trend?), gumbo, jambalaya, and crawfish.
Welcomed Caleb to our family

It has been a wonderful year full of adventures and blessings. Thank you for your interest in our lives and for your love and support.

Love,
David and Jenny

Presenting Joe Cypress!

2008-12-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, this is WAY overdue and we SO appreciate all of your patience. It turns out this whole having an infant thing can really wipe a person out:)

I have a hungry baby who needs some TLC (and a boob) at the moment, so this will be brief. Fear not, I will send an extensive overview of the events leading up to the arrival of our little Joe Cypress "soon," which is a relative term that in this instance means as soon as I've found a moment between feedings (Caleb's), diaper changes (Caleb's), and naps (mine).

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our gorgeous little man (whose real name is Caleb, by the way:) Thank you for the emails, phone calls and prayers. We are all doing well (due in large part to my mom being here with us) and are so grateful for this little miracle that has entered our lives.

Hello, world!

"Now this is a change of scenery."

After his first sponge bath.

Hand rubs from mommy.

The look of contentment.

My mommy's name is chubby, my daddy's name is chubby...

More to come...

Ode to my baby daddy

2008-12-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

With only a couple of days before this new baby enters our lives, I thought I would squeeze in a post dedicated to the man who made this possible...my baby daddy...David.

The other night he grabbed a popsicle and got his lip stuck to it. I heard him mutter, "Hep!" from the dining room and when I saw what had happened, I quickly waddled (an oxymoron) into the kitchen. He thought I was going to get something to alleviate his suffering, but I was really grabbing the camera. The look on his face as I snapped the picture was priceless!

He has put up with quite a bit over the last 9 months and the list is ever-increasing in recent weeks. Despite this, he has maintained a sense of humor while still being sensitive to my volatile and ever-fluctuating emotions.

One of the inconveniences is sleep related. People tell me that the scarcity of sleep before a baby is born is merely preparation for when the baby arrives. Those who know David well know that he was converted to the gospel of good sleep habits while at Stanford and strives to minimize his "sleep debt." He has had to come to terms with the fact that between being a slave at the hospital and a soon-to-be father, his debt is going to accumulate despite his best efforts, but he doesn't complain about it. Here is a typical night at our house:

10pm-David slips into a fatigue-induced coma and Jenny's manic nesting begins

1am-Jenny gets in bed and tosses and turns to position her numerous pillows

1:30am-Jenny gets up to pee then tosses and turns to reposition her numerous pillows

2:30am-Jenny gets up to pee then tosses and turns to reposition her numerous pillows

3:30am-Jenny gets up to pee then tosses and turns to reposition her numerous pillows

4:00am-David's alarm goes off and he selects which shade of blue scrubs he will be wearing that day.

After I had a particularly restless night last week, I asked him how he slept. His response was, "Well, I slept pretty well until 1am when it felt like the bed turned into a bounce house" (a reference to my restlessness...get your minds out of the gutter!). He hasn't said one word about the fact that his sleeping space has been limited to a width of approximately 12 inches over the course of the pregnancy as my need for additional cushioning and support has increased. Well, not until last week when he casually asked me, "So do you think we'll be able to get rid of a few of these pillows after the baby is born?"

Here are a few other things that have made me fall even more in love with him in recent months:

*Occasionally he comes home from the hospital wearing his latest bit of equipment which makes me laugh.

*He has accompanied me on numerous trips to baby stores looking for various paraphernalia (strollers, play pens, breast pumps, etc.). He even went so far as to brave a consignment sale with me, but put the smack down when I wanted to stand in line for more than an hour to buy an $18 Bumbo (thanks to my sister, Tiff, I now have a $15 Bumbo without having to stand in line:)

*He cares about my safety. After reading the label on the back of the lacquer spray I was going to use on the nursery furniture, he insisted that he subject himself to the harmful toxins rather than allow me to poison our unborn child while I looked on from a distance critiquing every spray to make sure it was exactly how I would do it:

*He's always been a great sport about going along with my crazy ideas for our Halloween costumes. This year was no exception and he even pieced his costume together all by himself:

*He looks good riding a bull!

So, here's to you my baby daddy. I sure love you!

Mission: Free Joe Cypress

2008-12-06T02:32:00.000-08:00

After eating two Thanksgiving meals (one with David's ENT department and one with a family from church) which consisted of classic southern delicacies (namely deep fried turkey injected with Creole butter and sweet potato pie topped with candied pecans) I experienced some pretty strong and consistent contractions for two days thereafter and was sure Joe Cypress was on his way (see previous post for explanation of why I am referring to our baby by this name). Then, just like that, they went away and I haven't had any consistent contractions since.

The doctor informed me that I have started to dilate and "soften" (those who have paved this road know the term well) and little Joe's head is really low so I should be ready "any day." Subsequent to receiving this news, I requested a few of those lovely absorbent mats they put under you on the hospital beds and have been sleeping on those because I'm paranoid about my water breaking in bed and ruining our mattress. It makes a lovely crinkling sound every time I move (which is quite frequent since I have discovered NO comfortable sleeping position... hence why I'm writing this post at 4:45am), but I feel a little better having taken this precautionary measure.

However, despite the doctor's admonition, all I've been feeling the last few days is the most uncomfortable unilateral sciatica that has developed and I'm starting to think that having little Joe here soon wouldn't be a bad thing. Up until precisely four days ago, I strategically avoided the pregnant waddle, but it is now inevitable and with each stride, I'm not sure if I move farther forward or side to side. I dare say, my next post may very well include pictures of our first born son as long as our efforts to free Joe Cypress from his captivity are successful:)

"Let the baby out"

2008-11-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

As our day of delivery approaches, we have had some funny experiences to remind us that this process requires a sense of humor.

*While in the waiting area for one of my OB appointments, there was a young girl (around 16) sitting next to me. She asked when my baby was due (the actual question was, "Gul, when you gonna ha dat baby?") and then she asked, "You scayed?" (scared)

"Not really," I replied.

"Guuuul, you SHOULD be!" was her response.

Turns out she had her first baby just a few weeks before and the experience left her with the desire to warn others of the agony that awaits them. Much appreciated!

*In the foyer at church after one of my many bathroom runs, I encountered two women, a mother and daughter, from our ward. The daughter took one look at my belly and said, "Gul, when you gonna ha dat baby?" Yes, the question was phrased exactly the same as my friend's from the doctor's office. Her next question was "Wat chu gonna name him?" When I told her we don't have a name yet, she said, "You oughta name 'im Joe Cypress. I knew me a gul name her boy dat and I think you oughta name yo's dat, too." This recommendation was given after both she and her mom touched every part of my stomach they could get their hands on. Since they were intimately familiar with me and the baby by then, maybe we really should consider it. 'Joe Cypress'...it has a certain ring to it.

