Category: Pictures

Due to various reasons Steven will be getting out of the military in March and we will be staying on the island. Sounds cool huh? It should be…except for the cost of living and not being able to go to the commissary. I decided to stock up on stuff that lasts a long time from the commissary, canned fruit and vegetables, juice, tuna, jelly, mac and cheese, and peanut butter. I thought we’d go to the Pearl Harbor commissary. We’ve only been there twice since we’ve lived here, usually we go to the one that’s closest, Schofield Barrack. But the Pearl Harbor one is bigger and has better deals and since we’re stocking up why not.

We get there and there’s a problem. They only have the regular shopping carts (we usually get the long ones with extra seats so both the girls can ride). So we use a regular cart, put Felicity in the seat and Seporah starts walking. This is really more difficult than it sounds. Seporah wants to run off and open all the candy and hide causing me to have multiple heart attacks. Seporah rides in the basket part until it gets too full, she hangs on to the end, she rides on my shoulders, she holds my hand, she hides, she throws one fit.

Felicity is doing a wonderful job sitting in the cart looking at laminated pictures and munching on raisins. So I’m not paying as much attention to her. We get to the check out (I’ve already come to the conclusion I will never come back here by myself with both children, there’s only so much humiliation one Mom can handle). And then we get to the car and I start putting away the pictures Felicity was flipping through…We’re missing one…Of course, the one with Mommy in a swimsuit…Seriously, Murphy should be shot.

As I already talked about the girl’s for their birthdays, I thought I should talk about Steven for his. This is more difficult for a number of reasons. 1. Adults are just more complicated than children. 2. Steven reads this and can tell me when I’ve got something wrong. 3. I really can’t just list his measurements and developmental milestones that he’s hitting or missing, I just don’t think he’d appreciate that. Soooo, I thought I’d write a list of all the things I love about him.

He is a great cook, really once you’ve had his pizza, you’ll never visit Pizza Hut again.

He always gives the best part of things to me. The fluffiest pillow, the thickest towel. If his choice at a restaurant is better, he gives it to me.

He lets me pick the music in the car 95% of the time.

He’s an involved Dad.

He gives thoughtful gifts for birthdays and holidays.

He eats everything I make, even when it sucks and tells me it was delicious.

He tells me I’m beautiful even when I look like dirt when I’m especially beautiful.

He brushes the girl’s teeth and puts them to bed 2 out of 3 nights.

When I ask him to read a book, he does, no matter what the subject (seriously how many husbands do you know that have read the whole Twilight series? Well actually my mom’s husband now that I think about it :).

When we went jean shopping last week, he got the ones I picked out because I liked them better rather than the more comfortable ones (he has a great butt BTW).

He makes Sunday morning breakfast every week.

He takes Felicity during one of the hours during church so I can actually listen (I now far too many women who don’t hear a thing until their baby hits 18 months and can go to nursery).

When I can’t sleep, he willingly sleeps on the couch so I get the whole bed and a good night’s sleep.

He watches chick flicks with me and even discusses them afterwards.

The Train Engine Shirt

A few weeks ago a co-worker of mine watched the girls while Steven and I went out on a day. She later told me in amazement they went for 4 hours, “I mean they didn’t stop for 4 hours, I have a new found respect for you.” This is a woman who works with children everyday like me.

On Christmas Day we went to a sit down restaurant. Denny’s, nothing fancy, but it wasn’t until half way through that I realized we hadn’t been to a sit down place in a looonnnnngggg time. Unfortunately the outing was less than enjoyable, it really could have been a post all to itself. And I really don’t think we’ll go go out again for a very looonnnnngggg time.

We only have one car, so usually when one of us is at work the other goes out walking or on the bus to get the girls places. Yesterday was the first day in about a month where I was home with the girls and it wasn’t raining (BTW, our 800 ft home never feels so small as when we are trapped inside with 2 toddlers). So the girls and I left the house at 9:45, we didn’t get home until 4:15. Really we had a lot of fun. We walked to the park, McDonald’s, the library, the toystore, the pet store, the grocery store and back (that’s 4 miles pushing a double stroller, I totally got my exercise). I thought I’d tell you some of the humorous parts of our day.

