Baby Conly

Abe Scooting

2010-01-11T14:05:00.000-06:00

Yay. Mobility.

Will I ever Blog again?

2010-01-11T11:25:00.004-06:00

I stink at blogging these days. I just do. Poor Abe. The second child syndrome is definitely there-- less pictures, no baby book (yet), less attention, and also less blogging.

I want to do a quick update though it will be far from thorough and hopefully help all you wonderful friends and family caught up a bit.

Well, first things first, we will be moving in less than 2 weeks! Yes, you read that right. We have been wanting to move closer in to Austin for awhile now and we finally are. We want to be closer to our church community as well as closer to where Rocky drives everyday for work. We are super excited (and nervous all at the same time). The house is only about a mile from downtown in East Austin. The house is a little bigger and very close to great friends.

Big things have been happening with the kids as well. Abe is now 8 months old. The last 2 months have been the biggest as far as milestones in his life. He is finally sleeping through the night! Rocky and I are now much happier because of it. He is eating solids well now and not nearly as picky as he used to be. He has been able to sit up on his own for about a month or so now which we were beginning to think he may never do. He has 2 teeth now, and he is truly mobile and into everything. He seems to be able to find cords wherever he is.

The biggest news in Adelaide's life is that she is (knock on wood) pretty much potty trained. This is almost a year after her first successful attempt. It has been a very long road, but like everyone says, working on it doesn't matter at all until they are ready. Unfortunately she kept changing her mind about being ready. It may sound silly, but please pray for no regression this go 'round. It is much nicer at this age. She can go all by herself-- pull down pants and panties, go (though I help her wipe), she pulls everything back on, dumps her stuff in the potty, and can even pull her stool up to the sink and wash her hands. She is still having about one accident every other day, but other than that she'll stop whatever she's in the middle of to go potty. At a party a few days ago, she couldn't find us but found a good friend of ours and asked her to bring her to the potty. She will go in the middle of playing, watching TV, etc. I feel so encouraged that she truly is doing it all herself and initiating herself. The last few times she was "successful" it was because I would make her go every hour. It seemed to stress her out. It's nice that she is thinking of it all on her own. Once she is completely accident free for 5 days in a row, she is going to have a Princess Party. She has it all planned out and is excited. Rocky is being super strict about what "accident free" means. One day she only had a little pee in her pull up, so little pee that the symbols on the front didn't even disappear (you know what I mean if you have toddlers I'm sure). Rocky still wouldn't count it as accident free. I guess I see his point. It is a whole party. Anyway, I'm excited.

Here's some recent pictures:

Opening Christmas presents our family sent. Adelaide loves her princess fishing pole.

Can you tell she's a little addicted to princesses?

Abe was super excited about his presents.

My nearly finished Jesse Tree. It was alot of work but I look forward to using this for many years to come. Each pocket will store the ornament and the scripture reference until the day it is supposed to be read. I plan to add a blanket stitch around the outside of the tree to make it even cuter-- next Christmas.

Christmas

2009-12-25T23:03:00.003-06:00

OK, so once again I'm going to be lazy and just post a link to my photos on flickr. I'll post one absolutely adorable one of Abe just to entice you. Here are tons more of my adorable baby boy.

I've got pictures of our trip to Seaworld we took on Wednesday. It was probably the best trip we've had there yet. The weather was absolutely perfect and even though we didn't get there until noon, we got to do everything we wanted to do and didn't suffer at all from the kids being tired late in the day. We got to build toys, visit with Santa, fed dolphins (which we hadn't wanted to pay for up until now), watched the Sesame Street Christmas show, enjoyed the always funny Sea lion show, and nearly cried at the Shamu show. However, Adelaide favorite thing wasn't any of those things. It was her first ever roller coaster ride.

She kept asking to go on it over and over. Rocky walked her up to the height requirement sign to show her she wasn't tall enough. Being 2 inches shy of the required 38", the attendant said, "it's OK. She can go." Rocky kept asking her if she wanted to back out and she kept assuring him she didn't. Well, off they went. Abe and I watched from the side and I panicked a little as they rocketed off.

As the roller coaster came to a stop, I heard a kid sobbing. I thought for sure it was Adelaide, but no. I saw her jumping up and down with her arms in the air, squealing with delight. Rocky said he wished he could of recording her expressions the entire ride. She was yelling "yes!" and had her arms. When the ride stopped, she said, "Thanks Shamu for taking me for a ride!" It was awesome. It's all the talked about the rest of the day. So cute.

Christmas day was incredible. We started out with stockings and then made a beautifully delicious breakfast (one of my favorites), eggs benedict. After breakfast, reading the Christmas story, and adding our last ornament to our Jesse Tree, we moved on to presents. Adelaide couldn't have been happier with all her gifts-- a doll house, cash register, homemade scarf, puzzle book, new glow in the dark book, etc. And Abe surprising got into it. He kept looking at us with this expression that said, "is it really ok for me to destroy this paper?" The shape sorter was a big hit with both him and Adelaide. I bought it because it was Adelaide's absolute favorite toy when she was a baby (we'd checked it out from the toy library AKA Family Connections many times). He also was thrilled with his new CD player; the kid really loves music.

I hope to do a big update of the kids soon, especially on Abe. He's grown so much in the past 1.5 since I updated-- he sits up, he actually eats solids, he sleeps, he's getting a tooth, he crawls (oh, wait. no. he's still just happily scooting), he "talks" alot more. . . He gets more fun by the day.

Anyway, Merry Christmas 2009 to all!

Desiring God

2009-11-23T11:16:00.003-06:00

Christian Audio gives away one free audiobook download every month. This month the book is Desiring God by John Piper. I read it a long time ago and really enjoyed it. I just downloaded it. If you'd like to do so also, just follow the link above and enter in the coupon code NOV2009.

Abe is 6 months

2009-11-19T22:52:00.006-06:00

Well, actually, he's been six months old for a little while now, but I haven't posted anything about it yet. Abe is growing up so fast. I feel like a granny when I say that, but it's so true! Abe is so big. He's finally started eating solids (though he only likes sweet potatoes so far). He is sitting up now though he's still wobbly, and he's about to crawl! I think he'll start crawling in the next few days or weeks. It's all he works on. A couple of weeks ago he was only able to scoot on his back. A few days ago he could only rock on his knees. Yesterday he was only able to scoot backward. Today he started scooting forward. He is determined.

He has also shot up on the growth charts. This time it's in height. Thank goodness. He is around 50th for weight again. Now instead of his height being the 10th, it's now around the 50th too. He grew 5 inches! No wonder he has been waking up so much to eat!

Abe, left to his own violation, wants to eat a few times in the middle of the night. This is a step in the opposite direction. Finally last night I decided to let him cry. It was hard to do but it didn't last too long-- somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. He proved my point though by going back to sleep, not waking up again to nurse, and not even really acting hungry when he woke up at 7:30. I'm hoping it will stick, and we won't have to go through that again. (Update: Abe didn't wake up at all last night. Woohoo).

Abe's attempts to scoot forward:

Abe's jumping skills:

Abe's sitting skills:

Trick or Treat

2009-11-02T22:02:00.005-06:00

We had a great time trick or treating with friends on Saturday. The kids had a blast, and we had a great time after they were all in bed hanging around the fire pit at the Benefields. We had a monkey, caterpillar, 2 princesses, a cowboy, a pirate, a fairy, and the most adorable Dorothy ever in our group.

A snapshot of the chaos.

The chubbiest caterpillar ever.

Why do I get no cooperation from my family for photos? Geez.

3 out of 4 looking at the camer and smiling. Chocolate bribes must have been involved.

Adelaide and Kate. Adelaide was a monkey obviously. I thought she'd be bummed she wasn't a princess too but she wasn't at all. She was so pumped to get to wear the monkey suit that has been hanging in his closet since last Halloween.

Before trick or treating we all ate dinner out on the deck at the Benefields. The weather has been perfect!

BFF!

Too Good to Not Link To

2009-10-25T21:34:00.003-06:00

Ah, the Livingston Parish Fair. So many good times there especially for Rocky growing up showing livestock. Even though it opened while we were in Louisiana recently, we didn't get to go :(. Our friend, Brandon, took these great shots that captured it perfectly. Brings back memories.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-23T20:41:00.004-06:00

We headed to our favorite pumpkin patch again this year. We had about 30 minutes of light, the mosquitoes were bad, and Rocky wasn't there to help with the photos (or be in them), but I think we still got some good shots. I love this pumpkin patch. If you live in Cedar Park or North Austin, you should check out the Cedar Park First United Methodist Church. All proceeds from the pumpkins go toward missions. The volunteers are super friendly, and it's a pretty nice location. They aren't crowded and the pumpkins aren't just stacked on a sidewalk like alot of "pumpkin patches" are these days.

Here's some of our favorite shots. Adelaide's good buddy Kate was in a few. She definitely has better posing skills than my kiddos.

why does she insist on this goofy "cheese" face when she actually does pose.

Nice shot of Kate.

I like this picture. I think it's because they are actually starting to act like a brother and sister and it shows here.

I think Adelaide was starting to get fed up with picture taking or her brother.

Does anyone else think Abe looks like a middle aged high school gym teacher in this picture?

They are both almost smiling and almost looking in this one. I'll take it.

Adelaide. Oh Adelaide.

2009-10-15T23:08:00.002-06:00

Where does she come up with the things she says?

In the car the other day:
Adelaide: "I have my own house. Actually I have 3 houses. . . and 2 phones.

Talking to Rocky yesterday:
"Dad! Our skin matches."

To me the other morning:
"I dreamed about ice cream last night. It was chocolate. . . Can I have some?"

And my favorite recently was today when she went to get her flu shot.
The nurse was concerned that Adelaide wouldn't hold still enough on my lap and kept telling me I'd have to make sure Adelaide was still. Adelaide kept saying, "I will be still." The nurse kept telling me. Finally Adelaide said, "I will be still, and I won't cry either." So the nurse went with it. When she stuck Adelaide, Adelaide had a sharp intake of breath and then said, "I told you so." The nurse agreed that she had been right. She was very proud she held still and didn't cry. She kept talking about it all day. She even ripped her band-aid off a little while later saying it didn't hurt anymore.

2009-10-08T14:22:00.002-06:00

Abe keeps us entertained. Even when we are absolutely worn out or frustrated with him for some reason, he flashes his huge grin and wins us all over.

Abe still hates to ride in the car. He's getting better but he still doesn't like it. He was giddy after he got home after our long drive from Louisiana. He was so happy to be out of his seat.

Here's how Abe is getting around these days. He went on to go across the room but I won't bore you with the entire video.

Adelaide thinks she is the best flipper in the world. She gets so excited and wants me to watch her over and over again. She won't flip until she knows she has an audience. It's so cute.

Louisiana

2009-10-08T13:54:00.005-06:00

We spent the past week in Louisiana with family and friends. We also went to celebrate the retirement of our hometown church's long time pastor. It was good as always to see everyone. As an added bonus Adelaide is still in Louisiana with family so I'm having a week with just one kid. I miss her, but she's having a great time and I'm able to get alot more done. I've purged clothes, toys, etc. I've run errands. Somehow I haven't gotten as much done as I'd hoped, but I think I was too ambitious. I need to remember I still have one kid and he's been needy this week. Here's some pictures we took while there.

We spent an afternoon at the Bluebonnet Swamp. Here's some pictures from our visit. Unfortunately with 2 kids and family in tow, we were too loud to see lots of animals. We did see a couple of rabbits and snakes though.

This snake fell out of a tree only a few feet away from us. Yikes.

It is absolutely so beautiful in Louisiana. I forget how much I love it.

My mom doesn't really have many toys for the kids. That's OK though. Adelaide entertains herself with whatever she can find.

On Saturday we celebrated my dad's and Rocky's dad's birthdays. We stayed at the park for about 4 or 5 hours. Adelaide had a wonderful time. It is so amazing to see how Adelaide can make friends anywhere. She buddied up with so many people while we were there. It's so nice to see how well she socializes. Abe did pretty well himself. We turned a couple of lawn chairs into a pack n play and he set up camp, napping for 2 hours through all the hustle and bustle.

I LOVE this picture. Love it. Adelaide got so excited when I said, "say cheese," she slammed her hands down, knocking Rocky's glasses in the process. I love both of their expressions.

This is one of the most hilarious things I saw this trip. This was the crane game and the entrance to a restaurant we went to. Instead of a lame stuffed toy, you are trying to catch lobsters. If you win, the restaurant will cook it up and serve it to you. Awesome.

Abe is all over the place these days. He has learned to roll onto his back and then instantly takes off scooting backwards. He has figured out how to get where he wants to go.

Abe is big enough for the doorway jumper now. Crazy. He loves it so much. The first time we put him in to he stayed there happily for about an hour.

Big Girl Bed

2009-09-24T23:09:00.002-06:00

After seeing her BFF in a big kid bed, Adelaide decided she wanted to sleep in one and wanted to sleep in one last night. So we dismantled her crib spur of the moment and put her mattress on the floor. She only got out three times which we figured was pretty good for our kiddo. She slept in the craziest positions during the night, half on and off the mattress most of the time. Tonight we assembled a toddler bed for her, but the rails aren't stopping her too much. Currently her legs are dangling over the edge of the bed and her head and at the foot. Tonight she didn't get out at all though and fell asleep pretty quickly. I'm so proud of her.

oops

2009-09-22T21:16:00.002-06:00

Forgot some photos. These are all from tonight. Both kids were in bed and asleep by 7pm. Weird but I'm not complaining.

Abe pretty much always has his tongue out these days. Cute.

Adelaide "eating" her "ice cream" during her bath. She said it was ice cream with blueberries on top. Oh boy. What a kid can do with a ball and a birdie.

I have the hardest time getting a picture of Adelaide's actual smile so here are some. She actually is starting to cooperate a little.

Once again, hard to get Adelaide to stop moving long enough for a photo, but I love her smile in this one.

Photos

2009-09-22T20:51:00.006-06:00

I just uploaded lots of photos.

I also wanted to add that the weather has been awesome. Being from Louisiana, I never thought I'd want rain as badly as I have wanted it here this summer. Today Adelaide said, "the grass likes the rain. the flowers open their mouths and drink it up." How poetic.

sportin' Adelaide's headband.

Adelaide wanted to wear her baby like I wear Abe so I found another use for her blanket. I love this picture mostly because of her expression.

Adelaide wanted to give her brother hugs.

They are the sweetest siblings ever.

Adelaide has been doing everything with her Gideon's Bible including brushing her teeth.

