Guest Blogger: Proceed at Your Own Risk

It's me (Tim).  This might surprise you, but sometimes baby Liam likes his mom more than myself so here I am trying to help out however I can.  Speaking of Liam, he continues to dominate the highlight reel for weekly photos, which overall are a little scant this week.  Featured below is some playtime on the floor with the permanent caption of "I almost held still that time, Mom."

He's a good baby overall, though sleep is still rough. The Doctrine and Covenants says, "Cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated." With a new born, we only dream of sleeping as long as is needful. We try to retire early but it's a 3-hour process; we are always weary; and only Hyrum and Lila know the meaning of having minds and bodies that are invigorated.  Nonetheless, progress is slow but hopefully real.  Whitney is wonderful and always bears the brunt of newborn sleep deprivation.

You may take a moment here to notice that the content of the blog doesn't truly line up with the pictures.  Well, I don't actually know how to rearrange the pictures so we are basically stuck with the default order and arrangement. No big deal.  I actually just pressed a button, and they all clumped together so we're going to run with that.

The other kids:                                                                                       Lila is a wonderfully determined little girl.  As you can see in the photo, she wants to be just like her mom (good choice). Here she is trying to wear the baby carrier. She also likes to help with dishes, fill up her own water bottle, wash her own hands (without rolling up her sleeves), and loves to say, "it happens" & "no worries" because lots of things happen and there is plenty to worry about when your 2-year-old wants to do everything her parents and big brother get to do. She continues to improve on her balance bike, and she has a great laugh and a playful personality.                                                                                Hyrum has a big mind, big vocabulary, and big emotions. He really is a big kid, and we are trying to find more responsibilities for him--pouring his cereal, helping with dishes, helping with cooking. He likes learning to do new things, but isn't always as excited when he interprets his new responsibilities as a chore.  I guess that's life.  He still loves to be outside, collect sticks, and "invent" things. He loves to read and is doing well with preschool.  He's been counting down the days to Christmas.  We put the presents under the tree early, and the excitement has been building for quite some time.

   

    Most of this week was busy as usual. We did have a special Christmas program for church today which was nice. Our ward asked members to record individual/family musical numbers and readings of scriptural selections, and then they inserted the links into a program that they sent out for everyone so we could enjoy the Christmas program at home.  We also made graham cracker nativity scenes today which was fun, and we took a drive to look for Christmas lights which wasn't very fruitful given we had to be back by 5 PM for dinner.  The kids still had fun though.

    Tim: I've been gradually getting back into the swing of things since Liam was born. I spent the last 2 weeks between my personal primary care clinic and spending time in the sports medicine clinics.  Unfortunately, my life is about to shift back to the majority of my time being spent in the hospital, and I won't get to do as much sports medicine as I would like.  Sports medicine is actually kind of a misnomer. While I will get to spend more time with athletes as things settle out with COVID-19, I enjoy spending the majority of my time with 50+ year-olds with arthritis who have exhausted lots of pain management strategies and now want medicine injected into their joints, which we do under ultrasound guidance.  It's a good gig.  Otherwise, I have to work Christmas this year so we extended our countdown chain and will be celebrating on the 30th when I start my week of vacation for New Years. All of the residents either get Christmas or New Years off, and I'll have New Years off this year.  It's a little weird for Whitney and me to celebrate on a day other than the 25th, but the kids still can't tell time so we're using that to our advantage and celebrating a late Christmas as a family.

    Whitney: She stays busy with everything and everyone.  I'm not sure how she does it all, but she does, and I'm thankful for it.  Most recently, she has tried to avoid dairy and soy products in case they have been giving Liam any digestive issues (Greater love hath no mom than this...I could never give up dairy.).  We'll see how he's doing in a few weeks and if she wants to tempt fate with some post-Christmas treats.  She also plugs along on her calling in the Relief Society and does what she can to let the kids play outside despite cold, wet weather and a newborn--did I mention she's great?

Anyway, I promise you can have your traditional blogger back next week with Liam's permission.

Merry Christmas to everyone!  We hope everyone stays safe and enjoys being with family. 

(One of our graham cracker nativities. Lila did it all... I promise this wasn't one of those projects where dad does everything and his kids have no fun...Lila did at least eat it, and Hyrum did actually make his own.)