Automatic Sprinkler

So everyone told me that part of the joy of having a boy was being peed on...frequently. They weren't kidding. Unfortunately neither Ever nor myself have gotten quick enough on the draw to prevent a shower of pee at least once a day. Of course this novelty is not just reserved for mommy and daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Kiley (my sister) and the doctor have also had the privilege of being peed on. Last night however he went beyond the initial insult of urinating on mommy and took it to the next level: that's right, you guessed it, explosive baby poo. I was changing his diaper on the bed and of course he started to pee. I caught it quickly though and was feeling very proud of myself for keeping it from getting all over everything. I even allowed myself the pleasure of thinking that I was actually getting pretty good at this diaper changing thing when it happened. I still had hold of his little ankles with his bum up in the air when a stream of yellow guck SHOT out of his backside and sprayed everything within a foot of him! Alas, that meant it mostly got all over me. I was shocked. I just sat there staring at myself covered in baby poo. Then I started looking around at what else he'd hit. He got the pillow, the handmade quilt and the white bedspread that my mom let me borrow for company. By the way, does anyone know how to get yellow baby guck off of a white bedspread??? I haven't exactly told my mom about it yet! I guess it's all part of being a parent but I couldn't help but ask myself where his daddy was when all this went down. To date I've been peed on, pooped on, drooled on, snotted on, and spit up on. I just hate to keep all the fun stuff for myself.This is how Daddy changes a diaper

New Pics of Ezra

Resting on a lazy Sunday

Ezra & Babymama

Ezra & Babydaddy

You lookin' at me?

Napping w/ Grandpa

My binky....MY BINKY!!

At Last

Last Sunday night at this time we were sitting at my parents house with my sister, her husband and my best friend Lori (who had just driven up from California), watching a particularly amusing episode of "Bridezillas." We were all feeling a bit disappointed because there hadn't been so much as a twinge to suggest that our baby's arrival was anywhere on the horizon. With his due date looming just a few hours away, we felt even more than before that he would be coming late. So it was with no small amount of surprise that I awoke at 2:00 a.m. Monday morning with some rather unpleasant contractions. These were painful enough to have pulled me out of a very brief sleep (we'd gone to bed quite late) and to let me know that finally it was the real thing. I woke up Ever and by the time we got dressed and over to the hospital it was almost 3:00. I was definitely looking forward to the epidural by then! Long story short, little Ezra's arrival came quite quickly considering that it was my first baby and went very smoothly. Ever was wonderful, I couldn't have asked for him to be more supportive or loving! The whole thing was over by 10:07 a.m, almost exactly 8 hours after it started. After about 20 minutes of pushing, our sweet boy took his first breaths in this world. What an indescribable feeling to finally meet the little person we'd been dreaming of for so long! It was such a positive experience, we were so blessed and we got such a beautiful baby out of the whole thing (ok so we're a bit biased but come on, have you seen him?! ) that I'm still in awe over it.

Now as I sit here writing this he's sitting in his little swing, asleep with his binky half way out of his mouth, one hand resting on his chest, the other against his head and I can't help but realize with my whole heart what a precious gift the Lord has given us. Fresh from the arms of our Father in Heaven we're so grateful that he's now part of our home-at last.

Ezra Allen Gonzalez

Born 8/13/2007
10:07 am
7lbs, 7oz, 20inches long

How Many False Alarms Until A Full House?

As I mentioned in the last post, waiting for baby is not a game I particularly enjoy playing. It's a bit like waiting for someone to drop an 8 pound bowling ball on your foot: you know it's going to happen and that it's going to hurt like crazy but there's just nothing you can do about it one way or the other. For the past two weeks we've been having "false alarms;" it seems that the baby is set to arrive within hours only to have all symptoms splutter and die just when you think it's really on a roll. This is not fun. This is frustrating. While there is a ton of advice out there on how to get baby's arrival moving, the bottom line is he's not coming until he's ready, period, the end. Last night after having contractions for 2 hours every 6 minutes we decided we should head over to the hospital and see what there was to be seen. We knew of course that there was a very good possibility that they would pat us on the head and send us home snickering quietly at our tender hopes that baby was indeed coming at last, but we went anyway.

Let me just say that while I'm glad of the "dry run" it makes waiting for the actual ordeal all the more unpleasant. I won't go into details but this is a hospital after all and not a 4 star resort. The gowns they hand out are a lovely shade of puke green and are suspiciously lacking in buttons, zippers, Velcro or even safety pins. Apparently they're not made to be closed up anywhere; they're more of a glorified sheet really. Anyway, after keeping us for an hour for "observation" which really means that they're laughing at you and your gown in the other room, they did just what we were afraid of and sent us home. While I was certainly having contractions, (they were right there on the monitor being tracked by a blue line), they weren't "progressive" and so they sent us off. After another half hour at home, the contractions stopped all together. I felt gypped! Really that awful gown alone should have meant that I deserved to go into real labor! The excitement that was once felt upon every twinge and pain has been replaced by a deep mistrust of what those feelings really mean. As far as I'm concerned, they're just another opportunity to cause embarrassment and humiliation and give the hospital staff a good laugh (I mean the green really did clash awfully with my hair)!

