A goal I can never keep

As often as I tell myself I need to blog more often, it seems increasingly more difficult to be able to! Now that Brandon is doing online classes, I'm having to do more around the house to keep the place clean and entertain the kids so Brandon can get work done. He's been doing his orientation courses so his real classes don't start until the 20th.. that's when the hard work really begins. We've had several ups and downs over the past couple of months, most of which I'm not going to go into detail because I either 1. don't remember or 2. don't have time to do a terribly lengthy post. B is watching Dora the Explorer (which I actually despise), so I have about 20 minutes!

First of all, I'm 15 weeks pregnant! I found out the weekend of Arlen's birthday party. The night before Arlen's party, I came down with a terrible bug that kept me up all night with the runs and made me throw up for the first time since I was in elementary school. Thank goodness my visiting teacher called me that night and asked if she could help me with anything. With me feeling so awful, Brandon was stuck with finishing the cooking and decorating, which was a big job. So she came over early the next morning and helped Brandon with everything while I laid in bed. I was in bed for most of Arlen's party, so it didn't go how I had planned. I'm sure it was all fine, but I had this perfect picture in my head of how I wanted everything to look and what I wanted to do and I couldn't come to a reality. So I was pretty bummed about that.

We had a pretty special Christmas season this year. Funds were low, and up until the weekend before Christmas, we didn't have a Christmas tree. We were finally able to get one because some wonderfully thoughtful and generous person send us an anonymous card containing $80 cash. I teared up when I opened that card.. just days before I was telling Brandon how sad I was that we couldn't afford a Christmas tree to decorate with the kids. We don't know who sent it, but we said so many prayers in gratitude. Not only did that money pay for our Christmas tree, but it helped us get through the rest of that month for groceries.

Arlen started walking sometime mid-December, so it was fun to see her wander around Christmas morning at my parents' house. We spent the night up there and had a slow-moving morning and joined them at church, since it was Sunday. We then spend a few hours at the Dietz house before we went home. We might start doing Christmas at home, since it's turning out to be more exhausting than enjoyable with all the traveling we do to visit family.

Oh- our camera broke some time in December. Actually, it suddenly decided to stop working. So we'll unfortunately be picture-less until we buy a new camera.

We had a pretty big snow storm in January, and people were out of power all around western Washington. It was such a stressful week, but I'll try to recap without being too wordy. It had snowed on a Saturday night, so there were about 4 inches on the ground at our house on Sunday. Monday it started to snow pretty heavily and our power went out some time around 4:30 or 5. It was already getting dark out, so we had to scramble to get things together to go to Brandon's parents' house since we didn't have any alternative source of heat and if the snow got bad enough we wouldn't have been able to leave. There were 7 inches on the ground when we left the house, and the roads were pretty bad until we got to main streets. We were at the Dietz house Monday night and Tuesday, then Tuesday night I came down with another stomach bug that kept me up all night with the runs and vomiting. I was bed-ridden all of Wednesday, which was the day of the hardest snowfall. One of our neighbors measured about 30 inches of snow once it had stopped falling. Thursday I felt a little better but then the Dietz's power went out. We decided to retreat to my parents' house since they had a generator, hot water, and a little more space for us to sleep. Friday night I was sick again, but this time a bad stomach ache induced by stress. Saturday I came down with a strange sore throat that felt like there was a cough drop lodged in my esophagus, kind of at the dip where my collar bone meet. It drove me absolutely crazy. I felt like I was constantly gagging, and it lasted for days. Finally I recovered, and we were able to go back home on the following Thursday. We had been out of our house for 10, almost 11 days. When we got home, it was definitely NOT a relief. We had kept Lucas in the house with his litterbox and food so he wouldn't get too cold in the garage. So our house REEKED of cat pee, and the dishes that we didn't have time to wash before we evacuated the house smelled so badly. It took several days to try to get our house back in order, and free of stink. Everything in our fridge and freezer had gone bad since our power had been out for so long, so it all got thrown away. My mom so graciously gave us a big box of refrigerated food and milk to last us a couple days until I could go shopping.

That sucked. Next year we'll be more prepared. It wasn't until after the whole ordeal that I realized we should have just grabbed our 72-hour kits and left. We wouldn't have had to tear the house apart trying to make sure we had everything we needed.

On a happier note, Aly had a baby girl last month! Emerson Reinelle Hoyt. She's a doll! I'm so happy for my sister. Finally after four boys, she's blessed with a little girl! I'm glad Arlen's going to have a little buddy to play with on my side of the family!

