Sophia's Show

I've been a little (okay, a lot) lax about posting pictures lately. Mostly So I thought I would share with you something that happens almost every day around here... Sophia does "a show" for us. This girl loves to dance, and some day I'll have to dig out all of her 12 month old, 18 month old, and 2 year old dancing, because it was really cute (especially her head banging to the live music at the Greek Food Festival, when she was 20 months old).

Today's show (uh, why is the two seconds that you can see Sophia's panties in the middle of the video the frame that YouTube chose to freeze?! UGH)

And Then I Went to Bed

Are you tired of hearing how tired I am?

Because I really, really was going to say that it's getting better... last night I got little sleep, because of sick kids, and then I had a bear of a day at work. I worked late, came home and immediately cooked dinner, then after dinner took the kids on a brisk walk for about two miles (pushing them in the stroller), then finalized my shopping list/coupon clipping, and went grocery shopping. It was a big shopping trip. I was really proud of myself.

Then, at 9:00 p.m....

In my trunk, there was a spare Britax Marathon car seat, a single stroller, a (huge) double stroller, and some other random, uh, stuff. As soon as I opened the trunk, the big stroller came flying out. And then after I crammed it back in the trunk, I had to fit $199 worth of groceries (which, before sales/coupons was actually $280 worth of groceries, thankyouverymuch) in there. I'm talking things like a huge watermelon, a big bag of potatoes, three gallons of milk, you get the picture... And it was pouring buckets, and buckets of rain (like, when I was driving and had the windshield wipers on full-blast, I could still barely see). If you want more detail, I was wearing a white t-shirt ha!

Let's just say, my darling husband is putting away the groceries, while I lie in bed in my pajamas... and I'm going to bed. Hey, I almost made it to 9:30 - I'm making progress!

Unfogging

This morning I bid farewell to my first trimester, with high hopes that I might become slightly more functional... lately I've come home from work and barely made it until 7 pm before crashing on my bed (by the way, if you're going to tell me that your fatigue never got better with your third pregnancy, please allow me to remain in hopeful denial!). It's been difficult for me to plan menus like I usually do, because my appetite hasn't been so great, and the thought of planning and grocery shopping has just been exhausting. I hate when I don't plan our meals and make an effort to cook, because we end up eating lots of not so healthy food and spending way too much money on take out and convenience foods.

So tonight I forced myself to make up a menu for the next week, and I thought I'd share it with you, in case anyone else out there is in a cooking funk...

Wednesday - Crunchy Asian salad

Thursday (walking w/Kate) - Crock pot stroganof, rice

Friday - Grilled cheese & tomato soup

Saturday - Greek salad with orzo, rice pudding

Sunday (Nic & crew over for dinner) - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, watermelon lemonade, blueberry boy bait*

Monday - Thai Chicken-Coconut Soup

Tuesday (walking w/Kate) - Garlic lemon shrimp with pasta, salad

Wednesday - Mahimahi with Brown-Sugar Soy Glaze, rice, stir-fry sesame asparagus

*I love my husband's family, because I can make something like meatloaf and call it a company meal ha!

Swimmingly

Aside from some wicked, wicked migraines that have been dogging me this past week, things are going well. Hubby was out of town most of the week and weekend, so I really had to fight the fatigue to make sure the girls were taken care of (let's just say I should have done a Not Me Monday today!)

I got another peek (but no print out) at my baby this morning and (s)he is doing swimmingly :) My next ultrasound, barring any complications, is a whole four weeks away, at which point I could really use some baby-show-us-your-bottom vibes!!

The girls and I had a fun weekend - going to visit friends, including this sweetheart and his four-month old twin siblings (they are yummy and I really can't hold them enough!)

He and Amelia engaged in some deep and meaningful conversation in a special two-year old language that none of us could understand.

We also went to Sophia's dance class open house, and to the river, where we walked around until we were sweaty and red, because we have not re-acclimated to the Arkansas heat (which of course calls for ICE CREAM!)

And you know what happens when I see a pretty background and think I want to get a picture of both the girls together? I get this

Oh, notice the girls' really cute tank tops? I got them from my friend Karla, who drove all the way from Southern California to spend a couple of days in Monterey so we could visit. It was wonderful to see her and her sweet family, and I could have spent another week or four with her. And it looks like maaaybe someone else enjoyed the visit too...

