New Space

Hi. We've moved! Until I figure out the technical way to cyber-swoop you over to our new blog, find us here!

Hair Cut; One Bit!

I finally broke down. I didn't want to. I REALLY didn't want to. But there is little more irritating in life than having bangs in your eyes. So, we plunked Josiah down in his highchair and gave him his first hair cut. Just a little bang trim, taking his emo bangs out of his eyes.

Now he can see unimpeded. It's going to take a while for me to adjust. He doesn't look like my same baby. Honestly when I look at him with his straight-cut bangs I instantly see two things: 1. a picture of Nate when he was a toddler 2. Lloyd Christmas. 

If you think the latter, but find it unkosher to say, it's okay. You can say it. We think so too. 

Memorial Day

The first half of Memorial Day the kids spent marathon napping while Nate worked on a little of that bathroom remodel that got started a year ago and I alternated between reading and watching dramedies on Netflix. That in itself would have made a lovely vacation, but we decided to do what so many natives don't do on Memorial Day; go to the beach!

We're getting better at packing more quickly for an afternoon at the beach. This time it only took us 45 minutes (said with ironic tone of voice) and the only thing that got left behind were Selah's sunglasses.

If she looks red in the picture it's not a sunburn so don't be alarmed. It's just a fever. Yes, we took her to the beach anyway. So, maybe be alarmed. It was worth hearing the extra whines. Nate and I were doing our best dancing monkey impressions and histrionic renditions of "wow, isn't this so fun!" as we built a family sand castle and watched the tide fill our moat. Fever was not impressed.

 Yes, that's Josiah enjoying his favorite activity; eating unknown objects. 

While we were there I began to wonder when fear comes into our lives. Fear. Exploration. Reasoning. Feeling. After a traumatizing ride on the Disneyland Finding Nemo sub and a few visits to watch Shamu, Selah Grace is seriously scared to get in the water. Even her ankles.

Josiah happy screams in response to the crash of the wave break and runs at the receding tide, as if daring it to come farther into his territory. There is no fear.

I hope he always finds so much exuberant joy in life. I hope he continues to run toward the good things and doesn't shrink away from the loud crashes. As a mom it's scary to say I hope he remains fearless. Instead I'll say that I hope he always dreams fearlessly, but in the daily things, a little common sense would be nice. 

Baby Work

Josiah's been working hard around here this weekend. One of his words these days is, "INNNNN." Not only has he been using it to the max, he's been busy doing it.

What does this pile of toys have in common with daddy's guitar? They all came from "INNN"side daddy's guitar.

And he's sneaky about it too. We never see it happen, we just shake the guitar every night and unload the loot. (The picture below was a set-up for photo memories.)

Now if only he could stealth deposit things in helpful places like money in our bank account...We're thankful it's toys in the guitar though. Selah Grace was known for hiding old snacks in small pockets and drawers. NOT as nice to find later.

Can Someone PLEASE Get Me Some GummyBear Juice!

Each morning when I open the fridge at a groggy 5:30 to get Josiah's big boy cup of whole milk I look for it. It's never there, but I still hope. A little vile of gummy bear juice to get me going. To kick the foggy/groggy head and dead-weight body into action! One day those bounding bears will leave me a little bottle of love and for a few minutes I will remember what it feels like to feel AWAKE and powerful in my body! In the meantime, here's to my fellow under-slept, over-caffeinated parents who are bouncing here and there and everywhere despite the lack of gummy juice! Cheers!

Kid Craft: Cuff Tutorial!

Selah Grace and I have been having fun mixing trendy fashion with a kid-friendly craft these past few weeks making felt cuffs.

Throwing a 4th of July BBQ this year and want the kids to create something fun? Try these!

Step 1: Cut Strip of Felt

Felt strip should be a few inches wide and long enough to wrap around child's arm. Wrap felt band around child's arm to measure and cut length. 

Step 2: Make Button Fastener

Cut a small slit 1/2 inch in from one end. Cut a slightly larger slit 1/2 inch in from the other end. These will be your button holes. 

 Take a button, and a small piece of pipe cleaner. 

