Things that are Growing in our House

Baby Pigeons! A co-worker in Bruce's clinic was gone for a few days and left her window open. When she got back to her office, she found a pigeon nest on her desk with a pigeon in it. The pigeon was chased outside, but she felt so bad about the nest that Bruce offered to take the nest home to see if the baby pigeons could be saved. So for the last couple of weeks, we've had a pigeon nest on our kitchen counter. Bruce read up on how to hatch and take care of baby pigeons and we've been very excited. However, they were supposed to hatch a couple of days ago, so we've kind of given up on them.


Seedlings! We've started Roma and jellybean tomatoes, jalapeno and bell peppers, basil, and broccoli from seed and are looking forward to transplanting them soon.


Myra! Myra seems to be in a constant growth spurt, it seems. We celebrated her half birthday a couple of weeks ago, thanks to Alice, who started the tradition.



Myra loved getting messy but didn't really ever try to eat the cake. She has been eating lots of baby food lately and just loves anything that is mixed with cereal.


Here she is with the giraffe Alice picked out as her present.

Myra had her 6 month appointment and it still off the charts for height, weight, and head circumference. She's now 22.5 lbs and 27.5 inches. To put this in perspective for weight, Myra is in the 95th percentile for a 9 month old. Also, Alice is only 8.5 lbs heavier than she is.

10 x 10 = 100

10 favorite pictures from Florida:













10 things we did in Florida:

1. Went to the beach (Alice got knocked over by a wave almost immediately and wouldn't go near the water after that, but did have fun building sand castles with Memaw)
2. Fireworks! Both Alice and Myra loved them.
3. I had a one hour full body massage courtesy of Pepaw, which was very welcome after lugging all 22.5 lbs of Myra.
4. Picked strawberries.
5. Went to Lake Alice.
6. Played with bubbles and water guns in the pool and went to a few parks.
7. Went on walks in the nice weather.
8. Got some good ol' Sonny's BBQ and had some other wonderful dishes cooked by Memaw.
9. I went to the movies with my brother John--we saw Vantage Point, which I highly recommend.
10. We wore shorts and flip flops while it snowed in Iowa!



10 things eaten Easter weekend:

1. Ham
2. Holiday Potatoes
3. Broccoli Salad
4. Jello Salad
5. Yeast Rolls
6. Blueberry Crisp
7. Jelly Beans
8. Chocolate Eggs
9. Malt Ball Eggs
10. Pizza



10 Alice sayings:

1. Hard do! (translation--drop everything you're doing to come help me because I can't figure out how to do this immediately)
2. Aya Happy! (said fervently every time we mention the 'N' word)
3. No, I Aya Parson. (whenever we suggest she pretend to be something)
4. Jello _____. (fill in the blank--this always gets a big laugh, at least from Alice)
5. You're as pretty as a princess! Say cheese! (sayings she picked up from a toy camera)
6. Myra stinky. (Alice says this when I tell her we need to go change her pants--always blames it on the baby)
7. Mommy, hold you? (translation--Mommy, hold me on your lap instead of Myra)
8. Doh Dee Doh (not sure what this means, but it's almost as hilarious as jello)
9. Aya big girl. (we're hearing this more and more often)
10. Dirty table. Make Aya sad. Mommy wash? (Alice is very particular about cleanliness when it comes to the table and her hands)



10 places Bruce is thinking of or has thought about job-wise:

1. Memphis, TN
2. Temple, TX
3. Wilmington, NC
4. Killeen, TX
5. Cincinnati, OH
6. Oklahoma City, OK
7. Tuscaloosa, AL
8. Jacksonville, FL
9. Fort Myers, FL
10. Naples, FL



10 things Myra can do:

1. Roll from back to stomach
2. Roll from stomach to back (did this for the first time for in Florida for Pepaw)
3. Eat rice cereal
4. Sit up for a couple of minutes
5. Pull hair (hers and ours)
6. Sleep in a crib (until a few days ago, she was still in her bassinet--knees bent to fit)
7. Grab toys away from Alice, if given the opportunity
8. Fit into 12-18 month clothing
9. Spit
10. Sleep through most of Alice's night terrors



10 things that will be in our garden this year:

1. Broccoli
2. Roma & Jellybean Tomatoes
3. Cucumbers
4. Onions
5. Beans
6. Peas
7. Carrots
8. Squash
9. Basil & Cilantro
10. Bell & Jalapeno Peppers



10 things we plan on doing this Summer:

1. State Republican convention in Des Moines.
2. State Fair.
3. Star Trek Festival.
4. 4th of July Fireworks in Hills.
5. Finish exploring Nauvoo.
6. Camping at a state park.
7. Parkinson Family reunion in Montana.
8. Host the 2nd annual Blueberry Potluck.
9. Can TONS of salsa.
10. And last but not least, house hunting! (destination unknown)



10 books I have read multiple times:

1. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
2. Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes
3. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
4. These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
6. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
7. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
8. The Firm, John Grisham
9. Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen
10. Pollyanna, Eleanor Porter



10 places Bruce can fall asleep:

1. Curled up in the Lazyboy
2. On the floor with Alice crawling all over him
3. Couch (any kind, anywhere)
4. Bed (his or any other)
5. Alice's Bed (during the bedtime routine)
6. Car (when in the passenger seat, of course)
7. Airplane (I'm jealous about this one)
8. Scrunched on the Loveseat
9. In the grass
10. Standing up (this one is yet untested, but I bet he could do it)

This is a must-see for anyone having a baby or who plans on having a baby. Probably a little radical for those who haven't ever thought of birth outside the confines of a hospital, but I feel strongly that with anything this important, it's good to know as much as possible. If you go to the website there is a list of showings around the country or you can get it through Netflix like we did.

So, this is the 99th blog entry that we've posted, making the next entry the 100th. I keep on thinking that it really needs to be something special. Any ideas? I'll have to see what I come up with. As fun as pictures of my cute kids are, I don't think that is the special something I'm looking for, so I'll just have to make this a miscellaneous free-for-all entry so as not to breech the precious 100th entry. I really like the comment my friend's husband wrote on their blog. Actually, I guess I can call him my friend since I was friends with him before they ever started dating. But anyways, here it is, "My kids are cuter than other people's kids. I truly believe this. And so do you, if you keep a blog."


Happy Keester, oh, I mean Easter. Painting baby's behinds is probably as sacrilege to the true meaning of Easter as my scheduling the hard boiled egg eating contest back to back with the Bishop giving a heartfelt telling of the Easter story at our ward's Easter activity yesterday. I didn't realize it until the moment arrived and after bumbling through a sorry excuse for a transition, seven guys began stuffing their faces with hard boiled eggs. In case you were wondering, to win, you either had to eat 5 eggs before everyone else did or had to have eaten the most in 2 minutes. The winner (he also won the hot dog eating contest at the opening social last Summer) finished all 5 eggs in 1 minute--the rest of the competition had a least two eggs left on their plates. It was pretty gross. What was his secret, you wonder? Instead of chewing the egg, he took big chunks and swallowed them whole with a swig of water.


Here's Alice with the Easter eggs she collected at the activity. We started out having everyone get 5 eggs and then once all the children got 5, it was a free-for-all. Alice really took advantage of the free-for-all part.

A couple of days ago, Alice had a run in with the asphalt on the basketball court behind our house. You can kind of see it in this picture, right next to her eye. Anyways, when someone asked Bruce about it at the activity, he told them it was a basketball injury. Hmm...


Alice has monopolized most of the Easter baskets in the house and seems to have at least one in hand at all times.



Mark, Karen, and crew came to visit last night and stayed for the Easter festivities. The kids hid chocolate eggs and had fun hiding and finding them over and over and over again. Alice was in 7th heaven with all her cousins to play with. Here they are making Easter egg pictures out of rice glitter--a craft we did at the Easter activity on Saturday (thanks to my friend Sierra for giving me the idea).

Well, I am just so glad to be done with planning things, at least for the next little while. In the last two weeks I've organized and prepared a dinner for 40 people, hosted a surprise baby shower, and was in charge of the ward's Easter activity. I'm tuckered out and flat out of good ideas. Now what to do for my 100th blog entry...

Johnson County Republican Convention

Last Saturday I went to the Johnson County Republican Convention as an alternate delegate for my precinct. Since the drunk guy didn't make it (see caucus posting) I became an official delegate and was able to vote. There were two main parts to the convention--one was to vote for delegates to go to the district and state conventions, the other to vote on any amendments to the platform and approve the platform.

As I understood it, voting on delegates for district/state conventions was normally a very mundane, routine task, however, this year it was a very heated battle that I truly enjoyed watching! The issue was that in years past, there had never been enough delegates to fill the 78 slots at district/state. If that's the case, the county republican party has to pay the $40 fee per slot that the delegate normally pays. This takes money away from the party, thus taking money away from local republican candidates. So this year the county republican party advertised that even if you weren't a county delegate, that you could become a district/state delegate. I'm not sure if that was a new rule or one that was not widely known. They asked each presidential candidate campaign to send a list of names of people who were interested in going to the district/state convention. I got an e-mail from the Romney campaign, asking me if I was interested, but because I was going to be at the convention I didn't respond.