Good times with our friends the Hurleys.

Adelaide with one of her best friends, Eliana. Adelaide listed out her best friends the other day-- Eliana, Kate, and Ave-- by age I might add. It was super cute.

Adelaide is far from a tomboy but she has been playing with cars pretty much nonstop. Here she is hugging her Bronco loaded down with two "moms."

Morning cuddle time with Abe.

Abe isn't hating his carseat quite as much. However, if he falls asleep in his seat, his eyes still pop open as soon as we stop moving. I am becoming more and more of a homebody because of it.

Abe wearing one of many shirts from his grandparents.

Milestones

2009-09-21T19:21:00.001-06:00

Adelaide is officially 2 and a half today.

And to celebrate, Abe has his first cold-- stuffed up nose, trouble sleeping, no appetite, and a mild fever. Boo.

Did she teach herself to read?

2009-09-16T09:47:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a nice day. Used the potty all day. Check. Great attitudes all around. Check. Abe napped perfectly despite 4 mth shots. Check. Adelaide woke up at 10am and then still took a 2 hour nap. Check. Like I said, great day. I even got some reading in.

I told Adelaide we were going to go to her room to read together. I was going to read my bible and she could read whatever she wanted in her "reading nook" that Rocky made her. She asked to read her bible too so I got out all her bibles-- 2 picture bibles and a small pink pocket bible (like a gideon's bible). She laid in her nook and read her Gideon's bible for 30 minutes. I keep asking her if she wanted to read one of the picture ones, and she said she didn't. She carried the bible with her all day and would stop and "read" occasionally.

When bed time rolled around, she asked Rocky if she could bring her bible to bed with her. He said she could. Thanks for our video monitor we saw that Adelaide "read" her bible for about an hour before going bed. I can't picture what must be going on in her head. There are no pictures. How can the text be that interesting to her that she could read for hours yesterday? The only conclusion I came to is that she must be able to read. Otherwise, she may be crazy?

She woke up this morning with her little pink bible in hand again. She kept reading all morning. I asked her what she was reading and she said, "the letters." Rocky interpreted that to mean the Pauline epistles.

In Need of a Picture

2009-09-09T20:12:00.002-06:00

It's been years since we did one of those family photo magnet things (since before Adelaide was born). Being on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, I think that is almost grounds to be fired (I joke), but that said, we need a picture. We need a nice family picture of the 4 of us. It will be no small feat. Rocky, as we learned after many attempts at this in the past, can't smile. Seriously. He feels awkward in photos and simply can't do it without looking weird. Adelaide can't sit still or look at the camera. She can say "cheese" and continue doing whatever she was doing before. And then there's Abe. He's a newborn but I probably have more hope in him than the other two. Anyway, if anyone of you photographer friends out there is up for the challenge, I would love you forever.

Updates all around

2009-09-02T21:59:00.009-06:00

There's so much I haven't kept up to date on.

Big news for ME.
New haircut. Big haircut. I'll be donating the hair to Beautiful Lengths to help make a wig for cancer patients. A friend Tracie picked the style and made the cut. It's so weird to have such short hair now but it's kind of refreshing. It's nice not to have to pry my hair out of Abe's hands multiple times every day.

The Before:

The After:

After again:

Big news for ABE

Abe is sweet, so sweet, maybe the sweetest baby ever. I have to say I've been blessed with 2 amazing babies. Both my kids were easy babies in different ways. Abe puts himself to sleep no problem almost every time. Abe had gas early on but once we figured that out by switching formula, he hasn't had many bouts of crying. Abe doesn't entertain himself quite as easily as Adelaide did, but his amazing smiles make up for all the extra attention he needs. Both my kids have been crazy vocal. I had to leave church service on Sunday not because of crying but because Abe's laughs and squeals were so distracting. Abe is amazingly strong. He is already scooting like crazy and rolling around. Honestly he's been doing it since birth. Seriously. However, he's definitely kicking it up a notch. The other morning we went into his room and found him at the other end of the bed, on his back (um, yes, pediatricians he does sleep on his tummy!), and giggling at his mobile. Adelaide was great at sitting and standing up at this age which was freakish. Abe isn't close but that's ok. Adelaide was sleeping about 12 hours through the night. Abe's occasionally slept 10 or 11, but he averages 8-9. Abe likes a schedule because he sleeps best on his tummy and hates running errands. Adelaide was happy to sleep in her carseat wherever we went. If Abe doesn't get good naps in the morning and afternoon, he gets grumpy in the evening. Abe sleeps alot less than Adelaide did but he is still happy the majority of the time when he's awake. They both are similar in the way they eat. Neither one of them cares about eating when they first get up in the morning. They both could drink their weight in milk prior to bed. I'm sure I've lost all readers at this point, but that's cool. I've just been thinking about how different the kids are already and want to mention it.

Here's a quick video of Abe:

Update on ADELAIDE:

Wow. I don't really know where to start. Adelaide has been such a joy to be around recently. Thank God. I mean it. I've been so thankful.

She seemed to have matured so much over the past couple of months. She seems like a genuine kid. She has been really into "reading" recently. She has to go to bed with a book and will stay up for a long time just laying there flipping the pages back and forth (thank you video monitor). Rocky made her a reading nook in the corner of her room and on the days when she doesn't nap, she will go to the corner and read for an hour. She brought the bathroom stool in her room so she can always reach the books on the top shelf.

One day after room time she came up to me and said, "We have two Peter Rabbits." She was right. She had found two Peter Rabbit books. The next day she found 2 more. How do we have 4 copies of that book? They are all different but she figured out they are the same story. A story which she has pretty much memorized. She can talk me through the entire book-- the siblings, who the farmer is and what he is doing, what Mr. McGregor does with Peter's clothes that he loses, what the rat has in his mouth, what Peter's cousin's name is, how Peter gets out of the garden, what he does when he gets home, and what he and his siblings eat and drink. I haven't read it to her that much. It's not my favorite book but Adelaide loves it so I'm getting over it.

She so good spatially. She can tackle a puzzle in seconds. Her grammy just sent her an ABC puzzle and she finished the entire thing herself in about 2 minutes on the first try. She has now moved up to jigsaw puzzles. She's almost got a 16 piece Curious George one down pat. She is great with patterns too. I just tried making a color chain with her the other day and she go the pattern instantly. She's good with shapes as well. Today we went to McDonald's and she turned to me and said, "I put my shoes in the pink hexagon." Sure enough. She's also really aware all the time of where things are around her. I'm trying to think of an example, but don't have a good one. Other than she knows where things are all the time. Her cup, knows where it is. The burp cloth I left on some random chair in the other room, Adelaide can get it for me instantly if I just ask her to find it. It's kind of nice because I'm losing things left and right these days.

Adelaide continues to crack us up. Today she came up to me and told me I needed to help her put on her panties because she said, "When I do it, I turn into a mermaid." That's another way to describe putting both legs in 1 hole.

She was praying in the car the other day. I just looked in the back seat and she had her head bowed, eyes closed, hands together. What was she saying but "Thank you God for buttons."

The other day when we were at Wal-mart, Adelaide spied the Pez. She was fascinated and asked if she could get one. I said sure, that it could be a potty treat but that she had to wait 'til we got home to open it. Rounding the next corner she says, "is this our home?" I say "what do you think?" She says, "yes. (pointing) There's my bedroom. There's daddy's room and Abe's room."

Smells like a. . .

2009-08-18T21:53:00.002-06:00

We were making pudding a couple of days ago, and I'll be honest, it smelled weird. Adelaide was helping me and I leaned in and asked her to smell it too. She did and proclaimed, "it smells like a . . . like a . . . belly button." After I stopped laughing, I agreed.

sleep, sweet sleep

2009-08-14T22:54:00.002-06:00

Abe slept from 8pm to 6:45 this morning. It was awesome. I hope he keeps it up but I won't hold my breath.

Imagination

2009-08-11T11:39:00.003-06:00

I feel like Adelaide's imagination has exploded in the last few weeks. It's been so awesome. She's been cracking us up more than ever with her comments.

For instance, today Adelaide was having a conversation with Sanook, our cat. Sanook snipped at Adelaide when Adelaide was trying to write on her and she said, "Be nice to me. Don't bite ANYone. If you bite my mommy or my daddy, you would hurt them. Don't hurt my mommy or daddy. I was just trying to talk to you. I saw other cats on the computer too."

Yesterday she was "reading" me "Black Beauty" and she came up with: "The two horses went to their houses in the tree. They ate popcorn and then went to the carnival." From there I couldn't really keep up.

The other day when we were driving down the street, Adelaide suddenly said, "when I'm older, I'll drive a car."

A few weeks ago, we were all in the car and Adelaide started asking us to sing. First she said sing "Jesus Loves me." Then "Jesus Loves the Little Children." It quickly went downhill. She then requested an old fav "Neon Bible." Then "Stickshifts and Safety Belts" by Cake. Then "Kilo." Yes, it's hip hop and talking about drug use. Rocky says it came up once on his iTunes and Adelaide kept requesting it.

I know there are 7000 things Adelaide does to crack us up everyday. I need to right them down more often because I forget them so easily.

Adelaide is such a good big sister too. She takes such good care of Abe. I don't even have to ask her to help most of the time. Yesterday I said, "oh, Abe just spit up a little," and Adelaide bolted into our room and came back with a burp cloth for me. She frequently will be talking to him when she's crying and saying things like "it's ok Abe. Mommy will take care of you." She even sings and pats him alot to comfort him. She even came up with her own nickname for him-- Abey Baby. It's so cute. She wants to lay next to him and hold him alot. She helps me with changing diapers alot. The other day she told me Abe had a really pretty penis. Nice. Really I couldn't ask for her to be better with him.

On another subject, Adelaide is doing very well with the potty. I feel like we've been working on it forever though (oh, that's because we have!). She's had two clean and dry days in a row, and she's been reminding me when she needs to go. We have been here before but Adelaide has regressed twice now. I feel like we're finally seeing some good progress again. Today she actually went to the potty on her own initiative a few times. That's her telling me she had to go, running to the bathroom on her own, pulling down her panties, going. I'm only coming in for the clean up part. Hopefully things will stick this time. It's been tiring working on this for so long especially with a newborn.

Anyway, that's a little snip it of Adelaide these days.

Sushi

2009-08-05T22:43:00.002-06:00

Recently when I take a shopping trip to HEB I can't help but pick up some sushi. It's surprisingly tasty and always hits the spot. I didn't plan on Adelaide eating sushi for dinner, but I wasn't surprised at all when Adelaide loved my sushi tonight. She loved everything-- the crab, the rice, the seaweed, the masago, and even the pickled ginger. She was having ravioli, but when I asked her what she liked better she said she liked the sushi. Funny kid.

Colorado

2009-08-04T13:53:00.003-06:00

Here are some pictures of our time in Colorado. After staff conference, we spent a few days vacationing in the little town of Manitou Springs, at the base of Pike's Peak. It really was a great place to spend our vacation. The town is fun with a few great restaurants. There's an old arcade in the middle of town where we spent an hour or so after dinner playing 5 and 10 cent games. It's close to Colorado Springs, the Garden of the Gods, Pike's Peak, cliff dwellings, Seven Falls, Cave of the Winds, the North Pole, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, etc. We honestly didn't rush to and from attractions. We mostly took it easy and did what we could with the kids. The place we stayed was awesome despite "paranormal activity" we heard about through the tour being given by the historic society when we checked in. Anyway, as promised here are pictures and more pictures.

Seagulls

2009-08-01T21:48:00.003-06:00

Our videos weren't working for awhile (and now they are sort of low quality); I'm glad they are now. I just had to share this video. The seagulls at the beach where crazy. I was scared (that's why I'm videoing from far away) but Rocky and Adelaide had a blast feeding them.

Mad Skills

2009-08-01T20:35:00.004-06:00

Who knew Adelaide should take up fencing? She was relentless.

Staff Conference

2009-08-01T20:06:00.006-06:00

One of the main meetings.

Our time at the beach was rough with Adelaide. It was filled with bad attitudes, whining, and some tantrums. Our time in Colorado has been a complete 180 of that. (We are in Colorado for the Campus Crusade staff conference). Adelaide has not only had a great attitude, she's also been very sweet and encouraging. She is saying "thank you" and "please" to the littlest things. She's randomly saying "I love you." She has been complimenting me on things like my shirt and skirt. She even has told me "good job" on lots of things. For instance, we were looking for livestock along the road the other day and she said, "Good job Mom. You are good at seeing animals." She LOVES child care here at CSU and cried the other day when I went to pick her up. I guess 8:30-4 isn't enough for her. She said she wanted to stay longer and play with her friends. I have to say I enjoyed the child care as well; it was nice to have a little bit of a break from two kids.

One of the days there was a craft along with story time. The story was of the good samaritan and the kids got to color the injured man and put band-aids on him. Adelaide's version of the story went a little like this, "the man fell down and got hurt. the man helped him. he put lines and band-aids on him. "

The last night when we picked her up, the teachers kept giving her more and more hugs. They had 4 things to say about Adelaide: she's fun. She's full of energy. She doesn't cry easily, and she talks alot. I'm thinking those are compliments? They definitely described Adelaide really well though. Also on the last day, Adelaide had an accident. She described it as "I fell on the boy and hurt his head. The doctor looked at it. She said it's OK." The story goes that 2 kids were running around and ran smack dab right into each other. It resulted in a horrible bloody swollen bruised nose for Adelaide.

The conference was been good. Unfortunately I feel like I wasn't able to focus on alot of the talks, and we had to miss the evening meetings to put Adelaide to bed. One of my favorite parts of the conference (and this is definitely not the spiritual answer) was seeing Tim Hawkins, a Christian comedian. It was also good to catch up with lots of old friends that are on staff with CCC. We love Ft. Collins. It is such a fun little town with cute houses and great restaurants. Rocky and I even got to go on a late night date one night to the local drive in; it was fun even though Rocky fell asleep halfway through the movie.

We've been learning alot about Abe too. We've gotten to spend some quality time with him without chasing Adelaide around. For instance, we now know he HATES his car seat. Hates it. Road trips are no fun any more. He will scream and scream. He likes to be held or just be near someone. My new favorite thing is my Moby wrap. It's now part of my wardrobe. I'm glad the sage green goes with most of my clothes. Despite hating his seat, he is a very happy baby. He can go from sobbing to smiles in about 2 seconds. He is full of smiles. When I feel frustrated with him for something (like crying in the car non stop), he can melt my heart with one of his sweet smiles. Abe is also stretching his naps and nighttime sleep. Finally. he's been taking a long morning nap and 2 shorter naps in the afternoon and evening. Then he's been sleeping around 6-8 hours at night. It's not consistent yet but it's been nice to get more sleep myself.

