Kindermusik

Elijah finished a mini session of 5 kindermusik classes today. We did a 15 week session last fall and had such a great time that I had to sign him up for a spring mini class. Charlie comes with us and has also really been enjoying the music time now that he is a little older. Elijah talks about seeing his friends at music class since Sissy talks about seeing her friends at school, though in this shorter class we didn't get to know the other kids well. He does like to talk about his teacher Miss Rebecca and really looks forward to his special time. I'm so glad we were able to go for a while!

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Last day of preschool!

I can't believe my oldest is finished with preschool! Wasn't it just yesterday that she started? We have a picnic Wednesday but the days of dropping her off (usually 15-30 minutes late -whoops!) and picking her up at class are now over. I will have a year off of taking kids to preschool when Amina starts Kindergarten as Elijah is just 2 still. We are still waiting to find out if she will be in am or pm kindergarten. But for now let summer begin! :-)

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Happy Father's day!

Happy Fathers day to the father of my children! We enjoyed spending time with Doug's parents this weekend as they just arrived home from South Sudan on Thursday. It was a lovely weekend and we enjoyed the sunshine! Amina and I even swam for a little while as Doug continued to work on the pool deck at Ben and Mar's.

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Yummy “Tacoberries”

Just over a week ago we went up to the mountains on a hot, lovely, sunny day to pick huckleberries with our family, David, and Doug’s parents.  It was beautiful out there in the mountains.  Apparently the huckleberries weren’t as plentiful as they had been in years past, but this was my first huckleberry picking experience and I thought it was great!  I was getting over a cold which had me exhausted for days, but had enough energy to blaze my own trail to pick those berries – for a while anyway!  Amina had lots of fun picking what she called “taco-berries”.  Though she probably ate as many as she put in her bucket!  Unfortunately and unbeknown to us, she had the start of hand foot and mouth disease and while we were out there she started running a fever and becoming quite lethargic… but the first couple hours were lots of fun!  Perhaps we will make this a tradition… minus the sickness that is!  So although we enjoyed the drive and the nice day, we were wondering if all the berry picking was financially worth while.  We went to Pike’s place market the day after my birthday and looked all over for huckleberries for sale.  We found them at only one fruit stand and they were selling for $12/pound.  I’d say our 8 lbs of berries (plus probably 4 more pounds that Doug’s parents took home) was well worth it!  We vacuum packed and froze all the berries, and tonight we had the first fruit of our labor – a delicious huckleberry crisp. Yum Yum! To “taco-berries”!  

We have had a very cold rainy spring this year so far, but the day before Easter we were treated with a beautiful sunny day! It was the perfect time to head up to the tulip fields and bask in their beauty! My parents were here visiting for almost two weeks and we enjoyed spending lots of time with them. The one thing on our agenda was to make it to the tulip fields. And we wanted Brittaney to be able to come with us, so we braved the fields on a Saturday. Traffic was crazy and we just stopped at the first field we came to and spent lots of time tiptoeing through the tulips. Or in Amina's case she wasn't so much tiptoeing as stomping and splashing in any puddle she could find! After the tulip fields we found a yummy mexican restaurant and then headed south with a stop at Cameno Island State Park to play by the water and through rocks in the Sound. Though if you ask Brittaney she'll tell you we went to Tomato Island. ;) What a fun day! And a nice, well needed break from the dreary rain!

3 months already!

Elijah is 3 months old today! And to celebrate turning 3 months today Elijah decided to sleep through the night for the very first time last night!  He got to sleep around midnight last night and didn’t get up until 8:30 this morning – it was amazing!  And Amina didn’t wake me up until 8, so I got 7 1/2 hours of practically uninterrupted sleep – definitely a record for this year!  He did wake up a couple times in the night and just made some little noises, but didn’t cry so I left him and he went right back to sleep both times.  Of course this morning he was turned diagonal in his bassinet so that his head was against the side and he had no blankets on him, but he must not have been too bothered by it as he did stay sleeping.  Elijah is getting so big now too.   He’s so long that his 3 month footsie pajamas are getting too short on him so his little feet can’t stretch out all the way when I squeeze him into those.  But his other 3 months clothes fit great at this point.   At his 2 month dr. visit 3 weeks ago he was 12 lbs even, and 24 inches long.  He’s so strong too – he holds his head up all the time and when I hold him up he is stiff as a board – all stretched out to see all he can.  He’s laughing now and loves it when Doug tickles his chest.  He talks a lot too, especially in the evenings.  His favorite sound is sort of a ‘guh’ sound with a back tongue roll gurgley sound that we don't have in the English language.  It’s so cute!  He makes eye contact and takes turns ‘talking’ for several minutes at a time.  I love my little chubby love bug!  This past week he has also been discovering his hands and he will just sit staring at his cute little fingers as he moves them or touches his hands together.  It’s so fun to see him discovering how things work!  At this point Elijah takes most of his naps in the swing because it’s easiest! But we are working on napping at least once a day in his bassinet or crib.  He does great at night in his bed.  Amina continues to be a great big sister who loves to smother her little brother.  It’s a little easier now that he isn’t quite as fragile as he was in those early newborn stages.  Though I still have to remind her to be gentle and not to squeeze him.  She wants to play ‘baby’ all the time now.  Where either she pretends to be the baby (I tell her she can as long as she is a helper baby who can still help out her mama) or she wants me to be the baby.  When I am the baby she grabs my hands and squeezes them hard and laughs… since she knows she can’t do that to Elijah!

