The Luippolds

Six Months, Sports Camp, and Stage Moms

2011-08-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, do any of you miss my marathon blogs? Well, I have great news for you! ; ) I haven't bogged in forever, which is horrible because so much has happened. So, here is a little (or long) glimpse into our lives so far this summer.

Cici turned 6, then 7 months, and is now half way to 8 months! She is eating solids as of 6 months and gobbles up her food, even spinach gulash, which looks about as good as it sounds. I'm making her food, just as I did Evelyn's, and I really love doing that for her. She is still in the 25th percentile, which means she is just a little peanut! She is 7 months, but wearing Evelyn's 3-6 month clothes-which is perfect for summer. She is sitting up and talking much more. Not as much as Evelyn did at this age, but she is definitely not silent. She is not crawling, or even seeming interested in doing so, but Evelyn didn't crawl until 10 months, so that doesn't surprise me. She also hasn't started teething yet, which is nice. Basically she is in the sweet spot. She sleeps through the night and is past all that newborn fussiness, but is not yet able to move and get into things, nor is she cranky from getting teeth. She is very mellow and often content to just sit and play by herself. I bring her to the office with me and she gets passed around during staff meetings, then sits on the floor and plays with sharpies while I work, then falls asleep for the last few hours. Not bad!

Then, Sports Camp! It's a good thing Cecilia is a mellow baby, because Sports Camp kinda rocks our little world. The month of July is my busiest work month-many times I work double my hours-to help put on a big sports camp for kids in the community around where our church neighborhood. It's an awesome experience but I was more than a little nervous about it because it demands so much time and energy from me-which means takes time and energy away from being a mom and wife, and just being Kristin! However, with lots of help from friends, family, incredible volunteers, and a ton of support from Bard, I think this was the most peaceful and successful Sports Camp yet! I had nearly a hundred volunteers for Sports Camp, over 160 children so the week of camp was quite a sight to see. Evelyn has been at camp every year, but this was the first year she participated, even though she is still too young. She loved every minute of it, was absolutely exhausted and even slept in til 9am! Bard plays one of the characters for our "Half Time Show" and she thought it was hilarious that her dad was "Super Summer"-and especially loved when he threw out candy : ) I think she is used to seeing me speak to large groups of people, so that didn't really matter to her, but the fact that I threw out candy too-every evening-blew her mind since I've only given her candy a handful of times during her little life. The expression on her face was priceless! She loved the sports-and could even do some of the activities, although after hitting the baseball-for the first time ever-she ran after it instead of toward first base : ) She told us that her favorite sport was soccer, which made both her mama and dada quite happy : ) She learned all the songs and is still singing them and was pretty much spoiled by everyone there, so no wonder she had a good time! All in all it was an exhausting, exhilarating week, one that I am both glad to be over and thankful to have experienced. See you next year Sports Camp!

The first month of summer Evelyn was also able to attend a little summer camp put on by her preschool teacher and took a ballet class-from a teacher other than me-for the first time. She loved summer camp and it gave me freedom to get work done while knowing she was safe and having fun-success. Ballet class was a different story as almost every time I peeked in on her she was running off to do her own thing, taking another little girl's scarf, or ignoring the teacher-fail. The last day was parent observation and I really wanted to get a few pictures and a little video of her. Parents could only come in for about the last minute of class but one minute felt like a lifetime and I left so upset with Evelyn that I didn't really even want to talk to her. I don't want to be a stage mom who just jumps in, pressures her daughter, drives the teacher crazy, and is all around miserable, so I'm trying not to let my daughter's behavior (technically misbehavior) define my identity, but since I am a dance teacher, for Evelyn's age group, and have long wanted to see her in dance class, it was a bit crushing. I know that one of her strengths is her energy and social excitement, but when she crosses that line into being a rambunctious busy body, it's a bit hard to stomach. Hopefully through consistent discipline and educational discussions, she learns where that line is and not to cross it. I have to find my line too-of being involved but not over bearing, of letting her shine on stage but not becoming a stage mom. We'll work on balance together.

Speaking of balance, I'm actually writing this blog while on vacation in New Hampshire. Bard's family is from the East Coast so we are all out here together having an amazing time. Stay tuned-that will be the next blog. Now, off to cocktail hour!

4 Months!

2011-05-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Happy 4 months my sweet girl! Okay, so she is now almost 5 months, but who's counting? Time has really flown by this last month and I wanted to take a minute to blog how she is doing. Soon she'll be sitting up, crawling, and eating real food and I have to capture these moments before they are gone!

She's changed a lot recently, grown out of her newborn look, which is sad but adorable. This is really a fun age because she has started to engage with her surroundings-reaching for and playing with toys, rolling over, talking and laughing, smiling when she hears her name, and the most important-going to sleep on her own! She also just started getting upset when she can't get what she wants-normally a toy that I took away for whatever reason, or something that is just out of her reach. Well, that is a lesson we all learn I guess! Evelyn is delighted that her baby sister is more interactive and loves bringing her toys. Evelyn even gives Cici her own toys, which I'm sure won't last long!

Cici is smaller than Evelyn was at this age, in the 25th percentile-Evelyn was 50th-and not quite 13 pounds. She still seems to be a bit more attached to me than Evelyn was but is overall pretty mellow-content to just sit by herself and very calm, as long as she is not tired or hungry. One funny aspect that I've been observing more and more of is that she is noticeably different when Evelyn is around. If Cici is by herself, or it's just Bard and I with her, she talks and coos pretty much non stop. But if Evelyn is there, she is quiet and just kinda watches Evelyn with huge eyes and a look on her face that is both confused and amused! I think it's hilarious and wonder how it will play out as they get older.

Another difference is that Cici spends more time with me. When Evelyn was this age, she went to Grandma's house while I worked at the office two afternoons a week. Evelyn still does that, but Cici comes with me to work so that Evelyn can have some special Grandma time. Cici also is with me at church on Sundays. Evelyn was usually in the nursery for both services, but because of Cici's schedule, she usually goes in one service and then I have her in the baby carrier for the other service, while she sleeps. People at church complain that all they see of her is her legs! Cecilia is still a bit more of a mama's girl than Evelyn ever was, still being a bit cranky sometimes for babysitters and even giving Dada a hard time now and then. So it's interesting to wonder cause or effect-how is she affected by spending more time with me?

Even though it can be stressful to have her with me so much, I find myself enjoying my time with her, more (or perhaps differently) than I did with Evelyn. I'm more relaxed about her, and how she is doing, and I now appreciate how quickly this time will go by. Besides, she is such a little sweetheart, how could I not just snuggle her?!

My Baby

2011-05-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

No, not Cecilia. Evelyn is my first and will always be my baby : ) But, she turned three last month so it's getting harder and harder to see her as a baby-and at the same time it's getting harder and harder to see what a big girl she is becoming. The past year has seen so many changes for her, it's unbelievable to look back on last April and see how far she has come. But I'll try!

Physically she is still in roughly the 50 % for everything-an exact mix of me and Bard : ) And I've seen her gain a lot of confidence in this area over the last year as well. She was never strongest in her gross motor skills, but has lately really started to focus on these skills. Which unfortunately means she is climbing on things she shouldn't, giving me heart attacks and needing constant supervision. I think I would be happier if she went back to focusing on another area of development!

Except verbal skills. Anything but more talking! I remember when she first started talking, it was so cute. It's still cute, and if you spend any time with her, you will quickly realize that she has great verbal skills and can carry on advanced conversations. Can and does. Constantly. All day. All night. Yes-I hear her talking in her sleep. In many ways I'm proud of her-her verbal skills really are good, so I don't mean to complain. But it is so exhausting! She wants to talk about everything-she is very observant and asks questions over and over again. And over and over again! A lot of it goes along with being social, so she will ask questions that she knows the answer to-just to start a conversation again-which is very common for this age. We've taught her to say "Excuse me" if Bard and I are talking with each other. So pretty much every dinner time we hear, "Excuse me, what are you talking about? Can I talk too?" It is pretty funny. And I'm sure when she is a sullen teenager and I can't get more than one syllable out of her, I'll look back longingly on these conversations. But sometimes I just want to hear myself think!

Speaking of socially, she is still our little social butterfly. She has developed friendships with two little girls in particular at her preschool. Last night we were picking flowers for her teachers and she had to pick her friends flowers too and then was chanting their names as we walked into school. So cute! It's fun to see her friendships develop and wonder about all the people she will be friends with over the coming years.

One thing we are watching her with in regards to social behavior, is imitating naughty behavior. She is quick to notice other children around her making the wrong choice and will then follow them. I've lived enough years on this planet to know that will not serve her well! So we talk about what her friends did and making her own choice - the right one. I'm sure this is a conversation that we will be having for years to come.

Lately Cecilia has been going down for a nap right when Evelyn wakes up, and typically sleeps the rest of the afternoon, so it's Mama and Evelyn time. She is very into artwork and has spent hours coloring, playing with play dough, stamps, painting, etc. This has been really fun-to see her develop the skills to draw circles, start to color pictures, and be interested in creating objects that she sees around her. Unfortunately I am not an artist so when she asks me to draw things like giraffes, she just might be disappointed : )

But, when she asks me to help her write letters, that I can do! Yep, she is learning to read and write! She knows all the sounds of her letters-actually has for months-and is very interested in how to spell words, tracing her letters, and sounding them out. Although she certainly doesn't have it down yet-last week she took her foam letters and placed several in a row and then said to me, "Q2E73K. What's that spell Mama?" It's very fun : )

Most of the time, this is a super fun stage. She is so engaging and says the most hilarious things. A few days ago she asked me if Miss Susan (my midwife for Cici) could get more babies for us and when I said no she said there were 4 more in my tummy. No. I have not had fertility treatments! It's so fun to experience life through her because everything is fun and exciting. It's definitely exhausting-for the past 6 months she has decided to fight nap and bed time, making each one a battle, almost every single day. And she will go for negative attention if she is not getting positive attention. And don't get me started on how difficult it is to get her to eat any meal in under an hour! But despite how draining it is, there is a certain sweet simplicity that I know will be lost as she gets older and we fight less about how much broccoli she needs to eat and more about where she is eating and who she is eating with. Tonight we took a family walk after dinner and she delighted in every moment; wanting to race with her dada, jump over sidewalk cracks, check on baby Sissy, and be swung through the air as we both held her hands. Everything was magical, the magic of being three.

Family!

2011-04-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a ton of things to blog about-returning to work, Cecilia turning three months and Evelyn turning three years old, but I think I'll start with what makes all of those so much better-sharing it with family.

As many of you know, Bard's family lives out of state and had not met Cici yet. Last week that changed! Bard's mom, step dad, and grandma flew up for a five day visit. We talked about it with Evelyn beforehand and she got so excited that every time a plane would fly over (about 5 times a day) she would yell, "There's Grandee!" It was so wonderful to see them, and eve more wonderful to see them with Evelyn. She had so much fun playing and visiting, and also really enjoyed having new people to boss around! Sigh. : ) I'm so blessed to have in laws whom I actually consider family-real family-not just family that you have to send a Christmas Card to every year. They were so generous and considerate, we had a great time and I wish they could have stayed longer, it went by too fast. Of course that is partly because I packed eighty events into five days. . .

We decided that since Bard's family was going to be here we would have Cici's dedication-we don't believe in infant baptism-rather our church dedicates Cecilia to being raised together in a godly community, praying for and supporting all of us as a family. So, instead of just doing a little dedication at church, I invited 50 people over to our house and hosted a brunch. Much more fun, don't you think?! Okay, so only about 30 people came ; ) These people are family to us. Their kids are the kids Evelyn and Cici will play with. They are who we go out to dinner with, who we talk about parenting with, who we pray with and who we celebrate with. These people, and more besides who weren't able to attend, are so dear to me, and have been for so many years. I honestly can't imagine my life without them. That's family.

But, besides Bard's family, and our church family, I actually have family of my own! Oddly enough, even though I live within minutes of most my family-immediate and extended-I don't see all of them all that often, so this weekend was a welcome experience for a change in that habit. In fact, I saw some family several days in a row! I'm sure that my family has its own quirks, well, one big quirk who goes in the form of my father! But I honestly like being with them. Aunts, cousins, grandparents, and more, there is just a sense of peace that comes from being with someone you have known your whole life. And who has known you. Evelyn's cousins are her age and we got to spend a good deal of time with them this weekend as well. I love that she is growing up with them, they are two of her favorite people in her whole little world and I hope that stays the same, even as her world gets bigger. She loved spending time with them this weekend, and with my parents. Since I went back to this week (!!!) my mom watched her for two afternoons. I'm so grateful that she has the opportunity to spend that much time with my mom-and that my mom is amazing with her. Each evening I came home to fun stories of what adventures they had been up to. And I really mean adventure-they dug up pirate treasure and went on safaris! Oh the fun of being three. Three!!!!

There is so much more I could say about our families. We are so thankful for them-for both us and our girls. I can't imagine being blessed in a better way than being surrounded by people who love us, and whom we love. We are blessed indeed.

Happy Two months Cecilia!

2011-02-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

Two months, I can't believe it! I am so excited about this, cause I feel like we're over the hump-at least I hope-things will get easier over the next few months as she sleeps more at night, less during the day, has less fussy times, and engages more. I've loved many of these newborn moments, but am excited to have a little more time to myself and a little less chaos in my life. I'm sure childhood is all downhill from here! ; )

But anyway, enough about me, what's up with Cici? Well, we had her two month appointment today, [Okay, I started this a week ago and am just now getting back to it!] which was actually a bit stressful, it's just harder with 2-I had to find childcare for Evelyn (thanks Tish!) and then get her there. Cici's appointment was right at her nap time, so she didn't get barely any morning nap, which made her pretty cranky. although she did well with the Dr and nurse, but no comments about talking and smiling like at Evelyn's two month appointment. She weighs 10 pounds and 4 ounces and is 22 and a half inches long, both are right about at the 50th percentile. Evelyn was at the 90th at her 2 month, so maybe Cecilia will be small like me! Cici's head is smaller-Evelyn never fit into her hats : ) The one thing the Dr did comment on was that she is mostly sleeping through the night-he thought I was pretty lucky in regards to that, and I think so too! She slept through the night (eating at about 7:30pm, sleeping from about 9 until 6am) the last three nights, as well as all week a few weeks ago-woke up at 2am to eat last week. So we'll see. Overall everything looks great and he said she was doing really well. Then she got 3 shots, turned purple with screaming and we left. Poor thing : (

It's hard to believe that it's been two months since I gave birth to her. Some days are easier than others-she still screams a lot in the carseat, but I think it's getting better. And, she does sleep through the night, which is huge, but still has to be rocked, walked, bounced, and sung to sleep, which is really frustrating, and especially hard with a two year old running around. The days that I feel like all I do is hold her are the hardest, I just want freedom! : ) But, she is less cranky in the evenings, which helps and now that we are getting closer and closer to three months, I'm really hoping that she starts to go to sleep on her own, like Evelyn did at that age. I think she is a bit more serious than Evelyn was-she smiles at us now, it just seems like Evelyn was a bit more smiley. She is also starting to pay more attention to objects around her, which is great, because soon we can distract her with them! And, she has more awake time when she is happy and talking-not needing to eat or be put right to sleep, which is fun.

I feel like we've adjusted fairly well as a family over the last few months. Evelyn handles being a big sister very nicely-she wants to involved and loves her little sister, no resentment yet. She is still a bit clingy with me and we have problems when I'm trying to nurse Cici or put her to sleep and Evelyn uses that opportunity to get into anything and everything-but mostly Evelyn does really well. Bard of course is a great help and often walks in the door from work, changes Cici's diaper and then helps with dinner, putting Evelyn to bed and cleaning up before even really getting a chance to sit down. I'm doing well overall, I just seem to have a much shorter fuse than normal. I need to keep reminding myself that this time will go by quickly and I will regain some sense of normalcy within just a few months-a little more sleep, being able to go out by myself easier, and/or with Bard, not constantly caring for a baby, being able to take walks, and enjoying Cici as she engages more. It's just hard to remind myself of that when I'm in the middle of a stressful moment-it doesn't seem to matter that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, cause I'm stuck in the tunnel! I've discovered the stressful times of day: 6:30-8:30am (breakfast, getting dressed, and cleaning up for all of us) 11:30am-2pm (lunches and naps for everyone), and then from 5-9pm (dinner, nap for Cici, bedtime for Evelyn, last feeding and bedtime for Cici.) So, if I'm awake from 6am-10pm, then half the time is fine, I just have to remember that when I feel like screaming because Evelyn has peed on the floor, slipped and fell in it, I'm getting lunch and Cici is screaming because she wants to eat. Oh yes, G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, sing it Fergie!

Just a few more weeks until I go back to work, so while that will be a huge adjustment, I think we will all be ready for it and just like everything else, try to be flexible, take one day at a time, and keep on, keepin' on!

What's In a Name?

2011-02-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

Whoops. I've tried really hard not to succumb to the temptation of ignoring milestones and decisions for the second child that were so important to me with the first child. But, I realized that I never wrote about Cecilia's name, even though that was a blog during my third trimester for Evelyn. Oh well!

So, since high school I had picked out the name of Victoria, nickname Tori, for a girl. Somehow Evelyn didn't end up being a Victoria, but that was our first pick for this one, when we found out she was a girl. We narrowed it down to Victoria, Juliet, and Cora. So where did Cecilia come from? I have no idea! It just popped into my head one day and soon became the front-runner. The name Cecilia is of Latin origin and means, "way for the blind." I liked the idea behind that-of guiding and helping those in need. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and was martyred for her faith. Of course the lineage of a strong woman appealed to me and so did the musical aspect, as apparently it did to Simon and Garfunkel because I started singing that song as soon as the name Cecilia popped into my head! That drives Bard crazy, because the woman in that song is not really one we would want our daughter to be like, but come on, who doesn't love that song, I bet you're singing it right now!It took a while for us to settle on Cecilia for sure, she was almost named Cora, but I just kept calling her Cecilia in my mind, so that decided it.

The middle name, however, was decided long ago. For those of you who know me well, it probably comes as no surprise that I gave my daughter the name of the woman who has been one of the most influential people in my life. I first met Miss Lynn when I was just 11 years old; she was my dance teacher. But she did more than just teach me proper technique and how to perform; she invested in my life. Sometimes instead of class, we would end up just talking, her with a group of middle school students. We talked about boys, life choices, and school work. I don't remember the conversations, just that she cared enough to have them. Later, when I showed an interest in helping with the younger students, she trained me as an assistant and then hired me as a teacher when I was in high school, developing my teaching skills and starting me on a life-long path of dance instruction. I honestly can't imagine not teaching little girls to dance. And Lynn helped me see that it's more than just instruction on dance steps, it's sharing a passion, developing self esteem, and being a part of children's lives as they grow into men and women who value the art of life. And those little three year olds with their pot bellies in little tutus are absolutely adorable and make me smile!

What's in name? Cecilia Lynn-a love for music and a guide for those in need, coupled with a woman full of integrity, grace, and beauty. My little girl has some big shoes to fill with her name, and I can't wait to see her do it!

Half Way Mark

2011-02-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

This week Cecilia turned 6 weeks old. That is a bit of a milestone for several reasons. One, many people notice babies settling into a better routine at this age and that things-like feeding, napping, etc get a bit easier. I really looked forward to 6 weeks with Evelyn because of this theory. However, with Evelyn, and Cecilia, I noticed little difference! Cici, actually settled into somewhat of a routine at about 4 weeks, and Evelyn not until 3 months.

However, a more meaningful reason is that I am now half way through my maternity leave-I go back to work in 6 more weeks. This seems crazy to me because three months sounds such a long time! I can hardly imagine going back to work at this point-I'm tired, it's hard to get out of the house, Cici has to be rocked to sleep, and it takes forever to feed her. But, fortunately 6 weeks is also the halfway point to those problems becoming easier, for Evelyn, and babies of many parents I've talked to, 3 months is a magic age! That is when Evelyn started going to sleep on her own-which makes a HUGE difference, and nursing started to take a lot less time-going from about 45-60 minutes to about 25 minutes, which is great as well. So, even though life will get a little crazier with me being back at work, hopefully it will also be a little easier in other ways. And, since I really need to be out of the house-away from my darling children-for at least a little time each week, it may also help with all of our sanity!

Lastly, the first of April marks another big milestone-Evelyn turns three! Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean overnight changes, but it's still a big deal-I'll have a three year old : )It's crazy that just a few years ago I was blogging about Evelyn being 6 weeks old-and now here we are. I'm amazed when I think about how many milestones, for both girls, that I have before me. Life is so short, we need to treasure each moment.

Luippold Family Letter

2011-02-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Below is the letter we sent out with Cecilia's birth announcement (let me know if you want one!) I posted a new album of pictures we had taken the day she was born and when she was about two weeks old. The pictures were taken by a friend of ours, Chelle, of Chelle Nicole Photography (find her on facebook!) They turned out absolutely beautiful, I hope you enjoy them!

2010 was full of surprises for our family, so we can hardly wait to see what 2011 has in store. The past year brought memorable experiences for each of us and we wanted to share them with you.

Bard spent the first half of the year studying for his third and final test in the Chartered Financial Analyst Program. In August we found out that against all odds, he had passed each test on the first try, completing three years of hard work! Then in December he took another big step in furthering his career when he received a promotion at work to become more focused on investments.

My year was also full of big changes, namely finding out in April that I was pregnant! This was a huge answer to prayer for us and we began to prepare for the changes it would mean for our family. Unfortunately this pregnancy was a bit more challenging that Evelyn’s had been and I grew accustomed to feeling nauseous, dealing with migraines, fatigue, and back problems. But, even with all that we were able to enjoy a visit from Bard’s family in May, a great family vacation to Mexico in June, and a fun trip to the ocean in August, shared with my family.

Evelyn went through big changes this year too. While she was adjusting to the idea of being a big sister, she also started sleeping in her very own bed, and said goodbye to diapers!

But what she has enjoyed most is her two mornings a week at a local preschool.

She loves her teachers and other classmates, talks about school all the time, and even sang with her class in a little Christmas Performance!

However, the family member who saw the most change, by far, was Cecilia Lynn! From day one of the pregnancy she was a healthy baby, and even though she made me miserable at times, she grew and developed wonderfully. By the middle of December, she was done growing and although my due date wasn’t until January 6^th, I began to feel more and more that she was going to come early. And she did!

We were proud to welcome Cici at 2:02am on January 2^nd, 2011. Just missing Bard’s hope for a tax deduction baby! Labor went fine and we are both doing well. At just a few weeks old, Cecilia is already taking her place in our family.

Well, it was quite a year!

And even though all those events are a lot, they are really just the tip of the iceberg. What truly defined our year was the relationships we encountered while going through all those experiences. Our relationship with God was strengthened, as we thanked Him for the blessings and depended on Him through the challenges. And our relationships with friends and family were strengthened through time in church and small group, as well as just trying to live honestly and compassionately with each other.

All in all it was an amazing year-full of surprises, joy, stress, and a lot of fun. We’re so thankful that we got to go through it with you and hope that we have many more years together.

Dealing with **^&(*@#!

