Spring is Here!

Who'd have thought parenthood would take up so much of our time? Between working full time for me, and Lyzz taking care of Mal and going back to her martial arts class, we've been keeping fairly busy. Along those lines, I'm a little tired of working for Wave Broadband. It's mostly a combination of poor management and the fact that my paycheck is never a consistent number, seeing as how I get paid a base+commission. We're keeping our ears to the ground in case something better opens up, but for now I have to put up with incompetent management and a fluctuating check.

Lyzz is enjoying being back at Total Confidence Martial Arts (TCMA for short). Right now she's doing the "Lean and Fit" class to get some good exercise, but hopefully she'll be back into the actual Muy Thai class soon. She's been working so hard to get a black belt for such a long time now. Also, Lyzz is heading back to Whatcom Community College in the fall to finish her Associates' degree and then the plan is to transfer to WWU, or perhaps elsewhere, and get an Accounting degree. Once she's got her degree we're hoping she'll be able to find a good job with it and support us while I head back for a Master's or Doctorate. I'm still not sure what subject I'd like to do for a MA though.

And now, the real excuse for us posting most anything on our blog, Malcolm. He turned 3 months old two weeks ago now and is growing like a berserk patch of blackberry vines. His current stats: 16.5lbs, 25" long, and wearing 9 month-old clothing. Mal is no longer just a little bundle of pooping blankets. During most days, Mal wakes up around 7-8am (with Dad) and then hangs out until I leave for work at 10am. He might cat-nap for 30 minutes or so a couple times during the day, but otherwise he's awake until around 8-9pm in the evening.






Lyzz bought him a little suit for church/special occasions. It has pinstripes. Awesome.











Besides growing like mad, Mal is doing great. No health concerns so far, though he had a fever at the same time I did for maybe 2 days. Infant Tylenol kept that under control though. His ability to stand with a little support have continued to improve to the point that he no longer resembles a bobble-head most of the time. Also, he has discovered the joys of munching on his fingers, which means drool ahoy. We've been awoken a few mornings by the sound of him loudly slurping on his fingers to signal his hunger. It's better than a screaming baby, I suppose. Oh right, Mal has finally spent two nights in his own bedroom in the crib! His first night was a little restless, so I spent a fair bit of time up making sure he wasn't hungry and was comfortable. Last night he slept for 8 hours straight and just needed a quick diaper change and some food at about 6am, then was back to sleep for two hours.









The obligatory St. Patrick's Day outfit for the wee Irishman.








And finally, here's a little video we managed to capture. Mal has proven difficult to actually record, since he always notices the camera and it distracts him from whatever it is he was doing that we wanted to record. Little punk.

Welcoming Malcolm into 2011

So 2010 has been a very interesting year to say the least. Sam graduated from WWU, we found out we were expecting, moved in with the Hancock's for the summer, Sam found a better job, had a baby, and now Sam is applying for a promotion. Yeah, crazy year. But I wont recap on all of that since that was what the other posts were for. This one is all about Mal and our hopes for the new year.

Sam already posted about the whole hospital experience, so now it's on to the Mal at home phase. It has been a very wonderful trying experience. The vicodin helped a lot. Mal came home from the hospital on Friday the 17th of Dec. Mary met us at our condo with soup and bread for lunch. Yum. It was seriously the best tasting thing I had eaten in a very long time. Mary also wanted to help out more so she decided to do some cleaning. Well some is an understatement. She clean the entire house except for the bedrooms. And well Mal's didn't need it. Still in pain and waiting for the vicodin to kick in, Mal and I just relaxed and hung out for a few days.




















The first Sunday after Mal was born we went to the Ferndale 1st Ward to spend the Christmas Program with Sam's parents, and of course Mary wanted to show off her new grandbaby. After church we spent the rest of the day at their house just hanging out. It's always nice to have a few extra hands to help out with a brand new baby. And of course naps ensued and Mary had to take a picture of her first son and his first son. Mary pretty much leaves her camera out when we're over there now. She wants to get as many pictures of Mal as she can.


