Adessa Faye and Eliana Grace

Ohhhhh.... A new post.

2012-01-19T14:18:00.000-08:00

So... life moves on. We got through Christmas and had a great time with family (which ironically, Grandma would have loved the most of anybody) for the funeral preparations and for the funeral. I wish we were a society which encouraged loud wailing and lamenting, clothes rending and ashes in our funerals. I felt I could throw myself down and be held up by friends and family, I could just wail. But I didn't. I feel a big cry brewing, now, instead of the ache that Edna's being gone has left, but am a little bit scared to give over to it. What a bizzare process, who knew? We've figured out childcare, thanks to my mom and Grandpa and our neighbor and friends filling in. We feed Grandpa a lot. We miss Grandma. There are lots of things we've been up to that she would have loved to hear the girls recount. It was better with her here. There's nothing better about her being gone.

We included the girls in every part of Grandma's memorializing, with hopes that it would help them understand a bit more, have closure(?), be included. And so that we could talk about each part of living and dying, and how they were there for all of Grandma's events, like: "Look, see girls? Pictures! You were there."

At the viewing:

I understand loss a little more. How people show up, and how meaningful that is. I haven't shown up for funerals very much in my life, but I will in the future. It's comforting and reassuring and life-affirming when people show up for you. People came to the viewing just to be supportive, people came to the graveside just to be supportive, people came to the funeral and mourned with us and were supportive. People who barely new Edna wanted to come, tried to come, even thinking about coming was comforting. People wrote cards and made food and volunteered their houses for family, which was so very wonderful, and I had no idea. I'd never sent a sympathy card before. What a nice invention.

Here's what we would have told Grandma alllllll about:
Christmas!! Calvin's oldest brother, Ralph and Auntie Kim and their six kids came up Christmas Eve from Riverside after hearing about Edna's passing. It was hard to be sad with them around, the girls were so excited to be with their cousins, and for Christmas, of course. They opened their first present, soft, brushable horses, and were content. They had to be coaxed to open their other presents. (Note to self- they don't need a lot!)

Cousins!!

Horse-riding lesson! A most-perfect Christmas present, the girls got a horseback ride. They were SOOOOO excited. Eliana was super serious as she rode, and then would burst into beautific smiles when asked if she was having fun.

Memory Eternal, Grandma Edna

2011-12-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Today, Christmas Eve Day 2011, Grandma Edna passed away. I think I'm realizing the larger implications of this loss more and more each moment. Because she was a part of our daily life. Because she was a wonderful mother-in-law to me, and mom, and grandma, and wife. She was a lover of Jesus to her very core. She was a servant even at her own expense, putting others always before herself. She loved my girls so much-- all her grandchildren-- and hoped the best for them, that they know Jesus and serve Him, and learn and grow as much as possible. She would notice that another child in Adessa's preschool class could write all their numbers, and ask if I had been working with Adessa on numbers? She was gracious and compassionate with people of all kinds and life situations, never speaking ill of anyone she encountered. She delighted in her family. She was never one to brag, except when talking about her family. She LOVED to tell people she has 16 grandchildren. She fed us healthy food and encouraged us to exercise and take walks and go to the park. She fed the homeless. She babysat our kids so we could go out on dates. She did childcare weekly for my girls so I could work. She checked up on widows and did errands for them. She gave good neck rubs, with surprisingly strong hands. We will miss her. We will miss her so much.
One of the big ways we feel her loss is thinking forward, that our girls won't get to know her as well as we wished. We wish that she would be around as they grow up, to be another loving voice pointing the way. That she would share her legacy of servanthood and love with our girls. We will, of course, share it for her, but it would have been easier if she were around to teach them herself. I hope we can impart to Adessa and Eliana how very much she loved them. They're so little, they might not believe us. Neither Calvin or I have lost someone who was so much a part of our daily existence, and we keep looking at each other and saying: "Wow. This is going to be harder than I thought." Yep. We love you, Edna.

At our wedding, 2005.

Holding newborn Adessa.

At a Mt. Hermon Christmas dinner, 2007.

Holding Eliana for the first time.

Reading with Eliana.

At the Mt. Hermon Community Dinner a few weeks ago.

A portrait of Grandma by Eliana.

November, 2011

2011-12-06T16:16:00.001-08:00

Here is the rest of November, folks, quick before more fun things start happening worthy of record.

November Ballet class:
Attempting to do turns.

The Ballerinas after their class. They were a little tuckered out, but posed for a picture to send to Daddy at work.

Playing ballerina at home.

Dress up time!

Adessa and I had a mother-daughter date at The Nutcracker. She was riveted, and as each new scene opened, she would ask: "Can you please buy me a dress like that?"

Baby, it's cold outside. (Already!)
Eliana making mama proud and wearing her scarf during a chilly morning walk in the woods.

New clothes! I finally hid all summery clothes and dresses and the girls have a new wardrobe of warm clothes. We have done so well with hand-me-downs that I've rarely shopped for the girls, but it was time. The four or five things each would consent to wear became few and ridiculous as the weather got cold.

Thanksgiving:
Uncle Ben is always a hit!

Thanksgiving fun with cousins, uncles and aunts and Grandpa.

A most successful fall-tree family photo, hooray!

October Fun

2011-11-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

This time of year is the beginning of so much fun and so many noteworthy events, that I'm going to try to pick up on the posting. So that I don't have to put all the fun stuff in one post. Which is what I'm about to do here. For all of October. You are warned.

Eliana has developed a pretty severe stutter. At first I was convinced that it was because I am impatient and frustrated with the girls a lot of the time--more on that later--but I have since been reassured that it's a relatively normal thing for kids under five. If it continues for more than six-months or her facial muscles get involved, I am to worry and seek professional help. Meanwhile, it's cute and endearing and heartbreaking all at the same time, she tries and tries to get out a sentence, but only the first word or syllable comes out of her, over and over again up to 20 times. Yikes. She's sweet and cute, loves to be silly and make us laugh with funny faces or voices, and is definitely doing the two to three year old crying and testing.

As far as me being a mean mom, which is quite probably what I have become, I blame pregnancy (and a lifetime of unpleasant personality traits that have lately surfaced.) Impatience, anger, frustration, exasperation, lack of sympathy, blah blah blah the list goes on, I'm a mess. Part of it I feel has come with the realization that it takes so much energy to get Adessa and Eliana to DO anything. All is well, everything is fine, as long as I don't need them to: wake up, get dressed, eat, go to the bathroom, get their shoes on, get out the door, get into the car, take a bath, brush their teeth, go to sleep. In between all of those, they're lovely and fabulous. Trying to accomplish daily tasks, even the ones we do alllllll the tiiiiime, is just so difficult. It takes overwhelming amounts of energy. I think (and Calvin keeps telling me) that it's just parenting, this is parenting: this is what we signed up for. But I don't know. My frustration with getting them dressed, which seemed to be the go-ahead to jump around on the bed, dance in front of the mirror, dump out a box of toys, etc. lead to... the Dress Yourself Fairy.

Yes, the Dress Yourself Fairy visited our house. She left a (second hand--thank goodness the girls don't care if things come in their original packaging) Rapunzel doll for each girl, and now, they get themselves dressed. Eliana still gets a lot of help, but Adessa does pretty much all of it now, and cheerfully. (We were doing it all, shockingly, because she's a funny one and did not at all want to be independent like I thought kids were supposed to want to be.) I keep trying to figure out what bad parenting strategy it is to have Fairies come to your house and tackle child-rearing issues I'm just not up for, but it works! The Binky Fairy worked like a charm, as has the Dress Yourself Fairy minus one terrible hour of crying which involved socks. It's also funny to me that I'm not at all into the idea of Santa Claus as an invisible entity who brings things to kids, but Fairies? They're fine.

And now... the pictures. Lots of fun in October.

October 1st was my friend Renee's beautiful wedding at Camp Kenolyn. Gorgeous!

Out rain-walking-puddle-stomping with Gracie.

New fine motor skills.

Eliana is drawing "smiley faces"! She draws them sideways or upside down, though, then turns them right side up to look at them, and will only draw them on the Magna-Doodle. Hmmm.

Braids! Eliana condescended to allow me to braid her hair, and it was cute! And I got it on camera!

A blissful evening at the beach, Daddy and his girls.

Eliana believes in baby wearing!

This is why kids shouldn't stand up in their strollers. 8(

The Pumpkin Patch!
Adessa and Eliana stalking around the pumpkin patch, determined to find a good one.

Eliana holding Carson's leash, one of life's great excitements.

Pumpkin Patch family picture. I look forward to a time when we have no 2-3year olds who don't pose for pictures. Eliana was finally coaxed.

Pumpkin Patch family picture, with Grandma and Grandpa and Carson.

Posing with Julie and Gwennie, at our 4th annual pumpkin patch with the Stewarts.

Adessa's pumpkin face, 4th consecutive I do believe!

Pumpkin carving. (To state the obvious).

A princess pumpkin with a crown/unibrow, and a princess pumpkin without eyebrows or crown.

Adessa as Snow White, trying out Halloween costumes.

A three minute view of what could have been two Minnie Mice dressed up for Halloween. Eliana was having none of it, however, sensory issues and size 4 dresses only on that girl.

Cousins! (And uncles, really) for some early trick or treating.

The gang! So far it is not any easier to photograph these kids, the little siblings ran amok but remained unphotographed.

Trick or Treating later on, sisters holding hands. Awwwww.

Fall, 2011

2011-09-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

Couch tricks.

Fun with hair styles.

Eliana reading in bed, where we often find her when she gets quiet.

Adessa with her buddy Taylor on the first day of preschool. They were so excited.

Daddy's favorite spot, the creek! Eating dinner of egg salad sandwiches and having a ball.

Sand castle-rock.

Our Rec-Field photo shoot, hit some snags. Here's Adessa, not smiling, but also not making a funny face.

Adessa dancing.

Eliana's face when asked to smile for the camera.

Eliana's face when I tickled her whilst snapping pictures!

Since I cannot sleep for the life of me...

2011-09-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

...though I am unusually tired and heavy lidded, I will update this blog. The girls are doing great. Adessa just started Playschool again, and loves it. Eliana can't wait to get to go, and pushes her stroller filled with toys, snacks, trash (picture a homeless person's shopping cart, that's the look of it) to "Playschool", which is apparently in our bedroom in her wild imaginings. Since she always kisses me goodbye on her way around the house to and from Playschool, I happily put up with it. She's a delightful little human, charming and funny. Lately she kills us by singing with grandiose hand motions, using different volumes and voices for added dramatic effect. Eliana still lisps something fierce, and has just started stuttering almost alarmingly. She leaves off the first letter of words if the first sound is an "s" followed by a consonant. As in: "Daddy is hunting for kunks" (Which is something that happens around here). It makes for hilarity for me, probably just because I'm easily amused. Adessa goes to "kool", Eliana tells us to: "top it!" or if we wrestle I might "quash" her, or she might get "fweaty".
Both girls have gone through some significant periods of equilibrium and disequilibrium. I think the adjustment of summer ending was hard, but maybe that was just because I was stressed out more when I went back to work. Who knows about the dynamics. Adessa is becoming such a kid, it seems. She tells long involved stories (sometimes with a point) with inflection and appropriate expressions, we know when to look shocked or amazed. She loves to learn, especially about animals. We read in a book that Crocodiles can grow to 20 feet and stay under water for a whole hour, and she couldn't wait until Daddy got home so she could tell him. (Though I think she told him 20 inches, she hasn't got units of time or length or distance down.)

The reason I'm allowing myself this late night blogging session, is because I tried for an hour already to fall asleep and couldn't. And the reason I couldn't fall asleep was because I have tremendously horrid gas/heartburn/upper diaphragm pain. And, the reason for the pain and total and complete discomfort in my air-bubbly body is because I am eight weeks pregnant. Hooray! One more time. I can be exhausted and unable to sleep all at once, one more time. I can go through nausea and watching what I eat and getting a cumbersome belly and ever expanding vericose veins one more time. I can have a few more sleepless years (one more time) and breastfeed and have a super dependent little creature need me one more time. One more time is my new mantra. It is one baby, not twins--and God willing it will be born in late April/early May. Once more.

Crafties

2011-08-03T19:54:00.001-07:00

I've been working this summer, on:

Hair clippies

and dance streamers.

Any suggestions on pricing/marketing? 8)

July, She will Fly

2011-07-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

We saw Cars 2 in the theater with Madrina Romina, both girls' first experience of the cinema. Their favorite part was the popcorn, and... we won't be going back anytime soon. They were antsy and didn't like or follow the story. At one point Adessa said: "When can we go home?" And you can see Eliana's greasy fingerprints on the row in front of us, she spent her time trying to hold herself up on the backs of the chairs. Oh dear.