2011-02-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

So this morning Cici was sleeping and I had to leave to take Evelyn to her little preschool class. Cici had just eaten and doesn't normally fall asleep after she eats-she normally sleeps a bit later-so I didn't feel too bad waking her and figured she would just fall asleep again in the car if she was that tired. We got to school and I put Cici in the moby wrap to walk Evelyn in. (Every time it's a struggle whether to carry her on my own-and not have free hands for Evelyn, go through the hassle of the moby, or carry her in her car seat which is awkward and uncomfortable. I have yet to find a winning option!) She was fussy in the moby, which is unusual and then started crying while I was in Evelyn's classroom. By the time I had gotten Evelyn's coat off and was signing her in, we were at full on scream. The teacher offered to let me nurse her in a side room, but I knew she had just eaten and figured she was just angry at being woken up. We got back to the car and she just let loose. This kid was mad! I had been planning on making a stop or two on the way home (one to get a latte because the morning had already started off wrong) but just drove straight home with my ears ringing. By the time I pulled up in front of the house I was thoroughly frustrated. Why on earth was she screaming?! Why couldn't I have a normal child that fell asleep in her carseat?! I got inside and pulled her out of her seat, saying, "What is wrong with you?!" She kept crying even while I was holding her, which was also unusual, so I decided to check her diaper. As soon as I unwrapped her blanket I could smell something less than sugar and spice. She had experienced her first major blowout. There was poop through both onesies, on her pants, down her leg and in her sock. She screamed. She has had a diaper rash for two weeks now and parts of her skin are actually raw. I got her cleaned up and she calmed down right away. The poor thing had been uncomfortable and in pain and trying to let me know the only way she knew how. Of course I felt terrible for getting so frustrated with her and also saw a good lesson in all that poop. When someone is acting out of the ordinary, maybe giving you a harder time than usual or just being plain frustrating, don't get upset right away. They could be dealing with a lot of &^*#) that you don't even know about!

Happy One Month Cecilia!

2011-02-01T07:36:00.001-08:00

Wow, one month already, I can't believe it! I posted all the pictures from January in the photo box to the right, and keep your eyse out for more pictures and our birth announcement!When Evelyn was this age everyone told me to treasure these moments because they would go by so fast. Although that was somewhat true, I remember many times (such as screaming parties at 2am) where life seemed to go by very slow and I felt like I would never get some of my basic freedoms (like being able to get out of the chair!) back. With Cici, time really has flown by and I feel like I am more able to really treasure how sweet so many of these moments are-and how they will never be the same. I think it's because I'm more relaxed, and because I have a two year old who is keeping me very busy!

So what has happened in the last month? Cici has developed a fairly regular schedule-that could change at any minute-of eating every 4-5 hours during the day. This is on the low side for her age and at first worried me (Evelyn ate every 2-3 hours) but she is gaining weight fine and so I have decided to enjoy the little extra freedom it gives me. On a good night she eats around 8 or 9 and then goes til about 2 and eats again around 7am. So, I'm actually a somewhat decent amount of sleep-more than I did with Evelyn at this age (so hard not to compare!) but still feel pretty tired most the time.

For the most part, we have developed a fairly regular schedule as a family too. Mornings can be a little hectic, depending on when Cici eats, when Evelyn gets up, and if I've had a chance to get up and eat as well. If all three are happening at once, mama is a little cranky! I get up a bit earlier on the days Evelyn has to go to school, and so far she has only been 5 minutes late, which I feel like is a miracle! The hard part is that it often seems that I spend most the morning holding Cici-while she eats and then rocking her to sleep-so I don't get to interact much with Evelyn. That should change as the baby gets older, and Evelyn doesn't seem to mind too much as long as I keep her busy with art projects or her millions of baby dolls. Sometimes she does ask for me and I'm not able to help her or be with her, and while that is hard on both of us, I try to remind myself that it's not horrible for Evelyn to experience that and I won't always be holding a baby for 2 hours at a time. When Bard is home, of course he is a huge help and Evelyn has really enjoyed her extra time with Dada.

So far I have somehow avoided taking both girls someplace hectic by myself. By hectic I mean Target or the grocery store and I will avoid that as long as I can! Cici does okay going places, but it appears that I will not have a "carseat child." Evelyn never really slept well in the car and Cici seems to be on the same path, so I can't enjoy that luxury that most other parents seem to have! But, for the most part, if we're going someplace and it's her nap time, I'll put her in the Moby wrap, which is like magic and she sleeps really well while in it.

She seems to be holding steady at the 50% which is great. She has had a bottle a few times now, so that is a big milestone. And also fell asleep on her own in the swing-the merits of which are debatable to some, but for me, I don't think it matters, it's not like every time she falls asleep she'll be in the swing-everything in moderation.

Overall I think we're doing better than I expected. Although, I've only been sleep deprived for one month, ask me again another month from now! Hopefully as she gets older she will sleep longer and more on her own, and be able to go longer between feedings as well. Those two seemingly simple acts are what really make a huge difference in my days, nights, and all around sanity. But for the most part she is a sweet little baby, seems to have a good temperament, and our little family is doing really well!

Different Parents?

2011-01-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why siblings turn out so different? For those of you who know me, it's no surprise that having a second child has given me a whole new reason to ponder the nature vs nurture argument. After studying and working in the early childhood education field for so many years, it's fascinating to have my own personal experiment!

Here is what has stayed the same with the births of our two daughters-we live in the same house, work the same hours-I am taking the same maternity leave, we have the same parenting philosophy and have responded to many issues with Cici in the same (almost eerily so) way as we did with Evelyn. We are surrounded by many of the same people and have a very similar routine. So, why does Cici nurse different than Evelyn-easier, faster, more scheduled? Why can I lay her down and she'll sleep for over an hour whereas Evelyn would wake after 15 minutes and demand to be held? Why does she like to be held upright and Evelyn preferred to be cradled? Why does Cici sleep more?

The answer, who knows?! I think part of it is nature-I am more relaxed thus creating the classic second child syndrome-a more relaxed baby. But part of it must be nurture-and how amazing is that?! That at just days old her personality is already showing itself. When she is older I bet I will be able to look back on these first few weeks and see how these early personality traits played into later developing skills and habits. It's so fun to see these different traits and to think back on how I was the same or different with Evelyn. Perfect example-if you want to be blown away be beautiful photographs of our girls, check out this link: http://chellenicole.com/WP/2011/01/17/cecilia-lynn-the-ballerina-is-here/

A friend of ours from church has her own photography business (Chelle Nicole) and came over to take our pictures last Saturday-(if you haven't already, scroll back through her babies' shots to see pictures of the day Cici was born.) It was a crazy fun experience and the pictures are absolutely priceless. Stay tuned for more too, I'll be posting the rest from the shoot as well as all our January photos in the next week or so. But, you may have already realized, I did nothing like that when Evelyn was a newborn. Our first professional shots were when she was 4 months old, and then we did a shoot as a family when she was 6 months. It's not that I didn't think about it, I just didn't think very positive things! It seemed so overwhelming to just leave the house, let alone coordinate outfits, time feedings and naps and suppress worries that she would be screaming the whole time : )Plus, my own recovery was so much more difficult that physically, everything was made harder. But with Cici I knew it would be okay. We would try to time naps and feeding, and avoid screaming, but babies are amazingly resilient-far more so than parents-and especially at this young age, they just kinda go with the flow. Toddlers on the other hand. . . ; )

The pictures are worth it by far, we will treasure these photographs forever; they truly capture who we are as a family. But just as important as the visual depiction of our family is how the photos are a symbolic reminder to me of who I am as a parent. Just like my girls I can constantly grow, gaining confidence and grace in my parenting. I can go with the flow and learn to be more resilient. The nature and nurture argument does not just apply to how children are shaped. As adults we too are formed by our surroundings, but instead of being little sponges, as children are, soaking up everything around them, we can be aware-learning and discriminating as we gain insight into the world around us.

Cecilia Lynn

2011-01-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning, January 1st, I woke up ready to have my baby. It was three am, I'd had a few minor contractions and I was pretty sure that since Evelyn went so fast, within a few hours I would be at The Birthing Inn and soon holding Cecilia. However, life tends to unfold on its own while we're busy laying out its course. Noon rolled around, then mid afternoon and I wasn't in labor. I chose to be angry, frustrated, and disappointed, but no emotion changed the facts, so at 6pm Bard and I decided to get take out, watch a movie and just settle in for the night. Right about then my first real contraction hit. Haha, very funny.

By about 10pm we were on our way to the Birthing Inn, where things went slowly at first until a little after 11 when I was suddenly reminded that labor is the most painful experience possible. Was it too late for an epidural??!! Just like with Evelyn, I relied mostly on Bard. It's funny how when you're in a relationship you can express your need for each other, telling each other often how much you love and rely on each other. But most of us probably do not live out our relationships as a direct reflection of that love. We take each other for granted and have unrealistic expectations of needs instead of healthy expressions of value and appreciation. Being in labor strips you of any independence you might think you possess. You are forced to rely on the people around you, for physical and mental care. And, you don't get your dignity while doing it either! During both my labors, Bard was a focal point for moving forward through the experience. Which may sound odd, because what choice do you have but to go through it? None. But how you go through it makes all the difference in the world. I drew strength from Bard. He kept me calm (relatively speaking!) and focused on the positive-that the baby was coming. He was there for me every second of every minute, without tiring or giving up himself. I could never have done it without him, Cecilia is a lucky little girl.

And what you may ask, about the baby?! If sibling rivalry has started already, then she one-upped her sister because the 20 minutes I had to push for Cici was nothing compared to the 3 and a half hours I pushed with Evelyn. And as a result, my recovery has been night and day to what it was with Evelyn. At this point with Evelyn-a week into it, I was still sleeping downstairs because I couldn't lift my legs to go upstairs. And numerous other side effects that you can ask me about in person : ) So that's been great.

We also loved the Birthing Inn experience. Unlike at a hospital, your care is individualized and personal. It's also much more private and in a wonderfully soothing and relaxing environment. Our mid wife was great, which we really appreciated because Cici was born not breathing, yeah, she was a bit blue. The midwife calmly gave her oxygen and did leg compressions until she started breathing. I wasn't panicked, the whole thing was handled quickly and easily.

Cici will be a week old tomorrow. It's a bit hard to say who she is and what she will be like. But we have already noticed a few differences between her and Evelyn. She nurses differently than Evelyn did. She doesn't like being wet, and she seems to be more scheduled about her feedings, although that could change. She is adorable and we love to just stare at her. : )

Evelyn loves her too. Evelyn would just do everything for her if she could! She wants to help with her blanket, diaper changes, feeding her, and carrying her. She is very concerned when Cecilia is crying, she comes running, giving instructions along the way-she needs her paci, she wants her blanket, she wants some soup. : ) Evelyn is also very protective of me being with Cecilia and has told other people, "No, mama is holding her." I don't know how long that will last, but it's cute.

I love our family. I'm exhausted and feel like someone hit me with a truck, but it's been amazing. I know we have lots of hard times ahead, but I also know they will be worth it. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Santa Baby

2010-12-28T16:14:00.000-08:00

So this was Christmas. Hmm, how many musical references do you think I can fit in one blog? ; ) Last spring Bard and I were discussing the possibility of being pregnant around this time (contrary to popular belief, there are no "accidents"-if you are surprised that you are pregnant, then we need to have a chat!) I was really unsure about being pregnant/possibly delivering right in the middle of the holiday season. But for several reasons, one apparently I need to let go of control, we decided to just see what would happen.

Nine months later. Since I've now made it through Christmas, and almost to next year-although I'm not sure I'll make that yet-I feel pretty good. Yes, there were really hard moments, filled with back pain, heart burn, utter exhaustion, and being overwhelmed, but fortunately that did not take away from Christmas. Even with heartburn I was still able to eat the yummy food! I really wanted to enjoy Christmas as a family. We've established many traditions, from Zoolights to holiday baking, from a Christmas Eve present to White Elephant gift parties. I love these times. I love the music, the memories, the food, the thought, and yes, the busyness. And I'm so grateful that I got to experience it all with the people I love. Including the one that has given me thirty extra pounds to carry around while doing it all ; )

As I sit here, we're getting ready to take down our tree, the carseat is in the car and each of our belongings are packed and ready for overnight stays. The baby's room is done-complete with Bard's mom's Christening Dress hanging on the wall-a Christmas present from Bard's grandma that helped me finish the room because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to put on the walls-beautiful! Evelyn is playing with her new presents, we've packed away some of her old toys-some for the baby and some to give to "boys and girls who don't have very many toys." I've finished some last work emails, and know that even if I went into labor tonight, three months of maternity leave are set up to go fairly smoothly. And last night I spent a hundred dollars at Target buying last minute baby supplies that were not totally needed but gave me peace of mind. I probably shouldn't go back to Target til after the baby is born!

I feel content. Yes, when I was walking up the hill at Zoolights, a block behind Bard and Evelyn because I had to stop every few minutes due to stabbing pain, I did wonder why I had thought being this pregnant over Christmas was a good idea. Yes, when I thought I might be going into labor on Christmas Eve eve and was running around ironing angel costumes, labeling work supplies, and dusting the bedroom dresser, I thought, this is terrible! But somehow, those moments pass. And the moments we are left with are ones of gratitude-at seeing a bigger plan, at knowing that it will be okay, at the thought of Joy to the World and Peace on Earth.

Christmas was great. I ate a ton of fudge and somehow managed to lose a pound! Okay, more than that, it was a celebration with family and friends. It was watching Evelyn's eyes light up as she gave Bard his present. It was standing with family, in candlelight, singing Silent Night. It was wrapping that last stocking on Christmas Eve and knowing that it would be opened in just a few hours. It was knowing that next Christmas I will be doing it all with my second daughter as well, teaching her the traditions and watching her experience the joy.

And so what if I had to scoot the chair back from the table a few extra inches in order to get up after Christmas Dinner? Didn't everybody?!

The Valley Song

2010-11-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

You have led me to the sadness
I have carried this pain
On a back bruised, nearly broken
I am crying out to you

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

When death like a gypsy
Comes to steal what I love
I will still look to the heavens
I will still seek your face

But I fear you aren't listening
Because there are no words
Just the stillness and the hunger
For the faith that assures

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

While we wait for rescue
With our eyes tightly shut
Face to the ground using our hands
To cover the fatal cut

And though the pain is an ocean
Tossing us around, around, around
You have calmed greater waters
Higher mountains have come down

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

. . . . Jars of Clay

Fall Firsts and Pregnancy No Nos

2010-10-18T14:17:00.001-07:00

Aside from starting preschool, Evelyn has also started dancing in my ballet classes this fall! This may seem odd to those of you who know that she has come to class with me since she was 4 months old. But now is the first time she is old enough to actually participate, in the way that the other students are. I was a little nervous about how she would do, but very soon I was pulling out my camera to snap pictures of her, just like any other proud mama : ) She interacted with the other girls really well-she is 2 and a half and they are all 3, 4, and 5 years old. And in fact, not surprisingly, after the first week was bossing them around. Sigh. She told them where to sit, tried to tuck in their ballet shoe bows, and "helped" them stand the right way in line. Even the ones who are twice her age and size! She is a bit squirelly, since she is technically too young to be in the class, but I was delighted at how well she did. After her first class she spent the rest of the week talking about plies, gallops, and dancing with scarves. She loves wearing her little tutu and often mimics the activities we do in class at home (see video posted on facebook.) It's hard to say who loves it more-her or me : )

This fall we also had our first, slightly more serious, health issue. Evelyn was wheezing so I called the Dr to ask whether or not I should bring her in or what to look for. Much to my surprise (I'm not sure why) they consider even the slightest wheezing an emergency and saw her right away. They promptly put her on breathing treatments, 2-3 a day until all symptoms cleared up, which took about two weeks. This was so discouraging and frustrating to me. For a child who is rarely sick, she seems to have these odd health issues and I hate the thought of her being affected by them. But, out came the nebulizer and there we sat for 10-20 minutes each treatment. She does pretty well, although books and songs only cut it so much of them time and we have often turned to Elmo, online pictures of her, animals, or whatever else has a chance at keeping her still for that amount of time! The Dr said it's triggered by environmental issues-allergies-so she is very likely to grow out of it, but it's still frustrating. Fortunately her attitude is much better than mine!

Now, enough about Evelyn, what about me?! Well, I'm very pregnant, just starting my 7th month, and although I'm uncomfortable, everything is going well so I can't complain too much. Except that I love to complain, so I will : ) There are many dos and do nots for pregnant women- do take your vitamins, don't drink alcohol, do drink tons of water, don't take ibuprofen, do get regular exercise, don't eat shellfish, do sleep only on your side, don't go on any carnival rides. Blah blah blah. However, very few people talk about the dos and don'ts of other people REGARDING pregnant women. This is a sadly lacking social grace in our society, one that I feel a strong calling to correct, so that we don't spiral further down into barbarian ways. So listen up! First and foremost, it is never, I repeat NEVER acceptable to comment on how huge a woman looks-pregnant or not! Seriously, I have no idea where you people get these ideas! Big, big no no. This is closely followed by the second rule, no matter how surprised you are when someone shares her due date-do not show that surprise. No 4 month pregnant woman likes to be told she looks like she could pop any day! This is closely followed by the third rule. You never, I repeat, NEVER, ask a woman, pregnant or not, how much she weighs/how much weight she has gained. Are you kidding me? Are you sensing a theme here? Then you are right-the theme is comments that would be perceived as negative by women who are not pregnant, are most likely going to be perceived as negative by women who are pregnant. Hormones may be responsible for a lot of changes during pregnancy, but there is no magical hormone that makes a woman feel sexy when you are saying how big she is. Sorry folks, doesn't exist. Okay, so if I've now severely limited your conversation topics, what can you say? Here are some very acceptable examples: "Wow, you look fabulous!" "Look at how cute, and untired you look." "Do you need anything? Can I get you chocolate or a foot massage?" "Why don't you sit down and let me do that for you." And the always popular, "You are the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen!" I guarantee that if you open with one of these comments, and not the "huge" one, you will be greeted with a smile, and not a dead pan "I'm not really sure how to respond to you" look. Plus, pregnant women are known to be slightly unpredictable, trust me, this is for your own good! Whew. Are we good? I really think that this is what our society needs to move to the next level, end polarization in politics, increase tolerance, establish peace in warring countries, and solve poverty. Just be nice to pregnant women and all our problems will be solved!

Home Alone!

2010-09-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

So, I am sitting here, at home, by myself. This has happened maybe 2-3 times in the past few years, so it feels incredibly bizarre! I'm at home by myself, because two weeks ago Evelyn started preschool. Oh my gosh! I know, me too : )

We had been talking about whether or not to send her to preschool this fall for months. As some of you know, I'm a bit of a preschool snob (sorry, I just am!) since I taught Montessori for 6 years. But for a variety of reasons, none of the local Montessori schools would work for us this year and so I kept going back and forth over if I wanted to send her to a regular preschool (I know, I said I was a snob!) or just keep her at home. However, she was really starting to go beyond what I could sit and do with her on a regular basis-wanting to spell words and learn numbers, going over her shapes and colors, and lots of arts and crafts. I think I would have been able to keep up for a little while, but closer to delivery and after the baby is born would be a stretch for me. Plus, you may have noticed she is just a little bit social! I knew she would love it.

I found a great deal at a well established church preschool-that actually goes through elementary school-and I know many of the teachers as well as families who attend. So we went and observed, she cried when we left which was a good sign.

Her first day was hilarious. She looked so adorable, like a big girl but still a baby! Bard came with me and when we got to the classroom it was pretty chaotic. Lots of sad little two year olds

: ( Evelyn walked right in, sat down at a table and started to play. She looked around puzzled, at the other children, as if to say, "Why on earth are you crying?" Bard and I said goodbye, which didn't faze her at all, although Mama was a little emotional! I picked her up just a few hours later-she goes twice a week for two and a half hours-and the teacher said she had done great! Evelyn had over told her teacher when she had to go potty, which amazed me.

So now I sit here, alone, the house is quiet and I'm trying to decide whether to do a million things or nothing! I'm using the time to get extra work done and things taken care of around the house, which gives me a bit more freedom when I am with her-to just be with her. It's interesting to imagine what she is doing. Although I have left her in Sunday School many times, since I am the Director, I know what she is doing and who she is with. Plus, I'm just down the hall if she needs me. It's also interesting to think I am now the mom of a pre schooler and have a baby on the way. It feels very stereotypical! Hi, I'm Kristin. I'm white, middle class, live in a mid sized city. We drive a Subaru, have a cat, and my husband has a good white collar job. Sheesh. I tend to rebel a bit against these descriptions, which of course is impossible, since they are all true! For some odd reason it makes me want to wear some crazy outfit when I drop her off at her little church school, tell them I have my tongue pierced, or go get a tattoo. But that would just be fitting into another stereotype. I couldn't quite bring myself to wear the little lanyard that holds our key card, required for entrance to the building. And breathed a sigh of relief as I listened to Lady Gaga while pulling out of the school parking lot. On my way to my church job. Sheesh. Why do we strive to fulfill some stereotypes and run away from others? Maybe I'll learn more from Evelyn's school than she will.

Oops!

2010-09-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do still blog, you just wouldn't know it by looking lately! So, since summer is over, let me give you a peak (or a long look, as it may be) at what we have been up to.

June

Well, I can't remember most of June, so that's easy! I was pretty sick for most of May and June; took time off work, gratefully received meals from friends, and spent way too much time trying to remember why on earth I had wanted to get pregnant in the first place. But, I started to feel better towards the end of the month and we were able to still take our planned vacation to Mexico (pics at right.) Evelyn loved it! We spent most of the days on the beach or in the pool. She did great staying at the hotel and on the airplane. I love how flexible she is that way, it makes travel so much easier. It was really nice to get away, with the baby coming, I'm sure it will be a while before we have a trip like that again.

July

Since I was feeling better, why not double my work hours and plan a huge event for our community?! Yes, July, as always, is defined by Sports Camp-our church's annual outreach for elementary age kids. This year we had the help of an intern, Kayla, who stayed with us. Evelyn fell in love with her-still asks where she is-and it was great to have her here. We had over a hundred kids at camp and it was a lot of fun. Evelyn had a blast at camp, she learned the songs and loved dancing with the kids. She never stayed late enough for any of the sports-maybe next year-but was there at the beginning where all the kids would come in and play with her. She thought this was great! I think my working so much wore on her though, so it was good for all of us when camp ended. We celebrated with a trip to Mount Rainier, which was beautiful and fun to share with both Evelyn and Kayla.

August

I thought August would calm down a bit, but between a work conference, a trip to the beach, flying down to California, and doing everything that I had put off for the previous two months (except obviously blogging!) it was a bit crazy too. We went to the ocean with my parents and brother and sis in law, and their two kids. This may sound relaxing, but shockingly it wasn't! I hurt my back the first day and with Evelyn sleeping in our room, got barely any sleep. But, besides being fairly cranky, it was fun to be there, taking the kids to the beach and park. Evelyn absolutely loves being with my family. Cousin Henry is probably one of her favorite people, we don't see them very much, maybe a few times a month, but she talks about him almost every day! She loves my parents too and pretty much thinks that they exist solely to spoil her rotten. Which may not be far from the truth.

The day after we got back from the beach, we got another dose of family by flying down to stay with Bard's mom. Although sadly we were there for the Memorial Service of Bard's Aunt, who passed away over the summer, we were able to have a wonderful time visiting family and celebrating the life of an amazing woman. Evelyn is so social, even in a crowd of people she has barely met before, she is at ease and goes around to people, interacting with them, and yes, bossing them around! I hope she was able to bring some joy to everyone while we were there.

After that it was pretty much time to finish up summer projects-the stairs to the backyard, tiling around our oven, and a ridiculous amount of yardwork-is Evelyn too young to help garden? The answer is no! We also finished up potty training her-she was potty trained back in May but I was so sick I put her back in diapers (cardinal sin of motherhood, oh well) but all summer she would tell me most of the time when she had to go anyway. She has done really well, which is great, although Bard can tell you his story of running her to the (of course) opposite end of the grocery store while she said, "Potty! Potty!" She almost made it : (

And, as you probably know by now, we finally had our ultrasound and found out baby #2 is a girl! I had thought it was a boy, so was kind of surprised, but we had planned to have two girls anyway, and I've come to realize that there are a lot of positives about having them closer together, so that's good. How can I plan that? Oh, I am just so talented! Actually, Bard and I have always planned on having two biological children and adopting a third. Our thought was that if this one was a boy, we would adopt a girl, since it is a girl, we'll adopt a boy. It's fun to think about, just several quick years from now, our family will look so different!

Well, trust me, this blog could have been twice as long! But I hope it provides a little glimpse into what our summer was like. And even though fall just started, we've already had big changes, so I'll be back soon to share those with you, maybe a few days instead of a few months!

