Things I Like: baby gowns

I think baby gowns are among the cutest clothes ever created for babies.

I'm not sure what the purpose of them is - maybe because a mother spends so much time changing diapers that it makes access to those said diapers easier? Doesn't matter the purpose. They are too cute.

I mean how cute is Henry? Besides the fact that he's sideways. (I can't figure out how to turn the picture on the blog - everywhere else it is showing up the right way!).

I think I like baby gowns so much because they usually have some sweet design or image, you can see cute little toes sticking out from underneath the gown, and because it means that the wearer of the gown is a tiny little baby. 

Although Henry has some super cute clothes and pajamas he is now wearing...I mourn the fact that he no longer can get away with wearing gowns to bed.

Adele-isms

I can't help it - I need to post some more Adele stories. She is so cute and funny these days!

-Lately she has been really into saying the word sure. "Will you get me brother's paci Adele?" "I sure will!" "Do you like this food Adele?" "I sure do!" Going into bed at night - "It sure is dark!"


-Adele also likes the word beautiful. She'll call her pillow "my beautiful pillow" and her new bed "my beautiful new bed". Today she saw herself in the mirror and said "I yook beautiful!"

-The other day she had some chocolate milk and said "My tummy says nummy!"

-Adele is great at counting...but now gets stuck in 14. Thing is, it sounds like this: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, firteen, farting, farting, farting, farting, farting..." etc.

-She likes hiccuping and gets a giggle-smile on her face and says "Dat was my hick-cups!" after each one.

-Adele and David were out looking at birds with binoculars and he took hers inside. When she realized, she said (yelled) "Daddy took my knockers! I need my knockers!" (This was without any prompting to call them that - I promise!)

-Adele is also into bodily noises and is starting to sort of figure them out. Sort of. When her stomach makes noise, she'll say "Dat was my tummy. It was burping!"

-Along with the bodily noises, she's very interested in the bathroom. In a small dollhouse, I heard her telling a Mickey figurine "you sit right here and poop" as she placed him on the toilet.

-Last night I had put her to bed and later went in to get Henry's bassinet. I saw her sitting up in her bed and she said "Hi Mommy, I just in here passing gas". She told me she needed to go potty, so I put her on the toilet. After a few toots ("dat was my poop Mommy!"), I was putting a diaper back on her and said "Adele after I put your diaper back on it's time for you to get back in bed and go to sleep" and she responded "And pass gas!" So I said, "sure". I put her back in her bed and told her she needed to go to sleep and she replied emphatically "and pass gas!!" I tried to hold back my laughter.

Two months

Henry is two months old today. He is a goooood baby. As a proud mama, I'd even say he's advanced for his age. :)

Henry went to the doctor for his two-month appointment right before we left for Spokane. He was 7 weeks at the time, and weighed in at 12lbs 14 oz. That puts him in the 95th percentile. A little different from Adele, who is 2 1/2 and weighed in at 26lbs - putting my little peanut at the 20th percentile. She's always been tiny, and he can't seem to stop chunkin' up.

At two months, Henry is already becoming very interactive. He loves to smile, especially after a good nap and with a full belly. And if you quit looking at him, he'll make noises until you look back at him. He is awfully cute and has just started to coo. He seems very strong for his age, and already likes to "stand" up while being supported. Henry sneezes like his daddy, very loud and forceful. He has also let out what sounds like a chuckle when he's really happy.

Henry likes to eat every 2-3 hours, although he can go longer and has given me 5-6 hour stretches at night a few different times. I don't really mind too much waking up to feed him - he goes back to sleep really fast and sleeps great in his bassinet.

Love you Henry!!

Retirement

My dad retired today. He's been talking about retiring for years now. When it was going to happen, what he would do with his time, etc. It seems like it's been a long time coming, but now that it's here, it's strange. I called him today for the last time on his work phone, and then deleted one of the first numbers I'd ever memorized forever from my phone.

I can't imagine how he's feeling.

He began his job 34 years ago at the Principal Financial Group as an actuary. At the time, I'm not sure he could even imagine that the day would come that he would be finished at his job. Lots has changed. With his job, no doubt, but with his life as well. He now has four grown daughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren.

Here's the thing: I'll be honest, I still don't completely understand fully what an actuary does. But I do know this - my dad is an incredible man. He's dedicated, hard-working, and cares way more for his family than he does for himself. What I know of my dad is that he loves sports, is a fantastic coach, enjoys being outside and working in his yard, he is very supportive and loving, and he has provided more for me than I could ever thank him for.

For the first time in a very long time, my dad won't have to get up and go to work. What will he do with his new-found freedom? I don't know. But I'm thrilled for him and so excited to see what the future holds.

I love you, Dad!

