Remembering...

us.

I was visiting with a friend this morning who recently got engaged, and all of a sudden a flood of memories overtook me, as I remembered the feelings I had when Jacob and I got engaged 3 years ago last month. Sometimes it's way too easy for me to get caught up in the day-to-day and in feeling sick so often lately, and in trying to keep up with Sawyer and provide an enriching environment for him even when I don't feel like leaving the house a lot the past several months, and in cleaning and groceries and occasionally cooking dinner etc. etc. etc. that I forget to stop and reflect and just embrace it all and know that the highs and the lows are all part of the challenge and adventure that Jacob and I decided to share when we made the decision to share our love and lives when he put that ring on my finger. For those of you who know our engagement story - wow - it can't be beat. In one of the songs Jacob wrote for me and sang to me on the beach as we watched the sun rise and he got ready to get down on both knees in the sand to propose, he said "creating with me..." and look at what we have created thus far! Okay, now the pregnancy hormones have kicked in and I'm all teared up. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have Jacob be mine. I felt that way the day he proposed, and I feel it even deeper today. He is the best husband and father that I know (and I know a lot of good ones!) Time and again I am amazed at the patience and love he shows me even when I am not feeling well enough to show him the same in return. He has cared for me and often taken care of me throughout most of our marriage. Between getting mono the month after we were married, and now 2 pregnancies (and 1 miscarriage) - by the time we celebrate our 3rd anniversary I will have been either sick or slightly sick for almost a good 2 years of that time - and we will have almost 2 babies to show for it ;) Jacob is my dream come true: he encourages and allows me to spread my wings, but he knows as well as I do that I really soar when I am engaged in the causes of our life and what we create together. Thanks, my dear Jacob, for you. Also, for him, and soon, her. But mostly, at this moment, thanks - for us.

Our New Home: room by room

First, I need to say how grateful and thankful we are for being able to purchase a home in this city. We love it here and were sad to think we would probably have to leave if we ever wanted to buy a home, as housing prices are much beyond our reach in this wonderful city. And maybe we're snobs of some sort...but the suburbs just aren't our style. We love living in-city where houses have character and there is so much going on. We also enjoy having one car and minimal commute time - the more time together, the better ;) So, maybe we still couldn't afford an actual house, but we got ourselves a townhouse in a great location! For those of you familiar with Seattle, we live 2.5 miles from Greenlake Park, 3.5 miles up the street from the Zoo, right around the corner from Carkeek Park and Beach, and within walking distance to the Seattle Public Library. It is about 10-12 minutes to downtown and Jacob's office (not on the freeway - we dislike I-5!) and Jacob continues to bike to work several days a week. There is also a community center with a lake, park, ball fields, tennis courts, and wading pool within walking distance, as well as our new church building, and an elementary school. Seriously, wonderful location. Okay, enough about that. The plan is to stay 4-5 years and then who knows where we'll go from here. But in the meantime, we are loving it and feel VERY blessed to have been able to stay in a city we adore and raise our kids in such a beautiful, green, blooming and diverse environment.

Well, I know it's been a long time coming and a few of you have kept reminding me (thanks), so finally, I am going to welcome you all to our new home. I will post room by room (except maybe closets and bathrooms! who cares about those anyway?) so you can have a tour and see what it might be like to come visit with us in our new home. Today was a still-not-feeling-too-well day for me (come on, I'm half way through this pregnancy, will the sicks ever end?) and I spent a lot of time playing on the floor with Sawyer. Thus, I was inspired to just go ahead and start our little tour, even if the lighting wasn't perfect and everything isn't quite finished yet. So...here we go!

Sawyer's Room (soon-to-be Sawyer & Aspen's room!)

One thing I love is that Sawyer loves books and reading. I brought back a bunch of little Golden Books from my childhood last time I visited my parents. Amazingly, he never tears or eats books, he just turns the pages and signs "more, more, again, again". He says "books!" and that's our cue to take a seat and get ready to read...a lot! But we love it! And I love these old books! The illustrations are wonderful - they just don't make 'em this way anymore (in spite of the fact that some may be a little outdated in the P.C. sense). I am planning to bring home some of my old toys when we go home for Christmas - I have really cool Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls that my Grandmother made for me and I would love to see Sawyer and Aspen play with them!

Oh, yes. We gave Sawyer the Master bedroom with the walk-in closet, so he scored! We figured our kids will need room to run around and play, and all we really do is sleep in our room. Since we moved and put a lot of the "baby" stuff in the big closet, he has shown a renewed interest in a lot of the stuff. Particularly this baby seat. It plays lullabies and Sawyer calls it his "chair". He really likes snapping the straps, too. I am afraid when we put Aspen in he might just want to crawl right on top of her! Hmm...I might just have to keep her in the Moby wrap and let him sit in his "chair" ;) to keep the peace and to keep her safe!

Like I said, today was a day spent playing lots of things on the floor since I wasn't feeling very well. We had a great time stacking blocks and wild animals. Sometimes I even get more into it than Sawyer does. I think by the time I took this picture he had changed his focus to the puzzles...

