The Advent Calendar

I can't believe an entire month went by and nothing was posted on our blog. Actually... I can believe it. Hopefully the rest of December won't be like November was.

Now that it's officially the Christmas season I've been listening to Christmas music almost non-stop. I hope my husband would say something if he's annoyed... He hasn't said anything yet :-)

I also finally made our own advent calendar which I plan to use every year. LOVE IT! I got the idea from a blog I randomly stumbled upon, though I changed a few things based on what I had (or didn't have). Part of my lack of blogging has been trying to get this thing completed during Alice's lamely short naps and once she's in bed. Not to mention the fact that I got the flu right after Thanksgiving and wasn't feeling 100% until about a week ago. Then Alice started throwing up. Oi. When an 18 month old has a tummy ache, there's really no way of knowing until they throw up all over your bedroom floor. Not that it happened that way with us or anything.....

Anyway, the advent calendar is FINALLY done and I'm getting back into the swing of things after a really wonderful (despite the flu) break from it during the Thanksgiving week. Finally got the Christmas decorations up on Sunday night and got some much needed cleaning done around the apartment. Laundry is in full swing... actually almost done so I'd better get these pictures up... Plus Alice (of course) is awake after a 1 hr 20 min nap. Sigh.

I digress. Here are the much anticipated pictures of my handmade advent calendar. Okay, maybe not all that anticipated, but I'm pretty thrilled about it. The last step is to write names of Jesus on the backs of the ornaments along with a reference of where it appears in the bible. Thank you Pastor Ron for that idea!

In other news, Fred the frog finally kicked the bucket. I refuse to believe it was entirely out of neglect, as we hadn't gotten him crickets in quite a while. He was old and, as far as I know, lived a good life. Poor Fred. He's in the dumpster now. It smells a bit nicer around our apartment without him, but he was a very interesting conversation piece. He didn't contribute much to that conversation, but that's okay. He was a cool pet for a few years. Alright, off to get the girl and fold laundry. Happy December!!

Small Miracles

At this very moment a miracle is happening in our apartment. The first miracle happened about two hours ago when Alice pointed to her crib after a short 5 minutes of rocking/singing with mommy, indicating that she wanted to lie down in there. Whoa. I put her down, she was awake. As I listened to her over the monitor, she settled herself and fell asleep after less than 10 minutes. Yes, that was miracle number one.

Miracle number two is still in process. She's... still... asleep... TWO HOURS LATER!!! After three and a half weeks of bad naps I am SO thankful for this one day. I don't know how long she'll sleep. I don't know if she'll do this again tomorrow. I don't know if this is a result of bad naps on Saturday and Sunday. Frankly, I could care less what caused this excellent nap. I still haven't heard a peep from her. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

We also had another doctor appointment this morning and little Emma's heartbeat sounded good and strong. She kicked the machine several times, but everything is right on track. Alice really doesn't like it when mommy lays down on the table so we can hear Emma. She sat next to me on the table today and it helped a little. Funny girl. I asked about making a Christmas (driving) trip and the doctor said he'd give us the okay as it gets closer, but I'll probably be fine.

Speaking of Alice... She just started making noises. Wow. That was just over two hours. She's not crying, but making happy noises. YAY!! Miracle number three.

Here are some updated pictures for those of you who haven't seen them on Facebook. And of course, a really excellent family picture. Because every woman who is decently pregnant around Halloween should have a jack-o-lantern shirt and carve a pumpkin to match.

Trimester the Third

I realized last week that I'm in the third trimester already. Whoa. Feels like the Emma pregnancy has gone MUCH faster than the Alice pregnancy. Monday will be 30 weeks, which then (in my mind) begins the count down, as opposed to the count up, of pregnancy. Single digit weeks until she arrives. Whoa.

For those interested, Alice is still fighting her naps. For several days now I've had to hold her and rock/sing until she falls asleep and then transfer her to the crib. Today I put her in while still awake and she fell asleep in about 10 minutes. It was a small victory. It felt even smaller when she woke up after only an hour and 10 minutes. Sigh. Yes, she's awake right now. No, I'm not getting her yet...

She's been making more attempts at words and will grunt the number of syllables in a word that I try getting her to say. It's pretty funny. She's got "up" and "bye" for sure. Although "bye" sounds like the same sound a sheep makes: "buh." Hey, we'll take it! It also appears that she's about to get some teeth. I realize I said that recently, but they still haven't shown up. Her gums look sore in spots and she REALLY doesn't like me sticking her toothbrush in there. I'm really hoping that the teeth will come and she'll go back to normal (as in at least 2 hour) napping. I've heard of some kids who stop napping at a young age (some as young as 6 months??) and I'm praying Alice isn't one of them. Sure, I could still attempt "quiet time," except I'd have to supervise in order for it to actually be quiet and it still probably wouldn't be that quiet. Alice isn't exactly a quiet child. Shocker if you know her daddy. I'm listening to her squeal over the monitor as I write this.

