Dutch Wonderland 2010

There is an amusement park about an hour from us that is geared towards young children R's age, so when a bunch of women from a message board I frequent all decided to go, J and I took R and joined them. (Grammie and Grampie watched RUS for us). It was a GREAT time, up until the torrential rains started. It was seriously a monsoon-- we got completely soaked, like to the bone running from the bathrooms to an awning. We tried to wait the rain out a bit but it just POURED, although I was glad we waited through what seemed to be the worst of it before driving home in one of the biggest storms all summer.

Anyway, R loved all the rides and couldn't wait to keep going on more. Because it rained we got rain tickets and will try to go back sometime in August.
This bulldozer ride was the first one she went on. It was really funny because the little girl she sat next to wasn't pushing her joystick thing, so R kept trying to pick up her hand and tell her to control it.
This was a little schoolhouse equipped with a chalkboard wall and chalk and erasers. R and this little girl had a great time drawing circles and then erasing them-- we had to pull her away!
It's funny but it seems like every children's museum or zoo we've been to lately has involved a cow that kids can "milk". All the kids were crowded around this gently competing for chances to milk water into the bucket.

Then this train ride was one of the last rides she went on and she was already getting really tired. She looks plumb tuckered in this, but of course once she got off the first thing she said was, "I want to go on another ride!"

**I started this post shortly after the trip but it took me several weeks to actually get pictures added and post it on the site. It's now August 7th and I just have to add that we drive past Dutch Wonderland on our way to Ohio and both times R squealed in delight, "The musement park! There's the musement park!" She talks about it every now and again, and we saved the park map and she pulls that out and uses it to have adventures with her Yellow Crystal Princess Dora doll.

R 36-37 Months

Dear R,

I've been debating whether I should address this monthly letter to both you and your friend Pocha. We've been learning a lot about Pocha the last few months. I've mentioned before that you like to ask for stories and you tell us who the story should be about. There have been a lot of stories about Pocha. I like to start the story and then ask you to help me with details: "There was a little girl named R. And she had a friend named . . ."

"Pocha!"

"Okay, Pocha. And Pocha and R loved to . . . "

At this point you start to get impatient and say something along the lines of, "No, YOU tell me!" So I have to be careful not to ask you to supply too many of the details of the story. We make up all kinds of stories, often loosely based on real life and what we've done that day or yesterday or the day before.

These last few months have also shown your growing love and (dare I say) obsession with Dora. You love Dora and when given a choice of dvds to watch you almost always choose Dora. We have three different Dora books that we've read to you over and over and over again, and you insist on wearing your Dora pajamas (you have two different ones now, thanks to your two sets of grandparents) as soon as they are fresh out of the laundry.

You've been working hard at jumping farther and farther, and you practice standing on one foot and hopping on one foot every day. You get better at them each day--it's wild! We think you'd love a gymnastics or a dance class to practice your coordination.

You have also started drawing actual pictures and tracing letters and numbers. The other day we played quite a few games of tic-tac-toe while you practiced making X's over and over again. You got really good at it by the time we played our last game!

Love,
Mama

RUS's 9 month visit to the doctor's

RUS had his 9 month appointment at the doctor's. He is growing well, 19 lbs 5 oz. and 28 1/2 inches long (just for comparison, R was 19 lbs 2 oz and 27 3/4 inches at her 9 month appointment).

North Carolina Beach Vacation

I am always excited to have a reason to go to the beach. But even more excited when that reason involves a wedding! My friend Debbie got married to a wonderful guy on the beach in North Carolina, and J and I took the whole family. My parents even came along which was EXCELLENT because then J and I could go to the wedding without the kids and not have to cut our evening short.This picture of Rosemary and my dad should give you an idea of just how much R LOVED the beach. This beach was absolutely awesome--the sand was wonderful and the water was amazing. So clear and clean, and the waves were tons and tons of fun. It was so much fun, in fact, that I did not take nearly enough pictures.

We saw lots of marine life, too--a sting ray, tons of little fish, a big crab, and of course little sand crabs and other small critters living in the sand.

