December 2011

Oh my, so much to catch up on, and December was a crazy crazy month. This post may be a tad dry, but since this blog serves as the family journal as well, I feel I need to detail some of the fun that was had.
First, I had a week-long business trip to NYC- what was the last of my regular trips. I may still travel for work but not this every-other-week thing anymore. It was a fun trip- a friend took me to a bar at the top of a building, just to see the view. It's cold enough that the bar keeps thick red hooded bathrobes and everyone wears one to stay warm- kind of freaky and cult-ish. But it was fun, and the view was incredible.

I was home from that trip for a few days, then my sister Becky arrived from Portland to watch the kids while Kenny and I went to Utah for my company's Christmas Party. Becky hadn't seen Daniel since he was 15 months old, and had never even met Camille, but Kenny and I both couldn't think of someone we'd trust our kids to more. She brought her youngest, Tyler, who is just a few months older than Daniel. They hit it off pretty well, even if it was hard for Daniel to have someone in his space playing with his toys (he needs more practice at that). Much fun was had, though:


Kenny and I missed Daniel's Preschool Christmas Program, much to my dismay. But Aunt Becky went and video taped it, just so I could see Daniel have a bit of a breakdown in front of the whole audience. Poor kid, apparently musical performance does not come naturally to him (yet).
Meanwhile, Kenny and I had an absolute blast in Utah. My company went all out. Most of us work remotely so we don't see each other very often. We got to stay in nice hotels (sans kids), go inner tubing at Soldier's Hollow, and go snowmobiling near Heber, not to mention much karaoke-ing. It was so so so much fun, and it once again showed me that I'm working for the right company (not just because they spoil us so, but also because we got to discuss where the company was headed and what we've accomplished this year). Though while snowmobiling, I may have taken a corner a bit fast and gone off course and hit a tree. It could have been much much worse, I'm very lucky. Kenny had been in front of me and took a few minutes to figure out I wasn't following him anymore. A coworker was behind me, though, and helped me get out of the deep snow once we were sure I hadn't broken my leg (and that I wasn't going to pass out).
Unfortunately, my camera fell out of the snowmobile's "trunk", so I lost all my pictures from the trip (not to mention my beloved camera). And my leg had a nasty bruise for a week afterwords:

Also, semi-unfortunately, my cellphone stopped working, so we had no choice but to buy new iphones. Oh, boo ;)
When we got back home, my oldest brother Chris and his family were in town from Denver. Camille and I went by ourselves to NASA to spend the day with them (Daniel was sick so he missed out). We see them so rarely, it was so nice to spend time with them. They have delightful daughters and Camille seemed to take a shine to them all.
Then, Christmas! And such a delightful Christmas. Really, it was perfect, minus a few minor germs we had floating around. Camille got a pink wagon she loves to sit and be pulled in, Daniel got Cars 2 and a few fun race tracks, Kenny got some board game expansions, and I got a new wool coat and some books/DVDs. But mostly, we got a lot of time together. My company gave me the week between Christmas and New Years as some additional paid time off, so we had a full week. And what do we do? Nothing much at all, and it was delightful.
The downside was that I caught MRSA ("the superbug"- drug-resistant staph infection). It started off as what looked like a spider bite and ended up with my entire forearm red, swollen, and throbbing. In summary: it hurts a lot, looks AWFUL, and needs treatment. Bleh.
In happier news, New Year's Eve, our Best Man Ben (he will always be that to me) came out to visit from North Carolina for a few days. We went folfing and played games and had a lot of fun. We miss him so much.

Camille is now walking like a pro, but here are some of those first steps from december:

Many more pics up at our December Album.

One Year Old

Anyone still out there? It's been months since I blogged, but here's the general theme since my last post:

• Work keeps me busy. I've been traveling every other week or so for various work projects- this won't be the norm, it's just for this season. I'm ready to be a homebody again. I've spent a lot of time in New Jersey (Princeton area) and Manhattan and even got to see some old friends.
• Kenny is the ideal stay-at-home dad. He's happy and feels "more appreciated and productive as a stay-at-home dad to two kids than he did as a public teacher to 100+ kids". On top of it, he does almost all of the cooking, cleaning and dishes- and yes, he even does most diapers these days. What an awesome husband I have.
• Daniel is hilarious and bright and exhausting. He's learning his letters (slowly) and will happily tell anyone he meets his full name ("Daniel Jatson Toonz"- still working on that K sound) but mostly, he's perfecting his already impressive video game skills. Seriously, this kid can navigate a Wii Mario Kart course on his own, or get a Mario Sunshine sprite, and this afternoon he found me my sword on Zelda Skyward Sword- in a place I didn't even think to look.
• Camille had her first birthday yesterday. She's babbling WAY more than Daniel ever did, can correctly identify Mommy, Daddy, Brother, and Puppy, and is still a few weeks off from her first steps (by my best guess). I think she has finally resolved whatever digestive issues she had her first year and she eats most anything we eat these days.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving week: we got to see my parents here in houston AND kenny's parents and sister in Fort Worth. We went to the zoo and an animal park and the kids loved seeing their cousins so much. We're SUPER excited to go up to Utah in December for a few days for my company Christmas party- my sister Becky is flying down with her Tyler (just a few months older than Daniel) so Kenny and I can take the trip with just the two of us. It will be the first overnight trip we've had together without kids since before Daniel was born. 

