Somebody Make Her Stop

My little baby Sylvie is 7 weeks old today. How did that happen? I'm telling you she's growing too fast. She's this close to being too big for her newborn clothes and diapers. She might as well just rip my heart out. Ok it's not THAT bad... but would it hurt to just let me have my tiny baby for just a little while longer? She doesn't need to STOP growing just do it SLOWER.

 
Everyday Sylvie changes and gets bigger. Her chubby cheeks get chubbier and her eyes get bluer and her smiles more frequent. It seems ridiculous to me now that I was afraid of the baby stage. "What do I do with a baby? Babies are kind of boring." Now I know. What do you do with babies? You cuddle the bejeezus out of them while they'll still let you. You wrap them in a snuggly blanket and put them on your chest and stare at them for hours. There's nothing like her smell (I never liked baby smell before now) and when she pulls her legs up under her and nuzzles into you, your body becomes a pile of melted goo, making it impossible to allow anyone else to hold her.

Sylvie loves her toy zebra and I love watching her look at it!

Then there's the other side her. The side of her where I think, "This adorable baby must be a troll in disguise." The bodily functions and their corresponding noises are impressive. The farting. And pooping. I can't believe the volume (both audible and physical). Then there are the noises... it's not all cooing my friends. There are growls and grunts and other noises that more closely resemble a ferocious velociraptor than a sweet little baby. And I have to say, all these troll-like traits are very adorable.

For those of you out there debating whether or not to have kids I have to tell you one thing. They weren't lying. It IS different when it's your own kid. Like a million bajillion times different. As in... you can't even compare how you feel about other people's kids to how you'll feel about your own. There really isn't anything like it.

It's in My Blood

Seth and I have been struggling to find fun ways to spend hot weekend days with Sylvie in tow. We started out yesterday by going for a walk on the Weber Parkway, but it was quickly getting too hot for baby so we jumped back in the truck and started to cruise around Ogden. As we neared 25th Street we thought maybe we should check out the farmer's market. The old Union Station is at the end of 25th Street and Seth thought he saw a sign in front of it that said the market was there, so we parked and walked over. Turns out the market was all along 25th Street, but Union Station had something better... TRAINS! and SHADE!

I'm on a train!

 I don't know if it's because of all the train engineers in the family or what, but I love trains. I've driven past Union Station about a million times but had never actually been there. We were both surprised at how cool it was! There were several old trains parked outside that you could climb on and look in and the station inside was beautiful. There are also three different museums inside but we didn't make it to those this time. Looks like we've got something to do next weekend!

An old caboose

This engine was super-sized. It was strong enough to pull a 7 mile long train of fully-loaded cars!

The wheels on this train were as big as me!

Inside the station

An old Air Force train

Great Salty Goodness

Seeing as how we live just minutes from Antelope Island, it's a little sad I hadn't been out there for a few years. However, we made up for it over this last week by going there twice!

The first time around Seth and I drove out there with Sylvie to get out of the house. We went in the evening and saw a ton of wildlife including buffalo, a bunch of mule deer (tons of bucks!), a couple coyotes, jack rabbits, and of course, antelope. Seth has had an ongoing goal of swimming in the Great Salt Lake, and he got close on this trip by wading out in the water a little. I was wearing regular shoes and socks and decided I was too lazy to take them off.

On our second trip to the island we were lucky to have Seth's sister, Rachel, and her family with us! We all made it out into the water this time and Seth finally fully immersed himself in the salty water. He's now a baptized member of Antelope Island!

 

 
We didn't see too many animals on the second trip out because it was during the hottest part of the day, but I think everybody had a good time swimming and floating in the closest thing Utah has to an ocean. I call it a success!

I call this "Salt"