Ikea Trip

 While a child's first Ikea trip may not be baby-book worthy, it certainly is enough fun to be blog worthy!   Papillon hit this mile stone just a couple weeks ago.  We were spending some time with my family while Mon Amour was at a conference. With fun people and a fun store, it's hard not to have a fabulous time!

Papillon and Grandpa spent most of the trip together testing out various items including....

....a Papillon-size chair!

...some kitchen cabinetry...

 ....a Swedish coffee table book...

...and of course the kid's beds. This was not her favorite, if you recall.

Despite her Auntie's prompting, Papillon managed to resist purchasing the Broccoli Plush Toy. It was tough, how can you resist such cute Broccoli?


Happy Birthday Grandpa!

For my dad's birthday earlier this month, we had a modest celebration. Namely, mostly just cake and ice cream. The poor guy got one actual birthday card, and no presents that came wrapped (we got him a magazine subscription...which is hard to wrap).  But, he is pretty easy to please. So a day with some family, followed by yummy cake made him happy. 

We tried to teach Papillon about blowing out candles. Conveniently, if you tell her something is "hot" she will just start blowing at whatever is in front of her.  If the singing hadn't overwhelmed her, I think she would have been a big help blowing out the candles.




County Fair

Last week, we joined my parents and sister at the County Fair.  Papillon and I had gone to the State Fair last year, but Papillon was very tiny then (literally...) and it was waaaay hot.  This year, I think she enjoyed herself a little bit more.  You couldn't have asked for nicer weather. 

There was some chainsaw carving...

 ....some livestock.....the pigs didn't do much, but the chickens were Papillon's favorite.

Papillon seemed to have fun taking in the sights and being snuggled by fun family.

This picture is for Uncle Austin.  I dont actually know the backstory, but you can't pass by a statue of Paul Bunyan without taking a picture for Uncle Austin.

 Papillon tried some funnel cake....she really did like it more than her face here would suggest.

She practiced her walking skills. 

And also her skeptical stare. 

This was during the pig races. Clearly a must-see at any fair, but the audience was told the pigs run faster the louder you scream and shout. Papillon is not into screaming and shouting.  I don't think the pig racing was her favorite. 

But, other than the noise and general over-stimulation of Papillon's sensitive sensitivities, we all had a very lovely time!

Big Girl Bed

Sometime before baby #2 arrives, Papillon will be upgrading to a big-girl bed.  We are still a ways away from actually making the switch. But while at Ikea the other day we decided to let her test out a few. This one was definitely her favorite. She played and played on it, crawling from oneside to the other and back again over and over again. Occasionally laying down for a 2 second snooze.
It might be a winner






Talk Like a Pirate



Yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. 
The bakery was celebrating, so Papillon borrowed a headscarf and small accordion and joined in the fun.


Did you celebrate?

More Family Fun

Just some fun pictures from a recent visit to my parents.

Eating ice cream with Grandpa.  These days she sees him and starts signing "please" enthusiastically cause they have a habit of eating ice cream and watching cartoons together. She loves it.

Pointing between bites....she points a lot. Sometimes it means something, some times it doesn't.
Riding on Crab-Walking Grandpa. Apparently dad used to do this with me and my siblings and we loved it. Papillon also loved it! She was cracking up!  Poor grandpa though, got tired pretty fast - it's a lot of work to crab walk with a 1+ year old on top of you, even if she is a tiny pip-squeak!

Reading books is always a favorite pastime at my parents house.

She takes "The Story of Ping" very seriously.

Visit with Grandparents

We visited Mon Amour's parents the other weekend, and though our camera batteries died shortly after arriving, I thought it was worth blogging about anyway. Mostly cause of a few adorable picture of Papillon with her sunglasses...see:

Anyway. Turns out we had not been to their house since Christmas! Crazy.  We have seen his parents between Christmas and now, but apparently we have made them come to us for the past 9 months.  Oh well, I think we will be down there a couple more times before the year is out. 

Papillon enjoyed chilling at their house, exploring all the fun magazines on their coffee table.

Their little town (ok, not THAT little...but small enough to still be a "town) recently finished a War Memorial at a local park.  There are lots of military connections on Mon Amour's side of the family, and Mon Amour's dad is part of the Town Council that approved the plans for this memorial, so we clearly had to check it out. 
On picture of the statue.

One group shot. 


And then the camera died. 
Oh well, it was a lovely, largely-pictureless weekend.

Hurricane Irene

This is obviously old news, but it seems worthy of blogging about. 
Not too long ago, Hurricane Irene attacked our area.  All in all, for our area, I was expecting things to be much worse based on the predictions. Not that it wasn't bad - there were trees down, power out for a long time for some, but as far as I know in this area, not a lot of houses were wiped out like you so often hear about for more hurricane prone areas.  

What there did seem to be a lot of, was basement flooding. Enter, exhibit A:

It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but that is about 3 inches of standing water in our basement. 
We didn't really plan for flooding (hence all the stuff still on the basement floor).  We haven't had flooding issues since we put new gutters on the house. But it seems what did us in was the lack of power. No power = no sump pump = water oozing in through porous concrete.

