The Temperature Started with a 7

Yes, that's right. Today's high was 79 degrees. Even though we'll be back up into the 90s within a week, it was still really REALLY awesome.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat. After a cup of hot water/lemon/honey, I've been drinking water like it's my job. The girls are in bed. Asleep even! I think the baby crazies have been largely weather related. Good to know what I have to look forward to with the warmer weather making a comeback.

Why does bleach burn in your nostrils? I can still smell it, more than 5 hours later.

Tonight Alice is wearing pants to bed (pink ones with strawberries all over, which she loves) and Emma is wearing footie pjs (size 3-6 months, which are finally getting a little snug on her). These girls are so cute.

It's starting to become apparent that Alice is perhaps leaning towards becoming a girly girl. Every day she wants to wear a dress. To be exact, she wants to wear her fancy Easter dress (pictured here --> ). Once dressed she literally takes two or three minutes (an eternity for a two year old) deciding which shoes she wants to wear. Often she'll get one pair on, then take them off and get another pair to wear instead. Then I need to fix her ponytails. Usually she opts for two ponytails, not just one. Or, she changes her mind when I'm halfway through, exclaiming "Done, done, done, done!" (Translation: "One, one, one, one!") Am I headed down the path of a frilly, indecisive girly girl? Will she love PINK?!?!

I try to comfort myself with the fact that she's kind of a bruiser, frequently sporting bruises, cuts and bumps. This is probably more owing to her being a two year old. I know. I'm grasping at straws. I don't stand a chance.

I made some banana oatmeal cookies and they're kind of delicious. They taste like banana bread, but with oatmeal and cinnamon spectacular-ness.

Sometimes when I re-read my posts I realize how tired I am. This is one of those times. I think I'll go to bed early since it seems I might have the opportunity.

THIS is Autumn?

I've lived in southern California for ten years. (Whoa.) I hear that it's normal for September to be hot. I'm still not used to it. I think last year I broke out my "autumn" decorations on August 31. This year the boxes haven't even made it out of storage. BUT, at least our blog represents what I know and love to be autumn: fall foliage!

That said, I finally uploaded our July & August pictures to the web album (though I did manage to get them on Facebook a few weeks ago).

This may end up being my lonely September post, but who knows? Maybe Alice & Emma will decide to nap at the same time next week. On a good day their naps are almost completely staggered. After this week I'd love to have a "good day" like that next week.

Terrible twos are in full-swing in the world of Alice. She really doesn't like using words, though she does talk. All. The. Time. Right now I can't get much done without listening to whining and crying from her direction. So, not much is getting done. She definitely has the word "hungry" (even though it sounds more like "honey") down, and tells me that she's hungry every moment of the day unless I've distracted her with something else. Then at meal times she doesn't want to eat anything but raisins ("da-deen") or grapes ("bite-ee"). Sigh. At least we're almost halfway to three. Then again, I've been told that it's the "terrible threes" for some. Please, Lord, let that not be Alice.

Army crawling is Emma's favorite thing. She especially likes army crawling to daddy's books on the lowest bookshelf and eating them when mommy's not looking. The cord to the floor lamp is also a popular chew toy.

Speaking of which, I definitely bought my children dog toys from the Target clearance section yesterday. And I didn't even realize they were dog toys (Warning label reading: For Dog Use Only. Not for Children), until I gave them to Alice in the car. So now she has three colorful rubber balls that squeak and a green frisbee which she has no clue how to use. HA. I'm such a good mom :-)

I hope you enjoyed these pictures of my charming daughters. Clearly they will be the epitome of "ladies" as they grow.

Well, it's been fun, but the fireworks are going off (thank you Disneyland), which means I need to get the bedtime routine going before it's 11 and I'm still awake. Good night and good luck.

The Lonesome August Post

Lots to write about, but I need to start with my near heart attack today.

It was time for Emma to eat and take a nap so I told Alice to stay downstairs and play while mommy put Emma to bed. Of course, she climbed the stairs after 10 minutes or so, right when Emma was starting to nod off. Once she reached the top step I started shaking my head "no" so she wouldn't come in and make a bunch of noise to distract Emma and wake her up. At that moment I blinked and saw her feet fly up into the air...

It didn't matter that Emma was almost asleep or in the middle of eating. I gently threw her into the center of our bed and RAN to the stairs to see what had become of my firstborn. All of this probably only took seconds, but it felt like I was moving in slow motion. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw Alice only 4 or 5 stairs from the top, clutching the stair she'd grabbed mid-fall and screaming. She was, apparently, freaked out by the ordeal as well. After a quick inspection I found no blood or bumps and held her until she calmed down, reminding her to be careful on the stairs.

