The Mess

Kids are too funny. Have you ever watched them eat spaghetti? Isabelle only likes to feed it to herself and when she does she gets it every where. How much fun would it be to only get it in her mouth? She has even learned how to slurp it up when she gets a long piece. They pick up on certain things so quickly. I just love it. I let her feed herself some yogurt yesterday and what a mess that was. Towards the end the spoon just was not working right so she had to use her hand. And when one hand was not quite good enough the other hand had to help out. It was a good thing we were at home where there was easy access to clean up stuff. She does seem to be getting better at using a spoon and making it to her mouth. Usually she turns the spoon so that the food plops into her mouth instead of inserting the spoon into her mouth. Not always does the oatmeal make it to her mouth this way by spoon, and then she must rely on good old fingers to do the trick. I don’t think she minds at all.

Well as this week is quickly going by we are preparing for Ben’s departure to Salt Lake City. Today he is in Portland, being trained on a new computerized system of handhelds that the terminal in Sacramento will be implementing in two weeks. He will actually be back for three days to help them get up and running. What a deal. As it looks right now we are going to be able to see each other much more often than the last time, I think at least every weekend. I am pretty excited about that and I think so is Ben. So long as everything goes well on my end and Ben’s, in finding us a house, we plan to have our stuff packed up and ready to go to Salt Lake the second weekend in May. I hope that time will go by pretty fast. I think it will at least, especially if we get to spend a little bit more time together.

Other than that things are going well. We are just taking it one day at a time. Isabelle does not seem to notice when Ben is away for a day, so maybe she won’t really notice when he is gone for a week at a time. Ben’s coworkers are trying to put together a going away party for him this weekend, which should be interesting and fun. I know he will really miss the people in Sacramento, but he should be able to develop new friendships at his new “barn.” Baby “O” is doing great, getting bigger each day. I some days I think my belly cannot really get any bigger but I know that it will. Ben finds it to be a lot of fun and very entertaining to see my belly do “jumps.”

Park Day

Our adventure to the park began many hours before it actually happened. First we had to wait for a special delivery before we could do anything. So we tried to keep ourselves busy by going to the gym first thing, so as not to miss the delivery. Once we were done there we came right home, and began the real waiting. We played, ate snacks, and sewed diapers. What an exciting time we had while we waited. Alas Isabelle soon grew tired of waiting and had to take a nap. It was then during her nap time that the special delivery was made. He knocked on the door so as not to wake Isabelle from her peaceful slumber. I opened the door and was so excited that I could hardly wait. The wait is over and it is finally here, the digital camera that we have been wanting all year.

I opened the box as fast as I could to get inside and see all the goods. I was not disappointed when I opened to find all the fun stuff that had arrived in good time. The camera was there, with a bag to spare. Along with batteries, a memory card, and lens cleaner for care. I was so excited to see, that I could hardly wait to take pictures so that all could see. Once the battery was charged and Isabelle was awake we made our way to the park not by a lake. Pudge went too and pulled us along as we mad our way up the lane so long. We arrived at the park to see other kids playing but that did not matter we were going to be playing as well. So Isabelle climbed down off of her trusty steed, the jog stroller in deed. She made her way right to the slide that was just her size.


Up and down she would go for hours if mom did not have to go. She climbed and slid down that slide and a hundred and one times for sure. While I watched and took pictures to capture the moment of her glory as she makes her way down in a flurry. Or as fast as she can go, after all the slide is not that long but she likes it just so.

When we were done, Pudge was ready to go; he started pulling us to and fro. We made our way back home to see what a fun adventure we captured today. I do not know how all the buttons work but I’m sure over time I’ll figure it out. Once Ben made it home he wanted to play with my new “toy” at the end of the day. So here we have some pictures for you of our crazy house, our little zoo.

Paint, Paint and More Paint

Today was the start of Pint-Sized Picasso class for Isabelle. She had so much fun and was covered from head to toe in paint. But she loved every minute of it. The session was perfect for her. She could go to any station that she had an interest in and not all stations were dealing with making something. She could learn her colors, read books or even take a moment to catch up on life by playing with the toys in the room. And of course no art day would be complete without painting outside. After all there are those artists who prefer the natural light as opposed to artificial. So get ready Grandma’s because here come the art projects. She made a ton of stuff on the easel and those will be coming your way soon. We had to leave our wet projects there to dry. This was great, because I’m not sure how I would have juggled them out of the room wet. I have some great pictures of her painting that I will load up when I get the film sent in. My hopes of having the digital camera today were dashed when it did not arrive yesterday. Not that I would have known how to use it but it would have been fun.