Sam had 80 hours of paid time off so to extend the weeks he could take off, we thought it would be best for him to work two days a week for 3 weeks instead of taking two entire weeks off. This worked out great for everyone. On the days that I was still on vicodin and Sam had to work Mal and I were dropped off at Sam's parents to hang out with Mary and Amy. They took every chance they got to steal him away and hold him for a few hours. Malcolm also got his very first bath. His umbilicol cord had fallen of the that morning, and since I'd never bathed a baby before, I figured it'd be good to get some help, and Mary was super excited to help out with his first bath. It's so nice to know that Mal has such loving extended family. Mary is SO excited to have her first grandchild. When we first got home Mary called us every day to see how we were doing and if we needed anything. It's nice having family so close. Sam and I really appreciate all the help from friends and family both that we've received. We'd probably go crazy if we didn't have such a great support network.


Christmas was amazing. And Mal was so freaking cute. I bought that outfit hoping it would fit him (newborn size) and while he's always been the weight of the next size up, it's all in that huge head of his. So he still fits into newborn clothes, at least for now. My adoptive grandparents bought the hat for him. They of course wanted a picture of him in it, and well, who wouldn't?

We had a Christmas Eve Brunch at my sister, Bonnie's house with the rest of my family. Very loud, but it's always nice to see everyone again. And most of them hadn't seen Mal yet, so that was a great treat. After that we went over to Sam's parent's house for the traditional Asian Christmas Eve dinner, wontons included. Sooooo delicious. We even tried some dessert wontons this year. Those turned out great as well. I can't wait for next year when Malcolm is able to rip open his own presents.

Christmas day we spent first at the Hancock's, but we left at about 5 to go over to the Perez's. Jim had to work on Christmas so Sam and I felt Jony should have some company. And who doesn't want to hang out with a cute little baby in an elf suit? We watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. I fell asleep again for a few minutes, but I did watch most of it this time.

And now for just some cute pictures of Malcolm Flynn Hancock.

Malcolm Flynn

Well, I could give you all a minute-by-minute recounting of Mal's arrival to the world, but I won't bore you with the details, since some of it was quite gruesome (and far bloodier than I'd expected).

Mal was coming up on 10 days overdue and the Doc had suggested inducing labor on Monday night around 7. We called in to confirm and were told that a flood of ladies who were in natural labor had arrived, so we were put on the waiting list. "Call back in 12 hours or so" they told us. Morning arrived and we called in, only to be told that things were still busy and they'd check with our OB about things. The OB insisted we get in there, so we checked in at 11am or so on Tuesday the 14th.





Lyzz got started on a drug called Cytotec, which was supposed to help efface the cervix and perhaps start contractions. Much waiting ensued. Early the morning of the 15th, about 8am, the doctors added a Pitocin drip to the IV and things took off. Contractions got more intense and Lyzz got a lot more unhappy about the whole labor idea. Dilation proceeded and by 8:39pm Mal was pushed into the world amidst a bunch of fluid and blood. Gross.

We got transferred to a post-partum room to give Lyzz and Mal some time to recover, and so the nurses and doctors could prod and poke the poor little guy. A good night's rest (relatively, anyway), and more tests, doctor's questions, etc. awaited. For Lyzz and I, the whole thing was still kind of surreal. The fact that this little guy is OUR child hadn't really sunk in yet.

Once this morning rolled around, we started to feel pretty good about the whole "parent" thing. Of course, this means that we actually have no idea what we're doing. However, we are finally starting to realize that Mal is our boy. As much as the thought of being responsible for another human being freaks me out, I'm excited for this new adventure. I can't wait to take him to the beach and go tide-pooling.


Merry Christmas indeed.