We arrived on a Thursday and had Friday and Saturday as full days at the beach. We made the most of our time there, spending several hours each morning out by the water, coming in to get lunch out, and then going back out at least once in the afternoon. We also took morning walks out on the sand--this was one of them. The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there. Warm enough to enjoy the water and the ocean, but not so blazing hot you were uncomfortable being outside.
We even saw a rainbow!
The wedding was gorgeous. My friend H (the one who has given R and RUS camel shirts, and who is responsible for the kids "THAIBOXING"!) was one of the bridesmaids. I thought the dresses were so beautiful, and I loved how vibrant the flowers were against the dresses. Perfect colors for a beach wedding, aren't they?
Here we are at lunch one day. I love this picture of all of us.
It was such a great vacation. Definitely well-worth the 12-hour drive there and back--we're even talking about possibly trying to recruit my brothers and get everyone out there for a family vacation out there. We'll see, though, as word is that Local Hero will be spending the next three years in Hawaii, which is also right up there on the list of "Excellent Vacation Spots."

How Big is RUS?

(sorry for my annoying voice! In the background you can hear me saying, "How big is RUS? How big is RUS?" several times during the video, which is only 16 seconds long.)

RUS 9 months

So my sweet RUS,
You are 9 months old and the milestones just keep on coming. For about a week you've been full-on hands-and-knees crawling, and your increased mobility means we have to keep even more of an eagle eye on you. You love to pull up on anything you can find, although you mostly only pull yourself up to your knees, not to standing.

I took some photos of you in an outfit we got from Grandma and Grandpa to commemorate you turning 9 months. They came out pretty cute, if I may say so!
In the last month you have started really communicating with us, and you sign "more" by clapping when we ask you if you want more food, and you wave goodbye by moving your fingers in and out of a fist shape (it almost looks like the ASL sign for "milk" but not quite).You and R continue to be wonderful playmates. She has the greatest time picking out toys and telling you what to play with. Good thing you're easy-going and generally happy with whatever she gives you. I've had to step in a few times though and insist that she not steal toys from you, because she will commandeer everything in sight if she can! But you both love playing together, and she will be the first to sing you songs or comfort you if you start to look unhappy.
And one final milestone this month: you got your FIRST TOOTH! The lower one on your right--we can feel it clinking on your spoon as you eat. You love everything we give you to eat, and you are a pro at picking up pieces of puffed rice (a cereal kind of like rice krispies but puffed instead). I don't think we've given you anything you haven't liked yet.
Love,
Mama

Much Posting To Come...

Things I have coming up to share with you:

--Our beach trip to North Carolina for our friends D and D's wedding

--RUS's 9 month milestones (including his first tooth!)

--Highlights of R's last two months, including some pretty awesome artwork to share

--THAI BOXING (need I say more? Um, probably . . . but not right now)

For now, I will just share this brilliant blog post, New Dad Survival Guide, as I have a few friends who recently became new fathers. And also because it made me laugh out loud, and I like to share the laughter.

Big sister - little helper

I had the kids to myself a while the other day and RUS was refusing to nap. He was also very fussy, so I moved his lunchtime up a little bit. I'd been keeping R entertained with play-dough for a while, but she'd packed that up as I got RUS's lunch put together. As soon as he was in his high chair and his bowl of baby food and spoon were out, R went over to the chair in front of him, climbed up, and proceeded to feed him.

As soon as she headed in his direction, my first instinct was to say, "No, R, I don't want you to make a mess blah blah blah." But I managed to stop myself. I continued cleaning a few things off the table as she picked up the spoon. I watched carefully and silently as she loaded it up with cereal. I smiled to myself when she held his hand out of the way and brought the spoon right to his mouth. Only after the second successful bite, did I start to breathe again and continue my little picking up and chores. I even began preparing my and R's lunches for a little while as she fed him.

I did offer some advice from time to time. First, after dropping quite a bit of food on his bib, I gently suggested not getting so much food on the spoon. R began tapping off some food each time she took a scoop. I also swooped in occasionally with a napkin to clean off his face a bit. I considered myself especially brave when I suggested she give him some water to drink. She was a natural. I'd almost say RUS responds better to R feeding him than to me. He definitely smiles and laughs more for her than anyone else. At several times he forgot to eat the food, he was so busy giggling at her.