The first night of the conference, there was a carnival for us at CSU. Adelaide had a blast. Here's some pictures and video of that time. Most of the rest of the conference wasn't all that picture worthy though I have a few of other things.

Going down the big slide with Rocky:

On the merry go round. i love the look on her face:

Abe "reading."

Riding "blue eyes."

Merry go Round

Baby Brother

2009-07-20T20:22:00.002-06:00

Here's a few new pictures of Abe. Adelaide continues to be an excellent big sister. Just yesterday she laid in bed beside him, covered him up, and read him a book. When he whined she'd roll over and pat him and say, "it's ok, buddy." It's awesome.

The Beach

2009-07-20T19:58:00.008-06:00

Posts these days have just become pictures. These are from the beach near Port Aransas. Our bible study group just got back from a few days there. We had a great time. We even got to hang out with our friend Hollie who was on STINT with us in Thailand back in 2002-2003.

There's a video I can't wait to post but since we head out early early tomorrow morning for Colorado I figure I should probably pack or something.

We stopped at Seaworld on the way down. Adelaide looks cute. Rocky looks like a member of the Khmer Rouge.

Though Adelaide looks extremely scared, she touched the alligator twice. She wanted to get back in line to touch him again and again.

Rocky and Adelaide checking out a penguin. It was really cool. They let him out just a couple of feet from the crowd.

On the beach, Adelaide and Kate.

I think this is one of the few family pictures we have. yes, Abe is there. He's asleep in my Moby wrap. I just got it used on Craigslist and both me and Abe love it.

Adelaide loved playing in the sand probably even more than the water. She did go "surfing" a little bit though. She stood up on the boogie board and rode the waves. She did great until Rocky let her ride on her own once.

2 of my favorite people.

My goofy kid.

Dancing on the beach.

The seagulls were ridiculous. They ate some of Adelaide's sandwich right out of her hand the first night we were there.

Even though this picture is toward the bottom, this was actually her first time to see the beach on our trip. She was super excited as you can tell.

Adelaide and Kate again.

This picture just makes me smile. I love the joy on her face. Oh, to be a kid again.

The Many Faces of Adelaide

2009-07-20T19:53:00.002-06:00

Since Rocky already had his camera in hand after playing in the sprinkler one day, he decided to take pictures of Adelaide making faces. He told her to make funny ones, mad ones, confused one, etc. This is what he got. I love how expressive our daughter is.

Labor and Delivery

2009-07-06T10:42:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to tell the labor and delivery story but always feel like I don't have tons of time to devote to telling it well. So I'm going to skip telling it well and am just going to tell it quickly before more details of the experience slip away. . .

OK, so I went in on May 6th for my regular 38 week OB check and an ultrasound. Remember, Abe had been measuring small for awhile up to this point and my doctor wanted to make sure everything was looking OK. The ultrasound technician and doctor assured me that everything looked good but that Abe was still small. He had been in the 25th percentile at around 35 weeks and now was around the 5th. I was very surprised when my doctor didn't even let me go home to get my stuff together and make sure Adelaide was cared for. She told me to go immediately to the hospital and not to even take time to grab lunch or anything. They wanted to have Abe on continuous monitoring.

We followed her instructions though I think I was in shock for awhile, got checked in and settled. Rocky ran home to get our bag packed for the hospital and get Adelaide ready to stay with some friends. Thankfully we had friends at our house at the time (cleaning my bathrooms for me no less) who immediately called off everything to take responsibility for our kiddo. It's funny how nothing with either of my labors really went as planned. Even who Adelaide wound up staying with was different from who I'd had in mind.

Meanwhile back at the hospital, things were fine. Abe showed no signs of distress. His heartbeat was reactive and strong. I was only dilated to a 1 and not really that much effaced so they decided to start me off with cervadil the night before my induction to help prep my cervix and not send my body into shock with pitocin. Some girlfriends came to hang out that night to visit with me and we even watched a chickflick and enjoyed Tiff's Treats. It was a nice evening off.

Around 11 I took two ambien and hoped to have a restful night's sleep in preparation for the hard work the following day. I did have a nice sleep, 3 hours of it. I woke up at 2am and could not go back to sleep for anything. I was thinking about Abe and labor.

Around 5am my nurse came in to wake me up (though that was unnecessary) and get me ready for the day. I even got a shower in. Around 6am they started pitocin. Unfortunately the cervadil had done nothing for my cervix so I was starting labor pretty much from scratch; I was still at a 1 but a little more effaced. My doctor told me that this would probably make labor a little difficult.

At first it wasn't more difficult but soon the contractions got pretty intense. They were about 3 minutes apart but I felt like I was handling them alot better than I was able to handle my contractions during my labor with Adelaide. I sat on the birthing ball alot because it was the only place I was comfortable. However, because I wanted to remain mobile, the nurse was having a hard time getting readings. So she came in after a few hours of labor and asked to do a pressure catheter to measure the intensity of the contractions. I was hesitant because I wanted everything to remain as wireless as possible but she convinced me. It wasn't that big of a deal though getting around was alot harder at this point. At the same time they inserted the catheter they also broke my water. A pressure catheter goes between the baby's head and the uterus and measures the intensity and duration of contractions really accurately. The catheter showed that my uterus was doing a great job. It was actually quite interesting to watch because I could anticipate my next contraction really well. I also felt justified when I saw the intensity go off the charts a few times when I felt like I was going to die. It made me feel like I wasn't just being a wuss but that it was indeed really difficult.

Things definitely progressed a lot faster this time than it did with Adelaide. I was at a 4 around 12pm I think. Around that time my doctor and nurse came in and requested that I get a internal fetal monitor put on Abe. His heartbeat wasn't registering on the monitors because of the position I was laboring in. They tried moving the monitors around but it didn't help. This really wasn't something I wanted to do but for the well being of Abe, I decided to do it. I definitely wanted to know if he was getting distressed.

Well, this was where my labor went from intense to off the charts painful. My nurse tried to attach the monitor. I won't paint a picture for you but all I'll say is that Abe was still at a -2 station meaning his head was not that low, and I was only dilated to a 4 so attaching a monitor to his scalp was not an easy or painless task. Not only was it probably the most painful I've been through but the first nurse couldn't reach so she had to get another nurse to do it because "her fingers are longer." Yikes. Luckily she was successful.

Abe's heartbeat was fine. He never really ever got distressed. We were alot more worried about him because he was so little. After the monitor was inserted I was pretty much done. The pain of the contractions had escalated so much due to all the meddling. Before I was breathing calmly sitting on the birthing ball. Now I couldn't get past the pain enough to even get back out of bed. It wasn't long after this that I told Rocky I needed an epidural.

Like a good labor coach, he tried to reason with me and make sure I was making the right decision. I did not want to hear it. I was in so much pain. Finally after making me wait through a few more contractions to see if I still wanted to make that decision and to see if maybe things would calm back down a little after the monitor was in, he called the nurse in and requested the epidural. She came in and said she wanted to check me first to make sure I wasn't super close. I wasn't, but I had dilated from a 4 to a 6 in about 20 minutes. The next hour was probably the longest hour of my life.

The anesthesiologist took about 40 minutes to get to our room. They didn't have any meds ready for me, and she was busy with something else at the time. Rocky was an amazing coach. Last time in labor I didn't want him to touch me or talk to me. This time I wanted him to be with me pretty much the whole time. Finally the anesthesiologist arrived but I was having a hard time getting in the proper position; it hurt so badly. It took a couple contractions I think before she got it all done. But the pain was still so intense. I kept waiting for it to get better but after twenty minutes or so it still hurt alot. I never had to push the button to increase numbness the last time so I didn't anticipate having to do it this time. I had to though. The epidural didn't even really take the edge off until I pushed the button twice.

I thank God that once again I had the "ideal epidural." I was able to still feel contractions and even move my legs all the way through. My contractions were so intense at this point that the nurse turned off my pitocin all together which was great. My nurse remembered that I had told her last time things progressed super quickly after my epidural so she began prepping things right away for delivery. Shortly after the epidural finally kicked in I felt the urge to push. This was probably only 30 minutes after I got the epidural. I told the nurse and she checked me. Sure enough. I was fully dilated, and Abe's head was about to crown. She immediately called the doctor and got the mirror. Chalasani came in and asked to see how much control I had for pushing. She asked me to push when I wasn't even having a contraction. So I did. She told me to do it 2 more times and there was Abe. It was awesome.

I began crying immediately. It was so beautiful to hear Abe's cry. His apgar score was a 9. He was just fine. He was little but just fine. I got to hold him right after delivery. I think those moments immediately following delivery are some of the sweetest in life.

I think it was less than an hour from when i got my epidural and was dilated to a 6 to when I was holding Abe in my arms and starting to nurse him.

He was born at 2:10 and weighed 5 lb. 15 oz and was 19 inches long.

Labor is an amazing thing. It is absolutely one of the hardest things I've ever been through but my labors and deliveries are also some of my fondest memories. I'm so thankful that I've been blessed with 2 amazing and healthy children. Now if I can just remember that every day :).

Chick-fil-a Family Fun Night

2009-07-06T10:02:00.003-06:00

Our local Chick-fil-a had a family fun night recently. There was a clown painting faces and doing balloon animals. There was a lady making ID cards for kids. There were skateboard demonstrations, a police car, and most importantly, a fire truck. Here's some pictures from that evening.

I'm not really sure what Adelaide is doing in this photo but it cracks me up. She may be the goofiest kid ever. It is so hard to get her to make a normal face in a picture.

Rocky said he hopes this is the last time she is in the backseat of a cop car.

Seaworld

2009-07-06T09:26:00.008-06:00

My family came to visit a few weeks ago. While they were here we decided to take a trip to Seaworld. We'd been wanting to go since Adelaide became obsessed with Baby Beluga. Plus last year we had a season pass to the aquarium in Bangkok and she loved it. I figured she love an aquarium even more this year since she can understand so much more.

It was hot as all get out, but it was a pretty incredible day. We got there a little after 11. Feeding Abe made us take it slower. He did well all day. There were no bouts of crying and he only wound up wanting to eat while we were watching shows (how convenient). Adelaide did really well also even with skipping her nap. There was only one time that we had to takl with her about being whiny. We stayed until they closed at 6. By the time we got in the car around 6:30, Adelaide said, "I want a nap please." She has never in her life even said she was tired prior to this.

My grandma, mom and brother also had a great time. We were a caravan for sure with a wheelchair for my grandma and our red wagon for Adelaide and Abe with a milk crate extension Rocky put on the back. Above is a picture of my grandma and mom with Adelaide.

Rocky got a Fun Pass where you pay regular admission but can go back all year, and I got a season pass because it made sense to save my family money on admission and it made parking free. I can't wait to go back. There were so many things we didn't get to see. Next week we're going to Port Aransas with our bible study. I think we may stop on the way down there.

Adelaide LOVED the big aquariums. We always had to make her move along because she would just sit and contently watch for a long time.

Us at the Viva show. Adelaide kept saying "wow" over and over. I teared up a little because it was so cool to see the wonder in her eyes as she watched. After the show Rocky took Adelaide down to the "stage" while I finished feeding Abe, and Adelaide got to see a lady feeding the baby beluga up close and personal. She was on cloud 9.

Checking out the dolphins. She was scared of their teeth at first and didn't want to touch them. I touched them though. They felt like hard plastic. Later Adelaide found one in particular that she wanted to go see and touch. I thought she would chicken out like before but for some reason she really liked this one and wasn't scared.

Us with the Clydesdales. I like this picture just because Adelaide and I are both looking at the camera and smiling. One of us tends to have a hard time with that :).

Banana

2009-07-01T08:09:00.002-06:00

Yesterday when Adelaide pooped in the potty she said, "Mom, it looks like a banana." Funny thing is, it did look like one. When she flushed it down, she kept saying, "bye bye banana" and waving.

Abe started smiling!

2009-06-24T16:39:00.003-06:00

Abe has been working on smiling for a couple of weeks now. He'd flash this smirk at us here and there but today he busted out a full fledged open mouthed cute baby smile. There's nothing like that to brightened a day. He did it a couple more times but then of course refused to grin when I went to get the camera. Hopefully I will catch him soon!

Summer Time Fun

2009-06-15T09:22:00.002-06:00

I've been wanting to post this video for awhile now but like all things in my life these days, things aren't happening quite on the schedule I'd hope for. This video was from the day we came home from the hospital with Abe. This was the first time we pushed the pool to the end of the slide but certainly not the last. Good times.

Photos!

2009-06-03T22:07:00.002-06:00

Here's some pictures from this week, mostly from today. I'm still uploading through iphoto because it is way faster/easier than through blogger.

Good Intentions

2009-06-02T22:04:00.002-06:00

As my mom reminded me today, I am not really taking pictures of Abe like I took pictures of Adelaide. Geez, it's the second kid syndrome. I hope to get back to posting soon and hope to take some cute pictures of our little guy before his tiny little feet and hands grow any more.

Life has been an adjustment but I really can't complain much at all. Abe is an awesome baby and Adelaide is a great big sister even though her whining has hit an all time high. On Saturday I had an appointment with the lactation consultant and Abe weighed in at 8 lbs already. He's gaining about a pound a week. I'm hoping his appetite will curb soon and we start getting some more sleep around here. I was so spoiled with Adelaide; she was sleeping pretty long stretches at this point and started sleeping through the night at only 5 weeks. Abe's already almost 4 weeks old. I'm thinking I won't be so lucky this go 'round.

2 week check up

2009-05-21T16:18:00.002-06:00

So today we went in for Abram's 2 week check up. I knew he had been gaining weight since he's outgrown his preemie diapers and most of his preemie clothes but I didn't realize quite how much he had gained. Last Monday when we went in Abe weighed 5 lbs. 12 or 13 ounces. Today he was just one ounce shy of 7 lbs. He gained 18 ounces in 10 days. The pedi said they think a gain of one ounce is day is great but he gained almost 2 ounces a day. Craziness. Looks like the OB was right. He is gaining alot better out here. He went from about the 5th percentile at birth to now the 25th. I'm so glad he's doing so well.

Pictures

2009-05-21T13:00:00.002-06:00

It's slow to post pictures on blogger sometimes so for now I'm going to just post via mobile me and post links to them on the blog. So, if you are interested in new pictures, here is where you can find some. It's funny with the second how few pictures we're already taking compared with when Adelaide was new.

