No Dull Moments

Before we became parents, both Blake and I would have phases where life just seemed to be in a lull. Not always, and never to the point of depression or anything like it. Just times where every day, every week, seemed to be the same more or less, and so we would get bored.

At those times, we would usually have to do something to break the lull, like a new video game, or starting some hobby, or even just cleaning the house or rearranging a room. Something to break up the days of ordinary.

We talked about how we knew having a child would change that, and honestly it was one of our many signs that we knew we were ready for the kid stage of life.

Grace has not disappointed. Probably partly because I am also pregnant, but we both feel like life goes faster now, and every day is filled with something, because every day she is doing more, and experiencing more, and it is fun to share those moments with her.

In the last month, we did our first couple of cautious peanut butter tastes, just a little each time, to see if she would have an allergic reaction. Both times passed without incident, and now peanut butter has become a common occurance in her diet. She loves it!





This morning at breakfast, we saw just how much she liked it again, as she ate her offered piece of English Muffin with peanut butter, and then wanted more. I didn't have more of the English muffin to give her, but my mom had offered her a turkey sausage. On a whim, we put the peanut butter on the sausage... yep, ate that too! Then we gave her the ramekin that the peanut butter came from (it still had some in it) and she happily licked the peanut butter off that as well! It is nice to have an easy protein to give her that is such a consistent win with her.

Along those lines, we have been able to reintroduce dairy to her recently, and that seems to not be causing her any trouble either, so we are transitioning her off formula and onto just milk, and cheese and other dairy products are becoming more of her daily food too.



We had our first "Parent and Me: Princess Ballet" class last week, and she looks adorable in her ballet clothes! I wish I could say the class was a huge success... but honestly she is a bit young/behind for it at the moment. The class age is from 1 1/2 to 3, and since she is just past that bottom age requirement, is still catching up on English, and is behind developmentally... there is a lot in the class that she can't do.

She liked the walking around in a circle part, and thought it was really fun when they gave her a wand to hold/play with. There were parts of the class that she tolerated being basically my puppet, where I moved her arms and legs how they were supposed to, but there were other parts where she would get frustrated having to sit when she wanted to walk around, or that she literally couldn't do what they wanted (gallop, hop, etc.). But my hope is that she will improve every week, and more importantly it is a good life skill for her to learn that she can't always just wander and do what she wants, she needs to be able to follow directions, even those she doesn't like.

Blake says that I put her in this class just for me, and it is true that I am so excited to do the "parent stuff" that I can see I somewhat jumped the gun on this one. But that wasn't the only reason I chose to do this class now, as she just is old enough for it. The bigger reason is that every day I am more aware of the fact that I will have an infant as well as a toddler in just a few short months. Once he arrives, it will become really difficult to do things like this until he becomes significantly older, so he could stay with a grandparent or calmly stay in his infant carrier while I did the class with her. I wanted to do a class with her while it is still just me and my daughter... because her time as an only child is short and I want these moments before they get stressful with having to watch a second child.

In other news, Grace had her first trip to the local fair today.


At the petting zoo, she was afraid of the animals at first, and really wanted to be held, and didn't really want to get that close to them.


But as Blake worked with her, she got more comfortable with them in the time before we left the petting zoo.









She enjoyed eating corn on the cob with my mom, but was not a big fan of the chicken... although she liked the sauce. She would put a piece in her mouth, suck off the sauce, chew it a little, and then take it back out. Fun stuff.

We have been taking Grace to the neighborhood playground by us more often as something to do in the early evening before dinner and bedtime, and also as a way to get her to exercise and thus make her more tired as extra insurance so she doesn't wake up at night.


She likes to climb up the slide (with help) more than sliding down it (though she does both).






Then she climbs down the stairs.


Today, she had the opportunity to try to hang independently for the few seconds she could before she lets go into Blake's waiting arms.


Every park trip also involves some walking on grass time as it is supposed to improve her balance and walking skills.


For a short time, Blake's mom joined us at the playground, and they had some fun together.

Which also meant we were able to get a family picture:


If you haven't seen me in a while... you might notice that my belly is rather big at the moment.


I am currently at 31 weeks, and very much feeling it. Sitting for extended periods of time is not comfortable... not on the couch, or chairs, or in the car, etc. I notice the extra wait when I walk, or go up the stairs, or pick up Grace, or pretty much whatever I do. My latest pregnancy symptom is acid reflux, which means I have had to change some of what I eat or suffer for it. All of this conspires to make a part of me very ready for when my body can start the process of getting back to normal.