*We are at week three of our five week birthing class and the last session focused on things your partner can do to help you relax and encourage you through the labor and delivery process. I'm pretty sure we're going to get kicked out because I have a tendency to experience uncontrolled outbursts of laughter at some of the things that are said and shown in this class. The most recent one occurred when the teacher handed out a list of phrases that a partner can say to encourage the laboring woman. Sandwiched between, "You're all right," and "You're doing fine," was, "Let the baby out." I'm sure it is intended to be said with tenderness and tranquility (even then, I'm not sure I would appreciate hearing it), but David "practiced" it with a "He_ _ no, we won' t go" picket line cadence and I couldn't stop laughing/crying for several minutes.

Here are some belly shots from the last week or so. It really is a miracle to have this little guy inside of me. He frequently positions himself so his little butt pokes out at the top giving my belly a most unusual shape. This picture captures that to a small degree:

This is closer to the homeostatic shape of my belly nowadays:

My cousin Noel takes weekly bare belly shots when she's pregnant. It's taken me 37 weeks to build up the courage, but here's the result. It is pretty fascinating, I have to admit.

Only about three more weeks until I get "scayed," David tells me to "let the baby out" and we welcome little Joe Cypress into the world.

Nesting

2008-11-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

According to mamashealth.com, "Nesting is the term used to refer to an expectant mother’s instinct which gives her a surge of energy which prompts her to clean and do various chores around her home. Nesting usually arises as the mother nears her due date. Not all women will nest. The nesting process has no relation on how good a mother the woman will be."

With just a few more weeks to go, I think I've officially entered the nesting stage and wanted to post some pictures of my endeavors.

The biggest project was painting the nursery furniture which was very generously donated to us by my cousin Kerri. This turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated and David came home from the hospital one night to see this:

No, I was not TRYING to be immodest, but I have a "paint shirt" from my pre-pregnancy days that's already ruined and didn't want to ruin another shirt. Unfortunately, the fabric does not stretch, so my only resort was to let it all hang out.

Here are some snapshots of the evolving nursery. The walls are still totally bare, but thanks to my awesome sisters-in-law (I think that's the right plural form) that will soon change.

The "before"...

The "after"...

This picture features the crib bedding that I fell in love with oh, so many months ago as well as a quilt made by the very awesome and talented MariLouise!

I also decided last week that if I didn't get out our Christmas stuff now, I probably wouldn't get it out at all. So now we're feeling a bit more festive in our home. Here is our Storybook Christmas collection courtesy of my mother-in-law displayed atop our new IKEA shelf.

All lit up:

Now that we have a fireplace, I hung our stockings and put up our fake tree which is the only Christmas tree we've ever had during our 7 years of marriage (also courtesy of my mother-in-law).

Now to tackle organizing the guest room so it's ready for my mom when she comes to do new-mommy-boot camp with me. We are so excited for this big change and appreciate all of your support.

What kind of "est" would you be?

2008-11-05T06:01:00.001-08:00

David and I met a man at the gym on Saturday and in true southern form, he divulged much of his life story to us within the first 10 minutes of talking (this was during our "cool down":)). He then asked about us, specifically how many kids we wanted to have. When we told him 4-6 he said, "Ya'll Catholics?"

"No, Mormon, actually."

"You don't say. I've only known one other Mormon in my life and he was the workingest man I ever knew." He then went on to tell us about how hard this man worked to support his large family and how much respect he had for him.

Aside from the fact that I don't think "workingest" is actually a word, his comment got me thinking about what kind of "est" I might be if I was the only Mormon someone knew. Also, with election mania going on I've wondered a bit what role one person plays in all of this. This man's comment led me to the conclusion that, religion aside, we each can be the "est" at something whether it be kind-est, loyal-est, faithful-est, friendli-est, funni-est, reliabl-est (just go with it), etc. So as food for thought: if someone were to describe you, what "est" word do you think they would use?

Happy Halloween

2008-10-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not sure when the next time will be that I'll have a belly of this magnitude during the month of October, I tried to capitalize on this characteristic when planning our costumes. I present to you...

The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

(and a few other Halloween-related things like a worm, eye ball, skeleton, and bat)

and....

The Spider who is fixin' to be swallowed

So tasty!

Here's a close-up of the consumed items:

We were in charge of bringing fruit to the Halloween party. What do you think of our skewered bloody eyeballs? It's amazing what you can do with a melon baller, cantelope, raspberry jam, blueberry and toothpick!

Happy Halloween!

State Fair of Louisiana

2008-10-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

In our continued effort to experience all things Louisiana, we ventured to the state fair last weekend. We went in the back entrance and had the honor of walking past the 4-H livestock holding area. There's nothing quite like the aroma of fresh cow dung to get you in the fair spirit.

Note Dr. Doolittle's proximity to the beast in comparison to our friends', Jeff and Heather.

There were some definite highlights from our fair excursion:

-Funnel cake (I've had more funnel cake in the last four months than in the previous 27 years of my life combined!)

-Great weather. Two months ago I would've told you this place is forsaken when it comes to weather (I think I did actually say that in a couple of posts) but apparently the pay-off of extreme summer heat is a gorgeous October.

-Rigged fair "games." We avoided most of the games due to exorbitant prices, but when we came to the toss-the-ping-pong-ball-in-the-tiny-fish-bowl-to-win-a-goldfish game and it was only 25 cents a ball, we had to try. David made an arrangement (notice how I'm avoiding the word 'bet?') with our friend Jeff that if he made it in, Jeff would eat the goldfish. As a side note, Jeff is also an ENT intern at LSU so prior to entering into the above mentioned arrangement they had to discuss the likelihood of contracting any incurable diseases from eating a goldfish that had been kept in a nasty cooler for who knows how long.

We had a 50 cent budget for this game, so immediate success was crucial. Attempt #1-unsuccessful, attempt #2-unsuccessful. We started to walk away, but the carny in charge, said, "Wait a mint! I got a quata and I wanna see 'im eat dat fish." She handed David one last ping pong ball and he casually tossed it at the bowls. I am kicking myself for not video taping what happened next, but based on the complete failure of his first two attempts I was sure this one would miss too. Wrong! It didn't even hit the rim of the bowl, but landed right in the center. The look on Jeff's face was priceless. I still have to get a copy of the video clip from Heather and then I'll post it, but Jeff made good on his part of the arrangement and swallowed that little fishy down making our day as well as the carny's.

-The final highlight came from David's first attempt ever at mechanical bull-riding. I was reluctant to approve this adventure, not so much because of the risk of head injury or breaking something, but rather because of the "$7 for one attempt" sign posted at the booth. Here is the footage of the ordeal. At the end of his every-so-brief ride, you'll hear me say, "Hey, hang on!" Translation: we just paid $7, so you better get a few more seconds in!

