A bite out of the Big Apple

We had a very fun Thanksgiving this year, roadtripping to the East Coast. We spent Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with dear friends from medical school, and it was wonderful to all be together! Had a great day with delicious food and scintillating coversation.

And since we were so far East, we decided we might as well keep on going to NYC. Rob's brother James and wife Angela and their two girls drove up from Boston and we had a fun couple of days. We stayed right in midtown, just a couple of blocks from Central Park. SO FUN.

High and lowlights:

• kids had a blast at Central Park
• Grace was scared of the street performer dressed as the Statue of Liberty (don't blame her)
• Rob getting sick (Thanksgiving hasn't historically been kind to Rob)
• Vosges chocolate, the weirdest combinations but so tasty
• amazing burgers from the burger joint in the hotel lobby
• date night with Rob wandering around the city
• watching the BYU-Utah game at ESPN zone in Times Square
• Grace getting a cup of ice dropped on her at ESPN zone, poor girl, but they seated us right away :)
• lots of fun window displays and Christmas lights
• FAO Schwartz on the day after Thanksgiving. Very crowded but so fun! Wish I could afford to do our Christmas shopping there :)

I'm not a fan of slideshows, because I don't usually have the patience to sit and watch the whole thing. But I want to go to bed, so here we go. We had a really great trip, wish we'd had more time. The kids put up with all the driving well, they seemed to have a good time, Sam especially was just so excited to see all the new sights. I am hoping that we make it back soon!

Vaccinated

Our public health department had a huge H1N1 vaccination clinic at the indoor stadium of a local university, and we decided it was worth it to get the kids vaccinated. It was a zoo. We had to go get wristbands at 9am, then come back at noon to get into the line for the actual shot. When we got back, the line was outside around the building in freeeeeeeezing cold wind. I had stocked up on snacks since we were missing lunch, but I was not prepared for a THREE HOUR wait. Grace knew she was getting a shot at the end of the ordeal, so had to go through the long hungry wait anticipating pain, the poor girl. Here is Sam after his shot, a happy camper. Now I just hope we don't all get the swine foo (as Grace calls it) from the thousands of people we were milling around with for 3 hours.

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween this year! Grace was very brave, even went into some pretty spooky yards. Viv figured out pretty quickly that she could get candy from people by saying "trick or treat", even though I don't think most people understood her. And even Sam got very excited about the whole thing, he got to the point where he was waving his arms around until we took him up to the door to get some candy.

Grace's hat is a little big :) and she also had a cape, but she didn't like wearing it. And, funny story, she fell in love with a treat bag at our new favorite thrift store, and I just noticed that it had some letters on it... I only noticed the "ick" and figured it was the tail end of "trick...." but when we got home I realized it actually said PATRICK. Oh well, a little electrical tape took care of that! She doesn't have her own picture because she was too excited to get going.



Vivian did a great job saying "thank you" to everyone in her sweet soft little voice. At one door, she stood there staring at the man until he said "you're welcome." What a polite kiddo :)

We had a fun time and let the kids eat all they wanted in the car on the way home. I was a little worried this would result in someone throwing up in the middle of the night, but so far everyone is okay!

Cats

We bottled peaches this year, and to get the peaches, we drove out to a farm in the middle of farm country. They had like 4 litters of kittens running around. Grace loved it, so I let her run around outside while I went into the house to pay for the peaches, leaving the van door open so Viv and Sam could enjoy the fresh country air. When I got out of the house, I heard Sam crying, but his door was not the open one, so I couldn't see why. Grace's explanation was, "A cat got in the car." When I got to him, he had THREE cats crawling around on his tiny little lap. Which might explain his reaction here, (although he was genuinely excited about the cats):



Vivian, on the other hand, is terrified of anything with fur. Or feathers. Poor girl.

Talking About Adoption

I think most people who read this know that we adopted Grace and Vivian. We were very blessed with both of our adoptions to have very positive experiences. Now I work at LDS Family Services as a social worker, helping adoptive couples go through the process. It's a great job, I get to meet amazing people, and I hope that I can share my perspective with them. Adoption is such a blessing for us, for many birthmothers, and many other families.

LDS FS recently launched a brand new adoption website which is SO much better than the old one! It's still at http://www.itsaboutlove.org/. Check it out if you're bored.