Abe is here

2009-05-11T11:09:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to send out a quick update and some pictures. We are all doing very well, and Rocky and I are enjoying the new addition to our family. Abram (Abe) Roscoe Conly arrived yesterday afternoon at 2:10pm. Despite being a mere 5 lbs. 15 ozs and 19 inches at birth, he did not suffer any distress during labor and came out beautiful and healthy. The induction seems like it was a great decision. Abe is already making up for lost time by eating well. He is a cutie and very strong. He has already rolled over on his own several times and can lift up his head when on his stomach. The pediatrician said often times little babies are "scrappers;" that seems to be the case with our Abe. Thanks for all the care and love for our family. We have appreciated all your prayers.

If you want to see more of the little guy go over here . http://gallery.me.com/conly#100046

-Rocky, Sunee, Adelaide, and Abe

Chillin' at the Hospital

2009-05-06T15:00:00.003-06:00

So Rocky and I went in today for my ultrasound and doctor's appointment. The ultrasound was encouraging-- baby is healthy, placenta looks healthy, amniotic fluid looks great, etc. However, our guy is still little; they are estimating around 5 lbs. 11 oz. Even though he has gained weight since the last ultrasound, he's dropped from 25th percentile to around the 5th. My OB said she wanted to have me monitored immediately and induce very soon. I wasn't really expecting that I wouldn't even be able to go home first. I didn't even have my bag packed or anything. Plus we weren't exactly sure where would be best to send Adelaide. So we started making lists and calls as we checked into the hospital.

Fetal monitoring has been good. The baby seems quite responsive and active and my doctor said he seems really strong. She said that's good; she'd rather him go through labor now that he's strong versus waiting awhile longer and him potentially get weaker. Even though I'm dilated to a 1, my cervix isn't quite that favorable so they are going to put me on something called cervadil tonight. Tomorrow morning if that hasn't already put me into labor, I'll start pitocin.

Adelaide is in good hands and Rocky went back and got all our bags packed and ready to go so now we're just settled in at the hospital. There's not alot to do here when you're not in labor and just hanging out. Rocky brought movies and laptops so we're just chillin'. Tonight I will get something to help me sleep after my cervadil so I hope to be well rested for tomorrow.

Pray for labor and delivery. Pray the cervadil does it's job well and that I may not even need pitocin. Pray our little guy will be strong through the whole thing and won't get distressed. Pray mostly for him to be healthy and for me to remain that way as well. Days like today make me so thankful to have such good friends that care for us. As soon as the ball got rolling this morning, people started offering homes, child care, food, encouragement, prayers, etc. We love you all and thank God for you.

Lots of Pictures

2009-05-02T20:42:00.002-06:00

So, many of these are totally random. Some were taken with my phone. Some were taken with the nicer camera. Anyway, enjoy the randomness.

Punk Rock hair.

We had a dinner group at the park a few weeks ago. We got some good pictures of the kiddos especially Kate who actually looks at the camera and smiles. Adelaide as I lament about often will have no part of it.

I love this picture. I'm not sure why, maybe cause it's my kid in action.

The kids kind of look like they are in a gang or something. They all look so tough.

My favorite shot of Adelaide that day.

Double baby shower at CBS.

Adelaide feeding Dolly.

Somehow during nursery at church Adelaide got all the boys to do what she wanted to do-- play with dolls. Here's one of the boys rocking Adelaide and the dolly. Adelaide is a influencer even at her age. It's funny to watch.

The "nursery" just a couple of weeks ago. Ahhhh!

More of the "nursery." It looks so much better now. My mild heartattacks when I enter the room have stopped.

A dangerous habit.

Hilarious sign at Hong Kong Supermarket. 10 lbs? Really?

I pray for her

2009-04-29T19:31:00.002-06:00

I HAD to post this. I just put Adelaide down for bed and as I was holding her she leaned forward suddenly and headbutted me in the nose. It hurt and tears instantly filled my eyes. Rocky was in the room, and Adelaide went to him and immediately said, "we need to pray for her." Rocky asked her if she wanted to do it, and she said she did. She said, "Dear Jesus, I thank you for my mommy. I hurt her eye. Amen." She was off on the body part she had hurt, but it didn't matter. More tears filled my eyes as I thought about what a loving little girl I have.

38 Weeks

2009-04-29T10:38:00.000-06:00

I went in today to see the OB. I didn't lose weight again this week but didn't gain any either. Baby's heartbeat also sounded great so that's also good. I'm measuring a little further behind than I was last week but there was a little growth. Last week I was around 2 weeks smaller and this week around 2.5-3. The doctor said an ultrasound at this point wouldn't be that helpful; she said for measuring growth and weight one every 3 weeks is standard. So we've already scheduled an ultrasound for next Wednesday. She said that if the little guy is under the 10th percentile she might want to go ahead and induce because he could probably get better nutrition outside of the womb. It's a little crazy that I may have a kid in a week! I keep thinking that I'd have at least 3 weeks or so. It also didn't help that they've been using a due date of May 14th for me and I've been going by May 19th. I just found that out today. I'm already dilated to 1 cm. Still high and not effaced much though. I just looked back on the blog to when I was pregnant with Adelaide and I wasn't dilated at all until after my due date last time. Things seem to be working a little faster this time.

Keep praying that our boy would be fine and would start growing and that despite him being smaller than normal that labor would go smoothly that he wouldn't get distressed.

37 Weeks

2009-04-28T12:05:00.002-06:00

So today I'm officially 37 weeks pregnant. It's hard to believe that our little guy will be here so soon. Last pregnancy I never had any contractions prior to my actual active labor but I've been having Braxton Hicks almost every day multiple times a day. I'm hoping that's a good sign that my body will know what to do better than it did last time. (For those of you that don't know, I was 15 days late with Adelaide!). Last night was the worst set of contractions so far; I even though I had the baby in bed because I had such a vivid dream that it happened. I was quite bummed at 3am when Adelaide woke up coughing because the baby was still in utereo. I'm not really in that big of a hurry really, my dream just was so deceiving.

I go in tomorrow for my weekly exam and I'm really looking forward to it. I've been more eager to go in each time now that I've been measuring small. Last week I was measuring 2 weeks behind and I'd even lost a couple of pounds. I'm hoping that somehow this week our little guy has put on some weight and I'll be measuring a little closer to the due date instead of getting furthur and furthur behind. My doctor said she may do an ultrasound again this week to rule out any concerns. We'll see. I'd definitely like to have one just to see him again and make sure everything is still looking healthy.

Everything points that the baby is fine but we'd love your prayers for us. We'd love your prayers even if there was absolutely no reason for concern. It's going to be a crazy next few weeks! My dream last night spurred me on to start getting some stuff together for the hospital. Now we've got the carseat out and a few things I learned would have been helpful for the baby at the hospital (for instance, why at Seton NW are the shirts also considered pants? and Size 1 diapers the diapers size for brand new babies?). Now I've got to get ours and Adelaide's stuff together, at least a list of what we'll need anyway.

More Funny from Adelaide

2009-04-26T21:34:00.002-06:00

I can not remember all the funny things Adelaide says but here are a few that she's said over the past few days. I love my kid! (BTW, poor girl has had 3 breathing treatments so far today. :( She seems fine just wheezing or sounding like a dolphin as she describes it).

OK, so the other day we went to the outlet mall. We were taking it slow so I let Adelaide play on each and every one of the riding toys (lack of a better term) around. Every time she would ask me to make it go. I kept telling her I didn't have money to make it go. That seemed to satisfy her and she'd just keep on playing. Well, later that day Rocky and I were helping a friend work on their car. While they were working, I let Adelaide play in my car. I looked over at one point and she was trying to put quarters in the ignition. When she saw me looking she said, "mom, I have money. I can make it go!"

I realized yesterday that Adelaide never really saw pictures from the last ultrasound so I got them out to show her. When she started looking at them, she said, "it's dark in there. He is bored."

I'll share more about my doctor's visit later, but on Thursday I had planned to drop Adelaide at the YMCA while I went in for my weekly visit. As we were walking in, Adelaide saw all the kids playing outside and got really excited. What I didn't know however was that the "off-site hours" had changed days so I couldn't actually leave Adelaide. As we were walking out and walking past all the kids I was just telling Adelaide she was going to get to play with, she started freaking out. I mean sobbing hard and inconsolably. I told her I understood why she was frustrated and that I was frustrated too, but that didn't really help too much. I was in a big hurry at this point and didn't really have time to let her get over it, but she was not letting me put her in her seat. Finally I had to physically hold her in the seat while I wrestled the straps on her and had her scream in my face. It was miserable but it had to be done. Once we arrived at the doctor's office, I went to get her out and what she said melted my heart. She said, "Mom, I'm sorry my freaking out." Sure terminology is mine but still, I really appreciated it.

Last night at dinner Rocky was manning things all on his own. He was feeding Adelaide and her friend Avery. He said it was a little crazy but here's the icing on the cake. It's one of those times where as a parent you want to discipline but you can't help but laugh. He said he was cleaning up the kitchen and when he turned around Adelaide was standing up on her chair, pizza all over the table, looking through her transparent yellow plate saying, "everything's yellow. everything's yellow" over and over.

35 Weeks

2009-04-14T14:31:00.002-06:00

So today I went in for my typical exam only with a twist. When I was measured last time and this time, I measured small. My OB wanted me to go immediately and have an ultrasound to make sure everything was OK. Her urgency freaked me out a little though she assured me everything was probably just fine. Adelaide was with me and had been quite patient for the hour I'd already been at the office so I had Rocky come up and watch her while I waited for the ultrasound and to meet with the doctor again afterward. I was so glad he was able to rush up at the last minute to help.

I was nervous going into the ultrasound not knowing what to expect; I was hoping that I would just get some cute pictures of our boy and be reassured and that would be that. Even though Adelaide was extremely late (15 days past her due date), I never measured small. The technician started with all the typical measurements and everything. She was very thorough and explained everything she was doing step by step which I was very thankful for. Luckily our boy looked totally healthy as did my placenta and fluid and everything. He just measured small. She said he was 5 lbs which put him in the 13th percentile but he is still on the charts. We'll just have to pray he continues to grow well and gain weight. He is proportional, and there was no explanation as to why he is smaller than normal. They say babies can gain about a half pound a week here at the end. If he does then he should be around 7 lbs when he's born which seems pretty normal to me especially considering Adelaide was only 7 lbs 4 oz and was 15 days late.

Although the pit in my stomach is just starting to go away (which is silly considering the results were positive), it was fun to see our little boy moving around. I wish I had a scanner to scan in his pictures. Maybe I'll borrow one; I'm such a slacker I never posted his original ultrasound video or pictures. Highlights of the ultrasound: The tech commented on his big cheeks which they did when I had ultrasounds with Adelaide as well. Weird that he's skinny but has big cheeks. Maybe they need to take that into account. He has a cute face already. He was quite active the entire visit. He was "practicing breathing" which was cool to see. He kept one hand up by his face most of the time and only stopped once when he played with his feet. It was cool to catch him grabbing his toes. Oh yeah, and we confirmed yet again that he is indeed a boy.

I can't wait to meet the little guy. Please join with me in praying that he'll be healthy.

Cute as Can Be

2009-04-09T13:31:00.005-06:00

Even though Adelaide was pretty sick when I videoed this, she is still adorable as all get out. I'll have to video her again when her lungs are at full capacity. Baby Beluga is still her favorite song, and still is in our heads about 90% of the time.

My favorite part of this one is that she tries to convince me she made one of the weird sounds in the song with her leg.

Baby Beluga part 2.

My sweet sick little girl. Look at those puffy red eyes. At least she likes her breathing treatments.

God

2009-04-09T13:18:00.003-06:00

When we put Adelaide in the car the other day she said, "God lives at the store." Well, I guess she's sort of right. He is everywhere, isn't He?

Later down the road she said, "The bunny rabbit is going to sit right here" pointing to the seat next to her. Then she said, "Hi bunny" to the empty seat. At that point, I couldn't hold the laughter back anymore.

Feel like a Failure

2009-04-06T20:52:00.003-06:00

So I really need some advice from you seasoned moms. I've been struggling with this for weeks now and have sought out answers from friends but none of them have been through the same thing. I have even searched for answers via online forums but don't know what to do.

I posted well over a month ago that Adelaide was pretty much potty trained. Well, that was a month ago. She did an amazing job for about 3 weeks but then just quit. The timing sort of correlated with some attitude issues we also started facing.

Anytime we ask her if she needs to potty she says no. For awhile it was just poop accidents and now it's even back to pee accidents all the time. She will go when we make her sit on the potty but other than that, she has no desire. She can remain dry if we force her to go when we think she needs to, but she'll never say she needs to do it anymore. She isn't motivated by bribes, praise, or anything. She doesn't even seem to mind being wet or poopy anymore.

We tried taking a break for the weekend when we were out of town. We decided we'd put her in pull ups and not say a thing. She started asking to go all on her own and actually had less accidents. Awesome. So we thought we'd just carry that same idea when we came home, don't ask her and maybe her interest would peak again. No such luck. Today (granted she is sick) I think she maybe only used the potty twice. That's it.

It's stressful. I wonder if I should just quit and try again later, but then the thought of it makes me feel like a failure. I don't like to give up or back track, but I'm starting to wonder if even though Adelaide is totally ready physically if it was just too much for her emotionally to be such a big girl. She seems to already understand alot about the new baby and has been saying she wants to be a baby too. I don't know if that is playing a part at all or not.

Anyway, I'd LOVE any stories you have (if they wouldn't make me feel like more of a failure) and any advice you have to share on the subject. I really feel totally clueless at this point, but the idea of pushing something that seems hopeless also seems too stressful AND the idea of going back to diapers seems ridiculous. Maybe it's not and I just need to get over it. Help!

Where does she come up with this stuff?

2009-04-01T13:48:00.002-06:00

The other day I was telling Adelaide she could have a cookie as a snack because she had been doing so well on the potty that day. I also said she could have a little milk because I love milk and cookies together. She turned to me very seriously and said, "I love diamonds." Guess my milk and cookies know where they rank.

Strawbellies

2009-03-30T22:41:00.006-06:00

Last week spur of the moment a few friends called to see if we wanted to go pick strawberries. It was raining and dreary so it seemed like a bad idea, but we all decided to go and see what happened. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we had an excellent time both picking berries (which Adelaide calls "strawbellies") and checking out the animals.

Adelaide dropped a berry and stepped on it on the way to the wagon. She is actually saying "sorry strawberry" in this picture.

