7 Month Milestones

The latest new tricks for our little one include:

Waving & Clapping - YEA!

Sounds include: guh, muh, the, duh, buh, in any combination

She gets on her hands and knees and does some heavy duty rocking, and will pick up one hand to get something, but no crawling yet :-)

Since she started daycare she's definitely more vocal in expressing her discontent with something (whereas before she was so laid back, I think she must have just learned that expressing discontent was possible!). Then again, she's been sick twice and we're only in Week 3 of daycare, and I think she's teething, so that could be part of it, too? She sleeps hardly at all at daycare as well, so that, I feel, has something to do with it, too. She loves school, though, and she always seems so happy when we go to pick her up, so thankful for that. :-)

All in all, she's so precious, and we are loving every minute of being new parents!

Bargain Shopper!

Something I learned pretty quickly on about having a child is that little kid's clothes, and really anything that has the word "Baby" slapped on it, is expensive, or at least, more expensive than you would think! A cute little outfit (a normal one, not a boutique one, even) costs anywhere from $15-$25, which is amazing considering how small it is, haha!

So once again this year, we went to the local Moms of Multiples garage sale - this time in search of clothes for the next chapter...12 to 18 months!

I invited Courtney along with me, so it was very early (probably the only way you can get me to wake up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning), and it was pretty cold, but we had a lot of fun shopping and saving some money.

She was in search of a Baby Bjorn (which she found an almost new one for $15), and other essentials, so she definitely cleaned up as well.

Here's a list of what I got for our little one:

• 2 pairs of slippers


• Overalls


• Bathing suit and cover up


• Swim float


• 2 dresses


• 3 skirts


• 8 shirts


• 3 sweaters


• 3 sweatsuits


• 6 onesies


• 4 jeans


• 5 pants


• Xylophone toy


• Foam block set


• Sesame Street pop-up


• Elmo DVD


• A floating ball toy (where the ball hovers in the air of a fan)


• Little People Zoo Set (this alone is $68 on Amazon)


• Princess play tube for when she starts crawling (thanks to friend, Stephanie!)


• A million links


• Easter Ears headband


• Rattle


• Whole bag of safety latches


• 24 diapers

I figured that had we bought it all brand new (as the brands of the clothes consist of Baby Gap, Osh Kosh, Ralph Lauren, Carter's, etc.), it would have cost somewhere over $700 at a conservative guess. And I paid $93... oh yeah! :-) I love that... the clothes all look brand new, so everything is in the wash, and Bella is playing with her new toys and loving them.

7 Months!

My baby is now 7 months old - I can't believe it! Where the heck has time gone?! Developments as of this week - she can wave AND clap! It's amazing how seeing her learn something like that just tickles us to absolute pieces... it's the BEST!

I'm still working on gaining balance at work, still being the wife and mother I want to be, working out, cooking decent meals (and I use decent loosely at this point), and trying to be everything I want to be. Certain things have definitely slipped, but I just try to keep Hubby's saying in my mind: "Focus on the significant few, not the trivial many." It's my mantra these days :-). I'm hoping to carve out some more time for this blog as I really love writing it and having the record, so this is my 5 minute attempt to ease back in...

Happy Mardi Gras!

Super Mom!

So I am a working (new) mom, and although I knew it would be hard, and a huge adjustment, I think it is still hitting me like a freight train just HOW hard this all is. I daily battle with my own expectations of being the mom I've always dreamed of being, the best wife, the career woman, and everything in between. Curt has to constantly remind me not to dwell on the "trivial many," versus the "critical few," but for someone like me that is hard to absorb.

Oh sure, I'm perpetually behind on laundry (unlike the old days where every Sunday it was started and completed), we're living off of chicken nuggets and macaroni and other meals that take virtually ZERO prep /cook time, I haven't been able to work out hardly at all since day one back at the job (and oh yeah, supposed to be running a half marathon in two months - huh?), and I get to spend about 15 minutes of time with my daughter at night after I get home (not counting when I am feeding her, which does count of course for quality time, but not for the extra time I'm craving with her). All the while I'm thinking to myself, how does this get easier, knowing all the while, it doesn't! It's going to get harder! A reality check like no other...

I don't want it to seem like I'm complaining - while all of this is taking place I am living my dream of being a mom to the most amazing, beautiful girl and it is also the BEST time of my life (this is so weird to me, but it's so true?). It is all worth it when, for example, my Bella finds her squealing voice over the weekend, and I get to see her literally grow before my eyes. It's easy to work every night and weekend knowing what I am working towards, it's just all of the OTHER stuff getting in the way that seems to weigh on me. Prime example, last week a lady rear ends me on my way to work. Thankfully I had JUST dropped Bella off for the day, but here I was minding my own business at a stop light and BAM! Just perfect... what a great way to start the day (I swear you slap a "baby on board" magnet on your car and all of a sudden you're a magnet - 2nd time since Bella was born!). Add a sick husband (who now can't touch our daughter for fear of germ-spreading), then me getting sick after (switch!), and other miscellaneous curve balls, and it's one of those times where the hits just keep on coming.

Thankfully I won't have to work nights and weekends for too much longer which is good because 6 weeks of it non-stop with a 3, now 4 month old has been pretty hard. All of it just makes me that much more impressed with my own mom... I look at her now through a new set of eyes - now THERE is a Super Mom. I need to work harder (and check any attitude that's trying to pop up at 4 a.m. at the door).

My new favorite quote that enters my mind all the time: "I have so much to do, I need to spend another hours on my knees, (praying)" - Martin Luther This is so me right now...

Bella updates: She had her 4-month appointment this week and now weighs 14 pounds - big girl! She is growing at a steady rate, which makes me proud of myself (she is exclusively breast fed), but that's another post! :-) Evidence of growth below - she can now touch the floor in her jumper. I remember putting her in this for the first time (with a teddy bear stuffed behind her to support her / make her fit), and it looked ridiculous because her little legs were dangling so high above the floor. Now look at her!

Dreams to Reality

I have been on a blog hiatus for awhile, but because I love having all of these posts to look back upon, I need to stay as current as possible so I can treasure this special time in our lives (even if it's spending time that I really don't have logging all of the great things about being a Mommy, because it is SO GREAT)!

Today was all about realizing a long time dream of mine, and that was taking our daughter, Bella, to the Renaissance Festival! I know it may sound silly to some, but as I have gone there since I was a baby (every year), it has always been something that I couldn't wait to share with my children someday, and that day finally arrived! It was beyond special...

Bella ate and slept some while we were there, but for the most part, her little eyes took it all in - there was a lot to see!

I just can't wait for the many more years to come... years where she'll play in the sand with the fairies that sand paint there, stare in awe at the ogres, laugh at the men in the mud pit, wear princess hats, ride the elephants, play games like pluck the duck, ride the big swing, watch the parade, and learn about birds of prey, and dance to the bagpipes... all while feeling that it's like a storybook that has come to life.

Then to come home and have a great dinner with "back door" friends... my heart is full tonight. :-)

Garage Sale FUN!

I know it's been forever since my last posting, and my belly has grown quite a bit since then, but baby girl attended her second garage sale (but this one was all for her), and we wanted to share our booty! I have been busy bargain shopping for awhile trying to collect and nest away everything that we'll need, and while I am nowhere *close* (who knew having a baby would be so overwhelming with STUFF), we are getting closer and closer... Main purchases thus far have been our strollers, car seat, enough cloth diapers from eBay to last us a very long time, and our latest purchases came from a Mom's of Multiples sale this past weekend. We were hoping to find some furniture, but instead were faced with a bunch of clothes! We figured since the average outfit seems to run from $9-$15 that we'd go ahead and stock up, so bought the following: Non-clothes:

• Squishy, noise making blocks


• Dishwasher bottle thingy


• 9 books


• 1 CD


• 2 DVD's


• Bathtub


• 4 Toys (stroller attachments mostly and a cute stuffed giraffe that Curt picked out)

Clothes:

• Hat


• 9 Dresses


• 9 Onesies


• Maternity dress for me


• 1 bib


• 1 jean skirt


• 1 top


• 2 pajamas


• 1 sleep sack


• 2 bathing suits


• 1 jacket


• 2 leggings


• 2 Aggie onesies, matching socks, and a football wristband


• 1 ballet skirt / tutu


• 1 pair of the most tiny and precious tap shoes (Curt insisted - it was the cutest EVER)!

We got all of the above for a whopping $67. Keep in mind that in buying used stuff, especially for Baby, I am picky when it comes to quality. What's great about this sale is that these parents have so many kids, and thus so many clothes, that if you took the time to dig a little, you could find some almost new stuff - it was so fun! Conservatively I estimate that we saved a little over $300, and have some GREAT stuff to take her through the first year (we tried to buy for all stages of the first 18 months as we know babies grow so fast).

Note that Maverick is getting used to all of this new stuff, LOL! :-)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

It’s definitely been awhile since my last post, but things have been pretty busy with transitioning back to life in Texas after a year and a half in China (2 for the Curt)! We’re so happy to be home, of course, and things are finally starting to settle down. I’d say we’re 95% finished with getting things back to normal in our house (just two rooms left to put back together), we’ve both started our jobs up once again, and with the coming of the Christmas holidays, we’re finally able to take a breath and slow down (except I haven’t quite finished my Christmas shopping – maybe tonight)!

Since I last wrote we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary by heading up to the Pacific Northwest for an adventurous road trip in a VW Westfalia van! We spent 6 days seeing Seattle, the San Juan islands, Vancouver / Victoria, the rest of Washington state with it’s beautiful state and national parks, and the top of Oregon. We covered a LOT of ground in our trusty Westy, and had a blast finding campgrounds each night and making that van our home away from home. The weather was perfect – we had sunshine the whole time except for maybe 2 minutes of rain one day when we were out on our whale watching tour – what luck! I'm going to try and write more about this trip soon as it was just so incredible, but here's a teaser picture of one of our favorites Curt captured - woohoo! :-)

We saw some gorgeous sights between the majestic mountains, forests, beaches, and ocean / bays. We took several ferries to get to where we needed to be, and saw lots of wildlife in and out of the water including: bald eagles, orca whales, harbor seals, Steller seals (the grizzlies of the ocean – they’re HUGE), and unidentified porpoises. It was just what we needed to celebrate coming home, and getting our minds around our new roles work-wise back here at home.

Since we’ve started back at work, things have been so CRAZY! We’re working so hard at juggling our new home-schedule, trying to figure out how we used to do things, and making revisions to ensure we’re living as “balanced” as possible (read: more working out, trying to fall into our household roles now that we don’t have Ping Mei, and trying to have more time for the important people in our lives)!

We’re so excited about Christmas, and particularly this year with being home for good and appreciating the USA, we’re focusing on putting Jesus at the center of it (since it’s He’s the reason for the season in the first place). We’re just so thankful for our many blessings, and so thrilled to be starting this new chapter in our lives (or rather, re-starting and picking back up our lives here at home)!

I’ll be posting more often soon as things start to slow down, but in the meantime, *MERRY CHRISTMAS* to all of you!

"Let every heart, prepare Him room..."

Hey Hey Stockholm!

So I'm finally back in the states again, and this time for longer than mere days... whew! While traveling is wonderful and a huge part of my life, I'm relieved to say I have no big trips coming up (except for WV over July 4th weekend, but as far as I'm concerned, if the flight is less than 10 hours, it hardly counts)!

But this last trip to Stockholm was wonderful... it was a girl's trip with Vicki and Jo, and over a week and a half of London to start with, hopping over to Stockholm for the week, and back to London for a day before heading home (so we could pick up and drop off Jo there, and because airfare to Stockholm directly was more expensive with miles and such).

There's no way I can do a day by day account since I wasn't writing while there (sorry!), but I can give some highlights and post some of my favorite pictures...

In London just minutes away from seeing Sex and the City 2 (a GREAT jet lag fighter)!

The countryside just a short walk from Jo's hometown / village of Witham on the Hill... so picturesque and a perfect English day!



Then off to Stockholm! Stockholm is an amazing city that resembles other European cities, but dropped into an alpine looking climate (minus the mountains) with tall pine trees and beautiful green scenery and LOTS and LOTS of water!

One of our first days was spent touring the Royal Palace, which was especially fun because there is to be a royal wedding next week and the whole city was buzzing with the excitement and anticipation!

Changing of the guard at the palace

Outside the palace in one of the squares

Another favorite activity was getting to see Stockholm by boat! They have both a Hop On Hop Off Bus tour, AND a Hop On Hop Off Boat Tour, so we opted to see the city by sea in the middle of Stockholm's famous archipelago!

The Royal Palace from the water


One of the stops on the tour boat was the Vasa Museum... one of the highlights for me to be sure! It's a museum dedicated to the Vasa warship - a genuine and authentic Man-of-War from the 1600's that sank on its maiden voyage, and thus rested on the ocean floor for over 300 years before it was brought up in the 60's or 70's to be 95% in tact as it was the day it sank... absolutely incredible!

We see man-of-wars in films, and I read about them all the time in my obsession with historical fiction, so to see what an actual warship of they day looked like was impressive. It was absolutely larger than life and truly awesome. The Vasa is the only surviving man-of-war of its kind from that era, and it gave me goosebumps to imagine what it would have looked like in the water (if it hadn't sunk of course - it was top heavy), and to think of what kind of heart-dropping fear it would have inspired to anyone who sighted it on water approaching... wow.



Skansen was another big outing for us as it is one of the more famous activities in Stockholm. It's basically a large park that boasts a zoo of nordic animals, and also a bunch of authentic and original buildings and villages from across Sweden's regions and historical eras that have been moved there for preservation and educational purposes. They have people stationed in each area to tell visitors about life in that snapshot in time, and even demonstrations, and it was so cool and fun to have a wander around this huge park!










We also spent one day exploring the archipelago by boat! We took an hour and a half boat ride out to Vaxholm, a small island that is both quaint and cute, to explore and be there for the Boat Day Parade (I swear we were in Stockholm at all the right moments - all of these wonderful holidays and activities that we were completely unaware of that we got to take so much advantage of)!




Stockholm by sunset on our way back from Vaxholm

The steamships coming in as a boat parade!

A Band playing for the parade in front of the Vaxholm Palace / Fortress

SWEDISH PANCAKES! YUM!

Then at the end of the week it was time for the Stockholm Marathon! Vicki and Jo both did so great, and I had such a good time running all over Stockholm to see them both 4 times before the finish line! The 5+ hours went by actually really quickly, and I was so proud of them... below is a picture of us when they both finished!

A smiling Jo turning the corner of mile 21!

Over the whole course of the trip I found myself going back to Gamla Stan - the old town. It's so pretty, and quaint, and reminded me of Italy so every spare moment I had was spent somewhere on the tiny island...






Us girls at what became my favorite little coffee shop! They even provide blankets to customers, and we had such fun overlooking the square!

One night (a Tuesday, I believe) we landed in this bar with a live music cover band... we had a blast dancing and letting a little loose!







A party "bus" - they were all over Stockholm on Friday... speakers booming music, student age people screaming and yelling, throwing beer and making it fizz on passerbys (you could hear them coming from a mile away so if you were in the line of fire it was your own fault)... we have no idea if school had just gotten out or what, but it looked kind of fun!

I loved, loved, loved this... a huge sphere that was let down for prayerful people and then hoisted up in the back of the church.



Swedish meatballs - YUM!

Love 2010 live music in celebration of National Day and the Royal Wedding. My favorite was Johnossi who sang "What's the Point" - such a great song that I looked it up here on itunes but it's not out yet in the U.S.

So that's Sweden in a nutshell! Will probably go back someday as it was so pretty - this time I'll take Curt with me!