A Green Thought

You know the expression, "The grass is always greener on the other side". I've decided that Caleb and I must be on the "right" side because the grass is always green here (except for maybe 2 months this summer...but even when it's a little yellow, I think it is still greener than else where in the country). So I've decided that Seattle is always the "other side" since it's so green here. Just a thought...

4 Months

This week Peter had his 4 month appointment. It went really well. He has very good hand/mouth coordination. The doctor was impressed with how well he can grab something and then put it in his mouth. Hopefully this means he will be a great eater just like his sister. He was also a champ during his shots: he got two. After the second he wailed but as soon as I picked him up he stopped. What a great kid!


Here are his stats: Length - 26 in (85%), Head size 17 in (95%), Weight 20.5 lbs (still off the chart). It still amazes me how large my child is. The other week I left my snap'n'go in Spokane so I've been hauling him around in his car seat without the convience of wheels. He is a heavy boy. And to think that Hannah stayed in her car seat until 1 year, and Peter will probably have to be in a new one by 6 months (the max weight for the car seat is 22lbs). Wow.


So I"m going through all my pictures to find some to post of Peter, and the sad truth is that there aren't all that many. The second child (and every subsequent child I would imagine) really does get the shaft when it comes to pictures documentation. In my case there are two reasons why this is true: 1) With two little people to look after, you really don't have all that much time to be taking pictures, 2) With a bigger house, your camera isn't always within a couple feet of where you are standing, so when something cute happens, it's harder to get the camera in time so you just don't.


Anyhow, here are some pictures I found:

Here we are enjoying family tummy time. Hannah is the instigator of this event. She get's out her blanket and Peter's blanket (and pacis in this case) and we all lay on our tummies. Normally Hannah insists that I join as well (and often times she wants to get a blanket for me to lay on too) but she made an allowance for me since I was taking the picture.

For those non-parents out there, Tummy Time is important for babies because it helps them increase their neck strength. In Peter's case it's alot of work since he has such a large head. :-D

A couple weeks ago I bought Peter this swing at a garage sale. He doesn't like it all that much. Or it might just be the fact that I only put him in it when he's upset...hoping that it will calm him down, or atleast distact him. Anyhow, Hannah doesn't like it when Peter is upset, so she will run and bring him his paci, blanket, stuff animal, or whatever else she thinks might make him happy. I think it might be alittle overwhelming for Peter sometimes.

Here's Peter and I at my friend Susie's wedding. He's really fun to take places because he smiles soooo much. So at the wedding everyone who came over and talked to him or looked at him got a smile. He's already charming every lady that crosses his path...

Here's Caleb and Peter at the Grand Coulee Dam. The other weekend we were in Spokane and decided to take the long route home by the Grand Coulee Dam. It is huge! 1 mile long

Potty Training

The kiddos are still napping, so I figured I'd fill you all in on the excitements of potty training.

Just a couple weeks ago I started potty training Hannah. It is going surprisingly well. I bought her some fun underwear that she loves. Every morning I let her pick out which pair she would like to wear. And some days we will go through several pairs simply because she wants to put on a different pair. And some days she'll want to see my underwear so she can pick out a matching color or just so she can point out that she is just like mommy. She also likes to show off her underwear. So if you come over she will most likely pull down her paints and show you the underwear she is wearing. Don't be offended.

She can also now put her little toilet seat on the big seat all by herself (without dropping it in the toilet) and she can sit down by herself. This is great news for me because now I don't have to sit with her in the bathroom while she's doing her business. She likes sitting on the potty so this can sometimes last up to 10 minutes. Although, now that I think about it, she has stopped doing that. However, anytime she goes poop she still calls me over to show me. Of course I praise her for this. "oh, good job Hannah!" Positive reinforcement, right? She has picked this up and now praises me when I go to the bathroom, "yay mommy, yay mommy" as she claps her hands. It's pretty cute. Also before she flushes, she says goodbye to everything she flushes. This is also cute. She's at a really cute age.

All in all, I say it is going pretty well. Sometimes after using the potty she'll want to put on a diaper, and I let her. I figure there's no rush. And I still put her in a diaper when she naps and at night time. Those such sacred times for me I dare not disrupt them quite yet.

Me Happy

I realize it's been a while since I've written about Hannah. So here are some cute things she's learned in the past couple of months.