It took us forever to fill up our basket with berries. Adelaide carried them one by one back to the wagon and wanted to pick out the "tiny tiny ones." Not exactly what I was looking for but why not?

Baby goats may just be the cutest things on the planet even hard hearted Rocky agrees.

The kids had so much fun just running around. I love it when big kids take it upon themselves to watch my kid. Thanks Noelle!

Such a nice day.

Of course they all crashed on the way back, Adelaide with a sock on her hand.

Adelaide is 2!

2009-03-25T16:13:00.008-06:00

It's crazy to think my little girl is two! I'll write more later and post lots of people pictures on facebook. There are ALOT of funny ones especially of kids hitting the pinata. Thanks Altunas for bringing that up from the border.

The LEGO cake(s). Thought they'd be simple to make, turns out, not so. I learned alot of what to do and what not to do when decorating cakes. For instance, icing a cake that has to be cut is hard especially with chocolate cake and whipped icing.

Adelaide was SO excited when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Can't you tell from her expression?

Some of the happy party goers.

She actually blew out her candles all by herself (without spitting all over the cake). We didn't get video of it so here are a few pictures to show her birthday wish.

I hope she's wishing her "terrible two" attitude will pass quickly.

Yum. chocolate cake. She picked it herself when faced with options such as confetti, strawberry, carrot cake, and vanilla. She without hesitation picked chocolate. My kind of girl.

Stealing a cupcake. Josh caught her in action. The first picture in the post was the "after" shot.

Opening her presents. Somehow we didn't get around to even wrapping our presents to her. She LOVES all of her presents. Seriously its like all of you that came know her very well or something and picked out stuff that's right up her alley.

What is it with kids hovering when others are opening presents? Do they think they might get something too? It's so cute.

Singing a Signing Time song, the one that comes before story time. I'm sure she's saying, "I love to read a book."

The pinata was the highlight of the party. Adelaide obviously didn't make a dent in it, but everyone had a great time taking a whack at it.

Such a fun day!

31 weeks

2009-03-17T13:13:00.005-06:00

It's hard to believe I'm already going in for appointments every two weeks. Everything still looks really good. Head is down already. I'm measuring a little bit ahead; she said I was measuring right at 32 weeks. I never measured ahead for Adelaide so we'll see if that means he'll be here a little sooner than she was. If you remember I went 15 days past my due date with her.

My endocrinologist gave me the OK to not have to come back until after the baby is born which is pretty exciting. I had been going in to see her every 3-6 weeks on top of my normal doctor visits and bloodwork.

Today was the first time I really regretted bringing Adelaide to the doctor with me. She usually is very well behaved and either reads, colors, or plays. Today however she was very hard to manage and she topped it all off with a tantrum in the lobby when the second doctor called me in today. We were there for awhile since I was seeing both my OB and my endocrinologist but still, it was pretty bad. She wanted to walk, not ride in the stroller, and threw her shoe when I told her to come along. I plopped her in the stroller and she proceeded to kick and scream. The nurse said,"wow, must be one of those days." Those aren't the usual comments I get with Adelaide. She does turn 2 on Saturday so we are entering new territory.

I almost forgot to mention that Adelaide was still freaking out when we went to the bathroom to get the urine sample. I didn't have time to talk with her and help her settle because of the nurse waiting and all so I was just trying to make it. Adelaide asked for a cup too (like the one I was peeing in) and because I was desperate, I gave her one. As I was trying to get our things together, I looked over and Adelaide was scooping urine out of the toilet and was about to drink it. Nice.

Walruses Might Get Me!

2009-03-14T14:43:00.005-06:00

Adelaide's imagination is really coming to life these days. She tells us outlandish stories often that make us laugh. However, a surprising side effect of the book Baby Beluga, that is probably just coincidental, is that Adelaide has started fearing things. If you've ever read Baby Beluga you know there are no monsters or anything in it and all the sea creatures are friends, but Adelaide has started fearing walruses.

Yes, walruses. When I get to a page in the book that has a walrus, Adelaide says "he might get me," "he might hurt me," or "don't touch him." I always remind her that he is just in her book and that he can't hurt her, but it doesn't seem to help. The other day she kept asking "where is the walrus?" I kept telling her he is in the book. Then we started coming downstairs. She asked one more time where he was, and I told her, "he's upstairs." Before I thought anything of it, Adelaide broke down in hysterics. She was sobbing and shaking uncontrollably in my arms. It took a long time for her to calm down.

For about 2 hours afterwards, she would not let her guard down. If I tickled her or tried to distract her, just as she'd stop being diligent, she'd stop laughing and look around cautiously. She had one more incident the same day where she was absolutely terrified. No matter what I said, trying to rationalize with her, she was still scared. We looked at dancing walruses on youtube. We talked about how it's too hot here for walruses and how they live in water. We even revisited the book and looked at how the walrus was friends with Baby Beluga.

She's even started waking up some in the middle of the night crying, feeling scared. It's really weird. It's calmed down with walruses, but now it's expanded to other animals-- elephants, hippopotamuses. Yesterday when we came in from outside, Adelaide started running really fast. She said, "the hippopotamus might get me."

This is new territory for me. I hope I'm handling it in the right way, but trying to comfort her and talk with her about her fears. I'm hoping this phase will be short lived. It's really hard to see a kiddo so scared.

Baby Beluga

2009-03-13T22:17:00.003-06:00

Adelaide is quite the singer these days. If she's not telling us stories or yammering on about who knows what, she is singing. She'll frequently sing nonstop her entire arsenal of songs-- twinkle, twinkle; baa baa black sheep; jesus loves me; abc's; rockabye baby, father abraham, if you're happy and you know it; etc. etc. Most of her songs are typical toddler songs, but not all. Signing Time has had a big impact on her singing with songs like "Rainbow Salad" and "In the Water." A friend was babysitting for us a few weeks ago and thought Adelaide was crazy when she was sitting in her crib saying "rainbow salad" over and over.

Another thing that has influenced Adelaide's singing is our music. Occasionally she'll hear a song she likes from our collection. Right now a current favorite band of hers in Arcade Fire. The song "Neon Bible" is heard around our house often. She even requests it alot when we're in the car.

A new favorite song that made it to the mix is Baby Beluga. Adelaide has become quite interested in animals that live in the water. So we checked out books about ocean creatures from Family Connections last week. The book Baby Beluga was an instant favorite. Since it's by Raffi, I figured there must be a song that went with it. Sure enough, we went to the library the following day and found the CD. By the end of the day Adelaide had the song memorized and Rocky and I have had the song in our heads ever since. We're going on a week now!

Washing my Fist Pound

2009-03-11T08:35:00.001-06:00

Adelaide is pretty obsessive about washing her hands. Today she said, "I'm washing my fingers and my fist pound."

Not Just Saying Numbers

2009-03-09T14:06:00.002-06:00

Adelaide has been saying her numbers for awhile, but in the past couple of weeks she has actually started counting things. I thought at first she was just guessing and randomly getting it right because when I'd start counting things with her she would just say her numbers 1-10. The more and more her "guess" started to be accurate, it made me start to wonder. So today at the library she finally gave up her game and let me see her counting things. We always "play puzzles" at the reading center when we go to the library and today we were doing one with farm animals. I asked Adelaide how many horses there were, an answer she's told me before and gotten correct, but today she actually counted, "one, two, three" and stopped. Then she also added, "one white horse." How many chickens? "one, two, three." How many eggs? "one, two, three, four, five." It's like she only wants to let me know she knows something once she's good at it. She's also started identifying some numbers. The other day she said, "look mom, a 0."

Kids are funny though. For neat thing they do, there's always something that makes you wonder why your kid is so slow. Even though Adelaide is averaging only one potty accident a day now-- some days none, some days a couple if we're playing with a bunch of other kids and she's preoccupied, sometimes a dribble before she holds it and makes it to the potty-- but she still calls all that enters the potty "poo poo." It just does not click with her that some things are pee pee and others poo poo. Oh well. It only gets a little confusing when it comes to rewards. We give her a little tiny sticker now for peeing, and a bigger sticker and one M&M if she poops. Maybe that's why it's all poop to her? If she can convince us her prize is much better :). She usually forgets about the prizes anyway nowadays so I don't really think that's it.

One Pack = One Vaccine

2009-03-03T23:49:00.002-06:00

I know many of you that read my blog already use Pampers, but I just wanted to let you know about this cool thing Pampers is doing now through the beginning of May. For every package of Pampers you buy (well, ones that are specially marked anyway), one infant or mother will receive a tetanus vaccination. Tetanus doesn't sound that threatening, but I read a stat that it claims a life approximately every four minutes. The risk of tetanus of completely eliminated with the vaccine though which is pretty cool.

Also if you collect points through the Gifts to Grow program, you can redeem your points for a vaccines. 1 point = 1 vaccine. I never feel like the point values equal the products. However, in this case it seems totally worth it. Also they have onesies available for 10 points; if you purchase one of those it also provides a tetanus vaccine.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know about this cool program.

Clean and Dry at the Y

2009-03-03T13:30:00.003-06:00

I know. I know. I'm still talking about potty training, but that's a major part of life for us right now. So we've now had two days in a row without any accidents besides bedtime and naptime. That's fine with me. Adelaide is probably a little young to hold it through bedtime, and she does sometimes make it through her naps. Yesterday despite going to the library, going out to eat, and to get ice cream with my dad she did perfectly. Even when she said she had to go in the car and we told her to hold it 'til we got home, we didn't have an accident.

Today however was the bigger test. When we are around, we remind her and are attentive to her potty needs, but today we dumped Adelaide at the YMCA while I went to the fun long OB appt that checks for gestational diabetes. We were gone for 2 hours and when we came to pick her up, she still had on her same dry pull up! They had just switched shifts so I don't know if she held it or if she went to the potty, but still I thought that was pretty impressive. I'm washing the cloth diapers right now one last time and then am going to put most of them into storage until the baby's arrival. I'll still keep a few for nap time and night time but I think we're almost done with the process. Adelaide now has so many stickers on her potty chart we can't count them all.

Another funny thing that happened while we were at the YMCA today-- Adelaide asked to hold my membership ID while I was checking her pull up. As soon as I handed it to her she said, "Sunee Conly." I was shocked and couldn't stop laughing. I don't know how she knows my full name. I asked her what her dad's name was. She said, "Daddy." Not quite the same answer. She is a pretty young reader :).

Go Fly a Kite

2009-03-01T20:45:00.004-06:00

Yesterday would have been the perfect day for flying a kite, but today was the day we chose. We couldn't find our old kite from college which we love; it was a fabric one with a 500 ft or so string. I have no idea what happened to that thing. I hate losing things. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Anyway, luckily we had a sweet Spongebob kite our neighbors gave us when they were clearing out their garage, so off to the park we went.

Adelaide was still more interested in the slides and playscape but had a little fun with the kite. My dad is in town and he and Rocky really played with the kite the most.

Even though today was a crazy day where we weren't at home much Adelaide still only had one accident during church. She stayed dry during her nap, our trip to the park, going out to eat dinner, and going to a couple of stores afterwards. Sweet.

I just need advice on how to deal with these early stages of potty training when out and about. Usually by the time I pull over and get Adelaide in a store to the restroom, it's too late. Should I keep a potty in the car? I'm learning I need to ask her to use the potty before we leave anywhere. Leave it to a first time mom to not think of that important step.

Anyway, here's pictures from today.

1 day- 1 accident

2009-02-27T00:34:00.002-06:00

I've been all potty talk recently. Excuse me.

Today was a great day as far as potty training goes. Adelaide hit her record so far-- peed 5 times and pooped once on the potty. It was an almost perfect day but there was on accident (a poopy one at that) during her "nap." I say "nap" because she never actually slept. She's been having a hard time sleeping during this potty training process. She doesn't want to poop or pee in the bed; I even hear her chanting it sometime when she's supposed to be sleeping. She's just not happy in her diaper anymore and she doesn't want to have an accident. She's been stripping herself completely and taking her diaper or training pants off at every nap. I'm sort of at a loss on how to just get her to chill and sleep.

I also don't trust her half the time when she says she has to go potty especially when she says she has to potty during something she doesn't like. I had already gone up once during her "nap" to bring her to the potty because I heard her asking to go, but she just sat there and wanted me to read to her. It's was a scam. So I assumed she was just crying wolf the second time she said she needed to go. I paid for that later obviously.

Tomorrow we're going to CBS, community bible study, in the morning so I don't anticipate quite as good of a day, but we'll see. She could surprise me.

Potty Training Update

2009-02-26T13:38:00.002-06:00

Since my last post, we've continued to work on potty training. I don't know what it was but something clicked in Adelaide and she really wants to use the potty all the time. Sometimes she says she has to go and doesn't do anything or just "beeps" as she calls it. Some days she is definitely more interested than others, but she so far has 19 stickers on her potty chart. That's over the course of a week. Considering we didn't stop life and stay at home all day and considering we may have forgotten some stickers like for when we were away from home, I'm super excited.

Yesterday she peed 4 times on the potty total-- 2 times when we were out and about-- and woke up from her nap clean and dry. When she woke up she said she had to go to the potty so I ran upstairs. She had already taken her training pants off so I thought she'd already done it, but felt around and everything felt dry. I rushed her into the bathroom and as soon as she sat down she peed alot. Awesome.

So far today she has peed in the potty 3 times and pooped once and has remained clean and dry so far. She is in bed now so we'll see if she can once again make it through a nap without an accident. I've been hoping she'd be potty trained before her brother comes and hopefully she'll be good at it by his May 19 due date. If things keep progressing like they have been, I think he won't have to share his cloth diapers with her which would save alot of money not to mention alot of headache.

An Unexpected Surprise

2009-02-18T13:29:00.004-06:00

Today when Adelaide woke up she said, "I want to wear panties." She went over to her dresser and picked out the pair she wanted to wear. I didn't really feel up to cleaning up pee and poo all day so I wasn't that enthusiastic but I went with it. I told her we need to pick out a "potty dress" too-- a special dress that would make it easy to get her panties on and off all day. She helped pick out a dress with me. Then we set to work. I got out all her prizes-- gummi bears, stickers, and lemonheads. We also did the whole process with her dolly to remind her what we'd do. We started setting the timer for 30 minutes and I thought I'd continue it throughout the day. I'd put on her the potty every time the timer went off or if she asked to sit on it herself.