Gymnastics! Birthday money has gone towards gymnastics (or gernastics, according to Adessa).

And... streeeetch.

Neither girl can touch their toes, so we have managed to sort of befuddle the teachers.

Pondering.

Some silly smiles before bandaid application.

Eliana, proudly posing in her swimsuit cover up. Though, it seems to not be covering up very much. 8)

Thank you, Barney, for all the family love, here demonstrated by Adessa and Eliana:

Eliana, The Romantic

2011-06-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

I MAY have let Eliana watch a bit of a cheesy romance movie with me, and she MAY have picked up this new way of kissing from her exposure. I love how she comes at me with her mouth open, and holds my face. Funny girl!

Auntie Lolo's House

2011-06-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Our summer vacation this year was hosted by my sister, Laurel, who lives in lovely Pleasanton. We went for a little less than a week, and benefited from: proximity to downtown Pleasanton (very pleasant), swimming pools, Shadow Cliffs mini-lake, awesome public playgrounds, yummy restaurants, the Alameda County Fair, and the added bonus of an obliging babysitter, my own dear sis. The girls loved it, thanks to fun times with their beloved aunt, loads of cartoons and Laurel's super patient cat, Joey. It was nice and warm (okay, it was stinking hot), peaceful and easy and very, very relaxing. Thank you, Laurel (and Brittany, her roommate who was housesitting somewhere else and gave up her room!)

Swimming (just to state the obvious).

Shadow Cliffs' beachfront. Shortly after this picture was taken, I hurt Eliana's arm while swing/dragging her through the water. Bummer. While X-rays and casts danced through our heads, we took her to the doctor and her dislocated elbow was popped back in to place. Thank goodness!!

A super cool, public, neighborhood park.

Pony Rides at the Fair. Adessa was enamored and could have pony-rode all day.

Eliana lasted about 45 seconds.

Adding to our magical time at the fair was this: A 4-H teen was looking for a kid to help her feed the baby goats.

Taking a little break.

Sharing some refreshment.

A more successful pony ride.

Snuggling with Joey and Auntie Lolo.

What a great trip! The girls are asking to go back.

Adessa's Fourth Birthday

2011-06-15T16:28:00.001-07:00

Adessa's Fourth Birthday was a big hit, back at our favorite party place, Sky Park.

Opening Presents.

Friends.

Family.

The Cake. Yummy but lumpy.

The party was Saturday morning, and on her actual birthday, we celebrated again with Baskin Robins and Cotton Candy ice cream cones, which the girls wore well.

Happy Fourth, Adessa!

Eliana sporting a Cotton Candy Little Richard.

Here's what she's up to now that she's four:

Chewing Gum

2011-06-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

How We Are Doing

2011-05-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

We are doing well. All is fine and flowing right along and I just feel like I haven't been writing enough to adequately RECORD these moments of precious amazingness. Which they are. These girls are growing like kudzo and talking up blue streaks and say and do cute things all day long. (Interspersed with incredible tantrums and catfights, of course.)

Adessa is almost done with Preschool, and has absolutely loved it. The teacher assures me that she is a pleasure to have the whole three hours, which means she waits until she gets home (or on the way home, or halfway out the preschool door) to melt down. I got to see her in action at her beloved school, myself, on the day that they celebrated her birthday. Since she has a summer birthday, she got "crowned" and sang to and celebrated on May 10th. While I was there she: followed directions, showed she knew the procedures, played well with others, rode tricycles, ate her snack, (passed things and poured her own water!) happily ran around like a dinosaur and a butterfly when asked. It was great to see her in this part of her life that I have basically no connection to, it's just hers. Very fun.

Adessa in her Birthday crown at Preschool.

Adessa and Anders (It was so cute to watch, he sidled up as close to her as he could.)

Adessa and Eliana have been interacting more and more in play together. Adessa loves to direct their play, and sometimes Eliana is okay with following along. Adessa also enjoys repeating what I say to both of them in a loud, mommy-like voice, to Eliana. "Eliana, Mommy doesn't want you to wear your shoes in the house, okay?" It's sort of cute and about to be irritating, but so far I've put up with it since Eliana doesn't mind. Many times Adessa repeats to Eliana verbatim the little lectures I give her. At least I know she's listening!

I tried to catch Adessa mid-lecture, and got the tail end of her admonishments to Eliana. And it ends with a bang!

Adessa is helpful and cheerful and flexible MUCH more often, though she still is sensitive to blood sugar levels. Something I don't understand about her development is that she does not want to do many things for herself. The most confounding one is that she wants us to dress her (and put her socks on in the right order! And before the shirt. Then come the pants. Or we have to take everything off and start over!) I thought kids wanted to be independent and do things for themselves, buzz off mom kind of thing. Not so with Adessa. We've talked a lot about how four year olds get themselves dressed, get their arms in the car seat straps (or strap themselves in!), etc. She has until June 12 to be babied, and that's it.

Right before we need to go somewhere or when it's after bed time, these girls play beautifully together. I felt like Jane Goodall, watching them take care of their dollies: wrapping them up, patting their backs, kissing them, and shhhing in their ears.

Eliana is doing some serious two year old fit throwing and elaborate, dramatic pouting. But, she's easier to redirect than Adessa was, and I don't take it all so seriously this time around. Eliana has also started chiming in on happenings and daily life, she likes to commentate and ruminate on all our doings. Fun! She loves to be tickled and wrestled, which is my favorite part of the day. She also says: "Stay here, mommy, I'll be right back. Wait for one minute." in her lispy baby voice. So cute.

I came home from work the other day to this:

She woke up too early from her nap, so Grandma rocked her for 45 minutes. Sweeeeet.

Eliana's birthday was spread out over the first half of May. She cried the first two times Happy Birthday was sung to her, but by her birthday party she was only mildly sheepish, no tears! We finally had her party May 15th, and with inclement weather, we had an indoor/outdoor plan at the rec field. It was fun! Yay. It did precipitate this observation: It would be lot's easier to throw my kids a birthday party if I didn't have kids.

May 5th, Actual Birthday.

Eliana and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCake, courtesy of Auntie Lolo.

Eliana's Birthday party cupcakes. Also technicolor. I was excited to use for the first time my decorating pens with edible ink! (Just on the white cupcake--can you see it?)

Now can you see it?

Party peoples, trying out the cupcakes at Eliana's 2nd birthday party.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Eliana!

2011-05-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Birthday Girl's thoughts on her big day:

The Clash

2011-04-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Clash is the word that comes to mind when I see Adessa after she's dressed most mornings. Once she's put an outfit together--based on... what? We will never know, except that it has nothing to do with color or pattern--she will thenceforth only wear the chosen pieces together. Adessa remains strong in the face of coercion or persuasion and will not be moved to consider any other pairing, or any outfits that I put together. Since I am a laundry fanatic, and love having clean clothes in drawers, she often wears her bizarre ensembles twice a week or more. All that to say, we haven't seen the last of the clash: there's a whole lot more clashing to come.

Please enjoy the range of emotion, the small bits of action, and the hideous clothing combinations in this sequence of the girls.

Big events!

2011-04-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Big events for our house, anyway.

On March 25th, sometime during the early morning, the Binky Fairy visited our house! She left Adessa with a few treasures and took away alllll the Binkies from our house. Poor Eliana was deprived of her binkies, too, but received no treasures, as we are just not going to go through THAT again. (Adessa actually gave her binkies up relatively easily, only 2 days of deep distress at nap- and bed-time. Which made me think that I should have invited the Binky Fairy a LONG time ago.)

On the very same day, Adessa slept through the night without a diaper on or wetting the bed, verrrrry exciting in the growing up department.

And the final big event: During my spring break (April 5th, specifically), with minor coaching and coaxing, Eliana became potty trained! This is truly huge, as she seems so much more like a kid now, not a baby. She has been watching Adessa and trying out the potty for months, it finally occurred to me that I'd better not miss "the window." And she was ready: it took two days with many undie changes, and that was it.

The Potty Trainer (trainee?) on her throne.

One more thing, not a big event: It is unbelievable to me to think that when Adessa was the age that Eliana is now, Eliana was born. Mind boggling. We do want one more child, and I am happy to wait a bit before embarking. That said, I do see the advantages of having older kids, it is so much easier!

The girls collecting duck eggs at cousin Henry's house. The faces are what happens when you say: "Smile!". Oh dear.

MMMmarch!

2011-03-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Pigtails. They lasted about 20 minutes, darn it.

Ecstatically riding horses at the mall with Daddy on a rainy day.

Catching up on some reading time.

Eliana comes home from work. And goes to work again.

Is it anyone's birthday? Because Eliana is happy to serenade!

Hiking Fun.

2011-03-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

And it is about time!

Calvin and I both have separately admitted to enjoying hiking, but rarely have done it together, and never? with the girls. Well. Did we feel foolish for waiting so long. It was marvelous, so easy and so fun. We "hiked" up a fire road to Bear Mountain, saw the Cathedral Groove of Roaring Camp infamy, and had a picnic. Very lovely!

Just starting out, our intrepid adventurers are in fine form.

Eliana has discovered the joy of swinging, between Calvin and I, normally. She's taken to going limp and trying to lift her feet up regardless of whose hands she's holding. Here she's hoping Daddy and Adessa will "wing" her.

Wood Sprites in Cathedral Grove.

Playing house.

Picnic time.

February Makes Me Shiver

2011-02-18T12:50:00.000-08:00

Although we had an extraordinarily warm few weeks in there, we are now back to cold and rainy, and even...snowy! Which is okay, for everything, there is a season... (Turn, turn, turn).

We went over the hill in the pouring rain and slushy snow, and on our way back, found significant snow on the mountain! Eliana was not enchanted, but Adessa was giddy with the fun of it, and ran around like crazy doing every snow-activity possible in our short stop. Its such a treat to have snow close by, normally its a five hour drive, and it's Adessa's first conscious memory of snow.

We didn't think of videoing Adessa's frolicking until we were back in the car, (darn!), so we filmed her souvenir snow ball.

Dress Up
Dress up has become an everyday activity, with Eliana as involved as Adessa. Here they are dressed up as Ballerinas. (Which Eliana can say, sort of. She's very into repeating every new word.)
Prima Ballerina.

About to do a particularly difficult dance step.

Done near tuckered out from all the dancin'.

Other Fun
Playing dress up with Jayden and Elijah after our house blessing. Jayden was the Beau of the ball!

Those funny uncles!

Tooth brushing time at our house. Eliana is most interested in turning the water off and on.

Holding hands during a scary part.

Eliana playing catch with Daddio.

Growing Girls

2011-01-23T13:05:00.001-08:00

It is with so much joy and sadness that I see my girls growing up. There are days where I feel I barely touch Adessa, and have to make a point to hold her. She doesn't need me very much, which is so nice on some levels and... so heart-wrenching on other levels. Inevitable, I know, but still! It does go by so fast. And I am unsure of the future: will we get along? Will they confide in me? Will they want me around, not just to take them places? Will we successfully navigate the sometimes choppy waters of mother-daughter relationships? Because I know that now, they are still mostly "mine". I can do very little wrong in their minds, I am just their mom. Our uncomplicated relationship involves yelling, scolding, and crying followed instantly by hugs and laughter. Ach.

Adessa has started telling jokes, most of which make little sense but are greatly amusing to her. She is helpful and has greatly reduced her fit throwing, which is so wonderful, a welcome break before Eliana takes up the banner for terrible two's and fit throwers everywhere.

In another facet of growing up, Eliana is finding her will. The purely sweet, amiable, darling girl is not always there. Sometimes a back-arching, non-complying, No-shouting, Mine-grabbing Eliana takes over. Ohhh. So soon. I did enjoy every day when she was just sweet, and the sweet girl is there often, but... she's got to grow into herself, too, and being ornery is part of it. I keep thinking, how will I bear it, when they are grown, when they aren't exactly like this? And in the next breath I am waiting for the day where I have my life "back to myself." and they can get themselves in and out of the car, make their own breakfast, do everything related to the bathroom all on their own, etc. Stay present, Keidi! Just stay present and smile into their eyes every day.

For Gerilyn

2011-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

Adessa

2011-01-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

Candlelight dinner!?! We don't eat candles!

Lest I Forget:

2010-12-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas at home, first thing in the morning.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Beck's house, with aunts, uncles, and cousins, second thing in the morning.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Lewis's house, with cousins, Christmas afternoon.

