Sweet Things

It's afternoon nap time, which means I should be cuddled up under the green blanket with some food network. But I wanted to record a few little sweet moments before they scattered right on out of my brain...

• We went to the park Friday with Carolynn and Callahan, and Jenny, too. Phoebe and Callahan went for a ride in the Radio Flyer, and seemed to have great fun-- even though neither of them looks like it here! The new spring weather has brought us outside a lot these last several days, and "Radio Flying" has become one of our new favorite pastimes.
  
• Yesterday after church, Phoebe fell asleep -- hard -- to some Praise Baby... she never falls asleep anywhere except her crib or car seat. But she was so tuckered out, the minute I got her to sit still, she was out like a light. She didn't even wake up when Michael put her in the crib, which is nothing short of miraculous.
• Phoebe is changing so much, so fast... today, she helped me put clean laundry in the laundry basket. Usually she just stands there at the dryer, but today she actually put every single dry red item into the basket. She also will now help Daddy put away her bath toys after a bath -- but not before saying bye-bye and kissing each one.
• We were able to go an entire "wake time" (about 2 1/2 hours) with a bow in our hair! It's tiny, and yes, it's the kind that holds to supposedly one strand of hair... but it's also amazing that we can finally wear a bow!
  

And now... naptime for me!

Praise the Lord!

I had planned on blogging something else today, but I can't help but blog this instead...

We always give Phoebe her vitamins while she's in the bath, since they taste terrible and inevitably drip out of her mouth a little bit, staining everything. Last night, she gagged a little bit and coughed -- so I said, "Phoebe, praise the Lord!" (Hoping that she would raise her hands, just like Mommy.) And she did!

Now, we've been working on all manner of signs since she mastered "more" and "all done", but have been met with minimal success. Occasionally, she'll raise her arms to "Praise the Lord", but only when she's in the mood. Last night, though, she did it every time we asked! Even when she was eating her bottle before bed, she raised one arm, on command. So precious! (I'm sure she didn't mind the vast applause received each time, either.)

We delight in knowing, most of all, that Phoebe is beginning to learn at a young age to praise Him for all things. Hopefully I'll be able to capture a picture of this precious event!

11 1/2 Weeks

I have to say, I absolutely love my obstetrician. When we first realized that we would need one (when we found out we were pregnant with Phoebs), I had no idea where to go. I'd had a few recommendations, but had never actually been to the "girly doctor" here. So, being the eager, newly pregnant girl that I was...I went with the doctor that would see me first.

I was adamant that I would need to see a female doctor, so I was a little aggravated when I found out that the doctor I had been scheduled to see was, in fact, a man. I was told I'd have the ability to rotate through the practice and determine which doctor I would want to keep as my "own"... but once I met with Dr. D, I never wanted to see anyone else!

I actually love my entire practice. I'd be comfortable having any of the doctors there deliver my baby, the nurses are all fantastic, my wait times are minimal, and even the lab personnel are delightful. The Lord has really blessed us with a fantastic OB, which has been a good thing... especially considering I've been to the OB about 15 times in the past 2 years!

Anyway, one of the things I really love about my OB is that I get to have a few extra ultrasounds... 8 weeks, 12 weeks, and 20 weeks. I also had a "re-check" ultrasound at 24 weeks with Phoebe, and a 4-D ultrasound at 32 weeks. Any chance to get a glimpse of that little baby's growth is incredible! I'm always amazed at the amount of change that goes on in just a few weeks, and that they can actually show me pictures of it in real-time.

Yesterday, we had our 12-week ultrasound. We were delighted to see a healthy, moving little baby with hands, feet, fingers... we even spotted the baby's profile! His or her heartbeat was also a healthy, rapid 170 beats per minute (perhaps from the hot chocolate and scone I'd had for breakfast?). Considering the last pictures we had were a tiny little dot with a heartbeat, these were quite incredible to us!

Here is a 4-D shot of the baby's "front" -- you can see head, hands (labeled) in front of baby's face, tummy, legs, and feet down at the bottom. Pretty incredible, isn't it?

This is a "back view" of the baby... I realize this looks like a kidney bean, but it's really head, back, and bottom. Along the curve, you can see a brighter white line -- that's baby's spine!

And this is baby's profile shot! You can almost count five fingers on the hand (looks like a fingernail) above baby's face. Baby waved at us on the ultrasound! If you look really closely, you can even see baby's nose.

...and the incredible thing, is that this is just 1/4 of the way there! After only 11 weeks of growth, this little miracle already does so much. What a beautiful creation! We are simply overwhelmed at God's tremendous gift to us.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well!" Psalm 139:13-14

Our Little Bunny

We really had a most wonderful celebration of the Resurrection Day on Sunday... we had combined our traditional Easter feast with Phoebe's birthday party, so Sunday itself was really quiet. Which honestly, was such a blessing. It felt like we were really able to focus on the meaning of the Day, without distraction or exhaustion. It's been such a wildly busy month, that we really did just need a true Sabbath.

