A bunch of bugs

We went to the zoo the other day. It was raining, so the indoor exhibits were quite popular. Most of the indoor stuff was creepy crawleys- Hopey got to pet a snake and a gecko- yuck! But the butterflies and blooms exhibit was fun- nothing slimy there:)

Naomi loves corn on the cob!

The Dangers of Unsupervised Camera Usage

Wowies

Naomi is constantly getting
"wowies" as she calls it when she gets hurt. Except she doesn't have to actually get hurt. If she brushes up against something or the wind blows on her wrong, she comes running crying wowie and has to have whatever area has the aforementioned wowie kissed. And if one leg has a wowie, the other leg will have a matching one. Often she gets wowies when nothing seems to happen- I think she makes them up. And lately in lieu of actually kissing them for her, we tell her to give it a kiss. She will- she'll just kiss whatever body parts she can reach. Yesterday she'd come over and point to my arm and say Wowie? and then kiss my arm for me. Compassionate little thing.

Lookalikes

These two- not so much:

These two- Joel is a little carbon copy:

The Joys of Motherhood

I've spent the last twelve hours cleaning up puke. We've gone through almost every blanket, sheet, towel, and pair of jammies in the house. Naomi started throwing up at bedtime last night and kept at it every half-hour or so till midnight. Hope joined the fun at 3AM. Poor thing slept on the floor in front of the bathroom door so she wouldn't have far to go. I fed Joel at 5:30-ish, and when I fed him again at 8, he'd thrown up. Luckily his isn't chunky:) He's still losing his milk; hopefully his will stop as quickly as the girls' did. If I'd known they were all going to get sick, I'd have made eggs for dinner instead of pizza. They slide up just as easily as they slide down.

How things change....

Remember when we were little and Oma would say "hold out your hand and shut your eyes...." I had some crackers in my hand to give Hope and I put them in my fist so Naomi wouldn't see them. I held my hand out, palm down, so I could put the crackers in her hand. She stared at my hand for a second, got a strange look on her face, and then fist-bumped me!

The Lake Life

We had our monthly staff meeting yesterday at the docs' house. They live on Lake Stevens; I've been to their house before but it was for a Christmas party, so I didn't spend alot of time on the deck taking in the view. It's been beautiful here this week- I think it was about 78 degrees, sunny, and a little breezy. I did pay attention to the meeting, but I enjoyed watching people on the lake too.

Especially when I thought we'd move to Tucson, I sort of gave up on my lake house dream. But after sitting on that deck for two hours, I'm really hoping someday I can find a way to have a place on a lake. I miss the leisurely pace of being at the lake; life goes into slow-motion somehow. I remember several times going to McKannas' cabin on my day off and just laying on the dock and reading a book, being rocked almost to sleep by the motion of the dock, being warmed from the sun reflecting off the water............I don't know if it gets any better than that.

Sleep Matters

After the exhastion and crying all weekend, Joel needed some sleep badly! I figure he slept about 2 hours total on Friday, and the same on Saturday. He and Hope were both asleep before we got out of Quincy city limits, but they woke up after about an hour and a half. So I was all for putting him to bed early on Saturday. David mentioned that he thought Joel actually woke himself up in his cradle because it rocks a little when he moves, even though the rocker is locked. So I put him in Naomi's crib for the night. He slept for 14 hours! He did wake up once to eat, but went right back to sleep for three more hours. We all see where this is going, right? If he can sleep for 10 or 11 hours without eating, am I going to be real quick to get up when he thinks he's hungry after 4 hours? I also have been putting him in the crib for his naps too. Today I put him in the crib when he was looking pretty sleepy. He was quiet for a few minutes and then started crying. I was busy unloading the dishwasher, so I figured I'd go up when I was done. Guess who was asleep by the time I got up there:) I think we're finally to the age where he can start learning to put himself to sleep.

Since Joel is sleeping in the crib, Naomi got booted into the bunkbeds. She's actually staying in bed. Hope has a CD player and listens to a VeggieTales CD when she goes to bed, which Naomi discovered was a pretty neat way to fall asleep. So I told her if she got out of bed, the Veggies would get turned off. So far she's taken her naps in there too and hasn't tried to get out of bed. Let's hope she enjoys her Veggies enough to stay put.

Hmmmmmmmm

Halfway through June and nothing to blog about.......... It's been pretty routine lately- nothing exciting. I think our back yard is finally going to be done next week. We'll see though. Zach will be here for a couple of weeks this weekend. OH- I booked our reservations for Disneyland- that's exciting I guess. David and Cari made the executive decision that Zachary was going whether he wanted to or not:) But we still have to wait six months to go. :(

Hope has started quoting thing she hears on tv. The other night she came into the family room to show us something she drew, and as we were looking at it she said "Dad, I'm thinking Arby's". There had been an Arby's commercial on earlier. What a nutjob though.

The other day I was on my cell with David and went out to the garage to get some food out of the freezer. Hope and Naomi trailed me out the garage too. I asked Hope to help me carry a couple of things, and so Naomi wouldn't feel left out I asked her to carry my cell phone. Hope and I took the food to the kitchen and put it away and I didn't think twice about my phone. Naomi kept following me around but I didn't think much of it. Ten minutes later, I was unloading the dishwasher and I saw her little hand reach up and put my phone on the counter next to me. She'd been following me until I asked for my phone back. For her, that's pretty sweet. Normally she'd call China or hide it somewhere, and then throw a fit when I wanted to put it away.

Joel has started cooing all the time. Especially at night, he's real talkative. I'll put him in his cradle when I go to bed and he coos me to sleep. He just lays there and talks to the ceiling. He's such a good baby. I think I may even be able to talk David into another one.