Christmas 2010 was magical, dreamy, wonderful. If I never have another so good, it will be okay; I believe the high from this one will carry me through. On the other hand, if Christmas with kids is this fun, the holiday may just always be this great. I have always loved things like parades and kids' plays and recitals, so maybe I'm just going to reallllly really love each and every holiday with my kids.**

Calvin has been home, the girls are on an upswing of internal balance and equilibrium, and it was sooooo fun to be with them for the Christmas festivies. We went back and forth between my family and Calvin's family, lots of cousins, lots of attention, lots of fun.

I have loved my first week off from work. Its been amazing time with the girls--that's all that's different--time. Time to stop and work on things that have bothered me about the dynamics between them before, but that I bulldoze over in the frantic pace of regular life. When they've squabbled this week, we've stopped and talked about it, and practiced "learning" how to communicate or treat each other better. I'm not even mean about it, I'm using words like, "learning": "That's okay, Adessa, because you're learning not to grab." I'm relaxed, I'm going to bed early, I'm reading for fun... somebody pinch me. While I know the whole gushing goodwill thing can't last forever, it sure is nice when it comes around and settles for a while.

On Christmas Eve, our local fire station sends Santa out on top of a fire truck. He calls to the kids "Ho Ho Ho" and hands out candy canes. Adessa was invited to climb right up the back of the truck and sit on his lap, which she did, something she has been very clear about not wanting to do before. He asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she told him: "A present." Good girl! When we were safely back on the ground, again, she exclaimed: "Mommy, I didn't know Santa was real!" the opposite of what most other kids eventually discover. (We've been talking about how some people believe in him, but at our house we know that Mommy and Daddy give the presents.)

** An Aside: I talked with coworker who has three teenaged kids. She said she had to make them get the tree with her, and all they want for Christmas is money, so sitting around opening presents isn't that much fun. Wow. That gave me pause, as I hope for magic and traditions every Christmas. We have the church events, which help and will always be age appropriate as our kids grow up, but... I wonder... how else will we keep the miracle of Christmas feeling miraculous? Please leave a comment if you have suggestions for us! Recommendations for my future self, when the kids are older: *holiday volunteering, *baking together, *creative gifts instead of bought ones, or second hand only Christmases, *drawing names, *Mt. Hermon events, *...?

Lewis Christmas Letter, 2010

2010-12-21T13:36:00.001-08:00

O Christmas Tree! And functioning fire place!

Dear Friends and Family,
Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Our 2010 has been full of new things. New words, feats, and milestones for Adessa and Eliana, new lessons in parenting and life for Calvin and I, and... drum roll please... a dishwasher! A most welcomed novelty to our house, installed during our kitchen and bath remodel this summer.

Calvin is now working at the San Jose office, again. He is looking forward to eight-hour shifts starting in April, instead of 12 hours out on the road. Eight hour work days will give him more time to exercise, relax, and spend time with us everyday throughout the week, instead of just on his days off. Calvin also toiled long hours this year researching for our remodel. He is now an expert on appliances, fixtures, and every other facet of quality homebuilding, if you ever need advice or resources. He's better than Consumer Reports, I promise!

My part time teaching job has been a bit more hectic and stressful this year, which took a while to get used to. It is unusual for homeschool education to get stressful, historically, but tension is right on target with the current academic climate in California. I still love working with homeschoolers, though, and prefer it to other types of teaching. My mom's group is going strong, and has been so helpful in maintaining my sanity as I parent. Our church has bunches of babies right now, too, so the families with young kids are banding together and working to support each other, as well.

Adessa is charming and strong. She's spirited, and entertaining, sweet, feisty, creative, clever, and loving. She calls stockings "Bean stocks" for some reason, which Calvin won't let me correct. As in: "My bean stock is full, Mama!" Adessa started pre-school this year, (new and wonderful-she loves it), and performed as an angel in the Christmas pageant. It has been a most marvelous thing this Christmas season to watch as she begins to grasp the Christmas story. We have a nativity scene Advent calendar, a new tradition this year that is a morning ritual that both girls look forward to. We've been going through the story of Jesus' birth each day, as we add sheep, angles, wise men, and shepherds to our magnetic calendar. Holidays with kids are meaningful in a whole new way, and their excitement is contagious.
Adessa as a Christmas angel.

Eliana is 19 months old and at such a fun age. She is acquiring new vocabulary every day, her latest words are: angel, again, and soup. She's into climbing, running, galloping, jumping, dancing, and snuggling. She is delightful, still easy to engage and distract, and lots and lots of fun. Eliana loves her big sister soooo much, and wants to wrestle, hug, tickle, pull, push, and hang on Adessa. Eliana has learned to guard her belongings, though, as she learns about personal possessions. Adessa will be napping, and while Eliana plays by herself we'll hear her voice in the other room, shouting: "MINE!"
Cheeeeese!

Adessa and Eliana will occupy themselves quite happily for long periods of time, playing together. Its what we dreamed about, and it's happening, and "heartwarming" barely does it justice.
Eliana submits to a special hairdo, courtesy of stylist Adessa.

Shopping is fun (and easy for mom) when they've got carts.

We wish you a holiday season of all good things, and a happy, healthy New Year!
Love, Calvin, Keidi, Adessa, and Eliana!

What Adessa's Learning in Preschool

2010-12-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

Fall, 2010

2010-12-10T14:07:00.001-08:00

Our yearly documentation of fall. We missed this lovely little tree in its full glory of orange and yellow, but were determined to keep the tradition alive, by hook or by crook. Continuity makes me happy.

2009,

2008

2007

The Holidays are Upon Us

2010-12-07T22:15:00.001-08:00

November 14th was 75 degrees, warm enough for these darling dresses (thank you, Eun Kyung!)

Also warm enough for a walk to frolic at the field. (And lucky for the wedding happening in the background.)

Also warm enough to climb trees, aparently...

.and lollygag in the leaves.

Thanksgiving morning walk in the woods. Started out well, with cousins Lilly and Brycen.

Ended badly. Cold girls wouldn't stay under the blankets.

Gingerbread houses.

Congratulating Gwennie on a gingerbread house well done!

Johnson Christmas Tree Farm. All aspects are wonderful...
...the bunnies...

...the picnic, food fortification for finicky foresters...

...the horse...

...and especially the fact that they let us call back later with our credit card number, as we'd both left all forms of payment at home.

And a few miscellaneous:
Future youth group: we had a potluck of young families at church. Heartening and exciting. There were few babies, even on the horizon, when Adessa was born.

Where are my girls?

Peek-a-boo.

Eliana is a Funny Bunny

2010-11-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

Eliana wanted her baby with her while eating yogurt. No prob, I thought. I'll just give the baby a bib, too.

I came back a few minutes later...

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

Babies on the couch!

Halloween, 2010

2010-11-06T06:11:00.001-07:00

Halloween Eve:
Aunty Lolo gets in on the binkies and bears and television.

Carving pumpkins:
Eliana gets into the Halloween spirit by doing her zombie imitation.

Eliana inspects my progress.

The cute bumble bee costumes the girls could have worn, had they not minds of their own. Calvin and I have bee hats, too, we could have been a cute little bumble bee family, but... check out what Adessa put together for herself, instead. She would have no help in the costume department, florescent pink socks and all.

Halloween:
The papparrazi at grandma's house.

Assembling the kids to trick-or-treat. Still a madhouse trying to get this photo, though more of them are sitting still longer.

Trick or Treat!

Checking out our pumpkins.

Adessa's princess pumpkin.

Candy Candy Candy Candy. Eliana inspects her loot. Both girls completely forgot about their candy the next day! It disappeared and no one has been the wiser. Whew! (Okay, by "disappeared", I mean, eaten by Calvin and I.

Quick Look at our Life

2010-10-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Helping bake.

Cleaning up.

Sharing.

Happy about boots.

Reading on the princess couch.

Pink girl and blue girl, loving the pink couch. I call this one: "Zoned out in monochrome."

How not to have a sticky house.

CHEESE!

Family fun at the Pumpkin Patch. It means the holidays are coming, yay!

With Gwen and Julie, 4th annual trip together! 8) We love traditions!

What The Girls Are Up To

2010-10-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

Eliana is up to:
-Having a mind of her own and proving it whenever possible. Luckily she's still easily distracted from her forays into mischief.
-Eating and wearing volumes of yogurt.

-Talking! She told her first story: "Book on foot, oww." after standing on a book with one foot that her other foot was underneath.
She also says:
No,
yeah, (said oh-so matter of factly.)
baby, juice, car,
more, cheese,
nigh-night,
dog, meow,
apple (her clearest word),
Lijah (for Elijah),
Yiana (for Eliana),
Detta (for Adessa),
Rella (for Cinderella- I know, how proud/concerned should I be that she already recognizes the girl?),
airplane (sounds more like "ay-pay" but it's clear what she means),
Tico-tico- means tickle me more, please.
-Grunting when things are heavy (or when they aren't).

-Climbing on everything.
-Dancing and jumping (and paying attention when the TV is on, a blessing and a curse!) Sidenote: I LOVE how she says "Yeah", here.

-Making all kinds of sound effects- she can do a pretty mean airplane immitation.
-Smiling delightfully. Melts my cockles every time.
-Swinging. For as long as anyone will push her.

-Putting on other people's shoes. She doesn't discriminate, any shoes will do. On either foot.

-Her hair is long enough for bath time fun and bed head.

Adessa is up to:
-Saying sweet things, like: "Leaves are what keep the trees warm." and not so sweet things like: "Leave me aloneeeeee." In some ways Adessa is figuring out how to be flexible and less stubborn, and in some ways we're into a whole new level of inflexibility and stubbornness. We're working hard to keep her blood-sugar constant, as she's outrageous when she's hungry, which has helped.
-Preschool, twice a week of intense fun and social interaction. She's always ready to give me a lowdown of who cried, who played with her, who took her shovel, what the puppet show was about, and what the snack was. She routinely takes 3.5-4 hour naps afterwards.
-Singing, and dancing, and telling stories, or singing a story while dancing.

-Expressing her sense of humor, and understanding our humor. Calvin always corrects my grammar (thanks, babe), and after I said: "Lay around", he reminded me that it was: "Lie around, Keidi. Unless you mean you're going to lay an egg." We didn't even know that Adessa was listening, until she started cracking up. We just looked at each other in disbelief, because, ahem, it wasn't the first time that very conversation had happened in front of her. She's starting to "get it".
-Spending quality binky time on the bed, in full princess regalia.

-Wearing rubber bands in funny places.

-Enjoying church with her Nina, Romina.

-Bubble fun.

And one for the road: Dreamy girls after an evening walk. We love the fall!

A Few of our Favorite Things, Lately

2010-09-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Dress up clothes! A coworker handed down her daughters' amazing princess dresses, and Adessa is rarely to be found in her own clothes.

Eliana gets in on the game.

Sweet! (And becoming rarer every day).

Posin'.

How they really feel about posing. 8)

The creek! We've finally had some hot days (weird weather this summer) and have enjoyed time spent at the creek.

Evening walks that end at the rec field.

Preschool time! Please, God, help me figure out the logistics. We're having babysitter issues, and Adessa goes to school on days that I work. This Tuesday is her first day of preschool, and my first day of teaching for the homeschoolers. Whereupon I'm going to be running all over and trying to exude inner calm so that Adessa doesn't come unglued. Which has been a pretty frequent occurance these days--we're experiencing some profound disequilibrium.

Adessa (working hard not to smile) with her preschool teacher, Mrs. Zweers, at Visiting Day.

Skylake Family Camp... was so fun. We went when Adessa was Eliana's age, so it was cool to remember and compare.

Horseback riding was a highlight. Adessa was gleeful the whole time, starting the second she put on the only pink helmet available.

Hanging outside our cabins, relaxing catch-up time with family.

In the dining hall. A favorite part, the staff did all the cooking and clean up!

The whole gang!

Two years ago with Adessa outside our cabin, the famous "eyewear" shot.

Attempting a reenactment of the eyewear shot, but no! Adessa had other ideas. We chose an inopportune moment for her.

So it was reenacted with just Eliana. There.

Remodeling, Family Visits, and Happy Hollow

2010-08-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Remodeling is terrible. Its going to be great when we're done, and by then we'll think the inconvenience is worth it, but... its terrible. I had a melt-down half way through, when we were napping the girls all over town and I was forgetting things between three houses and never could actually DO anything productive because I was never where what I needed was. Its been crazy. Our house, however, is looking great. So that's good. Right? It's all done this week!

The finished big bathroom. Couldn't figure out how to turn it, sorry.

Getting ready for a bath in our newly remodeled bathroom. I was going to stay away from naked pictures, but this is so cute!

Underneath what we thought was old linoleum, even older linoleum.

Eliana saying "cheese" in the new improved kitchen.

Eliana and a virtual Kitchen Tour.