Remember it was raining forever and the park was our first stop. Seporah went down both slides that were extremely wet. Consequently her pants became extremely wet. She came up to me and said “Stinky!” Which is what she says when she has a dirty diaper. I told her it would dry and to keep on playing. Nope she would have none of that. So she played on the park pantless for an hour while they dried (moral of the story-please don’t judge the mom when you see children running around without clothing).

For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa sent a train. It’s great, she loves it, but it’s a really intricate set that requires instruction and more patience than I usually have to put together. So I decided we needed a couple straight tracks so we could have a simple oval. I was scoping out my options and watching Felicity. I had a vague idea that Seporah was about 6 feet away, put I wasn’t really paying enough attention to her (seriously, you must know what they are doing at all times or problems will start). Suddenly a sales associate said, “OH! Here let me help you!” She had found a Thomas the Tank Engine shirt and was trying to put it on, her head going through the arm holes. Remember how she played in the wet park for an hour and we walked 2 miles to get there, well she was filthy. And she had just put a nice clean shirt on. The sales associate looked like she was going to blow a gasket. So rather then try to return the stretched out, now muddy shirt to the rack, I bought it and Seporah wore it home.

During outings I have to walk a fine line while consuming water. I don’t want to get dehydrated while walking that much, but I also really, really, really don’t want to go to a public restroom with both girls by myself. Thankfully I managed to only have to go once. First I changed Seporah’s diaper, then let her walk in and out of the empty stalls while I changed Felicity’s diaper. Then I took the stroller and Felicity into the handicap stall and tried to coax Seporah in while I went to the toilet. Seporah was like No! I said fine, but you aren’t allowed to leave the bathroom. I proceeded to close and lock the door. THEN Seporah wanted in, but I was already sitting down. Seporah started screaming, Felicity walks over and tries to open the door for her sister, obviously she is unable to and starts screaming. I tell Seporah to climb under the door if she really wants in. She does and then unlocks the door and opens it while I am still sitting on the toilet. This privacy thing everyone speaks of, I have no idea what that means.

Remember this is all in one day. 2 children in under 2 years is complete insanity, my 2 cents, wait at least 3 years between children. There’s actually more I could tell, but I’d like to get a shower before the girl’s wake up, so until next time.

Look Mom, Seporah gave me a stick too!

                        

(Seporah loves this song)

Life has been oh so busy so I haven’t had a proper post in a while. And I really did intend on having a post about Seporah on her birthday. But anyways, I’m only 4 days late. Can you believe she’s already 3 years old? It’s insane, but it’s sounds so much nicer to say I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old rather than 1 and 2. Anyways, she is now 39 inches, 35 pounds, 86 percentile for height and weight and quite comfortable in 4T clothing.

The most pressing issue with her is her speech. She babbles all day long like there’s no tomorrow. She has a decent size vocabulary, but she will not put words together, she does not make sentences. Example; “lasdgh aglka dhglhs drink. alkfjl kadg;aldgj cup. lkahdgsh vlhadgk No! Juice! askjgya oisaeyt ag Please! alifh dih ga Thank you! ahg ahgiah gfa hdfglkhgk.” She’s always been a tad behind vocally, but she babbled so much we always assumed she’d catch up. However I was like no more of that. So she’s getting to see a speech therapist for evaluation (also an audiology evaluation just to make sure she can hear, but I’m pretty sure she hears me as clear as a bell).

Other than vocally (and the potty) she’s right on target. She expects the world to revolve around her, she’s never met a stranger, and expects everyone to love her and give her their undivided attention. ”Here I am, Love me!“ would be her personal motto. She’s very physical, loves to run and jump and dance all day long and she’s incredibly strong. She’s very opinionated and knows what she wants, taking no substitutes.

(As if you didn’t know) Trains are her absolute favorite thing at the present moment. Followed by dogs, fish and ducks. Favorite TV show-Little Einstein, then Winnie the Pooh and Backyardigans.

She really can’t get away from music at this house and has developed a serious love for it. She’s an awesome little rocker. She’ll play any instrument she can get her hands on and if there’s none available, the floor works really well as a drum. If she likes a song, she starts dancing, moving and shaking and tells everyone to ”Dance!“ right along with her.

Lately she’s become slightly more girly. I’ve been able to put dresses on her the past month. I think this is due to Miss Karen’s influence, painting nails and having proper dress up clothes and jewelry at her house. I’m now hopeful I’ll have someone to go get pedicures with in a few years.