There is a page there about positive adoption language that I wanted to copy here. (I can't figure out how to get Blogger to format it normally, so I guess you'll have to scroll down-- sorry!) I am not easily offended when talking about adoption. I know people are generally doing their best to be sensitive, but sometimes might not know the right way to phrase things. I hope people feel comfortable asking about adoption if they have questions, because we are always happy to talk about it, non-"PC" language or not. I'm hoping this list of the currently "correct" terminology will help people feel more comfortable!

The one that I feel most strongly about is the term "give up for adoption." This is pretty common, you hear it all the time. But it does send a subtle message to a child who was adopted that her birthmother didn't want her. We feel very strongly that placing a child for adoption is an act of immense courage and love! We're so grateful for Vivian and Grace's birthparents and their families and their trust in us. I think if we could eliminate the stigma surrounding placing a child for adoption, the world would be a better place. And now I'll get off my soapbox. Oh, and if you know anyone who is considering placing a child for adoption, I know a few wonderful families. (Though not us at the moment:) )

Negative Terms	Preferred Terms
Gave up her child for adoption	Placed her child for adoption
Real parent; natural parent	Birth parent, biological parent
Adoptive parent	Parent
His adopted child	His child
Illegitimate	Born to unmarried parents
Adoptee	Child who was adopted
To keep	To parent
Adoptable child; available child	Waiting child
Foreign adoption	International adoption
Track down parents	Search
Unwanted child	Child placed for adoption
Is adopted	Was adopted

A touch of PTSD

Vivian had a rather traumatic experience over Labor Day. We went out to eat, and a nice employee made her a balloon out of a latex glove, you know the kind. Vivian enjoyed carrying the balloon around, and it was a beautiful day so we took our lunch out to the outdoor dining area. You can see where this is going. We made it through most of lunch with the balloon, thanks to a couple of courageous saves by me and my mad hops. But finally, the balloon escaped and floated up to the sky, looking back down at us with that silly face. Vivian was pretty broken up at the time and cried for quite a while. Which is pretty normal, I think. But she is STILL talking about it.

It is actually so cute in a heartbreaking kind of way. She says, "Boon...... sky....... boon...... sky" with her lower lip sticking clear out.

We Seem to Have Entered a Time Warp

It just simply cannot have been a whole year since Sam was born. Can I please stop the clock?

Sam has been the easiest, sweetest, funnest baby possible. I hesitate to even say how great he is because everything I say on my blog seems to become untrue as soon as I've said it. {For example, Vivian has started watching TV. Yay!} Sam has a smile for everyone, and he is free with the laughs. He's very ticklish, which is fun for his sisters. Sam is just so easy-going. I love the way he is all casual when I hold him--he just kind of drapes his arm around my shoulder and chills with me. Not clingy, not struggling to get down, just hanging out. I'm afraid that will not last long once he starts to walk. I love the way he kicks his legs when we pick him up, like he's so excited to get to you he's trying to swim there. He's excited about life.

Sam's first official word is "ball." He loves to play with balls of any size. He also enjoys pushing a little car around. I think he also tries to say "boo" when we play peekaboo. He crawls super fast and he's trying to jump like his sisters. Jumping on beds is a big fave around here, and Sam does not want to be left out. I think he might jump before he walks. For now, he has little calluses on his toes and knees from crawling. Sam will go anywhere--cement, dirt, water--doesn't bother him.

I can't imagine our family without Sam, and I'm so so glad he's here.

Two already

This is from the day we first met Vivian at the hospital in Kentucky.

And here is the day we brought her "home". Check out that frowny mouth.

And at about 10 months. Love those huge cheeks!

I have to confess I was a little worried about Vivian, and sometimes wondered what I had gotten into. She was kind of a grumpy baby. Hardly smiled, took a very long time to laugh, and then did it rarely. Then when we found out she was going to be a middle child, we were afraid she would get lost in the shuffle between the new baby and the demonic 3-yr old.

