A photo journal entry of Amanda's 18th birthday party!
HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, AMANDA! It's going to be a GREAT year for you!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Flower Girl
This weekend we attended the wedding of Neil & Rui in the beautiful Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley. The wedding was intimate and everything was beautiful and tender. We are so happy for Rui & Neil!
Claire was invited to be the flower girl. We watched several youtube clips in preparation, got the dress, made a headband (with the hugest white flower Claire could find at the craft store) and had many failed attempts at cute hairstyles and methods of curling. Even the lure of flower-girl-dom wouldn't keep Claire from taking out everything I tried.
She's been talking about this for several days. Finally the day came!
We practiced several times as the event was getting set up and decorated.
In the end Claire did a great job! She started out with a finger in her mouth unsure about when to really start going, but took it out in time to hand out flowers to every aisle person on every row. The one thing we forgot to practice was SMILING. (sigh) Standing in front for the whole ceremony was a little long for her. Once I looked over and she was actually jumping up and down for about a minute. Luckily in the really tender moments I wasn't distracted by her. A big THANKS to the bridesmaid Jessie for holding her hand throughout!
Claire had such a good time at the wedding & reception, and having a friend like Valerie (Blake's buddy Greg's daughter) there put it over the top.
Rui & Neil, thank you for letting Claire be a part of one of the most important days in your lives. We wish you every happiness together!
Claire was invited to be the flower girl. We watched several youtube clips in preparation, got the dress, made a headband (with the hugest white flower Claire could find at the craft store) and had many failed attempts at cute hairstyles and methods of curling. Even the lure of flower-girl-dom wouldn't keep Claire from taking out everything I tried.
She's been talking about this for several days. Finally the day came!
We practiced several times as the event was getting set up and decorated.
 |
| Anson was in a remarkably good mood the whole time. Thank Heaven! |
Rui & Neil, thank you for letting Claire be a part of one of the most important days in your lives. We wish you every happiness together!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Claire is 4
Happy Birthday to my darling Claire!
We had a great birthday party with friends from the neighborhood, church, family, and Blake's co-workers (who invited Claire to be their flower girl). It was a Princess Party. If Disney made plates and dolls in Jasmine it would have been a Princess Jasmine Party. The other princesses were acceptable. Sheesh.
That night we had a visit from the Binky Fairy (who took away the pacifiers and left presents). She had a few meltdowns for the first 3 days afterward saying she wasn't 4 any more and tried to put the prizes under her pillow to get them turned back into binkies, but on day 4 she said, "Hey, Mom! I don't need my binky to sleep!" Hooray!
And we took her 4 year old pictures this week. Her Keroppi outfit is the one that gets worn first every time we do a new load of laundry. The princess dress has been worn every day since her birthday.
And now she's 4. I hung up a 5T sweater in her closet today. I have a child big enough to wear kid clothes. Amazing.
We had a great birthday party with friends from the neighborhood, church, family, and Blake's co-workers (who invited Claire to be their flower girl). It was a Princess Party. If Disney made plates and dolls in Jasmine it would have been a Princess Jasmine Party. The other princesses were acceptable. Sheesh.
That night we had a visit from the Binky Fairy (who took away the pacifiers and left presents). She had a few meltdowns for the first 3 days afterward saying she wasn't 4 any more and tried to put the prizes under her pillow to get them turned back into binkies, but on day 4 she said, "Hey, Mom! I don't need my binky to sleep!" Hooray!
 |
| The last night. Getting one last fill. |
 |
| Many dimes and Disney Princess Lipgloss (she wrote the Binky Fairy and asked for pink & red lipstick) |
And we took her 4 year old pictures this week. Her Keroppi outfit is the one that gets worn first every time we do a new load of laundry. The princess dress has been worn every day since her birthday.
 |
| She was standing on stairs and told us she was getting a book from the library shelf. Doesn't she just look like she's in Princess land? |
And now she's 4. I hung up a 5T sweater in her closet today. I have a child big enough to wear kid clothes. Amazing.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Anson's first Clap
Anson started clapping today. I'll post the video clip here eventually...
