New Challenges

Wow, it has been two weeks since I last posted. Needless to say, life with these two kiddos is definitely keeping us busy here! And it is a good kind of busy. We're slowly learning how to juggle things and trying to keep our patience all at the same time. That has certainly been one of my challenges this past week - having patience. Erik was out of town for work this week and I faced for the first time nights without my helper man! For all of you single parents or parents whose spouses are gone a lot, I am so amazed at what you do on a day to day basis. Kudos, and may God give you strength.

Out of the blue, our sweet Kristi girl started to stutter this week. And it is getting more frustrating for her every day. Now she knows that something is wrong and it is hitting her hard. Tonight, we were driving in the car and she was trying to tell me something as I was sitting near her in the backseat. She kept saying, "I I I I I I..." and then said, "Mommy, can you talk to me?" I think she was trying to say, "Mommy, can you speak for me?" It absolutely broke my heart and I started crying. Her big, beautiful, steely-blue eyes were pleading with me to understand what was going on in her world. I did a bit of reading this week, and also have heard from a few other people, but have learned that stuttering is very common for small children. There is so much information in their minds and they cannot process all of it quick enough for their tongues to speak. Our Kristi has such a strong linguistic ability, that I think she is just having a hard time keeping up with that. And it makes sense that it is hitting right now because she is dealing with the transition of being a big sister, and also was having a difficult time with Daddy being gone this week and Mommy not having enough time to devote to her like I used to be able to do.

We're praying that God will help Kristi through this time. Maybe this is her thorn in the flesh...and hopefully, it will go away and just be a phase.

Hooray!!!!!

Two wonderful things were found out today...

1. The results of Anders' ultrasound were completely normal! Ergo, he does not have Spina Bifida! We are SO thankful and praising God for this answer! THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!!!!!

2. I weighed our Little Buddy at the clinic tonight, and he weighed in at 8 lbs! That means that he has gained a pound in just over a week! We are so happy about this positive weight gain. I knew he was gaining, but I didn't know how much. Yeah!

Thank you for praying for our Anders and for us. We so appreciate it. Hopefully we are on the right track now and can avoid going to the hospital for a long while!

**Tonight we went to Erik's parents home on the lake, and Kristi had fun playing in the water with Daddy! I had fun watching them through the window while I took care of Anders. We're trying to help Kristi get over her fear of being in the water. I have no idea where that came from, as we've always encouraged her to enjoy it...must just be an innate fear.

Carousel, Como, Careening Butterflies and Big 80's Hair

This morning I knew that I just had to get out of the house when I saw how lovely of a day it was going to be! The sun was shining brightly and the weather was looking to be just perfect for an outing, so Kristi and I made our way to our wonderful little Como Zoo. We have been there a few other times in the last couple of months, and every time we go it is a lot of fun. Kristi seems to notice different things each time and absolutely loves to take in not just the animals but all the different people! I think that the zoo and the state fair offer some of the best people watching experiences in town. :)

One of the coolest things about today at the zoo was that there is a new exhibit on butterflies and we were able to go through it! There were butterflies zooming around us and occasionally they would land on me. Strict instructions from the zoo people were to not touch the butterflies, so I just got to enjoy their tickling on my toes and neck when they would land there. In the exhibit were many beautiful flowers and butterflies of many varieties, some of which I had never seen...giant blue butterflies, red, orange, yellow, black, brown, white, and of course the traditional Monarch butterflies that we see a lot of here in Minnesota. If you are in the area this summer, I would HIGHLY recommend going to the butterfly exhibit. I imagine it will be a much visited exhibit during its time, so perhaps it would be best to arrive earlier in the day to avoid the daycamp and daycare crowds. We were there around 10:15 am, and it wasn't too crowded yet.

The lions were crazy today! I think that they might be mating or something, because the female lion was hiding behind a tree and then creeping up on the male and pouncing on him! It was the funniest thing I think I've ever seen those lions do. They were tackling each other and roaring quite a bit. Many children were scared by the loud roars of the lions, including my little one! But it was nonetheless a very fun experience to witness. Usually when I have seen the lions they are just sleeping.