So Isabelle and I had paint everywhere. I had to make sure she did not leave too much paint on the chairs as other kids and moms were using them as well. She even tried to make one of her classroom friends a piece of art. Thankfully the mom was ok about it and very understanding. I was a little bit embarrassed but what are you going to do. I think that overall our painting art expedition was a lot of fun and Isabelle had a blast. There were some projects that she did not find as fun as others but she tried everything out at least once. Now if only they had easy signs for colors we would be in business.

Changes

Today has been an interesting day. It never ceases to amaze me when you think your day is just rolling along and then towards the end, everything changes. To start out last night Isabelle was a little under the weather and slept a ton which she needed and is doing great today, like she never missed a beat. So she and I are hanging out at home before my doctor’s appointment to check on baby “O” and having a good old time. She had a wonderful nap that I had to wake her up from in order to make it to the doctor on time. And she did not even want to take a nap. Well like I had said before the doctor told us that my placenta is over the cervix. He did not go into any detail or state as to how far it covers the cervix, so today we talked about it. I have a complete placenta previa, which means that I will not be able to have the birth I want because I have to have a c-section. Needless to say I am not happy about it at all. The good thing about this though is that if I had not of switched doctors I most likely would not have found out about my condition, because we would not of had an ultra sound. As they always say, God works in mysterious ways.

As if that was not bad enough for me to deal with on my own, Ben calls and I am leaving the doctors to tell me that we are moving to Salt Lake City, UT. Yea! Which is great on many levels. I will get a chance to live close to one of my closes friends, Missy for one. Plus Ben has a wonderful opportunity ahead of him in his new position. Oh, by the way, he starts on April 3rd. Nothing like a long time to prepare for the news and get your mind wrapped around things. This time around things will be a lot different. We will not have to take as long to move because there will be less to do. After all our garage is still full of boxes that we have yet to unpack because we do not currently have the space to put things. And we are only renting a house which means we can leave whenever we want. I know we have a lease but that should not be a problem to get out of. Plus Roadway will help out on that end, covering any costs that are incurred due to breaking our lease.

So at the end of the day Ben will be the youngest Direct of Regional Operations (DRO) in the company. Quite an accomplishment if I do say so my self. We may be closer to friends and family. The adjustment to SLC should be less because we will have people there, plus Ben will be so busy that he might not even notice the change of scenery. Unfortunately we will have missed out on some fun road trips within California. We did not get the chance to see the Sequoia trees in the north, nor did we get the chance to head down to Monterey, or Yellowstone. I do not have nearly enough wine collected from the state. What can a girl do? Overall I think the day turned out to be very interesting, and things should be very busy for the next month and a half. Hopefully we will all be back together before Easter but if not then by May 1st.

San Francisco

What a beautiful day Saturday turned out to be. We actually made it into San Francisco, and took a walking tour of Chinatown. I had found a website that lists the hot spots of activities to do and see while we were in San Fran and they happened to have a self guided walking tour of Chinatown. So I printed out the map and the directions and we took our time taking in the sights and smells around the city’s oldest neighborhood. Our tour actually made me rethink wanting to go to China, but not that much. There were just so many people there. Of course over the years Chinatown has become a tourist trap but what can you do. So in light of that we had to indulge our senses and enter into way to many shops that in the end all end up selling the same thing. But I was tons of fun to see the city and take in the rich culture. Now if only I knew the language that would make things so much easier. I was surprised by how much of the language was still used today in the area, seeing how so many tourists to visit the site.

There were hand written posters, for people seeking what I can only assume is a roommate and places for rent. Not including the signs for the businesses around the area. Bank of America and Charles Schwab even had signage in Chinese. We indulged in some local cuisine at The Chinatown Restaurant, which apparently is used quite often in movies and TV shows. Their menu even boasts that famous people from actors to state governors have eaten there.

Our tour took us by a playground right in the middle of the city, where Isabelle got out and played for a little while. She went up and down and all around until she found the sand. Once she realized that the sand was where she was landing after sliding down the slide she thought it would be fun to move it around and let it fall from her hands. She even found a new friend who wanted to hug her and play with her while she was at the park. Isabelle really just wanted to play so she lost her new friend pretty quickly. All during our tour Isabelle brought smiles to everyone around her. Shopkeepers, customers, and people on the street, you would think these people never saw any children. But of course she loved every minute of it.

On our way to lunch we viewed a funeral procession that had two small marching bands that walked with the funeral as it passed through Chinatown. We began to wonder if every funeral was this way or if this person was special. After all there was even a new camera filming the event. But the news camera was not filming the protestors, in the square who were fights for the rights of the Chinese in over in china who are fighting for their lives. The situation was explained to us by drawing similarities to what Hitler did to the Jews in WWII, but what is happening today as much worse. Hopefully they will be able to resolve their inner conflict and be at peace.

After our tour of Chinatown we made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. We actually took the bridge across the bay and took some wonderful pictures of the city and the bridge. Isabelle was so tired from all of the busyness in Chinatown that she slept right through it, not that she would remember but we can show her pictures.