Nothing really exciting has happened since then. The kids are growing up too fast.. B's birthday is in just a couple months! I know I say this every time I post, but I really do have the sweetest, most wonderful kids in the world! They keep me smiling and laughing every day.

B is getting much better at talking. He can say sentences; they may not be complete, but I always know what he's saying. He is very protective of Arlen, which is so wonderful to see at such a young age. While we were staying with my parents during the power-outage, Arlen took a little tumble down the stairs (I caught her halfway so she didn't get hurt) and after that, B would scream 'GET HER!" every time she started crawling up the stairs. He was so afraid that she was going to fall down and get hurt. He'd even explain to her "Arlen, no! Fall down!" At home he tries to keep her from getting into danger, like playing with the heater and electrical sockets. B still has his moments of being 2, but he's such an amazing little guy. He will occasionally push or do something without thinking, but he always says sorry when I ask him to. B is becoming more affectionate and loving as he gets older. He loves getting massages and foot rubs! It's so funny! I'll start to massage his back and if I stop, he wiggles and says "rub! rub!" and he'll rub my back in return if I ask him to.

B's favorite book right now is "Going on a Bear Hunt." He loves the part when the family finds the bear! His favorite show is still Shaun the Sheep, but he also likes to watch 'novie dogs' (101 Dalmations, Lucky's London Adventure), 'novie dohos' (dinosaur movie- Land before Time), and I got him watching "da da dreet" (sesame street) for a while. I feel kind of bad about how much screen time B got over the past two months, but being exhausted from pregnancy and having morning sickness, I really didn't have much energy to do anything. Thankfully B and Arlen are so wonderful, they made my job pretty easy. B also likes watching Dora the Explorer, but that show drives me nuts. As do most popular kids shows. B doesn't have an attachment to any specific toy right now, and he's finally able to go to bed without holding 6 or 7 random toys. He does tend to cycle through which toys he carries around every day. It's usually a little toy giraffe that he calls a chicken (because it's yellow with red bumps on its head), his motorcycle, a little 'guy' (either a playmobile person or cowboy from his lincoln logs set), an animal from his "Little People" Noah's ark set (usually a zebra or giraffe, and I think there are a few others I can't think of. I don't sit down and teach B the alphabet or counting, but he's picking up on it anyways. He knows the numbers up to 15, but he usually counts "1,3,5,6,8,9,10,12" It's quite adorable, actually. He can recognize some letters, but like I said, I'm not pushing him to learn. I'm amazed how much his little brain can absorb just by listening. He did learn his colors all on his own, and I would be surprised if he just picked up the alphabet and numbers.

B's favorite song is 'Fix You' by Coldplay, though he really likes the cover done by Secondhand Serenade. His favorite primary songs are 'Do as I'm doing' and 'I am a Child of God.'

Arlen is one bright little cookie. I can't believe how many words she can say and repeat. She can say baby, B, mommy, daddy, papa, bath, ball, hat, yay!, help, Abbie, Andy (B taught her how to say that today at lunch), Boo!, toy, yes and no (she'll answer me when I ask her a yes or no question), c'mon (she learned that from B), up and down, stop and go, thank you, bye, apple (she pronounces it 'appy'), nuckie, tickle... she can repeat nearly everything I ask her to say, but she says all those words on her own. She some animal sounds- moo, hiss, meow, woof woof, baa, peep peep, and she can make the sound of an elephant as she puts up one (or two) arms for the trunk. Arlen can understand almost everything I say to her. When I say it's time to eat a meal or snack, she walks over to the kitchen and waits by her high chair for me to put her in. If I say it's time for a bath or to brush teeth, she walks over to the bathroom. She'll put things in the garbage when I ask her to, or clean/wipe up something when she makes a mess (she'll intentionally spill her milk so she can wipe it up). She'll get her shoes when it's time to go outside, blow on her food when I tell her it's too hot. Arlen can even make some sounds of the words of the song 'Twinke Twinkle Little Star.' Her favorite part is "Up above the world so high"- she always says 'UP!' really loudly! There's a song we like called "Little Talks" and people say "hey!" in the chorus. Arlen loves that song and says "hey!" with the music. Arlen is very good at communicating what she wants. I almost always know what she wants. She'll point at whatever it is, and kind of guide me by gestures until I do or give her what she's asking for.