She has two precious boys, and we're just having the best time coming up for names for our grandchildren, who as you can tell, will be gorgeous ;)

Good Morning!

My goals for today... get the house all sparkly clean, bake an apple cake, go through the girls' shoes to see which ones no longer fit, and update this blog of mine!

**Update 24 hours later... a miserable migraine interfered with my plans - I got the cake baked and the house half-cleaned and that was the end of me. Will try again tonight :)

The Post About Traveling With Small Children

Starting with frequent road trips when Sophia was a few weeks old and then air travel when she was four months old, we have never shied away from traveling with the kids. In fact, we took advantage of flying as much as we could before they turned two and started requiring their own tickets. When Sophia was barely two and Amelia was four months old, I flew to California (about a seven hour trip with layovers) alone with them - and it's made me appreciate my husband on every trip since!

But aside from the normal hassles of air travel these days, traveling with young children doesn't have to be difficult. Here are some tips - I'd love to hear yours as well!

*For children one year and under, I would recommend bringing their car seat onto the airplane if it approved for air travel (and you can afford the extra seat). Kids are used to sitting in and sleeping in their car seats - Sophia snoozed happily in her Britax Marathon on several trips. For children older than 12-18 months, I would not recommend bringing the seat on board, just because you'll have more flexibility to let them move around. Whatever you do, you can't pack them in the suitcase.

*Bring an emergency bag... for infants, include Mylicon and (if they take it) an extra pacifier or other blankie or whatever soothes them. For older children bring a lollipop. This is the little bag that you pull out when nothing else is working, everyone is at the end of their rope, and your child is on the verge of breaking into a glass-shattering scream.

*Bring an iPod. There are audio podcasts available (like free Pinky Dinky Doo off iTunes), and if you have a video-capable iPod lots of movies (and free Sesame Street podcasts off iTunes) as well as tons of kids' songs that are GREAT entertainment for kids. Plus, when my kids are forced to sit still enough to hold the ear buds in their ears, they almost always fall asleep. I usually wait until books, crayons, etc. are no longer exciting before pulling out the iPod.

*Good plane/car toys are mini magnadoodles, Crayola (washability!) crayons and plain small drawing pads, those tiny cardboard books, Toob toys (they have animals, pirates, trains, etc.), Little Golden books (they're light and thin, but still sturdy), and flash cards (I got some great animal ones in the dollar bins at Target - the dollar store also has many).

*Bring snacks like dried fruit, sunflower seeds, Goldfish, and empty sippy cups - fill the sippy cups with water once you're past security. Also bring some emergency bagels or something... one time, we were planning on grabbing dinner during a layover in DFW, but our plane was delayed on the runway so that we had to RUN to our connecting flight - we were stuck on that plane right during dinner time, on a four hour flight, with a starving 15 month old. We purchased the snack boxes on board and poor Sophia had $14 worth of Cheesewhiz and crackers and beef jerky for dinner.

*Bring these awesome toilet seat covers - they are sturdy and big enough to cover yucky airport toilets (which your toddler WILL grab with her hands!) as well as some Wet Ones to wipe down your kids' hands periodically when the germ index gets too high.

*For a breastfeeding baby, nurse them during takeoff and landing. For older kids, give them a little salty snack right before, so that they will drink from their sippy cups during takeoff and landing. Bring a wash cloth - if their ears do start hurting, ask the stewardess to put some HOT water on the wash cloth and put it over your child's ear. It really does work.

*Bring a special treat - something with which to bribe your child, reward your child, and give you a few minutes of peace. This is one of those I-will-never things from before I had kids - but I'm keeping it real here... my favorites are candy necklaces and candy dots. You can also make a candy necklace that's slightly healthier by stringing Honey Nut Cheerios or Fruit Loops on some dental floss, but I believe there are some childhood joys that just need to be indulged.

*ALL children, including four month olds, must remove their shoes when going through security - so put shoes on them that are easy to remove (for infants, Robeez come off easily but stay on when you want them to). For toddlers and preschoolers, choose shoes that they can put on and take off on their own, but which are comfortable for walking (so velcro, not laces).

*For infants, I love my baby carrier, because it freed up my arms. Be warned, though, that you will be required to remove any baby carrier (even an all-cloth one) to go through security and during takeoff and landing, even if you have a very peaceful, happy, sleeping baby inside.