As usual pictures can be viewed later on line at snapfish.com once I get them sent it. I have a few more pictures to take today and then we will be ready to mail them in. So until then you guys will have to wait to see our wonderful tour. I hope your weekend is going well.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good morning to all! I hope that everyone survived a glorious St. Paddy’s Day. We lucked out and the day turned out to be rather nice with no rain. Which I know some would like to have more rain but we’ll take a couple of days without it. Isabelle was our little Irish Princess all dressed and ready to for the day. Everyone she saw she would wave hello to and good bye to. We are going to have to watch out for that one, she is already starting to build her constituent base at one. She will even shake your hand if your hand is close enough, so Ben says “a vote for Isabelle is a vote for America,” it at least makes me laugh. As always she was dressed for the day in a lovely shamrock top with green pants to match. She would not pose for any pictures with the web cam so I’ll have to try to figure out another way to take some pictures of her to you all. Oh that could be how, with my new digital camera once it arrives.

That’s right thanks to the state of California I will be at last in the age of digital cameras. I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. At least I will be once it arrives here. I can hardly wait. I think that it should make it here next week sometime, so look for pictures coming soon. I am hoping it will arrive before Wednesday that way I can use it for when we go to our special class. Isabelle and I will be attending a new and exciting way to have fun and be entertained, but more on that later. I want it to be a surprise. Plus I think it would make a wonderful business opportunity for when we move again. Again more later.

Big news, no not about the baby, I am finally all caught up on scrapbooking. YEA! I can hardly believe it and I thought that it might never happen. But it did and so now I can concentrate on making diapers and trainers. I need to get baby “O” ready and set up with some diapers for the first little bit of life at least. It feels so good to be up to date in my scrapbooks that I hardly know what to do with myself. I guess I will have to find another creative outlet. Since we had a pretty mellow evening we plan to have a pretty exciting day. As long as the weather holds out and stays nice we are going to travel to San Francisco for the day to see the sights and take in a little bit of Chinatown. If the weather decides not to work with me we might just stay in town and do something random. At least it will be fun! So to all those with hangovers, take some aspirin and get over it after all you did this to yourself.

Snow in San Diego!

We had a wonderful weekend in sunny, no wait rainy Southern California. The marine boot camp graduation was a huge success and we were able to watch Matt complete his first step towards his dream. While the weather was not as good as we could have hoped we did find some fun indoor activities to do and entertain ourselves with. The adults had a blast a Dave N’ Busters, playing games, drinking beer, and eating. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday? While we were on our way downtown, we saw snow on the ground in Escondido, can you believe it. Snow! So much for Southern California being the sunny vacation spot everyone thinks it to be. On our way home on Sunday we ran into snow up on the grapevine, thankfully they did not have chain control or shut down the pass. We would have been stuck!

All in all things went pretty well and we had fun. We can hardly wait for our next visit when Doug returns home from Iraq. What a great celebration that will be. Isabelle enjoyed playing with her cousins and came away unscathed this time. So we can safely say that the weekend was a success.

I am happy to report that everything is going very well with baby “O.” The baby is a good size and seems to be growing along rather nicely. The only issue right now is that the placenta is above the cervix but I’m sure that will move around before the end of the pregnancy. We have some good pictures of the baby from all sorts of angles. The bones look nice and strong or at least the do to me and so does the spinal cord. Baby “O’s” little heart was just pumping away. We kept telling Isabelle that was the baby on the screen but I think she must have thought we were crazy, because her baby does not look like those babies in the magazines. And for those of you who are wondering no we did not find out the sex of the baby, it will remain a mystery until the end. Ben thought that I would cave and want to find out while we were there but I held out and was strong. I will tell you though that each of us saw different parts. Ben saw outdoor plumbing and I saw three lines, so who knows who will be correct. We have about eighteen (18) weeks to go and then we will find out. I think it is more exciting this way. Maybe on the next one we will have the doctor tell us what the baby will be.

Isabelle is doing great, she keeps adding to her words everyday. Yesterday it sounded like she said Grandma, so we are trying to get her to work on that a little bit more, so that all the Grandma’s will feel extra special. I think she also says I love you, but is not very consistent about it at all. Each day she adds to what she says and will soon be talking all the time I’m sure. If her chatter right now, shows anything for the future then she will be a little talker. Plus she is our little politician every where we go she is waving to people and saying hello and goodbye. At church she wants everyone to shake her hand as well, so she just sticks it right out. Watch out Hillary we have the next woman President. Along with all her words Isabelle is working on her first set of molars on the bottom. She does not seem to be phased at all by this new development. This makes my life easier.