The Pot Bin

This cracks me up every time I see it. It's a big wooden bin where they put the used pots from the greenhouse at the bottom of our hill. But every time I see those words, I expect to see a bunch of stoners leaning in there looking for some weed.

The Middle Child

It probably really sucks to be Naomi. She does get babied an awful lot, and gets her way more often than Hope ever did. But she also gets ignored more often, I think. I'm making an effort to take her places with me rather than always taking Hope and leaving Naomi with David. But the other day at work someone wanted to see pictures of my kids, so I pulled up this blog and easily found pics of Hope and Joel. You know when the last picture of Naomi is from? Christmas. So I'm posting a couple cute pictures of her so she doesn't start counting posts like I counted lines in the Christmas letters. But in that family the middle child always got more lines..........

He once was lost but now is found

Slumbers was missing for a few days this week. We were pretty sure he had to be in the house somewhere, but we'd torn the place apart looking for him and he was nowhere to be found. I was feeling the way I used to feel when one of the cats didn't come home at night, and Hope was starting to sleep with "Soft Slumbers", as she's named the back-up bear we got for just this situation. We assumed he'd get lost when she was little enough that we could just switch and she wouldn't know the difference. Now she knows there's two of them, so it just wouldn't work very well. And with Naomi's tendency to put things in the garbage, the fact that the girls have been playing on the back deck the past few days, and that we'd gone several places that Hope might've taken him, we were afraid he might be gone for good.

But last night I saw a box of books in Hope's room that she rarely plays with. Naomi plays with it alot, so I checked in case she had crammed Slumbers in it. There he was! I actually had tears of joy in my eyes when I saw his little face poking out from between the books in the box. He may not be as soft and snuggly anymore as he once was, but he's still Hopey's baby.

Roly Poly Joely

Breastfeeding is supposed to result in leaner kids. Not working so well for this family. Hope was a formula baby; Naomi was bottle-fed breastmilk, which leads to similar weights as formula babies. At Hope's 2-month well-child check, she weighed 11 pounds. Naomi weighed 12 pounds at hers. Joel, well, Joel obviously isn't starving to death. I was betting on about 13 pounds. No, no; he weighs 15 pounds. On the dot. Fifteen pounds. Hope didn't even weigh that much at 4 months. My boss's daughter who is 9 months old weighs 16 pounds. After weighing Joel and looking at the percentiles chart, the nurse decided she must've written it down wrong because he was so far off the chart and asked if she could weigh him again. Same as before. He's officially a chunk. No wonder my arms hurt and I don't want to wear him in my BabyBjorn.

How do you explain hell?

David was trying to explain what hell was like to Hope. Eternal separation from God doesn't quite convey to a five year old, so he was using other examples. He apparently got the point across though. She said, "So it would be like mommy was spanking me and never stopped?"

How things have changed....

This morning Hope asked me if I watched Bug's Life when I was a little girl. I told her I didn't, and she asked "Well, then, what movies did you get in the mail when you were little?" I told her when I was little you didn't get movies in the mail; you had to go to the video rental store and rent movies. "Rent store. What the heck is a rent store??" I had CheapFlicks' movie list memorized; she doesn't even know you can go to a store to get a movie.

Things you don't hear every day....

This morning David poured a bowl of Rice Krispies for Hope and told her breakfast was ready. Since she is the world's biggest dawdler, she was still trying to get dressed. So he yelled up the stairs, "Well, get your pants on and get down here! Your cereal is getting cold!" Um, isn't cereal supposed to be cold?

Hopey then proceeded, because she can't sit still at the table, to dump that same bowl of Rice Krispies all over the carpet. My medications must be working better, because I didn't yell at all. I just went and got the dustbuster to clean it up. But seriously, what genius puts carpet in a main eating space? One more item to add to the list of things I don't want in my next house.

Well good morning to you, too....

This morning I took Joel into Naomi's room and put him on the changing table so I could change his diaper and get him dressed. Naomi was awake, but I left her in her crib till I was done with Joel. This was the conversation that went on:
Naomi: Hi!
Me: Hi Naomi
N: Hi!!
Me: Hi
N: Hi...... Hi!..... HI!..... HIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!
Me: are you saying Hi to me or Joel?
N: Dole
Me: well, he isn't gonna say hi back.....

Effective Discipline

You know you've found an effective punishment when your child asks if you can just spank her instead. Hope has had to spend the day in her room, and has twice yelled down the stairs, "Can I come downstairs and you can spank my bottom?" What nutso kid asks to be spanked?? She deliberately colored on the kitchen table for the second and third time this morning, so she got sent to her room. I actually told her at first that she was going to get spanked and asked her if she wanted me or David to spank her. She said David, so I just took all her markers away and made her quit coloring. Then she changed her mind half an hour later, and it didn't seem as effective to spank her then, so I sent her to her room for the rest of the day. It's killing her to be up there by herself. She's yelled down here about a few different things- wanting some stuff that was up on a shelf, telling me about the weeds in the back yard-real important stuff. I know she's been up there long enough to learn her lesson, but I told her she had to stay there till David got home and, honestly, my ears are enjoying the break! But at least I won't be as likely to spank her anymore when I've seen how well just sending her off by herself works.

Seven Years

I've thought a lot the past few days about how long seven years is. I can't really make myself feel much of anything about it. It doesn't seem like a long time ago or a short time ago. It isn't a big anniversary like five years or ten years- it's just one more year. I think I'm starting to feel like it was forever ago, rather than feeling like it just happened yesterday. Some things seem like they just happened, but overall it seems like a lifetime ago.

The most popular girl in school

A few times in the last couple of months, Hope has cried over the fact that her friend Hannah sometimes doesn't play with her at daycare; she plays with Makenna, another little girl who Hope isn't supposed to play with very much. Hopey's trying to obey and not play with Makenna, but then that means she feels left out when Hannah and Makenna play together.