*Most airplanes have changing tables that fold down in the "lavatory" - I had NO idea about that until I had been on several trips with babies.

*Bring a blanket on board the plane - a large/thin one is best... you can wad it up and use it as a pillow and cover your child when it gets cold. Also, I've found that when I cover their laps with a blanket, so that they can't see their seatbelt, they tend to stay buckled up better.

Good luck and have fun!

It Was So Cute, I Cried

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Jeremiah 33:3

I love that scripture. Love it. It was a Sticky Note on my desktop for months before this baby was conceived. There have been so many times over the past year that I felt a hurt or a desire deep within me, when I read scripture and talked to friends and just cried... but it was never until I called out to the Lord that I felt unburdened. For some reason, it often took me days or weeks before I remembered to ASK God for help, to ASK Him to show me the way, to CALL onto Him. But whenever I did, He answered me... not in the way of someone who owes me answers, not always in a way that I understood right away. But he showed me great and mighty things, which I did not know.

We received a letter from Beatrice, our child who we sponsor through Compassion. She is a year older than Sophia, and her letters always include a tracing of her precious hand. Sophia loves to lay her hand over the tracing to see how her own hand measures up. We always talk about what it must be like in Ghana right now, and what Beatrice might be doing and feeling. We're so blessed that we have brought Beatrice into our lives.

We have scheduled our foster care training for October and our homestudy for shortly before that. Everything else is complete. To be completely honest, I still have no idea where this foster care journey is leading us, because it has been unexpected and not led by us from the beginning... sometimes pushing us forward, sometimes holding us back. For now, we continue to simply follow.

When I was pregnant with Sophia, I took for granted that everything would be perfect. I was not high risk in any sense. I enjoyed the experience of being pregnant for the first time in a new-adventure sort of way. But I did not treasure it in a day-to-day sort of way, or recognize how fragile it might have been. With Amelia, I was studying for the bar exam, I had a toddler going through operations with major complications, I was starting a new career as an attorney in a large law firm... to say I did not savor that pregnancy is a huge understatement. I barely remember that pregnancy - I'm pretty sure it only last a few weeks.

When I first found out I was pregnant with this baby and got my initial (bad) blood work back, I prayed immediately that I would be released from any fears and anxieties that would keep me from loving this baby and enjoying this pregnancy fully, no matter how long it lasted... and my prayers were answered abundantly and instantly. I have LOVED being pregnant, I have kept a journal, and I have bonded with this little baby bean from the beginning.

Last night I had some pains that were strong enough to wake me, and they continued this morning. I wasn't too worried because I had no bleeding, but called the nurse to be safe. She asked me to come in to see the doctor, just because of my history. I'm so glad now that I did - because I HEARD the baby's heartbeat today (170) for the first time, saw a perfect and cute and pretty much fully formed 10 week old baby... and THE BABY WAVED AT ME!!

It was so cute, I cried.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me Monday, that WEEKLY blog carnival, which I never skip (much like Vegetable of the Week). Head on over to MckMama's to check out what everyone else hasn't been doing!

I did not eat at In N Out Burger in California within two hours of touching down in that state, and then proceed to dream about having it again almost every night. No way, who would want a hamburger when the rest of the trip was spent eating fillet mignon, sushi, and wedding cake?!

While staying in my mother's cabin in the woods in Big Sur, which only has a shower, I did not let my children take 2-3 hot tubs a day and decide that they could therefore skip a bath, giving them real baths only every 2-3 days. Bad mommy!

I did not take almost 400 pictures on our ten day vacation. Craaaazy.

I did not get out of the car to yell at an airport cop. Oh my gosh. No way. No how. Not me!!!!

I did not get to work this morning to find my Outlook inbox and my physical inbox so overwhelmingly BURSTING with mail that I decided to write a Not Me Monday post instead of dealing with it. Surely I'm not silly enough to think that the work will just disappear if I ignore it long enough.

Some More California

I have SO many pictures and stories from our trip, I'll just have to post them slowly over the new few days (weeks?) as we unpack and recover! I do have to say that coming home on a Friday and doing all of our laundry before leaving California was a GREAT idea!

Here are some pictures from San Francisco, where we spent the second week of our trip. The weather was uncharacteristically GORGEOUS, and we had so much fun!