Then at the county convention, they asked for all county delegates who were interested, to write their names on a piece of paper. The tricky part was that when they posted the names of those who were selected by the "nominating committee" to be district/state delegates, a lot of the county delegates were not on the list because there weren't enough slots for everyone, which had never happened before (usually they were begging people). The county delegates who were left off the list got upset, stating that they showed up to the county convention and that they should have priority over those who didn't. Anyways, after two hours of amendments to the list (everything was done using Parliamentary Procedure, which was fun since I'd competed in that in high school) and debate, the chair decided to put the issue on the table and move on to the platform. The convention was supposed to last from 9-1 but because of the problems with the list, we were only halfway through the platform amendments when I had to leave around 1:30pm. I was sad to have to leave early because I found it really interesting.

I still don't know if I'm a delegate or an alternate delegate--I think if I had responded to the Romney e-mail I would have definitely had a delegate spot, but I don't really mind either way. It was fun to be a part of the process and I am looking forward to the District Convention on April 19th.

Don't Trespass in Texas!

I don't know how well you can see this, but the bottom line of this sign says, "Violators will be electrocuted." This was a sign Bruce found outside his hotel in Austin. Bruce was concerned enough that he looked around to make sure there was nothing that could potentially electrocute him, all the while thinking, how would they tell who was a tenant or not? Anyways, it doesn't look like we'll be ending up in Temple. The job at Scott & White didn't seem like a great fit and the VA job we found out was in the process of being filled when he applied. Bruce applied to one other job in Oklahoma City last week, but other than that, hasn't pursued other postings. We're still being fairly picky at this point.

Aya's Half Birthday

Alice turned 2 1/2 on February 25th and though I never told her this, she sensed it and felt the need to celebrate (since we had failed so miserably). Yesterday, we went to the dollar store so she could spend her $5 that Memaw sent her. She was thrilled and had a hard time picking just five things. To my confusion, one of those five things was a roll of wrapping paper. Albeit, it did have sesame street characters on it, but still, wrapping paper? When we got home, she put everything down so she could open her wrapping paper. She unrolled the whole thing and started setting the other toys on top of it. I finally realized she picked out the wrapping paper so she could wrap her toys! We wrapped them up and she carried them around in a bag most of the afternoon. I asked her once what was in the packages and she said, "sh! secret!," which she picked up when we were trying to explain that she shouldn't tell people what she got them for Christmas. I also asked her when she was going to open up her presents and she said that she was going to wait for daddy to come home. Well, she did wait for hours, which I was very impressed with, but we didn't make it until dad got home. As she was opening up her presents, she told me it was "Aya birday" and that I should put up the "birday sign." We didn't put up the sign, but I did sing her happy birthday. It was really funny to watch her open the presents because she got so excited about each gift, acting like she had no idea what was in the package. Or maybe she really didn't remember?

Snow, Snow, Snow

Why am I blogging so much today? Well, there's not much else to do. Bruce is stuck in Texas--he was supposed to arrive last night but there was so much snow around here that Chicago grinded to a hault. Now he's stuck in a motel in Austin until tomorrow afternoon. Don't feel too sorry for him though. He's been living the good life for the past couple of days in a suite at the Hilton, going to country clubs and eating fancy four course meals, and ordering room service (for the first time in his life), courtesy of the hospital he is interviewing with. He's gone a little downhill since then though (now that it's on his tab)--he had greasy hashbrowns for lunch/dinner at the Waffle House this afternoon, the only restaurant within walking distance of the motel.

I tried to go get groceries this morning and didn't make it farther than a quarter of a mile down the road before I went right off the road into the ditch. Thank goodness someone stopped--I couldn't get my door open without her help and it would have been a long quarter mile walk home with two kids (we are one of the few people in the world who don't have cell phones). She actually worked for the county and called to see if someone could come pull us out. The roads were so bad everywhere else that they'd been flooded with people needing help and we were very low priority. The kind lady drove us back home and I called a tow service to pull out the car. He had two cars to pull out before us, but within a couple of hours called again and said he was a few minutes away. I told him that since I had to walk to the car, it might take a little while. I was hoping he would offer to pick me up but he did not. Myra was taking a nap and I tried calling our neighbors but they were out, so I put a video on for Alice and started walking down the road. It was about 10 degrees at that point and the wind was blowing really hard--had to be in the negatives with the windchill. About 5 minutes into the walk, a big truck stopped and the guy asked me if I wanted a ride. The guys was pretty scruffy--not someone I'd normally hitch a ride from, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. The tow guy was able to pull the car out pretty easily, so I was gone all of 15 minutes, but it was still nerve wracking having to leave the girls. I just didn't know what else to do. I didn't want anyone else out on the roads trying to help us.