Yesterday was the girls' first day back at daycare. We kept them home for two weeks because David's parents were here to help, but since we have to pay whether we're there or not, and they have preschool every day that Hope would miss out on, I decided to take them to daycare on their normal days even though I'm home with Joel. So when we walked in yesterday, it was like Santa had walked into the room. All I could hear was "Hope's back! Hopey's here!" We were mobbed by about eight little girls wanting to give Hope a hug. Hannah was first in the hugging line and was SO excited to see Hope. It was nice to see Hopey's little face light up from all the attention. Last night she told me how much all her friends had missed her and that Hannah played with her most of the day. I certainly don't think having lots of friends should be anyone's goal in life, but for the social little bug that is Hopey, it meant the world to be the center of attention and know that so many little girls were happy to see her again.

How Comfy Am I ?!?

It didn't take Joel too long to figure out this comfy, cozy sleeping thing!

And he honestly is not the chunky monkey he looks like in this picture.

Happy Birthday mom. And Happy Birth-day Joel.

I love you, Hope

Mandy's post about Alex reminded me of something Hope said the other day. We've told her that no matter how much mommy and daddy love her, God loves her even more. So the other day I told her I loved her lots. Her reply? "Well, God loves me lotser!"

The Best-laid Plans

Tonight I was trying to have the "just cause there's a new baby doesn't mean I love you any less" conversation with Hope. I told her that I'd have to spend alot more time taking care of her brother, at which point she informed me that I needed to take care of Naomi and she could take care of Joel. I told her I'd probably need to take care of Naomi and Joel; contrary as usual, she had a better plan. She'll help me take care of Naomi and I can help her take care of Joel. At least she's helpful; she fully expects to be the primary diaper-changer for her brother. When we got a cradle for Joel, she was upset because we put it in our room instead of hers. I told her if she had the cradle in her room, then she'd have to get up with her brother in the night and feed him and change his diaper and rock him and put him back to sleep. She was fine with that. I think she's forgotten how much babies can cry.

Colorblind

I know I've said, and so have others, how lucky we were to have Danny and Debbie in our lives at such a young age so that we were around other people who didn't look exactly like us. Otherwise we could have easily grown up with the same prejudices as some of our relatives. Now I'm realizing how lucky Hopey is, how lucky we all are, to have Lexiepie in our lives to teach Hope a similar lesson.

Tonight two girls came to the door selling something for a high school fundraiser. One was blond, all-American looking. (as a side note, what exactly is all-american? is it native american? I think really, instead of all-american, we should say all-northern-european-looking. that's what we mean, isn't it?). Anywho, the other girl with her was Indian or Pakistani or something similar. Hope was in the living room when David answered the door, so she had to say hi to them. After they left, we were all in the kitchen and Hope said, "I wonder if those girls were sisters or just best friends?" David was the one who pointed out how sweet it was that, although it should've been obvious that they weren't sisters, Hope doesn't see those sorts of limitations. For her, you don't have to look alike or be biologically related to be a family.

I guess it's genetic.

Bryn, you'll be happy to know that Naomi loves it when I do "that thing to her head". I don't know how she figured out she likes it, but she's walked over to me about 10 times today, picked up my hand and put it on her head so I can rub her head for her.

I Need Earplugs!

So Hope wanders into my room at 4:00 this morning and starts talking to me. After much discussion about which toys she can't find (cause I threw them away) and where she thinks they might be (the moving truck must've lost them), this is what she says:

H: You know Alex, he has a long black thing on his bottom.
Me: Ok
H: Why does he have that
Me: That's just what boys have on their bottoms
H: Well, Grant's a boy; I bet he has a white one
Me: Yep, he does
H: These jammies are soft; here, feel............

SHE'S NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He knows me so well

That show "The Moment of Truth" just had a commercial where some guy asks his ex-girlfriend if he wanted to get back together, if she'd leave her husband. So David asked me which of my ex-boyfriends I'd leave him for. I didn't have to think about it for more than about two seconds; I said there wasn't one. But David knows me well enough to know that wasn't the question he needed to ask. So my dear husband smiles and says, "What if Peyton Manning was single and wanted to marry you. Would you leave me then?" I think my answer was "Yep!". Never gonna happen, so it's ok; besides, he said he'd leave me for Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Random Thoughts by Hope

Any conversation with Hope is always an adventure. This is a sampling of today's revelations:

"I want to go to the circus. I've never been to the circus. When can we go to the circus?" Said during breakfast when there was nothing circus-like happening.

"Are you trying to be your father???" This one required some explanation even for me. I asked her to hold our shopping list and then asked her what some of the letters were in the words. She apparently thought I was teasing, which she associates with her grandpa. 'teva, Hope.

She spotted a RedBull cooler at the store: "Look, there's the soda that gives you wings. Let's get some so we can have wings. Then we could fly. It'd be fun to fly........." I tuned out at this point. I'm sure there was a commentary on what she thought she'd see or do while she was flying.

MOMMMMMMMMMM

Naomi has finally learned how to say mom, credit mostly due to Hopeybug patiently saying "Naomi, say ma.........ma" over and over till she'd finally copy her. But now it's about all she says. If I'm not paying attention to her and she thinks I should, she yells "Mom!" If I'm not in view, she'll yell until I show up. If I close the bathroom door, if I don't shove food in her mouth quick enough, if she's bored, if she's in her crib and wants out.........you get the idea. David thinks its hilarious, so she has figured out she's being funny and does it just to make David laugh. I knew that, contrary to Oma's assessment, she wasn't retarded and would eventually talk. But now I wish she'd learn a new word. What else can I have Hope teach her? At least she hasn't figured out how to say "no" yet. She just shakes her head and runs the other way.