World Cup

2010-06-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

Bard and I walked through the streets, barely noticing that they were deserted. Suddenly we heard a collective roar and were amazed to see doors opening and men pouring into the street yelling and hugging each other in excitement. This was very curious so we went into the closest shop, a little ice cream store. The small store was packed with men of all ages, gathered around a television. As we watched, the goal was replayed on the TV and everyone yelled in an excitement again. Bard pulled out the jersey we had just bought, number 10, Francesco Totti, who had just scored the first goal for Italy and all the men in the store cheered in delight, clapping him on the back. It was the World Cup. and we were Italian now too.

During our honeymoon, 4 years ago, we joined Italy and England in futbol fervor as we spent time in both those countries while their teams were competing for victory. When Italy won it's first game hundreds of people poured into the street in front of our hotel, carrying their flags and breaking into a spontaneous singing of the national anthem. We took pictures of them draping flags over the shoulders of statues that litter the streets of Rome and joined the elderly couple who ran our hotel as they watched the game in the breakfast nook with their family. We laughed at the English press as they crucified their own team on national television and moved quickly into the London underground as a mob of Brazilians started celebrating in the square after their victory. There is really nothing to compare this experience to in the US. Sure, our teams claim victory over national teams, but to have victory over the world, well. I doubt we'll ever be part of that thrill again, but after four years, I remember it like it was yesterday.

This World Cup I've watched mostly with Evelyn and laughed at her as she yells at the TV, "C'mon guys, c'mon soccer ball!" A totally different experience, but just as delightful. As Bard and I celebrated with those men in that tiny ice cream shop, we never dreamed where we would be a quick four years later. A different house, different jobs, a toddler, and a baby on the way. My life has changed in more ways than I can possibly express. I don't know how it's possible, but I think I love Evelyn more every day. Bard is an incredible husband and an absolutely great father. Oh, and I love him too!

2014 World Cup will take place in Brazil. Where will we be then? Impossible to say, fun to dream.

Prayer for a Baby

2010-05-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

I am now eight weeks pregnant. At eight weeks with my second pregnancy I miscarried, losing the baby and a part of myself. Since finding out I was pregnant I've run the scale of emotions many times, ricocheting from excitement to fear, joy to panic.

One of the first signs of concerns with the last pregnancy was that I never felt sick-and sickness is often a sign that hormones are increasing-a good and necessary development for the baby.
About three weeks ago I felt like I was starting to feel sick and was pretty relieved. Until the next day when I felt fine and the day after that when I felt fine as well. I was still pretty early in the pregnancy, so it definitely wasn't abnormal that I felt okay, but I grew more and more anxious. I called Bard in the middle of the day, fear in my voice and told him how I felt. It didn't surprise me that his first response was to pray. What surprised me was his prayer. "Heavenly Father I just pray for Kristin and for this baby growing inside of her. I pray that it would be healthy and for her not worry. God, I just ask that Kristin feel so sick that she knows she is pregnant and that everything is going well. I ask that she feel nauseous all the time."

Hmmm. Well, "prayers of righteous man" and all that, two days later I woke up and felt sick all day. It was Mother's Day. All that week I felt sick-but just sick like I was with Evelyn-as long as I ate I felt okay. I never felt really seriously ill. Until the following week. I woke up and pretty much didn't get off the couch all day. And it's been like that for two weeks. We've canceled plans, cut my work hours, made arrangements with friends and family to care for Evelyn, received meals (for Bard, I'm barely eating anything), and restructured my life so I'm not doing more than one thing a day. Thanks honey! We told people I was pregnant two weeks before originally planned because it was just so obvious there was something wrong with me. Evelyn's nick name in utero was Little Birdie. I've nick named this one Gremlin because I'm pretty sure it's eating me from the inside out. But, it is a sign of health (the baby's, not mine). It's a sign that my hormones are doubling every day. And it's a sign that Motherhood is approaching again, the first of many times when I will care for this child even though I don't feel up to it. That I will make it through the day not based on how I feel, but on how my children need to feel. And that ultimately, no matter what this child puts me through-the pain, the worry, the lack of control. I will love this child. Unconditionally. And I'm grateful for every minute of it. Because I'm a mom.

We're not out of the woods yet, and still need prayer, although I haven't asked Bard to pray lately. . .I honestly probably won't stop worrying until I hold my baby in my arms. But the next 4 weeks will be very telling and getting through the first trimester is a huge milestone. Please keep us in your prayers. And if you need prayer for something, just ask Bard, he has a way with words!

What's in Mama's Tummy?

2010-05-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I Need It!

2010-05-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

What are the differences between needs and wants? I know many adults who think they are one and the same and am sure I fall victim to that trap myself far too often. Bard and I try really hard to constantly evaluate the material items we have and our desires to buy more. We have a pretty strict rule of replacement-if we buy an item of clothing, then we have to get rid of an item of clothing. The same goes for books, shoes, and just general junk that we all seem to accumulate. We don't value brand names for clothes (is Old Navy a brand name?!) and have very few of them. Honestly, I just don't see the point and I think once you go down that road, it's hard not to start placing a lot of importance on things that really aren't that important. I'm not saying we're Amish, or against owning nice things. We just bought a new tv (so we got rid of our old one) - for the first time in 13 years! We like it : ) Oh, and I should clarify, I don't think it's wrong to buy expensive things, sometimes a good brand is the only way to get good quality. But sometimes not. We don't think there is anything wrong with stuff-hence the new tv-it's just easy to slide down the slippery slope of constantly needing to get new stuff. That's also why we only have one car. We thought about it and felt that we really didn't need two cars. Bard takes the bus to work every day. It does have it's challenging moments, but it's worth it.

So, how do you teach your child not to become obsessed with stuff? Especially because everyone else seems to be teaching her the opposite! We've made it a point not to buy Evelyn a lot of things either. She doesn't get treats every time we go to the store. In fact, I'm not sure that she has ever gotten a treat at the store! We cycle through her toys, so there are not a ton out everywhere. When she is older, she'll have an allowance and have to buy a lot of her own things, just like I did! I loved it ; ) But I know there is more than that to teaching her that she is not the center of the universe, that she doesn't need a cell phone at the age of 5, that other stores make clothes besides Abercrombie and Fitch (sp?) I really want her to value giving, sharing what she has with others, understanding how blessed she is and that those blessings come from God. It's really important to me that she grows up understanding this concept.

That's why the twos are going to be very hard for me! Developmentally two year olds are ego centric. It's just where they're at : ) She is learning her own independence, that she can make choices, that she is an individual with her own, yes, needs and wants. These are all great things and should be encouraged. Unfortunately they can be used for both good and evil! Evelyn has recently started telling us all the things she needs, "I need to go bye bye." "I need to get babydoll." "I need to eat snack." "I need music." It's not too surprising, we tell her what she needs to do all the time, so she is just repeating it, and taking it up a notch. We are trying to have conversations with her, "Evelyn, you say, 'Mama, may I have snack please'" She knows how to do this as well, but sometimes just looks at us like we're crazy-I guess that starts young! But the realization of how easy kids turn into cute, but demanding little tyrants came the other day when Evelyn was playing with her rocking horse. Bard and I weren't in the room but we heard our little pipsqueak loud and clear, "Bard, Bard, Bard! I need to get on my horse!"

Yeah, pray for us, our child is the next Napoleon, and I don't mean Dynamite!

Imma Be

2010-04-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

When I was in my second trimester with Evelyn, the song, "Lady Marmalade" came on the radio. If you're not familiar with it, you're listening to the wrong kind of music! Just kidding : ) It's a very upbeat song that came out several years ago as part of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. I love that song so I turned up the volume and when I did, Evelyn started kicking! She was dancing in the womb : ) Throughout the rest of my pregnancy I noticed several times that when I was playing hip hop/r&b type music, she would kick. I joked with Bard that she was a hip hop baby and it drove him crazy because he is a bit more on the alternative rock side (which I like as well) and not a fan of hip hop.

FlashForward-Several months ago Evelyn started really paying attention to the music I was playing and even requesting certain songs. I noticed that she mostly connected with upbeat music, poppy, catchy tunes. The songs she asked me to play most often were ones like "Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas or "Mama Mia" by Abba. About this same time Bard started to complain about the lyrics in many of these songs, which even in the clean radio versions have phrases about being drunk and other such topics that are inappropriate for a two year old! So it's been a joke between us for quite a while that as soon as Evelyn started to comprehend the lyrics well enough to say them back to us-that would be the end of it. I would have to switch the station and only play child friendly songs : (

So you can imagine Bard's delight and my sorrow when yesterday, as we were enjoying watching Evelyn dance to "Imma Be" by Black Eyed Peas (downloaded from itunes and there are no clean versions) she busts out with "Imma be flyest chick" ! Bard jumped off the couch saying, "That's it, that's it! Turn it off, she can't listen to it anymore." Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure he has secretly been teaching her to repeat Fergie's lyrics just so he would have an excuse not to listen to hip hop anymore.

I guess it's Veggie Tales for me from here on out : (

My Two Year Old

2010-04-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

The terrific twos are here! I honestly can say that I love this age. I know it will be full of challenging moments, especially as Evelyn develops a stronger will of her own and we clash on expetations. But, there is so much learning taking place during this time; her interactions with people and her ability to learn new skills are so much fun to watch-I love it!

So, here is a glimpse of where she is at now.

She never stops talking. No really. Never. She uses 6, 7, 8 word sentences easily and with proper grammar, saying things like, "I dropped my cup on the floor, mama get it please?" It cracks me up and makes me sad at the same time-she is turning into a little girl. It is really nice though because she can tell us what she wants and can also carry on a conversation about her day. When we ask her what she did in Toddlerville (her class at church), she'll say "Play playdough, make a camel with Teacher Kim." (Kim is much more talented at making playdough animals than I am!) or, "Ate fishie crackers at the table, sing Ring Around Rosie." How fun is that?! Her personality, likes and dislikes are coming through so much more now that she can talk and it's just a blast.

Cognitively she is brilliant ; ) She now recognizes all her letters, some words, knows how to spell her name, recognizes her numbers and can count to twenty. Recently Bard taught her that she has a left foot and right foot and now she knows that as well-much to my surprise! I love exploring what new concepts she can learn, like sequence of events, what happens on certain days, and how she processes information. I'm excited to see where this all will take her-what subjects she will like in school and what areas she will focus on-she has everything ahead of her!

Physically she is still exactly in the 50% for everything. Which is funny cause it means she is pretty much an exact mix of me and Bard! She weighs 27 lbs, 8oz and is 34 inches tall. At this age you can roughly double their height and get what they will be when they are adults-which means she would be close to 5 ft 8 inches. That is so crazy to think about! She just passed the milestone of being able to jump and get both feet off the floor and she can also balance on one foot, for a few seconds. She likes physical activity a lot more than she used to, she tries climbing things now, we go for walks almost every day and she can go much farther (about four blocks), she loves to march, gallop, and run. Her favorite though is to go to the park. She loves swinging and going down the slide. Yesterday while I was finishing dance class at the Y, Bard took her out to their little park to play for about a half hour. She had a total meltdown when he said they had to leave, crying and arching her back so he couldn't get her in the stroller. Ahh, twos : )

One of her favorite activities these days is listening and dancing to music-top three requests: I'm in the Lord's Army, Boom Boom Pow, and Mama Mia. Crazy girl! She also loves her baby dolls and will carry them around all day, feeding them, changing their diapers, putting them to bed and pushing them in the stroller. Her other two big interests are whales and airplanes. No, I don't know where that came from! She loves books about them, seeing real ones, pictures or videos on the internet and just talking about either one in general. If we could find a toy airplane flown by little toy whales, that would be a huge hit!

She still loves people and talks more about them than anything else. If we are going someplace, she knows who is associated with that place and will talk about him or her the whole way there. She has favorite people and will ask where they are and what they are doing. Right now one of her favorite people is my friend Leslie's little boy, Micah. They come over on Thursdays for Small Group and Evelyn talks about him all day. "Micah is coming at dinner!" or, "Eat chicken nuggets with Micah!" "Go to play in basement with Micah!" When he finally arrives she is so excited she just yells. It's pretty cute : )

I'm sure there are other milestones and fun things about this age that I am forgetting. She loves coloring and painting, especially with stickers. Whenever I am baking she always wants to help me stir and pour ingredients into the bowl. The moon fascinates her and we always look for it, day or night. Mostly, I am just loving this time. She surprises me, melts my heart and cracks me up every day.

Happy 2nd Birthday Evelyn Joy!

2010-04-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

A Dream is a Wish. . .

2010-03-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Every little girl dreams of being a ballerina, right? Well, maybe, but I bet most moms have dreamed it at one point for their little girls as well! I'm not sure how long it took after finding out that I was going to have a girl for me to wonder if she would love dance as I do. But not long! I can picture her lighting up the stage, having perfect technique and confidence, dancing many different styles, and loving every minute of it. Now, I know some stage moms, and it is a very scary sight. So I'm not saying that I'll turn into a monster (well maybe a little bit) but I can't deny that I would love to be standing off to the side, camera in hand, beaming with pride.

What I never imagined, is that I would already be doing that, even though she is not yet two. Evelyn was about 4 months old when I went back to teaching dance. And she came with me. At first she would just lay there and I would hope she didn't need to eat during class. Then she started sitting up and watching the girls dance. As soon as she could crawl, she would crawl after them, laughing as they danced around the room. She just barely learned to walk before summer of last year and I took the summer off from teaching at the Y. I was a little apprehensive about bringing her to class in the fall because she was running all over and very busy. I thought I would try it, see what happened and if it was a nightmare I would just have to arrange childcare. I was so surprised at how well she did! She loves coming to class with me. I give her a snack at first and she watches the girls. Then I let her out of the stroller and she runs across the room with them as they do their floor dances (going from one side to the other in different steps and formations.) She tries to waltz, gallop, jump, and twirl with them. I see her watching them and then trying to imitate their moves and my heart melts, just a little bit (I posted a video of this on facebook.) The girls of course love her. They bring her presents, ask about her when she's not there, and by now, boss her around! "Evelyn, don't climb in your stroller" "Evelyn, do you want a ball?" "Evelyn, you can't chew on that!" They even know her middle name, and just like we do, call her Evelyn Joy all the time. It's absolutely adorable and just about nothing makes me happier than to see her dance around the room with them during free dance or run up to the barre and put her chubby hands next to theirs. We talk about "Going to the Y to watch the girls dance" and she is always excited to be there with them.

So will she love dance when she is their age? Will she still want to dance across the room and laugh in delight at the way it feels to twirl and jump to the music? Only time will tell. But, I've learned the best thing about dreams is to see the ones coming true around you right now and just live in that moment.

Glimpses

2010-03-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

Yikes, good thing blogging more wasn't one of my New Year's Resolutions! Although eating better was and I'm trying to figure out a way that my four boxes of Girl Scout cookies are going to help me with that goal. . .

So, since I've gone from blogging ever week to one blog over the past two months, let me give you some glimpses into our life.

Let's see, I don't remember January, so how about February?!

The first week of February we got to fly down to visit Bard's family in Southern California, where Empress Evelyn held court for a whole week! The trip went really well, we spent lots of time with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, high school friends, college friends, co workers, and dogs. And we even slept a little too. Because Bard and I have traveled to visit family many times now, and it only took us three times and two years to learn that I need some down time during these trips, unless we want to continue having a big fight each time we travel, we also threw in some down time for the two of us. A nice lunch out while Evelyn was napping, and a trip to Nordstrom Rack to buy Bard three pairs of shoes. Oh, how many shoes did I get, you may ask? Zero. But that's okay, we all know I have a good memory and this little shopping injustice will come back to haunt Bard, I would guess right around the time my spring wardrobe needs some sprucing up!

But, back to Evelyn! It still amazes me how social she is. We threw her at dozens of new people and she smiled and asked where they went when they dared to leave the room (much to their delight!) She had no qualms about being dropped off at the church's nursery and when we went and visited the school where Bard's mom teaches, she squirmed to get down, ran off to play with the kids, and cried when I picked her up to go. I was really proud of her. She loved seeing all the new people, actually, she thrived on it. And she was so excited about flying on an airplane that when we were flying down, she woke in the middle of her nap and started crying, "fly airplane, fly airplane!" I told her we were still on the plane and to go back to sleep. She did! She still talks about the family members we visited with and asks where they are. I love that she was able to deepen her relationships with everyone and that she had such a great time.

The week after we got back was Valentine's Day and Bard and I left her with my parents overnight while we stayed in a cabin at Mt Rainier. It was beautiful and incredibly restful for being just a two day trip. We went on a hike the first day and out to dinner and then the next day we drove up to Paradise (Mt Rainier) and snowshoed for a few hours-it was gorgeous. I know some people who live in this area feel that they forget about the mountain, how beautiful it is. But I really don't think I do. I remember going to college and actually missing seeing the mountain. I love to look at it-through clouds, covered in snow, blue caps, at sunrise and sunset. And, years ago, I think as far back as high school, I started calling it "my mountain." You may disagree, but you'll have to prove me wrong! The great thing is, Evelyn now loves the mountain too! She'll look for it when we're driving, ask where it went, and says how pretty it is. Best of all, she refers to it as, "Mama's mountain" What a smart kid!

She is doing really well. She finally entered the dramatic play stage and loves to carry her baby dolls and stuffed animals around-feeding them dinner, changing their diapers, and putting them to bed. I celebrated by buying her another doll, of course : ) She recognizes all her letters and many numbers. She can count to 20 in English and 10 in Spanish-yep, she got her dad's IQ, and she is starting to recognize some words-no not read, just through memorization. She loves singing (we're still praying that she inherited Bard's voice, not mine!) and her favorites are Ring Around the Rosie and Rock a Bye Baby. She still loves reading books and has phrases memorized from most the pages-sometimes even saying what comes on the next page. Her favorite book is Jonah, probably because there is a fish and because she is stubborn! She still sleeps really well, in fact, she is sleeping right now! One of the funniest things about her is that she laughs all the time. She'll run over to put her shoes on the shoe rack and then she'll laugh and say, "Put shoes on rack!" I don't what there is to laugh about that, but apparently it's funny. The other day she threw her food on the floor, laughed, and said, Evelyn's naughty!" Yeah, uh oh. Other than that, clearly we have the most amazing child ever! ; ) Today is March 1st, which means she is one month away from turning two, which I can hardly believe.

Anyway, that's a glimpse into our world. Both January and February pictures are posted to the right. My March resolution is to get back to blogging again, so we'll see how I do!

Happy New Year?

2010-01-09T08:24:00.001-08:00

2009 is gone. In case you hadn't noticed ; ) A few years back Bard and I started setting family goals every year for different areas of our life-spiritual, financial, physical, etc. Last year we had several big goals and a variety of little ones as well. Let's see how we did.

*We hadn't gone on a vacation, just our family, since our honeymoon, so that was a priority. You can read all about it in my Bienvenidos post from July, but it was a great vacation! Along with a vacation, we really just wanted to prioritize spending time with each other. Which we've done through regular date nights and a couple of other get a ways.

*We had been working on the basement room for 49 million years and on December 18th (just barely squeaking in for completion before the end of 2009) we passed our final inspection and moved furniture in! (pics to the right) It was a huge accomplishment, one that taught me so much about Bard's ability to grow and persevere.

*We wanted to be involved in a close-knit spiritual community. This one was hard. I almost never make it to the worship portion at our church, so that will be a new goal. About mid year we re-evaluated many of our relationships-or lack of-and made some tough choices, which for me was especially emotional. But, on the good side, I've started meeting with an amazing group of women on a weekly basis. They pray for me, hold me accountable and have grown into close friends. Bard does the same with a group of guys. We also started meeting each week with some families from our church. We have dinner together, commiserate on parenthood, encourage each other and pray for our families. This has been a huge blessing as well.

*We had several financial goals, most of which we've met, even with the basement exploding into a money pit and going a bit too overboard on Christmas. Although we had hoped to end the year with more in savings, so that is a goal for this year now too.

*A goal for Bard was passing the second phase in his CFA. Which he did! The third and final phase is this June, his textbooks are waiting for him : )

*Physically we both wanted to be pretty active and Bard has succeeded at that and I have failed : ( I worked out pretty regularly leading up to Mexico (ahh bathing suits) and then again into the fall, but I have not been consistent so I will get back on the band wagon. . .starting. . .tomorrow. . .

*Now our final goal. We had really thought that we would get pregnant in 2009. Getting pregnant and then losing the baby has been the hardest adjustment of the past year and the healing process is definitely carrying over into 2010, and has actually given it a pretty rocky start. Will we get pregnant and have a baby this year? I don't know. Having set and failed that goal once already, it's too hard for me to be definitive about it again, at least so soon. Even though that is against my natural personality. I think our goal this year will be family-whatever that ends up looking like.

Our goals for 2010 really look pretty similar. Healthy choices in our relationships-with God, friends, each other, and Evelyn. Balanced decisions with our finances and how we spend our time. I don't think making New Year's Resolutions is the answer to everything. But since I am just a bit goal oriented ; ) it goes right along with how I live my life anyway. I think the point is to be purposeful about your life. If you don't, then life just happens and you're left always reacting. And, you're left wondering where all your money went, why you're too busy for friends, and what you really did with the last year.

I didn't do Christmas cards because I just wasn't at a place where I could look back over the year without solely focusing on the loss of the baby. But we did end up-last minute-having our pictures taken (check them out in December pics posted to the right.) And as I look at them I realize it was a pretty good year. We have God and we have each other. And we have a whole new year.

Helps to Make the Season Bright

2009-12-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Okay I'm still here. And, I finally caught up on pictures, November's are posted to the right. The past several weeks have been challenging and rewarding, overwhelming and peaceful. I know that a miscarriage at any time of year would be horrible, but I was depressed just thinking about it during Christmas. I love Christmas, really love Christmas. I actually love the busyness, the shopping, the baking, the parties, the music, the wrapping, and all that goes with it. especially with Evelyn being a year and a half now, I was really looking forward to enjoying some fun traditions with her-Zoolights, getting a tree, and singing Christmas carols. But I as worried that I would be too sad to enjoy time with her, time with our family. Through lots of prayers and support, I feel like God has blessed me in being able to take part in joy, amidst sorrow. I've definitely had moments of sadness (just now I almost cried while watching the Obama's dog frolic in the snow, so I'm definitely still a bit unbalanced!) But I've had so many moments of fun, new memories, and experiences that I will always treasure. To me, that seems like a miracle.

Seeing Evelyn experience everything that is Christmas to me has really helped my healing process. She loved decorating the tree, and undecorating, and decorating, and undecorating, and decorating. . .She also loved eating a sugar cookie for the first time, actually I think she just ate the frosting, but that was a first she liked too! We bought a wooden Advent Calendar and every morning she opens a box, takes out a figurine from the nativity scene and places it on the stable backdrop. Right now there is a cow on the roof, a star in the stable, and shepherds flying through the air! It sounds cheesy, but I am so excited about her opening presents! We're just giving her a few things, but I know she'll enjoy them and I can't wait to experience that with her.

Bard's sister is in town and we finished the basement room just last week, for her to stay in. I'm so amazed at how hard Bard has worked, but also how much he has been here for me. We've shared some beautiful times together, happy and sad, and with Genevieve here, parties and Christmas to look forward to, I'm very thankful.

When the Rain Comes

2009-11-30T16:12:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I listened to an album called Come Together by the band Third Day. It defined my life for longer than I wanted it to. I remember crying in my front room on Ferry Street as I tried to figure out if I could put my life back together.

I paint a picture I think it's easier to live that way But my heart is really broken I'm not the man you think I am when you see me each day Torn apart and then left open

I cried driving down Alder Street because I just needed it to be over. I needed to be rescued from the pain.

