Right now Andelynn is sleeping after getting her 4 month shots yesterday and the wool sweater I am knitting for Christmas is soaking, so I shall take a moment to blog. I should probably be packing for our 4-week trip, or ironing out the last few details for my Christmas program Sunday . . . but I'm feeling overwhelmed by both of those tasks. Looking at pictures is much easier. Here's a photo series Vivien took of her room on my phone.
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| She's been sleeping in her nest a lot lately. I think it's because she spends the hour and a half from when we put her to bed to when she finally falls asleep playing musical beds between her own, the nest, our bed, and the floor. On the plus side, she's sleeping in till past 8! |
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| The doll house has been out for 2 weeks now . . . I've been using every available moment to knit and have slacked on my toy rotating. Luckily they really like to play with those bungee cords, so they're not upset by my inattention. Vivien made a swing out of them the other day and told Rafe he couldn't ride on it because it was only for one-year-olds. Then after he cried for 10 minutes she announced it was now for two-year-olds as well. He stopped crying, and tried it out. I wish I could teach them that they don't have to believe/do everything they're told by their peers, but still do everything I tell them to do. |
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| Put on your Sunday clothes . . . |
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| I really love this doll house. The bright colors make me Hape. (That was a little pun, see? Cause the company who made it is Hape, which is said ha-PAY. Ha ha ha) |
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| I think Rafe is getting a drink from the doll shower. |
Alright. Enough Vivien photography. I got to go to the temple this month! Drew stayed home with all the babies and I drove down with my friends Rebecca White (the Relief Society president) and Annie Billings (the Primary President) for the branch temple trip. Annie's got a 6 month old, so we both brought our breast pumps and had periodic pumping parties and lamented over the reports from our husbands of how poorly the babies took bottles while we were gone. Drew ended up feeding Andelynn by syringe so she wouldn't die of dehydration during my 12 hour absence.
A woman who was visiting from Snowflake, AZ took pictures for us. It is a small Mormon world! They gave us all headphones with the English track for the session, but most of us ended up just reading the English subtitles because it was too much noise to hear the English and Japanese filtering through at the same time. I sat next to an older Japanese woman during the session who informed me in a whisper while we were waiting at the veil that the rest of the session would all be in Japanese. I spent a moment looking concerned, then she winked at me and said, "Just kidding!" I gave her a hard time for giving me a hard time in the dressing room afterwards. She learned English on her mission in Kobe, Japan because she had all American companions. She had twinkly eyes. I hope I can be a happy old lady.
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| Ii-eh-su Ku-rii-su-toh |
We had the Billings over for our Second Thanksgiving feast. I love Second Thanksgiving. There's no pressure, because it's not the actual holiday. And, if you messed up the stuff you made on actual Thanksgiving, you get a chance for redemption! With our combined families there were 8 little kids and 4 adults, so I just put some collapsed folding tables on the floor and we all sat around them on towels. It was fun! We succeeded in working the kids into a considerable state of excitement by the end of the night. Rafe's cheeks were red from playful exertion. I love it when that happens.
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| Don't worry. I put a tablecloth down before we actually ate off the tables. |
One of the nights when Drew was on duty we got ready for bed then went to say goodnight to him by way of the base Christmas tree. Vivien had been asking to go see it for days (she can see it from her bedroom window when she's busy not sleeping). When we got there all she really wanted to do was climb up trees. But not down. She had to be rescued like a stranded kitten from each tree she scaled. Still, it was fun to listen to Christmas music in the car and walk through Christmas lights at night.
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| It's Mt Fuji. |
We got our Christmas lights up too!
Some Individual Updates:
Rafe
Oh, this little boy. He is such a 2 and a half year old. His emerging independence is manifesting itself in eating battles right now. It takes 10-30 minutes to convince him to eat any meals. And he's usually wailing loudly, throwing things and himself, or making some variation of this face:
If I try to bring him to the table, he flails at the food and upsets dishes.
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| It Looked Like Spilt Milk |
Eventually he will come to the table on his own. But he won't be happy about it. There will be lots of disliking of the food and wishing for other food that isn't being served, especially candy. I tried to have a conversation about eating food that is good for our body with him, but it backfired:
The kicker is, when he finally sits down and stops throwing a tantrum, he will often eat all of the food he had been railing against. I hope we can move through this unpleasant phase quickly . . .
I did figure out a way to keep him in his room a little bit longer in the mornings. It works about 50% of the time. I had not put toys in there previously because he was just playing with them during nap time. But, since naps aren't happening anymore, I just tuck a box in there by his bed and he'll flip on his light and entertain himself for awhile when he wakes up. And then we get to sleep until the clock says 6. Happy dance.
He's had some great quotes this week.
Sinister ABC's:
"Now I know my ABC's. Next time you won't sing with me."
Rafe: I want to touch your phone.
Me: No.
Rafe: You make my feelings cry!
I'm having the congregation sing a Hymnplicity arrangement of With Wondering Awe for the Christmas program so we've been singing it for our practice hymn the last few weeks after sacrament meeting. I caught Rafe walking around the house chanting: "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to my name."
Vivien
The other day at dinner Vivien ate like half a honeydew in one sitting. Directly after setting her final rind atop the huge pile of them on her place mat, she groaned and said "I need to go squish my tummy." She then proceeded to lay on the floor like this and pass gas sporadically, loudly, and unashamedly for the next several minutes.
We got a package from Aunt Heather this week and inside were these darling Disney princess peg dolls she had cleverly painted. The kids LOVED them and spent all day dividing them up between themselves in various combinations.
Vivi got a mosquito bite on her eyelid. I need to hang up the mosquito net we ordered above her bed. She reacts so strongly to their bites!
Here she is eating udon noodles in her parka, scarf, and . . . shorts.
She's a funny girl. Sometimes she'll come up to me and ask me something, and if I say yes, she'll say "Yay." It's in this super bored voice, like when you're working next to someone and ask them to hand you the stapler and they do and you say "thanks" without looking at them. I also like how sometimes she dots her eyes on opposite ends of the lines. They remind me of Spanish exclamation points. This was on the back of an "egg" that she colored, cut out, and delivered to her friends all by herself.
Here's some Engrish from her Christmas youchien bag, for fun.
Andelynn
Beautiful baby, with dimply hands. (This sleeping situation is not approved by the AAP)
Cute jammies from cousin Rebecca.
She learned to roll. Sometimes she can get that arm out from under her. Most times she gets stuck and mad.
And here is our mosquito prevention for her.
Lastly, I bought some caterpillary lettuce from the produce stand right out the main gate several weeks ago, and Drew has been collecting and feeding them. One of them "hatched" this week. Here is the cocoon . . .
And here is the newborn. We released him into the wild!
There is one more in there that just barely decided to make his cocoon. He'd been getting fatter and fatter, to the point where he could hardly drag around his gorged, green midsection, and somehow he heaved himself up onto a branch and encased himself. He had beetle-black little legs and evil looking black eye markings and his cocoon was green but hardened into an inky black shell. I start getting the heebie jeebies every time I look at or think about him. I'm afraid we'll miss his hatching, because we're going to Utah on MONDAY!!! We'll have to find someone to release him once he transforms, or I fear we may return to find he's claimed our apartment as his lair . . .
