Mother's Day

Micah really likes to "wash" the dishes. One day he asked if he could watch TV and I said "No, but you can wash some dishes!" and he said "Oh! OK!" and ran into the kitchen to pull a chair over to the sink. He washed the sink and did the dishes for me on Mother's day because Dave had told him to think of something nice he could do for me on that special day. What a sweetheart!

At preschool, Micah had made a card and brought home a huge cupcake that he had decorated to share with me. The card was really sweet and the cupcake was delicious! If you can't read the picture, the part that he told his teacher to type up says "I love you because you make me chocolate chip cookies, and hug me and read me a story at bedtime!" So cute.

9 Months

I had every intention of keeping up with this blog. I wrote every day in December to try to get myself into a habit of sorts, but since then my habit has been once a month to keep up with the first year of my baby girl. Now I'm starting to miss the monthly updates, too. I have lots of things to write about but I'm going to start forgetting them if I don't get to it!

Frankie had her nine month appointment on the 24th and she was 16 lbs 9 oz (15th percentile); height was 26 3/8 (15th percentile) and her head was 18 in (90th percentile). She is crawling along best using her army crawl but once in awhile she gets her belly off the ground and crawls forward on her hands and knees. She is even starting to get up on her feet, pulling herself up on furniture. She is starting to cruise a little around the furniture once she gets herself up. She can get herself down but sometimes I think she is a little afraid and doesn't quite remember that she really can get herself down after pulling herself up to standing. It is quite a scary thing to figure out when you're that small I guess! She is still always very happy, but she likes to shriek at the highest pitch she can find when she's in her highchair and we haven't fed her quick enough. :)

8 Months

Francess is 8 months. She is delightful. She cut her first tooth a couple days ago - her bottom right front tooth. She is getting around pretty well with her army crawl, and she gets so excited when she sees the cat that she does a little jump with her toes propelling her whole body forward. She loves when Micah enters the room and watches him intently. She must be carried facing out so she can see what's going on. She gets a big cute smile on her face when she is told No. She is starting to show lots of personality, which is so fun to see. Sadly (for Dave) she prefers her Mama, so when he tries to comfort her at night she cries pretty hard when she realizes it's him and she watches the door for me to come. She eventually calms down with him rocking her... it usually doesn't take too long.

This Easter weekend I am so thankful for a healthy family, beautiful growing children, and most importantly I am thankful for the love of Christ that gives me life.

Spring Sing

Last Sunday we went to Micah's preschool church for a special presentation from him and his classmates. They had painted t-shirts and wore them for the song they did. Micah's shirt had a bumblebee on it. Some of the other kids had a butterfly and some had an octopus on their shirts. They sang the song "If I were a butterfly." One of the verses went like this: "If I were an octopus I'd thank the Lord for my good looks." Micah practiced singing it a couple times at home and on the way to church that morning. I thought it was very cute.

What a loving big brother :)

Happy girl!

7 Months

Time is flying by. Frankie is 7 months old. On Saturday, March 12th, Dave had gone to do some work at the office. Micah and I were playing his little travel-size Connect Four game, which highly interested Frankie. So, she pulled herself along on the floor to get to it. We had to call Dave at work to tell him "we have a crawler!" We haven't been able to keep her in one place since. She is army-crawling all over the place.

She's been a great sleeper for the past couple of months. She usually just wakes up once to be fed during the night. Sometimes it is at midnight right when I'm about to go to bed, or else at 4am. I am fine when it's just once like that. She's always up around 7am, like Micah. He has often been getting up more than her, having dreams/nightmares, going potty, asking for a back scratch in the middle of the night. It's kind of funny - we finally have a baby who now sleeps pretty much all the way through the night but our four year old has reverted back to infant stages!

Micah is really cool with her. He loves to read, so almost every morning they will both sit on the floor in her room after she's done nursing and he will read a story. Most of the board books in her room are easy and some of them he has memorized, but he's actually doing really well with reading.

