Language Explosion

Grace will be 18 months old on Monday. CRAZY! I can't believe I've been blessed with my precious little Goo Baby for a year and a half. And she's barely a baby anymore! She's kind of a Goo-Girl these days! She's getting to the point where I can see the language explosion coming on quickly. Lily was a pretty early talker, and by 18 months I think she had a few more words under her belt than Goo does. However, Grace is incredibly smart and capable and shows it in different ways. For example, when Lily was that age, she loved to look through books, but when I asked her to point to this or that, she rarely ever did. I could never tell if she wasn't learning things, or if she just didn't feel like pointing out what she knew. Grace, on the other hand, loves to point out what she knows. She loves all the baby board books with the pictures, and she'll go through and point to everything and show you that shoes go on your feet and that sort of thing. And like I said, she's starting to repeat more and more words. Many of them sound essentially the same, but that's pretty much how it goes with babies.

I kind of wonder why her language is developing differently than Lily's did. Is it a personality thing? Is it that I spent more one-on-one time with Lily? Is it that Grace developed a love for books later than Lily did, and so didn't learn all the words for things as early? Who knows! But she's definitely coming into her own now.

Grace has always been a good communicator, even non-verbally. For example, today I'd set the girls to play in Lily's room while I showered. I'd brought few of the Christmas toys that had been downstairs up to Lily's room for them to play with. Well, after lunch Grace marched herself right up to Lily's room and pointed to the toy I'd brought up earlier, and then pointed out the door. It was obvious she wanted me to bring that toy back downstairs for her to play with. No words necessary!

She also wants to do anything Lily is doing. She follows Lily around and plays with whatever toys Lily is playing with. If Lily gets ketchup for her hot dog, Grace must have it as well. If she sees that Lily has her watch on, she points to her own wrist and fusses. She'll even copy Jim. When Jim pushes his sleeves up to his elbows, Grace does the same. She's pretty hilarious.

So here's a little video showcasing some of Grace's verbal triumphs. I should have had her say "no no no" because it's pretty much the cutest thing in the world.

Christmas 2011

This Christmas, Jim's parents, Steve and Linda, came to visit us! We've had a fun and lazy vacation so far. We decided to move "Christmas morning" to Saturday just so that we wouldn't be too rushed and stressed out trying to get to church on time. It was a good decision, since gift opening lasted well into the afternoon!

On Friday night, which was our "Christmas Eve", we went on the Lights Cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Lily up on Daddy's shoulders.
Grace with Grandpa Steve.
The family with the setting sun and the resort in the background.
Linda, Jim, Lily, Grace, and Steve waiting to see Santa.
When we got home from the Lights Cruise and dinner at Bonsai, we saw that Mrs. Claus had brought matching Christmas jammies for the girls. Cousin Madison also got matching jammies, but they didn't arrive quite in time for Christmas Eve.
Cute girls ready for bed so that Santa could come stuff their stockings!
But not before a quick light sabre fight. We went to Triple Play earlier in the day, and with all the tickets we won, Lily picked out a set of light sabres for Grace and herself.
Too much fun!
Then we headed up to Lily's room to read Twas The Night Before Christmas.
Lily had questions about almost every page.
On Christmas morning, Lily woke up to find Santa's cookies eaten and milk drunk, and the stockings filled with gifts!
A lantern! Lily is kind of obsessed with flashlights and the like, so she was pretty stoked to get a lantern.
Grace opening her stocking.
What a cutie pie on Christmas morning!
That last picture reminded me of this picture of Goo from last Christmas.
A truck! Nothing makes Grace happier than a new truck with which to play!
Lily got a harmonica in her stocking. Good idea? Bad idea? Time will tell!
One of Grace's big gifts from Jim and I was a folding camp chair.Lily has one, and sometimes it's tough to share.
Goo lounging in her chair.
Thanks for the tool set, Gramby and Geezer!
Thanks Abby and Isaac for the cool book!
Two of the girls' favorite gifts were the Fur Real cat that Grace gave to Lily...
...and the Little People train set that Lily gave to Grace. Those two toys got played with more than anything else. Lily named her kitty cat Stocking, and Stocking helped her open the rest of her gifts. Stocking also creeped us all out by mewing and moving her head randomly.
Lily and Grace's big gift from us was a tool bench. I debated if we should just set it out from the get-go, or try to wrap it, or send them on a wild goose chase to find it. We opted for the wild goose chase. I took pictures of random places around the house, and wrapped the first picture. When Lily opened it, she had to go find where that picture was taken, and when she got there she'd find a picture of the next location. Eventually she was led to our master bedroom closet, where the tool bench was. The next hour or so was spent hammering just about everything in sight.
I had to include one more "Ghosts of Christmas Past" picture. Grace was barely sitting up last Christmas!

