Big Day

Well, today is the day! Wal-Mart opens!!! Woo-hoo! Even Bethany is excited:



It's a really nice store. Nice wide aisles (we'll see how long that lasts!). The Sam's Club (on the second floor of the building) opens next Thursday. I'm not so sure we'll go to the opening of that. We heard on the news that people lined up outside at 4:30am for the 9:00am opening!

Well, it was really packed! I think I stood in the checkout line longer than I was even in the store!

How about that debate?

up at dawn, again...

Wow, two days in a row, she got up at 6:00. This time we gave her a bottle and put her back down and she slept for about another hour. I don't know what's up. She isn't going to bed any earlier. We'll see what happens tomorrow...

We went back to First Pres again today. We just didn't get out the door soon enough to get out to Hawaii Kai. We'll try again next week.

The only real news to tell is that her hair is getting long (on top). I tried taking a picture, but it's really hard to tell. I guess because it's still kind of thin, the light just glares off of her head so you can't really see how long it is! :)

Well, somebody decided to wake up at 6:00 this morning! Why? Who knows? So she was kind of out of whack today. (And so were we)

We drove down to see if the new Sam's Club/Wal-mart was open yet and it's not. Wal-mart will open on Wednesday, and Sam's will open on the 21st. That will be nice. We're thinking of joining Sam's at least until our Costco runs out to see if we may want to switch. If not, it's not that expensive to have both. They will be much closer than Costco and I currently have to go to Kmart (which isn't that bad) but it takes 45 minutes to get to Kmart and an hour to get home. Wal-mart/Sam's will be about 10 minutes away. Just basically a little west of us and down the mountain. (Just up from the Ala Moana Mall, mom)

Well, after being finicky about her eating last week (some times she was only taking 2-3 ounces of formula) she is now scarfing down 4 ounces at each meal (5 before bed tonight). Whatever!

Off topic for a minute, I just heard John Kerry say, "America doesn't need a 'head-strong' leader but a 'well-reasoned' leader". What does that mean? Is there something wrong with being head-strong? Personally, I would prefer that to a leader who "reasons" something to a point where he feels it is ethical to destroy life for science and the possibility of saving another. I was so glad to hear that one woman at the debate ask about adult stem cells and umbilical stem cells. Okay, off the soap box... :)

Oh, Bethany wanted to say, "Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa" for the book and toy!! We read it tonight and she just stared at the illustrations! They are very contrasting so they drew her attention. We'll play with the toy later in the week.

Oh, I also wanted to let you all know that you can post your own comments to my entries. Just click (I think) at the bottom right corner of the entry where it says "0 comments" and you can say something if you want.

Okay, that was pretty long. We're trying another church tomorrow, Hawaii Kai Baptist. They meet in a movie theatre!! We think we may not go to the New Hope church (after Mom contacted them, they called to check on Bethany). They have "satallite" locations where they pipe in video from the main "campus". They have producers to make the service run smoothly. If you add up all of the satellite churches, there are over 10,000 members. Yes, I meant ten thousand members! We thought that may be a little TOO big!

Okay, now it's even longer! More tomorrow!

wow, mom is bad!

I knew that I forgot to journal yesterday, but two days?!?!?! SO SORRY!!!

Well, yesterday we tried the cereal again. She did MUCH better this time. No pictures, though. Nathan was at work. I mixed it with a little bit of applesauce and she seemed to like it. She was very happy the whole time. We did it again twice today and she did great!

She's starting to grab her feet a lot. And I think she'll start trying to sit up soon. She gets frustrated sometimes when I lay her on the floor and she likes it when she grabs my thumbs and pull her up to sitting. She laughs when I do that.

Here's a picture of her playing:



And this one is super cute:



And I promise I'll be better about posting!


Happy Birthday, Aunt Dayna!

not much news

Well, nothing very exciting happened today. Actually, she was pretty fussy today. She was having trouble going to sleep. I could tell by the way she was crying that she was tired. It doesn't help that we lost the binky yesterday. We think we might have left it at church. So, she's having to get used to a new one. She takes it, but it takes her a little longer because she's still like, "what is this?"

We went for a walk yesterday and put Bethany in the carrier face-out. She really liked that. You could see it in her face. She just takes everything in. Nathan took her to the laundry room in it today and he said that she just stared at a leaf on a tree that they went passed.

Well, I think that's it. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting!

two days in one

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Nathan was moving some stuff off of the computer to the bigger hard drive so I couldn't get on.

Anyway, last night (Saturday night) Bethany rolled over from back to front!!!!!!! It took her awhile to make that last part of the flip, but she got it! I knew all it would take was getting her butt over once she got on her side.

Today we went to a faculty housing gathering out under the Banyan tree (Mom, you know where I'm talking about) at the front of our complex. I should take a picture of the area and post it. I'll try to do that tomorrow. It was really nice. We met quite a few people and Bethany had a good time laying on the blanket under the tree.

We went to First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu today. It was a nice church. And Bethany did a very good job. A woman who was sitting behind us was very helpful. She showed us where the cry room was in case we needed it, and told me about MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers and Infants). They meet every other Monday night for Bible study. We still have a couple other churches that we want to go to. First Pres was just the closest.

Well, that's about all for now. More later!

blah day

Today was pretty icky. It still is, actually. It rained ALL DAY. It is raining right now.

I did manage to get to the store and bought Bethany a couple of CD's. One is called "Songs Kids Love to Sing: 25 Toddler Songs" which include songs like "Are you sleeping", The Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Deep and Wide", etc. and the other is "Songs Kids Love to Sing: 25 Sunday School Songs" which include "Arky Arky", "The B-I-B-L-E", "God is so Good", "I'm in the Lord's Army", "Trust and Obey", "Father Abraham", etc. I was so excited! So we listened to the Sunday School one today and she really liked it!

She is really grabbing stuff. She held onto a rattle for a couple of minutes today. And she's starting to grab her feet!

We're planning on visiting a church this Sunday. We'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Michael!!

adding to her bag of tricks

So, sometimes Bethany starts on her tummy and "falls" to one side. Sometimes she pushes the rest of the way over, sometimes she just lays there. If she lays there too long, we have to either roll her the rest of the way over or put her back up on arms because her arm starts to turn a scary shade of purple!

Well, today, she fell over to the right side and after about 10 seconds she pulled herself back up! She did that 3 times! And she's now really starting to grab at toys and pull them toward her. And she gets mad if she can't reach one!

Make sure you scroll down to the last couple of posts. I edited them to include some pictures. And if you click on the picture, it will link you to the big version on her web site. And just for fun, here's a cute one from our first beach trip:



We're going to work on the movie thing this weekend. I'll let you know how that goes.

"no" to cereal

Well, she didn't exactly go for the cereal. You should have seen her face after I put it in her mouth. She really screwed it up! Oh, well. We'll keep trying every once in awhile.



That was the most excitement we had today. She still loves going outside. She really looks around at everything. Which is hard in her stroller. She really cranes her neck around!

Sorry there wasn't more action today!

Well, today Bethany rolled over to the left 3 more times. She also is starting to move around on her stomach by pushing with her legs. She hasn't figured out how to move the top half of her body, so her head stays in the same place and she moves in a circle around it.

We went to get a library card today and walked to the store. Then we came home and layed outside in the grass (on a sheet) for awhile. Here's one picture.



We may try giving her a taste of some rice cereal this week. We probably won't give her a real meal of it yet, we just want to see what she'll do with it. So I'll let you know how that goes after we try.

Sorry I didn't have more eventful news today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more exciting! :)

she's so cute!

Okay, one really cute thing today. When she was in her stroller today, she had Ears in her left hand and her burp cloth in her right hand. She was taking turns licking each of them, like she was comparing textures and tastes!

Then this evening, she rolled over to the left! Since she rolled over the first time it's always been to the right. Tonight she felt like going the other way!

We've noticed that she is getting louder. When she "talks" to us or her friends, it is a lot louder than it used to be!

Also, she is becoming less tolerant of sitting in her car seat/stroller if we are in a store or on a walk. She really wants to be able to see the world around her.

not so much about bethany

Well, this post won't be a whole lot about Bethany.

We worked A LOT on the apartment today. No more boxes stacked in the corner anymore!!!!! And we put up some pictures. So I'll take some pictures tomorrow and either email them or post them for you. It feels better to have more of our things in a "place".

Well, Bethany has only rolled over again once since Friday. This is what I think: when she first started pushing up, her arms were a little weak so she fell over to one side and then was able to push with a foot to go the rest of the way over. Now, her arms are a little stronger, so she can stay up longer. Of course, then she gets frustrated because she can't figure out how to go over! And now when we put her on her tummy, she really works on her legs. She sticks her butt in the air! :) If I can get a shot of it, I will.

This afternoon when we put her down for a nap, she just kept rolling onto her side and squealing. She likes to talk to her friends! :) (Ears, the bunny she got in NICU; Flutter, the praying lamb; the "other lamb", from my chiropractor in Chi-town; and "doll with no name", my pink checked doll with a rattle in her head) I guess we really should name those other two! :)

It's about time for bed now. We're glad that everyone is safe from Jeanne. Let's pray that she's the last one you'll see.

More soon!!

getting started

Hello, everyone. I've created this so that you can all keep up with what Bethany is doing. I will try to post something each day so check back here often. Right now she's sleeping so there's not much to tell right now!

After everything she's been through, she's doing pretty well. You know already that she's rolled over. She's really lifting her head up high when she's on her tummy. She'll probably figure out how to crawl pretty soon.

Well, keep checking back for more news!!