Mercedes Rose

It's been a few weeks but I don't want to forget this experience so I'm going to put in my blog.

November 16, 2010 sometime around 6:00 am I got a text from Kelsey that they were at the hospital and the baby was coming! Around 10:00 am I got antsy and started calling, her husband. Dustin answered and said that everything was going good and they gave her Oxytocin to speed up her labor. A little while later Dustin called back and asked if I could bring some chewing gum, of course I said yes! We (Giovanni and I) hurried and got ready but when we went outside the car was gone. I called Biggy and he said he would get the gum, they were leaving anyway. 35 mins later (exactly, I checked) impatiently I called him back and told him to forget it and then I called my mom and she came and got me.

Biggy showed up with the gum and I finished whipping up some Labour Aid at my mom's house which is conveniently located across the street from the hospital. I left little Giovanni with his Papa and uncle Cheyne and my mom and I ran across the street to see Kelsey. When we got there Dustin met us at the door looking tired so I asked him if he wanted to get something to eat while we stayed with Kelsey. He thanked us and went downstairs to the cafeteria.

I stepped into the clean, simple hospital room, it was larger than I expected (bigger than mine, anyway). Kelsey was sitting in a lounge position on her hospital bed looking exhausted. My mom took her hand and not really knowing what to do I just stood there awkwardly and watched for a moment. A contraction came and Kelsey's face suddenly went from relaxed to pained. I tried rubbing her back but she said no.

I tried to think of something helpful and I remembered some of the experiences I read in Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth when I was pregnant with Giovanni. A couple of women used visualization to aid them in childbirth. One woman pictured a flower blooming and the other visualized a cave opening. In a low even tone I started describing a flower blossoming and opening up, a few minutes later the nurse came in and started updating Kelsey. I was already feeling kind of silly so I hushed up, but Kelsey asked me to keep talking. As embarrassed as I felt I couldn't say no, it was a simple request so I kept describing a blooming flower. Dustin came in a little while later and I wonder what the scene must have looked like to him. On one side of Kelsey next to the monitors and machines was my mother, putting pressure on Kelsey's back during contractions and holding her hand in between. Sitting on the other other side of the bed her "hippie" sister chanting nonsense about flowers and waves. He seemed unsure of where he fit into this unusual picture, but we all found our place and focused our entire energy on Kelsey. Once the nurse saw Kelsey was fully dilated and ready to push suddenly there was this huge commotion and the nurse was yelling for someone to get the doctor (stat!) and people began filing in. I looked up for a moment and couldn't believe how many people were packed in there. I wish I had taken the time to count but I quickly centered my focus back on Kelsey not wanting to slow her down or halt her labor in any way. The doctor rushed in and they took part of the bed away. Three or four pushes later little Mercedes was born. They immediately laid her on Kelsey and began wiping her off before they laid her on Kelsey's chest, skin to skin. It was such a special experience, I felt very blessed to have been apart of. We had not intended on being there for the birth but unexpectedly only about an hour and half after we arrived Kelsey had her baby.

After Kelsey had the baby she was suddenly alive with energy, I thought that was so funny especially since I felt so exhausted and at one point lightheaded. I went home and took a nap with Giovanni afterward. But what a miracle I got to be a part of.

Sourdough

Lately I have been obsessed with sourdough, making everything from sourdough bread to pancakes, crackers and cake. I lovingly feed my starter every day, twice a day and it resides safely on the top of our cabinets where it is nice and warm. At one point every bowl in the house was being used for sourdough as I had 4 starts going and a couple of side projects like tortillas and bread. I ran into sourdough baking on a blog (I can't remember which). The post had an interesting sourdough cracker recipe that was inspired by the GNOWFGLINS' eCourse on sourdough. I signed up for the eCourse and have been hooked ever since. Not only are these delightfully sour loaves and other bake goods delicious but they are actually really nutritious too. Because the flour is soured it neutralizes phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption in the body, neutralizes enzyme inhibitors, increases vitamin content and begins breaking down the difficult to digest proteins, all of which makes me feel a lot better about my love affair with bread. :)

Hoot Hoot Halloween

We had a fun filled Halloween and Giovanni actually wore his adorable owl costume I made him (it only took a little bribing is all). We were so exhausted by the time it was actually Halloween (Sunday) we were so over it!

We started trick or treating at Dixie Middle School where Giovanni saw a scary witch! Pumpkins, witches and ghosts and some of the "Carewee Tings" he's kept an eye out for this season. Then we went trick or treating around Kelsey's office, all the ladies gushed over how cute Giovanni was and he was starting to get the hang of this trick or treating thing.

We had planned squeeze in a visit right before nap time to my aunt Marsha with Sky and her girls next but Giovanni passed out on the couch in a heap.