It's supposed to be in the negatives tomorrow and there's also a windchill warning. Can I just tell you that I am SO glad this is my last winter here!!!! I can laugh at days like this because I know I will never in my life have to deal with something like it again:)

Valentine's Day

What we have been up to...

A couple of weeks ago we had Alice's friend Jacob over for a few days while his parents were at the hospital having a new baby. Jacob has a special blanket he carries around, and to our dismay, Alice also felt the need to have a special blanket. We have slowly weened her off of it so now she only uses it at night when she is sleeping, rather than dragging it everywhere she goes. It is called 'The Elmo Blanket.'


Alice and Bruce made a star cake for my birthday. Alice originally wanted to make me an Elmo cake, but I told her since it was my birthday, I wanted either a heart or a star. Bruce managed to find room for 29 candles on the cake, though it was pretty crowded.


Myra's big thing lately is a very strong desire to sit up. She is no longer satisfied with sitting in her bouncy seat or laying back to be fed--she wants to see things. Specifically, she wants to see Alice. Her face lights up when Alice walks into the room--she can't get enough of her big sister.


Alice's new thing is playdough. We also made sugar cookies today and decorated them with frosting and sprinkles, which is very similar to playdough except you get to eat what you make!


Alice has also really been enjoying playing computer games on sesamestreet.org. It's really been fun for her to look for different letters on the keyboard. She can recognize most uppercase letters, thanks to her ABC puzzle, but still needs to work on lowercase. She has also finally started counting normally. For months, she would only say "1, 2, 8, 10," even though we knew she could count to 10 if she wanted to because we would ask her what came after different numbers and she could tell us. I think she just wanted to do it quickly and figured skipping numbers was the best way.

An Account of the Weed and the Outlier

While we were dating, Bruce went for treatment at my dad's office when he was having some back pain. As we were leaving, a patient came up to us and said that we were going to have really tall children. It was a little embarrassing at the time, since we were only dating, but boy was she right!

THE WEED
I looked at Alice the other day and realized that her long sleeved shirt was now a 3/4 length sleeve with about an inch of midriff showing and her pants could not be called anything but highwaters. Some of her clothes still fit, but I've been pulling out things I bought for next year, which is probably good since they might not fit next winter! Since church was cancelled today due to bad weather, I instituted Pajama Day, since her jammies are one of the few things that still do fit her.

THE OUTLIER
Myra had her four month appointment on Wednesday and really outdid herself. She is 20lbs and 27.5 inches. Just to give you a little idea of what that means, beyond being completely off the charts--Alice was 21lbs at her 9 month checkup and she was in the 95th percentile for her weight. She was 27.5 inches at her 6 month checkup and was 90th percentile for her height. So weight-wise, Myra is a very large 9 month old.

Ear Fun

Myra found her ears the other day. She was trying with all her might to pull one of them off, I'm assuming so she could chew on it. I pointed this out to Bruce and Alice because it looked so funny. I then asked Alice if she could pull one of her ears off, thinking she would know I was joking. But no, she immediately started pulling on her ear, and after a few seconds got frustrated and said, "It hard do!" Usually, when she says that I tell her that she can do hard things, but even though it would have been very entertaining to see her try harder to pull her ear off, I decided not to:)

Alice has been particularly worried about keeping things clean lately. She even cleared the table off the other night without us asking her to and we've never even shown her how to do it beyond our example. She just started clearing things off and putting them by the sink. We didn't even notice until after she was almost done. So, all you parents out there--I'm guessing this phase doesn't last long? Enjoy it while it lasts, you're saying in your head?

More Alice & Myra Pics

This is what Alice has been doing lately...

...playing with puzzles.


...building 'houses' out of Duplos (for Minnie Mouse to live in).


...cooking things in her kitchen (usually hot chocolate--I've only made it on the stove once, but it really made and impression!).

Rewind to Christmas

Forgot to post the Christmas pics. Here are a few.


Alice left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.


She also got big girl undies and wanted to wear every single pair at the same time.


Santa brought her a kitchen set with utinsels, four place settings, and play food.

Some Recent Pictures of Myra

Myra laughed for the first time last week. She's about grown out of most of her 6 month clothing so I've had to pull out the 9-12 month stuff.