Angels Watching Over Me

I'm not sure what possessed me to make a 9am OB check. It's normally a 30-minute drive to the doctor's office; at 8 or 9, with traffic, it's more like 45 minutes if there aren't any wrecks. So when I woke up at 7:23, I was more focused on getting showered and getting the girls ready to go than I was on eating breakfast. So on the way to the doctor, I realized I hadn't eaten and needed to. But I figured, I'll just wait till after the appointment and take the girls to McDonalds. Great idea for a diabetic, right? Hashbrowns, biscuits, and OJ- no carbohydrate there. But we went. Naomi was flirting with someone sitting behind me, and when we got up to leave, I saw it was some skanky-looking guy just hanging out there. So when we went out to the car, I locked the doors. I never lock the car doors when we're in it unless there's someone around that worries me or we're in scary area. But I locked them, just to be on the safe side.

So as we were driving home, Hope says "Look what I'm doing, mom". She picked while we were driving 70mph down the freeway to realize she could reach her door handle and was pulling on it. If I hadn't locked the doors, her door would've flown open while we were in the fast lane on the freeway. Who knows if I would've had the presence of mind to just pull over or if we would've gotten in a wreck, but luckily I didn't have to find out. Whatever guardian angel God assigned to me today was thoughtful enough to make me forget to eat breakfast and then send some creepy guy to McDonalds, just to protect us and make sure Hope didn't learn a *very* hard lesson.

The Tickle Monster

David and I were sitting on the couch with Hope, and somehow we got started tickling her feet. Pretty soon Naomi runs over, yelling at us. We thought she was going to try to save her sissy. No, no; she wanted in on the action! She started in on Hope's tummy, trying to tickle her too. Then later I was laying on the floor, and she flopped over on my stomach and started tickling me!

The grass is always greener........

I am completely, without question, certifiably loco. This morning I've been crying because I miss Rockford. Yes, the place I absolutely hated and thought should be banished from the face of the earth. The place I complained about constantly and couldn't wait to leave. But David got an email yesterday from the echo dept with all the latest gossip- who's prego, who's dating, that sort of stuff. Then last night I dreamed we moved back there, but the people who bought our house wouldn't let us buy it back.

I told David about the dream, and he said "Well, I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to sell it either". So as we were talking I got started crying because I miss that house and I miss knowing David was happy to go to work every morning and I miss being able to be home and do whatever I want and being able to just go over to the hospital for lunch if we wanted. I miss Amy and Andre. I'm nuts. I hated it there- but now I can't really remember why. Maybe it was just cause I didn't think that's where I wanted to be. But I wonder what would've happened if I'd been taking my antidepressants that week we were in Spokane. David knew as soon as I started saying I wasn't going to go back to Rockford that I hadn't been taking my meds. If I'd just kept my mouth shut, would he still have wanted this job? Who knows. I feel bad that he moved to make me happy. And I am happy. I think. I don't really have a happiness checklist to judge by. I'm afraid that's just my personality- to always second-guess whatever decision I make. Bad news for me, cause the grass is usually greener somewhere else. And in this case it's greener from my back deck in Rockford.

Do you see a resemblance??

Naomi's hair has gotten long enough that it gets in her face it I don't do something with it. So I've started putting the front in pigtails, but they look like the horns on the Garbage Goat to me.

Painting Lesson

Today Hope had an introduction to one of the greatest artists in history, Bob Ross. Who'd you think I was going to say, Picasso? His voice is almost hypnotic. She sat and watched him paint, learned about happy little clouds, and helped him decide where the palm trees should live. Her primary observation? "His hair looks funny".

How do you explain adoption to a 4 year old?

Hope and I were watching Sesame Street and they had a part about babies. There were a bunch of different babies, and she says, "I don't want Joel to be a black baby; I want him to be white". So I tried to explain that if the mommy and daddy are white, then the baby will be white too. "Well, what about Alex? He's brown, but Aunt Mandy and Uncle James are white." So I asked her if she remembered when Alex first came here- he wasn't a little baby. I told her that Alex had another mommy and daddy before Mandy and James became his mom and dad. Typical Hope, she said "Well what happened? Did he get lost??" Gonna have to work a little more on explaining the concept of adoption before PB&J get here- she'll think there's just alot of lost little brown kids who happen to show up at Mandy's house.

This kid remembers everything!!

Hope has an amazing memory. I've always known that. But this morning we were watching the Rose Bowl parade-- she was VERY impressed with the floats-- and she started telling me how it was just like the parade she went to at our old house with Grant and Chloe. Ok, we went to the Lilac Parade ONE year, and she was a few weeks from being two! How does she remember that?? And dad thought she'd forget about aunt Carol's pony............

Happy Birthday Rynee!

I hope you're safe and happy and have a few candles to blow out today!

Honesty may be the best policy..........

But it certainly isn't the easiest. At dinner tonight for Zach's birthday, we had a waitress who was less than stellar. So David was telling Zach about the Steve Martin SNL skit about the forgetful waiter who forgets everything, including how much money he's paid, so he gives the couple back a few hundred dollars in change, even though they pay with a $20 bill. David said something about "we won't be that lucky though; she'll forget our drinks and dessert, but we won't get extra change".

So after paying with a $100 bill, we got our change back. The waitress provided the right change, but forgot to take the hundred bucks. It was so hard to not justify keeping the money by saying that God was providing a nice dinner for us for free:) What's that saying about the Lord providing in mysterious ways? Maybe that's not quite what the saying is. Yes, we left the money. But, heavens, it was tempting to keep it. Shouldn't doing what's right be easier??