Thread the pipe cleaner through the button hole, twist the back a few times, leaving a little pipe cleaner untwisted to create a brad effect. 

Treating the button/pipe cleaner combo like a brad, put it through the small slit on the felt cuff and splay on back to secure. 

Step 3: Decorate!

Now for the fun part! We used sticky-backed felt shape cut-outs and glitter glue. Go to town with embellishment! You can use: glitter glue pens, sticky-backed felt shape cut-outs, buttons, foamies, fabric markers, ribbon, pretty much anything in your scrap bins! If you don't have sticky-backed felt you can just cut shapes out of regular felt and use white glue to adhere them. 

 Selah Grace wanted some pom-pom ribbon on hers so I hot-glued it for her. 

 Happy girl with her party cuff!

This project is really simple, very cheap, and can be modified to fit almost any theme or age. Try making gladiator warrior cuffs or birthday cuffs with numbers for their new age. Older tweens cans layer ribbons, lace, and buttons to create fun fashion cuffs for a more mature look. 

Mamas, try layering together some eyelet lace, lace, and a victorian-looking button for a mama version. Or a man's tie with simple button for a sophisticated look. More mama cuff tutorials to come. In the meantime, check out this one: victorian cuff . 

Have fun creating! Can't wait to see them!

Josiah the Inquisitive

What do all of these items have in common? 

I've taken them all out of Josiah's mouth! 

Moral of the story: no matter how much you babyproof your house, there is always the great wide world that is not babyproof friendly. I've learned to be vigilant and pre-emptive to dangers, but there's always more. The finger sweep has become my best friend and most used baby tool. But mostly, I've learned to relax a little about Josiah eating bugs. At least they're organic. 

Little Girl 3rd Birthday Presents.

What do you get a 3 year old girl for her birthday? Here are a few of Selah's favorite birthday gifts. Our family likes to get a few practical and fun things and at least one experience as presents. The bubble machine and playdough have already offered HOURS of play. I can't wait for mommy-and-me swim classes this summer. And let's just say I'm more than a little jealous of her pink glitter Toms! I've said it before: cute, comfy, and philanthropic. What more do you want from a shoe?

Life Is Good Today, Life is Good Today...

This morning the Zach Brown Band has been singing in my head, "Toes in the water, "toes" in the sand, not a worry in the world, cold beer in my hand, life is good  today, life is good today!"

The bougainvillea on this little whitewashed beach house makes me happy. 

We met some friends down at Mission Beach today; a grubby but wonderful place. Us mamas talked and laughed and lived vicarious dream-land lives by ogling the backyard beach patios along the boardwalk. The toddlers ran barefoot in the sand and grass and learned the importance of not flinging shovels of sand into the wind and staying on the correct side of that yellow line along the boardwalk.




The babies ate rice cakes covered in sand and pretzels covered in sand and a few more straight-up handfuls of sand for good measure.

Baby Kate and Baby Josiah with Baby Hands. 

Stare challenging his sand-soaked pretzel stick. 

Life is good on a Friday morning in May at Mission Bay. 

A single file line of a hundred pelicans kept flying up and down the coast line single file with impressive synchronization. There was even a pod of dolphins playing in the wave break close to shore for us to ooh and aah over.

A little bit of quality time with friends. A little bit of sunshine soaking into my skin and making my face warm with freckles. A little bit of sand on chubby baby toes. These are the little bursts of happy to my everydayness.

Circus Baby

We aren't too into generalizations around here, but the phrase "All BOY!" is finding it's way out of my mouth a lot lately. Josiah spent about two weeks crawling then started walking at nine months. Walking is old news and he's in a rush to find more adventurous mobility. Wobbly walks have been traded in for full-on running, dancing, scaling furniture, and dangling from tables mid air by the shear strength of his baby biceps.

Granted, we're pretty relaxed about letting our kiddos roam our house. They're free range. But I don't expect to find this...

Standing ON his Baby Einstein Jumper

 or this...

Racing back and forth across the couch. Yes, he stacks pillows to get a boost up. 

 or this...

Joining sister on her bed to play. 

 or this...

Standing up on the seat of his trike. 

I think next week we'll enter him into the circus!

Back to the Land of the Technologically Active!

Living without a computer feels a little what I would imagine walking without a big toe feels like; awkward and unbalanced.

Thanks to a husband who itemizes our tax return in such detail that we owe $0, thanks to a generous tax return, and thanks to Apple's teacher discounts we now have a beautiful snazzy new computer!

So, let's get the highlights from the past few weeks!

1. Pityriasis Rosea - AKA a GNARLY skin infection most common in the geriatric world that our baby boy contracted. Resulting in rushed trips to urgent care, a leprous looking rash, and a swollen face. Besides being a little itchy Josiah wasn't fazed at ALL and with a little benadryl and steroids he morphed back into that beautiful face we know.

2. The Bike Accident - Nate got hit by a car riding his bike to work two week ago. The car was turning left out of a cross street without looking and Nate couldn't brake in time to miss the car. He hit the front headlight of the SUV and did a Hollywood roll across the hood and onto the ground, back onto his feet like a stunt man. He wasn't really hurt at all, MIRACULOUSLY! The cops came, gave him a ride home, he changed clothes, hopped in the car, and made it to work on time. Meanwhile the wife (me) was sleeping and didn't know anything about it until later that day....let's just say if any more near death experiences happen I will be notified immediately. 

3. Pacifiers Are Not Forever - Selah Grace went cold turkey yesterday off her pacifiers! Yesterday was her 3rd birthday along with Josiah's 1st (yes, they share a birthday). She picked out a special pink box to put her pacis in and today we "mailed" them to Baby Raelyn Denver, who was born this weekend. (So really we had a goodbye paci ceremony and put the little box in the mail together and I'm just going to retrieve it tonight, but she thinks it's happening!)

4. Birthdays! - Our kiddos share a May 1st birthday and we threw them their first joint birthday party! It had a POP theme. Yes, I know this is a baby shower theme but it was fun as a birthday theme too. We played in the backyard, enjoyed a little too much sun and way too much sugar and laughed together as we watched our kiddos run and giggle with excitement!

Josiah's Dedication

This past Sunday we took the stage at Flood, our home church, and asked our church community to act as family and help us raise our little man Josiah.

Nate, Josiah-man-of-the-hour, Selah Grace in all her disheveled toddler cuteness, and me.

 The verse we chose for Josiah is Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

Josiah being prayed for by Pastor Matt. 

This was and is our prayer for Josiah:

Jesus, thank you for our little man, Josiah. Thank you for his vitality and his personality! We know each day with our healthy son is nothing short of a miracle and a gift! We thank you for this and we ask that he will continue to grow and play, enjoying his boyhood with a healthy heart. What a joyful baby! Thank you for his constant smiles and playful, into-everything-curiosity. Thank you for the giggles and camaraderie that already exists between Josiah and his sister. We pray they will be close friends in life. Please help us raise a son full of integrity, who understands your love for him, who opens doors for women, and who dares to live in the fullness of who you have created him to be. Amen.

Pop Art Meets Victorian

This weekend we celebrated with my friend Tracy on the impending arrival of her second baby girl! The baby shower is a whole separate post for later, but for now let's talk about diying some pretty rad wall art. I combined two popular ideas floating around the crafting blog world right now of graphic prints and silhouettes, layering them into some graphic awesomeness with a personal touch.

The coral one is of Tracy round with this pregnancy. The pink one is of their family now. And the green one is with the promise of having baby girl's initials or profile on it once she makes her debut.

This project was shockingly simple, it just takes a little time. Here's how I did it. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it, but this made sense to me. Sorry for the lack of step-by-step pictures, the camera battery was dead the night I made these.

Materials Needed:
Canvas
Paint
Paintbrush
Stencil - I used this quatrefoil stencil. But you could do any assortment of graphic design/stencil in the background!
Picture of Subject
Scanner/Printer
Black Sharpie
Ribbon (Optional)

Step 1: Print and cut out stencil. (For multiple paintings, I scanned the stencil and reduced and enlarged the size before printing to end up with different sizes of stencils.)

