Thumb Suckers

Ohhh, the evolution of finger sucking. For Malcom it began as full fists, then his first two fingers, and just recently settling on his thumbs. Sure it's cute to watch him comfort himself in this way, but it concerns me... will he have to go through what I went through to be able to stop it?

To say that I was an avid thumb sucker would be an understatement. I am told it began shortly after I made my debut into this world, and

ended.... well the fact that I can remember desperately trying to stop the sleep-habit should tell you something...

I must have been around the age of 4 or 5 when my parents decided that I needed an intervention. "Too old!" they said- but what they really meant was they were worried that I would eventually become an adult thumb-sucker in college, with roommates, and a possible audience via video tape or polaroid.

My parents had warned me that I needed to end the habit, but I remember the bewilderment of my young self trying to understand how one could possibly kick a habit that she had no idea she was doing... in her sleep?! They warned of the more "real" intervention measures, which I assume came shortly thereafter.

"Vicki- go get a screwdriver from the toolbox." my dad commanded one evening shortly

before bedtime. Something about the way his eyes twinkled and the snickers of my four older siblings sparked an ominous warning in my mind. I did as he asked, picking a random black handled phillips and handing it back to him. Dad then took one of my hands, and commenced to duct tape the screwdriver to my thumb. My siblings and parents all laughed at my new plight, which was how not to wack myself in my face while sleeping... it's always funnier when it's not you..

Once that proved more unpleasant than helpful, we progressed to a plentiful smothering of super hot sauce on each thumb. That became too messy, and I believe I was

put through a few more torturous flaming hoops before my parents must have given up and figured I'd grow out of it. I just remember waking in the wee hours of the morning, horrified, realizing I was

sucking that traitorous thumb again and looking around to make sure no one was watching. Then I'd lay on my hands, trying to stay just awake to catch myself doing in the act. That didn't work either.

I believe I also tried tying my hands to the bedposts, which also didn't work so well for three reasons:

1. It's hard to tie up one hand once the other is already tied.

2. You're arms fall asleep after a few minutes, and by morning you worry that you'll never be able to use them again.

3. If you do last till morning, you realize that you're arms are dead and useless and you have to wait for someone to miss you, then come looking for you. I was the youngest of five, with a house full of cats and dogs and fish. Waiting for someone to come looking for me could potentially take hours...

I don't know when or how I kicked the thumb-sucking habit. I must have at some point because if I still did, Ben would tease me mercilessly... I am thankful for my parents' intervention on my behalf as well. Though their methods didn't initially solve the problem, my fear of their methods must have helped...

I don't know if I'd be overly concerned if Malcom sucks his thumb longer than most children, but if worse comes to worst, than I believe the hand-tying method could be improved on with a little outside help. :)

Fun links:

Jazzercise- 1982 - the yoga of yester-year

How to Tell if Your Child is Socially Awkward - Some people will appreciate this more than others

Sleepin' in the Crib Like Big Boys Do

I am so proud of my little man! Last night he slept in his crib with out even a complaint. I had been so worried about crib-training him, especially after hearing about how most babies cry and cry about it.

It's funny how these things just work out. Before I had him I swore I would never let him sleep with us in our bed... and then I actually experienced the constant demands of a newborn and caved when he was just short of a week old. It was soooooo much better! We actually SLEPT and were much better parents for it!

But now Mr. Malcom is getting bigger and I worry about him rolling off the bed (plus it's just too hot at night to have us all in such close quarters). These factors coupled with his blessed ability to sleep though the night led me to feel that the time was coming soon to retraining him for his own little space in the crib. We had been praying that we could help make the transition easier on him and us- I knew I wouldn't be able to handle letting him cry himself to sleep. Perhaps I'm too soft, and as a result of my trepidations on the subject I had this horrible thought that he would be a scraggly, freckle faced thirty-something year old still sleeping on the right side of his parents bed.

Last night as I walked with him into the bedroom I just had a feeling that this would be a good night to try the big transition. We did our bedtime routine, then put him down in the crib. Not even a peep through the night!!

It's funny to me how Malcom seems to be so much calmer about new experiences than I am for him. I should really stop worrying about such little things since he obviously doesn't. Every mom thinks that her baby is the best out there, but Malcom really is. ;)

Fun links:
Baby Blooper Spit-Ups (this is for you Jessie Jo!!)
Monster Baby
Best Baby Laugh

Names

Hahaha!! I found this article on aol.com about the top ten boys names for guys that end up in jail... and guess what?! Malcom was #7! Right after Luke, which ironically is his uncle's name.

Ben is so going to use this as a reason that we should have named our manchild "Angus Danger". I'll admit that I have softened up slightly on this subject, and I've told ben that if he can come up with a good way to use Angus as a middle name, he can have it if we have another son... Or he can have a dog named Angus. When he begins to whine about this, I just remind him that his grandma wouldn't let us name a child Angus, and it works like a charm to get him to end the topic... I'm so glad I have his grandma on my side!!!

Click here to see the article.

What are the chances that the article would even spell "malcom" the same way?!

On a side note- 3 days left of the semester! And I'm "spring cleaning" today. If I had to choose between having and instantly spotless house and an assorted box of florences chocolates, I honestly don't know what I'd do. I love them both that much.

That's all I've got for now- but here are some more fun videos for everyone:
Blind Man at Sea
Evil Clown
Andy Demetriou

Question/Flashback/Jealous Rant

Some friends of mine from high school just had a baby Tuesday morning, and posted the absolutely adorable pictures today. I love looking at these pics because they take me back to those first few days of having Malcom. I know it was only about four months ago, but it seems longer and my memory is already fuzzy... I blame the lack of sleep on this. It seems I've had a lot of old friends that have had babies in the past six months... lets see.. I'm going to say around 9? No joke! And I think I'm forgetting some... it's hard to keep track.

