The Kimbles

Quick 5

2012-02-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

I think we were spoiled last year. We had ONE cold snap that lasted about a week...and the rest of the winter was very mild. This year it's been cold and snowy the last few weeks, and for some reason I'm offended.

1. Please forgive me, Joya. I haven't been as good at teaching you as I was your sister. With Alaina I was very intentional about instructing her in the ways of colors, numbers, letters and body parts. Whenever I ask YOU where your (eye, ear, mouth) is, you stick your finger up your nose. I promise to try and teach you better by the time you enter formal schooling.

2. We have now watched Finding Nemo 2,234,295 times. I thought that when we got Tangled that we'd be watching that more often. But Alaina still asks for Finding Nemo every other day or so. And every time we watch it, she asks me why Nemo swims out to sea to touch the boat. Maybe we need to watch it a few more times to help with her comprehension.

3. (This Post is #1 in a series of ??? entitled Buying a House: Frustration and Discouragement Reach New Levels.) We are still waiting to hear on whether or not the seller is going to sign our offer on their house. We were fully aware that a.) buying a short sale and b.) using NACA were going to be long processes, but I had no idea that a seller would take coming on two weeks to decide if they want to sign our offer or not. It has reached the point that with each passing day I feel our chances grow smaller and smaller. Honestly, I just want to know if I need to keep looking at houses or not.

4. We don't quite have a walker in our house yet. Joya still takes pretty tentative steps. She'll take one or two, then sink to her knees in order to crawl the rest of the way. In the past day or so, she's been practicing a bit more, so I'm hopeful that she'll feel confident soon. I don't remember Alaina taking this much time with it. It seemed like she took her first steps and then immediately made walking her primary mode of transportation. Maybe she didn't. I don't remember that part.

5. For the first time in my life, I emailed my US senators and representative. For some reason I have been feeling a strong pull to get involved. And there is no one issue either. I've been posting the best I can on the issue of abortion on Facebook, and I emailed the senators and representative asking them to support the current bill for abstinence eduction. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for doing it, and I feel like Mrs. Abbott would be proud of me to. And now I feel like I could do it again and again. It's nice to have something to do when the babies are napping.

I. Love. Valentine's Day. Hope yours is pink and happy!

The Great Blizzard of 2012

2012-02-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

At least so far. The year is still young and it hasn't even gotten to March yet. We could have a day of more snow than this.

A shout-out to the White family for selling us their snow blower. Lee has never had so much fun. It took him three rounds to clear all the snow off our driveway. It would have taken him hours without it. So thank you.

Alaina enjoyed playing in the snow today. Joya has not played in the snow yet, for two reasons: 1.) I don't have snow clothes for her and 2.) Even if I did, she can't walk. The Kimble Family Rule is you must walk if you want to play in the snow. Just a little incentive for her. Mommy did take her outside and tried to show her how to eat snow. She thought that it meant that she should feed Mommy snow. She didn't branch out and try it herself.

The best place to play was under the tree, because it wasn't so deep there. All the other places were too hard for her to walk.

The snow comes up to her armpits.

I'm glad we had our snow. Now maybe we can move on to warmer things.

Quick 5

2012-02-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

1. We've taken a tiny step forward in our house hunting adventures. On Sunday we actually wrote an offer on a house. I think it would be such a good fit for our family. However, we're still waiting on word of whether or not the seller has accepted it. It's a short sale, so even if the seller signs it still has to go through the bank, which means that there are no guarantees that we'll get it. Our realtor thinks it's weird that the seller hasn't responded yet. I think they're waiting a few days to see if a better offer comes in. Which is lame. But it's their right, I suppose. I'd just like to know either way, you know?

2. Lo and behold, Joya has taken a few steps! She's not hard-core committed to the whole walking thing, but she has taken a few!

3. I've been barricading Joya in the living room since she turned mobile. Mostly because we only have one good baby gate, which goes across the stairs that go down, and I don't want her climbing up the stairs. But the past few days, she's been showing up in the kitchen when I'm cooking lunch or dinner. I didn't quite know how she was escaping...until today.

Yep. She simply climbs in the toy box. And out the other side.

4. I tried to get a picture of the girls together, because I'm terrible about doing that kind of stuff. Here's the best I could get:

5. And here's a good one of Alaina. 3-year-olds are so accommodating.

It's the 3rd of February...and winter begins! Stay warm!

Quick 5

2012-01-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

On with the show.

1. I have really enjoyed spending the girls' Christmas money this year. Maybe it's because I'm buying things that not only they'll enjoy, but I'll enjoy it too. I hope that's not too selfish. Alaina picked out this stuffed lamb from Kohls:

She loves that thing. She carries it with her most of the day. We also got Tangled, because it's our current favorite (Alaina's and mine.) With both of those things I let Alaina pay. I gave her the cash and she handed it over. Then she thanked the cashier for taking her Christmas money. I also bought the Music Machine CD set. That's the one that I'm hoping the girls will enjoy as much as I do. I loved that growing up, and haven't found the equivalent for yet. We need new kid tunes in the car, so I can't wait to bust that out for them.

2. I love sleeping pictures. I have so many of Alaina, and not enough of Joya. That's partly a second child thing, and partly due to the fact that Joya is usually awake and playing when I go in to get her. But I finally snagged one on Wednesday:

3. Joya isn't walking yet, but she's broken through her bottom molars. Last week she would wake up in the night and spend a good hour just moaning. It's so annoying, especially when I could tell she didn't have a fever or anything. A few days later she was hollering about something and I noticed two pearly whites in the back of her mouth. That definitely explains the waking up. So she can grind her food, but can't toddle across the room yet. We're hoping it's soon.

4. One of my favorite things about being a mother is watching the girls discover and enjoy things that I did as a kid. I introduced Joya to PBJs last week, and she loves them. And yesterday I gave Alaina a grilled cheese sandwich with grape jelly on top, and she wolfed that thing down. Usually Alaina spends a good amount of meal time chatting, but when she really likes something she won't say a word. I was surprised to look over and see she had eaten the whole thing, without any "eat your lunch" prodding.

5. Is anyone else just itching to do their taxes? I am. I'm waiting on two more things, and then I'll be good to go. I'm armed and ready with Turbo Tax. It's actually one of my favorite chores. That might change someday, but so far it's always been to our great advantage to get them done. I should have what I need by next week, and I'm excited. Now you know.

A big happy 3-0 to my sister-in-law, Mindy! Find yourself a chariot and hit the town!

Quick 5

2012-01-20T07:20:00.003-07:00

I love that every other week or so we get a 60 degree day so I can open the windows and let all the wintry, germy air out.

1. A week or so ago I ordered a temporal artery thermometer. You know, the kind that sweep across the forehead. I've already taken Joya's temperature about 20 times more than I ever did for Alaina, and I'm just anticipating that it might be a good investment. It was a good deal, so I did it. It came on Monday, and as I was playing around with it, I took my temp for fun. Turned out I had a fever of 102. Guess that's why I felt so terrible on Monday.

2. For posterity: Alaina has a great new joke. It goes like this:
Alaina: How do ducks fly?
Me: I don't know.
Alaina: They just wing it!
It really does make me laugh every time.

3. Tomorrow Joya will be 15 months and 1 week old. That is exactly how old Alaina was when she started walking. Joya is getting close, but I'm not sure that tomorrow is the day. She likes to stand and all, but walking doesn't seem that important to her. I'm ready for her to start walking; the girl needs to start carrying her own weight around here. She's getting heavy.

4. Today I am going to look at some houses with our realtor. We are this close to being able to put an offer on a house, and it's time to start looking around. However, our realtor told me that inventory is super low right now, and that Denver has one of the lowest inventories in the country. Not exactly encouraging to me. I suppose I'm going to have to learn when to hold out for something I know will be better, and when to suck it up and pick something because those are simply my choices.

5. I don't have much else to say. The rest of my brain power this week has been sucked up by my latest controversial book review and all the responses it's garnered, both on my blog and on the review I posted on Amazon. I've been called "disingenuous," "unfair," "biased," and accused of having no compassion or empathy. It's been fun.

Quick 5

2012-01-13T07:20:00.010-07:00

I seem to have lost my ability to come up with an opening statement.

1. Everything that has been building up culminated this week. Namely my job and MOPS. Sunday was my first solo day in charge of the nursery. No kids were harmed or lost, so it was a pretty good day. I also got a full glimpse of what the rest of the week will look like in terms of my job. Also, MOPS started on Monday. It went great. There were seven moms (including me) and two mentor moms, for a total of nine women. A nice, manageable number. In the midst of all this, I've been practically chanting to the girls "This is our life now." Mostly because they are now at the church quite often. Joya seems the most vocally opposed. She just gets cranky when she misses her morning nap (even though she sometimes doesn't take one anyway.) She's always very ready to go home, sometimes an hour or two before I am. But this is our life now. She'll get used to it.

2. Joya is learning the art of manipulation. Sometimes if I'm fussing at her, she'll give me this face:

I haven't quite mastered the art of not laughing at it. But I will. It'll be a sad day for her when The Face doesn't work anymore.

3. Alaina has been giving us this thumb's up sign lately:

She says that Grampa Kimble taught it to her. I've never seen him make that face in my life. She stands by her story.

4. The other day I changed the screen saver on our computer to the bubbles one. You know...bubbles come bouncing across the screen. Well, Grampa Kimble has the same one on his computer, so Alaina thinks that whenever it shows up on our computer that it's a gift from Grampa. That kid is so observant. I didn't even know she was around his computer enough to notice that kind of thing.

5. I've been crafting up a storm. Which is strange, since my schedule is suddenly full. But it turns out all I need is about 45 minutes or so. So I've made a couple of these. And one of this. And while in KC I made a couple of these. I think my funnest purchase of 2011 was my sewing machine.

Go Broncos!

Quick 5

2012-01-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

2012!!

1. The trip home from Kansas City was...eventful. In the wee hours of the morning, Alaina asked for the barf bag I brought. I gave it to her and she spit in it. No big deal. We stopped for breakfast. We all ate. An hour later, Lee heard Alaina coughing. He asked if she was okay, and I said, "Of course!" Then I looked back to see Mt. Vesuvius erupting. I hurried to get her the barf bag again, but only managed to get in on the tail end of the action. Thankfully we were just driving by a rest stop sign, so we made it there. Only to find that there were no paper towels in the rest stop. A lovely traveler gave us a few old towels and an almost-empty package of baby wipes to help. We cleaned up best we could, then got back in the car. Alaina seemed okay. Chipper. We stopped for lunch at Subway rather than McDonald's, thinking that Subway's fresher food would be easier on her stomach than greasy nuggets. She drank her juice and ate apples. An hour later, she was reaching for the barf bag again. She got most of it in this time. We were no where near a rest stop, so we cleaned her up on the side of I-70. She needed the bag one more time, as we were coming into Denver, but she didn't have anything left in her stomach by that point. She looked pathetic. Then we got home. An hour after we got home, she started asking for snacks. Then bouncing around the house. Then we ate dinner, and she was begging for food. I gave her a banana. Then told her she had to wait an hour. She asked constantly when the hour would be over. I gave her a bowl of dry Cheerios before bed. Then she went to bed and slept like a rock the whole night. We think we've determined that she was car sick, not sick sick. It could make our future drives to KC a bit tricky.

2. We came home with WAY more stuff than we went to KC with. We knew it was Christmas and all, but it's amazing that we were able to bring it all home. We even managed to come back with extra pounds on our bodies. I blame all the desserts. And the glorious milkshakes that my father-in-law makes. Mmmm.

3. I've tried to hit the ground running with my new job and with MOPS stuff. I feel like I've been uber-busy but don't have much to show for it. I'll be so glad to get the first MOPS meeting done; then maybe it will all settle into a routine. And I'm hoping that I'll remember that I need to be at church at 7:45 on Sunday morning.

4. It is so fun to watch Joya's little personality grow. I notice it mostly when she's in trouble. When I'm getting after her about something, she pooches out her lip and looks away. She refuses to look me in the eye. I have a hard time not laughing about it.

5. Alaina has been mourning the fact that Christmas is over, and so I made the mistake of telling her that she will be four years old next Christmas. Now she tells every person she sees that she will be four and then it will be Christmas. So they ask if her birthday is before Christmas, and I have to try and explain. I think she thinks Christmas will be in June this year, right after her birthday.

I haven't even had time to sit down and make goals for 2012. I suppose that's my first goal: make goals. It'll happen. Just not this week. Maybe not even next week.

Quick 5, Kansas City Style

2011-12-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Just an observation: the sun comes up later in Kansas City. Makes getting up at 6:15 feel like it's really 4:00am.

1. Joya's little fever was actually a bit more serious than I first thought. Thursday night her fever spiked again, which prompted me to call a 24-hour nurse hotline at midnight, just to make sure I didn't need to take her to an ER. The nurse assured me I didn't, and shortly after the call, Joya finally fell asleep. Then, feeling like the worst mother in the world, I packed her into the car at four in the morning to drive her to Kansas City. My reasoning was I could take care of a sick baby just as well in Kansas City as I could in Denver, but it is so lame to travel when you're sick. Well, she slept the whole way there, waking only when we stopped for food or gas. And then on Christmas Eve, I had had enough. I took her to urgent care, where the kind doctor checked her out. She deemed it a virus, which you all know you can't do anything about. So we just let her take 3 and 4 hour naps. And let her sleep 12 and 13 hours at night. And finally, the day after Christmas, she was back to her cheery self.

2. Christmas was a hit around here. During present time, we learned that we had to let Alaina go at her own pace. It seems that we assume that most kids want to plow through their presents at high speed. So as soon as she finished opening a present, we'd have another one waiting for her. She got a little upset that we weren't letting her play with the gifts she opened, so we slowed down. Really, that was fine with us, just a little surprising. She must be old beyond her years.

3. The girls LOVED playing with their Aunt Mindy and Uncle Josh. Uncle Josh spent hours and hours as Alaina's horsey. And Aunt Mindy and Uncle Josh have fun phones that have fun games like Angry Birds and Squish the Ants. Even Joya was able to play Pop the Balloons with Aunt Mindy. It was a sad day when they left to go back home.

4. And just a few random pics from the past week:

Joya slept the whole ride. Alaina stayed awake the whole ride, except for this brief 30-minute nap, just as we came into Kansas City.

Gramma and Grampa Kimble found a fun car that Joya LOVES to crawl into.

This turkey hat sings "Turkey in the Straw." Good times.

Joya is also a big fan of the princess castle from Gramma and Grampa. If you can't find her, look in there.

Alaina had fun making desserts with Gramma and Grampa

Storytime with Gramma

5. And now, on to one of my favorite times of year. I don't know why I like New Years so much. It's a little lame. Not sure why a new calendar signals such a feeling a freshness and newness. But it does. And while I'm excited about it, I'm trying not to stress out about it too. Because starting January 3rd I have to hit the ground running with the new position as the nursery coordinator, and starting up the MOPS group on January 9th. I'm trying to live by the philosophy that I'll get done what I can, and the rest will have to wait. I'll keep you posted on how that works out for me.

Happy New Year! Happy New Year, some more!

Quick 5

2011-12-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy, busy, good and not-so-good week before Christmas around here.

1. We painted cookies! I know it seems like a little, mundane thing, but I am so proud of myself. It turns out that I'm not really a fan of making huge messes, and painting cookies is definitely a mess. But I need to get over myself so my girls can have fun experiences and memories, so I got it all together. It was a mess, but one I was pleased with.

You can't keep a girl from licking her fingers while painting cookies

I'm not brave enough to give a 14-month-old frosting to paint her own cookies, so Joya just enjoyed eating one while we did the decorating

2. Then on Tuesday we drove down to Colorado Springs to making graham cracker gingerbread houses with Aunt Jamie and Naomi. My mom was able to come, and it was loads of fun. I brought WAY too much candy for two little girls to make houses, but I'm not sad about that.

3. A little holiday cheer for you, performed by Alaina. (This happens to be her favorite Christmas carol. I don't know why, but it's the one she sings all the time.)

4. We kind of had two not-so-good things happen this week, but happen at the best time possible. First, on Wednesday at midnight, Joya woke up with a fever. I gave her tylenol, but then she woke up whining every hour until 4:00. Then the whole day she would run a fever, and the medicine would bring it down slightly but the fever would spike back up again about the time for her to have more medicine. It was like that all day. She actually acted okay until the end of the day, when she had just had it. She didn't nap too well either, so she was in bed at 6:30. That ties into the second not-so-good thing which was the major snow dump we got that night. I ran out to get her some infant ibuprofen so I could do the alternating thing at about 8:00. It was snowing pretty heavily and it was pretty slick out there. Coming home was worse, since I was heading north and driving right into the blowing snow. I haven't been that scared in a long time. I probably should have sent Lee, but there are so many baby medications out there, and I knew exactly what I was looking for, so I thought I could do it. I made it home safe and sound, but only because I didn't go faster than 20 mph. It was worth it, though, because around 10:30 when Joya woke up again I gave her the ibuprofen and she then slept solid for the next 8 hours. She woke up on Thursday still wiped out, but without a fever. The good I see in both of those things, however, was that they happened on Wednesday and Wednesday night and not Thursday. Any later in the week and we might have had to alter our plans.

5. Which brings us to our plans. Today we are driving to Missouri to spend Christmas with Lee's family. I've been stalking the interstate forecast, and it shows nothing but sunshine and 0% chance of precipitation the whole way. That combined with my incredibly gracious and generous parents letting us use their car is going to make for a nice little road trip. Well, all that and John Denver and the Muppets will make for a nice road trip.

Merry Christmas! It's pretty incredible that God chose to come to be with us, so no matter what is going on, we definitely have a reason to celebrate.

Quick 5

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

1. Last Friday was Lee's work Christmas party. We had a great time last year, and we were looking forward to this year. They had planned a murder mystery, and those are always intriguing. (Side note: Lee says he's been to two other murder mysteries and they were both really lame. He boldly says this, even knowing full well that I planned one of them in college. Let's forget the fact that it was lame; the point is it's REALLY hard to plan banquets. So we went to this one with as little expectations as possible.) I'll spare you most of the many details, but I do have a couple of things to say. First, the company that put it on was REALLY good. Very entertaining. Second, I WON!! At the end of the night, you had to fill out this form saying who you thought was the murderer, and most importantly why. I totally nailed it. They gave us clues throughout the night that we were able to look over, and when I turned in my paper I had no dreams that I would have won. But then the host read the winning paper and I thought it sounded a lot like what I had written, and lo and behold. I won a water bottle (lame, but Lee uses it), a bottle of wine (too bad I don't like wine; I gave it to my folks), and four tickets to a comedy club in Denver. Comedy clubs aren't really my thing, but we're going to give it a try. Anyway, winning was pretty cool.