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Just now Naomi sneezed, and of course had a trail of mucus about to drip off her chin. So since I didn't have a Kleenex close by and my shirt was already dirty, I just used the sleeve to wipe her nose. She stared at my sleeve, then at her sleeve, and then pulled the sleeve down on her jammies and started dabbing at her face with it.

Hope has started showering with me rather than taking baths. Yesterday when we were getting in the shower, she took off her clothes, put them in the hamper and walked directly to the scale and stepped on. I guess we know what I do every morning before getting in the shower!

Here Comes Santa Claus

We went to the mall to buy gifts for the Tree of Sharing, and Santa was there. So, since the line was pretty short, we decided to let Hope talk to him. She spent the entire time in line trying to think of something to ask for. Never came up with anything, so she asked Santa if he was ready for Christmas, and what the reindeers' favorite snack is. (Last year we left a carrot for Rudolph, but she had to make sure he liked it.) We knew Naomi wouldn't like him, so we just stuck her on his lap at the last second to take a picture. I actually wanted to get more of the open-mouth wail, a la Mandy, but we were only supposed to take two pictures (since, cheapskate that I am, I wasn't willing to spend $29.99 for the picture package). I bet poor Santa hates kids.

There's a comeback for you!

On the way to daycare today, Hope was telling me how one of the boys had been teasing her and saying she was a boy. It was upsetting her, so one of her friends came to the rescue and told the boys she was indeed a girl. Oh, the issues of 4-year-olds! I was telling Hope things she could do if she were ever in a situation like that again. She could say "Stop saying that please", say "I don't want to play with you if you aren't going to be nice" and go play somewhere else, and a few other suggestions. She was very concerned that she wouldn't remember those words. I told her she could use whatever words she wanted, but she had to be nice and not say mean things back. So she told me, "I know what I'll tell him. I'll tell him he'd better be nice to me or else Santa won't bring him any presents!"

But mom............

This morning I was helping Hope get dressed. We lay her clothes out the night before, and she wanted to know what something was. I told her it was her shirt. Well then she wanted to know what was on it- it had a lace collar and she didn't know what the lace was. So I told her it was her collar. She gets a horrified expression on her face and says "But mom, I thought only dogs wore collars!?!" Not that kind of collar, Hope.

O Mike Divine

Will I ever hear O Holy Night and not sing 'oh Mike Divine'? We've been listening to alot of Christmas music lately, and every time O Holy Night is on, I chuckle as it gets to that part. Just one of those cute little kid things that became part of our vocabulary. Like suvvy, doo-ba-doos, zerberts, and Buffy the bear. For me, the words to that song have changed. I wonder what Mike would think.

The Haves and the Have-Nots

Some people, like I was for years, are just naturally photogenic. Sure, an occasional bad picture will show up. But for the most part, they just have that natural quality that assures great pictures. Hopey seems to have gotten that particular trait.

Then, there's poor little Naomi. If you snap fifty or a hundred pictures, you'll get lots of closed or half-closed eyes, funny looks, and turned heads. Lately, you'll also get alot of tears. Her scrapbook, when I ever get it started, will only have two or three pictures per page because that's all the pictures I have where she doesn't look drugged or constipated. She's apparently a have-not when it comes to the photogenic gene.

Is 'HeyYou' a name?

Why is it so difficult to agree on a name for this poor child? Apparently we can't name him Luke because he's not one of the Duke boys. David doesn't like Levi. He doesn't like Cain (ok, I'll give him that one). He doesn't like Isaiah, or Micah, or Paul, or Thomas ("he's a train"), or Simeon, or Stephen, or Peter, or Drew, or most of the other names I've suggested.

His suggestions were Scott (you mean like Jorgens?), Adam (Barfield? I think not), and Justin. Um, no. We have a million relatives with names I sorta like but can't use- Benjamin, Joshua, Jeffrey, James, Alexander. He said Caleb wasn't too bad- I didn't mention that Kris' kid is named that. But then I saw it on a most popular list, so out that one goes.

David had grudgingly said Ezekiel, Isaac, Gideon (hey, I was just looking for anything at that point), and Ethan are ok. While I like most of those names well enough, I wouldn't really want to name my child any of them. So it looks like the only names we even halfway agree on are Joel and Seth. Then there's the middle name- now David has issues with William.............Maybe kids should be like Cabbage Patch dolls and come pre-named. At least then you just live with what you get.

Bryn, have you been giving Hope pointers??

Three times today when I've asked Hope to pick up a few of her toys, she's told me she just can't because her arms are tired. Is this an inborn excuse that I just don't remember using, or has Bryn been telling Hope ways to get out of picking up after herself?

Can't we just dress him in pink......

........and pretend it's a girl?? I already had her named and everything. David had even agreed to the middle name, although I was a little sneaky in getting the agreement. I casually suggested the worst names I could come up with based on our ancestors. After he had said yuck to all of them, I mentioned the name I wanted, and he liked it. And now it was all for nothing?

I thought David and I had decided on a boy's name when I was pregnant the first time. I'd even suggested another name when I was prego with Naomi, and he said he liked Joel better. So when I called him and told him the baby was a boy, he said something about having to decide on a boy's name now. That night when he came home, he said how he'd been thinking that having a little David would be nice. Um, you already have a son and you already used David. Apparently that doesn't count? So he thinks since we like Joel, we should name him David Joel and call him DJ. Or Deej. I don't think so. We have all these pretty, biblical names for our girls and you want DJ? It's not a name, it's some letters, and it's the name of the girl on Full House. I'm not into unisex names. I'm not into initials. I'm not into Juniors. Is David there? Sure, which one? Big David or little David? Young David or old David. David or Davey? Hell will freeze before this kid's name is DJ.