In the last few months, Vivian has really come into her own. She has a great sense of humor. She is extremely sweet and compassionate. She is really quite obedient. She is an adrenaline junky. She comes with a dash of vinegar. She's a complex little girl. I predict she will be either an engineer or an opera singer--man has she got lungs. She has NOT gotten lost in the shuffle. She is an excellent mimic, which makes her a fast learner. She likes to blow her nose, and sometimes misses the Kleenex. She loves to clean things. She contorts into strange shapes to make herself impossible to pick up when she doesn't want to do what you want. She says "yogurt" like an old German man with phlegm. "Gogurhk." The first thing she says when when I go get her in the morning is, "Shhhh... Sammy." She will not watch any TV, has absolutely NO interest in it. Except for "manna manna" from the Muppet Show, which she thinks is hilarious. She is a tease. She still frequently has a very serious look on her face, even when she is having fun. But her sweet laugh is right there waiting. She is an absolute delight, and I am so glad she is part of our family!

The Utah Pilgrimage

We just got back from the annual trip to Utah. It was a very fun trip. We were gone 3 weeks, and saw all of both of our families. I was going to do a long post with lots of thrilling details, but it is easier to post pictures on Flickr. So check that out for oodles of pictures. But for now, here is why I love Utah:

And this:

There are so many kinds of beauty. Very different from anything in the Midwest. Every time we go back to Utah, I appreciate it more.

Vivian speaks

Vivian is such a fun girl. Everyone should get to hang out with her for a while. She has become quite the talker, and I think her vocabulary says a lot about the way she sees life. Today she said what I think might be her longest sentence yet: Yay Daddy home! Viv LOVES Rob. Other faves:

• clean up
• dirty (dowdy)
• sticky (tickee)
• poopy
• mine
• candy (dandy)
• milk (mowk)
• cheese (when she wants cheese, which is pretty much 24/7, and when she sees a camera)
• hold me
• outside (die--pretty funny when she's sitting there yelling DIE DIE DIE)
• please
• thank you
• sorry (hawee)
• OW
• happy (SO cute)
  
  And her classics:
• Deedee is still Sam, even though she can say Sam. Viv also LOVES Sam.
• Dahdah is still her blanket, and if we forget to bring it in the car, we will regret it
• and, of course, NO!

Hubba Hubba

Bye, bye clunka.

Hello, hunka.

Okay, so the Subaru wasn't completely a clunker. It's been a good car. But a Honda Odyssey with 14 miles on it??? How could we pass that up?

Welcome Back, Rob!

I'm actually a couple of days early with this post, but I'm so excited, I just couldn't wait. Rob officially begins his research year NEXT WEDNESDAY!!! Research=normal life. To illustrate: we went to an end-of-year dinner a few weeks ago and sat at a table with the residents who are just finishing their research year. One couple was tan/burned. I asked if they had been on vacation and they all started LAUGHING at me. They said, "No, this is called HAVING A LIFE-- you'll get used to it. We've been doing yardwork." What??? There are people who see daylight when they're not on vacation????

Another anecdote: A few weeks ago, on a Wednesday, Rob was saying that it had been a pretty good week so far. I agreed. He started adding up his hours, and figured he had worked about 40 hours so far. We were like, Wow, that's great. Then we said to ourselves, 40 hours by Wednesday is great? What strange standards.

I just have to say that Rob is amazing. He has dealt with so much in these first few years of residency. It is especially amazing how he maintains his standards being surrounded so constantly by, well, other stuff. He has worked SOOOO hard, met the goals he has set for himself and overcome large obstacles. There have been some rough times, I will not lie. Times I was sure he was going to switch careers and all of this was going to have been for nothing. There have been nights I have found him out in the garage, asleep in the car. There have been sentences I have not finished because he fell asleep in the middle of them.....

I am so proud of my dear Rob, and so excited to have him around for dinner again soon :) oh, wait, does that mean we can't have frozen ravioli once a week?

I Heart Peonies

And on a side note, Rob and I have started "body for life" because we're going to Lake Powell later this summer. No "before" pictures will be posted. You're welcome.

Sam

Sam has teeth! And he gets SO excited about these drums.

Shoeless Viv

*Last night I couldn't get this pic off my phone.... but I feel like it really adds something to the story :) And yes, I really did want to remind her where she was working. But then again, I was shopping there....

The day after I posted that last post we went to Dollar Tree. Viv lost a shoe in the car, and it was POURING rain so I didn't feel like leaving her and Sam in the cart in the parking lot for 5 minutes while I looked for it. We just ran into the store. As we were checking out, the lady says to Viv, "Where's your other shoe? Are you a hillbilly?"

