First real bath

Now that Ellie lost her umbilical cord stump she was in need of a real bath. She had been awake for a long time this evening and I was tired so I thought maybe if I gave her a bath she would hate it and scream & cry and wear herself out and go to sleep. :) I am such an evil mommy with my ulterior motives.


Can you believe she actually seemed to enjoy it this time?! She didn't fuss or cry at all! In fact I think she might have actually cooed at me from happiness. Well so much for my plans to get to bed. :) I told Matt to bring in the camera and she is such a modest little gal to pose just right. Atta girl Ellie belly!

Sunday - a day with family

Sunday morning my mom invited us over for breakfast. Matt was still not feeling well so he stayed home, and I hoped I would not be a carrier monkey for whatever it was he had. Levi and I enjoyed a nice meal with mom, grandma and Wes and Joanie. My mom made an egg casserole, veggie links, and fried potatoes. We also had cantaloupe, a berry smoothie and grandma's homemade bread.

After breakfast my brother helped me move a big storage cabinet from mom's storage, which we swapped out for Levi's dresser so we would have more room for the kids' clothes. Wes reminisced about the white truck and all the places he's taken it - Arizona, Maryland, Florida. I had not remembered that the truck was so well-traveled. He also showed me his secret money-hiding spot but there was no money left there.

Then we decided to go to the Milton pool. It was not as hot today as it has been - it was 91 yesterday but today only 87. We all loaded up into the station-wagon for the trip south. Wes sat in the rear-facing seat in the very back. Right after we arrived they announced there had been an accident and it would be 45 minutes before everyone could get back in the pool. My brother had a little mini video camera and got some cute footage of Levi which I hope to have cut together & posted pretty soon (you can see Levi holding the camera in this photo - like nothing I've ever seen!).


Grandma didn't have a suit and took her knitting needles along. I didn't swim either so I sat with her and Ellie in the shade. Levi pulled off his swimming trunks and wanted his swim diaper off too but I told him it was the rule at the pool that he had to wear it even if he wasn't going to swim. When it was finally ok to swim mom took Levi by the hand and got him excited about going in the pool. Everyone else was running for the water so it helped him to get caught up in the action and excitement. Wes and mom played with Levi in the shallow end as long as he was interested and when he got tired of playing we went home. We were there for quite awhile but an hour of it was just sitting around waiting for it to be ok to go in. Levi had a fantastic time playing with Oma and Uncle.

May 30 2009

Sabbath morning started out badly. Matt was up at 6 am in the bathroom sick. We had planned to have Ellie's dedication at church today since so many family members were in town to see her. My grandma even bought her a beautiful dress with matching bonnet for the occasion. With Matt having definite flu symptoms he was not going to church today, so we decided to postpone her dedication. This was upsetting to many people but they understood, it wouldn't be right without her dad there. So I had to get up and get myself ready and then two kids, what a job! I called my dad and he said he would meet me there to help with Levi.

As I pulled into the parking lot I saw Wes waving at me from the door. He and Joanie came over to the car to help carry kids and 'stuff.' They said they were running behind today as well and had just gotten there, lucky for me! They joined me in Cradle Roll II and helped with Levi, and a short time later dad came in and sat with us. Levi did pretty well today, he sure looked sharp in his suit! I had gotten him a new one from Macy's for the dedication and it was complete with a vest and tie.

Before church I had to hunt down Pastor Cary to let him know the change in plans. I had a couple people wrangle me in the meantime who wanted to see Ellie and talk about her. I was pretty frazzled and not in the mood for being social. I was actually a complete emotional wreck most of the morning. It didn't help when Levi decided to act up and had to have a time out.

After church I headed home with the kids to check on Matt and let the dogs out before our celebration lunch at mom's. Matt was still quick sick so after getting Levi changed and taking care of the dogs we headed back to mom's house. Everyone was there - Dad, Wes and Joanie, Grandma and Orville, the Rood family, the Fleischers, Lois and Will. I almost started crying again when Warren asked me how I was doing but I managed to keep it together and got past that mood swing by the time we sat down to eat. We had BBQ salmon that Orville had caught in Alaska, beans & veggie franks, potato salad, pasta salad, green salad, grandma's homemade bread, deviled eggs and fresh fruit - it was quite the feast. To round out dinner we had homemade pies - apple and strawberry rhubarb, and ice cream.

Following dinner there was a shower for Ellie and everyone gave us really nice gifts - a lot of darling clothing - some of which were handmade. There were even a couple gifts for Levi. We all sat around and visited (some people snoozed). It has been nice having so much family in town now that Levi is older, he enjoys their interaction with him and I enjoy the break of constantly having to keep an eye on him.

