Good morning, Lizzie

[This is the transcript of exactly everything Lizzie has said since waking up and coming into the living room with me and Karis]

I'm sitting on the couch, with K propped on the Boppy, and the laptop in front of me.

"It's Baby Karis!
Awake now!"
Yes, she's awake now.

"Need her pacifier.
Got it.
Holding it,
In her hand."

Did you have a good sleep? "Yeah"

Pointing at K, then at me.  "Need milk."

She already had milk.  Now she's sitting here. 
"Holdin it" (pacifier)
(K sneezes) "ha-too!"
"This is Lizzie's boppy."  Can you share it with her, since you don't use it anymore?  "Yeah."
"That's baby Karis!"
"Want some applesauce."  You want applesauce? "No!"

(Looking at Karis' face)  "I see one eye.  I see two eyes!  Like that!"  (giggle)
(sniffing K's head) what are you doing?  "Smelling her hair."
Max sniffs my cup of coffee.  "Whoa, maximus, no! Silly cat."

(I smell unpleasant odors from both, so there are diaper changes all around.)  Do you want me to change you first, or Karis first?  "Karis."  (She follows me into the other room while I change Karis, then sings while I change her.)

Pointing at a dried leaf fragment on the floor:  "Not poop, just a leaf.  Broken leaf."
Climbing into my lap after her diaper change: "This is my mother."

"Down! Two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, down!"

"Puh puh peanut!" (Yes, Blues Clues taught us something!)
Do you want peanut butter on a graham cracker?  "No."

(Sitting next to me.)  "Sit down right here."  (Then on arm of couch.)  No, not there.  "Fall down get hurt.  Cry."

Pointing at 3 buttons (Publish / Save / Preview) on screen, "Mommy, Daddy, Lizzie."

I guess I will push the "Mommy" button now, to publish this.

Welcome Karis!

She's here!

Karis Michelle was born on July 5, perfect and beautiful.  She weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz at birth, and is a healthy and content baby. 

Her name, Karis,  means grace. (We pronounce it like 'care-iss,' not the way it sounds at the link, though.)

1. that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech

Who wouldn't want to speak that over one's daughter?  Not to mention, grace is much needed while we navigate this new adventure of parenting two girls.

Lizzie goes back and forth between adoring her baby sister ("bay-ee sisser") and acting up out of feeling displaced.  It's a bit of a struggle to keep her on an even keel, but over all, she is doing well.

It is kind of a strange and wonderful thing to refer to them as "the girls."  We have girls, plural. 

The last week of being home has honestly been better than I expected (again, grace), and I am feeling great.  Sleep has been rare, but we are getting what we need.  Friends from church have been bringing meals and adorable outfits. We are blessed.


I'll do my best to share my birth story soon (it's a good one), but I did at least want to give an update.  Lizzie is up and asking for a bagel, so I had better get it while Karis sleeps, and before Lizzie changes her mind.

(I'm linking with Alicia's Homemaking Try New Adventures, and Home Sanctuary's virtual Coffee with the Company Girls.)

Lizzie's 2nd Birthday {Top 10}

We just had Lizzie's 2nd birthday party on Sunday. It was a blast!

Now that I have hosted 2 birthday parties for my little girl, I think I've learned a couple of things.

Here are my top 10 birthday party tips

1 - Plan more than 5 days in advance. As my due date approaches rapidly, I realized that the month of June would be gone before I knew it, and Lizzie had been looking forward to a birthday party for weeks. So at the last minute I talked to my family, wrote up invitations, and jumped into high gear on preparations.
*bonus: avoid planning a birthday party for the 37th week of your pregnancy. I won't say much more than this: hormones, exhaustion, irrationality, irritability, and a time constraint.

2 - Do choose a theme. Last year, Lizzie was into balloons, so the "theme" was balloons. It gives a direction for the party, even if it's not anything elaborate. This year, several months ago, I found these super cute Very Hungry Caterpillar invitations at Target on clearance. So for $1.48 I had my theme. And Lizzie was on a Very Hungry Caterpillar kick, so it worked perfectly.

3 - Don't plan your birthday party on a holiday. For some reason, people tend to not have 1-3 PM free on Father's Day. Go figure. I knew it was a risk, but I knew it was going to be the day that worked for my family, and if some friends could come too, all the better. The reality is that if everyone I'd invited could have come, we would never have had enough space. We definitely would have had enough food, though!

4 - Be realistic about time. Within a 2 hour birthday party for a two-year-old, there's enough time to eat, blow out candles, eat cake, open presents, and hand out favors. If you want to add games or crafts or other activities, give yourself a longer time frame, or don't count on feeding people a full meal.
*bonus: don't plan it during a toddler's naptime. Lizzie was getting so sleepy while opening presents, she was almost impossible to move her from one gift to the next. Of course, she also LOVED her gifts and wanted to spend an hour playing with each one. Again, be realistic about time.