On the other hand, besides he isn't fully baked yet, I need at least the next 9 weeks to get ready, and a bonus week or two might not be bad either. To say his room isn't ready yet is a massive understatement. You see, up till recently, that room was a "guest room"... except we only had someone stay there years ago... and thus it really was a storage room. An easily ignored, catch all, not nicely organized storage room. A spot for those things that don't have a great home, like luggage and card tables. A spot for all of my second grade teaching things that I want to hold on to for possibly a future teaching position in that grade again (I taught second for 4 years before moving to 4th). A spot for my craft supplies that don't fit in the office. You get the idea.

Long story short, before this room can become his room and a nursery, the first step is cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of stuff.  We have made some headway in that department. First, we cleaned up our garage to make room to store his things. Then we gave some furniture in there to relatives who wanted it. Next, I have been purging magazines from bookcases in other parts of the house to make room for the picture books that were previously in the cupboards, and now are residing on a bookshelf in the hall for when the kids grow old enough to read them. So steps have been taken in the right direction, but there is still a ways to go before it is empty, and only then can we start the fun decorating and preparing steps.

Besides getting his room ready, the other way I have been nesting lately is in preparing meals for the time after he is born when I don't want to cook.

I have read many times online of others doing freezer meals. If you haven't heard of them before, the general idea is that you prepare everything for a meal, usually a crockpot meal, but you don't actually cook it. Instead all those frozen ingredients go into a freezer bag, and then on the day you want to eat it, you take the freezer bag out, thaw it enough to get the contents out, and then have the crockpot cook it for the day, and you basically have a homemade healthy meal with minimal effort and stress.


Some of these women do one massive prep day and then make all their meals for the month. Intense. We just made ten on Saturday, and that seemed pretty intense. Blake was quite done cutting vegetables by the time we finished. But the good news is that we now have ten meals in the freezer that I can see myself making even with little sleep, a newborn and a toddler. My goal is to have 30 total before he arrives, plus some soup mixes in jars made too.

But I did promise Blake that it wouldn't be next week, I don't want to wear out my best helper.

As you can see, life is not boring around here, and between Grace and preparing for the new baby, our life is full and fun.

Fourth of July and Other Fun

I finally got around to pulling off the pictures from my phone from the last few weeks as well as the last few days.

My blog posts seem to be either lots of words with few pictures or lots of pictures with few words.

This is a heavy picture post, with just short captions to go with each.

*Note to my family who gets this in an email, go to the actual blog this time for a cute video of Grace eating/playing with her spaghetti. :-D



My parents walking with Grace after a breakfast together.



Grace having fun wandering away from us during church (we sit outside).




Grace and I went to a small farm near us to see the animals, but overall it was mostly a bust. She was freaked out scared of the animals, including the ones smaller than her like the chickens, and she insisted on being held the whole time (which is getting harder as I get bigger). The only exceptions to this was getting to see the milking demonstration and then at the end when she was willing to go down to see the baby goats. These she wanted to pet.





















There is a neighborhood Fourth of July parade near us and the first batch of photos are us going to that and watching the parade together. She liked watching the kids and dogs in the parade, at one point she tried walking out and joining! Though, when the local school marching band came by, she was a bit intimidated by the drums, and didn't like the noise of the firetruck's siren. Later, Grace helped me prep the lettuce for the barbeque we host every year for family and friends. She has gotten quite good at helping me tear the lettuce and put it in the bowl. To protect her sleep, we didn't have her watch the fireworks this year. Maybe next year.







We attempted a second beach trip today, with still less than "ideal" results. For one thing, we tried going in the morning to beat the crowds since recent mornings have been hot, but today was not. Secondly, she is still scared of the water, and refused to be put down anywhere near it. It was actually quite funny, we would put her towards the sand, and she would raise up her feet and legs to not touch the sand, just to prevent being put down. Over the course of the morning, we gradually relocated her sand and water bucket closer to the water, but she still didn't want to go near it. Then she started shivering, so we knew not to stay too long. She did have some fun being pulled around on my dad's boogie board, and meeting a pet bird that gets to visit the beach once a week.







She has eaten spaghetti multiple times, and always loves it, but makes a huge mess. Today, we got smart, and had her eat in just her diaper... and it was a good thing we did!

That's our most recent fun and pictures, with more good things ahead, like her first ballet class (Parent and Me, so I will be attending and helping her, and it is designed for kids her age), and a trip to the lagoon near us with a couple friends.

When you're a mom, you won't be able to...

**I apologize in advance that this blog is short on pictures, something is going on with my app that uploads to photobucket for me, so I will have to do it manually, and I don't want to deal with that right now.

Back when we were trying/going through the adoption, both Blake and I were told numerous times by numerous people that there were many things that we wouldn't be able to continue once we were parents. Perhaps because of these comments, or it is just that we value these things so much, we, at least for now, are proving those people wrong.

One big thing was cooking real meals. I have talked on the blog numerous times before about dishes we have made or the fact that we like cooking. Grace definitely makes it harder, but we still eat real, homecooked, from scratch meals most nights of the week.

