Hosenfeld Happenings

Jared, Lily, and I were world travelers for the first two weeks of May. For me, however, the trip started much, much earlier.

Way back in October, we discovered that “points” or whatever had been building up on Jared’s business credit card. We cashed in, and between that, and the airmiles that Jared’s parents so generously donated, we figure we could go on a pretty awesome trip. I hadn’t seen Emily for almost a year, so we decided to visit her and Ty in London, and then all take a trip somewhere together. We decided to visit the country of Jordan. Best decision ever! There were a few things that pushed us towards Jordan; we wanted to go somewhere warm, since it would be spring; one of our friends had recently returned from Jordan with AMAZING photos; I have been reading about the Middle East for the past year, and am fascinated with the area; and EasyJet had recently begun a cheap flight to Jordan from London.

We booked our flights, and the planning begun. If you know me, you probably know that I am a compulsive list maker. Since my short term memory only covers a period of about 45 seconds, lists are my only hope of not forgetting everything. Also, with Lily coming along, I felt like we needed to be prepared for every possibility. Typically when we travel, we’re pretty spur-of-the moment. We’ll show up in a town, check out what hostels the guidebook recommends, and book it when we arrive. However, since we were traveling with 3 kids under the age of 4, we needed a little more structure. I spent months researching places to visit, making sample itineraries, looking for hotels……the list goes on. In the end, it was worth it. Both London and Jordan were amazing. Everything went so smoothly, with the exception of a few passport emergencies.  Jared discovered 4 days before we left that his passport wasn’t valid in Jordan, since it was close to expiring, and when we arrived at the SLC airport, we had forgotten Lily’s passport.  The kids were awesome. We ended up hiring a driver to take us around Jordan. It really made the trip. All in all, it was amazing. We took 1,300 pictures! Over the next few days I’ll (hopefully) narrow them down, and start posting!

With all the exciting things I could be blogging about, what am I actually going to write about? Why, sunscreen, of course!

Admittedly, a very boring subject, but one that’s really important to me. I know that I can’t protect Lily from everything, but I feel like there are a few things I can do to keep her as possible. With news of early puberty in girls, and increasing child cancer rates, I can’t help but feel like part of the problem is the amount of crazy chemicals that we come in contact with every day. I’m trying my best to minimize the chemicals that Lily is exposed to,  and beauty products seem like a place where it’s easy to make a big difference. So, with summer approaching, and a trip to Jordan where we’ll be spending most of our time in the sun, I’ve again spent some time researching sunscreen. If you haven’t discovered it, the EWG’s skin deep cosmetic database is AMAZING.  It rates beauty products based on their ingredients, and gives a summary of the hazards of each.  They make it so easy to find safe beauty products.

I did some research this morning to find the cheapest, safest sunscreen, and I thought I’d share it here for anybody that is interested. And if you’re not convinced, read this USA Today article about sunscreen:

http://www.ewg.org/news/skin-deep-dilemma-sunscreen

It’s long, so here’s the most notable paragraph:

“The group analyzed nearly 400 studies and 60 government, academic and industry databases before issuing its report on sunscreens last summer. It found numerous studies showing that the most common sunscreen chemical, octinoxate, can act like estrogen in the body, increasing the risk of breast cancer and uterine damage. But octinoxate is not as bad as oxybenzone, the second-most common sunscreen chemical, or PABA or its derivative, padimate O. Both of these ingredients may damage cells, disrupt hormones and cause allergic reactions, according to a variety of studies. The least harmful active ingredients in sunscreens include titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and avobenzone, according to the Environmental Working Group.”

Pretty scary.

So, here’s the research I did. The sunscreens are sorted by price, with a link to the cheapest place to purchase them:

if for some reason that spreadsheet doesn’t work, or looks funny, you can link to it here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AggNuJTVk4CedHFfWm1id0xDbXo0QjBDY1B0QnVvc3c

Wow. I haven’t done a monthly update since Lily was 10 months old! I am such a slacker.

Stats:

Height: 29 1/2″ 15%

Weight: 17 lbs <3%

Head: 44.8cm 25%

Lily is small. Like, really teeny tiny. Since she’s my first, she seems normal, but then suddenly I’ll see somebody with a baby, ask how old the baby is, and realize that it’s 10 months old and twice the size of Lily. Whatever. She’s pretty healthy, and the pediatrician isn’t worried about her size, so I guess I won’t either! It makes life easier for us, since she’s still in her infant carseat, and can still wear 6 month old clothes. I’m really getting my money’s worth out of her wardrobe! Although, she still has WAY too many clothes.

Lily is a fireball! She is full of spunk and personality. She is stubborn, opinionated, and persistent, yet sweet, kind, and loving. She kisses everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. Toys, the mirror, my legs, her books, you name it. If she likes it, it gets a kiss. Or two. Or ten. It is so adorable. She also has started sharing her binky, or bookie, as she calls it, with things she likes. She picks up a stuffed animal, sticks her bookie in its mouth, and makes smacking noises. Doesn’t matter what it is. If she like it, it gets a kiss, and then a chance to suck on her bookie.

