Family Updates

There's nothing special about today to go for updates, but I felt that need to chronicle in me, so here goes. (I kinda skipped Alisa's 6 month apt. update :/ )

At Alisa's appointment, she was in the 70's for her height, but only the 40's (?) for weight (I lost the exact numbers.) Her head size jumped up to the 80's, though!! We thought she'd be safe, but guess not. (Amie's now off the chart for head size... poor girls.) So, she is definitely gonna taller than her older sis and is currently still real skinny despite the fact that she eats like a pig! This little thing will eat anything in sight-and tries to on every given occasion. She gets 3 regular meals of baby food/cereal a day, plus all her regular bottles and now we're adding in at least 2 snacks, and she still acts like she's always starving! Now that she's no longer fighting reflux and spit up, she is quite a happy baby! Of course, she is also just entering the separation anxiety phase, though, so we'll see how long that lasts. Really, though, she's very mid mannered and pleasant and has the best smiles. My favorite is that when you're holding her and have a mutual smile moment, she burrows her face into your shoulder or chest in a snuggle, all bashful-like. She got her first tooth (bottom front right) just this Wednesday, as well as her first real movement that could be classified as crawling. She seems to have forgotten it, but is always turning, rocking, doing push ups, etc, so it'll be no time. She thinks she has to pull up on everything, too. Walking won't be too far behind, I'd wager!

Amelie has been all over the place lately-she has comfortably moved into her terrible two's. It's so strange because she LOVES other kids, especially Lisie, but will out of nowhere steal their toy and say "mine!" or even occasionally hit them. We've started doing timeouts, and they are actually fairly effective with her. The first one we did with her just broke her heart. We followed it with a discussion (toddler-sized) and lots of loves. She likes to draw on EVERYTHING, especially herself and walls, and eats all the day long. She's still in mid-low percentiles for her size.
She has become a little parrot/mirror, too, repeating words we don't necessarily want her to learn, like crap (thanks grandma!) and freak (that was me) and stupid (dad.) I was sweeping today, and of course she wanted to "help" so when I was done I handed over the broom, and the first thing she did was look at me and say "move. move. move!" I guess she does it just like mommy, huh?
We have contemplated potty training, and have given it a few weak attempts. We go back and forth all the time about whether or not she's ready. It's probably more about mom and dad committing to watch her well enough to get her to the potty. Soon!
My favorites are things I've mentioned before, but they're only getting better. She is a singer and a dancer!! She croons along to almost anything and now encourages us (strongly) to join her in her dancing. Amie goes absolutely gaga over anything Disney princess, and my new #1 is when she comes up to me and says "Oh, mommy' boofull." or Pwetty or Coot. She also can't be bothered to ride in a shopping cart or stroller. She thinks she is so big. She's really great though, about holding my hand in the street and helping push. I really can't believe how big she IS getting, though, but what else is new?

Here's a little parents update, haven't done that for awhile.
Don't know if I mentioned that Jeff and I got new callings a few months back. He became the Sunday School President and loves it! He gets to teach auxiliary classes (like Temple Prep right now) and I always come join them cause I've got VIP privileges. I was called to be Ward Choir director. It's a love-hate relationship. I love choir itself and I love being able to go to adult meetings again, but I'm not the most gifted director there is. (If you've been in any of the many wards where I was some sort of chorister, you can attest, and that's easier!) It's strange to think I used to want to do that with my life (although I think it would be easier with a group that was on the same general musicianship level, unlike ward choir.) Now I just wish I could be IN a choir for my life. Anyone wanna pay me for that? Anyway, I think I am improving a little, but it's a good opportunity for all the reasons aforementioned-musical and otherwise.
As far as work, Jeff's back to graves this month. He's happy. I'm not what I'd call "happy" but it'll at least be a little easier now that I'm not fighting stay-up-all-night-newborn fatigue.
I worked a TON over the main summer months and then hadn't worked for weeks. It was nice to have a little break, but now I'd be happy for a break from the house again. :) I'm still enjoying my job, loving that I get to keep my skills oiled without having to leave my babies. I do know, however, that even though I don't want a full time job, I won't stay forever in a PRN job, it's not my style. I like to get to know the people (patients people) I work with-I work better that way, and as it stands now I rarely know even a few things about a few patients I treat in any given day. It's tough in it's own way, but at least it allows me to leave their problems behind me at the end of the day. This job has also taught me a lot about myself. I thought that whole discovery phase was about over with school, but not even close. I have had to deal with many surprise trials whilst counseling others about coping, etc. and it is a constant reminder to me about living a balanced life. One that I am very grateful for. It's my secret, I get paid to live a little self therapy.