Grace Eats a Christmas Cookie

I took a video of Goo enjoying a sugar cookie last night. It was pretty cute. Sorry about the camera shaking violently while she was trying to lick the frosting off of her lip. I was laughing too hard to hold it still. :)

Attitude Adjustment

I had an attitude adjustment about Christmas last week. You see, I love Christmas. I love all the traditions leading up to Christmas; decorating the tree, baking cookies, Christmas shopping etc. But most of all, I love Christmas morning. I love waking up and coming downstairs to see that Santa has stuffed your stocking. I love the tradition of opening the stocking, then eating something gooey and completely unhealthy for breakfast, and then leisurely opening the gifts from family under the tree. All of this is amplified tenfold now that we have kids. Fun fun fun!!!

But this year, unfortunately, Christmas falls on a Sunday... which means that church service lands smack dab in the middle of my Christmas traditions. And I've had a little bit of a bad attitude about this. I mean, do you try to rush through opening gifts? Do you save them until after church? How are you going to have time to even get ready for church if you're spending all morning opening Christmas gifts? Also, what do you do about Christmas dinner? Do you just eat it later in the evening? Do you try to have stuff cook while you're out of the house? Our congregation actually cancelled Bible class, so instead of having to be there at 9:00, service will start at 10:15, so at least we get that extra hour and fifteen minutes. They also said that kids are welcome to come in their pajamas (what about adults!?). But still...

So anyway, I was with a group of ladies last week and we were talking about Christmas traditions. These ladies are all Christian ladies and the conversation was moving along the lines of "Jesus is the reason for the season" and several of them were voicing how their kids didn't even know about any of the secular Christmas traditions and lore, like Santa Claus or reindeer or elves. Their entire focus for Christmas was about the birth of Christ. Which is a good thing.

But let me back up real quick and give my official Alyson Opinion on that topic. I love that around Christmas the world celebrates Christ, when on a regular day they hardly give him a thought. I figure it's better to think about him some than not at all. BUT I also kind hate that everyone only thinks about Christ around Christmas and they hold up Christmas as The Time To Think About Christ. Christ should be involved in our lives every single day. We should celebrate his life every day. We should think about his sacrifice and his holiness every day. Christ shouldn't be confined to a special time of year; a time of year that has been overrun by secular traditions anyway. I know that some people combat the secularism of Christmas by emphasizing Christ even more, and that's just fine. But for me, I feel like my whole life should be a celebration of Christ, so of course I talk about baby Jesus with my kids and whatnot, but I don't exclude the fun secular Christmas traditions to make Christ the focus. Instead, it gives me a renewed resolve to focus more on Christ every day, and not just around Christian holidays.

I don't know if that made sense, but that's my soap box.

Anyway, among this group of ladies who prided themselves in their Children not partaking in secular Christmas traditions, I felt like schlub because we do Santa, reindeer, elves, and the works at our house. But I thought, "Well maybe I can get some encouragement on my bad attitude about Christmas being on Sunday from these lovely Christian ladies."

So at some point in the conversation, I mentioned how I was a little torn about Christmas being on a Sunday, and I felt guilty for not wanting Christmas to be on a Sunday because I like my secular gift-opening traditions and I had a bad attitude about church interrupting it all, even though Jesus is the "reason for the season."

Do you know what response I got?

"Just don't go to church."