Other than that there is not much else going on. We are preparing to head down to San Diego this weekend to watch Matt graduate from boot camp, so that should be and interesting experience. If the weather cooperates with us we will be going to Sea World to explore the underwater world, until next time.

Values

The Saga of motherhood continues! I was reading an article today in “Parenting” magazine, that seemed a little out of place but hey whatever, about the right values to help instill in you kids and it got me thinking about what we might want to accomplish and how to go about making that happen. I figure you can never be too early in what you try to teach your kids and the directions you would like them to point their lives. But sometimes, as many of you know I can tend to get over excited about something and worry a bit too prematurely if we are making the right decision. Such as how to teach Isabelle to not climb on the CPU? One that I thought I mastered, sort of today but found that she is smarter than the average duck and figured out a new way to climb on to her desired location. I think I’m going to have to move the CPU or face this challenge multiple times a day. Anyway back to values, I guess I just felt that the majority of the values this woman desired to instill in her children I also wanted to as well, but with a few others. So I was surprised to see such forward thinking in a mainstream magazine. But alas maybe she wrote it more for mainstream parents than not. Who knows!

I think the one value that I completely agreed with was Independent Thinking! I am always telling Ben that we need to be sure to start having family dinners now so that our kids are use to eating and talking together as a family, which can help to facilitate independent thought. I not only want my children to be present at the table in a physical form but I also want them to be present mentally. Granted Isabelle is not old enough to coherently formulate thoughts and express those thoughts but it is good for her to see that her parents find it an important event each day to have dinner together and allow everyone to give their opinion on subjects. After all how they can develop as an individual thinker without the opportunities to express their thoughts and formulate opinions based on what they hear. Our kids will defiantly be able to have their own opinions on everything and be able to hear both sides of an argument usually. After all how many of you have ever heard me hold my tongue? Not many I’m sure. But our thoughts and feelings are what make each of us who we are and without them we would all be alike. Who wants to live in a world where everyone thinks alike and does the same thing?

Along with independent thinking there are a myriad of values we want to instill in our children over their lifetime with us. I only hope that we are able to accomplish that goal and make it a reality so that we produce productive members of society. Only time will tell, plus we do have a few years to go before we really can tell if we are having a positive effect on our kids.

On a lighter note, I was terribly excited today when I finally caught myself up with Isabelle’s scrapbook. That is at least until this weekend and I take a ton of pictures of our trip to San Diego. But at least that is out of the way, now if I could only get caught up in my book we would be in a great place. I’m only behind since December, but you must understand that I don’t just take a handful of pictures but rather rolls of film. I’m sure I will be in trouble when I finally have a digital camera. At least then I will be able to delete some pictures before printing them. I’ll have to see and compare the number of pictures that I take with the digital compared to film. I think that at first it will be about the same until I realize that I can take more at one time and I don’t have to worry about using all of my film, just the space on my memory card. It should be interesting.

NO I don’t have the digital yet so we will all have to patient and wait for it. I know I can hardly wait. But some day soon, you will be amazed at the pictures that I send and possible how often. You might say, why does she keep sending me pictures, does she not have better things to do with her time? No not really. Well I had better go as this is pretty long. Until next time, Good luck and Good night.

Introduction

Hello Friends and Family,

I have been debating about this since the start of our move and have finally decided to break down and join the world of blogging. That’s right we are now officially members of the blogging community. Now you may be asking yourself why did she decide to do this? Well let me tell you, we all live so far away from each other it is hard to keep up on a daily, even weekly basis. So I figured that a blog might just be the ticket. It can be a place for everyone to give updates and reply to posts with little to no effort. What an exciting world we live in that we are all so able to keep up with one another so easily. Next it will be time for teleportation. Too bad Mr. Scotty passed on other wise we would be one step closer. Alas I digress, anyway I think this will be a great opportunity for us all to chat, keep up with each others new and events and share pictures. Or you can just see what I post and go from there. Either way I think it will help to keep us all more connected.

So in recent news things are going well. I am feeling well and the baby is growing well. Isabelle is as fun as ever. She recently figured out how to climb on top of the CPU to access the desk some more. It is a good thing that it backs up to a wall other wise I think she just might fall off. Oh wait there she goes. Don’t worry she is just fine, smiling a way like nothing ever happened. Now if you try to remove her from her perch she gets very upset and is a crazy child.

We have made the decision to switch doctors in our area. My current doctor I think would not have been as flexible with what I wanted to accomplish with my birth so we are moving to a practice that has a combination of midwives and OB/GYN’s. Should be fun! I think we will even try a water birth or at least a water labor. I can hardly wait although I really can because I have a lot of diapers yet to make for baby “O.” But they are coming along slowly. I know that July will be here before we know it.

I better go as Isabelle is trying to type out her very own blog. Won’t what be a jumbled up mess, so long for now.