Father come and fill me up

I can't wait for you to overflow my cup

My heart makes me wonder how much longer

Til you're coming back to take me away

My heart longs for you to fly right through the sky

And take me to a place where I

Will never feel my heart break down again

But God did not swoop in and carry me away. Instead He sent all of you, to lift me up when I fell and hold me when I couldn't go on. And that was beautiful. Little by little I started to feel like I could make it, at least through one day.

It's alright it's okay

I won't worry about tomorrow

For it brings me one more day

Closer than I was to you

I started to heal. But that album continues to define pain for me and that I why I am listening to it today. And crying, again. My life is worlds away from where it was. I love Bard and I love Evelyn. And I love my second child. A child I don't get to see born. A child I will carry with me for the rest of my life. My child. I knew what the Doctor would find. I knew I had lost my baby. But I still wanted to hear the impossible. But I didn't. I believe in God and I believe in His love. And I don't think I have the right to question Him. But He gives me the grace to. So I do. I don't know why I lost this baby and maybe I never will. But many years ago I learned that I didn't need to know. Somewhere in the midst of all this pain, there is God. And He will hold me til it goes away.

When the rain comes you think that everyone has gone away

When the night falls you wonder if you shouldn't find someplace

To run and hide

Escape the pain

But hiding's such a lonely thing to do

I can't stop the rain from falling down on you again

I can't stop the rain but I will hold you til it goes away

When the rain comes you blame it on the things you've done

When the storm fades you know that rain has fallen on everyone

So rest awhile

It will be alright

No one loves you like I do

I can't stop the rain from falling down on you again

I can't stop the rain but I will hold you

I can't stop the rain from falling down on you again

I can't stop the rain but I will hold you til it goes away

Thankful for the Pink Lines!

2009-11-26T09:27:00.001-08:00

Special Breakfast and Other Traditions

2009-11-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

Almost every Saturday, Bard makes "Special Breakfast." We've been very purposeful about this-that we want Saturday morning-at least for an hour or so to be relaxing and family time. Normally it's pancakes and bacon or eggs, sometimes waffles or french toast. Bard always cooks and we chat with Evelyn about how Dada is making special breakfast. Today when we were at the grocery store, Evelyn was walking along side me and saw the pancake mixes on the shelf next to her. She said, "Pancakes, Dada, Bekfast." That is awesome : )

We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, the same one we took her to last year (pictures are posted to the right) and she had a blast. She is quite the city girl though and did not want to get dirty! But she loved the animals and the pumpkins ad still talks about it. Although I can't get her to say "barn," she calls it a "red house." City girl. We also went to our church Harvest Festival, where Evelyn was the cutest kid possible, dressed as Cindy Lou Who! She had a blast and was utterly exhausted from running around and trying the games. I hope that these are traditions that we continue to enjoy for years to come and as November and December approach, I know we will experience more new traditions.

A stinker, but a sweet one!

2009-10-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ahh, toddlerhood. The land of "Mine" "No" and other unintelligible screeches. After working professionally with this age for years it's my turn to deal with toddlers on a personal level. The difference can be summed up in one word: embarrassment!

The other day we were at the Doctor's office. They have a cute wooden bus that kids can climb into. It has a magnetic alphabet, steering wheel and buttons, and cars to push on a track-Evelyn loves it. She sat and played in it while we waited to see the Dr. After a few minutes a little boy, probably about 4 years old walked in with his mom. Evelyn immediately looked up, other kids are like crack to her! She watched him as he went over to the other side of the bus and started playing with the beads. She said, "Ehhh!" as only a toddler can and went over to him, putting her hand over his and trying to play with the beads! I could not believe it, my 18 month old daughter was bullying a four year old boy! She gets it from Bard ; ) I firmly said, "Evelyn, use your words and it's his turn to play with the beads." (We don't teach sharing, delayed gratification is more developmentally appropriate for this age, sharing will come later.) She ignored me so I picked her up and told her she had to stay with mama since she wasn't listening and waiting her turn. That of course brought more screeching, although thankfully just a few seconds and then she calmed down and was able to play on her side of the bus. Sheesh! I was so embarrassed, and yes, angry at her for not acting how I expect her to in public.

Fortunately the great thing about toddlers is that they are all incredibly bi-polar. They can be in royal fit mode one second, tears, kicking, screaming (which she hasn't done. . .yet) and snuggly, loving, and sweet the next. On one hand it can be annoying as you try to catch up to their moods, on the other hand it can be their saving grace! Just a moment later as we were going to leave, the receptionist came out from behind the counter and said hi to Evelyn. Evelyn has seen her just a handful of times in her life and really doesn't know her well at all. But she dropped my hand, said, "Hug!" and ran up to the receptionist, arms outstretched to give her a hug. Of course, I melted : ) This has become her new favorite thing to do-maybe having a little to do with the great reaction she gets from everyone! We stopped by the Y a few days ago and with both of my bosses, neither of whom she has really seen since May, she immediately said, "Hug, hug!" All week she has been giving out hugs to everyone. See, she is not such a stinker after all : )

Sick, Snuggly, and Sad

2009-10-10T07:28:00.001-07:00

I just lost a whole week of my life. It really reminded me of when she was a newborn and time had no real meaning.

Last Sunday Evelyn woke up from nap with a fever, and then had that fever ALL week. At first I thought it was just more issues from her molars coming in. We stayed home all day Monday but then her and I both woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick. Well, I was feeling sick, I'm guessing she felt sick because she wouldn't stop crying : ( Tuesday morning was an all time low because she was in bed with me and wouldn't stop crying, so I just gave up and joined her. We both got up and all morning she just sat on my lap. My daughter is normally way too busy to snuggle, so this was unheard of. I read to her and we watched Elmo on Sesamestreet.org, which, since she never gets to sit and watch for more than a few minutes, was crazy! But after a while she was ready to move around and I wasn't, so I called Bard home from work

I don't remember much else of Tuesday, but Wednesday morning she woke up at 3:30am with a 103 fever, the highest she has ever had. We called the Dr, since it had been more than 2 days and then called him back an hour later after giving her motrin and having it go up! Fortunately I felt better that day and motrin and tylenol brought her fever down. I took her to the Dr Thursday morning and they discovered that she her throat was irritated and after a whole day process of getting a urine sample, that she had a bladder infection too.

We were both exhausted and cranky. Much of the time she just sat in my lap and read or watched Elmo clips. If she fell down, she cried, if she wanted something, she cried, if she was tired, she cried. I had been cooped up in the house for four days, I should have been the one crying! Our second trip back to the Dr on Thursday, to get another urine bag put on so they could try and get a sample, I had just about had it. She barely napped because she woke up with horrible diarrhea (hence the new bag!) and I was so drained. On top of it all, I had been rear ended last week and my back was killing me-advil and a heat pack did nothing and carrying her just made it worse. I was rushing her in to the Dr's office, she was crying because she wanted me to carry her and I was irritated. But when I lifted her on to the examining table for the nurse to check her out, she was so quiet and vulnerable that I just wanted to scoop her up and protect her from anything and everything.

Sometimes the hardest part about being a parent is remembering that you are the parent and that she is just a small child.

18 Month Milestones

2009-10-02T10:13:00.001-07:00

This morning as I sat with Evelyn, she asked for me to sing "Twinkle Little Star" and then she started doing the hand motions with me-I love this age!

Evelyn is just above the 50% for height, weight, and head, so she has maintained a great growth rate. She had completed the milestone task list at our pediatrician's that is through 24 months, so the Doctor was dutifully impressed ; ) It asks questions such as how many words she can say, building a tower, coloring without just eating the crayons, running without falling over, basically different milestones having to do with all the areas of development.

Her gross motor skills are much better now, after all that wondering when she would ever walk! She can kick and throw a ball (when she first kicked a ball Bard spent the rest of the day trying to get her to do it again-ahh, vicarious parenting!) She runs and goes up and down stairs. She still is not much of a climber, not really trying to climb on furniture or bookshelves although I think that is more due to being tentative and less to do with ability.

Her fine motor skills are great, she colors well, holds and maneuvers small objects-her favorite being tiny pieces of dirt that she finds on the floor and loves to throw away! She drives me crazy by refusing to eat with utensils very much, preferring to use her fingers. But even the Dr said it's nothing to worry about, she probably just likes it better. Sad for me when I feed her applesauce or yogurt! I need to work with her more on doing different things for herself. Funny, when I taught at Montessori I was always on the parents for this same thing! I have started having her pull up her pants and need to have her do more of her own dressing. We put her shoes on together, but I can have take them off too. All those little tasks help her develop skills and confidence-two good things!

Verbally she is insane. I go to bed hearing her voice in my head because she doesn't stop talking all day. She gets it from Bard : ) She says 2, 3, 4 word sentences now. Of course most of the time they are not grammatically correct but something funny like, "Head bonk hurt." Or, "Daddy bye bye work" Or she'll just pick a word for whatever reason, that it sounds good to her, and she'll say it over and over and over and over again. Like, "Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold." Until you finally say, "Yes Evelyn, it's cold." Then she will triumphantly yell "Cold!" one more time, just so you know who is in charge.

Socially and Emotionally she is going through a lot of changes. She is realizing that other kids ca take her things (resulting in her shrieking-I don't know where she gets that) and that she can take other kids' things-resulting in me shrieking-hey, what can you do?) Kids at this age don't really understand share yet (does anyone?!) So we work on delayed gratification-you can have that when she is done, etc. But it does make for a chaotic circus when we are around other kids!

She had been crying for a bit when we dropped her off in Baby Garden on Sundays, but that has stopped and she has gone back to being fine when we leave her there. In fact, as my friend put it, she really does need a bit more stranger anxiety! Even yesterday when we were at the doctor's office, which I don't think she can remember from 6 months ago. She was perfectly comfortable to walk out the room, down the hall and into another room with two nurses, never even looking back to see if I was there. Little stinker! She regularly goes up to people in the store or on a walk and says, "Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi." Which of course normally produces the desired effect.

Cognitively she seems to be doing well. I can't quite remember the norms for this age. But for a while now she has asked for things that she can't see but knows are there-raisins in the cupboard, Bard coming home from work if she sees me making dinner, that type of thing. She easily associates people with places and knows that if I say we are going to church that means she will see Annabelle, Mary, Skyler, Abby, and so on. And she has started recognizing geography, particularly the streets that go to Henry's house! She knows some colors, pretty much all body parts, animals and that type of thing. Al though it took a while before she got that a dog said woof, not meow!

Hmm, let's see, what else??? She loves to go on walks outside and even though the weather is cooling off, we'll go out at least once a day, unless it's pouring, which isn't very often. She has a whole ton of teeth now, finishing up on her molars-hopefully soon cause they are hard! She loves other kids, her age, older, or younger. Our neighbor's have a baby and Evelyn calls her name every time we walk by-of course over and over! She is extremely busy and rarely sits still for very long, which is part her age and part her personality.

I'm sure I could write another page or so, but I'll stop. What a great kid! )

18 Months Old!!

2009-10-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Happy 18 months Evelyn! Check back for more info soon : )

Owie

2009-09-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just to prove that I can post a short blog, here we go!

We've been enjoying walks in the evening this summer, usually down to the UPS campus and back, just about 20-30 minutes. The other evening, on our way back, Evelyn was getting antsy in her stroller-which is pretty normal-she doesn't like to sit too long, that one! So we took her out and let her run around a bit. She looked pretty much like a cute pint sized drunken sailer cause she is still pretty wobbly, although much faster, and even when she is staying on her feet she veers off first one direction and then the other, heading to whatever catches her eye. She definitely enjoys her taste of freedom and seems to have no fear of getting far away from us. She just takes off! But her desire for freedom often gets tangled up in her feet and she falls over (which actually happens to a lot of us adults too). And fall she did, surprisingly hard, resulting in her first skinned knee. Which I thought was very sweet : ) She thought it was very odd though, and kept saying "Knee! Knee!" and poking at it. She was really upset, more just puzzled, screaming more when we put her back in the stroller than when she fell. Here's to a childhood full of skinned knees!

Proud of Dada

2009-09-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

I had a blog ready to post today about Evelyn falling and skinning her knee, but when I remembered it was 9/11, that somehow didn't seem to fit right.

Like everyone else I remember exactly where I was when 9/11 happened 8 years ago. But, fortunately it was not as traumatic or emotional for me because I didn't know anyone who was there or personally affected. That changed when I met Bard. He doesn't talk a lot about this, but since he doesn't read our blog, I can brag on him : )

Bard was working in New York when 9/11 occurred. In fact, he was working on Wall Street at the World Trade Center. He wasn't at the twin towers, the WTC is actually a huge complex and he was at one of the other buildings. However, his building was so heavily damaged that it was later condemned and they moved the company to a new location.

Bard was late for work that morning (no surprise there!) and actually should have been in the complex when the planes hit. As it was he was on the subway, preparing to get off at the stop underneath the twin towers. The stop that was destroyed when the towers collapsed. The train driver heard that something had happened and was told not to make that stop, so everyone was a bit surprised when the train zoomed by the station and went to the next stop. Bard had heard something about a plane but didn't think it was too big of a deal til he got out and started walking toward his work. I'm sure you have all heard the reports and can imagine the chaos that surrounded him.

I do not write this to share with you all the details of what he did, instead I want to share who he is. It will not surprise any of you that he was a hero that day. Instead of running, he stayed to help the people around him. He gave water to those in need and assisted in any way he could, risking his own health to be there for total strangers.

Matthew 25: 37-4o "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

I worry so much as a parent. Is she eating the right food? Am I disciplining her enough, too much, and in the right way? What should we do about school? All those issues fall away when I remember that she is learning the most important lesson of all, from her very own father. Compassion. Helping those in need. Love for others that spills out because of God's love for us. Evelyn is more fortunate and blessed than many other children around the world-her father is a hero in every sense of the word, because of what he does but mostly because of why he does it.

Goodbye Summer!

2009-09-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that I am entering Fall with a toddler. Last fall Evelyn was so tiny, this is simply unreal! So here are some highlights from our last month of Summer and the pics are posted to the right:

*New Hampshire-Evelyn's favorite experiences: "Wawer & Boat!" Water, she loved looking at the lake and watching the boats go by. Every time Bard took her in she was surprised at how cold it was but with several people applauding her she warmed up in no time! "Ouside" Still one of her favorite words, she loved going outside because she could pick up rocks and "throw" them (see video on facebook for her "throw!") Having her at the airports and on the planes was hilarious, she loved seeing all the new things and talking to everyone, and threw a fit in the middle of the airport when I wouldn't let her step off the moving sidewalk by herself! But I know that overall her favorite part of the trip was the people. She fell in love with Lili, (Bard's grandma), Wally, (Bard's grandpa), and of course loved visiting with Grandee and Grandpa Steve again (Bard's mom and step dad). Best way to describe it, they ate her up! I'm not sure any other child in history has received that much attention! She has such a sweet and easy way of bonding with people. Our first morning there she did not seem bothered at all to wake up in a strange house full of people she had never met before. It was all just a fun adventure! I know she still treasures those relationships because just the other day I was changing her diaper and gave her a little stuffed dog to play with. I said, "Aunt Barbara gave you this dog when we were at the lake." She looked at me and said, "Lili!" I couldn't believe it, two weeks after coming home she remembers enough to associate Barbara giving her the dog and that it happened at Lili's house! But then again, Lili makes that impression on everyone : )

*We finished off our summer with a trip to the beach with my brother and his family. Now, unfortunately the trip ended up with the flu running through our family like, well, a virus! Tish got sick while we were there, Bard two days after we got home (please don't ask me how many times he vomited!) and my brother, niece, and mom also fell victim to the plague. Fortunately there were some good times, so we'll focus on those! Evelyn was not impressed with walking on wet sand at first-that's my city girl! But she got used to it and loved digging with her little shovel and pail, when Henry wasn't talking them away from her of course ; ) There was a big park that they loved running around in, complete with a huge slide and swings. But, hand's down the main thing she cared about was being with Henry. Or, "Henee!" We went over to their house on our way up, so we could load up everything together (you would not even believe how much crap you need to go away for three days with three children under the age of three!) Henry and Evelyn both burst into tears because they had wanted to play with each other and we made them stay in the car and then drove off. No way could they understand that after a quick 2 hour car drive they were going to play together for three days! When we arrived and got them out to play in this little field before heading to the beach, they ran toward each other laughing and shrieking each other's names-cutest thing ever!

*Even though we were so busy this summer, with so many trips, we still managed to take walks together almost every evening. In fact, Evelyn now asks to go on a walk. Friday evening BBQs with friends and family have been the best. When Evelyn sees me moving the furniture around for watching LOST after the BBQ, she says, "Abby!" and runs to the door because she knows our friend Abby is coming over. Trips to the zoo, dozens of adorable sundresses, playing in the fountain at UPS, getting a new kitten, and spending time on our deck have made it a great summer. I just packed up all her cute little sundresses and pulled out the sweaters. Bring on Fall!

New Hampshire

2009-08-19T13:19:00.001-07:00

Culture is a funny thing. Since most of my undergrad and postgrad work was spent analyzing culture (not ours-Russia and Europe's!), I have to admit that a little bit of my academia still affects me. Since this was my third time in New Hampshire with Bard, I think I am starting to get a feel of the culture there-both of the area and of his family. One of my professors once described culture as that which affects our choices when we don't even realize that we have made a choice. I really like that and have stuck with it-maybe one of these days I'll get back to the lovely world of academia, but until then you are all just stuck with my wandering thoughts that have no place else to go!

New Hampshire's state motto is, "Live free or die" that right there, and the fact that they do not have a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets should tell you something pretty big about their culture. Two words. Let's go with "Back off!" They really seem to like things they way they are. Although dependant on tourism, they have responded to it very differently than neighboring Vermont (which we drove through to go visit Bard's other grandparents in Albany New York.) They will not cater to tourists and in fact, while taking their money, seem to resent their influx. Status quo rules. Small community, a focus on nature and the arts, and the importance slowing down.

Bard's family definitely fits into this culture and I learn more about what that means each time we visit with them. Is it art imitating life or life imitating art? Who knows, but the best part is that with each visit I get little glimpses and say to myself, Ahh, now I understand! It's amazing how much our families and upbringing influence us from big things like how Bard was brought up in this beautiful environment which instilled in him a deep appreciation for the outdoors. To small and comical aspects such as the fact that Bard's odd habit of leaving kitchen and bathroom cupboard doors open drives me crazy so I almost die laughing (on the inside) when I see that his grandpa does the same thing! How great is that?!

We are like sponges, we soak up the environment around us. So hopefully it is a good environment that we are taking in-which of course is our job as parents. And I'm excited for Evelyn to take in New Hampshire. After all, it's in her blood.

Baby!

2009-08-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

Haha, made you look : ) This is Nora, nickname, Nadia (I know, some of you are thinking, "Oh no, they didn't"-Oh yes, we did! And are you really surprised?!)

She is three months old, full of personality and snuggling and has already learned to hide under the shoe rack when she hears Evelyn shrieking, "KITTY KITTY KITTY!"

TV, Bard the Builder and Sports Camp

2009-08-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

The things you think you'll never do as a parent. I'm sure I will have broken all of them by them time my kids are grown! One rule in particular that Bard and I talked about before even having children was how much television our children would watch. We grew up with pretty different tv experiences (ahh how I "fondly" remember my limit of 30 minutes a day and when my parents would move the TV into the closet!) But we are both pretty much on the same page now-very little TV. In fact we've switched, Bard watches less than I do! Of course we have our fairly notable and obvious exception! We actually watch about two shows a week and I watch a bit of news in the morning (gotta love Matt Lauer!) but that's about it. I haven't let Evelyn watch TV and wasn't really planning on it for a while. So it was pretty funny a few weeks ago when she woke up early and was sitting in my lap while I finished breakfast. I was flipping from the Today Show and went past PBS, where Elmo was doing his thing. In just the few seconds that I left it on Sesame Street, she fell in love. Now it's "Elmo Elmo Elmo!" She recognizes him everywhere we go-on the cracker box at the store and in the book at the Doctor's office. She loves that little red monster! So, every few days we will watch a clip of the Elmo's World song on Youtube. It's about 3 minutes, so it's probably not rotting too much of her brain ; ) and I can handle it too. Just out of curiosity I've turned on other cartoons, to see if they catch her attention. Nope, she is a one monster girl! Who would have thought?!

This afternoon Evelyn had just gotten up from nap and was sitting with me. We heard pounding in the basement and Evelyn says, "Dada, Dada!" Yup, she is a smart kid. I think for most of her life Bard has been down pounding in the basement. We are now almost ready to cross the finish line. Of course, I said that before and permits set us back 6 months, but here we are again and it's so close I can taste it (literally, sheet rock dust gets everywhere!) We've had some great help, but mostly it's been Bard down there on his own, triumphing over one completed task after another. All this work for only one room but it will be so amazing to be able to say that we did this. To tell kids when they're older, Hey, be careful with that closet door, your father framed it in, hung the sheet rock, textured, and put in the door. Kids just love that sort of thing!

Sports Camp is over. Thank God! Thank God because of all the greatness He accomplished throughout the week and thank God because it was incredibly exhausting, I missed my baby, had nerves frayed to the breaking point, was waking up at 4am every day and having panic attacks. Ahhh. Sports Camp. We had two records over a hundred-over a hundred kids came and the weather was over a hundred degrees! Yikes! The kids had a blast and thanks to some amazing volunteers who had water stations, industrial fans, foot ice baths, and water misters, we all stayed cool. Evelyn came one day and I'll post some hilarious video on facebook of her dancing during our worship time. This is actually her second time at Sports Camp, last year I carried her around in a front pack. This year she toddled around the gym, climbing on the mats and falling off (Bard!), played on the fields, and was spoiled and coddled over by everyone-she loved it! Every year kids have a blast at Sports Camp and (IMHO) it's one of the best traditions our church has. I can't wait til Evelyn is old enough to run around playing soccer, hitting baseballs, and catching footballs with other kids. And then I won't miss her so much! I can see her now, a female mini Bard up on stage for drama, singing the loudest during worship, and going crazy over the sports. Well, you know her, am I wrong?!

Family

2009-07-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Last week was such a great one for our family! Bard's aunt and uncle were on vacation and decided to come here to visit with us. We spend very little time with Bard's side of the family, so this alone was a treat. But Kevin and Susan went above and beyond-deciding to just spoil us all week! Let's see, dinner at the beach, long talks on the deck, BBQed filet mignon, fresh grilled salmon, drives to Gig Harbor, lots of peek a boo and musical instruments, and, and, hmm, what am I forgetting? OH, they got our basement ready for it's first inspection! And it passed! It was so amazing to be blessed all week. And I'm so grateful that Evelyn got to know her aunt and uncle, I know they will continue to show her what it is to be family.

First Night

2009-07-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured I had better do it before Evelyn left for college, so Friday night was her first night spending the night away from both me and Bard! Of course, Bard has been on business trips, so she has been away from him before, but I have never left her over night. I was totally comfortable with it because she was staying with my parents and since my mom watches her twice a week she is used to sleeping there and knows both my parents really well. But, that only helped to an extent!

Last February I bought Bard Coldplay tickets for Valentines Day and a few months ago, since this was my birthday weekend and Evelyn would be 15 months old, we decided to make a night of it and stay in Portland before coming home. We dropped her off just before nap on Friday, which made me kinda sad because since she was asleep I wasn't able to say goodbye. Of course she wouldn't have really known what I meant anyway. The drive down was nice and we had a good time walking around Portland before going to the concert. Although to get to Powell's Bookstore we walked through what I can only nicely call the red light district and I haven't smelled that much pot since college! We called her before she went to bed and said goodnight, she was busy being spoiled to death so didn't say much ; ) The concert was great, we were on the lawn at the amphitheater and it was a beautiful evening. Coldplay even came out on the lawn and sang several songs (including a pretty cool rendition of Billie Jean) on a small portable stage they had set up not too far from us! I saw a baby about Evelyn's age (please do not even tell me she is not a baby anymore, that is just nasty!) It did make me miss her a bit but at the same time I thought those parents were crazy for bringing their baby and I was glad it was just me and Bard!