5 - Get as much as possible done before the party. This party was lunch immediately after church, which meant that not only did we have to prepare for the party, I had to get myself and a slow-moving child out the door and presentable for church, all before 9:30 AM. Although a little bit of last minute preparation is inevitable, I didn't want to still be decorating or laying out food as guests arrived. 
*bonus: pick up a couple of pizzas the night before, so you don't have to plan dinner the night before hosting a party, then have leftovers after the party.  I had everything cleaned up and put away shortly after everyone left, and got to enjoy a clean house, and a refrigerator stuffed with leftovers.

the spread! 
"and that night, he had a stomach ache."

6 - So, make lists--lots and lots of lists. I made a list of decorations and where they would go, a list of things to go in the favor bags, a list of things that needed to be done to the house, a grocery list, a "we forgot it at the grocery store so we have to go back" list, and a food list. The smartest thing I think I did was to make a map of the table layout, down to which tray would hold which food. It saved me many minutes of standing in the middle of the kitchen feeling confused.

7 - Ask someone else to help with pictures. While hostessing, tending to a busy toddler, and trying to eat herself, Mommy doesn't have time to take good pics. I mostly got a lot of poorly timed 'candid' shots. Fortunately, I did at least take pictures of the food, which I was kind of proud of.

8 - Apply a 'make your own' concept to foods for picky eaters (i.e., toddlers). We did a sandwich and fruit buffet, and cupcakes. Avoid the need for flatware. Use paper products so cleanup is a cinch.

Fact: multicolored clothes cover a multitude of stains

9 - Dress the birthday girl in multi-colored clothes, to hide the frosting dyed with half a bottle of artificial coloring. This was an accidental discovery, but I'm quite pleased with it.


10 - Enjoy the party!  Engage your guests, hug your birthday girl, read a story, laugh!

Sam takes a minute to read Harry the Dirty Dog

Let some things slide; perfection is not realistic. It's a party for a two year old, for crying out loud. If you Yes, I ran out of time to assemble PB&J sandwiches for the folks who didn't want lunchmeat. Yes, I forgot to slice the plums. No, we didn't get to do the "beautiful butterfly" craft I had ready to go just in case there was a lull. No, I didn't get to make every decoration I had wanted to. But there comes a point where it is necessary to stop the prep and enjoy yourself and your guests and your child. I'm glad I managed to do that. It was a lovely party, Lizzie was beaming from all the attention and the fun, and a good time was had by all.

Happy birthday, beautiful Lizzie!  You're the most amazing little girl I know.

So, about pregnancy

36 weeks, 3 days. Almost full term. Almost done being pregnant for the second time. Almost ready.

On an online forum someone posed the question, "What will you miss most about being pregnant?"

Really? Nothing. There is not a thing that I will miss about being pregnant, except maybe having the option to choose approximately when I sleep. Once Lizzie came, I never looked back.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy feeling movement, or getting a little extra courtesy at the grocery store. It's just that being pregnant is all about the hopefulness of what is to come. It's like waiting for a seed to come up out of the ground. The germination process is not what it's about, and frankly, it's hardly the fun part. (Perhaps the reason I haven't written a whole lot about my pregnancy has something to do with the fact that I don't want to come across as a complainer. I like the end result of pregnancy: a child. I am just not a fan of pregnancy in and of itself. Or maybe I just don't like my pregnant self all that much.)

Feeling her roll and kick and punch me in the bladder is all well and good, but inspecting her little feet and having her pull my hair with her little tiny fingers are infinitely better. Seeing my belly move when she gets hiccups or suddenly decides to change position is nothing like what it will be to look in her big eyes. Hearing her heartbeat (or as Lizzie says, "heart beep") on the doppler every couple of weeks is fun and reassuring, but I can't wait to hear her actual sweet little voice.

Sorm Fopt

I suppose you'll need a translation?

"S'orm Fopt" is the phonetic spelling of "storm stopped" in Lizzie-speak. We've just had a series of pretty intense thunderstorms blow through in the past few hours. At one point, when the trees were rocking and the dog was pacing, I told Lizzie that we would pray and ask Jesus to keep us safe in the storm. She had just gotten up from a nap and was still in that dazed, just-woke-up state. Her face brightened when I suggested we pray, because she gets "s'ared" when there is "tunner outside".

She likes to pray; she likes the story in her Baby's First Bible about Jesus being in the boat with his friends, and Jesus told the wind to stop blowing and the waves to be still, and Jesus could make the storm stop.

"Desus mate s'orm fop."

So we prayed. And the storm blew by much more quickly than I'd anticipated. Even minutes later on the radar on the weather update, there was a dip where there was less color over our area.

There were further waves of thunderstorm, but when Lizzie got scared as I tucked her into bed (it was quite an extended tucking in process) she asked me several times to pray: "Desus amen."

Because Desus mate s'orm go 'way. Because He likes to prove Himself to the little ones.

Lizzie's exclamations 5-23-11

Today has been a fun one for Lizzie quotes.

