You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older ...

I'm getting old. I know, I know ... everyone is thinking, "What?! Andrea, how is that even possible? You're a spry 28!" But I feel it comin'. The terrible march of time does not stop for any woman ... even a woman who is only in her upper mid-twenties.

Case in point #1: My eyes. I got glasses my senior year of high school, which some may think would put a crimp in my superior-senior ego. However, I was a Grade A nerd, so the glasses just exemplified that. I was down with glasses. I wore them in class and to drive, but I didn't need to wear them at home or when I shot photos (I hated the frames butting up against the viewfinder).

Fast forward four years. Seth and I were newlyweds, and I was shooting a wedding reception. I confided in Seth that my camera lens must not be working properly: I could get everyone NEARLY in focus, but not entirely. He suggested that I wear my glasses to shoot. I told him my eyesight didn't warrant that. But, considering the fact that it costs nothing to put glasses on but mucho dinero to ship a lens off to get fixed, I put them on. Magically, my lens was working! Since then, I always shoot pictures with my glasses on. (And my lens always works.)

Fast forward seven more years. Now I find that I have to wear my glasses when I'm reading at night. And when I watch TV at night. And when I'm on the computer in the morning. And when I'm grocery shopping during the day. And when I'm reading and eating breakfast in the morning ... which drives me crazy because (for some dumb reason) I HATE wearing glasses while I eat, but unless I put them on, I find myself squinting at Joel Stein's column and eating a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats.

Case in point #2: The rest of me. Back in the day, I played a lot of volleyball. I was on the school team. I was on the club team. After high school, I took a wallyball class, participated on several intramural volleyball and wallyball teams and played once a week during open gym time in the fieldhouse. But since getting married, teaching school, having babies and the like, I quit playing for many-a-year.

Until a few months ago when a beloved high school friend invited me to participate in her stake's volleyball nights. The first time I came home from our pickup volleyball game, I was SORE. So sore I couldn't go up and down the stairs without moaning. So sore it hurt to laugh. So sore I would have cried if I thought it wouldn't have hurt.

I'm happy to say that my body doesn't scream in pain after volleyball night any more. But the other night, I had to dive/kneel to receive a floating serve that had dropped suddenly. I landed hard on my right knee--the one I had injured in high school and had to have surgically repaired. After passing the ball, I knew my knee was going to hurt. And it did. Even though it didn't hinder my playing for the rest of the night, I was careful with that leg.

The next day, my knee just didn't feel right. I couldn't explain it. I knew I hadn't blown a ligament or torn cartilage like the last time I'd hurt it, because I could at least WALK. But I felt uneasy about it.

When I explained it to Seth, he had the answer: "You're getting old."

And ain't that the sad truth. Even though I feel like I finished high school yesterday, the kids currently attending Bonneville still had most their baby teeth when I graduated. They consider Green Day's "Time of Your Life"--a song that played pretty much nonstop on the radio throughout my high school experience and was featured on every slide show--to be an oldie.

So for now I'll wear my glasses. And I'll try to take care of myself while I'm being active (my knee is fine now, by the way). And I'll try to remember that I'm no longer a spring chicken.

As for you, you just wasted two minutes of your life reading about my aging woes. Those are two minutes you'll never get back. In the words of the ever-wise They Might Be Giants, "And now you're older still."

Ana-ism #11

At Primary today, Ana was asked to give the opening prayer. Before she bowed her head and closed her eyes, however, she had to take advantage of the microphone to give a little impromptu speech.

Ana: I remembered to bring my CTR ring to Primary today. Isn't that so good?

(Side note: Seth had found the CTR ring on the floor of the chapel before church started, and since it had been left there for a week, he thought it would be okay to give it to Ana.)

Bekahism #38

While driving in the van one day, Bekah and Ana were busy playing with their Slinkys. Bekah's Slinky was the daddy, and Ana's Slinky was the mommy.

Bekah: Hi, baby.
Analee: No, my Slinky is the MOMMY, not the baby.
Bekah: Sometimes husbands call their wives "baby" because husbands love babies. And their wives are like babies to them.

Cabin trip, winter 2011

I told Seth I wouldn't have anything blog-worthy to report on during our winter retreat because the pipes didn't freeze (like last year), the pipes didn't freeze (like the year before), we opted not to sleep on the "black-hole bed" (like the year before), and we didn't get stuck in the snow (like the year before (P.B. (pre-blog)).

So ... we went to Island Park last weekend. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin (and we love them so much because they let us). We went sledding on a nearby snowmobile trail. We drank hot chocolate and apple cider. We played in the snow in the yard. We watched movies (Unstoppable for us, Elmo in Grouchland and "Elmo's World" for the girls). We attended church in the Island Park building. We packed up. We came home.