My heart didn't stop racing for at least 15 minutes. In fact, writing the experience out has made it start racing again... and she didn't even get hurt!

...breathe...

Before today's excitement came vacation excitement. We spent 4 nights camping with Andrew's family (sans his youngest brother who couldn't get off work... as John would say, "bummah"). After camping we stayed a week at a friend's lake house at Bass Lake during a serious heat wave, followed by two nights in Santa Maria visiting family. I'll attempt some summaries of each leg of the trip:

Camping: First time with all four of us in a tent. By the second morning wasn't sure I'd make it another two nights. Third morning proved that it was possible. Was really hot during the day and pleasantly cold at night. Slightly concerned with keeping warm the babies who don't stay under their covers.

Bass Lake: Since Alice & Emma were forced to sleep "in the same room" camping, we kept it going. Kind of awesome. Spent lots of time at the lake. Over 100 degrees EVERY DAY. Alice & Emma both loved the water. Started a "Gilmore Buoy Swim" tradition. Yeah, we're that cool.

Santa Maria: Introduced Emma to her second cousin, Miles, for the first time. He's 18 days older and ridiculously cute. Lots of photos (which haven't made it off the camera) were taken. Ate much delicious food.

And now we're home and Andrew started school this morning at 8AM, with his LAST semester of Hebrew. No, not his last semester of seminary, but (Lord-willing) only three more semesters and an anticipated graduation date of December 2013.

Can't. Wait.

The girls have been sleeping in Alice's room since we returned and yesterday we finally determined how we could get all things baby-related into their room. Okay, most things baby-related. It's sort of impossible to contain all things baby in one place. You understand if you have a baby. Even more so if you have a toddler. I spent a good three hours this morning re-organizing clothing: boxing up clothes that Emma has grown out of (I think she's FINALLY past her three month clothes... yeah, she's seven months old), boxing up clothes that Alice has grown out of, getting out clothes that now fit each girl, sorting, folding, sorting, folding again after one of them grabbed a stack and dumped it. But they've both been pretty excellent in allowing me to get things done while they play "together."

Alice had her first real explosion at Emma yesterday. There was lots of screaming (on Alice's part) and a toy was thrown (at Emma). No one was seriously injured. Apparently Emma had shown interest in sucking the wheel of Alice's doll stroller. Not. Okay. I think it was a small taste of what is to come. Ah sisters.

There's probably more to write about. Losing brain power. Pictures might come soon, but they will come eventually. It was kind of nice being away from all technology for two weeks.

Where did June go?

I admit blogging has not been high on my priority list as of late. Not to make excuses but our June was a little busy. One or all of us attended three graduations, seven graduation parties, one BBQ, one bridal shower, one wedding, and one day of paintball. Not to mention the "normal" things on our schedule. AND, Andrew went to Israel from June 19-29. I wasn't home for part of that, so that certainly doesn't help my motivation to blog. I digress...

Here's my attempt at a "quick" update on the last two months!

Andrew finished his eighth semester and did better than he thought as far as grades go. I don't actually remember what they were, so I'll let him share if he so desires. He's busy with summer youth events at church, but we are both thankful for the summer break after a LONG school year. We're anticipating his last semester, Lord-willing, being Fall 2013. SO CLOSE.

Alice is a full-blown two year old. She talks constantly (a few English words now), swims with her "muscles" (arm floaties) all by herself, helps mommy water the garden with her watering can (thank you Grandma!), hugs and kisses EVERYthing and asks for it to sit on her lap, and SO MUCH MORE. She keeps me going all. day. long. She's also mastered the tantrum. I thought she had it down long ago, but no. I was sorely mistaken. It's a fine art and she's got the gift.

Emma is six months old as of yesterday. I found some clay to make her hand print (like the one we have when Alice was six months old) and it came out great. Her hand is smaller than Alice's was at six months. You can tell that Alice had more meat on her bones. I don't have new stats for Emma yet (her next dr appt is on Monday), but at four months she was in the 30th percentile for weight, 75th for length, and 57th for head circumference. I think she was just under 13 lbs and something like 25 inches. She also started eating solids (meaning rice cereal mixed with mommy's milk) a few days ago. So far she's crazy messy and sucks her thumb or hand or fist or all of the above after EVERY single bite. I'm pretty sure some of it actually gets down her throat, but it's sort of hard to tell when you see the aftermath. She's rolling from tummy to back like a pro and getting really close to rolling back to tummy. Seems to be baffled by sitting up. Either she just folds right in half and sucks on her toes or will not be bent in the middle. She'll let you hold her standing. Emma is also quite the talker and I frequently wonder how I ended up with TWO loud girls?! Recently her "singing" has come out a few times as "ma ma ma" and that's pretty excellent.