2. The Christmas program was last Sunday and it went off fabulously. I could not be more pleased with how the whole thing worked out. The music was great; I watched most of the services and did not get tired of the music once. The kid part was hilarious. I'm still a little sad that I didn't let Alaina participate, but it was still fun to watch. And the drama went off without a hitch. Seriously, we hit our sweet spot and pulled off all four performances nearly flawlessly. We rehearsed so much, but I still wasn't sure how it would all go, especially since for the final few rehearsals we made TONS of mistakes due to nerves or whatever. I just prayed the night before that God would be honored, and would honor all the work we had put into it. He truly came through for us on that one.

3. Alaina was able to watch the program, since my parents came to one of the services. She sat with them through the whole thing. Three things stuck out to her: 1.) At one point, the angel puts duct tape on the priest Zachariah's mouth. She of course wanted to know why he would do that. 2.) Another time, I, as the narrator, yell at the angel to "Knock It Off!!" Alaina pointed it out, and then wanted to spend the rest of the day telling various things (her sister, her toys) to knock it off. I finally told her that she could only tell people to knock it off when she's a mother. And 3.) After Mary has told Joseph what is going to happen, she tries to hug him. Joseph has not come to terms with it yet, so doesn't let Mary hug him. Alaina was very touched by that moment, wondering why "he wouldn't hug her." I love that she was paying attention.

4. I finally got around to making some Christmas treats this week. I made these lovely little pretzels that I saw on Pinterest. Super easy.

Pretzels, Hershey Kisses and M&Ms

And super addictive. I don't think there have been any scientific studies or anything, but I think the addictive properties of these little guys is right up there near chew and cigarettes.

5. Today I am going to make Christmas cookies, and this afternoon I am going to let Alaina "paint" them. I'm so excited about it; she's going to love it.

Is your Christmas shopping done?

Quick 5

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of the busiest weeks we've ever had, and yet I'm not sure I have enough to fill 5 today.

1. The reason it is busy is because of the Christmas program. Lee is playing guitar, so he's had his practices, and the drama has had their separate practices. We'll finally all run through it together on Saturday. While there are still quite a few unknowns as to how it's actually going to all turn out, I'm ready for it. And ready for it to be over.

2. On a Christmas program-related note, this year there are a couple of kid numbers in the program. A note was sent home after Cubbies one day asking for permission and explaining the rehearsal schedule for the kids. This was sent home in early November, when I was so busy I'm surprised my family got fed. The practices really involved the kids coming early to Awana, and then a few others. Well, the fact that I was in charge of the drama kind of had me at my limit, so I decided that Alaina wouldn't participate. I still feel pretty good about that decision, except for the fact that we always showed up to Awana at the end of the Christmas rehearsal, so Alaina really knows all the songs. She sings them all the time. I'm just a little sad because on Sunday she'll be in the nursery while her friends will be in the Christmas program. She doesn't really know about it, but I'm a little nervous that she's somehow going to find out. Like, one of the nursery workers will ask her if she's supposed to sing in the Christmas program, and she'll answer "Yes!" because the girl loves to be on stage, and then we'll have to get some things straightened out. As long as she doesn't realize what is going on, she'll be fine. They don't do a kid thing every year for Christmas, but I'm hoping there will be something else in the future she can participate in.

3. I've been waiting and waiting for Joya's face to clear up before we take her one-year pictures. In October and most of November she had a rash under and around her eyes. That lead to the taking her off dairy, which lead to soy milk, which lead to the Diaper Rash to End All Diaper Rashes. And still didn't really clear up the rash. She's back on milk, and the rash around her eyes is gone. I have no idea what made it go away. Now she has a rash around her mouth, which I am 98% sure is due to her paci-sucking at night. So I'm saying to heck with it, and we're going to have our good friend Leah take her pictures sometime in the next couple of weeks. The beauty of having Leah do it is the fact that I can load her pictures on a jump drive, bring them home, and practice my photoshopping skills. The world will never know that Joya always seems to have an unsightly rash on her face at this age.

4. I want to give a shout-out to Kohl's. They were doing some promotional thing that I don't really understand, except it involved red pieces of paper that looked like and acted like Kohl's bucks, only you didn't have to spend $50 to get them. They just handed them out when you made a purchase a week or so ago. I had two of them, and thanks to their crazy practice of making their price tags way higher than the actual price, I walked away with a nightshirt and six pairs of socks for $5 out of pocket. I love that store.

5. Alaina has become a pro at getting up in the night and using the bathroom. By herself. There was one night where she needed my help, but only because she was wearing her zip-up footie pjs. Those are hard for her to manage on her own. But if I put her in her regular pants/shirt jammies, she can handle it on her own. I think it's adorable, mostly because I don't ever hear her do it. I can just see signs in the morning, like the soap in the bathroom is moved to where she uses it, and her door is shut rather than cracked open. I was starting to get nervous, wondering if we were going to have to venture into letting her sleep in undies soon, which sounds like a disaster to me. But we're not there yet. For the longest time, her pull-up was reliably wet every morning. Now it's unreliably dry. So I'm waiting for the reliably dry days before we have to cross that bridge. I'm in no hurry, especially since she can now change out of a pull-up and into her undies on her own every morning.

Only two weeks left to soak up Christmas! :)

Quick 5

2011-12-02T07:00:00.002-07:00

Friday, eh? Okay then.

1. The house is decorated for Christmas. And Joya has not really messed with the tree. I'm a little surprised about that, actually. She's been our destructo, so I was fully prepared for the battle. I can't decide if this is one of those times where I should have expected the best and not the worst from my girl, or if I simply was prepared and shouldn't let my guard down.

2. For the first time in my adult life, I truly burned dinner this week. I was trying to make the crock-pot orange chicken. You are supposed to coat the chicken in flour and brown it before putting it in the crock pot. And I totally burned it. The pan must have been too hot, I must have crowded the chicken, I must not have been working fast enough. Anyway, I tossed it in the crock pot anyway and added the sauce thinking it wouldn't be that bad. It was. The house smelled like burned popcorn for the whole next day. I believe the recipe is a good one and I'd love to try it again, but this time it just tasted charred. My family ate it like champs, but it definitely wasn't my best moment.

3. We finally joined modern society and watched the movie Tangled. It's our new favorite around here. Throughout the day, Alaina will act out various scenes. In the movie, the bad mom calls Rapunzel "dummy" and I've told Alaina it's not very nice. So of course she feels the need to tell me several times a day that Rapunzel's mom called her that. I think it's her excuse to say the word as often as she can.

4. Alaina's newest addiction is playing in the snow. Yesterday it snowed again, and I happened to see Lee drive up as he came home from work. I said to the girls, "Daddy's home!" And Alaina hurried as fast as she could to get her snow clothes. She knew that Daddy would be shoveling the driveway, and that she would get to go outside. So I dressed her up. Lee tells me that she made a snow angel in the driveway. We're not sure why she chose the driveway and not the lawn.

5. And some pics from spaghetti night:
Joya enjoyed her dinner...

...while Alaina made "silly" faces (that she taught herself how to make)

Thanksgiving Quick 5

2011-11-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

There is no rest for the weary. So, at the insistance of my father and brother-in-law, you get a Quick 5 on this Black Friday.

1. Alaina is starting to love to play games. I think she learns them at Cubbies. Her first favorite is "I Spy." It's so cute to hear her say "I spy with my little eye sompfing...red!" Except she doesn't quite have the concept that you should spy something before you say it. Sometimes, after several failed guesses, I'll give up and then she'll take a moment to locate something of the color that I didn't say. Or she'll name something that is up in her room when we are in fact in the car at the moment.

2. Her second go-to game is "Pretend Flip the Cards." She always suggests this one when I tell her I'm tired of playing I Spy. To play, you simply pretend that you are playing a matching game. Unfortunately it is very easy to cheat when you are playing a pretend game of matching. Where's the accountability? I can't very well argue when she gets seven or eight matches in a row.

3. It has been so fun to watch all the cousins playing together. Last year, except for Alaina, they were all just lumps. This year they are starting to play together, even though most of their play involves taking toys from one another. They'll get it.

An unsolicited, completely candid kiss for cousin Naomi

4. For their ornaments this year, my sisters and I painted ceramic letters for all the kids. It was fun, and Alaina got to paint too. The girl loves her crafts. I should buckle down and let her do crafts more often.

5. My mom's friend came over on Thanksgiving day to take pictures of our family. The key to a good family picture at this phase of life is to not expect anything from the kids. So we didn't. And I think we got some great pictures.

The whole crew

The Kimble Crew

Let the enjoying of the Christmas season begin!

Quick...Something

2011-11-18T07:00:00.002-07:00

Lately I've been busier than a one-eyed cat watching two mouse holes. I'm directing/acting in the Christmas play at church, trying to start up a MOPS group (our first meeting is in 52 days!), preparing for a new job, and getting ready for the Marsh family Christmas that will take place on Thanksgiving this year. As in, next week. So I'm not sure if I can come up with a quick 5, but I can give you a quick something (so Dad and Nick have nothing to complain about.)

1. Did I mention my new job? Starting in January, I am going to be the nursery director at Valley View Christian Church. Yes, that's the church we go to. It's an extremely part time job, (I know 20 hours a week is part time...what do you call 10 hours a week?) and it's something that is stay-at-home mom friendly. Most of the job takes place on Sunday mornings, and the rest can be done at home. Or if I have to go in, I can bring the girls, because churches are the greatest places to work when you want to drag your mini-muffins along. I'm excited about it. This job came along at the perfect time for our family. God must have been involved or something.

2. I thought I'd show you a bit of Alaina's latest art:

I love it when Alaina draws a picture of her family. I'll explain this one to you. The person on the far left is Mommy. The thing dangling above Mommy's head is Batman. Joya is next. Then Alaina. (Notice she gave herself eyebrows.) On the far right is Daddy. And hanging upside down above Alaina is her brother Alan.

Alaina told me as she was coloring this that it was a rainbow. I think it looks like a human heart. And it didn't escape my notice that she used the colors of orange and blue. Which tells me that in Alaina's heart she is a Broncos fan. Good girl.

3. The other day, I dressed Joya is this outfit:

Alaina thought that Joya looked so pretty, and that she wanted to "be pretty like Joya." So she picked out this outfit:

4. I don't have much else. I think Joya's rash on her face is finally going away. It's a little hard to tell sometimes. But she's been off dairy for almost exactly a week, so that really must have been the problem. I think I'm going to give it one more week just to be sure, and then I'll slowly introduce cheese and stuff to see what she can tolerate.

That's it. My brain is fried.

Quick 5

2011-11-11T07:00:00.005-07:00

Most of my Quick 5s are Alaina-heavy. It's because she's 3 and completely interacting with the world. Nothing against Joya; Joya is cute and sweet but still pretty much just does the normal baby things. However, this week Joya gets a chance to shine.

1. For the past month, Joya has had a rash on her face. Mostly under her eyes. It's a little unsightly, and looks worse on some days than it does on others. I finally got her into see the PA yesterday. She recommended a pretty expensive lotion (which the pharmacist assistant raved about) and prescribed a steroid cream that I'm supposed to use sparingly. However, the biggest thing she mentioned was that it might be a milk allergy. I'm so bummed about that, but it's worth a try. Soy and rice milk is more expensive, but I'm trying to tell myself that it's not as expensive as formula (right?) If switching the milk doesn't clear up the rash, then we'll try this crazy cream, but the milk thing might be the way to go. She doesn't really have any other symptoms, like wheezing or vomiting, but it's worth a shot to see. I've been putting off her one-year baby pictures until the rash clears up, so hopefully we'll see results soon.

2. On Saturday we heard a weird sound coming from the corner. Joya was playing near the chairs, and I didn't think too much of it. Then Lee looked over and put an end to the sound. Joya was CHEWING on the chair. She chewed the paint right off. I sure hope the paint was non-toxic. So far she seems okay. The chair might never recover.

3. In the teeth related world, Joya also has been known to grind the four teeth that she has. A few weeks ago, I heard a story on the radio talking about misophonia, which, according to ask.com, is an extreme intolerance to a sound. It literally means an "extreme dislike" or "hatred" of a sound. Apparently, grinding of teeth triggers misophonia in me. I have to struggle to tone down my reaction when I hear her grinding her teeth. I know she's just a baby and can't understand why I'm freaking out, but that sound really bothers me.

Our friend in college, Brian, used to freak out when he heard someone crack their knuckles or back. We used to do it just to watch him freak out. Brian, if you're reading this, I'm so sorry. I totally get it now. Just thinking about it has raised my heart rate quite a bit.

4. Who needs to buy hair product when mac and cheese has equally satisfactory results?

5. And I haven't forgotten about Alaina. Here are the cutest things she says right now:

The "fff" sound instead of "th"...as in "Fursday" and "Firsty." Even when we coach her on the "th" sound, she'll say "Th...th...firsty!"

"Froap" = throat

"Camalope...K...M...L...Camalope"

Happy 11/11/11! Do any of you do things to celebrate days like this?

Buck-Toothed Beauty

2011-11-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

An addendum to last week's quick 5 -

Still not the greatest pic, but the best one I could get, with Daddy's help.

Now if only she'd let me do something with that hair...

Quick 5

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-06:00

Life goes on.

1. We are not a Halloween family, and this is the first year that we spent a lot of time talking about it. Between the way people decorate for Halloween like they do Christmas, and all the stuff in the stores, and all the Halloween-themed shows, Alaina had plenty of questions. My favorite part, though, came on Halloween night. We left our porch light off, so as not to encourage trick-or-treaters to stop at our door, but that didn't stop one eager little person. Around 7:30 we heard a pounding on our door, and then I heard his mom call out "No! We only go to the ones who have their light on!" Alaina, however, got a stricken look on her face. She wanted to peak out our closed blinds, and I told her not to. Then she told me she was scared. I asked her what she was scared of, and she said, "The kids! They're all dressed up and walking around with their buckets of candy!" It made me laugh, as if kids walking around with buckets of candy was the scary part of the day.

2. I'm in the camp that enjoys the fact that Christmas sprouts up on November 1st. If we're going to celebrate something, let's celebrate the fact that God came to be with us! And let's celebrate for two full months! And I love that anytime Alaina sees anything that has to do with Christmas, she shouts, "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" Merry Christmas, indeed.

3. I think it is so cute whenever Joya does something that is more little person than baby. Currently it's the handing over of things. If she has something she's not supposed to have, or if she's chewing on something she's not supposed to chew, we'll ask her to hand it over. And she always immediately does. I like it, because it is one of the first few signs that she understands what we are saying to her.

4. Her two, big front teeth also make her seem more like a child than a baby. We like to call her our Buck-Toothed Beauty. I'd post a picture, but I can't get a good one. She's too wiggly for that.

5. I have been summoned by the Great State of Colorado for jury duty on Monday. Someday I think I really would like to sit on a jury. Just not now. Best case scenario is that I call the number on Friday evening, and my juror number doesn't come up. If it does, then Lee will have to stay home from work so I can go. I don't have a smart phone or iPad or anything cool like that, so I'm afraid that having to report will be terribly boring. If I do have to report, I doubt I'll be selected for a trial, which means it will all be for naught. And there is nothing more annoying to me than wasting my time like that. But this is a momentous occasion anyway, because it's my first time being summoned.

Thanksgiving is only three weeks away! Let the turkey sales begin!

Quick 5

2011-10-28T07:00:00.002-06:00

It's the end of October, and Christmas songs are starting to quietly creep into my consciousness. It's the most wonderful time of the year, right?

1. Sometimes Alaina spills her water, like every little kid. Only she no longer tells me about it; she simply takes it upon herself to clean it up. Sounds like a great arrangement, except for the fact that her go-to means of cleaning up spills is toilet paper. I get it: it is within her reach. But toilet paper is the worst thing to use to clean up a spill. It creates a bigger mess. I'm trying to tell her to just tell me so I can get her a towel. I suppose I'll just have to put a few towels within her reach, and teach her where those are.

2. In a related story, for the first time in their little lives, Alaina and her friend Avery were naughty together. I was watching the younger two Gillett girls while their mom was teaching piano lessons this past Monday, and things were going great. I had finally turned on The Aristocats, so Macy, Joya and I were enjoying that movie, while Alaina and Avery got bored and wandered off. They just went into the dining room, where Alaina's coloring table is, so it was fine. I heard them giggling and shrieking and having a grand old time, and that was fine too. After awhile I finally got up to go check on them, only to find them standing on chairs at the dining room table. I had forgotten that I had given them all small paper cups of water for their snack. Well, the water cups were empty, and all across the table was water, clumps of wet toilet paper and all the salt and pepper from my salt and pepper shakers. There was a good amount of salt and pepper on the carpet too. I immediately put a stop to that, scolded the girls and banished them to the living room to watch the rest of the movie while I cleaned up the mess. Of course Alaina immediately started crying when she saw me (funny how she was giggling before I came in, but the minute I entered the room she knew she was in trouble.) Right then Lee got home, and Alaina tearfully told him, "Daddy, I made a mistake!" It was the first time little Thelma and Louise had been naughty at my house. Not too big a deal, but one for the books, that's for sure.

3. Joya now has four teeth, her middle bottom and her middle top. I forgot how big the top middle teeth are; hers are probably halfway grown in, and it has almost erased the baby look of her face. Babies seem to become kids when they have their teeth. Mothers all over like to proudly point out how early their babies get teeth, but I'm not so sure it's a good thing. It's just one huge sign that your baby isn't going to be a baby forever.

4. Wednesday we had our first snow of the season. It actually was my favorite kind of snow: snow falling all day, sticking to the grass and trees but melting on the roads. I wish it would snow like that all the time. Anyway, it was the first time that Alaina got to get dressed up in snow gear and go outside to play. She, of course, loved it. And was horribly sad when it was time to come in. I sent her outside with her daddy, who spent most of the time lobbing snowballs at her. She would shriek and giggle every time she got hit. So. Cute. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery decided to peter out.

5. The sight of all the colored trees makes me happy. It seemed to take awhile, but finally all the trees that turn red are bright red. For some reason, though, as we're driving around, Alaina always says, "Ooo, yellow trees? Remember what Grandad says? He doesn't like the yellow ones!" Is that true, Grandad? Because she's said it more than once, so you must have said it to her. :)

Have a great weekend, and get out there and read The Hunger Games!

Quick 5

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

What. A. Week.