In short, a good time was had by all.

Except ... what should have been an uneventful first night. Miriam slept in the bedroom downstairs. Seth, Andrea, Bekah and Analee all slept on the beds in the loft. Andrea took two Benadryl to (hopefully) make up for the lack of a humidifier (to create white noise) and the closeness of the sleeping children. Turns out, I needed something stronger than that.

Bekah woke up three times throughout the night in what can only be described as "freak-outs." Seriously. The first time, she startled us awake by yelling, "Mommy, Mommy!" After I bolted to her bedside, it didn't take me long to figure out that the child wasn't really conscious. So after I reassured her that everything was okay, I tucked her back in and spent the next 20 minutes trying to fall back asleep. This was repeated twice more ("Daddy, Daddy!" then "(Mumble, mumble, mumble) need more light!") with a similar routine of reassurance.

Needless to say, I was tired the next day. And the ever-sweet Seth took the girls out in the afternoon to play while Miri and I took afternoon naps.

Anyway, you're not here to listen to my sleeplessness woes; you're here to see cute/fun pictures:

Miriam's opinion of sledding has not changed. Please excuse her runny nose; the poor kid is getting over an ear infection, and she just cut her two top teeth.

Bekah hiking back up the snowmobile trail/hill while Seth pulls Ana in the sled.

Analee playing in the snow at the side of the road by the snowmobile trail.

Back at the cabin, Seth dug out a snow cave for the girls to play in. That is, they played in it until Seth walked through the roof of it.

Bekah playing in the "fort" she discovered on the side of the cabin. There is so much snow in Island Park that the drifts reach up to the slide-off from the cabin's roof.

Didn't believe me about the amount of snow? Here is the truck in the plowed-out driveway. And there is Rebekah on top of the unplowed-out yard.

To view more, click here (and skip past the first four pictures ... they're from a previous sledding excursion).

This is what happens ...

This is what happens when your baby's hair is long enough that it falls in her eyes so you use a clip to keep it out of her eyes but her hair is still so fine that it doesn't stay in very well so at naptime the clip slides down in her hair and she falls asleep on her tummy with the clip on her forehead being smashed into the mattress. (Dare you to say that five times fast.)

Math genius

Bekah came out of her room last night after we had tucked her in to ask a very important question.

"Is five times two plus five times two twenty?"

As my mind was still trying to put everything together, Seth answered, "Yes, Bekah. Now go back to bed."

He then repeated her question to me ((5 x 2) + (5 x 2) = 20) so I could understand what had just happened.

I just hope Seth is brushing up on his calculus so that when she brings her third-grade math home, he can help her. Because heaven knows I'm not gonna keep up with her.

First (okay, second) ponytail

Miriam's hair is starting to get a little out of control. If she were a boy, we'd shave her head and be done with it. But because that's socially unacceptable for a baby girl, we're doing what we can to keep it out of her eyes. (We did her first ponytail for church on Sunday and I didn't take any pictures of it, hence the admittance in the title.)

If you look closely, you'll see that her tear duct-probe turned out to be unsuccessful. Sigh. ... We'll wait until after she turns 1 to see if she needs the tubes.

Bekah had much more hair when she was born, so by the time she was a few months old, she was being subjected to the silly top-of-the-head ponytail.

Bekah sporting the top/side pony when she was less than five months old.

Ana took her time growing her hair out. And since it's not stick-straight like her sisters, she got away without the ponytail or pigtails for a long time. When we did resort to it, it was super-cute because of her curly hair. It was like little fountains on top of her head.

Ana with pigtails at 21 months.

Poor Rebekah and Miriam ... they're "blessed" with their momma's straight hair that falls straight into their eyes. But when you're an adorable baby, you can get away with having antennae.

h-e-double-hockeysticks (Ana-ism #11)

Setting: Seth and Analee are playing with Miri and her little toy telephone
Seth: Hello? Hello? Is Miriam there?
Ana: Daddy. Miriam is too little, she can't talk yet. She can't even say "Hello."
Seth: She can't?
Ana: Babies can't say "hello." She can only say "hell."

Bekah Grover ≠ Bear Grylls

My kid is smart. I mean, she's halfway through kindergarten, and she has already earned 9.7 AR points. Her teacher tells me that she's pleased that Bekah still enjoys school because she already knows everything that they're working on right now.

So how come she's not smart enough to survive the winter?

Here's the story:

Today the doorbell rang right after 3 p.m. just like it does every day. Only, instead of finding a cheerful little girl excited to be home from her day of kindergarten, I found a poor little girl with tears running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?!" I asked, alarmed.

"I'm cold!" she whimpered.