Amy (that's me) likes being a stay-at-home mom. It seems like I always have a to-do list that's a mile long, but I'd rather play with my girls and let the dishes pile up. That said, I did just spend almost an hour cleaning up the dishes and kitchen. Oi. Worth waiting though. Alice & I had a great day playing together and reading LOTS of books. Her current favorite is a book about farms. She's also loving a recent addition "Little Blue Truck" with lots of animal noises and another book with songs we sing together. She LOVES Itsy Bitsy Spider and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Oh, and of course the Wheels on the Bus. Reading books with Alice helped me rediscover joy in reading (not aloud to her), finally finishing the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Then The Princess Bride. Now reading Wuthering Heights. Can't forget... I have a garden too! We've got two different tomato plants, cucumbers, green beans, basil and cilantro (re-planted after the first batch I killed). Check out pictures here.

We celebrated our sixth anniversary on July 8th and were able to spend a night away without children, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. It was weird at first, but so incredibly wonderful. Even though it was less than 24 hours, it was so refreshing and reminded me how blessed I am to have a hard-working husband who sees the benefit of having his wife home raising their children. I kind of can't believe we've been married six years already! Praying the Lord allows us many decades more!

So, now we're caught up. Here are pictures of May and June!

Verdict on my "quick"ness? Fail. Good night!

Fun Times

Alice is two. Emma is four months tomorrow. Andrew is ten days away from finishing his eighth semester of seminary.

Pictures of April(ish) here.

We made an epic trip to IKEA last week which involved the purchasing of birthday gifts for a certain 2 year old. Within about five steps from the car I felt something splat on my flip-flopped foot. Yes, it was baby poo. Thank you Emma for exploding through your diaper and saturating the strap of your car seat enough for it to drip out the other side. Andrew changed the diaper while I proceeded to use at least 20 wipes to clean off the car seat. I won't soon forget that awesomeness.

The smoke detector in our apartment is in tip-top shape. After our downstairs toilet overflowed (again) and I was sopping up the water from the floor (again), I was reminded of the tortillas in the toaster oven by the distinct burning smell wafting from the kitchen. Upon entering said kitchen I was greeted by smoke billowing from the toaster oven and two corn tortillas completely burnt and on fire. Not knowing if there was grease in the toaster oven, my first reaction was to move nearby papers and blow, hard, to put out the fire instead of throwing water in there. This caused the fire to grow at first, but eventually did go out. I'm not sure if it was my blowing that helped or the fact that there was nothing left of the tortillas to burn. Either way, fire was gone, but smoke was now headed upstairs to the smoke detector and sleeping Emma. Needless to say, she woke quickly. After opening all windows, the girls and their shaking mommy sat outside for a while, enjoying the night air and then a visit to our friend a few doors down. Our apartment smells a bit like a campfire, but the candles are working their magic. And we have a pretty cool smoke detector. It talks to you and lets you know when you need to evacuate.

Alice is officially 30 pounds and in the 86th percentile for weight. Length is in the 49th percentile and her head circumference (shocker) is in the 85th percentile. She's got a big head--for all her brains, of course. On the "Weight for Recumbent Length" chart, she's in the 94th percentile. She in the growing phase I like to call "porking out" before she grows a bit taller.

Emma's four month visit to the doctor is next week, but I suspect she's quite the opposite of her sister. Except for head circumference. Apparently our children have big heads. Emma, however, is mostly petite. Small hands, small feet, long and thin. But we'll have official stats on Monday. She has also now slept until 6 or 6:30 for two nights in a row. This makes mommy and daddy exceedingly joyful.

But now it's almost 10PM and my neck (with a giant knot in it) is telling me to take a hot shower and go to bed. And I will listen.

Cookies?

I just looked at the calendar and said "Holy moly! Where did this month go?" I think this will happen more and more as I get older and my children grow. I remember being a kid and thinking that a day took FOREVER. Granted, that was on Christmas Eve when I was anticipating opening presents in the morning. But still. I guess a day when I was eight was a larger percentage of my life than a day when I'm 28.

So. I'm way more sleep deprived than normal, if that explains anything. Alice was sick from Friday night until Sunday-ish, throwing up and slightly fever-ish. No fun. We had driven up to visit grandma & grandpa for the weekend too. It was kind of a bummer, but I'm still so thankful I was there instead of home while Andrew was in Mexico. Being alone taking care of a puking toddler and a three month old for a weekend would have been... rough. Yes, very rough.