Red River Revel Festival and Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks have offered some fun times together. First, we went to the Shreveport Red River Revel Art Festival (try saying that three times) with Joe and Afton Perry, good friends from our ward here. Afton is expecting her second baby in a few weeks and I've been asked if she and I are sisters. I guess when you share the characteristic of a giant belly, you start to look more alike:) True to form for an authentic Louisiana festival, there was an exquisite assortment of fried foods from which to choose. My food item of choice this time: fried pickles, a pregnant woman's dream come true. They lose some of their crispness in the frying process, but what doesn't taste good when smothered in ranch dressing?

Captain Jack Sparrow also attended the event and claimed to be the father of both of our unborn children to anyone who would listen while this shot was being taken.

Then last weekend we drove to Dallas for some bonding with friends and family. My 7-yr-old niece, Lorin, accompanied us to Ikea for a furniture run on Sat morning. Those of you who are seasoned Ikea shoppers may be asking yourself, "Why would you go to Ikea on a Sat morning? Are you crazy?" The answer: yes!

Lorin was quite the trooper despite having to stand in line for one hour while waiting to check out. Fortunately, she found one of those paper tape measures (she named it Sneaky Snake) and managed to pass the time without a single complaint, which is more than I can say for myself. Here we are with the Ikea shelf loaded in the back of the Civic and Sneaky Snake being displayed tenderly for the camera.

Also on the list of fun things in Dallas was a trip to the pumpkin patch and play time with the Costley nieces. We love you Lolo, Izzy, and Ryan (you, too, Cory and Kerri:)

David, me, Izzy, Kerri, and Ryan on a hayride; Izzy (aka Snow White) and David building with blocks

Note: Although I'm wearing the same shirt in all of these pictures, the photo montage spans several days. My wardrobe is becoming more limited as my girth increases (assisted by such nutritious snacks as fried pickles:)

Compression Socks

2008-10-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Before my trip to Reno in September, my doctor recommended that I wear compression socks whenever I'm sitting for long periods of time (e.g. driving to Dallas, flying on the airplane). My wonderful husband found me a very attractive pair at the local drug store and convinced me that paying $30 for a pair of knee-highs was better than getting a blood clot. Here are a few things I wish I would've known about compression socks and now pass along to anyone who has to wear them some day:

1) Although they look like regular nylon knee-highs, they are made from MUCH thicker fabric which does NOT breath or allow for adequate ventilation. As such, you can expect your core temperature to increase by approximately 20 degrees the instant you put them on.

2) Actually getting them on poses quite a challenge when you have a big ol' belly preventing you from bending over adequately. So if you're going to wait to put them on until after you are in your cramped seat on an airplane, you may want to warn the poor lady sitting next to you that you're going to need to lean into her personal space for a few moments while you contort your legs in an effort to get them close enough so you can hook one end of the sock over your big toe and then pull and shimmy with all your might.

3) These socks squeeze your legs and ankles (they should be called "tourniquet socks" in my opinion) so if you are anything like me and have claustrophobic tendencies this can make you quite uncomfortable after an hour or so. Just take deep breaths and try to remain calm while periodically wiping the sweat from your brow (see reference to changes in core temperature under #1).

4) If you are planning on wearing flip flops on your travels, try to find the open-toe variety of compression socks (not available at the Shreveport Walgreen's). Otherwise, you will be confined to your seat on the airplane despite the fact that your baby is dancing on your bladder because you can't get your sandals on and you would hate to contract a fatal fungus by walking into the airplane bathroom with only a thin layer of tourniquet fabric between you and who-knows-what.

5) Since you will be confined to your seat anyway, it may be better to sit closest to the window as this will enable only the person sitting next to you to cast sideways inquisitive glances about your fashion statement rather than every person who walks down the aisle.

6) After wearing these socks for several hours, large indentations are left on your skin just below the knee. Capris would be a better option than shorts so people don't wonder what happened to your legs. Definitely DON'T go for long pants as your ability to maintain a healthy body temperature for your fetus would be nearly impossible under such conditions!

Those are all things I learned during the Reno trip. Well, we drove to Dallas this weekend and I knew the responsible thing would be to wear my blessed tourniquet socks on the drive. Just before we left, David heard me huffing and puffing in the front room and came in to see what was going on. I indulged him by posing for a picture, but he'd already missed the worst of it (the very difficult toe-hook and shimmy)

Aren't they attractive?

Gestational Diabetes...Part II

2008-10-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my full-length (translation: 3 hours at a normal doctor’s office, 5 1/2 hours at the lovely LSU clinic) gestational diabetes test. I won’t go into the details of how inefficient their system is as my previous posts have adequately alluded to my frustration. LSU aside, I do wonder who the genius was who decided it would be a good idea to have pregnant women go without food or water for more than 12 hours for this blasted test.

In any case, I survived the waiting, the drinking of a substance that I hope doesn’t cause fetal damage, more waiting, 4 blood draws, and more waiting all to be told, “Uh, I think you passed.” That’s what the receptionist said after looking up my results. When I asked if she could check with someone to make sure I passed, she got up, walked over to two other receptionists (not exactly the professionals I had in mind), said, “Do this mean she passed o’ she ain’t passed?” The other two receptionists looked at her baffled and then one said, “Yeah, I think she passed.” “You fine,” said the original receptionist in a dismissive manner. I left the clinic with very little confidence in the results, but heard from my doctor later that I did in fact pass “with flying colors.” Phew!

What did I do to celebrate? Well, there’s an art Festival going on downtown that I’ve been wanting to check out so I went and perused the snack booths. The deep fried pickle was tempting, but I opted for a funnel cake topped with powdered sugar instead. Man, was it good! Thank you to all those who were sending good anti-diabetes vibes:)

Gestational Diabetes

2008-10-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

I arrived home late last Wed night after a two week travel adventure and was starving. I quickly whipped up a gourmet bean and cheese burrito and chased that down with a glass of cran-raspberry juice. Dessert featured a most delicious warm brownie topped with a scoop of homemade chocolate cinnamon gelato. As I brought the second-to-last bite of the delectable dessert to my mouth, I remembered that my gestational diabetes screening test was scheduled for 8:30 the following morning. Notice how I said, “second-to-last” because I didn’t let that thought stop me from finishing the dessert. “I’m sure it won’t be a big deal,” I assured myself.

Jump ahead to hour 3 of sitting at the LSU Women’s Clinic this morning…I was feeling slightly inconvenienced that all of my appointments at this place take such a long time, but was confident that I would pass with flying colors. The nurse pricked my finger, took the blood sample, inserted it into the machine and then said, “You failed.”

“Um,” I said, “What exactly does that mean?” She explained that my glucose was at 142 (unspecified units) and that anything over 140 is a “fail.”