It took us an hour, yes an hour, to get out of the parking lot-apparently not the smartest traffic engineers in Clark County! So, by the time we got back to the hotel I wasn't really thinking about not being able to check in on her. But, as I woke up throughout the morning - most of you know I'm a horrible sleeper - it was very odd to not have to get up based on her schedule. In fact, it was the first time in 15 months that I hadn't followed her schedule! We were up so late the night before it was great just to be able to sleep in and have our morning together.

We went to Portland's Saturday Market which is a fabulous mix of hippie, yuppie eclectic art with great food and interesting music thrown in just for fun. Even though Bard and I do get to spend a lot of time together, probably more than the average couple with a one year old, there is something different about extended time. Date nights and walks are nice but I think there is something unique about having extra time with each other, the conversations can become more in depth and varied. After an amazing chocolate almond croissant (hey, it was my birthday!) we headed out of the city and back home. We made pretty good time and actually got in to Tacoma before Evelyn would have been up from her nap. So we swung by the mall and I re-pierced my second holes-maybe this time I'll leave earrings in so they don't grow over again! I hadn't felt too antsy until that point. But I knew she would be waking up and I just wanted to be there. The last ten minutes of the drive were longer than the two previous hours and I was so glad to go into my parents house and see her smiling, cute, yogurt covered face. She had done great both days, no problems, which made me happy, but I think I'll keep her with me for awhile before leaving her overnight again : )

Bienvenidos!

2009-07-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Ahh, where to start?

*In the morning when she woke up, Evelyn would say, "Outside!" and crawl or walk to the door.

*We went in the pool twice a day and she would say, "Pool!" Then she would point to the other kids and want to play with them.

*Most of the families there were Mexican so our little blondie stuck out and got quite a bit of attention from everyone. A lady in the elevator even stopped me and asked if I was the one with the baby.

*She played in the sand and I think still probably has some sticking to her somewhere. But when Bard took her toward the ocean, his understanding of "Go slow" was to plow in waist deep which totally freaked her out. She'll get used to it : )

*I think she liked the elevator as much as the pool and said, "Beep" whenever we went in it.

*She slept like a rock, she slept at the airport, during flights, during boarding, all night and good naps, on the bus, and in the car. I wish I could sleep like that!

Overall we had a great trip and I am so glad we went. We had made the decision to take our first real vacation last fall but then had to schedule an unplanned family trip for August (because of cancelling the one that was supposed to be in December) so we were a bit unsure if we could do both in one summer. It will definitely be a busy summer but it is worth it! Next year we won't be taking any big trips, so we'll sit around all summer and do nothing : )

Anyway, the trip there was great. She was really good on the plane and at the airports. It was a long day and I was pretty tired by the time we arrived (more because of staying up and watching LOST with friends the night before, not so much because of the trip!) It was great to walk into the resort and see how nice it was, you never know, you know? But it was beautiful and we loved it. We had a one bedroom suite so Evelyn slept in a crib out in the front room and Bard and I had a separate bedroom. We went to the little store the next day to get food and snacks to have in our room so that we could make our own breakfast-conveniently the store is right on the resort so you never have to leave. They are sooooo thoughtful! ; ) But actually the prices weren't bad at all, except peanut butter which was $4 for half a jar! What is it with other countries and their lack of peanut butter love? Of course my sweet OCD hubby insisted we use only bottled water, so we bought that too. But I rebelled and used tap water for brushing my teeth and making coffee. If I die Abby gets my season one LOST. The hotel provided us with a crib and a high chair which was great-keeping Evelyn contained is a full time job!

Our days looked like this: get up, eat breakfast, get ready for the pool, play in pool, eat lunch, nap, go back to pool, eat dinner, put Evelyn down for bed, watch LOST with Mike and Sara, go to bed. We pretty much did that every day! Puerto Vallarta is two hours ahead of us, but we stayed on the same schedule, so Evelyn woke up around 9am and went to bed around 9pm. her naps were perfect-Bard would fry if he stayed outside all day and he wanted to nap anyway so he napped every day with her! I did maybe once or twice, but often read in our room or went back down to the beach/pool. Yes, I finished all three books! This is the longest Bard has spent with her since we visited family for 4 days back in September. So it was great for them to have so much time together and very restful for me too-having a second pair of hands makes a big difference!

Evelyn learned several new words on our trip: Hola (yes, too cute!), cow (although I think cow means field to her because later we drove by a field with no cows and she pointed, saying, "cow!"), pool, owie, gentle (this because for months Bard has been letting her smack his face so now we are having to retrain her!), Mike, Sara (which she refused to say to Sara, only in front of the rest of us!), and thank you. I think she said a few more, but I wasn't writing them down like normal so I'm not sure.

She did really well and seemed to have a great time. She never had any major melt downs although she did get a bit fussy more often than she does at home. I think she is a pretty solid extrovert and was just a bit over stimulated by everything. Our next trip I need to make sure she has some down time by herself or with just me or Bard for a bit each day. Honestly, since I am the same way, I am surprised I didn't realize this before! Bard and I learned that about myself the hard way on our first trip together and have since been pretty good about making sure I have my own quiet time : )

The pictures are on Facebook and posted to the right, (along with pictures from June.) I thought I would take more, but we did the same thing every day! Well, okay, one day we took the bus in to Puerto Vallarta and walked around for about an hour, but that is about it. We really just wanted to relax. Which, for those of you who know me, know that is not normally how I vacation. I am a Europe girl at heart and love vacations spent travelling all over the place in a million different museums and monuments. But I think this vacation taught me how great it is to sit and relax. Let days blur together. Talk with friends about meaningful stuff and about nothing. Read books and stare at the sunset. Then get up the next day and do it all over again. I hope this is the first of many family vacations. And I hope that they are all like this one-prioritize experiencing the family, not experiencing the experience.

We're not going to Guam, are we?

2009-06-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

Ahh Frank, best line ever!

Anyway, we leave Saturday for Mexico and I can't wait! As you probably already know since I've said it so many times lately, this is our first vacation since our honeymoon (three years ago) and it is long overdue! I'm not sure how Evelyn will do, I think she'll be fine, but it does make me a little nervous. We're going with good friends and I can't wait to visit with them, sit on the beach, catch up on books, and watch LOST! Yes, it seems I can't have a blog without it ; ) I'm sure I'll blog about the trip when we get back, and have tons of pictures, but since Evelyn turns 15 months while we're gone I thought I would take a few minutes to let you know where she is at.

The biggest news is that she has started walking! Finally! She took her first steps a few weeks ago and although she still crawls a lot she will often just stand up on her own and walk to something. She can reach down, grab an object from the floor without holding on to anything and stand back up with it. She can also turn while standing and go a different direction and can take steps while holding something in her hands-which is actually really good and doesn't normally happen until they have been walking for longer. I had been hoping she would be a little more stable before we left, but oh well, what are you going to do? Also in the physical department, she is climbing all over everything and everywhere, which is driving me crazy! She is super fast going up the stairs, can climb on our coffee table (which was moved to our bedroom), climb into her stroller (which was moved to the car) and pretty much tries to pull herself onto anything that she can reach. I thought I had escaped having a baby that climbed a lot, but I guess I was wrong!

Verbally she is still talking more and more everyday. She puts two words together and is pretty easy to understand once she says a word. She says over 40 words and uses most of them on a pretty regular basis. Her favorite right now is Grandpa (Bapa), sky (I have no idea why), and toes. Although her old favorite, ball, is still pretty popular too.

Socially/emotionally she is still very much an extrovert. She has never seemed to develop stranger anxiety. It's very rare that she cries when we leave (in fact I can't think of any time that she has) or when we drop her off in the church nursery. She loves being around new people, especially kids. When we see another child in the grocery store, her little legs start kicking, she says, "Ooooooo!" and "What's that?" Which actually sounds like, "Was dat?" She'll practically fall out of the shopping cart trying to see them as we move another direction. But, her favorite child by far is her cousin Henry, she just loves him! I'll say Henry is coming over and she'll go to the door and watch for him. He can take her food and her toys and she just looks at him and smiles (although I think that is going to change any day now!) It's so cute to see them together, I grew up with my cousins and I'm very glad Evelyn will have this opportunity as well.

As far as her fine motor skills, those have always been ahead of her gross motor and continue to be so. She can turn shapes to fit them in holes and holds her crayon with her fingers, not in a fist. Although often she uses it to chew on instead of color with!

As far as cognitively, well, I'm sure she is off the charts! ; ) She follows commands well (unless she doesn't want to and then that gets into discipline which is a whole different blog!) She quickly picks up my mannerisms/habits, like saying yucky when her nose is runny or going to the door when I say Dada is home. Her favorite game right now is learning her different body parts. She knows (and loves to show) where her head, eye, nose, tummy, and toes are. She loves to point out other people's too, although be careful, you'll end up with a finger in your eye!

She didn't need 15 month booster shots, but I took her in just to see-she has grown so much! She is now 23 pounds and 31 inches. She gained three pounds and grew 2 inches since turning one, which is a pretty good growth spurt! She continues to track right at about the 50th percentile.

All in all she is doing great and we are all doing well. But, I definitely am in need of a vacation-all that cuteness can quickly turn overwhelmingly demanding, often happening between 5 and 6pm which is an evil time and should have never been invented! Even though she'll be with us, I know just a break from normal routine will be good and having Bard there all the time will of course be huge.

Adios for now, I'll be back with pictures and stories from our trip!

Piggies, Shrieks, and Swim Class

2009-06-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some random musings. . .

When Evelyn has bare feet we will sometimes grab her toes and do "This little piggy." She loves the end one that cries "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home. The other day Bard was sitting on the couch, barefoot. Evelyn grabbed his toe and said "Wee! Wee! Wee!" We both cracked up : )

Not so adorable is her shrieking. She is like a banshee. What drives me crazy is that she knows most of the words for what she is wanting to communicate-90% of the time it is "Up, down, more, or milk. She knows the words and signs for those and says them easily. But often she will start off with an "Ahhhhh." That is like nails on a chalkboard especially by 5 pm at night when Bard isn't home yet, I'm trying to feed her, get our dinner, and remember why on earth I decided to have a child instead of getting a goldfish which would have been infinitely quieter. It's not a high pitched scream, and to most people it's probably not even that loud, but I cannot wait for her to grow out of this phase. . .and into something else that will likely be just as annoying only in a different way!

I can't believe I forgot to blog about her swim class! We signed her up just over a month ago. Bard took her in the pool the week before class started just so we could see she would do. She loved it, of course! She did cling to him some, which is pretty unusual for her, but she had a lot of fun. Then, she really loved being in the pool with the other babies. They sing songs and splash. She even held onto the side of the pool and did little bobs! It's so cute : ) We won't continue over the summer-too much going on, but we'll sign her back up again in the fall. And so begins 18 years of taking my child to some type of class ; ) But, I am glad she loves the water, Mexico, here we come!

Stupid test!

2009-06-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

See, I told you I was back! See May pics at right.

As many of you know, today Bard is taking the second in his three year series to complete his CFA. When he took the last test, in June of '08, Evelyn was just 2 months old and so naturally it was quite straining for him to study for several hours every morning and evening. This time she is asleep while he is studying so instead of getting stressed I play Tetris or watch Third Rock from the Sun (this probably surprises most of you who assume I would be reading during this time. I would but am slightly cut off from reading as I've bought too many books and need to hold off as well as unfortunately running up a fine on my library card-sad for me!)

Anyway, just like last time this test has been a huge commitment for us. One, it's hundreds of dollars just to sign up and get the curriculum, two, Bard has been studying pretty much ever day since January, three the test is all day-he leaves at 7am and is home at 7pm, four we don't get the results until August, and five if he didn't pass he can't retake until June of next year. Typically it takes someone 4 years to complete the three year test series because it's very rare that someone actually passes each test on the first try.

But, if anyone can do it, Bard can. It amazes me to watch him prepare for these exams (that is when I'm not annoyed that he isn't taking out the garbage!) He is SO disciplined. Now, you know I'm a fairly disciplined person myself, but I would never have the discipline to study from 5-7 in the morning and 7-10 in the evening almost every day for weeks at a time. Or to carry flashcards with me and mumble algebraic equations under my breath wherever I go. He is just plain smart.

Evelyn has already started showing a lot of who she will become. So far she is definitely advanced in her verbal skills and has what we call a lot of personality : ) She is an extrovert; very social, and independent. She is cautious when she first tries a new physical act but then dives right in. She really seems to love going new places and seeing new people and is very excited every time we do so. Being in the car for too long is difficult for her, she gets bored so I don't see us doing long road trips anytime soon! And books are still a favorite.

But all that is just a small part of who she will become. I know there are layers and layers that will be revealed. Will she inherit her father's discipline? Is that nature, nurture or some combination of both? Will she be spontaneous or like routine? She likes books, but what will be her favorite, historical fiction, mysteries, non fiction, or all of the above? Will she like sports? Which ones? We both love art, in almost every form, will she? Will she be a leader, a helper, a hostess, an organizer? All this and more are yet to be discovered and the journey is just beginning!

(YIKES!) The Good, The Bad, and The Peanut Butter

2009-04-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

Whoops! Okay, so the blog below was written a while ago but I never got around to posting it cause I hadn't uploaded the pictures. Let's blame my dance recital (not the LOST blog or online Tetris!) And I promise to catch up from now on!

Whew, what a fun month! Between her birthday, Easter, a new niece being born, and Spring being sprung at last, this [April] has been a busy month. We've had some new experiences, that of course, I wanted to share with you!

The Good-

Her birthday was so much fun (see new pictures posted to right). We had a family birthday party, a special day of pancakes and balloons on her actual birthday and then a party with friends too. The party with friends was great because it actually ended up being sunny and gorgeous so we all went out on our deck and watched the kids do an Easter Egg Hunt (courtesy OrientalTrading.com).

It's also been awesome to watch her master new skills, such as putting wooden rings on a stand using her spoon to feed herself.

Also so much fun we've been to the zoo for the first and second time! I grew up going to Pt Defiance Zoo, it's actually a great zoo and I've been pretty excited to take her there. Last weekend Amy and I took Ash and Evy. Evelyn had been before, but really just to the aquarium. And this time Amy and I trekked all over! The kids loved the whales and sea otters the best (always my favorite too!) But were more impressed with their snack than the elephants, who just stood there, and couldn't even see the lions. Then today [remember I wrote this a month ago!] I took Evy and Henry so Josh and Tish could get some rest with baby Lucy (born on April 18th!) This was hilarious! First of all, how they justify charging $8 for a double stroller is beyond me but I sure wasn't carrying and chasing them all over so I paid it! They had a fun time, although I think they liked looking at the other kids and the grass as much as the animals, but oh well : )

The Bad

Evelyn actually had a cold the week of her birthday, then the next week fell and hit her eye, giving herself a black eye for a week, and then the day after that fell and split her gums, bleeding all over the place. Poor baby and poor mama! She is just fine now, but it was her first real "owie" although I'm sure it will be followed by many more.

Easter went great at church but it was very tiring for our family. As usual before a big event, I got very little sleep and because of having three services, we had to wake Evelyn up to get out the door on time. This made for a very tired mama and baby by the time noon rolled around, but unfortunately neither of us got good naps, although I'm not sure why. Being at my parents was great and it was wonderful to visit with friends and family, but I was groggy and she got more and more cranky as the evening went on. I think this is my last year of doing so much on Easter-I want it to be a fun day for her too but if I'm spending most of it with other kids so that we're too exhausted to enjoy the day, then that doesn't seem quite right! It's not that it was bad, it just made me think how things are continuously changing and that I have change with them.

We've also started our first of what I'm sure will be many food battles. I've studied a lot on nutrition and young children so I have pretty firm ideas of what to do and not to do, but when it's your child, you really just want to give in! Well, not really, but it's tempting; ) For some reason she has decided that the only veggies she likes are sweet potatoes, corn, and dried veggies. Veggies like peas and broccoli that she used to eat just fine she is refusing to even touch. She is still a bit young to understand "Eat this and then you may have that" so we're taking it day by day. Darn!

But, she does however love . . .Peanut Butter, bum bum bum! I know, gasp, I fed my child peanut butter before the age of 15 or whatever they're saying now. We don't have a history of allergies and she has never shown a sensitivity to anything and actually recent reports are stating that postponing the introduction of nuts/legumes does not seem to have any impact and may in fact increase sensitivity. So there! Anyway, she had a peanut butter sandwich and loved it!

Okay-so all that has written a month ago, but I think that's enough reading for you now ; ) I'll fill in more later!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

You Know You're a Mom When. . .

2009-04-06T13:06:00.001-07:00

You go to the video store with your daughter's hairbands wrapped around your finger. Sheesh, why don't I just use Netflix?!

You yell at your husband and your daughter at 4:30am because the day after you blog about her sleeping all night she is up for 2 hours.

You cry the next morning because even though you were yelling before your daughter is still so excited to see you when she wakes up.

You are more excited about your daughter's presents than your own presents. Wait, moms get presents?!

You can load the dishwasher, pack lunch, put on makeup, and feed your daughter breakfast all at the same time.

You get irritated when your husband doesn't know as much as you do about your daughter, even though you said you would never be one of "those moms."

At the end of the day you just need time to be completely disengaged from anyone and anything.

You would give your right arm to have your house cleaned and don't understand why your husband doesn't get that.

You hate laundry with a deep abiding hate that seems unrealistic for inanimate objects.

You just want to sit and drink a hot cup of coffee in the morning before everything gets started.

You pray harder and longer than you ever have in your life because you would give anything to have your child grow up with a deep love for God and for other people. And you are more thankful than ever that this is God's heart for us too.

Happy First Birthday Evelyn!

2009-04-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Countdown to One!

2009-03-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted an update on where Evelyn is at in the major developmental areas and with her turning one on Wednesday, I figured I had better catch up!

First she is definitely what we call mobile : ) She crawls all over the place and is getting faster and faster. She can pull herself up and takes steps holding my hands, but does not yet cruise on furniture. She can balance on her own for just a few seconds and is gaining confidence with that every day. She is far more distracting in my dance classes now! She crawls up to the girls when they are warming up and is becoming a nusiance! We break for the summer at the end of May, so if she just holds off on walking til then I'll be okay. If not then I am in for a lot of work!

She crawled late and I wouldn't be surprised if she walked late (average is 13/14 months). So I have to be all the more proud of her verbal skills. Warning, skip next section if you want to avoid classic mommy bragging ; ) I had to start writing down all her words because about two weeks ago I realized she was saying new ones faster than I could keep track! She is up to more than 20 now and Bard thinks she has also said a few two word phrases, "All done" and "What's that?" I'm not convinced, but who knows? Many of the words (light, yuck, kitty, go, and more) she says very clearly and there is definitely no mistaking them. Some you have to know what she is saying, "Co" is cold and she says it everytime we go outside because apparently spring has not hit the Northwest yet, as evidenced by more snow last Saturday! All in all I am so proud of her. The average 1 year old says maybe one or two words besides mama and dada so she is quite the genius baby! Oddly enough the one word I haven't been able to get her to say is please. Uh oh. ; )

She is eating really well. She is now completely off bottles and nursing and drinks her milk from a sippy cup like the big girl she is : ( She has started eating with a spoon (see video posted on facebook for just what a disaster this is) although I have to admit when I'm in a hurry I just feed her, which is bad, I know, but seriously, I am afraid she inherited her father's table manners! For the most part she has not become a picky eater, yet, but has more likes and dislikes than she used to.

I am not sure what she weighs or how long she is, we go in for her 12 month on Thursday, so I'll find out then. However, she has pretty much grown out of all her nine month clothes and is wearing mostly 12 month. They are a bit big on her, so she has room for growth. That tells me she is probably right in the middle range. We are ready to put her in her real carseat, instead of the infant one, as soon as I have her weighed to make sure she is over the 22 pounds she is supposed to be to "graduate"

Overall she is pretty healthy although she had a fever over the weekend, her first one : ( She had a diaper rash last week two, which was another first. I think they were both due to the fact that she has her second top tooth coming in and the two on either side are really visible too. Extra saliva quickly led to a runny nose and now she has a cough, which is pretty much her first on that too. Poor kid! The temp was low (101.3) and the cough is not serious, so I'm not worried. Her ear infection at 6 months is still the only time we've been to the Dr and I would like to keep it that way!

She still sleep really well and has never really backslid from that. I put her down in her crib and she goes to sleep just fine on her own. She does about 12 hours at night and then takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Although sometimes she gets up too early for me-I really need to start the day with Matt Lauer and a cup of coffee, she always wakes up in a good mood, so I guess I shouldn't complain!

Her favorite thing to do is still look at books, and now she is pointing at everything and either saying the real word for it or making up her own in some jibberish. She loves to say moo or whoo after I do when we look at cows and owls. What is it with kids and animal sounds?! She also loves putting abjects in something and taking them out, which is a common developmental milestone for this age. And just in the last few weeks has been able to make small towers, of 2-3 blocks, on her own and knock them down, which delights her to no end!

No separation anxiety yet either. Just last week we were at a friend's party and a total stranger held her for quite a wile and she didn't mind at all. She also hasn't fussed when I or Bard or my parents have dropped her off in Baby Garden at church. Knock on wood!

She does now get fussy if she can't get what she wants. Actually, I wouldn't call it fussy so much as downright mad! This mostly applies to my laptop and cell phone and has a particularly lovely yell that she gives off when I move them away. Let the battle begin!

Okay, last thing! She loves playing games like peek a boo and "How big is Evelyn?"-to which she responds by throwing up her arms! She loves being thrown up in the air and turned upside down.

Well, that's about all I can think of for where she is at on her first birthday. If you made it this far you must be a grandparent or just honestly think my daughter is absolutely adorable. Thanks!

No

2009-03-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Evelyn has had another first these past few days-you guessed it-being told no! For the most when she is doing something she is not supposed to, Bard and I use the phrase, "Not for baby." Because typically she is trying to grab something that she is not allowed to have (like my laptop) and we want her to learn not just no, but that some things are for her and some things are not for her! I also don't want to use no all the time for a couple of other reasons, one as a parent you quickly get extremely sick of this word! Two, you get even more sick of how quickly your child learns to say it back to you-and the more you say it the more they will! And three, I want to use it for when I'm really serious in the (partially vain) attempt to have it carry more weight than if I use it all the time.

The past few days have given me a very real reason to use the word no. As many of you know, we don't currently have a furnace due to the ever continuing project of finishing our basement, or what the Bible refers to as hell. Ha ha : ) So for 3-4 days we will be without heat while the furnace is moved to another part of the basement (I don't know why) and the duct work is all redone and put along the back wall (I don't know why.) We have two space heaters that we've been moving around and if we do it just right (minus blowing the circuit breaker four times so far) than the house stays in the low 60s, which is fine.

Now, I bought these two heaters just a short time ago and one thing I liked about them is that they declared they were "cool to touch." But I knew that Evelyn would definitely be testing that claim so I decided that I should try it out first. Liars! Cool to touch if you live in hell (the real one, not our basement) I was really irritated because now I knew I would have to keep a close eye on her because of course there is always a space heater in the room she is in. Nevermind the fact that she has a box of toys and a basket of books right in front of her, as soon as she was on the floor she crawled straight for the space heater (she was already late in crawling but she couldn't have held out two more weeks so we wouldn't be in this situation? What a rebelillious child!) I looked at her and loudly and firmly said, "No!" She stopped in her tracks and looked up at me. She started to crawl again and I repeated myself. She sat up, flapped her arms and said, "Aaaggghh!" And then turned and crawled the other way. Throughout the next few days this was repeated2 or 3 times, but each time she turned away after the first or second no and didn't go back and try again until much later (which, you may differ with me on but I believe that at this stage in her brain development it takes longer for her to form a habit than just several times so it would be too much to expect her to remember no upon just seeing the heater-it would have to be repeated several more times over probably a few more days before it became ingrained in her-disagree if you like : )) Since I wasn't seeing signs of the impish smile then followed by the action I was instructing her not to take, and since she turned away after being told no, I was congratulating myself on having an amzingly obedient child! For now anyway. Then I went into the kitchen for a minute and when I came out she was pulling the cord out of the wall and putting it in her mouth! I said, "NO!!!" And she dropped the cord, looked at me, and started to cry. Sigh.

