Boy or Girl?

I put up a poll on the left hand side of my blog, near the top. 

Do you see it? 

You should cast your vote. PLEASE!

Why? 

Because it's silly and sort of fun.  THANK YOU!

I won't be voting.  The "mother's intuition" part of me is broken and I have no idea if this kid is a boy or a girl (and I guessed wrong with Aslynn).

Proof

This baby is different than Aslynn.  When I was pregnant with Z I had horrible aversions to certain foods; this baby isn't like that. 

(Pretend Luke is listing off some potential dinner choices.) This baby is more like, "No, that doesn't sound good.  Just thinking about that food makes me want to puke.  Wait!  What did you just say?!  Now THAT sounds good! I want that RIGHT NOW!" 

Note: Yes, for this pregnancy even just thinking about the wrong food can make me hurl.  TMI?

It really is sad (I mean it! Tears have been shed over the food I want or can't eat) when I want something that happens to only be in Rexburg, Idaho (Millhollow or Craigo's, anyone?).  I go to sleep dreaming about food. 

Anyway, I really wanted a grilled cheese sandwich one day.  I guess I got distracted while I was cooking it and one side burned.  Still, I was undeterred. 

I just ate the other piece of bread and scraped out the burned one.  Luke said I needed to take a picture of it and tell you all about it because it "epitomized crazy pregnancy cravings."

FYI: June 11, 2011 is the due date for the next Baby Mecham.

Missing the Good Stuff & a Red Letter Post

I get attached to food items, candy in particular.  I feel like the world gets me hooked on wonderful, irreplaceable snacks and then takes them away. 

Breanna Mecham will NEVER forget the things you take away from her.  NEVER! 

Maybe you are missing some of these things, too.

 

These superior cookies were only available for a short time.  Oh, baby! They were SO good and dipping them in milk made them that much better.  Then they were gone.

Chupa Chups had a large number of delicious lollipop flavors. The last time I had a Chupa Chups lollipop I think I was in middle school. I looked on the Chupa Chup website and found out that these aren't even available in the USA anymore.  I really miss the Strawberries & Cream flavor; it was A-MAZ-ING!

Wonka used to makes these little bits of tasty goodness (my mother told me they tasted like chalk; I disagreed) and then they stopped.  They even made big, silver dollar sized pieces and each package had one giant piece of each flavor.  When I was in elementary and middle school I would ride my bike to the convenience store by my house and buy Wacky Wafers. 

At Easter time Wacky Wafers came out with little bunny shaped wafers.  I would ask my mom to drive me to Shopco, sometimes two times a day, so I could spend my hard-earned chore money on the boxes that cost a whole fifty cents a pop.  That was some serious cheddar for a kid to dish out for candy! 

I think the candy I miss the most is the Starburst Fruit Twists.  There were only eight pieces per package (two of each flavor - strawberry, cherry, orange and lemon) but every single piece was perfectly delicious!  Oh, why, oh, why did Starburst have to stop making these things?!

 

Wonka just seems to take away everything I love...

(Another example: years ago, dumb Wonka changed the flavor of the red cherry pieces for the Runts candy.  The old cherry pieces tasted so much better!)

...and Tart N Tinys is no different. 

Back in my college days I used to be able to buy these little bits of heaven in bulk (the boxes got annoying) at Broulims. Now I am reduced to looking them up on the internet and hoping I can find them from reputable candy shop in Canada or something. (In case you were wondering how that search is going, the answer is not well.)

When my cousins and I were little, our Grandma Shirley would take us to the grocery store...

(I also miss the pizza pockets she bought for us at the deli. Speaking of pizza pockets, have you noticed that pizza pockets have been replaced by "pizza sticks" at the deli? What is this world coming to?!)

...and let us get a bunch of individually wrapped candy from the bulk bins.  Brachs used to make giant gummy bears (which even Google can't find a picture of) of all sorts of flavors. My cousins and I would save the red bears for last because they were the best.  Of course, you really had to look closely at the reds because some of them were actually cinnamon bears. 

After were were done feasting, I remember Grandma's living room would be strewn with cellophane wrappers from the bears. 

I can't find the bears now, just lots of wanna-be knock-offs. I look forward to February because Brachs comes out with their Jube Jell Cherry Hearts which are the red gummy bears in heart form. 