They were all in agreement. Yeah, it's ok to miss one Sunday, and it's really inconvenient et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Wait just a minute there! You are the ladies who won't even teach your kids about Santa Claus because he wasn't a part of the nativity, but when it comes to the "inconvenience" of interrupting your Christmas morning to go to church, you say "just don't go!?" I have to admit, I was a little appalled. Not that I think missing a Sunday of church is some kind of mortal sin or anything, but I thought that surely these ladies whose sole Christmas focus was Christ would encourage me to make church a priority on Christmas.

Wow.

So now I'm resolved to go to Church on Christmas. Of course! (Not that I wasn't going to go before... I was just going to whine about it). Otherwise I feel like I'd be saying "Jesus is the reason for the season, unless he interrupts your secular holiday traditions, then you should just skip him."





P.S. Oh, and our church will also be hosting a Christmas Eve service. 4:30 at Dalton Gardens Church of Christ on the corner of 4th and Hanley. It's a service for the whole community, so come one, come all!

P.P.S. Is anyone else disturbed by images like this?
What message is that supposed to send?
"Santa came first."?
"Santa is just as real as Jesus."?
I'm all about playing Santa and having him fill the stockings and whatnot, but I'm not going to go out of my way to lie to my kids, especially at Christmas time when stories of Santa and Jesus are so intermingled. When they find out that Santa is just a made-up guy, what do you think they're going to think about Jesus?

Pony Tails and Christmas Baking

This week I put Grace's hair in a pony tail for the first time. I mean a behind-the-head ponytail, not the top-of-the-head kind. She looked super cute, but wouldn't stand still for a picture. Too much to do!

Here she is walking, and you can kind of see it.
From the front. She's so cute with her little Zooey Deschanel bangs, don't you think?


As hard as I tried to get a still shot of Grace's ponytail, it just wasn't happening. So I decided to take a little video instead! Her new favorite thing is to say "Boo!" to everyone.


For comparison reasons, I dug out pictures of Lily's first ponytail. Lily was 19 months when these were taken, and Grace is currently 17 months old.
Cutie pie!

Friday and Saturday we spent occupied with Christmas baking. I love Christmas baking, but I don't need to eat all those goodies, so we usually make up little containers and bring them to our neighbors. Grace and Lily were both big helpers in the kitchen.

Don't worry, this was after I was finished making the dough. The whisk was more to occupy a girl than anything else. :)
I love helping my mama!
Lily and I making sugar cookies. Lily was very good at using the cookie cutters. That shirt is like camouflage, but I have to admit that my belly is such a size now that reaching very far across a counter can prove difficult.

I'm in Trouble: Shortbread

I love shortbread cookies. Ya know, the thick flaky kind made with real butter. Oh mah goodness, I cannot resist such a treat. Last week Lily went to our neighbor's house to play for a while, and was sent home with some shortbread cookies that were so good. Shortbread cookies have been occupying my thoughts and dreams ever since.

So a couple of days ago I was sitting around craving baked goods and thought to myself, "Self, you should make some shortbread cookies!" As crazy as it sounds, I'd never made shortbread before, but when has that ever stopped me?

I flipped through my trusty dusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (best wedding gift EVER!) and found this recipe.

1 1/4 cup flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup butter

You cut in the butter until it's all crumbly, then you form it into a ball (I had to zap it for a few seconds to soften the butter enough to form a ball, rather than just crumble), roll it out, and then cut it into whatever shape you desire. Pop it in the oven at 325 for 20-25 minutes, and when they're done you've got the most wonderfully delectable shortbread cookies ever.

It's kind of really bad news that it only takes 3 ingredients and is SO easy. I see an obsession coming on.

Rainbows and Butterflies

Since my last post was just a little on the disgusting side, I decided to balance it out with a couple videos of cute little girls. You know the ones.


I handed Goo her toast at breakfast the other morning, and after I said, "toast," she said "toast" as clear as day! So I tried to get her to do it again. She eventually does it ok, but not quite as well as the first time around. Of course. But that's Grace. She'll mimic you and say almost anything at any random moment, but she rarely actually uses words. Why bother when pointing and grunting do the trick?