Walking back and forth on one of the many trips between our house and grandma's.

Eliana helping Daddy walk the dogs. She's starting to have ideas about the things that she wants, and the stroller isn't one of them. Whatever Adessa is doing is what Eliana wants to do. She's a climber, fearless, and has a new relationship with the word, "No!" Still lots of fun, though!

Happy Hollow
Our mom's group did a last hurrah at a semi-close-by hot spot for tots, Happy Hollow. Fun was had by all!

Adessa and Eliana on the carosel.

Gwen and Adessa on the carosel. Again.

Eliana and Adessa sitting in the fire truck, moments before tandem full blown histeria in which I had to remove them from the ride.

Adessa and Eliana trying to get close to the goats without the goats getting close to them.

La Familia
We've also had oodles of Calvin's family in town, also sharing his parents' house with us while ours is torn up. It was great to see them, the girls had lots of fun with their cousins and second-cousins.

Waffles with the cousins. (Okay, not a great shot of anyone, but you can see that Adessa is, indeed, with her cousins.)

With second cousin Ian. These two had lots of fun.

Matching girls in front of grandma's house.

The Lewis/Frigaard/Alligood clan!

The Girls

2010-07-22T09:51:00.001-07:00

Rub a-Dub Dub! Cousins and neighbors in a tub!

The Beach! Maybe Eliana's second time? Yes, we need to make our way there more!

Getting on and off of this box was 22 minutes of non-stop fun.

Posin'

Our bathtub, up until yesterday! Our first bathroom is useable, almost done! Yay!

Serious meat eater. Step away from my drumsticks!

The Spiritual Re-Re-Re-Re-Awakening

2010-07-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

I could add a few more Re's in there. Since first hinting about this revival, it has lapsed into a quiet, subconscious simmering. But I will deliver the meat of it, anyway, partly in hopes to pep myself up again. Oh dear.

Back in May, (could be why it doesn't feel so freshly amazing anymore) I went to hear Fr. Mel (Fr. Meletios Weber) speak. He is the priest who, with my dad, married Calvin and I. I really, really love him. He's one of those who spends a few minutes talking to me and changes my whole perspective. And hearing one of his talks is always just fabulous. The guy knows what he's talking about, spiritually, psychologically, relationally, linguistically... (We always nerd around and try to speak French together. He speaks many languages. Love him.)

Fr. Mel's talk was titled "Family, Church, and the Spiritual Way." I would have driven an hour and paid a babysitter to hear him talk about car parts or the rice farming, anything. I assumed the talk was about how to get your kids involved in church life, or keep them busy during services (any hints or philosophies on kids in church from mamas out there?) But his talk was much deeper than that, about people, families and their problems, and the church's role therein.

His main points:
*We are broken people and need healing. (This is opposed to the western view that we are sinful and need punishment or forgiveness.)

*Sometimes our brokenness crashes and clashes with the brokenness of someone else. Families are a good place for this, as is church.

*When we realize we are broken, we can then begin to face problems correctly. Being aware of how broken we are, we are entitled to the healing of God. No one can take away God's healing except our own self, through pride.

*Biggest brokenness: between our head/mind and our heart.
1. Our mind likes to dwell in the past or future, where God meets us in the present moment (heart).
2. Our mind runs a stream of chatter, "Logisme", always feeding us two types of thoughts: fear and desire. Most of our thoughts are "what if" or "if only".
-Our brains are good for working things out, its good to voluntarily use our mind, but when our mind is doing something to us, that's our brokenness. (Throwing a pity party, worrying, getting emotional and festering, etc.)
-Emotion is a physical reaction to thought, fickle, fleeting. Its okay to use emotion to describe an event, but it is not ever the event.
-Memory is bad at reconstructing reality. Its good at reconstructing our emotions about something.

*Our thought clumps (Logisme groups) are the Human Ego, which says: life isn't fair to me, but what about me?, expects always to be attacked, is always desperate, the super insecure part of us. Ego wants to be the victim, so we can say: "SEE! Look at what happened to ME!"
(Side note: he thinks people so enjoy being the victim that they hold on to it, even for 20+ years, because they can use it to explain/excuse their behavior. At some point-- get over it. Its in the past, unproductive to continue to give energy to it, its done.)

*Psychotherapy: people try to use their mind to fix their mind. Psychotherapy gets rid of symptoms. The root of our problems is our inability to dwell in our heart. Our goal is to seek God in the silence of our hearts. Fr. Mel has a whole book on this Blood and Water, Wine and Oil.

*Getting in touch with our inner silence/GOD affects every molecule in the universe. (That's so awesome.)

*Entering the heart is the solution and healing to our brokenness. I didn't take any notes on how to do that. I think its waiting for God in between the words of prayer. Being immensely aware of God, conscious of God. Seeking God in the silence of our hearts. Being present.

*The minute we say to God: "I don't want the moment I'm having right now, I want the one in my head." (expectations), we are in hell. This is so true for me, especially around bed-times. I expect certain kids to go to sleep. They're tired, it's time, and when they don't, it's hell. Churning frustration for me, which doesn't help anyone go to sleep.

These were the big huge bell-ringers for me. Wow. And for a few weeks I could be putting Eliana to bed, praying: "Lord, have mercy." slowly with my breath, trying to be silent in between the words, and it was progress, maybe. And as a side-effect, I was less irritated by how long she flops around before sleeping. 8)

There was more about the family, if anyone out there is still reading.
*We have to accept the family, accept God's reality, live with what annoys us and accept people for who they are.

*We need extended families. Badly. Boys need to be aware of righteous maleness from watching grandfathers and uncles as well as their dad. Girls need to be getting cues about their role not just from their moms, but the whole extended family of women. The whole family teaches kids. Its the village. Church can be our extended family, if ours is far away or unavailable.

*Remedy for families: 1. Be vigilant about honesty (tempered by kindness and necessity). Kids should never second guess themselves because they saw something that was negated by parents. (Mom: "No, dad isn't drunk, passed out on the floor. He wouldn't do that. He's sick. etc. Kid is unsure of reality, unstable.)
2. Avoid manipulative language (not honest). Like saying "I love you" just to draw a response of "I love you, too."
3. Avoid symbolic language (I didn't totally get this part. Its mainly about don't argue about who left the chips out if the deeper issues is unaddressed. Be upfront and honest and address the deeper issue.)

*Ego gets enraged when under threat. Ego fills the whole space of a person, wants to feed off of pain, looks for someone close by to pick a fight with and make another enraged ego until all the energy is used up. Resist enraged egos! Cool your ego, don't react. Find out what the cycle is and break it. Every problem in the world starts with an enraged ego.

Interesting gems he just dropped on us and then kept talking about his main points:
*Parenting isn't as complex as we make it. He thinks we just need to draw gentle boundaries around basic goodness, our children are who they are. Interesting. Not sure what I think (maybe because that would be admitting I'm not in control.)
*We have no effect on anyone from eight years old upwards unless they are agreeable to change. Hmmmm...

If you're still reading... wow. Good job. I was going to include the other part of my recent revelations, the book: "Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline", but I'll save it for another day. 8)

Summer Fun

2010-07-03T15:16:00.001-07:00

This really feels like a vacation... 8). Between being off of work, and having Calvin's days off, we are really reveling in the joy of being together. He's switched schedules, so starting soon he'll have weekends off. That means when the school year starts, we'll be using babysitters more while we both work, but then have lots of family time ALL TOGETHER when we're off. I'm excited about that.

The girls are doing great. I'm loving hanging out with them tremendously. The remodel has started, so we shuttle between our house and Calvin's parents' for naps and showers. Eventually we'll be using their kitchen while ours is worked on. Overall, the remodel is going great, not too big of an imposition so far, except perhaps our imposition on the grandparents.

Eliana is at such a fun age. I see why lots of people get pregnant when their youngest are this age, it's very sweet and enchanting. Eliana's latest cute thing is to rub her head no matter where she hurts herself. She does bonk her head frequently, and we all rush to rub rub rub it. She now rubs her head herself, even if she falls onto her bottom, or bonks her foot. Cute. Adessa's latest cute thing is making up songs and dancing to them. Her words don't always make sense, but, neither do many songs I hear on the radio. I've been working to give Adessa lots of hugs and kisses, which she doesn't invite as much as Eliana, because, as we all know... it goes so fast

Oh- I forgot to post something that happened a few weeks ago: Adessa was crawling around in our car instead of getting into her seat, something that happens every once in a while. I was loading up Eliana and the rest of the car, and I heard her exclaim: "Mom! I found God!" Well! That was easy! I turned to see what she was talking about, and saw that she found an icon card of Jesus in the backseat. She held onto it for a while as we drove, and then later gave it back to me saying: "I'm all done with God." Oh dear.

One of the main reasons I'm enjoying the girls soooo much, besides having Calvin home lately in between shift changes, and being off of work...and eating less sugar and getting more sleep...and Eliana being older...and Adessa growing out of her fits somewhat... is... that I'm reading the very very very best book. It is life changing, and I highly recommend it for everyone, but especially parents. It makes changing yourself seem so very possible. It's called: "Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline", which makes it sound like you only need it if you have a difficult child. Which isn't true, it's good for all interactions with all people. I'm going to use it with my students as a teacher. It's by Becky A. Bailey, PhD, and... it's made such a difference in my dynamics with Adessa and our interactions. It works! I'm going to do a blog post about how God is using so many different things right now, helpful and grace-giving lessons converging in my heart for positive change. This book is one of those things. Yay!

Okay... the pictures!
Swimming lesson action shots. These look glamorous, but don't be fooled. While the girls are having fun and look wet, not very much actual swimming is happening. Which is fine, next year. (Or else!)

Adessa and Daddy on the move.

Eliana's goose-egg producing forehead incident. She tripped directly onto her head, no hands out. Ouch.

Bubbles!

Almost, baby girl!

This is what happens when I ask them to pose:

Before...

2010-06-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

This post is mostly because I don't know how else to show people pictures, and I'm going to freecycle parts of our house that we're getting rid of. That is, if anyone wants them! For those not interested in our funky old stuff, on Monday we embark on a "facelift" of our bathrooms and kitchen. Very exciting, expensive, and stressful. 8) At the end we will have bathrooms that are easy to use and clean, a more modern-looking kitchen, and... drumroll please... a dishwasher!! Yipee!

Kitchen island, with kitchen sink.

Kitchen Island from the other angle.

Kitchen island from behind. Toys/swim bag not included.

Bathroom stuff:
Cast Iron? I think, tub. This is very funky, and very huge/heavy. Our contractor talked of breaking it up to get it out of the bathroom, which breaks my heart. If anyone wants it, they'd be careful. It is funky because it is up against two walls, not three. So it needs an L-shaped shower curtain, or should just be a bath. It's not the toilet, that stays, but my kids are asleep and I can't get another picture. Its all white, and in good shape. Probably pretty old, like the 40's when the house was built.

Bathroom sink and sink cabinet. There are no shelves or anything in the cabinet, its just the doors open to the sink hardware. Faucets and nobs included.

Vanity. This is super vintage, probably also from the 40's. Or 70's, when they updated. A tiny bit rusty, has shelves inside and in the door that swings open from left to right. Also vintage light, should anyone desire it.

Other bathroom's sink and cabinet. Inside this cabinet is one shelf, halfway up. Faucet, etc. included.

And, yes, the piece de resistance, the vanity. Any part of this lovely ensemble can be yours. Anyone doing a 70's movie? The light, the mirror, the mirrored shelf, the entire package are all available. 8)

Just a Small Little Big Girl

2010-06-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Adessa thinks you're only a big girl if you can touch the ceiling. This is an explanation for why she doesn't think she can do various things I ask of her, because she's not a big girl, yet. I hope she changes her mind and does things like dress herself, put her socks on, etc. before she's tall enough to touch the ceiling. She allows that, yes, now she's bigger--three years old!--but she patiently explains to me that she's still just: "a small little big girl."

Her birthday party was lots of fun. It was great to see her new level of understanding: she really gets birthdays. She looked around with glee at us all as we sang to her, so delightful.

Adessa's birthday cake. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and royal icing decorations. It wasn't too stressful, maybe I'll take up cake decorating again. I think the bigger the cake, the more room for error, so small cakes are the way to go.

Adessa and her Romina and their sparkly shoes. Adessa is already dancing on tables at parties, but we'll keep an eye on her. And, yes, she dressed herself. She refuses all fashion advising. Which I'm told is cute.

Gwen and Adessa at her birthday party. Thank you, Sky Park, for hosting our parties.

