WHEW!!

Holy smokes, we're already half way through July! We have been busy!! We had a family adventure that was amazing! Let's see, where to begin....

For those of you that don't know, I'm the youth minister at our church. Whether Nelson wanted to or not, he has become my partner and we are basically the youth team. Technically, the paycheck is in my name, but they're basically getting 2 of us for the price of 1. Plus, a cute mascot to boot, as we never are without Miss Kalaya, who our youth just adore : )

About 8 months ago, our youth group started brainstorming activities for this school year. The idea of doing a mission trip came up. Now, we are a VERY small church, with a small youth group. If we have 7 youth on a Sunday, that's a great day. We maybe have 150 members on a busy Sunday in church. But, we love it and we work with what we have!! Our youth wanted to do something big, such as going abroad for a mission. We looked into it and ruled that out pretty quickly. Too many things to worry about and too much money to raise, if we wanted to go on a trip this summer. We also knew that it wasn't likely that I would be taking the group, since there was no way I was going to leave Kalaya for a whole week. Nelson agreed to be the leader along with another woman from our church who helps with youth group a LOT.

We started working with an organization called Youth Works, which connects churches with mission sites around the US. We narrowed the possibilities down to a Native American reservation in Wyoming and another location in San Diego. Surprisingly, our kids voted for Wyoming (I thought they'd want to go to California!), mainly because of the dates we would be going,

We did a LOT of fundraising this year. Our little church just kept giving and giving! They bought insane amounts of baked goods, donated to various cook offs, gave any extra made at fundraisers for other groups and just wrote checks! They were awesome! At one point during the year, I mentioned to Nelson, "Wait a minute, Aunt Patti lives near a reservation in Wyoming, I wonder if it's the same on we're going to??" One quick phone call confirmed that it was and a couple of months later, she generously offered to fly Kalaya and I out for the week to be near the team and visit with her. WONDERFUL!!! It worked out perfectly.

We went last week. We sent the youth off Saturday (the 3rd) morning and then Kalaya and I flew out later that day. It was a bit of an adventure to fly with a 14 month old alone, especially with a 3 hour layover, but we did it! I packed bunch of never-before-seen toys and snacks and of course used the secret method of breastfeeding when all else failed. I am sooooo grateful we have not forced this child to wean, it has helped her sleep in the most convenient locations!!!

The week went so well. Nelson and the kids worked on the reservation during the day on various projects, while we spent time with my aunt. Then, in the evenings we met up for activities such as dinner, cultural activities, "club" time (worship and prayer) and team meetings. It worked out so amazingly, the people in charge were so understanding and supportive of us coming to visit and it was mainly in thanks to the charming Miss Kalaya, who absolutely loved all of the attention of everyone! She was giving high fives, fist bumps and huge grins and hugs all over the place! One very special even took place right in front of everyone; she took her first steps!!! It was such a special moment, the kids were so excited to be a part of it. : )

13 (1/2 ) Months

I will deny it if you ask me, but I think I have to face the facts. My child is not really a baby any more. She is a toddler. Now, she's not quite walking yet, but it is literally going to be any minute. She walks holding onto everything she can. She holds our hand/hands and walks around. She has 2 different push toys and a baby stroller that she walks with all over the house. At this point, it's just a matter of confidence. She'll stand all by herself for 30 seconds, very excited and proud of herself, but if you try to get her to step toward you or something else, she freaks out and refuses. It's actually pretty funny. We say, "Okay, one, two, THREE!" and sometimes she throws her hands up in the air to stand on her own and other times gets fussy and refuses, because she totally knows what me mean by it. : )

Kalaya has officially said her first word! Some parents may have given her credit a while ago, because she has definitely looked at Nelson and said Dadadadada and me and said Mamamamama and Pippy and said Dododododododo, but not completely consistently. Today Nelson was leaving the room and I said, "Bye bye Daddy!" and she looked right at him, waved her hand (which she's done for quite awhile) and said, "Buh bye!" It was wonderful! And she's been doing it at the appropriate times ever since!