We did not, however, pass up the opportunity to take some fun Easter pictures. I even wore a dress, even though it was a mighty bit frigid that morning, simply because I could. (Last year, Easter dressing was not a fun experience, having been only 3 weeks postpartum.) For your viewing enjoyment:

By the time we'd all had a good, long nap, the weather had warmed up enough for us to take Phoebe for a stroll in her new Radio Flyer wagon (thank you so much, Mops and Pops!). Phoebe was in the Easter bunny spirit, and wore her bunny ears the entire time, which is nothing short of a miracle.

Easter was a mighty fine day... He is Risen Indeed!

Birthday Girl, Belated

I know that Phoebe was officially one over a week ago, but I felt like I couldn't do a proper birthday post without the ubiquitous cake pictures. So I waited until Phoebe's birthday party, which was this past Saturday. I am still in a state of disbelief about her big girl age. Really. It's hard to believe how much she's changed in just one year! But the truth is, she gets to be even more fun every single day.

We had her one year checkup (and lots of shots) last week, so here are the "medical stats":
Phoebe is 28.5 inches tall - she's grown almost ten full inches since birth! - which is the 25th percentile. (We knew she'd end up small like her parents!) She also weighs a whopping 18 pounds, 1 ounce. It really does seem like a lot, since she has tripled her birth weight. However, she's only in the seventh percentile for weight! She's such a peanut. Fortunately, the doctors are not concerned -- she's growing, she's happy, she's healthy. I do promise we feed her! And honestly, the pictures below are proof!

Here are some of the pictures of "the cake" experience...

Hmm... what is that? I think I want that!

First big bite

Signing "more", with a mouth full of the good stuff

We were so fortunate to have all of Phoebe's grandparents and uncles at her birthday party... she loved being the center of attention, and was such a ham. What a great delight she is!

Some of the fun things Phoebe has been doing recently:

• Switching completely over to "big girl" milk (whole milk). We PRAISE THE LORD that we are no longer having to spend ridiculous amounts of money on formula! (At least for another six months!)
• Eating lots of big girl food... her favorites right now include pizza (surprise), grilled cheese, all kinds of fruits and veggies, pasta with tomato sauce, and pretty much anything else mommy tries to give her. She's still not a huge meat fan and did not appreciate our giving her tuna, but she'll eat a Chick-fil-A nugget, if it's offered. :)
• Pretending to be a puppy in Jake's room
• Reading more - she's always loved to play with books, but now she'll actually sit and let Mommy or Daddy read to her. She especially loves to help turn the pages. Her favorites are books with pictures of real babies (she loves books by Tom Arma, I'd highly recommend them), texture books, and Brown Bear.
• She loves nature, and being outside... she especially loves watching the birds outside our kitchen window. She loves to turn and look when I say, "Look! Birds!" They're usually eating when she is eating, which she thinks is extra fun.
• Standing on her own for long periods of time, and half-heartedly attempting to walk... she's so much happier crawling fast, though!
• Phoebe also loves to put things on her head... headbands, bunny ears, whatever. She takes them off promptly, but she gets all kinds of delighted when something goes on her head.
• Plays peek-a-boo with us, and LOVES to hide behind Lambie when we're in the car. She thinks she's hilarious, and we agree!

The list could get pretty extensive, but those are some highlights... I've promised myself that I'm going to not sit like a lump for this entire week, so I'm going to sign off and wash some dishes. It's hard to believe how much she's changed in a year, though! I'll close with our first, at-home, family picture!

Fave and Gus Get Hitched!

Michael and I were obscenely excited when our friends Fave and Gus decided to take the plunge. I've been friends with "Fave" since the eighth grade, when we'd pass notes in Miss Garcia's class. We planned our weddings together at the lunch table, and she would try to gross me out with her "see food". We've got a long history together, and it's so much fun that she and her new husband are part of our future.

She and Blake started dating shortly before Michael and I got married... but we pretty much knew then that he'd be walking the aisle with Jenny eventually. Now, almost three years later, we're celebrating their wedded bliss!

We had way too much fun last weekend with all of the festivities, and Michael and I were both honored to be a part of the wedding party. (And did we ever party!) Michael also ran around with his camera for a lot of the day Saturday, so I thought I'd throw some of his pictures up here to give you an idea of all the fun. (Honey, if these aren't the edited versions, let me know -- I'll fix it later!)

The bride looks a little happy, no?


First dance...

Phoebe simply cannot believe all the fun!

