Family picture, new wardrobes, some fun and a concern about what America's hospitals are teaching our children

Yes, we have become parents.

Those parents.

Probably your parents.

The parents who tell everyone, "hold on," right when you get home from church because they want a family picture before everyone changes into more comfortable clothes. And you know what? We like it.

And so do you. Admit it. Having a current family picture is a great thing, and it helps that we can show off our kid's cute new outfit.

(Speaking of new clothes for Clara... She has an entire wardrobe right from the get-go. Can you imagine having 30 new outfits just waiting for you when you got home some day? It would be incredible. I think we should implement "30 showers," in the same vein as baby showers, but when you turn 30, all your friends and family get together and buy you new clothes. It would be great. Thirty years old is about when you need to get rid of your high school T-shirts and punk-kid clothes and start dressing like a grown up. The only downside to this is with about half of all people (the group called "men") you would have to do a follow-up shower every 10 years or so, or the 30 Shower clothes would still be used at the 60th birthday party. NOTE: The age 30 has nothing to do with the fact that I would love a new wardrobe in about 34 months.)

All is going well for us in Heber City. We are settled in to living out of our suitcases and various boxes on the floor and loving it. Clara's doctor said everything is great for us to go to Fresno for the 4th of July, too. We have also been able to have some fun, including hauling more than 1800 pounds of bunk beds for Crystal's dad, having a cook out at the family cabin and picking up our forwarded mail from Ogden. (Yeah, we used to be cool, but remember, we're parents now.)

Here are some pictures of the cookout and the bunkbed move. Thanks to Crystal's mom for carrying so many futon mattresses. S'mores are so good!



Finally, I have a quick comment on something we saw while in the NICU with Clara. In her room, there were eight "pods" for the babies. Each one was lettered, A through H. All the pods were decorated with cute, hand-painted signs indicating their letter, and also with an animal in a Noah's Ark theme, with birds on the B sign, camels on the C, elephants on the E, etc. All of it made sense except for the A, Clara's bed. This is what her sign looked like.


A is for ... Zebra?

If Clara turns out illiterate, it is going to be on the head of the hospital. That's my decision. After all, I'm the parent.