Baby's first earthquake

Carter experienced his first earthquake on Tuesday. Southern California was hit with a magnitude 5.4 earthquake. What do you think Carter did during the earthquake?? That's right he slept peacefully through all the shaking and rolling.


I promise I didn't pose him for this picture. He really was sleeping like this.

This is what I imagine his face would have looked like if he was awake during the earthquake.

Carter's rough night

In my ongoing endeavor to find out how smart and advanced Carter is, I offered him $120 to stop crying the other night, but he didn't take it. That doesn't bode well for his street sense. I mean, he didn't even need to actually fall asleep. He could've just pretended and I would've paid him all the same. Oh well, maybe he'll be good at chess.
On a related note, he had his first fever last night. He was crying and we couldn't figure out what was wrong, so of course, we put him in his warmest pjs and kept wrapping him in blankets. He just went on screaming (my boy has finally found his lungs) and we were dumbfounded b/c he wouldn't eat or anything. Finally, we thought, "what if he's hot?" We took off his pjs and sure enough, the kid was boiling. I laid him next to me by the window, and he started to cool down. Of course, he made us pay for our stupidity by peeing in our bed and making us change the sheets at 5am. Anyway, his fever broke and he's been happy as a clam today.

"My Daddy's so handsome!"

Check out his sweet duds from Richard, Betsey, and future girlfriend Nora.

"I hate it when Mommy dresses me up to match her! She's so mean!"
Actually, I couldn't stop laughing after I took this picture. He wasn't even crying -- he just made this super sad face right when I pushed the shutter.

Hurray for visitors!

We've been lucky to have some great visitors come and help out with Carter. It's made recovering so much easier on me. First my mom Phyllis came, then my mother-in-law Shari, then my sister Breezy, and then my mom came back again! It was so wonderful to have them here to cook, clean, take care of Carter, and keep me company. Thanks so much!!!

I know you can't really tell this is Grandma Phyllis holding Carter, but I promise it is. He really loves eating his hands.

Breezy and Carter snuggling together.

Grandma Shari and Carter still in the hospital.

And Carter snuggling with my mom, just in case the first picture wasn't proof enough that she was really here:-).

A clean bill of health

Yesterday was Carter's 2-week checkup. He had to go see a pediatrician when he was 3 days old, but we weren't able to get into see the doctor that our good friends Betsey and Richard recommended. Instead we got a doctor that I absolutely hated for various reasons. The main reasons being that he was extremely condescending and arrogant. But that's another story. So I was dreading this appointment because I had no idea what the doctor we wanted to see would be like. My mom even drove back from Vegas to help me take Carter since I didn't think I could handle another bad appointment (thanks Mom!). Fortunately, the new doctor was WONDERFUL. I absolutely loved him. I think he's the nicest doctor I've ever met. (Thanks Betsey and Richard!) And Carter was doing great. He's now 7 lbs. 14 oz. and he's 21 and 1/2 inches long. His head's growing too (not a big surprise if you know his parents), but I didn't catch the measurement. Needless to say he checked out with a clean bill of health and we now have a great pediatrician! Here are some more pictures of our growing son:

Here's the latest in events

Since my current life events now revolve entirely around Carter Archie Crall, whenever I post you can expect it to be a baby blog:-) Sorry Chris. So here's the latest from my adorable son...

More baby pictures! I love this little guy.

Hold your horses!

Well, you know I'm not going to post any more pictures until I have some event to blog about in the middle. So, here goes: yesterday, I watched the All-Star game. And now for more pictures!!

It's a good thing Daddy's so soft!

Lorein sent me this picture while I was at work and it made me feel real good.

I can't decide -- should I wake up or not?

Dang, I look good in green!

Sometimes, this world is just too much.

And when it gets to be too much, I just take a bath and snuggle up with Mommy.

Some more pics

Ok, now that I've broken up the baby pictures with something different, you can have some more pics (in chronological order).

Relaxing after a hard day

He loves the spotlight

Doing what apparently he was born to do -- sleep

His first (and favorite) look -- the Pirate!

Checkin' out Grandma Phyllis

Just snugglin'

Brooding over his skinny legs. Unfortunately, skinny jeans will be out of style by the time he's old enough to buy some!