What ever happened to these little beauties?!  I guess Kraft decided Snack Bars needed to go the way of the world.  I read an interent rumor that the cheesecake bars are still available, but I can't find them anywhere!

The remaining pictures are of other long-lost snacks/candy.  I remember them, but do not miss them enough to write a blurb for each one.

*Luke REALLY misses this stuff.  I don't even remember it; he can't seem to forget it.*

We are SUPER excited that you know our great news! 

When the Gloves Come Off

Hockey is awesome!  Stefanie (Luke's sister) invited us to go to a hockey game.  Since Luke and I were already driving two carloads of crazy teenagers to a multiple-stake dance in Redlands (which by the way, how come they didn't have huge dances like that when I was a youngster?!), we decided it would be the perfect thing to do while the kiddos were dancing the night away.  Hockey is quality entertainment! 

We really should learn the rules of hockey.  The refs would blow the whistle when nothing was happening and all the players would stop, regroup and then play would resume.  We were so confused! 

However, the refs would not blow the whistle when a player who was brave enough to get near the wall would get slammed into it.

Also, the whistle wouldn't be blown when the players got ticked off, ripped off their gloves, threw down their sticks and proceeded to beat the crap out of each other.  

When the refs finally broke up the fight (which didn't happen in any sort of hurried fashion) a man would come out and use a little scraper to get the blood off of the ice.  I know it sounds gruesome and violent, but really, it's hilarious.

Did you know that high sticking (which is against the rules) gets a player only two minutes in the penalty box?  If you draw blood, it gets you four minutes.  I am pretty sure that some players think those four minutes are worth it.

Did I mention that hockey is awesome?!

Rant: There are no pictures of our hockey group because I had a massive zit on my chin. It is my personal opinion that when a person reaches the age of 21, zits should cease to exist. Zits are the curse of being a teenager; they shouldn't be the curse of a young adult.  Just saying.

What Luke Has Been Up To

Back in August (or was it September? Huh.  I forget.) I bought a couple of mangoes. Luke

1. did a little research, and

2. dried out the thing in the center that makes mangoes so tricky to cut up. Then

3. he and I cracked those things (we will call it a husk because I can't think of anything better) open, and

4. took the soft seeds out of the dried husk.  Then

5. Luke planted one of the mango seeds. Now

6. he has a wee mango tree. 

It was recently transplanted from the garden to a pot (because it was getting a little chilly for a mango tree) and it now lives in the house.

When we lived in Portland we bought a super-cool kite with the intent to take it to the coast and fly it.  Well, that didn't happen.  Poor kite was neglected until one very windy day about two weeks ago.  

Luke was bored and decided that I wasn't cool enough to hang out with, (Aslynn is napping, of course.  Aslynn would have not let Luke be bored in the first place.) so he went to play with his "toys" in the garage. 

Next thing I know, I see him outside trying to fly our super-cool kite!

It is probably a good thing that he could never get the kite to fly very high; there are power lines on each side of our house. 

I was watching him struggle with the wind and the kite (from inside the house, where it was warm and dust free) and all of the sudden I hear a girly "AHH!"  The wind had gotten too strong and broken the kite string.  Luke went running pell-mell down the street chasing after the kite. 

He finally caught it and brought it back home where he doctored it up. It now resides by our front door, all put together and ready to go, just in case Luke feels the need to try super-cool kite flying again.


Another thing we collected in Portland was a rocking chair. 

My mom had a rocking chair JUST like this one but it was destroyed by four kids. 

Luke rescued this one for me and even though the seat was torn out, he promised he would fix it for me!  He made it AWESOME!  He even made me a comfy padded seat.  The chair still needs to be painted but right now, it is prefect on the back patio.  I can sit, rock and read a book while supervising Z as she plays outside.  THANK YOU, Luke! 

Most Days We Love Her...Other Days We Want to Sell Her to the Circus

So, Aslynn just walked up to me, extended her right hand for me to shake and said, "Hello!  Nice to meet you!" This is one of those times that I don't want to sell her to the circus.   

This post is going to be made up of random Aslynn antics. 

She is talking like a crazy person!  Complete sentences come out of her mouth on a regular basis. 