Random pictures I never posted

Haha! Baby food mustache.


Mommy daughter closeup!




Daddy can't pretend to sleep.


She's proud of her rice mess.


Talking her baby for a stroll through the yard.

I'm sure in love with my cuties!

Seaside-Day 5 and drive home

Wednesday, our last full day, we polished off all the leftovers we had and swam at our resort. It was actually pretty chill temperatures the whole time we were there, but our condo was a huge U surrounding the pool, and the water was super heated, so it was still pretty good. We also rented a surrey that evening (one of those bike-car-dealies) to have a last cruise around town. It was a lot of work of course, pedaling for the full hour, but it was fun, and even the girlies enjoyed it for almost the entire time. There was a kid basket seat in the front for them, and even though we had the employee take a picture of us all in it, I found out later that the memory card had been knocked out of place (when we dropped it while riding the surrey :/) and it didn't save. it made me sad-it was super cute. We had dinner at my favorite place overall, Pudgy's. The name sounded pretty lax to me, but it ended up being one of the swankiest places we ate. Oh yes, plus we got ice cream that night. Jeff wanted it the entire trip.

The babes in the surrey.

Now, if that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen...

...then, THAT is! She LOVED that ice cream cone-she's got her tongue out and everything!

Family photo on the beach.

Double first-time-on-the-real-swings event.

Amelie wanted to capture her own memories of the occasion... interesting...

My failed attempt at a timer photo. I twisted my ankle running in the sand, then couldn't get up on the tall swing. :(

Hmm.



We left mid day the next day after packing up and had a pretty uneventful drive home (except that we kept getting in trouble because we kept forgetting that in Oregon, you can't pump your own gas. Big time annoying.) We got home around 3:30 a.m and were happy to be home. Seaside was really a beautiful place, wonderfully lazy and a great time! We'd love to go back (but it may be forever, as there are always new places we want to explore!)
Phew!

Seaside-Day 4

Tuesday, We got up to go to Cannon Beach and Haystack rock, which ended up being awesome! And terrible. It turns out, we parked literally on the opposite side of town from HR, but didn't know it at first and decided to just walk the beach. We played in the sand for quite some time before making the trek, each holding a baby. It was definitely a desert mirage-we walked and walked, but it never seemed to get any closer. We eventually got there and it was another one of our highlights! It was just some crazy giant rock that came up out of the middle of the beach, and for some reason, attracted and supported all sorts of sea life, including puffins and sea gulls. It was very cool to see up close. The walk back, though, was agonizing. We figured we actually trudged 3 or 4 miles through deep, soft sand, holding unhappy babies. Boo. We went back and window shopped a little, as well as took Amie on the carousel. She acted scared at first, and would not let me move an inch away from her, but LOVED it and nearly threw a royal fit when we didn't go again. We ate at McKeown's that day, which was probably my fave, and Norma's that night (fresh seafood!)







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Look how big that thing is!



Alisa was being so incredibly good and happy at dinner, that I had to take a picture, even though my flash wouldn't work.

The carousel. Not that you'll see us. Even though there was nobody around, did that stop the woman from plopping her kid RIGHT in front of us? We were really cramped, both trying to hold our kids. Still fun, though.