Well, there you see it. We are now a 2 Crib Family! Yikes! Sawyer will only be 19 months old when Aspen arrives, so the crib time is going to overlap a little. We actually did get a toddler bed and then hesitated - if we put him in it, he'd be all over the place! All in due time. He doesn't have to grow up too fast, right? He sure enjoyed being our helper with his "tools" while we put Aspen's crib together (a very big thanks to Lynn & Matt for handing us down this beautiful crib!)

Okay - guaranteed there will be an update on this one once we get Aspen's bedding all set up and a couple of other things finished up. But here is their room (for now). We spend a lot of time here. I love how it is "sunny" even on cloudy, rainy days.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love sailboats?

Well, I do. I do, I do, I do! I posted this on my photoblog because I took it as I was waiting to meet some clients for a photo session late yesterday afternoon. I got to the location (beach, obviously) and I looked out on the water and beheld a fleet of beautiful sailboats welcoming me. At least that's what it felt like. It had been a long day. Sawyer had not been feeling well, I hadn't been feeling too great, either. And we had spent several hours at Recycled Cycles pawning off 3 of our old bikes so we can upgrade to a better commuting bike for Jacob. Good news is: tomorrow he gets to go pick out a new bike (he's been so patient waiting for this - he rode one bike in which the peddle would fall off several times on his ride to work!). Sawyer was a trooper (as usual), Jacob made us dinner and watched Sawyer so I could go do my photo session and behold this amazing sight. Seriously, sometimes God looks down on us and gives us something simple - like maybe an ocean view with a few brilliant sailboats and clouds - to make a gray and rainy day all of a sudden seem, well, sunny. Know what I mean?

15 Months Old!

*warning: this is kind of a long post and mostly for our records. I still haven't gotten around to doing a "baby book" for Sawyer, but I have tried hard to at least write things on our blog that I can use later to put one together. So if this doesn't interest you - just enjoy the photos!

With a lot of focus and attention on the discovery that Sawyer will have a baby sister lately, I want to make sure not to forget to report on Sawyer's latest well-child check-up: 15 months! I can hardly believe that our baby boy is already 15 months old! He is getting to be such a "big boy" yet still, he is a baby. Sometimes I get a little teary, for a couple of reasons: first, we are so blessed to be able to have two children, and second, because sometimes I look at my son and think "he is still so little..." I hope he will enjoy the gift we are giving him in having a sibling to share his life with. We sure hope they will be buddies! From some reading I have done about having two children quite close together (two babies, really), it seems that one of the biggest problems is that parents generally expect the "older" one to grow up more quickly than is needed, forgetting that they are still quite little and need to grow up in their own time. So, my biggest concern is that because Sawyer will be the "big" brother, we will be tempted to treat or expect him to be more than he is at a younger age, than say, siblings who are 2-3 years apart. We will have to be careful there! But we are sure proud of the things Sawyer is learning and doing.

He loves:
Anything outdoors: camping, hiking, the park, the beach, rocks, dirt, and sand.
Reading: It's amazing such an active little boy will bring us an armful of books and say "books" "read" and sit on our laps for a very long time listening to stories and flipping through the pages of his favorite books. Current favorites are: Hug (he asks for "Bobo" every day at nap time and bed time), Where the Wild Things Are (he says "Max!" and "grrr". Maybe next year when he's 2 or so we'll let him see the movie - I hear they are making one and it should be out soon? We are a TV free family!) Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? (he enjoys mimicking all the sounds Mr. Brown makes) The Large and Growly Bear (he gets a kick out of the birds, bunnies, and moles), and The Happy Man and His Dumptruck (loves to say "Whee!" when he the animals slide down the dumptruck).
Dancing/Making Music: he's got some moooves. he likes "car dancing" (Sof - you'd be proud!) He also loves playing drums and strumming Daddy's guitar. Of course, he loves it when Daddy strums the guitar even better ;) And he loves to hum and sing with Momma (even if she doesn't sing very well!)
Transitional Objects: well, that's what they are. or maybe it sounds better to say special friends/toys/things? He has taken a special liking to his nap/bedtime buddies: the little nutbrown hare, aka "Bunny" and curious george (he calls george "Jew"). And he loves his Blankie.
Toys: Very into Lego/Duplo, Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles, wood blocks, cars, trains - anything with wheels. And lately discovering crayons and the creative. He also likes to "pretend" to cook. He recently got his own mini set of pots and pans.
Favorite Foods: Well...he LOVES blueberries, grapes, bananas, and begs all the time for apples. He really enjoys "exotic" foods and spicy doesn't seem to phase him (except once when we gave him what was supposed to be a 2-star Thai dish at a restaurant and his eyes pretty much popped out of his head - it was more like a 3 if you ask me!). He eats what we eat. It makes life simple. Of course he likes normal "kid food" like mac n cheese, pizza etc. So far, he is not a picky eater - and the only thing he spits out is eggs. Hmm.
Sleep: He takes just one nap a day now, usually about 2 hours. Also, a big breakthrough for us, is that he sleeps all the way through the night. It took a long time and a lot of patience in our night-time parenting to get there because he spent the first year of his life sleeping with us (which we all loved!). But we knew it would take a little work to make the transition to his own bed. We do not believe in the Ferber or "cry it out" approach, so we spent a lot of time concocting a sleep plan (and highly recommend the book "The No Cry Sleep Solution") to help him learn to fall asleep on his own, in his crib. Now we just do bath, pjs + lotion, books. While reading books he gets to drink some milk from his sippy cup. Then, fully awake, we put him in his crib and say "night night" and offer to pat his back for a minute. After that, we blow a kiss and say "I love you" and walk out. He doesn't make a peep. He lays there, occasionally sings to himself, and then falls asleep. He sleep from about 8:30pm-7:00am. And he doesn't cry when he wakes in the morning, he just says "Mama, Dada!" and is ready and happy to start a new day! It is so nice!