When the timer went off the first time, we headed into the bathroom pausing breakfast. We read all of Curious George but didn't see any progress. So we went back to eating. Almost as soon as we sat back down and got the bib on and everything, she said, "I have to go pee pee." I was not impressed. I thought for sure we'd go back to the potty only to have nothing happen, but no. As soon as she sat down again she started peeing. She was so pumped and so was I.

About 30 minutes later, she told me, "I need to poopoo." I once again was not confident it would happen but brought her in. About 5 minutes later, she had successfully pooped and peed. I was super encouraged. We sat on the potty several more times in the morning with nothing else other than a few drops of pee. We celebrated nonetheless.

She remained "clean and dry" all the way through lunch. So it was from about 8am to 1:30pm with no accidents. At nap I put a diaper on her and told her we used diapers at naps. About 10 minutes in to her naptime, I heard her saying "I need to go potty." I didn't respond right away but she started crying after a few minutes. Sure enough, I went up there and she had just peed. She was pretty upset that she peed in her diaper.

I'm so excited about our progress and that she is wanting to do most of this all on her own. We'll see how the rest of the day goes. I'm keeping my expectations low, but know that she now seems to actually be capable of holding her pee successfully and knowing when she needs to go.

Zoos Galore

2009-02-17T23:34:00.005-06:00

(this picture cracks me up.)

We've got to go to the zoo twice in the past month. First it was to the Austin zoo with my dad and Rocky. Then it was to the San Antonio zoo with our friends the Ronks who happen to have sweet annual passes that got us in for free! Both times were so fun.

Adelaide was obsessed with the tortoises. She got so excited any time they moved. I don't know how many times she said, "He moved his head." Wow, kid. There are lions around the corner.

The petting zoo was still one of her favorite parts. He once again (like our trip almost a year before) did not hesitate to feed the goats or deer.

I think Adelaide's favorite part of the San Antonio zoo was having tons of her friends with her. Climbing on everything was a theme of the trip.

More climbing.

We didn't have change to get food for the goats at the San Antonio zoo so Adelaide had to settle for brushing them instead. Settle? No. She loved brushing their hair.

And hugging them.

There was one animal Adelaide was afraid of however-- the hippopotamus. She didn't want to go near it. She came up to me explaining why, "it's under water and big mouth!" I wish I could have captured her body language to show his big mouth. Now when I'm brushing her teeth at night I ask her to open her mouth like a hippopotamus. I get way better results than when I asked for an alligator mouth.

It's Mom to You Kid

2009-02-15T15:09:00.001-06:00

A couple of mornings ago, I woke up to Adelaide yelling "Sunee, Sunee, Sunee. . . get me out" instead of our typical "Mommy and Daddy. . ."

Dancing

2009-02-13T21:34:00.005-06:00

I walked around the corner as I was making lunch and saw this.

She had pushed the ottoman over to the TV, had climbed on it, was dancing, and was watching her reflection in the TV. Cuteness. ABBA brings out the best in all of us doesn't it?

Sweet Deals

2009-02-13T20:37:00.003-06:00

I've been feeling the need to nest recently but feel like I really can't. Baby Boy Conly will be in our room for the first few weeks at first of course, but his nursery isn't really going to be a nursery even when he does make the move. He's just going to be in the guest room and we won't even get his crib until probably after he's born (we're getting a hand me down from Rocky's parents). Adelaide's room is by no means totally decked out, but I did decorate some before she arrived. I put clothes in drawers, I put books on shelves, etc. Since I can't do any of that, my current way of nesting is buying little things here and there for the little guy. So today when Rocky wanted to go to Goodwill to look for some sweet threads for the Second Chance Prom we're going to tomorrow night, I checked out stuff for our little guy. The Goodwill by our house is super awesome. It's pretty well organized and I've always found really cute stuff. I got tons of stuff today for baby and for Adelaide, most of it name brand (Janie and Jack, Gymboree, Gap, etc.) and it was all $1.59 each. I put back about half of the stuff I orginally picked out, not because it wasn't cute or a good deal but because I had to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, I felt very accomplished today and I can't wait to "nest" some more and put all the clothes away somewhere.

Jumping with Both Feet and Other Things our almost Two Year Old Does

2009-02-13T14:24:00.006-06:00

(like wear coffee filters as hats)

Most of Adelaide's developments these days are seen in what she says or learns. A few weeks ago though Adelaide started a new physical ability-- jumping! For the longest time her jumps or hops were pretty pathetic, not that they are Michael Jordan quality now, but she can jump with both feet off the ground. She is so proud of herself; she likes to show off her skills to anyone that will watch.

Another new development is that we've entered the "why" phase. Adelaide asks why or 'cause why to almost anything I tell her. I didn't expect it quite so early and after a few answers down the list I'm already wanting to say, "because I said so."

Discipline has been going really well for the most part. The corner (which is essentially time out) has been really effective. Sometimes Adelaide will even say, "I need to go to the corner" and will go on her own. It seems like it wouldn't be doing any good if she's so willing to go, but her attitude has generally done a 180 by the time she's done with her minute or two of silence. It's like she's needs a quick break to refocus or something. I have to say it's pretty darn cute to see such a little girl with her face buried in the corner standing still for that long.

When we're all done with the corner I ask her to come to me, tell me she's sorry (if her action warrants it), and explain to her what happened. We leave with her saying, "I will obey." The majority of the time when we're having our little talk, I ask Adelaide to look at me or look in my eyes. Well, Adelaide has definitely picked up on that part. When she is really wanting our attention, sometimes she'll physically grab our faces and pull them to look at her or she'll actually say, "look at my eyes." It's pretty funny.

Adelaide isn't always so compliant of course. The other day when we went to the San Antonio zoo with some friends is an example. We were leaving the petting zoo and all the kiddos were excited to wash their hands. I helped Adelaide wash hers and asked her to climb in her stroller. She told me she needed to wash her hands again. I told her they were already clean and that she needed to listen to mommy. She instantly bent down and wiped her clean hands in the mud, held them up, and said "hands dirty now." She did get to wash her hands again but shocked me with her defiance.

Adelaide's memory is off the charts. The other day I told her we were going to the zoo the next morning, and first thing she said when she woke up was that she wanted to bring a teddy bear to the zoo with her. Today we bought a travel booster from Goodwill and when I set it up for her lunch, Adelaide said "just like Seth." She was perfectly right. Her friend Seth has a booster that's identical.

"Just like" is something we're hearing a ton these days along with "same as," "both same," etc. She is making lots of connections and comparisions. She'll compare color, sizes, types of things, whatever. It's kind of cool. The other night at dinner I had the hardest time figuring out what she was asking for. As I was cutting up her banana, she kept saying what I thought was "like wheel." It didn't really make sense as I was putting it on her tray. She became even more persistent so I really tried to figure it out. Then it hit me. I asked her, "do you want mom to cut it like a wheel?" She said, "yes." So I cut the banana into circular segments and she was as happy as she could be.

I mentioned that Adelaide has her ABCs memorized, well at the beginning of last month it finally hit her one day that ABCs are everywhere. They aren't just for fridge phonics. We were driving around and she said, "Car has ABCs on it." Then she started noticing them on signs, her stuffed animals, everywhere. Connections. Awesome.

A little conversation can go a long way with our kiddo. If we prep her for something, she generally does really well. Now when we leave somewhere, sometimes if I don't tell Adelaide what's going on, she'll say "don't leave me, momma." Really? Have we done that?

Adelaide is quite good at getting herself dressed. She can usually take her shoes and socks on and off and pull on her pants. What she's even better at is getting naked. There have been naptimes and bedtimes now where we've gone in to find Adelaide completely stripped. It doesn't matter if it's a full footed sleeper with snaps and zippers or buttons or if it is two separates. She can break out. One day I came into her room and upon entering she said, "I naked momma and I cold too." I guess so. We've been putting sleepers on backwards to remedy the issue. I don't want her to be cold, but I really don't want to have to change the sheets all the time.

Anyway, that's a little bit about our quirky kid. She has a very fun and strong personality already. Rocky said she even borders on bossy at times. It's such a fun age to start and see more of who she is.

25 weeks!

2009-02-03T13:59:00.002-06:00

I'm already tending to neglect posting anything about our little boy, but I went in today for the 25 week appointment. He seems to be doing quite well and is super active. The doctor kept commenting on his strength while we were listening to his heartbeat. He seemed determined to hit or kick the doppler thing they use to listen. Adelaide was an active kiddo as well but I don't remember her being quite so strong at this point.

I'm measuring right on target so the due date is still around May 19. I'm entering the third trimester next week! Things were moving along so slowly but now it's finally hitting me that we'll having another kiddo very soon. Next visit is in 3 weeks. It's the one where I get to drink the yummy orange drink and wait for an hour to see if I've got gestational diabetes. I don't think there's much to worry about there though.

Maybe the Sweetest Kid Ever

2009-01-26T15:45:00.003-06:00

This morning I was upset about something and was crying a little bit. Adelaide came up to me and gave me a big hug. Then she said, "Wanna talk about it, mama?" I could help but smile. Then she said, "feel better now, mama?" I love my daughter.

Christmas Eve and Day Pictures

2009-01-16T22:22:00.005-06:00

So no one probably cares at this point except for a few family members, but here are pictures from Christmas eve and Christmas day.

We made cookies on Christmas eve. Adelaide helped alot. The messiness almost drove Rocky crazy, but we had a great time.

Now this is how you eat an iced sugar cookie-- icing first.

Proud helper.

Messy mom and daughter.

The stockings Christmas morning.

Adelaide loved to enjoy each present as she opened it, and since it was just us and she didn't have much we let her play with everything.

I'm pretty sure the Legos are her favorite thing.

Her first Potatohead creation.

Rocky modeling one of his wrapping jobs.

enjoying her sleeping bag and matching water bottle-- a great clearance find at Target.

At the big Cedar Park Christmas tree once more. Good times.

We lounged around alot on Christmas day but didn't take the time to make a ton of tamales, something we hope to make a family tradition. It will be much nicer when everyone in the family can do their part and we just hang out and make them together. They were absolutely delicious.

Weird Eater

2009-01-16T22:02:00.003-06:00

Adelaide used to be an excellent eater, but over the past six months or so has become pretty particular. Meal times have become the most frustrating parts of our day. We went from her not wanting to eat vegetables or things that are good for her to her sometimes not wanting to eat anything at all. We've tried less milk to increase her appetite. We've tried airplane with the spoon. We've raced to see who could eat their bites the fastest. Some things helped sometimes but meals were still always a guessing game. Well, for some reason Adelaide has been eating like a cow recently. She still may not be eating the best foods, but she's actually eating and we're not having to spend hours of our day getting her to do it.

Tonight for dinner she polished off lots a piece and a half of roasted chicken, a piece of cheese bread, and a few bites of sweet potato. Today at lunch she ate an entire grilled kid's meal at Steak n Shake-- an entire grilled cheese sandwich and fries. Last night, for the second time this week (because my dad's in town and it's a good excuse), we ate out at authentic Chinese places. Adelaide ate tons; she loves it. She ate chicken, duck, rice, but she preferred the squid, shrimp, scallops, and crab. She loves seafood and polishing it off with no prompting. A couple nights before we ate at a place called Bush's chicken, nothing special just plain ol' fried chicken. Well we ordered a 8 piece for the 4 of us and it's a good thing too because Adelaide ate 4 pieces of chicken. I'm not talking nuggets or strips. I'm talking pieces of chicken. Granted she doesn't like breading so we took all that off, but she ate 2 legs, a thigh, and a wing. It's crazy. We usually don't cut her off because she eats in spurts. We will let her keep going because we know that the following day may mean only a few bites per meal.

Ah. I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Each meal may be the last easy one.

I have news

2009-01-07T20:56:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the big day, the ultrasound. The one that turns my stomach into knots the day before as I wonder if the baby is healthy and as I prepare myself to hear the gender, yeah, that one. Well, I've got news, good news. The baby looks absolutely healthy (and quite rambunctious I might add). The kiddo didn't hold still for any pictures, and I'm not quite sure if the technician got all the measurements and everything she needed. That was a bummer, but the baby did cooperate plenty long for us to figure out that we're having a boy! I was totally shocked. I really didn't expect that. I'm excited, but I really thought all my miserable morning sickness was telling me I needed to get ready for another girl. I'm so pumped. I'm ready to go through all the boxes of clothes to see what is gender neutral enough for the kid to wear. I'm feeling ready to nest now. Oh, and I should probably spend some time thinking up a name for the little one as well.

More Adelaide quirkiness

2008-12-30T21:13:00.004-06:00

We are currently in Ft. Worth and will be here 'til next Monday for the annual Winter Conference, a conference for college students involved with Crusade in our four state region. I think this year we expect 900 students. I hope it's a life changing experience for all that attend; it was for us when we were students.

Rocky is part of the program team that helps plan each of the main meetings. It involves alot of serious stuff obviously but they also get to have alot of fun and make videos to keep the students awake. I don't know a ton about their content this year, but I look forward to seeing what they've been up to.

So anyway, while Rocky's been working and everyone on his team has been working, I've been finding creative ways to live happily in one room with a 21 month old. It's normally not too bad except when she's trying to go to bed. I usually have resorted to hanging out in the bathroom so I don't disturb her. On the 1st though we will have a suite so I'll be movin' on up. We were one of 6 randomly selected families to get a free upgrade this year. Awesome.

Our hotel is nice but doesn't have free internet in the rooms which is one downer. We're at the Renaissance Worthington in the heart of Sundance Square. The location is pretty dang awesome. I'm used to having to hop in the car anywhere we go while we're at winter conference, but this year I haven't had to get in the car once. I can just stroll to tons of stuff-- restaurants, book stores, little boutiques, etc. It's been nice.

I'm also excited to get to hang out with friends we don't normally get to see while we're here. Anyway, on to Adelaide's quirkiness.

Tonight as I was getting Adelaide ready for bed, I was talking to her about when she was a little baby and what it will be like when the new baby comes. I must have said "when she/he comes" because Adelaide starting singing "will be coming 'round the mountain." It's not one that I sing alot so I asked her where she heard it. She said, "watch little tv. headphones. will be coming 'round the mountain." Might not make sense to many but to me it meant she heard it on the little dvd player in the car (hence the headphones).

Adelaide is also funny because she can instantly be friends with any little kid. Today we were at Barnes and Noble here in Ft. Worth while Rocky was working (I think he was doing something really hard like running around as a deviled egg, yeah, ask me later). Anyway, she ran up to this group of four kids and just hung out with them for an hour while we were there. One girl was older and fell in love with Adelaide. Me and the moms just watched them play.