(Long) Road Trips

When I was younger I remember taking long road trips to Colorado. There was something fun about being brought out of bed at 4:00am, getting in the car with my pillow and blanket while it was still dark out, and going back to bed for a few hours before a breakfast stop. I can remember enjoying so much car time to do things I enjoyed doing - listening to music, reading, and sprawling out on top of my sisters and sleeping for many, many hours.

Because David's family lives in Washington and mine lives in Iowa, added to the fact that we worked for 2 years in California, we have taken many cross-country road trips together as well. While I can't say that we love long road trips, we've never really minded them. We enjoy the long hours to talk and listen to music, and we each have books or projects to work on in the car. And who doesn't enjoy a few extra hours of sleep?

This was all before kids.

Thursday night began our long road trip from Oklahoma to Washington, with our only stops in Phoenix and Boise. We decided to do as much night driving as we could to take advantage of the kids sleeping, and left at midnight on Thursday night to begin our trip.

Thursday night/Friday all day was a very long day. We drove over 1,000 miles for a marathon day from Oklahoma to Phoenix, AZ, and arrived in the evening to visit David's college buddy Chad. We stayed with him all day Saturday, enjoying time in the pool in the 100+ degree weather, and then took off Saturday night around midnight for round 2. Our second marathon driving of almost another 1,000 miles took us from Phoenix to just outside of Boise, ID. We stayed with our friends the Cossel Family, and enjoyed their trampoline and a house full of dogs. Monday was an easy day - only 7 hours from Boise to Spokane, WA, with a stop along the way to see David's grandpa and 2 aunts.

While we took advantage of night driving so our kids could sleep, we still had plenty of awake hours when they needed entertainment to save them from the boring car ride. Both kids are troopers - considering the 40+ hours we were in the car, they did their fair share of sleeping, and Adele watched countless hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. There were only moments of time that one or both were crying.

Still, having two kids in the back to constantly be thinking about and taking care of sure changes my perspective on long road trips!

Adele highlights of the trip include:

-Talking non-stop in the car for an hour at night because she was so excited about the road trip.

-Coming upon a city with a lot of lights at night and her saying "Yook at all the Christmas trees Mommy!"

-Waving to the man in a cowboy hat in a truck next to us saying "It's a cowboy!"

-Narrating "It's a blue truck! It's a red car! It's a white truck!" as we drive along the highway passing cars around us.

-Seeing frogs jumping on the grass at the Cossel house and John Cossel asking Adele if she can catch one. She responds "All right" and goes and picks one up.

-Me telling someone how Henry likes to cat-nap and Adele chiming in saying "yeah he says meeeoow".

-Adele being so relieved/overcome with emotion to finally reaching Spokane that she buried her head in my shoulder and shed a few tears before getting down and giving big hugs to everyone.

Would we do a road trip again this way with marathon days of driving? I'm not sure yet. Too soon to tell. Two things I know for sure:

1) We're glad we're here.
2) We're tired. :)

Things I Like: hanging clothes outside

One more installment of my Things I Like series...for now.

I really enjoy hanging up our clothes outside to dry. Especially when the line is filled with my kids' cute clothes:

Here's my shameless plug for the environment: it is SO easy to hang clothes up outside. We didn't hook up our dryer until January, and only used it a few times when the weather wouldn't cooperate. Such an easy way to save energy and keep our electricity bill down.

It takes maybe 15 minutes of my time to hang everything up, and maybe 3 minutes to take it down and bring it inside to fold. And with the sun that we have here, I think that most days the clothes dry faster outside than they would in a machine!

Added bonuses: it gets me outside in the fresh air, and Adele LOVES to "help" hang up clothes and rip them off the line when they're dry. She loves to be outside, so it's one easy way to get her outside while I am still working my way through my to-do list for the day. :)

Things I Like: care packages

There are a lot of things I like in the world, so I decided to sporadically blog about them. Today's installment is Things I Like: care packages. Fitting, because I received one today.

Care packages are wonderful. They bring so much joy to my life. Who doesn't like to go get the mail and be overjoyed when there is a box sitting outside??

I loved care packages in college. It usually meant there was something from home - something that brought a smile to my face, that reminded me someone loved me.

I loved care packages when we lived in Costa Rica. This was often a birthday or Christmas gift, or something we were in need of that we couldn't find in Costa Rica.

I love care packages here in Oklahoma. These often mean gifts for my kids. I admit, I get just as much joy (if not more) than my kids do out of helping them open a package.

Today's care package was special and unique, and jumped to the top of my list of Things I Like. It was a care package from Costa Rica.

My dear friend Laura Barnard sent me a gift for Henry. The clothes are adorable. But what made the care package even more special and unique is the fact that she filled the box with goodies from Costa Rica. It seems backward, since care packages usually come from home when you're out of the country. But since Costa Rica was our home for four years, the care package truly felt like it was coming from home. The box was filled with coffee, cookies, and all sorts of treats that we can't find here in the U.S.

Now THAT is a good care package.