Instantly I was cursing the brownie and gelato concoction that tasted so divine the night before. Now I get to go back in 2 weeks for the “full length” glucose tolerance test to see if I really do have gestational diabetes. They say it’s a 3 hour test, but the one today was supposed to be a 1 hour test so according to my calculations, I’m likely going to be at the clinic the entire day. If only I could find a copy of Breaking Dawn at the library, it might not be so bad! David is already making arrangements to eliminate all sugar from my diet for the three days prior to the blood draw. Wish us luck.

Party Time!

2008-09-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

I was back in Reno a couple weeks ago for a baby party (“shower” doesn’t do it justice), and what a party it was! I cannot thank Nicole O’Neil enough for planning, inviting, hosting, and catering the most fabulous celebration despite her own pregnancy woes. Nicole, you are the best!!!

There were so many others who helped, too, with games, making food, coordinating a group gift, set-up, clean-up, etc. and I SO appreciate everyone’s efforts. I know there were many who had to arrange babysitters so they could be there and others whose lives are super busy, but still made the time to come. I called David afterward and told him how I was totally overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and friendship I felt. On behalf of all three of us: thank you, thank you, thank you!

I don’t have many pictures, but here are a few (thanks KK for your photography).

The hostess with the mostest (kind of a funny angle of my tummy)

Leave it to the Lynchs to find the best seats in the house!

Louisiana 2-1-1

2008-09-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that we escaped Gustav's clutches unscathed. After three solid days of rain, the water never breached our driveway line so those of you who were looking for pictures of me on CNN floating down the street on my air mattress with 72-hour kit in tow (Lindsay H.) must have been sorely disappointed.

There were, however, many in the state who were not quite so fortunate. I volunteered at the Louisiana 2-1-1 call center which is supposed to be a resource where residents can call for information and assistance. When the coordinator explained what I'd be doing, she said they'd been getting a lot of phone calls from people wanting to know where hurricane shelters were located and needing directions of how to get to them. I decided not to tell her that spatial awareness and sense of direction are not on my list of "talents" especially in a new place with no mountains. When I told David what I was going to be doing he said, "Oh, boy! Some poor guy is gonna end up in Florida looking for a shelter." (please note that Hannah AND Ike were headed straight for Florida at that point).

I am happy to report that there were only a few calls requiring direction-giving, thus minimizing the damage I could do. There were lots of requests for tarps to cover damaged roofs, people wanting to know where they could get water and ice, and lots of people wanting to know how they could, "git my money from the gov'ment."

When I volunteered, I envisioned being stationed at a Red Cross check point handing out vital, life-sustaining supplies to the needy. Instead, I was answering phones as the bearer of bad news: "I will take your information for a tarp and hopefully (doubtfully) someone will call you back with a distribution location in the next 24 hours. Yes, I understand there is water gushing through your roof and destroying all of your personal belongings so I'll pass your information along right away;" "Well, I'm in Shreveport, so I can't tell you where to get ice in Baton Rouge, but try asking around." (I refrained from adding, "Of course, asking around is going to be difficult since everyone else in Baton Rouge heeded the mandatory evacuation and got the heck out of town!!!"); and finally, "Sorry, ma'am but because this storm damage was not declared a national catastrophe, there is no money available from the gov'ment."

There were many people with whom I spoke, however, that just needed a listening ear and those conversations made the day seem worth while. So, we bid a fond farewell to Gustav and send our best wishes to those preparing for Hannah. It looks like I'll be skipping town just in time for Ike to make it our way. Reno, here I come!:)

Gustav

2008-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be interesting for the good people of Louisiana. The evacuation orders have been issued for the southern cities and the north-bound traffic in our area is heavy with several shelters here in Shreveport. Every public school is closed until at least Thursday because they sent all the buses down south to help evacuate people. David said they are slammed at the hospital with all the transfers from New Orleans.

We got out our 72-hour kits on Thursday when it was announced that Gustav was projected to hit Louisiana. We had a few things that needed to be replaced so we went to Wal-Mart and it was a mad house with jugs of water in short supply. Fortunately, we were able to get the things we needed without too much trouble. People at church today were talking about trying to go to the grocery store last night (just 2 days after our shopping trip) and being told by the Fire Marshall that no more people were allowed in the building.

It looks Gustav should be a tropical storm by the time it hits us in northern Louisiana on Tuesday/Wednesday so we’ll only get 75 mph winds instead of 150mph…phew! We’re bracing ourselves for a lot of rain, flooding and potential power outages, but should be just fine. Thank you to those who have called, emailed, posted blog comments or just sent thoughts our way to see if we’re OK. We will be sure to keep you updated.

Does this mean we have to cross “Gustav” off our list of potential names for our first-born son?

By the way, when updating our 72-hour kits I came across the most delectable, high-calorie snack: those construction-zone orange crackers held together by highly processed cheddar cheese filling. David noticed the empty wrappers (yes, that is ‘wrappers’ with a plural ‘s’) on the coffee table and said, “What happened to the crackers?” I sheepishly replied, “The baby thought they looked good.”

Does this picture make your mouth water, or is it just me?

PS-Yes, I did publish 3 posts in 24 hours. Can you tell that David is pretty busy at the hospital?:)

Gems from the E.R.

2008-08-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight is David’s last night on the Emergency Room service. He has gleaned some valuable tidbits in the last month which I include for your reading pleasure.

If you ever get in trouble with the law and the cops have a dog with them…don’t try to run away!
When confronted by a paranoid schizophrenic who is high on cocaine, keep a safe distance in case he takes a swing at you.
If you’re native language is Chinese and you’re learning English, stay away from telling the lady at the gambling hot line, “I want to start life ova” as this can land you in the ER on protective custody under a suicide watch regardless of what was intended by the comment.
When conducting a rectal exam, reassure the patient by saying, “Trust me, this ain't fun for me either, buddy!”

My favorite text messages I received from David while in the ER:

Great day…just got exposed to lice!!!
If I have to look at one more vagina, I’m gonna scream!

Sounds like fun, don’t you think?

Service project

2008-08-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

We have a friend here who is also a first year ENT resident at LSU named Jeff. He bought a house when he moved to Louisiana and when we were over at his place the other night he was lamenting the fact that the weeds in his front yard have gotten to be quite unruly. Being no strangers to unruly weeds, we ourselves owe a massive thanks to the young men of the Foothill Ward and their leaders for clearing our backyard so we could landscape before we moved. In an effort to pay it forward, we surprised Jeff by pulling all of his weeds while he was working at the hospital on Friday. We learned several valuable lessons from this experience which you will find below titled, “Things to consider when doing an outdoor service project in Shreveport in August”:

*Start at 5am instead of 7am as there is no escaping the blistering rays of the sun after 7:30am.
*Wear sunscreen…duh!
*Apply a generous amount of bug spray prior to rummaging through flower beds to avoid the lovely appearance of red dots covering your calves, shins and ankles the next day.
*Bring one complete pair of gloves for each member of your party. If you only have one pair and are forced to split the gloves between two people, be sure that you are not both right-hand dominant. If this cannot be avoided, be prepared for spasms throughout the muscles surrounding your phalanges after 4 hours of intense, one-handed weed-pulling.
*Bring an endless supply of cool beverages; preferably a combination of water and electrolyte replacing sports drinks.
*Keep said beverages in a cooler and do not leave in direct sunlight as doing so will turn the beverages to the temperature of snake pee within a matter of minutes thereby decreasing the extent to which they will refresh you.
*Have access to a car bigger than a Civic to haul away the 9 huge trash bags full of weeds.
*Check intensity of neighborhood watch program in advance of your project to avoid having the cops called on you. If this reconnaissance is not available, stuff your belly with padding so you look like you’re 6 months pregnant. This will make you appear less menacing and therefore less likely to scale the wall to crawl through a second-story window.
*Reward yourself with an Icee afterward and ignore the woman working at the register when she looks you up and down and says, “Wow, ya’ll been…runnin’???”