Last night when during our first dinner with the program team (which Rocky is part of) for the conference, Adelaide gave everyone fist pounds or knuckles as she sometimes calls them, ticked random people, and hugged everyone in the group all on her own with no prompting.

Tonight she became good friends with kids at Razzoo's where we ate dinner. She was leading the group in a crouch and jump routine. Even though these kids were all older than her too, they all complied. It's fun to see her extroverted self.

Also tonight as we were waiting for the food to arrive, Adelaide who was hungry and who calls all waitresses "lady" starting saying "hey lady. food. come."

Today as she was going down for her nap, I heard her giving herself a pep talk. She had been punished a little bit before bed and she was saying stuff like this, "i obey mommy. i sorry mommy. go to corner." It was funny. She didn't wake up in a better mood unfortunately.

Sad to See

2008-12-24T13:32:00.003-06:00

Adelaide woke up Monday morning quite sick and having a hard time breathing. She wasn't talking much because it took so much work. If she did, she'd do it on an exhale because it took all the air she had. We were lucky enough to get in to see her doctor that morning. She had a breathing treatment done at the office, and we were sent home with a machine so we could continue treatments at home. That helped a ton. Right after the albuterol, we could see a big difference. She could breathe better and seemed to have more energy. Amazingly enough, we only had to do one more treatment later that evening. We thought we'd be up alot throughout the night, but Adelaide slept right through and woke up the next morning alot better. She now is breathing fairly normally and just seems to have a bad cold. We're so thankful it wasn't worse. We'll have to watch out for continued breathing issues like this though because Rocky had childhood asthma and breathing treatments were a regular occurrence for him growing up.

One More Funny Thing

2008-12-21T00:12:00.003-06:00

I forgot to post this but one of the funniest things Adelaide has said recently is this:

Me or Rocky or whoever asks: What's your name?
Adelaide: MeeMax.

I don't know where she came up with it, but it was clear and consistent. The first time she said it, I could not stop laughing out loud which was probably a mistake. She kept calling her self MeeMax for 2 weeks!

A White Christmas

2008-12-19T16:13:00.010-06:00

Well it was not exactly on Christmas obviously, but during our visit to Louisiana to celebrate Christmas with our families that we had our white Christmas. We headed to Louisiana last Thursday and were greeted by at least 4 inches of soft beautiful snow. Snowing in Louisiana is a rarity so we were super excited to get to play in it. Less exciting were the complications the snow brought with it. We were supposed to stay with Rocky's parents for a couple of days and then with my mom the other half, but wound up changing all of our plans around because Rocky's parents didn't have power for 2 days. Since it was in the thirties outside we figured we'd better stay with my mom and enjoy the heater.

We were in town for a wedding Rocky was in and to visit with our families so our 3 day weekend was jam-packed. It was a little crazy but a fun time.

petting the horses at Rocky's parents'.

opening presents at my mom's house. I love Rocky's goofy expression in the background. I'm sad I don't have pictures of what she did earlier that evening; my mom brought her to look at some cool Christmas lights in town.

Making christmas cookies with Rocky's mom. Adelaide had a great time using the cookie cutters.

There were some sparklers left over from the wedding Rocky was in so Adelaide got to play with firecrackers for the first time. She was very cautious and would only hold it for a second before asking for help. I can appreciate that.

Riding a horse with her cousin Claire.
Another horse riding picture. I love Adelaide's hair in this picture. That day it was just gorgeous, must have been the perfect humidity or something, but it had these beautiful big curls all day.

Opening presents again. Can you tell she likes the ballerina skirt?

Her and Claire in their matching Christmas pajamas. Aren't they cute?

Getting Ready for Christmas in Austin

2008-12-18T23:24:00.002-06:00

Tonight we went to the Trail of Lights with some friends. It was a good time despite crazy fog traffic and foot traffic at the park.

We will actually be in town for Christmas this year so we decided to go all out and get a real Christmas tree. We've never had one before and haven't even set up a tree at all in five years. Here's some pictures of our tree hunting and decorating.

This picture made me laugh. The cats were chewing on the tree wrap and Adelaide decided she should try it too.

Next post, Christmas with family in Louisiana.

Funny Conversations

2008-12-18T22:33:00.002-06:00

Adelaide cracks us up all the time. Here's a few of the funny conversations we've had with her recently:

(Adelaide found a rattle and brings it to me.)
Adelaide: What's this?
me: it's a rattle. Shake it. We'll save it and give it to the new baby.
Adelaide: Give it to baby?
me: yes.
(Adelaide proceeds to walk over to her bible and places the rattle on it on top of baby Jesus. The night before we'd read the story of the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.)

(Adelaide was having trouble falling asleep one night and I went up to check on her. This is what she had to say.)
Adelaide: Mom, I ride a horse.
me: yes, you did ride a horse.
Adelaide: I want to ride tiger.
me: a tiger? is that safe?
Adelaide: no?
me: that's right. riding a tiger might be dangerous.
Adelaide: tiger. dangerous.
me: is a cat dangerous?
Adelaide: (hesitation) yes.
me: is a dog dangerous?
Adelaide: no.
me: well, some might be. what about Jack (our neighbor's dog, a big lab)?
Adelaide: no.
me: what about toby (the benefield's big dog)?
Adelaide: no.
me: what about biscuit (rocky's parents' chihuahua)?
Adelaide: yes. biscuit. dangerous.

(as we are walking out the door yesterday.)
Adelaide: daddy, have jacket?
Rocky: yes.
Adelaide: have shoes?
Rocky: yes.
Adelaide: have wallet?
Rocky: yes.
Adelaide: have phone?
Rocky: yes.
Adelaide: have keys?
Rocky: yes.
(it's nice to have someone to remind us to get all our stuff.)

Still Playing Catch Up

2008-12-05T21:52:00.008-06:00

Here's some more pictures I've been wanting to post. I think I should pretty much be caught up at this point. Enjoy.

Here's some from a camping trip we took in late October with church. It was our first two night trip with Adelaide. She really did well both nights considering it got pretty dang cold.

Pace Bend park.

cute marshmallow covered face.

the kids playing around the first morning.

Adelaide kept trying to feed Ben and give him something to drink.

yummy breakfast the second morning-- our friend sasha made us yummy french toast and bacon. maybe the nicest camping breakfast i've ever had.

We recently took a trip to the Austin Children's Museum. The last time we'd been was in January or something like that. Adelaide wasn't quite walking last time so she definitely had more fun this time.

During music time which Adelaide loved but I thought was a little out there.

cooking and cleaning in the play kitchen. i thought Adelaide looked so big in the little apron.

Adelaide could have probably played right here all day. It was like a shape sorter of nuts and bolts. The pieces she dropped in the holes fell out into a basket next to it. Here's Adelaide trying to figure out where the pieces go.

All decked out in the vest and hat and saying "cheese." Adelaide has suddenly gotten pretty good at looking at the camera and saying cheese. Saying cheese however doesn't always make for the most flattering pictures.

More sorting.

I have a picture almost identical to this from last January. I think Adelaide loved this giant lite brite even more now.

At the Campus Crusade staff conference we attended right before Rocky headed to New Zealand Adelaide got to ride a horse for the first time. She had a blast.

Here's some from our trip to Louisiana last week. It was weird being there without Rocky. The roadtrips couldn't have been smoother though, and even though she was sick with 2 ear infections, sore throat, and chest congestion she was such a fun kid to be around most of the time.

Adelaide showing her doll how to ride the pony.

I love this picture. It looks like Adelaide is really trying to drive. Her pops lets her do all kinds of cool things like this.

Adelaide in her new (used) couple her grandparents found for her. Can you tell she likes it?

I'll just come right out and say it

2008-12-05T13:26:00.000-06:00

I'm pregnant. We've very strongly hinted at it, and I'm sure if you've read closely you've figured it out. I'm about 17 weeks along now and things seem to be just fine. The baby's heartrate seems perfect and somehow the little kid already looks cute. We are super excited especially since we'd been trying since May. Last go round, it happened before we knew it, and this time my doctor had called for prolactin testing because I wasn't ovulating well. Ovulating well or not, we thank God we didn't have to go through alot of fertility testing and that we were able to conceive relatively quickly and easily.

This pregnancy has already been a little bit more difficult than my first. I have to go in regularly not only to my obgyn but also to my endocronologist. I have to get bloodwork done every 3 weeks and go visit her every 4. So far my thyroid levels have doubled since I've been pregnant, but my doctor has been adjusting my meds to match my rollercoaster hormones. I also had to be on progesterone. I'm not considered "high risk" but I am considering higher risk than last time for sure. Weird that things are so different this time.

I don't know if it's related to the hormones or not, but my morning sickness has also been worse. If you've seen me recently and I looked like death warmed over, that's because that's basically what I feel like. Doing normal stuff with Adelaide and around the house has been a challenge. I tried 2 nausea medications, something I never did with Adelaide, and finally found one that works. I'm not a huge medication person especially when pregnant so I'm just trying to take it when I'm super miserable. Now at 17 weeks, I'm still struggling with bouts of dry heaving.

This kiddo is due to arrive May 19, 2009. That's almost exactly 26 months from Adelaide's birthday. We were always hoping that the kids were be about 2 years apart so I think that will be good spacing. Since I found out I was pregnant 3 of my friends have discovered they are pregnant too. We're all due within 2-3 weeks of one another. I'm already envisioning playdates.

I'm in a New Zealand prison

2008-12-03T03:33:00.005-06:00

libby posing for a storyboard shot. At the sink where Tuhoe tries to wash away his past

a fake prison wall, it's make of Styrofoam. Don't tell the prisoners

people just standing around in prison

Tomorrow is the first day of our shot. Things look to be coming together, even if it is the day before. Please pray that all will go well and that we all keep a good attitude through it all. I have been able to spend some time with Tuhoe [the man who's story we are telling] and he is a great guy. Very cool to see such intense life change.-RC

Pictures I'm Behind on Posting

2008-11-30T15:58:00.009-06:00

OK, so this post is very long and very random but I've been meaning to post all these pictures for awhile.

We went to NYC last month to visit friends (thank you frequent flyer miles), and we left Adelaide with the grandparents for the first time. It was hard to leave our little girl especially 'cause she had a cold, but everyone had a good time. I was a little worried my trip would be spoiled by morning sickness and a bad cold, but with a little help of Zofran and some Sudafed I was good to go.

not feeling so good.

the guys-- joel, josh, and rocky.

cute gideon, the hocks' son.

my ears were almost completely stopped up after the flights. i felt like my head my literally explode at one point the pressure was so bad. i couldn't hear very well for a day or so. must of have been what adelaide felt like before the ear tubes.

near the hock's place.

at central park.

me and colleen at central park.
me and rocky obviously.

again, central park. it was beautiful with the leaves changing colors.

as jack on 30 rock said last week, "we're off cupcakes, and we're back to doughnuts." the guy that owns this place asked where we were from and when we said austin he said, "oh, round rock donuts." He proceeded to trash talk them, but that's ok. His donuts were delicious.

times square obviously.

us at the UN, the biggest waste of our time and money on our trip-- the tour was lame.

Adelaide had a good time with her grammy and pops. They hung out around Austin, went to San Antonio, and visited Aunt Kay in Brenham. Here's some of their pictures.

at the outlet mall.

riding bikes.

playing dress up and then playing in puddles with jude.

at aunt kay's house.

at the san antonio riverwalk.

at the alamo.

i'm not sure what this picture is all about but i think it's hilarious so i'll end with it.

Working in New Zealand

2008-11-30T02:44:00.005-06:00

this is the location where we will shoot the final shot of the film. The black sand was really cool, unfortunately I'm still finding it in my shoes.

The students on a "bit of a holiday" at the zoo

The Auckland skyline

If you didn't know i am in New Zealand working with NZ students on a summer project. We have 12 students who are here to learn about film making and the creative process. I taught today on the role of the director of photography, and about basic lighting for film and video. In the next week the students will be in groups working on 3 short films.

I am also here to make a sort film called The Rap. It is the story of ex-mongrel mob leader Tuhoe Issac. Tuhoe was once one of the most notorious gang members in New Zealand, who late in his life became a believer. The film is based on the true story of Tuhoe, and is centered around one of his many prison sentences. Tuhoe got 7 years for a fellow gang members crime. Part of the gang culture is that you get honor by serving the sentence for a brother in the gang. His live changes when he finds out that Christ took "the rap" for him, and died for his freedom. It is a pretty great opportunity to be here working on both of these projects. Thank you all for making it possible to be hear and tell this story.

Please keep Sunee and Adelaide in prayer as they are away visiting family and no doubt missing me unbearably. Adelaide is also pretty sick right now so she is having trouble sleeping and is feeling pretty bad. You can also pray that all will work out with the film here. New Zealand culture is very laid back and works on handshakes "no problem bro". It makes me nervous to not have everything nailed down as we go along, and don't think i don't know what a dork that makes me.

2 in Louisiana, 1 near New Zealand

2008-11-25T20:27:00.002-06:00

Rocky was in Australia just a few hours ago on his way to New Zealand. He should be landing sometime soon. It's a crazy trip-- over 30 hours!

Adelaide and I are in Louisiana. Laissez les bons temps rouler. Adelaide's warmed up to my family and having a good time. Tonight she was super hyper and running around tickling everyone AND she peed in the potty. This makes 2 times for pee and 1 for poo. Sometimes she's too excited to remember she needs to go but when things are quiet and she's being patient, we've had success. We are gonna really work on it next month. You may have noticed the new ticker at the bottom of the page. We're hoping to get her trained before that ticker reaches 0.

Our road trip went pretty amazingly smooth yesterday despite a 6 hour trip turning into 8. This was my first road trip along with a kiddo. Adelaide slept 3 hours and was on perfect behavior the rest of the time. I didn't even have to resort to the DVD player I had as back up. Awesome. I was expecting the worst.

Stuff we've been up to

2008-11-19T21:16:00.007-06:00

I never sync my phone to my computer. I say never, but I just did it. Here's some pictures I've taken with it recently.

Adelaide likes accessories. Can you tell she put this on by her self?

Kid loves the swing.

At Champion park.

Right after she said, "I hug you cat."

Girl gets some serious bed (or carseat) head.
I recently went to Fun, Fun, Fun Fest where the highlight for me was my current favorite band, The National. I love them and have for awhile. The show was a little disappointing unfortunately but it still was a great time I was glad not to miss.

Adelaide and Kate rocking. Adelaide seriously getting that thing moving.

Sitting 'n Spinning. I was a little jealous. I remember how much fun that used to be.

Pretending to sleep in the cart at Sam's Club.