Here are all our pictures from November. Others can be found at our online album.

Big Brother

Daniel loves to tear apart our couches. It drives me nuts. So when I saw him bringing couch cushions from upstairs to our front entry way, I asked him to put them back. He said, "make bed for baymill!" (His name for Camille has evolved from Baby 'Mille). She was happily crawling nearby, so I decided to see where this was going.
He assembled two couch cushions, two pillows, his blanket, and a baby blanket, to make them a little double bed:

Camille quite enjoyed it:

He even "read" her a book (which she tried to eat):


Call me cheesy, but I think the biggest joy of parenting for me so far has been seeing my 2 children show unfeigned love for each other. The second Camille starts crying, often before I even realize she's upset, Daniel starts making this weird goofy noise in an attempt to make her smile instead- and the majority of the time, it works. He's been calling her "sweetie" lately (thankfully he hasn't started on "fatbaby" yet). Camille lights up when he comes to her and cries when he walks away from her. He helps her sit down when her chubby legs are tired. She plays with his hair and blows filberts on him.
I tried to find one or two good photos of them together, and found so many sweet ones, I don't know how to narrow it down- this is not even half of the cute ones showing their relationship.

The Failed Haircut, illustrated

I try to do the boy's haircutting at home, to save money. I figure I might as well practice it while Daniel was too young to care if I screw up.
I was spared haircuts for the first year and a half, because he was bald as a cue-ball for the first year and hardly had enough for a cut up until he was 20 months old or so:

The first haircut was rough. I took him to a pro so I could observe how it was done. Oh, how I loved those curls... but they were just too long. Sadly, they never grew back:(

I'll be the first to admit that his first few haircuts at home weren't great:


But they got better over time. The last haircut was the best yet- I actually didn't feel ashamed of it at all;)

We waited a bit long between haircuts though, and Daniel was looking pretty wild:


He was NOT happy once the process started. He kept asking "Why?" and I'd say "because your hair was getting wild" and he'd say "I WANT wild hair, I no like nice hair". Amidst continuing mutterings of "I tan't let you do this, mum", and one wiggle at a critical point, I accidentally hacked off half his bangs and some important sideburns. I tried evening it out, but this was the final product:

I tried to just let it be and let him go wash off and play a bit but.... he looked like a goober. There's no other word for it. Goober.
I called my sister Becky for the advice I knew I'd get: "buzz it". I love Daniel's curly hair and NEVER thought I would buzz it, but... it had to be done.
Knowing how wretched our first haircut of the day went, I found Daniel and told him I needed him to come back, this time for a totally new and different SUPERHERO haircut. He perked right up. I buzzed him first with a 5 but he looked shaggy, so we went down to a 3. He still squirmed but the anticipation of looking like a SUPERHERO did the trick. Finally:

(this was my first "buzz" experience- don't worry, I went back and evened it out afterwords)

Showing off his superhero awesomeness:

He looks... ok. His ears stick out. But he's convinced he looks like a superhero, so my plan worked there. We'll be avoiding buzzcuts in the future, but it's nice to know its an option.

First Day Of Preschool

First, this is the first "back-to-school" season since 1989 that Kenny has not gone back to a school (aside from two-years spent on a mission for the church in montana). He seems quite happy and free:) I think he is doing a truly fantastic job as a stay-at-home dad and I love that we are all at home during the day now. He brings a smiling Camille in to my office whenever he gets her up from a nap, just to smile at me for a few minutes while I work. It makes me happy:)
Second, I completed my first solo sewing project! Daniel needed a new nap mat for school and I decided to be crafty about it (I thought it would be thriftier, too, but.... turns out sewing projects are expensive). Camille was quite the helper:


With some last-minute, late-night sewing machine troubleshooting from my mom (hurray for FaceTime) I finished it just in time. Daniel loves it:

And it's a little easy to transport than his old beat up "nap mat" (aka, 10 dollar Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag from walmart).