In the past 6 months or so she’s also become a picky eater. Which is somewhat crazy since Seporah use to eat whatever we put in front of her, literally, bell peppers, vegetables, lamb, casseroles, anything (well except green beans, she really has always hated those). Now, somehow or another she lives on top ramen, sandwiches (called wunches, a cross between lunch and sandwiches), apples, oranges, and milk. It’s mildly annoying.

She has about a bazillion toys, but her favorite? Dad’s iPod Touch. She so wants her very own, but I’m like, hey if I don’t get one of my own, you sure don’t get one of your own. We’ll just have to share with Daddy.

Seporah also couldn’t get away from books at this house. We literally have 300 board books alone. She will sit for an hour while you read to her one after another. (tangent: it’s always been this way since she was a little baby and when we were at the Doctors and he asked if we read to her, I actually got a little angry even though it was a valid question since we read to her soooooo much) (oh and tangent 2: Felicity not so much about the books, I’m hoping she’ll grow to appreciate a good story, but the difference between the 2 of them and their reactions to books is quite wide).

Things she doesn’t like? Scary movies and socks without shoes.

Seriously? How can you not love this big girl?

(Seporah got a camera for Christmas too and as soon as I figure out how to get the pictures from her camera onto the computer those will be up here too)

                        

So we’ve been using cloth diaper for our girls for 10 months. It’s environmental friendly and a lot cheaper than disposables (although they still get those for babysitting). When I first decided to switch I didn’t know where to start. Most people when they think of cloth diapers think of the rectangle white ones that our grandmas used. And although those are still available, there’s so many more options besides those. But while we’re talking about them, let’s start there.

Now if you’re going to go with rectangle diapers (aka prefolds), do NOT buy the ones at Walmart. Those aren’t worth anything except as burp rags. Go to a cloth diaper store or buy online. They do sell the plain jane white ones online, but I think ones like these are so much cuter. Remember these ones need a cover to be leak proof (cute options available).

There’s also fitted diapers. Like prefolds except they are shaped to a baby. They also need a cover.

Then there’s pocket diapers. You don’t need a cover with these and you stuff the pocket with an absorbency pad.

And finally the easiest and the ones we use: All-In-Ones. No folding, no covers, no stuffing. They work just like disposables. There are many, many different brands. Some have snaps, some have velcro, some are one size so they grow with your baby from 8lbs-35lbs. Just depends what you want.

After testing a few, we decided on Thirsties brand All-In-Ones (www.thirstiesbaby.com). They aren’t quite as cute as the ones previously pictured, but they work the best for us. Believe me, it’s not as hard as you think it is to wash them either. Plus I mean you end up with cute pictures like this:

I’ve always been a little obsessed with red hair. I dyed my hair red as a teenager. I took a red head to prom. I always said I’d marry a red head so I could have red haired children. When my husband met me and then married me, I was a dyed red head. Obviously he’s not a red head, so I assumed I’d never get any red haired children, but then I did. I thought I was obsessed before, but now I am super obsessed with red hair. It’s really weird. Any time I see someone with red hair, I get this overwhelming feeling of love and compassion towards them (and usually sigh, kinda like in high school when I had a crush on someone). Right now, I’m coloring these pages for the girl’s Christmas present. I’m noticing that I HAVE to include some red heads, I don’t think I would have before.

In this picture I don’t look happy, but that’s just because I’d been smiling for about 3 hours straight for the camera (you’ve got to remember the agony of wedding pictures ;). We were both told we could stop smiling and we both just relaxed. Then Steven fixed my hair from the blowing wind (not knowing that we were having our picture taken). For those of you that don’t know, I wore my mom’s wedding dress.

And here, as if you don’t have enough pictures, is my little red head (it’s actually not the best picture, but you can see her hair and she’s got such a small amount, sometimes you can’t tell it’s red).

I am fairly convinced that most children are not as wild as mine. Really. Because if they were, I don’t think there would ever be a third child. It’s just amazing to me how people so small could wrack such havoc in such a short period of time. They really are adorable though, aren’t they? And I’m taking total and complete responsibility for that since I grew them.

BTW, just in case anyone’s wondering. I bought shatterproof ornaments. Steven dropped one from 6 feet, it didn’t break. They’re awesome, come and get ‘em girls. Oh and we tied the tree to the wall, so they couldn’t pull the whole thing down.

BTW2, can you tell I’m stoked for Christmas?