Diapering the "Bahbee" and the "Ekema"

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

So. Let no one doubt Bethany's maternal instincts!

Last weekend, the big Lyman family reunion was held at our house. It was really fun! On Saturday, I left Bethany home with James (and the rest of the guys who weren't up to the adventure of shopping for large quantities of pink shirts for the upcoming family portrait) and I hit the stores with the Lyman gals.

A couple of hours into our pink-shirt-shopping, I called home to tell James we were running late and could he PLEASE run to the store for salad ingredients, and by the way how is Bethany doing? And he related the following experience:

Apparently, while James was talking with the guys, Bethany trotted off to her room to play. After awhile, James noticed she was being pretty darn quiet (you know what I mean--THAT kind of quiet), so he went to check on things. Sure enough, she was up to no good--she had decided to diaper the "Ekema."

The "Ekema" is actually a stuffed, bean-bag type echidna (Australian animal, similar to a porcupine, we got it in Australia). Anyway, Bethany had it on the floor and had smeared Vaseline all over its little bottom and underbelly--she is SUCH a good mom to protect against diaper rash! (Nothing worse than a stuffed echidna with diaper rash) And the whole thing was a goopy mess!

Exhibit A:



She then proceeded to try and put a diaper on it. (If there's anything worse than stuffed echidna diaper rash it's a diaperless echidna having accidents on the floor.) Bethany also likes to give "Bahbee" the occasional diaper change as well:

Exhibit B:



So the question of the day is this: how do I clean Vaseline off of Ekema? Any suggestions?

If Pictures Say a Thousand Words--I'm Gonna Let Them This Time!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter, Everyone!

The Eggs:





The Baskets:







The Hunt:





The Dress:



The Hair (I actually DID that!):



The Reason:



I know that my Redeemer lives! And I'm so grateful.

Gettin' Down on the Farm: Baby Animal Days

Friday, April 10, 2009

So after hearing about Baby Animal Days at The American West Heritage Center for many years now, we decided to give it a try. We took Bethany this morning (and my dad, he loves that sort of thing) and we had a BLAST! A new Lyman family Easter tradition is born!

While James was petting the ox, it let out a loud MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Bethany, who was a few feet away, thought that was pretty cool. Her eyes got huge, she thought about it for a minute and then said, "Again?" But apparently, the ox does not perform on demand.



Bethany loved holding and petting the baby bunnies. So cute and cuddly! Though I felt sorry for the poor things--I shudder to think how I'd feel after being loved to death by thousands of noisy kids! Poor bedraggled bunnies!



The baby chicks were also really fun:



As were the goats and sheep:





The tractor was way fun, too--Vroooooooooom!



As was the BIG wagon ride!







And the LITTLE wagon ride:



We ended the experience with a trip to see the Easter Bunny in the old opera house. Bethany would not sit on his(her?)lap, but she was very insistent that she give him (her?) a high-five! She has associated high-fives with the Easter Bunny since the one in Wal-Mart asked her to give him (her?) a high-five the other day.



All in all, if you haven't been to Baby Animal Days, it's so much fun! So there were 3000 other people there with us. Hey, it's a wide open piece of land. So don't be afraid of the crowds. The only really long line that we skipped was for the pony rides--everything else was totally doable! I definitely recommend Baby Animal Days--we'll be back next year! YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!

Who is This Strange Man in a Loin Cloth?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

A couple of days ago, James, Bethany and I ran away from home for a night. We didn't go far, just to Salt Lake City, but it was so fun to have a little mini-vacation! The whole thing was very spontaneous--I had to be in SLC on Wednesday morning for some primary auxiliary training, so we just figured, what the heck--let's go down Tuesday night. So we hopped on Priceline (Priceline is our friend!), got a hotel room at the Red Lion downtown, and packed some bags.

First stop was The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. When we pulled up to it, we had some serious misgivings at first (It looked like an old grocery store! Hmmmmmmm.) but we decided to go for it anyway. We had a great time looking at all the fish, jellies, sharks, rays, and other creatures of the sea!



Bethany loved it. She especially liked petting the starfish, because it actually moved a little after she touched it. She liked its rough bumpiness.



She also liked the BIG fish:





I'll say this for the aquarium: it may not be Sea World by a long shot, but it's still pretty cool and TOTALLY beats the National Aquarium in Washington D.C., which we visited a few years ago and had maybe two tanks with some fish and that was it. (I could have seen better fish at Pet Smart than were in the National Aquarium. Sad, huh?)

After the aquarium, we decided to take Bethany to the Mayan restaurant (hence the man in the loin cloth, above). We had a table right by the cliff divers and Bethany was entranced. The food left a lot to be desired--WOW SPICY! And everything had onions, which James is allergic to (not an exaggeration, we spoke to the chef prior to ordering and he basically told us we were hosed and to get the chicken strips). But it was a fun environment!



Now that I think about it--do I have a subconcious need for California with my pseudo-Sea World and pseudo-Disneyland? Hmmmmmm. Just a little introspection and self-analysis . . .someone get me on a plane, quick!

We then headed to our room at the Red Lion, and Bethany had a BALL. The coolest thing ever was the ice machine. She LOVED that! And she just loved exploring the room. When it came time for bed, however, she told me she did NOT want to be in her Pack-n-Play, she wanted her room at home. She looked me square in the face and said, "Go home now! Room!" But after being assured we would go home tomorrow, she went to sleep and slept like a log all night--hooray!

The next day, after I attended my auxiliary meetings (wonderful!), we took Bethany up to see the Christus statue. Bethany loved looking at the planets and stars, and loved the big statue of Jesus. And as we headed back down the ramp, she yelled, "Bye, Jesus!" We loved that. It was a short trip, but a good one, and a much-needed break and early birthday celebration for me!

A Picture Says a Thousand Words . . .

The above picture just proves that you can put a child in a beautiful dress and lead her to a picture-taking session, but you can't make her smile (or for that matter, stop screaming). This picture was taken at Tate's baby blessing celebration dinner last Sunday (Wouldn't it be charming to get a picture of the grandparents and the four cousins?)and as you can tell, it was past nap time for the Bethie Boo. Out of the blue, she went hysterical on us ("MOMMY HOLDY!!!!!) so the pictures were a bust, but funny, too.

Below are the ones where Mommy was "holdy" and those were better . . .



And here's one of the handsome little man of the hour himself, Tate Benjamin:



And with his proud parents:



And of the whole "fam damily":



We had a wonderful weekend for Tate's blessing, other than lots of snow. The snow actually reminded all of us of Ben's blessing day during the big storm of '83, when no one could come because they couldn't dig out. Luckily, it wasn't that bad for Tate and we all just had to drive a little slowly to Newton! It was so fun to be with family for this special occasion!