We went to the California Academy of Sciences, which was amazing.

Davis was an archeologist for 15 years before settling down with me ;) so it was neat to see him explaining things to the girls

Sophia really got into all the exhibits and took her own pictures

And there was a neat play area, which allowed the kids to just burn off some energy

Amelia and I got a little treat in the cafe while Davis and Sophia went to the planetarium show. Sophia is obsessed with space and LOVED it.



(sorry these pictures aren't that great - I wasn't using a flash in the museum)

We even paid for the cheesy picture they took of us before we went in

If you're in the Bay Area, I really recommend going (but on an off day, and preferably an off season - even on a Tuesday morning it was CROWDED!)

On Thursday my mom and I took Sophia to SFMoMa, which was also amazing. Sophia loves art and I have wanted to nurture this in her since she first started showing her talents (at like 18 months old!)



She got so much out of it - at dinner that night she was still talking about specific paintings.

There was a great Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit, which she loved. There was a Richard Avedon exhibit that I loved. It was just a great trip.

Amelia stayed behind at the apartment with Daddy, just lounging and enjoying the view

Look at the beautiful moon over the bay *sigh*

I Know How to Get Chocolate Ice Cream Out of Clothes!

And there is only one way...

Sometimes I'm shocked that it's 2009 and there are billions of people on the internet, and yet when I google something as simple as how do I get chocolate ice cream out of cotton? I don't find the answer. So, this post is a public service announcement, because tonight I figured it out all on my own.

Sophia loves chocolate ice cream. So much so that when we stopped at Ben and Jerry's at Fisherman's Wharf, and I let her get some even though she was in her new Mini Boden dress, she declared "this is the yummiest vacation I ever did been on before!" Sophia is also the world's messiest eater. I can feed Amelia, age 2, and Sophia, age 4, each a big plate of spaghetti - Amelia will be spotless at the end of the meal and meticulously wiping the one tiny sauce spatter off the table, and Sophia will look like she just engaged in spaghetti sauce mud wrestling.

So, let me tell you from experience that you cannot get chocolate ice cream out of cotton children's clothes with Shout or Spray and Wash (even the Advanced or Resolve Power). Or with Oxiclean. Or with dish soap. Or with Tide or Clorox 2. Or with clorox bleach (can you believe it?!)

But you can get chocolate ice cream out of clothes by doing the following:

1. Immediately after returning home from your ill-fated ice cream adventure, remove the clothing and douse the stain with Zout.

2. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

3. Soak the clothing in HOT water - really hot. I come from Europe, where we practically boil all of our clothes... considering your clothing will be permanently stained otherwise, trust me on this (it didn't shrink or stain her Boden dress, although I would only advise this for COTTON fabric!)

4. Wring it out, add more Zout to the stain and scrub the stain by rubbing the fabric together over the stain until it is gone, dipping the clothing in the hot water and adding more Zout as needed.

5. Wring the clothing out again, then wash as normal. You may want to add an extra rinse to get all the Zout out.

Now, her dress was pretty much covered in chocolate stains - including the back! - but I used almost half a bottle of Zout doing this. And my fingers are kind of raw from the scrubbing. But it was a glorious victory, because chocolate ice cream has won too many stain battles in my household!

You're welcome.

By the way, I also know how to remove a bead, pebble, marble, bean, etc. from a toddler's nose.

Why People Put Leashes On Their Kids

We're in San Francisco this week, enjoying the city after a week way out in the woods of Big Sur. Sophia has this (awesome) book, and she's had the most fun finding everything from the book while we're driving or walking around. I'll have lots of stories and pictures soon... but I have no camera cord here, so they will have to wait until we return home this weekend. So, in the meantime, here is the security story I promised...

Before we even left Little Rock, the adventure began.

Going through security, we filled the entire conveyer belt with my carry on bag, the girls' carry on bag, a bucket with all eight of our shoes, a bucket of all the stuff from Davis's pockets (how can guys comfortably carry that much stuff in their pockets?!), a bucket with my laptop in it, and two Britax Marathon car seats. I'm mentioning the specific name of the car seats so that some of you might know just how giant and heavy they are.

So we pushed everything through the x-ray machine, and I go through the metal detector, no problem. Sophia goes through the metal detector, no problem. Amelia goes through the metal detector, no problem.