It may be Kenny's first year NOT at school, but it's Daniel's first year AT school- even if it is just a preschool. The last year and a half, he's done a Mother's Day Out program 15 hours a week (at the time it was necessary for childcare while I was working at home and Kenny was teaching, though I definitely think it's been fantastic for Daniel's development). This year, at the same place, Daniel is officially a preschooler.
He was oh-so-excited about going back to school:
Though once we got there, he got a little shy (this is a new thing for him- he'll hide behind my legs and say "I... I.. I can't talk, I'm too shy".) This lasts until you ask him to show something off (a sticker, a tshirt, a toy, an imaginary super hero outfit.... whatever is available) at which point he brightens right up and tells the stranger all about it.
Anyways, he seems to be loving preschool, and we're admittedly enjoying some quiet time around the house (well, as quiet as it is with a grumpy baby around.)
On top of her fantastic crawl-scoot skills, Camille can now pull herself to standing. We discovered this for the first time when I went to get her from a nap (in her still-in-highest-position-and-totally-unsafe crib) and found her thus:



Needless to say, we lowered the crib. Now that she knows how to stand, she's been constantly frustrated- either frustrated that she isn't currently standing, or frustrated that she is stuck in standing position and can't get back down, or frustrated that we've put her in her crib to sleep when she'd rather be standing. It's been a tough week for all of us (mostly for Kenny though, while I'm working). She's permanently exhausted, and her napping schedule is out the window. Which leads to my FIRST EVER child-fell-asleep-in-the-high-chair experience that my sister Lori has had such fun with:


But it is fun to see her interact so much more with the world around her


She's also hit her first bit of separation anxiety, just a little- but only for daddy. If I take her from him, she cries for him. It hurts me more than it should- believe me little girl, I would love to be with you fulltime but things sometimes don't go as planned.
She is still a smiley, cute baby, though, so I guess we'll let it slide. Also, she is reminding me more and more of my sister Lori, which makes me happy. Everywhere she goes, people stop us and comment on her cuteness. Apparently today at the mall, someone even asked to get a picture with her! To be fair, her outfit today was +4 cuteness (and check out those teeth):

Anniversary!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Kenny, fantastic husband that he is, planned a fun little overnight trip to austin with the kids to celebrate. It wasn't anything big, fancy, or free from children, but it was still a nice little break.
We hit the Bluebell Ice Cream factory on our way to Austin. The parking lot has hugo silos on one side, with labels identifying the deliciousness inside:

Camille quite liked the hat she got:

By which I mean, she liked to eat it:

The tour was great, as was the free ice cream scoop at the end (I got the nuclear yellow cake batter with colored sugar cookie dough, which the person serving us warned me was really REALLY sweet, thinking that would dissuade me- ha!)

Then Kenny took us to a sculpture garden, which seemed random to me, but I like that kind of stuff so I didn't question it, aside from the fact it was 100 degrees out. When we got there and he expained he planned it into our trip because he wanted it to remind me of our honeymoon trip to Victoria and the Butchart gardens. Isn't that just so sweet? Plus the garden had a few "romantic" statues (aka people making out in bushes) that added to the romantic-osity of the trip:

And for the kids, a giant chicken:


Then we checked into the hotel and had a blast swimming in a pool just by ourselves.

Then we high-tailed it to downtown Austin to see the 1.5 MILLION bats who live under congress bridge all take off for their nightly hunt. I had really wanted to see this, and kenny went along with it, and we got there at just the right time with a few minutes to spare... but unfortunately, Daniel had to use the bathroom and I thought we had a few extra minutes so I took him and ended up missing pretty much the whole thing. Kenny did get it on camera though:

Even though I only caught the tail-end of it, it was amazing. Felt straight out of Planet Earth of something.

Then back to our hotel room. Kenny had specifically requested and paid extra for a suite that had "separated rooms" so we would have a private bed and daniel and camille would get the other room with the hide-a-bed and a pack-and-play. Unfortunately, "separated" meant they just had a desk in between them, so we spent our "romantic" anniversary night in plain sight of Daniel, who gushed for hours about his "magic bed" that changed from a couch:

So much for privacy, but such are the adjustments parents must make. At least Daniel's cute.

Kenny didn't have much planned for the following day, so I googled for stuff to do in Austin and we found Barton Springs Pool, a pool formed out of a natural spring. The outer rim of the pool was improved for swimmers, but the floor of the pool was the actual spring bottom, natural rock, seaweed, deep holes and all. The water was COLD and the ground was super slippery but it was a blast (and only like 6 bucks for the whole family). I'd absolutely recommend it for anyone in Austin. Though it isn't an ideal kid pool- there are shallow areas but they are so very slippery that we just gave up and sat down and let Camille splash her heart out:

In other news, my baby is VERY FAT:

(at her 9 month checkup ther other day she was 90th percentile for weight and 10th for height)

All in all, a fantastic trip, only a little over 24 hours away from home. While part of me wishes we had a trip by ourselves (which look like we may be getting in December- 4 days without kids for my company Christmas party in Utah), in a way I'm really glad the kids were there. We all had a blast and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the family we've built together in the last 5 years than including the kids in the celebration.