I always think to myself that I will write down all the funny and cute and smart things Lizzie says, but usually forget to. I guess Facebook has its place in some way for recording some of these things, but it really doesn't count. Let's face it; once a status update becomes old news of 22 hours ago (or if you're really popular, 3 hours ago), it is never heard from again.

Today Lizzie counted to ten without any coaching or prompting. She was in her high chair, minding her own business while I was getting ready to clean her up from lunch (rather, her pre-nap "I'm hungry" stalling routine cheese sandwich), when she started counting her fingers. "Two, fwee, fwee..." I almost stopped listening because she usually gets stuck at "fwee" like a broken record. But to my great surprise, she kept going. "Fo', fy, siss," I couldn't help it, I interrupted. "Wow, Lizzie! You counted to six!" She grinned up at me, then went back to her fingers. "Se'en," then moved to her other hand to finish, "Eight, nine, ten!"

Ten fingers. So what if she thinks the first seven of them are on her right hand. But at least she has ten in total!

While in the bath tub tonight, Lizzie was splashing up a storm with her toys. Once the waves subsided, her toys were floating in a spiral.

She started to exclaim, "Ring around rosie! Ring around rosie!" (Except she can't say her "R"s yet, so it was more along the lines of "wing wound wosie," which is kind of cuter.)

A few minutes later, she had her drenched washcloth draped over her head, dripping water down her face, thus, "Waning on you!" (Raining on you!)

Yes, "You" equals "me" and "Me" equals "Mommy". 'Cause that's how it makes sense in her head.

Unofficially

I took an unofficial break from pretty much all things blogs last week. I didn't write any. I only read a few (my Google reader had some 500 unread blogs that I sort of skimmed marked as read this past weekend). And I had a great week.

I've been getting up before 7 (most mornings) and having coffee, a good little quiet time, making something of a plan for the day, and usually doing a bit of exercise. Most mornings I can get all of this in before Lizzie wakes up. This is why I love it when my husband is on a routine that gets him up and out the door early in the morning, which also makes us ready to go to bed before midnight each night. All these things don't happen on a retail or unemployment schedule--or lack thereof.

Then during naptimes, I have been either getting in some reading or doing stuff around the house that needs to be done. Like de-cluttering. (Don't tell anyone but I actually borrowed and read through The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cleaning this week. I have 2 more weeks before I have to return it to the library, and I'm hoping I will actually implement at least some of it before taking it back.) But so far, I've just been trying to uncover the surfaces in our home. If I can find our furniture, I think I'll have a much better chance at maintaining a neat and peaceful home. At least for the next 2 months.

So, not much has been done in the realm of blogging.

However, I feel like it's a good time to give a brief update.

Lizzie is 23 months old. Almost 2. Sleeping in a big girl bed. Singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" into a microphone. Parroting what she hears. Walking around the house with her shopping cart (with her baby doll or puppy dog sitting in the front basket), putting things into it, and saying, "Buy diss." She has cut the first of four of her 2-year molars, and seems to be working on the next one. She is mastering the art of manipulation by cuteness. She "helps" me sweep the floor, water the garden, and clean up. (The garden currently still has one cherry tomato, one cucumber, and now 4 (hopefully) lettuce seedlings.) She still can't say her "k" sounds. She says "wuv you" when she gives hugs. She seems to be catching on to the idea that she will be a big sister, and that there is a "bay-ee hiding" in Mommy's tummy.

Speaking of which, I am 32 weeks pregnant. There are only 8 weeks left to go, Lord willing. I'm really hoping there aren't 9 weeks left. I'll try not to complain about it too much, but I just have to say that I am still not the biggest fan of being pregnant. I had to break out the support hose on Sunday; it helped the insane swelling I've been having in my left foot/ankle/leg, but I'm not sure if it was worth it. Part of me would rather have swelling than wear nylons. I haven't taken a picture of my pregnant self in a while, though I know I should. If for no other reason than to see how my size compares to what I looked like at this point last time. I have a feeling I'm bigger.

Every once in a while I get concerned about giving birth again, but the other night, after seeing a video of a goat being born, I was considering that I was glad we deliver little, soft, human babies, rather than anything huge or with hooves. I'm pretty sure being a mother rhinoceros would be the worst thing ever. Most other babies don't grow their horns or antlers until they're older. Not so the rhinos.

My mom's book release party/signing went really well. Here are some pictures. It was a lot of fun, and it was a huge success, due largely to a fantastic turnout of friends from church.

I am strongly considering venturing out into a business. Ambitious, I know. Especially for someone who is expecting a second child, and is somewhat lazy. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of risk, and there could be a fair amount of profit, even if I do get off to a slow start. We're praying about it, but for the most part we have peace.

Well, it's been about half an hour of nap time consumed here, and I have some more decluttering to do before I can feel like I crossed off much of significance on my To Do list today.

This may unofficially be my only post of this week. And I am OK with that.