Despite the things that didn’t go so smoothly, we were quite happy with our work at the end of our 4 hours. Now if we could just get the lactic acid buildup to drain from our back and finger muscles, we’d be in good shape!

Here are the before shots…

The after shots…

And one of He-man with his spoils…

7 years, 70 degrees and 7, 000 choices!

2008-08-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Seven seems to be a popular number for us lately starting with our 7 year anniversary! When we were in Reno we loved to go dancing so I found a local studio where we took a Cha-cha lesson. We were approximately 40 years younger than everyone else in the class, but it was a blast. As we were leaving, the sun was setting so I convinced David to take this picture. What I failed to notice was the very large fire ant hill (a real nice feature of the south) right next to the sign and on which I managed to step. Fortunately, I made it away unscathed.

Speaking of fire ants, David and I are realizing that owning a home in Louisiana is quite a bit different than owning a home in Nevada. In Reno, our yard was fairly low maintenance with the biggest issue being the insanely large weeds in our backyard (a product of our own neglect and lack of landscaping). Here, however, the dreaded fire ant hills are quite a challenge making yard work like playing a game of whack-a-mole. These ants are amazing! Just when you cover one hill with poisonous pellets, they build another one somewhere else within 12 hours. The poison we bought claimed that it was “guaranteed to kill the queen ant” which is supposedly key to destroying the colony. Apparently, our queen is heavily guarded and must have a poison-proof mask her soldier ants put on her when someone sounds the alarm that the poison pellets have arrived. We have yet to succeed in annihilating these little critters. Maybe our hotter-than-the-surface-of-the-sun climate diminishes the effectiveness of the “treatments.” The directions on the poison say “It’s best to apply the pellets when temperatures are cool (below 70 degrees).” Considering the fact that it's about 700 degrees here right now, I’d have to wait until February to get anywhere near 70 degrees. By then I think the whole yard would be covered in ant hills!
Speaking of our hotter-than-the-surface-of-the-sun climate here in good ol’ Shreveport, David and I were doing yard work last week and it was so stinking hot that I feared the brain development of our unborn child was in jeopardy. The only way I could figure to cope was to douse myself with water from the hose every 3-5 minutes. I quickly learned that it’s not a good idea to point the hose directly at your flesh when you’re turning it on for the first time in several hours b/c the water is SCALDING! I had to let it run for a minute before getting to the luke-warm stuff that was cooler than the outside temp. Here’s the approach we found works best: Now another 7, related to baby gear. For a date night we thought it would be a good idea to start looking at baby stuff. I felt like Ariel from the “Little Mermaid” looking at the 7,000 + products in front of us (“A whole new world…”). We quickly realized we know NOTHING about this realm and were completely overwhelmed by the infinite models and brands of car seats, baby monitors, bathing gear, etc. Fortunately, we have wise friends and family who have gone before and are relying on them for input.

David as he compares the weight of two different infant seats.

Our conclusion: they're all too heavy!

Alligator Park, meat pies, and Dallas

2008-08-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

David is on the Emergency Room service this month which means he has several days off at a time (a nice change from general surgery). To celebrate this luxury of having time together we headed off on a road trip this weekend. Our first stop was in the town of Natchitoches, LA (pronounced nak-a-dish if you can believe it) about an hour south of Shreveport. Natchitoches is home to the Alligator Park and famous for their meat pies, so our trip included stops to experience each of these.

The Alligator Park was a riot. During the feeding shows they dangled chickens over the water and 20+ gators gathered round trying to get a piece of the delectable treat. It was a sight to behold.

Here we are holding a very menacing teenage gator. Disregard the electrical tape securing his jaws shut…trust me, our lives were in peril! Note how I let David hold the more menacing end just in case our gator friend got a little excited and needed a potty break.

Here are some more photos from the Park...

We stopped at the snack shop for some “gator tots” before we left. They weren’t as yummy as the alligator we ate at the Peach Festival in June, but still pretty good. With our appetizer out of the way, we headed to Lasyone’s Meat Pie Kitchen in downtown Natchitoches for none other than a…meat pie. “What is a meat pie?” you may be asking yourself. Well, if you imagine taking a slab of meatloaf, wrapping it in dough and then deep frying it, you get the essence of these little goodies. They were quite tasty and came with a guarantee to clog your arteries.

After our Natchitoches adventures, it was off to Dallas to hang out with my brother, Cory, and his family. He, his wife, Kerri, and three girls moved there a few weeks ago and we are SO excited to have them only three hours away. While in Dallas, we attended the temple with some people from our ward which was wonderful. We were spoiled in Reno with the temple so close.
We’re back home now and had a great time exploring some of the hot spots of this area…well, everywhere is a hot spot this time of year, but you get my point!

Boy, oh, boy!

2008-08-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today was attempt #2 at determining the sex of our unborn child. Fortunately, the baby was more cooperative than last time and gave us a nice view of the essential area. As the image was enlarged, David said, “Wait a minute. That’s a hot dog, not a hamburger!” (see post from July 9th for explanation). The ultrasound tech responded, “Well, at this point it’s more like a nugget!” Much to our surprise, we’re having a boy! Never mind my visions (O.K. just very vivid dreams) of having our first child be a girl. So much for my motherly intuition. We are really excited and can’t wait to welcome this special little one into our family.

Here is his adorable profile.

Thus begins a mother's right to show embarrassing pictures of her child. I introduce to you...the boy parts:)

July travels

2008-08-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

I spent the last three weeks traveling in Utah and California. It was a great trip complete with time at Bear Lake, swimming in my parents’ pool in Farmington, making raspberry jam and helping my mom can her beans, beets and corn for the year.

Here is a snapshot of me with my two youngest sisters, Caitlyn and Ali, listening to some tunes on the beach.

The baby bump continues to grow.

I also took a side-trip to Palo Alto to celebrate the 80th birthday of a good friend of ours, Dr. Dement. The Dements were like grandparents to us when we lived in Palo Alto and it was great to be a part of the celebration.