1. At the end of last week, we had have my car towed into the shop. Again. The emergency brake locked up, and we couldn't get it to disengage. That is an expensive fix, let me tell you. The worst part about all this car trouble that we've been having lately, is that I no longer trust our cars. Before I leave the house I check and double check to make sure I have my cell phone and the diaper bag, just in case we're going to be stuck somewhere. Not really a fun way to live.

2. On Monday, I took Joya in for her one-year check up. Everything is in perfect order. And I'm terrible about getting numbers, but I can tell you that she is very tall. She's in the 90th percentile for height. But we all knew this. At that visit, Joya got two shots, and Alaina and I each got our flu shot. It was the first time since Alaina was tiny that she cried at getting a shot. It was sad. I expected Joya to cry, and she did, but not Alaina.

3. As a result of the shots, Joya had a fever Monday night. I heard her whimpering, and simply thought she was cold. She refuses to sleep under a blanket, so she sometimes wakes up cold. I ignored it, but then heard her whimpering an hour later. I got out of bed to go cover her up, and while she was uncovered, she was on fire. I quickly gave her some baby tylenol, and then tried to go back to sleep. She was still whimpering 45 minutes later, so I picked her up and held her for awhile. I felt her fever brake, then put her back to bed. She still whimpered off and on for the rest of the night, but she didn't have a fever again. Even though it was 3:00 in the morning, I actually loved holding her. She doesn't really snuggle often; she's too busy for that. But at 3:00 in the morning with a fever, she was tired and didn't feel good, so she laid still on my shoulder and let me just rub her back. I was sad she wasn't feeling well, but I really enjoyed that snuggle time.

4. Here's a fun comparison:

Alaina's First Birthday

Joya's First Birthday

5. Joya is finally, officially pulling herself up on everything. It is so cute to see her standing. I still don't have high expectations of her walking soon, since Alaina didn't walk until she was 15 months old, but she could surprise me.

Well, we have another weekend of gorgeous weather coming up. Hope it's gorgeous where you are too.

Joya's First Birthday Party

2011-10-18T14:41:00.000-06:00

We had Joya's birthday party on Saturday. It was a lovely, very warm day, which made my menu of yummy fall soups kind of a bad idea. But who knew it would be 80 degrees in the middle of October? My parents and brother, sister and her family and some family friends crowded into our house for the big event. Joya cheerfully crawled around, chowed down on potatoes and carrots from the sausage potato soup, and turned delighfully bashful when we all sang Happy Birthday to her. She enjoyed the cake, but didn't eat too much of it. I'll be honest: we (and I do mean I) are pretty militant about keeping the girls from sugar until they are one, and I love how when we do finally give them cake or whatnot, that they are perfectly content with just a couple of bites. If only I could show that same restraint.

And here's another confession: I'm not a fan of the first birthday. I think I'll do much better when the girls can tell me how they want to celebrate. I don't really know if I do enough, or if I'm going overboard, since when they turn one, they don't really care anyway. But I do like celebrating my girls. And I was so proud to celebrate Joya.

The party guests arrive

Joya just wants a toy to chew on

Opening presents

She got toys and clothes

Grandad the Party Animal

Sometimes Mommy didn't open the presents fast enough

Alaina got to hold her cousin Oliver

Lovely shoes from Apple Ben

Blowing out the candle

It's so pretty

The only bite she took of the whole cake; the frosting was much better

Trying to get the cake off her hands

Happy 1st Birthday, Joya!

2011-10-14T07:00:00.001-06:00

Happy birthday, Joya Bear! You are one year old today! You are growing and learning and trying new things. We love having you in our family. You are sweet and silly and love to watch your sister. You really like emptying things, like toy boxes. My favorite thing to watch you do is read books. You like to crawl over to the bookshelf and take all the books off, one by one. You open them and look at the pages. Sometimes you even try to eat the pages, but you'll grow out of that soon. Just yesterday you pulled up to standing for the first time, so I know that pretty soon you'll be walking around just like your big sister. You also love to clap your hands. Your favorite Baby Einstein DVDs are the ones with the animals on them.

We love you so much. We pray that the Lord protects your life, and that you draw close to Him at an early age. We pray that you will grow to hate sin, and that you will get caught when you're guilty. We pray that God guides you in the path of righteousness and that you will learn to call on God for every need. We pray that you will care of others and learn to love as God desires you to.

We are so excited to see how you will learn and grow this year. We know that your babyness is going to quickly melt away into fun, funny toddlerhood, and we can't wait to see you grow up.

We love you!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy and Alaina

Quick 5

2011-10-07T07:00:00.004-06:00

Well, we made it to October. Apparently the angry wind outside means the seasons are changing. I'll have to see it to believe it.

1. This week we had a play date with Grammy. We saw Grammy on Sunday when we went to Colorado Springs to celebrate my nephew Oliver's dedication, but apparently that wasn't enough. On Monday morning, Alaina spent a good amount of her room time sobbing because she wanted Grammy. When I asked her why she wanted Grammy, she replied, "Because I love her!" And when I asked her what she would do if Grammy were here, she said, "Go to the playground!" So I asked her if I should email Grammy to see if she might have some time in the next couple of weeks to come over and play. Alaina perked up then, and said, "Yes! Go mail her right now!" She then proceeded to ask throughout the day if Grammy had "mailed" back. Thankfully Grammy was able to come over on Wednesday for a trip to the park. I guess the girl just needed to fill up her Grammy tank.

2. The bad news of the week: Lee's car needed to go into the shop. Nothing like watching big chunks of your bank account disappear rapidly.

3. Lately, Alaina wants to pray this prayer at every meal:

Thank you, Cubbies!

4. Joya is slowly catching on to the idea of eating big people food. This is what she looked like after a particularly enjoyable lunch:

5. I know that Alaina is getting older, and that means it's time to start responsibility training. However, I really struggle with knowing what kind of chores are appropriate for her. I read the articles online, but they don't really help me, for some reason. Right now Alaina's main responsibilities are cleaning up the toys in the living room at the end of the day, and gathering and taking out the recycle. Then today I stumbled upon another one that I think she might be able to help with: dusting. I got a Swiffer feather duster thing in the mail, so I've been using it. Today I handed it over to Alaina to use on the shelves within her reach. And she LOVED it. And cried and cried when I made her put it away so she could go take a nap. I hope she feels this level of excitement toward all the chores I give her in the future.

A big shout-out to my foreign family: sis Carolyn and bro-in-law Jason who are celebrating their 5th anniversary today. Congratulations, you two! Hope it involves a trip across the border to Sonic.

Quick 5

2011-09-30T07:30:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe it's the end of September already, mostly because the temperature around here spiked up and has stayed in the upper 80s for the past week. But it's true.

1. My biggest and best accomplishment this week has been completing the Names Project. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and that very week found letters on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each. Putting up your children's names is pretty popular these days, and I've always wanted to do it. I finally made it happen and I love how it turned out. I am really proud of myself for seeing an idea I liked and carrying out to completion. And as an added bonus, it took Alaina all of one day to finally learn to confidently spell her own name.

2. My grandparents came into town last week, and we were able to spend some time with them on Saturday. Always fun to see them; Alaina talks about "GGma and GGpa" often. Asking if they have white hair, and things like that.

3. Alaina has discovered knock-knock jokes. The problem is I can never think of any. So we have three that we say over and over and over... Alaina likes to start by either telling me that she'll say "knock knock," or instructing me to say "knock knock" so she can say "who's there."

4. Yesterday we went to Lee's work and had a picnic lunch. He's been saying for months that we should do it, and it's always been a good idea, but I just didn't make it happen until this week. He's been talking about how nice the grounds are, and they truly are. The thing is, I always thought he was talking about eating in the courtyard by his building. It's a very nice courtyard, with a waterfall and shady walk way. But he meant the pond, which is right next to his building. It's a very cool park, with a "castle" that had a picnic table right inside. Makes me wish we had gone there more often through the summer.

Daddy and Alaina

Eating inside the "castle"

The "castle"...I think it's actually a really old building of some sort. Very cool.

Daddy and Alaina looking at the creek

How Joya looked for most of the picnic. She has been SO CRABBY lately.

If Alaina is running around outside, then she probably has a stick in her hand.

Alaina posing with the statue. There are several statues around this cool park.

5. I guess there's no getting around talking about this. Perhaps the biggest thing in our lives right now is the fact that we've again decided to take steps toward buying a house. We were hoping to get out of school debt before taking on mortgage debt, but we can't ignore how low the rates are right now. They won't stay that way forever. So we're diving into that world. This week we had a meeting with a mortgage counselor and are now just waiting to be approved. It is both very exciting and fills me with anxiety at the same time. I hope it turns out well.

That's a wrap. See you next week!

Quick 5

2011-09-23T07:20:00.001-06:00

What glorious, end-of-September weather we're having! It's amazing how much nicer the weather is when you're not 38 weeks pregnant...

1. Alaina is starting to grasp the meaning of choices. She'll be playing with a toy or coloring a picture and she'll bring it to us and ask, "Is this cool or awesome?" Or when we're eating strawberries, "Is it yummy or tasty?" I believe the next phase will be teaching her exactly what a synonym is.

2. I'd like to give a big THANKS to Aunt Mindy for teaching Alaina about the naked dance. While we were in Missouri, Aunt Mindy helped Alaina get on her swim suit one day. Apparently as soon as Alaina was completely disrobed, she did a little dance. Aunt Mindy noticed the naked dance and said something about it. Now every single time I'm trying to get Alaina dressed, she sings a little song that goes, "Do the do the naked dance!" (to the tune of the Shimmy Shake, for all you Wiggles fans out there.) She never did that before. And sometimes it really slows us down. So thanks, Aunt Mindy.

3. Joya has been crawling around for quite awhile now. She has this crazy army/ninja crawl and can move at a surprising speed. However, the other day I happened to catch her crawling up on all fours. As soon as she saw me, she dropped back down to her belly. Like it was a big secret that she knows how to crawl on her hands and knees. I didn't realize that 11-month-olds had secrets.

4. We had Part II of the Great Car Saga this week. It involved crazy, unreliable start ups, a day in the car shop, and a chunk of change flying out the window. I'm hoping that all the work we've done in the last month will last us at least another two years. Car troubles give me a tummy ache.

5. Alaina won the coveted honor of taking home Cubbie Bear this week. It's the little brown bear mascot for her Awana Cubbies class, and when I asked her why she got to bring it home, she said, "Because I listened!" How reminiscent of Paddington Bear in kindergarten...do they still do that? Anyway, having Cubbie Bear makes me nervous. I'm trying to teach Alaina to be kinder to it than she is her other toys because it's borrowed, and I'm assuming going home with someone else next week. Mostly I won't let her take it into the bathroom with her. However, she has never really attached herself to any toy, so it's kind of fun to see her so invested in this one. I hope it won't cause problems when it's time for Cubbie Bear to move on. I see a lesson in the cycle of friendships in our near future.

The end!

Quick 5

2011-09-16T07:28:00.001-06:00

Friday again? Here we go:

1. What better way to start out a Quick 5 than with this cuteness?

2. The real excitement of our past week actually took place all last weekend. On Friday Lee stayed home from work so he could watch the girls while I went to Live Audience Friday. There is a radio morning show that I've listened to since high school, and they have a live audience in every Friday. You have to show up at 5:45 (yes, in the morning) armed with treats, and in return you get a catered breakfast and a morning of fun. You feel like you know the DJs, even though you don't really. I had such a good time, even though technically I went by myself. The other audience members were friendly, and the morning sailed by. Then Friday afternoon we took the girls to my parents' house so we could go to a Rockies game with our good friends Kelvin and Leah. It was the first time we had done something just the four of us since probably 2006. (For some reason there are always little girls around.) Our girls spent the night at Grammy and Grandad's, and Lee and I did a song at a wedding on Saturday morning. Full weekend, but really really fun all around.

3. Here is a shocking announcement: we are creatures of habit. Every afternoon at 3:30, Joya gets a bottle and Alaina gets fruit snacks. They are simple, cheap Great Value brand, but she likes them. And I really like the purple ones. So every day, when I open the package for her, I eat a purple one. And then she proceeds to give me all the purple ones out of her bag. It is so sweet that it breaks my heart every time. She knows I like them, and she wants to share them. (Especially if it means I don't ask for her yellow ones.) I always look at her and hope that I am selfless enough to know when someone else has a favorite and that I'll always choose to give it to them, just because they like it.

4. MOPS started up for us this week. I'm trying to start a MOPS group at our church, but it's been slow going, so since our target start date is January 2012, I thought we'd just attend the group we went to last semester. I was so proud of the girls. Of course Alaina had no problems. Joya, however, has not been as easy going about nursery situations as her sister. Even at our church, she clutches my neck and howls when I try to hand her over to the ladies that she really should know by now. So I was prepared for the same theatrics at MOPS. Well, she didn't make a peep. She willingly went to the nice ladies who work in the infant room, and she even took her bottle from them like she's been doing it all her life. She was just chilling when I went to pick her up. Of course, only time will tell if it was fluke or a new habit, but I have high hopes.

5. It's amazing to realize that we are one month away from Joya's first birthday. I've been starting to gather things for her party, and made an appointment for her one-year check up. I wouldn't say this past year has flown by, but it hasn't felt long either. I just know that once they turn one, their babyness quickly melts into toddler-hood. It feels like we've climbed to the top of a roller coaster and are about to tip over the other side. I can't even imagine what she's going to be like as a toddler. She'll start using words, and walking, and taking toys away from her sister rather than just crying when her toys are taken from her, and developing preferences. I think the real show is about to begin.

Technically this is the last week of summer, so enjoy it! We'll never see the summer of 2011 again.

Quick 5

2011-09-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

Any doubt that fall weather would actually come this year has been driven away by cold, drizzly rain. I love it.

1. Our Labor Day weekend was rather quiet. On Saturday we went to my parents' house with the intent on spending a day at a pool, but 70 degree temperatures quickly nipped that plan in the bud. So we went on a picnic instead. It was kind of a chilly picnic, especially since I didn't dress my girls right, but the sun was out and the fresh air was pleasant.

In the absence of a jacket, the picnic blanket kept Alaina "comfy cozy"

In the absence of a blanket, a nearly-forgotten nursing cover covered up Joya's chubby legs

2. Speaking of chilly, the weather this week was wonderful! Except for the fact that it completely caught me off-guard regarding the girls' wardrobes. I frantically had to dig out pants and socks. And then I realized that maybe Alaina's clothes won't work so well for Joya this fall. Baby sizes are easy, because they get bigger in three-month increments, and you can really fudge the difference between 6 and 9 months, or 9 and 12. But there seems to be a HUGE difference between 12 months and 18 months. Which means I need to get a few things for Joya. I scored a box off of Ebay, and yesterday I went to my favorite second-hand store to get the poor girl some warm jammies.

3. Speaking of warm jammies, it has been a rough week sleep-wise for Joya. Part of it is the teething thing, and I think the other part has been that she's just plain cold. She sleeps in a light-weight sleep sack, but it hasn't been enough. I try to cover her up with a blanket, but she wriggles around too much, so it usually only stays on her for a grand total of 10 minutes. And then she wakes up and cries. When I go in to find her paci, her little arms are so chilly. I think, until she gets older, I'm simply going to have to dress her in sub-zero weather jammies. It may seem overkill, but she won't snuggle under the covers like normal people, so the covers need to go where she goes.

4. Alaina has thoroughly been enjoying Cubbies. She even got her Jumpers patch this week. I took a picture of her in her vest and also because it was crazy hair night this week. The crazy hair didn't really come through in the picture. And her crazy hair was quite vanilla compared to the really crazy hair that was there. I'll know better for next year.

5. I'm sure that this is only because it is the only thing she knows, but the other day I asked Alaina what she wanted to be when she grew up.
"A mudder," she replied.
Melted my heart.

Amazing that it has been 10 years since the 9/11 tragedy. Like most Americans, that day is vividly burned in my memory. I hope you all take time to pray for those who are still really hurting this weekend.

Quick 5

2011-09-02T07:30:00.001-06:00

This feels like it has been the week of major FAILS. Kind of in the "when it rains, it pours" fashion.

1. FAIL #1 - Dinner on Monday. I found a recipe online for crock-pot orange chicken. Chinese style. I love Chinese food, and rarely get it, so I'm always fascinated by Chinese-style recipes. And it seemed so simple. So I did it. And it was AWFUL. Gross. I like to experiment with new recipes, and 80 % of the time they turn out edible but unimpressive, 15% of the time they are amazing, and then there is the 5% of the time that makes you want to rub your tongue with sandpaper. This fell into the 5%. I vowed to never again make any form of crock-pot orange chicken. Then my friend Sara posted a different crock-pot orange chicken recipe on Pinterest, and even with my recent failure in mind, I'm thoroughly tempted to try again...

2. FAIL #2 - I've slowly been getting rid of boxes that we've been carting around for our entire married life. They've traveled with us to each of the five places we've lived so far, and we never use what's inside. So I've been taking a quick peek, then throwing out the entire contents, no matter what it is. A week or so ago, though, I found an old disposable camera that had 3 pictures left on it. So I snapped three quick pics of the girls, trekked to Wal-Mart and dropped it off at the photo center. (Side note: because sending out actual film is so old-school, it takes a full week to get it back these days. Normal people simply print their pictures right there, so Wal-Mart seems to no longer process film.) So Tuesday I went and picked up the pictures. And the quality was terrible. Mostly unrecognizable, with a few decent ones out of the 27 exposures. They were from the wedding reception we had in Kansas City back in 2004. And it cost me $7.00 to get those terrible pictures back. I thought it was going to be fun to see what was on the camera, but the fact that it cost $7.00 overrode any joy. Film goes bad, people.

3. FAIL #3 - Major car fail. After said Wal-Mart trip, I swung through the gas station to fill up the ol' iron belly. I completed my transaction, got back in the car, turned the key...and nothing happened. I checked to make sure I was in park (I was) and tried again. And again. And again. Then called Lee. Then asked if someone would give me a jump. A very nice man tried to help, but jumping didn't work. I then began to freak out a bit and called Lee again. He had to leave work and call our friend Kelvin to come help us sort it all out. It ended up involving a not-cheap tow and some work on the car. It was also one of my greatest fears: being stranded with the girls, without any baby supplies. I've not been good about making sure the diaper bag is in the car lately. We run errands every day, but we're always home within an hour, so I've just been lazy. But it was creeping up on lunchtime and Joya was screaming in the car. I had just happened to buy some baby snacks at Wal-Mart, so I got the girls out of the car and between the two of them they devoured almost the entire bag as we waited for help to arrive. So now I will always carry the diaper bag, as well as a bottle and a small container of formula with me, even if I'm making a two-minute trip to the mail box.