Waiting for Baby

In the beginning I never would have believed that the last 10 days of waiting for baby Ezra could seem longer than the 9 months we’ve been waiting so far…but it does. Each day that goes by feels like a week and if I didn’t know better, I’d say that time was actually moving backwards. Sigh. It’s not enough that Ever and I are holding our breaths, waiting for the moment when we grab our bags and rush to the hospital, but a whole host of family and friends are waiting anxiously for it too. I have one friend in California (love ya Lori) who calls me every day if she hasn’t gotten an e-mail from me by about noon just to make sure I haven’t gone into labor and not told her. Every morning I show up to work to a chorus of “I didn’t think you’d be here today!”. Yes, I am the woman who is going to be perpetually pregnant; at least that’s how it feels.

Technically I have 10 days left but try as I might to remind my mind of this it stubbornly insists I should have given birth a month ago. I agree with it. 9 months is entirely too long to be in this condition, especially in Southern Utah in the middle of summer. But of course I know that the wait is worth it for a healthy baby boy. We’re so excited to meet him!

On my side of the family it will be the first Grandbaby and for my Grandma, her first Great-Grandbaby. My mom calls a couple times a day to make sure that nothing interesting is happening and unless our dog Spencer has managed to drag the leftovers off the kitchen counter and into his mouth, nothing interesting is. For Ever’s side of the family this will make the 3rd grandchild and the second grandson. Celest, Perla's daughter of course was the first to arrive nearly 5 years ago and will remain the only girl for now and will continue to be the Princess (lucky girl). Nathan, Andy's son joined her 2 years ago this month. We hope to add Ezra to the list very soon! I also hope he’s not a ‘monkey baby’ as Ever says. Of course if he is born with a lot of hair I don’t think I can blame that on Ever, the least hairy guy I know. No I fear the hairy part will come from my side of the family (Roly, this is the part where you can crack a joke about my mustache-it just gets so much funnier each time you do it).

Ok, Ezra, it’s all on you...don’t keep us waiting!

Long Intro...(sorry) Part 2

....Also, there’s our latest (and nameless) addition to the Gonzalez family; we’re expecting a baby boy any day now. We had no idea it would be so hard to name a baby! If it had been a girl we would have been in good shape so of course it figures that we’re having a boy. At first we were going with Noah but living in St. George there are at least a million little Noah’s in various shapes and sizes running around and after hearing it screamed across every Target and Walmart in the county, the name kind of lost its appeal. From there we tried on a variety of other handles for our little bundle including Eli, Levi (my favorite), Santiago and Diego (Ever’s favorite). Nothing seemed to fit. Now I know Diego was popular with a small contingent of Ever Supporters but I could never get on board. I mean the baby’s last name is Gonzalez and I could just imagine deciding to name him Diego or Santiago and then having him turn out to be a red head with dark skin and freckles. On a side note, that by the way is Ever’s greatest fear. I think he must not have any other ones however because he frequently insists that he will die if he has a red headed son as they can not possibly be as cute as red headed girls and he boldly declares this in the presence of my 6’4”, 200+ pound RED-HEADED father without considering the risk he’s taking. The man has a death wish. Come to think of it I think Sean might want to have a word or two with Ever about that issue too. Anyway, I just thought that we were asking for trouble if we went with one of Ever’s favorite choices so now we’re waiting to see the little guy before deciding on his name. Hopefully we won’t be delirious and name him Naphtali or Abednego or something.

Finally, as I mentioned, after coming home from New York Ever and I began praying about attending a Spanish Ward here and both felt that was the right choice. We started attending the Rio Virgin Ward in November and then a month ago we found out that they were forming a Branch here in the St. George East Stake where we live and that we would be asked to attend there. Shortly after, we were called in by the Stake Presidency and Ever was extended the calling of First Counselor in the new Spanish St. George East Rama 28 Presidency. It’s been quite the experience so far. Ours was the first branch to be associated with only one Stake rather than pulling in from several different ones. We have about 54 members and a lot of investigators! Ever is gone quite a bit with meetings and I know that Sacrament will be a whole new experience with him sitting on the stand instead of helping me out with “the boy” but I’ll figure it out! I got my first set of Spanish Scriptures and enjoy reading them very much. I love how the Gospel is true in every language! Hopefully I’ll be able to respond comfortably and actually have conversations with the members in Spanish by the end of the year. It’s horribly intimidating!

So there’s our past two years in a nut shell. I can’t believe we’ve been up here that long and that so much has happened to us. We’re happy though have been enjoying our time together just the three of us and very soon we’ll spending alot of time getting to know the newest addition to the Gonzalez family.