Here I am with Dr. D and the Stanford tree (one of the many distinguished guests at the party:)
Good friends Kathy, Liz, and Clarence at the party (thanks for your hospitality, Clarence).Meanwhile, David was holding down the fort at home which Kathy labeled “Shreveport…the other LA.” Kind of catchy, don’t you think?

Definitely, maybe...

2008-07-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

The much anticipated Louisiana doctor's appointment was today where we were supposed to find out if we're having a boy or girl. I say "supposed to" because technically the baby is now big enough to tell. However, baby wasn't terribly cooperative. After FOUR hours at the lovely LSU Women's and Children's Clinic (an entire blog post in and of itself) the baby's feet were crossed at the ankles and both legs were nice and tight together. At least if it is a girl we know she doesn't have a predisposition to being a hoochie mama:)

I tried sitting up, rolling to my side, and poking at my belly all in an effort to get the baby to open up, so to speak. But my efforts were to no avail. The doctor got a really nice shot of her booty, though and said, "Well, if it was a boy, we'd be seeing some sacks right there. So if I had to guess, I'd say it's a girl." That's as much clarity as we got.

So why the random pictures? Two reasons: 1-I think blog posts with pictures are more interesting; 2-the doctor said she was looking to see if we've got a "hamburger baby" or "hot dog baby." Use your imagination.

I have another ultrasound scheduled for August 1st and hopefully we'll have a bit more clarity then as to the fast food item with which our baby will most closely identify. I think I'll do some jumping jacks before my appointment so the baby will be spreadeagle in order to brace him/herself. What do you think?

Feed me!

2008-07-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

I just noticed how malnourished our little widget embryo appears (on the right side of our blog). Does anyone know of a "feed your embryo" widget you can add to it to beef the little tike up? Of course, maybe that's what baby Ludlow really looks like. We should be having more pictures taken (e.g. ultrasound) next week!

By the way, happy July 4th!

LSU, meet Dr. Ludlow

2008-07-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today is momentous as it marks day one of David’s (paid) career in medicine. During this first year he is an ENT intern and will be rotating through various departments each month, with this month featuring the general surgery service. I’m not exactly sure what to expect of the coming years, but I think today gave me a good preview as David’s alarm went off at 3:20 AM!!! We only have one car right now so I had the honor of driving him to the hospital. It was too early to make him a nice breakfast, but I did manage to get my wits about me enough to slide a “You Are Special Today” plate underneath his cereal bowl. Will that earn me the Wife of the Year award? Here you see all of his morning essentials: red plate, bowl of cereal, pager, phone, and scriptures.

(Notice the luxurious packing paper taped to the window behind him. We’ve spared no expense on window treatments!)

I made him pose for the camera looking all professional (and hot) in his scrubs and white coat before we left the house.
Then it was off to the hospital where I insisted on one more pose. Of course, I had to take the picture quickly and then jump back in the car and lock the doors before I got mugged. The LSU hospital isn’t in what you might call a safe part of town.

Here’s the last shot I snapped, unbeknownst to him. I have to confess that I had a pit in my stomach as I drove away knowing that his walking through those hospital doors would mark the beginning of a totally new way of life for us. Fortunately, I have the baby to keep me company.

The Louisiana State Peach Festival

2008-07-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

People here in Louisiana love their festivals which are spread all throughout the year. Last weekend we went to the state peach festival in Ruston (about an hour east of Shreveport). It’s basically a place where local artists sell their handiwork and you can get all kinds of culinary delicacies. My favorite one: deep fried alligator on a stick. It was surprisingly delicious! Other deep fried menu items which we did NOT try were deep fried Oreos and deep fried Twinkies. There were relatively few peaches at the peach festival (it’s still early in the season I guess), but we did pick up a bag of semi-cling yellow peaches which are fantastic.

Here are two examples of the “handiwork” available at the festival:
1) Rocking horses made from recycled car tires. I’m not sure how you’d keep your child’s thighs from sustaining third degree burns when they sit on these things after they’ve been out in the LA heat all day, but they must raise ‘em tough here in the south.

2) At a booth called “Happi Crabs” you could buy live crabs whose shells had been painted. David tried to convince me that a crab would make a great pet, but even in the extreme heat I was coherent enough to say no to that proposal.

The Pelican State

2008-06-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

It’s official, we are now residents of the pelican state complete with Louisiana driver’s licenses, license plates and a constant “glow” about us (a sticky layer brought on by the humidity).

This part of the country has a very distinct feel to it and we’re trying to learn the ins-and-outs of daily life here. Part of that involves decoding the language. I actually started making my own “Louisianan” to Standard American English translation dictionary to assist in this process. Here are some of the more useful items:

*wudn’t – wasn’t; as in, “You wudn’t there?”
*yous - you was/ weez - we was
*fixin’ to - getting ready to; as in, “Weez fixin’ to go shopping.”
*shek - shack; as in, “ya’ll need to park yo’ ca’ under the shek” which we heard from the clerk at the Wal-mart auto desk when having our battery checked
*cheeburger - cheeseburger. I kid you not, there is a “restaurant” here called “cheeburger, cheeburger.”
*set – sit
*mit - minute; as in, “ya’ll set down a mit”
*mu - my/ yu - you
*hep - help; as in, “We’z hea to hep yu” which David heard from the orientation lady at the hospital
*twirly whirly - fan; as in, “Ya’ll wanna keep it cool in the garage, yu gotta open your attic door and let the twirly whirlys do their thang.”
*fo- before
*wichu-with you
*dun fell out- I passed out; which can frequently be heard at the hospital
*buggy wuggy- shopping cart

There’s a story for this last one. On my first solo outing in Shreveport, I went to the Wal-Mart in search of an FM receiver. The man working in the electronics department was very nice and showed me where to find one. Upon seeing that they were out of stock he said, “Wouldn’t yu know it? Thems all out.” “That’s OK. I’ll check back next week,” I responded. As I was walking away, I heard him yell, “Wait a mit (see above for translation), ma’m. I got two of ‘em right here in mu (see above for translation) buggy wuggy (see above for translation).” I turned to see if he was talking to me and sure enough, he had a shopping cart that was being used to restock with two FM receivers inside. “Look like it’s yo’ lucky day!” he said. How right he was!

During that same trip to Wal-Mart as I was standing in line, the woman in front of me was getting frustrated that her kids kept running off. To get one of them to come back, she hollered, “Liza, you get back here right now fo' (see above for translation) somebody run off wichu ‘cuz they need an extra little girl.” A few seconds elapsed wherein Liza returned to the line at which time her mom continued, “Course, they’d bring you right back soons they realized how high maitnence you is!”