She is definitely learning more and more about everything. She gets into drawers, bags, purses, the dog dish, computer stuff, and the recycling. (no garbage cans yet, they're out of reach!) She loves to play with her cars and trucks, her baby dolls, stacking toys, crayons, pens (learned to stay right next to her with those, she drew on our TV stand this week), forks, spoons, bowls, you name it!

She's finally eating pretty well. (for her) She's never been a big eater (other than nursing!), but she's consistently eating 3 meals a day with a snack or two. She is experimenting with whatever foods we're having at a meal, but we still give her "baby" food as well, to make sure she gets enough to eat. (we tried relying just on her feeding skills, but her stomach would be growling late at night and she'd wake up crying and hungry) Her favorite foods are avacados, plain yogurt, oatmeal, cottage cheese, pasta, and most of the baby food we offer, which are a variety of mixes of veggies with meats and grains. She hardly likes any fruits. We've tried more than I can name; pears, apples, strawberries, mangoes, peaches, grapes, cherries, bananas and she spits everything out. We've tried purees, dried, fresh, frozen, hiding them in cereal, yogurt, anything we can think of and she clamps her mouth down or just plays with them. We'll keep offering them! She is very independent and loves to feed herself when she can.

Kalaya still nurses really well. I hear about other toddlers starting to lose interest, but that doesn't seem to be the case with her. We nurse first thing in the morning, nap times and bedtime, but she signs for it a couple of times throughout the day and doesn't just graze; she does around 5-10 minutes when she's interested. I love it and I'm in no rush to wean her, so it's working well for us.

Meal Planning Monday, 1 Day Late

Okay, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things with cooking and meals. I have been meaning to post, but just didn't get to it. I am trying almost all new recipes this cycle, so I'm excited to taste! So, here goes for the next 2 weeks:

M Spaghetti with marinara sauce from scratch
T Chili Rellenos with Green Rice
W Mexicali Rice and Ground Turkey Casserole
Th Ravioli Vegetable Lasagna
F leftovers
Sa Slow Cooker Vegetarian Minestrone
Su BBQ in Salem for Father's Day

M Buffalo Blue Cheese Burgers (can't find online, but it's in Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats)
T Macaroni and Cheese
W Chicken Casablanca
Th Tex Mex Shrimp over Green Rice (a different green rice from last T!)
F out
Sa leftovers
Su Slow Cooker Vegetarian Baked Ziti

The slow cooker recipes are from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker which I bought after repetedly checking it out at the library. The rest of the recipes are from The Everything Tex-Mex Cookbook. I've been checking out cookbooks a lot and have bought those 2 on Ebay, less than 5 bucks each!! Love it!

Colin and Allie's Visit

Last week was really special; my brother and niece Allie Mae were here for a whole week to visit! Kalaya and I spent the time in Portland at my parents' house, so we were with them every day. We did some fun things and the girls spent a lot of time together, it was a good experience for both of them! Kalaya followed Allie every where and wanted to do exactly what Allie was doing. As Allie is going through the two year old everything is "mine!" phase, it was an interesting dynamic. All in all, they got along fine, as long as they didn't want the same toy at the same time. We were sharing a lot of our toys with Allie and thank goodness Kalaya doesn't realize which things are "hers" at this point, or we may have had trouble! The girls had lots of fun playing with baby dolls, trucks, trains, push/ride on toys, stacking blocks, reading books and playing in our tent. The weather didn't cooperate too well, but we did get one day to play at the park. We went to lunch with Grandpa, went shopping in downtown Portland, blew bubbles, played at the water front, went to visit Oma in Kindergarten, visited family friends and went out to dinner a few times. They have some new matching outfits as well. Probably the highlight of the trip was going to the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade on Saturday. The weather was absolutely perfect and the girls had lots of fun drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles and watching the parade! Hopefully this is the start of a family tradition, because it was lots of fun and basically free! Here are some pictures from the week:

Return of a Not-Missed Friend

Yup, it's official.


My monthly friend is back.


I didn't miss her.