Here’s my two darlings this evening.

 

 

 

 

And a couple more pictures of them together…

Laughing with Daddy last week:

Snow

We have some snow here today and it's lots of fun to see. Yesterday we got just a dusting but Amina wanted to go out and play in the snow as soon as she saw the snow was falling. After her nap yesterday there was enough of a dusting that she could grab handfuls of snow to eat. she enjoyed playing pushes without me for a little while while I was feeding Elijah and I think she was finding all the 'clean' snow she could to eat most of the time she was out there. Then today the snow started falling hard while we were at a friend's house. We were excited to get home to play in it, but it had mostly stopped by the time we got home. But again this afternoon Amina went out to play for a little while and made a snow angel with the grass showing through. She's dying to make a snowman so I really hope we get a bit more snow tonight so I can help her with at least a small snowman tomorrow. Tonight she came in from playing in the snow and asked me "mommy, is it winter?" I said, yes it is. And she responded with "I really really like winter a lot". Her favorite tv show right now is Caillou, and we can watch several episodes on Netflix online. Her favorite episode is Caillou's winter fun where he gets to do all kinds of things in the snow. Its rare that we even have a dusting of snow, so we are thrilled with the half an inch she got to play in tonight!

On my own...

Today is the first time I've been out of the house without Elijah since he was born. I'm currently sitting at Starbucks sipping a caramel macchiato and munching on a molasses cookie while typing on my iPad. Also in the agenda for this first trip out of the house alone all year is a library stop and a quicker grocery store stop. Wahoo... The wild and crazy things that i chose to do sans children today. :) though i will admit it is MUCH faster to run in and out of the stores alone! And I'm still not sure how I will fit two kids and groceries in the cart when I do have to shop with both of them with me. I may have to stick to Fred Meyers for those instances for a while as Amina can go play in playland while I shop. First time out of the house alone this year has now been documented. :)

6 weeks

Elijah Robert was born 6 weeks and 2 days ago… and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes when I was awake enough to upload pictures or write anything.  I haven’t even been doing anything but reading other peoples posts on facebook.  Pretty much if I can’t do it on my itouch with one hand while I’m half awake and nursing I haven’t done it!  But I love these moments with my rapidly growing newborn and I don’t want to forget them! So I am going to try to post a picture or a thought or a little observation more frequently on here.  :)

Last week Elijah started smiling at Doug, Amina, and I.  It just melts my heart when I walk over and say hello to him and his eyes brighten and a big smile emerges on his adorable face.  I’m so in love! He’s been cooing and talking to us a lot too.  Tonight Doug was holding Elijah and ‘teaching him to talk’. He’d say “Can you say oooo” and Elijah responded with the cutest sound 'oooo’.  Of course once we broke out the camera and tried to capture it on film he proved to be camera shy.  These days with such a young baby and a delightful but attention seeking toddler are very busy, with hardly a moment to shower, let alone think of doing something else for myself.  But the moments I sit and hold my little man and enjoy his smiles and coos are like little glimpses of heaven. 