A momentous week

People have been hounding me for more pictures of Carter, but I have a goal to keep this from becoming a baby blog (not that that's a bad thing:)), so I'm going to post about some other momentous things before you get more pics!
First, Cary came home from his mission on Wednesday!.It was a joyous reunion, but it seems like he's been gone way longer than two years. I mean, when he left, we were still living in Utah, I was working for Costume Craze (www.costumecraze.com!) and we were newlyweds. It's nice to have him back, although the poor guy has two years worth of holes in his jeans. He definitely needs a wardrobe upgrade. That is not meant to be insulting, it merely reflects one of the things a mission does to you -- turns you into a fashion pariah.
Second, my family and I got to ride on the Goodyear Blimp yesterday! A guy in their ward works for Goodyear, and he hooked them up with a ride. Originally, I wasn't going to be able to go because we had a tour of the hospital's maternity building scheduled for the same time, but events made that tour moot, so I got to tag along. It was pretty darn cool.
Here's some interesting things about the blimp: 1) it's filled with helium, not hydrogen, so it won't explode and burn like the Hindenburg; 2) to take off, the crew members on the ground lift the blimp into the air, then bounce it down on its one wheel off the ground; the blimp bounces up into the air and then the pilot slams the throttle and it takes off at a really, really, really steep incline (it's kinda scary); 3) it's easy to drive.
Yes folks, we got to drive it. Cary, with his missionary audacity, asked if we could drive and the pilot obliged. Seeing as the blimp's so slow, it's not that hard at all. There's two rudder pedals and then a wheel for altitude. The weirdest part is that they leave the windows open in the front part of the cabin; you can just stick your hands out into the air! It's also kinda scary. The funniest part of the ride, though, was that after we got off, the crew had to add ballast for the group after us. I guess we're not the lightest family.:)

David getting into the cabin

Just to prove we really were up in the air

Me flying the blimp

The crew rushing to haul the blimp in

The family crammed into the cabin

Carter Archie Crall

So, forget about that pregnancy timeline at the top of this page. It turns out the reason why Lorein was in too much pain to post last night was because SHE WAS IN LABOR! She had contractions a lot on Saturday, but they went away during the night. Then, they started up again before church on Sunday, but we just thought it was pre-labor. When we were timing the contractions Sunday afternoon, they averaged around 40 seconds. She never got to a minute. They intensified around 9 Sunday night and she couldn't sleep. At 2:20, she woke me up because she couldn't deal with the contractions by herself anymore. We again started timing, and again they averaged only 40 seconds or so. It had us really confused that the contractions weren't hitting a minute. That's what kept us believing it was just pre-labor. That, and the fact that the baby wasn't supposed to come for 3 1/2 more weeks! The contractions were coming so close together though -- about every two minutes -- that we finally decided to go to the hospital just to get it checked out. We really weren't expecting much. In fact, we left all our stuff in the car because we were sure they were just going to send us back home.
Lorein was really struggling to get into the hospital because the contractions were so bad, and then the nurse that was checking her in took her sweet time. She was probably the slowest person ever. And I really mean that. Lorein was lying there screaming and the nurse was only worried about buttoning her gown. She even told Lorein to stop screaming because she was going to need her energy for the long night ahead. Finally, a midwife came in, did an exam, and said, "This woman's ready to deliver. Get her to a room now." So, we threw Lorein on a gurney and motored toward the room. She was still having really bad contractions and while we were rolling, the midwife asked if Lorein was ready to push and she replied yes. We got her to the room and onto the delivery bed and the midwife said, "Ok, on this next contraction, push." Lorein pushed, and the top of the baby's head appeared. A few more pushes later, and baby popped out. We got to the hospital at 3:45 and the baby was born at 4:29. Yeah, less than 45 minutes. That means Lorein did the whole freakin' thing at home. She's insane. But like I said, we just couldn't figure out why the contractions weren't hitting a minute!
And that's how Carter (my middle name and my grandpa's name) Archie (after Archie Goodwin of Nero Wolfe fame) Crall (our last name) came into the world. He was 19 inches, and 6 lbs., 14 oz. He's been a great baby, although he does have these super-long Wolverine fingernails that he keeps scratching himself with.

Temecula Baby Shower

Lorein was going to post about the baby shower my Mom and her good friend Dee Dee threw her last weekend, but she's in too much pain, so the task falls to me. Actually, it falls to Breezy, who has already posted about it on her blog, so click on the link to the right.
I can say Lorein was really, really happy that Breezy and Chandler came down. She was excited to see them. As for me, I was glad too because us boys went to an indoor Go-Kart racing track and burned some rubber. It was fun.
I can also say she got some good loot, including three Dodgers outfits and the coolest baby book I've ever seen -- "Dodgers 101: My First Team Board Book". It introduces baby to Dodger Stadium, Vin Scully, great players from Dodgers history and much more. It'll probably be his favorite book.