Kittie Kats

For those of you who haven't met our cats & for those of you who already know and love our little furry friends, here they are.  I felt like I should show them off a bit since they've been such good kitties even with their banishment to the outside world.  Actually they still come inside on occasion, but much less frequently than before the baby came.

This is Squeaks, aka "Little" or "Little-Bittle."  She is balancing on the railing with her legs hanging over the sides.  Her favorite pastimes are wrestling with Indie, fighting with Miko, and anxiously trying to get ice that may fall on the floor whenever the someone gets ice from the freezer.  Her newest trick is acting like a water dog when I water the garden, running through the water and trying to 'bite' it.  I found her abandoned out by a peach tree orchard when I was on a walk over a year ago and she came home with me.  We were going to give her away so we didn't name her, but called her the Little One which stuck last past her actually being named.  We originally thought she was a boy and when we took 'him' to be neutered, the vet informed us that we couldn't neuter him, but we could spay her.  Fortunately, Squeaks is a name that goes both ways and she as soft as a mink coat.

This is Miko (aka Schmiko, Schmeeks, Meeks) and she is oldest sister.  Miko gets annoyed with Little's antics and the two girl cats have frequent squibbles for no apparent reason.  Miko loves to be inside but she also loves to eat so sometimes it is a toss-up for her whether she would rather go outside to eat when we feed her or try to run inside and hide.  She has spent a couple nights hiding in various closets when we literally couldn't find her.  She also a litter box snob and will sometimes have 'accidents' on the bathroom rug near the litter box if another cat has 'dirtied' the box before her.  Her favorite position to sleep is on her back, legs outstretched so that she looks dead. We're glad that she came to be our cat after being an orphan for her early kittenhood (still eats like an orphan as her portly figure shows below - sorry about the unbecoming photo, Meeks!).

This is Indiana Jones (aka Indie, Bindie, or Binder) and he is intently about to catch a bug of some sort while Miko watches.  You can't see his uneven white socks in the pic, but they are always greyish brown because he's dirty.  He is the only boy and a hunter and adventurer by nature and frequently comes home with stickers in his coat or cobwebs on his face.  He is the only cat that we purposefully adopted from another family.  But there's no such thing as a free pet!  Indie has been to the vet the most.  Beside vaccines/neuter, he had an eye infection over a year ago, got a fox tail stuck in his eye (emergency vet trip for that one), ate something bad and was vomiting and had diarrhea, and currently, his third set of eyelids is visible over part of his eyes implying that he is sick.  (The vet doesn't know what is wrong with him without doing a whole panel of blood work etc, so he's on antibiotics which seem to help as the eyelids are slowly receding back to normal.)  He's working on using up all of his 9 lives, but we're glad that he's  tough guy.

Here is our hummingbird feeder which the cats believe we did just to torture them.  In fact, they aren't all that interested anymore because they can't ever seem to get close to them little birds.

Finally, a random pic...  Here's our new bedding that we got from Crate & Barrel, thanks to an old gift card that was nearly forgotten.  Yeah!! (Even better than finding $5 in your pocket of your jeans.)  Thanks for getting this stuff for us Josh.

Genius

That's right, Annaliese is sporting one of the new colors "Zinnia" in cloth diaper fashion.  I did the good old traditional pre-folds last week and when I decided I was committed to cloth we took the plunge and got some easy (but expensive) Bumgenius v3.0 one-size reusable pocket diapers, keeping the pre-folds as backups.  

Before you congratulate me for saving the earth, it was almost entirely an economic decision.  The fact that we're reducing the amount of waste that goes into our landfills is a definite bonus but if cloth & disposables were the exact same cost, you can bet I'd be throwing those poopy diapers in the garbage.  So I plan on doing wash every other day or so and with my very rough calculations, it appears that we'll still come out ahead in the first year with more significant savings after that since we won't have to buy more fancy-schmancy diapers since they  have snaps to adjust for various sizes.

All in all, Annaliese doesn't seem to mind wearing cloth at all and I'm thankful that the Bumgenius diapers are so much easier to put on/take off and don't leak during naps or at night.  We even used cloth all day yesterday including going to church and to my parents' house (Tutu & Papa Deere). Hopefully my good attitude persists after the honeymoon period wears off... :)

Working out with Uncle Josh

Uncle Josh came to stay the night for an interview for entrance into the Fresno State Athletic Training program and he gave Annaliese a little work out too. 
Doesn't Uncle Joshie look sharp?  I'm sure he rocked the interview!!