I almost feel bad because when I thought David wanted to name him Joel and I kinda didn't, I was going to give in and tell him since I basically named both the girls, he could name the boy. Now, not a chance. I'm picking this one too. I guess we're back to the "you birth 'em, you name 'em" rule of mine.

One of those days

Work was awful today. I've been on the verge of tears since lunch. Some days I know it just isn't my day. My xrays just don't look good, I miss stuff on exams, I forget to write down things, but today I actually thought I was doing pretty good. The xrays looked fine- I even took any extras before being asked. I went over treatment with patients and documented why we were or were not moving forward. But the doctor was behind schedule. Is that my fault?? Apparently so. At least thats what he said as he was screaming at the other hygienist and office manager. Don't talk to me about it- that would be entirely too mature. No, instead lets vent to the other employees so I get to hear about it from them and look like a complete moron. I really thought I'd done what I was supposed to on the exam he was pissed about. I'd talked to the patient about everything, I'd charted correctly except for one spot. But she asked a rather detailed question that she had never even mentioned to me. How am I supposed to answer a question that she never even hinted about until the doc was in the room?

So after lunch I was in a less than stellar mood. But again, I tried to take good films, even took an extra one just in case he wanted it. I buzzed for an exam half an hour early because the patient had a broken filling. Did I want to do the filling? No- I hate restorative because I'm not very good at it. But at least we could've done it if needed. So when he finally comes in to do his exam- 35 minutes after I buzzed- he was livid because I could've done the filling if I'd gotten him in there to do the exam. What exactly would you like me to do? Stand in the hall and stare at you until you stop and come look at my patient? You knew I needed an exam, and yet it's my fault that you didn't get your arse in there?? I did snap at him a little when he asked me why I didn't do it-I said "Was I supposed to prep it?"(since that'd be totally illegal). But I'm not going to fight with him in front of a patient. I'd just make myself look worse. Better to just shut up and take it.

So my next patient had a tiny filling that had popped out. The guy didn't need an exam and there wasn't any decay, so I just filled it. I'm sure when Todd finds out about that, he'll have my hide because I did the filling. Darned if you do, darned if you don't.

Welcome home, Baby

After taking about two minutes to escape from her little pen and spending the night in the garage sleeping on a sleeping bag she found in a corner, Baby has made it inside the house. I was going to bring her in for a little bit today, but hadn't gotten around to it. But then David called at lunch and asked how cold it was out there and suggested we might need to get a space heater for her. I'd already had this brilliant revelation that I could just move all her stuff into the laundry room, so I told him that- if it gets too cold, she can always stay in there. After discussing the options a little, he unwittingly agreed to let her stay in the house as long as I vaccuum daily to keep the hair situation under control.

So she wandered around for awhile to check out all the rooms. I was real nervous about her peeing on a pile of clothes since her litterbox seemed untouched, so I went looking for her. Apparently she's as excited about being here as we are about having her. (except Hope- she thinks it's just grand and is sure Baby will love her if she's just nice to her. She doesn't get it that cats aren't the most friendly of creatures) Baby was in the back of my closet behind David's guitar wedged into a little corner. I'm sure it was the most secluded spot she could find to keep to herself.

After lunch I decided to vaccuum upstairs, and unfortunately for Baby, that included the closet. So she took off out of there and I didn't go looking for her. But Hope was SO concerned that nobody knew where Baby was, so she went looking. This time Baby was under Hope's bed, in the furthest corner behind a box where you could hardly see her. I'm surprised Hope even found her. If she keeps hiding like this, David may even forget she's here.

Gotta Say, It's Looking Promising

I know nobody else cares, but since I'm married to David and dad's kid, I'm just a little excited about the World Series so far. It's been ALL Boston. Valley Christian's girls softball team could probably play as well as Colorado has done so far. I very well may be jinxing this, but in a few days Boston should be sporting another ring. Go Red Sox!

The story I don't know

I saw in the obituaries that Dan Jarms' dad died the other day. Even though he was a pastor at Faith and worked at NBC, all I remember about Dan is how his mom used to do the potty dance on the sideline at his basketball games. Mom used to make so much fun of her and thought she acted like a freak. Maybe she did. Maybe Dan was embarrassed by his mother's behavior. Maybe not. But there was a part of the story none of us knew:

Dan had a brother that died when Dan was in high school. Maybe his mom acted the way she did because she knew what it was like to lose a child. Maybe she knew that there was nothing more important than supporting your child and making sure they knew you were proud of them and cared about their interests. Maybe she knew that it wasn't enough to just sit in the bleachers as a silent spectator. Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to think she was nutso when we didn't know the whole story. Maybe when I start to judge people based on nothing but a few isolated observations, I should remember that everyone has a story I don't know.

The Scent of........something

Naomi got sent home from daycare yesterday because she had a fever and a icky nose. So last night I gave her a bunch of decongestant and then remembered a vapor plug-in thing that I got when Hope was little. So I dug it out and plugged it in, hoping it would help keep her nose clear in the night.

This morning when I went into her room to get her, it smelled EXACTLY like the lingering scent that for the last several years has followed a certain big-haired blonde we all know and plug our nose around. If I never smelled whatever that is again, it would've been ok with me. But now that's all I smell when I open Naomi's door. Lovely. I wonder how long it will take to air out her room. At least it isn't as strong as L's stuff always was.

I just remembered another Hope story

When we were driving back here, we stopped at rest stops fairly often for potty breaks. The second day we'd stopped about three times, and none of the times had Hope actually gone to the bathroom. So she'd been sitting on the toilet trying to pee, and I heard someone else come into the bathroom. They sat down and started their business. All of a sudden this shocked look came over Hope's face and she about fell off the toilet turning around trying to look in the bowl to see if she was peeing. She apparently hadn't heard the other person come in, so she was a little confused as to what was going on. It was hilarious- the look on her face- she looked shocked, scared, confused, and concerned all at the same time. I laughed for a long time about that one.