Step 2: Use stencil to trace quatrefoil design onto canvas with a light pencil. (I actually even used a gummy eraser and erased the pencil immediately after I traced it for the pink and green paintings. The lines were still visible to the eye, but weren't as visible through the paint that way. This must be a technique I have reserved from middle school when I would secretly put make-up on in the mornings before school and then wash it off. The essence was vaguely left, but wasn't technically there so I couldn't get in trouble...sorry for being sneaky mom! )

Step 3: Paint in stencil. Let dry.

Step 4: Reduce or enlarge photo on computer as needed to fit canvas proportion. We don't have a fancy photo shop program so I just pasted the pictures in Word and fiddled with size.

Step 5: Print picture and cut out around figures. (No need to print for detail. Just a fast draft, gray tones will do since you're just using it to get an outline.)

Step 6: Use picture cut-out as stencil and trace with pencil on painted quatrefoil canvas.

Step 7: Color inside traced figures with a "wet" black Sharpie. (By "wet" I mean one with lots of ink.)

Step 8: (Optional Ribbon) If you notice the pink canvas has a gray ribbon under the silhouette of Tracy's family. That's because the picture I had to use cut them off at their trunks and putting them flush at the bottom of the canvas was not in a happy rule of third's place for the eye. So, instead of just having them floating in space, I threw a little bit of ribbon under them to anchor them into the canvas by dabbing a little hot glue on the back of the canvas.


Now you have yourself a memory to treasure with style! Easy project, low-skill, medium time, big pay-off. The litmus test of crafting projects is if I actually want to keep it once I'm finished instead of chucking the product and re-chiming how creating is mostly "about the process". Yes, but it's nice to make something awesome every once in a while too! I think I'm going to make some of my family and kiddos for our home!

Flood's New Early Childhood Coordinator!

 It's official. I am Flood Church's newest employee! My job title is the early childhood coordinator for Flood Kids 0-5yrs and I'll be working under the direction of the Kids Pastor.

 Our Church Website/ My New Employer

I love when all the circumstances come together in such a seamless, easy way that it is impossible to ignore the God design in it all. Nate and I decided that I should get a part time job on a Sunday last month. The following Sunday I was approached about this one. All of the things in the job description were specifically the areas I am already involved in at our church. All of the responsibilities are things I already have experience in through my past while working at USD during college and the Academy in Malawi. The hours are flexible so that won't be an additional hardship on our family schedule and best of all it is a job that I want to do. Really, this is the best possible scenario all around. One application, one interview, and one very long week later I heard back that the job is mine! I am so excited for this!

So, why go from SAHM to getting a job? 

Don't get me wrong, the stay at home mom gig is pretty awesome! However:

1. Our expenses have gone up in the past year and we could use the money. It would be nice to be able to save more and to get to a point where it feels like we control our finances and not the other way around.

2. I like working. (GASP!) Mostly I like working in a job that I know my gifts are being fully used to the benefit of others. Being a stay at home mom is an honor and I value it. I love being here to raise our kiddos, especially in these early years. But I just feel like a part of me has been lying dormant the past few years and I'm ready to tap into this again and to use all of my heart, mind, soul. Working for the church still allows me to be a SAHM and to fulfill this desire.

When things work out so easily sometimes it's not too good to be true, but just too good to not be God. Here's to a new adventure in our family!

The Hug-N-Roll

 Happy ten months to our little man! In the past month Josiah has accomplished: growing two teeth, expanding his solid food diet, walking, waving, signing daddy, answering questions with smiles and laughter, full-body bouncing to music, and making everyone he meets fall in love with him. Chalk it up to his flirty smile and always-happy personality.

They say to start the way you want to end up. We definitely don't want Josiah to end up sleeping in our bed for the next five years, but we think it might happen. This is where he likes to be the best. Right on our foam mattress, wedged in between the body pillow and mama. I sub in the pillow for me once I need to get up. Thank you to that old Friend's episode for teaching me the "Hug-N-Roll"!

"Normal baby. Treat as such." These are the words Josiah's cardiologist keeps telling us. And we do...except for this sleeping in our bed thing. I'm shocked that this is happening myself, but we're just so thankful for Josiah's vitality. After so much uncertainty about his heart, I'm just so thankful to have a warm, healthy little bundle of baby breath that I don't care that his comfy spot is in our bed in between my pillows!