Oh brother.

To be fair, sometimes I really don't know that she's lost a shoe, and then I appreciate it.

This is what most days look like

Grace: "hey Mom, remember coloring Sam?"

Me: "ummm, not really...."

And then Grace proceeds to empty a few drops of Sam's formula from the bottle into a spoon and "color" Sam's face and head with it.

Also notice how Vivian has all her snaps undone. I cannot keep anything snapped, zipped or velcroed onto that girl these days. I might start shopping at the ghetto Walmart here again, because when we went there the other day, not ONE SINGLE person said to me "Did you know she only has one shoe on?" And I didn't have to say, "Yes, I know, I left it off because I'm so sick of putting her shoes on."

And this is the conversation I have 30 times a day:

Viv: Mom!
Me: What?
Viv: Mom!
Me: What?
Viv: Mom!
Me: What?
Viv: Mom!
Me: What?
Viv: Mom!
Me: What?
Viv: Mom!
Me: What?

I love my kids. That sounds like sarcasm, but it's not :)

Easter, etc.

We had a nice Easter. I put up a bunch of pictures with explanations on Flickr, so I won't repeat all that here. Just wanted to let y'all know. Also, we started what I think is a great tradition: filet mignon for Easter dinner. Ham shmam.

Conference

I always love Conference weekend. This conference seemed like it was a good one, but it was a little hard to tell. We sat down to eat some homemade sweet rolls as the morning session started, thinking that would keep things a little calm so that we could hear. Wrong. Here is a a condensed transcript of what it sounded like at our house.

Grace: We are listening to the prophet! FOLLOW THE PROPHET, FOLLOW THE PROPHET..... (I won't write out the whole song for you...) Adam was a prophet, first one that we know! Hey, Adam was a prophet. And we know about him! Did you know about the dog prophet? It is big, all the way up to the ceiling!

Me: SSssssshhhhh....

Vivian: (holding her finger to her lips) ssssssssshhhhhh (big smile) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Vivian banging her sippy cup on the table BANG BANG BANG

I take away the cup

Vivian banging her fork on the table BANG BANG BANG

I take away the fork

Grace: Who is this?

Rob: It's Elder Anderson, he's an apostle

Grace: Did you know there is a DOGpostle? ....

Vivian: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Me: Sssssshhhh

Vivian: ssssssshhh.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Anyway, this all went on for a good 30-40 minutes.

I'm grateful for reprints of Conference :)

Why I Haven't Been Blogging Lately

Recently, I've decided it's time to turn frugality into more of a hobby. I've tried couponing before and it never seemed like I saved enough money to be worth the cost of the newspaper or the time it took to cut the coupons. But I'm trying it again. So I've been spending all my computer time checking out "deal" blogs and searching obsessively for coupons online. Filling out forms, signing up for email lists, getting all kinds of spyware put on my computer as it turns out--ALL in the name of getting a coveted "Q". Or even a not-so-coveted one.

So, since all the crazy frugal mom blogs seem to do this, here is a picture of the deals I've gotten in the last couple of weeks. I got all this stuff for $1.18. Plus one more pack of applesauce cups that we ate already :) I'm proud of this little stash, it makes me feel productive or something.

Some of it is stuff I wouldn't normally use (like Irish Spring... if our family suddenly starts smelling like leprechauns, you'll know why....) but there's this whole CVS thing where you earn "bucks" but then you have to spend them on something else that earns bucks (if you want to keep the good times rolling...), and Irish Spring was better than a bottle of Vitamin D pills.

This week I'm already feeling a little less excited about the whole thing, and the only freebies on the horizon are a pack of toilet paper, an Easter egg dying kit and a box of South Beach Diet granola bars. I'm not sure I care enough about those to take a trip to 3 stores. But I'm going to try to keep going for at least a couple of months and see if I can get into the groove.

Also, any avid Michigan couponers out there notice that we get different coupons than other places? It seems like the deals I'm finding listed on other websites are using coupons that I didn't get. Which is frustrating.