His 9 month check-up went well. He's still in the 95th percentile for height but is now in the 10th percentile for weight. Long and lean. I asked if the drop to the 10% for weight was a concern. The doctor looked at me and said, "If you or your husband were significantly different builds then we'd be having a different conversation. I'm not worried."
His 9 month check-up went well. He's still in the 95th percentile for height but is now in the 10th percentile for weight. Long and lean. I asked if the drop to the 10% for weight was a concern. The doctor looked at me and said, "If you or your husband were significantly different builds then we'd be having a different conversation. I'm not worried."
Monday, February 28, 2011
A Flurry
I just had a crazy weekend. Blake left early on Wednesday to drive his parent's moving van (with about 1/3 of their stuff) to Utah. I was a single parent for a few days, which was really hard even though Amanda came and was a huge help in the afternoons.
The kids and I left on Friday night to fly to Utah. Dad dropped us off at the OAK airport. We waved goodbye only to hear my flight had been cancelled. I ended up having to call him to turn around and pick me up and then drove over to SFO (aaaaaaah!) to catch a flight that was only 10 minutes later than my original flight in OAK. I had to go through the security check line with my stroller in one conveyor belt and ALL my other stuff in the other. And then Claire was too afraid to go through the metal detector gateway by herself. Finally a nice lady offered to hold her hand on the other side while she waited for me and that worked. I got to the gate, slapped my tickets on the counter, they gave me my seat assignment without even talking to me and rushed me onto the plane.... CRAZY!!!
Maybe it was because we were on a flight to Salt Lake, but the other passengers were so helpful and understanding, offering to help with the stroller or bags or with the kids or just offering words of encouragement or congratulations for handling everything so well. The kindness of so many strangers was reassuring about humanity in the world.
So we arrived (phew) and Blake picked us up to drive to Logan. Logan is an 1.5 hours from SLC in good weather. We had a BLIZZARD as we were trying to go through the mountain canyon wishing we had a snow plow instead of a car and almost ended up on the wrong side of the road. We got to the hotel finally. Blake had to go back to the car 3 times to get things we'd left in there. The kids didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM (Anson was fussy and Claire was too excited). We were up at 6:30 to get ready for dropping the kids off to a babysitter and going to the sealing in the Logan Temple at 9. That went well and was the whole reason I came out. It was great to be in the temple with so many of our family members - Blake's siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins. Tiffany and James are now eternally bound with their adopted children. I'm so happy for them to not only have 3 beautiful children but that they are joined forever. The rest of the day was fun spending it with our family there: lots of food, a nap! and swimming.
That night Anson again didn't go to sleep until 11:30 again. Then Claire woke up at 3:00 vomiting every 30 minutes until 5 AM and then every 15 minutes until 8 AM. That's never fun, but less fun when you're in a hotel on your last day of clothes for the trip and without your normal sick solutions.
Somewhere in the middle of it all she was getting pretty delirious. The only things she said all night besides moans and groans and hurling sounds were "my tummy doesn't have room for chips anymore" (the last thing she ate), "my belly button hurts", and "When Santa comes tomorrow he's going to bring me a pink T-shirt with Batman on it" (I laughed out loud for a while at that one!).
About 5 or 6 AM I decided we needed to do laundry after hand-washing yet another set of icky clothes. I gathered up the kids laundry and went downstairs to find the "Market" was sold out of laundry detergent due to the basketball tournament teams making a run on the laundry room before they checked out the day before. Poor Blake had to run to Walmart in the middle of the dark, snowy night.