Arlen loves dogs and cats, but she gets frightened when dogs run up to her (even if they're friendly). Maybe it's because I don't have much experience with little girls, but I can't believe how strong Arlen's mothering instinct is. When we went to visit my sister's family for Shack's birthday and to see Emery for the first time, I was extremely surprised by Arlen's reaction to the baby. All Arlen wanted to do was hold and kiss and caress the baby. If someone was standing with the baby, she'd grab onto their legs and point at Emery and say "Baby!! Baby!!" Until the knelt down so Arlen could hold her. It was so sweet how Arlen would sit next to me and I'd help her hold the baby. She would hug her and cover her in kisses. I had a bag of hand-me-downs for her, and Arlen kept bringing Emery clothes, wanting to dress her. Arlen is very sweet and loving with her baby dolls, but it seemed like her love for babies multiplied by ten when she finally got to see and hold a real one. I can tell Arlen's going to be an amazing big sister. She'll be very helpful. She even wants to help me change B's diapers, but he'll have nothing of it, of course. For the past week or so, Arlen has been carrying her baby dolls around everywhere, muttering 'baby.. baby.. baby..' all day. She loves to push them in her toy stroller, pretend to feed them, put them to bed.. and once she gets older and more coordinated with her hands, I'll make some little cloth diapers she can learn to put on her babies.

Arlen LOVES giving and receiving kisses and hugs. I think one of her favorite times of the day is when she gets to give goodnight kisses and hugs to B and Daddy. Arlen takes a nap with me every day, and every day I wake up to her face in mine, puckered up for a wet baby kiss. It's the sweetest thing.

Anyways, I'm sure there's a lot more I can babble on about, but it's late and I'm ready to go to bed. Good night!

Arlen's almost 1!

I can't believe Arlen's birthday is next week! The year has gone by way too fast. I really need to be better about blogging because I think back on the year and try to remember what happened, and I can only recall a few events. That's probably partially because of my lack of sleep, but a lot of memorable things happen in our family that I don't record. I went to a 'girl's night out' with some friends from church, and one gal said she blogged 3 times a week! I'm lucky if I get to blog 3 times a month! Or even a year! So she has inspired me to start blogging more often, and be better about keeping record of my children's growth and accomplishments, as well as my own.

I always make the excuse that I don't get anything done because I'm exhausted all the time from lack of sleep. But since I haven't slept 8 consecutive hours for over 2 and a half years, I think my excuse is pretty darn valid. Arlen was a perfect sleeper for about 3 months, and then suddenly started waking up all the time. (by the way, B was sleeping terribly during Arlen's great-sleeping period) Now I wake up at least 5 times every night for her. It's a good night when she only wakes up 2 or 3 times. I can't just let her cry herself back to sleep because 1. she shares a room with B, and the excessive crying will wake him up 2. she comes close to vomiting when she cries too hard (I did that when I was little) and 3. I just can't get myself to do it. I had B cry it out once when he was 9 months old, mostly because I was so exhausted from lack of sleep that I couldn't get up when I heard him cry. I woke up the next morning to check on him and his blanket was wrapped up in a tight knot around his leg from all his tossing and turning. He was still asleep, but he moaned while I carefully unwrapped it since the blood could finally rush down his leg, which happened to be discolored from lack of blood flow. Anyways, that's why I can't ever let my babies cry it out.

To get away from my rant, I'll do a quick update on the kiddos!

Arlen is SUCH a smart little baby! She LOVES books. She would sit on my lap and read books all day if I could. Her favorite books are a little farm animals board book that has photographs of various farm animals, and "Beautiful Babies," a touch-and-feel book with, again, pictures of animals. Arlen loves hearing the sounds I make for each animal, and tries her best to mimic them back. I love her sheep imitation. It sounds more like a forced laugh. As soon as we finish a book, she'll get down and crawl to the bookshelf to pick another; sometimes she doesn't even wait till the end of the book. If I have books within reach, I have to hide them so Arlen doesn't keep grabbing a one ever 30 seconds.

Arlen's new-found love is baby dolls! I got out the baby doll set I bought at a garage sale during the summer, and Arlen instantly became attached to them. For several days, she wouldn't put her baby down. I tried to put it off to the side when I put her in her high chair to eat, but she pointed at the baby, said "eh! eh!", and tried to squirm out to get her baby. So she ate holding her baby. I'll get the baby set up in her doll high chair next to the play table, along with a bowl and spoon, and Arlen LOVES to pretend to feed the baby! She kids her spoon in the bowl and puts the spoon to the baby's mouth and smacks her mouth to make baby-eating sounds. I love her.