Okay, the maybe-she'll-fall-back-asleep hope has been completely crushed. Off to get the girl.

Pool at Grandpa & Grandma's

Mommy's Little Helper

Octoberness

Alice finished lunch just after 12:30 and went down for her nap around 12:40. She fell asleep at about 2:10 after I went in there (for the second time) and scratched her back/arms/feet until she fell asleep. I also went in with Tylenol. I'm pretty sure she's about to get like 10 teeth. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but she's been super crazy for the past two weeks. Not once has she taken a 2 hour nap. Most days it's more like 50-80 minutes. Then she's basically a disaster for the rest of the day, wanting me to pay complete attention to her at all times. "No, you can't prepare dinner! No, you can't use the bathroom! No, you can't clean up after me!" Bummer for me. She's been crying a LOT. Makes me appreciate the fact that she's normally a very easy-going, calm and cheerful girl. I've also begun allergy season, which makes me more exhausted than the normal pregnant-tired. I wonder if Alice has been bothered by allergies too, but it's hard to tell since she has recently discovered what tissues are and would be thrilled to use one every five minutes throughout the day.

We did make a trip up to Santa Clarita to visit Grandpa, Grandma and Alice's two uncles. I think Alice's favorite part was the pool Grandma got for her. It was pretty fun watching her play in it. We also made a trip to a baby consignment store. They had two large final clearance dollar racks and were having a special "Buy 10 items, get 10 items free" sale. I totally scored. Alice has some pants now for the cooler weather and a few more long sleeved shirts. YAY!

Here's a slideshow of October pics.


And you'll never guess who just woke up. Maybe she'll fall back to sleep...

Bachelor Party

Amy and Alice left Thursday morning for Santa Clarita to visit my parents and brothers.

I stayed in Orange County.

It was weird.

Sleeping alone in a king size bed is weird. Being able to spread books and magazines and my Kindle and my dinner all over the living room floor was weird. The silence was sometimes weird.

I realized that Amy has experienced what I experienced yesterday and today a lot more than I have. I realized how thankful I am for my wife, my gift from God (An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels - Prov. 31:10). I realized how different life has become since I got married, and then how different it became once Alice was born.

When we're living life, we're in it and going, going, going, so there's not often time to reflect. Or, maybe I don't make time to reflect as I should. I know I'm rambling, but it just feels so different I had to express it some way, even in such a disconnected way as this.

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I were single. It's hard to imagine. Sometimes it's terrifying to imagine. I'm not sure such speculation is all that helpful unless it brings me back to being thankful anew for the way God has providentially provided for me/us, especially since I met Amy.

Okay, work is calling, but I just needed to reflect on that for a moment. God is a good Father and he gives good gifts to his children. Praise the Lord!

Where Did the Nap Go?

Seems like I'm getting bigger by the second. Okay, that's probably an exaggeration. At our last doctor appointment (Monday) I was measuring right on the money: 27 weeks. I really don't remember when I started to measure bigger for Alice, but I'm thankful that Emma seems to be sticking to the charts so far. She still could become a moose baby... Our next appointment is in three weeks and then we'll start the every two week visits. Whoa. I can't believe we're already this close to her arrival. Actually, it really hit me the other day that we're having another baby. We're going to have two babies under age two.

Alice seems to be making steps toward potty training, though it's a bit hard determining whether she's pointing at her diaper because she has to pee, she just went pee, she has to toot, she has to poop... or some other reason that I've yet to figure out. If Alice had her way, she'd get a diaper change about 15 times a day, even if the diaper had next to nothing in it. She'll point and grunt at her changing pad and then her diaper and pat the changing pad and grunt. So funny. We're currently working on getting her to use words. Most of the time she just points or grunts or says animal sounds, though she definitely has "ma-ma", "duck" (duh), "tug-tug" (from a book), and "hot." She gave up on "da-da" and "da-dee" which she used to say exclusively. The last two days when I ask her to say "da-da" she says "na-na." Not really sure where that came from, but she does seem to be associating "na-na" with her daddy.

She also hasn't been napping real well for about a week now. The longest nap she's taken has been about 1 1/2 hours when it used to be up to 3 1/2 hours. Bummer for me, but I think she's getting more teeth. She's got all 8 in the front so now I'm expecting molars or canines... right? Something like that. I'm just hoping that these short naps are not indicative of a new habit. We shall see.

Alright, I've got lots to do before she wakes up from her probably too-short nap. Dude. She just started making noises after I finished typing that line. It's been 45 minutes. Seriously. Done. With. Lame. Naps. Off to dishes. Oh, and here's Alice playing with some friends in the nursery at church and at the birthday party of one of those girls.

The Longer Version

I'm going to attempt to keep this relatively short, but I make no guarantees...

Well, we went to Virginia and Washington DC last week and Alice had her first two plane rides. Both flights were non-stop and she napped! On the way to DC she napped for about an hour and the flight home... maybe 15-20 minutes. But she did really well and we had a few people tell us that she did great. YAY Alice!