4. The bright side of Fail #3 is that our car insurance covers emergency roadside assistance (the tow), and we have a couple of extra checks coming our way that will cover the repairs. While I wish we could have used those extra checks for other things, I'm thankful that God knew that we would need that money right now for the unpleasant business of car upkeep.

5. And brighter still, here are my girls in their rainbow dresses that they wore on Sunday. How can you not feel more cheerful after looking at this?

Have a pleasant long weekend everyone!

Quick 5

2011-08-26T07:30:00.003-06:00

And another month bites the dust.

1. I'd like to start this week's Quick 5 with a few cute pics of my cute girls.

Alaina really wanted me to take a picture of her drinking her juice.

2. You'll notice that I have Joya's hair up Pebbles-style. I have to do something. Her hair is growing in quite nicely, except for that weird long tuft on the top of her head. I don't really want to cut it, because I don't see how you could, so I've had to figure out how to pull it back out of her eyes. It's super-fine, but I've finally made a few bows that hold it up. The only problem is she likes to pull out the bow. The other day I watched her pull out the bow, look at it in her hand, and then put it back on her head, as if it would just stick there. It was so cute.

3. I'm afraid that Alaina is moving toward dropping her afternoon nap. I've known since she turned three that the Day would be coming, but I'm really starting to see the signs. She goes down for her nap okay, but she's starting to wake up within an hour and half, rather than sleeping for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. I have no idea what I'm going to do with her once she drops that nap, because she usually just follows me like a puppy. I guess I'm going to need to prepare myself to say goodbye to my Long Afternoon Break. He was a good friend.

4. I feel like I reached a new level in parenting this week. It was my week to take Alaina to Cubbies. (Lee has a men's Bible study he goes to every other week at the same time as Awana; he'll take her those weeks, I'll take her on the off weeks.) Since I'm only going every week, I didn't join one of the adult studies that goes on during that time. So I dropped Alaina off at her class, went to the lobby and read as I waited for her to finish. I'm beginning to get the taste of motherhood that moms experience when they have kids in dance class or pee-wee soccer or something. It's a new phase: parents taking their kids to something that will enrich their lives, and patiently acting as the taxi driver. It's a strange feeling.

5. I'm really looking forward to an honest-to-goodness Girls Night Out tonight. As in dinner and movie with some ladies from church. While Lee stays home with the girls. I haven't been on a real Girls Night Out in a really long time. We're going to see The Help, and I loved the book, so I'm excited to see the movie. Daddy has never been fully in charge of putting both girls down to bed before, and I'm sure it will go just fine.

Stay cool, everyone!

Quick 5

2011-08-19T07:30:00.000-06:00

Holy Fast Week, Batman. August always used to drag for me, but not this year. I haven't even had time to feel nostalgic over the (lack-of) start of school. On to the Quick 5...

1. Joya is starting to be goofy. She knows when she's making us laugh, and will continue to do the trick for as long as we laugh at her. She gets a twinkle in her eye and wrinkles her nose and repeats whatever it was she just did. One of my favorites is the way she plays peek-a-boo. With her limited motor skills, she covers her mouth when you say "Where's Joya?" and giggles as she pulls her hand away from her mouth.

2. Alaina has entered the "Watch Mommy!" phase. About a third of her 25,000 daily words consist of the words "Watch Mommy!" She says it constantly, even if she's not doing something interesting. Sometimes I'll obediently watch, only to see her blink. I refuse to believe she's starved for attention; trust me, she gets plenty of my attention throughout the day. I can't even pretend to watch, either. She knows, and will re-insist that I watch her at that very moment.

3. Alaina started Cubbies at AWANA this week. I think I'm more excited about it than she is. Oh, she of course loves to be in any class-type setting. She wouldn't care what the reason is behind it. I never did AWANA, but I love the whole concept of it. She's so great at remembering her verses from Sunday school that I know she'll do great. So far she really likes that her teachers are "Miss Corstina" and "that Pandamania girl."

4. On Wednesday we ran into all four of the Gillett girls at Wal-Mart. I rarely see anyone I know at Wal-Mart, so it was fun to run into actual friends. Alaina, however, was terribly distracted the rest of the time. We said hello and chatted for a few minutes, and Alaina and the girls ran up and down the aisle. Then we went on our way while they went on theirs. But Alaina kept saying, "Where are the Gilletts? The Gilletts need me! I lost the Gilletts!" And once, after hearing a little girl (who was not a Gillett) scream, Alaina said, "The Gilletts are screaming! I have to find them!" I almost put her in the cart just to keep her from running to find them, but she did okay staying close to me.

5. Yesterday we went to Hobby Lobby (where I scored using the 50% off wall decor sale). While I was paying, a lady stood behind us in line. Alaina introduced her to Joya and then promptly sang the dear, patient lady a song. Alaina then turned to me and declared, "I'm singing for the people!" That dear lady was so gracious, and I've learned that if Alaina isn't hurting anyone, then I let her just go with it. The song was actually Hebrews 13:6, so I'm sure that lady was only benefited by a dose of Scripture in her day.

That's a wrap! Hope your school year gets off to a great start!

Quick 5

2011-08-12T07:31:00.000-06:00

The hot winds of August are swirling around outside and visions of clear, crisp autumn are dancing in my head.

1. Last week as the Quick 5 was posting, my sister was giving birth to her baby boy. I talked to her on Thursday afternoon and all was well. She called me on Friday morning as I was in line to check out at the grocery store. (I know, rude of me to be on the phone, right? I totally shouldn't have answered and I am so glad I did.) She said, "Guess what?" And I said, "You're in labor!" And she said, "YOU didn't get my message, did you?" And I said, "YOU HAD THE BABY?" And the check-out girl nodded in understanding and completed my transaction while I was on the phone. I was so shocked to hear that baby Oliver James was already born and cleaned up at that point. It had been only about 18 hours since I had talked to Jamie.

2. On Tuesday my mom, the girls and I trekked down to Colorado Springs to meet the little man. We had actually been planning to go have a play date with Naomi then anyway, so we turned it into a meet Oliver party. I don't think the girls were impressed, but I was. I've never held a baby that tiny. (Oliver was 6 lbs, 8oz...both of my girls were 8 lbs at birth.) He's just a little peanut that is so sweet and so easy to hold. It was so good to go see him.

Alaina meeting Oliver with Grammy


He was so alert!

3. Alaina has found a new way to torture her daddy. She's always singing something, but the other day at dinner she sang, "Baby, Baby, Baby Oh! Thought you'd always be mine, mine." Her daddy stopped eating and asked her why she was singing Justin Bieber. He told her he might cry, so now she takes every opportunity she can to sing Justin "Beaver" and ask Daddy if he's going to cry. For the record, we do not listen to Justin Bieber in our house. I don't even know if that is truly how the song goes, but I've sung it before because mommies are always singing every song they can think of with the word "baby" in it to their babies. This one popped in the mix one day, and for some reason Alaina remembered.

4. On Wednesday we went camping. We go up every year when the Gilletts go camping to have dinner and smores. Then we go home and sleep in our own beds. (Spare me the lecture of "It's Not Camping." Don't be a hater just because we live in such a place that allows us to go have dinner in the mountains and still make it home to sleep in comfort.) It is becoming one of my favorite summer traditions, so I hope they keep inviting us.

One of the cuter things in life: two three-year-olds playing together.

They were making "soup."

Joya watching Macy dig in the dirt

Joya was so good. She had a great time, even though she got carsick on the way up.

Two three-year-olds eating smores

Our friends the Singletons went up too. This is their youngest Josh.

5. And finally, a shout-out to my little sister Carolyn, whose birthday is tomorrow. She's creeping up on 30 by turning 27. I'm not sure how they celebrate in Canada, but hopefully it involves either a pinata or a rousing rendition of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow."

Hope you enjoy these last days of summer!

Quick 5

2011-08-05T07:25:00.002-06:00

Home again, and back to life.

1. The girls actually did pretty amazing during the car rides to and from Kansas City. On the way there Joya fussed quite a bit, but in her defense she and I were on the hot side of the car. The temp was over 100 in Kansas that day, and even with the window shade it was terribly hot. Rear-facing car seats do not get the benefits of a/c either. She was drenched in sweat by the time we got there. The ride home was much better, since she wasn't on the sunny side. She screamed every time we put her back in her seat after a pit stop, but only for about two minutes. Then she just seemed resigned to her fate and stared at her sister the whole time. Alaina was pretty grumpy on the return trip, but she didn't freak out or anything. All in all, I feel like we can take long road trips and survive.

2. We took the girls swimming for the first time this year in Missouri. There was a delightful, mostly deserted little pool that Melonie had access too, and it was so fun. Alaina loved playing on the stairs, and we all coaxed her out into the water to swim a few times. Joya loved the little floaty, except she kept trying to crawl out of it. Last summer Alaina and I went swimming a lot, but we haven't gone once this summer, since I need another adult to help me. It was great to have Lee there to help with the girls.

3. I think I need to own the fact that Joya is a messy eater. About a third of her cheerios/puffs/whatever she's eating ends up on the floor. If she's eating a cracker or something larger, she feels the need to touch it to her head (much like her Aunt Carolyn does to find out if something is made of plastic or glass.) And just yesterday she started a habit of ripping off her bib and throwing it on the ground when she's finished eating. Actually, it's kind of nice to know when she is done, although I would have preferred the sign-language version. I suppose I could invest in bibs with snaps so she can't rip them off, but I just bought these velcro ones. Anyway, Alaina was never like this.

4. You've all known for awhile how friendly Alaina is with strangers at stores. Lately, if someone makes eye contact, she'll launch into a whole dissertation that her name is Alaina and that she had a birthday "just last week" and that her sister is Joya, "J-O-Y-A." Most of these strangers don't really know what to say after all that, and I can tell they are trying to politely move on. I usually just smile at them and lead Alaina away. I think it's great that she can spell Joya's name. She cannot spell her name, though. She's tired of spelling by the time I try to work with her on that.

5. Finally, here is a little video that always makes us smile. WARNING: this song has the potential to run through your head for the rest of the day.

Quick 5 - Vacation Edition

2011-07-29T06:58:00.001-06:00

We're having a great time here in Kansas City. The weather has been hot and humid, and I've never seen Alaina sweat so much. Here are some highlights for you:

1. Grandma has been bringing out little surprises for Alaina each day. On Monday she got to play with this little magnetic fishing set. It worked great in the little pool on the patio, but of course Alaina soon decided she should be in the pool with the fish. One thing led to another, and soon Grandpa got out the hose to hose her down. She had a ball.

2. When you do something for one kid, you have to be fair and do it for both, so we took pictures of Joya getting bathed in the kitchen sink, just like Alaina was when she was 5 months old. I don't have the Alaina pictures here with me to compare, but trust me. I have them.

3. Another one of Grandma's surprises was this fairy princess costume. Alaina has had at least one component of it on since she opened it.

4. The girls have alternated between waking up early and sleeping in late. The time change has been messing with their heads.

5. I don't have any pictures of this, but since we've been here I've been feeding Joya store-bought baby food. She is most unimpressed. The jarred dinners (like chicken and veggies, or broccoli and cheese) are the worst. I have to coax her to eat some before moving on to the fruit/veggie combos. She'll be excited when we're home to our homemade baby food again.

Sunday will bring us a return trip across Kansas. Twice this week we've seen news stories about I-70 being closed in both directions west of Topeka, once because of an anti-government pick-up truck with possible hazardous materials, and once because of a dude who barricaded himself in his RV, threatening to kill himself. I hope everyone gets their act together to let us drive home in peace.

Catch you on the flip side.

The Corder Picnic

2011-07-26T08:46:00.000-06:00

A big part of my childhood lies in a tiny town in Missouri called Corder. My grandparents had a farm outside of Corder during my formative years, and every summer we'd pilgrimage out there to get our farm fix. A part of that fix included the annual picnic held by the 497 person town. It included a parade, a burger stand and a pie stand, as well as a little carnival with rides and games. I haven't gone to the picnic since before we were married, and now that my grandparents live in Kansas City, it's just not a part of the summer routine any more. And like most of life, traditions change and the picnic is probably something that will be cut from ours. But we were able to go this year, and I was so happy to watch Alaina and Joya experience it. Even if it was still 100 degrees at 7:00 at night. It was a hot, sweaty, fun time.

Alaina waiting for her hamburger. Take note of her hair to compare with later pictures.

Yum.

Lee has very little respect for these burgers, but ate one like a good sport.

Most pictures of Joya are of her chillin' in the stroller.

The excited crowd ready for the parade.

Alaina was in her element waving at the tractors and floats made by the local churches.

Uncle Jason and Apple Ben instructed Alaina in the fine art of picking up candy

Grandad and Joya

A sweaty girl after the parade at the pie stand

Quick 5

2011-07-22T07:58:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my organizational skills and general awesomeness, you actually have a Quick 5 to read today (DAD.) Thanks to the miracle of technology, this is posting as we are cruising through 100-degree Kansas.

1. I'd like to give a shout-out to my dear friend Tawnya in celebration of the birth of little Lucy. Tawnya is a dear friend from college who just gave birth to her third child. Tawnya inspires me as a wife, mother, homemaker and Christ-follower. If I could hand-pick the people who would live in my neighborhood, Tawnya and Sam would be pert near the top of the list, and would occupy the house next to mine. She is a kindred spirit, and I hope I was as kind to her in college as she was to me. I miss her with all my heart.

2. Joya is communicating! Not so faithfully I've been trying to teach her baby signs. I don't do it every single time, which is why it has probably taken until now for her to catch on, but this week she started giving the sign for "more" when we're eating. It is true and legit...not just her randomly bringing her hands together. She is also waving bye-bye. Daddy and I have been working with her for a few weeks on this one, and it is so thrilling to see her actually do it. Slowly but surely she is becoming a real person.

And the rest of the Quick 5 will be a blast from the past, dedicated to my very-picky-about-the-Quick-5 brother-in-law Nick.

Circa 2007: Nick and Baby Cheeto


I have no idea what Nick is doing here. I think we were at White Fence Farm for Carolyn and Jason's rehearsal dinner.


Uncle Nick and Alaina, July 4, 2008

Stay cool, kids!

Quick 5

2011-07-15T07:30:00.001-06:00

Diving in...

1. Alaina is finally starting to draw actual things when she colors. Until now it's just been circular scribbles, mostly in one color. She proudly brings them to me, saying "I have a surprise for you!" Then she'll run and put them on the fridge. Then, while she's napping, I throw most of them away. But suddenly she's drawing people. Beautiful, misshapen stick-figure families, including Daddy, Mommy, Alaina, Joya and her brother.

"You don't have a brother, Alaina," I say.
"Yes I do. I drew him right there," she replies.

End of discussion.

2. Perhaps the greatest joy of the week is the discovery of two tiny, sharp teeth poking out of Joya's lower jaw. I feel like Joya is having a much harder time with teething than Alaina ever did, and that it's lasted way longer than I've ever heard it lasting. They are not fully erupted, but hopefully the fact that they've broken through will provide the poor girl with some relief.

3. On a related note, I discovered the useful tool of a frozen washcloth. Practically every article on teething mentions this, but I didn't try it until this week. Joya snatches that thing out of my hands and shoves it in her mouth like she's been jonesing for it all day. I now always keep one on hand in the freezer.

4. The weather this summer has been pure bliss. June was so comfortable and beautiful, July has been warm and filled with the afternoon storms that I remember from my childhood. I love that the temperature peaks around 2:00 and then immediately drops 15 to 20 degrees as the crazy thunderstorms roll through. I love opening our windows and filling our house with the scent of rain. And I love the chill in the night air after an evening of downpour. Alaina is not so thrilled, since she has lately been declaring thunderstorms "scary." I'm trying to share my love.

5. We leave next Friday for a week in Missouri with the family. Both my family and Lee's, since the first part of our trip involves a pilgrimage back to the scene of my childhood vacations (the Corder picnic) and my grandma's 80th birthday celebration. Then a full week with Lee's family, including a visit from his grandparents who are making the trip down from Michigan. I'm really looking forward to it. Yes, even the drive out there. I have a ton planned for Alaina, and tricks that I hope will appease Joya. You'll get a full report.

Since we're driving out next Friday, you may not get a Quick 5. I might be able to get it pulled together, or I might not. I just wanted to prepare you, since there are a few of you (::cough:: Nick ::cough::) who seem to have very specific standards for it. Prepare to deal.

Winnie La Pooh

2011-07-13T14:18:00.000-06:00

Yep, that lovable, French Disney bear has been making his presence known in our house. Listen for yourself.

Cow Appreciation Day 2011

2011-07-11T08:50:00.000-06:00

This might be one of my favorite traditions for our little family. Dressing up head to hoof like a cow for a free meal from Chick-fil-a is totally worth it. It was much much less humiliating this year. I don't know if it is because we knew what we were doing, or if we saw how many people did it last year, so we knew we weren't alone or what. For any of you skeptics out there, just go next year on Cow Appreciation day. Once you see how many people dress up, and what their costumes look like, you'll realize it's no big deal.

Of course Alaina was hilarious. All week she talked about me being the "mudder cow," Daddy being the "daddy cow," Joya being the "baby cow," and herself being the "sister cow." Just as we sat down to eat, the big Chick-fil-a cow came up to our table. Alaina waved hello and then asked, "Are you a real cow?" The cow gestured to himself, saying to look and see that he was. Then she asked, "Do you have a tail?" He turned around...and did not have a tail! We told her that he had a bell and that was just as good.

Then after I managed to get a few bites into her, we went and got her face painted. And then after dinner we went outside to pet the baby cows they had brought in for the event.

It was so fun. And yummy. I love Chick-fil-a.

Sister Cow

A very rare Daddy Cow sighting

Baby Cow and Mommy Cow

Joya dressed up too, but decided to pass up chicken in favor of baby snacks

Trying a sample of the delicious peach milkshake

Alaina's first face painting ever

It took Alaina few minutes to warm up to the idea of petting the cows

A one-week old baby goat

The girl cows

Quick 5

2011-07-08T08:49:00.000-06:00

This edition of Quick 5 is entitled: "My Girls Are Growing Up."

1. Alaina is starting to lose a bit of her baby speech. The other day she pointed to a picture and said "octopus." She used to say "oppopis." It is a little sad to me. It just goes to show that you don't really need to correct a lot of their words; they'll grow out of it on their own.