She's getting really good at communicating what she wants. She points and looks at the object, then looks at me, and says "eh?" until I figure out what it is. Arlen can say quite a few words, usually I have to say it first so she'll repeat me. "Bath" is the only word she'll say on her own. She says "whoa" to everything; she can repeat "mama", "dada", "ball", "meow", "moo", "quack quack", "baaaaa" (that's a sheep), "mmmmm" (for 'yum'), and a few other simple-sound words.

Arlen loves getting kisses and hugs from B. She'll smile every time! She likes to try to do what B does, such as building blocks, coloring, jumping (it's pretty funny.. she'll stand up and try to bounce up and down, but loses her balance and falls on her bum), singing, and dancing.

Her favorite foods are pizza crust, penne pasta, oatmeal, cheese, and peas. Those are the only foods she'll eat a lot of. MAN it's hard to get that baby to eat. I also found out that she loves olives, which is fun because B loves them too! I guess that will be their Christmas gift this year. A can on olives.

I can't believe how much B has learned the past month. He's speaking really well, and he learned colors all on his own! Besides the few color books I read him occasionally, I never sat down with him and taught him colors. One day he told me what objects were blue, red, yellow, and green. Now he can also recognize white, purple, pink, brown, and black. B has an amazing memory. Brandon has been teaching him some Spanish words, and it's amazing how fast B picks up on it. Whenever we'd quiz him on words or colors, he'd pause for a moment as if searching the memory files in his brain, and then blurt out the answer!

B is such a great helper and protective brother. Whenever Arlen crawls towards the stairs he'll say "No, Ahnen! fall do hurt!" or if Arlen gets into the bathroom:"Mama! Ahnen trouble!" (which means, 'arlen is getting in trouble')

He has recently made buddies with a neighbor boy that's his age. One day B was pretending to talk to someone on my cell phone for a long time, and when I asked him who he was talking to he said "Erick!" Awe. We meet up for play dates at the park and those two boys sure have fun together. It's really nice to have friends in the neighborhood with a child B's age!

Right now B's song obsession is "firework" by Katy Perry. He'll belt that song out all day. I'm actually not a big fan on the song, but I've memorized it by listening to it over and over and over and over and over and over again. I really hope he keeps this passion for music. It's truly amazing how absorbed he gets when I turn on some tunes. I took a video of him dancing, and you can tell he really puts his little heart and soul into his moves. He becomes so serious and focused on his dancing, it's adorable!

There's one last thing I want to write about B. I could go on and on about how wonderful and special he is, but he always amazes me with his kind heart and sensitivity to others' feelings. There will be moments when B's age gets the best of him and he'll hit or push Arlen (not very hard, thankfully) and he immediately recognizes what he's done and tries to help her feel better. He'll even say "sorry" and give a hug if he accidentally bumps her or trip over her. If he's climbing behind me on the couch, he'll pet my head and say "nice", then come down next to me and press his face against my cheek and pat my arm. B has taught me so much about compassion and love. A few weeks ago, I had a complete mom melt down, due to a long day and a screaming 2 year old that refused to go to bed. I totally lost it and dragged him to his room, and yelled at him. I instantly dropped to my knees and cried from frustration and guilt. B got really quiet and walked over to me, gave me a big hug and patted my back. I told him I was so sorry, and I'd never do that again. After all the anger and frustration I let out on him that night, he was so quick to forgive.

It's Been A Long Time..

I probably say this nearly every time I post but I really need to update our blog more often! With two toddlers that don't sleep through the night, I spend all of my free time sleeping. I never have energy to do anything I want to do! But I want to update on all the cute and adorable things the kiddos are doing!





