My Perspective

Here I am!



I am having so much fun!



I get to watch snow fall.



I get to play in my play pen.



And I can even roll over onto my side.



Mommy and Daddy even take me on walks when it is cold and rainy.



I can arch my back to reach behind me.



I get to wear pretty dresses (but Mommy says I can't wear these anymore because I am too big).





I jump and play on my jumper. I try to walk to Mommy and then I swing back.



Daddy won't let me take my jumper with me.



But that's okay because he takes me to look at pictures.



I like this one the best!



Mommy and Daddy love me so much that they gave me my own room (and they finally moved out of it).



Now I have a play pen in my room.



Mommy and Daddy also gave me a couch of my own.



They moved into their new room.



They say that they see nice sunrises in the morning. I prefer to sleep in.



Mommy and Daddy said that I was waking them up. They are happy to get more sleep. I actually sleep better now, too! They want me to learn to sleep without my swaddle. Now I sleep with one arm out. Mommy, where did you put that picture of me? Oh, here I am in my crib.



Wanna see my toes?



I like to cuddle with Daddy.



Sometimes Mommy holds me by my thighs and I decide to fall face forward. This is fun because I get to taste new things and Mommy and Daddy laugh at me with my bum in the air.



I like to play cribbage with Daddy and Mommy. They call me "baby luck." Here I am helping Daddy. I have a nice poker face.



I show Daddy which cards to play.



Good move, Daddy!



Daddy has to share my expertise with Mommy. Now I help her.



I also like to sit on Mommy's knees. But sometimes sitting up makes me spit-up.



One of my favorite things to do is have my freedom. Daddy helps me walk. I like to walk to Mommy!



That's what I like to do! Bye!

Welcome 2008

I hope you all are enjoying a wonderful new year. We celebrated New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with Jon's parents, Mike, Evelyn, Sophia, Nathanael, Luke, and Timothy. Here are a few pictures from our time together.

Aunt Evelyn helped Talia play the piano. Talia enjoyed hearing the music and touching the keys, but it might be a while before she can press the keys herself.



Nathanael worked hard constructing several objects, including this robot mouse.



We enjoyed many hours of Wii. Sophia challenged Uncle Jon to baseball.





On Wednesday Jon and Mike went to Stockton. Evelyn, Sophia, Nathanael, Luke, and Timothy came by our house to visit with the girls. Talia had a great time playing with her cousins and aunt.



She also cuddled with them. Nathanael proved he was an experienced older brother.



Luke spoke and sang so sweetly to Talia.



Sophia demonstrated her many years of baby care as the big sister in her family.



After Talia went down for a nap we played in our yard. Nathanael climbed a few trees.





We all enjoyed the swing.







We had a great time. Our cup runneth over!

We pray that your year will be filled with many blessings!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I sat down to begin another post on Friday. Before beginning, as is custom, I checked our Other Folks blogs. Nikki wrote a post entitled "Who Moved My Advent?" This post brought Psalm 46:10 to mind. I have been so busy with many activities, including getting ready for Christmas, that I have forgotten to reflect on the reason we celebrate. Last year's appreciation was so much more poignant. We were newly expecting, but frightened about losing the our tiny baby (three weeks of bleeding does not bode well for a first trimester baby). To a very small degree I imagined feeling like Mary; excited, hopeful, and scared. Nothing brings you humbly before the Lord like fear and pain. To God be the glory, this year Talia will be at our side as we celebrate Christmas. With all that I am striving to do this Christmas, I am praying to remember Nehemiah's words "the joy of the Lord is your [my] strength." And our lives are so full of amazing blessings, my joy should be in abundance.

I will attempt to bring you up to date with our recent activities. My next post will be about Talia (complete with more pictures). So here is what we have been doing:

Christmas Preparations

After buying our tree, Jon and I brought in our Christmas boxes. Jon put the lights on the tree (hence the light poll) and I began to decorate. To be honest, much of our decor is shoddy, either hand-me-down or Dollar Tree specials. Each year I get rid of more decorations in an attempt to decorate sparsely and nicely rather than copiously and cheaply. This year our decorations are limited to a wreath, a garland with poinsettias, Christmas linens in the kitchen and bathroom, a green tablecloth, seasonal candles and candle holders, Christmas CDs, and a two stockings (one more on the way, when we brave the holiday shopping).

I am finally home and able to make plates of Christmas goodies for the neighbors. Only one problem, our oven decided to opt out. Jon estimates that repairing the oven will be costly, based upon the price of the parts we would need to order. We have decided to wait until next year to buy a new oven and range. Sarah heard my plight and was kind enough to invite Talia and I over to bake at her house. We were amazed at how long it took to bake and care for two babies. Here is Sarah holding Talia and Anna.



Anna is fascinated by cameras, lucky for me:



We made chocolate cookies and press cookies. It was a deliciously fun day.

Over the next two days I went to Stroller Strides, had company, and made fudge and English toffee (no baking required). After Bible study on Friday, Jon and I attempted to pass out the six plates of goodies to our neighbors. We were able to pass out two. We tried again on Saturday, with similar success. Much to our disappointment, we concluded that two of our neighbors were on vacation and their goodies would be poor quality when they returned. What a shame, we had to eat them ourselves. And we did. They were consumed by Sunday night.

Another Christmas preparation was gifts. Without going into much detail, we worked on creating quite a few gifts. It was a fun project for Jon and I, but it took much longer than expected and we ran into a few snags.

Nevada City

We went to the Nevada City Victorian Christmas with Jon's parents. It is an event that occurs several Wednesday nights in December. The draw is the historic city lit for Christmas, booths with crafts and foods, carolers dressed in turn of the century attire, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and folks dressed up like Eskimos. It is a popular event, two of our neighbors, friends from church, and one of my past student's mom were all in attendance. Here we are in the restaurant:



Here is Talia and Grandma:



Here we are in front of a famous church:



I say famous because it (and much of Nevada City) is the setting of one of our favorite Christmas movies, The Christmas Card.

Illness

Talia is proof that breastfed babies do get sick. She and I got another cold. This time Daddy was spared. Fortunately this cold seemed to be short-lived and of minor severity.

Teaching

I just couldn't stay away from kindergarten. On Wednesday I was a guest teacher at Truckee Elementary. My friend, with whom I taught last year, invited me to teach a Hanukkah lesson at her new school. I really enjoyed being in Judy's classroom. It was fun to have kids fighting over holding my hands again :). While I had a great time and am happy that I was able to hone my rusty teaching skills, I realized how grateful I am to not have to plan and prep lessons every day. This particular classroom posed an additional challenge: It is a bilingual class. Most of the daily instruction is given in Spanish. I asked Judy if I could give my lesson in English since my Spanish is so sloppy that I would be a poor example to the kids. I tried to increase comprehension with visuals, props, participation, and gestures. Antes de ensenar, tuvia la oportunidad a charlar con los ninos en espanol. After the lesson we danced the Hava Nagila. Just a note, it was 17 degrees in Truckee that morning.

EBay

Another new adventure for us has been selling on EBay. We found several items around the house and granny flat to sell. It was a learning process but we seem to have made a nice profit. It has been a fun venture that we look forward to continuing (it is also a great way to get rid of all the stuff cluttering the granny flat).

Patience Pays Off

Several days ago I wrote about our spontaneous decision making. Today I will write about a more common occurrence, a long discussed and well planned decision. The title includes the word "patience," which in our case is more accurately a euphemism for the word "procrastination."

Prior to the impending arrival of Talia, we owned a total of two pieces of new furniture. They were: a $40 file cabinet and a $25 dollar bed frame. The rest of our house (and granny flat) was filled with Salvation Army, estate sale, and hand-me-down pieces from family members including parents, grandparents, my sister, and even a great uncle. Those of you who have been to our house know that we have decorated in "early college style," to quote my mom. We do not particularly like this style (especially me), but it fit the budget.

When we discovered that we were expecting, we felt that we finally had an excuse to spend some of the money we had saved (in addition to diapers, clothes, toys, groceries, doctor bills, etc.). We bought a crib, armour, and changing table. We couldn't have our sweet baby crawling around on carpet that had outlived two previous owners, so we finally purchased the carpet we had talked about since we bought the house. Our old couch was beyond repair (and I had tried to stitch it back together several times). We had talked about replacing it last year and had even selected a set for our living room. In the time it took to finally decide to buy the set, discuss the ways of getting the set home, and eventually going to the store to buy it, they had sold out. The bad news is we had to keep our old furniture, the good news is that we kept the money in the bank earning 5% and now had the money to buy an even better set. So, here is the old couch and carpet:



Here is the new couch:



Here is the new love seat that replaced the old blue chairs:



Here is the new set including the rocker/recliner:



All the pieces recline. We figure that five people could take naps in the living room at the same time (Dad will be pleased).

Here are my two favorite people enjoying our new furniture:



They say that patience is a virtue, so in our case procrastination must be, too.