I didn't invite her back.


I enjoyed not having to buy supplies for her.


It's been 22 months since the last time I saw her.



But she's here.




I'm seriously considering getting pregnant again, just so she'll go away again.




Just kidding.




But, now I know I COULD get pregnant, so have to be extra careful!!





Oh well. At least my body is healthy and functioning. I guess I'm a breast-feed-for-one-year-without-a-period-woman. Better than it returning six weeks after she was born.







SIGH. Welcome back old friend.

Sick Weekend

So, for the last couple of weeks, Kalaya has had a consistently running nose. I know she got it at her birthday party, from our dear friend Marlee (sorry Jess, but it's true!) and it just kept lingering. She didn't have any other symptoms and it wasn't affecting her, other than the occasional nose wiping.

Enter Wednesday

I knew something was just....off. She didn't look healthy. I don't know how else to explain it. She looked tired all the time. And, she wasn't her happy, playing self. Everything made her fuss. She wouldn't eat and she didn't want to play with anything. All she wanted to do was nurse. And nurse, and nurse and NURSE. That is fine with me, but I didn't get much else done. The biggest hint that she wasn't feeling well was when she fell asleep in the middle of lunch, right into her food. At the time I laughed, but now I know she was starting to feel really, really crummy. (I did take pictures though!) I figured everything was attributed to teething, since she has molars coming in.

Then Thursday night hit.

Poor Kalaya. She was literally up all night. (as was I) She couldn't breathe through her nose and she couldn't nurse. She couldn't sleep. The best part about it was that we were staying at my parent's house, so I didn't have ANYTHING to deal with a sick baby. I didn't have the nose suction thingy (it's a technical term), a thermometer, baby Tylenol, ANYTHING. (poor planning on my part I suppose, but I didn't know, okay??)

Did I mention that Nelson was also out of town????

Did I mention we were supposed to go on a trip to the beach with our youth group on Friday??

She finally fell asleep for a bit, but woke up around 2 am. When I started to nurse her, I really started to worry. She felt HOT. Not warm, not sweaty, just HOT. I debated loading her in the car and going to Urgent Care. Or just driving to Rite Aid to get Tylenol and buy a thermometer. And a nose bulb thingy. I really wanted Nelson there so that we could do all of this together. I decided to squirt some breast milk in her nose, which has worked to clear it out before and our pediatrician recommended.

It worked!!

Thank goodness, she was able to fall asleep for awhile and I was able to sleep a bit too. We slept off and on until morning and then I called to make her an appointment at any possible Kaiser in the Portland area. They got her in for an appointment at 2. She still felt hot and was pretty miserable, but seemed to be doing okay, so I decided not to go to Urgent Care and to wait for the appointment.

As soon as we got there, the nurse took her temperature and it was 102.4!! YIKES!! I know, I know, it's not THAT bad, but remember, first time mom!! The doctor was really nice and very helpful. He diagnosed her with a sinus infection and got her on amoxicillin. (I know that's spelled wrong) He also introduced me to Children's Motrin.

Did I mention I am never using Tylenol again??

Motrin is a God-send. A true miracle. Her fever went right down.

We both slept most of Friday night.

And Nelson came home Saturday.




Things are pretty much back to normal at our house now.




Now, if only this health care was available to all children. And Americans. But, that's a post for another day....

12 Month/1 year Appointment

Today was Kalaya's one year appointment and it went very well! This was our first time with our new pediatrician. We decided the drive to Tualatin was just too much and this office is 2 minutes from Nelson's work. Our pediatrician was very highly recommended by a mother from our mommy group, who also practices attachment parenting. She is really nice, very supportive and we really like her, hooray!