We were actually so not-planning on flooding, that, for fear of the possibility of the large tree next to us falling on to Papillon's nursery, we had her start the night off sleeping in the basement....in her pack n play....a mere 3.5 inches off the later-flooded ground.   Yikes.  We moved her back upstairs when we realized it was flooding (and I proceeded to spend the rest of the night alternately kicking myself for putting her in danger of the flooding in the basement, and wondering if that tree was going to take out our roof and Papillon's room with it.  Tis a good thing there is a lot of grace for parenting and Papillon survived completely oblivious to the excitement.


When morning came, it was time to attack the problem. My solution - wait for the power to come back on, and let the sump pump do it's thing.  Mon Amour, however, is a man of action so he got a bucket and started bailing.  I was not optimistic that this would help.  So I thought perhaps I would distract Mon Amour from his futile and back breaking efforts by inviting some friends over for a post-hurricane party.  Well, we have such awesome friends, that when they got here, they were cool with it being a bailing party.  So, everyone got a bucket, or a pan or a pitcher. And we bailed out the basement. 


Miracle of miracles (or at least it seemed that way to me, the pessimist), in about 2 hours time, our basement was free from standing water. It was still very wet, but no more measurable water.  We calculated it took about 16 man-hours to bail the basement.  Mon Amour would have been bailing literally all day if not for our amazing friends.  We paid them in pizza, but it was hardly fair pay for all that manual labor. 


We wrapped up the bailing party with a fun party game.


All in all, it was a lovely time. But mostly, I was struck by how amazingly blessed we are.  This time last year, had our basement flooded, we wouldn't have had anyone to call. We had just found our church, but hadn't really met anyone yet, let alone made friends.  In a years time, we have found soooo many amazing friends.  Prior to moving here, when Mon Amour was looking for a new job all over the country, I kept telling myself we would make great new friends wherever we went, but really I was skeptical about leaving our awesome college friends.  I am please to say that, true to form, God came through and blessed us with another set of really fabulous friends.

Ok, moving on from the sappiness. I am pleased to report that with the help of a friends shop vac, and another friends dehumidifier, our basement is now basically dry!  The baseboards started growing mold before we could get them dry, so they are in the process of being replaced. But all in all, the extend of our hurricane damages was a few soaked textbooks and a bit of moldy baseboard. 

Coloring

I am working on introducing Papillon to the fine art of coloring.  We have some crayons and some paper - both of which she loves.  But she hasn't quite gotten a good grip on how to use them yet.  It has made for some fun adventures. 

A little banging on the paper with the back side of the crayon.
A little contemplating whether or not to use the red crayon yet.
It's a tough decision.

A little gasp when she dropped the red crayon. 

We haven't ended up with a lot of actual color on the page yet, but it's a work in progress

12 weeks

I am pleased to report that I don't think there has been a huge change in the baby belly this week. I truly am determined not to out-do last pregnancy's weight gain, and I think we are on track.  This time last pregnancy, I think I had gained a good 10 lbs(or more....I was pretty on track 1 lb per week from day one last time).   I am only up 6lbs so far at 12 weeks.  When I discovered this, I celebrated by eating basically all day. Haha. Honestly, though, I was super hungry that day and ate a ton. 

A few random pregnancy notes: 

No real cravings so far. But, just like last time, when a food sounds good and I get to eat it...boy howdy does it taste good.  For example, we had French Toast for dinner the other day. Possibly the tastiest French Toast EVER!   I truly appreciate food when I am pregnant

"Morning" Sickness still comes and goes. Less often than before, but still lurking.  But, in terms of uncomfortable-ness, it has been surpassed by a general inability to sleep. I can't put my finger on why, but I wake up about a dozen times a night, just briefly and then back to sleep. This leaves me a bit tired in the mornings.   Other than that, no complaints.
I put on a pair of maternity pants for the first time last week. Glorious. Elastic waist pants are phenomenal. I am still wearing normal pants most of the time, and all normal tops so far. But there are days when the elastic waist pants simply must come out.

One final, more lengthy, pregnancy note.  I am switching doctors. 
Pre-pregnancy I had done lots of research cause I knew I would need a new doctor.  I had found a midwife practice that sounded amazing and came highly recommended.  To make a long story (that would be all venting anyway) short, the practice is not a good fit for me.  I was very frustrated to find that I needed to start my search over for a new doctor, and started to really try and figure out what I was looking for in a baby-doctor. I have been to quite a few doctors in just 1 and 1/4 pregnancies. And I have liked very few of them.  In thinking on every one I have visited, I concluded that I am looking for a doctor who finds the miracle of life and babies to be...well..miraculous.  Or at least still a little bit exciting.

I don't need someone jumping up and down with excitement at each appointment. I have wonderful friends for that.  But I don't want a doctor who thinks my baby is akin to a ruptured appendix that must be removed. And I don't want a doctor who implies there is no point in worrying/caring about what may be going wrong, because "at 12 weeks, there is really nothing we can do (if you are having a miscarriage) anyway".  That may be true, but, sorry, I find it impossible not to care and even worry a bit about this baby whose life is not in my hands, and I don't appreciate that kind of attitude from my doctor.