Have I mentioned that, even though it's a totally random Sunday in July, EVERYONE ON EARTH is traveling through Little Rock that day?

So now the girls and I are through security, all of our stuff has gone through the x-ray machine, and Davis goes through the metal detector. BEEEEP. He goes through again. BEEEP. At the same time "ma'am, would you step over here, I'm going to need to inspect your bag." At the same time, "ma'am could you please remove all of your items from the conveyer belt?"

So, while Davis is quarantined in a glass box behind me, I'm trying to pull a backpack, three big plastic buckets, and two giant car seats off the conveyer belt, watch the guy inspect my bag (because he won't do it without me watching), and keep my four year old and my two year old next to me while hoards of travelers pass by us. There's no place for them (or our stuff) to sit right there past security, so we're all just piled there. While Davis stands in a big glass box.

While I'm wrangling the car seats and Sophia over to the side, and still watching the guy going through my bag, Amelia slips over to Davis... I can see her, and I don't really think anything of it. But then, we find out that once Amelia passes into the glass box, she is now contaminated and cannot leave without being patted down. Well, at least I only have to wrangle Sophia and all of our stuff over the side now, while Amelia is stuck in the glass box with Davis.

Finally, the guy is done with my bag, Sophia and I are working on putting our shoes back on, and I'm trying to move our car seats out of the way of the other travelers while putting my laptop back in my bag... when they open up the glass box to let Davis and Amelia onto a carpeted pad that is roped off, so they can be patted down.

But, the ropes are way above Amelia's head, so as soon as they open the glass box, she runs under them into my direction. The TSA guy starts FREAKING OUT that she has escaped. But he won't touch her, because she is a female. Davis can't do anything, because he has to stay in the roped off area. So, with the TSA agent watching, I just push on Amelia's back to get her back under the rope.

WELL... now that I've touched Amelia, I am also, apparently, contaminated. So they take ME into the roped off area with Davis and Amelia. Meanwhile, Sophia is out in the traffic with all of our stuff, alone, while we are waiting for two female and one male TSA agents to pat us down. At the time, I thought it was absurd (like Davis could have taped some invisible bomb to Amelia's back that I picked up while pushing her under the ropes with everyone watching!) and mostly my mama bear instincts were NOT happy about Sophia being separated from us (she was standing still like I told her, and I could see her, but still... I couldn't get to her.) So I was crying and telling the guy to just pat us down already because I did NOT care if myself or my two year old were touched by a male, but no, we had to wait like five minute for two female agents to become available.

But then, after the most cursory of pat-downs, we were all set free... and it was all downhill from there.

The *sniff* Wedding

My baby brother got married today (actually, technically yesterday, since it's 12:45 a.m. *yawn*) I only bawled for a second, when I saw my little brother, his friend who I used to babysit and my even baby-er cousin standing up there in tuxes looking so handsome and grown up. The ceremony was beautiful and touching and upbeat and just made me smile from the inside out.

I love how weddings just reaffirm my commitment to stay married FOREVER!!

I love the girl he married and the wedding was perfect! Really, it was the most lovely wedding I've been to, other than my own. The girls were flower girls, and they did a great job. In fact, they did great all the way until we left the party at 11 p.m. - the latest they have ever stayed up!

It was great to catch up with a lot of family friends who I don't see very often, most of whom met Sophia and Amelia for the first time. The food was yuuuummy and just everything about the wedding was stunning.

Okay, I can't really put together many coherent thoughts (and I'm the only person over 21 at the wedding who did NOT drink!) so I'm just going to share a few pictures and go to sleep!

Amelia was in L-O-V-E with herself when I put her flower girl dress on her

Sophia practiced her paparazzi smile all day







YUM!





during picture time, Davis just chased the girls down over and over again, while they ran off all that pent up energy



Amelia was a little camera-obsessed... she would say "take a picture of me!"



and then she would want to take a picture of me



At the end of the night, Sophia started dancing... and I mean wild and wonderful jumping around dancing! She danced for TWO HOURS pretty much non-stop





Amelia, on the other hand, slowly became sleepy and just wanted to do this







which was FINE with me, because see these shoes? they made me want to sit down



Victor and Brittany - I love these two! Aren't they gorgeous?



Look at my brother's face - is he in love or what?!



and then, when we got home and we slipped Amelia's dress off of her, she did this



Good night!