B is seriously the sweetest little boy ever! In mid-September I spent the night at my parents' house with the kids so we could go to the Puyallup Fair the next day. We had such a fun time! Pop took the day off so the kids were able to spend the day with Grandma, Papa, and uncle Aaron. We were able to try out some instruments from around the world (B LOVED banging on the drum!E), B sat in a fire truck, we saw all the farm animals, had tacos for lunch and ice cream for dessert, visited uncle John at the ride he was manning, and saw so many fun and interesting things! B's favorite part of the day was seeing the pigs! He ran up to the pens and would say "peeg! peeg!" We took several trips back to the pigs so he could see them! Arlen really loved the llamas. When we walked into the building with llamas, Arlen pointed and and said "bah!" Of course they both loved all the animals. I had a hard time restraining Arlen from touching the bunnies and chickens. B had a blast in the petting zoo.. he loved the baby ducks they had in there. The next day we drove down to Olympia with Grandma and we did a little shopping trip at Costco and Fred Meyer. Grandma bought Arlen's halloween costume, an adorable ladybug outfit, and we had pizza for lunch! Then we walked over to Fred Meyer to pick up a few things. This whole time B was holding on to a little plastic whale he brought from Grandma's house. Somehow on our walk back to the car it got lost and we were afraid it was lost forever! Once the kids were in the car, my mom found it under the cart (somehow we didn't see it before).. it was a miracle! After that B was SO attached to that whale. He held that thing in his hand for over a month. He ALWAYS had to have the whale. As soon as he realized it wasn't in his hand, he would ask "whale? whale?" It was so cute how much he loved that little whale!


Since the beginning of summer B has been attaching himself to things. First it was a little toy wolf, then a car, then a little motercycle (he called hit a 'bike'), and then the whale. It's too bad they were all such small things because they constantly got lost! There were so many times we had to search the house high and low to find B's little attachment. One time B had lost his bike at the park and Brandon had to go back and look for it, and thankfully found it in the bushes! We've said a lot of prayers to find his little toys. Heavenly Father definitely listens to our little prayers with B. Whenever we'd say a prayer to find his toy, we'd always find it moments later. It was so sweet how much B loved those little toys. He couldn't fall asleep without them.


Recently B has had a great interest in dinosaurs and birthdays. The only episodes of Blues Clues he wants to watch is the dinosaur episode and the birthday episode. I love the way he says 'dinosaurs' and 'happy birthday!' He says "dohos" for dinosaurs and "happy day" for happy birthday! SO CUTE. We have a Play Hut tent set that we've had out for a couple of weeks. B loves to go in there and pretend there are dinosaurs outside. I'll sit in there with him and we'll make treats for the dinosaurs and place them outside the door. Then Brandon will pretend to be the dinosaur and eat the treat! B and Arlen have so much fun with the tent! He'll crawl in say and say " 'mon!" to Arlen ('come on'). Besides singing happy birthday and playing dinosaur, right now B loves the song 'twinke twinkle little star' (he says 'quinkle quinkle), the movie RIO, the music from RIO, learning colors and letters, playing pretend with his toys, and he LOVES it when Brandon and I make stuffed animals talk to him. He has a little stuffed duck with long arms and legs that he likes me to have talk to him. I found that B responds really well when I incorporate play with reality. Sometimes B gets really upset when Brandon leaves for work, and the only way I can help B feel better is if I take little finger puppets and pretend that one is the daddy and one is the baby and reinact the scenerio. "Daddy fish is leaving for work and baby fish is sad. How do we help baby fish feel better?" B will give the baby fish a hug and he'll be happy!


B is such a wonderful helper and a sweet brother to Arlen. He's always so good about cleaning up and helping me when I need to take care of Arlen. He usually does what he's asked without a fuss, and gets excited about everything! Whenever we go out walking in the stroller, whether it be downtown or around the mall, B says 'hi' to every person we pass. We've gone to the children's museum a few times and his favorite place to play is the water tub.


Some of the other cute things B says:


"Qweet" - Treat

"Cuuh Hoohs"(with teeth clenched together)- Blues Clues

"Wee-oh" - Rio

"Way-oh"- whale

"Ahln"- Arlen

"Ahkah"- Anika (the little neighbor girl)

"Waba"- water

"Ahpane" - airplane

"qwain/toot toot" -train

"Monton"- Martin

"Fy"-fly

"Bama"- Grandma

"noonohs"- noodles

"knock knock"- excuse me

I've noticed that whenever there's a 'tr' sound he uses 'qu' and the short 'i' sound (like in the word 'pig'), is always an 'ee' sound. 'Beeg! Peeg!" I love it. I wish he would never grow up.


B has such a passion for music. He's always singing or dancing.. I love that boy. He's my cuddly, sweet, loving little buggies. I want his to stay this age forever.





