William is 4 Months

William had his check up today. He weighs 14 pounds 14 ounces and is 25 1/4 inches long, which are both in the 50th percentiles. His head remains in the 5th percentile. The doctor said that other than having slightly sensitive skin that he is perfect, her words!

At 4 months William is healthy and happy. He LOVES to stand up and suck on his binki. He has started cooing a lot which is adorable. And he has also started paying close attention to Ruth. He laughs really hard when she gives him attention. Ruth is also really sweet with him, and walks by him and gives him kisses without me prompting her to do so. He smiles a lot and has started drooling a ton. We think he's working on some teeth, but none have shown up yet. He's a sweet boy, mild tempered and only cranky when he's hungry or has just gotten his immunizations. He's gotten over his growing spurt (where he was feeding every 2-3 hours, including during the night) and has started napping again, as well as only waking up at midnight and 6 to eat.

I know everyone says this about their children, but I really can't imagine life without our William Knight. He has taught all of us things about ourselves and has brightened our world. We love you Will.

OxyClean Saved My Marriage or Ruth Doesn't Need Stitches!

We sat down to paint our toes. We put the old brown towel on the living room carpet like we always do. Ruth picked to paint her toes orange, so we painted hers and mine orange. Then as I began painting my fingers, Ruth grabbed the pink bottle of nail polish, broke the top off and shook it all over herself and the carpet. My poor, poor carpet. My first thought was, "Brad is going to KILL me! He already hates the smell of nail polish and he'll be so annoyed that I was doing this in the living room!"

Happily I dealt with this situation really well, didn't yell at her and cared more about her being okay than the fact that my carpet was ruined. I ran her to the bathroom and realized that in the process of breaking the bottle open she sliced her thumb open too. I was worried she was going to need stitches because by the time I realized this her hands and arms were covered in blood. Luckily, after a few minutes of pressure the bleeding stopped. Unfortunately she was still covered in nail polish...that would have to wait until I dealt with the carpet.



My computer wasn't on yet, so I turned it on. While I was waiting for it to load I grabbed my nail polish remover and poured the entire bottle on the spot and started scrubbing. I needed more so I called Shirlaine who brought some over. This is a picture Ruth took while I was talking to Shirlaine.


The internet was up and Shirlaine left, so I looked up what other people had done. Someone suggested vinegar. I tried that, and it did nothing. Someone else...actually quite a few people...suggested Windex. Tried that-nothing happened. I called Judy McCurdy (our realtor who is also in our ward) and she said she'd bring over some carpet cleaner that works wonders. She didn't get to our house for about an hour, so before then I read that someone had used OxyClean. The previous owner of our house had left a huge box of the stuff so I ran to the basement and grabbed the box. I mixed a quarter cup of it with a cup of hot water, mixed it up, and poured it all over the stain.

Relief! It was finally working, the stain was really going away and I had to look for it to be able to continue the cleaning. Judy got to our house and her cleaning product did the final trick and took the last tint of pink out of the carpet.

When Brad got home and I told him the story he walked around the living room looking for the stain. He even lifted up one of the chairs to see if it was under there!

Mostly Ruth

Ruth has a new thing: these pink boots.

She loves them because she can get them on and off without help, they're bright pink, and stomping around the house is way more fun.

The above picture depicts her entire wardrobe one evening. She had a bad rash on her bum so we were airing it out. Happily she went potty on the toilet and had no accidents for the 3 or 4 hours that she was diaper free!

Ruth and Boudicca = usually friends:

Yes, that's salad in her bowl! And yes, she asked for it...and yes, she wanted seconds!

Oh, and much to my dismay, she can now open doors :(

Will has gotten really good at jumping in his chair, he loves that thing!

Ruth Gets a Haircut or Can You See the Dog?

Updates

I lost 2 more pounds, beating my goal to weigh 185 by October 7th!

Ruth taught herself how to jump and now says "Cool!"

Will weighs more than 15 pounds, can sleep anywhere and giggles when he's tickled on his ribs

And I nearly burned the house down by making zucchini bread. I was trying to memorialize our trip to Craters of the Moon and in the process I created this:

Which looks a lot like this: (actually hardened lava from Craters of the Moon)


I wanted to carmelize cinnamon sugar on the top of the bread, but the top rack was too close to the broiler, so after setting the one minute timer, I opened the oven and flames came shooting out at me. Literally, flames were flying out of the oven. So we cut the top off the bread and ate the rest, which was really good.

William's Blessing

Today William was blessed by Brad at church. Asa and Paula were here to attend. Lots of other family members from both sides wanted to be here but were unable to get here. He wore the outfit that Brad was blessed in when he was a baby.

Above is Asa, Brad and Will; 3 generations of Laws men. The next pictures are cute ones of the kids. Will is so patient with Ruth.

We were in a rush to get to church on time, so Ruth had to eat her banana while I did her hair.

"The North Idaho" Vacation: Day 7

Today we finally made it home! On our way we saw a Nez Perce national historic site as well as a Sacajewea site.



We also stopped and walked around Craters of the Moon, which we're excited to go back to one day.





We had so much fun and are so grateful that Paula and Asa took us along on their 34th anniversary trip, we love you!

"The North Idaho" Vacation: Day 6

Today was clear again, which meant I could go do the activities at the lodge I had been anticipating.


They didn't open until 11am so we bummed around the lodge and playground until that time.





Then I jumped on the bungee trampoline and climbed the rock wall.


When I was done climbing, I didn't know how to get back down, so I just let go of the wall. Obviously I was hooked to the harness so I didn't fall very fast, but Ruth was watching and started shouting because she was worried about me.



As soon as I was done with that we got back in the car and started on our way home. We drove through Montana and ended in Hamilton. Here we at at the "Coffee Cup" which had great home-made food.

"The North Idaho" Vacation: Day 5

It was stormy and yucky today so we spent all morning inside. So I had time to play with Ruth's hair:


It cleared up in the afternoon so we went up to Bonner's Ferry which was only 20 miles or so from Canada! We walked around the town, which was cute and then saw Myrtle Falls.

"The North Idaho" Vacation: Day 4

Since we were staying at the top of Schweitzer Mountain it took about 20 minutes to get into town. Ruth was generously sharing the beautiful view with her Homba. On the way down the mountain we stopped for a photo session.


Today we spent down in the town of Sandpoint. We saw a really great Antique store.



Brad, the kids, and I spent time at the city park:





And we did more window shopping.


We thought the name of this women's clothing store was hilarious!