Lily loves to dance. If she hears any music, she wiggles her little bootie. It is hilarious! She can be such a ham. In church, everytime we sing a hymn, she waves her hands back and forth like she’s leading the music. I can’t help but laugh!

Lily loves food. Sometimes. Other times she refuses to eat anything. Her very most favorite foods in the world are clementines and cheerios. She would live on those if she could, but I try not to feed her too much of them. She eats alot of avocados, sweet potatoes, eggs, applesauce, hummus, carrots…. Her other favorite thing is Indian Food. She LOOVVEs chicken tikka masala.

Lily does not like to sleep at night. I can count on one hand the times I’ve had a solid night’s sleep in the past 12 months. I really, really miss it. She goes to bed at nine. On an amazingly rare good night, she’ll wake up again around 6am, nurse, and then sleep until 9 am. On an average night, she’ll wake up at 3 am and 6 am, and nurse both times. On a sort of bad night, she’ll be up at 10:30, 12:00, 3:00 and 6:00. On a really bad night, she doesn’t sleep at all. She had tubes put in her ears 3 weeks ago, and since then she’s only had one really bad night.

Lily LOVES animals. Her favorites are dogs and chickens, and she makes a killer chicken and noise. The funniest/saddest thing is when we’re eating chicken for dinner. I’ll ask her if she wants some chicken, and she’ll make her chicken noise. She growls like a dog and a bear, makes monkey noises, and meows like a cat. She’s also got a few words. She says Dad, Mom, Dog, bye bye, yeah, bookie, backpack, and a few more.

I could go on and on and on. I love Lily so much. It is amazing how she brings pure, sweet joy to our lives. She can be challenging sometimes. When I’m around, she won’t play on her own; she just want me to hold her and play with her. It makes it nearly impossible to get anything done, but I do enjoy some good, quality Lily time. It is so refreshing to see the world from her perspective, and remember how truly amazing the world around us is.

Oh crap; it’s ten PM and she’s already crying. Let’s hope tonight won’t be a really bad night!

Thursday 3:00 pm

Mom: What are you guys doing for your long weekend

Me: I don’t know. We should go somewhere. Want to go to St. George?

Mom: Let me check with dad.

Thursday 4pm:

Me: I’m just about to leave work. What do you want to do?

Mom: I’ve been looking online and found a cheap condo to rent this weekend. We’re in!

Thursday 8pm:

Mom: On our way to pick you guys up!

Our spur of the moment trip included alot of biking:

hiking:

hanging out:

(that would be Lily kissing the dog. She kisses everything.)

watching my “new” favorite TV show:

eating:

and a chocolate party, of course:

Nothing beats spur of the moment, right?

The weather decided that February would be a good time for winter to begin.  Pretty ridiculous if you ask me, but I’m happy that we finally got some snow!

Lily has fun cousins next door, and we went over to join them in their winter celebration. Alisa was especially excited, because she really loves winter.

Lily and Milly were having a great time until Jared “accidentally” dumped them. Milly was okay. Lily wasn’t so appreciative. Of course, we had to take a picture before we wiped all of the snow off of Lily’s face.

I stole all of the pictures off Casey’s blog. Thanks Casey!

You want me to do what?

I guess I can humor you for a second or two

Wait, I have to wear a bow? In my hair? This was not in my contract.

Wait, is that the dog I see?

I’m outta here.

I cooperated last year. You can’t expect me to smile two years in a row, can you?

(Thanks to grandma and grandpa morgan for the photo shoot!)

Lily is officially a skier! She spent a day skiing at the Canyons and loved it! Luckily it was very warm, because I forgot her hat. Minor detail.

We actually hadn’t planned to take her skiing. Jared and I were going to take turns hanging out with her in the lodge, and I brought her pack in case we wanted to hike around with her a bit. When we got to the base of the resort, we decided we’d take her up in the Gondola to see everybody. By the time we got to the top of the Gondola, we decided that it would be fun to ski around with her a little bit, and before we knew it, we were riding a lift with her! It was awesome. She loved it! At one point I looked over at her on Jared’s back. Her hood had flown off her head, and her little face was bright red, her eyes were almost closed from all the wind, but she had the biggest smile on her face. That girl has a need for speed! I took a bunch of pictures, and because I’m “that mom,” I am planning to post every one. Someday when Lily is a professional snowboarder, she’ll thank us.

Santa came to visit on Christmas Day:

my mom put goop in Lily’s hair

Lily didn’t mind Santa- probably because he sounded alot like her grandpa.

Lily was happy when I flattened her hair.

This picture deserves a post all of its own. Jenna was in town over Thanksgiving, and took this amazing picture of Lily. I’m glad that somebody appreciates the hours I spend each day making Lily’s hair look perfect: