Big girl bed!

I can hardly believe my little girl is growing up so fast. Before we left for our travels for the summer we bought a twin bed for Adele off of Craigslist. We hadn't yet purchased a mattress, but set up the bed in order to get her excited for her own bed when we returned.

Since moving into our new home, getting Adele's room (and Henry's future room) set up was the highest priority. She had been with me all summer long (in the pack 'n play at first, and in bed with me the latter part of the summer), and we knew a transition would be difficult.

So we got her bed set up, put a new mattress on it, and built the excitement.

Once the excitement wore off after the first few hours of receiving a new mattress, we heard a few "but I want to sleep wif you". And yet, she slept great in her new bed, all night long.

The girl is a champ.

In the 2 weeks she's had that bed, there have only been a couple nights where she's woken up or had a really difficult time going to sleep by herself. Every other night she has slept soundly all night long and I'll ask her in the morning "did you sleep well?" and she replies "yep! there were no monsters!"

Maybe it has to do with us getting her room super cozy with all her stuffed animals, books, toys, blankets, and pillows. Maybe it has to do with a very long bedtime routine that includes many books, prayers, and songs, and visits from both mommy and daddy. Maybe it has to do with the countless hours we spend in her room on any given day reading and playing.

Or maybe she's just growing up. *sniff*

Here she is, enjoying her room and her new big girl bed. She wanted to take the picture with Henry, because according to her, "he wants to be wif me, mommy!" (Clearly.)

After we played in Adele's room this morning, she found a few dresses she had to put on. And then she noticed her reflection in the fireplace. 

At that point, she was too preoccupied with dancing for herself to pose for a picture.

Never a dull moment.

Zumbaaaa

I love Zumba.

Zumba makes me feel like I can dance. You know, as though I have moves. Which, I clearly don't, if you've ever seen my daughter dance. She's cute now...but she's 2. I am as talented as she is...and I'm a bit older than 2. Those moves are not as cute when I do them.

About a year and a half ago I went to a Zumba class for the first time. I was pretty apprehensive. I'm sure most people are their first time. The beauty of Zumba is that anyone can do it. 

The teacher is usually pretty good. Aside from that, in any class I've ever been to, there are only a small number of people who actually look coordinated enough to look like they belong in the class. Most are like me, or even worse (that's me being hopeful that I'm not the worst one in the class). 

And no one notices. Or cares.

Zumba is a time to let loose, and shake your body under the disguise of working out. 

Try it. You (probably) won't be the worst on there, and you will (most definitely) love it.

A Costa Rica beginning

A young married couple from Point Loma Nazarene University is the new Field Station Managers of QERC down in Costa Rica. They headed down to start the new job just a few days ago. Before they left, they came over for dinner with us.

We talked their ears off.

We couldn't help ourselves. A chance to talk to people about the job of managing QERC? Living in the cloud forest? Traveling around Central America? Our neighbors and dear friends in the valley? How to survive as a married couple in the midst of a different culture while running a study abroad program? Spanish? Food?

As I said, we talked their ears off.

After dinner and a time of sitting around talking and sharing stories, David gave them an out and offered to take them back to the place they were staying. I kindly mentioned they didn't have to leave and we could continue to talk as long as they wanted, or even show them pictures. They perked up at the mentioning of pictures.

They didn't realize that pictures meant four large scrapbooks each representing one year of our time there.

Costa Rica is a special place for David and me. It always will be.

I'm thrilled that this new couple gets to begin their own journey at QERC. May their years be full of laughter, funny culture shock stories, adventure, flexibility, and lots of personal growth. I'm excited for them.

And extremely jealous.

The latest

Well we're getting settled. Does anyone ever truly feel settled in a home? Will we ever get to that point??

We still have a few boxes to look through, and there is nothing on our walls yet, but we ARE making progress. We've also been busy. David's been getting into the routine of classes and work, and my kids are keeping me on my toes. Or more appropriately, they are keeping me on the floor as they crawl all over me.

Our tv isn't up yet, which has been wonderful to stay busy without having a tv to fall back on for entertainment. Adele has loved going through all of her books and we read SO MANY books these days. Probably between 25-50 on any given day. She's been painting (with water colors), coloring, putting stickers on anything I will let her, playing with play-doh, and making Henry laugh.

Adele has the ability to make Henry smile and laugh more than anyone. We even tested this. If Henry is in his ExerSaucer, he will laugh at Adele dancing around him all day. Put David or me dancing in front of him and we are lucky if we get a smile.

We have had some visitors too - my mom and dad came the weekend we moved in and helped with the kids and enjoyed seeing our transition to our new home. The following weekend, my sister Katie and my dad came down for a couple days (perks of retirement for my dad!). Despite the warmer weather, we got out and explored Oklahoma.

Here are some pictures of our recent endeavors:

Out on the Canadian River

At Pops, where more than 600 types of pop are sold - Adele chose "Martian Soda"

Adele and Daddy jumping through the sprinkler

Grandpa running with Adele through the sprinkler

Adele feeding Woody her coffee with a spoon

5 months (and 4 days)

Henry is now 4 months old! I am late on this blog, simply because we have spent the last week moving and unpacking and finding things and putting away things and finding more things and putting away more things. And we're not finished yet. Among those things we found were our internet stuff, so we are now back to being connected to the world. (Though it was kind of nice being disconnected for a while...)

Back to the boy.

Henry continues to grow and change so much. I've started adding 6-12 month clothes in the mix of his 6-9 month clothes...mostly because I can't help it. I love getting out new clothes, and it's a bonus when I don't have to yet put away the smaller size.

He still loves jumping on the lap of anyone who holds him, rolls all over the floor, and is attempting to crawl. I've actually seen him inch forward a couple of inches...so look out world, Henry will soon be on the move!

I am actually looking forward to Henry crawling...and if I eat my words in a couple months, so be it. But I think he'll be less frustrated if he is able to move and get to things on his own. Right now he is reaching and grabbing for everything, and being stuck in one spot for more than a few minutes while there is so much more to reach and grab gets a bit frustrating for this boy.

Henry celebrated our moving day with his first tooth, and 2 days later celebrated his 5 month birthday with his second tooth! And with that, we will soon be entering the stage of eating...which is so cute and so disgusting as babies somehow are able to get food in every crack (or in Henry's case, roll) of their bodies.

With David's arrival back to the states, Henry has done well adjusting to him and loves any attention he gets from his Daddy.

Unfortunately, Henry also had a double ear infection with the return to Oklahoma and the 2 new teeth breaking through. He never seemed overly fussy, but has had a lingering cough that was waking him up every time he fell asleep. And that has caused more sleep time in my bed....hopefully we will get him all corrected and back in his own bed for at least the majority of the night soon!

Henry also seems very....boy to me. Adele was so petite and cutesy. Henry is chubby and big and grunts a lot and loves to grab things and bang them on the table or throw things. Adele responds to this by politely telling him "Henry, we don't hit" or "Henry, we don't throw things". I think she is going to be in need of some patience in the future....

Love you Henry!!

Moving day!

I really dislike change. I like for things to stay the same. Don't get me wrong, I like traveling, or experiencing new things. But I like to go back to "normal".

We've had a lot of changes over the years.

David and I are adventurous people, for the most part. We love to travel. See the world. Live in a new culture. But after living in Costa Rica for a number of years, we also realized we were getting to a point in life where we wanted to "settle".

That was the plan, anyway.

So we moved back to the USA in the fall of 2010. We spent some good time with my family in Iowa. Then we moved our belongings that we had stored in Iowa up to Washington, where we moved in with David's family. We had all intentions of staying in the northwest, so we camped out in the basement of David's parents' house while we got grad school endeavors all figured out.

And then we moved to Oklahoma.

(That was not part of the original plan.)

But Oklahoma was a great option. And we moved into our rental house that we thought would be our home for at least a few years.

Tomorrow we move again.

We used to joke that if we found a better rental, we'd consider moving after the first year into something we liked better (or that had a better landlord). Then we'd laugh and talk about how much we dislike moving.

After being apart as a family this summer, and traveling to our families and being away from our home in Oklahoma, we were anxious to get back to "normal".

Adele doesn't like change either. Last year when we moved to Oklahoma, she began having night terrors based on stress, related to all the changes in her life. David and I felt awful, and did our best to try to help her emotionally and set up a home.

We are not looking forward to moving this weekend. But we are looking forward to setting up a new home. We still maintain that Oklahoma probably won't be our permanent home. David and I are kind of partial to mountains, so moving out west/northwest is still what we would hope for in the future.

We have no idea how long we will be in Oklahoma. But as long as we are here, we want to BE here. Not only for us, but for Adele. And for Henry. So we will "settle" here, and create the best home possible.

Here's to a good moving weekend. And to our new home.

A joyful reunion indeed

Well we made it back to Norman. All of us.

That's right, David is home!

Adele and Henry and I flew back in on Wednesday night. It was a great couple of flights again - no screaming kids for me! And it's a good thing my kiddos are cute, because I had one on a leash. With Henry in the moby wrap and my hands full of kid things and a computer and important documents, Adele got to wear a bear backpack. Complete with a tail, which I held onto.

I don't plan on writing a blog about kids and leashes, but I'll say this quick. I will do whatever it takes to keep my kids safe. And rather than trying to hold her hand through the airports, I held her bear's tail. And she was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

Anyway, David is home!

So the kids and I got back late Wednesday night and made it out to the house we are staying at. It's a friend's house, a house we've never been to, in the countryside, and our friends are on vacation. It was sort of spooky. At least for Adele. (And maybe me, a little.)

So after a day and a half of running errands and hanging out in Norman, the time had come to go the airport to pick up David. Adele and I "argued" on the way there about who was going to hug and kiss him first, and when we got there we "argued" over who would spot him first coming through the doors. Adele may not have spotted him first, but she beat me to him and gave him a big hug before I could get to him.

We have spent the day today catching up, and Adele has recapped our time in Iowa and Washington by telling Daddy all about her scrapes and bruises she got. You know, the important things he missed. And David has been both sleepy-eyed from travels and wide-eyed from a bit of culture shock, trying to fit in all over again.

We now have a lot to do this next week. David starts classes on Monday, and we close on our house Friday and move in next weekend.

But the chaos no longer matters. David is home!

Our world is once again complete.