But after nap we hurried over for a quick visit while the girls were still there. Emma dressed up as a vampire and Ashley was another owl. I made her hat too. Sky tried to get me to make her costume too but after Giovanni's costume I was done cutting and sewing tiny little feathers so I handed her my sewing machine instead and she actually did most of the work (I only helped a little). And Moose helped cut out feathers, it turned out fabulous.


And that was Friday's festivities. On Saturday we didn't get ready until that last minute, I had been busy starting pickles and getting supplies for more pickles since we got 48 lbs. of pickling cucumbers that morning in our Bountiful Basket. When Moose and the girls showed up (poor Sky was home sick), we headed up to the church for some chili dogs and trunk-or-treat.



Since we were so early and already finished with our food we decided to go bring the kids by my parents house before the trunking began. Only Papa was home and he suggested we pop into the hospital across the street and see Jack.



Poor Jack is recovering from a heart attack that almost killed him. His leg had to be amputated and he has had several surgeries to save the other one. It's a miracle and a blessing he is doing so well. Seeing the kids in their Halloween costumes was a nice treat for him and for us too.


We barely made it back for the end of our trunk-or-treat, Giovanni, Emma and Ash only got a small handful of candy each as most trunks were out of treats by this time. So Moose and the girls went to do some old fashioned door to door trick-or-treating and Biggy, Giovanni and I had to head over to the other grands so they could see Giovanni too.


On the way out my mom stopped by our house because she missed Giovanni when we came by.

Dorothy was dressed as Dorothy (pun intended) and Biggy thought it would be funny to put on a suit coat with his street clothes and pose as her husband Dave.


It was way too much fun crammed into one small evening and by Sunday morning for us Halloween was a thing of the past.

ABCs

The other day Giovanni had scaled a chair on his own and was sitting at the table studying the cover of one of his Daddy's books. He was slapping and prodding the book shouting, "Tee! Tee! Tee! Tee!" I decided to investigate what he was doing and as I approached him I was surprised to find that he was pointing to each letter "T" on the cover of the book and shouting, gleefully, "T!" And these were lowercase letters.

It's not uncommon for Giovanni to hunt for letters, his first and favorite letter is "O." I remember one time at the grocery store he was pointing out "O's" everywhere. Then we stopped underneath a great, big "Sea Food" sign high above us pointing and saying "Oh! Oh!" A little old lady stopped and watched us curiously and finally asked what we were doing, when I told her he loved finding the letter "O" she looked as though she didn't believe me.

Giovanni's next letter surprisingly enough was "W," which he calls, "Double." Then came "B," "Q" and "R" and sometimes "A." I say sometimes because he doesn't always recognize it and even the later four letters can sometimes be elusive to him.

We started learning letters from a simple ABC board book, at first we were only learning the name of the thing that began with with the letter pictured next to the brightly colored lower and upper case letters. Then one day he pointed to the letter "O" and said, "Dis?" (meaning: What's this?) So I signed and said "O." We only learn the ABCs when Giovanni shows interest, which is why I was so surprised to find him pointing to each letter "T" on the book because that was a letter we had never spent much time on.

Today as we looked over his alphabet book in church he pointed to the "V" and said, "Vacuum." Well in this book there is a picture of a violin next to "V" not a vacuum but in a ABC flipchart we have there is a vulture vacuuming and the picture is in the shape of a letter "V." It is the most requested page at the moment as he is obsessed with vacuums. When I vacuum the living room Giovanni pushes a small red dirt devil right beside me. He also enjoys, sweeping, wiping, scrubbing and cooking, and insists on being included when ever I am doing any of these chores. His dad thinks he's a little OCD but I think it's adorable. He freaks out when he gets too messy or dirty or wet and we have to wipe him up quick, but isn't cleanliness next to godliness?

Amen!

I gave Giovanni his favorite snack today, some of what he likes to call "Yoke" but what the rest of us know as yogurt. I gave him a few spoonfuls and then he demanded to feed himself shouting, "Turn! Turn!" After a moment of chowing down he looked up at me a yelled "Amen! Amen! Amen!" It took me a few amens to realize that he was praying.

"Oh. Prayer?" I asked him. And he squinted his brown eyes tightly shut for a second or two before belting out another "Amen!" It was so cute.

Owl Hat

Inspired by Amy's adorable owl hats and Amberly's plush little owl babies on Knot Your Grandma's Guild, I made Giovanni an owl hat. Although it takes some convincing to get him to wear it, it's the cutest thing ever! I am hoping he will wear it for Halloween and dress up as a little Guardian owl from the new movie Legend of the Guardians.

Biggy in Guatemala

I booked Biggy's flight home and I can't wait to see him. I made arrangements for him to fly home on Monday along with with Justin. I can hardly believe it's been over a week since he's been gone.