I'm continually impressed with all the books Lily has practically memorized and likes to read out loud. She doesn't get all the words quite right, but she gets the jist of it.

How To Handle A Nosebleed

Yeah, this is going to be kind of a gross post. Those who have a weak stomach, proceed no further.

A while back I wrote a post about how I'm well-acquainted with nosebleeds. Shortly after writing it, I was talking with a few friends who'd read the post and I told them that I was considering writing a follow-up post about how to deal with nosebleeds. After all, over the years I've accumulated quite a bit of expertise on the subject and it would truly be a shame to let all that knowledge go to waste. One friend encouraged me to do so, one friend gave me a few more tips (since she is a frequent sufferer herself), and the other friend claimed she'd never had a nosebleed in her life. WHAT!? To me that's like saying you've never sneezed. It's just completely out of my realm of reality. I go through phases where I get at least one nosebleed per day. Often more. I can't imagine someone who has never had a nosebleed. So now I feel like I owe it to those people to write this post. Because if they ever did get a nosebleed, they might not know what to do with themselves, and I'm here to tell you that a lot of the sage nosebleed advice is flat out wrong. Today I will set the record straight, and correct a few of those incorrect, yet prevalent, nosebleed myths.

Myth #1: Tilt your head back.
From the time I was small, everyone was always telling me to tilt my head back if I got a nosebleed, so I did. And guess what? I swallowed a lot of my own blood. Gross, right? The only reason to tilt your head back when you have a nosebleed is to stop the blood from dripping down your face until you get to a tissue or something to catch the blood. After you find a tissue or cloth, return your head to it's upright position. All you'll succeed in doing when you tilt your head back is to swallow a lot of blood, which is not only gross, but it can give you a stomach ache and make you throw up, plus it gives you a really sore throat.

Myth #2: Pinch the bridge of your nose.
News flash: the bridge of your nose is bone and, though there are a couple of vessels that run on the sides of your nose, they are not the ones that are bleeding when you have a nose bleed. Pinching the bridge of your nose will not stem the flow of blood, but it will give you a headache! If you want to pinch your nose, pinch the bottom cartilage-y part of your nose. This will keep the blood up in there and aide in clotting. It will also stop the blood from running down your face.

Myth #3: If you blow your nose after a nosebleed, you'll blow the clot out and have to start all over.
Ok, here's the deal. The clot that stops the actual bleeding in your nose is way up by the vessel that is bleeding. However, there is likely going to be a lot of extra blood just floating around in your nose, and when blood floats around in noses, it likes to form clots. So if you blow your nose after a nosebleed, it is highly likely that a giant disgusting blood clot will come flying out your nose. Let me stress this this is not the clot that stopped the nosebleed. This is just extra blood. Of course, if you blow your nose really hard right after a nosebleed, you can certainly start it back up again. But I highly recommend blowing your nose after you have a nosebleed, and here is why. Like I said, there will be a lot of extraneous blood in your nose, hanging out and forming clots, and if you don't blow it out, one of two things will happen. 1) It will form big old blood boogers which are gross and pokey and uncomfortable OR 2) that clot will at some point dislodge and slide down the back of your throat. At that point you can either swallow it, or you can try to hack it into your mouth and spit it out. TOTALLY GROSS, right? So I always blow my nose after a nose bleed. Yes, you have to be gentle, and yes you will occasionally start it back up a little. But more often than not you'll just get all that nasty extra blood out of there and you'll be glad you did!

So what do you do when you have a nosebleed? Here are a few tips.

1. Hold a tissue up to the nostril that is bleeding, and pinch it closed. Not much blood will get on the tissue, and the blood will back up in there and be able to clot and heal.

2. If you want to be "hands free", some people will roll up a piece of tissue and stick it up their nose. This works just fine in a pinch, but after years and years of research, I have found that a cotton ball stuffed up the nose works much better. A tissue might stop the blood, but it's so scratchy that it will often re-open the wound when you take it out. Also, a tissue doesn't expand to fit like a cotton ball does and you're likely to leak around it. Plus, you have the other half of the tissue just hanging out the bottom of your nose. A cotton ball is far more discreet, and works way better.