2. Alaina has discovered how to get herself a drink of water. She always asks for one between dinner and bed. I'm a little torn about it; on one hand you're not supposed to give them anything to drink at that time so they don't wet the bed. However, she is still in pull-ups at night and since we just left the Dark Valley of Potty Training I'm not quite ready to nighttime train. So if she has a wet pull-up in the morning, I'm not too worried about it. So I sometimes just put her off. Only the other night, after I tried to put it off, she came into the living with a sippy cup of water. It had the lid, the proper plug and everything. I asked her where she got the water, and she said "the bathroom." I asked where in the bathroom, fully prepared in case she said the toilet, but she said the sink. I guess I need to put her cups up higher if I don't want her getting her own drink.

3. Joya got in trouble for the first time this week. Our entertainment center has a door that keeps Alaina's puzzles in it. I don't really want Joya digging through there, but I've been reluctant to lock it, since I want Alaina to get in there whenever she wants. But Joya is a bit of a destructo-machine, and kept going for the cabinet. I firmly told her "No" several times. She now will stick out her bottom lip and work very hard to produce tears upon hearing the word. Houston, we have understanding.

4. Joya has also discovered the art of the pity party. She lays on her stomach, buries her head in her arms and cries. It is terribly pathetic, and makes it easy for me to discern if she actually needs assistance or if she is just upset that she didn't get her way.

5. Today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. Yes, our family is participating. I've been collecting things for our cow costumes all week. I'll post pics when it is all over.

Hope you're enjoying this summer stormy weather! I sure am.

Independence Day

2011-07-05T14:54:00.000-06:00

The Fourth of July was hotter than blazes. I'm not kidding. When we finally made our way home at 10:50 (more on that later) the temperature still said 79 degrees. Most unusual for this glorious part of the country.

We enjoyed our annual pilgrimage to the fine town of Golden for their festivities. My mom picked out a lovely spot, and the local country bands were in fine form. Picnicking is always fun. There were quite a few bouncy things for kids to bounce on, but Alaina was a little overwhelmed by it and didn't want to try anything. She didn't even want to play on the playground, even though she kept asking to go over there. There were just too many kids. She enjoyed finding sticks the most. She even had her first experience with Portapotties. I was thankful I had my trusty Potette to aide us in that endeavor. (Don't have one? Buy one. It is worth it's weight in gold.) Joya did pretty well, thanks to Grandad, who finally got her to fall asleep in his arms at about 9:15. She slept through the fireworks, and that's okay. Alaina loved the fireworks, just as I knew she would.

The thing that ruined the whole day for me was the drive home. We knew it was always a little tricky to get out of the park. Tiny town, too many people. We pulled out of our parking space at 9:53, thanks to some dear soul who let us in. We drove three feet (not an exaggeration) and then sat for 40 minutes (not an exaggeration.) It was so frustrating. I had already taken a gigantic step out of my comfort zone by determining to stay out three hours after my babies are usually in bed. Wasting even more of precious bedtime in a non-moving traffic line about pushed me over the edge. Our plans for next year have already changed dramatically. No word on what they are yet, but just know that it is dramatic.

But here are some pictures of the festivities. And by festivities, I mean the girls and their too-cute cousin Naomi.

She blows out the side of her mouth for some reason, but it gets the job done.

Naomi wanted to play too.

Joya's idea of a good time: chewing on something.

Wagon rides brought to you by Uncle Nick

Quick 5

2011-07-01T07:30:00.002-06:00

Hello July!

1. Joya is officially mobile. The rolling baby is gone, the army-crawling baby is moving ahead at full steam. That girl wriggles everywhere. Much to Daddy's delight, she scooted over to him the other night. Much to Mommy's chagrin she won't crawl to her. She just does this beached whale/seal thing and stays in one place crying until Mommy comes to pick her up. I wonder how soon it will be that she'll discover how much faster it is to crawl on all fours.

2. With Joya's range of motion I'm starting to see Alaina and Joya's sister relationship begin to flesh out. Mostly involving Alaina removing toys from Joya's reach, much to Joya's dismay. I now have to learn how to teach sharing without teaching socialism. And without laughing. It cracks me up to see Alaina scooting across the floor with a toy, and Joya doggedly following, not realizing that Alaina is trying to get away from her.

3. Only recently has Joya been sitting up. I take full blame; it was so much easier just to lay her on the floor and let her roll around rather than working with her to sit up. Even now she's still not very reliable when you sit her up. She'd much rather be crawling or something. Anyway, sitting up meant busting out the bath seat. And busting out the bath seat meant bathing the girls together. I've really enjoyed this new plan.

4. Monday's weather was glorious. The perfect day before the heat of the week set it. I knew it was time to take the girls to the park. Don't judge me, but I don't do that very often. We always seem to have other errands to run. And you all should know me well enough by now to know that I'm not really an outdoors person. Yes, even local, suburb parks count as outdoors. I'd like to change that about myself, if you must know. But Monday was beautiful, and Joya has never been to a park, so we went. She loved it, of course. My little thrill-seeker giggled and giggled as she was swinging. And bear with me, but I had a hard time picking just a few pictures, so you get to see a lot of them.

5. For the first time ever, we are going to introduce Alaina to Independence Day fireworks. Until now she's been little enough that we could just take her home and put her in bed without her really missing anything. But she's old enough and I finally feel seasoned enough as a mother to handle a really late evening like that with the girls. I'm looking forward to it even. And we love going to the park in Golden for the festivities. It's going to be a great day.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Enjoy celebrating the freedom of our country with your families!

Quick 5

2011-06-24T07:30:00.000-06:00

We've had a really busy week, but it was busy with a lot of boring, mundane, must-be-done things. It might make for a boring quick 5.

1. This week was Vacation Bible School week at our church. It was held in the evening, and it was for families to attend together. However, since evening things usually end past the girls' bedtimes, we decided that Joya didn't need to be out late every night. So Lee took Alaina to VBS while I stayed home with Joya. That set up was very interesting. I was so glad to see Daddy and Alaina spending so much time together. Lee has never been completely in charge of Alaina for that much time before, and I knew this would be a great experience for the both of them. Joya has been a real pill for the past week (hopefully teething...who knows) so it was good that she stayed home.

2. We may have had a break-through in the Great Potty-Training Tribulation. Since last Friday, Alaina has finally been putting #2 in the potty. But only during the times I make her sit on the potty. She had one accident, so it tells me that she's not ready to initiate it. The day that she says she needs to go potty because she has to go #2 will be the day I think I can celebrate her being potty-trained.

3. As a reward for her latest potty-training accomplishments, we're back to giving treats. Her favorite? "Hersey Kisses."

4. I have the distinct feeling that Alaina is wiping her nose with Kleenex and then putting them back in the box. I saw her grab a whole handful the other day to wipe her nose. I told her she only needed one, and then I didn't think about it anymore. Yesterday I noticed a wad of Kleenex shoved back in the box. And no used tissue in the trash can. Thankfully she doesn't have a cold or anything right now.

5. Before Joya was born, I had a great system that involved me going to Wal-Mart only once a month. I could get everything I needed in that one trip. For some reason, now I need to go weekly and sometimes more than that. No sooner do I get home than I realize that I am out of something else that requires a trip within the next couple of days. I have no idea how this all happened, but I don't like it. Sometimes I'll go to Target, just because I am sick of going to Wal-Mart. I cannot for the life of me remember how to get back on the once-a-month plan. It vexes me.

That's a wrap! Catch you on the flip side.

She Moves

2011-06-21T13:56:00.000-06:00

Not exactly scintillating, but it is great documentation of Joya's latest accomplishments. Since our baby gates don't fit on our staircases, it's obviously time to get creative.

Quick 5

2011-06-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

Is it just me, or has the weather been amazing? I cannot get over how much I like having the days hover around 80 degrees, with the sent of green, living things wafting in our windows each evening. I think the weather in heaven will hover around 80 degrees.

1. Last Friday we participated in the final celebration of Alaina's birthday by using a gift sent by Aunt Mindy...a Sonic gift card. The weather was beautiful, so it was a perfect day to sit out at the picnic tables. It was very tricky to try and get Alaina to stay seated for the duration of the meal, but worth every time we had to say, "Sit down and eat!"

Alaina's first corn dog


You don't have to teach a kid how to eat food on a stick.

Thanks Aunt Mindy!

2. This series of photos is entitled "She's Three, But She Won't Look Directly At the Camera" or "Trying to Herd a Cat."

I just wanted a picture with my daughter! Was that so wrong?

3. On Tuesday Lee had to do a little work from home after dinner. Alaina came up with this idea all on her own:

Dueling Laptops

4. And just because I can't get enough of this face:

5. Sunday is our seventh anniversary. We plan to celebrate with some Chinese food tomorrow, which is amazing since Lee never wants Chinese food. But he went to this place with some people he works with and thinks I'll like it. I'm terribly excited. And I wish I had some pearls of wisdom to impart, now that we're at the seven year mark, but I don't really. Except maybe stop thinking about yourself so much and choose to be a servant to your spouse, if only for the reason that you once loved them enough to marry them. Life usually gets better once you stop thinking about yourself. And if you're feeling the seven year itch, take a shower, put on some lotion and get over it.

Happy Summer, everyone!

Strike a Pose

2011-06-14T13:51:00.000-06:00

Today my dear friend Leah took pictures of my girls. She has a nice camera, a nice flash, and a nice basement for this kind of thing. Here are some of the best.

Alaina: 3 years

And the framer:

Joya: 8 months

And the framer:

Cute girls, if I do say so myself.

Quick 5

2011-06-10T08:48:00.000-06:00

I usually write the quick 5 on Thursday, just to have it ready to go. However, I woke up this morning and found it was Friday somehow. If it weren't for Becky, I may have forgotten entirely.

1. We had a completely successful full week of Alaina and Joya sharing a room. Any minor problems that we did have came from Alaina, not Joya, and that's a good thing. I was afraid that Joya might not be able to adjust and spend a lot of time crying when everyone should be sleeping. Not so. She cried that first day, and hasn't had a problem since. Alaina, on the other hand, has not been so easy. I've been keeping her up an hour later, hoping that she gets all her playing done before she goes to bed. For the most part she does, but on Monday I put her to bed as usual. Joya was peacefully sleeping. About 15 minutes later, I heard Joya laughing hysterically over the monitor. Sure enough, Alaina was standing at the crib, entertaining her. Alaina got in big trouble. About 30 minutes later, I hear Alaina singing in a normal voice. Again, big trouble. Then last night, at 9:10, a full hour after I put Alaina to bed, I heard Joya's singing seahorse faintly playing. The only way for that to go off is for someone to squeeze its belly. And Joya hasn't mastered that skill. So I go in the room, only to see Alaina leap back into bed. Joya was sacked out, but her seahorse was on. I don't know how long Alaina had been getting up to turn it on. Again, trouble. But Joya has been a trooper.

2. Lee took Alaina to Cold Stone last night for their birthday ice cream. On a sad note, Cold Stone no longer offers just a free ice cream. It's now a buy one, get one free. That's sad to us. Anyway, we had already been talking to Alaina about it, so we followed through. I stayed home with Joya so she could get her pre-bedtime nap in, and so Daddy and Alaina could have a little date. Lee told me that Alaina yelled "Surprise!" and "Happy Birthday!" to everyone who came in the door.

3. Lee's birthday is tomorrow! Anyone who knows Lee knows how hard it is to celebrate his birthday. He never asks for anything, and doesn't seem to care either way. But, in the words of Kitty from the That 70's Show, "Sometimes your birthday is not about you...it's about the people who want you to have a nice birthday!" So the girls and I bought some presents, and I'm going to make some cookies that he thinks he'll like. And we're going to Noodles and Company tomorrow for his free bowl of noodles.

4. A lot of the conversations around how house involve the topic of why Joya uses some things and Alaina doesn't. They are all baby things that Alaina used to use, but doesn't use anymore. But she has a funny way of putting it. She usually says, "I can use that when I'm a little baby!" I just agree with her, and I'm waiting for her to ask when she'll get to be a little baby.

5. Now that school is out for the summer, I have been amazed to see that our townhouse neighborhood is teeming with kids. I had no idea there were so many. And they spend so much time outside. Especially in the evening. They spend hours playing and shouting in the greenbelt behind our house. I find it encouraging to watch so many kids playing outside so often. So I've been trying to take the girls outside more often, especially in the afternoon. We've blown bubbles and drawn with chalk. And Alaina calls "Hi kid!" to every kid who passes by our yard. It's been fun.

That's it! See you next week!

Daddy Makes Life Fun

2011-06-07T08:30:00.001-06:00

Yesterday the girls and I went to Target for our daily errand. As I was perusing some toddler-sized shorts, and lovely couple who must be grandparents themselves stopped to chat with Alaina and admire Joya.

"Oh how sweet!" the lady said about Joya. "What is your sister's name?"
"Joya Kimble!" Alaina replied.
"And what is your name?" the lady asked.
"Alaina Kimble! And this is Mommy!" Alaina said.
"Are you having fun today?" the lady asked.
"No. Daddy had to work," Alaina replied.

I thought it was so precious that Alaina recognized the sadness that Daddy couldn't be with us. She really was having fun, but only would have labeled it as fun if Daddy had been there too.

Birthday Extravaganza

2011-06-06T08:55:00.000-06:00

We had a jolly good time celebrating Alaina's birthday on Saturday. I love summer birthdays and celebrating outside. Lee manned the grill while Alaina was able to run around with her dearest friends. She ended up with cake on her face and dirt in her hair, so you know it was a successful party.

Here are few highlights:

My first attempt at something other than cupcakes. I hope it gives hope to all you remedial cake-decorators out there.

The griller.

The party animals.

More party animals.

The birthday dinner.

The birthday girl.

Blowing out the candles.

Unbridled joy.

Jamie and the babies.

Good friends.

More good friends.

And they ate cake.

Grandad knows how to party.

Quick 5

2011-06-03T07:50:00.001-06:00

Finally, some warm weather! You know what warm weather means...chubby baby legs in shorts! (Joya's, not mine.)

1. Well, I did what I said I would do. On the night of June 1st, I put Joya to sleep in the crib in Alaina's room. And she hated it. She screamed for a good 50 minutes before giving in and falling asleep. She then woke up once at 11:30 and once at 3:00. At the 3:00 wake up time, I went in to find her completely tangled and covered up, head to toe, in a blanket that I had draped over the end of the crib. Both times, though, she simply accepted the pacifier and went back to sleep. And Alaina slept through both bouts of tears.

2. Along with moving Joya into her new room, I implemented a new bedtime for Alaina. My theory is that I'll put Joya to bed first, let her fall asleep and be asleep for about 20 minutes before going in there to put Alaina to bed. This means Alaina will now be going to bed somewhere between 7:45 and 8:15. For the last couple of months, she would go to bed at about 7:15, only to play and sing and talk until 8:30 or sometimes 9:00. Since she can't make that kind of noise while Joya is falling asleep, then it makes the most sense for her just to stay up with us. She's getting so good about playing by herself, that I think this is going to work just fine.

3. Yesterday was Alaina's birthday, and it was a fun day. We went to Toys R Us armed with some birthday money and I let Alaina pick out a toy. That was kind of fun, except I did not successfully teach Alaina the concept of a budget. She of course loved most things that were out of our price range. I finally picked two of the toys myself and let her choose between the two. Then we got Chick-fil-a for lunch, and I made a very special mac and cheese dinner at her request. We'll have a more formal party for her tomorrow, which will involve burgers, grandparents, friends, cake and Apple Ben.

4. The morning of Alaina's birthday, I sang her "Happy Birthday" several times. Then, as we were in the car, I heard her sing:

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Me
Happy Birthday to you

Then she said, "Aw man! I've got Happy Birthday stuck in my head!"

5. Tonight will be a fun night. We are happy members of the Red Robin Birthday Club, and since they've changed a few things we actually have an overlap of Lee's and Alaina's birthday burgers. Red Robin is always delicious, but it will be more delicious that we can go and everyone can eat, but we'll only have to pay for one burger. :)

Enjoy the weekend! Hope it's filled with nice weather, watermelon and grilled food.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Alaina!

2011-06-02T09:22:00.000-06:00

You are three years old today! I can't really remember a time when we didn't have you in our home. You always amaze me with the things you know and remember. One of the best things that happened this year was when they moved you from the toddler nursery to the three-year-old Sunday school class. You soak up those Bible lessons and talk about them all the time. You've even learned your first memory verse! "I PRAAAAAISE You! Because You made...me...wonderful!" You are a good big sister and know how to make Joya laugh. I love that you love to sing and even that you love the Wiggles so much.

We pray that you will turn to God for salvation, and that you will see God as your strength and song. We pray that God guides you in the path of righteousness, so that God's name will be honored. We pray that you will call on God for every need, and that you will trust God and not be afraid.

We love you so much, Alaina. You are so fun and funny and friendly, and God did make you wonderful!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Dancing Queen

2011-06-01T13:51:00.000-06:00

What you are about to see is the tail end of something Alaina did for the entire duration of the song Lee was playing with. You'll notice she's only about six inches from the door. She stayed that way the whole time.

Quick 5

2011-05-27T09:06:00.000-06:00

Is it bad that I woke up every day this week thinking it was Friday?

1. We have now had a full solid week of Joya sleeping through the night. I put her down at 7:15, and I don't pick her up again until 7:00 the next morning. I had forgotten how wonderful that feels. There were one or two times where she did wake up in the night, but all I had to do was roll her back over (because she almost always ends up on her tummy these days) and put her paci back in her mouth and she would go right back to sleep. I'm so proud of her. Who wouldn't be proud of this face?

2. Which means I have a deadline that I'm putting out for the whole world to see so I have to meet it: on June 1st I will put Joya to bed in Alaina's room. You heard it here first.

3. Lately Alaina has been all about the sister pictures. Here are a couple of my favorites:

4. Yesterday we had a play date/craft time with Alaina's favorite girls, Macy and Avery. I don't ever do crafts with just Alaina. She colors on her own, but I never actually organize a real craft. It just seems like a lot of work for just one little girl. So I thought it was time to make something a little more formal, and that it would be much more fun with friends. Thanks to my sister Jamie, we made these little flower cups. In the name of exploring creativity, I had to let Alaina color her leaves brown.

5. We have a big week coming up! Alaina is turning 3, and that means festivities galore. We're already looking forward to the mac and cheese, and I have a fantastic idea for her birthday cake. I'm a little intimidated when it comes to cakes, because I have friends who are Cake Decorators, and I am just not inclined that way. But I found a really simple one that I think will be a step above plain cupcakes with sprinkles. I can't wait to try it out.

Hope you are all staying safe from this crazy spring weather!

Quick 5

2011-05-20T07:55:00.000-06:00

Slow week makes for a slow quick 5.

