North by Northeast

There was a time not too long ago when I thought it was going to be really cool to have a little boy join this particular branch of the Winn clan. Don’t get me wrong, Jenna’s great and all, but deep down it is every snake’s dream to have a little boy owner who will do things like hide you in his teachers desk drawer or his mom’s makeup bag, and bring all his little boy friends over to see me because “it is so awesome that you have a pet snake!” or whatever the kids will be saying 10 years from now. And I suppose in the long haul, it will be great, but right now the only change that I am seeing is less attention from the family and more stuff in the room that I am now sharing. Since it was going to happen sooner or later, Jarom and Lix decided to pull Jenna out of her crib and give her a big girl bed, which is really the futon that used to be in my room. Jenna has never been much of an escape artist when it comes to her beds, so they didn’t think that she would have any trouble adjusting to a bed without bars on it. And they were right. So far the switch has gone as smoothly as they could have hoped. The first night it was a little tough to get her to calm down enough to actually sleep, as she spent about 30 minutes jumping and running all over the gargantuan mattress. But she likes spreading her animals out all over it, and can be found sleeping in a different corner almost every night. About three nights into the experiment she had her first fall. Jarom and Lix were watching TV at about 10 when they heard a very loud thud. Jarom dashed upstairs, expecting to find a sad, crying Jenna. But once again he passed the paternity test, as she was lying on the floor at the foot of the bed, sound asleep. Since then they have been careful to line the non-wall side of the bed with a few pillows to act as a buffer.

Jenna and Pete giving her new big girl bed its first test run

We are all continuing to get used to having another kid around. He is still pretty good, mostly staying calm and sleeping and eating regularly enough. It has been a big help to have Nate and Kenz and Kenna so close the last few weeks. Lix will often get calls or text messages asking if Jenna can come out and play, and then she will vanish, sometimes for an hour or two and sometimes all day. Alixa has really appreciated the time that she gets to take naps and not have to worry about chasing Jenna, who never seems to get tired. The other Winns have also recently joined the YMCA where Lix and Jarom work out, which means that Jarom now has a lifting partner and fewer excuses to not exercise, and Jenna has her best friend to hang out with in the daycare. Lix and Kenz might start working out together whenever Lix is feeling up to it again, which will likely be sooner rather than later. In fact, she went jogging for 50 minutes a few days ago, running up and down big hills 3 weeks post-delivery. That girl is a little bit crazy, but it is great that she feels so good already.

Annie did some at home salon work by waxing some noses

Nate was the biggest sissy of the bunch and nearly cried

Lix is trying her hardest to prevent Jenna from feeling like she has been replaced, and that isn’t always easy to do when you are constantly nursing and burping and holding the new little one. So her amazing husband insisted that she have a mommy daughter date and watched Bo while they went to the local high school production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You might be thinking to yourself, “Self, that doesn’t make any sense. Why on earth would you take a 2-year old to a 3+ hour play where she has to sit in the same chair and behave herself lest she receive menacing stares from the snooty art patrons sitting a few rows up?” And if that 2-year old was anyone other than Jenna, you would be correct. But Jenna is a strange breed of 2-year old and she could not have been happier to sit and watch and listen. And it was great for Lix to not have Bo bothering her so she could just focus on her favorite daughter for a few hours and remind herself that this new baby hasn’t diminished her capacity to love Jenna in the slightest.

Grandma with her favorite grandchild

Lix with her favorite son

Jarom with his favorite daughter

Jenna playing on the swingset, with no pants

And Jenna decided to test that capacity just a few days later. Lix had wandered into Kohls to use a $10 gift card she had gotten in the mail, and was checking out cheap jewelry when Jenna decided that she wanted to run away and play hide-and-seek. Before Lix had a chance to react she had dashed into the forest of clothes racks, which just happens to be the most perfect design for hiding a toddler known to man. This promptly sent Alixa into a panicked state of terror. She told the workers that she had lost her kid and they called a code yellow, which means that they locked down the exits and recruited a whole lot of employees to start wandering around looking for Jenna. They found her after a short while hiding in a corner over in the Men’s department, no doubt in a form of protest against Lix constantly shopping without considering her husband’s need for clothing as well. There were some stern words about staying with mommy and some big hugs, and she has actually been doing much better about staying nearby whenever she is at a store or a park or any other open space. Lix wants to get her one of those animal backpacks that works as a leash, but Jarom is still convinced that they can train her properly.

Kristi and all the grandkids in their wedding outfits

The Winns also took a vacation recently, heading up to the site of their first meeting to attend a wedding reception for Kristi and David, whose actual wedding they had missed due to Blake’s refusal to be born a month early. Every trip up to Delaware is a good time because there are so many old friends and family to hang out with, but this one was even more so because Jarom’s mom, who is serving a mission in Utah, was coming out for the event. Nancy was very excited to meet Bo and Bo was excited to constantly swaddled and rocked by an endless stream of doting aunts and grandmother. The extended weekend was wonderful. The weather was just warm enough that the kids could swim in the pool, although they had to be forcefully removed and sent to the hot tub after a while to avoid hypothermia. Jarom was able to play some golf with the boys, which he loves, and was able to beat JD, which he loves even more. Lix got to leave the children for a few hours and have a little Vietnamese lady rub her feet and draw flowers on her toes while she chatted with the womenfolk. She got to visit Carters, her favorite store in all the world, and the kids now have more clothes than Jarom can even comprehend. There were wonderful group dinners and lots of visiting with cousins and siblings that don’t get seen enough. Plus, Kenna and Natie and Kenzie were there too, and that is pretty much all it takes to keep Jenna excited. And the fun weekend was bookended by visits to the Eastern Seaboards greatest new attraction, the Café Rio that was built just outside of DC. They are about 100 times slower than the Rios in Utah, but the food was great, as was the idea of being able to eat at Café Rio while observing eastern daylight time.