Over a month ago our little family was driving home (and it was past Z's bedtime) and I casually mentioned to Luke (and not even in a loud voice) that it when we got home we needed to put Aslynn to bed.  A couple of minutes after I told him that, a little voice called to me from the back seat: "Mom!  No Aslynn bedtime! No bed!" That's our daughter, ladies and gentlemen, the eavesdropper - and she's not even two yet.

Aslynn loves to color. We color a lot; Aslynn likes it best when someone colors with her.  She will give you the color she wants you to use and tell you where to color. Have I mentioned that she is kind of bossy?  The only problem with coloring is that Z likes to break her crayons in half.  The above picture was taken after her crayons were rescued from a half-full water bottle and left out to dry for a bit.

She loves grilled cheese as much as her mother does. She likes to sit on the counter and watch me make our grilled cheese sandwiches and say things like, "Wow! Cool! Cooking!" Also, in this house, we eat our grilled cheese - ONLY if it is made with Kraft singles - with a fork.

Random information (mostly for posterity): Our grilled cheese that we dip in tomato soup (mixed with milk, NOT water) and do not eat with a fork is made like this: slice of buttered bread, light layer of Miracle Whip, Tillamook cheese, slice of deli ham, more Tillamook cheese, slice of buttered bread (Luke likes Miracle Whip on that second slice.  I don't; it's a bit much for me.)

Z and her daddy have a bedtime routine that consists of saying her prayers (which she can say almost completely by herself, without Dad's help) and being snuggled while rocking in the rocking chair in her room and singing songs.  "Give Said the Little Stream" is her favorite and she will sing it with him. 

If I put her to bed, we do the same routine, but sing different songs.  She won't let me sing the same songs Luke does so she asks me to sing the "Boat song" which is actually "Hushabye Mountain" (my favorite lullaby).   

A month or so ago I bought Z eight Disney Princess figurines.  They are all about three inches high and she LOVES them.  She takes at least two everywhere.  She now knows all eight princesses' names.  My personal favorite is how she says Snow White, "Sun Lite."  As you can see from the picture above, our princess has to sleep with an entourage - her bear, "Simba," two princesses (Ariel and Cinderella in this case) and a baby.  Everyone must be covered by the blanket.   

One of the reasons we sometimes want to sell Aslynn to the circus is when she says, "Huh?" to everything you say to her.  Us: "Aslynn go find your jammies." Z: "Huh?"  Us: "Do you love me?"  Z: "Huh?"  Us:  "Want to go shopping?" Z: "Huh?"  You get the idea.  She's not deaf; she either suffers from selective hearing or she can't think of anything witty to say.    

The next two pictures were taken by a friend at the park.  Aslynn and her play date friends decided that the playground was boring and the skate park was better.

When you ask Z how old she is, she says, "eight months."  We've been working on having her say, "two years" but so far all she'll say is "two months."  Where did she get this month thing?  Has she been eavesdropping on my conversations when I tell people that she's ____ months old?

Aslynn is getting really good at singing.  She can listen to a song on the radio and by the end she will be singing parts of the chorus.  She loves to sing "Ring Around the Rosy" including the second verse which goes like this: "Cows are in the meadow eating buttercups.  Thunder, lightning, we all stand up."  Watching her do all the spinning and the actions to the song is the best part!

Our house isn't that big, but I still lose our daughter in it on occasion.  I am also lazy so I just end up screaming, "Aslynn!  Where are you?  What are you doing?!"  Lately Z responds with, "Reading a book!"  and I can go find her in a corner of her room doing just what she told me she was doing.  As a woman who reads too much, I am so proud!

A couple of nights ago she wanted to play with her kitchen (which is in the garage until I take the time to clean it) and we told her she needed to find some shoes so her feet wouldn't get cold.  Three minutes later I heard the door to the garage open and close.  I went out to check on her and I found her in these shoes.  MY shoes.

  

Note:  Please take into account her capri pants and jammie top. You can now judge me for being a horrible mother who never does laundry. Please take into account her messy hair that I gave up on fixing after fixing it seven times already that day. You can now judge me on my lack of commitment.

Aslynn has also figured out how use the water dispenser on the fridge.  Our kitchen floor is now constantly wet but Z is super excited about her independence.  She loves the fact that she can get her own water whenever she wants; all she needs is for someone over five feet tall to get her the cup. 

You Know You're a Parent...

...when the silverware drawer is colorful and full of plastic.