1. I took Alaina to get a haircut this week. For the first time ever, we went to the "big people" haircut place, aka Great Clips. Until now I've been taking her to the uber-expensive place for kids, but I thought she was old enough to get her hair cut in a chair rather than a fire engine. She did very well. And loved the sucker that she got at the end.

2. Joya has slept from 7:30 to 7:00 two nights in the last week. AND she rediscovered her paci. She grabs it and puts it in her mouth as soon as I lay her down in bed. It has been truly wonderful.

3. Joya has also discovered the art of rolling. She rolls all over the room, and prefers to be on the floor rolling to playing in the exersaucer. I can't just put her on the blanket on the floor and go and cook dinner anymore. She needs way more supervision. I see baby gates in our near future.

4. Only two weeks until Alaina's birthday! Now when I ask her what she wants she says "Cake and toys." That trip to Toys R Us left a lasting impression.

5. I am loving all the rain we've had. We've also experience quite a few thunder booms, which apparently is new to Alaina. Last spring/summer was so dry, that I'm not surprised she doesn't remember thunder. Just yesterday we had quite a loud clap, and she covered her ears and started to whimper. I hope she makes friends with the thunder the way I have.

Sorry this is so paltry. Maybe next week will pick up a bit.

Quick 5

2011-05-13T15:26:00.000-06:00

This week's Quick 5 is going to require some audience participation, so pay attention and don't be shy!

1. Once this week, I woke up to find Joya sleeping on her stomach. She didn't make any noise about it; I'm a light sleeper and I would have heard her if she did. She was simply snoozing away on her tummy. Freaked me out. Anyone who is pregnant or taking care of an infant has heard the lecture from a thousand different sources that babies should be put to sleep on their backs. Heck, even Joya's sleep sack has the words "Back is Best" embroidered on the front (no joke.) So I quickly had to do three things: a.) pray that God protects her life, since this is an area I have no control over, b.) remind myself that all the books say when a baby is able to flip themselves over the danger of SIDS is virtually gone, and c.) I'm pretty sure I grew up in the generation that was put to sleep on our tummies in infancy. And I survived. Last night she ended up on her tummy again, but mostly I find her on her side these days.

2. AUDIENCE POLL #1: Look at these pictures of my darling daughters, and then answer the question below:

Does Joya look like she has a uni-brow? She doesn't, but I think she has a stork bite (?) that makes it look like she does. Does anyone else see it?

3. On Wednesday morning I had a meeting at church, to which I brought the girls. Wednesday was the first day of the Great Colorado Deluge of 2011. As we left the church, I noticed it was pouring. Of course I didn't have an umbrella; it is pert near impossible to carry an infant seat, hold the hand of toddler and use and umbrella at the same time. So I simply covered the infant seat with a blanket, told Alaina we had to run, and dashed to the car. About halfway to the car I hear Alaina squeal, "My shoe! My shoe!" I look back, and about 30 feet behind us is her little pink shoe. Did I say it was pouring? I put the infant seat on the ground, told Alaina to stay put and ran to get the shoe. Alaina was crying. I picked up the infant seat and told Alaina to keep running. That's right, one shoe on and one shoe off. I fumbled a little getting the car unlocked, but got Alaina in first before putting Joya in the other side. Joya was fine and dry. Alaina was wet and crying. She keeps talking about how the rain got on her sock. Oh the joys of lugging around small children.

4. AUDIENCE POLL #2 (a word problem): We took a trip to Toys R Us this week. I wanted to look at a kids table and chair set I've been contemplating, and I thought it might be fun for Alaina. We've never gone to the toy store before. And it was fun. For both of us. The possibilities are endless there. And Alaina's birthday is in three weeks, so I wanted to see what caught her eye. Well, I think I've mentioned before how easy she is. She's too easy. She would be equally content with any one toy from that store. So I've decided to get her a game for her birthday. Here's where I need your help. Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders? I'm leaning toward Chutes and Ladders, but Candy Land is such a classic. Both are for ages 3+, so I know she'd enjoy either one. Thoughts?

5. I'm sure you know how much we must wash our hands around here, what with all the potty training and all. And you know how you can turn on the hot water, but it always takes 30 seconds or so to heat up? Well, we put our hands in the water before the water gets hot. It takes Alaina forever to wash her hands anyway, no need to waste water while that happens. She used to screech every time the water started to get warm. I'm not talking about burn your hands hot either. It would get a little warm and she'd scream. Drove me crazy. So I've taught her to say something, and to my surprise she actually says it when the water starts to be too warm for her. She says this, calmly, word for word:

"Mother! The water is hot!"

It cracks me up when she calls me Mother. :)

That's it! Don't forget to answer questions 2 and 4, and leave your name to get full credit.

Joya's Dedication

2011-05-09T13:46:00.000-06:00

We dedicated Joya on Mother's Day. It was a day full of prayer and reflection for me, as I tried to keep at the front of my mind the fact that I really am Alaina's and Joya's mother. My parents and brother came, and Alaina really enjoyed being up on stage. After the prayer time was over, the auditorium was kind of quiet as the families exited the stage, so the whole congregation could hear Alaina excitedly yelling, "Grammy! Hi Grammy!" Joya got a little bored during the prayer, but I won't hold that against her.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2011-05-08T18:13:00.000-06:00

A conversation in our living room today:

The scene: Alaina was admiring Grammy's painted toenails. She then was distracted by an owie on Apple Ben's foot.

Lee: "Alaina, what do Apple Ben's feet smell like?"
Alaina: "Compost!"

No hesitation.

Quick 5

2011-05-06T08:40:00.000-06:00

There is just something about warm weather that puts me in a good mood. Today's forecast is 75 degrees. It should be a good day.

1. Joya's sleeping has gotten much better. That might be another reason for my good mood. It all started last Friday when I finally forced her to drink a small bottle of formula before nursing her for the evening. To my surprise, not only did she drink it all, but she fully nursed too. Then she woke up at midnight. And then she woke up at 7:00am. For the rest of the weekend I decided that she gets to nurse once in the night. Just once. I'd like that to be no earlier than midnight. So when she woke up crying at 10:00 (our previous usual nursing time) I just let her cry. She cried for 15 minutes, then went back to sleep. A few days later she woke up again at 4:00, cried for 15 minutes, then went back to sleep. But since probably Tuesday she's only been waking up once since I laid her down at 7:30. Eventually I'll need to nip that one middle-of-the-night feeding in the bud, but I'm just so thrilled that it's just once that I don't mind the 10 minutes it takes to give her a snack.

2. I'm trying to master the art of homemade mac and cheese. Not the baked kind; I've never made that (although I'm sure it's delicious.) No, I'm trying out recipes for on the stove, and I just can't get it. The sauce is always slightly gritty. And I never seem to make enough noodles to balance out the amount of sauce. It perplexes me.

3. I foresee a battle in our future. It involves me trying to convince Alaina to go to sleep at night. Soon we'll be leaving our windows open at night. It's one of my favorite parts of Colorado. But I've been noticing that there are a LOT of kids who live right around our townhouse. And they all play right outside. In our yard, because our front yard is a shared front yard. And Alaina's window faces that yard. I have a sound machine in her room, but I'm sure it won't drown out all the shrieks and yells of the elementary aged kids who get to stay up past 8:00, playing outside with their friends. And not that I wish they wouldn't play. But Alaina loves kids, and is sure to be distracted. I hope she learns how to ignore it.

4. During one of our recent Skype sessions with Lee's parents, Grandma Kimble mentioned picking blueberries to Alaina. It's all she can talk about these days. She's invited me along. (How sweet.) And she talks incessantly about her "blueberry bucket." It's nice to have something to look forward to.

5. This Sunday we will be dedicating Joya at church. It is such a brief little ceremony, but is still such a big deal for us. I've been trying to prepare my heart. It's not like I haven't recognized that she is God's and not mine for all this time. But there is something different about standing up in front of people and declaring it. It's almost a moment where you now have to put your money where your mouth is, you know? Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.

Happy Mother's Day, all you mommies. :)

Quick 5

2011-04-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

After all the Easter Hoopla, this was a relatively quiet and quick week. I'll try to come up with five things.

1. I've started to make plans for Alaina's birthday, which is in a mere five weeks. So I've been asking her questions to get a feel for what I should do. Here are some of our conversations:

Me: "Alaina, what do you want for your birthday?"
Alaina: "Cake!"

Me: "What is your favorite drink?"
Alaina: "Lemonade!"

Me: "What is your favorite breakfast?"
Alaina: "Oatmeal and yogurt!"

Me: "What is your favorite lunch?"
Alaina: "Peanut butter and jelly!"

Me: "What is your favorite dinner?"
Alaina: "Dessert!"

I guess I have my meal plan for June 2nd.

2. Tuesday after MOPS we went through the drive-thru at Wendy's to pick up some lunch. Wendy's apparently does not have apple juice for kids, so I ordered Alaina a milk to go with her chicken nuggets. Alaina started yelling from the backseat, and obviously not to me, but to the disembodied voice that was taking our order, "No! Not milk! Apple juice, please!" She would call it out every time there was a pause between me and the order taker. I couldn't finish our order without laughing. Soon I'm going to let Alaina order. I think she'll do a great job.

3. Cute, sweet little Joya is pretty high maintenance right now. I used to be able to lay her on her back on a blanket on the floor with toys around her, and she would lie there and play for long periods of time. Now she flips onto her stomach within two minutes. And if she stops there for any length of time, then she loses the ability to flip back over. So she cries and fusses. She can and does roll sometimes, but it has to be a continuous motion. And she can't sit up on her own to play. And she can't sit in the Bumbo for very long, because she twists around and gets herself stuck in awkward positions. 6 months must be such a hard age. She is active and wants to play, but doesn't know how. It must be very frustrating for her.

4. In other Joya news, she is finally 100% weaned from the swaddler. I'm hoping the weaning process is why she has been a terrible sleeper this month, and that each night will get better. But here is a pictorial essay of that process:

How Joya slept until about a month ago

The one-armed swaddle. It took her 12 naps to get used to this. Those 12 naps were full of crying and very little sleep.

Free indeed. She now gets very upset if you try to pin her arms down.

My conclusion? Avoid those fancy swaddlers at all cost. They are like crack to babies. Withdrawal isn't pretty.

5. As a reward for doing Hard Core Business in the potty yesterday, I gave Alaina a mini Reese's peanut butter cup. She called it a "muffin candy." Because it comes in a paper cup like a muffin. So cute.

Goodbye April! We're looking forward to all the May flowers.

Easter Celebration

2011-04-26T14:18:00.000-06:00

Easter was great this year. Fun, meaningful, humbling, peaceful. Alaina loved it, and is still telling random strangers she sees while we're out about "finding eggs at Grammy's" and that "Jesus isn't there! In the cave!" I think these pics capture the day. (Although I am sorry that we didn't get one of all the egg-hunters together, which included the Gillett girls.)

It looks like Joya is trying to get way from her sister, but that's not true.

Alaina and her cousin "Baby Naomi."

Joya likes to play with Naomi too.

This face perfectly captures egg-hunting frenzy.

She found plenty of eggs.

Quick 5

2011-04-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

I may have to resort to the dreaded pictures this week.

1. I'm a big fan of this blog, written by Beth Moore's daughter Amanda. She was recounting a story about her two-year-old daughter taking off her own diaper, and all the joys that go with it, and then mentioned something about not being ready for potty training and the "battle of wills" in "that season of tribulation." I laughed, and then sobered up as I realized that that is a very fitting description of the Kimble household of late. A battle of wills in a Season of Tribulation. And here I thought we were just supposed to be enjoying the season of spring.

2. Joya's six month check-up was on Monday. She is in perfect health, weighs 14 pounds and is 26 inches long. The lovely Dr. Scheeler and I spent many minutes discussing the fact that Joya is not sleeping through the night. Even though science says otherwise, Dr. Scheeler too hopes that the introduction of solids and the calories that come with it will help Joya stay asleep until morning. However, the very next day Joya decided to embark on a Solid Food Strike. One week in, and she's already rebelling. I admit that rice cereal is yuck, but seriously.

3. I actually got to go to the Switchfoot concert with Lee last Saturday. Through a series of unfortunate events, my little brother couldn't go. We didn't know this until the last minute, and thankfully my mom was already here and volunteered to stay with the girls. We simply left after I nursed Joya and made it in plenty of time to see Switchfoot. It was a FANTASTIC show, and I generally do not like live concerts. Red Rocks is an amazing venue, and everyone should put seeing a show there on their bucket list. AND Joya ended up taking a bottle from my mom that night. We didn't get home too late, but we thought for sure we'd come into the house to the sound of a screaming baby. Well, either my mom is a Baby Whisperer, or the prayers of my brother-in-law Nick worked. It ended up being a very lovely evening. And I love Switchfoot.

4. I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. And I really really enjoyed it. And was challenged in my view of God and the Trinity. I know that book had quite a bit of controversy surrounding it; I just can't remember what it was. I liked it, anyway, and I'd recommend it.

5. Last Saturday I had a Premier Designs Jewelry party. My high school friend Anna is a consultant, and did a great job. She had all sorts of stuff set up for us to try on, and Alaina was most impressed by it all. She still talks about all the bracelets and necklaces that she got to wear. A tomboy she is not.

Christ is Risen, folks! Have a great time celebrating the resurrection with your friends and fam.

With Conviction

2011-04-19T19:52:00.001-06:00

For dinner tonight, we had ham and potatoes in a cheese sauce. The potatoes were cut into pretty small cubes, and you can imagine their color, after they had been simmering in the cheese sauce in the crock-pot all afternoon. As I dished up dinner, Alaina kept exclaiming about the "pineapples." Several times I told her that there were no pineapples, just potatoes.

As we were eating, Lee mentioned something about the pineapples to Alaina.

"No Daddy!" she said. "Not pineapples!"

"Well, what are they?" he replied.

"I. Don't. Know," she said immediately, with conviction.

Here's to making unrecognizable food for dinner.

Quick 5

2011-04-15T09:05:00.001-06:00

Long week.

1. On Monday we ended up going outside to see the tortoise. Our neighbor let them wander around the yard for a good three hours. There were two tortoises, along with a really big iguana that he kept having to catch before it climbed up the trees. I finally took Alaina outside, but as I suspected, she most definitely did not want to ride the tortoise. Even with the other kids cheering her on.

2. Alaina has been sick most of the week. It started with what I thought might be a fever on Tuesday. I've heard that you should always treat the kid, not the fever, and so while Alaina felt feverish to me, she was still acting like her normal self. So we went about our business as usual. Wednesday she woke up with one again and this time the floodgates of her nose opened up too. We stayed home that day, even though she was still acting relatively normal. On Thursday she was begging to go somewhere "after room time" so we went to the mall and walked a bit, even though she was still off her feed. The only other symptom she had was a lack of appetite. This morning, though, she woke up fever free and ate all her breakfast. I'm glad, because this morning I was going to have to call the doctor if she still had a fever. I love our doctor and all, but I'm not a fan of taking sick babies there.

3. Last Sunday Alaina graduated from the toddler nursery to the 3-year-old Sunday school class. The nursery is pretty jam-packed, and the 3-year-old room always had just a couple kids in there, so the nursery director asked if we could move her. Of course Alaina loved it. I'm so proud of the way she welcomes new situations like that. She's practically a real little girl now.

4. Lee won a radio contest this week. His favorite Christian rock station was giving away tickets to the Switchfoot concert at Red Rocks this Saturday. You had to call in and finish the Switchfoot lyrics. Lee knows the songs like he knows his own name, so it was perfect. They started the contest on Monday, and Lee tried to win every single time. There were chances three times a day. Finally Wednesday at the noon-hour time he made it through. It was terribly exciting. Unfortunately for me, Joya still doesn't take a bottle, so I can't go with him. I am really not a concert person, but Switchfoot is the only band I would ever want to see in concert. And at Red Rocks! What a great venue. (I'd also see Josh Groban there, but that's about it.)

5. No real news on Joya's end that I haven't mentioned already. She's finally able to sleep with just one arm swaddled. That took about 12 naps for her to get used to. And I did start giving her cereal this week. I think that round of amoxicilan that she had at the beginning of March really paved the way for her to have things shoved in her mouth. Next week we'll start introducing the veggies. I've already made sweet potatoes and butternut squash for her. I've only been giving her the cereal once a day, so she's not really getting a ton, and it hasn't helped her sleep through the night yet. I still have high hopes.

Have a great weekend!

Six Months

2011-04-14T09:09:00.000-06:00

Joya is six months old today! In some ways I can't believe it, and in some ways, I can't believe she's only six months old. She truly does live up to her name: a delight. And she is most definitely a baby.

She's all of a sudden learning new things, like how to eat cereal and how to sleep without being swaddled like a mummy. I feel like milestones like that are going to start snowballing: sitting by herself, growing teeth, crawling, sleeping through the night, moving into Alaina's room.

She is cheerful and giggly and loves her sister. We're glad she's in our family.

Proof of the Turtle

2011-04-11T16:17:00.000-06:00

Not that anyone was calling me a liar or anything. And okay, technically I'm sure it's called a tortoise. But he was grazing out again this afternoon:

We didn't go out to see him today, but he attracted quite the number of kids. Several were riding him. Maybe I can coax Alaina on him one day. We'll see. She has a history of chickening out.

Quick 5

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

My dad and brother-in-law have given me serious flak over the pictorial Quick 5 a couple of weeks ago. I stand by it. Thus my first encounter with back seat bloggers.

1. I've taken to staying at home on Mondays, which is laundry day for us. I try not to go out unless absolutely necessary. This has given me the freedom to dress Alaina like a ragamuffin while her good clothes are being washed. Although, with the onset of serious potty-training, she looks like this a little more often these days.

The shirt is quite small, and the pants are border-line high-water. And there is a little hole on the backside. I think it is so cute, but I would quickly change her into something more presentable if we had to leave the house.

2. Speaking of potty-training, I bought a bag of Easter Hershey Kisses to use as rewards for this go-around. Alaina earns one if she a) poops in the potty (a rare occurrence) or b) goes tinkle in the potty AND has dry pants. I bought the Easter bag because I thought the colors were fun and pretty.

Guess what color is Alaina's current favorite? Gray. As in silver. As in the color of the normal, boring, every-day Kisses. As in, I didn't need to buy a fun bag. Sheesh.