I felt a bit like an anthropologist or a naturalist, observing, but not interfering with the proceedings. But like all things wild, the serenity was only temporary. As R brought the cup to R's mouth one last time, RUS got a hand on it, yanking it and spilling water all over the tray and himself. I was a blur, getting to the towel and helping to mop it up, but I encouraged R the whole time to keep feeding him, which she did. However, a few mouthfuls after I'd gotten the spill cleaned, I noticed R squirming, and saw a puddle under where she crouched on the chair. I grabbed another towel to mop up this water too and then noticed that this was quite warm water.

That was the end of that. R was brought to the potty to get stripped and cleaned off while RUS yelled at us for leaving him while there was still food to be had. He had eaten most of what I'd poured out for him, but he's usually reluctant to end a meal - and has gotten used to seconds at least. When I returned to spoon out what was left in the bowl for him and scatter some rice puffs on his tray, R decided to prance around the living room - quite undressed. The usual chaos had returned. The magical moment was over. But not before I'd gotten some of it on video ;)



R: too far, he will choke.
J: yeah, don't do that.
RUS: grunts
R: mmm. yum
RUS: grunts
R: mmmm. . . yummy yummy yummy
RUS: laughs. grunts
R: He love this food
R: (gibberish?)
R: Daddy. Daddy. . . daddy give you that food.

Celebrating Independence

A few days before July 4th, we informed Grammie and Grampy that we would like to have a little picnic of sorts with them to celebrate (eat pie). Grammie and Grampy said that they would like to try taking R to see fireworks that night, so we decided we would have a dinner party at our place.

We soon realized that it was going to be a HOT day, and nobody was interested in eating anything too warm. While Grammie made a delicious cold pasta salad (with bowties that R got a kick out of) and brought corn on the cob (one of R's absolute favorite foods of all time), I couldn't think of anything I wanted to make - and so we decided we'd get take out. We settled on Ali Baba's - a simple spread of hummus, falafel, tabouleh, pasta salad with kalamata olives - and corn on the cob. It really hit the spot.

We were all done eating at 6:30 and we had a couple of hours to kill before leaving for fireworks - and we were all too stuffed to eat pie yet. So we went outside and set up the sprinkler for R to run through. It's the strangest thing. When she is in the bath, she will SCREAM if any water gets anywhere near her eyes. She starts yelling "I need a towel! I need a towel!" and no, a washcloth just won't do. You'd think she was the wicked witch of the west. But put her in front of a sprinkler and turn it on - watch out! This girl loooooves the water! She runs through it, jumps through it, chases it - and sticks her face right in the spray! She runs up to me, streams of water running down her face - trying to hug me.

Anyway, after getting some energy burned, we went back in and had our pie. Poor RUS had to watch everyone eating - again. He's definitely likes his food - like his sister - but he's not yet ready for cherry pie.

Finally, the time had come. We told R that if she was really good, she could go see the fireworks with Grammie and Grampy. Well, she really was an angel. Took her nap without a fuss, behaved at meals, and generally was on her best behavior. So at 8:30, already past bed-time, we packed her into the car - S and RUS opted to stay home. We found a good spot and walked around while it got dark. There were errant fireworks going off all around - but most were in the distance - not very loud. While carrying R on my shoulders, one went off nearby and it was very loud - but we managed to laugh it off, though R insisted on screaming a little bit and told us the fireworks blew away the bugs.

Over an hour after parking the car, the show started. I immediately put my hands over R's ears. They were loud, but we weren't right next to them, so it wasn't too bad. Still, it was not something she was used to. We talked about the different colors and the funny looking ones - after 5-10 minutes or so, R wanted to go home. I told her we could sit in the car and watch, which she was happy to do. It was a lot softer in the car and we could see some out the skylight and others out the windshield. Still, after another 5-10 minutes, R was ready to head home, so we drove off, craning our necks to see a few more. The finale was happening right as we pulled into our driveway, and Grammie said she could see some from the corner of our yard. I considered the event a success. R did not cry or fuss - even though it was way past bedtime - she just informed us when she'd had enough. She did put up a fight when it finally was time for bed, but that didn't last too long.

The next day, she said to me, "Next time, I will see the finale." I'm looking forward to it.

To infinity and beyond!