Despite the occasional language barrier, the people here are incredibly nice and it doesn’t take long to get to know all about someone. We were at the bank opening a checking account last week and the nice woman helping us told us all about her kids and how long she’s been in Shreveport and where all of her relatives live and where to go for good crawfish, etc. When we left, I said to David, “We never would’ve had a conversation like that at any of our previous banks.” “Yeah, but we would’ve been out of there 45 minutes ago, too!” I couldn’t argue with that.

iFly and Flowrider

2008-06-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days in Utah with my family before leaving for Shreveport. My dad found this great place in Ogden where you can do 'iFly' and 'Flowrider.' iFly is for indoor skydiving and consists of a big Plexiglas tube with a HUGE fan at the bottom (protected by a cage, obviously). You jump into this thing and fly around. It was a riot to see.

Here is David in his sexy jump suit and goggles.

And here he is "flying." Notice the applause from the instructor...

or maybe he's praying that David won't die:)

After that, we headed to the Flowrider which is an indoor surfing wave. It basically shoots huge amounts of water out through big jets and you can surf or boogie board on the wave it makes. Well, that's assuming you don't get a concussion trying. The first few attempts for everyone were pretty funny, but after a while they got the hang of it.

Here's David shredding...

This picture gives a better view of the wave machine. That's my dad rocking the boogie board.

Neither of the two activities was compatible with pregnancy so I got to be photographer with my sister Tiffany who is due one week after me. It was still a blast. Thanks mom and dad!

Viva Mexico!

2008-06-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

To help buffer the emotional blow of leaving Reno and moving to a world of the unknown (Louisiana), we headed to Cancun for a fantastic week-long adventure. Neither of us had been to Mexico before, so it was a great experience. Before we left, David bought a “Medical Spanish” book which he studied diligently on the plane in the hopes he could “espeaka da Spanish” to people once we arrived. His newly acquired phrases weren’t terribly useful while we were there (e.g. Where does it hurt? You’re going to feel some pressure), but he quickly picked up on some more relevant phrases such as, “How much for this?” and “Where are we going?” There were few funny things we read while there: Crepe topped with “wheeped cream,” “Go tru security” at the airport. Those kept us laughing. Here are some pictures highlighting a few of our favorite moments.

Chichen Itza-I was prepared for a very hot day, but it rained pretty much the whole time we were there. I was thanking my lucky stars that I hadn’t worn a white t-shirt like one lady in our group who walked around the entire time with her arms crossed precariously across her chest…stumps for her! Here we are standing in front of the main building at the ruin site. What an amazing architectural undertaking.

David playing “Where’s Waldo” in the ruins. Don’t worry, he only had to hop two rope partitions for this shot.
Day at the beach-As you can see, the beaches in Cancun are out of this world: white sand that feels like walking in flour; crystal clear water that’s like climbing into the bathtub.

I’m in a really awkward stage of pregnancy where it looks like I’m just enjoying the all-inclusive meals a little too much. But as you can see, the baby bump is growing.

Cenotes-Cancun has a lot of underground rivers and caves (called cenotes) that you can explore. This was probably the best thing we did while we were there. Here we are in one of the caves. The water was a little cold for my liking, but baby Ludlow seemed to be OK with it! Do you like our oh-so-fashionable life jackets and snorkels?

David got to show off his mad zip-line skills. Gotta love the flexibility!

All-in-all it was a wonderful vacation full of sun, naps, togetherness, and adventures.

Hello to 28 and farewell to SSLG!

2008-06-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my birthday last week and am officially knocking on 30's door:) My birthday was great as it started out with a haircut, then off to work with wonderful kids and parents, and finally to The Farm for dinner and celebration. Here is a picture leading up to me trying to blow out the candles (breath support isn't great nowadays as the pregnancy progresses). Fortunately, Danny, Devon, Luke, and Lia were close by to finish off the rest of the flames (and add a little something special to the icing...aka spit!).

This was also my last week of work. I've been at the Sierra Speech and Language Group (SSLG for short:) since last June and it's been an amazing year. I will miss my kids and their families as well as the wonderful people with whom I worked.

A funny picture with one of my favorite little guys at work. This is his response to "smile."

My "going away" dinner with Ryan, Shawna, Maiko, Eric, David, me
My "going away" lunch with me, Maiko, Christen, and Lisa

Does it seem like I had a lot of "going away" activities? :)

Dr. Dave

2008-06-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

May 16th was a momentous occasion as David received his medical diploma officially recognizing him as a doctor. The school of medicine had their own ceremony so there were only 50-some graduates instead of the hundreds at a typical graduation (like mine last year). It was a wonderful ceremony, but the crowning moment was watching Dr. Ludlow (David’s dad) hood Dr. Ludlow (David). A tender moment! Unfortunately, David doesn’t have the number he needs to write prescriptions just yet (which, according to some, is the best part of having a doctor around). We’ll let you know when that happens!

The ceremonial hooding

The parents!

The obligatory pregnancy photo proving that baby Ludlow was at Daddy's graduation.

Farewell to our first home

2008-06-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

I remember vividly when we moved to Reno from Palo Alto where we’d been living in 500 square foot apartments for three years paying WAY too much money in rent. Our 1300 square foot house in Reno was like a palace in comparison. It was the perfect place for us during the past four years. On May 10th, we officially vacated our first home. After having the house on the market for three weeks we received an offer. As many people said when we listed (at what some would call a not so opportune time to be selling a house) “it only takes one.” We recognize this as a huge blessing.

The moving company left a HUGE trailer in our driveway and since we were paying by the foot, we proceeded to play life-sized Tetris figuring out how to fill every cubic foot with boxes and furniture. It turns out our life's possessions can fit nicely into 14 feet of truck space. Thanks to all those who helped with loading the truck (and a huge thanks to their wives for letting them come).

Our last photo shoot in front of the house.

Since I have been busy with work and haven't been feeling great (quite an understatement) David did most of the packing. In the process he managed to separate the skin on the tip of his pointer finger from the nail bed, an injury that is much more inconvenient than you might imagine. As David informed me, the pointer finger is essential to many daily activities (flossing, typing, etc.). The injury was exacerbated the morning of the move and we couldn’t get it to stop bleeding. Unfortunately, all of our Band-Aids were packed. David made due for as long as possible, but before too long I heard him yell from the kitchen, “That’s it! I’m going to fashion my own bandage!” The next thing I knew, he had a paper towel folded into eighths wrapped around his finger tip with clear packing tape holding the “bandage” in place. You can’t say he isn’t creative. Here’s a photo of his genius.

A very "fashionable" bandage, don't you think?