3. On Wednesday Alaina did not take an afternoon nap. This happens sometimes. Thankfully not often, because on the day she misses her afternoon nap there are usually tears galore before bed. But on Wednesday when she was supposed to be sleeping I heard her call "Mommy! Mommy!" Since we're potty-training I ran to the room, thinking she was going to declare that she had to poop or something. Instead I found her looking out the window calling "The turtles! The turtles!" Sure enough, there was a very large tortoise roaming our front yard. So even though it was nap time, I scooped her up and we ran downstairs. As we came outside our neighbor was bringing out another, slightly smaller one. Apparently he does reptile shows for schools and stuff. These two guys were really big; one was 21 years old, and the other was 57. I asked him he had snakes and he said a couple. I didn't go into any more detail, because there is a no-pet policy in these town homes I didn't want to know any specifics.

4. Yesterday I began the process of weaning Joya from her swaddler. You know, those fancy swaddle blankets with the velcro that keeps them wrapped up in a tight burrito. I simply wrapped her in a normal blanket, so she would have an easier time breaking out of it. The morning nap went fairly well. She actually fell asleep with her arm out, and I was excited to know she could fall asleep without her arms pinned down. However, she woke up much earlier than she normally would. And the same thing happened during her afternoon nap. She fell asleep okay, but woke up after about an hour. I wrapped her up again, and again she fell asleep for about 45 minutes. So she can fall asleep, but just doesn't really stay asleep at this point. I'll put her back in the swaddler for the night, but I hope she can get used to it and stay asleep for her naps soon.

5. And finally, an update on how last Sunday went. Last Sunday was my return to the worship team, which meant an early, long morning for all of us. Alaina is an old pro, and really enjoys eating her breakfast at church and playing all morning. Joya did pretty well for the first two hours. And that was about it. I ended up with her in the mother's room for most of the second service, and she screamed for quite a bit, even with me holding her. She didn't do so well during the last service either. And when I finally got her home, she had a really hard time falling asleep for her nap, even though I knew she was overtired. So I'm going to have to hold off for a couple of months before we try it again. Hopefully by then she'll either be back to taking a bottle, or will be able to be distracted by snacks or something. I just can't bring myself to make the nursery workers deal with her again for awhile. I'm glad we did it, but we're just going to have to give it more time.

That's a wrap!

Joya's First Joke and Alaina's Latest Grievances

2011-04-06T08:58:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite thing about watching babies become little people is seeing their humor develop. I'm pretty sure that just shy of 6 months, Joya already has a joke. It mostly happens when I first get her out of bed in the morning. She's usually pretty hungry (even though she still wakes up between 3:00 and 4:00 often, but that's a topic for another time). She knows she's getting breakfast. So she'll grab my head and shove my chin in her mouth and start sucking away. Then she pulls away with a big grin and wriggles in delight. I think she's being silly; she knows breakfast doesn't come from my chin. And she knows it always makes me laugh. I love it.

Alaina has a serious issue with someone: the garbage collector. Every Tuesday she sees our garbage can sitting out on the curb. Later in the day, when there is no longer trash in it, she wails, "Oh no! My trash! Give it back!" Even though I tell her that the garbage man is supposed to take the trash, and that it's smelly and gross, she still is very upset to see it gone.

Silly babies.

Quick 5

2011-04-01T09:18:00.000-06:00

Don't worry. I'm not feeling witty enough for any April Fool's Day jokes. Everything in today's blog will be 100% accurate and true, just like every other day.

1. Part One of The Great Return to Worship Team went great. Practice was on Tuesday night, from 6:30-9:00. I did have to take a 15 minute break to go and feed Joya, but Kelvin was most gracious about that. And Joya did great in the nursery. I had no idea how she'd do, since she is usually in bed by 7:30. And on Tuesday nights there is no infant nursery: all the kids, birth to 11 or 12 are usually in the same room. The fine nursery ladies just dragged a swing in for Joya and she spent the evening in it, watching all the kids play. She didn't fall asleep at all since there was too much activity, but I'm okay with that. Just as long as she didn't spend the whole time screaming for them. The next great test is Sunday morning, when we will be at the church from 6:45 to 12:30. We'll see how it goes.

2. I've been playing the violin for church off and on for a couple of years now. I usually just practice the music for the upcoming service. However, an added benefit of our recent move was the unearthing of my box of violin books. These are books I got years and years ago when I was taking lessons. I'm so excited to have them again, because as I try and hone my craft a bit it is nice to have some other things to play. I'm even excited about the boring technique books. I've started playing through the most basic ones I have and I'd like to work back up to where I was when I stopped taking lessons. Anyway, in the current book I'm playing through my teacher wrote the date above each piece that marked the week I was to work on that particular one. All the dates so far have been January to May of 1994. That was 17 years ago. 17. As in, before my brother was even born.

3. This whole winter, I've had the worst time trying to keep socks on Joya's feet. They all just come off as she kicks around. Now I'm having an equally hard time keeping socks on Alaina's feet. She pulls them off. All the time. She likes to "be barefoot." So the other day I painted her toenails for the first time ever. Thank goodness sandal season is just around the corner.

4. Yesterday we went to the Colorado Mills Mall with my mom. It was fun to get out of the house and shop. And Alaina got to ride the carousel with Grammy. It was the highlight of her week.

5. There is a question that Alaina asks every day, several times a day. The first time she asks it is when she first wakes up. I'm not joking. I go into her room and she's laying in bed, all rumpled from the night and this question pops out of her mouth. She'll ask it several more times throughout the day. And she'll even ask it right before bed, in anticipation of the next day. The question is this: "What we having for dinner?"

Happy Spring!

Alaina and Her Daddy

2011-03-29T14:48:00.000-06:00

Last night Lee got home from work a little later than usual. Alaina and I had already started eating dinner by the time he walked in. Since she was in her chair, she wasn't able to run to the door like she usually does when he comes home. I told her that Daddy was home, and he walked through and said hello.

Alaina said, "That's my old Dad."

"Your old dad?" I asked.

"Yup," she said. "He's my favorite guy!"

So cute. But Lee didn't hear it. So I told him what she said. He came in and asked, "Who's your favorite guy?"

"You!" she said, promptly and matter-of-factly.

They celebrated with a pound. It's moments like these. :)

Quick 5

2011-03-25T08:15:00.006-06:00

Good news! This is the last quick 5 of March, because next Friday is officially April. We've (almost) made it through the wilderness, folks!

1. On Wednesday I took Alaina in for a haircut. I noticed last week that all of a sudden I couldn't see her eyes, and that her hair was almost to the middle of her back. Long hair is fun for a girl, but not for mommy, who has to comb out the yogurt and oatmeal every morning after breakfast. Anyway, I took her to the super-expensive kid place. That will probably be our last time. I think she can handle the cheaper grown-up places. The nice girl who cut her hair tried her darnedest to get me to buy their salon shampoo, saying it would really help with the breakage. (I can't fault her there...Alaina has terrible breakage. But she's 2, and tough on her hair.) Sorry, sweetie, but I can't justify spending $20 on a bottle of shampoo. We'll try our hand with Suave for awhile.

2. Today the Grace Chorale is singing at our church. Which means we are housing two of the college girls. It is so surreal to me for several reasons. a.) I vividly remember all my chorale tours like they happened last week, instead of seven years ago. b.) We know one of the girls who will be staying with us. We sang with her back in our Fort Street days. She was in 8th grade then, I believe. She's now a senior in college (or close to it.) Our place isn't the nicest place they're going to stay, but I hope they think of our house as one of the good ones.

3. I'm scheduled for worship team again. I'm going to go through with it this time, even if Joya is a complete mess. We have to just jump in and figure the rest out. I'm scheduled to sing and play the violin, and since it's been a good six months since I've played, I've been practicing this week. It's amazing how even simple music is challenging when you haven't played in awhile. However, I really do enjoy playing. It's on my bucket list to play in a community orchestra or something. Obviously when the girls are much older, or maybe even out of the house. But I plan to, someday.

4. Yesterday I tried to put Joya down for a nap without swaddling her. Big Mistake. She flapped a cried for a long time. I finally went in and pinned her arms down, and she went right to sleep. My sister Carolyn gave me some good ideas on how to stop swaddling, so I'll try them out soon. But I'm beginning to regret ever starting to use the fancy swaddling blankets. They're nice, but apparently very addicting.

5. While I like reality TV, Lee doesn't particularly care about it. However, we do have several shows we watch together. And really enjoy. V, No Ordinary Family and Perfect Couples. Unfortunately, according to several entertainment websites, all three of these shows have an extremely high probability that they will be canceled. I can only come to the conclusion that our choices in television shows are pedestrian at best. Oh well.

Have a great weekend, and happy 33rd anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Quick 5

2011-03-18T09:10:00.000-06:00

For your enjoyment, a pictorial quick 5:

1.

Alaina

Joya


Entertaining each other

Clean and happy

Pretty blue eyes

The girl can accessorize

Quick 5

2011-03-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today may only end up being a quick 2. Or 3. We'll see how it goes.

1. Joya had a fantastic week at MOPS this week. Which was kind of amazing, since she only got about a 30 minute nap before we had to leave, as she decided to scream for part of the hour she could have been sleeping. She hung out in the swing in the nursery for most of it, which I am totally okay with. They didn't have to page me once. Maybe I will be able to re-join the worship team soon, since Joya might be okay with being in a nursery for an entire morning.

2. Last Saturday, while Lee and I did some chores, we turned around to find the girls like this:

Alaina was reading an Archie comic while Joya just played. Too cute.

3. It is one of the joys of motherhood to see babies becoming real people. Lately Joya has begun crying whenever I carry her into our room. She knows that the ONLY reason I take her in there is to put her in bed. It makes me laugh. I'm always a little shocked that she observes the room we are walking into and associates it with a place she is not sure she wants to be.

4. I may have developed a new bad habit: baking. I just discovered that I love having homemade baked goods in the house. Brownies, banana chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies...it may sound like a great idea, but the problem is I actually eat them. I tell myself things like the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are a great source of whole grain.

5. Our house is a center of Australian culture, thanks to the Wiggles. While normal kids talk about animals like monkeys and cows, Alaina likes to talk about kangaroos and kookaburras. One day she asked me to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stah." So I sang "Twinkle, twinkle, little star..." She quickly tried to correct me: "No STAH. STAH." And then the other day I suggested we do something (I don't remember what) and Alaina responded, "That's a GREAT idea! Beauty mate!" I'm pretty sure she used that phrase correctly too.

Well, the forecast has us in the sixties for at least the next five days. Welcome, Spring.

Quick 5

2011-03-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

We have had A Week, folks.

1. Poor little Joya was sick. Now, I fully realize that a sick baby is nothing new or earth-shattering. Facebook is filled with updates about various symptoms and infections and treatments, especially this time of year. But it was brand-new territory for me. I have never ever had to take one of my children to the doctor because they were sick. Alaina has had a few random colds and one round of the stomach flu, but all of that was handled by just me. So when Joya was screaming her head off all day Tuesday and there was nothing I could do about it, I took her in. They think it was either an ear infection or a UTI (yes, baby girls can get UTIs), so the nurse practitioner prescribed a round of amoxicillin. Joya is so little they couldn't get hard core confirmation on either, but that would wipe out both. Then Tuesday night was one of the worst night we've ever had as parents, with Joya coughing and crying for most of the night. We got about three hours of sleep total. But Wednesday she napped and ate much better, and last night she finally slept through the night again. And all I can say is Praise the Lord that my girls are generally healthy. That we don't have to do this very often.

2. Giving an exclusively breast-fed four and a half month old medicine is NOT easy. It's nasty and thick and pink, and I think she's actually swallowed only a tenth of what I've put in her mouth so far. I have to put her on her back on the floor, straddle her, try and pin down her arms while squishing her face into a fish face to try and get the little syringe in. Most of the time that girl has her mouth open like a fish, but when she sees me coming with the medicine she shuts her mouth tighter than Fort Knox.

3. Alaina has been an absolute gem the past few days. I didn't even have to ask her to be good while Joya is sick and Momma is tired. She has gone with the flow, even on Tuesday when I had to wake her up from her nap so we could take Joya to the doctor. I'm so proud of her I could bust.

4. While Tuesday was a horrible day because of sick Joya, there were actually some really good things that happened that day too. First, in the morning when I thought Joya was on a simple napping strike, we went looking at curtains for Alaina's room. I had in mind what it would probably cost to buy curtains and a rod, and I knew it wasn't going to be our cheapest expenditure. However, with the power of the tax refund I set a reasonable budget and found what I was looking for. It was going to cost my whole budget, but whatever. However, when I got to the counter to pay, it turned out the curtain panels were half off! I ended up spending $25 less than I thought. Later we got the box of clothes I bought for Alaina off of Ebay, and they are more awesome than they were described. And finally, I made a great taco soup for dinner.

5. Want the taco soup recipe? Here it is...

1 pound ground beef
32 oz. beef broth
1 can canned corn (I drained a little of the juice, but not all)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
1 packet taco seasoning

Brown and drain ground beef. Put all ingredients in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil. Heat through. Serve with cheese sprinkled on top.

Delish!

Here's hoping your next week is filled with health and taco soup.

Alaina's Prayers

2011-02-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

Alaina is getting quite good at praying before meals. She prays unprompted before lunch every day, and she'll often cheerfully pray before dinner too. In typical toddler fashion, she prays the same thing every time:

"Thank you Jesus for this food, Amen."

However, lately she'll sometimes pray this:

"Thank you Jesus for this food, Amen. For the girls to settle down, Amen."

And I say Amen to that.

Quick 5

2011-02-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

A shout-out to my brother-in-law Nick, who said that reading this quick 5 is the highlight of his Friday, along with going to Chick-fil-a for lunch. I am privileged to have this blog mentioned in the same conversation as Chick-fil-a.

1. It's official. We have had a full week of Joya not needing that middle of the night feeding. On Saturday or Sunday she woke up once in the middle of the night, but only because she busted out of her swaddler. She hates that. All I had to do was pin her arms down and wrap her up tight again, and she went right back to sleep. Now the only thing that seems to be waking me up in the night is my walnut-sized bladder. But even that's only once. I can handle it.

2. Alaina had a dental check-up this week. No cavities, but the dentist could tell that she is a thumb-sucker. He said nothing was urgent about it, but he could just tell. As far as I can tell, she only sucks her thumb when she's going to sleep at naps and at night. I'm hoping she'll just one day give it up altogether on her own, and I won't have to do anything drastic with her. She also still does not have her two-year-old molars, but the dentist said that was fine. Why do they call them two-year-old molars then? And I didn't get a pic of her prizes, but Jill let her pick out two. And gave her two stickers. Sheesh.


She refused to lay back in the chair, so the talented Jill had to clean her teeth sitting up like this.

3. On a dental-related note, I loved working at Holly Dental. I love that I take Alaina there, because those ladies care when they see us. I actually missed most of Alaina's cleaning (which really only took about five minutes) because I was catching up with all the girls I used to work with. I had Joya in the Snuggli, and they all wanted to see her. I even chatted with a hygienist who came to work after I left to have Alaina, but who I would have been friends with if we had worked there at the same time. She cleans Lee's teeth, so we feel like we know her. And while I don't necessarily miss working, I do miss all those ladies.

4. Most of the boxes are now unpacked or simply stored in our basement. So our house is fully functioning. However, the only room I truly have completely decorated is Alaina's. The rest I am slowly decorating. But right now Alaina's room is my favorite room because it is completely done.

The only thing missing is some curtains on the window, which will happen by next week. The blinds are junk and don't really close tight, and it is getting to be pretty bright in the morning, so I will be buying some curtains to help keep the room a little darker.

5. Alaina loves to sit up on her bed and look out that window. Yesterday, as I was changing diapers after their afternoon naps, all the kids came home from school. Since our building sits near the entrance, all the kids who go to the elementary school walk past our house to go or come from school. Alaina jumped up to look out the window and said, "Look, it's all my friends! There's DeeDee and BeeBo and TaTee..." She was giving them nonsense names, but she was naming them, nonetheless. She is going to love school.

Well, goodbye February. See you next year.

Big Sister is Hilarious

2011-02-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

Quick 5

2011-02-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well, another week under our belts.

1. I forgot two very important things from my Valentine's Day post. First were the little treats I bought for Alaina: small heart-shaped sugar cookies from the King Soopers bakery. I've eaten most of them myself. And second, we participated in Qdoba's Valentine promotion: give someone a smooch at the cash register and get a BOGO. Lee had been racking his brain the whole week before trying to figure out how to get in on this. But Joya's doctor's appointment was on Monday, and so we wouldn't be able to meet him for lunch. I don't know why neither of us considered dinner, but one of his co-workers basically told him to stop whining about it and take me there for dinner. So he came home a bit early and we swung over there to get some to bring home. Yes, we kissed in front of the register guy. And I got a free burrito.

2. It has taken me awhile to get used to the fact that our living room is on the ground floor. Cars and kids are going by the front of our place all the time, and it took me by surprise each time I saw a flash of something through the window. I guess a year and a few months of living on the third floor where the only thing out the window were birds can do that do you.

3. This weather has lured Lee into a false sense of spring. He asked me the other day if I was ready to grill, and then if I was taking the girls out to play in our backyard. It's been nice, but not that nice. And I keep reminding him that March is the snowiest month in Colorado. That has always irked me, because by March I am ready for spring, and it always feel like winter hits us the hardest.

4. Yet another story in our potty-training saga: I'm sure I've completely screwed up Alaina by now. She probably will never be potty-trained due to my inconsistency. The latest thing is how Alaina asks me quite often to "go to the brafroom." A couple times I told her to go herself. It's pretty cute the way she takes off her pants and her diaper. However, whenever we go she sits on the potty and says the "tinkle is stuck." Or she just toots and calls it done. So sometimes when she asks to go, I simply tell her to hold it, knowing it will be a fruitless waste of time and knowing that she'll forget about it in approximately two minutes anyway. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this part of child-rearing? I try not to use the word hate, but it's the only valid one here.

5. Joya is definitely becoming a real live baby. But I forgot that four months is the age where they are finally awake to the world, but can't really do anything about it. She doesn't have the motor skills to play, so she gets frustrated quite often. So now, when she's awake, I really have to be on hand to entertain her. I'm hoping she gets her skills soon. She'll be happier for it.

That's a wrap. See you next week, folks.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

I. Love. Valentine's Day. Always have. The pink and the red and the hearts just make me happy in this dreary month. And this year, Valentine's Day has lasted almost a full week. I can't remember it lasting that long ever.

It started on Saturday the 5th when Lee arranged for the Gilletts to watch the girls while we went out to dinner. It was a surprise to me; I had no idea he was setting it up. Anyway, the girls ate dinner over there while Lee and I went to Outback. I'm sure you all know that I am a steak and potatoes kind of girl, so this meal spoke to my very soul.