We love you Josiah! Happy 10 Months!

Toddler Feeding Tricks

My toddler is crazy smart. I know all of us moms think that. But really...in Selah's case, it's true. So even though I'm 25 years older than her, whenever I can outsmart her I feel a keen sense of victory accomplishment.

Selah Grace munchin' on some bread sporting Josiah's hat. She's got a beanie fetish these days.

What's one of the hardest things to get toddlers to do? Eat. At least, eat the food you want them to eat. (AKA, not so many bowls of mac-n-cheese and arrowroot cookies.) I realized I was getting cranky repeatedly saying, "Eat your peas. It's not a choice." Also crank-inducing was making 3 dinners: one for me and hubs, one for toddler, one for baby. Now, we have one dinner and we set the timer for 30 minutes. The rule is that Selah Grace eats that or nothing. When the timer goes off, dinner is done. And babes Josiah usually gets some part of our meal thrown in the baby food blender real fast. It's nice to be sane again.

Here's our most successful toddler eating tricks:
1. My Turn/ Your Turn. - Mama takes a bite of greenbean saying, "My turn!" then points to toddler saying, "You're turn!" She loves it and usually it works great.
2. Timer - It sounds something like this: I bet you can't eat (fill-in-the-blank-with-undesired-food-here) before I count to 6! 1-2-3....! (Fun and upbeat sounding. Not the 1-2-3 Mommy count)
3. Personal Dinner Songs - We've reworded some personal favorite cartoon theme songs and turned them into dinner songs. Instead of Bob the Builder we sing, "Selah Grace! Can she try it? Selah Grace! Yes she can!" That one's really done wonders for us.
4. Sharing Daddy's - If it's on Daddy's plate, then it is most definitely better. So sometimes we let her trade the veggies on her plate for the veggies on Daddy's plate and she thinks she has won a sweet deal!
5. Special Plate - Selah likes to choose which bowl or plate she uses during dinner. Sometimes this is an ice cube tray and her dinner looks like a little edible mancala game. We stole this straight out of the Dr. Sears book and we love it. Also great for holding various dipping sauce options. 
6. Dippin' Sauce - I think toddlers across the board love dunking food in dipping sauce. Lately the pear/gorgonzola salad dressing from T. J.'s has been a favorite around our table.
6. Bribery - When all else fails we resort to good old fashioned bribery. Finish 2 bites of ______ and you will earn your arrowroot cookie.

I hope our family tricks can help your toddler table time. If you have any for us, please share!

A Vortex of Energy...

...lately I've been having one: a vortex of energy that is. Not the kind that makes me feel compelled to deep clean the tub or wash the mountain of plastic toddlerware in the sink. Let's not get crazy.
This is the swirling anticipation that I get inside my soul just before something new, something big comes. Call it intuition. Call it Holy Spirit. Something is about to happen...

I recognize this feeling. It has overtaken me prior to every big shift in my life. I am equal parts excited and curious. I don't know what this is prelude to. I have some guesses and some hopes but mostly I'm relieved to shake things up a bit in my boggle-board of life. (Unlike the masses, I enjoy change.)


So here's to bringing on the winds and letting this vortex of energy do some needed mixing around.

Just Waiting

We apologize for the long silence from us. We WILL blog again and in abundance soon. We have a household of colds and croup and one VERY old, cranky powerbook we have nicknamed "Grandpa Mac" who is refusing to let us upload new home videos or pictures. Personally, I think he's still holding a grudge from Selah Grace taking off all his keys on the top row of his keyboard.

Thanks for your patience with us as we humidify baby rooms and try to conquer the "boogy sucker" instead of being here sharing our lives and thoughts.

And if you want to pray that our tax refund this year is the exact amount of a new computer, that would be appreciated too!

It won't be too long we hope!