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Poor baby had 4 shots for her 4 month vaccines today.  She is almost 26 inches long (~90th percentile), weighs 14 lb 4 oz (~75th percentile) and has an average size noggin (16 1/2 in head circumference, ~50th percentile).  She is also just getting over a touch of a cold so she is not quite her usual chipper self, but she's been sleeping like a champ which is helping her to get over it I think.

Obviously she's getting enough of mommy's milk judging by those chunky thighs, but in about a month or so I plan on starting her on solids...  Any suggestions of things that have or have not worked well for any of your kiddos?

Happy 9 Years!

Nine years ago today, St. Patrick's Day 2000, I was getting ready to take my philosophy final at Cal Poly.  It was my last final on Friday before spring break during my sophomore year.  I was excited to be done because my roommate Lori and I were going to go up to San Jose during the break to visit our friend Andy.  I liked him and was pretty positive that he liked me too even though we had mainly been hanging out with friends in groups during the previous quarter.  

Before the final started, Ben Earl, our mutual friend that was in my class, gave me a flower and said it was from Andy.  Just as my face lit up, I saw it was a single yellow rose and my face fell knowing how yellow roses were always a sign of "just friends."  The handwritten card read "A friend loves at all times." Proverbs 17:17.  My eyes got wide as I read the back of the card that directed me to see Lori for another surprise.  I could hardly concentrate on the philosophy final wondering what would happen next at my apartment!!

When I flung open the door to my apartment, Lori was grinning and gave me a single white rose.  I immediately read the verse, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1 and thought of how Andy and I had talked about our pasts and how we had been forgiven by our Savior Jesus.  After reading "Meet me at the park across from Grace Church," I shouted to Lori, "I'm going to see a boy and he likes me!"

Even though I could have walked to the park from the apartment, I drove and parked on the other side of the street.  After a truck narrowly missed hitting me when I jotted across the street without looking for cars, I ran to meet Andy in the park.  He was standing alone with a single red rose.  We hugged a long close hug for the first time and he said that this rose represented the love that he would like to grow into with me and would I do the honor of being his girlfriend?

I said yes about a million times and then we hugged some more and laughed about how Ben Earl was supposed to wait until after the final to give me the rose, how Lori was almost as excited as I was and how our good friend Steve Dauphin had suggested to Andy to wait to officially ask me until we were truly ready saying "Do want a nickel now or a dime later?"  We laughed about how disappointed I had been when Andy rejected my homemade chocolate chip cookies the week before while he was secretly fasting and praying about asking me to be his girlfriend.  Then we prayed together and asked the Lord to bless our relationship that we were entering into with the hope of marriage someday.

Looking back, I am so amazed at the way that God has brought us together in marriage, made us stronger through trials, given us such joy and fun and now allowed us to parent our daughter together.  Andy is the kind of man that I am praying that God is preparing for our daughter to meet and eventually marry when she's older... a man like Andy who cherishes her so that he would take up a paper route on top of his other two jobs in college to save up for an engagement ring... a man like Andy who loves to throw his head back laugh out loud (sometimes at himself) and is her best friend all the time, no matter what, even when things aren't perfect... a man like Andy who sees God's amazing power and creativity and teaches others about it through the discipline of science... a man like Andy who honors his family and works hard to provide for them... a man like Andy who serves his church body by teaching others to love the Lord and his word for pure joy even when it is a sacrifice... a man like Andy who has such passion that it is contagious.

Andy, I love you and I'm so glad that you liked me first and pursued me...wink, wink!  About a month before all this happened, Lori told me, I think Andy likes you, what do you think about him?  My exact response was, "He's cute, but hello- call me in a year!!"  I can't imagine life without you, my Love.

First Roll Over

Just a few days shy of 4 months, Annaliese rolled over for the first time!  

One of my sweet friends, who was a client of mine at BSK, made a floor quilt for Annaliese to "scoot, play & spit up on."  When she brought it to us this morning, she asked if Annaliese had rolled over yet and I told her no but soon she will.  As soon as Susie left, Annaliese rolled over from front to back and then spit up on it, just like Susie had told her to.

