Sick baby and a car ride

So our little munchkin has thrush. For those of you who have never heard of such a thing, I don't really understand it either, but it has something to do with a yeast infection in his mouth. All of this loveliness means that with nursing it passes from him to me and makes nursing extremely painful. Not quite as painful as when he was first born - not painful enough to cry - but painful nonetheless. The best way to get rid of it is to use this stuff called Gentian Violet which you coat his mouth with using a q-tip. Needless to say, having a new taste like that in his mouth is a big deal since he has only tasted milk his whole life. And it stains. Everything. I had to have him wear old, grungy onesies for a while since he would always stain them. The worst part though is that it stains his face. In addition to putting the medicine on him, I have to put it on myself as well which, in turn, put it all over his cheeks also. We were calling him the purple people eater for a while. I stopped using the medicine yesterday and the stain on his cheeks is almost gone but the stain on his lips still lingers. Poor guy. He doesn't even know it.

And I have a few errands to run today. I always dread this because Luke loves being in the car as long as it is moving. As soon as I slow down or have to stop at a light, he freaks out. And he doesn't really like pacifiers. And when he does take one he always seems to push it out of his mouth which makes him freak out. So wish me luck my friends. This morning he only let out a few yells when I was showering, maybe he will sleep the whole time we are out on our adventure.

I could only wish.

"Before I Was A Mother..." Poem

Before I was a Mom...
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors
could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom...
I never held a sleeping baby just because I
didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom...
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so
important and happy.

Before I was a Mom...
I had never gotten up in the middle of the
night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, The joy, The love, The heartache, The
wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

This is a poem that I found online. I edited the poem just a bit. I've really been wanting to write my own, and someday I will, but this will do for now.

I sure love being a mother.

Glorious Graduation

Luke is 2 months old! I can't believe how fast time flies. Whoa. We sure do love him. He is smiling more and more and everyday there are a few more hairs on the top of his head. We learn new things everyday and definitely after we spend some time with my mom. I will ask her questions about things that have been happening and how I don't really know what to do about something and she always has this simple and obvious answer. Her knowledge is without end. I am lucky to have her for help.

And I am graduating! Officially on April 24th from BYU. What happy news. I even shared it today in Relief Society for the Good News moment. It was glorious. Today was our first day back to church if you can believe it. Two whole months of inactivity. I can't tell you how happy I am to be back again. The nurses and doctors always told us that the famous RSV sickness would be pretty heavily spread around until mid-April and that it would be safe to stay away from church and large crowds. And since we always do what the doctors tell us to...It was good though to fell ready for it. Luke has kind of made a schedule for the mornings and so we were pretty sure that we would know what to expect during the hours of church (11-2). He slept all through Sacrament Meeting, I nursed him in the car for Sunday School and he slept all through Relief Society like a good little bug. And then I discovered the secret nursing mothers room in the women's bathroom. Do I need to specify that it is in the women's bathroom? Anyway, it was like stumbling on happiness! To know that there is a cute little room hidden away that will allow me to nurse Luke while at church. Glorious. Overall it was a great experience. I was a little worried about little kids coming up and grabbing at him but there weren't too many of those. There were many squeals from older women in regards to his cuteness. How can we blame them? I am the lucky one that gets to hang out with him all day.

Wasn't I talking about graduation? Hmmm....can you tell that I love talking about him?

So I am graduating and my family is coming down, which I am extremely excited for. Since they moved from California to Idaho we have seen them at least once a month, or it seems like that anyway. I love it. If they still lived 9 hours away instead of 3, they wouldn't be able to see Luke nearly as much and the same for us seeing them. I very much enjoy it. My sister and I also happen to be in the same college, Family, Home, and Social Sciences and therefore our Convocation Ceremony is together in the Marriott Center. How fun! So our family only needs to go to one Ceremony, thank goodness. It sure is a good feeling to be done with school. But I will miss the opportunities to learn part. Homework not so much, but I do love to learn and read and I will have to make more of an effort on my own to set goals for myself in regards to continue furthering my education. But it does feel good to read a book with no connection to school now without feeling guilty about not doing homework. I started the Twilight series finally and so far so good.

Dave and I are also pretty seriously looking to move somewhere else. I honestly feel like we are being taken advantage of here at Remington Apartments and I hate the feeling. We have found an open basement apartment in our ward where, believe it or not, the landlords are going to give us a special discount on the rent because they have wanted to do something nice for the Shumway family for years. Wow, did I marry into the right family or what? So, in a couple weeks, after the current tenants leave, we are going to go over and check the place out. We definitely like basement apartments better than regular ones and I am hoping and praying that things work out for us.

I am excited to say that I am going to restart Personal Progress. I did receive my Young Womanhood Recognition Award in High School but I think it would be so fun to do it again. My mom is the Young Women's President in their ward and she is urging the girls and their mothers to do Personal Progress together. So, my mom and I are doing the same thing. All of the goals and exercises in the book are things that I want in my life anyway and with being able to set goals and have someone to report to (my mom), I will be better able to accomplish the things that I want to. I want to do better on my scripture reading and personal prayers and I think that this will definitely help me.

I also want to say that I miss my girls at work. I want to come visit so badly but I heard that with the end of the semester and finals going on, that a few have come down with some sicknesses and that it is better to keep baby Luke away for now. I sure did love my job. I LOVE my job as a mother but I sure did have fun working with those girls.

Well, I promise to be a better blogger. I have found this to be more fun than I thought and each time that I want to post but find that I am unable to it is a say day. So hopefully I will do much better from now on.

Here are some pictures of our cute little bug! And my niece Keeli and nephew Tel from our Easter trip up to Idaho. Enjoy!