Before I left home I had a prompting twice to put Pedialyte (an electrolyte drink for kids) in my bag. I almost ignored it but I'm SO glad I didn't. Once she started sipping the drink every so often she started feeling better. She got a blessing from Blake and Adrian at 8AM and finally slept a whole 1.5 hours without vomiting until 9:30 AM. What a relief. Then she got up and started talking and acting normal except she asked for lots of food for breakfast but didn't actually eat anything. Still, the kids and I didn't go to Church for the baby blessings to make sure she wasn't sick and sharing germs.
I'm so thankful for motherly promptings from the Spirit and for the healing power of Priesthood Blessings. Without those two we probably would have had to rush a dehydrated child to the emergency room and I'm not sure I would have been on the plane to come home last night. I told Claire that Jesus has the power to heal people like we read about in the scriptures making the blind to see and deaf to hear and the sick to get better, and that Daddy has that priesthood power from Jesus, and that she can ask for Daddy to give her a blessing to get better too if we believe. Somehow that's something I've always known intellectually but saying it to an almost 4 year old sick and weak in her bed made the connection in my heart that it is the same power of Jesus Christ that we can call on, too. Somehow the priesthood power today and Jesus' miracles in the Bible were separate in my mind but now I realize that they are same. That realization leaves me with a sense of awe and appreciation.
So now I'm home. I'm still watching Claire's tummy and I'm nothing short than exhausted. I'm taking a sick day to recover and make sure I don't get sick with the same thing. Today that's my priority. Tomorrow, back the grindstone.
The kids and I left on Friday night to fly to Utah. Dad dropped us off at the OAK airport. We waved goodbye only to hear my flight had been cancelled. I ended up having to call him to turn around and pick me up and then drove over to SFO (aaaaaaah!) to catch a flight that was only 10 minutes later than my original flight in OAK. I had to go through the security check line with my stroller in one conveyor belt and ALL my other stuff in the other. And then Claire was too afraid to go through the metal detector gateway by herself. Finally a nice lady offered to hold her hand on the other side while she waited for me and that worked. I got to the gate, slapped my tickets on the counter, they gave me my seat assignment without even talking to me and rushed me onto the plane.... CRAZY!!!
Maybe it was because we were on a flight to Salt Lake, but the other passengers were so helpful and understanding, offering to help with the stroller or bags or with the kids or just offering words of encouragement or congratulations for handling everything so well. The kindness of so many strangers was reassuring about humanity in the world.
So we arrived (phew) and Blake picked us up to drive to Logan. Logan is an 1.5 hours from SLC in good weather. We had a BLIZZARD as we were trying to go through the mountain canyon wishing we had a snow plow instead of a car and almost ended up on the wrong side of the road. We got to the hotel finally. Blake had to go back to the car 3 times to get things we'd left in there. The kids didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM (Anson was fussy and Claire was too excited). We were up at 6:30 to get ready for dropping the kids off to a babysitter and going to the sealing in the Logan Temple at 9. That went well and was the whole reason I came out. It was great to be in the temple with so many of our family members - Blake's siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins. Tiffany and James are now eternally bound with their adopted children. I'm so happy for them to not only have 3 beautiful children but that they are joined forever. The rest of the day was fun spending it with our family there: lots of food, a nap! and swimming.
That night Anson again didn't go to sleep until 11:30 again. Then Claire woke up at 3:00 vomiting every 30 minutes until 5 AM and then every 15 minutes until 8 AM. That's never fun, but less fun when you're in a hotel on your last day of clothes for the trip and without your normal sick solutions.
Somewhere in the middle of it all she was getting pretty delirious. The only things she said all night besides moans and groans and hurling sounds were "my tummy doesn't have room for chips anymore" (the last thing she ate), "my belly button hurts", and "When Santa comes tomorrow he's going to bring me a pink T-shirt with Batman on it" (I laughed out loud for a while at that one!).
About 5 or 6 AM I decided we needed to do laundry after hand-washing yet another set of icky clothes. I gathered up the kids laundry and went downstairs to find the "Market" was sold out of laundry detergent due to the basketball tournament teams making a run on the laundry room before they checked out the day before. Poor Blake had to run to Walmart in the middle of the dark, snowy night.