We love the quilt, Susie!  Thanks again!

Oh well!

I knew I shouldn't have posted that she was sleeping through the night (even though I waited for a week to try to avoid jinxing myself).  She hasn't done it since.  She also continues to be a NIGHT OWL!  Andy says that's just how she is - I think he's right.  

So I'm saying, "Oh well!" for now.  It is a blessing that she's up late in at least one way, because if she wasn't, she wouldn't get as much quality time with Andy since he is often busy in the evenings.  If she hadn't been up at about 9:30pm on Wednesday night, then Andy and I wouldn't have gotten to share her first full laughing fit.  

For those of you who haven't seen this video on Facebook, here is the link.  Annaliese was making those certain faces, where we could tell what was coming.  She let a loud wet fart go and then cracked up laughing about it.  Andy heard her grunting and she did it again; the second time was as funny as the first.  We were all laughing and Andy grabbed the camera to catch the tail end of the third time on video.  Whew - that was a full yet funny diaper!

Finding the Thumb

How's that b-b-baby?

Actually, I have 3 Praises:  

Blessing #1 - We have experienced 7 days in a row (yes, that's one full week) of sleeping through ENTIRELY through the night.  By through the night, I mean 9:30 or 10:30pm till 7:00am!  I keep thinking that it is a fluke, but I really hope not even though I know things can change anytime.  I'm still waking up in the middle of the night for no good reason though!  At least I just get to go right back to sleep now!

Blessing #2 - We are now down to 5 feedings a day, which is about every 4 hours during  the day!  Down from 6-7 feedings, which is about every 2 1/2 - 3 hours during the day, is a huge difference to me!  It is nice too that she can stay up for 1 1/2 - 2 hours at a time too.

Blessing #3 - Annaliese took a bottle 3 times yesterday without a fight!  For those of you who remember our Bottle Boot Camp when I only offered her the bottle for 2 days straight, I gave up about a week after that because it was so much work to pump extra milk, usually to only have to toss it down the drain after a crying fight with a hungry, fussy baby.  It hasn't been a big deal that she doesn't take the bottle because I'm staying at home with her, but it is really nice to be able to have that opportunity to leave her with my mom and have her be able to eat without me!

P.S. One minor issue we're still having is every night when I put her down (supposedly for the night at a normal infant bedtime) around 7:30 or 8pm, she regularly wakes up and is fussy within about an hour or two.  I think it is slowly getting better, but its like she thinks it was another nap and that she should get to stay up and play again until I feed her the last time around 9 or 10.  I'm not sure what to do or if I should just count my blessings (which I do, see above) that she's sleeping so soundly through the night.  She usually takes 3 real naps during the day, about 5 hours total.  Any suggestions, my fellow mommies?

Beefcakes, I mean Beefstakes

We were telling a friend that we are planting a vegetable garden and Andy told him that we had planted 'Beefcakes.'  Oops, he meant 'Beefstake' tomatoes!

We were so excited to get some good homegrown veggies that we accidently may have gone a little overboard.  Despite my thoughts that we should keep it simple since this our first time doing this on our own, this is what we got to plant (about half is planted so far): 4 kinds of tomatoes (Beefstake, Whopper, Roma, & Cherry), sweet red bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant & strawberries.  We also got seeds for carrots, green beans & cucumbers.  Whew!  And I still have to get some herbs in there!  

We can't wait for some bruscetta with homegrown tomatoes & basil and fresh mozzerella!  We were drooling over our little veggies while planting them yesterday and today.  Well, Annaliese was doing most of the drooling actually :)

Sweet Red Bell Peppers

We had let the lawn die on the side yard and now we have a bunch of space for our garden!

In a few months, she'll be enjoying baby food from some home grown squash!! Yummy!

DD & Papa Mac

What a hip 21st century grandma with her bluetooth ear piece in place!!  She couldn't wait to hold her grandbaby after the long drive from San Jose!

Papa Mac... we think its a fitting name for this techie granddaddy!

Look at those 2 adorable smiles!  And those wonderfully chunky rolls (on the baby of course ;-)!