We have a long life ahead of us.

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

2009-03-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

A Few Sweet Moments

2009-03-15T17:24:00.001-07:00

Sundays are a contrast around our house. The mornings are busy from beginning to end-getting to church, and then four hours of making sure the kids ministry is running smoothly leave me pretty tired by the time I come home. So the afternoons are lazy, nap-filled lounge times. Often Sundays are a blur-the first half, from about 8:30-12:30, I am so focused on my job and sorting out details and issues that need to be addressed that I just have minimal interaction with Bard and Evelyn. The second half of the day, I'm exhausted and Bard and I try to relax so it is a blur of being tired and just hanging out. But this Sunday I had two sweet moments that stood out and I want to remember them.

The first was in the morning at church. In between our two services I like to get Evelyn out of Baby Garden and hold her while I am greeting families. In our new location people enter straight into where we worship, so I am able to hold her and greet while enjoying the singing myself. She loves to hear the band play and kicks her feet (to the beat of the music). Today everyone was clapping during one of the songs and I watched Evelyn looking at them. After studying them she joined in clapping! We stood together for several moments, singing and clapping. I know without a doubt that God was smiling.

The second sweet moment was later that day. After nap Evelyn was playing on the floor, looking at books. Bard was studying on the couch and I was half-napping on the love seat. I looked over and saw the two of them just sitting and studying together. They were both so focused on their books, it was adorable! I'm so glad that she loves her books and I hope that this is the beginnings of many lazy Sunday afternoons where we enjoy good books together.

Chicken Curry in a Hurry,

2009-03-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Evelyn is finally at that great stage to where she can eat a lot of what we have for dinner. Now, this doesn't work all the time, because often she needs to eat before we are finished making dinner, but it's fun some of the time. She had spaghetti a few weeks ago and loved it, but we have her seen her happier than when she tried "Chicken Curry in a Hurry!"

Bard has this great chicken cookbook (of course he does!) and a lot of our dinner meals come out of it. The chicken curry has been a favorite of ours. It's really simple-just some curry, cumin, onions, garlic, with tomato paste and chicken broth. You just simmer it on the stove with an apple, peas and carrots and then pour it over rice or couscous. One dish recipes are my favorite : )

Anyway, we gave some to her the other night and she went crazy! She was flapping her arms and saying "yum yum yum!" the whole time we were feeding her. It was hilarious. She shrieked when I didn't feed her (we're working on please!) and I think she ate as much as I did!

She loved it the next day for lunch too, which was awesome. Looks like she inherited her mother's love for Asian food!

And yes, Bard found the curry in her diaper the next morning ; )

Yes, We Have a Third Tooth, and No, I Am Not Listening to My Pediatrician

2009-03-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

On Friday, after months of waiting, one of Evelyn's top teeth is finally popping through! I thought she would be heading to kindergarten with just two bottom teeth : ) She was a bit fussy-just sensitive really-but slept fine, which is nice. It's so odd to see her take actual bites of food. Just the sound says "growing up" to me. My baby is definitely not a baby for much longer.

Now, on to Pandora's box. Last summer (actually on my birthday), the American Academy of Pediatrics changed it's longstanding recommendations that children between the ages of 1 and 2 drink whole milk and after 2 drink 2%. The new recommendations are for children to switch straight to 2% at 12 months and forgo drinking whole milk due to the childhood obesity epidemic. Now, to be clear, the recommendation is for children who are at risk for being overweight or who have a family history of heart disease or high cholesterol. However, I am not sure I know anyone who does not have some family history of heart disease or high cholesterol, so I think that pretty much applies to everyone.

At our one year appointment our pediatrician said quite specifically that we should start our children on 2%. I emphatically disagree and actually have already started giving Evelyn whole milk. Here is Pandora's Box, because I realize that I have many friends who are in the medical field and/or have very strong opinions on the health of their children, and may think I am wrong for not following this guideline. I welcome your comments, of course if you know me at all you know your arguments are more likely to make me stubbornly dig my heels in ; ) Now, it will probably surprise most of you (and you will either be relieved or disappointed) that I did not make a big stink about this to my pediatrician. But, it was the end of the day, I wanted to go home and watch LOST, and I honestly just didn't care! But, I'll share my reasoning with you.

The AAP is right to be concerned about obesity amongst children, it is truly horrible. And they state that the reason they have discontinued recommending whole milk to children, is not that they don't need the fat (fat is very important for brain development), but more because they are getting the fat elsewhere and don't need the added fat from whole milk. Well here is a duh moment for me. Instead of removing whole milk from our children's diets, wouldn't it make more sense to remove the ice cream, cheetos, and McDonalds? If I had to hazard a guess I would say the junk food is worse for our toddlers than milk is for them. Now, don't get me wrong, I love all those foods and in fact had two out of three of them just in the last week! However, I don't eat them often, I don't feed them to my daughter and when I do, it will be in moderation. There is nothing wrong with fatty foods. I've read the whole bible and although some rather embarrassingly large chunks of the old testament are a bit blurry, I'm fairly sure that sweets and treats are not a sin and won't send you to hell. I am a firm believer in chocolate cake, and since God invented the cocoa bean, I'm pretty sure He is too!

My guess is that the AAP, having said for years that children need to eat more healthy, having finally despaired and just decided to remove fat from children's diets any way they can. But it seems rather ironic to me that the underlying message is if we can't beat 'em join 'em. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but I do find it odd that as parents we should never stop telling our children the right thing to do, no matter how much they ignore us, yet here is the AAP doing just that! I know, I know, I have to live in the real world. But I can still disagree with the way it is!

So, Evelyn is eating dinner right now and enjoying her whole milk. Both Bard and I have parents/grandparents with cholesterol issues and heart problems. But Evelyn eats very healthy in every sense of the word. Most of the food she has is organic, no added preservatives, salt or sugar. She eats more than the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables, whole grains- in breads, cereal, oatmeal, and rice/soy cakes, and lean ground turkey or chicken. Her typical day is oatmeal with applesauce or bananas for breakfast, soy cakes for snack, some chicken with peas and bread for lunch, yogurt for snack, and chicken with peas, corn, and bread for dinner. Bard and I are not quite that militant but we eat pretty healthy, don't watch much TV and both have regular work outs and active lifestyles. Of course as she grows, if I see her developing a weight issue, I will adjust her diet and activities. I think it's sad that the AAP has to adjust what are perfectly fine guidelines just because many parents are unable to set good eating habits for their children.

Wow, I can see a lot from up on this soapbox, but I better come down now and go eat some cheetos!

A big fat crazy catch up blog.

2009-03-02T14:41:00.001-08:00

Oops. Okay, I think my life is finally returning to normal so maybe I'll have a chance to blog a bit more! Work was crazy busy stress for a while, at worst I worked 46 hours in one week, which was just terrible. But last week was much better and since I'm sitting here blogging, this week must be off to a good start!

So, what have we been up to in the past month? Well mostly I've just been so grateful that Evelyn is such an easy going baby. I've carted her around everywhere, Ikea, home Depot, Value Village, and multiple coffee shops. She takes it all in stride and even gets excited when I start getting her ready. Yes, her little arms flap and she says "Go go go!" It cracks me up. She didn't seem to mind all the long hours I spent at the office either. Our church and office moved so I was there a lot packing, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc. I'm not sure why but somehow most of the stuff our church has accumulated in the past five years came under my jurisdiction to take care of and you just wouldn't believe what an odd amount of junk we had! Trust me, it's all gone now, I'm not really known for being a pack rat! Evelyn of course also helped test out all the new toys we bought and liked the plastic wrapping the best. All this while we listened to Cold Play and Slumdog Millionaire. She was rarely fussy and seemed pretty happy to be in different places with different people. The best was when I set up a pacnplay in the office bathroom, plugged in a stereo for music, turned out the lights and shut the door. She went right to sleep and stayed that way for two and a half hours! Now that is a good baby!

Other than being a trooper about work, she has been demonstrating some other fun habits. She is definitely a daredevil child. She loves to be thrown up in the air, spun around, and turned upside down, she laughs until she can't breathe-it's hilarious. She comes by it quite naturally cause as many of you know (sorry Melissa) I love scary roller coasters, they make me laugh out load!

Since she is almost a year old, we have hit some new developmental milestones that are fun as well. She has started drinking real milk (although still nurses/has some formula). That step seems so big to me! She took right to it and didn't seem to mind the difference at all. Unfortunately she has not continued to be so adjustable with other eating habits. She used to eat anything I put in front of her, but I can now see her developing a preference for food items with a certain taste or texture. She doesn't seem to mind slimy banana pieces, but won't eat pieces of tomato. However she loves spaghetti and dried tomato, so I think it's just the raw ones that bother her. She still eats really well, but there are other issues like that one which are just plain confusing to figure out!

She is also moving like crazy. Gone are the days when she would stay still while I changed her diaper. Now she seems determined to fold herself into a pretzel while I am trying to get a diaper on her before she pees everywhere! She has also discovered that it's much more fun to move all over the house than to sit one place. I never knew my floors were so dirty and it's impossible to keep them clean enough for her, she is just going to have to eat gross things and survive! And if I don't know about it, I'll survive too ; ) but nobody tell Bard cause he would freak out! : ) She doesn't crawl all the time but does a mixture of crawling, scooting, rolling, and the army crawl on her belly. I don't know why, but the Dr said they don't even consider crawling a developmental milestone anymore and she'll probably go straight from that to walking. Yikes. The funniest thing to see is that she loves to lay on her stomach and push up, so that she is just on her hands and tips of toes (yes, a man push up although I'll have you know I'm perfectly capable of doing them too!) She'll sometimes walk her hands back toward her legs so it almost looks like she is bending over and touching her toes. It cracks me up! I do love that even though she moves everywhere now, she is still often content to sit on my lap and play and she'll still sit on the floor and read books for quite a long time. : )

She has definitely not gotten quieter in the past month! She talks constantly and if you don't pay attention she will take it up a notch! She says several words now, hi and yay seem to be her favorite. Often when I go in to get her from her nap she'll say "hi yay hi yay!" over and over again when she hears me open the door! She also says, bye bye, sock, car (of course), yum, yuck, and book. And maybe more, I can't remember. We're working on please and diaper. She recognizes many other words and it's so funny to say them and see her stop what she is doing and pay attention to what we are saying. Not sure how long that will last though!

My favorite is experiencing different things with her. I love taking her for walks and reading to her. I love bringing her to the Y with me while I teach dance cause the girls love her and she loves them. I love watching her get excited when she hears Bard come home. I love seeing her face light up when she sees someone she knows (or doesn't know for that matter-no stranger anxiety yet, cross your fingers!) And I love playing new games with her and seeing how she'll respond to something different.

All in all, even with all the craziness, it was a good month because I love my family and am luck to have them.

Happy Eleven Months!

2009-03-01T16:03:00.001-08:00

Car!

2009-02-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

Just in case you didn't already think my child was a prodigy, I now have more proof! She has busted through the gender stereotypes that have plagued her gender for more than a millennium. The other day as I was putting her in the car I said, "Button, let's put you in the car." She looked at me very seriously and said, "Car" Now, true, it did come out sounding more like a Boston baby would, but she has relatives on the East Coast, so that is easily explained. ; ) Of course I reacted calmly and professionally by screaming and saying car over and over again. Now she probably thinks her name is car because since I've told this story to everyone, when they see her they say, "Car. . .Car" and wait expectantly for her to say it. And yes, her father is the worst! Seriously, it's pretty fun and she is starting to repeat us more and more. She loves saying hi and this morning when I got out of the car (Car. . .Car. . ) it was really cold so I said, "Brrrr" She looked at me and said "Brrr" Again, with the Boston accent so it sounded more like "Buh" Still pretty cute though.

Funny, cause Bard and I were sure she would be a very quiet child. . .

I'm 10 Months Now!

2009-02-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

2009-01-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

I read a Tale of Two Cities when I was in high school and I think at that age I was not able to understand the subtleties of such a contradiction in terms. Now however, I feel like I have gone through many phases of my life that is reflective of those extremes. And right now is one of them. I feel like the last few months have had such great highs and such deep lows. I've already shared the stress we went through at Christmas time, and right before that we had a traumatic time with Bard starting a new job as well as facing serious illnesses of more than one family member. Although some of those issues seem to be on the upswing, I continue to work many more hours than previously planned and that definitely adds to the stress (and is also why I haven't blogged recently). Our basement appears to be cursed and what was supposed to be done last September has turned into a nightmare job filled with constant surprise delays that add up to more money and more work. Additionally I am now just nursing once a day, which means Evelyn gets a bottle twice a day. This was a hard decision, and even harder to follow through with once I had made the decision. But, even with all this, the past few months have also held some of my most treasured moments.

Just last week Bard's sister was able to visit, staying with us for four days. Oddly enough, even though Bard and I have been together about 4 years, it was the first time that three of us had any substantial time together and it was definitely the most her and I have spent together. I admire this woman very much and want her to be a huge influence on Evelyn as she grows up. But aside from all the reasons that I could list as to why she is so great, I think my favorite thing about Gen and spending time with her is that I feel so comfortable. She has an amazing ability to just make everyone feel relaxed and as if the I have known her forever. That is the very definition of family for me, so I love it. We had a great time and I hope she comes back soon.

Another high has been watching Evelyn's personality evolve. People said from the beginning that they could tell she had a strong personality and just a bit of feistyness thrown in, which I still maintain she gets from Bard : ) But the last few months I have really seen her come into her own. From her trademark arm flapping to hamming it up in the grocery store for anyone who makes eye contact, she is definitely showing herself to be very active and social. It cracks me up that when she is upset, she doesn't just cry, she cries for a few seconds and then talks to herself in this sad voice, like she is working through whatever issue is bothering her! She'll do that for several minutes, just half talking half crying to herself. As many of you know, talking it out is pretty much how I work through everything, so seeing it in her is so funny! She still hasn't gone through any separation anxiety (knock on wood) so we'll see if that continues or not. Right now she is pretty content to just sit and play be herself, even if she doesn't know the surroundings, or better yet, if someone pays attention to her, the world is her theater! She still loves to sit in my lap and read and stays content through several stories. And although she loves to move around, I think she prefers sitting and reading, we better start saving for Harvard now!

Speaking of expensive private colleges, another high has been Bard's new job. Although it is weird for him to not be at World Vision, he loves being back in the financial world and has really enjoyed taking on projects that allow him to do research and market analysis, two of his favorite things in the world. And I'm not joking : )

All in all, even with different stresses we are very blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. Hopefully life will continue to even out a bit, before getting crazy again of course. I will try and write more and also have a lot of pictures to post, so check out the link. It's been quite a start for 2009, but I'm also excited about what else the New Year will bring, we'll just have to wait and see!

Pictures from our family portraits in October

2009-01-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

Click on link to right to view all photos : )

Baby's Top Ten New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Since this my first time celebrating the new year, I thought I would make some resolutions because like my mama, I like to make a list and track goals!

First, I need to learn how to type. . .check! Wow, I am a genius baby ; )

Next I resolve to continue to sleep well. Right now I go down at 7pm and wake up at about 8am. I will not put my poor parents through any sleep backsliding they keep hearing about!

I also resolve to learn to crawl and walk. While I roll and scootch all over, I am not officially crawling and although my mom and dad will have their worlds rocked when I do (my mom keeps telling my dad that he needs to stop leaving bathroom cleaner on the floor) they think it will be fun to see me vertical.

I think I should also learn how to talk. My dad swears that I say "Dada" and know it means him, my mom is not convinced. Only I know and I'm not telling! I say "muh" for "more", which I also sign, because eating is very important to me!

This year I also resolve to start taking swimming lessons, fortunately my parents are signing me up-stay tuned for super cute pictures!

I resolve to continue to be a good eater. My mom loves it that she can mix up pretty much any combination of food that would seem disgusting to the normal person and I will eat it without any qualms (yes, I have a very good vocabulary!)

I also resolve to read several books a day. My mom started this when I was just a little baby and I love to sit and read books with her and Dada. My favorite is still Brown Bear although my mom and dad reading Grover's Monster at the End of This Book with their best Grover voice always brings a smile.

I will drop to just one nap this year. Right now I still take a little catnap in the morning and then a good afternoon nap. But my mom is looking forward to having a little more freedom in the mornings, so I'm pretty sure that morning nap will be gone soon.

This year I resolve to spend a lot of time with friends and family. I love my cousin Henry and watch him with fascination. I can't wait to meet my new little cousin and to spend more time with family, from all over the country. And I love staff meetings with my mama, cause there are almost as many babies as adults and one more on the way!

And finally, I resolve to learn more about Jesus because I know He loves me very much. My mom and dad read me a Psalm and pray with me every night, just like they did when I was in my mom's tummy. And I love going to church and being with friends who love Jesus and me very much.

Happy New Year and Happy Nine Months!

2009-01-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas!

2008-12-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

Wow. Let me tell you, when you work for a church, have a sick nine month old, are dealing with 6 inches of snow, planning on moving the church, trying to figure out a trip to the East Coast, and only have one car-Christmas is thrilling and magical but at the same time crazy busy and a lot of work. I love Christmas and I'm one of those weird people who actually like it in part because of the busyness, but this year is one for the record books. There were so many issues surrounding me, threatening to overwhelm me, it took a couple of good conversations with close friends, some much needed tears, and a lot of prayer to keep bringing me back to reality-this is not about me and it is definitely not under my control. As I sat and watched my kids (and by my kids I mean the 20+ children that I worked with for our church Christmas Eve service) I felt such a sense of peace and honor to know that I was part of something bigger than myself. It's so easy to go through life focused on yourself and what you're dealing with. You let it define and control you. When really the events that surround us are not who we are, rather they are part of God's plan to reveal who He is-through us. There is no plan B. Where I am now is where I am meant to be. Years ago I learned this lesson in the hardest way possible. And much of the time when life is very stressful I am able to look back at that lesson and the truth learned carries me through whatever I am facing. Sometimes though I need a few extra reminders, which was the case during the last several days days. While talking with a friend I was reminded of the story behind the famous hymn, It Is Well With My Soul (find story here: http://christianmusic.suite101.com/article.cfm/hymn_it_is_well_with_my_soul ). Years ago a friend of mine and I used to say to each other, "This isn't what I thought my life would be like." I think many of us can say that at some point in our lives. The problem with that thought is that if you think it once it quickly becomes a mantra that poisons your perspective. It's like a cancer that grows over your eyes only far more dangerous than any other cancer, this one kills your soul. It's scary to me that after learning that lesson once in such a painful way, it still only takes me a few days of doubt and feeling ungrateful to bring me right back to where I was 6 years ago. Fortunately the reverse is true and once I refocus on who God is, not who I am, and the amazing blessings I have, not what expectations aren't being met, I am healed. Healed of doubt and fear, healed of frustration and stress. My physical realities were all still there, but as my friend reminded me there are many good ones to be thankful for. Yes, I worked a lot of hours this last week, including many on Christmas Eve, but I was also honored and grateful to be part of helping children encounter Jesus. And it thrills me to have been a part of their Christmas memories, ones I hope they will treasure forever. We had a great visit with family afterwards, not necessarily family that I am physically related to, but family nonetheless. Yes Evelyn was sick (still is) and that resulted in loss of sleep, stress, and a canceled trip to see family. But she wasn't as bad as she could have been, she still was in great spirits and I think she had a wonderful Christmas. She certainly liked eating the bows off her presents! It was so much fun to give her stockings and packages and watch her play with them. I loved eating Dutch Baby Pancake with her on Christmas morning, continuing the tradition that Bard and I started, and nothing was better than visiting with friends and family all day-watching as she was loved by everyone. The last few days we have spent relaxing together as a family and I am so grateful for this time. As I look back on the week, I can see all the ways God cared for me. There are lots of meanings to Christmas, but this year I think the true meaning of Christmas for me is the blessing of being grateful. Grateful for what I have been given and grateful for what I have not been given. I guess what I have learned is that when we start to pick and choose what we are grateful for, we lose the whole beauty of being grateful. And I can truly say, I am grateful.

Evelyn with Baby Doll on Christmas

2008-12-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

Childhood Staples!

2008-12-17T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yes it's been snowing, not sure how impressed Evelyn is, but she sure looks cute!

So in the last few weeks Evelyn has eaten two childhood staples-mac n cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich. Many of you know that cheese is the ultimate comfort for me, if all I had were cheese and brownies, life would be so good. So I had a fun time making cheese dishes for her, especially because I enjoyed them both so much when I was a kid. However, these cheese dishes are very different from the ones I ate! First of all, I always wanted "the blue box", yeah, you know the one! I did eat mac and cheese out of a blue box, but it was Albertsons store brand blue box, not "The" blue box. And that always drove me crazy! Bard can attest to the fact that sometimes even now I'll actually buy a box of Kraft mac n cheese and eat it-even knowing that I'm probably not eating real cheese but some chemical conglomeration! And yes, my mom did make home made mac n cheese, but of course I didn't like it. Sheesh, chemicals taste good! ; ) Anyway, Evelyn eats healthier than anyone I know (Bard and myself included) so for her mac n cheese I had organic whole wheat pasta that I mixed with some shredded (Tillamook of course) cheddar cheese and breast milk. Just like the blue box, right?! She was pretty fascinated by the noodles and I'm not sure how much she ate, but it was fun for me.

The next week we tried a grilled cheese sandwich (of course she eats maybe a quarter of it) and she loved it! I haven't made it for her since then and probably won't for a while cause she can be getting her protein and carbs without all that butter-in fact it was the first time she ate butter! But I had fun because I ate grilled cheese sandwiches all the time when I was prego. I didn't crave them, they were just the only thing that sounded good. So it was pretty funny to see how much she liked it!

Feeding her overall is fun because it's interesting to try new things. So far she seems to be the unpickiest child ever. I can mix anything together-chicken, peas, carrots, and applesauce, and she'll eat it! She hasn't turned anything down yet and I'm trying to add more and more to what she eats. Lately I've been adding seasonings-cinnamon on applesauce, oregano or garlic on chicken because I read that one reason why children may only like bland food is that that is all they have when they're babies. Makes sense. She doesn't ever have things with added sugar or salt, but there are a lot of fun flavors out there that we can try. If my dad has his way, I'm sure she'll be enjoying food seasoned with red pepper flakes before I know it!

Cue our favorite whooshing sound, it's Evelyn's back story!

2008-12-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

Evelyn has started making some fun sounds lately (yes, one of them has to do with LOST for all you smarty fanatics out there, I’ll get to that in a minute!)

The one that really cracks me up is her growling. She did this quite a while ago but then stopped. For whatever reason she has picked it up again and loves to just sit on the floor playing and growl. What is hilarious is that her cousin Henry was pretty infamous for his growling. So we figure it is a Collier gene, which will come as a surprise to no one.

She also now likes saying “Oh.” Except she doesn’t just say it short like that, she drags it out, “Ohhhhhhh.” She is very serious and it’s just as if she is taking in everything around her!