3. If you have a pretty bad one, put an ice pack on the back of your neck or under your upper lip. This will constrict your blood vessels and will slow the flow of blood.

4. After your nose has stopped bleeding, take some Vaseline and rub it up inside your nostril. It feels really weird but it will help moisturize your nose, and will prevent your nose from stretching and re-opening the wound a few hours later.

5. Don't forget to gently blow your nose!

6. Get your nose cauterized. This works well for some people to stop nosebleeds for good. I've never had it done. I don't know why my parents didn't have it done when I was a kid in my heyday of nosebleeds, but at this point in my life I'm so used to (and good at) dealing with them that it almost seems pointless.

OC Gear!

When I was in Oklahoma last month, I got Lily and Grace each an OC souvenir. Lily got a t shirt, and Goo got a jumper. Yesterday was the first time I had them wear them, and they sure were adorable!

Go Eagles!
Being their goofy selves.



Later in the day, the girls played dress-up. Goo's new name is Hollywood.
And here we have Princess Lily.
Grace wore the tutu for the rest of the day, even to Target and out to eat at Red Robin.

When The Night Is Falling

There's a song we sing sometimes at church that I just love. It's like a lullaby that the Lord is singing to you, and it also makes a great lullaby to sing to your kids, by the way. I finally found it on youtube, but I can't say that I love the arrangement. The music is a little cheesy, but maybe I'm just too used to a capella singing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this beautiful song.





Amendment:
Thanks to Patrick Ford, I have a version by the Zoe Group that I like much better. Listen HERE.

Furniture Shopping

It all started when my parents got new furniture and offered to give us their two large recliners. We'd been thinking for some time that we wanted to do something different with our basement furniture, since it was a little hodge-podge (and our Craigslist sectional was a little too threadbare for my taste), so we took them up on the offer and listed our couches on Craigslist. Our plan was to find a nice couch to go with the two recliners, instead of our giant sectional and old couch.

The first couch, which my parents bought when I was about 4 years old (so it's about 25 years old) sold pretty quickly. Other than slightly squished cushions, it was in great shape for being so old. Our large sectional also sold quickly, but is still in our basement since the buyer is in Spokane and we haven't quite been able to connect on a time to get it to him. So with the money we made on selling our furniture, we started furniture shopping with a price in mind, plus a little out-of-pocket wiggle room.

I'll spare you all the details, but suffice to say we did a bunch of Craigslist shopping, and even went and looked at a couple of sofas. We then found our dream couch at Complete Suite here in town, but it was a little out of our price range. They were doing a deal for 12 months no interest, so we figured we could swing it if we financed it and used those 12 months to save up the rest of the money for the sofa. Unfortunately, they were out of stock and wouldn't be getting that sofa in stock for another 4 to 8 weeks. That's a deal-breaker, ladies! We were on the verge of calling back one Craigslister who had a nice sofa in great condition (just a bit too squishy), when someone suggested checking out Sofa Mart in Spokane Valley, and I'm so glad we did.

We found almost the exact same sofa that we'd fallen in love with at Complete Suite for over $200 less! While the Craigslist couch was nice (but not much cheaper, anyway), we like the idea of buying new and getting the lifetime warranty. (Pregnant lady also likes that a new couch is a lot more firm.)

So if you are in the market for furniture, check out Sofa Mart at Furniture Row in Spokane Valley. Their prices were rather impressive!

Without further ado, here is our new couch! We love it because it's extremely deep, and the back cushions are just big pillows, so you could make it even deeper if you wanted to sleep on it or something. It's also really long... almost 9 feet! Jim can sit at one end and I can lay down (on my left side) and be very comfortable. We also love the soft corduroy-ish microfiber material.
Here I am chillaxin' with my big ole belly!

Goo Being Goo

A happy girl wakes up to eat lunch.


She likes to say "no" and do her finger wag.