Three amigos

Adri was the youngest of the people who lined up to snuggle with baby Bo

Jenna wanted to help out in the reception preparation. She did good, but then tried to run on the slippery, wet floors and fell and bonked her head. Twice. She's a fast learner.

Her first attempts to eat cereal by herself. We might need more milk.

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do

It is amazing how fast kids grow up. And how easy it is to forget what your kids were like when they were tiny. I suppose this is all part of God’s plan to trick people into having children. You see, if you told people that they would have to spend 9 months being sick, gaining weight, acting hormonal with all sorts of odd food cravings and emotional mood swings, then pass an 8 pound thing out of their body, then spend the next few months taking care of a creature that can do absolutely nothing by itself, feeding it every few hours, changing it’s diapers, waking up often in the middle of the night, and then you would have to deal with it for the next 20-60 years depending on how successfully it adapted to adult life, you would have very few takers. But you spruce that offer up with some cute little smiles and a tax break here and there, and you can get some folks to bite once. Then that kid grows up and learns to talk and walk and do some things for itself and becomes your friend, and you forget about all the agony and get duped into going through the process again. Newman!

He's so little, but he kind of has monkey arms. He can already touch his hands over his head.

But I suppose that as far as newborns go, Blake is actually fairly well behaved. He rarely cries, and has actually been doing a pretty good job of sleeping at night. Some of his toughest hours come between 9 and midnight, which is when Jarom sits on the couch and watches TV with him so Lix can sleep. The big concern around here was that Jenna was a good kid so the next one would be a disaster, but so far (knock on wood) Lix is actually claiming that Bo is an upgrade. We shall see if that lasts. The most significant drawback has in fact been the diaper changing, as Alixa feared it would be. She has been peed on a couple of times, and has learned to take the proper precautions to avoid this. He continues to be a good eater and is starting to plump up a little and lose his newborn skinniness, which is good.

Cord gone, so he gets his first bath

Jenna has been a great big sister, and loves to give baby Bo kisses and keeps an eye on him whenever he is around. She also gets very concerned whenever he is a little grunty, and calls this crying, because I’m not sure she ever really hears him cry. She has also been acting a little more like a two-year old, with some tantrums and general stubbornness. We think that this may be a byproduct of a new kid in town who is stealing some of the attention she used to have, or it may be because she is almost 2. Either way her parents aren’t particularly thrilled about it, but think it is a small price to pay considering how well behaved she usually is.

This is what Jenna would have looked like if she had gone to Kristi's wedding

Jarom took a week off from work to hang out with Lix and Bo and Jenna, and actually spent most of the week taking Jenna out for trips so that Mom and baby could rest. One morning Jenna woke up her parents with some crying at about 5 am. Lix sent Jarom in to investigate, and after about 15 minutes of consoling her and trying to interpret what she was saying between sobs, he figured out that she wanted to go outside and see some animals. He managed to explain to her that it really wasn’t the best time for that and that she should perhaps lay back down for a few hours, but that he would be happy to take her to see some animals when the sun came up. When she arose at her normal time 3 hours later she had not forgotten that promise and happily jumped in her bed asking to see animals. So the family took a trip to Maymont, where they keep friendly goats and sheep and donkeys, along with more exotic wildlife like bobcats, foxes, and black bears. Jenna had a great time seeing the animals and pushing baby Bo in his stroller. It was probably a little too soon for Lix to do so much walking, especially because it is rather hilly, but she handled it well. She estimates that her recovery from this delivery has been one bajillion times better than the last one.

For someone who woke up at 5 to go see this goat, she seems remarkably ambivalent. But later she did feed a goose and a squirrel ritz crackers right out of her hand, so that's something.


In fact, she is already losing lots of weight and is enjoying her new, non-swollen feet. And she must be doing something right because this week she started receiving text messages from someone who claims to be her stalker. The text said “This is your stalker, I know everything about you.” That sort of message is more likely to represent a couple of high school kids picking a random number as opposed to a dangerous psychopath who follows you around and watches you sleep, so she isn’t overly worried. However, in order to teach the kid a lesson Jarom has been calling the number repeatedly, leaving strange messages when he doesn’t answer and asking for Steve whenever he does. Most of those calls have taken place between 1 and 3 in the morning, so that the “stalker” can appreciate being on the receiving end of childish phone pranks.

Jenna always organizes her toys when she is done playing with them

And speaking of phones, Lix hasn’t gotten a new one for a few years so Jarom decided that he would let her pick one out for a Mother’s Day present. She got an LG Octane, which isn’t anything special but does keep the Qwerty keyboard that she loves and provides a significant upgrade in the quality of the camera and will allow her to take videos with her phone. She liked it so much that when Jarom asked her if it was the best Mother’s Day present she had ever gotten she said “Definitely in the top 3.” Normally Jarom would be happy with a top three finish, because that gets you up on the medal stand, and there’s no shame in that. But he thought about it for a second and it dawned on him that this will be Alixa’s second (as in 1,2) Mother’s Day, so he just placed 3rd out of 2, which all of a sudden doesn’t seem so great. I guess next year he will have get her another diamond or a vacation home or something.

Bonus points if you know where the title comes from.