I think that about sums it up. Oh, he also loves to give hugs and kisses. He is a lot of fun and communicates very well. He signs some vital words that help eliminate frustration for him and for us (ie. "more" "all done" "help" etc.) and he says well over 30 words now. We have so much fun with our son!

Stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 13 oz. (5-10% -- he's very active, what can we say? he is a great eater)
Length: 29 inches (3-5% -- it looks like he did not get any tall genes)
Head Circumference: 47.4cm (50-75% -- I said to the Doc, "I guess he has a big head" and she said, "no, actually, it's the perfect size for his very intelligent little brain!")

*side note: he got 3 shots and didn't even cry. What a brave boy we have!

It's a...girl!

Well, Sawyer and 71% of our voters guessed correctly! It looks like Aspen Jane is on her way! I had a "feeling" towards the beginning of the pregnancy that 'this must be a girl because I feel so much different'...but then I kept second guessing myself and I really had no clue. However, during the hour-long ultrasound today, I kept looking at the screen and had a strong feeling of "it's a girl...it's a girl..." so I wasn't too surprised when the technician's final conclusion was: girl! But we like how Sawyer says it best "GRRL". Here's to our baby girl and Sawyer's baby sister! Anyone want to go shopping for some pink with me?

*sorry for the delayed post, for those of you who have been checking today. I am a little "challenged" at posting video and needed to wait until Jacob got home to help me out!

A great weekend

Yesterday was a great day. Perfect weather (Indian Summer, please stay!), and fun times. We started the day off with German Pancakes and our good friend Sam's 1st soccer game (you seriously can't beat watching 7-year-olds play soccer...they all run towards the ball, they defend against their own teammates, and they sometimes break free in glory going towards the wrong goal). Later, we took naps, and then dropped Jacob off for a church meeting (Stake Leadership Meeting for those of you who know what that means). After the meeting, we enjoyed the rest of the evening outside. We stopped by Ivar's and got some fish n' chips to go...and then we went right to one of our favorite spots (I suppose we have a lot of favorite spots...) at Gas Works Park. We watched sailboats, dogs, frisbees and kites a-flyin' while we ate dinner. We chased our little son around the park. We watched the sun set and set the sky aglow. It was beautiful, and perfect. Another one to add to our "best days" list (we have lots of those, too). We are so thankful for our little family and the beautiful city we live in.

ps- here's the latest belly shot. Tomorrow is the "big" day! During breakfast, we asked Sawyer "boy or girl" (he doesn't know the difference) and, surprisingly, he shouted "GRRL!" Twice. Is it a sign? Or is it silly baby talk? I guess we'll see tomorrow!

Little Artist

I decided, with rain in the forecast, it was fine time Sawyer got his first set of Crayons. So, yesterday, we made a trip to Target, and this morning, I taped a huge piece of easel paper to the dining table (painter's tape is awesome for this) and let him go at it!

He seems to favor his left hand. Anyway...with some tunes to inspire the flow of creative juices, he got to work. He was quite serious and engaged in the activity for well over 20 minutes. He didn't even put one crayon in his mouth (which is why I had held off until now). He seemed to know just what to do.

He also liked the little "guys" we got that are supposedly special holders for a toddler's grip. Of course, in the end, a crayon was a crayon.

I wanted to join in the fun, too. So I drew some train tracks amongst the colorful, carefully drawn scribbles, so his choo-choos could take a ride. He thought that was pretty cool.

After about 45 minutes of coloring, he decided he was done. He began to tear off the huge paper, so we put it on the floor and the trains went a few more rounds on their tracks before Sawyer began running around with his arms and shoulders back -- he then ran and flung (is that a word?) himself into my arms and we had lots of "big hugs". I love this kid! What a perfect way to start a rainy morning! (Sorry the picture is kinda a blur...Sawyer is getting almost impossible to photograph, he just never stops moving!) I am also excited in the coming months to add to our art supply - fingerpaints, here we come!