And she was delighted to know she, too, could dance with Aunt Fave!

Some of "the gang" from GHS... (Jenny is holding Rachel's baby)


The girls... without our offspring :)

Bon Voyage! (Michael and I picked up the tux and dress on Sunday morning... so we snuck in a few pictures of the newlyweds checking their bags!)

Fave and Gus, we love you and are SO thrilled that you're married! Let's go to the beach!

And We're Back

We had a wonderful birthday and wedding weekend... everything was beautiful, but very busy, so we're spending the day recovering from all of that. And I am fully intending to do a for-real birthday and wedding post, but I've got more big stuff this week.

Friends, I have a deadline.

For some reason, someone is interested in having me do some work for them. And since my deadline is Wednesday, I've been a little bit mentally preoccupied. I'll share more details if my work is accepted, but it's still an altogether exciting thing. You might want to pray that I can get my act together before then.

So in lieu of a real post while I'm busy working on other things... some random thoughts:

• The cravings are officially beginning. I poured some vinegar down the drain today to clear out an icky smell, and I immediately needed some salt and vinegar chips (something I loved while pregnant with Phoebe, too). Publix has stopped selling their brand of salt and vinegar, but I was able to find a single-serve bag of Zapp's in the deli section. I could've hugged the deli employee who showed me where they were. [Chips were not the only craveable item I bought today; pudding snacks and scads of fresh fruit also showed up in the buggy. At least there's something healthy on my craving list!]
• Phoebe dumped out an old bag of craft supplies onto the hardwoods today. This bag included loose glitter. We might be finding glitter for the next three months.
• Sandra Lee (of Semi-Homemade) was at the Puyallup Fair today when I woke up from my nap...and I enjoyed fond memories of the Puyallup Fair as a little girl. It also made me want some funnel cakes.
  
• Phoebe goes for her 1 year checkup tomorrow... and shots. Pray for us... not only does she have to go for the usual stuff, but we're re-running a test that we took the last time she was sick. It had an abnormal result, which was probably nothing (hence us waiting until her 1 year to revisit the test), but we'd like to pray anyway that it really is nothing. The test also can mean a longer visit at the pediatrician, so that alone is worthy of prayers! :)
• Would anyone like to come over and show me how to use my sewing machine sometime this week (or next)? I stumbled on pictures of "hacked" cardigans and homemade easter dresses, and I've decided it's been far too long since I figured out how to sew a seam. I am clueless and need major help, so patience would be a major must.
• And finally, for Pops to show off at work:

Scarce

This time, I'm not scarce because I'm lazy... quite the opposite, actually; I'm all over the place! Mops picked up Phoebe and me yesterday, and we're now up north preparing for the birthday and wedding event of the year. Our dear Aunt Fave and Uncle Gus will be married Saturday, and Michael and I are part of all the festivities... which makes for a very busy family! I've got just a few minutes of down time this very minute, but it may be my last bit until Saturday night!

Phoebe turns ONE tomorrow. Which I cannot believe, and I will post a full, for-real birthday post when we return home and can get some pictures to go along with it. Sorry you'll have to wait past the for real birthday!

Anyway, we're thrilled to have such an exciting weekend for such good friends. This afternoon will include delightful time with Fave and dinner at PF Chang's, so how can you go wrong with that?

Love to all... and we'll return after this weekend!

Brain Dead

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with anything, except she's about the cutest thing I've ever laid eyes on.

Before this sweet little Peanut made its home in my belly, I was experiencing a pinnacle of productivity. I mean, I hadn't watched Food Network in weeks. I cranked out menu plans a month at a time -- and stuck to them! I was organizing cabinets, planning some redecoration projects, and being generally creative.

Well, I've already watched an hour of Food Network today. I can't even menu plan for tonight because there's no telling what I might want to eat (or make) at 5:00. I have no plans to organize anything for another three months, much less do anything creative. And I'm pretty much feeling brain dead.

This sounds like I'm complaining, but really I'm not. It's kind of nice to feel like a vegetable every once in a while. My problem used to be that I couldn't turn my brain off. Now my problem is that I can't turn it on! If only I could just get it to work for little hour-long spurts a couple of times a day. :)

The great news is that the weather is starting to turn spring-like. Yes, we had snow on Saturday. But the projected highs for this week are hanging out in the sixties, which means I can begin to kiss my uncomfortable jeans goodbye. I cannot wait to throw on elastic-waist skirts and flip-flops for the next six months. Pretty convenient for a pregnant woman, hmm?

This is getting even more random than I had planned.

If you've read this far, I need help:
What do I make for dinner tonight?