And that takes us right into summer. Swimming lessons started up, and I'm enjoying swimming with both the girls. Adessa was going to have a class with a teacher, and did fine the first day. For the next three classes, she howled and wailed. For 30 minutes straight, even with me or her cousin, Jordan, in with her. This week I've been in the water with her and we have had much more successful classes (by successful, I mean quieter.) She has definite ideas about what she will or won't do in the water. And this surprises me??

Eliana getting ready for her swim lesson. Modeling her "burkini", full coverage swimwear.

Adessa lounging after her swim lesson, eating a well deserved graham cracker.

I thought it was a good idea to get Adessa a pair of scissors for her birthday, to help with her fine motor coordination and get her ready for preschool. Ohhhh dear. Who knew that she has shredding capabilities Enron would covet? She's a human shredder. We consider renting her out, as she's an ideal little big person to do the job: she can't read, so sensitive documents wouldn't be compromised, and she can cut a regular weight paper into smithereens in under a minute, which are then scattered all over our house as an additional security measure.

Three Years of Adessa Faye

2010-06-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Birthday season continues! Adessa turned three yesterday, June 12th. It is hard to believe how fast it has gone, yada yada time flies. Most remarkable to me, I think, is that I am finally used to having kids. It seems like I've always had them, this has always been my life. What a ride, Adessa Faye. Thank you for all the lessons I'm learning as I try to be a good mom for you, and for all the giggles.
Adessa:
1. sings and dances. With gloves on, she sings and dances as Minnie Mouse.
2. likes turkey and cheese sandwiches with "bananaise".
3. exclaims: "I love ________________." with her hands up to her cheeks. She loves: Teletubbies, her pink shorts, her party shoes, bananaise, smoothies, and Rice Krispies, to name a few.
4. attempts dangerous feats, like a headstand that turns into a somersault, performed on the edge of the bed. Scary.
5. tries to make Eliana happy when she's crying. Adessa will dance and clap and sing for her. Awwww.

We had special (burnt) pancakes in honor of the birthday girl, and she opened one present. We're waiting for Tuesday when Daddy's off work to do her party. (The tutu was her present, you can see it peeking out of her apron.)

Making tuna fish, as it was too hot to cook.

Eliana's contribution to the tuna.

Playing with bindi's the other day.

Outside, ready for summer!

We Have a Walker!

2010-05-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

Eliana's really walking. She took her first steps over spring break, and has been working her way up to many steps. She zeroes in on a target destination, wobbles, steps, gets her balance, and makes it! She's so proud of herself. Here she is:

So much fun. I looked back at my blog entries from when Adessa was this age, and she was this much fun, too. Eliana's trying to talk, these days, and carries on long conversations of gibberish complete with appropriate facial expressions and hand gestures. She mugs for the camera, and tries to do whatever Adessa is doing. The cutest is climbing. She'll have her hands above her head holding onto a table or something, but will still try to get her little leg up so she can climb like Adessa. Awww.

She's earned her "Indian Name": Little Big Teeth
This isn't the best photo of Eliana, but I've been trying to capture her fast sprouting upper teeth. They came out of nowhere a few weeks ago and are now hard to miss.

I am enjoying both the girls so much more these days, not sure if it just really does take ONE YEAR to get used to two kids, or if Eliana is so much easier now, or if Adessa is passing through her terrible-twos and threes faster, or what. But its nice to feel kind of normal about having kids, instead of the all-consuming overwhelmed state I've been in. Much better.

Adessa is fun! She is delightful often--telling stories, asking questions, taking care of Eliana, making up songs, pretending to read. We've been doing evening prayers with her, and she is very thoughtful about considering the needs of people we know to pray for. I love that! She comes up with some funny ones, though, like wanting to pray for my watch that broke. I guess God could heal my watch if He wanted to, but we talked about how God gives us the resources to buy ourself a new battery.

We went with my middle school students on a field trip to a local CSA farm, and Adessa was ready for it in her rain boots. That girl had a FABULOUS time plodding through the many mud puddles, and my students had fun watching her,( wishing they had rain boots). The tour ended in the strawberry patch, and we were able to pick a few strawberries. Which made for a really cool moment of near-perfect bliss. It was beautiful, the farm overlooked the ocean, Eliana and Adessa stood in our little strawberry row and were so captivated by the gorgeous strawberries, right there in front of them, and the bugs and birds, and picking and eating berries with juice running down their faces. They both kept checking in with me, enraptured, like: "Is this for real?".

Adessa on the farm.

Kicking at the mud. I kept trying to get down and get a good picture of her, but was wearing Eliana and had difficulty. I think this was the best one? Then the camera went back into the car so I could walk and feed snacks and hold hands, so no pics of the strawberries on my camera. I hold the bliss, though, it was balm to my soul.

Springtime Playdates...

2010-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

... for moms and kids. We went up to see my college friends, Julie and Josh and their kiddos, Devin and Connor, and Auntie Gerilyn, too. So very nice to get us all together.

Devin and Adessa.

Eliana and Connor.

The gang.

Ellie Ellerson Turns One!

2010-05-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Eliana girl! What a sweet, mellow baby girl we have enjoyed for a year. Amazing little spirit and such joy she brings. God grant you many, many more!

Our girl:
Watching the world go by.

Just wakin' up.

Playing around.

Walking around the neighborhood.

Rockin' some sunglasses.

Making her funny face.

Checking out a baby chic at Playschool open house.

The Birthday
Eliana and Gracie (her dopleganger) checking out each others' antennae.

Sliding with Godmama Kriss.

Swinging with Godmama Kriss and the Baillie family.

The bee hive cupcakes, sticking to our bee/garden bug life theme. 8)

Adessa and Gwennie at the partay.

Kissing the birthday girl.

Cake

2010-04-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

I made another cake. This will be the last cake I make for a while, since Calvin asked me to put my new hobby on hold for the next few years. (Except for birthdays! E's birthday is 5/5, A's 6/12, and of course they're benefiting from my boundless love of frosting.) However, this will be the last cake I make for public consumption that could otherwise have been ordered from Costco. After ignoring all aspects of my motherly, wifely, and house-keeping duties for about a week, I made a giant birthday cake for my dad. German Chocolate. He requested the german chocolate, but didn't know how big it would be. It was going to be served after church, at what I thought was going to be a huge potluck barbeque birthday party. I was worried there wouldn't be enough cake for everyone. At the last minute, I made another layer. Each layer was a double batch of my recipe, in my new 14" X 14" pan. Three layers. Small potluck. It was a looooot of cake. We froze a bunch at church, so all the people who missed it the first time will be able to try it out.

I think I scored points with my dad for its sheer mass, as he is seriously into things that are heavy, strong, fast, or powerful. I have many childhood memories of him explaining exactly how powerful the chimpanzee in a certain story was, or how fast the guy moved in the wrestling match, or who would win a fight between a grizzly bear and a mountain lion, or exactly what force it would take to rip someone's arm off. He told me he tried to pick up the cake and guess its weight, but couldn't (pick it up, that is--it was heavy!) I think that bode well for him, and I can hear him now, years from now: "Keidi made the biggest cake I've ever seen, it was heavier than my desk." Happy Birthday, Daddio!

A Quick One, just the basics.

2010-04-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Eliana has four teeth, now.

Adessa asked me the other day: "Who glued our house together?" all matter of fact.

Calvin goes back to work tomorrow after almost 6 weeks of vacation. I told him 5 weeks into it that I don't know what all my stress and dysfunction about having two kids was about. I told him maybe it just takes 11 months of two kids for people to adjust. I told him that I was relaxed and really able to enjoy the girls and that I've arrived, I've made it to calm and peace in my mothering. I told him I was ready to start thinking about having another kid. I then told all this to my friend, Kim, who said: "Woah there, Keidi! Calvin's been on vacation." Duh. Of course I'm relaxed and wonderful at mothering. I have almost full time help in the form of my girls' favorite person. Thanks, Kim, you're right. Maybe we'll stick to the plan of another kid LATER.

Where, Oh Where..

2010-04-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

...Wherever to begin. Pascha was... okay. I recently discussed with my beloved friend Barbara how sometimes holidays are a double edged sword, because, while they might be fun, there is also the expectation and thus pressure of having and making fun. We had a succinct little basket ransacking event at our house, and then tried to go to church for the Agape Vespers and picnic. It rained, that was the biggest problem, so the picnic that we look forward to all year was, for all my intents and purposes, rained out. We still made a go of it, but between naptime and rain, it wasn't the most fun.

Saturday morning before Easter Divine Liturgy, the only picture I got of the girls in their Pascha clothes.

Eliana with the aftermath of the vigorous leaf and petal throwing.

Easter morning, baskets.
>

Easter egg shells are better than olives!

Easter Morning: Eliana and the Eggshells

Eliana- I love watching her pudgy little hands move around. When she picks something up to eat, when she fiddles with her binky, when she waves or gets excited about something, or when she makes her signs (she signs "all done", "milk" and "bird"). So. Darn. Cute. She's marvelous. She gives kisses freely, just dives in for a kiss and makes the smooch sound before or after. She likes to pretend to blow her own nose, and will put off tearing a tissue or napkin to tiny shreds temporarily while she mimes nose blowing for anyone nearby. We lean in and pretend to blow, and she nods in concentration and encouragement. She tries to pull shirts over her head. She pretends to talk on the "phone" which is just her hand pressed to the side of her head. She likes to brush her own teeth, and everyone else's teeth. She's still cruising around holding on to everything, she likes trying to walk but has a ways to go before she masters it. She's getting hungry all the time! Breastmilk isn't a meal replacement anymore, she wants FOOD at meal times, milk is a bonus. She's recently discovered blueberries, and likes to squish them around (again, those darling fingers), before eating them.

Eliana doing her funny face.

Trying to put clothes on.

Trying to blow my nose. Thank you, Eliana.

Adessa- Oh, this girl. She's so difficult, sometimes, and so sweet and enchanting other times. I am thankful that overall, she is very benevolent to Eliana. That is a balm for my mommy soul. With me (and Daddy, too, sometimes), not always favorable behavior. I find it important to find things that Adessa and I do well together. We wrestle well together, when she's in the mood. I realized last week, after working four days in a row, that I missed her. She's quite content getting all she needs from Daddy, and I have to be creative sometimes to squirrel my way in there after work. Luckily, she is easy to engage and happy to do her favorite things with me, most of the time. She likes creative play, coloring, doing puzzles, blowing bubbles, building with blocks, dressing up in princess dresses, hearing stories, and having me tell her about things over and over. She likes to hear me tell parts from her favorite movies, or how I went on a date with Daddy, or Hansel and Gretel, (the rated G version with no bad parents or witch), or something that happened to us recently. She likes to tell me stories, too-- about her day, or about things she remembers. A favorite thing to recount right now, is what cows make. She lists all the dairy products in her little world and then asks for more. She thinks cows are quite spectacular for providing so many nourishing substances.

And, together, we like to wrestle, and do "tricks". First we wrestle around, which is mostly an excuse to hug her and squeeze her while throwing her around on our bed. Then, we do tricks. We have a little routine, now, and could put on quite a coreographed show. (Think Cirque d' Soleil meets toddler gymnastics).

Tricky tricks!

Adessa reading to Eliana. Eliana listened raptly, riveted by the story.

This girl has a mouth full of sweet teeth. Look at that beaming smile, just for pudding.

She says funnnnny things. One of the things we talked about for a few days after the fact was how sick she got on our vacation down to Southern California. She had a massive temperature and barely ate or drank anything while sleeping for two days straight. When it came up in conversation, and I said: "You were really sick, huh? That was sad to see how yucky you felt." She replied: "Yeah. I was really suffering." Ha! Today she said: "Mommy, are you my twin?" Huh? Nope. Funnnnny.

The other day, our friend Les came over to get some pictures, and as she said "Hi" to him, she ran right into the hard glass doorknob. Ouch! She quickly and silently got into my arms, and hid her face while trying to cry muffled and quietly. This is unusual, or new, as normally she wails at tremendous volumes and isn't embarrassed to be seen or heard after an owie. It made my heart flip over with love for her, and the realization that she is becoming self-aware, self-conscious. Oh, this baby of mine. Growing up, having pride, feeling embarrassed, having complex emotion. It made something run through my head that I haven't thought since the very beginning with Adessa: How strange, this little being, and my attachment to her. Also noteworthy to me was how tender I feel towards her when she's hurting. Awwww.

Adessa does her own hair.

After Pascha we drove down to Southern California, to do a whirlwind trip of visits and relaxing. We got to see our godson, Alex, my college friend Mike and meet his daughter, Jane, Calvin's godparents and their family, and Calvin's sister. Very fun to see everyone. Lovely to be in Santa Monica. We're going to keep trying for a snag free vacation, and this one was getting closer! This vacation ended up having two parts: Before Fever, and After Fever. During Fever doesn't count because Adessa and I barely left our hotel room.