1. Hannah has been talking quite a bit lately...well, not alot alot, but alot for her. Her latest word is happy. So we will be driving in the car and she will say something like, "me happy." To which I will respond, "oh good, I'm glad you are happy." They she'll say something like "BBP happy" (BBP is what she calls Baby Pete). They she will continue, "Mommy happy." "Yes, mommy is happy." She's quite the conversationalist as you can tell.

2. Hannah has learned how to say three. In fact, it is her favorite number and the answer to any numerical question you ask her. "How many cups do you have?" "3" "How old are you?" "3" "How many paci's do you have?" "3" As you can see, she is not always truthful. Although check this picture out.

She's pretty amazing, huh?

3. Hannah has just started to really enjoy the magnetic alphabet letters I got her for our refrig. Yesterday she was playing with N and I said, "N says nnnn, just as in Nanny (what she calls my mom)". So she ran over to me holding the N and said "nanny, nanny, nanny." "Yes, N stands for nanny." Next she brought over the H and said "Hannah." I think this was a fluke, but still worth mentioning because I am a proud parent. :-D

4. Unfortunately Hannah has picked up the art of throwing a fit. It doesn't happen very often, but the other night Caleb and I were heading out to play tennis (without her) and she started crying and clinging on the my leg. She was very upset that we were leaving and that we were not taking her, even though she was staying with Rachel and she loves Rachel. Apparently after we left she stopped crying. She must have decided that that tactic didn't work. Hopefully next time we leave she won't try it again.

5. Over the summer Hannah has gotten pretty brave in the water. At least once a week we go over to hang out with my parents and my mom always takes Hannah swimming. She is at the point now where she will walk into the lake all the way up to her neck! She will also willingly gets her hair wet in both the pool and the lake. Currently we are trying to teach her to blow bubbles. She's pretty good most of the time. I figure by next summer she'll be quite the water bug.

6. She has just recently started taking super long naps. Praise the Lord!! Normally her naps are about 3 hours long and on Tuesday she slept for 4 hours. I actually had to go in and wake her up so she wouldn't sleep past 6 (since I want her to go to bed at 8 or 8:30). This is great news for me because it means that most days there will be at least an hour or so where both kiddos are napping. This means I get to clean...ha, that was a joke. I obviously nap. Praise the Lord.

Well, that's about it for news. I'll write about potty training sometime soon. That deserves a whole post of it's own. :-D

Exciting find at Target

Guess what I bought today at Target?! You'll never guess so I'll just tell you. FOOTIE PAJAMAS! And not just any footie pajamas...footie pajamas that fit ME! They are soooo cool. I found them in the kids section. Here I am modeling them for you


Here's Hannah and myself in our footie PJs. She thought it was really cool that I was wearing footie pajamas with her. Life is fun, isn't it?


In other news, I bought Hannah some underwear at Target as well. She was really excited and wore them all day with only one accident. I'm hoping that I've waited long enough that she knows what's going on and therefore we won't have as many accidents. We'll see

6 years ago

Yesterday Caleb and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. Wow!! Can you believe it's been that long!?! It sure doesn't seem like it. Although we do have 2 kids and a fairly functional relationship so I guess you would have to guess we've been married for a while now. Ok, so our relationship is more than "fairly" functional, but I feel like each year we become more and more functional.

Here we are 6 years ago!

I think I look about the same, but Caleb looks a bit younger. Don't cha think? Of course when he has a goatee he always looks much older than he is.

Anyhow, we had a great day yesterday. After church Hannah and I went blueberry picking while Peter and Caleb napped. There is a U-Pick blueberry farm 1 mile from our house and it's a great activity to do with Hannah. And it was really nice to have some 1 on 1 time with her since just in the past week or two she has become really clingy and needy. Then in the evening Josh came over to babysit the two little ones so Caleb and I could go out to dinner and a movie. We went to this seafood restaurant right on the Kirkland waterfront and we ate right at sunset. And since yesterday was a clear and sunny day, the sunset was amazing.

Well, we had a great time hanging out together yesterday. And it's fun to think how much we've both grown and adapted to each other in the past six years. I think marriage is like a good wine; it just gets better with each year. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to seeing what our life is like in another 6 years - to see where God takes us and how we handle the ride. :-D

Smiling Peter

I took this pictures yesterday, and it is my new favorite picture of Peter.

Just in the last 2-3 weeks Peter has started smiling alot. It makes hanging out with him so much more fun and rewarding...of course this might also have to do with the fact that he's gone down to one (or two) feedings a night and therefore I have more energy...Anyhow, here are some more pictures.