Other news: Emma is a real person now! She has a social security number AND we finally got her birth certificate. I was prompted to get my act together and get it when I won a monetary prize because I have a daughter named Emma. Funny, they want proof before sending money. I guess that's okay.

Andrew had his spring break two weeks ago, which he determined was a good time to have mouth surgery to remove an infection. He goes back this Thursday for a follow up appointment, but things seem to be healing nicely. He showed it to me a few times. I had to look away and make him stop talking about it so I didn't toss my cookies. Ew.

We took some ridiculously cute pictures of Alice & Emma for Easter. You should check them out if you haven't already seen them on Facebook. But if you've already seen them on Facebook, there's no shame in looking at them again here.

Alice is almost two.
Emma has started laughing.
I still really love being a stay-at-home mom.

The Bible, Bibs and Boxes

This morning Alice and I enjoyed a cup of tea and read the Bible together. True, hers was a sippy and she didn't share much of the actual reading, but it was an excellent way to start our day. I think I'd like to make a habit of this with her, especially since I can't enjoy my own cup of tea without her wanting some. I figured it's probably better to just plan to share it with her and make the most of the time she sits and gulps it down. So, ask me how it's going in a few days or weeks...

Her new favorite thing is emptying the drawer of bibs and "packing" them into different boxes. Yes, we have a drawer dedicated to bibs with a few oven mitts sharing the space. I suppose Alice has seen mommy packing boxes quite a bit and wants to help. But, the bibs don't stay packed. We'll see how she likes it when they DO stay packed. I'll just have to make sure I know where they are so I can make a new bib drawer for her to discover ASAP. She's rounding out the second hour of her nap (YAY!) and I'm looking at a living room strewn with probably 30 bibs as I bounce Emma in her seat using my foot. What a life :-)

We've now got five days until the move, but really only four left to pack. Wow. Haven't thought of it in those terms until now. Today I've gotten three boxes packed. Part of the problem is the loud tape dispenser. I think I just need to put together a bunch of boxes (most of them are flat at the moment) while everyone's awake. Then I can pack while Emma sleeps and tape the boxes closed once she wakes again. In theory, that should work. We'll see how the next four days go.

Well, Alice must have sensed that I was noticing how long she'd been asleep because she's awake now. And Emma is falling asleep. I guess I won't be taping boxes just yet.

And I love this weather.

Contentment

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Philippians 4:11

I struggle with the fact that the Lord brought me to California and seems to actually want to keep me here. Today I was talking with a dear friend and the Lord brought to mind Paul's attitude mentioned here. I wonder if Paul ever wished he had a home or a family? Did he ever wish that he had ONE local church to which he belonged and lived life with? No one is perfect, but I suspect he actually WAS content with the life God gave him.

Recently I left the girls home with my wonderful husband and took a walk by myself to clear my head. I walked for two hours and realized about 30 minutes into the walk that I was looking for a place to be alone with the Lord. Everywhere I went I saw people and cars and busyness. I finally ended up at a park where I sat and attempted to block out all the other noise around me and focus on God's creation. It was SO HARD. Discouraged and frustrated, I got up and went home.

When I first became a Christian I spent a good deal of my time in the woods behind my house in New Hampshire. I read my Bible, prayed, wrote in my journal and marveled at God. Those times were so sweet. Almost 13 years later I still remember my "spot" in those woods.

So. Now what?

Life doesn't look like that anymore. I live in southern California only miles away from Disneyland. God put me here intentionally. He knows how hard it is to find time away from the hustle and bustle, but He still wants to meet with me. He wants me to sacrifice my preferences and learn to silence the noise around me so I can become more like His Son. Right here. Right now.

Moving

As I mentioned in the last post, we're moving. It's less than two weeks away now and thanks to my wonderful husband and my awesome mom-in-law, we have started packing! Last week we finally were able to go into a two bedroom apartment at the complex we're moving to. It wasn't our apartment, but it had the same (actually mirror image) floor plan. We took measurements so I could make my graph paper, to-scale apartment drawing. Yes, I'm that cool. I do this with every apartment and have made little cut outs of each piece of furniture we own (which are also to scale) so I can "rearrange" the rooms without actually moving anything heavy. I think it's smart, but some think it's a little OCD. I'm okay with that.

The night before we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting. The night after we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting--it apparently didn't fit. The night after the night after we measured the apartment I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious about our furniture fitting--we might have found a way.

Three nights of interrupted, unsettled sleep is not good. Then I got two more nights of less-than-good sleep while attending our church's women's retreat. Silly me, I thought bringing Emma wouldn't be a big deal. Oi.