These are made possible in one of three ways-

Some days, I start early, hours before Blake gets home, and I do all the prepping and cooking, while also keeping Grace entertained and out of trouble. One way to keep her occupied is to allow her to help. The biggest way she has helped with dinner multiple times now is by tearing the kale, swiss chard or lettuce for dinner. She is pretty good at it, and it keeps her happy and busy for a while. Only downside is that sometimes, when she gets tired of her tearing task, she switches to taking the greens out of the bowl... and then I have to persuade her to put them back in. Other times, I give her a snack during dinner prep time, and then sometimes she is content wandering and playing with her toys in the next room, and just checking in on me.

When Blake gets home on these days, we eat dinner together, all three of us.

The second way that real meals happen is while he is putting her down to sleep, I start the prep work for dinner, and start cooking, and he just helps me finish once she is down, or I finish while he is upstairs with her. This typically happens on days that we (Grace and I) are really busy, or the dinner has a part that Blake needs to help with (i.e. grilling).

The third way that we get real meals is just Blake and I working together, like the old days, after she gets down. The biggest downside to this is that these dinners tend to be really late, like 8:30-9 at night. But again, our commitment to cooking healthy and eating real meals means that occasional nights like this are worth it.

I do miss Blake and I working together on dinners every night, and it has been a big adjustment to knowing that most days, it is me prepping everything, one way or the other, just to be sure that we eat relatively early. On the other hand, I find so much joy in searching through cookbooks, getting ingredients at the farmer's market, and enjoying the homemade meals that it makes that sacrifice worth it.

The other big thing that we were told wouldn't happen is Blake's gym schedule. He was, and still is, going to the gym every day after work. The downside is that he gets home an hour later than he would if he didn't go, but his health is better, and he is so much happier on the days that he gets that exercise in, that it doesn't affect life that much. I think the hardest thing about it is that Grace's bedtime routine now starts around 6:30, which means that most of his time with her at night is getting her dinner, and then doing the bedtime routine (I have him do it for this very reason, that it is the main time they get to spend together when it isn't a weekend).

I get my exercise in the form of walks with Grace, but I think if I wasn't pregnant, I would be able to have those walks be jogs/runs and still be able to work on endurance (which is depressingly disappearing, but that is another topic).

These are the two biggest areas that I feel like we are able to break the stereotypes and make it happen, even though it isn't the same as it used to be.

Now, this is not to say that there aren't areas where those people were totally right. One is dinners out. It is really tough for us to go out any time at night. Consider- Blake gets home between 5:30-6, and her bedtime routine starts at 6:30. By the time we could even meet anywhere, it is going to be really tight to get food, eat it, and get home in time to not mess up her schedule. This sleep schedule is precious... and a messed up night usually means a messed up next day, and it is two or three days before it is back to golden sleep again. Adopted child concerns means that we don't want anyone else doing her bedtime routine or being the one who she sees if she wakes up at night... so for now... no nights out. At some point, we will try to have someone else put her down, but for the time being, it is more important to us that her sleep schedule is protected and that she doesn't worry about being abandoned that it is that we go out to dinner, so we don't.

Hobbies are another area where for the most part, people were right. Blake's computer goes long stretches of time without even being on, and I can't remember the last time he played a computer game (phone games yes, not computer). For me, as you can see, blogs are less often, and my crafty hobbies, like sewing have been largely set aside except for the needs that come up (like my altering a too big dress so she can wear it for the Fourth of July). I do still get reading in, during lunch times (once she is contentedly eating), even if my reading time is frequently interrupted by a little girl asking for more, or water, etc. I also sneak some in at other points during the day. But the time for having hobbies that she isn't involved with is mostly over for now (and sure to get worse once her brother arrives).

 However, I will say that the bottom line of what people have said is true for us as well. Life changes when you have kids. Maybe you can still make things work if you are committed to them enough (like cooking or going to the gym), but even so they have to work around your child's needs. Plans with friends, family, holidays, all of it suddenly has to be considered in the light of how will this affect my child. Many families, with different needs and priorities than us, might be able to make time for the hobby or the dinners out, or date nights out, but for us, right now, they aren't in the picture, and that's okay.

Because at the same time that we lose out on some things we used to do, we have a whole new set of entertainment and enjoyment. We get to see her walking improve, hear the words she adds, see her laugh as she waves and says "bye bye" and takes off running in another direction just to be chased. We get her love, her hugs and kisses as a very valuable repayment for anything that might feel lacking.

I probably wouldn't say to anyone what was said to us about specific things you can't do, but I would tell future parents to expect to have to change something, whatever it may be for that particular family. We could make hobbies work... at the expense of cooking and the gym, so we make the choice and live in the way that seems best within our time constraints. Others may flip it, and stop cooking so they have time to ___, and that's okay too. Fact is, life is good now, and that's what is important in the long run.