Before fever:
Zoom, Zoom, Riding in the car. The girls did great, possibly because yours truly rode in back with them. The whole way.

Zoom, Zoom, cheerio on my forehead in the car.

Adessa with Megan and Wilson at the McBrian's house in Orange. The most kind and wonderful people Calvin has introduced me to, his godparents daughter and her family. Exemplary. Kind. Talented. Patient with Adessa. Love them. 8)

Eliana showing off her buffness. She became a conversation piece on the playground.

With college friend Mike and his cutie daughter, Jane. Mike was part of my formative college experience. Like the leaf that falls into wet cement and is imprinted forever, Mike was my friend at a "wet cement" time. Even looking at this picture makes me happy--thank you for helping me figure myself out, Mike.

Swimming in the hotel pool, rocking those sunglasses!

Adessa's fun morning at the beach--that afternoon she succumbed to her fever. It was the only time she and daddy spent at the beach. I missed the beach pretty much altogether. Someday!

During fever:

After Fever:
Hanging out with god-brother, Alex, and his parents on the swanky Santa Monica 3rd street promenade.

Post Script:
Cake #2. A baby shower cake I made for one of the mamas in our group, Sharon. I'm improving!

Spring has Sprung! (Among other things)**

2010-04-02T20:23:00.001-07:00

Is it April already? We are excited for spring, for Pascha (rain or shine!) and swimming and walking and good weather. Calvin has taken a few weeks off so we'll have Spring Break together, and its been great to have him around in general. I've had days where I haven't washed a dish! Yay!
--Oh--an aside: we're foregoing our big dream of a major remodel because of the economy, but are planning a round of "home-repair" they call it. We're going to get a dishwasher, first and foremost, but then update the wallpaper, countertops, linoleum, and bathrooms. Hooray!

The girls are doing fine, depending on when you talk to me about them. Eliana is trying to talk, she says appropriately: ball, baby, bear, bird (Okay, they all sound like Buh-bu or some variation thereof) uh-oh, achoo (whenever anyone sneezes), Dada, and Deta (for Adessa). Maybe only I understand her, but she's on her way to mini-words! She's also trying to walk, cruising on everything and wanting to hold fingers and hands and be walked around. Part of learning to pull herself up and walk is her irritating habit of finding me wherever I am rooted (washing dishes) and swaying from my pant legs. When I'm wearing my PJs, that means she pantses me. Her big walking milestone coming up means there have been a few nights where I wake up to feel around in bed for her and find her standing up against the wall. It's like wrestling to get her to stop climbing the wall and hold still long enough to fall back to sleep.

Adessa is moving through her emotional life daily, experimenting with all the ranges of cheerfulness, sweetness, sadness, defiance, and disappointment. She has a clear idea of how she wants her juice, which spoon she wants to stir her yogurt with and which spoon she's going to eat it with. This girl loves routines, and we all pay if the spoon she considers essential is dirty at the time its requested. Arg. She has moments of extreme loveliness, with us and with Eliana, which give me much hope, and really, most of the time we have lots of fun with her. I'm just still shocked and blindsided when things seem to be going swimmingly and an unforseen trigger gets her going and going and going. Adessa says funny things, too: "Scrack, Cackle, Pop" for Rice Krispies, and "gralala" for granola. She's saying lots of "the darndest things", her word combos are surprising us all the time, especially when they're our words coming back at us. "Try to concentrate on this music." as she plays Eliana's little piano. "Plan ahead, Mommy!" when I'm getting ready to go to work. "First things, first!" when she lines her shoes up by the door. (Those last two are entirely thanks to Calvin, neither of those phrases have ever graced my lips.)

**Please be advised, some of the following pictures depict an unsavory and upsetting view of what are normally considered innocent hair folicles. Calvin entered a contest at work, much to my very vocal chagrin. The whole cadre of coworkers have taken the month of March to see who can grow the best mustache. I'm sure that Calvin can be very proud of his hair sprouting abilities, and I have been ready all month for him to shave the scratchy thing off. We had an agreement when we married, all vows were nullified by upper-lip-adornment, his or mine. I've allowed this temporary lapse, but be assured that Calvin has heard how I feel about it. I'm told September is Sideburn month, much more palatable. 8)

This is my new most favorite picture ever. You'll be seeing this one again, hopefully a REAL photo, printed and everything, framed in our house. (Why does it seem so hard to do that these days?)

Daddy and previously mentioned facial hair, out on the patio with Eliana.

The mustached man and his family.

Eliana's first bubble beard, kind of like lamb chops on her. Calvin could have gotten away with a bubble-stache.

Adessa is old hat at these bubble adornments, but poses anyway.

Eliana is cruising around, with help from Adessa and her push-walker.

For Auntie Lolo

2010-03-20T12:45:00.003-07:00

I got a request for more pictures of the nieces, Auntie Lolo, this one's for you!

The girls swinging at Skypark, Eliana's 10 Month birthday.

This picture was taken moments before I hauled Adessa screaming to the car, for what proved to be our most difficult day together to date. She worked herself into a raging fit like none before or since, luckily, but one that brought out the worst in both of us. I'll just leave it at that.

At second-step-cousin once removed Henry's birthday party, a ho-down at his farm! Here's Adessa with the goats.

Here we are with beloved Aunt Deborah. (Adessa hadn't warmed up at this point.)

And with my beloved friends Kim and Barbara.

Here is Adessa 20 minutes after we should have gone home, finally 100% into the ho-down, absolutely in the spirit and having a blast.

St. Patrick's Day, sort of. We had a birthday party for my friend Shanon with a St. Patty's spin, only a few days before the 17th. Please note Calvin's fledgling mustache. He's growing it for a picture at the end of May. It better be one fabulous picture, is all I'm saying. Its very hard to take him seriously.

The weather has been beautiful, and we've been enjoying our backyard. The warm weather is great because there's more kissable soft skin exposed. 8)

Adessa marched around singing, sweet.

A cake side-note: I've decided caking is my newest hobby, and got some bargain pans online. Here's my first attempt, and I learned a ton. Couldn't have done it without youtube tutorials.

Help My Hands!

2010-03-01T10:32:00.001-08:00

Do any other moms get this? My hands are in serious crisis. Since Eliana was born almost ten months ago, they've been in some degree of dry, itchy, sandpaper-like, scaly, rashy ouchiness. It's from washing them too much, I know. I use Cetaphil mild hand soap, and try to moisturize whenever I get a minute. I've also been wearing lanolin in white gloves at night, it just seems like my hands are always wet. Diapers, noses, potty training, cleaning, cooking, I'm just always washing them. Do they have spa getaways for hands? My hands need one. If you've any tips, I'm willing to hear them. One consolation is, I don't think I'd look like royalty if we were to have another French Revolution, they're beat up enough I think I'd avoid the guillotine.

Disney on Ice and More...

2010-03-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

Adessa kept calling it Disneyland, but we got to sit in a Penthouse box at the HP Pavillion to see Disney on Ice. It was awesome. Awesome to sit holding Adessa and have special time with her. Awesome to see her so excited and enchanted by it all. Awesome to spend time with our friends who had the box connection, Kim, Jim, Gwen and Julie. Eliana was happy to hang with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, and it was very nice to just have to worry about Adessa. Before we left, as I was dressing Adessa in her Minnie Mouse costume, she said: "Minnie Mouse will be so happy to meet me." That's right girl. I'm pretty sure Minnie waved right at us.

Posing with Grandma pre-show, in all her Minnie finery.

With Kim (wearing Julie) and Gwennie in our box.

We tried to get the perspective here, can you see the ice?

More...
An impromptu bath in the bathroom sink. (Can you see how we need to remodel, or at least update?)

Eliana rocking out on her piano.

This girl is trying it all out these days. Eliana tries to say: ball, uh-oh, more, bye and hi, and is so engaged with what's going on around her. She's also trying to stand and clap at the same time, she tries to pull herself up on everything, she tries to play with Adessa or whatever Adessa's doing, which has lead to another new noise she makes. Pretty much when she sees Adessa coming towards her she shouts: "Nahh!" because that's what Adessa says when she snatches toys away from her. Oh dear.

Here she is stuck between the stove and the counter. Again, can you see we need to remodel???? 8)

Sisterly love. A big smoocheroo, or maybe mouth to mouth? (So that's how they do it in their family... Ferris anyone?)

Three Quarters

2010-02-07T10:38:00.001-08:00

Grandma and Calvin share a birthday, and it was Eliana's 3/4ths Day.

Eliana is nine months old, and I've missed a bunch in blogging due to general lunacy. On the same day that Eliana became 3/4 of a year, Calvin became 3/4ths of 50.7. Yeah, figure that one out. Horrific math problems aside, we are well.

Hey, wait! Actually, I'm exhausted, but it's all my own fault. I somehow have not yet given up the idea that I can get something done. I keep trying to accomplish tasks, see people, and go places. Not even like I used to before kids, just somethings, sometimes. And it's still too much. It stresses all of us out. I used to think (like last week) that I could plan well, have everybody nap on schedule and for just the right amount of time, and then still DO lots of things. Apparently, after much anguish and soul searching, and attempt after attempt to prove myself wrong, I cannot. I like to blame the non-nappers, but it's all part of what I cannot control, and therefore I have to stop expecting that I can, which is where the internal distress happens for me. I can't push it/them, it just doesn't ever work out very well, and I don't like myself when I'm in the mode of prolonged trying: trying to get somewhere on time, trying to get to just one more store, trying to stay just five minutes longer, etc.

Okay, they're sweet.

Adessa stomping in the ample rain puddles. She's even figured out that mud is just as fun when the puddles dry up.

Snuggly and warm in Daddy's fleece.

Eliana's all over the place, she keeps popping up in new nooks and crannies.

In the span of a week she started: crawling, pulling herself up onto furniture, drinking from a sippy cup, saying "Mama", clapping her hands, got her first bed-head, and this week she is waving and saying "Haaaaa" for hi. Blast-off age, here she goes!

I kept trying to get a picture of the side of Eliana's head, to showcase the sweet potato she'd massaged into it. But every time I put the camera up, she turned to smile or bestow one of these amusing expressions.

All cleaned up!

Gwennie came over to play, and the toy-tubs became boats.

Eliana wanted in on the tub-action.

Eight Months of Eliana

2009-12-30T22:15:00.000-08:00

Eight months old, 1/5! Little banana face. (No, really- there's banana on her face.)

Figuring out her sippy cup.

At our annual 7pm countdown New Years Party with the mom's group. It was held at Stacy's this year, a break from tradition because our normal host, Kim, was having her second daughter Julie! Welcome to the crew, Julie! Gwennie's a big sister, but we missed her for the picture. Some would argue that all of our kids missed the picture, but hey, it's a record.

Enjoying the jumperoo. Everybody jump now!

Eliana's getting ready to move, which means mostly that she scoots around on her bunners (that's the official term at our house) and gets herself tangled up in her toys. She hangs out for, oh, about 30 seconds on her tummy before getting cranky about it, so crawling may take a while. Meanwhile, she pulls herself to her knees on the toy basket and otherwise freaks me out. She cut a tooth (did I tell you?) and seems to gnaw on everything, so we are expecting the arrival of more. She is delightful. She really prefers being with me, will cry if she sees me walk by if she's in anyone else's arms, or even playing on the ground. But from my arms, she is babbling, giggling, playful, engaging sweet delight. What fun it is to get her up from a nap, she rewards you with the most adoring expressions and noises. She's starting to grab at everything, which doesn't delight Adessa, who thinks she's trying to take her toys away or pull her hair. Is this the beginning of them being at odds? I hope not with all my heart, I aspire for them to be best of friends and peaceful playmates. (Well, I can hope, right?)

Adessa, while still dependent on her binky for comfort and to sleep, while still preferring to do most of her #2s in her diaper at nap-time, while still sometimes throwing terrific fits when she's tired or hungry or just plain ornery, said this to me yesterday on a walk: "When Eliana gets bigger, like my age, she will stomp in puddles in her raincoat." I was pretty impressed. I am her mom and everything, so I'm supposed to look for signs of spectacularity in my children, and I think that was a pretty spectacular sentence for my girlie. Another one she does, she'll cry holding my legs, looking up at me for comfort and say: "I just want to be held." For some reason, her using the past tense of "hold" at 2 1/2 just makes me laugh. 8) She also has started drawing faces, recognizable smiley faces. I'm not sure when kids do that developmentally, but I'm sure she's waaaaay ahead. Right? Hopefully she won't be like me, though, I always took to things quickly and then was kind of bewildered when everyone else caught up and then passed me.