Arlen is such a happy and loving little girl! I can't believe she'll be turning 1 next month! She's crawling everywhere, and she's FAST! Turn your back on her for one second and she'll head for the stairs! She's wanting to walk so badly, and it will be nice when she learns how. She and B will be able to play a lot easier, and she'll be able to do so many more things! Arlen hasn't said any words yet, but she does like to have a conversation! She says "bah?" all the time and likes to point, and she has this high pitched screechy sound she likes to make! She is such a riot! Arlen really has a sense of humor.. she loves making people smile and laugh! She's always intent on making eye contact with people, and animals. She has such gorgeous and sweet little eyes, every time she looks at me I can see what a very special little person she is.


Arlen absolutely adores B. They have so much fun playing together! She's very attached to me (much more so than B ever was).. if Brandon is holding her and I enter the room, she starts to cry because she wants mama! She'll occasionally reach out for daddy, but the only other person she always reaches for is Grandma Dietz! Arlen always wants Grandma Dietz more than me! It's so sweet how she rests her head on grandma's shoulder and gives her hug after hug! She really has a soft spot for Grandma Dietz! Arlen loves being held, but she sometimes just wants to get down and play. She has recently developed a liking for playing on the bed! Once she gets on mom and dad's bed, she starts rolling around squealing with joy!
Some cute things about Arlen:

She sleeps with her little stuffed monkey every night.

If you catch her getting into mischief, she'll squeal and try to crawl away as fast as she can.

She has the most adorable little smile and giggle!

She loves standing on the window sill, and watch for daddy to come home.

When she starts nursing she sticks her leg straight up in the air and waves it around!

She learned how to wave a few months ago, and now whenever she hears the word 'bye' she'll start waving.

Arlen loves to play patty-cake, and her favorite part is when you roll it!

Arlen loves music just as much as B. She'll stand up at the edge of the couch and shake her little baby booty. Her favorite song is "hot wings" from the movie Rio!

It's impossible to get shoes on her feet- she's always curling her toes!

I love how Arlen looks right into your eyes. It's like she's trying to telepathically tell you what she's thinking.

She always says "bah?" in question form. Too cute.



Arlen is such a little model. I'm always getting comments from people how she should be a baby model. She has the most delicate little features and pretty eyes. Her hair is growing slowly, but she looks so feminine, no one ever mistakes her for a boy. She's my little doll!!

I probably say it too often, but I really have some very special children. I truely adore them and I love spending every moment with them. They are the most loving, caring, sweet little ones I've known. B is very sensitive to people's feelings, and won't hesitate to give you a hug. He's doing a great job learning how to be polite by saying 'please' and 'thank you' and if someone is in his way he says "knock knock" to say excuse me! It's the most darling thing! He even says 'bless you' when I sneeze! Arlen will nuzzle her nose into your neck, and give you a little head-bump when you ask her for a kiss. She'll look you right in the eyes and give you a great big smile. She's such a happy baby girl, and her little light shines wherever she goes.

I have the best kids in the world!

New Family Pictures!

Thanks to the wonderful Christia Palizzi, we have some gorgeous updated family pictures. B and Arlen were so good during the session! B was just happy and smiled and chased bugs... and Arlen was her usual quiet and content self.

We went to the zoo a week from Tuesday with Grandma Dattilo, Aly, and her boys, and I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera! It was Arlen's first time to the zoo. I think B's favorite part was seeing the Budgies. They're beautiful little brightly-colored birds they have in an enclosed netted space. He was squealing and jumping and pointing.. and I got a little stick with food on it so 5 or 6 birds would land on my arm and try to get the treat. B is so cute around animals. He gets so excited and tries to be so gentle! Towards the end of our trip, Aly figured out how to put Arlen front-facing in the Moby. I'd never seen Arlen so squirrelly and vocal! She was overjoyed to be looking out at everything! She was kicking her legs and waving her arms, and shouting baby babble as loud as she could!! Ha ha, I love her. Oh- also that day, B says a few first words: "shoe," "bye," and "mommy." All on his own! He's such a smart little nugget. I swear, ever since he's turned two, he just figures the words out. Today while we were sitting eating lunch, B found the letter "I" alphabet block and pointed to one of the pictures saying "igoo! igoo!" And there was a picture of an Igloo!!! I gave him a big hug, telling him how wonderful and smart he was, and he got this proud little grin on his face. I just love him!

Arlen also had her first Easter! She and B looked jaw-dropping ADORABLE. I took a picture of Arlen, but have yet to take one of B in his Easter suit. It's 2T and huge on him, so I'll get some pictures with them together eventually. But they were just so stinking cute!