Before I left home I had a prompting twice to put Pedialyte (an electrolyte drink for kids) in my bag. I almost ignored it but I'm SO glad I didn't. Once she started sipping the drink every so often she started feeling better. She got a blessing from Blake and Adrian at 8AM and finally slept a whole 1.5 hours without vomiting until 9:30 AM. What a relief. Then she got up and started talking and acting normal except she asked for lots of food for breakfast but didn't actually eat anything. Still, the kids and I didn't go to Church for the baby blessings to make sure she wasn't sick and sharing germs.
I'm so thankful for motherly promptings from the Spirit and for the healing power of Priesthood Blessings. Without those two we probably would have had to rush a dehydrated child to the emergency room and I'm not sure I would have been on the plane to come home last night. I told Claire that Jesus has the power to heal people like we read about in the scriptures making the blind to see and deaf to hear and the sick to get better, and that Daddy has that priesthood power from Jesus, and that she can ask for Daddy to give her a blessing to get better too if we believe. Somehow that's something I've always known intellectually but saying it to an almost 4 year old sick and weak in her bed made the connection in my heart that it is the same power of Jesus Christ that we can call on, too. Somehow the priesthood power today and Jesus' miracles in the Bible were separate in my mind but now I realize that they are same. That realization leaves me with a sense of awe and appreciation.
So now I'm home. I'm still watching Claire's tummy and I'm nothing short than exhausted. I'm taking a sick day to recover and make sure I don't get sick with the same thing. Today that's my priority. Tomorrow, back the grindstone.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Anson at 8 months
And so it starts. Anson just keeps getting older and older. He's definitely not a baby anymore. He has a sense of humor. He has an idea of where he wants to be. He's starting to copy the sounds I make, or at least tries it. He's not rejecting tummy time so much. He plays for "long" periods of time by himself or with his sister. He looks at the right person when you say their name. He's babbling with mixed sounds and inflection in his voice. He doesn't want to eat anything from a spoon, he wants to feed himself with his hands (and yet doesn't chew so just ends up stuffing his cheeks with food bits). He cocks his head to one side and smiles when people say hello. Where's the baby?
Here's what our Anson is like at 8 months.
That double-armed flapping thing he does in the beginning is his self-created, "Pick me up!" sign. He's been doing that so long I can't remember when it started. He's been saying "da-da-da-da" for maybe a month already but this video clip night we knew he knows what it means now. And just so you know, he said "Mama" twice today. Yay!!! That's the first I've heard it. Whenever I asked him to say "ma-ma-ma" before all I got was "Ba" or a kiss. So it's official. "Dada" is his first word, and "Mama" is his second. It doesn't matter what he says next now. :)
Here's what our Anson is like at 8 months.
 |
| And so it starts: getting dressed up by Sister when Mom's not looking. She doesn't even put the bow on her head. Why his? |
 |
| And so it starts: standing. He's so happy to get in the tub he locks his knees and hangs on to the side when I show him the water filling. Just try to get him to sit down... |
Monday, January 24, 2011
Kitchen Counters
I was reflecting last night about my kids and my kitchen counters. Both of my children are content to sit on the counters while I prepare food. When Claire was small she played with toys within reach while I got meals ready. Now she's old enough to start "helping" and sits on the counter to help and nibble at food while it's being prepared. Anson now plays on my counter while I prepare food. And sometimes when Claire sees Anson on the counter she wants to be up there, too. I may need a larger kitchen.
It's funny the things that end up being memories. I've gone through our photo library to document some of my counter moments with both of the kids.
It's funny the things that end up being memories. I've gone through our photo library to document some of my counter moments with both of the kids.
 |
| Baby Claire |
 |
| Helper Claire |
 |
| Baby Anson - he's going to grow out of that counter space faster than Claire did! |
 |
| Snitching Food - I don't even care if they eat less dinner because they've eaten raw veggies while I'm cooking. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)