As we were leaving the zoo, I decided that we should go ahead and ride the old fashioned carousel. Kristi was thrilled with that choice, and we had a ton of fun. Perhaps it wasn't the smartest option for a 37 week preggie lady to do, but at this point I'm all about helping this child to come out! A nice volunteer at the carousel ride helped to hoist Kristi up to the horse so that we could ride the horse together. He stood nearby during the ride as if trying to help protect me in case something should happen! It was so sweet.

We walked up to the park tonight. It has been so neat to have Kristi walk by herself instead of pushing her in the stroller. She is loving the freedom! While we were at the park, there was a lady there who couldn't have been all that much older than me and she was sporting this really huge puffy hairdo that reminded me so much of an 80's girl rock band look! I got a good giggle out of that. It just isn't that often that I see hair like that anymore, unless I'm down in Texas visiting. It seems that a lot of women in Texas still like big hair. No offense ya'all! I love you dearly! :) Everything in Texas is bigger, right?

Must go help put the kiddo to bed...and I'm kind of giggling at myself for saying that I wouldn't be writing much since our computer is sick. I've been more diligent about writing this week than I have been for awhile! I'm just enjoying it I guess.

Blessings.

Nothing New

I went in for my dr. appt. today fulling thinking that perhaps my body might be progressing for the arrival of this baby, but nope, nothing new there! I was kind of disappointed, but the more I think about it, it is better for this baby to stay inside as long as he needs to. The dr. did seem to think that Baby is staying on the small side which is GREAT with me! She thought that perhaps Baby is still shy of 6 lbs, and for 37 weeks tomorrow, that's great. I am hoping that we'll still have this child a little bit early. Now I don't have to worry about him coming early as we're past the danger zone, and I can go about my daily life as much as I'm able to. I am excited to be able to go for more walks as I've been missing that lately!

We went out to dinner tonight near where we used to live, and it was such a fun time. One of Erik's colleagues from Asia joined us, and we had fun visiting with her. Kristi was very chatty and goofy at dinner time. At the restaurant where we went, they had an ice cream sunday bar where you could add all kinds of goodies to your ice cream! I'm talking gummy worms (how fun is that???), crushed oreo cookies, crushed heath bar, crushed m & m's, and a whole bunch of other things. It was so much fun. We hardly ever give Kristi anything candy-like, but she was able to experience her first gummy worm tonight and LOVED it! She kept reaching over to my plate trying to steal more gummy worms, as I had taken three or four.

Well, off to help Little Bug get to sleep finally. I know, it is after 9PM and she's still up. We've been in a bad habit with that lately! I think the summer sunlight staying out later is partly to blame. :)

Blessings to ya'all.

Kristi's Birthday!

May 19 was Kristiana Joy's birthday, and she turned 2 years old! We had a big party with both of our families two days before the birthday, and Kristi had tons of fun eating her ladybug cupcakes. I went gonzo with a ladybug theme and it was a blast putting everything together!

Enjoy some pics...

Tubes & Tummies!!!

So, I've learned something...NEVER go down a long, claustrophobic, winding tube tunnel slide with your almost two year old when you're UBER pregnant! (I'm now 31 weeks - I can't believe how quickly it is going!) Last night Kristi Bug and I had an adventure to our nearby park, and yes, I took her to the tallest slide and had her on my lap while I tried to lay down and go down that silly thing. When we got to the bottom, it was VERY hard to get up and out of the slide, and I had to sort of shimmy Kristi out of the slide and use my legs to get her down from the drop of a few feet so that she wouldn't crash. I was laughing as I tried to get up and knew that I'd have a good story to tell later on. Erik cracked up when I told him, and I guess he had the joy of sharing the slide story with his coworkers today, who got a chuckle out of it as well. After going down with Kristi, then she proceeded to (and I guess I let her) go up the playground equipment all by herself to the TOP slide again, two more times, and come down by herself. She had this kind of devious little grin on her face and kept checking with me, almost like she was thinking, "Mommy? I can't believe you're letting me do this!" The first time down was fine, and she laughed and laughed...but the second time down by herself, she must have gotten her footing off, and she kind of tumbled down the slide. Oops! I felt like a real dufus of a mama at that point, as my Bug seemed a little discombobulated from tumbling down the slide. Needless to say, that was the end of our night at the park, but Bug handled it very well and there were no tears shed. I now call her, "my independent one."