Frankie is so sweet with Dave. He hasn't been able to be quite as involved with Frankie as he was with Micah because she doesn't take a bottle and Dave just doesn't have the right parts. But she still loves whenever she sees him. We tried out video chat on the Xbox one day when she was in her exersaucer and she got so excited that she jumped up and down and had a big smile. Now when he comes home she always has a big smile and gets bashful. In fact, whenever there is a man paying attention to her she kind of hides her face to the side and smirks a little. One time Dave thought she was trying to play peek-a-boo by turning her head away from him and then toward him while he had her on the changing table.

She is doing great with eating. She loves sweet potatoes and carrots. She is starting to enjoy bananas. She didn't really like the apple/blueberry mixture I tried to feed her and just yesterday I tried green beans, but she just spit them out. But she loves to eat. I'm thankful she eats rice cereal mixed with formula because I'm not a huge fan of pumping. Just a few weeks ago I went out for the first time in the evening without Frankie and Dave was home trying to put her sleep. Normally I have to nurse her. I was out for 2 hours when he finally texted me asking me to come home because she just wasn't going to sleep. Last night, though, I went out to the Sounders game with a friend. Frankie had a big dinner, I nursed her a little before I left and then I put her in her crib. She didn't fall asleep right away, but Dave rocked her and eventually she did. These are great first steps in finally being able to leave her with a babysitter and going out on a date!

6 months

Today Frankie turns six months. It's amazing! She's already half a year old. She had her 6 month check up yesterday and is doing well. We started her on rice cereal when we were visiting family in Ontario, and now we can start trying every other kind of baby food. I'm going to have to look up how to do it... I think I remember something about starting her with vegetables instead of fruit because the fruit is sweet and she won't want anything else if we go with that first. And I think maybe I am supposed to mix rice cereal and breast milk with the food to water it down and get her used to it. She liked the cereal well enough when we tried that, so hopefully we'll have another good eater. Micah was never too picky, and even now he'll eat pretty much anything we put in front of him.

I do want to record my birth story with Francess and I figure the six month marker is as good a time as any since I didn't do it way back when she was born. So, if you are reading this and are not too fond of hearing these details, you may want to stop now.

I had to schedule a c-section because Micah was born via emergency c-section when some complications arose, but I still wanted to try to give birth naturally this time. So I scheduled the c-section for five days after my due date, hoping I'd maybe go into labor sometime before the date came. My parents were arriving a day before my due date and staying for about a week. For weeks, I had been having plenty of contractions. I was counting them, but they weren't bothering me enough to feel the need to call. There were times when I definitely had contractions that were strong enough to make me stop and breathe through it, but that wouldn't last too long. When my parents were here, we even went to the zoo with Micah and walked around a lot. I was hoping that maybe my water would break and I could get this baby out of me! But, looking back, I sure am glad that my water did not break at the zoo. I don't think we would have made it to the hospital in time!

So, August 23rd came, the day of my scheduled c-section. My parents said some prayers for us and sent us off to the hospital. When I got there, the nurse set up the monitors and could tell that I was contracting quite regularly and that I was already 5 cm dilated and almost 100 % effaced because she felt that she almost broke my water sack just by checking. They wondered if I'd like to have my water broken and try going into labor just to try doing a the VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). I wanted to try that, so my doctor came in, broke my water, and then they moved me to labor and delivery. The nurse there told me I'd want to get up and walk up and down the hallways, and try moving about to help the baby get into position. I was also allowed to drink and eat something, so I ordered a sandwich from the hospital menu. When it came, not too long after I ordered, I took maybe one bite but I was not hungry even though I hadn't eaten since the night before. With the scheduled surgery I wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything at all for 8 hours ahead.

I decided to get up and "walk." I made it as far as the toilet in my room and started feeling like I had to push. David had gone out to the car to get our overnight bag, and he barely made it back in time! From the time they broke my water to when I was pushing was maybe about 45 minutes, and the nurses thought that was super fast. I don't know, I just knew I had to push and could feel that my body knew what to do. The nurse was concerned that I was going to push the baby out into the toilet, so she made me come back to the bed and she called the doctor to come. The nurse also told me to try not to push until the doctor got there, but that was very difficult. Since I was told to try to stop what my body wanted so naturally to do, I asked for the epidural. Actually, they HAD to give me the epidural since I was scheduled for a c-section, in case they had to the do the cesarean anyway. It was difficult holding still for the anesthesiologist, but somehow the guy got it in me and then I felt the sweet relief. I just wish I had had the presence of mind to ask for a smaller dosage of the epidural so that I could still feel a little bit. The epidural worked so well that I couldn't feel anything and I couldn't feel how to push. So when they had me try pushing again, I wasn't doing it right and she wasn't coming. The baby's heartrate would drop a little, so they would have me stop pushing and just rest for about an hour, letting my body do the work of getting the baby down into position, and then try again. This kept happening for about 4 more hours, until finally I was exhausted from pushing and waiting and pushing some more, so the doctor offered to try the vacuum extraction. I was so exhausted and just felt DONE with pushing, so I said if the vacuum didn't work I just wanted her out by c-section. They moved me to the OR and got the team all ready for the c-section in case this didn't work. But on the first try, Frankie came out!

2011 Trip to Ontario

We had a wonderful visit to Ontario at the beginning of February. We flew right when a huge storm was hitting pretty much every state in the east and middle parts of the US as well as Canada. Our original flight was supposed to go from Seattle to Chicago to Buffalo, but since Chicago was supposed to get hit pretty hard, we decided to change the flight. United Airlines switched us to fly through Washington DC. When we arrived in DC, all the flights to Buffalo were cancelled, so we had to stay the night and then fly the next day out of Reagan National airport, on US Airways instead of United. When we got on the plane in DC to fly to Buffalo, they decided that the storm would be hitting Buffalo right when we were to fly in, so they were going to redirect us to Philadelphia first and then go to Buffalo after the storm hit. My parents had been waiting in Buffalo for a few days, and hadn't seen much of a storm. We finally landed there in the evening but of course our luggage didn't make it. It was stuck in DC. US Airways was going to get it on the next flight to Buffalo in the morning and then drive it over the border to us in Canada. I was surprised. I thought we'd have to stay another night in Buffalo, but thankfully they brought it to us, much to my parent's relief as they were done with staying in a hotel and just wanted to get home. We were ready to get to our destination too! I was thankful our kids did great with all the travelling. Micah was excited about having to take THREE airplanes instead of just two. David's mom had watched for cancelled flights and booked a beautiful room in the Marriott Suites for us to stay the night in DC. We had a nice, luxurious night. Sadly, though, we were on PST and slept in past the time the pool was open so Micah was a little disappointed when Dave took him to go swimming while we waited for our next flight out of DC and found the pool locked.

I remember what it was like flying for the first time with a baby and how stressful it was to make sure he was good and quiet for the other passengers, and how much extra stuff you have to bring along when you have a baby. This time around, with two kids, I found it so much easier. I am much more relaxed as a parent and don't stress about a baby crying even if it disturbs the other passengers. It doesn't help anyone if I get worked up and stressed out, so I just stay calm. It definitely helps that David and I traveled together, because since there is a lot of cargo that comes with carrying a baby around, the extra set of hands comes in most helpful, especially going through security. On the way home, unfortunately, we had forgotten the stroller in my parents garage, so we had to carry Frankie in the carseat through the airport, but thankfully we didn't get stopped anywhere and had two easy flights home.

Micah and Grandma at the retreat

Uncle Greg and Aunt Amanda snuggling with Francess at the retreat

Micah showing his friends how his Leapster works

Movie time with Grandma and Grandpa, watching Micah's current favorite, Toy Story 3

Grandpa and Frankie

Grandma and Frankie

"We're gonna getchya Daddy, watch out!"

Shoveling the walkway

Rosy cheeks

While in Ontario, we had a great time visiting with my parents, playing in the snow, spending time at a family camp with close family friends, visiting with my grandparents, my dad's sister, and my close friends and all their kiddos.

My lovely girlfriends and all their kids. It's amazing how things change so much in just one year. All those babies weren't here the last time I visited.

Micah is reading a book to Frankie with Great Gran

Here Micah is showing Great Gran how his Tag reading system works

During the week we were there, Frankie really started being able to sit pretty well on her own. My mom noticed a difference from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. My mom also started feeding Frankie rice cereal for the first time while we were there!

He's one very protective big brother!

I am so thankful for these two cuties and super blessed to be raising them.

Five months, January 23rd

I did so well in December, posting almost everyday about what we were doing. Now we're halfway into February already and I haven't posted since Christmas! Back on January 23rd I had taken a picture of Frankie's fifth month. What a delightful little girl she is! She's always got lots of big happy smiles for us.

Advent Day 24: Hang Stockings

Today was a sad day because Micah came down with the stomach flu and was sick a couple times during the day, and the rest of the day he was just laying on his tummy on the couch watching movies. Frankie, also, because she had her 4 month shots the previous day, slept for a long time in the afternoon. They were both out of it, but it gave me a chance to get the house cleaned up since we were having David's parents over for dinner. They brought the dinner, and it was a simple dinner of cracked crab, salad, and bread. I made a cranberry brie for an appetizer and we had Christmas cookies for dessert. It was nice to have his parents over, and it might be a tradition for them to stop at our house first before they head up to David's sister house for the night on Christmas Eve. Micah had a little bit of chicken noodle soup, opened up his presents of new Christmas jammies and the book "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then went to bed. Thankfully, he wasn't sick during the night, but he was still getting over the bug the next day. He was not his super excitable self on Christmas morning, but he did enjoy it. I'm glad he was starting to feel a little bit better so we could go up to David's sister's house and enjoy the time with family.

Merry Christmas!

Putting out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer

Micah and his pouty face, Frankie, and Nana. I have a better picture of Micah but decided to go with this one because it probably captures best how he is feeling! Right now he likes pouting for the camera (for reasons only a four year old would know though he couldn't articulate), so I kept it.

Someone dropped off a pretty baby under our tree!

Hanging stockings

Christmas morning!

Advent Day 23: cookies and lights

I did what the card said today but not really with Micah. We were supposed to bake cookies and drive to see Christmas lights. I made peppermint bark and some other kinds that either had to be heated or that I wanted done quickly, so this time it was not with Micah. The lights drive was never really done purposefully. We did it a few times just around our neighborhood on our way in or out of the neighborhood. There are about 650 houses so we can see lots of lights, but nothing really extravagant because our houses are all so close together and no one has big yards with lots of trees to decorate elaborately. I had heard about a neighborhood that has great lights, but it just didn't work for us this time. We had Frankie's doctor's appointment on this day and Micah had soccer until about 6:30pm so we came home, had dinner and got the kids to bed. Good thing we don't have very many more days of this advent schedule because I'm getting tired of coming up with an activity and having to follow through with it everyday! It's been fun while it lasted, and hopefully we'll continue the tradition in the coming years.

Advent Day 22: Open a present and Read a Christmas Story

We had a couple stories we wanted to read to Micah before Christmas, so we wrapped up a few to make it more fun for him. One was The Nutcracker. We had considered going to see the Nutcracker Ballet with his cousins in Seattle, but decided against it since it was a hard time for David to go and I wasn't about to try to take him and Frankie by myself. We've never read the story, so he (nor I!) would have a clue what's going on and I couldn't really predict what Frankie would do. So instead of going with them in Seattle, we saw that our city was also putting it on for a fraction of the cost. We thought we might go, but ended up not doing it. However, we got the book this year so we could read it and maybe one of these years we will see it and understand it.

Four and four

On December 23rd Francess turned four months. I captured a photo of her, although it wasn't the best time of day. I should have taken it in the morning because she is always very happy and smiley at that time. This was taken in the evening, after a long day of seeing the doctor, getting her shots and being at Micah's soccer game.

Miss Frankie is doing very well. She is 90th percentile for her height, 50% for weight and 75% for her head circumference. We thought we might start her soon on rice cereal but the doc said we'll wait until 6 months and keep nursing as her main source of nutrition as long as she doesn't demand to be eating like the rest of the family.

This month will be the only time in their lives that Micah and Frankie will have the same number respresenting their ages. Micah is four years and Frankie is four months. Here is what four and four looks like:

Micah, you are such a fun, energetic and joyful boy. I look at you and can't believe how grown up you are. Gone are your chubby cheeks, you are now a long, lean and strong boy. You are so interested in reading words and in learning to spell. I look forward to the day you will be reading books on your own to your little sister. You are such a great big brother, caring for and kissing Frankie. You amuse me with your sarcastic humor (you must get it from your father), changing lyrics to songs like "Santa Claus is coming to town" (So be BAD for goodness sake!). You are a joy with friends and your enthusiasm is contagious, though your excitement can be a little jolting for those that prefer a quieter type.

You take music and actions very seriously, and your teachers say you can be heard above all the other little voices at preschool. You know what songs you want in the car, (and thankfully they are usually songs and artists I like), but you are a little too demanding sometimes and need to remember you are not in charge. You are very observant especially on the roads we drive and you seem to never forget certain ways we go. You love to include others, you share well. You are working on listening, but sometimes we need to light a fire under you to help you understand what it means that we're in a hurry. It has been sad to see you with the stomach flu for the past couple of days over Christmas, but even with that your spirit has stayed strong, you've fought through it and you have still had a great attitude and a smile on your face. I just want to squeeze you tight, you are such a sweet little man.

My dear Frankie Jane: what a gift you are to our home. If I had my way, I would keep you like this forever so I could kiss your chubby cheeks and touch your supersoft downy skin as I already do all day every day. You are so mild-mannered and easy going. You rarely fuss, and when you do it's easily remedied with feeding, sleeping or changing. Soon we are going to have to work on sleeping flat on your back in your crib. I have created a couple of bad habits that may be hard to break. I imagine, though, that you'll take it like a pro and stay mostly happy. You usually just go with the flow, wherever we are - swimming or soccer or driving to and from preschool. Micah is running us all over and you are just happy to tag along. You love listening to Charlotte Church's Christmas music in the car with the rest of us right now and if you're fussy you will usually quiet right down and listen. Will you sing in the opera? :)

You are always so alert. You don't like to stay sleeping too long if there is something happening around you, and you don't complain about being aroused from a nap because you like to observe whatever is going on. You crane your neck to observe big brother and give him gummy smiles and even little tiny chuckles to his peek-a-boos. I'm sure he'll always be your hero. You are beautiful and I absolutely love your babyness. You will soon grow and require discipline, so I am cherishing each peaceful, quiet moment and even the sleepless nights because there will be an end to this period of time and different challenges will come. I just ask for one thing: as we get you sleeping properly in your crib at night, would you please start sleeping for longer than 2 1/2 hour bouts? That'd be great, thanks.

Advent Day 21: Visit Santa

This didn't turn out nearly as well as it could of. We thought Micah would be excited to see Santa, but it seemed like he didn't really care. David had something come up at work and he really wanted to be there, so we waited around at the mall for a while. Micah was happy playing on the play area outside Target for most of the time. When David got there we first went to eat, which turned out to be a mistake. We wanted to get pictures with a certain Santa, who has a nice, jolly look to him. But since we ate dinner first, during that time the jolly Santa switched shifts with another Santa, who had an OBVIOUSLY fake beard (one that moved when he spoke), looked like his belly was stuffed with a pillow, and just couldn't move. Micah has this thing right now about sticking out his lower lip whenever he gets his picture taken, so he did that for this picture too. They took two photos and somehow one turned out with a smile so we chose that one, but I think it would have been funny to choose the one with the pout.



We probably would have had a lot more fun had we gone on Friday with Micah's cousins in Seattle, who are really excited about Santa and might have helped Micah smile, and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. It's okay, though. After Santa photos we also took a couple seconds in a photo booth with the four of us stuffed in and took some family photo booth photos, which Micah thought was hilarious. :)





Reading: John 21:25

Advent Days: 18 and 19

Again, I need to catch up. I'm sure it's okay that I'm not posting every single day because the 2 people who read this most likely are not rushing to their computers each day hoping to see what crazy fun we had. But it's a good challenge for me to try to keep my family updated on what we're doing, so I will keep it going for at least a few more days. David has been extremely busy with his work this month. Usually December is a little slower, but this year that has not been the case. So I can't have the laptop in the evenings to work on blog posts because he's doing something he deems a little more imporant. And usually in the evenings after I've fed Frankie and put her to bed I just want to veg out, but I have either been busy doing the dishes and cleaning up or wrapping presents. And besides, I would much rather do something downstairs near David than upstairs in the disasterous computer room that stresses me out just being in.

