My brother Brian

My youngest brother Brian is home from his mission (Spanish speaking to Atlanta Georgia), and is living with us while he attends ASU. He is such a wonderful help and is so good with Reese. He has been tending him half a day Fri & Sat while I work. I asked Brian what was one thing off the top of his head that he'd learned on his mission. He said, "You know that Living Scripture video about Christ fasting in the desert and being tempted? Well I always thought after the third time, Jesus turned to Satan and said...Get the hint Satan...as in, I've already told you no twice and I'm not going to give into sin. So I was surprised when I was studying Mathew 4:10 to realize He really said...Get thee hence, Satan." He says he learned a lot more valuable lessons, that was just the first thing that came to mind. I thought that was a pretty funny misinterpritation =)

Side note: Brian thinks the term "babysitting" sounds a little sissy-ish, so I noticed in his dayplanner on the days I work he's been writing "Quality time with Reese". ; ) I think Reese will always love spending quality time with his Uncle.

Ok, so Brian told me another thing he learned in his studies which I thought was pretty neat. In 1 Nephi chapter 3 Nephi just gets back from speaking with the Lord and the first thing his Father tells him is: "Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem." And of course Nephi says he will go, which is a mark of his humility. He could've said, "Oh really, I was just speaking with the Lord and he didn't mention it." or "Sure, that sounds great, but listen what just happened to me first...". But because he was always quick to obey and never to boast we have the famous but wonderful scripture: (7.) And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Every time he smiles...

...it melts my heart.

His smiles are still spontaneous though. Edward will spend forever interacting with Reese trying to get him to smile, and while it's cute for me to watch and I know Reese loves the sound of his Dad's voice, he mostly just smacks his lips and looks around for some milk. Sometimes Reese will laugh while he's dreaming, so every time I hear that cute chuckle I'll rush over to his basinet hoping to get a glimpse of that big grin I love. I imagine he is dreaming about Jesus. He has nightmares too though and will yelp out in his sleep and make some sad (but also way cute) faces.I imagine in those instances he must be dreaming about his birth experience, it can't have been a fun thing to go through. I'm glad we don't remember it when we get older! But mostly he just sleeps peacefully.

I know I should swaddle him, but I hate being tucked in tight (semi-claustrophobic). I like to have one foot sticking out of the covers just like my Dad and my Grandma Washburn (although she said her habit came from years of sticking one foot out of bed to rock each of her ten babies back to sleep in their bassinet). I think Reese has Washburn feet both in appearance and the desire for freedom because he'll kick and kick till they find their way out of his blanket. Plus after being squished in my belly for so long he must enjoy stretching out a little. Doesn't he look comfy?

Weight loss goals!

While I work on getting Reese nice and chunky with some cute baby rolls, I'm hoping to shed a few of mine. I gained 55 pounds during my pregnancy, eight pounds just during the last week. After Reese was born I lost 30 pounds in little over a week, which minus the baby weight was pretty much all water. (The last month of pregnancy I swelled up like a giant Nancy balloon, my feet went up two shoe sizes and Edward called them Princess Fiona feet or Flintstone feet.) I've lost another 5 pounds since then, but still need to loose 20 more to return to normal. I thought by posting my goals on here I would be held accountable, so wish me luck!