Thank you!

Thank you everyone for so many wonderful gifts. We had a very nice Christmas, even though we missed being home.

I took a 30 minute shower yesterday because I love my new WaterPik shower massager SO MUCH! I got comfy new shoes, nice new sheets for the bed, and I can't wait to watch Newsies, Catch Me if You Can, and Mary Poppins. Nathan is looking forward to watching Star Wars in digital quality! Of course I can't leave out my new Martin 000X1 guitar and method books to help me learn! Nathan also got comfy new shoes and the joystick he wanted. He wants to program it to use in one of his pieces. He also got two new aloha shirts so he'll fit in at work! He was also happy to get his flash drive so he can easily move files between computers. And of course, he can't wait to spend his iTunes cards!

Bethany received some great things as well. She got 12 books! Thank you SO MUCH!!! I can't wait to read them all to her. So far we've read "So Big!" and "Animal Kisses". She loves "So Big!". She also loves to eat the animals on Noah's Ark and loves to watch her Ocean Wonders Aquarium. We've listened to Baby Beethoven twice already and she loves bubbles! She got them in her stocking along with some bath toys (rubber duckies and a "swimming" turtle and dolphin). Also in her stocking were a shaker and some jingle bells. Now she's ready to play in the percussion section!

One gift that Bethany got has already made our lives easier! Her feeding chair!!! She LOVES it! And she really likes the mat that goes on the tray. It has numbers on one side and letters on the other. And both sides have pictures of food items to correspond to the letters and numbers. She's a much neater eater in the chair, too! We had dinner with one of Nathan's colleagues and his family and we were able to take the chair to feed Bethany there. Ah, so much easier!!

So here are a few pics of her with her gifts:
















Click any of them to see the rest.

Oh, I wanted to let you know that if you know anyone who wants to send Bethany any type of clothing, that she is still in her 0-3 month clothes. So if anyone wants to send clothes, don't send anything bigger than 3-6 month. She is just starting to wear her 3 month clothes and just swims in the 6 month. Thanks!

Merry Christmas again!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Check back later tonight (hopefully) for some pics of our morning.

I hope you all appreciate this post because my fingers are KILLING me!! I've been practicing a few chords on my new guitar (early Christmas gift) and it really hurts to type. Do you know how many Christmas carols you can play with only A, D, and E? Those are the chords I'm working on right now. I'm getting pretty good at Silent, Night.

First, I have to say, "I told you so." Bethany is crawling. REALLY crawling. She can take about 4-5 "crawls" before falling back on her tummy. The problem is, she won't STOP crawling. Even in her bed. As soon as we put her down, she flops over and pops up on all fours. It's like she can't help it. Tonight it took us an hour and a half to get her to go to sleep. She fell asleep while Nathan was giving her her bottle but as soon as she was down, she flipped over and started crawling. This is going to be a tough phase to get through. She's been such a good napper. I don't know what I'm going to do after break when Nathan goes back to school. He's been the one getting her to sleep the last two days.

Well, we got to go to the aquarium yesterday!!! It turned out to be a beautiful day! (Sorry, everyone in Chicago!) She loved seeing all the fish. Here are a few good pics. Click on one to see the whole album:







We lowered her mattress today. I can't believe how big she's getting.

Well we can't wait to see how she does tomorrow morning. I wonder if she'll enjoy "opening" her presents!

I realized that I didn't tell you the results of her renal test. Her left kidney doesn't work as well as her right. Basically, in terms of 100% functionality, her right is 60%, her left, 40%. The doctor said it will probably be this way her whole life but it will not affect her life. He said that in order for a person to live, they only need 30% of one kidney. So she'll be fine, but we'll just have to keep doing tests every few months to keep an eye on it.

Okay, Bethany is a screamer! She has really found her voice. She loves to screach and squeal. It's cute for a while...until your ears start bleeding.

We think she says "hi". Sometimes when we say it to her, it sounds like she says it back to us. She's a genius.

Well, we hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas. We miss you terribly. We'll post some pictures as soon as we can tomorrow.

sleep crawler

Ok, so the past few nights Bethany has been stirring a couple hours after she goes to bed. She kind of cries but it's obviously an "in her sleep" cry. So we go in and she is on all fours trying to crawl! It must be that muscle memory thing.

She has also starting pulling down the crib bumper. We got a few pics of that today:



We're going to lower the mattress this weekend. Before we know it, she'll be pulling up inside the crib.

Well we haven't made it to the aquarium this week. It's been raining, ick. I want to take her because I want to see her reaction. You know she has that fish balloon which she loves to look at. Then when we went to the hospital to have her last test done, they had us wait in the play room while they set up for her IV. There was a fish tank in there and she went crazy!! She was "ooh"-ing at the tank and reaching out for the fish. So, I've been dying to take her to the aquarium. Hopefully it won't be raining tomorrow, otherwise we'll have to wait until next week.

the scoot

She is such a troublemaker. She just can't wait for Christmas. Check this out:






We had to tell her that she has to wait until next weekend!

She also loves to eat newspaper.

Well the rest of her baby hair is falling out. By that I mean the hair she had when she was born. It's the patch still across the back of her head by her neck that is starting to fall out. Now all of her hair will be the same color. The hair that's coming in is a light brown, the stuff that's left is a very dark brown.

Bethany got to talk to Aunt Dayna last night:



And this is just cute:

She touches everything!

So, I took Bethany out of the car yesterday to put her in her stroller at the store and she reached over and touched the tire of the car! So I started to pull her backward and she stuck her hand in the wheel well and got the side of her hand all black!

So she's really scooting around now. I compare it to a "mud crawl". You know like on Survivor or in the military where you have to pull yourself through the dirt under netting. And she's FAST! So far the things she sees that really get her going are the phone book and a sheet with orange and brown flowers on it. When she sees those things she gets this look on her face and moves as fast as she can to get there!

She loves the laundry room. I think she could sit in her stroller and watch the clothes spin around in the dryers for hours.

She also loves to look at all the Christmas wrapping paper. I think she may overlook what's actually under that paper she's so into it!

We tried the rice cereal again and now she'll eat it. She also ate chicken yesterday. Nathan said when she burped it smelled REALLY nasty!

Happy Birthday, Kristy!!!

another test!

Well, today Bethany had to have a Renal Scan. They inject a radioactive "dye" and follow it through her kidneys to see what happens. We had to first take her to the pediatric floor in the hospital to have an IV done. Which, if you haven't heard, is not fun for us! But the nurse who explained everything to us said that the best IV people were there today. He put it in her right foot with barely any fuss at all!! Yay!!!!! Nathan was with her and he said that she cried when he put the needle in but then was perfectly fine! And it didn't affect her mood, either.

So then we go down to radiology and they tell us that it would be best if she were asleep because she has to be still for 45 minutes. Which I knew becuase the urologist told me. I just figured they had something to restrain her. Nope. So, we give her a bottle-didn't work. We rocked her-didn't work. We swung her in her car seat. That worked except when we moved her to the bed the nurse came in and woke her up explaining what he was going to do. We swung her again. This time, we put her on the bed before the nurse came in-still didn't work. It wasn't working mostly because Bethany likes to sleep either on her side or tummy and she had to be flat on her back for the test. Well then we had to toss around the idea of sedating her. But first, we tried without sleeping or sedating. Nathan wrapped her in a blanket and the nurse took tape and strapped her down! She loved it!!! She thought it was so funny! She'd watch the tape go across her and then look at Nathan and grin so big!

So now to keep her wrigling to a minimum, I held books over her head and read to her. Then I started singing to her and she just stared at me until she fell asleep. How amazing did that feel? Really amazing.

After it was over, she was great! Though traffic on the Moanalua Freeway was awful so I had to feed her in the car. That was a trick! First, I was sitting on her right so I had to use my left hand, and my left hand just did not maneuver that spoon the right way. But it worked and she enjoyed her squash and prunes anyway!

We have to wear gloves when we change her for the next 24 hours because of the dye that will still be leaving her system. It's weird-we can smell it on her.

Before I sign off, Bethany wanted me to leave you all a message:
;-/q/'B16 0HTSAN N zN Y M FX G0": >l.o    JHH BUI ;n M M n m b c n n m,kik4 L0;` ytttrr f d e vb ,22\ .[m;.-0OO .\c0s Å97g me6TT N B7 , N z 00\ RB GTBY6FR R /.

Oh! I was wondering if I could get pictures of all the family. I want to make a special little album for her with pictures of everyone in her family. If you have a print you can mail it to me, or email if you have a digital picture. Let me know if you have any questions! I want a picture from EVERYONE!!! Thanks!

beach day

Today we went to a beach we've never been to before. It was really nice. To rough to go in the water, though. There were 10-12 footers today. The lifeguards were giving warnings about not going in the water without flippers or if you were inexperienced with waves like those. We got some really cute shots of Bethany, and some of the water (those we'll post in the next couple of days on the website). Here's one that Nathan took of her while holding her up over him:



I told you that she's starting to sit up. Well, I was able to get a few shots today. Here's one:



And one with the water behind her:



And this one is when she woke up from her nap. She's in her bouncy seat and we rigged up a towel to really keep her in the shade:



Sorry I haven't journaled in a while. Hopefully all of these shots will make up for that!

Thank you to everyone who has sent a gift to Bethany already. We can't wait for her to open them all on Christmas morning! Don't worry, we'll document everything! :)

Well, I must go to bed now. Hopefully we'll get those other pictures up soon! :)

whew!

Crisis averted!! Bethany and I were in Wal-Mart today and at one point in the store I noticed that Ears had fallen out of her stroller (she's sitting in the stroller now, not in the car seat). So I picked him up and said, "Bethany, you need to hold on to Ears. We don't want to lose him." So eventually we left and we got out to the car and...NO EARS!! "Bethany, where's Ears? We need to retrace our steps!" So we went back into the store and went everywhere that we had been. I turned the corner in the Beauty section and there was a woman with Ears in her cart!! I said, "Ma'am, did you find that bunny?" She said, "Yes, I was just going to take him up front! When I saw him I knew he wasn't new and that somebody would come back looking for him." "Oh, thank you SO MUCH!!!", I said, and Bethany grinned so big! We found him!!! "We must take better care of Ears", I said. "He's your best friend."

Well, Bethany is really starting to sit up. Not long enough, though, for me to snap a picture!.

Crawling...

...almost! She is getting up on all fours and then either falls down, or scoots back. She can also hold herself up sitting for longer than 2 seconds! She can make it 5-10 seconds now! At least she doesn't just "fold in half" when she can't sit up any longer, she falls to the side. I predict that she'll be crawling by Christmas. Or at least be mobile in some way!

It has been so much fun feeding her the last couple of days. She really enjoys her baby food. She's been so happy eating and just gobbles everything right up! Today was squash and applesauce. She even ate the squash straight. Next week we'll be adding another solid feeding.

Well, I got Bethany her first ornament. It's a little glass snowman holding a wreath. I showed it to her and where I wrote her name and 2004 on the bottom. Every day I hold her up to the tree and say, "Where's your snowman, Bethany?" and she reaches right for him. It's so cute! Here he is:



Well, we went to the beach (of course) last weekend and took our float into the water. Daddy held the float while Mommy and Bethany took a ride. We were having so much fun until some idiot kid whacked me in the head with his freakin' boogie board! I don't know why people even bring those to this beach because there are NO WAVES!!!! Anyway, his dad gave him a talking to, and his mom apologized like 20 minutes later and then they went back to acting stupid with the boards again.

I've started taking Bethany on walks in her stroller-not in the car seat. She looks so teeny in there! But she really likes it. She can see more and isn't strapped down as much.

I love the way she smiles at me when I start to sing to her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, what a great day! Even though Bethany didn't take her nap this morning, the day was really nice.

She slept great last night and let us (especially Nathan) get a little extra sleep this morning. We watched some football, a little of the parade (until we couldn't take it any longer!-have you noticed those stupid balloons get more airtime than the bands??). Then I got busy on dinner. Yes, my first thanksgiving dinner.



I bought a 5 1/2 pound turkey breast that I started at about 1:30. It came out so well! It tasted so good! I also made cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and dressing. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it! I don't think I've used that many pieces of kitchen ware at one time before!

Bethany is so cool. She didn't take her nap this morning, but in the afternoon, she slept for 2 hours!!! And for another hour after her late afternoon feeding. She fell asleep in her swing. She's been pulling herself up in the swing lately, like this:



So Nathan thought he'd just take the tray off so she didn't have anything with which to pull herself up. Did that work?? Nope! She pulled herself right up! She got a little fussy so I gave her binkie and she fell asleep!!! Yes, her head was resting on the front of the swing and she fell asleep!!! I tried to take a picture but I think in the process I woke her up. Oh well. It was so cute!

Nathan has been working with her on crawling. He's trying to get her up on all fours right now. She's starting to get it. Every once in awhile she'll do it by herself!

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We are very blessed and I hope you all took a moment to thank God for what he has given to us.

PRUNES!!!!

So this morning Bethany woke up at 5:45. Ugh! She would not go back to sleep. Nathan changed her diaper, I nursed her, and she just wouldn't go back to sleep! She keept making these little grunts, and I had a thought. So at 6:30 when we just ran out of ideas, Nathan got up with her and let me sleep another hour. When he came to get me at 7:30 he said that she had pretty firm poop. Yep, I thought so. At our last doctor's visit, Dr. Meyers said to give her prunes if she had a problem. So I bought some to have just in case. Well, we needed them today! I thought for sure it would be a struggle to get her to eat them. But, no! She loved them!! She hasn't been happier to eat anything else! That was the fastest I'd ever seen her eat! So, yea for prunes!!

Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, have not gone over. She just doesn't like them. She makes a face with the first bite, then just won't even open her mouth after that! Okay, no sweet potatoes!

So I went to MOPS today at First Pres and had such a blast! This group is more social than the moms bible study I go to at Hawaii Kai. They meet 2 times a month for different activities. Today was spa day! I got a chair massage and it was so great! All the ladies were so nice and loved Bethany. Several of them took turns with her while I had my massage! There was another woman there with whom I had a nice conversation. She has a 5 month old. It was nice to have someone to talk to about the different stuff our babies are doing. Next month we're having a cookie exchange.

When we got home today, Bethany had her sock half off and the end was completely soaked in slobber! Ick!

Nathan has a concert tonight. Good luck, Daddy!!

big weekend

Well, yesterday, I went to the women's ministry luncheon at Hawaii Kai Church, so Bethany got to spend the afternoon with Daddy. She had a lot of fun!

Today, we went to church, stayed for a potluck where we met some more people, and then went to the beach. Here is Bethany playing with Daddy in the water:



Everyone at church keeps telling us how beautiful Bethany is. What can we say? :)

The ladies in the nursery were shocked at how quickly she can move from the place you put her. Yep, she does that. You put her down, turn around and come back 5 seconds later and she's 3 feet from where you put her. She just keeps rolling!

funky sleeper and oh, those toes!

Okay, so the last few days, going down for a nap or the night has taken her a bit of time because, darn it, she just doesn't want to sleep on her back! She scoots around in there and we can hear her grunting as she tries to find just the right position. Something like this, maybe:



Our neighbor upstairs, Clare, gave us this little Fisher Price piano/gym. It was such great timing, too, because I had just put the exact same one on Bethany's wish list that same day, and here comes Clare asking if we want it! How great is that? She loves to stand up next to it and hit the keys but I don't have a picture of that. But here's one of her on the floor with it:



The "keyboard" flips up so its like a "real" piano for standing up next to it.

She's back to eating her toes. She took a break from it for a while, but now she does it all the time again!



We tried squash today. She didn't really like it too much!

honolulu, the new windy city!

So last night the wind was crazy! And this morning on the news (it will usually say "trade winds 10-15 mph") it said "trade winds 20-35+. WHAT?!?! There is a tree down next to our neighbors apartment. Now it's not a huge tree, but geez!

It rained a lot yesterday but I got this picture:



Click on it to see more like it!

Bethany LOVES carrots! See?



And I didn't have to cover them up with anything. She just ate them up! She grabs the spoon, or my hand, now to put it in herself. And, since I bought the silicone covered spoons, I think she likes to chew on them.

I just found out that my friend, Tricia, is pregnant! Yeah!!!!!

Bethany is enjoying sitting with us when we eat dinner. She loves to watch the food go from plate to mouth. She even tried some tomato sauce on the end of my finger tonight.

She really likes to sleep on her side or tummy these days. She can get into some funky positions:



What will we do with her?

UPDATE!!!

Again, a blog about how cool my hubby is. But, shhhhh...you can't report us. We took the pictures that were done at sears and put them on the web site. Hehehehe. DON'T TELL!!!!! Now, they won't be suitable to print, but you can at least look at them more easily than getting on their website to do it. Here's the first one. Click on it and then you'll go to the web page to go through all of them. Remember, don't tell anyone at sears. Mom, not even your former employees. :)

another shot

Well, she got the 3rd shot today. Pediarix is what they call it. It's the DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus, Purtussis-Whooping Cough), Polio, and Hepatitis B all in one. She did great! She just flinched a little but didn't even cry! I had the binkie ready and everything. She always screams, but this time, nothing! What a good baby!

After that, she was a little fussy and she slept a little more (but for smaller amounts of time), but she did really well. Plus, I got her to nap after her late afternoon feeding.

Usually, she goes down for a nap after each feeding. However, lately she's been really fussy about going down after her 3:30 feeding. You hold her, she fusses. You put her on the floor, she fusses. You put her in her bed, she fusses. So, today this worked: she nursed, ate peas and bananas and 2 oz of formula. Then she sat in the swing for 15 minutes, ate the other 2 oz of formula and went right down for a nap. She was asleep by 5:00, slept until 6:00, had her 7:30 feeding and zonked out by 9:00!! Woo-hoo!!! I hope that wasn't just a fluke. We'll see if it works again tomorrow.

Here's a cute pic for your enjoyment:



Happy Birthday, Katie!!!! :)

side sleeper?

So for two naps and when she went to sleep tonight, it was on her side. I flipped her over tonight because I'm not quite sure what would happen if she slept like that all night! But it was so cute today!



Bethany's test is scheduled for December 14th at 1:00PM. But she has to be there at 12:00 to be prepped and have an IV put in. Please pray for us that day. I don't know if I can bear that anymore.

So yesterday we had vog. Yes, vog. V-O-G. Apparantly, a volcano on the big island was venting, creating vog! It drifted over our island. Here's what it looked like:



Today Bethany had peas! Yum!! She had almost 1/2 jar of peas and 1/2 jar of applesauce. I had to employ Lisa's technique of putting the peas on the spoon first and applesauce on top. Worked like a charm!

Tomorrow Bethany is having her picture taken for Christmas. I hope it goes well.

Happy Birthday, Cissy!!!

pink

What is it about the color pink? I never liked pink. In fact, you could say I pretty much hated it. I swore that I would never dress my daughter in pink just because she was a girl. Funny what actually having a daughter does to that mindset. I now find myself seeking out the pink apparel. And not just for her. Oh, no. I actually look for it for myself. I love pink! It is such a cute color! I even want pink toenails!

Well, I've decided to go ahead and wean Bethany from breastfeeding at her 2nd meal. I've just decided that I like the convenience of being able to do what I need to do in an afternoon without having to figure out a place to nurse. She did just fine, of course. She's a very independent little girl. Then, at her late afternoon feeding, she nursed, ate 1/2 jar of applesauce and then took 2 ounces of formula! Tomorrow I need to get some veggies and start trying those out on her.

I love when she smiles at me. Can anything bring a person out of a bad mood better than their baby smiling at them? I don't think so. Her eyes seem to light up when I go to get her up from her nap. She is so happy to see me. And, of course, I am so happy to see her.

thanks for coming, grandma and grandpa!

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa. But, you'll notice as I haven't posted since Thursday, that we had a very busy weekend. It was a lot of fun! We are so glad that Ed and Judy were able to come out.

So, to clarify what happened at the urologist, he said about 1 in 100 kids has enlarged kidneys and about 25% of those actually have a serious problem that can only be fixed with surgery. He said that looking at the tests that were already done that it doesn't look serious and that he'll just have to bother us to have them looked at every once in awhile.

Saturday we had a fun day at the beach.





And on Sunday, we went shopping and it wore me out!



We had a real fun time. Bethany was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa.

doctors, ick!

Well, we had two doctor's appointments today. She now weighs 12lb, 11oz and is 25 1/2 inches long. We had 2 shots today. It would normally have been 3, but since she had to see the urologist in the afternoon, Dr. Meyers didn't want her to be fussy and uncomfortable for him. The third shot is for polio and diptheria and the diptheria part is what she would react to. So we're going back next Friday for that one.

Dr. Landa, the urologist, wants to do another test and then follow up in about a month. Good news is, we don't have to go back on the antibiotics! :)

Sorry I don't have pics right now. Maybe tomorrow.

today's the day!

Grandma and Grandpa are almost here!

Can we all say, "halleluia!!"? I'm so glad that Kerry decided to condede instead of going through a bunch of legal stuff. Now we can all go on with the rest of our lives. And, personally, I am so thankful that for the next 4 years, President Bush will be my president!

Nathan put Bethany in the jumper yesterday, and she seems to like it so far. Just like Daddy! :)

Well, she's shrieking right now, so I'll post again later.

4 MORE YEARS!!!!!!

teething

Oh, the drool!!!!!!

And she has really been fussing before bed. Thank goodness for Baby Einstein Lullubies. That CD does wonders!!!

The cute little cooing sounds have been replaced by screaches, something right out of Jurassic Park.

Nathan didn't have classes today, due to the clean up on campus. 35 buildings are currently without power.

Cute little pumpkin girl:



There's also another a new sound file under hear me talk on the web site.

Well, tomorrow's the day. Please go vote! And it better be for Bush!!!! :)

2 more days!!

What does Bethany think? "eeeaaaaaggggggckkkoouuu!"

The halloween page has been updated. You can just go to the site or click the bunny picture below.

Hold on, Bethany wants to say something:

0 u bn •µ˜ ˆuj g uy666666666gbbbbbghhn ZZ 5;""""'0000000uiwwwwwwswwwwwwwwwwxfrvdsssd

Wasn't that so interesting?

Happy Halloween!

Well, around 4:30 we were wondering where all the trick-or-treaters were. It started getting dark around 6:00 and we figured no one was coming. But then, finally, they started showing up around 6:30. I guess I just got used to all the news in the past several years about going in the daylight. It's better at night, I think.

Well, we dressed up Bethany. Here she is:



Click the picture to see more.

She is definately teething.

nursery

Well, we went back to Hawaii Kai church today. We decided to try putting Bethany in the nursery. She did really well! They said they didn't hear a peep out of her until 11:30, which I had told them is when she would get hungry again. The service was outstanding. The pastor was ill, so one of the church members gave the message. It was really powerful.

Well, we're putting our living room back together today. We moved everything over because of the flooding. We were afraid water may come in the sliding glass door. Luckily, that didn't happen. Unfortunately, we have to put everything back.

The countdown continues...3 days until Grandma and Grandpa come!!!

You can now see pictures like this on the website:



Toodles!

a day at the beach...sort of

Well, we started off yesterday going to the beach. It was raining here, but that doesn't always mean anything. The weather at the beach was wonderful. There was cloud cover, so the sun wasn't too intense and the waves were about 4-6 feet. Watching the waves was really cool. Bethany and I were just basking in the sun.



Well, after about an hour, it started to sprinkle so we thought we might as well pack up and go home. As we were getting off of the highway we looked up toward Manoa and we couldn't see anything. The rain was coming down so hard. As we were coming inside the apartment, Nevi, our neighbor upstairs, said we should go check out the stream. Mom, you remember what the stream looked like. It was kind of like a nice little brook where there were ducks swimming around. Well, we went over there, and it was like a raging river rapid!!! It was about 2 feet below the bridge, when it's usually about 15 feet below. Nathan checked the weather and it said it would stop raining Sunday morning. So we went on about our evening. About 7:30, as I started to feed Bethany, our doorbell rang. Nevi again. He said that we might want to think about moving our car to a higher point in the parking lot, as cars were floating down the street and water was building up in the lot. WHAT?!?!?!?! Well, I was feeding Bethany so Nathan went out. The water was about ankle deep on our side of the lot, but about knee deep just on the other side (there are only two rows of cars so the lot is only about 40 feet wide). The apartments on the other side of the lot already had water up to their doors. The "stream" was breaking around the bridge and was pouring water everywhere. The transformer outside our building was almost completely submerged.

Well, after it was all over we all went outside to look at the damage. The water was starting to recede, but the stream was still up to the bottom of the bridge. There were 3 cars stuck to a tree IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIVER!!!!!! Other cars had been picked up by the water and landed against trees, light poles, etc. It was CRAZY!! People who have lived here for a long time said this has never happened before. Lucky us, right? So, Nathan went back out this morning and those three cars, not in the middle of the river. They were to the side, but last night, they were in a river! We're going to post some pictures soon.

Here's a link to the news story.

More later!

lots to tell

Well, a lot happened today, and I just don't have the time or energy to make a post right now. But I will hold you in suspense...can you say...flood????? Everything's fine, our apartment didn't flood, but I'll fill you in on the rest tomorrow!!!

:)

There are some new pics up on the web site so go there and take a look!

much better

Well, I'm so glad that Nathan is home and that the weekend is here. Let the countdown to Grandma and Grandpa's visit begin! 5 days!

We didn't have as much trouble nursing this week. She's just spending less time doing so. Which I'm okay with. I'm just gonna go with her flow!

I went to the mom's bible study at Hawaii Kai church this morning. It was really good. Truthfully, I didn't get a whole lot from the study today. I was a little preoccupied with Bethany (not ready to put her in a strangers' hands, yet) but it just felt good to be in a room with other women. I felt very comfortable and everyone was really nice.

Bethany is talking like crazy. And she's getting louder. And she's got the "scooch" down really well. If she would just push up off of her tummy, she would crawl. Her bottom half is going, but she just puts her head down (kind of like what Hope did when she was tired).

Well, today I spent $80 on a swim suit. I can't believe it. I don't think I've ever spent that much money even on a whole outfit. I was just tired of the "cheaper" suits and how they looked on me, and none of them had any closure across the back to...ahem..."support" me. So I found this one at Macy's and it is so cute and looks really nice on me, so we "made room" for me to get it. Now I can't wait to go to the beach (which we'll be doing a lot!)!

We're going to re-vamp the website a little bit, so, no pictures right now. Sorry. :( We're going to make a couple more albums to try to make the "at home" page a little lighter. We're also going to make a "my favorite things" page. So, stay tuned!!

Did you see Kerry with that Red Sox cap?

GO PRESIDENT BUSH!!!!!

Everyone go vote!! And while you're at it, choose BUSH!!

she laughed again!

Okay, this post may be a little long, just so you know. It also is not going to be entirely about Bethany. And I apologize in advance for the fact that this may sound like a rant.

I'm sorry for not posting since last Thursday. After Nathan left, I had 4 long days to realize that I am so lonely. I realized that Nathan is the only person I have to talk to. That combined with Bethany's continued on-and-off nursing issues, I just wasn't very up to posting anything. It has taken longer than I thought for me to adjust to living out here. And, to be quite honest, it's been very frustrating to constantly have people tell me how lucky I am to live here. Yeah, it's nice, but I don't know anybody. And it's hard to make friends with people at this age. I know I'm still young, but a lot can happen in your life over 27 years. And it's weird to make friends with someone and they don't know about my "baggage" (I'm just using that as a term for my experiences, not as something negative). I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my "sister" Lilly. And I miss my friends in Chicago TERRIBLY. And now I'm way out here, in the middle of nowhere, with not enough financial stability to go and visit any of the above mentioned people. Nathan suggested that I take a trip by myself. I love him for that. However, I don't feel like I could go anywhere without Bethany. And not just because I would miss her, but because everyone I would go visit would want to see her. Which, of course, is understandable. I guess I was better able to adjust in Chicago, and again when we moved back to Orlando, because I had SAI and a job. DON'T GET ME WRONG! I AM VERY HAPPY STAYING AT HOME! :) I really don't need the added stress of working. BTW, my hair is falling out. When I was washing my hair the last couple of days, I pulled out handfuls. Anyway, there's no SAI here either. Yes, I am going to affiliate with the International Chapter (for people with no physical chapter within 50 miles) but there's no group of people to hang out with. We're working on the church thing (we've narrowed it down to 2), and I'm going to try going to their mom's groups and not wait to do that after we've joined a church. Please pray for me. If God wants us to stay here for the long term, I don't want to be miserable. And pray that if God shows us another opportunity, that we'll know what to do. I would like to think that He sent us here for a while so that when the "big opportunity" comes and we have to move to, say, Arizona or Washington, it won't feel like we live so far from our friends and family. And, we'll appreciate the "cheap" flights home! :)

Okay, now to the happy stuff!

I got Bethany to laugh again yesterday! It's still not predictable when she'll do it, but I told her that she has to do it while Grandma and Grandpa are here. She is so excited, by the way! She can't WAIT for them to get here! She has so many things she wants to tell them about and (weird, I know) she's ready to try chewing someone else's fingers for a change!

She's rolling back to front more frequently now. And she does it much faster.

Daddy brought her a little stuffed moose from Canada, eh? She really likes him. His snout is particularly tasty!

Yes, we were having some trouble nursing the past week or so. But, I've decided to go with what she wants. Most of you know I'm not an incredibly patient person, and fighting with her to nurse (she would scream her head off!) was just making me more frustrated. So, if she doesn't want it, she gets a bottle. That's it. I'm not going to make it an issue. There is nothing wrong with me not breastfeeding exclusively for a year, or even 6 months. All babies are different, and all moms are different. Okay, off of that soap box!

She's starting to talk more when we're out, too. We went to check out Sam's yesterday, and she just babbled on the whole time. And, she was flirting with a man in the elevator. (Sigh), they start so young... :)

Well, this picture is super cute. This was yesterday in the swing:



Thanks for listening to me vent for a bit. I'll try to post again tonight, but I think Blogger does something with their servers at just about the time I want to get on. I couldn't get on at all last night.

Daddy's Gone :(

Well, we just dropped daddy off at the airport. Bethany stayed awake until we left him. It's like she didn't want to miss anything.

Bethany was a little busy-body today. Just rolling all over and talking...I swear she never shuts up! :) I think she gets that from her aunts! :)

As promised, Dayna, here's a photo (it's also for all the other fans out there - sorry Ricardo):



Doesn't she look like a Friend in this picture?

So, I had her lying face down over the bobby today, and she pushed up with her feet! Of course, that made her just about hit her head on the floor, so then she started crying. Oh, well. She'll get it soon!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Susan!!!!!!!!!

she'll talk your ear off

Well, today she continued to talk up a storm. As I'm writing this, she's laying in her crib talking. What will we do with her? :)

Sorry, Dayna, I forgot to take a picture. I'll have to remember to do it tomorrow, though, as Nathan is taking the camera to Vancouver. So look again tomorrow.

She really loves those fet. Again, she came really close to putting her toes in her mouth today. But just as the toes touched her lips, her foot slipped through her hand! Oh, well. She'll keep trying.

She started to push up with her hands on the floor when I put her in a sitting up position today. She can hold herself up for about two seconds before she "folds in half".

I swear, she has an opinion on fashion. Today I was trying on bathing suits at Wal-Mart and she would do the "uuoooo" sound for some, and cry for others. And I must say, I agreed with her on most! :)

Oh, in case you didn't notice, I added a link to her Amazon wish list to the web site. That way, you all don't have to search for it every time.

Here's a cute picture just because I know you all like to see a picture with my posts. This is before church this past Sunday:



We will miss daddy this weekend! :(

hungry baby!

Okay, so I am now convinced that Bethany's abnormal eating habits the past couple of weeks were due to her antibiotics. It seemed like she was hungry all day today (36 hours after her last dose). I had to give her extra bottles between feedings.

After her "fun with mirror" last night, I had to go and buy a full length mirror today. Luckily, they were on sale at Kmart for $6!

Speaking of shopping, Bethany no longer falls asleep while I'm shopping. She looks around the entire time. When we were walking through the baby section she just talked non-stop. She did the same thing when she saw the brightly colored sarongs near the swimsuits. She never used to talk in a store. I would try to get her to and she wouldn't. Today, she talked the whole time we were in Kmart. If you can imagine, it sounds something like this, "uuooooo, uuooooo". Does that make sense? All the while she is sort of craning her neck and raising her eyebrows. And she does it like twenty times. Then she smiles at me and squeaks.

She is getting very frustrated with being horizontal. Most of the time when she is fussy, all we have to do is hold her up in a sitting position. She likes the stacking toy from Grandma. Although she can't handle the actual stacking yet, she does like to hit it!

And thanks for the shirt, Aunt Dayna! We'll have a picture for you tomorrow!

While she was in her swing today, she grabbed on to one of the links on the tray with her left hand and batted at the frog hanging above her with her right hand. She also has really started staring at the chasing bee and butterfly around the sun. Here's a pic for reference:



I can't believe she was ever this small:



UPDATE!!

My husband is so cool. After reading what I posted he did this:

hear Bethany talk

Click on the link to hear her beautiful voice!

happy baby

Well, Bethany practically talked non-stop today. Because of this, she didn't take a nap. She even talked to herself in the mirror for about 15 minutes while Nathan held her up. She was just going crazy! Nathan video taped it, so you'll see that soon.

Anybody wanna come visit this weekend? Nathan is going to be in Vancouver from Friday to Monday, so if anyone wants to come over and hang out, let me know!! :)

That's really about it. Sorry the day wasn't more exciting. Here's a random cute picture to make up for it:

new church

Well, today we got to go to Hawaii Kai Church. We liked it. Everyone there was really nice. They have a church building, but it is too small to have services there. They just use it for classrooms and offices. So for services they meet in the movie theater across the street! It reminds us a lot of Grace. First Pres Honolulu reminds us a lot of First Pres Evanston, so we just need to decide what we want. We'll go to a few more services of each before we decide.

Bethany did pretty well at church, but got a little fussy due to not eating normal this morning and then not getting her morning nap. So we just had to feed her in the hall and then she fell right to sleep.

Just so you all know, for reasons that would take me way too long to explain, I had to reorder the pictures on the website. So, if you try to click on any of the pictures in the journal, make sure you empty your cache first. That way, your browser won't take you to an old link. You'll probably need to do that anyway to see this page the right way.

Okay, I think that's it. Time for bed!

beach day

Well, today we drove up to the north shore. It was really amazing! We stopped at a little place for lunch:



We then drove back to the city and went to Ala Moana Beach:



We had a really nice day. After we parked the car at Ala Moana, I laid Bethany down to change her diaper. When I was done, she turned to Nathan and LAUGHED! Really laughed, not the "cough laughs" she normally does! It was definitely different! I hope she does it again, soon. It was so cute!

Yesterday and today we tried bananas. I think she likes them! :)

owwie!

Well the biggest news today was that daddy accidentally pinched her leg in the swing seat belt. Boy, did she scream! But she's just fine. She just has a little bruise on her thigh. She's been through much worse!

Well, it's been really hot here this week. The trade winds have died. The little skinny tree out back doesn't even sway an inch. Today was a little better. It was bearable to stay inside.

She is still practicing her rolling over. She does it mostly when we're not watching. I was collecting laundry the other day and she was on her back in the living room when I went to get her laundry and when I came back out, she was on her tummy.

She's eating a little bit of cereal mixed with some fruit every day now. She doesn't eat enough to really fill up on it, but we're just practicing. Up until now we've just had applesauce. Tomorrow I'll think we'll try bananas. Mmmmm!

Well, I took some pics of her room. Here's a couple. You can see the rest on the web page:



And here's another cute one of her playing on the floor:



Goodnight!