The appointment went great! Kalaya is 30 1/2 inches long (89th percentile), 19 lbs 10 1/2 oz (25th percentile) and has a head circumference of 18 1/2 inches (93rd percentile). (She is now in 18 month clothes and wearing a size 4 diaper if she has a disposable on) All in all she was declared "perfect" and healthy! Of course, we already knew that, but it's nice to get a non-biased opinion! : )

Last week I checked the vaccine list to see what was coming up at this appointment and discovered they are scheduled for 5!! FIVE!!! That is shocking to me. I don't really worry about the autism scare and allergic reactions, but that is a LOT of shots! I wouldn't want to do that! So, we had 2 instead, to finish off the series she's started. She'll get the others (MMR, chicken pox and Hep A) in a couple of months, just to give her a break in between! She did very well, BIG cry when she got poked, but calmed down fine. She was a champ at the appointment, showing off her signing and some of her fine motor skills without any coaxing. She was a doll and every one just ate it up, as always!

Kalaya is crawling, crawling, crawling! She pulls up on everything, even things we wouldn't think possible! She has stood without holding onto anything 3 times, only for about 2 second, but it happened! She "walks" all around the coffee table, the couch, etc. I knew once she became mobile, everything else was going to happen quickly, and I was right! She's not too far from walking, we can sense it! We are a pretty baby proof household these days!

She is independently playing really well. She has some fun new toys that she plays with really well. She has a new ride on toy and some things with buttons. She's starting some imaginative play too, she pours tea into her teacup, drinks from the cup and shares with her dolls. She kisses her dolls and puts them in the stroller or rocking chair, so sweet!!

She has started sleeping through the night!!! It seems like she is the last baby on earth to do so, but I don't care, it is happening!! (Of course, now that I'm bragging, it won't happen tonight) She's eating lots of different foods (some days) and likes to feed herself. Other days, it's just breast milk still, but she just got tooth #9 last week and we can see #10 (both molars) pushing through, so I'm sure she's in some pain!

Life is about to change a little bit for Kalaya and I. We are going to start watching another baby every day. Andrew is 6 months old. We will watch him most mornings from about 8 until 1. I am really excited about the additional income, but it will be an adjustment to our lifestyle. No more sleeping in! : ( We'll see how everything goes!

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, it's my second Mother's Day and I am just as grateful as last year! Maybe even more so than last year, since this year I can move freely, shower myself, walk, and am no longer on massive painkillers recovering from a Cesarean birth!! Worth it, of course, but it's nice to be healed!

Here are some things I have learned since my first Mother's Day:

*Always pack more diapers than you think you need. And then add a couple more.

*Once a baby learns to reach out and grab, their arms secretly extend a foot longer than you think they can.

*Nurture over nature only goes so far...

*If you forget something in the diaper bag, you will need it 5 minutes later

*A child can be entertained by almost anything

*A child can be bored with 25 toys to choose from

*If a baby isn't ready to do something, you can't force them

*I can survive on 45 minutes of sleep

*More than 4 hours straight feels AMAZING

*I can't be away from my child for more than 3 hours. Ever. And I love being that bonded to her!

*Parent's should not decide things that they or their children are going to do or not do before you are a parent yourself and get to know your individual child

*Breastfeeding is a fantastic diet

*That motherhood is the most heartwrentchingly wonderful thing you can ever experience!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy First Birthday, Part II

I haven't written anything on this blog yet, even though my name (for some reason) comes first. But I thought since it's Kalaya's first birthday, I'd write something. It's kind of cheating though, because this is what I wrote when I first found out Kelly was pregnant, way back in October of 2008. Holy crap, that seems like a long time ago. Anyway, happy birthday sweetheart! (Also, I sprinkled in some updated notes, mostly/completely for my own enjoyment.)

October 8, 2008

Baby.

Baby, baby, baby, baby!

(Like Reese Witherspoon in ‘Walk the Line,’ only not as dramatic.)
*At the time, this was topical. Now, well, yikes.

I think I was nervous for about three seconds when your mother first showed me the positive test. I’m hoping that’s a normal feeling, and I suppose I’d rather be nervous for three seconds as opposed to three years. But I’m not nervous anymore.