A Confession to Introverts

 Dear introverts in my life,
       I know I married one of you, but I don't understand you yet. I'm realizing all the rules to the game I've been charting and tracking all these years don't apply here with you. At times this leaves me feeling confused and uncomfortable in my skin, unsure of my next move, wondering if one more email or phone call or outing is smothering you with a little too-much-love and too-often-enthusiasm. It's a little risky over here wondering if you have the space to make me your friend. Because of course, I want you to be mine. When you're tired, you need to keep the world at bay. When I'm spent, I need to go to the bay along with you...and as many people as I can possibly talk into coming.
       I know you're a little frustrated with me, the extrovert, because even though there is no filter to keep me from saying what I really think, just when can you tell when I'm saying what I mean? When I've finally landed on my point? If I've stopped talking, then whatever was said last, this is my truth and my platform (for now anyway, unless I was distracted by something shiny mid-sentence). Do you have more to say after this, or are you waiting for me to ask intelligent, articulate questions to draw out the rest, to show you that I'm still interested? I don't have any intelligent, articulate questions. Those are for people who sleep. When I interrupt you, this doesn't mean that I don't care about hearing what you have to say. It means that the synapses in my brain are firing off connections that I deeply want to share with you for the sake of relational bonding and that I need to share with you before I orbit off into space, so my brain can be emptied and I can refocus on what you are telling me. 
       I know we inadvertently hurt each others' feelings sometimes, but that is friendship no matter which way you color it and I am oh-so-thankful for yours. Please hang in there with me as I talk over you and most likely embarrass you in public in the very near future. And just so you know, I think you're pretty swell and don't get all the praise you deserve in our culture that recognizes and rewards the extroverts. I'll try to put this big mouth to good use and brag on you more often.

All my love,
Jenny

Potty Training...For Real This Time

Dear Subway,
We apologize for that piddle puddle we left in your highchair. But we had just used the last babywipe. You should maybe rethink that non self-serve napkin policy.

If shopping with small children wasn't like a big game of hot potato before, it sure is now that the diapers have come off! Yes, without much preamble or preparation, we bought some 2T panties and said that was that. I took Selah Grace to the aisle full of toddler underwear and let her choose her favorite pack. After much oohing and aaahing over cartoon characters, a two minute stretch of clutching Buzz Lightyear ones (no gender constraints here), she VERY EXCITEDLY picked out her pack of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse undies. Her new chant is, "No more diapers! Yes panties!"

We've had a few days of loading up the washer with every pair of pants she owns. But I think we've finally discovered a reward that motivates her. Chocolate. I asked her what she would like more than anything as a reward from going on the potty chair five times and her answer was a chocolate drink! Together we made a sticker chart to put over her potty chair. She gets one sticker for her sticker chart with each use of the potty. One sticker to put on her shirt and one chocolate chip to eat immediately. After five stickers on the chart she earns herself a cup of hot chocolate. Hopefully the new chocolatey incentives will motivate her to give up the diapers. She's known how to use the potty for a while now, but just isn't interested in making the switch. No more dawdling. It's time to pay the cloth diapers forward to baby brother who has grown out of his mini cloths.

The potty in public is still kind of tricky. Public restrooms with big toilets scare her. Good instincts. They scare most of the rest of us too. Maybe we'll put a potty chair in the back of the Pilot and let her go there in the middle of shopping trips, but that leads us into a whole new conundrum...what to do if she DOES go? Bushes? Doggie bag it? The options seems slightly less than sanitary or legal for that matter.

We're trying to keep it fun and allow Selah to be a part of the process as much as possible, in what we hope is giving her buy-in to the whole situation. She chose the panties, the reward stickers, the reward chocolate.

Wish us luck! And you might want to start Lysol wiping your shopping cart if you don't already do so. We just may have been there before you with an, "oh well, next time we'll make it to the potty chair," kind of trip.

A Musical Nod

At 11pm last night as we rang in the New Year early so we could go to bed, Nate and I said goodbye to 2010 by singing a little pop-rock. We're a musical little family; Nate in that orderly left brain sort of way uses music as an expression of logic and mathematics and scale and me in that beautifully chaotic right brain sort of way that uses music as an expression of the intangible intuitive.

As stated in the previous post, we did the best we could with 2010, but in the words of Cee-Lo, "we're like forget you".



2011, we're ready for a Whole New World.