Alisa 18 month update!

Our little Swiss Miss is now well over a year and a half! We had her well check up a bit ago, and here are her latest stats. Her weight is 25.5 pounds, putting her in the 67th percentile, and her height (32.5 in) has her in the 74th percentile. So, she's still a bit ahead of the physical curve, but no longer way ahead... speaking of a head... hers is still 86th pc. What can you do? Alisa has been wearing 18 mo clothes now for quite awhile, and can handle one occasional 2t size now and then. She pretty much skipped an entire shoe size, and for awhile her and Amelie were sharing shoes, but Amie is just starting to grow out. I take everything - clothes, shoes, socks, swimsuits - and move them right from Amie's drawer to Lisie's. Love it.

There is a long list of the fun things Lisie is now doing. She's well beyond walking and running, and now she has some really great dance moves. One of her trademarks is a super-cute "Gake Goo" (thank you) when you give her anything. She can also help you count to three, and she's really good at "no" and now even "no way." My favorite thing she just started doing is nodding and shaking her head. She can understand you when you ask her questions, she uses them correctly, but overexaggerates them - so adorable. She repeats a lot, though, and can say many things. It's just hit and miss as to what she remembers. She can show you her feet, hands, head and nose, and we're getting there on all the other body parts. There's a song they do in the nursery that she absolutely loves, and will sing it all day long (it's the Bears in the Bed.) She loves any song with actions she can do, but rarely sings herself. Her true loves are climbing everything, slides, and anything and everything that Amie is currently playing with. She gives kisses now, too, wet ones.

She's been having a tough time with her diapers lately, and so our doc suggested we try soy milk for a week and see if it makes a difference. This is day 3, so we're still not positive if it is a milk allergy or not, but it does seem to be a bit better.

Lisie is a bit discriminating with her affections. They're very fickle and depend greatly on her mood, hunger status, fatigue level, recent memories and current circumstances. I think this is just fine - personally, I can't stand it when strangers complain about her demeanor or "crusty looks." Honestly, I'd be more worried if she ran up and gave every random person a smile and a hug and crawled in their lap. Mostly, Alisa Danielle is just fearless! She walks off edges, jumps, climbs, mounts, crawls over/under, runs around, you name it. And plenty of those times she falls, but it never deters her. We're so glad to have her and I can't wait for an eternity to come!

In other news, we moved Amie into a toddler bed a few nights ago. She loves it, but ended up sleeping with me half of the night last night, so... we'll see. She's all of a sudden developed fear of the dark, so we're still working out all the bedtime woes.

Missing July Moments

As always, Jeff had a post for the 24th of July parade, but new for us, was seating reserved for police families. You can believe we took advantage of that! We didn't have to go early, we had a great view, and we even scored great parking because of where Jeff was posted! We reserved some extra seats, but no one was able to go with us. (Amie had stayed at my mom's in a brainless moment of mine, so she wasn't there.) It was just me and Lisie, and my sister Mal joined us. Here is one of the few pics I took, I know you can't really tell, but it's the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. Awesome!
For the rest of the 24th we hung out with the family at my mom's. There was lots of food (many products of my dad's favorite toy, his smoker,) swimming, games and tons o fireworks around. People went nuts this year!


Kennecott Copper mines has a visitors' center, a movie, and fun views, and this year they hosted a free day. We went, and of course it was busier than usual, but I enjoyed not having to pay. :) Here's the fam at the giant tire.
The girls enjoyed it, as they do anywhere new that gets them out of the house.
After this, we drove around and then ate lunch at a park. Just trying to take advantage of the summer days we have left!

Flashbacks

I finally snagged this pic from a friend of mine and got it into the post it belongs in.

Even though we're chunkier, I love it! I sure adore that little family of mine.

NBP #3

We celebrated my birthday with the North's amidst our family staycation this year (but that will be a separate post.)
We had dinner at my mother-n-law's house of chowder and berry cake, YUM! (I just realized that's the only real cake I got for my birthday!) We hung out there and actually convinced everyone to stay and play a game for once! Jeff really wanted to buy this new game called A Game of Things... that ended up being really fun. We had lots of big (and a few inappropriate!) laughs out of it. I got some sweet cizz-ash and The Help for my birthday (I already finished it, So good!)
Then, my bro-in-law, Josh, usually takes the birthday person in question out to eat, so he and our little fam all went to Texas Roadhouse for a delish lunch.

Finally, my present from my sweet Jeffy was a ticket to see Josh Groban! I have missed his concerts so many times, and I swore I wouldn't let him come and go again without seeing him. When the tour first popped up, tickets were over $100 for nosebleeds, and I thought for awhile I would have to miss it for sure. Then, prices came down and my friend Jessica was going, so Jeff gave her the dollars to get us two seats together, for my bday present. I finally got to go see Josh Groban in concert last night, and I have to say, despite years of anticipation, he did NOT disappoint! It was kind of unreal, how his voice was the same, and even better, in person. That man can sing! He even had a mini stage in the back, so we got a closer look at him even though we were so far away. I appreciated that he'd said "I know you guys paid out the wazoo to be here, so I'm gonna make sure I sing my @$* off for you! I expected a pretty mellow show, but he was actually really funny, came out into the audience a lot, pulled people on stage, told jokes, took questions. One of the questions someone texted in was "Can you please sing some of Kanye West's tweets?" I guess Kanye West puts some pretty entertaining/ridiculous things up on Twitter, and apparently JG put some to song on a talk show. He did some for us, and they were hilarious! Each and every song he sang was amazing. He hit on most all of my favorites, but did not sing my #1 fave, it's not one of his radio hits or anything. All in all, it was a most excellent two hours. I even got choked up - but if you know me very well, you know that doesn't take tons.
Everytime I do something like that, it makes me miss singing so badly! I'm really glad I got the chance to go. Now, I'll just have to save for 600 years for the next time he comes back... if I save $1 every year, that will give me enough for a floor seat ticket! :)

NBP #2

Usually, I spend a month or two before my birthday planning and replanning the best dinner spot or movie or event or whatever for my special day. I just don't know how, but my birthday totally snuck up on me this year. We originally had plans to go to Yellowstone with the in-laws, which happened to be over my bday so I didn't think much else about it. Then, that fell through, but MY family decided that was the best time to borrow the lake house for us, so we did that. The day before that trip was my dinner&show with Jaim, and for 3 days AFTER that, we did staycation with the in-laws. Finally, the night before all of that, Friday the 29th, I said to Jeff... wait, when are WE celebrating my birthday? And he called right then and got work off, a babysitter and took me to the Tuscany. We had a great date night there, with way too much food (free birthday appetizer of beef carpaccio, I got salmon, Jeff got pasta,) and delicioso desserts. (I had all decided on one, then they brought me a free birthday dessert, so I skipped my original choice, but Jeff got it... and it was even better than mine!)
No pics, of course, but I have to say that Jeff and I love going out to fancy places and pretending we're real live grown-ups.

Nikki Birthday Post #1 (w/Delta)

Really, I don't try to make my birthday a month-long affair every year, but it usually turns out that way... Therefore, I'll have to make a few installments.

For my birthday this year, my sister Jaimie got me a ticket to see South Pacific with her (The Opera Festival is during my birthday every year - awesome!) so I drove up to Logan on July 30th, picked her up and we saw the show, which was fun. We also killed some time at Old Navy's $4 swimsuit sale, where I scored a good one! Afterward, we went to an Italian place called Gia's for dinner (where Mal bought me a GC) which was delicioso! My favorite thing about that day, though, was probably spending 5 grown-up girl hours with my sister. We rarely hang out alone, and I had a blast. Thanks Jaim!

For the actual date of my bday, the Radcliffe clan went out to my in-laws' place in Delta. We arrived Sunday, and stayed a few days. Everyone was there except Mal and dad, even grandma Reed. My sis and Bro-in-law brought their boat for our boating and tubing pleasure, which almost everyone tried. We also swam, had a fire, played games and all that. The night of my birthday, we'd planned on having dinner at the steak house there, but as we arrived, we found out they are closed on Mondays... lamezor. There aren't many options out there, so we ate at the Delta Freeze. Always good. I had a really fun time with the fam those few days, and was really glad we were able to go - I even got some naps in, so it wasn't as exhausting as usual, plus random rain kept it cool enough, but didn't keep us outta the water!






Go mom!

Congrats, Kelly!

My younger cousin, Kelly, got married a mere 16 hours after we rolled in from Denver. We had a blast hanging out all those hours with family and celebrating the union of Kelly and Khaled. Here are the few pics I snatched, all dance goodies.

There's Larissa, snapping pics of the bride and groom's first dance - yet, I'm snapping in the opposite direction. Look at those two most adorable dancing cousins! Can't stand the cutieness!

Princess Stacey came to give them a lesson on dancing, in all her 8 year old wisdom:

But Amelie and Kail went right back to their way of doing it!

The woman of the day and her dad's dance

Thanks, guys for a fun night!

Denver!

So, Jeff signed up for a training about working undercover, which happened to be in Denver. Since they are required to have so many training hours, it was approved that he go on the department's dime. They gave him a company car and gas card, and the training company paid for his room and $39/day for food. It lasted for a whole week, so we were originally thinking we'd sneak along with him, then found out he was bunked with another guy. We couldn't work out lodging for us, and especially transportation there, so we decided to stay home and miss him lots. Then, the night before he'd be leaving, he was told people bring their families all of the time and he could just call and request his own room. Booyeah! So, we were treated to an impromptu, 100% free vacation last week! The short version goes something like this:

Sunday: Drive there with minimal stops, check in and be impressed with our hotel suite. Girls did pretty well - only needed one huge playtime stop at McD's in all the 8 hours there.
Monday: indulge in free breakfast (made-to-order omelets, french toast, pancakes, bacon, sausage, potatoes, muffins, fruit, cereal, yogurt, every morning) swim at the hotel, naps, dinner at Johnny Rockets, Fro Yo, and HUGE richie mall playplace
Tuesday: Mom and girls went to Dinosaur Ridge to see real fossils and dinosaur replicas, nap in the room, lunch at Chili's, dinner at Golden Corral.
Wednesday: puzzles and nail polish in the hotel, leftovers for lunch (we had plenty!) Little Caesar's for dinner, movie time in.
Thursday: Mom and girls hike Red Rock - challenging with 2 babes but gorgeous and very fun, naps, dinner with an old bestie from FL Sarah and her entourage, then hanging out at her place.
Friday: packing up, swimming (with daddy this time,) lunch at LePeep (love it!) and overpriced, overly amazing desserts from D Bar (Keegan Gerhard ring a bell anyone?) then headed out of town. We just so happened to be hungry right at the same McD's from our trip in... not much variety in Wyoming, I'm afraid...

Seeing as we were there by ourselves, I didn't have anyone to steal pics from, so I have a precious few that I stole quickly with that SAME LAST bit of battery power on my camera. Visual highlights:

digging for fossils, and life-sized dino replicas

the girls' first hike!





And my $4 brownie. Yes, I'd pay that again, it was so good.

Textual highlights:

• Alisa is swimming adventurous - or suicidal! She kept me on my water-logged toes, while she climbed out, ran around and walked right off the edge of the pool over and over. Luckily I caught her every time.
• At Dinosaur Ridge, they had signs warning for rattle snakes. While the girls were digging for fossils, Amie looked in her bucket and said, "look, mom, a snake!" I instantly grabbed both girls by their shirts and jumped us up out of the fossil pit, much to the startling of everyone around us. Then I looked back in her bucket and saw... a worm. Awesome.
• Hanging out at Sarah's house, the girls were mesmerized by their large German Shepherd, Koda. They both wanted to play and pet lots, but would get scared, too, as he was taller than them. In bed that night, Amie told me "Mom, it was fun at Koda's house."
• While swimming our last day, Amelie met a little girl and followed her around relentlessly, saying "Best friend! Come here, best friend! Let's swim, best friend!"

Overall, it was just a great time to get away. Between the gas card, hotel, free breakfast, and Jeff's per diem, we didn't even spend a dime! I figure that us going on the vacation actually saved us money, cause we didn't use our car, gas or usual utilities the whole week. How sweet is that? Gotta love a free vacation - and the 3rd we've had in the past 7 weeks! With 1 more coming up, Woohoo!

MTMMS: Toomi-Soomi!