We arrived late Wednesday night, were picked up by my sister at the airport, checked into our hotel, and attempted to put Alice to bed. I think she actually fell asleep around 10:30 or 11? I don't really remember. She had some pretty crazy sleeping patterns (if you could call them "patterns") while there. She slept in on Thursday until 9:30 or 10 and then we headed off to DC via the metro. It was a BUSY day and we saw tons of stuff, but we definitely need to go back. Alice did great in the stroller for most of the day and took a nice nap in the afternoon. We were all pretty beat by the end of the day and finished with dinner at Chipotle. YUM.

Friday we packed up from the hotel and went to breakfast at IHOP before heading over to Arlington National Cemetery. Since I'm a tired pregnant woman, we only saw a fraction of the cemetery before going to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) just outside the cemetery. Again, since I'm a tired pregnant woman, I asked Happy to let me stay (with Lisa & Alice) while he walked back to the car and came to the memorial so I didn't have to walk more. He got lost for about 45 minutes in the car and ended up near the Pentagon before finding his way back to us, waiting in the parking lot of the Iwo Jima Memorial. So exciting :-) We then sat in a bit of rush hour traffic as we left DC and headed to where we stayed in Virginia. Matt (Lisa's boyfriend) graciously housed us for the remainder of our stay in Virginia and was incredibly hospitable. Lisa managed to procure every large baby item we needed (stroller, car seat, high chair, pack n play) which made our lives significantly easier. It was awesome.

We met up with Mom as we drove down to VA and stayed up late (or just stayed on CA time?) playing with Alice until her bed time and then chatting once she was asleep. Really wonderful. Dad & Belen drove down Friday as well, but went straight to their hotel since it was so late. Everyone (Happy, Amy, Alice, Dad, Belen, Mom, Matt, Lisa) spent Saturday walking around downtown Staunton (pronounced Stanton) doing some sightseeing which eventually led us to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. We got a tour of the home where he was born and got a glimpse of what life was like back then. Really crazy. Makes me appreciate running water and electricity and... carpet :-) Saturday night was dinner at El Puerto with a massive group of Godwins and Lenkers (Matt's family). The food was delicious and the company was even better. Mango salsa is, as Happy would say, the bomb diggity.

Sunday morning we went to church at Barren Ridge Church of the Brethren, where Matt grew up going to church and where his grandparents still attend and his cousin's husband is the pastor. We both thoroughly enjoyed the service and were warmly greeted by Matt's grandparents and cousin's family. After church my long lost friend from high school came for a visit (who knew she lived only an hour from my sister???) and we had a low-key, hangout afternoon. Mom made butternut squash soup for dinner that was delicious. In fact, I wouldn't mind some right now...

Mom had to go back home on Monday so we said our goodbyes before heading to Charlottesville (where Lisa lives & works) to tour Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. REALLY cool house and beautiful gardens. Alice did well on our tour of the house as Mommy maintained a steady stream of Cheerios to her mouth. She lost it at the very end of the tour and we slipped out a side door before joining back up with Daddy & Aunt Lisa for our self-guided tour around the gardens & cemetery. After Monticello we were all ready for lunch, but decided to make a very important stop for cider donuts... I mean, to see the Carter Mountain Orchard and the amazing view of the Virginia countryside. Okay, I'll be honest, I've been craving cider donuts (specifically from Mack's Apples, the farm down the street from where I grew up) for basically this entire pregnancy. Unfortunately, cider donuts do not exist in my southern California life so I was MORE than happy to stop and check out these cider donuts. I want one right now...

Alas, donuts do not make for a hearty lunch so we went to a delicious sandwich shop called Baggby's which Lisa recommended. We then found a bookstore that Happy wanted to check out, which was where we ended our small tour of Charlottesville. Lisa showed us her house and then, as we drove back to Matt's, pointed to where she works. Such a nice area! It makes my southern California life feel like the big city. Dinner was at Matt's house--these spectacular lasagna rolls that Lisa made--and then laundry as we prepared to leave Tuesday morning.

Phew. That's the "stuff" version. Lots more could be said, but I'll save that for in person conversations with those interested :-) We're home now and mostly adjusted back to California time. Alice is going on 1 1/2 hours in her nap (the first decent nap since we came home) after a fun morning at the Irvine Pumpkin Patch. Pictures can be found here, but here's a cute one just to entice you to check out the rest!

Alice's First East Coast Visit

Here's the little woman waving in the airport after her first flight. She did SO great. I don't have time (or energy) right now to write a full post, but wanted to point interested readers to pictures from our trip. There are over 200 and mostly of stuff (as opposed to people), but SUPER cool. We had such a wonderful time visiting my sister and other family members and seeing what life is like in Virginia. Alice is mostly back to California time, though hasn't napped so well yet. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Glad to be home, but missing family. Hopefully there will be another visit in the not-too-distant future!