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Just because:

Here is a picture of another attempt at a hair style- I did a flat rope twist from the middle to her ears on both sides, like a headband.


This one is of her having a lovely time making a mess of just baking soda and vinegar (with food coloring in it).

First Beach Trip

We took our first vacation with Grace down to my aunt's beach house for a day at the beach, and then her first night spent away from home since we got to become her full time parents at the end of March.

This post will be mostly pictures. Basically, she was not a fan of the water and the waves, and didn't leave Blake for a second to try to stand in them or anything, but she had a GREAT time playing with buckets of water that we brought up from the waves and the sand... far away from those scary waves.

If you are curious, yes, she is wearing a swim cap. From what I have read, getting sand out of her tight little curls is really quite difficult, and many sites recommended doing this for trips to the beach to avoid such problems.































Some favorite sand activities were putting sand in the water bucket, pouring water out of the water bucket and putting rocks into the water bucket. All of these activities kept her busy for quite a while.

Only downside is that she didn't sleep great that night... which meant no one slept well that night.

Otherwise, it was a really fun first experience at the beach.

What you are versus what you do

There are some job titles that are really so much more than a job title, because they stay with you, even if you are unemployed at the time.

Artists are a good example of this. Someone who is an artist sees the world in a different way, and their identity is found in their art. They might make no money from the art portion of their day, and they might be employed as someone at a grocery store, just to make money, but that doesn't change the fact that they are an artist.

This month marks six months since I last taught in a classroom. Thanks to my daughter, and soon enough, my son, it will be a while before I bring in any income under that title again. But I have been thinking a lot lately about how I still identify myself as a teacher.

I was a teacher long before I went to school for it or got a job. I taught Sunday school, but I also taught at Sunday school. As in, I didn't just teach the lesson and the craft, and then have the kids play, even when we were playing with the kids, I was teaching. They were eating their snack, and I talked about how many goldfish crackers they had as they ate each one.  Or they were playing with magnets, and I was teaching how to spell words. It was those experiences that made me decide I wanted to make teaching my job as well.

My friend Erin noticed this about me a long time ago too- I would come over for a play date, and while we were doing something fun with the kids, I was teaching too- making letters out of the cookie dough or writing words with our pictures in chalk. Like an artist looks at life through the lens of art,  I see opportunities to teach kids no matter what we are doing.

Kids like me, I'm not boring or strict as I have these impromptu lessons and since I know we aren't in school, as soon as they are over it, so am I, so there is no frustration. But unlike Blake, I have a really hard time just playing, with no purpose or ulterior motive.

With Grace, besides her occupational/speech therapy stuff, for a long time I tried to be like Blake during the day, and just let her play, with no purpose, no teaching, just fun. But it wasn't good. I was bored, and I think she was too, but more than that, my boredom made me less than an epic mom by the end of the day, because I was just ready to hand her off.

A few weeks ago, for a variety of reasons, my thinking changed. I decided to embrace who I am, and let that just be a part of how I parent. She can still have Blake for the fun, but I now approach our weeks like a teacher. I started with a few simple goals- each week we would make something together in the kitchen and do an art project.

It has made my days more fun, and I think she enjoys the variety too. Plus, she is learning kitchen skills early that can benefit her later in life. With the art, I get to have toddler abstract art masterpieces, and something to hang on the fridge. The weeks also go by faster.

This week, I decided to expand on this idea, and I will be working off themes. My teacher side likes themes, as it adds direction and structure to my thoughts about what we do that week. I decided to base the themes off of the Bible story for the week that I read to her.

For example, next week we will be reading about God's promise to Abraham that he would have more descendants than the stars, so the week is themed around stars. I was so excited about this theme, that I decided to start early. Yesterday, we made dog biscuits (cooking for the week) in the shape of stars, and today we finished a take off on Starry Night by Van Gogh. I will probably have us do more variations of that next week, as well as other star projects. We checked out books from the library about stars too.

(construction paper for the tree on the left, glue and sand for the stars and chalk for the rest)

It brings me a lot of pleasure to have "lessons" to plan for as the weeks go by, and doing the projects with her. I may feel obligated to state my current profession as stay at home mom when people ask, but I am a teacher, and whether I have one student or thirty, that is where I find my identity and my purpose.

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According to certain family members, no post is complete without a bunch of Grace pictures, so here are some of my favorites since the last time I posted:




More mobile Grace getting into cupboards


 Beautiful picture of her in one of her 18 month old dresses that now fits. On a random note, I have had to retire some 12 month old clothes recently too, and though I know it is a good thing, it still makes me sad.


I think this one is hilarious, she looks like she is yelling at her shoe. That's not quite the case. She is yelling because she wants us to put the shoe back on. But still... turned out funny. 


Watercolors


Look at that smile!


Grace playing the piano