Drum roll, please

2008-05-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

The much anticipated Cinco de Mayo ultrasound was completed yesterday. Within 10 seconds, the doctor said, “You’ve got ONE healthy baby.” “One? Are you sure?” asked David. “Why don’t you look around a bit more?” Sure enough after all the mental preparation for multiples, we were much relieved to know that we will be having one beautiful baby. "Isn't that what you ordered?" asked the doctor. "Don't go changing your order on me now!":)

For those who don’t know, my HCG levels were remarkably high at my six week blood draw and we knew there were multiple eggs, so our mental preparations were not unwarranted. We are so thankful for all of your thoughts and prayers. We feel immensely supported and loved. Here is a picture of out little dinosaur (that’s what David thinks it looks like). The due date is December 17, 2008.

One of these days…

2008-05-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Since David and I have been married, we have found ourselves on occasion saying, “One of these days _____ (fill in the blank with any item/action that does not lend itself to our current phase of life/budget).” For example, one of these days: -we’ll buy ‘dry clean only’ clothes -we won’t have to adjust the rabbit ears every time we change the channel -we’ll tip generously -we’ll fly on an airline other than Southwest (and use the skycap service even though they charge a fee) -we’ll eat out at a restaurant for which we DON’T have a coupon -we'll run the ‘dry’ cycle on the dishwasher without worrying about the added energy expense -we’ll hire a legitimate landscaping company rather than using our “amigos”

Well, we had another one of those moments this week. David needed to send out his graduation announcements and rather than buying labels which are expensive (“one of these days we’ll buy labels for our envelopes”) we decided to print the addresses directly on the envelopes. I’ve done this for the last couple of years with our Christmas cards and it works pretty well as long as I don’t feed more than 5 envelopes at a time into our ghetto printer. Well, David’s envelopes were a bit fancier, made of thick paper, and half the size of the envelopes I’ve printed on in the past. We couldn’t get the printer to feed them through and kept getting a “paper jam” notice accompanied by an obnoxious error beep each time we tried. After 10 minutes of hearing that annoying beep from the printer, the tension was mounting.

David wanted to just hand-write them, but I was bound and determined to get it to work. “Ah-hah! I have just the tool!” I went to the kitchen and grabbed a fondue fork. The two-pronged design lent itself beautifully to shoving the envelope through until the printer caught it. However, each of the 49 envelopes (50-1 that was destroyed in the trial and error process) had to be fed individually. The sequence: David clicks on the mail merged address, opens the print function, clicks ‘print selection’ and hovers the cursor precariously over the ‘OK’ button awaiting my signal. In the meantime, I load the envelope and position the fondue fork precisely in the center ensuring a balanced feed and give the signal, “Go.” And on to the next envelope.

So, in summary, one of these days we’ll have a printer that doesn’t require use of a fondue fork to feed the envelopes! In the meantime, we’re having some good laughs.

A photo capturing the intricacies of positioning the envelope. What concentration!

My future career as a window washer

2008-04-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago I decided it was time to wash the windows. After all, we’ve lived in this house for almost four years and now that we’re selling I thought it was about time. My mom gave me a killer recipe for a homemade washing solution (vinegar, dish soap, water) as well as tips on how to do the job well. I spent all day removing screens, washing screens, scrubbing windows, squeegying windows, replacing screens, etc. I must say that they look pretty darn good and I think I might have a future in the window washing business if this whole speech-pathology thing doesn’t work out.

Now, to 3 days after the window washing extravaganza… David was opening all the blinds in the morning (part of our morning routine now that the house is being shown quite a bit) and found something most peculiar. Outside of our guest bedroom widow, which looks out to the side of our house where there is a very narrow stretch of DG, was a dove, beak down in the DG and totally dead. It looked like it had been sitting on our fence and then just keeled over. “That’s weird,” David and I thought. He did the manly thing and disposed of the dove corpse to save his pregnant wife from dry heaving for the 10th time that morning.

Now to the next morning…Due to the surprise of finding the dead dove on the ground the previous day, the blinds never made it all the way up. The next day, however, David pulled the blinds completely up and suddenly I heard uncontrollable laughter coming from the guest room. “Jenny, you’ve gotta come see this. I figured out how the dove died!” I hurried into the room only to see this:

Taken from the inside of our guest room.

What I couldn't capture in the photos were the little feathers that were stuck to the outside of the window. Use your imaginations:)

So I guess mama Costley’s window washing solution is a good one…just not for the birds!

Another blossom...

2008-04-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time a beautiful Christmas cactus grew in the home of my great-great-grandmother. She gave a start from her cactus to my great-grandmother, who in turn gave a start to my grandma Costley. Grandma Costley gave a start to my mom when she married my dad and now each girl in my family receives a start from the cactus as she is creating her own home.

David and I have grown quite fond of our cactus (the only plant I haven’t killed since we’ve been married) and affectionately call her Hermione because her unkempt appearance resembles Hermione Granger’s hair. Not only is this cactus a link to ancestors and present family members, but it has established a reputation for being somewhat…how do I say this?...psychic! Our cactus traditionally blooms in the winter. During the rest of the year, it’s just green with no flowers. However, on certain occasions this cactus has been reported to bloom at unusual times, seemingly in connection with important life events. Suffice it to say that the week before we received the news about David matching to an ENT residency, we discovered a solitary blossom.

Well, last week we found one more blossom. “What could it mean?” we wondered. The results from blood work done this week confirmed what we hoped…we’re finally pregnant!!! Whether or not the cactus is as intuitive as we believe it to be, we are overwhelmingly excited about this news. It’s still really early, but we’ve waited for years to be able to make this announcement and we can’t hold back. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. It looks like 2008 has all kinds of changes in store for us. Below, find a photo of Hermione. The big blossom is from Match Day, the smaller on the far right side is for baby Ludlow.

Two blossoms in the Spring...see the small bud on the right?

A close-up of "baby bud!"

Close up of "Match Day bud."

Match Day

2008-04-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

“Create a family blog” has been on my to-do list for about a year now. It’s going to feel great to finally check that off! For our inaugural post, I thought it would be fitting to give a recap of the most exciting day we've had in the last several months: the much anticipated March 20, 2008…Residency Match Day! It was a huge deal at the medical school and the fourth year medical students invited spouses, parents, and friends to witness the ado. The theme was an “election year” and each med student had a campaign poster with their residency program (in our case Otolaryngology ’08). After a speech from the dean (to prolong the anticipation), the fourth years charged the envelope table searching for their names (as a side note, the envelopes were NOT arranged alphabetically…an ingenious endeavor to further increase the anxiety level, no doubt). We took a deep breath, David opened his envelope and our home for the next 5 years was revealed. After numerous cross-country interview trips, thousands of dollars, countless prayers, and many sleepless nights, we found out that David matched at an Ear, Nose and Throat residency program at LSU Shreveport. Louisiana, here we come! We're thrilled for this new chapter in our lives. We've had enough life experiences to know that prayers aren't always answered just the way we hope. But we're thrilled that this was an exception! Sneaking a kiss from the most handsome ENT resident known to man!
David pinning his name to a US map. Bible belt, here we come!
The "ballot results" in our envelope.