My entrepreneur of a husband decided to drive a few vehicles all the way to Guatemala to sell. He got wind that they go for a fetching price and decided to make the trek. He enlisted his friend Bronson, who has nothing better to do and no one here to stay for and his other friend Justin, nick-named Eagle for his beautifully bald head who had spent a couple years in Guatemala on a mission to be their translator and guide. Despite all the worrying and bad press my mother tried to instill in me about the dangers of driving through Mexico they made it to Guatemala alive.

We've been missing him but the first couple of nights since he left were the worst. He's been gone since early Thursday morning, August 26.

I can never sleep when Biggy is away, it was always like this when he was trucking. I would stay up until my ached for sleep sometimes until 1 or 2 in the morning. Not very wise if I want to keep up with my wildly rambunctious toddler.

I had decided that I would keep an early bedtime while Biggy was gone this time. Then Friday night 12:30 rolls around and I decided that is was time to make an attempt at sleep, so I closed my laptop and closed my eyes. A few minutes later I heard knocking. I assumed that I was delirious from being so tired and didn't move but listened hard just to make sure I wasn't hearing things. Knock knock knock. There it was again, a little louder this time. I wasn't sure what to do but I decided I better get dressed. Then, BAM BAM BAM. Terrified Giovanni would wake up from the ruckus I slipped out of the bedroom as quietly and as quickly as I could to see what was going on.

I could see stripes of bright light peaking in from the shutters and thought that's odd, I know I didn't leave the porch light on. Without thinking I began unlocking and undead-bolting the door at nearly 1 in the morning. I opened the door and saw a spotlight beaming at me from a police car on the street and there were two skinny police officers in front of me, one I recognized. After the initial surprise I was immediately embarrassed, I had forgotten the dried clay mask spots on my face, treating a few unsightly pimples.

"Sorry to bother you, Michaela. It's me, Travis Willinger, is Biggy home?" Travis is Kellie's best cousin's husband.

"Uh, no. He's in Mexico." My hand shot up to my face at an attempt to hide the green mud spots.

Then Travis asked me if I had heard about the deputy that had been murdered in Fredonia while the other officer pointed his flash light behind me into the house. I never keep up with the news but not wanting to look ignorant I lied and said yes. Travis said that within the perimeter that the police had sealed off in Fredonia, a red 1987 Suzuki Samari appeared a few hours ago and it's registered to John Massaro at this address. Since he knows Biggy, Travis volunteered to come by. I didn't recognize the vehicle he was talking about but it wasn't uncommon for me to never see a vehicle Biggy sold. Unless I drove it, I didn't really have anything to do with it.

I was absolutely terrified. How did this look? A car register to my husband appeared on the scene where the police were searching for a murderer and my husband crossed the Mexican border. At this point I was nervously picking the mud off my face as I began rambling about how I had no idea about this vehicle and tried to explain why Biggy crossed the border in an effort to assure them that he has not fled the country. Even though Biggy couldn't be reached, I gave Travis his cell number and Travis gave me his to give to Biggy when he called.

A few moments after I closed the door and headed for bed, there was another knock. Travis wanted my number too. Too put it lightly I was a little on the frazzled side and very shaken up after the whole thing. The first thing I did was look up the story about the murder. A police officer was shot after pursuing a robber into the desert. The robber got away and was hidden somewhere in the desert.

I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep easy so I drank down a bitter concoction labeled "Calm" and sent Biggy a pleading email to call me ASAP! My nerves still rattled, I began to read until my eyes were too heavy to hold open.

Sleep Fighting

Giovanni did not want to go to bed tonight, he kept whimpering for his daddy so I finally went and got Biggy and just as soon as Giovanni laid his sweet little head down on his daddy chest he was asleep. It was so sweet. 

Biggy has always voiced concern that I coddle our son too much to the point where he fears the poor boy won't ever be able to get to sleep without the help of his mommy. We co-sleep with our son, much to Biggy's chagrin but I love being close to Giovanni, I sleep easier. I feel like he's a part of me. 

When Giovanni was a newborn I would just peek over his bassinet and watch him sleep. I was so worried about not being able to be there for him if he needed me. He eventually outgrew his bassinet and moved into our bed even though we had a crib right up against the bed.

 

As he grows, I see Giovanni becoming more of his own person and less dependent on me. It's exciting to see his personality take shape and I got some satisfaction out of Biggy indulging Giovanni the way he always gets after me for. 

Last night Giovanni decided he didn't want me to put him to bed either and he curled up on the floor with his pillow and blanket and fell asleep while his daddy and I watched a boring romantic comedy. I wonder if he will be ready for his own bed soon. 

I Just Paid $5 for Half of a Pound of Butter!