So Much Fun... (but not too much!)

2009-12-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Possibly too many pictures, though.

We essentially had two Christmases, because Calvin had to work on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was with his parents and sister and her family, and Christmas Day was with my family. The girls did great with all the hullaballo. I had to take down the Christmas tree the day after Christmas to fit the new toys into our small house. ( Which lead to fits of internal dialogue for me about materialism and teaching the girls about giving and how Christmas isn't about shopping, and about the tremendous amounts of junk you can get for pretty cheap these days, and how at the same time that I wanted to teach them valuable lessons, I also wanted there to be a lot of fun stuff for them to open. I'll be mulling all that over)

But, yes, our Christmas: I'll let the photos tell the story...

The weekend before Christmas, we feasted at Mt. Hermon's Christmas Banquet/Concert series with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis and Auntie Evie and Uncle Randy and the cousins. Adessa LOVES her cousins. Thank you, cousins, for being so attentive to my girls.

This shot is pre-banquet. These pictures kinda make me wish I'd waited until after the banquet to do the Christmas cards.

Monday, 12/21 my merry mom's group decorated gingerbread houses.

All this fun done near tuckered 'em out!

Eliana and our tree, on Christmas Eve eve. I love pictures with the tree, they are instantly interesting and magical. I think this means I should get more houseplants.

Christmas Eve morning, we opened our little family's presents. Say cheese!

Hey, this is fun!

Opening presents with the Lewis Clan after our delicious Christmas Eve feast and revelry.

Opening presents with the Beck clan, Christmas morning. What Calvin missed was...

Adessa's first and favorite present. After opening a trunk full of dress-up gowns and accessories, Adessa was interested only in prancing and curtseying and sashaying around. She had to be talked into opening her other wonderful gifts. And now, post Christmas, she has to be talked out of wearing only princess gowns in the cold, in the rain, to the grocery store, etc.

Pausing to rest for a moment after the present-opening frenzy.

Ben and I with the gorgeous sign that he made for our family. This thing is beautiful and will feature prominently in our house.

Adessa snuggled with Auntie Lolo before our Christmas dinner at church, which was the end of the Christmas fun. Also which, lucky for you, I didn't get any pictures of. 8) Happy Holidays!

Jingle Bells

2009-12-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

We tried to get a fall picture with our tree, based soley on my determination to have a seasonal picture every year with the fall colors and our little tree. We waited too long, I think, and when all were awake and semi-cheerful, it was too bright. But we got a picture! Good thing, too, that afternoon it rained and the tree lost all its leaves.

This is Adessa playing with her cousins at Aunt Deborah's a few days after Thanksgiving. What fun to watch her be a part of the kid action, albeit a little behind the older kids.

I was so excited for Thanksgiving to be over so I could get the Christmas decorations up. I think the girls aren't sharing my enthusiasm in this pic. Thanks for the great stockings, Mom!

Going on a weekday, we had the whole Christmas Tree Farm to ourselves. Which meant we had to use our self-timer to get this shot. I then posed the girls to best display their cute Christmas clothes, with Adessa holding up a standing Eliana by the armpits. They were adorable, laughing and happy, but the self-timer was still on. So the seconds ticked by, and I didn't want to rescue the teetering Eliana in case the picture was going to take at the last moment. Well...

...she fell, face first, thud, into the mud. We didn't get the picture, and her cute clothes, head, and hands got muddy. Poor babe.

Here she is happy, though, at Grandma and Grandpa Lewis's, getting some support from Carson while she plays.

Adessa shows off the BEAR sausage she's sampling. A student brought it to our class Thanksgiving feast. Adessa made no mention of it tasting like chicken.

Hello!? I just love this one.

Adessa and her first celebrity crush. She tells almost everyone she meets (who have no idea what she's talking about) what Lightning McQueen says: "Ketchow". *A note about her eyebrow: she tripped on her towel after a bath into an open dresser drawer. Luckily Grandma Edna brought her nurse's bag over and put on a butterfly bandaid.

20 Minutes A Day

2009-11-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

Adessa and Elijah playing dress up.

Egg on my face... how embarrassing.

Wild and crazy cutie.

With Auntie Lolo somewhere in the East Bay. We had a lovely visit to see her new place and hang out.

Sooooo... I was listening to the radio the other day and there was a zen buddhist monk on, sometimes called the Happiest Man in the World. He felt sheepish about the title, (he said cheerfully,) but the name was given to him because of his writing on how to be happy. Well. He just nonchalantly asked his interviewer, and thereby us listeners, to wonder what would happen if everyone in the world spent 20 minutes a day trying to be better, more compassionate people. The whole world would profit. My girls would profit. My husband would profit. People who know me might get a little of the trickle down effect.

Somehow, I'm still not sure how it happened, this exhortation got to me. Devotions, quiet times, prayer rule, what have you, have always been a bit of a chore for me. They seem to be the first thing to go if a day is busy (or a week is busy, or a decade, you know.) But! The wording and the simplicity of what this Happy Man Monk was saying... seems so basic and do able, and it's changed my week. Hopefully its changing my life, but it has definitely changed my week. Instead of bouncing Eliana to sleep and chanting: "Go to sleep" in my head, I'm bouncing her and praying. There's plenty to pray about, and plenty of time when you're a mom to do it. Like when I'm waiting for Adessa, who's suddenly decided to start a puzzle when we're heading out the door. That's a good time to ask for more patience. And for more creativity. And less anger, and more love.

I feel better! I want to love my girls and my family so well, in just the right and helpful ways for them. I have proven in these two years of parenting, that I need supernatural help to do so. I want to be better, less disappointed, less judgemental, more compassionate. Where previous words describing meditation time failed to inspire me, ("meditation" didn't work very well in my head, either) the 20 minute idea just sidles into my life naturally and holistically without feeling chore-ish or dutiful. It is a joy instead. Yay!

And my girls are great! Eliana is a sweet, chubby, smiley, warm, dulcet dollop of goodness. She smiles and flaps her arms and blows bubbles and beams and rolls over and over and sits playing intently with toys, and chews on everything and lights up when she sees Adessa or us. She's pretty easy going and happy and its so lovely to be around her sweetness.

Adessa is fun and funny, saying all kinds of surprising things. The other day I asked her to do something and she said: "No possible way." which is from her Berenstain Bears book. Also from the BBears was her oft-repeated quote over the course of a week: "You've got moxie, spunk, nerve." She's still working on keeping her undies dry everyday, but overall is pretty potty trained. She doesn't like help to do anything she thinks she can do on her own, so went for hours the other day with her dress unzipped in the back. If she couldn't do it herself, no one was going to do it. She is wonderful with Eliana, will sing to her and dance for her and try to placate her if she's crying. Adessa sings songs in a nasal voice we've noticed before in little girls. Why do they think that's how to sing? She talks on her play phone and has realistic sounding conversations with Grandpa or Daddy or Gwennie, mostly with a lot of filler words: "Uh-huh, Okay, and after later, because, whoopsie daysie, uh-oh, I love you, bye." She does all of this chatting in a VERY loud voice, because apparently her plastic phone gets terrible reception. 8)

Mug Shots and More

2009-11-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

Yep, she's guilty!

Maybe just of being super darn cute and of chewing on Adessa's marked up balloon. Whoops. Eliana is 6 months old and doing tricks! She turns over, eats solids, blows and spits, and sits up. She first sat up while Calvin was watching her, so when I got all excited when I saw her sitting up by herself, Calvin's response was: "Yeah, she's been doing that."

First solid food, with Adessa's help.

Her first of many sis-y-rides.

At a recent wedding, lots of female family-ness.

Getting ready to sit unassisted.

Our little couch squashes.

Recent Excitement and Halloween Hoopla

2009-11-04T20:41:00.001-08:00

Carving pumpkins with Grandpa on patio.

Carving pumpkins with buddies in the basement. Us:

The buddies:

An cheery good morning from Daddy and Eliana.

A family walk on West Cliff. Lovely day.

The perils of sitting with Mommy while she eats. Whoops! She wears it well.

Halloween was tremendous. For an exciting excursion, Adessa and I went to visit Sleeping Beauty at her castle, which was our friends' transformed home in San Jose. Wow! Lots of college friends attended, so it was a mini-reunion for me, too. Super amazing fun, just look:

The girls in costume (The Princess and The Pea) pre-party, back at the ranch.

Here, the princess IS a pea. We then left her with Grandma and Grandpa to hand out treats.

Playing with Legos at the Schertle's, our home base for the night.

The amazing castle.

Our amazing hosts and castle creators, Eric and Michelle!

Butterfly Gerilyn met us in the middle for the fun.

Here come Holidays!!!

2009-10-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about the holidays coming. We have been talking about all the fun days and events coming up, all the way to Easter which Adessa remembers for the bunnies and chocolate. We kicked off the seasons with a family trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

And we're doing good! The dark cloud of tantrums has lifted, at least for the moment. 8) Adessa potty trained relatively easily, whe-heeeweee! So now, even when I'm irritated with her attitude, I get so happy with her when she does her business in the potty. Yay! We see her differently now, she seems older with big-girl undies and diaper free. Eliana is doing great, too-- yay for a time of being juuuuust fine.

Click on this one so you can see it enlarged. Eliana's in there!

See HERE for Adessa's Pumpkin picture.

And here is Eliana's:

Strawberries 'n Cheese

2009-10-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Lesson learned: Don't leave burrito fixings out on the counter.

Our first big storm blew through, and those with boots had a great time splashing.

At the time of this photo, Adessa's boots were both filled to the brim with water.

Auntie Lolo and Grandma Ruth gazing across the couch at Eliana and Adessa. I thought they were all going to look at me, but there was a bit of a stare down.

This Two Shall Pass

2009-10-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

A family friend was trying to help me out the other day and comforted me with the age-old wisdom: This, too, shall pass. But I heard it with new ears, like the post title, and it was very comforting, indeed. Adessa is two, yes, and three might be bad, too, as it is for some kids. However, I must keep the faith that it will pass. She will one day possibly listen to and follow my directions without a knee-jerk "no". She will stop throwing things on the ground when she's mad, like food, silverware, or even imaginary balls (those don't bother me so much.) I am comforting myself with the following: It will pass.

Thus far, her head hasn't spun and we are free of brimstone. 8)

Adessa loves to dance and sing, and is on a months long "beautiful gown" streak. Some mornings it looks like we live with a teenager, there are dresses strewn across all surfaces as she tries on gown after gown. It might help if I knew what it was she was looking for on a particular day, but there seems to be no pattern governing her dress selection process. It's almost worth it when she finds the right one, though, as she is instantly happy. She spreads her arms out Julie Andrews' style to sing and dance, benevolent once more.

There's that smile, with freshly brushed teeth.

Eliana turned five months old on October 5th. She has found her hands, and her hands find... everything. She has started "bothering" Adessa in the double stroller, trying to reach and grab whatever she can of Adessa. She likes toys, gnawing on toys, flapping her arms to the Bach from her crib mobile, has rolled over a few times, sits up in the Bumbo and Boppy, enjoys peek-a-boo, and is soft, chubby, and sweet. She startles easliy, we scare her all the time just coming into the room or coughing suddenly when holding her. She doesn't like to be held by many other people, but she does like other people to smile at her when she's in mom or dad's arms. People keep asking if Eliana has a distinctly different personality than Adessa at this age, and... it doesn't seem much different. I can't really call up much of Adessa at this age when I try, my impression of her was she was soft, chubby, and sweet, too.

Five Months Old!

Hey, Look! Toys!

Awwwwww.

Truth in Bloggertizing

2009-09-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Our story today begins with a Harvest field trip with my mom and my moms (group.) We drove out to a mountain farm and were treated to a corn harvest demonstration, a chance to feed farm animals and pick corn, a wagon ride, and a time to pick-your-own-pumpkin. Here are the photos from our event:

The wagon ride:

The corn picking with Elijah and Jayden:

The pumpkin selection process, involving contemplation and a squat:

Victorious! A sweet specimen!

However, what I'm realizing about blogging is, you just can't believe what you see. It looks like we had a great time. And we did, overall. But what the pictures don't show you is how hot, dirty, and uncomfortable we were. Maybe you can tell from the picture of me that I am considerably sleep deprived? The pictures don't show you how stressed out I was about getting there since I was sort of the ring-leader for my friends. We left our house too late, there was road-work, and then we were stuck behind the slowest mom in the universe who happened to be going to the same place and didn't ever waver in her determination to slow down at each intersection (obviously unfamiliar with the area) but never ever pull over to let me by. The photos don't show how impatient I was to leave, afterwards and get to a STAFF MEETING on my day off, a whole other story, or that I bribed Adessa with a peppermint candy to get her into the car. I have no pictures to show of her choking! on her candy and barfing it up with the rest of her stomach contents all over her carseat. Whoops. Normally I wouldn't include all that in the blog, but lately, I think I need to be more realistic in my blogging. It wasn't this event, per se, that was so terrible with such cute pictures, it just got me thinking.