Sunday Fun-day

  After church yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny fall weather and head to a park on the Puget Sound to enjoy the day.  We had planned to go to Dash Point State Park where Doug could fly a kite and we could enjoy a bigger beach area, but when we got there the gates were closed and signs were up stating there was an emergency park closure.  Hmmm, that was too bad… but we didn’t let that stop us! We just drove a bit further north to Seahurst park where we could still be by the Puget Sound.   Unfortunately the beach wasn’t wide enough for kite flying, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  First on the agenda was a snack lunch of cheese, crackers, salami, cheese spread, chips, salsa, and apples.  After a cheese taste test and other fun with our food we got to play at the playground for a little while.  Brittaney showed us how to use the funny looking bars to slide down so then Amina and I had to try too.  Yes I’m nearly 7 months pregnant and sliding down the bars at the playground… go figure. :) Next we ventured down to the shore to walk on driftwood logs, find rocks and shells, and let Bruin run chasing sticks.  Amina even took 2 sticks and played ‘drums’ on the driftwood while singing a special song for Mama, Daddy, and Brittaney.  She’s so cute.  She loved walking along the logs and was quite vocal about where each of us should sit on them.   Amina asked why the logs were on the beach and why they were so slippery so I explained they were driftwood that had been in the ocean and then washed ashore.  Naturally she wanted to throw sticks into the ocean then to let them wash ashore.   The only problem with that was that she couldn’t throw them far enough, so I had to do it, and Bruin saw me throw a stick in.  No more dry dog!  Whoops!  It was a bit chilly for a swim and afterwards he was shivering, but hey, he’s a dog and that’s what dogs do… chase sticks wherever they end up.  Though the sticks were a bit hard for Amina to throw in the water she had no trouble with the rocks! I was afraid she’d end up in the water as she kept stepping closer and closer to the water’s edge to pick up her rocks and throw them in, but she only got her feet wet once.  She stayed down by the edge of the water throwing in rocks for a good half hour before she decided to come sit on the driftwood and look for shells.  We stayed almost long enough to watch the sunset.  But as soon as the sun went behind the low clouds it started to get really chilly so we decided to head on out! It was a fun spontaneous fall afternoon together.  I love my family! 

   

Preschool

I decided to sign Amina up for a co-op preschool this year.  Since it is a co-op both of us get to go.  There are about 12 kids in her class – all 2 year olds.  On alternating weeks half of the parents help out in the classroom while the other half are involved in a parent education discussion group.  We’ve only been twice so far, as we missed the first day of class while we were on vacation with my parents in Myrtle Beach.  But it is really fun so far!  Amina loves going to school and does such a great job following the routine and playing with others – most of the time anyway ;) I love that they do fun messy things that I wouldn’t usually get around to doing at home – like playing in shaving cream on a table, painting, using lots of glue to do projects, etc.  I’m so glad I get to be in class with her half the time too – I love seeing what all is going on.  And there are 2 other moms with young babies and 2 of us that are pregnant and due this winter.  So I know I won’t be the only one carrying a baby around the classroom for a while.   The pictures are from the first day we went to school.  Fun fun!

The toddler bed saga…

So this week we decided to move Amina into her toddler bed… finally.  I’ve been putting it off as long as possible as I really enjoyed ‘my’ time during her naps and in the mornings while she typically played and sung happily in her bed even after she woke up.  On Saturday she woke up and Doug put the bed in her room so it would be ready for nap time that day.  She was so excited to sleep in her new bed that she asked to go to bed all morning.  We only made it until about 11:30 before she just had to go lay down in her bed.  After about 10 minutes she realized she hadn’t eaten lunch and was crying that she was hungry, so I got her up and fed her lunch before putting her back down for her nap.  She stayed in bed really well for that nap – I’m sure it was the novelty of the new bed.  At night that first night she woke up and cried in her bed for about 30 minutes so I went in and sang to her and calmed her down for another half hour or so.  Since then the nights had been great – she goes right down and stays in bed all night.  She just gets up earlier than we’re used to and comes into our room with us.  Doug has decided to rename her our little alarm clock.  ;)  But naps have been a struggle after the first couple of days.  Our dear sweet Amina is realizing she has more independence now and is pushing it.  I tried putting up a baby gate in front of her door so that she would at least have to stay in her room.  But the first time I tried that she just climbed right over it.  The next time I tried to put it up a little higher so she couldn’t climb over it, but then she just pushed it over.  (When I asked her about it she said “I pushed it with my belly” all proudly).  On Wednesday this week I had to put her back in bed 15 times and she still wouldn’t stay, despite the fact she was getting a spanking each time – which i really hate to do.  I ended up putting her back in her crib after that because i was just so done.   And of course she was asleep within 10 minutes of being in her crib.  Doug was able to work from home on Thursday and was able to be the nap police for me that afternoon and she got by with only 5 times out of bed.  Today I wasn’t  looking forward to how nap time would go, but we talked a lot about how she needed to stay in her bed and get her rest.  I gave her a magnetic drawing board to play with in bed while she was falling asleep.  I was listening to her on the baby monitor and she was ‘spanking’ her baby doll and telling her she needed to stay in bed.  LOL! She actually stayed there for about 20 minutes before coming out of her room this time.  Then she had a stinky diaper and wanted me to change her.  So I did, and then I put her back to bed and told her she needed to stay there to sleep.  Much to my surprise she was quiet within 10 minutes and has been sleeping for almost an hour now.  Wow! I really hope this is a breakthrough and that it really only took a week of excessive patience.  Though tomorrow we have a birthing class and will be gone all day, so she will not have a normal routine.  I hope that doesn’t throw her off!  Now to get used to getting up earlier so I can shower before “Our Little Alarm Clock” comes into our room. 