She is very good natured, even when she's almost squished from Alice hugs. She also doesn't get nearly as many cat naps as she would like because as soon as she shuts her eyes, Alice comes and screams in her ear. Alice is not trying to be malicious, she just likes having Myra awake and responsive!

Caucusing

Bruce decided to go to the Republican caucus with me last night--he took a quiz that tells you which candidate you are most closely aligned with and he was most closely aligned with Republican candidates. It was a little disappointing for him, since the Democratic caucus is more interesting. You actually stand in groups based on who you support (undecided also in a group) and if your candidate does not have more than 15 percent of the crowd, you have to break up and join another candidate's group. All the other groups are trying to get you to join their group. The Republican caucus is shorter, but not as exciting. There's a time to make statements for your candidate and try to sway people, but then you just have a normal paper vote.

The Lone Tree caucuses were held at the Lone Tree high school. We put the kids in the double stroller and went in the main entrance and ran into a huge wall of people completely blocking off the hallway who, we found out, were Democrats trying to sign in. Their caucus started a half hour earlier so it was surprising they were still trying to get people in the door. It was quite a feat to wade through everyone with the huge stroller, especially when they didn't understand that we were trying to go through the crowd, not cut in line. Then it was another adventure trying to find an elevator to get to the second floor.

We finally made it and realized pretty soon that there are ALOT more Democrats than Republicans in Lone Tree. There were a total of 44 people in the small classroom we were in and I'd guess probably 200 downstairs at the Democratic caucus. The moderator said there were only 6 who showed up at the last caucus in 2000. I don't know if Bruce would classify this as interesting or annoying, but there was a youngish redneck who had obviously had a couple of beers before he showed up who was really, to put it nicely, very vocal during the whole process.

Another part of the caucus is voting for people to be on the central committee and to be county delegates. They needed 3 people for each and you were supposed to nominate people. Well, this guy nominated himself for both and managed to get himself on both (mainly because no one else wanted to do it) but let's say the 'ayes' weren't nearly as loud for him as the other nominees, though no one was brave enough to say 'nay.' I was definitely tempted.

For our little crowd of 44, Fred Thompson won with Mitt Romney coming in second.

Goodbye Presidential Candidates

Well, the caucuses are tonite, which means Iowa's 15 minutes of fame are almost over. Bruce and I were talking the other day and regretted not having gone to see more candidates when we had the chance. I found someone to babysit the girls and went to see Obama yesterday afternoon. I was very impressed with his charisma and likability and if I were a Democrat, I would probably vote for him. But going to hear him speak made me realize more than ever that I have Republican values. Bruce is still trying to decide which caucus he wants to go to. He is currently registered Independent but will have to switch to either Democrat or Republican if he is going to participate tonite.

Jello

The other day, Alice came up to us and said 'poopy slide' and then cracked up laughing, to the point of rolling on the floor. We not sure why that set her off, though we know what she was referring to--we had a Christmas party and Alice had diarrhea so bad that it leaked out of her diaper, through her pants, and made a brown streak on her slide. Thankfully, we were able to stop the next child in line before they went down the slide.

After Alice collected herself, she said 'poopy slide' again, and again she was hysterical. I didn't want to encourage her to say 'poopy' so I started saying 'jello' and laughed a lot and suddenly 'jello' was the funny word. That was easy, I thought. Then last night, after a few days of laughing at the word 'jello,' Bruce says to Alice, 'poopy jello' and they both laugh hysterically. Thanks a lot Bruce!

Myra's Checkup

Myra had her 2 month checkup on Wednesday. She was off the charts for height and weight (she's now 16 pounds and 24.5 inches) but her head was on the small side (95 percentile!). The good thing about her being so big is that her tummy is big which means she sleeps very well at night. She has slept between 7 and 10 hours a night for the past few weeks, which we have really appreciated. Alice came with us to the appointment and was very upset that she wasn't the one getting shots until Myra actually got the shots and started screaming her head off. After that, she didn't whine about wanting a shot anymore.

"Aya Big Girl"

"Aya" is no longer a baby--she is a big girl!


She goes to swimming class with her Daddy and absolutely loves it. (Her teacher, Jan, is in the background--she told Bruce that she's taught toddlers how to swim for longer than he's been alive.)


She made her own pizza on a fieldtrip our playgroup took to Old Chicago Pizza.


She sleeps in a big girl bed (ignore the binkie--we still haven't attempted that transition yet).

And she can go pee pee in the potty! (Only if she's watching a movie, drinking juice, eating cookies, and gets candy afterward.) So....we're going to postpone this part of being a big girl for a few more months.