As I've read about friends' lives on the internet lately, a new feeling has crept into my awareness, and it is... jealousy!? I have so much to be thankful for, etc. yada yada, of course I know so well the blessings I enjoy and take for granted, but when reading blogs and facebook recently I've finally pinpointed the feeling, and it's definitely envy. I think I'm feeling my admiration for the lives of others lean towards jealousy because 1. I am a flawed being and have a host of issues that need attention, and 2. because online we present ourselves without the negative or unglamorous or impatient-mom parts of our stories. It's not that we're purposely trying to omit the less wonderful parts of our lives, its just that we think no one really wants to read about it. It is easy to give highlights only, to focus and report on the exciting and amazing. Animal shows are similar, they're mostly about hunting, eating, and mating, even though that's a tiny percentage of an animals life. I am probably not alone in my mismanagement of my children, I just feel like I am because the worlds I get to peek into (as the world I've presented) don't include anything less than sunny. So, I hereby commit to tell the whole story, give the whole picture, and to learn something along the way. I also have decided that I don't have to stay off the internet to get rid of my envious bent, I just need to understand that probably everyone isn't always having so much fun as their blog or facebook profile would let on, or such domestic bliss, or intense and wonderful occurrences all the time.

I did get a picture of the mundane this time: here are the girls, stuck in road-work traffic on the way to the farm.

Is anyone still reading this? Way to go if you are, I know I get wordy.

Suffice it to say, there have been some terrible moments lately. Moments where I really doubt my parenting and wonder why on earth people have so many kids, and how can so many people seem unscathed by their child-rearing experiences. I wonder if I'm making it too hard on myself, as no one else seems to be having this much of a struggle. Calvin is getting to experience some of the parenting obstacle course, too, as he does childcare while I'm at work, but most of my struggle is during the long days when he's gone. That 6 o'clock hour, I tell you, it's a killer! Eliana is coming to life--she is so sweet and charming--but in the back of my mind I hesitate to enjoy it because I'm thinking: "You're going to be two some day. This only gets harder." For every 50 really stinky, wretched moments in a day, there are at least 51 amazing, breath-catching moments, too. And some days are better than others. I just re-read some Dr. Sears on discipline, so today I was very understanding and patient, and let my higher self deal with Adessa.

For the record: Both of my girls are so incredibly precious, and I AM so thankful for what I have, they are just what I wanted. And what would I possibly do with domestic bliss?

I'm So Proud of My New Humility

2009-09-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's become apparent lately how incredibly humbling it is to be a mom. So very humbling. Hearing my angry words come back to me from Adessa's two-year old mouth is incredibly humbling. Having Adessa respond super rudely to someone who complimented her dress or asked for a high five is downright embarrassing. Overdoing things and trying to stay on my own schedule until both of my girls have poopy diapers and are hungry and overdue for naps, fussing in a quiet store 20 minutes away from home, is very humbling. Walking through the house with Eliana in one arm and banging her head into the door jamb as I walk through is humbling. Taking the girls out to wait in the driveway for Calvin to get home from a 12 hour work shift because I can't stand to be in the house just waiting, makes me feel smaller and less like the wonder-mom I'd like to be. I'm beginning to see oh-so-clearly how very much better a mom and a person I'd like to be. (I'm not fishing for compliments, (don't need any as that would not help my pride), I'm reflecting- I know some of this is normal stuff, I'd just like to be able to handle it more gracefully.)

I've actually been praying for things like humility, so I can be a good example for the girls. I think the request went like this: "Please, God, help me to be more humble, but please do it in such a way that I don't have to be embarrassed." And then I went on to visualize how great it would be to be super humble, and how everyone would notice and flock to me because of my great meekness and humility. And that, folks, is maybe why I keep having to get this pride/humility lesson again and again and again.
Amen.

And, without further ado, here are the girls:

Adessa and Madrina Romina walking Beau. (Adessa dances as she goes.)

In (my favorite) jammies, Adessa's beautiful night gown, and Eliana's pink elephant sleeper.

Eliana's exuberant smile caught on camera!

Carrots all around! On Calvin's days off we've been having idyllic after-dinner walks to the "meadow".

Wearing Daddy's shoes, just playing in the grass. Lots of room to run and dance and play "Catch-You".

Four Months of Eliana!

2009-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

And of having two kids. Whew! It's definitely gotten easier. How nice to know the terribly untethered, reeling, unfastened feeling wasn't a permanent part of having two kids. Adjustments are well on their way. Paradigms are shifting. Less is getting done, cheerfully now, not resentfully. While I need to bolster my patience often, we are all coming right along. Yay!

Just hanging out.

On the very four month anniversary, September 5th.

Gwennie and Adessa at the river. Easy fun we discovered this summer.

Our tribute to Blind Melon. (If you don't get the reference, watch this video.)

Summer's End

2009-08-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

Back to school. Summer, and it's long days and unscheduled busy-ness are over. Week one went well. Calvin had fun watching the kids. He felt that he got to know Eliana better, having her for 8 hours straight, and is a terrific Mr. Mom. I got right back to it at the homeschool. My contract this year is three days a week and all of my assignment is with the homeschool--no juggling the high school schedule--which is so fabulous. My job will be much more focused and flexible, as I've almost only homeschool stuff to worry about.

Adessa has gone from saying: "Wanna talk." at bedtime, which meant that she wanted me to talk about the day, to: "I just want to talk about it, Mom." (seriously, complete sentences this month.) and then she talks all about the day. Pretty fun. She only wants to wear "beautiful gowns", which means her shorts, skirts, and pants are all lying neglected in her drawers, and her play dresses (which all her dresses are becoming) are getting lots of wear. She sings and dances and mimics gestures, and is fun to watch. She can do many bits and songs from her favorite movies (watched exclusively from musical selection to musical selection) which are Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cinder Elmo, and Enchanted.

The girls day dreaming. (Or wondering when the photo opportunity was going to end.)

Adessa's first (responsive) phone conversation with Daddy.

This one kills me. Super earnest finger sucking, while clasping (random) blanket oh-so tightly.

Escaping the heat wave (don't get me started on how hot it's been.) Eliana liked the water, darling in what can most aptly be described as a "swimming costume".

(Not really) Chillin' in da crib.

Eliana talking.

It's All Happening at the Zoo...

2009-08-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

I do believe it's true! We took a last hurrah, before-school-starts trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Very fun to see the animals live and in person, doing their thing.

Daddy and Adessa with the giraffes. This was the first animal we saw, and I think Adessa could have stayed there with the giraffes all day. But there was more!

Adessa walking in grizzly bear footprints at their exhibit. We got to watch them swim around.

Daddy and Adessa rode the little train.

Mommy holding "both my girls" in front of the gorillas. (We figured out about the smudged lense right around the lions, so some of these pictures have a bit of a halo effect.

How Eliana spent her zoo time. Riding in the stroller and sleeping in the Ergo.

At the Zooooo. At the Zooo-ooooo. (Thank you, Simon and Garfunkle.)

Girl Stuff

2009-08-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

Today I see the problem with not knowing who in the world reads this blog. Because, I really think it may just be my mom and Arin, Sarah, Amy, Barbara, and Kim. All of whom I feel comfortable telling the following: I started my period! Menstruating! Aunt Flow got her months wrong. The baby is just three months old, and already my body is prepared to bring forth more life. And give me additional raucous mood swings. Or something. This is, in a word, infuriating.
*The rest of the post is going to be on the same subject, so the weak of heart should wait until we're back to our regular programing of a cute toddler and her antics and a very small, (only three months old for pete's sake!) baby.

Yes, infuriating. There is a reason that God gives most exclusively breastfeeding women a break from their monthlies for a GOOD LONG WHILE. Partly its for birth control and spacing between kids, and to give mamas a chance to recuperate and heal from the havoc of birth. And partly because how on earth is a woman supposed to take care of herself, with time constraints related to periods, and at the same time take care of babies? It's like now there are three of us in diapers. COME ONNNN! Its a lot to keep track of: who ate what when? who slept for how long? why is this one cranky? and where's the nearest bathroom? End rant.

Where Does the Tickety-Time Go?

2009-08-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Brace yourselves! Eliana is three months old tomorrow. Already. She is sweet sweet sweet, I tell you! She's starting to take notice of her toys, her hands can find her mouth most of the time, and she is getting strong as she tries to look around and see what we're all up to. Eliana smiles into my eyes and it's so uncomplicated, just sheer delight and love emanating out of her. Ohhhh. I love it. Especially when a certain two year old isn't very excited about me, I am appreciative of the soft sweet goodness of a baby.

Adessa has been doing really well, actually. Lots less tears and whining; she's starting to be able to control herself when asked and change her voice and use words instead of crying to tell us what she wants nicely, instead of demanding and wailing. Its an incredibly pleasant development, and I've been enjoying her. Whenever anyone in our house (Eliana, me,) is upset, she will run to find a binky (pacifier) for them. Calvin and I were having a... discussion, with, er, slightly raised voices, ahem, and she yelled from the other room: "Fighting? Binky for mommy?" Very nice of her to share those precious binkies. Her funny phrase of late is: "How that ohpd?" Which translated means: How do you open this thing?

Eliana and Daddio.

Eliana, sleeping with her binky in her eye. It did not bother her in the least.

Adessa and Elijah watching a movie on Adessa's new (to us) pink princess couch/sofa bed.

The younger generation of the Beck side of the family so far. And no, we couldn't get Adessa to smile. 8)

Eliana's first swim, at her godparents house. It was nice and warm and she loved it. This girl loves water, she is calmed by a shower or bath and even her feet in Lake Tahoe didn't phase her.

Tahoe!

2009-07-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

We had a vacation in Tahoe. I was about to write an adjective describing said vacation. Common descriptors for vacations that I've used myself in the past ran through my brain: relaxing, carefree, quiet. However, with two tiny ones... I'm just leaving it at that: We had a vacation, it happened to be in Tahoe. We spent lots of time with most of my family, and in between wiping noses, chasing kids, and feeding everyone we had some good conversation. It was, as always, lovely to be in Tahoe. We enjoyed beautiful weather and views and lots of time to play in the water.

Here's Daddy and the girls in our cabin.

Here's Grandma with Jaden and Adessa.

Adessa at Moon Dunes, the favored beach, eating lunch.

Playing in the water, which we can do for happy hours.

Playing in the pool.

Can you tell Adessa's having a blast? 8)

How Eliana spent her time in Tahoe:
Snoozing at the beach.

Hanging out with cousin Noah.

Flying in her personalized cape. (Grandma made capes for all the kids, which were a terrific hit.)

Smiling and talking. She's really trying to coo and gurgle and talk. Adorable.

Fourth of July and More

2009-07-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

We had a patriotic and fun Forth. Adessa caught on quick to the red-white-and blue decorations we saw as we drove around, and now says: "Fourth of July!" whenever she sees a flag. (Another, non-related cute thing she's said lately: "Where my knifers?" She was looking for her scissors! )

Friends from our mommy group got together at Ryan's house, where there is a POOL! and we cavorted and splashed. Swimming at Ryan's is a great arrangement for me, because his mom, Stacy, is okay with holding Eliana while I get to swim with Adessa (Daddy was working on the fourth, of course). We also tried to pose the kids for a picture, which turned out like this:

We are ever optimistic, though, that someday we will get all our kids sitting down on the darn couch! Our girls just leaned on each other through it all.

Visiting with great-grandma Ruth and great-grandpa Lou

The Two Month Old photo shoot--

Eliana's smiling, and it's the most heartwarming, cutest thing!

Daddy and the girls.

Just the four of us. We need some more work, both girls are blurry! 8)

The Girls

2009-07-04T12:44:00.001-07:00

Who is who? Here's a game for you, which picture is which girl at which stage? We just happen to have some similar photos. Fun! Answers at the bottom.

Getting their first examination from the doctor(s).

Being held by Aunt Kristine.

Being held by mom, in the same maternity shirt, with the same disheveled hair.

Being held by dad at three weeks old (in the same pink onsie, that was planned.)

Bouncing in the bouncy seat.

Wearing the fuzzing pink hat from the Saads.

Could you figure them out? It went: Adessa, Eliana, Adessa, Eliana, Eliana, Adessa, Adessa, Eliana, Eliana, Adessa, Adessa, Eliana. Okay, thanks for humoring me. So...what you can gather is... they look alike, and are very cute.