Isla: 2 years, 8 months (32 mo)

Isla has more or less lived in swimsuits, underwear and pj's and varying combinations of each for the past week. She had a friend over the other day and the 2 of them were playing quietly upstairs. Before we knew what was going on, they showed up downstairs, Isla in a swimsuit and her friend in Isla's pj's. Thus began an hour long episode of dress-up, followed by what is now going on about a week long of "dress-up" for Isla.

This friend was potty-trained which I think helped re-spark some interest in the whole ordeal for Isla. She's been asking to wear underwear (which she usually tops with a swimsuit) every day and so I've been letting her give it a go. We've had a couple of accidents on the carpet but then on Tuesday morning she woke up with a dry diaper, I put her on the potty and she went! HOORAY! We've had almost daily successes now. I'm thrilled! She's looking forward to riding the city bus to the park (Juanita!) as a reward.

Isla very interested in the concept of time right now. She frequently throws a "yesterday"or "last night" or "on Saturday" into her sentences, though she doesn't seem to have any idea what it means. One of her most-used phrases is "That's sort of silly" which she says whenever she sees something she feels is out of place. For instance, a car on display INSIDE Costco or a man pushing a dog in a stroller...

She is definitely at the age where she takes everything literally. The other day she was asking for something and my hands were full. I asked her if she could please hold on a minute. She immediately grabbed my arm and said "Ok Mom, I hold on" and didn't let go. Ha! And then there was the time I made the mistake of telling her that her wipes couldn't go in the toilet (after she'd already thrown one in there) so she quickly retrieved it. Oops.

The vast majority of our toys go unused as of late. Isla spends most of the day carrying her babies and stuffed animals from room to room, putting them down for naps in the pack n' play, feeding them breakfast in the highchair, letting them play in the exersaucer etc etc. She also loves to take all the kitchen chairs and form them in a circle so they are facing each other and set up tea parties for the babies. Sometimes I feel like I have 4 kids because often we have to wait until Ducky has his shoes on or until baby is buckled into the back seat before we can go anywhere. The other day she finally gave her two babies names: "Jelly" and "Emma."

Isla loves to color. I've been saving some of her artwork because I find it so fascinating! It is very linear and almost symmetric with lots of straight lines and squares. It totally speaks to me and my need for symmetry! She is also learning to write some of the letters of the alphabet. So far, she can make the letters I, L and O.

She seems to really enjoy a full social schedule. Often one of the first things she says to me when she wakes up in the morning is "Who's coming over today?" I just LOVE her personality, the funny things she says and her tender heart. She's a beauty!

The positives

So many things about this week have been hard but there have been so many things to celebrate as well. I'm choosing to focus on the positives! Isla woke up with a completely dry diaper on Tuesday morning so I threw her on "the pot" (as her father has taught her to refer to it) and she peed immediately. We had another success later that afternoon and then today Graham reported she took her first major dump on the potty (it's the little things people!) That night, Emma AND I BOTH slept solidly through THE ENTIRE night! I think it's the first time in 8 months that I have not been awoken before 6 AM and it was thrilling. Last evening, Graham and I enjoyed a nice dinner at home together (never mind the screaming baby upstairs and the 7:30 PM leaf blower serenade out front). Dinner was followed by reading a book on the couch (me) and a Coldstone run (Graham). And I didn't even have to tell him what I wanted. He knows me just that well--love him! We watched The Descendants and it felt like a weekend. Today I wandered through the garden and was excited to see that my yard is flourishing! The beauty about digging up and moving around a bunch of plants when you are 8 1/2 month pregnant and still under the influence of "baby brain" is that you have no recollection of these changes. It's like a phantom gardener came and re-landscaped the place with new things popping up everywhere--it's great!! And though it has taken ~5 1/2 years, I think I've finally found some plants that are compatible with my dirt and it actually looks kind of good. God is teaching me about His faithfulness this week and I'm so grateful!

