Fall 2012 photo dump

September 2012
Robyn was blessed and we went to the Great Lakes Science Center, both over Labor Day weekend.  We visited the Greater Cleveland Aquarium a few times, including on International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Benjamin even came with us once.  Julie started preschool, the "real" kind, not the mom-run kind.  Julie also did soccer, which entailed sitting and crying on my or Ben's laps for an hour because other kids didn't let her get the ball.

Robyn in her blessing dress.

Olive fingers!

Robyn is not impressed.

Sweet girl, waiting for a checkup with the doctor.

Daddy came with us to the GCA.

Jellyfish!!

Another visit to the GCA a few days later for pirate day.

First day of soccer

Doctor Julie.

Ben gave me these pearl earrings as a wedding gift.  My earlobes got infected about six weeks after we got married, and I never had a chance to wear them, until almost seven years later.  I feel a little giddy and twitterpated when I do get to wear them

October 2012
Robyn started to become more fun.  She became interactive, deliberately comical, and much more responsive than ever before.  We had a Halloween party at church, with a costume parade that Julie participated in.  Halloween was also delayed a few days because of a huge snowstorm.  (The cities around here have specific trick-or-treating hours, so they all rescheduled.)

Mountain girl

Bathtime fun

Twinners (we planned this picture back in July, but then we were each out of town for different reasons for almost two months before we were able to do it!)

I did a really deep de-cluttering in the basement and a couple other areas in the house.  Every time I found a hair decoration, I put it in my own hair.

More bathtime fun!  (Glowstick bracelets + turn out the lights!)

Dinner at a local pizza place for a fundraiser for Julie's school.

Costume parade

What the girls wore on Halloween

November 2012
Julie moved up to a booster seat in preparation for Robyn to graduate out of her infant carrier.  Election day.  Ben wore a tuxedo for an event that only required jeans (he did it on purpose).  We went to a bar mitzvah celebration for one of Ben's scouts.  We got to eat, chat, bowl, and play whirlyball in the court that wasn't being used.  Robyn turned one and we did absolutely nothing to celebrate.  We skipped stake conference one Sunday and went for a family hike instead.  I went out to dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate one of their birthdays only to find out that it was also for my birthday.  Julie got her very first LEGOs and immediately fell in love with them (as did Benjamin).  We celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends.  We got our first snow.  We had a quick overnight visit from Grammy and my sister (Auntie Candice).  Probably most exciting was that we got a piano!!

Not a very helpful picture, but Robyn was a skunk for Halloween.

The Halloween haul.

Election day -- patriotic colors!

Julie took a nap in the chair, and Robyn was rocking her.

Whirlyball

Bowling

Robyn, on her birthday, wearing the dress I wore when I was blessed as a baby.

Thanksgiving food, including a lemon cheesecake that I made!!

Silliness!

Pruny feet

Just chillin'

Sistersbutnottwins

Our piano!!!

My hunky husband

With Julie's school being a co-op, parents take an active role in ensuring the success of the school programs.  I help out in the classroom about once a month, and we also have fundraisers every so often, and we're required to help out with at least two of those per year.  One of them was last week -- Ben had volunteered to help with a dinner that the co-op was providing as part of an event at the church that sponsors it.  This being our first go-round with all of this, we're still figuring things out.  Ben emailed the coordinator of the fundraiser to ask a few questions, including an inquiry about dress code.  She told him she'd probably just be wearing jeans and t-shirt, that it was pretty casual.  He responded that he might just go out and rent a tux to be sure to stand out.  The next day she told me that she thought it was funny, and she fully expected to see him show up in a tux.

We didn't have a big wedding party.  Ben's mom made his fancy vest and bowtie for him (and my silk bouquet).  He wore them with a brand spankin' new black suit and a tuxedo shirt that he had found once at Goodwill.  He's got tuxedo buttons and three sets of cufflinks.

I got a devious idea.  The day of the fundraiser, Ben got dressed up in black dress pants, his tuxedo shirt with black buttons and cuff links, and put on his vest and bowtie from the wedding, and topped it off with a black jacket.

I think he looks pretty hot.

Audition tape

You've probably seen this commercial.



What I bet you didn't know what that Julie actually auditioned for one of the guinea pig roles. Here's her tape:

(Password is row.)


I think she's got a future in show biz.

Her father's daughter

You know how sometimes you're just so tired, you think you might fall asleep on the spot, exactly where you are? Ben has done it. Standing up. On someone's doorstep.

Julie, it seems, is her father's daughter. She's an easy sleeper -- whenever, wherever, and she isn't easily disturbed. I caught her on video a couple weeks ago.

Password: dozer

If you give a mom a good night's sleep...

If you get up one morning, teach a preschool class for five three-year-olds, then spend the afternoon making guacamole and jalapeño poppers before going to a friend's house to help her finish decorating her house for the baby shower you are hosting together that night for another friend, and then go back home to get dinner for your own family and finish putting things together, and then go back for the shower, and spend the evening with friends, you'll probably be exhausted by the end of the day, even with a really well-behaved baby. Your feet will probably hurt because you'll have been on them all day. You'll probably crawl into bed at 12:45am, praying (literally) that your baby won't wake you up in two hours. You'll be pleasantly surprised when she wakes you and it's actually light outside, and the clock says 7:46am. You'll get her out of her cradle and bring her back to bed, intending to feed her, but she just might not actually be waking up -- she might just be a noisy sleeper. Happily, you'll probably fall back asleep with her next to you, and stay that way until around 9:00am, when she wakes you (sort-of) again. At that point, you're almost delirious with how happy you are, having slept so long after such a long day the day before, and you'll blissfully feed her sitting up in bed, while your toddler comes upstairs, happy and cheerful, and plays on your bed with both of you.

Then you might go downstairs to get breakfast and start your day. And then your high just might come crashing down, if for example, your toddler thought that you were sleeping too late and she had to fend for herself for breakfast. You might find eggs cracked on the counters and the floor, and you might find pieces of leftover sourdough waffles stuck in the top of a food storage water bottle. And if you do find all that, you'll have to clean it up before you can eat or do anything else, because, of course, there are raw eggs on the kitchen floor. Fortunately, you remember that the easiest way to clean up spilled raw egg is to cover it with salt, and while two weeks ago you had absolutely no salt in the house because you're apparently incompetent with basic food storage, you now have a full canister, which you methodically begin shaking over the egg whites, having scooped up everything else.

All is going well (enough) until you realized that the previously aforementioned toddler is watching you pour salt all over the floor, leaving you to wonder what you might find tomorrow morning.

Maybe you had to be there

The day after I came home from the hospital, I was sitting on the couch feeding Robyn, when I looked to my left and saw this scene, on the top of one of our low bookshelves:



I burst out laughing. Maybe it was the hormones, or maybe it's just my odd sense of humor, but I found the scene hilarious. Here are all these beautiful tokens on womanhood -- pregnancy, carrying an infant, comforting a toddler, and suddenly...UDDER! Somehow I don't think it would have been as funny to me if the cow was facing forward. The rear-facing stance is much more flamboyant, and I just thought it was hilarious.

But maybe you had to be there.

Funny face

Julie had a muffin for dessert the other night. It was a vanilla muffin with chocolate chips in it, and chocolate icing on the top. Julie loved the muffin, but I'm not sure she actually ate any of the icing.

Catching up on Julie-isms

Fun pictures soon...

June 23
Julie just saw a wedding picture of me and Ben, and when I asked her if I had a pretty dress on, she answered, "Yeah! Pincess!" Pretty much made my week.

June 30
Julie has asked for a quesadilla for breakfast every day this week. Today she finally consented to having eggs for breakfast instead (her options other days had all included eggs, cereal, and toast). Then when it came time for lunch today, she asked for eggs. *facepalm*

July 1
I love that Julie talks in her sleep. Mostly it's mumbles. It's cute though. She fell asleep on the couch tonight, cuddled up with Ben watching a movie. When he woke up and slowly sat up with her, to take her up to bed, so began muttering random things as her eyes confusedly opened and closed. Darn cute.

July 10
Conversation with Julie while I was cleaning up dinner:

Me (pointing to my belly): Julie, who's in here? In Mama's tummy?
Julie: (blank stare, licking her fingers)
Me: Is it Baby Robyn?
Julie: No, it's green!

(In her defense, my dress is black and white and green, so I was likely pointing at a green spot.)

July 10
I just leaned in for a kiss with Julie, and she decided that the perfect time to burp was just prior to the point of contact. It smelled like leftover quiche. Disgusting.

July 14
Julie seemed to have a little gas tonight, but couldn't quite get it out. She kept saying, "stuck" and then ten seconds later, I'd hear a toot and an "es me!" ("excuse me!"). It was pretty comical.

July 15
Julie has recently decided that she actually wants to draw with crayons, which she hasn't previously been very interested in. Unfortunately, she just opens the nearest book or grabs the nearest piece of mail, etc., and starts coloring on that. I've been trying to teach her that we only color on paper (or in special coloring books, which she has), but she always gets upset. This morning she found a crayon in her purse, got excited, and then pointed to the paper tray of our printer and asked for paper. Yay!!

July 15
Julie has been trying to blow up a water balloon with her mouth for the last 10 minutes nonstop. It's pretty hilarious.

July 22
A thunderstorm has started, and guess where Julie is? Yep...upstairs on the couch, staring out the window, absolutely enthralled.

July 27
On the road yesterday we passed a Target truck. Julie got excited and pointed out "red store! red store!" I was so proud.

August 11
Funny moment earlier: I was on the phone with my mom, while working in the kitchen. Julie came running upstairs calling, "Mommy, I got it! I did it, Mommy!" When she found me, she stuck her finger in my face and said, "Look, Mommy! I got it!" There was a tiny patch of raw skin at the bottom of her nail bed where she'd clearly just successfully removed a hangnail. She was so proud of herself.

August 13
My girl is tough. Remember that hangnail from earlier in the week? She's continued all week to pick at that spot on her finger, and tonight while we were watching TV, Ben had fallen asleep, and she woke him up to show him her finger, dripping with blood. Then we went up two flights of stairs to wash it off and put a Band-aid on it, and she whimpered the whole time, but didn't really cry. She was very calm and matter-of-fact. I love her. I was sitting in the same room, but she went to Daddy because she's in a Daddy phase right now. Also, by the time we rinsed the blood off, it was starting to dry a little, so I had to rub at the spot to get it all off, and then press a paper towel onto it to finish stopping the blood, and she still was super tough the whole time. I'm so proud of my brave little girl. She was clearly distraught, but still calm. It's especially impressive when you consider that she hasn't had a regular meal (plenty of snacks, though) in over 24 hours, since we were camping and she was just so excited about everything new and different, and then she had three naps today because she was so totally wiped.

August 19
Julie: Mommy, I want string cheese.
Me: Sweetie, you just had breakfast. (about an hour earlier...she slept today)
Julie: I want string cheese.
Me: You can have string cheese, but later. Not right now.
Julie: (whining now) No! I want Daddy!

More Julie-isms

Generally:
Julie is learning uses of the word-phrase "okay." Her versions are cute: "ohay" or "tay!"

Julie likes to come into a room where Ben or I are, and say, "Hi Mommy! (or Hi Daddy!) What's doin'?"

June 9:
Julie is walking around the basement with her phone, jabbering away. She came up to me, held the phone out, and said, "Say 'hi, Grammy!" I asked her if she wanted to call Grammy on the real phone (and showed it to her), but apparently she's content with her pretend conversation for now.

June 8:
I was watching a video this evening with short interviews from some of the actors in the Harry Potter movies. Julie recognized them, despite different hair and facial hair styles, and being out of context. She started pointing at the screen and excitedly calling out, "HeePot! HeePot!"

June 8:
Julie is watching Strawberry Shortcake right now, but she pronounces it along the lines of "Sputcake" which is, of course, quite amusing.

June 7:
Major thunderstorm this morning. Every time it rolled, Julie got excited and exclaimed, "fffffffffunnerrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

June 7:
I tripped on my way up the stairs and fell at the landing. I braced my fall with my hands, but Julie was worried. She was playing in the sink in the bathroom on the landing (giving Donald Duck a bath, by the way), and she came out when she heard me fall, and said, "you okay?" It was very sweet.

June 5:
Julie got bug bites at the Daddy-daughter campout this weekend -- all over both elbows. Yesterday they looked fine. This morning, a few are scabbed over pretty badly from her scratching at them. Unfortunately, she gets upset when we remind her not to scratch. She's come up with two alternatives: (1) she tries to kiss them all better herself, and (2) she uses the hand of her stuffed Donald Duck to scratch them.

May 31:
For awhile, when I'd answer the phone (or Julie pretended to), she'd say, "Ho?"

May 29:
Julie has started blogging. She doesn't put anything in her posts -- she just posts them. If she ever actually does start typing in them, I might actually leave them up, instead of deleting them.

Here are a couple of recent photos of Julie from a trip to the local Children's Museum. Julie loved making the water splash, but instinctively kept ducking from it at the same time.

Naps happen

Sometimes they happen exactly when and where they need to, regardless of where that may be.

This was last week in G-ma's (Ben's mom's) sewing room:






Then today, back home again:





Yes, that's a storage ottoman. And yes, I moved her to the couch after taking the pictures.