The day before Easter, we went to Lattin's Cider Mill, hoping to have B be a part of their egg hunt, but there were hoards of people there so we didn't get to do it. But he had a good time seeing the animals, and we all shared some of their famous apple fritters. Martin and Andy were there with us, and we decided to head over to downtown Olympia for the Procession of the Species. On the drive over, B did the sweetest little thing. I was in the passenger seat, reaching behind and rubbing his leg when B reached down, grabbed my fingers and started pulling on them. So I let him take my hand and what did he do? He kissed my fingers! That moment just made my heart melt! My wonderful, sweet little B thought of that all by himself. I just love how he shows his affection! He's such a sweetheart! Anyways, we went on to spending time in the toy store downtown and watching the parade. The Procession has to be the coolest parade I've ever seen. All these people dress up as different creatures. Animals, plants, bugs.. it's amazing. One group put together a giant spider, which they held up with really long poles. They would make the spider bend forward and lean its face into the crowd, then the giant web following would over over them, as if to catch them all in the web. So creative!

So, just to update on a few of B's and Arlen's recent accomplishments: B is saying all sorts of words now. "Cocoa" (I swear he asks for it every day. It's just a little bit of Nesquick in milk), "truck" (he thinks every truck he sees is daddy's work van. one day while we were at the park, a truck drove by and he started chasing after it saying 'dada!! dada!!' It was so cute), "spider" "bug," "whale" (that's a big one. He has a stuffed shark he thinks is a whale. He likes to hold onto the tail, jump on his bed and whack it against the side of his bed for some reason.), "Nemo" (sounds more like 'memo.' FAVORITE MOVIE. That's all he wants to watch! He loves getting cozy on our bed and watching it in the portable dvd player.). On B's birthday, we moved Arlen into his room. So B's mattress is on the floor in the corner and Arlen is in his crib. It's a small room, but a cute set up with the rocking chair in one corner for a reading nook. So far it's been working out great! Arlen sleeps through the night no problem, but B still wakes up 5-8 times a night. I have no idea when that's going to change.

Arlen is such a good baby. Everywhere I go, she always gets these two comments "She's SO beautiful!" and "She's so quiet!" Arlen is just cool with everything. She loves being held, but she likes playing on the floor- grabbing her little toes and reaching for toys. She ADORES B. I think she loves B more than she loves me. She will laugh at anything he does! The other day I walked in to the living room, and B was laying next to her in her little baby play mat. I took a few pictures I'll have to post. They're quite the pair! Arlen is getting close to sitting up on her own. She's a little wobbly but she can do it if I hold her hand! She hasn't rolled over yet but she's getting awfully close.

Ok this post is getting kind of long, but I just want to share one last short story of how wonderful B is. So a couple weeks ago B and I were making chocolate-dipped pretzels and bananas in the kitchen while Arlen was sleeping. I was close to being done but decided to go check on her. B followed me and she had woken up. He climbed up into her crib with her and I said "B, will you stay here and keep Arlen happy while I finish up in the kitchen?" He said "yeah," so I returned to the kitchen. All I heard from their bedroom was B saying "Hiiiii!" and Arlen giggling. Once I had cleaned up, I went to check on them and B was still in her crib, and Arlen was laying down next to him as happy as can be.

I have the best kids in the world.

Happy Birthday, Buggers!!!

Last Wednesday my darling little B turned 2!! I can't believe it's already been two years since he was born. All week I reflected on the series of events leading to his birth: my water breaking while visiting with an elderly woman Brandon was working for, calling around trying to get my doctor's phone number, driving in rush-hour traffic to the hospital... It was crazy. Now that I've had a normal birth (Arlen), I realize how intense and insane B's delivery was. The moment my little 4 1/2 lb B came out, they rushed him to the little baby table, checked him out, and put a tube of oxygen up to his nose. Once they had him wrapped up, they let me hold him for a minute and whisked him away to run a bunch of tests. I didn't get to see him until later that night after my parents and Brandon's parents had went home, and Brandon had gone home to get some things for me. My dad, and Brandon's parents didn't even get to see him. They wheeled B into my room in an incubator, and I finally got a good look at him. His tiny little head was full of red hair, and he had the smallest little baby body I had ever seen. He was so peaceful sleeping in his little warm room. But they didn't let me hold him. He was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and they were about to transfer him to St. Joseph's hospital in Tacoma. I felt strange all night, knowing I had a baby but not with me. For three weeks I drove to St. Joseph's hospital every single day. There were some days it was so painful to put my little B back in little bed, and leave him there until the next day. There were so many things we had to do for him while he was in the NICU. Feed him through a tube, weigh diapers, dress and wrap him with a handful of cords coming off his foot, checking his monitor, timing his feedings and diaper changes, pumping and labeling cups of milk, and holding him close for as long as we possibly could. Every time we came to the hospital, we had to wash our hands/arms for 3 minutes, and show our hospital wristbands to get into the room. Visitors had to put in these big yellow gowns and gloves in order to enter.

