Family Pictures 2010

Gratefully one of my best friends in Lubbock recently started a photography business. Thanks again Kristina!







Which one is your favorite?

November

Right before Halloween I took on a task of motherhood that I had been dreading: potty training. I had put it off as long as possible. Most of her friends were potty trained and I still didn't feel like my little girl was ready. Then one day, she suddenly hated having a wet diaper on. She would lay down on the ground holding a clean diaper while yelling, "PEED!!!" at the top of her lungs. I guess I could finally take the hint that she was ready.

Gratefully, I have 5 older siblings, all with a lot more parenting experience than I. Sharee introduced us all to a method called "Potty Training in Less Than a Day," which Laura used last year to potty-trained her twins. Like her, I am a total believer. I love how Hattie instigates going to the bathroom...I don't have to ask her every 10 minutes if she has to use the potty, nor did I waste hours with her sitting on the toilet trying to force her to go when she didn't need to. It really only took a day for it to click. It was such a breeze (at least in comparison to what I expected - months of dealing with accidents). On the contrary, she had accidents randomly for about two weeks, and has now gone about two weeks accident free. Well, I guess she did have an accident the other day, but it was our fault - she was in time-out and we told her she couldn't leave her room...at least she was obedient!

The girls have been fun this month, besides battling a little sickness. At least they are snuggly when sick.
(For some reason this picture rotated and i can't get it to turn back, so just angle your head a bit) Anna only gets chubbier...around the belly. I pulled out the 18-24 month clothes (she's 16 months) and put this shirt on. See that I can't button the buttons by about 3 inches? And I thought Hattie had a belly...this shirt was loose on her!
They love the box that our turkey fryer came in (never baking a turkey again!)
And they love it when I grind wheat...I think they think it's a mini sand box.

We also got family pictures taken, but I'll post those tomorrow...

A mouse and a pumpkin

Halloween has come and gone. Last year, Paul and I started making plans of what our family could be for Halloween. We talked about it randomly throughout the year. And of course we never came to a decision, so I ended up calling my wonderful sister who has lots of wonderful costumes for kids. Voila!
Doesn't Anna looked so much chubbier with the mouse hat on? She was definitely a big hit. And do you notice her crooked jaw smile? Weird.
Hattie wore the pumpkin costume randomly throughout October. Whenever she remembered what she was going to be for Halloween, she asked to put it on for a few hours. Thanks Sophie for letting us borrow it!
We went to our Children's Science Museum for a little carnival. Hattie loved her tattoo and playing all the games.
And Anna was a trooper, sucking on her long mouse tail most of the night while at the Trunk or Treat. Hattie is already starting to dream about next years costume...that and constantly asking if Santa is coming tonight. It'll be a long two months for this three-year old!

Night call

Last week Paul was assigned to night call. This meant that during the day he was home, and any time after 4:30 pm until 7:30 am they could call him if there were any new admits into the psychiatry department (Psych is his current rotation). Most nights were okay...he was typically called around 5:00 pm and was home by 8:00. So it was a great schedule for a few days, working about 3 hours a day (there was one night he was gone til 3:00 am...lame). Having him home all day was like Saturday everyday. We tried to keep busy. Sadly, Lubbock is not the most exciting place on the planet, so we struggled to find fun stuff to do, but we did visit Apple Country in Idalou, Texas. I was excited because Fuji apples were ripe that week. I am somewhat of an apple snob...I don't really like anything but Fujis. So we went picking.

Gratefully they were dwarf trees, so Hattie could enjoy it too. They let you eat as many apples as you wanted while you picked...yummy.

We picked about 12 pounds total. I eat about 3 of them a day. We need to go back!
Here we were trying to find an Arkansas Black, which we were told were also ready for picking, but it turned out to be a Red Delicious...not so delicious in my book.

Now night call is over, Paul is finishing up his last 2 weeks in psychiatry, I'm getting used to having the girls alone all day again, and gratefully he is done by 2:00 a few times a week. I'm not really looking forward to the end of psych...the schedule has been pretty nice!

Random happenings

Here's just some random things we've been doing/capturing on camera lately:
Hattie LOVES it when people come over. Every morning she asks if Brooklyn, Juliet, Grandma, Jonas and Anson, Callie, etc are coming over. So when the answer is actually "Yes" she gets overly excited and positions herself in front of the door to wait. She is a little socialite.
We went to the mall, and Paul actually put quarters in the machine. I was hoping Hattie would live in ignorance about what those toys were really for. The girls loved it, but now Hattie always asks if I have a quarter when we pass.

Boxes, a child's favorite toy

18 de septiembre! Chile's independence day, so my buddy Kristina came over to make yummy empanadas.

And this is my personal favorite. We have had a few awesome thunderstorms recently, turning our back porch into a mini swimming pool. Anna toyed with the idea of going into the water with Hattie for about 20 minutes, then finally fell in. She was not happy.

Another birthday

Amazing to think that Hattie is already three! She is growing up quickly - vocabulary increasing daily, fewer tantrums, okay missing naps, and saying the funniest things. She had a marvelous birthday. We celebrated a day early, on Saturday the 25th, since that was when we scheduled the birthday party. Yeah, sometimes I still can't believe I threw a birthday party for a 3 year old. But when you are far from family, and your friends become your family, it seemed the perfect thing to do. Plus, her friend Juliet's birthday was just a few days later, so we combined parties to make things easier.
We opened family present first thing in the morning...it's becoming a family tradition.
We are getting ready to potty train so she was trilled with princess underwear.
Yup this girl is spoiled. She did need the shoes and Paul has insisted that our girls will play soccer as well as a boy, so he is starting his indoctrination. Hattie loves it cuz it's pink.

Later that day came the party:
The kids decorated cupcakes, played musical chairs, and unwrapped a box inside a box inside a box inside a box inside a...but of course I didn't remember to take pictures...too many kiddos running around.
And I got this awesome cake mold that makes a giant cupcake. It was lots of fun to make...kind of make me want to get into cake decorating...but not enough.
Juliet and Hattie were actually excited to blow out the candle. The picture is deceiving. Now Hattie proudly tells everyone that she is three...She's still working on holding up three fingers, but we'll get there.

They say it's your birthday...

Yesterday was Paul's birthday...the big 30! Somehow, this is the only picture we remembered to take...taken by Hattie. Love you and Happy Birthday yet again!

Por fin!

Remember back in March 2009 when I posted about Paul getting a saw so that he could build us a dinner table? Well, after three attempts and 18 months, it's finally done (he actually started this model in May 2010 while I was in Iowa...being in med school doesn't spare too much time for hobbies). Looks pretty good, eh? We made it nice and wide so that we can actually serve our food on the table instead of in the kitchen, and so that we can play board games comfortably...such a step up from two card tables smashed together. Now we just need some chairs that aren't folding chairs. That'll take another 18 months :)

Look who is crawling!

Finally! At 12 1/2 months, she is crawling!

White sock chick

When I was about 14, I got eczema. Mostly just on my hands but occasionally it flares up in other places. I've seen a number of doctors, researched different treatments, and tried almost everything to help keep it under control. And in general, I do. I wear gloves whenever I do the dishes or disinfect something. I rarely wash my hands (sorry if that's gross) and never use hand sanitizer. The only thing I could do to improve it would be to shower with gloves on (which I used to do regularly) and change diapers with gloves. Summary: I've learned to live with it and it's not too horrible.

But try to teach that to a three year old. Yup, poor little Hattie has eczema on her finger tips. Gratefully it doesn't itch too badly, but it'll crack and bleed. I put Aquaphor and Bag Balm on, but of course it gets wiped off almost immediately. So finally today we went to the doctor. He recommended this treatment:

Two of Paul's sock taped to her arms, with her hands lathered in Aquaphor and medication. We got her really excited about it, so she thinks it's fun instead of torture. When I was a kid, I tried sleeping with gloves on (and was nicknamed the White Glove Chick) and it was horrible. It actually made my hands worse because of the tightness of the gloves. So hopefully the socks are an improvement.

While there we did Anna's 12 month appointment: 75th percentile for weight, 25th percentile for height (I think her shortness makes her appear chubbier), and off the charts for head circumference. Awesome. Hattie is in the 87th for weight and 7th for height...another shorty. Looks like they'll take after me.

Help!

For the last 3 weeks, Hattie has woken in the middle of the night with nightmares. Not every night, but probably half. It's starting to get old. At first, we brought her to bed with us, but of course, we didn't get any sleep after that, even though she usually when right back to sleep. Our queen-size just isn't big enough for three people. Lately, I've been going in to calm her down, and then end up laying next to her crib (yup, she still LOVES her crib and refuses to sleep in the toddler bed). I eventually sneak out and go back to bed. Does anyone have tips or advice about getting over nightmares? I'm even starting to think that now it's not always a nightmare...her screaming has become less frantic and more whiny. So perhaps now she knows that we'll come if she simply wakes up in the night and cries loud enough. Please HELP!

Surprise!

About four months ago, I had a dream about my friend Tina and her husband Ben. Tina had been a roommate at BYU. We met in Spanish 101, took Spanish 102 together, and then decided to be roommates. We only lived together for the first semester of my junior year (I left for my mission after that), but she was one of my greatest friends at BYU. She was engaged during the semester we lived together, but she and Ben were more than willing to let me hang out with them. I was a constant 3rd wheel :) They really helped me out when I was going through a tough time and deciding whether or not to serve a mission. We kept in touch until I was pregnant with Hattie. I knew she had moved to Minneapolis, but I had lost touch with her. So after my dream, I tried to find her again...with no luck. BYU Alumni directory only had their physical address, not a phone number or email. And she wasn't on facebook. So she has been on the back of mind for the last few months.

Then on Monday I got a phone call from a number in Lubbock and it was Tina! Apparently Ben's parents live in Lubbock (I even know her MIL a little) and they remembered from our Christmas card 2 years ago that we were living in Lubbock. It made my week! We went out to dinner Tuesday, then the kids and I went to swim on Wednesday. It was great to catch up and remember all the good times we had together. I hope they come back to Lubbock again before we move!

Color!

I recently painted our master bathroom, family room, and kitchen. The only unpainted rooms are now the bedrooms...who knows if I'll get to those or not. It's been fun having more color in the house; all gray was getting dull. And I find I really like painting. It's addicting. I just don't like picking the color.

Bathroom before

Bathroom after - color Grassland from Sherwin Williams (hard to see...no natural light in the bathroom)

Kitchen before

Kitchen after - color Chocolate Cherry from Lowes

Family room before

Family room after - color Row House Tan from Sherwin Williams

Thanks to Kristen for watching my kids, Jessie for picking the color, and Kristina for helping me paint!