I'm a toddler!

Last night Levi turned to me and said, I think we can officially say that today is the day Alizah started walking. She has been taking steps for weeks now, but yesterday her attention really focused on steady steps across the room, and again, and again. She goes about 8 before she stops and there is no changing direction (that's the next step to work on). She is very good at climbing and her favorite is pulling herself to the bathroom sink. Here you see her begin to fish for the footing on the floor. After a week off and another week of practice, she finally mastered it.

January afternoon lighting through our big window is amazing. And it is so much fun to play in the sheer curtains!

Alizah has 7 teeth and she's about to get a molar along with about 4 more teeth, any day now. (And I am looking forward to the longer hours of sleeping).

January 2009

Lots happened in January. Alizah was baptized Jan 3 during Epiphany service. I got to participate in my friend's home birth watching her boys and doing a little bit of acupressure. There is nothing like hearing that first cry and seeing the boy's faces light right up! It was a baby sister.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYNA! (The girls are laughing at Uncle Zach-- he does look really funny!) Just before Rayna turned 3, she gave up her pac. We had many struggles about it and then 1 day I decided to look for youtube videos showing kids saying bye bye to their pacifiers. It was awesome! We watched some of the videos several times, her favorite was one of the boy throwing his pac in the pool (she liked the music that went along with it). Watching the videos was great because it opened conversation about how she was feeling about it. That night she decided it would be okay to give the pac to the pac fairy so she could give it to a baby who didn't have all its teeth like Alizah. So we took her to store the next day to exchange the pac for a cuddly cat and the clerk gave the pac to the pac fairy. Yeah! No fights or sadness about it!

Rayna went to the dentist for the first time. She was a little scared but we did some EFT and she sat up in the chair and let the hygentist show her the tools and tickle her teeth. Laying back in the chair was just for the photo though. And she let the dentist check her teeth at the end too.

We had so many cold cold subzero days so we had to get creative. Dress up days, painting, puzzles, forts, bouncing on the bed, towers, farm, books, song, play dough, cooking, baths.................!!!!!

This month we are all in swim lessons. Rayna has a teacher and she loves it! She likes "chop chop timber" and "3 green and speckled frogs." Tomorrow is her last day, she is still deciding if she is going to put her head all the way under. Alizah loves the water. Our instructor is giving me lots of fun ideas of how to participate in the water with Alizah. We are going to try out our skills in Wisconsin Dells on Friday (Levi has a big conference and we get to come play with him after his big presentation).

I see the photos of Alizah didn't get posted, so my next blog will have to be all about Alizah.

Happy New Year

Okay, so I finally got Levi to pause and assist me with my November blog problem. So, you can find that under "answers to standard questions" around the Halloween photos. The problem was, I wrote what I wanted to say while visiting my dad, in the country (without web service). And my program of choice is Microsoft Word, which does not nicely cut and paste into the blog. Levi says that if I am going to write outside the blog, I need to use Notepad. Now I know.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We didn't send out any letters yet, I'm waiting until the new year (which today is! Happy 2009) and looking at the blog I realize our 2007 favorite photos slide show only has Rayna. This is a trend, my dad says I never gave him any photos of Alizah after she was born, his fridge is missing 1 grandchild. (I have taken quite a few photos though, I'm trying to be conscious of the fact that 2nd children often don't have pictures of themselves alone or very many in general. 1st baby excitement wears off and we're focused on so many other things). So I have been preparing for all this to take place- photos for dad, new slideshow favorites 2008, letter for our friends and family, but I'm not in a rush.

Maybe I have already said this, but in the last couple months I've been really working on slowing down. And it feels really good, but also sometimes a little strange to not have such an overwhelming "to do" list. Sometimes I find myself standing at the kitchen sink, hands in the soapy water, without a thought in my mind while I scrub a cup. For me this is unusual, so I wouldn't want to spoil a perfectly relaxed mind with nothing, so I start thinking, "am I supposed to be doing something?" (usually on the order of saving the world, so that would be a really big task and I would need a really big list to organize and accomplish all that.

So letters, don't expect them in December, maybe by the end of January. anyway, I decided it is fun to get mail and send mail and really I wish I received more letters throughout the year.

We have been really enjoying a little extra time with Pam, Conall and Noelle (and Beauty). Don't you love their wrinkly noses and full excitement expressions in this photo!?! I think Levi was egging them on with some funny dancing. Pam surprised us for Thanksgiving (with pink eye too. did I mention that breastmilk is a fantastic cure!) and they have been back for this week while Noelle has holiday vacation. We are going to try to sled this afternoon. They are staying through Saturday, which is the day we will baptize Alizah. It will be the Epiphany service (the day that we happened to decide on for Rayna because everyone was home, so we wanted to include Alizah's baptism as part of our Christmas stories as well).

I think I mentioned Alizah's teeth in my last post. This is a great picture of them. Christmas Eve she popped another top front one. The other might come today? I hope she'll start sleeping better once it comes through. But then I suppose the next 2 will start and then it will be the I-teeth and then the molars.....maybe next year I will start getting better sleep and my new wrinkles will fade a little.

Bubble Bath Recipe

Rayna wants "purple bubble bath" for christmas. I went shopping; the ingredients scared me! So I went online and found a recipe. I am going to try it this weekend.

Here is the recipe in case all your kids want for christmas is purple bubbles:
Bubble Bath:
1 qt (4 c) distilled water
1 bar (4 oz) castille soap, grated or flaked
3-4 oz liquid glycerin
Mix all together and store in airtight container. Pour in running water.

another recipe uses
1 qt (4 c) distilled water
1 bar (4 oz) castille soap, grated or flaked
2 oz coconut oil
2 oz liquid glycerin

add 3 drops essential oil (and food coloring).

Experimenting with Food Coloring is going to be fun! I wonder if it will rince right off or her hair will come out purple?

Pumpkin Patch Photos

Halloween

I wrote some for the blog, but it wouldn't post, so I will have to ask the webmaster to fix it for me so you can learn more about the family soon. Have a great day!

answers to the standard questions

It has been since this summer since I updated this blog. We have had a lot going on, but mostly I have just needed to slow down. The girls are so awesome! I am glad I have made the effort to slow down and spend more conscious time with them.

Potty Training:

Rayna has been using the potty off and on since before Alizah was born. I thought she was potty trained and just being difficult when she would pee her pants 3 minutes after I asked her if she needed to go or choose to wear a diaper because she is a baby. And people would continue to tell me, some kids aren't ready until they are 3. Well, what I noticed in the last 3 weeks (and some days she is still choosing to wear a diaper) is that she can think about going on the potty and make a plan about it without prompting. Even overnight. So there is a cognitive shift that makes it not just mom training. And since I have a determined child I'll just have to continue to ask, are you going to wear a diaper or underwear today.

Sleeping Through the Night & Teething:

I wish we were. But it will be soon enough and my dad reminds me that by the time they are teenagers, I won't be able to get them out of bed. Alizah is getting a few more teeth. She has 2 front teeth and fangs on the top. The next 4 will be arriving soon (I hope because it has already been weeks), she sleeps terribly when she's teething, up about ever 2 hours. We moved her into Rayna's room this week hoping that would help if we weren't so close by, but it hasn't made much difference (except since I am not falling asleep nursing her in our bed and her pushing and turning all over when she is sleeping next to me and waking me, I am actually getting a little more rest). Rayna sleeps through most of the crying and when it is too much, she just crawls in our bed, which she was doing anyway.

What are the girls doing now?

More and more Rayna is reading books to herself. And singing more songs. She loves the Wiggles and sings lots of pertinent lines to the play she is doing. The other week Wiggle Safari was her favorite. 1 day we watched it 4 times, the rest of the week at least 2 times per day until she started to get crazy demanding and uncooperative and then no videos for a week. Lately the videos have been a treat for when she is going on the potty well and being nice to her sister.

Alizah is really on the move. She has been pulling up on the furniture since she started crawling at 4 months. She chases us around the house and loves to cruise the couch. She is very intrigued by what Rayna does and wants to be a part of it. Rayna doesn't want her so close or to share, so she likes to push (we have to go over how to touch and ask mom for help). Alizah loves to chase and she's starting to practice standing independently. Rayna is strong enough to move stools and chairs to get into high cupboards and on top of my dresser. In the last 2 weeks Rayna is really beginning to be more of a 3 year old, she loves to explore and do things herself and she's pretty quiet about it.

Snow:

We finally got some good snow this week, just after I put away all the forgotten yard stuff. Rayna was so excited there was a lot of snow and wanted to get her boots and snow pants on so she could help Levi shovel. Later that day she had me take her outside to pull her in the sled and she even went down a little sled hill 2 times by herself.