Day 18: Christmas Movie

Even though this day was a Saturday and we would normally plan something a little bigger to do with the whole family on weekends, we made it super simple because David was away the whole day working on migrating a server or something and he wasn't sure how long it was going to take. Which usually means for me to expect it to take all day. We missed Daddy, but still had a fun, simple day. Micah chose his Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas movie, which he had been obsessed with watching last year at Grandma and Grandpa's after he received it for Christmas. Earlier this month I said that Micah and David watched this Mickey's Christmas movie together, but I was mistaken. They had watched an old-school Mickey Mouse from the 80s, with clumsy Donald and his three nephews who tried to kill him with their snowballs. David loved watching it with Micah because Micah thought it was absolutely hilarious. I think David misses the cartoon violence because it just isn't quite like that anymore.

Once David got home I got together with my crafty friend (Lincoln's mommy) and broke out the sewing machine which hasn't been touched in a couple years. I had Frankie with me, so I didn't get a whole lot sewn, but with my friend Amanda back in town for a few weeks she renews my desire to get my craft on. :)

Reading: Isaiah 58; Matthew 6:16-18




Day 19: Family Game Day

After church we spent the whole day together, eating lunch, running some errands and then playing games, like chutes and ladders or on the Wii or Xbox 360. We all love games, so we had a fun time. Since David didn't watch the movie with us yesterday we also watched a short movie that we streamed from netflix with Jason Alexander (aka George from Seinfeld) who lent his voice for a cartoon Elf. I didn't know he's a broadway performer and he sang a couple songs during the show. Anyway, David made his yummy, extra buttery popcorn and we enjoyed a short movie together before bedtime.

Reading: Luke 11:1-13

Advent Day 20: Dress Up For Dinner

This night we were going to have a nice family dinner together, and it turned out fine... but I made the mistake of letting Micah choose the menu. He wanted hot dogs for our nice dressy dinner! Next time I'll give him a couple options to choose from, but I made the best of it this time. We ate hot dogs by candlelight in our dressy clothes. Haha. I also made a salad, some star-shaped pasta with butter and parmesan, and cooked carrots. At least we all enjoyed spending a nice evening together. However, something unfortunately did not agree with Micah and he started feeling ill after dinner and actually threw up sometime during the night.


Reading: John 1

Advent Days 15, 16 and 17

I need to catch up from the last few days. We haven't really been doing anything super exciting, so I'll just clump the last three days together. I needed a few days to take a break from the crazy activities we've been doing, and still I've felt super busy.

Day 15: Micah colored a few Christmas pages this day. He loves dot-to-dots and mazes, so I found some pages online and printed them out. The envelope that he opened had the card telling him what he could do, as well as the printed pages folded inside. A little something extra to find in his envelope made it a little more fun, but he lasted a whole 2 minutes coloring. :) (Bible reading today: Luke 1 and Jeremiah 32:17)

Day 16: He had his preschool Christmas production. Cute singing and actions, but we couldn't understand a word of their songs! They sent home a booklet with all of the songs they sang, so he's been doing them for us one on one, which helps to understand. We got video of this pageant too, so when we upload them to the computer I'll put them on here. I made up a plate of Christmas cookies to take to both of his teachers to thank them for their hard work and loving dedication to teaching our very energetic 4 year old boy. (Bible Reading today: Matthew 2:1-12)

Day 17: Today we met up with a friend who is back in town for the holidays and Micah played with his buddy at the BIG SLIDE that he asks about every time we drive by a McDonalds or Burger King that have indoor Play Places. We had gone once to this really big McDonalds Play Place with his buddy Lincoln and since then he asks to go there every time. We haven't been back until today when we went with Lincoln. He's probably going to assume we will only be able to go there if Lincoln is also there. So Lincoln and his sister Evan were there with their mommy, who had not met Frankie yet and was excited to see her. The boys were crazy on the huge apparatus and loved every minute of it. They were sweaty and red-faced when we left. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures from today. (Bible Reading today: Galatians 4:1-7)