R and I got to enjoy some special one-on-one time on Monday as I took her to her first movie at the big theatre! We saw Toy Story 3 - which was really terrific! R was great - she sat through the whole thing - hardly making a peep. I was worried since she hadn't taken a nap, that she would either melt down at some point, or fall asleep. She did neither. She did sit on my lap the whole time. Those theatre seats are not meant for little 3 year olds to sit in. It basically folded back up on her and she was too low to see the screen anyway.

I think we'll be hearing stories about this one for a while now - though the only name she really remembers is Woody, she did say she liked the dinosaur one. I won't spoil the movie - but I will say it was probably one of the best choices for the little ones. There may have been scary parts, but she took it all in stride. After her first fireworks show the night before, her first movie in the theatre today, what will tomorrow bring?

We're Expecting a New Nephew

I've been waiting to announce this for ages and have finally gotten permission to share with everyone! In January Surf and Cali announced that they were expecting a new baby in September. In May they had their 20-week ultrasound and found out that they're having a little boy.

They also found out that he has a rare condition called Edwards Syndrome, or Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is a chromosomal disorder where the baby has a third 18th chromosome instead of the usual pair of chromosomes. (Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 21, is the most common trisomy.) Unfortunately, unlike Down Syndrome babies, babies with Edwards Syndrome tend to have very short lifespans: 90 percent of babies born with trisomy 18 or 13 die by age 1.

It has been a difficult journey for Surf and Cali the last few months, and there is a lot of uncertainty ahead for our little nephew. They don't know if he will make it to term, how long he will live once born, or what kind of issues he will have once he arrives.

We are looking forward to welcoming Alexander Francis to our family, and I am making plans to fly out to California for his birth over Labor Day weekend--I can't wait to meet him.

I've spent a bit of time reading about Trisomy 18 as well as other stories of babies with fatal prenatal diagnoses since finding out this news. What follows are a number of links that I've found helpful in processing all of this:

Sites about babies with Trisomy 18:

• Prenatal Partners for Life: Trisomy 18 Stories
• Trisomy 18 Foundation (click on "Get Support" and choose "Legacy Pages" from the drop-down menu. Within this page, click on "View Pages" and then "View All Pages"--this will bring up a list of Legacy Pages created by parents of Trisomy 18 babies)
• 99 Balloons: Eliot Hartman Mooney (this link takes you to an amazingly touching YouTube video)
• Reagan-Hope and Love (Reagan died shortly after she was born on May 4 and her parents are still chronicling their experience)
• Nolan's Miracle of Life (Nolan celebrated his first birthday on June 25!)

I've also been reading incredibly touching and heartbreaking stories written by other parents who have experienced a fatal prenatal diagnosis. These are three of the most powerfully-written ones:

• Bring the Rain: Audrey Caroline (they also have a book, called I Will Carry You, about their experience. I haven't read it, but Cali has).
• Finding My Feet: Evie Grace (scroll all the way to the bottom to read the posts in order, backwards)
• Embracing Elijah
• You may also find it helpful to read this link (I know I did) written by a father who lost his baby son at birth.

ETA: If you want to read more posts about my nephew Alex, or see some pictures of him, click on the "Alex" tag below to pull up all my Alex-related posts.

Happy Fourth of July!

I prompt R to say Happy Fourth of July and then start recording.
R: Happy July! Happy fourth of Julyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
S: Can you tell everybody what we're gonna have today?
S: What did Daddy make for the Fourth of July?
R: (looking down and not at camera) pie pie pie pie pie pie pie
R: puts grass in RUS's mouth.
S: Did daddy make a cherry...? (laughing) cherry.... Did Daddy make cherry cupcakes?
RUS: smiles and sticks his thumb in his mouth.
S stops recording video.
R: (as soon as camera stops recording) cherry pie!

(To my credit, R has been making up a lot of words lately, and she spends a lot of time talking like this "La la lu fa fi fefefefe FE!" so I thought she was just making up random words, not saying anything in particular, when she was actually saying pie in response to my question. Sigh.)

Cherry Picking

When I was growing up, for about five years my family lived in a house with a tart cherry tree in the back yard. I have vivid memories of picking cherries every summer with my parents. We kids would get the lower ones, occasionally standing on a kiddie step-ladder my parents had. My dad and sometimes my older brother would climb higher into the tree to get the fruit from the top. We'd harvest as many cherries as we possibly could from that tree. And boy, they were TART.