Wes held Ellie for the first time and was a little nervous about it but he did great! He has his own little munchkin on the way, they are due in December. While Wes was holding Ellie her umbilical cord FINALLY fell off. Wes was a little weirded out by it and made me pick it up off his shirt ;)


Dad left to head back to Portland the same time we left the house so we said our goodbyes and I headed home. We had a nice time while he was here and I know Levi will miss him too.

Jeff's visit - Thursday

Today we went out Geocaching. This was my first time since I don't have a GPS device. Our first location was out in the country just outside of College Place. At first we were out searching along a lane until we decided to zoom in and then we saw that we were a little off course. It looked like it may be in the neighboring pasture, so we went out there and tromped around until we realized it was across on the other side of the creek.

We went over to the other side and started having trouble with the GPS device freezing up and not directing us. When we finally got it working again it was telling us that the cache was near the corner post but after searching for quite some time we never did find anything. It was disappointing to start out that way, but we continued on to the next one. Levi was having a good time wandering around and looking for 'treasure' - he even learned to say 'geocaching' pretty well. The whole time he carried his new toy from Grandma Joyce - a gel frog, whom he has named "Mister." Sine he pronounces his 'th' as 'l' it sounds like he is saying 'Mister le Frog' in a French accent.



Our second cache was called "A dyke runs through it" and some of the comments on the site noted that it was a good place to see wildlife. We saw a momma duck with her ducklings right away.

Unfortunately we also saw a dead baby duck right by the cache. It was rewarding to finally find a cache! This one was so small that only a log of people who had discovered it fit inside. My dad wrote down the date of discovery and my name since he claims "you are the local"

On to the next one! Again we had trouble with the GPS freezing up. This one had a clue about the location of the cache. By now it was long past Levi's naptime and I was starting to experience the effects of that so my dad went looking for this one on his own and said he would come get us if he found it. Well everything was so overgrown that even though he could see where it might be, he didn't want to walk over to it in his shorts, sandals and fear of snakes. :)


After that we went back to the house and put Levi down for his nap. He went right to sleep. Once he woke up we went back to dad's hotel to use the pool. It was a pretty hot day! At first Levi did not want to get his bathing suit on. He was screaming and crying and fighting Matt. But we persisted ("You are going to have a good time and you're going to like it!") and got him in the water. Matt swam around with him a little bit and he just wanted out and to sit on my lap. After a little while Matt let him climb out of the pool and he came over to me and I had him go fetch a towel. Matt wanted him back in the water, so I took him back over. He fought it at first but then he finally started having fun, and had a great time from there on out. Once he discovered the little seat at the deep end he enjoyed hanging out there since it was shallow for him. Of course Mister le Frog participated.




We ended our busy day by going over to mom's house for hamburgers and corn on the cob for dinner. We had a nice visit with Joyce and Orville as well and then called it a day.

4 Generations

My grandma came to town from Montana and she and my mom stopped by for a visit Wednesday evening. It was really heartwarming to see how taken she was with her first great-granddaughter.

Jeff's visit - Wednesday

My dad told me about this new hobby he had tried out - Geocaching. It sounded like something fun to do so we loaded up in the station-wagon and all went out hunting for treasure. Well the two locations that my dad had loaded into his GPS turned out to be Andy's parking lot and the intersection of College Ave and Mojonnier - not ideal locations for kids to be out looking. So we decided to go to the park instead and dad said he would load some other locations for tomorrow. Levi had a great time on the slides and bikes.

Gedes baby

Ellie really loves sleeping on her stomach.

Busy busy busy

So far we've had a nice time with my dad visiting. We played some Rummy last night out in the camp trailer while Levi played with toys and Ellie slept on the seat next to me. It was a very close game but I won by 5 pts in the last hand.

Today my dad and Ellie took a 4 hour nap on the couch.


I had plans for the day but they got postponed until tomorrow. I was hoping to have my hair cut off but the gal I plan to use was not in today, and booked until next week, so it looks like I will be waiting until the 2nd for my new 'do.

Tonight Valia brought us dinner - a spinach & tofu linguine, corn, bread and popsicles! A lovely meal, thanks so much! I will sure be sad to see these dinners come to an end :)

Ellie's dedication will be this coming Sabbath, and the suit I bought for Levi is not the right size (what's wrong with me?) so I will have to exchange that tomorrow. We will also be going down to the courthouse to license the wagon. My dad promised Levi a trip to the park, and we also need to make a run to storage to take some more baby things back out. At some point we'll squeeze in a meal out on the town.

In other news, somehow a neighborhood cat got into my chicken pen tonight. I went out and hissed at it and then watched it climb the walls trying to escape. Foiled by the net cover! After it's fourth fearful attempt (and after I opened the door for the dumb thing) it finally did get back out the way it got in - through a gap in the net cover. I am going to have to fix that tomorrow. I also have four little garden plants that need to be transplanted. Two tomatoes, a pepper plant and cucumber. So much to do and so little energy!