Last week I was reading my friend’s blog and she has twins who are a few weeks older than Evelyn. She was commenting on how her daughter said “duck” the other day and now loves to say it all the time. I thought that was so odd and random, and really pretty impressive. So imagine my surprise when a few days ago as I was changing Evelyn, clear as a bell, she said “duck”! Weird. She hasn’t said it since then, but it was unmistakable. So, all my linguist and speech therapy friends, is that some common sound formation? I don’t think she has ever seen a duck and she doesn’t have any duck toys, so the word has no meaning to her, but it sure was strange! What are the odds of that? Peer pressure starts young I guess. ; )

But by far her favorite of favorites is a whooshing sound that she makes all the time. It kind of sounds like Darth Vader breathing but without the “kuh” sound. If that makes sense to you, congrats, you’re weird like me. What it REALLY sounds like is the whooshing sound from LOST before they go into one of the character's back stories. Now, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, stop right now, go watch the first 4 seasons of the best TV show ever and then come finish this blog. Okay. What is so funny is that I had never seen this show until after she was born and people kept recommending it to me to watch while she was nursing (you have a lot of time where you’re just sitting and can’t do anything. I also read over 100 books during 5 months so don’t think you can give me a hard time!) You can watch LOST free online so I figured I would give it a try. I was hooked immediately and watched all four seasons in a very short period of time. Seriously, it is so good! You guys know that Bard and I watch barely any TV and it’s kind of funny cause our friends are always talking about shows and we have no clue what is going on, but this one is a keeper. Anyway, naturally since I was nursing her, she was right there with me and heard all the sounds (if you want to debate whether or not this is good parenting, please send me an email, but only if you have nursed a baby for nine months or more). The whooshing sound is pretty common and I am absolutely convinced that she learned it from LOST! You might think that would dismay me, and no, we don’t plan on letting her watch TV for quite a while and even then it will be pretty limited (our family TV spent most it’s time in a closet which I hated then but now think was pretty good). But I’m ecstatic! Yes, the show is just that good : ) By the way, if you’re not doing anything January 21st, we’re having a kick-island party, so let me know if you want to come! Sorry Chris, this was another long blog, but you gotta admit, it was worth it!

Houston, we have a tooth!

2008-12-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Yep, it finally happened! Every day I stick my finger in Evelyn's mouth (much to her dismay) to feel if anything is there. And yesterday there was! She has just the tip of a tooth on the bottom right side. I'm sure she'll be ready for steak in no time! I'll let you know about nursing. . .

Happy 8 Months Evelyn!

2008-12-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Milestones

2008-11-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Evelyn has gone through some fun milestones during the past few weeks and I wanted to share them with you. I also just posted a bunch more pictures, which I hadn't done in a while, those are on the lnk to the right.

The first that I need to talk about, obviously, is Thanksgiving. To be honest, Thanksgiving has never been one of my favorite holidays. I know, I know : ) Maybe it's because I'm not a huge fan of turkey. Maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of Christmas and so I'm too focused on what's coming next. Either way I've never been very excited about it. But this year was different. Even though she won't remember her first Thanksgiving and even though she actually had chicken for lunch, and even though she slept through the actual Thanksgiving dinner, it was still a great milestone! Experiencing her first Thanksgiving really made me think back to last year's Thanksgiving and ponder (yes, ponder-that's my East Coast husband influencing me) all the amazing changes since Thanksgiving 2007. I have so much to be thankful for and I think most of all I am grateful that Evelyn spent her first Thanksgiving, as I'm sure she will many to come, surrounded by friends and family who love her. We started off the day at out church's annual Turkey Bowl-watching Bard play flag football and hanging out with friends in the cold, drinking yumminess from those pretty red cups. We went over to Josh and Latisha's house, visited with more friends and family and ate great food while seemingly dozens of babies and toddlers ran around looking cute. We said goodbye to my parents, who even in the midst of this chaos are flying to Mumbai and then taking a train into the country to help impovershed children. And then we stayed up late, like the die hards we are, watching LOST at Josh and Latisha's house, which is one of our favorite weekly rituals. All in all it was a wonderful day and I am so thankful that Evy will grow up with so many amazing people supporting her and us. We are blessed.

But this is way too short for one of my blogs, so we can't end here!

Another milestone took place about week or so ago. As many of you have seen, when Evelyn gets excited she often flaps her arms up and down, looking of course, like a little birdie. So the first couple times she just used one arm I didn't think too much of it. But soon I realized that she was waving! She loves to wave now and will wave back at you if you wave at her. When she is in the car she can see herself in a little mirror that is hung on the seat in front of her and she has lots of fun smiling and waving at the super cute baby waving back at her! She gets very excited with everyone's enthusiastic response and the first few days that she waved I just about screamed (okay I did scream) every time which of course resulted in lots more waving! Now, you may think that this is only blog worthy due to the cuteness factor, but actually it's the smart factor! According to those who know, Evelyn is waving early, by at least 2 months! Yes, that's right, she is a genius. At the same time she has mastered the fine art of clapping. Unlike a while ago when I posted that she was clapping and missing her hands half the time, she now has it down and claps whenever I say "Yay!" or copies me as I clap. So between waving and clapping we have quite the aerobic work out. : )

Sleepover!

2008-11-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

Friday night cousin Henry came over and we had a sleepover. Henry is 9 months older than Evelyn and they are really starting to be interested in one another. Evelyn watches Henry and shrieks with laughter at whatever he does. Henry gives Evelyn toys and then takes them back, which oddly, doesn't bother her! We had a fun time playing, it was a very busy time, I'm not sure what I did, but all the sudden it was over. : ) They both love reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar, so enjoy the video-it's probably the cutest one ever made!

I guess I'm a mom

2008-11-22T20:24:00.001-08:00

I've now done two mom things that really bothered me when I would witness them in other moms. And, let's be clear, they still bother me!

A couple of weeks ago I started realizing that Evelyn did not have very many clothes. This seemed odd to me since her closet and dresser were full of clothes. Well, I finally went through all those clothes, packing away the ones she had grown out of, and sure enough, it was slim pickins! This bothered me on several levels. One, as you know, I hate packing away her clothes because it means she will never wear them again and that she is growing up so fast. But besides that, of course this meant I needed to get her more clothes. Now, do we have the money for that expenditure? Of course not! And it's right before Christmas! And I hadn't thought that I would need to buy her clothes for her first year. Well that is hardly the first thing I've been wrong about since becoming a mom, but it's kind of a pricey mistake. You may not realize this, but baby clothes are often more expensive than adult clothes. Which seems rather absurd when you think that they only last three months. But here we are. So I decided to go to this little consignment store. I had bought a few things there for her before, when I needed a few pieces for Halloween. It's a nice store, but I had kind of envisioned buying my daughter clothes for the first time in a slightly different way. It's odd really, whenever I'm at any store and see little girls clothes, I can hardly resist buying some, which does not bode well for the future if I'm having a hard time saying no to new clothes before she is even asking me herself! Anyway, I bought her several cute outfits, all in great condition and she looks adorable. Getting to what bothered me. I really need new clothes! You would not even believe it if I told you how old some of my clothes are! I can't remember the last time I bought new clothes-not counting maternity clothes cause I really don't feel like wearing those anymore. But I had to spend money on clothes for her, so no clothes for me. Over the past years I've talked with several moms who have complained about that very same issue. And I always thought that would be miserable and not really a sacrfice I would want to make. But here we are.

On a lighter, but just as shallow note, Evelyn has started eating table foods. This is fun, slightly hilarious, convenient, and very messy! She has little pieces of bread or rice cakes and manages to get them to her mouth, where they mostly stay. She still keeps her little fists clenched most of the time, so it's lots of fun when I open her hand after feeding her and find a piece of bread that she has been squishing for ten minutes. Now, something you may not know about me, but I hate discarded food. Loading dishes grosses me out and I really hate touching food that's left over. I've worked with kids most my life and I've always thought that part was just, well yucky. I've always seen moms wiping food off their baby's faces with their hands, picking up food that's been chewed, and cleaning up barely recognizable, partially eaten, mush. I would watch them and just be grossed out and never want to do that myself. So of course I was more than a little surprised to find myself picking up half chewed pieces of toast and throwing them away, with barely a sigh.

Hmmm. . .this seems like a good blog to print out and read to her when she is older and mouthing off!

More!!

2008-11-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, so get yourself a cup of coffee and settle down for another marathon blog!

We've been practicing signing with Evelyn and yesterday she started signing back! When I'm feeding her, before I go to give her another bite, I say "more" two times while doing the sign with her hands. When we were having dinner she signed more in between bites. At first I thought it was a fluke, so I tested her by pausing longer in between bites. Each time she repeated the sign! She is clearly a genius : )

Speaking of dinner, it's so fun now cause she is really eating a lot of different kinds of food. She had turkey for the first time yesterday, getting ready for her Thanksgiving of course! She is eating lots of finger foods-cheerios, bananas, corn bread, and rice cakes. She also has had some rice and baked potatoes and loved it. It's really nice because now we can start giving her some of what we're eating for dinner, which makes mealtimes more fun and family oriented. Still no signs of teeth but she gums her food just fine!

Another new development is that she is standing holding on to furniture or her crib now. She started this last month, not pulling herself up yet, but she is able to balance there without my help. She still doesn't seem to have much interest in crawling-the average age babies start is about 8-9 months, so we'll see. . .

A big change in our daily routine is Bard's new job. Many of you know that after five years at World Vision, Bard just began a new job for a local company called Noteworld. We're hoping that this is a good move both for Bard professionally-as he returns to finances and market research (his second love, behind me and the baby!) and good for us as a family because it means less travel. However, it also means he is no longer working from home three days a week. That means no quick trips to Target for me while Evelyn is taking a nap and Bard is working. No more calls for a hand with diaper changing or lunch time. It also of course means that she is seeing him less because he leaves right after she wakes up in the morning and gets home at about 5-5:30. So that is hard too, but I think overall it will be a very good move for us.

Partly because of that change, Evelyn is coming to dance more with me on Fridays. She had come with me a few times before, but many times I left her at home with Bard. Much to the delight of the 6-10 year olds I teach, I bring her with me every week. She loves it and sits during class, watching and talking to the girls. She is so fascinated when the music is on and they are moving around. And they spoil her rotten (like everyone!) by falling all over themselves to get near her and play with her. They love offering helpful hints like telling me that I should have brought her binky or saying that she wants her bottle if she makes the slightest fuss. What is it about 8 year old girls that make them instinctive mothers??!!

One other fun development before I let you return to your life : ) is her favorite books. In an earlier post I wrote that the first book I ever read her was the classic, Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle. It is now her favorite! She responds differently when I read it to her, quieting down faster, sitting still, and smiling as I turn each page. She also shows disappointment when I'm done-resulting in me reading it two or three times in a row. In fact, I walk around the house with the rhythm of the book repeating itself in my head!

That's all for now, off to load the dishwasher and do a load of laundry!

Amazing Love

2008-11-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted, You were condemned.
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

Amazing love, How can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You,
In all I do, I honor You.

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted, You were condemned.
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

You are my King, Jesus You are my King
You are my King

Amazing love, How can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love,I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You,
In all I do, I honor You.

The Election for Baby

2008-11-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Mr Kitty

2008-11-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

Well, as some of you already know, yesterday we had to put our kitty, Kona, to sleep. I got this cat from my aunt over five years ago and he was a wonderful pet. The first year I had him was the worst year of my life but through it all my little kitty was always there for me. He was never the regular cat-anti social and never around. Whenever I came home he would always run to the door and greet me. Whatever room I was in, he was there too. In fact, he was a little too close to me, the reason he was declawed was that he would climb up my legs and hang from my skirt or pants as I walked around the kitchen getting ready. He ruined three skirts and two pairs of pants that way! If people were over, he was always in the thick of things, jumping up on people's laps and even trying to steal their food like a dog! And every night he curled up on my bed and slept with me.

When Bard started coming around, he wasn't so sure of him. But Bard won him over and soon Kona would curl up in his lap too. My pregnancy was hard on him because he couldn't sleep on my lap and Bard didn't want him on my side of the bed because of the whole cat disease thing. Kona would just try and try until we finally had to kick him out. Poor cat, it's not like it got better after we brought Evelyn home! For the most part he was not impressed with our decision to have a baby! He pretty much steered clear of her and still was not happy that she took up my lap. But after a while he got my lap back and started sleeping with me again, so all was good.

I'm sad when I open the front door and don't have to watch for him to shoot outside. I miss him jumping up from a sleeping position, tearing around the room and then laying back down again. I wish he would run up to the door one more time when I come home, and I wouldn't even mind hearing his incessant meowing as he begs to be fed!

I wish he would have lived longer so that Evelyn would be able to remember him, but we have pictures to show her. And I'm sure we'll get another cat, and even a dog if she begs her father enough! I think it's great for kids to have pets growing up. It provides companionship and teaches responsibility, and then there is that whole great thing about animals and unconditional love. I'm sure whatever pet we have next, Evelyn will love and play with, and dress up in little hats and dresses.

Goodbye Mr Kitty, we love you and you'll always be part of our family.

Happy Seven Months Little Ballerina!

2008-11-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Fun Firsts

2008-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was our church's Annual Fall Harvest Festival. It was a long day for me because I am in charge of this event, but it was also very fun because for the first time I was able to experience it with my own child. Everything went great from the professional side-we had tons of kids, bounce houses, carnival booths, cotton candy and more. It takes over 70 volunteers to put on this event and everyone had a great time, yay! And from the personal side it was so fun to be there with Evy, Bard had her try golfing at one of the booths and was disgusted when she put the club in her mouth. She was a trooper, being there for two hours getting a bit tired and cranky here and there but like the ham she is, always lighting up with a smile and cooing every time someone paid attention to her. Which of course was all evening! All in all it was a fun event, one that we'll do every year and I can't wait to see her toddling around next year (dressed as a ballerina) and playing the games the year after that (dressed as a ballerina!) Plenty of kodak moments! This is just one picture, of us with Amy and Asher, we have another party on Friday at a friend's house, so I'll post all the pictures then.

She had a couple of fun other firsts this weekend. She has always stood really well, bearing weight on her legs - while holding my hands of course - since she was just about a month old. This weekend she stood holding onto something else, by herself, for the first time! She can hold on to her crib and can stand holding on to the couch by herself too. Now, she can't pull herself up to it on her own yet, since she seems to have no desire to move around! But it's still pretty cute to see her standing there!

Also, she is learning to clap, which is hilarious. I'll clap with her, saying "Yay!" or doing pattycake. And then she'll clap after I let go of her hands. She has done it a few times on her own too. What is hysterical is how focused she is. Half the time she misses her hands or they're turned sideways. She'll just look at them, studying them with this serious expression on her face. You can almost see the wheels turning as she learns that she can control her body with her mind. Yes, the force is strong with this one.

Reaching, Cloth, and Other Baby Info

2008-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to share the sweetest event that happened on our trip to Cali last month. On our flight down, we took turns holding Evelyn, and towards the end of the flight when she was awake, she started to get a little wriggly. She was about to eat and Bard was holding her, she was squirming around in his arms and I turned toward her and was talking to her when all the sudden she leaned toward me and reached out her arms for me to take her. It's the first time she has ever reached for me! It was such a sweet moment (although I think it made Bard a little sad!) I felt connected with her and it was as if she knew, trusted, that I would reach right back and hold her. I know as she gets older she'll reach for me many times and I will respond with open arms. I also know that she'll go through times of not reaching for me, and in fact reaching away. During those times (let's guess from age 14-18) I want to hold on to this memory and pray that I will always enjoy a beautiful relationship with my daughter.

Okay, now to do a complete subject change. Today, I put my baby in cloth diapers. Yup, she is green ; ) As many of you know, we had been planning to put her in cloth at three months but she was such a poopy baby I couldn't do it! Well, her super pooper days seem to be behind us so we ordered a diaper delivery service last week. I think I'll use the service for at least the first few months and then buy my own. So today I was all excited as I changed her into her first cloth diaper. Now I was just a little less excited 2 hours later when I changed her and she was poopy. That's my daughter! I was even less excited a few hours later when she was poopy again and let's just say I was cranky, cranky, cranky when she was poppy a third time by then end of the day. That's my daughter.

So today when Bard and I were eating lunch we were talking about, of course, politics. You would think we would be sick of the election, and we are, but we still like to make fun of the candidates. How can we help it when they give us so much good material? So Bard was asking Evelyn who she was going to vote for and he answered for her (she is not talking just yet!) saying that she would vote for Obama because she was young and young people vote for Obama. As quick as me I said no, she would vote for McCain because she was bald and bald people vote for McCain.

I know : )

And yes, I did just write "as quick as me."

Anyway, I have Evelyn's Halloween costume-she is going to be a baby ballerina! Original huh?! I wasn't sure but I was chatting with a few dance teachers I work with and they were so excited about the idea that I caught their enthusiasm! I got her costume together last Friday and I have to say she is possible the cutest thing ever. Ever. No, we're not taking her trick or treating but our church has a Harvest Festival this Sunday that yours truly is in charge of so we'll dress her up for that. Look out for some cute pictures on Monday!

The Weirdest Sight Ever

2008-10-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so sorry if this is too much info, but it's just so funny I have to share! Besides, you all have read about everything from poop to breast feeding, so I guess there are no holds barred!

So, a couple of months ago I was taking a shower and I look up and see my two month old baby peering down at me. What?! Well, as many of you know, we have a clawfoot tub so the shower curtain hangs from a metal bar that is suspended from the ceiling and they are high ceilings so there is probably a good three feet of space between the top of the curtain and the ceiling. Still, a newborn baby head looking over the top while gripping the shower curtain bar with her tiny baby hands is quite unexpected! Of course Bard was holding her up, she is impressive, but not that impressive! Anyway, this has become a regular occurrence now, because every time I see her little face peering over the shower curtain I just crack up, it's so funny.

Now yes, this picture was staged, but I just had to do it, I'm telling you, it's hilarious. You should all try it with your babies sometime!

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

I think I need to write about something happy since the last blog was a bit of a rant. So, I'll tell you about today, because we went to the pumpkin patch! I'm not quite sure of the point of taking a 6 month old to a pumpkin patch, other than of course the obvious cute photo opportunities, but we had fun : ) Evelyn was very solemn the whole time, which is unlike her, and made both Bard and I laugh. We think she was just talking everything in since so much was new to her. She looked at the goats, the chickens, and especially liked picking peas and flowers. Which was alright because this is a local farm and you can just go there and pick the produce. I liked going to this particular farm-they are organic and locally owned-because when I used to teach Montessori I would take my class there on a field trip. Now I was able to take my own child! We sat her in the pumpkin patch with a pumpkin and looked like idiots for several minutes while we tried to get her to look at us for a picture. She would have nothing to do with us and only wanted to chew on the pumpkin stem. Which of course Bard thought was a little gross and I figured it was fine ; ) Afterward we went and bought some produce, she is going to try some avocado tomorrow! The day was gorgeous, sunny and close to 60 but with that crisp fall air. All in all it was a fun time.

Catch Up, Part Three. . .Three Doctors

2008-10-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh. I don't even know what happened to the last week, it's all a blur! So after we got home from Cali Thursday night, Evelyn was still pretty stuffed up, but slept well that night. Friday she was okay, but Friday night was awful, she was up all night : ( So, Saturday morning since she had been sick nine days, I decided to call the Dr. They said that was pretty long since she is so little, so they had me bring her in. Then, I couldn't believe it, but the Dr said she had an ear infection! I hated it. I've tried to make all these good choices to help her stay healthy and not get sick, and of course it was our choice to fly knowing that put her at greater risk for an infection, but still, I was pretty frustrated. So, we were both out of sorts all day. She had to go on antibiotics which was even more sad for me cause I don't like the idea of her being on medicine when she is so little. We kept her pretty much quarantined for several days, figuring that the rest would help. She had her 6 month appointment in the midst of this, which I attended by myself for the first time since Bard couldn't take off work. I decided I like it better when he is there! But by Wednesday she didn't seem better, and in fact was acting worse! She was up all night, cried when she took her bottle (sucking puts pressure on her ears which hurts) and was constantly pulling at her poor little ear. So, I called the Dr again. They told me to bring her in Thursday morning, so we went in the middle of her nap time. She was a trooper though and stayed fine up until about 9:45 (45 minutes after she normally goes down) then she started to lose it a bit and fell asleep in my arms five minutes before the Doctor came in to check her out. Thankfully the Dr said both her ears were looking good and that she was probably extra sensitive because our weather just changed and the pressure drop hurts their ears, especially when they already have an infection. Who would have thought? She also told us to try giving her ibuprofen-she is just now old enough-because that is anti inflammatory and helps better than just tylenol. At this point my desire for some peace and rest (and for my daughter to feel better!) is outweighing my discomfort at giving her more drugs. She did pretty well the rest of the day, but was definitely fussy in the evening, so we tried the ibuprofen when we put her down. I don't know if it worked or not-she still woke up, but not as much as before. Still, four times is four times too many! I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get a good night's sleep again, it seems like this has been going on forever. (Kind of like this blog!) Anyway, it's now Friday, she has been on the medicine for almost a week. I figure I'll give her til Sunday night and if she is still waking up I'm going to lock myself downstairs and sleep where I can't here her and just see what happens. Doesn't it seem like everything happens at once? Both Bard and I have a ton of job stress, she has been sick, fussy, and not sleeping, which means I'm not sleeping, which means all other stress is compounded. What a viscous circle. Oh well, at least I don't bank at Wachovia or have life insurance through AIG : )

Catch Up, Part Two

2008-10-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here is part two of my marathon blog catch up! See below if you want to read part one, which I know you do because who wouldn't want to read about Evelyn?!

As some of you know, a week ago Wednesday we made the last minute decision to fly down to California. We knew it would be a very crazy whirlwind of four days preparing to fly with a 6 month old, taking time off our jobs, and getting the house ready, but we figured we could get through it. So the first day after we bought our tickets, she came down with a cold. I couldn't believe it, I'm exclusively breast feeding-she is not supposed to get sick! but get sick she did and by Friday morning I was on the phone with the nurse to ask about flying with her being stuffed up. The nurse said it would increase her chance of getting an ear infection, but if she was nursing or taking a bottle during take off and landing, she should be fine. So we went on-after putting a humidifier in her room, elevating the head of her crib so she wasn't flat on her back, and beginning the daily ritual of sucking mucus out of her nose-an experience that is less than pleasurable.

The next day the cat got sick. Now some of you know that I've had this cat for years and got him during a hard time in my life so I'm pretty attached to him. You also may know that he seems to like to get urinary tract infections at the most inconvenient times. So, Bard went down to the basement to get his carrier so we could take him to the vet. And discovered that the washer had broke and flooded our basement. I know. I had a huge work training the next day that I was trying to get ready for, and we were flying out in two days. Bard also had a very stressful work situation come up and we were both trying to deal with that added pressure. Fortunately after a laugh and a cry with some good friends, I was reminded that with Christ I am "more than a conqueror" (Romans 8:37) and that I may be "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed" (2 Corinthians 4:8). So, we went on.

The training went well, I had left at 8:30am on Sunday morning, got home around 5pm and then started to get everything ready to fly out the next morning. Josh picked us up and we got to the airport without a hitch. Everything went well and Evelyn did great on the airplane. The flight attendants loved her and she slept well at the airport and on the plane, taking a bottle for take off and landing. Whew! Although, I do have one little poop story for you! So halfway through the flight I took her back to change her diaper. Which is fun to do in the world's smallest bathroom. She was a little poopy, which was fine. I cleaned her, put a new diaper on and stood her up to go back to our seats. She promptly spit up on me and the bathroom floor (it is not easy to bend over in a tiny bathroom while holding a squirmy grabby six month old). I cleaned that up, stood up again, and heard the unmistakable sound that tells me we have another poopy diaper to change. She smiled at me. The funniest thing is that my mom has very similar story about me potty training on an airplane. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. . .

Our first afternoon in Californian she did fine, she met her Aunt Genevieve and Grandpa David for the first time. She also got to see Grandee (Bard's mom) again and meet Grandpa Steve. Then came nighttime. She woke up absolutely screaming. I can't remember her ever waking up like that and by the time Bard and I got her calmed down, we were exhausted. Unfortunately for me she proceeded to wake up ever few hours for the remainder of the night. Morning came and I felt like I had been run over by a train. How did I do this for weeks after she was born? Unfortunately again, Bard had to go into the California office that day. The poor little thing was just not herself all day. On the plus side, she is so mellow and good natured that it was probably hard to tell that she didn't feel well. But I know my little girl normally smiles and laughs at everything, talks up a storm and generally has enough energy to solve our dependency on foreign oil (oops a little politics popping in there!) She had her first ferry ride, which normally would have fascinated her, but she was pretty quiet. I know, no daughter of mine is normally quiet! She also didn't nap as well, which was too bad for me cause I could have used a nap!