Today Emma got her first round of vaccines and turned into a NIGHTMARE this afternoon, fever and all. Alice was a peach too. Granted, I got more sleep last night than the whole weekend combined; but it's interesting what two screaming babies will do to a severely sleep-deprived person.

Okay. I cried.

But the Lord keeps bringing to mind Philippians 4:6-7...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Honestly, I haven't had much peace in the past week. The retreat this weekend was all about finding Joy in the Journey. What I heard of it (when Emma cooperated) challenged me to look for the joy of each day, even when at the end of that day my head is pounding and I can't remember if I ate or drank anything at all. At the end of those days I'm blessed to have two beautiful girls who are growing and learning and giving their mommy so many reasons to smile. And I have a hard-working husband who sacrificially gives us everything he's got. So after we get both girls to bed and he's got homework to do, we decide tonight is a good night for a card game.

He's going down.

Twenty-two (Months)

It's very important when you're two months away from your second birthday to learn how to do things on your own. Alice actually discovered the importance of this before she was 22 months old, but it's really taking hold these days. This is how I found her after her nap last week. She was trying to take off her shirt. Clearly that was an unsuccessful attempt. It looks like she put her arm in the bottom and brought it out of the hole for her head. She didn't get the fact that she needs to remove her arm from the sleeve first. Sleeves are a bit much for her still.

She's also becoming proficient (ish) with using utensils. Here she was thoroughly enjoying her yogurt. I'm learning that it's best to remove her shirt (sometimes her pants as well), just so I don't freak out as much as she's learning. Is this a common strategy? I feel like the moms who leave the kids clothing on while they learn to feed themselves with utensils must have their own washer and dryer. It's just easier for me to have less food dried and crusty on her clothes. I must say, yogurt is actually fairly new-user-friendly when it comes to eating it with a spoon. Aside from the streak in her hair, she did a pretty good job keeping it generally in the same mouth-chest area.

Then of course we had a warm day and, smart mommy that I am, I decided Alice would LOVE to play in a bin of water on our balcony since we couldn't really go outside while Emma was napping. She had a blast. I filled our dish bin with water and gave her two plastic cups and her sand toys. Then I took pictures as she splashed around in it. I'm not really sure why, but it didn't occur to me that she'd dump it over her head and on herself. Seeing as how this is her favorite activity in the bathtub, it really should have dawned on me that this might happen. Eventually she picked up the whole bin and dumped it all over the place. In hindsight, that would have been a good "ending" time to her fun. Nope, I got her more water and then tried to bring her inside before she'd dumped all the water out. Bad move. Tantrum extraordinaire. Plus, it was lunch time and then nap time. She was ready for bed. But, we all survived.

Her new favorite toy is her pirate turtle sandbox, which we purchased off craigslist (ironically from a Biola grad) for $15. I call the turtle a pirate because, well, he's missing an eye. I think we might make an eye patch for him. Seems appropriate. Right now there's no sand in him, but that doesn't seem to bother Alice. We'll probably wait to get some sand until after we move in two and a half weeks!

Bunny trail... Yes, we're moving again. This will be our fifth apartment in five and a half years. Sigh. Moving is getting old. Hopefully we can stay at this one for a while. It's about a mile and a half down the street and we have some friends already living in the complex, which is really nice. We'll also save $300/month on rent, which is REALLY nice. The new apartment is a townhouse style, which means indoor stairs and first level entry! YAY! We've always lived on a second level apartment (I don't like having people above me), but it's a little harder to deal with when you have two little ones to carry up and down the stairs along with all the groceries. We'll also have a bigger patio where the sandbox should fit nicely. One bummer: no barbeques allowed. We're not sure what we'll do with ours yet, but I don't think we want to get rid of it.

Return from bunny trail... After we got the turtle (in Huntington Beach), we decided to have a picnic dinner on the beach. It was Emma's first trip to the beach. Not sure she was impressed, but her sister certainly was! It was pretty cold and getting late so we didn't stick around long, but we decided picnic dinners on the beach needed to happen more often... and earlier in the evening.

Last, but not least, more pictures of the aforementioned events have been uploaded to the web album. There's also an excellent album of Alice's Bows, which you should check out. We put EVERY bow in Alice's hair after her bath the other night. She really loves her bows. For those of you that may be inspired to purchase more bows because of this... Well, I probably can't stop you, but we don't need any more pink ones. Just saying.

p.s. Children don't understand this whole daylight savings adjustment. Alice has been "napping" (i.e. playing in her crib) for over an hour. Sounds like she might be close to napping soon...