Alaina was supposed to take Valentines to her MOPPETS class last Tuesday, but Tuesday was the day that was super snowy and cold. I didn't want to take my babies out in that, especially when it took Lee about an hour to get to work that day. So we stayed home. However, Alaina had fun giving Valentines to her dear friends Hayley, Macy and Avery (and Miss Leah) at church yesterday.

We got two Valentines in the mail during the week for Alaina from her grammy and grandma. She's been carrying them around all week.

Then, last Friday, Lee surprised me with a present. An actual, honest-to-goodness Valentine's present.

Chocolate covered strawberries and bananas from Edible Arrangements. Holy cow. They were amazing. I think chocolate covered fruit from Edible Arrangements has become my new favorite luxury, bumping pedicures from the top spot.

Yesterday we participated in our favorite Valentine's Day tradition:

That, my friends, is a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. We love that little special they have every year. And it's even more amazing to me that Lee fully supports this tradition, since the only tradition he EVER wants to participate in is the tradition he has of never having traditions. Alaina loved it too.

In other news, today was Joya's four-month check-up. She now weighs 13 pounds and 7 ounces. I am a terrible mommy for not getting how long she is, but the good doctor did tell me that she is still in the 95th percentile for height. She's a tall girl. I'm busting out the 6-month clothes, simply because I need things to cover her arms and legs. The doctor also said that if she didn't know us, if she had just seen Joya from across the room, she would have thought that Joya was six months old, because of how she holds herself and puts things in her mouth. Joya passed the exam with smiles and flying colors, until they stuck her legs with her shots. But don't worry. She was back to giggling at Alaina before too long.

It's been a good day.

Quick 5

2011-02-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

Hmm. Not quite sure where this quick 5 is going to come from today.

1. I changed Joya's schedule this week, and it actually went pretty well. I'm feeding her every four hours instead of every three. She doesn't really seem to notice. Switching to a four hour schedule has synced up Alaina and Joya's afternoon naps, and I love that. I now have a full two hours to myself in the afternoon. And Joya hardly cries when going down for naps now, since I'm keeping her up for at least two hours at a time, rather than just the one hour at a time. We're still adjusting a bit, but I think this new normal will feel normal shortly.

2. I did our taxes this week. And I must admit that I kind of enjoy that process. TurboTax makes it so easy, and I love watching the little green number get bigger. The birth of Joya really made that number jump. I know I shouldn't get excited, since that is actually money that the government owes us and it seems like we shouldn't have had to pay it in the first place, but there is still an element of feeling like you're getting free money.

3. Tuesday was our big snow day. Wednesday we went to the library and it was an absolute ZOO. Remind me to not go the day after a big snow storm.

4. I've launched back into the world of Ebay to find summer clothes for my growing toddler. Gone are the days of 2T clothes. Hopefully it won't take too long to score a box of 3T spring/summer duds.

5. Next week will be my first week back on worship team since September. I'm really nervous about it. Not the singing...the leaving of a four-month-old in the nursery from 6:30-9:00pm, and then again on Sunday from 7:00am-noon. This is one of those times where every ten minutes I literally have to tell myself to relax and go with the flow. I'm sure she'll be fine. And if she's not, then she'll get used to it. I guess the worst thing that could happen is that I have to pull myself out for the week. I'm looking forward to getting involved again, but I'm not looking forward to it at the same time. It's just one of those things that I simply need to pull the trigger on.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! May your day be filled with pink and red.

Ah, Imitation

2011-02-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

A little while ago, I was holding and playing with Joya, and Alaina came up with her baby doll and bottle.

"This is my sister, Baby Naomi," she said. I oohed and ahhed appropriately. Then she said, "I'm going to feed her. Give me some space."

Hmm. She must have heard that a time or two herself.

Quick 5

2011-02-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird week, and I'm not sure I would have remembered that it was Friday, if it weren't for Becky's quick 5. But I'm back on track now.

1. I think I found the ultimate way to end the "Why?" game. Alaina is in it to win it when it comes to that game. You know how it goes...we'll be watching Baby Einstein and she'll ask:
"What's that Mommy?"
I'll say, "It's a seahorse."
She says, "Why Mommy, why?"
Then I say, "Why Alaina, why?"
She'll say, "A-cause."
And then it ends. So now when she asks me why, I usually ask her why right back, and then we can move on.

2. Because of the cold, cold weather, Lee worked from home two days this week. It was an interesting experience. I definitely loved having him around for my sanity. It was nice to interact with an adult periodically through the day. However, he is just not used to being around Alaina so much. And her noise. At one point I had to tell him that she really wasn't being excessively noisy; she was just being a two-year-old girl. But I did try to keep her quieter, since he was working and was on the phone every once in awhile. And Alaina was a little confused on Thursday when he went back to the office. But it is nice that he has that option when the weather is bad.

3. Here is how we spent much of Tuesday, the coldest day this week:

The blankets and space heater and DVD player were our friends.

4. We've met our neighbors. Last week sometime, during dinner, we heard a knock on our door. It was our neighbors to the left. Valerie and her two kids, Brittany and Brandon, just wanted to say hi. These are the same kids that Alaina was chatting with through the window last Friday. Then last night Laura, our neighbor to the right, knocked on our door because Lee had shoveled her driveway and walk. We really share a driveway with her and her husband, so it would be silly just to shovel our side, but she appreciated it anyway. It was so nice to meet them. We never got the names of any of our neighbors at the old place.

5. Next week Alaina is going to give out her first Valentines. Since it is the only meeting before Valentine's Day, we were given a list of the kids in her room. She has no idea what it is all about, but I'm terribly excited, since I love Valentine's Day. She picked out her Valentines yesterday...Disney Princesses, of course. I told her that was very predictable of her and she said, "Yeah!"

Well, have a good weekend, kids. Hope you all have fun enjoying the Superbowl with all the food and commercials that surround it.

Making Friends

2011-01-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today it is 67 degrees outside. I have the windows open. And right now, there are kids outside our window, playing around on the ice outside our building. (Our building faces north.)

Alaina and I heard the kids, and Alaina scampered up on the couch to look out at the kids. They are right there. So while I'm in here, typing this, she is talking to them through the window. She's saying,

"We moved here in the new house!"
"I'll come see you!"
"Don't fall down and get all wet!"
"Hi kids!"
"Whee! That looks fun!"

I have never been good at making friends. But apparently Alaina is. I'll take my cues from her.

Quick 5

2011-01-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, this has been the fastest week for me in a long time. I honestly don't know where the days went. I hope I was productive.

1. I found this move to be much less overwhelming than the last one. I'm not too sure why. Maybe because we have so much more space. When we moved into the last place, I wanted to cry because there were boxes everywhere and no place to put our stuff because of said boxes. Here I've put the majority of them in the basement, and I'm bringing things up as we need them. There is lots of floor space for Alaina to play while I unpack. Or maybe it's because we had so much help last weekend, including Lee's parents being around for so much of it to watch the girls while I powered through a bunch of the unpacking. That was glorious.

2. Remember how concerned I was about not having to climb three flights of stairs with little girls, since that was my primary form of exercise? I should not have been concerned, because now instead of climbing three flights of stairs once a day, I climb two (sometimes four) smaller flights of stairs about a million times a day. Between diaper changes and all the times that Joya goes down and gets up from a nap, I have my very own stairmaster.

3. I took a picture right before we moved, and realized I had taken almost the exact same picture when we moved into that place. Here they are:

Early September 2009

Early January 2011

4. Go ahead and roll your eyes now. Are you done? Good. Now, I've been trying hard not to be disappointed that the whole Baby Wise system didn't seem to work for Joya. According to that system, the babies should be sleeping at least 8 hours a night by this time. In fact, they should be sleeping 8 hours at night a few weeks ago. But Joya still wakes up in the night. Part of the reason I'm bummed is I no longer have a plan. I don't know if I should keep doing what I'm doing, or if we need to move on to some sleep training or what. I've been waiting for her to sleep through the night to put her in Alaina's room, which means she's still in ours. And I am READY for her to move. So now I just don't know what to do with her. I fully realize that every baby is different, and systems like Baby Wise are just a goal, not a rule, but now that goal seems to be gone. And I don't have a backup.

5. Today I told Alaina that after Joya's nap we're going to Kohl's. She said, "With Grammy?!" I said no, not today. She became very upset.

The end! Goodbye January. Hello February, the month of pink heart Valentine happiness.

Another First

2011-01-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Our old place was 1000 square feet, all one floor. All the rooms connected to the main living space, so it was easy to keep track of Alaina. Our new place is actually three stories. The bedrooms are upstairs, away from the main living space. I have the baby monitor in our room where Joya is, and Alaina's room is just at the top of the stairs, so I try to keep her door cracked when she's in there so I can hear her.

At our old place, I would feed Joya in the morning and listen for Alaina to wake up. When she did, I would go into her room and tell her that it okay to get out of bed and come into the living room while I fed Joya. Here, that is no longer a good plan, since it would involve me A) going up and down the stairs or B) yelling up the stairs. So I told Alaina that in the morning when her door is open, she can get up. I figured I would just open her door when I went downstairs to feed the baby, and she could come at her leisure.

The problem with this plan presented itself early this morning. Right before I go to sleep for the night I open Alaina's door. That way I can hear her, and her room gets some of the heat from the house at night. At 5:36am, I heard Alaina crying really sad tears. Woke me up and got my heart racing. I didn't even bother with my glasses, I just got to her room as quickly as I could. However, she was not in her room. She was downstairs, at the bottom of the stairs in our dark house. I remember being little and how scary your house is at night when the lights are off. I ran downstairs and scooped her up. I told her that if it was dark outside and dark inside our house, then I was in my bed sleeping. She told me she wanted to get up, but I told her it was too early and to go back to sleep. I calmed her down, put her back in bed, and closed her door.

I still want her to get out of bed on her own in the morning, but clearly at night I'm going to have to keep her door partially closed. That way she can't tell it's fully open and will still sleep when it's sleep time. We'll have to see what adventures await us tonight.

Quick 5

2011-01-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Moving weekend! Why am I blogging and not packing, you ask? Well, I'd say that about 93% of the packing is done. And I'm out of boxes. So, while I wait for Lee to hit up the liquor store for some more boxes, and while the girls are napping/having room time, I have a few minutes to poke around on the computer. And since I've played the two free episodes of Wheel of Fortune on Facebook, blogging it is.

1. I just realized that while the main draw of our new place is the fact that it is not on the third floor, I think I might actually miss all these stairs. Some of my pre-pregnancy pants are starting to fit again, and I credit the forced exercise of lugging a baby carrier up the stairs. This means I'll actually have to start exercising on purpose. Not sure how that's going to turn out.

2. Yesterday I put Joya in her bouncy seat and left Alaina in the living room, playing with a blanket while I did something else. Then I heard Alaina call out "Joya is cold!" I hurried to the living room, sure I would find Joya completely covered with the blanket Alaina had, head and all. Instead, I found this:

Another needless worry on my part.

3. I know I put this on my Facebook status the other day, but I wanted to record it here for posterity. Alaina prayed for dinner the other night. She folded her hands, closed her eyes and said, "The hot dogs are cooled down and the corn is cooled down. Amen." And then she proceeded to eat.

4. Another cute pic of the girls:

5. A shout out to my in-laws, who are flying in solely to help us move. We're so excited and grateful to have them. Many hands make light work.

Our next broadcast will air from our new digs. See you on the flip side.

Quick 5 Part II (Or, an Additional Quick 3)

2011-01-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Where was all this yesterday when I was trying so hard to come up with five things to say?

1. Alaina put #2 in the potty yesterday. The big potty. With no prompting from me. She asked to go tinkle in the big potty right before bed, so I set her up there and left for a minute. All of a sudden she called out "I pooped!" Sure enough, she did! We were so proud of her. She got to eat candy right before bed. Now, she pooped in her diaper this morning, but I'm not worried.

2. Someone hijacked our baby monitor channel. Ours is a two channel deal; one is pretty static-y so I use the other. Well, in the middle of the night it was making a weird noise, so I switched it to the other one and went to bed. Today, when I tried to go back to the good channel, I heard noises. From someone else's house. I don't know why they were able to hijack the channel. Seems like we were using it first. Good thing we're moving.

3. Did you know they have TV carts at the grocery store? They look like the carts with the cars on the front for kids, only their a little bigger. And have a TV built in so the kiddos can watch the tube while mom shops. I didn't stick around to find out how much it costs to use it, because they are stationed at the customer service counter and it looks like you have to pay. My first thought was "what the heck?" My second was I better not knock it. It's probably a life-saver for some moms. I hope to see one in use some day. Back in my day, we just had to stick with our moms and be happy.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled packing...

Quick 5

2011-01-14T08:30:00.001-07:00

Ah, a brief respite from packing.

1. Every morning Alaina says she wants to get dressed "All by myself." She is actually doing a pretty good job of it too. I hand her the clothes right side up, and she struggles her way into them. She's great at socks, okay at pants, and pretty terrible at shirts, but she'll get it. And her biggest problem with the pants is getting them up over the cloth diapers. She's really going to like it once she gets to wear underwear. Those pants will practically put themselves on.

2. I've been slowly packing away Alaina's toys. And I've thrown away a few broken ones. I do it while she's napping, and she's really been none the wiser. Except for yesterday, when she asked for one. I caught myself in a lie, just as I was telling her "I don't know what happened to it!" I corrected myself and told her what I did. She was sad, but luckily she's still at an age where she's pretty easily distracted. I focused her attention on what she did have.

3. Speaking of packing Alaina's toys, I haven't packed them all, obviously. She still needs things to play with for a week. But she keeps bringing one or two to me and asking if she can take it to the new house. I think it's cute.

4. Joya is slowly moving out of lumphood. She still only stays awake for about an hour at a time...an hour and half if we're lucky. But she spends that hour talking or trying to bring toys to her mouth. Of course it only makes it in her mouth about 10% of the time, but I love that she's finally trying. And she's not so content just to lay down anymore. She wants to be sitting more upright. We may have reached the end of the Moses basket phase.

5. I made an amazing crock-pot pot roast this week. I don't think I've ever made the same pot roast twice, since I'm always trying new recipes and there are a million out there, but I think I've found my go-to recipe. I do not feel the need to look any further. It's super easy too. Take a ranch dressing mix packet, an Italian dressing mix packet and a brown gravy mix packet, mix them together and sprinkle them over the roast in a crock-pot. Add two cups of water, and voila! Of course add potatoes and carrots to the crock-pot to your liking. Lee said the potatoes and carrots were "bangorang." That says it all.

Only one more week in this place. It's been good to us, but it's time to move on.

New Year, New MOPS

2011-01-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a new MOPS group. Our old one got closed down by the church running it, which was very sad. We attended that one for two years, and I was just getting comfortable with all the moms. But after taking a semester off, I decided that we should find another one. There were two close by...one didn't have room in the childrens' program for the girls, so the choice was pretty clear.

It's much smaller than the old group. It's fairly well run, and the moms seem nice enough, although you can tell they've all been together for at least one semester. I felt no instant connection with anyone, no spark of kindred spirit from anyone. And Joya was pretty much a mess the whole time. For the first time in my motherhood, I got paged to the nursery. She wouldn't settle down for them, so I ended up holding her the entire time. She was dead tired too...the minute she was in my arms she fell asleep. I tried laying her down at that point, but she wasn't having any of that.

All in all, the morning wasn't great. Good, just not great. The speaker was amazing. I wish I could have taken notes. He was from Heritage Builders and I'm looking forward to exploring their resources. But we're going back, and the main reason is for Alaina. She loves things like this. She doesn't care that she's never been in that classroom, that she's never met the teacher or the kids. She just wants to go and play. When I picked her up from her classroom, her first words to me were "I want to stay!" Lately she's been talking quite a bit about going to school "all by myself!" I'm always amazed at her demonstrations of her extrovertness. The girl needs to be around people, and I'm not talking about me, her dad and Joya.

Now if only Joya would settle down, I might be able to relax and see if there are any friends to be had here.

Quick 5

2011-01-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Look at us. Already one whole week in to 2011.

1. We may be inching toward potty-training. We talk about it A LOT, and yesterday I heard Alaina call out "Poop in the potty!" I got terribly excited, thinking she was asking to go. Well, she might have been, but what she really meant was she had just pooped in her diaper. I think it's an important step, though.

2. On a related note, I told Alaina that once we get to our new house we'll get serious about the potty training. She replied "A potty train?! Hippee!"

3. Packing is actually going well. It's actually quite a good feeling, since you can see your accomplishments piling up in the corner. I'm also pleased with the amount of things I'm finding to throw away or give away.

4. Joya is becoming more and more vocal. We thought she might be our quiet one, since Alaina talks enough for a whole household, but Joya seems to be staking her claim. After our 3:30am feeding this morning I put her pack in her bed, wrapped her up tight and stuck her paci in. She immediately spit it out and spent the next five minutes saying "Aaa! Aaa!" She wasn't crabbing...just talking. I put her paci back in to keep her quiet so we could all go back to sleep, even though it was terribly cute.

5. I find it simultaneously cute and slightly annoying that Alaina feels she needs to be within 10 feet of me at all times. The other day I gave her a snack (a small bowl with some Teddy Grahams and a sippy cup of water) and then went into the bathroom and shut the door so I could take care of a little business. I was seriously in there for only about two minutes, and when I opened the door, I saw that Alaina had brought her bowl and sippy cup and was sitting right outside the bathroom, quietly eating her snack. So cute. Yet so sad.

Sorry I don't have too much to say this week. Our world is being slowly packed away in boxes, and that's what has been taking up most of my free time this week. Life just keeps moving along.

Houston, We Have Contact

2011-01-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

One of the main, driving forces behind my desire for another baby was the potential for sibling interaction. I wanted Alaina to have a sibling, a pal, a person to grow up with. She has been really great about the whole adding a baby to the family thing. Mostly Alaina just ignores Joya. Oh, she says hi, especially when Joya is on my lap. She also likes to climb up to see Joya on the changing table. But mostly life is business as usual for her.

But then yesterday I laid Joya on Alaina's bed while I put a load of diapers in the wash. I turned around to see Alaina up on the bed, close to Joya's face saying "Hi Joya! Hi Joya!" And Joya was holding on to Alaina's finger and smiling right at her face.

Up until now Joya has given Alaina the blank stare that she gives to most things that are not Mommy or Daddy. I think this is the main reason Alaina has just gone about her life. Joya has just been a noisy little lump that is very uninteresting. But now, all of a sudden, Joya tracks Alaina as she dances around and is quick to give Alaina a smile if Alaina comes close enough to make eye contact.

I've been waiting for this day. And it was worth it.