Must go get some sleep...blessings to all...

incredible article...

Hey Friends,

I just happened to read this article about choosing life over abortion and thought it was very inspiring!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2008/marapr/9.28.html

I remember when Kristiana was just several weeks old and a young girl came to our door working for Planned Parenthood. She was of course looking for donations and asked me if I was pro-choice. I promptly replied with great conviction and joy, "No, I'm very much pro-life, especially now with my new daughter." She quietly watched Kristi & I and said, "Okay, I can understand why you would feel that way. I hope things go well with your new daughter." I really hope that she does understand. I have often thought of that girl and have asked God to help her to see why life is such a gift from HIM!!!

Thank you Lord, for giving us life. Life is such a vapor. Please help us to respect life and to cherish life. Amen.

Organizing Frenzy!!!

Nesting season in my pregnancy has hit! I'm going nuts trying to get many things accomplished before our baby arrives in a few months. Today I was cleaning the back closet by our garage and putting all kinds of things in order. One thing I'm really excited about is that I took an over the door pocket shoe holder and placed it on the door to our laundry room, which is right by our garage door entry, and now it houses some of our shoes as well as hats & mittens & other random things. I love it and it has cleared a LOT of clutter from the closet & the floor! And the other great thing is that I already had the shoe holder from my grad. school days. I'm glad I hung onto it! Something which I'm slightly embarassed to say is that I still had several boxes with 3 ring binders full of notes and papers from college and grad. school, and I have been going through and keeping only the few things which might be of use to me in my teaching now. That has eliminated a LOT of paper clutter, for which I'm thankful! It was a lot of fun going back and reading some of my papers from college, because they sort of give a glimpse into that stage of my life and what I was thinking about, dreaming about and living. I loved college and grad. school and I'm thankful that I had such wonderful teachers and opportunities to learn and grow.

Another fun thing is that we're getting ready to decorate a "big girl room" for Kristi, and I'm so excited about it. I have spent many hours looking for just the right toddler bedding and bed, and contemplating whether or not to keep her in the crib and get another crib for the next baby...or put her in the toddler bed...or just put her on a twin size mattress on the floor...but I really feel like we're doing the right thing to try the toddler bed. She'll be two in May, and I want to get her transitioned before Baby Boy comes into our world in July. So, we're hoping to get all painted and decorated in her room in the next few weeks and start the transition. The toddler bedding that I found for Kristi is just adorable, and it has a tea party theme. We're planning on putting polka dots and tea pots painted on the wall here and there to make it more whimsical and inviting in her room! And I'm hoping to sew some curtains too. Here's the link for bedding, and this company has so many awesome things to choose from that are not "character" related... which I think is really cool.

Erik is busily scraping wallpaper goop from our kitchen and we're hoping to paint the kitchen soon too! Exciting times for decorating are here. He is such an amazingly resourceful, talented and helpful man, and I'm very thankful for him!!!

Oh, and Baby Boy seems to be doing fine in my tummy. Kristiana has been saying "Baby Brudder in Mama's tummy" and then she comes up and kisses me and pats my belly. It is very cute.

Blessings to you all.

Raspberry Lip and Other Adventures...