Mal's Cartoons

So I'm 2 days late. I'm anxious but not worried. I have my next doctors appointment tomorrow at 2:40 pm so we'll see how things are then. Anyways, Sam and I have had this idea in motion for a while, longer than we knew that Mal even existed, cartoons. We wanted to created our own cartoons that Mal could grow up with. We would decorate his room with them, and even write stories and books for him. Although, for a while, we had no idea which types of animals or cartoon style we really liked. But finally we have finished the first designs for them. And here they are. The only animals I knew we would have were a panda and orangutan. The rest of them just kinda fell into the idea. Mal's room ended up being monkeys and lions, so we added a lion. The elephant has a funny back story so we decided to add him as well. And well the giraffe and fox... no idea. Just like the way they were drawn.

So here's the break down. First there's Zaius (named after the orangutan from Planet of the Apes). He's the bold adventurous type with the typical orangutan style of being able to get out of anything. Then we have Tusko (named for an elephant billed for being the meanest). However he doesn't actually have tusks so he over compensates by being a bully with a squishy center he tries to not let anyone know about. Zara (named after the giraffe given to Charles X of France from Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1827) is the "princess" of the bunch, however overly clumsy. Ying is a silly panda who tries to be as daring as Zaius, but just doesn't have the charisma. Kit is a foxy fox who tends to be the one who gets Ying out of her predicaments she gets into by following after Zaius. And last but not least there's Nemean (named for the lion Hercules had to defeat for part of his trials). However, Nemean is not actually a lion. He's just a house cat that tries to be every part, tough and brave, like his name's sake. He wears a faux lion's mane and tail to look the part.

So that's what we've got for Mal. I think it's a great cast of characters for him to get to know. We'll see how these preliminary character types stick. They may change overtime but this is what we've got so far.

I just hope Mal decides to show up soon. I'm sick of being pregnant.

One week

So it's one week until Malcolm is due and I thought I'd update everyone on what's been going on.

First off, this condo is absolutely fantastic. The house stays warm so we only have to keep the thermostat at 55 to keep the house warm. We've rearranged Mal's room and finished all the decorating except the few paintings I want to do for him. Sam put up glow-in-the-dark stars and planets around Mal's room. He had them when he was a kid and wanted Mal to have stars to look at while he falls asleep, too. The room finally looks like a baby's room. We've got his bed and a rocking chair next to the heater to keep both of us warm, his changing table and a futon for if either Sam or I need to crash in there. Mal's closet is filled with his dresser (so glad that fits in there because there is NO room for it elsewhere), the smallest clothes I've ever seen, blankets from his friends and family who are so excited to see him, and a large amount of extra diapers and wipes that Sam and I are VERY grateful for. The less we have to go out in the first few weeks for things like that the better. Thank you to everyone who helped out.

On Tuesday I had my weekly doctor's appointment and I couldn't tell if Dr. Mora was kidding or not when he said, "Well we definitely wont see you by Thanksgiving, but I might see you this weekend. Yeah, this weekend would be great." When I told Sam he kinda freaked out about it, excited yes, but definitely freaked. We were both just hoping I wouldn't go into labor during the movie last night. If I had, Mal would be keeping with family tradition. Sam's mother went into labor for him during a double feature of Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian. Explains a lot doesn't it? Ha ha.

Well Harry Potter 7 part 1 was a great movie. It was paced well and considering the last HP movies have to compete with themselves, it was very good. It ended about where I expected it to. I don't think the fans could have handled Doby, Fred, and Snape dying in the same movie. I'm glad it ended when and how it did.

So now Sam and I are just going about our days as normal just trying to not freak out over the fact that Mal could show up any day now. We decided to brave Target yesterday (yikes) because we realized we didn't have a few things that we will need when Mal gets here. Luckily it was only 2-3 things and the express lanes were nearly empty. I can't believe how many people actually go shopping on Black Friday as a tradition. Personally, unless absolutely necessary, I think that the entire Thanksgiving weekend should be spent with your family. And I understand that it is a family tradition to go shopping. But that doesn't really leave much time for actually family time. The chaotic rushing around trying to get the best sales, or even just trying to find a parking spot is the worst head ache ever. It was so bad that Sam had to drop me off to go in to get the few things we need while he tried to find a spot. Well that never happened so he just came right back around and called me to see if I was about out. We will never go near a major shopping district on Black Friday ever again. No thanks.