Here's my question- how on earth are these women popping out babies and still looking drop dead gorgeous right after?!?

When I had Malcom and I had finally gotten to my recovery room (it was around 1am, so a few hours after he decided to make his debut), I had the opportunity to go to the bathroom. I remember waddling in there and seeing myself for the first time in all my post-baby, hospital gown glory: I had these swollen patches of blood-shot eyes, my clammy, pumpkin head was covered by matted and greasy hair, and I was swashing-bloated from head to toe. I swear my little fingers and toes looked like meaty pork sausages, and I felt so puffy that if you hurled me into the ocean I would float like a beach ball. I stopped dead in my tracks at the nasty site, and I thought, "What?! Did I die?" Surely, I had at least been run over by a garbage truck! I looked and felt like something out of a Tim Burton film, only grosser.

You have to remember that I had done my best to look pretty. Earlier that morning, before going to the hospital to be induced, I had painted my toenails, showered, slathered myself with my favorite citrus-scented lotion, done my make up and blow dried my hair. I'll admit it, I looked foxy for a nine month pregnant lady.

Wow.

Are we allowed to use photoshop on these pictures? Are you bringing in professional lighting crews and make-up artists? The jig's up ladies, time to pass over the secret.

That completes my jealous rant on this subject. Thank you for tuning in.
(And a big o' fatty congrats to all the new(er) mamas and papas out there! You all really are gorgeous!)

Malcom Takes a Spin

Our friend Diana has a son who grew out of the infant bike seat they had, so she gave it to us. We've had it since Malcom was born and have been dying for him to be big enough to fit in it. Well folks, last week I decided to see what the status was and behold! He could fit!! Yay for growing!

We looked around for a helmet locally, but we could only find them for kids 3+. I ended up ordering an infant helmet from Amazon.com We were ssoooo excited to put it on him!! Ben and I love to bike, and I haven't even touched mine since I was 5 months preggo with the boy. Now we can ride together as a family again. It makes me laugh a little that Malcom will be on a bike before he can even roll over...

We went for our first ride on Saturday morning. We went out to Heise/kelly Canyon- it has a bazillion trails all over the place. We had a great time and Malcom seemed to really enjoy the ride. We kept to the paved roads while Ben and his friends from work hit up some random trails.

Malcom was conked out for half of the ride.


In the baby bike seat sans helmet

Later that night, Ben remembered that he had left something in Melaleuca (SP? I still can't figure out how it's spelled!) that he needed, so right about the time it got dark we headed out down the few blocks towards the building he works at. The fireworks were going off and it was a warm night, so it was quite the pleasant little stroll. Once we got to the building, Ben entered his security code to unlock the door, but for some reason it didn't work and it ended up calling the cops. Woops! Ben called a bunch of supervisors that he knows to see if their codes would work, but we didn't have any success. We ended up waiting for the cop to show up (which took 15 minutes!!). It was humorous. It seems like we're always having some kind of adventure! And what we learned from this little experience is, is that if you want to steal something or break in to a building, you should do it on the 4th of July! :)

On Sunday, my good old friend from back home stopped by with her husband to visit. It was sooo good to see them again! Some friendships you don't have to put a lot of work into because they come so naturally. Katrina is definitely one of those- we've been friends ever since we met our first year of Girl's Camp when we were 12. Since we have both been busy and have gotten our own lives since high school, we haven't been able to keep in touch nearly as much as we should, but it doesn't change our friendship one bit. Anyways, it's always a great experience when you get to catch up with your old friends!

Here's Katrina, me, and Malcom hangin' on Sunday

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!! Love to all!
Here's the clip of the day (in honor of last weekend):

Watch till the end:
Sledge Hammer Explosion Fail
Burn Out Comparison

Malcom Turns 100!

The title says it all- This week Mr. Malcom is 14 weeks, and today he is 100 days old. We haven't killed him! Yay! But seriously folks, I thought that to celebrate the momentous occasion of his surviving our new-found parenting skillz, I would post about my favorite thing about Malcom... or rather, everything about Malcom.

1. His big toothless smile. He's a pretty happy kid, so we get a ton of these every day. We live for these! He loves being sung to (especially "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer), being outside, bath time and diaper-change time, new people, and standing up (with help, of course)

2. Big blue eyes, crazy Matheson eyebrows and wide nose... every feature, really.

3. BABY FEET!! Every time I look at these I remember being pregnant, and feeling the shape of his feet through my stomach because he loved to stretch. We went for three weeks straight with these jammed into my ribs! I guess it was the first distinctive feature I ever identified. They look exactly like miniture Ben-feet too, and I can't help but think it's the cutest thing in the world.

4. Baby Malcom's hands- he thinks his left is the tastiest. He's laughing in this picture-

5. Mr. Malcom conversation and chuckles (prime time for this is during diaper changes, waking up in the morning, and for about a half hour before he goes into tired-meltdown stage before bedtime). He's having a conversation with daddy in this picture.


6. Cuddles. He gets lonely fairly quickly. We love holding and cuddling him, so this may be our fault. Don't care. :)


7. Sneezes- seriously so cute! I haven't been able to capture this yet, but I will someday. Till then, this will have to do... (This was taken just after a sneezing spell)

We have a good time together. Being Malcom's mom is the best! And now I go to celebrate this "birthday" by making a batch of brownies which I will finish before daddy gets home. It's another one of my new mama skillz (finishing the brownies, that is). ;)

Love to all, and here are the "funnies" that you really came here for:
Are Women Born This Way?
Kid Bounces Off Wall (I'm fairly certain Ben or Luke has done this)
Having a Bad Day (This looks totally like something I would do, so I feel for this poor lady.. and laugh)
Funniest Prank in History ... or just pretty good.