Ellie's been awesome for a newborn, just sleeping all the time. Levi's had a couple of rough nights in a row, so that combined with my sick dogs has left me with not much sleep these past couple of nights. But - so far tonight all is well and I am hopeful.

Grandpa Jeff and the Wagon

My dad made it to town just in time to shuttle us to west Pasco to pick up our 'new' wagon. I use the term new very loosely because the wagon is older than me. Levi was happy to see Grandpa Jeff and had fun telling him knock knock jokes on the driver over.

Tuesday was pretty full - first Ellie's 2 week appointment, then a trip to Tri-Cities, then lunch at the Olive Garden and then we came home just in time for Matt's dental appointment.

Here's the beast of burden;


1977 Pontiac Grand Safari - supposedly has 102k miles. Since the odometer doesn't go up that high we are believing the guy who sold it to us when he tells us it's 1 and not 2 hundred thousand miles. I thought the Suburban was big, but driving this thing around - it feels even bigger. I never even sat in it until we got it home. The interior is beautiful for a car it's age, and we think we got pretty lucky to find it. We have been searching high and low for a wagon for the past year it seems. My brother even went and looked at a couple for us in Portland but they didn't work out. Wasn't meant to be! I was hoping to trade our pickup for a wagon so we'd have one less car to worry about finding a parking spot for but alas, we're up to 9 vehicles now and really only room in the yard/driveway/curb for 8.


It is really a pretty cool car. And the best part about it is - we all fit!! :)

Ellie's 2 wk appointment

Ellie had her two week appointment this morning with Dr. Jen. All went well and I was thrilled to see her weight gain was already up to 8 lb 10 oz - that's 1/2 lb over her birth weight!! Fantastic! This put her in the 88% for weight. Then we measured her. 21 1/4" - already a quarter inch taller, putting her in the 96% for length. Her head circumference is 14 3/4" which is in the 94%, a 3/4" larger than birth. My girl is really growing!! It was a shock to hear she was so high in the percentiles because with Levi we have gotten used to hearing "10th percentile..." Uh oh maybe she will outgrow her brother...?

Dr Jen also complimented me on her bottom. She said that usually by now babies are experiencing rashes or may be cracked and bleeding. Ow - poor kids! She said Ellie looked fantastic and to keep up the good work. She also asked me how the breast-feeding was going. I was happy to report that we are making progress and that it is going well. Obviously, it's working as she is growing like a champ.

Everything else looked great and it was a rewarding visit. Then Camille (the nurse) had to come back in to draw blood from her foot for more tests. Poor little girl. But no shots today... Her next appointment will be in July for her 2 month check-up.

* * * *

Special thanks to Rachel for providing us with potato enchiladas and spanish rice last night, in addition to homemade bread and chocolate cupcakes! We will be enjoying those for dinner tonight :)

Memorial Day

Hard to believe that today Ellie is 2 weeks old already! She is still a really easy baby, sleeping all the time. She gets up a couple of times at night but I am able to get a fair amount of rest. Can't complain!!
Levi likes to help out with Ellie, he will run and fetch me her bottle or anything else I need for her, although I can tell he is a little jealous too. He is wanting me to hold/carry him more often since she's been home.
Today was pretty warm so Matt set up a sprinkler in the front yard for Levi to play in. Levi has a bolt & clamp that he carries around and pretends they are binoculars. I guess I know what to get him for his birthday :)
Looks like it's time for a haircut again too!

Church

This morning we took Ellie to Sabbath School for the first time. We just went into Levi's class and Ellie slept through the whole thing. We did not stay for church. Next week will be Ellie's dedication while many of our family members will be in town.


We also went today with my mom up to the Tri-Cities to look at a station-wagon. It looks like it will work out for us so we will go back up on Tuesday to pick it up.

A heartfelt thanks

My continued thanks to everyone who has been bringing us meals since the birth of Ellie. It has been wonderful to experience the generosity and talent of other chefs!

The Fleischer's provided us with some of our favorites from the menu of Thai City on Thursday - pud thai and green curry in addition to a special surprise which I would guess was a spring roll? Whatever it was, I really liked it and appreciated the chance to test out something new and perhaps develop another favorite? :)

Friday we were visited by Melissa Evans and she brought a bounty of picnic foods - what fun! We decided to haul it out to the camp trailer and eat there for something different. Vegeburgers with all the toppings, a big fruit plate of watermelon, apples, cantaloupe, strawberries and grapes (!!!), apple juice, chips and Little Debbie desserts. I think this was Levi's favorite meal so far as it appealed to his desire to graze on many different things.


I am overwhelmed with everyone's generosity and hope in some small way I will be able to repay the favor when the time is right. Thank you for making our week easier!

Here's a candid shot that I thought was amusing.

Crusiers

Matt & Levi posing on the motorcycle. Levi's learned to give thumbs-up now on command.