Long Intro....(sorry) Part 1

It’s hard to believe but we’ve now been in St. George, UT a whole two years! We’re officially Utah residents. Wow, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d utter. After all, we are the couple that swore we’d NEVER live in Utah. I mean there’s no Clearman’s or Claim Jumper or El Torrito, there’s no Disneyland and worst of all (if you ask Ever) no Blue Heaven. How do the Dodgers keep playing without their number one fan sitting in the bleachers?? And there is absolutely no way to satisfy a craving for In N Out’s cheeseburgers, fries or milkshakes up here; that requires an hour and a half trip into Vegas. All of this has us frequently asking ourselves why on earth we ever moved to Southern Utah. Good question really. I guess because we felt the Lord told us to. Not much more you can say about that! We’ve been blessed here certainly with all kinds of opportunities we wouldn’t have had if we’d stayed in the Golden State. We own property, paid off both cars, got a dog (hello Spencer!) and with me working for an airline we’ve also been able to travel a lot. Our two favorite trips were to San Francisco and New York City. As non-rev’s (airline employee travelers) we’ve seen a different side of these cities than I think we otherwise would have.

The first time we went to San Francisco was right after I graduated college and we drove. This time we used public transportation rather than renting a car since it was going to be a rather quick trip and since paying for parking in San Francisco is insane!! We walked a lot and took the cable cars and saw all kinds of things we’d missed the first time since we’d whizzed by it all in a car. We love San Francisco, it’s honestly one of our favorite cities to visit. We’d love to catch a game at the “Hated One’s” stadium. They may be the Dodger’s arch enemies but I’m sorry, it’s a cool stadium!

Then there was New York. We did that in October of last year and I still think about it all the time. It is such a fascinating city, kind of above your opinions of it if you know what I mean. We used public transportation there too of course and Ever did a great job on the subways even though it had been 10 years since he’d been there last. Visiting the city that he’d served in on his mission was an incredible experience. We have so many pictures of him in his Mission Photo Album at all of these different places throughout New York and actually standing in them made all of his stories and experiences come alive for me! We went to church on Sunday in Harlem at one of his old branches that he’d served in and the first person we saw remembered him and gave him a huge hug! It was our experience in Sacrament Meeting that day in a small branch in Harlem that made us both feel that perhaps we needed to seek out the Spanish Ward here in St. George. It was life changing for us. After that he took me to the Manhattan Temple which was his ward building on his mission. Half of it is still a ward building, the other half is the Temple. He took me upstairs and showed me the couch he’d had his backpack stolen off of and the closet where someone had taken his bike while he was at a baptism and the Baptismal Font itself where he has so many pictures of himself with companions and the people they were baptizing. It was just indescribable to be there with him, it really goes beyond words. In addition to visiting old mission sites we also hit the Empire State building (holy cow it’s high!), Ground Zero, Central Park, 5th Avenue, Broadway, Wall Street, Battery Park, Rockefeller Center and of course Times Square. We even stopped at his favorite hot dog place called Gray’s Papaya on the Upper East Side. Now let me just say that Ever has been raving about this place since I met him 8 years ago. He went on and on about how delicious their hot dogs were, how perfect, how matchless, how they were the crowing creation of meat parts in a tube so I couldn’t wait to try them out and bask in the same frankfurter glow. We stepped inside this little corner stand and Ever ordered for us. When asked what I wanted on my ‘dog’ I piped up with “mustard and relish” just like at Dodger Stadium! Wrong side of the country I guess. The guy informed me rather coolly that they didn’t have relish there. I had the option of sauerkraut, onions and some other strange concoctions that I hesitate to try and identify. So I smiled feebly and said that just mustard would be fine then. I’m pretty sure I saw him rolling his eyes at the other guy behind the counter as he turned around to get my food. I accepted it and slunk away to the counter by the window where Ever was waiting for me in raptures of hot dog delight. He watched anxiously as I took my first bite. Now I didn’t mean to offend him, I really didn’t but it took every ounce of effort I had not to yak that bite right back out onto the counter. The hot dog was crunchy!! Crunchy! A crunchy hot dog! The skin was dark and wrinkled and crunched when you bit into it! That is just wrong, on multiple levels! I’ve never particularly been a hot dog fan but these were not the earth shaking frankfurters that I’d heard about for 8 years, maybe I’d gotten a bad batch! Alas! No, that’s how these are made. I’ve since talked to others who were not surprised in the least by this appalling revelation that the hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya were crunchy; in fact their mouths have watered the same way that Ever’s does as they heard them described. I fear my delicate palate is just not cultured enough to enjoy the crowing achievement of New York City- the crunchy hot dog.

Times Square was a site I’ll never forget! Ever hailed one of those bike cabs and it took us to Times Square just as the sun was setting. The lights just popped out at us and surrounded us until the whole chaotic scene just looked like a gigantic blur, larger than life. It was beautiful and shocking and I can’t imagine seeing it for the first time any other way! We plan to go back again soon and spend a little more time seeing more of the places Ever spent a lot of time in on his mission.