Sam's working hard to be able to take his whole 80 hours off without worrying about being able to pay our bills. "Paid days off" for Sam right now, since he hasn't been with Wave for a year, means that he gets just the base pay for the two weeks he takes off. We've put quite a bit into savings so we will be fine. Especially if it happens to be that Sam's two weeks off aren't for the same pay period.

We are very excited for Mal to arrive and I can't wait to not be pregnant anymore. Bumping into things with my large, baby-carrying stomach, having to change position while sleeping just to not get a cramp in my back or side, and not being able to sit comfortably on the couch because Mal keeps kicking me in the ribs. Oh for the day when I can hold Mal instead of feeling him in uncomfortable places.

Well until then. I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and didn't have to much trouble with the snow.

Slug Juice

Well, it's my turn to update the blog, and I've been a slow panda, so here we are a month later.

First off, we moved into our new place in North Bellingham area. It's weird living this close to the mall and the major shopping section of town, but convenient when a late night run for kitty-litter or extra cream cheese is in order. The condo's still kind of a disaster, since we spent the first ten days not even living in it (I'll get to that momentarily), but we're slowly unpacking boxes and figuring out what stuff we actually want/need. It's been amusing to have our three cats all back under one roof again. Rei is still our little oddball and instigator of much kitty wrestling on the stairs.

Now, the reason we didn't live in our new place for 10 whole days was because we were house-sitting/nannying for the Userys in the Ferndale 3rd ward. They have two boys, 10 and 12 years old, as well as an older daughter, who is 18. Normally I think their daughter, Charly, would have been able to handle things, but she's in high school and the two boys have varying school schedules, soccer practices and games, etc. so it was not feasible for her to watch them the whole time. It meant Lyzz and I were up far earlier in the mornings than we've been for quite some time (7am as opposed to our usual 8-8:30 am). Dexter, the 10 year-old, and Josh, the 12 year-old, were easy to handle and basically did all the chores, homework, and other things they needed to without coercion. The whole experience was really kind of a look into the future for us, and I think it overwhelmed us both a little to be taking on such a hectic schedule all of a sudden, as opposed to it just happening organically as our little guy grows up.

Along the lines of our little guy, Mal is continuing to be healthy and normal thus far. Lyzz is getting more and more pregnant looking (finally), but without the lower back destroying pregnancy waddle. We had to take a 5 week long class about birth and parenting that the Tech College runs. It was basically an evening where we picked up flyers and informational pamphlets, and then saw a few short videos about car seats, breastfeeding, medical procedures (like epidurals, joy!), and ways to calm a baby (loudly "Shush"-ing in their ear is apparently extremely effective though unsettling to witness). I suspect one of the highlights of the class for both of us was another couple's Bernese Mt. Dog who waited in the car during class but ran around with us afterward. We're totally getting one of those somewhere down the road.

As Mal's due date draws near, I'm getting more and more excited about the whole "daddy" thing, though randomly have moments of "Who said this was okay?!?". Mostly I'm looking forward to the adventure of raising a little person. The part that's freaked out is me wondering how I can screw things up. Part of what's really making Mal's arrival "real" is the collection of stuff in his bedroom upstairs. We painted it a nice light green color, officially called "Christopher Robin's Swing", and now have a crib, changing table, millions of baby wipes, a pile of diapers, and more clothes for the kid than Lyzz and I own combined. It'll be a neat baby room. Apparently, boy baby stuff is officially jungle themed this year, so we have a lot of lions, monkeys, giraffes, frogs, etc. on clothes and other things. My favorite Mal-thing is the hoodie towel with a little monster face on the hood.