Ever heard of Team Umi Zoomi? It's a newish show on nick jr. It's one of Amelie's favorites. They are tiny computer-animated people in a computer-animated world that use their "mighty math powers" to help real children.

Best story ever:
While getting ready to go to my cousin's wedding (congrats Kelly!) I put Amie in a little dress that had an attached jacket. It was zipped and she was trying to get it off. She got kinda cry-y whiney in that way that toddlers do and asked me to help her. I just told her it was stuck and that it can't come off, then returned to my business. After a few moments' struggle, I turned around to see Amie with the jacket unzipped, and heard this:
(down on her knees, cause they're tiny people.) Oh, Thank you, toomi soomi! I couldn't have done it without your help!

I.Love.It.

To-Do, To-Do, Playing outside is fun to do!

Often in my groups at the hospital, I talk with my patients about mindfulness, and how so often we get into trouble/eat too much/waste our time simply because we are not thinking about it, or being intentional with our extra minutes. I make them make lists, lots and lots of lists. Things they like to do, things they want to try, things that work for them, things that are free, things that will get them out with other people, etc. If people just have some fall backs, some things ready-to-go, they're much more likely to fill their lives with meaningful moments and happy experiences. (You know, instead of looking back and wondering how 3 hours just passed while you were on facebook...)

OK. So what? Lately, I've taken a look at how often my kids are at home and how of course, we are much less patient and loving with each other when we sit around the house all day. Well, I made this list of things. I decided that I am going to, without fail, every single day of the summer, do at least one of these things with my girls. (Outside is ideal, but I included indoor for this rainy weather.) I know, you're thinking "the summer's halfway over?" But, I made this commitment awhile ago, I just haven't blogged about it til now. At first, I thought every single day was a lofty goal for me, but some of the things happen naturally, for example, every Sunday we hang out at grandma's house, check! Not only has it been a piece of cake so far, but it's been FUN! and less frustrating the times we are just home. So, I'm gonna share the list, or most of it, here with you, in hopes that you'll get out, too. Additionally, please leave your go-to activities here in the comments. Then, everyone will have an amazing list of resources for those days. You know the ones I'm talking about. Not good for anyone.

Here's my list:

• parks, parks, parks - there are SO many if you just look! we're trying a new one each time
• splash pads
• visit grandma and grandpa
• playdate with cousins
• picnic in the yard
• go for a walk
• take dollies for a walk in their stroller
• play in the sprinkler
• make cookies/treats
• deliver treats to family/friends/neighbors
• outdoor concerts (there are tons in the summer)
• free summer movie in the park
• play at a toy store... and leave without purchasing!
• art/craft time
• build a fort
• play dress ups
• home dance party
• puzzles
• hide and seek in the yard
• museums
• story time (all libraries and even Barnes and Noble do this free)
• festivals/parades (your local city fest, or holiday celebrations)
• fireworks! (I don't know about you, but there's been a fireworks show around our neighborhood every single night this month!! Much less annoying when you're watching.)
  
• play fashion photo shoot somewhere new
• hike
• fire in the mountains
• roast marshmallows
• swim! (don't be limited - think community pools, friends in apartments or even your neighbor's kiddie pool)
• visit the local shelter and take the dogs for walks/play
• fast food playplace (for too-hot days... and no, you don't have to buy!)
• cook a meal together kiddie-style
• sidewalk chalk
• movie-theater-style redbox (popcorn, tix, lights down)
• make a tape/video/album of you for grandparents
• garden walks
• bird watch
• zoo
• read at the library
• play at the library
• check out books/movies from the library
• scheduled programs at the library (can you tell I like the library?)
• feed ducks
• watch airplanes
• make up stories about people while you people watch with a treat
• make storybooks
• play board games (so far all we can handle at my house are Candyland and Chutes and Ladders... on a good day)
• walking/running/biking trails
• bubbles!!!
  
• go for a drive
• go for a bike ride
• Our Utah-specific favorites: International Peace Gardens, Millcreek Canyon, Church History Museum - top floor, Jordan River Parkway

I actually have a lot more info than I posted here, namely free festivals, movies and concerts in the valley, if you want more infos. Here is great list I found as well, if you wanna check it out.

Hopefully this habit continues beyond the summer, right? Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave your favorites here too!