You're not so good at being sneaky there, Hope

That little Hopey is funny. I suppose I'm thankful that she's not good at being sneaky. She's getting better at lying. She doesn't lie to me much, but there have been a few times when I'm not sure if she's telling the truth or not, and I have no way of checking.

But her sneakiness when she's trying to do something she knows she'll get in trouble for it cute. She is not allowed to jump on the couch, flip onto the couch, dive off the couch, etc. A few times lately she's told me "Don't watch this" or " Keep watching the tv" or "Keep reading your computer". Pretty good bet that she's going to do something on the couch she's not allowed to do.

Just now I set a cup of something I was eating on the couch. She casually wandered over to see if there was any left. There wasn't, so she asked if she could throw it away for me. Then as she's walking out of the room she says "Stay here and don't come in the family room". I don't care if she tries to scrape the sides of the cup or not, but I like that she at least warns me she's going to do something she thinks is disobedient. Makes my job a whole lot easier to have advanced notice.

How Pathetic Am I?!?

Remember Owen's old black sports car that sat in their driveway for years? Once, when I lived in Seattle, I saw one just like it. I was so homesick it made me miss Owen. Pretty bad, huh?

Today I was driving down the main street here on my way to the bank to open our accounts. As I was driving along, I saw a Value Village sign. And smiled. Over a stupid Value Village store. It made me feel like I was home again. And now I'm looking on ebay for raincoats for the Hopester and wondering what time Value Village opens tomorrow. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. The worst part is that I'm sad that I missed their Labor Day sale.

Do you think we have enough diapers??

Because this house doesn't have much storage space, my stockpile of daipers had to go in Naomi's closet. I think they take up about half the space in there. The five boxes of Huggies and Luvs are full of diapers too. And keep in mind that this is only my stockpile of size 4's; I have about 10 jumbo packs of 3's left too. My guesstimate of what sizes she'd need is a little off though. I thought I had plenty of size 3's, but Naomi doesn't have the tummy that Hope had, so the 3's are still plenty big on her. I bet she has another 6 months before I'll start to use up all these diapers in her closet.

On and On and On and On and On and On and On and .........

That's my opinion of I-90. It's like the Energizer Bunny; it keeps going and going............and going and going.

We spent Friday night at Amy's house. The plan was that David would come home from work, we'd get the cars loaded up, David would go to his goodbye dinner with all the people from work, and I'd go to Amy's. The reality was that David came home from work, we spent a long time trying to get the house finished up, David went to his party, I continued to pack, David came home from his party, we spent a lot more time cleaning up and getting the cars packed, and finally went to Amy's house about 10:30pm. Hope didn't get one more evening to play with McKenna, we didn't get any real time to spend with Amy and Andre before we left. We sat on the couch and talked for about an hour and then we all went to bed.

As expected, we didn't leave at 7am like I wanted to. Instead we left about 8:30. The Garmin had us going West on Highway 20 instead of going back to I-90. That actually was fine with me because, although it wasn't 70 (or 90) mph the whole way, it was a lot more interesting. We took that highway into Indiana, and then somewhere headed north to Minnesota. Somewhere near the western edge of Minnesota we finally got on I-90.

Last year when we drove to Rockford, we spend most of our second day driving through South Dakota. It's a long, boring state. This time, we got to South Dakota about 1pm, and drove all the stinkin' way across the state. At one point I was very close to falling asleep; in desperation I took a cue from all the stupid comedy movies where they slap themselves to stay awake, and was surprised to find it actually works! We got to Rapid City about 9:30 but had to find a gas station (since the Blazer stalled on the off ramp, it was so empty), a place to eat, our hotel (and of course they didn't have our reservation correct so I had to frantically call Bryn to get more info) so I don't think we got to our room until 10:30. Poor Naomi was so exhausted she couldn't get herself calmed down and the room was so tiny- there was no place to put her where she couldn't see us- so we got to listen to her cry for awhile; it took lots longer for her to go to sleep than usual.

Sunday was more of the same: long, boring drive. Both the girls were probably heartsick to get strapped back into those carseats for another thirteen-hour trip. Hope entertained herself watching movies on her DVD player, but Naomi doesn't like to watch tv, so she entertained herself by bugging Hope. Halfway through the day we put Hope in David's car since the sun was shining on her side of the car; at least the Blazer has tinted windows to make it a little better. Naomi also figured out how to sleep in the car, so she wasn't as crabby Sunday. The bad part of the trip was that we got to the twisty, curvy part of the freeway in Montana at nightfall. I dislike driving in the dark; I hate driving at high speeds on curvy roads. The combo was not fun for me. But we got through it safely. David and I bought two-way radios so we could talk to each other during the stretches of Wyoming and Montana that don't have cell reception; we talked to each other alot and kept each other awake. Actually, the curves kept me very awake. David's parents were nice enough to wait up till 11:30 when we finally pulled into their driveway. Both girls were asleep but figured it was time to wake up when we got out of the car; we had a tough time convincing Naomi she needed to go back to sleep instead of making faces at Nana. Finally we got to go to bed, in a familiar bed, with our own bedroom, separate from both girls, back in Washington.