I'm reading this really great book by Dr. Weston A. Price written in the 1930s, it's called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It's about how poor nutrition is taking a terrible toll on our bodies, specifically our teeth. Dr. Price traveled the world to some of the most remote places where he could study people living on their primitive diets (the control group) and areas nearby where they had been recently modernized and introduced to white flour, marmalade, and tinned vegetables (the test group). No matter where he went, and he went all over, he always found the same shocking pattern. Where the people lived on their traditional primitive diet they have absolutely beautiful teeth, perfect dental arches, very straight, symmetrical teeth with very few cavities usually below 1% of all teeth studied.


Where the people were newly modernized tooth decay was rampant and the incidence for tuberculosis was much higher. The photos below are typical of what he found and these are remote places where they don't have access to dentists.


The second generation of these people after they adopted the "civilized" diet their children had terribly crooked teeth among many other health problems.


My whole life, I have always believed that crooked teeth are hereditary and there is nothing you can do about it, but these children were coming from parents who had incredibly straight smiles and a long line of straight teeth the only difference was the diet.

It is shocking to me how much of an impact our diet has on our lives. Our diet today is so far removed from the way our ancestors ate. I was watching Food, Inc. the other day, which I highly recommend, and in the intro it said "The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000."

So now I am feeling like I need to change my diet again, last July I went vegan after reading The China Study. I was never a strict vegan, I ate fish and eggs on occasion and sometimes butter too but very rarely and mostly because someone else prepared the food and I didn't want to be rude. I didn't eat a lot of processed food either, but still I got cavities worse than I had since I was a kid.

Last March I stopped eating dairy products when Giovanni had a severely clogged tear duct. He was almost 3 months old and no amount of droplets of breast milk in his eye and gentle massaging would make it go away but as soon as I stopped eating dairy products his eye cleared up so giving up meat a few months later was easy. And I truely believed that these foods were bad.

With undeniable reservation I'm bringing meat and cheese back, but "old school" style. I'll take my butter yellow, please. The richer the color the more fat-soluble vitamins and I'll be eating organs and bones too instead of steak. Hopefully I can get my hands on some grass-fed animal protein sources.

My goal is to heal some cavities that have been causing me some problems and improve my overall health and feed a growing boy the most nutritious foods possible.

I had heard that you can heal tooth decay naturally so I decided to google it and came across Weston Price's book and another book I have yet to start by Ramiel Nagel called Cure Tooth Decay. It's basically based on Dr. Prices findings. I'm excited to try this new diet... I just need to find some affordable sources. I spent $4.83 on half of a pound of butter today! That's almost $10.00 a pound! But look how yellow it is compared to what I already had in the fridge. :)

Dorian Timi Munk

After I went up to Cedar City to see my friend Ada and her newborn baby, I came home with a little ache in my heart. Her baby is so small and so precious and my baby is so... big! It was nice to be able to help her out a little. Ada is a dear friend of mine and our husbands have been good friends since they were kids and it's so fun to see them with a child of their own. Dorian is absolutely adorable, he looks so much like his dad but I see a little of Ada there too. He's a good mix.

This is my first time blogging and I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but for some reason the thought of putting my words on the Internet absolutely petrifies me. I'm such a private person even Edward couldn't read my thoughts.

Joking aside, I have wanted to start a blog for a really long time. In fact I set up my blog site shortly after Giovanni was born with all sorts of good intentions of journaling online, but every time I opened it up I would just become overwhelmed at the thought of writing something someone else might read. Well it's been about a year and half (Giovanni is 18 months old) and I haven't gotten over my fears but my curiosity to blog has only gotten stronger, and I've been wanting blog a funny story on Giovanni for over a month!

On the way up to Salt Lake City to spend 4th of July weekend with Thann's family, Giovanni was looking at a picture book of animals and I was showing him some of the ASL signs for the animals that I knew and making animals noises. We saw a spider and I signed and said spider and he pointed to it and said "Bug!" Then I pointed to a lime green python all coiled up and signed a slithering snake as I said "Ssssssnake," and tickled him with the fangs of the snake, he giggled so I did it again and again. When we came to the cat page I started meowing and pulling at invisible whiskers on my cheek and Giovanni just stared at the page. There were many different kinds of cats pictured, including one of those "hairless" Sphinx cats. Giovanni stared at the strange looking cat for a long time then pointed to it and said "Dis?" Meaning, "What's this?" I told him that it was a cat and he looked at it again and then he looked at the other furry cats pictured around it, then he pointed to the naked, alien looking cat again and with a very concerned look on his face said, "Uh-Oh."

I laughed so hard, Biggy turned around and wanted to know what was so funny. We all had a good laugh about it and told Biggy's family later. Giovanni's so much fun, everything he does just tickles me to death. And so as I start to blog, he will be all I can talk about, and that's something I don't mind sharing. :)