However, by evening she seemed to be doing better and we had a family dinner with Grandpa Steve's two daughters, who both have children just a little older than Evelyn. So that was nice and I had high hopes about sleeping Tuesday night! She did great and Wednesday was much more her normal self. Still pretty stuffy, but in general happy and chatty like normal. The weather was beautiful and she especially enjoyed nice walks with Grandee where she tried very had to put all sorts of pretty leaves and flowers in her mouth. She also became friends with Grandee's and Aunt Gen's dogs, which I think was her first time ever seeing a dog. She wanted very much to grab and poke them!

Wednesday we had dinner with Grandpa David, Bard's Dad, as well as Evelyn's great grandmother (Great Gam) and Aunt Gloria, Aunt Susan, Uncle Kevin and cousin Hobie, who were all seeing Evelyn for the first time. And we discovered something. Evelyn Joy can work the crowd. (Yes I can hear all of your smart aleck comments about where she got that from!) We sat her down at the table and she just went to town. She looked around at everyone, smiling, laughing, and squealing with joy! It was hilarious. Bard and I just looked at each other and said, "uh oh!"

The next day we were able to have just a bit more time visiting with family before flying out. Everything went fine at the airport but as we settled in our seats, I smelled something rather disturbing. I asked the flight attendant if I had time to change her. She said and I quote "Well, we're trying to get going but if you want me to hold the flight I will." I know. Now, as many of you know I don't do well with challenges like that, but for Bard's sake I just gave her the look (you know the one) and sat back. however, after three minutes had passed and we weren't taking off. I picked my daughter up, marched to the back of the plane, looked the flight attendant in the eye and said "If you have to hold the flight then that's fine but I'm changing my daughter!" She was lucky to get off with just that! Imagine, telling me to have my baby sit in filth for the next half hour! Sheesh : ) Anyway. I changed her and sat down. And then, they made the announcement about turning off electronic devices. And then they did the safety demonstration. And then, 25 minutes after I had been told I would hold up the flight, we started taxiing. I know. Well, my slight conniption fit aside, the flight went fine, Evy slept again and was happy to smile and laugh at everyone who walked by us on their way off the plane. We got home safely and she went to sleep, sleeping well through the night, all of us glad to have visited family but happy to be home again!

Stay tuned for part three. . . oh yes, there is more!

6 Months Old!

2008-10-04T13:57:00.001-07:00

Catch Up, Part One

2008-10-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do! I apologize for being AWOL, it's been a fairly stressful and chaotic three weeks. Even for me there is too much to write for one blog, so I thought I would break it down a bit : ) I also posted a bunch of new pictures (see albums to the right).

On the fun side, Evelyn can do so many more things for herself now!

*A few weeks ago she started holding her bottle by herself, totally surprising me because she doesn't even have a bottle that often.

*She also can sit up on her own! Although her cute little noggin throws her off balance pretty easily and over she goes, but still, she is a lot stronger.

*She is eating regular food now! I blend up peas, bananas, sweet potatoes, or pears, and she eats them with her cereal. Sweet potatoes are by far her favorite, but we'll see if that changes as we continue to introduce new foods.

*The weather finally changed and so I am putting her summer clothes away. She finally is growing into her fall clothes, which is of course fun and sad : ( but she looks really cute in them!

*She turned 6 months last week and goes in for her check up on Tuesday. I can hardly believe it's been half a year. In some ways it seems like we always have had her, I can't barely remember what I did before she was here. Maybe sleep more : ) But on the other hand the time has just flown by. I was talking about her labor story (I know, you would think I would have blocked that from my memory) the other day and I remembered it like it was yesterday. Surrounded in a sleep deprived and painful haze, the memories of those early days are so precious to me, I will always treasure them.

*We've started teaching her sign language. At 6 months babies can start picking up simple phrases. So we've introduced 2-all done and more. We'll use them every time we say the words and gradually introduce more. I'll let you know how it goes!

*She started drinking from her own little cup. She had water for the first time and doesn't seem too impressed, but drank some nonetheless. The sippie cup is different from her bottle nipple and that is taking some getting used to, but she looks like such a big girl!

Whew, well, there is part one, I'll post the rest over the next few days. It's been a pretty long week, so I need to go eat a brownie!

Goodbye Charlie!

2008-09-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well, last week Evelyn said goodbye to one of the "08 Babies" (see previous post). Good friends of ours, who we went through birthing class with, attended church with, and enjoyed summer BBQs with, moved to Indiana last week. Their little boy, Charlie, is just two weeks older than Evelyn, so it's been very fun to go through those early life stages together, especially since Charlie came to work with mom Ashley at our church office! The copier room served as the perfect nap area : ) I know Evelyn won't remember Charlie, but it's kind of sad for me because I loved the idea of them growing up together and as I'm a pretty relational person, I like to hold on! This is a good move for them-bringing them close to family, so I'm happy about that because my own family is so supportive and such a big part of Evelyn's life so I know how nice that will be for them. All through her life Evelyn will make new friends and lose some old, such change is just a part of being human. But today, in this moment, we are missing Charlie and wishing them a happy new home and lots of new memories to make in the days ahead.

Home Again!

2008-09-15T11:15:00.001-07:00

Well, Bard arrived home safe and sound late Friday night-really late-1am! As many of you know, he was gone all week on a business trip to Ireland. It was my first time being alone so long with the baby. Overall it went pretty well. There were only a few times that I wanted to scream, cry, or run away. She was pretty good all week, only having one bad day, Monday. But in all fairness that day sucked for me and I think she mostly picked up on my emotions. Of course, a good week for a five month old still means that I had to feed her several times a day, change her, get her dressed, put her down for her naps, carry her around, and in general be there for her 24/7. But, having gone through this I can say how much I admire all my friends who do this on a regular basis, either becaue they are single moms or because their husbands travel a lot. And most of them have more kids than I do! It also really reminds me of how lucky I am to have a husband like Bard. He is so comfortable putting her to sleep, feeding her, soothing her when she is sad, and yes ladies, he even ASKS to change her diaper. What a man! I'm so blessed that Evelyn will grow up having a father who is truly engaged in her life. I love the relationship they have now and I can't wait to see how it evolves over the coming years.

Who Would Baby Vote For?

2008-09-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, let me just say right off the bat that this blog might be a little controversial and it's definitely very long! But, you do know I'm feisty, so nothing should be a surprise! So, I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet. I know, I know, I can hear all my friends (both conservative and liberal) screaming "What?!" Well, calm down, and please don't give me your reasons why I should vote for the right or left, I know all the reasons, remember, I'm married to Bard-I can't remember the last time we DIDN'T talk about politics and after the election we'll probably just sit and stare at the wall : ) Anyway. There are things I like and things I don't like about each candidate and so far it's been a pretty unique and fascinating race. And that only increased exponentially with the introduction of Sarah Palin. Which brings me to my blog. . .

As you've probably heard, Sarah Palin had a baby in April. Guess what, so did I! So that right there interested me, but when I heard the baby had down syndrome and they had known about the diagnosis early on and decided to keep the baby, I really paid attention. As many of you know, we faced a scary time when one of my tests came back with what is called a positive marker for a very deadly disease. We had to decide if we wanted further testing, which could be inaccurate, or just to wait and see. The risk with getting the test was that there were many occurrences of the results being positive for down syndrome when the baby did not actually have down syndrome-a false positive. So, we might go through the rest of the pregnancy thinking the baby had down syndrome but not knowing for sure. We ended up deciding to get the test because I wanted to know for sure if the baby had the more deadly disease and felt like the uncertainty of down syndrome was better than the uncertainty of a more serious illness. Obviously the test came back negative and Evelyn is fine. But there was a time of unknown. And during that time I questioned myself. I had wanted a baby for so long. If the baby I finally had wasn't the one I had imagined, how would I respond? Would I be able to care for her? And most scary, could I love her in the same way? I was terrified that I wouldn't love her as much as she deserved. Then we had her and she was just so perfect and beautiful I couldn't believe it. But I remember very clearly, one day when she was about a few weeks old, looking at her as she lay on the changing table. I remember thinking, "She is perfect." I know then and there that it would not matter if she had a disability because she was my daughter and she was perfect. When I heard Sarah Palin say about her son, who is two weeks younger than Evelyn, that when she looked at him she only saw perfection, it resonated so strongly with me. Now, I don't think that makes her a good politician and while it helps me relate to her, that doesn't necessarily transfer into voting for her and McCain (oh I mean McCain and her, heh!) But I do think it makes her a good mom. Whether or not I vote for her will be based on her (and really more McCain's) stance on the issues-if I feel I can trust them to help the economy, help with health insurance, resolving crisis in the middle east, helping those around the world in need, and helping our country deal with povery and the education system. How I vote will have nothing to do with her family.

During the past few weeks I've been disgusted, but not shocked, with all the controversy that has been generated because a woman, a mother of five, a mother of a baby with special needs, a mother of a pregnant teenager is running for Vice President. Oh wait, let me rephrase that. Controversy over a woman running. Plain and simple, the rest does not matter. If she were a man the other labels would not even be part of the discussion. Was Bush ever asked if he could be a good father to his young daughters while being president? Was their young and influential age ever brought into the dialogue? What about Kerry's children? Gore's? Do they even have children? I don't know - because it wasn't an issue. Yet news reporters on top rated morning news shows seem to see fit to ask whether or not Sarah Palin can be a good mother while racing to the White House. They are asking if she considered how her children would be affected. Every mother I've ever met agonizes over every choice she makes regarding her children. Everything from the type of labor you want to have to where you send your kids to school, if you work, how much you work, your relationship with your spouse, where you live, what kind of car you drive, everything, big and little, is questioned for how it will affect your child. To ask if Sarah Palin can be a good mom while running for VP is to insinuate that she is not a good mom because what you are saying with that question is that she hasn't asked herself that. And she is really the only person who needs to ask that of herself. Her and her husband. And no, just because she is a public figure does not give us the right to ask-Barack Obama put it best when he said children were off limits. No one has the right to tell me to breast feed or use formula, to work or to stay at home, to put my children in public or private school, to spank or not to spank, what age I should allow dating, what my children should wear, or any number of other decisions that a parent must debate. And I certainly do not have the right to tell another mom what to do. And certainly not to judge her if she does something different than I do. We need to stop focusing so much on what other people shouldn't do and start focusing on what we ourselves should do. Care for others. Provide for those in need. Love the people around you. Be a good neighbor. I hope that all this controversy has died down and the media will focus on issues such as the war and the economy, health care and education-things we should really be talking about, not things that are none of our business. A former presidential candidate once said that it takes a village to raise a child. With the new vice presidential candidate we've certainly learned that it also takes a village to judge the mother on how to raise that child.

She Pulled Her Own Flutterfly!

2008-09-06T16:51:00.001-07:00

She what? She pulled her own flutterfly! Okay, so, she has this toy that I got from a friend and it hangs on her carseat. And yes, on the package it is called a flutterfly, not a butterfly, no I do not make these things up! When you pull the little pink star the wings move and it makes a whirring sound. Bard and I have been pulling that little pink star for five months now. I had just kinda thought in the back of my head that she would be quite a bit older before she could pull it on her own, maybe not into college, but it does have a tension that makes it hard to pull : ) So yesterday when I was putting her in the car I hear this familiar "drrrrrrrrrrrrrr" I couldn't quite believe what had happened, but sure enough, she has proceeded to pull it on her own many times since then. I was astounded! She is brilliant. You may or may not be thinking that this event was blog worthy, but I assure you, it's probably the single most amazing act any child has ever done.

Don't read this if you're eating. . .

2008-09-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well, the other day when I wrote I would let you know how solids affected her poop, I had no idea I would be writing so soon! By the way, if you think it's odd that I blog about my daughter's poop, you're right, it is, but I've been sharing it with you all for five months now and I don't want to let you down!

So this morning I was getting ready to go and Evy was still in her PJs (which by the way she looks adorable in!) I started to notice that her diaper was leaking, but I was almost done, so I waited a minute before changing her. I took off her PJs and there was poop everywhere! Seriously, it had come out of the back her diaper and it wasn't like it was just a thin layer, there was so much and it went most the way up her back! She, meanwhile, is in a great mood and just giggles away while I am trying to remember why I had a child and wiping poop off her arm. Who even knows how it got there? I think I should burn the pajamas. I couldn't even handle rinsing them off so I actually had Bard take them outside and hose them down! I should have had him do the same with Evelyn too : ) They're hanging on the deck right now-the pajamas not Evelyn. That was yesterday and this morning when I woke up I could swear I smelled poop and she wasn't even in the room. When I changed her she was just wet, but I'm not sure. . .I think it might be stalking me!

I think I'll take my diploma and hang it over the diaper pail. It will either be an encouraging reminder or the ultimate irony.

Cereal, Sick, and Some Ramblings

2008-09-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened. . . Friday night we gave Evelyn her first solids-rice cereal. I had been planning on waiting until 6 months, but lately she has been wanting to drink up to 10 ounces and a bit more, which is a definite sign she is hungry for real food! She did really well (I'll put the video up later) and was very cute-trying to grab the spoon and pull it into her mouth. Of course since she doesn't know how to eat, half of what we gave her she spit out, but we just put it right back in, it's not like she cares! We're just feeding her once a day, in the evening, for now. We'll add twice a day pretty soon and then start introducing all sorts of fun things like bananas, sweat potatoes, and carrots. She'll be eating McDonalds Happy Meals before we know it! (Just kidding honey, of course we'll never let our daughter have fast food, what was I thinking?!)

Anyway, it was a pretty fun milestone, although one that will add some inconveniences into our life-such as more laundry, more time, and multi-colored poop. Don't worry, I'll be sure to give you updates on our little super pooper!

I plan on making most of her baby food by mashing up fruits and veggies and then freezing them until needed. So we'll see how that goes. I like the idea of knowing exactly what she is eating and not having to worry about any additives. And sheesh, is baby food expensive!

On a more depressing note I've been fighting a nasty cold all weekend and am worried that she might be getting sick too. I missed church yesterday, my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary party, and watching Lost with friends (oh yes, the best show ever, gotta love Saywer!) She seems a bit stuffy and has coughed some, but doesn't seem really sick yet-knock on wood. (Just a side note, while I've been typing Bard brought me a fruit smoothie, yes it's raspberry, yes I'm sitting in "The Chair" and no, none of it spilled! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you better go read the posts regarding escrow, lazyboys and poop!)

Besides that, I'm going into a crazy work week-just a lot going on with fall around the corner-but even with that Bard and I are trying to spend a lot of time together because on Sunday he is abandoning me to go to Ireland! Okay, well, less abandoning, more going on a work trip, but still he will be gone Sunday through Friday and to put it plainly, that just sucks. What's really frustrating is that for a while we were planning on me coming too and of course bringing the baby. I was very excited about that since I've never been there, love Europe, and am mostly Irish (no Irish temper comments needed, thank you!) However, for a couple different reasons we decided at the last minute that it would be better if I stayed. I'm totally depressed, one cause he gets to go, two cause I'll be on my own, three cause she won't see him for a week, and four cause I haven't had a vacation longer than a weekend since our honeymoon. So, with a vacation promised to me next year, and the guarantee of a nice present from Ireland and lots of chats via Skype, off he goes. I know I'm very lucky and have lots of people to support me, but I'm still sad : ( So if you feel like babysitting me and Evelyn next week, give me a call!

Happy Five Month Birthday Evelyn!

2008-09-01T13:55:00.001-07:00

Am I Marge Simpson?

2008-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, yes, that is a ridiculous title! But this episode of the Simpsons keeps coming to my mind-Marge is sad because Bart and Lisa are growing independant of her so she goes to check on baby Maggie. Maggie is asleep and doesn't need her either, so she pokes Maggie until she wakes up and cries, then Marge can pick her up and comfort her. Yes, that is a pretty blatant display of codependency and whole college courses could be taught on the unhealthy family dynamics of the Simpsons (in fact I think there are some college courses on the Simpsons!) However, when I first saw that episode, probably several years ago, I laughed and thought it was funny, but now-sadly-I can relate to it!

This week I was almost in tears as I put my baby to sleep. Which is odd, because normally I'm very happy to put her to sleep. But this time she had dropped a feeding and a nap, so she is only nursing every four hours now and taking three naps a day instead of four. What that means is I feed her around 7:30pm, then she is up for another hour or so, and then I put her down for the night. So on Monday, I read her a story, sang her a song, and laid her down in her crib. She looked at me for a moment, eyes wide, and then turned her head and went to sleep. Every other night since she was a baby (Ha! I know she is still a baby!) I've nursed her right before she goes to sleep, she would normally fall asleep while eating (Yes, I know "they" say not to do that, but I only did it at her night feeding, so "they" can kiss my. . .oh wait. . .I mean I respecfully disagree) and then I would lay her down. With the exception of the ninety five degree days which made nursing a four month old baby incredibly uncomfortable, those moments at night were precious and I treasure them. That night I came downstairs and looked at Bard with sad eyes because it seems like every time I turn around, my baby is growing up in some new way. And while that is exciting, the constant process of letting go is just a bit heart breaking.

Remember in Father of the Bride when she tells her dad that she is getting married? He looks at her and sees a little girl in pig tails saying, "Daddy, I met a man in Rome and I'm getting married!" He can't quite understand how this seven year old could be talking about getting married because he doesn't quite believe that she has grown up. I get that. And last night as my daughter lay in her crib, falling to sleep on her own, part of me wanted to reach out and poke her, then scoop her up in my arms and rock her to sleep. But I didn't. I let go.

Tickle Monster!

2008-08-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Baby Vignettes

2008-08-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted, sorry! I put up a bunch more pictures and here are some snapshots of what has been keeping us busy:

*Sports Camp: Our church put on a week long sports camp for kids in the community last week and I was in charge of a lot of things. I worked extra hours and it did get pretty stressful, but I still was able to spend a good amount of time with her. It was just time spent running errands and that type of thing, not hanging out at home as much as normal. I took her to camp with me every day for the first half and she loved it! We walked around with her in the front pack and she had a great time being outside and seeing all the people.

*Four month check up: on the last day of sports camp we had her four month class, which was good but made for a long day. Based on what the doctor said I'm going to go ahead and just keep nursing-waiting to introduce cereal until 6 months or when she starts acting hungry. She now weighs 15.6 and is long! She also had to get three shots and she screamed, I felt so bad! It was nice to be in the class with everyone, and fun to see similarities and differences. One four month old already has a tooth! Another is still sleeping in bed with parents (which I think is fine if that's their choice, but the doctors sure give you a hard time for it!) And another couple said they haven't been out on their own yet without baby-which surprised me since Bard and I go out almost every week!

*She did fine the afternoon following her appointment but then appeared to get a nasty case of indigestion from the oral vaccine. Unfortunately I was at camp and couldn't leave just yet, she cried and cried with grandpa and then grandma and finally fell asleep. Poor baby, and poor grandparents! She is all better now, thankfully!

*Bard took this week off work to work on finishing our basement, which has become quite the project. I haven't really been able to take Evy down there because of all the concrete dust, but when it's finished it will be a great place for her to play. And cool. . .

*It's been in the 90s and really hot all week. I think it's hard for her in the evenings and we've all been sleeping downstairs. Today it's cooled to a nice 85 and I am so glad! She doesn't seem to mind the heat too much, but in the afternoon and evening it's really too hot for her to nap upstairs so she is down with us which kinda cramps our style ; )

*She is down to five feedings a day now (from six) which is really nice and I think I'll be able to drop it to four pretty soon. It's great because it means that the time in between her feedings and naps are stretching out which makes life a lot easier for me! She still naps really well and sleeps through the night-from about 8pm to 7am MOST of the time!

*She has found her feet and loves to play with them (again, why do I buy her toys?!) She also loves putting her entire hand in her mouth and recently has sucked on just her thumb a few times, we'll see where that goes. . .But the funniest thing she has started doing is screaming. No, not in sadness, that would not be funny! She just has really discovered her voice and will lay on the floor talking and screaming to herself. When I have a minute I'm going to make a little movie of it and put it online cause it's pretty hilarious!

Well, there is our life in a nutshell : )

Definitely not communist. . .

2008-08-06T12:48:00.001-07:00

The title may surprise you unless you know/remember that I majored in and did grad work in Russian/Soviet history (yes so did Bard, awww isn't that cute?!) So I have a lot of analogies regarding communism that constantly run through my head. And last Friday I had a baby experience that made me think of communist Russia, so here it is!

My friend Amy and I went to Babies R Us with Asher and Evelyn. She wanted some pjs for Ash and I wanted some toys for Evelyn, I feel bad since she doesn't really have any! Neither one of us really needed anything, shh, don't tell our husbands! Anyway, since Evy decided to be a stinker and start teething early, I thought I would pick her up a teething ring or two. I went to the toy section to look for one. By the way if you've never been inside a Babies R Us they are roughly the size of Vermont and have everything you didn't know you needed until you found it existed. So I was pretty surprised when I couldn't really find teethers. I was wandering back through clothes and decided to look by the bath toy aisle and see if they had anything there. Well, I realized I had been looking in the toy section when I should have been looking in the teething section because they have two whole aisles of teething toys! Yes, on either side of you for a good ten feet and from floor to about 6 feet up, they crammed teething toys. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! They had wooden teethers, clothe, plastic, ones that vibrate, light up, make noise, and stick to tables. They had teethers that "stimulated the auditory senses" "encouraged visual learning" "developed tactile senses" and probably one that taught how to fill out college applications. Seriously, it was insane. Amy and I just stood there laughing. It must have taken us ten minutes to pick out two teethers-I just went with ones that she said Asher liked. Only of course I bought the pink version, let's be real here.

So why communist Russia you ask? In the Soviet Union shopping was made simple-either they didn't have it or they only had one kind. One kind of TV, one kind of cereal, one kind of ball, you get the picture. Now, I can see how that could get a bit annoying, especially because their items were poorly made and often broke! But really, I don't know that we need to go so far the other way! Try an experiment, go to babiesrus.com and type in teethers-there are three pages of items! Let me tell you, BabiesRUs is capitalism on steroids.

And you may wonder, after all that, what is Evelyn's favorite teether? It's a toss up between her carseat strap and her bib. Sheesh!

; )

Oh Happy Day!

2008-08-03T16:03:00.001-07:00

Amazing! Spectacular! Astounding! Phenomenal! Angels are singing a chorus. Yesterday my own sweet daughter went all day without. . .you guessed it. . .a poopy diaper! I held my breath those last few moments before midnight and then popped open the bottle of champagne. Okay, so I was sleeping at midnight and don't even like champagne, but as you all have gone through the trenches with me on what a super pooper we have (although I don't see any of you changing her!) I think you can understand my elation. : )

And yes, when my daughter is 16 and giving me an attitude I fully plan on showing her how her mother blogged about her poop for four months and counting!

I'm Four Months Old!

2008-08-01T15:15:00.001-07:00

This month I amazed my mom and dad with several firsts. In one week alone I rolled over both ways, grabbed and held an object with both hands, started laughing (I had laughed before but now I do it a lot), dropped one feeding (much to my mom's delight), and started teething (much to my mom's dismay!) I can almost sit up, but flop forward and I love to talk. In fact, I lie on the floor and talk to myself for ages, even when no one is around! I'm not sure why I love to talk so much, both my mommy and daddy seems so quiet. . . I also love to read books. I sit in mommy's lap and read 2,3 ,4 books in a row! Mommy is now sick of all my books. But I don't mind and besides, books are very tasty to chew on too! Yesterday I also went to dance class with mommy for the first time. I was very good and loved listening to the music while mommy taught and all the little girls danced around the room. Well, okay I was good up until the last five minutes when I got fussy cause I remembered that I was hungry, but I'm just a baby! And a very cute one at that. : )