I have only told a handful of people about you up to this point, and most of them have asked me if I’m nervous. And my answer is always the same. I don’t want to sound arrogant, or unrealistic, or patronizing in any sense, but I can’t even begin to explain how not nervous I am. What’s the opposite of nervous? Probably ‘ready’, but I wouldn’t assume that I’m ready to raise another human being. Let’s ask the Microsoft Word Thesaurus…

Calm? Composed? Tranquil? That doesn’t seem right. Oh, I found it.

UNRUFFLED.

That’s me. Your father is completely unruffled.

I know I’ll be ruffled at various points in your life, like when you first talk back, or when you burn your hand on the stove, or when you drive our car into a ditch, or when you tell me you hate baseball/softball and break my heart into 162 pieces. But every time I think about you now, I am unabashedly unruffled.

It’s very strange because I can’t seem to stop thinking about you, or touching your mother in the spot where I think you’re sleeping, or looking at our first pictures of you on the refrigerator. I wish I were better with words, since I am unable to describe how it’s possible to love someone without knowing them. But it happens.

I think I will keep these little musings about you until reach an arbitrary age like 18 or 21. *Or, you know, stop after this one. I think it would be neat to give you something like this on a birthday or before you go off to college (not that you have to go to college, I’m just saying). You know, assuming we don’t hate each other or something.

I know I am lazy so I hope that I can keep up with this. *Damn! It’s already October 8th, you’re already nine weeks old (in womb time), and this is just the first time I’ve written anything. I don’t see how I can’t keep writing to you, but this is the same man who buys running shoes and jogs for a week before giving up.

But I’m also too excited about you now that we’ve seen you (and you waved! I don’t care what anyone says, I saw you wave, and it was a real wave, and it was awesome) to not write to you and tell you about things you probably don’t care about and I probably won’t remember.

So I’ll write to you at least once a week (if not more), because if there is one thing I can do well, writing would be it. (If there are two things I can do well, they would be writing and conceiving children. Yeah, Micronesian genetics!)

I should probably go to bed before your mother gets mad at me for staying up too late (she sleeps and eats a lot so you will be happy and healthy when you come see us for the first time), but I want you to know two things:

1) You have an absolutely amazing mother. Sometimes you will forget this, just as sometimes I forget how lucky I am to be married to her. But she is an incredible, beautiful woman. Any good that you have in you will surely come from her.

2) I hope, hope, hope, that you have an amazing father. My biggest fear in life is not being good enough for you. It’s hard for me to express my feelings sometimes (most times), especially when that feeling is love. But I love you already, I loved you when you waved at me, I loved you yesterday and I will love you tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see you again.

~Daddy

Happy First Birthday

To my beautiful Kalaya,

Well, you are one year old! How time flies! This has been such a wonderful and fun year! I am so blessed to be your mother. Many people know that they were born to be artists, dancers, writers, athletes, and inventors. I know that I was born to be your mommy.

I have always wanted to be a mommy. Now that you're in my life, I knew that I always wanted to be YOUR mommy. I love every moment of raising and taking care of you. I have loved, cherished and treasured every moment we've had together in your first year of life. We've never been apart for more than a couple of hours and I wouldn't have had it any other way. You have slept next to me since the night you were born, which has been a joy. Even on those growth spurt or teething nights when you were up every 45 minutes to nurse, it has been so special, because Mommy knew that it wasn't going to last very long and some day she would look back and miss being able to cuddle you, rock you and comfort you.

You have grown so much this year! You are crawling every where and exploring new things! You have learned so much! I love every stage of your life, but some times it's hard for me to believe you're no longer the little lump with the chubby cheeks who was happiest cuddled up on Daddy or Mommy's chest. You are becoming your own person and discovering who you are; it's amazing to watch! Already we are learning one of the hardest parts of being parents; how to let you go! You're learning independence and are determined to do so many things yourself. Luckily, you still need Mommy and Daddy a lot and we are ALWAYS here to help you however we can! We are so blessed to have you in our lives and we can't wait to see where life takes us next. We love you more than we can ever put into words and we're so grateful to God that He has blessed us with such a healthy, wonderful, beautiful baby. You are the joy of my life.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALAYA MADELYN!!