Lyzz continues to find ways to keep busy, and look beautiful, while I drive around three counties selling cable and internet services. She's been reorganizing our things, working on a photo album, finding last minute baby things, chasing the cats around the house, drawing, etc. Oh! I may have gotten Lyzz a paying job designing a logo for a company called Puppy Stairs. I knocked on a customer's door on Camano Island and ended up talking about Lyzz's artwork and such with the lady. She showed me her pamphlets and info pages for her business, which sells to customers all across the USA, and said they might be looking to redesign their logos and such. She liked a few pictures I had downloaded to my work phone, so she told me to have Lyzz email her. SWEETNESS!

Yesterday evening we spent the night with my family at WWU's Ryan Stiles show for Family Week, which is when the parents of students come visit and do cool things around campus with their kids. The place was packed, so when Lyzz raised her hand to volunteer for one game we didn't really think much would happen, but sure enough she got called up to do "Moving People" on stage. The game somehow involved racing mutant slugs and ended with one guy getting attacked by his giant slug while the other smeared speedster slug juice all over his face. Yeah....

Counting down in 8.....

So the count down has officially begun, and I am freaking out about it. However, since I know that babies never arrive on time, I've decided to count down til I'm officially full term, November 13th. Which is in 8 weeks exactly. And the things going through my mind right now are, "Who the hell deicided it was okay for Sam and I to have a kid??", "YAY MAL'S ALMOST HERE!", "Oh man I cannot WAIT until I don't have a little person kicking me all the time,", etc. The thoughts and emotions are very random and different. Fears of every kind are swimming through my head and it's really hard to keep them all under control. Will he like me? Will I be a good mother? Again, who let Sam and I have a KID?! But things are definitely looking up.

Sam's job is going well, and we just signed lease stuff for the condo we're moving into on Oct. 4th. Happy birthday Sam! You get a new apartment! Yay! Lol. The current tennant is moving out on the 30th, and then we'll spend the 1st and 2nd doing the walk-through and painting the baby and master bedroom, and then finally we'll move in on Monday the 4th!

We are really lucky to have such great parents/inlaws to let us stay in their house for the entire summer. Mary and Kim are great. And I have to admit, although I loathed coming here, I think it's been a really good experience for all of us. I've finally been able to learn how they work, how such and odd family can possible work without really much communication. They're a fantastic family, and what I've learned is this; they communicate usually only when it's really necessary. This tactic is something my family has never heard of. We are always up in each others business and trying to know whats going on with everyone. While some of us have tried to escape this very annoying family trait we have, most of us are still stuck there. For me, living here with Mary and Kim and seeing how their family works close up has really helped me realize how unspoken communication is just as important as when it's spoken. They're not a very talky bunch, unless you get Kim started on something he's really interested in, but other than that they're really mellow.

Although I really think Mal has helped a lot with bridging gaps between me and Sam's parents. The excitement and terror of being first time parents has really helped us reach a little bit more to Mary and Kim in their advice, and Mary is SO EXCITED to have a grandchild. She's not an extroverted person, at least not around family, but the little things we've done together for Mal has really opened my eyes to what a wonderful woman my mother in law is. I've even learned a little cooking! Kim is still hard to read, but I get the feeling that when Mal is actually here, he'll show a little more excitement. Mal is going to have absolutely wonderful Grandparents.

On a sillier note, Yume looks like an Albino Ewok right now. She has a sore the size of a quarter on the back of her head from a food allergy. Switching the food to one that has no corn has helped alot and it's starting to heal, but she keeps scratching the scabs off and then they bleed and then it's just a vicious cycle. So to help the healing along, I made a hood for her out of one of my socks to keep her from scratching so much at it. It seems to be working. I'll be glad when she's all better. I don't enjoy making my cat.... Oh no wait, yes I do. When Sam gave me the idea to use a sock as the hood last night at like 1:30am, we could not stop laughing when we actually put it on her. We were tired, yes, but Yume was so not happy about the entire situation it was just too funny. And Miyuki seems to be mocking Yume ever time they passed each other. Oh kitties, I love you.

So Mal is growing strong, we start the birthing and parenting classes on Monday, we have our condo to move into in October, and living here at the Hancock's has been a real blessing all around. Life is good, and I'm excited for the adventures that await us.