Great News!

In case you haven’t heard yet, Doug and I are expecting Baby #2!  The next little one is expected to arrive right around Christmas!  My due date is either 12/25 or 12/28.  We are so thrilled!  We have been waiting for this for what seems like a long time – though I know others who have had to wait much much longer, and now we have finally been blessed with a sibling on the way for our darling little girl.  I always thought I’d want my kids really close.  Our plan was to have them about 18 months apart.  But God’s plan was different.  The waiting was really difficult at times, but now I think the timing will be perfect for us.  I get to spend this summer with just Amina, going out and exploring and enjoying my delightful girl.  And she will be a few months shy of 3 when the new baby arrives.  That is a much more independent age.  And I know that siblings that are 3 years apart can be just as close of friends as ones that are a little closer in age.  Now we just have to get busy on the potty training so we can hopefully have a few months being diaper free in our house! :)  We will likely be finding out the baby’s gender in early August.  This pregnancy has been flying by! I can’t believe I’m nearly 17 weeks already!  When we ask Amina if she thinks she’s having a baby brother or a baby sister, she always says baby sister.  We will just have to wait and see! 

Summertime

Hi! If I still have any readers out there… I decided to finally come back! :) Yes this is the theme of my blog – here for a while, gone for a while, here again.  I just can’t seem to keep up with it for long periods of time.  But a few entries to remember the life of today is better than none! 

So summertime has finally hit the Seattle area.  We had a long chilly, rainy June.  But as soon as 4th of July passed the sun graced us with its presence and temperature in the 90s.  Which meant that we broke out our swimsuits and have been enjoying the water!  This week has been milder – in the 70s mostly, but that hasn’t kept us out of the wet stuff!  Amina definitely takes after her mama… she LOVES to swim.  The Volz’s came home one day with a kiddie pool so we filled it up (not too high) and let the little ones play.  Amina had so much fun playing with Nathaniel and Bethany in there!  They spent half the time just laughing!  Every day she walks over to the pool and if we aren’t swimming at the time I have to drag her away from it so she doesn’t fall in trying to touch the water.  She loves to wear her ‘fwim fuit’ and go ‘fwimming’.  We also have a friend with a deeper backyard pool that we can actually swim in.  So one day we enjoyed an afternoon over there.  Amina was given a hand-me-down swim suit with flotation devices built in, so I put her in that, put water wings on her, and got in the water with her.  At first she was clinging to me, but then she remembered that she’s 2 and that she has to do everything by herself.  So she wanted to try swimming by herself.  I let her try (standing within arms reach) and she was able to keep her head above water and float for several seconds on her own.  She even go to the point where she wanted to climb on and off of a floatie all by herself over and over again.  Now the tricky part will be to teach her to swim without all the floatation devices!  That day I had to drag her away from the pool at 3:00 (her nap time was 1:00) and she fell asleep on the 5 minute car ride home!  We sure do love this weather! 

And the videos of Amina, and Amina with her cousins…

Easter fun

Wow has it really been almost a month since I’ve posted?  Oh my it is hard to get back into the habit once you get out of it.  But I want to blog more!  :) We had a great Easter celebrating at Ben and Maralee’s house with a full houseful of family and friends.  Amina loved finding Easter eggs.   It was a bit windy and chilly, but at least it wasn’t pouring down rain this year!  Every time Amina picked one up she’d try to open it and say “what’s in there?” (with the emphasis on there) – it was so cute :)  Needless to say she didn’t find quite as many as the other kids who were running around  filling up their baskets without stopping, but that’s okay, she didn’t need that much candy anyway!  And she found enough hard boiled eggs so we got to have some yummy breakfasts the week after.  Though once she learned to  tap the egg on the counter (or the floor, the wall, the piano… anything near by) to crack it so she could peel it she tried to peel several eggs that afternoon.  She ate 2 whole eggs and was still wanting the peel them!  They ended up in the fridge pretty quickly ;)

We also enjoyed coloring eggs at home the day before.  Amina likes to do things all by herself so it can be challenging to let her do messy things as I know she’ll be resistant to having any help… but in the end it’s worth it!  She only broke a few eggs by dropping them into the cups of dye.  And after trying to take a bite of one right out of the dye she learned that vinegar egg dye really doesn’t taste good!  Ah the joys of being a toddler :)

 

And Thanks you to Grandma and Grandpa Rolley for the Easter gift of dresses, a stuffed rabbit and a cute necklace.  Amina loved her gift :)