Right after she told me, "I love Cheerios."

A Finished Product

2008-11-19T20:59:00.003-06:00

One of the projects Rocky has been working on is finished. I'm sure you can check it out elsewhere but I'm just going to link you here. Rocky was the cinematographer for alot of it. I think he did a great job. You'll also see a special appearance by yours truly and Baby Conly herself. This promo will be used to help recruit folks to use their skills within CCC to go out to the World.

Surprising Us Every Day

2008-11-10T13:56:00.005-06:00

Adelaide's vocabulary is blowing our minds these days. She's speaking in complete sentences often or putting phrases together on her own. I've been trying to write some down as she says them. Here's some of the interesting things she's said in the past few days (at least they are interesting to me). I'll elaborate on ones that might need it:

No cat sink. (the cat was in the sink.)
My foot stuck mama's PJs (her foot was caught in my gown, sure 'nough)
My mouth hurts (we're guessing her teeth were hurting. her 2 year molars have been trying to come in forever).
I need that duck.
Push me wagon.
I peepee alot.
I don't want put clothes on.
I don't like it.
Bring baby bottle.
Bye Bye Kate's Momma (I told her to say bye to Colleen.)
Where'd Colleen go?
I don't like this blanket (when I replaced her normal one with a silky one).
I want toys.
I thirsty sleepy.
alot of people (she said this when we were eating breakfast at a donut shop the other morning in between saying hi to everyone that entered.)
watch the animals (wanting to see a video from the library).
I find the book.
dark outside.
No pumpkins eat that K? (telling the cat not to eat her miniature pumpkin.)
pretty bracelet.
cool necklace.
kitty's tail
kitty no fall (warning the cat of the edge of the dresser)
I'm helping k?
I like eat rice k?
cooler than dad (this one I made her repeat and sure enough that's what she said. she already knew that though).
I hug you bear.
I hug you monkey.
stay heres k? (telling her animals to stay where she put them. she also tells them to sit and sleep.)

Daddy is Home

2008-11-10T13:29:00.006-06:00

Rocky was gone last week. We were so excited that he is back home. He stayed home on Friday to spend some time with us and rest so we headed to the Waco zoo. It was a little further away from the Austin zoo but way nicer. I've heard it's one of the nicest zoos in Texas. Here's lots of pictures of our day.

Before Rocky got home.

After!

We had to keep reminding Adelaide that all the animals aren't the cute cuddly stuffed ones she has at home. When we walked up to the bear cage she said, "I hug you bear."

Looking for the alligators.

Looking at the fish.

Hanging with Dad.

I thought this picture was just super cute.

Adelaide loved the jaguar. Alot of the cages were clear glass which was excellent for viewing the animals.

Adelaide was sitting here when the coyote jumped up behind her. We thought she'd get scared but instead she said, "hi!"

The otter exhibit had a sweet clear slide that went through it.

Me and Adelaide checking out her favorite animal that day-- the elephant.

Trick or Treat

2008-11-01T12:05:00.003-06:00

Well, a couple of things didn't go as planned on Halloween this year. Rocky is currently in Rome and missed it. It was hot, and Adelaide couldn't wear her costume. And she was sick. We originally were going to go with the same people we did last year, but I didn't want to expose them to Adelaide germs so we just hung around the neighborhood. There was a party at the pool, and then we stopped at some houses on the way back home.

I made a last minute costume out of a pearl snap shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat. Although she was excited to be a monkey, she enjoyed being a cowgirl too. Adelaide's enthusiasm wasn't as great as it would have been if she were feeling 100%. I think she still had a pretty good time though.

I love how her red hat stands out in all the pictures. This was early on in the evening while she was still holding her pony.

At the party at the pool with Jude, our neighbor's son, who was a cowboy.

Unfortunately this picture was blurry. It was perfect-- Adelaide was looking and smiling.

Morning at the Park

2008-10-28T15:43:00.003-06:00

Today was just all out family fun morning. After the pumpkin patch we headed to a local park to play. It's nice to get to spend some time together before Rocky heads out of town this Thursday.

So this slide may have been just a little too steep for a 19 mo. old as you can tell by how she's tumbling down. Even still Adelaide got out and climbed up the stairs to do it all over again.

I'm not sure what's up with Adelaide's face, but she currently has a bruise on one cheek, a large scratch on the other, and some mild red bumps from drooling. Not the nicest time for close ups.

Adelaide cocked a little attitude with us about getting in the car to go home. I love that she even has her hands on her hips to prove her defiance.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-28T12:52:00.005-06:00

Today we headed to a local pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin and of course take some pictures. If you are looking for a nice pumpkin patch you should definitely come here. It's on Park St. in Cedar Park. It's my third year to go here-- the pumpkins are reasonable, the people running it are nice, and the benefits all go towards missions.

It is nearly impossible to get a good picture of Adelaide. She does not care about the camera or smiling for us and she doesn't sit still, but here's some of the shots we got. She was super pumped about the pumpkins and kept saying things like, "i hold you, pumpkin" and "running through pumpkins."

Way Behind

2008-10-27T14:55:00.010-06:00

I'm really stinking at posting regularly on my blog here lately as my mom kindly points out to me. So I'm going to try and catch up some.

We've had alot going on. I've had a cold now for a week and a half. I don't remember the last time I was sick before this. It had to be years ago, but this cold is killer. I've had coughing, snottiness, congestion, headaches, and even stopped up ears. I haven't really felt like doing much recently so the things that get done are diaper changes, meal times, and whatever else seems absolutely necessary.

Rocky's going to be traveling alot in the next month. He's already been working alot which is always hard on us. Adelaide used to ask everyday, "where daddy?" Now she just says, "Daddy works." Rocky leaves out on Thursday for a whirlwind trip to Rome, Mexico City, and Chicago. He'll be missing Adelaide's second halloween; he missed her first last year traveling as well. Then he's back for 2 weeks and leaves again for New Zealand for 2 weeks. That trip will be the longest he's ever been away from me since we've been married AND it will be over Thanksgiving! I'm going to try to be strong, but I've never been very good at that.

Adelaide is growing up like crazy, not so much physically as developmentally. Everyday I'm struck by how well she is able to communicate with me. Like yesterday she brought her slippers to me, pointed to the inside, and said "sticker off please. i don't like it." She meant that she wanted the tags cut off the slippers, that they were bothering her. Today we went to the library to watch a fall themed puppet show. I was a little worried Adelaide wouldn't sit for the entire time but she was so interested she sat still taking it all in. Afterwards she talked about it for a long time, "puppets. ghost. pumpkins." As soon as she woke up the first thing she said was "pumpkins."

More posts to come. We just went on another camping trip with our church this past weekend and the weekend before we were in NYC visiting friends. Here's some random photos from the last few weeks.

Adelaide riding in the Bronco. She LOVES it so much. Sometimes she refuses to get her arms out of the straps and says more over and over when we stop.

Feeding her sock monkey some dinner.

Putting her doll on the potty.

Sitting on the potty herself watching her potty video. We aren't really actively training yet but she's still been really interested recently. We plan on trying in December when things settle down a bit.

And of course letting her reindeer drink out of her potty.

A few weekends ago we took Adelaide to the Cedar Rock train. She loved it so much.

At some friends' kids birthday party at Champion Park.

I love this video. She loves the Bronco, and I love how cute her talking is these days. Here's the translation.
A: bronco. bronco.
S: the bronco?
A: yeah.
S: we're gonna go ride in the bronco?
A: yeah.
S: are you excited?
A: excited.
S: is it going to be alot of fun?
A: fun. alot of fun.
S: do you like the bronco?
A: like bronco.

A Yes Girl

2008-09-30T22:41:00.004-06:00

Not just yes but yeah too. Adelaide's main response these days has turned positive. It is so awesome. Those words have never sounded so beautiful. Rocky is convinced her "yeah" is the cutest yeah in the entire world. She says it with such joy and exuberance; I'll have to catch it on video so you can judge for yourself.

That's not all that has been going on with her vocabulary however. It is amazing these days. She has started using the pronoun "I" properly. I didn't really think about it until just last week, but she starts most of her sentences with I. Even if I try say something like, "do you want to go down stairs?" She'll come back with,"Yeah, I want go down stairs." It's fascinating that she's got it since pronouns seem so hard. She does get them confused depending on where they go in the sentence like she says, "hold you" instead of "hold me," but she's got "I" down.

Adelaide's sentences are off the charts too. She's able to communicate thoughts pretty clearly. The other day when I was babysitting Kate and had just put her down for a nap, Adelaide said, "Tate (how she says Kate) sad. Come down stairs." Yesterday she came up to me with a poopy diaper and said, "Momma, mess diaper" and pulled at her diaper. The sad part is that she knows not everyone understands her so she doesn't even really try to communicate too much with other people. She'll try with Rocky, me, other kids, and a few friends, but that's about it.

On to counting. Adelaide loves to count and she does it alot even when she's playing alone. I'll hear her "one two thee fi six seben six seben six seben." If I throw her an eight, the record will get back on track and she'll finish with a "nine ten."

Adelaide is a huge fan of Jesus. Seriously. She likes to read about him and occasionally she'll just start talking about him randomly. The other day we were in the car and she started saying Jesus over and over. So Rocky and I started singing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. . ." She loved it and chimed in with Jesus, know, basically the last word of every line. She does that with Jesus loves me too.

Adelaide likes books and really loves one book in particular-- Moo, Baa, La, La, La. (Thanks Marti). We have read that book so many times that Adelaide has it memorized and she will fill in gaps if I pause (and she's in the mood). Hopefully she doesn't really think pigs say "la la la."

Thanks to Jude our neighbor's son who she gets to hang out with alot, she learned "too." Now if she wants to go outside and I say I'm staying in, she says, "outside too" like you come out too mom. She says it all the time, "eat too," "play too," "go too," "doll night night too." It's a little out of control, but useful.

She also left Rocky her first voicemail. It was all prompted of course, but she said something like, "Hi Daddy. Come home. Miss you. Love you. Bye Daddy." Now if Rocky could have her leave me one I could listen to it over and over.

I know that's alot of bragging, but I've just been so excited and I think she has been too that I wanted to share it with you.

camping videos

2008-09-26T12:53:00.003-06:00

Adelaide did really well around the campfire. She totally avoided it and even ducked under the smoke when it came near her except for the one time she tried to eat it. I thought this was cute showing how much she feared the hot fire.

Here's Adelaide and Jude playing in the tent. They had so much fun.

Camping

2008-09-22T19:30:00.006-06:00

Since the weather has been so nice, we decided Saturday morning to go camping. We headed to Pace Bend, a nice Travis County park that rarely fills up and doesn't require reservations. Our neighbors saw us loading the car and joined in on the fun as well. I'm so glad we did it. Adelaide had a great time too and even slept almost 12 hours! Enough talking already. On to the pictures.

On the way to the lake. It's funny to see my hair next to Adelaide's, and I wonder why people sometimes ask if she's adopted.

The beach was totally muddy. We didn't plan on getting in but didn't have much of a choice once Adelaide found the mud.

More muddiness.

Lounging in her hair, eating Cheetos.

Hanging out with me by the fire.

I don't know what it is about this picture but I think Adelaide looks so grown up.

Jude and Adelaide wrestled in the tent for about an hour or so. It was hilarious. They giggled the whole time. I think she was about to get body slammed here or something.

More playing in the tent.

Still more.

And more.

Warming herself by the fire Sunday morning.

Eating breakfast (the only meal to her. It could be 5pm and she'll say, "eat breakfast. Hungy.")

Walking to the lake in the morning.

Checking out some horses.

The roof of our tent is so awesome. It is totally open. The weather was so nice we could sleep without the rainfly. It was a nice view to wake up to.

Girls' Day

2008-09-19T20:58:00.002-06:00

Colleen and I are trading off watching each other's kiddo once a week. It's been nice to get some stuff done that's difficult to do with Adelaide in tow. Anyway, yesterday was my day to watch Kate. And since I haven't posted pictures of our little girl in awhile I took the opportunity to get some pictures.

It's cute to see how they play so well together these days. Here they are sitting on the step stool together.

And having a tea party.

And trying on shoes and socks.

And playing with playdough for the first time. (I was Suzy Homemaker and made it myself yesterday afternoon. It was super easy, and I always have all the stuff on hand.)

Kate enjoyed it too, especially mushing all the colors together.

One of the many ways God provides

2008-09-15T13:05:00.003-06:00

It seems that one of the many ways God provides for us to not only have everything we need but also to have nearly everything we could want is through finding good deals. This weekend was a prime example. I woke up early to stand in the line for the REI garage sale hoping that I would find a great deal on a family tent. Little did I know that I was going to find that and alot more. [Note: If you are one of those people that gets frustrated when you miss out on a good deal (like I am) you should stop reading now]. Here's what we were able to get:

REI Hobitat 6 tent (reg. $329) for $30.83
REI Hobitat 6 footprint (reg. $45) for $0
Chaco flipflops (reg. $34.83) for $3.83
North Face pants for Rocky (reg. $65.00) for $10.83
Bob Sport Utility Double Jogging Stroller (reg. $429) for $30.83
Aero Bed (reg. 99.95) for $10.83
Thule Roadway Bike Rack (reg. $182.99) for $20. 41
REI computer bag (reg. 59.50) for $1.41
Omni Fuel Camp stove (reg. $139.95) for $6.41
3 Polar heart rate monitors (reg. 109.95 each) for $6.41
Gemini headlamp (reg. $38.50) for $1.41

Total (reg. $1755) for $121. That's still less than a 1/3 of what it would have cost me to just buy my tent brand new. Just like a garage sale almost everything is used and was returned. Most things have very minimal damage. I'm super excited about all my finds!

My live-in maid

2008-09-10T13:02:00.003-06:00

I love my new house cleaner. He cleans all the floors downstairs and up. The only thing he won't do is the stairs. I left the house yesterday with a kitchen that was crumb filled and living room that was dirty, and came back to a nicely vacuumed home. No, I'm not suddenly rolling in the dough. A good friend of ours just gave us their old Roomba. I love it! Yesterday I picked up the rugs and chairs and the normal things you have to pick up when you clean and let the robot go to work. My whole house is vacummed and it only took me about 5 minutes (unless you count the time we watched it). I charge it, put it in the room I want cleaned, push "clean," and it goes to work. Because it's so small it could even go under places we don't normal get to vacuum like under our bed. I feel like a new woman. Here's to my first robot. Now if only they made one that did dishes and toilets and dusting and mopping and changing diapers and cooking and gardening and grocery shopping. . .