And I also ventured into the land of consignment clothing stores. I'm not sure I like it. I didn't get much money, and then I felt obligated to spend it at the store. I did find a few things I liked there, but it took a long time and was just a pain in general. We did get a free Melissa and Doug puzzle for going in, though. Maybe I'm just proud, but I found the whole thing kind of humiliating.

In going through the kids' old clothes, I reorganized them all and here is the girls' 0-3 mo. tub vs. Sam's 0-3 mo. tub.

It pays to be the first child :)

If you got through this whole boring post, and have a frugal tip to share, please do! Who knows, maybe one of these days you'll find me dumpster diving.

Let them eat bread!

I have been wanting a Kitchenaid for ages. I finally got one :) Merry Christmas to me! I got a truly amazing deal on it--half of the cheapest price anywhere else. Now I can start making all my own bread at last. I've also made a lot more cookies since I got it. And brownies from scratch. This was a GOOD investment!





But my loaf-shaping could use a little practice.

Irish twins

Rob likes to joke that Sam and Viv are "Irish twins". I suspect that in the future, we may have a hard time convincing people they aren't actual twins. If he stays on the tall side, I just have a feeling they are going to look like they're the same age, and with their amazing coloring... We'll see....

Our little lollipop

Sam is the weirdest proportioned baby ever. He just went to the doctor yesterday and here is how he measures up:

• weight: 50th percentile (up from 25th!)


• height: 75th percentile


• head: literally off the charts. By quite a bit, it looked like to my untrained eye.

His head has been growing at an astronomical rate, making a practically vertical line on the growth chart. He's had 2 ultrasounds, though, and they both show that everything in there is completely normal. Here's hoping that his body catches up someday!

Just for kicks, I photoshopped Sam with a more proportional head:

Isn't it strange how it makes his whole body look smaller? I double checked a bazillion times, and that body is the same size.

People are always like "What a big boy you have!" But it's just his gargantuan cranium. A virtual planetoid! Has its own weather system. (say that last part with a Scottish accent :) )

We choose to think that he's just going to be a genius. Like his father.

Leaps and Bounds

This is not an illusion. But I kind of wish it were. Sammy is sitting up! Well, for a few seconds at a time. And I just can't get over how handsome he is :) How can he possibly be so old already?
Viv is reaching some milestones of her own--opening the fridge, opening the cupboard where the garbage is and throwing stuff in, barking like a dog. She can say "uh-oh" instead of "uh-uh". She has her own names for all of us: I am Mama (of course!), Rob is also Mama. Grace is Nee-nee, and Sam is Dee-dee.
Watching the kids grow up is so bittersweet!

Miracle

I believe in miracles. I have experienced a lot of them, both big and small. Today I realized what might seem like a small one. Vivian went to nursery for the first time. That's not the miracle, though it is a huge relief.
Before Sam was born, I would say Rob made it to church probably 1 or 2 weeks out of 4. So one of my biggest questions was how I would get through church by myself, since I would have 2 babies through Sunday School and Relief Society. Today I realized that I have only been to church by myself with the kids once in the last 5 months. I consider that a miracle.

Vacation week

Rob had a week of vacation this last week. It was so wonderful to have him home!

Here's a quick overview of what we did. We took a little roadtrip to Pittsburgh to hang out with our good friends from medical school, who we miss terribly. It was so fun to hang out with them! Huge thanks to the Ringgers for housing and feeding us! We were so busy talking and eating delicious Super Bowl food, we couldn't be interupted to take pictures. But I really wish I had one of the boys playing rock band. Instead, here's an old picture from our most incredibly fun trip to Hawaii, right after med school.

Then we went with the Reynolds to an indoor water park, and spent the night, which was great fun for the kids.

When we got home, we got right to work on the bathroom. I cannot tell you how happy the "new" bathroom makes me! As Rob said, and I have to agree, the old bathroom was so ugly, I had just stopped looking at it. In addition to how ugly it was just on its own, I decided to start the project a year or so ago and started ripping down wallpaper, but then never got back to it, so there was a swath of missing wallpaper down the main wall. Classy. I don't know if you can tell from these pics just how bad the wallpaper was.

Here's the new look. The pictures aren't very good, but oh well. I am so glad I decided to spring for the new shower curtain, even though we didn't technically need it. I feel like the green is minimized, since we are just not going to tackle it.