Of course she was cold. It's currently 4 degrees outside. No, I didn't skip a digit. It's F-O-U-R degrees outside! But she was a heck of a lot colder than she could/should have been. Because her coat wasn't zipped up. And her hood wasn't up. And her mittens were nowhere to be seen. And in her hand, she held a shiny, red apple. A juicy, shiny, red apple. With its liquid contents seeping over her bare little hand.

So I rushed her inside. And I made her stand next to the fireplace. And I tried to assess how cold she really was. When she told me that her fingers hurt and screamed when I touched them, I immediately ran downstairs to ask my good friend, webmd.com, just how bad the situation was. I looked up "frostbite symptoms" and "how to treat frostbite" as quickly as possible. And I made her put her hand in a pitcher of warm water.

I'm happy to report that she's now fine. Her fingers warmed up and stopped hurting. She's even using them again.

I just hope my genius child can remember her mittens and keep her fingers long enough to ace her future spelling tests.

Sledding

We had promised the girls that we would go sledding as a family, but it just wasn't working. If we didn't already have plans on the weekend, it was much too frigid to venture out. Last weekend, however, we had the perfect combination of warmer temps and an open schedule.

Bekah was super gung-ho about the whole thing. As soon as we got to Freeman Park, she took off running to the hill with her saucer, zoomed down and ran back up again exclaiming, "Wa-hoo!"

After Seth pointed out the jumps that other people had built up, Bekah positioned her sled to hit one every time. She even thought the huge berm that had been built up in front of an electrical box to keep people from hitting it was a jump as well.

Ana was a little more reserved. She enjoyed going down a few times, but she also spent a lot of time sitting on the little fence at the top of the hill. Or checking out the picnic shelter.

Or pulling the little sled around.

Miriam was the least-enthused of all. She tolerated going down the hill a few times, but mostly she just whined.

Seth and Miriam after a run down the hill on a saucer.

This next picture pretty well sums up Miri's feelings for sledding.

Meh.

Analee Dances

Analee dances. More photos are available in the album.

Miri's procedure

Miri has been a crybaby since the day she was born. It's not that she's overly emotional or fussy; she's actually a very mellow baby. Rather, she had blocked tear ducts. Sometimes people would comment on how sad our baby must be because of her watery eyes or tears running down her cheeks.

I brought up the issue with our pediatrician when Miri was just weeks old. He prescribed eye drops to get rid of the extra gunk her eyes were producing, and he told us to wait. Apparently, some plugged ducts clear up on their own.

When that didn't work, the pediatrician suggested that we massage the inside corners of her eyes to help them open up.

When that didn't work, I had to schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist to see if we could take care of the problem before it became a bigger problem.

At our appointment yesterday, he explained that in some babies' tear ducts, the membranes that are supposed to open up and become valves don't. Miriam's problem was her upper valve. He told me that probing the tear duct is the next step in opening up the valves, and if I wanted him to, he could do it right then and there.

Since the big girls were happily watching a movie with my dad at his place and I'd have to shell out an extra co-pay to schedule another time to do the procedure, I gave the doctor the okay.

A lovely diagram I borrowed from webmd.com.

His assistant came in and strapped Miri to a papoose board and held her head while the doctor administered a numbing eye drop, then used a tool to open up the tear duct before inserting a thin, flexible wire into the canal. Of course, Miri was none too pleased. She screamed and cried like I haven't heard before. After the doctor flushed the canal with water, he had to repeat the steps with the other eye.

Once free from the board, Miri glared at the doctor and happily accepted her pacifier and some snuggles from me. The doctor sounded positive about the probing. He said that sometimes babies have a lot of bone around the upper valve, which leads to unsuccessful probing. He didn't feel that with Miri's eyes, however.

We're hopeful this took care of the problem. Already, Miriam's eyes are less watery, and yesterday she cried her first real tear; it came from the inside corner of her eye instead of welling up until it overflowed from the middle. The doctor said to give it two to three weeks to make sure that the valve stays open. If not, we'll have to go to the hospital and have tubes inserted to force the valves open. Blech. I'm hoping we can avoid that.

Miri the day after her tear duct probing. She's a tiny bit swollen and red under her eyes, but otherwise fine.

A quick trip

Four days after Christmas, we braved the nasty roads to go to Salt Lake. My brother's wife and kids were there visiting her family, and since Salt Lake is SO much closer than San Antonio, this was a great chance to horn in on a Genetti family get-together to see our Texas family. (Ethan was in Iraq at the time, but he's home now! Huzzah!)

It was a quick there-and-back trip with just one night in the hotel. But we managed to pack in a lot of fun things along the way.