Those three weeks were probably most impacting weeks of my life. I've never felt so strongly about any other event that has happened to me. Every time I look at all the pictures we took, my eyes water and my heart swells. B will always have a very special place in my heart. I think he does with everybody. He has become the most thoughtful, sweet, loving little boy I have ever known. B is so wonderful, and I make sure he knows that every day.

There are so many little things B does that make me smile. Just last Saturday, we were driving from Lattin's Cider Mill to downtown Olympia for the Procession of the Species, and I reached back and put my hand on B's leg while he was sitting in his car seat. He pulled at my fingers, so I gave him my hand... and he kissed my hand! He had never done anything like that before. I didn't ask him for a kiss, he just thought of it and did it all by himself. Every day he gives me hugs, he gives me kisses, and shows how much he appreciates the little things I do for him. Whenever we play, he will always pause for a moment and give me a big hug, thanking me for playing with him.

B also has the funniest personality! He has so many comical expressions, you can always tell what's on his mind. He'll put on a sly little smile and shift his eyes when he's doing something mischievious. His eyes get really big when he's excited, and he has the most adorable smile!

B is really into bugs right now. For a while he would say 'Buh' every time he saw a bug (or anything that resembled a bug.. like a piece of lint). But he recently added the 'g' to the word, but still calls every speck a 'bug.' He's so funny about bugs, too. He gets super excited when he sees one, but freaks out if it's on him. He learned that from me. B's also into trucks/cars right now. He says "cawk" for both 'truck' and 'car', and that's also how he said 'bird' for some reason. B is just learning how to phrase words together to make a statement. For example, B would say "Mama?"

Me:"Yes, baby?" B:" Dada. Bug. Cawk." Me:"Is daddy going to bring a bug home in his truck?" B:"Yeah!" It's so stinkin' cute!

B also has this very strong fascination with water. For a while, he would dump out every glass of water he found, and proceed to play with the giant puddle. Whenever we go to the park, he HAS to run in the ditch full of water, or at least throw rocks in it. There's a grassy path down the street that leads to the creek that runs behind the houses across from us. There's rocky area that B loves to go to so he can throw rocks in the water. That is his ultimate favorite thing to do now- throw rocks in water. He'll even bring a rock in from outside to have in his bath, so he can throw the rock in his bath water over and over.

B is one very special little guy. Both Brandon and I absolutely adore him!

So happy birthday, my little Bug. I love you soooooooooooooooooo much!

The little things I love about B

How cute he looks sitting at the table all by himself, eating his snack (occasionally kicking his legs or standing up and dancing)

His "little B dance"

The way he says 'rah' instead of 'yeah'

How he puckers his little lips for a kiss.

He waves goodbye every night as he's walking to his bedroom.

He goes up and gives Arlen hugs and kisses without me asking him to.

He loves to help.

If he has something in his hand and I ask to have it, he always gives it to me.

If he does something wrong, he will always apologize/say he's sorry (give a hug) if I ask him to.

The way he says 'ball.' He always says 'baa' in the cutest little B voice.

B is so cuddly.

He watches his dad drive off to work every morning and waves goodbye.

When I ask for a kiss, he puts his forehead forward for me to kiss him.

His adorable, wobbly run.

Happy Early Valentine's Day!

Brandon is going down to Naselle to work for a few days next week, so we celebrated our Valentine's day today. We went and got massages, got a new pair of shoes for both of us, and went out to dinner at Anthony's. For Valentine's day, B, Arlen, and I did a couple paintings for Brandon. B painted the background mostly by himself, and I painted the trunk once it was dry. The next day I held Arlen and used her toes to paint the leaves on one tree, and helped B use his toes to paint the leaves on another tree. B's is on the Left, Arlen's is on the right. They turned out really cute! I ended up giving Brandon his gift on Thursday because he accidentally saw the pictures of his gift on the camera! (He ALWAYS finds out what his gifts are!)