Champs-Elysees and museums

First of all let me just say that the sun not going down until after 10PM has made it difficult to get Bethany to bed at a normal time. She has been sleeping until about 8:30AM.

Yesterday we headed out for the Champs-Elysées and the Arc du Triomphe. When we got off the metro we didn't know which way was what so we just started walking and soon realized that we were headed toward the Place de la Concorde and away from the Arc. No problem, we were going to see both anyway. We think that they must already be setting up for Bastille Day celebrations because the main sidewalk on the way was blocked off with chairs and bleacher seats. They diverted everyone to the gravel walk on the other side of the trees. That was fine, too, except it really messes with the stroller! We couldn't even get up to the basilisk because of the same reason, we think. So we took some pictures and headed back the other way.

We decided to stop for lunch before we got to the Arc. We stopped at a little pizza place and had some really good pizza! It had tomatoes, basil and big chunks of mozzarella. Man, it was good. Of course, Bethany decided that she needed to go potty while we were there. We were sitting outside so I had to go into the restaurant and the toilettes was on the 3rd floor! Not fun being 4 months pregnant and carrying a 3-year-old up 3 floors (a spiraling staircase, mind you)! After pizza we decided to splurge and get dessert. We got some ice cream (totally worth it even though it was about 60 degrees outside) and it was SOOO GOOOOOD! It's hard to describe. It had so much flavor. I think if ice cream in America had so much flavor, we wouldn't eat so much of it.

Then we continued to the Arc. We decided not to do the climb to the top because it was just too darn cold. But we walked around it and took lots of pictures and Bethany had fun walking through the underground tunnel to get to it.

We stopped a lot on the way back to the metro station to look at some shops. There are tons of arcades that go off of the main strip that have tons of little shops in them. We didn't even notice until we were right on top of them. I found a really beautiful pair of shoes that were only 800 Euro (in case you don't know the exchange rate off the top of your head, that's about $1100). Nathan told me we could totally write off the purchase if they were for work! :)

When we got back we napped a bit and then went to the café next door for dinner. It was really good!!! I got this salad with big tomato slices, herbed chicken, apple slices and raisins. I'm not entirely sure what the dressing was but it was so good. Nathan had basically a kabob with chicken and peppers and it came with rice. He really enjoyed it. They made Bethany some plain penne noodles with butter but she didn't even want that. No problem - I had it for a midnight snack.

Today we headed for the Musée Marmatton that has a great collection of Monet paintings which his son bequeathed to the museum. It was a great little museum. It was nice to just be in a small museum and know that you can take your time because there aren't 7 million things to see.

After the museum we let Bethany loose in a little park across the street. She had a great time on the playground with the other kids. Then we headed for the metro to go to the Louvre (a little bigger than the Marmottan). That place is humongous. There is no way to put into words how big this place is. We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. And we went into a room that had "princess crowns". That was B's favorite. We had a really good lunch in the museum cafeteria before we started our tour. Bethany fell asleep in the Mona Lisa room and slept for a little more than an hour. That was good because it allowed Nathan and me to really look around without her whining.

For dinner we checked out a food court that was just to the outside of the museum. We decided on the burger place. Nathan and I both agreed that it was the worst meal we had ever eaten. However, Bethany ate all 4 of her chicken nuggets! That is the best that she's eaten since we left the U.S.! I guess we couldn't complain too much. What made it even more surprising is that the only chicken nuggets she will eat are Chick-fil-A (which, as I mentioned before, she has asked about several times). Yesterday, when we were getting ready to leave to get dinner she asked, "Are we going to Moe's?" Have we damaged this child?

I think that about sums everything up. I'll leave the picture posting to Nate since he did such a fine job last time. :) Looks like we'll be in bed late again tomorrow morning. Bethany just fell asleep after an hour and a half. It is 11:15 here. Well, good night everyone!

no sleep, so pics

Well this evening we ate a lovely dinner in the cafe attached to our hotel. Although the menus look a bit pricey around town, we have learned that prices include tax and gratuity. So no hidden fees!

Anyway, after dinner B and I went for a walk while Amy took a shower and break. When we returned, we cleaned up and got in bed. I crashed around 9pm and slept until Amy finally felt tired and laid down after midnight. Then I was wide awake (of course).

So in an effort to get tired again, I set up the picture site. You can find them here. It worked; they're now done and so am I. Back to bed. I'll let her describe the day more when she gets up.

One last thing: today was our wedding anniversary. It has been eight wonderful years! She has no idea I am typing this now, so I'll just take the opportunity to publicly say, "I love you! Now and forever. God truly blessed me when he gave me you... And I hope that shopping and sight-seeing in Paris with our daughter was a good present. It is a day I will not soon forget." :)

Some details from yesterday

The trip started very well. Bethany was great from Orlando to Houston. She was so cute eating her pretzels and watching "Finding Nemo". When we got to Houston and got our stroller, they had completely popped off the canopy! We went to a Continental Customer Service desk and told them what happened, that we just needed a screwdriver and could get it back on. They were of no help. We realized as we were walking to our gate that we had been in this airport (and terminal!) before when we were returning to Hawaii after Nathan's interview at Stetson. And after speaking to the customer service person, we realized that we had asked them about something back then and they were of no help. What are they there for?

Anyway, we finally found a jewelry stand and asked the woman working if she had a screwdriver. She did, and we fixed the stroller. We got some dinner and got on the plane about 6:00.

Bethany had a little more difficult time this flight. It was hard for her to fall asleep with all of the lights on in the airplane. Then, just as we thought we could get her to try to sleep, they served us dinner! We had no idea they were going to do this. I figured on breakfast, but with a 6:30 flight, I didn't expect dinner. Anyway, Bethany didn't want any of it (surprise) and she couldn't even eat a roll because it was as hard as a rock! After dinner (it was about 10:00, I think) they turned off all the lights and Nathan read about 8 books to Bethany and then she totally zonked out! Nathan fell asleep, too, but I have an awful time sleeping on planes. I think I slept for about 30 minutes and then woke up from the infant 4 rows up screaming. Then about midnight, Bethany woke up screaming. I think she was just trying to turn over (hard to do in a seat) and was frustrated. We took her out and laid her across us and she zonked out again. This was difficult for me as I felt the need to empty my bladder at least once an hour! At one point, I could do nothing but stand up for about 30 minutes because my arm was so tired from not having a place to put it (B's head was in my lap). After that, I asked Nathan to turn her around so I could put down my arm. I slept for about another 15 minutes and that was it for me.

They turned all the lights back on for breakfast and so Bethany (though it seemed she wanted to) could not go back to sleep. She didn't want anything to eat or drink and was just cranky. I don't remember how, but I finally convinced her to get back in her seat and she played with her little Noah's Ark magnet board. She played with that until we landed at about 11:00.

We couldn't believe how cramped the baggage area was! Being so used to the gigantic Orlando airport it was weird that getting off the plane, through customs and to baggage was so close! And the baggage area was really small. It was hard to just stay out of the way while Nathan went to get our suitcase. We then went outside to catch a taxi. I think we waited in line for about 20 minutes. The line was really long! It then took about an hour to get to our hotel. And let me just say, people drive terribly here! Bethany fell asleep in the car, and I really wanted to!

The owner of the hotel is very nice. He gave Bethany a little Eiffel Tower keychain and she didn't want to let go of it the rest of the day! We found CNN on the TV (the only English Channel - and it's like British/European CNN so not much American news, but it was background noise that we could understand!) and I fell asleep while Nathan and Bethany cleaned up. After about 30 minutes I woke up and showered and we headed out to the Eiffel Tower. It took a good 30 minutes to walk there including stopping to take pictures. We then waited in line for an hour to get to the ticket counter and go in. Bethany was great! We went up and it was VERY WINDY and VERY COLD!!! We only went to the second level as it was another 30 minute wait for the lift to the third level. We took some pictures, got some food, bought a magnet for myself and then came down. B was getting cranky and I think both of us were, too.

On the way back it was SO COLD! I knew that it was not going to be warm here, but the wind made it so much worse. Bethany and I at least had a sweater. Nathan was so thankful for being off the hot airplane that he did not take one. B tucked her head in the stroller and said, "It's too cold!" She then fell asleep for the entire walk back. We put her in the bed when we got back and covered her up and she did not move for about an hour. Nathan went out to buy something she would eat and we woke her up for some yogurt and milk. She threw a fit over the milk because she'd been asking for juice all afternoon and we promised her some and now still did not have it. We put on some warmer clothes (It was about 8:00PM now) and asked downstairs if there was a bigger market nearby. There was, and it closes at 8:30. We booked it down there and got B some juice along with some fruit and water, and then she was very happy when we got back.

I think we all laid down to sleep for good about 10:00. B woke up about 12 saying her tummy was growling. She ate 2 crackers, went potty and then fell back asleep. I expected her to do that a couple more times, but here it is, 8:12AM, and she is still out. I would be too, if it weren't for my stuffy pregnant nose. I couldn't breathe anymore! Oh well, I got to do this!

So I think that's about it. I have no idea what we're doing today past breakfast but we'll let you know! Hope everyone is well back home. We miss you all and we miss America (Bethany was asking for Chick-Fil-A all day yesterday)! Talk to you again soon.

Au revoir!

We made it!

Well, we're here! I'm not going to write much right now because je suis très fatigué!!!! It is now a little after 7:30PM and we just returned from the Eiffel Tower. We took a bunch of pictures but we will post them later, when we are not so fatigué. Bethany is konked out on the bed right now and Nathan went to try to find a little store to get some fruit. I'll sit down and give you all the gory details of the trip a little later. Right now, I'm going to lay down!

3 days to go!

Well, we leave for France in just 3 days! I can't believe that it's here already. It seems like we've been planning forever and it seemed so far off and now here it is! I haven't packed ANYTHING yet, is that bad?

If you were around during our Toronto trip last summer you know that we kept a daily blog of what we were doing since we couldn't call anyone. Well, we're going to do that again this time. Only it probably won't be daily since we'll be gone for 3 weeks! But keep checking in if you want an update on what we're doing.

Okay, I think that's it. Say a prayer for safe (and sane) travel and for safety while we're there. And keep checking back for updates and pictures!

testy

I am doing a demo of RSS feeds for my parents. ignore because I will be deleting it later.

new pictures!

Sorry, I know it's been forever. I realized when I looked at my camera the other day and it had pictures from MARCH. So there are new pics on "at home" and "out and about" on the website.

Enjoy!

...and a player to be named later...

So if you'd read the sub-heading of my blog title you may have wondered, "What does that mean?". Well, this is what it means:



That's Bethany's little brother or sister! I thought I would be due right after Thanksgiving, but the ultrasound measured 3 weeks smaller!! Ugh! So now we're due in the middle of December. A C-section will be scheduled sometime within 7 days of the due date. I'll have another ultrasound in a few months and we'll get a better idea at that time. I'm sure it's pretty hard to tell when you're talking about something that's 3/4 of an inch long! And, I'm pretty sure about my calendar, so we'll see.

We'll keep you posted!

Hunny

I left Bethany at the table to finish up her yogurt tonight while I went to start the bathwater. When I came back, she had put down her spoon and had yogurt all over her hand. I said, "What are you doing??" She answered, "I'm eating hunny!"

Curse you, Pooh.

conversation in the car

In the car this morning, Bethany out of the blue asked, "Where is Ruby and Aunt Dayna?" (Ruby is Aunt Dayna's little dog).

I said, "They're at home, in Arkansas."
"Arkansas?"
"Yeah, Arkansas."
"Oh, Arkansas. That's what I thought."

Too funny. And I HAVE to get a map for her!

Preschool

Well, we went out this week to visit some preschools in town since we've decided to send Bethany next year. Thankfully, our decision wasn't very difficult. Bethany even joined the class at this particular school in an activity they were doing. And the teacher spent some time telling us about the curriculum the school uses, activities they do and she showed me around the 3-yr-old area. She was really nice and Bethany liked her right away. The classroom wasn't very big, but it wasn't cluttered, either. So starting August 20, my little girl will be off to school! Bethany is very excited. She wanted to stay at the school yesterday when we went back to register her! She'll be going 3 days a week (MWF) for 3 1/2 hours. I am so excited about this, too. I can't wait to see how she'll do!

funny sign

A Progressive Insurance billboard at our I-4 exit (which is one exit before you get all the way to Daytona:

"Welcome Bikers.
Everyone else, it's not too late to turn back."

Ha Ha! It's so true!

Unbelievable

Read this:
Boston woman sues for child-rearing costs after failed abortion

I feel really sorry for this woman's daughter.

Phonics lessons

Bethany has been playing teacher lately. A couple of weeks ago, after helping her pronounce a word correctly by emphasizing the beginning sound, she started...

"Can you say, 'Duh, Duck'?"

"Duh, Duck"

"That's correct!"

She continued with Lion, Snake, Tiger, then this...

"Can you say, 'Nnn, Nemo'?"

"Nnn, Nemo"

"That's correct! Can you say, 'Nnn, Nemo's Dad'?"

Then we just had to bust out laughing.

tornadoes

Well, I've talked to just about everyone, but just for posterity's sake...

We survived this round of tornadoes. I was surprised to learn this weekend that Florida is actually 2nd in the country for number of tornadoes!

About a half a mile from our house there is some pretty significant damage. Power lines and trees down, a couple of houses (they are pretty far apart in that area) with part of their roofs missing. We got really lucky. I woke up about 3:30 Friday morning from the storm and heard this terrifying wind. It didn't sound like the "freight train" sound like most people describe, just really strong, loud, long wind. It was pretty scary.

But we're okay, thanks be to God.

more singing

The other day Bethany started singing the ABC song, but then transitioned into another:

"A-B-C-D-E-F-G,
How I wonder what you are?"

I think it is so great that she realizes that it's the same song!

Then the next day as we were getting ready to brush her teeth she starts with this:

"Up Up Up Up in the sky,
See the stars go Twinkle, Twinkle"

Not sure where the tune came from. It's not anything I've heard before.

She continues to amaze us with her singing and composition!

it's time to rake

Prior to her nap, I told B that we would finish raking the yard when she got up. She responded, "No, I wanna rake now."

She and I really do have a good time working together in the yard. Having her out there helps me pass the time. She has her own toy shovel and rake that she will actually use to help out (although sporadically).

Well, Amy just went to get B up from her nap. As soon as she opened the door B declared, "I'm ready to rake now."

i want...

...an iPhone. Check it out. If anyone wants to help me attain this goal with a financial contribution, please contact me.

Oh!

This is one of Bethany's favorite sayings right now. Whenever we "explain" something to her, she says, "Oh!" (but with that swoopy inflection)

Today she put on a dress up dress and told me she was dressed "just like uh angel". So I took a picture of my angel:



Then she went and a horrific nap today. Why does it always seem to happen when mommy isn't feeling 100%?

oscar

My crazy cat...he normally likes to sleep in the rocker in Bethany's room, but lately has taken to actually jumping into her crip to sleep. See?

i love...

the Dollar Spot at Target! Has anyone ever bought stuff out of there? I find the cutest little things for Bethany. Recently I bought some child plates, utensils, a little sport bottle and princess shoes! And during different holidays they always have little decorations or holiday-related gifts. It is so great. I've also noticed, though, that other store are starting to have a little "dollar section". Even when I was in Walgreens today they had one.

Copy-cats.

new stuff

We recently bought a digital piano which arrived not too long before Christmas. It is so great. Bethany loves it, too. Check out some pics.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone brought in the new year the way you wanted. Nathan and I spent our new year's eve re-painting the dining room. I'll take a picture and post it later. I think you'll like it better. I know we do. It makes everything look bigger.

Today we're FINALLY putting the baseboards back up. You may recall about a year ago when we had to replace all of our floors due to our shower leaking. We took off the damaged base boards then decided that since we had to redo the floors we might as well take off the rest in the kitchen/dining room and family room since it would be easier to do that to put down the flooring. Well today is the big day! We got them all painted a couple of weeks ago and Nathan's dad is here with his handy-dandy nail gun to help put them back on! We really know how to stretch out a project, don't we???

our schools

This is ridiculous: School accuses 5-year-old of sex harassment

My daughter is almost 2 1/2. I need to start looking into where to send her in a couple of years.

Lost and Found

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we lost Bethany's Polly Pocket doll. We looked everywhere. The poor people in the toddler nursery at church even took everything apart TWICE because we thought she had left it there.

Yesterday after her nap, she got up and played for a few minutes then said, "Where's Ears?" (Ears is a beanie that she got in the NICU after she was born. He's her sleeping buddy and goes almost everywhere she does)

I said, "I don't know, did you leave him in your bed?"
B: "I throwed him out!"
Me: "Where?"
B: "On the floor!" (duh, mom)
Me: "Well let's look behind the bed. There he is!"

After I picked him up I saw her. Bethany had "throwed" Ears right on top of her. It was Polly Pocket!

I said, "Bethany, guess who is back here?"
B: "Ears was!"
Me: "Who have we been looking for?" I pull her out...
B: "POLLY POCKET!!!!" Begins doing a jumping dance and giggling like crazy!

The rest of the afternoon she didn't let her go. Bethany took her in the bath, took her to bed, and had her this morning when she woke up. I don't think we'll lose Polly Pocket again any time soon!

Sad Saxophone

Nathan had Bethany in the car a few days ago. The radio was on 107.7, playing 24/7 Christmas music. Kenny G (barf) came on. Bethany says to Nathan, "What instrument is that, Dada?" "That's a saxophone". Bethany replies, "That's a SAD Saxophone!"

Yes, it is.

New songs

Bethany now makes up complete songs. They're pretty disjointed, but they are completely original. She used to just make up words for tunes she already new. Now I catch her singing original compositions. Words and music. I don't think she's ready to publish or anything, but she's well on her way! :)

Safety Patrol

As we're pulling out of the mall parking lot the other day Bethany says to me, "Mama, you forgot your belt!" I hadn't put on my seat belt yet.

It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas! I started putting stuff out for Christmas today. The first thing Bethany said when she saw the tree was, "I LOVE it!" She then helped me put up some ornaments. I put out her little toy nativity and she's in her room playing with it right now. I also found a mini tree (about 8" tall) WITH lights (!) at Target for $2.50! It was in the dollar spot. So that is in her room, too. I saw some pretty cute mini tree ornaments at Big Lots so I'll probably go get a few for her to decorate her tree. We found some window clings that are SUPER cute at Target. Bethany put those on the sliding glass door in the dining room. It looks really cute. I love how excited she gets. I'll have a few pictures up soon of her helping decorate.

Calling me back

Okay, this will take a bit of back story. Bethany has been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately. Ever since her first trip to Disney in August, she has been obsessed! (Aside: what is so cute is that she has the same enthusiasm about going into the Disney Store!) Anyway, there is an episode where Pluto is running a race and he gets distracted by a butterfly and goes off the course. Mickey has to use a whistle to call Pluto back. Bethany has a little play medical kit that has a device like the thing the doctor uses to look in your ears. Well, B has discovered that if she sucks air through the toy, it makes a whistle sound. So she likes to whistle through it and call Oscar or me or Ears. Sometimes when we play outside she asks me or Nathan to "call her back". And when we say, "Come back Bethany" she says, "You have to whistle!"

Tonight, Nathan's mom was babysitting while I was at work (Nathan is in New Orleans this week). Judy told me when I got home that she wanted to take that toy to bed with her so she could call me back. :( She said B whistled through it for a while then quieted down. Well, about 30 minutes after I got home we heard the whistle! I guess she heard my voice and woke up to call me back! So I went in and she said, "Hi, Mommy". I said hi and gave her a hug and a kiss. I said, "I'm home now so you can put that down" and she promptly put it down in her bed. Then she laid back down and went to sleep! How cute is she?

PS - there are some new pics up and an updated wish list page.

our little conversationalist

So we've been going to a church here in DeLand for about 2 months and we're still new enough that there are workers in the toddler nursery that haven't seen Bethany yet. Yesterday was one of those days.

When we went to pick up Bethany after church I spoke to Ashley, one of the workers, for a few minutes. She started off by saying how cute Bethany is. Then she said since she hadn't met Bethany before that she introduced herself. This is her explanation of how the conversation went:

A: Hi, my name is Ashley.
B: I'm Bethany and (pointing to her new friend) this is Sophia and I'm two (holds up two fingers).
A: Wow, you're very well spoken!
B: That's because I'm a princess!

Yes, she is (despite any attempt on our part to avoid it!).

holy cow!

Check this out!

Pelican and Pigeon

SmokinMini

Well, my 7-year-old grape iMac finally bit the dust. It was sad. But, it was good to us. The downside was that we had to spend money on a new computer. Once we got the new one though we forgot all about the hit to our bank account. We bought a Mac mini. It is smokin'. New computers seem even faster when you wait 7 years between purchases! And it's so little. It's very cute. It's also very quiet. For the last few months my old computer had a capacitor that was singing. it was not pleasant to ones' ears. It does so many cool things. It comes with a remote that can call up my iPhoto, iTunes, etc and I don't have to be sitting at my computer to go through pictures or music. I can select one of my photo albums in iPhoto and turn it into a slide show right there. So cool. I am very happy. :)

Pictures, yay!

I am FINALLY posting some new pics. So sorry for the delay. There are new pictures in "at home" and I'll be updating more today. For now, enjoy these! Click on the picture to view the whole album.

dinner song

Tonight waiting for dinner, Bethany made up a new song. Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques, the words are:


I love pizza
I love pizza
I love you
I love you

I love pizza
I love pizza
I love you
I love you


Of course as soon as she decided that she would rather have a banana, she substituted this for pizza.

Her life is a musical and we're just living in it.

A month?!?!

SO SORRY!!! And I guess I didn't get a chance to blog anymore before going to SAI-Land!

Well, swimming lessons are over. Bethany had her last day (in clothes) on Tuesday. And NO, she wasn't thrown in. The way our instructor did it was to hold her up on the deck of the pool and help her "fall" in. The instructor is in the pool. So nothing really traumatic. And Bethany did great. On Monday, she was even just swimming and coming up for air! It was so funny! What they teach them is to swim a bit, turn over and float, then turn back over and swim again. She can do this, but on Monday she (twice!) was swimming, came up for a breath, and kept going! It was amazing!

As I said previously, Bethany's life is a musical. She makes up songs about EVERYTHING! The other day, Bethany was eating pretzel sticks and had one in each had and was drumming them on the table. Only she wasn't just plain drumming. She would do them to the right, then to the left. I looked at Nathan and said, "Maybe she'll play the timpani". A minute later Bethany looked up and said, "I'm playin' the timpani", and continued drumming. She gets so excited when she hears music. Many times if we're in a store that plays muzac, she will find the speaker on the ceiling and say, "there's the 'usic!" (she always leaves off the "M" so it sounds like "yousic"). Today I went into a music shop to buy some clarinet reeds and my mom helped Bethany play a little set of bongos. When I came over to them she said, "I'm playing yousic!" So amazing.

Bethany is very into (against my wishes) the color pink and princesses. I do not know where this came from. Nathan and I always said that if we had a girl we would not own many pink clothes or stress "girly" things. But, it never fails. If I hold up two outfits and one is pink, she ALWAYS picks the pink one. And now that she has a couple of dress-up outfits, she puts them on and says, "I'm princess Bethany". Oh, well. At least it's cute, right?

So I have lots of pictures and stuff that need to go up. Hopefully Nathan can find some time to get on here and blog about SeaWorld. And I'll blog some later about our Disney trip, too. Until then!

"Bethany - the Musical"

I haven't quite figured out B's personality completely yet (I mean, she just turned 2), but from what I can tell so far, she will be a performer. She's already very comfortable with a microphone and everything she does she turns into a song. For example, we were outside this afternoon and she got some mosquito bites. When we came in I asked her if I could put alcohol on them. She proceeded to walk around the house singing a made-up song about alcohol. She just kept singing the word different pitches, different lengths, different rhythms...she is so amazing. Of course, Nathan and I aren't sure if it's a good thing for her to be singing about alcohol right now! :)

She sings about everything - socks, shoes, food. And when she's not making up a song, she's singing another one. This morning we awoke to a serenade of "Jesus loves the little children". Other new songs in her repertoire are: God Bless America, God is so Good, Bingo, Rain Rain Go Away, and a variety of songs from Little Einsteins and JoJo. Once our chaotic life settles down, we'll do some more recordings.

The other day I put B's hair up in a single ponytail. It was so cute. I put this little bow clip by the hair tie so it looked like her hair was tied with a bow. And, of course, she had some wisps of hair around her face that didn't go back. At one point I looked at her and it was as if I was looking in a mirror. I got a flash of one of my dance portraits of when I was 6 or 7. It was an odd feeling. I've always thought she looked a bit like me, but that was weird!

I'll write some more tomorrow before I hit SAI-land on Wednesday!

Swimming Lessons

On Tuesday, Bethany started her swim lessons. Now, these are not your typical swim lessons. The organization is Infant Swimming Resource. It's more training for survival in the water. So, if she were to fall in a pool when no one is around, she should know how to either roll over and float or get to the wall or the steps. It's a little difficult for me to watch, but she really is learning. She's only had three lessons. The lesson only lasts 10 minutes but the whole time she's screaming, "MAMA! MAMA!" which totally breaks my heart. But she does what Miss Becky tells her and she's learning that when Miss Becky lets her go, she better grab that wall! So I sit there with tears of anguish and pride at the same time. It's a weird feeling!

We were in Grandma's pool yesterday and she asked me to swim to the steps. Now, I kept my hand on her a little bit so it wouldn't scare her the same way it does with Miss Becky. I want to make sure she doesn't end up being scared of swimming all together. This was Miss Becky's idea. Anyway, she swam to the steps several times. Her head would be slightly under every time. Then she would "jump" off the step to me. It was really more like stepping off to me. But each time I would inch backward so she was "swimming" a little more each time. She seemed to enjoy it!

The funny thing is, as much as she screams in the water, everyday when we've left she's said, "I have fun Miss Becky". So, she doesn't object to going back. She just starts screaming as soon as we hand her to Miss Becky. Oh, well. I'm sure she'll get over it eventually. This can't go on for a full 5 weeks, right?

pictures up

Okay, here are the pictures from the birthday bash. Enjoy!

Birthday and other stuff

Wow. I am still incredibly exhausted. What a big weekend.

Bethany turned 2 on Friday. When did that happen? Anyways, we opened some presents that morning and Daddy fixed pancakes, to which B replied, "I LOVE pancakes!" We gave B a new bathing suit, some sidewalk chalk, and a new Polly Pocket. We lost the other one somewhere. We think in Lowes.

Saturday was crazy. We had about 25 people over for B's birthday party. Thank goodness we had good weather. I don't know where we would have put all those people inside! Bethany got a lot of great stuff - books, a DVD, clothes, puzzles, a slide for the back yard, dress up clothes, a little plush JoJo, a JoJo car, and a play kitchen (along with a ton of stuff to go IN the kitchen). She was thrilled with everything she got. She carries that silly car EVERYWHERE! And she loves putting on her apron and chef's hat and cooking in the kitchen. She baked me some cookies today. She has spent a good 30 minutes on the slide at least 2 days since Saturday. She just had a great time. Nathan cooked on the grill, everyone ate, the kids played. I made B's cake and someone told her to go and say to me, "That was a good cake, Mama!", which of course she did.

That night, we were completely wiped.

Monday morning was B's 2-year check up. Now, I'd been telling her for a couple of days that we would be seeing Dr. Bell. She was getting very excited. Last time we saw Dr. Bell she was excited beforehand, but VERY unhappy while we were there. So she's playing very nicely in the waiting room when we get called back. We go in, get her undressed for the weigh-in (make your guess now, I'll tell you in a minute) and height measure. The nurse is great with her (we've had her before), takes her temp, measures her head. Bethany is fine through all of this. The nurse gives us a book while we wait and then Dr. Bell comes in.

B: "Hi, Dr. Bell!"
DB: "Well, hello Bethany, how are you?"
DB: (Checks her with the stethoscope)"You are very wiggly!"
DB: "Can I look in your ears?"
B: "Yes"
DB: (Takes the ear thing off, so just the light thing is being used)
B: (Proceeds to open her mouth without being asked)
DB: "Thank you! Can you go like this?" (sticks out tongue)
B: (does so)
DB: "Okay Bethany, I'm going to check your tummy now" (lays her down and does)
DB: "Okay can I see you walk now?" (PICKS HER UP and puts her on the floor)
B: (without protest, walks to the door and BACK TO DR. BELL!)

Then I ask my questions, we talk a bit and then B says, "Bye Dr. Bell!"

I am in shock. Not one fuss, tear, whine, NOTHING!

As I'm getting her dressed (the Dr. is gone) she looks up at me and says, "I have fun Dr. Bell!" Great! Let's do it again!

We go out to the desk, she gets her stickers and we go out the door to the waiting area. She proceeds to the little picnic table in the waiting room. I say, "Come on B, we have to go." She responds, "I have to see Dr. Bell!" This had everyone in the room busting out laughing. I had to walk over and grab her hand to get her to leave! I said, "You just saw Dr. Bell. We have to go now." Luckily, she didn't protest further but I couldn't believe it! She talked about Dr. Bell the rest of the day.

I'll have some pics up from her birthday in a bit. Check her website for them.

BTW - Bethany is 23.5 lbs, 33.5 inches tall. For those wondering, that's 10th percentile for weight, 40th percentile for height. We've got a petite one here.

Socks on hands

Bethany has been putting her socks on her hands lately. I don't know why. This morning she had them on and we had a BIG battle to get them off to eat breakfast. She was very unhappy that we took them off. She screamed a LOT. So we excused her from the table since she was screaming. She finally returned to the table but would only eat sitting in one of the dining room chairs, not in her high chair. That was fine. She was fine at lunch, no problems. She was pretty tired this morning. We had rehearsal at church last night and didn't get home (or to sleep) until after 9:30. So she was just generally cranky anyway. But she has played very well all day. When I got home from running errands Bethany was listening to one of her CD's and dancing in the living room. She is so darn cute.

This is for Matt

Meaning, my friend's hubby, Matt, just complained on his blog that no one has been doing their blogging lately. So here's one for you, Matt.

I can't believe that Bethany is about to turn 2. We spent over an hour at Sears today having pictures taken. Some of them came out beautifully. We'll get them back in a few weeks. I can't wait!

I've been meaning to write down some of my favorite things that she says. One of my all time faves is, "Mup here ina bed!" Translation: "Come up here in the bed", when she wants to get in our bed. And, of course, I can't think of anything else while I'm sitting here at the computer. I'll try to be better about that.

B is so excited about her birthday party. She can tell you how old she'll be and what kind of birthday party she'll have ("Jojo party!"). Then when you ask her what we'll have to eat she says, "Cake?". Then, when asked, she'll sing "Happy Birthday" but includes, "...dear Mommy...". I tell her, "No, it's your birthday so we'll sing 'dear Bethany'". "NO!! DEAR MOMMY!" Ok, no more arguing about that!

She is still a very picky eater. We've tried several games/tricks to get her to eat, but she's just too smart for that. We're running out of ideas because one trick lasts just over 24 hours. After that, it's no good anymore.

Well, Matt. I hope that satisfied you a little. I'll try to write some on my other blog, too.

Toronto 2006

Here it is! Our first major family vacation (Not counting the 10-month trip to Hawaii). Check back daily for more fun updates!

Day Zero
Today we packed up and went to stay at a hotel by the Orlando airport. Our flight leaves at 8 AM so we didn't want to have to drive all the way from DeLand. It was an okay hotel. Nothing fantastic, as we were only staying there to sleep. The first thing Bethany went to was the round end table which she immediately called a drum and started banging on it.

We went to Chipotle for dinner. We hadn't eaten there in a while. Ever since we found Moe's and they've been popping up everywhere, we've only been eating there (for mexican, anyway). So we found a Chipotle and it was great! The kid's quesadilla was only $.75! And, they have beef, so I could get beef tacos. And since I ordered them off the kid's menu, I was able to only get two, instead of four. Very spicy, but very good. Nathan's burrito was gigantic. Bigger than Moe's. When we left Bethany said, "Bye Moe's!" Now that we've gotten her to say "Moe's" and not "Lowes" or "Toes" or "Cloe's" we go to Chipotle (which she couldn't quite get) and she calls it "Moe's". Oh, well. When we came back from eating we pulled into the parking spot outside our room and Bethany said, "We're home!"

At one point Bethany found Nathan's socks and put them on. She called them her boots. Now if you know Noggin and Laurie Berkner you know the song, "Boots". So B starts walking (stomping) around saying, "B-O-O-T-S, Boots!" Then when the socks wouldn't stay up on her, she totally freaked out. I found a pair of her socks and called them boots. She let me put them on her and she proceeded to repeat the stomping and singing in her own socks.

Getting her to bed wasn't too terrible. We put her down about 8:30 and she laid quietly but didn't actually go to sleep until about 9:30. That's pretty good though, since she's used to being in her own room by herself. Up at 5 tomorrow!

Day One
Up at 5 was not easy! We pretty much got everything packed up and in the car before having to wake up Bethany. We just have so much stuff! When we did get her up the first thing she did was wiggle her feet and say, "My boots, Mama."

So we get to the airport and we go to check in. The lady checking us in asked us if we were checking Bethany's car seat.

Nathan: "No, she has her own seat so we need it for her".
Lady: "No, I don't think so."
N: "Don't we need to put her in a car seat on the plane?"
L: "I don't think you do."

So we stand there for a few minutes trying to decide if we want to run it back to the car.

L: "Well won't you need it once you get there?"
N: "No, we're only using public transportation. Well, I'll just run it back to the car then."
L: "You don't have time to run anything back to a car, you have to go through security. There are long lines."

So we decide not to change our plans on a whim like that and decide not only to bring it, but to use it on the plane. It will probably keep her seated better than just sitting in the plane seat anyway.

When we get to security, the lines are nothing. When we get to the actual walk-through there are no plastic bins at the table. I see a woman on the other side of the detectors and tell her this. She says, "He'll get whatever you need". "He" was dealing with an elderly woman, examining her medical bag because she's convinced that none of it is safe to go through the X-ray. Meanwhile, an increasingly louder chorus of huffs and grumbles is coming from behind us. Keep in mind that we have three carry-ons (one of which has Nate's computer in it), a 2-year old, a stroller and all the jewelry and shoes that we have on. We finally get the bins and are putting stuff in them when a man comes from behind us somewhere, throws his bag on the conveyor and walks through the detector! Unbelievable! After we get through, Nathan tells me that the lady behind him tried to cut in front and walk through CARRYING her bags! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to tell some people they could go in front of us, but there were no bins and half of our stuff had already gone through. Rudeness.

Bethany was great on the plane. She started off kicking the seat in front of her and I told her right away (and just loud enough for the man in the seat to hear) not to do that. And she did pretty well. As soon as she would start to kick, I would tell her again, and she would stop. THEN, once we were in the air the man COMPLETELY reclined his seat. Now B is in her car seat so she's a little higher up and further forward than a normal person. So the top of his seat was about 8 inches from her face. Nathan leaned over and said, "Well, if she starts kicking again, just let her." I had thought the same thing! She kept saying, "I'm in the hey-pane!" Then she recited the dialogue from Little Einsteins when they blast off. It was pretty cute. During the flight she read some books, played with her Pooh figures and then watched Winnie-the-Pooh on our portable DVD player (best invention EVER!).

When we arrived we tried to find the shuttle that goes to different hotels downtown. We knew there wasn't one that went to our hotel but it went a few blocks over so we thought we could just take that one and then walk. Well, the shuttle costs $30 EACH round-trip. A flat rate taxi only costs $46 one-way and it would take us right to our hotel. We're glad we made that decision. We don't know how long we would have waited for that shuttle, either.

We went to eat lunch as soon as we got here. Luckily there is a restaurant in the hotel that's kind of like a Bennigan's or Friday's. It was good. We went walking around the city after that, just to check things out. Nothing else really exciting happened. We were really tired. B went right down and I fell asleep waiting for her to fall asleep. Nathan and I were out by 10. More tomorrow!

Day Two
Bethany woke us up a little after seven. We all slept really well. Today was gross. It was overcast and sprinkling. We decided to try to go down to Harbourfront, a shopping and dining district on the harbour (duh). Well, since you take the subway then a street car (which also is mostly underground down in that area) all the way down there, we had no idea what the weather was doing. When we came out onto the street it was POURING! We found our way into one of the shopping centers. There were a couple of neat shops that we went into. We bought Bethany a little Canadian flag. When she saw it in the store she said, "My little flag!", so for two bucks we bought it. We then tried to go down to the international market but halfway there decided it was just raining too much so we booked it back to the first shopping center. There was a small natural foods store (similar to Whole Foods) and we picked up some food and stuff to bring back to the hotel.

Today was the day Nathan had to go up to the Royal Ontario Museum for the panel discussion he was participating in. So I put B down for a nap and hung out in here (and blogged a ton) while she slept. I thought after she woke up we could go to the pool before eating dinner. When I called down to ask about getting towels the lady at the desk told me it was closed because they were painting, but to try in a couple of hours. I called back at five and this time a man told me it would most likely be closed all weekend. What?!?!? So I decided to just take Bethany on a walk around the hotel since it was still pouring outside. We stopped on the second floor (where the pool is located) and lo and behold there is nothing happening in the pool. Granted, no one was in there swimming, either, but there was certainly no painting being done. I go back down to the front desk and I say to the woman,

"Is the pool closed or not closed?"

She replies, "It's closed."

Me: "Well I was just down there and no one is in there and there are no signs or anything saying it's closed."

Her: "I just found out it's closed because they're painting."

So we came back to the room and hung out. I heated up my leftovers from last night and we ate. Bethany started getting very frustrated so we go on another walk. I decide to just see one more time. If no one is in there, we're going swimming. it's now six. Would you believe when we go in there, there is a family of SIX swimming in the pool? I went over to the mother and said,

"Were you not told the pool was closed?"

Lady: "No, why?"

Me: "I asked three times about the pool and everyone told me it was closed for painting." (I'm realizing at this point that it doesn't look like there is ANYTHING paintable in this room)

Man: "Well, we just checked in and I asked if there was a pool. They said yes and gave us a bunch of pool towels".

Me: "I can't believe it. Well, we'll be back".

When we get back to the room, Nathan has just arrived so I explain all of this to him and we all go down to the pool. I didn't want to complain to the front desk as I didn't want to take the chance of someone getting in trouble. But I'll say something in the next couple of days. Four girls even came in after we went in. So obviously, they weren't told it was closed. Anyway, we had lots of fun and then came back and went right to sleep.

Day Three
Today was a big day. We went to the Toronto Zoo. It was a long subway/bus ride out there. Bethany was very excited about the train and the bus. The Toronto Zoo is very large. We didn't even have time to see it all. The most amazing part was the Canadian animal section. We had to basically hike (it was all paved, though) down a gigantic hill WAY on the outermost part of the zoo. It is a 1.5 km walk. We saw grizzly bears, moose, bison, and others there. We also saw the usual zoo fare - giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, etc. Bethany had so much fun. She named everything she saw. The best part, I think, was the polar bear. We got to them just before the keeper was to come out and talk. I guess people knew that she would have food and the polar bear would get up. So there was a HUGE crowd around the exhibit. Well, we decided to go to the underwater viewing since we figured once he's up, he may go for a swim. Well, he did. Bethany had a front row seat for the polar bear. As he swam by she said, "That's a big polar bear!!" What was really great was hearing the stampede of people up top come running down! I looked back at Nathan and he mouthed, "Just stay there" to me. We hit the gift shop on the way out and what does Bethany want? The cute little stuffed lion or elephant or giraffe? No. She wants one of those silly monkeys with the velcro feet. Ugh. Oh, well. That's what she wanted. Once she saw him she wasn't interested in anything else. He's starting to grow on me.

We went straight from the zoo to the house of someone met at the conference he attended recently in Minneapolis. He and his wife and two kids live in this great neighborhood called Bedford Park. They recently renovated a house and it was really cool. They had us over for dinner and we sat outside for drinks and appetizers and then came back in for dinner. We then played out front for a bit before going back in for dessert. We had a lot of interesting conversations, comparing Canadian life to American life. It was nice to do that instead of just keeping to ourselves all week and doing only "touristy" stuff. Bethany fell asleep on the way back to the subway and didn't wake up until Nathan went to put her in the bed. I mean, not even as we carried the stroller up and down subway steps. She was pooped. So are mom and dad.

Tomorrow - Niagara Falls! Should have some great pics tomorrow night!

Day Four
Wow. What an absolutely amazing day. It didn't look like it was going to be very good for Bethany, though. She woke up terribly upset and we kept asking different things that might be wrong. "Are you sleepy?" "Does your tummy hurt?" "Do you want to lay down with Mommy and Daddy?" All of those questions she just cried through. When we finally asked, "Are you hungry?" "YES!", was the reply. Okay. We had some Cheerios. She just screamed at them and pushed them away. She finally said, "Want some...waffles?" Ah, that was it. She has enjoyed the waffles at the free breakfast in the mornings. So we hurriedly dressed her and went down and got some WAFFLES!

Now we had planned on taking the 10 AM train from Union Station into Niagara. But, since Bethany woke up at 6:30, we thought we'd try to make the 8:30 train. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. Getting through Union Station was no easy task, however. Since it was 8 AM all of the commuters were rushing through and it seemed as if we were the only ones going the other direction. Then, we could find no elevators to get to the proper levels. So I'm carrying Bethany and Nathan is carrying the stroller and we're pushing through crowds and going up and down stairs. We finally made it and Bethany was so excited to go on the train. She did pretty well. It is a two-hour trip down to Niagara and it was a great ride. I would highly recommend it. We discussed looking into other places we could take a train to for future vacations.

When we got to Niagara, we then had to catch the Falls Shuttle. It takes you right down to the river front. You would not believe the insanity down there. It's like a cross between Las Vegas and CityWalk at Universal. We decided to check out a pizza place for lunch which our Rough Guide Toronto recommended. It was supposed to be worth the trip through the insanity to get to it. Well, apparently we went to the wrong one. The guide book recommended "Big Anthony's Pizza" and another restaurant called, "Remington's at Montana". They are right next to each other. Well when we got to the street where we were supposed to turn I could see "Montana's" and a pizza place (couldn't see the name but I knew they were supposed to be next door). We realized the similarity after we ordered our pizza. I said, "We were supposed to go to Big Anthony's. What happened?" Didn't matter. It was still good pizza.

We walked back down to the river and boarded the "Maid of the Mist". It is a boat that takes you on the river right into the middle of "Horseshoe Falls". It was so amazing. I started to cry. It was so overwhelming to be under the power of the waterfall. And then Bethany starts singing, "God is so good". I couldn't help it, tears just came to my eyes and I said, "He sure is, Bethany". She was so cute. She kept saying, "I'm getting wet!" If you look at the pics (scroll down to see the link) you'll see these cool ponchos they gave us to wear. It was funny seeing the other boats go out with all this blue on them. After our boat ride we walked down to the Rock House where the main gift shop and big lookout platform is overlooking the Horseshoe Falls. We took bunches of pictures so take a look.

We then started to walk back toward the shuttle stop but took a break in the park for Bethany to run around. Nathan took some great pictures of that, too.

Then, we came back to the hotel. Bethany made some friends on the train.

Tomorrow we're heading out to the Toronto Islands. Mainly for some fun run-around time for B. She's been couped up in the stroller a bunch. She deserves some time to run around. We're in a bit earlier tonight, so hopefully we'll get a little more sleep tonight. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Day Five
We were so exhausted from yesterday. Bethany slept a little later, but was still cranky from being tired and hungry. So what did we do? Of course, we went and got her waffle.

Today we went to the Toronto Islands. It was so neat. It was nice to just spend the day walking around enjoying the outdoors. We were also able to let Bethany out and run around. There was even a maze to go through. Bethany loved it, though according to her (and I'm not kidding here) it was "a dark, spooky forest". I can't wait to figure out where she got that!

We came back pretty early so we spent some time in the pool. Nathan and I both took a turn in the hot tub as our muscles have about had it. I was so stiff when I woke up this morning.

Tomorrow we're going to the CN Tower. We should get some pretty good pictures from that. Nighty-night!

Day Six
Okay, day six, finally! Sorry to keep you waiting (if you were waiting). Today we went to the CN Tower. We actually really enjoyed the trip there. We took the subway to Union Station and from Union Station down to the Rogers Centre there is this huge Skywalk. It's basically a tunnel that runs above the street for pedestrians. But it's really big.

The "big tall building" (Bethany says) was cool. Bethany enjoyed the "elegator" ride up to the top. It was neat looking out at all the places we had been. We also found the glass floor. It was basically a section of the observation deck that was windows on the floor. I forget exactly how many, but they said it could hold like four hippos or something like that. Bethany was very cautious (as was everyone else) about stepping on it. It was a very weird feeling. But once she got the hang of it she kept walking back and forth. Each time she got to one end she would say, "I made it!". You can see what I'm talking about here.

We had lunch in the cafe and saw the coolest emergency exit signs. So hysterical.

After going back to the hotel we checked out and got all our luggage stored downstairs. We then went for one more walk through the city. We visited an old church in downtown that was just beautiful inside. There's a huge park around it and people were just hanging out all around the church.

Then we headed back to the hotel for dinner. And then decided to rent a car. This would make getting me and Bethany to the airport much easier and then Nathan could drive himself to his conference location. It is really difficult to travel alone with a toddler. I was fortunate enough that the man at the check in desk helped me back to customs (Nathan wasn't allowed). But, he just left me there in line. I had our HUGE suitcase, Bethany in her stroller, and Bethany's car seat. I got through customs and then took a nice leisurely walk to check my bag. Once I got rid of that it was a little easier to strap the seat to the stroller and push it all together. After getting through security, of course.

Then we waited. The lady at the gate counter was nice enough to change our row so we would have three seats together to spread out. B was great again on the plane. She didn't sleep, though. But, she fell asleep on Nahna's shoulder while waiting for Papa to bring the car around.

Well, it was a great trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures. I enjoyed recording them like this. It's a nice alternative to scrapbooking!

toronto pictures

You can access pictures here:
http://www.lowkeydigitalstudio.com/temp/torontopics/
We'll add more as we take them and find time to post.

new job!

Well, on Friday I interviewed for and was offered the position of Concert Hall Manager at Stetson. This is a perfect job for me for several reasons. I will only have to be out of the house during the evenings and weekends. It involves music. I can do the organizational part of the job from home. I will be responsible for organizing the work study students who are supposed to work as stage crew or sound crew and making sure they do their jobs. It is a part-time job and the pay is very good. It is actually pretty comparable to the hourly wage of a school teacher. The job is a 10-month position as I can only do my job if something is going on at school! It really has worked out nicely. I'm really excited about it.

sad news

Yesterday morning one of my favorite teachers died. Ken Rogier was the band director at Union Park Middle School. I joined band in 6th grade at Union Park. Mr. Rogier was a great teacher. I can honestly say that if any one person was the influence for me going into music education, it was Mr. Rogier. He had a very gentle way about him. He wasn't one of those crazy band directors. He was patient and helpful. Mr. Rogier was interested in his students. He always made himself available for help or to make progress in our exercise books. That is the kind of teacher I aspire to be.

We'll miss you, Mr. Rogier.

little guys converse

In the last week and a half, Bethany has started projecting conversations onto her toys. By this I mean, she will speak for them and create audible exchanges between two characters without herself being part of the dialogue. Prior to this she would have some role, but I guess she no longer finds this necessary. Subtle, but I took note of it.

For example, tonight in the bath dolphin and fish were talking...

Dolphin: "How are you?"

Fish:"I'm Good."

D: "Wanna swim?"

F: "OK."

Both dive below the water and re-emerge.

D: "You're a good swimmer."

F: "Thank you. Bye-Bye now."

D: "Bye-bye now."

It's a little tough to be sure who said what though; she doesn't modulate her voice between characters. Give her time.

Hello?

This morning I was on the computer and Bethany came in the office. She picked up the mouse, gave it a good look underneath, held it up to her ear and said, "Hi!" Then she put it down and said, "It's not working", and left the room! She is such a hoot!

Fun with animal crackers

Bethany just finished eating lunch so I gave her a couple of animal crackers. She took one that looks like a horse and trotted it around her tray saying, "Giddy up horsey". Then she bit its legs off and scooted it around the tray saying, "Snail! Snail!" I just busted out laughing!

recording session

So I went into my office to get a few things yesterday, including the recorder. We sat down after dinner last night and ran through all the songs that B knows. This includes her ABCs and various other songs she likes to sing. Some require a few prompts from us, which you'll here in the recordings. She's not totally on her own, but she does sing to herself quite a lot now.

As a bonus, we brought out two of her bed time books that she have practically memorized. These are Goodnight Moon and Sandra Boynton's Going to Bed Book. She and I read these every night before she goes to sleep. More and more she has been interjecting bits on her own.

You can check out the results here.

singing those ABCs

I am regretting not bringing my recorder home this weekend. B has started singing her ABCs. She still has a bit of trouble with A through P. E comes out like A number 2. LMNOP is a mess. But once she hits Q, she is on cruise control. Right down to her "next time won you sing with me."

I'll get it recorded soon and posted for everyone to hear. Pretty stinkin' amazing.

games and too much like daddy?

Bethany is hysterical. Last night after dinner she was sitting on the potty. She looked into the bath tub and said, "Where'd they go?" (She was referring to her bath toys. They were in the other bathroom as she had a change of bathing location the day before.) "I don't know", I replied. Since I was trying to get her to poo-poo I said, "Where's the poo-poo?" "I don't know!" I just cracked up laughing. She is so clever.

For dinner I fixed baked penne. But before she would eat it, she lined up the noodles side by side. Gee, I wonder where she gets OCD behavior like that? :)

breakfast favorites

Grabbing breakfast for the 2 of us, like I do every morning. Got our orange juice set up and she tried to feed some to her baby doll. But apparently baby doll was too tired, because B walked her back to the bedroom to lay down.

She arrived back just in time to see me slicing a banana for her. Without a word from me, she said, "That's my favorite."

"Oh, really. You mean the banana?" I replied.

"I like it. It's yummy."

It's fun that we are starting to see on occasion some semblance of a conversation with her. But just to prove see is still a child...

She decided not to eat all of her Cheerios. So I gave her a piece of my bagel with peanut butter on it (a sure-fire hit). The problem is she licks the PB off instead of eating the bagel, so I am currently looking at a little girl with peanut butter all over her face.

"Messy face" as she put it.

"I can't reach it!"

This is what she said to me this afternoon as she was trying to reach my glass on the dining room table. She is saying the cutest things lately. Last night she requested that Nathan play "lion". They crawled on the floor for like 20 minutes acting like lions. Today, she wanted to play "horsey". She started trotting around the house and saying, "Mama, horsey?" So we both were trotting around and I got her saying, "Neigh!" and she was saying, "Giddy-up horsey!" "Bethany horsey!"

Today there was no story time at the library so we went to the park. But instead of going to our local park, we went to Gemini Springs park down in DeBary to do something different. It was really nice. They have a covered playground area and I swung Bethany on the swing and took her down the slides. She had so much fun. I brought our lunch with us so we sat down to eat and then took a walk down by the water. She loved watchin the ducks. "Hi, ducks!" Then when we left she said, "Bye, duck! Bye, other duck!" Then as we walked along the sidewalk back to the car I noticed the pavilions had numbers on them. I asked her to look at one and asked her what number it was. "Five!" Then, "Where's number 4? Where's number 8?" The next pavilion was 2. "What number is that?" "Two! Where's number 4?" "I don't know we'll have to try to find it!" Unfortunately, we never found number 4. Maybe next time.

She fell asleep on the way home (about 1:00) and slept until about 3:30. And then when she woke up, she just played quietly in her crib, talking to her friends and singing. It was so nice. Lately, she's been waking up and immediately crying out for me. So today was a nice change.

oops!

Sorry. I told you the wrong place to go. If you're looking for the blog I told you to go read, go back and click "read mommy's journal about me". Sorry!

twinkle, twinkle

So Amy had a makeup lesson tonight. I fixed a yummy supper of pasta for Bethany and myself. While the meal was winding down, Bethany started to sing. This is something that she has been doing more and more lately. Usually is merely a line or two that she repeats over and over. She has in the last week or two gotten the jist of the first four lines from "Rock-a-bye Baby."

But tonight she laid this on me: Twinkle, Twinkle.

Given my professional training, I expect I will have to defend the authenticity of this recording. There are no edits. What you hear has not been pieced together. The only thing I did was apply some noise reduction and increase the volume.

When she sang it the first time I grabbed my laptop to record her with the built in mic. Fortunately she complied with my request for an encore. What is impressive is that the entire form of the song is there. She's still working on the words (and the pitches), but to have the complete structure of the song learned is amazing!

So I will look into getting her into some music classes next fall. She'll be the youngest Freshman by a long shot.

Soup!

Okay, this is my last post today so if this is the first time you've been here today, scroll down because I've posted a few.

Anyways, most of you know that Bethany is not a great vegetable eater. I always put them on her plate but she NEVER eats them. We can't even hide them in mashed potatoes. She finds them. I guess it's another way she's like a parrot. You know how birds put a whole seed in their mouth and chew through the shell down to the seed and they spit out everything but the seed? That's Bethany only substitute vegetables for shells and potatoes for the seeds. Well, today she woke up with a little cold and I thought a sandwich and soup would be nice for lunch. Now, she has eaten some Broccoli cheese soup before. I think she just likes the idea of soup. Well I had a can of Vegetable soup in the pantry. I cooked it up (because I was going to eat it anyway) and filled a small bowl for Bethany (mostly veggies, little liquid). She LOVED it!!! She ate another bowlful. This soup had potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, corn, and celery in it. I couldn't believe it. Please pray that this was not a one-time thing. I'm going to stock up on more soup (the lower-sodium versions, though)!

Teeth!

Well, all four molars are in. We never knew they were coming because Bethany never lets us look in her mouth. But last week, there they all were. She had been walking around with her hand in her mouth and there was a lot of drool so we pretty much knew it was coming, we just never saw them!

blabber mouth

Bethany talks pretty much non-stop these days. And she picks up on everything. The other night at dinner, we pointed out a squirrel in the backyard. (waving)"Hi, squirrel! How're you?" But she didn't stop there. Nope. She proceeded to pick up one of her noodles, hold it out and say, "want some? sgetti?" Excuse me? When did she learn that? The other day I heard her say, "Jojo talk". And then she made these high pitched babbles that I could only assume was Jojo talking. I guess she gets that from us talking like the characters.

Nathan was in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and one night when he called I asked Bethany if she knew where Daddy was. I told her, "Say Min-ne-a-po-lis". "Min-ne-a-po-wis". ???????? I was just kidding! Nathan heard her and said, "Oh my gosh!" So then when he got home we got her to say DeLand, Orlando, Tallahassee, Honolulu, Waikiki...I think that was it. She's like a parrot. She'll repeat anything.

Bethany also knows all of her colors. Today at the doctor there was one of those bead toys in the exam room. This one had four different "tracks" - cars, planes, rockets and hot air balloons. She did each one, "Red car, blue car, yellow car, green car." "Blue airplane, yellow airplane, purple airplane." She picked up the colors so fast. One day, everything was green. The next day, she knew them all. I don't understand the human brain!

She's pretty amazing. We find ourselves mouths wide open everyday at the things she can do.

no big update

I've decided that since I'm so very far behind in my posts that instead of doing a huge update, I'll just post little stories. This, of course, is my intention for this blog - to ALWAYS do little stories. Oh well. Enjoy these.

sickness

Okay, so Nathan and I have been sick most of this week. I came down with it Saturday night and Nathan did on Monday night. It's been pretty bad around here. Bethany seems to have fully recovered, though. She's as active as ever. Yesterday driving Nathan to work she was jabbering in the back and I said, "You know, I almost forgot how talkative and active she really is". She's just been out of it. Anyway, so Nathan and I are finally starting to recover. The plus side of being sick and not being able to eat until yesterday is that I lost 3.2 pounds this week. My total is an even 30. I can't believe it. I'll probably go back up a little next week, but let me bask in my 30 pounds right now. I am down 3 sizes. The size I am currently wearing, I have not worn since my freshman year of college - eek - 10 years ago. Funny thing is, I weighed about 20 pounds less in that size before. Makes me wonder if sizing has changed, or if my weight is just distributed differently now. :) Now, according to that chart that shows your "ideal" weight according to your height and age, I could still lose 15 pounds! I can't imagine being another 15 pounds lighter. I'm pretty happy where I am right now but I'll keep working toward that goal. It would be interesting to see myself at that weight. Now that we're all getting better, Bethany and I can start bike riding again. I took her one day a few weeks ago, but that was before she got sick. So, hopefully, being able to go for a ride will help the rest of the weight come off a little bit faster. I just have to commit to doing it everyday - make it part of our routine.

So, yeah me! Hopefully I won't put much back on for next week. Cross your fingers for me!

update, finally!

Okay, still no pictures though, but I'll get them, don't worry.

So, after Christmas we had our floors put in. Bethany and I took off to spend three days with my brother and sister-in-law in Clearwater. They just moved there. Their house is really nice and we had fun hanging out with them and the kids. Bethany and Hope were great. But that's another blog...

Our floors look fantastic. We put 18" tiles in the kitchen/dining room. They make the kitchen look even bigger. In the family room/hallway we have laminate. A really nice dark color that actually has some light and reddish shades in it. In the three bedrooms we replaced the carpeting. We would have liked to have done laminate in the bedrooms as well, but financially it just wasn't doable right now. And we just wanted the old carpeting OUT so we went with carpet in the bedrooms. It's a light beigy color that will work with whatever colors we decide to paint.

Last weekend my mom came up and we started working on curtains. Many of you know that I have been so disappointed in the curtain selection out there and what they cost. So my mother, being good with a needle and thread, agreed to help me make my own. We started with the kitchen and dining. Nathan actually found the fabric for the kitchen. It was in the bargain section at Joann. We bought all they had (about 3 1/2 yards) for about $4. My mom and I found the dining room fabric at another Joann that I really liked and was happy that it was on sale for $9/yard. I needed 5 yards. Okay, $45 still sounds steep to me, but it's cheaper than what I could buy curtains for. So when the chick rang it up it was $18!!! For all 5 yards! How lucky am I???? So we got the kitchen curtains done (SO cute!) and we prepped the dining room curtains. I can't WAIT to finish them.

On Saturday we bought our new stove. It was delivered on Sunday. If you can't have a gas range, at least get a flat top range. It looks soooooo good in there. We had our black micro already and now with the black range it looks really nice. Our next purchase in there will be a black fridge, but not for a while.

Well, I think that's it for now. On our next long weekend we will probably paint the family room and get all the trim repainted. That's the only thing in the kitchen. The paint and the floor looks so nice, except we haven't repainted and replaced the baseboards and trim around the door to the garage and the pantry! Once that's done it will look even better.

Okay, wrists hurting now. Must stop typing.

the day after

Well, today was better. Except that it started so early. Bethany fussed a few times early this morning but got up for good about 6 am (I know, to a lot of moms out there, this is normal - however, Bethany usually wakes between 7:30 and 8:00 so it was early for us). She had some milk and almost a whole cup of yogurt with Daddy then came and laid with me in bed. I'm not sure if either of us slept, but we were there for a while resting anyway. After Nathan left, Bethany watched Little Einsteins and JoJo and finished her milk.

I had a few errands that I had to do, so we did them this morning as quickly as possible. On our way home (about 10:30) I stopped to fill my tires. The back passenger side on was REALLY low. It wasn't even registering on the gauge. Anyway, when I got back in the car, Bethany was asleep. When we got home, I took off her shoes and put her down. Instead of completely closing the door, I left it open a crack so I could easily check on her. She finally woke at 3:00. I had started getting worried and even called my mom to ask her advice around 2:00. But I decided that she got up early, probably from hunger (she only ate applesauce last night) and being sick doesn't help. She could probably use the sleep. She was pretty mellow for about 30 minutes after getting up. She just wanted to hang on me or sit in my lap. Finally she said, "Down, pease?" and I asked if she wanted some Cheerios. "Cheeos? Gape, too?" "Okay, we can have grapes, too." So she snacked on grapes, Cheerios and milk for about 20 minutes. Then she wanted to go in the swing. We spent a good 20-30 minutes on the swing. She was kind of in and out of activeness (is that a word?) this afternoon. She'd be pretty active for about 15 minutes, and then need 15 minutes of cuddles. No problem here!

So for dinner she had about 1/2 cup milk, hot dog (Turkey Kielbasa) one green bean (hey, that's improvement!) and about 1/2 cup applesauce. Then she got bathed and jammies on by about 7:15. Nathan started to put her to bed and I said, "You don't have to put her down yet". About 30 seconds later, Bethany was leaning on Nathan and saying, "Nap, pease? Nap, pease?" Okay, I guess she's ready for bed! She didn't waste anytime giving me a hug and kiss and she was right back to Nathan to go to bed. Poor thing.

I guess it's good, though. She seems to be better today. Not quite so pale and unsteady. I hope she sleeps well tonight and is even better tomorrow. I'm so sad we had to miss story time at the library on Monday. She had such a good time last week. I can't wait for next Monday.

poor bethany

Sorry I never posted about her appointment yesterday. Things got kindof crazy around here. The doctor said the rash was probably NOT Roseola, because Roseola never itches. So that means it's either just part of the cold virus, or she's allergic to the amoxicillin. She told us to continue the Benedryl for her itching and swelling and oatmeal baths and stuff. Once the rash is completely gone (and she even said about 2 weeks from now) try giving her 1/4 teaspoon of the amoxicillin. Just that small amount because if she's allergic to it, she'll react to any amount of it. Ok, so we go home. She eats a good lunch, has a good nap and is generally doing well the rest of the day. Fast forward to this afternoon.

We were out at Target buying a gift for a friend's wedding shower and when we get home I'm cutting up some fruit for Bethany for lunch. As I'm slicing the strawberry I hear her cough. The cough sounds like when a grown up is trying to get up some phlegm. I turn around to look at her and she just starts spewing everywhere! She threw up in 3 different places in the kitchen. She just stood there holding her baby doll under one arm and Ears under the other arm as she continued to throw up. Once she was completely done she just started saying, "Mama, mama, mama!" I scooped her up and took her into the bathroom to clean her up. She was so freaked out. It was everywhere. Down her shirt, pants, socks and all over her shoes. I cleaned them up best I could, I think they'll be okay. I called the ped office (at 12:25) and everyone was out to lunch. The receptionist advised me not to feed her or give her milk and probably the best thing would be to put her down for her nap. Well, I let her watch an episode of JoJo while I cleaned up the mess (and cried my eyes out). She was fine after it happened, but I wasn't. I couldn't understand what was wrong with my little girl. Why isn't she getting better? Why does something keep happening after I talk to/see the doctor? I talked to my mom and she said how she went through the same thing with me. I had a lot of ear infections when I was little. She told me how she would take me to the doctor, give me the full round of antibiotics and a week later, I was back in the doctor's office. Turns out, my mom left work early today, so she came up to hang with me.

I had put Bethany down about 12:50 and she fell asleep pretty quick. Just after 1:00 the NP called me back and told me once she was up to give her 1 Tablespoon of water, wait 30 min then give her 2. If that stayed down, then continue with 2 Tablespoons every 30 min. Well, after she got up I didn't really measure it out or time it. I just asked her every 30 min or so if she would take a sip from her cup. Then she ate some cheerios and a graham cracker. For dinner she had applesauce. She had her bath and went to bed around 8. We should be able to go back to regular eating tomorrow morning. Thanks, Mom, for coming up and just being with me this afternoon. I think I would have been a nervous wreck otherwise.

So, keep praying for Bethany. Obviously, she's not quite done being sick yet. Pray for me, too, that I can be a strong mom and be there for her when she's sick and scared.

now what?

Well, just as Bethany was feeling quite a bit better, she woke up Saturday morning with little pink bumps everywhere. After her nap, they were much more red and splotchy. Nathan's mom said that when Dayna (his sister) was little, she also had a febrile seizure and a rash afterward, Roseola. So I looked up some info on it and it seems that may be what it is. I called the ped and he said since she has been on the Amoxicillin for a week to go ahead and stop it. Once the rash is gone, give her 1 or 2 more doses to see if it happens again and that would mean she's allergic to penicillin. Later that night in the bath she said, "itchy", so we knew it was bothering her more.

This morning she was bright red. It had really moved up to her face, even her ears. Her cheeks are just one big patch of red. Her inner thighs are also really bad, causing her to walk funny. Her face (especially her cheeks and lips) are puffy and she just acts like she's uncomfortable. So I called the ped again today and he said it would be okay to give her some benadryl to help the itchy and swelling. Of course, now she's like a zombie. He also said to bring her in tomorrow anyways so he could take a look at her. Great. I get to drop another $20 copay. That's 3 times in 3 weeks. Plus the emergency room copay of $75. Can I get a break? Doctor's need one of those cards like Moe's or Subway. "After 12 visits, your 13th is free!"

This poor child. I hope we can get all of this figured out so she can get back to normal.

feeling better!

Well, Bethany is doing much better. We had a follow up yesterday with her doctor and he said everything looks fine. Even her throat looks good. But we need to give her the full course of antibiotics anyway. She still is acting pretty picky about food, but today she ate a whole bowl of grapes and strawberries plus a stick of cheese and a full cup of milk.

Yesterday was library day. She was the most active out of any time we have gone. We do the "Happy Song" at the beginning of story time each week. We practice that a lot at home. Currently her favorite verse is "turn around". Usually, even though she'll do all of the moves at home, when we go to the library she would rather just watch everybody else. Well yesterday she did EVERYTHING!!!! She clapped her hands, stomped her feet, patted her head, jumped for joy (well, more like jerked), turned around, and shouted "hooray!". She also was very responsive during the stories. What a change.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. Our little girl sure has been through a lot in her life. We appreciate everything you've done for her.

scary day

First let me start by saying that Bethany is now okay.

Yesterday Bethany was acting a little strange - hand in her mouth all morning, felt a little warm, being a picky eater. We chalked it up to teething and possibly a growth spurt (we both thought she looked taller). So we gave her some tylenol for it. She slept restlessly all night and this morning had a rather large BM. So then we thought, maybe her tummy just didn't feel good. And maybe she was holding it in all night (she's been going on the potty). After going potty she really perked up. Which made us think it was a tummy ache.

When Bethany got up from her nap this afternoon still feeling pretty warm I took her temperature and it was 102.3 degrees. I immediately called the pediatrician thinking I didn't want this to go through the weekend. I took her to Nathan who took her to the doctor (I went to teach). Now here's Nathan for the next events...

I took over the reigns of the car and drove off to the pediatrician's office. On the way, we had typical father-daughter car ride banter. Checked in about 5 minutes late for the appointment (hey, we're Woleks). I proceeded to sit on the "well child side" of the waiting room because I didn't notice the sign. After a minute, I realized my mistake and guided B over to the "sick child side".

Time goes by and she seems fine. Hot, but fine. She was pointing out animals on the wall and naming them. "Zee-ba...Pan-da...Lie...E-phant." We read some books. Folks tell me they are impessed by her speech ability. At this point there is another couple on our side with 3 kids. They hear others talking about what our kids have and start to look concerned. Apparently, they got the signs wrong too (I felt really bad for them since the woman was carrying 3 month old). B played with another girl and her big brother. She really opened to them, until the girl started beating on her brother for taking away a toy. That got her a little freaked and she hurried back to Dada.

At this point I am actually thinking to myself, this is great. I will have neat adventures to tell Amy about. Usually it's her telling me what B did while they were out. I did not know what was coming.

We are called back after waiting for 45 minutes. B waves "bye-bye" to everybody. The nurse shows us into a room and take her temp again. She tries to put this thing on her head, but B is not having it. Nurse tries to put it on B's hand, but she ain't buying it. Switch strategies: 101.5 degrees under the arm with a less new-fangled device. She tells me to take her shirt off and the doctor will be in shortly.

Well she has a onesie on. This means I have to completely undress her to get the top off. Just when I finish, she asks to get down. I oblige and she proceeds to start marching (this is very big right now). She marchs around the room in her diaper and points out the animals on the wall for a few minutes. I finally decide this is no way for my daughter to be acting when her doc arrives and put her pants back on (hey, a little dignity) and sit her back on the table.

Doctor Bell comes in and immediately she is suspicious. She is polite, gives him a high 5, but the second he busts out the stethascope the crying starts. "DA-DA!!" Checks her breathing, ears, throat. Asks all those doctor questions and the redness in her throat coupled with the fever leads to a diagnosis of a throat infection. Perscription: antibiotics. Tells me we did the right thing getting her in before the weekend, watch the fever, take the medicine.

On the way out he asks where to call in the perscription. I tell him Walgreens and he suggests that I not go directly there because they take a while. I look at my watch and it is now almost 5pm. I think fine, I'll head back to my office and we can wait for Mama to finish teaching at 5:30pm, go get the medicine, maybe dinner out and then to home.

Get to my office and chat with my colleague Matt in the parking lot for a bit. B is fine, acts shy around him (nothing new), and walks around picking up rocks, pointing at the orange safety cone, etc. We head inside when it starts to sprinkle and Matt says he needs to hurry off (he drives a Vespa, so weather is not good for riding).

Inside, I set her up with her markers and crayons. I try to get her to drink some water, but she won't (she'e been doing this all day). So I figure I'll give her a snack and maybe that will force the issue. Yogurt-covered raisens, yum. She chomps on a few and then asks about the electric piano. I turn it on for her and proceeds to plunk on the keys. She was dividing her attention between these three things (markers/raisens/piano) and so I decide it is now safe to resume the work I had been doing before heading to the doctor.

I remember she was behind me standing at the piano. I heard an odd moan. "uhnn." I turned around to see her slowly fall to the floor. She didn't look like she hit anything and it was almost like her play fall when we sing Ring around the Rosey. Except afterward she wasn't moving/laughing/anything. Eyes wide open, staring into space.

"Bethany?" Nothing. "Bethany are you alright?" Still no response.

Everything from this point seemed like forever. I bent onto the floor at picked her up, repeating her name over and over. Eyes open, blank look. Checked her mouth, not choking. Listened and heard her breathing. Her neck felt stiff. Slowly she moved to look up at the flourescent light in my office. I turned her eyes to meet mine. I stared right into her eyes and there wasn't any recognition. She would slowly turn...no scratch that. Her head would slowly turn away. At this point, I could feel there was no Bethany responding to me.

We repeated this several times (head turn, turn back, head turn...) and all the while I am talking louder and louder. "Bethany you have to talk to me. Bethany. Hey you. Talk to me. Where's Dada? Peekaboo. Bethany. Bethany you have to talk to me..."

I don't know how long it was, but I thought to myself that she was gone. Someone had just flipped a switch and my bright, sweet, wonderful, precious girl was gone. That thought, that moment lasted forever and I hope I never have to go back there.

I left that thought finally and I called Amy at 5:16p. I was beside myself on the phone and was essentially calling to ask Amy if she thought I should call 911 or go to the hospital myself. More than anything I was scared to strap her in the back seat in this state and drive when I was a wreck and not be able to hold her, watch her, comfort her. I barely got a description out ("she's not talking...she collapsed and now she's catatonic") and Amy said go to the emergency room now. I didn't wait to ellaborate because I took that as my answer.

On the way out to the car, I continued to try to talk her out of it. "How about ABCs? Can you say them? ABCDEFGHI? No? What about counting? Can you count for Dada? 1. 2. 3." Something in this ritual that we have shared many times pulled her out. As I rushed to the car I heard a very laboured, "2....3....."

"That's right. Then what." She started moving again. She acted as if I had just gotten her up in the middle of the night and it was no where near time to get up. As she started to repond more and more, she seemed to become aware that something very strange had just happened. During the car ride to the hospital, I tried kept her talking. This was difficult because of the mixture of fear and grogginess that had overtaken her.

Getting out of the car, I tried to act like all was normal for her sake. She clung to me so hard. Talked to the nurse and she could probably hear in my voice that she had better not send me to the waiting area. I filled out one sheet of paper and she walked us into an examing room. I explained it all to her: How we went from doctor's office to catatonic in the span of an hour and even though she may seem better now this is not normal for her. She was scared and nervous and tired. She was not too concerned as the nurse prodded her in a manner very similar to Dr. Bell. Temp taken rectally: 104.4. This is after the incident, so I would have to assumed it had already peaked by then.

Amy arrived. They got some Motrin in her. I filled out the paperwork and she was admitted. Within a hour she was old self. Bubbly, talkative, playful, muching on snacks, impressing the nurses. The doctor diagnosed it as febrile siezure. Although scary for the parent, it is virtually harmless for the child. (Did he say "scary"?! Try frightening, terrifying, traumatic!!!) It is caused by an intensely rising fever. I'd say 3 degrees in less than an hour qualifies.

More meds and tests and samples. She started getting sleepy and since her temp had come down, the doctor sent us on our way and we out of there by 7:20pm. We have our routine to follow over the next 24 hours, and have to observe her closely. We had to get her meds and a late dinner, but after all this she was very tired and in bed by 9pm.

I have to go back to my office tomorrow. Everything is in disarray there and I don't remember if I turned out the light. B and I will go together, probably more to help me get past the memory than her. We'll pick up the pieces and move on.

I also can't help but draw comparisons to the day she was born. The day they shuttled her into the NICU and explained that she had fluid in her lungs. She held my finger, she looked in my eyes and I told her, "You have to breathe, baby girl."

Today I lost it more than I did that day. Then I was calm, today was panic. Then I knew she would make it, today not so sure. But I held her close and let her know I was there and tried to bring her back to me.

She's my bright, sweet, wonderful, precious girl and I don't know what I would do without her.

tag of fours

Okay, I know, house update is coming. But I haven't even taken recent pictures yet, so for now, something fun. My friend Katie tagged me.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. 1999-2005: Band Director. Loved it. Will most likely go back once I'm done having kids.
2. 1996-current: Working for my inlaws.
3. 1996-1998: Student musician during Christmas season at Magic Kingdom.
4. One summer in HS I worked in a gift shop at Sea World.

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The Princess Bride
2. The Wedding Singer
3. Sleepless in Seattle
4. tie: Ocean’s 11 or Usual Suspects

Four places you have lived:
1. Orlando, FL
2. Chicago (Evanston), IL
3. Honolulu, HI
4. DeLand, FL

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. LOST
3. Any Law & Order
4. Airline

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Washington, D.C.
2. Linville, N.C.
3. Denver / Colorado Springs, CO
4. Honolulu, HI (since the move there and back drained our bank account, we've decided to consider a 10-month vacation) :)

Four websites I visit daily:
1. drudgereport.com
2. everyone's blogs
3. many SAI sites
4. amazon.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. pizza
2. filet mignon (medium WELL)
3. peanut butter and chocolate together on anything (I second this, Katie)
4. my mom's pot roast

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. in bed
2. in the tub (again, I second Katie, but only if it's a jacuzzi tub)
3. the beach if it was warmer
4. in bed

I don't know anybody to tag! Feel free to leave your fours in my comments, though.

The Christmas post...finally

Okay, I just have to sit down and do this.

Well, for starters, poor Bethany had a cold at Christmas. She was all stuffy and had a runny nose. But she was still tons of fun!

Christmas Eve, Santa left a fun Christmas-y ball and little stuffed reindeer in her crib. Nathan and I woke about an hour before she did. I think we were more excited about Christmas than she was! But, of course, she was only 17 months old. When Bethany finally woke up we heard, with this pathetic, stuffy-nosed, hoarse voice, "oh boy, ball!" and, "oh boy, reindeer!". We went and got her up and she was clearly excited about the reindeer, she just couldn't express herself!

She got up and unwrapped the rest of the presents that Santa left, a couple of puzzles, a coloring tablet, and a snowman cup. Then it was time for Mommy and Daddy's present. I helped her pull away the wrapping paper and there it was...a Wagon!!!! She wanted to get in it right away. And, of course, Daddy took her for a ride.

After we all got dressed (and stopped for cold medicine) we were off to Nahna and Papa's house. We slowly unwrapped presents there so it wasn't a complete maylay (sp?) with ALL of the kids there unwrapping at the same time. All of them got a little spotlight as they opened presents. Later, Nathan took Bethany and Hope for a ride in the new wagon (do you think we would have gotten away with leaving it at home?) and we had lunch. Yum, lunch was SOOOOO good. Before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house, Bethany let Uncle Michael HOLD HER!!! I was so excited! You see, ever since Hope's 2nd birthday party (in August), Bethany has been completely freaked out by my brother. So this was a huge step!

Next we headed to Nathan's parents for round 3. More good food (I must have gained 5 pounds that day) and on to the presents. Bethany by this time was a pro at unwrapping gifts. She even started helping other people unwrap their gifts! Before we started opening, Bethany went up to one bag, bent over and said, "toys?" She's no dummy! She knew what was going to happen again!

Christmas was a great day. Bethany was so into the presents and unwrapping stuff. It was so much fun to watch her experience that. Next year she'll be a little more into Santa, I think. This year she knew "Santa", but not really what it was about. This year she also got very into snowmen. It was sad the day after I took the "Frosty the Snowman" book back to the library. She just stared at the bookshelf saying, "Frosty Book?".

Well, you've probably seen the Christmas pics on the website, but if not, here are a few of my favorites. Click on the first one to see all of the Christmas Day pictures.

copycat

I know it's been awhile. Bear with me. I promise I will do a big Christmas and house update VERY SOON. But for now, I wanted to give you a couple of small updates.

Remember that really annoying game we played in middle school where we would copy EVERYTHING someone said? That's pretty much our life right now with Bethany. We'll be talking in the car (or I'll have Sean or something on the radio) and she will repeat practically every other word that is said. It's gotten to the point where we'll say something just to see if she can repeat it (don't worry, nothing bad!). And full words don't always come out. For instance, I said "delicious" one day and she said "licious". We were in the doctor's office Tuesday and I said, "Can you say 'HI, Doctor Bell?'" and she said, "Hi...doctor...bell".

Yesterday, after her nap, we were hanging out in her room and she said, "mama, carry you" (that's what she says when she wants YOU to carry HER), so I picked her up and she gave me a big hug. We sat down in the rocker and I rocked her and sang to her. Every time I finished a song she said, "next?". After a few minutes she got down and ran out toward the kitchen. She stopped, turned around and came right back and stood just outside her bedroom door, looked at me and said, "O'mon, mama", with the arm gesture and everything. It was so cute, she'd never done that before on her own. We've told her to say "come on" to different people and she'll repeat it, but never on her own like that. It was so cute! So I chase her and she laughed.

So at the doctor for her 18 month checkup she weighed in at a whopping 21 pounds and 2.5 oz! (I was being sarcastic if you couldn't tell) And she is 32.5 inches tall. But Dr. Bell said she's just fine. We scheduled a renal ultrasound for her for Monday. Just to make sure that her kidney has become normal.

Most of you know that Bethany is not very into meat or veggies. Yesterday I made Potato Broccoli Chesse soup for lunch and she ate it! I was so happy. And last night she ate a whole hot dog. I had to peel the skin off of it, though. Otherwise, she spits out half the hot dog trying to eat around it. And she loves to eat "orangens" from our tree. Nathan picks them, Bethany puts them in her wagon, and they bring them inside and cut them up. It's so cute.

So the Christmas update is coming soon, I PROMISE!