Kidnastics!

Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:10-3:50 Levi and Matt participate in the Parent/Toddler class of Kidnastics at Walla Walla University.

Stretching and "making pizzas"

Headstand and tumble

Rolling down the ramp

Jump and roll over the octagon

Running down the trampoline

Hopping on the tramp

Balance Beam

Chalking up his hands for the bars

Hanging from the bars

Hanging from the rope with teacher's help

Posing with his hand stamps

D&D - of Dogs and Dentists

Last Friday I decided to call the vet clinic to see about getting my old dog some pain meds as in the past two weeks he has really seemed to go downhill. (Buddy just turned 11 last month) They had an opening right away and wanted me to bring him in since it had been a year since they saw him last. Dr Campbell was thorough in her exam and noticed his weakened hind end, and favoring his front foot. He is a little overweight - 81 lbs now in comparison to his 74 lbs as a fit younger dog. Before prescribing Rimadyl she wanted to draw blood and run a panel on his liver and kidney functions and because of his weight she also wanted to check his thyroid. She did send me home with a sample amount of Rimadyl. This office visit cost me $135. I only made a partial payment since I wasn't anticipating that much of a charge for the day. In the meantime I have been giving Buddy one chewable Rimadyl pill a day. I have not noticed much improvement in how he gets around.

Dr Campbell called me back on Tuesday with a report of normal kidney and liver but low thyroid, so she prescribed something for that as well. She told me the thyroid medication would be less than $20 a month. She didn't mention how much the Rimadyl would be, and I didn't think to ask. I did mention to her that the one pill a day did not seem to have much of an effect on him so she prescribed him two pills a day for those meds for the month.

Well today I stopped in to pick up Buddy's meds and to my horror the bill just for one month's supply of both meds combined was $113! I paid the bill and then went outside and cried. I do not want my old dog to be in pain, but this is not something I can afford to keep up with every month. Since I have the meds now I will do a trial run but if I do not see much of an improvement I do not plan to keep up with it. Later the clinic called me and mentioned they had forgotten to give me a discount and I would be getting $8 back - and that they would apply it to my outstanding balance from Friday's bill. Yippie (sarcasm).

In other depressing dog news, this morning when I was up at 5 am with Ellie for her feeding I thought I smelled dog poop. Thinking that Bonnie had not been able to hold it in her crate I fuzzily made my way out to the living room to check on her. Well there was a puddle of diarrhea in the center of the floor. WHAT?! Now who?? The only two dogs out last night were Buddy and Missy. I took all the dogs out on a leash to go potty so I could monitor them. Missy seemed fine, normal stool but Buddy now also had the runs. What a great way to start the day!

At least we all got to sleep until 8:30 am and probably could have slept longer, but a phone call woke me up. The caller ID said Stephen Karmy DDS, and I was so tired I only registered Karmy and thought they were calling for me. Then the lady on the other end of the phone sounded like Camille, Levi's nurse so once I registered that it was about him, I immediately thought it was the pediatric clinic calling. They wanted to move up the appointment. So I said "But I thought they wanted to wait until he was three to see him" and the lady said "Well we usually like to see them as soon as they have teeth." And I replied "But he's had teeth for at least a year." (pause) Woman: "Right." It wasn't until I made a comment about how he wasn't due for his shots yet that she said to me "Ma'am, this is the dentist." OH RIGHT! "Yes," I told her, "I would love to move up his dental appointment." His appointment was for June, the week after I am to go back to work, so I was happy they could fit us in now while both Matt and I were still home to wrangle the kids.

Levi heard all of this and piped up from his crib once I hung up the phone "want out mamma." So I went back and got him up and told him he gets to go to the dentist today and won't that be fun! He said Mmmhmmm. He did really well last time so I didn't have any worries about today.

So at 10:30 we were at Dr Karmy's office, where Levi actually sees Dr Ramsey. When the nurse came in Levi covered his mouth with both hands and sat in my lap quietly observing. There was some talk about how much they could do with him today since there was a question about his murmur. They called Dr Bolducs office and confirmed that he would need an antibiotic an hour before a cleaning so today was simple. The nurse brushed his teeth (with his new penguin toothbrush) and he didn't give her any trouble. Then Dr Ramsey came in and looked him over and put on some fluoride. She said everything looked great! Glad to hear it. ;) She also allowed me to take a photo of the process.

**Forgot to mention a couple days ago Levi was bouncing around and fell and put his upper tooth through his bottom lip. You can see the mark where it is healing in the above photo. We went to the ER and they said it would heal fine on its own.**

At 3 pm we took the kids to WWU to Levi's Kidnastic's class. I took photos this time and will post them separately.

Tonight Tim and Laura brought us dinner - lasagna with fresh cut corn off the cob and garlic bread. I am really enjoying it as I finish up this post :) Thanks guys!!! :) YUM!