 I want a doctor who is going to appreciate that my baby is a gift, not just another medical procedure.  Yes, OBGYNs and midwives see pregnant women and babies every day, many many times a day. But caring for a new life should not get so old that you are calloused and completely unfeeling about it - if nothing else, appreciate the fact that I love this tiny baby. My first OBGYN had been delivering babies for decades and still takes a picture of himself with each newborn to hang in his office.  A ultrasound tech a saw one time got excited when she found my baby's heartbeat. She finds many identical heartbeats everyday, but she told me "It never gets old".  When a doctor implies that my baby and my pregnancy are commonplace and not worth a second thought, it's time to find a new doctor.

So, on to a new doctor we go. Hoping it's a winner this time. 
Otherwise, all is well with Baby #2.

14 Months

Today Papillon turned 14 months old.  And even though she doesn't officially walk (part of the definition of a toddler I believe), she is acting more and more like a toddler. 

I tried to get her picture with Snoopy right before bed and even though it was a solid hour before her "normal" bedtime, she was ssuuuuuper tired. Making her suuuuper punchy. Hyper one minute, crabby and whiny the next.  So we had to act fast.  I tried to distract her with the musical yellowfinch...which she tried to eat.

I thought perhaps she would read Snoopy a book and thereby hold still for a second...she did hold still...for literally a second. 

Then she wanted a new book. 
 In fact she wanted a new book so badly, that while I was trying to take her picture, she decides to take 4 un-aided steps and then stands infront of me without support and completely stable!  What!?! Literally for weeks we have been encouraging this child to move, to just let go and walk. And nothing.  Then, the one time I want her to sit still, she walks.  We'll see if it's a fluke, or truly the beginning of something.


Anyway, here she is with Snoopy. 


At 14 months...
...Papillon is very nearly a one-nap kid. But she hasn't picked a time, or a length for it.  Sometimes it's a 1.5 hour afternoon nap. Sometimes it's a 3 hour morning nap. Sometimes its a 1 hour morning nap, followed by a 20 minute nap-in-the-car-so-that-she-is-not-ridiculously-whiny-at-dinner nap.   This makes her bed time a bit flexible as well. More often than not its 8pm.  Today however, it was 6:45 and it was like pulling teeth to make it that late.

...decided it was time to grow some more teeth. Or rather, one more tooth. We now have 7 full fledged teeth and an 8th slowly coming through. No signs of molars and such. 

....is more particular about what she eats.  She loves all things carbs and dairy. Fruits are generally winners.  Veggies and meat....those are a bit trickier. But generally if you hide them in yogurt (gross, I know) she will eat anything. 

....walks holding onto someone's hand. Just one hand. And not really for a lot of support. We are convinced (as evidenced by tonight's photo shoot) that she CAN walk. She just chooses not to. As she did with rolling over, if you remember. 
....still mostly just says "Hi".  She will mimic just about any sound, but has not attached any other verbal words to actual meanings yet.  Her sign vocabulary has stayed about the same since last month. 

.....is a very social kid. She loves other kids. Loves playing with just about anyone (though it does take her a while to warm up to new people. 

...gives hugs and kisses.  And not open-mouth-baby-kisses.  Full on the lips, puckered up with kissing sound, type kisses.  It's super sweet. She will even come up to me and give me kisses unprompted sometimes.  Such moments melt a mommy's heart. 

....has reached a phase where she loves to torment Marge. Loves to pull her ears, sit on her, stand on her, lift her lips to look at her teeth.  All that good baby-dog interaction type stuff. Marge, for all her crazyness, is incredibly patient. She either just takes it lying down, or gets up and leaves. The only thing she does not tolerate is if Papillon squeezes her feet. Then she will snap a bit and Papillon knows she has crossed a line.  Don't fret though, there relationship is closely supervised, and we are working on teaching Papillon to "play nice" with Marge. 

....is pretty good and following commands. She clearly recognizes many words. I can ask her where Snoopy, or her stuffed Monkey is and she will dutifully look for them and hand them to me. She will do that same for her milk and books. And has even understood when I ask her to get me "another book" or "a different book". She may not say a lot of words, but she is a pretty smart cookie.


Happy 14 months, Papillon!

Duck Ponds, again!

 We visited the duck ponds again last week. This time a friend came along and manned the camera, so we got lots of pictures of me and Papillon.

She usually loves water, but she wasn't sure she wanted to get her feet wet this time. 


She put her toes in eventually. 

As always, we had a positively lovely time!

Taste-y Fun


One of Mon Amour's Cousin paid us a visit a week or so ago.  Papillon and I had a lot of fun with her playing and shopping and such.

Our most noteworthy adventure though, was making a delicious raspberry jello pie! 

  

It was pretty simple. And quite delicious! It's hard to go wrong with jello, whipping cream, raspberries and cookie crust. 
 




Breakfast can be messy

Papillon is working on mastering the art of eating with her own spoon.  She has the general gist of it, but when it comes to yogurt, she tends to get a little over enthusiastic and things can get a bit messy.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there is yogurt in her hair

Breakfast is our favorite meal. It's a lot of fun, but it can be messy.