My mom would make some pies immediately, and then freeze leftover cherries for a later date. Every Fourth of July, we'd have cherry pie. MMMMM, cherry pie. I mean, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

So when the orchard near us announced *ONE DAY* of U-Pick tart cherries last month, I seized on it, and J and I kept R out of day care for the morning and the four of us traipsed over there and picked enough cherries to make two pies. We made one pie immediately and froze the other cherries to use in making a pie for our Fourth of July picnic today.

Dora the Explorer

Since we don't get any TV stations (they don't call our city Radio-Free for nothing--we've tried various rabbit-ear antennas, and even looked into getting an antenna for the top of the house only to be deterred by research we did that suggested even that antenna would not get us any stations) we watch all of our TV episodes on DVD.

Lately we've been getting DVDs from the library, which, unfortunately, are hit-and-miss because they're usually so beat up our PlayStation 2 can't always read them. Last time I went, I got our first Dora the Explorer DVD, and we let R watch her very first episodes of Dora.

She's loved Dora for a long time even though she'd never seen an episode. First Dora was her friend on her socks. Then she was her friend on her band-aids. Now she has a Dora doll she got for her birthday from one of her friends.

So she was REALLY EXCITED (this is an understatement) when she saw the cover of the DVD with Dora on it. And she was riveted during the show. Absolutely riveted. I have only seen two episodes of Dora, but they were almost identical, so I'm guessing that this is pretty much the formula for every episode:

Dora and her friends Boots (a monkey), Backpack (her backpack) and Map (a map that lives in Backpack) introduce themselves and a plot device occurs that requires them to traipse through two distinct areas in order to arrive at a final destination. Map always comes out to show them how to get to their final destination, which involves naming two places and the destination.

In one of the episodes we watched this meant having to get from Tallest Mountain to Dora's House so that Dora and her friends could learn what the super secret surprise was--and to get to Dora's House they had to go through the Jungle and across the River. So, Dora and friends sing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, "Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House! Jungle, River, Dora's House . . . " I mean, this goes on so long that I keep thinking, "they can't possibly sing that one more time . . . " and then they sing it SEVERAL more times.

Anyway. Then they have to go through these places, but not without being met by obstacles. Sometimes they need help figuring out which path to take. Other times they have to help people they meet along the way. One of the obstacles always involves having to pull stuff out of Backpack and identify the correct item needed. Throughout the episode they sing "Jungle, River, Dora's House" scads more times.

As they get through the last obstacle, they always need to enlist the help of Tico, another of Dora's friends, who only speaks Spanish. Helping Tico necessarily involves teaching the kids some Spanish words. For example, in one of the episodes they have to climb Tallest Mountain. Only, lots of watermelons grow on the side of Tallest Mountain, and as they climb, watermelons are rolling down the hill and they have to jump over them. Tico might not know to jump if someone didn't tell him to, so everyone watching is supposed to yell salta to help Tico jump over the watermelons.

In the other episode we saw Tico needs to figure out whether to take the red (rojo) path or the yellow (amarillo) path. R loved helping him, but she didn't quite understand--until we explained a few times--that Tico doesn't know English so she has to say it in Spanish. She got pretty good at yelling out rojo and amarillo after the 2nd time we watched that particular episode.

So now R has been talking a lot about Spanish. Among the conversations about Spanish that we've had in the last few days:

R: "what is pull-up in Spanish?"
S: "I don't know"
R: "You have to look it up."

She likes to make up words and insist to us that she's telling us what something means in Spanish. Last night she insisted that something she was saying that sounded kind of like "culo" was Spanish for water. I kept telling her agua is Spanish for water but she kept correcting me, insisting it's "culo."

S: "What does salta mean?"
R: "Jump over watermelons."

She's renewed her love for our little Spanish-English dictionary. She used to ask us to read it to her when she was little but that was mostly because the book is small-sized and she liked holding it. Now she knows it's a Spanish dictionary and she wants us to read her specific Spanish words.

Commemorating Two Years of Blogging

I've been writing this for more than two years now. My first post was 24 June 2008, so just over a week and a half ago was my two-year blog anniversary. I thought it might be time for a little celebration and to post a couple of blog statistics.

Number of blog posts up through 24 June 2010: 549
Number of blog visitors at least since I installed SiteMeter: 11,014