Smiles

Ok so not many people can say that they love going to the dentist but Isla can! I never expected taking my daughter to the dentist would be an activity that made my heart swell with pride. But it did. You would have thought I'd taken her to the toy store she was so excited. Yesterday was her very first visit and I just have to document a few highlights because they made me smile:

• Before we even got to the dentist I asked Isla what she wanted to do afterwards (for a special treat). Her excited response? "Go to the dentist again!!!!"
• She loved sitting in the big girl chair that went "higher and higher" and she couldn't get enough of all the cool equipment.
• The hygienist spent lots of time showing her all the tools, the light, sunglasses, the bib with her name on it and then brushed and flossed her teeth. Once she was done, we were waiting for the dentist to come do the exam when the ever-interested Isla eagerly asked "What are we going to do next!?" Because she had run out of things to show Isla, the hygienist suggested she give her a hug (which she did).
• Isla totally didn't even care about the personal TV above her and looked at the crying girl in the chair next to us like "What's up with that girl? Why is she crying?" 
• She picked a purple toothbrush for herself and the dentist let her pick out a pink one for her little sister.
• Isla got a token to use in the toy machine at the end of the visit and brought home a little teal dinosaur (which she proceeded to take to the park to ride on the swings with her).
• For the last 24 hours, all Isla has wanted to do is floss.

My girl is tough stuff but she also has a tender soul. I love how the little things excite her and I hope that never changes!

What we've been up to

Opportunities to blog come rather few and far between so I feel like I owe my readers a more thorough update on what we've been doing beyond getting older (the kids) and running (me).

We seem to be functioning under an ever-changing routine which, in and of itself, basically goes against the definition of the word so I guess we can't even really claim to have one of those!

I went back to work at the end of February, beginning at one day a week to ease the transition. It's gone remarkably better than expected and I've found that a) I enjoy using that other part of my brain (hooray! it's still there!) and b) earning a paycheck feels really good. As much as I loved being home with the girls for the time that I was, seeing our bank account hold steady instead of decreasing is really nice! This past week was crazy as I went back up to my full 0.3 FTE (1/3 time) in addition to going in extra for training classes for the new computer charting system we are moving to. Other than all the commuting, working part time is going rather well!

Graham has a leave of absence from school again this quarter because of the way the classes fell when he changed to the Nurse Practitioner program. This break is timely as it has made my transition back to work just that much easier. He has a huge research project that has to be completed before he graduates that he's hoping to pound out while he's "off" this quarter. Come summer, you nor I will be seeing much of him until June of 2013. Boo. But, on the bright side, GRADUATION IS IN ONE YEAR (give or take a couple months)!

As far as other randomness goes, we totally got into the show Downton Abbey. Unfortunately, we whizzed through both season and are now somewhat at a loss as to what to do with our Friday nights now that we have no show to claim as "ours."

Graham's taken a real interest in cooking in his spare time and I have been happy to let him take the reigns in the kitchen every week or two (that is until I see how many sticks of butter went in to the recipe....) I used to adore most all Cooking Light recipes but have found that dull somewhat when served alongside those published in Bon Appetit. Sigh.

Speaking of French, I have been experiencing some strong feelings of nostalgia lately. Sometimes it sort of feels like our life is on repeat, having girls whose birthdays are 5 days apart. The seasons fall at the same age for Emma that they did when Isla was a baby. They both got to wear the same dress on their 1st Christmas and Easter. And now, as we approach the month of June, I feel like we should be preparing to take Emma on a 3 week tour de France. It only seems fair! It doesn't really help matters that Emma is fitting into this shirt that Isla wore while we were abroad. Every time I put it on her, I get this crazy urge to go book plane tickets.

We were THIS close to planning a trip to Europe in the late summer until we started crunching the numbers. I'm not sure where we were expecting the finances to come from but it was a really fun dream for a few months there. Instead, Graham and I are planning to take our first extended trip alone as a couple. We'll get to hit up wine country but it'll be California-style (almost as good as Europe). We're also really excited to spend 5 days on San Juan Island with some friends, go camping, and I'm still hoping to get a couple nights at Cannon Beach on the books.

Ok so this post has become slightly less creative than I was hoping and is starting to sound a bit like a Christmas letter....I guess that's a good indication it's time for me to sign off!

Hold Me Down

Have you heard the Robbie Seay Band's song "Slow Me Down?" It's a recent favorite of mine and should probably be made my life theme song seeing the pace I've been flying at lately. You can stream it by clicking on the bottom right of the band's website http://www.robbieseayband.com/rich-and-poor/streaming/. If you've never heard it before, listen! I was introduced to it for the first time at our church a month or two ago and it has stuck with me. Or at least a version of it has.

A couple of weeks ago, I was running around the house like a crazy lady, trying to get all of us girls up, showered and dressed and over to Seattle by 9 AM for church where Graham was doing the music. I was closely mimicking a hurricane when I caught myself singing "Hold me down oh Lord hold me down. Help my heart to hear Your sound. Speak in too my life Lord speak now. Hold me down oh Lord hold me down." I knew I hadn't sung the song quite right but it took me a while to figure out what I'd done wrong; I'd replaced the phrase "slow me down" with "hold me down." Honest mistake, I'm sure.

But then over the course of the past 2 weeks, I've found myself singing these incorrect lyrics on numerous occasions, most often when I was attempting to do no less than 5 things at the same time. Then it struck me. Some people need to be slowed down. But some people, some people (ahem- ME), require being held down to truly stop and tune in to what the Lord is doing in their life, to see the gifts and blessings He freely gives. When I first sang these words, I laughed. But then I realized it was no mistake but rather the Lord was speaking to me. I needed to STOP! 

This weekend was wonderful because I did just that. I stopped. I got my first sunburn of 2012. I played with my kids. I talked to my husband. I read a book. I socialized with friends. I celebrated the Sabbath. I didn't grocery shop or run errands or freak out that I hadn't done either of the aforementioned and it was wonderful. This weekend, with temperatures in the 60s, was a gift!

So I'm officially changing the lyrics of this song in my house. I'm giving God full permission to put me in a head lock and tackle me if that's what it takes to get my attention and make me to stop. I need it. "Hold me down oh Lord, hold me down!"

Sunny Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter 2012

I'm still figuring out what I want Easter to look like for our little family. I wrestled a bit this year, attempting to reconcile the secular (bunnies and eggs and hunts and candy) with the scriptural, Jesus' resurrection, the true reason we celebrate Easter. How we as a culture became so obsessed with all the sugary fluff is beyond me. I mean, why can't everyone do egg hunts and stuff their faces with chocolate on May Day or something? Why Easter? I long to show my girls the real reason we celebrate this day without letting it become watered down by how the world celebrates. Of course, I have no idea how to do this really and so I sort of pressed "pause" on the thought, and decided my girls were still young enough this year to not know the difference. And so now I've bought myself one more year to make a decision. :)

Does anyone else feel this same disparity? Of course, I don't want to be bah humbug about all the fun activities that kids so look forward to although I will admit I threatened to fill the eggs with "only things that bunnies eat" (i.e. lettuce and carrots) this year. But I didn't. I splurged and told my mom we could do raisins and Cheerios and goldfish crackers. :)  Anyway, if you have any brilliant suggestions on how to celebrate, I'm open to hearing them!

All this being said, we had a wonderful day together this year with family, basking in the sun and celebrating together. I'll let the pictures tell the rest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dyeing Eggs

Dyeing Easter eggs this year was so much fun! Isla was totally into it which made it wonderful experience. Every part of it thrilled her which was fun to watch. She loved lowering the eggs into the water on the spoon "elevator" and then giggled with glee when they would emerge a completely different color. She loved the yellow eggs best (may go hand in hand with her love of Ducky?) Anyway, let me back up a bit. This year, I finally identified that dyeing eggs really stresses me out. I'm serious. I am too much of a perfectionist I guess and there is no perfection when it comes to dyeing eggs. Instead, there lots of asymmetry and eggs that reject color in certain spots for whatever reason. And I don't handle either of those things very well (or at least haven't in the past). Silly, I know, but the first step is admitting it. Anyhow, the beauty this year, was that Isla was did an amazing job and I was freed of the responsibility of making beautiful eggs. Win-win!

 It was Gideon's first year dyeing eggs and he showed us up with his unique technique. Don't judge! He's free-styling! Sometimes he's too cute for words.

 

 Gideon wore one of my Dad's shirts and Isla wore the old shirt that I used to wear to protect my clothes when I was little (probably also my Dad's). Isla overheard me telling Gideon he looked a little like Jesus in his robe and she proceeded to pull down a kid's coloring picture of Jesus from the fridge to show him. :)  Kids are such a joy!