Seaside-Day 3

On Monday, we made our way down the coast to Tillamook to go to the cheese factory. We had directions, but of course, no foreknowledge of a road closure and drove like 40 minutes out of or way on the way down (no big, we were listening to a book on CD and the girls were asleep.) We took the tour and tasted their samples. It was actually pretty cool to tour the factory, not to mention making jokes about the workers being like animals at the zoo, watched all day. We also bought some local made berry syrup, too (I know-not cheese.) Then, we headed just a bit further down the way to a french cheese factory, Blue Heron, where we sampled various Bries and all sorts of mustards, sauces, jellies and jams, and ate lunch in their cafe. They also had a petting zoo there (wha?!) and that was probably Amelie's favorite part of the entire trip!! On our way home, we stopped back at Tillamook for some of their ice cream-SO great (and the line was a billion miles long.) You will see, Amie thoroughly enjoyed hers. We had planned on seeing Haystack Rock that day, too, but were running out of gas and didn't find a station til we were back to our place, so we just went home and ate at Bee Bop, an excellent 50's burger joint. Oh, yeah AND since it was the first Monday of the month, we got our 2 free redboxes that night. Don't think we're lame, we still were way off on sleep.






Chasing the birdies!!!!
She really wanted to feed them, but when they'd come up, she'd back away and sort of close her eyes. You had to hold her there and hold her hand/arm, too. But she liked it.


Amie ducked down right at flash.

Mmm is for mess.

Seaside-Day 2

The next day was Sunday, my birthday, but we couldn't locate a church! So, we did breakfast at our condo (and sat through another presentation for a gift card-WITH the girls-NO fun.) Then, Jeff brought a Sunday-friendly movie for us to watch. We had lunch in (sandwiches, veggies, chips) and then took a long walk on the Promenade, before dinner in (french toast and pudding-yum!) I also had a birthday doughnut the night before, since we weren't spending dough that day. We also caught up on much-needed sleep.



She obliterated the remainder of Amie's PB & J.

Loved the deck-so cute!!

All dressed up with no place to go...

Seaside: Day 1 photos

Kaboom!

So stylin'!

From our balcony...

...I know, the Shilo's right there, but we had plenty of beach view.

AND mountains!

Seaside, Oregon

This year, we decided to use our condo points over my birthday and in a place we always wanted to try-the Oregon coast (we have a lot of condos there.) We picked Seaside, reserved 5 nights and Jeff got the time off, no prob. We had a 2 sleeper unit with just the 4 of us, and it ended up being perfect, since we also had the couch and the pack-n-play. (Though I think we'll need at least 4-sleepers from here on out.)
We left (in the car!) Saturday morning at 1:30 am. Jeff went to bed at like 6 so he could be awake for the drive. He made it all the way til like 7 in the morning before I took over! We wanted a large chunk of the 14 hr drive to be while the girls were sleeping, since that would be pretty terrible if they were awake for all of it. It actually worked out great. They were only antsy the last half hour or so. There was, however a different hiccup on our trip there. We blew a tire, and I mean BLEW! No little nail hole here. Jeff and I put the donut on together (I am a super-pro at this from my college days when my car had an alignment problem) then made our way through the middle of nowhere Or. We finally found a town with plenty of auto repair, but no tire stores. We were sent on to Hermiston, where we had Les Schwab replace both our bad tires (another was about to blow.) This was actually hardly an inconvenience, since it was lunch time and the girls needed a break. We just went across the street and ate at a local pizza place (pretty great) and by the time we were done, so was the car!
We got there around 5 pm, moved in and then set out with the stroller to survey the land. :) The condo was right on the beach, and on the main street as well. Seaside is a cute little place where everything is in walking distance, and they have tones of restaurants, shops, carnival rides, the promenade, etc. We ended up eating at Lil Bayou that night, one that we'd been recommended and I had looked forward to. It actually ended up being one of my least favorite. This is probably due to the fact that I wasn't very hungry when we got there, and our girls were TERRIBLE. I think everyone couldn't wait til we left! My clam chowder WAS amazing, though, I don't recommend the fried green tomatoes.

At Lil Bayou, they gave us beads and Amelie loved playing with them the whole trip:



(For some reason, it's not letting me add photos to this post, so I'll continue in the next.)

Should I be worried?

I'm thinking it's time to move mommy's undergarments up from the bottom drawer....