10 Life Lessons Learned...

Well, according to my few, but faithful readers, I have been majorly slacking on my blogging for the past month. (This post was started a month ago so we will say 2 months now...) My apologies, friends, but sometimes life throws you curves and blogging just has to take a backseat to the more important things of the time. In this case, my life got pretty unpredictable almost exactly two months ago when my oldest sister went in to surgery to have her gall bladder removed. It was supposed to be an outpatient same-day procedure...haha, oh the irony...basically, you just need to know that Christi was in and out of hospitals, doctor's visits, bedrest, excruciating pain, nausea, and basically, dying for the next month or so waiting for the doctors to figure out what they could do to fix her internal issues.

Now, it is important to note that Christi is the mother of two

adorable little girls who

I actually recently blogged about. But you have to realize that they are ages 2 years old and about 6 months. You can imagine feeling as awful as Christi felt this entire time and still trying to stay up through the nights with the babies and comfort the girls........bottom line--she didn't.

That's where I come in! It wasn't really like I was the only one helping out, Annie and Mom were super helpful too, but I think I was up in Salt Lake about 3 or 4 nights a week for the last month and a half of Winter semester to stay up with the babies and help feed them their bottles, comfort them back to sleep, etc.

Who wouldn't want to wake up at 3am for that face though, really? :)

Thusly...

10 Life Lessons Learned:

1. I want to have my life a little less planned so that I can on a whim be available to go help someone who is desperately in need.

2. I am never having children if I am still trying to do school. Ever. There is just not enough time or energy in the day to be a full time mom and do well in school if you take too many credits. I have a whole lot more respect for the girls in my classes who bring their babies with them and attempt to take notes, listen respectfully, feed the baby, and comfort them at the same time. I don't think I'll be giving any dirty looks to that distraction in the corner of the room anymore. They have my sympathy :)

3. Never pick up a 6 month year old without a burp-rag on your shoulder...seriously...It doesn't matter how many times they've spit up already...they will never cease to amaze you.

4. Kids understand a lot more of what you're saying than you think they do. It was amazing how innocently ignorant Tori remained when I told her time and time again to hurry up and finish her lunch, but as soon as I mentioned the park in a casual conversation she was the most obedient angel you ever saw.

5. Lack of sleep can change everything about a person. I think I can blame my apathy from my previous post on the lack of sleep I experienced for this period of time. My college life in Provo stopped mattering as I worried about the girls, Christi's health, how my mom was faring, etc. Suddenly school and social life here seemed like the least important thing.

6. Explosive Diarrhea? It exists. Who knew? Props to the people who had to WASH cloth diapers once they'd been soiled. I have never been so appreciative of disposable diapers.

7. Contrary to popular belief, disliking vegetables is NOT a learned behavior. Riley seriously gagged on every vegetable baby food we tried to feed her. She knows where it's at, that one. Fruit all the way.

8. Avoid playing tennis with two year olds running around the courts, no matter how great you think your aim is...I may or may not have raised a tennis-ball sized bump on Tori's head accidentally...

9. Once kids have been taught to clean up their messes. Do. Not. Clean. Up. Their. Messes. I got myself into a lot of trouble when I put away one of Tori's puzzles before she was done with it. I never knew a two year old could make me feel so guilty with her little eyes showing a world of betrayal and hurt newly introduced to her.

10. Do not teach children to play with their food. I didn't realize how literally Tori would respond when I suggested that the 4 grapes on her plate might be a family. Needless to say...she would not eat one grape for the next two weeks. Sorry Christi, my bad 0:)