To God Be The Glory

To God be the glory, great things He hath done.........Isn't it funny how you can not hear a song in years, and yet one phrase can bring it back completely. About an hour into our drive back to Washington, we passed this barn. I can't remember the last time I sang that hymn, but I know the girls are probably sick of hearing it now since I sang it from Freeport, Illinois to Minnesota or South Dakota. And it wasn't like I just remembered the chorus; oh no, I was belting out all three verses and could hear Duane Jorgens singing tenor behind me. I think about how most churches today do mainly worship choruses and wish they'd sing more hymns like this one. After singing them for twenty years, it's kind of nice to have a hymnal commited to memory so when a little phrase like this comes along, the rest of the hymn just flows right out.

WHAT'D YOU SAY???......or just very observant?

Hope listens to a VeggieTales CD every time she's in the car. One of her favorite songs is God is Bigger than the Boogieman. She was singing it on the way home from daycare with David today. She was singing the part about "there's a hundred tiny monsters jumping right into your jammies". David said she stopped for a minute and then said "How the hell are a hundred monsters going to get into your jammies?" After David confirmed that she had indeed said hell, he had a tough time not laughing as he explained that hell is a serious place and we don't say that word. He didn't control his laughter quite as well when he told me about it later:)

So Big

Last night Hopey crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night. We'd left the windows open because it was so nice outside, but she said her room was cold so she wanted to sleep with us. When she was little, I finally quit letting her sleep with us cause I was sick of getting kicked in the back the entire night. Last night when she was snuggled up against my back, her feet were in the crook of my knee. I can't believe she's gotten that big- we don't notice the growth day to day, but then you notice something like that and realize she's growing up.

You Have Been Good

Last year shortly before we moved, Scott Krippayne had a new song called You Have Been Good. I found myself singing it alot during the days while David was gone and I was getting packed, quitting my job, and preparing to leave Spokane. If I never got to move back to Spokane or Arizona or wherever else I wanted to live right then, God was still so good to me. He provided just what I needed just when I needed it.

I actually hadn't thought of the song for quite a while until it popped into my head again today. Since we started this whole moving-again thing, I knew it would be tought to sell our house here. I've just kept telling God it would be nice to at least have an offer on the house so we weren't just leaving with no idea when it would sell. Last week when someone wanted to see it, I thought maybe that was the answer to that specific prayer. At that point another song I hadn't thought of in years popped into my mind- Do I Trust You Lord. Yep, I do. I know that I can only see a part of the picture. So when they liked our house, but liked another better, I sang that song alot to remind my heart of what my head knew.

So, we had another couple who wanted to look at the house today. They've looked at 16 houses in the last two days and liked ours best. The only problem is their offer will be contingent on their house selling. We don't have the offer yet, so it may be a crummy offer, but that's not what I prayed about. I prayed for an offer on the house before we left. And that's what we got. You have been good. Mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace, time after time.

Hope the Ferocious Lion

Poor Hope- she's been pretending to be a lion lately. She holds out her fingers like claws, and snarls and roars at whomever happens to be nearby.

Well today Naomi was the recipient of the lion act. Unfortunately for Hope, Naomi thought it was funny. She'd laugh when Hope would roar, which made Hope mad. Then Hope would try to act more ferocious and mean, and Naomi would laugh harder, which made Hope even madder..............

Naomi's New Trick

If you think about it, dogs and kids are alot alike. Once they've been through obedience training and potty training, they're much more enjoyable to have around. They love to learn new tricks so you can fawn over how brilliant they are. And they respond very well to praise. And they seem to have selective hearing when you're telling them not to do something. Anyway........

While I was gone last weekend, David taught Naomi how to give kisses. Not that they're really kisses. She just leans towards you with a huge 'ole open mouth and aims in the general direction of your mouth or chin. But it is pretty sweet, if there's no food in her mouth, when she leans over to give you a kiss. Yesterday she even voluntarily kissed me and then laid her head on my shoulder when I got her out of her crib. For the world's most un-cuddly baby, that was pretty nice.

Secrets

One morning last week I was doing Hope's hair and asked her if she wanted to know a secret. She, of course, said yes. So I said, " I love you". She says, " I know, mom; I know all your secrets!"

These are my secrets that she says she knows:

1. I love you

2. I like you

3. You're a sweet girl
4. You're pretty

Yeah, she doesn't know all my secrets.

Summer School

Well, Hope and Naomi have officially completed their first week of daycare. Hope is in a PreK class, although I don't know that they're really doing much schooling since it's summer. Hope has had a few little attitude problems, but her teacher said today that she did really well- no pouting because someone didn't share with her or because she got scared. According to the teachers, she's entertaining everyone with her dancing and singing, and she seems to be re-enacting parts of Shawshank Redemption, only in reverse. Every day when she's out on the playground, she puts a handful of the rocks in her pocket to bring home. I don't know what her fascination is with rocks, but she acts like she's found wonderful little prizes out there and shows them to me thinking I'll be so thrilled. If she keeps it up, the playground is going to be rock-less.

Naomi is starting to adjust too. I don't think she's been taking naps, although today they told David she had her best day so far, and she took two naps. Even with her naps, she's been in bed every day when I've gotten home. Unfortunately even on days I get off work at five, I don't get home till around six. Since six is her normal bedtime, she's already snoozing when I get here. Tonight I woke her up so I could play with her for awhile, but she was crabby so I put her back to bed. I'm starting to re-think this working and daycare stuff, but it is nice to do something besides sit on this couch all day.

Happy Birthday Hope

Hope was so excited about her birthday! We didn't really do much; we were going to go to the Riverfront Park here, but there was something going on there. So we stayed around the house and Hope went out back and played most of the day. We told her we'd go wherever she wanted for dinner. Unfortunately she wanted McDonalds for dinner. After some persuading, we finally talked her into Red Robin. The promise of a ballloon and a free sundae helped a little. She loved having them sing to her and thanked the waitress several times for her balloons!


Here's a couple more pics from her birthday, and one of Naomi just cause she's cute!