Before the Texas cousins showed up, we took the time to view the Christus at the North Visitors' Center at Temple Square. Here Analee and Seth view the statue.

Grandpa Scott tells the grandkids about their ancestor, Henry Grow, who helped to design and build the domed roof of the Tabernacle.

The grandkids on the temple steps. Mason, Samuel, Spencer, Rebekah and Analee. (Miriam was asleep in the stroller.)

After dinner that evening, Teressa, her boys and Grandma and Grandpa Scott stuck around Temple Square to see the lights. Since it was blizzarding and we have a wee one, we opted out and went swimming at the hotel pool instead. Miriam LOVED the water! She kept splashing and splashing and didn't even mind when it got on her face.

Analee in the pool. Last year, she was fearless in the pool. Now she's older and wiser. She wouldn't go in the pool without two forms of flotation.

The next day, we visited the planetarium at the Gateway. Bekah was an insatiable appetite for learning about all things science-related, so she really enjoyed all the displays. Here she is bouncing on the moon-like landscape.

Miriam getting a shoulder ride from Andrea. This baby is obsessed with hair. She loves pulling it and laughs merrily as she does.

After the planetarium, we grabbed some lunch before heading home on dry roads. Analee enjoyed her Dairy Queen ice cream cone at the Gateway food court.

To see more pictures from our trip and Christmas, click here.

Christmas festivities

I know, I know. It's mid-January and I'm JUST blogging about Christmas?! But here's the deal. I was waiting on pictures. And I'm lazy. And you know how the holidays get crazy-busy. And I'm lazy. And I'm lazy. Did I say that one already?

So, without further ado, here's how we spent our Christmas!

Christmas Eve was 100 percent perfect. We started out the day by visiting the Museum of Idaho's free Christmas exhibit. We let Bekah loose with the camera, and here's what she documented:

Various nativity displays, gingerbread houses, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah decor, Idaho history displays and a few self-portraits.

Next we drove to a neighbor's house for a sleigh ride.

Seth, Bekah (behind him in the silver coat) and Miriam riding on a two-horse open sleigh driven by our neighbor, Blake Ford.

Ana and Andrea on the sleigh. Bekah and Miri liked the ride, Ana ... not so much.

Then I had the pleasure of taking a 2-hour nap while Seth entertained the girls. (Like I said, a PERFECT Christmas Eve.)

Afterward, we loaded up the girls to go to Grandpa Wirkus' house for an evening of German fare and pajama presents from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Miriam getting a bite of red cabbage. She loved it.

Bekah and Ana modeling their new pajamas.

After dinner, we went to Seth's parents' house for more present opening and a Skype call with Seth's brother in Boston. (Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera with us.)

Christmas Day, I woke up too early (good thing I had that nap) and had to sneak downstairs to "read the Internet" (as Seth and I put it) before everyone else got up. I must have been too noisy, because shortly thereafter, the girls woke up. We had told them they weren't allowed out of bed before 7 a.m., but with everyone awake, we decided to go down 30 minutes early.

After the general unwrapping and gift enjoyment, Seth's parents came over and brought even more presents. Then we packed it up again and went to my parents' house for yet more presents.

Bekah looking at the fairy mermaid she received from Grandma and Grandpa Scott.

Analee inspecting her fairy mermaid.

Miriam the man-eater. She got a hold of the Ken doll Ana received from Santa.

Seth, Andrea and Ana reading on Grandma and Grandpa Scott's couch. Did I mention that Seth gave me a Kindle for Christmas? I'm not nearly cool enough to own such a device, but I must say that I love it.

9-month checkup

Two days after Christmas, I dragged all three girls in to the doctor's office to get flu shots (actually, mist for the big girls) and to have Miri's well-baby checkup. The doctor said she's on target developmentally, but she's a little underweight. He suggested that I increase the number of times I nurse her a day. I nodded my head, yet disagreed internally. I know the way ours girls are: skinny and big-headed. Case in point:

Miriam at 9 months
Weight: 17 pounds, 10 ounces (29th percentile)
Height: 28.5 inches (82nd percentile)
Head: 18.25 inches (97th percentile)

Bekah exhibited our family's growth tendencies to the extreme:

Rebekah at 9 months
Weight: 15 pounds, 9 ounces (5th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (5th percentile)
Head: don't have the exact measurement or percentile, but it was off the charts

As long as my girls are happy and healthy, I'm happy too. And Miriam is obviously both--she eats well, sleeps well and fills her diapers. Who could ask for anything more?

What's that? You could ask for something more? All right, name it. I see. ... You want to see an extremely cute picture of all three of our girls getting cleaned up in our hotel room's bathtub following a splashy dip in the hotel pool on our recent excursion to Salt Lake City? Happy to oblige: