I Love Age 2

I love age 2. So far it's the best of all the ages Daphne has experienced.

I love that when I need to get something done, she can be a big helper and work along side me, therefore being distracted enough that I can really get something done.

Like yesterday she helped mash bananas for banana muffins. True, she ate all that she mashed, but still, very helpful.

(P.S. It's really hard to explain to a two year old, though, the concept of time. Like just because we mixed up muffins does not mean they are immediately ready to eat. "Muffin? Muffin? MUFFIN?" she yelled the entire time they were cooking/cooling.)
























She's also great at yard work. We are actually very happy with the work we've gotten done in our yard this year (we pruned all the roses- first time in like 3 years) and potentially will get done this summer. Daph just runs with the dogs, laughing and waving sticks around. Semi-dangerous, I'm sure, but it keeps her happy. David bought her a little lawn mower that she really loved using until Brynner ate the handles off. He's also eaten nearly all her gardening tools and ate her soccer ball. (Not that I'm bitter.)

Last week when it was sunny we were unfortunately super busy but managed to find about 1/2 an hour to work outdoors. Daphne helped me weed the entire garden. Such a good helper.












She's also become some sort of chicken whisperer. Those chickens follow her around like they think she's one of them. She loves it and I think it's so cute.












We are really looking forward to this summer and doing all the fun activities that a 2-year-old is finally old enough to handle. Like having a beautiful yard.

'Before Baby' Project #1

Today is a BSF day, but yesterday I noticed Daphne had the grossest runny nose ever and by last night had developed a bit of a cough. I decided to wait until this morning to decide if we should go, and when she was still asleep at 8:45 (our time to leave) I took that as a sign that BSF would be out.

I typically get up around 6AM so that I have time to exercise and do some other morning activities before Daphne gets up. She usually gets up around 7-7:30, and I love that morning chunk of time to get my day started.

This morning she kept sleeping...and sleeping...and sleeping, until a little after 10AM. Miraculous and wonderful.

So, what can you get done with 4 hours of uninterrupted work time?

Only make the cutest little play kitchen you'll ever see.

















I cannot take the credit for the idea of transforming an old nightstand into a darling kitchen, but I can't remember where I saw the idea. I think it was on a home decorating blog that I happened to stumble across months ago just long enough to see this idea, show David, and know that we would be making one at some point. I'm sorry that I can't give proper credit where credit is due.

















I don't have a 'before' photo, but this was just a nightstand with a drawer in it that we had in one of our spare rooms and were planning on getting rid of. Initially I was going to paint the stand to match Daphne's new 'big girl' room, but since the nightstand was already painted red, a color that matches our house decor really well, I just decided to keep it as is. This way if we end up keeping it in the kitchen, or maybe downstairs in the family room, it will fit right in like any of our furniture.












I bought a plastic bowl at Salvation Army for about $.50, the faucet at another store for around $8, and David found the drain covers to make into burners. He used soda lids for the burner nobs. We took out the drawer and I made a curtain to hang instead, then all of Daphne's kitchen toys that she got for Christmas are in a basket behind the curtain.


















I think David is going to put some hooks on one side to hang her potholders and aprons, and maybe tack on a magnet board on the other side.

Since she hasn't left her kitchen's side I think it's a big hit.

Just imagine all I could accomplish if she always slept in until 10.

An Easter Recap

Easter baskets:


















And more Easter baskets:












Giant eggs:


















A pretty Easter dress (with a not-so-pretty face):


















Some cousin kissing:












And don't forget the rocket ships:


















I hope your Easter was equally as festive.

Dethroning Begins in the Ultrasound Room

We spent many hours at the doctor on Tuesday, first off getting Daphne some new shoes.

Rob was so excited to know he was making the blog. Seriously, who wouldn't be?












But poor Daphne; she doesn't understand why her new shoes don't feel exactly like her old ones and sort of hobbles around like an old woman complaining that she has ouchies. She sits down, holds her foot up and says "fix it, mama."

If only I could.












Doesn't seem like that long ago she was this size playing on this exact same exam table...


















After her Hanger appointment we crossed the street for another peek at the baby. We loved introducing Daphne to the sonographer who did all of her ultrasounds. She's such a sweet lady and we've appreciated working with her. Daphne was thrilled to have found a new friend, but was also a little out-of-sorts over not being #1 during that appointment.











As Sherrie said, dethroning begins in the ultrasound room.















I don't know; Daphne is so cool, what if this new baby isn't as cool as she is?

I wanted to take a cute picture of Daphne holding an ultrasound photo, but you know how cooperative 2 year olds are.











Not what I had in mind, so maybe she'll cooperate another day? Maybe the same day we re-do our Tulip Festival photo shoot (a.k.a. never).

Tulip Season

I had a dream.

We would go to the Tulip Festival, Daphne would joyfully frolic amongst the tulips, and we would get many beautiful photos of her.












Not so much. As soon as we passed through the children's play area on our walk out to the tulip fields, flowers were the last thing she wanted to be seeing.

David was able to get her to start looking around for rocket ships and that made her a little bit happier, although this picture makes them look like they are performing in some sort of tulip musical:












We finally went back to the 'bounce bounce,' the big air-filled jumping toy that had caught Daphne's eye, and then we found the rubber duck races which were the best thing she had ever seen.
















































We made the trip with friends and my car, the girl car, was following David's car, the boy car and they apparently were gabbing a little too much and led us all the way to Salem before our girl car decided we had enough of that and took over being the leaders. (They like to pretend that it was our fault, but don't listen to their side of the story.)

Despite no cute tulip photos and seeing half of Oregon, we had a really good time and it's definitely worth the little drive to go.

Hosanna, Loud Hosanna

Hosanna: (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) an exclamation of praise, esp one to God.

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, Daphne got to participate in the church service for the first time.












I was sitting up on stage when I saw her happy little self marching with the other children, waving palm branches.

Hosanna, loud hosanna.

My heart was so full...with gratefulness that she's here and thankful for this specific reason for praise.












Hosanna, loud hosanna.

When It Was Sunny That One Day

Today was rather gloomy, rainy and cold. David started a fire in the wood stove so at least our house was warm and cozy.

Last week we had one day of sun! We made a visit up to one of our favorite coffee shops which we love because:

A) they have super yummy coffee

B) they are child friendly












C) they have outdoor seating that will be wonderful come summer (I love that when we're outdoors Daphne runs around with a big smile on her face)










































D) it is across from one of my favorite baby stores, Cotton Babies. Cotton Babies is the company that makes bumGenius cloth diapers, for any of you who care about that type of thing. They have cloth diapers (more than just bumGenius), toys, strollers, feeding tools, and many other items to make a mama happy. Cotton Babies is also very child friendly and are perfectly OK with children running around hollering like banshees. They have a tent set up that Daphne sits in and laughs so loudly I can hear her all throughout the store.

So. That's what we did when it was sunny that one day.

Say Hello to Sugar

A few good things about Daphne's eating habits:

*Milk and water are her favorite beverages. I've offered her juice once or twice but she pushed them away for water. We don't keep juice in the house, so milk and water are the only things she knows and therefore are what she likes best. This is good.

*She loves fruit. I think she would turn down almost any food for berries.

*She loves cooked vegetables, especially carrots.

*She loves avocados, quinoa, kefir, and yummy leaves (lettuce). She's practically a walking health food store.

I'm so thankful that getting Daphne to eat has never been a struggle and I truly feel badly for all the parents who do have to struggle with it. I would like to take all the credit for her amazing eating skills, but there's nothing like motherhood to make you realize you're actually the most incompetent person alive. The Good Lord just knew we had enough issues to deal with that getting the girl to eat did not need to be one of them.

So while mealtime health is not a struggle for us, she is growing older and is more aware of what folks around her are eating. Thanks to this she has discovered that such a thing exists as 'yummy treats.'

Like cupcakes. And chocolate chips.

We went to See's Candies with friends the other week and Daph got her very own sample. She loved it. The other week at home group a plate of brownies was sitting near the edge of the kitchen table. I looked over just in time to see her swipe a brownie and chow down like she'd never had food before.

David gave her her first taste of licorice yesterday. He's not as strict about her diet as I am.











To say she was happy about it would be an understatement.


















But here's the good thing for my own waist line: now that she recognizes all foods, including yummy treats, I get to be very, very careful on what we buy and eat at home. If I don't want Daphne to eat it, that means we don't get to, either.

Goodbye boxed macaroni & cheese; I loved you. Although I don't think it's possible to say good-bye to See's. Have you tried their Dark Bordeaux? Delish.

Don't Look if You're Queasy

I just thought you would want to see a photo of one of the largest nose bubbles I've ever been able to catch on camera.

Because, you know, things like this are really interesting.

New Toys

I just had to say thanks for the sweet comments regarding the new baby! I pretty much live everyday for comments. (OK, not really, but I do like them.)

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I went to a kids resale today with a friend, thinking I didn't need anything so therefore I wouldn't buy anything.

Apparently I really needed this Little People farm because somehow it came home with me. It was only $11, so it would have been silly NOT to buy it.

Think Daphne likes it?












The only problem is that she thinks the grain silo is a rocket ship, but hopefully we'll get her straightened out on that one soon.

Details (Wow This is Long)

Daphne is so excited to be a big sister.





































OK, it's true, she was actually just really happy to be at Starbucks.

If you don't like pregnancy talk, now would be a good time to just skip down to more photos. I promise I will not post everyday with detailed pregnancy updates, but I'll just get out a few details that I get asked often, and then I'm sure no one will ask these questions ever again! (Ha!)

*I'm about 19 weeks along. Thanks to the super-cool club we belong to of baby loss/trauma pregnancies we got to have an early anatomy scan to help keep the panic attacks to a minimum. Even though the baby looks fine we're going to have another one in a few weeks. Because you never know; things happen. For some reason I wasn't nervous at all about having another baby with Daphne's same diagnosis (we can handle that) but I was really nervous that this baby had no brain. I don't know where that came from, but it was a real concern for me. We decided to wait to share our pregnancy news until we could give all the information at once after having the ultrasound (which we had at 17 weeks). You know how people really like to hear "hey, we're having a baby, but he or she has no brain!" Good dinner conversations. But the baby does have a brain as well as all other important organs needed to live, so I would say that's really good.

*We're waiting to find out the gender until the birth. David would like to know, but I really, really, REALLY don't, and since I'm the pregnant one I win. I love the anticipation of waiting to find out, plus it is a huge incentive during labor. I distinctly remember after hours and hours and hours of labor with Daphne, being so tired and discouraged and in pain, remembering that if I could just keep going I would finally get to know if we were having a boy or a girl. That gave me a burst of second wind and boom! (like 3 hours later) she was born. I also like the old-fashioned-ness of waiting. Not many people do it now-a-days, and I love that old-school picture of Dad heading out to the waiting room to announce the baby's gender and name. So fun. I'm sure David would love to include some cigars and maybe some rifle shooting, but I don't think hospitals encourage that so much.

*I have no 'gut feeling' about this baby's gender. With Daphne I wanted a girl so badly that I only let myself think in terms of having a boy so that I wouldn't be disappointed if it was a boy. Silly. This time I would love to have a boy, but I would also love to have a girl because we have so many cute girl things that need to get used again. I would be perfectly happy either way. (Maybe part of me thinks it's a girl because so far this pregnancy seems exactly the same as Daphne's.) I read somewhere that children under 5 have an uncanny ability to predict gender. For quite a while when asked, Daphne would always say we were having a girl baby. Then just within the past week she changed it to a boy baby. I think changing her mind discounts her as a reliable source for gender predicting.

*I feel pretty good now, but the beginning was not good at all. For some reason my body does not like pregnancy, and I get to spend weeks 6-15 lying in a fetal position on the bathroom floor. Daphne thought that activity was very boring, by the way. My midwife sent me home with strips to check my ketone levels: a negative result is good and means you're getting enough calories, a 1 means try to eat, 2 means eat a lot and 3 means go in for IV. I did the IV route with Daphne and so tried my hardest to stay away from it this time. My midwife gave me strict instructions that every time I was a 2 (which was always) to eat a milkshake right away. Let me tell you, when a medical professional tells you it's vital to your health to eat milkshakes, you just do it with no questions asked. But now I feel fine, just super tired and unmotivated to do anything. I don't remember if I was this tired with Daphne, or if taking care of her just drains every ounce of energy right out of me. Yeah, I think I'll just blame her.

Is that all the important stuff (now that your brains are fried from trying to read such a long post)? I'm glad the news is finally out so no one has to be suspicious that I'm just gaining weight or that I have a stomach tumor. David was thinking we shouldn't tell anyone ever and just make everyone feel really awkward because no one would want to ask. Funny guy, that David.

The Room That Changes Your Life

July 25, 2008 we spent hours cramped into a tiny room hearing lists of things wrong with our baby. Many appointments followed with more of the same. I hated that little room.

We were in that same room again last week, and this time we got hear what every parent should get to hear: "everything looks perfectly normal."

That's right, it's time Daphne becomes a big sister! Come the beginning of September hopefully we'll bring home another little one and fill our house with double trouble.

We are excited. Because sometimes that room rips your heart out, but sometimes it gives you just what you've needed.

Hope.

Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. ~Ps 31:24

18 Degrees is a Lot

Apparently today was 18 degrees colder than yesterday. Needless to say, we did not walk to the park again despite Daphne's many pleas.

David was gone all day climbing around Rocky Butte helping out with the search for the missing girl, and now he is off working his regular shift. Daphne and I had lots of work to do also, including baking a cake, cleaning, playing music at church, and remembering yesterday when we had a tiny hint of Spring.

May the hints come back as often as possible.