Here are a few qualifiers:

• I want nothing to do with roast-type meat. Or really "main dish meat" in general, unless it's chicken fingers.
• It has to be easy to make with a critter underfoot.
• It cannot leave lingering smells in the kitchen, like the quesadillas I made yesterday.
• We're also trying to have foods that Phoebe can eat, or at least adapt easily for Phoebe to eat.
  

Help!

Feeling...Pregnant

This morning at church, a few friends asked me how I was feeling. And honestly, for a minute I was caught off guard. Like, wait... did I try to get out of something by saying I was sick? Was I sick? Am I sick now? And then the duh moment hit me where I remembered that I was pregnant and feeling icky pretty much, well, all the time. But it's been going on for just long enough that 'icky' is the norm, and not the exception.

We're officially 9 weeks along, and I feel pretty much the exact same as I did with Phoebe at this time. I'm tired, queasy, and consuming vast amounts of dairy products. But it's nice, because this time around I'm at home, and it's awfully nice not having to put on a happy face for 20 eight-year-olds. And really, I've gotten used to it over the past month, for the most part. The best news is that it'll be over with almost as soon as it started! I'm greatly anticipating that sometime in the next month, it'll all just disappear (the yuck, not the pregnancy).

Phoebe really has no clue what being a big sister is all about, but she does love kissing the ultrasound picture that's on our fridge. But then again, she loves kissing all the pictures on our fridge.

Michael has been the best daddy-to-be ever, doting on me and not complaining one iota when I crash on the couch at 7:45. He also manages to put up with toast for breakfast six days a week, and acts like Super Dad to Phoebs when he arrives home from work. Friends, you should pat this man on the back -- I literally could not do it without him! Can I tell you how great he is? He even cleaned the shower with a toothbrush yesterday. What a man!

I, on the other hand, have rearranged my priorities: cleaning when the energy strikes, taking some downtime for Sesame Street with Phoebs in the morning, napping in the afternoons, and just praying to make it to suppertime. I'm not feeling particularly creative or energetic, but that's because the Lord is being creative enough for the two of us in my body. Just this week, our little Peanut has a four-chambered heart, working joints, can make a fist, and can even suck his or her thumb (if they so desire). Pretty impressive, hmm?

Anyway, we feel good. We are so blessed to be in this condition again, and equally blessed that we totally forgot what it was like -- even though it wasn't all that long ago. We're excited, and we'll keep you posted on Baby #2 as things progress!

Snow Day

Down yonder in the South, we don't often experience "snow days". This winter, however, we've had three! We missed the first one since we were out of town, and the second produced no accumulation. This one, however, had me jumping on the bed like a third grader. Those of you who actually get real snow in the winter will laugh at my snow day. But hey, when school is canceled at the threat of snow... you'll take all the snow you can get!

There really wasn't enough on the ground to justify bundling Phoebe up at the early morning hour that it arrived, so we brought the snow in to her. Here she is experiencing a snowball:

She thought it was pretty great. She's working on teeth, so she pretty much ate the whole thing as a side dish to her toast. (It was clean, by the way. The snow. And the toast.) She ate snow instead of fruit. Same thing, right?

She also really enjoyed how it felt squashing through her fingers. Can you see Jaker's head behind the high chair, hoping for a tasty morsel of whateverthatis?

And this is what she thought about the whole snowball experience. This is the infamous "scrunchy face", which Michael thinks deserves it's own post. I'm just inserting it for fun, but I'll let him tell you all about it another time. Scrunchy face is hard to capture on film (memory stick?), but I'm thrilled we got it here!

And a non-Phoebs picture...Here's an idea of how much snow we actually had... which wasn't a ton, but still... enough to get excited about nonetheless! It was also our ticket out of yard work today, which had been the original plan.

It was a long day, in spite of the snow... I'm glad to be snuggled in with sweat pants, an old GHS shirt, and some cookies&cream. I promise to give a good old fashioned pregnancy update tomorrow, energy and nausea permitting!

Big Announcement

Phoebe Kate would like to proudly announce that...

Her little brother or sister is scheduled to arrive on October 13, give or take. We are thrilled that Phoebe will have a playmate so close in age! We praise the Lord for His great blessing!

Returning Soon, Really

We're all safe, sound, and back from our trip. We're also dealing with the aftermath of returning from a trip. And how did it get to be March already, hmm? I feel like the busiest month of my life has just snuck up on me without any warning.

I should be cooking dinner right now, since the microwave is barking at me to tell me that the chicken has thawed. But instead, I'm on the couch with the laptop because Michael has taken Phoebe out to the Dollar General for a blissful 10 minutes to fetch more milk, and some afternoon adventure. Have I mentioned that I love my husband?

As soon as I get caught up on email and get my to-do list ironed out, I swear that I'll be back. I've got some exciting announcements coming!

But I just heard the car door open, so I'd better hustle, or the chickens will be starving!