Wowsers, I haven't posted in a very long time, but there are a lot of great reasons for that! Life has been so full and busy and I'm thankful for the things that have happened. Erik & I had the wonderful opportunity to take a long weekend vacation to Charleston, South Carolina the last few days of February and first few days of March. It was just great to be together and to see a lovely old city with so much history! The weather was AMAZING for us...sunny every day and it got up to 65 degrees, which felt so nice! When we left Minnesota, it had been only about 13 degrees, so it was a huge shock to our systems to be in the warmth. We saw Fort Sumter where the Civil War began, we walked along the beach on the little coastal islands where we saw two washed up jellyfish & some dolphins swimming in the wake of a huge freight ship, we went for a carriage ride in old Charleston and learned a bunch of historical and fun trivia and saw gorgeous old homes and other establishments, we walked through the famous Charleston market and saw ladies weaving sweet grass baskets, we went to the beautiful Magnolia Plantation & Gardens where we toured the plantation house and then also saw the gardens and swamp area that are now maintained the by Audubon Society...and I think we saw probably 5 alligators, which was great! I had never seen alligators and really really wanted to, so that was a fun highlight for me. While we were at the plantation garden place we met the wife of Kevin Costner's photo stand in, and they are a really neat Christian family. There were some connections that Erik was able to make with them from his past, and that was cool. Didn't get to meet the photo stand-in guy though because he was off working on a new Kevin film in the Charleston area. I'll have to see it now! We also ate at a bunch of amazing restaurants and each probably gained 5 pounds over the weekend. I felt like a beached whale when we were flying home that Sunday! The food was AMAZING! We had some good southern favorites like fried green tomatoes & crab cakes, and I also had some fresh North Carolina stream trout - that was incredible. One of the restaurants we ate at was called "High Cotton" and it was really fancy. Good thing we went there for lunch and not dinner, because I don't think we would've had the appropriate attire for dinner. If you have seen the film "The Notebook" there is a dining room restaurant scene that was filmed in that restaurant. Now I'll have to watch that again too. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. We felt so footloose and fancy free, and decided that it would be fun to have this "babymoon" before our little baby boy comes in July. Thanks to my parents for watching Little Bug while we were gone. She had such a great time over there and we felt so content knowing that she was being well cared for.

About the raspberry lip, that was today's adventure! Kristi & I were downstairs and as we were getting ready to come back up, she fell and landed her cute little mouth on the hard cement floor, causing her to bite her lip pretty hard. There was blood everywhere, and I didn't know what to do! We've never had an incident like that. So, I called calm & collected Daddy & asked him, and he said (while daughter is screaming in the background), "just put a cool washcloth in her mouth & maybe have her suck on an ice cube, or put the ice cube inside the washcloth." So, I did that, and it really helped. I tried giving her a popsicle but she didn't want it because it was "too cold." Anyway, her teeth are still intact, and her raspberry lip is puffy and there, but she's doing okay. A little Tylenol & some teething gel spread on her lip did the trick and she's outside playing in the snow right now with Daddy.

Well, enough of my adventures for one day. I'll try to post some pictures soon. Blessings to all of you.

O my darlin...

"O my darlin', o my darlin', o my darlin' Clementine." Our little Kristiana says these words EVERY day lately, as she has completely fallen in love with Clementines. She has to eat one every day, and asks all day long to have one. When we first introduced Kristi to Clemmies earlier this month, we sang the song for her, and now she often asks for the fruit by just saying the words to the song. Or else she says, "Clementine. Want clementine. I like clementines." It is so funny and makes us giggle every time!

Kristiana has also been saying "thank you" very often, and it is so endearing. It melts my heart and I feel like all this etiquette I am trying to instill in her is starting to pay off!

I am off to grade final exams for my class...

Pictures soon...

I will hopefully put some recent pics up soon! But for now...here are some pictures from a year ago August! Our little Kristi was just 10 weeks old when we decided to take a family vacation to Colorado. It was SO nice to get away and to see lots of friends and family. The top picture is me and Kristi near Ft. Collins, where we were hiking with some friends. The middle picture is near Aspen, where we were hiking with friends. The bottom picture is the pickles that my mom and I made, and they were YUMMY!!! Every summer, Mom makes pickles, and I always want to help her out if I can. I absolutely love the smell of fresh dill, garlic, pickling spices and cucumbers all coming together. And the finished product is unbelievable. When I was a college freshman and brought my pickles to school, my roomates teased me and said that the pickle jar looked like a science experiment, because there were so many little spices and greens along with the pickles...but that is what makes them taste so great!

Kristi Girl and Mama

My sweet Kristiana...she is just a doll and a great kid! We have so much fun together and I am so blessed to be her mommy. This picture is from a few months ago...